Twilight stumbled along the cold, dark road of horrors. The wind had started to pick up a little and she was in a horribly uncomfortable state. Her legs had stopped bleeding and were covered in slit shaped lines of dry blood, but running from the Slendermane in a fearful, adrenaline pumped state of mind had increased the pain of the stinging three times over.
She could feel an aching pain at the base of her horn, and creating a light to keep the path ahead in her field of vision wasn’t helping her in the slightest, but knowing the Slendermane was following her, she would probably be near paralysed with fear if she had to walk in the dark. The fog seemed to be playing games with her mind, creating shapes and faces and moulding horrors in front of her. She tried to use her magic to push the fog away, but the breeze kept pushing it back towards her, forming faces and pictures that she couldn’t stop envisioning, which were also starting to join the assault on her sanity.
She followed the path into darkness, but nothing happened for a short time. Twilight was on constant alert, looking in every direction, monitoring everything she could see in her field of vision, but almost nothing was different from the long spanning dirt road, and lines of dark, thick trees, threatening to tangle and constrict anypony who tried to escape through them. Kicking up more dust as she shifted through the forest Twilight was starting to wonder if she was going to see any different at all. She looked behind her nervously, but the coast was clear. Tuning her head around she peered nervously through the middle of the trees, hoping that maybe there would be something different there; the constant continuing sight was starting to become a tad more intimidating for her. Something started to glimmer in the distant thickness of leaves though. It was the slightest shine, not even very white in colour, but it had to mean something would be through the trees. She looked forward, and wondered if there was something further ahead out of her field of vision.
She diffused the light emitting from her horn, and against the throbbing in her head, she summoned some power and created a new light glowing with magenta and white energy, and shot a ray of the bright energy soaring down the dirt road. She watched as the whole pathway become illuminated and then darkened again as the light crashed into a small shack, sitting in an open clearing in the trees just up ahead. Upon seeing the structure Twilight lit up with curiosity.
“Why is there a shack this deep in the forest?” Twilight asked herself watching as the distant object faded into the darkness. Twilight lit her horn up with the white light she’d used to illuminate the path before, and looked back into the trees to her right. The glint was still there, and it was much closer to her than the shack. Twilight wondered if she should check it out first before making her way to the shed, but had trouble trying to make up her mind.
Out of nowhere she felt her magical light start to flicker, and heard static noise starting to crackle in her head. It wasn’t as painful as the last time, but the stinging was slowly increasing in intensity. She looked behind her and saw the Slendermane in the distance, as still as a rock. Twilight felt her heart skip a beat upon seeing it and let out a yell. The creature made up her mind for her. She figured if she kept following the path it might catch her, but if she was to run into the trees and hide she may lose it. Without a second thought Twilight leapt through the tree line and started running towards the glint, purposefully decreasing the concentration of her light making it just small enough to see the large thick roots of the big bodied trees in front of her.
She tried to think less about the Slendermane pursuing and more on dodging the trees and puddles of glue like filth in front of her. The thick tree areas seemed to gather a lot of moisture all around the ground, and create sludgy puddles of mud in random areas while leaving other spots just mildly damp. Twilight accidently missed one of the puddles in her path and slipped in it, losing focus on holding the light from her horn, falling over and to her displeasure, slid through more swampy puddles of it before stopping at the base of a tree. She felt like she was going to be sick. She was covered in thick, oozing mud, and the smell wasn’t far off from rotting food. She ran her hooves through her mane and pinched out as much of the muck as possible, while trying to keep or nose blocked to reject the unbearable smell. Twilight shook herself off spraying small clumps of mucky dirty in all directions, and got back on her hooves.
It was moments like this Twilight wished she had Owlowiscious’s nocturnal vision or even Owlowiscious if it meant some company. Upon thinking of Owlowiscious Twilight started thinking about all her friends, realising how much she longed for their company. Having them at her side would keep pushing her on and help her stay strong. She was on the verge of breaking down and just letting her pain and frustration out in tears, starting to regret not taking the time to get them first. Thinking about Fluttershy in particular, she could only hope that she was ok, but she knew deep down Fluttershy would be terrified.
