"I've called this emergency meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders for one specific reason," Apple Bloom announced to the trio of friends sitting in a circle in their clubhouse. "To decide what we're going to do about the Slenderpony."

At the mention of the name, Scootaloo glanced nervously at the door, as if expecting the faceless beast to be standing there. "As we all know, the Slenderpony is in town, and has decided to stalk Scootaloo's pa," Apple Bloom continued. "It's up to us to find this beast and bring him to...yes, Sweetie Belle?"

"I have a question," Sweetie Belle asked. "How can Slenderpony see if he doesn't have eyes?"

"That's..." Apple Bloom started to say, but stopped. "Y'know, that's a good point."

"Rarity says that the Slenderpony is just a boogeypony," Sweetie Belle said. "You know, a myth. A legend. He's not real."

"If he wasn't real, then who do you think kidnapped Scootaloo's pa and carved that symbol into that door?" Apple Bloom said.

As the other two girls began to bicker, Scootaloo stared at the floor, thinking over the day. Her mother had been extra worried since the events of that morning, hovering over her more than usual, insisting on walking her to school. At school, the other students, aware of the Slenderpony appearance, had treated her like she had the plague. They whispered behind her back, glancing at her like one might look at a sleeping crocodile; they gave her a wide berth, refused to meet her gaze, and flinched when she spoke.

They blamed her. They blamed her! This wasn't her fault, darn it all!

Cheerilee had tried to speak to her, but Scootaloo had remained silent, stewing in her fury at the unfairness of it all. Her mother had come to take her home from school, and it was only after she had promised several times over that Applejack would be there, that she'd stay with the girls, not go anywhere else without an adult, and come home long before dark before she'd been allowed to go to the clubhouse.

She shouldn't blame her, really. It wasn't just her: the whole town was on edge. Ponies hid in their houses behind locked doors and drawn blinds, glanced over their shoulders when they walked down the street, and didn't dare stray from the light of day or home. Everypony was afraid: afraid that they'd be the next to disappear, the next to come home with a strange symbol carved on their door, the next to be found dead.

Scootaloo suddenly came back to the conscious world when she realized that her friends were still arguing. "GIRLS!" she shouted, causing them both to fall silent as they turned to face her. "Sitting here arguing isn't gonna solve anything! What are we gonna do about this?!"

Her only answer was silence. Of course, they weren't going to do anything about this, because there wasn't anything they could do about this. She was helpless. Her mother was helpless. Her father, whom she'd looked up to her whole life, whom she believed in more than almost anypony else, was helpless. She lowered her gaze, angry tears leaking from her eyes in spite of her command.

Sweetie Belle stepped forward and put her hoof on Scootaloo's shoulder. "Hey, it's gonna be okay, Scootaloo," she said softly. "And I promise, we'll stick with you till this is all fixed."

"Of course we will," Apple Bloom said. "Look, you're scared, and to tell you the truth, we're all a little scared. But that ain't gonna stop us from sticking together."

"Thanks, girls," Scootaloo said, hugging her friends. For a moment, she allowed herself to be comforted, feeling protected within the four walls of the clubhouse and the embrace of her friends.

But she looked out the window, at the sun beginning to sink low in the sky, casting a dark blue hue over them all, and was reminded that whatever it was that was lurking out there in the dark, it was still there. Waiting for her.

"I barely even recognize this town now," Twilight said, looking out the window of Sugarcube Corner at the empty, snow-covered street. "Everypony's so scared; it's like when Zecora used to come into town."

"Zecora?" Flash asked.

"Before your time," Twilight replied shortly, turning back inside. She and her friends had gathered inside the confectionary for some hot chocolate and talk. Pinkie Pie's hot chocolate was perfect as always—just the right temperature and milk-chocolate ratio—but it failed to improve the mood of the friends.

Applejack stared into her mug. "That body was found on my property," she said softly, shuddering at the thought. "How could I have not known what—?"

"This is not your fault, Applejack," Twilight said.

"Who was he anyway?" Applejack said.

