The train bumps violently with a loud THUMP, nearly throwing me over the railing. The train slows down, gradually coming to a stop. I walk back into the car through the porter's unoccupied room and open the door to the next car—

—And I walk off the train, falling four feet to the ground below. The last car, my car, had been completely disconnected with that bump. I look off into the distance to see the rest of the train vanishing into the darkness of the forest. "Wait!" I shout, trying to run after it. "Wait for me!" But it's no use. It moves too fast, and now it's gone.

I walk back to the car, the only source of light around, climb back in with a bit of effort, and light a lantern with a torch on the wall. I examine the coupling, the hooks and chains that held the train together, to see if they came loose. It appears to have been broken off.

Holding the lantern close, I see an old wooden sign with "Ashdale ~>" crudely posted into the ground and pointed towards a dirt path that extends across the tracks into the deeper woods, and added below it, another sign with "STaY BacK" scrawled on it. I still have the diamond necklace. I have no idea what's out there, but I can't see anything. The sign warns me to avoid that path, but the other path leads into what appears to be denser forest, and I have no idea what could be in there. My train car sits idly on the tracks, and I can still climb back into it. The rest of the train is no longer in sight. Now I'm really worried about my future.

What do I do? ♦

>>85597
Stay in the train car until morning.

I've been thinking of doing something like this myself, but you actually seem to have the drive to do so. I look forwards to seeing where you take this ^_^.

>>85598
What he said. Nice to see that you have images and everything, too. What will you do if a second person comes by and says "No, do this instead?" though?

>>85600
These tend to go to the first reply (that isn't retarded, unless Track is one of those players that takes everything literally and you have to carefully measure every word you type).
Alternatively, he may just cherrypick the replies he wants to keep it on rails, like they do on some of the story-esque tumblrs (Cupcakes Pinkie being a notable example). I know I tweaked the odds in my favour when I ran my game here.

>>85600
If there are multiple different inputs, I'll take the most common one, then see if the next most common conflicts, then the next one, and so on. I'll disregard things like "kill yourself", though.

>>85598
>Stay in the train car until morning.

The path with the sign looks like it goes deep into the forest, and the path on the other side looks like it goes even deeper. Deciding that following either path would be a dangerous and foolish idea, I return to the safety of the train car. They'll come back for me eventually... or rather, they'll come back for this ridiculously overpriced necklace. And hopefully me. I'm probably not going to keep my job.

I look around the car. Next to the door I climbed in, a metal locker sitting in the corner. It probably stored the porter's belongings. Why they put it here in the observation deck car, I'll never know. I can also see the broken hook. Aside from those, the two windows, and the torch I lit my lantern with, there's nothing here—nothing to sit on, nowhere to really rest. The floor is composed of varnished wooden planks. You'd think that a train passing itself off as luxurious would spend a little more making itself look pretty from head to tail, but I suppose that this part of the train, despite the deck, isn't meant for passengers. Mr. Cut also mentioned something about cutting corners and pulling strings to get tickets, but I shouldn't have to worry about that. Behind me is the exit to the deck.

Waiting until morning is going to be difficult, but I think I can manage. I place the lantern on the floor and lie down, holding the necklace above my head. I'm sure they'll come for me soon. I hope. ♦

>>85603
Close the door.
Take broken hook, examine locker. If locked, try to jimmy it open with the broken hook.

Five minutes pass, and I'm getting kind of bored. I put back on the necklace and examine the hook. It's securely attached to the end of the train, a sign of its durability. It doesn't look it should have broken: there's no sign of rust or wear, but it appears to have been struck by something hard and sharp. Unlike the rest of the cabin, the hook would actually look new were it not snapped and bent to a side. I'll have to tell somepony to notify the maintenence crew or whoever takes care of those things when I get rescued.

My stomach grumbles. The darkness on both ends of the track seems to go on forever. There's no sign of oncoming trains. The other ponies are probably all having dinner right about now. My stomach grumbles again.

I turn towards the locker. It's a simple locker, one with a combination lock above the handle. Pulling it opens it—I suppose the porter was too lazy to change the number. Then again, he seemed like too cultured a pony for anypony to guess that his combination was 6969. Unfortunately for me, there's nothing in here but a water canister and a flashlight. I turn the flashlight on and off to see if it works, and it does.

The car is hit with another violent bump, nearly knocking me off my hooves. I look out a window, holding the lantern up for better vision. However, even with the lantern, it's too dark to see anything—

Oh.

