Slendermane: Requiem

Chapter 2

*Beep*

The faint noise repeated itself in Fluttershy’s head, as she lay floating in darkness. While she had no idea what was happening, she seemed to have lost all memory of what had happened before hand. She spread her wings, and looked at her body. All was well with her, but where was the rest of the world. Fluttershy lightly flapped her wings and glided through the darkness, looking for somepony; anypony who could tell her what was happening.

*Beep*

Fluttershy kept searching, growing more and more insecure with each passing beep, as they became louder. As it increased in volume a faint murmur also appeared, in a much more flat tone than the high pitched beeping. Fluttershy peered ahead into the endless darkness, but saw nothing. She turned around, and noticed something different. There seemed to be small white blocks in the middle of the darkness. Curious, Fluttershy flew over to approach them.

*Beep*

Fluttershy watched as the shapes grew very slightly in size, and a much taller shape was revealed. What Fluttershy could see appeared to be the hind-side of a pale white pony with no tail, two fore-hooves, and a head without a mane. The rest of the figure was cut off as if its choice in attire blended into the darkness. Fluttershy felt uneasy about the figure, and knew there was something about it she couldn’t put her hoof on.

*Beep* *Beep*

*Beep**Beep*

The beeps started to get a little faster, not doubling their speed, but definitely getting noticeably faster. Fluttershy started to back away from the figure, as droplets of sweat started to form lightly on her brow. Before Fluttershy could get a fair distance to observe the figure from, it disappeared, as if it had never been there to begin with.

*Beep**Beep**Beep*

Fluttershy could feel her heart beating faster, as her anxiety increased. She didn’t know what the creature in front of her was, or where it had gone, and that lack of knowledge scared her.

‘What if it isn’t a nice pony? What if it was never there?’ She asked herself in her mind. Fluttershy tried to relax herself and walked back over to where the pony figure had been standing.

*Beep**Beep*

The beeping was starting to slow down. It wasn’t until a few seconds later that Fluttershy realised the noise was practically beeping in unison with her heartbeat. Upon this thought though, murmuring started to grow with it. The voices were unintelligible, and sounded like somepony was trying to talk with their head under water. Suddenly Fluttershy felt something sting on the right side of her flank. She winced, turning her head to look, seeing that a red line was mysteriously coursing a cut right into her skin. As it travelled through it stung more, but no explanation for the occurrence presented itself.

*Beep**Beep*

*Beep**Beep**Beep*

The beeping started to increase in speed again. Fluttershy watched the line as it stopped, spanning right from her lower right flank, to the skin on the side of her stomach covered by her wing. A tiny few droplets of red liquid started to dribble from the cut. It didn’t take long for her to figure out that the substance was blood, but it wasn’t dribbling down her fur, and dripping to the ground, instead it was falling slightly before sinking into her fur and drying in place. The blood was drying around the cut impossibly fast, but it wasn’t creating a crusty layer, instead it seemed to continue drying deeper into her light coat, and onto her skin.

*Beep**Beep**Beep*

Fluttershy watched unable to shift her eyes from the confounding injury forming on her side, but unable to try and suppress the sting it was causing her either. The bloody dried on her skin started to deepen in colour, darkening to a thick purple. The whole wound was surrounded by the purple before long, which faded back into the yellow of her coat, as if it were a bruise. The most disturbing part of the injury started to happen next. Fluttershy watched as patches of the purple skin started to fade in colour, becoming pale white and dead, leaving patches of skin and fur directly around the scar with an unnatural, crusty, disturbed look.

*Beep**Beep**Beep*

*Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep*

Fluttershy started to panic on the inside, but still found herself locked in position staring at the injury as if frozen. The final addition to the injury started to appear, making Fluttershy want to grimace in pain but still found she was unable to move. A light yellowy substance seemed to be dribbling out and bubbling, creating a thin layer over some of the poorly conditioned skin and fur around the wound. Some parts of it even seemed to bubble like blisters, while other just dried in place. Either way, the pain was not something Fluttershy was enjoying.

*Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep*

The beeping had gotten much faster, as had Fluttershy’s heartbeat. Her sweat levels were beginning to increase and an irrational feeling of fear was clawing at the inside of her belly. Fluttershy, finally able to move again, took her eyes directly off the wound, and turned around. In that instant she found herself face to face with a featureless white stallion head.

*Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep*

Fluttershy’s heartbeat increased very rapidly, and her stress levels soared. Before she could even scream, all the knowledge of the most recent events, leading her to where she was now returned. The creature didn’t shift its gaze or move its body, but Fluttershy leapt away out of instinct to run. Fluttershy ran a large distance and looked behind herself, finding the Slendermane still hadn’t moved. Fluttershy tried to relax her breathing, but it proved to be a fruitless effort. She turned around intent on running further, only to find herself face to face with the Slendermane again.

*Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep*

Fluttershy screamed at the top of her lungs, which unfortunately for her, wasn’t quite as loud as she had thought it would be, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Fluttershy felt herself frozen to the spot again, unable to do nothing but watch on, as the Slendermane proceeded to make a move. Fluttershy whimpered out of fear as bumps started to form on its back under its suit, before stretching to a large tentacle like appendages. Fluttershy closed her eyes and shoved her head under her fore-hooves, not wanting to see anymore.

*Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep*

The beeping reached its peak of noise, and the murmuring became a louder mumble, but the words were still impossible to make out. Fluttershy didn’t dare look up though. She didn’t want to see what the creature would do, but it didn’t seem to want to give her an easy way out. Her hooves forced themselves off her face, and her eyes slung open, to see one of the tentacles rise into the air, and bring itself down at top speed, right onto Fluttershy’s head!

The beeping went silent, for at least half a second longer than it should have, before Fluttershy, flung her body forwards, only to be forced back by a bright light shining right into her face. She found it difficult to move her arms to shield her face, before she realised that there was a sheet over her. She kicked at the sheet dazed and confused, but stopped instantly finding that kicking was causing her scar to sting more and more. It was a different pain than usual, almost just as bad; feeling as though flames were licking the wound and searing it lightly, but more like an acidic burning than fire. As her hearing started to return to her while she flailed at the sheet confused, she heard voices trying to talk to her.

“Fluttershy! Calm down sugarcube, yer ok!” She Applejack’s voice yell.

“Doc! She’s awake!” She heard Rainbow’s voice yell.

“Fluttershy, stop kicking, you’re gunna be fine.” Pinkie’s voice added in.

Knowing her friends were there Fluttershy felt safer than before, and as she stopped struggling, the light switched off, drastically lowering the light level enough to make everything look silhouetted to Fluttershy. She managed to bring her fore legs up to cover her eyes, feeling a light pain in the retinas which had yet to adjust to the new light level.

Fluttershy slightly lowered her leg and her sight quickly brought the dark smudged figures into light and character. Still a little bit dazed and confused she looked around to get her bearings.

“Where… Where am I?” She asked, before she realised she was surrounded by medical equipment. Just to her left was a heartbeat monitor, beeping away at a steady pace, which was obviously what she could hear in her subconscious state.

“Yer in the hospital sugarcube. Ye dun passed out when we got to ye, so we snatched you and the other little ponies up and rushed you over here; good thing too, that there cut on yer leg certainly wasn’t doin ye any favours.” Applejack told her appearing to be the least bothered by the wound; regardless it still mildly sickened her to look at it, but what was most upsetting to her and the others was that Fluttershy was the victim to it. Rarity on the other hand was absolutely repulsed by the injury.

“A cut? Applejack a cut would be a mere split line, like the many of which are covering my sister. That revolting injury is far worse than a simple cut,” Rarity stated before turning to Fluttershy. “The Doctor said it was lucky we got you over here when we did.”

“Indeed it was.” A stallion’s voice came from across the room. The others looked across to the door to see one of the doctors. The same doctor who had treated Rainbow Dash’s broken wing for that matter. “Might I speak to Fluttershy alone please?” the doctor asked using his magic to levitate a clipboard in front of him.

“Sure doc, but Fluttershy, we got some talkin te do when we come back. I need te know what happened te mah sister.” Applejack said before walking out the door.

“I don’t want to put any pressure on you Fluttershy, but we haven’t even seen Twilight yet, so if you can spare some information about her and anything about Sweetie Belle’s condition when we come back, I would appreciate it very much.” Rarity said before also leaving the room.

