Slender Pony

There once was a legend of a pony who still lived when even Celestia was just a filly. Of a pony who was not like other ponies -- a young mare who chose to differ from others in a way only she adored. This particular mare... erm... filly started walking on just two hooves already in her infant years. Even her own parents said, "We don't even remember if her first steps were on four hooves or two."

While still in her childhood years, her parents let her do as she pleased -- either not paying too much heed or simply laughing whenever she walked by, saying things like, "When are you finally going to start walking like a civilized pony?" or "How's the weather up there?" The mare felt sad, knowing that not even her own parents could accept the way she wants to live, but that did not stop her... As the years went on and she grew older, the small giggles from just her parents turned into mocking laughter of all her classmates and even common ponies walking around the town.

when she reached the age of a fully grown mare, others wouldn't accept her at work for that simple fact, telling themselves, "If I wanted freaks to work for me, I would have written that on the wanted poster: "Attention! Clowns wanted!"" The mare was now an official social outcast. How she wished that the laughter would just stay laughter, for she had already grown accustomed to it and could easily ignore it. Sadly, not even that much kindness was shown to her. She was soon confronted by other ponies of the town and brought to the mayor. The crowd presented her to the mayor and shouted things like, "She's possessed!", "We don't need her kind here!", "Just look at her! Does she look like a normal pony to you?" and, truth be told, she didn't. As the years went on, her bones adapted to her way of life and her legs grew longer... much longer than anypony had ever seen before.

The mayor of the town happened to be one with barely any mind of her own and was merely a puppet of the townsponies. It didn't take much convincing for the mayor to expel the outcast from town to a place where she couldn't bring harm to anypony... the Everfree forest.

Since that day, many centuries have passed, and the ponies of the town have become much friendlier and considerate of others since then... Surely, if the mare were to have lived at this time, such harsh measures would not have been required. Things were peaceful now, and nopony had seen or even heard anything about the mare... and yet, the legend was not forgotten. The first ponies to have ever retold the legend even gave her a name -- Slender pony. Parents would tell the tale to their children to discourage them from trying to leave the house at night, and their children would tell the tale to their own children, and so on, and so on... and so, the legend was kept alive up until this very day, but of course, legends like that don't scare fillies and foals these days... on the contrary -- they encourage them.

And so, a few fillies once decided to venture far into the Everfree forest... They went missing for many days until they were finally found near the Everfree forest's entrance, but the worries of their parents did not end there. The fillies were alive and unharmed... but they were asleep... so deep asleep that not even the combined powers of Celestia and Luna could awaken them. These fillies were put in beds in the Ponyville hospital in hopes that they would finally awaken some day.

The recent events scared other fillies and foals enough to make them never want to go near the Everfree forest again. However, things did not stay safe for long, as the young ponies started disappearing from their houses at night... Since ponies would no longer come to her, the slender pony would have no choice but to come to them. The town panicked. Every parent started keeping a close eye on their children, but the slender pony could not be evaded so easily... She still managed to snatch their children at the moments they least expected it. Just a second of glancing in another direction was all it took for a young one to disappear. Those very same fillies and foals, just as the previous ones, were soon found unconscious near the entrance to the Everfree forest.

                                                                                  ***

The last filly that was kidnapped happened to be a friend of Applebloom. Applebloom wasn't about to leave it that way. Either out of excessive bravery or just plain foolishness, she was determined to go after the one responsible for robbing her of her friend, no matter the risks. Of course, the Apple family, like the rest of the families, always had somepony keep a close eye on their children. Applebloom happened to be taking a walk through the city market that day with her sister, Applejack. As soon as Applejack turned to pay the shopkeeper for the goods she bought, Applebloom simply took off straight towards the Everfree forest. By the time Applejack noticed, her little sister was barely still in her sights.

"Applebloom! Get back here!" she shouted out as loud as she could, hoping that Applebloom would stop and turn around, but to no avail. Luckily, the young and capable flier, Whitemane happened to be walking by at that very moment. He was someone who was always happy to help a friend in need.

"Don't worry, Applejack! I'll get her back!" Whitemane told the anxious mare and started flying towards Applebloom as fast as he could.

"Please do, Whitemane..." Applejack whispered.

Whitemane flew fast, but by the time he got to the entry of the forest, Applebloom was already out of his sights. "Ughh..." Whitemane sighed. "What have you gotten yourself into, Applebloom?"

