Unknown location

Ms. Rory Mercury P.O.V.

I awoke to a sound of the snapping of fingers, along with various loud mechanical sounds and banging emanating from around the area. I slowly forced my eyes open, feeling my consciousness gradually returning to me.

"Ugh…" I moaned, "What happened…" I tried lifting my hand up to rub a spot on my head, but found I was unable to. I struggled harder but found that my hands and legs were bound tightly, with my hands being bound behind the backrest of the metal chair, and my legs being bound to both of the front legs of the chair.

"Wha- where am I?" I asked to no one in particular. Then I lifted my head up and focused my eyes, to find a tall man dressed in a dark suit, looking down on me.

"Who are you? Where am I?" I asked, still groggy from when I was unconscious. Then, I began to panic, "What did you do to me?! What do you want?! Let me go!". The man merely smiled in response, then I heard a sharp scraping noise and saw that he was dragging another metal chair towards me, holding onto the backrest while its two back legs scraped across the floor. He spun the chair around on one of its back legs, and the front part of the chair faced my, then finally, he let the other three legs of the chair drop with a loud clang as the metal legs came into contact with the floor, followed by sitting in the chair.

Basement car park (an indeterminate amount of time ago)

Then, it all came flooding back to me. I had just parked my car in the basement, and was heading for the lift, before I was snatched away by an extremely large figure, who held his hand over my mouth while I attempted to scream, muffling my cries for help.

I attempted to resist his attempts, kicking and wiggling about to break his hold, but he held on firm, my attempts not even bothering him in the slightest. That was when I got another idea and reached into my handbag, which was still hanging onto my shoulder, and brought out my pepper spray. I aimed the spray backwards, to where I assumed his head was, and clamped down on the button, which let loose a torrent of liquid that flew at him in a straight line.

It had affected him, although not as much as I would've liked. He loosened his grip just enough from me to slip through, while letting out an 'Agh' that sounded more like he was annoyed, rather than in pain. But he should have been in pain, it was pepper spray. I thought that maybe I hadn't sprayed enough, and turned around and continued to spray some more, just so I could escape without him recovering in time to pursue me.

That was my mistake. I should've ran when I had the chance, but I went on the offense instead. He grabbed the hand that was holding the pepper spray, ripping the weapon out of my grip and tossing it away. His other hand came up to my throat, choking me, even managing to lift my entire body off the ground with one hand. I held onto his arm and ripped and clawed at it, trying to get him to let go, but to no avail. Then, he seemed to grow frustrated, and with only one arm, threw me several meters back, where I came into contact with one of the concrete walls of the car park, and fell to the ground with a thud.

The last thing I saw was a tall man walking towards me, dressed in a black suit. Then, my vision went dark and I woke up here.

Present time

I began to scream, the loudest, most high pitch scream that I could emit. The man responded by bringing his hand up to my cheek, and stroking it. Then, he slapped me, hard.

My head jerked to the right from the sheer force of the slap, and a stinging pain began to emit from my left cheek. In fact, the slap was so hard, my eyes began reading and I started groaning softly in pain.

"No one can hear you. We're in the boiler room," he said, "Well, no one except for me, that is. And I find your high pitched screaming extremely irritating. So stop that!"

"Who are you? What do you want? Can you please let me go?!" I asked, afraid.

"Again with the questions!" he said, taking on an amused expression, "Fine, I'll answer them. Ask away."

"Who are you? Why are you-" I was cut off as I received another slap, although this was much softer, probably to make me shut up rather than to cause me pain.

"One question at a time. I can't keep track of a dozen questions at once," he smiled at me, "Now, let's try this again."

"Who are you?" I asked carefully, not wanting to be on the receiving end of another slap.

"My name…" he stood up and gave me a bow "Is Makael." He then sat back down and resumed "Or… was. Tell you what, how about you call me Slendy? It's short for Slenderman."

"But you just said your name is Makael," I said, confused.

"Well, I guess it's the same as how people refer to… God," he said, only causing my confusion to rise.

"What..?" I said softly.

"God does have a name. The Christian God, anyway," he began, "It's Yahweh. But people still call him God, which is what he is; a God, rather than by his actual name. My name is Makael, but I prefer if people refer to me as Slenderman, which is what I am, rather than who I am. You get what I mean?"

"Y- Yes, of course," I agreed with him, not wanting to tell him how stupid he sounded for fear that he might get violent again. "Okay, can I ask my next question now?" I said, cautiously as always, not wanting to sound demanding, or come of as rude, and incur his wrath once again.

"Be my guest," he agreed.

"What do you want?" I asked, already dreading the answer.

"I want to eat your soul," he said and began chuckling.

"No, seriously, what do you want? Why have you kidnapped me? If you want money, I'll give you all I have, just please let me go!" I said and he just laughed in response.

"I don't want your money," he said, eliciting a feeling of dread from me, "I want your life."

"What do you mean?" I asked hesitantly.

"I'm going to kill you!" Makael cheerfully replied.

"What?!" I shouted in horror, "You're lying, aren't you?! A murder hasn't happened in over three hundred years!"

