"And you're sure you weren't dreaming?"

It was noon. Gale had gone into work, but had been preoccupied all day. He finally sent Midnight Sky a message, telling him to get on a computer and call him. They were now talking face to face on video call.

"I'm sure," Gale replied. Sky double checked that the anti-eavesdropping spell was functioning before Gale continued, "You're the expert on this stuff, Sky. What do you think?"

Sky gave his best friend a slight glare. "I don't know much more than you do, Gale. Just because my father was into this stuff doesn't mean he told me anything he knew."

Gale sighed. He was hoping Sky would be able to do something, or at least tell him he was crazy.

"If you're that worried, I could call him up. See if he knows anything."

"Nah, I don't want to trouble him with this," Gale said. Truth be told, he was beginning to doubt that something had even happened. "I think I'm gonna go home and try the game, see if anything happens."

Just then, a dialogue box appeared on Gale's right monitor.

Chat with: DJ-Pon3

You got something yet?

Gale swore under his breath. "Sky, I'd better go. I've got to get an idea for this rolling, or Vinyl will have my head."

"All right."

(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)

Gale walked through the door to their house and disabled the alarm. Vinyl had come in to see him and could tell he was having a rough day, so she let him go home early.

He got a drink from the refrigerator, and went upstairs. He looked at his bedside table, and saw The Mask of Death sitting there, just where he left it. Reluctantly, he picked it up, and put it into the N64.

The game started normally. He went through the title screen, and on to file selection. He saw that there was still a file in slot one from the previous owner of the game, named "CK." As he read the name, however, something stirred in his memory. Something that had happened the previous day.

"Thanks again!" Gale galloped from the shop, but not before he heard the teenage colt say something in a whisper.

"Goodbye, CK..."

Gale figured CK must have been the kid who originally owned this game. He went to the first file, and selected it. It was 85% completed.

"It's too bad he never finished it," Gale thought aloud. "He came pretty close..."

Out of respect for "CK," Gale didn't erase the old file. He began his own, and began playing through. It surprised him how smoothly the game was running. With the odd cover, he had expected it to be glitch-heavy and broken, but it looked just the same as it had in his childhood.

The only thing that Gale found slightly weird was that the NPCs in the game still called him CK, even though he had named his character after himself. It didn't bother him too much at first, but he found it more annoying each time it happened. Eventually, he was sick of it. He went back to the title screen, hovered over CK, and hit delete. The file disappeared into nothingness. He went back into his game, and found that it had been fixed... sort of. Instead of the characters calling him CK, it was just a blank spot in the dialogue now. Frustrated, he turned it off.

He went back downstairs to get some more food. As he was making it, he shivered. After realizing how cold it was, he went to turn up the heat, then stopped. Although the program was set to keep the house at 75 degrees, the thermometer read 63 degrees. Slightly confused, he decided the system just hadn't ran the program yet and he left the temperature alone.

As he continued cooking, his heart began racing, and his breathing turned shallow and quick. He recognized the feeling. It was the same feeling he got when he watched horror movies, when a protagonist was searching through a dark house for the source of a footstep, or a presence.

It was almost as though something was with him, watching him while hidden in the shadows, right there in the kitchen.

He kept glancing around nervously, expecting to see somepony there. When he found there was nopony, it only increased his state of nervousness. He jumped at the smallest sounds, even the sounds naturally produced by the house. As soon as his food was done cooking, he raced back up to his bedroom and slammed the door shut.

He turned the game back on, and kept playing, determined to distract himself from the ominous feeling. He played for several more hours, progressing through the storyline, and avoiding talking to the NPCs as much as possible. Before he knew it, he was over 30% done with the game. At about 5:30, Ventus and Taio came home from their jobs. They came up and talked to Gale, and they could tell he was on edge. They didn't ask any questions about it, though. They didn't try to ask if they could play some Super Smash Ponies either. They just sat there talking, until Sky also returned from work. After another half hour, the other two left to go make some food, leaving Sky and Gale alone.

"Why have you been home for so long?" Sky asked, raising an eyebrow. "Did you get anything done for Vinyl?"

Gale paused the game to turn and look at his best friend. "I didn't. She came in about ten minutes after we talked, and told me that I could go home. She said I was looking sick."

Sky frowned, "Are you sure you don't want to let my dad in on this? If this really involves his line of work, then I don't want to take any chances."

Gale glared at him, "No. Besides, I've played the game for a while today. I think it's fine. I really just must have been dreaming or something last night."

He wasn't sure if he actually believed it, though. The game still had the glitch with the blank name, but that wasn't something to freak out over.

"All right," Sky said, cocking his head slightly to the side in skepticism. "Tell me if you change your mind." He walked toward the door and out of the room.

Gale yawned, as he realized that he hadn't slept for a full twenty-four hours. Completely skipping out on dinner, he crawled straight into bed and was almost instantly asleep.

(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)

Over the next few days, Gale kept himself too busy to play the N64. Things at work were becoming more rushed, with Gale having taken a day off.

