Scootaloo and the Slendermane

Scootaloo had her eyes closed as she was lying down on the floor.  She could hear footsteps in the distance, but that was all she could hear.  The footsteps echoed multiple times, and then slowly got quieter, until they stopped altogether.  She decided to open her eyes.  She found herself in a poorly lit room inside of a large, one floor building.  “Hello?  Is anypony there?” she asked out.  “Where am I?”

There was no answer.  In fact, there was no sound coming at all from anywhere.   She looked around.  The place she was in was somewhere she had never seen before.  The walls were grey, the floor was grey, the ceiling was grey, and there was nopony in sight.  It just felt weird to her.  She turned around in a circle to see if there was any way out.  There were two closed sliding doors behind her, but there was no way to get them open.  She tried her best to open them.  She tried pushing them apart with her hooves, leaning back on the door with her back while kicking her legs out to push it, feeling along the brown doorframe to see if there was a way to open it.  Eventually she kicked the door.  “Oh sweet mother of Celestia, ouch,” Scootaloo yelled out while bouncing and holding the hoof she just hurt by kicking the metal doors.

“I guess there is no way of getting out her,” she figured out.  Scootaloo decided to walk down the dark hallways to see if she could find a way out.  She looked around, hoping to find a friendly face that she could talk to.  Sadly, there was nopony around, nopony to talk to, and definitely nopony to show her the way out.  The only thing that seemed to be following her was her own shadow, or so she thought…

She found herself led into a room that looked to be an old laundry room.  There were green washing machines and dryers on both sides of the room, with two large tables.  There were old boxes of detergent, but they were obviously not touched for quite a long time.  Scootaloo yelled out, “Where the hay am I?”  She looked around the room.  “100% more suds?” she read on one of the boxes of old detergent.  The box was felt very old.  The little orange pegasus put it back down on the table and tried to find a way out of this horrible, dark place.  There were only two ways to go: the way she came, and the doorframe leading to another hallway.  She went towards the other hallway, into the unknown.  But something stopped her; something eerie.  It was something that she had seen before, but where?  She looked over to it.  She gasped as soon as she recognized what it was.  It was a letter.  “No escape,” she read as she picked it up from off the wall beside one of the washing machines.  “Um, Rainbow Dash?  You in here?” she asked out, hoping to see the smiling face of her honorary sister.  But there was no reply, not even a sound.  The only sound that came was the echo of her voice, bouncing down the empty hallways and back into her little ears.

She went forward into the unknown.  Scootaloo did not know where she was, but she already knew that it was not a safe place to be.  A dark, large, empty building was no place to be for a young filly.  She continued to walk down the many, seemingly endless hallways.  The only sound she could hear was the sound of her footsteps.  The only thing she could feel was the beat of her heart and the shivers down her spine as she could see more and more rooms, many with only one dim light in the ceiling.

Scootaloo decided to choose one of the many rooms she was passing along the way.  There was room just to her right, so she decided to go in it.  ‘Hopefully this is the way out,’ she said in her mind.  She decided not to speak for the next little while, so as not to draw any attention to herself.  This room had two bunk beds on the left, and three brown dressers on the right.  But there was something else on the right upon further inspection.  It was another paper.  She picked it up and read it in her mind.  ‘Always watching.’  Scootaloo had been through this before, but it was a dream.  She could remember the time when she was on her trip with the others.  She allowed Rainbow Dash’s story of the Slendermane to get to her, and she dreamt of being followed by it in the dark forest.  This did not feel like a dream, though.  She tried everything to get herself out of the dream.  She jumped up and down, pinched herself, and clenched her teeth and eyes to put pressure on her mind, but nothing woke her up.

Scootaloo decided to continue, hoping to find a way out.  She had found two pages on the walls of this building.  She still did not know what this building was, but she knew that she was in danger if she didn’t continue her search to find an exit.

The little filly, scared and confused, walked down more of the quiet hallways.  She came into a large common room, where a few of the hallways met.  There were tables and vending machines, but no papers, and definitely no sign of an exit.  She looked quickly around the room by spinning in place, but continued down one of the other hallways.

Her nerves were really starting to get to her.  The fur on the back of her neck was starting to stand up.  She felt a chill down her spine.  Something was close, she could feel it.  She felt the urge to turn around, but she was afraid to, thinking that she would be face to face with a monster of some sort.  But the filly could remember the words of Princess Luna, word for word.  Scootaloo knew that she would have to become fear to conquer it.

