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 8 - Painting Knick beat his hooves against the bed. He'd been doing so since he woke up, cursing his complete lack of competance. In his rush to escape that house he had left behind both items that had proven more valuable than any other he'd come across in this terrible world; his lamp and his weapon. When he'd broken down that door he'd left both back in the living room to give him pleanty of room to run. Once that cyclops came looking for him though Knick had pushed out all rational thought, his fear being a driving factor. More than anything else he had wanted to escape that cold glare that paralyzed him with fear. That thing killed everything without remorse, even the other creatures of that world. It was walking death. Once Knick had tired himself out from his tantrum and rested himself on the bed he looked over at his newest trophy. The painting was propped up agianst the wall near his bed where his lantern would have normally been. The light in the room was getting dimmer as if what sun was outside the windows was starting to go down. However that didn't stop him from getting a good look at her from what light that did seep in. The mare in the picture was completely black, her mane draped around her like stars in the night sky. Her horn punched through a blue, metal helmet and around her shoulders was a breastplate worthy of a warrior. Her eyes were like tourquise gems that were both frightening and beautiful at the same time. "Wait a minute... I know who this is." He picked himself off the bed and held the painting up to get a better look at it against the light. "Nightmare Moon. We have a statue of her just outside Ponyville for the Nightmare Night celebrations." Sure enough the black mare was the queen of the night herself. "She's... she's a lot more beautiful than I thought." It was kind of an odd thing to think about the symbol of terror for all little fillies and colts but she was indeed very pretty. Strong and intimidating but still pretty, it was like she had actually posed for a picture like this and someone with great talent had taken the time to paint it. "Heh, kinda reminds me of Wither Rose's work. I bet he'd leap at the chance to paint someone like you, Queen of the Night." She didn't respond of course, thankfully. "Now then, where do you go?" After tossing the meat in the fridge and putting the abacus on its display he had a feeling that this item had a place in his shop too. It was just the way it had all worked out up until now. He looked along the walls until he found a spot in his own bedroom just above the dresser that showed a rectangular spot where the dust hadn't completely covered the wall. It even had a nail in it already. "Knew it." Knick Knack walked back over to the picture and hoisted it up, placing it on the wall and stepping back. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. "Yeah, figured that would happen too." From the edges of the painting it began to spread. Like veins under tense skin they spread out into the wall, dampening the wall paper and flowing outward with whatever may be flowing inside those tendrils. He watched as it spread out further and further until finally it stopped. Knick sighed. "Guess the show is over." Click. "Now for my reward." Knick reached down to the bottom drawer of his dresser but was surprised to find it was locked. He worked his way up the other drawers until he got to the top and it finally slid open, revealing his prize to him. Knick reached in and pulled out a book with an azure colored cover, the writing on the spine in a deep pink that read "Loyalty in a Bracelet". Another one for the shelf he supposed. With everything her gone as expected he shut the top drawer and walked downstairs, not even the least bit concerned anymore. Frankly this was all getting to be a bit repetative. He crawls through the hole and gets nearly killed, definantly injured, comes back with some piece of junk to decorate the shop and then gets a book. Following through with the next step he walked past the now black and ashey display of school supplies and still broken clerks desk, through the winding shelves and to the book shelf that held all the other collected tomes he'd found. He considered reading some of them but why waste the time? Slipping the book into the shelf he noticed something. "There's only room for one more." Well now that was different. At most he could only squeeze two books into the space left but with how small it was he was sure that wasn't the case. One more book left to collect. One more nightmare left to walk through. What would happen when he had all of the books? Was he supposed to be reading them? Should he have taken the time to do so now? "No. Worry about it when you have them all. Then this little puzzle will get solved, just like they want. Then when I find them I'll get what I want." They were tough words, rather out of character for Knick when he thought about it. Even though he'd lost his weapon Knick didn't feel all that less confident. Actually he was feeling anxious, he wanted to finish all of this and get back home. He wanted to punish whoever was doing this to him and put an end to it right now. Any way possible. He took a deep breath and looked around himself; there wasn't anything that would serve as a good replacement weapon. He also didn't have his lamp anymore but he did have that candle and the nutrion bottle still in his saddle bag. "Matches." Knick weaved through the shelves back past the ashey black display and broken desk into the kitchen where even more awful things awaited him. Whatever had been in the fridge must have multiplied because now it was leaking profusely from the bottom of the appliance. There was a puddle that looked still wet seeping out from the cracks of the door and Knick could only guess what terrible things were behind that door. His feet where still injured so he didn't like it but stepping in that stuff seemed worse than a little pain. So Knick hopped over the puddle and winced when his front hooves hit the ground. His torso wasn't doing that much better, the burns in his skin from the vile mare and the cut from the long armed dog monster were irritating him at every move. Still he held out on drinking his medicine, you never know when you might really need it. Pulling out the drawers in the kichen he searched each and every one until by some miracle he found what he was after. In the drawer at the end of the kitchen was a book of matches. "Small miracles." Knick thanked that little bit of luck that he wouldn't be completely without light and tossed them into his bag. "Away we go." Knick hopped over the puddle with another painful landing and walked back upstairs, stopping to consider if he should take the other candle he left behind the broken counter. He eventually decided against it, wanting to be sure he had a light source when he made it back to the house. "Brave thinking for a skinny pony with no weapon." It didn't matter much to him though, he felt like he could fight if he had to now. As he pushed the door to the bathroom open Knick saw the hole in the wall had not only opened up enough to easily crawl through but it also gained its own weird symbols around the edges. He supposed if it grew by that much it must be ready to connect to whatever was important on the other side. "I hope this is the one that leads to you." He had no proof but Knick felt like there had to be some antagonist that was doing this to him. Everything was too thought out with the puzzles and items and clues. They must not have considered him making it this far with all their minions in place. No worry though, Knick Knack will find you. Knick Knack is coming and he's not the same pony you once knew.