//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15: Cornered 
// Story: Spiritus ex Machina 
// by wonderkid125 
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Back in the security room, the atmosphere had drastically changed now that the lights were on. Although the lightbulb overhead dimmed faintly every few seconds, it made the room feel relatively safe and comfortable. The ponies could actually start to forget about the anxiety and fear waiting for them in the halls outside. Glitterball could even dim her horn and rest for a moment.

While most of the group was resting and waiting anxiously for their friends to return, Copper Coil was busying himself with trying to fix the bank of monitors. Once the power came on, a few lights blinked to life on the console, implying that at least something was still functional. Deciding that he should be at least somewhat useful to his friends, the stallion sat down in one of the swivel chairs and tried to get the neglected machinery up and running.

Berry Swirl looked over to the stallion messing with buttons and switches curiously. “How is it looking over there, Copper?”

“Not sure… I can get some lights to turn on, but I’m not sure if it’s going to work. This equipment has been sitting here for a while without any maintenance.” Copper Coil reported with a frustrated shrug as he tried everything he knew to get the monitors to turn on.

Berry walked over and stood next to the stallion, peering over his shoulder. “Here, why don’t I try something on it?” She suggested optimistically.

“What could you possibly try that would fix this old thing?” Copper asked while raising an eyebrow curiously at the purple mare. In all his years of knowing her, he knew that she wasn’t nearly as technically inclined as her father. She enjoyed tinkering with the animatronics at a young age, but she never mastered anything in the field.

Berry simply stood and stared at the bank of dark and lifeless monitors. The few lights that were on the console seemed to imply that everything was working except for the video feed itself. Using every ounce of ingenuity in her body, she prepared to try the one technique that could fix any mechanical problem.

*Thunk*

The purple mare casually lifted her leg and gave a forceful kick to the side of the machine. Everyone in the room expected nothing to happen, but much to their surprise the row of monitors flickered to life as a static-ridden video feed displayed on each of the screens.

“Little trick I learned from Sparkplug.” Berry smirked coyly while enjoying every bit of the dumbfounded expression on the older stallion’s face. Copper Coil appeared as if he wanted to explode into a rant on how asinine the mare’s trick was and how much it shouldn’t have worked, but his words seemed to fail him as he deflated into a silent expression of irritation.

“Wow… I didn’t think that old thing would work. Can you use the cameras on it?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while marveling at the blank screens. Although they were currently displaying nothing but static, there was an overlay of text that labeled each camera with numbers and hinted at their functionality.

“Well… let me see here,” Copper muttered while fiddling around with the many buttons and switches on the console. After a few combinations of button presses, the monitors switched to various pictures of different rooms and hallways. “Aha! There we go… now we’re in business.” The stallion remarked with a pleased expression. Everyone smiled as they looked at the newly fixed camera feed. Each of the monitors were displaying faded images that were crackling with varying degrees of static, but they would make finding their missing friends so much easier.

Before anyone could celebrate the first great success they had had since arriving in the forgotten resort, the sound of the door opening drew their attention away. The group looked over to see Glimmer Shine and Tom stepping into the room while curiously observing the lights and electronics that were now suddenly functional.

“Glimmer, Tom… you’re back. Did you find the service entrance?” Glitterball asked in a hopeful tone. The others perked up slightly as the subject of the entrance was brought up. Even if they were determined to find the three missing ponies before they left, knowing that they had a viable escape route would have been comforting. However, the downcast expressions on the yellow stallion and the human’s faces immediately removed their own bright smiles.

“No… well, yes, but it’s locked.” Tom explained with a dejected sigh.

“Oh…” Glitterball looked down sadly as their only exit that didn’t involve fighting past six haunted animatronics was removed from the list of possible strategies. Now the only way they were getting out was to get rid of the ghosts entirely.

“Glitter, uh… I couldn’t help but notice the lights came on… and there seems to be fewer people in here than I remembered. Is there anything that happened while we were gone?” Glimmer Shine asked in a curious tone while trying to ignore the gnawing feeling of dread building inside of him.

The white unicorn paused hesitantly as she was asked to explain what happened. She knew that the stallion wasn’t going to be pleased to hear that Sunspot had gone off on her own for any reason that wasn’t super important. And as handy as having the lights on was, she didn’t think that it was super important. “Sorry Glimmer… Sunspot took Twilight and Sparkplug to go turn on a generator. I tried to talk her out of it, but you know how she gets.” Glitterball explained in an apologetic tone while frowning slightly.

“*Sigh*… Yeah, I know how she gets.” Glimmer Shine shrugged while shaking his head. “Well… if the lights are on, that must mean that they did something right. Hopefully, they are on their way back and we won’t have any problems.” He added in a slightly more optimistic manner.

“They said they would head straight back here after they were done. The generator wasn’t too far away, so they should be back in a few minutes.” Glitterball added with a reassuring nod, partially to convince herself that the orange pegasus knew what she was doing.

And around the time that everyone was starting to feel confident that everything was going to work out ok, Glitterball, Glimmer Shine, and Tom all heard a familiar voice in their ears that sounded more than a little nervous.

“Umm… hello? Guys? We could use a little help over here.” Sunspot said uneasily. The others couldn’t tell if the pegasus was nervous because of her situation, or because she was asking for help from the people she just tried to convince that she would be fine.

Glitterball and Glimmer Shine shared an expression of disbelief with each other as they listened to the mare in distress. They almost couldn’t fathom that the universe would allow for such situations to exist, and yet here they were.

“You don’t plan for these things to happen, do you?” Glitterball asked while looking to the stallion with a dull expression.

“If I had psychic powers, I would not be using them for this.” Glimmer Shine replied before sighing and putting a hoof up to his ear. “We’re here Sunspot. What’s wrong?” He asked in a sincere tone, managing to suppress his desire to go off on the pegasus for endangering herself and two others.

“Glimmer Shine… before I say anything, I want it to go on the record that this is not my fault.” Sunspot said in a cautionary manner, almost like she was expecting the stallion to berate her.

