Chapter 7

To keep the snow from finding its way up into my pants I step into the pony’s tracks still following them, but it still sneaks into my shoes numbing my feet. The snow that is pouring out of the sky is caking itself onto my clothing and blowing into my ears. It’s so dark, but the snow blowing against my face is keeping me from opening my eyes even the slightest. It feels like small little blades scratching against my cheeks. I just don’t understand how this clearly injured pony could’ve trotted through this storm without me even having the chance to catch up. She must be really determined to find something, but if she believes that her friends are really out here then she might have some bad news waiting for her. Every other pony I've seen has been solidified in ice, and it wouldn't surprise me if her friends were as well. But, I’d rather not imagine such a thing.

The tracks lead me through a neighborhood of tilted cottages to a little wooden sign. It reads: ‘Sugarcube Corner’. Then below that is a sticker that has been peeling off from one of the corners that says: ‘Special! New Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes!’. The tracks continue on to an odd looking building ahead. I walk closer blocking the snow with my hand to get a better view, and the building appears to have a brown roof lined with white swirling borders like icing around a cake. Along the walls are shelves with flowers planted in little pots resting on them, but they are all frozen stiff. Extending from the roof is a little tower shaped like a cupcake with three candles sticking up from the top. She had to have gone in there, so I walk up a small set of purple steps between two candy cane-like poles on each side of the doorway. I tighten my hands around the cold handles, and I can hear the sound of a voice behind the door. Now sure of myself that she is in the building I pull open the double doors and shut them behind me. The room is covered in shadows, but I soon realize that just like the tree this place is entirely sheeted in a coating of ice. However there are some areas that have been left bare.

There are tables, chairs, and booths. In the center of the room is a big table showcasing the new cupcakes as they are all bunched together. There is a front desk with glass casing in the front with other pastries and cakes behind it. A little bell sits atop the counter frozen to the surface. The support beams on the ceiling are all carved and decorated with the shapes of hearts and swirls. There are even more candy cane style poles that hold up the ceiling. Also on the ceiling is a little chandelier with three branches each with a bulb at the end, and one single bulb in the center. Behind the counter are two double doors like a saloon that lead to a dark room. Along the icy floor a round green rug has solidified onto the floor as well as a rectangular darker green mat near the front desk. Behind the desk I notice that there are two ponies trapped in ice. One is a tall yellow stallion and the other is a chubby light blue mare, and they both have uniforms that lead me to believe that they are the owners of this little bakery. They are frozen in a position of them cowering in the corner of the room holding onto each other.

Around the table of cupcakes are four other ponies each with frightened expressions on their faces. One is a pink pony with a poofy mane of a darker color. Beside her is a white mare with a royal purple curled mane and another with an orange coat, blonde mane and cowgirl hat atop her head. Near the ceiling is a sky blue mare with wings like a Pegasus and a messy rainbow striped mane and tail. She is being held up in the air by icicles that extend from the floor and from the ceiling. It befuddles me how the ice could’ve done something like this. It’s as if the ice was reaching out for the pony and froze her in place. They are all frozen in a distressed position staring either down at the ground or around at the walls. Before them sits the lavender coated pony I have been chasing after, and she is mumbling to herself shivering violently from the cold snow that has gathered onto her coat.

“If only I was here. . . I could’ve saved them.” She turns her head back and notices me. I can see a stream of tears has formed down her cheek. “My friends . . . my only friends.”

I don’t dare take another step forward; I would rather just keep my distance and let her be. For her to see her friends frozen in ice must be something very difficult to take in. It’s something I never want to experience. Never would I want to see Valiari, Candle Light or . . . Trixie frozen into statues. I don’t think I would be able to move on. Without any words for my voice to form I keep silent, and allow the pony to have her space.

“The day seemed to be normal; the sun was out, birds were singing, and then everything changed.” She says after a short silence. “I heard ponies screaming outside. I took one look out the window and . . . an avalanche of some sort was covering everything.”

The word ‘avalanche’ has suddenly caught my attention. With the feeling that she will continue to explain I take a few steps closer.

“My room it . . . it became covered in ice. It locked me in as the outside was quickly being overrun with snow. Everypony was freezing in place like statues; it was an apocalypse.”

“. . . What did you do?” I ask.

“M-My magic had no effect on the ice, but it didn't take me. It left me to live as if it wanted me to suffer . . . to imagine what had been happening to my friends! And here they are! With no way out!” She shouts with struggles in her voice. “I should’ve been here; I should’ve been here.” She repeats sobbing.

My heart is wrenching inside my chest. I may not know these ponies very well, but I can tell that this pony truly has a strong connection to them. If only there was a way to help them, but there’s nothing that can be done just like Valiari said. But, maybe I can help her. Maybe if I propose to her my idea about the castle on the mountain she just may agree. Giving her a sense of hope. I hate to hear the sound of her crying, so I step towards her ready to attempt to comfort her. Just as I am about to lay may hand on her shoulder something immediately stops me.

“Don’t.” A voice commands. I hold my hand back and remain still as the pony continues to cry. “She’s trying to trick you.”

“Why? Why did this have to happen?” The pony mumbles.

“She’s dangerous.” Says the voice promptly. “Remember what she and her friends tried to do to you?”

I . . . I remember. At the sound of the voice’s question I suddenly recall these ponies. I can see images flashing in my head just like before. The lavender pony, the pink pony and all the rest are chasing after me. Chasing me down a series of dark hallways. The rainbow pony is flying after me, and the orange pony is galloping behind me.

“Applejack you take the left and I’ll take the right!” The voice of the rainbow pony advised.

