Slendermane: Horror of the Everfree

by Strumfreak

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Scootaloo, Fluttershy, Tragedy, Twilight Sparkle, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 29229

Will Twilight and Scootaloo be able to escape a supernatural being hunting them?

Fillies and Colts have been going missing in Ponyville, the only clue to their location, tracks leading to the Everfree Forest, and anypony who goes in looking for them, doesn't return. Scootaloo was the first victim to show up from the forest out of the blue, distraught and alone. When Twilight offers her assistance in finding the others, and the Slendermane starts hunting the pair, what will happen when they end up with only one option: Run for their lives trapped in the darkest, deepest, part of the Everfree forest.
(Based on the urban legend of the Slenderman, with subtle references to the popular indie game 'Slender')
Rated T for horror themes, violence, and peril.
***

Updates:
[Proporly spaced and indented paragraphs in all chapters (No more giant walls of text)]
[Fluttershy added as a main character]
[Gore Tab added due to a descriptive blood and gore scene in Chapter 4] (If people have any problems with the teen rating and think I should bump up the level to mature, please comment so)

Completed 19/08/2012

Published 2012-08-06 00:04:03 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-18 23:11:00 UTC

Chapter 2

Scootaloo had been shaking since Twilight caught her. It wasn’t the first of scares she had received from entering the forest, it wasn’t even the biggest, but it was just an unwanted addition to the previous ones. As the two were beginning to calm down, Scootaloo felt the pace of her shivering calm to just a light trembling, as her heartbeat also relaxed to a steady pace. Twilight didn’t fare as well. She was stinging and aching all over. The pain that had retreated her body ever so slowly before Scootaloo appeared, had now returned twice fold from the sudden accumulation of weight on her back and legs which in their state failed to support the change. The blood that remained dried on a few of her wounds had split back open, ripped outwards by sudden the bending of her legs, which began to lightly trickle blood again. Scootaloo’s vision had apparently been affected by the force field, and had just started to adjust to the threatening darkness again. She looked at Twilight and noticed the cuts and wounds on her legs, and exaggerated a gasp as she leapt off of Twilight, wondering if she had caused them. Twilight felt relief when Scootaloo shifted her weight off of her back, and was able to withdraw some decent sized breaths.

“Twilight! Are you ok?! What the hay happened to you?!” Scootaloo asked, scared for her condition.

Twilight slowed her breathing down with bigger more spaced breaths, trying to relax the stinging, and reduce her heartbeat in order to slow the blood flow through her body.

“Don’t worry Scootaloo... I’m alright.” Twilight said trying to reassure her.

“You don’t have to lie Twilight; did I do that when you caught me?” Scootaloo asked.

“No. That same force field that threw you did this. You just gave me a scare is all.” Twilight said.

“Oh... I’m sorry Twilight, I should have known better... me and the others ran into that force field when we woke up in the forest...” Scootaloo said, remembering the terrifying experience with her two best friends.

Twilight let out a breathe of light pain, before dragging her fore-legs to her chest, and lightly pushing herself up, without trying to cause the cuts on her knees to move outwards with the movement, knowing that would only push more blood out of them, instead of allowing the fluid already there to dry and seal the wound again. Scootaloo could see Twilight struggling and knew a way she could help her. She quickly squeezed under Twilights forelegs squatting to get into the small space, and pushed herself up, which allowed Twilight to get up with almost no effort in her legs. Scootaloo was in a good condition and didn’t struggle under Twilight’s weight, which wasn’t even very much anyway. Twilight kicked her back legs up on her own; as there weren’t too many bad cuts on them she had to worry about.

“Thank you Scootaloo.” Twilight said grateful for the assistance.

“No Problem Twilight.” Scootaloo said happy to offer her help, still convinced she had something to do with the wounds.

“So, if you’ve been here before, do you remember anything about the area, or what happened while you were here?” Twilight asked trying to shake the worry from Scootaloo’s mind.

Scootaloo thought about the area around her, and could slightly remember some outstanding features, but she couldn’t put her hoof on where they were. She tried to focus on the events of a few days back, and told Twilight what she could, even though it upset her to think about the events.

“There are a lot of strange things in here Twilight. This whole area has lots of objects that shouldn’t be here. Even a couple of buildings... but... they’re so unnatural. When me and the crusaders were lost with other friends of ours, they started going missing... one by... one. All of us that were left, knew that the... the... uh... Slendermane might get us too... Apple Bloom’s friend Twist had some pencils and small pieces of paper in her saddlebag... It was dark... darker than this... but when we saw it... we looked only as long as we needed too... before somepony else distracted it... We drew pictures of it and wrote notes... they weren’t works of art, but they were our way... for telling others to stay away so that the Slendermane didn’t catch them too. We tried running deeper into the forest... to see if we could escape to the outside... of the other end... but the trees were too thick... It didn’t take long for the few of us still left... to figure out that this thing had trapped us... and was slowly pushing us into the middle... but... but it...” Scootaloo choked again, and few tears of pure fear dripped from her eyes. “It just appeared behind all of us... and... and... those tentacles!” She exclaimed as her body started to feel limp. Twilight noticed how bothered she was getting by having to recall the events.

“Scootaloo... you don’t have to go through all this if you don’t want to.” She told her. Scootaloo wiped her eyes and sniffed.

“What’s the point in stopping now? I’m almost finished. We... we woke up in a tiled room... and there were no doors... The exit to the left led straight outside. The room was in a bad condition, tiles chipped.... B-b-blood on the walls... and it smelled absolutely rotten. Everypony that was there was scared, but didn’t want to run for the door. But then we heard yelling through the... the wall behind us... It scared me and the others, but I knew it could only mean there was another room with survivors... but Diamond Tiara on the other hand made the first stupid decision... she got scared and ran for the door. She made it outside very quickly, and when she got out... the last thing she said was ‘hey, it’s... it’s not out here’... then without even so much as a scream, blood splattered all over the inside wall of the hallway she had walked out of... I’ve never screamed louder or heard as much screaming from the others as that moment... Silver Spoon was terrified and wanted Diamond Tiara to come back... she ran out of the door way and didn’t even look outside... for a second before she started screaming again. She ran the other way through the hallway... and the... then we heard her yelling out no. We couldn’t make out all the words. But we never saw the creature go after her... so I figured there was a doorway on the other side of the building. I ran to the doorway in the hallway on our side and looked outside, and there was nothing there. Silver Spoon was still yelling, and as bad as I felt about it... I told the others that the only chance they were gunna get to escape was now. But when they got to the doorway... they ran into a force field. Just like the one over there,” She said pointing down the trail she’d come from.

“They bashed against it, but nothing happened. They couldn’t get out, and I couldn’t get back in... Before I could ask what was happening though, I looked left down the end of the hallway... and.... and that... that Slendermane... was right at the end of it... watching me... Whether it had eyes or not I knew it was watching me! I shoved myself against the force field and nothing happened. The others told me to run... I kept trying to get back in... but I knew that was my only option. The last thing I said to them was that I’m sorry... and that I’d be back... But I don’t even know if they’re still...” Scootaloo stopped and burst into tears. She dreaded to think of what could have happened to her friends, and flat out refused to allow herself to believe them dead. Twilight could tell this whole recollection would end in tears, and to her own dismay she was right. She Walked over and hugged Scootaloo trying to be as comforting as possible.

“Scootaloo, don’t worry. They’ll be ok. I promise.” Twilight said, hoping she could reassure Scootaloo that nothing would have happened to Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle. She tried to think of a way to change the subject, to help her stop crying; her shoulder was wet with salty tears. “How did you escape?” she said, hoping to push past the moment, it wasn’t the most positive aspect of conversation that she could have used to make her feel better, but it was something. Scootaloo hardly hesitated or stopped crying to tell her.

“That... That’s just it Twilight! The Slendermane didn’t do anything! It stood still and watched! Even when I started running, it stayed in the same place! It’s almost like it wanted me to escape!” She finished. Scootaloo hadn’t realised that she had spat almost every word of her sentence and loudly exclaimed at the spaces of each line. She had stopped crying and only let the water well under her eyes. Anger was boiling in them and any other tears dropped like bombs to the ground.

The anger mixed with her remorse was creating a nightmarish concoction of emotions. She hated the Slendermane for letting her escape, and keeping her friends locked up, but was more afraid of it than anything knowing of its abilities from personal experience and background from Twilight’s book.

“How do you remember everything? When I woke up, I couldn’t recall anything from earlier today.” Twilight said wondering why it took her connecting to the wall to amplify the strength of the memory and make it viewable to her. Scootaloo wiped her eyes and let her rising temper simmer while she tried to recall more events of the day she was abducted.

“Sweetie Belle had the same problem. When that thing pulled us through the barrier, she got knocked out cold. She was lying unconscious for about 10 minutes before we got her to wake up, but when she did, she had no idea why we were in the Everfree forest, or anything that happened during that day actually. She also said that whenever she tried to use a couple of little spells to help us out, she couldn’t... She said that her horn would just spark and fizzle, and that she could hear static whenever she tried to use it.” Scootaloo explained.

“The same thing happened to me... even before I entered the forest.” Twilight said recalling the sudden migraine and static she heard before leaving Fluttershy’s cottage.

“So you believe me then right? I mean you read all the facts to me out loud from the book, and all the stuff that was reported to happen, happened to you.” Scootaloo said, hoping that by now she would have gathered enough evidence to prove that the creature really existed.

“I’m... I’m not sure Scootaloo. I want to... and I certainly don’t want to flat out say that everything that happened to you was imagined, because I don’t believe that... but there has to be a bigger picture here.” Twilight told her giving a sorrowful face feeling bad that she couldn’t help make Scootaloo feel better about something.

“But you did before; you were just as nervous as me! When we got separated I heard you yell out to the Slendermane, telling it bring me back... Oh.... You... You don’t remember do you?” Scootaloo realised.

“Maybe you could explain it to me? It might jog my memory and help me remember.” Twilight suggested.

“Um, ok. Yeah, I’ll tell you what I can remember ok, but it’s a little hazy... something about this area just messes with my head... and I’m pretty sure I know exactly why,” Scootaloo said giving a light shiver.

“Can you remember anything?” Scootaloo asked so she knew what time she had to focus on to recount the events.

“Nothing after the two of us entering the forest,” Twilight said remembering where the memory she had seen abruptly ended.

“Oh ok, well basically we went in and followed your usual path to Zecora’s, but...” Scootaloo stopped feeling a chill run down her spine... something was watching them.

Twilight watched confused as Scootaloo’s expression changed in almost an instant, but Scootaloo didn’t have time to say anything to Twilight though, not even a second after she realised that they were being watched, a loud gust of wind blasted through the trees towards Twilight and Scootaloo, carrying a huge cloud of ghostly white fog. Scootaloo hadn’t seen this happen when she saw the Slendermane, but she was equally terrified that something bad was about to happen, and became paralysed on the spot as if glued to the ground, not even able to speak. She tried to open her mouth but her bottom lip would only tremble and let out mumbled squeals.

Twilight noticed Scootaloo's eyes dart off behind her, and turned around as she heard the massive amount of rustling leaves the wind was causing, but she didn’t know whether the fog barrelling towards them was threatening or not. Not wanting to take the risk that it possessed some kind of magical quality that could knock the pair out or injure them, she attempted to conjure a V-shaped force field in front of her, to divide the fog around them, but upon attempting the spell, Twilight found that she was still unable to perform any acts of magic and that her horn would only sputter with weak sparks. She only watched the cloud approach faster and faster.

“Scootaloo, I can’t stop it! Hold on!” She yelled turning around ready to shield the filly in case the fog indeed posed danger, but upon turning around, she found she was alone. Scootaloo had vanished. Twilight felt her heart race soar as she became stressed. Her eyes darted all over the trees behind her, but there was no sign of the little orange filly.

“Scootaloo?!” She yelled out hoping for response. “Scoota-Ugh!” Twilight was stopped midway through another distressed yell, as the fog hurdled right into her back, with the force of a door slamming against her. But that wasn’t the pain that bothered her; a far worse feeling was raging in her head. Twilight’s horn was shooting sparks all over the place like mad, and all she could hear was incredibly loud static filling her head, surrounded the high pitched squealing of the wind in her ears. She had both hooves on her ears trying to block them, but even while the wind was unable to invade her ears, the squeal continued, and started to increase in frequency.

Very abruptly though, almost out of nowhere, the wind ceased, and the fog it had carried settled in its place, only moving as it wisped along the small currents of breeze that flowed through the forest. It only made the forest look more eerie, and scared Twilight even more than before. She could only keep counting her fears though, Scootaloo was still missing.

Twilight was about to call for her again, but after turning around to give a quick scan of the area, her eyes stopped dead in place, and her heart sunk. She felt her heart beat race even faster than before, but her breathing stopped completely. Her pupils dilated, but then contracted to no bigger than the circumference of the tip of a quill. Standing about 10 feet down the dirt road, double Celestia’s height from the ground, on frail looking thin legs, in a black formal suit with a blood red tie around its neck, and absolutely no facial features what so ever, was the Slendermane.

“No! NO! You... You can’t be real! It’s not... It’s not possible! IT’S NOT POSSIBLE!” Twilight screamed in disbelief. Her heart begun to pound against her chest as she became more terrified by the sight of the creature; every second longer she looked at it, her horn started to buzz. Before long the buzzing sounded like electricity was trying to come out of her horn with sparks and volts emitting from the tip. As the stress built and she started to break out in sweat, Twilight started to feel sick in the stomach, feeling everything in it churn as it was moved around by her other convulsing organs. She gave one more desperate cry “SCOOTALOO!”

She started to hyperventilate, but had a spark of anger also burning inside of her. “WHERE IS SHE?! WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HER?! AHHH!” Twilight screamed at the creature, before the horrible static that she had experienced to many times already, invaded her skull yet again. The whole scenario was ripping and violently tearing at her sanity. She felt like her mind was slowly degrading every second longer the static continued. She shot a look at the Slendermane, but it just kept watching her, as if interested in what its presence was causing her mind to suffer, but right before Twilight’s eyes, it leaned its head to the right, and disappeared, causing all the loud noise in her head to stop.

Twilight was only stinging in her head now. The pain that had been stinging in the areas of her injuries had all been directed and collected into her head. Twilight thought she was about to have a mental breakdown. The most impossible being was real... and she was trapped in its home.

***

“SCOOTALOO?! WHERE ARE YOU?!” Twilight yelled, desperate to find her. They had to escape, she had to find her and get her out. She realised her biggest mistake was not believing her, and she’d just bought her straight back into the danger that she was so lucky to escape. Twilight suddenly became filled with a rushing torrent of rage. She could no longer tell if she was horrified of the Slendermane, or furious that it had taken Scootaloo away in the blink of an eye, and left her alone. She knew what it wanted. It wanted her to enter the dark, foggy, unnatural forest, and try to find her.

Furious, terrified, and knowing she had no other option, but to go through the forest, Twilight turned around and lit her horn ablaze with terrific magenta energy. She let out a loud scream and channelled all the pain in her head into her horn, and threw a flurry of explosive spells at the force field that separated her from the outside world.

One by one the spells crashed into the force field, only to be absorbed into the white rippling wall. Twilight was breathing heavily now with dust being blown from its place on the road by the wind she was gushing from her nostrils. But then Twilight realised what she had just done. She’d used magic, without being interrupted. She shot another blast of uncontrolled energy at the force field, and realised that maybe there was still a chance to defend herself if the Slendermane showed up, and find Scootaloo.

She tried to teleport herself to the end of the road, but her horn only created a weak purple flame that fizzled out. The sting that followed after was enough of a signal to tell her that teleporting was going to be too much of a strain for now. Twilight swallowed and looked down the pathway, terrified that she was now trapped with no way to go but forward. She felt queasy wondering about what it might have done to Scootaloo, but she knew she couldn’t give up on her. She tried to remember everything the filly had told her.

‘We drew pictures of it and wrote notes.... telling others to stay away so that the Slendermane didn’t catch them too... slowly pushing us into the middle.’ The words replayed themselves in her head. She decided that for now she would stick to the pathway first and see if she could find Scootaloo. Finding a new track to Zecora’s was well out of the question now, Twilight would have to rely on her own knowledge and hope that her memory would return. But then she realised; she still had the book with information in it. She levitated it out with her magic.

“Good, I can still use telekinesis.” She said happy that one of her strong points in magic was still available to her. She flipped the pages all the way to the one she had creased the corner of, finding it still in perfect condition much to her relief.

“I can’t delay anymore... it might come back.” She said realising that she had to get going. She gave one more call out to Scootaloo hoping that she could hear her.

“Don’t worry Scootaloo! I’m coming!”

