Pixel Drop gets a Job

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.."