Slender Pony

There's something you don't see every day. A once prosperous town, full of ponies that were happy with their lives, now turned in to a stain of what it once was. Desolate, shattered, with buildings barely still standing,  sounds of old squeaking doors coming from every side while the wind blows through the broken windows, and with the only living being within the nearest hundred mile radius being an unconscious blue-coated pegasus with a mane and tail of black and white colors.

Whitemane woke up moaning and rubbing his head.  "Uugh...." He felt weak and could barely push himself off the ground. He got up and started curiously looking around. "Where the hell am I?"

                                                                                   ***

Whitemane started walking forward, deeper into the town, looking sideways each moment in hopes of seeing someone that could help him answer his question.

"Where am I?..." he repeated. "How I wish that was the only question I had. More importantly -- WHO am I? And what am I doing here?"

It was a long journey to the other end of the town, but being preoccupied with trying to remember anything about himself, Whitemane didn't even notice the time passing. After what seemed like mere moments to him, he was already nearing the center of the town. The main building of the town was blocking his path now, he could have gone past it, but that would mean leaving the town, and he had little interest in doing so, for the time being.

Instead, he gazed upwards and noticed the sign hanging on the main building. It was barely comprehensible. Taking off his shades for a moment made understanding it easier. "Coltifornia," he read the name of the town out loud. "I... I know that name... I know this town... I... I used to live here!" he declared to himself, but that was about as much as he could remember for now. "But I don't remember it being this way... What happened here? What or who could have caused this?"

Whitemane questioned himself again and again, as if asking the questions to someone other than himself. After a while of thinking, all he could come up with is a temporary answer that would motivate him to keep moving.

"The name of this town made my memories less foggy. I know I used to live here, but I don't even remember my name, or even what I look like, but if the name of the town helped me remember even this much, then maybe I should keep searching for other things that might help me remember..." He stopped moving and began inspecting the sights around him. "But where to begin? There are so many houses out here, I'll starve to death before I get a chance to check them all!"

A loud noise suddenly drew Whitemane's attention to one of the houses. It was the sound of a door slamming itself against the wall when the wind blew it open. "I guess that's my call." Having no better plan than just following nature's direction, Whitemane proceeded to investigate the house. The door slammed shut in front of his eyes as he got closer, but that did not stop him. He walked up to the house and for some reason decided to knock, but as soon as he touched the door it just fell out of its hinges and hit the ground. "Why did I even try that?" he asked himself after a short pause.

Without a moment to think anything over, he went on in and started looking around. The first thing he noticed was a mirror. He moved closer to it. Remembering how he looked also made him remember his own name. "Whitemane! That's it! My name is Whitemane!" His own mane suddenly caught his attention. "Glad to know my parents didn't put much effort in naming me... Wait... My parents!" He pushed his hoof against his forehead as he struggled to remember. "I still can't remember them."

Whitemane kept looking around the house in search for more answers. Oddly enough, the mirror was just about the only thing in the house. There wasn't even any furniture aside from an empty wardrobe. The window was broken. That's why the wind could cause the door to slam so hard. Whitemane left the house shortly after checking the wardrobe and finding nothing in it. He walked outside the house and started walking back the way he came here in the first place while looking around for anything that could help him remember anything... or anyone.

Along the way, he was preoccupied with his thoughts, as always, but right now, something other than his lack of memories was puzzling him too. Now, for the second time already since his arrival here, he thought he heard hoofsteps behind him. For the first time, he heard them when he turned his back on the main building, and the other was just now when he left the abandoned house with the empty wardrobe. He looked back instantly, but there was no one there.

It started raining soon, and it rained heavily, but Whitemane still remembered a few practical things from his life. For instance, one about rain -- the harder it pours, the faster it end. Whitemane decided to just sit out the rain in the nearest abandoned house. He ran to one that's door had already fallen out of its hinges. At least I don't have to knock this time, hehe, he thought to himself in an attempt to cheer himself up. He ran inside the house and started shaking to get the water out his coat. He then looked around the house. A picture hanging by the wall immediately drew his attention.

