This is a non-profit fanfiction created for entertainment purposes only. This story is a continuation to Silence of Ponyville, which is a side story of Silent Ponyville and Silent Ponyville 2 by author jake-heritagu on deviantART. While it is highly suggested to read the previous stories before this one. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is owned by Hasbro and Lauren Faust. Silent Ponyville concept belongs to jake-heritagu. Please support both. -------------------- The Shop - Chapter 7 - The darkness, the hard cobblestone street, the crisp and cool air; it was all familiar to him. He was back in the parking lot for the wagons for ponies again. Rising to his hooves carefully Knick quickly became aware of his surroundings and started to inspect them. The lot was quiet and undisturbed, the circle was in the wall behind him as it had been the first time he arrived in this place. The gate before him was closed and thankfully there were no giant dog beasts waiting to devour him. So there were rules it seemed. Every time he'd ever gone through the hole before it was always through a different one than the one he'd entered into the nightmare world. But now that he retreated back through his entrace to his home he was spit out where he'd left off. Was the magic hole leading him some place specific as he crawled through each tunnel? He supposed he'd find out when he finally arrived at the next exit. His lantern and baseball bat were still at the ready, Knict securing both back in mouth and tail as he slid the gate open carefully and looked down the alley way. He didn't see the giant dog monster but that didn't mean it wasn't waiting for him still. With careful steps despite the burned hoof and cut leg Knick Knack was able to walk slowly and silently down towards the exit to the street. As he approached he heard the soft grinding of his watch. There was a friend waiting for him it seemed. Knick kept to the side of the wall as he walked at the same pace, listening intently and hearing what sounded like labored breathing. It was heavy and deep, the only clear sound in the empty streets of whatever dark town this was. Setting the lantern down he crawled up carefully as he pressed against the wall, trying to look around the corner without being seen. The dog beast was there, and very fortunately facing the opposite direction of the street. It was standing on it's oddly disproportioned legs as if it were waiting for something to appear down the road. He had no idea what and didn't really care, more concerned about his own skin now then anyone elses. Looking past the dog on the lamp lit streets Knick could see that large storm drain that had the hole in the grate, big enough for a pony to fit through. It was too dark to see how deep it went but Knick knew that wasn't the proper strategy... or rather solution to this puzzle. Reaching into his saddle bag Knick took out the meat wrapped in paper and twine and began to unravel the package. When the meat was exposed to air the creature suddenly stopped breathing hard and stood at attention, its nose most likely picking up the scent of the fresh meat. Knick didn't have a lot of options for tricking this creature so he went with the most basic plan and just chucked the meat slab across the street at the opening in the grate, hoping to lure the creature onto what looked like weak and rusted metal. The meat slid across the cobble stone before stopping just before the hole in the grate. Knick felt like cursing himself out loud for messing up this plan so completely. Getting ready to make a hasty retreat back to the hole he saw the beast turn it's entire body towards the bait left on the ground. To Knick's surprise the monster charged at it full force and dove it's huge jaws down at the food. When its snout connected with the grate the creature not only broke through it but destroyed some of the stone ground around the opening, falling into the sewers below or where ever it was that hole lead to. Knick stood wide eyed. "That... worked?" It was almost too good to believe, Knick felt like jumping in the air and clicking his hooves together. "You've got to be kidding me." Knick picked up his lantern and turned the flame on a bit, walking over to the gaping hole. He shined the light into the darkness which was probably the stupidest thing you could do after just avoiding a huge monster trying to eat you but he was too curious to let it go. Not seeing a bottom even with the assisted light from his lantern he counted his few lucky stars that the monster was probably lost down in whatever was in that pit... for now. There were now options available and Knick took time to consider them. There were two ways to go down the street, which curved away from the alley to make it difficult to see where it was he was going. Seeing that the dog beast was to the right side of the road when he appeared he deduced there must have been a reason it was preventing him from going that direction. "Yeah, there MUST be a reason. Casue that's how things work, right?" Knick pondered to himself as he walked slowly down the street. Before he was exploring these places