“Why when Ah git ma hooves on you-you two legged varmint Ah’ll whup ya like a rented mule!” The orange pony shouted behind me.

The next thing I see is a lasso wrapping around my waist, and she is pulling me nearer with the rainbow pony not too far behind.

“They saw you as a nuisance, an enemy, a monster; and ‘she’ still does.” Says the voice.

I can see me and Valiari walking together in a very damp and swampy place. We’re running, running as fast as we can. They are behind us with angry expressions. The voice, it’s right. They tried to capture me and my friend. For all I know this pony could really be trying to trick and trap me. I am beginning to become suspicious of her, and begin to take a few steps back.

“Leave, lock her in.” Says the voice.

I can’t take the chance; I have to listen to the voice before it’s too late.

“But, at least . . .”

“Lock her in.” The voice demands as I continue to back up towards the door.

“At least you’re here.” Says the pony.

Her statement stops me in my tracks. Her voice sounds just so sincere there’s no way she could be devising some kind of plan against me. She is merely grieving over her friends, and I need to help her.

“What are you doing?” The voice asks. “Leave her, go!”

I feel so much pressure building inside me. My mind is telling me to leave her, but my heart is telling me to stay. My heart is racing and my blood is boiling. I don’t know what to do. What should I do? What should I do? She needs help and I might just be the only one left to give her that, but she could be trying to lie to me. Those memories, they were real I know they were.

“You’ll help me, right?” She asks still sobbing.

I want to say yes but the voice won’t stop! It won’t leave me alone!

“Go! Lock her in, lock her in!”

“R-Right?” She asks again.

“Do you want to find your beloved friends or not?!”

The pony turns her head to me covered in tears expecting an answer from me. Out of the sheer pressure and a marathon running in my thoughts I turn around and sprint for the door.

“Wait! Where are you going?!” She calls, but I do my best to ignore her and tear through the front doors.

I slam them shut and lean against them with all my weight. The pony tries to push the door open but I press against it with my freezing hands to keep her inside.

“What are you doing?! Please! Open the door!” She begs.

“Don’t listen to her. Next to you is a loose board of wood. Slide it between the handles, now.”

“Please!” She shouts while pounding on the door with her weak hooves.

My mind is going through so much stress at this moment. I want to open the door but my hands won’t listen to me. They want to keep her inside. No, I have to leave her. I can’t take the chance. I reach down and grab the board of wood protruding through the snow near the wall of the building and fashion it between the handles of the doors. I let go of the doors and step away as the pony continues to try and push the doors open, but the wood keeps them shut.

“Good, now leave. Go!” The voice commands sending me off in a fearful sprint away from the building.

Running as fast as I can into the storm I follow my tracks back towards the tree home. Once I know that I've gotten far from the building I slow down and walk the rest of the way. I try to keep the act out of my mind. I keep telling myself that it was the right thing to do, but I can’t stop hearing her pleas for me to open the door bouncing about in my skull. I try to focus my attention down to the snow to maybe get it out of my head, but I can’t help but remember. I start to turn my head back to the direction of the building, but I force myself not to look. I should feel a sense of accomplishment that I escaped, but instead I feel empty. What I had done it . . . it couldn't have been the right thing to do. Her grief, her tears those were most certainly real. Her words were sincere, every last one of them. Yet I let a voice tell me otherwise. It sounded familiar, but it most definitely didn't sound like it wanted to help me. I stop in the snow without taking another step away from the building. I turn back, and with my heart filling with stamina I run through the snow back to the bakery. Ready to fix what I had done.

The cold is becoming unbearable, but I push through it lifting my numbed legs through the building layers of snow. Some time has passed since I am retracing my steps back to the building, but the pony should still be there. How am I going to explain it to her when I get back, she might not trust ‘me’ anymore now. I hope she won’t jump to conclusions. I hurry up the purple steps, almost tripping on the last, and remove the wood board from the door handles. I hastily rip open the doors and run inside. As the doors close behind me I scan the room for the pony, but she is nowhere in sight.

“Hello?” I call.

I take a few steps into the room confusedly. Then suddenly something tightens around my heels and hoists me upwards. My back slams against the floor and my body is brought up into the air as I hang upside down. My bag slips off my shoulder and lands onto the floor. I try to reach for it but no matter how much I try it remains out of my reach. I can feel all the blood quickly rushing to my head and arms as they dangle to the floor. I lift up my head and see that a wire has been tied around my ankles and is connected through a heart shaped hold in the ceiling’s support beams and tied around one of the candy cane poles. The wire is black, and because the room is so dark I couldn’t see it at all. I try to lift myself up to maybe undue the knot of the wire, but I just can’t reach it.

“So, you came back.” Says the lavender pony stepping through a curtain of shadows towards me.

“Wait, I-I can explain!” I say.

“Don’t worry, you don’t have to. I see now how you really are.”

“Please just—!”

“No, I’m not going to listen to you.” The pony says promptly with her still wet cheeks.

She then refuses to look at me and grabs my bag with her teeth. She throws it over her neck and carries it.

“Wait, stop! You don’t understand!”

“I think I understand clearly. I knew there was something off about you since the first day I saw you. Everypony else might not have been able to see it but I sure did. I can’t believe I let myself fall for it too. But I’m not going to make that same mistake again! . . . If only you had disappeared for good.”

The pony, with my bag around her neck, walks towards the front doors leaving me to hang from the ceiling.

“Wait! Please!” I cry.

But it doesn't matter; she ignores my pleas and walks out the front doors shutting them behind her. I then hear the horrid sound of the board of wood against the surface of the doors sliding between handles.