Follow Guarding Grape as he discovers the dark secrets of Pinkie's Fun Palace...
After Pinkie Pie opens up her own Entertainment Venue, her friends inexplicably go missing. An intrepid investigator, by the name of Guarding Grape, tasks himself with working at the Place in an attempt at finding out what happened to them, but what he doesn't expect is what horrors lie within those walls...
"What happened that day?" A question that has haunted the residents of Ponyville for months at this point...
It was the 28th of August, and the time was 18:09 PM. Applejack was cleaning up after her little sister Applebloom's birthday party. Applebloom had already gone back to their ranch with her Granny and her Brother, as she was feeling tired, though Applejack decided to stay and help her friends clean up the place. The place they had chosen to hold the party was owned by one of Applejack's friends, Pinkie Pie, who let them host the party there for free, as a "Friends Discount". It had everything a Pony could want for a party, from an arcade filled with the all newest games on the market, a large ballpit, filled with multicolored balls, and even a small stage for porformers to showcase their acts to the guests. There was also a second, much larger stage, but this one was covered by red curtains, with a sign on the front saying "Coming Soon!". She was just finishing tidying up the tables, when the Pink Pony herself, Pinkie Pie, walked in. She looked excited to see Applejack.
"Hey Applejack!" said Pinkie Pie, with a smile across her face. "Oh hi Pinkie!" said Applejack, "What is it ya wanna talk 'bout?", she asked. "It's about that project i'm working on!" Pinkie said, "I want you to come and see it!" she added. "Ya mean, the one ya asked us permission for? The "Ponytronics" project or whatever you called it?" Applejack asked. She remembered that Pinkie had asked their permission to make characters based on herself and their other friends to entertain the customers of the establishment, She remembered being somewhat hesitant, but eventually allowed her to do it. She wondered if it had something to do with it. "Yes! And i want you to take a look at it!", Pinkie said, excitedly. "Well Pinkie, i'm kinda busy cleanin up the place..." Applejack replied looking at the few tables that still needed to be cleaned. "Aww come on AJ, i promise it'll be quick!" Pinkie Pie said, with a dissapointed tone to her voice, "Pleeeeeease?", she pleaded with a somewhat exaggerated pouty face.
"Alright Pinkie, i'll come see your project." the Cowpony conceded. "Just please be quick about it..." Pinkie Pie's face immediatly lit up with excitement "Great!" she loudly spoke. "Follow me, AJ! I'll show you were they are!"
Applejack followed Pinkie Pie into the hallway that led to the kitchen. On the right there was a wooden door that led to another hallway, which had an exit door at the end of it, and another wooden door to the left. This one had a sign on top labeled "Storage Room". "They're inside this room, come on! Let's go in!" Pinkie said, unable to hold her excitement. "Alright Pinkie, i got it.", Applejack replied.
Pinkie opened the door to let Applejack in, who entered first. Pinkie went in second, and closed the door behind her, the door shut with a noticeable "Click!" sound.
Little did the two of them know, the moment that they passed through that door, their lives would never be the same ever again...
"She fell for it... What a fool." a mysterious voice said to itself... "Now... where's that knife?"
One Year later
September had now come, and after a long search, they still could not find those 5 missing mares. After word got out that the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle, had allegedly gone missing after exiting Pinkie's Fun Palace, along with four of her friends, a massive search party was organized. It started out small, just the Ponyville Police Department, but when they couldn't find anthing, they were forced to ask for backup from Celestia's Royal Guard, from Canterlot, and when they couldn't find anything either, they allowed volunteers to aid in the search. Even after that however, nothing could be found. Not a single shred of evidence, no clues, nothing, even after analyzing Security Footage. It was as if they disappeared into thin air. Eventually the search had to be called off, but that didn't stop other Ponies from looking for them. From trained professionals, to amateurs that were doing it to give closure to the families, and anypony in between. But again, no one could find anything.
September 1st, 10:05
Guarding Grape, 24 years old, was in his office looking at corkboard on the wall. On the corkboard, there were Missing Posters for the five missing mares, aswell as a photo of Pinkie's Fun Palace itself. They were pinned to the board, and connected with a red tape all leading to a Question Mark. For the past two days, he had been analyzing his notes on the case, trying to find some sort of answer as to what happened, but he ran into the same problem as everyone else.
"Ugh... Dammit!", He said to himself, frustrated. "Why is this case so difficult to solve?! I have studied the case for weeks now, but nothing seems to make sense! How could five Ponies disappear into thin air like this?! It's no wonder that even the Royal Guard, the most trained and specialized investigators in Equestria could solve this... This case is a litteral nightmare to wrap your head around!"
"*Sigh*", he sighed to himself, before exiting the office. "I need to take a break before i get another headache..."
After exiting the office, he went to his living room, where he sat down on his green-colored couch.
"Maybe reading the news could calm me down...", he said to himself, before taking a look at the Newspaper. He gazed at the Newspaper, looking at the news, nothing unusual there. That was, until he reached the Advertisements section, where an Ad caught his attention.
"Now Hiring! Pinkie's Fun Palace is looking for a new employee for the Nightguard Position! Employee must monitor the building from 12 AM to 6 AM. Call 1-555-PINKIEPIE to schedule a job interview today! Starting sallary is $100.00"
"Now Hiring?" Grape said, intrigued. "They're looking for a new security guard? "...Monitor the building from 12 AM to 6 AM...", hmmm... interesting..."
Suddenly, an idea came to his head. "Wait... Hold on...", he said, before grabbing the telephone on the small shelf on the side of his couch, and dialing the number.
"Hello?", he asked, "Is this Pinkie's Fun Palace? Yes? Good, I'd like to schedule a job interview. Yeah, for the night guard position... Alright, i'll be there at after lunch, Ok? Bye, see ya."
14:10 PM
Pinkie's Fun Palace wasn't very hard to miss. The hot pink building sticking out like a sore hoof. The inside of the building was also pink, though it was a much lighter, more pleasant shade. The inside was filled with customers of all ages. While most ponies, particularly the colts and fillies, simply came for the arcade, there were some ponies at the tables, either eating food such as pizzas and cakes, or simply talking to eachother. In the Manager's Office, Guarding Grape was conversing with Pinkie Pie, owner and manager of the establishment. She was taking a look at his Resume.
