//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Dark Rumours 
// Story: Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind 
// by theintrovertowl 
//------------------------------//

The girls found the principal’s office in no time; luckily, there was a sign, because the door looked like it was camouflaged within the entire high school, almost the same as a secret chamber, where nobody is allowed to walk into.
“So, who’s going to knock?” Pinkie asked, feeling slightly uneasy.
Twilight sighed. “I will do it…it’s my duty to finish this task after all,” she continued in a dramatic tone.
“The door won’t bite, you know?” Rainbow Dash added, amused by her friend’s unreasonable anxiety.
Twilight glared at her teasing remark, then turned back to the door. She knocked slowly, almost silently. When she was starting to think no one was there, a voice called from inside:
“Come in!”
The youngster startled a little, then took a deep breath and opened the door with her small, trembling hands.
“Good morning, Sir. We’re the new students that transferred here recently, and we have some questions to ask, if it’s alright…” Twilight said nervously, almost staring at the man in front of her.

Xavier Barnes, the principal of ‘Waukesha South High School’, was different from most humans; his skin tone was significantly darker, and he had distinct features unlike the others: thick lips, a wide nose bridge and baldness. Still, his expression showed a hint of kindness and good intentions towards all of the students, even the new ones.
“Yes, of course! You can call your friends in as well!” the principal answered with a calm tone.
The teenager called the others to come inside the office . One by one, they filled the room in no time.
“Please, take some seats,” the principal kindly invited them.
Almost everyone found a few chairs to sit down, except Rainbow Dash and Applejack, but they didn’t seem to mind.
“Alright, girls, so what are the questions that you need to address me? Do you wish to request a tour of the school, or your timetables, 		perhaps?”
“Yes, we need those too, but we also…want to see our transfer files…if you have them, of course…” Twilight  pointed out.
“I just received them this morning. I didn’t actually get the chance to have a look at them and approve them…but considering that you’re all here at this moment, we’ll discuss them together, shall we?”
“Of course!” Twilight approved.

“Alright, then; let’s see yours first…” he said while taking a folder from the drawer and opened it to find a multitude of papers that described their new human identities. Twilight peeked on the documents, fully astonished and confused at the same time; how was it possible that they managed to disguise themselves  without any effort? Did Princess Celestia take care of all the details, or is it a phenomenon that usually happens during interdimensional travels? Either way, she was relieved that the humans didn’t sense anything out of the ordinary.
Meanwhile, the principal started reading the papers aloud:
“Name is Tara Sparkle, born on 15th September 1997; says here that you were a straight-A student at your former school; congratulations on your performance, and I hope you will achieve the same results in our school!”
“Thank you, Sir” Twilight replied with a soft smile. “I’ll try my best not to disappoint anyone here.”
“Very well, then…and please call me Mr. Barnes.”
The young girl nodded. Principal Barnes took another folder and looked at Rarity.
“As for you, miss, your name is Rachel Damon, right? Born on 5th October 1996; you seem to have a passion for fashion design, and we’ll surely need students with such abilities; maybe you could come up with a new design for the cheerleader’s costume, who knows?”
“Oh, certainly!” Rarity nodded.
The principal kept looking through the files, then nodded at Fluttershy.
“Florence Woodheart, born on 17th March 1996; selfless and willing to help others, particularly the animals. We have some volunteering activities here, if you’re interested.”
“Oh, thank you! I’d be glad to help,” Fluttershy replied with a soft voice, but feeling very excited on the inside.
 “Alright; the next one is Rebecca Dash, born on 1st April 1997. It seems like you have an aptitude for sports in general; we’d gladly invite you to join one of our teams: basketball, voleyball, track, anything that you wish to do.” 
“Wow, sounds great!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, truly eager to try all of the sports in the near future.
“And here we have the last two: Penelope Diane Pie, born on 29th May 1997, and Anne-Jay Smith, born on 12th December 1995. I see you both made several contributions to the former school, such as organizing events. I’d be happy to see more students like you as a part of the school's development committee.”
“Thank you, Mr. Barnes! We’ll do our best!” Pinkie confirmed with pure joy. “Right…Anne-Jay?”
“Yep, sure thing!” the country girl replied, almost confused by the situation.
“Alright! In this case, I wish you a warm welcome to our high school! Here are your timetables,” the principal said while handing six pieces of paper to each of the youngsters. “Good luck in these years that will follow!”
“Thank you!” Twilight replied, then left the office along with her friends, each of them wishing the principal a good day.