“Ah-hah!” Scootaloo screamed out as she jumped and turned around, but nothing was there.  It was just the dark hallway, and the vending machines.  Nothing was even moved.  She scratched her head with her hoof and kept moving.  She looked everywhere for an exit, even on the ceiling.  But if there was an exit on the ceiling, her young wings were not strong enough to reach it.  She could hover a little bit, but that was it.

After a few more minutes of walking and briefly looking into rooms, she found another paper in what appeared to be a small bedroom.  “What kind of a place is this?” she asked out loud.  She picked up the paper, which said, ‘Took my filly, now coming for me.’  “What in Equestria?” she said as she looked at the paper.  But things were different this time.  After she picked up the third paper, a large bell could be heard throughout the dark hallways.  It dinged a similar sound every time, and it occurred every few seconds.  Scootaloo shivered at the awful, creepy sound it made.

The bell made Scootaloo grow more and more afraid.  But after a few minutes, she got used to it.  The sound did not change at all; it was just consistent.  She walked down a new hallway.  She heard a noise come from behind her.  Turning around, she discovered absolutely nothing.  There was nothing in the hallway, and the noise was could have even just been her mind playing with her.  She continued down the hallway, but this time walking backwards, so as to make sure nothing was following her.  ‘If only I had somepony with me, then we could guard each other,’ she thought to herself.  She continued to take steps backwards.  She bumped into something very hard, and the force jolted her forward a little bit.  She turned around to investigate what it was, only to be face to face with what appeared to be a fearsome lion.  She screamed out loud, but he scream quickly turned into a slight chuckle, as she realised that it was only a statue.  It was engraved, and it said ‘With our thoughts we create our world.’  “That’s pretty deep, thank you lion,” Scootaloo said while tapping the lion on its stone head.

Scootaloo continued down the dark hallways with the sound of the bell still going off.  She kept looking back behind her to see if anything was following her.  Every time she did that she got a chill down her spine, but nothing was ever there.

Going down one of the hallways, she saw a door in the corner.  The door was on the right, while the hallway continued down the left.  It just looked to her like a good place to go.  The room was not the exit, however.  It was a bathroom, and it had a fourth paper on the wall beside the hoof dryer.  She went over to collect it, reading quietly, “It came from the forest.”  Scootaloo just stopped and stared at the paper.  She almost went into a state of shock.  ‘It came from the forest?’ her mind asked.  She knew exactly what ‘it’ was.  But something distracted her.  It was a horrible smell coming from one of the bathroom stalls to her left.  She decided to put fear in the back of her mind, and she began to open the doors of the stalls.  Door one, empty.  Door two, empty.  The rest of the doors were empty too.  Finally, the last bathroom door.  The smell was disgusting and almost unbearable.  She opened the door to see one of the most disturbing sights she had ever seen.

The Slendermane was sitting down on the toilet and reading the Equestria Daily newspaper.  Scootaloo now knew what the smell was.  She had a mix of fear and nausea inside her.  She tried not to scream, she tried not the throw up, and she really tried not to make a sound.  But the Slendermane knew somepony had disturbed its alone time.  It lowered the newspaper to see the scared orange filly looking back at it.  Scootaloo was shaking and scared, and she took a few steps back.  The Slendermane reached forward.  Scootaloo screamed at the top of her lungs and ran out of the bathroom.  She didn’t even get to see that the Slendermane was just reaching to close the door so that it could finish its business.

Scootaloo continued to run at her fastest speed.  She could hear the toilet flush from behind her.  She turned her head and saw the Slendermane come to the doorframe of the washroom.  Scootaloo heard a deathly frightening low bell sound that occurred when she looked the Slendermane in the face, or lack of face, rather.  The worst part of all: it didn’t wash its hooves.  “Ewwww,” Scootaloo said at the thought of it.  She continued to run, looking for an exit.  She turned to her right, and came into a dead end room, with computers along the wall.  One paper was on the wall to her right, but that didn’t matter to her.  She turned around to see the Slendermane, almost trapping her in the room.  But Scootaloo had a little bit of space in the wide room to run passed it.  Scootaloo got quite a bit ahead.  She never saw the Slendermane move, but every time she turned back to look, it was in a new place.  It slowly but surely got closer to her.

