Rainbow Dash soared over the woods on the outskirts of Ponyville. She was currently on break from her job and was looking for a good place to nap. Since all of the clouds were cleared, the next best napping spot would be on a tree, and what better selection would there be than the trees from the woods.
As Dash neared a river, she saw a strange sight. She recognized the weird shape as Silver, but he had his jacket’s hoodie over his head and he seemed to be sneaking toward a tree.
“What the hay?” Dash said, wondering what the human was doing. She swooped down and floated right behind him. Dash tapped his shoulder with a hoof, and the human jumped in fright. He quickly turned around and saw a grinning Dash.
“Well aren’t you twitchy this morning.” Dash said, snickering slightly after scaring Silver, who didn’t find it as funny.
“You mind warning a guy before giving him a heart attack.” Silver whispered.
“Why are you whispering?” Dash said curiously.
Silver pointed above him. Dash looked up and saw a bee’s nest.
Dash blinked, “Really? You’re scared of bees?”
“If bees stung you in the back of your neck when you were a kid, then you would know my fear.” Silver said. He turned back and began to walk toward the bee-infested tree.
“If you’re so scared, then why don’t you just leave?” Dash asked as she followed Silver.
“Because of that.” Silver said as he pointed to the base of the tree. Dash looked and saw a couple of light brown flowers.
“Apparently those are ambrosia flowers.” Silver explained, “Fluttershy asked me if I could go looking for these flowers, and stupid me said okay. She never said that bees were very fond of the flowers.”
Silver slowly sneaked toward the flowers, keeping an eye on the bees above. He bent down, picked the flowers, pocketed them, and slowly backed away.
“Wow, you’re such a scaredy human.” Dash said as she watched Silver quicken his retreat, “You’re literally a million times their size.”
“That doesn’t mean they still can’t sting me. In fact, my size just gives them an easier target.” Silver said stoically. He walked away and Dash followed him,
“Hey, if anything ever scares or annoys you, just do what I do and chuck it.” Dash said.
Silver stopped and stared at Dash, “You said ‘annoy’, right?”
“Yep.”
Silver stared at Dash for a second before picking her and chucking her to the river. Dash was so surprised that she didn’t have time to regain her balance, so she plunged into the river.
Silver was staring at where the pegasus disappeared when he heard somepony call his name. He turned to face up river and he saw a raft carrying Pinkie Pie and the Apple family.
“Hey, Silver!” Pinkie called, “Whatcha doin?”
“Doing some stress-relieving exercise.” Silver said, looking very relaxed, “What are y’all doing.”
“We’re gonna go see if Pinkie here is a real Apple family member.” Applejack said, giving Pinkie a pat on the head.
Silver blinked, “Wow, you ponies are a reality show’s wet dream.”
“Does the dream involve frosting?” Pinkie said excitingly.
“Only in a clopper’s dream.” Silver said. He then waved goodbye as the raft went down the river, sending the ponies on their crazy adventure. After the Apples and Pinkie disappeared, Dash burst out of the river and glared at Silver.
“What was that for?!” Dash shouted.
“How are you not out of breath?” Silver asked, confused, “You were under for a minute or so.”
Dash’s nostrils flared. She flew out of the river and past Silver. She then proceeded to kick him in the back, sending him flying to the river.
“Let’s see how you like it.” Dash said as the human plunged into the river. Silver popped back up and was frantically splashing.
“Crap!” Silver yelled, “I can’t swim! Crap!”
Dash stared at Silver in a condescending way, “Silver, just stand up. It’s like five feet deep and the water is calm.”
Silver splashed for a couple more seconds before finally standing up. He breathed a sigh of relief when his head was above water level.
“Is there anything you aren’t afraid of?” Dash asked when Silver walked out of the river and onto shore.
“I’m not afraid of rocks.” Silver said as he took another sigh of relief.
“Wow, you’re more Fluttershy than Fluttershy. Now, apologize.” Dash said, her glare returning.
“For what?” Silver snapped.
