Any references to "A voice", "The Voice", "Bright Star", and so on mean the exact same thing in section 1. This was a complaint from the first chapter.
Bright Star wandered through the Everfree Forest, looking at the familiar sights and listening to the sounds. His body's joints cracked and popped with each step. The skin was rotting and falling from the body, revealing the rotting muscles beneath.
"This body is weak," the child-voice scoffed. "I will need to find shelter should this body fail me."
Bright Star heard a rustle behind him and craned his rotting neck to look behind himself. The bushes rustled again and out ran a chicken with the body of a snake and small reptilian wings on its back. Bright Stars clouded eyes looked at the fleeing Cockatrice and recognized the fear it showed quite well. He left the Cockatrice to its own devices and followed the direction it had just ran from.
Bright Star came to small clearing in the forest where the trees had been cut down. He noticed a few pitched tents and a recently put out fire. Bright Star went into the small campground and opened up the first tent flap he came across. Peering inside, he saw nothing but an empty tent with a lantern that had fallen over. He removed his head from the tent and looked at his surroundings again.
"Nothing but empty tents it seems," he chuckled. "This could only be the work of big brother. He always knew how to clear a group of ponies." He heard branch snap in front of him and stared intently at the trees in front of him. "I know it's you. Come out here. It's been a while." A few seconds after, a large pony came out into the open. His stature was bigger than even the Princess herself and had four large-black tendrils sprouting from his back, and an "x" with a circle around it for a cutie mark. "Brother, it's good to see you again.
"I can't say the same," he said.
"Oh, you. I know you love me big brother."
"Mother put you in that prison for a reason sister. I don't know how you escaped nor do I care. What I want to know is why you came to my hunting grounds."
"I didn't come here intentionally you know. You scared a chicken-snake, thing, and I followed its trail here."
"Yes, a Cockatrice, as the ponies of this world call them."
Bright Star took a step toward the large pony, stumbling. He got back to his hooves and watched as one of his legs fell off. "Damn this body! That stupid weakling didn't take very good care of this thing!" the female-voice roared.
"So it would appear. You still don't have a body do you?"
"What do you think you big lummox!" the voice yelled again. "I had to take it from some idiot that released me."
"Follow me," he said, turning away from the rotting corpse. "I will take you to my home until the sun goes down."
Bright Star hobbled forward, taking small steps with the remaining three legs. He fell down again and another leg was close to tearing itself free. "A little help please!"
"Kids," he muttered. "Alright." He shot out a long black tendril and grasped Bright Star's rotting body with it and hoisted it up onto its loose legs, still clinging his tendril to the body. "Better?" he deadpanned.
"Yeah."
The large pony walked beside the rotting body of Bright Star in complete silence. He would occasionally risk a quick glance to his side to see if the body was keeping up with him. He glanced over and this time, Bright Star's eyes caught him.
"What!?" she bellowed.
"How'd you know I was looking at you?"
"Just because you don't have eyes, or even a face for that matter, doesn't mean I don't know when you're looking at me."
"Makes sense." He turned his large head away from his rotting corpse of a sister and guided it through a hole in the rocks. "Here we are," he said bluntly.
Bright Star and the large stallion went into the opening and inside was a large bed and a few pieces of paper nailed to the walls of the cave. "What are those?" Bright Star asked, pointing over to the papers on the walls.
"Those are... It's not important right now." He sat down on the stone floor and removed the tendril from Bright Star's underbelly. "All right. It's just you and me now. What do you want?" he asked, his voice becoming deep and menacing.
Bright Star's body fell limp on the ground and disintegrated into sand. "I need your help brother."
"With?"
"I aim to carry out my final mission that was given to me by mother before I was sealed away." The large pony sat in silence. "Always the silent one. I don't know why mother made you. All you do is silence and simple frights."
"At lease I AM SANE!" he bellowed, cracking rock. "You're crazy, you know that! You tried to kill all of us and then mother herself! Why would I help you now?! And WHY IN MOTHER'S NAME are you asking for help? You managed on your own just fine back then!"
"Because that's what families do. We help each other."
The large pony shot up and swung a tendril through the air, roaring with rage. "You're lucky I even brought you here! I could have let you rot in the sun!" he bellowed, still swinging his tendrils around.
"You know those can't hit me," the voice cooed. "Now listen," the voice exclaimed, grabbing the large pony by the shoulders and throwing him to the ground, pinning him with unseen methods. "Come now Slendermane. You can't expect me to do this alone right?"