with the simple hope that he'd find an exit or another pony that would get him back home. But as time was wearing on Knick was coming to terms that wherever her was just simply didn't work that way. The only living beings he found were monsters, the only help he found was in cryptic messages and clues, the only ground he gained was the ground it wanted him to have. He was someone's toy. For now. When he found whoever was doing this to him well... he certainly had no plans to show them love or tolerance. He was learning how to express himself with a blunt object fairly well. The houses were boarded up, the streets were covered in dirt or was that soot? It was like some kind of ashy dirt that he didn't want to get in his coat or on his hooves. Especially in the wounded places. There were dark corners everywhere but nothing that stood out. Experiance had taught Knick that searching carefully was good but there was no need to dig through every little pile of dirt. Find that which didn't seem to belong. As his thoughts turned to figuring out what his next puzzle was Knick was suddenly alerted by the grinding of his watch. His body spun around quickly expecting to hear the huge dog beast charging his way but there was no evidence of such a thing. The streets were still and quiet aside from the noise of his watch and his own breathing. Turning around again Knicked look down the road before him in case a new threat was coming but still he saw nothing. No giant monsters, no moving creatures, no spitting mares in provocative clothing. Just to be safe anyway he dimmed his lantern light down to avoid drawing attention to himself. Knick walked further down the road and the grinding of his watch stayed consistant, no visible sign of danger around him. He looked over every door way and window, even looking up to check the roofs of the buildings but still nothing was there. Was his watch finally breaking down. It seemed unlikely as the thing only made a noise he could hear he always assumed it was magic in some manner. Gazing at the thin spaces between the houses as he passed them he stopped to wonder where something could even come from to attakck him in such a confined area. The streets had enough room for two wagons to pass each other but other than that there was no space for anything else to manuever. The watch's grinding grew louder. Knick stopped to consider what could possibly be in the area. He looked at the sky to see if there was a bird or something flying but no such thing appeared. Although he did note suddenly and with some concern that the sky had no moon. Nor did it have any stars or any sort of celestial beings. It was as if there was a black blanket draped across the city itself. So if the threat wasn't something flying and he saw nothing else coming from the roofs what else could it be? He looked around himself further, seeing the doors were all closed shut tightly, the only thing even a little out of place were old milk bottles left outside. Either waiting to be filled or having already been delievered. The watche's grinding grew louder. There were the small spaces between the homes but there was no way a pony could fit through there. The only thing that could slip through there would be something very thin and very flexible. Something that could crawl or pull it's body through tight spaces. The watche's grinding grew louder. Knick heard the sound of high pitched breathing. It registered slowly in his mind, the thoughts coming together piece by piece. When they did finally click he felt the warm sensation at his side and turned his head to look behind himself. One of the thin, tall dog monsters from the train had snuck up on him. And it was dragging one of its clawed fingers along the side of his body, cutting the skin and causing warm blood to trickle onto his skin. "Nnngh!" Knick had a panicked moment as he realized the creature was slicing into him like the one at the train had on his leg. He reacalled the strong grip its long arm could crush with, and used the bat his tail held to swat the monster's arm away from his body. The creature made a gasp in surprise as its arm was knocked away and Knicked turned his body to face the monster. The slight deterrant not stopping its advance. Pain was starting to set into his side but Knick had no plans to give it any thought. Moving forward he swung his body around to hit the creature in the knees with the baseball bat. Thankfully it was surprised by the attack and felt to the cobblestone street with a squeal from the impact. Knick didn't plan to let it come at him again however. Raising his back legs he brought the bat down again and again at the creature, beating it with the blunt object while he had it on the ground. When he turned to face the creature it was trying to rise. Knick didn't feel like giving it a chance to recover, placing a front hoof on the the dog monster's neck. He recalled how he did this at the school when he'd beaten the vile mare in the head repeatedly until she fell. How she gasped and choked from the savage beating. He'd been disgusted by his actions before but they were almost merciful at the time with