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                       The Cartridge                       
                         -by D5ky-                         
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                       Warning Signs                       
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Warning Signs
"Come on, Gale! Just sign it!"
The pegasus poured over the paper once again, making sure there was nothing malicious hiding within. He had waited for this day for too long. He wasn't going to let anything ruin it. He had been wanting this house for a long time, but had some difficulty. The previous version of this very contract had a hidden statement in the middle of it, stating "Contrary to anything previously stated in this document, the original owner can return at any time and expect his house to be returned to him." It had been nasty, and Gale had to wait for a little while for him to bring the price down.
He looked over the contract some more, the other ponies present tapping their hooves or pacing with impatience. Gale finally seemed to decide there was nothing hidden in the contract, because a moment later he signed it. His friends sighed with relief when he dropped a large bag of gold on top of the signed papers. The old stallion picked them up, as Gale and his friends rushed inside to admire the new place.
It was in the upper portion of Canterlot, close to the castle. Gale and his friends had saved up their bits for a long time in order to come live here. It was the nicest place that ponies fresh out of home could afford. Built to accommodate many ponies, it was a fairly large house, with multiple bedrooms. It had a large kitchen area, as well as a large main floor.
They all instantly ran up the stairs to claim bedrooms, which they had been fighting over ever since they had taken their first look at the place. Gale flew, and was therefore the fastest one to get up the stairs. He picked the room that they had all been fighting over; a medium sized room, which had the softest bed. It had a nice spot to put his desk, and a little alcove where he could've put a flat-screen TV. But Television was still obscenely expensive, and they could in no way afford one.
Midnight Sky was next up the stairs, and took the smallest bedroom, which nopony else complained about. It wasn't the nicest one, after all.
This left Ventus and Taio to rush for the final two rooms. Ventus was faster, and got the better one. But Taio didn't really mind; Midnight Sky had taken the worst room, after all, and even this third-spot room was much higher quality than anything he had occupied in Manehattan.
After claiming the rooms, the four friends went to begin unloading their stuff into the house.
"I thought you would've gone for my room, Sky!" Ventus called as he lifted his saddlebags onto his back. "You're crazy! How come you picked that room on the end instead?"
Sky looked back at the earth pony from underneath all the stuff he was levitating. "I like smaller rooms," he shrugged, some boxes falling off of the pile as he did so, leaving the unicorn cursing under his breath.
"Yeah, thanks for that," Taio joined in as he helped Sky pick up the stuff that fell. "I got a better room for it."
After unloading everything, everyone went to the kitchen to make themselves some food. Everyone, that is, except Gale, who was sitting up in his chair. He had already unpacked everything he had brought, which hadn't been much. His computer was set up, with its neon lights glowing. He sat, relishing his victory. The place finally belonged to them, after a year of planning and hard work. It was immensely satisfying to be sitting there after all of that time. He sat there for a few minutes longer, before he realized how hungry he was.
He headed down the stairs, and onto the main floor. A giant window on the opposite wall from the front door gave them a spectacular view of most of the city. His friends were already there, eating their various lunches they had all made in the new kitchen. Gale went and just made himself a hay sandwich. After coming back in, he noticed Midnight Sky, who had a smile on his face, although nopony was talking in the moment.
"I've got something to show you guys," Sky said before Gale could ask. He had an air of excitement about him as he levitated something from beneath him.
"I found this in my new bedroom, just sitting there in the closet."
He revealed something grey and set it on the table. Everyone stared at the box on the table, which Gale recognized almost immediately.
"An N64?" he asked, picking the object up. He examined every surface on the thing. It was, indeed, a game system from their childhood, one that had developed shortly after the TV had.
"Yup," Sky replied, grinning as the rest of his friends eyed the system in awe. There were hardly any working N64s left these days.
"How are we gonna play it?" Taio asked. "We don't have a TV."
"I'm pretty sure I can get one from work," Sky replied, "but I'd have nowhere to put it. Gale took the room with a slot for it."
"So let's just put it in there," Gale said. "You should've been faster up the stairs."
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"Oh come on, Sky! Give the rest of us a chance!" Taio yelled in exasperation, as he again was knocked off of the ledge.
It had been a couple of days since they had moved in. Taio, Sky, and Ventus were still playing Super Smash Ponies, which had been the only game for the N64 in the whole house. Sky came back from work with a few other unicorns, who hauled the giant box containing a 60-inch TV into the house. Gale had given them permission to use his room while he wasn't home, so they set the TV up in the slot in his room.
"Sorry Taio," Sky replied, concentrating as he fought Ventus' avatar. "I've got to make the most out of Gale not being here to kick my sorry butt."
"Where is he, anyways?" Ventus asked, as his character was again knocked flying off the screen. "His shift at work ended like an hour ago."
"I don't know," Sky said with a shrug, setting his controller down. "I think he said something about going to look for more games."
"That would be nice," Taio said as he stood up to exit the room. "Sweet Celestia, I'm sick of you guys killing me so much." He trotted forward and out of the room.
"Want to go a few more rounds?" Ventus asked.
Sky shook his head. "I've got the morning shift tomorrow," he said with a grim expression. "I think I'm gonna hit the hay early tonight."
Ventus looked surprised, "That's a first."
Sky grunted, and stood up to leave. He walked all the way to his bedroom and fell down onto his bed, attempting to sleep.
After another hour, however, it became evident that he wasn't going to be able to sleep. Sky had insomnia, and he knew it was kicking in tonight. He lay there until midnight, before finally getting up and going down the stairs again. He noticed a panel on the wall that he hasn't seen before. Upon opening said panel, he realized they had a security system that hadn't been set up yet. Might as well set it up, he thought. But he sincerely hoped that they wouldn't ever need it as he began the setup process.
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Gale looked around the shops as the taxi carriage drove him through downtown. He didn't quite know what he was looking for yet, but he knew he'd know it when he saw it.
He looked through a pawn shop window, and felt something odd stir within his mind. He felt like he needed to stop there, as though someone was calling to him. The store he was looking at looked like a shady place; it was dark, empty, and slightly run-down. Normally, he would've avoided this place at all costs. But again, he felt like there was somepony waiting for him in there. He sighed.
"Stop here," he told the stallion pulling the cab. When the stallion had pulled them over in front of the pawn shop, Gale jumped out. "Wait for me," he said, dropping a larger amount of gold into the stallion's hooves than he owed. "I shouldn't be long." He walked up to the deserted pawn shop. Taking a deep breath, he pushed open the doors.
The place had a dark air about it, and Gale wondered what had called him to this shady shop. As he looked around, he saw weird-looking amulets and gemstones, and saw illustrations of strange symbols. He wondered silently what kind of ponies this shop normally attracted during their regular hours. He was so distracted by the weird shop that he didn't notice the pony coming up behind him, until he was tapped on the shoulder.
He jumped with fright, whipping around to see an acne-ridden, teenage colt shrinking back.
"I'm sorry," the colt said with an apologetic expression. "I didn't mean to startle you."
Gale recovered from his moment of fright, facing the colt, "It's fine. Actually, you can help. I'm looking--"
"If you're here to buy," the colt interrupted swiftly, "then you need to see my grandpa. He's the one who actually owns this place."
The colt began trotting away, motioning for Gale to follow. He walked through the dark shop, still slightly awed by the sheer amounts of weird objects within. They walked through a back door behind the desk, and Gale laid eyes on a very old, very frail-looking stallion. He was in a wheelchair, and looked as though he had been sitting there, just withering away for years. When they entered, the old stallion looked up at his grandson.