"So your resume says you worked as a security guard before, but eventually you were laid off because the store you worked at closed?"
"Yeah, that's right. Bankruptcy if i recall..." , Grape replied, looking to the side. So... Uhhh... Did i get the job? Cause i reeealy need it. I don't really have a lot to do...
At this remark, Pinkie raised an eyebrow. "Hmmmm...", she said, seeming to be in deep thought... "Sure! You can have the job!", she said, suddenly.
"Really? Uhh... Thanks!"
"Just sign this contract, and the job is yours.", she said, handing Grape a contract.
"Ok then.". Grape then signed his name in the contract. "So, uhhh... when can I start?"
"You can actually start today, Mr. Grape!", Pinkie said enthusiastically. "Your shift starts at 12 AM, so you have to be here at around 11:50 PM at the least."
"Got it! Well, I'll be going now!", Grape said, getting up from the armchair he was sitting in. "See ya Pinkie! Or should i say, Boss?"
"Heehee! See ya!"
Guarding Grape opened the door to the Manager's Office, and left, the door clicking behind him. As he left however, Pinkie started to sweat. The look of happiness in her face suddenly changing to one of pure fear and dread. He was here, and he wanted to talk...
"Did you tell him about our little secret? Be honest now..."
"No, no I didn't..."
"Good. Because you know what I'll do to you if you tell ANYONE about it. Do you?"
"Y-Yes... Please... Please don''t hurt me...", Pinkie said, feeling a shadowy hand slowly scratch her hair...
Oh... Don't worry, I won't hurt you, Miss Pie..., the mysterious voice said, reassuringly...
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.
It was 18:15 PM, 28th of August. Rarity and Fluttershy were helping to clean Pinkie's Fun Palace after the birthday party of Applejack's little sister, Applebloom. Fluttershy had already finished putting away the plates in the Kitchen's cabinet, and Rarity was just finishing storing away all the cutlery, when she noticed she was short of one knife. "Uh... Fluttershy, darling, do you see if there's a knife in the dishwasher?"
"Umm, no Rarity...", said Fluttershy, checking the dishwasher, only to see it empty, "There's no more knives here."
"Huh. That's strange...", Rarity said, somewhat perplexed, "I'll go check outside to see if it's in one of the tables.". She exited the Kitchen, going to the Main Party Room, when suddenly, she heard someone calling out to her.
"Hey Rarity!"
It was Pinkie Pie. She walked towards Rarity with a smile on her face. "Oh hi, Pinkie.", she said back, "Say darling, have you seen a knife laying around here somewhere? I was putting them away when i realized we were one short."
"Uhhh... Nope! I haven't seen any knife around here, haha...". Rarity could tell something wasn't right, Pinkie seemed strangely nervous. But before Rarity could ask if something was wrong, she spoke. "Say Rarity, thanks for making that Pink tie for me, it was perfect!"
"R-really? Well thank you darling..." Rarity said, flustered by the compliment. "No problem! And because you did such a good job, i'm going to let you see how my project is going!"
"Oh really? Well that's quite kind of you, darling." She replied. "I have to say, i'm quite curious to see what you did with the fabrics i gave you.". As they were talking, Fluttershy exited the Kitchen. "Hey, Rarity? Did you find the knife you were looking for?"
"Oh! Fluttershy!", Rarity replied, "I was talking with Pinkie, and she said I could see the project she's working on! Say, would you want to come with us?". Fluttershy was somewhat taken aback by this offer. "Oh... umm... that sounds cool, but, I don't know if Pinkie would want me to-"
"Oh no, no, no!", Pinkie interrupted, ""You can come too! Come on! Let's go, girls, follow me!", she said, as she opened the door to the Staff Only Hallway, to the left of the Kitchen Doors. They then arrived to a door on their left, which led to the Storage Room. "I-it's right here! Come on, let's go in!" . "Okay, but can we please not take too long? I still have to feed the animals, and Discord's coming over for a sleepover...". "Oh, don't worry darling!", Rarity said, "This will probably only take five minutes! You'll have plenty of time!"
Rarity entered the room first, then Fluttershy, and then Pinkie, who closed the door behind her.
"What Foolish creatures.", the mysterious voice said, watching them enter the Storage Room, "I'd rather have to deal with them one at a time, but i can work with two..."
There was screaming, followed by crying, and then... silence, which was followed by more sobbing.
"Three down. Two more to go."
In the present
September 2nd, 12:08 PM Guarding Grape was awoken from his nap by his alarm clock. He had gone to sleep after arriving home from his shift the previous night, not even taking off his uniform. Getting out of his bed, he made his way to the kitchen, and made himself a cup of coffee, and a Lettuce and Tomato sandwich. As he sipped from his cup, a thouht came to his mind. "What a strange dream i had..., he said to himself, "I can't seem to remember what it was about though... All i remember was that i was being... watched..."
He paused, trying to remember anything else from his dream, but he when couldn't remember anything, he decided to think about something else. He thought about how he'd proceed with his investigation, as last night's attempt hadn't gone exactly to plan. "Alright, time to review my notes.", he said, taking a piece of paper from his uniform's pocket, "Let's see... I was attacked by two Animatronics that were, according to Pinkie, based on her friends, and i found a note that said the place was haunted... So overall, i don't have much..."
As Grape thought about the note, however, he then thought about how the Animatronics were acting strangely, and how the one based on Fluttershy called him a "Murderer", "Wait... could it...?", he said to himself, "...No! Of course not! Ghosts aren't real, remember? There must be a rational explanation for this...". As he thought about it, he went to his bathroom to take a shower, and then went about his day, but as night came, he stopped thinking about possible answers to that, and instead, focused on getting ready for his next shift.
11:55 PM
As Grape arrived at Pinkie's Fun Palace, he saw Pinkie Pie standing in front of the doors of the Entrance, waiting for him. "Hi Grape! Ready for your next shift?", she said in an excited tone.
"Hey Pinkie.", Grape said, when he noticed Pinkie looked exhausted. "Say, you look kinda tired. Did something happen?"
