The Puppet

Twilight, Pinkie, and Applejack made their way into the Pizzaria. It had just opened and as such was empty. Twilight looked like she wanted to destroy the place as she made her way past the stage, the Animatronics watched her storm past and started whispering to each other before noticing Applejack and Pinkie eyeing them and going back to their normal position, the two took their seats and looked on, with some shock, as the Animatronic moved to the edge of kids cove, checked the kids play area, then stretched itself out so that it's head was next to the box. Twilight got to her hooves, motioned the other two to her and cloaked them all so they were invisible, they snuck close enough to the box to hear what was going on.

"Puppet," Mangle said quietly "Puppet," The Lid of the box slid open and the Puppet peaked out.

"Mangle go back to kids cove," Puppet whispered "Your suppose to be keeping an eye out for the Purple guy,"

"But there are a lot of purple ones," Mangle complained "how am I suppose to point one Purple pony out from the rest of the Purple ponies,"

"Just keep an eye out for a Purple Pony getting to close to the kids, and if you see Spring Bonnie make as much noise as you can," Mangle grumbled before dragging itself back to the cove. The Trio watched in silence as The Puppet turned and stared hard at the Main Hall, "You won't get another one today Purple guy," He said angrily before placing the lid back on his box. The Trio slowly made their way back to their table before uncloaking.

"What the heck was that about?" Pinkie demanded "I didn't know they could move so...well,"

"That Mangle one was keeping its feet in that cove," Applejack noted and Mangle paced around its area "So my guess is they can't move from their main places,"

"Purple guy?" Twilight said as she pulled out a small pocket note pad and wrote down what the Puppet had said "Spring Bonnie, You won't get another one?" Twilight frowned before getting to her hooves.

"One second," Twilight made her way to the front desk where a mare was chewing some gum.

"Oh hello Princess, would you like some food or drink?"

"Actually I have a few questions about something I overheard one of the Animatronics say?" The Mare suddenly looked interested.

"Whoa, you actually heard them talking to each other, epic, don't know how much help I can be but I guess I can try," Twilight eyed the Mares Brown Uniform and asked her first question.

"Witch of the Ponies working hear would wear Purple?"

"Oh, let's see, The Night Guards, The Day Guards, the Waiters, and Waitresses," The Mare pondered for a moment "The Managers all wear Dark Purple, and I'm pretty sure that's it, Everypony else wears Brown," Twilight wrote all this down before continuing with her next question.

"Where can I find the Spring Bonnie Animatronic?" The Mare laughed.

"Spring Bonnie?" She asked Twilight nodded "The one from Fazbear Family Dinner, oh boy I think he and Fredbear are in the old office room," Twilight frowned at that.

"You mean the one behind the Prize corner?"

"Yeah, they added a few walls and turned Fredbears Family Dinner into Freddy Jr's, but all of the old Restaurant is still built into this place, man the other day I tried to open the supply closet and ended up in the old Fredbear main hall," Twilight held up her hand.

"Wait, you mean to tell me...that there's a second building inside this building?"

"Yeah, but it's kind of a mess, they put up walls for this place just around the old one so some parts of it are weirdly cut off from other parts, but it's like a fire hazard so there are secret doors everywhere," Twilight frowned as she looked down at her note's before clapping it shut and pocketing it.

"Thank you for your help," Twilight said polity before heading back to her friends. After filling them in the trio looked back at the Puppet, who was staring at them along with the rest of the Animatronics.

"But the room was empty save for a few old tables and..." Pinkie trailed off as she looked at the door frowning. "...was it confirmed?" She asked turning to Twilight.

"Yeah," Twilight said after a short pause "It was Starlights," Pinkie looked at the door in silence as Applejack took her hat off to pay respect. "This place is a deathtrap, The only reason I haven't shut the place down is because that cocky son of a bitch keeps striking here again and again, And I am not letting it happen again, I don't give a shit how dangerous it is, I'll stay here all night if I hav-" The Front door of the Pizzara opened with a bang and the trio turned back, A Pony in full Guard armor had practically broken down the door, He looked around for a moment before rushing to Twilight, who had run towards him the second she had seen him.

"Twilly," Shining Said as she ran into him and hugged him, She didn't respond as she squeezed him, after a moment Shining put his hand under her jaw and slowly made her look up at him, "It's not true right?" He asked, the begging look in his eye making Twilight tear up "The message we got...It was a mistake right?" She could tell by his tone he knew it was true, she didn't respond, she just latched onto him and started sobbing in his arms.

The restaurant was completely empty, save for any and all employees who had worked at all during the last few days, even ones who had quit. Guards from Canterlot to the Crystal Empire were roaming around the place, a few who were on a break were playing around in the kid are or watching the Animatronics play their songs. The Balloon Colt, Mangle, and the Puppet had been removed from their respective areas and were currently being scanned for any and all traces of Magical residue.

"Are you sure?" Shining asked as Guard gave him a report.