how badly he'd damaged her. There was no mercy in this. Knick applied pressure with his hoof and felt the flesh give way under him, the creature groaning in agony and then ceasing its actions altogether. This wasn't mercy, it was efficency. He'd killed again and this time it didn't bother him near as much. Knick stared down at the horrible twisted mess of the dog creature; its mismatching limbs, hideous mouth and face, strange upright designed body. How many ponies had it killed before? How many ponies had adopted the needed weapons and mentality to fight back against these things before him? He'd never once thought it before these events started but Knick was begining to realize just how easily a pony can kill if it wanted to. Knick stopped admiring his work after he realized something; the watch never stopped making noise. Knick looked up to see that from the small openings in the house and the storm drains and gutters around him there were more of those monsters coming. Many more in fact, there were at least three before him slipping from the darkness now with their eyes on him. Knick didn't want to test his bravery further and he turned to run down the street. As he did so he began to see more of the dog monsters emerging from their hiding places, all slowly pulling themselves out but there was enough that Knick was worried. If they surrounded him he was finished for sure. Running as fast as his body would allow with its newest gash cut into his side Knick pushed himself down the cobblestone road until he reached the end of his path. It was a tunnel, not like his hole that lead him through one world to the next but a normal street tunnel with a bridge over top of it. However it was blocked off by two wagons filling the tunnel's entrance from side to side. Looking behind himself he could see in the distance some of the dog creatures had already emerged onto the street and were awkwardly walking their way towards him. Knick considered maybe crawling under the wagons but after seeing where his last hunters appeared from he figured that was a bad idea. Searching around the street Knick looked to the houses, trying to see if there was an unboarded window or a cellar to crawl into for safety. As he searched he found a door that didn't look as ruined as the others and there were no boards over it. Then he recalled the house key. Running to the door Knick put down the lantern and dug inside of his bag, rooting around franticly until his teeth clasped over the small key. Such things weren't built well for ponies that weren't unicorns Knick thought in annoyance. Walking up to the door he silently hoped for some luck this time around and pushed the key into the lock, twisting his jaw and feeling satisfaction when the lock turned and the door became accessible. Not to waste time Knick turned and grabbed his lantern before the monsters could get within grabbing distance. Dropping his hoof onto the door handle he slipped inside and closed it behind him quickly. The watch finally stopped buzzing. Knick leaned against the door breathing heavily as he recovered from having to run with a fresh cut in his body. Putting the lantern down he turned the flame up to shed more light in the room and looked over his body. The monster had done well in making a good gash in his skin but luckily the straps on his saddle bag had protected him some. It must not have used enough pressure to cut the fabric that made up his carry bags. Still some bandages would be appreciated for that cut. As he was looking over his cut a realization hit him that there was another sound in the room besides his own labored breathing. Looking back and forth he saw the source of the odd noise. On the wall was a foal. It's coat was ghostly white and it's mane a faded grey. Like every other pony of this nature he'd encountered this foal had her eyes removed and she was a unicorn. However unlike all the others she was currently pinned into the side of the wall by a silver knife. "Who... what is this?" Knick approached the foal with his lantern, her body wiggling like a worm on a hook though there was no hope in her dislodging the blade that had her pinned into the wall like a macarbe decoration. Knick looked the blade over noting its unusual appearance. The handle was large, big enough to shove the front of his hooves through the decorative circles just below the hilt. The handle itself rather small making it unlikely to be a useful weapon if used by mouth or by tail. His bat was probably the better choice to stay with. It wasn't until he turned to inspect the rest of the room that he realized his only focus on the foal pinned to the wall was whether or not that knife would have been a more effecint tool for violence. He swallowed a lump in his throat. "Just calm down. You've gone throgh some stress so it's not that strange that you'd... you'd be thinking like that." Like a killer? "Focus on escaping." There was a hole somewhere in this town that would take him back to his shop. The rules of the game were becoming clear to him. Once you knew the rules you could figure out how to play the game. And if necessary break those rules to