//------------------------------// // Let's Play "Story of the Blanks" Pt. 2 // Story: Button Mash's Let's Play Channel // by Servomoore //------------------------------// Button Mash's Let's Play Channel LET'S PLAY: STORY OF THE BLANKS Pt. 2 Note: This story obviously contains Story of the Blanks spoilers. "Alright, alright! I'll pay the other half of the game! I've heard all of you making fun of me for getting stuck halfway through! You're all jerks!" On that less-than-ingratiating note began Button Mash's second video for his Let's Play channel. He'd been too discouraged by the bad traffic at first to continue making videos. When his video suddenly became somewhat popular, he saw that it was because fillies and foals were making fun of him for playing the game badly and was too embarrassed for two weeks to follow it up. Now three weeks after he posted his first video he was going to try and make things right as best he could. He skipped impatiently through the opening dialogue even faster than he had the first time. It didn't occur to him to just cut that part out of the video. But that was to be expected considering he was unaware that the webcam footage of him still wasn't appearing in the video. "Yeah, yeah, yeah." Button said in response to all the Apple Bloom and Twilight Sparkle's text. He really began to lose it halfway through the trek to Zecora's house in the forest. "COME ON!" He yelled at the game. He seemed to inch along to the part of the path where the trees had fallen. Finally, he saw the sprite for the pony he had thought was Mrs. Hooves ran into the forest. " Okay, Snips told me I'm supposed to follow her here." Button Mash said. "So if it's an instant game over, he's a jerk!" Button had Apple Bloom's sprite follow the gray sprite into the forest. He was a bit taken aback when he saw the new screen. "Woah, this place looks really dark," Button observed, "I really hope something doesn't just show up and kill Apple Bloom." Twilight Sparkle and Apple Bloom had naturally told everyone about their weird involuntary journey to the the Everfree Forest, although word hadn't gotten to Button Mash as he was hardly the most social of ponies. If Button Mash had waited only one week or maybe two, then the ponies would have been on the alert that something strange could happen to Apple Bloom and Twilight at any time. They would have been followed as the game took control of the two pony's movements and had them converge on a path in Ponyville that led to the Everfree Forest. But as it was, by three weeks their guard was down, and the Twilight and Apple Bloom found themselves moving about under the game's control without anyone catching on but the two of them. Once again Twilight found herself telling Apple Bloom she was going to the Everfree Forest and Apple Bloom was begged to go along without wanting to. They spoke quickly as Button Mash was skipping through the dialogue as he made his video. Their trek through the forest was practically spastic, impatient as Button Mash was. When they arrived at Zecora's house, she once more came out and said the game dialogue to them and then went back inside. The pair then went down the same path where weeks ago they'd encountered the fallen trees. Apple Bloom once more turned and saw the gray mare enter the forest, and this time, she followed. When she did so, the game loosed its control on Twilight Sparkle. It had no use for her for several levels. "Sweet Celestia, that was awful." Twilight said as she felt herself regain control of her muscles and ability to speak. She turned from the barricade of logs to where it roughly sounded like Apple Bloom had entered the forest. "Apple Bloom! Bloom, where are you?" In her panic, despite the multitude of dangers the Everfree Forest offered at night, Twilight ran into the dense foliage. There was not a sign of the filly anywhere to be seen. Suddenly, a wild cockatrice appeared! It was in front of her! It screeched and it's eyes glowed red, unleashing it's pernicious petrifaction powers! "There's no time for that!" Twilight yelled as she clapped her hooves down on its shoulders, catching it off guard and dimming its eyes. "Look. did you see a filly come through here: Yellow with red hair and a bow?" It shook its head and before it had its wits about it, Twilight was tearing off in another direction after the missing filly. "I hate this level, this forest is too dark and creepy." Button Mash commented. When Button Mash found himself in a village level, he perked up. "Oh, that's better! Hey, there's a character!" Button Mash went to the closest character. "Sunny Town? Must be a nice place. What's going on over at those tables?" "Uh, nothing, I guess. That's dumb. Tables should have things on them. Hey, another character!" "What's she talking abo- wait, does she have a crush? Gross." Not wanting to stick around the icky mare with a crush, Button Mash hurried over to the next visible character, although the novelty was beginning to wear off. "What's this colt's problem?" "Oh no, he's the one she's crushing on?! Ugh. Wait, I'm not gonna-" "A fetch quest! You stupid game!" Apple Bloom would have been paralyzed with fear if she still had control over her