//------------------------------// // Part 19: Death of a Dream // Story: Lost in a Terrifying World // by Erisn //------------------------------// He felt the last remnants of his power leave him, and knew it was the end. The Slender Man was caught in the center of the star, blinded and burned by the unimaginable light, stripped of his power by its awful radiance. It is impossible to slay the eldritch with mundane tools, but killing them is possible nevertheless. And this was his death. This was what he feared, and what he could not escape. The Slender Man felt no peace in his last moments. He felt only pain and suffering and fear. But try as he might, he could not summon the darkness, could not protect himself from the fire that surrounded him. His protections unraveled, leaving him exposed, unprotected. Something fluttered away from his chest, and drifted through the fields of orange fire. The Slender Man stared at it, so startled that he forgot his end for a moment. It was a piece of cloth, but that was impossible. His clothes could not burn. They were part of him. Only when he died would they be destroyed with him, and not a moment before. But something nevertheless caught fire and burned, devoid of the Slender Man’s protective aura. It was not possible. His suit was part of his being. Nevertheless, something flared up once, and then slowly burned apart. It had been close to him for quite some time, so it did not burn in an instant as cloth would in the heart of a star. But it still burned slowly, twisting and melting in the flame like a snake. A snake made of red. The Slender Man looked at it, and saw not a piece of cloth, but a memory. A small shop, a flash of color. A gift, freely given. A small trinket to some, but the first thing he had ever received in his life. The only thing he could call ‘his’. A tie. It burned away, not even leaving ash in the heart of the inferno. And the Slender Man stared at where it had been, where it had burned its image into eyes he did not possess. And for a second, he remembered what being eldritch truly meant. That understanding was a single moment, a brief instance of understanding and emotion that vanished in a second, leaving the Slender Man suspended in the heart of the sun, still dying. But sometimes a second is long enough. ---- The cheering started the instant Celestia touched earth. Luna and Discord burst into the air, shouting in delight. The rest of the Elements of Harmony plus Scootaloo clustered around Princess Celestia shouting and laughing in celebration. Except Twilight. She stood back, a little bit. She could not argue with what had been done, not now. Not after seeing the Slender Man… But something in her cried, nevertheless for a being that could never shed tears. Something stirred. But it was lost in the cries of joy. Celestia smiled, looking more tired that Twilight had ever seen. But still she glowed with the light of her sun. And Twilight looked at her, and Celestia looked back. “Well, Twilight Sparkle?” Celestia said, exhaustion in her voice. “Is it well, in the end? For him, friendship was not possible. Have you made your peace with it?” Twilight bowed. “I cannot understand your point of view entirely, Princess.” She said. “But I saw what he was doing, and I agree that it had to stop. I only wish…” Celestia’s gaze never wavered. “I know. But sometimes, there are things even magic and friendship cannot solve.” Twilight met her eyes. “Truly, Princess?” “Perhaps. I do not know. But I do not know how we could have peace with his kind.” “Maybe.” Twilight looked at the ground, and back at Princess Celestia. And hesitated. And stopped. And then Twilight said something that cut the noise of celebration and drew everypony’s eye. “Princess Celestia. Your nose is bleeding.” Celestia raised one hoof, and touched her face gently with one hoof. It came away bloody. “Huh. You’re right. That’s odd. I—” Princess Celestia stumbled, and caught herself. “I think I feel—” Suddenly Princess Celestia coughed and then vomited a stream of blood onto the ground. In the sudden silence, Twilight clearly heard Celestia coughing wetly. Celestia looked up, and her eyes were suddenly filled with blood. “I—no. I feel—” Celestia collapsed with a thud onto the ground. A thin trickle of blood ran from her mouth. Her eyes were closed. Nopony moved. For the longest second, Twilight stared at her mentor, teacher, and friend. And then Twilight Sparkle raised her eyes to the sky. The sun filled the sky. Its light was not a warm glow but a furious glare of molten fire and heat. But something was wrong. The sun seemed to flicker and shake. Something dark was growing in the center of the sun. Twilight could feel reality distorting above her. Something was coming. A blotch appeared on the sun. Not a sunspot, but far larger. It spread like poison, slowly consuming the light. And then it disappeared in a burst of light, and Twilight released her breath, hoping against hope for a miracle. The sun went out. Light vanished. Hope died. And the Slender Man stood before Twilight. And she knew she was going to die. ---- He held her in his hands like a lover, like a friend. His hands. Not by proxy, not with a