Stay Out of the Everfree

by Writer12577

Chapter Two: The Sanctions

Scootaloo watched the small colorful ball hit the wall, causing a silly noise. It bounced back towards her bed where her hoof was idly waiting for the impact.

Soon the ball met the hoof and with a small move the hoof sent the ball back towards the wall.

It might have sounded like a good load of fun, but after doing it for two hours straight, it was feeling like torture. But it was all Scootaloo had to do. The presents were all opened and the contents were taken back to the orphanage that served as her home. All she had been able to save was the ball, a pen and a sheet of paper.

It had only been a day. One night after the waking-up in the hospital. She had not slept. She had been too terrified. The nurses had left her alone in the dark. The door had been shut but the curtains had been open.

And for the whole long night she had stared out of the window, towards the distant border of the forest, looking for any sign of the source of her upcoming nightmares. She had missed the night of the nights, the feared Nightmare Night, and she surely didn’t regret it.

And for the whole long night it had stayed in its hiding place. It had been there, Scootaloo knew it, but it had not given its location out.

Only when the nurse had arrived to bring her the breakfast she had taken her eyes off the window and the scenery behind it.

The nurse had said a couple of well-chosen words for her about how sleep is important, but she didn’t care. What’s the point in sleeping when the horrors chase you to your dreams?

The nurse had had other news, too. Scootaloo had made a great recovery and she would be sent home, if you could call the lousy-looking orphanage a home, later this evening.

At that point it had been five hours. Five hours and she would get out. Now that might seem easy as a cake, but hospital time is different.

So after a good four hours had passed, she felt like she had been sitting on the bed for an eternity.

She was wondering where the others were. She had not seen anypony, save for the doctors and nurses, since the fateful night. What was keeping them from coming to see her?

But she knew that they had a reason. They would never leave her hanging.

She snapped her attention back to the reality, just to notice that the ball was lying on the floor and that her hoof was moving in the air, trying to hit something that didn’t exist.

She felt a little blush form up, even though there was nopony around. She halted the hoof and placed it next to her on the bed.

She stared at the wall for some time. How could anything in the world be as boring as this was? The doctors had said no to running, no to playing with the ball on the hallways and an absolute no to riding her scooter around. She had got the direct, and a bit rude, orders to “bucking stay on the Celestia-damned bed” and after seeing the condition of the doctor who had said those words, she had decided not to annoy the doctors and nurses any more.

She perked her ears up when she heard a sound come from the door. Soon enough the brown-coated unicorn she only knew as “the doctor” walked in. He was exactly the one who was taking care of her.

“So, eager to leave soon, are we?” he asked in a kind voice, giving Scootaloo a friendly look behind his glasses.

“Oh you bet I am!” she replied, voice full of enthusiasm. Could it be?

“Well, gather your stuff and go on. You are in a good enough condition to leave the hospital,” the doctor said in the same tone, keeping the smile on. That’s just why Scootaloo though that he was the best doctor in the whole hospital.

“Sure thing, Doc!” she shouted and hopped out of the bed.

“I’ll be waiting in the lobby. Report back to me when you are ready so I can check you out,” he said before going through the mostly-glass door, leaving Scootaloo to take her things and get rid of the hospital clothes. It was a relief.

Scootaloo immediately pulled the green piece of cloth off of her. It felt horrible to wear, the loose threads and badly done stiches constantly making her back itch.

After throwing the excuse of clothing to the bed, she took a look around the room. She didn’t have much personal things, the ball being the most important. She could leave the pen and the paper, what would she even do with them? Drawing wasn’t her thing.

She picked the ball up from the floor and left the room without even looking back.

And right behind the window stood a tall figure, silently observing the orange filly as she left.

----»«----

The lobby of the hospital was actually smaller than one would have though. It had only a little desk full of magazines, a hallway wide enough for a bed to fit in and the reception desk. Only one of the nurses was on shift, the others were probably having some more important things around. As Scootaloo couldn’t see Doc anywhere, she went to the desk in order to ask from the nurse.

“Excuse me, do you have any idea where Doc could be?” she asked, catching the attention of the mid-aged mare that was on shift. She took a couple of seconds to process the words of the filly before answering.

