Slender Pony

Months had passed since anypony had last seen or heard of Slender pony. Many still mourned over the disappearance of Whitemane, especially  Applebloom, Applejack and the rest of the main six. All the ponies knew that whatever it was that Whitemane did in there that day caused the fillies and foals to awaken and make Slender pony cease her attacks. Many will remember him as a hero and now tell his legend as well any time they tell the legend of Slender pony... Only now they knew that it was no legend.

The parents finally thought it was safe to let their children walk freely in the streets, but some still kept them indoors, saying that, "That's just what Slender pony wants us to think! As soon as she sees that we have let our children walk freely again, she'll start another series of kidnapping!"

Although most of the fillies and foals were glad to walk free again without fears, one filly still could not rest her mind so easily... Applebloom was the only one to ever see the Slender pony up close, and not just once, and something seemed strange to her when she saw her again, here in town... It just didn't seem like the same Slender pony she saw before.

                                                                                            ***

Applebloom was right about one thing, but she had no idea what had actually become of Slender pony. The spirit of slender now dwells in a different body. Over the months, Whitemane realized more and more about the curse of Everfree forest as he sat in the middle of his forest thinking about it all... For that was all he could do.

His head hurt more and more with each passing day. His memories deceived him -- they did not disappear, but they kept becoming corrupt and unreal. Instead of the good times he had in his childhood, he remember nothing but awful nightmares. His mind got more and more corrupt every day, he now knew why Slender pony had to kidnap all the young ones -- their memories are pure and beautiful. They're the only thing that can sustain the Slender spirit from completely taking over his body.

Whitemane resisted as long as he could, but he knew that eventually it would grab hold of him... He would cry if he could, for he now knew that he had not accomplished anything by defeating the Slender pony, but merely delayed the inevitable. He felt pathetic like that, not being able to do anything. Not even tell anypony about his torment, as he was the only one that could hear his own voice now.

As the corruption started taking over even larger portions of his mind, he suddenly had the craving to visit Ponyville every now and then. He sort of tried to train himself to resist the temptation by looking at the young ponies of Ponyville from afar and not going any closer. Part of his mind wished ever so greatly to snatch one up, but whatever was still left of the real Whitemane in there did not allow it to do so. He repeated the same action for a few days until he got noticed. A young filly stared at him for a while, and she knew he was staring right back at her. However, she did not scream or run.

Whitemane fled back to the depths of his forest immediately and just sat there as if nothing had happened, just as he always did -- with his head hanging low and his hooves wrapped around his knees. He sat without making a move for hours every day. He just did not see the point of anything anymore. It's only a matter of time now... The only thought in his mind now was to go and scare the ponyfolk before he turns completely, so that they would at least expect the kidnapping to start once more and be ready for it.

"Hello?"

He heard someone calling out... He recognized the voice -- it was the same filly that was staring at him not so long ago. "No... NO, NO, NO!" He felt the slender spirit taking over him. The gate appeared behind the filly and she had nowhere left to run. "No, Applebloom! Why are you here!? You need to get out of here, NOW!" He knew she could not hear his voice. He got up and turned around, and here they were again -- staring at each other. Whitemane struggled hard not to pounce at her. The slender spirit tried to take a step forward and Whitemane tried to take a step back, which left the two minds at an impasse, unable to move at all.

"Whitemane?" the filly whispered.

"She recognized me..." Whitemane told himself "I don't know if that's a good sign or not." Whitemane had a page with him. Since he could not move, he instead wrote and threw the page over to Applebloom. The words on it were large in size and there was no mistaking the content.

"YOU NEED TO LEAVE, NOW!"

"I... I don't understand, Whitemane..." the filly replied with much grief in her eyes. "Why?... What... What happened to you?"

Applebloom's sad look gave Whitemane enough strength for the moment. He forced the gate behind her to disappear and pointed towards the way out of this place. Applebloom, however, did not want to leave. She instead took a step forward, to which Whitemane quickly responded by holding his hoof out and pointing towards her as if saying "STOP!" He collapsed to his knees. He could barely resist the temptation. Applebloom saw him suffering and wanted nothing more than to help him. Whitemane knew that and so he wrote one more page and threw it to her.

