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Slendermane166 words

Chapter 1

Twilight was sound asleep and at peace with the world around her. She lay comfortably in the plush, green grassy fields of the Everfree Forest, which tickled at her like many tiny feathers in the breeze. It was much later than most ponies could comprehend being safe to be out in the Everfree forest, and was much later than Twilight had intended to be out there. Thought’s running through her brain reprised the events of the recent weeks leading up to her arriving to the destination she had reached now. The memories weren’t comforting though; if anything they were pieces of a puzzle, matching up to mould an image of a nightmare.

She felt the cold wind of the late night rush around her waving her mane and tail around in conjunction with the rustling leaves in the trees. She shivered flailing her hooves around weakly hoping to find a blanket, but just finding empty air instead. The memories were building up to form a clear image that could almost play itself out like a video in her brain. She grit her teeth as the intensity of the cold increased.

She started to shiver more, as her chattering teeth joined the few natural noises of the forest. She saw quick flashes of the pictures playing out in her head, but like many dreams in her past, she found that they were extremely hard to remember after another one came along. One thing stayed in her mind though, something she couldn’t forget, and it was now more clear than ever as she felt herself beginning to awaken to the dark, cold, unforgiving night; Find Fluttershy and the fillies and colts, and save them from the Slendermane.

Twilight snapped her eyes open and gasped for air, throwing herself to the right and halting herself with her hooves. She looked around, but her vision was blurred and still adjusting to the darkened forest environment. From the blurry dark shapes dancing around in front of her she could make out the tall standing trees, and their leaves rustling in the wind. She heard the faint chirping of a cricket probably a fair few metres deeper in the forest. She tried to think about what she had seen in her sleep, but only the smallest details and most recent of memories currently stood out to her. She craned her neck to the left and looked down the dirt pathway leading into the seemingly pitch black, endless groupings of trees. Almost nothing stood out from them but she could see that the path seemed to break away further ahead.

“Where am I?” she asked herself, almost hoping someone she knew would answer, but to her expectations and dismay got no response. She’d forgotten everything that she had just seen in her mind, trying to pick the words out, but they seemed to have hidden somewhere in the back of her mind.

Twilight blinked and rubbed her closed eyes on her foreleg, taking in some slightly panicked breathes. She had no idea what portion of the forest she was in. She could remember being on her way to Zecora’s, to see if she had any knowledge of the recent disappearances of the fillies and colts. That helped her remember exactly what she was looking for, or, who she was looking for. The dilemma started to unfold before her, but still the details were hazy and evading her. But then she also realised that she had entered the forest, during the day. She couldn’t even remember falling asleep by her own will.

The poison joke had grown out of control and spread to her usual path to Zecora’s, so she had to make an alternative route to get there, but was trying to avoid dense trees and dark locations that she hadn’t explored before, for safety sake. She didn’t feel safe in the forest anyway, and since ponies started going missing in it, almost no one would go near it. Even Zecora had spent an oddly large amount of time outside of it away from her hut. But being in an unidentified area of the forest, alone, and at night, was just one of the few things Twilight could barely comprehend.

She stood up, but surprised herself when she found that she could balance quite easily. Twilight blinked a few times as her vision, having now adjusted to a tolerable level, started to shape the path ahead. She started to feel a slightly odd sense of Déjà vu. She’d seen this path before, but not long ago.

It was a long dirt path, which split like a snake tongue to the left and right, but what followed down those paths, Twilight didn’t know. But she knew neither would lead to Zecora’s. She turned around and studied the path behind her. It didn’t take her long to recognise it as the last path she had walked down during her search for a different route to Zecora’s hut. She looked at the path behind her, and as the cool breeze rushed past her and frizzled her hair, she felt a strong presence of something pulling her in. Something that was definitely not of pony origin; and it only made her shiver more. There was something massively unnatural about the part of the forest she was in, and she didn’t like the feeling it was giving her one little bit. She had no intention of following the path into the darkness; any way through the forest would have been better... she even started to consider the poison joke a much more appealing option. Besides she could always get some of Zecora’s bubble bath remedy to cure the effects later.

Twilight looked away from the dark path and started to backtrack through the forest. She started to nervously trot down the pathway, but the further she tried to walk forward, the harder it became. She couldn’t tell if it felt like she was trying to walk against a giant fan, or trying to walk with a thick rubber tube attached to her waist at full extension. She pushed harder and harder trying to move down the path, but became more and more confused, as it pulled her back. She started to struggle more and more and found herself being pulled back, but after shooting a quick look back, there was nothing but the dirt path stretching off into the darkness. An unnatural chill spread through her as she looked down the path. She dug the tips of her fore-hooves into the ground and pushed with all the might of her back legs against the ground, and started to inch herself forward again, but obviously somepony, or something, didn’t want her to leave the forest.

The force of the pull increased as she kept moving forward bit by bit, but eventually Twilight reached the point where she felt she couldn’t keep pulling herself, she was almost out of strength and the force of the pull only got stronger as she went. Tears started to form from the corner of her eyes as she strained harder pulling herself ahead, bit by bit, but they didn’t seem affected by the pull that was affecting her body, and just dropped to the ground after trickling down her cheeks.

