A man's life is ruined at every corner of his life, is given a chance at a new life... err... new lives, as... some of the most terrifying beings in existence. This is a Displaced Story.
[Displaced Story] My name is... no, was Carter Eleanor, a man without friends, who lost his daughter to a murderer, who was forced to kill his own wife, and was misunderstood by everyone else. I had just completed the last of my four costumes that represent the entirety of my life, when I- err... we woke in what looked like a void of nothing. We all go by different names now...
I am Pyramid Head, slayer of sinners and protector of the innocent
I am The Keeper, though I prefer to be called Safe Head or Mr. Safe, the bane of monsters and the wrath of a parent
I am Nightmare, the nightmare-eater, the protector of children, and wrath of the innocent
I am Slender Man, guardian of those who travel my forest and the one who distorts most of reality
And this is our story of our new life in the land of Equestria.
Warning: Tags may change, such as possible addition of the Sex tag. WARNING: There will be Gore in this story and some disturbing things with the addition of the DarkandHorrortags.
Manehattan, not much different from the Manhattan I know back home, aside from the carriages, everything seems to be the same around here.
I suddenly have feeling of anger, which is my mental warning bell of my job having to be done, another child and their parent to save. I have this ability to be in an area that doesn't exist, while somehow being in a location that does exist, and from here, I have watched over the ponies whenever it is my turn to be out.
I start walking in the direction of the one who would bring harm to a child and their parent, and suddenly the world shifts around me and I'm at entrance of an alleyway, I check my surroundings to make sure nothing saw me, and walk down the alleyway. As I'm walking, I pull my extra large meat tenderizer out of my belt and prepare to bring an end to this thing, this... animal that was once like any other pony, that lived a life with a family, an education... why is it that nothing ever seems to change?
I turned the corner and there they were, at the end of the alley, a grown earth pony stallion and mare, standing side-by-side, prepared to defend the filly... no, their filly, from this... this monster of a pony. The filly crouched on the ground, crying for it to stop, as the unicorn stallion in front of them levitates his knife above his head, rage filled my body with energy. I walked up to the unicorn, as the earth ponies noticed me and looked with horror, the unicorn oblivious to this until I grabbed him by the neck, I looked to the parents and the filly, and then back to the unicorn in my hand.
"You," I said, a dark tone to my already deep and gruff voice, "you have attempted to rid this child of their innocence, their parents..." I felt the energy I have emanate from my body, giving me a demonic aura, "...their sanity.
"You will pay for your crimes..." I held up my spiked hammer, and turned towards the brick wall, which seemed to become liquid once I turned towards it, "...in my world."
"Noo... wait..." he gasped through choked breath, "please... let me..."
I release him from my grasp, he thuds to the ground, and he gasps for air, I leave him to recover for a few moments.
"T-tha- *cough* thank y-you *cough cough* I-" he stutters as he has coughing fits.
"I believe you were trying to explain something?" I stated impatiently, arms crossed.
"*cough* R-right," he clears his throat, attempting to rid himself of his coughing fit, "I... I *cough* didn't want to do this... but I have to, to save my family."
I let arms hang by my sides as I felt another pang of anger, "I believe you, I've just been informed of them, they are in danger, and only I can get to them quick enough." I look over to the other three in alleyway, "All of you need to run there are more on their way and they won't show any mercy," I look back to the unicorn, "and you have to protect them from those that have your family. Now GO!" I point down the alleyway.
"I will try," the unicorn nodded, then with a pleading look, "please, save my family." He then gestured for the others to follow.
"Thank you," said the earth pony mare, tears in her eyes as she ran past, the stallion following behind with the filly in hoof.
I nodded and, as soon as I saw them leave the alleyway, I walked into brick wall, back into my dimension, then ran in the direction my anger directed me towards and the world around me warped once again.
I now found myself just outside of a warehouse and trudged forward, my anger being my guide to save the innocent family, and entered the warehouse. I sensed them within the middle of the warehouse and I could see why, the normal way there was complicated to get through. Though when I'm trying to save others, I make my own path. I charged through walls of crates filled with trinkets, gems '...ow', one literally with dust '...who and why?', before finally arriving in the center.
I looked around and noticed that there were seven other ponies besides the pegasus colt and mare, who were both tied up at the wings and hooves, and gagged with duct tape. They all looked at me in horror, as I brought my spiked hammer up and rested it on my left shoulder, and then I moved quickly to grab one of the other ponies, an earth pony stallion, and threw him at a pegasus mare sending them both into the ground with a THUD.
The other ponies, besides those tied and gagged, were shaken out of their stupor and came charging at me; behind me were three unicorns, two male one female, in front of were an earth pony and a pegasus, both male. I grabbed the closest one to me, the pegasus stallion, and used him to bat away the next closest one, the earth pony stallion, and threw him at the unicorns, though it missed them, it provided as a needed distraction.
I cut the ropes off of the ponies and removed their gags and told them, "Run," as I was slammed into the nearby wall of crates with a spell. As I cleared my thoughts, saw a tail disappear around a corner, making me smile within my safe-for-a-head, and returned my attention to the remaining three unicorns. I got up and brushed myself off and walked towards them, getting to back up a few steps all the while glaring daggers at me, though that front was slowly, but noticeably deteriorating. I held up my right hand and let my energy flow through it and it let out a wave of dark red energy, causing two things to happen: disabling any magic users' magic within the area besides my power, and causing the floor beneath me and them to turn into a portal to my realm.
"We will finish this in my world," I stated as we all slowly sunk into the floor, "there, you will be shown what it truly means to suffer."
~~~Location: Central Park, Manehattan~~~ ~~~Time: 1:01~~~ ~~~POV: Third Person: Omniscient: Puzzle Solver~~~
Today was quite the interesting day, a few ponies had requested the help of Royal Guard for attempts on their lives, and one of them admitted that they were forced to and almost successfully killed three ponies. That one pony was given a small sentence of 5 days of escorted community service. The Royal Guard went to the warehouse with three of the ponies to apprehend the suspects, only to find four of them tied up and the other three stock-still almost as if they were dead. They were still alive and they were put through many tests, only to find nothing but possibly a case of a severely traumatic event, they responded to nothing and were hospitalized until they either passed or returned to being somewhat normal.
Right now, Problem Solver the earth pony, was reading the paper as he thought about all that happened last night, how he barely dodged the grace of Death, yet, was saved by what appeared as a being with terrifying abilities and an unusual weapon.
'I wish I could thank him,' Problem thought, 'he saved my wife, my daughter... and me.' he thought this as he continued to read the paper, he flipped to the next page and noticed a small paper with familiar looking safe drawn on it. Curious he picked it up and flipped it over to find a message written on it, and as he read it he could swear he could hear it speaking to him: 'Your safety is all the thanks I need, just avoid trouble if possible I'd rather not have to save you again, but if you are unable to... we may meet again. Until next we meet, The Keeper, Safe Head, or Mr. Safe. One of the Four Faceless Ones.'
Problem looked around, as he felt he was being watched, and noticed in the distance, beside a tree in Central Park, was a bipedal being with a safe for a head standing beside it, seemingly looking right at him. A frisbee that was thrown had gotten in the way for a moment and when it was out of the way, he was gone.
~~~Location: Gladmane's(???), Las Pegasus(???)~~~ ~~~Time: 22:40~~~ ~~~POV: Pyramid Head~~~
Las Pegasus, similar to the Las Vegas I once knew, however from what I'm seeing there aren't any gambling machines, like the slot machine, video poker, spin the wheel (well, there are... just none that give cash prizes or cost hundreds of dollars to play), or anything similar. I then sense it, the appearance of a sinner in my realm, my realm is a replica of this world's reality with beings that I can use to slay any sinners that appear here, and anyone that appears here... has done something that cannot be forgiven, unless... they were forced to... like-
I shake those thoughts out of my head and force my energy to make me appear within a few meters of the sinner, while remaining out of sight.
"Hello?" said a female voice, seeming to have been middle-aged, so... possibly a young mare, "hello?!" she called out desperately.
I come around a corner directly within their line of sight, blade in hand, stop, and look directly at her. She was indeed a pony, an earth pony nonetheless, will make my job easier if I have to take her down.
"Another sinner has arrived," I stated with a deep, yet smooth voice, that reverberated through the silent area, "were you forced to do it or did you do it of your own accord?"
She stood still as a statue the entire time, when I had finished speaking she slowly backed up.
"I-I don't know w-what you're-" she stuttered.
"YOU KNOW VERY WELL WHAT I SPEAK OF," I shouted, causing her to squeak, then I took a deep breath, an calmed down, "I apologize, I have a... very short temper, please tell me," I make an apparition of a unicorn stallion appear, causing her eyes to widen, and her pupils to turn into pinprick sized, "if the sin you did towards the this pony was forced on you or if you did it of your own volition."
She just stared at the apparition of the stallion for a few moments, so I waited. Tears started appearing in her eyes, then she brought herself to sit on her haunches and started crying into her front hooves for awhile.
"I-I had n-no choice," she said and repeated over and over to herself as she sobbed.
After a few minutes, she stood back up, though shakily, on all for hooves, mascara ruined by her tears running down her muzzle, and her eyes puffy from the crying.
"Anything you say here," I started, getting her to look at me with here puffy eyes, "will only be heard here, no spells or enchantments could change that."
She looked to me for a moment and smiled a sad smile, one that I have only seen once before.
"I did it," she started, "because I was forced to, he had a few too many drinks that night." She chuckled a bit before continuing, "He was already thinking that I might've been cheating on him, and when somepony asked me if they could buy me a drink, before I could even respond, my husband, that pony that you conjured up, had dragged me home muttering obscenities and nonsense on the way home." She shivered a bit, not from any cold temperature, and broke eye contact with me, "When we got home he locked me into my bedroom for a bit, all I could hear through my door was the sounds of furniture being thrown around and glass breaking... and for a moment, all was silent, until he opened the door, holding a knife with his magic."
If I wasn't wearing this metal helmet, my eyes would've noticeably widened as I heard this part.
"T-then," she started stuttering again, tears starting to form again, "the rest is a little blurry from there... b-but *sniff* but I think I threw a lamp at him, *sniff* a-and bucked... something at him..."
I walked over to her side as she talked, and, with my right hand, started petting her to try and calm her down. On contact she first froze, but as I continued to stroke her mane, she calmed down, though kept an eye on me noticing that my blade was stuck into the ground beside me, leaving my left hand empty.
"Please, continue," I said gesturing with my left hand towards her.
"W-well," she continued, "I-I ran from our house and went to the nearest guard station, and got help." She started to get shaky at this point, not even petting could help it, "W-when w-we arrived back at m-my home, we found him crushed behind an over-turned wardrobe, at first I was shocked that managed to kill him, let alone stop him," suddenly here voice started to sound hollow, "and then it hit me like a carriage at full speed, I just killed, not just a pony, but somepony I loved."
She then broke out into a waterfall of tears and... hugged me. Not entirely sure of what to do, I, carefully, hugged back and tried to comfort her.
After what felt like an eternity of waiting, we let each other go, she rubbed her eyes, removing the tears. "Sorry about that I just..." she paused unsure of what to say.
"Had to get off your chest?" I offered.
"Yes," she nodded in agreement, "yes, that. However... I still don't think I will be able to forgive myself, and I'm in dark part of my mind."
A thought entered my mind and it was... intriguing considering this is the first time this has happened in... ever.
I gripped the handle of my sword with my left hand and barely pulled, dislodging my blade from its place in the ground, and looked over to her one more time.
"I..." I started, uncertainty entering my mind, "I normally don't offer this to anything that has ever lived and entered here, but..." I pause, building up my resolve, "normally I give those who have committed a sin and were forced to do it, a way back to their normal realm or to be killed quickly, however I will offer you and ONLY you a third option."
She looked at me uncertainly, "...And it would be...?"
I take in a deep breath, and speak calmly, "For you to live with me in this realm? You will be given the ability to go between this realm and your realm, and you will be allowed to pick only one other pony to come with you into this realm and back for the rest of your life."
She seemed to think about this long and hard about this, as if she was actually considering-
"I'll..." she said nervously, "I'll say yes to the third option."
I was shocked, but didn't show it to her, "Are you sure?" I asked, "You could still live the life of a normal pony, if you so choose to."
"I am sure," she stated, sounding absolutely certain, "I don't think I will be able to be around others of my kind, at least... not like before."
I nodded in understanding, "Understood," I gathered some energy in the palm of my right hand, "Just a heads up," I said, getting her attention, "giving you this ability requires me to give you a small portion of my power, and from what I have been told... it can be quite... agonizing, I'll try to reduce the pain, but I can promise too much."
She nodded, and when she did I aimed the palm of my hand towards her and released the energy, and everything seemed to move in slow motion as the energy connected with her. Her mane was lavender with blue and red stripes down the middle, and her coat was a light, cyan blue; that all changed after the energy connected with her, changing her mane into a midnight blue, with with a forest green and eminence stripes and her coat a blood red. Even her cutie mark had changed from a white lily among green lily-pads in a pond, into what looked like an asiatic lily in a pond of an oil-like liquid all alone. Suddenly on her head a horn started growing, becoming just a little bit long than the average unicorn's, I did a quick scan with my energy confirming she now has the ability to use unicorn magic, yet still has the magic and abilities of an earth pony. Suddenly her body and the area around her seemed to, for lack of a better term, 'glitch' a little bit, then stop, all the while she had her eyes shut, was gritting her teeth, and barely grunting in pain, dealing with all of this like a champ in my opinion. When all was said and done, she let out a sigh of relief and opened her to give me one last surprise, her eyes had also changed. They were a sky blue and now had changed into dark, passionate purple, and if you looked close enough, you can see the most of the symbols that make up the Halo of the Sun, except the except for the original and modified versions of Lucifer's Signature, Eye of Providence, and more.
"Woah," she said, in a different voice, almost sounding powerful, and she covered her mouth as she gasped.
"Calm yourself," I tried reassure her, "your new abilities gave you a new life, look, and... apparently a new voice too."
She removed her hoof from her muzzle and spoke again, more slowly this time, with curiosity "Wait, a new look?"
"Indeed," I confirmed as I summoned a pony-sized full-length mirror, "see for yourself if you don't believe me."
She looked like she was about to say something, until her eyes looked in the mirror and she saw herself, she gasped with a look of shock on her face.
"W-what in the..." she trailed off, as she examined herself in the mirror.
Soon her look of shock turned into one of admiration.
"Well," she started, "not normally the colors i would've picked, but they go together pleasantly, I must admit."
I chuckle a bit at her antics, "Now that that is settled, I believe there is one last loose end to tie up."
"And that would be?" she asked.
~~~Location: Las Pegasus Strip, Las Pegasus~~~ ~~~Time: 7:09~~~ ~~~POV: Third Person Omniscient: Good Sense~~~
WARNING
Suicide In Gladmane's
Current Wonderbolt member, Thunderlane, discovered earth pony, Floral Sense, hanging in her hotel room, after realizing he was lost within the building, and rushed to find authorities immediately after. "It was terrifying," Thunderlane stated, "to find somepony to have hung themselves... I just wish I could've been there to prevent it."
On one of the walls, there was writing that seemed to be of blood, but on-site investigators have unable to identify the liquid that was used the write the message; the written message is as follows: 'She had regretted killing him and asked for my help believing she was a sinner, for only sinners kill others. I helped, but tried to convince her otherwise, yet she was too broken in her mind to convince. I am Pyramid Head, One of the Faceless Ones.' Who is this Pyramid Head? Who are the 'Faceless Ones'? Is Pyramid Head referring to Ms. Sense's deceased husband?
It is believed that when she was offer some liquor by another earth pony, Earth Mover, she was reminded of the night she lost her husband, a unicorn by the name of Platinum Quill, and couldn't take the pain. An autopsy has confirmed that she was dead for ten minutes prior to her discovery which is about thirty minutes after she was seen in the bar by Earth Mover. Continues on Page 3
Page 1
SAFE ZONE BELOW
Good Sense tosses the paper off to the side with his magic, and thought 'Why, sis why? Why didn't you just ask for someone to talk to?
"It just doesn't make sense," he muttered, something about this situation just didn't seem right to him. Yet, with the evidence provided, and with all the people who talked to her, it all just seems to fall into place, except for one thing...
'Is this why you asked for me to come and visit you?' he thought to himself, and started to feel somber, 'did you want to talk about it and get it off your chest? Was I the cause of your death? Was it because-'
"Hey buddy," said a pegasus stallion, in front him, shaking him from his thoughts, "you ok? You looked like somepony kicked the bucket."
Good glared at him, "Oh, you don't even know the half of it," he said, venom dripping from every word.
"Woah!" the stallion cried out in alarm, waving his hooves in front of him, "Sorry didn't mean to offend you, anyways, what do you mean?"
He hold the newspaper towards the pegasus, who only reads the headline and nodded their head.
"Yeah," the pegasus said with a frown, "everyone in town has heard about it..." then his eyes widen, "Wait, did you know that pony?"
"Yeah," Good responded somberly, "she was my sister."
"Oh," the pegasus said, then facehoofed, "that's why you suddenly became angry, I need to be careful about what I say to ponies, heh sorry about that, no hard feelings?" the pegasus asked, holding his hoof out.
Good sighed, smiled a sad smile, and responded, "No hard feelings."
All the while, unknown to them Good and the pegasus were being watched in the distance by a familiar pony and biped.
This Forest wasn't here before, but it is where I shall reside for now, since there is a town so close to it that I couldn't bear to see it be attack by the creatures in this forest. *Thump-thump-thump-thump... thump-thump-thump-thump...* Ah, it seems like I have a visitor, for someone has found one of my pages. I look around and switch my vision from normal to, what I call: Animal Sight, which allows me to see beings through the forest, whether or not they are hiding or covering their tracks. I then teleport myself to a tree in front of them, and walk out from behind the tree. I switch my sight back to normal and see a young earth pony filly with saddle bags standing before me.
"You shouldn't be in the forest," I stated, gesturing to area with my elongated arms, "there are many creatures out here that would want to bring harm to you."
"I-I'm s-sorry mister," the filly said, "but I went o-out here on a dare to p-prove to some ponies that I'm not a scardy-cat."
"I see," I said in thought, "these ponies wouldn't happen to be bullying you would they?"
"Y-yeah," she nodded with a frown, which then turned into a look of determination, "but, can now prove that I have been to the forest, and prove that I'm not a scardy-cat."
"Is that so?" I asked, she nodded in response, "Very well, how do you plan on doing so?"
"W-well," she stuttered as she looked at me with the puppy dog eyes, "I would like you to come with me to prove to them-"
"I'm afraid not little one," I said sadly, "I prefer to have as few ponies as possible knowing about my existence, but don't worry, I'll leave you something that not many can claim to have... however..." I held out my hand to her, "I need to borrow the paper that you found for one moment."
Her eyes widened at that statement, she then turned her head, opened one of her bags reached inside with her hoof (the physics of those things in universe confound me!), and pulled out a familiar paper related to me.
"How did you know I had that anyways?" she asked.
"Well," I started, as I channeled energy into the paper, "whenever someone enters my land, it is the first thing they see, so, in curiosity, they pick it up. So I placed a spell on it, so that I would be aware of someone within my forest." I then pulled the paper in two, causing a bright flash of light effectively blinding us for a moment, and when I looked back to my hands, I had a perfect copy of the paper in each hand, yet both still had the spell, so I absorbed the magic from one and placed a portion of my essence into it.
"There we go," I said causing the filly to open her eyes and look at me.
"What happened?" she asked, then looked at what I was holding, and her eyes widened in amazement. "Wait did you make another paper?"
"Replicate would be the proper term, but... yes," I stated, putting the one with the spell into my suit, "however, this one is different, for it no longer has the spell the original did, but instead it now has a piece of my essence within."
"Cool!" the filly exclaimed," reaching for it.
"Wait one moment," I said impatiently, "there is one more thing I want to add." I pulled out a marker from my suit, turned the paper over, and wrote: from: Slender Man, One of the Faceless Ones'.
"Alright, here you go young one," I said handing it to her.
She grabbed it with her hoof in excitement, "Thank you mister..."
"Please, just call me Slender Man, or just Slender if you want," I said as I bowed.
"Well, hope to see you around Slender," she shouted as she left the forest.
If I had an actual mouth to express emotions with still, I would be giving a small smile as I said, "We'll see... we'll see..."
"Here she is Twilight Sparkle," said the older mare.
"Thank you Mayor Mare," Twilight replied, closed the door on the way in and turned towards a filly, "You must be Silver Spoon?"
"Y-yes," the filly answered nervously.
"May I see this paper I've heard so much about?" Twilight asked.
"It's in my bag," she answered, and ruffled through her bag, and pulled it out and showed it to Twilight, "see?"
Twilight was startled by the image, but did not show her reaction.
"He said he did something along the lines of... putting a bit of himself into it or something?" she said with uncertainty.
Twilight raised a brow at that statement, then went wide-eyed as something clicked. She scanned it with her magic, and sure enough there was the essence of a living being within it, yet... exactly what the living being was is whole other question, considering that the magic was unidentifiable.
Twilight turned it over and read the back as she asked, "And you say the creature wrote this one the back of the page itself?"
