Silent Hill

Arc got up from the fire and faced Silver.

"Yes, i have one, what about the pink cloud, if we of course ignore the other things in the Silent Hill? That thing is still seeping from Canterlot to the whole area. And if i'm at it, what about the Canterlot ghouls, and other happy little things the place is teeming with? We are not in state of taking those things head on."

Sky listened to the reason Silver made of why we all been having nightmares, a town in the base of canterlot mountain. And Arc was right what about the pinkcloud that comes from the city of canterlot from above on the mountain, But in the a town maybe untouched by anypony. Maybe they will find some better loot and deal with the nightmare if somepony was doing them. So Sky stayed quiet and let them talk it out, she needed her sleep and would do anything to get it back.

Silver looks at Arc. "The pink cloud doesn't touch the town. If I remember correctly, the pink cloud is only in Canterlot. There's some around the base yes, but not Silent Hill. When I said Silent Hill was untouched, I meant it. That town is probably the only place in Equestria that's clean of everything. And as for for the creatures of Canterlot, they won't be in the town either. The Canterlot ghouls are living the last bits of there life over and over. So unless one was walking to Silent Hill, a town that was abandoned, we'll be fine. Any more questions?"

After Ember had calmed down, Cuppa smiled and gave a little nod before the stallion in charge of this get together spoke up, taking a position where all could see him.

As he explained what he knew of this strange town, Silent Hill. It sounded nice before he got into details. The thing that hit her to most was the combination of the janitor's vile act as well as what the cult supposedly did to a young earth pony filly because she seemed to have magic, it was as if they thought Discord had hidden himself within the body of a small filly to avoid being caught. Thinking about it made Cuppa scratch at the ground with her hoof slightly, gritting her teeth for a moment before questions were asked.

Good, a distraction, just what was needed from having to think about what had happened.

It seemed that this town was safe from the Pink Cloud, and just everything else in general. So whatever they found in Silent Hill would be untouched by all but whatever lived there with the ever-burning fires.... But whatever lived there now must be scary, or just impossible to burn.

"Not ta be a rain on yer bonfire, but have ya thought 'bout what we might meet there? Ah mean, ah dun wanna cause panic or nothin', but why would nopony else manage to get in an outta tha' town?"

Ember was about to reply to Bakewell when Silver started speaking... As he described what the ponies did to that little filly Ember felt himself start to go into shock... But before it could fully take hold he spoke up "That's awful!! How could they do that?? Why would they do that?? I hope we don't meet anyone from that town... I don't want to be burned..."

As things like the pink cloud and Canterlot Ghouls, and Cuppa brought up the point of no one ever returning... He wanted nothing more than to turn and run. But Ember managed to keep himself from breaking apart again by clinging on to what Cuppa and Bakewell had told him... That they would keep him safe... So Ember kept his composure, still shaking, still scared... But he stayed...

Silver looked at brown unicorn. "That's an excellent question...I'm afraid I never caught your name. Oh well, we'll get to pleasantries later. As for nopony returning, legend says that it's the fire. That it still burns and the smoke is killing them. Might also be why the pink ain't in the town. But rest assured, we'll be fine. I brought some air masks. If it is the smoke, then we'll be fine. Any more questions before we head out?"

Sky heard the reactions of the others, yes it was awful but it was 200 years ago. But still a a tragic story of misguided ponies who killed a filly because they thought she did magic without a horn, such rubbish it was. Still if this is somehow linked to everyponies nightmares, Sky was now into this quest to go and figure out what they are going to do. Sky listened to what the pony said, Now she was partially scared of what might happen to her if she got stuck their.

dream had seen the town in his sleep and he didnt like it at all. the place filled him with sarrow and fear almost as much as she did.

"why are we being dawn to this town, it cant be for a simpel ancer..." dream mummred to himself

Arc turned his gaze back to the flames. Seeing the dance of oxydes was soothing, somehow. The gases carrying away the ashes were... nostalgic.

"You don't have to worry, Ember, not yet at least. We really have little choice on the matter anyhow, the dreams won't stop unless we make them. The Wasteland... well, it just works like this, doesn't it?"

Dancing, carrying away the dead body of the tree, so unbound, completely free...

