Story of the Blanks

Story of the Blanks is a flash game by Donitz. It is a fangame of My Little Pony, and features one of it's characters, Apple Bloom (spelled Applebloom in-game often), as the playable protagonist.
== Story ==
The story begins with Apple Bloom walking on the edge of Ponyville. Apple Bloom is a young filly that often goes to her school Ponyville Schoolhouse, trying to discover her true talent so she can get her cutie mark on the flank. When she strolls in the road roaming peacefully, Apple Bloom meets Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville's librarian previously a resident in Canterlot. She's going into the Everfree Forest to deliver some books about local herbs to Zecora, a mutual friend first met in the episode Bridle Gossip of MLP:FiM. Apple Bloom wants to come along, and after Apple Bloom's eager request Twilight lets her come along with her but wants her to stay close at all times.
The two travel deep into the forest to deliver the books to Zecora at her hut. She thanks them for the books and warns the duo to return home before dark. However, they come across a fallen tree blocking their path. Although Twilight can move them with her magic, it takes time after a group of fallen trees appear after she moves the first one, and Apple Bloom tries to wait.
During the waiting, Apple Bloom spots another pony, who she follows her into the forest with Twilight not recognizing. Apple Bloom keeps following her until it gets darker and darker eventually striking nighttime. As a result, she comes across a bright, colorful town named Sunny Town. It is filled with many friendly ponies, which the town has a party which has started stated by Grey Hoof and the town itself. Strangely enough, all the adult earth ponies have no cutie marks, stated by Gladstone when interacted with him meaning all residents do not understand what cutie marks are. At the edge of town, Apple Bloom finds the pony from earlier walking into a abandoned house. When she finds the crank and uses the well and finding the key to enter the house, and in there, she only finds a dead body. It was a shape of the pony which Apple Bloom mourns worriedly to the terrible shape, a form of the pony's death gone to a campfire for murder. The whole fireplace was filled with bones! She got all scared and yelled, "No..No..No! No no no no NO!!" She tried to look away, but her eyes refused to move. All she could she was red of the fire and the filly that had been murdered further evidence. Her little game of detective had taken a hideous turn, and Apple Bloom wanted desperately to stop playing as she ran back to the town for help.
Apple Bloom flees away to not see the territory again, only to find the beautiful town of friendly ponies messed up on purpose and has transformed into the run-down home of zombies. Apparently, the pony was killed by the townsfolk for having a cutie mark. The zombies wish to protect Apple Bloom from this fate by turning her into one of them. Apple Bloom flees away from the town, with zombie ponies following her on her heels. One of the zombies which can't hurt Apple Bloom, Mitta; allows Apple Bloom to run away. She explains that they were cursed for their crimes.
The curse continues and keeps going until it spreads on the Everfree Forest. Apple Bloom runs through the forest, dodging the skeleton ponies that come out from the ground buried alive as she goes. Eventually, she comes across the ghost of Ruby with glowing gold eyes, a filly that was murdered in the campfire due to her for having a cutie mark on the flank and upsetting the townsfolk on purpose. Her cutie mark, a magnifying glass, indicates that she is a curious individual who wants to find things. She apologizes to Apple Bloom for leading her to the haunted town and Apple Bloom does not blame her.
When Apple Bloom and Ruby have a conversation, four skeletons surround them then a orb of light appears making the skeletons disappear and also Ruby. Twilight Sparkle appears, having apparently been looking for Apple Bloom for a while just to save her from the many dangers of the forest that lurks for trouble. The two leave the forest, watched by Ruby even though she was not seen. An epilogue states that the Everfree is full of such relics of the past and the credits roll.
== Design ==
Story of the Blanks is a linear, narrative-driven game one simply controls the protagonist as she travels through her adventure. The game has design elements similar to point and click adventure games, such as simple puzzles that need to be solved and items to be delivered to characters. The player move her with the arrow keys and interact with the Z key. Objects and ponies can be interacted, and sometimes can't be interacted.
== Interact boxes in-game ==
Interact boxes happen to appear in-game if pressed Z at a object or a pony. Interact boxes have different colors and appearing to have a corresponding pony's head when interacted. Here are the variations:
Day (eg: at Sunny Town, during a conversation with Twilight) - Pink outline and white inside.
Night (eg: when following Ruby) - Cyan-blue outline and black inside.
Midnight (eg: during Sunny Town's curse) - Red outline and black inside.
== Presentation ==
Story of the Blanks works within the limitations of an NES game. This means that the graphics and sound are relatively primitive. Even the number of objects appearing at once is limited, meaning that in one scene, a rock disappears in order to let text appear. Despite these limitations, the sprite-based visuals are very expressive, going from spooky to bubbly, and eventually to the terrifying and monochrome. The music was made by a variety of artists, and fits the technical limitations of the game.
== Reception ==
Story of the Blanks was a moderate hit on Newgrounds, with some minor awards and over 400,000 views. The average review score as of January 2012 is 9.3/10, a remarkable amount. The game is also featured in the My Little Pony Collection. However, the game's true popularity lies in the My Little Pony community, which regards the game as a classic. Websites such as deviantART have hundreds of related images. There have also been Tumblr accounts based on the game, as well as adaptations to a short story and a comic. The game was also featured on the leading Pony fansite, Equestria Daily. Furthermore, there have been multiple spinoff stories written by fans.
== Trivia ==
* There is a easter-egg in the game which is a special in-game editor. You have to click Download then let the window larger than the screen then click HOME+END. You can add entities but not too much otherwise Apple Bloom will disappear often and make sure to save the edited game visuals you made.
* During Sunny Town's curse, Mitta is the only zombie which is safe to interact with at night unlike the other zombies which harm Apple Bloom and make her one of them.
* All ponies' pupils are only black.
* Some YouTube users in YouTube Videos who play Story of the Blanks might mistake Ruby as Derpy Hooves due to the same color scheme. This is a coincidence!!!
* The zombies in the game editor are called Nightmares while the Skeleton ponies are called Skeleton Fiends. Strangely when a skeleton touches Apple Bloom, they become a nightmare and uses the Three Leaf's nightmare version character image.
* Scootaloo isn't in this game but was mentioned by Apple Bloom by name.
* At Roneo's house if you give Roneo the gem as a present for Starlet, Mitta is seen crying due to Ruby's death.
* Starlet is the only fastest nightmare and chases Apple Bloom quickly with a sprint which makes it hard to escape to the first area of Sunny Town.
* During Sunny Town's curse all the townsfolk became zombies. The only known zombies that hurt Apple Bloom are: Three Leaf, Gladstone, Starlet, Roneo (and two other zombies which are also Roneo). Grey Hoof is one of the zombies that isn't seen but heard. Zombie character image is also completely black.
Category:Flash games
Category:Teen