"For the hundredth time, YES!" the filly shouted in frustration, "How is that so hard to believe?"
"I'm sorry, if this so frustrating," Twilight apologized, "but I just needed clarification."
"Fine," the filly said as she looked out the window, and suddenly went wide-eyed, "No way..."
"What?" Twilight asked as she walked over, and looked at what the filly saw, and it shocked her.
It was the same figure from the drawing that she was just looking at, waving at them from the Everfree Forest, when she blinked it was gone.
Twilight then looked over at the filly with a slightly less shocked expression and stated, "Well, I guess your story, holds some truth."
I look at each door that I came across and could tell you everything about the creature whose dream the door leads to, whether they are having a dream or not, and what they may be dreaming about. However the only door I pay attention to, are the ones connected to dreams of children, whether they be a pony or they be a dragon, I do not care, I will make sure all children dream peacefully this beautiful night. Whenever I get annoyed at seeing more doors related to adults, I raise my clawed hand and force a thought from my mind into the dream-scape and all the doors shuffle around until there are only doors related to the thought, children. From there I look at each door with a discerning eye making sure I don't miss any details I deem important, especially with the doors that do have nightmares, however I always start with the most important, and most difficult, nightmares. I remove the doors with dreams from sight so that I don't go back over it, though, I do keep a few dreams around to visit later, and find my first nightmare to fix. I open the door and enter.
I suddenly appear within a casual looking home, with, what I've come to call, nightmare fuel mixed into it giving it that extra bit of creepiness to it. I switch my form into that of a more... docile version of my form, that I remember being called, 'Shadow Freddy', and listen. I hear a slight scream from above, so I, make myself invisible, float myself towards the ceiling, and faze through. I look around with only my head sticking through and see the one type of nightmare absolutely hate with every fiber of my being, familial abuse. I see the earth pony colt, Silly Ruckus, attempting to leave the room which has been chained closed on his side, but believing he is weak, he couldn't break the chain with his bare hooves. And slowly, but surely, approached was a monstrous version of his single-mare pegasus mother, Silly Rain,who was twice her size of herself in the real world with a maw full of razor sharp teeth and black blood-like fluid, razorblades replaced ever feather on both of her wings, and her eyes were black and seemed lifeless.
"RUcKuS!" shouted Nightmare-Rain "COmE BaCk hErE! YOu hAvEn't dOnE WhAt mOmMy hAs tOlD YoU To dO... nOw yOu hAvE To bE PuNiShEd..."
"I'm sorry," said Ruckus, barely above a whisper, pulling on the chains as he looked at his 'mom', and continued to repeat it, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry-"
Deciding I've seen enough of it, I pull myself above the floor, make myself visible once again, and land softly on the floor.
"Well, now," I said, examining the Nightmare-being that started to turn around, "I don't believe we have met-" Suddenly, I was smacked by a large hoof through a wall that led to the outside of the house... which is a void...
I wave my hand in front of myself quickly, making a small floating platform appear in front of my path, and had crash-landed on it, however not breaking. Quickly standing up straight on it, I focused on the platform and it took me back up to the house, tapping my foot and shaking my head.
"You know," I chided, irritably, "it is rude to throw your guest out of your house without a proper goodbye... in fact," I changed back into my Nightmare form, "I wasn't able to give you my parting gift!"
The Nightmare-being's eyes widened in shock when I changed my form, I then jumped off the platform towards it, waved my hand in front of me, and released my bloodcurdling shout as I crashed into it. When I collided with the Nightmare and had enough momentum to propel us through the other wall, and crash landed on a much larger platform that I created seemingly made of concrete. I waved my hand once more and slowed time for the area beyond the platform and looked to the Nightmare.
"WhO ArE YoU?" the Nightmare asked, "YoU SeEm tO HaVe pOwErS SiMiLaR To mInE, yEt yOu aRe pRoTeCtInG ThIs pOnY..."
"To the ponies," I stated, "I am simply known as Nightmare. But to other beings of the Nightmare Realm..." I paused as my eyes glowed an eerie red, and pointed to it, "I, am Nightmare Justified, the one who claimed the lives of many Nightmares like yourself."
The Nightmare seemed to roll its eyes, "I MuSt aDmIt, At lEaSt yOu'rE ThE FiRsT Of mAnY WhO AcTuAlLy iNtEnDs tO PrOtEcT ThIs cHiLd, BuT HoW CaN YoU PrOvE It To Me?" it asked me as it pointed to me, "ThErE HaVe BeEn MaNy iMpErSoNaTiOnS AnD NoNe hAvE BeEn NeArLy aS AcCuRaTe aS ThIs oNe, So... UnLeSs yOu hAvE MoRe tO PrOvE To mE WiTh, I WoN'T BeLiEvE YoU EnTiReLy."
"Well," I said as I scratched to back of my head in thought, I then snapped my clawed fingers when I had an idea, "how about summoning my counterpart that has devoured any other Nightmares who've attempted to summon him and those I've come to see as a threat?"
The Nightmare looked intrigued, "If yOu dO, aNd yOu aReN'T HiM, tHeN It'lL Be yOuR FuNeRaL," it stated.
I slammed my hand onto the ground, and chanted, "Giri no keshin no tame ni, komatte iru yūjin no tame ni, watashi wa anata no kyōdai o shōkan shimasu, Nightmare Fredbear."
Suddenly, a summoning circle appeared, with a great many symbols, then metal parts and fabric seemed to spill out of it and started to assemble themselves into the being many have come to know as Nightmare Fredbear.
Fredbear looked to and said, "Hello brother, it has been far too long since I have last seen you."
The Nightmare looked at us in shock, then at me in fear, "I am sorry that haven't come to see you in so long, I was... busy," I said, rubbing the back of my head.
"Understand able," Fredbear stated, then looked to the Nightmare then back to me, "Did you summon me here because you needed me for something or just a quick visit."
"The latter for the moment," I answered, looking to the Nightmare for a moment, the back to Fredbear, "unfortunately, I'm going to have to cut this visit short, I'm still on the job."
Fredbear nodded, "Very well, I hope to talk again soon brother."
"Me too, brother," I waved my hand, and he vanished from existence.
I looked back over to the Nightmare, only to see it groveling at my feet.
"Please forgive me," it said, having changed its voice to beg, "I shouldn't have doubted that it was you, I just thought-"
I changed into Shadow Freddy and said, "Fear not, you have learned your lesson," I then furrowed my brows at him, "however, if I catch you in another child's nightmare, I won't be as forgiving as I'm being right now. I do have one request to make however."
"Yes?" it asked, nervously.
I whispered to it, it nodded, containing my growing anger, I whispered again, its eyes widen, then it smiles a sinister smile.
"It shall be done," it said, causing me to nod.
The Nightmare left the dream, I then teleported myself to Ruckus and waved my hand to the platform, causing it to dissipate.
The pony then eeped, as he noticed I was beside him.
"Do not fear child," I stated, "I am not here to harm you, I wish to make this nightmare, you are having, into a pleasant dream."
"Wait," Ruckus said, "I was having a nightmare?" He asked this as he looked at his own hooves.
"Yes," I answered, "it is now over, and now I will give you the ability to make your own pleasant dream."
I waved my hand towards Ruckus and a mark appeared on their right hoof.
"Now you can make your dream however you want it," I stated, gesturing to his hoof, "no matter how much it does or doesn't make."
"Cool," he exclaimed, aiming his hoof in front of himself, and making ice cream appear there, "Thank you mister..."
"I'm simply known as Nightmare," he answered, "none of that 'mister' nonsense."
"Ok," Ruckus said, then had a look of curiosity on him, "wait, why is your name Nightmare when you just got rid of my nightmare?"
I sighed, a sad expression noticeable on me, "That... is a long story I don't want to tell anyone."
He shrugged, "I know the feeling," Ruckus then bit into the ice cream he was now holding, "Wow, this is really good!"
"Indeed," I agreed, then checked my mental clock, and nearly fell over at how much time had passed, "I believe that it is time for me to go, so many nightmares to fix, not enough to time to enjoy the aftermath."
"Aww..." Ruckus frowned, then perked up a bit, "promise to visit one of my dreams the next time you get the chance?"
I thought about it, then smiled as I said, "I promise."
"Okay," he said, and started waving, "goodbye Nightmare!"
I looked back at him, then back to the door I exited through.
Back in the dreamscape, I look at all the other doors I have to go through and sighed.
Today was a strange day for Ruckus and a small group of his friends, they all seemed to have dreamed about the bipedal black bear named 'Nightmare', and all had good dreams after he had left. Not only that, but his mother when she had woken up had gone to him the a few minutes after he woke up and started apologizing for all the things she did; the beatings, the blaming, the insults, all of it, and she wished to make up for all of it that day and took them to have large breakfast for a good deal, had gone and played at the nearby park together, and had a picnic lunch. When she let go play with his friends, and he told them all of what happened that day and they were happy for him, and then later she took him to a restaurant in the next town over, called Salt Lick, the restaurant was called Zuerst and was a family ran establishment. Though recently, there was an incident with the owners' son, some sort of mental breakdown, but he had gotten back up on his hooves and is out traveling Equestria to find himself. After they finished dinner, she had asked him if he wanted to watch a movie, and so, they went to the nearest theatre, watched a movie that he picked, called 'The Mage of Od'. They then returned home for the day. After getting on his bed, his mom came into the room and tucked him into bed.
"Goodnight, you little Silly," she said teasingly, making Ruckus laugh.
After he calmed down, he replied, "Goodnight, mom, *yawn* I love you." He then went soundly to sleep.
His mom slowly closed the door, but before she finished closing it she said, "I love you too, my little Ruckus," closed the door with a click.
Suddenly a purple bear quietly emerged from Ruckus's shadow and hovered above ground smiling in the direction of Silly Rain, then towards Ruckus, nodded, and then vanished.
Celestia has been quite curious as to these odd happenings lately and decided that she, Luna and a few select ponies, are going to be directly investigating. She was lying on a large, alicorn-sized pillow in her quarters, while taking a look at the materials before with this unnerved look about her. The some of the materials consisted of a newspaper from about a week ago related to a strange series of events related to the murderers in Manehattan, who called themselves The Lost, a full report from the platoon of Royal Guards called on for apprehending the suspects and investigating the situation, and a written interview between a guard and one of the near-victims of the entire situation. Another portion of it contained another newspaper from about four days ago of a suicide, and a picture of the writing on the wall mentioned in the picture. Then there were the report of sightings of a tall and slender bipedal figure nearby and within the Everfree Forest, along with a report, confirmed by Twilight Sparkle, of a filly encountering this being and a copy of the paper the filly was gifted by the being, and with a report of there being a portion of the being essence within the page. Lastly, was actually a report from Luna about the last two nights, during her nighttime job as protector of dreams, she stated that there was a powerful nightmare entity within the dreamscape, yet when she arrived at where the being was, it was already gone, and there was a noticeable lack of nightmares in that portion of the dreamscape. Luna investigated further and found that during the time this being was within the realm, that all of the nightmares of the foals had been dealt with, though some mares and stallions had received nightmares as well, though not nearly as many as what was dealt with.
Celestia was unsure about the name of this group, The Faceless Ones, but one name did stand out in particular, Pyramid Head. Celestia knows exactly who that is and the name, The Keeper, was brought up in the interview from one of the ponies who were nearly killed in the incident in Manehattan, she knew that one too.
'But it can't be them,' Celestia thought with a perplexed expression, 'they were... killed, right in front of me... unless they did something I was not aware of.'
She looks over to the paper she received from Twilight.
'And this is without a doubt Slender Man's calling card,' Celestia thought, then smiled as an old memory resurfaced, 'he always enjoyed the company of children, even if they feared him at first.'
Then she reread the report from Luna making sure she didn't miss any details.
'This definitely looks like Nightmare's handywork,' she thought matter-of-factly, 'Nightmare always was a bit overprotective of children no matter what species they were. I actually forgot that Nightmare actually could access the realm of dreams.'
The looked over to the paper regarding the death of a mare over in Las Pegasus and frowned.
'Though this is the only thing that seems out of character... especially for Pyramid Head,' Celestia thought in confusion, 'He never left a body of anyone that he has slain in our realm, not even for those who couldn't stand... that pain.'
She looked over everything once more and had a thought to see if it truly was them.
In her magic, she quickly took out an inkwell, a quill, and a blank parchment, wrote on about half the page, and looked to her nearby guard, a pegasus who was unmoving with a neutral expression on his face.
"Silver Strike?" Celestia called out.
He immediately came over to Celestia, stood up straight, and responded, "Yes, Princess?"
She passed him the parchment, which she had rolled up and put her seal on it, "Please pass this onto any presses in Canterlot, Ponyville, and Las Pegasus," she passed another, smaller rolled up parchment to him, "and if you need the help from any of the other guard, then you can use this to let them know you have my permission to accept any other help into your company."
Silver saluted to Celestia, "Yes, Princess, thank you," he said and trotted out of the room.
As Celestia watched him leave she had a guilty frown appear on her face.
'If... if it really is them," she thought solemnly, getting up from the large pillow, "I going to have a lot of apologizing to do.' She then left her room.
~~~Location: ???, Manehattan~~~ ~~~Time 8:09~~~ ~~~POV: The Keeper~~~
I was waiting around, bored... but patiently waiting for my help to be needed once again. In this realm of mine, I can almost hear everything, the almost constant chatter, the carriages moving around the city, the loud calling of the newspaper pony- wait what did he say? I focus my hearing onto that one pony's announcement.
"EXTRA! EXTRA," he announced loudly, just barely above the noise of the crowd around him, "PRINCESS CELESTIA CALLS A SUMMONS OF THE FACELESS ONES!"
"A summons," I asked to no one in particular, "Hmm... I should probably grab one of those newspaper just in case... but how...?"
I rub the top of my safe as I thought of ideas to get the newspaper without being spotted. I sat in that spot for about ten minutes before I thought of an idea, that I wasn't sure would work. I listened around once more and found the same stallion from before sitting in a park bench at Central Park not far from the newspaper stand. I pull out a paper wrote a message stating that I needed his help and where, folded the paper into a paper airplane, and threw it towards him.
It exited my realm and entered the real one just moments before it stuck itself into his mane, he looked around to see if he could find the assailant, pulled out the paper plane from his mane, noticed the message on the side and opened it. At first his eyes slowly widened in recognition as he read it, when he continued however it became a look of confusion, and looked around once more, then got up and started walking towards the newspaper stand. He bought a newspaper from there and walked down a nearby alleyway to which I walked towards myself exiting my realm once more, and cleared my throat catching his attention, making him turn around.
"Hello," I greeted, "it has been awhile since we last met, hasn't it?"
He sighed in relief, "It really is you," he stated, "for a moment I thought that somepony might've been pranking me."
"Not this time at least," I stated with a little bit of a laugh, "Anyway, thank you picking this up for me."
"It was no problem, though... I am curious," he stated with a curious look, "why are you interested in the newspaper suddenly?"
"Well," I said as I rubbed the back of my neck, "I caught wind of the Princess being suddenly interested in us and was curious as to what was going on."
"Huh," he said with a thoughtful look, which suddenly turned confused, " wait, us?"
I looked at him with my head tilted to the side a little, "Didn't you read that note I left for you?"
"Yes, what-" he stopped himself as he seemed to remember something, "Oh, right! The Faceless Ones, right?"
"Indeed," I answered, nodding my head, "she has called for a summons of us I believe."
"Wow," he said, almost breathlessly, "what an honor! You must have impressed the Princess with what you have done to have earned a summons."
"Perhaps," I said with a neutral tone, "I would have to discuss this with the others before any actions can be taken."
"Oooh kaaay?" he responded, confused, then shrugged, "I guess I'll leave you to it?"
"Very well," I said, "if this works out, I hope to see you again soon, without having to save your hide."
The wall next to me started to ripple like water.
He laughed nervously, "Yeah... that would be nice," he replied, with a small smile on his face.
I nodded and walked into the wall, which solidified as soon as I disappeared into it. To which I left the stallion curious, poked the wall to find it completely solid, he raised his brow a bit in confusion, then shook his head and walked off back to Central Park.
In my realm I summoned a cracked mirror with light emanating from the cracks, I got closer to it, and the world seemed to vanish around me and all I could see was the same mirror with a void in the background. I turned and saw my brothers: Pyramid Head, Slender Man, and Nightmare, all having an interesting conversation if what little I can see of Pyramid's body language is anything to go by, within the equivalent of a living room.
"... and then I successfully summon Nightmare Fredbear, and the Nightmare being practically started begging for its life," Nightmare finished and looked towards me, confused, "Your back here early, it has only been about five hours, something come up?"
I nodded and tossed the newspaper I had received, to them, Pyramid Head catching it, and started reading as the other two looked over his shoulder.
Princess Celestia Places a Summons for 'The Faceless Ones'
For the past week the have been strange occurrences around Equestria first there was the group of murdering ponies, called 'The Lost', captured without a single pony being harmed or claiming to have been the hero that night. Then there was the untimely demise of Floral Sense, for more information on that, please refer to page 4. Lastly, there was those strange sightings of a being in the Everfree Forest, and a confirmed report of a young filly encountering this being and talking with him. There have been rumors going around of a being helping the children sleep peacefully at night and causing many families to grow stronger together.
Celestia has put out a summons to them, and if you happen to be reading this, then here is her message to you: 'If you are who you say you are then I would like to meet with you as soon as possible.'
Will these Faceless Ones actually show themselves? Are they friend or are they foe? Only time will be able to answer this question.
Pyramid Head's hand gripped the edges of the paper tightly, causing Slender Man and Nightmare to back off slowly from him. His hands started shaking a bit until he ripped the newspaper in half, and he started to breath deeply, then walked towards the kitchen. A loud creak was heard, shortly after a loud slam was heard.
"...Holy shit," I stated looking at the direction Pyramid Head had went, then looked to the others, "Is he still pissed at Celestia for that 'incident'?
"It appears so," Slender Man replied.
I shake my head in slight disappointment and sighed, "I wish he could let his grudges go...
"...but it would be against his nature," Nightmare finished, and pointed to himself with his clawed thumb, "Much like how it is impossible for me to leave a parent, who abused their child, alone."
"Right," I said, gesturing to Nightmare, "similar to Nightmare's situation with bad parents, he can't just let go of anger... it's like his thing with sins."
*THUNK*
All three of us look into the kitchen, seeing Pyramid Head walking towards them.
"All of those in favor of accepting this summons say 'aye'," Pyramid Head stated suddenly, but calmly.
"Aye," Nightmare answered.
"Aye, I echoed.
"Aye."
"...Aye," Pyramid Head answered, reluctantly, surprising even me.
"The vote is unanimous," he stated, "we will accept this summons that Celestia has laid down for us. Who will go first? Either we can vote or you can volunteer."
"I will go first," Slender Man said, "I'm probably going to be the one most of them will fear most, just by looks, the one to fear here for abilities would be our very own Pyramid Head."
"Very well," Pyramid Head stated, and pointed to Slender Man, "Be sure to leave a good impression with the ponies, we have been gone from their society for a long time, so they more than likely do not remember us."
"Understood," Slender Man nodded.
Slender Man then walked out towards the void, a tree appears, he walks around it, and suddenly, both him and the tree vanish.
Chapter 7: The Meeting in a Monkey Suit (Part One of Two)
Once I left our void of a home, I once again found myself within my familiar forest home. I, in order to get to Ponyville faster and avoid freaking out any ponies, had done some short teleports on my way out of the forest. Just as quickly as I had arrived back in my forest, I was out, looking around I noticed a nearby lively-looking town and a nearby lonely-looking cottage, though from its condition it did not seem abandoned.
'Whoever lives in a house this close to the forest, while nopony else lives out here must be brave, yet craves isolation,' I thought to myself. Then looked back over to the town and walked towards it making sure not to bother anything that is alive or an object.
After a couple of minutes, I arrived in town, yet... it seemed abandoned suddenly, though I could've sworn I just saw activity her. I then move towards a house either shaped like a tree or is a tree, and noticed the sign in front of it: Golden Oaks Library.
I looked back at the tree-house, 'A library, eh?' I thought to myself, 'Maybe I can get some help here.'
I knock on the door a wait for a response. When nothing happened I knocked again.
This time I did receive a response and the door opened to reveal an adult female unicorn with a lavender coat and a dark indigo mane with a pink stripe and purple stripe in it. She looked up at me with her eyes widened, getting ready to slam the door shut.
"Wait," I borderline demanded/pleaded, as I used my hand to hold the door open, "please, I have a few questions I need answers to," I said gently, calming her down a little, though not a lot.
She then took in a deep breath and exhaled, then responded, "Ok," she then waved me in with her hoof, "come in."
I crouch down to enter through the doorway, and looked around before slowly raising myself to being a bit hunched over.
She then walked over to a table near the center, with what looked similar to the head of a Trojan Horse as center piece, and waved me over.
I walked over and sat down, legs crossed, and straightened my back.
"So," she started, albeit nervously, and summoned a tea-pot and two cups, "tea?"
I thought for moment, then nodded, "No sugar or cream please," I stated.
She nodded, then froze for a moment, frowned, then looked at me for a moment.
"Wait," she said, confused, "you don't have a mouth."
