//------------------------------// // Part 8: Making Progress // Story: Lost in a Terrifying World // by Erisn //------------------------------// Twilight raced up the road to Sweet Apple Acres, following Rainbow Dash as quickly as she could. She could have flown of course, but Twilight was still new to the whole flying thing, and crashing would have wasted precious seconds she didn’t have. Twilight was also preparing a list of spells to cast in her mind. She hadn’t had much time to study after Spike had finally convinced her to stop rocking back and forth in the corner of the library. But what she had done was go instantly to the section of her library devoted to offensive magic, and memorize some of the nastiest hexes and curses she could find. Her selection of books in this genre was sadly limited however, and Twilight was unsure that her spells would harm the Slender Man in any case. Still, maybe they could distract him from Applejack long enough to Rainbow Dash to fly her away. Sweet Apple Acres came into view as the same time as Twilight saw Slender Man standing over Applejack, who was lying prone on the ground. One of his tendrils was touching Applejack on her temple, and her friend looked unnaturally pale and colorless, almost as if she had been Discord-ed again. Twilight’s first inclination was to cast a modified version of Starswirl’s Flagrant Fireball and go from there, but Applejack would be in the line of fire. Rainbow Dash was hovering around Slender and Applejack, equally unsure of what to do. Twilight made a split-second decision and held off on spell casting for the moment. Instead, she tried shouting. “What are you doing?” Twilight screamed at the Slender Man. Not surprisingly, Slender made no move, but instead kept his tendril in contact with Applejack’s head. Twilight was about to order Rainbow Dash to grab Applejack while she started tossing fireballs, when she noticed what was truly happening. When Slender had touched Applebloom the first time with a tendril, her coat had paled to a deathly white as her body slowly corrupted itself into a copy of Slender Man’s form, with the side effects of extreme agony and eventual death. The opposite was occurring here. Applejack’s coat was not losing color, but rather gaining it. Even as Twilight watched, the ghostly white-orange of Applejack’s skin changed into a pale orange, growing more vibrant with each passing moment. The source of this change seemed to be coming from where Slender’s tendril met Applejack’s forehead. The grey color permeating Applejack’s coat seemed to flow back up the tendril and into the Slender Man, leaving Applejack healthier with each passing second. Within a minute, Applejack’s coat was back to its normal orange color, and the pony was sitting up and groaning. “Ah feel like I just had a gallon of Flim Flam cider,” Applejack said as she got groggily to her feet. “What happened?” “You ate that twisted-looking apple thing and started shaking and twitching,” Rainbow Dash said. “You were turning grey, so I flew to get Twilight, but by the time we got back the Slender guy had taken the bad stuff away.” “Really?” Applejack craned her head to inspect her coat. “Ah don’t remember much after eatin’ that apple. All I know was that ah really wanted a bite, and then the next thing I know you’re all here.” “I’m just as confused as you are,” Twilight said. “But I think I understand something of what just happened. Applejack, you said you ate some kind of apple the Slender Man had?” “It was just a regular apple from the orchard,” Applejack said defensively. “But this Slender fellow touched it and it turned all grey and twisted. Ah didn’t think it looked good, but the more I stared at it, the more ah wanted ta eat it.” “Hmm.” Twilight looked at the Slender Man who seemed uncharacteristically timid. He had moved in that odd way of his away from Applejack after curing her, and was standing with his back to Twilight and the others. He appeared to be intently staring at an empty patch of the road. Struck by a sudden thought, Twilight carefully circumnavigated the Slender Man and found what his body had been obscuring. There on the ground lay the deviant apple, a generous bite missing from its shape. It was indeed grey, twisted, and oddly appetizing. Twilight hastily averted her eyes. “This is the apple, Applejack?” Twilight asked. “Yup. Ah’d say don’t eat it, but I reckon you got that already. Don’t stare at it too long neither – that’s how it got