Silent Hill

Silver stumbled, rather then walked, into New Appleoosa. I'm so tired. But I can't sleep. The nightmares. They come when I sleep. Silver asked around if there were any building where him and a group could stay. Everypony told him there wasn't a room or a building a group could use. It's a good thing I brought my camp gear. Silver asked the owner of the inn to direct anypony his way if they were looking for him. He headed out of the town and set up camp near the town. Soon. Soon others will come. Then we can stop the nightmares. Soon.

Ember had just got back into New Appleoosa when he had heard about a pony that had come through talking about stopping nightmares, Ember thought about it, and thought maybe his nightmares were similar... He hadn't slept properly in a long time, and was often very shaky, more so than usual. He asked where this pony had gone, and was directed to a camp outside of town. And so Ember gathered a few things and set off.

Though the camp wasn't far from town he began to feel nervous on his way... He didn't like going out alone to new places, he was mostly fine when out scavenging because he went to places he knew, but this... He had no idea what was waiting for him, and as he walked his mind got carried away... What if this is a trap? What if this pony is some mad cannible? What if it's a Slaver trap to lure unsuspecting ponies... I don't want to be a slave! Right then Ember almost turned and ran back to Appleoosa, but he stopped himself at the last moment... No! I need to stop these nightmares, and this may be my only chance... And I might make new friends!

It was then Ember realised he was not 10 meters from this camp... It looked deserted, so Ember walked closer, "Hello!! Is anypony here?" He prepared to take another step, but hesitated... If I wait here, I still have a chance to run if it's a trap.

When he got that message, Arc felt relieved, more than he ever did in the weeks since the...dreams? vision? a symtom of brain injury? Well, whatever it was, it made his sleep almost impossible, every minute of the REM cycle a living nightmare from his history, every morning he woke in cold bath of his own sweat.

Then the message arrived. Arc remembered Silver, and most importantly, his marksponyship with rifle. So, when he read that he might have a solution to this common problem, he packed quickly and got on his way to the place near Appleloosa Silver marked.

"Ah, seems that i am not the first one here. Hello Silver. So... can you tell me why is this happening? And why are we meeting on this of all places?"

Silver stepped out from behind the tent. He sees a pony cautiously approaching him. "It's not a trap. Are you here cause of the nightmares?" Before Silver can hear hi reply, he hears the voice of Arc.

"Ah, seems that i am not the first one here. Hello Silver. So... can you tell me why is this happening? And why are we meeting on this of all places?" Arc said.

"I certainly can Arc. But I'll only do so when I think we everypony that'll come get's here. Don't like to repeat myself."

Having followed the lead to New Appleoosa, Cuppa had taken her time in getting to this town, having to avoid various dangers of the wasteland to get there from Stableton. She'd hardly slept since she left, as nightmares kept waking her up and she had to run to avoid being seen, let alone caught. "Oooh, why didn't 'ah find somepony else ta come along? Would be easier ta do any o' this runnin' an' sneakin'...." She muttered to herself in annoyance as she saw New Appleoosa just ahead.

"Finally! New Appleoosa, here 'ah come!" The mare nickered with glee as she took off into a sprint to get to the safety of the town.

Shortly arriving through the gates, Cuppa looked around, looking for the inn, maybe so she could pay for a bed for the night. Nudging the doors open and stepping in, the mare trotted up to the bar and looked to the barkeep. "Umm, do ya know where a stallion called Silver Tongue is? 'ah was meant t' meet him an some others..."
The barkeep told her where to go, apparently there weren't any rooms here, so they'd have to camp out instead. No problem, really, but it was still a tiny bit annoying.

"Thankin' ya kindly, sir." She said, giving a warm smile and three caps as a tip before leaving, trotting out and heading for the clinic, she needed to buy medical supplies in case anypony got themselves hurt.

She gave herself a limit of 200 caps to spend, stepping in and looking to the pony currently in charge, she gave them a smile. "'Scuse me, can ah see what'cha got fer sale? Ah need some medical supplies fer a lil' job ah'm doin'."

(New Appleoosa Clinic - Speech 24)

Sky couldn't sleep for weeks when those nightmares started to happen, First one she thought were just nightmares. But every over day she went to sleep they just started to appear, She didn't know why? they just did, probably all the stuff in the wastes were getting to her. Maybe the her brain couldn't keep up anymore with the sanity, fortunately for her she wasn't the only one. In a note she received, it seemed that she wasn't the only one who was also experiencing these nightmares.

