Chapters Rain, that was all that was on his mind at the moment. Something that was disliked by people he knew was something he loved. He focused on the kind and gentle pitter-patter of the rain hitting his window in order to pass the time. As usual, he had to rely on something to keep him thinking until something intriguing happened. He was always doing this, and very rarely doing anything else. He almost never hung out with others, mainly because they all felt like the same person. The people out there, at least the ones he actually knew, were all happy, carefree, and acted better then everybody else. They always said that solitude wasn't good for someone's social life, but Henry didn't care. In fact he loved the lonely, quiet, and almost abandoned feel of his home. To many, he was an odd case that nobody could solve. Simply because he never let anyone know to much about him. He was always careful and smart, but everyone just felt odd around him. Some said he wasn't right in the head, others said he was to quiet, and others just thought he was acting like this in order to be left alone. He was the one that stuck out from the crowd.
"Hello? is anyone home?" Henry heard from the his front door along with some knocking. He was knocked out of his trance and sat up quickly, as if startled by the noise of the voice at the door. He had looked around quickly to make sure everything was alright, he nodded in satisfaction, and headed to the front door. The hallway wallpaper was dim and torn, the furniture looked old, but was quite comfy, and his kitchen was actually quite pleasant. It was kept clean with everything in place. He quickly swiped an apple from the bowl sitting on the counter and headed to the door. Once he opened it, he expected to see a woman, maybe around his age due to the voice. However, much to his surprise, there was a girl who seemed to be around seven. So if this were true, she was ten years younger then him.
"Hello," Henry said quietly. "Can I help you?" he asked slightly louder. The two remained quiet for a moment, but finally the child broke the silence.
"My ball is stuck in the tree," She said with a saddened tone as she pointed at the tree in his front yard with her folded umbrella. "Can you help me get it?" She asked. Judging on her looks, it seemed like she was about to use the puppy-dog eyes him. He could have easily said no and left her either way, but he didn't want more people criticizing him.
"Sure," He said will taking a bite out of his apple. "Just give me minute." Henry walked over to the tree with an emotionless face, and looked up at the tree. He nearly cracked a smile due to the fact that the ball had a blue stripe running through the middle. It also had the other remaining areas filled in with yellow, along with a nice, bright red star sitting within the yellow. As he prepped himself to jump into the tree, the girl called to him.
"Mister!" she cried, as if something important had just arose.
"Hmm?" He said as he turned to see her once more.
"Don't you need an umbrella or sweater?! You'll get sick!" She screamed. Henry rolled his eyes and faked his smile.
"Don't worry, just let me get the ball for you, okay?" The girl nodded with a concerned look upon her face. Henry turned his attention back to the tree, put his apple in his mouth, and jumped for a branch. Much to the girls surprise, instead of going for the lowest branch, he went for a higher branch. He seemed to grab it and get a firm grip, despite it being soaked by the rain. He swung from the first branch and landed on another, higher branch while using the trunk as a support. Henry then reached for the ball, grabbed it, pulled the apple from his mouth, and jumped from the tree. He didn't take to long, so the job was done within a somewhat small time-frame. "Here you go, little girl." He said with another fake, but convincing smile. As she ran over, Henry could see a large smile just appear on her face.
"Thanks mister!" She said as she took the ball from him, she seemed to be so happy over retrieving her ball that she almost forgot to unfold her umbrella.
"Say," Henry said while biting into his apple that he somehow didn't drop. "How did your ball get into my tree?" He asked while chewing a chunk of his apple. When asked the question, the girl seemed sadden slightly.
"Well, my brother got mad at me for making noise with my ball. So he took a baseball bat and hit it over here." She said motioning her head to the house across the street. This surprised Henry, not for the fact that her brother would do this, but the fact that he didn't notice that she lived there.
"Well, maybe next time you could try to be quieter. You wouldn't want your brother to do worse to that ball, now would you?" Henry was pleased that she promised to be more careful with the way she played. When she waved goodbye to Henry, she quickly ran back to her house, and was now safe at home. Henry's smile immediately died when she was out of sight. He then turned back to his house, closed and locked the door behind him, and prepared dinner.
While his food was cooking, he went to go see how his room was doing and wanted to know if the girl had gotten into his room. The idea wasn't totally bogus since it was a fairly small house, and that anyone could get to his room pretty quickly. The time he spent getting the ball, despite how quick he was, was still enough time to get to his room, look around, and get back outside. Luckily though, everything seemed to be untouched. His posters of video games, his video games, his computer, and most importantly, his my little pony figures. Though he didn't have many, and though they weren't the most valuable things in the room, he still tried to keep it a secret. He only had a Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Applejack figures because those characters were his favorites. He always went far away to get the toys so that nobody would recognize him as the only guy in town to get these kinds of toys.
He then returned to the kitchen in order to check the chicken he had placed in the oven and corn he had been boiling. Oddly, he must have been gone much longer then he thought since they were already done. He soon served himself to some alongside and sat down in front of the TV. When he turned it on though, he was greeted with a very unexpected surprise. There, on his television screen, was Princess Celestia. At the moment he saw her face appear on his screen, he froze. His expression failed to change, but this didn't mean he was shocked. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and kept eye contact with the screen. Another thing that surprised him was that she was examining his house, or at least examined what she could see.
