Slender Pony

"AAAAAGH!" Whitemane exclaimed and covered his ears, hoping it would lessen to noise in his head. It was so loud that it wouldn't even let him fly straight, let alone think. He couldn't even properly hear what were  the words in his head. The echoing continued and only grew louder, eventually causing Whitemane to collapse. Whitemane's brain just sort of stopped operating from the massive noise. He fell unconscious in midair. He could still see the sky above him as he fell towards the ground, but there was nothing he could do. Paralyzed seemed like the right word to describe his state.

Indeed it was, for as Whitemane reached the ground and his body slammed against it, his eyes remained open, and he did not feel a thing when he touched the ground. He just kept staring mindlessly up to the sky, unable to move a limb. Every part of his body was numb except his eyes, which he could not close even if he wanted to.

                                                                                         ***

The echoing soon faded away and he could hear again. His ears were the first part of his body to come alive, right before his brain. Then he slowly started processing the noises around him... He heard so many wonderful things. He heard all of his friends around him. He heard the birds, the ponies gossiping in the streets, the sound of pegasi dashing over his head.

Then he could feel his nose and started sniffing the air, and it felt wonderful. It felt as if though there was a basket of strawberries right besides him, as well as a bucket of flowers on his other side. He then saw the sun hitting its most brightest point in the sky. Its light would drive any other pony blind if they stared at it as long as Whitemane did, but luckily for him, his shades were still on. But even if so, he still wanted to close his eyes, for the sun's brightness pierced through them, but he couldn't.

Why did nopony come to help him get up after seeing him fall from such a large height? He wondered and soon got his answer.

"Whitemane?"

He heard the voice of a familiar mare calling his name. He felt her touching his foreleg, trying to help him up. Who was this mare, he did not yet know, but he wanted to find that out, more than anything.  Is this... Home? he asked himself Is it all over?... Am I finally back? he wondered. The warm touch of the mare beside him was all he needed to start feeling again. He felt reborn. He got up to get a closer look at his savior, but at the mere blink of an eye, she was gone... and so was everything else. The sounds of the birds, the gossip, the pegasi over his head, the smell of flowers and strawberries, The sunshine, the clouds, The green grass and blue sky...

He was right about one thing -- This was home... but it wasn't over yet. The skies were black without a single cloud in sight. The grass looked more like the fields on a rock farm, and the houses were deserted. There was no doubt now that this was the last place he was in before he faced Slender pony, for it was the darkest town he had seen so far. He realized one thing now -- the deeper he goes into slender pony's lair, the darker it gets.

"I wonder who... AAAGGGH!!" He covered his ears again as the echoing started coming back. It was nowhere near as loud as last time and faded much sooner, but it still wouldn't let him keep a clear mind. Slendy had put a curse on him. Every time he tried to think, the echoing would come back and prevent him from doing so. Since the words weren't so loud now, Whitemane could make out what he was hearing.

"You are your own worst enemy, Whitemane!"

He didn't even need to think to realize what that meant. He also realized that this must mean that Slendy is losing her grip on him if she had to resort to such a thing as a curse. Each time he tried to think he ended up in the same position -- holding his ears to try lessen the noise in his head, and so Whitemane just pressed on, finally able to properly inspect his surroundings now that his mind was no longer puzzled by any thoughts. His first course of action was following the direction from which he heard the mare's voice coming from. For all he knew, it might lead to a memory involving her. He followed the path until he came across a fork in the road.

He knew not which way to go, and he couldn't exactly stop to think either, but something caught his attention before he could decide which way to go. He thought he saw a purple pony's tail disappearing behind one of the buildings. He instantly assumed that might be the same memory trying to show him a sign and followed it.

He flew towards it quickly, but there was no sight of it after going around the corner. Nevertheless, the right way was clear now, so he kept following the path. He soon came across something of a clearing and a lone, tall-standing, very fancy-looking building. It seemed to be a bit isolated from the rest of the buildings of the town.  Whitemane recognized the building. "Rarity's boutique," he said in a satisfied manner.

That's about as much as he could say without hurting his mind. He flew towards the building and went inside. No thinking was needed to see that the pony living here was one who loves fashion and always tries to look fancy and walk in style. Whitemane remembered Rarity and her sister, Sweetie Belle as he walked around the house. He even remembered her voice and knew that it was nothing like the voice of the mare that tried to help him earlier.

