Slender

It all began when foals started to disappear at night. First it was little Amber Flower, who was going to go find a doll she left outside. Next it was Fire Burst, who was fulfilling a dare given by his friends. Then it was Cloud Wisp, who was coming home after weather team practice late. The first filly was found nailed to a tree, gutted like a fish with her organs carefully and meticulously packed in plastic bags and replaced inside of their respective cavities. The other two were never seen again.

Soon it wasn't just the foals going missing. Mares and stallions started disappearing on their way home from work or from late-night trips to the store. The town of Ponyville was starting to panic, and it wasn't long until ponies were locking their doors and windows and holding their family close.

The things each disappearance had in common with each other had to do with the fact that they all seemed to be coming or going to or near the Everfree Forest. The forest had always seemed strange and dangerous before, but now it was outright terrifying to even think of entering its dark clutches; even during the day.

Soon, ponies started to whisper about the entity that lived in the frightening trees. They said it was taller than Celestia, wearing a sharp black suit with a red tie, and it had neither a mane nor a tail. The most horrifying part about this creature, however, was its lack of any facial features. They said it never walked, only teleporting from place to place without any sound, light, or magic. It was named the Slender Mane, for its tall, freakishly long and skinny limbs.

Skeptics laughed at the idea of such a creature existing, even with multiple eyewitness accounts, but they couldn't deny that there was something fishy going on when each of these eyewitnesses, in turn, vanished without a trace.

You are one of these skeptics, and you, along with a team of investigators made up of the townfolk, are going to debunk this myth once and for all. You each are equipped with a flashlight, and you start your mission at midnight.

Survive until daylight, and your mission is complete. There is that nasty saying, however... Slender Mane always gets you, even when you've won this twisted game you're playing.

Arabesque had scoffed at the idea of some creature with "no face." At first she didn't put much thought in it, but after months upon months of her roomates talking non stop about this urban legend and disrupting her ballet practice, she decided to join a group in the Everfree to finally debunk his myth. She may be a filly, but when she wants something, she will stop at nothing to get it.


So, she finds herself amongst a group of townsponies from the near town of Ponyville to debunk this myth once and for all.

Torna wasn't exactly a skeptic. She had some belief in the paranormal. She had tagged along anyways. She did not expect much to happen, as they generally don't, and it was a great social experience. There was some inner fear telling her to leave before it was too late, however, but she managed to ignore it in favor of her "big brother" Storm the Sapling, who encouraged her to be more gregarious and social. She couldn't stay recovery for life, now could she? In any case, she was there and planned to stay with the group for the night.

Calla Lily was the head of the group, in a professional-looking jacket and levitating a clipboard as she wrote down notes.

When she had heard that there was this big monster in The Everfree Forest, she scoffed. Entering the Everfree Forest was part of her daily grind, and she had never seen this creature they claimed to be the Slender Mane.

Her job, now, was to debunk this myth and report into Canterlot to assure Equestria that there was nothing wrong. She was determined to succeed... no matter what it took.

She could not deny the dubious atmosphere among the dark and creepy trees, but she shook it off as stress and the fear of her neighbors. There wasn't anything worse than a manticore out there... right?

((May I jooooooooooin?))

Momento Mori shivered as the strange foal led her to the meeting place.

"How do I know it isn't real? Huh? The Everfree forest is always filled with strange creatures!" she was nervous. So many disappearances and you would think ponies would stay AWAY from the Everfree, but now some group of dumb ponies were going to seek out the thing that made everypony disappear. She constantly fidgeted with her braid and her pink eyes darted back and forth.

Vassago trundled towards the predetermined destination. "Shuttup. Its going to be fine because I said its going to be fine. There's no such thing as Slimmer Mods or whatever it's name is." He reassured his new friend.

Vassago didn't like this Tangent Universe. He didn't like it one bit. He was cut off, no connection to any other Vassago in any other Tangent, not even the Primary Universe. Vassago deduced that this could be for a number of reasons. This could be a test of his skills on his own, This could be a fault in the Space-Time continuum, This could be his Master being a Dick, or it could be that this Vassago was destined to die.

