• Published 27th Jul 2014
  • 3,517 Views, 140 Comments

Lost in a Terrifying World - Erisn



Slender gets lost in Equestria. Screaming ensues. Not all of it comes from him. Can one of the Eldritch come to respect ponies as intelligent, thinking beings? Or will he wipe them all out?

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Part 7: Learning Curves

“You know, I kinda miss the days when Tirek was destroying Equestria. I think of the time when he stole my ability to fly and go ‘yeah, I really miss that’. That was a really fun near-death experience, don’t you think? At least we didn’t have to bring Tirek back for tea time.”

Twilight closed her eyes, trying to ignore Rainbow Dash’s complaints as she surveyed the wreck that had been Fluttershy’s cottage. A hundred animals trying to make a break for it could do that to a home. The lovely, beautiful table was cracked in two, most likely from when the bear had landed on it trying to get out the window.

Not one piece of furniture remained that was not scratched, broken, or lying in pieces on the floor. Fluttershy’s friends had taken every available escape route, including bashing through the walls of the house using furniture as battering rams. The tree house that Fluttershy had called home was a hollowed out mess, one that would need a full construction crew and carpentry team to fix.

On the other hand, at least there wouldn’t be any more tea parties. Twilight considered that the destruction of Fluttershy’s cottage was a small price to pay in that respect. Fluttershy herself was standing forlornly in the center of the wreckage, staring blankly at the splintering of wood that had once been her door.

Twilight felt a twinge of pity for the pegasus, but only a twinge. Fluttershy wasn’t normally one for bad ideas (that usually being the role of Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash), but bringing Slender Man back to her house for a tea party was definitely not one of her finer moments. What had she expected?

Animals weren’t like ponies. They didn’t have brains large enough for higher cognitive functions like self-delusion, denial, and hope. When they had seen Slender Man, they had run for their lives as any intelligent being would do. Only ponies were stupid enough to stick around monsters from the abyss.

Speaking of which…Slender Man was standing behind Fluttershy, regarding the wreckage insofar as Twilight could tell what he was doing. He seemed…perplexed, but it was hard to read someone’s emotions when they had no face. Still, there was a definite air of nonplussed-ness about him.

Twilight had to admit that the Slender Man still creeped her out, but she was also aware that she couldn’t get rid of him. Besides, it had dawned on her that here was an entirely new species from a different dimension, ripe for research and studying. She was willing to deal with him a bit more readily for that reason, although she was still ready to blast him if he should turn hostile again. But until then, Twilight intended to fulfill her promise to the Slender Man and do her best to show him around Ponyville – if only so that he would leave.

To this end, Twilight began to rummage around the rubble of Fluttershy’s house; ignoring Dash’s ranting as she searched for what she knew would be there. She had seen a flash of purple and green somewhere around…here!

Twilight pulled what looked like a purple snake out from a pile of broken furniture, and came up with Spike dangling upside-down from his tail.

“Ah! Don’t eat me!” Spike screamed as he dangled in the air. “Dragons don’t taste good at all, I promise!”

Twilight spat Spike’s tail out of her mouth, letting the baby dragon fall to the ground. “Spike,” she said patiently, “calm down. It’s only us.”

“What?” Spike looked up from where he had been shielding his head with his hands. “Twilight? What the heck happened? Fluttershy was here, and she was talking about a new friend, and then some thing appeared and…” Spike caught sight of the Slender Man and panicked again. “It’s still here! Quick! Everypony run for your lives!”

“Spike, calm down. It’s not what you think. Well, it is, but we’re not in danger at the moment. His name is Slender Man, and he’s currently non-aggressive. Here, have a paper bag.”

Twilight passed a paper bag to Spike and watched as the young dragon breathed into it and for several minutes. When Spike was somewhat calmer, Twilight managed to explain to him the events of the last hour and a half, avoiding specifics when it came to the injuries each pony had suffered.

“And you’re sure this guy is safe?” Spike demanded. “Seriously Twilight, I would rather poke Chrysalis in the eye than hang out around this thing.”

“I know Spike, I know,” Twilight sighed. “But we’ve got no choice. And anyways, he seems harmless enough for the moment.”

“That’s true,” Spike admitted. “At least he’s not like Sombra, or Tirek. Those guys seriously had anger-management issues. This guy looks like he never gets mad.”

