Freeze Frame's Dream
IC date: Autumn 54
OOC date: November 12
Location: Dreamland
PCs: Freeze-Frame Dream-Daze
NPCs: N/A
GM: Applejack

It's a fabulously sunny day, at a pleasant little clearing just north of town, just shy of the edge of the Wintersong forest. Not a cloud in the sky, a single cool breeze wafting across the grassy clearing. Several of Freeze-Frame's friends have gathered together for a group photo opportunity! There's Makuru, and Hoarfrost, and Sadaka, and Hawthorn… All gathered up together, arranging in a proper group-foal pose. Across from them is Freeze-Frame and her camera! Setting up for the perfect shot. The lighting just couldn't get any better for this. The setting is a perfect autumn picture, with vivid fall colors, oranges and browns, framing the mixture of adorableness jostling for position.

Ah memories~

Freeze-Frame smiles quite warmly as she gets everything framed -JUST right, tapping her hoof agianst the button. "Like, Say Seeweeed!" She quickly gallops on over to the group to get in the shot."

"Seaweed!" chimes all the other foals!

*click!*

The picture, once taken, slides out the bottom of the camera, greyed out as it waits to be developed. All of the foals still seem to be posing! Maybe they missed the click?

Freeze-Frame blinks a bit as she takes out the phot, starting to quickly nod her head up and dnown… it develops quicker if you flick it around!

The photo wobbles, making comical wibble-sound effects. But… Something seems off! All of the foals are now staring at her. Unblinking. Smiles frozen on their faces. Forms, frozen in that picture-perfect pose. Above and behind them, several falling leaves seem…stuck in mid-air. Even the breeze seems to have stopped…

The picture is developing quite quickly, an image fading in. In this image though, all of the foals aren't smiling. They're looking rather horrified. Shocked! Stumbling over one another, to escape a big, cloudy blob that lurks right behind them! In the picture, all the tones are completely off. Everything is darker, as though the picture had been taken more towards dusk, with reds and purples replacing the cheery autumn colors.

The little photographer pony isn't even in the shot. She was right there, wasn't she? In the way of the camera? But there's no Freeze Frame in the picture. Smiling or otherwise.

Freeze-Frame looks at the photo bewildered and then up to her friends, her ears flattening. "hehehe… Okay, Maku, this a really weird potion you must've had me drink… uh… very funny?" her wings twitch a bit as she steps back a bit from her frozen friends.

But they don't move. Or blink. Or even seem to be breathing. There's not even a bird chirping! They're like statues.

Meanwhile the picture seems to be…changing? Every time Freeze glances at it, the scene shifts. The foals noticed the odd cloudy thing behind them. They're horrified! They start to scatter, to run! But the darkness has already grabbed one up! Sadaka, with limbs flailing as she just disappears into the cloudy mass!

It's not animated by any means. But somehow the picture keeps changing… And it's not very pleasant each time.

Freeze-Frame throws the photo down and starts to stamp her hooves, trying to crush or rip it, her wings splayed. "S-stopit! this isn't funny, Maku! you know how jumpy I get…!"

The photo smudges! It stamps! But it doesn't tear. It doesn't rip. It crumples, but every time it gets stomped, or mooshed, or otherwise messed up, it seems to correct itself, inflating to its proper size and shape. The glossy sheen of the picture surface seems to just polish itself.

And now the dark mass in the picture's engulfed half of the foal group! Makuru, Sadaka, Hawthorn, they've all disappeared! The only one left is Hoarfrost, pushing her face up against the picture with this absolutely pleading, terrified look, as darkness creeps in all around her…!

Freeze-Frame looks up and down, panic setting in. "NO! DON'T HURT FROSTY, TAKE ME INSTEAD! Noooooo~!" She keeps her eyes on the picture to keep it from advancing any, her body shivering.

That seems to work! The picture stays static as long as it's being looked at, Hoarfrost's expression painfully terrified, face pressed into the picture like she wanted to just leap out of it!

*click!*

The camera's taken another picture. Another undeveloped grey square slides out of the bottom, hanging in the nonexistant breeze…

Freeze-Frame 's hairs on the back of her neck stand out. she keeps her eyes on that picture while blindly reaching for the other one to quickly grab it and put it in her field of view as well. "This isn't funny! let my friends go…!"

As this picture fades into view, it shows a similar setup to the first. The same red, purple shades mimicing and mocking the autumn colors that had been so cheery. This one does not show Freeze's friends. This one shows Freeze herself, staring down at two pictures… While a great shadowy mass, with long black arms and pointy claws looms behind her, staring evil red eyes down at the photographer filly!

Freeze-Frame swings aorund, while keeing the photos in either forehoof in front of her, frowning. "P-please don't hurt my friends…! please!"

So much to keep track of! There's…nothing. Nothing behind Freeze. Nothing but the camera. The camera, which is inexplicably pointed directly at her, the little filly's reflection in its camera lens. A little red light blinks in the upper corner.

The flash is on?

*click* *FLASH!*

Freeze-Frame blinks and quickly whines, stumbling foreward and knocking over the camera. she foregoes trying to keep staring at the photos, dropping them before spreading her wings and trying to fly away. her chest heaves and she heads for the harbor, trying not to cry. "Th-this isn't funny… this isn't funny…!"