"Yes," the teenage colt said, startling Gale. "He's here to buy."
Gale looked between the two of them, confused. The old stallion laid eyes on him, examining him.
"He's asking what you're looking for," the teenager said, also looking at Gale, who was now shocked.
"Are you two--?"
"Communicating? Yes. He hasn't been able to speak since I was born, but we learned to communicate anyways. I am his voice for his customers."
Gale didn't question further; he was now wanting out of this shop as fast as possible. The old man was slightly eerie, almost as though his jet black eyes were staring right through your soul.
"Well," Gale began, before hesitating. He wondered if he was just wasting his time, but something had called him to the dark shop. "Actually... I was wondering... do you guys have any old N64 games?"
His hopes had already died halfway through his sentence, but to his surprise, the teenager spoke up eagerly. "We do! A whole bin of them! Be right back!"
He ran back out of the door, leaving Gale and the old stallion in silence. It was an uncomfortable silence for him, as the old man wouldn't stop staring at him. He was relieved when his digital messenger beeped in his pocket. He pulled it out.
Welcome back, Erősszél!
You have a new message from Darkened5ky.
He opened the message dialogue box.
Just thought I’'d let you guys know; we have a security system. The passcode will be 4928, then you hit a key. #1 disarms it. If we’'re home, we have to set it to option #3. But when we’'re gone, set it to #2 to activate the motion sensors and the cameras. You don'’t need the code to arm it; just press # and whatever option we’'re doing at the time. I would'’ve told all of you this in person, but I have early shift tomorrow, so I won’'t see you. Don’'t accidentally trip the alarm.
-Midnight Sky
Gale had completely forgotten the time. Looking at his messenger, he saw that it was well past midnight. As he looked back up, the teenage colt came back in, carrying a whole basket of N64 games. Gale started sifting through the contents. Maybe he would return later for a proper look at the games, but for now he just wanted to get home. He didn’'t see anything that really interested him in the top half of the bin, and almost withdrew. But the final game in the basket caught his eye. He pulled it out. It was a plain silver cartridge without any artwork. Instead, the words The Mask of Death were written across where the art would’'ve been. He recognized this game. It had been one from his childhood that he had played many times. But then his parents had sold the N64 when they got the newer X940, and sold all of the games along with it. He thought back to his childhood memories of this game, and had a burning desire to play it again. Although, this was an odd-looking version of the game. Without the cover art and with the marker, it looked as though it had been pirated. With this shop'’s origins, Gale realized, it probably was pirated. But his desire to have the old game won out over ethics.
“"How much for this one?”" He asked the old stallion, holding up the game for him to see.
For a while, the old man said nothing. The teenage stallion looked tense, as he looked at the cartridge, something that struck Gale as odd. But he didn’'t think about it too much as he waited for the stallion to commune with his grandson. He finally did, and his grandson looked shocked.
"“What?!" he said, not believing what his grandpa was saying, “"But grandpa, this is--"
The old man gave his grandson a cold, hard stare, obviously giving him some kind of warning. Even Gale could see the emotion of the message in the old stallion'’s eyes, and they weren’'t even looking at him in that moment. The teenage stallion nodded,“ "Yes, grandfather."
” Looking defeated, he turned back to Gale.
“"He says you can have it. Free.”"
Gale was surprised by this act of kindness. He was lost for words as he sat there.
“"I..." he said, pausing, "...I don’'t know what to say.”"
The old man looked at Gale, trying to say something with his sad eyes. The teenager began translating.
"“He says this game belonged to another one of his grandsons. But he left it behind a while ago, and we don’'t need it anymore."
Gale felt kind of guilty, taking this game without paying for it. It was probably one of the rarest games around, and could probably be sold for a lot (minus the fact that it looked like a pirated copy) and he was getting it for free.
"“Thanks again!”" he said, bowing as he backed away. Unable to wait any longer, he galloped from the shop, but not before he heard the teenage stallion say something in a whisper. He paused to see if he could hear what it could'’ve been, but to no avail. He shrugged it off, and walked outside to his cab.
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Gale'’s cab pulled up in front of the house. He walked up the front door, before remembering what Sky had sent earlier. He opened the front door, and was greeted by a loud, piercing beeping. There was one beep per second, probably counting down the time for Gale to disable the alarm before it went off. He galloped to the panel, typed 4928, and then 1 to stop the beeping. It made three short beeps, before a red light turned green and the countdown on the display stopped.
"Where the hell have you been?"
Gale turned to see Sky standing in the kitchen, in the middle of making some food. He looked at the clock, and saw that it was 1:30 AM.
“I got a bit distracted,” Gale said, as set the cartridge on the counter. “Why are you up so late? Your message said you were going to bed.”
“Couldn’t sleep,” Sky said, continuing to make some food. “I have to wake up in three hours anyway, and I’d probably only get twenty minutes if I tried.”
“One of those nights, huh?” Gale said, knowing full well how much Sky was prone to insomnia. “Oh well. Come check out what I got today.”
Sky put something in the microwave, then went to see what Gale was excited about. His jaw dropped when he saw what was written across the grey cartridge.
“The Mask of Death?” he said, staring at it with his mouth open. “Do you know how rare that game is? How much did you get it for?”
Gale hesitated, wondering whether he should say. He felt like he should say he paid for it, but decided to tell the truth in the end.
“Free.”
”What?”
Sky’s reaction was very similar to the acne-ridden teenager’s. He looked incredulously between Gale and the game. “How the buck did you pull that off?”
"I'm not sure," Gale said, looking at his dark cyan friend. "I was in a dark pawn shop run by some old man. He said it was his grandson's and he didn't need it anymore."
"That's odd," Sky replied, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Where was this pawn shop?"
"Somewhere downtown," Gale said with a shrug. "I don't know exactly where."
Sky pondered for a few more seconds, then shrugged.
"Well, I suppose I should try to get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Night," Gale said, as Sky grabbed his food from the microwave and began climbing the stairs.
Gale grabbed the cartridge as he re-armed the security system to 'stay,' then began to climb the steps. He entered his bedroom, set the game on his bedside table, and got in bed. He lay awake on his back for a while, thinking about everything that had happened that day. He rolled over, and fell asleep.
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Gale woke up a few minutes later. Confused, he looked around. He couldn't see why he had been awoken, until he shivered. It had dropped at least 10 degrees in the bedroom. He pulled another blanket over his bed, and it gradually grew much warmer. He was just on the point of closing his eyes again when something caught his attention.
The red light on the N64 was still on. He got up and walked over to it. Somepony had left Super Smash Ponies running. He turned on the TV to see where they had left the screen, and saw nothing. Confused, he looked behind the TV, and saw that the cables weren't plugged in all the way. He pushed them in, and came back to look at the screen.
Instead of seeing Super Smash Ponies like he should've, he instead saw a small object. It was spinning in circles, and growing closer by the second. He recognized it as it grew.
It was the Mask of Death.
"The buck?" he whispered. "Super Smash Ponies doesn't have the--"
He stopped dead, looking down at the N64. The slot where Super Smash Ponies had been a few seconds earlier was now occupied by his copy of The Mask of Death. He jumped as he heard the overly creepy laugh of the Happy Mask Salespony, which sent a new wave of shivers down his spine. He smashed the off switch, and the game died. But not before a dialogue box flashed across the screen.