“I’m glad your gunna be ok Fluttershy. I sure would like to know how you managed that... that’s a doozey of a cut.” Pinkie said. While she used the normal words that expressed her personality, she was anything but happy. Seeing any of her friends injured was a very upsetting event for Pinkie. “You know, whatever happened to you must have been the reason my Pinkie sense was going crazy all of last night. Maybe I have to pay more attention to what the signs could mean.” Pinkie speculated before walking out the door, leaving only Rainbow Dash, who remained silent, and bore the same self-loathing look as she had departing Fluttershy’s.

“Rainbow Dash, what did I tell you? I know what that look means.” Fluttershy winced in pain a little trying to readjust her leg, which was the only part of her not under a blanket.

“I just feel like I could have done something more.” Rainbow said with a grim tone in her voice.

“You got her here, that’s what matters.” Fluttershy said. “You... you did get her here, didn’t you?” Fluttershy asked, her voice becoming grim also wondering if Scootaloo hadn’t reached the hospital fast enough.

“I got her here in seconds... They took her in, cleaned her up, and put a little bit of stuff on the cuts on her legs, but she hasn’t woken up. They don’t know what’s wrong with her!” Rainbow’s voice was quickly becoming noticeably distressed and angered. “She’s hasn’t inched a muscle since either! They have to feed her small meals through a tube! She keeps breathing; well actually she’s hardly doing that! She’s hooked up to a machine to do that for her too!” Rainbow said frustrated. She knew what she was angrier with though. Not herself, nor the doctors, but the one responsible for the fillies suffering. She’d never felt a deeper hatred for another, and she still didn’t even know who it was.

“Rainbow, I know you care about Scootaloo; we all do. But the equipment we’ve got her hooked up to is all that’s going to keep her alive until we can find what’s affecting her. Please understand we are trying our best.” The doctor explained moving towards Fluttershy’s bed. Rainbow knew this already, and was at the point of tears again, but had no intentions of taking her frustrations out on any innocent pony, especially those trying to help Scootaloo.

“Fluttershy, I need to know who hurt her, please promise you’ll tell me who did it when I come back.” Rainbow begged of her friend.

“I... I promise.” Fluttershy said.

With that, unable to say anything else to the pair Rainbow started to leave, mumbling under her own breath barely audible to the pair in the room, “because I swear by Celestia’s name that if Scootaloo doesn’t make it through this, they’re dead.”

With everypony out of the room, the doctor used his magic to close the door.

“Now Fluttershy, the wound on your leg is a severe matter. You have a very serious skin infection called cellulitis. You really should have come to us much sooner; it’s incredible that it’s become as bad as it has over the course of one night. It’s quite disturbing to see that someone like you would suffer such an injury.” The doctor said.

“Well, it actually happened sometime yesterday morning.” Fluttershy said becoming rather worried, while recounting in her head the terrifying incident of her abduction yesterday.

“Regardless, it needs to be treated now. Something as serious as cellulitis needs to be treated straight away otherwise you’re opening a doorway for much worse infections. Luckily, as bad as your leg may look, it is still treatable, but it’s going to take a long time, and due to the nature of the wound it will probably be rather difficult as w...” The doctor was stopped in his explanation by Fluttershy.

“How Long?”

Fluttershy knew she didn’t have time to stay in hospital no matter how bad her leg was. For Twilight’s sake she’d have to at least get out by tomorrow morning, but she knew something as bad as her leg couldn’t be fixed overnight, and was already dreading the answer.

“Infections aren’t always this serious. We’ve been abiding by normal procedure in cleaning them by washing it with a medical dressing, and trying to clean out any bodily or foreign substances like dirt and pus, but yours could take anywhere from a month to several. They can be unpredictable and worsen without warning if not treated and monitored.” The doctor explained.

“A month! No that’s too long! That’s far too long! I have to help Twilight today! I have to go today! There has to be something else I can do! Is there any way the treatment be delayed for another day?” Fluttershy asked desperately.

“No Fluttershy, there isn’t. I’m unaware of your personal matters with your friends, but for your own safety you should disregard them and try not to worry. If you wait any longer you could risk the infection evolving and spreading. If it does you could be exposed to anything ranging from bone and joint infections, to sepsis; and trust me when I say that a whole body infection is a very terrible thing to suffer. If you do prolong treatment, and the wound does fester more, you’ll be risking your own life.” The doctor explained further, trying to enforce that there was no way of knowing which way things could go if she avoided treatment.