tendril. With his hands. All the rules were gone. The game was dead. He no longer obeyed it. He was the game. And he was no longer furious. He was no longer angry. He wasn’t even cold. He wasn’t anything. He was Eldritch. And he was going to kill her. Around Twilight Sparkle lay her friends. They weren’t dead, merely stunned, or bleeding, or unconscious. Even the sun goddess still lived, although she drew closer to death each second. None of them had stood against him. The god of chaos, the moon princess, even the stallion and mare with the bond of love could not stop him. Not now. The Slender Man held Twilight’s head in his lands, and looked at her. Really, truly looked at her. She wasn’t much. Just a pony. A stupid, small pony with lavender coat and wings and a horn. An alicorn, in fact. But that didn’t matter. She was just a mortal being, in the end. Unpredictable, fallible, constantly dying. And he was Eldritch. He had remembered who he was. Not part of reality, but against it. Not bound even to death. What could kill the eldritch? Even if death took them, it was only temporary. They bowed to nothing save others of their kind. They were not like humans or ponies, and they never would be. So why did he not want to kill her? Even now, even as he held her life in his hands, the Slender Man hesitated. Was it friendship? No. The answer was no. It was not friendship, because friendship could not appear in the course of a day. But it was more than interest, and deeper than affection. It was a connection made between a slender man and a pony who had sat together through the night. It was the sensation of running one’s hand through a pony’s mane. It was a picture, lying on the floor. It was something the Slender Man had never felt, and would never feel again. A moment in time that could never be recaptured. But he still remembered it. And if he killed her, the Slender Man knew that memory would still remain. But to kill was what he lived for. And she had betrayed him, led him into trap, and driven him closer to death than he had ever been. She deserved to die. He was going to kill her. But for a small fraction of time, he hesitated. He could feel her heart beating; feel the blood coursing through her veins. She felt like a feather, trembling in the breeze. Time slowed, and then stopped as he stood there. For a little while, the world stopped moving, and the universe held its breath and waited on him. A choice. A decision upon which all else hung. A moment in time. A smile. The Slender Man snapped her neck. It broke easily, with a wet cracking sound that echoed among the ruins of Ponyville and died shortly thereafter. Her eyes were still open, even after she died. The Slender Man closed them gently with his fingers, and let her body lie on the ground. And then he turned, and completed his work. They attacked him, all of them. They always did. In numbers, they fought, individually, they fled. It was the nature of mortals. The blue one with rainbow mane did not strike at him first, as he had thought. Instead, she turned and flew with the orange filly away, so fast that all that was left of her were the tears falling upon the ground. But the rest of them came, screaming fury and grief. The orange one struck him again and again, kicking him hard enough to fracture and shatter her bones. It was a pointless endeavor, but she seemed not to care. The white unicorn joined her, blasting the Slender Man with magic. It was strong magic, far stronger than he had thought she possessed. He ignored it. It was beneath contempt. The pink one vanished, as she so often did. He ignored her too. There was nowhere she could run that he could not follow. But the yellow one…the yellow one simply stared at him with tears in her eyes. It was the gaze he had seen before, a stare that could reach into your soul. It was powerful, a bit of magic in its own right. It would have held him in place if he were his old self. The Slender Man strode over to her and took her eyes. And then he took her face. And killed her as he had Twilight, with a snap of her neck. She fell, limp, an eyeless, faceless doll. The orange one kicked him again and broke both her legs and shattered her bones. The unicorn blasted him with a spell that hurt him slightly. Both of them collapsed to the ground. The Slender Man looked at them. The orange pony still lived, but she couldn’t move. The kick had damaged her back. The unicorn was dead. Magical feedback from a spell far beyond her capabilities. The Slender Man nodded once in her direction. A salute. She had achieved a feat he had thought impossible of her. He moved on. The stallion and mare were next. The white stallion held the magical barrier in front of the Slender Man and screamed defiance at him. The female alicorn wept. The Slender Man struck the magical barrier once, but it did not break, although it cracked. The Slender Man looked at the stallion, who swayed and stumbled, dripping blood from his mouth. He had poured all he had into the barrier, and held it with his life force. The Slender Man struck the barrier again. It broke. The stallion collapsed, and did not rise or breathe as the Slender Man walked past him. The mare huddled by