me.” “I felt the hypnotic effect,” Twilight said, shaking her head briskly. “I think we should dispose of it right away. I’ll have Spike breathe fire on it once we get back to Ponyville – dragon fire is notorious for its ability to destroy most objects. But more importantly: are you feeling bad in any way Applejack? Do you feel sick, or weak?” Applejack thought for a moment, running her hooves all over her body as if to check it. “Don’t feel like nothing’s wrong,” she said eventually. “I feel a might peculiar, but I reckon that nearly dyin’ will do that to a pony.” “We should get you checked out anyways,” Twilight said. “We’ll get you back to my house where we can run a few tests, alright? After that, I think you should rest for a bit, regardless.” “Ah feel perfectly fine, but ah suppose we’d best be careful.” “Good, glad that’s settled.” Twilight turned and fixed the Slender Man with a glare that could have skewered a porcupine. “Now, I’d like to hear from you, Mr. Slender Man. What do you have to say for yourself?” ---- Slender Man stood facing a tree. All things considered, it wasn’t a bad tree to stare at. It was one of Sweet Apple Acre’s finest, an ancient tower of leaves and bark that was taller than even the Slender Man. But, despite the many sterling qualities of this tree, from its potential for life, its solidarity even in the face of losing its children to harvest each year, and its natural beauty which graced the landscape…it was still just a tree. Slender had gotten tired of staring at it after five seconds, but he had been forced to look at it for the last twenty minutes. This was because staring at the tree was Slender’s punishment. His punishment. He, Slender, was forced to stand and stare at a tree simply because he had nearly caused the death of a pony. It was inconceivable, and unfair. Slender had tried to protest, of course, when Twilight had ordered him to stand in a corner of the orchard, but to no avail. In vain, he had tried to convey the natural superiority of the eldritch-kind. He had attempted to insist upon the natural rights he possessed. Yet, despite his carefully thought-out gesticulations with his tendrils, Twilight had simply pointed and Slender had went. Slender wondered whether he was allowed to turn around and look at something else besides the bark. It was so unfair, too. Slender might have given, okay, had given a dangerous consumable containing a powerful hypnotic agent to Applejack, but he had cured her as well! But no, all Twilight would talk about as she lectured him for the better part of twenty minutes was the ‘irresponsible nature’ of his actions, and the ‘careless disregard for ponykind.’ Completely unfair, but what could you do about it? Slender shifted uncomfortably. Technically, he could do a lot about it, including but not limited to destroying the entire orchard along with Twilight and the rest of Ponyville. But he had promised Fluttershy, and so that was out of the question. He could certainly turn around however – nobody was watching him. But he didn’t because… …Because the tree was very interesting, that was why. Certainly not because he didn’t want to break his promise. And certainly not because he actually intended to obey Twilight in any respect. No, of course not. He was just a bit perturbed, that was all. Applejack’s near-death experience had been a well-intentioned mistake on his part, certainly nothing too serious, but Slender could admit he carried a teensy, microscopic bit of blame. But it wasn’t really his fault, of course. Applejack was entirely at fault for eating the apple. Naturallys. Slender felt a bit uncomfortable. There was a twisting, antsy feeling bubbling up in where his stomach would have been were he human, and Slender couldn’t help but feel…a tad bit guilty. Only a smidgen. But it wasn’t a fun experience, for all it was a new sensation to the Slender Man. He wished it would go away, but whenever his mind jumped back to Applejack’s illness, he felt it again. It was very odd. Slender just wished Twilight would return, so he could stop staring at the tree. Maybe she was still tending to Applejack, although Slender was sure, sure that he had removed all traces of the Slender Apple. Probably. Now that he thought of it, maybe he had missed a bit on the tenth-dimensional matrix. It might be better if he went and took another look at Applejack. Just to double-check. Obviously, he wouldn’t give a toss whether she died, but he wouldn’t want to have left