Twilight grit her teeth and pushed on harder than she thought her body could handle. She didn’t think that it could be any harder, but then out of nowhere, Twilight heard a raspy growl erupt from the trees behind her. She looked back in fear, but not daring to let go of the ground. Twilight was distraught with worry now. She knew that there was definitely something watching her now, something that was pulling her back into the forest, but she couldn’t see anything but trees and darkness.

“Can’t... Let.... Go!” She said to herself pulling herself little further. The roar ceased, but the pull of the forest had taken more than a small toll on Twilight’s strength. She felt like a small chunk of metal being pulled towards the forest like a magnet, but she was determined to avoid going that way. Seeing how eerie it was just waking up there was just creepy for Twilight, but the fact that there was something in there that didn’t want her to leave, scared her. The dirt was starting to give way to Twilight’s hooves as they started to slide through it.

As the last ounces of Twilight’s strength left her body Twilight gave one more hopeful lunge forwards in an effort to maybe escape the gravitational pull the forest had on her, but instead of the drop to the ground she was hoping for, she abruptly stopped as she went face first into a barrier of nothing. She saw out of her peripheral vision a white ripple spreading outwards from the air in front of her, like a force field was restricting further progress. Twilight didn’t have long to process this properly though, because the second she started to fall to the ground, her horn made contact with the force field, a flurry of images invaded her mind. The sudden surge of magical energy brought out the memories that she had managed to repress of the outstanding moments of the day before she was knocked out. Twilight saw each and every one in its entirety.

Twilight shunned her eyes with her arm momentarily as bright light engulfed her vision, but uncovered them to find that she was seeing a vision from earlier during the day. She saw ghostly images of herself, entering the forest, by her normal path off of Fluttershy’s cottage, and there was a filly with her, although the filly was very ghostly white in contrast to her usual colour scheme, she could easily identify the familiar filly as Scootaloo. She couldn’t remember everything before that, or why Scootaloo was with her, but could tell it wasn’t for a good reason. Scootaloo was visibly scared, and very strongly opposed to going in the forest.

***

“Scootaloo, it’s not safe to go in the forest without anypony else with you.” Twilight told Scootaloo, who was struggling to bring herself to enter already.

“I know Twilight, I know... But my friends are still out there, with that creature... I have to do something... If nopony believes me or wants to help me, then I don’t have a choice. I have to try and save them.” Scootaloo said back, teary eyed and distraught. She was about to walk into the forest alone, but Twilight knew she couldn’t allow her to enter uncharted areas of the forest alone, even during the day, and especially in her current state of mind.

“Scootaloo, wait. I’ll come with you, and we’ll go to Zecora’s. I’m sure she might have some knowledge of what could have happened to all the missing ponies.”

“But Twilight, they aren’t missing! They were taken!” Scootaloo yelled. She was becoming more and more upset by the minute, but Twilight had once again sided with science and reason.

“Taken by what Scootaloo?” Twilight asked her wondering what kind of creature could go unseen and abduct 6 fillies, 4 colts and all 8 of the mares and stallions that had gone in to find them.

Scootaloo wanted to answer, but she didn’t know what it was she saw... She’d never seen anything like it.

“I... I don’t know what it was Twilight. It was... tall, like... Impossibly tall, and incredibly thin, it could make itself thinner by stretching itself out. But it looked like a m-ma-mana-manacka... what are those things in rarity’s boutique? You know, that she puts the clothes on?” Scootaloo asked trying to think of a way to give Twilight a mental image of the creature she saw.

“A mannequin?” Twilight asked thinking of the slender wooden figures that Rarity would display her ensembles on. The word slender also seemed to linger in her head; the whole situation was unfolding like an old mythical pony tale from one of her books, but she couldn’t pin point it exactly.

“Yeah... It looked like a mannequin, but it wore a really formal suit, and… a red tie. But...” Scootaloo stopped, and slowly broke down into more tears. She couldn’t help herself; everything she’d gone through was too much for a filly, but the fact that nopony would believe her or help her save her friends made it even more mentally troubling, because she could hardly believe it herself.

“Come to my library before you do anything drastic please Scootaloo. I need to find a book that can maybe explain…”

“No Twilight. I can’t, the more time I waste the worse things will get for the others. Some of them are probably dead already!” Scootaloo cried, before breaking into another fit of emotion and hysteria.

“Scootaloo, you shouldn’t say things like that. There’s nothing to worry about, I’m sure of it. The Everfree forest has different effects on everypony. If you’re not going to come with me then at least wait at Fluttershy’s cottage while I go get the book.” Twilight said rubbing the quivering fillies back gently with her right hoof, trying to calm her down.

“Ok Twilight… But please, don’t be too long… I wanna go while its morning, it’ll be safer than to go in the afternoon.” Scootaloo pleaded. Twilight had to admit that she was right; the forest was much safer to be in during the day than at night. Scootaloo tried to stand up, but hardly found it possible with all the negative emotion troubling her, and causing her to shake like she was trying to balance on a small surface during an earthquake. Twilight quickly noticed this, and instead of letting the filly struggle, used her magic to levitate Scootaloo and place the filly on her back. She started to trot carefully over to Fluttershy’s with Scootaloo lying on her back.