“For throwing me into the river.”
Silver stood up at full height and stared down at Dash, “What about when you left me strung up by my legs and surrounded by vengeful mares? Why don’t you apologize for that?”
Dash stared at Silver as though he grew a second head, “Are you still on that?”
“It happened three days ago!” Silver shouted.
“Geez! I said I was sorry.” Dash exasperated.
“You said that you’re glad I was okay, which is not apologizing!”
“Oh my Celestia.” Dash said annoyingly, “Has Rarity been teaching you how to be a drama queen?”
“You know what?” Silver said, “I’m done. I know that friendship is magic, or something, but it looks like there is no friendship here. So goodbye!” Silver yelled and stormed off.
Dash looked at Silver walking away and rolled her eyes, “Are all humans this easy to upset?” she asked herself.
________________________________________
“How is she anybody’s favorite?” Silver thought aloud as he walked through the woods, still fuming after his meeting with Rainbow, “She’s an arrogant prick that would probably sell out other ponies if she wasn’t given the element of loyalty.”
He looked around, trying to remember the way out. It was weird since he was sure he should have been out of the woods by now. As he pondered over which way to go, it dawned on him,
“God dammit.” Silver sighed, “I’m now a character who has just gotten into a heated argument with another character in a show about friendship.” Silver looked up with a bored expression, “Alright, give me the convoluted plot point. Come on, let’s get this over with. But I guarantee you that I won’t forgive Dash.”
Silver waited, but nothing happened. Scoffing slightly, he turned and walked away, only to slam head first into a tree. He cried in pain as he fell back, massaging his forehead. As his eyes watered with pain, he noticed that a piece of paper fell on his lap. He picked it up and looked at it, only to have the blood drain from his face.
On the paper, which was yellowed by age, were two large, ominous words,
Can’t run
“No!” Silver whispered. He scrambled to his feet and looked all around, “No, no, no!” was all the human could say. His mind was filled with images of a tall man with a blank face and a sharp suit. A man with extending tentacles and an enjoyment of killing.
Silver was now hyperventilating, “Come the buck on! This is a kids’ show! You’re telling me that Slenderman is here!” Silver tried to catch his breath, “Okay, let me think. All I have to do is find the other seven pages and…” he paused, “something will happen.” He finished lamely. He had no idea what would happen. All he did know was that staying still would only bring him a quicker death. He accepted his faith that he was alone with a monster.
That’s when Silver realized he wasn’t alone. There was somepony else in the woods,
“Oh no,” Silver gasped, “That idiot Rainbow Dash is going to get herself killed!”
He turned back to the direction he came from. Even if he was angry at Dash, he wasn’t angry enough to let her die,
“Dash!” he yelled as he looked in all directions, “Dash! Where are you?!”
He ran into a small clearing and found Dash on the other side of it, staring at a tree curiously.
“NO!” Silver yelled, sprinting to the pegasus, “Don’t pick up that page.”
Dash scoffed, not realizing Silver’s frantic tone, “You can’t tell me what to do.”
She stuck out her tongue at him and Silver thought for a moment of just letting the ingrate take the page. He quickly squashed the idea. Picking up his speed, he pushed Dash aside and grabbed the next page, this one showing the slenderman surrounded by ‘no’s’.
“Why are you hitting me so much today?!” Dash snarled.
Silver turned to Dash and opened his mouth, but instead of saying something, he started to cough.
“Oh no.” Silver said in between coughs. His head then began to pound as his ears were filled with static and his vision became blurry.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Dash asked, “You alright?”
“Dash,” Silver groaned, “you have to listen.”
“I don’t know.” Dash said with an evil grin as she looked away. She didn’t comprehend the situation, “I’m still waiting for that apology.”
“Shut up for one second!” Silver shouted, “Please!”
“I suppose since you said please.” Dash said smugly. She turned to face and paused when she got a good look at him. The human was sweating heavily and his eyes were contracted.