Whitemane flew after her, but as the forest gradually grew thicker and darker, he was eventually forced to land. He landed and followed her tracks on hoof. He ran as fast as he could, thinking to himself along the way, How could she have gotten so far ahead of me? She was just there a second ago, and then, all of a sudden, I can't see her and she's already half a mile into the forest... As he ran, preoccupied by his own thoughts, it took a while for him to realize that he had already ventured into the very depths of the Everfree, where it was so dark that he couldn't even spot the tracks anymore. He stopped running, but he didn't stop moving forward. He looked around, but he couldn't see past his own nose.

Something soon caught his attention... something bright. He walked towards it, and once he got closer, he saw what it was. "A flashlight!?" he said out, bewildered by the eerily convenient sight. "Heh, well, I don't know how that got here, especially with a full battery, but it's like a light at the end of a tunnel to me right now... almost literally," he quietly added.

Whitemane picked up the flashlight, pointed it around and soon found Applebloom's tracks again. He didn't hesitate to follow them. Where the hell am I? I've never seen this part of the Everfree before, he thought to himself.

He followed the tracks with a puzzled mind. Scratching his head, he went on thinking about all the question he had previously asked himself until the moment something caught his attention once again. He walked closer to it and stopped for a moment while staring at it... He knew now exactly where he was. He spotted a lone, giant tree in the dark. On its shaft there was a page of white paper with something scribbled on it. He walked up to the tree and picked up the page. The page was nearly all black, but a few letters were still intelligible. "Too late to turn back," he read the words on the page out loud.

"Hmph... we'll see about that." Whitemane dropped the page, turned around and started walking back, but as the flashlight he was pointing forward revealed the way ahead, he spotted a fence standing in the same spot he had just arrived from. It puzzled Whitemane even more. "Huh? This wasn't here before..." The puzzled look on his face faded quickly enough and got replaced with a cocky smirk. "Nice try." Whitemane tried to fly over the fence, but couldn't, no matter how hard he tried... it felt like the feathers of his wings were glued to his back so hard he couldn't even open them with the help of his hooves. "Uggh! What in the...?!"

He struggled for quite a while trying to open his wings, and when he realized he couldn't, he tried climbing over the fence, but to no avail. The fence was so slippery that his hooves just slid off as soon as he touched it. The fence angered Whitemane so much that he kicked it, but it was so slippery that he tripped and fell just from kicking it. That annoyed him even more. He got up and spit at the fence.

"Fine then! I'll play your game," the disgruntled pegasus shouted out and started walking away from the fence in the direction of Applebloom's tracks. He now knew that he could not get out, but at least he had hopes that he could find Applebloom and try giving her a boost over the wall so that at least she could escape. He walked past the tree on which he had found the page and soon spotted a wall made of red bricks, just standing in the middle of the forest.

"Somehow that just doesn't surprise me anymore." He walked up to the wall, looked at it for a moment and walked right past it... a simple brick wall wasn't enough to catch his attention for long. He then looked at the wall from the other side and noticed another page.

"What's with these pages? Is the slender pony actually some kind of prehistoric teacher?" he asked himself, right before he started yelling at the top of his lungs, "HEY, SLENDY! YOUR METHODS ARE WORKING! MOST TEACHERS SUCCEED IN PUTTING THEIR STUDENTS TO SLEEP ONLY FOR THE DURATION OF THE LESSON, BUT APPARENTLY YOU'RE SO BORING THAT YOU MANAGED TO PUT THEM TO SLEEP FOR GOOD!" He took a few deep breaths and calmed his voice. "Man... all this slender nonsense is really getting to me."

He picked up the page. This one had a lot less unintelligible scribbles on it, and the words were easier to read. "Doesn't talk... doesn't understand... just wants you," he read the words out loud and then arched his brow. "I already know all the mares want me, I don't need some stupid page to tell me that..." He paused for a moment to think about what he just said. "I hope Applebloom wasn't around to hear that..."

He ruffled up the page and tossed it behind his back before continuing onward. His own joke got him in a good mood, but just as he had only just stopped thinking about all the unexplainable things puzzling his mind, he heard some footsteps near him. He immediately pointed his flashlight towards the direction of the sound. "Applebloom?" he asked, but got no response. He then heard the same noise again from a different direction. "Who's there!?" he yelled and pointed the flashlight towards whatever was causing the noise.  "Show yourself!" he yelled again after hearing the sound of footsteps coming from behind him.