his side, but the Slender Man ignored her. Her breathing slowed as she wept, and in seconds, she too had passed away with him. So it went, the lovers together in life and death. One of the oldest stories. The moon goddess stood in front of her fallen sister protectively. She too wept, but she stood ready to fight. The chaos god did not. He stood to one side, looking at the yellow pegasus that had fallen. He ignored the Slender Man as he approached. The moon goddess screamed and attacked him, but her magic was like dust to the Slender Man. He ignored her spells, her curses, and bent down to the sun goddess. He reached out to touch her, not feeling the stabbing of the moon goddess’s horn, but stopped. Her drew his hand away, and turned. With him, the moon goddess stopped and looked at her sister. She was already dead. The moon goddess went very still, and the Slender Man left her there. He walked back, past the orange pony who was trying to drag herself towards him and looked towards the east. He felt the blue pony’s approach before he saw her. She sped at him, a streak of lightning yet faster, moving beyond the limits of sound. He didn’t move, even as she struck him. A roar of sound and an explosion of debris marked her hitting him, but he didn’t shift so much as an inch. The blue pony left a crater, a long gouge of earth marking her flight path and collision, but nothing more. She had been going several time past the speed of sound when she had struck him. She had broken the sound barrier, nothing more. Not even the light barrier. And her body could not survive the impact at that speed. Her remains were not even dust on the wind. The Slender Man continued on. He left the orange pony, the chaos god, and the moon goddess where they had been. He travelled instead to a where the blue pony had come from, a city on a cliff. An army of ponies attacked him there, as well as an army of pegasi. They broke their hooves upon him, striking him, stabbing him with swords, beating on him until they fell away, unable to move any further. He killed them. Inside the city were many ponies wearing clothing. And more ponies that he recognized, ponies from Ponyville. The Slender Man let his tendrils do the work here, traversing the city. Slicing ponies in half, cutting through buildings, slithering through the streets, leaving no being alive. The ponies from Ponyville he killed with his hands. Quickly, not always cleanly. A different death for each one. Save for the three fillies. The small unicorn ran with the pony, but the pegasus remained. What was her name? The Slender Man didn’t remember. She was crying, and pointing at him as he took her life. The Slender Man looked down. On his suit a single feather stuck to the blood and gore. It was stained deeply with crimson, but a small bit of blue shone through. The Slender Man picked it off his chest, and tossed it to the ground before finding the other two fillies. From city to city he travelled as fast as a shadows travels before light. And he left nothing in his wake. Not life, not people, not even buildings. Until he came to a stop in the middle of an empty road. A pink pony sat in front of him. Waiting. Beside her was a cannon, a party cannon mounted on wheels. She looked at him. He looked back. The pink pony got to her feet, and aimed the cannon at the Slender Man. He asked her what it was filled with. “Laughter”, she told him. And fired. His tendrils struck her at the same time. They struck her, her cannon, and tossed what remained to the side of the road. He felt no pain. The Slender Man looked down and brushed the confetti off of his suit. He walked forwards again; avoiding what lay still and unmoving beside the party cannon and continued onwards. He still had much to do. ---- It took him a short time, but he finished at the last. And then he turned and walked back to where he had started. Behind him there was nothing. No life, no buildings. Only dust. The orange pony waited for him. Her back legs were broken, but she tried to attack him anyways. She hurled rocks, she cursed him, even tried to bite him as he approached. He let her. Eventually, she stopped, shaking with tears. He stood, impassive as she broke down before his eyes. Unable to scratch him. Unable to hurt him. She died shortly thereafter. Three remained. Two great powers, one small. The small one came first. It was a dragon. An infant, really. It had not the great fire of the other dragons, not the strength of their claws or the sharpness of their teeth. It mattered not at all either way. The Slender Man ignored the fire, and extinguished the life. It had been crying, too. And then the Slender Man felt the magic gathering. The moon goddess flew before him and screamed hatred. She threw the moon at him. It fell from the sky and struck the earth where he stood. The planet cracked and burst as the world around the Slender Man exploded. There was light. Sound. Fragments of earth. And the Slender Man. The moon princess died with her moon. All that remained of the land called Equestria now were fragments of earth floating through space. Nothing else remained. Save for one. The god of chaos floated through the void. He held something in