"Oh don't worry, about me.", she replied "It's just that i had to file a lot of paperwork, so i'm feeling a bit tired... Being a Manager is hard you know.
"Ah, i see.", Grape said. "Oh and before i forget, i left another message for you on the phone!", she said, a bit more enthusiastic this time. "Give it a listen when you have time."
As Pinkie left, Grape went to the Security Office. He turned on the monitor, grabbed the flashlight, placing it on the table, then, finally, he grabbed the telephone to listen to the message. "You have: 1 new message. *Beeeeeeeeep*"
"Hi Grape! It's me, Pinkie! I'm leaving this message here to inform you of something. You know the Maintenance Room? The room to the side of the big stage? There's an Animatronic in there. You see, Rarity- I mean, the Animatronic based on her, has been acting up recently. It won't stop, uh... bugging out, unless a certain song is playing.", Grape raised an eyebrow. Why in Celestia's name would a machine bug out if there was no music playing? And why was it so specific? "You're probably asking yourself,"Why though?"", she said, trying to do an impression of Grape's voice, "And honestly... i have no idea. So because of that, i hooked up a Music Player to a spare speaker that was laying around so there's always music playing. If it stops, for whatever reason, just press the play button again. You can do it either remotely through the TV's remote, or manually, but that would mean you'd have to walk AAAAALL the way to the Maintenance Room, and then back to the office, so i'd reccomend doing it remotely.", as she said that, Grape noticed a second remote near the TV's remote, presumably for the Music Player. "And yeah, that's all for today's message! See ya!"*Beeeeep*
Pinkie's message was a lot shorter than the previous one, but Grape got the message, "keep the music playing". He switched the camera to the Maintenance Room, inside there were a bunch of Animatronic parts, as well as spare speakers, stagelights and a door that seemingly led to the stage, there was also a few wires on the ground, and a pair of light purple curtains. A song was playing. Grape had a music box that played that song when he was a foal, so he recognized the melody.
"So this is the Maintenance Room...", Grape said to himself, as he said that however, the clock struck 12 AM.
He quickly switched back to the Party Room camera, watching as the Applejack and Fluttershy Animatronics left the stage, first Applejack, then Fluttershy. Grape was ready to use the audio, when he saw a red warning sign with an exclamation point in the camera's HUD. "What the hay?", he asked to himself switching over to the Maintenance Room camera. The song that was playing had stopped, and instead he could hear... somepony crying? What? Grape was taken aback by this, and wanted to check it out, but he was afraid of the Animatronics attacking him like the previous night, so he had no choice but to sit there. Then he noticed something about the crying, it sounded... "Staticky". As in, with a static similar to a radio. Something here wasn't right. Grape then remembered something. The music! Quickly, he pressed the "play" button on the second remote, and the music started again. As it did, the crying slowly stopped.
"Was this what Pinkie meant by "Bugging out"? That sounded a lot more like... crying...", before he could continue to think about it, the door that led from the Main Party Room to the Maintenance Room opened.
"Rarity... is everythin'... okay?", it was the Applejack Animatronic. It seems it had heard the crying too.
"No, Applejack... It never is... Not since we've been turned into these... things...", the Rarity Animatronic said, poking it's head from behind the curtains, "Tell me... darling... Did he come back today...?
"I believe so...", the Applejack Animatronic responded, then, it did something Grape didn't expect. It looked at the camera, it's piercing green eyes digging a hole through him. "In fact... I think he's lookin' at us... right now..."
Grape felt chills going down his spine. Quickly, he switched to the Main Party Room Camera, and pressed the audio button, then switched back, to the Maintenance Room.
"Was that... Pinkie Pie?", the Rarity Animatronic asked to the Applejack Animatronic. "It might have been... I'll go check it out...", it replied, leaving the room to check on the noise. "Hopefully she hasn't suffered the same fate... as us..."
"W-w-what in... What?!", Grape couldn't comprehend what happened. The robot had looked at the camera. It adressed him. It knew he was there. But how? Was it alive? Was this put in it's programming as some form of prank? Or was it truly... Possessed? No, it couldn't be... but what if? Suddenly, Grape thought of the note, how it said the Animatronics were possessed, but that couldn't be right, ghosts aren't real... right? Usually Grape would say that yes, ghosts aren't real, but now, he was starting to question that idea.
As he thought about this, however, he heard heavy metallic footsteps approaching the office. Quickly changing cameras, he saw the Fluttershy Animatronic approaching. "Oh shoot!", Grape blurted out. He quickly used the audio to lure it away, before it could reach the office. "Pinkie...? Is that you...? Oh, please... you have to help us...!", it said, as it went to the Main Party Room. That was close. Very close. He needed to be more careful. If they saw him, and if they caught him, whoknows what they would do...
The rest of the night went about in a similar way as the last one, just with the addition of the Rarity Animatronic and the Music Player. As the clock struck 6 AM, Grape let out a sigh of relief. He made his way to the entrance, and was once again greeted by Pinkie Pie, who somehow looked even more tired than she did when he last saw her...
"Uhhh... Hey Pinkie... A-are you ok?", Grape asked, concerned.
"Oh no it's fine!", Pinkie said, struggling to stay awake, "It's just that i... *Yawn*... couldn't sleep very well last night..."
Grape was a bit worried about Pinkie's wellbeing, she seemed like she'd fall asleep on the spot at any moment. "Well uhhh... shouldn't you like, take the day off or something?"
"Oh no, no, no! I can't take the day off...", she said, again, half-asleep, "I'm the only one running this business, and my boyfriend's out of town, so he can't fill in for me..."
"Oh, i see. Well uh... Bye Pinkie, see you later, i guess..."
As Grape left, he began to wonder just what was going on. Were the Animatronics truly possessed? If so... could that mean...? No, it couldn't be... He tried to shake off that thought, but he couldn't. So he decided to hold on to it... for now. It was just a theory, but one that rocked him to his core...
What if the five missing ponies he was searching for weeks now, were right under his snout? What if... he found them already?