There wasn't much for him to see here. He never really visited Carousel Boutique all that often since him and Rarity -- despite having a friendly relationship -- often didn't quite see eye to eye. He proceeded towards the exit, making a quick stop by one of the mirrors in the house. He looked at  his own reflection. It seemed as if though he was about to ask himself a question, but then something else caught his attention. He saw The silhouette of a pony skipping by behind him in the mirror.

"Who's there?!" he exclaimed, and quickly turned around, but there was nothing there.  He heard the door squeak as it closed after someone leaving. Could this be the pony  that tried to help him earlier? He dashed outside just in time to see the pony's tail disappearing behind a corner and flew after it. This time the tail seemed more like pink than purple. A large, pink building that almost looked edible was the sight that appeared before his eyes right after he went around the corner. "Sugarcube corner... Heh."

Sugarcube corner had barely any color left in it. It was nowhere near as pink as it once seemed... Might have just been the dark skies affecting his vision, but Whitemane saw that that was not true, for it looked just as gray on the inside as it did on the outside. "Pinkie Pie..." he spoke out the name that he had just remembered. "She used to love every corner of this sugar-coated funhouse." He hung his head in sorrow. "Good thing she's not here to see how dark it looks now."

He walked around the building, checking the cupboards, shelves and even the fridge in naive hopes of finding something tasty. He remembered Mr. and Mrs. Cake as well, not just Pinkie Pie, but none of their voices sounded like the one he heard earlier. He couldn't stand in one place thinking for long. He got what he came for here, and had to reluctantly move on. He turned around and saw somepony leaving the building. "WAIT!" he shouted.

That, however, didn't cause the pony to slow down. Yet again Whitemane found himself in a wild goose chase for memories, following some mysterious ghost pony... Who knows if it was a good or a bad omen. For a brief moment, he got the idea to stop following the pony... However, the next sight he witnessed erased that idea completely.

The door opened again, and a purple hoof was the only thing Whitemane saw appear from the gap in the door. The mysterious pony did not reveal the rest of its body, however, it was most certainly clear that this was not the hoof of Slendy. The hoof gave a sign to Whitemane to follow it shortly before disappearing and shutting the door. A purple tail, then a pink one, then a purple hoof... what is one to make of all this? Whitemane, unfortunately, could not stop to think and decided to follow it to the end, after all. He jumped outside and tried to spot the ghost pony but couldn't see it anywhere.

"Damn... What now?"

                                                                                           ***

There wasn't really much choice where to go at this point, so he decided to leave Sugarcube Corner behind himself and go in the direction he would have went in had he not spotted the building in the first place. He flew straight forward and passed quite a few house of the town, but he still could not find the ghost pony anywhere. He did see something strange ahead of him, though. The shape seemed to resemble a big tree that was growing within the boundaries of the town for some reason. "Huh... must be some  kind of sacred tree or something."

As he got closer to it, the shape became clear to him -- it was actually somepony's home. "Why would somepony want to live in a tree?" he asked himself. The echoing returned as he tried to think, but it seemed much weaker than before. In fact, he did not even find the need to cover his ears this time. However, thinking straight was still damn near impossible. If earlier the echoing caused him to go numb and lose his balance, then now it barely even made him dizzy for a second.

After giving his body a vigorous shake, he ditched the headache regained his former state. "I guess I'll have to find that out by myself." He walked closer to the entrance and gazed upwards, right before entering. "I gotta admit, though. That is one big-flank tree."  Surprisingly enough, this door did not squeak at all as he opened it. A quick look at the shelves stuffed with books reminded Whitemane of the owner of the house. Ahh, of course. Twilight's library. How could I forget... lolz

He walked around the room and stared at some of the books for a while. He figured that some of these might be able to help him, but he had neither the time nor the clear mind to simply start reading now. After a quick circle around the room, he proceeded upstairs, to Twilight's bedroom. He remembered her assistant, Spike after seeing his tiny bed. He did not stay upstairs for long. There was just one more detail that caused him to hesitate as he walked past Twilight's bed. Heh... Deserted for years, and yet it still looks as if though she was here to keep things tidy.

