The Eight Pages of Slendermane

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.” - H.P. Lovecraft

Chapter 1: An Ancient Evil Awakens

“Explain to me again why were doing this,” said Apple Bloom as she and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders were walking along the winding path through the thick Everfree Forest, the setting sun peeking through the leaves and casting red-orange shadows of the three timid travelers"?

Scootaloo replied, “Because if we camp in the Everfree Forest we might get our cutie marks in camping.”

“But why couldn’t we camp somewhere else?”

“If we camp in here than that means we can camp anywhere which will makes us master campers.”

“But what if we run into something dangerous like last time?”

“If we see something will just hightail it out of here and try again another time.”

“I still think this is a bad idea,” said Apple Bloom still not convinced in Scootaloo’s idea.

“Ah what’s the matter? Chicken?” said Scootaloo taunting Apple Bloom.

“Ah’m not a chicken, you’re the chicken.”

Nopony calls me chicken,” Scootaloo said as she was getting angry.

They both kept on arguing until Sweetie Belle said, “Enough, for the last time our special talent is not arguing.”

“Well, it was worth a shot,” said Scootaloo as she was checking her flank only to see it blank.”

They eventually found a good place to set up camp by the time the sun had set, and soon were roasting marshmallows on an open fire.

“How much longer is it gonna take before our cutie marks show up,” Apple Bloom was constantly checking her flank for her cutie mark to appear and was getting impatient.

Scootaloo replied, “I think we have to camp through the rest of the night.”

“But ah want it now,” she said sitting there feeling sad. After sometime watching the fire she said, “What do we do now?”

Sweetie Bell said, “I know, why don’t we tell some scary stories to pass the time.”

“That’s a great idea Sweetie Belle,” said Scootaloo as she was enjoying her roasted marshmallow. “Why don’t you go first?”

Sweetie Belle opened her backpack and pulled out a book. “I asked Twilight if she had any books on scary stories and she gave me this one.”

Sweetie Belle opened the book and started going through the pages, looking for a good story to tell. After skimming through some pages, she found a story that seemed interesting. “I found one.”

“Is it a real scary one? What’s it called?” Scootaloo asked.

“It’s called The Slendermane.”

“Ah’ve never heard of that, what’s it about?” said Apple Bloom.

“It’s about a creature, that kidnaps little filly’s and colts. He is described as a very tall white stallion that he might even be taller than Princess Celestia. He wears a black suit and a red tie. He has no mane or tail and his cutie mark is a circle with an X right through it.”

“Wow a bald guy that’s dressed up in a real nice suit, that’s real scary,” Scootaloo said sarcastically. “Maybe we can set him up with Rarity.”

“How about this for scary,” said Sweetie Belle. “He has no eyes or mouth. Even though he is described as an earth pony, he has powers. He can teleport, he can create tentacles that come out from his shoulders and back. It’s said that he can also create fire and manipulate it. He can also be invisible to ponies except for his prey. One of his main powers is getting inside ponies heads and makes them see things, if you stare at his face it will make you go insane and he can even use mind control. Even though he has no mouth, he can also disguise himself and manipulate his voice to lure unsuspecting little ponies to their doom.”

“That is scary,” Apple Bloom said as she was starting to shake.

“Yeah I got to admit that is a bit scary,” Scootaloo said trying to act brave. “What else does it say?” she asked.

“Let’s see,” she said as she was getting nervous and wanted to stop. “He lives in forests and uses the trees to hide and stalk his prey. His prey can be ponies of all ages and types, but his favorites are fillies and colts. He can sometimes stalk his prey for years to torture them, makes them paranoid and waits until they’ve gone insane before he takes them. It is unknown what he does to his prey since their never seen again. It is also unknown what his weaknesses are or if he has any. So once he picks his prey they’re marked for life and nothing can save them. They’re doomed to live out their lives in fear until the day he takes them away.”

By the time Sweetie Belle finished the story all three of them sat there in silence and were shaking uncontrollably. They continued sitting in silence until Apple Bloom noticed that the camp fire was dying out. “The fire is going out, we need to get more.”

“Who’s going to get the fire wood?” Scootaloo asked.

“Ah’m not going,” said Apple Bloom. “How bout you Sweetie Belle?”

“I’m not going out there alone.” she said.

“Fine then, how about we all go together?” Scootaloo said.

“That’s a great idea,” said Sweetie Belle as she put the book in her backpack and put it on. “Don’t you think so Apple Bloom?”

“I don’t know, I feel like we should just go home and try something else to get out cutie marks.”

“Chicken,” said Scootaloo once again taunting Apple Bloom.

Apple Blooms fear went away from Scootaloo’s comment “Ah am not afraid, let’s go.”