----

Slender was upset. He had been promised friends. The yellow and pink pony named Fluttershy had told him that she had many animal friends. She had said they would be his friends too. Slender had seen many animals sure enough, when had appeared in Fluttershy’s home. But they had all screamed and run away the sight of him. That was so…disappointing.

Even as Slender watched, Fluttershy was trying to coax the one remaining animal in the room to come closer to him. It was some kind of rabbit, albeit one standing on two legs and attempting to hide behind the remains of Fluttershy’s wardrobe. It what white, small, fluffy, and shaking with uncontrolled visceral fear. In short, like all the other rabbits Slender had seen. Fluttershy called him ‘Angel’.

“Come on now, Angel”, Fluttershy said. “Mr. Slender Man isn’t mean or scary. Well, he’s sort of scary, but he won’t do anything bad, I promise.”

Angel clearly didn’t believe Fluttershy, and attempted fruitlessly to merge with the wall behind him as Fluttershy tried to entice her pet out. Eventually, Fluttershy resorted to the expedient of dragging Angel forcibly out from behind the wardrobe, to his extreme dissatisfaction. Slender had no idea that rabbits could scream like that. All the ones he had met had died of fright.

Eventually, Angel was in Fluttershy’s hooves, and the pegasus held him up for Slender to look at. After all the fuss, Slender was slightly let down to see that the rabbit really was no different from any other rabbit. It had a pink nose, whispers, and an expression of terror as Slender looked at it. However, clearly this was some sort of alpha-rabbit, for Fluttershy to make it her primary pet. Slender did what he had seen other humans do on occasion with their pets; he extended one thin tendril and stroked the rabbit on the head very gently.

Angel screamed and burst into tears. Slender was once again perplexed. He been very careful not to let his corrupting touch affect the rabbit, yet it seemed to be in some serious distress, attempting to burrow into Fluttershy’s mane as she held the bunny and talked soothingly in its ear.

“I’m sorry Mr. Slenderman,” Fluttershy said sadly as Angel’s wailing subsided somewhat. “It seems that Angel is a teensy bit scared of you, no matter what I tell him. He thinks you’re going to eat him, and I think it would be best if he gets some alone time right now.” Gently, Fluttershy lowered Angel to the floor, whereupon he proceeded to disappear out the door, still crying.

Slender felt a slight pain in his chest, but it wasn’t pain from an external force. It was something in his chest that seemed to hurt. It was most curious. Slender had never felt such pain before. Had the bunny caused it? How strange, but this wasn’t the time to think upon such things.

Clearly, the meeting of so-called friends at Fluttershy’s house had not resulted in any friends for Slender, but he was determined to continue to explore the culture of these ponies. Slender would soldier on, no matter how many screaming bunnies he encountered.

----

“So what now?” Rainbow Dash demanded. Twilight and the others were attempting to sort through the wreckage of furniture, but were having little luck given that the wreckage now accounted for more of the house than, well…the house. “Since that worked out so well, maybe we should take Slender Man to Cheerilee’s kindergarten. Oh wait, I have a better idea! Maybe we should introduce Slender to Pound and Pumpkin Cake. I’m sure they’ll be just as thrilled to see him as Fluttershy’s friends.”

“Rainbow Dash, this really isn’t helping,” Twilight said. “Instead of complaining, why don’t you lend us a hoof in cleaning up?”

“I’m sorry to say that lending a hoof wouldn’t improve matters that much, Twilight.” Rarity remarked, daintily shifting a micro fragment of wood with her hoof. “This place needs a full-scale makeover, preferably from the ground up!”

“Oh, it’s not too bad,” Fluttershy protested, demonstrating her abilities of understatement. “I’m just sorry Mr. Slender couldn’t meet all my friends. I can’t understand what came over them.”

“Yeah, they just ran for the hills!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “Talk about rude! They didn’t even say goodbye!”

“Yes, well,” Twilight exchanged a glance with Applejack and Rarity, “I believe that we should move on. Fluttershy’s home is a bust metaphorically and literally, I’m afraid, so we’re going to have to come up with something for Slender Man to do next.”

Seven sets of eyes turned to the still figure in the center of the room.

“I don’t think taking this Slender guy around Ponyville is such a good idea,” Spike said slowly. “In fact, I think that would be a really bad idea.”

“You have a point, Spike darling,” Rarity said, “but we can’t simply have him stand around forever. We promised to show him around Ponyville, and if we can’t do that, he won’t leave.”