"No I'm not going to murder you!" he said, offended, "I'm going to eat your soul. And coincidentally, eating someone's soul had some… side effects. Side effects include, but are not limited to: death, more death, and possibly not being able to enter the afterlife."

"Can you just tell me why I'm here?!" I begged.

Makael sighed, "Because, I'm going to eat your soul." He got up and began pacing in a circle around me, "You see, I'm not human. I'm the Slenderman. An alien, a monster, a demon, an experiment gone wrong, whatever I am, I am the only member of my species," he put his hands on my shoulders and stared directly into my eyes, "And I need to eat souls to survive. If I don't, I'll experience more pain than you can imagine. If you think hell is bad, what I'll experience if I don't feed is worse."

I began to grow increasingly afraid, and increasingly desperate to find a way to escape, or at the very least, talk my way out of this predicament.

"Then why me?! Out of everyone else, why me?!" I asked, trying to make him think about why exactly he wanted to kill me, and from there, possibly convince him to let me go.

"Wrong place, wrong time," he said shrugging, "I could've been a tornado, a snatch theft gone wrong, or a car accident. You're just unlucky enough to have encountered me."

"So you enjoy hurting people?!" I asked, completely disgusted by his lack of sympathy towards me.

"I don't know, because I've never killed before, but I'm already feeling the excitement of having to track my prey down and kill them," he said, smiling.

"How can you find something like that entertaining?!" I shouted in horror, "Are you crazy?!"

"Yes!" he said laughing, "Yes I am!"

"How can you be so evil?" I asked.

"I'm not evil. I'm a shark. I'm a predator," he then got a predatory glint in his eyes, "I have to hunt to survive, just like a shark. I have to kill, just like a shark. And I do enjoy it, just like how sharks enjoy hunting their prey. Do you think a shark, or a wolf, or a tiger, dislikes hunting down their targets? No, they love it! It's exhilarating! Am I evil for wanting to survive?"

"No, you're evil for enjoying it," I said and his smile only widened.

"I have good news, and I have bad news, which would you like first?" Makael asked.

"Let me guess, the bad news is that you're going to kill me?" I asked, already resigned to my fate.

"Yes, and the good news is that I'm going to kill you quickly," he paused, thinking of what to say next, "The other person I'm after is not going to have such a merciful death if Twilight and her friends get in the way of my plans. You see, the other person I'm targeting is going to be used as a test subject. The one who sent me here also sent me with the knowledge that if the person I'm feeding on is exhibiting fear, they're going to be much more delicious. And since the only power I have now is my extremely diluted but still superhuman strength, and limited access to my tentacles, what better way to elicit fear than by plain and simple torture?"

Outside Canterlot High

Flash Sentry P.O.V.

I headed out of the main entrance of the school. I had hoped to catch the bus, but saw it leaving as I exited through the main doors.

'Ah, crap,' I thought to myself as I watched it drive away, frustrated that I was going to have to walk home that day.

I walked towards the road, preparing to make the long trek to get home. Around me were a few students and a teacher or two loitering around, none of which I paid any attention to. I started walking along the pavement that lined the road, traveling in the direction of my house.

A figure then came into view out of the corner of my eye. Whoever it was was coincidentally walking in the same direction as me, but I paid him no mind. At least, paid him no mind until he spoke to me.

"Mister Flash Sentry," the voice called out, "I see you missed the bus."

I turned around, and immediately recognised the tall man as Mr. Makael, the man who instantly claimed the title of favourite teacher. "Mr. Makael!" I called out, "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he pointed down the road where the bus had headed, "Weren't you… supposed to be on that?"

"Yeah, I missed it by a few seconds. Now I'm gonna have to walk all the way back," I said.

"Tell you what. How about I drive you?" he asked, surprising me.

"It's fine sir, you don't have to do that. I'm fine with walking back," I relied, not wanting to inconvenience my teacher.

"Nonsense! You live on Elm Street, don't you? That's quite a distance. And…" he patted me on the shoulder, "I live about ten minutes away from there anyway. It wouldn't take me much longer to simply drop you off."

"Are you sure? I don't wanna inconvenience you like that sir, I really am fine walking," I politely declined.

"I insist! It'll take you over two hours to get back if you walk. It'll only take me ten minutes to stop you off," Mr. Makael said.

"Okay, I guess I'll take you up on that," I agree.

"C'mon, my car's in the basement, let's go," he said and began to lead the way. Little did I know, following him would be the biggest mistake of my life.

Mr. Makael began a conversation with me as we were heading towards his car, "So, Flash… What are your plans for the future?"

"Plans for the future?" I asked, confused.

"Yes, this is your second last year in school, so I'm assuming you have plans," he said, "Like what you're going to study once you have finished with your school year."

"Well sir, I'm not actually sure yet. I'm planning to take a gap year before I go to college," I paused for a moment, "You're not… from around here, are you?"

"Oh, whatever gave that away?" he asked.

"You mean aside from your accent which is the most British accent I've ever heard?" I asked, which elicited a light chuckle from the teacher. "I'm sure that if you were from this town, you'd be quite popular. There's no way you could've been living here without everyone knowing who you are," I told him.

"And why is that?" he asked, once again smiling.