A lot of good questions were being asked, but Bakewell wasn’t really able to focus on the discussion at hoof. Her mind was still stuck on Silver’s horrible description of the town. The idea that pre-war ponies had been mean enough to… to… No. Bakewell couldn’t let herself think about it. Not here, not now. She crammed the painful idea into the basement of her mind before barricading the hatch and mentally jumping up and down upon it for a while, just to be sure. If she thought about it too hard, her confidence would wither into nonexistence. She couldn’t afford to back down from this. She would never forgive herself if these ponies, from Best Pegasus Friend Sky to newly-met-and-known-nothing-about Gaze, died because she had turned tail and fled.

Nightmares on top of nightmares? That was the last thing she needed.

"No more questions? Good. Silent Hill is located northeast of here. We'll follow the road, and since we're heading towards the Canterlot area, there shouldn't be a threat of raiders. Everypony gather your things or make some purchases in town. We leave in 30." Silver begins to take down the camp.

day dream wached silver and trotted up to him "here let me help you." dream helped take down the tent.

"you realy think this will help us" dream wisperd to silver so the others couldnt hear.

Sky listened to silver, she already had everything she needed. She had some mess, though but not much still, just enough for her and some other ponies. If they or her get hurt, which if silver is was right then nothing should go wrong on their trip to the small town. She only nodded at silver and stood where she was or maybe she would go with another pony.

Dawn nodded, having been listening to their conversation quietly, not wanting to disturb anyone at this point in their meeting. Checking over what he had, Dawn noticed he was well prepared for the journey......... At least in the weapons department. This place sounded....... Disturbing, who knows what they would find there. As long as the problem got solved smoothly, then everything would go back to normal........ Or atleast as close to what could be considered normal in the wateland.

Ember watched as everypony began to make preparations to leave. This is really happening... It's going to end! Ember checked his saddlebags, and figured he had enough... He didn't really know what he needed, but he had all the stuff he normally took with him when he went out scavenging.

There were only two ponies he knew here, and that was because they had helped him... So Ember was content to stand aside and wait until everypony was ready to leave. He didn't want to get in the way.

Bakewell often traveled light, almost to a fault. The less of her own stuff she carried, the more stuff she could carry for other people. She didn’t really need all that much in the way of supplies, anyway. No guns meant no ammo. Being poor meant few caps. Having a slight knowledge of cooking and preparing things from the wastes meant less need for food; though she still generally carried a lot of extra food and water. Just in case.

All of this basically meant that she had an utterly boring nothing to do for the thirty minutes. She did finally push herself back into a sitting position. Laying on the ground was too comfortable, She might doze off if she were to remain there.

Upon her question being answered, Cuppa also had nothing to do for the next thirty minutes, she was already prepared, having gone into town and bought everything she could afford in the ways of medical supplies. Though, she could spend this time reading the new book she had, actually that was a good and a bad idea, as she would pass the time by, but there was a high chance of dropping off to sleep, reading did that to her.

So, instead of doing nothing to pass the time, looking around to see what everypony else was doing as she sat herself down, she thought for a moment. "Maybe a lil' read wouldn't hurt..." Idly commenting to herself, Cuppa floated the Wasteland Survival Guide out of her saddle bags and in front of her, deciding it would be easier to read whilst laying on her belly, Cuppa laid down and opened the book, leafing through the pages and only half paying attention. There were others around her, why would she have to worry about being attacked by raiders or whatnot?

And so that was it... perhaps a sleep after all, after tonight... or death, but rest nonetheless. Still, cultist and fiery sacrifices... well, that was likely just some superficious bullshit that gathered around the town. There was quite likely something dangerous there, it was at the base of Canterlot mountain after all...

Anyway, they would know soon enough. Those thirty minutes could be used for weapons maintenance, so Arc went on to clean his 9mm pistol... that thing had a lot of history on it... heh... at least a few moments when Arc knew what he was doing.

As Silver was taking down the tent and packing the supplies, a brown unicorn came to help him. He whispered "You really think this will help us?" Silver sighed. "If I didn't think this would help, do you think I would do this?"

--30 minutes later--

Silver puts the last of the supplies up. "Alright everypony, I hope your ready. The town is a few hours away. I'll pass out the masks when we get close and we'll put 'em on. Okay then let's stop these damn nightmares. I'm tired of getting kicked out of inns cause of the screaming."

The group of tired ponies head out into the desolate wastes. The day is hot, but not unbearably so. They follow the road north. There are times when they must leave the safety of the road because of obstructions, but always head right back to it.

They reach a point in which the road veers upwards to the the right, heading towards Canterlot. There is a small road branching of it. There's a rusty road sign stating that it leads to Silent Hill. The group goes down the road until the town is within sight. The entire group feels a chill as they look at the town.

