Author's Note

((One more chapter to go, still unsure if I want to have Slender Man's army win or not))

The Approach

The train ride was long and boring, just sitting in my seat playing the weak and traumatized victim role. I had done so many times before. It used to be one of my favorite roles to play back in my world, but I've never had to do it for this long and I was starting to get annoyed with it. Annoying or not, it was for a good cause, I held onto the character I had been given. The girls were constantly checking on me and I replied with silence. When we got off of the train Twilight used her magic to 'help' keep me from falling. We got some nasty looks from the snobs that lived in the Canterlot place as I limped my way toward the largest building in the city. I wanted to kick their heads self-absorbed in. I've found my urges to kill becoming stronger since I was reunited with my master. It must have just been me; after doing so many jobs maybe I was just becoming accustomed to it. If not for the plan I would be in the woods either recruiting potential proxies or slaughtering them. The latter was always much more fun, but we were working for a purpose so I had to keep myself in check. We made it to the castle entrance but the guards cut us off, that was before Twilight identified me as the one the princesses wanted to see. They stared at me in disgust, they obviously didn't trust me. A wise choice. They reluctantly stood aside and let us enter; imbeciles. After being assisted with climbing a flight of stair and going down a long hallway we came to a rather large door with more horses guarding it. These ones let us pass without a word to say, they must have known I was coming. Or maybe it was simply because I was being held up by a small purple alicorn's magic. This room was filled with horse guards and had a red carpet that stretched down to the end of the room where two thrones sat and on them was what I could only assume to be the Princesses of the sun and moon. Celestial was always represented with bright shining colors and sunlight. Lunar with darkness, more specifically the night. It was easy to tell which one was which despite never meeting them beforehand. We walked to the edge of the throne and Twilight let me sit on the ground to rest.

"Twilight, it's always so good to see you and your friends. So, this is the creature we've received so many letters about?" Celestia's voice was smooth and soft. It was like that of a loving mother. The girls all bowed before the princesses and rose shortly after.

"Yes, Princess Celestia." Twilight showed a great amount of respect to Celestia despite her having a royal title of her own.

"Twilight, it is not like you to wander in unannounced, is there some sort of issue?" Luna's voice was interesting. It was like a female gym teacher. Feminine, but authoritative.

"Well, princess, it seems our friend here has information about the recent disappearances." Typical Rainbow Dash, cutting in like she was a part of the group. All of them do this from time to time, but I've noticed a pattern with the rainbow flier. The princesses both looked down at me, taking notice of the dried blood that coated most of my body. This was disheartening to see for them. Despite this, Celestia still lowered her face to mine.

"Is this true? Do you really know what has been causing this?" I looked up at her and nodded. She seemed happy to know this and demanded that we all meet in her private chambers to speak further. She was nice enough to teleport the group there so I wouldn't have to keep pushing myself to move around. Luna came up to me first.

"You know, this information is of great importance. We need you to tell us everything you know so that we can take the necessary precautions and, if needed, action. Do you understand?" All eyes were on me. I nodded. "Good, you may begin."

I lowered my hood and removed my mask. Their jaws all dropped when the saw my face. I traced my fingers across the many fresh cuts that decorated my features. Some were small, some were large, some were deep, and some had shades of purple highlighting the skin around them.

"Where do I start..." I said plainly. The girls looked at me in shock, Applejack looking like she was about to cry. "I was kidnapped shortly after leaving the castle to go for a walk. Someone knocked me out and when I came to I was in the Everfree forest tied to a tree. I was blindfolded so I couldn't see anything, but I could hear ponies screaming left and right. Begging to be released. I could hear their cries of pain as they were tortured." I saw Celestia put on a stern look. She levitated a sheet of paper and a quill to her and began writing.

"I'm sending a detachment of guards to the forest. If you had to guess, how many ponies would you say were performing these horrible acts?" If I word this correctly I can make it sound as if there were a large number of these 'monsters' and she would be forced to send more guards.

"I can't say for sure, but it sounded like there were a lot. I could hear them talking among themselves sometimes and there were so many voices I could hardly hear myself think." She nodded and continued writing before sealing the letter and making it vanish into thin air.

"This will not go unpunished, I'm sending half of our troops to the forest. Whoever is doing this will not get away with it, I assure you." Perfect, this was just perfect. "I hate to do this to you, but is their anything else they did to you while you were there?" I could see the guards flying to the forest through the window. They were moving fast. It's too bad for them that once they get in there they won't be coming back out. My master had riled up the timber wolves and they were ready to rampage.

I stood up and unzipped my hoodie, revealing my pale but bruised and cut flesh to them. "They were constantly beating us, they would use whips, and branches from trees. When they were feeling especially creative they would use knives to carve things into us." They all stared at me with watery eyes as they looked over the large operator symbol that now took up most of my torso. Luna was the first to show some recognition. Her eyes went from the symbol on my chest to the one on my mask. She was beginning to catch on, it was now or never. I lunged at Celestia and tackled her, quickly wrapping my arm around her neck and holding her in front of me. I drew my knife and held it to her throat.

"One move and this bitch is as good as dead!" They were all surprised to see me moving so quickly, as they all thought me to be injured and in too bad of shape to even walk on my own.

"Hey, just what do you think you doing?" Stupid loud-mouth horse. She even had the nerve to start flying closer to me.

"You better watch your next moves very carefully rainbow, or this whole room is going to become a blood bath." They saw the anger in my eyes, the hate, and they all froze. They knew I was being serious, even Celestia refused to put up a struggle, but Luna wasn't having it. I could see the magic building up in her horn.

"Release my sister you piece of filth!" She shot a beam of magic my way, I turned and used Celestia to block myself from the blast. Celestia's body convulsed a bit as her stomach absorbed the blast. She was shaking and I could see the fur just around where she was shot turning red as she started bleeding. "Sister!" Luna shouted, her eyes tearing up rapidly. Celestia was still breathing, this girl had some fight in her. The castle shook as an explosion went off in the distance. Everyone was looking around frantically.

"They're here..." Their attention was back on me.

"James, why are you doing this?" Filthy farm horse

"Why...Because I was told to. I'm just following orders." Luna growled at me, her eyes turned white and suddenly the sky went dark.

"THOU SHALL PAY FOR THEIR CRIMES!!! BUT FIRST, WE DEMAND TO KNOW WHO IS GIVING SUCH ORDERS!!!" I couldn't help but laugh at the night princess, this behavior was simply adorable.

"If you really want to know who, then I'll tell you. Its the one who's responsible for everything going on around here for almost a year now. The sudden abductions, the missing foals, the death of thousands! I'm only partially to blame, it all stems from my boss. My master is the one who asked me to do this. The one you call Slender horse." We could all hear a sound coming from outside of the window. The echo of what seemed to be branches snapping. We all turned our heads to the window in time to watch it shatter. Atop of the now ruined stained glass stood a tall horse-like creature wearing a black suit and bearing pleasant lack of facial features. It had tendrils coming from its back that whipped around manically.

"Greetings and Salutations, master..."