New Life, Same Soldier

Rarity sat making the strange costume Henry had requested for his prank. This outfit is very strange, I must say. This story is good and sound, as well as scary, but murder and blood? And the uncouth language! Even on Nightmare Night, that kind of thing is not fit for the children. She continued her thoughts out loud, remembering she was alone. "Henry must know what he is doing, though. I doubt he would just deliberately frighten children and making them have nightmares like Twilight did."

She immediately stopped herself from continuing that thought and instead thought about what he'd told her about the humans' urban myth. "'It has many names, but is known commonly as one.' So cryptic, but that's what makes it creepy I suppose." Just then, he walked in the door.

"Hey Rarity, how's it coming along?"

He really must learn how to knock, this is my home after all. "Very well, so far. I must admit, I don't get requests for costumes often, so it feels strange. In the shape of an alien no less!" She realized what she'd said about the human and coughed nervously. "Er, no offense."

"It's fine. I've been called worse. Way worse."

She turned around on the stool and held up the nearly-finished costume for him to see. "How do you like it so far?"

She sat anxiously as he studied the thing. He spoke after a moment. "Very accurate. Could be taller and lankier, and make the head smaller. We need it to look as life-like as possible if it's going to work."

She huffed in annoyance and returned to working on it. "I apologize for my rudeness, by why must it be so realistic? I mean, it will be in the Everfree Forest at night, and you know how dark it gets!"

"Well, yeah..." He sighed in defeat. "It's alright if you skip some of the small things, but try to make everything fit as well as possible."

"I will do that Henry. Glad I could help you scare a bunch of innocent foals." She didn't hear him walk away, so she turned and looked at him confusedly. "You know that was sarcasm, right?" He stood perfectly still, staring into space. "Henry?"

She cautiously crept over to the still human and studied him. No movement save for his chest where he was breathing. He wasn't even blinking. "Henry, are you okay? Hello?" She began to get fearful, worried about him.

She was about to go find help when he lurched down and took her shoulders in a tight grasp, looked her straight in the eyes, and screamed. In turn, realizing what had happened in the span of less than three seconds, she screamed. Her eyes flew this way and that, looking for an escape. Then she realized he'd stopped screaming.

She looked at his face, panting and in fear, and saw that he was trying to hold back a laugh. "HENRY! You- you... You asshole!"

He immediately stopped laughing as she clamped her forehooves over her mouth. "Oh, crap, did I scare you that bad?" She didn't answer. Instead, she began crying and ran upstairs, locking herself in her bedroom.

Jones watched as Rarity ran upstairs crying. "Aw, dammit. Forgot she got scared so easily..." He looked up and could hear her crying. "She's not coming down anytime soon. Might as well just leave." He found paper and a quill, then left a note on the table, apologizing. He picked up the costume she'd made for him, stuffing it into his pack, then left.

He was heading back to the library, ready to see Twilight and fill her in on the prank they had planned for that night when he heard the familiar wing beats that betrayed Rainbow's stealth. "I can hear you, you know."

He heard her groan, the settle down beside him. "Damn, really?" He nodded, getting used to her using human curse words. "So, did you get the thing?" She nodded towards the pack.

"Yeah, but I managed to scare the shit out of Rarity."

"How bad?"

"Ran upstairs crying."

"Yeah, that's kind of bad." She paused for a moment, thinking. "So what'd you do to her?"

"I pretended to zone out, and when she came to investigate, I grabbed her shoulders and screamed bloody murder. She called me an asshole, then started crying."

"Dude... Sometimes you do deserve the name 'Dumbass.'"

"What do you mean?"

"You really don't know?" He shook his head. "She's never cursed like that before. She probably freaked since she's not used to doing that." They continued walking for a few minutes, until they were almost into Ponyville.

She looked around, and noticing no one else around, she said, "Well, I gotta go get my costume ready for tonight. Whaddya dressing up as? That thing Rarity was making sure isn't small enough."

"Probably just dress up in my camo and take some guns and go as an alien soldier from another world. Oooooooo!" He spoke in a sarcastic creepy-voice.

"Hah! Well, I'll catch you later Dumbass. Be ready for the prank tonight!"

"Sure thing, Dash." He watched her turn and fly off into the air.

He heard a familiar Southern-accented pony speak. "Hey, Henry? What did Rainbow say 'bout a prank?" It was Applebloom.

"We just have a prank planned for tonight. I'd let you in on it, but Applejack told me you're not exactly the best secret keeper."

"Pleeeeeaaaaase?" She tried to convice him with puppy eyes and cuteness, but failed.