Twilight got up and shook away as much of the excessive dirt as she could, and then tried to keep in mind that her actions to not retrieve them meant that they didn’t have to be here suffering in the unforgiving, dark forest, being hunted by the Slendermane. Twilight once again lit up her horn with a small light and continued walking over to the spot where she saw the glint. She didn’t feel the strength in herself to run, and felt that she’d gotten far enough to have evaded the creature for now. The glint revealed itself again as the light started to approach it, and Twilight located the source a few feet away. A large pair of purple broken glasses was lying next to the base of a tree, and one of the sides of glass was smashed. The glass on the other side appeared to be causing the glint. The frame was very faded in colour and appeared to be slightly cracked and split in several areas.
Twilight levitated the frame up leaving the shattered glass on the ground and looked at the small word scribed on the inside of the frame.
“Twist,” she read to herself before remembering Apple Bloom’s small red maned friend. “Oh no. She must have dropped these while she was trying to escape.” Twilight assumed, before looking at the tree above the glasses. There was a piece of paper tucked under an outstanding chip of bark from the trees body. It was only about as high as Twilight’s face and had a picture on it. Twilight could tell this was one of the notes that the fillies had placed around the forest during their escape attempt, and it was scribbled in very quickly making the words hard to read. Twilight didn’t pay attention to the quality though, understanding that under these light conditions, trying to see the pencils on the paper would have been a challenge in itself for the fillies and colts. She focused on it and identified the scribbled in shape of a large pony, which Twilight assumed was an interpretation of the Slendermane, with the words ‘It’s everywhere at once. Run’. The page was crinkled, wet, and the writing was barely readable. Twilight felt bad that the little ponies bothered to go to so much trouble to warn others, they were obviously rushed and under a lot of stress.
Twilight magically opened her saddlebag and popped the page inside of it, but before closing it. She picked up the glasses looking at them, wondering how Twist managed to lose them in the middle of the trees. She put the glasses in her saddlebag before lighting her horn back up, and getting ready to go back through the trees to find the small shack she saw before. She approached one of the large trees she’d passed earlier, about halfway out of the thick trees, carefully avoiding the puddles of smelly, thick mud, but upon seeing what was around the tree Twilight put her hooves over her mouth a threw herself back behind the trees body, willingly blacking out her spell and shrouding herself in darkness. The Slendermane was standing on the path where she had been and was looking around, presumably for her; she could only hope it hadn’t seen her though. She closed her eyes, letting light tears drip from them while she stood frozen in place, the only movement being her involuntary shaking.
Twilight didn’t dare move, and could hear the light patter of the Slendermane’s hooves behind the tree Twilight gulped as she heard them move closer, breathing extremely heavily while keeping her mouth closed, but before the noise of the creatures hooves got too close, Twilight heard them moving away, and becoming more silent. Twilight’s heart was pounding, and her eyes where trickling tear after tear of pure fear. She carefully and slowly as ever looked around the body of the tree, to see if the Slendermane was still there, but she didn’t dare light up her horn. It was incredibly dark, and hard to see, but Twilight could make out the clear line, to the empty, fog filled dirt path. She breathed a sigh of relief, before lighting up her horn again, and getting ready to move out to the pathway again. She turned around to face forward again and breathe properly, but was greeted with something that made her freeze like a block of ice, made her pupils constrict, and made the air leave her body, all in a synchronised second. The Slendermane was standing right in front of her. She was pinned to the spot, frozen with fear. She wanted to scream but she couldn’t even move her mouth voluntarily, whether she had the air to scream or not. Her head was starting to fill with unbearably painful static noise, allowing her one voluntary moment to clutch it in pain. She fell forwards on the ground, clutching her head, but unable to remove her watering eyes from the Slendermane’s featureless face.
The back of the creature’s suit started to bulge in many areas, and long appendages began to stretch from its back. Twilight finally managed to close her eyes as she cowered in fear and pain, and without warning she felt something strike her side, carrying her through the air. But it kept going. Wind was starting to rustle her mane, but whatever had grabbed her, was still holding on, almost as if it was carrying her somewhere. Twilight opened her eyes, and felt all the hope that had disappeared before return.
