It was here that I would prove them all wrong. Here that I would prove to Ponyville and all of Equestria that humans existed. Here that I would become somepony and not just another little filly with a wild imagination. I lit up my horn and trotted into the dark forest.
[SILPH]
“Here we are,” Applejack said. “I give you... Ponyville.” I looked around, but didn’t find any Equestrians around. “Well, everypony’s asleep right now, so it’s nothin’ spectacular.”
“Oh, it’s pretty nice compared to where I used to live,” I said. “After all, I was the one who lived in a forest full of darkness and evil for fifteen centuries.”
Applejack let out a little chuckle. “Come on, Silph. I’ll take you to the library.” We then began walking through Ponyville, but Big Macintosh stopped after a while.
“What’s wrong, Big Mac?” I asked.
“I hear something...” he said.
“Again, I don’t know how to turn the Static off.”
“No, not that. I hear something... over your Static.”
[LYRA HEARTSTRINGS]
I knew it was late, but I couldn’t sleep. Not with the Nightmares persisting. The Nightmares of what happened to me when I was just a filly. What narrowly happened to me.
What happened to so many other ponies before and after me.
I did what I could to push these thoughts to the side whenever I could, and tonight, being a full moon, seemed as good of a night as any. I picked up my harp, trotted over to the window, and sat down. I then used my magic to play the harp. My music was well known for being the most relaxing and angelic music in Ponyville, but I would never accept it when ponies said I was the best in Equestria. My music couldn’t have been that good. Still, it was nice to be complemented. I looked out of my window as I played. I saw three ponies looking right at me, listening to my music. Applejack, Big Macintosh, and...
“No,” I said out loud, dropping my harp. Right as I stopped playing, I heard it. The Static. His Static. I covered my ears, but that wouldn’t have helped. I would have heard it either way. “You couldn’t have followed me. You just couldn’t have!” I let out a scream that shook the entirety of my house.
[BIG MAC]
“The music...” I said, “it stopped.” Just as I had said this, there was a loud scream from where the music was originally coming from.
“Come on,” Applejack said. “Somepony’s in trouble!” She then galloped to the house where the scream came from and bucked open the door. Silph and I followed close behind. “Everypony all right in here?”
Silph and I rushed into the doorway to find a light blue unicorn with a similarly colored mane cowering in a corner, being comforted by a yellow-ish earth pony with a dark blue and hot pink mane. “Shh, shh,” the earth pony said, stroking the unicorn with her hoof. “It’s all right.”
“It’s not alright!” the unicorn shouted, pointing at Silph. “HE’S HERE!”
[SILPH]
“What are you talking about?” I asked the unicorn.
“You!” she shouted. “It was you! You’re the one who chased me when I was a filly! You’re the one who haunted my nightmares! It’s because of you that everypony thinks I’m crazy!”
“Wait a second...” I said. “Are you Lyra Heartstrings?” The unicorn nodded her head. If I had fingers like Slenderman, I’d have snapped them just then. “I know exactly what you’re talking about.”
[LYRA]
“Who are you, anyway?” Bon Bon asked the Slender.
“Bon Bon,” I said, “don’t talk to him. He’s dangerous!”
“I’m sure you think I am, Lyra,” the Slender said to me. “However, I can assure you that what happened to you wasn’t caused by me.”
I didn’t believe him. I remember everything that happened clear as day, and it was definitely him who chased me. “It was you and I know it. I remember a pony that looked exactly like you stalking me for days.”
“Yeah...” the Slender said. “There’s another Slender who looks like me. You were chased by a Slender known as Slendermane. He’s a Slender who took the form of a pony, but there’s one big difference between me and him.” The Slender then outstretched his wings. “Well, several differences, I guess. But the primary difference is that I’m only half-Slender.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“It means 1: you have nothing to fear from me, and 2: I’m not the one who chased you down when you were a filly.”
[SILPH]
“Think about it for a moment,” I said to Lyra. “Did the Slender chasing you have wings or a horn? Or even a face, for that matter?”
Lyra didn’t say anything for a moment. “I guess, whenever I did see him, he did look almost nothing like you.”
“Exactly,” I said. I then turned to Big Macintosh and jokingly added “Seriously, do you Equestrians ever think?” I don’t think he took the joke too well.
[BIG MAC]
I didn’t really find Silph’s joke very funny.
[LYRA]
“Lyra, is there anything you haven’t told me?” Bon Bon asked me.
“Well,” I said, turning to Bon Bon. “Remember that story I told you of what happened to me when I was a filly?”
“No, not really.”
“Yeah, there’s kind of a reason for that.”
I then told Bon Bon all about when I explored the Slender Forest as a filly. About how I thought I’d finally find humans if I looked around. How I quickly learned the mistake I had made. How I found myself trapped inside a magic fence with some kind of monster chasing me. How I narrowly survived by collecting the pages scattered throughout the Forest. How I found the eighth page just barely before Slendermane caught me. How he got me anyway even though I had the last page in my saddlebag. How I woke up suddenly in my old house, as though the whole thing had been a nightmare. Nothing more, nothing less.
But it wasn't a nightmare. It was real.
“Wow,” Bon Bon said after I had finished my story. “Sounds like you had quite the fillyhood.”
The Slender stepped forward towards me. I jumped a little as he approached me, but I had to remember that he wasn’t truly one of them. “Lyra,” he said to me. “Do you want to come with us to make sure nopony has to suffer the same fate you did or worse?”
I looked up and felt my own eyes light up. “Really?” I asked. “That would be great.”
“Silph,” Big Mac said. “Don’t you think two ponies is enough to accompany you?”
The Slender (Silph was his name, apparently) turned around to face Big Mac. “Of course it is, but what if we had more than two? Strength in numbers, am I right?”
“I guess that’s a good idea,” Big Mac replied. “Come on, Lyra. You’re coming with us to talk to Twilight.”
I jumped up and trotted over to Applejack and Big Mac. “Wait!” Bon Bon shouted. “What about me?”
“I’ll be back,” I said to Bon Bon. “Don’t worry.” I then turned to Applejack. “Lead the way, AJ.”
The four of us (and Applejack’s dog, for some reason) then trotted out of my house and made our way towards the library.
I was galloping as fast as I could while still keeping my horn alight, but the Static and hoofsteps kept getting louder and closer. I was already very tired, but whatever was chasing me was going to catch me if I stopped galloping, and I couldn’t run in the dark with all these trees around. Before I even had a chance to consider my options, I tripped over a rock and fell to the ground below.
And my horn went out as well.