Five Nights, One Nightmare

As the Night Guard fell unconscious, the lavender purple alicorn, who introduced herself as 'Twilight Sparkle,' monitored his vital signs. After a brief explanation on what had happened between him, Clockwork himself, and Rainbow, Twilight had been more than intrigued about the level of technology that existed around her, however outdated it currently, and/or supposedly, was.

"This is amazing! One can view other rooms without needing a magical connection, or being physically present!" She exclaimed, obviously impressed by the functions, ignoring the obviously present animatronic within the room she was viewing.

"... Go to Camera 08," suggested Clockwork, and, following the mechanical pegasus's words, the alicorn managed to open up the screen to display the corridor it was meant to display, the cosplay-based chicken head flickering on and off.

"Do I press this? The 'Play Audio' button?" She asked quietly, earning a nod from her temporary instructor. Almost four seconds after the laughter of a child echoed from the PA, the screen was filled with static, once more, as the rabbit then appeared in that exact corridor, seeming to stare at the presents at the end of it.

"... Dammit, SpringTrap. Why are you this aggressive, this early..." The animatronic pony muttered, only to draw the attention of Applejack, the orange equine wearing the stetson.

Said pony walked over to the princess and the pegasus bot, trying to get a peek at whatever the other two were seeing. "Hey, Twi! What're you and Clockwalk over here lookin' at?" She questioned, only to be corrected and answered by Clockwork, who explained the basic concept of the animatronic that was supposedly hunting them.

"But as another function, the Spring animatronics will double as a suit for people, utilizing a hand crank to be turned, after which the spring-locks within the animatronic will compress the endoskeleton against the inside walls of the actual suit, itself. Do not put pressure on the spring-locks. Do not breathe on the spring-locks. Doing so will result in said spring-locks breaking loose, allowing the endoskeleton to reform. If you are within the suit during the time of a spring-lock failure, plea--"

In the middle of his instructions, however, he was then interrupted by Applejack, who was somewhat more worried than the others. "Um, yeah, Ah don't think that we want to know what to do after that," the farmer said, a bit of fear evident in her voice.

"Very well, then. But if you are inside the animatronic during a spring-lock failure, please maneuver away from populated areas before bleeding out," Clockwork stated, earning a deadpan glare from Applejack, and a worried one from the others, excluding Rainbow Dash.

"You mean this thing'll kill is like that?! Stuff is inside of it, and crush us?!" She screamed at the animatronic equine, who remained as expressionless as possible. "Isn't that obvious?! If it catches me, it'll ruin my mane!" The alabaster unicorn cried, placing a hoof on her forehead, leaning backwards against Fluttershy, who 'Eeeped' for a brief moment, adjusting to the sudden change in weight.

"Stop being such a drama queen, Rarity! This is a life an' death situation we have, here!" Applejack practically shouted at the actor of a unicorn, who then, accidentally, knocked over the desk fan on, you guessed it, the desk, the machine dropping to the floor as the front cover popped off, the blades scraping against said floor.

Meanwhile, Twilight was listening to all of this, the bickering, shouting, and the scratching of metal against the tiled floor simply building up her frustration.

"Girls! Stop! It's 5 in the morning, and you aren't helping a single bit!" She screamed as loudly as possible, resulting in her feeling like she'd lose her voice soon. However, her screaming wasn't the cause of the silence in the room. Looking at the right end of the window in the office, there stood the animatronic, gazing silently at the assembled group.

No one made any sudden movements, as to not set off the death trap waiting just outside of the room. "... Clockwork? What do we do now?" Whispered Twilight. Just as the machine was about to reply, the pink pony, designated as 'Pinkie Pie,' appeared right behind SpringTrap, the ponies in the room having kept the name in mind.

Pinkie then whipped out a purple party hat, planting it on the animatronic's head, making it turn to look at her in confusion. "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! I've never seen you before, so that's why you have that hat on your head!" The party pony explained to the deadpanning robot, who took off said hat, and crushed it. The crumpled up party hat fell to the floor, Pinkie seeming to notice this.

"Oh! Don't like purple? How about yellow? No, wait, yellow-green! How about that?" To accompany her question, she plonked yet another party hat on the animatronic's head, though SpringTrap seemed to be rather calm, staring at the yellow-green pattern on the cone.

"Pinkie... Pinkie!" Fluttershy whispered through the glass, getting the listener's attention. "Yeah?" The pink pony answered, oblivious to SpringTrap looking through her saddlebags, of which had randomly appeared.

"Y-You should get out of there..." Fluttershy whimpered, not feeling safe with her friend being so near the robot, which would most likely end them rather quickly. "No thanks! Me and Springy over here are having lots of fun! Isn't that right, SpringTr--"

Pinkie Pie was suddenly cut off as she felt a hand wrap around her barrel, SpringTrap picking her up, and bringing her down the hall, much to the ponies' alarm. "Pinkie!" Twilight shouted, as pointless it was to do so. Cycling through the cameras, the Princess caught the deteriorated animatronic setting Pinkie down next to one of the arcade machines, her saddlebags being placed next to her.

SpringTrap then appeared to sit down, and looked like he was conversing with his new 'friend.' However, Pinkie's interest in the animatronic soon dropped to the floor as SpringTrap began to pry his head off, and opening it, revealing the mummified corpse within.

A split second after fully showcasing the face of the dead body, SpringTrap's audio processors were then blown out by the shrill screaming coming from both the office, and the equine animal before him.

Meanwhile.

The Office.

As the screaming stopped, Pinkie Pie suddenly reverted to her, unusually, cheery self, much to the confusion of her would've-been killer, who simply went along with it. Seeing this in the security feed, Twilight's right eye twitched, before she sighed, and pushed the monitor back a bit, rubbing her temples.

"How... Ugh... My head," she muttered to no one in particular. "Ms. Twilight," Clockwork called, quietly, managing to draw the princess's attention from her headache to himself.

"Now that I've told you of what happens here, and you seen it for yourself, why don't you fill me in on what the buck you and your friends are doing within this establishment?" The pegasus suggested, making Twilight sigh once more, before beginning her explanation with a few simple words;

"A draconequus, and the words, 'It's Me.'" "And...?" Clockwork pressed. Twilight looked around, eyeing the pictures of a certain stringless, stringed puppet, her breathing slowing down and speeding up sporadically. "And... A Marionette...?"

Within the seconds it took for her to utter that last word, Clockwork froze up, his optics dilating at the name. While that happened to him, however, a certain puppet appeared in Camera 08, before disappearing, his phantom self materializing within the populated room.