After the fourth time, the noises faded. "Damn it! Just when I was starting to enjoy myself," he said with frustration in his tone. "Whatever." He followed the tracks once again. As he walked on, he noticed that the flashlight's brightness was slowly dwindling. "Darn... better get a move on"

Whitemane started walking faster. He soon came across a bridge with a river flowing under it. After getting closer, he noticed another one of the pages just lying there in the middle of the bridge. Oddly enough, it wasn't glued to it or anything... The place around him was as still as the mountains. Not a single branch on the trees was moving, and so the page was never moved by wind. Whitemane came closer and picked up the page. This one had nothing but scribbles and drawings of ponies walking on their hindlegs on it. Whitemane's face suddenly turned a bit pale, and a strong frown embedded itself on his lips... He seemed to recognize the art style.

"Pencilneck... he always did love to just draw, rather than write or say anything..." Whitemane did not mourn for long, though. He ruffled up the page as he did with the others and threw it into the river.

All of a sudden, Whitemane got startled by a sudden noise coming from behind him. He reacted immediately, turning around and pointing the flashlight towards the direction from which he heard the noise coming from "Huh?" It was just a crow squawking. It got scared by the flashlight and flew away. "Oh... just a dumb bird. Yeah, you'd better fly away..." He suddenly seemed baffled. "Fly? Wait what!? How did?... DAMN IT! MIND SHARING YOUR TECHNOLOGIES WITH ME, YOU BASTARD?!" he furiously shouted at the bird which was already too far away to hear him.

After his sudden outburst, he sighed loudly and changed to a more peaceful tone. "Look at yourself. You're already talking to birds now. Hmm..." He rubbed his chin. "Which reminds me -- if I ever get out of here alive, I should bring Gilda here."

He laughed. One of Whitemane's strategies for always staying in a good mood was saying a joke out loud and laughing to it. Even if he was the only one laughing, it was still always better than nothing. After putting himself in a good mood again, Whitemane returned to following the tracks in an even quicker pace than before. Even though the hoofsteps were clearly bringing him closer to finding Applebloom, he still couldn't shake the feeling that he was just walking in circles... The trees around him all just seemed so alike, almost as if they were cloned or something. Whitemane soon saw the remains of an abandoned hut in the dark. It was small, made of wood and had no windows, so there was no peeking inside before entering.

I don't suppose I need to knock here, Whitemane thought to himself as he approached the hut and slowly opened the door. "Hello?" he quietly said. After getting no response, he walked on in and took a look around. All the walls were so dark that he couldn't tell whether there was a wall there or was he just seeing the dark of the forest. But the flashlight was still bright enough to reveal that there was nothing at all inside of the hut. No furniture, no shelves... there was, however, something still inside of it... another page, hanging by the wall. This one was nearly all just black, so it was rather hard to spot.

He walked towards the page to pick it up. The few short steps separating him from the page seemed like such a long trip, and it puzzled him how his hoofsteps caused no noise whatsoever. He was expecting squeaking boards at the very least. When he got closer to the page, he was ready to pick it up, but something just didn't seem right to him. He decided to just read the page and leave it there.

Reading the words from this page felt like reading subliminal messages... they just shaped together with the black colored background of the page incredibly well. It took a while for him to understand that the page has something written on it, but eventually he figured out all the words. "Never look behind you," he read the words out loud and grinned. "Heh, well, thanks for the advice, but I'm not about to walk out of this hut backwards. Sorry." He laughed and quickly turned around. He was about to start walking back towards the entrance of the hut, but just as he turned around, something frightened him so bad it knocked him off his hooves.

The door opened, and outside the hut stood slender pony herself. Whitemane's eyeballs shrank to the size of an apple seed, and his heart started beating so fast it sounded like a spinning minigun, but his breath stood still, for he dared not make a sound, hoping that Slendy only responds to noise.

It was dark, and Whitemane had his shades on too, but even with all that, the pale face of the slender pony shined in the darkness like a star, and it was staring right at Whitemane, just like Whitemane was staring right at it. The face was the only thing he could see in this darkness. He couldn't even spot any shape of the face. It seemed just round, with neither a mouth, nor eyes or a nose.

The door squeaked as it reached the point where it could open no further, and then it started slowly shutting. Those few short seconds of the door closing felt like an eternity for Whitemane. His entire life just flashed by his eyes as he stared at the pale face of the creature. The door then closed, but shortly after that, it opened again, but this time there was no slender pony standing outside the hut. Whitemane started breathing again after seeing that it was gone. What a relief it was for him. It felt like pouring rain after walking several days through a desert with no water.

But even after regaining his breath, he still lied there for some time, just staring at the door which was now closed again. His heart soon sank back into its common rhythm, and Whitemane slowly got up. He picked up his flashlight -- which somehow didn't break after falling out of his hooves after he fell -- and started walking towards the door.