“Thanks Twilight.” She said grateful for the help in her struggling, but caught up in the heat of things she still couldn’t manage even a weak smile.

“It’s alright Scootaloo.” Twilight told her, troubled a little as she became more concerned for the poor filly, and everything she’d been through. She’d only been missing for 2 days, while her friends and classmates had been missing for almost a week and a half.

***

As Twilight approached Fluttershy’s home, Fluttershy, who was out in the chicken coop, fixing up a broken part of the fence, noticed Twilight coming up the path carrying a small orange pegasus filly on her back. Curious she put down the things she was holding and flew over to the pair. About half way to them, she could identify Scootaloo, but couldn’t see that she was clearly troubled and teary eyed until she got much closer.

“Twilight, Scootaloo? What are you girls doing down here?” Fluttershy asked the pair, becoming concerned when she saw Scootaloo silently crying. She noticed that Twilight didn’t wear the same expression, but could see the concern in her look regardless. “What’s happened Twilight?”

“I wanted to ask if you could watch Scootaloo for a few minutes. I need to get a book from my library, she believes there’s some sort of monster in the Everfree forest that’s involved with all the recent disappearances. I want to know what she’s seen.” Twilight explained, helping Scootaloo off her back and backing up a little. Scootaloo was still a little wobbly and upset, but she could muster up the strength she needed to start walking to Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Of course I’ll watch her, but couldn’t you just use a memory spell to find what you’re looking for?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t think it would be safe in her state. Negative emotion can easily affect the outcome of a spell, and if she freaks out when I bring up the moments I’m looking for, the memories might become stuck in her thoughts. Whether it’s a curse in the area of the forest she was in, or somepony pulling a prank on her, if it can make her this upset, it could drive her insane to see it all the time.” Twilight explained, wondering if she’d gone into enough detail, or even too much.

“Oh, ok then, well, you’re not going into the forest are you?” Fluttershy asked curious about her friend’s motives to help Scootaloo.

“If that’s what it takes to help Scootaloo stop being so paranoid about going near the forest, then yes. I was going to take her to Zecora’s to find out if she knows what’s happening to Scootaloo.” Twilight told her confident that she could help Scootaloo stop worrying. Who knows, she might have been able to remember something about the forest that could lead Twilight to find the others.

“Oh, but Twilight, what if Scootaloo really did see something dangerous out there?” Fluttershy asked concerned for Twilight’s safety.

“If she did it can’t be as bad as she’s making it out to be. I’ll go into the area she said she saw the ‘creature’ and see if I can find any sign of the other abducted ponies.” Twilight explained.

“I don’t know if it’s that great an idea Twilight. 14 ponies abducted already and no explanation. All that was left at each of their homes was dead grass, in the shape of a bunch of oddly shaped hooves… leading to their homes, and back into the forest. It doesn’t make sense, the search party came back missing 3 members saying the tracks just stopped in the darkest part of the forest. But the ones they could see before they disappeared were spread out to impossible lengths. They thought it might have been a Pegasus pony at first, but nopony here leaves hoof prints that oddly shaped. I don’t know what’s going on Twilight, but it’s definitely not something you should get involved in, and definitely something Scootaloo shouldn’t be worrying about.” Fluttershy said trying to get Twilight to see the danger that she could be throwing herself into.

“Fluttershy, I’m not denying it could be dangerous, but I think that theres more to it then a strange creature that’s taking ponies and abducting them to the deep dark parts of the forests. And besides, there are a lot of explanations for some of those happenings. It could have been a Pegasus, flying over to far away spots and digging large deformed hoof prints into the ground, or a unicorn maybe using magic to create the hoof prints.” Twilight explained trying to use reasoning and logic to her advantage.

“But Twilight, you aren’t looking at the whole picture. Nopony has ever been that deep in the forest. Let alone come back. What would make drive a unicorn or pegasus to hoax a monster abduction in such dangerous, unknown areas, just to foalnap fillies and colts? Zecora won’t even go that far into the forest. She came to my cottage the other day telling me I should consider moving away from the forest. She’s been mumbling all of her chants wherever she goes, and she hardly stays in the forest late at night. Maybe it would be better to wait for Zecora to come back to Ponyville later and then talk to her?” Fluttershy asked trying to think of safer options. “You guys could wait at my cottage if you want. She usually comes past when she’s passing through.” Fluttershy suggested, wondering if she could persuade Twilight to stay out of the forest. Twilight thought for a bit. Maybe Scootaloo would be open to the idea, and it would definitely keep her out of dangers way if somepony was pulling a joke on her.

“Ok Fluttershy, can you talk to Scootaloo then? I’ll be back when I find the book in my library.” Twilight said backing up to perform her spell.

“Thankyou Twilight. I’ll make sure Scootaloo knows it’s for her own safety.” Fluttershy said, before turning around and trotting up the road to her house.