I shook my head for a moment, before responding with, "I very much do have a mouth, though if you see it, you will more than likely be mentally scarred by it." I then frowned, as an old memory came up, "I learned that the hard way."
Twilight frowned, but nodded her head as she poured my tea and passed it over to me.
"Thank you miss...?" I said, realizing that I don't know her name.
"Please," she waving her hoof dismissively, and smiled a bit at me, "just call me Twilight, everypony does."
I nodded, "Alright, Twilight," I said, I took a sip of the tea after forming a small hole at where my mouth should be, and started to ask my questions, "You wouldn't happen to know where Princess Celestia currently resides would you?"
Twilight nodded, "Of course, but..." she gained a look of curiosity, "might I ask why you need to see the Princess?"
I nodded, "Well, it has come the attention of me and my brothers, that your Princess has called a summons to us."
"Oh, right!" Twilight exclaimed, "The Princess had called a summons of 'The Faceless Ones', I had forgotten about that..." she paused then looked at me in confusion, "Wait... you mentioned 'brothers'?"
I nodded my head, "Yes, it's a bit of a long story," I replied, then looked off to the side, "but... one that I will tell at a later time, for I am uncomfortable telling anyone about it."
"I see," Twilight said, nodding in understanding, I looked back to her, "back on the subject of Princess Celestia..." she paused in thought, before smiling and nodding to herself, "how about I take you to her directly?"
I thought about it before I nodded, "Thank you, Twilight," I responded earnestly, "I prefer to become someone considered friendly in the pony society."
She shook her as she giggled a bit, "No need to thank me," she stated, "after all what are friends for?"
I tilted my head in confusion, then i straightened up in realization, '... wow... I barely had to do much and I already have my first friend in...' A few flashes of memories appeared before my eyes.
"Are you OK?" she asked, worried, shaking me out of my small trance, "you seemed, gone... like... lost in your thoughts."
I nodded as I responded, "Yes I am fine, just... remembering something from before."
"Alright," she said, "I'm going to go get my friends and let the town know that you're not a threat."
I tilted my head in confusion at first, then nodded, "Alright," I stated, "go ahead."
I followed Twilight out of her home crouching once again to fit through the doorway and closed it once I was out. I turned around and noticed something different... there was a lot more ponies in front of him than he remembered.
This crowd of ponies that I swear weren't there a few moments ago, were making a lot of noise and I noticed that Twilight was trying to get their attention to talk.
I cleared my throat loudly, making the crowd suddenly silent, "Umm..." I started, uneasy with all of the attention on me, then gestured towards Twilight, "I believe Miss Twilight here wanted to say something."
They all looked at her waiting, she was wide-eyed at first, then relaxed and smiled, "Thank you," she said, looking at me, then back to the crowd, "Don't worry everypony, it just another 'Zecora-situation', nothing to be alarmed of."
The crowd 'oohed' and started to do things that were normal... well, normal for ponies anyway.
"Hey Twilight," I heard a female voice say, with a hint of a tomboy- er... tomcolt?- noticeable in the voice.
I looked over to Twilight and noticed a female pegasus with a rainbow mane and cyan coat.
"Hi, Rainbow Dash," Twilight responded with a smile, "good timing, I wanted to see if you could come with me to Canterlot."
I decided to step in, literally and figuratively, beside Rainbow, "Because she is taking me there per my request," I answered, slightly startling Rainbow, "My apologies, I didn't mean to scare you, though I thought it would be best for me to answer this question."
Immediately changing her body language, she responded, "Me? Scared? Pfft, please, there is not a thing that can scare Rainbow Dash," she puffed out her chest in pride.
"You might change your mind once you see the rest of us," I stated, waving my hand in a circle as if trying to conjure something, "we all don't look the same, but we have been told that we are some the most intimidating beings in existence."
"Oh yeah?" Rainbow said in a challenging tone, "is that a challenge?"
"Oh no," I replied, waving my in front of me, "I don't challenge others, especially when it comes to the amount of terror you can stand."
"Why-" Rainbow started to ask.
"RAINBOW!" Twilight shouted with a disapproving look aimed at her, "You don't need to prove yourself against being with unknown powers, so please, do not attempt to make yourself a person he doesn't like."
After being lectured by Twilight, she pouted and responded, "Fine," then started to fly away, until a magenta aura appeared on her tail and on Twilight's horn, and pulled her back.
"And...?" Twilight asked, annoyed.
Rainbow sighed, and, begrudgingly, continued, "I'm sorry and won't do it again."
I chuckled a bit at the childish act, "No need to apologize," I said, "I practically bragged, which resulted in your..." I rubbed my chin in thought, looking for the right word, "... rather aggressive response, so I apologize."
Rainbow looked at me in confusion, at which I held out my hand to shake her hoof, then she shrugged and smiled, "Eh, no biggie," she responded, shaking my hand.
"Anyways," Twilight said impatiently, gaining our attention, " are coming with us or not?"
Rainbow remembered her question from earlier, looked to me for a moment before looking back to Twilight and nodded, "Sure, might be cool to hangout with..." she then quickly whipped her head towards me, "Um, I never got your name."
I mentally facepalmed for not introducing myself sooner, "Once again my apologies, I'm called Slender Man, you may call Slender if you wish," I furrow my brows noticeably, "but please refrain from calling me 'Slendy', I only allow those who are children or with high energy to call me that, they get a pass because they might either forget, or will not process that tidbit of information." For some reason I could swear I heard someone say, 'my ears are burning', but was unsure.
"Seriously, it's not a problem," she replied with a nervous smile, then looked back to Twilight, "anyways, I don't think I will mind hanging with him."
"Great," Twilight said, a seemingly forced smile on her face, "now we need to-"
"Introduce him to the rest of us?" said another female voice from behind me, a hint of posh in the voice.
I turned around to see four other mares, the one closest to us being a unicorn with a fancy, royal purple mane and a pure white coat.
"Oh, Rarity!" Twilight exclaimed in surprise, and looked at the others, "I see Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy are also here, perfect!" She then gestures towards me with a hoof, "This is Slender Man," she introduced.
I did a small bow in respect, "The pleasure is mine," I said calmly.
Rarity nodded with a smile, "I like you already," she stated, "you have nice taste in fashion and great manners, I'm Rarity, a fashion designer."
The earth pony, next to her wore a stetson and had a blonde mane and orange coat, tipped her hat towards me, "Howdy, the name's Applejack, but you just call me AJ," she greeted.
Suddenly there was a pink earth pony in my face, with a bright pink coat and a slightly darker pink mane, which startled me.
"HiI'mPinkiePiedoyoulikeparties?Doyoulikecake?Whatisyourfavouriteflavor?Whatabout-" she spoke so fast it took me a moment to register what she said before she was interrupted.
"Pinkie!" Twilight exclaimed, getting her attention, "slow down, he just got here-"
"It's fine Twilight," I said nonchalantly, "First off, would you slow down a bit please so I can understand you easily?" I asked receiving a nod with an extremely wide smile, "secondly, in response to your sentence... hi, yes, yes, um... I think I would have to say either strawberry or red velvet, and I will answer your other questions later for when I have free time."
Pinkie frowned for a moment, which suddenly turned into a small smile as she nodded and replied, "OK, I will get back to you later on with them."
Rainbow then pointed to the pegasus mare hiding slightly behind Applejack, "And this here is Fluttershy," she looked to Fluttershy, "come on Flutters, you've got to meet him."
I leaned over and noticed Fluttershy, a bright pink mane and a butter-yellow coat, was hiding behind her mane.
I then waved my hand, "Hello, Fluttershy," I said gently, "there is nothing to fear," I then reach over and pat her on the head, causing her to freeze in place for a moment.
"See?" I said, a bit confident, then in a somber tone, "I do understand how you feel, you aren't comfortable with meeting new ponies, right?" Fluttershy nodded in response, and started to relax. "Well, that is alright," I stated, then with a bit of reassurance, "I am patient, and can wait for when you are ready to talk with me." She smiled a bit and nodded, and I nodded in response.
"OK," Twilight said, "now that we are all acquainted, do the rest of you want to come with us to Canterlot? Slender here is going to meet the Princess."
Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity all voiced their agreements, while Fluttershy, at first reluctant, nodded.
"OK, then," Twilight stated, "then we are off," and suddenly there was a flash of light and we were elsewhere.
I suddenly felt dizzy, then felt like throwing up, but I swallowed it, leaving a terrible taste in my mouth and with nausea. Twilight noticed that I didn't look so good and became worried.
"Are you ok?" she asked.
I nodded and replied, "I- urp... I'm OK, I think that's the first time I've been tele- uurrrp... teleported by something other than myself to be honest."
"Sorry," Twilight said, she closed her eyes as her horn glowed, and I see a flash of light, leaving me feeling better all of a sudden, "There, that should help."
"Thank you Twilight," I said, and was then reminded of the terrible taste still in my mouth, "Yeeesshh... does anyone happen to have a mint on them?"
"Here you are darling," Rarity said, floating a mint my way with her magic, as Twilight starts walking towards a booth, "always a good thing to keep a mint on hoof, for any reason really."
I take the mint in hand, place the same hand over my mouth, which I quickly open and close, start moving the mint inside of my mouth.
"Thank you once again Rarity," I said, mint still in mouth.
"You're welcome deary," she replied, then gained a look of confusion, "Though, how did you... put that in your... 'mouth'?"
I sigh, "I'd rather not talk about," I said looking off to the side, then back to her, "at least... not yet."
She nodded in understanding, "Alright, only whenever you feel ready," she stated.
Twilight then came back with seven tickets, "Alright, we are ready to go!" she exclaimed, passing each of us a ticket in her magic.
"Wait," Fluttershy said suddenly, "what about Spike?"
Twilight smiled, as she relaxed, "He and Owlicious, are going to look over the place for the night, they'll be fine," she said, waving a hoof dismissively.
'Spike?' I thought to myself, looking to Twilight, 'Eh, it must be someone she knows.'
"All aboard!" called the train conductor, "Train to Canterlot, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare!"
"That's our train," Twilight stated, "let's go girls," she then looked to over to me, "and Slender."
We all walked onto the train, though I unintentionally caused the train conductor some fear with just my appearance, waited until the train took off.
Chapter 8: The Meeting in a Monkey Suit (Part Two of Two)
The train we were on, had noticeably slowed with the sound of a train whistle, and after hearing the wheels squeal for a moment, the train stopped.
"This is Canterlot!" exclaimed the conductor, "Next stop, Fillydelphia, Baltimare, and Ponyville!"
"This is our stop," stated Twilight as she left the train car, "let's go everypony."
"Um..." I started nervously, still following behind, "how do we make sure that none of the ponies will think I'm a threat? I mean," I said as I gestured to myself, "I'm not exactly the most normal looking being out here."
"Trust us," Rainbow said confidently while flying beside me at my full height, bumping her chest with her hoof, "we've saved Equestria a few times, I think we can handle them."
I immediately felt many pairs of eyes looking my direction, I ignored them as best as I could.
"While a bit crudely worded," Rarity grumbled a bit, then perked back up with a smile, "she is quite right, we are practically national heroes, plus I have some connections here, so I can probably help you out with them."
"Besides," Twilight waved a dismissive hoof, "I normally don't wave it around like a banner, I am Princess Celestia's student, so I might, be able to get away with using it for a favor just this one time."
"Waitwaitwait," I said, stopping in place, shocked at my luck, "you are Celestia's student?"
"Y-yeah," Twilight said, blushing a bit, then gained a look of confusion, "I didn't tell you before?"
"No," I said simply, and gestured to all six of the mares before me and continued to walk when they started again, "nor was I aware that you six were heroes, I guess I got really lucky when I stumbled across you in that library."
"I suppose so," Twilight said, then looked back to me, "By the way, do you have any idea why the Princess sent out that summons for you and your brothers?"
At first the whispers were almost unnoticeable, now they were just barely below talking level, I continued to ignore.
"I believe I do," I stated, then raised my left hand quickly, "but, I could very well be wrong, yet... it could deal with what happened around... what was it? A little more than a thousand years ago, today?"
They all looked at me like I had just gone and lost my marbles.
"...what?" I asked, "Was it something I said?"
"Ah think that ah speak for everypony when ah say this," Applejack stated, "When isn't there going ta be something from Equestria's past that we have to deal with?"
I looked at them in confusion, "Like who?" I asked.
"Nightmare Moon," Twilight answered, making freeze up for a moment, "and Discord."
"Let's not forget Sombra," Pinkie added, if I didn't know better, my jaw would've dropped, as I froze in place, "he was a real doozy!"
The part of my face where my right eye technically is, twitched as I comprehended what was just said.
"Uh," Rainbow said, unsure of what to say taps Twilight's head, "Twi?" Rainbow then pointed to me.
Twilight looked at Rainbow, then her gaze follow Rainbow's hoof and was a bit shocked at seeing me like, then I suddenly straightened myself.
"Hmm..." I hummed, then mumbled to myself, "It seems like I do have to give Celestia a piece of my mind as well, even if a bit tamer to what Pyramid may say or do." Then continued forward towards the group.
"Slender Man?" Twilight asked, "Are you OK?"
"Yes," I stated seriously, "but you have brought something up that I'm going to have to discuss with her majesty."
I looked up at the castle in front, and surprised at the size of it, I was also surprised that I didn't notice it when we came up.
"Halt," ordered a guard, a unicorn male, mostly towards me, "who are you and state your business."
"I am Slender Man," I answered swiftly yet sternly, "I have come to answer the summons of Princess."
The guard looked around for a moment, then back to me, "And the others?" he asked.
Thinking he was talking about the ponies with me, I responded and gestured towards them, "They have guided me here, kept me company, and kept me distracted from the-"
"That is not what I was talking about," the guard cut me off, irritating me a bit, "the other three that are supposed to be with you, where are they?"
"Oh," I said, then tried to put on a curious face, rather hard when you have a literal blank expression, "I wasn't told that the others were supposed to come with me."
The guard sighed, "Let me check with the Princess," he then walked through the doors.
After a few minutes, the guard returned wearing the same neutral expression.
"She has allowed your audience," the guard stated, "but she will ask why the others are not here with you."
"Understood," I said, and as he held the door for he with his magic, I walked in.
I looked around as I walked down the hall, and saw them, the stain glass windows. They depicted the events of many years gone past and some more recent ones. 'But none with us in them,' I thought as I continued down the hall and saw her, Princess Celestia, standing beside a large, heavily decorated door.
"...Celestia?" I asked, mostly to get her attention.
Her body tensed up, then relaxed, though for barely a fraction of a second, and turned around to look towards me.
"Slender Man," she stated with a neutral tone, looking at him as if examining him, "I must say I'm surprised that you are here standing before me."
"I'm pleased to see you again after so long," I said pleasantly, "however, I believe there is something I need to discuss with you about."
"Indeed," Celestia said, still looking him up and down, "if you are who you say you are, then you know me well enough to know I was expecting all of you to arrive."
"Well," I started, scratching the back of my head thinking, "remember that battle you had with Nightmare Moon?"
Celestia's neutral expression turned sad, "Y-yes," she answered.
"And how that your attack was reflected towards us?" I continued to ask.
Celestia sighed, "Yes," she answered solemly.
"Well," I started once more, "while the attack did obliterate us, we were still alive."
"But how?" Celestia asked, "I couldn't find you anywhere I had scanned everywhere for all of you, hoping that my suspicions were false, yet..." she stopped, just on the verge of tears.
"Well, in a way, it was because of you," I stated gesturing towards her with my hand.
"...what...?" Celestia asked not quite sure she heard him right.
"Your magic," I continued, "had interacted with us in a way that it didn't quite kill us, but it weakened us and threw us into a pocket dimension. One that was either no longer used or hasn't been used.
"And then there was a problem," I continued to explain, "we had been weakened to the point where we couldn't leave the place, not for a few weeks anyway."
Celestia then looked at me in confusion, her eyes a little puffy, and asked "Weeks? *sniff* But it has been-"
"A little over a thousand years, we know this," I stated sternly, then calmly continued, "Time in that zone is by far slower than the time here. I bet by the time I get back here, it will have been only about a few minutes, maybe less."
"But why aren't the others here?" Celestia asked, sounding almost desperate, "You have explained to me everything but-"
"Excuse me," I cut her off, slightly annoyed, her muzzle closed, "Thank you. As I was going to say, while we had gained the ability to go outside, we have only gained enough power make it so only one of us can leave at a time."
Her eyes widen at that statement, "That means... your over all power is still limited?" she guessed.
"Correct," I answered, "and every time we leave that void, we regain more energy more quickly than while in there, but we still have to use our energy within it in order to make it so that more of us can leave, soon we can have two out at the same time."
"That's wonderful," Celestia said, wiping her eyes with her hoof, "and before I end this session, I still have one more question, yet mostly out of curiosity."
"Well, I still have one myself," I said as I shrugged, "so one question for another."
"Alright," she nodded in agreement, then looked at me with a bemused expression, "so, why 'The Faceless Ones'?
I shrugged, "It fits," I answered simply, "for some of us, it is a literal description, for one of us, it is more metaphorical. Remember Nightmare?"
"Oh, right," Celestia said, a bit uncomfortably, then straightened out, "So what was your question?"
"Oh, right," I said, then cleared my throat, then continued, "Why is there a group of six mares protecting Equestria and not you?"
~~~About 45 minutes of explanations, arguments, and calming down later~~~
I sighed, "So, the Elements," I started, "you and your sister are no longer connected them, however they are connected to those six mares?
"Yes," Celestia answered simply.
"And that's why they have been protecting Equestria?"
"Yes."
I sigh once more, "Alright," I said exhausted, "I suppose it is time for me to go."
"Alright," Celestia said and started to walk away, then froze when I put hand on her.
"Just letting you know," I said cautiously, "the other three will be visiting, Pyramid Head will be the last, but most infuriated."
I could swear I heard Celestia gulp, yet she turned around with a small smile on her face, "Thank you for the warning," she said gratefully, "I will be sure to be prepared for their arrivals, any idea who may arrive next?"
I shrugged, "Either Nightmare or Keeper," I answered.
"OK," she said, nodding, "I hope to see you again."
"Me too Celestia," I stated and started to walk away, "me too." I then teleport.
Back at the edge of the Everfree Forest, I walk around one of the trees and find myself in the void once again, the others in front of me.
"I'm back," I stated, "with some news, both good and bad."
~~~Location: ♓︎☼︎❒︎❄︎◆︎💣︎, Manehattan~~~ ~~~Time: 9:01~~~ ~~~POV: The Keeper~~~
It has been approximately a day since Slender had his meeting with Celestia, and we agreed that I should be next to answer. Right now, I'm looking for my, for lack of a better term, 'contact' in Manehattan, outside of his home, seeing if I could have his help in- there he is. I look to a familiar earth pony stallion and noticed that he will be walking by an alleyway soon, so I moved, quickly, to get there. Once I appeared there, I waited for him to pass by, and once I saw him just outside the alley, I took a quick glance outside the alley to see if anypony was looking this direction before I grabbed him with one hand and put the other over his muzzle.
"MH?!" he attempted to shout through my hand, "MMMH!"
"Shhh..." I said calmly, letting him have a good look at me before continuing, "it's just me."
His ears went flat against his head, and glared daggers at me.
"I going to let go of your muzzle now," I stated, "no freaking out or leaving this place just yet."
He replaced his glare with interested, yet curious suspicion, and nodded, to which I let go of his muzzle.
He rubbed the part of his muzzle where I had grabbed and asked, "What do you need from me this time?"
I gestured to wards him with a hand, "I would like you to accompany me to Canterlot," I stated, "and besides, I can't really pay for a train to get there, and walking there would be exhausting."
The stallions eyes widened and was about to say something but I stopped him before he even said anything.
"You don't have to accept this if you don't want to," I reassured, with my hand held up in defense, "I won't force you to take me there, only if you are willing."
The stallion smiled and nodded, "Of course," he stated, matter-of-factually, "but I still owe you my life, so I will help again."
"Thank you," I said, then gestured towards the street, "after you."
He smiled more and nodded, then proceeded to walk back onto the street as I followed behind.
He stopped just short of the street and turned towards me, about to say something before I started.
"Your wife?" I asked, he nodded, "I left her a note on her mail that she should be picking up soon letting her know the situation, in case you did agree."
His eyes widen in surprise for a moment, then turn into an expression of being impressed, then turn back towards the street and continued walking with me in tow.
The looks we got hysterical, from most of the adults we got varied types of shock, alarm, worry, surprise, horrifying, and terrifying. From some nearby foals we got looks of curiosity, awe, amazement, and... whatever you call that extremely wide grin when you see something really cool... it'll come to me... eventually.
While looking around at the expressions that each pony gave us, I hadn't noticed that we had arrived at the train station until I heard a stuttered, "A-ALL AB-BOARD!"
I looked back to the stallion and noticed he had gotten two tickets, though if I read the expression right of his and the ticket giver's faces, I think we just got a discount on account of me.
"Well," the stallion said, catching my attention, "we have an hour to kill before we can get on the train we need to get on for Canterlot."
I nodded my head in understanding, then had an idea, "Well," I started, "how about you tell me a bit about yourself, I never really got to know you very much other than that you have a family, what species each of the three of you are, and you color scheme."
He had a thoughtful look for a moment, which then turned into a smile as he nodded.
