//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The First Night // Story: Pinkie's Fun Palace: a MLP x FNAF Story // by EnvironmentalText850 //------------------------------// September 1st, 23:49 PM Guarding Grape had arrived at Pinkie's Fun Palace a bit earlier than expected. He figured arriving early would make for a good impression. Pinkie Pie was waiting for him at the door, ready to escort him to the Security Office. After making their way through the almost pitch black building, they arrived at a relatively small room. Looking in, Grape could see a table in the center of the room, with a TV monitor on top of it, behind the table, there was a pair of lockers, with a phone to the left of them. "So, this is the office i'll be working at?", Grape asked Pinkie. "Yeah! It's neat, isn't it?" Pinkie replied. "Now I know it's not the biggest office, but i think you'll like it. Also, i decided to help you out by leaving a message on that phone in the wall. It will explain everything you need to know about your job!" "Hmmm, I see." "Oh! Before i forget, i left you an uniform in one of the lockers." She added, pointing at the left locker. "Alright, good to know.", Grape nodded. "Well i'll be going now!", She said, "See you later!" "Alright, Bye!", Grape waved goodbye to her, "See you in the morning!" Grape turned to the lockers. He gave a determined look, and opened the locker. He grabbed the Dark Blue Uniform and Cap, and put them on, first the Uniform, and then the hat. "Alright...", he said to himself, "Let's do this! But first, the message!" Grape grabbed the telephone on the wall, and pressed the button to access the messages. "You have: 1 new message" the telephone announced, followed by a high pitched beep. Then, a familiar voice sounded through the phone's speakers. "Hello, Hello! Hi, it's me! Pinkie Pie, I wanted to leave a message for you to help you get settled in on your first night! I know you previously worked as a nightguard, according to your resume, but i promise, you'll probably want to hear this!" This was apparently the message Pinkie had left. A guide to how his job worked, while he probably could have figured it out alone, it was nice to have someone clarify certain things. But then, something that Pinkie said caught Grape's attention. Or rather, the way she said it... "There's cameras pretty much everywhere in the building, minus the offices, the bathrooms and the... Storage Room..." Grape could tell by the way she said it that she was nervous, almost like the sheer idea of that room frightened her. "A-anyway!", she said, regaining her composure, "You can change cameras by using the buttons on the TV's remote, convenient, huh?" "Why did she sound nervous when she mentioned the Storage Room?", Grape thought to himself, but then, Pinkie said something that surprised him. "You can also use the cameras to play sounds, which is useful to warn intruders, or to deal with the Animatronics." "Wait, Animatronics?", he thought to himself, "Where? I didn't see any when i got in." "Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you about the Animatronics...", Pinkie said almost as if on cue, "So let me tell you a bit about them... You see, before my friends... disappeared... i asked if i could make Animatronics based on ourselves to entertain the customers. They said i could, so i tried to make them to the best of my abilities. They're behind those big curtains on the Main Party Room, the one with the "Coming Soon" sign. You might be wondering why they're not being used during the day, it's because i'm still tweaking them a little bit. The one based on me isn't even out of storage!" Grape thought it was a bit strange how Pinkie's Animatronic was still in storage, but he didn't entertain the thought of why it was, and kept listening to the message. "There are a few... issues with them though... like their Free-Roam feature... See, i actually programmed the Animatonics with the ability to walk around during the day to entertain guests, but at night, they just wander around aimlessly through the building. I don't really know if it's a Bug or if it's just a mistake i made during the programming process, but either way, they should be relatively harmless to you. Though you can use the audio to lure them away if their presence bothers you..." Grape was somewhat intrigued by the idea of the Animatronics being able to walk around. It was somewhat interesting to him. "Welp, that should be everything you need to know! I'll leave another message tomorrow in case i remember something i didn't tell you, or something else happens! See ya!", the message ended there followed by a beep. Grape put the phone back in it's base, with a noticeable "Click!". "Huh... well that's good to know i guess... Instead of there being just me in the building, there's also weird entertainment robots... Great." Grape said, somewhat frustrated with the situation. It seems his investigation wouldn't be as quiet as he hoped. Just as