The darkness slowly cleared from my eyes, as I could finally see where I was. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, specifically the show stage, I appeared to be looking out of something. Turning my head left, I saw Chica the chicken, staring straight ahead. Turning to the opposite direction, Bonnie the bunny was there, looking ahead as well. I myself turned to look forward as well, seeing nothing better to do, that's when my vision went blurry, before static filled my eyes, and blacked out once more.
Midnight slowly opened his eyes, waking from his recent dream. With a yawn, he got up, stretched his arms and legs a bit, popped a few joints, and rubbed his eyes to get the sleep out.
"Wow," he began, "it's been awhile since I've had a dream like that," he said, getting out of his bed and getting ready for the day ahead of him. The dream had, unfortunately, brought back memories of Freddy and his band of homicidal robots. Casting those thoughts aside, Midnight headed for the kitchen, opening the fridge and freezer to look for what to have for breakfast. After a moment, he decided to go for a pair of waffles, with his mind made up, he took them out, closed the doors and popped the waffles into the toaster. As he waited for the waffles to defrost and heat up, he looked over at his bedroom.
With the dream resurfacing once more, he made his way to his bedroom. Once inside, he moved over to the desk, the same desk which held Midnight's "investigation" of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Ever since Freddy and his friends had been destroyed, Midnight had seen no point in messing with this anymore. The pictures, recordings, even the laptop had a layer of dust on them.
'Was it really over?' Midnight thought, up until this point, he never thought about how things ended at Fazbear's. Yes, he practically tore them apart, but what happened afterwards? Were they destroyed along with the building? Where they taken somewhere else? Midnight shook the thoughts out of his head, it had been a few weeks since then, and he had not seen or heard anything about the animatronics. There was no point in worrying about something like that now, especially since he was the one that destroyed them.
His attention was drawn away from the desk when he heard the waffles pop up. He sighed, taking one last look at the desk before heading out of his bedroom.
Twilight was eating some toast, holding a newspaper in her left hand. She was expecting someone to be coming very soon. Not a minute later, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in!" She called out. With that said, the door to the room opened, and a teal stallion walked in.
"Good morning, Twilight!" Midnight greeted, which Twilight happily replied back to. Ever since the Fazbear's incident, Midnight had become friends with the Elements of Harmony, but he could say he became a very close friend to Twilight. "How are you doing Twilight?"
"Good, how about you?" The mare replied back, handing the newspaper over to Midnight.
"Alright, I actually had a dream of Freddy's last night. I found it a bit strange, but, what can you do? It was just a dream anyway," Midnight said, beginning to go through the newspaper.
"Oh? What was it about?"
"Eh, nothing special, just the main dining room and the... animatronics," Midnight stopped mid sentence, his eyes widening at what he saw. "Damn it!" He shouted, throwing the paper to the floor.
"Midnight what is it?" Twilight asked, picking up the paper in her magic. It didn't take long for her to find the answer.
HELP WANTED
GRAND RE-OPENING!
Vintage pizzeria given new life!
Come be a part of the new face of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza!
"Mother fucker..." Midnight said under his breath, opening the door, causing Twilight to look up from the newspaper.
"Wait, where are you going?" She asked.
"I'm going to see if I can get the nightshift." He simply answered.
"What?! Why?" The mare questioned.
"I... I feel like I need to do this," Twilight opened her mouth to retort, but Midnight continued before she could. "I'll be fine, if I could survive the first place, what could possibly be so different from this one?" With that said, Midnight left, leaving Twilight alone in the castle, hoping her would come back.
'Who is the madpony that thought this was a good idea?' Midnight thought as he entered the new pizzeria. The first thing he noticed was that the place was bigger... much bigger than its predecessor. Looking around, he found himself in what appeared to be a game area, as there were rows of arcade machines. Deciding to explore the place a bit, he headed over to the curtains. Taking a small breath, he opened the curtain a bit, seeing the new designs of the animatronics he loathed. The first thing he noticed about them was the material that they were made out of now. Instead of the fur like material, they seemed to be made out of a glossy plastic, making them look like larger than life toys now.
Next was how they actually looked, Bonnie looked more or less the same, except now blue and white, and some makeup. Next was Chica, who, aside from being considerably slimmer than her original counterpart, was not much different. Finally was Freddy, but the only real difference was that he was a bit more round. Other than the minor changes, like body structure and the rosy red cheeks, nothing was different about them. Midnight continued to look at them, they didn't seem to be active at the moment. Deciding to test that, he snapped his fingers sharply above his head, but got no reaction.
