Slender's Woods
Twilight Sparkle was a brave mare. She had fought off Nightmare Moon and Discord for crying out loud! But there was something about this forest she was walking in that unnerved her. The trees seemed to have faces and watched her every move. They were also really thin and gnarly. And she also had this paranoid feeling that something was following her.
She ran up to her coltfriend, Quixote, who was walking just ahead. Quixote had a black coat with a black and red mane. He had blood red eyes and red streaks under them. He was a unicorn pony and had a cutie mark of two swords crossing. He was also holding a flashlight.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“I just have this feeling that something is following us. Let’s go home.” Twilight pleaded.
He laughed. “Come now. There is nothing in these woods that I know of that can hurt us. Let’s just get the documentary you need for your library, and get outta here.”
“Alright…” Although his words eased Twilight’s fear a bit, she still couldn’t shake the feeling that they were going watched.
They continued walking down the dirt path, until they reached an old tank.
“Hey look Twilight, here’s the first page of the documentary. It says, ‘HELP ME’. Hm, wonder what that means. Here put it in your saddlebag. Let’s keep going.”
They continued walking down the path until they came up to a really tall tree. The branches were thin and gnarly, and there was a piece of paper attached to the trunk.
“Hey, look, here’s the second page. It says ‘don’t look too long, or it takes you’.” Quixote read. The page also had a crude drawing of trees and a stick pony. Twilight was still continuously looking over her shoulder, as if something kept stalking her. “Twilight, what are you looking at?”
“WAH! Huh? Oh, n-nothing. I just thought I saw something.” She stuttered.
Quixote gave her a strange look. “I wonder why’s she’s so jumpy.” He thought. “Eh, she’s probably just creeped out by the trees.” He had to agree, they did look slightly creepy.
They continued making their way through the forest, when Twilight looked over her shoulder again. This time, she saw something. She saw a pony, about twice as tall as Celestia herself. It had long and thin legs and wore a formal black suit with a red tie. It also lacked any facial features. Twilight yelped, and ran up to Quixote. Before he knew what was happening, Twilight had wrapped her front legs around his neck and squeaked out “Hold me!”
“Twilight, what’s wrong?” he asked in a concerned tone.
“THERE! I SAW IT!” Twilight pointed her hoof at a point in the trees.
“Uh, Twilight? There’s nothing there. Are you ok? Are you dehydrated or something? Maybe you’re tired?”
“NO, I SWEAR! THERE WAS SOMETHING RIGHT THERE!”
“Twilight, you’re definitely hallucinating, there’s nothing there, unless I’m going blind, which according to last time I checked, I’m not. Here, have some water.” He pulled out a water bottle from his saddlebag. “Here, we’ll rest here for a bit.”
“But, but, Quixote…I have this feeling that whatever I saw is coming after us. We have to keep going!”
“Oh c’mon, there’s nothing there. If there is something it’s probably just a squirrel of something.”
“No, I saw something! If we stay put, that thing is going to kill us!”
“Alright fine, but we’re not going until you have some water.”
Twilight downed half the water bottle. “There, now let’s go!”
They started off again, walking in silence. The only sounds were the two ponies’ hoofsteps and the occasional cricket chirp. Twilight still was paranoid that something was watching them. She kept looking over her shoulder to catch a glance at what was following them, but she always saw nothing. “Huh, maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me.” She pulled a book called ”Woods of the Eight Pages” out of her saddlebag and started to read. She flipped to the chapter on the creatures that inhabited this forest and started to read. “The Woods of the Eight Pages is relatively forlorn. The only normal creatures that inhabit it are squirrels, crows, crickets, and the occasional owl. But it is most well known for sightings of the mythical creature known as the Slendermane. The mythical creature is very tall; sightings indicate that he/she/it is taller than Celestia herself. He/she/it has very thin legs, which can extend to impossible lengths. The Slendermane also has appendages on he/she/it’s back that are similar to tentacles on sea creatures. He/she/it is very similar in build to a regular pony. The only differences are that the Slendermane has no mane or tail, and no noticeable facial features. Symptoms of what is called ‘Slendersickness’ ,which means that you are the target of the Slendermane, are sudden feelings of paranoia, diarrhea, vomiting, hearing a loud buzzing, and seeing static.” Twilight stopped reading. “Oh Celestia, the creature I saw, was it the Slendermane?”
