Rainbow Dash's Five Nights at Freddy's

Chapters

The First Day
An Explanation
The Second Day
Coffee Shop Talk
The Fourth Night
Meeting with Friends
Five Nights and a Fox's Party
The Third Day (Murder Mysteries)

The First Day

Rainbow Dash.

When most ponies hear that name, they think of the self-proclaimed fastest flyer in Equestria, wannabe-Wonderbolt member, holder of the Element of Loyalty of the Elements of Harmony, and several-time savior of Equestria. To her friends, she's the weather manager of Ponyville, professional slacker, and the loyalist friend you can have.

Most, including herself, don't connect that name with a security guard at a run-down pizzeria place in the middle of Baltimare, and yet here she was.

"Darn it, Twilight," she muttered to herself as she stepped in front of the door to the place, taking a moment to observe the 'Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza!' in big red letters on a newly painted wooden sign in the darkness. "You just had to ask me to get that new book in the 'Past Sins' series or whatever you call it when it came out in store today. Couldn't just, I don't know, order it in the mail, or even come get it yourself..."

After all, Twilight Sparkle was the new Princess of Friendship. If she wanted to, Dash's friend could have come here herself and been out in ten seconds flat, with those guys practically giving her the VIP treatment and the whole nine yards. But no, Twilight was busy trying to fix up the whole Crystal Castle that had sprout up in Ponyville just three weeks ago and was still trying to deal with the consequences of a giant castle appearing right where the old library had been. Things like that just don't happen without someone asking questions, even for a little town like theirs that had seen mad gods rise and fall.

In fact, Twi had been so busy that she asked Rainbow herself, who didn't have anything better to do and had been considering taking a few days of vacation, to see if she could buy the book for her. She hadn't been sure at first, but after seeing Twilight's haggard-looking state from all the stress, she had been convinced to go and do it. After all, that's what friends do, right?

Well, when she finally got there and figured out where the store was, she went and bought the book for Twilight with the bits she gave her. Something about the reincarnation of an ancient evil or something like that, but Rainbow didn't care. She had to fight tooth and hoof to get in there and get a copy from the rabid fans, and all she wanted was to just get home and laze about for a few days. She took off as soon as she got out of the store.

Unfortunately, this was one of the rare days she decided not to check the weather forecast for the region.

And wouldn't you know it, there was a big old thunderstorm scheduled for the day: rain, lightning, high winds, all that good stuff.

Three guesses as to what happened.

Well, the good news was that the book and Dash were fine. Nothing got broken or fried, and heck, the book itself was completely dry. Guess she was right in asking Rarity to give her a waterproof satchel for her birthday.

Bad news was that the thing that Dash crashed into when she was buffeted by winds happened to be the sign of a rundown restaurant. She won, and the sign was totaled.

"L-look, I'm reeeeaaallly sorry about all this," Dash mumbled slowly as she watched a pair of work ponies lifted the broken remnants of the sign up and onto a wagon, the bear head painted on it looking almost accusingly at her where it wasn't warped by the impact of her body against it. She bit one of the tips of her wings in frustration. "It was an accident, seriously."

"No, no, it's alright, Ms. Dash," the brown stallion next to her with glasses, a pizza cutie mark, and wearing a grey suit sighed, looking down at a clipboard. "Anyone going out in such weather should be lucky to make it out in one piece like you did. Besides, one less thing to take down when the place goes under, I suppose."

Even so, Dash cringed. She couldn't believe her luck. The day she forgot to check the weather this had to happen. Yeah, the book was alright, but that didn't change her feelings of guilt. The guy sounded so darn sad...

"Look mister, if there's any way I can make this up to you..." she began, then stopped when the stallion turned to her with a surprised look.

"Wait, seriously?" he asked while adjusting the black glasses on his muzzle. "You, the Rainbow Dash, want to make this up to me?"

Dash felt some of her guilt fade as momentary irritation and pride slipped through. What, did this guy think she didn't pay her debts? "Of course!" she replied, conviction in her tone. "I'd never leave a pony hanging!"

The stallion blinked for a moment, then looked back down at his clipboard. "Well... if you happen to have 120 bits on you right now..."

Dash felt her hopes sink. "That... that much?" she stuttered, slowly pawing the ground. "W-Well not really..."

She had about 30 bits on her at the moment, half of which had been change for the book when the cashier learned she was buying for Twilight. The mare's eyes had gotten as wide as Pinkie's when she realized she needed to throw a party, and gave her a discount. The rest was just traveling money, buying food and the like.

The guy looked contemplative for a moment, then rang a hoof through his black and greying mane. "...Actually, there might be a way... if you don't mind working it off, of course."

Dash blinked. Was this guy seriously offering? "What's the job?" she asked slowly, looking at the restaurant. "I mean... I've never been much of a cooker..."

He laughed slightly. "No, no, Ms. Dash. I wouldn't ask that of you." He pulled out a copy of today's paper out of his pocket, showing her the Want Ads.

"Right here," he pointed.

Dash took a moment to read it. On it was a picture of some sort of weird-looking bear, one of those 'animatronic robots' she heard Twilight go on about at one point. Something about them being skeletal metal dolls enhanced with magic, wrapped in plastic and foam bodies. Supposedly, they had been all the rage about three decades ago, but something about them was 'creepy and dangerous' , so they went out of production and were only recently coming out again, safer and all that. Next to it was some text:

HELP WANTED

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza

Family pizzeria looking for security guard to work the night shift. 12am to 6am.

Monitor safety cameras, ensure safety of equipment and animatronic characters.

Not responsible for injury/dismemberment.

$120 a week.

To apply, call:

1-888-FAZ-FAZBEAR

She looked up, giving him a questioning stare.

"You're kidding me about the whole 'dismemberment' bit, right?" she asked simply.

He laughed, though Dash thought she heard a tremor of hesitation. "Of course I am," he said quickly. "But even so, do you want the job?"

She looked back down at the image (by Celestia, that bear creeped her out) then at the pizzeria, the tinted windows preventing her from seeing any of the robots.

"How long's a week?"

"Five nights." he answered. "Four bits an hour for six hours, coming out to 24 bits a night."

Dash bit her lip. Five days. She had planned to use a week's worth of vacation days for her break. That meant she would only have two days of free time left, not to mention getting back with the book, though she could just mail it and it take about three days or so, probably with a letter explaining her predicament.

Suddenly, the thought of just asking Twilight to send another 90 bits in the mail to her crossed her mind, but she rejected it out of hoof. This was her mess and she was perfectly capable of handling it. Besides, Twi would nag her like a mother hen for riding on her coattails, and that wasn't her style anyways.

Besides, what was five nights in the long run?

"Okay, mister," she finally said, a confident smirk plastering itself onto her face. "You've got a deal!"

He smiled. "Please, Ms. Dash, call me Schmidt. Griff Schmidt."

She kept up the smile as she shook his hoof. "Then just call me Rainbow Dash."

He raised an eyebrow, then nodded. "Well then... Rainbow Dash," he tested her full name as if committing it to memory. "I'll see you tonight at say... eleven?"

She nodded. "Right!" She then reached into her satchel, pulling out the book that had caused her all this trouble. "I'm just gonna go and... mail this little thing, alright?"

He shrugged. "So long as you're back in time. I'll give you a brief tour, all right?"

Dash flashed him her signature devil-may-care smile. "Alright then Schmidt! You've got a deal!"

She quickly took off, then remembered something.

She was back in front of him in a flash, a sheepish look on her face.

"Ah heh heh heh... you wouldn't know where the post office is, right?"

Dash shook her head at the memories, opening the door of the place with a jingle. After she got directions, she had went to the post office and mailed the book along with a letter to Twilight saying she would be working off a debt for the next couple of days and that she and the gang shouldn't worry. After she talked to the postmare and was told that it should arrive in Ponyville in three days (she prayed that Derpy didn't accidentally switch up the delivery address in the process), she left and decided to spend her time looking up the town, since it'd be her place of residence for the next few days.

She decided to forgo finding a hotel, trusting herself to the elements (a cloud was always more comfy than a bed) after she checked the weather schedule to see there would clear weather for the rest of the week. She managed to entertain herself by practicing new aerial tricks, including a corkscrew freefall, and then napping until the allotted time, rushed back to the place, and here she was.

The place wasn't horrible, but it wasn't exactly clean either. It was definitely an older establishment, with some wear and tear, worn floor, frayed curtains, peeling walls, but it gave off a homely feel. There were tables set up in the dining area with party hats on plates, probably for whoever came in tomorrow, and three of the animatronics were up on the stage with various instruments, probably for entertainment.

Dash took a moment to look at each of them. They stood on their hind legs like those pictures of strange creatures that Lyra once showed her (humans, she believed the name was) and were taller than she was, probably coming up to Big McIntosh in terms of height, staring off into the distance. The one on the left was a purple bunny with light red eyes and black outline, white teeth, wearing a red bowtie and holding an electric guitar. The one on the right was a bright yellow chicken with purple eyes and black outline, an orange beak with white teeth, wearing a bib that read 'LET'S EAT!' holding a cupcake with eyes (she suddenly had flashes to what Pinkie Pie decided to bake one Nightmare Night...). Finally, in the center was the bear she saw in the advertisement, a large brown body with blue eyes also with black outline, wearing a black top hat and black bowtie, and just like his fellows also had white teeth.

She was slightly disturbed as she stared at them. Something about how their eyes and teeth looked way too real for comfort, or how their bodies seemed just too off to be living flesh. She couldn't help but feel a little creeped out.

"I see you've met Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica."

Dash yelped and nearly flew into the air, quickly turning around to see Griff standing there with his right hoof up. "Okay, okay, sorry for scaring you," he apologized.

She shook her head, trying to get over her embarrassment. "I-I'm not scared!" she quickly said. "You just surprised me is all."

He chuckled. "Again, my apologies," He walked up next to her, observing the animatronics with something resembling nostalgia. "What do you think?"

It took her a moment to realize what he was getting at. Looking back at the robots, she hesitated to say they were creepy-looking, as she didn't want to insult her new employer.

"Kinda creepy, huh?" he asked, noticing her look. Before she could assure him, he added. "No need to spare my feelings," he told her. "I thought they were creepy too, even a little scary when I first saw them. But my dad bought them when they were all the rage, so they're kind of like family to us."

"This place was your dad's?" Dash asked, actually sort of grateful that the conversation had steered away from the robots. She was getting a little nervous looking at their eyes, almost like they were staring at her.

"Yeah, and it was his dad's before hand," Griff replied. "These guys just sort of came along for the ride. I would have gotten rid of them long ago, but the foals love being around them. You could even say they're the prime attraction."

Rainbow Dash took a moment to take a whiff of the air, catching the smell of the place. The smell of freshly baked pizza filled her nostrils, and she smiled. "The pizzas don't seem that bad," she told him.

He chuckled. "Yeah, but even all that isn't enough to pay the bills," he said with a tone of melancholy. "Three generations this place's been in the family, and I'm the one who has to give it up when the year's over, just a week from now actually."

"...Sorry, buddy," Rainbow Dash said quietly, surprised by the sadness he was showing, then tried to lighten the mood. "But hey, it's still yours, isn't it? Besides, I can handle these three for six hours."

He glanced at her for a second, as if sizing her up. "We'll see..." he said slowly, the tone putting Dash back on edge (not because it was creepy, but strangely... hopeful?), but then he was back to all-friendly. "Well, how about that tour, huh?"

Griff was nothing if not helpful. He quickly showed her the backstage, restrooms, kitchen, the west and east halls, and finally Pirate Cove.

"What's behind that curtain?" Dash asked when she caught sight of the 'Out of Order' sign.

"Oh, that's Foxy the Pirate," Griff replied, taking a moment to pull back the curtains to show the fourth animatronic. He was, as the name suggested, an upright fox, around the same height as the other three. His fur was crimson, and he had a hook on one hand, an eye patch that seems to be sticking up revealing his right eye (keeping to the pirate theme) and wearing brown linen shorts. His teeth were surprising sharp, more like a fox than a pony like the others.

What surprised Dash was his condition. Unlike the other ones, his fur was tattered and ripped in several places on his chest, stomach, and arms, revealing his metal interior. His legs were practically bare underneath his shorts, his left eyelid was kind of droopy, and his lower jaw seemed to be broken, like he couldn't shut it properly.

Despite that, Dash felt more at ease around this one than the other three. Maybe it had something to do with the fact he didn't look so creepy without the eyeshadow, and even with his condition (which actually made him feel more realistic, since she could see that he was clearly not real with the metal parts), he just felt more natural to be around, more like a fox. Plus, the pirate gear was pretty cool.

"Why's he here?" Dash asked.

"Misrepair," Griff replied, sighing as he took a look at the robot. "He was always the crowd favorite, even with me and like this, but after an... accident we were forced to store him here permanently. We still show him off to the foals, but he can't interact with them like the others can."

"Couldn't you fix him?" she asked as she reached out a hoof to touch his free paw, surprised by how real it felt. "A guy this cool-looking doesn't deserve to be back here all the time."

"Believe me, I know," Griff answered her. "But I don't have the time, skill, or parts to do it. And I don't have the bits to spare to hire someone with the ability to fix him. It was always my hope to let him be repaired for the grand finale when we go out of business, but I guess that's just wishful thinking by now."

He turned around to leave, grabbing the rope to pull the curtain back into place. Dash took one last long look at Foxy, as the curtain went back in place.

Just for a second, probably just a trick of the light, she thought he actually winked at her.

Dash sat down in the security room in which she would be spending the remainder of the night. According to the above clock, it was almost midnight, which was Griff's cue to leave.

"Remember," he told her as he prepared to exit, "you have limited power due to money problems, so try to avoid using the devices here as much as possible, especially multiple ones at once. I'd recommend checking the cameras periodically, using your door lights sparingly, and only shutting the doors when it's absolutely necessary."

"Yeah, I got it," she told him, taking a moment to figure out exactly how she was supposed to use this magical 'tablet' plugged into the wall. "Did I ever tell you its kinda weird you have money problems and yet can afford this sorta stuff? Pretty sure I've never heard of half of it until you told me about it."

He chuckled. "Hey, most of it's point-and-click, so you'll be fine. Besides, my dad was big on 'advancements into the future' and stuff powered by magic, so he made some purchases on experimental stuff that we probably would have been better off without in the long run, and he kept doing it until I got the place about five years ago. Still, might as well make use of them."

He gave her a final smile and stepped out. "Good luck, Rainbow Dash. Hope to see you come morning."

"Yeah, you too," she replied, watching as he left. On a whim, she brought up the cameras, watching as he made to the exit, stepped out, and locked the door behind him. No worries there. He had been certain to give her a spare key in case she needed to get out, and also pointed out the fire exits in the building.

Dash sighed as she put the tablet down and took a look at the clock, noticing it was currently midnight. She took a moment to look around the office, noticing the small fan on the desk blowing to keep her cool, a coffee machine in the corner filled with some black liquid for simulation, several camera feeds that connected directly to the tablet, some posters on the wall that read 'CELEBRATE!' in big letters with the robots on them, along with some crayon drawings, probably by donating foals.

She was about to check the cameras when a ringing noise interrupted her. Almost jumping out of her seat at the suddenness of the noise, she stared at the ringing device before noticing a red flashing button next to it.

'Guess I need to press it,' she decided, then did so, a clicking noise sounding. "Uh, hello?" she asked slowly.

"Hello?" came a voice over the machine, though it sounded garbled like he was trying to cast magic at the same time, the two sounds connecting and interfering with each other. "Oh, hello!"

Dash just stared blankly at it. 'Is this another of those fancy magic-tech-thing-a-ma-bobbers Griff was talking about?'

"Hey there!" the voice continued. "Name's Shep Book! Well, if you're listening to this, whoever you are, it probably means you're the new night guard, huh? Funny things the guys in charge put in here. What you're listening to now is something called a 'phone', which apparently might someday make using letters completely obsolete! Something about using magic to talk over long distance with a connection, but I don't know. Still, you can actually make recordings on this that can be played back later, like a audio letter. Pretty cool."

"Anyways, I figured I might as well try my hoof at this sort of thing, you know, leave a message for you to get settled in and make it through your first night. I actually worked in that office before you, so consider it like passing of the torch, wisdom to impart on the young and all that good stuff."

"Darn, does this guy like to hear himself talk..." Dash muttered to herself as she half-tuned him out, the surprise at the ponyless voice turning to boredom as she listened to him droll on. It was like listening to Pinkie or Twilight ramble, except Pinkie was funny and Twilight made it sound endearing and sort of friendly, while Shep just got a little annoying. She half-listened as he went on about the introductory greeting from the company, taking a moment to just randomly scroll through the camera feeds, touch the door lights, open and shut the emergency doors a few times. It was kind of boring, and she wondered for a moment just how the heck a job like this made about 24 bits a night-

Wait, did he just say something about death and missing pony's report? Also replacing carpet?

"-Now I know all that might all sound bad, but there's really nothing to worry about. Uh... well the animatronic characters here do get a bit quirky at night, but do I blame them? No! If I were forced to sing those same stupid songs for 20-30 years, and I never got a bath? I'd probably be a bit irritable at night too. Just remember, these characters hold a special place in the foals' and establishment's hearts, so treat them with a little respect, okay?"

Dash just stared at the recording, pulling her hoof away from touching the right door light and getting back into her seat. "Okay..." she found herself muttering to the phone.

"So just be aware; the characters do tend to wander a bit. Uh, they're left in some kind of "free-roaming" mode at night, uhh, something about the magic causing rust if they're shut off too long? I don't know. I may be a unicorn, but I don't know about how stuff like this works. Funny thing is, they actually use to be allowed to wander around during the day too, but uh, then there was the 'Bite of '87'. Yeah... It's amazing how a unicorn can live without both the horn and the frontal lobe, huh?"

Dash suddenly felt like there was an important piece of information she should recall. She remembered briefly back to flight school how they had taken a crash course in safety and so gave a brief bit about dangerous injuries capable of being sustained upon crashing and whatnot. If the frontal lobe was where she remembered...

She immediately brought both hooves to the front of her skull and cradled it, briefly glancing towards the twin doors. What the heck were things like that doing around foals!?

"So, since this is your first night, it should be pretty quiet around there, so you should be fine. Now concerning your safety: the only real risk to you as a night watchpony here, if any, is the fact that these characters, uh, if they happen to see you after hours, probably won't recognize you as a pony. Like they treat as one of their own, a magic doll. They'll probably think you're a endoskeleton that forgot its costume, so the worst they can do is put you inside a suit."

"'Can't be all that bad' you're probably thinking." Shep's voice continued over the phone with a nervous giggle. "Well, you'd be right... if the suits themselves were designed for ponies and weren't filled with cross-beams, wiring, and magic devices, especially around the facial area. You can imagine how having your head forcefully pressed inside one of those could cause a bit of... discomfort... and death... Uh, the only parts of you that would likely see the light of day again would be your eyeballs and teeth that would pop out the front of the mask."

That particular image made Dash equal parts scared out of her mind and sickened to the stomach. It was the latter that won out.

"W-What!?" she almost screamed at the phone after she relieved herself in the nearby trashcan of her supper of a cheap hayburger and fries, only the sudden thought that the robots might be listening keeping it at a whisper.

"Yeah... they don't tell you these sort of things when you sign up..."

"This... this has got to be a joke, right?" Dash said to herself. "Some sick joke for the newbies to get scared out of their minds, and everyone laughs about it come morning, right?"

Unfortunately, Shep offered no answers.

"But hey; first day should be a breeze. I'll chat with you tomorrow, uh, check those cameras, and remember to close the doors only if absolutely necessary. Gotta conserve power. Alright. Good night."

"Hey, nothing else to say!?" Dash yelled as the phone made a *droning* sound, then clicked off, leaving her alone all alone.

And with three, maybe four killer dolls.

A glance at the clock. Fifteen past twelve. 97% power left. No hope for recharge.

2 AM. 83% power remaining

Dash tried to develop a routine. Check the cameras around the stage and Pirate Cove, switch off, wait about three minutes, then look again. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. No mascot was missing from the stage, and she couldn't even see Foxy from behind the curtain.

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. The first hour she had been checking the cameras practically every minute, sometimes even faster than that, but after she got to 86% power she decided it was time for a change of pace. Even so, she couldn't help but feel like staying on them for about a minute, looking for any change in movement, no matter how small.

"Okay Rainbow, calm down..." she told herself quietly. "You're the best pegasus around, and nothing's ever gonna keep you down. See? Nothing's wrong, everybody's here. Phone guy was probably some jerk trying to scare you. Yeah, that's it. Tomorrow I'll ask Griff about a stallion called Shep Book and see if he knows. I mean, come on, there's Chica and Freddy and Bon-"

Bonnie was gone. The darn rabbit had been there just a minute ago, now it was like he never existed.

Dash grappled with the rising panic in her chest. "Okay, okay, nothing to worry about..." she muttered as she changed view to the restrooms and catching nothing.

"I mean... he said they wander, right?"

*Click*

No one in the party area.

"Probably just... decided to take a walk..."

*Click*

Nothing down the west hall.

"Nothing to worry about..."

*Click*

Backstage...

"Bucking horsefeathers!" she yelped as she almost went crashing out of her chair, catching sight of a black and white still of Bonnie, face right up in front of the camera like it wanted a close-up. Course that would have been creepy enough, but it just had to go the extra mile for her.

"W-Where the heck are his eyes!?" she whispered hoarsely. The red eyes had been creepy, but they were at least eyes. Now it looked like it had just taken them out and put in white dots in the pure solid black, making it look like something out of a horror novel she read once. Combined with the smile, it went past creepy to just plain scary.

In her haste, she pressed another part of the screen, changing to the kitchen, where there was a notice that said 'Visual Display Out of Order. Audio Only.' complete with black screen.

Quickly, she went back to the backstage, only to find it empty. Flicking around a few times, she finally caught sight of Bonnie standing in the party area, facing the camera but thankfully far away and with his eyes again.

'Darn it...' she thought. 'Forget stuffing me in suits. I'll have a heart attack before that happens.'

3:45 AM. 62% power remaining.

"No you don't Bonnie!"

A press of the left door button brought the steel barrier down on the purple bunny's smiling face. Dash took a moment to glare at it before turning back to the cameras.

"Okay, Freddy's just chilling onstage and- oh come on, where'd Chica go now!?"

Dash made a few quick flicks through the cameras views. After dealing with Bonnie for about half an hour, she finally figured out that he seemed to prefer coming from the left side. Everytime she found him he was just leering into the camera like he was expecting an autograph, though whenever she glanced away he seemed to just teleport like a unicorn to another part.

He even managed to almost sneak into the office a few times, with the first time being only dumb luck that she managed to press the door button before he walked in. Literally, one second he wasn't there and the next he was. After that, whenever she couldn't see him in any two random rooms on the left side she immediately checked the door lights for any signs, pressing the door shut if she so much as saw a sign of purple.

By Celestia did that guy's smile in the weak light creep her out. All he'd need was a sudden organ chord like in those plays and it'd be perfect. Fluttershy probably would have had a heart attack by this point. Then again, Fluttershy probably would have been smart enough to know better than to try flying back to Ponyville before checking the weather.

Still, it wasn't all bad. Bonnie left pretty darn quickly whenever she caught him, a couple minutes give or take, and even faster if she buzzed the door light over him, which allowed her to see his shadow and know when he left. Maybe he didn't like the spotlight? Huh, weird for the guy who's up on the stage playing for the foals.

Anyways, this little game of cat-and-mouse had been taxing her power quite a bit, but she was certain she could make it to 6AM.

Now Chica had apparently decided to come on for the ride.

Glancing at the door, she noticed she couldn't see Bonnie's shadow and let it up, scrolling back through the cameras to see Bonnie back in the party area.

"Now where the bird?" she muttered to herself, glancing over at the right door. Nope, no yellow killer-chicken.

*Click*

Restrooms were clear.

*Click*

Nothing in the East Hall Corner.

*Click*

"Buck!" she yelled as she recoiled from the image in the East Hall. Chica was right there, staring right in the camera's face with her mouth open in some sort of smile. That wasn't what freaked her out though.

No, that honor was reserved for the fact she could apparently see a second pair of teeth inside the mouth, and those looked strangely like a pony's...

"The only parts of you that would likely see the light of day again would be your eyeballs and teeth that would pop out the front of the mask."

Dash quickly brought the camera down, pressing the door lights on both sides to make sure that Bonnie hadn't snuck in again, heart pounding. Nope.

Then she glanced back into the monitor.

*Click*

Nothing.

"Buck it..." she muttered softly. A glance to the clock...

"URRRUUURGHURGHURH..."

Her neck snapped around so fast she was certain she would have broken it. A lunge for the door lock, and the smiling face of Chica the Chicken disappeared behind a wall of metal safety.

"Darn it, just go play with each why don't you!" Dash yelled at the door, immediately turning around with her hooves raised in a fighting position in case Bonnie had snuck in during that mishap. Nothing.

A glance to the clock...

Five to 4AM.

Quarter to 5AM. 37% power remaining.

Dash took a swing of her coffee, nearly gagging as the cold liquid went down her throat, red eyes glued to the screen.

*Click*

Bonnie was in the supply closet, glancing up at her like always.

*Buzz*

Chica's still by the right door. She might not come to the door as often as Bonnie, but she sure as heck loved to camp there. Guess she just got lonely being the only girl. Not like she was just going to open it for her.

*Click*

Not a sign of Foxy from behind Pirate Cove. He was rapidly becoming her favorite doll of all. Heck, she figured she might just start visiting him before the shift started, just to make sure he wasn't getting lonely.

*Click*

Freddy was still on the stage, the only sign he had moved at all tonight being the fact he was staring directly into the camera with those black eyes. He was her second favorite for now.

Dash checked the lights again, seeing Chica was gone and flipping the switch to open the door. Had to conserve power. She had no idea what would happen if she ran out of it before the shift ended, but she sure as hell wasn't going to risk finding out. Another glance to the monitors had her in the kitchen, where she could hear something rustling around the pots and pans.

"Guess she got hungry, huh?" she wondered to herself with a brief chuckle, the image of Chica eating a pizza with that 'LET'S EAT!' bib still on somehow breaching the strange combination of paranoia, fear, frustration, and sleeplessness that had encircled her brain. "Wonder if there's anything in there she'd like to share?"

A brief gurgle came out of nowhere, causing her to instinctively shut the left door and buzz the light in panic. It took her about a minute to realize she had just heard her own stomach growl.

"I hate this job..." she muttered darkly as she opened the door, cursing that that particular episode cost her another 2% of power. By this point, she couldn't afford to lose anymore.

5:45 AM. 13% power remaining.

"Come on come on come on c'mon c'mon..."

Dash chanted that wishful phrase like her life depended on it. Half an hour from the clear, and apparently Bonnie and Chica had tired of their little game. Bonnie had appeared from the right side and was now camped right outside her door while she had taken a moment to look at Pirate Cove, seeing no sign of Foxy emerging. She had shut the door as per usual, and decided to check on Chica, who she had last seen back in the restrooms.

It was only that darn gurgling (why the hay did it sound like a pony!?) that warned her in time to put the monitor down and shut the left door, seeing Chica's inanimate purple eyes flash in what seemed like disappointment that she couldn't help her friend back into her suit.

Dash personally liked her face the way it was, so she didn't let that bother her.

Now she had both doors down, and while that normally wouldn't have been a problem, just flash the lights a few times and they'd just go away.

Fifteen minutes and 13% of her power later, they had not moved once.

As such, she had given up pressing the lights, trusting instead for the doors to hold. The cameras couldn't show just outside her door, so those were useless to her save for the occasional glance at Foxy's place (who, again, had not moved once during the entire time. She was half-tempted to kiss him for that small mercy, but she ignored it.) and at the stage where Freddy was, smiling like this was all some great prank.

