"There is no passion so contagious as that of fear."- Michel de Montaigne

“If you try to get rid of fear and anger without knowing their meaning, they will grow stronger and return.”- Deepak Chopra

Chapter 4: DON’T BLINK

Ponyville, a happy place filled with friendly ponies that love to laugh, play, sing, work, and have a great time. Now the once peaceful town was now in a state of terror. The streets were abandoned, the stores were closed, houses were boarded up, and the crops left unattended. Ponyville was now a ghost town with an evil monstrosity taking residence.

A week has passed since the horrible incident during Nightmare Night. A week since the being known as Slendermane, had made his existence known throughout the small town of Ponyville. After his attack on Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon all the residents were in a state of panic.

The residents did their best to board up their houses, thinking that would keep Slendermane out…. they were wrong. Every night, ponies reported that Slendermane was in their houses stalking them.

There were a lot of reported sightings of him wandering the schools playground. Because of that the school was closed down. So far nopony has been reported missing. Although there was an incident where he almost took a little filly that was wandering outside one night.

Little Dinky Hooves, was hurrying back home from a friend’s house. She was standing outside her door about to enter, when she felt that she was being watched. She turned around to see Slendermane standing under a nearby street light. She tried to get inside, but felt paralyzed. Slendermane sprouted a tentacle making a ‘come here’ wave. For some reason she started walking towards him, the fear she was a feeling moments ago was gone. Now it was replaced with a sense of trust for the tall entity, as he kept waving for her to come closer and closer. Once she was just standing a few feet from him, Slendermane used his tentacle and grabbed Dinky.

He lifted her so that was face to face with him, but before he was ready to leave with his prize, somepony snatched Dinky from his tentacle grasp. He looked down to see a pegasus mare, she had a gray coat, blonde mane, and yellow cross eyes. She looked at Slendermane with an angry look with one eye on him and the other staring nowhere in particular and shouted, “STAY AWAY FROM MY MUFFIN!” Slendermane lowered his head, so that he was inches away from Derpy’s face. He looked at her waiting for his powers to take effect on her, but for some reason Derpy was not affected by his stare. She then took flight taking Dinky with her. Slendermane was surprised by the events that he decided not to pursue her… for now.

Soon the residents started getting sick. Ponies would start coming down with fever, their noses would start bleeding, followed by vomiting, feelings of nausea, exhaustion, and some would feel pain and aches.

Some ponies tried to leave Ponyville, only to be stopped by Slendermane. The ones that didn’t run back to town upon seeing him would wake up back in their homes without remembering what happened. Others were walking in a daze not knowing how they arrived there. Few pegasi tried flying away thinking that they would be safe in the skies, only to be stopped by a giant Slendermane. Some thought that if a lot were to leave in multiple directions, the chances of escape would be possible. That plan was shot down when some tried the idea, only to be stopped by a ring of fire surrounding the town with Slendermane standing in the flames.

There were a group of stallions that decided to fight back and confronted Slendermane and attacked him… those were the unfortunate ones. The stallions were sent to the emergency room at Ponyville Hospital.

For Twilight Sparkle, she researched everything she could to find out about Slendermane. She read all her books that mentioned him, but most of the books contradicted others, and neither of them ever mentioned a weakness. She interviewed countless ponies that have encountered him. All of them stated that they had the same experiences. She then went to Ponyville Hospital to speak to the ones that were coming down with what everypony refer to as ‘The Sickness.’ She learned that the more encounters the victims had with Slendermane, their conditions had worsened.

She then tried to interview the stallions that attacked Slendermane. She found out that the stallions were under a stronger strain of ‘The Sickness.’ There conditions were, coughing up blood, vomiting blood, painful breathing, difficulty in swallowing, violent convulsions, and major amnesia. Some of the stallions that were able to talk mentioned that he had control over fire and used it on them. A few even showed Twilight the burns to prove their statements. Twilight concluded that Slendermane had the power of pyrokinesis. The rest of the Stallions were in a catatonic state, which prevented them from speaking to Twilight, the result of their condition was caused by staring at Slendermane’s face for too long, just liked with what happened to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

Speaking of which, Twilight headed to the psych ward of Ponyville Hospital to see Slendermane’s first victims. At first everypony thought that Slendermane killed them, only to find out that they were still alive. Their conditions were severe, Filthy Rich wasted no time or money to help his daughter and her friend. He got them the best doctor’s and care money could buy. Twilight visited them everyday to see if their conditions were improving. Their signs showed no improvement, their conditions were temporary catatonic states, unexpected screaming, and sometimes she would see them curled up in a corner sobbing.