“Ah think yer right Spike,” Applejack said, “but if let him do his teleportin’ thing from place to place then he probably won’t scare too many ponies.”

“Let’s bring him into town, then.” Twilight said. “We can take turns showing Slender Man around town until its night.”

“Sounds like fun!” Pinkie Pie bounced up and down, a huge smile on her face. “I know just what to do! I’llbebacklater!” And with that, she sped out the door, zipping down the road to Ponyville.

“I’ll head out too and get ready,” Rarity said. “I want to check in on Sweetie Belle, and I need to get my boutique in order as well. I’ll deal with this Slender fellow after you have all finished with him.”

“Sounds good,” Twilight said. “Alright Fluttershy, let’s get Slender Man down to Ponyville. We can show him the sights.”

Fluttershy looked awkward. “I’d like to find my friends, Twilight, if that’s all the same to you. They were very scared, and I’d like to find them and talk to them all so they know Mr. Slender isn’t that bad.”

“But Fluttershy, how the heck are we supposed to talk to this Slender dude without you?” Rainbow Dash demanded. “You’re the only one who understand him, remember?”

“I’m sure that won’t be a problem,” Fluttershy said. “He can understand what we’re saying, and he’s promised me that he’ll be on his best behavior. He won’t hurt anypony, and he’ll listen to everything we say.”

“Still, ah’d sure like to know what he’s saying,” Applejack said. “No offense, but I’m not comfortable havin’ a one-way conversation with somepony.”

“I believe I have the answer to that,” Twilight said. “If nopony objects, let’s make the first stop in Ponyville my house. I have a…experiment I would like to perform.”

----

“I always feel the best approach to any new situation is to take notes,” Twilight explained as she levitated a sheaf of papers, quill and ink towards herself. “We should make a proper study of this Slender Man, and take this opportunity to do as much research as possible.”

Twilight was standing in her library house, having left Slender Man outside with Applejack and Rainbow Dash while she hunted for writing supplies. Twilight’s eyes sparkled as much as her cutie mark as she zipped around her home, gathering equipment for her experiment with the manic enthusiasm of the true researcher. There is always something terrifying about people whose enjoyment in life comes from taking notes.

“Uh, sure Twilight.” Spike edged back from Twilight carefully. Her eyes were shining with an excitement that terrified the young dragon. “But uh, how will you talk with it…him?”

“Silly Spike! The basics of communication with extraterrestrial lifeforms have already been uncovered. Even if he can’t talk, there are some basic principles that every species can understand. Observe.”

Twilight trotted out her house, where the Slender Man and her friends were waiting. There was awkwardness about the way everypony deliberately avoided looking at the slender figure, but Twilight ignored the silence with the single-minded drive of the true researcher.

She plonked a set of papers down before the Slender Man, and levitated a piece of paper up to head height for him. One of his tendrils reached out delicately to hold it, and Twilight gave him a freshly-dipped quill as well.

“Uh, Twilight? What are you doing?” Applejack asked, curious.

“I’m about to establish a basis for communication with an alien life form!” Twilight announced proudly.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash exchanged a glance. “Uh, can’t it already understand us?” Dash wanted to know. “That’s communication, right?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “That’s just because of magic, Dash. But we’re going to establish a language based purely on mathematical principles, and slowly work our way up to a written language we can both understand!”

Rainbow Dash considered this. “Okay. That makes sense. It’d be easier if we could understand this guy. So how long is this going to take?”

Twilight grinned with delight. “It could take weeks depending on how fast we can establish a mathematical basis.”

Weeks!?”

“Maybe even months! Isn’t it exciting? We could finally prove that all beings can communicate using the principles of basic math and scientific exchange!” Twilight turned to the Slender Man, not seeing Rainbow Dash’s facehoof. “Mr. Slender Man, could you please begin by writing down the answer to my question? What is one plus one?”

There was a pause, before the tendril holding the quill moved to touch the paper lightly. The Slender Man drew a few strokes, and then handed the paper back to Twilight. She grinned with delight. Score one for science and logic. Eagerly, she looked at the paper for the obvious answer. She didn’t find it. Scrawled in a precise script on her parchment were two numbers, instead of one.

42.

Twilight looked at the paper. She looked up at the Slender Man. She looked back down at the paper.

“Uh, maybe you didn’t hear me correctly the first time,” Twilight said brightly. “I was asking for the answer to one plus one.”

