Same Place, Same Faces

-███████ ██████ found dead outside Pinkie's Cupcake Palace.-

One of Equestria's ███████ ███████: 23-year-old ██████ █████, was found dead behind the newly found Pinkie's Cupcake Palace on the morning of February 12th after informing her friends she would be taking her younger sister to the establishment the previous day.

Upon discovery of the gruesome aftermath, an employee contacted royal guards immediately. After a very brief investigation, royal guards came to an agreement that the mare was murdered, as unidentifiable hoofprints could be found all over the corpse. The suspect has yet to be detained, and there are currently no leads to aid in the search for the suspect.

Not wanting her boss to think she was slacking off, Applejack sprinted to the establishment, arriving at exactly 12:05 AM. William was standing by the entrance again, his eyes locked onto hers. She gave a quick greeting as she slowed down to catch her breath. William gave her a deadpan stare, before scoffing and walking away from the establishment, not returning the greeting.

Applejack shrugged it off, thinking he was probably just a bit irritated that she arrived a little late, and unlocked the door before entering the building.

Not wasting any time, she ran directly to her office, selecting the next voice message from the list.

"Ahem... h-hey, if you're getting this, then you're doing great! You know, a lot of the previous guards don't get this far. I uh... mean, you know... they usually move on to bigger and better things by now. I'm not implying that they died. That's... that's not what I meant."

She brought a hoof to her face, refraining an incoming chuckle.

"Uh, anyways, I probably shouldn't take up too much of your time, things get real tonight."

Bringing her hoof away from her face, she listened closely, unsure of what he meant by "real".

"Hey, listen, I had an idea: If you manage to get caught by an animatronic and want to avoid getting shoved into a suit... uh, try playing dead! You know, go limp."

Applejack started to get creeped out again, she hated it whenever the mention of getting stuffed into a suit was brought up. The idea alone was terrifying, but having to actually deal with it was another story.

"They might think you're an empty costume instead. But, then again... they might try and stuff a metal endoskeleton into you. I wonder how that would work."

Applejack was beginning to get tired of Shining's "jokes", as she gave an annoyed look to the phone.

"Yeah, actually, forget all of that, it's just best to not get caught. Uh, I'll leave you to your shift, talk to you again tomorrow."

After the call ended, she opened her monitor and the first thing she checked was Wonderbolt Cove. The encounter she had with it last night might've just been her mind playing tricks on her, but she immediately dismissed that thought as she noticed the curtain was slightly open, revealing another familiar face.

Hiding behind the curtain was a rainbow-maned pegasus wearing an azure blue uniform, complete with flight goggles raised above her eyes. Her mouth was wide open, displaying a similar set of metal and round teeth the other animatronics had.

The sight of the animatronic pegasus reminded Applejack of her foggy history with the Wonderbolt Cove. When creating the Wonderbolt Cove, Pinkie originally envisioned it as a pirate inspired cove, before Rainbow Dash suggested that she change it to a Wonderbolt themed attraction.

A smile crept along her muzzle as she looked back on the memory. Her smile was quickly wiped away as she remembered what she was supposed to be doing.

Switching her camera to the view of the Show Stage, Fluttershy was gone, while Twilight stayed put. The sight was bizarre to her, as Twilight up until this point was always the first to leave the stage, not Fluttershy.

Checking cameras to locate the yellow pegasus, Applejack landed on the Restrooms camera. Just like the previous night, Fluttershy had her head down, and eyes staring directly at the camera.

She checked the West Hall and found Twilight standing there, well, her silhouette anyway. Her entire body was covered in darkness.

Looking to the opposite hall, the East Hall, Fluttershy already made her way there. Applejack was cornered. They stood in the way of her only exits.

Quickly, she checked her left door light, to find Twilight standing in front of her. After pressing the button she immedaitely checked the right door light, Fluttershy was there.

She was surrounded, and there was nothing she could do about it besides close both doors. But what was stopping them from just staying outside her doors the whole night?

Sitting in her office, occasionally checking the cameras to see if the animatronics left her doors, she waited.

The sounds of two pairs of hoofsteps fading away was practically music to her ears, as she opened both doors.

The ability to take a breather was thrown out the window, as she opened the monitor only to realize the curtain in Wonderbolt Cove was wide open. With no animatronic inside.

Staring at the monitor with wide eyes, she switched to the West Hall camera, only to be greeted by the blue pegasus sprinting towards her office.

She slammed the door just as quickly as the pegasus arrived, only to accompained by the sounds of loud, violent, almost desperate bangs on the other side.

After a few seconds of pounding on her door, hoofsteps faded away. But Applejack didn't dare open the door. The animatronic could very well just run back down as soon as she opened it.

She closed both of her doors, having enough madness for the night, and cried softly in her seat.

Was this job even worth it anymore? Was it worth the constant fear and loss of sleep?

But she couldn't lose the farm. She couldn't lose the last thing that she vowed to protect, no matter the cost. She's already lost too much, she couldn't let it happen again. She wouldn't let it happen again.

She had to be strong.

6:00 AM

With only 14% of her power left, Applejack trotted out the office, confident that she would continue to do her job no matter how strangely the animatronics may act. That's all they were: animatronics.

She needed to think logically about it. What about Dash sprinting towards her office and pounding on the door? They were programmed to interact with people, maybe they just wanted to play. The suit stuffing? Likely just a rumor started to scare others. They didn't want to harm her. Why would they want to harm her?