Sky went to the marked location of silvers to see there were other ponies here as well, it looks like she wasn't the only one from the few that were here. Sky decided to just trot towards the group as she the knew some of the ponies that were there, since she knew them they were cool with her. "It seems i am not the only one that came to meet here." Sky said to the group causal like.

dream had rushed to the locaton nealy the moment he had finished the letter. he had ben haveing the most horred of nightmares dark, dark thing lurk in the mind of one who dusnt know his past, and if there was a way to get rid of them he was going go it.

he had soon made his way to the came silver had made for himself seeing 5 pony standing there.
"hi there wich ones silver tongue?" dream called looking for the pony in quston.

Bakewell was not a pony that performed well without sleep. Staying up even one single night was enough to ruin the beige and white earth pony’s day.

The mare had currently been awake for oh so much longer than a day. Sleep was monstrous, and only happened when her body refused to function without it. Nightmares, worse than any other dream she had ever before experienced, had been plaguing her non-stop. She had tried to avoid sleep, but the monstrous visions were patient and would eagerly wait until she was physically unable to keep going. If this didn’t stop, she was going to die. She couldn’t live life like this. It wasn’t even life! It was a living Tartarus!

The mare found the idea that visiting a town, even one named after a reoccurring location in her tortures, would somehow cure her extremely doubtful. There was no way it could work. Dreams weren’t intelligent, were they..? No, it couldn’t work. But she was so so so desperate that she had instantly packed her meager possessions and took off. Anything with even the slightest possibility of helping would be worth it. Besides, what had she to lose? Her life? At least then she would be free.

Bakewell walked into camp drearily. The innkeeper had directed her here.

“Hey, Sky.” She muttered as she walked into the group before quickly double taking, the confusion jolting her into a slightly more awake condition. Sky? Here? The tart-marked mare looked around at the group with bloodshot eyes. That was definitely Sky. She didn’t really recognize anypony else, though.

“Uh… Hi. I’m here about nightmares?” She asked the group as a whole nervously as her eyes shot nervously from pony to pony. “…this is the wrong camp. Isn’t it.”

Not long after Ember had arrived more and more ponies had begun to turn up, and none of them had tried to kill him, so he cautiosly moved further into the camp, still not entirely sure he was safe... Ember looked at the assortment of ponies that were now here, and he could tell they had all been suffering from a lack of sleep too...

"Uhm... Hi... I'm Ember Hooves... Your not slavers are you? I really don't want to be a slave... I wont tell anyone about you... Just... Erm... Let me go... Please?" Ember almost turned and ran there and then... But once more he decided to stay, if only for a few more seconds to see if they were going to try capture him or not. He didn't reckon he had much chance of making it away, but he was a good runner so he would at least try... At the very least he hoped his shaky and terrified state might make them let him leave... Though he also knew the odds of that were a million to one.

Sky looked to see Bakewell has just arrived, What she was also here. This is really affecting alot of ponies also, no way this is normal here in the wastes. Then again this is the wastes, nothing is normal out here. Sky being sleep deprived to the point she couldn't sleep, drank to pass out and hopefully sleep. But now bakewell is here also, dear Luna this was getting to everypony around. "Hey Bakewell, your here for the nightmares, right?" Sky asked Bakewell, she could see Bake seemed to be a bit confused as well.

As it turned out, ironically, the clinic had nothing for sale that Cuppa wanted, which generally disheartened the brown-coated mare as her ears fell back and she left the building. "Dang, a clinic wi' no medical supplies to sell, ain't that ironic?" She said to herself quietly before looking up and around. Laying her eye upon another store, adequately entitled "Absolutely Everything", Cuppa smiled.

"I'll kick mahself if they ain't got nuthin' fer sale too." She said before trotting up to the store, opening the door and hesitating a moment upon seeing the ghoul in the store. She must've been the one running it, as she saw no pony else apart from this quirky ghoul. "Umm, hey there. Ah need some medical supplies but the clinic dun have any fer sale. You got any ah can buy?"

(Absolutely Everything - Speech 24 - Medical Bandages - 100 caps budget)

(Absolutely Everything - Speech 24 - Healing Potions - 100 caps budget)

(Absolutely Everything - Speech 24 - RadAway Potions - 60 caps budget)

"Hello there," greeted Arc the newcomers,"and no, i'm afraid that this is the right camp, and that we are not the slavers, at least as far as i have been told."

Arc sat next to the campfire and watched the flames slowly devouring the few logs Wasteland provided. So he was not the only one, others were plagued by this too... Arc was undecided whether this was for better or for worse, but at least he was not alone. Being alone... no, never again.

"So nighttime is tormenting you too, i assume? Silver has a explanation for us, but i believe we are still waiting for somepony, correct, Silver?"