Twilight started to nervously shift down the pathway, kicking dust from the road unable to lift her hooves too high without stinging her legs. They were starting to feel better but she didn’t want to risk ripping the scabs open again. She held the book to the left of her face so she could see the path ahead as she walked, while she read, but as she kept going even seeing was becoming a chore.

She reached the fork in the path and looked to the right, then to the left. It was practically pitch black both ways. Twilight looked at the page she had opened to, but the purple flame emanating from her horn holding the book up still didn’t even seem enough to bring light bright enough to illuminate the page. She tried to conjure a light as well to be able to read part of the first few lines, but it proved to still be a strain to focus on casting one spell, so trying to cast another only caused her to hear static again, and break off the first spell and drop the book.

“Maybe if I just read a few lines now…” She said nervously looking around to make sure the Slendermane wasn’t watching her. She was completely alone. But something was changing about the path she’d just come down. The trees were bending unnaturally out of shape and stretching, closer and closer together. Before long the branches begun to interlock and twist together, shedding small leaves and severing lots of branches. The last bit of low level light that Twilight could see peeking through the closing trees, disappeared as patches of leaves slowly overgrew and covered it. There was no longer a pathway to retreat through. Twilight knew that obviously the Slendermane had no intentions for anypony to leave the forest tonight, but she didn’t lose the sliver of hope that was still holding on in her sanity.

The forest had only become darker now. Without a light Twilight wouldn’t be able to see more than 4 feet in front of herself at most. Starting to feel a nervous tingle creeping up her spine, Twilight used her magic to light up her horn with a bright, shining, white light. She could see through several of the dark tree groups around her now, and scanned them very carefully. If something was watching her, she wanted to know... but she didn’t want to have to see it to know. She breathed in carefully steadying herself as she looked as deep as her vision would allow into the gaps of the large tree trunks, and nothing was there. She wasn’t sure if she should be relieved, or terrified. If the Slendermane wanted to catch her, she would have at least expected it to be keeping an eye on her... if it had eyes though.

Twilight brought the light down and looked at the page, and began to read the text aloud, but as she began, her horn started to glow with red underneath the white light, which began expanding and Twilight felt a cold rush of wind blow straight through her head, making her feel strangely dizzy, but yet still able to read without trouble.

“The Slendermane, Horror of the Everfree...” She began. The words started to reverberate in her head and bounce around in her skull getting louder and louder, before Twilight eyes snapped shut, and images began rolling out in her mind. She was seeing more memories again.

***

It was daytime again and she was walking through the forest with Scootaloo by her side. Apparently the filly had gotten some of her wit back and wasn’t as wobbly as before. Twilight could tell they had entered the forest a fair few minutes ago now, remembering the environment from the path she took instead of her usual one to Zecora’s, which was overgrown with poison joke.

“Twilight, what sort of information’s in that book you bought?” Scootaloo asked.

“It’s sort of a reference guide to the Everfree forest, and the life it contains. It’s full of myths, magic, stories, scientific research, anything you want to know about the forest you can find in here.” Twilight explained. “In fact, I might read a little bit of it now, and see if I can identify any of the things that could explain what you’ve been seeing. Besides we still have a fair way to go yet.” Twilight said, lighting up her horn while she walked. The flap holding her saddlebag opened, and the book floated out surrounded by Twilight’s purple sparkling aura. She flicked the book open and scattered to the page she had creased and begun reading.

“The Slendermane, Horror of the Everfree. The Slendermane is a mystical impossible being that lives within the deepest and darkest parts of wooded areas. While the first and only proved sighting was in the Everfree forest, sightings have been recorded all over Equestria throughout the past few years.” Twilight said reading the first line.

“A few years?! It’s been here for that long?” Scootaloo asked confused.

“Scootaloo this book is at least 3 years old. And beside’s it said all over Equestria. Some ponies will make up anything to get attention.” Twilight said, giving herself more and more reasons to doubt the creature’s existence. Scootaloo could see that she wasn’t getting anywhere on getting Twilight to believe her.

“What else does it say? Read the proved sighting.” She said hoping their might be enough evidence to make Twilight believe her.

“Its right under this paragraph, I’ll read it shortly,” she said before continuing. “The creature is shown to be almost featureless, without even any sign of a face. The only thing standing out from its form is the suit that it wears with a red tie it kept tucked inside of it. It is able to stretch its limbs to impossible lengths, which although thin and frail in appearance, can still support its body weight, although it may not have much weight as it can also stretch it’s body to some extent as well. The creature has been shown to have tentacle like appendages that it can extend from its back, and is able to teleport anywhere it needs to by its own will. It will often abduct fillies and colts that play near or even in the wooded areas in which it resides, and also the parents if they come looking for them. Upon seeing the creature victims are reported to feel sick and dizzy, and in rare cases have been reported to hear static crackling in their heads, rendering unicorns in particular, unable to use magic. Wow this just keeps getting more ridiculous by the minute.” Twilight said dismissing the supernatural abilities as nothing more than folklore and rumours.

“Just keep reading...” Scootaloo said becoming more disappointed that the book wasn’t managing to convince her of anything. She also reflected upon this information, which made a lot of the events from her encounter make a bit more sense.

“First Encounter,” Twilight said beginning the next paragraph.

“The disappearance of Maple Seed, and Daisy Frizzle, two nature reporters, and suppliers of 80% of the information found in this book, went missing during their first trek into the Everfree forest. The pair had travelled through numerous forests, and documented much of the research that has given ponies the knowledge about the delicate lands that we know today, but none of the forests as dangerous and large as the Everfree forest. Unable to shy away from a challenge, and eager to document some more research and map out the area, they were recorded as the first pair to enter the forest, and the only pair to not return.” Twilight continued. Scootaloo was shaking now, the story was bringing out her fears, but also arousing her interests in the subject.

“The pair entered the forest at early during the day, intending to catch a glimpse on some flora and fauna, possibly document some new species, and capture images, while mapping out the area. Maple Seed tended to strive more in documenting the nature of a forest, while Daisy Frizzle was stronger in the field of documenting the life within it, and creating a map of the area. 2 days after the pair entered the forest, with no sign of them returning, various rescue crews were assembled in hopes of locating the pair, in case they were lost or injured. The crews searched tirelessly for days on end, with no reference guide to go off, but only hope. After no such luck presented itself, one of the crews reported their first find, which was the pairs’ equipment, and research, neatly stacked against a tree, along with their clothing, which was ripped and torn, with dirt and light red stains covering them. After 7 years of being locked away in the Canterlot royal vaults, access was granted for reporters and publishers to view the said research, which led to the writing of many books, and the rise in popularity of the legend of the Slendermane. Photos from the pair’s cameras were also documented and can be found on the next page.” Twilight finished arriving at the bottom of the page.

“Believe me yet Twilight? That wasn’t a fake disappearance either. You of all ponies should know that. Mrs Cheerilee taught Apple Bloom’s class about the pair’s mysterious disappearance a long time ago, but from what Apple Bloom told me she never mentioned the Slendermane.” Scootaloo said wondering if Twilight had read enough yet.

“Let me take a look at some of the pictures first.” Twilight said, lowering the fillies hopes yet again. She flipped the page over, and saw a sequence of sepia photographs, in what was labelled, a presumed order of events. The first picture was a snapshot of the pair standing outside the Everfree forest. The next one was a picture of a shed in the forest, captioned ‘one of the more confusing images, which supports evidence of another pony possibly living in the forest’. The next image was one of a distanced group of trees, but circled were some very thin, oddly shaped stalks growing above the bushes of the others.

The next picture sent a chilling shiver down Twilight’s spine. It was a side on shot of the Slendermane, standing larger than the height of even Celestia. Twilight looked back at the first picture and read the caption that she’d missed before, but upon returning her gaze to the third picture she let out a frightened squeal and broke off the magical spell holding the book up, letting it collapse to the ground facing up on the same page.

“Twilight what’s wrong?” Scootaloo said, startled by Twilight’s sudden yell.

“The picture, it was looking sideways! I took my eyes off it for a second and it was looking at me!” Twilight babbled panicked.

Scootaloo got confused by what she meant. “Which picture?” She asked.

“The third one.” Twilight said looking away from the book. Scootaloo trotted over and looked at the third picture down, but only saw a side on picture of the Slendermane. She shuddered a little at the sight, but turned around to reassure Twilight that she was just imagining things.

“Twilight, it’s a side on picture.” She said. Scootaloo felt bad for the next thing that ran into her mind, but was almost glad that the picture had managed to frighten Twilight. It might be getting Twilight closer to believing her.

Twilight turned around and levitated the book back in front of herself again, quickly looking carefully at the picture, and to her surprise, the picture had returned to its original image of the Slendermane in a side shot. She gave weak laugh feeling silly for perhaps perceiving it to have looked at her and looked at the next picture, but there was no forth picture, or fifth. They had been ripped out, and the captions, burnt out and smudged. Twilight couldn’t help but wonder how that happened considering no one had borrowed this book from her library before, but ignored it and went to the next picture. It sent even more shivers down her spine, and made the fur on her body stand on end, sending unwanted tingles throughout her nerves. It was a picture of the face of the Slendermane. Featureless but still as if it was staring into Twilight’s very soul. It wasn’t the clearest of pictures and had static and black and white grain all over it.

She went to look at the next page but noticed a fold in the middle of the two pages. Using her magic to pull the fold out from the centre of the book, Twilight folded it outwards to reveal a two page map of the Everfree forest that the pair had managed to draw, it had been since enhanced from a rough sketch to a clearer demonstration of a pegasus-eye view of the forest. The whole forest had not been drawn, but they had obviously explored a fairly vast quantity of it. All the words had been scribbled out though, and twenty percent of the top right of the page had been scribbled over very messily.

“Somepony must have been scribbling in my books.” Twilight said irritated looking at the messy corner.

“Is that all that’s there Twilight? No other stories or anything?” Scootaloo asked curious as to if there were any more sightings. Twilight flicked the foldout back in, and looked at the page she had flicked over.

“There’s a couple more pictures and... a poem.” Twilight said looking at some of the supposed sightings of the Slendermane, ranging from curly, thin, distanced trees, distorted mannequins, and many other similar attempts at capturing an image of the creature.

“What’s the poem?” Scootaloo asked.

“It’s just called Slendermane. It doesn’t even have a signed author” Twilight responded.

“Well... You gunna read it?” Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah, ok.” Twilight said flicking her eyes to the first line.

“As thin as a page, and as tall as a tree,

it lives in the dark of the Everfree.

It has no expression, but irradiates fear,

if you’re in its home, it will always be near.

It can stretch its form like it has rubber bones;

its origin will always remain unknown.

Its takes pegasus, unicorns, and Earth ponies alike,

its featureless being, their very last sight.

No eyes, no face, no tail, no mane,

the look of the creature can send you insane.

Trying to run will just bring you more pain,

because nopony escapes the Slendermane.” Twilight finished.

The whole thing seemed so creepy to read, it only made her irrational growing fears worse. It almost felt like the shivers that she kept feeling running down her spine were clawing their way up her back after reading that. Scootaloo fared no better hearing it. She was sweating and her mind was flashing to the worst possible chain of thoughts. She couldn’t say anything, but in her mind she was wondering if she really had escaped at all.

“Let’s pick up the pace a little.” Twilight suggested tired of the fear induced silence. But she didn’t get a reply. When she turned around to see why Scootaloo was being so quiet, she was gone. “Scoo-Scootaloo?” She asked confused, before she heard an deafening scream ahead on the path.

“TWILIGHT!” She heard Scootaloo’s horrified cry.

“SCOOTALOO! WHERE ARE YOU?” Twilight yelled out back, breaking into a gallop down the pathway, chasing after the voice she had heard. “BRING HER BACK SLENDERMANE! BRING HER-Woah!” Twilight yelled but was cut off by an unknown force lifting her from the ground and tossing her through the air. She screamed all the way through scared by the fact that everything was happening so fast that she could hardly process it. The screaming was silenced though by the slam of her body landing on the ground up the path, as her head followed and she fell unconscious as it also made hard contact with the dirt ground.

***

Twilight’s eyes snapped open again and she clutched her head. It was hurting more than before but she was pleased to at least now be able to remember most of the events that had followed earlier during the day, although she wasn’t quite fond of them. She lit up her horn again to bring light to the pitch black surroundings, before looking around again to make sure that the Slendermane hadn’t been approaching her while she had her flashback. It wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but she knew it had to be watching her; she couldn’t deny its existence any more.

She had no idea how long she’d been out replaying the scenario in her head, but she knew she couldn’t delay moving any longer. For Scootaloo’s sake she had to move now. She brought the book to her attention one more time, but everything was blacked out and burnt on the pages. Nothing was visible anymore. She flicked open the map page, to find that the image had also been reduced to the texture and colour of ash. The only thing left was the poem. She read it again, and her nervous reflexes started to tense her up and bring out her strongest discomforts.

‘As thin as a page, and as tall as a tree,

it lives in the dark of the Everfree.

It has no expression, but irradiates fear,

if you’re in its home, it will always be near.

It can stretch its form like it has rubber bones;

its origin will always remain unknown.

Its takes pegasus, unicorns, and Earth ponies alike,

its featureless being, their very last sight.

No eyes, no face, no tail, no mane,

the look of the creature can send you insane.

Trying to run will just bring you more pain,

because nopony escapes the Slendermane.’

The fur on her neck was standing high enough to sting now, her blood was running cold through her veins, and her spine felt like it was being ripped at by sharp claws. She levitated the book into her bag, and conjured up her light again, but shrieked louder than she’d ever done in her life. The Slendermane was right on the path in front of her, facing her head on, but not moving at all.

Twilight was too terrified to look at it though, and turned around letting out one of the most horrified scream she’d ever produced in her life, as she ran down the left dirt pathway as fast as she could. She looked back terrified hoping it wasn’t following her, but when she saw that it handed even inched, she slowed down and turned around to face it. Her horn sparked, but she didn’t look away.

‘What’s it doing?’ Twilight wondered. She was shaking horribly, her legs were hardly holding her up. She looked on at the creature and felt her lip start to quiver. She watched on for a second, but then she realised that it was obviously trying to scare her away from the path she’d come from and push her deeper into the forest. Upon realising this though, in less than a second, it popped from its place as if it had never existed. There was no flash of light or cloud of particles left behind; it was just gone. Twilight swallowed her fear and determined to stay as far away from the edge or middle of the forest as possible, continued following the pathway, searching for a sign of Scootaloo, now more wary than ever, and scared then she'd ever been in her lifetime.

Chapter 3

Twilight stumbled along the cold, dark road of horrors. The wind had started to pick up a little and she was in a horribly uncomfortable state. Her legs had stopped bleeding and were covered in slit shaped lines of dry blood, but running from the Slendermane in a fearful, adrenaline pumped state of mind had increased the pain of the stinging three times over.

She could feel an aching pain at the base of her horn, and creating a light to keep the path ahead in her field of vision wasn’t helping her in the slightest, but knowing the Slendermane was following her, she would probably be near paralysed with fear if she had to walk in the dark. The fog seemed to be playing games with her mind, creating shapes and faces and moulding horrors in front of her. She tried to use her magic to push the fog away, but the breeze kept pushing it back towards her, forming faces and pictures that she couldn’t stop envisioning, which were also starting to join the assault on her sanity.

She followed the path into darkness, but nothing happened for a short time. Twilight was on constant alert, looking in every direction, monitoring everything she could see in her field of vision, but almost nothing was different from the long spanning dirt road, and lines of dark, thick trees, threatening to tangle and constrict anypony who tried to escape through them. Kicking up more dust as she shifted through the forest Twilight was starting to wonder if she was going to see any different at all. She looked behind her nervously, but the coast was clear. Tuning her head around she peered nervously through the middle of the trees, hoping that maybe there would be something different there; the constant continuing sight was starting to become a tad more intimidating for her. Something started to glimmer in the distant thickness of leaves though. It was the slightest shine, not even very white in colour, but it had to mean something would be through the trees. She looked forward, and wondered if there was something further ahead out of her field of vision.

She diffused the light emitting from her horn, and against the throbbing in her head, she summoned some power and created a new light glowing with magenta and white energy, and shot a ray of the bright energy soaring down the dirt road. She watched as the whole pathway become illuminated and then darkened again as the light crashed into a small shack, sitting in an open clearing in the trees just up ahead. Upon seeing the structure Twilight lit up with curiosity.

“Why is there a shack this deep in the forest?” Twilight asked herself watching as the distant object faded into the darkness. Twilight lit her horn up with the white light she’d used to illuminate the path before, and looked back into the trees to her right. The glint was still there, and it was much closer to her than the shack. Twilight wondered if she should check it out first before making her way to the shed, but had trouble trying to make up her mind.

