Five Nights, One Nightmare

Meanwhile.

The Office.

The Night Guard, Jeremy Fitzgerald, returned to his office, still worried about coming back to the establishment after what he had gone through in the past. Sitting down in his chair, he turned on the monitor. Listening to the Phone Guy's call, he kept the fact that there was 'one' in the building, before he cycled through the cameras, eventually freezing at the sight of a lone, animatronic's eye staring straight at him through Camera 09.

Without thinking about if the thing would actually take that route, Jeremy frantically sealed the vent, his fear skyrocketing when he saw that the bot had gone missing, skipping to the camera closest to it, finding the animatronic staring at the pile of presents at its feet. Going back to the camera where he had first seen the bot, he played an audio clip, flinching at Balloon Boy's laugh playing over the speakers.

"Come on, come on! Take the bait!" The Guard whispered to himself, hoping that the broken rabbit'd follow the sound, and within another few seconds, the screen was filled with static again, clearing to reveal the animatronic staring at him once more. "Oh, God... What is that..." Jeremy sighed to himself as his anxiety began to die down, only for him to jump at the sound of clanging in the vents, immediately toggling the virtual layout on the camera and going through those closest to him.

When he found a grey and black figure crawling down one of the ventilation passages that led to the right of his office, he sealed said vent, only for the figure to slip by. 'What the hell?! Why did he say one?! There's two, damn it!' The Guard thought, frantically trying to do something to fend off the animatronic that was most likely going to be darting out of the ventilation at any second, only for it to trot in through the main door. 'Wait, trot?'

Looking away from the maintenance panel of which he hid behind, he managed to get a clear view of the new entity. It appeared to resemble a dark grey equine, with wings, wearing what looked like a black cap and a modified trench coat, changed to fit its body. It didn't seem aggravated, and bore somewhat cartoonish, slightly oversized eyes. However, unlike the animatronics he had seen before, the pony lacked a mouth, but spoke through its speaker like any other bot would.

"... Hello," the pegasus said, it's voice blank. If it were trying to hide something, it was excelling at exactly that. "H-Hi, there," Fitzgerald replied, the crack in his voice audible.

"... Increased heart rate, perspiration, rapid breathing. Signs of anxiety..." The animatronic cocked its head, as if it were asking something. "You fear me, don't you?" The machine asked, making Jeremy shy away from it.

"N-No-Not at all..." He stuttered, before returning to the cameras, flipping through them until he realized that a certain something was gone. "Oh, no... Oh, no, no, no no!" He screamed, unaware of the pegasus in the room glaring at the ventilation opening on the Guard's right, which had begun to vibrate and rattle quietly.

All of a sudden, a scorched, heavily damaged Balloon Boy appeared in the office, right in front of Jeremy. He appeared to lunge for him, but disappeared as he screeched, and without any reason at all, the ventilation immediately went offline.

"Oh God, oh God!" He screamed, scrambling to reboot the downed system. The red lights still continued flashing however, and Fitzgerald found himself blacking out, much to his horror. "Can't see.... Where--"

SKREEEEEEEE!

"Yeah! Run! Run all you want, coward!"

When his vision wasn't repeatedly turning into blackness, he managed to get a glimpse of something in the hallway. Something... Cyan? That cyan something then zipped into the room, knocking over the pegasus animatronic of which he had dubbed his new 'Roommate.'

"Hey, buster! You gonna get off your lazy rump any time soon?" The cyan figure asked, hinting some annoyance in her voice. Like his friend, she was a pony with wings, a cyan coat, and, oddly enough, a rainbow-coloured mane and tail. Not an animatronic, however.

"What... Oh! Um..." He started, only to be cut off by the equine, saying, "Look, buddy. Either you're going to move your lazy rump and get me out of here, or I'll smash that fancy plate thing in your hand, and find my own way out!" To emphasize her point, she tore the monitor from its hinges, a few loose wires dangling from the broken parts of the screen.

'... What. The fuck. Did she just do?!'

"Hey! Give that back!" Jeremy cried, only for the monitor to be further kept out of his reach. "Not until you move your flank and get me out of this junkyard!" The pony claimed, hovering in the air with a flap of her wings. That is, until the silent animatronic pegasus tackled her to the ground, pinning her to the floor, allowing the tablet to clatter to the ground, as well.

"Hey! Scrap heap! Get off of me!" The cyan pegasus demanded, only for the animatronic to put more force into holding her down. "No. You now have to answer for the vandalism of company property, harassment of an employee, and the trespassing of company grounds," the metal pegasus stated, the actual pony beneath him struggling to move.

Taking advantage of the hotheaded pony's immobility, Jeremy scooped up the tablet, and tried his best to reconnect the screen, managing to get a video feed of the arcade machines. However, a certain face forced him out of the screen, and Chica, just as broken as BB, reached for him, only to vanish in a flash of white, both the ventilation and audio systems failing at once as a result.

