Twilight looked at the Slender Man. Then she looked at Rarity, lying in a boneless heap at his feet, surrounded by ties. She thought about screaming, but decided against it. Instead, she walked over to Rarity, carefully avoiding stepping on any ties and poked her. It had sort of worked with Rainbow Dash, so why not on Rarity?
----
When Twilight had picked herself off the ground and massaged some life back into her swollen cheek, she remembered why it was important not to poke Rarity. Rainbow Dash might be a future Wonderbolt, with the reflexes and training of an athlete, but she was also lazy, and usually didn’t react to outside stimuli too dramatically.
Rarity on the other hand was an obsessive personality that disliked among other things, bugs. And when she felt what seems to be an insect poking her in the side, she had a tendency to react…aggressively.
Twilight rubbed her cheek. Rarity had a mean left hook. She glared at her unicorn friend, who was by turns looking both embarrassed and annoyed by having been caught in a faint. Twilight decided to skip the discussion about Rarity’s fear of insects and violent reactions for another day. Instead, she simply asked, “How was your time with the Slender Man?”
Rarity started, and looked at the Slender Man for a second. Twilight looked too. He seemed no different from before, in any way. The same black suit, the same dark shoes, and the same red tie.
“Oh, we had a grand time, Twilight”, Rarity said. “It was…quite the achievement, finding the clothes that really suited him. Yes. We’ve made some minor alterations to his wardrobe, but I’m pleased to say we’ve retained his style while at the same time mixing up the formula.”
“Really? That’s…good.” Twilight scrutinized the Slender Man again. “I can’t see it myself, but I’m sure you’ve done a wonderful job.”
“What? Oh, yes.” Rarity did not exactly meet Twilight’s gaze. “Well, you know, he was quite keen on a new look, but I thought his old style was simply too good to change. Simple attire is very much in vogue now, and I would hate to ruin such excellence.”
“Of course,” Twilight said, glancing from the pile of ties back to the Slender Man and back to Rarity again. “Well, thank you so much, Rarity. But I’m sure that the Slender Man would like to enjoy his new look, so I’m going to take him to Pinkie’s if that’s all right with you.”
“Feel free, feel free,” Rarity said hurriedly. “Don’t let me detain you in the least. I should really tidy up all the ties and whatnot. Very glad to have helped and all, good bye.” With that, Rarity practically pushed Twilight out of her store, slamming the door as soon as she and the Slender Man left.
Twilight sighed. It seemed Rarity had failed to talk the Slender Man into a fashion makeover. Twilight wasn’t really surprised. She doubted the Slender Man would even have allowed anyone to alter his set appearance. He seemed very set in his ways. Twilight just hoped Rarity hadn’t spent too much time trying to convince him to change his attire in vain.
----
The Slender Man looked at his tie. It was an awesome tie. The white unicorn named Rarity truly was a rarity among dressmakers. Slender wasn’t one for changing his methods or appearance if he could help it. In all the time since he had first came into being, he had never, never even considered altering his state of dress. Indeed, he had had trouble not strangling Rarity when she had first suggested he get another suit. His trademark red tie had seemed, to him, a perfect item of clothing that could never be separated from his core image as a horrific entity from the unknown.
But this tie. This tie was a thousand times better than the pathetic old rag he had been using before. How could he have worn that tie down the countless eternities without realizing how tacky it looked? A tie that was born of the endless seas of blood and suffering that lay at the end of all civilizations? Please. That look was out of date by a couple eons at least, and Slender was eternally grateful to Rarity for showing him the error in his thinking.
Admittedly, the first few hundred ties hadn’t been much to look at, but you always find what you’re looking for in the last place you expect. Rarity had seemed dismissive of her work, but Slender had seen it like a gem hidden among all the dross in her shop. She hadn’t even wanted paying for the tie. Slender wasn’t a being that knew much or anything about money, but he was perfectly willing to have plundered a few civilizations for all their gold and gems for this incredible tie.
One of the things Rarity failed to understand about Slender was that he had multiple senses. He didn’t just see color, and things like physical appearance, but, as stated, could see in spectrums that mortals had no names for. One of the spectrums mortals did have a name for however was emotion, and intent. Slender could see the love, care, and hope that Rarity had stitched into ever weave of this tie. It had been made with the pure innocence of a child, and it shone in Slender’s vision.
