The Gambling Game

by Calibra2

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Thriller, Horror, Adventure
Length: 3134

QuartzCake has decided to gamble with her life.

There is an old colt tale stating that if you do certain things in a certain order, a ghost will appear and turn your house into a hell-hole.

QuartzCake, sister of SilverPlatter, is a baker in Manehatten. She owns a pretty big house, and she runs a bakery in the basement. She lives next to her sister, whom has the same house as her, and both of the houses are connected from the top floor.

One day, Quartz began to ponder. She wondered if she even wanted to live anymore. She worked endlessly and has a decent business, but she was starting to wonder if that was all there were. So, she decided upon a conclusion:

She will play the old colt game 'Hide and Harm', a legend that Quartz wanted to try out. The goal of the game? Survive until 5 AM. If she is faced with danger and tries to survive, then it would be obvious that she didn't want to die. If she doesn't want to survive… Then she would go out in a creative way.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2016-06-23 10:02:17 UTC

Chapter 1

Now, you really shouldn't play around with urban legends. Usually people want to try them out for fun, thinking it is fake. And, when they realize that it is true, it'll be too late to end the game. QuartzCake knew what she was getting into, though. At least she wanted the circumstances. Turning your house into literal hell? The best way to go out in her opinion.

QuartzCake trotted to the kitchen, setting the instructions on her counter. Obtaining the equipment with her fragile hooves, she set them out on her table. Quickly, she skipped to the back and front entrance and locked them both. Then, she went to the door that connected her and her sister's house together. She locked that, too, just in case anything would leak out to her sister's house.

Afterwards, she made sure every other door was unlocked and continued with her operations. She put a watch on the side of her table, and waited a bit.

11:50 PM.

QuartzCake did the last of what was told of her, inserting the piece of paper into the lock of her entrance door and setting the candle next to it. She waited once more, ready to see if the colt tale was real or not. She kept her knife she used to get the blood on the paper close to her chest and loaded the flashlight with batteries. Her hooves shook as she watched the clock on her wall tick.

Her adrenaline was running fast. She could feel her blood zipping through her body. She then stopped, and realized; why is she doing this again? Oh, that's right. Because she felt useless. Quartz shrugged, not caring about the uselessness, and waited until the clock ticked once more so she could see if she really wanted to live.

00:00 AM

Quartz quickly lit the candle next to the door. Then, she watched as the lights flickered, and eventually turned off in a matter of seconds. She exhaled, clicking the flashlight on.

"Guess it worked." She chuckled. Her voice was a bit deeper than usual, but she didn't care. Her throat was hurting anyway, and that's what happens when she's scared.

Looking around, she noticed almost straight away that nothing had changed. It was the same old, same old house that she lived in. Sighing, she walked around a little in the big living room she had, hoping to find that at least something had changed, otherwise the 'game' wouldn't have worked.

She wondered around for a few minutes, but nothing happened. I guess you shouldn't expect things to happen straight away, but at least something would've happened by now. QuartzCake was disappointed. She tried another game similar to this a while back when she had the same depressing thoughts, and it didn't work either. She sighed.

"Maybe I did something wrong?" She muttered, shining her torch on the walls to make sure she didn't miss out on anything. "Come on, this would've been fun."

Upon saying this, she heard a rustling in her bathroom. Oh Celestia, the bathroom. The worst place to go during a horror movie or event. That, and the garage. Quartz squinted, but she pressed on, wanting to at least find one thing that could be of interest. She read around on the Ponyweb that no one has survived to tell the story. Maybe it was a fraud all along.

"Maybe it's because I used Intertrot Crusader instead of Everfree Chrome." Quartz sighed, shaking her head. Shining her light on the floor to make sure she didn't bump into anything, she made her way into her bathroom. She had three of them, but she knew which one made the noise. The bathroom on the ground floor.

Stumbling into the bathroom, she shone her flashlight around, making sure she didn't miss anything. She heard a muffled sound coming from the corner of her bathroom. Slowly, she turned her body towards the sound, and saw a familiar looking pony face-deep in the toilet. It looked like her sister, SilverPlatter.

"Silver?" Quartz gasped. "Silv, what in the hay are you-"

Before she could finish her sentence, her sister swiveled around. Her eyes were missing, and blood rushed down her face. All of her teeth were missing and there were multiple scars and stitches across her body. Her mane was more of a mess than it usually was, and she had hoof cuffs on her wrists.

Quartz gasped, falling backwards. Her sister pounced at her, missed, and ran off into the house. Quartz scurried to her hooves and picked up the flashlight she had just dropped. Quickly, she shone the light in SilverPlatter's direction, and followed her through the twisting halls of her large house.

SilverPlatter was always faster than QuartzCake, so it was no surprise that she lost her. Huffing and puffing, Quartz made it into the kitchen and sat down on a stool near the counter. She coughed, her chest in pain. Placing the torch on the counter, she began tightening her scarf, as it was loose. She cursed herself multiple times in her head for losing what seemed to be her own flesh and blood.