Twilight looked over at the forest as Fluttershy walked away. She felt an eerie chill scratching its way down her spine. The trees had a more than unnatural look lately, but what creeped her out most was how they could grow to such an abnormal shape of very thin, blackened, curving stalks, and still support the large patches of thick, murky green leaves above them. She shook the feeling off, as it was starting to make her feel nauseous. She closed her eyes and focussed on her horn, as a spark shot from the tip, and quickly set ablaze with magenta energy, igniting a white ring of light around her, ready to engulf her body and teleport herself to her library. But suddenly, she felt the chill return, and the spell begun to fail. She felt the spell start to flicker as the lights around her horn started to flash like a strobe, as if someone was controlling it with a switch, and playing around, flicking it up and down repetitively. She struggled to continue performing the spell, and tried harder throwing more power behind it. But before she could try to put the last push into the spell, Twilight collapsed onto her knees and clutched at her head in pain as she heard what sounded like static building up inside of it. A few seconds passed, while Twilight grunting in pain, kept shaking her head around, trying to get rid of the noise, when almost as abruptly as it had begun it, it stopped, along with the pain that had built up with it. Twilight rubbed her head in confusion.

“What in Equestria was that?” she rhetorically asked herself, flicking her eyes in multiple directions, trying to see if anypony was watching her. The noise in her head only made her think of one of the white noise effects Vinyl Scratch had used on one of her party songs. She looked back at the forest, and gulped, shaking as another chill coursed through her veins, making her whole body feel almost as stiff as a plank of wood. There were missing trees. Most of the ones she could see were of normal form, height and thickness, but all of the unnaturally thin curvy ones that had stood so oddly there before, had almost completely vanished. The change stood out like a chipped hoof. Twilight tried to not think about it though, as she was only beginning to make herself feel more worried; an action she did not intend to follow up.

“Just calm down Twi, relax, it’s just your imagination... maybe those trees weren’t even there to begin with.” She reassured herself trying to take her mind off of the odd occurrence. She preferred the thought of herself being crazy then the thought of something watching her any day. Twilight looked away from the forest, tired of the discomfort it had been bringing her since Scootaloo had started sharing her story. She tried again to perform the spell, but this time it went through without trouble, and followed up its usual effect. The energy ignited and blazed from her horn, and with a flash of energy created a ball of light around Twilight, engulfing her and teleporting her to her library.

***

As Twilight found her location in her head, she focussed on it and in a split second, appeared in the main section of her library, in a puff of sparky, but controlled, magenta energy. She'd basically perfected her teleportation spells after copious amounts of uses since she first performed one. Just for a second all the eerie thought’s left her mind as she remembered the first time she ever tried to teleport, ending up travelling from, and making a mess of her room in one of the Canterlot Castle towers, to her private library further down from the room, which she almost destroyed all the contents of, being unable to control such massive amounts of power that she exhibited while striving to learn. She gave a small giggle at the thought before realising she still had a job to do.

“Spike! Spike?!” Twilight called signalling her number one assistant. She figured that she might be able to use his help to find the book she was looking for, before she realised that Spike wasn’t there.

“Where is that little dragon? He can’t still be in be... oh, right, Canterlot.” She said, remembering Spike had received a notice to retrieve some new library content for her empty shelves. Twilight didn’t want to take too long, so she wasted no time in looking for the book. She trotted over to the E section, and started looking down the lower shelf for E-v. She read out a few of the names that stood out as she skimmed through the titles.

“Elements of harmony reference guide, no. Equestrian species guide, no. Equestria history, no. Daring Do and the, Wait why is that in the E section?” Twilight asked herself levitating the book and moving it over to the table in the middle of the room. “I think Rainbow’s up to that one anyway.” She said wondering why Rainbow wouldn’t just borrow the whole set. “Now where was I... Q R S T U V... Ah ha! Everfree Forest: Myths, legends and magic.” Twilight read aloud before levitating the book out of the shelf. She opened it to the contents and started skimming them, just like she had the books, looking for a name or a word that might jolt her memory. She looked up and down the page skipping through letters. Oak-mites, No. Poison joke, no. Timber Wolves, no. Slendermane, no... Wait! Slendermane?” Twilight said scratching her chin with the tip of her hoof, letting the name echo around her brain, waiting to see if it jogged her memory. Twilight kept thinking, but couldn’t be entirely sure.

“Page 53-55” Twilight read looking at the reference guide to the content she was searching for. She flicked open several pages, and then slowly flicked two more before reaching 53. She looked at the short italic font next to the display image, and read it aloud.

“The Slendermane: A mystical, faceless, foal-napping being rumoured to live in the deepest regions of the Everfree forest.” Twilight said, looking briefly at the image displayed under the title. The picture was of poor quality and looked as though something had been interfering with the camera’s focus before it had been taken, but it was still clear enough to display an image of the strange creature. It appeared to be impossibly tall for a pony being, spanning to the height of the largest of the forests trees, and somehow supporting itself on freakishly thin, frail looking legs. It wore a very formal looking suit with a blood red tie, and it had what appeared to be tentacles shaped appendages rising from its back, but still remaining under the suit, which seemed to stretch with the impossible body structure. Twilight felt irritably strange and almost paralysed looking at the picture. She could remember when she was a filly and tales of terrible creatures and ghouls were used to frighten young ponies who didn’t behave, one of the scariest of all time being the tale of the Slendermane, which she could only remember being about a strange, tall, thin pony being, that would take fillies and colts away to its home in the forest if they misbehaved.