My little pony... You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?
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"You must've been having some kind of nightmare daydream, Gale."
It was the next morning. Gale, Ventus and Taio were sitting around a table, eating breakfast. Gale had bags under his eyes; he hadn't been able to sleep since the N64 had switched games of its own accord. He had just finished telling them what transpired the previous night.
"I'm telling you," Gale said, exasperated, "It wasn't any nightmare. I was awake. Have been ever since it happened."
"Uh huh," Ventus said disbelievingly. "So you say you didn't touch it after you turned it off?"
"Right," Gale said, glaring at the earth pony.
"Well then, we'll go check it out after we're done here. If The Mask of Death is still in the system, then I'll believe everything else."
"What do you think, Taio?" Gale said, turning to the other earth pony, hoping to get some support from him. "Do you believe me?"
Taio hesitated. "I honestly don't know what to think."
Gale sighed in frustration. "Well, I'm done," he said pushing his bowl of oatmeal away from him. "Let's go take a look."
His friends had to race him up the stairs to his bedroom, despite the fact that Gale hadn't slept. He threw open his bedroom door and raced over to the TV, his friends right behind him.
"You sure about that?" Ventus said.
The N64 had Super Smash Ponies in it, just like it had last night. Gale sat there in shock, trying to process what had just happened.
"Look," Ventus said, "I won't hold this against you. You had a nightmare. That's all. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to be at work in an hour. I'll see you later."
He left the room. Taio, after an apologetic look, followed Ventus out. Gale still stood there, not thinking about his shift that started in fifteen minutes, and not thinking about Ventus' skepticism. He was thinking about the game.
He didn't care what the others said.
Something had happened last night.
And he was going to find out what.
Author's Note
Nothing overly creepy in this stage. Although, it did somehow give my little brother a nightmare about the Happy Mask Salesman. :eeyup: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/eeyup.png
9/17/14: I came through and changed/fixed some things involving grammar and spelling in this chapter. Nothing storyline-related was changed, except how they obtained the TV.

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                         Glitches                          
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Glitches
"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."
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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.
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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.
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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
:pinkiecrazy: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiecrazy.png Brought to you by my wonderful, ~~not~~ screwed up brain. :scootangel: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/scootangel.png
EDIT: 9/19/14 - Didn't change a lot. Went through and fixed some disjointed sentence combinations and the like.

//-------------------------------------------------------//
                        Short-Lived                        
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Short-Lived
"C'mon guys! We're gonna miss it!" Midnight Sky called to his friends who were still scattered about the place, "and I'm supposed to be doing opening ceremonies!"
Gale came down, dressed in one of the only set of clothes he owned; one of his DJ getups. Sky tugged on the collar of his tuxedo as he waited. Shortly thereafter, Ventus and Taio came down, each dressed in a suit and tie.
"Let's get this show on the road," Sky said. They walked out, and saw a black sports car sitting there, parked right next to the front sidewalk. Gale's jaw dropped.
"All right, who laid down enough cash to buy one of those?" He asked, looking around at the other three. Cars were a fairly recent discovery, and were still wicked expensive.
"I did," Sky said, grinning happily. "Why do you think I've been working so much?"
"Can you even drive?" Ventus asked, staring at the black car longingly with his mouth half-open.
"Yeah," Sky shrugged. "My dad used to let me drive his car, because he had to watch for--"
He paused for a split second, realizing what he was about to say.
"--other stuff," he finished awkwardly.
Nopony seemed to have noticed anything strange, as they were now climbing into the car. Sky moved around and climbed into the driver's seat, then hit the power button. The engine came to life with a quiet but deep rumble. Sky hit the accelerator, and they began to drive away.
"I figured we should show up in style," Sky said as they drew closer to the palace. There were a lot of cars, since the rich always seem to get the Gala tickets first. They pulled up in front of the palace, where the celebrities usually entered through the front doors. There were already ponies from the media there, their cameras at the ready as everypony began to climb out of the car.
Everypony but Gale.
“Oh, come on,” Sky said in exasperation. “You chose this life, Gale.”
“I hate crowds,” Gale said, looking out at the media, who were already taking pictures of Ventus and Taio, even though they weren’t famous. “Especially crowds of newsponies.”
“Regretting becoming so famous?” Sky asked, with a half smile. “Believe me, most of the time I wish I wasn’t either, but you’ve just got to deal with it. Come on.” He got out, and went around to open the other door for his best friend. The cameras started flashing more frantically, and the voices of the media got louder and more excited as Sky and Gale began walking towards the palace. Gale stared at the ground right in front of him, not wanting to make eye contact with any of them, in case they wanted to ask questions.
“I never meant for my music to be heard by so many people,” he said, as the cameras kept flashing, and his light-sensitive eyes were squinted almost shut. “I thought it would only be a couple hundred who ever discovered it, not a couple hundred thousand...”
“Just wait until we’re inside,” Sky said, continuing to move forward. After another minute, they reached the front doors of the palace where Ventus and Taio were already standing, waiting for them. The two guards moved aside to let them in after realizing who they were, but they blocked the other two.
“They’re fine,” Sky said over his shoulder to the guards. “They’re with us.”
The guards apologized and moved aside to let the other two in. The entrance hall of the palace was already decked out with decorations and food, and they could see a couple of other ponies moving around, making some last-minute changes. Gale began to relax, as he enjoyed the temporary silence and lack of ponies.
“This way, guys,” Sky said, beginning to trot across the hall towards the stairs, with the other ponies in the hall glancing at them occasionally. They ascended several flights of stairs, and approached the balcony that looked out over the rest of the palace. Two guards stood there, blocking the path ahead.
“You guys wait here,” Sky told Ventus and Taio. “Sorry, but I can only bring one pony with me. But once it starts, the princess will see anyone.” Looking disappointed, the other two nodded. Sky turned to the guards.
“He’s with me,” he said, gesturing to Gale. The guards moved aside to let them pass. The large balcony wasn’t decorated, but it didn’t need to be. Nopony would really be up here after the Gala started. They turned left and saw two ponies conversing with each other. As Sky and Gale approached them, they began to hear the conversation.
“Is everything ready?” the taller one asked.
“Sure is!” the other yelled in an unnecessarily loud voice. “I might be old, but I can still throw one hell of a party!”
“Good. As soon as Midnight Sky shows up--”
She turned to see the two standing there, who both sank into a bow at once.
“Hello, Princess,” Sky said, still bowing. The alicorn looked between Sky and Gale, smiled, and looked up at her old friend.
“Pinkie, this is Midnight Sky, who’ll be opening the Gala. And this is Gale, otherwise known as Erősszél, or DJE.”
Gale was shocked that the Princess knew his name. He and Sky rose slowly from the ground, as the alicorn pointed at the pony next to her.
“I assume you’ve both heard of Pinkie Pie.”
The elderly mare nodded. The last remaining Element of Harmony besides the Princess herself had become quite old. Her skin was now wrinkled, her hair much less poofy than her youth had permitted. Her personality hadn’t changed much, though, and she was in charge of setting up the whole party. It had been she who invited Vinyl and Gale to be the featured DJs at the main dance.
“Well, let’s get this over with!” she yelled. She had also become slightly deaf, and as a result her voice was even louder than it had been in the prime of her life. She began walking to the edge of the balcony, Midnight Sky following. Gale, however, turned to look at Twilight. The Princess was looking sadly after her old friend.
