Springtrapped

The bell above the door chimed as another pony entered Sugarcube Corner. The colorful pastry shop was absolutely buzzing with business today as ponies from all over town filled up its entirety. At one table sat six familiar mares, the bearers of the elements of harmony. Sitting among one another they chatted about their daily lives and recent events. It had been almost a week since they had all gotten together like this and it became quite a trip down memory lane as they started to reminisce on the past and their accomplishments, mostly because Rainbow Dash enjoys bringing them up as well as how awesome she was during their struggles. However, everypony's conversations were stopped dead in their tracks as a small group of young fillies and colts slammed the door open.

All eyes were on the group of smiling ponies and before a second could pass a colt by the name Pipsqueak stepped out from the fray. "Attention everypony! They are back," he yelled excitedly, "the Fazbear crew has finally returned!" He finished, charging out of the shop with ponies, both young and old alike, following close behind him.

The six elements remained seated however, Twilight shooting a questioning glare at her friends who all seemed pretty excited. "Um, guys? What's the Fazbear crew?"

All eyes were now on her. Applejack leaned close to Twilight with as much shock in her eyes as everypony else at the table. "You don't know about the Fazbear crew? I thought everypony knew."

"Well I don't." Twilight simply stated, "What are they."

Fluttershy took the stand, putting on an adorable face as she spoke. "Oh, they are just the cutest things. They're animatronic animals that used to play with all of the little ponies. I especially liked Freddy, he reminds me of Berry the bear."

Rainbow Dash huffed at Fluttershy. "Seriously? How can you like Freddy when Foxy is clearly the coolest one out of all of them?"

Suddenly the mischievous Pinkie Pie rose from under the table to give her feedback as well so she could fit in with the group. "I like Bonnie, he's quite the party animal. He's also really helpful when it comes to decorating. One time he covered my room with rainbow polka dots, it was so great!"

"My word," Rarity suddenly chimed in, "they've been gone for quite a while now. If I'm remembering correctly they had to go back to Canterlot just before Twilight moved to Ponyville."

"Wow," Said the farm horse, "time really has gone by. I wonder if they still remember us."

Twilight started to snicker slightly. "Oh, you guys. You don't need to pull my hoof, if you don't wanna tell me what they really are then you don't have to." The room suddenly stared at her in confusion. Did she really think they were joking? "I mean, really? Technology like that doesn't even exist in Equestria so how in the world could you-AH!" Twilight became startled as she looked down to see a blue, bipedal, robotic rabbit under the table.

The robo-rabbit climbed up and sat in the chair right beside Twilight. His presence making a certain pink party horse put on a smile that could tear faces in half. "Hi everypony! Wow, it's been a while since I've been here." It spoke with an electric voice sounding almost like a colt. "So, what's new?"

Pinkie could no longer contain herself. She leaped into the air, a mass amount of confetti appearing around her before she charged at the rabbit. Once she was close enough she wrapped him in a powerful hug. "Bonnie! I've missed you so, so, sooo much. We have so much to talk about!"

Bonnie was completely un-phased by the pressure Pinkie's hooves created around his small metallic body. However, he did lift his small arms and hug her back. "Hi Pinkie, you sure have gotten bigger. Have you been trying to out-grow me?" He asked playfully.

Twilight could help but stared in complete and utter shock at the sight before her. She thought her friends were just teasing her about this, but they weren't. She didn't understand how something like this could exist though. As she stated, Equestria wasn't very technologically advanced so this would have taken hundreds of geniuses to put together. And somehow, there were supposed to be more!?

Mrs. Cake suddenly walked out of the back room with a large, wouldn't you know it, cake resting on her back. It seemed to be slowing her down a bit despite her earth pony strength. Suddenly Bonnie vanished from the six mares and appeared before the shops owner. "Hello, Mrs. Cake!"

Mrs. Cake almost jumped as Bonnie entered her vision. At first she didn't recognize him, but his voice as well as his adorable face instantly clicked in her head. "Bonnie!? Is that you?"

"It sure is!" He answered in a happy tone. "My, my, that sure does look heavy. Here, let me help you." Before Mrs. Cake could protest Bonnie grabbed the cake from her back and held it high above his head, keeping it still with virtually no effort. "Where would you like me to put it?"

Once the shock cleared from seeing Bonnie's incredible strength she straighten her posture and pointed behind him. "The freezer is just over there. If you could set it on the floor for now that would be just fine."

"I'll get right on it!" He said as he quickly and efficiently walked into the freezer and set the cake on the ground. He walked out holding himself in his own arms. "Brrr, it's cold in there." His little glass eyes turned back to Mrs. Cake, "Wow, have you gotten prettier?"