“Hey, Twilight! I found another page! It says ‘Always watches, no eyes.” Huh. Wonder what that means.”
Suddenly she came down with a huge headache. She heard a large buzzing noise in her ears and saw static. She turned around, and through clenched eyes, to see the featureless face of the Slendermane. Her eyes widen and her pupils dilate until they’re smaller than a grain of sand. “No…it can’t be…” She muttered. She dropped her book and screamed. “NO! YOU CAN’T BE REAL!”
Quixote, who was completely oblivious to what was happening, heard the scream. He quickly turned around and yelled “Twilight! What’s wro—oh shit.” He saw the Slendermane reach out with a black tentacle that protruded from its back and caress Twilight’s cheek. He panicked, and tried to grab Twilight with his magic, but instead sparks shot out of his horn and it started to hurt. “OH SHIT! TWILIGHT GET OUTTA THERE!” He yelled dazedly.
Twilight didn’t respond. She was sitting there, completely paralyzed in fear. The Slendermane reached out with a few other tentacles and wrapped them around Twilight’s head.
“Oh no. Twilight! I’m coming!” Quixote charged at the faceless creature. The Slendermane pointed its featureless face at the charging stallion, and disappeared. There was no puff of smoke, and any magical particles. It just disappeared. Quixote ran up to the paralyzed Twilight, and lifted her onto his back. He then turned around, and ran. He ran with no destination in mind, his only thought was to get away from that, that, that thing! He ran until he could run to more, and collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air.
At this point, Twilight snapped out of her stupor. “No! Quixote! Keeping running, it’s going to catch us!”
“I think *wheeze* we gave it *gasp* the slip.” Quixote gasped.
Quixote finally caught his breath, and hissed “Now what in the HELL was that thing!?”
“That was the Slendermane! It’s a mythical creature that lives in these woods!”
“The Slendermane? I thought is was just an old mare’s tale!”
“Well apparently it’s not! We gotta get out of here before it catches us and kills us!” Twilight cried.
“But, what about the docu—“ Quixote began.
“FORGET THE DOCUMENTARY! I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT I WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE ALIVE!” Twilight snapped.
“Alright! I’m sorry, you’re right. I don’t know what came over me. We should get out of here.”
“Good, now which way is out of here?” Twilight asked.
“Uhm, your guess is as good as mine. I was just running in some random direction to get away from that thing.”
“What!” Twilight’s eye twitched. “Are you saying that we are lost in some creepy forest with a crazy monster who’s trying to kill us?”
“What! I never sai—yeah, we are.”
“Humph. Let me think. If my memory is correct, the dirt path in this forest goes in a complete circle. So if we walk in one direction, there’s a good chance we’ll make back onto the path, and then we can find our way out of here from there.”
“That sounds like a good plan. Let’s go before ol’ Slendy catches up with us.”
They start walking, completely unaware that the Slendermare was watching them from behind a tree.
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“Hey, Twilight, do you mind if I turn off the flashlight? I gotta conserve battery power.”
“No, Quixote, go right on ahead. I’ll just light the way with magic.” Quixote switched off the flashlight. Everything went black for a moment, then Twilight’s horn glowed a deep purple, illuminating everything around them. “Is that bright enough?”
“Yeah, it’s perfect.” They continued walking in their current heading when Quixote suddenly has a terrible feeling of paranoia. “Um, Twilight?”
“Yeah?”
“Does having a sudden feeling of paranoia mean anything in a situation like this?” He inquires.
“Yeah it does. It means that the Slendermane is near.” Then she put two and two together. “Oh no, Quixote, this is bad. This is really bad.”
“Whoa, what! What does it mean?!”
“It means that the Slendermane is after you!”
“WHAT! Oh shit…” Quixote suddenly has a really strong headache. He heard a loud electrical buzzing sound and see static.
“QUIXOTE, IT’S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!” Twilight screams.
Quixote looked to see the featureless gaze of the Slendermane flicker in and out of his vision. “TWILIGHT! RUN!” He shouted.
