Ever Watching

by Redback Spino

AlchemISTry

Twilight’s eyes twitched as she felt the warmth of the sun’s glow on her face, as it shone through her window. Another beautiful day in Ponyville.
But the beauty of Celestia’s great work was lost on Twilight Sparkle. Grumbling, she raised he head and blew a few stray hairs out of her eyes. With heavy limbs, she slumped out onto the hard, wooden floor of the library reading-room, and lurched her way upstairs to her bedroom. Giving a brief, if longing, glance at her bed, she headed over to her mirror.

Not too bad, she thought as she looked herself over; especially considering she barely slept a wink last night. She had been filling Spike in on everything that had been happening to her since that night when she found her library a mess. He had sat at rapt attention as she detailed her strange night-time visitations, the strange objects she had been finding, and the - for lack of a better word - monster that had attacked her, that evening outside the Everfree Forest. The tall, faceless pony with the black tentacles; The Slendermane, as Talisman had called it. She had been reluctant to show Spike any of the pictures of It. She knew how weak his composure could be (He had been the only one to faint at the very sight of Nightmare Moon), but he insisted. He had gone silent for a few moments as he looked at the image, but regained his composure quickly enough.

By the time she had finished relating her story, it was well into the night, and long past Spike’s bedtime. After she had put him to bed, Twilight had quickly followed suit, exhausted after a long, eventful day.

But even in the comfort of her own bed she could not find rest in sleep. Her mind tossed and turned as much as her body, going over everything she had learnt that day. Part of her was anxious and impatient to get back to researching the Slendermane over at Talisman’s house, feeling that every moment she spent not trying to solve this mystery was a moment wasted. What had also kept her awake was fear, knowing that at any minute, that familiar pale head would appear at her window, reach in with a shadowy tentacle and take her away.

Such fear had driven her to set up a spare mattress on the ground floor and sleep there, a lonely figure in the middle of the library floor. It wasn’t nearly as comfortable as her bed, but it was warm, and well away from any windows, all of which she was sure to shut and bolt before settling down for sleep.

Twilight groggily levitated her hairbrush into the air, and calmed her messy, tangled mane as best she could. It took more effort than usual to control the movement of the brush. I mustn’t yet have all my Vita back, she thought.
Satisfied with her mane, she descended to the ground floor and shambled into the kitchen, where she found to her surprise and delight, a bowl of oatmeal, a stack of toast and a glass of orange juice, complete with straw, all set out for her. Resting on the bowl of oatmeal was a small handwritten note:

TWILIGHT,
GONE TO FETCH OWLOWISCIOUS FROM FLUTTERSHY’S HOUSE TO HELP WITH RUNNING THE LIBRARY. HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOD DAY. HAVE FUN WITH YOUR NEW FRIEND.
DON’T WORK TOO HARD.
SPIKE.

Twilight smiled. No matter what happened to her, she could always rely on Spike to make her feel better.

After a highly satisfying breakfast and a quick bath, Twilight closed the door of the library and headed down the street, clean as a whistle and feeling fresh as a daisy.
As she trotted leisurely down the streets of Ponyville, she once again had that strange feeling. She saw all the other ponies going about their daily routines, buying, selling, chatting, playing or just strolling around town. All blissfully unaware that anything out of the ordinary was going on. Blissfully unaware of the monstrous presence lurking, somewhere in the dark trees of the Everfree Forest.

Twilight passed through the more crowded streets of Ponyville, coming to the outskirts of the town, where the streets became sparsely populated and quiet. Rounding the bend, she came to that familiar, empty street. She noticed as she knocked on the door of Talisman’s house, that the curtains were constantly dawn across the grimy windows.
Her head turned as she heard the door unlock before her and creak open slightly. A green eye peeked nervously out at her, before the door opened fully and Talisman stood before her in the doorway.

“Oh, hi Twilight…glad you came, I got some things that need talking about…come on in, come in.” He said nervously as he headed back inside, Twilight following behind him.

As the unicorn entered, she noticed for the first time how brightly lit the house was. Every candle was lit, every light switched on. Even though the last time she was in the house, it was cast in an ominous darkness, this glaring brightness seemed even more unnerving for Twilight.

“Hey, Talisman, what’s with all the lights on? It’s a bright day outside, isn’t it a bit wasteful?” she asked, as they both passed through the dining room and into the photo room.

The brown colt answered over his shoulder as he began sifting through his papers “No, no. Daylight’s not enough…First rule in this house: When somepony’s in the house, all the lights go on. No dark, nowhere.”

“But why?” she asked, clearing a spot to sit down “Why do you need to keep it so…” A sudden thought hit her: “Talisman…are you…scared of the dark?”

He stopped sifting through the sheets of paper and photos and turned to face Twilight, blushing “Erm…yeah, I guess I am…Heh, never thought of it that way…”

A tense, awkward silence followed, so thick a knife would have trouble cutting it. Twilight Sparkle sheepishly pawed at the floor a moment, before clearing her throat to break the pause.
“Ahem…So, you said you had something to talk about?”

