Dream Realm

Makael P.O.V.

I was attempting to locate Twilight's door, or any of the Main 6's doors really. In fact, I hadn't located the dreams of a single familiar face over the course of the past hour I had been here.

'I don't know any of these ponies,' I thought, 'There's no way in hell I'll be able to locate anyone's dreams with any efficiency like this. I'll be lucky if I find the door of any of the characters I know within a month.'

"I guess I'll have to find some other way to locate people's dreams," I sighed defeatedly, "How should I go about this... "

I decided I would Imagine Twilight's door appearing right before him and it didn't work. I tried different ideas of how he would be able to sift through the millions, if not billions of dreams that were in the dream realm but none of what I thought of seemed to work.

As I was staring at the door in front of me, trying to will different ponies' dreams into the place of the door in front of me and into the empty space between each door, and while I was trying to imagine doors thinking this ability would work like all the others, the most unexpected thing happened. The doors before me started to move vertically across the empty void. Slowly at first, but getting faster and faster until all I could see was a blur of faded colours. The doors were moving past at such speed that after a while, all I saw was a mishmash of colours that blended together. After about thirty seconds, the doors stopped abruptly. There was no slowing down before they stopped or any indication that they were ever gonna stop. They just halted.

I stood there confused, 'What the hell?' I wondered, 'Did it work? Is this Twilight's door?,'

I was disappointed to find that it was in fact, the door of some unknown pony named blank canvas.

'Why would some random pony's dream show up in front of me? It makes no sense,' I tried to reason, 'Is the dream realm trying to tell me this pony is of importance or something?'

I tried to deduce Any possible reason as to the sudden intrusion of this 'blank canvas' upon the door that was just in front of him a moment ago. I decided that I would enter the door in front of me after a few minutes of just standing there pondering. But before I could, the same thing happened again and this time it brought a different door in front of me.

This one belonged to some mare named Jade Ring. At this point, I could not possibly be any more confused. 'Is this some weird dream realm phenomenon or something,' I tried to reason. That was until an idea struck me. Another way I could possibly sift through the millions of dreams present. "Thank you, whatever God that helped me, "I said out loud while emitting an aura of a victorious smirk as a new idea came to me, "Thank you so much for the hint, oh great dream realm."

I had decided to try to imagine myself scrolling through the doors and stopping at Twilight's door, much like how I would scroll down a webpage on a computer. I looked upon the doors in front of me with baited breath as the doors started moving once more. Slowly at first, then faster. Faster. Faster. Until it finally stopped about twenty seconds later.

In front of me, was the door to Twilight's dreams.

Dream Realm

Luna P.O.V.

'Another nightmare banished,' I thought happily.

I then proceeded to scroll through more of the doors until I came upon my next nightmare, 'Oh my, Rose Star again? I hope she isn't having any more nightmares about being chased by monsters again,' I hoped that the little filly's nightmare steak would have stopped by now. She had been having nightmares of strange looking creatures chasing her and threatening to eat her almost every night. The creatures in her nightmares always looked silly to me as they would to any other adult but for a little filly they were terrifying. She even had a nightmare about a weird female version of Discord named Eris or something chasing her on two occasions.

I preplanned the advice I was going to give her before I entered just as I did with anyone I could predict the nightmares of before entering their dreams. I decided I was going to give her the sand advice that I usually do. I was going to tell her that Celestia and I would protect her and everypony else no matter what happened. I was going to tell her that her mother and father would protect her no matter what happened. I was going to tell her that her friends would always be there for her and that there was no reason to be afraid that something would after her.

I sighed as I prepared to enter the door ahead of me, not knowing if my advice would do anything to quell her fears. But as I reached my hand forward to turn the door's handle, the strangest thing happened. The door moved. Not just the one in front of me but all of the doors around me. They moved faster, then faster, then even faster, until they eventually stopped and I found a random pony's dream in place of Rose Star's.