The first thought he had after walking outside was taking a deep breath of fresh air, but the air here made it feel like he was breathing the same air, over and over again... Just cycling through his own handful of air reserves ever since he got here. "Damn, am I going to be glad to breathe fresh air again after... IF this ends." The grim look of the town saddened him as he looked over everything once again... The buildings... The grass... The sk...

"What in the?" he asked with a raised eyebrow as he gazed upwards. The sky itself was just as black as it was before, but right there, just barely hanging in the sky above Twilight's library was a big white cloud... Was Equestria slowly returning to its former look? Is Slendy's curse truly coming to and end?...Is this the beginning of her end? Either way, Whitemane felt joy as he saw the one white cloud in a pitch black sky. He flew towards it simply because he felt like remembering what the life before all this occurred felt like.

He reached the cloud, grabbed it and started climbing it, but freaked out about something as he reached top of it. Something freaked him out so badly that he lost his grip of the cloud and fell down. However, the fall did not hurt. He sat there staring at the cloud for quite a while... No matter how impossible it might have seemed, he knew what he saw...

After another short moment, the sound of a tired yawn came from the cloud and he saw a pony stretching its hooves over the edges of the cloud. After that, the pony gazed down towards Whitemane. The two ponies stared directly at each other, and the blue pegasus with the rainbow-colored mane simply giggled at the dumb look on Whitemane's face.

"Rainbow Dash?..."

He did not get an answer to that. The pegasus simply left her cloud and flew upwards to the black sky and started kicking the clouds. Whitemane could still do nothing but only gaze at her in awe... Deep inside, he knew he was overjoyed to finally see a friendly face. So overjoyed that he could only sit and stare as the sky turned from black to blue as Rainbow Dash did what she was born to do. After she cleared an opening in the sky, she flew down to Whitemane and helped him get up.

"Come on, you slowpoke," she said and flew back up to the sky. Whitemane followed her after a few seconds. They both flew through the opening in the sky, and Rainbow Dash then pointed at something, directing Whitemane's attention towards it.

"Wooooaaaahh..." With eyes wide open from sheer awe, Whitemane stared at the magnificent sky city of Cloudsdale. All of this came so suddenly, he couldn't finish cheering for one thing when the next one was already there, and more just kept coming. The next thing to catch his attention was the trail that the Wonderbolts left behind themselves after dashing over his head, and right after that, the next thing... Another familiar voice coming behind him.

"Whitemane?"

"That voice!" There was no doubt in his mind now. The soft, gentle, angelic voice he had just heard was the very same one that he heard upon his arrival to this part of his memory. He turned around as he recognized the voice of the mare that was the first one to find him. "Fluttershy!" he exclaimed in an overjoyed tone.

"Oh, umm..." The shy pegasus broke eye contact and crossed her forelegs behind her back. "I'm not interrupting you, am I? If I am, I can just come back later..." Her eyes then met with those of the young pegasus who was still just gazing at her with that dumb grin on his face. "If not, then... Would you be so kind as to follow me? If you're not busy that is... There's something I  would like to show you." Fluttershy flew through the opening in the sky, back towards the ground. Whitemane did not hesitate to follow her, especially since Rainbow Dash had already gone back to taking a nap on her lone cloud in the sky.

Along the way, Whitemane started thinking to himself. I remember once promising to be a guardian angel for Fluttershy... now it seems as though our roles have changed... The grin on his face grew even wider as he suddenly realized something. HA! I can think straight again! The echoing has nearly faded completely, and it seems like my memories are coming back to me by themselves... Slendy's grip on my mind must be weakening more and more. Now it seems like she's just barely still holding on and her grip is slipping away with each second.

Whitemane had already arrived at Fluttershy's cottage before he could finish his thought. He landed on the grass which was now just as green and soft as the sky was blue and majestic... Equestria was slowly regaining its former beauty. "What was it that you wanted to show me, Fluttershy?" he asked upon entering the cottage.

"OH!" Fluttershy suddenly exclaimed. "That can wait. Applejack wants to see you... I think it's urgent. She's at the town's market right now. I think you'd better hurry," she suggested in a tone so gentle that it seemed impossible to refuse.