"I remember this one!" he exclaimed. "We used to play... what the hell did we play together?... Meh, doesn't matter. Maybe i'll remember later." He walked up to the wall, picked up the picture and looked at the white-colored unicorn in the picture. He felt happy remembering something again. All of a sudden he started laughing vigorously. "Ha ha ha ha! This one had the best name in town. "Scrappy Coco" Ha ha ha ha! I think I forgive my parents now for naming me the way they did. If anyone ever tells me that my name sounds stupid, I'm just gonna reply: "Hey, it coulda been worse!""

This certainly put Whitemane in a good mood, and while he was laughing, the rain had nearly ended entirely. He hung the picture back on the wall and walked back out of the house, despite the small rain still being present. Just before he walked out of the house, he stopped and shifted his sights backwards for a moment. "There it was again... Is my imagination playing tricks on me or am I being followed by a highly trained assassin or something?" he asked himself "BAH! I wouldn't really even care, either way."

Just as he exited the house, the rain ceased, and in its stead, a bright sun lit up the entire sky. That was the first time he saw the sun since he got here. It looked beautiful, but what was even more precious was the rainbow that just became visible as the sky got clearer. "Ahh, what a beautiful rainbow..." He gazed at the sight with a warm smile, right before shouting, "Wait... Rainbow! Rainboom! I remember seeing a Sonic Rainboom here!  It was beyond any of the beautiful things I had ever seen in my life, and it was an inspiration for me and..." His monologue got halted by another gap in his memory. "Ugh! My memories keep deceiving me! Who else was there with me that day?"

For a moment he wondered about what was the point of trying to remember things if they only brought more questions. Nevertheless, he walked on. "These questions have to end with something." Was his excuse for now.

                                                                                       ***

Whitemane walked for quite some time without seeing anything of interest. He could already see the part of the town at which he arrived. "Great. Right back where I started... What now?" Whitemane didn't think he could get much more out of this town. It kinda seemed pointless, but at the same time, he didn't want to leave either since in here he at least had a minor hunch about what he was looking for, but out there he wouldn't even know which direction to go in. "Well, I guess I should get going then... again." He rolled his eyes.

Whitemane turned around and started walking towards the other end of the town again in hopes that there was something he missed. This time he thought of a new strategy. Instead of just constantly looking left and right, he wouldn't take his sights off the right side, and vice versa on his way back. A few steps was all it took for him to spot something interesting. A house, probably the only one in this town with some paint still on it. It even had a doormat that said "welcome".

Huh? This house seems so familiar... how did I not notice it before? he wondered. He ran closer to the house and tried to open the door. Oddly enough, it was locked. "Bah! Most houses here don't even have doors! And one of the few I was actually interested in turns out to be locked... Bucking perfect!... Wait a minute." Either out of plain curiosity or because he remembered something, Whitemane decided to check under the doormat... Well I'll be damned. There actually was a key under it... I guess the movies don't lie.

Whitemane stared at the key, thinking. "There's only one way I could have known this..." Whitemane was about to unlock the door but paused for a second while glancing at the key in his hooves. "This key is rusty as hell... Better be careful here. I only get one chance."

Indeed, rust was about the only thing still left of the key. It looked like even the slightest breeze of wind would cause it to disintegrate. Slowly and carefully, Whitemane pointed the key towards the keyhole and pushed it inside. He paused for a moment, trying to decide whether he should just put all his strength into it and just be done with it in a second without even having to worry about the key, or if he should go nice and slow, hoping that it wouldn't break.

He decided to go slowly, realizing that if the door is locked with a double lock then all he would gain by doing it fast would be making it easier to break in. The key was already inside the hole, all that remained to be done now was turn it... He began turning it around slowly as sweat kept pouring down his temples. After half a minute of not-so-intense action, the first circle was done with. The door was indeed locked with a double lock. Whitemane let go of the key for a brief moment and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"Phew..." He sighed with relief. "Looks like I made the right choice." He grabbed the key again and started turning it around for the second and final time. He was about to be done and have the key still usable, but right before he could finish, he heard the hoofsteps behind him again. He got infuriated and just turned the key swiftly, which caused it to break. It didn't really matter, however, since the door was opened in the process. Whitemane turned around sharply right after he heard the key break.

