Pixel Drop gets a Job

Chapters

Night 1
Night 2
Night 3
Night 4
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Night 1

"Hey, you must be the kid that accepted the job! Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria. Lemme show ya to your office."

Pixel Drop's new boss happily chirped. Her boss was a rather friendly looking mare, smile on her purple face. She also had a rather enthusiastic tone to her voice. Huh. Seems like Pixel got a good boss. A friendly, nice one, it seemed. How splendid.

The purple coated, slightly brighter pink (striped with violet) maned mare motioned for Pixel Drop to follow down the dulled down, rainbow hallway. Pixel Drop couldn't help but look at the surrounding walls and such while she followed her new boss.

The walls were rather dirty looking things, with their checkerboard patterns with a dulled down rainbow where the whites of the checkerboard would be. The walls were all scratched and horrible looking. Considering the fact that these things were made out of concrete, there were a couple big cracks in them as well. Made the place look run-down and old. Which, keep in mind, it was.

As the two walked down the hallway, her boss began to ramble about some seemingly unimportant things. Something about the previous Night Guard quitting suddenly or something like that. It didn't sound important, honestly. Though, what did seem important was a poster that was on the hallway's wall. It caught her eye. Personally, it seemed a bit.. Off.

She stopped in front of the poster, her boss just continuing to walk on.

"Hey, what's the thing on this poster?"

Pixel asked, her boss stopping in their tracks before turning around. With a quirked eyebrow, her still unnamed boss looked over at said poster. The poster itself was of a bright blue bunny with some cartoonishly big eyes. It's eyes were a deep green, as it's eyes were opened wide. Something about this bunny just didn't seem right. The way it was looking at the pony taking the photo or the way the pony had illustrated it made the bunny look metallic. Robot-like, actually.

"Oh, that's Clyde. He's one of the animatronics you'll be watching over during the night shift. Now, there's no time to loose, I have to introduce you to the cast and get you into your office. Follow me."

Her boss smiled before continuing down the hall. Pixel Drop hesitated. She was thinking of just running out now. There was no detail about looking over creepy robots in the job description. No, no there wasn't. Hopefully there was still a chance to get out of this job while she still could.

...

It.. just felt like a blink. It felt like a blink, a teleport. Time had flown so quickly that now she was in another room. Alone. It was a large, square room. Televisions were piled up on every corner of the room. Kind of a weird aesthetic choice, but whatever. What was also a weird aesthetic choice were the starry streamers hanging down from the gray ceiling.

Pixel noticed the fairly big flaw in this room. There was huge, almost gigantic doorway straight ahead. This doorway was pitch-black. It was impossible to see down into the hallway without a light-source. Luckily enough, on the desk in front of her, there was a small flashlight that she could use.

Pixel picked up the little flashlight in her hoof and shot a beam of light down the corridor. Nothing was down there. Why would there be? It's not like some sort of monster would be down there. Hah. That'd be.. ridiculous. This place was already creepy enough with its prison colored walls and its weird noises. Yeah, those weird noises.. Didn't sound very inviting. The place was creaking all by itself. Considering that the floor was tile and the walls were concrete, Pixel could only imagine why the place was creaking. It was a mystery that would probably never be solved, she guessed.

Pixel looked over her wooden desk. There were a couple things on the desk. A desk fan, a phone, and a sort of tablet device. The tablet glowed softly as Pixel picked it up in order to look at it. On the screen was a rather.. Strange scene. Well, not so much strange as it was a tad unnerving.

On the screen was the time, the REC in the top right corner and that was about it. Well, for the interface portion at least. What was being shown behind the interface were three things. Mascots, of sorts. Tall robots that stood on their hind legs. There was one recognizable face in the crowd of three robots. The blue bunny from the poster was standing there, next to the brown bear. On the other side of the brown bear was a chicken with a cupcake.

These robots were just standing there. Pixel decided she would put down the tablet for now. She didn't want to look at those things.

You remember that phone? Well, it started to ring. Pixel knew not to pick up the phone. How did she know this? There was a posted note on the phone's buttons that said 'Don't pick up the phone' in black Sharpie. So, that's exactly what Pixel did. She let the phone ring out.

"H-Hello? Hello! Hello!"

The voice on the telephone greeted after Pixel left it to go to voicemail. She didn't recognize the voice of this pony. Maybe it was one of the day shift members that she would never get a chance to see.

"Uh, hello and welcome to your new summer job at the new and improved Freddy Fazbears pizza. I'm here to talk you through some of the things you can expect to see on your first week here to help you get started down this new and exciting career path."

Well, the way he made it sound certainly made this whole situation less creepy. Maybe she would just be sitting here for six hours doing nothing but fiddling her hooves.

"Uh, I want you to forget anything you may have heard about the old location. Y'know, some people still have a negative impression of the company.. Uh.. That old restaurant was left to rot for quite a while, but I want to reassure you that Fazbear entertainment is committed to family fun and above all, safety."

Oh, yes. How very interesting. This certainly didn't put Pixel off at all. Considering she knew absolutely nothing about this place. She was just here to work and get paid. That's it. Pixel grabbed onto the tablet again just to look at the screen. She looked down at the icon in the bottom right of the screen. It seemed to be a map of the place.

"The company spent a small fortune on these new animatronics, facial recognition, advanced mobility.. They even let them walk around during the day. Isn't that mean.." The voice stopped to cough for a second, "They're all tied into some sort of criminal database so they can detect a predator a mile away. Hey, we should be paying them to guard you."

This guy's humor wasn't the best, was it? Pixel looked down at the map. She poked at one of the other box areas with her hoof. The screen switched over to a new location. It was a new room labeled 'Parts & Service'. The screen was black, so Pixel just decided to go to switch the screen to a different room.

"Now, with that being said, no new system is without it's.. kinks." Pixel didn't like how he said kinks. "Uhh.. You're only the second guard to work in that location, uh, the first guy finished his week but complained about.. conditions. Uhh.. We switched him over to the day shift."

Good for that guy, Pixel guessed. It doesn't seem too hard to sit around in a concrete room for six hours, in her opinion.

"So hey, lucky you, right? Mainly his first concern was that characters seemed to move around at night and even attempted to get into his office."

Yeah, okay-.. Wait, WHAT? Characters, those robot things, would try to get into this room? Oh, Pixel WONDERED HOW THEY WOULD GET THROUGH THAT GIGANTIC GATE WITH NO CLOSEABLE DOOR OVER THERE. Or even these, NOT SEALED OFF AIR VENTS. Bloody hell.

"Now, from what we know, that should be impossible. That restaurant should be the safest place on earth. So while our engineers don't have an explanation for this, the theory is that the robots were never given a proper night mode. Sooo when it gets quiet, they think they're in the wrong room and when they try to go find where the people are.. In this case, that's your office."

This is terrible. This is absolutely horrible. Why did she accept this job without actually asking what she would be doing? She's going to be supervising these horrible nightmare machines all through the night. She only hoped Celestia's sun would rise early.

Pixel was just clicking on all the rooms. She looked at every single one. Nearly all of them were pitch black. Not a surprise, it was piss dark in here. It was night and even with the lights on, some places stayed unlit. This is when she noticed a little button, off by the bottom left of the screen. When she pressed it, a sort of flash light lit up the room. The current room she had selected was the 'Prize Corner'. It showed off all the little toys in there. Kinda cute, if their eyes didn't glow in the dark.

"So our temporary solution is this, there's a music box over by the prize counter and it's rigged to be wound up remotely. So just every once and a while, switch over to the prize counter video feed and wind it up for a couple seconds. It doesn't seem to effect all the animatronics but it does effect.. one."

One. One?! He's got to be shitting her. Well, one was better than none, she guessed.

She also noticed a full, white circle by a text box that says 'Click and Hold to wind'. She tapped on the box and held it, hearing the sound of a winding music box. Delightful. It's not like that would do anything, seeing as how there was a full circle. Probably meaning it was fully wound.

"Uh, as for the other ones, we have an even easier solution. You see, there may be a minor glitch in the system. Something about a robot seeing you without a costume on and wanting to stuff you into a suit.. So, hey, we've given you an empty Freddy Fazbear Head! Problem solved!"

Pixel put down the tablet. On the floor, next to the gray office chair she was currently sitting on, there was a helmet of sorts. It was shaped like a bear's face. This was probably the thing he was talking about. She put it up onto the desk so it could be easily reached.

"You can put it on anytime and keep it on for as long as you want. Eventually, anything that wandered in will wander back out. Uh.. Something else worth mentioning is the Quartz Modern design of the building. There's no doors for you to close. Heh. Uh.. But you do have a flashlight. Even though your flashlight will run out of power, the building will cannot. So, you don't have to worry about the place going dark."

Pixel sighed. First day on the job. Fantastic. How long was she going to stay here for? A week, she promised the company. Great. Fantastic. She was going to complain to her boss tomorrow.

"Uh, I think that should be it. You should be golden. Check the lights, put on the Freddy Head if you need to. Uh.. Keep the music box wound up, piece of cake. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

With that, the message was over. It was currently 2AM. Time progressed rather quickly in Equestria. A lot quicker than on Earth. I won't go into detail, but I'll just sum it up by saying that the planet Equestria is on spins a lot faster than Earth does.

Pixel looked back at the tablet. She wound up the music box some more. It had lost a tiny fraction of it's wound-up-ness. It wasn't something she needed to worry about for now. She switched over to one of the other feeds. She looked back over the stage. Something was missing.

Suddenly, the phone began to ring again. Pixel snorted. Didn't the message just end? Whatever. It didn't matter. He must've forgotten to mention something. She let it ring out as she tried to look for what was gone from the screen. The realization was swift. That blue bunny from before was gone. Crap. Where did it go? Pixel frantically tapped around the map, pressing the flashlight on each room to try and find said bunny.

When he appeared on screen again, his face was RIGHT UP TO THE SCREEN. Nearly made her throw the tablet in shock, honestly.

The phone picked up again.

"Sorry, uh.. I forgot to mention that if you ever see a puppet out in the hallways after your shift ends, just put it into the big present box in the prize room. I have no idea why, but the boss gets real mad if that puppet isn't inside the box. Uh.. I doubt you'll see it at all, if you're winding up the music box."

So some weird puppet was connected to the music box being wound up, okay then. Pixel stared at the bunny on screen, whispering 'stay there, butthead' before switching to the stage camera. You know, just to check on the others.

"Alright. That should be it. Uh.. Goodnight."

He hung up again. Pixel kind of wished he didn't. It was creepy being here with nopony else in here except for the huge robots on this small screen.

Suddenly, a little warning started to flash up on the screen. It was an orange caution sign and it blinked from the Prize Corner. Tapping on the room, Pixel noticed the circle was quickly diminishing. So, she held it for a couple seconds. Pixel recognized the song that the music box played. It was a song called Grandfather Clock. Old childhood song, it was.

This job was pretty boring on the first night. Though, she didn't know what would be coming at her in a little bit. Who knows, maybe the bunny moved. Hopefully not.

Once fully winding up the music box again, Pixel went to check on the bunny's previous location. Gone. Just then, she heard a clanging in the air vents. The one to the right. Oh shit. Was.. was the bunny in the vents? Pixel shakily put the tablet down and looked over at the vent to the right of her.

A hand slowly made its way out of the vent. A blue, robotic hand. It clung onto the wall next to it as it began to push the rest of its body out of the vent. Oh shit, oh shit.. Pixel panicked. She fumbled, dropping the tablet onto the floor to grab the mask and shove it onto her face. The tablet clanged against the tile flooring of the ground. It cracking was the least of her worries right now.

Her breaths were quick as she felt sweat slowly beginning to form as she saw the bunny crawl out of the vents. It was slow, torturously slow. Like it was taunting her. Trying to make the atmosphere settle in. Its big, green eyes stared down at her. The bunny was huge. It was extremely huge. It was as tall as Celestia herself, maybe even taller. The way it stood was unnatural and weird. On its two hind legs.. It's like this robot was designed for the pure reason of being creepy.

The robot stared at her. It slowly approached, a manufactured plastic smile on its blue face. Pixel felt herself cling onto the chair with her hooves as it approached. It stopped not a couple feet away from her. It had gone around the desk instead of in front of it.

The blue bunny bent over, meeting face to face with Pixel.

"Go away, go away.."

She muttered to herself frantically over and over as it stared at her. She could feel her heart inside her throat as it tilted its head.

"F-F-Freddy, aren-n't you s-supposed to be i-in the b-backroom? O-o-old men l-like you c-could b-break somet-thing out i-in the o-open l-like this, d-darlin. W-we c-can't have you s-scarin all t-the custom-mers now c-can we? N-No offense darlin, b-but you're t-too ugly f-for the kids."

The bunny talked. It talked in this sort of country accent. Though, the way it talked didn't concern Pixel. What did concern her was that SHE WAS BEING PICKED UP.