“When I became a Princess, I knew this would happen eventually,” she said with sadness in her voice. “Most of my old friends are gone...”
“How did you know who I am, Princess?” he asked. She looked around at him.
“I knew your parents, before... the incident,” she said, with a mournful expression. “But we’ll talk about that later. You should get downstairs with Vinyl before things start up.”
Gale nodded, galloping away quickly back down the stairs. The captain of the guard walked up to her.
“Are the guards ready?”
“Yes, Princess,” the stallion replied.
Twilight walked over to where Pinkie and Midnight Sky were standing. Her horn began to glow, and she cast a voice amplification spell on the unicorn.
“Whenever you’re ready,” she told him. He nodded, and cleared his throat.
“Fillies and Gentlecolts!”
His amplified voice was heard by the whole crowd, and their volume level quickly died down, as the cameras of the journalists began recording and snapping pictures.
“Let me be the first to officially welcome you to this year’s Grand Galloping Gala! We hope you have an awesome time. Now, come in and enjoy the festivities!”
This was met by a storm of cheering and stomping. The guards moved into position to ensure there wasn’t any shoving to get inside, and ponies began to flood the entrance garden. Twilight walked up to Sky, and removed the voice amplification spell from him.
“I’m not that good with words,” Sky instantly criticized himself. “That wasn’t all that great.”
“You did fine,” the Princess told him. “But you should probably get downstairs, or you’ll miss their opening.
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Gale had plugged his laptop into the immense sound system, and already adjusted the volumes to their optimal levels. He and Vinyl had already been here twice to practice setting up, adjusting the sound to maximum quality for the room, and such.
“You ready for this?” Vinyl asked him.
He nodded. “You get to do the talking, though.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you," said Gale. His skin had turned a shade of light green. "I’m nervous enough as it is.”
She looked out, and saw that everypony was already in the room talking to each other.
“You know what?” she began, an evil grin spreading across her face. “Talking is dumb. Let’s just start up and scare ‘em.”
“We can do that?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought--”
“If anypony really wants to hear what we have to say, they’ll come up after the party to talk to us,” she interrupted, waving a hoof in indifference. He looked out at the crowd. They were still talking, and some were getting food from long tables that had been set up around the edges of the room. They were probably waiting for some kind of introduction from them.
He smiled. “Let’s do it.”
“You start,” she reminded him.
He put on his headphones, and nudged the master volume even higher with an evil grin. The crowd still didn’t suspect a thing, as they were all too immersed in their own conversations to notice the actions of the DJs. So naturally, when he cut out the main lights, activated the neon lights they had set up, and started the song with a deep frequency bass note all at the same moment, most of them yelled and jumped in fright. After realizing what was happening, though, most of them laughed and cheered as the song continued building up. All of Gale’s discomfort with crowds evaporated as he and Vinyl continued the song they had written together. The crowd was even more enthusiastic than they would’ve been, due to the adrenaline rush of being scared earlier.
“They really are something,” Sky said enviously. He, Ventus, and Taio had grabbed a table to the side of the dance floor. He was bouncing slightly to the beat of the song, which had been going for a couple of minutes now.
“I’m not a huge fan of electronic music,” Taio said with a shrug.
Ventus gaped at him. “You live in the same house as the DJE, and you don’t even like his music??” he exclaimed incredulously. “His fans would all murder you if they knew that.”
“Well, hopefully, his fans won’t find out,” Taio said, glaring at the other two. "If either of you say anything, they'll never find your bodies."
"I don't know," said an amused voice behind them. "I think they'd find my body pretty fast."
They all jumped, and looked around. Princess Twilight was standing there with a sly grin on her face, along with Pinkie Pie, who wasn't paying the slightest attention to the conversation.
"Princess?" Sky exclaimed. "You're down here?"
"Of course I'm down here," she said with a smile. "All of the fun is down here. May we join you?"
"Of course," Sky said, his horn glowing as he conjured two more chairs from thin air. Twilight took one, as did Pinkie, after she realized what was happening.
"They're pretty talented," Twilight said, looking over the crowd of dancing party guests at the DJs. "Vinyl's just as good as her mother was."
"Of course she is, silly filly!" Pinkie shouted, making the three younger ponies cringe with her volume. "Her mother didn't give her her stage name for nothing!"
"We're not fillies anymore, Pinkie," Princess Twilight pointed out, a benign smile on her face.
"You still look like one," Pinkie pointed out, slyly. It was true; her coronation had been ninety years ago, and Twilight looked as though she hadn't aged a day.
"You still act like one," she retorted.
"Well, this old filly is gonna go dance!!" Pinkie screamed and she jumped up, moving quite as fast as ever despite her old age. The others watched her go, amused expressions on their faces.
"Oh yeah," Sky said, having almost forgotten that his two friends hadn't ever met the Princess in person. "Princess Twilight, these are my other friends, Ventus and Taio. You two, do I even have to say her name?"
She smiled, as she shook hooves with the two ponies at the table. "Pleased to meet you both."
"Likewise," Ventus said, standing up, "but unfortunately, I've got some dancing to do. Excuse me, Princess Twilight. Guys."
He trotted away into the crowd, who were still dancing. Taio looked around at the other two nervously, before quietly saying "I'm gonna go too. See you later." He too vanished into the crowd.
A moment later, the music hit the final twenty seconds or so, and began to slowly fade out. As it repeated the synth lead the final time, Gale smiled with relief. The ponies all looked as though they had liked it. When all of the sounds cut out, they were met by an eruption of cheering and stomping as ponies showed their approval. He switched some of the audio cords around, switched the program on his computer over to his playlist of songs they had selected for the dance, and began playing the first song: an old club favorite by Vinyl's mom, called "Spin That Record, Vinyl Scratch" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfO9bL0vH8k&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DvfO9bL0vH8k).
A/N: The song links aren't intended as background music for the reading. It's more if you're curious. If you try to play them while you read, it won't fit in the slightest.  
-Darkened5ky
"That went really well," Vinyl said, as they sat down behind their booths. "And the ponies loved it!"
"Yeah," Gale said, leaning back in his chair a bit. He put his hooves behind his head in a satisfied manner. "Now for the easy part; we just get to sit here and play older songs." He surveyed the dance floor for a few seconds, before his stomach rumbled loudly; he hadn't eaten dinner before the Gala.
"I'm gonna go get some food," he decided, standing up again. "I'll be back."
He descended the stage into the crowd, trying to locate the tables filled with food. On his way, he passed by the table at which Midnight Sky and Princess Twilight were still sitting.
"So, you guys have moved in now?" Twilight asked.
"Been here about a week," Sky replied. He then glanced around as though he was checking to see who was listening, before lowering his voice.
"Thanks for your help with that, Princess. That guy wouldn't have given us any form of a fair deal."
"No problem," she said, frowning slightly. "The financial council is supposed to watch for stuff like that. I don't know what they're doing down there, but they're obviously not doing their job."
Sky looked around again, even more urgently.
"Don't worry," Twilight said. "My bodyguards will tell me if anyone's listening to us."
"They're here?" Sky asked, slightly shocked.
"They're with me all the time," Twilight said, with a half smile. "Right, Dusk Shine?"
"Of course, Princess," said a new voice that made Sky jump. A sunset-orange mare had appeared next to them, wearing what Sky recognized as grey stealth armor.