"Two days!" Vinyl kept saying, "Just two more days, Gale! Two days to finish this, and to show the princess our skills!"

They had received an offer to be the DJs at this year's Grand Galloping Gala, and while they would be playing old favorites most of the time, they had also been asked co-produce a song exclusively for this occasion. They had a good song coming along, but it still needed a bit of fine-tuning.

It wasn't until the day before the Gala that they finally were finished with the song. They showed it to a couple of others, who loved it. Finally satisfied, they left for their homes. When Gale reached home, it was already 11:30. He disarmed the alarm, and went straight upstairs. He had gotten the rest of his friends tickets to the Gala, with the exception of Sky, who had one of his own. The Gala was no longer the dreary event it used to be; it was now known to be the best party of the year. His friends had already gone to bed, in order to ensure that they had maximum energy for the Gala.

Gale dragged himself straight up to bed, and flopped onto it. He looked over at the N64 to make sure that none of the others had left it on (which had already happened twice), and when he saw that it was off, he slid under the covers and fell asleep.

His dreams were strange that night. He couldn't recall the details later on, but he tossed and turned. The only thing Gale could remember was a voice. A small voice, like a small colt's.

"Play..."

Gale awoke with a yell. He sat bolt-upright, looking around. There was nopony else there, but Gale was again shivering, just like he had three nights previously. He grabbed the extra blanket, and stood up to go adjust the temperature. When he was halfway across the room, he felt the voice again, like an ice-cold wind was blowing on his neck.

"Play... with me..."

He froze with fear. The voice was that of a small colt's, but it didn't sound like it should have been a colt. It was cold, and terrifying. Not only that, but the feeling from earlier that day had returned. His heart began pounding, and his breathing was shaky. He looked around nervously, before finishing his journey over to the thermostat. Turning it towards the heat side, he turned back around.

He saw something move in the shadows.

Freezing with terror again, he stood rooted to the spot, waiting for the thing to make an appearance, which it seemed unwilling to do. Gale finally flipped the lightswitch, and saw by its sudden illumination that there was nopony there. He galloped back to his bed and slid under the warm covers. He firmly told himself that he imagined the voice, that there was no one else there. A notion that evaporated as he heard the icy voice again.

"Come play with me..."

He pulled the covers further up his head.

"Go away," he said aloud.

"Please... Come play with me... I haven't gotten to play with anypony for a long time...

Gale chanced a look from under the covers, and looked around the room. When something red glinted in his eyesight, his stomach lurched with fear again. He looked and saw that the N64 was on again.

That's impossible, he thought as he looked at it. I know that thing was off...

Again, he heard the icy voice which was seemingly pleading with him.

"Please... I'm so lonely... come play."

"No," Gale said firmly, though his insides were definitely the opposite of firm. He put his hooves on his temples, fighting the fear. "Go find someone else to play with."

He sat there for another minute. He didn't move until he noticed he was sweating. The temperature in the room had increased to its normal warmth. He couldn't quite place it, but he felt that something else had also left the room. He was alone at last. As he looked at the N64, he saw its red light fade into nothingness.

He turned the temperature back down and climbed back into bed, firmly telling himself, "You're imagining things, Gale. There's nothing here."

He was so tired that he didn't have much more time to think about it.

(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)

In a house in Western Manehattan, a young colt was sound asleep in his bed. Sound asleep, that is, until he began stirring. Something had waken him, but he couldn't quite place what it was. He stood up and began to pace the room, restless. He jumped as he thought he saw something move, but it was just a shadow on the wall.

There’s nothing here, the colt reminded himself. He had been scared of monsters for a long time, and it became bad enough that at one point, his older brother had to put locks on the closet door. He had been fine after that, but then his older brother moved into a house with his friends, and he had been instructed to take the locks off before he left. Now, the colt was waking up paranoid again, thinking there was something in there.

He laid back down, attempting to sleep. But as he rolled over, he looked at the closet again. The door was slowly sliding open, with nothing to push it.

The colt panicked. He jumped out of bed, and ran to the first safe place he could think of; the bathroom. He ran in, and slammed the door behind him, locking it. He sat there, trembling, as he waited. He heard footsteps, and panicked even more as the lock unlocked itself. He screamed and slid backwards across the floor, attempting to get as far away from the door as he could. When it opened, it wasn't a monster. It was his Mom.

"Again?" she sighed, exasperated. "This is the third time this week!"

She began walking the young colt back to his bedroom. But as they walked, the colt heard a voice.

"Please..."

He stopped dead, frantically looking around for its source.

"Did you hear that?" he demanded of his mother, who looked worried now.

"Hear what?"

"That voice!" the colt said, still looking. His mom sighed again.

"Somepony's been awake too long," she said, looking down at him scoldingly. "Let's get you back to bed."

She dumped him in his room, without even bothering to put him in bed. She closed the door, leaving the little pony alone. He laid down in his bed, but couldn't seem to fall asleep. He shivered violently as he grew cold. But he suddenly realized that he wasn't the only source of noise in the room. He could hear another voice, shivering as he now was. It seemed to be emanating from his closet.