“Nope, haven’t seen him since I got to duty about ten minutes ago. If you need something, I think I could be able to handle it, too. Not always necessary for the doctor to be here.”

“Well, he was just going to check me out. I got sent home today, so…”

“Ah, okay, I can handle that. And the name was?”

“Scootaloo.”

“Okay… Ah, here it is. There we go, you’re now checked out and can leave the hospital area. Have a nice day!”

Scootaloo thanked the mare and started walking towards the main doors of the hospital. Her thoughts were racing. Not about the freedom, but rather about what happened to Doc. He had seemed like a pony that would not forget things.

But after a while of thinking of the possibilities she came up to the conclusion that Doc had had something more important, like an emergency case or a surgery.

The most important thing was that she was free and could return home. Home to the rotting building they called the orphanage. Waiting for somepony to come and give her a true home.

It didn’t seem tempting, but she had nothing better. No family wanted a trouble-maker. She wasn’t actually a trouble-maker, but all the families thought so and ended up picking some of the cute big-eyes babies that would do no harm and could be taught to follow the rules of the family.

But she still didn’t give up on hope. Someday, a pony would walk through the door of the orphanage, go to the front desk and ask for her. And she would run downstairs to meet her new family. And they would go to the real home. And she could live as a normal pony, just like she had always dreamed.

She let out a little sigh. What was it in her that made the families stay far away from the room she slept and spent time in?

The sun was setting fast and the darkness was starting to devour the land, forcing Scootaloo to pick up the pace. She would not be spending another night in the dark when it was around.

But no matter how hard she tried, the path to the orphanage was just too long. When she was halfway there, the darkness had already managed to take over the land, allowing the predators of the night wander.

Scootaloo was running at this point. She didn’t look back, but she knew that she wasn’t alone. She felt the presence of the unnatural.

The air around her was cold, seeing that it was already the late autumn. Shivers travelled up her spine, pushing the coldness deeper and deeper into her body. The shadows were embracing her yet again, making her heart beat faster and her mind run in overdrive.

And still, her hooves didn’t stop. They were still desperately trying to flee from the unknown predator that might or might not have been after her.

Only when she could see the borders of the fence that was surrounding the front yard of the orphanage could she slow down a little, but only a little, before dashing through the gate and officially entering the relatively safe area.

But not even then could she halt the hooves, running directly to the door and pressing the hopefully-functional button of the old doorbell. For her luck, it was working this time, and soon enough she could hear the hoofsteps coming towards the door.

As the door flung open and the owner of the orphanage could be seen she ran inside, to the safe and warm building.

The owner was, of course, a bit surprised. But before she could ask anything, Scootaloo started providing her with answers.

“Sorry I’m late, Miss Sunshine, but I got out of the hospital today and couldn’t make it here before dark,” she said and began waiting for the answer.

The look on Miss Sunshine’s face shifted from tense to friendly. “I understand, Scootaloo. Now, how was your stay? Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m fine, Miss. I just got a little startled by the dark,” Scootaloo answered.

“Well, that tends to happen, especially during this time of the year. Are you hungry or should I put your bed ready?” Miss Sunshine asked.

“I’m not especially hungry, so I think I’ll get straight to bed. And no need to do anything, Miss, I can handle the bed on my own. You can go to sleep as well,” Scootaloo answered. Of course she was hungry, the hospital food had been disgusting, but she didn’t want to bother Miss Sunshine at this hour.

“Well, if you say so. Good night,” Miss Sunshine said before walking into her room that was just next to the kitchen.

“Good night!” Scootaloo shouted after her before walking up the stairs to the second floor where her room was. While some of the fillies and colts had to share rooms, she had a completely own room, seeing that she was the oldest filly in the whole orphanage.

Her room was at the end of the eastern part of the building. She had a beautiful view over the flat landscape from there. If she would have had some skills in drawing, she would have had a roomful of drawings of that scenery.

She walked over to the door, turned the handle and violently pushed the door. Despite the fact that it was stuck, she could force it open, granting her access to the small room that served as her personal space.

She saw that the table next to her bed was filled with presents. The ones that had not fit to the table were on the floor and possibly in the closet. She’d have a mighty lot of arranging to do tomorrow.

But now she was just too tired to do anything. She just walked over to the bed and jumped on it. The bed greeted her with a soft, relaxing touch that almost immediately made her fall asleep.