The blue bunny picked up the now flailing and struggling pony and held her a decent ways away. You know, as to not get hurt. Pixel was putting up a fight, that was for damn sure. The bunny was holding her pretty tight, though. Her forehooves were pinned to her sides while her hind legs dangled. All the while, she had to look at her kidnapper. Her kidnapper didn't look at her. It was busy looking at the pizzeria terrain infront of itself.

As it walked down the pitch black hallway, Pixel felt something hit her mentally. She wasn't going to die. She was going to be put in the backroom. Then, she would have to stay there until morning came. Four or three hours from now. She would have to sit back there with some old animatronics that probably looked all creepy and demonic. Also, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to walk around during the night. She might bump into one of the robots.

Oh.

Hah.

The music box.

Shit.

"Let me go!"

Pixel finally shouted as soon as she realized her life could actually be in danger. The bunny didn't reply. Pixel spasmed her legs, trying to hit the bunny. Probably not the best idea. Nevertheless to say, she was lucky to not actually hit the bunny. She was too short-legged.

Their destination was coming up. The blue bunny stopped in front of the door. It looked back down at Pixel suddenly, making her adrenaline flood from the jumpscare. Dear Celestia, she wanted to burn this place down with all these robots in it. How could children stand to be even near this nightmare-fuel machine? She felt petrified underneath the metallic monster's stare.

It traded Pixel off into one of its hands and opened up the backroom's door with the other. It then proceeded to underhand toss Pixel into the literally pitch black room. She landed with a thump onto the floor face-first.

"W-We better n-not see you o-out again F-Freddy darlin or e-else w-we'll convince h-her to tear o-off your legs. G-goodnight."

The bunny bid farewell before slamming the door. The last bit of light eminated from the small crack beneath the door. Pixel crawled over to the door, pushing her back up against the cold, hard steel door. Well, at least she didn't have to see the old animatronics.

That could actually be a bad thing. Well, they probably couldn't reactivate unless they had some personal staff reactivate them. Like the engineers or manager. Pixel wouldn't be activating those old things. No way, no how. Chances were that they'd just kill her on the spot. So, she wasn't going to be turning any of them on tonight (or any night for that fact). For now, she would just sit here.

She took off the mask. She didn't need it anymore. If she was just going to sit in this pitch black room with robots that she won't be turning on, there's no reason to have it on. Plus, going out there now would be a bad idea. That bunny threatened to tear her legs off. Definitely not a thing that she wanted to happen. So, she'd just sit in here.

...

It sure was dark.

Oddly quiet.

...

Yup, just sittin here. In the dark.

Pixel began to hum a little tune that she had heard previously. She hummed it quietly. It seemed like something to pass the time. She hummed what she remembered from the song. It had been a long time since she had ever heard it.

That's when another song slowly began intruding her eardrums. From outside, another song played. It started off soft, but it grew louder and louder. It was another song made for children. Pop goes the weasel. She remembered it. This invading song quickly overpowered Pixel's soft hum of her own song. This made her determined to make her song louder. She turned it into a whistle.

Just as she started this whistle, the door flung open with great force. Pixel lost her backrest, as it was a pull door and not a push. She landed on her back, looking straight up. The popping weasels song had stopped. The only thing making noise now was Pixel's whistle. Which had cut off rather quickly once she noticed a tall figure standing above her. It stood on it's hind legs, much like everything else her. It had a tall, slender stature. It's fingers had a boney structure and looked sort of like claws. She quickly counted four fingers, including the thumb.

She still had not seen the face, and she preferred to not see the face at all. Pixel scrambled into the darkness of the room quickly, snatching the mask as she did. Though, she quickly found herself stopped. Not that she stopped herself. She didn't want to stop running into the safety of the darkness that contained inactive murderous machines. She was stopped by a sudden weight on her back.

Pixel swung her head around to see what was on her. The figure from before now laid on her. Was it dead? Maybe. She hoped it was. Pixel now made out the face. It was a round head, the majority of the front was covered by a pale mask. The face of the mask was in her fur, so she couldn't see what the face looked like.

Well, the thing seemed harmless. For now. So, Pixel whistled the tune from before as she crawled back over to close the door. She didn't want anything getting in here and killing her. She didn't have her mask on anymore, after all. The door was unsurprisingly heavy and hard to close from the inside. She had to get up in order to close it. She just continued to whistle, the whistle now turning back down to a hum.

She put the unidentified figure next to her as she leaned up against the door again. This was going to be a long night. Well, now she had a.. friend. Well, not really. It was just sitting down next to her while she hummed. At least it kept her company. Knowing that something that wasn't trying to kill her was now right beside her, it made her slightly comfortable. The unease from being in this place still didn't settle, though.

All through the night, all she did was hum the same tune over and over. What tune? Grandfather's Clock. She hummed it, over and over again.

The three hours felt long and torturously boring. There were a couple things that changed through the hours. The thing that she had put next to her had placed its head on her shoulder. She could feel the side of the mask rubbing up against her shoulder. She still didn't know what the face of the thing looked like. Neither did she want to know. Maybe it was better for the both of them if she didn't know. As long as the two got along, she was content.

Pixel found herself at 6AM. A loud ringing echoed through the halls of the building. It was obnoxious and high-pitched. She remembered her boss saying that the sign that it was 6AM was a bell of sorts. Well, that was it. Pixel gave a grin as she pushed on the steel door once more. Her acquaintance fell over, just as she did a couple hours back. All the lights in the building were now on, even the ones in the backroom.

She really preferred to not see what was sitting in the back of the room. She cringed and shivered at the sight of those things DIRECTLY STARING AT HER. Nevertheless to say, she was going to get her mutual ally and mask. So, when she looked down at her mutual, she was greeted by a sleeping face. The mask literally had a closed eyed face on it. Well, it was better than it having a huge grin.

Pixel grabbed the mask and put it on for an easier transport. She looked down at the thing that sat by her all night. It looked like some sort of puppet of sorts. Minus the strings. Wait, didn't the guy on the phone talk about a puppet? Well, nevertheless to say, she had to put it back in some box in the Prize Corner.

She picked up the black (with white stripes) puppet with her hooves, placing it perpendicular to her back. It felt soft. Mostly because it was made out of some sort of felt. Well, at least it wasn't scratchy and weird. Better to be soft.

Pixel trotted down the halls, going past the stage where the blue bunny and other mechanical animals stood. Their eyes were closed as they stood in place. She hissed underneath her breath. Folding her ears back as she glared at the blue bunny. She was going to have that thing reprimanded for threatening her tomorrow, she swore.

As she trotted into the Prize Corner, she looked around. There were some really creepy drawings all over the walls. All made by children, she presumed. They were all doodled on lined paper. Some showed the animatronics, others showed the black puppet that was currently limp on her back. Maybe this puppet thing was out here to get her as well. She hoped not.

She just couldn't wind the music box because that blue bunny took her away to the back room. She'd keep it wound up tomorrow night. She didn't want to see if this puppet was out for blood, like the guy on the phone described the animatronics to be. Well, actually, he described the animatronics to be more of things that see ponies as skeletons or something like that.

"Alright, you go in here."

Pixel said to herself as she placed the puppet into the box. She closed the box soon after. She walked off without another thought.

After returning the mask back to her office and picking the tablet off the floor, Pixel headed out the door. Well, that night was eventful. She was going to complain to her boss tomorrow. No way was she not going to complain to her boss about that blue bunny's threats and the possible life endangerment in this place. She was gonna sue the place if she ever got injured. Luckily enough, nothing but a few scratches and bruises today.

Hopefully the next night, she wouldn't even see any of those robots.

Night 2

"What do you mean you're not going to do anything!? That bunny THREATENED TO TEAR MY LEGS OFF!"

Pixel shouted at her boss, who leaned back in her chair. She didn't seem to care too much.

Pixel had confronted her boss about the blue bunny threatening to tear her legs off. Pixel met her boss inside the manager's room. It was small, but well decorated. Pixel sat in a small wooden chair while her boss sat in a large office chair. This place really didn't have a lot of money for comfortable chairs. Anyways, chair comfort was not the main concern at the moment.

"I'm afraid I can't help ya. Just do your job, kid. I don't want you to see you here in my office complaining ever again."

Pixel's boss said in her upbeat tone. She never sounded serious about anything. Maybe her boss was just so used to talking happily that her voice got stuck that way permanently. It was annoying, to say the least. Pixel snorted, getting up.

Pixel closed the door to her boss's office behind her as she left. She grumbled insults underneath her breath as she stomped down the hallway. Just five more days before this job was over. She hoped that those five days would be over with quickly. She didn't want to bother with these robots and other things.

Her ears folded backwards, she made the trek back to her office. Her shift was starting soon and another night of possible death was in store for her. How fun. How glorious. How absolutely frightening. Yeah, she still hadn't gotten over the eyes of the animatronics. When she was trying to go to sleep the morning after the first night, she kept seeing those eyes pop up in the darkness of her eyelids. She would always immediately open her eyes as soon as she saw them.

Pixel sat down in her own security guard chair. She looked down at the tablet. It was currently 11:47 PM. She had gotten to work early. She wasn't to get here at 12:00AM or else she risked the threat of the robots finding her while they were on their little walk around period. From what 'Phone Guy' told her, it seemed like a bad idea for her to walk around during that time.

Pixel fiddled her hooves, switching the tablet's view onto the Prize Corner. She kept that music box wound up. She didn't want that hidden animatronic to get out. Unless that puppet from last night was the animatronic. She seriously doubted it. That puppet was a puppet. It doesn't have a metal skeleton inside of it, she was pretty sure. Who puts a metal skeleton inside a puppet anyways?

The questioning of this logic whittled away at the minutes of peace she had. She didn't even notice her boss's "goodnight" shout from down the hall. Nor did she listen to the start of 'Grandfather's Clock' from the tablet. She was just in her little world for a couple minutes. Her conversation with herself lead to other things. Like friends, the state of the world, how she was alive. Like, have you ever wondered how you're alive? That sort of stuff is just so expansive.

The ringing of the phone snapped her out of her deep thought. Maybe it was for the better, huh? Though slightly annoyed, Pixel let the phone ring out as it did the night before. She was tempted to pick it up, just to see the guy's reaction.

"Uh.. Hello, Hello! Uh, I told you your first night wouldn't be a problem. By now, I bet you've noticed the older models sitting in the backroom."

Yeah. Those old, broken down machines she got to spend almost the entire night with last night. They sure were the best, weren't they. Their dislocated jaws and missing faces. Creepy lookin things. Pixel never wanted to go back there again.

"Those are from the previous location and we just use them for parts now. The idea at first was to repair them, uh.. Refitting them with some new technology, but they were just so ugly, y'know?"

Pixel definitely knew first hoof how ugly those things looked.

"And the smell."

Smell? She didn't recall a smell. Maybe she just didn't breath in any smells while she was back there. Lucky her.

"So, the company just decided to go in a whole new direction and make them super kid friendly."

Kid friendly. How funny. Very, very funny. Those things on the stage were not kid friendly up close. No.

"Those older ones shouldn't be able to walk around. Uh.. But if they do, the whole Freddy head trick thing should work on them too. Uh.. Heh.. I love those old characters. Have you ever seen Foxy the Pirate?"

Okay, first off, those things in the backroom shouldn't walk AT ALL. Pixel just hoped they would stay back there and do their own thing. Second off, she literally had never been to Freddy Fazbutt's Pizzeria of Nightmares before.

"Oh wait, Foxy.. Oh yeah, Foxy. Uhhhhh, hey listen. That one was always a bit twitchy.. Uh, I'm not sure the Freddy head trick will work on Foxy. Uh, if for some reason he activates during the night and you see him standing at the end of the hall, just flash your light at him from time to time. Those older models would always get disoriented by bright lights. It recalls a system restart or something."

Great, more things to worry about. Not like she didn't have enough. How many things were there to worry about now? Eight? How delightful.

"Uh, come to think of it, you should try that on any room where something undesirable might be."

Undesirable sounded like an understatement. Pixel didn't know any synonyms to replace undesirable, but it would be a word that was much more intense and filled with panic.

"It might hold them in place for a few seconds. Uh.. It might've carried over to the newer models too. Uh, one more thing. Don't forget the music box. I'll be honest, I never liked that puppet thing."

It didn't seem too bad. At least it didn't have some huge ass smile on its face constantly. Last time she saw it, it had a tired or sleeping face. Which probably connected to it being asleep by the music. Meh, she didn't know.

"It's always.. thinking and it can go anywhere. Uh, I don't think the Freddy Mask will fool it, so just don't forget the music box."

..That puppet was here to kill her. Her thoughts were correct. So, maybe the tune of 'Grandfather Clock' calmed it down or something.

"Uh, I'm sure it won't be a problem. Anyways, have a goodnight."

Well, at least he was nice.

"Goodnight."

Pixel replied to the Phone Guy. Even though he couldn't hear her.

"Oh, wait, uh.. There is one thing I forgot to mention. Apparently they brought over an animatronic from the old place today. Uh, she was put in the backroom as well, so she probably won't be much of a concern. Uhh.. I'm pretty sure the Freddy mask should work on her as well. Anyways, talk to you tomorrow."