It was the 28th of August, and the time was now 18:35 PM Twilight Sparkle was helping her friends clean up Pinkie's Fun Palace after Applebloom's birthday party. She might have been the Princess of Friendship, but she didn't mind getting her hooves dirty. She was cleaning the Arcade, sweeping the floor, placing loose colored balls back in the ballpit, and cleaning the arcade machine's screens. She had always been a bit of a perfectionist when it came to cleanliness. As she finished cleaning the Arcade, she stopped to admire her own work. "Ah, perfect.", she said, proud of her own work. "Not a single spec of dirt anywhere."
As she was going to leave the Arcade, she saw Pinkie Pie walking towards her. She was looking at the ground, as if nervous about something...
"Ummm... Pinkie? Are you ok?", Twilight asked, slightly concerned.
"Oh! Twilight!", Pinkie seemed to perk up at the sight of her friend, "I was looking for you!"
"Is that why you seemed so down a moment ago?", she asked, "And why were you looking for me? Do you need help with something?"
"...Well, you see...", Pinkie paused, as she suddenly saw Him behind Twilight. He was glaring at her, as if waiting to see what she would say next...
"Ummm... I think there is a problem with the Animatronics...", she said, nervously, "I want you to take a look at it, since you helped me build them and all..."
"Oh! Sure Pinkie! Can you tell me what's wrong with them exactly?", Twilight asked. "Well... I think it's best you looked at it yourself.", Pinkie replied. As she said it, he disappeared in a cloud of purple fog. It seemed Twilight wasn't able to see or even sense him...
"Alright then, could you show me where they are?", Twilight asked, ready to help out her friend.
On their way to the Storage Room, Twilight asked something. "Uh, Pinkie? Are you feeling alright, you're sweating a lot...", Pinkie shrugged off her question, saying, "Oh don't worry, Twilight, i'm fine! Oh, we're almost there now!". Twilight felt something was wrong, but couldn't tell what exactly...
As they arrived, Pinkie opened the door to the dark room, "Y-you go first...", Pinkie said. "Uh... alright then...", Twilight replied, entering the room. Pinkie entered after, then closed the door.
"Why is it so dark in here?", Twilight thought, "I can't even see my hoof in front of my face...", just as she thought that however, the lights turned on, and as she saw what was in front of her, she screamed... In front of her were her friends, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy, all dead, with several slash and stab wounds across their bodies, their blood spilled all across the floor, simply put, it was a massacre... "W-WHAT THE HAY?! A-APPLEJACK?! RARITY?! FLUTTERSHY?! W-WHAT HAPPENED HERE?!
"I'm glad you asked, miss Sparkle.", a voice Twilight didn't recognize said. "Would you like to know?". She turned around, only to see Pinkie Pie looking at her, except... something was wrong... Her eyes. Her eyes had turned completely purple, as if her eyes had been completely replaced by the color. She was now holding a bloody knife, and was eyeing down Twilight, licking her lips. "W-who are you?! You're not Pinkie... WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FRIENDS?!", Twilight said, her horn starting to emit a faint glow. "Correct. I am not your friend, i am simply "borrowing" her body for my own use... As for your friends...", "Pinkie" said, "...I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT I DID TO THEM!"
Before Twilight could even cast a spell to protect herself, she felt a slicing pain burning through her neck. Her throat had been slashed open, and she fell on the ground, gasping for air. The entity inside Pinkie's body licked the blood of the blade, before speaking. "What a shame really. Such a nice shade of purple, wasted on a stupid brat like you...". "*gasp*... Ach... *gurgling*...", Twilight tried to speak, but nothing came out, she couldn't speak because of all the blood in her throat. "But oh well... I guess it's time to finish this...", he said, before flipping Twilight on her back, and then slashing her stomach open. She tried to scream, but what came out of her throat was more gargling. Eventually, the blood loss finally caught up to her, and she passed out, before her life came to a grizzly end. As Twilight finally died, he relinquished control back to Pinkie, who was horrified. "No... TWILIGHT!", Pinkie said, holding her dead friend in her arms, "Why couldn't you defeat him??? Why???, as she asked this, she began to cry, but then, she heard his voice again.
"Only one brat remains.", he said, "The one with the rainbow hair... I'll take my sweet time with that one..."
"WHAT?!", Pinkie said, "NO! I won't let you hurt her! I won't let you hurt anymore of my friends! EVER-"
"DO YOU WANT TO END UP LIKE THEM?", he interrupted Pinkie, his voice so loud it could probably wake up all of Equestria, but only she could hear him.
"N-no...", Pinkie said, tears in her eyes. "Good... then bring her here... or else I'll make you the next victim...". With that threat, he disappeared into a purple fog once more...
Pinkie Pie started to cry once more. She didn't want to do this, she didn't want to kill a pony that was not only her friend, but her bestest friend. But she didn't want to die either... she was stuck between a rock and a hard place... but then, she had an idea...
In the present
September 3rd, 11:30 AM, 20XX Grape didn't think that he would be ale to sleep after the events that occurred last night. Despite that, however, he fell asleep rather easily. As he woke up from his nap, he realized something. He had the same dream he had the previous day, but this time, he could remember more details. He remembered that he was in a void, being watched by five grayed out figures, although he couldn't tell who they were. He felt that the dream was strangely eerie, but before he could continue thinking about that dream...
*Grumble*
"Damn... I'm feeling pretty hungry... I better grab something to eat.", he said to himself, exiting his bedroom and entering the kitchen. As he made himself a sandwich, he grabbed the coffee bag ready to make a cup, only to find it empty. "Oh great. I forgot to buy more coffee...", he said to himself, frustrated. "Well, hopefully this won't affect me too much...". After eating, he took a quick shower, before going about the rest of his day. As nightfall approached, Grape suddenly began dreading what would happen this time. The possibility of those Animatronics being haunted was now more real than ever, after what happened on his last shift. But regardless, he would try to mentally prepare himself for his next shift.