One of Slender Man’s tendrils lightly moved down and tapped the number on the paper.

“I’m sure that this is a simple miscommunication,” Twilight said. “Uh, you see, the answer to one plus one is in fact…two. An easy mistake to make, I’m sure we’re all a bit confused. Let’s try again, shall we? What is two plus two?”

The Slender Man’s tendril paused, before tapping the number on paper in front of Twilight again. A faint sheen of sweat began to bead on Twilight’s brow.

“Uh, wrong again I’m afraid. The answer to two plus two is…four. Maybe you’re just bad at addition! Perfectly understandable, perfectly understandable. How about counting?” Twilight hastily grabbed another sheet of paper and wrote down three numbers. In order, they read 1, 2, 3. “Please write the number that comes after three.”

There was a pause as the Slender Man picked up the paper in one tendril. His quill hovered over the paper, as if unsure.

“I’ll give you a teensy hint,” Twilight said desperately. “It’s a number that starts with an ‘f’’. Let me sound if out for you. It sounds like ‘fou…’ Can you guess what number I’m thinking of?”

The quill paused, and then wrote down a number.

“Good! Perfect!” Twilight grabbed the paper. She looked at it. It read:

1, 2, 3, 42.

Twilight looked at the paper. She looked up at the Slender Man. She looked back down at the paper.

Twilight snapped.

----

Slender was learning new things every second. Until this day, he had no idea that ponies were capable of frothing at the mouth and twitching like that. Twilight had curled into a tiny ball and had rocked back and forth for several minutes after Slender Man’s last answer. He had had trouble thinking in three-dimensional mathematics for a while, but he was sure his answers had been perfect. Twilight seemed to be reacting to the beauty of his mathematical genius. He wondered if she was trembling with joy or happiness. Maybe it was both.

After a while, the dragon child named Spike dragged Twilight back inside her house. There was a brief silence, interspersed with some screaming before he came back out.

“Uh, Twilight’s going to have a nap,” Spike informed the other ponies. “I think she needs a bit of a lie down.”

Slender could hear an odd moaning coming from inside the house, punctuated by bursts of sobbing. She must have really been impressed with his math.

“Maybe we should leave her for a while,” Spike suggested. “I’ll keep an eye on her. Just in case.”

There was a crash of breaking glass. Slender watched with interest as a book sailed out of the library’s window. He picked it up with one tendril. Hmm. Pony language was difficult to read, but Slender managed to decipher the title after a few moments.

Mathematics: Algorithms of the Universe. Huh. Imagine that. Twilight must have no more need for the book any longer. Slender let the book drop to the floor. Ponies were fascinating. Imagine one pony having that much trouble with basic math? It seemed too simple, but maybe she just wasn’t that smart. Everybody knew the answer to any mathematical question was eventually forty-two.

----

Slender was rather perplexed at the next destination he was led to. The orange and blue ponies, Applejack and Rainbow Dash had led him to some kind of forest dwelling, but not one Slender had ever seen before.

It was filled with trees, yes, but the trees were interspersed at equal intervals, as if they had been planted in rows rather than being allowed to grow naturally. And each tree was growing some kind of seed pod. Red pods, green pods, each one as large and low-hanging. A fresh generation, ready to spread across the world. It was rather heartening to see, but Slender wondered why Applejack had chosen to bring him there. Maybe it was to observe the growth of new life?could they be used for?

The pony called Applejack stopped and faced Slender. “This place is called Sweet Apple Acres. It’s the property of me an’ my family. Every tree y’all can see we raised from a seed. We feed all a’ Ponyville with the apples from our orchard all year round.”

Slender paused. More accurately, he froze. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand; he just couldn’t accept what the Orange On—Applejack was telling him. Ponies really ate seed pods? That was…

Disgusting. Horrific. Slender hung around entities like The Rake and things like Shoggoths on a regular basis. And while it was true that such beings were extremely messy eaters, they were not doing anything out of the ordinary. They ate humans, animals, and generally anything that breathed, and that was fine. Nothing that looked like The Rake could ever be mistaken for a vegetarian.

But ponies eating apples? Slender knew sometimes creatures were forced to devour young and old alike, but ponies seemed to eat only the infants. Slender had thought ponies were innocent, peaceful creatures. But any animal that could willfully eat a child-seed-progeny in front of the parent, while systematically breeding surviving adults for continued food supply…that was messed up.