Slendermane grunted and huffed. "Actually, I can." The force that kept him pinned eased away slowly and he got to his hooves. "Now listen to me. I've been in the world longer than you sister. I know how these ponies work. They run scared from me because I can instill fear directly into their hearts. You cannot. You have to resort to cheap parlor tricks to do that. And besides, you have been sealed away for the last thousand years. If you attack anypony directly, they will try to fight you. They are not the wimpy push-over's they were a thousand years ago. Why do you think I haven't left this forest and made it my home!?"
The air inside the cave shrieked and wailed, causing an ear-piercing sound to bounce off the walls. Slendermane stood his ground and made no movements. "SOFT! YOU'VE GONE SOFT!" the voice wailed.
"It beats being destroyed! What you plan is a death wish!" he bellowed back.
"What about Rake? Where is he?"
"Gone."
"What do you mean gone?"
"He disappeared almost seven-hundred years ago. I haven't heard wind of him since."
"That is unfortunate. He would have made my conquests so much more entertaining."
"I'm sure," Slender mane said bluntly. Slendermane turned away from the origin of the disembodied voice and looked over his shoulder. "Look sis, I may have gone soft but I know how to survive. You may be nuts, but you're still family. I want you gone by the time the moon is up. You may not have a body, but I can still sense your presence." He started to walk deeper into the cave.
"Wait!" the voice called to its elder brother. He kept walking until he was no longer visible through the darkness. The creature's "eyes" hovered over to the papers on the wall. It took in everything that it saw scribbled and drawn on the papers. "That's why you've gone soft. Silly brother. They're supposed to fear you and you're supposed to eat them."
2
The sun had set and the moon was shining brightly in the sky. Slendermane came back out to the front of his cave home and focused in on his sister. She was not there. She had done what he asked of her. Slendermane sighed and went back into the deepest reaches of his cave dwelling. He stopped by a small fire and sat down with a sigh.
"What do you think? Should we get involved?" he asked, across the flame.
"I think mother needs to be informed at the very least," another voice answered. It was raspy and sounded closer to a growl.
"Mother was defeated remember? It happened last year."
"She still knows us brother."
"What do you mean?"
"I spoke with her shortly after she was defeated."
Slendermane stared across the small fire, stunned into silence. "Wh... What? You spoke with Mother Nightmare Moon?"
"Yes and no. I spoke with her original personality, Princess Luna, when she was alone one night. She was very surprised to see me to say the least, even tried to get the guards to intervene. But after explaining myself to her and telling her about us, she accepted me after some long thought."
"Truly? She still accepts us?"
"Yes, as far as I could tell. However, when I told her about sister. She..." He broke off into a sigh, never finishing his sentence.
"I need to know. What did she say?" Slendermane asked, hoping for an answer.
The other voice was silent for a time before speaking again, gathering his thoughts. "She vowed to destroy her outright and said that she was beyond saving," the voice said sadly.
"I see."
"Listen Slendermane, mother is proud that we learned to survive using the methods that we have. But she still wants us to improve."
"How can we do that? I live off of fear, and you... You live of of pony flesh."
"I know it will be difficult but we cannot abandon her, especially after she accepted us back into the fold. She accepted us back, even after everything we've done. She gave us a second chance. We need to warn her about sister, and soon, so she has a chance to survive."
"I know, I know," Slender said quickly. "Sister is crazy but she's not stupid." He looked back to the entrance of the cave. "She will be difficult to bring down, but it must be done."
"Slender, I will go and speak with mother. She knows me and how I move. She will not be surprised by me."
Slendermane nodded his approval. "Yes, I agree." Slender huffed. "Travel by the sunlight."
"That's a new prospect for me but I've done it before," he said, slightly surprised.
"Sister can only travel by moonlight, unless she has a body to travel in the daylight with, but it does not last long. Without one, she will weaken significantly but will not perish."
"I understand."
"Good."
Slender heard shuffling coming from the other side of the fire and watched his brother walk out from the shadows. He was crouched on all fours with three long talons sprouting from his two front hooves. He would of been about the same height as Slendermane if he stood upright. His fur was a matted mess of pale grey and covered with loose strands of bandages. His eyes glowed a sickly green color and were larger than any other pony's.
He made his way toward the front of the cave and stopped short of the entrance. "Brother?" he asked, gaining Slender's attention. "What will become of us when this is over? Will we have done the right thing if sister is destroyed?" he asked worriedly.
Slendermane placed a large hoof on his brother's shoulder and looked down at him. "I don't know Rake," he sighed. "We will have to do what is necessary now and deal with the consequences later I suppose. We've survived this long. I don't think we'll have anything to worry about as of yet." He removed his hoof and turned away from Rake, who looked back over his shoulder. "Remember travel by sunlight and warn mother of sister's intentions. And be fast." Slendermane retreated back into the darkness of the cave and went out of sight again.
Rake looked back out into the dark forest.
"Mother. We will save you. One way or another."