11:57 PM
As Grape arrived in his office, he once again took out the flashlight from the right locker, turned on the monitor, and grabbed the telephone, ready to hear whatever message Pinkie had left on it. "You have: 1 new message *Beeeeeeeeep*"
"Hello? Hi, it's me... *Yawn*... Pinkie. Sorry about that, I just woke up after I fell asleep on the job, on one hoof that's kinda weird, since i never fell asleep on the job before, but the good news is that i found out i can do paperwork while i sleep, which is kinda cool...". Grape was slightly amused by the idea that Pinkie could file paperwork while she slept. "Anyway, today i'd like to inform you about the Rainbow Dash Animatronic. She- I mean... it... seems to not be a big fan of bright lights. I'm not sure why exactly, but when it is exposed to one, it runs away. So if it shows up and starts bothering you... just use your flashlight. Well, that's all for tonight's message, see you in the morning!"*Beeeeeeeep*
As Grape turned to face the monitor, the clock struck 12 AM. He saw as the Applejack and Fluttershy Animatronics left the stage in the same order as before. He then switched to the Maintenance Room's camera to check if the music was still playing, and it was. As he switched back to the Main Party Room, he saw a blue pegasus Animatronic with a rainbow colored mane leaving the stage. This one was clearly the Rainbow Dash Animatronic. As he saw this however, Grape started to feel his eyelids getting heavy. It seemed his lack of coffee that morning had started to show it's effects."Shoot... I'm getting sleepy... this is bad...", he thought to himself, but then, he realized something. When the Animatronics moved around, they made a lot of noise. So if one of them got close to the office he'd hear them coming, which would wake him up, giving him time to lure them away with the audio. It seemed like a fail-proof strategy, so he simply laid his head on the table, and went to sleep.
As soon as he fell asleep, he started dreaming again, and this time it was a slightly different dream. He was still in some sort of void, but there wasn't anything around. He walked for a bit, occasionally looking around to see if he could spot something, when suddenly, he felt like he was being watched again... Turning around, he saw a Grayed out figure, he was certain this was one of the five figures from his previous dream. Suddenly, the figure started floating towards him, and as it got closer, it became more defined. Grape could tell it was a pony by it's shape, and judging by the two appendages sticking out of it's back, it was a pegasus. As the figure got closer, he noticed how their mane and tail were various shades of grey, going from lightest to darkest. Was this...? Looking closer, he could see various black marks across the pony's torso, all leaking a strange, black substance... as the figure stopped, Grape could finally tell who it was. It was Rainbow Dash.
Suddenly, her face changed from a mildly annoyed look, to one of pure hatred. Before Grape could react, she lunged at him while shrieking like a banshee, causing Grape to wake up.
"W-what the hay?! What was that?!", he asked, but then, he looked at the entrance of the office. He started to feel a sensation of dread, as if something was standing there just out of the light's reach. Not taking his eyes off the entrance, Grape grabbed the flashlight on his table with his mouth, then, using his tongue, he pressed the power button under the flashlight, and as soon as the light turned on...
"Gaaaaaah!", the Rainbow Dash Animatronic screamed, covering it's eyes to shield them from the bright light. It then quickly turned around, and ran away, leaving Grape alone once more.
"*Phew!*, that was close...", he said, when he realized something. "Oh shoot! The music!", he quickly switched to the Maintenance Room camera, only to see that the Rarity Animatronic was halfway through the curtains, and her crying had turned into what could best be described as anguished pleas for help. Quickly, he pressed "play" on the second remote, causing the music to start playing again. As it did, the Animatronic slowly retreated back into the curtains and her crying eventually stopped. Quickly checking the other cameras, he saw that both the Fluttershy and Applejack Animatronics were making their way through the Hall, so he used the audio to lure them back to the Main Party Room.
"Okay, that was waaay too close for my liking...", Grape said, taking a deep breath, "Alright, from this day... er... night foward, no more taking naps on the job. It's just too risky..."
The rest of the night went by as usual, except for one moment. The moment that, for Grape, confirmed his theory...
It was now 04:58 AM. He had just finished scaring off the Rainbow Dash Animatronic again, when he decided to check the Main Party Room camera. There, he saw the Animatronic shaking it's head, clearly still half blinded by the light. As it recovered, the Applejack Animatronic suddenly appeared. "Dash... Are ya alright...?", it asked. "Ugh... No... He flashed his light at me... again... my eyes... they hurt...", it replied. Then, it did something Grape wasn't expecting. It sat down, and started sobbing, in a similar fashion to the Rarity Animatronic. "Do you think... she remembers me...?" it asked, as the Applejack Animatronic sat down next to it. "Who...?", it asked back.
"Scootaloo...", it replied. "Do you think... she forgot about me...?". "Oh, Dash...", the orange Animatronic replied, "...She idolizes ya so much... that she literally founded a fanclub about ya... Of course she wouldn't forget about ya...". "Yes, but... what if she did?", it asked again, now sounding like it was on the verge of having a breakdown. "Ya know she wouldn't...", the Applejack Animatronic said, before hugging the Rainbow Dash Animatronic.
As Grape watched this, he was shocked. This confirmed it for him, the Animatronics were possessed, and the ones possessing them were the missing mares he'd been looking for. But how? How did they come to inhabit those machines? This made no sense, but Grape wasn't going to give up on trying to find an answer.
After that, nothing noteworthy happened, aside from Rainbow Dash appearing at the door again. When Grape used his light on her this time, he actually felt bad for it... or rather, her.
As the clock struck 6 AM, all the Animatronics went back into the stage, and Pinkie finally arrived to open up the place. As Grape saw her, he noticed how she somehow seemed even more tired than yesterday. "Hey Pinkie... I assume your night didn't go great, right?", he said, trying his best to not sound condescending. "Well you can say that again..." she replied, "...*Yawn*... I had a horrible nightmare last night. Trust me, you don't want to know how terrible it was..."
"Oh... Okay then...", Grape said, "Well uhhh... I'll be going now. See you later."
"Bye... *Yawn*...", she said, her voice sounding drowsy. "See you tonight!"
As Grape walked home, he bought a new bag of coffee to prevent another nap. As he arrived home however, he realized something.
If the Animatronics he was dealing with were based on, and possessed by the missing mares, where was the one based on Twilight? And was it possessed by her, like with the others?
He wouldn't have to wonder for long though, as those questions would be answered that very night...