"His name was Windy Tail," Flash said, pulling out the autopsy report he'd gotten from Dr. Horse. "He was from Cloudsdale originally, worked in the weather factory before he was fired for stealing materials. Had a bit of a gambling problem."

"How'd he die?" Rainbow asked.

"Dr. Horse says heart failure," Flash said. "Which is another way of saying he has no idea how he died."

"The look on his face..." Twilight said. "It was like he'd been scared to death."

Fluttershy squeaked in fright and hid underneath the table. "By the Slenderpony?"

"Fluttershy, there ain't no such thing as a Slenderpony," Applejack said. "It's just a tale meant to scare little fillies."

"Honestly, what's so intimidating about him?" Rarity asked, taking a dainty sip of her hot chocolate. "Besides his fashion sense," she added, involuntarily shivering at the thought.

"Hey, I think I know why he's such a meanie!" Pinkie Pie said, lighting up with a new thought. "He has no mouth!"

"So?" Rainbow asked.

"So he can't smile!" Pinkie Pie said. "Can you imagine going through life not being able to smile? It'd be horrible!" She suddenly gasped. "I gotta go! Smile party to plan!" And with that, she zipped upstairs. The sound of rummaging traveled through the ceiling to the other ponies ears, prompting head shakes from several of the mares and a bewildered look from Flash.

"As Applejack said, there's no such thing as a Slenderpony," Twilight said. "It's probably just some creep trying to scare everypony with a twisted prank."

"I don't know," Rainbow said, her voice unusually grave. "I am, as you know, the queen of pranks, and this doesn't feel like a prank to me." Rainbow finished off her hot chocolate, resulting in some marshmallow fluff appearing on her nose. "Is Phil working on this?" she asked as she licked it off.

"Yeah, he's been in his lab all day," Flash said. "He—"

Suddenly, there came shouting from outside. Looking out the window, they saw several ponies hurrying down the street, shouting in alarm. "What's going on?" Twilight asked, stepping outside with the others to join the crowd. "What's happening?" she shouted to Lyra as she ran past.

"There's a fire!" Lyra shouted, not slowing her pace.

Instantly catching the same feeling of fear and worry as the rest of the crowd, Twilight and her friends surged forward, carried by the crowd.

The smells defied any description. A concoction of chemical odors mixed together in the stale air of the basement of 221 B Boulevard, forming a unique beast of an odor that hung in the air like an unwelcome guest.

Phillip barely noticed it: he was too absorbed in his thoughts. He'd been performing chemical tests on blood, stomach contents and urine samples from Windy Tail's body, and the results were confusing. The only thing he'd been able to determine so far was that before Windy Tail died, he'd been under tremendous stress, resulting in the huge amounts of adrenaline in his blood. Something had scared him terribly before he died, that much was certain.

But he couldn't figure out how he died. He and Dr. Horse both agreed that the unfortunate stallion had died sometime late that night, long before he had wound up in that shed. But neither of them could figure out how. So far, his tests hadn't found any signs of poisons, and no signs of trauma.

And then there was the soil sample he'd taken from his horseshoe. As far as he could tell it was from the last place Windy Tail had visited in life. The soil was consistent with a rocky area in the deeper part of the Everfree Forest. But the curiosity was a few small stones he'd found among the dirt. Brick, a few hundred years old, with rusty steel flakes. That meant a building. A building in the middle of an uninhabitable area.

Frowning, he turned back to the microscope and peered through the lens at the source of his vexation. No, he would not be outsmarted by some specks of dirt and a faceless refugee from a campfire story.

A shiver traveled up and down his spine and he glanced up towards the door, the thought of the Slenderpony stuck in his mind. Instantly, he cursed himself for his foolishness. What was this? Why was he on edge so much, constantly feeling like he was being watched, followed, stalked? And why did it feel...familiar somehow? A picture was starting to form, but too blurry to be recognizable.

He shook his head and took a breath, refocusing. Settle down. Let your emotions go. Get back to work.

And he would have, had he not suddenly frozen, his head snapping up and facing west as his eyes narrowed. Crime: in progress, it felt like. Berry Punch's house. Grabbing his trilby, he dashed upstairs and out the door, joining the tide of other ponies headed for the scene.