Scootaloo finally found the doors that she woke up beside.  She tried desperately to get them to open.  With tears down her face due to her fear, she begged and begged as she pushed and pulled on the doors, “Please open, please open!”  But it was too late.  Scootaloo’s eyes began to get fuzzy, as if she turned on an old television in a snowstorm and the cable had been lost.  She turned around to see the Slendermane right in front of her.  Scootaloo looked up at the tall beast, and looked it right in the eyes…

Scootaloo opened her eyes to realise that she was in the alleyway in Ponyville where she decided to fall asleep for the night.  It was pouring rain, and as she looked up, the rain fell heavily on her face.  As an orphan pony, she had to walk the streets of Ponyville to find different places to spend the night.  On this night, as she wandered the wet streets, the alleyway behind Sugarcube Corner seemed like the only safe place she could find.  Even though Scootaloo yearned to be in a loving home, she still never found anypony to take her in.  She never asked anypony, but nopony offered either.  She was wet, sad, and alone, but at least she was alive.

The little filly walked down the wet streets of Ponyville, with the streetlights on the side of the road guiding her.  She looked down at the ground as she walked with her wet mane dripping.  She walked over the small stone bridge and over to Rainbow’s floating mansion.  There was no sign of anypony walking around, but that was normal for this time of night.  It was indeed quiet late, probably one or two in the morning.

Scootaloo could see the floating mansion above her.  As she looked up, the rain fell on her face.  She tried desperately to jump and fly up to the front door.  But her wings were just not strong enough to make the flight up there.  She could only make it a maximum of three or four metres in the air, before falling back to the ground.  Scootaloo looked down to the ground and sighed.

“Oh goodness, Scootaloo, what are doing out at this time of night?” came a voice from behind her.

Scootaloo turned to see that it was Fluttershy, who was carrying her bunny Angel in her hooves as she hovered above the ground.  Scootaloo sighed again and said, “I’m wandering around, looking for a place to spend the night.  I can’t fly, so I can’t go to knock on Rainbow’s door.  What are you doing out this late?”

“I was just coming back from one of the restaurants that are open late.  Angel wanted a midnight snack,” Fluttershy said.  Angel smiled proudly and nodded his head up and down.  “Do you want me to help you get up there?” the yellow mare asked the young, flightless filly.

“That would be great, Fluttershy, thanks so much,” Scootaloo said.  Fluttershy put Angel down for a quick second.  She pointed and Angel and told him not to go anywhere, to which he just glared back at her.  Fluttershy picked up Scootaloo and lifted her up to the front of Rainbow’s house.

The two of them knocked loudly on the cloud door, which somehow worked.  Rainbow came down and opened the door.  Her mane was messy and she was in a housecoat, obviously just coming out of the shower.  Staying up late must have been the reason why she took naps frequently during the afternoon.  “Scootaloo?  Fluttershy?  What’re you doing here this late?” she asked.  She looked down at the filly, who was wet and shivering due to being outside in the cold rain all night.

“C-c-c-can I p-p-p-p-please stay here tonight Rainbow?” Scootaloo asked while shivering .

“Of course you can!” Rainbow said while opening the door wide.  Scootaloo and thanked Fluttershy for bringing her all the way up there.  Fluttershy patted Scootaloo on the head, and then looked down to see Angel hopping away, getting into more mischief.  Fluttershy flew down and into the night to try to find her rude bunny.

Rainbow and Scootaloo went into the blue pegasus’ house.  It was well lit, well furnished, and huge, something that Scootaloo was not used to.  But then again, anything was better than just wandering the streets.  Rainbow brought over her special blanket to wrap the small filly in, who was sneezing and sniffling due to the cold.  Rainbow held and brought Scootaloo over to the soft cloud couch in her living room.

“Scoots, were you just out on your own?  Do you not have a place to stay?” Rainbow asked her.

“N-n-n-no, I have n-n-n-nowhere to stay, and I n-n-n-never have since my p-p-p-parents passed away,” Scootaloo said while still shivering in the warm blanket.

“Aw, Scoots,” Rainbow said while sitting down and putting her arm around the orphaned filly.  “You now have a permanent place to stay, right here in my home.  It’s the least I can do as your older sister.”  Scootaloo looked up the see Rainbow wink at her for reassurance.

Scootaloo rested her head on the mare.  She was able to fall asleep while wrapped in the blanket, and leaning on her hero.  She now had a place to stay, and she could now say she was part of a family that loved her.