Applejack? Whitemane remembered that Applejack was one of the last ponies he saw before the incident with Slendy. All of this might be over sooner than I think... My memories are coming back to me like wildfire. He nodded and did just as Fluttershy suggested.

"Oh! And, umm, please, do come back later..." Fluttershy stared at the floor and scuffed her hoof on it. "if you want to, that is... If you have the time... Bye!" she shouted right as Whitemane reached the door.

Fluttershy went off to feed her animals. As Whitemane took a glance at her animals, he noticed the one pet that he had hoped to one day see in a bowl of rabbit soup... Angel bunny. "Heh... not the best memory."

Whitemane left Fluttershy's cottage and set a quick course for the town market. Along the way, he stopped in midair to bear witness to the beautiful sights around him... Everything was just like in the vision he saw earlier at this very same point -- streets crowded with ponies, green grass, blue skies, pegasi dashing by... and the air was more than just fresh... Strawberries and flowers... He was about to sink into a day dream from the mesmerizing scent, but he quickly remembered that he was not here for that. Right... gotta focus... It's not over yet! he reminded himself. He tried to spot Applejack in the crowd, but it was no easy task, given how many ponies there were in the market at that moment.

"Applebloom! Get back here!" a voice suddenly yelled.

Whitemane spotted Applejack after hearing her voice and the looked towards the Everfree forest and saw Applebloom running towards it. "This is just the way I remember..." Whitemane whispered to himself. He knew exactly what had to be done now. "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 just as fast as he did in his memory. Each step now brought him closer and closer to his destination, and the path was just the same as it was before -- he had to land and start running after her, just as he did in the first place. The forest kept getting darker and darker as he ventured forward.

So, it's finally all coming down to this again... he told himself as the last blanks in his memory started filling up. Everything... every bush, every branch, everything is like Deja vu for me. Only a small portion of my memory is still blank. Slendy's holding on to my mind with but the edge of her tail... I wonder what happens when I find her... How do I actually break free from her grip completely? How do I break these chains? How do I stop this curse, once and for all?

He spotted the flashlight on the ground. I guess I'll find out soon enough... Not much further now. Whitemane followed Applebloom's tracks into the deepest part of the Everfree forest.  Everything was just the way it was before... Well, everything apart one thing... Instead of the giant tree in the middle of the forest with the page on it, there was the slender pony herself. Whitemane looked behind him and noticed the gate popping up behind him again, and he also felt his wings getting stiff. There was nowhere to run... but he did not even think of running this time.

Whitemane stood there staring at her with about as much fear in his eyes as slender pony had in her's... They stared at each other for quite a while, but eventually Slender pony took a step forward. An unwelcome visitor was in her forest and she had to get rid of him. She took one step after another, drawing closer to Whitemane with each second, but he did not budge at all. She was already close enough to Whitemane. As close to him as she was to most of her victims when she would start draining their minds, but her methods had no effect on Whitemane. He stood fearless. It almost seemed like the only reason why he couldn't fly was because he did not want to. He then said something that caused Slendy to cease her advance.

"Have you forgotten what I wrote on my page?"

She dared not take another step forward after that... never had she faced one immune to all her tricks before. She had no more control over his mind. His memories were that which was keeping her in control of him, and now she had nothing left with what to sustain herself.

"I've come back for that which is rightfully mine!"

Their roles had changed now -- Whitemane was the one to take a step forward now. A slow step, just one, but that did not cause her to react. Then he took another step. Two more and it would mean stepping on  her hooves, but one more was all that was needed. Whitemane realized that his moment of triumph has come as he saw Slender pony take a step back. "Fear... Funny thing, ain't it?" He started taunting the slender pony. "Tell me... How does your own medicine taste?"

He mocked her as he kept walking forward, forcing her to back up. His walking turned to running after another brief moment, and the giant tree was right behind Slendy. She had nearly no room left to keep backing up, and it looked as though she was about to trip. Whitemane knew that it was either now or never.