Mrs. Cake blushed a bit as she turned her head away from Bonnie and waved a hoof at him. "Oh Bonnie, you little charmer you."

A red battery symbol started flashing on Bonnie's chest. Instinctively he looked down and tapped it a couple of times with a finger. "Uh oh, I guess I must have been running around more than I expected." He looked to his sides before spotting Twilight who was still sitting at the table trying to comprehend how somepony was able to make something like him. Bonnie made his way over to the table and gave her a light poke, earning her attention rather quickly. "Excuse me Princess, would you mind helping me out?"

Twilight shot him a confused look before looking back at her friends. "W-what am I supposed to do?"

"They're powered by magic, darling." Rarity quickly explained. "Just let some of your magic flow into him and he'll be charged up in no time.

Twilight faced Bonnie, feeling a bit uncomfortable with this thing. She took a breath and decided that there wasn't really any harm in giving him some of her magic. Her horn turned purple as she focused her magic onto the animatronic, his body becoming surrounded in the same bright purple glow. She watched the battery symbol on his chest go from red, to white, to green before a soft beeping went off. She assumed that meant he was fully charged and stopped the flow of magic.

The robotic bunny tapped his chest a few time to confirm that he was indeed fully charged before giving Twilight a hug. "Thank you so much princess. Is there anything I can do to repay you?"

Before Twilight could say a word, Rainbow Dash jumped in front of her. "Yes, you can tell me where Foxy is. He and I are still at a draw with that sword fighting competition we started a while back." She noticed all of her friends staring at her oddly before explaining herself. "The swords were made of wood." Her friends all seemed to go back to their normal states of mind with that answered.

Bonnie rubbed his hand under his chin. "If I remember correctly, he should be somewhere near one of the bridges. He said he was going to go out and plunder the nearest body of water."

"Alright! Foxy, prepare yourself for the most ultimate fight of your robo-life!" With that Dash took off, leaving nothing but a rainbow trail in her wake.

Bonnie looked towards the door, seeing a large congregation of foals just outside. "Well, if that's all, I'll be on my way."

Just before he was about to turn away and leave Twilight raised a hoof. "Bonnie, wait! I have to know something."

Bonnie turned his head to face the purple alicorn. "Yes, princess?"

"Who built you?" She asked very curiously.

"Oh, that's easy. My creators are Trevor and Spring Lock. They came up with us a long time ago. It took a couple of years to get us all up and running properly, but as you can see it all worked out in the end." After his little explanation he continued his journey outside to play with the young ponies.

"Aww, they're just as sweet and adorable as they were when ah was a filly." Applejack commented, the whole table shaking their heads and agreeing with her minus a certain purple princess. Pinkie Pie was the first to notice Twilight's mental absence and slid on her back across the table so she would get in her line of sight. "Whatcha thinking about, Twilight?"

"I'm just trying to figure out how somepony could have made those things. And you guys just mentioned that they were around when you were fillies. I just don't see how that could be possible now, let alone back then." Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. "I just feel like their's something going unspoken about this...and what kind of a name is Trevor?"

The mares all exited the bakery; Applejack walking beside Twilight as they made their way outside. "Really Sugarcube, yer just over thinkin it. What's so hard to believe that a couple of stallions came up with an idea to make toys like these for the foals to play with?"

"It's not the idea of it that's making me think about it," Twilight began to explain, "but it's how they actually managed to make it into a reality. We should not be capable of making thing like this. I mean, I don't see anything else in this country even remotely as advanced as those." Her attention was caught by a large moving carriage that was unloading a yellow animatronic that seemed to be introducing itself as Chica. However, her attention was more on the stallion unloading it. He had dull brown fur and a silver mane, his cutie mark was a metal spring with a pad lock on it. Spring...Lock...Spring Lock! Twilight shoved Applejack to the side and charged toward the old stallion who didn't seem to notice her until she called out his name and stopped just a few inches from him. "Spring Lock? That's your name right?"

The old unicorn eyed her up and down, recognizing her as the newest Princess of Equestria and bowing respectively. "That's me, Princess. Is there something I can do for you?" He asked before rising back to his normal stature.

"I simply must know how you were able to make such advanced robotics like this. Technology like this shouldn't be possible in this day and age, so how were you able to make these all those years ago?" She asked, her curiosity forcing her to get to the point rather than drag out into something highly complicated.

He was slightly taken back with how she seemed to be rushing her words, but decided that it would be easier to just answer the question. "To be honest Princess, I only assisted in making them." Twilight gave him a crooked expression as he calmly continued his exploitation. "The idea was mine, but the design, as well as the process of putting them together, belonged to my friend."

"Trevor?" Twilight asked, remembering Bonnie mentioning his name just a few minutes ago. However, the mentioning of the name seemed to make the stallion become a bit uncomfortable. She could see his eyes watering up, as if he was going to start crying.