But when he turned the corner to Grapevine Way, he froze at what he saw. The house was alight, flames reaching towards the darkening sky, belching smoke in an ever-thickening column. His heart rate accelerated as he felt his limbs freeze to the ground; he was paralyzed by indecision, unable to think as the smell of smoke and burning wood assaulted his nostrils.

"Hey, Phillip!"

He shook himself out of it, roused by Flash's voice. "What's happened?"

"Don't know how the fire started," Flash explained, leading him to Twilight and the others. "But Berry Punch was out, and we got some pegasi on the way with rainclouds so—"

Flash was interrupted by a horrible scream that came from Berry Punch, who was fighting tooth and hoof against Minuette and Carrot Top in a desperate bid to rush into the burning house.

"MY DAUGHTER'S IN THERE!" she screamed.

At that moment, a terrified, high-pitched scream could be heard from the house above the crackling of the flames. The crowd drew in a shocked breath as one.

Except for a pegasus with red mane and tail and cloud white fur. Zipline dashed forward without a moment's hesitation and leapt through a window into the burning house. "Zipline!" Flash shouted, following him into the house.

"Flash! No!" Twilight shouted too late, eyes widening in horror. Phillip surged forward to go after him, but when he got close, the window belched out a gust of flame. Phillip stopped as quickly as if he'd run into a wall, instinctively lowering his head and flattening his ears against his head. He slowly backed up, flames reflecting in his wide eyes, breathing heavily through clenched teeth.

He couldn't do it. He couldn't go in there. He had to wait.

Inside the house, Zipline and Flash paused to orient themselves. The living room was already ablaze, flames dancing up the walls and along the ceiling, which was beginning to strain under its own weight. "Up the stairs!" Zipline shouted, already following the wall through the thick smoke. Flash followed, keeping low to try to avoid the majority of the smoke, which was already beginning to burn his throat. Berry Pinch's screams and cries for help could be heard from upstairs, guiding the Guards forward. Finding the stairs, they both flew up to the upper floor.

"Where are you?" Zipline shouted, coughing on smoke.

"Here! Help me!" the filly screamed from the hallway up ahead. Zipline surged forward, focused on the hallway. Flash went to follow, but heard a cracking above them and looked up to see the ceiling above giving way!

"Look out!" he shouted, pulling Zipline back just in time to avoid the flaming debris toppling down where he had just been. Zipline turned to thank Flash, but stopped when he looked out the window. He froze, his eyes widening and his jaw dropping open in an expression of terror. Flash turned to look and he, too, froze at what he saw.

Standing in the snow-covered backyard grape orchard, illuminated by flames and his body partially hidden behind the shriveled vines, was the Slenderpony, staring up at them through the window. His eyeless gaze bored into the stallions, locking into them, freezing them in place; they could only helplessly stare back at the faceless monster, shivers traveling up and down their bodies despite the heat of the fire.

A scream from Berry Pinch snapped them back to the present situation. "Come on!" Flash shouted, flying over the debris blocking the way and heading down the hall, which was quickly being turned into a flaming tunnel. A still-shaken Zipline followed, glancing back out the window to find that Slenderpony had vanished.

"Help!" Berry screamed from behind a door at the end of the hall. A door that had a chair pressed up against it so that she couldn't get out. And a familiar symbol carved onto it: a circle with an X through it. Wasting no time, Flash grabbed the chair and tossed it aside, yanking the door open. Berry Pinch cried out in shock at the sudden entry, instinctively cowering away from her would-be rescuer into a corner.

"It's okay," Flash said, approaching with a hoof out to her. "We're going to get you out of here." After a moment more of hesitation, Berry took his hoof and allowed Flash to lift her up onto his back, where she promptly buried her face into her mane. He turned to leave, but when he looked at the doorway, he staggered back with a shocked gasp.

Slenderpony was standing in the doorway, blocking his path, framed by flames that cast shadows over his body, which twitched and flickered like an image from a projector. Tentacles sprouted from the monster's back and he loomed over Flash and the filly. Shaking in terror, Flash slowly backed away.