"What an interesting home." She said as she brought her hoof to her muzzle.
"Is this some sort of joke?" Henry asked calmly as he slowly lowered himself onto his couch. He continued to stare at the pony Princess until she began to speak once more.
"Oh, my apologies. Allow me to introduce myself, I a-"
"Princess Celestia, mover of the sun, and co-ruler of Equestria." Henry answered for her. Her eyes widened, but quickly returned to normal size.
"So, you must be one of those "bronies" I have heard about. Correct?" She asked with a gentle smile.
"Yes, I am a brony. But that doesn't matter right now. Why are you in my television?" He asked, narrowing his eyes a little more. Celestia giggled to herself, but elaborated quickly.
"You see, I had recently discovered a spell created by the legendary magician, Star-Swirl the Bearded. It required a great amount of magic to use, but if one was able to actually use it, they would be able to open portals to other worlds." She stated while inspecting Henry's face for any type of reaction. It appeared that he was confused by the fact that a pony princess just appeared on his television. "All of the other worlds I looked into are uninhabited, but then I found this one."
"And? Why contact me? Why not somebody else?" Henry asked with a blank, almost lifeless tone.
"I always looked for the humans with potential, or those who could use a lesson on friendship. You seem to be an adult, but you don't interact with other humans."
"True, but that is because they all seem like the same person. I just don't like it." Henry said, with slightly more emotion.
"Anyways, you are not the only human I have contacted. I have already given at least nineteen other humans the opportunity." Henry raised an eyebrow at the word "opportunity".
"What do you mean by that? An 'opportunity'?" He asked.
"Ah, yes. I gave all of them the chance to come to Equestria if the want to. I figured that if they didn't want to make friends in their old environment, then maybe they would want to in a new one?" She stopped, as if expecting an answer from him. At this point he had a few questions, but he at least knew which one to ask her first.
"How long have you been keeping an eye on me?" He asked, staring at her intently.
"About a week or so, I did need to keep track of other humans you know." She said. "I always let them make the choice, so you will get the same privilege. Do you wish to stay, or leave for Equestria?" Henry was very surprised by the whole turn of events. So quickly did his life take an odd turn. However, even if this seemed like a silly deal, he had to consider it.
"How many of the other humans accepted your offer?" He asked.
"All of them. They all said that they could not wait to leave their home, shockingly... However, I will tell you that if you accept the offer, there will be a test that is unique to each human awaiting you. I tried to work it out of the spell, but I could not." Princess Celestia stated, sounding disappointed that she failed to make the spell simpler. Henry thought of this for a moment. He decided to press further for info on the "tests" she had mentioned before making a decision.
"What are the tests supposed to be for? Why not just bring them to Equestria immediately?" He asked, moving his arms to shrug at the "useless" mechanic of the spell.
"I believe it is to help somepony learn who they truly are, and I believe everypony is good at the core. As to why it was there, however, I honestly don't have any idea why it is there." The princess said. There was more silence between the human and Alicorn.
'This is to weird... Why is the co-ruler of Equestria talking to me through my TV? Well, if this is offer is legit, I should take it... Equestria would seem to be a preferable place when it's contender is... Here. I feel like there are more opportunities there then here.' Henry continued to think. As he did, time passed, the rain stopped, his food was cold, and Princess Celestia awaited an answer.
"Tell me, how do I pass these tests?" Henry asked, actually beginning to show some emotion.
"I do not know. However, I do know that you must have at least one item or trinket from the tests. You will get to keep the item or items with you when you enter Equestria." Celestia said.
"Well then, I accept the offer. When do I start?" He asked as he stood from the couch, putting on a dark gray jacket and his glasses.
"Whenever you wish." Princess Celestia said as she watched him gobble down his food at rapid speeds, despite it being cold.
"Then how about right now?" He suggested as he finished prepping himself for the trial.
"As you wish. But just remember this. I cannot speak with you when you start and I can only talk to you through this television." She said with concern.
"Okay, I'll be fine. Let's just start the test." He said, giving Celestia a steady glare. She only nodded, and lit up her horn. As the light from her horn extended over to Henry, he began to feel an odd sensation. He felt himself rise from the ground and saw that everything around him was fading. At this, he began to panic slightly. His eyes had widened, he began to sweat slightly, and he began to lose consciousness. The last of his home that he saw, was his television, and Princess Celestia staring at him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Henry began to regain consciousness, he noticed that he was lying against a tree that seemed to have no leaves on it. With further investigation it looked like he was in a front yard of sorts where all of the trees were bare. He noticed that the house seemingly hidden behind the trees was that of a mansion. It had a pure white color for the walls of the outside, and it had an orange roof. Henry narrowed his eyes, practically hitting himself that he couldn't remember where he had seen all of this before. As he continued to look over the mansion, but stopped when he heard what sounded like people talking coming from behind him. As he turned to see them, his eyes had widened fully to realize where he was and what was about to occur. They didn't seem to notice him, so he hid behind one of the large, bare trees in order to listen in on them.