Glimmer had to stifle an agitated groan as he tried to remain as serious and understanding as possible. “We’re not saying this is your fault Sunspot… now tell us what happened.” Glimmer Shine asked in a more pressing manner. He could hear the pegasus sighing before adopting a more serious tone.

“We got to the generator and turned it on just fine. We were about to leave, but Twilight just passed out right in front of us.” Sunspot explained in a concerned tone.

“W-what?! Oh my gosh… is she ok?” Glitter asked with a shocked tone, eliciting the others to listen with worried expressions.

“She’s fine from what I can tell. She’s breathing ok, and there’s nothing else wrong with her. We just can’t wake her up.” Sunspot added with a dejected sigh of concern.

“Ok, just bring her with you and come back here. We’ll take a look at her once you’re safe.” Glimmer Shine suggested while being as level headed as possible given the situation.

“Uh… see, about that… we kind of can’t move from where we are.” Sunspot said in a more nervous tone, though this time she seemed genuinely afraid of something. As the pegasus spoke, the others could hear what sounded like faint banging coming from off to the side.

“Sunspot… what’s that noise?” Glimmer Shine asked uneasily.

“That’s part of the problem… See, after we tried to pick up Twilight and leave, we heard some freaky laughing and saw a pair of glowing eyes around the corner. We high-tailed it out of there as fast as we could. It kept cutting us off every time we tried to get back to the security room, so we had to find a room we could hole up in. While we were running we bumped into another animatronic wandering around... thankfully we found an unlocked room to hide in before it caught us.” Sunspot explained anxiously while pausing every once in a while, seemingly to check behind her to see if the door to the room would hold.

“Ok… just stay calm Sunspot. We’ll come and get you. Can you tell us where you are?” Glimmer asked reassuringly.

Sunspot paused, struggling to remember anything useful about her location. “Umm… I don’t know. We left the area of the map I memorized after we started running. I think we passed some stairs leading down when we ran in here.” She explained. “Please hurry Glimmer... I don’t think we can do much of anything if that thing breaks in here.” She pleaded in a dreadful tone.

“We’re on our way now, just sit tight.” Glimmer Shine said before dropping his hoof from his ear. He looked to his two teammates, who had equally concerned expressions on their faces. “I assume you guys heard all that?” He asked curiously.

“Yeah… she said they were by some stairs leading down.” Glitterball nodded before turning and looking over to the bank of security monitors. “Copper Coil, do you think you could find the stairs on the cameras?” She asked with a hopeful tone while looking to the reddish stallion.

Copper Coil turned and scooted his chair closer to the console. He swiftly pressed a button and switched through the various cameras available on this floor. After searching through static ridden images, he finally stopped as he noticed a set of stairs leading down in the middle of a well-lit hallway. “There, found it.” Copper announced while leaning back so the rest of the group could get a better look. The stairs were at the end of an intersection with a single light shining down on it. The stairwell itself had what looked to be bars going from floor to ceiling, with a gate built in to access the stairs. The camera was at an angle, and the stairwell was shaded by the bars, so it was hard to see much of anything beyond the gate. The group could, however, tell that the gate was closed.

Glimmer Shine, Tom, Glitterball, and the rest of the ponies looked at the monitor with various expressions of concern as they thought about their friends in such a dangerous situation. Suddenly, however, Glitter noticed something that made her blood run cold. The longer she stared at it, the more her heart kept racing and her eyes widened.

“W…w-what is that?!” Glitterball asked while pointing to the left side of the screen. Everyone looked to see what had freaked the unicorn out so badly, only to flinch as they saw it.

The intersection itself was well lit, but the hallways to either side of the stairwell were bathed in darkness. Peeking out from around the left corner, there was a pair of glowing white eyes sitting in the darkness, looking directly at the camera.

“AH!” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle yelped in unison, while Scootaloo simply jumped back in fright.

The others reacted with either jumping back in surprise or letting out brief shrieks of terror. Despite how terrified they were, they couldn’t look away from the disturbing sight. Before anyone could say anything else, the monitor screen flickered with static and the eyes were gone in an instant. The sudden disappearance unsettled the majority of the group as if they expected the creature to be right outside the security office door now.

“Ok… there’s no way that thing was an animatronic.” Glimmer Shine muttered in a stunned tone while calming himself down. 

“That still doesn’t help us very much if it isn’t, Glimmer.” Glitterball stated uneasily. The thought of the ghosts using animated hunks of metal to attack them was terrifying, but the thought of the ghosts attacking them by themselves was even more troubling.

“Copper, can you see if there are any cameras near the stairs? If they are in the same area, then maybe we can find them.” Tom suggested while stepping closer to the bank of monitors and trying to decipher any way to see the locations of the cameras. Unfortunately, there seemed to be only text to describe the name of each camera instead of where it was on the map.

Copper quickly started switching through the cameras again. The myriad of dark or lit up rooms and hallways didn’t yield much promise of actually finding their trapped friends. Despite the daunting task of finding the proverbial needle in the haystack, the group kept their eyes glued to the screen in order to find anything that could lead them to their friends. Still, they felt a little nervous as they entertained the thought in the back of their minds that told them something scary was going to appear on the screens.

Suddenly, a flash of out of place color made the stallion pause and go back. As the group settled their eyes on the image before them, they were taken aback by surprise.

The camera showed an angled view of a dimly lit hallway. The most prominent part of the feed was the sight of a tall, humanoid animatronic pounding on a door and trying to break in. The animatronic was almost a striking image of Chica from upstairs, but this chicken was far from normal looking. The colorful yellow shell of the bird was rusted and worn away in places, revealing the aged endoskeleton and wiring underneath. The animatronic’s entire left arm was broken off at the shoulder, leaving a tangled mess of wires and exposed endoskeleton parts sticking out. Oddly and terrifyingly enough, Chica’s beak was also missing, showing off a set of yellowed teeth inside a gaping hole of a mouth.

“Yikes… that must be them.” Tom raised an eyebrow in surprise as he watched the animatronic chicken going to town on the door with one arm. Thankfully the door seemed to be sturdy enough to hold fast, but anyone inside would have been trapped if there were no other exits.