"I'm sorry, but no. You can find out just like the rest. You can't tell anyone about the prank, alright?"

She was disappointed. "Oh, alright. Fine then." She turned and left, leaving Henry standing by himself.

He continued to the library, hoping the young princess or dragon was home.

Twilight woke up late to a sleepy dragon nudging her awake. "Twilight, wake up. Henry's downstairs and wants to see you." She looked out the window in her bedroom and found the sun nearly a quarter of the way up. Probably still early enough for breakfast.

"Twilight? You still with me?"

She snapped out of her thought. "What? Oh, yeah. Just waking up."

"Uh-huh... Well, wake up faster, Henry wants to talk to you."

She groaned and turned over to face him. "What does he want?"

"I dunno. Something about a prank for tonight."

A prank? Rainbow and Pinkie must have gotten him to do it. She crawled out of bed and brushed her disheveled mane. "I'll be there in a minute."

Spike ran downstairs to wherever the human was waiting and she could hear him yell, "She's coming down in a minute!" She rolled her eyes at his eagerness to help ponies. Or, people.

She walked sleepily downstairs and, through half-lidded eyes, saw Henry sitting on the sofa, a strange looking thing sitting beside him. It looks like a big saddlebag. Weird... "Hey, Henry. We can talk in a minute, I need some coffee."

"Alright then."

She walked and made some coffee and sat down beside him, Spike going to work on reorganizing the books in the library. "So what was it that you wanted to talk about?"

"Well, me, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie planned a prank to play in the Everfree. I used an urban myth from Earth that I thought would be perfect for the forest. I had Rarity create a replica of it out of cloth." He opened the thing sitting beside him. "Pull it out. It's too tall for me."

She complied and pulled it out with her magic. Her eyes grew wider at the sight of the thing. It stood easily eight feet tall or more, with long arms and hands that reached its knees. Its legs were a similar length. "W-what in Equestria is this?!" She couldn't contain her fear and surprise.

"That's the best part. It's not in Equestria. It followed me through." He winked and she was obviously confused. "Luna explained the whole trans-dimensional travel thing to me, and part of this myth is that it travels through dimensions as easily as you're holding it up right now."

"Sweet Celestia, that's... that could be bad."

He laughed at her. "Hey, don't worry. It's not actually real." He got really close and whispered in her ear, "At least I hope it's not." Her heart leapt into her throat. He laughed again. "Heh, I'm just kidding Twilight." He grabbed the thing out of mid-air and stuffed into the bag again. He got up to leave, but turned and said, "By the way, you might want to check on Rarity. I scared her pretty bad this morning, she called me an asshole, then ran up to her room crying. I left a note apologizing, but I doubt she's come out yet."

"Oh, alright. I'll see you later."

"Bye Twilight." He walked out the door, shutting it behind him. Spike stopped and spoke up.

"Wait, he made Rarity cry?"

She rolled her eyes again and sighed. "Yes he did, but he didn't mean to. I'll go check on her, you keep working." Spike groaned as she teleported out of the library and to the Carousel Boutique.

Luna waited in a small clearing in the Everfree Forest, waiting for Henry to bring the "monster" he was planning on using for their prank. As she waited, she thought over the plan again, playing their meeting over word for word.

"Okay, Luna, Twilight said that I came here from a different dimension of Equestria. Is that right?"

"Yes, but why do you want to know that?"

"Well, the thing I want to use can supposedly travel through different dimensions, even to its own personal one. It's scary as hell when you think about how many things happened that can only point to that."

Rainbow Dash spoke up next. "What is this thing called anyway? And why do you need Rarity's help?"

"In America, the most common name is 'Slenderman.'"

"Well that doesn't sound scary at all."

"You might think so, but let me explain. He's anywhere from eight to fifteen feet tall, can stretch his arms and legs indefinitely, and can make himself look like a tree. He has no features on his head whatsoever, just pure white. No hair, nose, eyes, no nothing. Wears a black suit and can teleport. The worst part is the way he targets people."

Luna looked over at Rarity, who had a frightened look on her face. "And, uh, what does 'he' do exactly?"

"He targets mainly children. If you see him, you're screwed. You'd go insane, thinking you see him everywhere you go. You'd be acting differently, such as random bursts of anger or sadness. He'll know your face and you could expect to be dead within a month. The way he kills his victims? There's two ways people say he does it. He either impales them onto tree branches in a forest or takes them to another dimension to feed on their souls."