"All the time?" he asked, eyebrows raised.
"All the time," Twilight said, nodding. Sky looked around, but the guard called "Dusk Shine" had disappeared again. Feeling slightly uneasy, he returned to their previous conversation.
"How... how is he doing?"
Twilight's face grew even more serious.
"He's doing better," she said. "He's still in solitary for his own and others' safety, but we're pretty sure he can almost always tell what is real and what isn't now."
"And the group?" Sky asked, looking concerned.
"They'll never be as good as they were back in the day, but they're getting along. But I think he's a bit disappointed that you didn't take the job."
"He knew I wasn't going to take it," Sky said dismissively. "He knew I wanted a regular life."
"He also knows what he taught you," Twilight said, looking into Sky's eyes. "There's no such thing as a regular life for you anymore."
Sky opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again, unable to come up with anything to say. They sat in silence for a few moments, before Twilight turned her head, as though listening to something only she could hear.
"Is it that urgent?" she said, and Sky suddenly realized what was happening; he had seen it before.
"Ok, I'll be up there in two minutes."
She turned to look at Sky.
"I'm sorry I can't stay longer to get to know your friends, but I need to attend to this."
"All right," Sky said, shrugging. Princess Twilight stood and galloped through the crowd towards the staircase that led upstairs.
After a few more moments, Sky stood up to find someone he knew. He saw Gale ascending the stairs to the stage platform, holding a fizzing glass of root beer; he had already eaten all of his food.
"Nearly time for the first slow song," Vinyl said as Gale sat down at the booth. "You going to go dance?"
"I don't know," Gale said, shrugging. He took a huge swig of his root beer. "Probably not."
"Really?" Vinyl frowned at him.
"I don't really know how," he said, shaking his head.
Vinyl looked at him, mouth half-open, thinking. Another idea was forming in her head, and a wicked grin slowly spread across her face once again. Gale, who was not looking, didn't notice. As the song came to a close, she walked over to Gale's laptop and hit the space key. After a few moments, Gale noticed the silence.
"Why isn't the next song pla--"
"HELLO, FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS!!"
The whole crowd looked rather surprised, as they all turned their attention to the stage.
"As you may have all been expecting, the next song will be a slow song. But we're gonna add a slight twist to this one."
This can't be good, Gale silently thought. Knowing Vinyl, this was sure to be either something awesome, or something horrifying. Considering that it was a dance, he knew it would be the latter.
"We're going to let the girls pick a guy to dance with!"
Why do I always have to be right? Gale wondered, gloomily.
The reaction was predictable. The mares all screamed and stomped in approval and excitement; most of the stallions, however, looked as though they had just been clubbed over the head.
"Oh, no," Midnight Sky said aloud. Before anypony else around him even moved, he dove sideways into a blooming flowerbed, using a spell to camouflage himself. Several stallions looked as though they were considering doing the same thing, but none of the rest of them could escape fast enough.
"Get going, then!" Vinyl yelled into the microphone. In a single motion, she turned it off, set it down, pressed space on the laptop, and grabbed Gale's hoof with one of her own. He barely managed to set his root beer down on the counter without it spilling before he was being dragged away from it.
"What're you--"
"You're dancing with me," she said, unceremoniously pulling him down the steps.
"I already told you, I don't--" but he knew there was no talking her out of it.
"I'll teach you," she said, as the song began. "It's easy, look."
She moved his front legs and hooves into the proper positions, and briefly explained how steering worked. Soon, they were slowly revolving on the spot. Once they were actually moving, it wasn't bad.
"See?" Vinyl said, happily. "This isn't so hard."
"Yeah," Gale said, smiling as he remembered something else. "I know I'm at least doing better than Midnight Sky."
Sure enough, Sky had not moved from his spot under the bushes in the minute since the song had began. He knew that if he showed his face, some mare would ask him to dance, even if the song was already deep in progress. He took a peek from under the bush to see Gale and Vinyl dancing nearby, as well as Ventus dancing with a mare Sky had never seen before. Taio, however, was nowhere to be seen.
"So," Vinyl said after a few moments of silence, "are we gonna make some more small talk, or are you gonna tell me what's been distracting you all week?"
Gale was surprised she had asked. She had taken off her glasses, leaving her red eyes, which were very much like her mother's, to stare right into his blue ones.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said. Most ponies would find it quite odd that he was pretty much scared of a pirated video game.
"I've heard some pretty weird stuff," she said. "Try me."
He hesitated, but sighed in defeat.
"Have you ever heard of The Mask of Death?"
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"Hello again, Midnight Sky."
Sky jumped violently, as he turned over in the flowerbed to look up. A lavender Alicorn was looking down at him, seemingly immune to his camouflaging spell.
"Princess Twilight??" he said, shocked. "Back already?"
"Why are you hiding down here?" Twilight asked. Sky looked away, slightly embarrassed.
"It's Mare's choice for a slow dance," he mumbled, unwilling to make eye contact with her.
Twilight giggled at him. "Not a dancer, I take it?"
"Not really," he replied, sitting up.
"Well, I would force you to do it by asking you, but that's out of the question right now." Her face grew dead serious again.
"What's wrong?" Sky asked, removing the camouflage spell from himself as he stood.
"I need you and your friend, Taio, to come upstairs with me at once. Unfortunately, you won't be returning here tonight."
"Why?" Sky asked, completely stunned by his orders. "What's going on?"
"I don't want to discuss it here," she said, looking around. "Even though my guards are doing a wonderful job, I don't want to risk it."
"We'll have to find Taio," Sky said, looking around. "I'm not the only one who doesn't wanna dance..."
"Fortunately, my guards have done that for us," said Twilight. "Come on."
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"I'm sure I'm just being paranoid," Gale said, as he concluded his story. He and Vinyl were still dancing. "It's nothing to worry about."
"That's a weird glitch, though," Vinyl said. "I played that game a bunch back in the day, and never had it happen."
"It looks like a pirated copy," Gale pointed out. "Pirated stuff can be weird."
The slow song hit the final stanza, and the instruments played their final few notes. As it finished, Gale let go of Vinyl.
"There you go," Vinyl said triumphantly. "You survived." She then trotted forward, and embraced him. Gale, who hadn't been expecting it, nearly toppled over backwards as her front legs closed around him. He managed to regain his balance, returning the hug rather awkwardly with one hoof.
"You've got a lot to learn," Vinyl said, shaking her head as she took a step back. "This probably isn't the last time you'll dance in your life."
"That's comforting," Gale grumbled. Vinyl suppressed a laugh as the next song began. Also an old favorite that had been first played on the night of the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration, it had been mysteriously dubbed "Hot Sauce Cupcakes" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4H6RnqvxrQ), leaving everypony wondering what had happened that night. Ventus came wandering towards them through the crowd.
"Hey, Gale!" he said, rather more happily than he normally did. He had gotten into his 'party mood', where he became much more comfortable with making a complete idiot of himself to have fun than normal. "Great party, right?"
"Guess you like my music, then," was Gale's reply.
"Yep," Ventus said, looking around at the crowd. "Where'd Sky and Taio get off to? I gotta make them dance with some girls!"
As the song picked up, however, he attempted to breakdance, but fell flat on his back after the first spin. Gale tried not to laugh, with difficulty.
"Is he always like this?" Vinyl asked him.