...Forget what she said about him being second-favorite. That damn smile was even worse than Bonnie's and Chica's. At least they actually made her feel scared. He just made her pissed off.

Glance to the clock. 5:50 AM. 9% left.

A gurgling noise on the right made it clear that Chica was still there.

8%.

A buzz of the light showed Bonnie's shadow.

7%.

The last of the cold coffee went down Rainbow Dash's throat.

6%.

A glance to the cameras, her grip on the tablet beginning to shake almost imperceptibly.

5%.

Freddy. On-stage. Staring. Straight. At. Her.

4%.

Face twisted into that damnable smile, as if telling her he'd see her soon.

3%.

The lights flickered. Images of them being right outside the door, ready to greet her with open arms and creepy smiles, filled her mind.

2%.

Rainbow Dash's swallowed the rapidly rising lump in her throat, cold sweat breaking out all over.

1%.

She inched her chair back, muscles tensed and ready to flee the moment she saw a chance. She wouldn't go down without a fight, that much was certain.

Zero.

The power went out, and the doors went up. Dash prepared for the two dolls to charge right on in, heart pounding and hooves raised to smash one of them aside in her mad dash for the exit.

Nothing.

Dash blinked, her mind quite literally a blank. Despite knowing she shouldn't, she waited there for several seconds, some sign that they were coming.

Again, nothing.

'They... they gave up?' she wondered, slowly dropping from the chair to walk towards the left door, ears on the alert for any sort of incriminating sounds, ready to move faster than a scared Fluttershy if anything was up. She glanced at the clock in the corner, but since it was wired directly into the main power supply and with the darkness, she couldn't see the time.

She fiddled with the light stick at her side, something Griff had given her if she decided to wander out the security room, and turned it on after a moment, the thin ray of sweet Celestia-blessed light, shining outwards.

Nothing.

She entered the West Hall, all senses on alert, light flashing at every nook and cranny.

"Where are you?" she whispered softly, but no sounds of the dolls' movements reached her ears.

Despite herself, she found herself slowly making the rounds, down the hall to the dining area. No sign of Bonnie or Chica anywhere, yet the feeling of paranoia was so strong that Dash couldn't think that it was over. It hung around her like a bubble, moving with her everywhere and making her feel isolated, small, and insecure. She wondered if this was how Fluttershy felt sometimes.

She gripped the light stick tighter, idly wondering if it was durable enough to serve as a makeshift weapon.

Rainbow stopped by Pirate Cove, her eyes on the shut curtains with its 'SORRY! OUT OF ORDER' sign. Her eyes and light danced over the stage, senses peeled for any change in the design, any sort of shift from when her night had begun.

Nothing. The Cove was perfectly fine, the occupant still behind the curtain.

Despite herself, Dash couldn't help but giggle slightly, a hysterical giggle of relief, but one nonetheless.

"Y-You know what, Foxy?" she said quietly, yet in the stillness it was like shouting. "You're alright."

With that, she left on the way towards her main goal.

Still, she made sure to glance back every now and then, and she didn't stop listening until she was out of the vicinity.

After what seemed like hours, Rainbow finally made it to the dining area, everything just like how it was six hours ago. Her eyes glanced everywhere but there, fear of not what she would see, but what she wouldn't see driving her to not do so.

But curiosity was a strong force, and like a magnet, her eyes were drawn right up to the stage.

There they were: Bonnie, Freddy, and Chica. All up and ready like they had been there all night, no sign of having moved at all and staring off into space with their smiles.

Rainbow noticed a clock above their heads up over the stage. Curiously, she shined her light onto it.

6:10 AM.

She had survived the night at Freddy's.

Rainbow looked out towards the windows, and blinked as she felt the rays of sunlight pass over her tired eyes. Never before, even in her darkest nightmares, had that sight brought so much pure joy, happiness, and relief into her heart.

She wanted to jump, shout, scream and break down out of joy, sing that laughter song Pinkie had sung when she and her friends first traveled into the Everfree, bang out a beat on the floor, but she did none of those things.

Instead, she simply sat on her haunches and smiled at the warm morning light, simply taking a very rare moment to just relax and appreciate its beauty.

Then she felt like she was forgetting something important.

Glancing back towards the stage, she noticed that all three of the dolls seemed to be giving her mischievous glares, as if telling her to savor this moment for as long as possible.

Then she remembered the deal: She had to work five nights at Freddy's. She still had four more.

And that meant coming back tomorrow.

Author's Note

And thus, my first effort at writing an MLP fanfiction comes to the home of bronies everywhere. I'm just reuploading the whole story from my account on Fanfiction to give you guys something to read until I actually have an actual story for here to post.

Until then, feel free to comment or rip (constructively) into this story as you see fit.

An Explanation

Rainbow Dash was only faintly aware of the sound of the front entrance to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza shutting behind her. For her, the thing only that existed was the fact that for the next 18 hours she was free as a bird until coming back to that den of hungry timberwolves. Be damned if she was gonna waste them.

With a deep breath and the slight tensing of her muscles, she kicked off the ground into the air, her wings immediately spreading like a bird's as she made several twists and turns in the sky, corkscrewing, barrel-rolling, loop-de-looping, anything to convince her tired mind that she was definitely out of there and this wasn't some delusion. She felt the air rush past her cheeks and around her body, the muscles in her form working like a machine to keep her in the air, even the faint touch of her mane on her back. All of it felt so surreal in a way, though that could just be blamed on her tired mind.

Speaking of her mind, throughout it all her mind was strangely quiet. No errant thought raced through her brain, no question of why the heck she had signed up for this, no wondering what her friends would think when they found out, not even malicious thoughts of how she'd walk into Schmidt's office and buck him in the face the moment she figured out where he was.

No, all Rainbow Dash felt was the strange mixture of exhilaration at surviving that nightmare and the dread of having to come back.

Soon, in fact she couldn't even recall even coming here, Dash made it to the place where she decided to set up her temporary home, landing on the cloud with a thump and feeling like she had just embraced heaven itself.

'Sleep...' was the only thing on her mind. And her body, having spent the worst six hours of her life running on paranoia, nervousness, and cold coffee, agreed.

They were everywhere. Every which way she looked was another rabbit, chicken or bear, real and yet not real, their joints creaking as they walked towards her with those giant grins that looked like Pinkie during one of her 'moods'. Their eyes stared into hers, demanding her to hold still and let them help her, put on her suit like a good magic doll...

Even worse, there was a horrible stench emitting from them, kind of like the smell she caught a whiff of the one time she smelled her former friend Gilda's bad lunch during flight school, except magnified a hundredfold that made her want to gag. A sort of green mucus along with a red dried liquid seemed to pool around their mouths and and eyes, as if something was rotting inside.

She fled, flying as hard as she was able. Yet every time she stopped they would be there, same smile, same eyes. Bonnie kept appearing in front of her, Chica kept up right on her behind so she couldn't turn around, and Freddy just laughed, a deep laugh that was like something out of a horror story, his blue eyes always seemingly in front her, staring and waiting.

Finally, she could fly no more. She fell to her hooves and tried to gallop, but she tripped. She twirled for a few seconds in a manner that would have made her laugh if she was on the sidelines before colliding with a pillar. She got to her hooves, rubbing her face and glancing behind her, expecting one of them to be there waiting.

Nothing.

She looked back in front of herself, intending to question who the buck puts a pillar up in the middle of nowhere, and stopped. That wasn't a pillar.

It was a pair of steel legs, bare save for some frayed pants and some red fur.

She looked up, just in time to see Foxy the Pirate, eyes and mouth wide in manic delight, wrap his free claw around her throat.

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Dash tumbled out of her cloud with a wordless yell, which went a pitch higher when she opened her eyes and realized she had only a few seconds before she impacted with the dirt. Quickly spreading her wings, she managed to right herself and land more or less unharmed, though she did stumble a bit with her first few steps.

Taking a few breathes at the suddenness of the events, she brought a hoof to her forehead, coming away with some sweat. She stared at it for a second, then shook her head, stomping the ground beneath.

"Stop it, Dash!" she chided herself. "You're acting like some sort of scared filly! You're Rainbow Dash, the awesomest pony in Equestria, not a foal who wets the bed at night!"

Right in the middle of saying that, the image of Foxy screaming into her face as he gripped her neck like he was about to break it flashed through her mind, destroying whatever argument she tried to make to herself. She shuddered, then slapped herself.

"Okay, okay, calm down Dashie," she tried again, slower this time. "Calm down..."

A brief moment where she held her breath, desperately thinking of anything other than the pizzeria. The Wonderbolts, her friends, Daring Doo, Tank, the new castle, Cloudsdale, Angel-

"No!" she quickly said, shutting out the image of an animatronic Angel staring at her. It was bad enough when he was alive. "calm..."

One second, two seconds...

Finally, she took another breath, then let it out, opening her eyes.

"Okay..." she finally said. "Now that that's over with..."

Struck by sudden worry, she immediately glanced towards the center of Baltimare, noticing the giant clock that kept the time. 12:53pm.

She sighed gratefully, content with the knowledge that the nightmare was still some ways off.

She stopped. The job. Of course.

She felt her eyes narrow as she thought about her 'boss', Griff Schmidt. What the buck was he thinking, sending her in there with killer magic dolls!? Not even a weapon to defend herself with!? She could have died in there and he didn't even bother to give her a heads-up!?

"When I find him," she growled out, "I'm gonna-"

A sudden growl from her stomach distracted her. Looking down, she glanced at her stomach and remembered she hadn't had anything solid in her system since 12am that night, and most of that had been thrown up near the beginning.

"...After breakfast," she decided.

An hour, a cold rain shower, two daffodil sandwiches and a big cup of coffee with sugar later, and Dash felt refreshed enough to go back to the pizzeria. She took her time though, sort of gliding more than actually attempting to fly towards the place.

During that time, Dash's mind also cleared enough to think about last night, or rather before everything went Nightmare-Night-gone-bad on her. Her thoughts especially geared towards what Shep had talked about briefly.

'What the heck was the Bite of '87?' she wondered to herself as she neared the restaurant. 'And why the buck are those things even allowed around kids?'

Griff Schmidt had seemed like a nice pony, but there was no way he couldn't know about what those dolls did and do every night. Why did he leave them be then?

'As a matter of fact,' she suddenly wondered to herself, coming to a stop before the back door for employees. 'Why the hay am I even back here? I should be on the express to Ponyville... actually heck, I should be breaking the speeding record for a pegasus going between Baltimare and Ponyville right now! Why am coming back here?'

Before she could attempt to act on this sudden realization, the door suddenly opened in front of her, revealing the form of Griff Schmidt himself. She backed away slightly in surprise, then took a moment to look at his face.

She blinked in surprise once again, though this time it was for his appearance. Unlike last night when she had last seen him, there were bags under his eyes and his mane looked like it had lost a fight with a pillow and a wet dog, as if he couldn't sleep, and his clothes were all ruffled as if he had slept in them. He looked at her with bleary, bloodshot eyes that seemed like he had been doing something other than missing sleep, a fact that was confirmed when he opened his mouth and she smelled what seemed like hard cider in his breath.

Basically, he looked like she had when she had woken up from her nightmare, minus the drinking.

"Ms. Dash..." he muttered for a moment, then seemed to psyche himself up as he snorted, blinking for a few moments as if he wasn't aware of his surroundings, his eyes clearing somewhat as he gazed upon her. "Ah, Ms. Dash!" he said with surprise, as if amazed she was in front of him. "I must say I didn't... expect you to be here again..."

"...Uh, yeah..." Dash replied slowly, still taking in her 'boss's' appearance. "I didn't think I'd be back here either, honestly..."

Schmidt blinked for a few seconds more, perhaps trying to come back to his full senses, and then sighed. "...Well, we might as well get this over," he muttered melancholy to himself, then looked her in the eyes. "How much?"

Dash just stopped at that, looking him in the face as if trying to see if he was joking. "Uh, excuse me?"

"How much do you want in order to keep quiet about your horrifying experiences here at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza?" he asked with a resigned tone. "I can give you two-hundred bits now, but if you want more I-"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait..." Dash quickly said, holding up a hoof to stop Schmidt's words, trying to process them. "You think I'm here for money?"

Schmidt cocked his head. "Why else wouldn't you be?" he asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You just went through literal hell on Equestria, not dead but haven't run away screaming for the safety of home. Why else would you be here? As I was saying, I have 200 bits now, but I can get more-"

"Okay dude, just stop right there," she replied, her voice cutting him off. "First off, I don't want money from somepony who I owe money to. You can keep it."

"But-"

"Second," she continued firmly, her previous anger with him rising back to the surface, "I want answers, not bits. What the hay was up with those dolls? Who's Shep Book? What was the Bite of '87? Why do you let those things be with the foals? And why haven't you burned them all up yet!?"

Schmidt just stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face for several seconds, then hung his head and sighed.

"...Well, I suppose you deserve answers..."

"Darn right I do," Dash muttered darkly.

"And I'll give them to you," he continued as if she had never spoke, then gestured inside, "but inside my office. This isn't the sort of thing you can go around talking about in public."

Dash looked at him, then at the door, suppressing a shudder at the idea of going back in. However, she forced herself to follow Schmidt, their path taking them backstage towards the manager office.

As they went through though, Dash caught the sound of what sounded like foals cheering, along with some sort of uppity music being played, like a guitar.

"Heeeeeeey everybody!" she heard a voice say, though it sounded like that recording Shep had made on the phone. It was sort of deep and actually kind of echoing, though sort of slow like the speaker had a problem talking, kind of like Derpy Hooves back in Ponyville. "Welcome one and all to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza!"

"I'm Chica the Chicken!" she heard a peppy mare's recorded voice suddenly say.

"Ha ha! And I'm Bonnie the Rabbit!" An almost perky male voice added.

"And you all know who I am!" the first voice said again, "What's my name?"

"FREDDY FAZBEAR!" a chorus of foal voices screamed in delight.

"Hee hee! That's right!"

Honestly, hearing those three voices in the daytime and trying to connect them to the crazies they became at night was pretty jarring. Dash couldn't even properly imagine them with those voices, especially not Chica and her gurgling...

A tap on the shoulder brought her attention back to Schimdt, who was waiting patiently.

She shook her head and continued after him, trying to avoid listening to those voices which thankfully grew fainter as they moved away. Finally, they came to his office, which he quickly opened up and gestured Dash inside.

The face wasn't that fancy. In fact, what surprised Dash was the lack of decoration rather than any, considering he was the owner. The image was basically a standard office that had a wooden desk, a chair behind it and two in front of it, a coat hanger, and a few plaques on the wall, which had old photos, probably of the pizzeria in its prime, if the way that the mascots, all four of them and in peak condition, were behind a couple of smiling foals waving in one of them was any indication. There were a few others, including Bonnie playing the guitar for some foals, Freddy doing what appeared to be some sort of dance, Chica holding a half-eaten pizza, and Foxy with a kid on his back wearing a similar eyepatch and pirate hat.

What struck Dash though was that in all of them the mascots seemed almost... happy. Sure, their smiles were no less creepy and their eyes still stared unseeingly, but she didn't get the vibe of terror from before. In fact, they seemed less scary and more... well, like one would assume a magic doll would be like.

She also noticed the state of the office itself. Like the rest of the building, it was clearly older and in need of a fixer-upper, but it gave off a homely feel. Also, she realized there were several boxes all around the room, labelled with 'This Side Up' and 'Caution: Fragile', which probably had something to do with the state of emptiness.

Schmidt noticed her gaze and chuckled slightly. "Yeah. Like I said, we're going out of business come the end of the week. Figured I might as well start packing up now."

He wandered towards the desk, which Dash realized had several glasses and a bottle of hard cider on the side. Several of them looked recently used. He noticed her look and chuckled again, this time with far less humor.

"A bit of a tradition I've developed over time. A toast to those night guards who perished in the line of duty and to those that survived and never came back, as well as to drown my own sorrows at my own failures."

He moved as if to put them away, then paused, turning to Dash. "Want one? After what you went through last night, I'd say you deserve it."

"Uh... no thanks," she replied. As tempting as the offer might have been, those glasses looked sorta dirty, as if they hadn't been cleaned in a long time.

Schmidt shrugged and picked up the bottle and glasses, putting them in a drawer behind his desk. After that, he turned his attention directly on Dash, sitting down in his chair. "Please, have a seat," he said, gesturing to the chairs.

Rainbow Dash obliged him, actually surprised that it was quite comfy despite its somewhat worn appearance. Once she settled in, Schmidt began to speak.

"Well, I suppose you want answers."

"And I'm not leaving until I have some," Dash replied, her eyes narrowing as she recalled her experiences of last night. "First off, who the heck is Shep Book?"

"I assume you heard his phone recording?" he asked in turn, then sighed when he saw her nod. "Shep Book was a unicorn employee here, and as he might have mentioned, he was the night guard before you. Came in down on his luck and bits, and wanted the job, probably to make up some money to get back on his hooves. I have to say, he was nothing if not persistent, because despite experiencing much of the same things you and so many others before him had, he came back the next day to keep on guarding, and the day after that, and the day after that. Never once did he stop being so damn cheery as he prepared to go in, always greeting everyone with a smile and wave, even the dolls."

"Was he just crazy?" Dash asked, completely confused with how anyone could willing come back after the first night and keep on guarding. It was like Book was a male unicorn Pinkie Pie, but even Pinkie Pie wouldn't have come back after the first night with smiles!

"Honestly, I wondered if he was truly that desperate for bits, a thrill seeker and daredevil, or even just suicidal," Schmidt replied with a dark chuckle. "All I know is that he lasted longer than anyone else. But even he eventually gave in, disappearing after the fourth night. I found no trace of him the next morning. Hope wherever he is now he's much happier."

"And the other guards..."

"I assume you heard his recording?" he asked grimly, not even bothering to wait for her to answer. "Then you know what happened to exactly 20% of our employees. Of the ones that made it past, some with injuries caused by trying to escape the dolls, only 10% bothered to come back, truly desperate for some hard-earned bits, even though I would have given them ten times that amount if they just stayed away. Suffice to say, no one save Book ever made it to the third night."

Dash was silent as she tried to process that. It wasn't so much the words he was saying as the way he was saying them that surprised her. She had been expecting some sort of detached way of talking, like one of those crazy villains who act like killing off an entire city is just a day in life. No, she heard genuine anguish and regret in his voice, combined with a sort of thousand-yard stare Twilight occasionally got if she was particularly stressed. She wasn't expecting this sort of response.

Still, didn't mean she was just gonna let up on her questioning.

"Okay, then what's up with the dolls, really?" Dash asked. "Book said something about them thinking I'm a doll without a costume and they're 'helping' me put it back on like a friend. Don't know about you, but I don't buy that. My friends don't creepy-smile at me through cameras like they're thinking about painful ways to torture me while they crush my skull, and they don't act like stalkers while they do it."

...Well, okay Pinkie did it sometimes. But at least she was honest about it, they could laugh about it afterwards, and Dash always knew she would never do anything to intentionally hurt her. She got none of those vibes from the dolls last night; heck, Freddy hadn't even moved and still managed to creep her out. The only one that was okay in her book so far was Foxy, and that was because he never came out from behind the curtain.

"...I don't know."

That wasn't the answer she wanted to hear.

"'Don't know'?" Dash repeated, then slammed her hooves into the forearms of the chair. "You've got creepy dolls that scare, hurt, or killed other ponies, and you're telling me you don't bucking know why!? You let those killer dolls play with the foals during the day and leave some poor schmuck to watch over them at night, and you don't know why they act all crazy scary!? That's bull!"

"You think I don't want to!?" Griff suddenly exploded at her, his voice filled with anger so hot it completely shut her up. "You think I don't care about those little foals who are with those dolls everyday; I don't pray for the safety of the brave ponies who, knowingly or not, face the horrors of the night-shift!? You think I've never tried to find out the problem? I've done everything!"

"My father and I hired experts to come look at the dolls and tell us what's wrong. They can't find anything that would explain why they glitch up and spaz out like they do, even despite the fact they occasionally emit blood and mucus from their eyes and mouths. I've tried putting them away in the storage rooms under lock and key every night. I come in with the doors horribly dented, sometimes ripped off their hinges or even holes in the walls leading back out and the dolls all in their proper places, leering at me. I've even tried to have someone dismantle and dispose of them. He barely avoided getting his head crushed when one of the doll suddenly started up and tried to grab him."

He slumped down, the explanation seeming having taken a lot out of him. "And yes, I've tried just destroying them. But something happened to me after the infamous 'Bite of '87': I used up so much magic I fell unconscious and I woke up in a hospital. Apparently, I released so much magic so quickly that I did something to my horn, and now I can't use my magic as effectively anymore. I can't build up the charge necessary to destroy one of them, and if I ever make any moves that seem to suggest I'm gonna do something dangerous to the dolls, they seem to understand it, immediately staring at me and look like they're gonna try and stuff me in a suit if I do."

"You're acting like they're alive or something." Of course, Dash was secretly of the opinion that they were, but she wasn't going to just come out and say it. She didn't want to sound like she was crazy, after all.

Griff looked at Dash seriously. "Ms. Rainbow Dash, you've been on the night-shift. Can you honestly say that they act like inanimate objects that just so happen to be capable of movement? A doll can't exactly glare in such a life-like manner, nor can it seem capable of always knowing when you're looking at it after all."

"Okay, okay, you've got me there," she grumbled. "Just didn't want to sound all crazy..."

"Trust me, I won't judge you. Even before the Bite of '87, ponies noticed the dolls didn't always act like they should."

Constant mentions of the Bite got her attention. "...What was the Bite, exactly?"

"The Bite of '87, culminating my grandad's 87th birthday, is exactly what it sounds like. One of the animatronics went out of control and attacked one of the foals, a unicorn. It was the little guy's sixth birthday too. His family came here to have a party for their growing son, and what they got was a brain-dead hospital lifer. The only reason no one else got hurt was because another doll got in the mad biter's way."

Suddenly, Dash remembered Foxy, stuck behind the curtains of Pirate Cove, put there because of an 'accident'. And he had a broken jaw...

"I was there when it happened," he continued as if she wasn't there, his eyes growing cloudy with memories, "watched as the two dolls ended up slamming against each other and started going nuts, the biter starting randomly strike the other as if it was going out of control. I was maybe just your age, but I remember feeling overwhelming anger and fear at the sight of that doll with blood on its mouth, knocking my favorite character around like a punching bag. I lost control of my magic, and I shut the damn bear down with a bolt of pure magic right through its chest..."

"Wait," Dash interrupted, noticing how he had said 'bear', "it wasn't Foxy?"

He blinked, as if realizing she was still there. He shook his head for a moment, then looked at her directly. "No, it wasn't. In fact, Foxy was the one that got in the way. The doll biter was actually Golden Freddy, who was what Freddy looked like if he had a gold body and a blue tie and hat. He was the fifth doll Dad bought, but he never got back into the business. After that, we took Golden Freddy, burned all of his spare costumes and completely destroyed the exoskeleton. We wouldn't have that... thing in our restaurant with the foals."

"Foxy... well, he got smashed pretty bad. He was actually a custom model due to his jaw, and that was broken completely. We never could quite fix him back up, and with the legal fines, court, and loss of public opinion making it we had to struggle to just scrounge up enough to get by and keep the place going, we never did. The only thing we could do was put him in Pirate Cove and keep him looking a little respectable. Even after almost 20 years, I've only been able to get him to the point that you see now."

He looked away for a moment. "Strangely enough, after that happened, the dolls never attacked another foal again. I don't know why, but any injuries that occurred after that were always among the nightguards. Maybe it really was just a mistake... doesn't make me feel any better though."

"Why the nightguards?" Dash asked, mesmerized despite herself by his words (and gaining more respect for Foxy. She was gonna give him a great big medal next time she saw him) and . "Why not go to the police? Buck, why not tell the Princesses?! They could take care of this problem easy!"

Griff hung his head. "...I would if I could but... its complicated. I don't quite understand it myself, but my dad told me Grandpa... something happened during the early days of the place. I don't know exactly what, but he said that they could never go to the police or something would happen. We got lucky with the Bite, but if anyone ever found out... well, the family could be in danger. The best my dad could figure to do was leave them alone and hire somepony to watch the dolls at all times during the night... and you can see how that's worked out. The dolls seem to take some sort of pleasure of having people to chase after hours, like a bunch of foals playing high-stakes hide and seek, and they don't bother with trying to break out of the pizzeria as long as someone in here with them."

His voice went down to a whisper. "My father was the first night guard and the first victim. I can still remember hearing about how they found him... how there was... barely anything left to bury. How those... dolls seem to be watching me with their dead eyes, as if they wanted me to understand how they felt when I shot Golden Freddy..."

Dash was silent for the longest of moments as Griff's voice began to break up, sobs choking his words as he placed his face in his hooves. "...I'm sorry, Griff," was all she could say.

Griff seemed to find some inner strength at her words, because a few seconds later he lifted his face and took a deep breath. "So there you have it. I'm in charge of a place filled with killer dolls, unable to go to the police without it in some strange way harming myself or my family, incapable of even providing the nightguards who risk their lives and sanity with unlimited power to protect themselves. I believe this is what some ponies refer to as a 'conundrum'." A chuckle. "To be honest, I'm actually glad on some level that the place is going out of business soon. Maybe then I can come clean and start to make up for all of this."

He then got up from his desk, gesturing towards the door. "Well, you came for answers; I gave them. You're free to go: Head on back home, live your life and don't come back. You deserve it. Don't worry about the sign, I'll manage."

He turned his back to her, walking over to where one of his cabinets were and expecting hear the sound of the door opening and closing behind him. And he did hear a sound.

Just not the one he expected.

"So I guess you're gonna be mad if I decide to come in tonight, huh?"

He stopped what he was doing, blinking as he tried to process what she just said. 'She didn't just say-'

He turned around, only to see Rainbow Dash out of her chair and now flapping her wings just slightly above the floor. She wasn't giving him the shocked and interested expression she had wore during his explanations anymore. Now she was giving him a look of determination, confidence, and cockiness that if any of her friends saw they would instantly realize she was ready to do something either crazy or stupid, probably both at once.

"What?" he asked her plainly.

She rolled her eyes. "I said so I guess you're gonna be mad if I-"

"No, I got that, it's..." he took a moment to gather his thoughts. "You know about what happened here, and you still want to finish the job."

"Yup."

Yup, he wasn't imagining things. Griff took a deep breath. "Have you even been listening to anything I've just said?"

"Of course I have!" Dash replied indignant. "You've got four days until this place goes out, killer dolls get scrapped, and you start a new life. You need a nightguard for four days until then. I'm a nightguard. Do the math."

"You're really going to risk your life in there for four more days?" Griff asked flabbergasted. "You barely lasted one from what you've told me!"

"Hey, that's one more day than any other pony right now has," Dash answered him. "I signed on for five nights. Might as well do them."

"Is this about the sign? I told you it doesn't matter anymore!"

"It's not just about the sign!" Dash yelled back, startling him with the intensity of her voice. "Ponies have been dying because of those dolls! I'm not just gonna walk out and let some poor idiot take my place and die instead. I'll take on all of them for four more nights and make sure no one else dies in there!" She then stopped, taking a deep breath to compose herself before continuing in a slower voice. "Besides, I wouldn't be very loyal if I just up and abandoned someone in need, would I?"

Griff just stared her. This mare was willing to endure that horror for four nights, all to make sure no one else would end up scarred for life? All because he needed help?

"What about your friends?"

At the mention of them, Dash's face fell slightly, then perked up as if she just had an idea. "I guess... I'll just send another letter for them to come on over. I mean, my friends and I took on Nightmare Moon and Discord and won. We can handle those dolls in ten seconds flat."

"They wouldn't get here until about closing day though."

"And that's when we'll blast them with our whole 'Rainbow Power' beams!" Dash replied with a grin, a part of her actually wondering exactly why they had taken to calling it that. It was basically just 'Elements of Harmony, Version 2' after all. "It'll all work out easy!"