muscles. This was so much worse than when she'd had the cutie pox. She'd been scared ever since some mysterious magic took control of her movements, horrified when she left Mrs. Sparkle for the darkness of the forest, but this was the worst. The unnatural sunlight was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. It was sickly and wrong. It felt as if a pestilential sun provided that light and heat. She couldn't speak as Button Mash unknowingly guided her through the level. She completed the fetch quest without even noticing what was happening. All could think about was how the voices of the ponies she was encountering in the village. To Button Mash it was only more of the same text, but to her their voices sounded hollow and wrong. They sounded like a machine making voices, as if that magic music machine she'd once heard Vinyl Scratch use when she visited Ponyville was being used to make voices. Apple Bloom hated that sound more than the shriek of a cockatrice, and could do nothing but hope it would all soon be over. Button Mash finished the fetch quest without incident. Then he completed a block pushing puzzle after only four restarts. He avoided talking to any other ponies out of concern they'd send him on another fetch quest as he passed through the village. "They always have the important house somewhere away from all the others." Button Mash said to the webcam to explain why he was just walking through a village level without checking any of the houses. When Apple Bloom was at the last house, Button Mash figured the well must have been important or else the gamemaker wouldn't have bothered to include it, not like that foolishness with the tables. He retrieved the item. And went into the cottage. It was almost empty except for a table, which Button Mash found was once again non-interactive. "I already said tables should have things on them, you dumb game! So now what? There's got to be something somewhere in here..." Button Mash pushed Apple Bloom's icon against the walls until she reached the fireplace. "Oh yeah, the fireplace. Like I'm just supposed to know that! Dumb game..." Back out in the Village in Everfree Forest and yet not at all in Everfree Forest, Apple Bloom saw the contents of the fireplace. It was a filly skeleton with red bones in the black coal dust. Button Mash hadn't let her talk to the mysterious ponies outside that might have given her insight into what was happening, but that hardly mattered as far as her fear went. For the first time, the game's emotions reflected her own, although inadequately. "No no no no!" Apple Bloom yelled. The unnatural light gave way to darkness. Pitch darkness, save for a shaft of infernal red light that poured from. The aired filled with a ghastly noise. It sounded like the shuffling approach of some horrible being coming through a deafeningly loud but heavily distorted speaker. Apple Bloom wished stronger than she'd ever wished for anything in her life that the whatever controlled her movement would take her out of that cottage. "Is that a skeleton!? Ah!" When the screen went black around Apple Bloom except for a shaft of red light, Button Mash didn't take the situation any better than the real Apple Bloom did hers. "AAAAAAUUUGGGHH!" He shrieked. In fact he dropped the controller and backed away into the corner. If his webcam had been recording footage of him, he would have been a target of every bully at school the next day for how wimpy he seemed. He waited for the gave's weird sound to end, hoping it would be either a game over or a cut scene which would end quickly. When it became clear that the sound was looping, he crawled back to the screen. He saw that Apple Bloom was still standing there, seemingly okay, with only one thing to do. "I don't like scary games! They're... they're too scary!" Mash whined as he controlled Apple Bloom back through the level to the village. When he reached it and saw what a black, decayed ruin it was, he became so scared the blades on his beanie spun like a helicopter. "IT WAS A GHOST TOWN ALL ALONG!" Mash screamed. He tried to dash through it. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Mash responded. He made little progress before the next cut scene began. "IT'S A ZOMBIE! IT PROBABLY WANTS TO EAT MY BRAIN" Mash yelled. He'd completely forgotten about doing game commentary or anything and just wanted to get out of that village. "Button!" came the voice of Button's mother through the door, "are you playing a scary game before bed time!?" "N-n-no, Mom!" Button answered, his fear of the video game completely overwhelmed by his fear of his mom's disapproval. "Keep it down anyway: Your father has a big day at the glue factory tomorrow and needs his rest." Button's mother went back downstairs after that, allowing him to return to being scared of the game. Out in the undead village of Sunny Town, Apple Bloom was standing hooves away from a black pony skeleton with red light emitting from its eye sockets. It was speaking in a dead digital language to her, not that Apple Bloom would have listened anyway. While she couldn't so much as twitch her nose unless the game wanted her to, her spirit inside her body was desperately trying to leave her body