win. Then maybe he could truly escape this hell. The rest of the house was a living room and a kitchen but it all looked worn away. There was a table in the kitchen and several rusted pots and pans, rusted over silverware and dirty plates. Amongst all the filth though his lantern's light glimmered off of a familiar sight. Knick set the lantern down on the table and reached his hoof out to pick up the silver candle. "What do you do?" He looked the shiney piece of wax over. They seemed important and it was one of the few consistant things that appeared to him in each of these places he ended up. The other was pinned to the wall currently struggling to get free. Knick dropped the candle into his saddle bag and went back to look at the ghost foal pinned to the wall again. He noted that the blade in her was also of a silver color, and recalled that back in the train yard the ghost filly he encountered had run from the candle after he had lit it. "Is silver what's hurting you?" Knick considered reaching up to take the knife, thinking it might be useful to fight off any other creatures like her. But at the moment it was keeping her from assulting him and so he chose to leave it for now. The living room wasn't much more interesting than the kitchen; rotted couch and chair, a coffee table and a few decorative pictures that had all rotted to an unrecognizable state. There was a hallway leading deeper into the house and it was guarded by two large, decorative vases on either side of the hallway entrance. Deciding there was nothing left of interest here in the front of the house Knick proceeded further in using his lantern to light the way. There was a door at the end of the hall he could see from a ways off and another on the left side of the wall near it. Before there though he found a door that was open directly on his left, leading into a bathroom. To his right was another familiar sight. The blue door stood there, ominous amongst the rest of the house. It wasn't dirty or damaged like the rest of the walls, its gold trim and blue finish making it stand out amongst the rest of the house. Knick froze when he saw it, remembering the last time he passed by this door back at the school. He didn't have any proof but he was aboslutely sure that whatever had killed all the monsters back then had come from this door. Actually something was wrong about it. Every other time he encountered it Knick had noticed that it was forced into the walls. Like it belonged some place else but had been cut into the world he was occupying at the time. Now when he looked at it the door didn't seem so out of place. Actually... "They match." He said through his teeth looking at the two door ways across from each other. While the trim around the bathroom was worn and dirty it was clearly the same molding that was used to from it. This door belonged in this house. He was in the home of whatever lived in that room. Knick finally breathed out through his nostrils, realizing he'd been holding his breat since he encountered the door. The house was still quiet other than the noises of the foal scraping the walls to try and free herself. He wasn't in danger. Yet. Turning into the bathroom Knick set the lantern down and began to rummage through everything. The sink held nothing useful, the bathtub was an awful muck. Knick lifted the toilet and though he saw something in it deep in the black muck of it's bowl. He held his hoof out to reach down inside but instead closed the lid. "I'll consider that a last resort." It probably wasn't anything he wanted to grab anyway. Pulling at the mirror he found it was a medicine cabinet, and sure enough there was some medicine inside. "Well, who would have thought?" He pulled out the bottle of liquid with the words "Nutrition Drink" written on the white label. Knick considered swallowing the contents right away but realized that despite the cut on his side he was holding up fairly well, the bleeding had even stopped already. Deciding to keep it just in case Knick slipped the bottle into his bag and walked out of the bathroom. Heading down the hallway further he found the door to his left was boarded up and the handle didn't turn regardless. If the effort to get inside was too great then it probably wasn't worth trying anyway. Instead he tried the door to the room at the end of the hall, but when he reached out to grab the handle he was in for a surprise. "What the... a flat surface?" Knick felt around where the door handle should have been but there was just a hole. The door wasn't borded up so it must have been the way he was supposed to go. "Great, so now I have to find a door handle." Where could that have been? In the toilet? "Oh please no." Hidden somewhere inside of the house? "Maybe... not behind that blue door I hope." Outside? By Celestia's Mane he hoped that wasn't the case. It could have been anywhere out there. It could have even been the other direction down the street, in a whole other house, in a whole other toilet! "Don't jump to conclusions." Knick tried to calm himself, he hadn't searched the whole house yet. Narrows the search down little by little and you'll eventually