//------------------------------// // Evening 4 // Story: Five Nights at Freddy's: Cybersense // by AmpUpHeart //------------------------------// "You know, what are we going to do about Spring Trap?" Amplitude asked that evening. "Luna talked with Celestia. She removed the animatronic and shut down the restaurant," Shining Armor said. Everyone had come back together, and were clustered around the Crystal Heart. "That's good," Mild said, "I don't know what I'd do if I had to watch that place again." "Either way," Tripwire said, "I know where the alicorn is." "Really?" Fray said. "Yeah. Follow me," Trip said. He led them towards the outskirts of the Empire near the ice where King Sombra was locked. "It turns out that the entrance is sealed off by a spell. One that I can't seem to do." "Why not?" Twilight asked. "I'm an expert in technology, not magic. That's where you come in, princess. I believe that you've used this kind of spell here before." Twilight gave a look of shock, but then nodded, understanding. She approached the seemingly bland ice. Her horn began to glow with her usual pink aura, but it quickly turned to black. She fired it at the ice, and a hidden door was opened. "Shining, the guards are close, right?" Cadance asked. "Yes," he replied, "If anything suspicious happens, they'll come at my signal." "All right, girls. We're goin' in," Applejack said. "Hey," Axle said, "We're not all girls." "It doesn't matter," Hazard said, "As long as the point's across, it doesn't matter." "As a matter of fact," Tripwire said, "I think it's best if you guys stay up here. There's no telling what's down there." This resulted in sighs of either relief or disappointment. "Let's go," Amplitude said. They sprinted into the building. .................... "What!? Come on!" Axle yelled. Even Mirage stood in disbelief. The lab was empty. Abandoned. "They must have known that we were coming," Hazard said, "They shut the whole place down." "We don't know that," Fray said, more to herself than anyone else. She started wandering through the corridors of the abandoned building. There, she came across a room full of computers, and a metal filly. She turned on one of the computers, finding a sequence of dates. She clicked on the first one. It began displaying a log or something. 'March 24th, 1991. The prototype is looking successful. It has passed all of the basic maneuverability tests. We're working on the wiring, but this could give us a new edge. Equestria will see what we're trying to do.' 'So it was just a prototype. A figment of their experiment,' Fray thought, a combination of anger and wonder. She clicked on the next date. 'May 24th, 1999. Making the artificial mind is proving to be a challenge. The robot has too much of a free will, and it constantly glitches with its coordination. The problems include twitching eye movement, trouble walking, and poor speech. We're shutting down the project and starting work on prototype 395248 in October.' 'Me,' Fray thought. She hesitantly clicked on the next date. 'December 20th, 2002. Overdrive was wise to scan Blown Fuse's mind.' 'Blown Fuse..' Fray thought, processing the word. She didn't literally look up a picture of the madmare and scan for information-she wanted to refrain from using her tech- but she definitely knew that name. 'Blown Fuse was Tripwire's mother, and the madmare that killed Hazard and the others. She was a cornerstone in CREATion. Of course they would scan her mind.' She kept reading with a combination of anger, fear, and determination. 'We are now able to insert the information into the robot's data. We don't want to repeat history. We're not activating it any time soon. Tests will be calibrated on a regular basis until the prototype is ready for activation. A mirror project is taking place in the Canterlot lab.' 'A mirror project?' Fray thought, 'They must be talking about the other robotic alicorn.' She clicked on the next day, unaware of Spark Chopper coming in. 'May 7th, 2016. Two technicians in the Manehattan branch have gone rogue and destroyed much of their lab's equipment. Sent prototype 395248 after them. We controlled it manually; it's not ready to be fully activated yet. The two ponies escaped, but the experience revealed no abnormalities in 395248's systems. It won't be long before it can be activated. All that's needed is to work out the last glitches in the circuits.' "So you weren't aware of when you attacked us," Spark said, startling Fray. "No, I wasn't," Fray replied, catching her "breath" (the robots have systems that provide a breathing reflex to appear more lifelike). "You know, they waited a long time to activate you compared to the first prototype. I wonder why." "Me too," Fray said, with a look of doubt and sadness. "Why the long face?" Spark asked. "I don't know," Fray replied, "It's just still a lot for me to take in." She decided to skip some of the listed days and clicked on the last day on the list. One that was listed just a few days ago. 'April 20th, 2017. 7:17 An interference in the cyberspace has resulted in a frayed circuit seen in the prototype. The cause of the disturbance is unknown. Will investigate and get it fixed today.' "That must have been when Trip and Hazard went into that cyberspace thing. That's when they first saw you." Spark said. "Unbelievable," Fray whispered, her synthetic heartbeat accelerating. She read on. '7:20 Noises were heard in the wire room. Investigated to find the robot gone. Don't attempt to get it back. The circuit was never repaired. Will commence a shutdown immediately.' "Fray, are you alright?" Spark asked. "No," Fray answered. "We can always sto-" "I have to read this. I can't stop." "Okay..." '7:30 Attempted shutdown failed. A code interfered with the sequence and the tracking signal has been neutralized. Tripwire is supposedly behind this. Contacting Vice Militude.' "Vice Militude?" Spark asked. "The mastermind," Fray replied, "I must know that from my programming." '8:00 Turn attention away from 395248. It's been fully activated and has officially gone rogue. Immediately evacuate any branch directed and provide assistance for prototype 331987 in the Canterlot branch. We've put the prototype into a cyberlock. Activation will occur soon. Set the trigger blast in the evacuated labs. CREATion's future is in critical condition. We need to act soon. We will not fall.' Fray shut down the computer, staring at the black screen. "That was... I don't even know," Spark said after a few minutes. "We have to warn Trip and the others," Fray suddenly said, "The trigger blast could kill them." "Is it strange that I never heard of the trigger blast?" "It's a recently installed system. If any sort of signal activity is detected, the set explosives will detonate." "I'm assuming that you know it from programming?" "Yes, but that's not the point. We have to warn the others!" Fray took off with Spark close behind.