The other ties had been pure garbage. Oh, Slender admitted that from a simplistic perspective, they attractive to look at, but each one reeked of desperation, a yearning for praise and acceptance, and not to put a fine point on it, ambition. Rarity’s shop was filled with such an overpowering aura of her drive for success, fame, and popularity that Slender had been close to vomiting, or in his case, expelling copious amounts of eldritch waste-product. That wouldn’t have been pretty.
Of all the ties, only the light-hearted ones made in fun and on a lark had any positive emotions attached to them. Some of them simply emitted laughter, and were quite pleasing in that sense. However, Slender would be damned (again) if he was going to go around with a tie emblazoned with terrible wordplay. Or hoarseplay, as Rarity would have written it. Slender hadn’t had much to do with talking or words until now, but he was sure that he hated puns.
No, all of those ties had been unacceptable, and Slender had been about to give up when he had seen the tie. So simplistic visually, but a pure beacon of hope and dreams on another level. Now, it was true that Slender was technically a being devoted to ending hope, love, and life among the realities, but that was only his job. Fashion was another business entirely. Just imagine the style that Slender would exude wearing a tie made of love and happiness while laying waste to the reality around him. It was a genius statement.
Slender wondered whether he could persuade Rarity to make a few more ties for him at a later date. Even a suit would be lovely, perhaps one infused with the elements of dying dreams and suicidal tendencies. Rarity seemed inexperienced what with all of her other ties, but she was clearly an up-and-coming designer who had just recently started hitting her stride. Slender would have to recommend her to the other eldritch beings he knew that wore clothing. He was sure they would flock to this reality once they saw his new tie.
Slender considered the reactions of others of his kind when they saw his new apparel. Sheogorath would quite literally eat his face off when he saw Slender’s new look. That would teach him for constantly impugning Slender’s fashion sense. Gods of madness really got on Slender’s nerves. All the laughter and unpredictability didn’t square with his calm and calculated ways of doing things. Darkseid on the other hand would certainly be impressed, as would Galactus. They were both nearly as snappy dressers as Slender himself. Maybe he could even get that kid Thanos to start wearing some ties…
Slender was vaguely aware of the sounds of furniture smashing and a scream coming from the Carousel Boutique as he left the shop. It sounded like Rarity’s voice. Maybe she was making some more clothing? Slender could see a blood red suit made of rage and hatred in his mind’s eye. Yes, that would be it. Rarity was truly a cut above any other dressmaker Slender had ever met or killed.
Oddly enough, the pony named Twilight seemed rather subdued, but Slender was sure that she was just impressed by his new tie. She kept looking back as she walked away from Rarity’s store. Slender heard the sounds of a chair smashing through one of the windows, and Twilight flinched. Rarity must really have been getting into the swing of things. Remarkable. Slender would definitely have to come back for more clothing at a later date.
----
Twilight had half a mind to go back to Rarity’s shop, but she thought that bringing the Slender Man back in with her would definitely not be smart idea. Instead, she made a mental note to have Spike go and visit Rarity as soon as she dropped Slender off. Spike was good at dealing with Rarity’s mood swings, and he was also good at ducking.
It was nearing dusk as Twilight guided the Slender Man through Ponyville’s back alleys towards Sugarcube Corner. A few ponies saw the Slender Man as she walked through the town, but fortunately, not many were out at this time. Twilight had gotten used to the fainting and screaming by now, and tuned it out as she walked.
She’d leave the Slender Man with Pinkie Pie, and get Mr. and Mrs. Cake to leave as well. Better not forget the kids either. Then, she’d have Rainbow Dash and Applejack cordon off the surrounding three blocks, and move every pony in the area out. A triple-containment spell would follow, although Twilight doubted it would be that effective. But hopefully that would allow Pinkie Pie to do…whatever she did with the Slender Man with a minimal amount of casualties.
After that…Twilight would tell Spike to go to Rarity, ask Fluttershy to go there too for extra soothing backup, and then read that book the Librarian had given her. Sounded like a good plan in short, except for the fact that it involved Pinkie Pie.
Twilight wondered whether she could possibly avoid Pinkie Pie and Slender meeting. Probably not. She then wondered whether she could prevent them from destroying half the town. Again, probably not. Pinkie Pie and careful planning were like fireworks and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Something always went off bang.