Out of nowhere she felt her magical light start to flicker, and heard static noise starting to crackle in her head. It wasn’t as painful as the last time, but the stinging was slowly increasing in intensity. She looked behind her and saw the Slendermane in the distance, as still as a rock. Twilight felt her heart skip a beat upon seeing it and let out a yell. The creature made up her mind for her. She figured if she kept following the path it might catch her, but if she was to run into the trees and hide she may lose it. Without a second thought Twilight leapt through the tree line and started running towards the glint, purposefully decreasing the concentration of her light making it just small enough to see the large thick roots of the big bodied trees in front of her.

She tried to think less about the Slendermane pursuing and more on dodging the trees and puddles of glue like filth in front of her. The thick tree areas seemed to gather a lot of moisture all around the ground, and create sludgy puddles of mud in random areas while leaving other spots just mildly damp. Twilight accidently missed one of the puddles in her path and slipped in it, losing focus on holding the light from her horn, falling over and to her displeasure, slid through more swampy puddles of it before stopping at the base of a tree. She felt like she was going to be sick. She was covered in thick, oozing mud, and the smell wasn’t far off from rotting food. She ran her hooves through her mane and pinched out as much of the muck as possible, while trying to keep or nose blocked to reject the unbearable smell. Twilight shook herself off spraying small clumps of mucky dirty in all directions, and got back on her hooves.

It was moments like this Twilight wished she had Owlowiscious’s nocturnal vision or even Owlowiscious if it meant some company. Upon thinking of Owlowiscious Twilight started thinking about all her friends, realising how much she longed for their company. Having them at her side would keep pushing her on and help her stay strong. She was on the verge of breaking down and just letting her pain and frustration out in tears, starting to regret not taking the time to get them first. Thinking about Fluttershy in particular, she could only hope that she was ok, but she knew deep down Fluttershy would be terrified.

Twilight got up and shook away as much of the excessive dirt as she could, and then tried to keep in mind that her actions to not retrieve them meant that they didn’t have to be here suffering in the unforgiving, dark forest, being hunted by the Slendermane. Twilight once again lit up her horn with a small light and continued walking over to the spot where she saw the glint. She didn’t feel the strength in herself to run, and felt that she’d gotten far enough to have evaded the creature for now. The glint revealed itself again as the light started to approach it, and Twilight located the source a few feet away. A large pair of purple broken glasses was lying next to the base of a tree, and one of the sides of glass was smashed. The glass on the other side appeared to be causing the glint. The frame was very faded in colour and appeared to be slightly cracked and split in several areas.

Twilight levitated the frame up leaving the shattered glass on the ground and looked at the small word scribed on the inside of the frame.

“Twist,” she read to herself before remembering Apple Bloom’s small red maned friend. “Oh no. She must have dropped these while she was trying to escape.” Twilight assumed, before looking at the tree above the glasses. There was a piece of paper tucked under an outstanding chip of bark from the trees body. It was only about as high as Twilight’s face and had a picture on it. Twilight could tell this was one of the notes that the fillies had placed around the forest during their escape attempt, and it was scribbled in very quickly making the words hard to read. Twilight didn’t pay attention to the quality though, understanding that under these light conditions, trying to see the pencils on the paper would have been a challenge in itself for the fillies and colts. She focused on it and identified the scribbled in shape of a large pony, which Twilight assumed was an interpretation of the Slendermane, with the words ‘It’s everywhere at once. Run’. The page was crinkled, wet, and the writing was barely readable. Twilight felt bad that the little ponies bothered to go to so much trouble to warn others, they were obviously rushed and under a lot of stress.

Twilight magically opened her saddlebag and popped the page inside of it, but before closing it. She picked up the glasses looking at them, wondering how Twist managed to lose them in the middle of the trees. She put the glasses in her saddlebag before lighting her horn back up, and getting ready to go back through the trees to find the small shack she saw before. She approached one of the large trees she’d passed earlier, about halfway out of the thick trees, carefully avoiding the puddles of smelly, thick mud, but upon seeing what was around the tree Twilight put her hooves over her mouth a threw herself back behind the trees body, willingly blacking out her spell and shrouding herself in darkness. The Slendermane was standing on the path where she had been and was looking around, presumably for her; she could only hope it hadn’t seen her though. She closed her eyes, letting light tears drip from them while she stood frozen in place, the only movement being her involuntary shaking.

Twilight didn’t dare move, and could hear the light patter of the Slendermane’s hooves behind the tree Twilight gulped as she heard them move closer, breathing extremely heavily while keeping her mouth closed, but before the noise of the creatures hooves got too close, Twilight heard them moving away, and becoming more silent. Twilight’s heart was pounding, and her eyes where trickling tear after tear of pure fear. She carefully and slowly as ever looked around the body of the tree, to see if the Slendermane was still there, but she didn’t dare light up her horn. It was incredibly dark, and hard to see, but Twilight could make out the clear line, to the empty, fog filled dirt path. She breathed a sigh of relief, before lighting up her horn again, and getting ready to move out to the pathway again. She turned around to face forward again and breathe properly, but was greeted with something that made her freeze like a block of ice, made her pupils constrict, and made the air leave her body, all in a synchronised second. The Slendermane was standing right in front of her. She was pinned to the spot, frozen with fear. She wanted to scream but she couldn’t even move her mouth voluntarily, whether she had the air to scream or not. Her head was starting to fill with unbearably painful static noise, allowing her one voluntary moment to clutch it in pain. She fell forwards on the ground, clutching her head, but unable to remove her watering eyes from the Slendermane’s featureless face.

The back of the creature’s suit started to bulge in many areas, and long appendages began to stretch from its back. Twilight finally managed to close her eyes as she cowered in fear and pain, and without warning she felt something strike her side, carrying her through the air. But it kept going. Wind was starting to rustle her mane, but whatever had grabbed her, was still holding on, almost as if it was carrying her somewhere. Twilight opened her eyes, and felt all the hope that had disappeared before return.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight said her face brightening with a smile upon seeing her friends face. Twilight didn’t think she’d end up smiling as long as she was in the forest. Fluttershy had picked her up flying at top speed, flown over to the path around the few trees in her path, smiled back at her, before gently coming to stop on the path further ahead, which had open skies and no trees covering the path, making it light enough for the girls to see each other.

“Fluttershy! I can’t believe it, thank goodness you’re ok!” Twilight said happily grabbing her friend’s shoulders and pulling her into a tight hug. Twilight was still crying and very much shaken up, but seeing Fluttershy again, and in a great state, made her feel much better. Twilight let go studied her friend quickly to make sure she wasn’t hurt.

“Twilight It’s good to see you, but you really shouldn’t have come here. If that... thing caught you. You would have been trapped.” Fluttershy said very concerned for her friend’s wellbeing.

“How did you escape?” Twilight asked, before noticing a long glazy scar along Fluttershy’s right leg. “Fluttershy what they hay happened to your leg?” Twilight asked extremely worried about the condition of the scar. From what Twilight had seen in one of her books, she could tell the scar was infected.

“It’s nothing Twilight. I’ll worry about that later. I mean look at you! You’re in a far worse state than me.” Fluttershy said pointing out Twilight’s scarred legs, which had indeed become much worse.

“I’ll be fine Fluttershy. I’m so glad to see you; I had no idea of what to think might have happened to you, especially when I found out that thing was real.” Twilight said preferring to not talk about the events from earlier.

“It’s great to see you too Twilight, I knew you were going to come looking for me and the others, I was just hoping you were with somepony else. I wasn’t sure you’d make it very far on your own.” Fluttershy said.

“I... I was with Scootaloo... but she disappeared when all this fog appeared.” Twilight said.

“Me and some of the fillies escaped when this fog appeared.” Fluttershy explained. “It’s horrible here Twilight. This part of the forest is absolutely terrible... I could hardly walk forward when I got to the tree line, it was so dark, and terrifying. I felt safer in the middle of the area... I only left because I wanted to find you and lead some of the others who escaped away, if we could find a way out of here that is.” Fluttershy explained.

“Well... Where are the others?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know. They all vanished one by one as we went through the trees. No screams or anything.” Fluttershy said, tears welling up in her eyes knowing that there could only be one explanation for what took them. “I heard your voice in the distance, and saw you’re light. You said Twist I think. I followed the light as it got brighter, but then it went out... I couldn’t see you or even my own hooves in front of me, and when you lit it back up, I saw you just standing there, about to be caught by that... ugh, that evil creature. I just felt a kick in my body and flew in to grab you away. That creature is horrible Twilight. You really shouldn’t have come looking for me.” Fluttershy said.

“Well you know I wasn’t going to just leave you.” Twilight said.

“Tell me though, when did that happen?” she asked pointing at her upper back leg, at the infected scar. “Did the Slendermane do that?”

“The... what?” Fluttershy asked.

“That’s what it’s called.” Twilight informed her.

“Oh... I see, and uh, no... Well not really... As soon as I got back to my cottage this morning, I started talking to Scootaloo, but the door was bashed down.... It was terrible Twilight. It grabbed me with these... long tentacles coming out of its back! I managed to break free from it though somewhere in the forest, and tried to run to Zecora’s, but I had to fly over all the poison joke in the road first, and once I reached the other side, the... Slendermane was already there, and I panicked. I flew right into a tree and cut my leg while I brushed past it. Apart from the pain of the moment I can’t remember much else. I woke up in a tiled room surrounded by fillies and colts.” Fluttershy explained.

“I’m so sorry all of this has happened to you Fluttershy. It must have been horrible...” Twilight said.

“It was... but I don’t blame you Twilight. You had nothing to do with it. In fact it’s probably my own fault that I got dragged into all this. I offered to watch Scootaloo, even though I had my suspicions. And I don’t regret my decision, I had to help out. And anyway I wouldn’t be much of an element of kindness if I didn’t.” Fluttershy told her. “Come on. That thing is still out there, we should find Scootaloo and try and get the others. We need to get out of the forest.” Fluttershy said.

“Let’s go this way first,” Twilight said pointing at the shack lying in the open field; being in a more open area with some form of light made it much clearer to see.

“Ok Twilight, but let’s hurry. If we have to go back to the middle of the forest, I’d much rather get it done and over with...” Fluttershy said.

Twilight looked back over in the distance. The Slendermane was there, but it wasn’t pursuing the pair. Instead it appeared to be watching them. Twilight shivered and looked away. Fluttershy looked but there was nothing on the path. She didn’t have to see anything to be scared though. The darkness of the forest was scary enough.

“Let’s hurry ok Fluttershy.” Twilight suggested starting to trot down the road.

“Good idea Twilight.” She said walking behind her.

Before long they reached the building. It was a small but well built little shed, and upon getting to the open area, they also noticed a horse drawn carriage behind it, missing a wheel. The fog was very thin in the open area of the forest, and the air was actually quite warm, compared to the rest of the forest. Twilight approached the carriage to see if there was anything on it that would hint to the others location, and to her luck, there was another piece of paper, which had been pushed onto the sharp point of the back plank of wood holding the wheel support beam. Twilight didn’t need the light of her horn to see the picture though; the moon was giving off light that shined more than enough light on the open area to make out its features. She looked at the picture, it was still poorly drawn, but Twilight didn’t expect anything more. It had another roughly sketched Slendermane, but it was halfway behind a tree. The words were smaller to make space, and said ‘Stay out of the trees, not safe.’

She pulled the note of the wooded spike and was about to put it into her bag, before Fluttershy noticed it.

“Twilight what’s that?” She asked looking at the piece of paper.

“Scootaloo said that while she and the others were lost in the forest, they would put a few pages up with warnings and notes telling other ponies that they should try and leave the forest as soon as possible.” Twilight said sliding the note into her saddlebag. “Come on, let’s look inside the shed.” She suggested.

“Um, ok Twilight. But don’t you think you should leave the notes there? I mean what if somepony does end up getting lost out here; the notes are the only thing that can help them.” Fluttershy said. Twilight realised this was true, but she had an idea.

“Fluttershy, I don’t know if I’m getting out of here tonight, but I want to make sure the fillies and colts do, and you. I have a note and quill in my saddlebag. I’m going to sum up all the notes, and once I get the others to the front of the forest, whether I can leave or not, I’m leaving a proper warning there so that ponies can leave before they get too deep into the forest and can’t turn back.” Twilight said, starting to accept that her fate wasn’t likely to turn out well.

“Twilight, don’t talk like that!” Fluttershy scolded.

“But have you seen the Slendermane? It’s been following me and Scootaloo ever since we entered the forest, almost relentlessly. It would have caught me before if it weren’t for you. Even if I could outrun it, I’m still magically sealed off from the rest of the forest.” Twilight explained, but before Fluttershy could say anything, she raised her hoof and pushed on the door to the shed. It was locked from the inside.

Almost as soon as she’d put pressure on the thin metal door, it creaked loudly, and gave off a sickening scratchy groan. Twilight suddenly heard noise from inside the shed, consisting of crashing metal, falling objects, and the rattle of many objects dropping on a thin metal surface.

“Hel-Hello? Hello?!” Twilight heard from behind the metal door.

“Twilight was that Scootaloo?” Fluttershy asked upon recognising the filly’s voice through the door.

“I think so! Scootaloo! Is that you?!” Twilight yelled through the metal door.

“Twilight! Thank goodness! Can you get me out of here?! I can’t see anything, it’s so dark!” Scootaloo cried through the door staggering into more objects.

“Scootaloo, just sit tight!” Twilight said.

“What are you going to do Twilight?” Fluttershy asked curious as to her friends idea.

“Easy, just watch.” Twilight said, before squinting her eyes, and conjuring a small magenta ball of energy on the tip of her horn, which spread over the rest of it, creating a faint purple cloud around the entire frame of the rusty metal door. Twilight, with a little bit of focus, pulled the door off the hinges with a loud crunch, also pulling of part of the outside frame, but not pulling over any of the rest of the shed.

Almost as soon as the shed had been opened, Scootaloo bolted out of the darkness of the back corner of the shed and wrapped her arms around Twilight’s leg. Twilight was more than overly concerned about the filly condition now, compared to before. Scootaloo was clearly bruised in several areas, had frighteningly red, glassy, bloodshot, eyes. The fur and skin around her eyes was puffy and tear soaked, and there was a line of blood spanning down her fur into a few directions from her left nostril. Her mane was a ruffled dirty mess, and her coat was also dirty, and darkened a slight murky green colour with a sticky oily fluid. She had a few small cuts around her legs, but luckily she didn’t appear to have any big cuts or scars, but she was in no form of a good condition.

“Fluttershy! Thank goodness you’re ok! I didn’t know what to think happened to you after the Slendermane took you!” Scootaloo said, jumping of Twilight’s leg and running over to Fluttershy, jumping up and hugging her around the neck.

“Scootaloo, you look terrible. What happened to you?” Fluttershy asked, almost scared by the filly’s morbid condition.

“The Slendermane grabbed me before... It all happened too fast... It dropped me in here, and then left. I don’t know why.... But it’s been so dark... Twilight I can hardly see right now. It... It... I can’t talk about it.” Scootaloo said stopping herself, and letting more tears stream from her worn out eyes.

“It’s ok Scootaloo. You don’t have to.” Twilight told her. She felt horrible for Scootaloo, considering everything she’s already been through, and all the more horrible things still happening.

She looked inside of the shed, and could understand why Scootaloo was in this condition almost straight away. She didn’t need the light of her horn, there was enough light illuminating the room from the moon after she’d ripped of the door. There was a dirty, greasy looking fluid all over the ground that Scootaloo must have been lying in, bits of rusty metal and junk lying on the floor surrounded by vomit, and a broken table glazed red on top with blood. The whole room reeked of bile which was nauseating and very putrid to Twilight. She couldn’t see anything special about the shed, and didn’t want to look inside it anymore. She walked away from it disgusted that the Slendermane could possibly be that cruel as to leave Scootaloo in there all on her own.

“What the hay does that thing get out of the things that it does?!” Twilight angrily, but rhetorically asked the other pair, making it clear she wasn’t angry at them. “Kills two fillies, probably killed heaps of other ponies, abducts them right from their homes, and this?! This has to stop! This shouldn’t happen to such little ponies!” Twilight angrily yelled towards the forest.

“Twilight, don’t try and get its attention the last thing we want is for it to show up.” Fluttershy warned her.

“I’m sorry Fluttershy, it’s just look at the mess in there, and Scootaloo. What kind of creature would force a filly into those conditions? Judging from the smell in there for all I know it could have been toxic.” Twilight said. Scootaloo was getting seemingly more worried that she might be in trouble, and tried to wipe as much of the dirty fluid off of her coat. She tried to block out the fear of getting sicker than she already felt, and instead thought about ways that the three could escape the forest faster.