Griff was seriously wondering whether or not Rainbow Dash was all-right in the head, but just sighed. She seemed pretty dead set on doing this regardless.

"...I guess the rumors about your so-called hardheadedness were true after all."

"Hey!"

"...But if you're really serious about doing this..." he looked her in the eyes, allowing himself to feel just the barest inklings of hope. "You're gonna need some things."

11:30 PM, Security Room

"You sure about this?"

Griff sighed as Dash fiddled with the black vest that he had given her. While it didn't serve too much of a purpose in terms of protection, it did, however, have a compartment on both sides where her wings would fold over when at rest containing two very special pieces of gear.

"Like I said, I can't offer you much," he reminded her. "I don't exactly have anything that could really help you in a pinch besides those two little things."

"Yeah, about those," Dash asked as she lifted her left wing and grabbed what was stored in the compartment, pulling it out with her teeth. "How does this work anyways?"

The object in question was a black stick with a grey handle and what appeared to be a silver light at the end. Near the handle appeared to be some sort of switch. Griff used his horn to take it from her, then pointed towards the switch.

"This," he said as he pressed the switch, suddenly forcing the stick to extend to twice its length with a blue spark of electricity emitting from the silver light, "is my 'doll prod'. If you find yourself in a position where you're cornered by a doll, whip this out and stab it. The shock should be enough to make it pause long enough so that you can get by, but its only good for three uses, and I only have two. I once had more, but something happened to the others ones, and I don't have the money to replace them..."

Dash groaned. It seemed that everything was about the money. "Okay, okay, I get it. Don't waste them." She then offered him a brave grin. "Besides, I'll be fine. No darn doll's gonna get me tonight or any other night."

Griff sighed again. "Whatever you say. As long as your friends-"

"I already sent a letter by mail," Dash replied. "Hay, I even paid extra so that it would get there faster. They'll be here soon."

Of course, it wasn't like she told them that she was working in a place with killer dolls and they might have to shoot them with the Rainbow Power to deal with it, just that they might want to come on down to Baltimare to help her with something as soon as possible.

Griff nodded, then looked around. "You're certain you want to be here by yourself so early? I mean, you still have-"

"Just want to do some things," Dash told him, "You know, psych myself up, remember the exits. Besides, they don't start up 'till midnight, right?"

He nodded slowly. "Everyday, but do you really-"

"Dude, seriously, I'll be fine," Dash said quickly. "I've got this."

Griff stared at her for a moment longer, then sighed again. "Well, good luck Rainbow Dash. I hope to see you come morning."

Dash nodded, giving him one last cocky smile as he walked out. She waited until she saw him leave on-camera, (She wasn't concerned about power because it only became necessary to conserve once it was midnight, now relying on the stored power in the locked up generator room.) then got out of her seat to head to one particular part of the establishment.

Her destination: Pirate Cove. It was time to see a certain fox.

The Second Day

11:35 PM, Pirate Cove

Rainbow Dash pulled back the curtains across the ship stage of Pirate Cove, once again gazing at the still form of Foxy the Pirate. Again, the doll looked just like when she last saw it, just staring off into the distance with its droopy eyes and slack-jawed expression. Looking at it the way it was now, Dash actually found it hard to believe that this doll was apparently the exact same as the three up on the stage.

"Foxy was always the crowd favorite, even with me," she recalled Griff saying. "I've always wanted to let him be repaired for the grand finale when we go out of business, but I guess that's just wishful thinking..."

"Hey Foxy..." Dash began slowly, observing the doll for any signs of movement. "It's me, remember? The nightguard from last night?"

Foxy made no movement to suggest he (she decided to think of it as a 'he') even heard her, just continuing to stare off.

"...Well, the name's Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria," she continued with just a hint of her pride voice, then grew back to seriousness. "Just wanted to come see you and say... thanks for not coming after me last night when Bonnie and Chica were doing their thing. I really appreciate it."

Again, no sign that Foxy even registered her words. Dash narrowed her eyes.

"You know, I know you can hear me," Dash said with a slight edge of irritation. "Some sort of sign would be... I don't know, nice?"

Silence.

"...You're waiting for me to admit you're the coolest of the bunch, aren't you?"

More silence.

Rainbow threw up her hooves. "Okay! You're cool! You're the awesomest magic doll I've ever seen! Will you do something now!?"

Silence so thick that Dash could cut it with her nightstick.

Dash sighed. "Fine, you're not gonna do anything. I can take a hint." She then looked at the damaged doll seriously. "Still, I'd appreciate it if you stayed there during the shift this time around, alright? I'm gonna be working here for the rest of the week, so I'd like it if you stayed there while I tangle with Freddy and his friends. I can keep coming here before the shift starts if you start getting lonely..."

If past!Dash could see her know, talking to a damaged magic doll, she'd probably laugh her flank off or wonder if she had gone insane. But after hearing Griff talk about how Foxy had been damaged by one of his fellow dolls, not to mention never even attempting to attack her last night, she felt at least a little bit of friendliness and pity towards the fox being like this all alone.

"...Well, see ya later, Foxy..." she finally said awkwardly, preparing to put the curtain back into rightful place.

"Best watch out for yerself, lass, or else Freddy and friends will get ya!"

The deep and thickly accented pirate voice that boomed out of Foxy's mouth caught Rainbow Dash unawares, so suddenly that she actually jumped away from the curtain rope whilst simultaneously yanking down on it, causing the curtains to fall back over Foxy's body and hide him from site.

"Horseapples!" she yelled, then quickly pulled the curtains back to see Foxy still staring off as if he had never moved in the first place. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"You enjoyed that, didn't you?"

No answer.

Rainbow Dash just let the curtains fall back into place again, this time hearing no words from her metal companion. With that, she wandered out of Pirate Cove back to the security room.

12 AM

Rainbow Dash adjusted herself as best she could in her chair, taking a moment to see if she could effectively grab the two nightsticks stored in under her wings.

"Okay, we're cool," she sighed to herself as she tried to settle into the chair, then looked over towards the brown paper sack she had brought with her this time. "...Probably should wait on eating that sandwich though."

She looked up towards the clock, first noting that it was time to start, then noticing the always present power meter, currently at 99%.

She took a deep breath. "Okay, let's do this!"

As if waiting for her words, the phone suddenly rang. Dash backed away slightly from the sudden noise, then glared at the device.

"Really wish this thing wasn't so darn loud," she muttered, but pressed the button regardless. "What now?"

"Uhh, hello?" Came a familiar cheery voice. "Hello! Uh, well, if you're hearing this, you made it to night two! Uhmm, congrats!"

"...Hey there, Book," she replied slowly. "Thanks... I guess."

She still found the former nightguard's voice a little grating, but after learning about what he had managed to do from Griff's accounts, she did have more respect for him. Anyone who could go three days of this deserved it.

"I got to say, not many come back after their first night here from what I've heard. Still, I won't talk quite as long this time, since Freddy and his friends tend to become more active as the week progresses."

Dash blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Uhh, it might be a good idea to peek at those cameras while I talk, just to make sure everyone's in their proper place."

Dash immediately brought up the cameras, zeroing in on the show stage. All three of them were still there, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good," she said softly, then she focused on Freddy's image. "Wonder when you're gonna start walking around, Freddy?" she muttered darkly. "How long are you just gonna stand up there all like a boss?"

As if predicting her words, Book suddenly continued.

"Interestingly enough, Freddy himself doesn't come off stage very often. I heard he becomes a lot more active in the dark though, so, hey, I guess that's one more reason to not run out of power, right? Guess he doesn't like moving if people can see or even just have lights on him. Heh, it's like he's shy or something."

"More like creepy," Dash muttered, her gaze on Freddy and almost imagining him turning his head to look at her through the camera, as if insulted by that comment. "Yeah, I'm talking to you, Fazzy."

"Also, I want to emphasize the importance of using your door lights. There are blind spots in your camera view, and those blind spots happen to be right outside of your doors. So if you can't find something... or someone on your cameras, be sure to check the door lights. You might only have a few seconds to react."

"Been there, done that." she answered, glad she mastered at least one thing right on her first night. "No doll gonna outpace me to that button."

"...not that you would be in any danger, of course. I'm not implying that."

"Of course you're not," Dash couldn't help but deadpan. "You never imply when you can just outright say it."

"Also, check on the curtains in Pirate Cove from time to time. The character in there seems to be unique in that he becomes more active if the cameras remain off for long periods of time. I guess he doesn't like to be ignored. I don't know."

Dash took a moment to glance towards Pirate Cove. Sure enough, they were still shut, Foxy nowhere to be seen.

"Don't mess with me, Foxy," she muttered softly. "You're my favorite doll yet. Don't screw it up for me now."

"Anyway, I'm sure you have everything under control. Uhm, talk to you soon!" The line then went dead.

Dash switched the camera off for a moment to look at the phone. "...Yeah, you too, Shep."

She then glanced back towards the cameras, switching to the stage only to see Bonnie gone. She took a deep breath.

"Well, let's do this," she said to herself, quickly switching to another camera. "Bring it on, you darn dolls."

1:47 AM. 82% power remaining.

*clang*

The steel door came down a smiling Bonnie's face. Dash didn't even bother to give him a second glance as she turned back to the camera, her attention already focused on finding out where Chica was. The chicken had started moving about 30 minutes ago, way faster than last time. As such, she had been forced to use power much faster than last time as well.

"C'mon, c'mon..." she muttered to herself, flicking through the cameras. Party area clear, east hall fine, restrooms free...

She flicked to the kitchen, then relaxed at the sound of pots and pans clattering. Guess Chica was just having a snack.

She took a moment to check Pirate Cove again, seeing the curtains were still shut, then at the stage, where Freddy stood in all his glory. Again, Shep's warning came to her again about losing power. She had gotten lucky last night, but who was to say Freddy would just let it slide again?

"Not tonight Freddy," she muttered darkly to the bear, almost wishing he could hear her. "And not any other night."

She put the camera down and checked the light to see if Bonnie was still at the door. He wasn't, so she opened it up.

Dash had to admit, once you got past the fact you were alone in a locked pizza joint with limited power and three magic dolls running around trying to stuff you in a suit wetting yourself in terror, it was actually equal parts thrilling and... kinda boring.

Heck, if it wasn't for the fact she couldn't be entirely certain about Foxy, she could probably just ignore the cameras entirely and check the door lights every few minutes for Bonnie and Chica, and then just shut the doors on them as needed.

'Why couldn't this be more like Daring Doo?' she wondered to herself about her favorite hero. 'No waiting for the bad guys to come to me, take the fight to them and kick flank!'

...You know, speaking of books, she could probably write a horror story out of this little adventure. Just get Spike and some paper, write down everything that happened and learned plus some scare-your-pants off extra stuff, and she'd have a bestseller on her hooves.

The thought made her chuckle as she started looking through the cameras again, cycling through to figure out where Bonnie and Chica were now. "Yeah, we'd all be famous, yours truly more so," she said aloud to herself. "And I'd call it-"

Her thoughts terminated when she lighted on the East Hall Corner, her gaze on a particular spot on the wall where a white poster was. She had noticed it once before last night. It was a list of the safety rules of the establishment, with eight different points on it.

1. Don't run
2. Don't yell
3. Don't scream
4. Don't poop on floor
5. Stay close to Mom
6. Don't touch Freddy
7. Don't hit
8. Leave before dark

Might have been enough to creep her out originally, but by the time she had seen it she had been enduring both Bonnie and Chica's games, so the potential shock factor had been lost on her. She had glanced at it once during her first run-through of the place with Griff, but she didn't get past number 5 before they had moved on, and she didn't give it much thought afterwards.

What had stopped her was the fact that the sign no longer showed off those rules. Instead, the list had been replaced with new text:

Foals vanish at local pizzeria - bodies not found.

Two local foals were reportedly lured into a back room during the late hours of operation at Freddy Fazbear's pizza on the night of June 26th. While video surveillance identified the stallion responsible and led to his capture the following morning, the foals themselves were never found and are presumed dead.

Police think the suspect dressed as a mascot to earn the foals' trust.

"What the..." Dash muttered, confusion in every syllable. Foals had disappeared here? Murdered? Why hadn't Shep mentioned any of this?

"I don't quite understand it myself, but my dad told me Grandpa... something happened during the early days of the place. I don't know exactly what, but he said that they could never go to the police or something would happen. We got lucky with the Bite, but if anyone ever found out... well, the family could be in danger."

Her muzzle scrunched up at the memory. 'Was this what he meant?' she wondered. 'Some foals died in here?'

Suddenly, her ears caught the sound of something near her left side. Not sparing a moment, she slammed the tablet down and jumped towards the door button. Everything was a blur in her mad dash, but she swore she caught sight of a purple foot snapping back from the closing door.

She didn't stop there. She pushed off the wall towards the opposite one, quickly pressing the door light whilst reaching for one of her sticks, ready to see Chica's face at any moment.

Nothing.

She took a moment to take a breath. "Calm down Dash," she told herself. "You've got this down pat."

Still, she took a moment to glance at her power and grimaced. 75% already.

3:38 AM. 61% remaining.

Foxy was looking at her now.

She didn't know when he had decided he hadn't gotten enough attention, but there he was, curtains drawn back just enough that she could see his face and upper half, glancing up towards her like "Hey, spare somepony a few minutes, alright?"

"Oh come on Foxy!" she groaned at the image. "I promised to visit every night before the shift starts! What more do you want?"

No answer of course. Dash shook her head and changed the view after she stayed on him for about two minutes, ears always on alert for the sound of Bonnie or Chica getting closer. She found herself back at the show stage, Freddy all by his lonesome. This time though, he too was staring into the camera with his black eyes.

Another thing she liked about Foxy. He didn't get all creepy-eyed like the others.

"Hey to you too, Freddy," she muttered quietly. "You just stay there, alright?"

Again, no answer. Dash had no idea quite honestly why she kept talking to them like she expected an answer. Guess the isolation just made her that much more willing to try and talk to somepony, even if said somepony was a killer magic doll.

Or maybe it was because Foxy had spoken to her briefly.

She still wondered about that honestly. Was that actually Foxy speaking, or was it just one of the things he was programmed to say like the others were that he said at random? Either way, it still creeped her out a little. She hadn't been expecting him to actually talk, just make some sort of movement to show he heard her.

A gurgling noise alerted her to something on her right. Without missing a beat she put the tablet down, rushed the door and pressed the button, catching a flash of yellow before the door shut on the chicken doll.

She sighed. This job, outside of the scares, really did get repetitive after a while.

Still, she took a moment, after making sure Bonnie wasn't near the other door, to glance at the cameras again, particularly back in the East Hall Corner. Her eyes scanned the white poster that had showed her the news clipping.

Nothing. It was just a safety list.

She flicked to another screen, the restrooms. It had been that way for almost two hours. After she had looked back into the camera after dealing with Bonnie, the news had disappeared like it had never been there, and the list was back like nothing happened.

'Maybe I just imagined it,' she wondered to herself. 'The place is just getting to me is all.'

Still, that didn't explain why she would imagine something she never even thought of until just then...

"Da da dum dum dum diddly dum du diddly di..."

Her head snapped up at the sound of singing. "Who the-"

"Dum dum diddly dum dum dum diddly dum dum diddly di..."

She blinked. That sounded like...

"Foxy?" she whispered softly, quickly changing the camera view to Pirate Cove. Sure enough, the fox was still there, and while he hadn't move once, the sound got louder, as if he was getting encouragement from being seen.

"What now, Foxy?" she groaned aloud. "Kind of in the middle of something here."

No answer of course. Still the music continued.

Dash put the tablet down, pressing the light button on the right to see if Chica was still there, then lifted the door when she got the all-clear. Then she checked if Bonnie had gotten to the other door, but that was clear too. Still, the swashbuckling theme continued in the background.

She sighed, then leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes. "...Well, at least I won't be bored as much anymore..."

4:57 AM. 36% power remaining.

"Da da dum dum diddly di du dum dum dumdy dum da dum..."

Dash found herself humming Foxy's tune in off-kilter harmony with the damaged doll as she glanced at the camera screen, always checking back on Pirate Cove every few minutes to see that Foxy was, of course, still there. She chewed the spare sandwich she had brought with her on her watch before slurping some of the lukewarm cheap coffee from the machine in a cup, gagging for a moment as it went down.

"I'm seriously gonna ask Griff to make it so the coffee stays warm while in the pot," she muttered to herself as she threw the cup away, feeling the slight buzz of the caffeinated drink boosting her flagging eyelids. "That stuff's just nasty otherwise."

A glance to her left, a push of the door button while also pressing the light. The leering face of Bonnie greeted her.

She slammed it back down. "Yeah, yeah, Bonnie. Go munch on a carrot or something."

She checked the right door for Chica, seeing it was still clear, and then looked into the camera. She found the chicken in the party area, in the middle of the room with her head turned towards the camera. Her eyes and mouth were wide open like she was all happy to be seen on camera, an improvement over her usual creepy glares.

Dash actually stared for at the expression she was making for a few seconds, then suddenly started laughing despite herself. "Gehheheh... wow, it's like someone stuffed a big ol' spoon up her butt... she looks so startled... guess something must happened in the kitchen..."

She shook her head and checked the left door for Bonnie, opening it when she didn't see him anymore. She then went back to the tablet, changing the view to another camera, back in the East Hall Corner. On a bit of habit she had developed, she glanced towards the white safety list, back over the listed numbers-

They weren't there anymore.

Dash felt her previous good mood start to evaporate as she got a good look at the new text on the poster.

Five foals now reported missing. Suspect convicted.]

Five foals are now linked to the incident at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, where a stallion dressed as a cartoon mascot lured them into a back room.

While the suspect has been charged, the bodies themselves were never found.

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza has been fighting an uphill battle ever since to convince families to return to the pizzeria.

"It's a tragedy."

'Five foals now?' Dash wondered as she put the tablet down. She recalled the previous one stating there had only been two. Was this one newer? Either way, she was getting a better understanding of why Griff's father had been mum about this around his son.

"Does he really not know what happened?" she asked herself. Surely he had to have an inkling about all this. Heck, it was like the place was literally trying to tell her itself about it all, so why should he not know?

So wrapped up in her thoughts she became, she didn't notice that Foxy's song had slowly dribbled out. She didn't even hear the faint sounds of something shifting near one of the doorways.

She did, however, hear the sound of quiet, pony-like groaning coming from her left.

She turned her head, just in time to catch sight of Bonnie's smiling face, looking more in-place on some sort of serial killer right then, as he lunged for her, his mouth opening and closing rapidly as his purple arms reached out to grab her.

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Dash didn't say anything. Her thoughts were moving too fast for her mouth to form into words. All she managed was something between a choke, sob, and scream as she kicked off her chair into the air, hoping against hope she could put some distance between herself and the mad doll. He kept coming regardless though, already reaching upwards to grab her ascending form.

Against most other pegasi, it would have worked. But Rainbow Dash was faster than most, and she had pure adrenaline coursing through her body boosting it. In addition, the ceiling of the office was just high enough that she was out of his reach once she reached it.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid!' Dash yelled at herself in her head, cursing her lapse of concentration. Of course, it was quickly tempered by the realization she had to deal with this before Chica got inside too. She quickly reached for her left wing, grasping at the stick with her teeth.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon..." she muttered as she pulled it out, then pressed the switch, watching as it extended with a wicked spark of electricity at the end. She grasped at the new handle with her hoof, smiling as she realized that she wasn't defenseless anymore.

She glanced down at Bonnie, whose smile seemed to fade just slightly as he caught sight of the doll prod in her hooves, though whether it was disappointment, fear, or nothing and she was just imagining it Dash didn't know.

However, she did know one thing.

"Employees only!" she barked only once, then lunged down with the prod faster than the doll could react, thrusting forward like it was jousting lance. "Get out!"

Her strike caught the bunny right in the chest. At once, blue sparks blasted over the doll's body, its eyes seeming to bulge as the shock took effect, forcing him back a step or two. Dash didn't hesitate for a second, quickly mashing the right door button so Chica wouldn't get in the way. The door came down, leaving her trapped with the doll and with the only exit right behind it.

That didn't bother Dash though. She just wanted this guy out.

She swung the stick again, this time right between the bunny's eyes. "And stay out!"

If the first shock had the wanted effect, this was doubled. Bonnie's eyes seemed to grow larger and in definite fear as the shocks intensified, forcing him back three more steps. He was right at the edge of the doorway, tethering on the doorframe.

This time, Dash didn't bother with the final shock. Instead, she turned around, brought her hind legs back, waited for the sparks to die down, and bucked him in the chest once, forcing him all the way out.

Dash knew she should shut the door on him to finish the job, but she couldn't help but get one last one-liner off.

"Ha! Take that, you..."

She stopped, her taunt dying on her lips. Bonnie stood in front of her, already stabilizing his feet, and looked straight at her, face now longer so much smiling as snarling, and his eyes didn't seem so cheery any more.

That wasn't what caught her attention though. It was the thing behind him.

Bonnie seemed to realize she wasn't staring at him and turned his head as well, getting a firsthand view of a pair of golden eyes.

"Avast, matey. 'Tis rude to barge in on a lady like that, ya know."

That was all Foxy the Pirate said before his clawed hand, devoid of fur, lunged forward and grabbed Bonnie's shoulder, pulling him out of view of the available light from the office.

Dash didn't wait to see what happened next. She pressed the switch that activated the left door, watching as it slammed down.

5:59 AM. 3% power remaining.

Dash didn't let either door up the remainder of the night. She didn't even bother checking the door lights to see if any of the dolls were really there or not. She kept them shut the entire time. That close brush with death (something she never really gave thought to) was at the forefront of her mind the entire time, long after the adrenaline of the moment wore off. Had she but a moment slower, or even hesitated for a second...

"Stop it!" she snapped at herself for the tenth time. "That didn't happen! You faced down Bonnie and won! Showed that darn doll a thing or too... no seeing the insides of doll suits tonight or any other night..."

Still, the fear was there even after those assertions, keeping her from lifting the locks of sanctuary she had erected.

Of course, she was still aware of her power limits even with that fear at the forefront of her mind. As such, she had forgoed any usage of the door lights. She never checked the cameras either, save for brief moments and towards one particular place.

She found herself glancing towards said place even now. Pirate Cove laid before her vision, though Foxy himself wasn't visible, the curtains drawn closed again. She hoped that meant he was alright. She had heard what sounded like metal bashing against metal even through the door for a few short minutes before the sounds of footsteps away from the security room reached her.

"...Be safe, alright Foxy?" she found herself whispering. A part of her, for all her decisions on how he was her favorite, still couldn't believe she was honestly caring for the damaged doll's wellbeing. But a larger part of her, the part that resonated with her sense of loyalty and friendship, couldn't help it. Foxy, along with Shep through his messages, was more or less her only true ally and companion during these six long hours, and she was always loyal to her companions.

She glanced towards her power. One percent. She clenched the stick still in her hoof. One charge would be enough to stop one long enough to get out of the way.

Doo dee doo doo... doo dee DEE doo... dee doo dee doo... dee dee DEE doo...

Suddenly, she heard what sounded just like Rarity's doorbell chime out throughout the room. She blinked for a moment, then her eyes widened as the doors around her suddenly snapped opened. She braced herself for any killer dolls, then blinked again when she realized the lights were still on.

"What the-"

She glanced towards the power meter. To her surprise and slowly growing happiness, it was starting to climb upwards again, as if it was being recharged.

With very slow, very deliberate motions, she turned her head towards the clock.

6:00 AM.

She had survived the second night at Freddy's.

She felt a big grin spread across her face as she allowed that fact to sink in, then she jumped out of her chair and pumped the air with her hooves.

"BOOYAH!" She yelled out loud. "I won! You hear that Freddy?! I bucking won!"

A far cry from her first day's reaction, but again, she was far more prepared this time around.

After spending perhaps five minutes cheering about how awesome she was, Rainbow Dash calmed down enough to think clearly. Her eyes turned to the left doorway. She still had one last thing to do today before leaving.

Rainbow Dash pulled back the curtains to Pirate Cove, showing Foxy the Pirate in all of his glory. However, she also noticed that he seemed to have one or two new dents in his body that hadn't been there last time she saw him.

Dash said the first thing that came to mind.

"...You know, I totally could have taken him without you, you know?"

...Okay, maybe that could have been said a little more tactfully. Dash pressed a hoof to her head as she attempted to get her thoughts in order before continuing.

"I mean... I could have handled it without you. You didn't have to leave the Cove, you know what I'm saying? Don't know if you have a beef with Freddy and the others, but you didn't have to come out and risk getting even more hurt."

She took a deep breath, then slowly floated upwards and moved herself so that she could stare Foxy straight in the eyes.

"...But you did, and I got to thank you for that. So... thanks Foxy." A smile crossed her face. "You really are the coolest thing in this place. And coming from me, that's saying something."

She stared at the fox doll for a couple of seconds, then looked away. "Well, gotta go now, Foxy. See you tonight."

She turned to place the curtains back in place. Before she could though, she heard a familiar voice.

"Me thanks, lass. I hope you outfox Freddy and the gang yet."

Dash turned around, but again, she saw no sign that Foxy had even moved. For a moment, she seriously wondered if she was just hallucinating everything Foxy said to her but then shook her head. So what then? If it gave her the strength to keep going, who was she to complain?

Still... "Thanks Foxy."

With that, she shut the curtains once again, leaving the animatronic alone in his haven. She quickly made her way to the main exit, stopping just for a moment to look up towards the stage. The other three, sure enough, were up there like nothing had happened, all staring at her.

She did notice that while Chica seemed to stare at her with something resembling playfulness and Freddy looked sorta annoyed, Bonnie looked downright angry and a little fearful. The fact he had several scorches on his suit and also had what appeared to be a ripped left leg and ear on his costume managed to make said emotions a little more understandable though.

Of course, maybe she was just projecting.

She gave them a half-mocking salute. "'Til tonight, my 'friends'."

With that, she opened the doors and stepped out into the first rays of Celestia-blessed sunlight. She took a deep breath of fresh air, and a large part of her wanted nothing more than to go and take a shower, take a good long nap, and then goof off for the rest of the day.

Of course, she had every intention of doing the first two, but she couldn't do the last one.

Her smile briefly faded as she thought back to what she had seen on the poster.

Foals murdered in the restaurant... definitely something she needed to see Griff Schmidt about.

"...I'm seriously gonna talk to Twilight about sending me to other places to grab stuff for her," she decided to herself. "And I'm gonna ask her for give plenty of bits, make sure I don't get into things like this again... and also for some ghost-busting gear."

Coffee Shop Talk

Ponyville (Morning)

Ponyville.

A quiet little town in the backcountry, far enough away from the bustle of places like Manehatten and Camelot to retain an old-fashioned rustic feel, yet it wasn't what anyone versed in the region would called 'outdated' either. It struck the balance of old and new while leaning towards the former, giving an air of 'the good old days' to anyone weary of the city life.

Not exactly the place anyone would expect for the personal protege of one of the two alicorn princesses to have made her residence of stay, nor where six of Equestria's greatest heroines made their home.

It was also the last place anyone would expect to have seen the rise and fall of a dark princess, a lord of chaos, or a demon of ancient days in that order, but all had happened, the proof of the last battle being in the form of the grand crystal castle standing tall and proud in the very area where the town library, Golden Oaks Library, had met its untimely destruction. It was here that the previously-mentioned protege now made her home, a far cry from the humble beginnings she had started with.

It was here that Twilight Sparkle, student to Princess Celestia of Equestria, now alicorn and Princess of Friendship, now spent her days, currently in the process of renovating the castle to her liking.

"Where could she be, where could she be, where could she be..."