Twilight stopped at the entrance to Sugarcube Corner and took a deep breath. And several more breaths. And then she whimpered quietly on the ground until she felt better. Then she opened the door.
----
The first thought the Slender had when Twilight opened the door was that he was back in Candyland again. Possibly it was just the house of another one of those witches that ate children in forests. Regardless, Slender was sure that he hadn’t seen so many confections in one place since he had wiped out those annoying racing bastards in that video game world. Sugar Mush or something, it had been called.
Slender hated sweets on general principle. It wasn’t just that they stood for happiness and fun and tooth decay, all things which he detested. It was that he felt they gave a really unfair advantage to being that had stomachs. Whenever he met someone who had eaten too many sweets while playing the game, he found it ten times as difficult to catch them. They zipped about, and never stayed still until the manic energy left them and they stopped to throw up. It completely ruined the fun of the game.
He wondered why Twilight had brought him here. He hoped she wasn’t going to try to feed him any sweets. For one thing, he had no mouth, and there were a limited number of ways he could ingest food without one. Osmosis was not his favorite method of consumption. Besides, he had been reliably informed that the cake was a lie.
Slender was just about to leave the building or burn it down to avoid looking at all the sugary products when a flash of pink bounded down the stairs and tackled Twilight. Slender froze.
Oh no. Not her. But he had forgotten that there was a sixth member of the ponies he had wanted to study so badly. The insane one. The quick one. The Pink One.
----
“Hey Mr. Slender Man, glad to see you! I’m so happy you made it here without killing anyone. In fact, I’m really excited to talk to you and find out how you can breathe with no mouth or nose! Doesn’t that hurt? What happens when you try to sneeze?” Pinkie Pie gasped. “Did you lose it somewhere!? Maybe you got the no-mouth no-nose disease! Oh no! Is it contagious?”
“Pinkie,” Twilight groaned, “please get off of me.”
Pinkie Pie looked down. “Oh, sorry Twilight! I forgot I was standing on you!” Pinkie Pie jumped off Twilight and danced around her as Twilight slowly got to her hooves. “How did the Slender Man do with everypony else? I was so busy preparing that I completely forgot to check! How many ponies died?”
“None, Pinkie.” Twilight said as patiently as possible. “Everypony’s…fine. I guess. Rarity seemed a bit distraught when I last saw her, but nopony’s died…yet. Now it’s your turn to teach the Slender Man something. Are you ready?”
“Oh, absolutely Twilight! I have the most fun games we’re going to play, and I even thought of a new idea for my party cannon! I could put rocks and splinters in it and fire it off at bad guys like the Slender Man did to me!”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Pinkie,” Twilight sighed. “That would never work. Stick to confetti, alright? And please, please try not to destroy anything?”
“No promises Twilight! Alright, let’s go Mr. Slender Dude!” Pinkie Pie bounced up the stairs to her room, and after a few seconds, the Slender Man disappeared after her. If Twilight didn’t know better, she might have the said he seemed reluctant, but that was probably her imagination.
Okay. Five minutes to grab Mr. and Mrs. Cake, who were passed out behind the counter and get them to a safe area. Double back for the kids, and make sure to begin evacuation procedure Pink-Alpha. Everypony in Ponyville had been drilled on emergency Pinkie procedures. Twilight only hoped Pinkie could keep her energy up around the Slender Man for a few hours. He wasn’t the easiest being to hold a conversation with, and no doubt she would have a pretty tough time entertaining him that long.
----
Slender was in hell. Not just any hell, but a pink one. He’d heard that a fellow named Dante had gone through nine layers in some hell, and had written about it in some poem or other. Slender wondered why he had only covered the first nine levels. Maybe he hadn’t gotten any further. As far as Slender was concerned, he was already past the 900th level of hell, and it was still getting worse. The Pink One just didn’t stop talking.
“It’s really great to have you up here, Mr. Slender Man! I’ve never had an eldritch being in my room before! I’ve never actually seen one before today in fact! Ooh, we should have a ‘Meeting a Horrible Monster from the Unknown’ party! I love parties! Do you like parties? I’m actually the official Party-Planner of all of Ponyville! I always say that every day’s a sad day without a Pinkie Party!”