After all the research Twilight did, she still hasn’t learned anything that could help her in defeating Slendermane. She then decided to write a letter to Princess Celestia, hoping that she would have an idea of what to do. After sending the letter, Twilight started waiting for her response I hope she isn’t too busy to read the letter, the quicker she responds the quicker we can put a stop of all this madness. Suddenly Twilight was surrounded by a bright light causing her to close her eyes. When she opened them, she realized that she was no longer in the library, but in Canterlot. More specifically, she was in the castle throne room. Standing in front of her was none other than Princess Celestia.

Twilight quickly bowed before her mentor, “Princess Celestia, it’s great to see you again.”

“It’s good to see you too, Twilight.”

Twilight got back up, “Why did you bring me here, Princess?”

“I got your letter,” she said, “and after reading it, I had to bring you here immediately.” Princess Celestia started walking out of the throne room, “Follow me.”

Twilight quickly followed her as they stood side by side walking through the halls of the castle.

“Tell me, Twilight,” said Princess Celestia, “how did this happen?”

Twilight told her about the CMCs camping trip in the Everfree Forest, where they found a piece of paper on a tree, that when they touched it they were attacked by Slendermane. She told her everything that happened afterwards.

Princess Celestia listened to her story as they were walking, once Twilight finished her story, Celestia responded, “It’s as I feared. He has finally returned after so many years.”

“What do you mean, Princess?” Twilight asked, “Do you know something about this? Because I find it hard to believe, that something that came out of a ghost story is terrorizing Ponyville.”

“If you recall, Twilight, everypony thought that Nightmare Moon was just an old mares tale. Make no mistake, the Slendermane is very real!”

“How do you know about this, Princess?”

“Because my faithful student, I’ve faced Slendermane myself.”

Twilights eyes were wide open from her response, “You fought him before?”

“Yes I have. It was years after Luna’s banishment and the Everfree Forest had taken over the land that my home used to reside. As you know my student, the Everfree Forest is a mysterious place filled with dangerous creatures and the land isn’t run the same way as any other land in all of Equestria. Because of that, nopony dares to enter the forest. But there are at times were some individuals ignore the warnings and explored the forest. A lot of these individuals were archeologist who wanted to find my old home and look for its treasures. Some did it for money, others did for knowledge, and some did it for fame and reputation. Unfortunately none of them ever made it that far without something killing them. Whether it was from the result of manticores, timberwolves, cockatrices, or even dragons, they all fell. It pains me to say this, but they were the lucky ones. Only a few made it out of the forest, but something else followed them back. They reported the same thing, a tall pony wearing a suit that had no face. They were absolutely terrified of this creature. The creature constantly stalked them, torturing their minds in the process. Nopony believed them, thinking that it was nothing but their imaginations. Soon reports of them going missing were posted all over towns. A few eyewitnesses say that they saw some of these ponies enter the forest, only to never come out.

Soon more and more reports of missing ponies were spreading out, that I had no choice but to investigate. I went alone, because I couldn’t risk any of my guards sharing the same fate as the others. I returned to the place I once called home, seeing that it was nothing the way I remembered it. The home I knew was now home to something evil. I traveled through the forest without anything attacking me. I tried finding these lost ponies, but no matter where I looked there was no sign of them. It was as if they disappeared in thin air, I couldn’t even find any tracks, it was like the Everfree Forest had claimed them and erased any signs of their presence. I was about to abandon my investigation when I uncovered something. It was a piece of paper, upon looking at it I saw the words ‘ALWAYS WATCHES, NO EYES’. In the middle of the paper was a picture of a pony’s head, it had X’s where its eyes would be.

After seeing this I had to investigate further, but this time I felt that something was watching me. I don’t know how much time I was in that forest since I couldn’t see my precious sun. It could have been hours or even days before I found another page, this time it said, ‘HELP ME’. After reading this I could have sworn I heard a scream. I ran towards the direction the scream came from. I ran and ran until I came to across a clearing in the forest. I looked up to see Luna’s moon high in the sky. Then I looked across the center where I saw a lone tree in the middle. When I looked around, I found another page. This time it was a drawing of a tall pony with no face, it was wearing a suit and was standing next to a tree that was the same height the figure was. The words ‘FOLLOWS’ was written next to this faceless figure.

