Haunted: The Story of Slen

by Lance Skyes

Part 2: A Friend in the Darkness

Slen stood on the platform of the Ponyville Train Station, just looking around at all the ponies going by. At the same time, he couldn’t help but think about the dream he had last night. Was he really standing right at Slendermane’s front door?

“Slen!” a voice called form somewhere on the platform, snapping the colt back to reality. “Slen, are you there?” Slen couldn’t recognize the voice, but he was relieved that he didn’t recognize it as Slendermane’s voice. Still, who could possibly know his name? Slen looked all around before he found the source of the voice. It was a green pegasus colt about his age with gold eyes and a green mane and tail (a little darker than Slen’s) with a gold stripe running through both. The most peculiar part of the pegasus, however, was his cutie mark. Slen thought he recognized it from somewhere, but couldn’t quite place his hoof on where. “Slen, is that you?”

“Uh... yeah,” Slen replied, trotting over to the pegasus. “How do you know my name?”

“You mean you don’t recognize me? It’s me, Rei.”

Rei. The strange name of Slen’s pen pal since the young unicorn was eight. With the dream last night, Slen totally forgot the conversation the two had over MagiComm (some new real-time communication system created by an alicorn named Twilight Sparkle) only days before. It went something like this...

”Hay, Slen,” Rei said. “Haven’t heard from you in almost a month. How have you been?”

“Oh, I’ve been fine,” Slen lied. “You know me. Traveling, seeing what there is to be seen in Equestria. Nothing spectacular. How about you?”

“I’ve been great. I recently moved to this nice little town called Ponyville. Have you ever been there before?”

“No, I don’t think I have.” (You can tell because foals haven’t been abducted and the place hasn’t been burned to the ground.)

“Oh, you should come for a visit.”

“I really don’t think-”

“It’s a really nice town. Everypony’s nice.”

“Rei, please-”

“Every day is pretty eventful.”

“Rei-”

“And the six ponies who wield the Elements of Harmony live here.”

“Wait. What did you say?”

“The Elements of Harmony live here. Why?”

(This could be exactly what I need to get rid of him.) “You know what? I think I will drop by Ponyville for a visit.”

“That’s great! I’ll arrange for you to stay with me here at my house. It won’t be so hard, given the fact that my foster parents are almost never around. I pretty much have the house to myself all the time.”

“Okay. I’ll see you in a couple weeks, probably.”

“See ya, Slen.” It sounded like Rei backed up a little and was no longer talking to Slen after that line. “Thanks, Rarity. How much do I owe you?”

“So how was the train ride?” Rei asked.

“Oh...” Slen started. “It was, um... Let’s just say that I fell asleep in one of those uncomfortable seats and had a crazy dream.”

“Really? Did you see Princess Luna in the dream?”

“No, I actually didn’t. Look, I really don’t feel like talking about it right now. Can we just get going?”

“Yeah, sure. Come on.” Rei then began trotting into the town, Slen following closely.

After a short and rather quiet walk, the two colts made it to Rei’s house. “Here we are,” Rei said. “It isn’t much, but we’ll be the only two here most of the time.”

“It’s actually not that bad,” Slen said, looking around. “It’s a lot better than any place I’ve stayed in before.”

“Well I’m glad to hear that. By the way, how long were you planning on staying here in Ponyville?”

“Eh, not that long.” Slen turned and looked out a nearby window. Rei’s house was pretty close to the Everfree Forest. The place that Slendermane said he lived. “You live pretty close to that forest over there, don’t you?”

“Yeah. They call it the Everfree Forest. Ponies say very dangerous creatures live in there and warn foals to stay away from it, but I’ve never seen a single one of those dangerous creatures.” Rei chuckled a little before continuing. “Never been in there, either, but what’s the point in going in there? Let the Elements of Harmony save the world while us background ponies stay safe in this little town, ya know?”

Slen wasn’t really paying attention to Rei after he said “dangerous creatures.” He was just thinking about how little Rei knew about what dangerous creatures in particular lived in that forest. “Is there something wrong, Slen?” Rei asked, jerking the young unicorn back to reality.

“Uh, yeah,” Slen said. “I’m fine.” Under his breath, Slen added, “I think.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing. I didn’t say a thing.” Seeking to change the subject before Rei started asking questions Slen didn’t feel like answering, the unicorn brought up something he wanted to get done while he was here in Ponyville. “I hear there’s a library around here. One that has just about every book on magic and myths there is.”

“Yeah,” Rei said. “Golden Oaks Library. It’s run by Princess Twilight Sparkle. Have you heard of her?”

“She’s a princess now?” Slen was legitimately surprised by this fact. “Man, I’m way out of the loop if I didn’t know about the newest princess in Equestria. Anyway, do you mind if I step out and visit that library real quick? I know it’s a bit rude to just walk out after we just got here, but...”

“No, it’s not a problem,” Rei replied. “You go on. I needed some time to fix us something to eat, anyway. Have you ever had a taco?”

“Uh, I can’t say I have. Anyway, I’ll be back in less than an hour.” Slen then quickly trotted out of the house, leaving Rei alone. Before leaving the area, Slen looked back at Rei’s house. “He’ll be safe, Slen,” he said to himself. “There’s nothing to worry about.” Right as Slen said this, he turned to look at the Everfree Forest and just stared with a serious expression. Suddenly, for as little as a split second, he could have sworn he saw Slendermane at the edge of the forest.

“We’ll see about that,” Slen thought he heard Slendermane practically whisper in his ear. The unicorn turned quickly to see that nopony was there. Slen breathed a sigh of relief before he had a sudden realization.

“Rei,” Slen said to himself. He then bucked the door open and galloped back into the house. “Rei, are you still here?” Slen called.

Rei trotted out of the kitchen, completely unharmed and unchanged. “Yeah, I’m fine,” the pegasus replied. “Why would I be gone? You’ve only been out for a minute.”

Slen kind of shook his head for a moment to shake out any paranoia that he might have had. “Sorry. Still thinking about that dream from last night. I guess I was just-” Slen cut himself off when he saw Rei reach for his nose with his hoof. “What’s wrong?” Slen asked as though what Rei was doing was an indication of something dangerous.

“My nose feels funny,” Rei replied, rubbing his nose. When he removed his hoof, there was some blood on it. “That’s strange. It’s a nosebleed.” This only caused Slen to gasp in horror.

Author's Note:

Because I know for a fact that one thing in the last paragraph will fly over the head of 95% of the ponies who read this, nosebleeds are one of the first symptoms of Slender Sickness. Yeah, Rei's Sickness will become a major plot device. Anyway, for the love of Celestia, please stop disliking my stories so ferociously.

Comments

[highburst]

Hmm interesting facts. More information on how to get him.