She studied the photo for a few seconds wondering what kind of lengths somepony would go to, to create such an eerie and effective image to help visualise what the creature looked like. But she would have time to ponder about the creature later. It was what she was looking for, and pretty much matched Scootaloo short, hardly detailed description. Twilight folded the corner of the page in and closed the book, trotting over to a small saddle bag lying on the floor next to the staircase that led to her bedroom. She opened the flap on one side and dropped the book in, shutting the flap of the bag, and magically lifting it onto her back. After tightening the saddle bag and securing it comfortably Twilight focused once again on her teleportation spell, and thought about her destination of Fluttershy’s cottage. She’d only been gone about 5 minutes, so Fluttershy probably wouldn’t have finished telling Scootaloo what she had said, so she thought the quick timing on her part would give her a chance to help Fluttershy convince Scootaloo that she should avoid the forest for the time being. As Twilight’s horn lit up with energy, she thought about Scootaloo and what she saw in the forest, that tried to take her and got away with her friends. ‘It couldn’t have really been the Slendermane... that’s just a myth.’ Twilight thought to reassure herself, but much to her discomfort, the thought wasn’t making her feel any more positive. In a sudden flash of magenta and white, Twilight disappeared from the library, and reappeared outside of Fluttershy’s cottage.

***

Twilight opened her eyes a second after recovering from the spell, and looked over to get her bearings and make sure she landed in the right place. She had intended to land inside the house but it was right next to her, so she didn’t mind. But as Twilight approached the front of the house, she noticed something was very different about the grass and flora outside of Fluttershy’s cottage. The water under her bridge sat still and silent, and there was not a noise to be heard. Much of the flora, such as flowers in the garden were dried out and even dead, and there were what looked like hoof prints, embedded into dead patches of grass, leading around to the back of the cottage. Twilight followed the obscurely shaped prints to the back, noticing that the chicken pen also remained completely silent, as if it were void of life. Twilight then looked at the back door to Fluttershy’s home, and felt her whole body become weak. The door seemed to have been smashed open and was lying in pieces on the ground inside and outside of the cottage. Twilight galloped inside and started calling out for the two, worrying something terrible must have happened to them.

“Fluttershy! Scootaloo! Where are you girls?” Twilight yelled. She searched around the room, and to her delight, and confusion, she found Scootaloo, huddled behind a drawer, shaking and breathing heavily, almost as if she’d been running a marathon. Twilight carefully walked over to her, trying to take care not to startle the filly.

“Scootaloo? What’s wrong? What are you doing? Where’s Fluttershy?” Twilight asked curious as to the events that took place in the short time she was gone that already drove her to tears. Scootaloo took a few seconds to reply. She was shaking and looking pale white, with sweat and tears soaking the fur on her face. Her sentence was weak and stuttered as she went to reply.

“Twi-Tw-Tw-T-Tw-Twilight... It... Came ba-b-back... for me. It t-t-took Flu-F-Fluttershy.” Scootaloo chocked out still suffering to recover from the recent situation. Twilight started to wonder if showing Scootaloo a picture of the creature would help in her current mood, but couldn’t figure out if making her answer questions would be the best approach. But she didn’t have a choice. Fluttershy’s cottage had just been broken into, and apparently somepony has taken her. How could all that have happened within 5 minutes.

“Scootaloo... Is... Is this what you saw?” Twilight asked the stressed filly as she levitated the book out of her saddle bag, and opened in to the page with the picture depicting the Slendermane, and facing it towards Scootaloo. Scootaloo, reluctant to look at the picture, hesitantly started to flicker her head around to look at it, even though every fibre of her being was screaming not to look. Scootaloo flicked her head around quickly to get it over with, and without even needing more than a second to look at the picture to know it was exactly what she’d seen, screamed and rolled back over shaking violently and muttering under her breath, some hard to understand words. Twilight shut the book, and dumped it back in her saddlebag regretting taking it out. She didn’t want to make things worse for Scootaloo. She bit her lip trying to think of something to say. ‘Why would somepony put Scootaloo through this?’ Twilight thought to herself. She leaned in trying to make out what Scootaloo was saying, it was mumbled, but understandable.

“Why’s it here... why’s it after me? What’d I do? How does it know where I am all the time? It doesn’t even have a face!” Scootaloo cried as she continued to shake. Twilight looked around and saw a blanket lying on Fluttershy’s couch, and got an idea. She levitated it over to Scootaloo and plopped it on the ground next to her.

“Scootaloo, I have to find Fluttershy, I’m going to Zecora’s ok. I think it would be best if you went upstairs to Fluttershy’s guest room and sleep for a while.” Twilight suggested. Scootaloo continued to shake for some seconds later, before turning around to talk to Twilight.