Slender had been forbidden from harming any pony by Fluttershy and Twilight, but surely it wouldn’t count if he twisted his own head off? Fluttershy had been one thing, but her problem had simply been that she wouldn’t stop staring at him. He had quite enjoyed her stories in a way, but Pinkie Pie never stopped talking.
“You know, I was thinking really hard of what we could do together. First, I wanted to have a totally awesome party with you and every pony, but Twilight said that wasn’t a good idea. But then I had an ever better idea, which was to show you around Ponyville and introduce you to all the ponies I know, which is everyone, but Twilight said that was an even worse idea. But then I had the most amazing idea yet, which was to have a totally cool party with just you and me, and Twilight said that she thought it probably wouldn’t kill anypony, and I thought that was rather funny, so I—”
Slender gently picked up Pinkie Pie in two tendrils, and lifted her towards the window she kept talking, twisting her head at an impossible angle to keep her eyes fixed on him.
“—was totally laughing, you know? But Twilight said that it was my best idea, so I started planning for this mini-party. I really wanted to get you some cake, but you don’t have a mouth. And I wanted to have a totally awesome talk about all the cool things in Ponyville, but then I remembered you don’t have a mouth. But I figured that even if you don’t have a mouth, we could still play some totally awesome games—”
Slender opened the window with one tendril, and tossed Pinkie Pie out with the other. He felt slightly guilty about this, but he reasoned that a few broken bones wouldn’t get him in too much trouble. Besides, it might shut her up for a bit. He waited for the splat of pony meeting ground, but the sound never came. Curious, Slender moved to the window. Pinkie Pie wasn’t anywhere in sight. Where had she gone?
“—but then I remembered that you can’t move when I’m looking at you, so I was really stuck!” Pinkie Pie’s voice came from behind the Slender Man, and he almost grew a heart just so he could have a heart attack.
Nothing could have fallen from that height and remained unscratched, much less climbed the stairs back to the room in that amount of time, but there the pink pony was, bouncing up and down excitedly and still talking.
“So I was thinking and thinking, and you know what? I thought that thing that we could do together would be to play a really fun game that didn’t involve talking or me looking at you, so I decided to play hide and go seek! But I remembered that you play hide and go seek every day when you kill people, so I thought you would be bored of that game—”
Slender had had enough. He picked up Pinkie Pie, tossed her out the window again, closed the window, and dragged over a chair to block the door. There. Peace and quiet. Slender was quite willing to learn from the other ponies, but this Pinkie Pie was clearly insane. He’d barricade himself in this room until Twilight came back for him, and he wouldn’t let that pink pony in, even if she—
“—So decided to search for another game to play. It was really hard to pick another one, but I thought tag would be fun—”
The Slender Man was sure that he had a heart now, because something in his chest had stopped. Pinkie Pie was in the room again, but Slender Man had been blocking the door and the window! How had she gotten in?
Slender was sure no magic had been involved, yet she must have teleported. Was there a secret passage in here? Slender scanned the room and found nothing. He would have seen if there was a trap door, anyways. Maybe she was one of those beings that could squeeze through tiny cracks because she had no bones? Slender knew a gholam could get through the smallest hole in a wall easily, but he was sure Pinkie Pie had bones. He had broken several earlier.
What could he do? He’d tried tossing her out a window, locking the door, but she somehow managed to enter a sealed room. Maybe he could just ignore her, but that voice seemed to pierce through his mind, as easy to ignore as a spike through your skull, and twice as painful. Slender prayed that Pinkie Pie would run out of steam soon, but she was still talking without even pausing for breath, and Slender began to feel his sanity slipping away as the onslaught of words continued.
“—But Twilight told me that she didn’t want us leaving Sugarcube corner. So I had to think of a fun game to play in this room, and that’s really hard but I thought to myself, ‘Pinkie, the Slender Man is relying on you to find a really fun game’, so I came up with the best game ever to play, and it’s called—”
Slender didn’t snap, and he didn’t panic. He just grabbed Pinkie by the hoof and tossed her out the window as far as he could throw her (which was several miles into the air), and disappeared into his shadowy other-dimension in an instant.
The other plane which Slender Man called his own was a reflection of what humans and ponies might term ‘the real world’, although it too was just another perspective. But Slender enjoyed his world much more than the other place he so often visited.