Shrugging his shoulders, he closed the curtains and continued on, heading towards the main hall, his eyes was drawn to the door labeled 'Parts and Service' at the end of the hall. Once at the door, he saw that it was partially open, seeing this, he raised his hand towards the handle.
"Hi there!"
"Holy fuck!" Midnight exclaimed, jumping up and turning around. Behind him was a tall, green coated stallion in a suit and tie.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," the stallion apologized, looking at Midnight as he calmed down. Sighing, Midnight replied.
"It's... it's fine. Um, who are you?" He asked.
"Right, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Cheesy Slice, but you can just call me Cheese. Now, may I ask who you are, and why you are here?" Cheese asked. Midnight looked at him before answering.
"My name's Midnight, and I wanted to see if I can apply for the night shift."
"Ah, right this way then," Cheese said, leading Midnight over to his office. Once in the office, the two sat across from each other, separated by a desk. "Midnight, let me ask you," Cheese began, "did you ever... work at the previous location?"
"Huh, oh, yeah. Right before it closed down."
"I see, then I assume you know about the previous generation of animatronics," Midnight's eyes widened a bit, he opened his mouth to respond, but Cheesy continued, "so, if anything happens tonight, let me know. I'm trying to avoid what my brother did at the previous location." Midnight slowly nodded his head in response, now really sure what to say at the moment. "Well then, with that settled, see you tonight," Cheesy said as he got up, giving Midnight a pat on the back as he walked past. When he left the room, Midnight let out a sigh.
"Alright, night one, let's get this over with," Midnight said, getting settled into his new office for the night. It was much larger than the previous office, and much cleaner at that. Right then, the phone started going off, Midnight looked at it before playing the message.
"Hello, hello?" A female voice sounded through the phone, it surprised Midnight a bit, he was expecting a male voice to come through. "Alright, so welcome to the new and improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! So I'm here to help you and lead you through what you will expect to see down this career path."
"I wish I can just skip this call," Midnight said, "I know what to do, just make sure the animatronics stay out of the room by closing... the... where the fuck are the doors?!" Midnight questioned, standing up from his seat. "And what is this?!" He yelled out, referring to the vents in the side of the walls. "Who installs four foot wide vents in the walls like that?! Ugh!" He slammed his head in he desk, rattling the few things on it. "How did I not notice this earlier?"
"Okay, so, if you could, please forget anything you may have heard about the previous place. Ponies seem to have a negative impression of us because of the previous location. Though that restaurant was kind of left to rot for quite a while, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it actually did. But I will say that Fazbear Entertainment is dedicated to family fun, and above all else, safety. Because of this, we've spent a small fortune on the animatronics, like face recognition, advanced mobility, hey, we even let them walk around during the day, neat huh? But most importantly, they are all tied into some sort of criminal database, so they can detect a predator a mile away... or so I've heard. Heh, we might as well be paying them to protect you."
"Fuck that!"
"Anyway, that being said, no new system comes without a few kinks in it. You're only the second guard to work there, the first pony finished his week, and we moved him over to day shift. We did this because he complained about... conditions per se. His main concern was that some of the characters moved around at night, and even tried to get into the office. Now that should be impossible, from what we know. However, the working theory is that the robots were never giving a proper 'night mode'. So when it gets quiet, they think they are in the wrong room, when that happens, they then try to find the ponies, in this case, you. So here is our temporary solution, if you switch over to the Prize Corner camera, you will see an option to wind up a music box, remotely of course." Midnight did as she said, picking up the tablet for the first time tonight and switched to the Prize Corner feed. There was in fact a button to wind up a music box, with a little timer on the side.
"So, just every once in a while, be sure to wind that music box up for a few seconds. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to affect all of the animatronics except... one of them. So, as for the rest of them, we have another solution. You see, there may be a... minor glitch in the system. Something about the robots seeing you as an endoskeleton without his costume on, and will proceed to stuff you into a costume."
"Bullshit."
"So if you open the bottom drawer, you will find an empty Freddy Fazbear head." Midnight raised an eyebrow, moving his hand over to the draw and opening it. There was in fact a hollow Fazbear head inside, he picked it up and started examining it. "See? problem solved! So if you wear that, and if anything wonders in, it'll see you wearing the head, and wonder back out. Anyway, I'm sure you've noticed the lack of doors by now. But you do have a flashlight, and though the light can run out of power, the building cannot. Well, I think that's about it, so you should be golden. Just to recap, check the lights, put the head on when you need to, and keep the music box wound up, piece of cake! So with that, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Good night!" And with that, the message ended. Midnight just sat in the silence of the room for a moment.
