//------------------------------//
// Part 9: The Eighth Page 
// Story: The Slender: Bound to the Past 
// by Lance Skyes 
//------------------------------//

	Slenderman walked through the center of the forest, carrying the lifeless Sweetie Belle in one of his tentacles and throwing her body into the pile, right on top of Scootaloo’s body. “Another catch?” asked Slendermane, sitting on a log, not really paying any attention.
“Yeah,” Slenderman replied. “I barely caught her, though. Silph attacked me before I could finish her. He’s revealed himself to be a full-blown traitor.”
“I thought so,” Slendermane said, not even looking up. “He’s just as deceptive and unpredictable as his father was.”
“The problem is that I didn’t have time to kill him. He helped those ponies escape and I needed to chase them, first.”
“Look on the bright side. You caught one of them. There’s no way the last one will be able to even continue, now. Those ponies care too much about each other.”
Just then, they heard a cawwing noise above them. “Slenderhawk?” called Slenderman. “What are you doing here?”
Slenderhawk landed on Slendermane’s back. “We have a big problem. Silph’s a traitor.”
“I think that train’s left the station,” Slendermane said, shaking Slenderhawk off his back. “Silph being a traitor is pretty well established at this point.”
“I know,” Slenderhawk said, getting up off the ground and shaking himself off. “But I actually saw him with the filly. He gave her one of the pages and is guiding her to the last page as we speak.”
“Sweet Celestia!” Slenderman shouted. “If Silph’s guiding her, we don’t have much time before she reaches the eighth page.” Slenderman then hopped onto Slendermane’s back. “We haven’t any time to lose! Hi-ho, Slendermane!”
“Excuse me?” Slendermane asked.
“You of all Slender know that you’re faster than I am.”
“Fine.” Slendermane then galloped off into the distance with Slenderman on his back.
“I guess I’ll just... stay here, then,” Slenderhawk said to no one.

Meanwhile, Silph and Applebloom landed in front of some kind of building towards the heart of the forest. “So the last page is somewhere around here?” Applebloom asked, hopping off of Silph’s back.
“Inside that building,” Silph replied, pointing at the doorway. “Go on, I’ll stand guard out here in front of the door.” Applebloom nodded and galloped into the building.
The building looked like an old bathroom that hadn’t been used (or cleaned) in years. Applebloom moved her flashlight left and right looking for the page that Silph said was in here. She looked all around and even inside the stalls. all she found for the longest time was smelly toilets.
Meanwhile, SIlph stood like a guard dog outside the bathroom, paying attention to every square inch of the area. Suddenly, he heard hoofsteps from off in the distance. “Slendermane?” he asked himself. “I didn’t expect Slenderman to come with backup.” He got himself into a combat postition and prepared for the other two Slender.
Inside the bathroom, Applebloom had checked just about everywhere and was just about to give up when she noticed something behind one of the mirrors. When she walked over to investigate, she found that it was the last page. She had done it! She found all the pages! She was going to succed, after all! However, just as she reached for the page, she began hearing strange noises. Not noises like Slender Static, but rather... cries for help? “Applebloom,’ the noises moaned. “Applebloom, where were you?”
“What?” Applebloom asked the air around her. “What’s going on?”
“Applebloom, why didn’t you save us?” Suddenly, Applebloom recognized the voices. One sounded like Scootaloo, one sounded like Sweetie Belle, and one even sounded like Big Macintosh.
“Where were you?” the Scootaloo voice asked.
“Why didn’t you save us?” the Sweetie Belle voice asked.
“Why did you let us down?” the Big Macintosh voice asked.
“I-I’m sorry,” Applebloom said panickedly. “I never meant for any of this to happen. I can save you, I swear.”
“Where were you?”
“Why didn’t you save us?”
“Why did you let us down?”
“No, I can do this. Just please, stop.”
“Where were you?”
“Why didn’t you save us?”
“Why did you let us down?”
“Stop! Please leave me alone! I never meant for any of you to get hurt!”
“Where were you?”
“Why didn’t you save us?”
“Why did you let us down?”
“No! NO! LEAVE ME ALONE!” The room around Applebloom began spinning and she was very near falling over. Meanwhile, Slenderman looked on.
“Heh heh heh,” he laughed quietly to himself. “A little torture before death never hurt anypony. Oh, wait. It hurts anypony, and that’s the joy of it.” He then used his power to trigger the voices again.
“Where were you?”
“Why didn’t you save us?”
“Why did you let us down?”
“Stop it!” Applebloom shouted, doing her best to block out the noise. “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!”
“Where were you?”
“Why didin’t you save us?”
“Why did you let us down?”
Applebloom screamed loudly and was about to break down in tears when she suddenly heard a familiar noise. Static. Applebloom instantly recollected herself. “Clever trick, Slender,” she shouted. “but I’ll never let my friends down!” She then grabbed the eighth page and put it in her saddlebag. “You lose!” She then galloped out of the bathroom with the voices doing their best to follow her.
“Damn it!” Slenderman shouted. “So close! Guess I’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.” He then walked around to the front of the bathroom.
Applebloom galloped excitedly out of the bathroom, calling to Silph. “Silph! I have the eighth page!” However, she didn’t come out to the excited response of her new friend. Rather, she found him on the ground beneath the hoof of another pony that looked like a slender, only closer to one than Silph. (earth pony, no face)
“Applebloom,” Silph moaned. “Run.”
“Silence!” the other pony shouted, kicking Silph’s head.
“You aren’t going anywhere, little filly,” Slenderman said behind Applebloom. Applebloom immediately tried to gallop away, but Slenderman caught her before she could even put a few feet between herself and Slenderman. Slenderman held her up to the front of his head (yes, this would be his face if he had one) and just held the struggling filly there for a moment. “I told you I’d get you, little filly,” he said finally.
“You can’t hurt me,” Applebloom said, struggling though knowing not to open her eyes. “I have all the pages! You’ve lost!”
“Au contraire, little one. (ごめん浅い [sorry] my French is bad) I can harm you quite freely, because you took MY pages infused with MY power in MY forest. Nopony does that to me. Not even a little filly like you. Now, I will finish you once and for all.”
“No!” Silph shouted, struggling to break away from Slendermane.
“Keep quiet, you,” Slendermane said, kicking Silph’s head once more.
“Get... OFF!” Silph shouted, knocking Slendermane off of him and several feet away. He then galloped as fast as he could towards Slenderman. “Applebloom! I’m coming!”
“What?” Slenderman shouted, turning towards Silph. “You! Get back!” Slenderman then sent a wave of magic towards Silph, sending him flying back. “Now, back to you, little filly.” He then raised his tenticle into attack postition.
“Applebloom!” Silph shouted on the ground. “NOOOO!” But it was too late for him to do anything. Slenderman had already thrust his tentacle into Applebloom’s chest.
And straight through her body.