//------------------------------//
// Chapter Three: If We Knew What We Were Doing, It Would Not Be Research 
// Story: A Slender Chance 
// by The Young and Free Dragon 
//------------------------------//


A SLENDER CHANCE
BY THE YOUNG AND FREE DRAGON

It is by universal misunderstanding that all agree. For if, by ill luck, people understood each other, they would never agree. 

~Charles Baudelaire


CHAPTER THREE: IF WE KNEW WHAT WE WERE DOING, IT WOULD NOT BE RESEARCH

(August 1st, 2012)

I don't understand why some ponies like to wear those boxy black suits. They look so uncomfortable and stupid.

~Sweetie Belle's Diary
January 20th, 2012

The fillies were too frightened by the new found information to look at the other books. They simply gathered them all into Apple Bloom's bag and ran for Ponyville. The forest seemed more foreboding with the apparent proof that a Slendermane existed, and they were not eager to return to the forest again. When they broke from the trees and found their way back into town, they found Ponyville in an uproar.
Diamond Tiara had disappeared. If the ponies hadn't been taking Pipsqueak's disappearance seriously (hopefully because they thought he had simply run away), they were certainly taking it seriously now. Filthy Rich had paid every pony he could find (or buy) to search for his daughter and already,several search parties were headed for the forest.
“Wait!” Scootaloo said, as the Crusaders stood in the way of the militia. “You can't go in there!”
“Slendermane took 'em!” Apple Bloom cried. “He'll take you too!”
The ponies glanced at each other and then back at the Crusaders. The look that had been shared between them now focused on to the fillies. They didn't believe a word of it.
“Girls,” Cheerilee said, stepping forward. “This is serious, and no time for games.”
“We know! We are serious!” Sweetie Belle protested.
“Do you think we could make something like this up?!” Scootaloo shouted, indignantly.
The search party shared another look and then after only seconds of murmuring, Cheerilee stepped forward and began leading the Crusaders away while the searchers continued in the direction of the forest. There was much protest from the three fillies, but Cheerilee didn't buy a word of it and took them each home.

[][][]

The only Crusader who even managed to get three sentences out about Slendermane was Apple Bloom, but that was because Applejack “humored” her in looking at the pictures she claimed were proof.
“It's the same pony!” Apple Bloom cried, stamping her hooves on the desk.
Applejack didn't even take a second look at the photos. “Look, Sugar Cube. I know ya'll are tryin' to help and all, but this ain't helpin'.”
Apple Bloom threw her hooves up in the air and gathered the pictures and the books, stomping away and saying over her shoulder. “Ah believe you when ya'll tell me something.”
She never heard a reply from Applejack, and slammed the door in frustration, locking it and quickly moving to her window to look outside. Nothing was out there. She could see Rainbow Dash moving clouds away from the waning sun in an attempt to give the search parties more time to look for the missing children. Apple Bloom felt a pit growing in her stomach in knowing that they weren't searching for Zecora. Nopony but she and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders knew that she was missing, and perhaps had been taken by Slendermane.
She moved away from the window and headed for the door. Already her sense of duty was growing. She would speak to Twilight Sparkle about this. Whether Twilight believe it or not, she could at least read Zecora's notes and tell them what Zecora had found out about Slendermane.

[][][]

