//------------------------------// // Pilot episode: The begining // Story: Slender Mane // by Lightning Crystal //------------------------------// "Hello?" A confused young colt by the name of pipsqueak called out. He looked around frantically wondering where he was. He started to walk in a direction, hoping that it would help him find out where he was. It wasn't long until he saw a familiar looking place, his home. He ran towards the house wanting to see his parents again. "Mom, dad, I'm glad I found home." He opened the front door and saw his house was empty. He went upstairs and saw that it was barren as well. This can't be right, he thought to himself. He turned around and saw it. A tall slender stallion, he was wearing a black suit, with a red tie, he had no face. Tentacles popped out of his back, inching their way towards him. He tried to run but the slender stallion was blocking the doorway, it was hopeless. A chill was sent up pipsqueak's spine as the tentacles enveloped him, it wasn't long until he was engulfed into the darkness, never to be seen again. ~A couple months later~ "Shot Lock!" A grey mare yelled at the chestnut colored stallion. He looked to the mare and waited for what she had to say. "Yes, what is it?" He asked. "We have a case for you." "Where?" "Ponyville." "What's it about?" "A string of disappearances around the everfree forest." "Sounds like a case I would take." "So will you take it?" "Yeah i'll take the case, I just need to get my gear." shot Lock said, he went and gathered up all of the things that he thought that he would need. He went to the station and boarded a train. The train started to move, and he looked out the window, towards where ponyville was. "I wonder what sort of things are going on in ponyville." ~three hours later~ He exited the train, and looked around, ponyville looked really empty. He wondered around and was looking for any leads. He saw a store and decided to go into it. "Hello, I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time." He called out into the store, he was replied with the crying of two ponies, he ran to where the crying was and saw a couple of ponies, the first one was a stallion, the other was a mare. "Oh i'm sorry, it's just that we miss our children." Said the stallion. "I'm Cup Cake." Said the mare. "And I'm Carrot Cake." Said the stallion. "Hello l'm detective lock, and I am here to solve these mysterious disappearances." Shot Lock said, the couple seemed to brighten up immensely. "You are, we will forever be in your debt if you could find our children." Carrot Cake said. "Sure thing, now what do they look like?" Shot Lock asked. "Pound cake is a cream pegasus, and Pumpkin is an orangeish unicorn." Cup Cake said. "Okay, wait a unicorn and a pegasus?" Shot asked. "Yes, you see-" Carrot Cake started, but Shot interrupted him. He looked around for clues. "Was there any odd things going on before they disappeared?" Shot asked. "We helped calm them down from a nightmare three nights ago, but other than that it was all okay." Cup Cake said. "Thank you, that helps a lot." Shot said as he walked out of the store. He looked around to try to see if he could find any more clues, he eventually spotted a yellow pegasus, and walked over to them. "Excuse me, can I have a moment of your time?" Shot asked. "Sure, what is it?" The pegasus answered. "I am looking for clues about the disappearances around ponyville." "The only thing I know is that all of the victims had the same nightmare three days before they disappeared." "Really, anything else you could tell me?" "All of the dreams had a tall slender stallion with no face, and it beckoned them to the everfree forest." "Thank you, this will help me immensely." Shot started to walk to the everfree forest. "Wait you're not going into the forest are you?" The stallion asked. "yes I am." "you can't go it's dangerous in there." "I have no choice though." "I won't let you get yourself killed." "And I can't let these ponies keep disappearing." "fine, i'll follow you then." "I can't let you do that." "And I can't let you get yourself killed, if you're truly going to save them you'e going to need backup." "Fine you can tag along, but at the first sight of danger I want you too run." "I won't run, but if I need too I will." Both stallions started to walk to the everfree forest, not knowing what lay ahead of them. They walked for hours still not knowing what to expect. They learned each others names, the pegasus' name was Thunderbolt Sentinel. When they reached the entrance to the forest it got dark, really quickly. "It's gotten dark pretty quickly." Shot said. "It did, but then again we did leave at around four PM." "True, Sentinel, do you have the lanterns?" "yes I do." Sentinel said as he pulled out the lanterns. "perfect, we will need these, but for now we'll only need one of them." Shot said as he was grabbing one of them. Both of them walked into the woods and started their search. ~Two Hours later~ "Hey detective Lock, I found something over here!" Sentinel yelled, as he was pointing at a note on a tree trunk. Shot Lock went over to where Sentinel was standing. He looked at the note on the tree. The note was strange, it had a crudely drawn slender pony wearing a black suit that had a red tie, and the drawing had no face, in weirdly drawn letters said, no eyes always watches. "What the hell does that mean?" Shot asked. "I don't know, but it looks odd, could it be evidence?" "Yes evidence, we should take it with us." Shot took the note and a drum sound was heard from the distance. The sound got closer and closer, and then it stopped. "What was that drumming sound?" Sentinel asked. "How should I know, but we could be catching onto something, we should try to get more of these notes." "If there are any more."