"Well," he said, looking for somewhere to begin, then offered, "my name is Puzzle Solver..."
~~~Timeskip: fifty minutes later~~~
"ALL ABOARD!" the train conductor announced, "Next stops: Canterlot, Vanhoover, and the Crystal Empire!"
I stood stock still for a second, then relaxed, 'The Crystal Empire is back?' I thought to myself, 'We weren't told it was back... unless it maybe came back with Sombra.'
"Hello?" Puzzle Solver asked waving his hoof in front of my face, breaking my trance, "hey we gotta go if we're going to catch the train to Canterlot."
Regaining my composure, "Right," I said in agreement then gestured for him to take the lead.
We walked up to the train conductor, a unicorn stallion, whose eyes widened and ears fell flat against his head, and handed... er... hoofed?... him our tickets.
He used a hole-punch and, if you couldn't guess punched a hole in each of our tickets and gave them back to us.
"E-enjoy your t-trip," he said with a wavering smile, with a hint of a fear as he looked to me.
"Thank you," Puzzle said grabbing his ticket with his mouth, and walked on board as I nodded, grabbed my ticket, and followed him on board, as the train conductor wiped his brow with a napkin and let out a breath continued to work.
As I followed Puzzle through the train every step I took made the floor under me groan a bit in protest, which in turn attracted everypony that wasn't looking already, and also made me worry that I would fall through the floor. After passing though two train cars, Puzzle and I take a seat (or in my case almost two full seats) next to some other ponies who only just glanced my way, shrugged, and continued as though everything is normal.
I tilted my head at this and Puzzle must have noticed, because he said, "Those ponies are from Ponyville, anything weird that happens in Equestria is mainly focused there for some reason or another, so all the ponies from that town maybe suspicious at first, but are used to strange things happening."
"...Huh..." was all I could say to that, then decided to sleep on the trip. I nudged Puzzle, to which he looked at me.
"I'm going to take a nap," I said, pointing to myself, the pointed to him, "make sure to wake me up when we arrive in Canterlot."
He nodded, and I leaned back, closed my unseen eyes and drifted to sleep for the first time in, literally, a thousand years.
~~~Location: ???~~~ ~~~Time: ???~~~ ~~~POV: The Keeper?~~~
I was running towards the house, with my partner, (????), not far behind me, both of have our guns out, Colt 1911 9mm pistols, and get to the door I check the knob, locked. I look to (????) and nodded towards the door, he nodded then kicked the door down both of us moving in, guns aimed in front of us.
Then we hear it, the scream of fear and pain, we started moving, quickly, towards the scream that came from behind another door connected to the side of a set of stairs. Checking this one as well, we find it is also locked this time I kicked it open with just one kick, unlike how (????) needed to do (???) kicks, and ran down the set of stairs on the other side. (????) and I get down to the final door as the screaming started to lower in volume, we open the door, and go in with our guns aimed at the culprit we had known as 'The (????)'. He was holding a chainsaw, dripping with fresh blood, as he turned from his latest victim, I looked to see if the victim was still alive, then froze when I noticed it was her.
It was my baby girl, my daughter, my spark of hope, my everything... my sunshine... I was shaken from my trance as I heard a shout of pain from my left, where (????) was and felt something warm and sticky splatter onto my face. I felt my face and looked at my hand to find blood, looked over and saw (????) almost completely cut in half.
"NoRmAlLy," The (????) started as he grinned wildly, starring at me through a hockey mask, "I WoUlDn't iNsTaNtLy kIlL My vIcTiMs... BuT, tHiS Is A SpEcIaL OcCaSiOn..."
I pulled up my gun, and started to unload my clip into him before he could react and with each shot I said, "BURN. IN. HELL. YOU. SON. OF. A. BITCH!"
The (????), then groaned and fell to his knees, I walked around to the front of his vision, aimed the gun between his eyes, and said, "Fuck, you," and pulled the trigger, firing my last bullet.
Then all faded to black.
~~~Location: Train Station, Canterlot~~~ ~~~Time: 10: 49~~~ ~~~POV: The Keeper~~~
I groan as I'm being shaken by some... hooves, and a voice calling out to me... I think... what was the last thing I was doing again...? Oh, right, Celestia.
"Come on," said... Puzzle, right, as he shook me, "we just pulled into Canterlot."
"I"m up, I'm up," I stated groggily, "I had... a nightmare I think?"
"What was it about?" Puzzle asked.
"You probably wouldn't want to know," I stated, then put my hand to the chin of my safe, "Nor am I comfortable talking about it... it was one of the darkest days of my life."
"Oh," Puzzle said somberly, "I'm sorry."
"It is OK," I said in a forgiving tone, "you didn't know."
"This is Canterlot!" the train conductor announced, "Next stop, Vanhoover, and the Crystal Empire!"
Puzzle and I get up and walk off of the train, to which the ponies of Canterlot watch us warily as we walk by, and hand (and hoof) our tickets to the frightened train conductor who took them and watched us walk away.
As we walk through the city of Canterlot, I look around and notice some of the ponies here looking at me while whispering to others, some glancing and looking away, and others just watching with a sneer.
"Hmph," I huffed calmly and quietly, "seems that no matter where or when I am, there are always rich pricks."
Puzzle didn't respond, but had an expression of annoyance while walking forward, though why he did, I couldn't say, but if he thought the same thing, then it would just be his way of dealing with these ponies.
I continue to look around and while I looked around, distracted, we had arrived at the castle, to which I nearly ran over Puzzle when I became aware.
In front of us was a large door, for a building in Equestria to have anyway, with a guard in front of it, I walk over to him with a, suddenly nervous, Puzzle following behind.
"Halt," the guard ordered, causing me and Puzzle to stop, "state your name and business, or leave."
"I wish to speak to Princess Celestia in reply to her summons," I told the guard.
The guard nodded, "One moment," he stated, and disappeared behind the doors for a few moments.
The doors opened to reveal the guard, who waved me over, "You may come in," the guard stated, then looked to Puzzle, "you, however, must stay out here until further notice."
I looked over to Puzzle, who looked a bit down at that statement, and sighed, "I'm sorry," I told Puzzle, who looked up to me, "I thought this might happen, but wasn't entirely sure. If there is anything-"
"Nope," Puzzle said suddenly, cutting me off, "I already owe you my life, I do not need to owe you anything more."
I tilted my head as I shrugged, "Very well," I said and walked towards the door, and stopped just before I closed the door, "by the way," I looked at him with an unseen knowing smile, "look in your bag."
"What bag-" he started to ask as I closed the door, but noticed he was carrying a bag he was sure he wasn't holding a moment before.
I walked forward after entering, looking around, seeing the stain-glass windows that Slender told us about, 'And he was right,' I thought, looking around, 'words wouldn't do the justice of describing their beauty, even if they are to just tell a story.'
I continued walking for a while and noticed Celestia setting up a table with a tea set on it, and she poured some tea into one of the cups, while facing away from me. I had a mischievous idea, but I was nice enough and waited until she was putting down the tea kettle.
I calmly and quietly walk over to her, and place my hand on her shoulder, startling her a bit, "Hello Celestia," I greeted with a soft voice, "it has been a while, has it not?"
"Keeper," she said, letting out a breath of relief, "you scared me there, I kind of forgot that you can walk quietly while on a floor made of stone."
"Heh heh heh," I laughed heartily, "ah, I couldn't help myself, it was just he perfect moment, and it has been a while since I had a laugh like that."
"I'd say," Celestia said with a playful smile, "I'm glad your humor hasn't changed much, by the way," she gains a slight blush on her face, "I can still call you Mr. Safe, right?"
"Of course," I stated happily, land a rough pat on her back, causing her to go wide-eyed for a moment, "the only ponies who aren't allowed to call me that are those that aren't a friend of mine."
"So, we are still friends?" Celestia asked, sounding hopeful.
"I'm shocked Celestia," I said a bit dramatically, holding my chest, "that you think that a magical mishap would end our friendship?... well... only if it ended one of us... then that would be saddening for one of us..." I whispered the last part to myself.
"What was that?" Celestia asked, confused.
"Oh, nothing important," I said, waving it off, "So, about this Equestria?"
"Well," she said, rubbing the back of her head with her hoof, "there are... a few things that have been adjusted over the last thousand years."
"I would certainly hope so," I stated, a hint of humor in my voice, "otherwise, nothing would've gotten better."
We both got a chuckle out of that one and we continued to talk like that for a while, talking as friends, co-workers, maybe even as family, nothing too professional.
~~~Timeskip: 1 hour later~~~
I walked into a out-of-the-way corner of the hallway and walked into a portion of the wall that started to ripple, and walked back to Manehattan, which in my realm is rather quick, it took a few minutes sure, but I took a few minutes to walk several miles instead of about a half hour to get half that distance.
I looked around and found my cracked-mirror, walked towards it until I re-emerged in the void-like realm.
I looked around and noticed Nightmare walking over.
"Your turn," I stated as I patted his back, nearly knocking him over.
“Welcome!” exclaimed a voice, sounding slightly robotic, “See author? After rewriting this one line five times, you finally got something going!”
Something walks out of the shadows and appears to be… a male cyborg alicorn, with a bright red and purple mane and tail, a pure black coat, and a pair of robotic wing colored purple with black “feathers”. One eye looks normal with amber colored iris, while the other eye is obviously robotic with a black “sclera” and a glowing red iris. He looks over towards the confused reader and author.
“What?” he asked, then points up, “this is called a “bonus chapter” for a reason. It’s non-canon, but it is here to help us, or more specifically, you better understand the character that the winner will be interviewing, without causing spoilers.”
“Oh and my serial number is: 50U1-533K3R, but most call me Soul Seeker for some reason,” Soul said as he shrugged, then looked a stack of papers labelled ‘script: optional’, “let’s see… our interviewer today is known as… geh-na-rel?” someone whispers from outside of the story, “Gnarl, Gnarl… got it,” he looks back to the readers, “our interviewer today is... Gnarl!”
He pulls a lever right beside him, causing a portal to open up right beside him, after a few moments, there is a loud yell increasing in volume and suddenly… a creature lands on the ground next to Soul.
As Soul got ready to help him up, the… goblin?... gremlin?... got up and started cursing up a storm, “MOLDY! You putid pustule on a weasel’s rump! I told you to pull the lever on the left not the one on the right!”
After a moment of silence you can hear a faint echo of someone saying ‘sorry’ just before the portal closes.
“...That… was something,” Soul said, a bemused expression on his face, gaining the attention of… the creature, “never the less, welcome to the Q&A bonus chapter, how are you?”
“Who and what in the Nether Realm are you?!” the creature practically demanded, “and where in the blazes are we?! It smells like the back side of a skunk dipped in dog vomit in here.”
“I’m 50U1-533K3R, most call me Soul Seeker,” Soul answered, “I’m a cyborg alicorn, version 2.235, and we are currently located in void realm number 776. You wouldn’t happen to be Gnarl, would you?”
“Well that explains the smell, Void 776 was always a bit dank.” The creature said, then he held a hand up to his chest “Yes I am Gnarl, Minion Master and devoted servant of darkness. Now why am I here? I was about to get a little relaxation in the torture chambers before you opened that blasted portal. The screams would’ve been so soothing.”
“Sorry about interrupting your… relaxation time,” Soul said, then pointed a hoof towards him, “but you have won the contest for doing a Q&A with one of these four individuals,” Soul then moved his hoof to make it look like he should be holding something, when something appeared in it, a picture of four intimidating looking being.
“You can choose from Pyramid Head, the King of Silent Hill and Slayer of Sinners,” Soul said as a picture of a bipedal man wearing a pyramid-shaped helmet, wielding a large sword cover all the other pictures, “The Keeper, Protector of Families and Wrath of Parents everywhere,” another picture of another man instead wearing a safe with barbed-wire wrapped around it, carrying what looks like a giant meat-tenderizer, “Slender Man, Forest Guardian and Protector of All Things Innocent,” a picture of a extremely tall and bipedal… creature, wearing a tux with black tentacles behind him, “and finally, Nightmare, with too many titles to write for this short description, only The Protector of Children fits best with him,” a picture of a seemingly harmless purple bipedal bear wearing a pure black hat and bow-tie.
Gnarl looked at the first picture and a small grin split his face, “That blade is quite a sight, all the dried blood and guts gives him a pleasant aura of death and rotting corpses” He thought about picking him but decided against it, Gnarl could feel this ‘Pyramid Head’ was more of a middle of the road person then anything.
He turned to the second painting and sneered, “Keeper of Families? Feh! ‘Never trust family’, the first Overlord proved that when he was stabbed in his sleep by his younger sister.”
He turned toward the third painting, “I’ll give this one credit where credit is due, he pulls off the eldritch creepy vibe better than many I’ve encountered before. But innocence only lasts so long and no one is truly innocent anyways.”
He shook his head and looked toward the fourth painting and stared at it.
The longer he stared the more the grin on his face grew till it started to look like it might split his face, “Now this… Nightmare… is a piece of work if I ever saw one,” he chuckled evilly, “I pick Nightmare,” Gnarl says pointing at the painting.
“Alright,” Soul said, gathering magic in his horn, and shot it into the sky.
For a moment, silent ruled, until an explosion hit, causing a slight tremor, and a portal, seemingly made of shadows, opened beside Soul.
“We ask for the summoning of Nightmare,” Soul said looking towards the portal.
At first nothing happened, until an arm came through the portal and another, then a head, and the rest of the body.
The body did a few rotations of each part at each joint, ensuring there wasn’t any stiff joints or any malfunctions.
It then looked around and gained a look of confusion, “Where am I?” he asked with a soft tone.
“You are in void realm number 776,” Soul said gaining his attention, “you are Nightmare… right?”
“Yes...” he said, once again confused, “Who are you? And I thought there was only one void?”
Gnarl laughs at that, “There’s an infinite number of voids along with an infinite number of universes one for each.”
Nightmare looked at him with a questioning look.
“What he says is true,” Soul said, “I’m not going to repeat my serial number again, otherwise the readers will get annoyed, my name is Soul Seeker, and that over there is Gnarl.”
“I am a Grey Minion!” Gnarl exclaimed in rage, “Not a thing or a that you pilloc!”
Soul rolls his eyes and looks back to Nightmare who tilted his head with a confused look.
“...Readers…?” Nightmare asked.
“Yeah, you’re kind of in a story pal,” Soul answered, Nightmares jaw literally dropped off, to which he picked it up and put it back on, “and anything you learn here you will forget so… yeah…”
“...huh...” Nightmare said simply, “I guess that makes… some sense… I think?”
“Good,” Soul said, “We have already wasted a bunch of time, right now you are going to do a Q&A with Gnarl here,” he gestures over to Gnarl, “he asks you a question, and you answer it to the best of your ability.”
Nightmare shrugged, “Alright.”
“Well, I believe that is my que to start yapping.” Gnarl said as he turned to face Nightmare.
“Excellent,” Soul said.
Questions… Start!
He paused slightly seeming to gather his thoughts before he spoke,“I must ask, what made you? I can sense that you have a soul, having resurrected thousands of Minions myself, but I can see plain as the warts on a trolls arse that your body is completely mechanical in nature. Much like a Golems.”
“Technically,” Nightmare started, thinking, “this body was made from the anger, sadness, and hatred of a few other specific spirits that are actually trapped in similar bodies, and my soul is that of their vengeance. They were once children, which is why I decided to protect children, both physically and mentally.”
At first Gnarl listen with rapt attention, making mental notes to relay to his master when he got back, but then Nightmare mentioned that children were involved a frown marked his face. Gnarl may be Evil but even he knew better then to harm children. How else were the next generations of evildoers supposed to be born if children were treated as sacrifices. He decided not the tell his master about this, nothing good ever comes from harming children.
“Good question,” Soul said to Gnarl, then looked to Nightmare, “and great answer. Next question!”
Gnarl taped a clawed finger to his chin in thought, “Your name is Nightmare... does that have anything to do with what you do or is it just for show?”
“In a way, yes,” Nightmare stated, “I can literally jump into anyone’s nightmares or dreams, there are other being in that realm, the Dreamscape, called Nightmare beings, they fear me and for good reason. I-”
“Stop,” Soul said looking at a screen in front of him, “big boss no telling anyone about they yet, spoilers.”
“...Right...” Nightmare said, unsure how to act.
“WHAT?” Gnarl shouted in rage, ”Why that green nostiled, cross-eyed, hairy-livered, inbreed trout defiler! I wanted to know!”
“...” Soul was focusing on the screen, “...big boss says he’s heard worse from a broken meat grinder.”
“Why that pusillanimous-” Gnarl started again.
“The big boss wants to know if you want to go on like this or ask another question?” Soul said.
Gnarl huffs and crosses his arms in a grumpy manner, “Fine,” Gnarl said unhappily.
“The other three that you work with, out of all of you which is the most powerful? Or are you all equal in power?” Gnarl asked.
“Well,” Nightmare said, scratching his chin in thought, “We once did try to see who was the most powerful, the surrounding area took most of the damage, but...” Nightmare then looked to the pictures, “I might just say Pyramid Head, he has this thing where-”
“Also spoilers,” Soul said in a warning tone, to which Nightmare growled in reply, his body… ‘glitched’ for a moment.
Gnarl blinked in surprise, Nightmare’s body language completely changed for a split second, the only reason Gnarl could think that would happen was if… he grinned evilly and let out a soft chuckle.
“Nightmare, are you similar to your name sake? For example, real nightmares can take multiple forms and change at will, can you?” Gnarl asked with a completely innocent looking, but not feeling, face.
Nightmare looked surprised for a moment, then seemed to grin, “Indeed, however I can only change into other versions of myself, but…” Nightmare paused, then continued, “there is one of my forms that I have little to no control of and even then I cannot turn into it without having been angered beyond my limits.”
Nightmare then looked towards Soul, “And I have a feeling that if I say its name, or try to, you tell me it’s spoilers.”
Soul nodded, “Right on the nose.”
“If you want,” Nightmare said, looking back to Gnarl, “I could show my true Nightmare form.”
Gnarl’s eyes began to literally sparkle with happiness, “That would be most agreeable, I do so love a good nightmare. Always makes my black heart swell with joy.”
“Very well,” Nightmare said, suddenly there was a high-pitched noise causing Gnarl to grab his ears and shut his eyes in pain, even then he could still hear it and, just barely, also heard the sound of laughter.
Suddenly the high-pitched noise was gone and all was silent, Gnarl, slowly, let go of his ears and looked at Nightmare. It was apparent what has changed, it seemed to he now had clawed fingers, razor-sharp looking teeth, and at his waist looked like another mouth, he now wears a golden colored hat and bow-tie. He also looked a bit… decayed.
Gnarl gawked at the true form of Nightmare. His eyes wide with awe. An evil, and extremely creepy smile, slowly formed on his face getting bigger by the second. Gnarl gave a shudder of pleasure.
“You were intimidating before, but now you’re absolutely diabolic,” Gnarl stated, “I must say you dress to impress.”
“Well,” Nightmare said, his voice now sounding a bit more menacing than before, “from what I’ve been told, the form ‘whose-name-I-shall-not-say’ is much more terrifying. On scale of one to ten I once asked, my passive form was 3, my true Nightmare form was a 8 and a half, and my… currently unnamed form to avoid spoilers,” he said, both him and Gnarl glaring at Soul, “was scaled on a massive 17.
“So,” Nightmare continued, “try not to anger me too much, unless you want to be scared into the afterlife.”
Gnarl wiped a few tears away from his eyes and sniffled, “This has to be the most wonderful day in my entire life,” he said, his voice full of emotion, “Not only do I get to meet a being of nightmares but I find out he’s capable of getting even meaner than this?! I may just die of happiness… If I could die that is,” he smirked at Nightmare.
“Fun fact about us grey minions, we can’t die, no matter how much we’re smashed, burned, ripped, shredded, pulled, broken, or scared,” Gnarls eyes flashed with dark mirth, “So you’d have your work cut out for you if I did manage to make you angry, but I’m just so happy to be here that I won’t.”
“... I… uh...” Nightmare unsure of what to say, decided to take it in stride, “Thank you… I guess?”
“And I’m far older than you by a long shot so I’ve seen more evil and fearful things then you can imagine,” Gnarl stated matter-of-factly, “I’m actually coming up on my 3 millionth and 24 birthday in a few months.”
Nightmares eyes widened in surprise, “I will give you credit, that is an impressive record,” Nightmare stated.
“Thank you, I do try,” Gnarl’s smile could’ve curdled fresh milk.
“So, I have a few more questions for you,” Gnarl stated, “What is your favorite color?” Gnarl said plainly as if it was an average thing to ask in Q&A of this kind.
“Well,” Nightmare said, now scratching his chin with his clawed fingers, “I would have to say either red or gold, they are at such a level that they are equals.”
Gnarl nodded his head, “What… is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?”
Nightmare realized what he was doing and knew this reference, and then did the only thing most people would do in this situation, facepalm.
“Did.. did you just...” Nightmare then groaned, then started clapping, “well played, well… played...” then Nightmare scratched his chin again, “I wonder if Pyramid Head considers terrible puns as a sin...”
Gnarl just cackled loudly.