“Twilight, do not go into that forest. That thing is out there!” Scootaloo said, her tone close to that of scolding one.

“Scootaloo, I have to help Fluttershy. Abducted by ‘The Slendermane’ or not, she’s one of my best friends. I have to help her.” Twilight explained, expressing the name of the creature almost mockingly.

“You... You still don’t believe me... do you?” Scootaloo asked, feeling her desperate annoyance descend to pure depression. Twilight’s tone stung her like an angry wasp. Twilight noticed how upset she had just made Scootaloo, and realised that she had definitely used the wrong tone. She had to think of another way to try and convince her.

“I’m sorry Scootaloo, I didn’t mean to sound like I was making fun of you, I just don’t believe there’s a giant, abnormally thin, faceless creature running around abducting ponies in the Everfree forest.” Twilight told her. “I’m going in there to find Zecora, and if she can’t help me at all, then I’ll go all the way to the end of the forest to save Fluttershy if I have to.” Twilight finished turning around about to make her departure.

“Twilight no! Don’t! You won’t come back if you go too far! Whether you believe me or not, you gotta stay away from the forest!” Scootaloo pleaded once again.

“I can’t just leave Fluttershy Scootaloo. If somepony thinks it’s funny do abduct her from her home, it’s my duty as a friend to help her.” Twilight said starting to trot towards the door. Scootaloo started to shake again, biting her bottom lip and shaking her head. She knew what she wanted to say, but she didn’t know if she could allow herself to follow it up.

“If you’re going into the forest... I’m... I’m coming with you.” Scootaloo said bringing herself to try and stand up and be strong. But even putting her effort into just getting up, she was still very wobbly, and the feeling of no one believing her, didn’t help boost her ego.

“No Scootaloo. You’re in no fit state to go into the forest. There’s no reason for you to put yourself in dangers way...” Twilight began, but Scootaloo quickly came up with a way to turn the argument around on Twilight, before it had even begun.

“Just like it’s your responsibility to help Fluttershy... It’s my responsibility to help Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. I was with them when we were abducted, and I’m the only one who’ll be able to find them... I have to help them, just like you have to help Fluttershy.” Scootaloo confidently remarked turning Twilight’s own excuse against her.

“But... But...” Twilight was desperate to think of a way to turn the tables back in her favour. She was only trying to look out for Scootaloo, and try and help her make the safe decision, but nothing came to mind. “I can’t let you go in there with me Scootaloo... If you’re telling the truth, it’ll be too dangerous for you to go back. I’d just be getting you into more danger.” Twilight said wittingly. She still didn’t believe there was a mythical creature in the forest, but she had to hope that reminding Scootaloo that there would be something coming after her, that it would convince her to stay. But Scootaloo was determined to put her fears aside now, to prove that she wasn’t lying, and to find her friends.

“I guess if that’s the case, I’ll just have to go in on my own. You won’t be putting me in any danger if you aren’t with me.” Scootaloo pointed out, pulling herself together as best she could, before walking towards the doorway. Twilight knew she had a point. She could have told her that she had to stay, but she couldn’t stop Scootaloo from getting up and leaving after she was gone. Twilight frowned, defeated, and gave a bothered sigh. Twilight turned around and to Scootaloo’s surprise, levitated her onto her back, to a position where her saddlebag wasn’t a discomfort to Scootaloo, before walking out the empty doorway.

“Let’s get this over with then. You’re not going alone. It’s still not even midday, so most of the dangerous creatures in the forest won’t even be out.” Twilight said, as she exited the cottage and made her way down the road towards the murky, green, dark, eerie, Everfree forest. Scootaloo gulped just by the sight of it and felt her teeth start to chatter, but quickly forced her mouth shut to the best of her ability. She knew Twilight could tell she was nervous but she didn’t want her to think she was too afraid, especially after convincing her to take her along. Twilight paused outside of the tree line, and shivered as a small gust of chilly wind breezed past the two from the forest.

“Are you sure you’re in any state to enter the forest Scootaloo?” Twilight asked one more time, pleading the filly to just stay in Ponyville for her own well being.

Scootaloo looked at the deep dark forest. It gave her no comfort to see that even during the day when the sun shined, the tress shunned its light. With an unsure expression, she nodded.

“Mm hm.” She mumbled through her lips. Twilight knew it was no use. She kicked the dirt behind her as she trotted past the tree line and entered the forest, sticking to the path in front of her. She wasn’t as affected by the darkness of the forest, after being in it so many times before, but Scootaloo’s condition was making her nervous.

Scootaloo looked left and right through the trees, and almost shot out a squeal when she thought she saw the featureless face of the Slendermane watching them at a distance through the trees. But as she blinked, it was no longer there. She started to shiver as her irises and pupils constricted in fear. She clutched onto Twilight uncomfortably tightly as the pair ventured into the dark twisting path of endless trees.