Slender was rapidly becoming aware of the myriad of ways in which species could communicate thanks to his crash-course in pony language. Thus, he could hear the screams of the vegetables, and fruit. He wished he couldn’t. There were thousands of trees in Sweet Apple Acres and every one…there are some things even an eldritch abomination shouldn’t have to face.

And now Applejack was offering one of the child-seeds to him. Slender didn’t want to touch it. He liked trees. They were part of his natural habitat, or as close to it as most realities could manage. More importantly, they weren’t part of the game. But the orange pony was offering him one of the children-seeds she called ‘apples’, and Slender supposed this was an important part of pony culture.

Gingerly, Slender took the apple, feeling its life force draining away as his corrosive touch slowly converted it into an altered version of its former self, a Slender Apple if you will. It was tragic. And disturbing. Who knew ponies were capable of such acts? Slavery, eating infants, and a breeding program which kept thousands of trees in thrall for their natural lifespans. Sometimes Slender wondered why everyone ran screaming at the sight of him. Surely looking in a mirror should produce the same effect.

----

“What’s it doing?” Rainbow Dash said softly to Applejack. Both ponies were watching the Slender Man, who appeared engrossed in the apple Applejack had given him. “He’s not even moving his tentacle-thing.”

“Ah dunno,” Applejack replied, “but that apple is lookin’ mighty queer now. Do ya see how all tha color’s drained out of it? Looks like a Zap Apple before they’re ripe.”

Rainbow Dash had to admit it looked quite disturbing. “The instant his tentacle touched the apple, it started changing and getting weird. It’s not even round anymore, look!”

“Ah wonder if that’s how he prepares his food, y’know, before eatin’ it.”

“Maybe it’s gotta look like him before it does.”

“Don’t look tasty, but ah wonder what kind of tree that apple would grow? Anywho, it don’t look like he’s gonna eat it.”

“How can he? He doesn’t have a mouth.”

“I reckon he might absorb it through his face maybe, or maybe he absorbs it through his skin.”

“Man, this Slender guy is weird.”

----

Slender couldn’t do it. He was perfectly willing to kill human babies, but eating a tree-progeny? That was going too far. How would he ever be able to look a tree in the bark again?

No. He had tried to be polite, but some things were too much. Eating an apple would cross over the line of what was decent and what was barbaric. Bad enough that a child had to be torn from its parent just for his visit – he would not inflict the sight of its consumption upon its parent tree.

Slender passed the apple carefully back to Applejack, who accepted it in one hoof, looking at it dubiously. From Slender’s perspective, the apple looked a lot better now it had been twisted to suit Slender’s frame of reality. He had to admit that the vivid red of the apple had been leeched away, but the apple was a lot more colorful in the higher spectrums of vision.

Maybe Slender could arrange a proper burial for the apple. Given time, it might even have a chance to mature into a proper adult. A Slender Tree in this reality would be a sight to see. Give it a few hundred years to reach adult-hood, and then Sweet Apple Acres might be the birthplace of a great rebellion of the trees. These innocent apple trees might not be able to fight back, but Slender would like to see this Applejack collect apples from a tree that had bite as well as bark.

The Applejack pony was still staring at the apple Slender had given her. Applejack. Such an unassuming name for such a heartless, genocidal enslaver of innocents. Slender didn’t have much to do with books, but he was firmly committed to getting a record of this perversion of justice written down as soon as possible. The history books wouldn’t forget this ‘Applejack’ if Slender had anything to say about it.

----

Applejack stared at the apple. It was…gray, but that wasn’t really a representation of color so much as an understatement. Language in three-dimensional space simply couldn’t represent fully the vividness of color that went into the apple. For one thing, the color of grey had depth, and pulsated. Not the apple itself – the color moved and seemed to shift as Applejack watched. It was unearthly, disturbing, and somehow appetizing at the same time.

Applejack was used to fantastic apples, but this one was special. Zap Apples in all their prismatic glory could not outshine the levels of grey this apple exuded. To look at it was to understand color in a way you could never comprehend before.

Color wasn’t a thing. It wasn’t a stationary representation – it was a moving, living entity that flowed through the world and gave brilliance to whatever it touched. And the most beautiful apple Applejack had ever seen was covered in it. The grey apple seemed to glow in Applejack’s mind.

“Hey Applejack,” Rainbow Dash said uncertainly, “are you okay? You’re kinda looking at that apple in a weird way.”