"Oh my." Rarity was surprised and frightened at how specific and thought out the myth is, and Luna could see the same looks in the eyes of Rainbow and Pinkie. Luna herself just looked along wondering how Henry had discovered all of the information.

"Now Luna, that's where you come in. Rarity's going to make a replica of the thing," he looked over at Rarity and said he'd make her some drawings later, "and I'm going to make up a story involving him. I'm going to have the group following me to the clearing you'll be hiding. When I give a signal, I want you to do whatever magic you want to make it 'walk' out into the clearing. If it goes right, they'll follow my directions and run back to Ponyville."

"And what is the signal?'"

"'Now remember, if that is it, don't look at it. Just hide your eyes and find your way back to town.' Any other questions before we go?." Nopony answered, mostly in awe of his plan. It seemed more thought out they'd originally thought. "No? Alright. Luna, I'll see you in a few days."

Luna was woken from her thoughts with a nudge. Henry was standing there with a smart-aleck look on his face. "You gonna do the prank or not?"

She huffed in amused sarcasm. "No, I thought I would just come and enjoy the company of Timberwolves." She used her magic to make the illusions of several Timberwolves appear.

"Alright, smartass." He sat the pack onto the ground and opened it up. She levitated the thing out and manipulated it to simulate walking. She was impressed at how well Rarity had done. "Now," he lifted the pack on his back, obviously filled with something other than the thing she'd just removed, "I've gotta go and see how many ponies I can round up for this thing. I'll be back around midnight." She nodded and watched as he walked away from the clearing, back towards Ponyville.

It was almost dark, and Jones was traveling back into town after dropping the pack off with Luna, telling her to stay hidden with the thing until he gave the signal. He saw a few young ponies already running around town asking for candy. He silently wished he'd been able to partake when he was a child. Just then, he ran into a large chicken. "What the hell?"

The chicken looked up and revealed itself to be Pinkie Pie. "Hey Henry!" She motioned for him to get lower, which he did. In an overdramatic whisper, she asked, "So is the prank ready?"

Matching her tone, he replied, "Yes. Luna's waiting in the forest." He looked around to make sure none of the early birds had heard. If any had, they'd ignored it.

"Okie dokie lokie! Just come find me and Dashie when you're ready to go." She ran off, acting like a hyper-active chicken.

He continued walking, trying find one of the girls or even Spike. He didn't find any of them, but as he walked, in his full military gear (which he was using as his costume), he noticed all of the ponies, even the grown stallions, move around him, giving him a fearful look. He looked around, confused. He'd thought they'd have gotten used to him by now.

I just realized they've been avoiding me in town since I've gotten here. Why are they so scared? Just then, he tripped over something and fell, into a small pool of water filled with apples. In an almost comedic way, he rose up with an apple in his mouth, then spit it out onto the ground.

Soaking wet, he looked around. Several ponies looked at him in shock, while most were trying to contain laughter. He pushed himself onto his feet and noticed a tugging at his pants leg. He saw a small pony dressed as a pirate. Speaking in a British accent, he asked, "Excuse me, sir. I certainly hope you didn't mean to do that. I mean, you did trip over me."

He looked around, expecting a frightened parent to come out of the crowd and drag the colt away, but nothing came. "No, I didn't. I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

The child laughed. "It's alright. I've been tripped over before." He held up a small hoof. "My name's Pipsqueak. Call me Pip."

"Hey Pip, I'm Henry." He looked around and noticed the ponies going about their business again, some escorting children. "Where are your parents?"

He looked at the ground. "I'd rather not talk about that, if you don't mind."

So no talking about parents... "You out here by yourself or are you with another group?"

The eye not covered by an eye patch lit up. "I was looking for Pinkie Pie, but she ran off saying something about a prank."

Dammit Pinkie. "Well, how about you stick with me for now? I thought I would tell all the kids about an urban myth from where I'm from later in the Everfree."

He was excited again. "I like the sound of that! Sure, let's go." They walked off, Pip looking for candy and Henry looking for another friend to pass the time.

It was a few hours later, and the children had made their offerings to Nightmare Moon. Jones didn't question it, but he was confused. They'd met up with Pinkie Pie, and apparently she'd spread the word about his story.

By the time they'd gotten ready to travel to the forest, nearly all of the children old enough, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and a few other adults had joined the group. "Alright then. Are we all ready to go?" He was answered with a chorus of yeahs. "Let's go then." He led them into the forest, all the while explaining the myth then telling the story.