“Look, Twilight! We’re in the same class! You too, Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash announced with excitement while walking through the halls.
“Woo! This is great!” Pinkie squealed behind them.
“Yay, seems like we’re in the same class, Rarity…” Fluttershy continued on the other side of the corridor.
“Wonderful, darling!”
“Aw, I’m alone in another class though…” Applejack pointed out, quite disappointed by the outcome.
“You aren’t alone, Applejack! We’re still in the same school!” Pinkie replied, then hugged her friend to comfort her.
“That’s true, can’t deny it,” Applejack chuckled.
“What’s our first class, Twi?” Rainbow Dash asked while starting another conversation with the friend in front of her.
“Geography…Oh, great! It’s a good way to learn more about Earth”
“And also a boooooring one!” the reckless teenager sighed. “Did I tell you that I haven’t missed school AT ALL?”
“Oh, come on, we don’t have time to whine about this! Let’s go!” Twilight replied while grabbing Rainbow Dash’s arm.
“Wait for me, Twilight! Bye, girls! See you later!” Pinkie Pie called, waving ‘goodbye’ to her other three friends from behind.
The three girls arrived in the middle of the class, panting and apologizing simultaneously for being late. While introducing themselves, Twilight noticed that the class was filled with a disciplined atmosphere, but for the first time, she felt awkward and very uneasy. After they finished the introductions and occupied their seats, the teacher returned to the lesson. Twilight listened attentively while looking at the World Map. She took notes from any word that her new teacher said, feeling more eager to discover Earth from its depths…




When the bell rang and the teacher left, the atmosphere of the class changed drastically, from calm and disciplined to lively and almost chaotic. Pinkie Pie didn’t wait more than five minutes until she befriended nearly half of the class, along with Rainbow Dash, who started having a conversation with one of the jocks. Still, Twilight remained at her desk, studying the new notes that she took from the Geography class. From time to time, she turned her eyes from  the papers to observe the environment; while having a look to the right, she noticed one of her classmates who seemed as lonely and isolated as herself. Unlike the other ones, this girl was of a paler complexion which was in contrast with her short and dark blue hair that had a few faded neon pink and green strikes. Her clothes were also very dark, like she was trying to get out of the colourful routine of ordinary people. The expression, highlighted by the black makeup, showed a slight feeling of disgust towards her classmates, whom she considered ‘ignorant’ and ‘blind’ in front of a potential horrific reality.
Twilight wanted to talk to her and introduce herself, but she hesitated due to the apparently aggressive nature of the strange girl. Surprisingly, it was her classmate who started the conversation:
“You must be new here…but looks like your pals went ahead of you with the integration”
“To be honest, I don’t really care about socializing at the moment. There are more important things for me than having pointless conversations,” Twilight explained, visibly annoyed by the attitude of her other two friends.
“I know how you feel, um…Tara? Right? I usually forget new names at the beginning.”
“Yes, it’s Tara.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Emma, or the ‘emo freak’, as the others usually call me”
“I don’t think you’re a freak…You’re just different from the majority, from what it seems”
“Wow, that’s the first nice thing about me I’ve heard this week…” Emma answered with a faint smile.
“Glad to help, Emma,” Twilight nodded.
“Why did you choose Waukesha out of the other cities from US? Cities that are significantly better…”
“I’m not sure exactly, it seemed the only choice that I had…”
“A bad choice, more like.”
Twilight was puzzled by Emma’s last remark. She paused for a few seconds, then leaned closer to her classmate’s desk.
“What do you mean by ‘a bad choice’?”
“Girl, you have no idea how cursed this place is…Miles away from Waukesha, there is a huge forest, and in this forest lives a grotesque being. It is creepy as Hell, if you ask me: tall as fuck, very pale, faceless, and wears a black suit. Rumour has it that this creature hunts to death the ones who trespass its domain; it also has a thing for children, especially the very curious ones. Once they enter the forest, they’re kinda forced to collect eight pages from different spots; nobody knows precisely who scribbled those pages though. It might have been an unlucky victim, or the being itself. As for the page hunt, if you lose the ‘game’, you’re gonna have a terrible  fate, I tell you…even I fell for this shit, and I have no idea how I escaped from that Hell. I swear I saw it RIGHT in front of me, and even though it didn’t have a face, I could sense an expression that almost pierced my damned soul, and then…”
“Hey, emo freak! Are you for real?”
Emma’s storytelling was interrupted by a girl’s call; suddenly, there was an exchange of fiery glares between each other. Right after the 	mocking question was asked, all the other classmates, including Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, turned their heads to Emma, who felt like bursting with hatred and anger towards the one who interrupted her.
“Um, excuse me? What’s your damn problem if I talk to her?”
“None, freak! It’s just that you scare her with your bullshit about the Slenderman, or whatever! He’s not real, for crying out loud!”
“He’s as real as possible, bitch!” Emma yelled, counterattacking viciously the remarks of her classmate.
“Oh yeah? Prove it, then! If you claimed that you saw it, why don’t you have photos?”
“Because I was too busy showing him this!” the emo girl replied while showing the middle finger to her classmate. “FUCK OFF!” she yelled while storming out of her desk, getting out of the class and slamming the door behind her.
The others suddenly came back to their usual routines, with the addition of gossip about Emma. Both puzzled by the whole argument, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie went to Twilight’s desk.
“What in the name of Celestia just happened there, Twilight? And who is this ‘Slenderman’ they kept talking about?” Rainbow Dash whispered, deeply curious about the situation.
“Can we discuss about it after school, please? You know why…” Twilight replied while subtly pointing her head at the other students, who seemed very offended by Emma’s unusual beliefs.
“Alright, then,” Rainbow Dash nodded, going with Pinkie back to their seats. The bell rang again, and  it was time for another class, but without Emma.