"STOP!" he exclaimed, but there was no one in sight. "I'm not going to hurt you. Please, come out. I just want to talk." He tried to reason with whoever it was that was following him, but to no avail. "Well, buck that! You wanna stalk me? Then so be it! Just know that if I do see you, next time I won't be so friendly... Sorry, bud. You just blew your chance."

Whitemane spoke loudly, in hopes that if there really was someone following him, then they would hear him. Nevertheless, that was not his prime concern at the moment. The door was open and Whitemane went in. Odd... The door didn't even make a noise when opening. It was as though it was brand new. Whitemane looked around. After just a few seconds, something had already caught his attention. A picture of him in  his youth, and another foal that looked almost just like him, standing by his side.

"Blackmane!" he exclaimed in an overjoyed tone. "Now I remember who I grew up with and who was the one standing by me when I saw the Sonic Rainboom. It was my own brother! Boy, how I wish he'd be right here with me now! But what about..." He looked around and hung his head in sorrow after not seeing any other pictures. "My parents... We grew up without them. It was just me and Blackmane... No wonder I couldn't remember them."

He stood with his head hanging low for some time, grieving about the parents he lost in his youth and remembering the good times he had with his brother. He then lifted his head up as newfound confidence lit up his face. "Right," he said and shook his head. "Time to move on. I think I've found out just about everything there was to find about this place. Now I just need to find out how I got here and what to do next."

He walked out of the house, but just as he exited and was about to close the door, he heard the hoofsteps again. This time, inside the house, which seemed fairly odd to him, seeings how there was no way someone could have gotten in here without him noticing. He turned around swiftly to confront whoever was there. "HA! Got you no..." Whatever it was he saw, it freaked him out so badly it caused him to fall on his back from sheer shock. "WHAT THE!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.

At first his guess was that it was just a REALLY tall pony standing on just two legs, but then he noticed that it was as pale as the moon and had no eyes, ears, mouth or nose. He started crawling backwards. The... "whatever it was" clearly wasn't taking any steps, but it still seemed as though it was moving closer to Whitemane. "WHAT IN THE BLAZING HELLS ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?" He shouted out loudly as he kept crawling back. He crawled until his back touched a wall and he could crawl back no further.

He couldn't back away any further, but that thing was getting closer to him with each second. Whitemane's legs were stiff from the sudden shock and he couldn't get up. He was breathing loudly and sitting with his back against the wall. Without having any idea of what to do, he just closed his eyes, hoping it would go away. He kept them closed for nearly half a minute, and when he finally opened them, the thing was gone.

After a brief moment, he started feeling his legs again and his breathing stabilized. He could get up now. He looked around to make sure the coast was clear. "What in the blazing hells was that thing?" he asked himself. "I guess that answers who was following me... Now all I need to find out is what it was and what does it want from me... Come to think of it, it doesn't even answer that question, seeings how I still don't know WHAT exactly was following me." He threw his forelegs upwards in frustration, right before lowering them and holding them crossed over his chest.

Whitemane then noticed that the wall he was holding his back against was a house with a scarf stuck in its door. "Huh?" The scarf seemed somehow familiar to him. He touched the scarf and recognized it. "I know this house..."  he quietly whispered as he opened the door and ran right in. In the middle of the room there was an old rocking chair with an old blanket on it.

"This was old pony Joe's house!" he shouted out as another blank part of his memory revealed itself "I still remember listening to his wild stories. Ha ha! Those were the times. I remember him telling me and my brother about the creatures of the Everfree forest. The Chimera! That one was scary, but still nothing compared to the Hydra! Ha! Even those two combined would kneel before the..." He paused for a moment as his mind went into a state of dismay.

"Slender pony... SLENDER PONY! So THAT'S what's following me! I... I remembered it all now," he declared and began reciting the restored part of his memory, "I went into the forest to fight the slender pony! Can't really remember why, though, but apparently things didn't quite work out, seeings how I'm... here, with barely any memories left in my head, and that thing still following me around... Damn... You could almost say that thing made me its bi***! What in the blazes was I thinking trying to fight it?" He facehoofed himself. "Either way, I still need to figure out how to get out of here."