Oh.

Oh dear Celestia. ♦

Take flashlight
Shine flashlight at wtfbbq monster thing

Something tells me annoying it with the flashlight will just make it madder.

Turn off the lantern. NOW.

>>85612
Nah. That's just your self preservation talking.
I couldn't think of anything better to do besides throw the lantern and set everything on fire.

In the window, a large eye opens in the darkness, followed by a mouth of white, sharp teeth. It slides upwards along the window, allowing me to see the trees outside. I hear it thump against the roof in an erratic pattern. I have no idea what it was, and I don't think I want to know.

>>85611
>Take flashlight
>Shine flashlight
>>85613
>Turn off the lantern.

I blow out the lantern, I scramble to the locker, and then I frantically and hastily grab the flashlight with my mouth, scraping my cheek against the side. I'm sure the porter will understand.

Whatever that thing was, I can't see it in the window anymore. It's all trees and darkness. I can barely see past one tree, and that's only because of the torch—the torch! It can still see in! I reach over to the torch, and—

The car violently shakes again, causing me to drop the lantern. Its glass shatters against the floor, and its fuel leaks out. The locker leans forward, tossing out the water bottle, and leans back, swinging its door shut.

>>85604
>Close the door.

I have no idea what that thing is, and I don't think I want to know. I slam both doors to the cabin shut. It shouldn't be able to get in now...

Or so I thought. The monster rams a shadowy tendril through the door, splitting it in half, and throws it aside.

It immediately proceeds to grabs the torch and breaks it off the wall, then pulls it into its dark body. I hear a disconcerting crunch from within it.

I'm not going to stay around to see what it could do to me. With the flashlight in mouth, I burst through the back door and jump over the deck's protective railing. I turn back around to see how the thing reacted to that.

The thing flings the car aside. The observation deck of the car splinters against the trees. I click the flashlight on, shining it with it—it's a giant black blob covered in eyes about three times my height, and from the looks of how slowly is coming towards me, it seems tired from its outburst just then.

Waiting here would be dumb beyond words, and if I look at it any longer, I'll lose my mind. I'm just going to run away as fast as my legs can carry me while it's still shambling about. I take off in the direction our train moved in alongside the track.

I can hear a bell ringing in the distance, echoing through the forest. As I begin my gallop, it slowly begins to fade into the distance, but as I keep running, it begins to grow louder. I see something in the distance...

As the bell ends on its seventh ring, I stop dead in my tracks. A icy breeze begins to blow. ♦

>>85616
Aw. A cow tipped over one lantern and burned down Chicago (true story), but we can't even get a measly poof of smoke? Oh well. The thingy ate a torch, so I guess fire wouldn't do us any good except to make everything scarier.

I've had my fun, now it's time to let others have a turn. I'll be watching to see how it all turns out. This is a very fun thread.

>>85623
The more the merrier, I say. After all, I'm kind of depending on inputs to write... everything, really.

Well, if you insist,

how about the road that goes deeper into the woods. The road that doesn't go to Ashdale.

>>85626
>Ashdale
>Is thinking of Half-Life: Full-Life Consequences
>"u sudn't come here"

Go to Ashdale, but upon reaching it, observe the town without going into it.
Let'shope this doesn't turn out like the beginning of Resident Evil 4.

>>85627

Shine the Flashlight down the forest path, then decide against it and go check out Ashdale like Ion said.

>>85626
>>85627

>Go to Ashdale, but upon reaching it, observe the town without going into it.
>Shine the Flashlight down the forest path, then decide against it and go check out Ashdale

I'm at the exact same place where I was before. I can still see the remnants of the train car crushed against the side of a tree. Shining the flashlight about, I see no sign of the monster.

Looking down the forest path with the flashlight, I see denser forest and no end to the dirt path. I disregard it. Ashdale sounds like a place where I could find shelter for the night.

Taking the path to Ashdale, I notice that after a while, the trees of the forest become more and more spread out. The dirt path transitions into brick, and the sky can be seen through the canopy. It's eerily silent here, and I feel as if something could jump out at me at any moment. As such, I keep shining the flashlight about on the lookout for monsters until I see Ashdale in the distance.

Sensing that more monsters might lurk within the town, I climb up a few short branches in a tree to observe the town from a safe distance. I can see several buildings, including what appear to be several residential houses, a general store, a restaurant, and a post office. There are no lights on in any of them, and the lampposts on the streets remain unlit.