“If it helps, I think I know a way that will lead you to the others in that other building. But can we please make it quick... I want to go home.” Scootaloo sobbed, tears rolling down the sides of her face.

“Umm. Scootaloo, I think for now you should just have a rest, I’ll carry you if you like?” Fluttershy offered.

“That would be great.” Scootaloo said, climbing onto Fluttershy’s back as she knelt down to give her a lift up.

“Scootaloo, which way do you think we should go?” Twilight asked the filly, to get an answer before she closed her eyes. Scootaloo looked up one path to the right, which eventually descended into pure darkness that shrouded every feature of the path in blackness, but she could remember there being some sort of night sky light on the path she’d escaped through, or at least the one that led away from the building. There was one path to the left of it the was lit completely by the night sky with almost no trees shrouding the pathway, but was covered in a thick mucky green moss like plant all over the ground, along with several patches of poison joke, which Scootaloo knew wasn’t the path they wanted to go on. Scootaloo looked at the final path to the right. It wasn’t pitch black, but it was only dimly lit, Scootaloo couldn’t see very far down the path, because of the condition of her eyes, but she was more than certain that it was the right way.

“That way.” Scootaloo said weakly raising her hoof to point at the pathway. She relaxed her legs and slung her fore-legs round Fluttershy’s neck so that she was holding onto her, but also not restricting her wings in case she needed to fly somewhere. She closed her sore eyes slowly, finding it difficult at first with all the stinging she felt through trying to do so. Fluttershy couldn’t manage any expression to Twilight and nor Twilight to Fluttershy. Twilight felt nothing but burning hate and terrible fear towards the Slendermane, but Fluttershy was overcome with fear of everything happening around her. Abducted from her own home during the day, being trapped and chased in the Everfree forest late at night, looking for ponies that could be badly injured, Scootaloo’s condition, everything about the night was terrifying to her.

They started to make their way away from the shed and towards the pathway Scootaloo had told them to go down.

“Fluttershy, I don’t want to scare Scootaloo, but if we don’t get her to the Ponyville hospital and have them check those cuts soon, and the stuff she’s been lying in turns out to be toxic... If it got into her bloodstream through those cuts she could get really sick.” Twilight quietly warned her making it more than clear that they had to hurry and save the others. She didn’t intend on telling Scootaloo that, trying to spare her from getting more scared than she already was, but Scootaloo had heard her. She didn’t open her eyes, they were stinging too much for that.

“Twilight, I’m sorry you two are here... It’s my fault,” Scootaloo started, being instantly cut off by Twilight.

“Don’t even think that for a second Scootaloo.” She said being cut off herself by Scootaloo who was determined to say her piece.

“But it is. The Slendermane... let me go on purpose... It knew I was going to come back for the others, and it must have known somepony would come with me. And I led it to Fluttershy’s cottage. I shouldn’t have run, because it knew that somepony would help me, now if you don’t escape somepony will come looking for you, and it’ll just keep happening. It uses its victims as bait for other victims. I only realised after it took me away that I’d just dragged you both right into this. If I’d just stayed you wouldn’t be here.” Scootaloo said apologetic for getting them involved.

“Scootaloo, Whether you’d gotten us into this or not we would have ended up in the forest.” Twilight replied ready to prove it didn’t matter.

“How do you work that out Twilight?” Scootaloo asked, still not able to open her eyes.

“Applejack and Rarity have been searching for their sisters all over Ponyville and areas around it, and eventually they would have to resort to searching the forest. And do you think me and Fluttershy would let them go in on their own?” Twilight asked her rhetorically. “Wouldn’t be a very great friend if I let them go searching for their sisters in the Everfree forest on their own.” She finished.

“Me neither. And like I told Twilight, I wouldn’t be much of an element of kindness if I hadn’t helped you either.” Fluttershy said as they walked.

Even though it was painful Scootaloo felt a couple of tears come to her eyes, which she still didn’t open, and a slight grin appeared on her face. Even scared and in pain, their words still meant a lot to her. But the happiness was very short lived. Fluttershy had shrieked and jumped, unsettling Scootaloo who knew that something bad was happening, that she couldn’t see. Twilight had also let out a cry of fear. Up ahead of them on the path they were about to walk up the Slendermane had popped up and was blocking any further progress.

“Wha... What’s happening?” Scootaloo asked confused and beginning to feel scared again.

“It’s there on the path! Come on Fluttershy, we have to go around it.” She heard Twilight say.

The two turned around and went back to the split area of the pathway, and looked at their only two remaining options. Twilight had no intention of going back to the front of the forest, but she wasn’t keen to go through the middle path; she had no idea what the thick, murky, green plant all over the pathway was. Plus the risk of running into the patches of poison joke was another con of the pathway. But before she had any time to think Twilight saw the Slendermane appear right behind Fluttershy, no sound, no cloud or aura of magical energy; it was there as if it had just popped into existence. Twilight nearly had a heart attack on seeing it.

“FLUTTERSHY LOOK OUT!” Twilight screamed. Fluttershy looked behind her, regretting it almost instantly, and she screamed. Scootaloo held onto Fluttershy’s neck tightly for dear life, letting a low whine out unsure of what was happening.

“RUN!” Twilight yelled again almost instantly.

Normally on a fright Fluttershy would be paralysed with fear, but her body was flooding with adrenaline from the fright of seeing the creature standing that close, and she didn’t need a second warning. The pair took off through the thick green plantation, dodging even the smallest patches of poison joke. It wasn’t as hard to run through as Twilight had assumed by its appearance, but it reduced speed a little. Fluttershy galloped as fast as her back leg would let her, with Twilight right by her side, going about the same speed, even though she didn’t care about her own legs anymore. Scootaloo could only hold on and hope that the two would escape. Twilight flicked her head back, and screamed. The Slendermane was right behind them. It was fast, but it stopped moving whenever she looked at it, and taunted her by teleporting right behind the trio, whenever she stopped looking at. She looked forward to see that the path broke left up ahead, and saw that she was approaching a large patch of poison joke to her right. She suddenly had an idea.

“Fluttershy! Keep following the path, I have an idea!” She said. Fluttershy was tired and wanted nothing more than to be able to stop, but she nodded and started running faster, jumping over a small patch of poison joke. Twilight watched her friend start trailing to the left, and looked back at the Slendermane, which was again right behind her. Her heart was pumping, she was sweating, her limbs were tired, and static was starting to build up in her head.

“I have to time this just right!” Twilight murmured to herself.

Now seconds before hitting the patch of blue flowers, Twilight leapt into the air, travelling high enough to clear the whole patch, but causing a larger amount of pain to her legs for all the extra pressure she’d put on them. About to land on the other side of the patch, Twilight looked back behind her, and choked in a scream to find it standing face to face with her with very few inches between them. It’s tentacle appendages were now at full extension waving in directions all over the place. Twilight landed on her side, but the plant acted as a pillow and cushioned her fall, while she slid through it a few metres.

Twilight looked back and found the Slendermane standing right above her, next to the patch of poison joke.

“Oh no. I didn’t time it right.” She said to herself feeling static building up in her head. She cowered as the Slendermane bore down upon her to grab her with its impossibly long tentacles, but opened her eyes as Fluttershy’s voice cried out to her.

“Twilight quick!” She heard and looked up to see a rock, flying the air which smacked against the Slendermane’s head. The tentacles slung and shrunk down into its back again instantly and created a flat surface for its suit again, before the creature looked over at Fluttershy. Twilight started running towards her friend while the creature was distracted, but Fluttershy looking straight at the creature out of fear felt static beginning to build up in her head. Twilight got next to her, but Fluttershy wouldn’t move. She was fixated on the creature holding a gaze that she couldn’t break.

“Fluttershy come on we have to go!” Twilight said shaking her friend, but getting no results. Tears were streaming from both their eyes and Fluttershy was close to collapsing from the pain in her head the static was causing, but still unable to move. Scootaloo opened her eyes feeling the cold air around her sting them as she did so. They were still almost glowing with redness and were very bloodshot, but it didn’t take her long to notice the Twilight was trying to shift her friend who was fixated the spot. She looked over Fluttershy’s head and saw that she was staring at the Slendermane. Instincts took over and she whipped her foreleg around Fluttershy’s eyes breaking the gaze.

“Fluttershy don’t stare at it!” Scootaloo warned. Fluttershy snapped as if she’d been in a trance, and turned around with Twilight, as they started to run again.

There was another clearing in the distance with what looked like a large blue square in it. Twilight looked back for a second after a few moments, but the Slendermane was gone. But the pair didn’t stop running, they were far too scared now for that. Dodging the last few patches of poison joke, the pair approached the clearing. Scootaloo now saw the blue box come into view, and recognised it. The others could see the doorways, and also knew what they were looking at.

“That’s it! That’s the building!” Scootaloo said, relieved that they had actually managed to find it. Twilight looked to the left and saw another hardly lit pathway.

“That must be the other path we could have taken.” She assumed.

The three walked towards the building, while Twilight carefully surveyed the area, looking for the Slendermane.

“I don’t know where you are, but with or without me, these ponies are all going home, tonight!” Twilight stated to herself.

Chapter 4

Fluttershy cautiously continued to walk towards the building with Scootaloo on her back, while Twilight kept surveying the area, backing up behind the pair. The building was in moonlit well open area, with three pathways diverting from it, and most of the trees surrounding the circular opening stood tall, barren of leaves, and were completely jet black, with arms shooting off in unnatural directions. Scootaloo was starting to feel very sick, and started to groan as they got closer to the building.

“Ugh, Flu... Fluttershy... I think... I ugh,” Scootaloo couldn’t keep talking. She could feel bodily fluids rising through her throat from her stomach, burning as they ascended. Scootaloo quickly threw herself off Fluttershy, and vomited the disgusting mess of bile into a small patch of grass, and felt tears come to her eyes from the sting of the burning, repulsive taste that had forced its way up her throat.

She convulsed at the horrible feeling that she’d just experienced, but didn’t have any time to recover before another load of sick flooded her mouth, bringing a stench to her sinuses and more tears to her eyes. She was quick to get the contents out of her mouth, but almost felt like she was choking from the acidic mess burning her throat. She rolled over shaking and groaning; wanting nothing more than for everything around her to just stop and go back to normal, but Fluttershy and Twilight were quick to come to her aid.

“Scootaloo! Are you ok?” Fluttershy asked while she spat out the second load of sick.

“I... gah,” Scootaloo tried to start, but stopped clutching her stomach feeling a sting of pain, almost like a needle was being carelessly jabbed into her. “I feel really bad... ugh” Scootaloo felt another wave of sick forcing its way up her throat, and rolled over quickly to avoid vomiting all over herself.

She started to cry out of full pain now. Her stomach no longer had any food or content to douse the burning the vomit was causing in her throat, resulting in a strong acidy fluid emerging instead, leaving her whole throat with a terrible burning sensation worse than that of before.

“Fluttershy, we have to get her out of the forest and to the Ponyville hospital now. Stay with her, and watch the forest carefully, I’m going to get the others.” Twilight told her, receiving a nod back.

Fluttershy sat down next to Scootaloo and starting rubbing her back to be as comforting as she possibly could.

“Scootaloo, don’t worry, we’re getting you home soon ok? You and the others. Everything’s going to be fine.” Fluttershy assured her, feeling tears come to her own eyes as she surveyed the fillies worsening condition.

“You, ugh, you promise?” Scootaloo said.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Fluttershy Pinkie promised continuing to rub the fillies back feeling her wrench her body trying to hold back any further involuntary convulsions.

Twilight was burning with the worst combination of emotions as she approached the door to the large blue building. She was filled with so many different fears, for Scootaloo and if they’d get her out of the forest, Fluttershy, the fillies and colts that she was hoping more than ever would be safe behind the wall she was approaching, the fate of the other ponies in Ponyville that might become victims to the Slendermane if they were unable to warn the outside world, and the rest of her friends, hoping for Equestria’s sake that they wouldn’t come looking for her; Even the Slendermane wasn’t bringing her as much negativity as those she was thinking about.

She then felt hate, all directed at the Slendermane, and what it had done to all the ponies it had abducted, only trying to continue the torturous unimaginable crime with no care or mercy to those it inflicted pain upon. The sadness that followed these emotions made her feel even worse, as if all the emotions she was feeling were all ingredients in an alchemy experiment gone wrong.

She studied the small building turning her to look around it, but not being able to see much on the long front of it apart from an out of sight dip in the middle of the building. On the side she was approaching there were two entrances, one on the left corner and one on the right. Twilight was proceeding to the one on the right. She made sure to listen out for Fluttershy, just in case something happened outside. As she did so, she carefully entered the open doorway.

She felt a cold presence embrace her as she entered the dark tiled building, and shivered as chills creeped through her coat. Straight away to Twilight’s immediate left upon entering the door way, there was another open doorway, leading into an open tiled room, Twilight peered inside, but didn’t even get a good look at the rooms contents before she whipped her head out putting her arm over her nose.

The room reeked of rotting meat and dead swamp plantation. Twilight was reminded solely of the time she stumbled upon a manticore den on her way home from Zecora’s, long before the abductions began, and the mould and insect ridden, decomposing half corpse of a stallion that she’d regrettably discovered while trying to find a way around it. But upon peering her head inside, she was easily able to identify some of the bodies lying in the room, unlike the half body which was never identified, with no sign of a cutie mark or obvious fur colour.

Twilight left her arm around her nose to block out as much of the stench of the room as possible. Looking inside the room brought tears to her eyes, but the strength of the smell wasn’t what was causing it. The sight of some of the lifeless bodies that were in the room was devastating; some of them being her friends that had gone missing, some of them being parents, some of them unrecognisable piles of minced chunks and red puddles.

Berry Punch, Mrs Cake, Colgate, Carrot Top, and Moon Dancer who’d just visited Ponyville for a few days, were all among the still and barely recognisable bodies lying lifeless on the tiled floor. Twilight felt a sickly lump forcing its way through her throat, but swallowed it back down flinging her head out of the room. Everything she was already feeling was just getting worse.

Feeling tears streaming down her face she went followed the tiled hallway away from the room, making a left turn at the corner of the building, Twilight was speechless as she looked at the hallway in front of her. What was she going to tell everypony back in Ponyville, or who would have to tell them what happened if she didn’t make it? Twilight was faced with a hallway branching of to the right, and another left turn facing up ahead.

She followed the hallway first, making the left turn, and finding that it was basically symmetrical to the one she’d entered, with an exit leading back outside. She moved over to the outside door before peering outside; she felt some relief when she saw that Fluttershy and Scootaloo were still ok, but was very reluctant to look inside the room to her left. Struggling to bring herself to do so, she peered inside the room, and felt her heart hit rock bottom, sinking in her chest like a rock. The missing fillies and colts were in the room, all in a much better condition than those in the first room she’d peered in, but they were just as lifeless. Twilight felt what had only been tears, progress to absolute misery.

“It... It killed them... No... It couldn’t ha... No... I was too late...” Twilight mumbled, collapsing to her knees, and then onto her stomach unable to control how she felt. Any flickering flames of hope had been extinguished by Twilight’s tears. She felt a hoof on her shoulder and looked up to see Scootaloo had come over to her.

“Twi... ugh, Twilight, what’s wrong? Where are the others?” she asked before looking into the room herself. “Are... are they.... No they can’t be, A... Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo cried out looking in the room immediately spotting her friends. She didn’t break down and cry at the sight of her friends and peers though; she didn’t trust her eyes in their condition and had to be sure what she was seeing was real. She ran over to the other members of the CMC and grabbed their shoulders, while Fluttershy sat with Twilight trying to comfort her without breaking down into a mess herself.

“Apple Bloom?! Sweetie Belle. Wake up.” Scootaloo cried, desperately shaking her friends. Scootaloo’s horrible night was brightened up in almost an instant though, seeing the smallest flicker of movement from Sweetie Belle’s eyelids, then Apple Bloom’s. She shook them harder.

“Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle! Wake up, it’s Scootaloo, I came back!” She joyfully announced as her friends started to stir into consciousness. Twilight had trouble identifying the nature of Scootaloo’s cries, but looked up as soon as Fluttershy started trying to get her attention.

“Twilight... Twilight! Look! Their ok!” She cried happily looking into the room. Twilight lifted her head and felt sanctity return to her body. Many of the fillies and colts in the room had reacted to Scootaloo’s voice and were stirring, and rolling around weakly. Twilight got up quickly, feeling the warmth of the hope she’d longed to preserve return to her. The last wells of tears in her eyes, dribbled out and dried into the dry patches of fur on her face.