"Please..."

Applebloom started crying after seeing Whitemane's torment. She wanted to come closer, but after she heard a metallic noise behind her and looked back, she reconsidered... Pieces of the gate behind her were reappearing. Whitemane was at the edge of his sanity. He looked up at Applebloom with a look on his face that you could almost read... Every part of him was screaming "RUN!"

And finally Applebloom responded and ran away, just before the last piece of the gate sealed itself behind her. She ran fast and didn't look back.

"Run... Run as fast as you can, Applebloom... I'll come for you soon..."

                                                                                                                      ***

Meanwhile, back at Ponyville, Applejack was talking to Twilight.

"Hey, Twilight? Have ya seen my sister Applebloom today?"

"Yes... Yes I have," Twilight replied while staring behind Applejack with wide eyes.

"Really? Where?"

Twilight pointed behind Applejack. When she turned around, she saw her sister running towards them with her eyes full of tears.

"Applebloom! Where have ya been?" she asked in a scolding manner.

Applebloom did not say a word. She just ran up to her sister and locked her hooves around her.

"Hey, now... What's the matter, Sugarcube?" She comforted her sister.

"It's Whitemane..."

                                                                                         ***

Back at Twilight's library, the three ponies spent some time talking. Mostly listening to Applebloom as she told them everything.

"Well, now... That sure is... something..." Twilight rubbed the back of her head. "Are you sure it was him?"

"I'm positive!" Applebloom quickly replied.

"But how do you know that for so sure?"

"I just know!"

"But ho--"

"I JUST DO!" Applebloom yelled, interrupting Twilight and leaving both her and Applejack silent for a moment. "You weren't there to see him... I was."

"You're darn lucky to have gotten out of there safe and sound, I'll give ya that..." Applejack scolded her. "But even if what you say is true, what can we do about it? Ah don't think even Twilight's magic could release Whitemane from such a curse."

"She's right, Applebloom... I know nothing about curses," Twilight regrettably admitted.

All three ponies frowned and hung their heads.

"So... what?" Applebloom said with a frustrated look on her face. "Are we just gonna give up on him?"

"I never said that," Twilight replied. "My magic might not be strong enough to handle such things, but I think I know somepony who might know a bit more about these things..." Twilight turned around and picked up a quill and parchment in her magic and levitated them over to her assistant. "Spike, take a letter. To the princess."

"Yes, Ma'am!" Spike replied and grabbed the two objects, ready to begin writing.

Twilight had Spike send a letter to Celestia, requesting an urgent meeting. Luckily, the princess was not busy at the moment and sent a flying carriage for her. Twilight reached Canterlot soon enough and told Celestia everything about their grim situation.

"This is indeed an urgent matter..." Celestia said in a stern manner. "But what makes you think that I can help you?"

"I..." Twilight stuttered. "I just thought that--"

"Twilight..." the princess interrupted. "The well being of you and your friends is vital for me, but I'm afraid you're going to have to seek help elsewhere for this matter."

"But where!?" Twilight asked with a touch of despair in her tone. "Where can I find help if not even the almighty Celestia can aid me?"

"Oh, I think you already know, Twilight..." Celestia replied slyly, confusing her prized student in the process.

"Huh? I don't..."

"Twilight... The slender spirit is a resident of the realm of nightmares."

Authors note: I am SO sorry about this. I used to have an old story called "The realm of nightmares" on my fimfiction page. (now deleted coz it was just plain horrible ) I ended up using a part of that story in this story. Very basically -- Twilight borrowed a book called "The realm of nightmares" from Zecora and ignored her warnings about it so her nightmares started coming to life, bla bla bla, in the end she confronted the master of the realm of nightmares. (called the nightmare spirit) She won and banished the spirit from the body it was possessing. (which was a former student of princess Celestia -- Sunwell Dawnstar) Due to reasons I can't explain, Celestia chose to conceal him after he was released from the evil possessing him and simply told Twilight that he was lost in the process of the nightmare spirit's banishment... Again, I am REALLY sorry about this.