...Of course, that process was currently put on-hold as she spent her time pacing back and forth within the library room, multiple boxes of books and old tomes waiting to be organized near their assigned shelves. And while Twilight normally would have pursued such an endeavor like a filly who just got her birthday presents, she couldn't even build up the focus right then to do that.

"It's been three days now without a word... darn it, what's taking Rainbow Dash so long?" she muttered to herself as she continued pacing. If one was to observe her current physical state, they would take note of the fact that her mane didn't look like it had been brushed in quite some time, in addition to the occasional twitch in her eyes along with the slight bags of underneath, all obvious indicators of stress.

"It's not that far between here and Baltimare... if my calculations are correct, she should have made the trip here and back twenty times by now!" She suddenly paused. "...Or was it 200?"

She shook her head. "Doesn't matter right now! The point is she should have been back by now!"

She turned her head towards a table, noting the pile of notes and equations sprawled out all over it. "Maybe if I account for a wing breaking-"

"Twilight..."

The alicorn's head snapped towards the entrance to the room, only relaxing slightly when she caught sight of the young purple dragon walking inside with a plate loaded with snacks and some tea in one claw and a slightly concerned expression on his face.

"Oh... good morning Spike," she greeted her number-one assistant. "How did you sleep?"

He glanced over to the table of notes before looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "Better than you, from the looks of things," he answered, placing the tray down. "Twilight, don't tell me you stayed up all night."

"I-" Twilight began, but stopped when a great big yawn escaped her mouth. Quickly covering it, she took a moment to rub her eyes before staring at Spike. "I'm fine, Spike. Don't worry about me."

Spike did not in any way looked convinced. "Uh-huh."

Twilight sighed. "Okay, so maybe I stayed up a little late. I always do that."

"Yeah, but not for three days straight," Spike answered her. "And you've spent the entire last one cooped up in here with your notes. Seriously Twilight, you can take a break. Staying like this really isn't good for you."

She looked away for a moment. Spike was right, she knew that, but...

"I'm just worried about Rainbow Dash," she replied. "We haven't heard hide nor hair of her since she went to Baltimare. She could be in hospital for all we know. I just-"

"Twilight, Dash is fine," Spike said. "I don't think you should be worrying about her like this."

"I'm the one that made her go Spike," she reminded him. "If she got hurt, that means I was responsible for it. I don't like not knowing what's taking her so long. I mean, it wouldn't be so bad if we got a message-"

Suddenly, there was the sound of something colliding against the library window. Both Twilight and Spike jumped at the noise before turning towards it, only to see a blonde-maned grey pegasus flapping her wings outside, shaking her head from the impact before taking notice of them both, quickly waving a hoof towards them.

"Hey, mailpony's here," Spike noted lamely.

Twilight just sighed. 'What are the odds?' she wondered to herself as she walked over to the window, using her magic to open it and pegasus in.

"Hi, Twilight Sparkle! Hi, Spike!" she greeted them both of them warmly, though the way her eyes seemed to refuse to focus on either of them, due to their crossed nature.

"Hey Derpy," Twilight greeted the mailmare warmly. "Having a good day?"

"Never better!" she replied with a smile, then frowned slightly. "Though you know it's 'Ditzy' these days, right?"

Twilight blinked. "Oh! Uh... of course, Ditzy!" she quickly replied. "Sorry about that-"

"It's no problem!" the newly-christened 'Ditzy' replied warmly. "I've gotten used to it!"

'You know, just last week you told me to call you 'Derpy' when we had this conversation...' Twilight thought to herself, then shook her head. "So, any mail?"

Ditzy blinked, then quickly rummaged into her saddlebag. "Where was it... know I put it somewhere... Ah ha!"

With that triumphant yell, Ditzy grabbed whatever was inside, pulling it out. "Straight from Baltimare's 3-day delivery service!" she declared proudly. "Right on time!"

'Baltimare?' Twilight wondered, but she didn't have a chance to fully process the meaning behind the words before she took a look at the package. It was a black hardcover book with silver engraving on the surface, the title spelled out in cursive.

Past Sins: Return of the Nightmare

Underneath, the silver took the form of a unicorn's head, with the visible eye being the only thing different in color: Black where a pony's would be white and a deep gold in the normal part of the eye.

However, what had her attention was the letter attached near the bottom with some tape, hastily scrawled with Dash's writing To Twilight.

She had a thousand questions running through her head and so desperately wanted to rip that letter off and read it right then and there to satisfy at least a few of them, but she composed herself, remembering her manners. Looking up, she gave Ditzy a smile.

"Thank you, Ditzy."

The pegasus saluted. "Happy to be of service, ma'am!"

With that, she turned around and flew out the window, somehow avoiding the window despite her eye condition and soaring clear outside. Twilight quickly used her magic to close the door, then turned her attention to Spike, holding up the letter while putting the book down. That could wait until later.

Spike had a slightly smug look on his face. "What did I tell you? Probably just tied down with something."

"You're not right yet," Twilight replied as she opened the seal and pulled the paper out. "For all we know, she could be in big trouble and needs us to bail her out..."

She trailed off as she scanned the writing.

Then reread it.

And then again.

Finally, she put the paper down on the ground and brought a hoof to her face, rubbing her eyes slightly. Whether it was because of sleepiness or something she read, Spike had no clue.

"Darn it Dash..."

...Okay, it was probably the latter.

He reached down for it. "Can I..."

She made a dismissive gesture. Spike took as a 'yes' and started to read the letter himself.

Dear Twilight,

You're probably wondering where the hay I've been for the past three days once you get this letter. Sorry, but apparently this is the fastest mail can go from here to Ponyville, so blame those guys. They should have special express mailponies for these sorts of emergencies, you know? ...Probably couldn't afford it though, so I guess that wouldn't have mattered either way.

Anyways, I'm alive, if that's what you're wondering. I'm also not in the hospital. I was as healthy and free as a bird by the time I wrote this. Why I'm sending this book of yours by mail and not giving it to you myself then? Well... I kinda... broke some stuff while I was here.

Okay, first off, it was stormy. I didn't do it on purpose. Second, nopony got hurt, and I only broke one thing! That's a plus, right?

...'Cept where the 'thing' was a sign that costs 120 bits.

Yeah...so, long story short, I'm working off the debt in the stallion's business. It's called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza or something like that, 24 bits a night for five nights. I'm working as a nightguard watching the place and the magic dolls. Yeah, magic dolls like you talked about that one time, apparently these ones can sing! Don't know how they got them though...

Anyways, I'm gonna be gone for awhile, but I guess I'll be more than halfway done when you get this letter. The place is actually closing on my last day, so maybe you and the girls can come down to see me in my new gear and watch the dolls play a little bit. Bring Spike if you want.

Don't you go and start sending bits though, Twi. I got into this mess, and I can get myself out of it. I mean, c'mon, what can five nights do?

Well, see you in a couple of days. Tell everypony I said hi!

Rainbow Dash

P.S: Still, you owe me a favor for this, Twi.

Spike looked up at Twilight. "See? Nothing to worry about."

Twilight sighed. 'Guess I was worried for nothing,' she thought to herself. Still, Dash sounded like she had things under control, so she supposed that was a plus.

"You gonna tell everypony else about this?"

"Yeah," Twilight replied, already walking towards the door. "Might as well hurry up and get it over with. That way, everypony doesn't has to worry about Dash being in danger or me freaking out."

A sudden gurgle interrupted her just as she reached the door. Twilight glanced down at her stomach before turning back to Spike, who just gestured towards the plate he brought inside.

"...After something to eat of course," she added.

"Mind if I join in?" Spike asked, his own stomach suddenly growling.

Twilight allowed herself to smile. "Of course, Spike. Dig in."

After three days of worry, things were starting to look up.

Baltimare (Same Time)

Three days in, and the stress was starting to get to her.

Rainbow Dash blinked slowly as she sat in a coffee shop, bags under her eyes as she gazed with a glazed look around. Across from her, Griff Schmidt sighed as he pushed a cup of coffee towards her.

"Here, drink this," he told her. "This should help you focus a little. It's on me."

Dash slowly took it between her hooves and brought it to her mouth, slurping it down and not caring for the way it stung at her throat.

"...Rough night?" Griff asked her rhetorically.

"What do you think?" Dash mumbled back, cup still over her mouth but not drinking anymore. "Couldn't sleep when it was over with."

Griff didn't have a witty answer for that, so they simply sat in silence. As they did, he thought back to how the day had gone so far.

After he had come in that morning to find Bonnie and Chica in various stages of entrapment under furniture while Freddy and Foxy were in their respective places, he had immediately gone to the backrooms to make sure that Rainbow had not become the newest addition to the Fazbear cast. Once he had managed to assure himself of that, he had gone back to see that several of his employees had arrived and were now staring at the two fallen dolls.

Some goading and heavy lifting later, they managed to get the dolls up and back on the stage (surprisingly, they were actually in rather good shape, all things considered: No rips or tears in their costumes or even any real damage unlike with Bonnie.) After also replacing part of Freddy's costume, the part with the scorchings on it, Griff had taken his leave and decided to go searching for Rainbow Dash personally to learn what had happened. In all his time as manager, he had never come in to find the dolls in such a state, so he figured something big must have gone down.

He hadn't exactly expected to come across her just sitting in a booth in a coffee shop, looking like she was about to pass out, but hey, small world.

"Mind sharing?" he finally asked. "Anything to do with Bonnie and Chica being crushed under furniture?"

She suddenly chuckled. "Yeah, that was funny. That was Foxy, not me, by the way."

Griff blinked. That was not something he had expected to hear. "Foxy?"

"Yeah, the guy's a riot," Dash replied lazily, slurping from her cup. "We have a bit of a system going on, you know? I come to Pirate Cove before the shift starts, keep him company and talk a little bit, and he stays there for the rest of the night and doesn't bother me, as long as I remember to look at him through the cameras every now and then to let him know I'm still watching. He even sings songs that we hum together when it gets boring."

She looked at him from straight for the first time in the conversation. "Don't you remember Bonnie the day before yesterday? Foxy roughed him up when he tried to get me near the end. I guess he doesn't like it when dolls mess with ponies he likes."

Griff was silent. Foxy had been helping her this entire time? Granted, he had expected something had been going on with Bonnie and Foxy's conditions yesterday, not to mention the fact she seemed to always stare over at Pirate Cove with a different expression than with the three on the show stage, far less... fear and loathing.

Besides, if the dolls truly were sentient as he occasionally indulged in thinking, who wasn't to say they couldn't end up making their own decisions on who they wanted to attack? Maybe there was something about Dash that Foxy liked enough that he didn't want to stuff her in a suit.

'Maybe he's just a sucker for praise,' a part of his mind thought to itself.

Maybe he should have been more suspicious of what Rainbow Dash had to say, but Griff had seen Foxy get in Golden Freddy's way during the Bite of '87, saw him get damaged and put in Pirate Cove discontinued. If there was any magic doll in the pizzeria that he could believe could and would help a nightguard, it would be Foxy the Pirate. It certainly helped that said doll was his favorite one, even as a foal and all the way to adulthood.

Still, something she said felt off to him...

"He speaks with you?" Griff asked confusedly. He could understand Foxy helping her, but speaking actual sentences? Most all of the endoskeletons had pre-recorded lines in their voice box, so exactly how Foxy could apparently, from what Dash was implying, speak in entirely complete and normal sentences like anypony could was beyond him.

She shrugged. "Eh, not much really," she admitted, chugging down the last of her coffee, looking a little more awake than earlier. "He usually only says about a sentence or so a meeting, and sometimes not even that. He usually just stares off into the distance while I ramble on, only talking when I'm about to leave."

"Maybe he thinks you have a nice voice."

Dash snorted. "Yeah, whatever. The most I've ever heard him speak was last night, when Freddy tried to get me after I ran out of power."

"You what?!"

Dash flinched. "Pipe down, Griff. We're in a shop and you're giving me a headache. Last thing I need right now, y'know."

Griff turned his head and noticed several other patrons staring at him for his outburst. After offering a brief apology, he turned back to Dash.

"...Sorry. It's just... well, I guess that explains the scorch marks on Freddy."

Dash snickered. "You should the seen the look on his face when I got outside after six and Foxy got in the way. It was priceless!" Suddenly, she blinked, as if remembering something. "Oh yeah, about that... is Foxy all right?"

"Last I checked him, yeah. Why?"

She shook her head, looking away. "Nothing. Freddy's just looked mad last I saw."

"Worried about the Captain?" Griff said in a teasing tone. "What, is he your coltfriend now?"

Her head snapped back around so fast he could have sworn he heard something crack. "N-No!" she quickly said. "What the hay gave you that idea!?"

Griff just chuckled. "I'm just messing with you." His expression then turned a little more serious. "In all seriousness though, Foxy's fine. He's a tough nut to crack. Golden Freddy was proof of that."

A shadow seemed to pass over Dash's face when he said that. She looked down into her cup, as if wishing there was more coffee in there. It did not go unnoticed.

"...Something wrong, Dash?"

She looked up. "N-No, nothing's wrong," she said with a slightly forced smile. "What makes you say that?"

Griff sighed as he called over a waitress, telling her to bring a few more cups of coffee, then looked back at her. "Rainbow Dash, don't lie to me. If you saw something last night, you can tell me. I won't call you crazy, no matter what."

"I thought you said me taking the job for five nights was crazy."

He shrugged. "Fair enough, but seriously, you can say what you saw. Buck, I believed you when you said Foxy was helping, didn't I?"

Dash was silent for a few minutes, eyes glancing down as if trying to figure out how to put this. Griff waited patiently, knowing better than to rush her. Several minutes later, the waitress came back with the coffee, of which one Rainbow Dash immediately took and started to drink from.

It was when half of said cup was done did she finally start talking again.

"I saw the ghost of Golden Freddy last night."

To her surprise, Griff looked down. "I was afraid of that."

Dash blinked. "Wh-what?"

"You aren't the first pony to claim to have seen the golden bear after his... retirement," Griff replied. "After the Bite of '87 and the fallout, patrons began to claim to hear strange noises like warbling and laughter in some of the more secluded areas of the pizzeria, especially in the West Hall. Some even claimed to see posters occasionally change to that of faces of an eyeless Golden Freddy. Shep actually told me he saw the actual bear himself a few times during last two nights, but especially during his third one."

Dash sensed there was something personal in this. "And you?"

Griff looked her in the eyes. "The day after my family destroyed the costumes and endoskeleton, I was just wandering around backstage by myself while everything was business as usual. All the dolls were in their proper places, even though they weren't being used, and my family was attempting to try and end the police quarantine around the area so that business could start up again. The costume area was one of the few areas which weren't under investigation due to the Bite never occurring near the area, so I was just wandering around a bit."

"Throughout the entire time I was there though, I couldn't help but feel that something or someone was watching me. I kept glancing around, but only the eyeless faces of spare Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica suits greeted my gaze. Again, we didn't have replacements for Foxy, so I don't include him. After a couple of minutes, I finally decided to leave the room when my eye caught sight of something gold. Sure enough, it was a Golden Freddy suit, limp on the ground like it had been carelessly thrown there, though still propped up against the wall like it was sitting."

Griff took a breath, sipping his own coffee as he took a moment to think. "As you know, we had burned all the spare suits by now, but I figured we must have missed this one. So I decided I should go get rid of it." His voice grew more ominous. "But something was off about it. It was all dirty and smudged, and the feeling of being watched increased as I stared at it, like this was the source. A feeling of dread started to fall over me, and then I was aware of the smell of smoke filling my nostrils, the dirt looking more like ash."

"Slowly, but surely, I started to hear a low warbling noise as I stared, and when I finally started to move towards it, it only got louder. Then I started seeing things. Everything went black, and I started to see an eyeless Bonnie walking towards me, then a Freddy with pony eyes. All the while, the warbling got louder and louder, with an occasionally filly giggle thrown in."

Dash just stared as Griff seemed to shrink into himself. "I remember just staring in shock, my heart feeling like a cannon. I didn't know what was happening, only that it was only gonna get worse. Sure enough, all the images suddenly disappeared, only to be replaced with two words: IT'S ME. Then Golden Freddy popped up right in front of my face and screamed in an extremely low demonic voice, and then I only remember firing something from my horn before losing consciousness. When I woke up, I had apparently blown up the back wall, but no one could find any sign of the suit."

He then shuddered before taking another sip of his coffee. "After that though, the rumors persisted. From what I can tell though, Golden Freddy can only appear after viewing a certain poster in the West Hall these days, at least according to Shep, and all he does is make you see hallucinations that leave your guard down for the others or, worst-case scenario, can cause a heart attack. As for why he doesn't show up otherwise... maybe my panic attack did something to him so he can't appear at will anymore, I don't know. I haven't seen him again since."

Dash was silent as he finished, then suddenly chuckled. "Wow, you've had it rough, huh?"

"Living with killer magic dolls, which may be haunted, mind you, can do that to a pony," Griff replied with his own, though it was less in jest and more to get his mind off those old thoughts. "You tend to see some pretty creepy stuff."

Dash grew silent again for a moment, then glanced around and said, after she was sure no one was listening, "Like blood and mucus bleeding out of them?"

Griff blinked, then looked at her. "What?"

"Another news article," Dash replied. "After the five foals vanished, families started seeing blood and mucus come out of their eye sockets every now and then, like 'reanimated carcasses'." She looked him dead in the eyes, disgust, anger and a slight bit of fear on her face and in her eyes. "That's why the bodies were never found: The killer stuffed them into the suits and left them there to rot."

Griff just stared at her in shock. What could he say to that? Yes, he had long suspected the dolls were haunted by some sort of spirit or spirits. Yes, he had begun to suspect that the five foals mentioned in the previous articles might had been said ghosts after being told about it by Dash, as well as the disturbing implications he had killed one of those foals again when they destroyed Golden Freddy and let the spirit haunt the pizzeria.

But he never imagined that the method by which they had died would be something like that. And that, along with the evidence the killer had been a former employee and did it in a Freddy Fazbear suit, suddenly made the method by which the dolls attempted to dispose of every nightguard all the more ironic.

"...Dear Celestia..." was all he could say in turn.

Dash slumped back down in her seat, gulping down the last of her coffee. "Haven't been able to sleep all night from learning all that stuff," she admitted. "I keep tossing and turning, and then I get nightmares of being stuffed into a suit while hearing foals laughing."

Griff was silent, noticing her frayed mane, ruffled coat and tired eyes, even after those cups of coffee. 'She hasn't even made it to the fourth night yet,' he thought to himself.

"You know, if you want to, you can still qui-"

Dash slammed her cup down on the table, not enough to break it, but enough to make a large enough noise to stop him in his tracks. Griff noticed that several ponies looked over towards them again, but Dash didn't seem to care.

"I ain't quitting, Schmidt," she told him simply. "I can still take 'em. I just got to up my own game. I can still win this."

Griff would have argued, given her condition, but held it in. He knew he wouldn't dissuade her, at least not without a copious amount of yelling, which was something he wanted to avoid in a public place. They were getting nasty enough looks as it was.

"Fine," he surrendered, watching as Rainbow Dash smiled in tired triumph, "But at least get some actual sleep. Even if you don't summon Golden Freddy, it won't do you much good if you're already hallucinating on your own."

She slumped down, tapping her head. "Nightmares, remember?"

"I'll get you some sleeping medicine to calm your nerves, my own personal creation," he assured her, then noticed her look. "Trust me, it works. I would never be able to function without it."

"...Fine..." she muttered, then passed him the two collapsed nightsticks. "Those need a charge, by the way."

Griff took them. "I'll get right on it then."

They paid for the coffee and left, Dash chugging down her third one before throwing it away and grabbing a fourth. Griff just shook his head.

"You won't be sleeping with that much caffeine."

"Trust me, I'll burn out real quick," Dash muttered as she chewed the straw she had brought with her while sipping the concoction. "I'm barely going as is."

Griff sighed. "Such is the life of a nightguard."

"I should get a gold medal for this." Dash replied.

11:30 PM

Rainbow Dash stood in front of the pizzeria's doors, feeling much more relaxed and rested than she would have thought. She briefly rubbed her forehead as she thought back to how Griff had given her a small bag of blue-grey powder and told her to mix about half of it with some normal water before drinking it.

"It'll help calm your nerves and ease your thoughts. Blocks out the bad to let you get a couple hours of sleep."

She had been skeptical, but after following the instructions, she had been out like a light once she hit her cloud bed. Not once did she dream of killer magic dolls.

'Guess I got to give credit where credit is due,' she admitted. 'The stuff works.'

Of course, she wasn't here early because she so well-rested. No, she was here now because she wanted answers. Answers that a certain red fox would give her before the night was through.

With a deep breath, she entered the pizzeria. To her surprise, Griff was already there, staring at her as she made her way inside.

"You're early," he noted.

Dash shrugged. "Just felt like coming."

He looked over towards the stage. Dash followed his gaze to see Freddy and company all in their proper places.

"They won't be moving just quite yet," he told her. "You still have thirty minutes."

Dash nodded. "So, uh, about my nightsticks..."

Griff levitated both of them towards her, putting them in their storage areas. "Fully recharged and ready when you are," he told her. Noticing her glance towards the stage, he shook his head. "We're not saying anything important, so don't worry about it."

Dash nodded again. "I'm just gonna..." she made a vague gesture towards Pirate Cove, "Go talk to Foxy."

Griff shrugged. "You do that if you want."

Dash stopped and stared at him. "...You don't find that weird?"

"If you want to talk with Foxy, that's your choice," Griff replied. "Whether he talks back is his. Seriously, after everything you've been telling me and what I've come to expect, I'm not gonna call you crazy. If you want to go and talk, then go and talk."

Dash was silent for a moment. "...Okay then."

She turned around and started to walk away. Griff called after her.

"Just don't spend too much time with your coltfriend, alright?"

"SERIOUSLY, WHERE'D YOU GET THAT IDEA!?"

The Fourth Night

11:35 PM

Dash pulled back the curtains of Pirate Cove, once again revealing Foxy's face to the world.

"Yo Foxy," she began slowly as she flew and hovered in front of him, making sure to keep him at eye level while her forelegs were crossed. "Good to see you're doing well."

Silence.

"...Okay, seriously, are you gonna give me straight answers this time around?" she asked, cutting right to the meat of the matter. "Can we have an actual conversation like we did last night?"

Silence.

Dash then just threw her hooves into the air. "ARGH! Seriously, just say something, why don't you!? Would it kill you to say a word!?" she raged, her frustration of over three days of stress finally coming to a boil. "I know that you're still a foal at heart, but give me something here! I'm tired of all this cryptic horsecrap! Give me a straight answer!"

She stopped her tirade for a moment, taking several deep breaths and looking down.

"Heh..."

Her ears twitched as she heard the sudden sound, causing her to look back up. "Wha?"

"Heheheh... hahahaha!"

Dash just stared as Foxy was suddenly doubled over with both arms over his stomach, his mouth opening and shutting at random as laughter, yes, laughter, escaped him. His eyes were shut as well in mirth, and she could almost imagine, if he were real, tears would also be running down his face.

She couldn't find the words to express herself. Yes, she had figured out the dolls were apparently alive, but after seeing them just creep around and be generally scary and/or creepy-looking, to see one apparently laughing, not out of pre-programming but genuine funny (to it, at least), was just too out there for her to comprehend.

"Wha?" was the only thing she could say.

"S-Sorry, me lass..." Foxy said as he started to calm down. "It's just... ye remind me so much of somepony else..."

Dash blinked, her confusion only growing as she listened.

"She always hated it- heheh -when I ignored her like that," he continued between laughs "She blew up like a volcano- hahehe -all the time..."

Suddenly, his voice seemed to take a sadder tone, uncrossing his arms as it did. "But... why can't I remember her name?" he asked, more to himself than her. "Why can't I remember her face anymore?"

Dash just stared as the doll's mood did a complete 180. Now, with his head and ears all drooping, body slumping down, he looked like he needed a hug more than anything else.

"...What was she like?" she couldn't help but ask. This was not where she was expecting their conversation to go, but for the life of her she couldn't help but want to know more.

Foxy looked up at her. "...What?"

"What was she like?" she repeated. "I want to know why you keep on helping me, but I also want to know more about you. So, what was she like, whoever she was?"

Foxy stared for a moment. "...Well, lass, she-"

"You know, I have a name," Dash reminded him, annoyed.

"Ye never gave it."

...Well, that was true. Dash sighed.

"It's Rainbow Dash," she replied, then allowed a smirk to cross her face. "Fastest flyer in all of Equestria, at your service."

Foxy stared for a moment, then just chuckled.

"What?" Dash asked.

"Another reason you're just like her," Foxy replied. "She was always boasting about herself, hardheaded, arrogant..."

"Geeze, lay it on thick, why don't you?" Dash grumbled, but Foxy wasn't done.

"But she was also brave, loyal, and refused to give up when things got tough," he added. "And she always went down swinging in a fight."

He looked directly at her, his eyepatch falling over one eye as he did so. "It's like I'm looking at her all over again." His voice grew sad. "I still remember her cries..."

"That's why you keep helping me."

Foxy seemed to nod. "I couldn't let it happen. I couldn't just lose you... her again."

Rainbow Dash blinked at his words, then suddenly decided to ask something. "What's your name?"

Foxy tilted his head. "Eh?"

"Not you, Foxy. I mean the you, you," Dash tried to clarify, then shook her head. "I mean, what was your name before... all this?"

Foxy stared at her for a moment that seemed to stretch on into eternity.

"...I... I don't know anymore..." he slowly answered. "No one's used it in so long..."

The two were silent as they stared at each other. Rainbow Dash felt like she had to say something.

"...I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For... everything," Dash replied. "I'm sorry about how you got hurt with Bonnie two days ago, then with Bonnie and Chica yesterday."

"But a flesh wound!" Foxy declared, then looked down at his body. "Well, not really..."

"I mean, about putting you at risk and all that," Dash tried to clarify. "I mean, thanks for everything, yeah, but still, you didn't have to-"

"Eh, I've wanted to do that to Freddy for awhile. Just screw him up a little bit."

"But... you know what, forget it," Dash decided, feeling a grin pick up on her face. "You're not gonna listen, are you?"

"Nope."

Dash laughed despite herself. "I say it again: You're the coolest magic doll around here."

Foxy seemed to smile. "I try."

Suddenly, they both heard a familiar voice.

"Dash?" Griff called out. "It's about time."

Dash turned back to Foxy. "Guess I'll see you later then?"

"Sooner than you might think," Foxy replied.

Dash snorted. "Just don't go waiting for the last second to make your entrance, alright?"

"I'm the fastest thing in here, lass," Foxy answered almost smugly. "I can outrun anything."

Dash rolled her eyes, but then flew up to the curtains. "See you then, Foxy."

"And to you too, lass. Be careful, Freddy's mighty angry with you tonight."

Dash nodded, then put the curtains back in place, watching as Foxy became obscured.

"Well, I shouldn't keep him waiting then, huh?"

12 AM

Dash sat in her little security room alone, Griff having long since left after making sure she had everything she needed. He didn't say anything, but she could tell he had been worried and more so than usual. She also knew why: This had been the last night he had ever seen Shep Book.

"Why didn't you just check his messages?" she had asked him. "He said the phone records them."

"Unfortunately, these messages are apparently only set to activate on the specific night of the guard on-duty, and they only play when said guard reaches that day," Griff had replied. "I know that sounds like a crap excuse, but that phone works in strange ways, and I've ever been able to figure out exactly how to make it playback the messages otherwise. I think Shep might have enchanted the phone with some sort of magic so that it wouldn't reveal them like that. I really don't know."

She glanced at said phone, wondering when it was going to start ringing.

'C'mon Shep,' she thought to herself, 'What do you have to say for your last night?'

As if on cue, the phone began to rang. Dash pressed the button, bringing up the tablet as she did so. "So Shep," she said as casually as she could. "What do you have to say tonight?"

