The slender one.

Chapter four.

"Ya just had to make em angry, didn't ya?!" Applejack said while running for dear life.

"Hey! How could I have known almost all of them worship the Slenderman!" Rainbow retorted.

"Speaking of him, where is he?" The Doctor asked. He looked back and saw that the Slenderman was trying to calm the Ghouls down.

"He would do a better job if he could talk." The Doctor said.

"This is not the time to be talking!" Twilight yelled.

"True."

"Hey! Over here!" A adult male human called them. They ran towards him and he let them inside a house.

"Where are they?!" They heard one of the Ghouls yell.

"They went that way!" They heard the stampede of Ghouls leave. The man opened the door and joined the group. They saw he was also a Ghoul, but he didn't have a grin on his face and there were no visible wounds. His hair was short on the front and long on the backside of his head. He wore some kind of bussines suit and wore leather shoes. He wasn't very tall and a bit skinny.

"Aren't you supposed to be trying to kill us?" Rainbow said.

"Now why would I do that? Admitted, Slenderman isn't too bad but I don't worship him. He did kill me after all." The man had a bit of a low voice but it sounded normal enough.

"I would like to know how many intelligent ghouls are there?" The Doctor asked.

"They are all intelligent, but some still have their natural intelligence. You've met Mike, Lyra and there's me, my name's Marcus by the way, but there are a few more. Not a lot, in comparison with how many Ghouls there are. I know only five of them, including Mike and Lyra. The six of us don't worship Slenderman but we all agree he's good company. Mike is one of the most intelligent Ghouls."

"Six isn't al lot indeed. How many Ghouls are there?"

"As far as I know, 20.000. And I haven't even seen all of the ghouls."

"Wow. Wait, how come you're a ghoul when you have no wounds?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

"I do have a wound. I have a hole in the back of my head but my hair hides it." He showed them the wound.

"Okay. But why are you helping us?"

"Because being a Ghoul has quite a few plus points, but there also quite a few downsides. For example, when you die your body looks the same as when you died. And you can't die again, because you are allready dead! And you can't see your friends and family anymore, because you scare the living hell out of them!" Marcus seemed angry about the last part.

"That sounds... Horrible." No one had noticed Fluttershy waking up.

"It is. But you need to leave now! It won't be long before they find you again!" He gestured them to get up and told them to follow him. He led them throught the forest and too the forest edge. They came past a house that was all too familiar to them.

"That's Zecora's house!" Twilight said. She ran too the door and opened it. Her eyes went wide in confusion. In front of her was Zecora, alive and well, drinking tea with a female human Ghoul. The Ghoul looked like she wasn't much older than twelve and the only visible wound was part of the skin on her jaw being gone. Her hair was long and she was wearing a shirt and torn jeans.

"Hello Zecora, Lila." Marcus said.

"Hello Marcus. It's a nice day, isn't it?" Lila siad.

"Yes, but we need your help. One of these ponies insulted Slenderman in front of a horde of Ghouls."

"Hey!"

"Of course. But I need to say that was quite dumb of you." Lila looked straight at Rainbow.

"Yeah yeah... Wait, why is Zecora still alive?"

"Most of the Ghouls fear my masks. They won't hinder me in my tasks."

"Okay?" Rainbow looked confused.

"Now follow me. It won't be long before night falls again. Time passes different in these woods." Lila stood up and walked outside.

"What did she mean with time passes different?" Twilight asked.

"I think it's the fog. It messes with time and that's why the night is longer and the day shorter." The Doctor said.

"How does that even work?"

The Doctor shrugged.

"We have arrived at the edge of the forest."

"Are you two coming?" Rainbow asked.

"We can't. We are bound to this forest. Don't ask why." Marcus siad.

"Okay. Well... Bye!"

The six ponies returned to Ponyville. Little did they know that the world as they knew it, would soon change.

Meanwhile, in Filly Delphia.

Ink Scroll, a dark blue pegasus with a black mane, blue eyes and a scroll and quill as his cutie mark, and his family had just returned from a trip to the Neighagra Falls. He and his wife called Paper Pen, a light grey pegasus with a white mane, green eyes and a pen and paper as her cutie mark,were in their bedroom when he woke up. He noticed Paper had stolen all the sheets. He tryed to steal them back as he saw a strange creature at the end of the bed. He focussed and his eyes went wide in horror.

"AAAHHH!!" He screamed and jumped out of bed huddling up next to the bed.

"What?! What is it dear... What is that?" She looked at the creature. It lookes like a bipedal creature or like a big hairless dog. It looked like it was run over by a chariot or something. She wasn't afraid of the thing but she was concerned about it's condition. Her husband was looking from her to the thing.

"Are you okay?" In response the creature moved towards Ink in a flailing sort of motion. It placed it's claw on Ink's hoof and suddenly ran into the hallway that led to the foals room. She screamed and ran out of the bedroom. The light of the bedroom was enough for her to see the creature crouching and hunched over twenty hoofs away. It looked directly at her and was covered in blood. She turned on the lights and saw her daughter Inky Hoof, a light blue unicorn with a green mane, grey eyes and with no cutie mark yet, being heavily wounded. The creature ran down the stairs and dissapeared.

"He is the Rake..." Inky said before she passed out.