"Oh, give me a damn break!" The Guard shakily screamed, and attempted to reboot all three of the systems, though as soon as he flipped up the maintenance panel, it was taken down as the robot he had seen in the cameras entered the room, striding in, its motions abnormally smooth.

SKREEEEE--

"Hey! You again!"

The animatronic rabbit turns its head towards the frustrated pony that was, all of a sudden, airborne, and in its face, glaring at it. "Back for round two, huh?" She spat, the animatronic staring at her, before leaving the room and wandering down the hall, looking as if it didn't have a care in the world. "... Um..." Fitzgerald began, only for the animatronic pegasus to interrupt him.

"Subject Designate: Rainbow Dash. Mister Fitzgerald is not permitted to leave this room," it stated, only for the annoyed, airborne pegasus to snort, and fold her front hooves against her chest in, you guessed it, annoyance.

Only when a feminine shriek of terror, followed by one of pain, did the cyan pony's trance break, and, showing complete disregard for company property, flew through the vent's grill, putting a rather large hole in said vent. She could be heard through the ventilation system, air being expelled from the shafts, the pegasus calling out, "Fluttershy! I'm coming!"

A flash of magenta was seen, although it was rather faint. Turning on the cameras and switching to the ventilation layout, once again, Jeremy, alongside his 'Roommate,' noticed the animatronic that had just been chased out of the room being forced out of the vents, surrounded by a purple glow.

"What..." Jeremy muttered to himself. When the thing was out of sight, the animatronic pony beside him sealed the vent before he, himself, could, though it was obvious that whatever had pushed the animatronic out was still inside, closing in on his position.

"Oh, why do we have to stick to the vents to get to places? I can teleport us!" A voice said, the pony from before most likely responding with, "Yeah! About five feet!" A flash of magenta later, three equines stood at the entrance to the vent. One butter-yellow with a light pink mane, bearing wings, one lavender purple, with both wings and a horn, and the same rainbow-maned pegasus from earlier.

However, Fitzgerald had only one word to express his reaction, but, then, yet another set of three entered the room, one marshmallow-white with a horn on her head, one orange pony, wearing some kind of cowboy hat, and a pink equine, similar to the Orange one, but wearing nothing, having a pink, fluffed up mane, compared to the purple one of the unicorn, and the yellow of the other pony.

Each of the animals each had odd pictures on their flanks, the reasons being so not even making any sense for poor Jeremy, as the moment the horned/winged pony cleared her vision, and laid her cartoonish eyes on him and his friend, said eyes narrowed, and with a glow of her horn, he found himself on the floor, his vision fading.

The moment his head hit the ground, he could've sworn he heard the voice of the pony that had done something to him say, "You two are under arrest for the assault of one Element of Loyalty, and the rest of the Elements of Harmony!" His new friend, however retaliated, it seemed. "Incorrect," said the animatronic pegasus. "She threatened Fitzgerald with physical force, that, therefore, being employee harassment."

This made the purple mare roll her eyes, as if having expected something of that nature, the others, excluding the yellow pegasus, gave the offending cyan pony disappointed, or questioning, looks. The butter-yellow pegasus seemed to gasp, and began scolding her friend, the supposed 'Element of Loyalty.' "Rainbow Dash! How dare you?!" She exclaimed, the sky blue pony backing up a step. "Well, sorry!" She responded, the yellow pony continuing to scold her.

While that was being done, the alabaster unicorn began to swoon, or act like she was, anyways. "Oh, dear heavens! This place is a mess, too!" She exclaimed as loudly as possible, attracting the attention of the orange pony wearing a cowboy hat, who glared at her with an 'Are you serious?' look. "Can ya please not focus on asthetics right now, Rarity?" She told the unicorn, who completely ignored that fact that she was being completely idiotic. "But this place is absolutely dreadful!" She continued.

As she did that, the pink equine of the group disappeared, reappearing beside the actress of a pony. "Don't be such a party pooper, Rares! This place looks like a haunted house! That's 20% cooler than Dashie!" She reassured the marshmallow  unicorn, only for an angry glare to be sent her way.

"WHAT'S COOLER THAN ME?!" Rainbow Dash, literally, shrieked, forcing everyone, or everypony, in the room to cover their ears. Pinkie simply giggled, saying, "Oh, nothing, you silly filly!" Rainbow stood still for a second, before rubbing her temples, trying to clear her head. "I swear, Pinkie... I will--" She began speaking, only to be cut off by the winged unicorn.

"Girls, hush! I need to talk to this... Er, thing?" Turning back to the mechanical quadruped, the last of her words were obviously directed towards him. "Pegasus animatronic. The name's Clockwork." The animatronic Pegasus stated, the alicorn feeling relieved that she had something to call him. "Clockwork! Right! I need to talk to Clockwork! My name is Twilight Sparkl...." She began speaking, only for her words to fade, as did the others'.

His vision soon went dark, as his hearing was cut off as well, but to express his confusion in the simplest way possible, one word came from his mouth:

"... Bwuh?"