“Are you alright?” Dash said, forgetting to be mean to Silver, “Did you eat some weird mushrooms or something?”
“No! Now listen,” Silver coughed, “Get out of here. Fly away as fast as you can. Find Twilight and tell her there is something very evil in the woods. If the worst comes to worst, tell her to not pick up any pieces of paper in the woods and to not try to find my body-”
“Whoa there!” Dash said, now positively alarmed, “What’s with the whole ‘not to try to find your body’ stick? That’s probably the mushrooms talking. Let’s get you to Ponyville and-”
She tried to place a hoof on Silver, but he quickly swatted it. Dash tried again, but then stopped,
“Hey,” she said, looking beyond Silver, “who’s that?”
Silver gulped. He slowly turned around and saw his reaper: Slenderman, standing menacingly at the edge of the clearing.
“RUN!” Silver shouted. He grabbed Dash and threw her into the air. Before the pegasus could recover, Silver ran into the woods again. Sprinting as fast as he could, he weaved through the woods until he was sure he bought himself some time. He tried to think of a plan, but all that came to his head was, ‘I’m going to die’.
He tugged the collar of his shirt in anxiousness when he felt a string. Not just a string, the angel coin’s string.
“I’m saved!” Silver cried in joy as happy tears rolled down his face. He unhooked his angel coin with fumbling fingers and took in a deep breath, “I wish that Slenderman was gone. Right!” Silver flipped the coin, caught it, and then saw the angel holding his left hand up. That left hand might as well have been a middle finger.
“I wish I knew where the pages of slenderman are located! Left!” Silver said in desperation. He flipped, caught, and saw the angel holding his right hand up.
“Come on!” Silver said, “I’m literally going to die! I know you are really low on energy, but please, help me! I wish Slenderman was gone! Right!”
Again, the angel was raising his left hand. Before Silver could panic anymore, his vision was beginning to blur again. Without any other options, he ran deeper into the woods, in a search for the other pages.
________________________________________
The trees were becoming denser and denser until they blocked out nearly all of the sunlight. After was seemed like forever, Silver leaned against a tree, trying to catch his breath. His side was splitting and there were cuts all over his clothes.
“Almost there.” He gasped as he looked at the seven pages in his hands. The strange thing was that after the seventh page, his vision hadn’t gotten blurry in a while and there was no static in his ear. This gave Silver hope that maybe the monster finally left.
He breathed a sigh of relief, only to have a sudden fit of coughing, Almost instantly, his vision and hearing were on the fritz. He looked around and saw the creature a couple feet away.
“Oh just go back to hell!” Silver growled. His fear for Slenderman was now coupled with the annoyance of having to play its awful game. The creature didn’t seem to like Silver’s words, since he extended a black tentacle from his back and it went rocketing toward Silver.
The human barely jumped out of the way and the tentacle annihilated the tree he was resting on and a couple other trees. Silver waved the dust away and began to crawl away. As he tried to escape, he saw, just a couple of meters away, the final page on one of the fallen trees. He weakly crawled toward the page, but the Slenderman stepped in front of him.
Silver’s vision and hearing were now all but gone. He couldn’t utter a single plea since the coughing was now almost unbearable. So he stayed on the ground and just waited for death.
‘So this is how it ends.’ Silver thought, ‘Tired, alone, and hungry while a jackass in a suit uses his tentacles to pierce my body. All in all, not the worst way to go.’
Slenderman bent down to the human, but the creature was suddenly sent flying away by an unseen force.
‘Dammit God,’ Silver thought, ‘stop teasing me with false hope.’
He suddenly felt himself being lifted up into the air. As his vision and hearing returned, he looked at what was carrying him. He was shocked to see that it was Rainbow Dash, and she appeared to be talking,
“-really lucky you’re not a fat guy!” Dash grunted as she carried Silver out of the wood, “Or else this would be really difficult.”
“I’ve eaten nothing but fruit since I came to Equestria,” Silver said weakly, “If anything, I lost weight.”