Absolutely Everything Inventory-

5 Magic Bandages Base Price: 25
7 Healing Potions Base Price: 75
2 Copies of the Wasteland Survival Guide Base Price- Free
9002 Muffins Base Price- Free

Silver sees all of the ponies beginning to gather. I knew I wasn't the only one with the nightmares. He heard Arc ask him if they were waiting on anypony. "Yes Arc, we are waiting. If nopony shows up when it's a few hours 'til night. Then I'll explain everything. 'Til then, we wait."

Looking over what the ghoul had for sale that she could afford, Cuppa gave her a friendly smile. "Can ah have all five sets o' Bandages, one o' them healin' potions an' jus' one copy of the survival guide'll do fer me. A muffin too if ya'll could be so kind." She said, holding the smile as she got out a bit more than she had intended to spend, the total working out to a painful 292 caps... She'd have to bare it and pay the money, goodness knows what might happen if she didn't have the supplies.

(Barter - 39, 5 Bandages(125 total) + potion(75 total) + 1 muffin(Free) + 1 Wasteland Survival Guide(Free) = 292(factoring Barter))

After working out prices with the ghoul shopkeep, Cuppa gave a nice smile and tucked the new supplies into her saddlebags. "Thankin' ya'll kindly, ma'am." She said as she left, the ghoul waving to her before she was gone.

Now she had to get on and head to the meeting point with the others. So trotting along and leaving New Appleoosa behind, merrily eating a free muffin as she went on her way.

Within due time, Cuppa reached the camp, seeing several other ponies there already. "Oh mah, ah ain't the only pony havin' problems it seems. Good thing ah bought what ah could... Even if ah can't help everypony." She said to herself. "Hay, umm.. Ya'll here 'bout them bad dreams, right?" The brown mare called as she neared the group, taking a hesitant look around and stopping a short distance from everypony else. "Ah gots some bandages and such fer in case we run into trouble, but dun go jumpin' into danger, ah ain't got much."

"So this is New Appleoosa, ey'" Dawn looked around streching his wings, it had been a damn long flight, a flight made even longer from lack of sleep, stifling a yawn, as he continued to walk through the bustling town, after getting word of others having the same problem he did, making less sense of everything that was happening, just made everything spund even more crazy....... Dawn was never one for superstition.

Dawn walked towards a camp site outside of town, a group of ponies gathering nearby, moving closer Dawn saw that everypony there was in a different level of dispair, ranging from tired to extremely tired. Figuring that this was the group that he was looking for Dawn made his way towards them hoping to find some answers.

With the re-assurance that they weren't slavers Ember had calmed down a little, that was until another pony arrived stating she had brought medical supplies incase they got into trouble... "Trouble? What kind of trouble? Are we going to get hurt? What if somepony dies?? I don't want to die!!!" Ember pretty much fell to the ground and started cowering and shaking.

"W-what if we just s-stay here? Maybe the d-dreams will go away? It m-might just be a c-coincidence..." Ember then fell into a some form of dazed silence, apart from his shaky breathing, he just lay there on the ground.

Gasping slightly at the reaction of a particularly odd-looking unicorn, Cuppa cautiously walked up to him as he shakingly cowered on the floor. "Nopony is gonna die, ah promise! Come now, we gots plenty o' ponies here, ya'll be safe with everypony else here." She said whilst trying to gently ease the pony onto his hooves. "If anypony gets hurt, ah'll fix 'em up good an' proper!"

"This thing, it's somethin' we got to do or it wont stop. An' I bet you wanna have a good night's sleep, don'cha?" Cuppa said, attempting to be reassuring. "If there's gon be any trouble, we'll all deal wi' it, we'll scare it away! There's more o' us than there are o' them." Something occurred in Cuppa's thoughts as she finished, everypony was up for a little scavenging, even if they only took certain things.

"Ya never know, we might find somethin' we can put ta use in there, maybe something ta stop anypony from hurtin' us when we get in there. How'd that sound? Then nopony's gon get hurt." She said with a smile. After that, she looked up from the frightful pony and looked to the others. "Mah name's Cuppa Beans. I'mma focus on keepin' ya'll healthy, but ah doubt we'll need to worry, 'bout it, we got strength in numbers!"

“So this is the right group..?” Bake asked nervously as Sky mentioned the dreams. She looked around. There were so many ponies, and more were filing in even as she watched. Were they really all suffering from these nightmares? That seemed so impossible.

When Ember mentioned his concerns, Bakewell tuned to focus on him. The mare instantly knew that she had to do something in an attempt comfort the buck, but was immensely glad when somepony else stepped up and showed concern as well. She nodded in agreement as the brown and red unicorn mare gave her speech before lowering herself to the ground in an attempt to achieve eye level with the nervous red buck and scooting over to him.

