Before reading this fic, go check out some footage of the real game: Slender, if you haven't already.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZMBG4Pn3Sg
~
The lab worker led the six ponies around the corner and into a shoddily made room. The walls were all cracked up, and in one part the wall was actually completely torn open, revealing metal support beams behind the concrete wall. There were spiderwebs in every corner of the room, all that was here were six large recliners with sci-fi looking headpieces attached to them, and a small, flimsy wooden bench was propped up with two books on the opposite side of the room.
"Just put those helmets on; the game will automatically start when all of you are in the seats. Knock yourselves out!" said the mare in the lab coat, as she pushed her purple shades up her face and walked away.
"Oh, wow! Just look at how spooky this room is, they must have decorated it for Nightmare Night!" Pinkie said, patting a hoof on the dilapidated concrete wall, only to have a chunk fall out onto the floor.
"Uh, this place doesn't look very authentic, Pinkie. Are you sure this is the right building?" asked Twilight.
"Yes indeedy! I quadruple checked the map!" Pinkie replied, as she hopped over to a recliner and threw her headset on.
"Briiiing it on!"
The other five ponies stepped forward with trepidation, as they slid into their respective recliners and sloppily threw on their headsets. As they all put on their headsets, a green text was displayed to them all through the headsets.
welcome to super slender fun house
The device continued to speak to the six in a monotone, robotic voice.
all victims detected, initiating vr sequence
searching for slender.exe
found.
running slender.exe
prepare to enter the game
All the six could see was a black screen now, until the title of the game came up on screen.
SLENDER
The font was purposely a bit messy, as to create the effect of a quick pencil scribbling.
The six were then suddenly dropped into a dark, damp forest, and more text flashed on the screen.
COLLECT ALL 8 PAGES
"Pages? What pages? Like notebook pages?" Pinkie immediately questioned.
"Alright. Raise a hoof if you've never played this game before." Twilight said.
None of the ponies did anything.
"Be honest."
All of the ponies then raised their hooves. Twilight sighed, knowing the explanation might waste time, and wasting too much time before finding the first note would be an instant game over.
"Ok. In this game, you are stalked by Slendermane. To win, you need to wander around the forest and collect eight pages, which are hidden in random spots. The more pages you collect, the more frequent Slendermane appears. However, as long as you don't look at Slendermane, you'll be fine. If you look at him too long though, you get a game over. Well, that's all you need to know, I think."
"Wait a second. How can this be a scary game! There are no harmless faces on the trees like before! Remember how scary that was? Man this game better have some doozy scares if it's going to live up to my standards!" Pinkie said right after Twilight finished her explanation.
"Alright. The notes we collect all go into a pool, so if I find a note, you'll all also get the note. This means the best strategy for us would be to split up."
"Umm, maybe we should stick-" Before Fluttershy could even be done talking, the rest of the ponies sped off, eager to beat the game. Fluttershy then looked up, screamed in horror of being alone, and ran to the nearest building and cowered in the corner.
~
"Oh, this game is so untidy!" Rarity said, trying to avoid the mud puddles as she trembled through the forest.
"Though I suppose I shouldn't be making that big of a deal over it, it is just a game after all." Rarity continued, right before stepping into a mud puddle by accident. She instantly repulsed and uttered a sound of disgust.
"Euuugh, but it feels so real!"
The mud had splashed all the way up her back hooves, and it was beginning to make her colder.
"Oh, I simply cannot play in these conditions! My hooves hurt aswell, how long have I been walking?"
3 min playtime
The green text came up right after she spoke, the computer programmed to respond to the key words "how long"
"Who knew having a little, simple Nightmare Night fun could be so strenuous! I must find a place to tidy up before I continue."
Having been walking for a long, arduous 5 minutes now, she saw the outline of what seemed to be a small, outdoor restroom building.
"Oh, blessed am I!" Rarity rejoiced at the sight of the restroom.
"Now I have a chance to wash this hideous muck off my hooves."
Upon entering the restroom, she could hear the sound of a light whimpering. She wondered if it was another one of the games ghoulish sound effects.
"How odd, what kind of restroom building has no sinks or toilets?"
She went into the first restroom-ish area she could find in the building, only to find nothing in the room but a chair. Upon closer inspection, it could be seen that Fluttershy was actually cowering under the chair.
"Oh, Fluttershy! That's what the noise I heard was! Goodness, darling, what are you doing here?"
"H-hiding..." Fluttershy replied sheepishly.
"Oh, there is nothing to be afraid of dear! It's just a game, after all."
"B-but it's a s-scary game..."
"Look, there is a page right here above your chair! Why didn't you take it?"
"B-But Twilight said that Slendermane would come more often if we collected more pages..."
"Yes, dear, that's what makes it exciting! You have to collect pages to win, and the tension builds more as you collect them!"
"Oh, but I don't like tension..."
"Oh come now, Fluttershy! I'll be with you the whole time, if it makes you feel any better."
