SlenderMane

Chapter 1: The woods

"Hello, Who's there?"

Willow cried out, but no answer followed. The shadows of the trees soon started to grow eery, starting to envelop Willow in an almost tentacular grip.

Not wanting to become one with the forests' shadows, she started cantering in the direction that seemed best, this continued for about 5 minutes until she

could hear what appeared to be her own heartbeat starting to pick up, as if whatever followed her into the woods had found her again, and had began to continue

its pursuit. With no possible sense of direction, Willow ambled her way to an old ruin.

"Wait, there are no ruins in Everfree besides the old palace!" It had become clear that wherever Willow was, she wasn't in everfree anymore, or maybe not even in Equestria anymore.

The ruin was akin to a red tower, but with no obvious seams, entrances or remarkable features besides one, another note. Willow quickly grabbed the note, hoping for answers,

but what she saw sent a chill down her spine. The image was similar to the crude pony drawing she had found earlier, but this time there were features added to the landscape around the faceless pony, mainly trees, and a tower, the tower she was now standing in front of. The sound of a heartbeat came again, but this time Willow knew that it wasn't hers. The origin of the sound was right behind her. She swallowed, and turned around, but it was as if she had stood up too quickly because static started to cloud her vision, she could make out one detail though; one of a pony, dressed in formal wear, but lacking any form of facial feature, it started to edge closer. Willow began to think that the shadows were playing tricks on her vision because it was as if tentacles began to sprout from the pony, that is, if it could be even considered a pony. Willow began to feel encompassed by fear itself, she quickly ran away from the creature, darting between the trees in the hopes of escaping it. When she again felt confident that it was gone, she stopped and realised she was in the middle of what appeared to be a stone circle, the central stone yielded another note.

Willow nervously took the note in hoof, feeling that the notes may be key to her very survival. The note did not have a sketch as such like the others, but was simply emblazoned with the words 'No'.

As she finished looking at the page her vision began to fade into static again, this time Willow knew that whatever was chasing her was causing this, so she could use this to warn herself of its proximity, of which was becoming likely. Willow felt that the creature had picked up pace, as if it was now actively hunting for her, or at the very least the pages, "What do you want, the pages?!" Willow cried out, but instantly began to regret it as a gust of wind blew past her and her vision began to not only fade to static, but fade completely, as if the creature was sapping from her consciousness. This soon became obvious as Willow began to feel dizzy, and was overcome with a feeling of tiredness.

She began to fight against the fatigue, which soon became a losing battle. She eventually managed to force herself to break into a run, away from the creature. More notes began to show themselves, some depicting the same pony,

but with changes to the background, showing similarities to where Willow was standing as she read the notes, other said 'Help me' in large, scrawled letters. Willow was in full sprint now, eventually taking cover in another ruin, a building with tight corridors, Willow knew that she had to get out of this nightmare soon, but was soon distracted by another page.

She began to examine it, and her heart stopped, her spine became cold and her eyes glazed

with gear. This picture was different from the rest, This picture was an over-the-shoulder view of the faceless pony, facing a filly with their back turned from the creature, reading a piece of paper. The identity of this filly was obvious,

Willow dropped the page and succumbed to the exhaustion that had been plaguing her, and her vision faded to black, with the faceless pony being the last thing she saw.

Willow was not heard from again. Little to no information was given as to what had given her the idea to venture into the woods that night,

but it was obvious that something, was now loose in Equestria...