“But there has to be another way!” Fluttershy cried, tears beginning to fill her eyes.

“I’m sorry Fluttershy, but I mean it when I say this is serious. If you were to hinder treatment and become vulnerable to sepsis; we would have to amputate your leg and operate on several spots on your flank and hip in order to slow down and attempt to stop the infection.” The doctor finished, hoping he’d made his point quite clear now.

Fluttershy’s pupils contracted to miniscule size at the thought of losing her leg; it was a terrible thing to even think about. She cringed at every aspect that would fall into it; the pain, the awkward stub it would leave on the scarred limb, the humiliation, and having to live with it for the rest of her life. But then she thought the negative impact of what would happen if she went through with the treatment. Nopony would be able to find Twilight, and she’d be as good as dead after a single day; and Twilight was far too important for that. She was the bearer of the element of magic, and the only one that could unleash the magical power of the elements of harmony. Without her, Equestria’s best defensive magic was useless. Letting her die wasn’t an option, but Fluttershy knew she couldn’t die either, because even if she wasn’t the element of magic she was still necessary for the elements of harmony to work. It wasn’t clear until now to her that the Slendermane’s actions could have taken away Equestria’s one great magical defence.

Thinking for a few moments Fluttershy came to a decision that Twilight had to be saved, regardless of what happened to her. Trying to discourage the thought of death, she considered a life without a leg might not be so bad, if it meant the survival of one of her best friends, and the continuing existence of the elements of harmony, then it was a price she would reluctantly pay. It made it a little easier to picture when she considered flying where she needed to go, but nothing about the idea was appealing. But then other things troubled her; things she hated to consider but had to so she wouldn’t make any plans that could go haywire if she was wrong. Things like what if she went back and didn’t return for any reason from being captured again to dropping unconscious in the forest from leg pain, or if the Slendermane had taken Twilight further away from the track she remembered in her head. The thought that troubled her most was if she would return and Twilight was already dead. She absolutely dreaded the concept more than anything, but it was by no means going to discourage her from attempting to find her.

Other thoughts came into head involving her friends. Would they help her? Would they even let her leave the hospital? Would they go in without her? She was the only one who knew the last location of Twilight and the Slendermane, and knew that no matter what she had to be one of the ponies searching for her. All her thoughts were quickly interrupted by a sharp prick in her side, just off where her scar was.

“Ouch! What was that?” Fluttershy asked looking down at her leg, at a small spot the doctor was rubbing with a cotton bud held by his magic. On a small bench to his side was a small unidentified syringe filled with a translucent yellowish liquid.

“Something to reduce the pain in your leg. Were you not listening to what I just told you?” The doctor asked Fluttershy looking at her apprehensively.

“Oh, um, yes, I just trailed off a little I guess.” Fluttershy said, wiggling her leg a little. The drug hadn’t kicked in quite yet as she still felt little surges of pain coarse through different areas of her hip and leg upon moving it.

“Give it a few seconds. I’m going to let your friends back in now. Take everything easy and slowly, and give one of the nurses a shout if you need anything.” The doctor said before making his departure from the room.

“Oh, ok, thankyou doctor.” Fluttershy said looking at her leg. She started to feel a numb sensation running through it, and the wound seemed to not bother her. The stinging faded along with the burning sensation the medical dressing was causing it, and she was able to move her leg to a better extent with only light stinging.

“Ok Fluttershy, we need to talk.” Rainbow’s voice said as the cyan pegasus made her way into the room, with the others trailing behind her. Fluttershy sunk down almost instantly; how was she going to explain everything without sounding like she was trying to insult their intelligence?

“I... I’m not sure what to tell you... I’m afraid you won’t believe me.” Fluttershy told them considering how farfetched the story would seem to anypony who hadn’t seen the Slendermane for themselves.

“Just tell us the truth Fluttershy. Ah’ve already heard some crazy stories from them fillies and colts over in the other rooms, and Apple Bloom’s story is the same; somethin bout a tall thin pony with no face...” Applejack started, but was cut off by Fluttershy before she could finish.