                                                                                 ***

Whitemane walked back and forth over a small line while trying to come up with an escape plan... Apparently that really does help you think, just like in the cartoons. "Think, Whitemane, Think! If I'm here after losing a fight to that thing, that probably means that it wants me to be here... but why?" he asked himself and stopped pacing. "And why exactly here? Ah! it must be trying to tamper with my memories, seeings how this place was important to me... Hmm..." He rubbed his chin. "What's most important now is figuring out how to get out of here, coz I doubt I can just fly away like that... Wait... FLY! BUCK! I'm an idiot! all this time I coulda been flying!" He facehoofed himself.

"At any rate, I don't think I can just fly away like that, coz I remember that thing just kinda... DRAINING me when I faced it, and then I just... collapsed... and after that I can't remember anything else. I must be stuck in some kind of artificial nightmare or something like that." He scratched the back of his head while recalling something else. "I remember old Joe saying that it feeds off of memories, so right now I need to get back my most influential memories in order to weaken that thing, maybe then I can break free... YEAH! Whitemane, you're a genius!" he exclaimed in an overconfident tone. "And the best way to remember something is by reliving it! But there must be more to my life than this... I know I didn't stay in this town for most of my life. I must have left one day, but HOW? and WHEN?"

Whitemane's pondering was interrupted by the sound of hoofsteps outside the house. "BUUUCK! No time to find out now. Gotta move!" Whitemane darted out of the house and started flying towards the main building. No longer on hoof, he reached his destination very swiftly. "All right, umm... if I want to relive my memories, I need to leave this town the same way I did before... Now, if only I kne..." Whitemane turned his attention towards something popping out from behind the corner of the main building... It was a pony's skeleton.

Whitemane gulped loudly as he approached the skeleton. "Sweet mother of mercy..." he whispered. "This was... They never... They just remained here when I left... The town got deserted after the Sonic Electrocosion incident and these ponies were never even given a proper burial..." He hung his head in shame and sorrow. "Maybe I deserve to be here..." For a moment there, he was just about ready to just give up and let Slendy take him. "HECK NO!" he suddenly exclaimed. "Whitemane doesn't just give up! If there's one skeleton here, then where are the rest of em?! There can't be just one! I'm onto you, Slender! you're playing mind tricks on me to make me give up... Well, it's not gonna work!" he shouted out loudly, cursing Slendy's name in his mind.

"I remember now how I left this town..." He began retelling everything he remembered from that day, "Ever since my brother and I saw the sonic rainboom, we realized that it wasn't a myth and kept striving to perform such a feat ourselves some day, and even though it still mainly seemed like just a little hidden motivation to always keep us going, my brother actually managed to pull it off one day," he said with a wide grin on his face, but it started rapidly fading from his face after a short moment. "But something went horribly wrong..." He hung his head.

"Just as the skies got ignited in the same colors as his mane, the huge wave of energy came crashing down on our town... I remember feeling a little jolt of lightning-like energy course through my body as it reached me. As I recall now, me and my brother were resistant to the effects of lightning due to the fact that our mother was struck by lightning not long before giving birth. I couldn't make anything of it at the moment, but as I gazed around myself, I noticed that the other ponies of the town weren't as resistant to the energy as I was... I..." He lost his breath for a moment as the horrid image came back to him. "I didn't know what was going on... They were all on the ground, shaking like crazy... I went to see if they were alright after they stopped shaking, but..." The memory was too painful to even repeat out loud... A single teardrop left Whitemane's eye before he could muster the strength to continue.

"I had never even seen death in my life, and then, just like that... I saw so much of it... I... I was speechless... The only thing I wanted was to just wake up and realize it was just a horrible nightmare, and then, I saw him... My brother... I saw him hanging in midair in the middle of the town, I saw the immeasurable pain in his eyes as he looked upon his hooves and realized just what he had done... I will never forget the last day I saw him as he left Coltifornia with a river of tears coming from his eyes..." As his story went on, the pain in his soul only grew in force.