“There, I found the stairs on the map. We should go find them right now.” Glitterball suggested in an urgent tone while looking at the map on the wall. The stairwell leading down to the other floors was at the top of the layout, a fair distance away from where they currently were.

“Agreed… let’s head out.” Glimmer Shine said while trotting over to the door, quickly followed by Tom and Glitterball. The others watched the trio with concern as they wondered if they would reach their friends in time. The withered animatronic pounding on the door showed no signs of giving up anytime soon.

“You guys want some help out there?” Rainbow Dash asked while stepping forward from the group. The cyan mare and at least a few others were more than willing to brave the unknown halls outside to rescue the three trapped ponies.

“No, we’ll be fine. You guys stay in here and keep the door locked until we get back.” Glimmer Shine instructed with a serious tone of voice. The cyan pegasus hesitantly nodded in response as the trio exited the room. While the distant footsteps of their friends rushing off to rescue Sunspot and the others faded into silence, Rainbow Dash stepped up to the door and locked it before turning to the others.

“Will they be alright?” Spike asked nervously while watching the monitors and eyeing the old model of Chica warily.

The others watched the young dragon and the three fillies watching the screens with concerned expressions of dread. They were concerned for their friends as well, but they knew that Glimmer Shine and the others wouldn’t let anything bad happen on their watch.

Berry Swirl walked over to the bank of monitors and switched the camera feed off of the frightening animatronic. She flashed the brightest smile she could manage and chuckled slightly in an attempt at reassuring the children and perhaps even the rest of the group. “Don’t worry… I’m sure they’ll be fine. Your friends seem to know how to take care of themselves.” Berry explained in a confident tone while glancing to the others for support.

“Y..yeah… they’ll be alright. Twilight and Sparkplug have Sunspot watching out for them. Even if that bag of bolts does get in there, I’m sure she can send it packing no problem.” Rainbow Dash stated in agreement with the purple earth pony. Thankfully the kids seemed to be a little reassured by their statements. However, they weren’t sure if they had the same level of confidence.



“Ugh…” Twilight groaned in exhaustion as she came to her senses again. Her head felt heavy, and whatever ground was beneath her felt cold, leading her to believe that she was lying down.

Slowly managing to open her eyes, she was met with a dull gray ceiling with a single lightbulb in the center. Even the relatively dim light of the aged bulb hurt her eyes, forcing her to shield them as she slowly lifted herself up into a seated position.

“Twilight… you’re awake!” A familiar voice exclaimed from the side.

The purple mare looked over to see Sunspot and Sparkplug rushing over to her side and staring at her with relieved expressions. “Uh… S..Sunspot? Where are we?” Twilight asked in a confused stupor while taking a better look around the room.

The room wasn’t too large, being mostly used for storage judging from the shelves and boxes full of miscellaneous junk. The door in the left side of the wall in front of the three mares was shut, and something seemed to be banging on it every once in a while from the sound of things.

“We had to pick you up and move you when you passed out on us. Something started chasing us, so we couldn’t get back to the security office.” Sunspot explained in a troubled tone while glancing back to the door to check if it was still holding.

“Chasing us? What chased us… is it still here?” Twilight asked in a more alarmed manner while starting to get up. She was met with the orange pegasus and the gray earth pony gently pushing her back to a resting position.

“Calm down, we’re safe for the moment… I think.” Sunspot shrugged uneasily. “Anyway… we heard some freaky laughing right after you conked out. We didn’t stick around long enough to see it, but we heard it running behind us. After that, we ran into another animatronic blocking our way, so we had to duck into this room.” She explained while trying to ignore the sporadic pounding against the door. The thundering knocks would come in singular intervals every several seconds, but the door didn’t show any signs of weakness.

“Why didn’t you just take us to the generator room?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. The generator room was much closer than wherever this place was, and it looked like it had a solid door that could be held shut if necessary.

Sparkplug shook her head with a troubled expression. “We couldn’t get in there. Once that weird thing started chasing us, all of the doors we came across started locking… I don’t even think most of them had locks.”

“Well, that’s ghosts for you… They like to make up their own rules to play by.” Sunspot stated with a twinge of disdain in her voice.

The knocks on the door sped up as the animatronic outside flailed angrily. The mares could hear a high pitched shriek that was heavily distorted. The shrill noise made them shiver slightly as they realized that the only thing keeping them from that horrid creature was a wooden door.

“I assume you guys called for help since I’ve been out?” Twilight asked with an expectant expression.

“Yeah… we called a few minutes before you woke up. Glimmer Shine and Tom should be here soon.” Sunspot said reassuringly before pausing. “That reminds me Twilight… do you have any idea why you passed out?” She asked in a hopeful tone.

The purple mare paused and widened her eyes slightly as she thought back to her abrupt stint of unconsciousness. The things she saw came flooding back to her as vividly as they were when she experienced them. She would have called the odd experience a dream, but she wasn’t too sure at this point. “I… I think I had a vision.” Twilight stated in a stunned tone, which equally stunned her two companions.

“What?” Sunspot asked with a puzzled expression.

“A vision…? Like… a near death experience or something?” Sparkplug asked in a confused manner while trying to somewhat rationalize the unicorn’s statement.

“No, not a near death experience.” Twilight shook her head while waving off the gray mare’s speculation. She had actually died once, and not once had she had a near death vision like what she just saw. “I’m not sure how to describe it… I was in a building in an amusement park. A newspaper I found dated back seventy years, so I think I must have been seeing Funland back when Berry’s great-grandfather ran the place.” Twilight explained while recalling the vivid experience in her head. The other mares were stunned and puzzled at what they were hearing.

“Seventy years…? Twilight, are you sure you weren’t dreaming?” Sunspot asked while trying not to sound too skeptical.

“I’m fairly certain. In the dream I had a few nights ago, the one that made me lose sleep, I went down into the basement chasing after a young filly. I waved it off as just a weird nightmare, but the layout I saw in my dream perfectly matched the basement… even though I hadn’t been down there before. I think this… vision or… whatever it was… was something similar to that dream… I just can’t figure out what any of it means.” Twilight said in a frustrated tone while deep in thought.