...The town seems pretty empty. I don't see anypony or anything happening. ♦

inb4 me and someone else say opposite things, and I come up with another compromise.

How about entering Ashdale, and knocking on one of the doors to see if anypony answers?

>>85635
I agree with this.

>>85635
Can't let you do that, Starfo Isphone.

See if there's something you can make a ruckus with, then hide and wait to see if anyone (or anything) comes out to investigate.

>See if there's something you can make a ruckus with, then hide and wait to see if anyone (or anything) comes out to investigate.
I cannot scream very loudly, and I do not see anything I could make a notable noise with unless I cross the bridge into Ashdale.

>How about entering Ashdale, and knocking on one of the doors to see if anypony answers?
The town appears safe enough, but for now, I'm going to try to keep my distance and stay on this side of the river that separates the forest from the town. The sign did say to stay back, after all.

I gather several small rocks and kick them across the river, landing them against the closest building's door. There is no response.

I do this again with more rocks, but nopony appears to be responding. ♦

>>85639
Find suitable shelter on the outskirts of town and wait until morning.

>Find suitable shelter on the outskirts of town and wait until morning

After crossing the bridge, I enter the house I kicked rocks at. It's pretty sparse in here. There's one couch covered with dust, a staircase leading upwards, a broken window, and an unlit candle on the fireplace mantle. The moonlight shines on the dust in the room, leaving a slanted column of light.

My stomach rumbles, and I remember that I haven't eaten yet. I look at the diamond necklace and contemplate eating it, but I'm not that hungry. ♦

>>85653
I've gotten enough answers for the time being. Someone else wanna chip in?

>>85653
Examine the window and couch to see if anything's amiss with the room such as signs of foul play. Then, head upstairs.

>>85653

Creep carefully up the stairs, making sure to make as little noise as possible.

((I've been playing WAY TOO MUCH Doom 3.))

>Examine the window and couch to see if anything's amiss with the room such as signs of foul play.
I walk across the room to the couch, and my hooves clop loudly against the wooden floorboards. The dust in the room is really thick, and sneeze, blowing even more dust into the air, which blinds me. Tripping over my own legs in a blind stumble, I fall on the ground. There are some papers under the couch, which I pick up.

I climb on top of the couch to look at the window. There are six panes of glass, one of which is cracked. The window opens outward. I'm guessing the crack is from the cold weather—it doesn't look like the window has been maintained for many years. It doesn't look like something happened here; it just looks like the ponies who lived here moved out, and nopony moved in.

>Creep carefully up the stairs, making sure to make as little noise as possible.

I head upstairs as quietly as I can, but the stairs squeak and creak with every step. Up here, there's a bed and a closet and even more dust, but nothing else of note. My stomach growls again. ♦

>>85705
>Check the closet for danger, and if clear then read those papers from under the couch.

>Check the closet for danger, and if clear then read those papers from under the couch.
I knock on the closet, expecting something to jump out of it, but I receive no response. With my flashlight readied, I throw open its doors.

There's a hoof mirror inside, but nothing else. The diamond necklace still hangs around my neck.

I look at the papers. It's a letter, dated fall of over a hundred years ago.

To Mrs. Garden Green of Ashdale,

I have received your correspondence here in Canterlot, and I look forward to your arrival. It does seem odd to me that you would want to suddenly move away from such a seemingly peaceful provincial town such as Ashdale, but if the events you described did indeed transpire, then I suppose that I can understand. I imagine that those events, coupled with the recent death of the baron, will lead to more ponies leaving Ashdale. I certainly hope that such will not be the case, as it seems like such a nice town.

Your nephew,
Book Cover

Very sorry, but I won't be doing this for a couple days. I hope I've generated enough interest to keep going, though.

>>85830
Take Hoof Mirror, find someplace to rest for the night (make sure to barricade any doors/windows!).

>Momentarily contemplate consuming the hoof mirror.

>Take Hoof Mirror
>Momentarily contemplate consuming the hoof mirror.

The hoof mirror is very basic, made of silver and decorated with gold filigree, forming some kind of flower on the back. It seems fairly strange that whoever lived here before would leave something so nice behind. It's caked with a thin layer of dust, but a quick wipe-down allows me to use it just fine.