She took a one last look around the room and shut her eyes, hoping for a better future.

But immediately as she shut her eyes, she could feel a nasty headache developing. She just tried to push it aside and fall asleep. It would be gone by morning.

But as it kept on getting worse and worse, she had no other option to open her eyes and go get some medicine.

But as she opened her eyes, she immediately started wishing that she would just have kept them shut.

Directly in front of her bed was a tall black figure. It stood all the way up to the high roof, silently observing her.

Scootaloo tried to shut her eyes and wake up from this nightmare, but found out that she couldn’t. Her eyes were nailed to the white face of the thing.

It was the same thing from the forest. Scootaloo was sure. The black skin, standing on two hooves, if those things were hooves, same tentacles in the back, same terrifying face.

The longer she stared, the worse the feeling got. Her eyes were starting to hurt, her snout was on fire, blood possibly flowing out, her heart was beating faster and faster and her mind was racing. There was no way out.

She would have screamed, but she found herself unable to. She was doomed.

As she saw one of the tentacles move slightly, as of it was preparing to do something, she started panicking. It couldn’t end like this. She had to do something. Something. Just something.

And then she got it. The ball that was on the bed next to her.

She gathered all of her power and forced her hoof to move towards the ball. When she felt her hoof move, when she felt the ball in her hoof, when she felt the hoof moving up, she got a sudden spike of adrenalin. She could so this.

With her last remaining powers she threw the ball towards the thing. It was the most powerful throw she had ever thrown. The power of the throw could easily take Big Mac down.

She looked at the ball, full of hope, as it travelled towards the head of the thing. She had done it. She would win.

And just as the ball was about to touch the head of the thing, just as Scootaloo was about to start celebrating, one of the tentacles shot from the backside of the thing, crushing all the hope in the little filly.

The tentacle positioned itself directly on the route of the ball before rocketing towards the ball. The tentacle easily penetrated the ball, sealing Scootaloo’s fate.

Scootaloo could only watch as the ball got torn to pieces that fell to the floor. She had lost. She had failed.

She just stared as the tentacle kept on going forward, directly towards Scootaloo’s chest. She just stared, hoping, praying and cursing her luck.

And as the tentacle found its target, as it penetrated Scootaloo’s chest, as it tore her heart into pieces, she let out a single tear. It was over. She had lost. She was a loser.

As the thing pulled its tentacle out of the small orange filly, as it disappeared into the dark autumn night, as it left a lifeless body behind, the peaceful, beautiful world of the ponies was no more the same.

Comments

[Writer12577]

Well, another Slendy story, another ending where he gets away with it. Seriously, there is no other way to end these. At least I can't think of one.

And the amount of chills running up my spine when I was writing this... Not too good.

But anyways, I'd like to inform you that this is my last Slendy story before The Arrival gets officially published for downloading. After that, if I manage to do something with it, I will make a story based on it. So, I guess I'm going to find some other subjects.

The next story I will publish will be [Romance][Slice Of Life][Comedy(?)]. Yes, you saw it. Comedy(?) and Romance. I'd like to note that this is purely for the lulz, I'm not a romantic writer, at least for what I know, so prepare to have a good laugh at the mistakes I do.

The current deadline of chapter one is before Christmas. Although I have it ready already, I think I'll keep from posting stories for a while (Read Later and damn good Favorites are stacking up...) But if I get too much requests, I may change my mind.

Anyways, I guess this post is long enough. I hope you enjoyed this little Nightmare Night -fic and pretty much thanks for reading!

See you around!

[LeoValkenhein]

Great detail, huge improvement from you other stories, just a few typos here and there, and the as's are in mass numbers, try to fix that if you can maybe.
Looking forward to your next tale when you get the chance to put it up. Need to get work on my next chapter too
Btw, the color for comedy, really damn painful and couldn't read it without highlighting it. Just sayin.
Okay. That's all. Bye now.

[Writer12577]

1596685

I'm well aware of the fact I never should write dead tired, but meh, what you gonna do? Least I didn't put in any Gak jokes...

And now it's time for the "morning after"-proofread. Aaaaaand it's done.

I'll see what I can do. Reduced the amount of favorites by 4 chapters yesterday and I'm way ahead the schedule. Hopes high 'n' stuff.