a job undone. That would be terrible. Slender was just about to go and look for Applejack and Twilight, but a thought held him back. Twilight had wanted, or rather, asked, well…told him to stay and stare at the tree. But surely looking for Applejack and inspecting her health was acceptable as an excuse. But would Twilight think of it that way? She might decide to make him stare at another tree. Maybe she would tell Fluttershy. Slender decided to stare at the tree for a while longer. It wasn’t every day that you saw such a magnificent specimen such as this one. Definitely worthy of longer inspection. Slender wondered whether he was allowed to switch trees. He really wished Twilight would hurry up and come back… ---- Rainbow Dash soared through the sky over Sweet Apple Acres, searching for the Slender Man. She found him where he had last been, staring at a tree. It was quite a boring tree, in Dash’s personal opinion. However, it would be fair to point out that in Dash’s opinion, all trees were boring unless they were A: full of zap apples, or B: ready to be picked so that the Apple family could make some cider. Still, the Slender guy seemed to be enjoying the view, at least as far as Dash could tell. She gave a mental shrug. Maybe he really liked trees. That was probably in keeping with his character. As far as Dash was concerned, this Slender Man was pretty boring, aside from the entire killing-ponies thing he had going on. He was grey, wore a boring suit, and couldn’t even move when you were watching him. He probably though trees were the most exciting things around. Well, Dash was about to introduce him to an entirely new level of awesome. Rainbow Dash dropped from the sky like a blue comet, effortlessly pulling up to hover before the Slender Man. He had been facing the tree, but when Dash blinked, he had somehow turned to face her. That was slightly creepy, and a bit cool, but Dash hid her surprise. “So, Applejack’s gonna be okay”, Rainbow Dash said. “Twilight is with her, and Applejack is just going to have a lie down for a while.” Dash looked at the Slender Man, but he gave no reaction. Weird. You’d have thought he’d be happy Applejack was better, but he gave no sign of it. Maybe he had wanted her to die? He could still be sneakily trying to murder everypony. Rainbow Dash would have to watch him carefully. “Anyways,” Rainbow Dash continued, “Twilight’s left me in charge of you for the moment, so I’m going to be showing you the only worthwhile thing in Ponyville: me.” The Slender Man made no reply. Rainbow Dash was starting to get a bit unnerved over all the silence, but she tried to cover it. She decided to abandon the small-talk entirely and give the Slender Man what for. It was time to show him who was the best in Ponyville. “I know you’re some kind of hotshot interdimensional evil monster-guy, but when you’re with me, you’d better watch your step. You may have been the scariest, most dangerous thing in every reality you’ve visited, but that was before you met me. ‘Cause I’m Rainbow Dash, the fastest pony in all of Equestria! And there is nopony, and no thing that’s cooler or more awesome than me. One step out of line, and I’ll take care of my own two hooves, you got that?” The Slender Man made no reply. Rainbow Dash cleared her throat somewhat nervously. Okay, maybe he was a bit scary, but she would show him that scary meant nothing compared to awesome. Besides, he had promised Fluttershy not to hurt anypony, hadn’t he? “Good, I see that you’re learning. You’ve had to listen to Twilight babble like an egghead, and look at a bunch of boring trees all day. For that you are to be commended. Now, I want you to take a deep breath, or whatever you normally do, and get ready to see the most awesome, incredible sight you have ever seen. You are about to witness…a sonic rainboom.” ---- Slender Man had been feeling down since the Applejack incident. That nagging feeling of...guilt…was still doing odd things to what might have been called his stomach. Rainbow Dash talking to him wasn’t helping matters in the slightest. Slender was not given to bragging in general, and detested it even among his fellow eldritch. It was one thing to be named a member of the Forgotten Circle in recognition of your acts of genocide, but quite another to brag about destroying some backwards civilization every few thousand years. But every time Slender met a Reaper, it kept repeating the same old story about how they had wiped out countless