But that shouldn't be possible. Never one in the hundreds of years of me tending to the dream realm did the doors move of their own accord. They only moved when I moved them. They only moved when a dreamwalker moved them. And I was the only dreamwalker on Equus. There could never be another dreamwalker. Dreamwalking wasn't something one could learn with a spell. It involved tapping into every creature's subconscious at the same time in a literal alternate dimension.

But yet, the shifting in the positions of the doors told me otherwise. There was another dreamwalker on Equus. And that left me more excited than I had ever been in the past thousand years. But it also left me more terrified than I had been since the awakening of Tirek. The thought of meeting another dreamwalker was exhilarating. I couldn't wait to meet somepony else that could do what I could do. This had to be somepony with immense power, or somepony that was born with the ability. But before I could meet them, I had to meet them first.

Good thing was, this was the dream realm. The only limit to what a dreamwalker could do within the dream realm was their imagination. I was pretty much omnipotent in this world of mine. So I began to move. Faster than a pony could run, faster than sound, faster than light, and in the span of ten seconds, I came roughly twenty metres away from him. From it.

It was at this point I was beginning to regret my decision. If only I hadn't been traveling so fast, I might have been able to stop further away from it and observe it from afar. But it was too late now. It had noticed me. It didn't turn around to face me but it was watching me.

It always watches.

To say I was afraid would be the biggest understatement in the history of Equus. I was terrified. And this unnatural fear, it wasn't like anything I felt before. It was pure terror. Standing there, I wasn't just terrified, it felt like torture. The fear was eating away at me. It cut me deeper than any wound ever could. It burned within me. In that very moment, I would rather have died than experience that fear for even a second longer. But it went on. Seconds passed. Hours passed. Weeks passed. Months passed. Years passed. It never stopped. And it never got any less terrifying. Every second longer was just as horrible as the moment I laid my eyes on him. On it. In the span of ten seconds, I felt lifetimes pass by me. Every second felt as though it was a century. If every single creature on Equs experienced their greatest fears, and that same fear lasted their entire lifetimes until they passed, and all that was concentrated into a single focus point, that would not equal one millionth of the fear I felt every passing second. If that same fear was multiplied by a thousand times, that would not equal even a noticeable fraction of what I experienced with each passing second.

I wanted to run. I wanted to scream. I wanted to die. But I couldn't move. I was completely petrified. My brain couldn't process anything other than pure, unbridled terror. In the span of the past ten seconds we were staring at each other, I would have rather died horribly a thousand times.

And it was right in front of Twilight Sparkle's door.

Dream Realm

Makael P.O.V.

'Okay, looks like Luna is here. She's just been staring at me for the past ten seconds. What's she doing?' I thought, confused, 'Is she gonna say something?'

Luna stared back at me, and I just stared back at her, 'Now would be a good time to test out my telepathy to see what she's thinking,' I thought.

I imagined myself peering into Luna's mind and what I found was horrible. Only three words could describe what Luna felt in that moment.

It. Was. Torture.

And I was feeling extremely guilty. Nobody should have to experience that much fear, ever. Even Hitler wouldn't deserve this kind of torment. Okay, maybe Hitler would, but anyone besides him should never experience what she felt in that moment. So I did what I hoped would quell her fears. I spoke.

"It's alright, I'm not gonna hurt you," I said to Luna, "You don't have to be afraid. I'm not all that scary once you get to know me. I spent my entire life thinking you weren't real. You have no idea how badly I've been wanting to meet you. I've been watching your kind and out of all the other ponies in existence, you're my favorite. And I think we'll be getting on just fine. I plan on both of us being the greatest of friends. I hope my scary appearance won't get in the way of that."

'Could I have worded that better?' I asked myself. 'Of course I could have worded that better! What the hell was I even thinking?! If a creepy monster said that to me, I'd probably crap my pants! And the demonic voice really isn't helping my situation here!'

Luna just stared at me, and through my telepathy, I could have sworn I felt a raised eyebrow somewhere within her subconscious.