through her backside and sprint off to anywhere these ghosts were not. She was not successful enough at this. "I don't care what you have to say!" Mash whispered loudly as he skipped through the dialogue, "Get me out of here!" Knowing Apple Bloom as well as he did by proxy through Sweetie Belle, he knew she'd never stand a chance in a fight against any zombie tougher than a dandelion and steered her out of the village. He made a hushed squeak when he saw another zombie coming for him, skipping through its dialogue. "Comeoncomeoncomeoncomeon!" Mash said as he just barely pushed the rock out of the way in time to escape. At least it felt like it was just barely in time. His legs began to spasm against the floor and his heart tried to beat its way out of his chest. On the next screen, he ran into another cut scene where a zombie had something to say to him. He skipped through the dialogue without reading a word. "I already said I don't care! You zombies talk each other to death!? I just want out!" On the next screen, he barely kept from shrieking as a mass of zombies came out of the red ground to pursue him. "Sorry game, I didn't mean that!" Button steered her as best he could through seemingly endless ranks of zombies springing up from the ground. It was fortunate that he'd set the game on easy mode though he'd never admit that he'd done so while being recorded. "When is this gonna end?!" Button whimpered as he went through the last screen with zombies on it. When he reached a screen with black ground, he squeaked again. "Now I can't see the path! Are there more?" Cautiously he guided the filly sprite through the black levels, but didn't encounter anything but a trail of red glowing spots on the ground. He was soon upon a familiar figure. "Mrs. Hooves is gonna save me? I am so dead!" But then he reached the sprite. "Ruby? Who's Ruby? That must be Mrs. Hooves's middle name." Still a dialogue skipper, Button didn't read any of the dialogue for the next scene. Red zombies appeared around them suddenly and began to close in. "Save me, Mrs. Hooves! You're a pegasus! HEEEEELLLPP!" A white halo appeared on the corner of the screen which then drifted to over the two pony sprites as the zombies were almost upon them. "What's that!?!" Button asked as the screen flashed white, and then he was on a new screen. It certainly looked less scary than the previous levels. Then a familiar figure appeared. "Yay, Mrs. Sparkle! Now she's a real hero! That must have been her magical circle thing!" Button's happiness that Twilight Sparkle was there didn't keep him from skipping through the dialogue. He cheered immediately after when he saw Apple Bloom and Twilight leave the forest. "Yaaaay! I won! I beat the game!" He was too busy cheering to pay attention to the game until he was back at the title screen. He looked into the webcam. "So, that was a weird game. It was really hard, too! It could have been more fun and I would have liked it if it was less scary. So please like and and subscribe for more videos! Bye everypony!" Button Mash turned the game off. Out in the Everfree Forest, a place called Sunny Town and those who dwelt in it once more winked out of existence. A pony and filly on the outskirts of that forest found themselves in control of their bodies once again, and as soon as they did, Apple Bloom convulsed from the many muscle cramps and shrieked in panic. She was naturally an order of magnitude worse than she had been three weeks earlier, so much so that Twilight became both afraid for her and afraid of coming near her. That fear doubled when Apple Bloom began flailing about and bucking at random. She looked like she'd practically gone feral. "Apple Bloom, calm down! It's okay now! Calm. Down." Twilight yelled, which apparently calmed Apple Bloom enough to speak coherently instead of shrieking. "Et was terrible! There was a village, an' it was fulla ghosts and zombies!" Even to someone as acquainted with monsters and the unpredictability of the Everfree Forest as Twilight, that sounded like Apple Bloom's imagination running away from her. "You're not making sense, calm down." Twilight said as reassuringly as she could. "They were all talkin' in creepy voices, et was bright, a skeleton in a fireplace! And there was Mrs. Hooves! I don't..." Apple Bloom plomped awkwardly down on her haunches, almost fell over, and began just sobbing. Twilight hesitated a moment, unsure if she might start trembling herself and manage to make it worse, but then she took a few steps over to hug Apple Bloom. "Hey, hey. We'll get to the bottom of this. It'll be alright." Apple Bloom glared her angriest up at the unicorn in response. "HOW DO YA KNOW!? ET GOT YA'LL TOO! ET'S MAGIC IS STRONGER THAN YOURS! YA DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!" Twilight stopped dead at that. "Knowing" was one of her deepest passions, after all. She thought for a moment. Apple Bloom's expression faltered, her clearly desperate for an answer beneath the need to have lashed out. Twilight sighed. "I don't know. But it doesn't hurt me to hope." Apple Bloom sniffed deeply, and offered her forelegs to Twilight, wanting a hug. Twilight obliged, and then the pair went to their homes.