The stallion swallowed down his emotions and wiped the tears from his eyes. "Yes, that was his name."

"Well, Mr. Spring Lock, I would like to speak to him and learn more about how he made these things. Is their a way you could have him come down to Ponyville to meet?" She asked, still more than a bit eager to learn more about the animatronics.

The stallion nodded. "I'm sorry Princess, but Trevor has been dead for thirty years now."

Twilight gasped, her eyes going wide as she finally realized why the stallion acted the way he did. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. I was just-"

He raised a hoof, silencing Twilight. "It's okay, Princess. You didn't know, it's not your fault. I may not know much about how he put them together, but their is a way for you to figure it out yourself, if you can make out the designs."

"What do you mean?"

He levitated a set of keys out of the carriage, removing one of them from the ring and holding it out to Twilight. "This is a spare key to mine and Trevor's original workshop. He had schematics scattered all about on one of the tables, you may look trough those if you wish. The workshop is in the far end of the castle."

Twilight used her magic to grab the key. "Thank you, Mr. Spring Lock. I really appreciate this. Sorry again about the whole...yeah..."

"Don't worry about it. It happened decades ago. You have yourself a wonderful day Princess." Spring lock said as he climbed into the back of the carriage and knocked on it. The pegasi in the front started running and shortly after took to the skies, taking the carriage with them.

The next day Twilight was on train to Canterlot. She had already written to Celestia about her trip over and informed her that she would be going alone to take a look at an old work room in the back of the castle. It took longer than usual for the Princess to respond to her, but she eventually got confirmation that she was more than welcomed to come and look at the old workshop. The ride was quiet, but with how much Twilight was daydreaming about the things she would find time seemed to zip by and before she knew it the train came to a grinding halt. She wasted no time exiting and making her way to the castle. The guards let her enter and upon entering she was met with Luna who seemed to have been waiting for her.

"Good evening Twilight Sparkle." The night princess greeted. "I trust that you trip up was safe."

Twilight nodded, "Yes, Princess Luna. Although, I am a bit curious as to why you're standing here alone."

"My sister has informed us that she would like to be absent from this little adventure. I know not why, but she seems to have become unsettled since the subject of the work room was brought up." She explained, causing Twilight's curiosity to worsen.

"Why? Did something happen in there?"

"I am not certain, at the time I was still serving my banishment. However, I have heard rumors of a rather eerie event that might have taken place" Luna explained. "I was instructed on where the location of the room was, if you follow me I can take us to it."

The two mares started walking through the castle corridors, Twilight staying behind Luna as they did so. "So what was that story you heard?"

Luna continued walking, and kept her eyes forward, "I heard that many years ago when they had first finished making the animatronics that one of them had malfunctioned. Rather than being sweet and playful like the others it went on a rampage and started destroying everything it touched. I also heard it was going to attack Celestia, but that was when a human known as Trevor jumped in front of it, sacrificing his life to save her."

"Wait, did you say human?" Twilight asked, her brain settling on that particular detail. "I thought humans were just an old ponystale. Something made up to entertain foals."

"I admit, I had my fair share of skepticism, but after consulting with my sister I learned that there was indeed a human. She refused to say anything more than that."

"Do you think Celestia and the human were friends?"

"One of the rumors I had heard was that they were a bit closer than that." Luna said with a smirk, "Apparently my dear sister and the hairless ape were in a rather sound relationship."

Twilight wasn't sure how to feel about this anymore, but she didn't have a chance to comment as she found herself bumping into Luna's backside. After taking a second to recollect herself she looked over to see that Luna ad stopped just inches from an old door.

"I believe this is the place." She said, using her magic to pull the door. It didn't budge though. "Strange, it appears to be locked."

Twilight scratched her head with a hoof before remembering that Spring Lock had given her a key. She levitated the key out of a saddle bag she had brought and pushed it into the lock. After twisting it several times the sound of numerous locks becoming unhinged echoed on the other side of the door. "That should do it..." She said, feeling nervous for some reason as the door creaked open.

The room was almost pitch black, but the two alicorns weren't letting that stop them. Their horns became surrounded in their auras before projecting beams of light that filled the room. "Although I was aware of your desire to venture here, I know nothing beyond that. What is your aim in coming here?"

Twilight started to walk around, this time Luna following behind her. "Spring Lock said that I could find the animatronic's schematics in here. I wanted to know how one would be able to make something so advanced in a less than developed time."

"I wondered that myself when Celestia first explained these animatronics to me. However, after getting confirmation on the Human I settled for human having a more advanced lifestyle."