“Fluttershy!” Twilight said her face brightening with a smile upon seeing her friends face. Twilight didn’t think she’d end up smiling as long as she was in the forest. Fluttershy had picked her up flying at top speed, flown over to the path around the few trees in her path, smiled back at her, before gently coming to stop on the path further ahead, which had open skies and no trees covering the path, making it light enough for the girls to see each other.
“Fluttershy! I can’t believe it, thank goodness you’re ok!” Twilight said happily grabbing her friend’s shoulders and pulling her into a tight hug. Twilight was still crying and very much shaken up, but seeing Fluttershy again, and in a great state, made her feel much better. Twilight let go studied her friend quickly to make sure she wasn’t hurt.
“Twilight It’s good to see you, but you really shouldn’t have come here. If that... thing caught you. You would have been trapped.” Fluttershy said very concerned for her friend’s wellbeing.
“How did you escape?” Twilight asked, before noticing a long glazy scar along Fluttershy’s right leg. “Fluttershy what they hay happened to your leg?” Twilight asked extremely worried about the condition of the scar. From what Twilight had seen in one of her books, she could tell the scar was infected.
“It’s nothing Twilight. I’ll worry about that later. I mean look at you! You’re in a far worse state than me.” Fluttershy said pointing out Twilight’s scarred legs, which had indeed become much worse.
“I’ll be fine Fluttershy. I’m so glad to see you; I had no idea of what to think might have happened to you, especially when I found out that thing was real.” Twilight said preferring to not talk about the events from earlier.
“It’s great to see you too Twilight, I knew you were going to come looking for me and the others, I was just hoping you were with somepony else. I wasn’t sure you’d make it very far on your own.” Fluttershy said.
“I... I was with Scootaloo... but she disappeared when all this fog appeared.” Twilight said.
“Me and some of the fillies escaped when this fog appeared.” Fluttershy explained. “It’s horrible here Twilight. This part of the forest is absolutely terrible... I could hardly walk forward when I got to the tree line, it was so dark, and terrifying. I felt safer in the middle of the area... I only left because I wanted to find you and lead some of the others who escaped away, if we could find a way out of here that is.” Fluttershy explained.
“Well... Where are the others?” Twilight asked.
“I don’t know. They all vanished one by one as we went through the trees. No screams or anything.” Fluttershy said, tears welling up in her eyes knowing that there could only be one explanation for what took them. “I heard your voice in the distance, and saw you’re light. You said Twist I think. I followed the light as it got brighter, but then it went out... I couldn’t see you or even my own hooves in front of me, and when you lit it back up, I saw you just standing there, about to be caught by that... ugh, that evil creature. I just felt a kick in my body and flew in to grab you away. That creature is horrible Twilight. You really shouldn’t have come looking for me.” Fluttershy said.
“Well you know I wasn’t going to just leave you.” Twilight said.
“Tell me though, when did that happen?” she asked pointing at her upper back leg, at the infected scar. “Did the Slendermane do that?”
“The... what?” Fluttershy asked.
“That’s what it’s called.” Twilight informed her.
“Oh... I see, and uh, no... Well not really... As soon as I got back to my cottage this morning, I started talking to Scootaloo, but the door was bashed down.... It was terrible Twilight. It grabbed me with these... long tentacles coming out of its back! I managed to break free from it though somewhere in the forest, and tried to run to Zecora’s, but I had to fly over all the poison joke in the road first, and once I reached the other side, the... Slendermane was already there, and I panicked. I flew right into a tree and cut my leg while I brushed past it. Apart from the pain of the moment I can’t remember much else. I woke up in a tiled room surrounded by fillies and colts.” Fluttershy explained.
“I’m so sorry all of this has happened to you Fluttershy. It must have been horrible...” Twilight said.
“It was... but I don’t blame you Twilight. You had nothing to do with it. In fact it’s probably my own fault that I got dragged into all this. I offered to watch Scootaloo, even though I had my suspicions. And I don’t regret my decision, I had to help out. And anyway I wouldn’t be much of an element of kindness if I didn’t.” Fluttershy told her. “Come on. That thing is still out there, we should find Scootaloo and try and get the others. We need to get out of the forest.” Fluttershy said.