I take a look in it and inadvertently blind myself with the flashlight, but after I recover, I see myself in it. I have a white coat, a light grey mane tied up with two blue ribbons, and light blue eyes. I have the flashlight in my mouth, and the diamond necklace still hangs around my neck.

I momentarily contemplate eating the hoof mirror, but it's caked in dust and doesn't look like it would fit in my mouth. My stomach protests with another growl, but I think it'd disagree with the hoof mirror more.

>find someplace to rest for the night

The bed in the room seems old and ratty, but usable nonetheless.

>make sure to barricade any doors/windows

After heading downstairs, I move the sofa in front of the door, and after moving back upstairs, I shove the closet in front of the upstairs window. There's a dark mark where the closet's outline would have been, most likely from years of dust and sunlight. This leaves the downstairs window unblocked, but there's not much I can do about that except shove the bed or closet down the stairs and try using those instead. ♦

>>86661
1. Search house for batteries
2. Peek out window
3. Check underneath bed covers
4. Nap

>Search house for batteries

If the letter is to be trusted, this house hasn't been touched in over a hundred years. The closet has nothing in it anymore, the fireplace downstairs is empty, there was nothing left under the couch. I don't think I'll be finding batteries for my flashlight (or for anything else) in this house.

>Peek out window

I try looking out the window, but the closet is in the way because I moved it there, obscuring my view. Through the slip, I can see a stack of wooden crates and the side of another house. It's made of old bricks and more cracked windows. Nothing really special, as far as I can tell.

>Check underneath bed covers

Looking under the bed covers, there's a brass key with a heart motif on top of a pillow. Aside from the hearts, there are no discernable markings on this key, and I don't recall seeing anything with a lock in the house; not even the front door had a lock. The handle heart seems to be some kind of magnifying lens, though—it distorts the light passing through it, and the lens shakes in its heart-shaped frame.

The pillow appears to be a simple cotton pillowcase around a simple pillow stuffed with wood chips, making it rather uncomfortable to use.

>Nap

After giving the bed a thorough patting for dust, I lie down in it and pull the covers over myself, setting the hoof mirror down on the floor. It's not very comfortable because the mattress is stuffed with more wood chips, making it lumpy and hard.

I stare at the nondescript ceiling as I think of the other ponies. Did they come back for me? If they did, would they find me? What if they ran into the black blob thing?

And what would I do now? What am I going to do? What is this place? And how am I going to go home, if I can go home? Just running away didn't seem like an option, as shown by the circle I went in when I ran along the tracks. Staying here in town doesn't make me feel safe in the least. Who knows where the blob thing is now, and Celestia help me if there're more of them.

I toss and turn as these thoughts run through my head. There isn't a noise coming from outside—no sounds of hoofsteps, no sounds of birds, no sounds of breezes passing through town. Save for the occasional growl of my empty stomach, it's all dead silence. I'm tired, but I can't sleep. I can't rest. Not like this. ♦

This isn't dead yet.

Everything's white. It's like an endless void of white, stretching in all directions. I hear a young voice.

"Bijou!"

It's familiar. I know this voice.

"Bijou, wake up!"

Fuzzy shapes begin to grow out of the whiteness, forming objects and dimensions. They distort, bend, and wobble into position, and they focus into their final form—my room.

I'm back home. I'm lying in bed. My own bed, in my own room, in my house. My baby blue bedsheets cover me as I lay in my twin-sized bed. My Wonderbolt poster hangs on the wall next to my unpacked boxes from when I moved here, and sunlight floods the room.

"Ugh," I groan. "What happened?"

"You're finally awake!" says the voice, chipper as ever. "Goooood morning, sleepyhead!" I look to the side. It's my little brother, Coal. He's a young colt with an ash grey coat. "Come downstairs!" he says.

He pulls me out of bed by the tail and drags me down the stairs to the kitchen. For a pony half my size, he's surprisingly strong. Or maybe I'm just surprisingly light.

"Ta-da!" he says, waving his arms over the kitchen table. He's laid out a full breakfast for me. Toast, milk, oatmeal—all there. My eyes widen, and I swallow to keep myself from drooling in front of my brother. He's a bit of a brat at times, but he's usually a good pony. This, however, was new.

"What... What is this?" I ask.

"Oh, it's just something I came up with," he replies. "You know, for a great older sister like you."

I'm stunned. "Alright, Coal," I say, raising an eyebrow. "What's going on? Did you get Mr. Poppy's cat stuck in a tree again?"