“Oh! Ah, yes…erm…where did I put it…C’mon, I just had it…” Talisman replied, resuming his
search. After a moment he raised his head, holding in his jaws a thick scrapbook of sheets, bound together with string. Twilight recognised it as the book she had seen yesterday, labelled “The Collective Knowledge”.
“So I was flipping through my copy of the black book I gave you, just this morning before you arrived. Have, er...you had a chance to read any of it?”

Twilight nodded, sitting on the floor next to him “Some of it, yes. But I can’t make any sense of it. It was all going on about hourglasses and rifts and all sorts of things…”

He passed her the scrapbook, open about halfway into the book. “Read that part. “

Twilight peered at the scrawled words on the pages, copied word for word from that black book:

“…And so The Mighty came to me as I wandered, alone, in the forest. He spoke to me, telling of many great and terrible things. The Mighty spoke of the 4th world, wherein he had resided, and the rites by which a doorway may be opened between His and Ours, through the Dimensional Hourglass. By these rites he had been called forth, by whom he did not tell. But whomever it was, their rites were incomplete, for upon His arrival in our world, He was crippled and weak. But His mind was still intact and through our thoughts we spoke, as He told me of His desires for our world. He saw us, and the creatures that inhabited our world, and sneered at our weakness and impurity of form. The Mighty told me of the creatures of his world, of their perfection and purity. How I long to walk in that beautiful world.
And so we shall strive to obey The Mighty, to serve Him and restore Him to His former power. For only when He is restored to glory may He assist us in the Great Work. Only by Him may we shed ourselves of our shells of flesh and bone and ascend to beings of purity and perfection. Only by Him may our lands of Equestria be cleansed of imperfection and impurity and turned to a world of beauty. Only by Him may we attain Godhood.”

Twilight shakily closed the scrapbook as she finished the passage. She sat in silence for a minute or two as those words sunk in.

“So…what do you think?” Talisman said.

“G-God…hood…?” she stammered.

“I know, it’s weird, right?” He replied, an intrigued grin on his face “I’m still pretty in the dark about it myself.”

But Twilight wasn’t listening. Her mind was racing, processing everything she knew about the vents that had led her to this point. Her visits in the night, her lost time, those masked ponies that lurked in the Forest, the Slendermane itself…This is serious, she thought. Not only am I in danger from this thing, but all of Ponyville, perhaps all of Equestria could be in danger!
It was then that she resolved herself: Princess Celestia has to know.

“Er…Twilight?”

Talisman’s voice brought her back to reality as she saw his hoof waving in front of her face. “You alright there?”

“Hmm? OH! Yes…yes, I’m fine…” Twilight muttered, flushing crimson as she was caught daydreaming.

“So…anyways” the brown colt continued, standing up and dipping his head into a nearby bowl of chocolates. “Mmmph…s’cuse me… Readin’ over this myself, I got a few thingsl:
First off, number one, whatever Slendermane is, it’s not from Equestria. It’s from this ‘4th world’, wherever that is.”

Twilight nodded and added to the brainstorm “Right…and It’s weak… the book said that It was crippled… Whatever this Dimensional Hourglass thing is, it didn’t work, so…”
She paused as cold realisation flooded over her “So, they’re…feeding It… That’s what they need me for!”

She suddenly grasped Talisman around the shoulders as the stroke of inspiration continued “The Slendermane needs to have all its strength back before this Great Work can begin. So, they’re taking Vita energy from other creatures…myself included…to feed It!”

Only then did she notice that Talisman had promptly frozen the moment she grabbed him. His tail and mane had gone bushy and stiff and a cold sweat dripped from his frozen face. Twilight quickly let go and stepped back, “Uh…sorry. You…okay?” Odd, she thought. Not a fan of being touched either, huh?

Talisman muttered a hasty response as he regained his composure “Uh...yeah, sorry…Ahem, now, er…you were saying?”

Twilight continued “Er…well, I was just thinking. This Great Work they’re talking about…it reminds me of something I read about in an old Alchemistry book.”

“What’s Alchemistry?” Talisman asked.

“It’s an old philosophy from the time of the Magical Renaissance, about six hundred years ago. It tried to combine unicorn magic with science and chemistry. One of the central elements of the philosophy was something called the Great Work, which involved a system of stages through which material could be purified and made magically perfect.” Twilight put a hoof to her chin as she recalled the yellowed pages of that book in the Canterlot Library “I think…I think the stages were called the Blue stage, the Black stage, the Red Stage and the White Stage.”

The colt cocked an ear in confusion “But what does each stage mean? How does the Great Work..er, work?”

But Twilight just shrugged “No idea. It’s nearly impossible to find any mention of Alchemistry in books other than references, and there certainly aren’t any guides or textbooks on the processes anymore. They were all lost over time.”

“Neat… But apparently somepony hasn’t forgotten it. The Slendermane claims he knows it. And those Maskies...they wanna use It to purify the whole world!” Talisman added, feverishly scribbling down notes. “Oh wow, this is amazing stuff! Looks like I did the right thing trying to get your attention, Twilight. You’re a genius!”