"At that moment, the only thing I wanted was to know that I'm not alone, and so I flew after my brother in hopes of catching him... I never did catch him... I just collapsed after hours of nonstop flying and awoke... at someplace else..." All of a sudden his face was lit up with newfound hope. "Someplace else! That's it! If I repeat the same action, I might just jump over to another part of my mind where I can regain new memories... Darn, but what if it doesn't work? Then I'm stuck here forever... Am I willing to take such a risk?"

He asked to himself and pondered on the thought for a moment. His thinking soon ended with the sound of hoofsteps coming up from behind him again. His reflexes caused him to instantly just turn around. There she was... Slender pony. Less than twenty feet away from him... That's all the motivation Whitemane needed. "YES!" he shouted and instantly took off. He flew as fast as he could, just as he did in the very same situation in ages past. "I hope this works..."

He flew for hours, constantly plagued by the feeling that something just wasn't right. "So... I just Fly? That's all I do now? This seems too simple. Well, apart from the fact that I quite literally have to fly until I run out of breath... Well, at least I know that Slendy can't catch me at this speed," he convinced himself and kept flying with a relaxed mind. As the hours went by, his exhaustion finally caught up with him. "I think the moment is nearing," he said through a yawn. "I just have to... keep flying... until I..." After another yawn, Whitemane simply fell asleep in midair.

                                                                                                               ***

After an uncertain amount of time had passed, Whitemane woke up and began rubbing his eyes. "Huh? I think I did it. This must be the next part of my mind where I'll find more memories." Whitemane started looking around. "That can't be right..." he told himself as the sights around him became more familiar. "This is the same place I was before, only... It seems alive again. Restored to its former state." As he gazed around, he saw all the things that would befit any common town. The shops were open, the buildings looked new and the streets were full of satisfied ponies.  Hmm... Maybe I came back here when I grew older? he wondered. He decided to start a conversation with the nearest citizen to see if anyone recognizes him. "Excuse me..."

"You!" with eyes wide from both shock and fury, the pony he had just addressed shouted and pointed his hoof right at him. "What are you doing back here!?"

"Erm..." Whitemane was completely dazed by the unexpected response. "Pardon me, I don't--"

"Don't think even for a second that we are going to welcome you back, you monster! You and your brother both belong in the forest!"

"WHAT!?" Whitemane jumped back from shock, and his shades slid half-way down his face in the process.

"BEGONE, MURDERER! There's nothing for you here!" the other pony said in an unforgiving tone.

"Wait! Please! I just want to--"

"I don't want to hear it!" the citizen interrupted him. "GUARDS! GUARDS! THE TRAITOR HAS RETURNED!"

Whitemane's face turned pale at the sight of the guards catching wind of his presence. Without so much as a second of consideration, he tucked his tail and flew away, only stopping a good distance away from the eyes of the townsfolk. "What was that all about?" he asked himself while trying to catch his breath.

"Don't pretend like you don't know," a familiar voice came up from behind him.

Whitemane turned around and saw the last pony he expected to see. "Blackmane?" he lowered his shades and asked without closing his mouth after speaking out the name.

"Stop wasting time and lets go already!" his brother retorted. "I know damn well you've got as much reason to be here as I do, but there's nothing we can do about it now..." After the harsh reply, Blackmane calmed himself and quietly added and hung his head, "Celestia has spoken."

"Wait, what?" Whitemane asked, confused with the response. "Hold on, hold on--"

"Hold what on?" Blackmane snapped right back into his fierce tone. "Stop acting like a child, Whitemane! You know what must be done. Why did you try to return to the town?" He took a few steps towards his brother and glared into his eyes. "Do you really want to die BEFORE we fulfill our task?"

"What!? What do you mean "BEFORE"?" the other sibling asked with a raised eyebrow.

"WE ARE MURDERERS, WHITEMANE!" Blackmane shouted at the top of his lungs. "We killed all those innocent ponies and didn't even organize a proper burial for them! Such acts are not tolerated in Equestria! Princess Celestia herself ordered us not only expelled, but cast into the Everfree forest to find our deaths while trying to confront the slender pony! Now will you stop acting like you didn't know about this and just come with me?!" he yelled at his brother in a voice devoid of compassion.