Twilight gasped and her eyes widened. "But... That means..."

Celestia handed Twilight a sealed document. "This will grant you permission to take the book... Now go, Twilight! Your friend needs you!"

Twilight nodded and quickly ran back to her carriage and flew back to Ponyville. By the time she got back, the rest of her friends had shown their concern for Whitemane by joining Applejack and Applebloom at Twilight's library to wait for her. They saw her land and thought she was about to come back to them, but what happened instead left them a bit puzzled. She ran in the opposite direction -- Right into the Everfree forest.

"What in tarnation?!" Applejack raised her eyebrow. "Twilight's runnin' away! She's going after Whitemane all by herself!"

"WHAT!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "We can't let her do that!"

"You're darn right we can't! Lets go girls!"

Applebloom, her older sister and the rest of Twilight's friends started running after her, but by the time they got to the entrance of the Everfree forest, Twilight was already coming out of the forest carrying a large book.

"Ah, you're all here! Perfect!" Twilight rejoiced.

"What, where, how, when?" Applejack asked in a bewildered state.

"There will be plenty of time for questions later, but right now we need to get back to the library, and I do mean NOW!" Twilight insisted and ran past all of her friends.

The ponies shared a series of confused looks between themselves after seeing Twilight run off.

"What was that all about?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"No clue... but I guess we'd better go find out," Applejack suggested and led the rest of the ponies back towards Twilight's library.

Back at her library, Twilight didn't hesitate to place the book she was carrying on the table. Seeing it inspired a feeling of uneasiness in her friends.

"T-Twilight... That's the..." Applejack gulped loudly.

"I know, Applejack, but listen! I know this book is dangerous, but right now it's the only way to help Whitemane," Twilight explained.

"But how!?" Applejack asked, still unconvinced by Twilight's words "How can a book so evil help for a good cause?"

"Simple! The spirit that cursed Whitemane is one of the residents of the realm of nightmares, and this book might help us send him back to his realm," Twilight gave a reply that seemed obvious to her.

"I don't know, Twilight..." Applejack nervously replied. "You know what happened last time you used this book. Slender pony kidnapping our young ones is trouble enough, but combine that with the grown up ones getting trapped in the realm of nightmare... That might just doom the entire town"

"That won't happen!" Twilight stomped her hoof on the ground. She seemed convinced about her idea being right. "The spirit that dwelt in the realm has been dealt with... The book is much safer now."

The rest of Twilight's friends still didn't look too eager to comply, but for Whitemane's sake, they were willing to take the risk.

"Ah hope you know what you're doing, Twilight."

"I hope so, too, Applejack..."

Twilight opened the book and started slowly turning the pages, one after another, looking for one that might have something written in it about the slender pony. As she turned the pages, the room suddenly felt a lot colder, and a few ponies even got goosebumps. Nopony was really convinced about this. Finally, Twilight stopped at one page.

"I think I found it..." Twilight declared. "The Slender spirit." Twilight started reading the contents of the page out loud, "The slender spirit cares not whether its victim is one of its own kind or not. All it needs is a host to carry out its bidding. Even the sinister creatures of the realm of nightmare found this spirit to be a threat to their realm, and so the nightmare spirit had this creature expelled to Equestria."

"That's just the legend!" Rainbow Dash shouted out of impatience. "We need something to help us get rid of it!"

"I'm looking! Be patient ,please, Rainbow!" Twilight retorted and continued reading, "The Slender spirit claims its victims by making them fear it. That's its only weapon -- fear. Once inside a host, the spirit consumes their memories, corrupting the sanity of its victims and leaving nothing but am empty shell forced to do its bidding. Only the memories of the young and pure can sustain the sanity of the host and keep their memories pure, but not for long. The spirit eventually tries to take over, again and again. As long as there are memories to feed on, it will not stop."

"Still nothing important..."

"Keep reading!"

"If by chance the host of the Slender spirit is destroyed, the spirit would jump into the host that destroyed its previous host."

"That explains what happened to Whitemane!" Applebloom interjected. "But we still don't know how to free him of the spirit."

