A few hours earlier...
While Grape was working the Nightshift, Pinkie Pie had gone home. She silently prayed she wouldn't have nightmares again, as she had the same one for two days straight. As she laid in bed, tossing and turning, she felt something. Something she had felt for months now, but never got used to, and wouldn't go away. Guilt. She always told herself "You did what you could", and "It wasn't your fault", but deep down, she didn't believe that. After all, it was her that brought them to that room. It was her hooves that unwillingly held the knife that killed them. It was her who was forced to burn their remains. She felt horrible, there wasn't a single day she didn't. She got away with one of the most heinous acts one could commit, and she hated that fact.
As Pinkie started to get sleepy, she took a look at her room. If she was to have the same nightmare that night, then she needed to be ready. She closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep. Then, she awoke. She was in the same room, but it felt wrong. This was the moment she was dreading. She was dreaming, and it was the same nightmare again. She got out of her bed and saw that a flashlight had now appeared on the cupboard. She grabbed it, and turned it on, looking from left to right. The door and window were now open, despite the fact that, in reality, she had locked them both before going to bed. While she could see a bit of the Hallway on the door, she couldn't see anything out the window, almost as if outside was nothing but a black void.
She looked at her closet. The doors were open just slightly enough to be noticeable, but not enough to be obvious. As she looked at it, she heard a noise coming from the hallway. It sounded familiar, but also distorted...
"Pinkie..."
Pinkie looked outside the room, and was met with a horrible sight. At the far end of the hallway, was Applejack, except... It wasn't her. It looked more like a twisted, monstrous version of Applejack. She had extremely small eyes that didn't even fit her eye cavities, and she had a massive, bloody hole in her neck, through where the voice was coming from. "...Pin...kie...", "Applejack" said once more, as she started walking towards the door. As soon as she saw this, she started to close the door. "Wait...!", she yelled as Pinkie closed and locked the door, then she started to desperately bang on the door, saying something that Pinkie couldn't understand, as the door was blocking the sound.
"Oh... Darling...", another familiar, yet distorted voice said. "Why are you hiding from us...?". Pinkie saw as a monstrous version of Rarity started to come out from the closet. She had a massive hole through her chest, revealing a beating heart with a slash on it. Pinkie ran over to the closet, closing it before "Rarity" could fully exit, forcing her to go back in. She started to say something, but whatever "Rarity" was saying was muffled by the closet doors.
Pinkie was beyond scared. She didn't know what these monsters wearing her friends' faces wanted, but she presumed that it couldn't be good... Suddenly another one appeared, this one resembling Fluttershy, but with a massive wound on her forehead. "Pinkie... Please... Let us in...", she said, putting an almost skeletal hoof on the windowsill. Pinkie quickly closed it, causing "Fluttershy" to quickly pull her hoof back, and preventing her from getting in. She also tried to say something, like the others, but whatever she was saying was muffled by the glass.
Pinkie looked around the room again, now seeing something crawling from under her bed's mattress, it was another one of those monsters, this one looking like Twilight, but with a broken horn, featherless wings, and no lower jaw, in fact, it was as if her lower jaw and even part of her neck had been brutally ripped off. Despite the lack of a lower jaw, she still spoke, clear as day. "Pinkie... please... listen...", she said, looking at her with eyes that were too small for it's sockets.
Pinkie shined the light on her, forcing "Twilight" to retreat under the mattress once more. She started whispering something, but because she was under the mattress, Pinkie couldn't make out what she was saying. Suddenly all those muffled noises started getting louder. They weren't getting more understandable, quite the opposite in fact, they were growing into a cacophony of undiscernable noise. Pinkie covered her ears, but the sound didn't stop. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?", she said, crying for it to stop. "I'M SORRY! PLEASE, WHY ARE YOU ALL TORMENTING ME?"
"Why won't you listen to us?", another familiar voice said. This one less distorted than the others.
Pinkie opened her eyes, discovering she was now in some sort of dark void. This didn't happen the previous two times. In front of her stood another monster, this one resembling Rainbow Dash, but with the skin around her eyes and forehead completely gone, and several stab wounds in her body. "R-Rainbow...?", Pinkie asked. "No. Not quite.", "Dash" replied. "I am merely a manifestation of your guilt created by your subconscious. In fact, all of us are."
As she said that, the other monsters suddenly manifested around Pinkie, looking at her with mournful faces. "The reason we look like this is, is because of the subconscious twisting your traumatic memories.", she said. "But we don't want to hurt you. We want to talk to you."
"W-what do you mean?", Pinkie asked, confused. "You see... We're here to tell you something. You need to fight back."
"Huh? Against who?", now Pinkie was really confused. "Against him."
"W-what?!", Pinkie said, taken off guard. "I-i can't do that! He'll kill me! Like how he killed my friends!". "Now that's not the Pinkie i know.", Monster Dash said. "What happened to the Pinkie that laughed in the face of danger? The one that was able to smile, even in the toughest circumstances? Where did that Pinkie go?"
"Ummm...", before Pinkie could answer, Monster Dash wrapped her almost featherless wing around Pinkie, then looked at her. "She's still here, inside you...", Monster Dash said, "... But when that jerk came along, and killed your real friends, that Pinkie went into hiding. But i think it's time we bring her back! Isn't that right girls?"
"Yeah! Ya can do it Pinkie!", Monster AJ said, "You can do it, Darling! Go kick that guy's butt!", Monster Rarity encouraged, "We believe in you...!", Monster Fluttershy said meekly, "Even if we aren't your real friends...", Monster Twilight said, "Always know we believe in you 100%!"
At this show of encouragement, Pinkie started to feel something else. Confidence. Something she hadn't felt in a while. "Now...", Monster Dash said, "Who's the Pony that laughs in the face of danger?". "I am!, Pinkie replied. "Who's the one that manages to keep a smile, even when things are dire?", "I AM!"
"WHO'S READY TO EXPOSE THAT JERK FOR WHAT HE DID TO YOUR FRIENDS?", she yelled out. Pinkie paused for a moment, then she answered.
"I am."
"YEAH!", Monster Dash said, "Now there's the Pinkie i know! Alright, now that your confidence is up, i need you tell the truth to that Grape guy. Got it? He probably has already figured out your friends are in the Animatronics, so all you need to do now is tell him your point of view."
"But what if he doesn't believe me?", Pinkie said, starting to worry, "And what if he discovers i told the truth?! He'll kill me!"
"There you are worrying again...", Monster Dash said. "First off, if he knows that the Animatronics are possessed, he'll believe you, because possessed robots are as believable as saying you were forced to kill your friends by an evil shadow creature, and second, even if he finds out, who cares! At least you got the truth out there, which means, others will know of his existance!"
"Yeah...", Pinkie said, regaining her confidence. "You're right! Who is that guy to boss me around anyway? It's time to reveal what really happened!"
"Yeah!", she said. "Your alarm clock should ring at any moment now, so be ready to wake up! And remember! You can do it!"
As soon as Pinkie heard the alarm clock, she turned it off, and got out of her bed. She made her breakfest, and went to work. She was still feeling pretty confident. And maybe she could tell Grape what actually happened.
In the Present
While she wasn't able to tell the truth to Grape, Pinkie did record a message saying that she wanted to talk after his shift. Then she left the office, and went into the Storage Room. She took out her own Animatronic, as well as it's Blueprints. Pinkie had remembered how Twilight said that, when she was making her Animatronic, she had to install two mechanisms on it. One for switching between robot and suit mode, and one to prevent the other mechanism from malfunctioning. It was time to make some alterations to that.
In other words, she was making a trap, to hopefully, finally defeathim...