With that, he hung up. Pixel looked down at the tablet. The music box was slowly unwinding. She pressed down on the little tab to wind it back up. She didn't want the evil side of the puppet to come out of that box.

If it.. was.. inside the box..

Pixel frantically pressed the flashlight button on the screen. She lit up the room. The top of the box was uncovered. The box was OPEN.

She heard something inside the vents. The one to the right. Pixel picked up the flashlight quickly and flashed it down that vent. No, yeah, there it was. Shit. SHIT SHIT SHIT.

Pixel grabbed the fan from the desk. It was battery powered. She needed some sort of weapon just in case the puppet was here for blood. She just hoped it wasn't. She didn't hear any music emanating from the puppet, like last night. If she recalled correctly, it played Pop the Weasel when it got to the door. This time, it was almost completely silent. Except for the sounds of fabric rubbing up against metal vents.

The puppet got up onto it's stubby feet. It had a tired looking face, like the night before. Now that she saw it fully, she saw all the details. The things she missed before were now right in front of her. It had three large, painted on white rings around its legs and arms. It also had three large buttons along its stomach. Yup. Still a puppet.

The puppet walked over to her on it's little needle feet. Those things were weird. Pixel could feel a cold sweat develop as she froze up. Then, the puppet spoke.

"I had a bad dream. Can I sleep with you tonight..?"

It spoke with the voice of a small child. It was high enough that Pixel couldn't tell the gender by the voice alone. It also had a slight echo to its voice. It was weird, nevertheless to say. With something that tall, she expected more of an adult voice, honestly. Still, at least it wasn't here to kill her.

"Uh.. Sure. I don't see why not."

Pixel's ears folded back as she put on a nervous smile. The puppet came closer to Pixel. Uncomfortably close. It got down and climbed onto her lap. Its legs receded as it curled up into a ball, like a cat would do. The puppet was fairly soft, though it was weird to have it all balled up on her lap. She couldn't sit like a regular pony due to the chair not being big enough. So, her lap was the only place for the puppet to lay down.

This was weird.

Pixel moved the chair forward a tad, so she was as close to the desk as possible. She put the tablet down onto the desk and picked up the flashlight. She checked down the hallway. She nearly flung the damn flashlight down there from the startling appearance of a Fox animatronic just feet away from running through her door. She rapidly flashed the light at the fox that was probably Foxy.

This animatronic was probably old. It had patches of its fur taken off all over it's body and legs. Parts of the skeleton on the inside were shown off. Foxy also seemed to have a hook. Oh, she bet that never poked anypony's eyes out.

She continued just flashing the flashlight. Eventually, Foxy covered his eyes and walked back down the hallway. She made sure he walked out of sight. She didn't want him running back down the hallway.

Pixel looked down at the tablet, switching it over to the stage. Oh. It appears as if they were all gone. All three of the robots were off the stage. Great. Fantastic. You know what's even more fantastic? The sounds of things in the vents. She had nothing else to do but throw on the Freddy mask and pray to Celestia she wouldn't have her legs torn off. So, she sat.

She looked around at the vents, shaking. Shit. If that blue bunny was here again, it would probably tear off her legs. Oh god. Oh shit. Oh no.

She was still. The sound of machinery was near, as two animals entered her mask's limited vision.

"F-Freddy darlin-n. I-I told ya l-last night t-that I-I'd t-t-tear your legs o-off if I-I saw y-ya out again."

It was the bunny again. It was joined by a.. a.. Celestia, what the hell was that thing..? It looked like the chicken from the stage but minus the beak. Thing looked like an alien. Pixel didn't like the alien robot. Thing was terrible. Terrible.

"B-Bonniee-chaaaan! W-Why would y-you do such a h-horrible thing?"

There were no words to describe how annoying the beak-less chicken sounded. Actually, there were. Pixel couldn't put any words, but I can. It sounded like one of the high-pitched anime girls with little to no personality other than sounding and looking 'cute'. That sort of annoying.

"B-Because I don't w-want him o-out here sc-caring all the kids! J-Just l-look at how u-ugly he i-is!"

'Bonnie' hissed, pointing its finger directly at Pixel's face. They were really fooled by the mask, huh. She was still blue. Also, a pony. She didn't know how this mask business worked anyways. Neither did she care.

The chicken bent over and looked directly into Pixel's eyes. The chicken was damn creepy. It had a permanent smile on its face, it seemed. Pixel didn't like it. No, she did not like the chicken at all. She felt her heart in her throat once more. Her breaths quickening every passing second the chicken just stared at her.

"I-I think you're b-being r-really rude, Bonnie-c-chan."

The chicken went back up, looking back over at the bunny.

The two continued bickering as Pixel just listened. Her ears flicked, shooting straight up. That sounded like running. It was getting closer.

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The fox jumped from the shadows, colliding directly with the blue bunny and chicken. This did not stop his flight, it just changed his trajectory as he continued to fly through the air. Pixel thought on her instinct, ducking as the fox grazed her head. He smacked directly onto the back of her chair.

Now, gravity's a cool thing. With the fox pressing down on the chair's backside with great force, it made the chair fall over quickly. For every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Pixel and the Puppet were flung from the chair, hitting the wall. The two fell over onto the ground rather quickly, as Pixel had the unfortunate luck of falling directly onto the disoriented Foxy.

The mask was smashed and damaged. The nose was all dented and the rest of the mask pressed up against her face tightly. Her eyes nearly bulged out the front of the mask now. Though, something else was wrong. To the right of her, the puppet was now sitting up. A huge, huge frown crossed almost the entire face of the puppet. It's eyes changed to something that looked a tad sad. It looked like it was about to cry.

Almost the entire room was in silence as the puppet began to sniffle.

"Oh no."

The chicken and Bonnie said simultaneously. If the robots were saying 'oh no' chances were that the puppet crying was a really, really bad thing. It was like a ticking time bomb, it seemed. The sniffles slowly kept building as the robots just stared. Foxy eventually shoved Pixel off and booked it out of there.

Pixel was unsure of what to do here. It seemed like the robots didn't want the puppet to cry. Well, they didn't want it to cry because it probably brought upon bad fortune.

"Um.. B-Bonnie-chan.."

The chicken looked over at the bunny. The bunny gave a quick nod.

"H-Have fun w-with that, F-Freddy Darlin!"

With that, the bunny and chicken ran down the hallway Foxy had escaped down. Pixel was alone in the room with the sniffling puppet. Every second that went by, the risk grew.

Pixel shuffled closer and closer to the puppet, who swung its head around to look at her. The action was sudden, startling her. Pixel thought of what to do next. How do you calm down a kid? Uh.. Put your hoof around them and hug them. Yeah, that should work. So, that's exactly what she did.

This was really weird. Was it 6AM yet?

The hug seemed to calm the puppet down slightly. Though, before the hug fully took effect, an animatronic jumped over the desk. It was a large, orange colored fox. Unlike Foxy, this one had a sort of watery looking tail. It also had BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBS. The fox pushed Pixel away from the puppet before grabbing said puppet with it's huge hands.

It then dashed off, as the entire restaurant was silent for a good thirty or so seconds. A sound pierced the silence. A wail. A eardrum bursting wail of pure sadness. It was loud. It was highpitched. It made Pixel cover her ears and get underneath her desk. She didn't bother to take off her mask, considering it covered part of her ears.

The cry pounded in her ears like a powerjack. It hurt her brain to think about anything sensible. Were her ears bleeding? She couldn't tell.

Then, just like that, the ringing of the clock hitting 6AM cut off the loud sob. The sob stopped as soon as the clock hit. The sweet sound of silence comforted Pixel's ears like pillows. Well, she took off the mask and put it onto the table. Now she had to go find the puppet, just to make sure it wasn't out of its box after her shift ended.

She removed herself from underneath her desk and looked at the tablet. A crack had formed from the loud crying. Great. Now she was going to have to explain this to her boss. She snorted in anger. She hated this place. At least having the puppet around helped her from not dying tonight. She was thankful for that, at least.

Also, what was up with that random robot that ran in here and grabbed the puppet before running off?

...

It was standing in the doorway. How was she going to deal with this? Phone guy didn't tell her anything about the animatronics being out after hours.

"L-Lass, ye s-should know n-not ta l-let the p-puppet in ere. C-Captain already t-told m-me that if tha p-puppet getcha, i-it strangles ye."

The orange fox commented, walking up to the desk as Pixel just looked up at the she-fox. Now that she looked at it fully, it also had an eyepatch (much like Foxy).

"Are you guys just friendly after 6AM or something? Why are you talking to me?"

Pixel questioned. She also hadn't questioned the choppy audio that came from them. Or the fact that they could LITERALLY SAY ANYTHING. It's like they were actual beings that had actual brains.

"O-Only during t-the si-i-ix hours do w-we get t-tuh d-do what w-we want. Ye s-should listen to m-me warnin, l-lass. D-Don't let t-that puppet b-be foolin ya or ye'll be f-fish food-d."

The orange fox continued.

"Yeah, alright. I'll see you tomorrow, boobed fox."

Pixel pushed past the 'boobed fox' and down the now lit hallway. She would check around to make sure the puppet was in its box, then go home.

So, that's exactly what she did. She went to the Prize Corner first, seeing the puppet on the floor. With a quick pick up using her mouth, Pixel put the puppet inside the present box.

"Thanks for saving me today," Pixel paused. She didn't know this puppet's name. Well. She'll just make one up, "Marion. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

With that, she closed the box and headed to the entrance. She received a glare from the boobed fox on her way out and its way to the backroom.

Tonight went by quickly. As all nights will.

"I don't like you."

"Well, I like you.. You did help me, afterall.."

"Shut up."

"You do like to give life, don't you..?"

"Yes, I do."

Night 3

Her boss reluctantly gave her a new mask after Pixel had asked for the fifth time tonight. Pixel wasn't going to bring up the broken tablet. No way, no how. Knowing her luck, the Boss would probably just yell at her for getting a crack on the tablet at all.

Pixel grumbled as she sat down in her chair. Flinching from the bruises on her back reacting to the chair. Yeah, she did get a bit bruised from falling on a hard, metal robot. Well, mostly metal. The outside felt kind of like some sort of hard fur. It wasn't all fuzzy, to say the least. It felt like ice with hair on top. Like, shed hair. Hair from your head. Just all over the ice. Getting stuck in your fingers and over your limbs. Hair is disgusting on its own.

Pixel looked down at the tablet. It read it was two minutes until twelve. Her boss had already left and closed up. The lights were to dim any moment, and Pixel was going to be in for another night. Yaaay. Well, at least she had Phone Guy to entertain her for an hour or so. Maybe. If he was going to call tonight, that was. He usually called at twelve sharp, so Pixel kept her hopes up.

Pixel checked over at the Prize Corner. Box was closed. She supposed that the puppet she had nicked 'Marion' wasn't going to stay with her in the office tonight. It would be better if it did, seeing as how last night it scared off those two plastic robots. Well, then Pixel would've guessed that Marion was also the one that let out the cry that nearly made Pixel deaf. Yeah, her ears still hurt from that. They were just sore whenever she poked at em.

The phone began to ring. Pixel, instead of letting it ring out, picked it up. She wouldn't say anything. She would just pick it up for wishing goodnight and stuff like that. Plus, if she wanted some good final words to be put on her gravestone, she would have to say them to the Phone Guy. Goodnight sounded perfectly fine, in her opinion. Maybe a bit too dramatic.

"Um, Hello, Hello! Uh.. See, I told you that you wouldn't have any problems."

No, there were a lot of problems. She was on the bad side of a bunny that was out for her legs. Plus, the puppet wasn't here to give her an extra shot.

"Hey, uh.. Did Foxy ever appear in the hallway?"

Yes. Then he appeared in the office.

"Probably not, I was just curious. Like I said, he was always my favorite. They tried to remake Foxy y'know. Uh.. They thought the first one was too scary so they redesigned him to be more kid-friendly and stuck him in Kid's Cove. Uh, to keep the toddlers entertained, y'know."

Pixel's interest was peaked. She tapped the tablet and headed over to the Kid's Cove. One portion of the view was shadowed. Pixel poked the flashlight button, lighting up the room. The corner was empty. Huh. Must've moved the redesigned Foxy or something.

"But kids these days just can't keep their hands to themselves."

..Hands?

"The staff literally had to put Foxy back together at the end of every shift. Eventually they stopped trying and just left him as some kind of.. Take-apart put-back-together attraction. Now he's just a mess of parts."

Sounds delightful. Hopefully he was rendered unable to move because of this.

"I think the employees refer to him as just 'The Mangle'."

What a nice nickname. Pixel just couldn't wait to see what this Mangle looked like. She bet it had flowers and happiness for a body. Yay.

"Uh.. Hey, before I go, I just wanted to ease your mind about any rumors you might have heard lately. Uh.. You know how these local stories come and go and seldom mean anything. I can personally assure you that whatever is going on out there, however tragic it may be, has nothing to do with our establishment."