Twilight grinned, turning to help herself to a bowl of chocolates to hide her blushing face “Heheh, thanks Tally.”

Talisman finished writing down their findings as he sat down beside her, grabbing several sweets for himself. As Twilight chewed on a caramel, she watched with raised eyebrows as Talisman wolfed down a whole mouthful of sweets at once!

Chuckling, she shifted the caramel to the side of her mouth and asked “I’ve been meaning to ask you: What’s with all the sweets? It can’t be good for you. Don’t you eat anything else?”

He nodded “Yeah, sometimes, but I gotta keep my sugar up Lotsa lotsa sugar...”

No wonder Pinkie Pie likes him, she thought. “But why?”

“Keeps me awake… Gotta stay awake, all the time.”

Absent-mindedly, Twilight bit down on a chunk of chocolate as it melted in her mouth. Stay awake? What makes him want to stay awake all the time? Does this mean he never sleeps?
“No sleep for me, never.” Talisman muttered, to nopony in particular “That’s when they come for you, Slendermane and the Maskies…”

“Have they come after you before?” she asked apprehensively.

He grimly nodded, as his expression grew cold. “Why do you think I hardly ever go outside?”
Twilight gulped audibly as she swallowed her mouthful of toffee and chocolate. Maybe not a good idea to press the subject.
Several minutes passed in silence. The pair of young ponies sat quietly, making their way through the bowl of chocolates.
As she sat in silence, Twilight found herself looking at the scrawny little colt, as he chewed on a toffee. His slightly glazed eyes stared through his messy, brown mane, off into space, focusing on nothing in particular, as his mouth silently formed inarticulate words. It was as if he suddenly was imagining himself somewhere else, talking to somepony. An odd sight to behold, indeed.
Twilight suddenly felt a strange emotional connection with Talisman. It wasn’t love, or even any sort of attraction; rather, it was a sense of pity. Whatever Talisman must have gone though in his encounters with Slendermane, it was apparent that it had taken its toll on his mind. Some subconscious cue felt as if she was compelled to help him, just as he seemed compelled to help her. What could have caused him to seclude himself from society, living alone in fear of going outside, or even being in the dark?
Then she remembered. That other unicorn. The only pony on that noticeboard on the wall, apart from herself, that was not crossed out in green. Rather, it was crossed out in bold red marker. What could it mean?
“Hey…Tally?”

Talisman’s eyes lost the glazed quality and returned to focus as they looked at Twilight. “Yeah?”

The unicorn pointed a forehoof at the noticeboard, covered with crossed-out photographs of ponies. “That unicorn…the one crossed out in red. Who is he?”

He looked to the photograph of the young unicorn stallion, with his light green eyes and sort brown mane, combed back and around his ears. Clad in a blue denim jacket, a pair of sunglasses perched coolly on his mane he smiled as he sat under an autumn tree. Talisman smiled.

“That’s Thistle. He was an old friend of mine...real genius that guy, total boffin. He knew a bunch about folklore, lent me some of his books when we started lookin’ into this Slendermane thing. Great guy, Thistle...great guy...”

Twilight hesitantly asked “So…where is he now?”

“Dead. Long dead.” He replied.

Twilight was shocked by his bluntness. Feeling a slight knot in her stomach, she silently cursed herself for bringing up such a potentially touchy subject. Lowering her head, she muttered “I…I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault…” Talisman got up and walked over to the window. Pulling a curtain back slightly, a beam of sunlight shone through, illuminating the dust in the air. “It’s his.”

Twilight raised her head, noticing a strange sense of tension in his voice. “Whose?”

“His.” He repeated. “Him, right there. The pony in the mask that’s watching this house from across the street, and may have just spotted me looking at him.”

Twilight knocked the bowl of chocolates over in her hurry to look through the curtains for herself. Pushing Talisman aside, she put her eye to the window and spotted a figure galloping down the street in the direction of the Everfree Forest. His coat and white facemask were unmistakeable.

Without another word, Talisman stormed out of the room, rushing towards the hallway. Twilight remained staring through the window until she was jogged out of her stupor by the sound of the door opening.

“Talisman! Wait, stop!” she cried as she hurried to catch up with him. He had left the door wide open and was running full gallop after the masked pony. As she ran, Twilight noted how suddenly Talisman gave chase. Does he recognise this masked pony? Do they have some connection?

Talisman ran ahead, ignoring all else except the fleeing pony before him, and Twilight in turn chased after Talisman, desperate to ensure that he was not left alone, and neither was she.

So focused were they on the chase, that neither noticed that they had passed into the dark thickets of the Everfree Forest.

Comments

[Chill Mists(Chilly)]

Oh snap! I can't wait to read more!

[Captain Grim]

This is getting EXCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITING!!!!!!!

[thejayowl]

as i said earlier.....shit's goona hit the fan

[Zelda Spectrum]

uuuuuhhhhhh oh!