***

Twilight suddenly snapped out of the memory, and without warning or anything to stop herself with, was pulled backwards by the same force that had been so effortlessly restraining her before. Twilight rolled and grazed her skin on the dirt road as it threw her back mercilessly, dragging her along the road, before abruptly pounding her side into a tree. Twilight let out a weak, painful gasp as the air was knocked out of her, and lay motionless for almost a minute, with her eyes shut tight, and struggling to pull in even the tiniest of breaths. After she felt her lungs start to recover, she took in bigger breaths to try and help her body recover faster. She coughed and sputtered occasionally as the dust she had picked up from the drag along the road invaded her nostrils and throat to her displeasure. When Twilight managed to lift her left legs, she wiped her dirty foreleg along her eyes to help them open again. The feeling of movement gradually returned to her right legs, and Twilight found herself able to move her body from its position to a more comfortable one. She winced as she moved certain parts of her limbs though, and after quickly flashing looks at certain parts of her body, realised that the pull had cut and grazed her skin. She had one particularly bad graze on her flank, which was slowly caking the fur around it with blood. Even her cutie mark had become covered in blood. Her legs were not so badly injured, but they did have a few uncomforting bruises and cuts along them.

The sight of her injuries only made the uncomforting pain worse for Twilight, as they started to sting even more. But luckily, apart from massive pain in her side that was bashed against the tree, when she felt around it with her hooves, nothing was broken. Her struggled breathing started to normalise, but was still extremely uncomfortable to put up with. Twilight pushed her side against the tree with her left legs, and while trying to flush the pain away, used it to push herself up. She leaned against it for support as she kicked the feeling back into her right legs. She slowly started to walk away from the tree, trying to forget about the continuing pain all around her body. Not too far away from her Twilight saw her saddlebag. She lit up her horn, and attempted to levitate it over to herself, but on the attempt to use magic, she found she was unable to. White noise filled her head as she tried harder, straining to force the spell out, but she realised it was no use. She shook her head trying to clear away the noise. She found it odd that she heard static when she tried to perform a spell, and very creepy. She was already scared, and continued to dart her eyes in every direction, as if looking for something, but not finding anything but darkness, and trees.

She nervously approached her saddlebag, and upon reaching it, opened up the right pouch, where she found the book that she had brought along with her. She closed it, unwilling to read the book while she was in her predicament. She then opened the left pouch to see if there was anything of use. There was a quill lying at the bottom corner next to a closed bottle of ink, and two scrolls of parchment. Twilight looked at her injuries, and back at the parchment. She sighed taking one piece in her mouth and pressing it gently onto the bleeding sites of her body. It irritated her a little; she would have preferred something more soft and comfortable, but it would do for now. She dropped the wet, bloody parchment on the dirt next to her, and sealed up the bag again, before uncomfortably slipping it back on. She went to magically tighten it and secure it to her, but upon attempting to do so, found her head flooded with static yet again. She decided to just let it rest there for the time being, leaning it to the left side of her body to try and distribute some more weight to that side, so the book on the other side wouldn’t weigh it off.

She looked down the dark path that opposed the one she wanted to return to, and fear slowly started to creep up on her sanity. She wasn’t willing to try and fight the pull again especially if it would result like it just had, so she realised she had but one choice. She had to venture through it if she wished to reach Zecora’s. Twilight gulped and sat down, rubbing her face with her right arm, wanting to be back in Ponyville. She thought about her friends, and what she would do to at least have one of them with her, especially Fluttershy, who she began to worry about even more dreading that she might have been brought to this area of the forest. She also thought about Scootaloo, but then realised that she had entered the forest with her. Where was she? Twilight jumped up and against the stinging pain trying to refrain drastic movement, trotted around the trees looking for the little pegasus filly, but she was nowhere to be found. Twilight looked around in confusion, before her ears perked up at a familiar voice.

“TWILIGHT!” she heard yelling through the trees from the path behind her. It was the unmistakable sound of Scootaloo, and Twilight could tell by the severity of her tone that she must have been scared.

“Scootaloo?!” She yelled back trying to get her attention.

“Twilight!” she heard again, seemingly getting louder and closer.

“Scoot... Scootaloo! Ov... Over here!” Twilight yelled, stuttering a little as pain from her wounds momentarily stung her much more. But the pain was forgotten and she smiled seeing a familiar orange, purple haired pegasus filly come running around the dirt path from which she’d originally come.

“Twilight! Thank Celestia I found you!” Scootaloo yelled running over to her. Twilight suddenly realised though that Scootaloo was heading straight for the barrier that was sealing her off, and her look descended into terror quickly.

“Wait Scootaloo! Stop!” She cried out, before she realised how close Scootaloo actually was.

Scootaloo suddenly became confused, but didn’t have the time to stop, before crashing into the force field herself. Without warning Scootaloo was swept from under her feet, screaming as she was thrown by an invisible force into the air. Twilight watched in horror as the white force field rippled around Scootaloo, sealing her in its barriers. She ran as quickly as she could to try and catch Scootaloo who had no control of her body as it flew through the air. In the small frame of time she had been given Twilight just barely managed to catch Scootaloo on her back. The sudden impact of weight caused Twilight’s legs to collapse under her in their weak state, but the sudden pain was acceptable for her knowing that she saved Scootaloo from suffering any similar injuries.