“They aren’t crazy; whatever they’ve told you is completely true.” Fluttershy began, but stopped as soon as the others exchanged concerned look.

“I knew none of you would believe it. And I haven’t even told you what happened yet.” Fluttershy said sadly.

Rainbow let out a sigh, before speaking up.

“I don’t care what the story is Fluttershy, I want to know what happened. As long as you promise me you’re telling the truth, then whatever you say is good enough for me.”

Fluttershy sighed ready to recount the most horrifying night in her life, to find the details her friends needed to know.

“Yesterday morning, Twilight was outside of the Everfree forest with Scootaloo, and Twilight was trying to convince her not to go into the forest, or, something like that I’d assume, I wasn’t there,” Fluttershy started taking quite a lot of gaps to try and recall the highlights as best as possible. “I was fixing a fence on my chicken coop, and I saw Twilight carrying Scootaloo on her back walking up the road to my place, and we talked for a bit. Twilight said she had to get a book from her library, so she teleported there, and I walked back up to my house, but when I walked in and closed the door to talk to Scootaloo, something started bashing on it from the outside, and... Well everything kind of happened really fast.” Fluttershy said trailing off. Rainbow was stewing with rage at this point; Fluttershy was just feeding her more reasons to hate this mystery pony.

“Fluttershy it’s ok. That pony can’t hurt you no more, especially now that we’re here.” Applejack told her attempting to comfort her. Fluttershy let out another sigh.

“It wasn’t a pony... It’s worse than any of the monsters I’ve ever seen in Equestria.” Fluttershy explained.

“How can it not be a pony? Ah thought them tracks the foal-napper was leavin behind were hoof-prints. I mean sure they were out of shape, but they were still hoof prints.” Applejack said confused.

“Well, it looked like a pony; if a pony could have no face, tentacles on its back, and stretch their legs 50 feet.” Fluttershy remembered the fear filled moments when the Slendermane would tower above the heights of the forest for the sole purpose of instilling fear in somepony’s heart.

“What are ye trying te say? That there’s a giant, stretchy, blank faced alien pony out in the Everfree forest?” Applejack asked confused.

“It’s not just some big, stretchy, blank faced alien pony Applejack. This thing is far worse than that! And it has Twilight! It’s called the Slendermane. It’s like; oh it’s so hard to explain... Oh Rarity, it’s like one of your mannequins, but it wears a suit, and is a lot taller!” Fluttershy quickly described thinking of the only object that could resemble the creature. The others were beyond simple confusion now though; they were completely lost trying to picture the creature.

“Fluttershy, you know how ridiculous this sounds right?” Rainbow asked.

“Yes I know, but it’s the truth! I wouldn’t lie about something so serious, you know I wouldn’t. It’s been abducting all those fillies and colts and everypony else who went missing. It,” Fluttershy went to continue but Rarity cut her off.

“Wait, the others? Like the search teams and store owners?” She asked just to make sure she’d heard that right. “Where are they? They weren’t in your home.”

Fluttershy was hesitant to answer, because she knew that the only reason none of them would have left would have been their deaths.

“They’re... They’re dead Rarity. It killed all of them.” Fluttershy heavy heartedly admitted.

The others were stunned just listening, and didn’t quite know how to respond, and weren’t sure they even wanted to believe what was being put forward, but Applejack was the one who knew better than to doubt her; the emotion in her expression was enough of a sign.

“She’s tellin the truth y’all. Ah can spot honesty when it’s there.” Applejack said becoming more concerned about the graphic nature of the truth.

“How... how did you escape it?” Pinkie asked with a visibly scared look on her face. Anypony could tell that Fluttershy’s story was putting her completely out of her comfort zone, all the signs were there; her expression was far from a smile, her hair was lightly slumped from its vibrant curls, straightening in some parts, and she was the least talkative of the group.

“Well, the first time I slipped away, and tried to fly to Zecora’s for help, but it kind of popped up ahead of me and I panicked. I flew left without looking and hit a tree as I went passed... that’s how this happened.” She said wiggling her scarred leg a little.