Fluttershy was resistant as first, but decided it was better to get her bitsworth out of the experience. After all, she might never get a chance to try this again. Fluttershy put a hoof to the note after emerging from her corner chair hovel. The note disappeared on contact, and the text was displayed on screen.
1/8 PAGES COLLECTED
COLLECTOR: chair5_fluttershy
All of the ponies in the game, though in different parts of the map, all saw this message displayed on their screens and celebrated briefly for their friend.
"Woo, you go Fluttershy!" Pinkie cried out loudly. Her echo could be heard throughout the forest.
Rarity and Fluttershy proceeded with trepidation through the forest. There was extra ambiance added, now that the first page had been collected.
"Look dear, over there on that tree! There's another note on that one!" Rarity noticed
Fluttershy pranced over to the tree, and planted her hoof on the note. It disappeared, as expected, and more text flashed on the screen.
2/8 PAGES COLLECTED
COLLECTOR: chair5_fluttershy
The other ponies saw this text on their screens aswell, and they were all equally surprised that Fluttershy of all ponies would already have two notes, while the others have yet to claim a single one.
"Ok, Rarity. I think I am ready to split up now. After all, Twilight said the best strategy would be to split up." Fluttershy said confidently.
"Are you sure you'll be alright, darling?"
"Yes, I'll be just fine."
Rarity and Fluttershy went their own separate ways, both feeling good about having already collected 2 of the 8 notes.
"Oh my, what is making those awful noises?" Rarity said, referring to the ambiance. It got louder with every page, to create tension as Rarity explained. Rarity began to see flickers of static on the screen at this point.
"Oh, is something wrong with my helmet? Ugh, technology is so unreliable nowadays, that's why I'm happy to live in Ponyville."
She could hear twigs snapping, something must have been following her. She gulped, and turned around, hoping it was another one of the ponies. Instead, she heard a dismal piano noise, as if somepony had slammed their whole arm down on a piano, and there, in the distance, she could see the outline of a figure in a black suit. Rarity stared at it for a bit, and her jaw dropped open.
"Oh my Celestia..." she muttered to herself.
"That..."
"Is..."
Her eyes immediately sparkled up, and a big smile stretched across her face.
"GORGEOUS!"
"Oh my, look at that amazing suit! Such a perfect, sleek hue of black! Oh and that tie! That tie is simply astonishing, I just must have one of those in my collection! Oh and..." She went on like this for a few minutes, just standing there in a trance, marveling at the Slendermane's suit. Even the Slendermane was wondering why he wasn't evoking fear as usual. Rarity went on, until her screen filled with static and she got game over.
PLAYER chair6_rarity HAS DISCONNECTED
Rarity's VR helmet popped off, and she stumbled out of her seat, still staggering in a trance as she stepped out of the chair.
"Just look at the amazing fabric that suit is made of," Rarity cooed, "It looks so graceful and- "
She suddenly realized that she had gotten game over, and was now rambling like a lunatic and stumbling around in the room. She turned to look at the doorway, and saw that there were several lab workers staring at her like she was totally mental. She was too embarrassed to say anything, so there was just an awkward silence for a few minutes, until the lab workers decided to walk away.
"That was game over?"
"Unfair," she whined, "that's just like cheating!"
She walked over to the bench and sat down, waiting for the others to finish.
"Might aswell have just set a bear trap..." Rarity mumbled.
~
Pinkie hopped around aimlessly, totally unaffected by the game's creepy ambiance and setting. She noticed a note pasted on a large oil drum, but she was distracted by something. It was Rainbow Dash, only about 15 meters off the ground, repeatedly slamming into the invisible wall that was right above the trees.
"Hey Dashie, uhh, what are ya doing?" Pinkie asked.
"I'm [SLAM] trying [SLAM] to [SLAM] get [SLAM]" Rainbow stuttered, as she kept slamming into the invisible wall.
"You're trying to get..." Pinkie mimicked, signaling her to go on.
Rainbow flew down to Pinkie.
"I'm trying to fly up to get a good view of everything, but there is an invisible wall right above the trees!"
"Right, well, good luck with that!" Pinkie said, as the pranced off in the direction of the oil drum.
Rainbow kept banging against the wall, hoping to be able to fly up. It would be very helpful, because she would be able to see every landmark on the map. She counted, one, two, three! She slammed against the wall as hard as she could, and actually passed through it and onto the other side.
"Yes!" she exclaimed.
HACK DETECTED
TRACING BACK TO SOURCE
"What?" she said, as her smile faded.
She tried to fly back down, but found herself banging against the invisible wall.
"Oh no no no!"
REMOVING SOURCE
She saw the pixels on her hoof began to lose consistency and fall off, only to shatter when they hit the ground. She kept trying to break through the wall, but it was no use, and soon she dissolved into a mess of pixel resting on the invisible wall.
PLAYER chair4_rainbow_dash HAS DISCONNECTED
Rainbow Dash awoke with a jolt, and fell right out of her chair and onto the dirty concrete.
"What?! Are you serious? I'm Out? But that's so cheap!" Rainbow complained, then kicked the machine, causing it to fizzle out.