“Let’s go this way first,” Twilight said pointing at the shack lying in the open field; being in a more open area with some form of light made it much clearer to see.
“Ok Twilight, but let’s hurry. If we have to go back to the middle of the forest, I’d much rather get it done and over with...” Fluttershy said.
Twilight looked back over in the distance. The Slendermane was there, but it wasn’t pursuing the pair. Instead it appeared to be watching them. Twilight shivered and looked away. Fluttershy looked but there was nothing on the path. She didn’t have to see anything to be scared though. The darkness of the forest was scary enough.
“Let’s hurry ok Fluttershy.” Twilight suggested starting to trot down the road.
“Good idea Twilight.” She said walking behind her.
Before long they reached the building. It was a small but well built little shed, and upon getting to the open area, they also noticed a horse drawn carriage behind it, missing a wheel. The fog was very thin in the open area of the forest, and the air was actually quite warm, compared to the rest of the forest. Twilight approached the carriage to see if there was anything on it that would hint to the others location, and to her luck, there was another piece of paper, which had been pushed onto the sharp point of the back plank of wood holding the wheel support beam. Twilight didn’t need the light of her horn to see the picture though; the moon was giving off light that shined more than enough light on the open area to make out its features. She looked at the picture, it was still poorly drawn, but Twilight didn’t expect anything more. It had another roughly sketched Slendermane, but it was halfway behind a tree. The words were smaller to make space, and said ‘Stay out of the trees, not safe.’
She pulled the note of the wooded spike and was about to put it into her bag, before Fluttershy noticed it.
“Twilight what’s that?” She asked looking at the piece of paper.
“Scootaloo said that while she and the others were lost in the forest, they would put a few pages up with warnings and notes telling other ponies that they should try and leave the forest as soon as possible.” Twilight said sliding the note into her saddlebag. “Come on, let’s look inside the shed.” She suggested.
“Um, ok Twilight. But don’t you think you should leave the notes there? I mean what if somepony does end up getting lost out here; the notes are the only thing that can help them.” Fluttershy said. Twilight realised this was true, but she had an idea.
“Fluttershy, I don’t know if I’m getting out of here tonight, but I want to make sure the fillies and colts do, and you. I have a note and quill in my saddlebag. I’m going to sum up all the notes, and once I get the others to the front of the forest, whether I can leave or not, I’m leaving a proper warning there so that ponies can leave before they get too deep into the forest and can’t turn back.” Twilight said, starting to accept that her fate wasn’t likely to turn out well.
“Twilight, don’t talk like that!” Fluttershy scolded.
“But have you seen the Slendermane? It’s been following me and Scootaloo ever since we entered the forest, almost relentlessly. It would have caught me before if it weren’t for you. Even if I could outrun it, I’m still magically sealed off from the rest of the forest.” Twilight explained, but before Fluttershy could say anything, she raised her hoof and pushed on the door to the shed. It was locked from the inside.
Almost as soon as she’d put pressure on the thin metal door, it creaked loudly, and gave off a sickening scratchy groan. Twilight suddenly heard noise from inside the shed, consisting of crashing metal, falling objects, and the rattle of many objects dropping on a thin metal surface.
“Hel-Hello? Hello?!” Twilight heard from behind the metal door.
“Twilight was that Scootaloo?” Fluttershy asked upon recognising the filly’s voice through the door.
“I think so! Scootaloo! Is that you?!” Twilight yelled through the metal door.
“Twilight! Thank goodness! Can you get me out of here?! I can’t see anything, it’s so dark!” Scootaloo cried through the door staggering into more objects.
“Scootaloo, just sit tight!” Twilight said.
“What are you going to do Twilight?” Fluttershy asked curious as to her friends idea.
“Easy, just watch.” Twilight said, before squinting her eyes, and conjuring a small magenta ball of energy on the tip of her horn, which spread over the rest of it, creating a faint purple cloud around the entire frame of the rusty metal door. Twilight, with a little bit of focus, pulled the door off the hinges with a loud crunch, also pulling of part of the outside frame, but not pulling over any of the rest of the shed.