“That sounds like the same piece of paper that the Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo found on their camping trip!” said Twilight as she interrupted Princess Celestias story. “They found it on a dead tree that was in the middle of a clearing too.”

“Yes, it does seem that they found one of the eight pages.”

“Eight pages?”

“Yes, that was how many pages I found while investigating. Over time I found others. Each one I found made me feel strange. I felt myself getting sick, I had feelings of nausea, terrible headaches, there were times when my nose started bleeding, and I kept hearing hoofsteps coming from behind me. The feeling of being watched increased everytime I found a page. Once I found the eighth page, everything stopped, the pounding in my head, the dizziness, and the hoofsteps. In fact I didn’t hear any noises, as if silence had fallen throughout the entire Everfree Forest.”

“I won’t lie to you Twilight, being in that forest in complete silence scared me. Feeling uneasy I turned around to continue investigating, when all of sudden HE was there. In that instant I lost consciousness, the last thing I saw what that faceless head he had. I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but when I finally woke up I noticed that I wasn’t in the same place, but somewhere else. I knew that I was still in the Everfree Forest but this part was different. All the trees were all taller than the ones I saw during my investigation, and they were all dead. It was as if they was a fire in this part of the forest. Another thing I noticed was that it was completely silent, as if there wasn’t a single living thing there. I quickly got up and started looking around, trying to figure out my location. I tried flying, but for some reason I couldn’t. I noticed that I still had the pages that I collected, so I gathered them up. I walked for who knows how long until I came across something. I found all these items, saddlebags, backpacks, torn clothes, hats that were in children’s sizes. From the looks of it I had found the belongings of the missing ponies, I looked around to see if I could find anyone. I even called out to see if anyone was around to hear me, but in the end nopony responded. Then I started smelling something foul in air. I walked toward the direction of where the stench was coming from. It didn’t take long before I had arrived from where the smell was at its greatest. I looked around, but I didn’t see anything that was the cause of the stench….until I looked up…. and to this day I regretted that decision.

Because when I looked up I saw the remains of the missing ponies hanging up high in the trees. It seemed that they were nailed to the tree and they all had the same injury. Their eyes were gouged open and their stomachs were sliced open that caused their organs to dangle out. The sight of that made me incredibly sick to my stomach, especially when I saw that the majority of them were children. It took me time to regain my senses and when I did I was furious. What kind of monster could do this to so many innocent ponies. I counted them and saw that there weren’t that many compared to the amount of missing reports. Then I felt a presence coming from behind me, I turned around preparing to attack my confronter. That was when I had a look at my enemy. He looked exactly like the missing ponies described him before they went missing.

A tall slender stallion, his coat was as white as my own, he wore a suit with a red tie, he had no mane or tail, and the most disturbing was that he had no face. When I looked at this strange stallion I knew that he was the one responsible for all this. My anger had grown that I immediately attack him. I let out a huge beam that consumed him in its blinding light. After I cut off my beam I was shocked to see that he was still standing there unscathed, not even as much as a tear or burn of his suit. I let out multiple beams at him, only for them to be uneffective to him. I flew up and I called on the power of the sun to help me as I channeled its raw power as a giant fireball manifested above my horn.

Once I had channeled enough of the suns power, I threw at him. Being hit with its power would burn anything it touches into ash. Then after so much time standing still, he finally retaliated. He sprouted tentacles that seem to have originated from his suit. All it took was one tentacle to grab the fireball and throw it back at me. I was left stunned to see how impossible he did that, but I quickly regained my senses and moved out of the way before the fireball could hit me. It hit the trees behind me causing the forest to catch on fire. Soon I was under attack by fireballs, I turned to see the monster grabbing the fire from around him with his tentacles and threw them at me. I quickly dodge them but I couldn’t keep up. The heat from the fire was getting to me and the smoke was making it difficult to see and breathe. I could only dodged the fireballs as they were coming to me, by then the smoke had covered my attacker that I couldn’t retaliate. Then all of a sudden tentacles came out from the smoke and grabbed me. By then I was too weak to escape as they pulled down to the ground. I was lying on the ground and saw my attacker standing still, looking at me. The smoke made my eyes burn that I closed them for a second. As soon as I opened them I saw that he was standing closer than he was before. I blinked and saw he was even closer. The distance from that one second couldn’t have come from walking. Every time I blinked he was getting closer and the symptoms that I felt earlier returned and worsened. Soon he was standing right in front of me, one of his tentacles lifted my head so that I was staring at his face.