"What? Of course not!" He beams. "I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you and all that. You know, brotherly-sisterly stuff."

"You want me to buy something for you."

The corners of his wide smile falls by a nearly imperceptable bit.

"It's that new cap everypony's been wearing. It's just so cool! It has a propeller, it's aerodynamic, whatever that means, it comes in all kinds of colors, it..." He grabs my hoof and pulls me down into a chair. "But, uh, don't worry about that. Just eat up for now. I'm almost late for school, so bye!"

Without another word, he runs out the door with his saddlebags and determination that would put the most valiant solider to shame.

I have never seen Coal this happy before. He's always had this look of quiet desperation in his eyes. Nothing like today. I don't get it. He's like a completely different pony.

For that matter, I'm like a completely different pony. What did I just say to him? I acted completely normal. We acted completely normal. Coal and I never spoke like this before. We've always been as distant as could be, never exchanging more than ten words on any given day.

But my stomach objects to this train of thought with a loud growl, and obeying it, I decide to start breakfast. I take a piece of toast and take a big bite.

And as my jaws clamp together, it hits me.

I don't have a brother.

My eyes force themselves open to a nondescript ceiling in a dusty room, and I spring upright. Through the window, I can hear a bell being rung. I count it—it rings seven times. Sunlight softly filters through a small slip of window between the closet in front of it and the wall. Next to me on the lumpy pillow is a brass key. A diamond necklace hangs around my neck, and next to the bed on the floor is a hoof mirror and a flashlight, switched off. My stomach is screaming at me for food, causing me to put a hoof to it in pain. I'm still here in Ashdale, and I have no idea how to get out. ♦

>>89173
Look out of a window and examine Ashdale not that it's light out.

>>89175
>Look out of a window

Getting out of bed, I see that the letter from yesterday had drifted under the bed. Strange events and the death of a baron... I don't know what it's talking about. Could the thing from last night in the forest have had something to do with it? Maybe, but the letter is, after all, over a hundred years old. The parchment's holding itself together remarkably well, though.

The closet's in the way of the window and I don't think I have the energy to push it out of the way, so I try climbing onto the bed and leaning over to look out the top, uncovered part of the window. There's not much out there to see from here—I see a few more houses, a street, some crates below, and a street lamp. The roofs of the houses are all tiled and in shapes of upside-down Vs, casting their long morning shadows onto the houses across the brick-paved street. Like yesterday, there's nopony out there. There's no sounds of anypony walking about, either. ♦

>Wield heart-key with reckless abandon, attempting to gauge the magnifying properties of the handle.

>Wield heart-key with reckless abandon, attempting to gauge the magnifying properties of the handle.

With few other things to do, I grab the brass key off the pillow and examine it again. It's not that large, and it can fit snugly in one hoof. I can't imagine what the key was doing under the blankets or why it was left behind if the previous owner moved out. It seems like such a nice key, too—the tarnish on it is minimal. It's probably enchanted to keep it that way if it's as old as the letter.

The magnifying glass handle of the key seems to be just that: a key handle that is also a magnifying glass. I try using it on several things, including the drawer, the pillow, and the letter, and from this, I have concluded that the drawer is made of wood, the pillow's pillowcase is really fuzzy, and whoever wrote the letter had a pen or quill that liked spitting out ink in globs every so often. ♦

It's quiet here.

My cheek begins to itch, and I scratch at it with a hoof. As I do so, I feel a bump on my face. I look down in the mirror, still on the floor. There's a cut across my right cheek, dark red with a bit of dried blood around it. It's probably from last night when I scraped myself on the locker to get the flashlight.

Even if the closet wasn't covering the window, I still wouldn't see very far since the next building over blots out the skyline, and there's only the one window in this room. It seems weird to me that this building only has two windows when the other houses are lined with them. ♦

>>90153
Go outside and investigate the town.

>>90203
>Go outside and investigate the town.

I have the mirror, the letter, the flashlight, and the heart key. I don't think I can take all that with me; I'd have to leave at least one of them here if I just go out like this, unless I get creative. ♦

>>90240
>Grab pillow, remove pillowcase and use it as a bag to hold everything.

>>90455
Creativity +1.

>>90488

>>90455
>Grab pillow, remove pillowcase and use it as a bag to hold everything.

I climb onto the bed and pull the case off of the pillow. It's soft and light, but the uncovered pillow that was inside is hard and lumpy. I don't think I'll be needing that.

