//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The Eight Pages // Story: Slendermane- Missing Sister // by Matthais Unidostres //------------------------------// Chapter 2: The Eight Pages Rainbow Dash landed in a clearing of the Everfree Forest just as Celestia finished lowering the Sun. Luna was already bringing the moon up over the horizon. The pegasus looked around at her surroundings, wondering why she had chosen this spot of all places to land. She also noticed how oddly quiet the forest seemed. She expected to hear animals chattering, Timberwolves howling, anything. But the forest was dead silent tonight. "Okay," Dash said to herself, "Now what?" The answer to that question was obvious: find Scootaloo. However, Dash suddenly realized that she had no plan whatsoever. Remaining calm, Dash decided that he should start with seeing what Goldie Delicious had given her. So she dug into the saddlebags and searched through them. The first item was an ordinary flashlight. Handy. The next item was looked like a plain black photo album with eight plastic sleeves. Odd. And finally there was a pair of goggles, similar to the ones she wore when flying at the Wonderbolt Academy. Curious, Rainbow Dash put the clear goggles on. She looked around the forest with them, not seeing any difference in vision, until suddenly, her vision blurred slightly, and a high pitch squawking noise echoed in her head. Rainbow recoiled in shock, but didn't turn away from the section of the forest she was looking in. As she stared off in that direction, the blur of the goggles stayed. Rainbow Dash wasn't a genius like Twilight, but she could figure out what this meant. "He's that way," she said to herself. And so, with only the light of the flashlight, due to the trees blocking the light of Luna's moon, Rainbow Dash walked on, deeper into the Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash had been walking for a few long minutes without seeing or hearing a thing. Even the blur of the goggles had gone away. Just when she thought she was going the wrong way, Dash spotted something in the light shining from the flashlight sticking out of her saddle bag. Her heart leapt. It was a piece of paper, stuck to a tree. Rainbow sprinted over to it and reached it in seconds. She looked at it long and hard, the sight of it bringing a mixture of both hope and fear to her heart. "Scoots. . ." Dash said softly, her mind moving at sonic speeds. Did Scootaloo leave this message? Had she escaped from Slendermane? Was she still caught? Was she still alive? Rainbow Dash shook her head to clear it, "Keep it together, Dash," she said to herself. She then looked at the page hanging on the tree. "Wait a minute," she said, and she took out the photo album from her saddle bags. "I wonder. . ." she said thoughtfully. She then shrugged her shoulders, took the page off of the tree, and slipped it into one of the albums' plastic sleeves. Thump. . .Thump. . .Thump. . .Thump. . . Rainbow Dash felt her hair stand on end as she looked around frantically. Nothing. . . Rainbow breathed out slightly, and started walking in a random direction, hoping that she'd find something. She walked through the forest, scanning her surrounding for clues. Hoof prints, stands of hair, anything that could lead her to her little sister. "Come on. . .where are you?" Rainbow breathed out softly. After a few minutes of walking, Rainbow Dash spotted another sheet of paper attached to a tree. "I knew it," she remarked as she ran up to it and read its message. "I get it," Rainbow Dash said darkly as she took the paper and put it into the book, "This is all game to you, isn't it!" Rainbow called out to the forest at large, a rage filled expression on her face, "Well I'm not leaving you alone! I'm getting my sister back! you hear me!?" Her only answer was her own echo in the dead silent forest. "Heh-heh. . ." Dash laughed nervously, and she pressed on. After a few minutes, Dash found herself amid a section of trees that were cut halfway up. It was as if a giant pair of scissors came down and snipped off the tops of a whole bunch of trees. "What the hay?" Dash said in shock, "What happened here?" However, her shock was soon forgotten when she saw another page on one of the cut trees. "I'm not here to run," Rainbow said. Suddenly, a low droning noise echoed through the woods. Rainbow Dash shuddered in spite of herself. Rainbow soon came across a pair of large white rocks. Looking at them reminded here of the story of how Rarity got her Cutie Mark, causing a quick smile to pass across her face. She also noticed another page stuck to one of the rocks. Rainbow gave it a quick look over and put it in the book. She then decided to check the other side of the rock. The pegasus mare walked around the rock, wondering if she could find another clue. And there it was. The grating sound came back at full force, her vision blurring through her goggles as she caught sight of the faceless stallion. Before she even knew what was happening, Rainbow Dash found herself running as fast as possible, not daring to look back. She ran and ran, her mind focused on putting as much distance between her and the pale stallion. Before long, she found herself leaning against an