Silver Spoon was hopelessly lost. She had wandered away from her family to relieve herself…without telling them where she was going. Once she had gotten back to where they had been they were gone. Presumably to look for her, so she wandered off to find them too. That was four hours ago and she had no idea where she was, or how long until she would see any-pony she loved again. Plopping her plot to the ground she bowed her head and started to cry. This wasn’t her: she walked away from safety without thinking for the first and last time in her life, she would certainly learn from this experience.
Most ponies around town agreed that Silver Spoon was odd. Mrs. Cherilee worried about her more than any other student she had in her career; her grades were solid A’s, bright otherwise, her home life was comfortable, but there was something different about her before she started hanging out with Diamond Tiara. Certainly she was smart, but she made decisions seemingly at random, like she had no moral compass. On time she dressed up as the Grim Reaper and walked through the Long Term Care Ward at the hospital. In another more neutral incident she and Pinkie Pie replaced the rope to the school bell with a chain and the hammer within the bell with a tennis racket. Cherilee asked Pinkie about that later and Pinkie had no explanation at all. She couldn’t say it was to be funny or ironic, Pinkie had no idea why Silver Spoon suggested it.
The essay’s she wrote were about books with strong moral messages (her description about how Brutus, though violent was better for the world than Cassius because Brutus fought a civil war and murdered to preserve and rebuild the Republic, whereas Cassius murdered to claim the throne himself) suggested otherwise, which troubled Cherilee about what Silver Spoon would do when she grew up. She was infinitely curious, and sponged up every book she got her hooves on; often she could be found at the Library talking with Twilight Sparkle about anything.
Befriending Diamond Tiara had worried Cherilee, and Silver Spoon had quickly turned into a bully, picking on Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell and Applebloom for their blank flanks. (“What if I became a bully and picked on them with diamond Tiara?”) But her own Cutie Mark was a mystery. Her parents were not particularly wealthy nor did they spoil her, so her Cutie Mark made little sense to any-pony. What no-pony, not even herself, was she had the silver spoon of knowledge and learning.
What else no-pony noticed was how often she asked “What if?” “What if?” was the root of every decision she made in her life from morning until night. (“What if I eat chocolate ice cream tonight and don’t brush my teeth?”) An awful taste in her mouth in the morning gave her an answer, and a question to ask Dr. Colgate on her next visit. (“What if I don’t eat food and drink just water all day?”) Her parents made her sit at the table literally all day until she finally feel asleep and woke up to day old haycon and soysage which she devoured then asked for multiple servings at all three meals the next day. (“What if I give my favorite winter clothes to Scootaloo on Winter Incoming Day? What if she doesn’t know it’s me? What if I taught her to sew and fix her own clothes?”) Her parents worried about her just like Mrs. Cherilee, only they had seen her do things like this all her life and tried to accept it as Silver Spoon being herself.
She was happy the day she and Diamond Tiara walked back into a mud puddle when Babs Seed threatened to tell their mothers about picking on her and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders. She was covered in mud and she would be grounded for bullying again; finally, consequences for her actions. It was all she ever wanted to know; “what would happen if…” She also befriended Zecora months before Twilight Sparkle and her friends did. She learned a lot about medicine and got the chance to practice what she knew whenever she got herself hurt.
Silver Spoon never told any-one her secret question, and so ponies gossiped about her the worst whenever she did something unsettling. Maybe she was mentally disturbed, or a savant?
All this ran through her head when she felt the first tear run down her muzzle. Standing up and shaking her head she remembered that she wouldn’t just lay down and weep like some ordinary filly just yet. (“What if I find a high point and look for a way to town? What if I pick a direction and walk until I find a way to town? What if I sit down and wait for some-pony to find me?”) The last idea was exactly what her parents told her to do if they got separated. (“What if I had done what they told me to when I realized what was wrong?”) Silver Spoon stood up and walked forward, as good a direction as any, determined to find food and water.