"Hello, hello? Hey!" Shep greeted her with his usual cheeriness. "Hey, wow, Day 4. You're almost done with the week, just one more day. Hehheh... I knew you could do it."

But something was up with the way he was talking now. It sounded... forceful, like he was doing his best to remain nonchalant and happy like usual.

Dash took her eyes off the cameras to glance towards the phone. Again, she remembered about how this was Shep's last night. She hoped that was because he just couldn't take it anymore and decided to finally give up. But right now, she could sense the nervousness in his tone even through the recording and under the image of cheeriness, and that little bit of hope was already fading.

"You alright Shep?" she couldn't help but ask, though she knew better deep down.

"Uh, hey, listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow," Shep continued slowly, the nervousness starting to gain a greater hold in his voice. Suddenly, she heard something banging on the metal doors in the background. "It's-It's been a bad night here for me. Um, I-I'm kinda glad that I recorded my messages for you..." he suddenly stopped to clear his throat nervously, "uh, when I did. I've got a few minutes, but I don't think I can make 'em."

Dash suddenly found herself checking the cameras as Shep continued to talk. All three of them were still up on the show stage (to her relief), and Pirate Cove was still shut (to her disappointment). Despite that though, she couldn't help but keep a majority of her focus on Shep's message, unable to help herself from listening in to her predecessor's (quite possibly final) words.

"Uh, hey, do me a favor," Shep continued, the door banging still going in the background. "Maybe sometime, uh, you could check inside those suits in the back room? I'm gonna to try to hold out until somepony checks. Maybe it won't be so bad."

"It's gonna be plenty bad," Dash said without thinking, then shook her head quickly. She remembered what Shep had said about the suits on the first day, the image still made her a little queasy. No doubt, Shep understood it too.

And unlike her, he didn't have nightsticks or a friendly magic doll helping out (at least, she didn't think so...).

"Darn it, Shep, don't give up yet," she suddenly found herself saying. She couldn't accept that Shep, one of her first allies in all of this, really was cornered with nowhere to go. "Just hold on a little while longer. You made it this far, and you can make it a few minutes. Don't give up just yet..."

Shep, of course, couldn't hear her.

"Ah, it-it can't be too bad, all things considered." he said with a forceful laugh. "I mean... uh, I-I-I-I always wondered what was in all those empty heads back there. M-Maybe it'll be a new ex-experience for me..."

Suddenly, a new sound joined the banging, a very familiar music box theme Dash had become all-too acquainted with last night.

"Oh no," Dash whispered, her eyes widening. "Don't tell me he..."

Shep suddenly grew quiet, then started to speak again, all sense of joking and false cheeriness gone to be replaced with a hurried sense of urgency and yet also calmness.

"...Look... uh, whoever is listening to this... if you're still listening by now... just keep on going. Don't let Freddy and his friends get to you. You're a survivor now. By now, Freddy's probably tired of playing around and he's gonna start coming for you. From what I can tell, he comes the same way Chica does, but he likes to keep to the shadows, only showing off his white eyes. You can tell when he moves when you hear the laughter... dear Celestia, he's having way too much fun. If you can catch him on the cameras though, you should be able to keep him from moving too fast towards the office... I think."

Dash immediately glanced towards the show stage again. Bonnie and Chica were both gone.

"Crap crap crap..." she whispered as she changed views, only relaxing when she saw Bonnie in the supply closet and Chica in the party area with that startled expression of hers. "Okay, we're good."

"Also... and I don't know if this is true or not... never leave both doors down for too long if Freddy's nearby. I've heard rumors, just whispered hearsay around, that he can somehow get past them if that happens. If it's one door though, you're good... for all it's done me now..."

"Shep..." Dash drew out as she glanced towards the phone. She remembered reading about this sort of situation somewhere, where the person was telling a story before getting murdered or silenced in some fashion... usually very suddenly and horrifically. "You can still-"

"You know..." Shep suddenly started to say, but then Dash heard something over the phone, a very familiar sound.

The sound of the power going out.

The banging stopped, but the music box kept playing. Suddenly, Dash heard a low moan over the phone, the same sound Bonnie made when he made it inside the booth on the second day.

"Oh, no-"

SCCCRRREEEEEEE!

The scream, much deeper than the one she had heard on both in real life and her dreams, cut Shep Book off, followed by a burst of static.

Then the phone clicked off.

2:45 AM. 76% power remaining.

*Clang*

The left door came down on Bonnie's face. Dash immediately checked to see if Chica was nearby with the door lights before opening up her tablet. Foxy was poking his head out of the Pirate Cove curtain, but he hadn't started singing yet.

She quickly switched off and checked the left door, opening it when she saw Bonnie was gone. She brought the tablet back up again, showing her the show stage.

'Good, Freddy's still there,' she thought upon seeing his familiar brown body. 'One less thing to worry about.'

*Click*

Back to the West Hall, but no Bonnie. She didn't dare change to the corner camera. No more Golden Freddy for her, even if it meant Bonnie had a blindspot to use now.

Shut tablet. Check left door light. Check right door light. All clear.

This had been the strategy Dash had been trying to follow from here on out. Since Bonnie and Chica were constantly trying to get to her specifically, all she had to really do, aside from occasionally finding out where they'd gone out of curiosity, was check the door lights on either side at regular intervals and shut doors as necessary, then check again with the door lights every so often to see when they were gone to open the doors again.

It was an effective strategy that saved power, if nothing else. The only times she truly used the cameras now were for checking Pirate Cove to see how Foxy was doing, and then to the show stage to see if Freddy was still there. He hadn't moved yet, thank Celestia, but Dash knew that could change in a heartbeat.

Her eyes glanced towards the phone for a moment, memories of Shep Book's last message coming back to her. It was definite proof to what exactly happened to the previously longest-running nightguard, as much as she hated to admit (and she so very, very hated to do so). It was also a brutal reminder of what could happened to her if she didn't stay on her game.

She briefly wondered if Book had had a family. Did they wonder what had happened to him afterwards, when he never came home? Did they still think he was alive? Pity for both him and whatever ponies he cared for and they him briefly washed over her, as it had several times over the course of the night.

"...Just keep on going. Don't let Freddy and his friends get to you. You're a survivor now."2:45 AM. 76% power remaining.

But she couldn't let that distract her. For her own sake, as well as that of her friends and now Shep Book's memory, she had to survive and tell Griff.

A slight noise from her right caught her attention. Without a word, she brought the door down, keeping Chica out. She then turned towards the left door, illuminating it briefly to see Bonnie standing there.

She didn't shut it though. Instead, she just kept staring.

"So Bonnie..." she said casually, "How's the leg been?"

No answer, though she could almost imagine he looked annoyed at that question.

She pressed the button and let the door drop.

"Sheesh, just trying to make some small talk..." she muttered. "Don't have to be a flankhole about it..."

3:38 AM. 60% power left.

*Clang*

She dropped the left door back down on Bonnie, turning her attention to the right one to see if Chica had left. She had, so Dash lifted the lock and then brought up the camera, first going to Pirate Cove. There Foxy was, staring up at the camera with what she hoped was concern.

"Yo Foxy," she greeted the grey image. "I'm still here. Nothing to worry about yet."

As if in answer, the familiar pirate tune suddenly started playing again. She felt a smile cross her face as she started humming in tune.

"Dum dum diddly dum dum dum diddley dum dum diddly di..."

She needed that, honestly. Now that she had knew what to do about summoning Golden Freddy, the night had gotten... kinda boring, all things considered. Bonnie and Chica, while certainly more persistent now, were easy to deal with just by watching the door lights and shutting them when necessary. She was honestly amazed it had taken her this long to come up with such a simple solution, though sheer terror for one's life could do that to anypony. And since Foxy was on her side, she just needed to check him every once in a while on-camera to make sure he wasn't getting too lonely.

In fact, there was only one reason why she still felt an undercurrent of paranoia in her actions as of right now, one sole cause behind any worries about her supposed invincible strategy.

She flipped her camera to the show stage, her smile fading as she beheld the source of said paranoia. The brown form of Freddy Fazbear stood there as he had the past three nights, the only thing showing he had changed positions was the fact he was now staring at the camera, black eyes back on for the occasion.

The two of them locked gazes for what felt like several minutes. Dash felt a worm of doubt gnaw at her. She remembered Shep's last warning about how Freddy would be coming off that stage after her tonight, but not once had she seen any sign that he actually was going to do it. Hay, the head-towards-camera change was the only real difference she could see in how he had moved all night so far.

Of course, the memory of Shep's last moments also kept her from dismissing his warnings out of hand. She would be an idiot to after what she heard.

...Still, that bear looked pretty darn comforting just lounging up there.

"Sheesh Freddy," she wondered aloud. "You just gonna stand there all night and let these two clowns handle things?"

Suddenly, the camera went black, scraping noises immediately following afterwards.

Dash blinked in surprise, then started flipping cameras to try and find a clear one, getting more panicky as the backstage, party area, and restrooms all turned up dead.

'Nonononono...' Dash thought as she immediately brought the camera down and checked her door lights, opening the left door when she saw Bonnie was gone and leaving the right one alone when she saw no sign of Chica. She quickly brought the cameras up to a random screen, showing her the kitchen and the familiar sounds of pots and pans being moved around.

Ignoring Chica's urge for a midnight snack, she immediately changed back to the show stage, which had thankfully gone back up.

Unfortunately, it was currently missing something very important, said something being a familiar brown bear.

A deep, almost demonic-sounding boom of laughter suddenly rang out throughout the pizzeria. Dash jolted upwards in her seat, eyes wandering between the two doors frantically as she tried to place the sound.

"What the buck was that?!" she hoarsely whispered. She couldn't even hear Foxy's song anymore, as if the noise had frightened him into quietness.

"From what I can tell, he comes the same way Chica does, but he likes to keep to the shadows, only showing off his white eyes. You can tell when he moves when you hear the laughter... dear Celestia, he's having way too much fun. If you can catch him on the cameras though, you should be able to keep him from moving too fast towards the office... I think."

Shep's words were like a beacon for her wild thoughts to focus around. Immediately, she brought the cameras up again and changed to the party area. She caught two pricks of white light, blazing like beacons in the shadows of the corner, and just the faintest signs of a bear shape in the grainy image. It didn't take a genius to figure out who they belonged to.

She took a deep breath as she looked into those eyes, eyes that seemed to know where she was and chilled her more than Bonnie or Chica's worst stares into the camera. She brought a hoof to one of her nightsticks, relaxing only slightly as she felt the very real rubber grip in her grasp.

This was it. Freddy had entered the game personally to end her shift as a nightguard, just like with Shep Book. He was gonna make sure she didn't walk or fly out of her this time.

Dash glanced upwards to look at the twin metal doors, briefly checking them. No Bonnie or Chica. It was as if they knew Freddy wanted to end this himself. Or maybe Foxy had taken it upon himself to deal with Bonnie while Chica was still eating. Either way, it didn't matter.

Dash took a deep breath before glancing back down at her monitor. Freddy was still there, as if waiting for her to say something.

She clenched her hoof. No way in Tartarus was she going down like this.

"Bring it, Freddy," she dared the magic doll. "I can take anything you can dish out."

5:30 AM. 23% power left.

Dash was beginning to regret that statement.

For the past nearly two hours she had been playing a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek with Freddy Fazbear. The rules were simple: She kept the cameras on him whenever she had the chance, and he didn't move closer to the office to 'seek' her 'hiding' spot. If the power went out in one of the cameras, then it was her duty to put the tablet down and rapidly check the right door light for several seconds or so before bringing the cameras back up (praying they were back to normal) and 'seeking' his new 'hiding' place before he could get closer under the blind spots.

If she could keep him away from the office until six, she won and claimed her prize: The right to walk out unmolested and unharmed. If he got there before that time, he won and claimed his prize: A good old-fashioned bear hug, Freddy style.

Not something she wanted to experience again after her last brush with it. Ever.

Of course, that sort of mission, even with the cameras going dark, would be easy to handle... if she didn't have to worry about the other two dolls deciding to be sore losers and trying to trip her up. Precious minutes and power were wasted locking the doors and using the door lights whenever Bonnie and Chica tried to claim the glory of having taken her for themselves. She especially hated Bonnie's efforts moreso, as she recalled Shep's words about Freddy supposedly being able to break inside the office if both doors were locked when he got there, and Bonnie was the one forcing her to use the all-but-otherwise-unneeded left side.

"Buck off, Bonnie!" she snapped at the purple rabbit as she slammed the left door down on his face again. "Stop wasting my time!"

She quickly checked the right door light to see that Chica had, thankfully, backed off for now, opening it once again. She immediately went into camera view, taking a moment to check Pirate Cove to see if Foxy was there. He was, head poking out and staring at her with a look that seemed to be saying, "Hang in there, lass!"

She quickly changed to the last spot she saw Freddy, back in the party room, and cursed when she realized he wasn't there anymore.

"Where are you?" she whispered hoarsely as she changed to the restrooms. No sign of him, even in his normal hiding spot he had taken to.

Why the heck a magic doll in the form of a male bear would be peeking out of the mare's restroom was something she didn't have time to fully question, even if it was kind of funny.

*Click*

She found herself in the East Hall, where she immediately starting searching the shadowy parts for any sign of the doll's eyes. Ironically enough, the white pricks of his black eyes, while definitely creepy, also allowed her to pick him out pretty darn quick from the dark areas, a lot easier than his blue ones.

'...At least I think that's how it goes,' she thought to herself on that matter. 'Maybe I should check with Twi on what's really ironic...'

Internal musings aside, she stopped when she caught sight of the two familiar pricks of light in the black, even catching sight of Freddy's lower legs in the flickering glow of the hall light.

'Gotcha,' she thought triumphantly to herself, though it was a hollow victory given she had... what, twenty minutes left?

With some difficulty, she managed to force her left eye to look upwards towards the clock while the right one remained on Freddy.

5:38 AM. 18% left.

'I can make it,' she thought to herself confidently as she changed her view to the left door, briefly checking the door light before letting it up, Bonnie now gone again. 'I can still win this...'

5:53 AM. 10% left.

Dash wasn't sure if she could win this.

Her left door was currently blocked by Bonnie (darn that bunny to the deepest circle of Tartarus!) and while that wouldn't normally be a problem, Dash wasn't certain if she could maintain the power drain for that long. Her right door was still open, but Dash didn't want to shut it, partly to conserve power and partly because...

She flipped the camera back up for a moment, giving her a perfect view of the East Hall Corner.

And a free up-close-and-personal shot of Freddy-black-and-white-eyed-creepy-as-all-crazy-Pinkie-Fazbear leering up into the camera, the shadows and lighting obscuring most of his facial features yet somehow leaving his poop-eating grin/killer-smile as bright as before.

She immediately brought it back down, pressing the door lights to see if he was any closer.

She had stopped viewing the cameras by this point, mostly because Freddy didn't look like he had any intention of walking away by this point and for the fact he could probably sneak in while she wasted time on them. Also, they just wasted power by this point.

Of course, this meant she had no idea what had happened to Chica (though she could probably just be eating pizza in the kitchen again or in the restrooms relieving herself, buck if she knew.) or Foxy. She hoped he was doing alright regardless, though given what he had been up to for the past several nights, a part of her hoped he already had some sort of mad escape plan already plotted out if everything went south.

A glance to the clock. 5:55 AM. 8% left.

Left door light. The bunny was still there.

Right door light. The bear was nowhere in sight.

She briefly wondered if Freddy would actually bother with the jingle if the power ran out before 6 AM. Maybe she had ticked him off enough that he'd forgo foreplay to just end it? Would he even care if 6 AM arrived? He might just settle for crushing her in his grip rather than stuffing in a suit.

5:56 AM. 7% left.

Her hoof rested on the left door button, her eyes still on the right one and her other hoof reaching for a nightstick. She needed to let up the power consumption, or at least change the doors she was directing it to. She'd feel more comfortable with the steel door between her and Freddy than her and Bonnie any day. At least with Bonnie she had a fighting chance of getting past if the power ran out.

However, she still remembered Shep's warning about the double doors.

Of course, that also meant opening the left door first, then shutting the right one, all while making sure Freddy didn't get inside or letting Bonnie slide on in once she opened up for his side.

5:57 AM. 6% left.

Against her better judgement, one eye still on the right door, she brought up the cameras, aiming for Pirate Cove. Foxy had had an uncanny ability to sniff (well, magic dolls don't smell but... you know what, forget it.) out whenever she was about to get royally owned by the other dolls.

'Please tell me you're still on your toes Foxy...'

Pirate Cove came up. The curtains were wide open, with Foxy nowhere to be seen. The "Sorry! Out of Order!" sign seemed almost mocking, in a strange way.

She then changed to the West Hall on a whim, catching what appeared to be a red blur with a hook rushing down the hall like a madpony.

"...Wow, he's pretty fast,' was all she could think of.

Suddenly, she heard a slamming noise behind her, something very heavy smashing against the steel door.

"Oh, come on Foxy! Not again!" Bonnie's voice rang out, muffled by the steel but still recognizable.

"Funny thing Bonnie, the way we keep meeting up like this. I'd swear you're just dying for me attention!"

Several things happened at once.

Dash pulled out her nightstick whilst simultaneously hitting the left door button, catching sight of what appeared to be Foxy dragging Bonnie off into the darkness as it opened. As it did, she immediately also lunged for the right door switch, her eyes catching sight, even in the dark, of a familiar brown bear moving almost as fast as Foxy towards the entrance.

She pressed the button and down the door came.

It came to a screeching halt as a brown paw poked out the bottom and grabbed the descending door just an inch or two off the ground, then slowly started to jerk back upwards with a groaning noise.

"NO YA DON'T!" Rainbow Dash yelled, thrusting down with her stick. "Don't be a sore loser, Freddy!"

The tip connected with the limb, a burst of sparks causing the brown paw to jerk back, thankfully allowing the door to slide all the way down. Dash immediately turned around to see if Bonnie had come back to the left door, but only darkness greeted her gaze and silence her ears.

Look to the clock.

5:59 AM. 4% left.

A massive bang suddenly rang out against the right door, briefly causing Dash to jump in surprise. Apparently, Freddy didn't like that last little shock or that he was being locked out. She turned back to the right door, nightstick at the ready and trusting Foxy to take care of Bonnie.

Another bang rocked the door. 3% power left. Dash gripped the stick tighter.

Bang! 2% power.

'Alright then...' Dash decided as she narrowed her eyes. 'You wanna play like this, Freddy? Well let's play!'

BANG! One percent.

Dash put on her best scowling face. "Come on then, you son of a-"

Suddenly, the banging stopped, silence reigning supreme. It took a few seconds for Dash to fully process that though, so she spent a little while just sort of awkwardly scowling/staring at the door. When she did realize it though, she slowly turned her head towards the clock.

6:00 AM. And the power meter was rapidly rising as if in answer to that magic number.

Dash felt her spirits soar, but she didn't let up her guard quite yet. Instead, she slowly inched towards the right door button, stopping to press the door light.

No sign of any dolls.

Taking a deep breath, Dash then quickly pressed the button and thrust forward with the electrified stick.

Nothing. The corridor was empty.

Dash took a moment to just stare down the hallway, the undeniable fact staring her right in the face.

She had survived Night Four. She was officially Shep Book's successor.

But unlike the other three times, after what she had learned tonight, she didn't feel like celebrating. Instead, she glanced back towards the phone in the office, thinking about her predecessor who never made it here.

And she still had one last night to finish.

"...Don't worry Shep," she said to the phone, the source of advice that had graced her for the past nights. "I won't lose here. I'm gonna win this thing."

With that, she left the office, heading for Pirate Cove. It was time to see a friend about a timely save.

Ponyville (A Few Hours Later)

Twilight Sparkle rested in her bed within the castle, only the slightest of mutterings escaped her mouth to reveal her dreams to anypony who bothered to try and listen.

"*snore* ...Pinkie? I told you that I don't know the first thing about playing a guitar, stop asking..."

...Not exactly what some would think a princess would dream about, but Twilight Sparkle had dreamed of far stranger things. Besides, this was the first true night of sleep she had gotten for awhile, her mind at peace with the knowledge that Rainbow Dash was alright and not in any danger-

"Hey Twilight!"

"BWAA!?" Twilight half-yelped, half-snored as the sudden shout woke her from her slumber. "Pinkie, I said I don't know where I can find you a new drumset!" she yelled randomly, still in the throes of that middle ground between dreams and reality. "Besides, what do you need it for?"

A certain cheery voice quickly brought her out of it though.

"Well, my old set's been getting a little worn, so maybe I need a new one in case it breaks," The Element of Laughter replied as if Twilight had really asked her such a question. "I've been thinking of a new way to greet the next newcomer to Ponyville, but I can't do it if my set breaks on me first! Besides, I know a great place to get instruments! It's called-"

Twilight quickly raised her hoof, putting it under Pinkie Pie's chin and shutting her mouth, but she could almost feel the vibrations of her throat as she kept trying to talk. She gave the pink pony a tired glare.

"Pinkie, what are you doing here?" she asked her energetic friend. "It's way too early... and how did you get in in the first place? I locked this place up before going to bed..."

"Oh that?" Pinkie said dismissively, "Well, I was just at Sugarcube Corner, minding my own business, when I suddenly got an itch in my leg, a tickle in my ear, and a scratch in my mane all at once! That's my Pinkie Sense telling me something big was gonna happen at the castle, so I came on over, but then I found it locked up, so then I got Gummy and he-"

"Wait, go back to that last part," Twilight interrupted her friend, partly to stop wherever this logic-defying conversation was going but mostly to what she had said. "Your Pinkie Sense told you to be here?"

"Yup! It only stopped when I got in here, so that means whatever's about to happen has to do with you, Twilight!"

Twilight blinked, then looked around. While Pinkie could be a little... excitable, hard (emphasis on hard) experience had taught her that the Earth pony's Pinkie Sense was never wrong.

'But what could be so important that-'

Suddenly, a loud knock was heard against the window. Twilight looked up in confusion before seeing a familiar shade of grey behind it, then quickly opened it up. Sure enough, Ditzy Doo came inside, her mail satchel at her side.

'Did I really sleep that long?' Twilight thought to herself as the pegasus managed to alight herself on the ground without crashing.

"Hi, Ditzy!" Pinkie waved to the mare. "How ya been?"

"Hi, Pinkie!" the flying mailmare returned the greeting before turning to Twilight. "And hello to you too, Twilight! Had a good night's sleep?"

Despite her still-bed appearance, Twilight did her best to project something resembling a calm and attentive attitude. "Hello again, Ditzy, and yes, I did, thank you." Her eyes flickered to the satchel. "More mail?"

Ditzy nodded. "Yup! And from Baltimare all over again, same three-day delivery service even!" She quickly moved to open her pouch and shuffled around before bringing her prize up. "Must have been sent the day after the first one!"

Twilight blinked. Baltimare again? But that meant it could only logically be...

She took the letter, noticing the scrawled message To Twilight and the gang. Same writing, same everything. It had to be Rainbow's.

'But why would she send another letter already?' Twilight wondered, then a feeling of dread crept up. 'Unless...'

She tore her eyes up from the letter to look at Ditzy, hoping that her brief emotion didn't play out on her face. However, even if it had, the gray mare didn't appear to have seen it.

"Thank you, Ditzy," she told the mailmare. "Have a good day."

"Same to you, Twilight!" Ditzy said warmly, then she looked at Pinkie. "See ya, Pinkie!"

"You too!"

The mailmare then made her exit, Twilight closing the window behind her. That left the two friends alone in the bedroom, with silence reigning for all of two seconds (a record time in Twilight's book) before Pinkie looked at her.

"So," Pinkie began, "another letter from Dashie? What's it say? You think she misses us? You think she's gonna tell us all about her job? Think she enjoys it? Think she wishes she could be back home? If she can take the heat? That-"

She punctuated each sentence by suddenly appearing on another side of Twilight, her eyes always on the letter. Twilight sighed.

"No idea Pinkie," she answered. "Maybe she's just writing to see if I can send her the remaining bits and get out of the rest of the work."

The pink pony giggled at that image, an exhausted Rainbow, sleep-deprived, slowly writing out a desperate message for help from the rest of them. "Sounds like the Dashie we both know!"

'I hope that's all she's writing about,' Twilight thought to herself as she opened the letter. 'I've had one false alarm already.'

Twilight brought the letter out and unfolded the parchment, using her telekinesis to move the letter into Pinkie's eyeview.

"Let's see what Rainbow Dash had to say about her first night on the job..."

The two ponies read the message.

Then they read it again to make sure that they read it right.

Then they read it again, trying to see if this was some sort of elaborate prank on Dash's part, with some hidden clue that it was all a joke.

Then they read it one more time, just as final confirmation.

"Twilight..." Pinkie spoke up after they finished, her voice having lost its cheery tone to be replaced with a concerned one. "You read all of that, right?"

"Yeah..."

"The part with the crazy magic dolls?"

"Uh huh."

"Haunted restaurant with ghosties?"

"Yes," Twilight said simply, then asked her own question. "Don't suppose that this is some new sort of prank from Rainbow Dash?"

"...I don't think Dashie was kidding at all."

Twilight so wanted to try and disagree that statement, but Pinkie Pie was Rainbow Dash's partner-in-pranking and thus her superior in this line of work. If she didn't think Dash had made this up all for a prank or joke... then it probably wasn't.

"Pinkie Pie," Twilight suddenly told her friend, causing her to snap to attention. "Get the girls together and meet me and Spike at the train station in about an hour. We're going to Baltimare."

Pinkie snapped her a salute. "Okey-dokey, Twilight!" She disappeared in a flash, leaving a smoke imprint with her still in salute mode for a few seconds before disappearing.

Twilight sighed and looked back to her bed. A brief urge to go back to sleep suddenly hit her, but she quashed it. A friend was in trouble, and she couldn't just rest on her plot.

She had a duty, not just as the Princess of Friendship, but as Rainbow Dash's friend.

'Hold on, Dash,' she thought resolutely as she quickly raced out of the room, intending to find Spike. 'We're coming!'

Meeting with Friends

Morning, 11:00AM (Baltimare)

"...Dear Luna and Celestia..."

Griff Schmidt was not the type of stallion who broke down easily. Yes, he would occasionally drink himself into submission to forget all the bad, and he was as vulnerable to emotion as any other pony. However, he had long ago learned, as a necessary requirement of owning an establishment with magic dolls that killed ponies after hours if they caught them, that one had to learn to suppress those emotions. Grieve, yes. Regret, unquestionably. Hate, without a shadow of a doubt. But those weren't things he could just come out and show anyone. He had to bottle them up to the public, only revealing them when in private. It wasn't fair to his hardworking employees who had stayed with him through thick or to the foals who didn't realize the truth, to take it out on them.

He sometimes wondered if this was how the two princesses felt sometimes, especially Celestia when her sister was absent from rule.

However, there were times when that iron facade cracked, allowing his true feelings to spread out. The greatest cracks had occurred on that second day when Rainbow Dash came to him for answers. To finally tell somepony who was willing to listen and not dismiss his words as madpony-rambling about what had happened to the best of his knowledge had been like a gulp of fresh air to a long-time deprived swimmer. On some level, he was glad to be able to lay his troubles bare to her, even if it also brought him sadness at opening old wounds that had never fully closed.

Smaller but no less insignificant cracks had occurred in the days following, when Dash had told him about the murders of the innocent children in the pizzeria. They had been like slaps to the face, to know at last what dark secret his grandfather had tried to keep hidden from the public eye. It also made him pity the dolls in a sense; despite everything they had done, especially Golden Freddy, they were just as much victims as everypony else.

It also made him even gladder about the fact that the closing day was soon upon them.

But this new piece of information that Rainbow Dash had brought to him after her fourth night, the night not even the previous longest-going nightguard, Shep Book, had managed to see all the way through, took the rug right out from under him. He couldn't believe it, wouldn't believe it at first.