"TIME FOR YOU TO WRITE A PAGE!" He let out a furious shout as he pounced towards her... This was the real moment of truth. Right here and now. Slender pony was within his grasp now and he had nothing to fear, but he still could not keep his eyes open as he did so. He simply hoped that he would be free of this curse as he opened them. At the mere blink of an eye, Slender pony was gone... vanished without a trace of existence... Whitemane, howeve,r did not see her vanish into thin air, or even feel it. All he felt was him making contact with the big tree.

He slowly opened his eyes, backed off the giant tree and started gazing around himself. He did not see Slender pony anywhere, and the gate was no longer there. He did not even need a flashlight to see that now... The forest suddenly just all felt so bright. One thing was still quite peculiar, though. The page on the tree was still there, but Whitemane was too overjoyed to think about such a minor detail right now. He laughed out loud and long, celebrating his major victory.

"She's...gone... It's over... HA HA HA! IT'S OVER! I'M FREEEEEE!!! THE CURSE HAS BEEN LIFTED!!" He kept jumping around and yelling the same phrases over and over again for some time. When he was done celebrating, the first thought he had was running back to the town to see if the fillies in the hospital were now awake as well. Running was not necessary, as he could now easily fly through the forest. It was brighter than on any summer's day

He reached the town in just a few minutes and stopped to look at it from the bushes before revealing himself. His joy was multiplied when he saw one of the fillies that was a victim of Slendy's curse now freely walking through the streets of Ponyville. Whitemane laughed in joy once more before jumping out of the forest. He started walking towards the town and waited to be greeted as a hero...

But the response of the first mare to see him was nothing like what he had expected...

                                                                                           ***

The mare didn't stare at him for long. With eyes wide open from terror, she started backing away while pointing her hoof at him.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" The mare screamed, attracting the attention of the ponies around her, who had the same reaction after seeing Whitemane. It wasn't long before the entire town started rampaging through the streets of the town, screaming, panicking, running and bumping  into anything in their way as they looked back to make sure Whitemane wasn't near them.

Whitemane just stood there staring at what he could not explain in any way. He was completely stunned by the reaction of the ponies. The streets of the town were now empty, and all the windows were shut tight. After a few minutes of staring, Whitemane started walking through the street of the town. He walked while looking at each and every house around him. All he could sometimes see were ponies peeking at him behind blinds and shutting them as he gazed towards them.

Has Slendy turned me into a ghost? Was one of the first thoughts that came to his mind. What else could be causing such a freak out? Even as a ghost, somepony might recognize him and maybe not be so frightened. Whitemane took a glance at one of the windows again. A few mares were peeking at him and became pale from fear and immediately closed the curtains when he looked towards them.

One of the mares managed to encourage the other to peek again to see if he was gone, which she did. Whitemane was not gone, however. On the contrary -- she saw him staring directly at her. The mare nearly fainted. They both backed far away from the window and hid in a closet. Whitemane just kept staring at the window with wide eyes and an open mouth... It was not the mares that interested him... It was his reflection. It frightened him about as much as he frightened the mares. He started backing away from the window.

"No... NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! THAT CAN'T BE TRUE!" he reiterated and grabbed his head in a panicking state. He thought for a moment that he was still dreaming, but the thought did not last long... He fell to his knees and let out a loud scream, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" After which he fell down to the ground and burst in tears. "This isn't happening... This can't be true." Some of the ponies peeking at him got curious of his behavior.

"The page... THAT PAGE! I got to go back!" he said to himself and got up quickly and darted back towards the Everfree forest, leaving the ponies in the town utterly confused. As he flew on, he couldn't stop thinking about that page he saw back at the forest before he left. That was the only thought in his mind. He reached the spot soon and stopped at the tree while gazing at the page on it... His fears were true. That was indeed, not the same page he saw the first time he arrived here. The signature at its bottom reminded him of his last words to Slender pony.

"TIME FOR YOU TO WRITE A PAGE!"

He ripped the page off the tree, still unable to believe what was going on. He gazed at it for a long time, until the moment his hooves got numb from holding it and it simply slipped out of his hooves and slowly levitated to the ground... but he still stood there with his hooves held up as if he was still holding the page... He had just realized what had really happened. The contents of the page made him sure of it. They were written by the last victim of the slender pony...

"Just as a ship must always have a captain, so must this forest always have a slender pony... Good luck!"

                                                                                                                       The End?