***
The sun was dropping, it would still be light for a few hours but Silver Spoon was getting tired. She found a spring earlier and drank, but after following it fell down into a cavern and she set off in another direction. She was still lost, and had developed a funny feeling lately, accompanied by a shiver down her spine. It kept having her looking over her shoulders. Sitting on her haunches she lay her head down. Her eyes felt droopy (What if I fell asleep now?”)…
Snapping her head up with a gasp she realized she fell asleep and Celestia’s flame was starting to set. Stretching and taking a look around she got that odd shiver again and was worried for her own safety. “Is some-pony’s following me?” The first words she spoke since she lost her family. And she looked around again, scared out of her mind. She read enough to know the dangers of being a filly alone, followed by a stranger. A few books Twilight might not have let her read if she knew the full contents, or maybe she did want Silver to read and learn about this situation. Gasping for breath she calmed down, stood up and kept walking, pacing herself in case she needed to run. Mrs. Cherilee has followed her through the market one day when she got this feeling (after stealing an apple from some-pony who previously stole it from Big Mac’s stand and returning it to him without tipping him off) and it was very distinct. She had also tried following ponies through town to see how long she could go without them turning to search for her, it turns out stalking is a serious violation of a ponies privacy.
The sun was to her left meaning she was heading south, and remembering from dad’s map there was a river south somewhere. Maybe if she got there she could walk downstream, and find some-pony to help her. Silver Spoon picked up her pace. Who-ever was following her stayed on her tail half an hour later when she turned to look around again, but she saw nothing. Then a horrendous thought occurred to her; what if the legend was true? She stopped dead in her tracts: her breathing stopped and she felt a warm trickle run down her leg. Finally inhaling again she tried to sputter out a scream and dropped to the ground crying again.
Silver Spoon read about a Germane legend of a very tall stallion that stalked travelers late at night. He always caught his prey, and every-pony who saw him was “taken.” That was the only word she could find. It didn’t specify if he ate their bodies, souls, both, or anything. Nor were any bodies mentioned. It made her wonder if any pony who saw him was taken then how did they know he was tall? Where did these rumors come from anyway? It was rubbish to her. But then she on a field trip with her class and Scootaloo told her Headless Horse story, and that reminded Roseluck of the Faceless Horse. The Faceless Horse sounded a little too much like the tall stallion to Silver, then hearing his name freaked her out for some reason. Slenerpony had no face and when he caught his prey he let out this unearthly roar, no-pony could describe but it could chill you to the bone. He was the embodiment of fear itself.
And now, Slenderpony might be following her. Keeping her eyes shut she shook and talked her way through this. “Why? Why me Celestia? Help me Celestia and Luna! He’s coming up behind me and I don’t wanna die! What do I do? What if he gets me? What if…” This stopped her crying. Throwing her head violently side to side she gathered her resolve. This wasn’t her! She was the filly of what if, who never did the right thing simply because it was good. “What if” made her who she was, and she would stay this way even now. Even in the face of the Faceless.
Her determination strong as ever, Silver Spoon then went to work talking to herself again but with a drying face. “What if I see him? He’ll take me. But what if I DON’T see him? How would I do that?” Keeping her eyes shut she took the glasses off her face, folded them and went to put them in her saddle bag. “Why though? I’m supposed to go to the eye doctor next week.” She lay them face up on the ground abandoning them. She would get a new pair next week, or be dead by the time it mattered. Reaching into her saddle bag she removed her body towel and wrapped it around her head making a blindfold, she did not trust herself to keep her eyes shut. “Okay, I can’t see him. Should I walk away? But what if I don’t run? What are my alternatives? Sitting here? Actually try to find him? And he’s following me…”
A plan formulated, and as a smile crept onto her face Silver Spoon reached her left hind hoof back, followed by her right and kept walking. It was slow work; she was on rough unfamiliar terrain and half stumbling backwards. But it felt good in a way, almost peaceful. When she did something odd it was usually to learn, now she was doing it for survival, and telling about it would be the best way to prove it worked. Would any-pony believe her? Probably not, but it would make a great campfire story the next time she saw her parents.
Stepping right into the trunk of a tree Silver Spoon grunted as she felt splinters cut into her skin and called out to Slederpony, “You made me do that!” Talking to him eased her mind, so she kept at it. “Your never gonna forget me Slender! I’m on to you! Even if I die, I will be the one to turned your own rules against you. How are you going to take me now? Huh!?”