Things were different in the shadow world. For one thing, everything was made up of, well, shadows. There were no colors in Slender’s dimension, and that included black and white. Concepts such as light and darkness were also missing, so it was also impossible to say that anything looked all that different.
It was just that instead of colors, Slender saw shadows wherever he looked. Everything seemed to be made up of shadows. If Slender looked at a chair, it was not the shading of brown and reflections of light he saw, but a mass of shadows that existed without light, replicating the chair perfectly. It was a sight no living creature could witness, but no creature had ever entered Slender’s dimension save for him. Here he was alone, and silence and shadows reigned supreme.
Slender was glad of the cessation of sound and color, but he was also somewhat…disappointed as well. And that was a new feeling for him. Up till now he had always regarded the world filled with sight and sounds a tiring place, amusing for the beings that inhabited it, but always a drain to be in. He had always enjoyed returning to his dimension of shadows, but now it seemed emptier than it had before.
That was ridiculous, of course. But Slender couldn’t help but remember the ponies, and how interesting they had been. Normally, he popped in and out of the normal plane of existence constantly, pausing only to kill his prey before returning to his shadowy otherworld. But he had spent nearly all of his time with the ponies in their world without moving into here except when he needed to move. How strange. How odd.
Slender felt the silence surround him, but this time it seemed too silent, too oppressive. But that was ridiculous. Slender had come here to escape the Pink One, Pinkie Pie. Her endless chatter had been too much to take, and yet…and yet…
And yet, Slender missed it already. It was such a nuisance, so annoying, and far too inane for comfort. But it hadn’t been just her talking. It had been interesting being in Pinkie Pie’s company, and Slender had watched the way she never stopped moving with something approaching envy. Slender never moved, but Pinkie never stopped moving. He had wondered what that felt like.
Slender gazed back into the shadowy reflection of Pinkie Pie’s bedroom and sighed internally. He could wait for Twilight to return, but that wouldn’t be for another hour at least. Or he could return to the ‘real’ world and have to put up with Pinkie Pie’s chatter. Strangely enough, that sounded like a better alternative to waiting here, although Slender had passed happy years in this plane of existence without giving a thought to the time spent.
Slender examined the room he was in. No doubt Pinkie Pie was searching for him, after his mysterious disappearance. Or maybe she had actually been hurt when Slender had tossed her so far. Somehow, Slender doubted that, but he found that he was still slightly anxious. But wait, there she was. Bounding up and down in the center of the room, a huge grin on her face.
Slender could see everything from his alternate dimension, and so he often watched humans and other beings for long periods of time without their noticing. He hadn’t ever been able to hear them, but he understood now that that was because sound wasn’t part of this world’s rules. That was a shame, but he could still watch what people did when no one was watching. Much of it was tedious, boring, and uninteresting, but Slender was intrigued by what Pinkie Pie would do with him gone.
The only problem was that Pinkie Pie didn’t seem to be doing anything. She was just jumping up and down in the center of the room, staring at where the Slender Man had been. And still was, although he was clearly in his other world. No normal being would be able to see him, let alone sense his presence. Even a cabal of mages, witches, warlocks and sorcerers wouldn’t have been able to detect him magically. Only a god or other eldritch being would have been able to sense the Slender man, let alone see him.
Yet, Pinkie Pie kept bouncing up and down, seeming to stare right at the Slender Man. That was kind of…creepy, and the Slender Man wasn’t a fan of creepy when it happened to him. The Slender Man moved left, free from the constraints of the rules in his home. And Pinkie Pie’s eyes followed him.
The Slender Man stopped. Pinkie Pie’s eyes stopped with him, staring directly at where his face would have been in her world. That had to be a coincidence, Slender told himself. Carefully, he moved to the right, and Pinkie Pie’s eyes followed him. The Slender Man felt a chill running down his spine. This was too weird.
Pinkie Pie had stopped bouncing, but she was still smiling, no, grinning. She had an amazingly big smile, with a lot of white teeth. It wasn’t malicious, just friendly and full of joy, possibly beyond the realms of normality happiness. Somehow the lack of any ill intent made her smile even more disturbing to the Slender Man.