The time was 18:56 PM, and the day was the 28th of August. Rainbow Dash had returned to Pinkie's Fun Palace to help her friends clean up the place. She had left to bring Scootaloo back to her home, and had gotten distracted on her way back. She hoped that she wasn't too late to help her friends. As she made her way from the Entrance to the Main Party Room, she noticed how none of her friends appeared to be there. "Uhhh... Twilight? Fluttershy? Applejack? Where are you guys?", she asked, confused. As she said this however, Pinkie Pie appeared from the hallway that led to the Kitchen.
"Ummm... hey there Dash! Where were you?", Pinkie asked. "I went to bring Scootaloo back to her house.", Dash replied. "Did no pony tell you about that?"
"Uhhh... No, haha, well, not that i remember... A-anyway, did anything happen on the way there?". Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at this, she had told Twilight and the others that she'd be out to deliver Scootaloo back home, she thought at least one of them would inform Pinkie about that, but apperently not...
"Well... Not really, but I did meet up with Ditzy on my way back here.", she said. "She was going home from her job, and she told me she recently got engaged to that Doctor guy."
This caught Pinkie completely off guard. "R-really?! That's great to hear! Do you know when the wedding will be?". "She said they haven't decided yet, but maybe some time next month." Dash replied, "By the way, where is everypony?"
"Oh... T-they're in the Storage Room, looking at my project... Do you want to see it too?", Pinkie said. Mentally however, she was begging that Dash would say "No". "Of course!", Dash replied, "Why wouldn't I want to see what my bestest friend has made?". Pinkie wasn't even a little bit thrilled about this. But then she remembered her idea. Maybe... Just maybe, it could work.
"Ummm... G-great! Follow me, Dash!", Pinkie said. As the two mares entered the Kitchen Hallway, they turned to the right just before reaching the Kitchen doors, to enter the Staff Only Hallway. Pinkie was silently praying that her idea would work. Maybe Dash wouldn't have to die...
Pinkie opened the door to the Storage Room. "You go in first...", she said to Rainbow Dash. "Ummm... Okay, but... why? And why is it so dark in there?", she replied, slightly confused.
"Oh! Ummm... Don't worry about it, just go in!", Pinkie said nervously. "Okay...", said Rainbow Dash, entering the dark Storage Room. After she entered, Pinkie Pie went in, and closed the door behind her.
"Uh... Pinkie? Could you please turn on the lights?", Rainbow Dash asked. "I can't see a thi-". Before she could finish, the lights turned on, and what Dash saw was something that rocked her to her core. She saw all of their best friends. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Twilight, all dead, several wounds across their mutilated bodies. P-P-Pinkie... Wh-what the hay? WHAT IN CELESTIA'S NAME IS ALL THIS?! WHO DID THIS?!"
"I did.", a voice Dash didn't recognize said. Suddenly she felt something lunge at her, it was Pinkie Pie, but... her eyes were wrong. They were completely purple, and Dash could feel just by looking at them that whoever this was, they were evil. Very evil. Dash tried to punch "Pinkie", only to realize... she couldn't move. It was like she was paralyzed, and she could only move her head. "I froze you in place so you wouldn't be able to fight back.", "Pinkie" said. "Besides... You wouldn't want to hurt your friend, Pinkie, while I'm in her body, would you?"
"In... her body...? Who are you?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?!", Dash blurted out, enraged. "Oh... looking at you, you remind me so much of him...", he said, dreamily, "Oh how I hate that stupid brat! And now... It will be like I'm killing him with my own hands... Something i never got the chance to do..."
"What... What are you talking about?! ANSWER ME, DAMMIT!", Rainbow Dash screamed, "JUST WHO THE BUCK ARE YOU?!"
"Why should i tell you who i am...", he said, taking a bloodied knife from behind Pinkie's mane. "... WHEN I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!", he screamed as he raised the knife, ready to stab her.
Dash flinched before closing her eyes, she'd rather have her last sight be nothing than her now possessed friend killing her. She braced for the pain, only to realize she felt... Nothing? Opening her eyes, she saw that the hoof that "Pinkie" was using to grab the knife was trembling, almost like he was shivering. "W-what?! What is this?!", he said, confused. "No...", Pinkie said, now sounding like herself again, "I WON'T LET YOU HURT HER!"
As she said this, her left eye returned to normal. She was gaining back control. "You... You stay out of this! LET GO OF ME!", he said, enraged. "NO! I WON'T!", Pinkie yelled, "YOU ALREADY KILLED MY OTHER FRIENDS, I WON'T LET YOU KILL HER!". "Pinkie...", Rainbow Dash said, surprised at this turn of events.
"Oh... So that's how we're doing this, huh?", he said, anger seeping from his words. "Fine then... HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS?", suddenly, a shadowy arm sprouted from Pinkie's right side, punching her in her gut. "Oomph!", she blurted out, losing control of her hoof.
As soon as he was in control again, he slashed at Dash's face, leaving a massive wound on it, and injuring her eyes. "AAAAARGH!!!", she yelled, in pain. "Oh... Don't worry", he said, reassuringly, "What i'm going to do now will be a LOT more painful.... "NO! STOP!", Pinkie said, but it was too late. He started to stab Rainbow Dash in the torso, over, and over, and over again, all while laughing maniacally. "HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT YOU BRAT?!", he yellled out, while continuing his frenzied attack. "NO! PLEASE! STOP THIS!", Pinkie pleaded, but he kept going, until he was satisfied. When he was done, Dash's torso was littered with wounds all over it. She had died when the knife had pierced her heart for the third time.
As soon as he was done, he relinquished control back to Pinkie, who immediatly started to cry. Her friends were all dead, all by her hooves. She exited the Storage Room, and ran for the Main Party Room. She needed to call somepony, anypony to help her. But before she could even reach the telephones, he appeared once more, this time right in front of her. He quickly froze her in place, and walked towards her. "S-stay away from me! You monster!", Pinkie demanded, trying to free herself. "No.", he said, "I will not let you tell about what happened here to anyone.". "And what if i do?", Pinkie asked. "Then i'll kill you."