But why not? It had happened before, had it not? Innocent nightguards stuffed into the suits, removed and carted outside under the cover of darkness to be given something resembling a proper sendoff and burial in the cemetery, magic used to cover the scent? He had never seen it for himself of course: His father had long ago, before he joined their number, hired a group of ponies to always come in whenever it happened to carry the bodies off. They were sworn to secrecy: As long as they were paid, they didn't care what happened to the pizzeria or even if they were eventually ratted out on. They would simply leave like shadows in the night.

But this was different. The dolls had done something different this time. Instead of leaving the body in the backstage, they had placed it inside the backrooms with the multiple costumes, stored in the far back where no one could find it easily. Even the smell was barely recognizable as that of something decaying. However, Dash's words about Shep saying to look in the backrooms had borne fruit, bitter and horrible as it was.

Griff slowly used his magic to levitate the suit, grunting with effort as the brown suit of Freddy Fazbear was brought out into the open. Even now, if one ignored the dried red spots, one would be excused for believing that it was just a heavier-than-normal suit... if you hadn't noticed the actual white teeth within the mask.

He didn't wonder where the eyes were, he didn't want to know or guess out of fear thinking 'yes' and being right or thinking 'no' and being wrong.

Perhaps that was the reason he felt so strongly right now: Because he'd been wrong. When no body had been found by the shady ponies who took them away after Shep's disappearance, Griff had allowed himself to hope that Shep Book had finally decided to give up and go on with his life. He had dared to believe that he was alright. To have that belief thrown so brazenly back in his face like this like an insult wasn't doing him any favours.

"...I'm so sorry, Shep," he whispered softly to the costume, its eyeless sockets seeming to stare at him. "I was wrong... I should have been more thorough. Maybe..."

'Maybe what?' he thought to himself. 'Maybe you would have found him? Maybe you could have saved him? Don't be an idiot.'

It was true. He likely wouldn't have found him in time either way. If nothing else, it probably would have been too late by the time he found Shep.

'But at least he would have had someone by him in those last moments,' the treacherous part of his mind argued. 'At least he wouldn't have died alone.'

"...Be at peace, Book," he said quietly. "Be at peace."

Slowly, he brought the costume over to the back exit in the area. He rapped on the door three times softly.

"We're here," came a voice on the other end.

"Then open up," he replied.

The door did so. Griff was met with the sight of three ponies, one Earth pony and two unicorns, clad in black robes almost like ministers. In fact, under those masks and hats, he wouldn't have been surprised if those three actually did work at the local church. How else would they get these things into the cemetery constantly?

"Another one?" The Earth pony leader asked, though his voice wasn't cruel or callous. In fact, it seemed almost pained in a way. Why, Griff didn't know.

"The previous one, actually," Griff replied as slowly and briefly as possible. He didn't trust his emotions too much right now. "The one you couldn't find."

"...My apologizes, good sir," the stallion replied. "I am sorry for your loss of a good pony."

"Save your words and sorrow for his family, if he had one," Griff answered him. "They are the ones who deserve it. Just do what you do."

The stallion bowed, and his fellows allowed their horns to suddenly start glowing. In an instant, the doll seemed to vanish in a burst of light.

"...A good day to you, Mr. Schmidt, and to the end of your establishment," the lead pony said as he turned away, followed by his subordinates. "May you find happiness eventually in your life."

"...Happiness isn't something I deserve, quite honestly," Griff softly replied, more to himself than to the three of them. He watched them for a moment before going back inside. Once he had done that, he went back on through the restaurant, taking a moment to glance towards the show stage with a barely contained look of hatred at the three dolls (who stared back with their usual expressions... though he took some inner pleasure at the sight of Bonnie looking all dented up and Freddie with a blacken hand.) before heading straight to his office, which was currently... locked to keep a certain somepony inside.

Reaching the door, he took a deep breath as he brought out his key, mentally and physically preparing himself for what was about to happen.

'Here goes nothing,' he thought to himself as he inserted it into the knob and turned. He opened the door...

-and found himself with a blue foreleg in his gut.

'I deserved that one,' he admitted to himself as he fell to the ground.

"What the buck were you thinking!?"

Griff flinched at those words, slowly looking up into the face of an angry Rainbow Dash, who had a bit of an ash mark on her forehead.

Griff slowly got up and moved past her back into his office. To her credit, Dash didn't try to stop him. In fact, she looked sort of pleased he was coming inside. If nothing else, he was grateful for the fact she waited until he shut the door.

"Dash, I-"

"I could understand you just telling me to stay in here when I told you about Shep, but you shot me in the face with magic!" Dash suddenly yelled again, "That hurt like getting bucked! Then you just locked me inside!"

Griff didn't say anything to his defense. He just waited for her to finish. At least she didn't look like she was gonna hit him again, settling for just yelling.

"Seriously, what the hay, dude?" she continued her tirade, but she was rapidly losing steam. "Why didn't... why didn't you let me go with you? To let me see him?"

Ah, the question at last. Griff sighed.

"Because you didn't need to see what had happened to Shep Book after over a week of being stuffed into that suit," Shep replied, then continued when he noticed she was about to say something. "And no, I don't say that because I thought you couldn't handle the sight of him like that."

"Then why-"

"Because it was my responsibility," Griff told her firmly, allowing only a trace of sadness to reflect in his words. "You might owe Shep Book because of his advice, something I will not deny in any way. However, you weren't the one who had to watch him go in those four nights and disappear on the last, hoping against hope he had wised up and left, only to have reality thrown in your face like that. It was my burden to see him off, and it was mine alone. I needed it to be me alone."

Dash just stared at him, as if trying to gauge the truth in his words. Griff walked past her.

"If you want to see him, I'd recommend going to the cemetery tomorrow," he said simply. "His tombstone should be set up by then."

He went to his desk and sat down, facing her.

"...So, are you gonna hit me again?" he finally asked her, "Or is there something else you wanted to talk about before that?"

Dash stared for a moment longer, then opened her mouth. She then shut it as if she just had a sudden thought, then opened it again. "...I still want to punch you..."

"Again, you're free to."

"...but I think I get where you're coming from..." she added slowly. "So I'm not."

She then fixed him with a brief glare. "Doesn't mean I don't like it though."

"I wouldn't expect you too," Griff answered her. "In fact, I would have been insulted if you had."

Dash grunted noncommittally. "So, what now?"

Griff leaned back. "Well, today's the official closing day. The official 'going-out-of-business party' to the public will start at 4:30PM, more than enough time for your friends to get here even assuming they got your letter late."

Dash grinned, the thought of her friends scrambling aboard the train to here after reading her letter bringing a mischievous smile to her face, such a bright thought in light of the past several days.

"They'll be here," she replied confidently. "Don't worry about a thing."

Griff stared at her for a moment and then shrugged. "Well, I suppose you girls are the experts at this sort of thing. What, you just gonna shoot them with your giant beams of rainbow-friendship-magic?"

"That's how we usually do it."

He snorted. "That'll be a sight to see."

Rainbow Dash grinned again, already imagining the look on Chica, Bonnie, but especially Freddy's faces when they got blasted. That grin briefly faded when another thought came to her.

"Hey, what about Golden Freddy?" she suddenly asked. "How would we take care of him?"

Griff blinked for a moment and then shrugged. "Well, if your 'Rainbow Power' really is as powerful as you claim, you could probably just exorcise the entire restaurant along with the dolls, I guess. Probably wouldn't be too difficult."

Dash thought about that for a moment. "...You know, we might blow the whole place up if we did it like that..."

"I don't care," Griff answered her. "It's not like I'm looking reopen the place."

Dash was a little uncomfortable about the callous way he had said that, but didn't try to argue the point. After all, she had been here four nights and was under the opinion that everything inside, aside from Foxy, could just go up in great big ball of Celestia-blessed fire.

She blinked. Speaking of Foxy...

"Well, you're all welcome to come to the party regardless. I'm thinking about having Foxy sing an old classic of his as the final note..." Griff had continued saying, not noticing her sudden change in demeanor until she spoke again.

"What's gonna happen to Foxy?"

He blinked and looked at her. "...Huh?"

"I mean... all this," she waved a hoof around the room they were in to emphasize her point. "When it's all over... what's gonna happen to the dolls?"

Griff looked at her. "Well, once the... foals inside have been put to rest... they'll probably be scrapped. Incinerated. At least, if your whole little rainbow-laser thing doesn't do anything else to them."

"Just like that?"

"I'm not taking them," Griff told her in turn. "And I don't think anypony else would either... well, Foxy I might save. The rest... well, I won't be losing sleep over it."

Again, Dash couldn't disagree.

"Speaking of which," Griff suddenly added. "Foxy say anything to you after last night?"

Dash blinked, then thought back.

"...Well, thanks for the save Foxy," Rainbow Dash told the fox doll, wincing slightly as she noticed the new dings on his frame, along with a wider tear in his chest area. "But seriously, we have to stop doing things like this."

"No problem, me lass," Foxy answered her, his jaws briefly hinging and unhinging as he, for one of the first times she could remember, actually actively stared at her rather than just look off into the distance. "I couldn't just let Bonnie play so unfair like that. Besides," he added with what appeared to be a grin. "I haven't had this much fun since... well, I can't remember, actually."

"Fun?" Rainbow Dash repeated slowly and incredulously. "You call all this being fun?"

"...Aye," Foxy answered, his gaze growing a bit sadder. "'Tis true, while Freddy and the others might consider chasing after every nightguard to be 'fun'... I've never gotten into it... maybe it's because of what happened..."

Dash blinked. "What?"

Foxy seemed to shrink into himself. "I ran," he mumbled more to himself than her. "When Bonnie tried to fight back, Chica screamed, Freddy hid, and GF laughed like a madpony, I ran like a coward for the exit. I tried to leave 'em all behind, afraid. But he got me anyways."

'Is he... talking about the murderer?' Dash wondered to herself, but she could only watched as Foxy seemed to shudder, something that shouldn't have been possible.

"When the first guard came along, he ran like I did from us," Foxy continued. "I caught him, wanted to make him hurt like we had, like I did... but..."

His ears drooped, and what might have been a sob escaped his throat, regardless of the impossibility of it since it was an artificial body. "He looked... just like me... I couldn't do it... I never could bring meself to hurt them..."

"...So you hid," Rainbow guessed. "Always behind the curtain."

He nodded, not looking up. "The others called me a coward... only running out when I thought I could help the guards, but they always locked me out... always afraid." Finally, he looked up at her. "But you... you never were."

"Me?" Dash repeated, pointing to herself.

He nodded. "Ye always thought I was the 'cool' one, the 'awesomest' one of all. Ye didn't think I was a monster... did you?"

Dash chuckled. "What are you talking about?" she asked before putting a hoof on her chest. "Why'd you think I'd think that? Me? You're the only one who didn't try to attack me. That makes you alright in my book, and you always helped out when I was in a tight spot." She looked at him seriously. "I don't know what Freddy and the others were thinking, calling you a coward after all those crazy stunts."

She had a feeling that if dolls could blush, Foxy would be redder than his fur. "Well... that was honestly the first time I ever actually did something like that. Normally, I just... run over to the office to try and calm the guard down... and you can guess where that's gotten me..."

"Well, it's saved my hide," Dash replied. "And that's a win in my book." She then gave him a very earnest smile. "I never would made it this far without you, Foxy. Believe that much."

Foxy chuckled. "Me thanks, lass- er, Rainbow Dash." He then looked at her with what might have a curious expression. "So... tomorrow's the big day, eh?"

She nodded. "Yup. My friends finally get here and we finish this up."

"Ya gonna be working night shift?"

Dash blinked. "...I don't know," she answered. "I mean, once my friends are here, we're probably just gonna get it over with. Maybe. I don't know if I'd have to after that."

Foxy looked interested at that. "What have you lasses got up ye sleeves that could deal with all of us at once?"

"A giant rainbow laser of pure friendship and flank-kicking," she answered with a completely straight face.

Foxy just stared. "...Really?"

"Hey, it's way more awesome than it sounds," Dash argued. "Don't knock it 'til you try it."

"...Some stuff," Dash replied simply.

Griff stared at her for a moment, then just shrugged. "Well, whatever," he finally said, then gestured towards the door. "You might as well get going. Assuming your friends got your letter and took the first train here, they'll probably be here in about... an hour or so? Go on and relax, goof off, whatever's your thing."

"Got it." With that, Dash walked over to the door, stopping just short of it. She seemed to be struggling to sayy something important.

"Yes, Rainbow Dash?" Griff called to her.

"...About Shep," she slowly began, then turned back towards him, her expression having become sad once more. "He didn't... he didn't suffer, did he?"

"...It was quick, if that's what you're wondering," he replied. "He didn't feel the pain for too long. That sort of thing... doesn't leave much time to let you feel the pain."

Actually, Griff wasn't entirely certain either way, but if it helped ease some of the unnecessary guilt on her part, he believed it. Sure enough, Dash's expression seemed to brighten a little bit before she turned back around.

"That's good."

With that, she opened the door and left the room. Griff watched her go, then leaned back in his stair. His eyes briefly landed on his drinking stash, but he shook his head.

'Not the time for that,' he decided. 'I need to get things ready for this afternoon...'

Baltimare Train Station (Noon)

Dash sat down awkwardly in the station area, a cup of coffee in one hoof and a worn copy of one of Daring Doo's adventures in her other one. After leaving the pizzeria, avoiding Freddy and the gang's gaze as much as possible, she had decided to go and take another nap before Twilight and the others got here. Surprisingly enough, she had woken up with almost fifteen minutes left to wait, so she decided to just get things over with by coming here and waiting.

She got the coffee from the shop inside the place. She got the book from a bin of books ponies could read from while they waited for the trains.

Of course, despite her best efforts, she couldn't bring herself to actually try and read the book. Not because it was bad, quite the contrary, it was actually one of the first novels she ever read after her stint in the Ponyville hospital. No, it was because she just couldn't build up the concentration to read more than a sentence at a time. Instead, she kept glancing towards the station proper, her eyes shifting from the empty tracks to the clock above. Not even the coffee could calm her down.

'You know, why did I grab coffee anyways?' Dash thought to herself, looking down at the half-cup that remained. 'I'm wide awake already.'

With an annoyed growl, she got back up, tossed the coffee into the trash and put the book back, instead choosing start pacing. She occasionally glanced up towards the station, but still no sign of the train.

'What is taking it so darn long?' she wondered to herself. 'Griff said they should be here right about no-"

Suddenly, she heard a dinging noise, and then an announcer's voice rang out throughout the station.

"The noon train from Ponyville to Baltimare is now making its way into the station. All passengers intending to take the train to Fillydelphia are advised to make their way to the boarding station now, while anypony wishing to greet the newcomers may come to the platform. Thank you for your time and cooperation."

Rainbow Dash was already rushing up to the platform when she heard the words 'Ponyville' and 'Baltimare'. She had just made it to the edge before the doors opened.

"DASHIE!" A pink blur yelled as it rushed out straight towards her. Before she could even blink, it collided with her and sent her tumbling back to the ground.

"Wha, Pinkie Pie?" Dash managed to blurt out as they tumbled for a few seconds before coming to a stop, the party pony still hugging her tightly with a relieved smile.

"You're alright!" her friend exclaimed happily. "When me and Twilight first read the letter and you were all 'killer-dolls' and 'suit-stuffing' and really dark, we thought you were in BIIIGGG trouble, so we came as fast as we could, but we got sidetracked when the train conductor had a problem with the engine, and then we had to wait for what felt like two days when it was really just an hour two and the guy's name was X, which is a weird name and all, but-"

"Pinkie, you know... I'm happy to see you right now... too..." Rainbow Dash gasped out, interrupting her friend's ramble. "But... you could you... let up a little bit? I think... you're cracking... my ribs..."

Pinkie blinked for a moment, then quickly let go. "Oh," she nervously chuckled, "sorry about that."

Rainbow Dash took a moment to breathe in and out. "Yeah, no problem."

"Well, you're looking like you're doing alright, Dash," a familiar Southern drawl interrupted them.

Turning her head, Rainbow Dash smiled as she watched Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Twilight all walk towards them.

"Hey girls," she greeted them lamely, "How've ya been?"

"We could be worse," Rarity replied in that usual sophisticated manner of hers, then gave her a look that was equal parts curiosity and slight concern, "But I think if anypony among us has a tale to tell, it would be you, darling."

"Rarity's right, sugarcube," Applejack added with her own slight concern. "After Twilight and Pinkie got us all together on that train, they told us about what ya wrote. Honestly, I'm still trying to wrap ma head around it."

"We were all worried about you," Fluttershy added her two bits in, her usual timid tone inflicting her every word. "I mean, if you were actually hurt..."

"Girls, girls," Rainbow quickly said, getting their attention. "I'm alright, alright? Look at me," she added with a quick spread of her wings and brief twirl around. "Completely, 100% a-okay."

She looked over at Twilight, who had yet to say anything in the conversation and had simply stared at her. "You hear that, Twilight?"

Twilight blinked, then shook her head. "Oh, uh, sorry about that," she quickly muttered, then gave a big grin as she suddenly reached out and hugged Dash herself. "It's good to see you're alright, Dash."

Dash blinked in surprise at the sudden contact, not expecting it from the alicorn, then chuckled and looked around as she returned the embrace. "Hey, where's Spike?"

"Back in Ponyville," Twilight answered her as she pulled away. "I just wanted him to come with us to the train station."

"So Rainbow Dash," Applejack then said, "Mind telling us about what happened while you were here?"

Rainbow Dash looked at all of them for a moment, then gestured. "I'll do even better. I'll show you and let you talk to the boss stallion."

"So this is the place?"

Dash looked over at Twilight, the one who had asked that question, as she pushed open the door to let everyone inside. "Yup," she answered, then looked over at the others. "So what do you think?"

Rarity had a slight look of disdain on her face as she surveyed the old and worn condition of the place, particularly where it was dirty and faded. "...Well, not to be rude Rainbow Dash, but to be perfectly honest, it looks rather... well, old."

"Sturdy though," Applejack added, less focused on appearance than on structure. "The place looks like it was built to last."

"Umm... I have to agree with Rarity," Fluttershy said, her eyes flickering onto the slightly dirty windows and the posters of the three magic dolls. "It feels kind of... sad, though."

"Kind of looks like the setting to a good scary story," Pinkie replied. "It just needs to be a little darker and more creepy lighting. We could have the perfect Nightmare Night here!"

"The thought's crossed my mind."

The Mane Six all turned their heads to see Griff Schmidt walking towards them. "Care to introduce me, Rainbow Dash?" he asked with a slight smile.

Dash chuckled slightly, then pointed a hoof towards him. "Well girls, meet my boss, Griff Schmidt, third owner of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. He's a pretty cool guy, all things considered."

"A pleasure," Griff added, extending his hoof. "Ms. Dash spoke rather highly of you five as a group whenever the topic broached you. I must say, I'm rather honored to have such heroes of Equestria grace my humble, soon-to-be-ex-establishment."

Twilight, as befitting her station as princess, took the offered hoof into her own first. "The pleasure is ours, Mr. Schmidt," she replied warmly, much like how Celestia would act towards foreign ambassadors. "But, if it were possible, could you answer some questions? Rainbow Dash's letters said many things, but my friends and I would like to hear it from both of you personally."

Griff's expression changed to a more somber one, but nodded. "Of course, Princess." He looked towards the others, briefly bowing his head. "If I may insist, shall we go to my office? I would prefer we all speak in private in slightly more... comforting accommodations."

"Very well," Twilight agreed, "But you don't have to call me 'Princess'. Twilight Sparkle will do just fine."

A small smirk crossed Griff's face. "As you command."

A similar one crossed her own. "I prefer to think of it as a request."

He shrugged but didn't continue. Instead, he gestured to the others. "If I may," he said as he began to head towards his office.

The five stared after him for a moment. Applejack turned to Rainbow Dash.

"He always act so sophisticated?"

Dash shrugged. "Nah, he was always pretty easygoing when we were talking."

"Well, he certainly has manners," Rarity admitted. "It would rude of us to keep him waiting like this."

"Yeah..." Twilight added. "Let's go."

The journey didn't take that long and was rather uneventful. The only mishap that happened was when they passed near the show stage and got a good look at Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy.

"So these are the magic dolls you were talking about, Dash?" Twilight asked, her eyes locked on them as the scientist within her began to ask questions. "How old are they?"

"As old as the establishment itself," Griff answered her, not bothering to look at them himself. "Like I first told Dash, they're practically family... the kind you don't want to hang around other ponies for everypony's safety, that is."

Applejack gave them a once-over, a slight frown crossing her face at their expressions. "Forgive me if I agreed, Mr. Schmidt. They give me a bad gut feeling."

Rarity had similar thoughts. "Indeed... though they also look like they could use a good wash as well. No need for them to look like they've been here since the founding of the restaurant as well."

Fluttershy seemed to shrink away from the dolls' gaze. "Umm, I don't know... they seem kind of sad to me."

Griff sighed. "Unfortunately, our budget's never allowed us the opportunity to give them any real good clean-ups. As for being sad... well, anypony be a little sad about their way of life coming to an end. Tonight's their last night after all."

"Is there gonna be a party?" Pinkie suddenly asked. "No business should go out without a party; it makes things a lot less sad when everypony splits up."

Griff chuckled. "Yeah, they'll be one. And you're all welcome to come."

Twilight suddenly blinked. "Wait a minute..." she turned to Dash. "You said there were four magic dolls. Where's the last one?"

Dash blinked. "You mean Foxy?" She waved over towards Pirate Cove. "He's in there. He's... broken, so they had to put him behind there."

"He's coming out for the finale though," Griff added. "He'll actually be the one who ends the party with his signature song." He then gestured towards his office. "But I believe you wanted answers first...?"

Twilight sighed, tearing her gaze from the dolls. "Lead the way."

They trudged on, Rainbow Dash taking up the rear. When she was the last one in the room though, she quickly turned and blew a raspberry towards Freddy.

Was it immature? Yes. Did she care? Not in the slightest.

Once they made it into Griff's office, he offered them all seats. To the surprise of Dash, he had apparently taken the time to rearrange his office in the time she had been gone to accommodate several chairs, though his desk was still in its normal, albeit slightly scooched back, position.

"Can I get you girls anything to drink?" he asked, bringing out several glasses. "Normally I'd offer some hard cider, but this isn't the sort of conversation I think would be appropriate for such a drink. In which case, I only have water." He punctuated that statement by bringing up a closed container with ice water. "It's fresh, by the way."

"That's fine," Twilight replied. "Thank you."

The others nodded their thanks as he poured them all a cup, then gave each one. He settled back into his chair.

"So..." he began, "How shall I start?"

"How about from the beginning?" Twilight offered.

He chuckled. "Well in that case, let's start with my grandpa, Management "Scott" Schmidt..."

And so he told them everything. Everything he knew about the pizzeria and its origins, from his grandpa to his father, from his own experiences to what Rainbow Dash had told him. Dash chimed in, recounting her experiences with the dolls, the recorded messages of Shep Book and her friendship with Foxy the Pirate Fox. Questions were asked, claims were disputed, but overall the other five just listened as the two of them told the dark tale of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

When it was over, Griff leaned back. "So there you have. I am the owner of a place haunted by the spirits of five dead foals, four of which possess the forms of the magic dolls and the fifth having taken the role of a simple typical ghost, and all save one is a homicidal spirit of vengeance that stuff their victims into Freddy Fazbear suits in a form of cruel irony for their own suffering. Your friend Rainbow Dash, with the aid of said one non-hostile spirit, has endured four nights of this torment because she wanted to make sure nopony has to suffer this job anymore and because she claimed that you five had the ability to end the foals' suffering. Your 'Rainbow Power', I believe she called it."

His voice took on a pleading tone. "Please, help me to help my family make amends for everything we've done, intentionally or not. Help me put an end to this nightmare."

The Mane Six were silent for the longest of moments. Rainbow Dash looked over at the others. Her mind was already made up to help and everypony already knew that, now she needed to hear what the others thought.

"...Well..." Fluttershy, surprisingly enough, was the one who spoke first. "If you really mean what you say... You don't want to see anypony else hurt because of what happened, and you want to help those foals... I'll help."

"Yes," Rarity added, a small smile gracing her face. "I am not be the best judge of character, but I believe you truly mean everything you say, and if Fluttershy also trusts your word, then I shall as well."

"Me three!" Pinkie added. "You don't want Freddy and his meanie friends hurting anypony anymore, and you helped Dashie all throughout her nights here. I trust you."

"...Can't say I agree with everything you did," Applejack said slowly, "especially with the nightguards... but I can tell you're not lying either. You really want to make amends." She straighten her hat a bit. "You can count me in."

Dash looked towards Twilight. "Well Twilight?"

"...Like Applejack, I can't condone everything you and your family have done, even if you had your reasons for it," Twilight admitted to Griff. "Especially with the nightguards."

Griff sighed. "Again, I'd be insulted if you did."

"But you really want to repent for all of this," Twilight added, a small smile gracing her face. "So I'll - we'll - help you."

Griff smiled at them all. "...Thank you, really."

Dash smiled. "What did I tell you? Piece of cake."

"Now we just have to wait until after the party," Rarity guessed, to which Griff nodded.

"To those foals, those four magic dolls are practically old friends. They'd want a chance to say their goodbyes."

"Can I help out with the party?" Pinkie asked Griff. "If it's going to be the last one Freddy Fazbear's Pizza has, you might as well make it epic and fun!"

Griff blinked. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I wouldn't want to impose-"

"You're asking us to fire off a magic blast in the middle of the place," Applejack reminded him. "Really, this isn't that much."

Griff sighed. "Well, if you insist..."

Pinkie immediately saluted and disappeared in a flash of pink.

"...Does she-?"

"Yeah, that's just Pinkie's thing," Rainbow Dash told her boss. "You get use to it."

Author's Note

Forgive me if Applejack doesn't really seem to have her country accent. I'm really bad at doing those effectively.

Five Nights and a Fox's Party

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza (5:00PM)

"Heeeeeeey everybody!" Freddy's recorded voice said out loud to the crowd gathered around the stage. "Welcome one and all to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza!"

"I'm Chica the Chicken!" Chica added in.

"Ha ha! And I'm Bonnie the Rabbit!" Bonnie finished.

"And you all know who I am!" Freddy said again, "What's my name?"

"FREDDY FAZBEAR!" a chorus of foal voices screamed in delight.

"Hee hee! That's right!"

"Ah'm never gonna get used to those voices," Applejack grumbled to herself from her position near the back with the rest of her friends save Pinkie. Currently they were all sitting at the table furthest from the stage but also closest to Pirate Cove, where Foxy remained hidden. "They just don't sound natural."

Slight grimaces from the others showed they shared her opinion. Rarity did try to lighten the mood a little though. "Well, the foals certainly seem to love them," she admitted as she watched the cheering foals, though she cringed slightly at the music they started playing, "Though I can't say the same for their playing ability."

"I don't think it's that bad," Pinkie suddenly said, appearing right next to the group, balancing two plates of pizza on either hoof and a bunch of cupcakes on her head. "I think it's actually kind of catching. It has that off-kilter feel that's just perfect for a haunted house!"

Pinkie certainly had spruced up the party. All around the party area were a bunch of multicolored banners and balloons that managed to brighten the gloom and dirtiness of the area, and there was a huge snack table stacked with all sorts of sugary desserts which the foals and even some of the parents were frequenting. All the guests and even some of the employees who had stopped working looked like they were having a great time.

Griff Schmidt himself had taken one look and looked like he was just told he had won a million bits, his mouth wide open but no words coming out. Finally, he had looked over at Pinkie and just said, "...Good work."

Pinkie had taken the comment in stride.

Fluttershy chewed on her slice of pizza slowly. "So, when will it be Foxy's turn?" she asked curiously, sparing a glance towards the curtained area. "Mr. Schmidt did say he was going to sing, wasn't he?"

