The Idea Bin

The small office was filled with the drawn out sound of slurping, followed shortly by the clink of a mug on the table surface as Carrot Cake finished his third cup of coffee. Licking his lips, he turned back to the monitor set up in front of him. Plenty of ponies would be a bit confused as to why a small town bakery would need such levels of security, let alone someone watching it all night, but Carrot Cake was never one to take the safety of his family, home and business lightly.

Pressing the power button, the screen flickered into life, showing a fuzzy greyscale image of the empty kitchen. He waited a moment while the camera panned between the different windows before switching to the next camera. The main shop was clear, so was the back room. Another flick of the switch showed his loving wife lying in bed, the loud snores making it obvious she was asleep. Carrot Cake chuckled to himself before flicking the switch again, showing him the sleeping forms of his children.

He could have watched them for hours, and indeed very well might have. When he finally snapped back to reality, he reluctantly dragged himself away from watching his children slumbering and flicked the switch once more.

Carrot immediately noticed something was wrong when the screen flickered into focus after a brief moment of static, showing a very empty bed in Pinkie Pie’s bedroom, the covers tossed aside while the lodger was nowhere to be seen.

Carrot Cake sprang ramrod straight, quickly flickering through the different cameras, searching for where the mare had gone to. It didn’t take long, when the image of the upstairs landing appeared, he saw Pinkie standing as still as a statue, staring up at the camera, an eerie grin plastered over her face. Carrot Cake wasn’t too disturbed, Pinkie was probably just going to the toilet, and she was just staring at the camera because…

Carrot Cake gulped slightly, he was sure it was just Pinkie being her odd self, but still… He would watch her closely anyway. A few minutes passed and Pinkie still hadn’t moved from her spot in the upstairs hall, still hadn’t stopped smiling up at him, she hadn’t even blinked. Carrot Cake was starting to get very worried, and almost stood up to go check on her, when the screen began shaking. Carrot didn’t have time to react before the image was reduced to nothing more than a fuzzy sea of pixels.

Cursing under his breath, he quickly turned the monitor off and on again, annoyed that he had forgotten to watch how much power he was using. After several tense seconds the screen came to life once more and revealed the upstairs landing, only now it was deserted. Sweating slightly, Carrot began cycling through the cameras, searching for where Pinkie had disappeared to. She wasn’t in her bedroom, she wasn’t in the bathroom, she wasn’t even in the kitchen getting a snack from the fridge.

As Carrot Cake confirmed that she was nowhere to be found, he began to feel a creeping sensation prickling at the back of his neck. Turning slowly from the monitor, he stared at the open doorway, into the dark hallway beyond. Hoof shaking, he reached across the table to the light switch taking a breath and holding it before flicking the switch.

Pinkie stood right outside the door, her smile threatening to divide her face in two with how wide it was stretched. Carrot Cake screamed like a filly before slamming his hoof down on the door control, causing a heavy bulkhead to slam closed in Pinkie’s face. Carrot Cake laid splayed out in his chair, his breathing quick and terrified. Eventually he took back control of his shaking body and switched the hall light back on with a trembling hoof.

Pinkie was gone. Looking back at the monitor, Carrot saw her standing in her bedroom, still staring up at the camera with that grin. Turning off the monitor, Carrot Cake rubbed his tired eyes before standing up and turning to face the opposite side of the room where a second Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness sat, still in its pristine glory.

“Not this time,” Carrot Cake whispered, looking at the four tier cake. “Not this time.”