"Is this really the place, Takeshi?" The one with red hair asked the blonde one. He seemed to be wearing a red jacket and black jeans. He also had a small chain hanging from his pocket, along with some odd white splotch marks on his jacket. "It doesn't look that scary to me."
"W-well Takuro, I-it looks creepy to me..." Takeshi said with a tone that dripped with fear. This one had a black t-shirt on underneath a thick white jacket. His pants were somewhat short and had an odd green coloration. "M-m-maybe we s-should head back... Right, Mika?" He asked while looking over at the only girl of the group.
"It doesn't really look scary, maybe a little creepy though." She said. Mika had long brown hair kept in a pony-tail. She had a pink shirt and a small white and pink jacket over it. She also had purple short shorts along with long black stockings, and some brown heels. "What do you think, Hiroshi?" She asked with an almost happy tone.
"So stupid..." he said while adjusting his glasses by pushing the bridge with his middle finger. He seemed to have silver hair and was wearing what Henry assumed to be his school uniform. He also had a very long white scarf that was rapped around his neck and hanging down from directly behind him and in front of him. He also seemed to be wearing brown shoes. "There is no monster, it is scientifically impossible. Not to mention this mansion isn't even scary. It doesn't look sinister in the slightest." He said with confidence in his voice.
'I can't believe I'm here...' Henry thought to himself while trying desperately not laugh due to how much he was loving the situation. As he looked around quietly, he saw a note at his feet. Without picking it up, he read from the paper, "Protect the silver haired child". As he stared at the note, he realized what he needed to do in order to pass the test, and this made him giggle with glee. With this, he gave away his position. The group of friends he was spying on spun towards him in surprise.
"Show yourself!" Hiroshi shouted pointing at the tree Henry was hiding behind. Not long after, Henry stepped out from behind the tree slowly, while still giggling slightly. He had an ominous smile spread across his face as he looked over Hiroshi and his group.
"You say that this mansion doesn't look sinister?" Henry asked, with some happiness in his voice.
"Hmm?" Hiroshi reply. That was all he could come up with. For him, the situation had changed drastically in no time at all. One second he was going to prove that nothing was in the mansion, and then he was face to face with a giggling seventeen year old.
"Well, if I may say," Henry said as he calmed down quickly and looked at Hiroshi. "looks can be deceiving."
Author's Note
This story won't revolve around the main character being teleported into Equestria. He is gonna have to work for it. I just hope new readers will give this a chance before brushing it off. There will be mention of Equestria throughout the story nad various conversations with Celestia or the mane six.
There was tension building in the air. Hiroshi and his friends had come face-to-face with some weird guy laughing for no reason whatsoever. Hiroshi looked over the man before him. He had dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, glasses, what seemed to be long, black, baggy pants with three white lines running down the sides of the legs, and an odd gray jacket. At this point, everyone was calm, all except Takeshi. He was shaking even more now and was practically hiding behind Takuro. Mika was rather nervous, but was doing her best to keep calm.
"Who are you?" Mika asked, starting to move to the front of her group. The one in front of her took a small step forward and looked directly at her, causing a rather small chill to run down her spine.
"My name is Henry, I'm quite sorry if I ended up scaring you." He said with a small, but awkward smile. "I thought that you were people planning on mocking me for my interest in the rumors surrounding the mansion." He quickly glanced between everyone in the group before him, expecting a response from one of them.
"Well, I suppose it is okay, but why were you laughing?" Hiroshi asked in a calm manor. Henry stopped and scanned his thoughts for an answer before quickly coming to one.
"Oh, I was just laughing at how silly I was acting when I found out you were only here for the same reason as me." Henry quickly stated as he rubbed the back of his head with an sheepish smile. Takuro and Hiroshi glanced at each other, both suspecting that Henry was lying.
"Well, you don't seem all bad. You can come with us, but don't go messing around with our search." Takuro said, folding his arms across his chest while glaring at Henry.
"I can agree to that." Hiroshi added as he turned for the door.
"That's fine by me." Henry half-whispered raising his arms as if he was defeated. "I just want to see if the rumors are true." He said as he followed the group into the mansion. Much like outside, the walls were a pure white color. The floor was a nice brown color. There was a single flight of stairs, two hallways to the left and right, and finally a locked door sitting next to the stairs.
"It's a lot prettier on the inside..." Takuro said as he continued to slowly turn around in order to take in as much of the house as possible.
"Is it just me, or is it cold in here?" Mika asked as she hugged herself to keep warm, she also began to look over her friends to see if they were feeling the same thing.
"H-hey, let's get out of here..." Takeshi whimpered practically on the floor shaking in fear. Takuro rolled his eyes at his friend being a crybaby once again.
"What's wrong Takeshi, you scared?" Takuro asked sarcastically while readying himself to pounce on his friend. However, before he could scare the life out of his friend, the group heard something coming from the hallway at the entrance's right.
"H-hey, let's just get outta here..." Takeshi whispered while crawling for the door. Hiroshi sighed and looked at the door that the sound came from.