Pixel wondered what sort of rumors went around about this place. Maybe it was rumors of there being smells in here. From what she could tell, there were no smells. She took in a breath of air via nose. Nothing. Not even the smell of pizza or baked goods. Just the good ol' bland smell of stale air.

"It's just all rumor and speculation, people trying to make a buck, you know. Our guard during the day has reported nothing unusual and he's on watch from opening until close. Okay, well, hang in there and I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Before Pixel could say goodnight, he hung up. Well. Rude. Pixel put the phone back down. She looked at the tablet. There was a blinking red caution sign by the Prize Corner. She quickly switched over, pressing onto the 'Wind up Music Box' Button.

Pixel sighed in relief. Then, she heard footsteps. She grabbed the flashlight in her mouth and flicked it down the hallway. Well, she flickered it at Foxy, who was literally in her doorway. After a couple seconds, he turned tail from light annoyance.

A bang in the vents. Mask goes on, winding button keeps being held down by her hoof.

This time, a new face showed up. From the left side, a robot boy with a smile. A robotic boy with a balloon. One could say he was a balloon boy. He wore one of those beanies that had rotary plastic blades on the top. He also wore a tacky built-on shirt. He also didn't have any hands. Just nubs.

Pixel didn't like him and his creepy, smiling face. Or his GIGGLE. YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW.

"O-Oi, it's F-Fazfuck! W-What're y-ya doin out ere o-old man!?"

The mouth on this thing. How did they let it go out in front of children? He spoke like some sort of angry New Yorker that was still looking for a taxi, even though it's been three hours. That's just the way he spoke. He sounded like an eight year old.

"You've got a bad mouth on you, son. Get out of here before I shove soap down your throat."

Pixel hissed. She wasn't going to be called 'Fazfuck'. Not by a little boy who sounded like a foal. No. She'd stand for adult-sounding robots. Not little boys. She got up out of her chair. She got a full view of the tiny obese humanoid robot.

"Y-Ya wanna g-go s-shit head!?"

Balloon Boy replied, his voice box filled with sudden rage. He was a fearless one, wasn't he? Well, to be fair, he wasn't as creepy as the blue bunny or the yellow chicken without the beak. Even though the chicken sounded obnoxious.

Pixel went around her desk and towards the little robot. She pushed him over using one hoof. He fell directly onto his solid metal-fat. He rolled around, trying to get back up as Pixel just left him there to roll and swear like a sailor. One robot conquered. She doubted she would be able to do the same with the other robots she was going up against tonight.

Pixel then got an idea. She pushed Balloon Boy over to the vent where he came from. Head first. She didn't know how he managed to crawl through the thing, as once it hit his fat bulge, he got stuck. His existence would be useful tonight. If anything crawled through that vent, it'd be blocked off by the Boy Balloon over there. Heh. He certainly was big enough to be a balloon.

Pixel sat back down. Then, she heard a familiar tune.

Oh.

Well.

Pixel didn't know where Marion would come from. She took off the mask. Phone Guy said that it wouldn't work on Marion a night or two back. Pixel was going to test her luck. She held out her hooves in front of her. If Marion came through the hall and lunged at her like Foxy did, then her strategy would work.

"Pop goes the weasel."

Pixel muttered, as Marion lunged at her from the darkness. Marion went straight for the throat, grasping around said place with its hands as the chair tipped backwards.

The clatter of the chair against the floor was surprisingly loud, as Pixel pushed against Marion's soft fabricy body. She sputtered and choked, as Marion held onto her throat surprisingly strong. As the two battled against eachother's forces, Pixel got to stare directly into Marion's default emotion. A large smile, eyes showing joy. Though, there was one thing that scared her. There were pupils. Glowing, white (with a hint of purple) pupils staring directly back at her.

Pixel kicked at Marion with her hind legs. Surprisingly enough, this did nothing.

The footsteps from the hall did not reach her ears over her loud choking. Pixel was busy fighting for her life right now. Pixel did what she needed to do. She took a hoof off of Marion's chest and smacked the fiend straight across the mask. This made Marion slightly stunned, allowing Pixel a second to breath before Marion went back to the strangulation.

She felt her limbs grow weak as her air was taken from her. She twitched, her eyes rolling back into her skull, face turning even more blue than her fur.

Then, Marion let go. Not because it was showing mercy, but because something stopped it. Pixel sputtered, nauseous. Her eyesight was blurry and the flow of light from the lightbulb above was not very pretty looking.

"L-Lass, w-wot'd I tell ye?"

The voice of 'Boob Fox' commented as she held Marion underneath her hook arm. Marion was squirming underneath the sheer force of Boob Fox's arm. Marion didn't seem too happy with being stopped.

Pixel staggered to her hooves, feeling dizzy as she did so. The sudden intake of air was nice, almost heavenly to taste. Despite the fact it was stale air.

Pixel put her chair back up, putting the tablet back onto the desk where it belonged. It had fallen to the floor because of Marion's little strangulation fest. Definitely something Pixel would prefer to never do again.

"Why are you being so nice? I'm not even wearing a mask."

Pixel looked up at Boob Fox's face. She probably was doing this just to make Pixel have a false sense of trust. Yes, what a smart thing. Pixel had already figured it out. She wouldn't let Boob Fox gain a friendship or a trust like Marion had.

"I-It's because I g-got r-reeeal eyes!"

Boob Fox leaned forward, letting Pixel take a look at her face. Yeah, no, those were fake eyes. They looked like plastic eyes.

"..R-Rough crowd, a-aint it?"

Boob Fox stood up straight again as she looked down at Marion for an answer. Marion didn't reply. It was still struggling to release itself from Boob Fox's captivity. Boob Fox gave a metallic sigh.

"Are you supposed to be that bad at jokes..?"

Pixel asked. Boob Fox wasn't too entertained by this question.

"L-Lass, I just saved y-ye life. T-Tha least ye c-can do i-i-is show a bit of a-appreciation."

Boob Fox stated.

"I-If ye w-want to insult m-me jokes s-some more, t-though.."

There was an obvious glint from the hook on Boob Fox's personage. Pixel gave a nervous smile. That thing was a bit pointed.

The vents to the right clattered, as static sounded.

"I-I never thot t-the day would come w-when I-I'd see the K-Kraken a-again!"

Boob Fox was looking directly over at the vent to the right.

"T-Take cover L-Lass, this is g-gonna be ugly."

Boob Fox warned, shoving Pixel underneath her own desk. Pixel didn't even see what was in the vent, or where that static was coming from. All she knew was that she was now underneath a desk. Well.

Footsteps in the hallway, a screech, then a Foxy tripping over Pixel's desk and slamming into the wall behind it. Boob Fox called for 'Captain's' assistance as it sounded like things were breaking out there. It sounded like glass and electronics were breaking. Most likely the televisions piled up in the corners of the room.

Pixel played no part in the fight as it went on. She just sat under the desk. Then, something appeared around the corner of her desk. Marion. Well, shit.

Pixel prepared herself once more for another strangulation. Though, she did not get one. Rather, Marion just sat up against a wall of the desk. Not the same wall as Pixel, but the one to the left. Marion didn't speak. Pixel just glared at Marion with utmost resentment. Marion didn't meet eye contact. Or maybe it did. Pixel couldn't tell, those pupils were gone. It seems like Marion's want to kill was only around when it had pupils. Now the blacks of its eyes were hollow, like a void. Marion's smile had shifted down into a slight frown.

"If you think that I'm going to forgive you, I'm not."

Probably not the best thing to say to something that could kill her.

Marion sniffled. It didn't even look at Pixel. Rather, it looked down at its right arm. All along the bottom of Marion's arm was a huge tear. It showed off cotton, fluff, and all that good stuff that dolls usually had inside of them.

Pixel nearly went deaf last time. She wasn't going to be near the blast's source when the bomb explodes. She would defuse it now to avoid any sort of destruction.

Pixel brought Marion over into a hug, like she did last time. She still hated Marion, beyond no doubt. The audacity of this puppet was astounding. Coming in here, nearly choking Pixel to death, now sniffling (Pixel wasn't sure how it sniffled, it had no nose) over a wound. What an asshole.

At least it was soft. Like a sentient pillow.

Pixel sighed as the robots clattered against the floors and electronics. Pixel managed to reach around the top of the desk with her free hoof and grab the tablet. Any further harm to the thing could cost her a lot of money to get it repaired. Plus, she didn't like the chances of the robots bumping into the table or using the tablet as a weapon against this 'Kraken'.

Speaking of weapons, Pixel couldn't tell, but Boob Fox had yanked Balloon Boy from the hold of the metal vents. She was much bigger in size and height than the fat thing, so she was able to pick him up. Nevertheless to say, the sound of his angered toddler voice didn't reach Pixel over the robotic pirate puns spouted by an unknown voice. She either guessed it was Foxy or the Kraken.

"W-What in t-the hell a-are ya'll d-doin f-f-fightin!?"

The familiar voice of Bonnie rang out, attempting to shout over the sounds of metallic scraping. Pixel reckoned the bunny got into the office through the vent, like it always did.

Bonnie did not quell the fight whatsoever. No, no they did not. Pixel was pretty sure that the fight intensified. She could hear more stuff breaking now that Bonnie had joined.

This went on for a good couple of minutes. No sign of the fight stopping anytime soon. Pixel looked down at the tablet. Well, at least she could check on the other things in this place. She poked on the back room. She was pretty sure that none of the things in there came out. They were deactivated and missing limbs, after all. That purple thing even was missing a face.

Pixel tapped on the flashlight button. The room lit up. Everything was there. The purple thing, that brown head of a robot bear.. The camera didn't show the chicken thing that had its mouth forced open. Pixel was pretty sure that was a bad thing.

It appeared as if Marion had calmed down completely now. Well, it now clinged onto Pixel fairly tightly. It was nothing to worry about. It couldn't cause any real pain like a strangulation could. If Marion went for the throat, she'd make sure to toss it back out into the fight. Well, if she could. Since she was pushed up against the back wall of the desk, she would be able to just topple it and most likely use that gravity to her advantage.

Plus, from what she could tell, Marion was sensitive to pain. Even that smack from the wall yesterday was enough to make it cry.

Though, for some reason, Marion was hiccupping. Like, they weren't too spaced out inbetween hiccups. They were nearly rapid. They were small, reserved hiccups. Barely audible over the sounds of conflict in the office. It sounded like they weren't calming down anytime soon with those pirate puns either.

"Do you need water or something?"

Pixel asked Marion. Marion didn't reply for a couple seconds, due to the hiccups.

"No, *Hic* I.. I *Hic* just get *Hic* hiccups when *Hic* I'm scared.."

What a baby. Well, Pixel was slightly scared by the fighting. More concerned than anything. Since her life wasn't currently being threatened, she was still a bit worried about the fighting. They did sound like they were damaging stuff out there.

Pixel looked down at the tablet. She poked around on the screen. She checked up on the show stage. It seemed like the chicken and bear were talking. Their mouths were moving, but Pixel couldn't tell what they were saying. Mostly because the fight was too loud to hear the little tablet.

Suddenly, the chicken nodded, removing its beak with ease. Pixel looked upon the scene in disgust as the beak-less chicken gave over her beak to the bear before exiting range of the camera. Something told Pixel that the chicken was going to be heading over here.

Also, how.. How was it only 3AM? The nights before this one seemed to progress ever so quickly. This one, not so much.

When the anime-pantied chicken entered the room, her presence did not go unnoticed.

"GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUYS!!!"

She shrieked in her high-pitched voice.

"L-Lass, this a-ain't ye fight."

The voice of Foxy replied before the sounds of fights continued.

The ground started to shake at this point, as robots banged up against the table. Pixel had no idea what the balls they were doing out there. She really didn't. All she knew was that it sounded bad.

Marion was nearly pushed up against Pixel at this point. Pixel would not admit she felt the slightest bit of pity for her former strangler. Marion held onto Pixel ever so tightly with its long arms. As the fight grew louder and louder, (Anime Chicken didn't help at all with the calming down of the fight with her loud voice) Marion began to shake. What a serious baby.

Pixel poked around on the screen a bit more. Just checking random rooms. Nothing showed up, of course.

Wait, what was that? Pixel swore she saw something just as she changed the feed. She switched back over to Parts and Services. Something was missing here. Yes, there was something missing here. She studied the scene. That purple thing with no face was gone. Where did it go?

There was a loud hissing sound from the fight. The sound of a retreat through vent was next.

Between the foxes, Pixel heard sounds of congratulations. Sounds of rejoice. Of puns. Amazing.

"Y-Yeah, yeah. S-Shove off, y-ya old s-seascums."

Bonnie hissed.

"W-Whatever ye a-are, m-man or w-woman, y-ye k-know t-these hooks aren't f-f-for show."

Boob Fox replied.