find what you're looking for. Knick trotted back down the hallway, being sure to walk softly past the blue evil door. Whatever was in there he didn't want to alert it to his presence while he was searching the house. Getting back into the living room he looked around himself. He didn't think the ghost filly had what he needed but there may have been something hidden inside one of the kitchen cabinets or under the furniture. "Actually..." Knick propped the lantern at the edge of one of the large vases, looking inside. He peered down into the right vase as deep as he could but all he saw was dust and grime. "Too obvious I guess." Just to be thurough though Knick walked over to the other vase and held the lantern up near the edge. Looking deep inside. "Well well, guess my talent lets me find things other than rare antiques easily." There at the bottom of the vase was the door knob, just waiting to be returned to it's rightful place. Knick set the lantern down on the ground and got back up near the large vase, reaching in with his hoof. He wiggled it around inside but couldn't get his limb down deep enough to even begin to pull it out. Giving up on that method Knick uncurled his tail from the bat and set it down as well, turning around to see if he could pull it out with his tail. Sadly this was even more awkward and less likely to be successful than his front hooves. Knick grumbled in annoyance. "Well how am I supposed to get you!? You know what, I'm not messing around with this." Knick took a step forward and tried to kick the vase over, however that proved surprisingly difficult. He didn't know what the vase was made out of but it was solid. Enough that his kicks didn't chip the surface and he wasn't anywhere close to knocking it over with its heavy base. He thought of using his bat to smash it but that seemed even less likely of being succesful than his back legs. "Another puzzle?" Knick sat down and thought it out. There was a door knob he needed to get into the next room. It was well out of his reach in a container he couldn't smash or tip. There had to be a tool or something that would let him pull it out of the vase. "If I wasn't a 'No-horn' this would be pretty easy." A lot of these stupid puzzles would have been easier. There wasn't any kind of fishing line or other sort of hook anywhere. He didn't see a broom or any kind of tool to try and slide it out, as hard as that might be. He could possibly stab the wooden part of the handle with that knife if his tail could hit is easily enough. Then he could fish it out, but that meant that ghostly foal would be after him. "Wait, it's wood so that means it's pretty light weight." Knick walked into the kitchen and hit the faucet. "Nuts." Nothing. No water came out, which was a shame because it seemed like such a good plan. He could have just floated it to the top if he had some liquid for it to float on. Maybe one of the other houses had some working water, or even stored juice or something. "Wait a minute... milk bottles." He'd seen them in front of the doors when he was running through the street. Milk bottles, dozens of them. There was at least one on every porch. That was the trick he bet. Use what's in them to fill the vase then use that to float the knob to where he could reach it. That just meant he'd have to out manuever all those dog mosters, and carry all those milk bottles back into the house without getting killed. Simple right? Knick stared at the door leading back outside, he'd left the key in the lock but the creatures didn't seem smart enough to get through doors. The only monster he'd seen follow him through a door was the ghostly school filly back at the school. The one in the train yard had gone through the ceiling too. He assumed that any of them could probably slip through a solid surface, except this foal was stuck with that knife in her. Maybe he could pull it out of her to use as a weapon. Then when he was outside he'd have a more formidable tool to defend himself and he could lure her out of the house. "Or I could do this." Knick turned around from the door to face the hallway, and charged. Why risk his life with these stupid puzzles and items to complete his mission. He had legs, the door had a single bolt lock. The answer was pretty simple. As he barreled down the hallway Knick turned at the last second and kicked the door hard with his back hooves, slamming it open with the splintering of wood and a loud bang. There was another loud bang directly after. Knick was facing down the hall when he saw the blue door slame open and hit against the wall. His heart stopped as the haunted entry way seemed to suck all of the heat out of the air around him and chill everything to its core. Suddenly all the candles and lanterns inside the house lit with flame, the ghostly foal in the living room cried out in surprise, and a huge black hoof stepped out of the blue door. Knick ran into the room he'd just opened and shut the door behind him. "Oh no oh no oh no!" Knick turned and looked around the room he was in. It appeared to be a foal's bedroom, complete with old toys scattered about, a bed and pictures hung on the