"Flash, come on!" Zipline called, unable to understand why his fellow Guard had suddenly frozen up. "We gotta get out of here!" He took a step forward to try to urge them on. In Flash's view, Slenderpony stepped forward into the room, seeming to glide on his long legs, tentacles reaching out for him. With a cry of terror, Flash whirled and jumped towards the bedroom window, smashing through it. The sudden rush of air pulled a gust of flames down the burning hallway towards the open window. Zipline sprinted forward, staying just ahead of the flames as he too, leapt to safety, spreading his wings to glide back down to the ground. His tail was scorched by the hot air, but other than that, he was fortunately untouched.

Meanwhile, when Flash jumped out the window in a panic, he momentarily forgot that he had wings and tumbled towards the ground. Somehow, he managed to twist in midair to land on his back in the snowy ground, hugging Berry to his chest to avoid hurting her. Getting up as soon as he hit the ground, he guided Berry away from the burning house and the monster inside it.

"Mom!" Berry cried out when she spotted her mother and immediately hurled herself into her forelegs. Berry Punch sobbed in relief as she hugged her, thanking Flash and Zipline through her tears. Above, a group of pegasi, led by Rainbow Dash and Ditzy Do, flew over, pushing several rain clouds ahead of them. They placed the clouds over the house and began to jump up and down on them, drenching the house in rainwater. Within moments, the fire was extinguished with a drawn-out hiss, leaving a scorched, partially destroyed ruin behind.

Unable to take the tension anymore, Phillip ran forward and grabbed Flash's shoulders in relief. The two stared at each other for a moment, Flash's surprise and confusion momentarily penetrating his panic, Phillip looking at him in wide-eyed relief. A moment later, Phillip released him and backed away.

"Flash!" Twilight shouted, flying over to him and hugging him in relief before noticing his panic. "What happened?"

"Slenderpony!" Flash said, almost shouting. "He was there!"

"Yeah!" Zipline said. "I saw him too!"

"Slenderpony?!" somepony screamed. The next moment, the crowd turned into a stampede as everypony ran screaming. Twilight's calls for calm went ignored, washed away amidst the panic. Within moments, the streets were clear of everypony except Phillip, Flash, and the six mares. Flash was still breathing heavily, trembling down to the end of his tail.

"Flash?" Twilight said. "Are you okay?"

Flash shook his head, cringing. "No!" he said. "I saw it! I saw that thing! He's real!" Fluttershy gave a little cry of fear and ran to hide behind a nearby tree.

Twilight reached out to touch his shoulder. "Flash, maybe you saw something and you thought it—"

"No!" Flash snapped. "I saw him, clear as I'm seeing you! You can't tell me it's just somepony in a costume now!"

"Flash, calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Flash shouted at her.

"Enough!" Phillip said sharply before Twilight could form an angry retort. "This isn't helping. Both of you take a breath." Flash and Twilight both glared at him for a moment before taking a deep breath in and out to calm themselves. They still continued to give each other icy glares, however.

"Twilight, I want you to do something for me," Phillip said. He stepped close and whispered something in her ear. She looked confused at his request, but nodded and immediately turned to fly back to the castle. "Flash, come help me check the scene. The rest of you, see if you can do anything to calm everypony down."

"Oki-doki-loki!" Pinkie Pie said, already heading out. The other mares (except for Fluttershy, who slunk off to find someplace safer to hide) also split up. Flash and Phillip walked towards the burned out house.

"I'm sorry, Flash," Phillip whispered.

"What?" Flash said.

"Nothing," Phillip said quickly. "Let's—"

He was interrupted by the sound of a raven cawing. Looking up, he saw the bird take off from a nearby tree and fly up into the sky. Phillip's head turned to follow it's progress, his eyes narrowing.

"What is it?" Flash asked.

Phillip grunted. "Nothing." He turned back to the house, subconsciously clenching his jaw.

Author's Notes:

Things are moving fast. Phillip is onto something...

More coming.