*after school, at Twilight’s studio* (dialogue only)

(Twilight prepared some tea for her friends, because a very long discussion was about to start soon.)
TWILIGHT: So, how was your first day? Fluttershy, Rarity,  Applejack? 
RARITY: Oh, it was really delightful, darling! We’re actually going to stay in the dorms while we study here. Fluttershy and me in a room, and Rainbow with Applejack and Pinkie in another one.
RAINBOW DASH: Wow, really? Didn’t have the chance to check that out today. Well, at least I have my own bed from now on.
FLUTTERSHY: (sees Twilight with a thoughtful expression while taking a sip from her cup of tea) What’s wrong, Twilight? You don’t seem very content.
TWILIGHT: (sighs) Oh, nothing special…just had a discussion with a classmate. She told me a weird story about a local legend …
RD: And a whole scandal happened.
RARITY: Oh my, what happened? Is the girl alright?
TWILIGHT: I don’t really know…Haven’t seen her since she stormed out of the class…
FLUTTERSHY: Goodness!  There was also a boy in our class today who kept rambling about a man in the woods…
TWILIGHT AND RD: ‘A MAN IN THE WOODS?’
APPLEJACK: Can somebody explain to me what’n the hay’s goin’ on?
RD: (screaming) It’s a ghost in the forest that takes people, Applejack, like what’s so hard to understand?
TWILIGHT: Calm down, please. Whether it’s true or not, I think we should explore that area…
RD: Are you nuts, Twilight???
TWILIGHT: Just listen. I’m saying this because Princess Celestia gave us a mission, and she didn’t mention anything else; maybe this is our main task.
RD: You got it all wrong! She just told us to study the humans, not solve their issue with that…thing. Plus, we don’t even have our powers anymore, like our wings and horns, your magic…
TWILIGHT: Maybe, but we don’t know if we don’t try.
RD: I tell you this is a very bad idea!
TWILIGHT: Are you scared? 
RD: Not at all, egghead. It’s just…well…
TWILIGHT: I know it’s hard, I’m a bit scared too…but we have to stay together. This is one of the main points that Celestia advised me on in private before we left.
(There was a pause. Rainbow Dash thought for a few seconds about the consequences, then the lack of loyalty that she showed in front of her friends at that moment. There is no place for fear when it’s about duty, not at all.)
RD: (sighs) Very well, then…I’m coming with you.
FLUTTERSHY: If Rainbow is coming, I’ll come too.
AJ: Me too.
PINKIE: MEEEE TOO!
RARITY: Absolutely!
RD: But if anything bad happens to us, it’s just your fault, Twilight…
TWILIGHT: Don’t worry. Once we see something out of its place, we simply run away.
RAINBOW DASH: (mutters in distrust) Ugh, if only it would be that easy…