Silent Hill: Redemption by Hollow Point
Luna awoke with foggy vision, the heavy gray mist that floated around her obscured the surroundings so that she could barely see 20 feet. She was lying on a cold, hard surface that was un-comfortable to say the least, and its rough stony texture poked through her coat, scratching her skin. There was a whiff of burned coal hanging in the dense air, like the remnants of a good sized campfire. The ground on which she rested had a lightish gray colour, with faded yellow lines running down it's center, separating it into two sides and resembling a road of some sorts. Next she noticed the strange absence of sound, as a deathly silence filled the air with a feeling of isolation. She could feel the tickling of something falling to rest along her body, similar to the feeling of snow landing on her fur during the winter months except without the cold wetness.
Luna shifted from her sides and onto her belly to gain a more comfortable sitting. She raised her head to take a more detailed look around. Dead ahead of her, the 'road' rose into a blind crest that turned left at it's apex. The cracks that ran down it gave a sign of weathered age and a mysterious appearance. To her left, the road ended and a crumbling curb ran all the way down its side, turning into a pathway. And beyond it the ground rose up into the base of a rocky desolate mountain. The road ended with a metal barrier on the right. She could see the dark green tops of pine trees poking just above the edge, meaning that there must be some sort of steep drop off beyond that point.
Luna took a deep breath and collected herself before hauling her tired body to it's hooves. Her head hung lazily for a moment as she waited to pick up some energy as she felt a little exhausted from a previous ordeal. What 'ordeal', she couldn't remember. She felt sluggish like waking up in the late morning after a night of especially little sleep. Racking her brain to think of what events were held prior to her awakening here came up with negative results. She could not remember what happened or how she got to where she was for the life of her, and that bugged her. Maybe if she took a walk around to look at the strange location, it would come back to her.
She turned around 180 degrees to see what lay behind her. A wall of grey met her eyes as the fog blocked her view of whatever resided beyond. Frowning, she took a few unsteady steps forward toward the solid area of colourless space. But she was stopped in her tracks by a sudden and frightening 'end' in the road. The ground simply stopped, like a huge portion of the land was simply taken away and dropped into the abyss below. She peered over the edge with wide eyes and stared down into the seemingly endless pit before her. Confused, her face screwed up on one side and her left eye twitched.
She had never seen anything like it before, in fact now she came to think about it, she couldn't remember much at all. Her name was Luna 'Princess of the night', and she wandered the dreams of her subjects to banish their nightmares and set their paths straight, this she knew. She felt kind of sad that she was un-able to remember anything, and had infinite questions. Stepping back from the mist shrouded cliff, she sighed and turned around again. Luna spread her wings, cracking as they extended to their full size. She folded them again and set her eyes on the crest that formed in the road in-front of her.
She set off walking up the road, trying not to trip on the many cracks that were embedded onto it's surface. While she walked she pondered, how old must this place be? The road was still very solid despite its decrepit condition, so it was more like the road had simply not been tended to for some time, rather than being an ancient construction. While she was thinking, she forgot to continue walking carefully and tripped on a loose piece of the road. Her leg buckled beneath her and she toppled forward, screaming as she went down.
Her yell was cut short when her muzzle hit the ground, and her body slammed against the cold floor. The echo of her outburst resonated through the air and into the sky beyond, further backing the loneliness of the place she was in. She groaned loudly, raising her hooves to her face and rubbing it with her eyes closed. She felt a small trickle of warm blood run down her fore-leg and drip onto the ground. Opening her eyes to examine her wound, she could just about focus her eyes to see a small cut had formed on the side of her snout. She shrugged it off and picked herself up again.
As she regained a steady stance on her hooves, a quiet set of hoof-steps rang out. She froze in place like a rabbit in the lamp-light and pricked her ears up. The sound continued as a continued but rambling pattern, like the pony making them was stumbling about in a drunken manor. She snapped out of her statuesque position and darted over the crest to locate whoever was there.
"Hello?" She cried into the foggy air as she reached the peak of the hill, stopping at the very top. "Hello? Does anypony hear me?" Her words reached into the air and traveled out into the nothingness. The sound of hooves shambling continued to get closer, and Luna turned her attention to their direction. Looking down the other side of the hill, she noticed something moving among the thick light mist. She gasped and started running toward it, each hoof pounding the floor and sending a shockwave up her leg and into her body. As she neared the walking Earth Pony she noticed that it's fur had been mostly molted, leaving several clumps of it's snow white coat to cotter up in messy sections.
