The Struggle Between Primal and Mechanical Instinct
Day One: Welcome to Your New Job!
"Holy fuck it's cold." mutters Timeless Toaster as he stands at a carriage stop, waiting for the morning carriage to trot by and pick him up. He's a young buck with toffee colored fur, with a mane and tail of chocolate brown, accented by a light caramel in the mane. A pair of thick framed glasses adorned his snout, improving the vision of his chocolate brown eyes. Timeless seemed ordinary, but his most striking feature was the set of mechanical wings that adorned his back.
Living only a few miles outside of Fillydelphia, Timeless had to take the carriage into the city to go to work, just like every other mare and buck who worked in the city. Having been fresh out of High School, Timeless immediately left his family and applied everywhere he could for a job after getting an apartment with his friend Sinful Vengeance in the urban area of Fillydelphia.
"You should consider applying to the Pizzeria. The pay is alright, and I heard that a night spot just opened up. You could be a night guard!" rings the mare's voice in Timeless' mind as he stands there, a sneeze launching from his snout.
"I guess I could. I mean, the other places I've applied either denied me or just haven't said a damn thing. Think you can put a word in for me with your boss?" he asks.
"Yeah! No problem!" chirps the mare. "I told you you'd be working there one day!" adds the mare, referring to a high school joke shared between them.
"And I'm sure I'd be there already, BUT THIS DAMN CARRIAGE IS TAKING FOREVER!" Timeless yells impatiently. At that moment, a gruff cough sounded behind Timeless, alerting the buck. Timeless turned and was face to face with a bulky looking buck hitched up to the carriage behind him.
"You's gettin' on or naw?" asks the buck, his accent thick of the Manehatten area. Giving a nod, Timeless paid a few bits and climbed into the carriage. Making sure that Timeless was all set, the carriage driver released the parking brake and began to trot forward with an increasing pace, heading straight for the Fillydelphia skyline.
~~~ooo000ooo~~~
"Right here." Timeless points out. The carriage buck nods and begins to pull off to the side of the road, allowing Timeless to hop out of the carriage. After saying 'Thanks' to the buck, Timeless began to trot away as the carriage buck pulled away from the stop and back onto the main road. "Now Sinny said that it's near the carriage stop..." Timeless mutters as he trots along the sidewalk. Soon though, his hooves take him to the drive that leads up to Pinkie Pie's Pizzeria.
The Pizzeria looked quite ordinary, but if the battered and dirty driveway sign was any signal, then the restaurant had been struggling through hard times for quite a while.
But what do you expect from a place where a foal was attacked, and where five foals went missing?
When Pinkie Pie's Pizzeria started, Pinkie Pie herself was at the helm, steering the establishment along the path of good times and partying. To draw more crowds to her business, Pinkie Pie enlisted the help of Filthy Rich. Using his Canterlot connections, Filthy Rich managed to have a cast of newly developed animatronic characters shipped to the Pizzeria. Hoping to make the characters more appealing and identifiable, Pinkie Pie requested that they looked like her and her five other friends Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle.
The animatronics were an instant hit. Their catchy songs and hilarious skits were an immediate 'Yes' factor with the crowds, especially amongst the younger colts and fillies.
Business boomed and parties were being celebrated day in and day out.
Pinkie Pie couldn't be happier! And soon, she and Filthy Rich began to draw up the blueprints of expanding the franchise all across Equestria.
But that's when the Bite of Saturday Night happened.
It was the final party of the night, and a young unicorn colt was celebrating his sixth birthday. The party was Pirate themed, so naturally the star of the show was Dashie the Pirate. The cyan pirate pegasus was the swashbuckling, adventure telling, treasure plundering kind of pirate that every colt at a young age loved to read about come to life. The party seemed to be going quite pleasantly, but that's when it happened.
Nopony could quite clearly explain the event to the police, but from what they said is that at one moment, Dashie was giving the birthday colt a hug, and the next moment her steel jaws were clamped down around the colts' head, gouging out the frontal lobe and top of his skull.
It took at least four parents to pry the robotic pirate off the colts' head.
From that point on, a negative reputation began to hover over the pizzeria.
And to add onto the developing reputation, Pinkie Pie's Pizzeria began to be known as the Youth Black Hole, due to the fact that in a five month period after the Bite of Saturday Night, colts and fillies began to go missing one by one. The worst part is that even after extensive investigations and review of the security feed, an animatronic could be seen luring victim after victim into the back maintenance room.
Unfortunately, the identity of the perpetrator could not be made out.
After these findings, Pinkie Pie wished to no longer be associated with the Pizzeria, and sold the rights over to Filthy Rich, making him promise that he would try his best to keep the pizzeria a place of fun and endless joy.
"And now it's a third-rate pizzeria." Timeless muttered as he made his way through the carriage parking lot and towards the main entrance. Upon pushing the door open, Timeless' senses were assaulted by a cacophony of yelling children and some-what catchy music. Looking over to his right, he spotted Sinny as she stood at the Greetings Podium. Catching his eye, Sinny brushed a few locks of her ruby red mane aside and waved.
"Hey Timeless! About time you got here!" she called. She was a mare around Timeless' age, her features adorned by piercings on her left ear, and two snakebite piercings on her lower lip region. Her coat was a clean, snow white, which went in sharp contract to her flat, ruby red mane and tail. Accented by her mane were two ruby red irises.
"Hey Sinny. Sorry it took me a while. The damn carriage driver took his happy time getting to the stop." Timeless said sourly as he began to warm up. "Where's Mister Rich?" he adds.
