As Pinkie turned to lead the way, she was stopped in her tracks by a rather flustered Twilight bursting through the thicket and into the clearing. She seemed different than usual, a bit more Devil-may-care, and she seemed to have a small rodent on her shoulder. Surprised but enthused all the same, Pinkie did a 180 and introduced the two

"Wow! Speak of the devil, here's one of my closest friends now! Twilight, I would like you to meet Slendy. Slendy, this is Twilight!"

Twilight simply stared, then put a hoof up to Slendermane's muzzle and poked him a few times where his facial features should have been.

"You know he hasn't got a face right? I'm not the only one seein' this?" Twilight had had a strange enough day that day, but this was threatening to be the strangest occurrence of all.

Pinkie then recalled the events of earlier this morning, and explained Twilight's behavior to Slendermane as best she could.

"Sorry Slendy, Twilight's just a little 'WoOoOo' today. Somepony did something pretty silly this morning, if you catch my drift, Wink wink, nudge, nudge."

Slendermane didn't catch her drift. At all.

"........"

"WELL, this has been...weird! Nice to meet you Slendy, but I got stuff to do! Ta TA!"

And with that, Twilight was gone.

"Sorry Slendy, Twilight's not usually so weird," Pinkie apologized, "you gotta read the other fanfic."

"What?"

"Nothing. C'mon, Let's go."

As Slendermane and Pinkie trotted through the forest towards Ponyville, Pinkie tried her best to prepare her new...well, what would she introduce him as? Coltfriend? That seemed a bit presuming, even for her. Friend, she supposed. She would just have to share the juicy parts with her friends later in private. Either way, she tried to prepare him to meet her friends.

"There's Rainbow Dash. I think you two will get along great. She's super athletic and heroic, just like you. as long as you don't show her up by saving too many ponies, you should be fine. Then there's Applejack. She's the most dependable friend a pony could ask for. She and I don't hang out much, but I still care alot about her. Rarity is the beautiful mare with the violet mane. I just know she's gonna love your suit. Fluttershy...well, Fluttershy is a little timid, but I'm sure as soon as she gets to know you, everything will be fine. And Twilight is usually way more normal than that. She's just been cleaning out her attic, and...well, I'll tell you later WE'RE HERE!"

Slendermane looked up from the ground to see a small town in front of him. Quaint, colorful, and friendly, it was exactly what he had been dreading. He froze in his tracks. Well, he tried to freeze, but Pinkie simply walked around behind him and shoved him forward with her snout.

"C'mon, silly Slendy, keep on trottin'! We got folks to meet!"

Slendermane obliged, but was sure that this was a huge mistake.

Before the two could go any farther, Pinkie gasped a rather large gasp, and halted Slendermane where he stood.

"WAIT! Just wait right here. DON'T MOVE!" and with that, Pinkie was off, in a blur of pink and pinker.

Slendermane had waited for all of 2 minutes when he saw the blush comet trail speeding back towards him.

"Okaysoeverythingisreadynowc'mon!!!"

As the two walked towards the large tree that served as Ponyville's library, Pinkie kept looking back and giggling, and Slendermane contemplated turning tail and running away right then. He recalled the last time he had run from Pinkie, things had quickly turned for the worse, and he had almost gotten the one creature who had willingly set aside her fears to befriend him killed. In light of that, he decided that perhaps he would give whatever Pinkie Pie was planning a chance.

As Slendermane trotted in, his senses tingled in the dark, although his night vision was only slightly better than that of an average pony, he had other, less tangible senses that alerted him to the fact that there were 4 other ponies than Pinkie and himself in the room. His instincts went off like sirens in his head.
RUN! This is a trap! run!

But something kept him glued in place. Something he was unfamiliar with. Hope? Perhaps. At this point,things were so confusing, that all Slendermane could do was sit and wait, and hope.

"SURPRISE!!!!"

The room lit up, and Slendermane stumbled backwards at the rush of color and luminance. Around him stood 5 ponies.

"Surprise, Slendy Welcome to your 'Welcome to my circle of bestest friends' party!"

She planted another kiss on his muzzle, much to the same effect as the first.

"Uh oh, pinks," laughed the blue pony with a prismatic mane, "I think you broke him."

Rainbow Dash was the first to introduce herself.

"I'm Rainbow Dash, but you can just call me Dashie if you want."

"I..."

"And Ah'm Applejack. pleased as punch to meet Pinkie Pie's new beaux," an earth pony with warm, welcoming eyes stepped forward and vigorously shook Slendermane's hoof.

"It's..."

"Oh, it is positively SPLENDID to meet you Slendermane, why I adore your ensemble. absolutely timeless if I do say so myself. I...AM RARITY!" This pony was beautiful, with striking colors and large bluish grey eyes.

"Thank you...all..."

It was at that moment that the stallion noticed the unassuming vermillion pegasus hanging back from her friends. Her expression was one he had seen thousands of times, but this time, it was more ominous than ever before. Terror.

Fluttershy's eyes were wide and her pupils pinned in panic. She knew this...she refused to call it a pony. It was a MONSTER! She had heard the panicked tales of a faceless pony with dark powers who fed on innocent creatures, and even ponies, from a few of her rehabilitated animal friends from Everfree, but she had always tried to believe she would never encounter this creature face to face. And here it was, in Twilight's house...near her firends.

"GET BACK! EVERYPONY GET AWAY FROM IT!"

All five other heads in the room whipped around to face this uncaracteristically loud outburst from their friend.

"That thing isn't a pony, it's an abomination! It feeds on the emotions of other ponies! Well," Fluttershy's eyes took on a steely hardness as she stalked towards Slendermane, "NOT THESE PONIES!"

Slendermane saw the back hooves flying towards his face, but the entire situation was so overwhelming already, that he was unable to act quickly enough to dodge them, and the kick caught him square in the muzzle, sending him flying. He was on his hooves in a nano second, and instinct had rekindled itself, tentacles flying out and belting the pegasus across the room. The blow knocked her unconscious, and she fell limp to the floor.

The others stood, in shock. Dash was the first to react.

"Get. Out. NOW."

"I...I didn't mean to..."

The other two backed up with Rainbow dash, forming a tight circle around their unconscious friend, and there was not a sympathetic gaze to be found among the three. Slendermane looked back and forth, pleading with them silently to understand, to not loathe and fear him.

And then he met Pinkie's eyes.

Her two large, perfectly round blue orbs were welling with tears, darting back and forth between her friends and Slendermane, her mouth turned down in a confused grimace.

"Slendy...you should leave. Now."

This was all Slendermane needed to hear. As he ran out the door, his head pounded, felt like it would explode. He had ruined everything. His one chance at happiness, at friendship, gone. He WAS a monster.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note

This chapter took a dark turn, but it'll pick up, I promise. Also, the bit at the beginning with Twilight was a reference to my other fic, which in turn references this one. Check it out if you want.