"Look, I'm scary, I get it. I look like a demon, sound like a demon, and I think I could've worded that in a better way. But I really don't intend on hurting you." I tried convincing her. "I wasn't always this creature. I was turned into this monster just a day ago. Before this, I was an ordinary… interdimensional alien, just like you except from another world. I was sent here with a set of abilities. One of them is my natural fear aura, which I have no idea how to turn off, and that's the only reason you're this afraid of me."

As soon as I told Luna about my natural fear aura, it was just like a veil had been lifted. It was like the moment she was made aware of this, it ceased to affect her any longer. She was still bloody terrified of me, but a lot less than she was a minute ago. I hoped that she would have snapped out of it enough to finally begin to form coherent words. So I decided to try introducing myself to her again.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot… hoof, last time, so let's start with the introductions. Hi, my name is Makael. Or, it was Makael. That was before I turned into the Slender Man. I guess now that I'm no longer human but Slenderman, I should go by his name as well. Well, you can call me the Slender Man. Or Slendy, for short. It's nice to meet you, your highness," I said in my muffled demonic, staticky voice. I hoped that Luna would warm up to me after my introduction. It was a slim chance, but I hoped so anyway.

The princess just stared back at me, still unmoving. I eagerly awaited her reply, but she just stared back at me, not saying anything. After about thirty seconds, I got fed up with her silence and spoke again.

"Umm, princess? This is the part where you introduce yourself. At least where I come from, if someone introduces themselves, you introduce yourselves back. Is it different where you come from? Do you just stare at people once they introduce themselves in Equestria? Or is introducing yourself considered rude in your culture?" I asked annoyedly.

Luna just started backing away from me, slowly. "S - Stay back, c - creature!" she stuttered out. "I am t-t-the p-princess of the night, k-keeper of the dream r-realm, and banisher of nightmares. And you, are a c-creature of n-n-nightmares."

At that point, I was getting even more annoyed. "Is that how you usually introduce yourself to others?" I asked her. "So you're gonna do what? Banish me?"

Luna got into a fighting stance, and her horn lit up with it's signature blue glow, and she fired a beam at me. Seeing as this was the dream realm however, it didn't harm me. Not even a sting. She fired off bolt after bolt of magic but none of them did anything. After about fifteen bolts striking me, I decided to fight back.

Now, this would be a good time to mention, I was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder at the age of thirteen. I was also clinically diagnosed with sociopathy a year later. Back on earth, I had my meds to help me, but here, I didn't.

At the strike of the sixteenth bolt, I began to get mad. 'I introduce myself and offer her peace and she just shoves it back in my face? Screw making peace with the bitch! I'm gonna rip her limb from limb for insulting me like this! This isn't about the attacks, because they don't harm me. This is about putting little shits that try to harm me in their places! This is about attacking me despite me not having provoked her at all! This is about her attacking me when I literally told her I want peace! Screw peace! I'll eat the souls of every single pony I meet! I'M THE FUCKING SLENDERMAN! I DON'T ACCEPT THIS KIND OF BLATANT DISRESPECT!'

I let out my tentacles. Dir at first. Then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty two. Luna just stared at me in horror as my tentacles multiplied gradually. Then I sent them at her.

As my tentacles were sailing through the air, Luna started blasting again, but this time at the constant onslaught of appendages sailing through the air to catch up to her while dodging, weaving and flying in between them. I mean, the only reason she was able to evade me so far was because of the lack of control I had over so many additional limbs at once. After half a minute of going through a constant rhythm of blasting and dodging, one of my many appendages hit her, and she fell.

I took advantage of this and sent all three dozen limbs after her at once. That was until I saw her face. One look at her and my rage melted away like ice before fire. That same look of terror was plastered on her face, along with a look of sadness, and… regret?

I searched through her mind with my telepathy. She didn't want to die. Not here. Not like this. Not in her own domain by a creature she had just met. Not by the hands of a creature that she had shown hostility towards despite it only having acted peaceful towards her and even offered her friendship. If only she wasn't so foolish. This all might've been avoided had she introduced herself like the creature had asked.