As I stared at his faceless face, my mind felt like it was burning as staring at him was turning me insane. His body started changing in front of me. He sprouted black wings that had red fire as his feathers, and then a black horn started growing out of his head. The longer I stared at him the worse the pain in my head was.

I closed my eyes in attempts to stop whatever spell he was doing. I felt his tentacles sliding around my face as they try to force my eyes open. I kept my eyes shut as much as I could, but I knew I was losing that battle. If I didn’t do something right there, I knew that I was going to die. So I used my magic to blast him point blank in his face. The force of the blast was able to knock him back, allowing me to escape his grasp. I stood up and quickly created a shield around me before his tentacles could attack me again. It seemed that my magic wasn’t powerful enough to destroy him, so I had only one option left. I tapped into whatever magic I had left and I cast a powerful sleep spell on him. It seemed to have worked on him as it fell to the ground. As an added precaution I used the eight pages that I found as a seal to weaken his power and keep him imprisoned in his endless slumber, by spreading them throughout the Everfree Forest. Once the pages were scattered, the monster vanished and was never heard from again.

After I gave the creatures victims a proper burial, I returned to Canterlot and informed all my citizens that the monster that was responsible for all the disappearances had finally been defeated. I knew that my spell wasn’t going to last forever, so I warned that nopony should ever enter the Everfree Forest again or else the monster that I have named Slendermane would return. I knew that as long as nopony entered the forest and found the pages that would break the seal, then he would stay in his eternal slumber.”

Once Princess Celestia finished her story she stopped walking. Twilight stopped and noticed that they were in Canterlot Tower. Twilight recognized the stained glass windows from the last time she was here with her friends. See looked to see Princess Celestia standing in front of a huge door. Twilight knew that what on the other side of the door was where the Elements of Harmony were kept.

“Soon the story of Slendermane was forgotten and was thought of nothing more than an urban legend. Now after centuries the seal has been broken releasing him from his prison. This is a dark time, Twilight. If Slendermane isn’t defeated then all of Equestria is in danger. I once again ask of you and your friends to finish what I couldn’t so long ago.” She inserted her horn into the keyhole and opened the door. Using her magic she levitated a small jewel encrusted chest from its podium. She brought the chest over to Twilight and opened it, revealing the Elements of Harmony.

“With Luna imprisoned on the moon, I could no longer wield the elements. If I was able to back then, then maybe none of this would be happening again.”

“It’s not your fault Princess Celestia, there was no other way. If you didn’t stop him all those years ago then who knows how many more innocent ponies would have suffered that horrible fate.”

“Thank you, Twilight. This mission I give you and your friends is the most dangerous I have ever given you. I need all of you to enter the Everfree Forest, collect the eight pages and use you’re the Elements of Harmony on them, for they are the key to stopping Slendermane.”

“You got it Princess,” said Twilight standing proud to show her determination.

“A word of caution, Twilight,” said Princess Celestia as Twilight took the case from Celestias magic grip, “No doubt that Slendermane will know that you’re trying to stop him and he will do anything to make sure that doesn’t happen. He will stalk you, make you give into your fears. It’s like a game to him watching his victims slowly lose their minds. Once you take the first page, the game begins. The pages will let you know when he is near, so keep your eyes and ears open.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“The more pages you collect the bigger a target you’ll become, that is why when you find the pages, you should spilt them up with your friends to minimize attracting his attention.”

“Yes Princess, anything else?”

“Should you ever comes across him, DON’T stare at his face, if you stare he’ll be able to get inside your mind and torture you from the inside out. And one last word of advice Twilight.”

“Yes, Princess Celestia?”

“If you do see him and he sees you, whatever you do…” Princess Celestia horn started glowing and Twilight was covered by her golden aura. She could feel the effects as she knew that Princess Celestia was teleporting her back to Ponyville. Before Twilight was teleported, Princess Celestia finished her warning, “Don’t blink. Blink and you're dead. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And DON'T BLINK!”

Twilight was covered by a bright flash of light and vanished. Princess Celestia was now all by herself in the now empty tower.

“Good luck.”

Author's Note

Finally after so many months, the next chapter has finally been released. I would like to apologize for taking so long to continue this. It was really hard to get the inspiration to continue this story until now.