"So stupid..." He murmured as he pushed his glasses into place with his finger once more. "I've said it once and I will say it again. There is no way a monster could exist. It's scientifically impossible." Hiroshi quickly walked towards the door that he was staring at before anyone could answer him. The only one who had followed him was Henry, despite the fact that everyone else stayed behind.
"H-hey! Be careful!" Takeshi shouted as he got to his feet. Henry ignored Takeshi and quickly caught up with Hiroshi who had entered the mansion's kitchen. When Henry got closer, he saw that Hiroshi was examining a shattered plate on the floor. While most of it was in small pieces, there was only one part that was big enough to be held comfortably in one hand.
"So this was the source of the noise?" Henry asked, surprising Hiroshi.
"Oh, yes. It would appear so. I find it odd though, how could this fall to the floor when nothing was here to actually destroy the plate?" Hiroshi asked while eyeing the plate shard that he held. He then stood up and put the shard in his pocket while heading back to the door. "Let's go." Henry followed him, only to find that everyone was gone.
"They're not here." Henry said while looking around. "Where do you think they went?"
"I don't know, but we have to find them. Let's check upstairs." Hiroshi suggested and immediately rushed over to the stairs. Henry, again, had continued to follow Hiroshi. When they reached the top of the stairs they were greeted by a single black door with another door just like it on the same wall, but quite a ways away. Between the two doors, however, was a drawing the was made from what appeared to be blue crayon. There was also another hallway next to the stairs that they had just gone up that led to another part of the house. On instinct, Hiroshi opened the door in front of him and entered with Henry following close behind. The two of them were now in what seemed to be a bedroom with the bed being off in the right-hand corner, two large bookcases, two dressers, a small work desk, and one closet sitting in the far left corner.
"Let's look around." Henry said as he went off towards one of the dressers. Hiroshi didn't reply to him, but he did what Henry said and looked around. They inspected the bed, dressers, and bookshelves, but the found nothing of importance. As Henry walked over to the small desk, there was a knocking noise that had come from the closet. Both Henry and Hiroshi whipped their heads around to see that nothing had been moved, but Henry had walked over to the closet anyways. He then opened up the closet to reveal Takeshi. He had apparently taken refuge in the closet for some reason unknown to Hiroshi.
"Takeshi!" Hiroshi shouted as he ran over to his friend. "Takeshi, are you okay? Where are the others?" He said as he tried to calm his friend down. This was to no avail. Takeshi continued to shake and shiver in his spot, not daring to move from it. Hiroshi tried to get something out of him for about a solid minute before he gave up. He motioned his arm to Henry, telling him to follow. They then exited the room, and conversed about the whole thing.
"So you got nothing out of him?" Henry asked, putting his hand to his chin while thinking about the situation.
"That is correct. It is odd though, he never acts like that unless something truly terrifying shows it's face to him. So we'll have to be careful when trying to find the others." Hiroshi said, looking at the plate shard.
"Okay, and if it is anything of importance, I found this key under the desk when you were talking to Takeshi." Henry stated as he held up a small key. "It has nothing on it to distinguish what it unlocks, but I decided to take it anyways."
"That's fine, but we should get going now." Hiroshi said as they walked to the blue picture on the wall. They both looked at it for a while before coming to the conclusion that it could represent one of the floors in the house. They then went to the other door that was also next to the drawing, only to find that it was locked. Then the two looked around the rest of the floor, only to find yet another locked door and another flight of stairs. Since the key Henry had didn't seem to work on these doors, they decided to go upstairs and check the other rooms. When they went up, they found two doors. One was locked, and one just wouldn't open. Unfortunately, the key that they had would not work on that door either. They then went back down to the first floor, in hopes to find out what the key went to.
"Hey, maybe we should try the front door? Maybe there outside?" Henry suggested. Hiroshi looked at Henry as if to tell him that it wasn't likely.
"Fine, I'll check." Hiroshi said as he went to the door. When he had grabbed the doorknob and turned it, he found that it would not open. He slowly turned to Henry with a nervous expression on his face. "It won't open." He said while beginning to sweat.
"Seriously?" Henry asked as he walked up to the door. He then began his own attempts to open the door, but they were to no avail.
'Is this really what happened? ' Henry thought to himself as he stopped trying to open the door. The two of them exchanged worried looks before heading back to the kitchen to look for clues. As they headed down the hallway, they both stopped when they saw the door that was near the kitchen door. Henry walked up to the door and tried to unlock it. With the satisfying sound of the key sliding into place, he opened the door. Hiroshi sighed in relief when the door had opened and the key had actually worked, whereas Henry was simply happy to be making progress.
"Well, let's go." Hiroshi said as he rushed into the new room. When Henry followed, he discovered that they had found some sort of library. Numerous shelves of books filled the room with a single table off to the side. When they were looking around, they saw something move from behind the shelves. What frightened them was it's size. It was much larger then either of them. It seemed to have some sort of lavender coloration. Hiroshi and Henry stood still for a moment and glanced at each other.