Either way, Vassago didn't like it. He didn't like having to go in the Everfree, he didn't like losing his near omniscience, and he did not like the fact that this monster targeted Foals primarily.

The two ponies, both anxious and scared in their own little way, came upon the gathering of ponies. Both paranoid that the world was out to get them.

(Skipping Sunny, Torna, your post)

Torna observed the group. Her idea that nothing would happen was growing as a sort of disbelief in the entire thing. I mean, this has happened before right? People spread urban legends about things and then said that people died or disappeared. She had never heard of any official stories about this, so it had to be fake, right? Right?

After a brief silence, Momento Mori laughed awkwardly. "Ha. Ha... Nice day for a monster hunt? right?"

Vassago rolled his eyes. Of course the monster was real. Probably. This was a story like any other, and there couldn't be a horror story without a real monster. But that didn't make it any less frightening. What would it do? Can it be hurt? SHOULD it be hurt?

Vassago frowned "lets just get this over with. Times Wasting."

"Alright, ponies," Calla said, projecting her voice over the crowd. "We are treating this as a rescue mission, because, when you get down to it, this is what it is. We'll each spread out, following a grid pattern over the forest. If you find somepony, radio in."

She tapped the headset behind her horn, indicating to turn their systems on.

"If, by chance, you do happen to come upon this creature, follow this rule: save yourself. If you're with an injured pony and you happen to come upon the Slender Mane, run as fast as your little hooves will take you. I'd rather have half of you alive than none of you."

She smiled.

"But, that's not going to happen. Let me take role... Arabesque... Check. Torna... Check. Momento... Check. Vassago... Check. Rosella?"

She looked up in surprise to see her old friend standing in the back.

"What do I have to lose?" Rose answered, challenging Calla to tell her to leave. Reluctantly, Calla checked the name off of the list before nodding.

"Alright, ponies. See you back here once the sun rises. If you want to team up, raise your hoof."

She looked towards the trees for a moment. Her heart started pounding when she thought she saw something staring back at her with no eyes, but when she blinked, it was gone.

"What? Splitting up?" Torna said, a tone of fear in her voice. She seemed rather scared for one who should be a skeptic. "Are you sure that's a good idea? What if it's real? What if one of us gets attacked?!"

"I'm with whats-er-name..." Mori said, a tad too loudly. "The Everfree forest is dangerous enough without... uh... something else to make things worse."

Vassago concentrated on Calla as if he was trying to recognize her. In this Universe, he had never met, but that doesn't mean that they did not know each other from somewhere else...

After a couple futile attempts at recognition, he gave up and raised a hoof. "I'd like to go with Momento Mori."

"No!" Mori protested. "This is a dumb idea! we shouldn't split up at all!"

"Oh, calm yourselves down," Calla scolded. "Look at you. You're turning into those superstitious ponies, fretting about every sound and tale you've ever heard. Think if you were in front of the princess. Would you doubt her decision? Of course not. That's just the way things are. So, if it makes you feel any better, know that Luna is watching over us tonight. Okay?"

With that, the unicorn tapped her headpiece, turning it on and motioning for the ponies before her to do the same. Rose reached up and switched hers on, turning away and trotting into the trees.

"While you all stand around, sniveling at some stupid old mare's tale," she said, "I'm going to go find those missing ponies. You guys have fun."

With that, the crystal pony disappeared into the eerie grip of the forest.

Far off in the distance, a black and white figure faced the group, watching with eyes that were not there. As the crystal mare galloped forward, he disappeared into thin air, as if he was just a story, after all.

"Nurr..." Mori mimicked Calla's motion, turning on her headpiece and helping Vassago do the same.

Vassago stared off into the distance, where a certain figure once stood. "I am so sorry..." He muttered

"What was that?"

"Nothing. lets... lets go find those ponies." Vassago said. Mori nodded slowly and followed him into the forest. The pair tried to keep Calla in sight, but eventually it was just the pair of them in the woods. With the sun setting. and everything slowly getting darker.

Mori was more afraid of running into a manticore or something of that nature.