“Scoo... Scoo...oww. Ah mah head.” Apple Bloom mumbled still stirring between consciousness and sleep.

“Scootaloo... you really came back... ah thought it got you.” Apple Bloom mumbled before groaning and clutching her stomach. “Ugh ah haven’t eaten properly in days.”

“Don’t worry, Twilight and Fluttershy are here, we’ll get you all out of here.” Scootaloo told her slowly recovering friend. She looked at Sweetie Belle, but she was recovering even slower and hadn’t quite found herself able to speak.

“Twi and Fluttershy?” Apple Bloom asked, slightly craning her neck to find the two mares standing at the door. She looked back at Scootaloo, letting her vision adjust to the night level light conditions before she could actually identify the many injuries and bruised sites of her friend’s body; not to mention the rancid smell of vomit that lingered in her breath.

“Sweet Celestia Scootaloo. Wha...” Apple Bloom stopped choking on her saliva and coughing it back into her throat. “What the hay happened to you?” Apple Bloom asked seeing her blazing red eyes and purple eye lids, and filthy, ruffled coat on her belly and legs.

“What did that monster do to you?” Sweetie Belle’s voice said almost out of nowhere. The pair looked over and noticed that Berry Pinch was giving her a helping hoof to get up, but shortly noticing after that she only had three, causing each of the girls to give a light squeal.

“Forget what happened to me! Where’s your other hoof?” Scootaloo asked looking at the stump on her back right leg. Berry Pinch was only crying and didn’t say anything though. Instead she only pointed at her throat, and made a movement across it, as if she was mimicking something slicing through it. The girls thought for a moment, but eventually figured out that she wasn’t able to speak. Understanding that they’d figured out her predicament, she shifted a couple of uncomfortable, uneasy steps over to the wall and leaned against it for support.

Over on the opposite side of the room, Twilight walked in, and knowing that every filly and colt here had a chance... Or almost all of them. They had obviously been deprived of food and liquid for quite some time, and had probably only been able to eat any grass that they could find outside, if they were lucky enough to make it outside. She looked over at a few of the still lifeless bodies lying on the tiled floor, that wouldn’t respond in any way to their friends please and cries. Snips for one had gotten up and found snails lying a few feet away.

Twilight trying to take in everything happening around her, seemed to block out any noise, but the scene made everything the more depressing. She couldn’t hear Snips words, but the emotion she could see on his face, while he tried ineffectively to wake up his sleeping friend, was just one of the few sights that contributed to the heartbreaking gloom the room was emanating with.

“Fluttershy, we have to get them out of here now. We can’t let them stay here, it’s going to be too much for them to cope with while the Slendermane’s still out there.” Twilight said wiping her eyes, and turning to her friend. Fluttershy was also silently crying, the fact that few of these ponies had been so badly injured or killed almost unbearable for her to think about, but she nodded in agreement with Twilight.

“Can you help get them outside? I need to make sure that there aren’t any more ponies that we can still save. Take.... Remember who isn’t coming back... We,” Twilight stopped and sniffed again trying to oppress the onslaught of tears that were trying to force their way from her tear ducts. “We have to.... we have to make sure...” Twilight went to finish her sentence, but Fluttershy just put her hoof on her shoulder and nodded. On that note Twilight exited the room, and turned right following the hallway, back to the right turn corner, but instead of following it to the end, made a left turn into the hallway that branched off the middle of the building.

It had a doorway leading to the forest outside on the wall to the left of her, and at the end of the hallway, there was a path to the left. Following the hallway, making the left turn, Twilight came to another right turn leading to one smaller hallway, which faded to pitch black darkness. Twilight ignited her horn with a light, which gleamed of the tiles filling the room with magenta and refracting off the hallway filling the ones behind her. The hallway was a dead end, but a large square ahead at the end of the floor was missing, and on approaching it, Twilight found that it was actually a small pit, but even her light wasn’t enough to see a bottom.

***

Back in the room, Fluttershy was struggling with the emotional task of getting all the injured fillies and colts, to separate with their departed peers. It was almost painful to hold back her own overpowering sadness, while trying to get them to part with theirs and leave for their own safety. 12 of the ponies now outside, left only the CMC and the bodies of the 5 lifeless bodies of the little ponies who hadn’t made it. Unable to hold back the heartrending emotion that had been raging behind her depressed expression, Fluttershy burst into tears, before taking note of those who wouldn’t be leaving with them, and ushered the CMC to leave with her.

On her way out of the room, Apple Bloom paused when she saw her curly maned friend Twist, without her glasses, lying among the ones who hadn’t got up. Knowing she wasn’t as close with her old friend as she used to be ever since she met Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, she was quick to go make sure she was ok.

“Twist? Twist?” She asked shaking her friends limp body around. “Twist, it’s time to go... Twist?”

The hard truth didn’t hit Apple Bloom for a few seconds, but when she finally realised Twist wouldn’t be leaving with them, she felt her heart sink into her stomach, and didn’t even attempt to refrain herself from letting tears stream out of both eyes. She didn’t want to leave her friend here, even if she was gone, and weakly collapsed onto the floor in front of her, before long, lying in a small puddle of her own tears.

***

Twilight now right in front of the pit stared down as far as her horn would allow, but she saw no bottom, nor any sign that there even was one. Momentarily she diverted her attention to the hallway behind her, as the strange feeling that she was being watched made the fur on the back of her neck crane up ever so slightly, but there was nothing there. She looked back down the hole in front of her and increased the power she was putting into the magical light, but still saw no further down the hole than before. The feeling of abnormal presence around herself started to slowly creep into her head again, Twilight started to breathe faster as anxiety caused her heartbeat to accelerate. She shot another look behind herself, but still nothing was there. Twilight started to break into a sweat. She started to consider just leaving the building then and there, but she had to be sure there was nopony in the bottom of the pit that needed saving.

Twilight diverted all of the light that was bouncing of the room around her into an extremely focused beam of light, and directed it directly down the pit, through with wasting time with magic that wasn’t working. She peered carefully down the pit to see what was down there, but what was down there was making the light illuminating the pit made the glow a light red colour rather than its natural magenta. Twilight looked closely at what was causing the tint in her magical colour, and threw her head out of the tunnel in disgust.

Dismembered limbs and minced torsos, with what looked like chunks of bones, scraps of muscle and ligament, and badly misshaped organs lay in a pool of red in the bottom of the pit. It filled the whole pit diameter so there was no telling how deep it was. But Twilight had seen enough in medical books to recognise the remnants of what were probably bodies of other victims, even in the unrecognisable state. Twilight wasn’t sure anymore if she was seeing what she was seeing, or seeing what the Slendermane wanted her to see.

The fear in her mind started to become stronger and Twilight was almost certain that the Slendermane was behind her, throwing another look behind herself only to find that she was wrong. Wanting only to know that there was nopony that she needed to retrieve from the pit, Twilight dared one more look into the pit in order to confirm that she wasn’t being tricked. As she shone the beam of light into the pit once more, the light bounced back off the surface of the pool below in the tinted red colour, but as Twilight further craned her vision over the pit, another shape started to form into the light. Above the messy pool below, two spaced pointy objects came into silhouetted vision, then a curve between them, and then the top of what looked like a head. But as the shape came to colour, and revealed a flat pale white surface, Twilight instantly realising her mistake in revealing the shape below, Twilight screamed and jumped back from the pit.

“No!” She yelled breaking her concentration on the light, blacking out the hallway. Twilight brought up a smaller light in the matter of a second and turned around to run out of the building and waste no time in escaping with everypony else. But upon turning around she came directly face to face with the entity that had just one second ago been in the pit. Letting out a scream of shock and fright, Twilight jumped away from the Slendermane, realising her second mistake of doing so in front of the pit. She screamed all the way on her descent down, with only a featureless face in her vision watching her fall.

She came to an abrupt stop, splashing into the pool of gore. In a sudden attempt to remain above it, Twilight flailed her arms around hopelessly, only flicking more of the thick mix of muscle and entrails above her. She kicked her legs but found it almost impossible to do so, finding the pool to be thicker with bloody mess, than liquid with blood. Twilight couldn’t even scream, feeling the cold rush of the blood in the pool run into her throat. She shut her mouth out of pure disgust and displeasure, but could not against any effort block the reeking stench of the mess from her nose. To make matters worse the smell and environment had taken less than seconds to push Twilight beyond the point of disgust, and she felt vomit coursing its way up her throat. Beginning to sink deeper into the mess Twilight did the only thing she had a chance to try and do, while it was still in her vision, which was about to become blurred by red.

Kicking away as much of the bone and mess as she could, unable to hold back the bile in her throat any longer, Twilight lit her horn up with a spell she hadn’t been able to perform since she entered the forest. As the tip of her horn glowed with magenta, she looked directly at the hallway at the top of the pit, and blotted out the Slendermane. Twilight closed her eyes as they passed under the gore with only her snout and horn still above it. Twilight kept the vision of the hallway in her head, and felt warmth surround her body through all the cold blood around her. Focussing hard on the spell she was about to perform, she took in one last breath of the gore polluted air of the pit before descending below it.

Her spell surrounded her in a ball of white energy, and before she knew it, Twilight moved herself out of the messy pool, and found herself lying in the hallway before the pit. She opened her eyes, and took in a few large panicked breaths, trying to come to terms with the previous event. She found the air was much cleaner now, but could still taste the bitter disturbing flavour of blood on her tongue. Her sinuses were swarming with the displeasuring smell of gore, and her coat was dyed red by blood that remained stained and flushed through it.

Very disturbed mentally and physically, Twilight was unable to stop herself from shaking out of fear and disgust, but all it took to trigger the inevitable sickly aftermath was the splosh of what appeared to be a spleen sliding off her flank and onto the floor. Twilight looked at it, and her blood covered body, and could no longer repress the horrible smell and taste, finding her mouth quickly becoming filled with vomit. Twilight didn’t aim it anywhere in particular, and just let it all out on the floor in front of her.

All the warmth in her body fled with each mouthful of sick, and the cold slime of the blood and thick mess staining her coat was starting to make everything even chillier. Twilight felt tears streaming out her eyes with the burning sensation that followed each one. Twilight didn’t care though; she needed to get it out of her system. Even the taste of vomit was more appealing to her than the lingering taste of somepony else’s bloody remains, but even thinking about it like that made it worse. She didn’t even care enough to aim away from her hooves which were now positioned in the pooling puddles of bodily fluid.

Twilight felt like more of a mess than ever. She moved out of the puddle of sick, and shook as much of the horrible fluids and organs off her body as possible, cringing at all the elements in the gore as she did so. She still felt cold and disgusting, and her coat was still glazed with sticky sludge like red blood, but Twilight had enough to regret already, and didn’t want to add checking out the other side of the building to her list of mistakes.

Twilight lit up her horn again, and after a quick unsteady scan of the hallway, thankfully, she was alone; she had no intention of looking down or going near the pit again, but it took her a few moments to realise the success in her mistake. She was able to perform her teleportation spell, without interruption, even though the Slendermane was watching her whole descent into the cold gore. Static didn’t even fill her head.

But after realising her feat, the one shining moment in the whole mess of mortifying events was quickly forgotten, as Twilight sprung into action out of sudden shock. The Slendermane had emerged from the pit with no warning, and was now moving directly towards Twilight. Twilight went to run but tripped landing on her chin. Unlike previous encounters where the Slendermane hadn’t moved, it was now showing no signs of letting Twilight get away this time.

Looking back at it Twilight found that her hind legs were bound by the Slendermane’s tentacle appendages that had sprung from its back and wrapped themselves tightly around her limbs. It slowly started to retract the tentacles, pulling Twilight towards the creature. Panicking and hyperventilating, trying desperately to dig into the tiles with her fore-hooves to crawl away from the horror, but only slipping hopelessly on the vomit that coated the base of her hooves. The blood from the pit that remained on her stomach created a trail as she neared ever closer to the Slendermane, almost mirroring a scene from a horror movie.

Without much time to think, Twilight acted out of pure desperation, and flared her horn with brilliant energy and focused as best as she could through the fear and lethality of the situation. Without a second to spare, Twilight instantly focussed deftly on the end of the hallway, and to her surprise and glee, she found herself teleported there in a ball of energy. Recovering very quickly, Twilight watched the Slendermane, as its tentacles withered back into its body, and it craned its neck, looking at her, almost as if it was confused. But what Twilight saw on caught on part of its leg restored every bit of hope she had lost through the terrifying night.

A few small blue petals were struck to the suit of the Slendermane’s body.

“I did time it right!” She realised and acclaimed out loud. The tentacle appendages flew from the flat back of the Slendermane’s suit, heading straight for Twilight, but she was ready now. She used her magic to conjure a force field between her and the Slendermane, stopping the appendages which crashed against it, distorting the area of the force field.

“Not so nice to be stuck behind a force field is it?!” Twilight asked defiantly and angrily. “You don’t scare me now.” She claimed denying the radiance of fear the Slendermane was emitting access to her sanity.

The creature was obviously displeased, or even angry, with or without an expression, as it retracted its tentacles to its body, and violently shot them out at the force field, shattering it, only crashing into another one not even a meter in front of the first.

“You can’t stop me from using my magic anymore!” Twilight said feeling the warm feeling of strength join the hope she had recovered.

Now clearly enraged by the display of its actions, the Slendermane threw the tentacles repeatedly against the force field, shattering it, before launching them yet again at Twilight, but she grinned and leapt out of the way into the next hallway. She turned her head and trotted forward a few feet, but felt her heart skip a beat, as the Slendermane teleported right in front of her. But instead of letting the fear get to her, Twilight instead dived outside the large doorway to her right, landing outside and avoiding a large flurry of tentacles launched straight at her. Without looking back, Twilight ran back to the side of the building that Fluttershy was on with the little ponies.

“Fluttershy we have to go, now. The Slendermane is coming, but I can fight it now! I can hold it back. Take them around that path. And wait for me at the split roads; it looks like a snake tongue, Hurry!” Twilight instructed pointing to the path Scootaloo had earlier indicated she’d escaped on.

“Twilight we can’t leave. Apple Bloom’s trapped in there!” Fluttershy said pointing at the room the fillies and colts were locked in before, and processed the screams of Apple Bloom, bashing against an invisible barrier inside the door barrier. Twilight thought of an option instantly and in a swift motion, conjured an explosive blast of magic, and launched it at the wall of the building. Apple Bloom saw the building about to collapse on her, and covered her head in fear. But only the one wall collapsed inwards, and instead of squashing Apple Bloom, Fell around her. She looked up to find Twilight had conjured a barrier over her to protect her.

“C’mon Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo yelled to her friend, who looked gratefully towards Twilight while, running over to her friends.

“Ok Fluttershy, go while you still have ti... Wait a minute, aren’t you curious about all the blood on me?” Twilight asked looking at the now dried red muck that had filtered its way through her coat.

“What Blood?” Fluttershy asked, looking confusedly at Twilight. She looked the same as before. “I’ve already seen the cuts on your legs.” Fluttershy told her wondering if that’s what she meant.

Twilight was dumbfounded. How could she not see that she was covered horn to hoof with large and small dry patches of blood? She didn’t dwell on it though, knowing that the Slendermane was obviously attempting to mess with their sanity.

“Don’t worry just...” Twilight was about to instruct her to go, before she heard a large thud from behind the large group of fillies and colts.

Twilight turned around to see the Slendermane looming over them all, tentacles hovering behind its back like a pegasus flexing its wings, but as it went to lower its tentacles on the little ponies, who were speechless and completely paralysed with fear, it came into contact with a large round force field covering the whole group of ponies. Twilight’s horn was flaring with energy, and she was struggling to hold it against the pressure that the Slendermane was putting.

“Fluttershy, you have to take them now! I can hold him off!” Twilight instructed.

“I can’t leave you with that thing!” Fluttershy objected, instantly receiving a response from Twilight.

“You have to get the fillies and colts out of here now! I’ll be fine! I’ll find you all at the snake tongue split in the roads. Just keep following the path! You’ll find it! Gah!” Twilight felt a sudden pain in her horn. She was pushing herself beyond her normal limit.

“What if you don’t turn up?!” Fluttershy asked taking notice of her friends struggling. She saw a crack start to form in the force field.

“I will! I promise! Just go!” She instructed again.

Fluttershy was hesitant to leave her friend to fight the Slendermane, especially on her own, but Twilight was more than trustworthy.

“For Equestria’s sake Twilight, you better show up! Everypony, follow me! Help each other if you need to! Were getting you home!” Fluttershy announced to the ponies in a surprisingly loud voice.

