//------------------------------// // Help me // Story: The legend of Slendermane, the tragic guardian of The Everfree // by MidnightFMare //------------------------------// We jump out of the cave's entrance, tumbling in the dirt "Are you okay (KKKKKZZZZSSHSHSH!!!!!!!!!)?!" Bio asks, his twin grunting in pain "Ow ow ow ow..." "Yeah... I think so..." the guards exit the cave, covered with dirt and the Bios check the unconscious guard "Still alive thank Luna... weak but alive" The guards stare at them and they smile before erupting with laughter "BAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAAA!!!" "How can y'all laugh at a time like this? Ah'm scared witless and yer laughin'?" They choke "D-Don't get me wrong, I'm scared shitless! AHAHAAHAAHAAA!!!" The guards pick us up and drag us back to town, the Bios laughing the whole time "WHY WERE YOU IN THE CAVE?!" the guard yells, the Bios grinning "WHY WEREN'T YOU GUYS?!" the guard grunts and stomps out of the room, muttering obscenities The Bios blow raspberries and glow, fusing back into one "That jerk needs to lighten up, I mean, can't he just accept that I am far superior to him in every way? I mean, we caught... er... 'Killed in the process of apprehending' the slender while they were having tea ti- Hello Ms. Guard pony!" He smiles at a sandy-brown mare with a brown-black mane and a notepad cutie mark "Hmph!" "Oh come on Quicky... I got the baddie like I promised didn't I?" He cajoles and I stare at him "'Quicky'?" The mare groans "Don't call me that, My name is Quick Write and I'm unfortunately acquainted with this fool" she points at Bio "And to answer your question... you did, and he got away" We both shoot up "WHAT?!" "How could it have escaped?! The cave-in should have crushed it, if not seal it in! Are you sure your feather head partner didn't miss it?!" Bio yells, both his eyes twitching Quick sighs "I had him stay behind, you know how squeamish he his, I even had movement spells set up at both ends and entrances and nothing that big could have gotten passed them... but we did find something else... or somepony" she pulls out several sketches, mostly of an old, crushed pony "What am I looking at?" she spreads them out and points to the first "This is Iron Key, a Manehatten lock and blacksmith that disappeared a few months ago... in fact he disappeared a week before the first killing" she points to the next one "This is who we found under the rocks" A shiver passes down my spine "That's the same pony..." She nods "Yes... but how could a missing pony appear where the slender was supposed to be? Unless it could teleport-" she starts pacing "But why would it switch places with another pony if it could teleport? What purpose would it serve?" Bio mutters, pacing with her I stare at the pictures "Did Iron Key have a gold tooth?" they both pause and look at me "Why?" "Well, in this picture one of Iron Key's teeth is colored yellower than the rest, and when the slender spoke usin' that weird tear-mouth, I saw a somethin' shine... I thought that if the slender and Iron Key both had a gold tooth-" "Then they might be the same pony!" they both yell and Bio turns to Quick "Where is Iron Key's body?" "In the ice room to be sent to Manehatten once we leave town in two days" Quick gasps "We need to get in there!" I shiver and Bio removes the tarp from the body and hisses "Aaaaahhhh... that's not natural..." Quick turns green "I will never understand how Profile can stand his job... this should never be your job..." Bio gulps and pulls out a pencil "Pardon me..." he smiles a little "You were right... gold tooth..." he cocks his head "Hey... do you guys notice something... off about this body?" I step closer "Besides bein' flattened to a pulp? No" Quick cocks her head too "The bones... they seem too... thin" Bio pulls out a knife "Right... let's see what we can't find" I jump back "WHAT DO YA THINK YER DOIN'?!" He turns to me "These bones are too thin, and I need to test something" he slices into the corpse and I feel myself fall, hitting my head on the tiles and Quick grabs me "Are you okay?" Bio pulls out his hoof and a snaps something "This... isn't good" Quick sets me down and gasps "How is that even-" she shudders "I have seen some strange things in my life, one of the strangest being you, but this takes the cake" I stand and look at what they're staring at "Is that-" "Bone, or at least, one that has been stretched and is thinner than the bones of a pegasus' wing" Quick grabs Bio's pencil and pokes around in the body, much to my disgust "And it's not the only one... leg bones, ribs, joints... all thin and stretched like putty" Bio bends the bone again and it snaps like celery "Brittle too..." He rubs his head and gasps "I have a theory... this is what's left of the slender... flip it onto its back" Quick nods and rolls the corpse over, several tears in the skin like something burst out of it Quick looks at Bio "Your theory?" "Like I said, this is the slender or its host body at least. For my theory to work, we need to assume the slender is a... parasite. A parasite that possesses ponies. Most would think that the