"There must be more here, I know it!" Twilight turned another page and began thoroughly inspecting the next one. "Hmm..."

"What is it, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.

"That's all there was written about the Slender spirit by the original author of the book, but here's an entry by an anonymous author. It might have something to do with it."

"Better than nothing..." Applejack added. "Lets hear it!"

Twilight started reading the entry, "My friend got taken by the Slender spirit... it matters not now who he was before. He's nothing but a lifeless soul thief now. He was still himself for about three months until the Slender spirit took total control over him." Twilight paused for a moment. "Applebloom!" she suddenly exclaimed and turned towards the filly. "When did you first see Whitemane as the slender pony?"

"About three months ago... Why?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Then by now he must already be at the very edge of his sanity..." Twilight frowned. "You really were lucky to have gotten away unscathed today, Applebloom..."

"There has to be more!" Rainbow Dash insisted "We can't give up yet!"

"There is! Please, don't rush me!" Twilight retorted. "I know we haven't got much time, but please, Rainbow Dash! I need a clear mind for this!"

Rainbow Dash didn't say a thing. She simply crossed her forelegs and pouted.

"Thank you..." Twilight kept reading, "However! The minds of the young ones can sustain his sanity... Not for long, though. From what I've seen, the spirit gets hungry again after a maximum of 3 days... Hmm," Twilight paused again, but none of her friends felt like interrupting her again. "That's it at this entry, but I see another one with the same hoofwriting!" Twilight began reading the next entry, "HA! I got it! I know how to get rid of the spirit! If the host is destroyed, then the spirit must jump into the host that destroyed it, but what if it gets destroyed by, say... a random disaster? A falling chunk of metal? An arrow... something.. .ANYTHING! Anything that doesn't have a soul! I got you now, Slendy!" Twilight stopped reading and stood silent for some time.

"What is it, Twilight?"

"There are no more entries by the same author... Whatever happened, I don't think he succeeded."

                                                                                ***

The ponies hung their heads in despair. For a few minutes, nopony dared to say a thing until Rainbow Dash finally broke the silence.

"So... that's it? We're just gonna do nothing?"

"Seems like it..." Twilight regrettably admitted. "Best we can do now is hope a big tree falls on him."

"How can you even say that!?" Rainbow Dash yelled, shocked by Twilight's lack of faith. "There's always hope!"

"Is there!?" Twilight snapped back at her. "Coz I don't see it! Even the realm that created it didn't know how to get rid of it!" Twilight paused for a moment, but then her face suddenly got lit up. "Wait a minute... That's it!"

"What is?"

"They banished it! They didn't know how to destroy it, so they banished it! All we need to do now is send it back!"

"You make it sound like that's going to be easy..." Rainbow Dash said in a tone lacking amusement.

"Well, it's a start, at least... You got any better ideas?" she asked while glaring at Rainbow.

"No," Rainbow Dash answered while avoiding Twilight's reproachful stare. "Eh, I guess it's better than nothing." She shrugged.

"Indeed," Twilight agreed. "Now, if you could just let me THINK, maybe we could actually make something of this!" After the harsh rebuke, Twilight sat down and began rubbing her chin while Rainbow Dash only crossed her forelegs and stuck out her tongue at Twilight. As if having eyes in her back, Twilight instantly turned around and glared at the pegasus that was now waving at her with a sheepish grin on her face. Ignoring Rainbow's gesture, Twilight turned back to thinking. "Hmm..."

"Got anything?" Applejack curiously inquired.

"At first I thought that if we were to send it back, then what's to stop it from being sent back here again? But then I remembered that it was the nightmare spirit that sent it here, and it no longer exists! So if we were to actually send the spirit back, then it would actually stay there for good!"

"That seems logical," Applejack approved the notion.

"See! I told you it's not hopeless! We just need to keep tying up the loose ends! Think, ponies, think!"

"Rainbow Dash is right, everypony. I'm sure we can come up with something if we put our heads together..." Twilight noticed Pinkie Pie slowly leaning towards her with a wide grin on her lips. "Don't give me that look, Pinkie. I didn't mean that literally."

"Aww..." Pinkie frowned.