The pillowcase makes a great container for the four things I have. I drop them into the case where they fit comfortably, and it looks like I still have plenty of room for other small things.

With the pillowcase in mouth, I clop down the stairs, climb on top of the couch, open the door, and jump out onto the street. I'm instantly stung by the crisp morning air, sending a shiver down my spine to the tips of my hooves. The cut on my cheek tingles.

It's bright today—the sky is almost entirely clear, and the few clouds that are in the sky lazily drift around. A draft runs through the street, making the tips of my pigtails sway about. I'm surrounded by wood and brick houses, painted all sorts of earthly hues. The street is paved with brick and lined with metal lampposts.

I can easily imagine ponies up and trotting about here. It seems like it used to be a lively town. Now, though, there's nopony at all. Like a ghost town. Abandoned by some strange events. There's nothing as far as the eye can see except for empty houses and cracked windows, vacant streets and unlit lampposts. It's unsettlingly quiet.

To my left is the bridge and the river I crossed when I entered town, and on the other side of that is the forest that I came in from. The part of the forest close to town isn't as dense as the part with the train tracks, but I can't see very far in and the path fades off into the distance.

To my right is the same scene I saw last night. There are a few houses to either side of the street, leading to a plaza. In the center of the plaza is a statue, and circled around the edges of the plaza are some stores, including a general store, a restaurant, and a post office. ♦

>>93149
Dash towards the restaurant in your urgent quest for nourishment!

You still haven't retrieved your arms, by the way.

>>93153
Sadly, our arms were left behind as we rushed out of the train car back in part one. That eyeball monster was too scary to confront over some silly appendages.

>>93209
Well then, I change my mind!

Return to the steam-actuated automaton to abord and aggrieve that absolutely atrocious abnormality to retrieve your adored arms like the anacampserote you truly are, ignoring your algophobia as if you were awash with amazing analgesics!

THIS IS STUPID

>>93275
>Return to the steam-actuated automaton to abord and aggrieve that absolutely atrocious abnormality to retrieve your adored arms like the anacampserote you truly are, ignoring your algophobia as if you were awash with amazing analgesics!
But my arms are right here. Should I go back to the train anyways? The only thing I can think of left there is a water canister, if the monster isn't there anymore. ♦

>>93335
Don't worry about it, it was a silly idea.

 > Now go check out that restaurant for some munchies!

>>93335
Is it just me, or are those pupil-less eyes kinda creepy?

>>93778
I like them, especially the ones in the OP.

OP is cute :3

>>93778

I tried going for regular looking eyes, but I thought they were too... off.

I can see the silhouette of a bell tower in the distance.

>>93153
>Dash towards the restaurant in your urgent quest for nourishment!
My stomach grumbles and I double over. Looks like I'm headed to the restaurant first. Hopefully, there might be food in there. I briskly trot through the shadow of the houses on my right, down the brick street onto the cobblestone plaza and past the general store and several lampposts. The sound of my hooves against the cobblestone ground softly echoes throughout the plaza.

As I pass through the plaza, I give the statue in its center a quick glance, it's a statue of a unicorn, one with a mane curled to the sides, a distinguished mustache and beard, and a calm expression on his face. He stands on his back legs upon a short, circle pedestal, holding a long cane between his forelegs. At his feet is a small plaque engraved with some words or such, but I'll read it later after I get something to eat.

The restaurant itself is to the right of the statue from where I came in. It stands two stories tall, much like every other building in this town. The door is decorated with leaves and vines, and to its left, a wooden sign for the restaurant hangs from a protruding post. It says “The Golden Tree” in fancy script, and next to it is a picture of a tree. The paint used for both is very much faded, making it hard to read. Some of the windows are cracked, and they're too fogged up to see inside clearly. There's a hole in one of the windows, but it's dark inside. ♦

>>95146
See if the door is unlocked. If not, search for another entrance.

>>95150
>See if the door is unlocked. If not, search for another entrance.
The door, though heavy, swings inward without much resistance.

“Hello?” I say into the restaurant. “Is anyone here?”

I step in. It's dark in here—there's no source of light except for the windows and the door, but those don't cover much and the light that does pass through the windows is too dull to see in. I can't see very well. ♦

>>96502
Use your flashlight to look around. If there are any windows or other lights you can turn on, use them instead.

>>96525
>Use your flashlight to look around. If there are any windows or other lights you can turn on, use them instead.
I take my flashlight out of the pillowcase and turn it on.