"In the back office. Just go down the hall and knock." Sinny said, her hoof pointing down the hall behind Timeless. Giving her a nod, Timeless turned and began to trot down the hall. As he went, he passed by crude foal drawings of the animatronic characters that were tapped to the wall.
One drawing caught his eye however.
The robotic mare was that of Applejack, but her eye sockets were empty and the mouth hung open, as if caught in a frozen scream. Sitting before the creepy animatronic was a happy looking foal celebrating with Applejack.
"Well that's...unnerving..." Timeless said quietly. Turning away from the drawing, Timeless approached the open doorway that led into the office. Stopping, he raised a hoof and knocked on the doorway. "Uh, hello? Mister Rich?" he asked. Sitting at the deck was the middle-aged, local millionaire known as Filthy Rich. Looking up from his paperwork, Filthy gave a smile and stood up from the desk.
"Ah, Mister Toaster, I presume?" he asks, reaching a hoof forward for a hookshake.
"Yes sir, that's me alright." Timeless confirmed, accepting the hoofshake.
"Good to know! Sinful speaks highly of you." Filthy says nodding as he lowers his hoof. "I'm going to spare you of the usual slew of questions. I can just tell by looking at you that you're a hard worker. When can you start?" Filthy asks. Timeless blinks a few times, his mind taking a bit to register that he had been hired without issue.
"U-Uhm, tonight I guess. Will I have to buy anything before I get here tonight?" he asks.
"No, not at all! All your equipment and uniform will be provided for you. In fact, Sinful should have your items right now. I asked her to hold onto them for me and to give them to you after you got hired." Filthy said, returning to his seat at the desk.
"You knew you were going to hire me ahead of time?" Timeless asks, a heavily confused tone in his voice. Filthy simply gave a quick chuckle and shook his head.
"My boy, you were practically the only pony to submit an application. And besides, I understand that the struggle to find a job right out of high school is very unnecessary. Arrive here at eleven forty-five to get settled in. Your shift starts at twelve and ends at six in the morning." Filthy says, smiling at Timeless.
"Th-thanks Mister Rich! I won't let you down, I swear on it!" Timeless says, giving a crisp salute with his hoof. Filthy chuckled once again and returned the salute, allowing Timeless to depart. As the toffee-pegasus backed up and walked down the hall, Filthy's smile dropped into a grim expression.
"I hope you know what you're getting into..." he mumbles under his breath as he turned his attention back to the security feed, the screen showing the show stage as the animatronics performed before the crowd of colts and fillies. "Because it's time I passed the torch on..." he added, his focus hardening on the Pinkie Pie animatronic as she sang from her built-in music box.
~~~ooo000ooo~~~
As Timeless walked down the hall, Sinny looked out of the corner of her ruby eye and spotted the buck, her full attention swinging over to his approaching form.
"I got the job!" he said happily. Sinny giggled and reached under her greeters' stand, pulling out a light grey and purple uniform with the word 'Security' across the chest in the form of a metal pin badge. Stacked on top of the uniform was a hat in the same colors and a slightly battered flashlight.
"I knew you would! It was a guarantee!" she said happily, passing the items over to Timeless. Taking the uniform, Timeless slipped the jacket on and fastened his belt. Holstering the flashlight and putting on the cap, Timeless stood there with a smile.
"How do I look?" he asks.
"Oh Timeless, you know how much I love a buck in uniform..." Sinny purred playfully, bopping Timeless' snout with a sly grin, giving a wink.
"Easy there Sinny; You're playing a dangerous game here." Timeless said, leaning forward and nipping her ear. The mare gave an 'Eep!' of surprise, her cheeks immediately flaring red. Timeless chuckled and backed away, looking towards the show stage as the animatronics performed their songs. As he watched, it took a couple moments for Timeless to register that the Fluttershy animatronic was staring at him, her blue eyes locked intently on him.
It then took the buck a few seconds to see that she was mouthing "You" over and over as she stared at him.
"Timeless, you okay?" Sinny asked, waving a hoof in front of him. Jerking out of the staring match, Timeless blinked and looked to the mare.
"Uh, y-yeah...just Fluttershy over there acting odd..." Timeless said, his voice carrying a tone of unease. Sinny raised an eyebrow and casted a look to the animatronic, but the robot had returned to singing in sync with the other animatronics around her.
"Well, they're pretty old, so she was probably just glitching a bit. I wouldn't worry about it." she said, dismissing the topic with a wave of her hoof. "Well, if you've got the night shift, you should probably get home and take a nap. It's gonna be a long night." she said, standing on her hooftips to place a nuzzle to Timeless' cheek. Chuckling, Timeless returned the gesture and nodded.
"Yeah, you're right. When will you be home?" he asks.
"Sometime around nine-thirty. Wake you up to have some dinner and maybe a cup of coffee before you head off." she said.
"Yeah that sounds alright. Well, I'm out of here. See you later tonight." Timeless said, hugging the mare and walking towards the pizzeria entrance. As he walked past the show stage, each of the animatronics' heads turned to watch him leave, their eyes seeming to grow darker with malicious intent as they watched the buck leave. Seeing this, Sinny raised an unsure eyebrow as she stood at her podium, watching as the animatronics reverted to their harmless natures after Timeless' departure.
"Oooookay then...that was a bit odd..." Sinny mumbled as she spotted a family walking into the pizzeria, pulling out the menus and ready to serve them.