races of life in their small galaxy. The last race had been the Proteans, or something. Slender hadn’t seen a Reaper in a while though. Maybe they had gone off to another galaxy. Good riddance, as far as Slender was concerned. In Rainbow Dash’s case, Slender also confused. This was a state which he had come to be quite familiar with. As far as he could recall, he hadn’t even hurt Dash, yet she seemed overly antagonistic towards him. She also seemed to believe she was capable of besting him on her own, which was also a mystery. Rainbow Dash had smacked into the barrier surrounding the forest, and had nearly fallen to her death. Slender hadn’t lifted a tendril. If he wanted to kill her, Slender probably just had to stand and wait for her to kill herself. In fact, Rainbow Dash reminded Slender a bit of those flightless birds he had once encountered. They had all run away from him in terror, jumping off cliffs, hiding in bushes until they died of starvation, or trying to swim (and failing). They had exterminated themselves to the last bird, and he hadn’t even so much as touched one. Dodos, they had been called. Very odd, and very stupid. At least this Rainbow Dash could fly. And now she was going to show him something amazing. Some kind of sonic…‘rain boom’ she had called it? Slender understood how a sonic boom worked, although he thought it was quite silly, but he had no idea what a ‘rainboom’ entailed. Maybe it involved a sonic boom in the rain? However, Slender thought it was unlikely Rainbow Dash would even be able to pull off a sonic boom, much less breach the 100 mph. Her frame and wingspan wouldn’t allow her to reach speeds of anything more than— Rainbow Dash climbed into the sky like a rocket, shattering Slender’s predictions and also the law of aerodynamics. Within seconds, she was a dot in the sky. Slender watched, amazed, as the figure slowly stopped climbing, and then started to descend. Well, that was something at least. Amazing and impossible, but that was magic for you. Slender was slightly impressed at Dash’s speed; if he had been chasing Rainbow Dash in the game, she might have really given him some trouble. But Rainbow Dash was plummeting now, and somehow managing to increase speed as she hurtled towards the ground. Slender watched, fascinated, as a Mach cone started to form around the pegasus. She might actually pull off a sonic boom after all. Quite amazing for a flesh-and-blood creature such as herself. A bit of a shame, though. Slender wasn’t much for physics, and even then, breaching the sound barrier wasn’t that interesting. If she could’ve breached the light barrier, that might have attracted Slender’s interest, but a mere sonic boom was slightly underwhe— The Mach cone suddenly formed a diagonal streak, and Rainbow Dash accelerated to nearly twice her speed. That wasn’t the amazing part though. The amazing part started when the space around Rainbow Dash seemed to condense for moment, and then exploded, sending a wave of prismatic light in every direction. Red, orange, yellow, green…in fact, it was seven colors, radiating outwards in a blast of color, sound, and…awesomeness. Slender was speechless. He was also amazed. His first coherent thought as the light washed over him could be approximated as ‘wow'. The second thought that emerged was that the sight he was seeing was impossible. However, a third though speeding through Slender’s entire being in no small way was ‘ow.’ Light hurts the eldritch. In theory, it shouldn’t. Light is just electromagnetic radiation, and only at a certain wavelength. It’s not that impressive to any being that can stand in the heart of a nuclear explosion and feel nothing. But common belief makes light dangerous. In fact, light was one of the most deadly substances to the eldritch for this reason, up there with silver, stakes through the heart, crosses, and garlic. All of these things were the focus of common belief, and thus had the potential to harm or even kill wierd things. Slender wasn’t a huge fan of light in any case. He could tolerate it in small doses, but he was definitely a night monster. Light gave him mild nausea on really sunny days, but he could still handle being hit with a spotlight if worst came to worse. But this? This was a rainbow. Rainbows are almost universally regarded as symbols of luck, home, and happiness, and Slender had just gotten a full-frontal of pure positive energy as it were. That hurt. The expanding rainbow of light from Rainbow Dash’s