“The second time, I think had something to do with Twilight, me and the other fillies and colts escaped, but it caught them all again. Eventually we saved them, and it didn’t catch me again, but it got close at some points. It would have probably killed me if Twilight didn’t make me run...” Fluttershy said realising how much she owed her life to Twilight. “I have to go back and find her.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What?!” Rainbow asked stunned that Fluttershy would even suggest something like that after what she’d just told them.

“You’d never come out again!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Are you crazy?”Rarity asked shocked.

“You ain’t goin after Twilight in the Everfree forest on that leg.” Applejack told her. “Especially if there’s some big scary monster runnin around in there. We should get Celestia.”

All the girls seemed to object in unison, just as Fluttershy had feared they would.

“You can’t get Celestia; it would take too long to reach Canterlot. Twilight would be dead by the time you got back.” Fluttershy told them.

“Then we’ll send her a letter. We need to get to Spike,” Rainbow said. “I’ll go get him.”

Rainbow started to make her way towards the door at top speed, before Fluttershy’s voice rang out.

“Rainbow, wait!” Fluttershy cried out. Everypony looked at her waiting for her to say something, but she couldn’t object to them doing anything, especially in her position. “Twilight gave me a note to put outside the Everfree forest; it’s outside the chicken coop at my cottage. Once you’ve found Spike, can you put the sign outside the forest? I put an X on the spot for it to be planted and everything.” Fluttershy asked, failing to protest against their idea.

“Sure thing Fluttershy,” Rainbow said before zipping out the door at top speed.

Applejack turned back to Fluttershy.

“What in the hay made you think goin back for Twilight after that thing did that te your leg would be a good idea?”

“Because I’d have much worse than this if Twilight hadn’t done what she had. I owe her my life, and I’m the only one who knows where she is. I owe it to her to find her.” Fluttershy sobbed as the tears started rolling.

“Fluttershy, I know ye wanna help Twilight, but do you think she’d really want you te risk yer life for her? Especially after she tried to save you? I’ll bet she made you promise not te go after her, didn’t she?” Applejack asked, guessing correctly exactly what lengths Twilight would have gone to if it would keep her friends safe.

“Well, she...” Fluttershy stuttered, trying to finish her sentence confidently, but she was a terrible liar. “She...”

“Yeah?” Applejack interjected, and continued to do so every time Fluttershy stuttered.

“She,”

“Hmm?”

“I... I,” Fluttershy began to feel more emotion building up inside and just shunned her head to the side; it was a hopeless argument that she would never win, especially against Applejack.

Fluttershy just let the tears keep rolling, trying to bring herself to say something more, but just choking on her words. She finally managed to get something out through her tears.

“Do you understand... how bad it feels knowing she’s still out there... because I didn’t help her?” Fluttershy cried still not looking back at her friends. Rarity and Pinkie remained silent, both grim and concerned, especially Pinkie. Her bubbly party mood had completely deteriorated to a depressing point. What upset her most was that she knew that unless Twilight was to turn up out of the blue, she wouldn’t be able to even attempt to make Fluttershy happy.

“Gosh sugarcube ah never meant te upset you. But ye gotta think about this from Twilight’s perspective. Do ya think she would regret her actions? Ah think Twilight did what she did for a reason, and ahm sure she’s still fine. Trust me Fluttershy, leave it to Celestia. Ain’t no monster that could stand up te her and win.” Applejack said confident in their ruler’s magical ability.

“Well what about Chrysalis?” Fluttershy objected.

“She was consumin all the love from Twilight’s brother and using it te boost her power. Ahm pretty sure that slender-pony doesn’t feed off love.” Applejack argued her point, forgetting the name of the creature Fluttershy had told her before.

Fluttershy let out a stuttered sigh trying to hold back more tears, and lay her head down waiting for Rainbow to return.

***

Rainbow Dash was soaring across the rooftops of the many buildings in Ponyville looking for the tree that housed Twilight’s library. As soon as she flew past Sugarcube Corner Twilight made a 90° right turn and saw it in the distance. Rainbow slowed down to halt herself at Twilight door, but didn’t slow down fast enough before she crashed through Twilight’s door. Rainbow didn’t take the time to brush herself off and recover properly though. She lightly shook off some of the broken chipped wood from the door and jumped into the air using her wings to suspend her above the ground.