Soul looked at him, with a slight glare, then rolled his eyes, “Those two questions don’t count then,” he stated as a few mouse clicks are heard.
If looks could kill, Gnarls would have vaporized Soul. “You loathsome, diseased, droolling, cross-eyed, inbreed toesucker!” Gnarl shouted while jumping up and down, “That was comedic gold and you’re just going to delete it?” looking slightly like a jumping chimpanzee while he did so.
Soul raised an eyebrow at that, “No,” he stated, then pointed to a counter hanging in the air that said ‘11’ on it, “you have a limit to how many questions you have and I was making sure that you got all of your answers for your real questions and not the joke ones.”
Gnarl blinked,. “Oh,” he said before crossing his arms, huffing in annoyance, and grumbled, “you’re still a technicolor yawn though.”
“I can be a bit…” Soul paused in thought, then continued, “boring but it is how I am and how I will continue to be, besides you still have questions, yes?”
“Of course I do!” Gnarl proclaimed before turning back toward Nightmare, “I know you and your companions are in one of those Equis universes with all those… *shudder*... ponies, and while I can’t stand the sweet, loving creatures I know the readers would want to know if you have a favorite.”
“Favorite?” Nightmare said, then lifted his hat off his head with his clawed fingers and scratched his head, “I guess I would have to pick the pony named… er… I believe it was Sweet Bell?”
“Sweetie Belle,” Soul corrected, “her name is Sweetie Belle.”
“Right, Sweetie Belle,” Nightmare said, “and if you wonder why, when I visit her dreams she always sings the sweetest of songs that remind me of good times when I was younger.”
Gnarl had to hold back the gag he was about to let loose. That sounded like the most foul of tortures to him.
He composed himself and asked his next question, “What other battles have you and your companions fought? I assume there’s more than just your titles imply.”
“Well,” Nightmare said, and paused as he looked to Soul, to which he nodded, and Nightmare looked back to Gnarl, “we had fought off what have come to be known as the ‘Astral Beasts’, which consist of living versions of constellations.” Nightmare then shook his head, a sad look appeared on his face, “So many unnecessary losses, if only we could’ve done more...”
Gnarl nodded his head in understanding. Not all past Overlords were purely evil. Some had taken great lengths to make sure the lives of their subjects were safe and sound, not all of them succeeded though. He sighed and pushed away old memories that tried to resurface.
Gnarl turned toward Soul, “The next question is for you and Nightmare both,” Gnarl said, making Soul cock his head in confusion. “I know you said no spoilers but I was wondering if you and Nightmare would give the readers a… sample of what is to come to… wet their lips so to speak.” Gnarl smiled a sweet smile, and it looked horrifying on his face, “Would that be allowed?”
Suddenly a pop, like a balloon, was heard and a few pieces of paper appeared before Soul and he looked to Gnarl.
“The boss couldn’t have been clearer if he tried,” Soul stated, then looked towards the readers, “what will be coming up in future chapters will be bits of the main casts past, some flashbacks, and even some potential conflict, all I am allowed to give away per the boss’s orders is the Cult of Karma is here.”
At that statement, Nightmare’s eyes seemed to widen, with a hint of something that had never been seen by another living mortal in millenia, fear.
“Tell me you’re kidding,” Nightmare said angrily, “you’re kidding… right?” this time, his voice faltered a bit.
“It’s what the boss said I was allowed to tell,” Soul stated with little emotion, “though, for you, you understand, the readers don’t, nor will Gnarl… at least, not now anyways.”
Gnarl gawked at Soul, “That’s it? That even more cryptic than a polar bear in space drinking liquid nitrogen. And confusing too.”
Gnarl wasn’t happy, he never liked being confused, made his head hurt.
“Hey, I’m just the messenger,” Soul stated, shrugging, “but if you want to take it up with the boss I can easily give you the key,” he presses a button on a keyboard and a door about 300 feet tall looking like a simple, yet ornate, old castle door appears.
Gnarl looks the door over and smiles, holding out his hand for Soul to give him the key. Soul dropped a simple bronze key into Gnarls hand.
Gnarl grasped it and marched toward the door proclaiming, “Making my job difficult and blocking my questions. That’s an evil I will not stand for, I swear there’s going to be an inquisition!” Gnarl stomped toward the door with his fist raised.
“I feel bad for him,” Soul said, shaking his head.
Nightmare looked over to him, “Why do you say that?” he asked.
“Well,” Soul said, “he has always found a way to torture or kill someone he knew should not have the ability to die…. always...”
Nightmare’s eyes widened at that, “Then why’d you let him go in there?”
“Because the boss,” Soul said, pointing to his computer with his hoof, “promised he would not kill him… permanently anyway.”
Nightmare just froze as still as a statue, then his jaw once again, literally fell off, to which he picked it up and put it back on, and continued to look at the door that Gnarl walked through.
Then, the door started to closed, slowly, by itself, and just before it closed all the way they heard probably the strangest, yet somehow the most terrifying thing in the universe.
“NOT A PEDICURE! PLEASE HAVE MERCCCYYY!!!!”
Then the door closed all the way and it vanished.
Soul once again looked to the readers, “Welp, that is that I suppose,” Soul said, shrugging, “I hope you all enjoyed reading, and if anyone, besides Gnarl, can guess the reference he made, then we can see you in the next bonus Q&A chapter.”
“Will… will I be here again?” Nightmare asked.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Soul said, once again shrugging, “it is all up to the winner I suppose.”
Soul then lit up his horn, which had a blood red aura about it and a portal appeared beside Nightmare, energy gathered at his horn and he unleashed it at Nightmare to which yelled in surprised and was hit into the portal. The portal then vanished.
“Welp,” Soul said, “that takes care of-”
“NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!” said… one of the Spanish Inquisition.
“Except me,” Soul said as he pressed a key on the keyboard, causing a trapdoor perfectly sized for them to open up under them.
“CURSE YOU WINGED UNICORN!!!” said another one of the Inquisition.
Soul once again looks back to the readers, “Hope you enjoyed reading bye!”
I appeared in the middle of what is called 'Galloping Gorge', yet I had a feeling something... important just happened, though that is impossible for something to happen in the middle of a transportation via portal... right? Shaking the feeling, I looked around and realized it was still the afternoon, and figured I should wait until night before meeting with Celestia... and taking care of a few nightmares any children may be having. After having that thought, I decided to check up on my one of those that I have decided to keep a close eye on, and with that I melted into the shadows of the surrounding area.
I resolidified into my Shadow Freddy form just outside the apartment complex after being sure that I couldn't be seen by a living thing, I then make myself near-invisible and walk towards apartment number #12. After finding the apartment, I melt into shadow and slip in through the cracks, looking for a small colt named Silly Ruckus.
'I swear these pony names...' I thought to myself, 'I'm glad that they have a name changing system in place for whenever a pony's name doesn't match up with their talent... but still, I'm sure he gets made fun of for having a name like that.'
I stopped my thought processes when I found the colt, and growled mentally. Ruckus had a few scratches, bruises, and hoofprints visible on him, with his mom, Silly Rain, next to him trying to comfort him, and also trying to help with the injuries.
"-I was *sniff* was just trying *hic* -ing to h- *hic* help them," Ruckus said, sniffling and hiccuping, "they didn't *sniff* didn't have to be *hic* be so mean. *sniff*"
I took this time to make myself become solid but not entirely visible, and sat down next to Ruckus, yet they didn't notice me and so, continued the conversation.
"Honey," Silly Rain said somberly, "there are ponies out there that, sometimes don't know better than to not hurt others, sometimes..." she paused, and sighed before continuing, "sometimes, ponies hurt others when they are hurt themselves, or when they deal with something they don't quite understand."
"But why?" Ruckus asked, sniffing, "Why can't they just talk it out?"
I made myself easily visible before I spoke, "Because some have a hard time trying to share those feelings with others," I got up, as I spoke, startling both of them and receiving mixed expressions, Ruckus had a face of surprise and excitement, and Rain had face of shock and terror.
"Mr. Nightmare!" Ruckus shouted and glomped me, to which I hugged back.
"Hello again, little Ruckus," I said, then I looked over to Silly Rain and set Ruckus, "And you must be Silly Rain, Silly Ruckus's mother."
"Y-yes," she answered with a stutter, "w-who are you?"
"I'm called many things," I stated, then did a formal bow, "but I'm most commonly referred to as Nightmare. I've been protecting this little one," I said as I messed with Ruckus's mane, earning me a pout from him, "and many other children from nightmares, I just came by to check up on this little one... considering the... nightmare I had to deal with."
"What do you mean?" Silly Rain asked.
"Well," I said, then sighed, "there is no easy way to say this, so... the nightmare involved you directly."
Her eyes widened, then she looked to Ruckus, then back to me, "Y-you mean... oh Celestia..." she said with horror, then she hugged Ruckus, "I'm so sorry, I'm so SO sorry."
"Mom, it's OK now," Ruckus stated with a small smile, getting his mom to let go of him, "Mr. Nightmare took care of the nightmare, and I haven't had another one since."
I sighed, and smiled, "I think you are doing well," I stated, "but I can only tell depending on the state of your dreams tonight.
"Anyways," I said, making myself levitate, surprising both the ponies in the room, "I have a meeting to get ready for, so, for now, sweet dreams."
I melted into the shadows once more, and took off, looking for the building that I used as a base of operations around a thousand years ago and have been using since I got back.
Well, that took longer than I'd have liked it to, about a half hour at most, but I found it again, with more camouflage then it was originally intended to have. It looks just like an empty, abandoned shed, which is all it is if you don't know what to look for. I opened the old rusty door on the front of it, to which it let out an irritatingly loud and high-pitched creak, and I entered and looked around.
The shed had a, now, rusty steel sheet for a roof, sturdy wooden walls, and an obviously aged wood-plank floor.
It is obvious there have been creatures, pony or not, in here, but non have been able to get through the security to get to the actual structure. The only others who know it is there and know the true way in are my other three brethren.
I continued to look around until I found what I was looking for, a plank that was a part of the floor missing one of its corners. I walk over to it, lift the plank to find what looks like a coin slot, recreate one of the buttons from my Nightmare form, and slide it into the slot. Silence had taken over the area afterward and nothing seemed to happen.
"... does it no longer function," I asked myself, getting a closer look at the slot.
Not even two seconds later, a loud noise similar to stone being rubbed against stone suddenly started and a different plank was being lift on both ends with two stone pillars. It wasn't until it had gone just above Pyramid Head's height that it stopped, just inches away from the roof, I sensed a large amount of magic emanating from the small structure.
"... well, it still works, that's good," I stated, smiling.
I look at it from the door and it didn't look too out of place which is how it was supposed to be, then walk around the structure to the other side, where it was obviously different there was. There was a portal, a swirling mass of darkness is about the only way I can describe this, it was made to not give off light to help with its camouflage. I walk into the portal, causing to the portal to automatically collapse once I have entered all the way.
~~~Location: The True Base, Pocket Dimension~~~
I reappeared in a large metal room that looked like the inside of a shipping container, and the portal behind me closed off. I looked around and noticed that the room, unlike with current day Equestria, had not changed at all, there was not even a thin layer of dust.
'It still surprises me even though I know...,' I thought to myself, 'I know this place isn't exactly connected to Equestria physically, not unlike that of the void we have been in.'
Across the room from me was a large metal door with a oddly shaped handle. I walked over and turned the handle with ease, opening it up to the main corridor which was made mostly of stone, with the odd large metal door here and there but aside from that there were also signs here and there to make sure we don't get lost... again...
Following the signs to my destination, I come across a metal door that, unlike the others, has actually been painted by yours truly and the others to make sure it was to everyone's liking.
I opened the door and entered the area which had a much smaller corridor with another four metal doors that also have their own unique design. I went over to the metal door with my design and opened it.
Inside is what looks like a semi-normal bedroom, including a bed, what looks like wardrobe, what seems to be a dresser with an alarm clock on it, and a full length mirror.
The interesting thing about this pocket dimension. is that it still follows along the same time pattern that Equestria follows, as long as there is someone here; it always seems to be in the best condition every time we come back, apparently, no matter how long it has been.
I lay down on the bed look over to the alarm clock and check the time the alarm is supposed to go off at: 10:30 p.m.
I switch the alarm to on and go to sleep for the first in... forever.
Me and my friends, (???), (???), and (???), were at (???)'s birthday at (???????????). After we had played some of the games around, me and my friends ran into (??????) himself.
"Heyya, kids," (??????) exclaimed, with his cheerful voice, "are you you all friends with the birthday boy?"
We all said yes.
"Alrighty then," (??????) said happily, "follow me! There are activities for the birthday boy and his friends over here!"
I wanted to join them, but I had to go to the bathroom. I left without (??????) noticing.
After I finished up, I ran in the direction they went and snuck around to make sure I was going the right way, then I heard it. Just barely over the noises of the games, and people around, I heard a scream. Cautious, yet curious, I followed where the sound came from, I turned a corner and started walking down some stairs into a cold and dark room. Then I saw it off in a corner, (???), my friend my lying on the ground covered in red, all cut up.
I then heard a piece of metal clang lightly on the ground to the right, I look over and see a '(??????????)', holding a knife, also covered in red.
"Heheh... that'll teach them brats to be everyone's burden," (??????????) said, with a smile just barely visible on his face.
I started running back up the stairs, gaining the attention of (??????????).
"HEY," he shouted, "GET BACK HERE YOU BRAT!"
I kept on running hearing him shouting behind me, I ran up the stairs, through the halls, and into the game room.
"Honey," (????) said, relieved, "there you are, what's wrong and where are your friends?"
"A (??????????) to-took them," I said, just starting to cry, "h-he had a knife and I-I saw (???) had r-red on him a-and... a-and..."
"Oh god," (????) said, covering her mouth, then looked towards one of the ladies at the counter, "call the police! There's been a murder!"
~~~Timeskip: 8 years later~~~
I was watching the news since there wasn't much on the TV, when I saw something that upset me, and gave me a small bit of peace at the same time.
"-we have received a confirmed report of child murderer, (??????????????), having been found in his cell dead. He had committed suicide by hanging himself with his own bed sheet. An autopsy has confirmed that (?????????????) had died last night over (?) hours ago-
I shut the TV off afterwards, not sure whether to be thankful that he won't be able to hurt anyone ever again or to cry because I had broken a promise I made to my friends.
Suddenly, a terrifying version of (??????????????????) appeared and screamed as he jumped at me.
I scream as I wake up, still hearing the noise, then look around, and realized the noise was the alarm.
I shut off the alarm and calm down, then look to my right hand, and start thinking about the dream I just had.
I shake my head and remember what I'm supposed to be doing, I look at the full length mirror, and walk up to it.
"Zorox ahrk ro hahnu," I chanted to the mirror, and repeated the words.
After the fifth chanting, the mirror starts displaying the dreamscape, I melt into shadow and fling myself into the mirror.
~~~Location: Dreamscape, Ethereal Plane~~~
I arrive in the dreamscape, and I specifically look for Celestia's door which isn't hard to do if I already have the name of the pony whose door I'm looking for.
When I arrive at her door however it seems like she is having a severe nightmare, I normally don't work in the nightmares of adults, but... this will have to be one of the few exceptions.
I walk into the door and find myself in a large clearing of a forest with flames licking with little plant life now exists in this clearing and craters littering the ground.
I look around until I find Celestia... fighting... uh oh...
I find her fighting... the Nightmare in the form of Red Pyramid, Pyramid Head's form that makes him five times as powerful than his normal form.
I slam my hand on the ground and quickly start chanting, "Giri no keshin no tame ni, komatte iru yūjin no tame ni, watashi wa anata no kyōdai o shōkan shimasu,Nightmare Fredbear."
A summoning circle of many symbols appears, many metal and fabric parts start assembling themselves, and the final piece fit into place just as the circle vanished.
"I caught the urgency of your voice brother," Nightmare Fredbear stated, "I came as quickly as I could, what is the situation?"
I transform into my Nightmare form, before responding, "That," I said as I pointed to 'Red Pyramid', "is the situation."
Fredbear's eyes, somewhat, noticeably widened when he looked at what I pointed to.
"I believe," I said, loosening up my joints, Fredbear doing the same, "that this Nightmare, going to have to be slain brother, so no holding back on him."
Fredbear does his equivalent of a smirk as he responded, "Since when have I ever held back?"
I shake my head, "Same old Fredbear," I say quietly to myself.
I then charge towards the Nightmare, with Fredbear following close behind. Celestia dodges another attack from 'Red Pyramid', glances over, notices the both of us, and stares in shock, getting 'Red Pyramid' to look over and see us as well.
"HEY," I shout to the Nightmare, "YOU CALL THIS A NIGHTMARE?! I COULD SLEEP IN THIS LIKE A PONY RESTING IN A SPA!"
The Nightmare moved its head like it was rolling its eye and charged at me. I waved my hand in towards the area above Fredbear and I, and bit in front of the Nightmare. A large boulder appeared and started falling, whistling as it fell, making the Nightmare stop and look up at the last second getting crushed by the boulder. Then Fredbear and I move to opposite sides of the crashed boulder, which in turn started to move a bit. We crouch in our positions, suddenly a the Nightmare burst forth from the boulder with the blade it is carrying, and we pounce at it. Unable to react to both attacks in time, the Nightmare blocked my attack but was pierced through the torso be Fredbear. Fredbear then, opened his mouth, which then started a noise similar to that of a twister and 'Red Pyramid' the Nightmare started turning into black mist, which in turn was sucked up into Fredbear's mouth.
Fredbear then belched out a small black cloud, and... blushed... dreamscape physics, and said, "Pardon..."
I stare at him blankly for a moment, "Please, avoid blushing in the future, it looks weird on... your current form," I state.
"No promises," Nightmare Fredbear replied, "Until next time, brother."
I nodded, as he vanished into thin air, I then turn around to find a wide-eyed Celestia.
I transform back into my 'passive form', "Well, Celestia, seems like not only did I have to come for a meeting, but also to help you with your nightmare."
She then shakes her head and smiles awkwardly, "OK, so this a dream... er... nightmare," she stated in confusion.
"Now that I have fixed everything," I stated, "it is no longer a nightmare but a dream."
Suddenly, the area around us turned into that of a garden with the both of us sitting on a bench.
"Anyways," I started, "do you need more proof that it's me or no?"
"I... " Celestia started, expressing uncertainty, "I think I believe it for now, I may have to have Luna confirm that this all actually happened for me."
I nodded, "Of course," I agreed, I then look towards her, "after all you could've dreamed all of this up, or Luna could've been the one to actually fix your dreams and is currently pranking you right now."
She at me with skepticism and for a moment we were silent... before we burst into laughter.
We laughter for a few minutes, before we finally calmed down.
"Ha..." Celestia let out as she wiped away a tear, then hugged me, "it's good to have you back."
I at first froze at the contact, then, I relaxed and returned the favor, "It's good to be back," I stated.
~~~Timeskip: 2 hours later~~~
I returned to the void after having talked with Celestia about her inevitable confrontation with Pyramid head, and everyone looks to me.
"Looks like you're up big guy," I stated, looking to Pyramid Head.
"Indeed," he replied simply.
"Just..." Safe Head started, "just go easy on her, OK?"
Pyramid Head sighed heavily, then nodded to him, and started to walk out.
I stopped him, with a hand on his shoulder, just before he left, "She had a nightmare about 'Red Pyramid'," I whispered to Pyramid Head.
His body seemed to tense up for a moment.
"Just thought I should let you know," I stated as I let go of his shoulder.
Pyramid stood still as a statue for a few seconds before he continued his leave.
"I pray that he gives her mercy," Slender Man said, worried.
"Me too," I said, after all it was all I could say as I watched Pyramid Head vanish from the void.
Chapter 11: The Meeting of Anger, Sadness, and Forgiveness
I looked around as I appeared in my Silent Hill and started walking towards the Entrance/Exit of the building I was in, until I heard hoof-steps approaching.
"Somepony seems to be in a rush," a voice said, looking in the direction of the voice I find the mare formerly known as Floral Sense, now known as Lily Purity, odd name I know, but I didn't pick it she did, "What's got you all riled up?"
I summon a replica of the newspaper from a few days ago, "The Princess summoned me and my brothers to meet with her to prove we are who we say we are," I stated, using all of my resolve to avoid saying 'Princess' with venom.
"The Princess?" she asked, I nodded, "As in the Princess Celestia?" with an unnoticed and quiet growl, I nodded again.
At this point she had a grin that could've probably surpassed Luna's when she first learned of Nightmare's ability to go into the Dreamscape.
"Before you start shouting in excitement," I said, causing her to put her hoof into her mouth to stop said shout, "from what my brothers have told me, the only people the Guards will let see Celestia were us meaning you might not be able to see Celestia..."
This statements caused her to frown, then I continued, with a smirk hidden under my helmet, "If it weren't for the fact that I have given you some of my own power."
The moment what I said clicked in her head, her smile became bigger than the previous one, if that was possible.
"Well," I asked, waving her over, "If we are going to see Celestia, we might need to see her as soon as possible and you can't do that waiting around here.
I continued walking as she shook her head, then followed.
After a few minutes of walking, we arrive at the train station, I studied the train schedule for a moment, then looked to Lily, "I need you to check..." I looked back to the schedule for a moment, "... the train arriving at 6:15 and find a spot for me to ride in without being noticed."