“It’s really hard to tell.” Dash joked as she finally managed to lift the human above the tree line and into the sunlight.
“How in Equestria did you find me?” Silver asked.
“Well it’s kind of hard to miss that.” Dash said, pointing down below. Silver looked and saw that Slenderman had knocked down so many trees that it left an identifiable crater.
“Where’s Twilight?” Silver asked.
“Probably back at the library.” Dash said, “For your information, I don’t follow orders. So instead of listening to you, I decided to go looking for you. It’s a good thing you’re so hard to be taken seriously, or else you’d probably be that thing’s dinner.”
“Thank you, Dash.” Silver muttered, “Thank you.”
“Don’t get sappy on me now, Silver.” Dash scolded, “Because I don’t do sappy.”
Silver chuckled. He was finally able to relax for about five seconds before a large, black tentacle went shooting toward Dash.
“Look out!” Silver yelled as he spotted the tentacle. Dash turned to see it in time to dodge it.
“Where did that thing come from?!” Dash said.
“From Slenderman!”
“But we’re high in the sky!”
“It doesn’t matter.” Silver said, his pessimism setting in, “It can stretch his tentacles for who knows how far. Dash, he only wants me, so just-”
“Don’t give me than ‘self-less hero’ garbage!” Dash barked as she quickened her speed, “I’m not going to abandon you, so shut up! Besides, I’m much quicker than anything this slender-thing could throw at me.”
At that moment, another large tentacle torpedoed out of the woods below. This one was much longer than the last one and it continued to grow. Soon, it was towering over the pegasus and the human.
“Um, Dash.” Silver said weakly as the tentacle tower quickly began to drop on the two, “we got trouble.”
“I know!” Dash said. She flew even faster than before, but she was still unable to get past the descending tentacle.
“For the love of all things holy!” Silver yelled when the black mass was almost upon them, “Stop flying straight and move left or right!”
“Well duh!” Dash said, but by the look on her face, she hadn’t thought of that. She swerved to her left, but the tentacle easily turned direction and landed a perfect hit on the pegasus. Dash cried in pain as she and Silver were swatted out of the sky.
“Hold on, Silver!” Dash cried as she tried to regain flight. She looked to the human and saw that he appeared to be completely petrified.
“You really are afraid of a lot of things.” Dash noted. She looked below and saw that they were heading straight for a raging river, which lead to a large waterfall.
“Of course.” Dash muttered darkly at her and the human’s predicament. She extended her wings and tried to reduce the speed of their fall as best she could. The landed hard into the river and were immediately swept by the current. Dash dragged her and the human back to the surface only to collide with a massive rock. The pegasus cried in pain as her right wing seared with pain.
“And this just keeps getting better and better!” Dash said through her teeth. She was sure her wing was sprained. Dash held Silver up by his face and shook him vigorously, “Wake up already!” Dash said, “I need some help.”
She then proceeded to smack Silver’s face.
*Smack*
*Smack* *Smack*
*Smack* *Smack* *Smack*
Silver’s eyes shot opened, “Who? What? When? Where? Why? And how?” he said in confusion.
*Smack* *Smack* *Smack* *Smack*
“Ow!” Silver cried as he massaged his face, “What was that for?!”
“Sorry, force of habit.” Dash said, smiling slightly, “Now that you got some beauty sleep, which you really did need, you can help me save your life!”
Silver quickly looked around at their current predicament, “Can’t you fly us out?”
Dash showed him her busted wing and he sighed, “Is everything in this world trying to kill us?”
“Quit being so pessimistic, Silver.” Dash said, “Since you can’t swim, I’m gonna need some support to get us to shore. Try to look for something we can use.”
“Like this?” Silver said, holding a large vine that was connected to a tree on land.
“How in Equestria did that get here?” Dash said in awe.
“Deus Ex Machina.” Silver said, “Now climb on my back while I pull us to shore.”
“Why can’t I pull us to shore?”
Silver twiddled his fingers, “Because evolution. Now shut up and hop on.”