hole in the back and crushed bones were from the rocks. but this can't be true considering the victim was an earth pony blacksmith so he would be very muscular with thick, hard bones, not thin, brittle ones. The slender must have stretched the bones to fit into it like a hoof into a sock. You with me so far?" We both nod, my stomach falling "These skin flaps are the tentacles that (KKKKKZZZZSSHSHSH!!!!!!!!!) noticed were, which is why you never found anything, it was skin and muscles underneath whatever the slender is made of... but why it needed to stretch Iron Key is something I can't theorize right now... or maybe it was bigger than Iron Key and stretched his body to accommodate the excess, which gave him is tall, slender form... maybe my analogy of a sock is wrong but more akin to a balloon..." Bio paces and stops "Wait... if we're here... and Iron Key's corpse is there... and Quick is still a virgin... then where the buck is the slender?!" Quick blushes and gasps "It must still be out there! And most of the guards are packing up as we speak!" I cough and they stare at me "Ah think Ah know where it's going to go... or who after..." I shiver again "It said as we were leaving 'If I die, he will take my place' th' slender is going to possess me next..." Bio shivers and Quick snorts "Fine... Bio, I'm taking him back to Canterlot to get protection from the guards and- what?" He frowns "If you think I am letting him out of my sight, you are sorely mistaken Captain Quick Write... I will slaughter that thing without mercy, unlike your pansy guards could do" She grits her teeth "Violence and needless bloodshed isn't the Equestrian way! We are going to protect him and-" "And then what? Are you willing to put not only your men's lives on the line, but to let it get away with all those other killings?! The way to justice is two fold; find those who have done ill, and destroy them before they can do more damage. Those Diamond dog rebel groups, I neutralized without a single fatality. The cult of the moon, I infiltrated and dispersed while your men couldn't even find a single member. And now, I have to do your dirty work. AGAIN" His horn glows red "I am sorry that I am not asking your opinion on this (KKKKKZZZZSSHSHSH!!!!!!!!!), but I am going to have to do something that has been 'forbidden' since the last war. I am going to exterminate the slender" he sighs and looks at Quick, his eyes devoid of the usual calm "You can either stand in my way like always, or help me for once, which will it be?" She growls "That's how it boils down, 'With me or against me'? This is why you were discharged from being captain of the guard 5 years ago, you made the rash decision to charge at those dragons alone because everyone else wanted to go home to their families" "I subdued half a dozen dragons twenty times my size, alone, without help, unarmed and unarmored, in the middle of the day, and I am discharged because I won?! Tell me how that works!" "You told me you quit from the guard because you were a bicorn" I say and he shrugs "One of many reasons. And as to why it is is because, and I quote the princess on this, 'I do not want an unstable freak of nature leading my guards on suicide missions. Bicorns do not have the necessary skills to be guards' she wasn't saying that when she personally selected me to be captain 2 years before, and she KNEW I was a bicorn, talk about covering her sizable ass" he grinds his teeth "So many times I saved her from assassins... sometimes I think I should have helped those cultists instead of stopping them" Quick stomps her hoof "Be that as it may, you cannot stop us from protecting him. you do not have rank anymore" He smiles "But I do have the fact that the two of us solved the case, subdued the monster, and figured out how it works while you did nothing but give us some info we already had. Face it Quick, you lost, and I am offering you a ride on my coattails and to do something usefulfor once. and the longer we spend arguing, the more time the slender has to plan" She growls "I will end you..." He steps closer,looking down his nose at her "I will take that as an 'against me'" "Uh... we have a crowd..." I say, pointing to the numerous guards behind me Bio groans "Wonderful... come on... I need to get you home to your family..." he turns to Quick and whispers something before pushing his way through them My mother throws another apple at Bio, who grabs it in his magic and sets it in a pile without stopping his explanation "... And I am afraid I am going to need to ask you to take your other children somewhere else for a few-" another apple "Nights or until it is gone" She huffs and glares at him "I should have known having a strange unicorn for a friend was a horrible idea! You brought this... 