Yes, I noticed that as well. Why make a tag yellow? Painful to read...

Same to you, I'll see you around. If not earlier, then when you just manage to put the next chapter up!

[Silver Moon]

Greetings! Your self-appointed unofficial editor has arrived! I found three times when I think you used the wrong word. Here they are.

She had not seen anypony, save for the doctors and nurses, since the fatal night.

“Fatal” means lethal, deadly. If that night had been fatal, Scoots would not be alive. I think you meant “fateful.”

Waiting for someone to come and give her a true home.

SomePONY. Tsk tsk, not again! I'm just teasing. Kind of.

While some of the fillies and foals had to share rooms, she had a completely own room, seeing that she was the oldest filly in the whole orphanage.

“Fillies and foals” would be “girls and children.” “Fillies and colts” would mean “girls and boys,” which I assume is what you meant.

Anyway, I had to giggle at the ending. It was just so CUTE!!!
Dear Luna, my mind is too twisted. Really, I could give "Cupcakes" Pinkie a run for her bits.
Other than that, I loved this!
But wait?
1592254 Romance? And you told me on my story that Pinkie is in it! So, is it a Pinkie romance? I don't really mind the comedy or slice of life, but I only read a few romance stories. Most of them Flutterdash/Rainbowshy. Whatever you want to call it. The only things I really are guts, gore, blood, death and the like.

One last thing. FUZZYNESS!!!

[Writer12577]

1612035

Three? I proofread this, or I think so, pretty carefully, but that's what you get for proofreading your own stories... Time to fix some mistakes!

Yup, you're right. Fateful is the right word. Fixed!

Okay, as this is the (I'm not counting) time one of these slips past my eyes, I can't put any excuses here anymore. My bad, fixed and trying to be more and more careful about that.

The third one is a bigger mistake, also mine. But hey, foals, colts, they sound just like the same! I mean, the pronunciation is almost identical! Fixed.

Cute endings for the win!

Ooh! That would be one heck of a show. And a twisted mind is a good thing. I mean, we who think twistedly have twice as much fun as the "normally thinking" people!

Yes. That's just what I feel. "Am I seriously doing this?" But yes. I think I am. Nope, it's not a Pinkie romance. Pinkie is just trying to help (hilarity should ensue) in her own way. I'm not going to spoil more so you wont know half of the story by seeing this comment.

Yes, true there. Gore and stuff are way over the romantic genres, but I'm giving romance a shot. No worries, after that I should be back to writing something gore-y for you to enjoy.

And yes. FUZZYNESS INDEED!

[Silver Moon]

1614467 I find romance hard to write. I almost never write it. Yet, somehow, the only two stories I have on this site both have the romance tag. I noticed that the other day. I said to myself "who are you and what have you done with the real me?" But then I say that my second made someone cry, so I felt a little better. Celestia, sister of Luna what is wrong with me? Oh well. I'm going to try and write the most depressing thing I can now. I need a due date... hmmm. I'm deciding to do this as I type, so I have no plans yet. Well, I'm camping this weekend, so I won't be able to write then so lets say I need 5000-10000 words by the end of the month. That sounds good.

OK! Thanks for letting me use this comment page as a planning/rant place.
Bye bye for now!

[Writer12577]

1614749

For me, all writing is easy as long as I have an idea that I like. Though, some ideas are easier than others, and romantic things (as I'm not the most romantic person) are not the easiest.

I like the part where you said "the most depressing thing". That sounds good! And 5000-10000 words! Now you got me waiting for it!

Hey, whenever I post something, feel free to raid it as much as you want. I ain't going to say anything important after the main text/first comment. Everything posted by me after that is either rambling, planning stuff or just enjoying the company of you people!

I'll see you around! You'll find me commenting and pushing the green thumb-thingy (and most likely the golden star-thingy) when you get the next story up!

[Some Kinda Brony]

1614894 I noticed how this was rated 'everyone'. Tsk, tsk, tsk, OP.

[Writer12577]

1979812

Well, isn't this kinda everyone-friendly? I mean, look at my older stories rated teen for gore and this one only had a single tentacle killing a single filly without torturing her too much...

I know, I know, I'm bad at putting age-ratings on things. But it's just so hard