He moved back again, and Pinkie Pie’s eyes followed him. Slender was seriously weirded out now. In fact, this had already gone past weird and into wierd. But she couldn’t see him. Right? She must have been guessing, or maybe she was looking at something behind the Slender Man.
The Slender Man checked. There was nothing behind him except the empty bedroom, festooned with balloons, confetti, and other party materials. When he refocused on the room ahead of him, Pinkie Pie was right in front of him.
Slender Man didn’t jump, because there was no gravity here. But he did move up to the ceiling at amazing speed, hovering in midair and looking down at Pinkie Pie from above. Her eyes were still following him.
Slender tried to get a hold of himself. This was ridiculous. He was getting nervous of a pink pony that couldn’t even see him? For one thing, his job was to induce fear, not the other way around. For another, she wasn’t even doing anything, just doing whatever she normally did without anyone else nearby. What could be scary in her fluffy mane, or her pink coat with the balloons, or her grin, which—
Waitaminute. Wait a minute. Slender paused. All of his senses momentarily focused on Pinkie Pie, but it was just one that he wanted to use. She was still staring at him, with her big, blue eyes, and cotton-candy colored coat, and shining white teeth…nothing out of the ordinary.
But there was no color in Slender’s world. Slender stared at Pinkie Pie. Everything around him, the room, the bed, the chairs, the windows, everything was made up of shadows, without color or light. But Pinkie Pie was pink. In fact, she looked exactly like she did in the real world, even in a place where light didn’t exist.
That wasn’t possible. That couldn’t be real. But she was here, in color, and she was watching him. The Slender Man wasn’t constrained by physics here, and so he didn’t just back up against the wall; he backed up against the ceiling too, squeezing himself into a corner as far away from Pinkie Pie as possible.
She continued to stare at him, but now she started walking as well, slowly moving to where the Slender Man was backed into the corner of the room. She stopped just a few feet away and sat on her back hooves, still looking right at him. Still smiling. And then her mouth opened, and for the first time, Slender heard noise in his shadowy world.
“Hi there!” Pinkie Pie said.
And that was when the nightmare truly began.
----
Twilight stared at the open book in front of her and wished she could scream. She didn’t because screaming wouldn’t have helped, and it probably would have brought everypony in earshot to see what was wrong. Still, she wanted to scream. That was the only way she could express the appropriate emotions towards the open book in front of her.
It was nightmarish. And not the silly kind of nightmares that Twilight had, where giant socks chased her down and tried to eat her, nor even the scarier kinds of nightmares born of real things, like a serial killer pony, or a world where Chrysalis reigned supreme. This was true horror.
Horror, like beauty, hope, and happiness, is an art form. There exist degrees of each, and it is a well-known fact that there exist degrees of intensity for such emotions. The happiness of finding a hundred dollars on the ground for instance, is not nearly as great as the happiness of finding five bucks when you’re a dollar short of your rent for the month. In the same way, horror can be personal, something that would scare only yourself, to great masses of fear and terror that become part of the racial fears of an entire species.
The book on the eldritch held a nightmare that reached beyond a single species and brought despair and nightmares to countless realities. Twilight flipped the book over and looked at the cover again. The Eldritch: Tales of the Unknown, written by some author named Edward Softly. Such an odd name for a writer, so innocuous, and yet this book was what he had produced.
Twilight wasn’t a great librarian as such things were judged, but she loved books as deeply as any librarian ever born. Still, she would have gladly set fire to this book on the instant were it not for the fear of what she might summon by its destruction.
The book was alive. Not physically alive, or even sentient. But Twilight could feel it almost pulsate as she held it in her hooves, and the pages felt too much like skin. Human skin, that is. At least that was better than feeling a pony’s hide, but Twilight felt revulsion at simply handling the book. But it was magical, or at least it defied the normal rules of the world.
At first, Twilight had assumed it to be rather small, a good-sized tomb, but only medium-sized, and disappointingly short for a book on the eldritch. She had expected a massive encyclopedia. However, the book had hidden depths. When Twilight had opened it and flipped through the pages, she had noticed that no matter how many pages she flipped through, the book never got smaller. It was seemingly endless, and each page was filled with words and the occasional drawing.
And what were the contents of said pages? Twilight shuddered, and avoided looking too hard at the image and text before her. Each one was a description of a different monster from the beyond, an eldritch being. What Twilight had assumed to be a description and background on the eldritch was in fact nothing more of than a list of each and every one. Their habits, their inclinations…and the way each one played the game.