he said that however, the clock struck 12 AM. In the Main Party Room, a hoof suddenly appeared from behind the left curtain, grabbing it's side, at the same time, a glowing green eye lit up, as the curtain was pulled back just slightly enough so that the owner of said hoof and eyes could leave the stage. It then spoke, it's voice clouded by static, as if it was speaking through a radio... "Someone's... Here..." Back in the office, Grape was wondering how to proceed with his investigation. "Alright, before investigating i should probably use the cameras to make sure nothing's wrong... And maybe i can find a notebook or something to write my findings..." Grape opened the right locker. This one had three shelves. One had some sort of book on top of it, while the second one had a flashlight, and the third had nothing. "Yeah this could do.", he thought to himself, grabbing the pink book. On it's cover, it said "Security Logbook". "Alright, now it's time to check the cameras.", he said to himself, throwing the book on the table, "After that i can start to properly investigate this place... Hopefully..." Grabbing the TV's remote, Grape turned it on. After a few seconds of static, the image changed to that of the Main Party Room, more specifically, in front of the big red curtains. "Everything seems fine in the Main Party Room...", Grape thought to himself, changing the camera feed to the Kitchen. "Nothing in the Kitchen... Nothing in the Arcade either...", he said to himself, Damn, this really is starting to feel like my old job already..." But then, something caught his attention. In the Arcade's camera, he could make out a pony-shaped silhouette... It appeared to be wearing a hat of some sort... "That must be one of the Animatronics...", Grape said, "But it's hard to tell in the dark...". He did not say it out loud, but he was getting unnerved by looking at the figure. "I'm going to take a better look at it...", he said, grabbing the flashlight from the right locker, "Just in case..." Stepping out of the Office, flashlight in mouth, Grape was somewhat unnerved at the sheer darkness of the hallway. He was never really scared of the dark, but for some reason, this was different. It was as if something in the back of his mind was warning him of something dangerous... "Thank Celestia that one of those lockers had a flashlight...", he thought, "This place at night is kind of eerie..." After arriving in the Main Party Room, Grape turned to his right, entering the Arcade. The Arcade itself was quite big, not as big as the Main Party Room, but still big. All the arcade machines were turned off, the only light in the room being Grape's flashlight. He took a deep breath, and walked in, but just as he entered, he heard a noise... "Clank!" "What was that?!", Grape said, looking at the direction where the sound came from. No response. He slowly approached the source of the sound, finding it to be... A pony? No... something wasn't right. "Uhhh... Hello?", suddenly the "pony"'s head turned to face him, and he knew right away it was one of the Animatronics Pinkie had talked about in the message. And judging by it's orange fabric, blond mane, and hat, this one was unmistakenbly based on Applejack. "Oh, you must be one of the Animatronics Pinkie talked about...", Grape said, "Well she wasn't kidding when she said you all were based on her friends, you look just like Applejack, albeit a bit freaky-looking." Grape realized how weird it is to be talking to a robot, but then, the Animatronic turned to face him, and Grape realized something. The Animatronic's eyes weren't plastic balls painted to look like eyes like he expected, but rather two glowing, green orbs of light. It was looking at him, as if sizing him up, then, to his surprise, it spoke. "Yer..." Huh?, Grape said, confused. "Yer... YER THEM...!", the Animatronic said, before lunging towards Grape. "What the-?!", Grape said, dodging the attack. He turned to look at the Animatronic, who in turn, looked back at him. Despite the permanent smile it had, he could feel it was angry. Very angry. He ran away to the Main Party Room, hearing it shout something. "Come back here...!". Luckily the Animatronic wasn't very fast, it seemed the fastest it could go was more of a power walk, likely due to the weight of it's metal frame. Grape had time to hide under a table before the Animatronic could reach the Arcade's entrance. Turning off his flashlight, he watched as the robotic pony started looking for him. "Where are ya... I'm gonna make ya pay... for what ya did... to us...!" "Wait, what?", Grape thought to himself, but he needed to focus, he had to be ready to run at any moment. Luckily, he saw it go towards the Maintenance Room. The Animatronic opened the door, before entering the room. This was Grape's chance to retreat back to the Office, but then, he heard something... it sounded like... somepony crying? The sound was coming from the Entrance. He slowly exited his hideout, then approached