If the speed at which he was coming in seemed slow, then even that seemed like the speed at which Rainbow Dash performed her sonic rainboom compared to how slow he was moving now. He kept breathing loudly on each hoofstep... and there were many of em. When he got to the door, he kicked it open several times before finally going through.

"You can never be too safe,"  he said to himself. He opened the door, popped his head out and took a swift glance in every direction to make sure the coast was clear. He quickly jumped out of the hut and started searching for the tracks. There was no sight of them. He walked around the hut and finally found them coming from underneath the hut at the other end of the hut.

"How in the?" He raised his eyebrow as a response to the sight. "This hut must have not been here before... but how is that possible? It has clearly not been moved for years, centuries even, maybe!" he convinced himself. "Never mind. That's nowhere even near the weirdest of the things I've seen today anyways."

He followed the tracks, hastening his traveling speed once again. He was just a step away from running now. There was no way he could WALK any faster at this point. Along the way he kept getting the urge to point his flashlight behind himself every few minutes, which he did. He couldn't shake the feeling that Slendy was on his tail.

He walked fast and soon reached the site of the next page. it was glued to a giant rock. This time it was easy to read, so Whitemane just fast read it while walking by, nearly just ignoring it. "Never look at it!" he recited. "You don't say? Huh... where was this page earlier?" he snidely added. "Well, actually, never mind. It's not like I heeded the last page's warning... he he." He laughed quietly. This time it was more of a nervous than a cheerful laugh. He continued walking forward without changing his pace, and his flashlight's brightness grew more and more dimmer with each passing second. While he walked, he did not even spare the time to look back anymore... Either because he didn't have the time or it just seemed like a bad idea.

He soon saw another page that was nailed to an ancient-looking monument. He did not even bother studying it. All he needed to know is that it was a mossy statue of some griffon, and the head of the statue had broken off, so it was impossible to recognize the griffon. Whitemane just passed it with the same routine as with the last page site. Once again, the pages contents were easy to read. No eyes, no ears, no nose, but still always finds you, he read the words without saying them out loud.

He didn't even get puzzled this time, neither by the monument nor the page. He was so preoccupied with keeping up his tempo that he simply forgot what was written on the page shortly after. These tracks go on forever! he thought to himself. Following them seemed pointless, but even if so, turning back was even more pointless now. He pushed forward, breathing heavily as he went on. He was tired as hell, but stopping was about the last thing on his mind.

He heard the hoofsteps again but dared not point his flashlight towards that direction this time. At first the sound kept coming from random directions, but eventually it started seeming like they all lined up and the sound started coming directly from behind him. It felt like each step Whitemane took had an echo.

                                                                                              ***

Whitemane walked endlessly through the slender pony's domain in hopes of finding Applebloom... Sadly, it was already too late. Applebloom had already been found near the Everfree forest's entrance by her family. Unconscious, just like the other fillies and foals.

"No!" Applejack shouted as she ran closer to her unconscious sister and gently picked her up in her hooves, placing her head on over own shoulder. As if her sister's grim fate wasn't bad enough, Applejack was also worried about her friend, Whitemane. Both of them had gone into the forest nearly simultaneously, and yet, there was still no sign of him.

The Apples spent quite some time grieving before they finally brought her to the hospital and put her in one of the beds near the rest of the victims of the slender pony. Many ponies were curious about Whitemane's disappearance, but only one pony knew the answer. Although she decided to not tell anypony, convinced that the last thing the ponies of the town needed is a feeling that not even adult ponies were safe anymore.

Whitemane was still walking through the forest. He soon reached the next page, which was hanging by an old lamp post. He had to slow down to be able to read this one, though. Whitemane suddenly froze up after reading the page. "Hoofsteps stopped... can't hear him, but he's there, I kn...." The last word on the page was unfinished, and it looked like its writer was pulled away before he or she could finish it.

Whitemane froze from fear when he stopped hearing the hoofsteps behind him... He had just realized that he was in the same situation as the filly who got grabbed while writing the page. He knew his end was near, but he wasn't about just give up after all that he's been through.

He mustered up what was left of his strength and ran... He ran as fast as he could. He ran for quite some time, breathing heavily and not stopping for anything, but then, something caused him to stop dead in his tracks. The reason for him stopping was not the fact that he was exhausted... it was because of the page he saw on one of the trees. He could recognize the hoofwriting on it from a distance.

He slowly walked up to the tree and started reading the words on the page. He walked slowly, despite the danger he was in, because at this point his fate didn't even matter to him anymore... He knew now that he had failed, and not just himself... Whitemane stood still and stared at the page for a few minutes. The text on it was... shocking... to say the least. Additionally, the bottom of the page was soaked with tears.