Sometimes a rough sketch was included, but mostly the pages were simply filled with their descriptions, sometimes specific, sometimes vague, but always enough to stick in the mind and stay there, a moment of time and text that could not be forgotten. Twilight had read a description of the chupacabra, and hadn’t thought it that scary until she had seen the sketch. It was always in black and white, a rough drawing, but when Twilight had seen it’s true form, she had nearly fainted.
Every light was on in Twilight’s home, and that included a plethora of candles set around the room to chase away the lingering shadows. Twilight was not a fan of fire around books, but she was prepared to risk a little fire right now. She could always put out a blaze with a bit of magic, or a bucket and some water. What she couldn’t banish were the images.
The eldritch. That was what they were known as. Twilight had read as much in the introduction. The eldritch, the unknown, the things-from-beyond, the wierd, the Strange Ones, the Ancients, the Elder Gods, the list ran on. Seemingly every species had a name for them, and seemingly ever reality had felt their presence in some way.
That was another thing. Twilight knew of the multiverse theory, and could easily understand the basis of multiple dimensions, but this book talked about multiple realities. Places where the rules differed so much as to be completely different from another reality. Not just another dimension, where things could have taken a different turn ending up with new laws of physics, but another reality, where everything could be different, or the same. That was one thing, but the book talked of that as if it were established fact.
What were even stranger to Twilight though, was the writer’s frequent references to something called the game. He – presumably it was a he – never explicitly stated what the game was, but Twilight was able to read between the lines. Apparently, all the eldritch played the game in some way, and apparently, the game consisted of nothing less than the destruction of every living thing in every reality.
Every hair on Twilight’s body had stood up when she had read that, and since Twilight was covered in hair, that was saying something. But she had read of the rules as well, and that had confused her as well. Each eldritch being had a set of rules to go along with their game, and Twilight couldn’t see the rhyme or reason behind it. A statue that only moved when you didn’t look at it? A manifestation of a planet bound in physical form? A…giant starfish that controlled ponies by latching onto their face? Why?
Whatever the reason, Twilight was glad that such rules existed. Just looking at the countless beings described on the pages before her, she could tell that had such rules not been in place, a single eldritch being could have destroyed Equestria in a heartbeat. Admittedly, some still could even with the rules in place, but they limited the immediate danger of such beings quite considerably from what they could be.
But what bothered Twilight the most was the page in the book on the Slender Man. She had found it easily enough, and stared at the picture of the human children playing happily until she saw the thin shape in the background behind them. And she had read of what he was. And what he did.
Twilight had seen a group of adolescent dragons playing a game where they threw the eggs of innocent phoenixes on the ground for fun. She had witnessed first-hand Chrysalis sucking the love out of her older brother until he was a mindless husk. She had even looked into the eyes of a dead king who had defied even death to control his kingdom. All of these things had been terrible, and evil in their way.
But this was worse.
The Slender Man killed people. He killed humans mainly, as part of his game. And he killed them slowly, and horribly. Twilight thought she had known something of pain as he had nearly twisted off her wings and crushed her hoof. She had thought Applebloom’s slow corruption had been the most painful death imaginable. But that had been nothing compared to what the Slender Man had done over the long course of his existence.
Children. They were human children in that picture, but they were children nonetheless. Twilight knew there was no difference between a human child and a filly or colt. And he slaughtered them. There was no other word for it.
Twilight could barely stand to read the descriptions of what the Slender Man had done. He had taken the insides of his victims, and left them in plastic bags, each organ neatly placed where it should be, yet enclosed in a sheet of plastic. He had hung his victims from trees, in pieces, or with rope. He had left them scattered their limbs far and wide, or left them whole and apparently untouched, lying in clearings in the forest or in dark places where the sun did not reach.
And he didn’t stop there. He made them come to him, children and adults. He compelled them to follow him, and had led them laughing happily to their deaths. He had given some an obsession, to seek him out and they had done so, despite their family’s attempts to stop them. Some he had befriended, and earned their trust until one day they had not been seen again.
Some he had simply stalked, a monster in the night. Haunting their dreams and waking moments until he had claimed them at last. Sometimes it was quick, but Twilight read of individuals he followed across years, decades of their life, letting their friendships and bonds to their family wither and die, leaving them alone and half-mad before he took them. And then there were his proxies.