the doors that led to the Entrance. After slowly opening the doors, attempting to minimize any noise, he saw the source of the crying, another Animatronic. Looking at it's yellow fabric, pink mane, and a pair of folded wings, he could tell that this Animatronic was modeled after Fluttershy. It was sitting down, facing the locked entrance doors. "Please...", it said, with a seemingly mournful voice, "Just let me see them again... They need me... Please! Just let me go see them... one last time...!", the crying continued for a few seconds, but then, it stopped. The Animatronic seemingly noticed Grape, turning it's head to look at him. It's eyes were similar to the other one, but were cyan instead of green. It then got up, and started walking towards Grape. "You... You..." "Oh no..." The Animatronic then lunged at Grape. "MURDERER...!", it screamed, as Grape ran away. The Applejack Animatronic had left the Maintenance Room, and saw Grape running almost immediatly. "There ya are!", it said, walking towards him. Grape ran back to the Security Office, he had no clue what to do. Both Animatronics had seen him and were slowly approaching the office, ready to do Celestia knows what with him. But then he remembered something. The camera's audio! He quickly pressed the button of the Office Hallway camera, and there they were, the two Animatronics were right there, walking towards his office. He quickly switched to the Main Party Room Camera, and pressed the button to play the audio. "The show will start soon! You don't want to miss it!", a pre-recorded message from Pinkie Pie played, stopping the Animatronics in their path. "Was that... Pinkie?", the Fluttershy Animatronic asked. "I think it was...", the Applejack Animatronic replied, "Come on, maybe she can help us...". Grape watched as the two robots left to the Main Party Room, under the impression Pinkie was there. "Phew! That was... weird.", Grape said to himself, dropping the flashlight on the table. "Wait. Why did this happen?", he said to himself, "Why did they try to attack me? And why did that one call me a murderer?". This entire situation was weird. That''s when he remembered the Logbook. "I should probably note this down. After all, that was pretty strange..." As he opened the Logbook, two objects were inside. One was a pencil, and the other was a folded piece of paper."Huh? What's this?", he said, as he grabbed the piece of paper, unfolding it to reveal it was a note. "To whoever is working the Night Shift after me, please, QUIT WHILE YOU STILL CAN! I'm not a superstitious pony, but i swear this place is HAUNTED! Those damn robots are possessed, i swear! They keep talking about how somepony or something killed them, and how they'll find him or whatever. I'm getting the creeps just thinking about it! In fact, just standing near them gives me the creeps! If you see this message please, i implore you, LEAVE THIS DAMN PLACE AND DON'T COME BACK!" "What?", Grape, said, confused and somewhat skeptical. His whole life he'd been told that "Ghosts aren't real", so he shrugged it off, and folded the note back, believing it to be some sort of prank left by the previous employee. After all, ghosts don't exist... right? Despite not believing it, he kept the note, as it could be some sort of evidence. The rest of the night went by normally. Occasionally, he'd play the audio to lure the Animatronics back, but other than that, the night was relatively uneventful. As 6 AM rolled around, Grape saw as the Animatronics went back behind the curtains, and he also saw Pinkie Pie opening the doors to the building. His shift for today was over. As he went to the entrance to greet Pinkie, she greeted him first. "Hey Grape! So how was your shift?". "Uhhh... Uneventful!", he said, hoping that Pinkie wouldn't notice the truth. "Great!", she said, "I'll see you later tonight for your next shift! Oh! And if you want you can keep the uniform, i think it suits you!" "Really? Uhhh... Thanks, i guess.", Grape said, somewhat flustered by the comment. "Anyway, see ya boss!" "You can just call me Pinkie, Grape.", Pinkie said, "I won't mind it!" "Ok then, see ya Pinkie!" As Guarding Grape left, Pinkie started to sweat again. She knew what that meant, he wanted to talk. "He hasn't figured it out... Has he? "N-no... I don't think so..., Pinkie said, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Good. He must not find the truth... And if he does... Kill him." At the mention of this Pinkie became scared. "But... I don't want to-" "Shhhhh... Remember what i'll do to you if you disobey me?" "No! I mean, yes, i know..." "Then do as i say...", he said, before dissapearing. After this, Pinkie began to cry, she didn't want to kill anyone. But she had no choice, if she didn't do it, he'd make her do it, and to her that was even worse... But she swallowed her tears and tried not to think about it, as she went to her office, after all, she had a business to run. But this living nightmare is just beginning...