She nodded and vanished in a flash of dark blue energy. I knew no pony would question why a hooded mare would randomly teleport into a train-station, and that train I asked her to check? It will not arrive for about 20 minutes, so I had some spare time on my hands.
~~~Timeskip: 18 minutes later~~~
I was remaking some of the creatures found in the Silent Hill games and movies, so far I succeeded in making the Nurses, the blind creatures that only reacted when they heard something in the same room as them.
"Hey, Pyramid," said Lily, who had, though not noticeably, startled me out of my concentration, good thing the Nurses were properly made, otherwise they might have attacked her.
"Please, do NOT startle me like that, especially while I am working," I stated irritably, "you could've been seriously injured... or worse."
"Sorry," she apologised with a sheepish smile, "but I bought us the VIP cabin, on that train."
She had pointed to a train, and looked over and found the train she was referring to, which I know was not there a few moments ago, maybe things just moved around in Silent Hill silently... yup, OK, I did just say something that I should've guessed was obvious.
"Where'd you get the bits?" I asked, looking back to her.
She looked down, with a small frown, "I... had kept some bits on me from when I was... going to... you know," Lily said sadly.
I tensed a bit at that, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know-" I started to apologise.
"It's fine," she stated, a neutral expression on her face, "Just... just get onto the bucking train already."
She started walking into the train, I followed from behind a bit, and she led me into the cabin. I walked in and would've sworn that, if you found a room like this a thousand years ago, then it would've belonged to someone in a royal family of some kind. Thankfully, it isn't a thousand years ago... not anymore anyway.
As I got ready to appear in the mortal realm, I felt a hoof touch my side, stopping me and making me look down to Lily.
"Hold on," she said, then vanished in a flash of dark blue once more, and appear once again barely a moment later, "OK, we're clear."
Then not a moment too soon, we both vanished in a flash of dark-purple light.
~~~Location: VIP cabin, Train, Las Pegasus~~~ ~~~Time: 6:14~~~
We both appear in the VIP car just as the door out was closed by somepony else... I think it was pony...
"I got the guards that were hired for the cabin to leave us be until either we arrived at Canterlot or there was a danger on board," Lily said as her voice changed to a more normal sounding one.
"I see," I said trying to do the same with my voice, "let us just get some rest before we arrive."
Once I said that she let out a small yawn, "Yeah, we don't want to be drowsy when we see the Princess," she headed to the bed that was big enough for, not one, not two, but three alicorns.
'How much money is put into making these cabins?' I thought to myself, 'and do they even pay back how much they had cost to have been built in the first place... actually they probably would.'
Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I go to the other side of the and decide to take a quick nap.
I had come to with a painful headache and heard... I heard ????? screaming, my eyes shot wide open, and I looked around a noticed a few things.
#1: I was hanging by my hands, which are numb at the moment. #1.5: Considering I was hanging by my hands, I was probably shackled or chained, can't tell which. #2: There was a camera in the corner of the room. #3: There was an intercom speaker on the ceiling in the middle of the room. #4: ????? was tied to a chair a few feet in front of me. #5: There was a knife, a big kitchen knife, on a tray to my right. #6: There was an odd, yet familiar smell in the room. #7: The entire floor in the room was wet. #8: There was a metal door behind ?????.
As I noticed these things, there was a static-like noise, then a voice spoke over the intercom.
"Ah, Mister ???????," the voice, with just enough static to be unable to identify as male or female, said in an amused tone, "you are finally awake. We have so MUCH to discuss."
My eyes narrowed as I looked directly at the camera, "LET US OUT OF HERE!" I shouted at the camera.
"My, my, someone's a bit pushy," the voice stated with... interest? "how about we get straight to the point then, hm?"
There was a loud beep and suddenly fell to the floor, into a small puddle that soaked my clothes, yet didn't get into my eyes or mouth.
I started getting up, the odd smell a bit stronger, and looked around then to the camera.
"What do you want with us?!" I shouted as I ran over to the door, and try to pry it open.
"I will let you free," the voice stated simply catching me off guard, then it continued with a sly tone, "you just need to do one thing for me."
I hesitated, then remembered the knife from before, "W-what is it?" I asked, almost in a whisper.
I heard a slight chuckle... giggle?... from the intercom, "Well, since you asked, I need you," she stated as if the I was going to have a hard time understanding, "to kill her."
My heart dropped to my stomach, "No. Nononono," I started, "not her, please don't make me do this!"
The voice 'hm'ed, "Well, it is either that, or you both die," the voice stated as if giving a simple second option, "I mean, haven't you notice the smell?"
That's when it clicked, I looked at my soaked clothes, then the wet floor, then took a whiff of the air again.
We were in a gasoline covered room, and the only exit was locked.
I back from the camera slowly, "Y-you wouldn't-" I said before being abruptly cut off.
"Oh, but I will," the voice said, sounding like it was smirking, "that is, if I don't get what I want."
"I won't, I-" I said, then a heard ????? mumble something, I turned to her, "W-what was that?"
She looked to me with a small smile and tears in her eyes, "Do it, don't let me be the reason you die," she stated, and I noticed a look in her eyes, it was the one I had when I couldn't save our daughter. It was when I had lost hope.
"No," I said to her, "I will not lose you too, we will get out of this, we will find a way, there just has to be."
I started looking around, and as the voice began to chuckle, I ignored it until I heard the next sentence it spoke: "Oh my, I guess that means that I will have to wait until you want to kill her... just kidding! You have until the count of ten before you both start burning alive."
My eyes widened as looked over to ?????.
"One."
Look around the metal door quickly, trying to see if maybe the door could be pried opened.
"Two."
I bang on each of the walls listening, seeing if maybe the wall would be weak enough to bust through into some sort of path.
"Three. Four."
I looked to what held me up on the wall before, shackles, and started banging on the wall with them, while ????? said, "Please just do it, don't get yourself killed because of me!"
"Five. Six."
I looked around, trying to think of another way out. Anything, anything at all! ...
"Seven. Eight."
Nothing.
"For God's sake! Just do-" ????? shouted.
"Nine-"
"FINE!" I shouted, making them both go silent, "Fine! I-I'll do it," I walked over to the tray and picked up the knife then walked over to ?????.
I look at the knife, then to ?????, "Are you... are you sure you want to do this?"
She nodded with the same small smile.
I closed my eyes and plunged the knife... and I opened my eyes...
... into her neck and blood gushed onto the hand that I held the knife with and spluttered from her mouth.
I let go of the knife and fall back onto my ass and started crying, saying and repeating, "This isn't real, it can't be real. It has to be a nightmare, it has to be."
I woke up with a slight start, looking around I realised I was still in a train.
'Goddamn nightmares,' I thought to myself.
Just when I thought to get more relaxed, I jumped at someone or rather somepony shouting, "WE WILL BE ARRIVING IN CANTERLOT IN A FEW MINUTES, PLEASE GET READY FOR DEPARTURE!"
When I jumped I realised that I had something... er actually, somepony attached to me, and I looked down and noticed that Lily had snuggled up to me at some point when I was asleep, and was now hugging me.
"Hey, Lily, it's time to get up," I said softly trying to wake her up without to much fuss.
"... not now... five more minutes..." Lily mumbled, hugging me tighter.
"If you don't let go, then ponies are going to be talking," I stated jokingly, wondering what her reaction will be.
"Huh?" she asked as she started to wipe the sleep from her eyes, then blinked a few times and looked at what she was hugging and 'eep'ed as she let go with a blush.
I chuckle a bit at her reaction, "We will be arriving in Canterlot soon, just wanted you to not be asleep and wake up on the opposite side of Equestria," I said as I held out my hand to help her up.
She puts her hoof in my hand as she gets off the bed, "My, my, such a gentlestallion."
"Why thank you," I said as I finally managed to get my voice, somewhat, back to 'normal', "I always try my best to be."
After helping her up, I quickly wrote a note and placed it on the door, took a small brown paper bag out of one of the drawers for those with motion sickness, and placed a few items that may be valuable to the guards in it.
"What is that?" Lily asked, her voice going back into its 'normal' echoing and powerful sounding self, as she pointed to the bag.
"Our tip to the guards," I said simply, and not long after that we heard the sound of the train's brakes being engaged.
The second we felt the train completely stop, we both vanished in a flash of dark-purple light, leaving a unicorn guard to open the door confused at first until he spotted the note and grabbed the bag on the bed and take it with him shrugging to the other guards asking where the passengers in VIP cabin went and showed them the same note.
~~~Timeskip: 10 minutes later~~~
Lily and I were walking through Canterlot, not Silent Hill Canterlot, just normal Canterlot, and it was going all fine and dandy, even though any citizen that saw us, what was the phrase again? Ah, 'ran for the hills'. Anyway it was all good until we passed a Guard Station, to which about a dozen or so Royal Guards surrounded us.
"Halt, creature!" one of the Royal Guards shouted pointing their supposed spears at me, specifically, "Release the mare and you will be taken in for a trial with the Princess."
I chuckled a bit, "Number one," I stated as I held up one finger, making them flinch, yet they stayed where they were, "I'm not holding Lily against her will, right?"
"I am as free as a bird," Lily said, her voice making some of the Royal Guards' eyes widen and the rest just raised an eyebrow as they looked at her, "I am his apprentice and if I chose to, I could leave him alone at anytime."
"And number two," I stated as I raised a second finger on the same hand, making them look back to me, "I'm here to see Princess Celestia anyway, she called me via a summons, one that was on the newspaper... how many days ago? Three? Four?" I shrugged. "I lost count, but the point is, either you can escort us to her," I hefted the Great Knife onto my shoulder with little effort, "or you can get out of our way."
Most of them widened their eyes looking at the weapon I wield, the others with determined looks on their face with noticeable amounts of sweat having appeared on their faces.
I started to walk past them and they all tensed up, yet I continued, Lily followed close behind still wearing her cloak. The Royal Guards did not dare to move an inch towards them, so they, slowly, retreated back into the station, leaving us to visit Celestia.
The rest of the trip was uneventful, if you exclude the fast evacuation of ponies from the throne room, which, to be honest, was quite hilarious.
When I went past the guard blocking the throne room door I looked to Lily, whom the guard said was not allowed inside, and nodded, to which she vanished in a flash of light like a teleportation spell seemed to do.
I then walked inside and waited for a bit, then another flash of light happened in front of my position to which Lily appeared from with a mischievous grin on her muzzle. We then walked to the throne room together.
When we arrived there were absolutely no Royal Guards, no servants, no nobles, no one. We both saw her, Celestia, looking at one of the stained glass windows in the room, one that seemed to be about... huh... Discord, being defeated by six other ponies.
'Guess Slender was right,' I thought to myself as Lily and I approached.
"Greetings, Celestia," I said, Celestia didn't move, but there was a familiar aura radiating from her, Fear.
The she turned towards us confidently, the aura of Fear having dissipated to nothing but an almost unnoticeable outline.
"It has been awhile, has it not?" Celestia asked, then looked to Lily, seemingly just noticing her, "and I see that you managed to get a pony in without the Captain noticing."
'Captain, eh?' I thought with a small bit of amusement to myself, "Getting past the Captain was merely elementary for my dear apprentice here."
"An apprentice you say?" Celestia said with a small, but noticeable, smile, an eyebrow lifted and her aura now radiating Amusement, "I never thought I'd see the day you would have an apprentice, considering-"
"We are not here to do small talk Celestia," I said, a bit of power behind that sentence making her tense up and her aura showed a little bit more Fear, and got Lily to look at me with a frown and a raised eyebrow, "Lily, please go into Silent Hill and come back in about... half an hour? Please?"
Lily, at first reluctant, slowly nodded and vanished in a flash of light, leaving just me and Celestia.
WARNING!
"Now... where was I?" I scratched my chin in thought, until I remembered, "ah, yes... after all," I slowly started approaching Celestia, applying pressuring to my weapon, making it leave a deep cut into the ground as I walked, "it was your fault that me and my brothers ended up trapped that void-like prison," at this point her aura of Fear was almost as big as rug in here was, "we had to call home for the last," at the next part I stomped on each step with each syllable, "ONE-THOUSAND FUCKING YEARS!"
"And don't you fucking DARE say that you had no other choice," I continued, my helmet in her face, eye-to-eye, "You could've done something else instead of having us being blasted to the damn void-!"
"Like bucking what?!" Celestia shouted back at me as tears started to pour from her eyes, catching me off guard, "how else could I have prevented a blast of magic, that was bucking strong enough to take me out, from bucking harming me?! If I aimed it towards the sky, the magic would've been pulled back at some point by the central focus point of the Tree of Harmony, and probably destroy an entire city at some point, if I aimed it at the mother-damned forest around the castle, when ponies were still evacuating mind you, there would've been dead guards and servants. If I sent it back, sure it would've killed Nightmare Moon, but it would've killed Luna as well!
"I didn't know you were over at that bucking field where Ponyville now stands," she continued, her face now had two waterfalls of tears, and a small frown "at the time, it was the only shot I had at making sure nopony- no, no one got hurt by the blast that Nightmare Moon sent at me. If I had known you were there, I probably would've bucking risked sending it into the mother-damned sky instead of having it be me that practically blasted you with it!"
I was shocked, she had absolutely no idea? But Luna, well... I guess that...
"I sent a small platoon of my guards over there," Celestia said, the small frown on her face had deepened, "what they brought back was what remained of your sword, the Great Knife, charred, cracked, broken in-half, before I could even touch it, it bucking fell apart and seemed to become one with the ground beneath our hooves.
"Every year," Celestia said, looking to me with her frown going back to being just a small one, "on that day, of every mother-damned bucking year, I grieved, for both the loss of my sister and the loss of my closest friends, whom I thought were gone for good."
SAFE...
I was now crouching down on one knee, this close to hugging her to alleviate the pain.
Then her frown became a small smile, "Then my sister came back and was purge of Nightmare Moon by the Elements of Harmony, and the pain was a little easier to deal with, especially since I could now lean on my sister for support."
I had made my voice a bit more softer for her, "Have you... told her that...?" I asked referring to the spell she cast as Nightmare Moon.
"No," she said simply, "I did not want another supposed sin to weigh on her mind."
I now felt a little guilty for blaming her for all of our mis- no, I blamed her for my misery, I was the one who craved revenge.
"I..." I hesitated, then hugged causing her to tense up, "I'm sorry, I just... I guess I didn't think this through thoroughly enough."
After a moment, Celestia relaxed, "I-I don't bla- *hic* blame you th-though," she said as she hiccupped, "either me o-or Lun- *hic* -a would have be-been pissed at o-one of y-you *hic* if we th-thought it was even re-remotely your faul- *hic* -t."
I let go of her and let out a small chuckle, "Probably," I said with amusement, "But still, it was not right to just blame you, I wasn't thinking clearly, nor did I give you a chance to explain yourself, and that wasn't fair of me."
"... What the buck did I just teleport back into?" Celestia and I look in the direction of the voice to find Lily looking at with a perplexed expression.
"Just..." I said as I look back over to Celestia, "two friends overcoming each others differences."
Lily looked between Celestia and I, then raised an eyebrow, "So... you two are not special someponies?" she asked up front.
I merely tilt my head a little, while Celestia's jaw dropped and was flabbergasted, "No," I replied simply, "sure we get along surprisingly well, but... well..."
Celestia had recovered and finished my statement for me, "When we first went out on a date, several businesses were burned down," at this Lily's eyes widened, "who knew that if he ate spicy foods too spicy for him he would literally breathe fire?"
I was blushing under my helmet, so they couldn't see it but, I probably sounded a bit embarrassed when I said, "Celly, I told you that we were to never speak of it again, ever."
She chuckled at my dismay, along with Lily, which caused me to groan at my current misfortune.
"H-how?" Lily asked, trying to curb her laughing and failing miserably, "What m-made it *snrk* so you breathed fire?"
I shrugged, "To be honest," I started, "I have no clue, but I have heard of such thing happening in works of fiction..."
"Anyways," I said, stopping them from dying of laughter, hopefully, "I would like to stay around for a bit and chat," my voice softened once more, making Lily raise an eyebrow.
Celestia smiled at that, "I think that I could work that into my already tight schedule, since you cleared a big portion of it with your arrival," she stated with a laugh at the end.
"I always seem to have that effect, don't I?" I asked jokingly, having joined in her laughter.
~~~Timeskip: 3 hours later~~~
After I left Canterlot, I made sure to drop off Lily at Las Pegasus, before returning to the void-like realm that I have been in for the last thousand years. However something felt a little off when I started entering, so I became cautious before I completely entered, weapon in hand.
However, upon entry, nothing was out of place just a bunch of emptiness, the temporary house we built here, and my three brothers.
'Maybe I'm just imagining things?' I thought to myself.
Chapter 12: A Merchant, a Purchase, and a Lesson, Oh My! (First Crossover)
Just after Pyramid Head left, all was quiet, as we all waited in anticipation of Pyramid Head’s return, which could’ve been any moment now.
Seconds later a loud and unusual noise gained our attention. It did not last long, for, after a few seconds it ceased, and then something bounced off of my head. After the object bounced off of my head, it fell down and landed in front of my feet, to which I reached down and grabbed it.
Once I had picked it up I had realised it was a scroll of some kind to which I opened, then read aloud:
“Greetings, my name is Renon. If you desire my wares, I shall sell them to you or anypony, just sign on the dotted line, please provide your real name or the name you have taken upon being displaced. I look forward to doing business with you.”
Not long after reading this, Pyramid Head walked back in through his entrance into the void we have lived in.
“What is that?” Pyramid Head asked, looking at the scroll I am holding.
“Some sort of contract,” I answered, as I felt the parchment for any magical energies, and found what I was looking for and more, “it appears to be a summoning contract.”
I held it out to him, to which he grabbed it and looked it over.
After reading it several times over, he looks towards me and the others before he spoke, “It appears we have the summoning contract of some sort of merchant. While I might not want or need anything from this being, do any of you want something or need anything?”
I shake my head, Slender Man does the same, and Nightmare at first started to shake his head then froze for a moment. He seemed to grin and then nodded his head, to which Pyramid Head tossed it over to him as he caught it.
Nightmare looked like he was about to sign it then stopped as he looked around.
“Probably not the best place to summon a merchant, who knows if they would be able to leave here,” Nightmare stated, then proceeded to move towards the ‘exit’.
Before anyone of us could even attempt to stop him, if we wanted to that is, he melted into the darkness, the scroll in hand.
Meanwhile in another realm, a certain human-looking character was currently getting ready for his job. Cladded in a black suit, a grey overcoat, red tie, a purple handkerchief in left suit pocket and a grey top hat on his head, he was ready for the day
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a old-timey pocket watch. “Any moment now,” he says before putting it back in.
He reaches up and adjusts his glasses one last time, he begins to speak in his mind to psych himself up, ready for whomever he meets. It had been many weeks since he met that homeless person, or rather an actual merchant considering the sudden change the next time he met the man.
“And if anyone told me about the guy before hand, I would of called them crazy.” he said in amusement to himself, “strange things indeed.”
Not only has odd things happened in his life thus far, he never expected it would be a multiverse travel to other worlds. His boss had to prove it that he meant serious business when he said it. Sudden;y, yet slowly, mist began to gather in his room as his body began to dissipate.
“It’s showtime,” he said, taking a gentle breath to calm his nerves, his body slowly faded away with the mist.
~~~Location: Galloping Gorge Equestria~~~
~~~Time: 8:23~~~
~~~POV: Nightmare~~~
I reassemble myself from the shadows as I am transported back into the realm of Equestria. I look around and notice the gorge to my left and the forest to my right with a decent sized clearing for the summoning.
I look myself over and realized that I’m still in my ‘Nightmare form’ and focused on being calm, to which my body reacted and transformed into my ‘Passive form’. I opened up the scroll and began to sign it, using the shadows around to form a permanent signature, saying: NIGHTMARE.
Slowly, the forest started to fill with unnatural mist, everything was eerily quiet, and that’s saying something considering what I am. Suddenly, a form started to take shape within the mist, it was humanoid in shape, but a spaded tail was seen sticking out from behind. With a briefcase in hand with a strange aura about him, he appeared.
He looked over at me with a passive stoic expression. He removes his hat, tips his head in a greeting bow in a form of obeisance, he then places his hat back on.
“Salutations, good sir,” the man said politely, although I can hear a slight hint of nervousness in his voice.
“Greetings,” I said, my voice was deep, soft, and had quite the range as it seemed to just barely echo, “you must be…” I looked back at the contract for a moment, “Renon?”
“Indeed I am, I hope you read the contract thoroughly, “ Renon said. And when I looked down at the paper, I noticed new writing fading in detailing on what not to do in order to prevent the contract from becoming void, ironically.
I looked over the new writing and nodded at Renon.
“I just have one question about this… transaction,” I said to Renon.
“Any form of currency is acceptable, all deals are final, no refunds. What you get is exactly as described of the item. I can also provide anything from the Castlevania universe.” Renon explained as his tail moved on its own accord.
“That’s fine and all,” I said waving his hand, then paused, “but, do you accept trades?”
“What are you offering then?” Renon asked in curiosity, his tail flicking in reaction to his emotions.
“One moment,” I said as I proceeded to… scratch into the air, causing a small rift of darkness to appear.
