//------------------------------//
// New Friends 
// Story: Black and White and Pink All Over 
// by baronessbyron 
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	Pinkie trotted along happily, flitting about and sniffing the wild flowers as she went. She usually stayed in town, blissfully busy with planning parties for her friends and funding her party habits by baking at Sugarcube Corner. Today, though, she felt a strange urge to get out of town and go adventuring in the Everfree Forest. She wanted to have some time to herself, to relax and enjoy nature at its naturiest, as she said, and there was no better place to do so than Everfree. Besides, she always loved visiting Zecora. Her nursery rhymes, although in the native tongue of Hoofrica from which she hailed, always gave Pinkie great ideas for melodies to her songs. Pinkie trotted along and pondered how happy she was to have Zecora as a friend. She also reflected, less fondly, on how she had almost lost the opportunity to become friends by judging Zecora prematurely. She shook this thought off.	“Oh well! No need to dwell on things past. We learned our lesson, and THAT’S what’s important!"
She silently vowed to never let her judgments get in the way of her quest to befriend everypony she met. As she walked deeper, the spun sugar pony noticed the forest close in over her head, and the air becoming foggy. This change in climate made her mane prickle in the back of her neck, but she shook the feeling off.  She was no longer afraid of the dark. That would be silly, and while pinkie relished in silly, this kind of silly was the illogical, scared of nothing kind of silly, which pinkie avoided. Still, she hummed a tune, just to lift her spirits,
“Hmm hmm hmm pinkie pie, Hello! Hmm hmm hmm here to say…hmm hmm make you—EEP!”
She stopped abruptly, to avoid crashing into the strange, intangible wall of blackness that had formed in front of her. Curious, she tentatively poked her snout into it. It felt velvety, soft, and cool to the touch.
“Heehehee! What IS this stuff? Is it a plant or something? Kinda looks like vines! Ooh, I wonder what they taste like! These could be the missing ingredients to my black forest cupcakes: actual black stuff…FROM A FOREST! Perfect!”
But before she could sink her teeth in for a taste test, the owner of the tentacles made of night swooped down upon her.
Before pinkie stood a pony, whose gender was difficult to determine. It lacked a mane, and its tail made up the tentacles that now surrounded her. Its face lacked the masculine jawline of a colt. In fact, Pinkie realized a moment later, its face lacked ANY definition. A coat of grayish white rose up from the collar of its suit, engulfing its entire face. The aforementioned suit, Pinkie marveled, was a fine, hand-stitched piece, with a white breast, red tie and a jacket as black as the tentacles being formed by its tail. It gazed at Pinkie and let out a feral snarl that would have shaken any pony loose from their sanity. Any pony, of course, except Pinkie. Pinkie looked up at the eternally impassive face, and giggled a little.
The noise did not shock Slender Mane half as much as the sentiment behind it. This small, powerless creature, who he had moments before been planning to devour, just laughed in his face. He knew that he could easily finish his meal then, but victims only satisfied his hunger if they were eaten in the throes of absolute abject terror. He had mulled the predicament over in his head for a few moments, when he was interrupted by something even more surprising than the laughter.
“Hi there! You must be new to the area! Wanna know how I know? Do ya? Cuz I’m Pinkie Pie and I know EVERYPONY from around here. But I don’t know you yet. So you must be new!”
Seemingly from out of nowhere, the small pink ball of energy produced a festively decorated wagon, and proceeded seamlessly into her welcome song. Slendermane could only sit back on his haunches in complete bewilderment. Luckily, Pinkie had learned from the previous incident with her welcome wagon, and this time, confetti and cake were in their respective places. The cake landed at Slendermane’s feet, and he stared down at the yellow and blue frosted confection with the words “Welcome New Best Friend” scrawled in big puffy letters. 
This. Was. Too. Much. Slendermane looked up at Pinkie, now grinning sheepishly, as if begging for approval. When he spoke, he tried to keep his voice in an aural spectrum that regular ponies could comprehend.
“What is the meaning of this?” The ancient creature inquired.
Pinkie noted that the voice was distinctly male.
Well that clears up that mystery, she thought.
“It means Welcome to Ponyville, and that I, Pinkie Pie, am super-duper happy to meet you! What’s your name?”
“I go by many names: Tall Pony, The Pale Horse, Slendermane--”
“Wow! I've never met anypony with more than one name! But there’s a first time for everything, right?”
Slender had no idea how to handle this pony who seemed to have no fear whatsoever of him. He considered running, momentarily, but realized how foolish and cowardly it would seem. Was he not, after all, the spirit of terror itself? How would it look for him to run away? Besides, he was more than a little curious about this small cerise pony who held no terror in her eyes. 
“Child of the day, creature of the light, from where do you hail?”
"I’m from Ponyville! It’s about 2000 strollometers that way,” said Pinkie, gesturing back to town, “and you can call me Pinkie! All my friends do!”
“I see…Pinkie…Pie…” The name seemed to resound in a way the Faceless Pony had never felt before. 
“Well, Mr. Mane, I've got to get going. But before I go, do you happen to know anywhere I can find some frizzbane? I usually have Zecora make it into a special conditioner. You wouldn't want to see what my hair looks like without it.”
Slendermane hesitated. Usually the closest thing he encountered to communication was begging and pleading for mercy. This was the longest conversation he had ever had with anypony. Suddenly he was not sure he wanted it to end.
“I…I can show you where to find your herb. Come with me.”