An argument ensued. Anime Chicken and Foxy were generally quiet, as Boob Fox and Bonnie just went on with the arguments. Pixel was getting curious as to what the surrounding area looked like. So, despite the risk of Foxy, she dawned the Freddy Mask (after fishing it off the top of the desk) and popped her head above the desk. Marion still clung to her like a monkey child as she moved.

The damage was.. Fairly bad. The televisions were almost all gone from her vision (they were probably on the floor, broken) and Balloon Boy was nowhere to be seen. The drawings on the walls (ones pinned up there by previous security guards) had been ripped down and were probably on the floor. The flashlight was gone. Pixel presumed her flashlight was used as a weapon.

Pixel looked up.

Oh. There was Balloon Boy. He was hung up on the ceiling by a bunch of rope things. He was entangled in them, actually. Pixel didn't know how he got up there. Nor did she care. Balloon Boy was like a sailor with his swears. Pixel didn't like the spoiled brat at all.

Balloon Boy appeared to have his balloon stuck down his throat. Well. Wonder how that got there. At least he was quiet. The sounds of muffled choking did come from him, barely. The argument really overpowered the near silent swears that came from Balloon Boy's blocked vocal box.

"W-Well Well Well.. I-If it i-isn't Freddy. D-Darlin, w-what're you d-doin underneath t-that desk?"

Bonnie was obviously talking to her. Pixel didn't respond. She simply caught eye-contact. She was silent as Bonnie stared back at her.

"F-Freddy? Y-Ye need yer e-eyes c-checked, c-confused gendered B-Bun."

Boob Fox smacked Bonnie upside the head with her hand before heading over to Pixel. Pixel was picked up by Boob Fox's hand and lifted up into the air like she was a prize. Marion was literally attached to Pixel like a leech as Pixel was picked up.

"N-No, that's F-Freddy, look at the f-f-face, Darlin!"

Bonnie pointed at Pixel's mask. Please don't tell her that Boob Fox was going to take off the mask.

Boob Fox stabbed the mask with her hook and ripped it off, revealing Pixel's face. Well. Thanks.

"Y-You literally t-thought F-Freddy was a pony, y-ye l-landlubber!"

Boob Fox chuckled. Thanks, Boob Fox. This a fantastic position to be in. Fantastic.

"D..Darlin.. I-Is it a real pony..?"

Bonnie's voice box suddenly took on a sort of repressed excitement tone. Its pupils seemed to dilate. Anime Chicken (who stood close to Bonnie) was quick to swipe Pixel from Boob Fox.

"S-She's mine, baka!"

Anime Chicken declared in her squeaky, high-pitched voice. Anime Chicken held Pixel like a baby. Wh.. What was going on? Pixel looked down at Marion, who looked slightly worried as well.

"S-She ain't n-no seahorse. C-Can't use the l-lass for the crew."

Foxy sounded slightly disappointed. He obviously didn't want her.

"C-Chica, give h-her here. Ya d-don't know a s-single thing 'bout h-horses!"

Bonnie demanded.

The two robots bickered over Pixel, stealing her from each other. Didn't Phone Guy say that the animatronics would be doing this. She was pretty sure they were supposed to be doing the complete opposite.

While they tugged her back and forth, Marion got more and more worried. All the motion was causing the wound that Marion had previously gained to continue to split. Seams were being torn from Bonnie and Chica using Marion as a way to grab Pixel at times (seeing as how tightly Marion was holding onto Pixel). Marion was beginning to whine. Just small whines of pain. Not very loud. Pixel could still hear them.

"Y-Ye two a-are goin t-to rip 'er in half if y-ye keep goin like that!"

Boob Fox finally interjected, snatching Pixel away once more. Though, that was the final tug. Due to Marion being held by Chica and Pixel being snatched the opposite direction by a stronger force ever so suddenly.. Marion's grip on Pixel was destroyed as it flopped to the ground. The entire bottom of Marion's arm was ripped open now, reaching up to the palm of its hand.

The room was silent as Marion sat up. Foxy booked it as Marion sat up. He wasn't having any of that tonight.

"T-This is your fault, B-BAKA! B-Bad Bonnie-chan, bad!"

Chica tried to sound as serious as possible. Pixel couldn't take her seriously as long as she had that voice, to be honest. There was just no way that Pixel would be taking that chicken with no beak (in panties) seriously.

"Y-Yar, lass.. I-I think y-ye should take care of t-this one.."

Boob Fox nervously chuckled, putting Pixel down next to Marion before wailing 'WAIT FOR ME CAPN!' and sprinting out of there. She seemed to have some trouble in the hallway, as Pixel heard a crash of metal.

Pixel's ears folded back as she saw the looks on Chica and Bonnie's faces. They said nothing before getting out of there via hallway. Once more, Marion had scared off the robots with the threat of crying.

Pixel looked back over at Marion. Marion was not sniffling. No, rather, it was twitching. Its eyes seemed to be focused on it's wound as Marion tried to lift up its arm. Pixel just looked. Stared. Then, she sighed. She knew what she would have to do. She would have to go home and fix Marion up herself. Well, once the bell rang for Pixel to leave. Pixel would have to go home and come back in order to fix Marion up.

"I'll fix your arm if you don't choke me again."

Pixel offered. Marion didn't reply. It was just staring at the injury. Pixel wondered what it was like, to have an injury like that. It would be the equivalent of peeling back her own skin to reveal the muscles and stuff underneath. Okay, uh.. She didn't want that to happen. Ever. It must hurting ever so terribly, that wound. There goes the sympathy. Great.

"I know how to sow things. Just stick it out until six rolls around. I'll go home and get my sowing stuff, then come back."

Pixel promised, picking up the limp Marion in her hooves. Marion was quiet. The only noise that Marion made was a slight whine when Pixel accidentally brushed over the rip with her hoof.

Pixel sat down in her chair once more. What a night. What a night. She placed Marion down in her lap, letting it do whatever it wanted. Marion curled back into the cat-like ball from last night. Marion was shaking. Pixel placed her free hoof on Marion and pet Marion like it was a cat. It didn't seem to help or harm anything.

There was a clunking sound from the hallway. Well, Pixel didn't have a flashlight. Blech. She doubted it was Foxy, as his footsteps were rapid and lighter. These footsteps were slow and heavy.

Just to be safe, Pixel put on the mask.

Before she got a chance to see what the thing in the shadows was, the bell for 6AM rang. Oh. Luna must've messed up on the timing of the moon tonight. Well, nevertheless, Pixel was happy she didn't have to know what didn't manage to get into her office as well tonight.

Pixel took off the mask, shut off the tablet and picked Marion up in her mouth. The lights of the pizzeria turned onto full blast once more. The thing in the hallway.. Was not there. Strange. Pixel didn't hear any footsteps other than the few that were coming towards her. She didn't care. As long as she didn't have to deal with another problem tonight, she would be fine.

Pixel would put Marion into its box, then go home and get the stuff.

Or maybe Marion would refuse to get off her.

Yeah, once Pixel had arrived at the box Marion normally stayed in, she went to put Marion in using her hooves. Despite the fact one of the arms was disabled and wounded, Marion managed to grab onto Pixel's hoof. The thing still had some grip in its hands, obviously.

"Marion, you need to let go. I'll come back in a couple minutes."

Pixel stated, shaking her hoof over the box. Marion reluctantly let go of Pixel's hoof and dropped down into the box. The empty box. Must be hard sleeping in there, with no pillow. It's basically like sleeping on a tile floor, wasn't it? Pity was flowing again. Pixel began to head out of the room.

"I.. Thought you said you weren't going to forgive me for choking you.."

Marion popped its head over the top of the box and said this in one of the most sincere tones that Pixel had ever heard. Holy hell, either it was a really good actor or a puppet like itself felt legitimate guilt.

"Yeah, well, I'll get reprimanded if I don't fix you by the time the Boss gets here."

Pixel didn't want her pay getting cut because of something the robots did. She would also have to get Balloon Boy off of the ceiling. That would be just delightful.

The trek to her house began as soon as she left the Prize Corner.

Pixel had returned to the Pizzeria a full hour later (after getting some food, obviously) with her sowing kit in her saddle bag. She also brought along a flashlight to replace the missing old one.

Pushing through the doors, Pixel found something a bit strange about the place. Maybe it was the conversations. Maybe. She could hear conversations off in the distance. Maybe they were off in the main hall, on the stage. They sounded rather near. Pixel stood in place and just listened in.

"Have a good day, children.."

W.. What the hell was that..? Pixel could barely hear who or what said that, but she could identify a couple features from the voice. One being that she didn't want to hear it again. It was oddly alluring. Hypnotizing, actually. A smooth sounding voice with a calm tone. Normally, that sort of voice would be okay. It would be attractive to mares. When the (obviously male) voice said something like that in a not even open Pizzeria.. Well, something about that just screamed wrong.

Was.. Was it a burglar? Oh no. There is literally no way somepony would be stupid enough to rob this place. There was nothing to rob except robots. Pixel had to check on the well-being of the intruder. She never thought she would have to make sure an enemy was alright again tonight.

Pixel charged into the main hall, only to find everything was fine. Balloon Boy must've gotten down from the ceiling by himself because he was standing over there. Smiling. Creepy ass little bipedal creature. Pixel still wasn't sure what he was meant to be, in all honesty. He just sounded like a guy. A little boy.

Pixel trotted through the now silent hallways. She made her way over to the Prize Corner once more. Marion was patiently waiting for her. Kind of shocked her when she walked in to see it just sitting on the floor (Criss-cross applesauce style).

"Alright, I'm back. Hold out your arm and I'll fix it for you."

Marion did as told, holding out the arm that had been cut. Still looked bad. Pixel brought out her white and black thread.

The night went on. Well, actually, it was morning now. The two sat in relative silence. Marion make the occasional whimper as Pixel stitched it up. What a baby, honestly. Pixel wasn't going to live down the whole choking thing. Mostly because it could've killed her.

Pixel wondered about who that voice belonged to. It didn't sound like an animatronic, as their voices were more broken up by their voice boxes. Also, they sounded like robots. That voice sounded like ti came from a pony. Or a ghost. Maybe it was a ghost. Yeah, no. There were no such things around, even in Equestria. There were no such things as ghosts. Ghosts didn't exist.

"Um.. My friend says I can't 'help' you anymore.. He just wants me to kill you tomorrow."

Marion suddenly said in its neutral tone. It sounded rather sleepy. Maybe it was because it hadn't slept for the past couple of hours. Maybe that was it.

"Tell your friend he's rude. You shouldn't be forced to kill somepony just if he says so."

Pixel replied, not making eye contact. She was more focused on her work right now.

"He'll be really mad at me if I don't. He does bad things when he's mad. He punishes all of us if we screw up."

Marion was being too vague with its naming here. Pixel didn't like the vagueness.

"Who is this 'He' you're talking about? Don't just say 'he's my friend'. Tell me his name."

Pixel wondered if they got punished every night by this 'he', considering they had failed to kill her the past three nights (including the one she had just finished). What sort of punishment they got, she didn't care about.

"I don't know his name."

Well, at least there was a reason behind the vagueness.

"He was really angry because we fought each other tonight. He was mostly angry at Beerfox.. She got hurt real badly. She's fine now, though."

This guy was hurting robots. How could he manage to do that? Also, how come none of them seem to be physically damaged except for the old robots? This was really weird.

"I'm going to guess he doesn't like me."

"He doesn't like you at all. You're a.. a.. uh.."

"Security Guard?"

"No.. What are you called?"

"My name or species?"

"What's a species..?"

"It's a type of animal grouped into one name. I'm a pony."

"Yeah, you're that. He doesn't like you being a that. Or the truth that you can avoid being killed by us."

"What, is he not used to ponies? This place is a pizzeria in Equestria."

"..What's an Equestria?"

Pixel found herself finished with the sowing on Marion. She packed up her stuff and picked Marion up.

"Wait, are you going to leave..?"

Marion asked as it was dumped into the box once more.

"Yeah. I have to get some sleep for tomorrow night."

Coming back tomorrow seemed like a really bad idea.

"I don't think you should.. He will probably take control against tomorrow. He makes sure I want to kill you, when the music box stops."

"He sounds like a terrible pony."

"He doesn't look like a pony. He looks like.. A.. Uh.."

How could somepony not look like a pony? That's weird.

"Anyways, just make sure he doesn't or else my life is going to be on the line again tomorrow."

Pixel closed the box with that statement.

Then, she left and went home for the morning.

"..."

"You've been avoiding me.. I heard everything, friend.."

"You always do."

"You're very right, my child.."

"Don't call me that."

"Why not..?"

"It's.. weird."

"I assure you, we're all strange here.. The only one who's the weirdest is you.. Not killing her.. How.. Disappointing.."

"I-I just didn't want to-"

"You chose not to..? You.. CHOSE..?"

"W-Wh.. N-No!"

"There is no reason to lie.. You've helped her twice now.. I think a punishment is in order.."

Night 4

Pixel had a strategy up her metaphorical sleeve this time around. Okay, so the 'friend' wanted her dead and gone because of her species. A strange motive. A very strange motive indeed. Though, the theory was this.