"Stupid hunk of junk." she muttered angrily.
"You thought that was cheap, darling?" Rarity said, having watched the whole events unfold through the external monitor on her helmet, which allowed non-players to see what the players experience.
"Just wait until I tell you about how I got out. Then you'll know the meaning of cheap, dear."
~
Twilight and Applejack both wandered through the woods together. They seemed to have an advantage, as Twilight had printed out a map of the game prior to the event. Suddenly, more text came up on the screen.
3/8 PAGES COLLECTED
COLLECTOR: chair3_pinkie_pie
"Hey, it looks like Pinkie's got anotha' page!" Applejack exclaimed.
"We still need a lot more though, so lets try not to get too excited yet." Twilight said, pulling a map out of her saddlebag.
Twilight and Applejack both sat in the grass and looked at the map.
"So if we're here, then a page should be right there on that tree." Twilight explained.
They trotted over, but it looks like the page was already taken by somepony else. They sat down to look at the map some more, but as they were discussing a route to take, they felt a tap on their shoulders. They both tuned around instinctively, and sure enough Slendermane was there, and the dismal piano chord was struck. Both of their screens were filled to the brim with static, and they both got game over.
PLAYER chair1_twilight_sparkle HAS DISCONNECTED
PLAYER chair2_applejack HAS DISCONNECTED
They both plopped out of their seats and onto the floor.
"Unbelievable! The game forced my camera to turn around!" Twilight complained.
"Well horseapples to that cheap game, what a waste of bits!" Applejack agreed.
"You thought that was cheap?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed from across the room.
"Let me tell you about cheapness."
~
The flashlight slowly dimmed, made a flickering noise, and then died out.
"Oh no!" Fluttershy exclaimed.
"I didn't think the flashlight would run out! Ohhhh, I can't see a thing now!"
Fluttershy stumbled around, bumping into trees in the dark, until she thought she could make out the image of a page, or, at least something white on a tree. As she got closer to the page, her screen started to go static. It was then she realized she was just walking right towards the Slendermane. She was already too close to it, and so triggered the dismal piano, and the screen of static, as a mouth emerged from the Slendermane's blank face, to reveal a set of razor-sharp teeth. The last thing Fluttershy saw before game over, was the Slendermane, about to slam it's jaws down right onto Fluttershy's face.
PLAYER chair5_fluttershy HAS DISCONNECTED
She woke from her chair, tears rolling down her face. The other ponies immediately ran over to comfort her, knowing how sensitive she was to anything remotely freaky.
"I never ever wanna play that game ever again!" she sobbed loudly.
Pinkie was now the only one still left in the game, wandering around as clueless as ever. There were still half of the pages left, and now Slendermane only had one target left.
"Oh hey, another page!" Pinkie said, as she saw a page on a large stone.
As she reached for the page, she heard static crackling, and the dismal piano. She turned right around, and sure enough, there was the Slendermane, waiting to engulf his last victim.
"Geez, wanna maybe practice a little more?" Pinkie said right away.
"My granny can play better than that! Oh, and I love your suit, I think it looks really nice. I bet Rarity would love to have one. Oh hey, is that where you keep your notes when you go around pasting them everywhere?" Pinkie said, just noticing some white sticking out of one of his suit pockets. Pinkie reached her hoof right in and pulled out every note in his pocket.
1052/8 PAGES COLLECTED
COLLECTOR: chair3_pinkie_pie
Slendermane was beginning to sweat, now. He was trying to use static to fizzle out her screen, but she was resisting it, somehow.
"Hey, do you like parties? I love parties! In fact, that's how I got my cutie mark! What's your cutie mark? Hey, do you like cupcakes? I love cupcakes, they're my favorite sweet! HeyhaveyoumetApplejackyet?Shemakesthebestapplepie,youseriouslyneedtotrysome.Heywhatownareyoufrom?I'mfromponyville!It'sareallynicetowntobeinandtherearealotofgreatponiesthere,heyhaveyouevertriedcupcakes?ohmygoshtheyaresoogoodtheyaremyfavoritefood,butithinkialreadysaidthat - "
BOOOOOOOOOM!
Slendermane's head exploded into a mess of pixels, and his body collapsed to the muddy ground. Pinkie stood there for a second, and then text came up.
PLAYER chair3_pinkie_pie HAS COLLECTED THE FINAL PAGE
GAME COMPLETE
shutting down vr sequence
thank you for playing super slender fun house
Pinkie hopped happily out of her chair, and the first thing she saw was everyponies mouths agape at Pinkie, totally dumbfounded. They had watched the whole spectacle unfurl on her helmet monitor, and they were all rendered speechless.
"I guess he just wasn't very talkative." she said.
She noticed, that in the hallway, she saw something unusual pass by. Could it be? Slendermane himself, walking through the halls of this very lab? Who knows.
"Cheap, stupid game." he muttered as he passed by the door.
"Cheap, stupid pink pony."
Who knows.