All of the ponies started thinking while also subconsciously performing simple acts that helped them think, such as pacing or rubbing their chins.

"Hmm... AHA!" Twilight suddenly exclaimed.

"What is it, Twilight?"

"A spell! The nightmare spirit must have used a spell to banish the Slender spirit, and this book has a collection of all the shadow spells. I bet there's one for banishing spirits there."

"Good thinking, Twilight!"

Twilight turned the book to its last pages where all the spells were written down. Twilight drove her hoof down the page, looking for the right spell. Surprisingly enough, they were arranged alphabetically. "B, b, b, ba, banish... Banishment spell section! Found it! Page 357." Twilight turned the book to the said page and started looking through all the banishment spells. "White noise banishment... Earthshaker banishment... king of shadows banishment... Ah, here it is! Slender spirit banishment..." Just a few seconds after she started reading the spell, Twilight frowned in despair.

Applejack gulped loudly after seeing her grim expression. "I'm afraid to ask..."

"Only the one who sent the spirit here in the first place can send it back..." Twilight quietly replied.

everypony stood silent for a moment... At this point, they all were out of ideas... and hope.

"But that means..."

"There is nothing we can do for him, Applebloom..." Twilight looked at the frowning filly with much regret in her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"But... but isn't there always hope?"

"I wish there was, Applebloom..." Twilight hung her head and closed her eyes. "I wish there was." She closed the book and went upstairs.

"Where are you going?" Fluttershy inquired.

"To send a letter to Celestia."

"And what are you going to tell her?"

"That I've failed."

                                                                                                                    ***

Twilight disappeared upstairs, but she came back down soon afterwards with her head still hanging ever so low. All the ponies looked at each other with eyes full of dry tears and sorrow. No words needed to be said. Their faces alreadu told everything. They would have gone on like that for some time, but it was getting dark, and Rainbow Dash realized that there was no reason to prolong this meeting.

"So what do we do now?"

"Go home," Twilight replied impassively. "Tell the mayor, alarm the ponies of the town that the Slender attacks are going to continue." Twilight stopped near Applejack and looked into her eyes. "Take Applebloom home, Applejack, and hurry... It's not safe for her at this hour."

"I hear ya," she replied and started heading towards the exit while trying her best to hide her sadness. "Lets go, Applebloom."

All the ponies except Twilight started walking towards the exit with Applejack up front. She was about to open the door, but then they heard someone knocking. That really confused all of them.

"You expecting any guests, Twilight?"

"No," Twilight replied with a puzzled look on her face. "Especially at this hour... I wonder who could it be."

"Well, whoever it is, he's got some explaining to do." Rainbow Dash got irritated by the sudden knocking and opened the door to confront the visitor. All of a sudden, Twilight imagine that it could have been Whitemane behind that door and wanted to yell, "DON'T OPEN IT!" but it was too late. The door was open. However, the pony standing outside looked nothing like the slender pony... He was a white unicorn with a blue mane and tail and was nearly twice the size of any other pony in the room.

"Who in the blazes are you?!" Rainbow Dash interrogated the unwelcome guest.

The unicorn walked inside, ignoring Rainbow's yelling.

"HEY! I'm talking to you, buddy! Where do you think you're going?!"

As if deaf, the unicorn simply walked past every other pony in the room and walked straight up to Twilight. "Princess Celestia sends her regards, Twilight Sparkle." The unicorn bowed before Twilight. "I come bearing a gift of hope in this dark hour."

Twilight was both flattered and confused at the same time. "Who... Who are you?"

The unicorn smiled. "Strange... I thought you would have realized by now, judging by how much time you've spent staring at my cutie mark. I think you know quite well who I am."

"But... but it can't be..."

"Aah, yes, I probably should have mentioned this right away..." His smile suddenly turned a bit sheepish. "Princess Celestia might not have been completely honest with you on the day that the nightmare spirit was defeated," he explained. That, however, did nothing to lessen Twilight's confusion.

"But... Why would she hide you? I don't understand..."

The white unicorn paused for a moment and then replied with a warm smile, "Lets just say that she thought it was for the best... for everyone."