Vassago knew. He knew and there was nothing he could do. Nothing he could do but hope, and stay alert, and he couldn't believe himself: but pray.

Calla looked to Torna, a question pursed on her lips.

"Want to join me?" she asked, smiling a little. "Being alone is probably going to be inefficient, but Rose... can do what she wants. We'll find them, Torna. They'll be alright, and so will we."

She refrained from saying that it was probably likely that most of the ponies were probably dead, but it was worth a shot.

She started off into the forest, passing dark foliage and keeping a spark at the tip of her horn as a way to see in the dark.

Rose, on the other hand, was content to walk in the blackness, picking up plants and tossing them aside.

"Hello?" she called. "Anypony out there? You're safe! It's okay!"

A rustling was heard from behind the crystal pony. She stopped, turning back to see who she had found.


A piercing scream rang through the forest, fading out and disappearing before anypony could radio in. 

"Rose? Rose!" Calla cried, listening for the mare but only hearing the gradually fading sound of static.

In the distance, a dark figure reappeared, it's tentacles receding back into the darkness.

Torna nodded at the suggestion. She was wrong, right? There probably was no actual monster, and any animals that attacked would have two ponies to deal with. Torna followed Calla. Then came the scream. It was like nothing Torna had ever heard before, for this was blood-curdling. The type of scream one makes when they're in very real danger. When they're on the brink of death. At the hands of what? Wasn't it true that the monster did not exist. A shadowy figure appeared ahead, tentacles squirming around a monstrous figure without a face. Torna screamed as loud and fearfully as she ever had in her life. Just like that of Rose. She grabbed Calla and darted away with her wings, faster than ever with this threat behind her. She did not look back, and soon found herself lost in the woods.

((Question, Calla, are you RPing Slendy?))
Mori shivered with Vassago. Far away from the scream, they did not hear.

"We are fine, right? You think everypony else is fine?" She asked Vassago anxiously.

Vassago sat on a rock, holding his head in his hooves. "Nnnnnn..." He grumbled.

"What's wrong?" She asked out of curiosity. Vassago looked up. "Oh. Its nothing... don't worry about it."

Vassago got up and walked ahead of Mori, hiding his face. "Lets keep going. There's still plenty of woods left to check on."

Vassago concentrated through the pain. His head ached something awful with this strange static noise. His vision blurred around the edges with the dots of black and white.

Suddenly, as soon as this immense headache started, it was gone. He straightened up and kept walking.

((Yes... Yes, I am))

Calla froze, not having seen the Slender Mane but having heard the scream. Next thing she knew, she was being towed away by the frightened Torna. She groaned and teleported out of her grasp, landing on the ground below. 

"Good Faust," she muttered. "Rosella had a freak out. That's all. What a foal, to scare all of our party members."

She knew though, deep down, that something terrible had happened to her friend.

((Skipping Torna))

Vassago and Mori reached a clearing, seeing Calla Lily and Torna on the other side.

"Well howdy doody. Fancy running into you two." Vassago said in a parody of a cowpony from Appleloosa.

Mori tilted her head. "Something wrong? You two are a little far from your search... area... place... thing..."

"Good point Whatever-your-name-is." Vassago agreed. "Wassa madda? Something 2 spooky 4 u happen?"

"Someone," Calla said irritably, looking to where the scream had come from, "had a freak out, and Torna got a little jitterish. That's all I..."

She stopped, staring into the trees behind Vassago. For, there, hidden in the dark, was the creature they had all feared of seeing, long tentacles waving around menacingly.

The unicorn saw her vision start to go fuzzy before she tore her eyes away from the spectacle, her hear pumping faster than a train engine.

"Go! Forget about the others, they're all dead... dead!" she shouted. "I... I just saw it..."

She summoned a piece of parchment and her quill, scribbling a note as fast as she could to the Princess before looking up and seeing it, right there, standing behind Torna.

She couldn't help herself. Her scream was long and drawn out as she pointed at the thing in terror, averting her eyes and praying, just praying, that she was only going insane, and there was no Slender Mane, and she wasn't going to die...