Sunspot looked to the purple unicorn with an uncertain expression. She believed what she was saying, but the pegasus wasn’t sure what to think of it. She certainly hoped that the strange visions didn’t mean anything bad was going to happen to her purple friend. “Twilight… I don’t know what to tell you. I can’t think of a good explanation for it either. We should probably hold off on thinking about it too much until we get out of here. I’m sure Tom could help you out.” She said in a hopeful tone. She was certain that the human and his extensive knowledge on the paranormal would be able to offer the unicorn more insight into what was going on.

Twilight contemplated the vision for a moment longer before sighing and turning to her two companions. She nodded silently while trying her best to suppress the troubling thoughts drifting around her mind.

Now that their focus was off of the purple mare and her strange experience, the trio could put their full focus on the animatronic trying to break into the room, not that it was easy to ignore anyway. The robotic animal outside was still pounding away on the door, despite it showing no signs of breaking anytime soon. The knowledge that they were safe was merely a hollow comfort to the ponies. At any rate, they were trapped in their apparent safe haven until help arrived. There were no other exits, and with a ticked off animatronic and possibly another unknown entity waiting for them outside, fighting their way out was not an option they were willing to risk.

Twilight tried her best to sit quietly and ignore the incessantly erratic blows on the door. However hard she tried, she couldn’t relax with the jarring noises and occasional shrieks from the creature outside. And however hard she tried, she couldn’t shake the thought at the back of her mind that told her that the animatronic would bust in at any moment to slaughter her and her friends.

“So... umm… did you guys get a good look at the animatronic before you hid in here?” Twilight asked uneasily, perhaps trying to rationalize the situation and ease her fears. The orange pegasus looked back at her with a sympathetic expression. She had known the unicorn for long enough to tell that she was trying to lessen her fear and that it probably wouldn’t work.

“I wish we hadn’t. It looked like an older model of Chica from upstairs, but this one was messed up. It was even missing an arm… I’ll never understand why a ghost would choose to live in a body like that. Then again, I don’t think I’ll ever understand ghosts in the first place.” Sunspot muttered with a hint of sad frustration in her voice. “Gah… I can’t believe our luck. This is the second run-in with ghosts we’ve had since back then, and this is the second time things have gone south for us.” She added while kicking a box beside her angrily.

“Second time? Wait… when was the first?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. She didn’t figure that the trio would have taken a case involving ghosts so soon after what happened. The only reason they took this case was because it was supposed to be easy to deal with and they got a free week at the resort.

The orange pegasus looked away from the others for a moment while recalling the embarrassing ordeal. It just now occurred to her that nobody else had been made aware that they had failed to complete an assignment. “Well uh… you know that assignment we had in Fillydelphia? Well… we were clearing out a haunted house. It was just one ghost, so we were pretty confident that we could handle it.” Sunspot explained hesitantly.

“What happened?” Sparkplug asked curiously, hoping to gain more insight into what the ghost hunters did on the job.

“I… umm… I messed up.” Sunspot looked down sadly. “I found the ghost before the others, and I ignored Glimmer Shine’s orders so I could take care of it myself. The ghost got away… and we… well, I… broke a window.” She said in a more embarrassed manner.

“Oh my gosh… were you hurt?” Sparkplug asked in a more concerned tone.

“Only my pride…” Sunspot muttered silently while looking down in a dejected manner.

“Sunspot, why did you ignore what Glimmer Shine told you?” Twilight asked with a shocked expression. The orange pegasus grew more uneasy as she was forced to continue on this subject.

“Well… me and Glimmer haven’t been getting along too great recently. I guess I sort of just went with my gut.” Sunspot said after pausing briefly.

“Really? You two seemed friendly enough around each other whenever I saw you.” Sparkplug stated with a confused expression.

Sunspot looked down slightly as she thought about her relationship with the yellow stallion. She didn’t like thinking about the matter in the first place, but now she was getting more and more upset as she focused on it for the first time in a long time. However, the purple unicorn across from her seemed to be thinking about other things.

“So… how has Glimmer Shine been doing after… you know what?” Twilight asked hesitantly. Of course, the pegasus immediately knew what she was referring to, and the thought alone sent her into an uneasy silence.

“He doesn’t like to talk about it, and we don’t like to bring it up. Other than that… he is holding up better than I expected. He is always so eager to get a job done and help people… I don’t know how he does it.” Sunspot said with a troubled expression.

The unicorn fell silent for a while after the orange mare finished her somber statement. Sparkplug still wasn’t sure what the two were talking about, but she could tell that it was a very gloomy subject, so she remained silent and let the pair think.

Much to Sunspot’s confusion, Twilight started fidgeting and looking down sadly. She seemed to be fighting back tears as she thought of something. “You know… I can’t help but think that I played some part in what happened to Peppermint.” Twilight said in a remorseful tone while barely managing to keep herself from crying.

“Twilight…” Sunspot looked at the unicorn with a sympathetic expression.

“I… I knew there was a possibility of something bad happening when I took everyone to go look for the last symbol, but… I never imagined something like that. If I hadn’t suggested that we leave, then maybe… m-maybe Peppermint would… would…” Twilight sobbed slightly as a single set of tears fell down her face. She was stopped suddenly when she felt a hoof being placed on her shoulder reassuringly. The unicorn looked up to see Sunspot offering her a concerned expression.

“Twilight, none of that is your fault.” Sunspot said in a softer tone.

“B-but-” Twilight started to speak up again in a shaky voice until she was interrupted by the pegasus.

“But nothing… I don’t care what you’ve thought to yourself to try and explain what happened. It’s not your fault Pepper died… if anything, it’s my fault. I’m the one that let you go out to search for that symbol. It was a good idea… not surprising seeing how you’re the one that had the courage to come up with it. You wanted to find the symbol faster so nobody else had to get hurt, I can’t blame you for that… and Glimmer Shine would never blame you for it either. But if anyone is responsible for not acting when they should have, it was me. I should have realized that it was too risky… I should have done something. That’s my guilt to carry around… not yours.” Sunspot explained in a reassuring tone. Still, her voice held a hint of sadness to it as well.