Twilight gladly obliged. She spun around and galloped away as fast as she can. As she ran, she heard a raspy scream in the distance. She continued running until she collapsed onto the ground, exhausted. As she was lying there, she heard another scream, which chilled her to the bone. She lay there, head spinning. When she caught her breath and regained her senses, she decided to go back to the place where the Slendermane attacked Quixote. She ran back, weaving through the trees and leaping over fallen logs. When she finally reached the place where Quixote was attacked, she found almost nothing. Not a single sign of a struggle, even through the sounds she heard clearly indicate a fight had gone on. She looks on the ground and finds a piece of paper. She picked it up and took a look at it. Written on it is “NO NO NO NO NO NO! RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN!” There was also a crudely drawn picture of a stick pony with long spindly legs amidst hastily drawn trees.
She looked back on the ground, and saw a black liquid. She tentatively touched it with her hoof. It was warm, like blood. “No way, that’s not blood. Blood is red, not black.” she mused. She assumed that the Slendermane didn’t kill Quixote. She called out “Quixote, are you there?” Silence. “Quixote, this isn’t funny.” Silence.
Suddenly, Twilight got an urge to throw up. Bile shot up through her throat, and it burned. She suddenly felt paranoid and started to hear a loud buzzing sound. She spun around and saw the terrible face of the Slendermane staring back at her. It seemed to stare right into her very soul. She tried to use her magic to scare it away, but her horn shot out sparks and hissed instead. She then screamed and ran. She ran in no particular direction, she just wanted to get out of that place.
As she ran, fog started to condense around her. It got thicker and thicker until Twilight couldn’t see her own hoof. But even that didn’t stop her. She kept running, blindly weaving through the forest. She tripped, and landed at the foot of some stairs. Then the fog dissipated, is if it was never there. Twilight looked up, and saw an old log cabin. She crawled up the stairs up to the front door. She opened the door a tiny bit and peeked inside. The interior was a waste. There were chairs that were overturned, the wallpaper was peeling and decaying, and there were cobwebs in every nook and cranny. She looked over her shoulder and saw the Slendermane, standing about 10 meters from her, staring into her very soul. Twilight looked back with fear clearly in her eyes. Static started to fill her vision, so she tore her eyes from that dreaded creature.
She ran inside and slammed the door shut, panting. “Please, help me! Is anypony here? Please somepony help me!” she pleaded. She ran up the stairs, just as the door came crashing down. In its place, the Slendermane stood, in all its unadulterated horror. Twilight freaked out and ran up the stairs and down the hall. She broke into a bedroom and tore the place inside out, trying to find something to defend herself with. She found nothing. She looked back at the hallway, and saw it gazing back at her. She squeaked, and ran into the only other doorway in the room, a bathroom. She leapt into the bathtub and curled up into a ball, quivering with fear. She peeked over the walls of the bathtub, expecting to see Slendermane standing there. But, she saw nothing. She let out a sigh of relief, and blinked. Slendermane appeared at the bathroom’s entrance.
Twilight screamed.
The Slendermane covered the distance between them with two quick strides, due to his long legs. Bile started to shoot up to her throat, static filled her vision, and a loud buzzing sound fills her ears. “No please, why me?” she whimpers.
A voice sounds in her head. “Because you’ve stumbled into Slender’s Woods. And no pony ever escapes.”
Twilight screams again, then all goes silent.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Pain. All she feels is pain. A branch impales her heart, yet she still lives. Blood spurts out in intervals from her wounds. A gaping hole now resides in her gut. Her intestines hang out like vines hang from a tree in the jungle. Her own stomach acid dissolves her from the inside out, yet she still lives. There is now a hole on her flank, where her cutie mark was forcefully pulled off. Blood drips on to the ground below with a melodic drip, drip, drip, drip. Blood flows down her head, from where her horn was cleanly cut off. Her vocal cords are shot, from screaming in pain and calling for help. She has long ago given up. All she wants now is death, yet she still lives. She mentally begs for death, but fate is cruel enough to keep her alive.
“Oh Celestia, please, teach me how to die.”
Author's Note
Author's note: So here's my first fanfiction. If you see areas where I can improve my writing or grammatical issues, please leave a comment, as long as it's not in the form of a flame.
A rewriting will happen since this is crap. Actually, it will be totally different than the above. It won't come out for a while since it's not a high priority for me.