Dash rolled her eyes good-naturedly and hopped onto Silver’s back. The human took a deep breath before he began to slowly pull them back to land.
“Finally,” Dash said as they neared the shore, “something good happened for a change.”
Silver immediately stopped pulling and turned back to Dash, “Why would you say that?” he said worriedly.
Dash raised an eyebrow, “What’s wrong?”
Her answer came when the vine Silver was holding began to rip from the tree’s branch.
“That.” Silver said tiredly as he pointed to the nearly torn vine. He then chuckled darkly, “I swear, Dash, this friendship-filled world is going to be the death of me.”
The vine snapped and the two were instantly swept by the river. They screamed for what seemed like an eternity until they reached the waterfall. Silver’s mind was blank. All he knew was that Dash was on clinging around his neck and he was still holding the long vine. As the human and pegasus fell with the waterfall, the vine in Silver’s hand somehow snagged in between two rocks, quickly stopping there plummet.
Dash blinked a couple of times as though not daring to believe her eyes, “We’re alive.”
“Oh thank whatever God there is!” Silver said. He looked at the vine, “I love you, viney. If you were a woman, I would marry you in a heartbeat.”
Dash snorted, “You kind of snapped, didn’t you?”
“Just a bit.” Silver said and then laughed hysterically, “Oh my God!”
“Anyways,” Dash said, unsure whether the human was still right in his head, “now what do we do?”
Silver looked up and down and judged that they were about half way down the waterfall. Below them was another river and a small forest.
“Are your wings okay enough to glide down to those trees?” Silver asked, pointing below.
Dash judged the distance, “I doubt I could carry you for that long.”
“Then how about just yourself.”
Dash scoffed, “Seriously! You’re still on that.”
“Damn it, Dash.” Silver said, “I’m a dead man walking. I needed to get the eight pages of Slenderman so that monster would leave me alone, but I lost the seven pages I had when we crashed into the river. So might as well save yourself and leave me to die in piece.”
“Are all humans this melodramatic?” Dash asked.
“That’s racist.”
“Whatever. Can’t you just use your angel coin to wish us to the ground?”
Silver looked at Dash, “How did you about the angel coin?”
Dash shifted uncomfortably, “Um, lucky guess?”
“So you and the other ponies were eavesdropping on Twilight and I during my first night here!”
“Enough about the past! Just get us down there.”
“Fine.” Silver took his angel coin and flipped it, “I wish Dash and I were on the ground. Right!” Silver caught the coin and it was left.
“So it didn't work?” Dash asked.
“Yep.” Silver said sullenly, “And I can’t wish Slenderman away, so don’t ask.”
“Can’t you wish you can fly us down?”
Silver flipped the coin again, but the result was not in his favor.
“Why don’t you just carry us down?” Dash asked irritably.
Silver barked a laugh, “Are you serious? I can barely walk down a hill without tripping on my own feet. Do you really think I’m agile enough to scale down a cliff?
Dash looked at Silver, and then at the coin.
Silver sighed for what seemed like the millionth time, “Fine, I’ll fail again.” The human flipped the coin, “I wish I was agile. Left!” Silver caught the coin and, somehow, the angel showed the angel holding his left hand up.
“Sweet!” Dash said as she eyeballed the coin, “Now what?”
Silver didn’t answer. He was staring intently at the cliff wall. Before the wish, he just saw a bunch of rocks, but now, all he saw were stepping stones and platforms.
“Hang on, Dash.” Silver said as he placed the angel coin around his neck, “I’m about to be awesome.”
“I doubt that.” Dash said, but she did smile in anticipation.
“Goodbye, Viney” Silver said as he gripped the vine, “I’ll always remember you.”
Silver began to swing back and forth until he let go and grabbed onto a natural ledge on the cliff wall. He then quickly scaled down the Cliffside.
“We might actually make it.” Dash said, surprised.
“Well you might, but I’m not.” Silver said, “Since I’m probably gonna die soon; I should probably apologize for throwing you into the river.”