There doesn't appear to be anything stopping flight! Calm winds may make it hard to gain altitude quickly, but it's not impossible. The frozen, smiling faces of Freeze's friends, and that camera, are left far, far behind in the blink of an eye! The pictures flutter to the ground… The one that used to have her friends in it is now nothing but darkness. The other one shows a frozen moment in time of Freeze-Frame flying away, and the darkness floating up into the sky to give chase.

Freeze-Frame shivers a bit as she lazily glides but… she winces and turns around, flying back to her friends and the camera. she can't just leave them there! she lands and worriedly trots up to the frozen ponies, giving Hoarfrost and Hawthron a gentle hug. "I-I won't leave you. I won't be scared, you're like… my friends, and… and I can't let myself be scared…!"

All those frozen ponies… Cold as statues. Marble pony statues. The whole clearing seems to be getting colder. As though something were sucking all the sunlight and warmth out of this little clearing. The grass begins to turn brown from around the tripod the camera rests upon. There is a definite presence, an aura of danger, that permeates the air here now.

*click!*

The first two pictures have completely blacked out, but a third one spits out of the camera of its own accord… The glossy grey surface glints in the dimming sunlight.

Freeze-Frame frowns and starts to panic, trying to push her statued friends but not really making any progress. she takes the third one and panic sets in again… her wings splay as she thinks about going back to town and hiding but… but her friends…! she keeps her eyes on this third picture, trying to figure out what to do.

The air chills as this picture comes into focus. It shows the foals. Statues as they are. In the picture, they really do look like little stone representations of themselves. And there's Freeze at the end, trying with all her might to move a mountain! The panic is evident… Just behind her, that creepy shadow, still stalking the poor pony, its tail leading off the picture, back towards the camera.

On the other side of the foal pile, a new face has appeared. She isn't part of the stone group. She doesn't look like stone! It's a little blue unicorn filly, caught mid-run, behind the foals, a mask of determination on her face.

*crack* *creak*

Those weren't clicks! But they came from the camera. It's…moving. The tripod it's settled upon has metamorphed, shedding the outside coating of 'metal' in favor for a trio of spiderish legs, the camera itself gaining a dark red tint all around it. It takes a first step, towards the frozen foals and their would-be savior, its lens directed towards Freeze and her efforts to be helpful, somehow.

Freeze-Frame lets out a SHRIEK of terror as she tries to go back to pushing her friends again, tears starting to run down her face. "No! NONONO! c'mon! Hawthorn, Sadaka! ya gotta move or like… c'mon guys!

But they can't… They stare glassily at the advancing camera. Smiling from that first moment. Like they were glued to the ground. The camera advances, step by step, and everywhere it steps it seems to just suck the life out of the ground, brown circles radiating out where green grass once sprouted.

Within the picture, the cloudy /thing/ has all but surrounded poor Freeze… Looking like it's about to strike! But the other unicorn filly is there, too, with— A sign?

Wings! Use wings! the sign says!

Freeze-Frame doesn't need to be told a second time. she holds onto this photo's bottom in her teeth and takes to the sky, away from the evil spider camera creature. maybe it'll chase her instead of her statuized friends…?

As Freeze takes off, the sensation of something chilly crosses over her back. Where she once stood, deep furrows suddenly appear, as though something sharp had just been dragged against the ground, turning up dirt and stone! A close call for sure!

On the picture… It seems focused on the photographer pony. Centered on her fleeing, flying form. Hanging from her back legs, is the unicorn filly, looking back at the ground with a mixed relief and worried expression. Phew!

She still has a sign though, clutched in one arm, its first message fading away, being replaced with something else.

Just a dream!

Freeze-Frame keeps flapping her wings good and hard, not wanting to be anywhere near that. she takes the time to look at the photo, humming a bit. "how do I wake uph…?" she asks the photo through grit teeth, still soaring far away from the other ponies.

Freeze-Frame keeps flapping her wings good and hard, not wanting to be anywhere near that. she takes the time to look at the photo, humming a bit. "how do I wake uph…?" she asks the photo through grit teeth, still soaring far away from the other ponies.

The filly in the picture is caught shrugging, dropping one sign, producing another. In the corner of the picture, a shadowy bit of fuzz appears!

Something shocking! this new sign reads. And then:

It's coming!

Freeze-Frame turns her head behind herseself to see if it's manifested itself behind her, but then she lookss down to the picture. "what's coming? what's tryin' to get me?!?"

So many signs! The filly has her eyes turned to the corner of the photo where the shadow keeps creeping. It looks, this time, like the photo itself is burning? The glossy surface, singed, blackened… And growing.

The nightmare! the new sign says. It flips around. Wake up Freezie! Please!

Freeze-Frame lets the to go and bites her lip, trying to shock herself awake.

That must have been quite the bite! In the picture, the unicorn filly glances back, the picture's corners wilting, melting, and then…

Everything goes black. In that moment before the poor fearfully flying filly wakes, the sound of a monsterous scream, but faint as though from miles away, echoes in that space between dreams and reality…

Freeze-Frame bolts up and rubs a forehoof over her mouth, realizing she's bleeding. she quickly scampers off to the bathroom to run her lip under the water, shuddering.