When he was finishing up, they were deep into the Everfree. "Now, I'm came here from a different dimension, according to the princesses. This thing can travel across dimensions as easily as you can walk." Several gasps and excited squeals came from the crowd. "It's very possible that it followed me here." He heard rustling in the bushes. Expecting Luna, he gave the signal: "Now remember, if that is it, don't look at it. Just hide your eyes and find your way back to town."

He tensed, waiting for it to happen. Nothing came. He looked around, confused. What the hell? What happened Luna? Improvising, he said, "Okay, wait here." He drew his pistol, which was actually loaded and his pack filled with ammo, for the sake of realism. "I'm going to check."

As he began walking, Rainbow came up beside him and whispered, "Dude, what gives? They're supposed to be running scared already."

"I don't know, Dash. I'm going to see what happened." As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a growl come from right in front of him. Just before it happened, he shoved Rainbow to the side. A giant scorpion tail flew through the air and impaled itself in the dirt where she was just standing. "FUCK! RUN!" On his command, the crowd and his two friends bolted back towards the town.

Backpedaling, the manticore came out into full view. It jerked its tail out of the ground and got ready to charge. Henry stopped to hold his ground, then readied the gun.

As it bolted at him, he emptied the magazine straight into the beast's eyes. It went beserk, blinded and enraged by the human. "Oh shit." The tail came flying from the side like a whip and hit him in the side, sending him flying against a tree and hit the ground. He got up slowly and painfully. Probably lucky if it's only a few broken ribs. He loaded another clip into the gun and got ready to fight.

Rainbow Dash was leading the group back to Ponyville, the plan failed. Then she heard the gunshots. "Pinkie!" She stopped in mid-air and turned to pink mare in a chicken costume. "I'm going back for Henry. I need you to lead these ponies back to town."

"Sure thing, Dashie!" When it came to serious danger, she knew to be serious. She took the lead and ran back to town, the group following behind.

Making sure they were gone, Dash flew back in the direction that she'd heard the shooting. What she saw terrified her. Henry was panting hard, labored breaths, holding the gun in one hand and the other wrapped around his side. He unloaded into the manticore again, and she saw only bloody indentations where the beast's eyes used to be. Then she saw the manticore ready the tail, and apparently Henry didn't.

Right as the tail thrusted towards the human, she flew through the air, grabbing right below the stinger with her teeth, and whipped her head the opposite way. It caught both the manticore and Henry by surprise, and she brought the beast down onto its side with a heavy thud. Henry quickly came up and unloaded one more time into its large head. He turned to look at her and had a shocked look on his face.

She then realized what happened. She tasted thick, metallic liquid in her mouth. She looked around, knowing that it was blood, and found the stinger ripped from the tail and laying on the ground near her. "Wh- I... Wha..." She trailed off, blacking out from shock and hit the ground.

Rainbow Dash came to and found herself in a hospital room. She looked around, and saw her sleeping friends and a worried looking human. "You okay, Dash?"

She had a horrible headache and felt sick to the stomach. "Other than feeling like I'm gonna puke, doing great."

He obviously wasn't ready for joking. "Cut it with the sarcasm, would you? When you ripped the manticore's stinger off, you swallowed venom that had escaped in the blood. The doctors said you could've died."

She looked down at the bed shamefully. "Oh... I'm sorry." She genuinely was.

"Don't be." He paused for a minute. "You probably saved my life pulling that little stunt. I owe you two now."

She perked up a little. "I... I saved your life?"

"Sure did."

"Oh my gosh..." She trailed off and remembered what had happened right before she started running. "Wait, you pushed me out of the way of the manticore's tail before it hit me. You saved my life, so that makes you only owe me one."

"Huh. I guess you're right."

"You're damn right I am." She paused and tried to look around, but her head was in too much pain. "By the way, what time is it?"

He looked up at the clock on the wall. "Hmm, 'bout two in the morning."

"Wow. Have you gotten any sleep?"

"No, I've been waiting for you to come to."

"I appreciate you doing that, but you really need sleep."

"Yeah, you're right." He sighed, then rolled over in the chair, grunting painfully. "See you in the morning."

"Wait a minute." He looked up. "Are you hurt?"

"A few broken ribs and small concussion from hitting the tree, but otherwise I'm fine."

"Well, at least it's just that. Goodnight." She was about to doze off when she remembered something Twilight had taught her. "Wait, aren't you supposed to stay awake if you have a concussion?"

He looked up sleepily and sighed. "Dammit, you're right. I'd forgotten about that. Thanks for keeping me safe but screw you for keeping me from sleeping."

She laughed and said sarcastically, "Screw you too, Dumbass." They shared a short-lived laugh, then she fell asleep, knowing her human friend would still be awake during the night.