"Just thank Celestia that there's no alcohol here," Gale said. "If there was, he'd get a thousand times worse."
As he said this, he scanned the crowd, but Sky and Taio were nowhere to be seen.
"I'm not seeing them," he informed Ventus.
"They're probably still hiding," Ventus said, dismissively. "They know I'm gonna find 'em." He wandered off into the crowd to look for them.
Gale ascended the steps back to the stage, picking up his root beer, which had become slightly flatter in the time he had been gone. As he took a huge swig from it, he felt his digital messenger vibrate in his pocket.
Welcome back, Erősszél!
You have a new message from Darkened5ky.
Slightly confused as to why Sky would be messaging him when they were at the same place, Gale clicked on the message link. What he read was completely unexpected.
Taio and I are leaving. We're taking the car. You guys will need to find your own way home. We won't be back for a long time. I can't say much here, but we're sorry we couldn't stay.
Ventus, I know what you're going to say, and it's false. We're not leaving just to avoid dancing. We have no choice. Again, I can't say more here in case this gets read by the wrong ponies. We'll tell you more when we're back.
-Midnight Sky
Gale gaped at the message for several seconds, before his brain kicked into overdrive. He would've usually said it was just an excuse to get away, but something about the way Sky had worded the message told him that it was no joke. Anyone who knew him could tell you that Sky was one of the laziest ponies alive, and usually liked to keep his messages shorter while maintaining proper Equestrian. But in this message, instead of typing things like 'gonna', he had actually spelled out 'going to'. It was highly unusual for him.
Gale spent the next few minutes of the dance pondering what could possibly be so important that they had actually needed to leave the dance. He couldn't come up with any reason, and eventually gave up. At that point, Ventus came back up onto the stage.
"I can't believe they would just leave," Ventus said, slumping down into Vinyl's unoccupied chair. "Do they know how expensive those tickets probably were?"
"They weren't expensive at all," Gale informed him dully. "Sky was invited by the Princess, and I didn't have to pay anything to get two more tickets. The studio had a lot of extras."
Ventus grunted. The early departure of their friends had completely destroyed his party mood, and he wanted nothing more than to just get someplace else.
"Well, if they were free, then I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I hit someplace else," he said, getting to his hooves rather harder than was necessary.
"So you're just leaving me here with no one to party with?" Gale yelled after him, but Ventus either didn't hear him, or ignored him. He walked out of the doors, leaving Gale to wonder if things could get any worse.
He had no idea how much worse things really were.
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"Why are we here, Princess?" Taio asked, as the heavy iron doors to the throne room swung shut behind him with a loud clang. The Princess had lead them up several flights of stairs to the throne room without saying a single word about what was happening. She turned to them, a grave expression on her face.
"You're here because..." she hesitated, wondering how to phrase this. She had never needed to relay information of this nature to anypony before. "...well, something... something has happened. Something awful."
"What?" Sky asked.
Twilight looked directly into Taio's eyes, as hers started tearing up.
"You're here, because... because..."
"Yes?" Taio prompted, his heart sinking right down into his stomach. The look in her eyes as she stared at him did not bode well at all.
"...it's about your family."
Author's Note
Sorry this took so long. I've mainly been focusing on my other stories lately, and having as many home chores as I do during the summer doesn't help. This was a fun chapter to write, though.

//-------------------------------------------------------//
                           Fate                            
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Fate
"Well, this is something else," Midnight Sky muttered, looking around the blood-stained bathroom in disgust. "Who could've done this?"
"Nopony that I'm aware of," Princess Twilight said, looking around at the blood. "I've never seen a murder this brutal before."
Twilight and an entire team of investigators had been summoned to survey the crime scene. Twilight had wanted Sky to accompany her, as she knew how... experienced he was in this. Sky crouched down over the severed limbs of the Earth Pony mare.
"Slashed clean through the arteries," he muttered. "But that alone didn't kill her. She bled to death."
Cameras flashed, as the investigators took pictures of every inch of the crime scene.
"Princess Twilight, Midnight Sky, you'll need to see this," a voice said from behind them.
They turned, and beheld Evening Star standing beside them.
"What is it?" Twilight asked, hurriedly.
"We broke through their security systems... you need to see it," she said.
Evening Star led them through the house, to the room where the security systems of the household were regulated.
"We have alarm data and limited video footage," she informed them. "We have no idea what to make of it. In fact... it's impossible."
She clicked on one of the files. Alarm information and history appeared on the screen.
"Installed 6424 AC, active four years..." Sky muttered, reading the file aloud. "Blah blah blah... Last night. Alarm... armed?"
"Never even triggered," Evening Star nodded. "Whoever did this could've gotten in before the system was set, but there's no way they could have gotten back out. But that's not all."
She closed the info file, and opened a video file. It showed a dark bedroom, and a colt fast asleep.
"What kind of parents put cameras in their kid's bedroom?" Sky asked. No one responded.
Then the colt sat up. He opened the closet door, and began speaking.
"No audio?" Twilight asked. Evening Star shook her head.
"Well, it definitely looks like he's talking to someone," Twilight said, tilting her head.
"But there's nopony there," Evening Star said, with another nod.
"Imaginary friend?" Twilight suggested. "He's young enough to have one."
"I don't know," Evening Star frowned, "It's a bit suspicious, given the circumstances."
"Is that all?" Sky asked. Evening Star nodded.
"Thank you," Twilight said, as they left the room.
"What do you think?" Sky asked.
"I don't know," Twilight said, deep in thought. "There's not a lot that could explain this..."
"Is... is it down my Dad's line?" Sky asked, tentatively.
"...At this point, I don't know," Twilight said. "There isn't enough evidence to confirm that yet."
They re-entered the bathroom where the murder had occurred.
"What was the time of death?" Twilight asked the forensics pony nearby.
"I'd say about 12:40 last night," the pony replied.
"Wait," Sky said, in a sudden moment of inspiration. "Do they have a temperature regulation system?"
"The whole family was earth ponies," Twilight pointed out. "It's highly likely they do."
Sky ran out of the bathroom again, searching the walls of the house. He quickly found a touchscreen panel on the wall. Twilight caught up with him moments later.
"I need a computer," Sky muttered. Then, remembering he had one, he summoned his laptop out of his magic storage. He took the touchscreen panel on the wall in his magic grip, and ripped it off of the wall, revealing the panel with a few wires behind.
"Sky, what are you doing?" Twilight asked curiously, but he didn't respond.
"I need a USB head and some wires," he announced loudly. After a minute, a pony from the investigative team appeared with both objects in hoof.
"Everypony cover your eyes," Sky commanded, summoning a welding mask out of nowhere. He connected the wires that he needed to, and cut the ones from the wall that had plugged into the touchscreen panel. In a bright flash of light, the wires melded together, and he used magic to properly connect the innards.
"You're safe to look now," he announced as his welding mask vanished. He took his makeshift USB cable and plugged it into the laptop. After a few minutes of terminal work, he had the full details of the temperature system open in a command line.
"Why couldn't you have just used the panel?" Twilight asked, slightly amused at how Sky had "hacked" into the system.
"Not detailed enough," Sky muttered, focusing on his work. His eyes widened a moment later. "For starters, it wouldn't have told me this."
He turned the screen so Twilight could see.
"Twelve-degree cold spike," Sky pointed out. "Right at the estimated time of death."
Twilight's eyes widened, as Sky raised an eyebrow.