wall. Knick didn't have time to register these thoughts as he desperately searched for a place to hide. Swing his head back and forth he finally located a closet and ran over quickly as fear drove him. When he opened the closet door the one to the bed room exploded in a bright flash, flying off its hinges in scorched wooden splinters. Knick wasted no time in diving into the closet door and hiding inside. It was a poor place to hide one's self. The door for the closet had blinds and he could see the light from the bedroom through each of the small, slanted pieces of wood. Knick backed himself up as far as he could against the junk in the closet, his whole body shaking as the giant creature walked into the bed room with ground shaking steps. He wished he had something to protect himself with but he didn't know if it would have mattered anyway. It had destroyed the monsters at the school, it had shattered doors with whatever power it possessed. How difficult would it be to kill him? The steps got closer. As it walked into sight of the closet door Knick could see it wasn't the size of a normal pony. It's body was large, tall like Princess Celestia but even larger still. It was on all fours and he could see veins that pulsed with a glowing energy from it's neck and down to it's front legs. It's body was black and cloudy, and its skin seemed to move like ink in water. Or with the light maybe more like a thunder cloud with lighting coursing through it. Worst yet was its head. The shape was completely wront, and when it moved back and forth he could see the front of it was flat and long like somepony wearing a mask. It looked at the closet, it knew he was there. Knick was going to die in this room before he even managed to find the exit to this horrible world. As it approached the door Knick could see that instead of two eyes like a normal pony there was one, huge eye that was staring at him off the mask. It didn't seem to have a mouth, and the horn coming off of its head seemed to grow out of the mask instead of pushing through like it was artificial. Of course it would be a unicorn, everything else here had been so far. The horn on the monster began to glow and Knick Knack could only assume that meant the crashing force of lightning was going to come down on him. He covered his face with his front hooves and closed his eyes, apologizing to Annie in his heart. There was a loud sound that made him jump slightly in his hiding place but it wasn't the boom of thunder or the crackle of lightning. Instead it was the sound of the ghost foal, she was crying out like a normal pony. Knick realized he hadn't been run through with explosive magic yet and found the courage to look up. The masked unicorn was no longer looking at the closet but instead towards the door it had come in from. It just stood there silently listening to the cries of the ghost foal. Knick kept his body perfectly still awaiting the monster's next move. Was it trying to lure him out? Then to his complete surprise, it walked away. He couldn't believe it. The unstoppable monster that had come to murder him was just going to leave? Did he really fool it? Knick stayed in the closet for a while until he couldn't feel the shaking foot steps of the masked unicorn any longer. When he was sure it wasn't in the room he slowly opened the closet door and stuck his head out to peek. The room was empty save for him. Knick walked quietly but quickly as he searched the room frantically and discovered what he'd been after; a hole. It was the same hole with the weird designs around its circular entrance as all the other ones he'd come through in these insane worlds. Finally the very exit he'd been longing for. The reason he hadn't noticed it he saw was despite the gaping entrance it had carved into the wall there was still a painting that covered it up. Though it wasn't big enough to hide it it managed to hang by a nail that had nearly fallen out of the wall. The picture was actually very clean in comparison to the other frames in the room and depectied a black colored mare on it. Something about her was familiar... "SKKREEEEEE!" His head snapped back to the door way which lead into the hall. There was a horrible screaming coming from the other room and after Knick listened for a few seconds he realized it was the voice of the ghost filly. "He's... he's torturing it." The masked unicorn was doing something in that other room to the monster he'd left pinned to the wall, now at that thing's mercy. "Better her than me." The thought was cold but necessary to Knick, he needed to escape. He'd done his part here and lucked out on that thing getting distracted, now it was time to go. Knick took the painting down and shoved it into the hole before him. Something about it told him that he probably needed it. As he pushed the painting forward and crawled it the foal's cries were continuing, sounding more and more like a real pony who was in pain. His body stilled once in instinct to help her and turn back. But it was too late for that, his survival came first. "Sorry... but I can't die here yet." He whispered and pushed himself deeper into the darkness.