Almost as soon as the shed had been opened, Scootaloo bolted out of the darkness of the back corner of the shed and wrapped her arms around Twilight’s leg. Twilight was more than overly concerned about the filly condition now, compared to before. Scootaloo was clearly bruised in several areas, had frighteningly red, glassy, bloodshot, eyes. The fur and skin around her eyes was puffy and tear soaked, and there was a line of blood spanning down her fur into a few directions from her left nostril. Her mane was a ruffled dirty mess, and her coat was also dirty, and darkened a slight murky green colour with a sticky oily fluid. She had a few small cuts around her legs, but luckily she didn’t appear to have any big cuts or scars, but she was in no form of a good condition.
“Fluttershy! Thank goodness you’re ok! I didn’t know what to think happened to you after the Slendermane took you!” Scootaloo said, jumping of Twilight’s leg and running over to Fluttershy, jumping up and hugging her around the neck.
“Scootaloo, you look terrible. What happened to you?” Fluttershy asked, almost scared by the filly’s morbid condition.
“The Slendermane grabbed me before... It all happened too fast... It dropped me in here, and then left. I don’t know why.... But it’s been so dark... Twilight I can hardly see right now. It... It... I can’t talk about it.” Scootaloo said stopping herself, and letting more tears stream from her worn out eyes.
“It’s ok Scootaloo. You don’t have to.” Twilight told her. She felt horrible for Scootaloo, considering everything she’s already been through, and all the more horrible things still happening.
She looked inside of the shed, and could understand why Scootaloo was in this condition almost straight away. She didn’t need the light of her horn, there was enough light illuminating the room from the moon after she’d ripped of the door. There was a dirty, greasy looking fluid all over the ground that Scootaloo must have been lying in, bits of rusty metal and junk lying on the floor surrounded by vomit, and a broken table glazed red on top with blood. The whole room reeked of bile which was nauseating and very putrid to Twilight. She couldn’t see anything special about the shed, and didn’t want to look inside it anymore. She walked away from it disgusted that the Slendermane could possibly be that cruel as to leave Scootaloo in there all on her own.
“What the hay does that thing get out of the things that it does?!” Twilight angrily, but rhetorically asked the other pair, making it clear she wasn’t angry at them. “Kills two fillies, probably killed heaps of other ponies, abducts them right from their homes, and this?! This has to stop! This shouldn’t happen to such little ponies!” Twilight angrily yelled towards the forest.
“Twilight, don’t try and get its attention the last thing we want is for it to show up.” Fluttershy warned her.
“I’m sorry Fluttershy, it’s just look at the mess in there, and Scootaloo. What kind of creature would force a filly into those conditions? Judging from the smell in there for all I know it could have been toxic.” Twilight said. Scootaloo was getting seemingly more worried that she might be in trouble, and tried to wipe as much of the dirty fluid off of her coat. She tried to block out the fear of getting sicker than she already felt, and instead thought about ways that the three could escape the forest faster.
“If it helps, I think I know a way that will lead you to the others in that other building. But can we please make it quick... I want to go home.” Scootaloo sobbed, tears rolling down the sides of her face.
“Umm. Scootaloo, I think for now you should just have a rest, I’ll carry you if you like?” Fluttershy offered.
“That would be great.” Scootaloo said, climbing onto Fluttershy’s back as she knelt down to give her a lift up.
“Scootaloo, which way do you think we should go?” Twilight asked the filly, to get an answer before she closed her eyes. Scootaloo looked up one path to the right, which eventually descended into pure darkness that shrouded every feature of the path in blackness, but she could remember there being some sort of night sky light on the path she’d escaped through, or at least the one that led away from the building. There was one path to the left of it the was lit completely by the night sky with almost no trees shrouding the pathway, but was covered in a thick mucky green moss like plant all over the ground, along with several patches of poison joke, which Scootaloo knew wasn’t the path they wanted to go on. Scootaloo looked at the final path to the right. It wasn’t pitch black, but it was only dimly lit, Scootaloo couldn’t see very far down the path, because of the condition of her eyes, but she was more than certain that it was the right way.