"I'll go on ahead. If anything happens, you run and hide somewhere." Henry said as he walked over to the table. Hiroshi didn't have time to reply, he could only accept the orders he was given. Henry slowly crept up to the table, and looked over the books that were scattered across it. He began to move them around, but he found nothing at first. Soon enough, he moved one book that had words crossed out. Once the book was moved, Henry found a labeled key. "I found a 'Bedroom key'." Henry whispered while turning to Hiroshi. As Henry began to walk back to his companion, there was a loud creaking noise coming from behind him. As Henry turned, he saw the monster. It towered over him, at least double his own size. Oddly the head of the beast took up half of it. It had large, black, soulless, unblinking eyes. It's head was distorted and it held a solid, confused look on it's face. The body it had was rather small compared to the rest of it. But it wasn't to hard to imagine that it had much greater strength then almost any normal person.
"Oh god... It is real..." Hiroshi murmured, baffled by the monsters existence. He also stared at the odd body that this creature had, but before he could take in all of the details, Henry began turned to him.
"Hiroshi, run." He said before charging for the door.
Author's Note
Well, the next handful of chapters will basically be a walkthrough of unoriginality because I am basically going to write out how to beat the game for you guys. I will try to spice things up by changing stuff and I expect dislikes. So if you want to learn more about the Oni, here is a link to the Ao oni wiki. Also, Henry does know what about the Ao oni games. It's just that he has never played them. So that is why he won't be solving all of the puzzles in a heartbeat.
The Oni
Henry and Hiroshi busted through the library's door and charged towards the kitchen as the giant violet monster gave chase. They both dove over the couch that was on the right side of the room, whereas the actual kitchen was on the left. As both of them stood behind the couch, Hiroshi held the plate shard in his hand, ready to fight back if necessary. Suddenly, the creature threw itself into the room and was making a full sprint for the couch they were hiding behind. Despite how funny it seemed, seeing a large headed creature running with a human body, both of them avoided the monster by once again jumping over the couch. As they ran out of the kitchen area and to the stairs, they both stopped and looked back at the door they had just come from.
"Is it gone?" Hiroshi whispered, to scared to be any louder. Henry didn't answer right away, he just stared at the door. Much to their horror, the beast continued to follow. With both of them having but a split second to think before charging up the stairs, they both found it very frightening that the beast managed to so silently and yet move so fast. The two were now on the second floor and immediately went into the room where Takeshi was. When they entered, Takeshi was nowhere to be found, but the closet he was in was wide open.
"Get in!" Henry shouted as he jumped into the large closet. Hiroshi didn't waste any time either, and followed Henry into what seemed to be the only option they had. While it was cramped and somewhat awkward, both of them stayed quiet as they heard the door to the room they were in slowly open. Suddenly, there was very heavy breathing. It didn't seem to stop, as it lasted quite a long time. The breathing continued to grow louder and louder, and finally reached it's loudest point when it could be heard right outside the closet. It seem to stay like that for a while, but finally subsided once the source of the breathing had moved away from the hiding spot. Suddenly, Henry and Hiroshi heard the door to the room open, and slowly close.
There was silence. The two of them glanced at each other, before slowly revealing themselves. Much to their relief, the creature was no longer there. The two of them then basically jumped out of the hiding spot while releasing an audible sigh of relief. Henry immediately stood up and ran for the door before stopping at the handle. As he slowly turned it, he looked back at Hiroshi. All Hiroshi did was nod, while Henry did the same as his reply. Henry quickly opened the door and began to look around the halls.
"Is it clear, Henry?" Hiroshi asked while still trying to keep as quiet as possible. When no response came, he asked again. "Henry, is it still there?"
"No, it's actually gone. Believe it or not..." Henry whispered back slowly closing the door and placing his back against it before slowly sliding down the door into a sitting position. "So, the rumors are true..." Henry mumbled to himself while standing back up.
"It would seem so. I just can't believe that a monster like that could be real!" Hiroshi shouted as he placed his head on the ground. Much to Hiroshi's surprise, he didn't feel a wooden floor. He felt something soft. He picked up his head and looked where his head was, and saw that he had rested his head on a handkerchief. "This is Takeshi's. It says his name on it..."
"We can take it with us just it case we meet up with your friend, for now we have to find out which room can be unlocked with this key." Henry stated as he opened the door. Hiroshi quickly got to his feet and followed Henry out of the room. When Hiroshi had exited the room, he saw that Henry was already trying out the key on the door next to the room they were just hiding in. After Henry tried the lock, all he did was look back at his companion and shake his head. Afterwards, the two walked down the hallway next to the stairs and found another door. Like the one before, the key failed to unlock the door.
"Perhaps we should try the third floor?" Hiroshi suggested as he turned for the stairs. Henry followed him and soon they were once again met with a thing hall with only two doors. Henry tried to unlock the door closest to them, and it had worked. When the door had opened, there were two beds sitting next to each other, a large carpet taking up most of the empty space, and two small cabinets sitting in the corner. Hiroshi quickly walked into the room and inspected the beds, while Henry walked off to look at cabinets.
"There's nothing in the cabinets." Henry said as he walked over to Hiroshi, who was still looking over the beds.