The ponies were slow to respond, and hesitant to move, but finding their weak links, those who weren’t injured, found another pony who was, and supported them in any way possible. Fluttershy had to run over and pick up Scootaloo herself, who was lying on the ground, muttering unintelligible sputters of words, and lightly drooling, she was obviously becoming sicker than before. Twilight saw the Slendermane bash a larger crack into the field, as she struggled to hold it. It was near breaking point.

“Hurry!” Twilight instructed putting more flare and power into her spell.

“Come on everypony!” Fluttershy instructed to the scared little ponies. She momentarily looked at Twilight, wanting to say something, but only feeling tears come to her eyes. She figured out something to say for now.

“Good luck Twilight. Don’t let it get the better of you.” Fluttershy said before running off to the darkened pathway, with the fillies and colts trailing closely behind her.

***

Twilight felt some relief as she dropped the force field, and started angrily at the Slendermane. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to hold it off for ever and that even if it could stop her magic or not it would still be able to handle whatever she could throw it. She stared it down for as long as it did her, almost as if it was trying to inflict some sort of pain on here, or create the static interference in her head. she figured the poison joke must have something to do with its inability to perform these actions.

The Slendermane made the first advance, swing a tentacle at Twilight, with enough power to drive the unicorn to the other side of the forest. Twilight thinking fast, conjured an explosive bolt of energy, and launched it at the base of the appendage, severing it from the Slendermane’s body, as it flew through the air with the momentum of the original swing, contorting and shrinking in size, to the size of an average snake. The Slendermane’s head turned and looked at the base of its back where the limb had been severed, and a new one sprung in its place.

Twilight noticed the other limb spring up and gulped down the fear rising into her throat, knowing this wasn’t going to be easy.

Twilight launched a small flurry of the same projectile as before at the Slendermane, but even after directly impacting it, the Slendermane just seemed to shrug it off. Before Twilight’s eyes, it popped from existence again, teleporting behind her. She anticipated what would happen next, and teleported out of the way, perfectly predicting the oncoming flurry of tentacles. It seemed that they were the only weapon the Slendermane had against her.

Twilight reappeared next to the building, and noticed a large change. The building was missing the other side that would have been the hallway she was in before. It was no longer there, nor the door that led her back outside. All that remained was the two rooms all the bodies were lying in.

“Trying to mess with my head?! Then let’s play nasty!” Twilight angrily yelled teleporting out existence in a purple explosion, and reappearing near the tree line, next to the path filled with the odd green plant, and poison joke patches. Lighting up her horn, Twilight uprooted a tree, and seeing the Slendermane flinging another tentacle, swung the tree into the rapidly approaching appendage, stopping it in its tracks.

Twilight turned her attention to the plantation on the pathway before her, and using her magic, uprooted as much of it as she could focus on. Lifting the massive pile of flora, Twilight threw it threw the air towards the Slendermane, and caught the next lot of tentacles it was about to assault her with, and entangling them in the roots and twisting stems of the plants. Twilight used her magic to further tangle the Slendermane in the twisting plants, wrapping it around the Slendermane. Knowing it could easily break out of the plants, Twilight performed the next part of her plan, and ignited her horn with magenta flames, blazing hot off the tip of Twilights horn. Planning her next move precisely, Twilight launched a group of burning hot fireballs at the creature, lighting to the plants entangling it, and quickly catching all over, surrounding the Slendermane in a large ball of fire.

It didn’t seem to flail around, or panic, but it was definitely distracted. Twilight seized the opportunity to run now and get to Fluttershy. For good measure Twilight looked back down the path, and uprooted more of the mushy green plant and launching it at the Slendermane, further feeding the raging flames, and entangling the creature. Twilight didn’t spare a second glance at the burning monster, knowing that eventually the flames would burn through the plant and release the Slendermane. She turned to the path Fluttershy had run down with the others, and galloped for it herself. Though running was less uncomfortable than before when her legs were causing the most pain, the only irritation now was the sticky blood in her coat. It still confounded her that Fluttershy couldn’t see it. None of the fillies or colts showed any special reaction to her either, but that may have been because they were scared out of their wits.

Fluttershy had approached a fork in the road, with the one path behind them, and another leading off into the distance. There was no path leading away from the fork though, only more trees, bent abnormally out of shape, and stretched around each other. The fillies and colts needed a rest though; in their conditions Fluttershy couldn’t blame them, and let them lie down momentarily.

Fluttershy gently moved Scootaloo off her back and lay her down in a patch of grass nearby. The mumbling had becoming just a quiet chattering of her teeth, and she was now becoming pale.

Apple Bloom tried to get Fluttershy’s attention, worried about her friend.

“Fluttershy, what’s wrong with her?” she asked observing Scootaloo’s condition and abnormal behaviour.

“I don’t know Apple Bloom. I’m sorry. When Twilight gets here we’ll be able to take her to the Ponyville hospital. They’ll fix her up for sure.” Fluttershy told her trying to sound as reassuring as possible.

“Well, where’s Twilight?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I’m not sure Sweetie. She’ll be here soon though, I’m sure she will be.”

***

Twilight was running as fast as she could down the path, but realised she obviously wasn’t going fast enough when she had just reached the clearing with the shed in it. Out of breath, Twilight decided that resorting to magic would make her task easier. But before she attempted to teleport, she noticed her saddlebag lying next to the shed.

“I must have mind blanked... I don’t even remember taking this thing off.” Twilight said walking towards the saddlebag. She looked inside the right pouch, to find that her book was gone, and only a page remained. In the other patch her other page and quill still remained. Twilight figured it would be easier to quickly write a message now than to write one while trying to get the panicking little ponies away from the forest. She read out the note as she wrote it, keeping it short, simple and straight to the point.

“Warning. Everfree Forest is not safe! There is a dangerous creature in the deep recesses of the forest called the Slendermane. Do not enter the forest for risk of him catching you. Some ponies have died already, don’t be the next one. Do not enter the forest!” She read as she used her magic to scrawl the word as neatly as possible on the parchment. Holding it and the other piece of paper in her mouth, Twilight performed another teleportation spell, focussing as precisely as she could on the fork in the road she’d first woken up at.

Fluttershy rubbed Scootaloo’s mane as she started to drift into sleep. She was still breathing faintly, but she needed the rest if she was going to be able to keep herself going much longer. Suddenly to the right, a small ball of white energy appeared, surrounded with lightning, as a purple ball of magic expanded from the middle of it, before imploding and allowing Twilight to appear before them.

“Twilight! Thank Celestia you’re here! Scootaloo’s in bad shape Twilight! We gotta go now. How far until we reach the path out of the forest?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight lay the notes in her mouth on the ground.

“This is it here Fluttershy. These trees are blocking it. Just give me a second.” Twilight told her. Preparing herself to use more energy than she’d used all night, she lit her horn lighting ablaze with colour again, for what she hoped was the last time, Twilight started to charge and direct the power into an orb on the tip of her horn.

All the little ponies were looking on in awe at the massive ball of electrical energy Twilight was creating, some of the comparing it to the magenta energy blazing from her horn when she levitated the Urca-Minor out of Ponyville, but this spell that one look tiny.

“Twilight what spell is this?” Fluttershy asked her friend never having seen this type of magic before.

“An idea!” Twilight grunted through gritted teeth.

After the ball reached an a spectacularly large size, and Twilight was satisfied with the power behind it, she focussed it and launched a large bolt of magenta lightning into the twisted trees covering the path. The bolt connected from one tree to another like a chain, even spreading further out to trees that weren’t in the way.

Feeling a massive headache about to come on Twilight tapped her horn to the ball of energy. Which imploded instantly, feeding all of its energy into the bolt of lightning, which with this surge of incredible focussed energy, started to cook and reduce the trees to ash. As the lightning raged on doing its job Fluttershy spoke up.

“What do you mean by idea?” She asked curious.

“I envisioned what I wanted the spell to do. And then recreated the effect in my mind...” Twilight stopped clutching her now sore head. “And it appears to have worked pretty well.” Twilight finished.

A short few seconds later the majority of tress had burnt down, and the path was clearly visible, making it safe for the fillies and colts to go down.

“We’re almost out of the forest Fluttershy! We’re almost home!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Let’s not waste any more time then Twilight, let’s go.” Fluttershy said, moving over to Scootaloo and ever so gently shifting her onto her back again

“Come on everypony, we’re almost home.” Twilight told all the Fillies and colts, knowing it would be about a ten minute time until they arrived at Ponyville if they ran.

Twilight watched each and every pony exit past the location of the force field, before preparing to advance herself. But Twilight hadn’t anticipated that the force field would still be there. Thinking it had disappeared, Twilight walked straight into the white barrier watching as it rippled away from her.

“Wha... What?!” Twilight yelled, punching her hooves at the force field.

“No... NO! WHAT! That... HOW! NO!” She said bashing her hooves into the force field harder and harder.

“Twilight? What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked, confused as to why Twilight wasn’t able walk along the pathway with them.

“The... Slendermane.... It... It knew I was going to try and escape... It’s keeping me here... Fluttershy... I don’t.... I don’t know what to do.... I can’t leave.... nothing I can do will penetrate this force field.” Twilight explained, remembering her encounter with the force field earlier that night.

“There has to be something we can do Twilight... I’m not leaving here without you.” Fluttershy told her, again ready to stay by her friends side even in situations she would be hopelessly terrified in.

“But don’t you see Fluttershy... That’s just what it wants.... It knows you’re either going to stay with me now, or bring others back to find me.... Fluttershy, take this.” Twilight instructed using her magic to levitate and pass the warning message to Fluttershy.

“Get this to the front of the forest, and plant it on a post somewhere where it can stop ponies from entering the forest.” Twilight instructed.

“Twilight, you’re talking as if you think I’m actually going to leave you here knowing you can’t leave.” Fluttershy said.

“Fluttershy... don’t give the Slendermane what it wants. Get out of here, save the fillies and colts; get them all to the Ponyville hospital. And promise something Fluttershy.” Twilight stopped.

“Twilight Sparkle don’t you dare say what I know you’re about to say.” Fluttershy protested.

“Promise me you and the other girls won’t come looking for me.” Twilight told her.

“I’m not making that promise Twilight! I’m not leaving you right now!” Fluttershy told her.

“You have to Fluttershy! If you don’t, our effort in getting the fillies and colts will have been for nothing.” Twilight reminded her.

“But Twi...” Fluttershy started, tears streaming from her eyes.

“No buts Fluttershy... This...” Twilight wiped tears from her own eyes, suffering the emotional strain of knowing that after Fluttershy left, she was never going to see one of her friends again. “Tell the others...” Twilight started before being interrupted by a screaming filly.

Twilight looked behind herself to see at the end of the pathway, the Slendermane, standing still, with several spots of its formal attire burnt out.

“Oh Sweet Celestia! I don’t know Fluttershy!” Twilight said, loosing track of all thought. Tears started to pour at double the rate they were just then. “I... I... I’m going to miss you Fluttershy... All of you... tell... tell... tell that to the others... Keep yourselves safe and don’t come back.” Twilight instructed, more serious than she’d ever been before.

“But Twilight...” Fluttershy said attempting to deny her request again, only to be ultimately told off again.

“Fluttershy, its ok... you’re the only hope for these ponies now. Help them. I’m sorry.” Twilight told her.

Fluttershy’s crying had effectively double the rate Twilight was crying at, and unable to think of anything else to say, she grabbed Twilight’s not in her mouth and turned around, running forward on the path, with the other little ponies following her. She turned around for one last glance of her friend.

“I’m going to come back for you Twilight; you did the same for me. I don’t care how scary the Slendermane is, I’ll be back to help you!” Fluttershy whispered to herself, before turning around, and leading the ponies out of eyesight.

Twilight let her head fall, as tears dribbled from her eyes. She knew the Slendermane was behind her, but she was no longer afraid. She knew there would be no point in trying to fight the creature if she couldn’t escape anyway. Waiting for a movement, out of nowhere, Twilight felt something slam into the side of her body, throwing her off to the side of the path. The second page Twilight had brought with her had blown over to her. In pain she used her magic to hold it up, revealing the poem from the Slendermane chapter. But something was different. The last verse had been changed. Twilight found a seal though, and lifted the flap, revealing a full 3 new verses to the poem.

Twilight started to flicker her eyes between the Slendermane and the poem as she read, as memories started to flash back as they had when she slept earlier. A sense of true fear was now growing inside of Twilight now. Worse than any feeling she’d had all night. A looming presence of death grew ever larger, pulling Twilight into its cold embrace.

As thin as a page, and as tall as a tree,

It lives in the dark of the Everfree.

It has no expression, but irradiates fear,

If you’re in its home, it will always be near.

Twilight saw the Slendermane standing at the end of the pathway, and then saw flashbacks of moments when she’d turned around to see the creature watching her from the distance.

It can stretch its form like it has rubber bones;

its origin will always remain unknown.

Its takes pegasus, unicorns, and Earth ponies alike,

its featureless being, their very last sight.

Twilight watched as the creature started to walk over to her, and memories of the many encounters rolled by again. She thought of before she’d entered the forest, when she saw the strangely contorted trees, and how they’d mysteriously vanished.

You can run and hide,

But without any light,

It will hunt you and catch you,

In the darkest of night.

Twilight felt herself grow faintly dizzy, as the forest started to darken around her. She was reminded of every dark moment of the night that managed to affect her.

Its escaped victims,

Never hard to find,

For once touched they are bound,

By both magic and mind.

Twilight thought about the fillies, colts, and Fluttershy as soon as she read that line. Had they truly escaped? Would they make it out of the forest alive?

It makes you run, makes you fear,

Makes you yell, makes you cry,

But in the end its only goal,

Is to make sure you die.

Twilight could see the Slendermane less than metres away now, but was unable to stop from reading the last paragraph of the poem, while she was reminded of the gore pit the Slendermane had almost drowned her in. The Slendermane was now right above her, its plain featureless face staring straight at her only a short distance away, before the world started to go blurry.

No eyes, no face, no tail, no mane,

the look of the creature can send you insane.

Trying to run will just bring you more pain,

because nopony escapes the Slendermane.

Twilight laid her head back as her vision faded completely, and felt darkness fully embrace her.

***

The End

Slendermane

As thin as a page, and as tall as a tree,
It lives in the dark of the Everfree.
It has no expression, but irradiates fear,
If you’re in its home, it will always be near.

It can stretch its form like it has rubber bones;
its origin will always remain unknown.
Its takes pegasus, unicorns, and Earth ponies alike,
its featureless being, their very last sight.

You can run and try to hide,
But without any light,
It will hunt you and catch you,
In the darkest of night.

It makes you run, makes you fear,
Makes you yell, makes you cry,
But in the end its only goal,
Is to make sure you die.

Its escaped victims,
Never hard to find,
For once touched they are bound,
By both magic and mind.

No eyes, no face, no tail, no mane,
the look of the creature can send you insane.
Trying to run will just bring you more pain,
because nopony escapes the Slendermane.

Chapter 1

Twilight was sound asleep and at peace with the world around her. She lay comfortably in the plush, green grassy fields of the Everfree Forest, which tickled at her like many tiny feathers in the breeze. It was much later than most ponies could comprehend being safe to be out in the Everfree forest, and was much later than Twilight had intended to be out there. Thought’s running through her brain reprised the events of the recent weeks leading up to her arriving to the destination she had reached now. The memories weren’t comforting though; if anything they were pieces of a puzzle, matching up to mould an image of a nightmare.

She felt the cold wind of the late night rush around her waving her mane and tail around in conjunction with the rustling leaves in the trees. She shivered flailing her hooves around weakly hoping to find a blanket, but just finding empty air instead. The memories were building up to form a clear image that could almost play itself out like a video in her brain. She grit her teeth as the intensity of the cold increased.

She started to shiver more, as her chattering teeth joined the few natural noises of the forest. She saw quick flashes of the pictures playing out in her head, but like many dreams in her past, she found that they were extremely hard to remember after another one came along. One thing stayed in her mind though, something she couldn’t forget, and it was now more clear than ever as she felt herself beginning to awaken to the dark, cold, unforgiving night; Find Fluttershy and the fillies and colts, and save them from the Slendermane.

Twilight snapped her eyes open and gasped for air, throwing herself to the right and halting herself with her hooves. She looked around, but her vision was blurred and still adjusting to the darkened forest environment. From the blurry dark shapes dancing around in front of her she could make out the tall standing trees, and their leaves rustling in the wind. She heard the faint chirping of a cricket probably a fair few metres deeper in the forest. She tried to think about what she had seen in her sleep, but only the smallest details and most recent of memories currently stood out to her. She craned her neck to the left and looked down the dirt pathway leading into the seemingly pitch black, endless groupings of trees. Almost nothing stood out from them but she could see that the path seemed to break away further ahead.