sonic rainboom was nearly fading by the time the pegasus managed to loop back and return to the Slender Man. She was wearing a pleased expression – closer to a smirk, in truth. “Well, what do you think? Am I or am I not the coolest pegasus in all of Equestria?” She asked. Slender was still not over the pain. Being slapped by happiness in the face was worse than being kicked by cruelty in the gut. And this Rainbow Dash expected him to appreciate her sonic rainboom? This was clearly some kind of assault. Slender felt like expressing his displeasure. He wouldn’t kill her of course, but tearing off a wing would certainly help his feelings. But he didn’t do it. The effects of the rainbow still hurt the Slender Man, but what stayed his wrath wasn’t his promise to Fluttershy, or his love of prismatically-colored ponies. It was admiration. Slender had seen many things. Exploding stars, constellations up close, wonders of magic and science and faith. But he had never seen a sonic rainboom. That had been pretty awesome. It might even have been worth the pain. Before the light of the rainbow had hit the Slender Man, he had stared at the explosion of light and color, and had felt even a bit of…envy. Rainbow Dash relaxed in midair, seemingly unperturbed by Slender’s silence. “Yeah, I know. It’s hard to be me sometimes,” she said. “But y’know, sonic rainbooms aren’t actually that hard to pull off. I mean, nopony else can do it but me, but that’s their problem. Anyways, if you thought that was cool, just wait until you see the rest of my tricks.” ‘Rest of her tricks?’ Slender couldn’t believe Rainbow Dash had any other tricks that would equal the sonic rainboom. He didn’t think Dash could hear his thoughts like Fluttershy, but somehow she was able to sense his doubt. “Oh, you don’t think I’ve got anything else?” Rainbow Dash flipped over in midair, and regarded the Slender Man with a grin. “Everybody thinks the sonic rainboom is my one cool trick. Please. I was plenty awesome before I did the sonic rainboom. Hold onto your tentacle-things, Slender Dude. You haven’t seen anything yet.” ---- Slender wondered whether he was dreaming. He hadn’t ever dreamed before, but nothing else could explain what he had witnessed over the last hour. Rainbow Dash’s performance in the sky had been the thing to see. It was amazing. Who knew a three-dimensional being could move like that? The Super-speed Struts had been cool enough, but the Filly Flash had taken Slender completely by storm. And when Rainbow Dash had ended with the Buccaneer Blaze…it was indescribable. Life for one of the eldritch was all about the game. They lived their lives by it; killing their prey and watching them try to escape, and occasionally simply drifting through space and time. But Slender had never simply stopped to watch something before. He had never paused without malice of forethought, and never looked at something except to wonder how to kill it. But he had watched Rainbow Dash soar through the sky for an hour, and it had lasted…forever. For one moment, Slender had forgotten the game. For a little while, he had stopped thinking about death and killing. For an instant, Slender Man had even forgotten being himself, and simply wondered what it was like to fly. Rainbow Dash glided gently to the ground and lay, panting heavily from her exertions. Her mane and coat was streaked with sweat, but she seemed just as energetic as before. “So…how was...that?” Rainbow Dash gasped at Slender. “Cool…or what?” Slender had no words, of course, but even had he the ability to speak he couldn’t have described what he had just seen. But fortunately, Rainbow Dash seemed to have no need to hear Slender’s congratulations. Maybe she understood his inability to speak. Perhaps she was cognizant of his moment of uncertainty, wonder, and awe at an experience he had never felt before. Maybe her ego was too large to deflate. Who knew? “Yeah, I thought so,” Rainbow Dash wheezed. “I guess you know…who the greatest pony in all of Ponyville is. Now, I’m a bit tired…I’m gonna lie down for a bit, okay?” And with that, Rainbow Dash closed her eyes, and was asleep in seconds. Slender briefly considered finding Twilight, but instead he decided to just stand there and wait for a while. He wanted to remember what he had just seen in the sky, and commit it to his memory. Not once did he glance at Rainbow Dash’s form except to recall her soaring through the sky. He never considered killing her for a moment, even