Twilight shook her head from the sudden and overwhelming revelation. "By Celestia... Then it really is so! You did survive! You Are Sunwell Dawnstar!" she exclaimed while pointing her hoof at the visitor.

The unicorn bowed before Twilight once again. "At your service."

"You... You were once the nightmare spirit. Does this mean that you can send the Slender spirit back from whence it came?" Twilight asked and nearly fainted after seeing Sunwell reply with a firm nod. "By Celestia..." Twilight was so excited she could barely stand on her hooves. She nearly collapsed, but Sunwell caught her before she reached the ground.

"Are you alright, Miss Twilight?" he asked in concern for her well being.

"More than ever, thank you... By Celestia, you really are a sight for sore eyes." Twilight blushed after realizing the spot she was in. She got back up on her hooves and cleared her throat to take everypony's eyes off of her cheeks. "Right... So, how do we do it then?"

Sunwell walked over to the table with the book on it and opened a page which appeared to be completely blank. Twilight remembered seeing this page before.

"This page... The only blank one in the book. Why is it blank?"

"This is the spell page. It's blank because there is no active spell currently placed on it. When the nightmare spirit banished the Slender spirit from the realm of nightmares, it used a light banishment spell on this page and made the Slender spirit's host look into it, so in order to send it back, we need to make it look at the same page, only with a shadow banishment spell on it instead."

"Sounds easy enough... So all we need to do now is--"

"Oh! I forgot to mention one thing." Sunwell interrupted. "The host of the Slender spirit needs to be awake. If he is completely controlled by the Slender spirit, then it will not look into the page... Only what's left of the host's sanity can force it to look into the page. And even if this ritual were to succeed, its effects could prove highly dangerous to the current host's life. There's no guarantee that we can save him AND banish the spirit."

"Gosh..." Twilight's expression lost its former confidence. "That might be a problem."

"Why is that?"

"According to the book, Whitemane would be completely taken over by the Slender spirit by now."

"Hmm...That is, indeed, a problem."

"No!" the youngest pony in the room shouted. "Whitemane's spirit is strong, I know it! He should still be sane right now!"

All of a sudden, a loud scream echoed through the streets of the town, making not only the still awake ponies in the library run outside, but also waking up half the town and making them pop out their heads from their windows to investigate the cause of it. They soon discovered that the cause was a panicking mare that kept running around and screaming.

"MY BABY! WHERE'S MY BABY!? SOMETHING TOOK MY BABY! HELP! HELP!"

The ponies stared at the desperate mare for a brief moment, after which Twilight looked into Applebloom's eyes with a nervous expression. "I don't think so, Applebloom..."

The moment of silence was soon interrupted again by Rainbow Dash. "What now!?"

Even Sunwell was out of ideas at this point. "I don't know..."

"I do!" Everypony directed their attention towards Twilight. "The book said that the minds of the young ones sustain the sanity of the host for a short period of time. If He just kidnapped some unfortunate child, then that means that right now Whitemane should be himself for a while!"

"By Celestia, She's Right!"  Sunwell approved of the notion. "We need to hurry. It's now or never! MOVE!"

                                                                                   ***

Back at the slender pony's domain, Whitemane had just regained some of his true memories... It felt good while it lasted, but he could not forgive himself long enough to even enjoy the memories. He grabbed his own head and began cursing himself. "NOOOO! This is wrong! WHY CAN'T I STOP!? DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU! DAMN YOOOOU!!!!" Before he could finish cursing himself, he was interrupted by the sound of eight pairs of hooves running towards him. "No....Applebloom! What have you done!?"

Applebloom took a few steps closer to him than the other ponies. "Whitemane, were here to help!"

Whitemane responded with a gesture that told her to back away and started backing away himself.

Applejack pulled her sister back. "He's not Whitemane yet, Sugarcube... You can't get too close to him."

Their words confused Whitemane. "Yet?!... What do they mean "Yet"?!"

Twilight tried to reason with him. "Whitemane! We know it's you! Were going to get you back!" She turned to Sunwell and told him to start casting the spell into the blank page of the book.