Rainbow Dash waved a dismissive hoof as she devoured a cupcake. "Eh, he said that'll be later. I can't wait for it though."

"You really want to hear him sing that bad, Dash?" Twilight asked her. She was currently wearing a special coat that allowed her to disguise her wings, preferring to not let anypony around know that a Princess of Equestria was here. That might draw questions and stares, something she didn't want. Enough of that would have happened from her arrival in Baltimare alone. "I didn't think you cared for things like that."

Dash looked at her. "Yeah, not really, Twi, but he's my friend after all. I might as well hear him sing once."

Friend.

Twilight and company had to admit it was weird to hear Rainbow Dash call a magic doll 'friend', but after hearing about how much he had helped her and the little meet-and-greet she had given them to Foxy, they couldn't say that it wasn't underserved.

Rainbow Dash stood in front of the curtains to Pirate Cove, her head turned towards the others to make sure they were paying attention.

"Alright then," she said satisfied, then turned towards the curtains. "Yo Foxy! I want you to meet a couple of friends of mine!"

With that, she grabbed the ropes and pulled back, revealing Foxy's form to the others. As one, all five moved back in surprise when they first saw his condition, then each reacted in various ways.

Applejack blinked. "Wow Dash... you weren't kidding when you said he was all beat-up."

Rarity tilted her head, as if to appraise him. "Well... he's certainly not in the best of conditions, but he does seem to have more of a friendly air about him than the others."

"He's actually kinda funny-looking!" Pinkie said, giggling slightly at his droopy eyes and jaw, then looked over at Dash with a bit of an apologetic expression. "And I mean in a good way."

"He seems... nicer," Fluttershy admitted, actually getting a little closer to him. "He doesn't look scary, at least."

Twilight keep glancing him over, especially taking note of where he was tore and she could see his endoskeleton. "He certainly seems more cheery, but can he even move right?"

"Of course I can, ye landlubber!"

Everypony save Dash moved back in surprise at Foxy's voice, and everypony yelped when his head suddenly swirled to look at them straight. "So, you all be Dashie's friends?"

There were two thuds. Foxy glanced down at the fainted forms of both Fluttershy and Rarity, while Pinkie suddenly whipped out some sort of black backpack with a stick of glowing orange light at the end and pointed it at him. Twilight and Applejack just stared incredulously at him, the former looking like she was about to have a panic attack of sorts on the illogicalities of what she was seeing and the latter because she was just confused.

Foxy looked back at Rainbow Dash. "They always like this?"

After that little scare though (and convincing Pinkie to put the so-called 'proton pack' down) the rest of the conversation had gone rather well, or as well as a conversation with a possessed damaged magic doll that wasn't trying to kill you can go. Foxy had more or less confirmed everything they had learned and was very eager for when they finally used the Rainbow Power to finish this.

"Finally, peace at last," he had said, taking on a far more somber and sad tone that reflected even in his actions. "Though it may be more than we deserve..."

Surprisingly enough, it had been Fluttershy who comforted the magic doll, wrapping her hooves around him and whispering comforting words, even shedding a few tears, though Twilight personally believed those were as much for the nightguards as it was for his sake.

"It's alright," she had said. "You were all scared and angry and did lots of bad things. That doesn't mean you don't deserve a chance."

Was it wrong though of Twilight to think that not everything Fluttershy had said was really that truthful?

"How long will this party last anyways?" Applejack asked. "Ah mean, not like Ah'm against the singing, but Ah'd like to hurry up and get it all over with."

Twilight blinked, being shaken out of her thoughts. "Um, well, I think he said in about two hours or so," she replied, recalling Griff's words while they had been setting things up. "He wanted to make this be a night the foals would remember after all."

Rainbow Dash glanced over towards Pirate Cove, her face shifting to a slightly melancholy expression as she did. "Yeah..."

It was not something that went unnoticed by Rarity. "Rainbow Dash dear, what's wrong?" she asked. "Not be rude, but you've seemed strangely... down recently."

Rainbow Dash glanced back towards her friends, blinking. "Down?" she asked, then gave a small laugh, though it seemed kinda nervous. "I'm not down! What makes you say that?"

"You've been making frowny faces for awhile," Pinkie replied, somehow having gotten rid of her plates of food and yet seemingly haven't moved from her spot once. "And you keep looking over to Foxy, even when we were setting up."

Dash looked between them all and just sighed. She probably could have just lied, but she figured that'd be wrong to her friends. "I just... I'm just kinda worried about what'll happen to Foxy when we fire off our whole rainbow laser. I mean, the last time we used it, we sent that Tirek guy straight back to Tartarus. I don't want to think that we'd-"

"Dash, that Tirek was something that deserved to stay in Tartarus," Applejack interrupted. "That doesn't mean everything we shoot with it is gonna go there."

"I know that," Dash answered. "I just..."

"Dash," Twilight said, cutting her off. "Everything's going to be fine. Foxy will be alright."

The others gave various nods and signs of agreement. Dash looked between them and sighed.

"Maybe y'all are right," she admitted. "Maybe I'm just overthinking it."

The topic of conversation moved on to other things, but Dash couldn't help but occasionally glance over towards Pirate Cove.

"Don't worry about me, Dash," Foxy seemed to whisper from behind the curtain. "Whatever happens, know that I still think of ye as me friend."

7:00PM

"May I have everypony's attention?"

Griff Schmidt's voice rang out throughout the room, causing everypony's eyes, including the Mane Six's, toward's him. He stood there dressed in his usual clothing, though he had taken the occasion to comb his hair and looked rather respectable. The bags that were usually under his eyes were gone as well now, along with the lines on his face, allowing one to see he actually looked rather handsome when he cleaned up after himself.

"First, I would like thank all of you for coming to the last official day of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza's operation," he continued once he was certain he had everypony's attention. "For three generations this place has remained open, and it truly honors me that despite the hard times that have sprung up, you all still cared enough to come. I also wish to extend my deepest regards to my loyal staff, who stayed with us through thick and thin to the end. I'd especially love to extend my eternal gratitude to Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends for coming to see this poor old establishment's final end."

He clapped his hooves together and lead the various other patrons in applause to the Mane Six, who either looked away bashfully or waved back in enthusiasm. Griff, after the clapping was through, then slowly walked across the room towards Pirate Cove, all eyes on him as he kept speaking.

"For the longest of times, I actually never truly cared for this place," he admitted. "I wanted to do something else with my life besides own a restaurant, even one with magic dolls in it. I wanted to help others, actually do something worthwhile with my life. Perhaps this closed door will open up new ones for me, but those are questions for another time."

He was near the stage now. "But concerning this closing chapter to the life of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and the end of another in the Schmidt legacy, I wanted to do something I dearly wished I had the chance to the entire time I was in charge.

He paused near the curtains. "For those of you unaware, behind this curtain lies the fourth magic doll of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, Foxy the Pirate Fox. Damaged because of an accident in the past and lack of bits in the budget, we were forced to put him here and only bring him out for special occasions." He looked back towards the audience. "But tonight, in order to close the last minutes of this restaurant's life in a fitting manner, he comes out of retirement to sing an old classic of his."

He gripped the rope in his hooves. "My faithful patrons and employees, allow me to introduce, for his one-hit wonder single, Foxy the Pirate!"

He pulled back, forcing the curtains open as the lights on the stage lit up, revealing Foxy the Pirate in all of his glory, all of his dents and tears apparent. A chorus of awed 'Ooohhhss' came from the foals staring at him. With a sudden jerk and whirl, Foxy looked down at the audience.

"Well, well, well, me heartys," Foxy greeted the audience. "Who's ready to hear the call of the pirate and sail the seas with Cap'n Foxy?"

A chorus of excited 'ME!'s came from the foals, even with a few adults pitching in.

"You go, Foxy!" Rainbow Dash cheered, not in the least bit embarrassed when her friends gave her a bemused expression.

Foxy seemed to wink towards her, then faced the foals. "Well then, all board, me little buccaneers!"

Suddenly, what sounded like a flute and horn started playing in the background. Foxy immediately started to sing in that swashbuckling voice of his.

Do what you want, 'cause a pirate is free,
You are a pirate!

Suddenly, drums and a guitar seemed to be added into the song, and all the foals found themselves singing along.

Yar har, fiddle di dee,
Being a pirate is all right with me,
Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free,
You are a pirate!

And so Foxy's shanty went, with the foals and even several of the more mature patrons adding their voice to the chorus, Rainbow Dash easily one of the loudest and most involved. Foxy even brought out a pink cupcake with googly eyes that started to sing along as well in a little foal's voice. No one knew how that was supposed to work.

Still, it was a fun time.

7:30PM (After Party)

Griff waved to the last family that exited the pizzeria, watching as they walked away. Once they were out of sight, he turned back to walk to the security room, where the Mane Six were currently inside, though it was mostly Twilight ogling the multitude of cameras and the like, especially the phone.

"Well, everypony's gone now," he told them. "Feel free to use your whole 'Rainbow Power' whenever you feel like it."

"Shouldn't we wait?" Fluttershy asked. "I mean, the dolls won't start moving until after midnight."

"Maybe," Twilight admitted. "But for all we know, Freddy and the gang might try something before then. They know the jig is up and its the last night. They might try something funny."

"Then let's get started," Rainbow Dash told them all with a grim grin. "I'm not gonna tango with Freddy for another six hours, and you guys won't want to either."

As one they all started to file out of the office through the East Hall, Pinkie putting down the tablet she had been fiddling with, but accidentally leaving on a specific camera.

The one for the West Hall Corner, specifically.

The seven of them came to a stop within the party area, facing the three dolls on the show stage, who seemed to be staring right back at them.

"Alright girls," Twilight asked the others. "You all ready?"

Various nods and 'aye-aye' were exchanged.

Twilight nodded. "Then let's do th-"

Suddenly, the lights went out, casting everything into semi-darkness due to the setting sun. Everyone heard the sound of movement up on stage, coupled with what sounded like moaning.

Griff realized what was about to happen and suddenly raced forward, pulling out one of Rainbow Dash's nightsticks that he had taken from her when she was done with her last shift and jabbed forward at one of the moving shapes. The one he ended up hitting was Chica, whose purple eyes seemed to bulge as electricity sparked through her body.

"Hurry up and just fire the thing!" he yelled as he prepared to shock her again. A metal arm sudden wrapped around his waist, trying to pull him back. Without thinking, he quickly brought out the second one with his magic and shocked the offending limb, wincing as the charge went through himself. He did catch sight of the limb's color though. It was purple, just like Bonnie.

'But where's Freddy?' he wondered as he shocked both dolls again, grimacing when he realized he only had one charge left.

That question was being answered in the form of a brown paw trying to wrap around Rainbow Dash's neck. Of course, she was fast enough to avoid it, allowing Twilight to grab the bear in her telekinetic grip.

"Leave my friend alone!" she yelled, hurling him back towards the stage with a heave, where he collided with Bonnie and Chica but thankfully avoided Griff.

"Rainbow lasers of friendship anytime now!" Griff shouted as he ducked, watching as they slowly started to get back to their feet.

"Let's do it!" Rainbow Dash yelled.

As one, the six's bodies began to glow with a bright light, each one a different color that managed to illuminate the entire room. When they faded, the Mane Six stood once more in their 'Rainbow Power' forms.

"It's over, Freddy!" Twilight told the magic dolls as she and her friends bodies began to glow brighter and brighter. "Time to stop this!"

A golden discolored version of Freddy suddenly appeared in front of them, its mouth opened and eyeless sockets filled with a sort of red fire.

"N..no..ot y...e..ttt!"

"No, GF," a familiar swashbuckling voice answered. "It is over."

Golden Freddy turned its gaze towards the source, Foxy the Pirate, who was still holding his cupcake but racing straight towards him. GF recoiled on instinct, but Foxy passed right on through him. The apparition quickly recovered and looked towards him.

"W...as tha...t supp...ose...d to ...do so...methi...ng?"

Foxy looked at him incredulously. "Of course not, GF. I thought ye were smarter than that."

GF's eyes widened (well, they would if he had them) and his eyebrows rose when he realized he had just fallen for the easiest trick in the book. By the time he turned around though, the Mane Six's light had grown almost blinding in intensity.

"FIRE!" Twilight yelled out.

"S...on... of ...a w-"

Golden Freddy's words were cut off in a roar, identical to the one that Dash had heard over the phone during Shep Book's last message, as the Rainbow Power engulfed the room and the entire pizzeria in a burst of multicolored light before dissolving into pure white light.

Foxy stared into it, feeling, for the first time in seemingly forever, at peace. He smiled as the light washed over him like a wave.

"Thank ye kindly, Rainbow Dash," he whispered as the light engulfed everything, including him. "Thank ye and yer friends for everything..."

Then he knew no more.

The Next Morning (Baltimare Cemetery)

The Mane Six and Griff Schimdt, clad in an overcoat, all stood in front of a big grey tombstone erected near the back of the Baltimare Cemetery. While lacking in terms of decorations, save for carved images of the four magic dolls: Freddy and Foxy near the top and Bonnie and Chica near the bottom, along with the cupcake overhead, the size of it managed to overcome those problems, inscribed with writing all throughout its surface. Up near the top, underneath the cupcake decoration, the inscription read:

In Honor of All Those Who Died During the Operation of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, Dedicated Especially to the Five Young Foals Who Died Early On and to the Last Nightguard: Shep Book.

The names were the list of nightguards who had died, along with the original founders' names and those of the five foals: Flashlight Spans, Emerald Doi, Shazzle Frazzle, Herksey Klon, and Shadow Dash.

At the very end, a final inscription said:

Paid For and Donated by Griff Schmidt, Third and Final Owner of FFP. "In the hearts and minds of their loved ones, these ponies will live on."

"I wish I could do more," Griff admitted to the group as he stared at the gravestone. "For all the poor souls buried under this tombstone, how I wish I could do more."

"You came, didn't you?" Dash asked rhetorically. "That's a start."

"More importantly, what do you plan to do now?" Twilight asked him. "The pizzeria's closed now, and the dolls..."

A moment of silence descended on the group. When the light of the Rainbow Power had ended, it had taken them all a moment to see what had happened to the magic dolls afterwards. When their eyesight had cleared, they had beheld an amazing sight.

Or rather, no sight.

The dolls were gone. Literally, they had seemingly vanished without a trace, not a clue as to where they had gone or even if they had been there in the first place. They had even searched the entire area, and found no sign of them.

None of them had any real idea as to what that meant, but if nothing else, it saved Griff the trouble of having to burn them up or have them scrapped.

Griff sighed. "Honestly, I'm thinking about coming clean with my past to the authorities. Maybe serve some time."

"Turning yourself in?" Rarity asked. "Why in Heaven's name would you do that?"

He shrugged. "I just want to feel like I'm actually being punished for everything that happened, honestly. Once I'm out though... maybe I'll start up an orphanage or something." A slight grin broke out. "Or maybe even become a world-traveler. I've always wanted to see what wonders are in Equestria with my own two eyes after all."

Griff turned around to look at the other six, but his eyes were Rainbow Dash. "Well, I can officially say that your debts have payed, Ms. Rainbow Dash," he began. "You don't owe me a cent anymore."

Dash rolled her eyes when he brought that up. "Will you stop that?" she told him. "It's over and done with."

Griff chuckled. "As you wish... but before I forget, let me give you something... if you'll accept it."

Rainbow Dash blinked. "What is it?"

He reached into his coat, then pulled out a small box with his magic, letting it over in front of her face. "That... is a secret."

She slowly took the box into her hooves. "Uh... thanks."

Griff nodded and then turned his attention to the other five, giving them a brief bow and smile. "Once again, thank you for your help, ladies. I truly am privileged to meet such mares as yourself... and in no way do I mean disrespect by that statement. You have my eternal gratitude."

With that, his horn suddenly flashed and he teleported away.

Everypony just stared at the spot he had stood for a moment, then Rarity spoke.

"Well, at least he was a true gentlecolt throughout." she respectfully noted.

The five of them then gathered around Rainbow Dash, who was now staring at the box.

"What do ya think it is, Rainbow?" Applejack asked her.

Dash shrugged. "I don't know." She then gave the box an experimental shake.

"Well, open it up silly!" Pinkie told her. "Let's see it!"

An unspoken feeling of agreement was among them. Dash tore open the top and slowly reached inside, grasping whatever was inside.

"It feels kind of round...and squishy," she admitted, then pulled it out.

Everypony blinked, but it was Twilight who spoke. "Isn't that...?"

It was the cupcake Foxy had held during his last song, googling eyes and all...and right on top of it was a plushy version of Foxy, whole and hale, not broken and metal-showing. They seemed to gaze forlornly at them all, and all of them stared back, though none as hard as Rainbow Dash.

She thought back to all of their talks and how he kept helping her, even to the end. Her only true companion in those hours.

Despite herself, Dash felt a smile twitch across her face.

"Um, Rainbow Dash... you're crying."

Rainbow Dash blinked at Fluttershy's words, quickly bringing a hoof to her face and coming away with wet spots.

"You alright, sugarcube?" Applejack asked her, the others flashing her looks of concern.

Dash quickly shook her head, putting on a smile. "Of course! I'm fine, totally fine! ...Just some dust is all."

The five didn't look they bought it for a blind second, but they didn't push the issue, something she was grateful for. Instead, Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder.

"Let's go home, Rainbow."

Dash looked down at the cupcake and plushy in her grip, then put them back in the box. She sniffed for a moment.

"Yeah, let's."

And with that, the six of them walked away respectfully, not once looking back.

However, even if they had, they wouldn't have been able to see the five foals gathered around the tombstone: Two earth ponies: Brown and yellow respectively, Two unicorns: Purple and gold respectively, and one red pegasus, all staring after them.

Just before they disappeared though, even from the senses of the truly mystically tuned, the red one spoke in a vaguely pirate-like accent.

"Thanks for everything Rainbow Dash."

Author's Note

And thus, my first MLP story comes to a close. I think overall I did pretty good.

The Third Day (Murder Mysteries)

The first thing Rainbow Dash did as of leaving the pizzeria?

Race to her cloud bed and get a well-deserved bit of sleep. She practically passed out the moment her face made contact with the cloud, not taking a moment to take her nightsticks out from under her wing or even to just get in a more comfortable position. One touch, and it was heavenly bliss.

And as an extra topping of this ice cream of relief? She didn't have a single nightmare.

As for what she did dream...

"Die, you darn dolls!"

With a mighty thrust, Dash stabbed the leering purple bunny with her electric lance, watching as it exploded in a great big ball of fire. A bark of laughter escaped as she turned to her companion.

"How ya holding up, Foxy?"

Her red-furred pirate companion turned his head towards her, eyepatch snapping upwards as he swung the sword in his grip at the yellow chicken he was fighting, it too exploding in a ball of flame and smoke.

"Yar! I'd be doing fine, Cap'n! Let's hurry up and take care of ol' Freddy!"

She smiled. "Oh yeah!"

They both turned to the brown bear with his black tophat, who just stared at them for a second before turning and running as fast as his legs could take him.

"Avast, matey!" Foxy called with laughter as he bolted after him. "I'll race ya!"

Dash didn't answer, simply chuckling as she followed.

...they were pleasant, to say the least.

Alas, all good things must come to end. And as Dash was forced to wake up due to a sudden beeping sound, just as she and Foxy were discussing what would be the most epic way to dispatch of Freddy, she was forced to be reminded of that fact.

"Mmmph..." she grumbled to herself, shifting her position. "Five more minutes..."

The ringing continued. Dash raised her head and slowly opened her eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the sunlight as she blinked, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.

"Alright, alright! I'm up! I'm up!" she muttered as she raised a hoof to her head, trying to block out the sound. Still, it continued.

She started to glance around, yet the shrill sound seemed to have no source. Her annoyance growing by the second, Dash prepared to spread her wings and go find the source.

The moment she lifted them, the sound increased. Dash's head snapped towards her nightstick packs, the left one in particular.

"You've got to be kidding me."

Still, she removed the stick, grimacing as the sound got even louder. She noticed that a small part near the tip seemed to be flashing red. On a whim, she pressed the switch, watching as it extended. The previously sparking tip was now just barely showing any sparks, and (more importantly to Dash) the noise had finally stopped.

"...Guess it ran out of juice," she decided, then she pressed the switch again, watching as it went back to small mode and thankful the noise didn't start up again.

The thought of going back to sleep tempted her, but Dash shook her head as she looked towards the big clock in the center of Baltimare, noticing the time was apparently 3:47am.

"Darn, I really slept," she muttered to herself, then suddenly felt her stomach growl. "Wonder what's for breakfast?"

A shower, a few sandwiches, and three cups of coffee later (that was becoming a thing, apparently), Dash found herself walking through the streets of Baltimare past the city's residents, making her way to Freddy's. A part of her knew she could have just flown there, but she wanted some time to collect her current thoughts, specifically that of the pieces of information that appeared on the white safety poster.

Five foals were murdered there? Dash couldn't believe it on some level. She would have thought Griff would have mentioned it to her at some point when she came to him for answers, but he hadn't even given it a single hint of it.

She recalled what Griff had said about not knowing about something that had happened during the early days of the establishment, when his grandad was in charge. Was this what he meant?

'Then how do I know about it and he doesn't?' she wondered. 'I mean, I found it out on a changing poster after two nights. How come he couldn't after several years?'

She stopped walking for a moment. Actually, how was she even certain it was even true? All she had to go on was a changing poster in a maybe-haunted pizzeria, and if some of the horror stories she had read about things like that meant anything, that usually wasn't the best source of info to go off on.

'...Maybe I need a new angle,' she thought to herself. 'But where could I find something like that?'

She thought back to all the times Twilight needed to find an answer to a big problem. What did she do...

Her eyes widened as she stomped the ground in realization. "The library!" she shouted aloud in a eager voice. A few ponies glanced at her in confusion at her outburst, but she paid them no mind.

'The library has everything somepony needs to know,' she told herself as she started glancing left to right. 'Now, where can I find one here-'

She stopped when she looked at the building to her immediate right. On the sign in great big silver letters were the words: Baltimare City Library.

She stared for a few seconds, then shrugged. "Well, that was easy."

Getting the information, however, was not.

Dash had gotten used to having the librarian of Ponyville also being her best friend and said library also her house, which meant she had the option to bend the rules so much that she could form pretzels with them. She could be loud, talk without thinking, roughhouse, the whole nine yards and all she'd get in return would at worst be a sort of scolding.

Here though, said library was run by a far more serious mare who seemed to live and breath the rules, especially the 'be quiet' one.

Safe to say, ten minutes in and she had already gotten two warnings, with the last coming with the barely disguised threat of expulsion if she acted up again.

Still, for all the said mare's faults, she was helpful in finding the stuff Rainbow Dash wanted, if only because she seemed to want Dash out as fast as possible.

And so, Dash found herself sitting by a table while looking over several newspaper articles about Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, attempting to find any trace of any reference to the articles she found during her night watch.

And she had come up with jack.

She growled softly as she looked over an article about an interview with Griff's father, Phone Schmidt (what kind of pony names their foal 'Phone'?), and all she got was just some generic questions about the establishment and how his father had gotten started. Interesting, but nothing that said anything about murders and the like. She pushed it aside with a small pile of articles she had deemed useless and grabbed another one, this one far more recent, as in earlier this year.

Local pizzeria said to close by year's end.

After a long struggle to stay in business after the tragedy that struck there so many years ago, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza has announced that it will close by year's end.

Despite a year-long search to find a buyer, companies seem unwilling to be associated with the floundering pizza place.

"These characters will live on. In the hearts of foals, these characters will live on." - CEO, Griff Schmidt (Third owner and grandson of FFP's founder, Scott Schmidt.)

'That still doesn't tell me about the foals,' Dash told herself. 'For all I know, they're talking about the Bite of '87.'

She pushed the article away. Everything she was reading was either something she already knew from Griff or something useless to her. She got up from her seat and walked back over to the librarian.

"You sure this is all you have on Freddy Fazbear's Pizza?" she asked the mare.

The librarian sighed. "Yes, Ms. Dash," she replied. "That is all we have left on the subject of the pizzeria."

Dash blinked. "'Left'?"

"About five years ago, a fire accidentally started in the library," she elaborated. "While we were able to snuff it out relatively quickly, several dozen books and articles were lost, among them it would appear were many that documented the pizzeria's earliest years. Does that answer your question?"

Dash sighed and hung her head. "No, that's fine. Thanks anyways," she replied as she turned to leave the building, mentally cursing that almost a whole hour of searching had been for nothing.

"My pleasure, Ms. Dash," the librarian called after her. "Have a nice day."

'Nice day? Try nice night,' Dash thought in turn as she exited the library.

"Murders?"

Dash nodded her head as Griff leaned back in his chair. They were in his office, Dash having decided to check to make sure he knew that, yes, she was alive and yes, she was coming back to work, so he wouldn't be on the verge of a panic attack. If nothing else, it looked like he hadn't been drinking this time around.

"And you saw these things on the poster in the East Hall?"

"Yup," Dash replied. "Care to shed some light on this?"

Griff shrugged his shoulders. "Your guess is as good as mine... though it would definitely explain some things about what my dad said."

"You've never seen the sign change?" Dash asked incredulously. "In all the years you've been in charge, you've never once seen the safety list turn into a doomsday report?"

"Not once," he clarified. "Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you're the night-shift... if nothing else, it adds to the 'haunted doll' theory that I've always bought into a little bit: Five foals, five magic dolls."

Dash blinked. "You don't honestly think that-"

"I honestly don't know," Griff replied with a sigh. "It would certainly explain their behavior and some of the more... unpleasant things about them before the Bite and afterwards. Of course, it also would imply I shot a tortured soul right through the chest with a magic bolt as well."

Dash decided not to comment on that. Griff continued, a small smirk appearing on his face.

"However, it would appear that you had a bit more excitement last light than just learning about the pizzeria's dark past, if Bonnie's condition is any indication."

The way he said it made Dash rub the back of her head, chuckling nervously. "Yeah... those sticks were handy."

He just sighed. "I suppose if it kept you safe, I'm not complaining... though I do wonder about the condition of Bonnie's leg and ear. It looked like something solid and tough had hit those areas, like something made of metal, and they were too wide to be from your nightstick. Mind shedding some light, Rainbow?"

Dash stopped rubbing her head. Should she tell him about Foxy? She didn't know how he'd react to learning that the supposed defective magic doll was not only capable of leaving Pirate Cove, but also functional enough to be able to overpower one of his fellow dolls. Not only that, it would also open a whole new can of worms on the subject on exactly what Foxy's relationship (should she use that word? It seemed like the only way to describe it) with her was, something Dash wasn't entirely comfortable with talking about right now.

After all, just because they had heart-to-heart talks (or just moments with herself rambling and him maybe responding, if it wasn't just her imagination), sang a song, and now apparently added kicking doll flank to their resumes didn't mean he still wasn't a maybe-maybe-not killer doll who just so happened to take a shine to her. Heck, if Shep's message meant anything, he was just as responsible for stuffing ponies into suits as the others were.

But then why was she so different?

"Dash?"

She blinked when she realized that Griff was waiting for her answer.

"Uh... I might have grabbed a pan and hit Bonnie a few times?"

...That could have been better thought out.

To her surprise, Griff seemed to accept that explanation after staring at her for a moment. "...Well, it's no worry, I suppose. Bonnie has enough spare parts to have those fixed up just fine. Took care of it this morning, actually, though I doubt he'll be as eager to come after you anymore."

'Wow, I can't believe he fell for it-'

"Foxy, however, does not have such an option of easy repair though. I'd recommend being a bit more careful from here on out."

'...Okay, scratch that. Guess he put two and two together.'

Dash expected him to follow through on that, but instead he seemed to let it slide entirely. Griff turned away from her for a second.

"I'd like to have your nightstick though, just to recharge it in preparation for tonight. One charge won't do much by its lonesome, and it's rather awkward to dual-wield them."