when Rainbow Dash began to snore loudly. For just a little while, Slender soared through the sky in his mind. ---- When Twilight saw Slender standing over Rainbow Dash’s still form, she feared for the worst. That was, until she heard Rainbow Dash snoring. Twilight walked over slowly and nudged Rainbow Dash with one hoof. Her friend continued to snore. Twilight poked Dash again, and the pegasus turned over. When Twilight shook Rainbow Dash lightly, she got a wing to the face for her trouble. Well then. Twilight leaned down, and brought her mouth level with one of Dash’s ears. “Rainbow Dash,” she crooned softly. “Oh, Dash?” Rainbow Dash turned slightly and mumbled, “Who is it?” “It’s me, Twilight. I have a message for you.” “N’ what’s that?” Twilight took a deep breath. “WAKE UP!” It is an interesting fact that the evolutionary biology of pegusus, earth ponies, and unicorns means that they had evolved unique habits and instinctual reactions specific to their kind. Twilight had always meant to do a comparative survey on the differences between each race’s reactions as part of her ongoing research into the link between the three species. Rainbow Dash’s reaction was everything typical of a pegasus pony. She shot up into the air like a rocket, not even pausing to stop to check where she was. Sadly, Rainbow Dash had chosen to rest beneath a tree, a sound move for any pony wanting the delicious cool shade of the evening, but a poor choice for any pegasus pony startled into the air. There was a thump and a crack as Rainbow Dash’s head met a tree branch. Fortunately for Rainbow Dash, her collision with the branch was at a much lower speed and momentum than the barrier she had hit while carrying Applejack and Applebloom. She was therefore only mildly stunned, and flopped to the ground in a heap. Twilight inspected her friend, making sure her skull was intact and that Rainbow Dash was semiconscious. She then trotted over and poked Rainbow Dash in the side again. “Hello Rainbow Dash, how are you doing?” Twilight inquired. “Did you have a good nap?” “Uhh…” moaned Dash. “That’s good to hear! Well, I’ve had a great day, thanks for asking. After I checked out Applejack magically for any residual effects, I went to Rarity’s to get ready for the Slender Man’s arrival. We got everything set, and we were just waiting for you to arrive.” Rainbow Dash twitched slightly, and Twilight continued in her friendly, happy tone of voice. “We decided to wait for about thirty minutes, plenty of time for you to finish your air show. And then we waited for another thirty minutes, just in case you were doing more tricks. After that, we waited again for another three hours for you to arrive. After that, we started looking for you, and have been searching all of Ponyville for the last hour. Imagine my surprise when I found you here, fast asleep.” Twilight smiled happily, staring into the distance above Dash’s head. Her right eye twitched. Her smile stayed on, showing a bit too many teeth to be friendly. “And what do you have to say for yourself, Rainbow Dash?” Dash finally stirred, looking up at Twilight with a scowl. “My head hurts.” “Oh dear,” Twilight said with brittle concern. “Does it hurt? We should check that out. Wouldn’t want you to be in any distress now, would we? I just read a book on how to tend injuries, so let me help.” Twilight poked Rainbow Dash in the forehead with one hoof, resulting in a yelp of pain. “Does that hurt?” “Yes!” “Oh, that’s too bad.” Twilight poked Dash again in the same spot. “Does it still hurt now?” “Yes!” “Dearie me. That’s not good at all. We should run some experiments. Tell me Dash, does it hurt more when I poke you like this,” Twilight poked Dash in the forehead, “or this?” She prodded Dash even harder. “It hurts both times!” Dash snapped, knocking Twilight’s hoof away as she tried to poke her in the head again. “I’m sorry I fell asleep, alright? Now stop poking me!” “Well, if you’re awake, maybe we should bring Slender Man over to Rarity’s?” Twilight asked brightly. “What do you think, Mr. Slender Man? We wouldn’t want to spoil Dash’s nap after all.” Twilight poked Dash in the head again for emphasis. The Slender Man, who had watched Twilight’s actions quietly for a while seemed to pause. Then, carefully, he extended one tendril and gently tapped Rainbow Dash on the forehead. “Good,” Twilight said cheerfully, ignoring the strangled sounds of fury coming from Rainbow Dash’s throat. “Let’s be off, shall we?”