"You wouldn't dare...", she said, without thinking. As soon as she finished saying that however, he grabbed Pinkie by the throat, and started to squeeze. "Wouldn't dare?! WOULDN'T DARE?! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING TO?! I HAVE KILLED YOUR FRIENDS, AND I CAN KILL YOU TOO. IN FACT, I HAVE KILLED MULTIPLE TIMES BEFORE, AND I WOULD HAVE CONTINUED TO DO SO, IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR THAT BRAT AND THAT BASTARD'S TRAP! IF IT WASN'T FOR THEM, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN STUCK IN THAT HELLHOLE FOR GOD KNOWS HOW LONG!". Pinkie was regretting having said that. He was strangling her, and she was running out of breath. Then, he released her from his grip, throwing her on the floor.
"...But now, I am free, and it's not some PINK, DUMB, HORSE that's going to ruin my plans! Besides, what would you even say?"Oh, i was possessed by an evil spirit, and he forced me to kill my friends!" Do you realize how unbelievable that sounds? They're gonna throw you in jail for the rest of your life! And you don't want that to happen... do you?". "N-No...", Pinkie said, he throat still hurt fom his grip. "Then do as i say...".
He gave Pinkie a set of instructions. "Destroy the evidence, and never tell anypony the truth". She first went to the Storage Room, and gathered all her friends' remains. While she did that however, she noticed that some of them had something missing. Twilight and Rarity's horns were broken, with the other halves nowhere to be found, Applejack's hat was gone, part of Rainbow Dash's mane was seemingly torn off, and she couldn't tell if somethig had been removed from Fluttershy. She wondered what happened to them while she was gone, but she did not say it out loud, instead keeping it to herself. She did not want to anger him further.
She dragged her friends bodies outside, one by one, and then she lit them on fire. And once the fire was out, she buried their bones. After that she went to the Security Office, and then he forged security footage to make it seem as if her friends had all left after cleaning up the place, while she went to her office to do paperwork. The footage was so real that she wished that this was what happened instead. She then cleaned the floors, the knife, and then herself. By 23:00 PM, all traces of the crime were gone.
Pinkie couldn't sleep that night. Neither the night after, or the night after. When the searches for the missing mares began, she was the first one to be interviewed, and he forced her to spread this false narrative that her friends just went missing. There wasn't a single day where she didn't feel guilty, but she couldn't risk telling the truth in fear that he would kill her. Only her and he knew the truth.
But now, one year later, a certain Independant Investigator was about to put a wrench in his plans...
In the present
September 4th, 08:37 AM
Grape woke up screaming from his dream. It had been the same dream from the previous nights, but now he could remember everything about it. He was in a black void, surrounded by ghostly apparitions of the five missing mares, all of them staring at him with hatred in their pitch-black eyes. Suddenly, they lunged at him, all screeching, as flashes of their pained faces flashed in front of him. It was so frightening, that it forced him to wake up. "*Huff* *Puff* What the hay was that?!", Grape asked himself. As he ate his breakfast, he continued to think about it, and eventually, he realized something. "Wait... What if the reason i'm having these dreams has to do with them thinking i'm their murderer?"
He didn't know if that was true or not, but it did make some amount of sense. Maybe they were tormenting them in his sleep because they didn't realize he was innocent. "I need to find a way to communicate to them that i'm not the killer... But how?". Then, he remembered something, in the movies he watched that involved ghosts, the characters would usually try to speak to the ghosts through a strange, radio like device. He didn't remember what it was called, but he did remember it had "Spirit" in it's name. Maybe if he had something similar, he could use it to tell them he was innocent, and that he wanted to help. "That's it!", he said, finishing his coffee. "Maybe if i had one of those "Spirit thingamajigs", Then i could tell them that i want to help! But where would i find such a thing?". Turns out, he didn't have to wonder for long.
As he went about his day, wondering how to talk with the ghosts of the missing mares, Grape saw a store that he had passed by multiple times, but never really bothered to go in. After all, at the time, he thought ghosts weren't real, so why would he ever need to go there? Well, he knew better now... So he decided to enter it.
The name of the store was "Spooky Scary's Paranormal Gadgets". As soon as he entered, he was greeted by an odd sight, shelves upon shelves of strange devices, some of which looked like the came straight from a movie set. He looked at one of them, a strange device with a knob to adjust frequencies, simply labeled "EMF Reader". "What is this...?", Grape said to himself. "That, my friend, is an EMF Reader, one of the most well known tools in the art of ghost hunting.", a voice he didn't recognize said.
Looking at the counter, he saw a pony behind it, but he was one of the most unusual ponies Grape had ever seen. His coat was completely white, with black markings all over his body that made him kinda look like a skeleton. "Oh sorry!", he said, "Didn't mean to scare ya, haha! I'm Spooky Scary, i'm a paranormal investigator, and the owner of this store. What's your name?". "Ummm... I'm Guarding Grape, Independant Investigator...", Grape said, a bit weirded out by Spooky's appearence. "Ah, a fellow investigator i see! Well then Mr. Grape, why are you here today? Can i help ya with something?", Spooky asked. "Oh! I'm looking for a device that kinda looks like a radio.", Grape said, approaching the counter. "I've seen it being used to talk to ghosts in movies, but i don't remember what it's called."
"Ah! The Spirit Box!", Spooky replied, "Well you're in luck! I have plenty of them!". He grabbed a small box with an image of the device. "This is the most reliable version of this device there is, the PON-SB7T. It can scan through multiple radio frequencies at once, allowing for the most precise detection of EVPs, or Electric Voice Phenomena, there is!"
"Oh.", Grape said, only understanding half of what those words meant. "Alright then, I'll take one.". "Alright then! That'll be 15 bits, please.", Spooky replied. "Only 15?", Grape asked, a bit confused. "I thought it'd be more expensive than that."
Well, when you're the only pony that sells paranormal stuff in town, you don't really have much competition.", Spooky replied.
Grape paid for the device and thanked Spooky for it. "You know spook, uhhh... can i call you that?", Grape asked. "Sure! I don't mind!", he replied. "You may look kinda unnerving at first glance, but you seem like a nice guy.", he told Spooky, who smiled. "Why, thank you! You seem like a pretty swell guy too!" he replied. "Well i'll be going now, see ya!", Grape said. "Bye! Feel free to come back whenever! It gets pretty boring in here after a while!", Spooky said.