"Well, Can you help me push this bed? I think that there may be something underneath it." Hiroshi said as he went back to trying to push the bed.
"Fine, just stand back." Henry commanded as he managed to push the bed with little effort. It was indeed satisfying to see that Hiroshi was right. Something was under the bed, and it was a large hole. Upon further inspection, there was an entirely different room that could be seen through the hole. The floor was white and the only other thing visible was a large black piano with a bit of red coloration on a few of the keys.
"So, should we go in?" Hiroshi asked as he peered into the hole, inspecting everything he could before wanting to make a decision.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Henry answered before jumping down the hole. After a short moment of looking around, Henry motioned for Hiroshi to follow. When Hiroshi jumped down the hole and looked around, he saw two small dressers in one corner, and two book shelves in another. What also caught his attention was that there was a door to the piano's right. Out of curiosity, he went to inspect the door. Upon opening it, he discovered where they were.
"We're on the second floor again." He stated as he closed the door.
"Really?"
"Yeah, we're right by the stairs that lead to the third floor."
"That is kind of interesting, but I think I found something." Henry said as he walked back to the bookshelves. Suddenly, Henry managed to pull on of the cases aside to reveal a safe built into the wall. It had a four number code along with four odd symbols above them. "There is probably something useful in here. We just need to find the code." Henry said as he walked over to the piano. "There is also this blood stain on three of the piano keys. Maybe something is there?"
"I doubt that anything would be hidden underneath that... blood stain." Hiroshi replied pushing his glasses back into place and giving a worried glance at the blood, hoping that the blood didn't belong to one of his friends.
"We were just chased by a giant purple monster with a head being the biggest part of it's body. I think that something being hidden under the blood stain isn't entirely out of the question." Henry retorted as he tried to pick the blood away with his nail, unfortunately he could not do this.
"Fine, we'll look for something to get rid of the blood stain and see if you are right. Happy?"
"Yes, now let's get going before that thing finds us again." Henry said as he left the room, immediately running to the first floor with Hiroshi close behind.
"Why are we going back down stairs?" Hiroshi asked while looking behind himself to see if there were any followers.
"There was a hallway near the entrance that we never looked at, I wanted to go see if there was anything useful." Henry said as he quickened his pace, almost immediately arriving at the hallway. For what both Hiroshi and Henry could see, there were only two doors that were slightly open. "I'll take that door to the right if you go to that door at the end of the hall, deal?"
"Sure, why not?" Hiroshi answered as he instantly walked to the far door. Henry then proceeded to enter the other door. What he found was a small bathroom with a toilet and sink near the door along with a large bathtub on the other side of the room. What caught his attention though was that there was an odd, black, chunky liquid. As Henry slowly moved closer, he could see something glistening at the bottom. However, there was another thought that raced through his mind.
He needed to get a sample of this.
He began to rummage through the only cabinet in the bathroom. Thankfully, there were two empty bottles of hydrogen peroxide, along with some other small plastic cups. Immediately, he began to scoop dozens of small portions of the mysterious black liquid into the bottle before putting the cover back on. He then put the now filled bottle and empty bottle into his jacket, while disposing of the cups. Then he proceeded to pull the plug from the bottom of the tub and drained the water. Instantly, the liquid was drained and there was a screwdriver. As Henry tried to pick it up, he felt a burning sensation on his hand and jumped away from the object.
'What was that?!' He thought, gripping his wrist. He glanced at his hand to see that the liquid had gotten onto his hand. Once more, he felt the burning come back and reached for a towel. As he quickly wiped the liquid away, the burning stopped. As Henry stared at the now partially black towel, he had just realized how much of a weapon that liquid seemed to be. He approached the screwdriver once more, but this time he had used the towel he was holding to protect him against this burning substance. As soon as he wiped all of it away, he folded up some toilet paper and covered the cups with it. He also hid the towel in the cabinet behind several objects. With that done, he left the room. Hoping that Hiroshi wouldn't be suspicious if he ever entered the room.
"Hey Henry, are you finished looking in that room?" Hiroshi asked, having already finished inspecting the room he had taken.
"Yes, I found this screwdriver in a bathtub. Did you find anything?"
"All I found was soap and I thought that it would be useful in getting rid of the blood stain on the piano." Hiroshi replied while holding up a small bottle of soap. "Are you ready to head back to the piano?"
"Yeah, let's get going. The sooner we do we may be able to find a way out of this house." Henry said as he and Hiroshi moved to go back to the second floor. 'Thank goodness he doesn't know about that weird black liquid, otherwise he might make me use it all before I get the chance to study it. ' Henry thought as they continued walking. 'I really just hope that Equestria is worth all of this.'
Author's Note
Yeah, I remember seeing somewhere that the liquid is actually just water. But In the game, or at least in Markiplier's play-through, the liquid is actually black. Not to mention that there was fan art of Hiroshi sitting dead in this "water", the only thing was that it was this purple slime.. I would honestly like to imagine that it is not just water, so to make it a little more interesting, I'll just have it be an odd liquid that Henry will be able to make useful.
