//------------------------------//
// Missing Button 
// Story: Missing Button 
// by BIGMACISBESTPONY 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 1: Missing Button

"Cause I'm sick of secrets. At true twilight. I can't stand it. So this is Goooodbyyyyyeeee!" 

"Dude we're still terrible." Gibson said to Wave. 

"My strings are all in tune this time mate." The blue unicorn said. 

"Acoustics sound okay here in this corner." Crash said with a shrug. He had changed places to drum 

"I'd say its you bro." Wave said to Gibson.

"Yeah your timing and singing is out of tune." Crash agreed. 

"Shut. Up." Gibson said pointing to each colt. "Let's just play something else. What's on the set list? 

"Dumpweed." Wave read off their list. 

"No." Gibson said. 

"Great Flying Ace Snoopy." Wave read. 

"God no." 

"I kissed my big brother playing seven minutes in heaven at a party last night." 

Both stared at crash. 

"What? I'm just trying to lighten the mood. Seriously mate you need to relax." 

"Agreed. You need to get Button off your mind." Wave said. 

"Shut up. Both of you. Get out!" Gibson said angrily and he stormed upstairs. 

Button Mash was gone. Foalnapped last week. It had all started when He had not been sleeping well. He said a monster stood in the corner of his room and watched him all night. Always the same darkest corner of his room. Naturally, their parents just shrugged this off as childish nightmares and started giving him warm milk before bedtime, even with his history of bed wetting. 

Then something happened that disturbed even Gibson. Button began crawling into his bed in the middle of the night. He hadn't done that since he was a much smaller foal. 

"The monster is in my room again he won't leave me alone." Button had pleaded. 	

Gibson had indulged his little brother. Until it became an almost nightly occurence. Then at school Miss Cherilee for Nightmare Night gave the class an assignment on their darkest fears. The idea being to force the foals to confront them. But Button took things too far. 

"This is the monster in my room." Button said to the now terrified class. Even Cheerilee was disturbed by the image. It was a tall bipedal figure wearing a black suit and tie. It had a white featureless face and long arms. "Its been keeping me from sleeping the past few weeks." 

That disturbed Cheerilee too. Most of the time when she assigned this drawing she encountered typical foalhood fears. The dentist, Boogeymare, and dragons where classics. But this particular drawing made her uneasy. 

"He always watches." Button went on. "No eyes. But I can tell he's watching me. He leaves me alone when I go to my big brother's room. I can't see him during daytime. But at night, in the darkest corner of my room. I can tell he's there. Watching me, waiting." 

That disturbed Cheerilee too. Foals can tell when something's wrong. Sometimes moreso than grown ponies. She had called a Parent-Teacher conference about this Monster. 

"Button that's enough!" Their mom had almost shouted. 

"Slenderman is REAL!" Button shouted. 

That had taken all by surprise. Button had never named the monster before. 

"He lurks in the background of old photos. No one can see him unless he's targeted them!" Button insisted. 

Targeted? Gibson asked himself. Gibson himself had escorted Button back to his room close to dawn so they wouldn't get in trouble. He himself had pointed to the empty corner where Button said Slenderman lived. 

"See Button? No monsters." Gibson had said. But he had seen the terror on Button's face as he looked at that corner. 

"A-all right." Button had muttered before crawling into his bed.

A few days later, Button vanished. Search parties where made, raids where conducted on local criminal hangouts (Even Ponyville has its darksides) but Button Mash was no where to be found. 

Gibson stomped up to his room. He paused as he heard his mom Elaina Mash sobbing. 

"There there honey, we'll find him." 

"Its been a week 8-Bit!" Elaina sobbed. "What if he's dead?!" 

"Hey! No talking like that! Besides, Princess Twilight's involved now! If she can't find him with those friends of hers nothing can." 
Elaina sobbed harder. 

"Oops." 

Gibson sighed as he passed Button's room. It was untouched. Just as messy as ever. His mom hadn't had the heart to put Button's things away neatly. Suddenly. He got curious. 

"You all right mate?" 

"DUDE!" Gibson jumped against the wall as he saw Wave and Crash. "You guys almost gave me a heart attack! And I thought I told you to leave!" 

"Your our best mate bro. We couldn't let you get all depressed and like." Crash snorted as if Gibson had said something stupid. 

"So this is Button's room?" Wave asked as he opened the door. 

"DON'T!" Gibson said creeped out. It was one thing trying to find blackmail material to get a few chores taken off his hand (Once he caught Button playing Grand Theft Chariot 6, a game series their mom expressly forbade from their house) coming in when he was missing, and it was all dark and creepy outside, was scary to Gibson. 

"Just turn on the light." Crash said as he flicked on the light switch. 

Video game consoles and various game boxes where strewn about the floor. The TV played static. Button's drawings and blueprints of various devices he created where on his desk. 

"Okay this was creepy." Wave said as he turned off the TV. 

"Button designed all these?" Crash said impressed. Going through blueprints. Some various fantasy weapons. Others where household objects that could help through everyday tasks. A detachable vacuum was among them. 

"Yeah. Mom and Dad think his Cutie Mark is going to be related to Engineering."   

"I woulda thought it'd be related to video games. Little dude can't get enough of 'em." Crash said. "WOAH." Underneath the blueprints was Button's drawing of Slenderman. "What, is this?" He pulled it up. 

"That's Button's monster I told you about." Gibson told the two colts as Crash showed it to Wave. 

"Damn. If I saw this everynight I'd be scared too." 

"Dude, there's more." 

"What?" Gibson asked. He and his parents had only seen the initial drawing Button made for Cheerilee's assignment. 

"Always Watches. No Eyes." Wave read off one. It was just those words. 

"Here's another." This drawing was of Slenderman and some forest trees. Apparently showing how tall it was. 

"Bro it looks like Button was obsessed with this thing." Wave said weirded out. "Hey, I found a diary." Wave had opened a draw and pulled out a black book with a joyboy drawn on it. 

Gibson opened it and they sat on Button's unmade bed. "July 20th." Holy crap this was month's ago." Gibson said. "I can see him more clearly now. He's everywhere I go. Always just out of sight." 

"How long has he been seeing this thing?" Crash asked with a raised eye. 

"Longer than he let on apparently." Gibson said. Now secretly terrified to read further. "He's in my room now. Every night. Watching me with that blank face. I know he's watching. Always watching me." 

"Bro this is some seriously creepy shite." Wave told Gibson.  

"Uh, Gibs, when was this picture on Button's desk taken?" 

"About when he was four. Why?" Gibson asked. Afraid for the answer. 

"Check this out." Crash showed the two the photo. 

Gibsons blood ran cold.

He lurks in the background of old pictures.


It was there. The monster of Button's imagination. Watching from the bushes as Gibson pushed his baby brother on the swings. Watching...waiting...

To be continued...