There was the animatronics. So far, there's the Plastics who stay up on the stage, the 'Seniors' in the back, and Marion. Marion was by itself because Marion was a puppet. Wasn't really a robot. Then, there was Friend. Friend was a hidden animatronic or was some sort of ghost. Friend also ruled over the pizzeria, because from what Marion described, he punished the animatronics for not killing her.

She even did a little power graph at home, during her free time. She was seriously bored, so she made one.

It wasn't much, but she would add onto it if she had the chance. She had brought along some supplies with her tonight. She only had three nights to go, so she wanted to make sure she was completely safe from all angles. Well, one angle, actually.

"Gogogogo."

Pixel whispered to her accomplice this night. Pixel planned to get her into the pizzeria in order to do the shift with her. Why? Well, there was a specific reason. One, big reason. If her theory about ghosts was true.. Well, Pixel needed her help. This accomplice was a exorcist. A demon ridder. Pixel bet she could do it on ghosts, even though they didn't exist.

Pixel gave the directions to the security room as her friend ran through the pizzeria before Pixel's boss even left her room.

Now, one might ask themselves, why would Pixel bring along this friend of hers, even though this job could possibly endanger their life? Well, Pixel was going to see if this theory was true or not. Plus, the reward was to be more than the risk here. Well, that's the hypothesis, anyways. Pixel figured that if there was a ghost in here controlling the robots and if said ghost was removed..

Pixel could be the ruler of the robots instead.

Now, she wasn't one for world domination or control of a town. She wasn't evil, no. She just wanted to make sure she could get through her week unharmed, until the place closed. She wanted to make sure nopony else had the chance to be witness to these creatures during the night. She wanted to make sure that their mischievous ways were not to harm anypony else.

It only took them a couple minutes to get settled in the office. Pixel had brought a chair from the backroom for her friend to sit in. You know, I should probably describe what this friend looks like. That'd be a good idea.

The mare had a black coat. On her head was a fiery, spiked mane. It started from yellow and went down to red as it got closer to her face. It wasn't actual fire, it was just a mane that looked like fire. Pretty cool and original, right? Her cutiemark was a little ghost floating inside a speech bubble. Yeah, it seemed pretty obvious what her talent was. She was able to talk to ghosts. That was her mane talent. Her job was exorcisms, which Pixel would be having her do today. I mean, tonight.

"I'll just get set up."

Her name was Fiery Specter, by the way. Pixel already knew this. Pixel nodded at the statement Fiery just stated. Pixel removed her own saddlebag, placing it onto the floor. She would leave Fiery to her own business.

Pixel turned on the tablet. It instantly showed off the stage. Well.. What was supposed to be the stage. The feed was fuzzy. Like, static. Pixel switched over to another room. Fuzzy. Another room. Fuzzy. Another. Fuzzy. Well. It seems like all the rooms had a malfunctioning camera. At least she could still wind the music box. Not being able to see the Prize Corner would not be an issue.

Phone Guy should be calling any second now. It was already twelve.

Fiery Specter was busy on the floor in front of the desk. It was the place with the most space.

Also, it seems like the room got cleaned up since last night. There wasn't a single word out of her boss, though. The televisions (although still broken) were all piled up in the corners like before. The glass from the screens no longer was on the floor. It was just gone. Now, in its place, was a pony sitting on the floor putting up candles into a circle.

The phone began to ring. A look of resentment came from Fiery as she looked back at the phone.

"Hey, he's the only company I had before you came around."

Pixel pointed at the phone.

"How long are his calls?"

"They've been getting shorter each night."

"Fine. We need to start this as soon as possible, so have him hurry up."

The phone picked up by itself.

"Hello, Hello? Uh.. Hey there, Night four! I told you you'd get the hang of it. Okay so.. uh.. Just to update you.. Uh.. There's been somewhat of an investigation going on uh.. We may have to close for a few days, I dunno."

Hooray. Then she would have her first holiday.

"I just want to emphasize that it's just a precaution."

There was a noise in the background of the call. Something falling over, it seemed. Phone Guy paused, there was a 'Huh?' from him before he returned to the call.

"F-Fazbear entertainment denies any wrong-doings. These things happen sometimes."

Another noise. This time, Phone Guy seemed to put the phone away from his mouth in order to see what had fallen. There was a distant 'Is someone messing with me? I'm kinda busy right now' in the background. He returned to the call rather quickly.

"U-Um.. It will all be sorted out in a f-few days.. J-Just keep an eye on things and I'll keep you posted. Uh.. Just a side note.. Try to avoid eye-contact with the animatronics as hard as you can. Someone may have tampered with their facial recognition systems.. We're not sure ."

No eye contact. Alright.

"But they've been acting very unusual, almost aggressive towards the staff. But with the kids, they're just fine. With adults they just.. stare. Uh.. Anyway.. Hang tight, it'll all pass."

With that, the call was over. Seems as if Phone Guy was having some ghostly issues himself, with that stuff falling in the background of the call.

Pixel looked at the tablet. The screen was still fuzzy. She kept her hoof held on the 'Wind Music Box' button. She didn't want a repeat of last night, where she nearly got choked. She definitely did not like being choked. Nope. Plus, she hoped that Marion would appreciate the incredibly selfless act she did. The act that if she didn't do, she would be yelled at by her boss.

"I'm ready to go. Get in the circle, and I'll put up the shield so we may begin."

Fiery spoke up. Oh. She was done that quickly? Well.

"Oh. Wait. Turn off the lights first, or else the shield won't be able to form. Also, no electronics in the circle."

Fiery continued. Well, this was sure going to be fun. Pixel left the tablet to itself, shutting it off. Next, she headed over to one of the walls, flicking the light switch that stayed there. Now the room was black, lit by only the flame of candles. Pixel scampered into the circle of candles, making sure not to knock any over.

"Don't mess up the arcane sand."

Fiery probably meant this purple dust inside the circle. Pixel sat in one of the spots that wasn't entirely covered by the dust.

"Stay silent. No matter what happens, you cannot talk."

Fiery stated. Pixel nodded quietly. She needed this 'shield' to be up now. Foxy or Marion could be here any second now.

Fiery began to chant. She closed her eyes in order to chant these words. She chanted words that sounded like gibberish, so there's no real reason for me to type them out. You could probably tell that I was key smashing if I did write that out. But what if I wasn't key smashing? What if I just.. Made a reference to an incredibly famous play..? You'd understand that, I think.

"Eleka nahmen nahmen, ah tum ah tum elka nahmen.."

Fiery muttered, the orange lights fluttering in a nonexistent wind. There seemed to be a claustrophobic feel while Pixel was in this circle. She didn't know why. Maybe it was the decently small size of the circle.

Pixel looked at the flames. They seemed to be pulsating.

"Eleka nahmen nahmen, ah tum ah tum elka nahmen. Eleka nahmen nahmen, ah tum ah tum elka; elka."

She stopped at the final word, as the orange light slowly seemed to form a dome around them. There was an orange, sort of reflective property to what Pixel thought was the shield. The flames started to shift over into a purplish hue. The shield did the same.

"No moving. No matter what they do, do not move. The shield will hold until the end of the night, or until it's broken by ourselves. Any force outside this circle cannot break the shield."

How come she could talk, but Pixel couldn't? This was a bit strange to her. Then again, Pixel didn't know the first thing about getting rid of demons or ghosts. Or whatever.

As told, Pixel was as still as possible. Was she going to have to lay here for the next six hours? Well, that's just fantastic. You know what's even more fantastic? The sound of the running footsteps down the hall. It seems like Foxy really did love to get into her office, huh.

Foxy did come rushing down the hallway and vaulting from the shadows like last night. This time, he crashed directly into the shield. Not even a millisecond passed before he was thrown back down the hallway by an invisible force. There was a sound of a loud crash at the end of the hallway. She also swore she heard the voice of Boob Fox down there, being concerned for Foxy. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't.

This shield was great. Pixel liked the shield, most definitely. She was bringing Fiery with her tomorrow night as well. Yep. That's what she was going to do. She did wonder how the shield worked, though. Maybe it repelled evil things, or something like that.

Then the music. The next victim was to come rushing down that hallway decently soon. Marion, naturally. The song of Pop Goes the Weasel played. Pixel couldn't help but feel a bit of dread when she heard that music. Marion was the one who came closest to killing her in the past couple of nights. The other animatronics seemed to try (like Foxy), but Marion actually managed to get a death grip on her neck before.

Sure enough, Marion came from the shadows and hit the shield. It was then sent back into the shadows by the reflecting aspect. There was no noise when it was sent back into the shadows. The song just kept playing. Other than that, no noise came from the end of the hallway.

Just a couple seconds later, Marion walked into the room. Its smile formed into a twisted frown right in front of Pixel's eyes. Rage could be seen on its face as the glowing pupils began to grow in luminosity.

Marion seemed to put things together in its mind. If it couldn't touch the shield without being rebounded.. What would happen with regular items? Marion stomped over to the corner of the room and picked up a broken television. It hurled the television at the shield, only for the television to hurl itself straight back into Marion's face. Marion did not cry, nor did it seem to make any sign of pain being inflicted. Marion simply staggered from the television hitting it.

Then, Marion set itself down on the pile of televisions. Watching.

It was obviously trying to think up a solution to the problem. Maybe it was waiting for an error on their part. Maybe it was doing both. Pixel didn't care. As long as Marion couldn't get her, she'd be fine. Also, it seems like the shield also reflected items.

Pixel wanted to ask what Fiery was going to do. Fiery said not to talk, though.

The answer to Pixel's question came soon enough. Fiery began to hum deeply. She hummed the beginning of a song that Pixel swore she had heard before. Maybe it was her imagination. There was a sound from down the hallway as Fiery hummed. Marion seemed to be getting sleepy from the song. Good. Pixel didn't want to be killed on the end of her shift, when the shield faded.

A loud scree echoed from the hallway, as Boob Fox attempted the same attack that Foxy did. Nevertheless to say, she met with the same fate. She did, however, return a minute later.

"N-NO ONE H-HURTS CAPTAIN!"

She screeched in her metallic voice before bashing her metal hook up against the shield. She hit it up so hard against the purple shield that she actually bent the hook inwards. Now it was just a little o shape. It would be perfect for blowing bubbles, or something.

When she found that the hook was bent, she just smacked it against the shield with all her might. This actually caused the shield to make a sort of rippling effect, like a pond would. A wave of energy forced her back with tremendous speed. There was a louder crash at the end of the hallway. One could suspect that Boob Fox smashed into 'Captain'

Man, Pixel sure wished she knew how to make one of these shields. They'd be very useful in the future nights, even though Pixel didn't know how this would do something to do with exorcism. Maybe it was so they were protected and Fiery could get a taste of the ghosts or demons they would be facing.

That's exactly what she was doing, actually. She began to whistle the song now. Quietly, under her breath. Marion was now asleep. Well, that's what it seemed like, anyways. Marion could probably fall asleep to any song, if one tried hard enough.

There was noise from the vent. Both vents, actually. Bonnie got into the room. Then, someone new. There was a large, purple thing. The biggest animatronic here. It stood tall, slumped slightly to one side. It also had one defining feature. Yeah, it had no face. It had teeth on the bottom of what Pixel assumed what was left of a jaw, but that was it. Well, along with a singular red eye.

The two of them did not talk. They seemed rather focused on Pixel tonight. Maybe it was because Friend was really upping the odds this night. Maybe it was because he punished them badly last night. Who knows, who cares.

The purple thing was unsettling. It must've been from the back. It was definitely one of the seniors, from the conditions. It was even missing an arm, it was. From the shoulder down, there was just wires hanging off. Seemed a bit dangerous to Pixel, to have those exposed wires just hanging off a machine. What if they got wet? Definitely not a good thing, tell you what.

The purple thing walked slowly towards the shield. Bonnie took no time in attempting to break through. Bonnie curled it's fingers into a fist before reeling back and hitting the shield. It sounded like a gong when the punch hit, as the punch was then directly reflected back. Nevertheless to say, Bonnie had a snarl on it's (Pixel didn't know if it was a girl or not, her Boss said it was a guy last night).

It's like they were just focused on killing her tonight. Really focused. Thank Celestia Pixel brought Fiery with her this night. Hopefully this would be the night where problems were resolved.

The purple thing began to talk. Its voice box seemed corrupted and broken. The pitch of the voice was all out of whack, as it went back and forth between a high, squeaky voice and a low, rough voice. Pixel couldn't tell what it was saying. It really just sounded like gibberish, honestly. Maybe it was trying to commune a message to Bonnie or something. Though Bonnie didn't reply.

Fiery continued her song as the purple thing touched the shield with its one hand. Not forcefully, but gently. Obviously cautious. Its hand was forced backwards a millisecond later.

This purple thing was smart. It saw that it couldn't break the shield, as obviously previous test did not work with Bonnie. Bonnie was busy trying to remove the fist from its face. It's fist seemed to be literally stuck there. Bonnie had it's back against the wall in order to get the fist off its face. So far, no progress.