"Still not enough evidence to be down my Dad's line?"
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A private funeral was held as soon as the detective work had finished on the body. Taio's mother was dead, and his younger brother was missing. Princess Twilight had declared him dead as well, given the circumstances.
The private funeral was low in attendance, as it was private. The only ones present were Taio, Sky, Princess Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Gale, and a very hung-over Ventus. It was a pretty dismal funeral, but then again, what funeral isn't dismal?
A particularly downcast group of friends made their way home the following day. None of them really talked as Sky drove home a bit slower than usual.
"...I can't believe this," Ventus muttered, finally fully restored from the drinks. "Taio's family murdered during the Gala... I need another drink."
No one replied. Taio, eyes puffy and red, was still staring out of the window. Gale was playing a mindless video game, trying to keep his mind off things. Sky drove down the road, with a dark expression on his face, holding his silence.
They arrived home soon thereafter, and the four made their way inside. Taio, without talking to anyone, retreated to his bedroom and locked the door. Ventus got ready to leave for work, as he would be working Taio's shifts alongside his own. Sky disappeared upstairs, muttering something about research.
Gale also retreated to his room, and flopped onto his beanbag. He exhaled deeply, letting the tension that had been building out. He needed something to do. He had a week off from the production studio, as he and Vinyl saw no need to jump right in immediately after producing such a big hit. Between the stress of getting that single finished so quickly and the horrible events with Taio's family, he needed something mindless to distract him.
Sitting up, he looked towards the TV. The Mask of Death was still sitting there in the N64, untouched for several days now.
"Why not?" Gale shrugged. He stood up, grabbed his controller, and flicked the on switch.
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Sky drove his sports car through Canterlot, navigating the streets with some difficulty. It was rush hour, after all, and everyone was headed to work. Sky, however, was not. Being as far up as he was in EquestriaBroadcast, he could get time off when he needed it.
He drove for nearly an hour, before finally coming to a stop before a hospital in the outskirts of the city. He got out, staring at the front entrance. Taking a deep breath, he walked forward and pushed open the doors.
He walked down the sterile hallways and entered straight into an office towards the back. The pony in a white lab coat sitting behind the desk looked up in surprise.
"Oh, hello Midnight Sky," the doctor said, taken aback. "Here to do a systems check?"
"Not today," Sky said, with a stern look on his face. "I'm here to see him."
"Oh..." The doctor's face fell slightly. "Ok. Follow me."
Sky tailed the doctor out of the office, and through a door marked "Employees Only." They descended down into the lower level of the hospital.
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Gale swore as he watched the clock at the bottom of the screen.
"Only two hours left... buck."
In this game, you had a three day time limit to accomplish whatever you needed to accomplish. He was only about halfway done with the dungeon he was in, and there was only two hours left until he received Game Over, and the progress of the current timeline reset.
"There's gotta be something I can do..." Gale muttered, thinking hard. He vaguely recalled a trick he had heard about once called the "Fourth Day Glitch." He couldn't quite recall the details, but the name sounded promising. He paused the game, and moved over to his desktop computer, searching the internet. He quickly found the result he was looking for, from a site called "MoDspeedruns.com." It not only described the glitch in detail, but it showed a video on how to do it.
Gale returned to the game, and quickly warped out of the dungeon and to the area where the glitch could be performed. He wanted to try it so that he could finish the dungeon he was in. He looked through the astronomer pony's telescope just as there was ten game-time seconds left on the clock, and just as the timer was about to expire, he exited the telescope.
The screen, instead of loading the Game Over cutscene when the time ran out, faded to black. Gale was ecstatic. He had pulled the glitch off on the first try, and as soon as the game reloaded, he could finish his dungeon.
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"He's still in here?" Sky asked, staring at the door before him.
"There's little point to moving someone who's in solitary," the doctor said sadly. "I wish we could help him more."
"Am I safe to go in?" Sky asked.
"Yes," the doctor said. "If he gets too out-of-hoof, we will intervene. Be careful."
Sky closed his eyes and, after taking another deep breath, he pulled the door open.
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Gale was back in front of his desktop, searching through MoDspeedruns with a hint of impatience. The game was supposed to continue directly after you exited the astronomer's telescope, but it had been on this black screen for a full minute. He couldn't find anything, and he assumed the game had soft-locked. Frustrated that he had lost all progress in the dungeon, he flopped back onto the beanbag.
"I'll give it another thirty seconds," he decided. Maybe the game was just lagging a bit because it was bootlegged, and had never been glitched like this before. He picked up the controller and sat, staring at the screen, counting down the time in his head.
Sure enough, the game resumed. But he didn't find himself back out of the telescope like he should have been.
Instead, he found himself in the boss fight room at the end of the game, staring at the colt wearing the Mask of Death floating above him. There was no sound aside from the background music, the somewhat-creepy music of the final boss fight.
"What the hell?" Gale said, as his hooves began sweating. Nothing he had seen on the internet said that this was even remotely possible. How had he ended up at the end of the game?
He tried moving around the area, but there was no way he could get out. The colt wearing the mask rotated with the camera, staring straight at Gale, never saying anything, never attacking. After a full two minutes of this, Gale decided the bootlegged game must have glitched horribly, and he reached for the RESET button.
Before he could reach it, a text box appeared on the screen.
You're not sure why, but you apparently had a reservation...
Gale recognized the dialogue immediately. It was a message you would get when you checked into the hotel back in town. Buy why was it playing here?
He moved around the area, seeing if there was anything he had missed that he could interact with. But less than twenty seconds later, another text box appeared.
Go to the lair of the Temple's Boss?
Yes
No
Gale stopped for a second, trying to decide what to do. He tried to press No, but then realized the option was greyed out and wouldn't do anything. Taking a deep breath, he selected Yes instead. The screen faded to white, and the text "Dawn of a New Day" appeared, which was normal to the fourth day glitch. But instead of carrying the subtext "72 Hours Remaining" as was normal, it simply read "||||||||||."
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Sky walked towards the center of the all-white room, towards the metal chair in the center. On the metal chair sat a dark-grey stallion. He was a pegasus, who looked muscular. He was seemingly muttering to himself. Sky cautiously approached him.
"Hey there, Cordon."
The stallion looked up. His eyes were unfocused, grey. He seemed to have difficulty focusing his gaze.
"...Sky?" he rasped, in a deep, hoarse voice.
"Yup, it's me, little bro," Sky replied, smiling gently. "It's your brother."
"...No you're not," Cordon snarled, his voice suddenly becoming much clearer. "You're an imposter."
"Nope, Cordon, it's me," Sky said, taking a half-step backward.
"Sky isn't a demon," Cordon spat, still glaring at him.
"I'm not a demon," Sky replied gently, years of experience with dealing with this at his back. "I'm your brother."
"My brother isn't tainted with dark aura," Cordon snarled, still unwilling to believe it was Sky before him. "Your aura is black."
"What do you mean?" Sky asked, surprised. This was not normally something that Cordon said to him.
"Don't pretend you can hide from me," Cordon snarled even more menacingly. "I can see you riding in my brother's glow. I can see you!"
"See who, Cordon?" Sky asked, starting to panic on the inside. This was definitely not normal. "What's there?"
"They'll just think I'm crazy," Cordon said, panting. "They told me I don't see things that aren't there anymore. They told me I always see the truth now. I see you there, leeching off my brother. You've got a nasty feeling to you, but you speak to me. You can't hide from me."