"Great!" He said, throwing his arms into the air. "Guess it's time to start doing stuff," Midnight sighed, picking up the tablet and switching over to the Show Stage. "Of course Bonnie's gone first, she always is!" He said, switching over to the prize corner. His finger was hovering over the wind up button, but he stopped suddenly. "Okay, wait, what animatronic does this even affect? Bonnie's somewhere else, Chica and Freddy are still on the stage, and I don't know where Foxy is. So who exactly does this affect?" Midnight questioned, allowing the timer to run out. Shining the camera light on the corner, nothing seemed to be happening. Just then, the lid of the large present opened up, and a claw like hand grabbed to edge of the present.
Midnight's eyes widened a bit as a large, black puppet started raising out of the box. It had three buttons on its chest, with multiple stripes around the arms. Its mask had rosy red cheeks, purple streaks from its eyes to its mouth, resembling tears. The eyes had no pupils, and it had a large, disturbing smile on its face.
"What the fuck is that?! Holy Celestia, no! Oh fuck, wind it up. Wind it up!" Midnight yelled to himself, holding down the button. Once to music started up once more, the puppet ceased all movement, before going limp and falling back into the box, which closed itself shortly afterwards. Midnight just sat there, staring at the screen for a short moment before letting out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding, sliding down his chair.
"Okay, that's why I need to wind up the music box. Good to know."
Toy Bonnie activated for the second time today. She looked to her side, seeing Chica and Freddy, still deactivated. After a bit of looking around, she started stretching her arms out, the sensors within her simulating the feeling of stretching. Once done with her arms, she moved into her legs, lifting one and stretching, and then doing so with the other.
"Closing time already, huh?" Bonnie asked herself, scratching the back of head, the sensors at work. She stepped off the stage, heading towards the hall, but before she entered it, a sudden brightness in the corner of the room caught her attention. She turned towards the light, and though the arcade machines were obstructing her view, she knew what was happening. "Looks like somepony is watching the Marionette." After a moment, a yell was heard coming from the hall, consisting of colorful words and winding up the music box. "And... they saw him." In that moment, Bonnie realized what she said. "Somepony watching..." she gasped cutely, "That means there's a night guard here!" She moved into the hall, only to be stopped by a sudden light behind her.
She turned around, seeing that the camera's light was on her. She looked at it for a moment, before raising up her hand to wave, but before she could, the camera suddenly turned off. Seeing this, she lowered her hand, a bit sadly.
"They must just be dealing with the Marionette," Bonnie told herself, as she entered Party Room Four. "I probably shouldn't enter from the main hall, maybe by the vent instead." She said, looking around for said vent. After no success in finding it, her eyes landed on the camera in the corner of the room. "There's a camera in here too? Was that always there?" She asked, honestly having a hard time remembering if there in fact a camera installed here. She grabbed two chairs from the table and put them next to each other underneath the camera, from there she stepped up on the chairs, getting a better look at the camera. Just as her face was inches from the lens, a small red light lit up on the camera, signaling it was active. The flashlight shined brightly, startling Bonnie, she lost her balance on the chairs and fell on her back, the sensors in her body simulating pain.
"Ow..." She groaned, rolling over to her stomach and rubbing her back, "I hope nothing's damaged," she said, getting back up, with nothing left to do in this room, she headed out and into Party Room Two. There, her eyes almost immediately spotted the vent. She smiled as she made her way to it, bending down onto her knees and effortlessly pulling off the lid. "I see they haven't screwed this on yet," Bonnie said, gently laying the lid against the wall. Suddenly, a light flashed, drawing her attention towards it. She stared at it for a moment before smiling, embarrassed to be caught in the middle of removing the vent. The light turned off and the camera deactivated, allowing her to continue what she was doing.
Making sure she fit, she sighed in relief when she felt no edges of the vent on her sides.
"Thank goodness robots can't gain weight," she said, starting her journey through the vent. But she was stopped when another camera turned on inside the vent, now watching her. She opened her mouth to say something, but the night guard started speaking.
"Okay, normally I would question the thought process of the pony that installed a camera in the vent, but in this situation, I am thanking them!"