Bumping her rump into another tree she turned to the left, remembering she was not trying to escape but actively find him. “You think you’re so hot? The Great and Powerful Slenderpony stalking a little lost filly in the woods. Well I’m not going to be another of your faceless victims! I’m no-“ Her face deadpanned and her legs stopped.
“You bastard! Just how many ponies HAVE you taken? I never heard any names. Or do you keep them secret so no-pony knows, and they can become as faceless as you? Ohh, I see it now. You’re a bully! You have something that makes you different and you want others to suffer a similar fate huh? Well I’m a bully too. I don’t like it, but I’ve learned a bit about how friends are supposed to treat each other. Have you?”
Turning to the left again she suddenly realized how ridiculous she would look if some friendly pony happened to find her. She didn’t care, but she would have some explaining to do. “What are you going to do now? I’m standing up to you the best I know how, what will you do? When did you last see something new? I’m going to make sure you never forget me! When I get out of these woods, I will tell every-pony what I did. You can’t stop me!”
Taking another left turn and continuing to walk backwards she started talking about what Diamond Tiara. “She would have panicked and run right into your hooves. Don’t you have extras that come out of nowhere? How do those work? The story of you freaked her out on that field trip, she was shaking like a leaf, and a few days when I wanted to go explore the Everfree Forest, she eyes dilated like…down to pinpricks I guess.” She didn’t like talking about Diamond Tiara all of a sudden. Tiara didn’t really care about her anyways.
Silver Spoon stopped walking to spin around and called out to her pursuer in all directions. “Come at me bro! I’m right here! I’m tired of waiting and I’m not taking my time, why should you? Where are you!?” A small crack resounded behind her, but it spoke louder than any sound she ever remembered. She was familiar with that sound: she heard it when she sat on the floor and her dad had to pick glass splinters out from her plot and flank when she was 6, that was so humiliating for her. She knew it from when she had been jumping around her living room and landed on her most important accessory, some-pony stepped on her glasses. But she had stayed still, and there was no wild life still around after she had been calling out, and any-pony looking for her would have said something before this so that left her with one terrifying conclusion: Slenderpony was real and standing right behind her.
Stubborn to a fault, Silver Spoon turned around slowly and reached out with her hooves to feel a pair of thin, tall beams supporting a soft mass. Her blindfold held well, and had been her best idea so far-she would have turned around and looked upon her doom without hesitation. Perhaps the darkness gave her time to think? Her breathing went shallow and she tilted her head up anyways. She still heard nothing but continued to shout at him.
“Here you are! In all your glory! What now!? I haven’t seen you, are you going to take me too? C’mon. C’mon! What are you waiting for? Do it!”
A feeling of dread finally overcame her as she felt what could have been vines wrap themselves around her torso holding her standing in place, but they were unnecessary. She hadn’t run before, and she certainly would not do so now if she had the choice. She also felt a presence closing in on her face, his face, his no-face. “…I dare you.” She growled in absolute defiance.
It started off inside the front of her head; a high pitched whine. It quickly grew more… intense? Neither the volume nor pitch changed, but it “felt” more like an emotion was awakened in her mind. And what her ears heard a split second later seemed to reflect that, but her mind picked it up first. She could describe it best (if at all) as a mechanical screech that filled her very soul with terror, but that would not be entirely accurate. Certainly it was scary. There was more to this screech than fear, courage was it? She felt her knees and hind legs lock up in resolve and her spine straightened out, and somehow through the fear she still breathed. As she exhaled a scowl appeared on her face, and her next look was more relaxed then she had taken since before she figured out who her pursuer was. A ray of hope joined her darker emotions saturated with bravery.
This all occurred to her in that weird warped time when things happened too quickly and too slowly. Everything instantly flooded her perception but she could have counted the seconds between each revelation. At long last, and all too soon the sound died down as she felt the cords that bound her loosen. Breathing quickly and deeply as if she had run a marathon, she dropped to her haunches in exhaustion keeping her head tilted up to where a head but no face was sure to be looking down on her. The fear that filled her heart moments ago had gone, to the same place the courage that accompanied it fled. All she felt now was…drained? No. There was still hope in her…somewhere. Whatever was about to happen, Silver Spoon would face it bravely as she always had. Sitting and “looking” through her blindfold she waited for Slederpony to take her and do, whatever he did. And she waited. And waited.