"But that doesn't explain how he managed to get them to work so efficiently as well as how he managed to gather the right materials. There are just so many unanswered questions that it's making my head spin." Twilight eventually found a small table covered in blueprints, each one labeled with the name of an animatronic. "Jackpot!" The alicorn practically dove onto the table picking them up and putting them into her saddlebag. "Alright, I believe that's all for this little adventure. Are you ready to-" Twilight fell silent as she looked around the room for Luna, eventually spotting her standing in front of a large number of boars nailed to the back wall. She wandered over, standing beside the night princess and looking over the odd addition. "What do you think's behind it?"

Luna hummed to herself as her magic started to surround the boards. "I guess we will just has to see for ourselves." One by one nails started to be yanked out of the boards, causing them to come loose and fall to the ground. Once all the boards were gone they found themselves staring at another old door. "Why in Equestria would they seal off this door?"

Twilight walked over to the door and pressed her hoof against it. "I guess we'll just have to see for ourselves." She said, once again starting to feel nervous. However, her will to learn over powered her emotions and she gave the door a light push. It swung open almost effortlessly.

The two walked into the small room, almost tripping over the assortment of tools and metals littering the floor. The room was old, dirty, and it smelled like death. "Something about this room does not feel right..." Luna commented before her eyes found themselves resting on an old, beat up looking animatronic sitting up against the wall. "Well, that is certainly unsettling."

Twilight followed Luna's gaze and yelped at the sight, causing Luna to giggle at her. She rolled her eyes at the night princess, feeling foolish for being spooked so easily. "It's definitely strange." She said, moving closer and poking it a few times. "I wonder why this one is back here. Do you think that the rumors were true and this is the malfunctioned animatronic?"

Luna nodded, "I have many doubts. If that story were true than Celestia would have had the animatronic destroyed. Especially if it had hurt somepony so close to her." She watched as Twilight continued to eye it and was starting to wonder the same thing as well. Why would they leave this one in here to rot? "Perhaps there would be a way to activate it? Maybe then we could find the answers as to why they left it here."

"I guess we could..." She looked deep into the eyes of the over-sized robotic rabbit, something about them seemed off. As she did this could swear she saw one of them move slightly. Eventually she got impatient and began powering up her horn, letting her magic travel to this animatronic the same way she did with Bonnie.

Luna was glancing around at the details that surrounded this room. Besides the tools and hunks of metal there were strange dark stains on the floor. As she continued to eye everything in there she found writing in the same dark substance on the wall above a workbench. After leaning closer to it she read it aloud questioningly. "Springtrap?"

"Luna!" Twilight shouted as the animatronic started twitching, its entire body shook before it would convulse aggressively ever other second.

Luna ran over and shoved Twilight behind her, preparing herself for anything. She watched at the decayed robot continued to jerk around randomly before finally going completely still. The room was filled with nothing but silence until the animatronics eyes lit up as it powered on.

The nicknamed Springtrap animatronic lifted its hands and held them in front of the lights that its eyes were projecting, moving them around and flexing its fingers. It placed its hand to the ground, forcing itself to move and eventually climbing to its feet. Once it was up its eyes scanned the room, stopping on the two alicorns, but only for a short moment. It started walking, stumbling with every step and randomly twitching from time to time. It made it's way over to the work bench with help from the wall his hand had pressed up against and started digging around in it until it found a hack saw. Luna charged her horn, expecting it to make an offensive attack, but instead it mounted the saw onto the wall after wiping the dust from it so it would revert back to its reflective surface. It looked at its face and started to shake as it lifted its hands to its head. It slipped the fingers of its hands into its mouth and started pulling. It was clearly struggling in some manner as it started growling at itself, pulling even harder until the jaws started to separate, beginning to look as if the head were about to snap off. It was too dark for the mares to get a look at what was beneath the mask, but whatever it was it had displeased the animatronic. It let go of its face, allowing it to snap back into its original position before the lights in the eyes turned red and it let out a bestial electronic roar to the heavens loud enough to rival Luna's canterlot voice. After that it started smashing everything around it, the work bench, the cabinets, everything. Luna and Twilight ran out of the room and watched it destroy everything from afar. Once it had finished it exited the room walking toward the princesses, but rather than attacking them as expected it fell to its hands and knees. It let out a series of electronic groans, sounding almost as if it were crying.

Twilight, despite being afraid of what this thing could do, took the initiative and approached it. Luna had protested this, obviously, but she was determined to uncover what secrets this thing might hold. She stopped before she would even be within arms reach, she may be curious but she isn't stupid, and took a breath to relax her nerves so she would be able to speak calmly and collectively. If the others could talk, then this one should to, right? "Excuse me, are you okay?"

The animatronic's head re-angled itself, allowing it to look right at her. It's eyes shining directly into hers. "Help...me..."