“That way.” Scootaloo said weakly raising her hoof to point at the pathway. She relaxed her legs and slung her fore-legs round Fluttershy’s neck so that she was holding onto her, but also not restricting her wings in case she needed to fly somewhere. She closed her sore eyes slowly, finding it difficult at first with all the stinging she felt through trying to do so. Fluttershy couldn’t manage any expression to Twilight and nor Twilight to Fluttershy. Twilight felt nothing but burning hate and terrible fear towards the Slendermane, but Fluttershy was overcome with fear of everything happening around her. Abducted from her own home during the day, being trapped and chased in the Everfree forest late at night, looking for ponies that could be badly injured, Scootaloo’s condition, everything about the night was terrifying to her.
They started to make their way away from the shed and towards the pathway Scootaloo had told them to go down.
“Fluttershy, I don’t want to scare Scootaloo, but if we don’t get her to the Ponyville hospital and have them check those cuts soon, and the stuff she’s been lying in turns out to be toxic... If it got into her bloodstream through those cuts she could get really sick.” Twilight quietly warned her making it more than clear that they had to hurry and save the others. She didn’t intend on telling Scootaloo that, trying to spare her from getting more scared than she already was, but Scootaloo had heard her. She didn’t open her eyes, they were stinging too much for that.
“Twilight, I’m sorry you two are here... It’s my fault,” Scootaloo started, being instantly cut off by Twilight.
“Don’t even think that for a second Scootaloo.” She said being cut off herself by Scootaloo who was determined to say her piece.
“But it is. The Slendermane... let me go on purpose... It knew I was going to come back for the others, and it must have known somepony would come with me. And I led it to Fluttershy’s cottage. I shouldn’t have run, because it knew that somepony would help me, now if you don’t escape somepony will come looking for you, and it’ll just keep happening. It uses its victims as bait for other victims. I only realised after it took me away that I’d just dragged you both right into this. If I’d just stayed you wouldn’t be here.” Scootaloo said apologetic for getting them involved.
“Scootaloo, Whether you’d gotten us into this or not we would have ended up in the forest.” Twilight replied ready to prove it didn’t matter.
“How do you work that out Twilight?” Scootaloo asked, still not able to open her eyes.
“Applejack and Rarity have been searching for their sisters all over Ponyville and areas around it, and eventually they would have to resort to searching the forest. And do you think me and Fluttershy would let them go in on their own?” Twilight asked her rhetorically. “Wouldn’t be a very great friend if I let them go searching for their sisters in the Everfree forest on their own.” She finished.
“Me neither. And like I told Twilight, I wouldn’t be much of an element of kindness if I hadn’t helped you either.” Fluttershy said as they walked.
Even though it was painful Scootaloo felt a couple of tears come to her eyes, which she still didn’t open, and a slight grin appeared on her face. Even scared and in pain, their words still meant a lot to her. But the happiness was very short lived. Fluttershy had shrieked and jumped, unsettling Scootaloo who knew that something bad was happening, that she couldn’t see. Twilight had also let out a cry of fear. Up ahead of them on the path they were about to walk up the Slendermane had popped up and was blocking any further progress.
“Wha... What’s happening?” Scootaloo asked confused and beginning to feel scared again.
“It’s there on the path! Come on Fluttershy, we have to go around it.” She heard Twilight say.
The two turned around and went back to the split area of the pathway, and looked at their only two remaining options. Twilight had no intention of going back to the front of the forest, but she wasn’t keen to go through the middle path; she had no idea what the thick, murky, green plant all over the pathway was. Plus the risk of running into the patches of poison joke was another con of the pathway. But before she had any time to think Twilight saw the Slendermane appear right behind Fluttershy, no sound, no cloud or aura of magical energy; it was there as if it had just popped into existence. Twilight nearly had a heart attack on seeing it.
“FLUTTERSHY LOOK OUT!” Twilight screamed. Fluttershy looked behind her, regretting it almost instantly, and she screamed. Scootaloo held onto Fluttershy’s neck tightly for dear life, letting a low whine out unsure of what was happening.
