//------------------------------// // Games we play // Story: Slender: Equestria // by MarcusFirehaven //------------------------------// I wake up. It is the middle of the night. There are no stars in the sky, the moon is new and providing no light to see by. I have my flashlight with a dying battery and only one thought in my head. Collect the pages. Simple enough a task. I begin to walk around a bit and acquire my first page, attached to a tree without tape or glue or a nail or anything, and then I hear a pounding in my head. I turn around and nothing is there. I continue upon my way and come across an odd rock formation. I find a page attached to a rock and take it. The pounding gets stronger, faster. I turn around to leave and I see him. He is tall, wears a fancy suit, is pale beyond just never seeing the sun, inexplicably thin, and has no facial features. Slendy. The Operator. The Slender Man. Whatever you call him, he is trouble. We have our game. I wake up in the middle of the woods, Slenderman hides the pages, he catches me, we have to restart. This time, I am going to win. This time, I am going to go home. I find the other pages scattered around by a fuel truck, inside the building, on the fuel tanks by the building, in the giant pipe tunnel thing, and other places. I have begun to suspect that Slendy made this place. The trees are all the same height in one area, the entire place is fenced in and I can't seem to climb the chains, and it feels like people just vanished rather than actually left. I have also begun to suspect that Slendy cheats, since I lost the last game inches from the final paper. This time is nearly the same. I saw the last paper. It was stuck to the shed. I made a bee line when the already huge pounding began to increase. I was feet away. I turned back and Slendy was just behind me. If I look away, he'll just grab me and I have to try again. If I keep staring he grabs me and I lose. Luckily for me, I backed into the shed. I tear my attention away from Slendy long enough to grab the page, and things begin to shake. I can see the static again. The world is shaking, but I won. I am free. --- Twilight Sparkle is walking through the Everfree Forest to visit Zecora for a nice cup of tea. Some would say that she is crazy or that the two are a bit closer than just friends for Twilight to brave the Everfree, but in all actuality, the forest is only dangerous if you go off of the paths or provoke the wildlife. She is also bringing Zecora a few things she couldn't find that Twilight has and is willing to give for a special brew that fixes a nasty cough that was going on around Ponyville. "What... no... but I won... he- he can't just... I... I beat his game, I beat him!" Twilight thought she heard somepony, it sounds like... a little filly? "Hello?" She asks. She did not expect there to be anypony here, let alone a filly. Even the Cutie Mark Crusaders usually have enough sense to not be here. "H-hello?" The voice calls back. It is definitely a filly. Twilight knows that the forest is dangerous, but she is not going to leave a filly in it while she left for help, the only way she can doom a lost filly even more is if she just ignored her. Twilight heads off the beaten path and walked through around fifty feet of the imposing foliage before coming across a small opening. She sees the filly sitting there with a small object Twilight identified as a flashlight. The filly seems about Applebloom's age, same coat color, but a straight, long brown mane, and has a bright red jacket on. She has brown eyes and looks like she has no clue where she even is. The filly's eyes also show fear, and Twilight doesn't blame her, she knows some of the things that live in the forest. "Hello? Do you know how you got here?" Twilight asks, the filly just shook her head. "Can you tell me your name?" "Jaime" The filly says. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. Are you lost?" Twilight knew the answer is going to be yes, but thought she might as well have asked. "I don't even know where I was before now, I didn't even have company other than him." The filly replied. "Who is this 'him'? Is he a friend?" "No." "Well, we should get you out of here and over to Ponyville." "That would be appreciated." The filly gets up and takes a step, then falls over like a puppet with it's strings cut. "Ow!" "Are you alright?" Twilight is feeling a bit concerned, maybe the filly touched some poison joke? Twilight levitated the filly, which confused her for a moment, and set the lost pony on her back, then levitated the flashlight over as well. "I don't really know, but things are at least better now," Jaime says. Twilight smiles at the filly, then turns around and sees something. It looks like a tall pony in a fancy suit, but something is off about it. She blinks and it is gone. She is about to ask Jaime if she saw it, but the filly in question is asleep, apparently having a tiring day. She continued on her way to Zecora's to drop the ingredients off at the zebra's door, then head back to the library.