'Slender' onto him!" "Ma... It was because I visited Mistah Plate that this is happenin'... Bio is helpin' me" I say, dodging an apple "You were going to make this farm a prosperous business! Now you're gonna die and become a monster!" she yells, and Bio snorts "I know that we may never see eye-to-eye, but I promise that I will lay my life down to protect him. All I ask is that you put a little faith in me" She hefts another apple and sighs "I trust you... but should you fail I will murder you myself" she trots out the door and looks back at us "Please be okay when I get back" I nod and look at Bio "Now what do we do?" "Now? We wait" "You've paced for hours now, aren't you sleepy yet?" I ask and he turns to me "I have two brains, One sleeps while the other is awake so technically I never need to sleep, I still do sometimes but-" his horn sparks and he grins "It's her- DUCK!" I lower my head and a black tendril shoots over my head and grazes Bio's ear before being enveloped by magic and surging towards the source "Got you- GUH!" another tendril slams into his side and he falls over "Buck... my wound..." I jump and he blasts another tendril "I got this! Just hold on!" his horn charges and the room fills with light as he splits "Now then... show yourself!" A pool of red and black oozes under the doors and a a giant white eye rises from the center. The Bios smile "You're ugly, fought uglier but... not many**" their horns blast the eye, passing through it and several tendrils grab for them, white-blue blasts blowing them away "Took you long enough Cappy. I thought you stood me up on our date" they grin as a brown blur slams into the mass, bouncing off "Shut up you jerk" "Quick Write!" I gasp and she smiles "Hello (KKKKKZZZZSSHSHSH!!!!!!!!!)" several unicorns in royal armor burst through the doors, looking annoyed "Captain! Why did you fly- SWEET CELESTIA!" a tendril slams into them, launching them through the door "You brought royal goons? Nice one" the Bios say and charge their horns when the eye blasts them with red energy, slamming them into the wall "I'm hurt!" Quick glares at the mass and charges, slamming her hooves into the mass, which shudders and slaps her away and into the Bios It lurches forward and towers over me the eye growing and red energy focusing on me "Aaaahh... aaaahhh..." the words die in my mouth as the beam seems to intensify before two green energy blasts slam into it, the energy exploding and tearing apart the eye, the behemoth groaning in pain "HAHA! Got it!" the Bios cheer, firing another blast and hitting with an explosion, tearing it apart The monster lashes blindly, missing the twins completely as they fire another volley of magic at it "You have taken too many lives you denizen of nightmares. Now begone!" their magic intensifies and launches at the mass, obliterating it "And now for good measure!" they fires dozens of small blasts where it stood, blinding me with the brightness "Bio! Stahp! Ah can't see!" A loud slap cuts through the air as the lights die, the Bio's embedded back into the wall, one of their horn's broken "I... He killed my half..." the one with the broken horn glows and disappears into Bio, a snapped horn appearing on his head "Nearly dead..." he grits his teeth and red energy envelopes him, his eyes glowing yellow and sparking "I am going to end your miserable existance" The writhing mass of red, black and white seems to shiver and surged towards me, a large red blast of energy scattering it "You are going to be obliterated" he smiles, eyes seeming to glow as white as his teeth "I am going to enjoy this" The mass shoots towards Quick but another red blast cuts it off "Now... run" the mass seems to rise up into the form of a foal "I... want to... live..." it whispers Bio scoffs "Yeah yeah... I don't care. You nearly killed half of me, and successfully killed at least a dozen ponies in the span of 3 months" it shivers and Quick Write steps forward only to be cut off by a blast of energy "Don't go maternal on me captain" "I was... created to kill-" "Likely story, you are probably lying and-" It winces "Please! I just want... to live! Can't... you understand... that?" "Ah understand" I say, stepping forward before a blast nearly scorches my flesh off "Stay. Back." "But Ah do! Ah know that my life as a simple farm pony ain't much compared to that of a guard captain, a monster, or some kind of arbiter* but ah just want to live. But living by killing ponies ain't right... can't we put it in jail or something?" "The families of the dead will want justice. I am here to administer it. That is all" Bio says and charges his horn "May Luna have mercy on your soul you amorphous monstrosity" I jump in the way and he nearly blasts me, singing my fur "DAMMIT (KKKKKZZZZSSHSHSH!!!!!!!!!)