Hiroshi and Henry made there way back to the piano on the second floor, still trying to be as quiet as possible in order to avoid the monster they had seen. As they entered the room, they slowly approached the piano. Henry decided to watch the hole in the ceiling so that he could warn Hiroshi about anything that may try to hurt them. As Henry did this, Hiroshi had soaked the handkerchief in soap and started to wipe the blood away. Much to his surprise, and Henry's satisfaction, there was a number under the blood.
"Looks like you were right, Henry. We certainly found something." Hiroshi said, scratching the back of his head.
"And what did we find exactly?" Henry asked, staring intently at the hole.
"The number "679", but that is what confuses me. There are only three numbers here, but the safe has a four number combonation." Hiroshi explained as he examined the piano, looking for another number. This caught Henry's attention, and he turned to inspect the piano himself. What Hiroshi said was true, there were three numbers here, but the safe had a four number code.
"Perhaps we can get lucky and just add a number to the end, maybe we'll get the code right?" Henry reasoned, shrugging his shoulders. Hiroshi sighed, as he turned to face the hole.
"I suppose we should at least try." He said with his eyes shut tightly, trying to piece everything together. When he opened his eyes and was about to face Henry, he saw that the monster was standing behind him. "Look out!" Hiroshi shouted as he reached out to pull Henry aside. Surprisingly, Henry simply jumped to the side and and faced the monster.
"Thanks for the heads up!" Henry shouted back as he ran to the other side of the piano, only to see that the monster was going after Hiroshi now. Henry took this chance to get behind the monster and kicked it in the back of the knee, causing it to tumble over. Then, as quickly as they could, they both ran from the creature. They headed back to the room that was by the stairs to the first floor. As they ran to the room, they saw that the creature was not far behind. When they both charged into the room, they immediately ran for the closet. As they hid, they could hear the door open and close. This was followed by heavy breathing that seemed to travel throughout the room. Then, just like last time, the monster had left, allowing the door to open and close loudly. After another moment, the two of them climbed out of the hiding place and dusted themselves off.
"He is getting quite bothersome..." Hiroshi mumbled as he made sure he still had the items he had found.
"I agree. I wish there was something we could do to make it stop..." Henry said, as he peaked out of the door. "There's nothing out there, Hiroshi. Let's get back to the piano." Hiroshi nodded and followed Henry back to where they were working. As soon as they walked into the room, they immediately put their attention on the hole in the ceiling. After a moment, Henry walked back to the piano in order to see if there were any hidden numbers. Unfortunately, there was nothing more than what they had first discovered. After this, Hiroshi and Henry walked up to the safe embedded into the wall.
"So, do you really think it's that simple?"" Hiroshi asked, pushing his glasses into place once more.
"I can't say. I really don't have the answers." Henry replied as Hiroshi saw him put the numbers 6, 7, and 9 into the first three spots. Henry then began to flip through the last number slot, as if he was trying to decide on what he thought was the right number. Suddenly, Henry stopped and set the last number in the code as 9. Finally, he entered the code. Much to the surprise of Hiroshi and Henry, the door opened to reveal a labeled key.
"That was rather quick..."Hiroshi commented in disbelief due to the fact that it took little effort to open the safe.
"Agreed." Henry mumbled back when he took the key from the safe.
"So now we have to go searching for what that key opens?" Hiroshi questioned as he tried to take the key from Henry.
"Yeah, it says "Kid's bedroom key" on it. So it is either on this floor or upstairs." Henry said as he kept it away from Hiroshi as if he were a child that wouldn't share a toy.
"Let's try that one door upstairs first. I remember that it wasn't actually locked, just stuck somehow." Hiroshi suggested. All Henry did to answer him was nod and then they went on their way. They got to the door quickly since they weren't to far from it to begin with. As Hiroshi checked the door, it was indeed unlocked. But this time the door actually opened. The room behind the door had a brown floor with no carpet. There was a chair and a small table off in the corner along with closet in another corner, and there was also a small white dresser taking up space in yet another corner. The only thing that had really caught the attention of Hiroshi and Henry was a door on the opposite side of the room.
"Let's check out the door." Henry said as he slowly walked across the room. As he approached the door, with Hiroshi close behind him, they heard the door open behind them. The two boys whipped their heads around to see that it wasn't a monster, but it was Takuro. The redheaded boy that Henry had seen with Hiroshi when he first arrived at the mansion.
"Hiroshi! Henry! You're all right!" He shouted in excitement. Hiroshi smiled that his friend was still okay, but Henry felt different. Henry could tell just by looking at him, that Takuro was a bully
"It seems that you are alright as well, Takuro." Hiroshi said as he walked over to his friend.
"Did you guys see it to? That monster?" Takuro said, almost shaking in fear just at the thought of the beast.
"Yeah, we saw it." Henry answered calmly.
"All the exits are blocked, we're trapped in here..." Takuro said as he began to get more and more sad.
"We know. We tried to open the front door, but we couldn't get it to open..." Hiroshi stated while holding his head up with his hand.
"Well, I'm going to go see if I can find Mika and Takeshi. So I'm going to check downstairs. Just be careful out there." Takuro said with great concern in his voice, Hiroshi nodded and Henry stayed silent. Almost immediately after Takuro left, Henry returned to work.