“Sunspot…” Twilight muttered while looking to the pegasus with a saddened expression.

The room fell silent after that, with nothing being said to disturb the somber atmosphere. The only noises were those of the animatronic waiting outside. Even Sparkplug was frowning slightly from the sparse pieces of the conversation she could understand.

Suddenly, the constant pounding on the door ceased, causing the three mares to shift their attention away from their heartfelt conversation. They could hear the animatronic outside shrieking, but it faintly sounded like it was facing another direction. A muffled clamor of scrambling feet and metal clangs came from outside the room, along with what sounded like faint voices.

The noises grew louder, and a loud crash rang out as the animatronic seemingly hit something with great force. Another series of distorted cries from the robotic animal pierced the air, causing the confused and concerned ponies to cringe nervously.

“What’s going on out there?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while looking back and forth between her two companions, hopeful that one of them had an explanation for her.

Before Sunspot or Sparkplug could even try to form a reply, the door to the room popped open. Instead of a rampaging metal death machine entering the room like the trio expected, a familiar yellow stallion stepped through the door.

“Guys, come on!” Glimmer Shine urged while motioning for the mares to follow him. He glanced behind him with an anxious expression as another loud crash rang out, followed by a groan of exertion from Tom.

“Glimmer?!” Sunspot said with a shocked expression. She couldn’t believe that she was being rescued so abruptly.

“Tom, watch out!” Glitterball announced from somewhere outside. Shortly afterward, the human yelped in surprise as another agitated cry from the animatronic indicated that something was happening.

Sunspot and her two companions looked at each other briefly. Although they had no idea what was going on, they knew the situation was urgent. Without wasting any time, the three mares followed Glimmer Shine out of their safe haven and into the hallway.

Standing outside in the dimly lit corridor, Glitterball was to the right of the room staring ahead with a concerned expression. As soon as they looked to the left, the others immediately understood the cause of all the commotion.

Tom was squaring off a few feet away with the animatronic that had been keeping the three mares trapped. The animatronic in question was an old model of Chica, which given its terrible appearance and ferocity, scared the living daylights out of Twilight.

“Sweet Celestia!” The purple mare jumped in fright as she laid eyes on the robotic bird. Chica was currently hunched over, ready to leap forward and maim the ponies at any given moment with her sharp teeth and remaining arm. The only thing standing in her way was Tom.

“Guys, get back to the security room! I’ll take care of this thing!” Tom instructed in an urgent tone while briefly glancing behind him. He already had a scratch across his face from where the animatronic clipped him.

“Not a chance Tom!” Glimmer Shine stated with a determined expression while standing his ground and preparing to rush into battle. Sunspot and Glitterball stepped forward and stood in line with their yellow companion, waiting for the opportune moment to move.

“Grr… why can’t you make things easy for me just once?” Tom groaned in frustration before putting his full focus on the robotic animal in front of him.

Not wasting any time on planning out her attack, Chica charged forward and let loose another ear piercing cry. She reeled back her arm and swiped at the human with her sharpened metallic fingers. Tom barely managed to duck to the side, but the decrepit robot kept coming. Chica flailed wildly at her elusive target, using her arm and her mouth to snap at him in an attempt at either grabbing him or cutting him in some way.

Tom arched to the side and stepped forward, sending a kick toward the animatronic’s shin. Hoping to knock her off balance, he put as much force behind the blow as he could. However, just as with the old model of Bonnie, the bird’s metallic body resisted his attack and absorbed most of the force. Chica barely even noticed her leg moving an inch backwards, instead opting to use the human’s failed attack to her advantage.

Using its arm, the animatronic grabbed Tom by the shoulder, digging its claws in and making sure that the boy couldn’t shake it off. Tom yelped painfully as his shoulder was pierced by the metallic fingers of the beast. Before he could try to think of a way to free himself, Chica pushed the human into the wall forcefully.

“Tom!” Twilight exclaimed fearfully as she watched the human being smacked into the wall. Much to the horror of everyone watching, Chica lunged forward with her head, biting at the human and aiming for his face.

Tom barely managed to push his arm up to stop the animatronic from biting him, but he wasn’t able to get much leverage in time. Chica shifted her aim slightly, catching the human’s arm in her mouth and biting down.

“AGGH!” Tom yelled in agony as the bird’s jagged and worn teeth pierced his skin deeply. The ponies gasped in shock as they watched their friend screaming while blood poured from his arm. Chica remained in place, letting her teeth sink in further as she seemingly enjoyed listening to the human’s cries.

“Someone do something! Get her off of him!” Sparkplug pleaded from the back of the group. She had full intention to run over to the human and help him herself, but there wasn’t much she could do with the animatronic clinging to his arm like that.

Glitterball and Twilight looked to Sunspot and Glimmer Shine in a nervous panic. Finally, they steeled their nerves and nodded to each other. It was about time they started proving their worth and paying the human back for all of the times he had fought for them.

“Who’s freaking idea was it to give these things teeth?!” Tom exclaimed in a pained tone while trying to loose himself from the animatronic’s steel grip. He tried punching her head, but this only led to more pain as she refused to move or release his arm.

A sudden magical zap filled the air and a blur of light zoomed toward the robotic bird. With precision aim, a bolt of blue energy exploded into Chica’s head, sending a shower of sparks into the air and knocking her back. The stunned animatronic released her grip on Tom’s arm, stumbling to regain her balance after being struck. Tom looked over in surprise and saw Glitterball standing with her horn lit up and a serious expression on her face.

As Chica snapped her head forward and faced the annoying unicorn with an agitated shriek, she was met with another blur of motion just ahead of her. Everyone watched as Glimmer Shine charged at top speed toward the robotic animal.

The yellow stallion let out a fierce yell while swiftly turning and kicking out his back legs. In one single motion, Chica had her left leg kicked out from underneath her and Glimmer Shine kept moving past her. While the animatronic fell to one knee and tried to push itself off of the ground, Tom rushed forward and prepared to kick the offending robot in the head.