Vassago's head started to hurt long before Calla saw the thing. But his head didn't just hurt. It felt like it would burst. Vassago's eyes rolled back into his head as static filled his vision. Mori squeaked from surprise slightly as the foal staggered a bit.

"Go! Forget about the others, they're all dead... dead!" she shouted. "I... I just saw it..."

Didn't have to tell her twice. Momento Mori's everything kicked into overdrive. Grabbing Vassago by the scruff of his mane, she scooped him up onto her back.

Her scream was long and drawn out as she pointed at the thing in terror...

Mori could not see what Calla was screaming at. She tackled the mare, latching on with all of her might and flapped her wings a couple of times, propelling Vassago, Calla, and Mori over a small hedge and out of sight of the monster. Mori gave them a couple more good flaps for some lift, and glided another couple of meters, putting some good distance between them and whatever the monster was.

Pretty exhausted, Mori dipped suddenly and crashed into a bush.

Slightly dazed, she looked up. "Everypony alright? No casualties?"

Vassago's head popped up from the foliage. "What happened?"

Mori shrugged, looking to Calla. "Uh... You saw something... right? What was it?"

Shaking, the mare got to her hooves and felt the tears streaking down her face.

"Torna... I don't know where she went. Oh, Faust, she's still out there!" she cried, her eyes wide as saucers. "We have to get out of here. Luna save us, we're going to die if we stay here!"

It was then that her vision started to go fuzzy again, and she shrieked, falling to the ground and holding her head in her hooves.

"Make it go away, please! Please!"

Slender Mane stood, unmoving, above the writhing unicorn, staring at the other two with eyes that were not there. The tentacles on its back moved slowly, gently daring Mori and Vassago to break eye contact.

"What! What's wrong! What's-" Mori glanced over and saw the thing.

It was staring at her.

It didn't have eyes and it was staring at her.

Everything in her body screamed to run away and hide, but she just couldn't. Her head hurt as her vision started to get fuzzy.

Vassago, oblivious to the thing without a face, mumbled to himself as he sat up. "Feels like I got hit by a train... What happened... my head..." He mumbled some more. His head still hurt very much and it just wouldn't go away!

He looked at the thing.

His head ache was gone.

"Oh." He said. "Ooooh. That explains a great deal." His face scrunched up. "Your Something Else. Just like My Master, aren't you? Your why I'm alone and powerless to do anything, aren't you?" without breaking 'eye' contact, he felt around for a sizable rock. "Well... Well..." He sputtered and spat, a child looking for a proper retort to an insult no one had said. "Go Buck Yourself!" He screamed as he magically picked up a rock and propelled it at the Slender Pony.

Vassago was scared. He knew that. He knew that the thing knew it too. It was how things worked.

(Sorry I was gone for so long)


Torna was lost. There was no question. "H-hello? Calla? Anyone?" she mumbled to herself and she stumbled through the woods. She heard a scream pierce the cold, dark night. The ear-shattering scream. Torna races towards it against her better judgement. She flew as fast as her wings would take her.

"Go buck yourself!"

Torna heard this and recognized the voice as Vassago's. She felt relieved until she viewed the tentacled mass ahead of her. She looked away and crashed into a tree. It was painful, but bearable for the moment.

As the rock hurled towards the sixth-dimensional creature, it vanished, leaving nothing for the projectile to pass through and hit. Calla, her better judgement now coming back to her, teleported off the ground and joined the other two as she heard a crash.

Looking to the trees, she saw Torna sprawled on the ground, and a sigh of relief found it's way through the shudders. The unicorn ran to her aid, feeling the large bump now forming on Torna's head before yanking a bandage out of her bag and deftly wrapping it around the wound.

"Come on. We have to go."

It was then that she saw the Slender Mane no more than three inches from Vassago's face. It had reappeared, tentacles slowly and torturously snaking towards the foal.

With a rather stupid, heroic motion, Calla lunged and knocked him out of the way, taking the monster's touch for herself. Then, in a movement to fast for the pony eye, the monster and the unicorn were gone.