“Where am I?” she asked herself, almost hoping someone she knew would answer, but to her expectations and dismay got no response. She’d forgotten everything that she had just seen in her mind, trying to pick the words out, but they seemed to have hidden somewhere in the back of her mind.

Twilight blinked and rubbed her closed eyes on her foreleg, taking in some slightly panicked breathes. She had no idea what portion of the forest she was in. She could remember being on her way to Zecora’s, to see if she had any knowledge of the recent disappearances of the fillies and colts. That helped her remember exactly what she was looking for, or, who she was looking for. The dilemma started to unfold before her, but still the details were hazy and evading her. But then she also realised that she had entered the forest, during the day. She couldn’t even remember falling asleep by her own will.

The poison joke had grown out of control and spread to her usual path to Zecora’s, so she had to make an alternative route to get there, but was trying to avoid dense trees and dark locations that she hadn’t explored before, for safety sake. She didn’t feel safe in the forest anyway, and since ponies started going missing in it, almost no one would go near it. Even Zecora had spent an oddly large amount of time outside of it away from her hut. But being in an unidentified area of the forest, alone, and at night, was just one of the few things Twilight could barely comprehend.

She stood up, but surprised herself when she found that she could balance quite easily. Twilight blinked a few times as her vision, having now adjusted to a tolerable level, started to shape the path ahead. She started to feel a slightly odd sense of Déjà vu. She’d seen this path before, but not long ago.

It was a long dirt path, which split like a snake tongue to the left and right, but what followed down those paths, Twilight didn’t know. But she knew neither would lead to Zecora’s. She turned around and studied the path behind her. It didn’t take her long to recognise it as the last path she had walked down during her search for a different route to Zecora’s hut. She looked at the path behind her, and as the cool breeze rushed past her and frizzled her hair, she felt a strong presence of something pulling her in. Something that was definitely not of pony origin; and it only made her shiver more. There was something massively unnatural about the part of the forest she was in, and she didn’t like the feeling it was giving her one little bit. She had no intention of following the path into the darkness; any way through the forest would have been better... she even started to consider the poison joke a much more appealing option. Besides she could always get some of Zecora’s bubble bath remedy to cure the effects later.

Twilight looked away from the dark path and started to backtrack through the forest. She started to nervously trot down the pathway, but the further she tried to walk forward, the harder it became. She couldn’t tell if it felt like she was trying to walk against a giant fan, or trying to walk with a thick rubber tube attached to her waist at full extension. She pushed harder and harder trying to move down the path, but became more and more confused, as it pulled her back. She started to struggle more and more and found herself being pulled back, but after shooting a quick look back, there was nothing but the dirt path stretching off into the darkness. An unnatural chill spread through her as she looked down the path. She dug the tips of her fore-hooves into the ground and pushed with all the might of her back legs against the ground, and started to inch herself forward again, but obviously somepony, or something, didn’t want her to leave the forest.

The force of the pull increased as she kept moving forward bit by bit, but eventually Twilight reached the point where she felt she couldn’t keep pulling herself, she was almost out of strength and the force of the pull only got stronger as she went. Tears started to form from the corner of her eyes as she strained harder pulling herself ahead, bit by bit, but they didn’t seem affected by the pull that was affecting her body, and just dropped to the ground after trickling down her cheeks.

Twilight grit her teeth and pushed on harder than she thought her body could handle. She didn’t think that it could be any harder, but then out of nowhere, Twilight heard a raspy growl erupt from the trees behind her. She looked back in fear, but not daring to let go of the ground. Twilight was distraught with worry now. She knew that there was definitely something watching her now, something that was pulling her back into the forest, but she couldn’t see anything but trees and darkness.

“Can’t... Let.... Go!” She said to herself pulling herself little further. The roar ceased, but the pull of the forest had taken more than a small toll on Twilight’s strength. She felt like a small chunk of metal being pulled towards the forest like a magnet, but she was determined to avoid going that way. Seeing how eerie it was just waking up there was just creepy for Twilight, but the fact that there was something in there that didn’t want her to leave, scared her. The dirt was starting to give way to Twilight’s hooves as they started to slide through it.

As the last ounces of Twilight’s strength left her body Twilight gave one more hopeful lunge forwards in an effort to maybe escape the gravitational pull the forest had on her, but instead of the drop to the ground she was hoping for, she abruptly stopped as she went face first into a barrier of nothing. She saw out of her peripheral vision a white ripple spreading outwards from the air in front of her, like a force field was restricting further progress. Twilight didn’t have long to process this properly though, because the second she started to fall to the ground, her horn made contact with the force field, a flurry of images invaded her mind. The sudden surge of magical energy brought out the memories that she had managed to repress of the outstanding moments of the day before she was knocked out. Twilight saw each and every one in its entirety.

Twilight shunned her eyes with her arm momentarily as bright light engulfed her vision, but uncovered them to find that she was seeing a vision from earlier during the day. She saw ghostly images of herself, entering the forest, by her normal path off of Fluttershy’s cottage, and there was a filly with her, although the filly was very ghostly white in contrast to her usual colour scheme, she could easily identify the familiar filly as Scootaloo. She couldn’t remember everything before that, or why Scootaloo was with her, but could tell it wasn’t for a good reason. Scootaloo was visibly scared, and very strongly opposed to going in the forest.

***

“Scootaloo, it’s not safe to go in the forest without anypony else with you.” Twilight told Scootaloo, who was struggling to bring herself to enter already.

“I know Twilight, I know... But my friends are still out there, with that creature... I have to do something... If nopony believes me or wants to help me, then I don’t have a choice. I have to try and save them.” Scootaloo said back, teary eyed and distraught. She was about to walk into the forest alone, but Twilight knew she couldn’t allow her to enter uncharted areas of the forest alone, even during the day, and especially in her current state of mind.

“Scootaloo, wait. I’ll come with you, and we’ll go to Zecora’s. I’m sure she might have some knowledge of what could have happened to all the missing ponies.”

“But Twilight, they aren’t missing! They were taken!” Scootaloo yelled. She was becoming more and more upset by the minute, but Twilight had once again sided with science and reason.

“Taken by what Scootaloo?” Twilight asked her wondering what kind of creature could go unseen and abduct 6 fillies, 4 colts and all 8 of the mares and stallions that had gone in to find them.

Scootaloo wanted to answer, but she didn’t know what it was she saw... She’d never seen anything like it.

“I... I don’t know what it was Twilight. It was... tall, like... Impossibly tall, and incredibly thin, it could make itself thinner by stretching itself out. But it looked like a m-ma-mana-manacka... what are those things in rarity’s boutique? You know, that she puts the clothes on?” Scootaloo asked trying to think of a way to give Twilight a mental image of the creature she saw.

“A mannequin?” Twilight asked thinking of the slender wooden figures that Rarity would display her ensembles on. The word slender also seemed to linger in her head; the whole situation was unfolding like an old mythical pony tale from one of her books, but she couldn’t pin point it exactly.

“Yeah... It looked like a mannequin, but it wore a really formal suit, and… a red tie. But...” Scootaloo stopped, and slowly broke down into more tears. She couldn’t help herself; everything she’d gone through was too much for a filly, but the fact that nopony would believe her or help her save her friends made it even more mentally troubling, because she could hardly believe it herself.

“Come to my library before you do anything drastic please Scootaloo. I need to find a book that can maybe explain…”

“No Twilight. I can’t, the more time I waste the worse things will get for the others. Some of them are probably dead already!” Scootaloo cried, before breaking into another fit of emotion and hysteria.

“Scootaloo, you shouldn’t say things like that. There’s nothing to worry about, I’m sure of it. The Everfree forest has different effects on everypony. If you’re not going to come with me then at least wait at Fluttershy’s cottage while I go get the book.” Twilight said rubbing the quivering fillies back gently with her right hoof, trying to calm her down.

“Ok Twilight… But please, don’t be too long… I wanna go while its morning, it’ll be safer than to go in the afternoon.” Scootaloo pleaded. Twilight had to admit that she was right; the forest was much safer to be in during the day than at night. Scootaloo tried to stand up, but hardly found it possible with all the negative emotion troubling her, and causing her to shake like she was trying to balance on a small surface during an earthquake. Twilight quickly noticed this, and instead of letting the filly struggle, used her magic to levitate Scootaloo and place the filly on her back. She started to trot carefully over to Fluttershy’s with Scootaloo lying on her back.

“Thanks Twilight.” She said grateful for the help in her struggling, but caught up in the heat of things she still couldn’t manage even a weak smile.

“It’s alright Scootaloo.” Twilight told her, troubled a little as she became more concerned for the poor filly, and everything she’d been through. She’d only been missing for 2 days, while her friends and classmates had been missing for almost a week and a half.

***

As Twilight approached Fluttershy’s home, Fluttershy, who was out in the chicken coop, fixing up a broken part of the fence, noticed Twilight coming up the path carrying a small orange pegasus filly on her back. Curious she put down the things she was holding and flew over to the pair. About half way to them, she could identify Scootaloo, but couldn’t see that she was clearly troubled and teary eyed until she got much closer.

“Twilight, Scootaloo? What are you girls doing down here?” Fluttershy asked the pair, becoming concerned when she saw Scootaloo silently crying. She noticed that Twilight didn’t wear the same expression, but could see the concern in her look regardless. “What’s happened Twilight?”

“I wanted to ask if you could watch Scootaloo for a few minutes. I need to get a book from my library, she believes there’s some sort of monster in the Everfree forest that’s involved with all the recent disappearances. I want to know what she’s seen.” Twilight explained, helping Scootaloo off her back and backing up a little. Scootaloo was still a little wobbly and upset, but she could muster up the strength she needed to start walking to Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Of course I’ll watch her, but couldn’t you just use a memory spell to find what you’re looking for?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t think it would be safe in her state. Negative emotion can easily affect the outcome of a spell, and if she freaks out when I bring up the moments I’m looking for, the memories might become stuck in her thoughts. Whether it’s a curse in the area of the forest she was in, or somepony pulling a prank on her, if it can make her this upset, it could drive her insane to see it all the time.” Twilight explained, wondering if she’d gone into enough detail, or even too much.

“Oh, ok then, well, you’re not going into the forest are you?” Fluttershy asked curious about her friend’s motives to help Scootaloo.

“If that’s what it takes to help Scootaloo stop being so paranoid about going near the forest, then yes. I was going to take her to Zecora’s to find out if she knows what’s happening to Scootaloo.” Twilight told her confident that she could help Scootaloo stop worrying. Who knows, she might have been able to remember something about the forest that could lead Twilight to find the others.

“Oh, but Twilight, what if Scootaloo really did see something dangerous out there?” Fluttershy asked concerned for Twilight’s safety.

“If she did it can’t be as bad as she’s making it out to be. I’ll go into the area she said she saw the ‘creature’ and see if I can find any sign of the other abducted ponies.” Twilight explained.

“I don’t know if it’s that great an idea Twilight. 14 ponies abducted already and no explanation. All that was left at each of their homes was dead grass, in the shape of a bunch of oddly shaped hooves… leading to their homes, and back into the forest. It doesn’t make sense, the search party came back missing 3 members saying the tracks just stopped in the darkest part of the forest. But the ones they could see before they disappeared were spread out to impossible lengths. They thought it might have been a Pegasus pony at first, but nopony here leaves hoof prints that oddly shaped. I don’t know what’s going on Twilight, but it’s definitely not something you should get involved in, and definitely something Scootaloo shouldn’t be worrying about.” Fluttershy said trying to get Twilight to see the danger that she could be throwing herself into.

“Fluttershy, I’m not denying it could be dangerous, but I think that theres more to it then a strange creature that’s taking ponies and abducting them to the deep dark parts of the forests. And besides, there are a lot of explanations for some of those happenings. It could have been a Pegasus, flying over to far away spots and digging large deformed hoof prints into the ground, or a unicorn maybe using magic to create the hoof prints.” Twilight explained trying to use reasoning and logic to her advantage.

“But Twilight, you aren’t looking at the whole picture. Nopony has ever been that deep in the forest. Let alone come back. What would make drive a unicorn or pegasus to hoax a monster abduction in such dangerous, unknown areas, just to foalnap fillies and colts? Zecora won’t even go that far into the forest. She came to my cottage the other day telling me I should consider moving away from the forest. She’s been mumbling all of her chants wherever she goes, and she hardly stays in the forest late at night. Maybe it would be better to wait for Zecora to come back to Ponyville later and then talk to her?” Fluttershy asked trying to think of safer options. “You guys could wait at my cottage if you want. She usually comes past when she’s passing through.” Fluttershy suggested, wondering if she could persuade Twilight to stay out of the forest. Twilight thought for a bit. Maybe Scootaloo would be open to the idea, and it would definitely keep her out of dangers way if somepony was pulling a joke on her.

“Ok Fluttershy, can you talk to Scootaloo then? I’ll be back when I find the book in my library.” Twilight said backing up to perform her spell.

“Thankyou Twilight. I’ll make sure Scootaloo knows it’s for her own safety.” Fluttershy said, before turning around and trotting up the road to her house.

Twilight looked over at the forest as Fluttershy walked away. She felt an eerie chill scratching its way down her spine. The trees had a more than unnatural look lately, but what creeped her out most was how they could grow to such an abnormal shape of very thin, blackened, curving stalks, and still support the large patches of thick, murky green leaves above them. She shook the feeling off, as it was starting to make her feel nauseous. She closed her eyes and focussed on her horn, as a spark shot from the tip, and quickly set ablaze with magenta energy, igniting a white ring of light around her, ready to engulf her body and teleport herself to her library. But suddenly, she felt the chill return, and the spell begun to fail. She felt the spell start to flicker as the lights around her horn started to flash like a strobe, as if someone was controlling it with a switch, and playing around, flicking it up and down repetitively. She struggled to continue performing the spell, and tried harder throwing more power behind it. But before she could try to put the last push into the spell, Twilight collapsed onto her knees and clutched at her head in pain as she heard what sounded like static building up inside of it. A few seconds passed, while Twilight grunting in pain, kept shaking her head around, trying to get rid of the noise, when almost as abruptly as it had begun it, it stopped, along with the pain that had built up with it. Twilight rubbed her head in confusion.

“What in Equestria was that?” she rhetorically asked herself, flicking her eyes in multiple directions, trying to see if anypony was watching her. The noise in her head only made her think of one of the white noise effects Vinyl Scratch had used on one of her party songs. She looked back at the forest, and gulped, shaking as another chill coursed through her veins, making her whole body feel almost as stiff as a plank of wood. There were missing trees. Most of the ones she could see were of normal form, height and thickness, but all of the unnaturally thin curvy ones that had stood so oddly there before, had almost completely vanished. The change stood out like a chipped hoof. Twilight tried to not think about it though, as she was only beginning to make herself feel more worried; an action she did not intend to follow up.

“Just calm down Twi, relax, it’s just your imagination... maybe those trees weren’t even there to begin with.” She reassured herself trying to take her mind off of the odd occurrence. She preferred the thought of herself being crazy then the thought of something watching her any day. Twilight looked away from the forest, tired of the discomfort it had been bringing her since Scootaloo had started sharing her story. She tried again to perform the spell, but this time it went through without trouble, and followed up its usual effect. The energy ignited and blazed from her horn, and with a flash of energy created a ball of light around Twilight, engulfing her and teleporting her to her library.

***

As Twilight found her location in her head, she focussed on it and in a split second, appeared in the main section of her library, in a puff of sparky, but controlled, magenta energy. She'd basically perfected her teleportation spells after copious amounts of uses since she first performed one. Just for a second all the eerie thought’s left her mind as she remembered the first time she ever tried to teleport, ending up travelling from, and making a mess of her room in one of the Canterlot Castle towers, to her private library further down from the room, which she almost destroyed all the contents of, being unable to control such massive amounts of power that she exhibited while striving to learn. She gave a small giggle at the thought before realising she still had a job to do.

“Spike! Spike?!” Twilight called signalling her number one assistant. She figured that she might be able to use his help to find the book she was looking for, before she realised that Spike wasn’t there.

“Where is that little dragon? He can’t still be in be... oh, right, Canterlot.” She said, remembering Spike had received a notice to retrieve some new library content for her empty shelves. Twilight didn’t want to take too long, so she wasted no time in looking for the book. She trotted over to the E section, and started looking down the lower shelf for E-v. She read out a few of the names that stood out as she skimmed through the titles.

