Story of the Blanks

A mysterious pony draws you deep into the Everfree Forest. Seems legit.

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 they 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 Equestra-Gaming's "Creepy Game" contest. Play it for free here or here. Watch a Let's Play by TGWTG's CR here.

Not to be confused with The Blank, and no such Blanks appear in the game.

Tropes used in Story of the Blanks include:

• Action Survivor: Applebloom.
• A Fete Worse Than Death: A subversion. The townsponies never intended to kill someone during the party, but Ruby's Cutie Mark appearing forced their hooves.
• All There in the Script: The Level Editor reveals a few names and identities:
  • The zombie ponies are called Nightmares.
    • The skeletal Nightmares are called Bone Fiends.
  • The fast Nightmare is Starlet, making her a case of Beware the Quiet Ones.
  • The two Nightmares who appear with Roneo at the front of Sunny Town are both also Roneo, which may be a case of Self-Duplication.
• The Atoner: Mitta.
• Back from the Dead: All of the residents in Sunny Town.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: The Level Editor reveals that the fast Nightmare is Starlet. According to the creator of the game, "Since she was otherwise so calm and reserved, it only made sense to make her insanely quick."
• Big Damn Heroes: Twilight Sparkle finds and rescues Applebloom before the Nightmares can catch her.
• Big No/Little No: Applebloom's reaction to 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.
• Call It Karma: The entire town is cursed into becoming Nightmares for what happened to Ruby.
• Comic Book Adaptation: here (fanmade, but approved by the creator of the game). The creator of the comic has stated that the comic will continue beyond the story of the game (which has also been approved by the creator of the game).
• Crap Saccharine World: The town Applebloom finds.
• Creepypasta
• 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.
• Cursed with Awesome: Cutie marks are treated like a curse in Sunny Town, even though they just marked awareness of your special talent. The thing you were awesome at. However, with the episode "The Cutie Pox" now out, it becomes more horrifying in that they may have had an actual, semi-justified reason.
• Cute Ghost Girl: Ruby.
• Darker and Edgier
• Dark Fic: An odd example, as even though it's a generally dark story, it still seems to follow the themes and tone established in the show.
• Dead All Along: Ruby, and the rest of the town.
• Dead Little Sister: Ruby might be a surrogate one to Mitta.
• Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: In terms of gameplay, anyway...
• Deliberately Monochrome: Apple Bloom's escape sequence, to unnerving effect.
• Easter Egg: The Level Editor.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies
• Fan Sequel: The fanmade Comic Book Adaptation will continue beyond the story of the game.
• Fetch Quest
• Foreshadowing: Zecora tells Twilight and Applebloom 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.
• 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 (save Mitta) just pretends that nothing is wrong in order to entice new visitors in.
• Idiot Ball: Let's face it Applebloom, leaving your guardian to follow some random pony into a haunted forest wasn't the best idea you've ever had.
  • It was almost a Curiosity Killed The Cat situation.
• 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.
• It Got 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...
• Killed Off for Real: Ruby, which is a central plot point.
  • Also Apple Bloom if you can't dodge the Nightmares and escape town.
• Kill the Cutie: Poor Ruby.
• 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).
• The Lost Woods: Everfree Forest.
• Lost World: Sunny Town.
• Mood Whiplash: As soon as you check the fireplace.
  • Also the sudden switch from the the frightening and narrow escape to the cheerful and bubbly theme song over pastel-colored credits is extremely jarring.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Mitta.
• Nightmare Fuel: Just thinking about this game after playing it can make the effect it had more worse.
• Noodle Incident: Applebloom tells a humorous story to Twilight about what happened with her friends that apparently involved them being "Cutie Mark Crusaders Park Rangers".

Applebloom: Every. Single. One.

• Novelization: Here (fanmade, but approved by the creator of the game).
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Touching the Nightmares is instant-death.
• 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.
• Prophet Eyes: Ruby.
• 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 and realizes that she was killed by the other town ponies after she received her cutie mark.
• Redemption Equals Death: This is subverted with Mitta.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Nightmares have these.
• Retraux: Down to the graphical limitations!
• 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.
• Self-Duplication: The Level Editor reveals that the two Nightmares who appear with Roneo at the front of Sunny Town are both also Roneo.
• Sequel Hook/The End - or Is It?:
  • "See you later."
  • The ending narration below.
  • However, the creator of the game has stated that Story of the Blanks most likely won't have any direct sequels or prequels (but it will probably be referenced in his future FiM games).
  • The fanmade Comic Book Adaptation has a bigger one, setting up its continuation.
• Stepford Suburbia
• Surprise Creepy
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: An extreme case.
• These Are Things Ponies Are Not Meant To Know

"Thoughout Equestria, relics of the past lay forgotten and alone, never truly resting, awaiting recognition..."

• Together in Death: This is subverted with Mitta and Ruby, along with the other town ponies.
• Town with a Dark Secret
• Wham! Line: "The Curse had befallen her this very night. She had the Mark! She had to go!"
• 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.