Twilight had understood something of what had nearly happened to Applejack when she had consumed that apple, but now she read the whole of it. Twisted monsters, wearing the flesh of the people they had once been. Beings whose only purpose was to spread death and destruction, in accordance to the Slender Man’s will. Sometimes they could even think, and Twilight shuddered as she wondered whether they still remembered who they had been. But they had no choice, and served the Slender Man until they rotted away.
Sometime in the distance past, the Slender Man had changed his patterns. Twilight read that over the countless eons, he had stopped killing his victims by impaling them on trees, slicing them up, or ripping them apart. He had taken to affecting their minds, or even spreading a sickness of his making among them, letting them die slowly. And always, always he had played the game.
Eight pages. There were eight pages, or sometimes nine, thirteen even, but at least eight. And he made his victims collect them while had slowly hunted them, slowly at first but with increasing prejudice until they either collected all eight, or he caught them. And even if they did collect all eight pages, they were never truly free. He always returned to finish what he had started. Always.
Twilight closed her book, and stared at the plain black cover. She was shaking, her hooves trembling on the desk she had been reading on. Despite the light filling every corner of her library, the place felt full of shadows and darkness.
Twilight had once feared the night, for the story of Nightmare Moon and of things she had not understood as a filly. She had grown out of her fears in time, and had even learned to love the night when she met Luna. But now she feared it again, and recalled the nameless terror that had gripped her as a child. And now that terror had a name.
Slender Man.
But why had he come here? Twilight had read that he seldom left the realities that mankind inhabited, and even less seldom to places full of magic. He preferred places like the alternate-Equestria Twilight had once visited, places where humanity had developed and flourished. And why hadn’t he killed everypony yet?
Twilight looked down at the book and shuddered. She had read the accounts of him slowly destroying entire worlds over the course of a millennia. First taking individuals, people who would not be missed, and slowly expanding his circle of death until he destroyed entire cities in a single night, not ceasing until that reality lay bare and empty.
But why not Equestria? Why not Ponyville? Twilight was no longer in any doubts as to the Slender Man’s power. From the beginning of when she and her friends had met him, he had been toying with them. He could have killed them all before they had even spotted him, but he let them live, desperately, feeding their hopes only to crush them at the last. But when the last had come, he hadn’t killed them. Why?
The Elements of Harmony. They had done something to him that Twilight still only vaguely understood. They had allowed Fluttershy’s last words to reach him, but why had that worked? It made no sense. Why would he have stopped now, when he had killed so many before without hesitation?
Twilight didn’t know. Her anwswers had only increased, not diminished with the reading of this book. And she now feared, more than ever for the lives of her friends and herself. But what could she do? The Slender Man had proven he intended no harm. He hadn’t done anything violent after Fluttershy had spoken to him.
He had let himself be led around, had even cured Applejack after she had begun turning into a proxy. He had seemed…almost human, almost like a pony. Twilight was sure he had been sorry for hurting Applejack, and he had seemed almost happy after meeting Rainbow Dash and Rarity.
But that had all been a mask. Twilight saw him for what he really was, now. Nothing more than a monster, but the most evil monster she had ever met for all that. The kind of thing that embodied the fear each child first feels, and lurks in the hearts of every pony until the day they die. And it was with Pinkie Pie, and Twilight could do nothing to stop it.
Nothing. Not even if he decided to kill Pinkie Pie, or even destroy all of Ponyville. Twilight’s spells would have no effect. She might as well lie down and wait to die. But why was he still here? Why did he seem to want to learn? There lay the answers, somewhere, Twilight knew.
Twilight looked at the book in front of her, and deliberately shoved it to the floor. She would return it whence it had come later, if there was a later. All books must be returned. But for now, she let it lie on the floor and paced back and forth in her brightly lit library, where shadows seemed to grow and gather.
She had to think. She had to understand. Otherwise the Slender Man would harvest this world as he had so many countless others, and Twilight and her friends would die.
As time passed, the candles burned down slowly, leaving puddles of wax and wisps of smoke. And the shadows grew and lengthened, filling the library with their presence. And Twilight paced and thought, until the darkness reached out and consumed her.