“Elements of harmony reference guide, no. Equestrian species guide, no. Equestria history, no. Daring Do and the, Wait why is that in the E section?” Twilight asked herself levitating the book and moving it over to the table in the middle of the room. “I think Rainbow’s up to that one anyway.” She said wondering why Rainbow wouldn’t just borrow the whole set. “Now where was I... Q R S T U V... Ah ha! Everfree Forest: Myths, legends and magic.” Twilight read aloud before levitating the book out of the shelf. She opened it to the contents and started skimming them, just like she had the books, looking for a name or a word that might jolt her memory. She looked up and down the page skipping through letters. Oak-mites, No. Poison joke, no. Timber Wolves, no. Slendermane, no... Wait! Slendermane?” Twilight said scratching her chin with the tip of her hoof, letting the name echo around her brain, waiting to see if it jogged her memory. Twilight kept thinking, but couldn’t be entirely sure.

“Page 53-55” Twilight read looking at the reference guide to the content she was searching for. She flicked open several pages, and then slowly flicked two more before reaching 53. She looked at the short italic font next to the display image, and read it aloud.

“The Slendermane: A mystical, faceless, foal-napping being rumoured to live in the deepest regions of the Everfree forest.” Twilight said, looking briefly at the image displayed under the title. The picture was of poor quality and looked as though something had been interfering with the camera’s focus before it had been taken, but it was still clear enough to display an image of the strange creature. It appeared to be impossibly tall for a pony being, spanning to the height of the largest of the forests trees, and somehow supporting itself on freakishly thin, frail looking legs. It wore a very formal looking suit with a blood red tie, and it had what appeared to be tentacles shaped appendages rising from its back, but still remaining under the suit, which seemed to stretch with the impossible body structure. Twilight felt irritably strange and almost paralysed looking at the picture. She could remember when she was a filly and tales of terrible creatures and ghouls were used to frighten young ponies who didn’t behave, one of the scariest of all time being the tale of the Slendermane, which she could only remember being about a strange, tall, thin pony being, that would take fillies and colts away to its home in the forest if they misbehaved.

She studied the photo for a few seconds wondering what kind of lengths somepony would go to, to create such an eerie and effective image to help visualise what the creature looked like. But she would have time to ponder about the creature later. It was what she was looking for, and pretty much matched Scootaloo short, hardly detailed description. Twilight folded the corner of the page in and closed the book, trotting over to a small saddle bag lying on the floor next to the staircase that led to her bedroom. She opened the flap on one side and dropped the book in, shutting the flap of the bag, and magically lifting it onto her back. After tightening the saddle bag and securing it comfortably Twilight focused once again on her teleportation spell, and thought about her destination of Fluttershy’s cottage. She’d only been gone about 5 minutes, so Fluttershy probably wouldn’t have finished telling Scootaloo what she had said, so she thought the quick timing on her part would give her a chance to help Fluttershy convince Scootaloo that she should avoid the forest for the time being. As Twilight’s horn lit up with energy, she thought about Scootaloo and what she saw in the forest, that tried to take her and got away with her friends. ‘It couldn’t have really been the Slendermane... that’s just a myth.’ Twilight thought to reassure herself, but much to her discomfort, the thought wasn’t making her feel any more positive. In a sudden flash of magenta and white, Twilight disappeared from the library, and reappeared outside of Fluttershy’s cottage.

***

Twilight opened her eyes a second after recovering from the spell, and looked over to get her bearings and make sure she landed in the right place. She had intended to land inside the house but it was right next to her, so she didn’t mind. But as Twilight approached the front of the house, she noticed something was very different about the grass and flora outside of Fluttershy’s cottage. The water under her bridge sat still and silent, and there was not a noise to be heard. Much of the flora, such as flowers in the garden were dried out and even dead, and there were what looked like hoof prints, embedded into dead patches of grass, leading around to the back of the cottage. Twilight followed the obscurely shaped prints to the back, noticing that the chicken pen also remained completely silent, as if it were void of life. Twilight then looked at the back door to Fluttershy’s home, and felt her whole body become weak. The door seemed to have been smashed open and was lying in pieces on the ground inside and outside of the cottage. Twilight galloped inside and started calling out for the two, worrying something terrible must have happened to them.

“Fluttershy! Scootaloo! Where are you girls?” Twilight yelled. She searched around the room, and to her delight, and confusion, she found Scootaloo, huddled behind a drawer, shaking and breathing heavily, almost as if she’d been running a marathon. Twilight carefully walked over to her, trying to take care not to startle the filly.

“Scootaloo? What’s wrong? What are you doing? Where’s Fluttershy?” Twilight asked curious as to the events that took place in the short time she was gone that already drove her to tears. Scootaloo took a few seconds to reply. She was shaking and looking pale white, with sweat and tears soaking the fur on her face. Her sentence was weak and stuttered as she went to reply.

“Twi-Tw-Tw-T-Tw-Twilight... It... Came ba-b-back... for me. It t-t-took Flu-F-Fluttershy.” Scootaloo chocked out still suffering to recover from the recent situation. Twilight started to wonder if showing Scootaloo a picture of the creature would help in her current mood, but couldn’t figure out if making her answer questions would be the best approach. But she didn’t have a choice. Fluttershy’s cottage had just been broken into, and apparently somepony has taken her. How could all that have happened within 5 minutes.

“Scootaloo... Is... Is this what you saw?” Twilight asked the stressed filly as she levitated the book out of her saddle bag, and opened in to the page with the picture depicting the Slendermane, and facing it towards Scootaloo. Scootaloo, reluctant to look at the picture, hesitantly started to flicker her head around to look at it, even though every fibre of her being was screaming not to look. Scootaloo flicked her head around quickly to get it over with, and without even needing more than a second to look at the picture to know it was exactly what she’d seen, screamed and rolled back over shaking violently and muttering under her breath, some hard to understand words. Twilight shut the book, and dumped it back in her saddlebag regretting taking it out. She didn’t want to make things worse for Scootaloo. She bit her lip trying to think of something to say. ‘Why would somepony put Scootaloo through this?’ Twilight thought to herself. She leaned in trying to make out what Scootaloo was saying, it was mumbled, but understandable.

“Why’s it here... why’s it after me? What’d I do? How does it know where I am all the time? It doesn’t even have a face!” Scootaloo cried as she continued to shake. Twilight looked around and saw a blanket lying on Fluttershy’s couch, and got an idea. She levitated it over to Scootaloo and plopped it on the ground next to her.

“Scootaloo, I have to find Fluttershy, I’m going to Zecora’s ok. I think it would be best if you went upstairs to Fluttershy’s guest room and sleep for a while.” Twilight suggested. Scootaloo continued to shake for some seconds later, before turning around to talk to Twilight.

“Twilight, do not go into that forest. That thing is out there!” Scootaloo said, her tone close to that of scolding one.

“Scootaloo, I have to help Fluttershy. Abducted by ‘The Slendermane’ or not, she’s one of my best friends. I have to help her.” Twilight explained, expressing the name of the creature almost mockingly.

“You... You still don’t believe me... do you?” Scootaloo asked, feeling her desperate annoyance descend to pure depression. Twilight’s tone stung her like an angry wasp. Twilight noticed how upset she had just made Scootaloo, and realised that she had definitely used the wrong tone. She had to think of another way to try and convince her.

“I’m sorry Scootaloo, I didn’t mean to sound like I was making fun of you, I just don’t believe there’s a giant, abnormally thin, faceless creature running around abducting ponies in the Everfree forest.” Twilight told her. “I’m going in there to find Zecora, and if she can’t help me at all, then I’ll go all the way to the end of the forest to save Fluttershy if I have to.” Twilight finished turning around about to make her departure.

“Twilight no! Don’t! You won’t come back if you go too far! Whether you believe me or not, you gotta stay away from the forest!” Scootaloo pleaded once again.

“I can’t just leave Fluttershy Scootaloo. If somepony thinks it’s funny do abduct her from her home, it’s my duty as a friend to help her.” Twilight said starting to trot towards the door. Scootaloo started to shake again, biting her bottom lip and shaking her head. She knew what she wanted to say, but she didn’t know if she could allow herself to follow it up.

“If you’re going into the forest... I’m... I’m coming with you.” Scootaloo said bringing herself to try and stand up and be strong. But even putting her effort into just getting up, she was still very wobbly, and the feeling of no one believing her, didn’t help boost her ego.

“No Scootaloo. You’re in no fit state to go into the forest. There’s no reason for you to put yourself in dangers way...” Twilight began, but Scootaloo quickly came up with a way to turn the argument around on Twilight, before it had even begun.

“Just like it’s your responsibility to help Fluttershy... It’s my responsibility to help Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. I was with them when we were abducted, and I’m the only one who’ll be able to find them... I have to help them, just like you have to help Fluttershy.” Scootaloo confidently remarked turning Twilight’s own excuse against her.

“But... But...” Twilight was desperate to think of a way to turn the tables back in her favour. She was only trying to look out for Scootaloo, and try and help her make the safe decision, but nothing came to mind. “I can’t let you go in there with me Scootaloo... If you’re telling the truth, it’ll be too dangerous for you to go back. I’d just be getting you into more danger.” Twilight said wittingly. She still didn’t believe there was a mythical creature in the forest, but she had to hope that reminding Scootaloo that there would be something coming after her, that it would convince her to stay. But Scootaloo was determined to put her fears aside now, to prove that she wasn’t lying, and to find her friends.

“I guess if that’s the case, I’ll just have to go in on my own. You won’t be putting me in any danger if you aren’t with me.” Scootaloo pointed out, pulling herself together as best she could, before walking towards the doorway. Twilight knew she had a point. She could have told her that she had to stay, but she couldn’t stop Scootaloo from getting up and leaving after she was gone. Twilight frowned, defeated, and gave a bothered sigh. Twilight turned around and to Scootaloo’s surprise, levitated her onto her back, to a position where her saddlebag wasn’t a discomfort to Scootaloo, before walking out the empty doorway.

“Let’s get this over with then. You’re not going alone. It’s still not even midday, so most of the dangerous creatures in the forest won’t even be out.” Twilight said, as she exited the cottage and made her way down the road towards the murky, green, dark, eerie, Everfree forest. Scootaloo gulped just by the sight of it and felt her teeth start to chatter, but quickly forced her mouth shut to the best of her ability. She knew Twilight could tell she was nervous but she didn’t want her to think she was too afraid, especially after convincing her to take her along. Twilight paused outside of the tree line, and shivered as a small gust of chilly wind breezed past the two from the forest.

“Are you sure you’re in any state to enter the forest Scootaloo?” Twilight asked one more time, pleading the filly to just stay in Ponyville for her own well being.

Scootaloo looked at the deep dark forest. It gave her no comfort to see that even during the day when the sun shined, the tress shunned its light. With an unsure expression, she nodded.

“Mm hm.” She mumbled through her lips. Twilight knew it was no use. She kicked the dirt behind her as she trotted past the tree line and entered the forest, sticking to the path in front of her. She wasn’t as affected by the darkness of the forest, after being in it so many times before, but Scootaloo’s condition was making her nervous.

Scootaloo looked left and right through the trees, and almost shot out a squeal when she thought she saw the featureless face of the Slendermane watching them at a distance through the trees. But as she blinked, it was no longer there. She started to shiver as her irises and pupils constricted in fear. She clutched onto Twilight uncomfortably tightly as the pair ventured into the dark twisting path of endless trees.

***

Twilight suddenly snapped out of the memory, and without warning or anything to stop herself with, was pulled backwards by the same force that had been so effortlessly restraining her before. Twilight rolled and grazed her skin on the dirt road as it threw her back mercilessly, dragging her along the road, before abruptly pounding her side into a tree. Twilight let out a weak, painful gasp as the air was knocked out of her, and lay motionless for almost a minute, with her eyes shut tight, and struggling to pull in even the tiniest of breaths. After she felt her lungs start to recover, she took in bigger breaths to try and help her body recover faster. She coughed and sputtered occasionally as the dust she had picked up from the drag along the road invaded her nostrils and throat to her displeasure. When Twilight managed to lift her left legs, she wiped her dirty foreleg along her eyes to help them open again. The feeling of movement gradually returned to her right legs, and Twilight found herself able to move her body from its position to a more comfortable one. She winced as she moved certain parts of her limbs though, and after quickly flashing looks at certain parts of her body, realised that the pull had cut and grazed her skin. She had one particularly bad graze on her flank, which was slowly caking the fur around it with blood. Even her cutie mark had become covered in blood. Her legs were not so badly injured, but they did have a few uncomforting bruises and cuts along them.

The sight of her injuries only made the uncomforting pain worse for Twilight, as they started to sting even more. But luckily, apart from massive pain in her side that was bashed against the tree, when she felt around it with her hooves, nothing was broken. Her struggled breathing started to normalise, but was still extremely uncomfortable to put up with. Twilight pushed her side against the tree with her left legs, and while trying to flush the pain away, used it to push herself up. She leaned against it for support as she kicked the feeling back into her right legs. She slowly started to walk away from the tree, trying to forget about the continuing pain all around her body. Not too far away from her Twilight saw her saddlebag. She lit up her horn, and attempted to levitate it over to herself, but on the attempt to use magic, she found she was unable to. White noise filled her head as she tried harder, straining to force the spell out, but she realised it was no use. She shook her head trying to clear away the noise. She found it odd that she heard static when she tried to perform a spell, and very creepy. She was already scared, and continued to dart her eyes in every direction, as if looking for something, but not finding anything but darkness, and trees.

She nervously approached her saddlebag, and upon reaching it, opened up the right pouch, where she found the book that she had brought along with her. She closed it, unwilling to read the book while she was in her predicament. She then opened the left pouch to see if there was anything of use. There was a quill lying at the bottom corner next to a closed bottle of ink, and two scrolls of parchment. Twilight looked at her injuries, and back at the parchment. She sighed taking one piece in her mouth and pressing it gently onto the bleeding sites of her body. It irritated her a little; she would have preferred something more soft and comfortable, but it would do for now. She dropped the wet, bloody parchment on the dirt next to her, and sealed up the bag again, before uncomfortably slipping it back on. She went to magically tighten it and secure it to her, but upon attempting to do so, found her head flooded with static yet again. She decided to just let it rest there for the time being, leaning it to the left side of her body to try and distribute some more weight to that side, so the book on the other side wouldn’t weigh it off.

She looked down the dark path that opposed the one she wanted to return to, and fear slowly started to creep up on her sanity. She wasn’t willing to try and fight the pull again especially if it would result like it just had, so she realised she had but one choice. She had to venture through it if she wished to reach Zecora’s. Twilight gulped and sat down, rubbing her face with her right arm, wanting to be back in Ponyville. She thought about her friends, and what she would do to at least have one of them with her, especially Fluttershy, who she began to worry about even more dreading that she might have been brought to this area of the forest. She also thought about Scootaloo, but then realised that she had entered the forest with her. Where was she? Twilight jumped up and against the stinging pain trying to refrain drastic movement, trotted around the trees looking for the little pegasus filly, but she was nowhere to be found. Twilight looked around in confusion, before her ears perked up at a familiar voice.

“TWILIGHT!” she heard yelling through the trees from the path behind her. It was the unmistakable sound of Scootaloo, and Twilight could tell by the severity of her tone that she must have been scared.

“Scootaloo?!” She yelled back trying to get her attention.

“Twilight!” she heard again, seemingly getting louder and closer.

“Scoot... Scootaloo! Ov... Over here!” Twilight yelled, stuttering a little as pain from her wounds momentarily stung her much more. But the pain was forgotten and she smiled seeing a familiar orange, purple haired pegasus filly come running around the dirt path from which she’d originally come.

“Twilight! Thank Celestia I found you!” Scootaloo yelled running over to her. Twilight suddenly realised though that Scootaloo was heading straight for the barrier that was sealing her off, and her look descended into terror quickly.

“Wait Scootaloo! Stop!” She cried out, before she realised how close Scootaloo actually was.

Scootaloo suddenly became confused, but didn’t have the time to stop, before crashing into the force field herself. Without warning Scootaloo was swept from under her feet, screaming as she was thrown by an invisible force into the air. Twilight watched in horror as the white force field rippled around Scootaloo, sealing her in its barriers. She ran as quickly as she could to try and catch Scootaloo who had no control of her body as it flew through the air. In the small frame of time she had been given Twilight just barely managed to catch Scootaloo on her back. The sudden impact of weight caused Twilight’s legs to collapse under her in their weak state, but the sudden pain was acceptable for her knowing that she saved Scootaloo from suffering any similar injuries.

Scootaloo had still had the air stolen from her body though and just stayed lying on Twilight’s back panting for breath. Twilight was tired from all the aching bruises and stinging pain on her skin, and also just lay in her place, waiting for her body to recover from all the stress it had been through since she entered the forest. Reluctant to get up and follow the only available option to the pair of them, Twilight just rested for a short time, while Scootaloo also recovered from the recent scare.