"Well, it's a small town, and we're quite a tight knit community, and in every small town, there are the popular guys that everyone knows. The local baker, the town sheriff, the local ice cream vendor, the local rich guy Mr. Rich," I looked him up and down, "And you'd definitely be one of those people. You're very tall, for starters, and your height alone would get you noticed. Other than that, you're attractive, classy, charismatic, and funny. You'd be the 'town ladies man'."

He chuckled lightly, "Yeah, I suppose so." We entered into the car park and the light from the sun dimmed. "You could say that I'm from an entirely different world," he flashed me another grin, which I had began to associate with him just before he was about to tell a joke, "And you could say that coming here is an otherworldly experience."

I laughed because of how bad the joke was. "That's terrible!" I told him.

"Well, Flash, we're here," he said as we came upon a black salon car, which wasn't anything special. "But I have to get a few things, and I'll need to make two trips, unless you don't mind helping me?" He asked.

"Yes, of course," I said, "It's the least I could do since you're driving me back. Lead the way."

He began walking ahead of me and I followed a few paces behind. After about a minute, we came upon a metal door, and Mr. Makael opened it and held it open for me, "After you," he said and I entered the door, responding with a 'thank you'.

I heard the door close shut behind me, and a few latches, which sounded like locks but I didn't give it much care. The air was suddenly full of loud sounds and the room was lined with metal pipes that went across the walls.

"Are you sure this is the right spot?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah, it's just up ahead. Proceed forward," Mr. Makael said and I began walking ahead.

"Hello?" I heard a woman's voice. "Who's there?" the voice called out and I recognised it as Miss Rory.

"Miss Rory?" I called out. "What are you doing here?" I began to rush forward and came upon a very disturbing sight. My teacher was bound to the chair, year marks running down her eyes which signaled that she had been crying.

"What are you doing here?" I asked in a worried tone, "It's gonna be okay. Let's get you out of here." I looked back and heard Mr. Makael's footsteps echoing down the long hallway that led into the room. "Mr. Makael! Call the police! It seems Miss Rory was down here the whole time!" I called back.

"Wait, he's here?!" she asked, clearly alarmed.

"Yes, it's our new teacher. He told us you were going on a permanent vacation and I thought he meant you were fired, not missing!" I said, "Don't worry, We'll help you. We'll find whoever did this."

"He's the one who did it!" she exclaimed, "Flash, listen to me. You have to run, now. Get help, then come back. He's crazy!"

Then, I connected the dots. My eyes widened in realisation, "Okay, I'll come back for you. Just hang in there." I turned around, prepared to either fight or run. I immediately saw him up in my face, grinning a mad grin, but before I could do anything, he hit me over the head with something. The last thing I saw once I slumped to the ground was Mr. Makael grinning down at me, with Miss Rory screaming in the background, before my vision went dark.

Canterlot Castle

Luna P.O.V.

"And you just let her leave?!" Shining Armour exclaimed angrily.

"She knows the human world better than I do, and I might have rose suspicion," I explained calmly, although quite angry that he had the audacity to raise his voice at me.

"You could have followed her! You could have helped her!" he shouted, "But instead, you left her with Discord?!"

"You will not take that tone with me!" I said in the Royal Canterlot Voice, "One of us had to stay behind to look after Celestia. Did you expect me to just leave her here in this state, unsupervised?!"

Shining sighed, "You're right, your highness. I don't know what came over me. I… I'm just worried about her." He shifted his gaze towards Celestia's bedroom, "How's she doing?"

"The doctors said she was extremely lucky. It was a miracle, they said," I gave Shining a serious look, "She could have died… should have died. That procedure was by all means impossible, but she somehow made it through."

"You see, your highness," he began gesturing wildly, "This is the kind of monster Twilight's up against! She could… she could die, princess."

"And why do you think I called you here, and not Cadence?" I asked.

"Because she's my sister?" Shining replied, putting emphasis on the word 'my'.

"It's because I wanted you to go and make sure she's safe. This mission has gone on too long. They should have been back by now, and we should already have blasted that monster with the elements," I looked at him, concerned, "Something's wrong. And if you don't mind, I would like you to go over there and check to see if everything's going according to plan."

"Of course I would, but I have to ask, why exclude Cadence?" his tone was one of confusion.

"I need you to go there alone, so as to not rouse suspicion," I told him, "And your wife would definitely not allow you to go by yourself. I think three identical twins might raise some concern among the humans."

"I understand, princess," he said, "Lead the way. She could be in danger as we speak."

"Time is of the essence," I got up from my sitting position and walked towards the mirror, Shining Armour following in tow.

Author's Note

Hi, short chapter and very quick release.

You're wondering probably wondering why this is such a quick release, why the chapter is so short, and why it's written like this. Well, it's because this semi-chapter is actually a setup for the second part, hence the title, part 1-B.

Since I've released this chapter that basically puts everything in motion, next chapter is going to be mainly action.

Sorry if the ending seems a bit rushed, I'm writing this at two in the morning, and releasing it at two as well.

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. No action, just setup, and it's a short break from all the action that's been going on anyway.

As always, leave your thoughts in the comments, as well as any criticism you might have.