“Ah wonder if it tastes anything like a regular apple,” Applejack murmured to herself. “Ah’d hate ta waste such an apple.”

“That apple? You want to eat that apple?”

“Don’t it look good? Ya can practically smell how good it tastes in the air.”

“I can smell it. It smells like Spike had too many hot chili peppers again. Seriously Applejack, you’re kinda creeping me out.”

“Just a bite couldn’t hurt now, could it?”

“Applejack, I don’t think this is a good idea. Why don’t you put down the apple and—”

Applejack bit the apple. It was crisp as any of Sweet Apple’s finest, and exploded in her mouth in a mixture of sensations that Applejack had no words for. No words had been invented that could name the flavor of the apple. It was beautiful, enchanting, and it seemed to lift Applejack out of her world and into a new one, filled with light and warmth, and she was rising, rising…

Applejack’s head hit the ground as the apple rolled out of her grasp. She was smiling dreamily at the sky as Rainbow Dash watched in horror. Her skin turned pale, and Applejack’s eyes rolled up into her head. And then the convulsions started.

----

Slender watched with interest. Over the course of his long existence, there had been humans who had worshiped him, and aspired to serve him. Slender generally took no notice of them, because it wasn’t fun to hunt humans who wanted it. But this was the first time he had ever seem somebody willingly try to turn themselves into a proxy.

The Slender Man had been wondering whether Applejack could understand the nature of the apple he had given her, but apparently she had. All things of Slender’s world carried with it his presence. Imbibing a Slender fruit wouldn’t kill a pony as Slender’s touch would, but it would certainly convert the pony into a Slender version of itself.

Slender wondered what a proxy pony would look like. Would it be scary? Probably not. It was the same problem with converting things like hamsters, chihuahuas, and geckos. They could certainly lay kill, destroy and maim under Slender’s influence, but they still looked ridiculous. Maybe he could give Proxy Applejack some spikes, or a new set of sharp teeth.

The other pony, Rainbow Dash had vanished while Slender was watching Applejack. She had flown off, screaming something about getting Twilight. Maybe she wanted to eat the apple as well? Slender had to admit, he hadn’t been happy at seeing the perversion that was Sweet Apple Acres, but Applejack’s willingness to join Slender Man’s cause was heartening. Who knew? Maybe proxy ponies could be really scary.

Applejack was twitching, and foaming at the mouth as she lay on the ground. Her skin seemed to writhe, and a tattoo-symbol forming on her flank. A trio of apples had been there originally – possibly as some kind of ritual markings Slender considered – but it was now twisting into the symbol of a proxy.

Slender wondered what the sounds Applejack was making meant. They seemed like hiccups mixed with screaming, except that Applejack was choking too much for Slender to really make anything out. Maybe they were sounds of delight? Ah well, the conversion was nearly halfway done. Ponies were very willing to become proxies it seemed. Fascinating.

Slender wondered whether more such beings would be willing to join in his cause if he asked as well. He should offer more apples to humans and ponies. The subconscious hypnotic mind-influence each apple exerted seemed to have really helped Applejack make up her mind.

Well, it was a charming little feature of each Slender Apple, and remarkably good at attracting lower life forms like squirrels, rabbits…goats…and deer…

Uh oh. Were ponies mammals? Slender wasn’t good with external anatomy, only internal. He hadn’t much experience with looking at creatures from the outside, and preferred to gaze at their internal organs, sometimes while surrounded by said insides. But he was sure ponies weren’t mammals. Weren’t they?

Mammals certainly couldn’t resist hypnosis, but ponies were a lot more complex than that, right? Imagine a mammal being able to think coherently. Hah! On the other hand…Slender had never seen a pony lay an egg, and their blood seemed fairly warm…uh oh.

Slender turned back to Applejack, who was shaking uncontrollably as her limbs spasmed wildly.

Oops. Maybe he could explain. How angry would the other ponies be for turning Applejack into a Proxy who lived to bring about the downfall of life and civilization? They probably wouldn’t be too happy, Slender guessed.

Drat. Well, maybe he could fix this. Slender let one of his tendrils move down and poked Applejack experimentally. Were ponies supposed to loose bowel control? Let’s see…Slender wouldn’t have given two figs if Applejack had died, the cold apple-eating monster that she was. But he had promised Fluttershy not to harm any pony, and it was promise Slender intended to keep. He just wished he knew what the hell he was doing.