Same Place, Same Faces

Laughter.

Applejack's ears perked up at the sound of distant, hysterical, and continuous laughter. Upon opening her eyes, she immediately realized something was very wrong.

She felt... cold. Cold and lifeless. It hurt to move even the slightest muscle. Her entire body felt heavy, and her vision was slightly obscured. The only thing that let her see were two holes in the shape of eyes. Was she wearing a mask?

Applejack looked around in the darkness, oblivious of her own predicament. Struggling to move her head even the slightest inch, she managed to look to her right. Standing just beside her was an all too familiar face.

Twilight. But it wasn't the same Twilight she shared countless memories with, it was her metallic doppelganger from her previous night.

The stationary robot stared into the distance, seemingly unaware of her presence.

Starting to piece together where she was, she turned to her left.

On her left was Fluttershy. But once again, not the one she hoped to see, but the one she expected to. Her robotic replica, too, stared into the darkness, standing completely still. This finally confirmed her suspicions of where she was.

She was back in the establishment, standing on the show stage.

Slowly looking down to her hooves, she immediately realized something about her was different.

Her hooves were pink. Her entire body was pink. And in her right hoof was a microphone.

Beginning to panic, she attempted to jump off the stage, but her legs refused to budge. The laughter began to get closer and louder, she looked around for anything that could be making the taunting noise, but there was nothing to be seen except a room filled with chairs and tables.

As the laughter increased; slowly turning into screams, her sanity became less and less. No longer able to bear the deafeningly loud sounds, she let out a scream of her own, just as loud as the ones around her.

Applejack awoke, sitting up straight in her bed with bloodshot eyes. Breathing heavily, she attempted to calm herself down and wiped off the sweat rolling down her face. It was all just a nightmare. There was nothing to worry about. She glanced over to the clock on her desk, reading 10:52. Glancing out the window, the sun was already high in the sky, brightening up her room.

Rolling out of bed, she made her way downstairs into the kitchen. As she opened up the pantry, her phone made a single beep. Before she had a chance to grab it, a message automatically began to play.

"Hey, 'Applejack', I'm not going to be able to greet you tonight when you arrive to your shift." The familiar voice of William spoke over the phone. "I'm going to be out tonight for... 'personal reasons'. You've got the keys, so just do what you normally do when you get there. Work your shift from twelve to six, then lock up and leave. I'll talk to you tomorrow night." the call ended without a single "goodbye".

Applejack stood there for a moment, taking in what William just said. Why did he say her name like that? Was he upset with her? Did she do something wrong last night?

Walking up to the entrance of the establishment, Applejack began to unlock one of the doors. Before doing so, she looked around the premises, not surprised to see no one in sight.

As she entered the building, the first thing she did was bring her gaze to the show stage, before taking a step back.

Twilight and Fluttershy's heads were turned to face her direction, while Pinkie just stared straight ahead.

She shook her head, assuming the two were just left in that position, before continuing to her office. Upon entering, she selected the second voice message down the list, and laid back in her chair.

"Hello? If you're hearing this, then I'm assuming you made it to your second day. Uh, congrats! I won't talk too long this time, as I've noticed that the animatronics become more... playful? As the week progresses? Maybe they're just programmed to be more active the more they see someone, I don't know."

Applejack raises an eyebrow at his newfound information.

"Anyways, it's probably a good idea to watch the cameras while I speak just to ensure all the animatronics are in the right spot, you know?"

She did as the stallion over the phone said, and turned on her monitor. To her surprise, Twilight was already off the stage. Wasn't she just up there a minute ago?

"Interestingly enough, Pinkie herself doesn't come off stage that often. Though, there's rumors that she becomes a lot more active in the dark though. So, hey, I guess that's a good reason to not run out of power, right?"

Unlike last time, Shining's joke didn't get a laugh out of her, instead she wore a deadpan stare.

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

"A few seconds to react until what?" she asked herself.

"N-not that you would be in any danger of course! I-I'm not implying that." Shining continued.

She gave a scoff, albeit one out of annoyance instead of humor.

"Oh, and be sure to check the camera in Wonderbolt Cove from time to time. The animatronic in there apparently becomes more active if the cameras are off for too long. I guess they don't like being watched, I don't know. I'm sure you've got everything situated, I'll talk with you again soon."

The call ended, and upon hearing about this Wonderbolt Cove, Applejack immediately switched to the corresponding camera.

In Wonderbolt Cove was a giant rainbow-colored curtain, accompanied by a sign in front that read: "Sorry! Out of order." Applejack didn't quite remember the attraction, her last visit was several years ago after all. But judging by the color of the curtain, she had a bright idea of what animatronic was hiding behind there.

Switching to the West Hall camera, Twilight was already there, standing still as a statue. Applejack was confused as to how she managed to get there so quickly. Her attention was only off the Show Stage for a few seconds.

Not having to worry about closing the door yet, she switched to the Show Stage camera. To her surprise, Fluttershy left for the first time. Quickly switching through cameras to look for the missing machine, she landed on the Restrooms camera.

Fluttershy stood in the middle of the camera, her head facing downwards, and eyes looking directly at the camera.

Did it know she was looking at her through the camera?

Before she could finish that thought, Applejack heard slowly approaching hoofsteps outside her left door. She quickly got up from her seat and checked the door light. Nothing was there.

Confused, Applejack brought her attention back to her monitor. Checking the West Hall Corner camera, directly in front of it was Twilight.

That was just right outside her door. She didn't care if she wasn't in her doorway, she closed the door, not wanting to take any chances.

Stomps to her right made her ear twitch.

As she made her way to the right door, quickly pressing the door light, towering over her was Fluttershy. She closed the door as quickly as she made her way over.

After a few seconds of silence, footsteps were heard from outside the door. Pressing the door light again to make sure she left, Applejack gasped and nearly fell to the floor.

Fluttershy's face was directly in front of the window, her mouth was wide open, displaying a set of large, round, metal teeth.

Applejack immediately whipped her hoof away from the door light. She was beginning to question if these animatronics were really just that. But she quickly assured herself that she was just overreacting, they're programmed to interact with people. But why did it look at her like that? And what about the talk about the animatronics stuffing her into a suit?

As the thoughts continued to boggle in her mind, the sound of hoofsteps faded away from outside the door. After opening it, she checked her still closed left door, almost forgetting Twilight was there.

6:00 AM

After making her way out of the office and to the front doors, Applejack glanced past the dining area, bringing her gaze to Wonderbolt Cove. She could have sworn the curtain was open wider than it was before.