The inside of the restaurant is covered with a layer of dust. Round wooden tables with similarly rounded wooden benches sit here, arranged in a triangular pattern, like how marbles group together. Cobwebs softly sway in the draft from the open door. In the back, I can see a counter for what I can guess is where the clerk or bartender used to sit.

Scanning the room with my flashlight, I don't see any sort of lighting source I can easily use. Chandeliers shaped like ships' wheels hang from the ceiling, but I can't reach them.

Behind the counter is a flight of stairs. I see nothing but tables, benches, and the shelf on this floor, so it probably leads to a kitchen.

To the left of the room is...

is...

..is a splatter mark spread across the floor, an upturned table, and a broken bench, looking as if a large balloon filled with dark red paint had popped there.

I nearly drop my flashlight in panic. ♦

>>99724
If no one else answers (since I did the last one), cautiously move up and examine it.

>>99735
>cautiously move up and examine it

My ears swivel about as if trying to catch the hoofsteps of somepony that might be watching me. I turn around to check the door, and my eyes blur for a moment as I look into the sharp light flooding in from the door. I pause for a moment, letting my eyes focus again. There's nopony in here—not that I can tell, at least.

I slowly inch towards the stain. The stain covers a large spot on the floor, about a pony's length from end to end. It splashes up onto the bottom of the table, and also catches a bit of one half of the broken bench. The unbroken bench next to the table lies overturned, clean of the stain. When I get close to the stain, I set aside the bag and flashlight. I lean into it to take a closer look, and my nose is hit with a strong pungent smell, forcing me back as I cough to a side.

The stain smells heavily of iron. I can only assume that it's blood, and it smells like it's been here for a really long time. ♦

>>113313
Check behind table for clues.

>>113618
>Check behind the table for clues.

The blood curves around the table, leaving a rounded outline along the floor. Behind the table is a notch in the ground, like something struck it there. When I move my flashlight to the table, upon further examination, I can see a similarly shaped notch in the table's wood. There's blood coming out of the notch in the table, leaking out onto the floor. ♦

>>118592
>There's blood coming out of the notch in the table, leaking out onto the floor.
As in fresh?

If so, run out of town and for the road (I know it won't work 'cause game rules, but it's what I'd do with a freakin' bleeding table).

If you mean it's an old stain, go around the room--carefully--and open the windows to get more light in here.

>>118807
>go around the room--carefully--and open the windows to get more light in here.

The blood isn't fresh by any measure, but I shine my flashlight around the room again almost instinctively. A chill passes by, causing me to shiver again. I huddle myself together for a bit of warmth, not taking my eyes off the rest of the room. After seeing nothing move but motes of dust floating in the air I've disturbed, I walk towards the closest window, softly clopping my hooves against the hard restaurant floor.

There's so much dust in here. It's hard to breathe. Everything's dusty—the floor, the tables, the benches, and even the walls. Even the blood on the floor is coated with a layer of dust. It's so quiet in here that I can almost hear them drift about the room.

When I reach the window, the light from the sun shines brightly into my eyes. I throw one hoof over my eyes and another hoof at the window, trying to open it. I'm not even sure if they can be opened, but I'm going to try anyways. More light is better here, after all.

And when I push outward on the window...

...it breaks, clattering to the ground outside.

Well, at least the room is slightly brighter now.

So, to recap: My name is Bijou, and I sell diamonds for a living. Last night, when my company went on a business trip, my car on the train got separated from everypony else. I then got attacked by a monster—a big black blob of eyes—I don't even know—which left when a bell rang from inside the town.

When I tried running away down the tracks, I somehow circled around to the same spot, so I had to choose between a path leading deeper into the forest or down to town. The town appears to be called Ashdale, and it also appears to have been completely deserted for the last hundred years. I stayed in a house near the forest last night.

This morning, I went out deeper into the town, and the first (and only other) building I went into is the restaurant I'm currently inside. It's dark, and I think somepony may have died in here. There's a giant probably-hundred-year-old blood splatter on the floor.

I have with me a flashlight, a hoof-held mirror, a heart-shaped key that's also a magnifying glass, a diamond necklace from my business trip (though it isn't really mine), a letter from an old resident of the house I stayed in last night, and the pillowcase I'm holding it all in.

I'm cold, hungry, and scared, and I need to find a way home. ♦

Well, it's certainly been a while.

Go upstairs.