“Spike? Spike you here? Spike?” Rainbow called throughout the library, but her voice echoed off the walls of the empty room. Rainbow flew upstairs to peek into the bedroom. Maybe he was still sleeping.

“Spike?” She called into the bedroom, before looking around it to notice it was empty. “Where is he?” she asked herself. ‘Maybe he went looking for her when she didn’t come back last night...’ Rainbow thought as she flew back down to the downstairs door.

“Spike?” She called out one last time opening the door. No response again. She peered into the dark descending staircase, and called again, “Spike?” only for it to echo downstairs, into the darkness. Rainbow flicked the light-switch to the downstairs room, but the light only flickered a few times before it stopped and remained burnt out, keeping the room shrouded in black. Rainbow shivered and closed the door, reluctant to check the spare bedroom down in the basement. As fearless as she usually was, everything she’d seen and heard in the past few hours was causing her to worry about unusual small phobias that hadn’t bothered her since her childhood, like the dark.

Rainbow trotted outside the library, and sighed; they didn’t have any way of contacting Celestia. About to fly back to the hospital she realised she still had to plant the sign in front of the forest for Fluttershy. Rainbow took to the sky again and flew towards the outside of town, near the Everfree forest. She spotted Fluttershy’s cottage just ahead, and dropped by the chicken coop where Fluttershy said the sign was sitting. She dropped down next to the small structure and very quickly found the small wooden makeshift sign lying in the dirt with the note poorly stabbed onto it. Rainbow adjusted it herself so that she knew it would stay on the wooden post.

She grabbed the post in her mouth and flew down the road just outside of the forest. She scanned momentarily on the ground outside the forest, and next to a tree saw the small X dug into the ground. She dropped down next to it, standing the sign upright and placing it over the ground, before bashing it with her hoof to anchor it into the ground. She made sure it was far enough that it wasn’t going to just roll out of with a gust of wind and when she was satisfied she left it in place. She was about to turn around before she realised she still hadn’t even read it yet. Curiously Rainbow turned around to read the note.

“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 it catching you. Some ponies have died already, don’t be the next one. Do not enter the forest!” She read aloud. “Twilight wrote this?” She asked herself trying to remember what Fluttershy had told her. Averting her sight from the note Rainbow flew back up to Fluttershy’s house, where she could see the door flailing lightly in the wind. She went to close it, but before she lay a hoof on the door, Rainbow felt an incredibly eerie chill travel up her spine, making her feel uncomfortably cold; the type of feeling that she only got when she was being watched.

Rainbow swung her head around, and gasped in shock as a sudden sense of deep sickening fear started to wrench at her gut. The impossible Slendermane creature was standing right down just outside the tree line of the forest, its pale featureless face locked in her direction. Rainbow dash gulped beginning to back away carefully, but noticed that the creature wasn’t moving. She wondered for a second if maybe her mind was just playing tricks on her, focussing carefully on the faceless, suited abnormal being. Out of nowhere a large gust of wind passed by and tickled at Rainbow’s coat, making her almost keel over with unnatural shivering and tingles under her skin, but also slamming Fluttershy’s door closed, giving Rainbow quite a fright. Rainbow swung her head around to see that the door had made the loud noise, and calmed down a bit before looking back down the path, only to find that the Slendermane was gone. Rainbow scanned the whole tree line quickly, but nothing was there, as if it had just vanished. Rainbow gulped again, feeling herself start to break into a sweat.

Rainbow turned around again ready to fly back to the hospital, but only to come face to face with the creature that had just been down at the end of the pathway. It was like a scene from a horror movie for Rainbow, and all she could do was scream in fear. True fear; something she hadn’t felt in a long time. Rainbow out of shock and a surge of adrenaline made one quick attempt to fly away, but found herself caught by the leg only to be pulled back. She flapped her wings harder and harder, desperate to get away from the monster, but it was no use. All she could see upon turning around was what looked like a tentacle spanning from its back to wrap around her leg. Rainbow felt her brain start to tingle, and she began to feel numb, as if the creature was magically draining her body of all feeling. It didn’t take long before everything around Rainbow became a blackening blur of messy pictures, and her wings stopped moving, letting her drop to the ground. With a thud and cracking noise, Rainbow hit the ground, and everything she could still see vanished to blackness entirely.

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