After some time of walking gathering fire wood, the Cutie Mark Crusaders came across a clearing in the forest where they saw a big tree with a lot of broken branches all around it.

“This is perfect, this should be enough branches to keep the fire going for the rest of the night,” Sweetie Belle said as they started collecting branches.

Scootaloo was staring at the tree and noticed something and said, “Hey guys is it me or is there something off about this tree?”

The others looked at the tree for the first time. It was a big tall tree with very long branches and had no leaves. The branches were twisted in ways that normal trees weren’t.

Apple Bloom walked around the tree and said, “Uh girls, can ya come over here and take a look at this?”

The girls walked to where Apple Bloom was standing and saw her pointing to something on the tree. The thing that she was pointing was an old piece of paper pinned to the tree.

All three of them looked at the picture with a sense of fear. Scootaloo wanted to get a good look at the picture and took it down. “What does it mean?” she asked.

Scootaloo passed the note to Sweetie Belle so she could examine it. “I don’t know. It looks like a pony.” She then passed the note to Apple Bloom.

“It can’t be, this pony is as tall as that tree,” she said.

The three of them continued looking at the picture until a big gush of wind appeared out of nowhere and as quickly as it came it stopped. Then came the sound of drums.

Deep in the darkest part of the Everfree Forest, a being is resting. It has been in a deep slumber for hundreds of years. It was sleeping peacefully until it was awakened by the sound of paper flapping in the wind. The being knew what that means. Something has touched one of the pages. He started rising as he began to sense the location of his prey. Once he had found the location of the disturbed page, he started moving towards his prey. As he was getting closer he could hear their voices.

“Do you guys hear that?” said Sweetie Belle as she heard the drums.

boom…….boom

“I hear it, it sounds like drums,” said Scootaloo looking around for the source of the drums.

boom….boom

“Ah don’t know, its sounds more like footsteps,” said Apple Bloom as the sounds was going faster and louder.

Boom…Boom

“It sounds like that to me too,” said Sweetie Belle as the sound kept getting faster and louder

BOOM.BOOM

“Now it’s starting to sound like a heartbeat” Scootaloo said. The sound was starting to scare her. “Maybe we should get back to camp.”

BOOM BOOM

“Yeah let’s get out of here,” said Sweetie Belle as she started walking the direction towards camp.

BOOM BOOM

“Ah’m wit you,” said Apple Bloom. She dropped the page as she started walking at a quicker pace towards camp.

They kept walking hoping that the sound would go away, but to their misfortune, the drums didn’t go away; if anything they were getting louder.

They were halfway towards camp when a new noise joined the drums. It was the sound of static.

Sweetie Bell said, “What’s going on.” Her voice showed that she was scared.

“Let’s pick up the pace,” said Scootaloo as she started going at a faster pace.

Soon all three of them were running towards camp. The drums and static were still in their ears.

As soon as they arrived at their camping spot their vision started getting blurry.

“Our eyes, what’s happening to our eyes?” said Apple Bloom as she started panicking.

“What do we do? What do we do?” said Scootaloo.

“I don’t know, I just don’t know,” replied Sweetie Belle.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were now in full panic mode. The combine sounds of the drums and static with their blurry vision were causing them great fear. They were running around in a panic until the sound of a twig snapped causing them to all turned to the source of the sound and saw a being that caused them all to scream.

They saw a pony that was as tall as Princess Celestia, his coat was white and he had no mane or tail. He wore a black suit and a red tie, his cutie mark was a circle with a X right through it. What really scared the girls was the fact that he had no eyes or mouth.

Their fear kept them frozen until Sweetie Belle yelled, “IT’S SLENDERMANE, RUN!”

They all screamed as they were running away hoping that Slendermane wouldn’t follow. They kept running until they stopped when they saw that Slendermane appeared right in front of them with his tentacles coming right at them. They screamed and started running towards a different direction, but no matter where they ran Slendermane always appeared in front of them.

As they ran Scootaloo said, “Look it’s the entrance to the forest. Hurry up!” they kept going as fast as their little legs could.

“I’m trying,” said Sweet Belle as she was trying to go faster.

Apple Bloom didn’t say anything due to that she was having difficulty breathing.

Soon they were out of the forest, but they didn’t stop. They kept on running, neither of them turned to see if Slendermane was still following.

They didn’t know that he stopped chasing them at the entrance and stood there watching the three fillies run away screaming until they were out of sight and sound. Slendermane let them get away, knowing that it won’t do them any good. Once they’ve been marked, there is nowhere they can run or hide. He will stalk them until their minds are broken.

It would only be a matter of time before they're all MINE!