Cordon's eyes focused on Sky at last, but it wasn't the look Sky normally got when Cordon was done ranting. It was a look of pure hatred, pure loathing, pure adrenaline.
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM, DEVIL!" Cordon screamed.
In a swift motion, the bands holding him to the chair snapped, and Cordon let out a guttural, wild-animal-like roar as he flew forward at Sky.
Before Sky could react, the room was lit in blinding light as at least eight unicorns teleported in at once. One of them, who had appeared right in front of Sky, grabbed him with a hoof, and they teleported out again. Sky gasped as he landed on the floor, just outside of the door, right next to the head doctor who had escorted him down here. The doctor's face had fallen even more.
"And here we thought he was getting better..." the doctor trailed off. "It's too bad. He's started seeing illusions again. He's regressed."
Sky wasn't listening. He stood there, staring at the door with his eyes wide. That wasn't at all like anything he had ever experienced with his younger brother. Normally, he could talk Cordon out of seeing things that weren't there in him. But this time, he had completely ignored him. Sky was left with a crushing, unanswered question.
Had Cordon really regressed that much, or did it mean something else?
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As the "||||||||||" subtext vanished, Gale's hooves began trembling. His thoughts turned dark, and felt an inexplicable feeling of intense depression. He was not normally a depressed pony, and the feelings he now harbored were on such a deep scale that he had never imagined it could have existed.
This time, I strongly recommend listening to this background music as you read.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/9u0FKJJclZM/mqdefault.jpg
He walked out of the spawn point for the time-reset in Mask of Death to find that all of the NPCs had vanished. From what he had seen of the fourth day glitch, they were normally still there like always. But now they were gone. Instead, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and he had the ominous feeling that something else had replaced the NPCs, something lurking in the same area as Gale and watching his every move.
Gale only had five hearts and a bow and arrow, but somehow, he wasn't too concerned for the safety of his player. He felt that he himself was in danger. It was absurd; it was just a video game. How could he be in any real danger?
But the feeling didn't leave him. The background music didn't help; it was different than normal. It sounded eerily familiar, even as it sent new waves of shivers down his spine. Soon, he worked out what it was. It sounded like a song from the game called the "Song of Healing," except it was being played in reverse. It would also slowly grow in volume, making him believe something was about to pop out, only to fade back out with nothing happening.
Every so often, Gale heard the echoes of the laugh of the Happy Mask Salespony in the background, just quiet enough that he couldn't tell whether or not he was imagining it. Gale, still trembling, moved through all four areas of town, only to find nothing, and no one. Textures were missing. The western part of town hadn't loaded the ground, and you were seemingly walking through the air. The entire game just felt... broken. Hopelessly broken.
Gale tried to escape the town, but every time he tried, he would simply appear in a different area of town. He tried warping out, only to be met with the text:
Your notes echo far, but nothing happens.
Gale felt, rather crazily, that the game itself didn't want him to leave. He didn't want to enter any of the buildings; he would feel an even more ominous chill every time he tried, and always ended up doubling back. There was only one thing left to try. He knew that his character couldn't swim that well. Maybe if he tried to drown himself in the laundry pool, he could spawn somewhere else.
As he approached the Laundry Pool, the game took an even worse turn. In a flash, the screen changed for a split second to the image of the Happy Mask Salespony, smiling. At the same moment, the scream of the colt wearing the Mask of Death rang out in an enormously amplified burst. Gale jumped with a yell, almost flinging the controller across the room in his fright. When the screen returned to normal, Gale found himself in first-person view, staring right at something that had appeared. It was a copy of himself, a statue that appeared when you played a song you obtained late-game. It was an eerie statue, however. Its gaze was much darker, much scarier than Gale's avatar. It wore a smile on its face that didn't seem too imposing, but got creepier the longer you looked.
Unable to help himself, Gale screamed. In a button-mashing frenzy, he moved his avatar as quickly as possible away from the statue. But to his horror, the statue followed. It appeared in his path wherever he went in the green ray of light that always accompanied it. Gale finally ran to the swordsman dojo in the western part of town, taking refuge in the back, determined to hide from the statue. But as he turned around, there it was still, right in his face. Now practically in hysterics, Gale tried attacking it, which did nothing. He just stood there, waiting for the statue to cast a fatal blow to his avatar.
The screen flashed to the Happy Mask Salespony again, and when it returned, Gale's avatar was staring right out of the screen at him.
Now with the definite feeling that he himself was being attacked, Gale commanded his avatar out of the dojo. Instead of finding himself in the west part of town, he was in an underground tunnel, and the reverse Song of Healing started up again. Gale was given about ten seconds of recuperation before the statue appeared again. This time it followed him even more aggressively, popping up in front of him every two seconds. He ran out of the tunnel and found himself in the south end of town. As he took a few steps away from the statue, the game seemed to freeze, and with the scream of an undead pony, the screen returned yet again to the text:
Dawn of a New Day  
||||||||||
Gale found himself back where he had started in this mess; the endgame arena. The colt wearing the Mask of Death was floating above him once more. The reverse Song of Healing had been replaced by a reverse version of the Death Canyon area of the game. In a last ditch effort to protect himself, Gale pulled out his bow and fired at the colt. Nothing happened.
Upon firing a second time, to Gale's surprise, the colt was hit. Convinced he could beat this twisted, hell-bent enemy, Gale fired a third arrow. The colt blocked it, with the response:
That won't do you any good. Hee, hee.
Straight after this, Gale's avatar was lifted into the air, and burst into flames, instantly dead. Gale jumped as the scream of his avatar's death rang through his ears. This was a move that had never been used by ANYONE in the game. The text "Game Over" appeared, with the colt's twisted laugh playing on loop. After ten seconds of this, the screen faded to black.
Once again, Gale was beneath the colt. He decided to charge him, but Gale's avatar was lifted into the air by the same unknown force and again burned.
On the third time, the new music had vanished, and the game was silent, which Gale somehow found even more eerie. He thought back to what was supposed to happen here, and recalled that you have to play a song. He attempted to play the song to reset time, but before he could play the last note, his instrument playing was cut short and he burst into flames again.
As this third death screen neared its end, the game began to freeze up and slowly move, as if it was trying to load something massive. When it finally appeared, it was the same scene as the last three times, but this time, Gale’s player was already lying on the ground. His head was twisted at an impossible angle, looking right out at Gale. He couldn’t move his player, and none of the buttons did anything. After a few moments, the screen faded to black, and the scene from his nightmare when he had first obtained the game repeated itself.
My little pony… you’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?
The game returned to the file select screen. Gale’s file was gone. Instead, it had been replaced with a 10% completed file called “YOUR TURN.” Gale selected the file and played it, returning to the same scene for the fifth time. This time, the colt wearing the Mask laughed, and the laugh was on loop. Unable to listen to it any further, Gale smashed the reset button. The file select screen returned, and along with “YOUR TURN,” the file named “CK” that had been there was back. It was in the exact same state as it had been before Gale erased it.
Gale, finally returning to his senses, turned the power on the N64 to off. Sweating, weak, and unable to move, he could only sit, eyes wide, with the horrifying experience dominating his mind.
Author's Note
Heh heh heh heh.
I had fun writing this, even though a lot of it was just a transcription from BEN Drowned. It was still fun.  
So I think I'm back! See you guys again soon.