The Human and the Tall One

          I hopped off the train, stretched my legs and breathed in a breath of lovely Equestrian air. It felt and tasted a lot better without the car fumes and other polluting crap.

     "Welcome to Canterlot!"  Braeburn announced.

"The home of the most awesome princesses ever!"  I exclaimed.

Braeburn shot me a suspicious look.

          I walked towards the castle, looking at anything and everything. The shops that lined the streets, once bustling and loud, were empty and quiet. I was stopping myself from exploding with excitement, which was a monumental task, but I focused on the task at hand, then a voice in my head reminded me of something I needed to do.

You need to talk to Braeburn about his behaviour.

Thanks, you're actually being useful for a change I replied to the voice.

     As if on cue Braeburn suddenly started talking first.

"The names Braeburn, I should 'ave told you sooner but it completely slipped my mind. What's your name?"

     "My name's Chris, just Chris," I replied.

"That's an odd name, so what are your weaknesses?"

     "Well it is a human name so- wait what? Why would you ask that?" I asked confused.

"Oh, uh, ah no reason, was just curious that's all,” the stallion hastily replied, giving me a nervous looking smile.

     "Uh, okay," I slowly replied, and kept on walking towards the castle.

Very strange behaviour, I hope the other ponies aren't like this.

          We had walked for about 5 minutes in complete silence until we had finally reached the castle. I hadn't noticed before, I was too excited, but it was very quiet, in fact, I hadn't seen another pony since I got off the train. Spooky.

     "Hey, where are the guards?"  I questioned.

"Oh uh, beats me, but tha princess should be inside" Braeburn spoke.

     "Well lets go find her!" I shouted, fist pumping the air for no particular reason.

After 20 minutes of searching the castle for princess Celestia, I was hopelessly lost, irritated and confused as to why I hadn't found her yet; on top of that, I was bloody hungry.

     "Hey Braeburn, Do ya know where I can find-"

I turned to where Braeburn was walking, and was met with empty space.

     "Braeburn?" I shouted, looking around trying to spot him round a corner or something.

          I carried on following the corridor, still trying to find Celestia and trying to sort this mess out, when I heard the clopping of hooves coming from behind. Turning to the source of the noise, I finally found who I was looking for. Then I saw it.

And shit a brick.

Do you know the way Celestia can look very intimidating? Well imagine that.

Then imagine it without the face.

That's right, Celestia was a slender pony, and believe me, she looked fucking scary.

So I did the most logical thing I could think of at the current time.

I punched her in the face, well where her face should be, and ran of screaming like a psychotic madman.

          I ran as fast I possibly could, the sound of hooves was getting closer, and I dreaded to think what would happen if she caught me. I ran around a corner, and was met with a painful blow to the face. Pain flared up across my face and my eye swelled up drastically to the point I couldn't see properly. I picked myself up and found myself face to face with Braeburn.

     "What did you do that for Braeburn!?" I shouted at him, but I received no reply, instead I got another hoof to the face.

          Blackness surrounded my vision, I heard a loud booming female voice, the flapping of wings, shouting, and then I fell to the ground unconscious.

          I awoke, groggy, for the third time today and rubbed my face. I felt a huge lump from where Braeburn hit me, and winced from the pain. Hooves sure are hard. I got up quickly and prepared myself to fight.

     "You need not fear me human." a voice boomed, very close to my ear. I recognised the voice. It was the royal Canterlot speaking voice. I turned to the voice and found Princess Luna, looking at me with a slightly worried look plastered across her face. Aw yeah, I just met Princess Luna, success. She was only a bit taller than me, but she was still pretty big. I had to resist the urge to stroke her simmering, flowing mane, it just looked so damn touchable and soft.

     "Ow, what happened?" I asked, rubbing my face; it felt worse than the time I ran into a door full speed, drunk off my ass.

"Oh, um, I am not quite sure" Luna replied, "but rest assured I will get to the bottom of this horrible mess".

     "Well that sounds fantastic" I responded, "but can we get an ice pack or something, my face feels like it's on fire and I think my eyeball did a back flip and came loose".

     "Oh my, let me help you!" She offered.

          The alicorns horn started glowing brightly, and I felt a warm feeling spread across my face, which felt nice; then without warning it suddenly turned ice cold, so cold it made my jaw shiver uncontrollably. Well at least my face wasn't lumpy any more, plus my eye felt a hundred times better.

"Thanks", I replied, "but how did you know I was a human?"

     "I know much about your kind, but my sister knows much more than I" Luna responded, "so I shall let her explain when she awakes."

"And how long will that be?"

     "Not too long, I hope," she tentatively replied.

"What did you actually do to her?" I questioned.

     "I placed a spell on her that would break anything possessing her and place her in a restful sleep" the princess replied, "something possessed her and took away her face, and I wan't to find out who or what did it."

"And what about Braeburn?"

     "Who is this Braeburn you speak of?" Luna asked.

"The other pony that was here, yellowish coat, apple for a cutie mark?"

     "He vanished, I searched for him, but I failed to find him" the alicorn replied defeatedly.

          Sighing, I stared at Celestia sleeping peacefully, she looked so much better with her face back. She was huge, and I mean huge, she was about a head and neck taller than Luna, which meant she would be towering over me when standing. She was also a lot larger in body size compared to her younger sister, which just made me feel smaller; at least Braebrun and the other ponies were smaller than me.