! I could've killed you!" he yells, eyes shining yellow again "Let's just hear him out!" I say and I am enveloped by magic and set down where I stood "Fine, but if it attacks I am going to kill it and punish you for interfering with justice" he turns to the slender "Continue" "I was created by the lunar cult for the sole purpose of spreading fear and killing a dissenter of their teachings" Bio stiffens "So you are after me is that it?" It nods slowly "But I was weak and couldn't kill... they used the books that princess Luna utilized to create life before her banishment! Surely you know about that!" Bio nods "So... you are the imperfect creation? Really? You expect me to believe that you were used using information in books destroyed by Celestia at least 500 years ago? I find that hard to believe" It shivers "But not her notes! her aids stole the notes from the castle while the princesses fought! it was a last resort! the notes were passed down from each head of the cult to the next!" His horn charges "And why tell me this? I am your target! and there is no proof you are telling the truth anyways" Quick clears her throat "Actually... if you had stayed around long to process what their next move was, you would know that there was some kind of-" he smiles "Experiment, I made that memo remember? That's how I got them in one place to 'Capture' them" his face pales "Someone actually did an experiment..." The slender nods "That was Iron Key, so he used me as a living weapon and armor... but something snapped in his mind... he turned murderous... I tried to stop him but the mages of the cult bound me to him... I think that after killing so many ponies he only slightly remembered the true reason... to kill you" Bio ponders this "Then why come after (KKKKKZZZZSSHSHSH!!!!!!!!!)? Why not me?" the slender shivers "He knew that you two were friends, and knew that if he was in trouble, you would help and then he could kill you and him... but when you killed him... his mind stayed with me... until he killed one of you and then his mind-" "Disappeared, like a vengeful spirit..." his magic dims "I still don't believe you but what you say makes sense... but there is still the matter of justice..." Quick smiles "But by nearly dying... the true killer died completely, justice is served" Bio ponders this "Hhhmmm... I guess that works..." his magic dims to nothing "But I need you to take me to the place where you were created" The slender nods and Bio smiles "But you are coming with me. Quick, the jar" Quick coughs "Yes... about that... I couldn't find one... and none of the guards know any warding spells" He face hoofs "You had three jobs! One, bring me a scroll, ink, and a clay jar. Two, secure a perimeter around the house. Three, don't be late" "Where am I supposed to get a scroll in an earth pony town?!" "From. The. Parchment. Shop. Across from. The. Station" he mutters and she blushes "Oh... my apologies" He groans "Just... go grab a jar from the basement, some stationary... and try to at least grab some ink or paint... can you manage that?" She frowns "yes, I can manage that... do I look like an idiot" "Is that rhetorical?" I tap his shoulder "I have all that stuff under my bed and in my closet" "Mala Suerte..." his horn lights up and with a bright flash, in front of him is a jar with a scroll on the top and glowing red chains wrapped around it "Now... shouldn't you be seeing to your men, they aren't moving" Quick sighs "Right" "Is the slender in there?" I ask, wiping my eyes He nods "a prison meant to keep things in and out... and only I can open it... Luna help me, this may not end well" Quick reenters "They're unconscious... So I guess you're coming along with me to Manehattan?" "You guessed right, when do we go, because the sooner the notes are recovered and hid away, the better" "I'm coming too, I want to be of some use besides bait" I say they shake their heads "Sorry (KKKKKZZZZSSHSHSH!!!!!!!!!), you're a civilian" Bio sighs "I hate to say that she's right but she is... but you'll come anyways, right?" I nod "Nothing you can do about that Bio" He sighs "I need 2 days to rest enough so that half of me doesn't die completely... when are your men leaving?" Quick frowns "They were going to leave tomorrow afternoon but now... the day after... give me the jar" Bio smiles "Fat chance. I am keeping it. only I can open the jar, and the moment someone writes up a report. Ol' Sunbutt will take it, banish it, and say that there was no threat. Or have me banished as well. and I have something that she will never know about. The answers" Quick sighs "You are still an anarchist?" "I would rather die for a goddess whom I have never met than die for one I know is nothing but a coward who hides behind a throne" She grumbles several insults "FINE! And if you are calling the shots, what should my report be?" "'Two local stallions were chased by the slender into a cave. one of them held the slender at bay while the other contacted the guards. after detonating fuses hidden by the locals, the slender was crushed by rocks, apparently a magical construct of a mad pony, the missing Iron Key of Manehatten. The magic was dispersed and his crushed body is to be buried in Manehatten after being cremated and buried underground. the locals were told to never speak a word of their involvement' that will be your report, word for word" he rummages through his saddle bags and pulls out a piece of paper "I wrote it while we waited for nightfall" She grabs it "... Fine. You don't want the recognition?" He sighs "I want to be forgotten, that's why I came here, a place far from her politics and sight" Quick sighs "Okay... but... I just want you to know that I do not approve of this. At all" Bio grins "Tell that to somepony whom has the capacity to care about your opinion vice captain. Ta-ta~" She groans "Celestia help me..."