The Misadventures of Slendermare

by Slendermare

Thievery

Gone again.
I crept slowly through the forest, looking for the pony responsible for taking my notes again. It annoyed me to no end at how some ponies think it's perfectly alright to steal my property, and think of it as a.. a game or something. These drawings are near and dear to me, and if somepony thinks this is a game, well then they had best expect to lose. It would be awhile before my sister Dementia could create more for me, and she was running low on art supplies. The clear solution is to get them back myself before that dratted thief left the forest. As I walked, I tried to recall the first time they were stolen, the night Dementia and I were banished.

It was many moons ago, and the dead of night. I was trying to get some well deserved sleep, as I had spent the day in the nearby village working on a cure all. It was a simpler time, before that royal prat Celestia decided I was a danger to society. During this time, I enjoyed alchemy and magic, and the civilians of Ponyville always found my aptitude for magic to be quite fascinating due to my being an earth pony. I had friends and Dementia, who was still a filly, had much fun playing with the other foals who she would often entertain with her magic and flying tricks. Then one day, Celestia sent some of her guard to hunt me down. To her my sister and I her monsters, and I was soon labeled as an Eldritch Abomination. My lab was destroyed and I had only managed to save a few personal belongings before my sister and I were forced to flee into the Everfree Forest.

Snap
I was abruptly torn from my memory and turned toward the sound. I caught sight of a fleeting figure heading toward the treeline. Moments later I had the stallion trapped in a tendril. He flapped his wings in an attempt to escape, and I was caught off guard by his strength It took a moment for me to regain a tight hold, making sure to ensnare his wings as well. I pulled him to my level and he started struggling more. I inwardly sighed, and if I had eyes I would have rolled them.

"The notes?" I asked telepathically. He seemed oddly calm about the fact that I had just spoken without a mouth, and for some reason I found this fact to be rather pleasing.

"In my saddlebag," he sighed. With a tendril i emptied the contents of the bags, my notes and other things raining to the forest floor. I gathered my notes and carefully put the rest of his things back into his bag. He cautiously picked up the bag and looked up at me, unsure as to whether I could be trusted. After a moment, he flew back to the town with a speed that could rival my sister's. I then set out to returning the notes to their respective spots. I usually change up the spot each time, but I was feeling lethargic and decided that it could wait for another day. As I walked back to my home, my mind returned to that fateful night.

---

It was quite late and I had been awoken by a sound. My home had only just been built and still required work, but at this point it had a bathroom, a kitchen and a bedroom. I looked across the room and saw my sister sound asleep, and I crept outside. Earlier that week, Dementia had drawn a few pictures, and since I had no refrigerator at the moment I had temporarily hung them on the trees outside. I peered outside through the archway that would become a door and saw a young mare ripping a note off of a tree. I was absolutely livid and I yanked her over with a tendril.

"What do you think you are doing!"I boomed, and she cowered in fear. I felt a warmth on one of my forelegs, and realized she had wet herself in fear. I snatched the notes and dropped her, and without hesitation she ran off. I looked at my leg with disgust before I teleported to a lake nearby. I worked on cleaning the urine off of my leg, scrubbing harder than was probably necessary. Thinking of it now, I suppose I had been a tad harsh on the mare, she had no way of knowing how much the drawings meant to me. But soon after, others came into the forest, deciding to risk its dangers for the sole purpose of annoying me. I suppose they thought they were being righteous, and when caught some said they had heard that without the notes I would be powerless. When given these excuses, I'd chuckle and tell them that's just an old mare's tale. Nevertheless, all these ponies succeeded in doing was being a nuisance.

---

"Slendy, please?"
I inwardly groaned at the nickname and turned to my sister. "Dementia, you know the rules. If we are seen outside the forest, Celestia will instantly know." The reason for her knowledge of our whereabouts is due to a spell she cast to make sure we never leave the forest. Sometimes a kind pony may leave some things at the treeline, but that's rare. I've grown accustomed to my fate, and the only thing I long for are apples. There's a farm near the forest, with acres of orchard. Occasionally, if I'm lucky, a tree may grow wild by the forest and I'll be able to harvest some. But soon after it withers, as it's not cared for well enough due to its distance from the orchard. Zap Apple season is my favorite, and they grow within the forest, but the season is short and never lasts for long.

My sister looks up at me, lip quivering. Like me she lacked eyes, but she somehow attained a mouth, from our mother I presume. I sighed, defeated. "If you must Dementia, I will try to find a way to undo the spell. But it will take time-" she cuts me off with a hug, which I awkwardly return. Grinning, she runs off to who knows where, and I open a book and begin working on a way to reverse the spell.

Author's Note:

Hey, this may become an Ask Story, but for that I'll need asks. Please comment below as there is almost a 100% chance of your ask being featured. An ask has a potential to influence the story, and you are important to this process, for an ask story needs askers. Have a nice day.

Comments

[WorldWalker128]

It's not often that i see a 'fic' of this type here. Most of the time they die off fairly quickly. Most of the 'ask' fics I've seen over the years were actually ask-blogs on Tumblr.
I suppose I can contribute. *shrug* Hope you don't mind this:
- - -
As Slendermare added yet another crumpled wad of paper to the growing pile on the forest floor she sighed and slumped forward until her head rested upon the large tree stump she'd been using as a table. Though she was rather talented with potions Alicorn magic was at least a tad beyond her reach as of this moment.
Taking a new breath of fresh air Slendermare rose from her slump and reached for a fresh sheet only to discover that she was fresh out and would need to make more before she could try a new idea and test it. Standing from her seat (another smaller tree stump that was an offshoot of the much larger one) and extended to tendril to a dirty burlap bag hanging from a tree branch. After checking to make sure there were no animals using it as a nest again she dropped it over her back and headed deeper into the woods in search of dead leaves. This time of year there were not particularly many to be found in this part of the forest due in part both the type of trees, and that they had grown to be so tall.
Half an hour of walking later she had found and plundered several locations, and began heading towards the stream she and her sister got their water from. Though there were several ways to make paper, and several base ingredients that one could use, what little variety to choose from she had access to at the moment thankfully was also the most plentiful: leafs, and water. First she'd fill a pail halfway with water, then, using her tendrils, would shred the leafs and soak them to mush. After a thorough blending, she would pour the mix onto a mostly-flat stone she'd found some time ago, and build a fire beneath it. From there it was just a matter of pressing it as flat as possible beneath a second stone and then waiting for it to dry.
It's not the best quality of paper, but it's what we've got. Making more charcoal-ink will have to wait until the fire's completely gone out, though. Thankfully I don't need that right- her train of thought was broken when out of the corner of her vision she saw a brief flash of white light. Jerking her 'face' to the left looked on in puzzlement at an odd white box floating towards her. Unsure if it was a threat or not, she prepared herself should she need to run or fight, but the box did not seem to react, and only continued forward instead. When it came within six feet of distance to her it stopped, and the blank white face of it swirled with specks of black for a few seconds, then re-arranged into lettering, and then again re-arranged in a fashion that made the letters appear to dance, and then finally came to a stop in form of a single sentence phrased as a question:
"If you don't have any facial features...how do you eat anything??"

[Phantomeneer]

how the fuck are you not banished to the realm of bad guys