his mismatched hands. A body. The remains of what had been a pegasus with yellow coat and pink mane. He sat there, holding the corpse for a long time. The Slender Man watched him. Eventually, the god of chaos looked up. His eyes were no longer yellow, but red. He attacked the Slender Man. They fought for decades. It was a battle the likes of which even gods would have quailed before. The god of chaos fought with cunning, with savagery, and without mercy. For a time, he pushed the Slender Man back with the sheer force of his rage. But he could not kill the Slender Man. Nothing could. And in time, the god of chaos fell silent and still, and went back to the still body floating through space. He did not look up, even as the Slender Man erased him from existence. ---- He kept going. From that reality he traveled on to another, one filled with heroes and villains locked in mortal combat. A world where a single being inspired hope for all, and where justice was embodied in a few individuals who fought injustice and crime and evil to their last breaths. He destroyed it in a day. He traveled onwards. To another reality, where a great war had ended, the likes of which had never been seen before, a war that had raged across the galaxy drawing thousands of civilizations into the conflict, only to end in a fragile victory at the end. He drew the remnants into the void. Onwards, ever onwards, consuming reality after reality, destroying them in seconds, days, years, or over the course of millennia. At last, the many realities died. In the end, there was nothing left save for the eldritch. The Slender Man was there when the many realities launched their last strike at the nothingness. He was there when they burned brightly enough to destroy many of his kind, but they broke upon him. He was Eldritch, and he could not be killed. And even when the last flicker of life had died and nothing else remained, the Slender Man continued. Throughout the long aeons, over the course of the endless cycle of nonexistence and rebirth he still existed. But however long he lived, the Slender Man could not escape one thing, though everything around him changed. A memory. The light of a dawn, the feel of a small body at his side. The soft feeling of a mane as he touched it. A smile. A red tie. A word that meant ‘friend’. And though these things faded slightly as the Slender Man lived on and on, one thing shone even though the mists of time. Someone he had met. Her name had been lost to him long ago, but he still remembered her. He could not forget, no matter how hard he tried. He remembered nothing about her, now. Not anything she had done, not what she had been. Nothing. But he remembered her, no matter how hard he tried to forget. And that memory continued forever. The Slender Man continued to exist, continued to remember. Even as reality was born again, and even as it crumbled into dust before it was renewed in the endless cycle that went beyond time, the Slender Man continued. He never died, even as the other eldritch passed away, or returned to the void. He could not. He was Eldritch. He never died, no matter how hard he tried. The Slender Man let go of Twilight’s head. He stepped back. She fell, stumbling, and looked up at him. Her eyes were a brilliant hue of purple, the same color as her coat. He knew he would remember it forever. The Slender Man turned and looked around him for the first time. Ponyville lay in ruins. The Elements of Harmony were strewn across the ground, injured, some weeping, others too hurt to move. The gods of this world lay broken. The sun had gone out. It was what he had seen, what he always saw. The same scene, played out in infinite iterations but always the same. Death. Destruction. Dust. And here he was again. The Slender Man stared back down at the purple pony known as Twilight Sparkle. She was no different from the countless other beings he had killed in his life. She possessed no qualities unique, no traits that could not be found among a hundred thousand other beings. She was simple, unoriginal, weak, and mortal. She was just a pony. But she was special because she had called him friend. The Slender Man turned away. He walked out of what remained of Ponyville, past the dying sun goddess, the fallen ponies and gods. Above him, the sun reignited, and shone down with brilliant light upon Equestria. The Slender Man walked on. He walked, and walked, ignoring the cries of joy behind him, the sounds of life, the relief and hope. He walked on and on, leaving it all behind him. He stopped when he heard the cry. It was thin, ragged, a shout from the voice of a pony who ran after him, running, flying, tripping, calling his name. The Slender Man did not turn around. He hesitated for a moment, for a single moment, and then walked on, faster and faster, leaving the voice behind him, leaving Equestria behind. He walked until he was out of that reality, far away from anything and lost in the void of nothingness he had been born of. And then the Slender Man, destroyer of worlds, the Operator, Der Ritter, The Pale One, and The White King sat for a while and shed tears that fell not from his eyes, but from his soul. And he never went back.