abandoned wooden cart, putting a hoof onto it to support her as she breathed heavily. Suddenly, tears sprung unbidden to her eyes. "I ran! I ran away like a coward! I was supposed to fight that thing! I was supposed to save my little sister!" she thought angrily. She beat at her head with her hooves, angered at herself for her cowardice. After the third hit, she stopped in mid strike, ruffled her mane, and slapped her face a few times. "Keep it together Dash," she told herself, "Think about it. If you look at it, you die. You had to ru- retreat. If this is a game, then maybe. . .Scoots is the prize." Regaining her confidence, Rainbow Dash stood up straight and gave a determined nod. "I'm gonna find the rest of those pages!" She turned to the cart, and lo and behold, there was another page. By the light of her flashlight, Rainbow Dash came across what looked like an abandoned camp site. The fire was nothing put a pile of charred wood, and the tents were old and falling apart, with wide gaping holes in them. Rainbow gulped, her imagination conjuring up an image of a group of friends camping out, like when she, Rarity, Applejack, and all their sisters had camped out; midnight their own business until Slendermane appeared. The mare shuddered, doing her best to push those thoughts out of her head with the memory of that night when Scootaloo became her sister, when she had both literally and figuratively taken the little orange pegasus under her wing. That felt nicer than she had expected to be. Perhaps it was because she hated being alone, and with Scootaloo as her little sister, she'd never be alone again. Or at least, so she thought. Rainbow Dash focused her mind back on the task at hand, and looked around the campsite. "Gotcha," she said as she snatched up a page stuck to the backside of the canvas tent. The thought of the creature's face sent shivers down Dash's spine. Or was it the sudden ghostly breeze that began blowing through the area? Dash suddenly became aware of how her goggles were blurring slightly. Against her better judgement, she peeked out from behind the tent. She could see Slendermane standing a midst the trees. Rainbow Dash ran without a second thought. "Have to get away. Have to survive. Have to win! For Scoots," she thought resolutely. Rainbow Dash skidded to a halt when she came across a harrowing sight. It was a huge tree. A huge dead tree. While everything else around it was green and full of life, this tree was gray and bare. "I wonder if he life in this thing," Dash thought to herself, half as a joke and half as a serious question. Dash cautiously walked around the trunk of the creepy dead tree. To her delight, she spotted the seventh page. "Great," Dash said, snatching up the page and sticking it in the black album, "One more page and-." Dash stopped dead in his tracks when he got a good look at what was on the page. Dash's heart began to pound harder and faster than ever before. This page seemed to instill a new level of fear in her. And then, Dash heard the high pitched noise. The noise that went off over and over again. The noise that mingled with the howling wind and thumping sounds to create a symphony of terror. Rainbow Dash took a few steps forward, and Slendermane was there. Too frightened to scream, Rainbow Dash just soundlessly turned and ran as fast as she could off into the forest, the sounds around her getting louder and louder as she ran. Time and time again she would catch glimpses of the tall figure in the woods around her. One time, he appeared right in her path, and she had to roll to the side quickly to avoid him. "Come on, come on, come on! Where is it? Where-?" Rainbow thought, but was interrupted when she came to the edge of a cliff. She slid to a halt just in time. She turned to check if Slendermane was still following her, but that's when she saw it. On a nearby tree. The final page. "YES!" Rainbow shouted, running to the tree, snatching up the page, and slipping it into the final plastic sleeve of the album. Rainbow Dash shut the book closed, and at that very moment, all the noises stopped. She blinked her eyes as silence rang out around her. "Did I do it? Is that it? Will he let Scootaloo go now?" Dash thought hopefully. Not sure of what to do, Rainbow started walking alongside the cliff's edge, wondering what she should do now that she had won Slendermane's game. But then, at that very moment, an irresistible force seemed to grab Rainbow Dash and spin her around, bringing her face to face with Slendermane. Rainbow felt her mind begin to break as she stared at blank faced stallion, tentacles slithering out from his back. Rainbow Dash couldn't move. She was hypnotized by the horrifying figure, even though the blur that the goggles provided. Just as the evil tentacles were about to lash out at the mare, she suddenly regained control of her body, reached into her saddlebag, and pulled out the book of pages, holding it in front of her like a shield. She closed her eyes tightly and backed up. . .and fell over the edge of the cliff. It wasn't a straight drop, so she bounced onto the rocky surface a few times, still clutching the book as she tumbled down, down, down; until she hit her head on a rock and everything went black.