"Are you sure you want to do this? Remember what I said- there's no guarantee that he will survive this! Chances of it are rather slim!" Sunwell reminded.

"It's a risk we have to take!" Twilight answered with a confident look on her face and stomped her hoof. "It's either that or letting him roam here forever!"

"Understood." Sunwell nodded, opened the book and began chanting in an unknown language.

Twilight tried to reason with Whitemane again. "Whitemane! Were going to banish the Slender spirit from you! Were going to use a spell to send it back to the realm of nightmares. But..." Twilight paused and hung her head for a moment.

"But what?" Whitemane wondered. "What is this all about?"

Twilight read his expression. "There's no guarantee that you will survive the process... Are you willing to risk undergoing it anyway?" she asked in a compassionate tone.

"Is she actually even asking that?" Whitemane laughed. "Hah! Good one!" He wrote something on a page and threw it over to Twilight.

The emotion that engulfed her after reading the page could not be described by any known word.

"I would gladly embrace death myself rather than keep bringing it to the ones I love... A dead friend is better than a living abomination."

Her state was soon interrupted by Sunwell. "Miss Twilight Sparkle! The spell is ready!" Twilight could not say a word at the moment. It almost looked as though she was about to start crying. "Twilight?"

She looked up to Whitemane as if trying to ask for his last words, in case she'd never see him walking again. And Whitemane responded immediately by dropping on his knees and putting his two hooves together as if pleading for her to do this. She knew what had to be done. She turned to Sunwell and nodded, and he nodded back to her. He then started walking towards Whitemane while holding the book wide open. The page that was blank just a moment ago was now emitting a shroud of darkness.

"Whitemane, If you can hear me, look into the book!"

Whitemane did not hesitate to respond. He walked closer to the book and put his head near it. The darkness engulfed his head, and then his entire body, which caused him to shake vigorously. The ponies gazed at the horrid sight, wishing they could help him, but all they could do was sit and hold their breaths while hoping for the best. Every limb of Whitemane's body was shaking. It looked like the darkness had an effect on him which was similar to the effect of electricity. The sight continued on for quite some time, until finally...

"Look!" Applebloom pointed towards him as she noticed the darkness leaving the edges of his limbs. His blue coat was becoming visible again. First the limbs, and then the tail and mane, which actually only partially differed from how it looked. It was now part white, just as it was before. Whitemane's body was no longer shaking. Most of his limbs were already free from the darkness.

Every part of the darkness soon left his body completely. The book then closed and Whitemane collapsed to the ground without make a sound or move. The ponies were all holding their breaths now and all of them had the exact same thought in their minds, "Unconscious or dead?".

Applebloom was the first one to rush over to him, and no one dared to stop this time. The rest of them followed her right away. He wasn't breathing. The first sign of live was negative, so Sunwell placed his hoof on his chest to check if his heart was still beating, and the rest of the ponies awaited his response. None of them moved any more than Whitemane did.

After a few seconds, Sunwell lifted up his head, ready to give a verdict.

                                                                                    ***

The spark in everypony's eyes, as well as the hope in their hearts faded away instantly as Sunwell slowly shook his head. They all let their hooves down and started mourning for the loss... Well, All of them but one.

Strange how such a victory is at the same time such a defeat. The ponies tried to calm themselves and their friends, saying that this had to be done and that this was what he would have wanted, but that was simply not enough to rid them of their tears. It was truly a victory... a major one, but no major victories can come without a major sacrifice.

One riddle yet remained, though. The one pony that wasn't mourning... Who was it? If you guessed Sunwell, then you guessed wrong... It was Rainbow Dash. She remembered the story that Whitemane once told her, about how his village got accidentally purged with him as the only survivor. Why him? Because electricity could not kill him. He was born to endure such a strike. The way Whitemane was shaking back there reminded her of the way somepony shakes after being exposed to electricity, so she still had a hunch that he might be alive.

She thought so until the moment she gazed into Whitemane's eyes which were barely visible through his shades. She was now staring into his eyes, just like he was staring into her's. All remaining doubt got cleared from her mind the moment she saw him wink at her with his usual cocky grin.

                                                                                      The Real End!