The purple thing sat. It had the same strategy as Marion. Wait until the shift was over. It would wait for the shield to fall in order to get in.

There was a loud screech from the hallway. Boob Fox came dashing down the hallway, wielding a flailing Balloon Boy in her hand like a weapon. She was foaming mad, and Pixel could tell. She looked like a robot dog with rabies (the light from the candles reflected off her metal and reflective parts).

A Balloon Boy was flung, and reflected back at the running fox. Boob Fox would probably just get more and more pissed with every breaking trial she did. For now, it seemed like Boob Fox was down for the count. So was Balloon Boy. Maybe she would just give up. Maybe. Hopefully. Boob Fox was really just beating the crap out of herself, to be honest. Robots weren't too smart after all.

The night went on. On and on. It was getting boring at this point. An hour passed. Boob Fox was still trying to figure out how to get past the shield. She was mostly using brute force. Obese contained helium salesboy was involved in most of the violence as well, even though it seemed like he opposed Boob Fox's strategy of hurling him at the shield as a projectile.

Fiery's song seemed to loop. She sung it non-stop. Sure, it was a good song but it got annoying to hear after the thirtieth time.

Bonnie was now slumped down on the floor. Its fist was still stuck on its face. Bonnie had given up on removing it. Bonnie looked a bit dumb. A little funny as well. Pixel had kept her giggles of Bonnie's stupidity to herself. They were easily contained, as the joke wasn't all that funny. It was quickly humorless when Pixel realized she would have to remove that arm herself.

"Nyaaahhh! P-Pony S-S-Senpai?"

What even. Why. It was Chica again. This time, she had brought something. She held it out. It seemed to be a plate. Ontop of that plate was a small, pink cupcake with a singular electronic candle on the top. The candle wasn't lit.

Wait, Chica was the first one to actually engage in direct conversation. Huh. Still, Chica was the one who sounded the most annoying out of all the other Animatronics that Pixel knew of.

"I-I thought we were f-friends, p-pony.."

Chica sounded rather disappointed as she poked the shield. She obviously wanted to get through. Nope. Chica was just trying to build up trust in order to break it down again. Just like Marion. There's no way that Pixel would be trusting Marion any time in the future. No.

Chica placed down the cupcake (along with the plate) on the floor before going to go help out Bonnie with the fist to face issue.

The cupcake blinked. Oh yeah, the thing had eyes. No mouth. No nose. Nothing but eyes. The cupcake just kind of sat there. Watching. Judging. What a prick. Did it think that it could just sit there and judge somepony with it's stupid, small cupcake eyes? No, you can't judge somepony's appearance and decide on whether or not they are up to your par. You don't judge a pony's flaws unless your a douche.

Pixel didn't like the cupcake or its judgemental ways. No, Pixel did not like the cupcake at all. What did it think it was? The ruler of the universe? GOD? No. Nopony gets to judge any other pony. Nopony calls out flaws except for yourself.

Pixel didn't like the cupcake at all. No, Pixel did not like the cupcake at all.

She made eye contact with the cupcake. She stared at the cupcake. She wanted to show the cupcake her inner rage for judgemental cupcakes such as itself. Cupcakes shouldn't be allowed to judge ponies. Cupcakes should be treated as ponies are. They are not to be judged for appearance, rather for their nasty ass personality that consisted of TWO TRAITS. AN ADDICTION TO STARING AND JUDGING.

Those deep purple eyes just staring. Staring. More staring. Blink. Stare. Stare. Stare. Blink. It was a neverending cycle of watching. It never said anything. It couldn't talk. It kept everything to itself. Who knows what that cupcake has seen. Lots of things. Different things that could probably scar the regular mortal mind. Things that can fracture one's sanity. Pixel didn't know this.

No, lots of people won't.

But I do. Myself alone. I bet you've wondered who I am at some point. The author. The story teller. You don't know if I'm a biased side. I could tell you any lie I wanted related to this story and you would take it as a truth. Who knows, maybe I've lied already. I know. I always do. I know everything that can and will. I know everything that can't and won't.

Who am I?

Maybe the easy to get answer isn't the right o̯̟̝͈ͅn̛̪̱̙̭̥͈e̜̫͇͓͖.

There was a hiss from the vent, a sound of static and other radio noises crackled from a voice box. The thing it belonged to currently crawled out of the air duct like a spider would. It's metallic limbs attached to the wall like an octopus as it climbed around said wall before placing itself onto the ceiling high above them. The thing was weird. It had no suit. The only thing that could dignify that it wasn't complete scrap metal was the face. The white face, decorated with pink painted-on makeup.

Oh, it also had another head. It looked like just pure metal, but that thing had teeth an eye sockets. The only thing within those sockets were two tiny, red specks for pupils.

So, that was Mangle. Well, it seemed like a mangle of parts, so it must've been Mangle. The noise of static and radio noises was familiar. Mangle had been the reason the fight broke out last night. With it's appearance in the office, Boob Fox got pissed or something. Maybe the two have a rivalry or something. Maybe it was the appearance of an octopus made of metal. Maybe that was it.

Without warning, Mangle dropped itself from the ceiling. A loud screech came from beneath the sound of radio distress signals. It crashed face(s) first onto the top of the shield. Instantly, it was reflected back onto the ceiling.

Then the game of Pong commenced.

Mangle was bounced back and forth between the ceiling and shield roof. Soon, it became nothing but a blur and parts flying out of said blur. The only thing left of Mangle that bounced between the ceiling and shield was the eye that had popped out of Mangle's fox head.

Pixel wasn't worried about this. They said they needed to take apart Mangle anyways so the kids could play with it again. Well, that's what Pixel insinuated from the messages Phone Guy left behind. Plus, it'd be a good thing to utterly destroy an animatronic that needed to be taken apart anyways. Maybe she would get a raise. That thing was creepy, in her opinion. It'd be good to get it out of here and in working condition.

The singing was now decently loud. Pixel folded her ears back. Even though Fiery said no moving, she probably meant hoof-wise.

No, yeah, Fiery meant no moving at all. There was the threatening sound of the shield cracking. Fiery scowled at Pixel, her eyes still not bothering to open. She did not stop her song. She just had her face scrunched up and eyebrow's narrowed. The shield quickly repaired itself, as the purple thing sitting off to the side did seem to notice the damaged part.

It smashed it's hand into the damaged portion of the shield. A threatening crack split itself down the top of the shield. The purple thing began to bang on the shield with great force, using it's only hand to smash on the shield as hard as it could. Apparently it lost it's reflective attribute when it actually got damaged from the inside. Which is weird, because when Pixel breathed, that didn't damage the shield.

That wasn't the main concern of Pixel right now. The main concern was that thing threatening to break the shield. Fiery didn't seem to care. She was ending her song right now, actually. Well, she was nearing the song.

"Quiesco!"

She suddenly yelled. The 'arcane sand' suddenly flashed with a bright luminosity. The color of the flash being the same color as the sand itself.

The purple thing suddenly collapsed in a heap on the floor. Fiery opened her eyes, finally. She stood up, shattering the shield. Pixel was shocked. What the heck was she doing!?

"These are the things you call demons..? They're weaker than a wisp. They're like babies in large, robotic bodies. I've been using weak spells along with a weak shield this entire night. They're the most pathetic things I have ever come across."

Fiery hissed, stamping her hoof on the floor. The arcane sand pulsated with magic when she did so. Pretty cool.

Fiery pointed her black hoof at Chica, who had just now began to turn around.

"Quiesco!"

She repeated. Chica deacitvated and fell over Bonnie, preventing the blue bunny from moving.

"So, are you going to get rid of them?"

Pixel asked, quizzical.

"Yes, I will. I will have to do it tomorrow night. I have gotten a taste of what I'm up against tonight, and it's not impressive. But, there is one thing that I've noticed between all of them. Spiritually, that is. It's not physically noticable by the regular eye."

Fiery began, before they heard footsteps. The same word was shouted, and a hoof was pointed down a hallway. Boob Fox stumbled, fell and slid into the room. Just in front of the circle.

"These animatronics all have spirits inside of them. Haunting them. They all very weak spirits, obviously not from our world. Our world has much stronger spirits than the ones in here."

She tapped the head of Boob Fox with her hoof.

"There is one common thing between the whole lot of them, though. They are all-"

"How do you know all these things?"

Pixel suddenly interjected. Fiery pointed at her cutiemark.

"It's my occupation. I've done this for years, I know all sorts of information about ghosts, demons. I'm very educated in this sort of stuff. Anyways, as I was saying. They are all controlled by one thing. A bigger, stronger specter. A tier one specter, at most. That's the weakest specter tier there is. These robots are in the negative tiers. I'll have to record that such tiers exist, when I get home."

Another bap to the nose of Boob Fox.

"Can you describe the thing controlling them?"

Pixel asked, Fiery nodded, a smile on her face.

"Well, it did a very sloppy job in hiding it's control over them. The spirit of the one over there" She pointed to Marion, who was still asleep, "and the red one that ran at us first easily admitted the details. They really don't like what's controlling them, and that's obvious. Spirits are not meant to be controlled by another, that's their nature. You're meant to talk to them and ask for their assistance. That's the basic way to sum up my entire job."

There was a sound in the vent. A new animatronic, that hadn't been out.

It didn't even get through the vent before Fiery shouted 'Quiesco' at it. Curiosity will get to Pixel eventually. When six rolled around, that is.

"The thing controlling them is an adult, male. It is weither a tier one specter or tier two. Strong compared to the robots. It has a murderous intent, wants to get its way, doesn't know the meaning of personal space, can teleport at random and doesn't have a physical form. Which means it is right here with us. Right now. Not in this room, but in this establishment. It's also an alien. Something that has not been seen on our planet, or recorded being on our planet before. It's a mythological creature known as Homo Sapien. A human."

A human, huh? Interesting. What were they?

"The spirits that are inside the robots and puppet vary in age. Mostly around a child's age. They are human ghosts as well."

Fiery suddenly picked up the judgemental frosted robotic pastery from the floor.

"This cupcake is a tier eight demon. It is peaceful, while most eights are incredibly violent. I'll be taking this cupcake from this establishment for futher research and furthering my understanding of the spiritual world."

Pixel didn't know what tier eight meant. It was probably really strong.

"Is tier eight really strong?"

"Compared to the one controlling the robots, yes. Though, I would not say for certain. Some spirits are very smart, and they can hide their tiers in order to lure one into a false sense of security knowing that they aren't dealing with a strong spirit. Don't doubt a spirit until you've seen them at their absolute most violent. He was not being violent. The spirits in the robots were."

"So, he could be stronger?"

"Yes."

"What's his name?"

"The puppet described him as 'Friend'. The red fox described him as 'Man o War'. They have different names for him, depending on their way of speaking and their personalities."

"Can you tell me what he could look like?"

"No. They did not give me a description of what he looks like, and I was unable to get in contact with him by singing that song."

"What was that song anyways?"

"It's a song that is passed down through generations of different communicators. It is used by ancients. I shall not and cannot speak its name or meaning. Please respect that."

"Will you be coming tomorrow?"

"Sure. I've only had one other human contact in my entire career. To have eleven different human ghosts, well.. That's a once in a lifetime opprotunity. Aliens aren't common, despite how pathetically weak their spirits are compared to Equestrian ones."

"How come they're so weak?"

"Human spirits don't have magic. That's the main reason. They cannot possess magic like we do. It's just not physically possible for them. Instead, they use soul force. Not all can use this force. Only those who have not completed their main goal on their planet become spirits. The robots have a goal of getting revenge. The one controlling them has a goal of making sure they don't get out of line and that he kills any security guard who gets the job. Revenge as well. Basically, his goal can never be fullfilled. He'll be controlling them forever, which means the robots can also never be unpossessed."

This sure was a lot to take in during one night. Humans? Demons? Cupcakes? Spirits? Friend? Ugh. How fun.

The bell for six rang out. The lights flashed on. The candles went out, and the sand stopped having a magical aura about it. Fiery began to pack it all up, putting it into the saddlebag by itself. No bag, nothing else to contain it. Well, it came out that way and it felt as light as air, so Pixel didn't care.

"Also, don't bother fixing the robots. He'll do it for you, I've heard from the red fox."

Fiery suddenly spoke up, as Pixel moved around to the desk. Well, at least everything was prepared for tomorrow. What a nice night, learning all this information that wasn't meant to be learnt. Her lack of being vauge really helped Pixel out.

"The puppet told me that it likes you," Fiery began as she started to pack up the candles, "and wishes to appologize for trying to strangle you last night and this night. It also says that if it defies Friend like it did on the third night, Friend will be confronting you directly."

"So, Marion thinks I'm going to believe that?"

"It spoke with sincerity."

"And?"

"Warnings from spirits as young as 'Marion' are almost always truthful."

"And how young is Marion?"

"I don't know much about the human aging process, but the spirit seemed to be around four or six."