In the last few metres, her facial expression turned from hopeful into shock as she saw that the pony's limbs were webbed together near the joints and it had a large hole in it's chest that oozed a black liquid from a fleshy core and its face was contorted in painful directions with mutated flesh twisting across it's skin, covering the eyes in a tumor-like fashion. Luna's hooves stopped running and locked out and causing her to skin to a halt mere feet from the deformed pony. A squelching noise came from it's chest as some of the black ooze spurted out from the hole and onto the floor, and Luna recoiled when it started sizzling on the ground, leaving a small plume of white smoke in it's wake. Luna started pacing backward, changing her mind about ever approaching... whatever it was.
"H-hello?" Her voice faltered as she tried once more to communicate with the stumbling creature, but it's movements only sped up. It made a low growling noise as it shambled toward her, lunging at her with a violent amount of force. Luna leaned away and raised her hooves up in-front of herself to shield her face from her attacker. She screamed in fright for help that she knew would probably never come.
*SPLAT* Luna fell over backwards to avoid the splattering of black liquid sent flying everywhere as a projectile struck the pony in the soft black flesh on its chest. The ground around her burned with a horrid rotting smell and she crawled backwards to evade the smoking sections of the road. Her wings sprouted out from her sides and she gave them a strong flap to raise her off the ground, and she landed shakily on her hooves. Another projectile slammed into the monsters chest and it tumbled over onto the floor, lifeless. That is, if it was ever alive to begin with.
She turned to face her savior and spotted a pony wearing a set of gold body armour and a helmet. It was lying on part of the rocky mountain base not too far behind her. It sported a gold crossbow that rested in it's hooves, and a short spear was sheathed at it's side. It slung the weapon around it's body and holstered it in a holster on it's right shoulder, before it jumped to it's hooves and began moving to her in a steady trot.
Luna took the opportunity to reclaim her crown that had fallen off her head when she was attacked by the monster. She picked it up with her magic and nestled it comfortably on top of her head. Then she turned around and regained her royal posture. As the armoured pony approached her, she recognised it's attire. A few vivid memories came flooding back to her about these ponies in golden armour. She remembered these Guards that stood watch outside of her palace in the day-time and she remembered the Royal Guard at the wedding that was... what happened at the wedding? Who was getting married? Luna face-hoofed at another in-complete memory and let her hoof fall back to the cold ground before sighing contently. The guard approached her and bowed in respect. Luna raised a hoof and tilted her head down and the stallion came back up to stand.
"There is no need for such formalities, you have saved my life and I am in your debt." She stated with a thankful smile. The guard blushed a little and nodded. "What is your name and rank?"
"Corporal.Cross Hair, your majesty." He said with a small amount of pride. It was Luna's turn to nod as she tried to remember the name and rank, but just like every other little thing she could piece together she couldn't remember any details.
"Tell me, why did you come here? I believe I am lost and require help." The stallion looked hopeful for a second, and then he frowned and did a small shrug.
"I am sorry your majesty, I only know my name and that I serve as a Royal Guard." Luna sighed again as neither one of them knew what the hay was going on. She began to ponder if there was an actual reason for them being trapped in this place, as it's origin was that of a mystery to her and the guard. Maybe that was something that she would find out later on.
"Come, Cross Hair. We must find out where we are." With that, the two ponies arced around the carcass of the dead monster and began following the strange road again. The road appeared to be laid on the side of a valley, one side of which served as the base of a mountain. Looking into the valley to find a river or something of use, nutritional value or entertainment proved to be fruitless. So while they walked down the curving road, they took notice of what was falling from the sky. Luna had an idea and the guard confirmed the falling substance to be ash, this was a rather disturbing conclusion. As for that much ash to be raining down on them, something rather large had to be burning away somewhere.
After what felt like hours of pointless walking, Luna spotted the silhouette of a rectangular shape forming in the fog. They carried on until they could spot details. The rectangular shape was a large sign-post. It's green and gold paint was peeling away from the wooden frame, but she could just about see words painted onto it. The sign read:
Welcome to Silent Hill.