After a three minute rest, Quartz picked up her flashlight and began walking again. It might not have been her, she kept telling herself. Sadly, she would come across the monstrosity again. Maybe it was the ghost said to haunt the house? Who knows. But Quartz didn't see anything else different downstairs, so she made her way up to her bedroom.

Her heart was still beating to the beat of the clock when she reached her bedroom. She was still wondering about all the possibilities of who that mare dressed up as her sister could be. But that didn't seem to matter once she met eye-to-eye with something on her still wall. Painted above the colorful wall were nothing but two words.

"HELP ME."

"Help me?" Quartz spoke out-loud to herself. "Help who? There's no-one in this house expect me and... THAT thing..."

Quartz walked closer to the paint, shining her flashlight on every inch of every letter. Soon, she noticed that the color was a deep red. Soon after that, she noticed it was blood. Quartz lowered her ears and rolled her eyes.

"Wow." She sighed deeply. "One of the most copied and pasted cliches of all history's movies."

Coughing a little, Quartz continued looking around her room. At this point, she was being more careful about were she was poking her head. The last scare almost jumped her out of her skin, and she wanted to avoid that from happening ever again. She preferred to go out in a more monster-chasing experience.

After finding nothing, QuartzCake walked out of her room. Before she could leave, however, the door slammed in front of her, locking her in the room. A little bit confused, the mare tugged at the door, trying to get it open. After no avail, she began looking around the room again, hoping that the game didn't just lock her in her room forever.

Looking around, she noticed a strange smell. Soon after, she started coughing more and more violently. Looking up, she saw the air duct letting out a weird fume that seemed to be suffocating her. The mare's eyes were shocked. She desperately covered her mouth and tried to find something, anything, that would forcefully knock the door down.

The gas kept pouring in, and the more it did, the more Quartz wanted to give up. Eventually, she sat down and gave into her fate. She lied down on the floor, attempting to breath in as much poison as she could, hoping it would quicken the process. Finally, after a while, the tired mare passed out.

It wasn't long before she woke up again, still in her room. Confused, the mare got up and reloaded her torch with new batteries, since they ran out during her nap. She shone her light on the wall, still seeing the words 'help me'. No, this wasn't a dream. Far from it.

"So that gas was just some knock-out fumes?" Quartz sighed in relief. She then perked her ears up. "Hey, look at that, I'm glad I'm alive! Good, but I doubt that'll last long."

Standing up, she calmly twisted the knob on the door and it opened. She collectively walked out, fixing a little bit of her mane since some was about to fall in her eye. It was frizzy now, since she slept on the carpet. Before she entirely left the room, she checked the ticking clock once more.

00:51 AM.

"I only slept for around half an hour?" Quartz surprisingly said. "Hmm. Interesting. Maybe time goes slower now?"

She left the room, closing the door silently behind her. Trotting down the hallway, she stared into space, thinking about why she gave up. Before she could remember, a loud groan coming from downstairs woke her up from her dream world, she twisted her body around as recoil, and slammed her face into a wall.

How elegant.

Chapter 2

The house creaked eerily in the wind that blew outside. Quartz could hear the pounding of the rain, and she felt as if the house was swaying. The knock-out gas made her dizzy and nauseous. Trotting steadily down the hallways, Quartz's ear twitched to a sound that was coming from downstairs. After the last experience, she decided not to investigate.

She was walking down the hallways for a while until she realized that they were looping. To test it, she untied her scarf and dropped it on to the ground, then began walking again. After a few seconds of walking, she came across her scarf again, in the exact same position as it was when she dropped it.

Picking it up and neatly wrapping it around her neck, she got bored of the same patterns on her wall. Whether it was the tiring, bright pink or the hypnotizing blue swirl patterns, she became too tired to stare at them any longer. Looking beside her were the stairs leading downstairs. Maybe she should've checked that noise out.

Though having plenty more rooms to check upstairs, she ignored them and focused on either finding something new or that monster who wears the skin of her beloved sister. As her hooves put pressure on the stairs, her ear twitched as she heard an obnoxious creak. Though annoying, she decided not to phone her sister and rant about it like she always does.

Quartz reached to her living room once more, shining her torch on the door she used to create this hell. Sighing at her poor choices, she turned her head from side to side, the light following her actions. She then carefully navigated herself towards the sound. She was pretty sure it came from the kitchen.

Great. The noise came from the place with all the knives in it. After a long sigh, Quartz stepped forwards, into the kitchen. She carefully looked around and made sure that there was nothing going to fling at her like they do in the movies. She looked down at the floor, making sure she didn't step on anything as she searched the kitchen. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Sighing in relief, Quartz turned and quickly walked out of the room. She flicked her tail, looking back, then looked in the opposite direction. Before she began walking, a loud crash came from behind her. Looking back, she noticed that everything from the shelves have dropped from the ceiling, shattering every plate and utensil there is.

Holding her breath, Quartz quietly walked towards the wreckage. She looked up at the ceiling, scanning it with her torch ever-so carefully. When she noticed there was nothing there, she exhaled, turning back and continuing walking away from the kitchen. Before she could even walk two steps, she bumped into something.