“RUN!” Twilight yelled again almost instantly.
Normally on a fright Fluttershy would be paralysed with fear, but her body was flooding with adrenaline from the fright of seeing the creature standing that close, and she didn’t need a second warning. The pair took off through the thick green plantation, dodging even the smallest patches of poison joke. It wasn’t as hard to run through as Twilight had assumed by its appearance, but it reduced speed a little. Fluttershy galloped as fast as her back leg would let her, with Twilight right by her side, going about the same speed, even though she didn’t care about her own legs anymore. Scootaloo could only hold on and hope that the two would escape. Twilight flicked her head back, and screamed. The Slendermane was right behind them. It was fast, but it stopped moving whenever she looked at it, and taunted her by teleporting right behind the trio, whenever she stopped looking at. She looked forward to see that the path broke left up ahead, and saw that she was approaching a large patch of poison joke to her right. She suddenly had an idea.
“Fluttershy! Keep following the path, I have an idea!” She said. Fluttershy was tired and wanted nothing more than to be able to stop, but she nodded and started running faster, jumping over a small patch of poison joke. Twilight watched her friend start trailing to the left, and looked back at the Slendermane, which was again right behind her. Her heart was pumping, she was sweating, her limbs were tired, and static was starting to build up in her head.
“I have to time this just right!” Twilight murmured to herself.
Now seconds before hitting the patch of blue flowers, Twilight leapt into the air, travelling high enough to clear the whole patch, but causing a larger amount of pain to her legs for all the extra pressure she’d put on them. About to land on the other side of the patch, Twilight looked back behind her, and choked in a scream to find it standing face to face with her with very few inches between them. It’s tentacle appendages were now at full extension waving in directions all over the place. Twilight landed on her side, but the plant acted as a pillow and cushioned her fall, while she slid through it a few metres.
Twilight looked back and found the Slendermane standing right above her, next to the patch of poison joke.
“Oh no. I didn’t time it right.” She said to herself feeling static building up in her head. She cowered as the Slendermane bore down upon her to grab her with its impossibly long tentacles, but opened her eyes as Fluttershy’s voice cried out to her.
“Twilight quick!” She heard and looked up to see a rock, flying the air which smacked against the Slendermane’s head. The tentacles slung and shrunk down into its back again instantly and created a flat surface for its suit again, before the creature looked over at Fluttershy. Twilight started running towards her friend while the creature was distracted, but Fluttershy looking straight at the creature out of fear felt static beginning to build up in her head. Twilight got next to her, but Fluttershy wouldn’t move. She was fixated on the creature holding a gaze that she couldn’t break.
“Fluttershy come on we have to go!” Twilight said shaking her friend, but getting no results. Tears were streaming from both their eyes and Fluttershy was close to collapsing from the pain in her head the static was causing, but still unable to move. Scootaloo opened her eyes feeling the cold air around her sting them as she did so. They were still almost glowing with redness and were very bloodshot, but it didn’t take her long to notice the Twilight was trying to shift her friend who was fixated the spot. She looked over Fluttershy’s head and saw that she was staring at the Slendermane. Instincts took over and she whipped her foreleg around Fluttershy’s eyes breaking the gaze.
“Fluttershy don’t stare at it!” Scootaloo warned. Fluttershy snapped as if she’d been in a trance, and turned around with Twilight, as they started to run again.
There was another clearing in the distance with what looked like a large blue square in it. Twilight looked back for a second after a few moments, but the Slendermane was gone. But the pair didn’t stop running, they were far too scared now for that. Dodging the last few patches of poison joke, the pair approached the clearing. Scootaloo now saw the blue box come into view, and recognised it. The others could see the doorways, and also knew what they were looking at.
“That’s it! That’s the building!” Scootaloo said, relieved that they had actually managed to find it. Twilight looked to the left and saw another hardly lit pathway.
“That must be the other path we could have taken.” She assumed.
The three walked towards the building, while Twilight carefully surveyed the area, looking for the Slendermane.
“I don’t know where you are, but with or without me, these ponies are all going home, tonight!” Twilight stated to herself.