While Tom was about to connect his blow, Chica used her arm and her lowered stance to sweep his leg out from underneath him. The human fell to the floor and rolled to distance himself from the animatronic once again. Chica let out a rage filled cry and prepared to bolt forward after her attackers. It didn’t matter if she had to crawl to get to them, the robotic bird was out for blood.

Suddenly, the animatronic was completely covered in a purple aura. Chica was locked in place as Twilight used her magic to grab her from across the hallway. The purple mare could already feel a strain on her magic as she tangled with the paranormal energy contained within the metallic shell of a bird. Before the animatronic and the spirit within could use its immense power to overwhelm her magic like last time, she slammed its head to the side as hard as she could.

“That’s it Twilight! Cause as much structural damage as you can! Once the animatronic is damaged enough, the ghost inside will leave it!” Tom cheered the unicorn on as she slammed Chica’s head into the nearby wall. The group could hear the harsh sound of metal parts breaking inside of the animatronic as it received blow after blow. The wall was receiving a sizable dent in the shape of Chica’s head, but her metallic body wasn’t being damaged nearly as much as the others were hoping. Bits and pieces of the colorful outer shell of the animatronic started chipping off and cracking, but it seemed as though the endoskeleton underneath was holding up enough to keep the spirit inside.

Twilight groaned from exertion as Chica jerked upwards. She strained to keep a hold of the rampaging robot, but she could barely keep it from moving. Every time Chica would make a jerky movement forward, the unicorn would jerk her back again, trying desperately to keep the bird from getting to her or her friends.

“Gah… I… c-can’t hold it for much longer. It’s like it’s fighting me.” Twilight growled through clenched teeth while putting every ounce of will she had into her magic. Lifting an object of this size would normally be no problem, but whatever energy the animatronic had inside of it was much greater than she could handle. Thankfully it seemed as though the robotic animal couldn’t fully control its own strength, allowing her some time to overpower or at least contend with it.

Spotting an opportunity, Glimmer Shine rushed up from behind the animatronic and grabbed it around its slender waist. With help from leverage and the purple mare’s magical struggle with the beast, the stallion managed to put all of his weight down on Chica and forced her back to her knees. Not wanting the metallic bird to maim his friend, Tom joined in and grabbed the animatronic’s arm before it could lash out and do some damage.

Chica shrieked and jerked from side to side in an attempt at getting free. Realizing that Twilight was about to be overwhelmed, Glitterball used her own magic to help keep the animatronic in place. However, just as the group was trying to think of a way to go back on the offensive, Chica bucked upwards with great force and threw the stallion and the human off of her. The surge of strength from the animatronic made a wave of shooting pains hit the two unicorns in the head, forcing them to let their horns dim as they yelped in agony.

Twilight fought through her pain and looked up to see Chica preparing to leap onto Glimmer Shine while he was down. Widening her eyes and letting out a brief gasp, she raced to think of something she could do. Her magic wouldn’t be able to contain the animatronic for very long if she tried again, but perhaps there was something else she could do.

“AH!” Glimmer Shine yelped and covered his face with his forelegs as he saw the animatronic bearing down on him with its clawed hand outstretched. Before his doom could reach him, however, Chica was enveloped in a purple aura again, only this time it was just around her head.

Twilight yelled from exertion while using her magic to perform a twisting motion. It was hard to move the animatronic due to the immense power that was still present within it, but somehow she managed to put more force in than Chica could react to.

A sickening snap rang out as Chica’s head twisted too far to the side. The joint in her neck broke like a metallic twig, sending a brief spark into the air as she stumbled backwards. Twilight was forced to let go, but at least she had done some damage beforehand.

Much to everyone’s surprise and dismay, the animatronic was still standing. Chica’s head was limply slanting off to the side, but the unnatural gleam in her eye sockets still remained. With a furious distorted roar, the metallic bird sprinted toward the purple mare abruptly, catching her off guard.

“…!” Twilight flinched and stumbled backwards fearfully as she noticed the rampaging animatronic bolting toward her. It seemed like the neck injury she sustained wasn’t going to stop Chica from tearing off the unicorn’s head with her teeth.

Before the animatronic reached its target, it was met with another obstacle. Sunspot rushed ahead of the purple mare and jumped into the air. She somehow managed to use her wings to get a little bit of lift in the confined hallway. With momentum on her side, she arched her body backwards and flung out one of her back legs, aiming as high up as she could.

*Clang*

In one swift motion, Sunspot’s leg collided with Chica’s head and kept going. The animatronic’s head completely separated from its body as the metallic joint in its neck snapped with a grating crunch. While the body stumbled backwards from the impact, the head kept flying a short distance until it smacked into the floor and kept rolling, nearly hitting Glimmer Shine as it bounced past.

Chica’s body twitched for a moment before growing still. Finally, gravity kicked in and the chicken’s body fell to the floor with a sizable thud. The two parts of the once fierce animatronic didn’t move once they settled in place, giving the impression that the ghost inside had abandoned its shell.

The group panted heavily while catching their breath after such a tense struggle. They looked around for a moment to ensure that no other mechanical horrors were waiting for them before turning their attention to each other.

“Is everyone ok?” Glitterball asked in a concerned tone while looking over her friends to see if they had any injuries.

“*Pant*… Yeah… *Wheeze* I’m good.” Twilight said in between breaths. As exhausted and tense as she felt, she was thankfully unharmed.

Finally, everyone turned to look at the one person who they knew to be injured during the battle. Although Tom appeared relaxed and unfazed by the fight with the animatronic, he was cradling his still bleeding arm delicately.

“Tom, are you alright?” Glimmer Shine asked while looking at the sizable bite marks on the human’s arm with a sympathetic expression.

Tom winced in pain while looking down at his injury. He clenched his fist and cringed even more while letting his healing abilities kick into action. The bloody wounds on his arm were enveloped in embers and flames, replacing them with healthier and intact skin and restoring his clothes to their former glory. “I’m fine. It’s going to take a bit more than a hunk of junk with teeth and claws to get rid of me.” Tom said in a confident manner while coping with the last twinges of pain as the flames dimmed from his arm. The brief display of his healing powers made the others feel a little bad for him, but they were glad that his wounds were at least gone.