I reached in and felt around the other side, until I found what I was looking for and pulled out a tall glass cylinder with metal on the top and bottom and something black inside.
“Have you ever heard of the Essence of Nightmares?” I asked Renon.
“I don’t believe I have. What can it do?” The salesman asked.
“Well,” I started, with a slight look of disgust, “it is, as the name states, the essence of the very beings from the dreamscape, if you ever get the chance to kill one and do so successfully, this is what is left over.
“However,” I continued, “if you leave it, it will continually affect the mind of the one whose dream it was left in, until it eventually breaks their mind. It does not affect those are Nightmares, like me, being made of shadow, or beings that use dark magic.
“It still has its uses,” I said, holding it up to eye level, “it can be placed on an arrow and that arrow can then be used for one hell of a distraction, or even torture, if one had need for such a practice. It forces the living being, who has touched it, to live their greatest fears.”
“I’ll accept it, but what are you asking in return for giving me those essences?” Renon asked with interest in his eyes.
I scratch the back of my head with a hint of embarrassment and said, “Do you… happen to have… any Freddles?”
Renon opens up his briefcase as dark energy raised out from it, I saw something that appeared to be a floating orb, inside of it were miniature freddy biting at the air like piranhas. “They work exactly as they were made, just small sneaky clones of yourself that will appear behind the target, they can be used to make yourself appear in their place,” Renon explained.
“Perfect,” I said, as I held out the container of the Essence of Nightmares, “also, be very careful with this container, there is enough to break the minds of both Princesses three times over.”
“I’ll have it as a reminder when I go to write it down.” Renon said as he reached over and pulled the orb out of his case. “Place the container in the briefcase.”
I at first paused in confusion, then shrugged as I remembered the orb that came out of the obviously smaller suitcase, and carefully placed the container into the suitcase.
The brief glows softly as he closes it, I can see light coming out of the slit, but when he reopens it up, the container is gone. He closes it one last time as he holds it at his side. “Transaction is finished. It is now within me and my boss’s property.”
“...” I remain silent for a moment, looking at the suitcase, “that’s handy,” I stated simply.
I then looked back to Renon, “I…” I paused for a moment as my eyes widened, then I facepalmed, “I have been terribly rude haven’t I?”
“In what way? The transaction went smoothly and I find it to be fair. A nightmare for another.” Renon said as the light gleamed off of his glasses.
“I know your name,” I stated, gesturing towards Renon, “but I didn’t bother to introduce myself.”
I straightened myself, and held out my hand, “My name is Nightmare, but you may also call me Shadow Freddy if you wish.”
“When we do business or in front of strangers, I prefer you call me Renon, but my real name is Therin. For some reason, my boss insisted I use a cover up name and decided on that name,” he said as he reached to shake mine.
I grip his hand and we both shake, I make sure not to put too much pressure, otherwise I might’ve broken it.
“Also,” pointing to the orb, “how do I-?” before I could finish that sentence, the orb react and was absorbed into my body, wait-what?
“As simple as a touch, both them and you are made of the same void structure afterall,” Renon explained.
“Same voi-?” I started to ask, then paused as that processed, “you’re not from around here, are you?” I half-asked, half-stated.
“Well, of course not. I’m not from your world afterall.” Renon said in a voice that sounded like it was questioning me as if I wasn’t aware of the obvious answer.
“A world-hopper?” I asked, surprised, “I wasn’t aware that there were others that could compete with the strength that me and my brothers wield.”
“Not freely at first, I go where those who sign my contract are at, I am not bound by one. Once business is concluded in either hire guardianship or selling items, I leave through the same method as before. I get to see the multiverse and see the many interesting things. So far, you’re my first customer.” Renon explained to me.
“Interesting,” I said, looking him up and down, “you also sell your skills in fighting?”
“Only if said skill had a physical form in order to pass on skills and powers such as tomes from the elder scrolls universe or powers from the Esper crystals from final fantasy. However, you were displaced as Nightmare, thus my wares is limited to only items from that universe,” Renon explained as he looked toward me. “Or did you mean that you could pay me to fight for you? That sir, would fall under the guardian for hire section of my contract.”
“Well, I might have need of your help,” I said thoughtfully, “not now, but maybe later, also what was this about being ‘Displaced’?”
“...You were altered and sent away by someone, were you not?” Renon asked.
“Er… maybe?” I said with uncertainty, “It’s been a few years, and I can’t quite recall,” I said as I shrugged, “I do know that we were once human before.”
“I’m sorry, but I know very little. But what I do know was that you were brought here for a reason, however I cannot say what that reason is,” Renon as he went into a moment of silence. “Much like myself, I’m destined to help those who need me, regardless of good or evil as long as I don’t become their enemy, it is bad for business after all.”
“Understandable,” I said as I nodded, then did the equivalent of furrowing my eyebrows, “but, what I don’t understand is, there are others like me? If so, why haven’t I seen or heard of them before?”
I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Yes, there is. You are not the only one as there exists a multiverse across the void, each one different than the next, each one possess different powers from different realities, some live to good, some evil, while some just want to live in peace without the conflict of choosing a side.” Renon explained as he pointed at his contract. “This is known as a token, its what allows one to travel the void safely. Each one helps create a pinpoint location in order to allow the jump much like stargate. You can create one as well, but I must implore you to be careful, not every Displaced is as friendly as me, thus you much partake precaution measurement with your token if there is a summoner you don’t agree with.”
I nodded, “I see, hm…” I hummed in thought, “is it possible for one token to summon one or more of a group of Displaced?”
“All it takes is a simple object or a focus point to focus your energy. Within each of you is something called void energy, you use this as a source of your powers. Channel it into a personal item, or create a new one from the same source. A small warning though, you and anyone who helps will feel a little drained.” Renon explained to me.
“Well,” I said, looking to my hand, “is void energy the very thing allowing me and my brethren to come to this realm? We were stuck in a small void-like area, and couldn’t even leave until a week for us passed, in Equestria it had already been a thousand years.”
“That may have been a precaution set upon you considering He turned you into the Nightmare, a being that used to hunt the mind of a child. Perhaps the entrapment was meant to keep you there until Equestria was ready.” Renon explained. I don’t know why, but when he said the word ‘He’... He looked a bit creepy, I could of sworn I saw everything him darken while his glasses gleamed brighter than usual.. Yet the next moment, the word felt like he never even said it.
“A-anyways,” I said, ignoring the fact that I just stuttered, “the only way for even one of us to leave the void-like area was to gain energy to leave it. So far, only one can leave at a time, if we make a token, would that use up the very energy we need to be in Equestria?”
“No, for your body is constantly regenerating it, you would have to give up the very being of yourself to destroy it.” Renon explained.
I thought about it and nodded with my equivalent of a smile.
“Alright,” I said, “thank you, and I hope to see you again.”
“Our business has been concluded.” Renon said as he tipped his head as his way of saying good. His body started turning into mist and fading away with the air.
Once he faded away, the area around me seemed to become more normal, and the air a little easier to breathe, even though I don’t need to.
“Pyramid is going to have a field day with this,” I stated, shaking my head as I transformed, then melted back into the shadows.
~~~Temporary Void Home~~~
~~~Time: 8:58~~~
~~~POV: The Keeper~~~
Not long after Nightmare left, did he come back, so whatever he did, he took around an hour or less to do.
“None of you are going to believe this,” Nightmare said, as we all gathered around, as Nightmare explained what he had learned from the merchant.
After several bouts of complaints, arguments, and glaring competitions, we got to discussing the Tokens, discussing what do and do NOT want.
I then had an idea and asked everyone's approval on it and they agreed on it, and well all gathered the energy from the area and created a rather complicated device that looked simple in nature.
It looked similar to a decorative, silver platter about the size of a frisbee, yet it had designs on its top that represented each of them: It has five different sections, one being a fairly small circle in the middle with the word 'ALL' etched into it, the other four being quarters of a circle surrounding the smaller one, and in each of the quarters is a symbol that represents each of them.
For Pyramid Head, it was an etching of his Great Knife, for Nightmare, it was an etching of a Freddy-plushie, for Slender Man, it was an etching of the childish drawing of him, and for me, it was an etching of my own hammer.
"I am Pyramid Head," Pyramid spoke as he poured some of his power into our 'Token', making the etched Great Knife glow a menacing red, "the Slayer of True Sinners, the Bringer of Justice, if you have sinned beware my wrath, if you wish for justice, I will be there."
When he stopped speaking, the Great Knife etching stopped glowing.
"I am Nightmare," Nightmare started, the plushie etching began to glow, "the Friend, the Protector, and the Savior of Children, if you have harmed a child, you will learn to fear me, if you wish for help with children or nightmares, don't hesitate to ask for help," as he finished, the etching stopped glowing.
"I am The Keeper," I started, focusing my power into the Token, to which I 'shut off' my vision to concentrate, "the Protector of Families and their bonds, if you cause the destruction of families I will show no mercy, if yours needs protecting, you have me hammer."
As I 'turned' my vision 'back on', I noticed Slender Man holding out his hand to start his portion of the speech.
"I am Slender Man," he began as he poured his energy making the etching of himself began to glow, "the Protector of the Innocent and the Slayer of Evils, should you have a soul as dark as night, you will not see me coming, but if you have a soul as bright as the sun you may ask for my help should you need it."
Then we all began to focus and spoke in unison, "WearetheFacelessOnes,beingsofprotectionandjustice,wepassourhelptothoseinneed!"
Once we finished, we stopped pouring energy into the Token, and looked to each other.
Suddenly, beside the Token, a tear in the fabric of the void appeared, and the Token seemed to be pulling itself apart, until it practically did just that. There was an exact copy of our Token, now floating into the tear.
Suddenly, a voice spoke out, "Dpwjme rif ceojq dps BHE if dps Biot Hiedwl Esfbous! Pihs yic pwbs w jous twy!"
Once the Token completely entered the tear, the tear itself sealed up and vanished.
"Well," Pyramid said simply, "that was certainly... something."
~~~Location: City Park, Vanhoover~~~ ~~~Time: 11:46~~~ ~~~POV: Nightmare~~~
I reassembled myself from the shadows in my passive form under the shade of a tall tree in the park.
I looked around and saw some foals playing with their family, having a good time, and on such a beautiful day. I sat down and laid my back against the tree and closed my eyes, relaxing as the sounds of children playing, the tree's leaves rustling in the wind, and the chirping of bird are heard.
I stay like this for awhile, just enjoying a peaceful day in Equestria is always a good thing, otherwise, everyone would always be stressed out.
"Hey," said a young voice.
I opened one of my eyes and look at the source of the voice, a young pegasus colt, a familiar one.
'I probably helped with one of his nightmares,' I thought to myself, and responded, "Hello there. young one. What brings you to me this day?"
The colt tilted his head in confusion for a moment, then his eyes widened in understanding, "Oh, hold on," he uncovered a pen and notepad hidden under his wings and held them with his wings toward me, then asked me with puppy eyes of mind control, "Can I have an autograph?"
I blinked, grinned, then nodded, "Of course," I took the pen and notepad in hand, and asked, "So, who am I writing this out to?"
The colt beamed confidently, "Wild Glider," he replied, and I looked at the pen in thought for a moment.
An idea found it's way into my head and looked to Wild Glider, "Do you want a normal, pen-written autograph, or one of my 'specialties'?" I asked.
"What is the 'specialty'?" Wild asked, his head tilted in confusion.
I tapped my chin in thought for a moment, then looked back to Wild, "Well, for one thing, I don't need any writing utensils," I said, handing him the pen.
"Then..." Wild paused in thought then continued, taking back the pen, "how do you do the specialty?"
I, then placed one of my fingers on the paper, closed my eyes, thinking what I want to be written, and some shadow start to move over the paper, turning into letters, which were arranged into words.
When it was done, I looked at the paper and saw that it now said this:
To Wild Glider, a colt so young and brave, words of shadow on this parchment, here I engrave. Sincerely, NIGHTMARE
The words pulsed with energy after being manipulated into the, now permanent form, from shadows.
When I handed back the paper to the pegasus and he looked at it, his eyes and grin widened from pure joy and excitement.
Suddenly, the young colt hugged me.
"THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!" Wild shouted.
Then he took off towards a couple off in the distance, and I, for some reason, felt a sense of... longing.
My eyes widened in realization, even before being trapped in the void, I had never been thanked by anyone, other than Luna, for doing something for the children, nor have I been hugged by any children, outside of the Dreamscape.
I smiled and closed my eyes again, knowing that things are going to be more interesting for everyone, hereon-out.
~~~Location: City Park, Vanhoover~~~ ~~~Time: 13:29~~~ ~~~POV: Nightmare~~~
'8... 9... 10...' I counted, mentally. At some point, I was asked by one of a group of six foals to play hide-and-seek. I took sometime to think about and agreed, on a few conditions that affected everyone in the game, including me: 1: no flying 2: no teleportation via magic 3: no levitation 4: no moving heavy objects in front of entrances or exits
'14... 15... 16...' I also asked the group if it was OK if I used my Freddles, which I showed them after asking, to which they said, that I could when I hide next round.
"20!" I shouted out loud, then added, "Ready or not here I come!"
I uncovered my eyes and looked around, not seeing any of the foals in obvious places, so I began my search for them near the playground equipment.
After looking around a bit, I found two of the foals: one hiding out in one of the play ground tunnels and the other was following me from behind the moment I began my search. So, since I found one earth pony and one unicorn (and that there was two of each of the normal pony sub-species in the group) I might want to look in places where they could've climbed onto or into. I began looking in some of the trees when I heard the rustling of leaves from nearby, and when I looked I only saw a few ordinary looking bushes, than I-
'Wait... did I just think something was ordinary?'
Now I'm looking suspiciously at the bushes as I approached them, and once I got close, I detected magic, specifically, an enchantment, though weak, was enough to mess with my head a little.
I pushed some of the 'bush' apart, just to realize it wasn't an actual bush, but an enchanted, paper-ma-shay bush with two foals, one a female unicorn, the other a male pegasus.
"I thought you said he wouldn't find us," said the pegasus, scolding the unicorn.
"Well, he wasn't," said the unicorn filly, confused, "the enchantments I placed on this beforehoof should've made us seem too ordinary of a bush to hide in."
"Ah," I said in understanding, then chuckled a bit, "that was your first mistake I'm afraid, you see, anything I deem normal for even a moment, makes me suspicious."
"Why?" both the filly and colt asked simultaneously.
"Well," I thought to myself for a moment, to think of how to explain this to a child, then I asked, "you are aware that I deal with Nightmares, those beings who give you bad dreams at night, right?"
Both nodded.
"The Nightmares have some of the same abilities I do in dreams," I explained, this made the children tilt their heads with interest, "one of these abilities allows them to make almost anything from nothing, this also means 'disguises'."
I lifted the bush-disguise to get the point across, then I noticed to craftsman - er... craftsponyship? - of the enchantment, yet continue with my explanation, "Their main idea of a disguise is something that your mind would... quickly think is normal, so after so many years of dealing with Nightmares, I have become suspicious of anything that I would see as normal."
Both of the foals 'oh'ed in response, apparently my explanation making some sense to them in some way, shape, or form.
"Also," I began again, looking to the unicorn with a raised eyebrow, "You said you added these enchantments?"
The young unicorn's chest puffed up with pride, "Yep!"
"By yourself?"
"Yep!"
I looked over the enchantments again and found only a few minor faults, but nothing that would give anyone an injury, maybe a small shock at most, then looked back to her, "I don't think I caught your name young one..."
"Spell Nexus... Junior," she said a bit hesitantly, "I never got to meet my father, but my mother says I look so much like him, with how much I currently know, she says I might get to know more than my father did."
'Spell Nexus? That sounds like a name that could be for either gender...' I thought to myself before asking, "Was your father's name Spell Nexus?"
"Y-yeah," she answered sheepishly, "anyways, he used to be a scientist..."
~~~POV: 3rd, Nightmare~~~
They spent some time talking and learning about Spell's father before she had to go, she was living in Vanhoover with her aunt and uncle (from her father's side), while her mother worked as, what I believe to be called, a Magic Archaeologist, traveling and finding magic artifacts. Every now and then her mother comes to visit her on her time off, telling her of the adventures she has had and of the artifacts. Now that I think about it, I never asked her mother's name... oh well. Her father, Spell Nexus Senior, had been a scientist working directly for Princess Celestia at the time when he... left... the cause, he was on his way to investigate some ruins in the Everfree Forest, but was... well... some animals in the forest got to him.
Nightmare then made a mental note to keep a close eye on her dreams just in case, and to remember her unique ability with, at least, magical enchantments, then continued to search for the remaining hiding kids (spoilers: they were all found).
~~~Location: The True Base, Pocket Dimension~~~ ~~~Time: 20:07~~~ ~~~POV: Nightmare~~~
I had the last few hours, after I finished playing with some of the children, making my presence known throughout Vanhoover reassuring those that met me that I'm not a threat to them.
Afterwards, I had left, headed towards the 'abandoned shack', near Galloping Gorge (as I've learned it is called now), went back into the portal. and headed to my bedroom.
Instead of sleeping like I did last time, I just headed straight for the full length mirror, getting in a head start on some of the dreams.
The mirror, once again, displays the Dreamscape in all of its beauty, and I meld into the shadows before entering.
~~~Location: Dreamscape, Ethereal Plane~~~
I'm looking around find few nightmares haunting children, so I make quick work of them, just in case more showed up in other dreams, but surprisingly, not many nightmares tonight. Then suddenly, a door, one leading to an adult's nightmare, appeared before me, seemingly a rather severe nightmare if the glow it gave is any indication. I ignore it, but it stays, so in an attempt to be rid of its annoyance, I do as I always have to easily get rid of the doors that adults are connected to. It worked, yet... it didn't at the same time.
Every other door that was connected to an adult, except for this severe nightmare, had disappeared, leaving me with only the children doors and this one. Finally, after wearing my patience thin, I examined the information about this dream, and my eyes had widened.
Name: Star Flyer (Adult) Gender: F Species: Pony (Pegasus) Nightmare: Watches as her child dies before her eyes, and she can't do anything about it.
I looked to the door, then to the information, and back again, before making a decision and entered her nightmare.
Once inside, what I saw, was rather... disturbing... the mare, Star Flyer, watched, eyes widened (almost seemingly held open), as a foal (unable to discern gender), began to wither in place as if time went faster on the child's body. Once the child was nothing more than dust, everything, for lack of a better term, 'Reset', and there was another child this one holding their throat, as if choking. I felt as if I were in a trance, unable to do anything to save this child, no, not again-
"NO!" the mare screamed in desperation and despair, "NOT AGAIN, PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP! SOMEPONY, ANYPONY, PLEASE SAVE MY BABY!"
That sentence knocked me back into reality (ignore the irony), and I moved quickly, I got to the child and did the Heimlich maneuver. Somehow, that did it and dislodged whatever it was that was stuck inside the child's throat, before I could get a look at it, it and the child vanished before our eyes.
"W-what? W-w-what's going on?" Star asked looking around in confusion as if she just now realized she was in a pitch-black void.
"Right now," I began, "you are currently having a nightmare, I'm here to stop this one, normally I don't do adult nightmares, but yours is a special case."
"Wait," she stated, "so none of this is real?"
"Oh, BuT It iS," said the Nightmare being as it crawled out from the void, sounding like a young and old pony at the same time, looking like a bigger, demonic version of the child from earlier, "aS YoU CaN SeE, yOu aRe tHe rEaSoN I DiEd, mOtHeR." It then charged at her at breakneck speeds.
Fortunately, I was quick enough to get in the way of said attack, between the time it began his charge and I moved, I had already turned into my aggressive state. I looked at this being with a rage filled expression.
It looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "hAvE We mEt sOmEwHeRe bEfOrE? YoU SeEm qUiTe... FaMiLiAr..."
I looked it over and 'felt' it's presence... then my eyes widened in recognition.
"... Vokun...?" I asked, disbelief clear in my voice.
It's eyes widened at the name I said and looked me over, before it said, "By tHe sTaRs..." it then clears its 'throat', then speaks with a more mature male voice, with just a small amount of echo to it, "if it isn't my favorite Nightmare? I honestly thought one of the others finally got to you, and that you bit off more than you can chew."
"Well...," I began, as I reverted back to my passive form, "I'm here now..." I looked back at Star, who is now beyond confused at this turn of events, "listen, let's talk later, for now, I'd like it if you stopped making this one's dreams into nightmares for tonight, OK?"
"Aw," Vokun said in the most immature way possible, "but this has been the best chance at a good meal in a long time..."
"I understand," I said firmly, then continued, "but, with the way this nightmare has been going, it had been forced into my jurisdiction until this nightmare is confirmed to not happen, you know how I am about adults' dreams."
"Too true, unfortunately," Vokun nodded its head, "guess I'll see you around, old friend."
"Alright see ya," I said as it went through a portal to... where ever the Nightmare beings go whenever they aren't terrorizing the dreams of creatures.
I looked back at Star, who is now in a daze of sorts, and asked, "How recent?"
Snapping out of her daze, Star looked to me with a confused expression, "Huh?"
"Let me elaborate," I stated, "this is the first nightmare you've had about your child's... passing, correct?"