As Grape exited the store, he made his way back to his home, he would read the instructions of the device, and then test it out that very night.
11:55 PM
Grape arrived at Pinkie's Fun Palace earlier than usual. He wanted to test out the Spirit Box, which he had hidden under his hat. Before that, however, he grabbed the flashlight, turned on the monitor, and listened to the message Pinkie had left on the phone. "You have: 1 new message *Beeeeeep*"
"Hello? Hi it's me, Pinkie! I'm gonna be straight to the point this time. I'm leaving this message to inform you of the Twilight Animatronic... I was looking through previous guards' complaints, and one of the more consistent ones was that she- i mean... it... doesn't seem to respond to the audio, or even the flashlight. In the situation where she reaches your office, ummm... try to stay out of it's sight. Oh! Speaking of Twilight, did you know she helped me design the Animatronic's Endoskeletons? Or that she created a mechanism that allows the Animatronic based on me to be worn as a suit?". That part intrigued Grape. What did she mean by that? An Animatronic that could be used like a suit? That was new. "Yeah, Twi always was a bit of a genius... before she... dissapeared... A-anyway! That's all for today! See ya!"*Beeeeeeeeep*
After listening to the message, Grape took out the Spirit Box from under his hat, and turned it on. As soon as he did, garbled static started to come out of it. "Alright time to see if i remember the instructions correctly...", Grape thought to himself, before bringing the Spirit Box closer to his face, and speaking into it. "Hello? Is anyone there?", he asked.
Suddenly, a voice came through the device's speaker. "Yes...", it said. Grape could tell that it was Twilight's voice, as it didn't sound like any of the other Animatronics he'd seen up to this point. "Oh by Celestia! It works!", Grape thought before speaking into the device again. "Ummm... Hello, Twilight... I assume that's who you are... I'm Guarding Grape and-", before he could finish, Twilight spoke again. "Guarding Grape...? Well... It's good to finally have a name... to pin on the one that killed us..."
"What?! No! I'm not the-", before Grape could finish his sentence, Twilight cut him off
"Did you hear that, girls... his name is Guarding Grape..."
Suddenly the voices of the other missing mares came over the speaker. Grape recognized it as the voices of the Animatronics, once again confirming his theory.
"So that's what yer called...", Applejack said, "Ugh... Why does such an awful pony... have such a beautiful name...?", Rarity asked herself, "Why did you do this... to us...?, Fluttershy asked, "Where's Pinkie...? What did you do to her...?!", Rainbow Dash asked, demanding answers.
"No! Listen to me! I'm not the Murderer! I-I don't even know who the Murderer is!", Grape said, trying to explain himself. They didn't seem to believe him.
"Quit playing dumb...!", Dash said, clearly angry. "We know you killed us... And you probably killed Pinkie too...!
"N-no, i swear! I'm not the one that killed you five! You have to believe me!", Grape said, but they wouldn't listen.
"Oh... would you look at the time...", Twilight said, "It's almost 12 AM... I hope you are ready... We are coming for you... MURDERER... MURDERER... MURDERER...".
As soon as she stopped speaking, the Spirit Box stopped working. "W-what?! What's going on?! Did it break?!", Grape thought. He opened the back compartment of the device, discovering that the batteries had inexplicably burst. "What?! But i put those batteries only three hours ago!", he thought to himself. But he didn't have time to worry about that. 12 AM had arrived.
Quickly making his way his way to the monitor, he saw as Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all left the stage. He then switched cameras to the Maintenance Room, the music was still playing, but it was close to stopping. As soon as it did, he pressed play on the second remote before Rarity could even start crying. When Twilight said that they were coming for him, she was serious.
The night was full of close calls. One moment, Grape had to lure Fluttershy away, only to have to scare Rainbow Dash away immediatly after. And in another moment, he had to deal with Rarity, barely being able to prevent Applejack from reaching the Office. They were relentless. But then, the moment Grape was dreading for happened. Twilight came out from behind the stage curtains. As soon as she stepped out, she looked at the camera, which to Grape meant one thing. She knew he was there. When she left the camera that faced the stage, Grape tried to lure her away with the audio, but then remembered that Pinkie had said that the audio didn't affect her. "I'm Doomed!", Grape thought, "Pinkie said the audio and lights didn't work on her, what am I gonna do?!"
Then, he remembered something Pinkie said. "...try to stay out of it's sight...". Suddenly, an idea came to mind. He quickly hid inside the left locker, as it had no shelves, and prayed that she wouldn't find him. Then, Twilight came into the office. Grape saw through the rectangular openings of the locker as Twilight started to look for him. He held his breath, hoping she'd go away quickly.
"Where... Are you... Murderer...?", Twilight said, before leaving the Office. After she left, Grape opened the door, and quickly looked at the Maintenance Room camera. The music had stopped again, and Rarity was crying. Grape quickly pressed play on the second remote to restart the song, causing her to calm down. After that she scared off Rainbow Dash using his flashlight.
The rest of the night went by, and after one more encounter with Twilight, 6 AM hit, and the haunted Animatronics went back to the stage. Grape was relieved, this was the hardest night yet, so how bad could the next one be, he wondered.
Reaching the Entrance, he was met with Pinkie Pie, who looked nervous. "Hey uhhh... Pinkie? Are you ok?", Grape asked. "Huh? Oh... It's nothing, really."
"Well, if you say so...", he said, "I'll be going now, see you later!"
"See ya...", Pinkie said. "Oh, dang it Pinkie!", she thought to herself, "Now how are you going to tell him? No, Pinkie, don't think that! You can tell him tonight, you just need to be confident, maybe he'll believe you if you tell him the truth."
It seems it was about time Pinkie blew his whole scheme out of the water. She was done with him, and it was time she told someone what actually happened that day...
Chapter 6: The Fifth Night (Part 1: Pinkie's Nightmare)
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 ifhediscovers 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 ifhefinds 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...
Chapter 7: The Fifth Night (Part 2: A Conversation with Spooky)
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.
