//------------------------------//
// Credits and Post-Credits Stinger: Hope for the Haunted 
// Story: Return to Slender 
// by Jade Ring 
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Return to Slender

By Jade Ring

Starring (In Order of Appearance)

The Princess Rarity as Disk Spin

nickwengz as Soda

Peter New as Big Macintosh Apple

Mad Hattie as Herself

RushingAutumnLeaves as Icy Ink

High Tide as Himself

vader10001 as Thunder Spark

Rubycast as Ruby

Swirling Line as Herself

Leo Heartship as Himself

??? as the Slender One

John de Lancie as "Discord"

Tabitha St. Germaine as "Granny Smith"

Illustrations By Swirling Line

Written by Jade Ring

Special Thanks to Everyone for being so patient.



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Leo Heartship and Swirling Line watched through the window as Appleloosa fell into chaos.

Shanties were torn apart and fastened into wagons. Families hawked what meager belongings they still had in hopes of gaining passage to someplace safe.

A foal the night before had received the dream.

It was coming for them.

By dawn of the next day, Appleloosa too would be a ghost town, it's residents and refugees gone in hopes of finding someplace safe from the specter that haunted their very existence.

Leo sighed and returned to his table. “Still no word?”

Swirling shook her head and returned. “It's been weeks, Leo. We would've heard something by now.”

Leo looked at his journal and pushed it away with a dejected hoof. “You should leave too, Swirling.”

The purple-striped mare gaped at him. “Why?”

“There's no hope for us now. You see them all fleeing, scurrying away like rats. That's what we've become, my friend; rats. We're now at the bottom of the food chain and nothing is ever going to change that.”

There was a knock at the door. Swirling made to answer it.

Leo stared at the wooden table. “No hope.” He heard the door open and Swirling Line's gasp but paid them no mind. “After all, what hope have we when even the gods have abandoned us?”

“But the gods have not abandoned thee, Master Heartship.”

Leo's neck snapped up to behold a stately midnight blue mare clad in a back hooded cloak. She tossed back the hood, revealing her flowing hair that seemed to be formed from the night sky itself. Her crown was gone, but there was no mistaking the regality in her stance or the defiant pride in her eyes.

“Pr... Princess Luna?” Leo stammered.

“Indeed.”

Swirling slumped to the ground. “But... but where did you go?”

A regretful look crossed Luna's face. “After our sister was taken, we knew that it would take magics beyond our own to set things right. It took us a bit longer than anticipated to find who we needed to find.”

“...and who is that?”

“This creature is not the only being in this world that feeds on fear.” The voice was cold and insect-like. It's owner stepped into the shanty behind Luna and grinned, her wings buzzing slightly. “Some of us prefer to feed on other emotions as well.” Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings offered the stunned stallion a wink.

“Bah, emotions.” Luna's shadow slid away from her and climbed the wall. A powerful jet black stallion clad in armor emerged from the darkness and glared at Leo with burning green eyes. “Emotions only hold you back. I will do what is asked of me so long as I am given what I was promised.” King Sombra turned his eyes to Luna, particularly to the curved red horn that now hung from her neck.

“Quite a merry band, aren't we?” The mocking voice became audible just as the floating form of the last Draconequus became visible. Discord took in the dropped jaws of the two ponies in the room and laughed. “Now, seeing as Lu-Lu only just released me from my stone prison, perhaps you can tell me.” His yellow eyes focused on Leo.

“Tell you...?”

With a snap of his fingers, Discord flashed across the room and right into Heartship's face. “Tell me; what has become of my little ponies?”

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The Slender One Will Return
Halloween 2014