"So now he knows I'm almost there, darn it," Bonnie said, her ears going limp in sadness, "but that won't stop me from meeting him," she said, continuing to crawl through the vent and out the other end. When she stood up, she was momentarily surprised to see the guard wearing a generation one Freddy head. At first she was confused why he was doing this, but then she realized. 'Does he... think I'm going to kill him like the previous generation did?!' She thought alarmed, she would never think about hurting this pony, she only wanted to make a new friend. Her ears drooped to the side of her face. "Uh, sir?" She tried to ask, but the guard just seemed to pull the head harder onto his head.
'The head would fool them, she said. The animatronics would go away, she said!' Midnight thought, both angrily and terrified. Here he was, trapped in a room with an almost eight foot tall animatronic rabbit that knew he wasn't one of them. But the thing that confused him was why she hasn't attacked yet, and why she looked so sad.
"Sir, please. I'm not going to hurt you, I promise," Bonnie said, smiling sweetly. Midnight's first thought was that this had to be some kind of trick, but even then, she could attack right now. So why wasn't she?
'Is she... actually not going to do anything?' Midnight questioned. He looked up into her eyes, seeing nothing but genuineness. Midnight could now tell she wasn't lying. Slowly, he started removing the mask from his head, seeing Bonnie's ears perk back up. Once the mask was full off, he placed it on the desk, Bonnie hadn't made any sudden movements yet, and it didn't look like she intended to anytime soon. "You're... you're really not going attack me?" He asked.
"Absolutely not! I would never think about doing so!" Bonnie said, "Did you think I would, because of the previous generation?" She asked.
"Well... yes."
"I thought so," Bonnie said a bit sadly, "well, let me just say, that none of us want to hurt you... well, I can't say that the Marionette thinks the same thing for sure."
"Marionette? Oh crap!" Midnight exclaimed, quickly picking up the tablet and winding up the music box again. Once it was fully wound up, Midnight set the tablet back on the desk. The two looked at each other for a moment before Midnight spoke up again. "Soooo... I guess I should introduce myself," he said, feeling a bit more sure about the situation,"I'm Midnight Sight," he said, offering his hand. Bonnie smiled at this.
"I'm Toy Bonnie, but you can just call me Bonnie for short," she responded, gently grabbing Midnight's hand and shaking it.
"So the others aren't going to hurt me?" Midnight asked, retracting his hand.
"Oh, of course not. Unlike the first generation of animatronics, we don't have a crazy bloodlust," Bonnie reassured.
"But what about the, um, Marionette, right? You didn't sound too sure about it,"
"Him, well, to be honest, none of us really trust him. He's just so mysterious, none of us never know what he's thinking,"
"So in short, keep him in his box," Midnight said, already winding up the music box. Looking up from the tablet, he let out a small yelp, instinctively putting on the Freddy mask as another figure approached from the darkness.
"Oops, did I scare him?" Toy Chica asked as she entered the room.
"Uh, Chica, your, um..." Bonnie made a motion towards her mouth.
"Huh?" Chica put a hand to her own mouth, not feeling her beak. "Oh, darn it, that thing always falls off," she said, wondering back into the darkness in search for her beak. When she left, Bonnie turned back to Midnight, who was taking off the mask. "That was Toy Chica, her beak tends to fall off like you saw. For some reason it turns her eyes black. She's also a great cook, sometimes I wish I was alive just to be able to taste the food she makes," she informed.
"Okay, I'm back, it was just in the hall," Chica said, returning back into the office with her beak reattached. "Anyways though, I'm Chica, sorry for scaring you earlier," she introduced herself, waving.
"It's alright, I'm Midnight, nice to meet you," Midnight waved back, picking up the tablet to deal with the Marionette.
"So, you're the night guard?"
"Yes, I am. Oh, speaking of which, what happened with the previous guard?" Midnight asked, only to receive confused looks from the two girls.
"Previous guard?" Bonnie asked.
"Yeah, they was somepony before me. Do you... not remember?" Midnight asked.
"I don't remember any other guard than you," Chica said, scratching the back of her head. Just then, the alarm sounded, signaling six. "Oh, it's already six? Well, hopefully see you tomorrow Midnight!" She said, heading back to the stage.
"Bye Chica!" Midnight called out to her.
"Well, I should get going too," Bonnie said as she too started leaving, "Midnight, will you be here tomorrow?" She asked, turning towards.
"Of course," Midnight said with a smile, which Bonnie returned with her own smile.
"Alright, bye then, see you then," with that said, she made her way back to the stage as well. With the two gone, Midnight never would've thought he'd be sad for the night to end. He had just made two new friends, of course he would have to worry about the Marionette, but I could deal with just that minor problem. He was actually looking forward to tomorrow night.