“Speaking of hunks of junk with claws and teeth… that is a bit of a problem. Every ghost we’ve come across so far in this place has been hiding in an animatronic. How do we get rid of them if they just keep jumping from suit to suit?” Glitterball asked in an uneasy tone while eyeing the motionless remains of the old model of Chica. When the robotic bird was defeated, there was no visible cue to tell that the ghost had vacated the animatronic. And with Tom’s senses being messed up by the strange readings in the area, it would be nigh impossible to do anything to the ghosts once they actually left their bodies.

“That is a tricky question…” Tom muttered pensively. “it looks like these guys have grown attached to these suits. They must have been inside of them for a long time to have gotten used to moving around and staying inside of such a damaged vessel. I suppose the best thing to consider right now would be how many animatronics there are down here.” He suggested while glancing over to Sparkplug.

The gray mare stepped forward from the back of the group and paused as she tried recalling anything she knew about the extension project. “I honestly don’t know… From the look of it, Berry’s grandfather brought a lot of his work down here to finish it. We’ve already seen old models of Bonnie and Chica… it’s hard to say how many more there could be… especially considering there could have been animatronic mascots entirely different from the ones we use now.” Sparkplug explained with a troubled tone. The mere thought of there being more animatronics down here waiting to get up and attack the group made them shiver nervously.

“Well… let’s not get spooked worrying about uncertainties right now. We should head back to the security office. Come on.” Glimmer Shine suggested while motioning for the others to follow him. Everyone was eager to leave and get back to the safety of the well-lit and securable security room, so they nodded and walked to join the yellow stallion.

The area around them was lit up for the most part, but several parts of the hallway had lights that had burned out or broken, leaving patches of darkness in between each island of light. Knowing what they saw on the security cameras, Glimmer Shine and his two companions were more wary of their surroundings than Sunspot and the others.

“So, did you guys get a look at the thing that chased you here before you ran into Chica?” Glitterball asked hesitantly while glancing back to the orange pegasus and the other two mares. Twilight could only look to Sunspot and Sparkplug curiously as they thought back to their experiences after she passed out.

“Not really… we mostly just heard it. It had a really short high pitched laugh, and it moved really fast from how it sounded.” Sunspot explained in an uneasy tone while shivering slightly as she remembered the strange entity’s laugh.

“I think I caught a glimpse of it before we rounded the first corner when we were running. All I could see were some white glowing dots. It was all the way at the end of the hall, and the lights weren’t on back there, so it’s hard for me to say what it was.” Sparkplug said while checking behind her in a paranoid fashion.

“Yeah, we didn’t have much time for looking behind us with Twilight the way she was. Our first priority was getting out of there.” Sunspot replied. Now that the unicorn’s brief stint of unconsciousness was brought up again, the others grew more concerned as they thought about it more.

“Are you sure you’re ok Twilight? What happened anyway?” Tom asked while looking back to the purple mare with a worried expression.

Twilight paused uncomfortably as the subject of her sudden blackout was brought up. She knew that she had to discuss her bizarre vision, but the thought alone made a pit firmly cement itself in her stomach. She was almost expecting her vision to be some sort of omen that meant that she was physically or mentally unwell, and that was being generous. The world of the supernatural was strange and new to her, and right now she was terrified of it.

“I… umm… I’m not sure what happened really. I was just walking one second, and the next I felt this buzzing in my head. I guess that was around the time I blacked out… but…” Twilight shrugged hesitantly as she tried to think of a way to bring up her experience.

Noticing the purple unicorn’s troubled expression and tone of voice, the others stopped walking and put their full attention on her as they wondered what was wrong.

“Go ahead Twilight, you can tell us anything. Did something happen?” Glitterball asked in a sympathetic tone.

Twilight finally decided to push through her unease and just explain everything she saw. “I don’t know what it was… it must have happened after I passed out, but I had a sort of… dream, or something.” Twilight said with a troubled expression as she still tried processing what happened herself. “I was in a building inside of an amusement park… it looked exactly like the pictures on those newspapers you showed us. Judging from a newspaper I saw… it was around seventy years ago. I would have thought it was just a regular dream, but… I don’t know. I had a nightmare a few nights ago where I went down to the basement of the resort, and the layout I saw matched the actual layout perfectly. I think it might have been some kind of vision.” She explained in a drained tone. No matter how hard she tried to think about the experience, nothing else made sense to her and calling it a vision wasn’t exactly a sound explanation for her.

The others looked at each other with concerned expressions as they thought about the unicorn’s strange experiences. Most of them didn’t have any idea what to think about the apparent visions, and even if they could find something that made a little sense, the thought alone of what it could have meant for Twilight made them uneasy.

“Well… it could have been a vision. Can you remember anything important that happened with what you saw when you passed out, or your nightmare?” Tom asked curiously while trying to sound as reassuring as possible to not freak out the purple mare.

“Umm… not much else happened in the vision I had after I passed out. I saw Berry’s grandfather interviewing a new employee for the park… oh! Wait a minute… I think I saw an article in the newspaper talking about a string of kidnappings. And in the nightmare I had, there was this little ghost girl.” Twilight said while recalling the details of her dream. She could still picture the white filly with golden hair and piercing eyes vividly in her mind.

“Little ghost girl? You mean you actually saw one of the ghosts?” Sunspot asked in a surprised tone. The thought alone of a ghostly child was more than a little unnerving. The group hoped that the ghosts they were being hunted by weren’t mostly children. Being chased by a fully matured and grown spirit was bad enough, so the last thing they needed was for all of the enthusiasm and energy of a child to be put toward being terrifying.

“I didn’t just see her… she led me down to the basement. I tried talking to her, but she didn’t respond very much. All she said was help me, and I just want to go home.” Twilight explained while suppressing the chills that she was getting from remembering the filly’s hauntingly echoic voice.

“Ghosts have been known to show things to people… maybe she really did want help.” Tom suggested. “It would certainly explain your visions. You’re probably more susceptible to paranormal experiences like visions and negative feelings when around ghosts, so you were the one she picked to reach out to.” He explained while scratching his head in thought. The human’s statement was less than comforting to the purple unicorn.