Scootaloo had still had the air stolen from her body though and just stayed lying on Twilight’s back panting for breath. Twilight was tired from all the aching bruises and stinging pain on her skin, and also just lay in her place, waiting for her body to recover from all the stress it had been through since she entered the forest. Reluctant to get up and follow the only available option to the pair of them, Twilight just rested for a short time, while Scootaloo also recovered from the recent scare.

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WTHay

WTHay #1 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

So many Slenderpony stories coming up lately...
And for that I say, MOAR. GIMME MOAR

Kishin

Kishin #2 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

Oh teh noes!!! I hope this ends fairly well

Ehrlichkeit

Ehrlichkeit #3 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

Doooooood. whai der be zo many slendar ponie storez commin up?

Ye my grammer izh de besht

Okay on a serious note,

Double space your paragraphs if you are not going to indent them, and even if you indent them. It makes it easier to tell where the paragraphs end, and makes the story look a lot less like a large wall of text.

Seems good so far, Ill watch this to see where it goes.

BUT DONT YOU DARE UPDATE AT 1 IN THE MORNING.

Sarkastik Menace

Sarkastik Menace #4 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

i never liked horror stories.... wouldnt it make sense for twi leave her with as many of her responsible friends as possible? wouldnt it make sense for twi NOT to go into the forest with just one filly after all those dissapearances? i know this is a horror story, but this is why i dont like them..... destroying logic for climatic-ness :P

PonyholicsAnonymous

PonyholicsAnonymous #5 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

What's up with all the Slendermane stories lately? This is like the third one I've seen today.

pwny

pwny #6 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

why does nobody do Slender MaRe?

Comma-Kazie

Comma-Kazie #7 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

Sweet frakking walls of text! Space out your paragraphs a little more, this story is hard to read as-is.

Strumfreak

Strumfreak #8 · Aug 6th, 2012 · 1 · ·

Wow... Come back 2 days after submitting and find around 16 notifications... in less than a day this is gotten more views than my first story did since it went up
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1038644
I'm sorry about the big Walls of massive text. I wanted to emphasive the different happenings in Twilights Flash backs to seperate them, but i guess the asterixes do that well enough, I'll make sure to get some paragraphs spaced out proporly in future
1037732
You don't like horror... But yet here you are on a horror story I'm sorry if my story seems overly predictable, but that's the thing I've grown up to understand about in horror Twilight may have gone with Fluttershy and the others had Fluttershy not been abducted , and while she still doesn't believe in the Slendermane, like many other predictable horror story's, she feels the need to help her friend then and there instead of leaving her for who knows how long to find the others for help. I've thought this all out don't worry .
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Yes indeed, more and more Slendermare stories coming out. I personally haven't read any of them, and do not intend to untill this is finished, but they've only started sprouting since the release of the indie game slender around a month ago... at least that's when i saw them appearing. I took strong interest in the myth so i went and learned the background, and now I'm making my interpretation of a possible story. (If you've played the game you will understand the references i make to it as well
I hope everyone's enjoying it so far, now I've got to go through the list of favourites that popped up and thank everyone, and i promise I'll try and upload regularly, (Not early in the morning I swear

Strumfreak

Strumfreak #9 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

Actually can people who favourite a story get notifications when i comment? If not I'll gladly go through each 15 profiles and thank them individually, but can anyone please tell me if that happens

Strumfreak

Strumfreak #10 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

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I also forgot to answer this proporly, I didn't want to name the creature Slender Mare because i didn't want to define it with a specific sex, and prefeered that it just remained an unknown, mysterious being.

Strumfreak

Strumfreak #11 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

Sweet Celestia the favourites just keep coming This makes me happy Massive thanks to everyone whos favourited so far

Ehrlichkeit

Ehrlichkeit #12 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

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Aye my friend, not surprisin' if ye ask me, ye have set up an interestin' story here, and is a shame to see it go un-featured

Sarkastik Menace

Sarkastik Menace #13 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

1039016 Meh... human nature dictates that if you dont know something, you usually fear it. Seeing how Twi isnt like RD who is "brave". I just like stories to make sense, not where everything is perfectly justifiable and normal, just where the characters try to be as intelligent as possible and emotions get in the way, and they show it, stupid, happy, etc. or they are just plain stupid, which after 2 seasons of ponies, neither scoots nor twi is. well, what scoots does is justifiable, ill give you that. its just that somepony as smart as twi would likely try to get fluttershy away from the cottage in the beggining (especially if her black stereotype is true and she is the only smart one in a horror story) and twi would also remember about those missing search parties, and prolly ask celestia, who doesnt do much in the first place, for help. when you think about it, she would prolly ask celestia or luna for help, and seeing as her brother is the guard captain, she would most certainly get her way...

Strumfreak

Strumfreak #14 · Aug 6th, 2012 · · ·

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Yes unfortunately I'm pretty sure the chances of a story getting featured depend on the ratio of likes to views. If more people liked and favourited the maybe it may gain popularity, but I'm fine with just favourites to be honest

Bryce98