"Let's check the door now." Henry said in a plain voice as he turned back to the door. Hiroshi nodded and stood behind Henry ready to see what was behind the door. Then, Henry opened the door. Oddly, there was nothing. Literally, nothing . There was only a wall behind it, the wall of the room. Henry stared at it in confusion and began to fiddle with basically everything on the door. Hiroshi also looked at the door, but found nothing notable about it.
"Maybe we should head to the second floor and use that key we found." Hiroshi suggested as he went to leave the room.
"Fine, just give me a minute." Henry said as he pulled the screwdriver from his jacket. Soon, he began to work on unscrewing doorknob.
"Why are you taking that?" Hiroshi asked just before he had opened the door.
"If anything, we can shove it in the monster's eye. That's better then letting it chase us." Henry reasoned as he plucked the knob from the door, leaving the screws sitting on the floor. While Hiroshi didn't exactly think that it would be of any use, he decided to just let Henry keep the doorknob with him until the monster showed up again. The duo went back downstairs and the door to the left of the stairs that lead to the first floor. As Henry used the key on the door, they were met with the sound of a lock unlocking. Quickly, they both entered the room and and looked around. There was one bed, a chair in the corner, a small dresser, and some bookshelves far away from the bed. While Hiroshi and Henry knew they needed to search for something, they stopped when they noticed that someone was curled up into a ball behind the bed. Luckily, it was Mika.
"Mika! You're okay as well!" Hiroshi shouted as he ran over to his friend.
"Hiroshi! Have you seen the others?!" She asked, obviously worried about her friends.
"Yeah, we have. Takeshi was hiding in a closet, but he ran off somewhere. Then we just saw Takuro a minute ago. He said he was going to look for you and Takeshi downstairs." Hiroshi explained.
"You should come with us, Mika." Henry said calmly while he stood by the bed.
"NO!" Mika screamed covering her head with her arms, acting as if that would protect her from some king of force that only she could see. "I will not go out there while that monster is loose!" She really was scared. She looked like she was about to cry. Henry watched for a moment. He saw that if he was going to convince her to follow him, he would need to speak carefully. He would need to use logic, but also do a good job of comforting her.
"Mika, you would be safer if you came with us. If you stay by yourself, you would be vulnerable and the monster might come for you. You would be safer if you had somebody to be with." Henry said gently as he knelt down beside her. Mika looked at him, still sad and scared. "And besides, you would be with Hiroshi. He's one of your friends, right?" Mika stared at him for more, as if processing the words he just said. She was so scared of the monster she ignored what any sane person would have done in this situation. Then she smiled and wiped her tears away.
"You're right, Henry. I was acting so silly just now." She said while trying to recompose herself.
"So you'll come with us?" Hiroshi asked, helping Mika to her feet with a growing smile on his face.
"Yes, I'll go with you. Besides, why should I leave all the work to you two?" She teased with a silly smirk sprouting onto her face.
"Well, that's good. But before we leave this room, did you find anything important? Like, a key or something?" Henry questioned.
"Yeah, I think something was on top of the bookshelves. I would have gotten it, but I didn't want to have my back to the monster if it ever showed up..." Mika stated as she quickly became worried again. Henry put that aside, and went for the item she described. As he went to the bookshelves, he noticed that he couldn't reach the top. As Henry looked over the room once more, he found a chair, still sitting in the corner. With the help of the chair, Henry managed to find a small container of lighter fluid. What really caught his eye though, was that there was a small note attached to the small fluid container.
'Keep this close to you, and find the other component.' It read. The text was small, which was understandable due to the small size of the container and smaller size of the note itself. Henry studied it for a moment, trying to see if thee was anything special about the lighter fluid, but then he remembered.
'However, I do know that you must have at least one item or trinket from the tests. You will get to keep the item or items with you when you enter Equestria.'
Celestia's words echoed through his mind. 'This must be the item' Henry thought as he put it into his pocket. 'What bothers me though is that the item isn't really special. there has to be more to this...'
"So, what was it?" Mika asked as she slowly crept to the door, probably going to open it.
"Just some lighter fluid is all, nothing that special." Henry lied as he wrapped his hand around the container in his pocket. That was something funny, it was important. It was very important, and they didn't even know that it was more important then anything that had been found as of yet. Though Henry didn't understand how important it truly was, he did know that it was actually important. He had something, but it wasn't complete. He now needed to "find the other component" and finally claim the true treasure of this trial. 'I'm doing good. Just need to follow the instructions and everything will be okay.' He thought as he jumped from the chair. As he gripped the container of lighter fluid in his pocket, he sighed and moved on to follow his two companions.
Author's Note
I'm gonna spend a lot of time on the next chapter. I'm going to try and make it longer then what I usually do, so I hope that it turns out okay. Anyways, I'll just spend time working on that and "A Colt's Darkness".
Also, the whole bully thing will come into play later in the story.
Anyways, I will get back to working real soon, but even I am not entirely satisfied with this chapter. I will try to keep things as interesting as I can. So with that, I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyways.