“If anything tries to kill you, it’ll have to take me on first.” She promised in a quiet and kind voice. “I’m pretty tough, and like… Kuppa? Cuppah? Cuppa said, there’s a lot of us. I bet even a big slaver army would think twice before messing with us!”

“Oh, my name is Bakewell, by the way. Bakewell Tart” She hastily added before fighting and failing to vanquish a yawn. This seemed like as decent a time as any to start getting introductions out of the way.

dream couldnt even see straight do to lack of sleep. but he had ben lissening

"my names day dream... but you can call me gaze if you want" he spoke swaying a little.

"Yup this is the group, maybe more coming maybe not. We are going to find out i guess." Sky told Bakewell, she looked around to see the place they are in. This camp is rather small, but like it really matters. They were all here for a reason, she wanted find out what these nightmares were. Then she noticed the pony freaking out and another pony with trying to comfort him and even bake also tried, heh seems the group will probably make it after this adventure or not. It still didn't matter they were all into this, now Sky had to stay quiet or probably she would out the poor buck who freaked out.

Ember listened as first Cuppa, then another pony called Bakewell re-assured him he would be fine, he realised that if at least two of these ponies were willing to keep him safe then the others probably would too. Ember slowly got back to his feet with help from Cuppa and looked at the two that had spoke to him.

"Uh... Sorry... I get scared... Really easy... But you seem nice... Not often I meet strangers that aren't trying to kill me. I'm Ember Hooves... Did I say that already? I think I did..." Ember backed away nervously "Uhm... Sorry... I'll be quiet"

Bakewell stayed on the ground even after Ember got up with the help of Cuppa. The ground was… more comfortable… than it loo-mrphle. No! No sleeping. Sleep bad.

“You don’t need to be sorry.” She said, waving a hoof around in what was probably supposed to be an emphasis adding gesture, but was pretty much just random strokes at the air in front of herself. “Especially not for something as simple as talking. You’re just as welcome to your words as anypony else. If you’ve got anything on your mind at any point and need to get it out, or even if you just need help with something, I’m here. That offer extends to all of you other ponies, as well.”

So now the beige mare had a handful of names. Ember Hooves, Cuppai… Cuppah... Cuppa? C. Beans, Day “Gaze” Dream, and obviously Sky. The mare’s teal eyes flickered to each face as she rattled down a mental checklist. There were other ponies in the party and presumably one of them was this Silver fellow, but she would have to catch their names later if they didn’t give the titles out of their own free will. Bakewell still was having trouble believing that so many ponies were having nightmare issues. It couldn’t be the same as her problem. There was just no way. But if even one of these ponies would profit by the group’s efforts, then it was probably worth going through some extra pains before keeling over from exhaustion.

"Nice to meet you all.", said Arc, still watching the campfire, over his shoulder.
"Well, it would be nice to meet you if meeting you wouldn't mean that i could not sleep without being mentaly raped by my subconcious, heheheh..."

Arc violently shook his head.

"No, no sleep Arc. Not again. No."
"Oh yeah, and i'm Arc, Arc Weld. You could say i'm an engineer in moments when i am sane and not keeling over from sleep deprivation."

Silver looks around. He sees a pony freaking out, two ponies come to his aid, and the others just standing idly. This is all that's going to show up. Might as well get started.

Silver walks up to the head of the camp. "Ahem, everypony can I please have your attention please. My name is Silver Tongue. I will explain everything I know about the nightmares and how to stop them. All of you are here because you've had the nightmares to. Not just any nightmares, the worst nightmares, every single night. I'll spare you the detail of mine, but I always see the name Silent Hill appear. I'm sure it's appeared in yours to. Now I have found the town of Silent Hill. Wasn't that hard actually, there are legends of it now. It's at the base of Canterlot Mountain. Apparently it was untouched by anything, a veritable treasure trove to scavengers. But anyone that's ever gone there doesn't come back. I did some more research because what else am I going to do, sleep?" Silver had a dark chuckle at his joke.

"I found documents from before the war. Silent Hill was a small town. It was actually a coal mining town, one of the only places in equestria there was coal. Had a general store and everything. But there was a fire and it killed a lot of ponies. Fire was still going 10 years later when the spells hit. Legend has it that it's still going. I looked into the origin of the fire and found something interesting. A crime report."

"Silent Hill was full of Earth ponies. But there was a filly that they believed could do magic without a horn. She was teased, ran into the bathroom, and raped by the janitor. Found another report where her mother reported that she had turned her daughter over to some monsters. When police got there, they found a cult standing to the sides, with the filly strapped to a rack and hung over a fire pit. A few days after that was the fire. Any questions?"

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