Ember didn't say much on the journey to Silent Hill... He was entirely focussed on looking out for any threats along their route. So when he saw the rusted sign for the town he let out a sigh of relief, that was untilll he laid eyes on the town itself. In reality it looked no different from any other blasted ruin in the wasteland, but something about it... Something wasn't right, and that shook Ember to the core...

Ember stopped in his tracks, and sat on the ground with a look of terror on his face. "Uhm... Are we going in there? That town... Are you sure it's the right one? Maybe... Maybe we missed a turning? I-it might be back the w-way we came... I... I think I m-might stay here... S-somepony needs to w-watch our backs... Right?"

As Ember spoke his fear became more and more obvious, both on his face and in his voice. By the time he had finished he was almost frozen in fear, and just sat staring ahead at the town of Silent Hill, his mind trying to comprehend what terrors could lie within.

Arc gave the sign a short look and then gazed into the mist rolling over the road to Silent Hill. Considering the atmospheric conditions in this generals area, they ere lucky there was any kind of sign left, the fact that it was still readable... was disturbing.

"Ember, i do not think you want to stay here. We're close to Canterlot mountain. This place is swarming with creatures searching for simple snack, we were not attacked probably only because there's so many of us. Being here alone... you don't want that, trust me."

"I know it's scary, i'm scared too... but you have to endure for a little longer, Ember. I'd hate to leave you here, but we simply can't stay here for long. It's too dangerous."

It was a good thing that the group reached Silent Hill without having too many problems, because Bakewell had dazed out into mindless following a few minutes after the group started moving. Her focus slowly moved from her thoughts and back to the real world as her eyes rested on the sign marking a destination with a familiar name: Silent Hill.

The town felt… wrong. It gave her chills to do so much as even look at the place. Was this a sign? A symbol that maybe something in the town was messing with her dreams? No, silly little Bakewell was probably just overthinking it. The earlier story probably wasn’t helping any.

When Ember stopped and tried to convince the group to let him stay, Bakewell honestly couldn’t blame him. She didn’t want to go in, either. Her brain was desperately trying to convince her to turn around. Go home. This was dangerous, silly, and over all else dumb. The dreams would eventually go away on their own. Visiting a town wouldn’t help. Turn around. Go home.

“Ember, how are we supposed to protect you if we can’t see you?” Bakewell asked jokingly with a small grin upon her face that faltered only slightly. She was extremely nervous herself. The cook wanted to tell the buck that everything would be fine, but the mare was honestly no longer sure. If she lied and told him that she was one hundred percent certain everything was undeniably going to be be okay would her untruthful actions bite her the moment something went wrong?

“J-just stick close. We’ll be safer together, right?”

Silver stares the town, frowning slightly. This place gives me the creeps. Somethings wrong with this place. But we have to stop the nightmares. "Okay everypony, here's the masks." Silver floats out and passes them around. He puts one on himself. "Now when we get down there, we need to stay together. There's strength in numbers. We'll take a look around, see if we can find what's wrong, and get the hell out. I don't know where we should start first. Any suggestions?"

Cuppa had followed the group, mostly spending her time reading whilst keeping up with the others, not wanting to be caught like a straggler by anything that might prey on ponies. There was one reason she hadn't managed to drift off to sleep whilst walking, and that was because her nightmares were scary enough just in vague memory.

As they arrived, Ember started getting scared again, which was very, very understandable, everything about this town made ponies want to leave, the desolated state, the stories behind it, everything... Fitting a gas mask on over her face, Cuppa looked at the sign of the town, frowning slightly, that was bringing the few memories of the nightmares back. The others needed some sort of pep-talk, which she was in the mood to give. It was mostly from the bottled up feelings about the stories of this town, but she converted her emotions into positive ones to try and help encourage the others.

"Ember, ya have t' do this, everypony does if they wanna sleep soundly. Everypony's scared and everypony's tired, ah know. And ah'm sure ah ain't t' only one who wants t' sleep soundly ever again. Right, everypony? Now, ah'm no brave mare, but even ah'm doin' this, if there are other ponies havin' these nightmares, us doin' this will save them havin' ta do it."

Turning her head towards Silver, Cuppa finally stopped to take a breath. "Maybe we should head t' the... say, the town hall or summint? Might be able t' find what's where, an ah'm guessin' it's the centre-most buildin." Cuppa suggested with a feigned smile.