          While I watched Celestia breathe, a stray thought popped into my mind

"Did ya'll see that?"

"That pony didn't have a face!"

Then it hit me.

Hard.

Harder than a sack of frozen potatoes flying at the speed of sound.

          The pony  running onto the tracks, the black blur I saw out of the corner of my eye while I was on the train, the absence of ponies in Canterlot, the deathly silence.

          Slenderman was in Equestria.

          Actually, I may have overreacted. I didn't have any proof that Slenderman was here, plus I'm pretty sure he doesn't turn ponies into Slender ponies. Nevertheless, it made me paranoid. Very paranoid. I quickly glanced behind me to make sure he wasn't there,

          Celestia stirred and slowly opened her eyes. She blinked a few times and looked at Luna, then me, then focused her tired gaze on Luna.

     "What happened dear sister?" She asked Luna.

"You were possessed by something, or somepony" Luna quietly replied, " it felt very powerful, maybe even as powerful as you, Tia"

Celestia's face darkened slightly as she stood upright, and slowly turned to face me. Yep, she is a very big pony.She literally towered over me, she made me feel tiny.

"Are you responsible for this?" She asked with a soft but stern tone.

     "What? No, absolutely not, I came here looking for you so you can sort this mess out, I don't exactly belong here if you hadn't noticed" I replied motioning to my body.

     "I am well aware of your predicament, young human, but right now, I need you to do something for me, it is of grave importance, I trust you are powerful enough for this task?"

"Powerful enough? And how does everypony know I'm a human!?" I replied exasperatedly.

Luna and Celestia exchanged worried looks. I didn't like that. It was worrying me also.

     "Are you not magical?" the alicorn of the night asked.

"No, why would I be? I'm just a human, anyway we're getting off track. What's this task you want me to complete?"

     "I need you to gather the bearers of the elements of harmony, and stop this malevolent force that threatens my subjects, and all of Equestria" Celestia practically shouted.

"So you need me to find Twilight Sparkle and the gang?" I confirmed.

     "Yes, how did you- never mind, we will discuss that later" Celestia looked at Luna. "I want you to go with him little sister, I fear this won't be an easy task to accomplish alone"

"But what about you Tia? Are you going to be okay on your own?"

     "I will be fine Luna, don't worry, now hurry, I doubt we have time to waste" Celestia replied. She turned her head to me and looked straight into my eyes. That look, it was burning into my soul.

     "Bring the bearers back to the castle when you find them, there are matters I need to discuss with you which may come as a shock to you, and the bearers" she spoke.

That did not sound good. At all.

          I was flying on Luna's back, heading towards Ponyville,which was, well awkward to say the least. Luna didn't seem to mind though, which did little to defuse the awkwardness of the situation. The wind blew through my hair, cooling my face, it felt good, soothing even. I could fly like this for hours.

I felt my stomach grumble. I forgot how hungry I was, and now I was starving.

     "Hey Luna" I shouted over the wind "How long will it be till we get to Ponyville? I'm so hungry I could eat a-"

I stopped myself before the word came out.

Luna looked back at me with a confused look on her face. She looked so cute when she was confused.

     "So hungry you could eat a what?" Luna questioned.

"Oh, uh, a big plateful of chocolate cake" I lied.

     "Oh, well it's not far now, we should be there shortly" Luna replied.

"Can't you just teleport to Ponyville?" I asked.

     "Yes, but I need to conserve my magic in case we run into any obstacles"

"Oh, right" I replied a little deflated. Oh well, at least I can enjoy the flight for longer, but boy I'm hungry.

          We had flown for what felt like an hour, passing over all the lands of Equestria; it looked amazing from a birds eye view, well an alicorns eye view; birds eye? Whatever it still looked awesome. We had flown mostly in silence, partly because the wind made it hard to hear, partly because Luna was quite shy when it came to talking, not as bad as Fluttershy, but spending a thousand years on the moon can really mess up your social skills. And Luna was living proof.

          My stomach started grumbling again, so to distract myself I started working out what I was going to do when I got to Ponyville, I needed some kind of plan of action so I knew what I was doing, instead of just aimlessly wandering the place wondering where to go first; Which happens a lot for me. But my stomach wasn't giving up, and growled even more, disturbing my train of thought.

     "What was that?" Luna suddenly asked, obviously startled my the sound of my stomach.

"It was my stomach" ,I replied "I am very hungry"

     "Well you're in luck, Ponyville is just over there" She pointed with a hoof. Sure enough I could see Ponyville, I could even see Twilights house and Sugarcube Corner. I couldn't wait to get there.

          About 2 minutes later, we touched down in the town square. I jumped off Luna and stretched my arms and legs, happy to be able to get some food down my throat for the first since I came here.

          I started walking to Sugarcube corner, delightfully thinking about what I would order when it occurred to me, I had no bits. Damn, how was I going to pay for food.

BOOM

Dafuq?

"What was that?" Luna asked

     "I think it was a drum," I replied, still confused as to why a drum would be in Ponyville.

          Then, for the second time, it hit me. I knew that sound. I heard it in a game I played recently; I game about finding eight pages in a forest. I knew what the drum meant, and I knew what accompanied that drum.

I turned around, and possibly my worst nightmare came true.