September 5th, 06:35 AM
When Grape arrived home from his shift, he immediatly went to bed, as usual. As soon as he started sleeping, he had the same nightmare he had the previous three days, only this time, it was worse.
He was once again in a dark, seemingly endless void, surrounded by ghostly apparitions of the five missing mares, who then lunged at him, with faces filled with hatred. Except, the dream didn't end when they lunged at him, instead, they started to rip him apart. Despite it being a dream, Grape could somehow feel everything as the apparitions started to forcefully remove his limbs and insides. He woke up screaming, sweating like he was in the middle of a desert.
"By Celestia...", he said, panting, "...What just happened?!". Grape looked at the alarm clock on his cupboard. It was only 08:00 AM. He had only managed to sleep for one full hour, and a few minutes.
Grape then did something he hadn't done in years. He grabbed his pillow, and hugged it. He used to do that as a foal when he had a nightmare, or when he was afraid that a monster was going to come out of his closet to eat him. He considered not even going to work that day, after all, his last shift was already ruthless, so what if this one was even worse?
But then he remembered something. He was already too deep in this rabbit hole to get out, so he had no choice but to go deeper. After getting out of bed, he made his breakfast, and as he was eating, an idea struck him.
"Wait a minute... That guy I met yesterday, Spooky Scary... he said he was a paranormal investigator, maybe he could help me figure out why i'm having these dreams."
After finishing his breakfast, and taking a quick shower, he went to the same store he went to the previous day, Spooky Scary's Paranormal Gadgets. As he approached the store, he saw Spooky himself opening up for the day. He quickly noticed Grape approaching, and opened the door to greet him. "Heeeey! You're that guy from yesterday!", Spooky said, "Your name's Grape, isn't it?"
"Uhhh, yeah Spooky, it's me.", Grape replied, a bit overwhelmed by Spooky's enthusiasm. "YES! My first returning customer, and I managed to remember their name! Ohhh I'm so excited!". It was becoming clear to Grape that Spooky never actually had a returning customer before. "So, what do you want this time?"
"Actually... I'm just here to talk.", Grape said, entering the store. "You said you were a paranormal investigator, right?"
"Correct!", he said. "I'm an expert when it comes to ghosts! Although, recently there hasn't been anypony who required my services... So i'm mostly just running this store at the moment."
"Well... do you know anything about ghosts and dreams?", Grape asked. "Well, yes! If you want, we can talk about this in my living room.", he said, pointing to a door behind the store's counter.
"Yeah, that could work.", Grape said. "Great! I'll make some coffee, do you want some?", Grape had already drank coffee that morning, so he politely declined Spooky's offer. No thanks, Spook. I'll just want a glass of water."
Spooky's living room was relatively normal looking. Grape had expected it to be full of paranormal trinkets and supposedly haunted objects, but it had none of that. Instead, the only thing that related to the paranormal was a framed picture of Spooky, and three other ponies, all holding ghost detection devices. "Who are those guys?", Grape asked. "Oh! That's my old ghost hunting team.", Spooky said. "We used to hunt for ghosts together, but we disbanded due to the fact that we all wanted to do our own things. I still keep contact with them though, they're cool guys. So, you said you wanted to talk about ghosts and dreams, right?"
"Yes. Do you know anything about that?", Grape asked. "Yes, I do! First off, could you describe what happens in the dream for me?", Spooky replied, "It's just so i can properly tell what you're dealing with."
"Alright. So... You know the five missing mares?", Grape said, a bit nervous. "Well, yes, I heard of what happened. What about them?", Spooky asked. "Well... I think their ghosts are tormenting my dreams.", at this remark, Spooky raised an eyebrow. "Ummm... Okay... What do you mean?", he said taking a sip from his coffee.
"You see, I've had this dream for four days now, where the five of them attack me and-", before he could continue, Spooky projectile-spat his coffee all over the floor in shock. "F-FIVE OF THEM?!", he asked, clearly surprised. "Uhhh... Yeah. Is that... not "normal"?", Grape asked, a bit confused. "Listen, Grape, I've heard of ghosts entering other ponies dreams, usually only one, at most, two. But FIVE?! That's off the scale!", Spooky said. "How in Tartarus did you get five ghosts to invade your dream?!", he asked, clearly shocked. "I... I don't know! It just happens...", Grape said, not understanding it either.
"W-well... In any case...", Spooky said, regaining his composure. "You said the ghosts were that of the missing mares, how do you know it's them?", he asked, curious.
"Well, you see... It's because I may have figured out what happened to them... I think they were murdered.". Grape explained his theory to Spooky, that the missing mares were killed by somepony, and that their spirits somehow managed to possess their Animatronic counterparts. He also explained that they insisted that he was their killer, despite him being innocent. "Hummm... Interesting.", Spooky said. "Now, I don't know exactly if your theory is correct. But if it is, I may know why they think you're their killer."
At the mention of this, Grape perked up a bit. "Really? What is it?"
"You see Grape, from what I've learned, the ghosts of murder victims usually have trouble remembering what their killer looks like, with only a few rare exceptions.", Spooky said. "I don't exactly know why, but it's as if their minds try to "erase" the full image of what the killer looks like, possibly as some sort of strange defense mechanism against trauma. This causes the spirits to only remember vague details of their killer's appearence, such as their eye color, size, voice, and gender. It's possible whoever killed them shared one or more aspects of their appearence with you, and that is causing them to mistake you as their killer, despite your innocence. As for the dreams, it could be because they're trying to warn you to not come back."
"Well, how do I tell them i'm not their killer, because I tried to tell that to them, and it didn't work!", Grape said, hoping for a good answer.
"Well, unfortunely... I don't know.", Spooky replied. "The only advice i can give to you would be to try to reason with them, but as you said, it doesn't seem to work."
"Oh... Ok then.", Grape said, a bit disappointed. "Well, thanks for the hospitality, Spooky, but i gotta go.", he said getting out of the chair. "Ok then.", Spooky replied. "Come back anytime if you want to talk with me! Now if you excuse me, i have to clean this mess on the floor..."
As Grape exited the store, he sighed in frustration. While he did get something to work with, he still had no way to convince the missing mares that he was not the murderer. As he walked back home, he silently prayed that this night wouldn't be as bad as the previous one.
But it seems those prayers fell on deaf ears, as this night would prove to be the most difficult one yet...
Meanwhile...
Behind the curtains in the Main Party Room, a conversation was taking place.
"What if... he doesn't come back...?", Fluttershy worried.
"Oh... Fluttershy... Don't worry... I'm certain he'll come back...", Applejack replied.
"But even if he comes back...", Rarity said from the Maintenance Room. "How do we know we'll get him... This time...?"
"Yeah... What if he manages to survive again...?", Rainbow Dash said, irritated that they couldn't catch their presumed killer.
"Calm down... girls... i have... a plan...", Twilight said, reassuringly.
"You have...?", Rainbow Dash asked.
"Yes... It's simple... Really...", she said. "We'll overwhelm him so much... That he won't be able to fight back..."
"But what if... that doesn't work...?", Fluttershy asked.
Twilight paused for a few seconds, before she finally responded.
"Then... We'll have to go with... Plan B..."