Momentarily forgetting his fear, he opened the door, and upon looking down at the closet floor, he suddenly looked shocked and confused. There was a small, snow-white colt on the closet floor, who only looked a year or so younger than the other, and he was shivering.

"Who are you?" the older colt asked. The small colt looked up, not saying anything. His teeth were still chattering from the cold.

"Come on up here," the older colt said, lifting him up and setting him on the bed. "Where did you come from?"

"I... I..." The younger colt seemed dazed. "I can't remember."

The older tilted his head slightly. This colt's voice seemed familiar to him... It was almost like a voice he had heard before. But he shrugged the feeling off as he continued.

"Follow me. We can go somewhere warmer."

He led the small colt out and into the bathroom, and began running some warm water.

"Use this to warm up your hooves," he told the younger, who instantly did so. The older sat there, watching the younger and wondering how he had gotten into the house. They had an alarm system that was armed, so the little colt shouldn't have been able to get in without setting it off.

"Play with me..."

The older colt jumped in shock. "Did you just hear...?”

His voice faded, as he suddenly became light headed and woozy. He managed to do a little controlled fall towards the toilet, into which he then emptied his stomach. The stomach acid burned his throat as he threw up into the bowl. When he thought he was done, he began to stand up.

His head was shoved back down full force into the toilet water. He hadn't been prepared, and inhaled a mouthful of it. He thrashed around, fighting the force that was holding his small head under. He managed to get a brace on the sides with his hooves, and he forced his head back above the water.

The younger colt hadn't moved from his position next to the sink. His facial expression had changed. He was now smiling evilly as the older colt struggled to stay above the water.

"Oh, silly me. Did I forget to explain the rules?"

He laughed a cold, heartless laugh as the older colt's eyes widened in horror, unable to determine what was holding him under.

"I got bored. So I decided we would play a game. I call it 'hold your breath.' Whoever can hold their breath underwater longest wins. Easy, right?"

Taking a deep breath, the older colt screamed as loud as he could.

"MOM!"

His head was forced back under the water, as he heard his Mom move in the other room. The force holding the colt under the toilet water became stronger as he gagged and blew more bubbles beneath the surface. The bathroom door was kicked open as a pink earth pony came tearing through into the room, just as the young colt vanished from the countertop. At first, the mare was very confused as to why her son had his head in the toilet, but it became clear that he couldn't get out.

As the mother moved in to pull her son from the water, there was a deep growl, and she was thrown backwards. She was now pinned against the wall by the same invisible force that held her son under the toilet. As she stood there, trying to break the bonds holding her, she noticed that her son was being held just out of the water, his eyes locked on her. She also heard a voice, a voice that filled her with terror.

"Well, well. It seems my other game is... lagging. So let's start a new game, you and I."

She also noticed something silver glinting in the air. She began struggling against the bonds even harder as she realized what the object was; a large, lethal-looking knife. There was nothing the mare could do, as it drew closer.

"I call this game 'Wring it Out.' Whoever loses more blood wins. It’s not too hard."

There was a sickening crunching as the knife slashed through her front leg and bone, completely severing the limb. The mare let out a blood-curdling, ear-piercing shriek as blood began flowing from both the severed limb and the hole where it should've been. Her son also began screaming and crying into the toilet water. But the invisible force didn't stop with the one leg. It severed the next, then the next, and the next. She was now just a torso and a head. The carpet was completely soaked in the her blood. The knife made one final slash. It sliced through the mare's neck, severing throat and arteries in a sickening squish. Warm blood splattered across the sink and the mirror, as the dead mare fell over, whatever force which had been holding her releasing.

Her son was still being held by the invisible force, as he sobbed into the toilet. He had been forced to watch the brutal murder of his own mother, and knew he would die shortly after. He stopped crying, out of pure terror, when he heard a voice speak.

"Man, I love being able to play with ponies again! I forgot how much fun it is!"

It let out a maniacal laugh. The voice was chilling to the bone, and to the colt, it sounded like a living nightmare. He could not move out of fear, and therefore was unable to resist when his head was forced back under the surface. He gasped for breath a few more times, before he stopped thrashing, and his heart stopped beating.

"Aren't I nice?" the voice said to nopony, as the other two were now dead. "I always let my opponents win."

Once he was no longer resisting, the force that had been holding him under was now forcing the dead colt's body into the toilet itself. An incredibly strong suction force began pulling on the body, trying to force him down the very tiny hole. What wouldn't go through made itself go through. There was a series of crunching as every bone within the dead colt began snapping. Eventually, only a disfigured pile of dust from broken bones, some leftover organs, and a pile of skin remained. The toilet flushed, pulling the organs down the hole, and refilled itself with scarlet blood from the colt.

There was silence for several moments, before the icy voice said something.

"Game Over. I lose... again."

Author's Note

Brought to you by my wonderful, ~~not~~ screwed up brain.

EDIT: 9/19/14 - Didn't change a lot. Went through and fixed some disjointed sentence combinations and the like.