Whitemane... I'm sorry...

He knew now that there would be no point to anything he does. His fate was already decided, and it was the same as the rest of Slendy's victims... or so he thought. He decided to make an easy meal for her and not run anymore... Just let her take him like that. In utter despair, Whitemane hung his head. He was about to fall to his knees and just start crying, but something puzzled him once more as he looked down. He saw a clean page and a pencil near it.

It didn't take long for him to figure out what it meant. Apparently the slender pony lets each of her victims write something down before she takes them... As if she was giving them their last words... and the last page was for Whitemane.

He picked up the page and the pencil slowly, but also with great fury kicking every corner of his brain. He was barely holding it together to not ruffle up the page and break the pencil. He was determined to get this done.

He walked forward, but not too far. The nearest tree was as far as his anger would let him go. He lifted up the page and held it against the tree and started writing on it. He wrote viciously. It was surprising how the pencil didn't break from the pressure, for he wrote with it as hard as a smith beats steel with a hammer. He put all his anger and sorrow into these few words.

"I'm not afraid of you!" were the words he wrote on the page.

The flashlight was at the edge of its batteries, and the light was dim and started periodically flickering. It was no good to him at this point anyways, so he just bashed it against a tree, shattering the glass and tossing the leftovers behind himself, hoping to at least hit slender pony on the head.

There was only one thing left to do now...

Whitemane took off his shades to get a good final look at his assailant. He closed his eyes. Step by step, he slowly turned around, lifted up his head and opened his eyes, even though he needed not even open them to know what was going to be in front of him. He was as close to Slender pony as he could ever get. At this point, Whitemane's face was about as impassive as Slendy's... There was no more fear in his eyes, and his face was no longer pale. Even though he was staring right into the face of his own demise, he wasn't about to give it the joy of grabbing another terrified, helpless victim.

So he just stood there as what was left of his sanity just started fading away. All his life just flashed by his eyes again, and he barely still had the strength to stand. With his last breath, he repeated the same words he just wrote on the page, "I'm not afraid of you!"

Slender pony had no way of making any kind of expression, but it still seemed as if though she was... surprised... even a bit frightened by Whitemane standing up to her like that. No one had ever done that before. However, it was still not enough to stop her from taking his life.

Whitemane started collapsing, but he did not hit the ground.  Right before his body hit the ground, lightning struck between the two, and as the light faded, neither Whitemane nor Slendy could be seen anymore.

                                                                                     ***

Whitemane's body was the first one to never be found, but his sacrifice was not in vain...

Applejack was sitting near Applebloom's bed in the hospital at this time. The rest of the Apple family had either lost hope or simply didn't have the time to be there for her right now. Applejack was the only visitor at the time, and visiting hours were nearly over. The nurse had already asked her to leave, to which she eventually responded and got up and started walking towards the exit.

It was at this very moment -- just when it seemed like the last vestige of hope had faded without a trace -- that Applejack heard a moan coming from behind her. She immediately turned around and saw her little sister moving her head. She rushed over to her without hesitating. "Applebloom!" she cried out as she watched her sister open her eyes.

"Applejack?... Is that you?" her weakened sister whispered.

Applejack hugged her sister tightly. Her tears of sorrow had instantly turned in to tears of joy. "Yes, Applebloom, it's me... I'm here for you... I always have been," Applejack answered softly as her tears kept raining on her little sister's coat.

The nurse got impatient. She wondered what could be taking the visitor so long. This was the only part of her job she hated. She knew how hard it must be for the poor soul, but she still had no choice but to make her leave. After a loud sigh, the nurse went back to confront Applejack. "Miss, visiting hours are over. I'm going to ha..." She stopped her sentence when she saw the visitor hugging her sister ever so sincerely, as well as the rest of the fillies and foals getting up and rubbing their heads. The unexpected sight caused the nurse to drop her pen and notes and stand breathlessly.

"You sure you can't give us just one more minute?" with a line of tears still covering her eyes, Applejack asked the nurse with a heartfelt smile on her face.

All of a sudden, the nurse dashed away and exited the hospital, but she returned soon afterwards, along with half the town. The hospital was cluttered with ponies within seconds, and all of them were marching towards the room where Slendy's victims were kept. Parents rushed over to their children and wrapped their hooves around their shoulders. Big Macintosh and Granny Smith ran over to Applejack.

You said you'd get her back, and you didn't lie about it... Applejack thought to herself. Words can't express my gratitude for saving my sister, Whitemane... Thank you... I only wish I knew where you are right now, so that I could tell you this in person.

Little did she know that Whitemane's struggles had only just begun...