"Good for it. I'm still not going to listen. If Marion wants to appologise for its actions, it will stop attacking me."

"You want to be directly confronted by an alien spirit who's ravenous and has a blood lust?"

"...When you put it that way.."

Fiery picked up the saddle bag and gave it to Pixel. Pixel grabbed Marion in her mouth. She'd have to drop Marion off by the Prize Corner before she left.

"You know what you could do, you could let me have 'Marion' until tomorrow night. I'll be able to squeeze some information out of it, I'd bet. I'll make sure to bring it back by tomorrow night."

Fiery offered. Pixel had no problem with it, but her boss would. Meh. Pixel could just say a burgerlar broke in after her shift had ended and stole Marion or something.

"Yeah, sure. Figure out all you can about Friend. I'll see you tomorrow."

With that, Pixel headed home. She felt like something was fishy about this whole thing. With Fiery. Pixel didn't remember where she met Fiery.

"Good.. A very good job.."

"..."

"Don't give me that look.. You did exactly as I asked, without issue.."

"I don't wanna do what you want."

"Well, that's just too bad.. Isn't it..?"

"Why don't you just let us do what we want?"

"Because that interfers with my plans.. I'm preparing for the future, unlike you.. Never thinking ahead.. Oblivious.. You need me, and you know this.."

"..."

"I know I'm right.. You'll always be connected to me.. You'll never get rid of me, you know.."

"Yes, I know."

"Good.. Now.. Onto tonight's buisness.."

N̅̀̍̍҉̛̼̗̪̥̳̞̖̻̰̱͓̪̯͉̀ͅͅi̶̛̅̅ͣͭͯ̎̓̓̊ͯͬͣ̊̆͊ͭ̊͡͏̤̝̳̖͎̲̤̪͇͚̜͈ͅg̭̻̖͓̳̻̲͔̿̎̍̓ͣ̓̈̈́́͘͟͞h̷̨̭͍̮̲̠̬̻̰̀̉̓̾̎ͣ͂t̶̷͖͈̭͈͍̤͕̅̈́̌̐ͪ͂͑ͦ͊́̑͐̄͌̏̄ ͫͯ̾̿͛ͥ͋̊͐̆͆͐ͧ͂̐̂̚҉͏̼̺͖̱5̨̧̡̨̩̥̫͚̼̦͕̮͇̖͍͈̙͈̻͉̹͍̈ͩͦ͛̊͋ͥ͜

Two more days. Well, actually, nights. Two more nights until Pixel was off the job. She had come a long way since then. Tonight was her fifth night at Freddy's Pizzeria. She was yet to see three animatronics (well, four, Fiery said there's eleven spirits, excluding Cupcake) in her office. The plastic bear on stage and the bear and 'chicken' in the back. Pixel had taken into account all the animatronics she had to deal with.

Pixel walked to the front of the Pizzeria and looked at the glass doors. Then, Pixel looked down at the plate she held. Fiery couldn't make it tonight, she said she had to research something that the spirits said. Some sort of prophecy. Fiery said to return Cupcake to it's rightful owner, as it wished to return to the Pizzeria. Well, that's what it said, at least. Even though it lacked any sort of mouth.

Pixel took a deep breath. She was probably going to die tonight. The animatronics were violent last night, more violent than ever. Plus, she had broken the trust between herself and Boob Fox. Chances are that Boob Fox wouldn't be forgiving her tonight.

Pixel tugged on the door. It was a pull door, yet it didn't open. What. It was normally unlocked. It wasn't the time that her boss left yet, as she was the one who usually locked up for the night. Well. Seems like Pixel was locked out until her Boss came to open the door.

Pixel sat. Cupcake stared at her. Pixel didn't make eye contact. Eye contact is what Cupcake wanted. Pixel wouldn't give Cupcake eye contact. Pixel just stared at the doors.

It was very dark inside the pizzeria. It seemed like all the lights were off, from the main door. Well, actually, there were two doors into the Pizzeria. They were right beside each other. Pixel made sure to check if the other door was unlocked. No, it wasn't. Pixel peered into the establishment.

Nothing. Darkness.

Great.

Pixel sat there for she didn't know how long. She didn't have a watch. One thing that did give her an aspect of time was the distant song of 'Pop goes the Weasel' from within the establishment. Wait.. What..? Didn't Pixel hoof off Marion to Fiery? That's a bit.. weird. That song shouldn't play unless Marion was actually there to actually get out of the box.

It felt like an hour passed. An hour of sitting on this dirty path that lead up the Pizzeria. It was literally a dirty dirt path. The dirt from the dirty dirt path was dirtying her hair. I feel bad for writing that sentence. I apologise.

Cupcake was just sitting there. Staring. Pixel could care less at this point, honestly.

There was a sound outside. The sound of somepony running. Pixel quickly turned her head to where her ears detected the running from. It was Fiery. She was carrying a flailing Marion in her mouth. Pixel stood up almost instantly as soon as she saw Fiery heading her way.

Fiery slid to a halt, as Marion flung itself from Fiery's grip and onto the dirt path. That obviously wasn't what Marion had meant to do, but it did that. Marion was busy spasming and trying to get into the Pizzeria. Marion showed no interest in Pixel or Fiery this night. Marion only wanted to get into the establishment.

Fiery turned to Pixel, her face looking rather concerned.

"What's wrong? I thought you said you were going to be doing research-"

"There's been a problem. A very, very big issue surrounding that work place. It's an alien construction. It's not meant to be here. It was built by others. It contains human spirits."

"Well-"

"They're leaving tonight. Your puppet admitted some crucial details to me earlier today before I was knocked out by our 'Friend'. I got here as soon as I was able to push him away. As soon as he gets here, he's going to make the Pizzeria vanish, with or without the spirits inside. That's what your puppet admitted. I know that it hasn't told me the whole truth, but it was enough to make our 'Friend' enraged."

Fiery spoke quickly. Well, seems like she got some pretty important details out of Marion. If this place was going to disappear, Pixel saw no harm in it.

"We can't have alien spirits on our planet. They are to be exorcised, and sent to the realm they were meant to come from. Exorcisms take hours with Equestrian magic, I don't have time to remove our Friend from our planet."

"Can't you just exorcise the spirit after the Pizzeria disappears?"

That seemed like the very obvious option.

"No, alien spirits need a gateway back to their realms. A gateway back to their planet, so they may reach their realm. If that Pizzeria disappears and your puppet isn't inside, it won't be returning to the human world. Neither will the Cupcake. We need them gone, or else more alien spirits will arrive."

"Why?"

"Alien spirits attract tier hundred demons or larger. They could even attract more aliens, demons beyond the mortal comprehension. If those arrive here, we're doomed. You need to get your puppet in that Pizzeria NOW."

The situation was dire. Marion was busy trying to punch through the glass. Pixel had an idea. Maybe, just maybe..

Pixel picked up that Cupcake and its plate. She flung it against the door. Not even a single scratch was laid on that glass. Jeez. Must've been really strong glass if a demon cupcake and a plate couldn't break through it.

"How long do we have until he gets here?"

Pixel asked, turning around to face Fiery, who was currently pacing.

"Enraged demons can go a top speed of six hundred miles per hour, if not more. I put a very strong ensnaring spell on him, though. I typically use it on tier fifties. It should hold for another twenty minutes. That type of magic fades very fast if I'm not around to replenish it with my singing and presence."

Pixel was going to question why singing was important, but she wasn't going to. Time was their enemy at the moment, instead of their ally.

Marion was getting panicked as the minutes ticked away. Not only was it panicked, the thing looked absolutely horrified. Why? Marion had never been outside. Ever. Never had it been outside and awake at the same time. This was the third time in it's entire haunted life that it had been outside. Two of those times, it had been unconscious. Dirt was foreign concept to Marion.

Marion was scratching, punching and doing all it could to break the glass door. It's determination to get into the disgusting Pizzeria was astounding.

Then, someone appeared at the door. Boob Fox was at the door. Marion seemed relieved to see her. Pixel was not. Boob Fox looked down at the small (compared to her) puppet, then to Pixel. Marion and Boob Fox seemed to be having a quiet discussion. One between ghosts.

Boob Fox shook her head. Marion banged on the glass with its hand. Boob Fox turned and left. Wow. Rude.

"Okay, let's think about this, there must be a vent on the roof of the Pizzeria. One that lets out smoke from the kitchen, or something. They could get in through there."

Pixel stated. Yeah, this was an obvious thing to do. The Pizzeria wasn't too big height wise. Three ponies high, maybe five. Hopefully Marion could climb.

Pixel and Fiery came up with a simple plan. They would make a ladder using bodies. Fiery was on the bottom of the ladder, while Pixel on the top. Pixel stood atop Fiery's standing body, which made her incredibly wobbly. When Marion climbed up the ladder, it made her wobble further. She managed to keep her balance from leaning up against the wall she was meant to be the ladder for.

Marion reached the top of the ladder, with Cupcake's plate in hand. Marion tossed Cupcake onto the roof of the building before reaching up and grabbing the top of the wall.

The roof was flat, not triangular. Therefore, it was easier to climb up, but Marion was having struggles.

Pixel did what was necessary. She jumped, pushing Marion up and over. Though, for ever action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Pixel fell onto Fiery's back, forcing her to the ground and making the two look like they collapsed in a heap. Which, technically, they did.

Ninety years without slumbering

(tick, tick, tick, tick),

Marion looked upon the empty playing field. There was a singular vent leading to the inside of the Pizzeria. Marion locked on and began to run.

His life's seconds numbering,

(tick, tick, tick, tick),

Marion ran faster than it ever did before. Mostly because it almost never ran. It usually slithered at a decently moderate pace, whenever it traversed the terrain that was known as the inside of the Pizzeria. Running was a lot faster. Maybe Marion should do it more often.

It stopped short — never to go again —

Marion had reached the vent. Marion threw the Cupcake into the vent first, it would be awkward to have itself go first and then Cupcake to follow afterwards. Marion was about to get into the vent-

When the old man died.

It felt like a split second, it really did. A flash. Less than a millisecond, if that's possible to imagine.

Fiery's house was less than a mile away from this location, and Friend had managed to break out of the shield at a faster rate than imagined. He flew, faster than Rainbow Dash, into the Pizzeria. He was not seen by the naked eye. He was not seen at all. At the rate he was travelling, he could've broken the sound barrier. But, he lacked a physical form to do so. Ghosts can't break a sound barrier. Neither could demons, if they didn't have a physical form.

The Pizzeria was gone.

Marion fell from the recently existing (but now no longer existing) roof. It landed on a wide field of grass, where it then began to freak the hell out. Pixel couldn't hear the words it was currently saying, but she would be soon.

Marion wasted no time in getting up and running towards Pixel, quickly latching onto her in order to get off the foreign material known as 'earth'. Marion latched onto Pixel's side, and would refused to get off, even as Pixel was moving.

Fiery looked on at Marion's existence in horror.

"Shit. Ohhhhhhh shit..."

Fiery muttered, recovering from Pixel's jump from before. Fiery did not look pleased. No, not pleased at all.

Well, they had severely screwed up.

Pixel attempted to removed Marion. Nope. Marion was attached to Pixel like a leech. Fiery began to pace. A lot of pacing was to be done tonight. Worried pacing.

"Marion, get off."

Pixel was stern. Marion didn't listen. Marion refused to listen. Marion was still latched onto Pixel's side. Marion was shaking, and for once, Marion's face showed fear. This fearful gaze was not directed at Pixel. Rather, it was directed at the recently eviscerated pizza place.

Pixel sighed. Guess she'd have to deal with Marion now that Fazfuck's was gone. Actually, Fiery could deal with Marion.

"Off."

Pixel repeated. This time, she received a response.

"H-He's gone.. No.."

Marion didn't reply directly to Pixel. Pixel narrowed her eyes. She didn't like Marion, no. Not anymore. Ever since the strangulation, she didn't like Marion. If she had to deal with Marion now, she would be giving it to Fiery. No questions.

"Okay, okay.. Um, uh.. Pixel you need to do me a favor. I can't have your puppet. I need to find a way to reverse this in the mean time. Uh.. I'll.. Try every spell in the book. I'll contact you. You'll need to keep your puppet. It's docile during the day, I checked. Just.. T-Take care of it and I'll find a way to fix this before we get attacked by tier ahundred demons. Make sure it doesn't cry or do anything that could attract other spirits.. I'll bring you a book. This'll all be fine, this'll all be fine. Yes, yes it will. Hahhaaaaha.."

Fiery quickly chatted, her pupils had shrunk from her panic. She was quite obviously anxious and worried, as sweat dripped down her brow. She knew that this was irreversible. This would commence a chain of events. One that they would be responsible for.

Fiery trotted off. Just like that, she trotted off.

"You'll be staying with me, Marion. No choking, no strangling and no walking around after twelve."

Pixel stated. Marion didn't reply. It was talking to itself. Muttering something much too soft for Pixel to hear.

With that, they left the scene of the crime.

They'd come back.

They always do.

But for now, they were gone.