The Night Guard

The following day was Sunset’s day-off from classes. Which meant she had plenty of time to rest between shifts at the pizzeria. “The job isn’t so bad.” She said into the phone. “A little creepy, I guess, but not bad.”

“I’m glad you’re happy, Sunset. I could never work in such a place… it would give me the heebie-jeebies.” Fluttershy replied. “I was wondering, well If you’re not too busy, if you wanted to grab lunch today?”

Sunset smiled from ear to ear. “Of course, meet at the food court?”

“Oh, that’s just wonderful. Yes, I will meet you there.”

Sunset entered the mall and made her way up the escalator. At the table she saw her regular group of friends, sat, but waving her down as she approached. “Hey guys, long time no see.”

“Course’ it’s been a quick minute, you’ve always got class or work.” Rainbow Dash replied, with a snarky yet playful tone.

Sunset rolled her eyes, “yeah and you went right into the air force without a second thought, so it’s not like you’ve been so available.”

Rainbow laughed it off. Pinkie Pie chimed in “working in the bakery with the Cake family has been great… how’s everybody else doing as of late-“

“Going to school for Fashion Merchandising is quite the exasperating task, but a 4.0 average does not earn itself.” Rarity replied, bragging as she so often did.

Twilight began to ramble “Since I did dual enrollment, I’m already a Junior in credits, which I know most of you are just Freshmen, but it’s all very time-consuming… someone else talk please”

“Well, working on the farm, but I’ve always been up to that… Fluttershy?” Apple Jack added.

Fluttershy moped slightly “well between my classes at Canterlot Community College I volunteer at the animal shelter… when I’m not doing that I’m mostly waiting for you all to come back.”

Everyone awed at this. Sunset gnawed at her food as attention turned towards her. She looked up, swallowing the lump of food. “Oh- I um, I started a new job last night. Gonna be working nights at the old Sparkle’s Pizzeria.”

The six girls stared with their mouths agape. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Rainbow Dash insisted.

“Darling, isn’t the old run-down building a bit… dangerous? Especially for a young lady… at night?” Rarity continued.

Twilight added her two-cents. “I’m not familiar with a Sparkle’s Pizzeria, but it cannot be that bad. It’s a place for kids, right?”

Fluttershy began to speak, but was quickly interrupted. “Yeah it was the very best birthday place… I had my birthday there when I was about four… good times…”

“Until-“ Rainbow interrupted her interruption. “They closed the place down for money laundering and illegal experimentation.” Everyone turned to look at Rainbow, “What? I know stuff.” She said, pushing herself back in her seat.

Sunset chuckled a bit. “I don’t know much about that…” her voice trailed off. She debated over whether or not she should bring up the animatronics resemblance to their pony counterparts. Given their attitude toward the place, she decided against it. “It’s just a dusty old building with a couple animatronics. I haven’t seen anything even remotely… experimental.”

Rainbow shrugged and the others murmured amongst themselves. “Well, we all just worry about your safety, Sunset…” Fluttershy finally said.

Sunset waved them off. “If anything bizarre happens, trust me you guys are the first people I will call.”

“After the police, of course.” Twilight insisted.

“Right, after the police…” she laughed at the absurdity.

Her shift was long, hours passing as she fiddled through the book she had brought with her. There wasn’t much to do or to see. Lyra was right about the job having down time.

As she flipped through the pages, she wondered if there was anything else she could do to pass the time. All of her friends had gone to bed, so texting was out of the question. There was hardly anything entertaining on her phone… her book was beginning to bore her to shreds.

What more was there to do?

Sunset stood in the middle of the pizzeria show room, oil can in hand. She had just oiled the main animatronics last night, but it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at them again.

With a push of a button, the curtain opened. The familiar lights and sounds filled the tableless room.

Revealing the three animatronics, now in different positions. Sunset saw startled, these things could hardly do their programmed motions, let alone get into such unnatural poses.

Rainbow was up on her hind legs like a person. Supported by some metal rod, loosely placed into her holster. Twilight was seated, in a position that hardly looked possible given the location of her joints and hinges, but what was Sunset some sort of robotics engineer? She was unaware of the finer workings of such things. Pinkie was almost the strangest of all, completely sprawled out onto the stage. It was that point that Sunset realized she was not attached to the stationary pole that held her before.

“You guys look rough, what happened to you?” Sunset said, she was unnerved, but not enough so to back away.

Gently, Sunset pushed the heavy metal frame of the Rainbow pony down until it was standing on four hooves. Then, lifting the flank on Twilight into the upright position. She reviewed Pinkie at length, but the supporting column had been removed from her holster. “Sorry, Pinkie. I’ll have to ask if they can replace your support.” Looking into the pink pony’s eyes she saw blue lights slowly lift to a glow. She jumped back, slightly, but just as they had grown, they subsided.

“Man…” she sighed, shaking off the cold sweat she began to feel on the back of her neck. “You guys really know how to freak somebody out, don’t ya’”.

She scanned the room until her eyes fell on the unlit stage. Lyra had said the animatronic was receiving maintenance yesterday. Therefore, she should be fine to oil that one… right?

Sunset hopped off the stage and made her way over. The curtain on this very small stage was not powered by a pulley system, it was a simple piece of light fabric. “Lyra said not to worry about you, but I’m honestly kind of a worrier, and-“ as she pulled the fabric back she was stopped mid-sentence.

Before her was a hanging mess of wires. Truly, a torso and a head, as Lyra had described. Only, the head was horribly disjoined as the neck was a several foot-long strings of mental joints and wires. The torso was orange in color, covered with gashes and holes. Sunset stepped back, dropping the curtain back into place.

“I’m not afraid of you.” Sunset said, to the new animatronic. However, the words were more of an attempt to comfort herself.

She opened the curtain once more and bravely pointed the oil can in the disfigured mare’s direction. Without warning, Sunset pulled her hand back out. A striking pain sent up her arm as she did.

She must’ve nicked her hand on some of the wires because when she looked down at the source of the pain, she was discomforted by the sight of a sizable cut. “Ow…” she mumbled, dropping the can to the floor in front of the second stage. As it hit the ground, it spilled its contents. Sunset was in no condition to be cleaning.

As she turned around, heading back toward the office, she heard a thundering crash within the stage. Whatever had been elevating the amalgamated pony animatronic, had broken. Reluctantly, she turned back to the stage. Where, to her horror the face of robot stared back at her. It was so similar to Apple Jack, it almost didn’t terrify her… save for the black empty eyes. Last time she had checked, Apple
Jack definitely had eyes.

Sunset wasted no time booking it back to the office. She threw open the first aid kit on the wall. Unfortunately for her, it seemed this place had quite a lot of accidents. Given that the first aid kit has seemingly been ransacked.

Lifting her uniform shirt, she tore off a strip of fabric from her undershirt. And wrapped it around her cut. It was not an open wound, she would be fine for the drive home.

Turning to the clock, she punched it. 5 minutes early, but a workplace injury justified her leaving early.