"Yes sir, there was a hidden door in the room, but it leads to nothing, upon further inspection the Fredbear suit seems to have been moved to the parts and services room, but due to its age, and more importantly what it's made of, we aren't yet sure if it can be scanned for any traces of magic," As the Guards gave Shining his report Twilight was helping to scan the none stage Animatronics.

"You sure we don't need to scan the big ones?" One of the Guards asked as he finished Scanning Balloon colt.

"Those guys get cleaned up and go through heavy maintenance every day before closing," Twilight said simply "You can scan them if you want but you'll just find a magical signature of nearly every unicorn in the place."

"The Mangle is clean," One of the Guards called out, a small team picked it and the Balloon colt up and began dragging it towards their original positions.

"Alright, just mister Puppet left," The Guard said as he started the scanning spell, "Should only take-" The Guard Froze as his Horn lit up, Everypony paying attention gave the Puppet their full attention.

"Faint echo of Magic," The Guard muttered, "I can't tell the age and I can't decipher what spell was used, but given enough time I should be able to pick out who-"

"Oh, that was me," Will said without a hint of interest in his voice "It jumped me the other night, panicked and tossed it the hell out of my office," Before any suspicion could be placed on William the Manager snapped out at him.

"The hell you did," He said angrily "It is written in your contract, you are not to touch the Animatronics with Magic, one wrong pull and you could throw their entire system out of wack!" seizing his moment Will snapped back.

"Oh sorry, but seeing how just three days ago a Guard almost has his face bitten off I felt I was justified in tossing the least complicated Animatronic we have across a room, It just stands up and sits down, Look at the fucking thing," he added as the Puppet glared at him in silence "Creepy fuck has it in for me now," Twilight gave him a suspicious look and turned to Applejack, who was watching as the Puppet gave William a constant Death glare.

"I dunno if he's lying or not," Applejack said upon seeing the look on Twilight's face. "Every time he talks I just instantly wanna distrust him, but at the same time I can't find a reason to distrust him," She frowned as William and his manager had an angry talk, "I think his special talent might be lying, or something dam near close to it," Shining picked up the Puppet, as he did so he whispered to the Guard.

"I want surveillance on all Employees, but make sure to keep an extra special eye on Will over there," Shining passed the Arguing William and his Manager and made his way to the Puppet's Box, he set it down in it and was just setting the lid on it when a voice echoed from the box like it was a large pit and a fast jumble of worlds came rushing into Shining's ears.

"Save. Them, It.Was.Him, Don't.Follow.Him, Purple.Guy.Spring.Bonnie, Don't. Cry," Shining lifted the lid immediately and stared at the Puppet, which lay limp in the box. Shining gently set the lid down and listened, he heard the sound of a little girl laughing before crying out in pain and turned to the sound and stared down the Main Hall to the Parts and Service Room where The old Animatronics were being looked at, he Stared at the room when two of the Animatronics seemed to look back at him, Fredbear and the old Bonnie seemed to be staring at him, but after rubbing his eyes and looking back Bonnie had his back to Shining and FredBear wasn't even in his line of sight.

"Think I'm going crazy," Shining said as he stepped away from the Puppet's box and returned to Twilight, the Puppet peaked out of his box and looked at Shining as he walked away.

"You can save them," The Puppet whispered "I don't know how, but I know it's you who will be the hero of our story," The Puppet slid back into his box, knowing that no children would be coming he did the only thing he could think to do, his eyes shut off and he went to sleep, as soon as he was out all the other Animatronic's eyes seemed to lost some light and froze for a moment before moving in jerky robotic movements.

"Oh hey," One of the employees said when he noticed Freddy move to talk into his mic with no sound coming from it, "I think the Animatronics just...went back to normal," Upon hearing this Pinkie jumped up to the stage and watched the Animatronics move, their plastic eyes devoid of the life they had been full of earlier, after a quick once around the Pizzaera she nodded.

"Yup, they're sleeping, how cute,"

"Pinkie your definition of cute is far different from mine," Applejack said as she looked up at the jerky movements of the Animatronics as they looped the same 20 seconds of action. "I think I preferred them when they were pretending to not be alive," She decided as she watched them move. Will sighed as his Manager chewed into him before saying simply.

"Look boss," he said calmly and quietly "We both know that the number of Health code violations, Regulations you've ignored, and the fact that you sometimes take a cut out of certain employee's checks cause you know they won't notice could ruin not only this restaurant but your life," The Manage shut his mouth and Will smiled. "and yes, I notice when I work 40 hours and only get paid for 35 of them, so why don't you shut up and go about trying to save your Bussiness before I destroy the tiny bit of worth these murders didn't take from you," Will smiled as the Manager turned away from Will, fixed his collar, and when on his way to the kitchen to make sure nothing too obvious could be spotted. "Yeah," Will thought as he looked around the restaurant "Now," he thought "how do I get away with murder in a heavily guarded establishment while having an extra special eye kept on me?"