Time slowed as my tentacles sailed through the air. But before they could meet Luna, I stopped. 'What the hell am I doing? This is princess fucking Luna. One of my favorite characters from MLP. One of the most caring ponies alive. And I was about to kill her.' I quickly retracted my tentacles back to where they had came from.

In that instant, Luna looked at me, and seized the opportunity. She exited the dream realm immediately, leaving me alone with my thoughts, 'I'm going to let the princesses know of my situation in the best possible way I know how. By giving them the piece of paper the Splendorman gave me. Actually, no. I'll have to rewrite it. They can't know how my abilities work if they decide to come after me. They don't need to know that my power scales with fear, they don't need to know that the elements work on me, and they don't need to know about my mental magic. Most of all, they don't need to know that I'm vulnerable to magic. But they do have to know that I need to eat souls to survive and that the soul of an immortal can end my hunger, as much as it will antagonise me in their eyes. They're the only ones who can fix this.'

Canterlot Castle

Celestia P.O.V.

I listened to my sister's story intently. I felt deeply saddened by something like this happening to Luna. She had never described anything with this much fear. And that only proved to increase my worry. The magnitude at which she described her terror to be upon first encountering the creature due to not being aware of it's 'fear aura' was nothing short of, well… terrifying.

"And I even don't know if whatever it was has a physical body. I only encountered it in the dream realm and there have been no other recorded encounters with such a creature," Luna told me.

"Well, it's entirely possible you just encountered an extremely powerful and malevolent dream demon. This wouldn't be the first time you encountered one," I told her.

"But Celestia, that's simply not possible," Luna reasoned, "All the dream demons I've encountered in the past enter ponies' dreams at random. They don't have the power to look for individual ponies' dreams. And I'm a hundred percent certain that none of them looked as terrifying as the Slender Man. And none of them exhibited a 'fear aura' like he did. It was horrible. I would rather die than experience another second of that thing's presence."

'That's even more concerning,' I thought, 'If the Slender Man really is a dreamwalker with a physical body and not just a virtual one in the dream realm, this would be really, really bad. No, it would be beyond bad. Imagine countless ponies experiencing what Luna just did but in reality instead of in a dream.'

"Whatever this creature is, we can only hope that it only exists within the confines of the dream realm. If it doesn't, I honestly have no idea what could stop a creature like that, if it can even be stopped. Something that could induce that much petrifying fear in somepony." I told my sister while not making an attempt to hide how disturbed I was.

"I do hope that thing is not physical as well, but even if it isn't, what do we do about it? If that creature gets into the ponies' nightmares, it could cause them long lasting mental trama, make them afraid to go to sleep, or maybe even drive them insane. I experienced the creature's fear aura for but a few seconds, and look what its effects have done to me! Most of our ponies are not even half as brave as I am! And I think he'll let others experience his aura for much longer than a few seconds," Luna told me while sounding extremely worried and agitated, "I can tell that he's watching me, Tia. He has no eyes, but always watches. He never stops. There is no escape! He might be here right now, Tia! Oh God, what if he's here now? Nonononono! I don't want to see him again!"

"Calm down, sister. The Slender Man's just in the dream realm. He can't get you out here," I tried to comfort my crying sister while wrapping a wing around her to pull her into a hug, 'What manner of monster could do this to my sister? To cause her to act like this? She's never been this afraid of anything in her life. Even when it's not here, it still influences my sister. It might as well be here. It might as well show up right at our doorstep.'

Just then, there was a knock on my bedroom door, despite me requesting complete privacy from my guards. 'Whoever interrupted this sisterly moment better have a good reason for doing so,' Celestia thought as she moved towards her bedroom door.

Author's Note

Luna's getting infected with the Slender sickness! Ooh, scaaa~ry!

As usual, all I look forward to all criticism and encourage it. Would love to hear what you guys think.