“Is there even any doubt that you shouldn’t?”
Silver laughed, “Alright, alright. I’m sorry a tossed you into the river.”
“Don’t sweat it. You could make it up to me when we get back home.”
Silver ignored that last part, “And I’m sorry that I was mad at you for letting those mares beat the ever-loving crap out of me.”
Dash looked confused, “Why are you apologizing for that? Shouldn’t I be the one doing that?”
“Nah, you don’t have to anymore. It turns out that having multiple near-death experiences causes a person to really think about their life. I realized that what you did wasn’t to spite me. It was to protect Twilight. You thought I was playing with her emotions, so you did what any good friend would do. I thought that you betrayed me, but you can’t really betray someone who isn’t your friend, right? I mean, I’m just some guy you just met.”
“Yep, the first time I saw you, all I saw was a suspicious, crazy, flailing monkey.” Dash said cheerfully, “But hey, that’s in the past. Now, I just think of you as an alright monkey.”
“So are we, like, friends now?”
“If you get us out of here, then you’ll be cool enough to be my friend.”
Before Silver could respond, his ears were filled with static and his vision was gone again. He screamed and lost his grip. Thankfully, he had already scaled down most of the cliff, so the fall was not too bad. Dash quickly got up and tried to get the human to stand, but he seemed to be having a seizure.
“RUN, DASH!” he yelled.
Rainbow turned around and was met face to face with the towering Slenderman. It stared at the two, which confused Dash,
“How in Equestria can you see if you don’t have any eyes?” The pegasus asked. Slenderman ignored that comment and walked toward the spazzing human. However, he was blocked by Rainbow.
“If you want to get to him, you gotta go through me first.” She said. She then used her one good wing to propel herself up and landed an uppercut on Slenderman’s face. The creature stood its ground, apparently unfazed by the attack.
“Oh, horse-feathers.” Dash said. The pegasus waited for the creature to make its move, but it didn’t. Instead, it just fell backwards and did not move.
Silver stopped flailing on the ground and got up. His senses were back and he saw Dash standing over Slenderman,
“Jesus, Dash!” Silver said in awe as he stood up and walked toward the pegasus, “What did you do?”
“I hit him.” Dash said coolly.
“With what?!”
“With this bad girl.” Dash said, gesturing to her right hook, “I’m gonna call this little beauty Falcon.”
Slenderman lifted its head and it held its chin. It seemed that it was in pain.
“How is your kind scared of this punk?” Dash asked the human, “I mean, I knocked it out with one hit!”
“No one has ever really punched Slenderman.” Silver said, astonished at what he was seeing, “We were all just too scare to get near it because of the things that happen to use when it is close by, but now…”
Silver took a deep breath, and then ran toward the pained creature. Silver then kicked Slenderman where its nose should have been and the monster was knocked down again.
“This is for all of the people you made piss their pants!” Silver said as he proceeded to kick the crap out of Slenderman, who couldn’t do much but wither in pain.
“Hey, don’t’ steal all the fun.” Dash said. She then began to punch Slenderman’s face, “This is for busting my wing!”
The two viciously beat Slenderman until they were sure he was out cold. They were exhausted, but happy.
“You think he’s still going to come after you?” Dash said as she stared down at Slenderman.
“After that beating, I doubt he’ll be going after anyone anytime soon.” Silver said. He looked down at Slenderman, the thing that had been stalking him all day. It gave him pleasure to see the creature beaten, but it wasn’t enough. Silver walked to the creature’s feet and began to take off its shoes.
“What are you doing?” Dash asked.
“I’m gonna take this bastard’s suit.”
“Is that some kind of human tradition? Do you take the clothes of your enemies?”
“You can say that.” Silver looked at Dash and smiled, “Wanna help, buddy?”
Dash laughed, “Sure thing, pal.” She then began to take off Slenderman’s coat. And so it was that Silver and Dash finally began to enjoy their strange bonding experience.