She nodded, and I asked, "How recent was the event in which your child was taken away?"
Star started shaking, looking like she would fall over any second, "Th-the doctor s-said that my l-little C-C-Cloud Glyder had... had..."
I moved to her side and supported her, physically, by having her lean against me, and mentally, by petting her mane and giving some advice.
"Shh, it's OK, it's OK," I stated softly, "I'm here, don't fret, I just need to know-"
"R-right," Star said with a sniffle, no longer shaking like a leaf in the wind, "the doctor *sniff* said it was about three days ago, maybe *sniff* four days now?"
"Thank you," I stated, then I waved in front of both our views of the dream, making it a true dream, the first I've done for an adult in... ever.
After that, I left her dream, allowing her to dream peacefully for the rest of the night.
Once I had finished dealing with Nightmares for the night and the children began waking up, I headed into a... unique part of the Dreamscape. This would be the fourth time I've been to this portion, the first time was on accident, the second was to study and experiment with it, and the last time... was to use it for, somewhat, selfish reasons. This time, it wasn't about me, this time, it was to undo a wrong that has been done.
I looked around seeing the usual starfield, but also noticing, what seems to be a massive well. I looked into the 'well', and saw what appeared to be and endless spiral of light, made-up of glowing orbs with small tails following them in the direction they moved in. Each had slightly different details, few were noticeable while in the 'water' of the well, while the rest remained hidden from mere glances. I examined the closest 'orbs', until I found one that seemed to shine brighter than the others. Then I reached in, flinching at the pain I felt only a few times before from this same 'well', and watched as the orb that I reached towards suddenly flew towards my hand. Once I caught it, I pulled it out of the water and let the orb float next to me.
Suddenly, it began to take shape of a young pony foal, then I stated, unfazed by what is taking place before me, "I want to make a deal."
I had arrived in the forest I have come to call home, I find that, despite my absence, not one pony has entered my portion of the massive forest. Without anything to do until morning rolls around, I teleport around the forest a bit, until I have found an old, abandoned-looking shack, that once might have belonged to a lumberjack, but hadn't seen use in a long time. Entering, I found that despite the time that has passed and it's lack of use, the building still seemed to be rather sturdy, along with what little furniture was here. Finding a bed, despite it being rather small for my tall body frame, I laid on it and went to bed, hoping that daylight would arrive quickly.
~~~Location: ???????? Park, ?????????i?d?e School~~~ ~~~Time: 11:30~~~ ~~~POV: ?????~~~
I was sitting alone at a table, again, and despite having my favorite sandwich, peanut butter and blackberry jelly, I still felt down in the the dumps.
"Hey, freak!" I heard the familiar voice of ???????? call out to me.
I looked in the direction of where the voice came from, and sighed, noticed ???????? had his two lackeys with him as well.
"What is it this time ????????," I asked in a deadpan tone, "gonna mock my lack of friends, mock how I'm somehow the reason my other friends died, or how that I'm somehow a disgrace to my own family?"
"Nah," ???????? said, then punched me right right in the nose, knocking me on my ass and causing my nose to start bleeding, "you don't seem to care about any insults we have thrown at you, so we're gonna kick your ass and send you home with broken bones and *maybe* a concussion."
They started kicking me while I was on the ground forcing me into a fetal position, unable to do anything else to protect myself in that moment.
"HEY," shouted another familiar voice, "YA'LL ARE GUNNA HAVE YOUR ASSES HANDED TO YOU ON A SILVER-FUCKING-PLATTER IF YA'LL DON'T FUCK OFF. RIGHT. NOW."
"Hey guys," ???????? said as he stopped kicking me and looked to the other kid, "seems like the new kid from out of town wants to play too."
The other two stopped as well, and all three proceeded to approach the new kid, and that was their last mistake.
As soon as ????????, got with range, the kid, spun around and hit ???????? in the face with the back of his shoe, straight up knocking him to the ground. The other two were shocked by this, and before they could shake off the shock, they both got choke slammed into the ground, knocking the air out of both of their lungs. The kid came towards me as the two fled, ???????? being carried by the two.
As he got up to me, I was now sitting up, but held up my arm to protect myself from any potential harm, though when none had come, I lowered my arm and looked at the kid before me.
"Heyya, the names Tobias, Tobias ??????," he stated with a friendly smile, holding his hand out to me, "but most of my friends call me Toby, I'm the new kid in school."
I smiled, as I took his hand and he helped me up, "I'm ?????, nice to have another friendly face around here-"
~~~Location: Old Shack, Everfree Forest~~~ ~~~Time: 6:52~~~ ~~~POV: Slender Man~~~
I woke up, startled, looking around, finding myself in the old shack still, and my hand up to my head.
'What was that?' I thought, 'That didn't feel like a dream, but it wasn't vision that would be helpful here, it had humans... maybe some of my memories?'
After a while of thinking, I shrugged and got up from the bed- *THWACK* and hit my head on the ceiling.
"Damnable pony houses..." I grumbled, before trying again, this time having a large hunch, as I then proceeded to exit the building.
Once I was outside, I stretched my body, earning some painful and satisfying cracks and pops from my stiff joints, and breathing in the refreshing forest air, something I believe I will never get enough of. Once I finished my morning stretch, I straightened out any wrinkles in my clothes and headed towards Ponyville.
Once I exited the forest I once again noticed the cottage from when I first exited the Everfree, but noticed a couple things:
1) Fluttershy was behind the house, suggesting that she lives at/owns the cottage, fitting for the shy pony. 2) Their were a LOT of animals around the house.
I decided to go visit her for a few, hoping to have her get used to my... unique appearance, and to hopefully become friends.
Walking up to the front door, I called out, "Miss Fluttershy are you home?"
I heard an 'eep', the sound of something solid hitting wood, and the sound of... chickens freaking out a bit?
But before I could begin to question it, the front door to Fluttershy's opened, revealing said mare, her eyes closed as she was rubbing a spot on her forehead where her coat seemed to be a little messed up.
I then realized what some of noise earlier was an crouched down to her height, quickly saying, "Oh my goodness! Are you alright? Did I cause that? I'll come back later if needed."
Opening her eyes, she looked at me and had a look of recognition, she stated "Oh, n-no, it's quite alright, I was s-surprised was all, a-and I wasn't being careful where I was, p-please, come in."
As she turned around and re-entered her house, I followed her inside and examined the interior with great interest.
It had a great many birdhouses, enough for a flock and a half, plenty of what I assume to be mouse holes, some even having doors, a doggie-door connected to the back door, plenty of perches and nests for birds, several cat trees for cats to climb, scratch, and play on; there were a lot of toys of many varieties for a small army of pet owners, and enough pet food to last one cat it's entire life.
I noticed the comfy-looking furniture and decided to sit down one the green couch, and waited while Fluttershy went into a different room. After a few seconds, I felt something, thumping on one of my hands, and when I looked, I was both puzzled and surprised. I found a tiny white rabbit thumping its foot on my hand in an impatient posture, and instead of trying to figure out what it was trying to tell me, I slowly reached to it with my other hand.
Once the rabbit noticed the hand he looked ready to bolt if spotted any danger, I stopped moving it closer to it, began lowering it to his level, and waited.
After a few moments, the little rabbit seemed to get curious and got closer to my hand, and, once it got close enough, it began to sniff at my hand. After a little bit of this, I began to move the hand again, this time, side-to-side, watching as its eyes tracked it, wary, but not scared if I'm reading its expression right.
Then, I slowly moved my hand to its head, and began to gently pet it, then began to pet its back and shoulders, and the little thing looked like it was having the best massage of its life.
"Wow," said the voice of Fluttershy, slightly startling me, and making the rabbit jumped up to my eye-level, surprising me a little, "Oh, I'm sorry Angel, I didn't mean to ruin the moment."
"That's this little one's name" I asked, looking as the rabbit fell back onto the couch, thinking back to when it seemingly tried to run me off, "I guess it does seem to be protective."
"Oh, he's not as easy to get along with when it comes to new ponies... or creatures," she stated, looking at the floor, her face half-hidden behind her hair, and then looked to me, her hair no longer blocking her face as her eyes seeming to sparkle with joy, "but, your the first one who managed to get him to be comfortable you in such little time."
"Well, he does seem like the type to get aggressive towards those who would take something he likes," I stated, shrugging with one as I continued to pet him with the other, him leaning into it, "All, I did was follow some instructions I read in a book I read... many years ago. Is there something here he likes that I'm not immediately seeing?"
"W-well," Fluttershy stuttered, half-hiding behind her hair again, this pony is just too cute, "you do happen t-to be sitting in his f-favorite spot."
If I had any visible eyes, I would've blink a few times, "Wait... this little guy likes to sit where I'm currently sitting?" I asked as I carefully picked up Angel, stood up from my spot, and placed him where I was sitting. I, then sat in the spot he took up before I moved him, and then continued to pet him and asked, "Angel does like carrots... right?"
"Yes, in fact I have some-" Fluttershy said, before she was interrupted as a black tentacle flew by her, into the kitchen, then retreated back into the living room with a carrot in its grasp. The carrot was then dropped into my hand and the tentacle retreated into my back.
"Sorry about that," I apologized to Fluttershy, whom is currently in shock from the fright she received, "I just prefer to get what I need myself, it just seems faster to me."
Fluttershy, barely recovered from shock, then asked, "H-h-how d-did you know w-where it w-w-was?"
"I seem to have a sixth sense about plants, whether harvested or not," I stated, as I break off a small piece of the carrot and give it to Angel, who is now looking at me warily again, but not as much as he did the first few times, as he began to chew it.
"A-and the..." Fluttershy stopped and looked uncomfortable for a moment, as if looking the right word.
"My 'tentacle'?" I asked, having the tentacle come out of my back and wave it a little for emphasis.
"Y-yeah," Fluttershy said, looking a bit flustered, can this pony exist without being cute?
"I, more often than not use it for utility based purposes, such as quickly grabbing something, while one or both my hands are preoccupied," I explained, "Though, with the very few fights I have ever had, they come in handy whenever I'm in combat, but I haven't had to fight except for the few rare occasions to help ponies escape the Everfree Forest."
"Oh my!" Fluttershy said, a little shocked, "I hope none of the animals tried to harm you," then under her breathe, she stated, "or were harmed by you."
I waved my hand a little in a nonchalant manner, "Oh no, the animals of the Everfree are too afraid of me to do something so deadly, more often than not, it is Timber Wolves that I had to deal with..." I then began to kind of stare off into space as I remember something, "occasionally, I have deal with... unnatural forces within the darkest portion of the Everfree."
"'Darkest portion'? What do you mean?" Fluttershy asked, and I sighed sadly.
"That would be another story for another day, I'm glad to have talked with you, but-" I said, before being interrupted by familiar popping noise and an even more familiar voice, which immediately caused me to become angry.
"Oh Fluttershy, I brought the cucumber sandwiiiiiiii," Discord started to say, but once he noticed me, he drawled on, eyes widened, and his pupils continually shrinking.
Holding back most of my rage, if I had a mouth and teeth, they would've been clenched as I greeted Discord, "Hello, Discord."
He then closed his mouth and spun his head, then gained an obviously nervous smile before saying, "Slendy, when did you get back from the dead? From what Sunbutt and Lulu told me, you and your brothers had been killed as a random casualty between Ms. Black&Dramatic and Celly."
At first, I got confused when he said, what I presume to be, his nickname for Nightmare Moon, because he said 'black and dramatic', yet it sounded different.
Shaking the thought out of my head, I then stated, "Guess you haven't been keeping up with current news then, because, we've been back for about... 3 weeks now? Also, last I knew, you were taken care of by the new wielders of the Elements."
"Well, this adorable and kind pony here," Discord said, holding up Fluttershy, before carefully placing her back down, "managed to do something even I thought would never happen, she reformed me."
I manage my best skeptical expression, considering I have no face, it wasn't easy, but I think Discord got the gist if what he said next was any indicator.
"Now, now, I know that it may seem crazy," Discord started, then struck a pose while holding a life-like miniature of Equis in his claw, "the Master of Chaos, the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, the very being who wanted to warp all of Equis into his own personal playground," as he said that, the mini-Equis started changing shape, state, color, etc., until it suddenly stopped and went back to normal as he finished, "a good guy now?"
"Well, I could tell you all about it, over some tea perhaps?" Discord said, as Fluttershy entered the room with a fresh pot of tea and three cups, "I know it's not your *favorite* tea, but I do know your favorite snack to have with tea."
Discord then snapped his fingers and a plate of scones appeared, with blackberry jam and clotted cream on the side as topping.
Partially skeptical of the scones, but with a hint of glee, I looked back to Discord, and asked, "Are they-"
"-strawberry filled?" Discord interrupted, then smiled smugly, as he answered, "Indeed they are, my good sir."
I picked one of the scones up, cover the top of it in a thin layer of the blackberry jam, then added a dollop of the clotted cream in the middle on top, and took a bit of it, hiding my now semi-visible mouth from Fluttershy's view. If I had eyes at the moment, they would've widened, and be sparkling with joy at the moment.
"You like it, I take it?" Discord asked, with the sound of victory in his voice, and I nodded in contentment, and finished the scone off, bits of the scone land and stick to my suit.
"I'm impressed," I stated, looking at Discord, "not a lot of ponies could make scones *remotely* that good a thousand years ago, well done."
"Yes, yes," Discord stated, bowing as if he was before an audience, "you are quite welcome, but before we get *too* far off track, let me tell you all about my reformation, and maybe you can tell us about how you are still alive?"
I shrugged as I stated, "Sounds fair to me."
Then he began to tell how he was reformed by the kindest pony in all of Equestria.
“Welcome ladies and gentlemen, mares and stallions, bronies and pegasisters,” stating a slightly robotic, familiar voice, “to the 2nd bonus chapter and Q&A!”
“And I’m your host… Soul Seeker,” Soul said, as he appeared from around the… nonexistent corner…
“Anyways,” Soul continued, “it seems we have had another winner, after some time, and we get to have another Q&A with another one of the main cast members.”
Soul pulled up another script, “Let’s see here,” Soul said as he looked through the script, “today, our interviewer is… E-fad?” He looked off screen, “I got it? Efadd? … got it, alright,” he then looked back to the readers, “Today our interviewer is… Efadd!”
He pulled a lever and a portal appeared above and out dropped… a small ball, red on top, white on the bottom, both halves separated by a black band with a white button positioned on one side.
Soul looked around and asked, with a raised eyebrow, “Efadd, are you here?”
The ball shakes a little, and a red beam of energy shoots out, coalescing into a humanoid blue and black jackal with cream fur on its chest, black, mask-like markings on its face, four weird… things coming out of the back of its head, what appears to be blue, baggy shorts, and spikes coming out of the backs of its paws and one from its chest.
“Ahh… after 10,000 years I’m free! Time to conquer all the cheese and ham in this pocket dimension… done!” he said, a rimshot going off in the background.
“Since when did we get the rimshot upgrade?” Soul asked, then a message popped up on his computer, “Ah, so a recent addition, alright, you must Efadd, the…?”
“Lucario. You must be Soul Seeker. I’ve… heard about you, online,” Efadd stated.
Soul looked over the script again, “Ah, a reality warper,” he looked off screen, “don’t bother fixing the fourth wall until we are done here, it’s just gonna get broken again.”
Soul looked back to Efadd, “So, since you have won the chance to do a Q&A with one of the main cast, who-?” Another message popped up on his screen, then he looked through the script a third time, “... you wanted to interview Slender Man, correct?”
“Yes, I did,” Efadd said while squeezing a pink cloud, raining a chocolate-brown substance into a glass waiting below, filling from the top to the bottom, “and, no, I’m not Discord in disguise.”
“I didn’t think you were,” Soul said, his expression deadpan, “though, I’m unable to decide between facehoofing at the, now, cliche move or be happy you didn’t make a mess while doing that.”
“Anyways,” Soul said, a shadowy portal now appearing beside him as he looked at it, “we call for the summoning of Slender Man.”
After a few moments, a tall, skinny humanoid, wearing a tuxedo, and his face literally blank, with pale skin.
The head of the creature, seemingly started to look around, then the creature asked, “Where am I, and who are you?”
“Void realm number 767, I’m Soul Seeker, and this,” gesturing to the Lucario, “is Efadd, mind you, he is a bit of a reality warper, so keep a cool head with his tactics.”
“Hello, Slender,” Efadd said, while sitting in a chair that wasn’t there a minute ago.
“Hello,” Slender replied, then looked back to Soul, “so, why am I here?”
Soul clapped his hooves together, and Slender gets assaulted by the events of the last Q&A in the form of memories.
“Satisfied?” Soul asked, a bit impatiently mind you.
“... yes,” Slender grunted, holding his head from the headache caused by the sudden intrusion of his mind.
“So,” Soul said, looking at both Slender and Efadd, “15 questions at most, begin,” Soul exclaimed, pointing at Efadd, a counter above, displaying the number 15, falling to 14.
“First question: What video game genre are/were you interested in?” said the Lucario.
“That’s a bit hard to answer,” Slender said, scratching his chin in thought, “I’d have to say… FPSes.”
Soul then looked at Slender weirdly, then shrugged, “Alright, next?”
“So, Slender, who’s on first?” the Lucario said, making a face-breaking trollface as he did so.
“What’s on second?” Slender asked, and Soul realized what was going on, and the counter above went back to 14.
“Joke questions do not count, but are still allowed,” Soul stated.
“Alright, alright. Seriously, next question, Have you played Undertale, followup, who’s your favorite character?”
“Not really,” Slender stated, “but it was becoming popular, and I was going to play it myself… before... this happened,” Slender gestured to himself, while sitting in a recently-conjured chair, “and based on the trailer of the game, I’d have to say the one called ‘Toriel’ would be my favorite.”
“Fitting,” Soul stated, looking at Slender Man, then looked back to Efadd, “next?”
“Ok, next… What is your preferred console, or do you like PC more? Not judging, just curious,” he said, sipping what looked like magma from a volcano-shaped glass.
“Hm,” Slender hummed, before answering, “I was more for Playstation, but I also dabbled in PC games more often than not.”
“No comment,” Soul stated with a deadpan tone, taking a quick glance at the counter above, currently reading 12, going to 11, “next?”
“What Playstation console is your favorite, handhelds included?” Efadd said.
“PS3,” Slender answered immediately, “one, because you can play online with or without friends for free, and two, I prefer PS3 because it is what I started out with.”
“PS3 or vita for me. Kinda like two sides of the same coin… if I can just freakin’ port forward remote play…” Efadd said, grumbling.
“Ahem, moving on,” Soul said, then gestured towards Efadd, “next?”
“Do you want a VR headset? Same for you Soul,” the Lucario said, gesturing to a water-cooled PC next to him, open for any headset.
“Unless you have some work around,” Slender points to where one should have eyes, “and since I can only see the area around me using my power as an extension, I doubt I’ll get a good experience, aside from any noise.”
“Soul?”
Soul shrugged and asked, “Depends, what are we doing? And will it take long?”
“... good point, who knows how much time we have left,” Efadd stated.
“Anyways,” Soul stated, “I will not count the last question you asked, considering it was more of an offer than a direct question.”
“Timber wolves aside, how has the Everfree been treating you? Hope you haven’t run into any Poison Joke out there,” the Lucario said, after a moment of thinking.
“Eh,” Slender started, “it’s been OK, aside from occasionally saving the hides of ponies who should or don’t know better. About the Poison Joke, it was actually something I discovered, but knew was something that should be avoided,” tapping his temple, Slender continued, “my way of perceiving everything helped with that, allowing me to not only find them, but to help avoid them, stars know what would happen if I was affected by them.”
“Did you play any pokemon back on earth? TCG or video games,” Efadd asked, glancing at the counter that read 42 before switching to 8, “Odd, I didn’t cause that to happen…”
Soul just looked at the counter with his robotic eye twitching a bit, “That bloody number,” he stated with a tone of annoyance, “everyone thinks it’s funny to tell that to the bloody robotic alicorn…”
Soul sighed, then said, “Anyways, Slender?”
“Right,” Slender said, looking back to Efadd, “I played a bit, not a lot unfortunately, considering every time I played it, it brought back some… unsightly memories.”
Soul said, “Well then, a simple question with an interesting answer,” Soul then looked to Efadd, “I’m surprised you haven’t asked anything in regards to his life as a Displaced yet.”
“Eh, couldn’t think of any good questions to ask, other than how did you react upon awakening as Slender Man?” Efadd said.
“Well,” Slender began, scratching his chin, “at first, because of my knowledge, or rather, the lack thereof, in regards to my new abilities and form, I was scared, because I could not see anything.”
“Ok, interesting. That’s all the questions I have for you, Slendy” Efadd said as he got back in his Pokéball and bounced off towards the portal, “Cya!”
As Efadd left through the portal, Soul just stared at the portal for a moment before stating, “I did not know I could leave that on, I just thought that after a bit, it’d close itself back up.”
Soul then pushed the lever back into its proper position, causing the portal to deactivate, and looked at Slender, “Well, back off to your universe you go.”
Slender, before he could even react, then falls through a different portal, as Soul looked to the readers and co-author of the chapter, “Hope all of you enjoyed reading, and I hope you enjoyed the Q&A Efadd, hope to see all of you again soon!”