After gathering the other Crusaders, they headed in the direction of the library. Already, there was the mutual nervous feeling about the photos they had seen. The very ponies who's wedding they had bore flowers at had been stalked by the Slendermane. Obviously, they had not been taken yet, but maybe they knew something about it? And nopony was to say why exactly Slendermane hadn't taken them... yet. Their nerves became just so, that they galloped the rest of the way and burst into the library in a panic.
“Girls, are you okay?” Twilight asked, looking up from a book she was studying.
“We...need...you to...look... at something...” Scootaloo panted.
“Of course, what is it?” Twilight asked, closing her book and trotting over to them.
Apple Bloom gave her the saddle bag full of books and papers. Twilight gave them a questioning look before going over to her table and clearing it off, then dumping the contents of the bag on it. She began sorting the books and papers into what she thought was the correct order and after a quick glance, she froze at the sight of the picture; showing her brother and sister being watched by some figure.
“Where did you get this?” She asked, looking up.
“Zecora had it,” Apple Bloom said. “Slendermane is after your brother and Cadence!”
Twilight Sparkle was quiet for a moment, staring at them and then glancing down at the picture. It was obvious from her expression that she was rationalizing that all the other pictures were simply trees or other objects, but every time her eyes met with the one of her brother and his wife, fear clouded her eyes, as she could not find a rational explanation for what she saw. Of course, she could just lie to herself, and say that it could be anything, but part of the fear she held in her chest was of that possibility. If it wasn't Slendermane, what was it?
“Just let me look at this for awhile,” Twilight finally said.
“But we don't have much time!” Scootaloo cried.
This was said to deaf ears however, for Twilight had already buried her head into one of the books and her eyes were scanning across the pages at an amazing rate. The Crusaders found themselves pacing in anxiety as they waited for Twilight to come to some conclusion about all this. It took some time, despite Twilight's quick reading and comprehension skills.
After some time, Twilight made a comment aloud that got their attention; “Zecora is quite the researcher.”. The Cutie Mark Crusaders gathered around Twilight to see what she had found out.
“Zecora read accounts about this 'Slendermane' from several ponies locked in the Equstrian Mental Institution and then traced where they were at on the map, recording every known location of... 'Slendermane' for the past ten years,” She pointed to each location. “Though he hasn't been sighted any sort of way that could predict his next move, he has left evidence of his appearances ever since the invention of the camera. Zecora hasn't been able to find every photograph of him, but she mentioned some pictures that are probably worth looking at.”
Twilight left the atlas and located the books she had mentioned. Placing the three she had picked out on the table, she opened the first, which was labeled; “Equstria's Earth Ponies' History in Hoof Painting”.
“It's believed,” Twilight began talking again. “That this book is the most accurate historical depiction of the history of Earth ponies. The paintings that it shows are considered to be historical documents, before there were Unicorns to bring penponyship* to the area. The picture Zecora talked about is here.”
She pointed to a page she finally flipped to. At the bottom, the picture was labeled; “Das Rössel”. Above it was a stallion dressed in gleaming armor fighting off a strange being that was skeletal and had two extra legs.
“This is what is believed generally to be the first sighting of 'Slendermane'.”
“That don't look like any of the newer drawin's.” Apple Bloom said.
Twilight shrugged as she closed the book and picked up the one that had been overlooked. She flipped open; “Turning Circles” to a page that was not there, only left as a frayed edge where it had been torn out.
“I'm going to read this book, but flipping through it, I found that several pages are missing, and the context seems to hint that they were the most important to the chapters they were in.”
“How many are missing?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Eight I believe,” Twilight replied.
“We'll go back another time and look in Zecora's house for them,” Scootaloo suggested.
Twilight shook her head however, and the fillies could already tell what was going to follow; “I don't think that's such a good idea. You need to leave this to the adult ponies.”
“We're the ones who discovered it!” Scootaloo argued.
“Apple Bloom's the one who knows the most about it!” Sweetie Belle added.
“That's all well and  good, girls. But this is a very serious situation, and children seem to be the target of whoever is out there. I'm not saying it's Slendermane, but something is definitely going on,”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle began to argue further, not yet ready to give up their rites to the case, but Apple Bloom interrupted them.
“Why would Zecora take those pages out?”
Tactfully, she had distracted Twilight from her main point, by giving her a chance to relay information. Twilight however had not forgotten that she was ending this discussion and was leading them toward the door.
“She obviously believes Slendermane is real, and this book seems to detail a case a similar to Slendermane, if not based on him.”
“So she thinks they could give her the most info about 'im?”
“Yes, that's probably why Zecora took them,” Twilight Sparkle said, leading the fillies outside.
They were all met with surprise however when a pony's voice, who had apparently been listening to them shouted; “It was Zecora! Zecora took our babies!”

*Penmanship