Quartz used her torch to investigate. It looked like the wall, but it wasn't supposed to be there. She tried to go around it, but she couldn't. She was trapped inside a box and the only room she could go in was the kitchen and the freezer. Oh Celestia, not the freezer. Instead of even thinking about going in that creepy room, Quartz started pounding against the walls.

After no avail, she turned all the way around towards the kitchen. The freezer is a dark, messy, cold room that Quartz hated to go into, even as a filly. All the time she had to get her sister to go in there, as baking things and food were in there. Many times had Silver said that it wasn't creepy in there, but Quartz had always felt an eerie chill down her spine every time she even thinks about it.

Gulping, Quartz walked slowly into the kitchen, taking her time. Keeping a knife close to her chest, she turned the handle and entered the freezer. Immediately, Quartz was hit with a cold breeze. Silver said it felt nice, but Quartz didn't. She thought it felt creepy, as if a cold hand was reaching out to grab her. As if she was in a cold, creepy forest.

Her mane started to curl, trying to get away from the same horrifying breeze. Quartz quickly scanned the room, trying not to get too comfy in there. A couple of boxes... That was all. All of the boxes created a long, dark shadow when Quartz pointed her torch at them, which made her even more uncomfortable. After scanning the room, she leaped towards the door.

She carefully turned the handle. It wouldn't move. She panicked, starting to push, pull and tug on the door and its handle. Nothing. It wouldn't budge. She crouched down and quickly searched the room again. There, in blood, was writing on the blue, shivering walls.

"LETS PLAY A GAME".

"NO THANK YOU." Quartz yelled out, starting to use her hind legs to bust down the door. Nothing.

She gave up, and looked around the room some more. A game? What game? How was she supposed to play? After a while, she started to feel something strange. She was having a shortage of breath. She didn't panic. Instead, she carefully preserved her oxygen supply. She was scared, yes, but when she was young she was taught to do this.

When she was only a little filly, her father was a royal guard for Canterlot. He taught them what he knew, in which one of them was learning how to preserve your oxygen supply. This was vital in case they had to go into cold places protecting the Princess. Her father died... And Quartz was never the same.

Quartz looked around more carefully now, in search for something out of the ordinary. Searching the walls first, she noticed that one of the walls were weak and had something on the other side. Turning around, she attempted bucking it down, but that didn't go the way she planned. She accidentally used a bit too much breath trying.

In a panic, she used her knife on it, tearing down the wallpaper. It was a door! She was suffocating now, so opening the damn door was her first priority. Opening the door and slamming it shut, she inhaled a deep breath, feeling the nice, warm air settle on her coat. Her mane found it pleasing, too, as it began to un-curl itself.

Closing her weak eyes, she sat down and began breathing the soothing air around her in relief. However, something seemed off. For some odd reason, she couldn't shake the eerie feeling of that freezer off of her chest. Maybe it was because she was sitting right outside of it, she wasn't sure. But when she opened the door to check again, it was only a wall.

Prologue

"Hide and Harm.

The perfect game to turn your house into a hell-hole.

Equipment:

A candle.

A piece of paper.

A pen.

A knife or some sort of weapon.

Some matches.

A flashlight and some batteries.

Your front door.

A watch.

Instructions:

Lock any doors that lead to the outside. The doors will open by themselves once the night is over.

Write your address on the piece of paper. Fold it up into its smallest form.

Cut yourself with your weapon and put a drop of blood on the paper. Let it soak in.

Put the candle next to your front door.

Put the piece of paper into the lock of the door. Make sure it doesn't fall out.

Set your watch to the correct time. Wait until midnight.

As soon as the clock strikes midnight, light the candle and turn on your flashlight. If you haven't turned your lights off, they will automatically turn off when you do the last step.

Make sure you keep your weapon close. Do not remove the candle from it's location. Keep safe and don't get caught."

The bakery had one last customer. QuartzCake and her sister, SilverPlatter, were shattered. They had just finished a rush hour, so when the last pony left, they sleepily closed up shop. They tidied the floors of the brightly-colored bakery, and they stacked the chairs on the wooden tables. After that, the two climbed out of their shop, and flipped the open sign to closed.

Quartz and Silver are twins, yet quite different. Quartz had a light orange mane and a light brown fur coat. She wore a light blue scarf wrapped neatly around her neck, and she had lovely green eyes. Her cutiemark was a spoon stirring something in a bowl. Her mane was quite messy and she had a small tail.

Silver, however, had a darker coat and mane than her sister. Her eyes were a bright lime, and her cutiemark was a fork in a cake on a platter. She had a green flower in her hair, and a blue bracelet on one of her hooves. She had a messier mane, but still similar to her sister's.

The two shook each other's hooves, hugged, and then trotted into their homes. Quartz threw a bag she was carrying on to her coat rack, missing, but not caring. She crawled her way upstairs, and threw herself on to her bed. With her face down, she reached under her pillow and pulled out a scrap of old paper that had been burned by its edges. It was folded once, and it had something written on the back.

"Hide and Harm".