A mysterious pony draws you deep into the Everfree Forest. Seems legit.
Friendship is 8-bit: Story of the Blanks is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fan-made game made in the style of traditional 8-bit games.It follows Applebloom as she wanders away from Twilight Sparkle in the Everfree Forest and happens upon a village (called Sunny Town) full of ponies preparing for a party. She's invited to come in and enjoy herself, and aside from the fact that none of them have Cutie Marks or even know what Cutie Marks are, everything seems wonderful and straightforward......until she discovers what lies within the fireplace, and learns of their terrible secret.The game isn't very long (if you don't die, you could finish in ten minutes), but still a great play, and even won Equestria-Gaming's "Creepy Game" contest. Play it for free here (deviantART) or here (Newgrounds).Watch a Let's Play by TGWTG's CRhere.Not to be confused with The Blank, and no such Blanks appear in the game.An unnoficial HD remake is also in the works.
Story of the Blanks contains examples of the following tropes:
A Fête Worse Than Death: A subversion. The townsponies never intended to kill someone during the party, but Ruby's Cutie Mark appearing forced their hooves. Apple Bloom discovering this forces their hooves again.
Big "NO!"/Little “No”: Applebloom's reaction to finding Ruby's bones in the fireplace.
Blessed with Suck: Since the ponies in Sunny Town murdered those with cutie marks and those indicated you had discovered your special talent, the only way not to be murdered was by never figuring out what you were best at.
Blood On These Hooves: Mitta holds herself personally responsible for Ruby's death due to her failure to intervene and prevent the other townsponies from killing her.
Burn the Witch!: Clearly what these ponies thought when they saw that magnifying glass.
Call It Karma: The entire town is cursed into becoming Nightmares for what happened to Ruby.
Colon Cancer: Before the game's title was changed to Friendship is 8-bit: Story of the Blanks, it was My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Story of the Blanks.
Creepypasta: Called as such in the Newgrounds and Deviantart descriptions.
Curiosity Killed the Cast: Albeit in a different sense. Ruby's magnifying glass cutie mark, based on her knack for finding things, triggered the village into killing her.
Fetch Quest: This is how it starts out, but then...
Foreshadowing: Zecora tells Twilight and Apple Bloom to get out of the forest before it gets dark. And then along comes Ruby...
Fluorescent Hoofprints: Apple Bloom follows some of these, presumably created by Ruby, to escape from the Nightmares (temporarily).
Freudian Excuse: The Cutie Pox supplies one for the townsponies.
From Bad to Worse: As you first start playing, it seems like a straightforward find-and-give game, though just a little bit ominous. Then Applebloom looks into the fireplace...
Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Nightmares' and Ruby's sprites suggest this, although the latter is a friendly character.
Groundhog Day Loop: It's heavily implied that every year the town's last party is acted out as it happened then, and everypony (except Mitta) just pretends that nothing is wrong in order to entice new visitors in.
Idiot Ball: Let's face it Apple Bloom, leaving your guardian to follow some random pony into a haunted forest wasn't the best idea you've ever had.
Of course, this is Apple Bloom we're talking about. Doesn't sound at all improbable she would pull a stunt like that.
Interface Spoiler: Once Applebloom enters Sunny Town, the text boxes' border design changes, possibly hinting that something isn't quite right about the place. The borders go back to normal after Applebloom and Twilight Sparkle leave the forest, but the narration at the end still uses the alternate design.
Level Editor: An Easter Egg, it can be accessed by pressing the home and end keys during the game, and is only visible if you resize the window to be taller than it is wide (which is only possible if you're viewing the SWF file itself, whether online or a downloaded copy).
Noodle Incident: Apple Bloom tells a humorous story to Twilight about what happened with her friends that apparently involved them being "Cutie Mark Crusaders Park Rangers", but since Twilight doesn't care, we only hear part of it.
Applebloom: Every. Single. One.
Nothing Is Scarier: The enemies are completely black when you first encounter them, and there are a few screens where the ground is completely black. There are no invisible enemies in these these "black ground" screens, but try telling your mind that.
Palette Swap: Apparently done just to mimic the NES's style. Three Leaf (her overworld sprite in particular) looks like a palette swap of Pinkie Pie, although Pinkie doesn't actually appear in the game.
Parting Words Regret: One of the Nightmares, Mitta, laments about not protecting Ruby when she had the chance, and being forced to share in the fate of the rest of the townsponies.
The Reveal: Everything seems okay in Sunny Town, but once Apple Bloom follows Ruby into her house and looks in the fireplace, she sees the burnt remains of her skeleton. Ruby later tells Apple Bloom that she was killed by the other townsponies after she received her cutie mark.
Scenery Gorn: The village when everything's revealed, the Retraux style doesn't lessen the impact at all.
It's probably not an accident that it looks so similar to Glitch City.
Interestingly, the most well-known Glitch City of Pokémon Generation 1 was given the Fan Nickname "Sunny Town" before a town with the same name appeared in the anime.
However, the creator of the game hasstatedthatStory of the Blanks most likely won't have any direct sequels or prequels (but it will probably be referenced in his future FiM games).
Stepford Suburbia: Although Sunny Town is technically more of a rural hamlet. It still fits the trope.
Stupidity Is the Only Option: Upon encountering the fallen logs, the only way to make the game progress is to wander off away from Twilight, then follow a mysterious figure into the depths of the forest.
Surprise Creepy: As soon as Apple Bloom looks in that fireplace.
Wham Line: "The Curse had befallen her this very night. She had the Mark! She had to go!"
Also, "Don't worry. You will never become like her. We will protect you... F O R E V E R."
What The Hell, Townsponies?: The entire town turned against and murdered a young pony when they saw she had received a Cutie Mark, thinking it was a bad omen.
Willing Suspension of Disbelief: What makes Story of the Blanks so disturbing is the very firm possibility that it could happen in the show, given the mysterious and unsafe nature of the Everfree Forest.
(deviantART) or here
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