Twilight paused and tilted her head in shock. “More susceptible, what the hay is that supposed to mean?!”

“It’s nothing too major… you’re probably just a fraction more likely to experiencing something supernatural than the average person. I mean… you have died, Twilight. That kind of thing does tend to leave some kind of lasting effect on a person.” Tom explained in a softer tone. Being reminded of the purple mare’s fatal incident made most of the others fall silent uneasily, while it just outright confused a certain gray earth pony.

“Wait, wait, wait… she died? Am I missing something here?” Sparkplug asked in a puzzled manner while looking around in the hopes that someone could explain.

“It’s a long story… I’ll tell you about it after we get out of here. Speaking of which, let’s get moving. I don’t want to dwell on the fact that I’m now a walking talking ghost magnet for very long.” Twilight shrugged in irritation while walking ahead. The others watched the unicorn before deciding that it was best to move on. Sparkplug, however, was still mentally struggling to try and understand how the purple mare could have died in the past and still be around today.

After a short walk, the group reached a lit up intersection with darkness waiting just outside in the other hallways. To their right, there was the stairwell leading down. The entire opening that led into the stairwell was blocked by a framework of metal bars. The bars had only one door built into the right side of them, and it was currently closed.

The group was going to ignore the stairway and walk down the left corridor to get back to the security office, but Twilight suddenly noticed something that made her pause. As she got a better look at what she saw, she gasped and rushed over to the stairs.

“Guys, look at this!” Twilight eagerly waved the others over to where she was. Everyone paused and turned around to see what the unicorn was talking about. As they walked over to the stairs and looked to where she was pointing, they widened their eyes in surprise.

Sitting on the ground near the first landing, there was a familiar Stetson hat covered in the striped shadows of the bars. It was just sitting there by itself, almost perfectly placed to where one would notice it if they looked at the stairwell.

“Oh my gosh… is that…?” Glitterball muttered in a stunned tone.

“Applejack’s hat… it has to be! They must have gone down to the second floor!” Twilight exclaimed cheerfully while quickly reaching for the door. However, as she pulled the handle near the edge of the metallic door frame, she was met with solid resistance. “What? No… not now.” Twilight groaned in a distressed tone while trying the door again. Much to her dismay, it wasn’t budging anytime soon.

“Is it locked?” Sunspot asked, despite how much of a hard time the unicorn was having with getting the door open.

Finally, Twilight sighed heavily while releasing the door and stepping back with a disheartened expression. “It must have locked after they went in.” She said while shaking her head sadly.

“Maybe they left Applejack’s hat here to let us know that they went downstairs?” Glitterball suggested curiously while observing the lonely hat sitting beyond the barred gate.

“That must be why… Applejack wouldn’t leave that hat anywhere without a good reason. But if they went downstairs, how are we going to get to them with this locked door in the way? *Sigh* If only we had your equipment with us… I’m sure your cutters could get through those bars.” Twilight muttered sadly while glancing to Glimmer Shine and the others. As she thought more about her own statement, she suddenly dawned on an idea that might solve their problem. “Wait a minute… I can get through those bars! Maybe I can unlock the door from the other side?” She suggested eagerly. Before anyone else could even voice their opinion, she turned to face the gate and lit up her horn, concentrating on the other side.

The others stood back and watched as the purple mare blinked out of existence temporarily, only to reappear behind the bars a moment later. Twilight quickly rushed to the door and examined the lock to see if there was some sort of way for her to unlock it.

Twilight looked over the lock feverishly, hoping to find something different from the other side. Unfortunately for her, the lock was uniform and completely latch-less. “Ugh, no good... looks like we're going to need a key to open it after all.” She shrugged while sliding from the door with a dejected expression.

“I'm sure there are some keys somewhere on this floor. Come on back over here, Twilight. We don't know what could be down there.” Tom said in a mildly concerned tone while motioning for the unicorn to teleport to the other side again.

Twilight glanced behind her to the steps leading down. The opening into darkness that was the landing and stairs further down was suddenly much more eerie and foreboding than it was when she rushed over to this side. There was currently a thick set of metal bars standing between her and her friends. If something wanted to creep up the stairs and drag her down to the darkness below to have its way with her, it wouldn't be that hard.

“Uh… heh… right.” Twilight chuckled nervously while quickly lighting up her horn again and scrambling to teleport over to the safety of the other side of the door. Before she did, however, she reached down and picked up Applejack’s hat to hold onto it.

While the purple mare finished popping back into existence, the others were already pondering what to do next.

“We need to find a way to get down there if we're going to find the others and get to the bottom of all of this.” Glitterball suggested in a determined tone.

“You’re right… but first, we need to get Twilight and Sparkplug back to safety.” Glimmer Shine said while turning to the others in thought. “Glitter, why don’t you take them back to the security room while we start looking for those keys?” He suggested while looking to the white unicorn.

“Are you sure?” Glitterball asked in a hesitant expression. She wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable with leaving her friends to search through such a dangerous location on their own. Then again, she wasn’t sure how much help she would be if they actually ran into something bad.

“Yeah, go on ahead. You can look over the map with the others to see if you can find anything that might help us locate the keys to that gate.” Glimmer Shine replied confidently.

“Alright… You guys be careful.” Glitterball said before turning to Twilight and Sparkplug. She motioned for the two mares to follow her as she walked down the hallway toward the security office. While the trio walked away, the yellow stallion was left with only the human and the orange pegasus.

Now that they had the goal of finding keys in mind, the already huge and unknown resort around them seemed even more massive. They only hoped that the keys would be in a reasonable place that seemed like keys would be stored there, but there was a very strong possibility that they were just laying around in some random location in some random room, and that was assuming they were even still down in the resort.

“Come on guys, we better start looking. We’ll start with this hallway until Glitter can find a better place for us to search.” Glimmer Shine suggested while glancing around at the numerous rooms to either side. Tom and Sunspot shrugged uncomfortably as they realized just how much work was ahead of them. Still, they had to find the keys. It was the only way they could find Applejack, Rarity, and Silver Bell, not to mention finding out how to defeat the ghosts.