The words of his own brother frightened Whitemane ever so greatly... He could not believe that instead of going to confront Slendy by his own mind, he was instead punished and sentenced to it by Celestia herself... And to think that his own brother would treat him like this -- the very same pony that swore to only ever raise his voice and hoof against those who would dare raise theirs against him... It was simply too much. "No..." Whitemane whispered after a long pause.

"Lets go, Whitemane! We haven't got all day!" his brother retorted, completely ignoring Whitemane's remark.

"No... NO! NO! NO!" Whitemane dropped on his knees and grabbed his temples. "This can't be true!"

"Am I gonna have to drag you there?" Blackmane said in an intimidating tone. "GET OVER HERE ALREADY! YOU'RE NOT MAKING THIS ANY EASIER!"

The memory seemed more and more implausible to Whitemane with each passing second, and he didn't seem to recall anything like this ever happening. However, he did remember his brother, and he KNEW that he would never say such awful things to him... He was always optimistic, even in the most hopeless moments. "This isn't real..." he whispered while glaring at his brother with clenched teeth.

"What!?"

"YOU'RE NOT REAL!"

"Whitemane, what are you--"

"SHUT UP!" Whitemane covered his ears and shouted. "DON'T TALK TO ME! YOU'RE NOT MY BROTHER!"

"Don't be stupid, Whitemane..." Blackmane replied in a calm tone. "Now, I'm gonna give you one last chance to come peacefully, before I--"

"Before you WHAT?!"

Blackmane didn't answer and stood silent.

Whitemane took his silence as a sign of weakness. "HUH!? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO, HUH?! That's right! Nothing! Coz there's nothing you can do! Coz you're not real!"

"Whitemane..."

"I SAID SHUT UP! I'M NOT FALLING FOR YOUR TRICKS, SLENDY!" Whitemane closed his yes and started vigorously rubbing his head from both sides. "Gotta wake up. Gotta wake up! GOTTA... WAKE..."

"UP!" Whitemane woke up screaming and with sweat pouring down his temples. He began looking around himself and quickly realized that he was in the middle of a grassy field without anything of interest within eyeshot. "Phew... Just a dream." He wiped the sweat from his forehead. "I knew this wasn't going to be that simple... Slendy is still messing with my mind. I need to get out of here as fast as possible!" After another quick glance around him, he suddenly shouted out, "Damn it! Which way? I don't remember where I flew in from."

Whitemane didn't need long to figure it out, though. The obvious answer was right in front of him... or rather -- behind him. The scuff marks that his body left on the ground after crash landing made his direction obvious. "Right," he told himself as he got up and took off. He flew for days, just as he did back then.  Even then it wasn't easy making such a trip, and as time went on, it only got harder. The exhaustion from the countless hours of flying alone was unbearable, but with that combined with the sleepiness that Slendy was enforcing upon Whitemane...

"Must... keep... flying," he whispered whilst barely still drawing breath and shook his head. Shaking his head every now and then helped him stay awake longer. "Gotta be sure..." he began panting heavily between his sentences. "To collapse from...*pant pant* exhaustion... not...*pant pant* Sleepiness..." At this point, he didn't even have enough breath left in him to yawn. Oddly enough, his extreme level of exhaustion that caused him to pant every second helped him stay awake, seeings how he couldn't keep his eyes closed because of it.

Whitemane's wings soon failed him. He couldn't keep up his speed or altitude no matter how he tried. He began slowly descending while still doing what he could along the way to stay in the air for as long as possible... or at least lessen his speed of falling. It wasn't long before he finally slammed himself against the ground. He couldn't move his wings, so he kept crawling forward while he still could, but that did not last long at all... as time itself started moving slower in front of his eyes,  he finally drew his final breath of air after an amount of time that seemed like an eternity to him, but actually lasted less than a full minute. This time he let the sleep claim him without any fear. For he knew that it was not from sleepiness, but from sheer exhaustion.

He did the best he could in repeating his escape and had no fear of falling asleep. For even if this was not the right way to leave this part of his mind and advance to another, then he simply had no clue of how else to accomplish such a feat... At least this way he got to go down fighting -- just like he had always wanted.

All that was left to do now... was hope.