Dash nodded, pulling out the used stick, but paused as Griff's magic took hold of it and brought it over to him.

"...Wait, how would you know?"

He just stared at her for a second. "Ms. Dash, I've taken the time to prepare these things for the protection of my worker's well-being. At least expect me to have taken the time to test for effective ways to use them."

She rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright, just asking. Sheesh."

11:35 PM.

Dash spent the rest of her day just resting and preparing for the coming night. She knew she had to be at the top of her game and so got herself ready the best way she knew how: Eat something good for lunch, take a nap, do so fancy maneuvers in mid-air to get her blood pumping, take another nap, and finally occupy herself with thoughts of beating the crap out of the magic dolls if they came for her.

Of course, that last set of thoughts was tempered somewhat by the idea that they were really just poor foals who somehow possessed the dolls and were now taking their vengeance out on the living. Reminded of a good horror story she once read, though it had a demon possessing a little filly instead. Maybe they should invest in an exorcist to take care of the problem... and then they may or may not have the spirits try to possess them.

Yeah, maybe she'd settle for just keeping them away from her behind a few feet of steel doors... and just think of them as crazy magic dolls. That had worked so far.

Finally though, she made her way back to the pizzeria, and was once more in the security room with Griff, who handed her back the newly charged nightstick.

"Well, it's about time," he told her. "I guess I can leave things to you?"

She flashed him her trademark smile. "Of course, boss. Who the hay do you think I am? No magic dolls are gonna get me tonight or any other night."

He chuckled at her words. "True enough," he admitted, then looked at her seriously. "But if you see the sign change anymore tonight, don't hesitate to tell me about it come morning."

She nodded, briefly losing her own smile. "Right."

Griff turned to leave. "Good luck, Rainbow Dash."

She smiled again. "Thanks, but when you're as awesome as me, sir, you don't need luck."

Griff didn't say anything in response, just kept trotting away. Dash waited until she saw him leave on camera, then decided to make her way to Pirate Cove.

'Let's see if I can get any answers from an inside source...'

"Yo, Foxy!" she called as she pulled the curtains back. "How've ya been lately?"

Again, the fox offered no answer to her call, but she didn't let that bother her.

"Silent treatment again as usual, huh?" she asked without missing a beat. "Well, I can deal with that."

She sat down on her haunches in front of the damaged doll, staring up into his golden eyes. Despite herself, she found herself trying to see some spark of the intelligence she knew was secretly inside of the doll, some trace of the mind that controlled it. Her search found nothing in those glass eyes though.

'Do they always possess the dolls,' she wondered briefly to herself, 'or do they just, like, hang out outside of them until closing time?'

"...So..." she started slowly, deciding it was time to get serious. "mind if I ask you a question?"

No response. Considering how most of their conversations went, she took this as her cue to continue.

"Why do you keep on helping me?" she asked him.

No visible reaction from Foxy. Still, she continued.

"I mean, I get I'm awesome and probably the first guard who's showed you this much attention in a long time, and that I promised to keep visiting you as long as I come here to work, but is that really why you sang that song for so long last night? Why'd you helped me with Bonnie? I thought you were just a doll that liked stuffing guards into suits. The others seem to think of me like that. Why not you? What makes me special, really, in your mind?"

Admittedly, this was some pretty deep thinking and stuff she usually didn't indulge in. She left things like the 'why' to eggheads like Twilight while she focused on the 'how' and 'what'. But then again, she didn't usually spend time in places with possessed-killer-magic dolls where one of them apparently had a soft spot for her. She'd liked to know exactly why that was the case.

Foxy, however, provided no answer. He was as silent as before, no indication he even registered her words.

Rainbow Dash sat there for what seemed like hours, fidgeting in place as she waited. Finally, she just threw her hooves up in exasperation.

"Okay, okay, I can take a hint," she said as she flapped her wings, bringing herself up to his eye-level. "But I'm gonna keep this up 'til I get an answer eventually."

She went back over to the curtain ropes and put her hooves on them, taking a second to look at him one last time. "...See you later tonight, Foxy."

Foxy didn't move, even as she pulled the curtains back over him. With that, Dash made her way towards the exit.

"...Not yet, lass. Soon, but not yet..."

Dash stopped and turned back to the curtains, having heard the faint whisper even through the fabric. She thought about going back towards him, but decided against it after glancing towards the clock. She didn't have time to spare.

12 AM.

Dash sipped some of the hot coffee as she sat at her desk, noting with some satisfaction that the taste wasn't quite so bad anymore when heated. She also checked her nightsticks to be sure she could grab them quickly, then grabbed the tablet.

"Alright Shep," she muttered as she glanced towards the phone. "Anyday now..."

Right on cue, the phone rang and she pressed the button. "What've you got for me tonight, Shep?" she asked the machine casually, already flicking up the tablet to start observing the dolls.

"Hello, hello?" came Shep's voice over the line, still as cheery as ever, though Dash noticed just a hint of strain in the usually happy voice. Then again, two nights of this would probably do that to anypony, even some like a male Pinkie Pie. Heck, she only made it this far because she had Foxy backing her up.

"Hey you're doing great! Night Three, huh? If you're listening to this, that makes you the first pony aside from myself that's made it this far."

"Don't know if I should be really proud of myself by that statement," Dash muttered in-turn.

"Uh, most ponies don't last this long. I mean, you know, they usually quit and move on to other things by now. Uh, I'm not implying that they died. Th-th-that's not what I meant."

"Seriously dude, stop it," she muttered as she focused on the show stage, showing all three of the magic dolls in their proper places. "Just shut up if you're gonna try and be reassuring."

"Uh, anyway, I-I better not take up too much of your time. Uh, things start getting real tonight."

Real? How much realer could it get?

Dash got her answer when the show stage camera suddenly flickered and died, going completely black. All she heard was what sounded like squeaking noises, as if they were quickly moving about under the dark cover.

"What!? Oh come on!"

She quickly flipped to the party area camera, glad to see that it was still working, and found Bonnie standing there facing towards, but thankfully far away, from the camera. Another flip brought her to the restrooms, only to see that was offline, and then to the East Hall, which was also offline.

"Waiting for your advice, Book," she said through gritted teeth as she flipped to Pirate Cove, letting only a slight amount of tension to leave at the fact that Foxy was still hidden. "Come on, give me something..."

"Uh, h-hey, listen, I had an idea: if you happen to get caught and want to avoid getting stuffed into a Freddy suit, uh, try playing dead! You know, go limp."

"...Something useful, darn it!" she replied as she flipped back towards the party area (Bonnie was still there, good) and then back to the East Hall when the camera finally came back on, showing her that Chica was at the far end of the area, giving her the trademark stare. "What good is that to me?"

"Then there's a chance that, uh, maybe they'll think you're an empty costume instead, you know? No need to stuff you in a suit if you're already a suit."

"...You know, that doesn't actually sound too bad-"

"Then again if they think you're an empty costume, they might try to stuff a metal skeleton into you. I wonder how that would work. Y-Yeah, never mind, scratch that. I-It's best just not to get caught."

After that horrifying mental image, Dash was quick to agree. "Yeah, let's continue that conversation never, okay?"

"Uh, ok, I'll leave you to it. See you on the flip side."

The line went dead. She stared at it for several moments, contemplating the advice she had been given.

'Well that was useless to me.'

She then looked back to the cameras, seeing that Bonnie and Chica had changed positions once again.

She took a deep breath. Well, useless or not, she was going to survive.

"Alright, let's do this!"

2:48 AM. 73% power remaining.

Dash's eyes flickered to another camera as she pressed the right door button, allowing the metal to block Chica off from sight. Surprisingly enough, it was the chicken that had been taking the initiative tonight. This was the third time tonight she had come to the office, forgoing her usual forays into the kitchen to get something to eat. Dash wondered if it had something to do with the fact she shocked Bonnie last night. Maybe Chica made a bet that she could do what he couldn't?

"Sheesh, Chica. Couldn't you go grab a snack?" Dash muttered as she checked the West Hall camera, seeing it was clear. "I'm here all night. Might as well relax a little bit."

She flicked the camera again, finally catching sight of Bonnie in the supply closet. What he was doing there, she had absolutely no clue.

...Come to think of it, he hadn't come by the office once tonight. Maybe he was having flashbacks to getting shocked? Getting jumped by Foxy probably hadn't helped matters.

Still she wasn't complaining. If he wanted to spend the night far away from her, who was she to judge? One less thing to worry about.

"Keep it up Bonnie," she muttered quietly. "I just might make you my second favorite after Foxy."

And speaking of Foxy...

Dash flipped to Pirate Cove, being greeted to the sight of the damaged fox himself peeking out from his curtains.

"Yo Foxy," she greeted the doll, "how ya hanging?"

As if in answer, she started to hear a familiar swashbuckling tune start to play. She immediately started to sing along, humming in tune.

"Da da dum dum dum diddly dum du diddly di..."

A few minutes of that, then she changed view to the Kitchen, to which the sound of pots and pans shifting around greeted her ears. Guess Chica finally took her advice.

Still, she took a moment to check the right door's lights, then opened it when she found it clear. She also checked the left door, seeing it was clear as well.

Another glance to the camera. Bonnie still in his hideaway.

She snorted as she put the tablet down, taking a moment to just get her bearings. "Wow, I think this is easier than the first night on the job," she chuckled to herself, then flipped the tablet back on to look at the show stage. There, Freddy Fazbear stood like he always did, not even glancing towards the camera.

"You hear me, Freddy?" she couldn't help but boast to the doll. "What've you got left to throw at me, aside from turning the cameras off? I know how you guys work, and I can take it. Got anything actually new for me tonight?"

That probably wasn't the smartest idea, but really, what was left? Foxy was on her side (more or less), Bonnie was currently hiding away, and while Chica was keeping up the fight, Dash could handle her. Aside from the blackout early on, nothing major had really changed against her favor. What was left that Freddy could throw at her?

Seriously, was he just gonna come up off the stage? Shep did say that he only started moving when it got dark, and there were still lights on. Unless she ran out of power, she was pretty much safe by now.

Dash decided to change the screen, checking up on Bonnie again (still hiding), then to the West Hall Corner. She didn't know why she did it, since Chica didn't come this way and she probably could just conserve power if she turned it off, but she was curious to see if she could find anything new like on the East Hall.

'I think there was a poster over here,' she tried to recall. 'Something to do with Freddy?'

She focused on the poster, then she blinked. Yeah, it was definitely a Freddy poster, that much she remembered... but she didn't recall it being like that.

The old picture had been of Freddy with his microphone waving with big words saying 'Let's Party!' overhead. Now, it was missing the words and Freddy appeared to be-

"What the hay?" Dash whispered softly.

He had grabbed his head with his hands and was now... ripping it apart. His right hand was gripping the upper part of his head and jaw (with his hat one of his eyes missing) while his left had his lower jaw, with the two parts connected by some thin red wires and the whole thing itself only connected to the neck by a couple of black ones. Worse part was he was still staring directly at her.

"Like what you see?" it seemed to be saying.

She quickly shut the tablet, a brief cold sweat breaking out. 'It's not real, it's not real, it's not real...' she repeated to herself quickly, but she didn't bother to look back at the camera for several minutes, trying to get her breathing under the control.

Thank goodness for the fact Foxy's song was still playing. She found herself repeating along with the pirate doll.

"Dum dum diddly dum dum dum diddly dum dum diddly di..."

After a few verses, she managed to calm her nerves. She took another breath.

"Okay, I'm good."

The sound of slow groaning to her right interrupted her.

"Go away, Chica," she deadpanned, shutting it on the overeager chicken once more.

Seriously, could they really only get her if she was distracted by something else?

4:20 AM. 41% power remaining.

Dash shut the left door again, kinda disappointed that she didn't get a purple ear in the bargain. About twenty minutes ago, Bonnie finally stopped loitering around in the back areas to finally come at her. Maybe he finally psyched himself up, or maybe Freddy threatened to tell Chica some embarrassing stories about him if he didn't get to work.

Actually, that was an interesting thought. What did killer magic dolls consider embarrassing?

Before that, it had been standard for her. Check cameras (mostly on Foxy, the singing fool), shut door on Chica, check East Hall Corner to see if any new articles had appear, and avoid West Hall Corner like the plague. Of course, since Bonnie hadn't been working until 4 o'clock, she didn't have to worry about that blind spot.

"You know Bonnie," she irritatedly sighed, "You were almost on my good list. You could have been No. 2 on my favorite magic doll list, but noooo, you just had to come back."

Of course, she said No. 2. Sorry, but no one was taking the No. 1 spot from Foxy. She quickly flipped up the camera to see that, yes, he was still there looking up at her.

"Don't worry Foxy," she said with reassurance. "You're still No. 1 with me."

The pirate song had long since stopped, but she didn't let that bother her. Not that she would have been able to fully enjoy it, what with constantly opening and closing doors.

She put the tablet down and pressed the right door's lights, grunting when she saw Chica was still there.

"I'd say you're about No. 2 right now," she admitted. "At least you haven't tried to stuff me in a suit yet."

Granted, she hadn't gotten close enough to try, but enough about that.

Dash flipped the cameras back on, aiming for the East Hall Corner. It probably wasn't the smartest move, since she now had both doors closed, which would take up even more power, but it was also the most secure she would get if she wanted to see if there was anything new on the East Hall Corner.

This time, she was in luck. She began to speed-read the article so she wouldn't have to worry about power loss, mentally thanking the times the due dates for her Daring Doo books made her have to learn how to absorb info on the fly.

Local pizzeria threatened with shutdown over sanitation.

Local pizzeria, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, has been threatened again with shutdown by the health department over reports of foul odor coming from the much-loved animal mascots.

Police were contacted when parents reportedly noticed what appeared to be blood and mucus around the eyes and mouths of the mascots. One parent alikened them to "reanimated carcasses".

She sat there in silence, rereading that last bit. Reanimated carcasses.

Five missing children.

Formerly five magic dolls.

'Getting pressed inside a suit doesn't sound that bad when you think about it... if the suits themselves were designed for ponies and weren't filled with cross-beams, wiring, and magic devices, especially around the facial area. You can imagine how having your head forcefully pressed inside one of those could cause a bit of... discomfort... and death...'

Slowly, ever so slowly, she changed her view to that of the show stage.

There was Freddy Fazbear, standing there with his black eyes staring into the camera.

'Still think I have nothing left?' she almost imagined him saying.

"...Buck..." Dash whispered.

She switched her view to Foxy, but he was no longer visible. He had gone back behind the curtains again, though she could hear his theme just faintly from behind the curtain.

But it had changed. It seemed to have lost the upbeatness of before and now it sounded more... sad. Like he was remembering a happier time before all of this.

She put the tablet down and checked the lights. No sign of either Bonnie or Chica, so she let the doors up.

For some reason, daytime seemed farther off now than it had over four hours ago.

5:50 AM. 8% power remaining.

She wasn't gonna make it.

Dash had already removed one of the nightsticks from her wings and had it at the ready to activate at any moment. She had the left door down and shut, Bonnie behind it like a darn dog waiting for a treat. She had no idea where Chica had gone, but all she cared about was that she stayed away for a while longer.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon..." she whispered softly as she glanced at the clock. Eight minutes to go, but only 6% to spare. She wasn't a math expert, but she could tell that it was gonna run out before the clock hit the magic number of 6:00.

She quickly brought up the camera up to Pirate Cove. To her relief, Foxy had his head out once again, as if saying "I've got your back, friend."

"Please don't abandon me now, Foxy," she said with just a hint of desperation. "I've still got time to hang with and things to talk to you about."

Eyes to the clock. Seven minutes. Five percent.

She checked the right side. No Chica.

She checked the doorlight. No sign of Bonnie.

She prepared to press the button, but paranoia stopped her. What if he had just backed off slightly so that when she opened the door he could rush her? She didn't know how far exactly the light spread, what if he was just waiting for her?

She looked back down at the tablet.

'Just a quick peek,' she decided. 'If he's gone, I can let it up.'

She checked the West Hall Corner.

Nothing.

She let out a small sigh of relief and prepared to lower the tablet. However, a flash of bright color caught her eye, right where the poster of Freddy was.

Her eyes glanced to it just for a second, but they remained rooted to the spot.

The poster had changed again. This time, the background was completely black, with an extreme close-up of Freddy's face.

But it wasn't Freddy anymore. Instead, a new doll was staring at her, looking like Freddy's brother or something. Where Freddy had been brown, this new one was golden, but also dirty like it had been stuffed in a corner somewhere for a long time. Similarly, in place of a black tophat was a blue one. But the main difference was the eyes.

Freddy, at least when he wasn't going for the black eyes with white specks, had almost baby-blue eyes. This doll didn't even have those. All she saw were two black eyeless pits staring right back her, and they creeped her out even more than the other dolls.

"Who the buck are you?" she whispered softly, feeling like she knew this one somewhere. "You're like a gold Freddy-"

It came to her like a thunderbolt.

The fifth doll.

The cause of the Bite of '87.

The one that damaged Foxy and Griff attacked.

The one the family destroyed.

The golden Freddy.

Golden Freddy.

Suddenly, a giggling laugh echoed inside the booth, literally right in front of her. It sounded like a filly who just played a joke on somepony.

For Dash though, that giggle was like a death knell, because it meant something was inside the booth. With her. And she knew what happened when things got inside with somepony already there.

"Not this time!" she yelled as she dropped the tablet and activated one of the nightsticks, swinging it in front of her even as she heard it click and spark. She wasn't even aiming, just desperate to hit something.

That 'something' turned out to be the real Golden Freddy, right in front of her face and looking just like he did in the poster... except now she could see he had a blue bowtie to go with his hat and a microphone just like the real one. He stared right at her with his eyeless holes, one eyebrow seemingly raised and head tilted to the side as if to say, "What'cha doing?"

...Actually, that'd be pretty funny if he wasn't just sitting there with his mouth open, all limp and slouched like he was sleeping... or dead. She couldn't even spot any metal teeth inside his mouth like the other dolls. It was like she was just staring at the costume, not the actual doll.

Not that it mattered either way, because her swing went right through him like he was a ghost, the lack of expected resistance accidentally causing her to fall face-first out of her chair. Dash collided with the ground and quickly tried to get off, already imagining Golden Freddy's fingers grabbing her, but all she heard was... honestly, it sounded like a weird warbling sound that wouldn't have been out of place coming from a doll's mouth.

What came next was far less comforting, because as she raised her head, an image of a close-up of Freddy suddenly popped in front of her vision, everything around it going black. It wasn't the sudden invasion of privacy that spooked her though.

No, that was reserved for the fact that Freddy's eyes were different. They weren't glassy eyes that could be mistaken for a pony's or even the black eyes from before. No, these were actual honest-to-the-Princesses pony eyes, bright blue and bloodshot, staring into hers with the most disturbing expression of crazy she had ever seen. Pinkie on her worst day never looked this creepy.

"Buck!" she screamed, swinging her stick again. Like that, the image disappeared, though just before it did she swore she could words on the black, two of them to be exact.

IT'S ME

'It's not real, it's not real,' she repeated to herself as rapidly as she could, feeling sweat break out as she steeled herself. 'It's all because of that damn gold doll.'

She clenched her stick tightly. 'I'll show him to mess with my head!'

She turned her head to look back where the golden bear had been, a mighty yell escaping her mouth as she prepared to swing, but she didn't see anything. He was gone like he had never existed.

"What the-"

She didn't get time to wonder what had just happened though, because any such thought was extinguished when her eyes landed on the clock.

5:56 AM.

One percent.

Then the lights went off, everything shutting off just like the first night. The left door went upwards with a clang, the emergency functions no doubt activating to make sure nopony would get locked inside. Bonnie was gone, and Chica wasn't at the right door.

Silence. Even the fan in the corner had gone off.

But it wasn't completely silent. Every little moment in the restaurant was like a cymbal crash to Dash's ears. She could hear the crackle of sparks on her stick, the slow breaths that she was letting in and out, and the beat of her heart.

Most importantly though, she could hear the sounds of something shuffling towards the office in the dark from the west side, steps far too heavy to be somepony coming to help her, and too muffled to be Foxy's metal feet. And as the sounds got closer, she could hear her own heart speed up.

Thump.

She desperately tried to think of a plan. She could run, but what if Bonnie and Chica were waiting for that? Maybe Freddy demanded anyone who ran out of power got the special treatment from himself, but who wasn't to say those two wouldn't be waiting for her on the east side if she tried to bolt before six?

Thump.

Fight? She still had full charge on both sticks. She only lost charges when she actually struck something, and she didn't think hallucinations and ghosts counted.

Thump!

But would they be enough? Six blasts would definitely hold him down, but she doubted they would be enough to break him if he expected it, not if Bonnie could take two while off-guard and still need Foxy to take him down.

Thump!

And where was Foxy? Was he hiding? She couldn't blame him, not if Freddy was apparently the leader of the bunch. He was even creepier than other ones when he wasn't even moving, though Golden Freddy was moving up in that title. For all she knew, that also meant he was way more dangerous, and the dark was his element, not Foxy's.

THUMP!

Dash slowly inched back into her chair, turning ever so slightly to the west side.

"Uh, h-hey, listen, I had an idea: if you happen to get caught and want to avoid getting stuffed into a Freddy suit, uh, try playing dead! You know, go limp. Then there's a chance that, uh, maybe they'll think you're an empty costume instead, you know? No need to stuff you in a suit if you're already a suit."

THUMP!

'...Let's see if you were right, Shep,' she thought desperately.

THUMP.

Silence again. For a moment, she actually wondered if Freddy had given up.

Suddenly, a strange tune reached her ears, like a music box being played to help a foal sleep better at night. It was so out of place from what she expected she just stared dumbly at the west door entrance, the source, from her position.

'Okaaayy...' she couldn't help but wonder. "So what do you do for an encore-"

Suddenly, Freddy's face lit up from inside the doorway like he had just switched on a light switch, his eyes and the inside of his mouth glowing with a yellow light, staring right at her. Dash, to her credit, didn't jump back in her seat, though every instinct screamed at her to do so, and instead kept as still as possible. Maybe the 'playing dead' tactic could buy her a few more seconds of time before six. Maybe he'd think she'd had a heart attack and leave her alone.

...Or maybe he would get another doll and try to stuff it inside of her.

Buck that, she'd bust out the sticks and shock him for all he was worth before that happened, be damned to whether Bonnie and Chica would come after her.

Still, he did none of those things. Instead, he just kept staring at her, the light flickering constantly to give him an even creepier feeling, all seemingly in tune to the music box song he was playing was.

She suddenly felt really bad about mocking him about not having anything left to scare her with. She could almost see it in his expression in the darkness, like he was saying, "I've got plenty left, meatsack. You haven't seen the half of it."

Still, she refused to move, anything to draw out the time. If she could just make it to six, she'd be golden. So she remained still, and Freddy just kept on playing, grinning at her like he was already thinking about how she'd look in his costume... or how'd she look with an endoskeleton in her. Either way, she didn't share his feelings on the subject.

However, after what seemed like an eternity, the music started to wind down, the light dimming more and more as it did so. Dash had a feeling it wasn't because he was bored and just gonna walk away.

'C'mon, c'mon, c'mon...' she thought faster and faster. 'How long does it bucking take!?'

Slowly, the music petered out. Suddenly, the entire room went even darker than before, to the point she couldn't even see Freddy anymore.

However, she did hear the sounds of footsteps walking into the room, slowly coming towards her.

She clenched her nightsticks even tighter, ready to wrench them out at a moment's notice. Her heart seemed to thunder with each step.

'Alright Freddy,' she thought to herself, a part of her glad they were finally getting to the point. 'We'll play your way!'

The footsteps halted. A moment of silence longer than any before this one.

She didn't know when she had the urge. Maybe it was instinct, her fight-or-fight response kicking into gear, randomness, or just plain luck. All she did was push back into her chair and pull her sticks out, electricity crackling along their tips as she thrust them forward.

Not a moment too soon, because Freddy suddenly popped up in front of her arms spread out wide and with a big smile on his face, his eyes beaming.

"Give me a hug, Dashie!" he seemed to be saying with his motions.

"I'll give you something!"

She slammed both sticks into his chest, watching as the sparks surged into him. He jerked back in response, waving his arms in surprise as he tried to regain his balance, eyes wide in surprise.

"No hugs for you!" she yelled again as she jumped out of her seat and towards the west entrance, slamming her left stick into him again for good measure. This time though, he didn't stop like Bonnie had for the follow-up. Instead, despite the sparks all over his body, he tried to grab her again, his smile from before suddenly far more menacing.

She didn't let him though. Her tail barely avoided his grasp as she barreled through the west door, aiming straight for the main exit through her mad dash. Despite her speed though, the corridor was far too small to let her fly as fast she'd like, so she settled for hoofing it. Behind her, she could the sound of heavy footsteps following her.

She didn't pay attention to that though. Her attention was on the area ahead of her, ready for Bonnie or Chica to come lunging out out nowhere to get her. However, no flash of purple or yellow greeted her eyes as she ran.

"Gotta go fast..." she muttered to herself as she came barreling out of the West Hall into the party area, expecting Bonnie and Chica to be there waiting.

They were, but not like she was expecting.

Bonnie was face-down on the ground, his right leg seemingly trapped under a table and a chair on his head. It was quite clear that he wouldn't be going anywhere, even as he reached feebly for the latter item. Chica was in a similar face-up position, though she had her entire lower half covered by a table, while her arms were both being weighed down with some sort of magic speaker. She wasn't even trying to move, saving for spastically jerking her head, her eyes on Rainbow.

"Well, that was fun."

She turned her head towards the sound of the voice, near the entrance of Pirate Cove. To her dull surprise, it was Foxy, standing there in all his glory.

"Couldn't just let them gang up on you like that, lass," he said simply. "Had to teach 'em I still got some moves."

Dash would have something, maybe like how he could have worked faster, what had taken him so long, how he got them like that, a witty one-liner. However, she didn't have to.

"Fooxxxyyy..."

Both turned their heads towards the west hall, seeing the blue eyes of Freddy staring back at them, though his gaze seemed especially focused on the red fox.

"You know I don't like it when you mess with things like that," Freddy said in the voice he used during the day, though they seemed far colder now. "I thought you knew the rules."

"I do, and a pirate's meant to break 'em. It's in me job description, after all," Foxy replied. "Besides, ya don't have time for chit-chat, Freddy."

Suddenly, Dash was aware of the fact that the dark room was getting brighter, Celestia's sun shining through to chase away night.

"Get going, me lass," Foxy told her suddenly, his gaze never leaving Freddy. "'Tis time ye left this place."

"But-"

"Don't worry," he replied. "I've got nuthing to worry about. Freddy won't hurt me or you now."

She looked towards Freddy, whose eyes bored into hers. She didn't know why, but something in the way the doll was standing now seemed to support that statement. He looked angry, like he just missed out on a chance of a lifetime, but he didn't bother getting any closer.

"Just go," Foxy said again. "We'll talk tomorrow."

Dash wasn't about to say she knew exactly what was going on (heck, she had so many questions she wondered if this was what Twilight felt like during an experiment), but she decided to listen to the fox's words.

"It's a date then," Dash replied, slowly moving towards the door, her eyes shifting between the remaining three dolls. Bonnie and Chica just watched her from their various positions. She didn't want to be in their suits right now given the way Foxy put them down. Freddy just glared at her the whole way, his black scorching still visible even now.

"You're mine," he said simply. "I'll get you yet, mare."

Dash might have been scared just a few minutes before. Right then, after all this tension, she just felt the urge to talk smack.

"Whatever you say, Buckbear," Dash replied. "Got to catch me first."

Freddy's face couldn't really glare. However, he was doing his darndest to try as she made her way out of the pizzeria.

Somehow though, it just made her laugh.

An echoing laugh from inside told her at least someone else agreed.