//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: The Fourth Night 
// Story: Pinkie's Fun Palace: a MLP x FNAF Story 
// by EnvironmentalText850 
//------------------------------//

One year earlier

The time was 18:56 PM, and the day was the 28th of August. Rainbow Dash had returned to Pinkie's Fun Palace to help her friends clean up the place. She had left to bring Scootaloo back to her home, and had gotten distracted on her way back. She hoped that she wasn't too late to help her friends. As she made her way from the Entrance to the Main Party Room, she noticed how none of her friends appeared to be there. "Uhhh... Twilight? Fluttershy? Applejack? Where are you guys?", she asked, confused. As she said this however, Pinkie Pie appeared from the hallway that led to the Kitchen.

"Ummm... hey there Dash! Where were you?", Pinkie asked. "I went to bring Scootaloo back to her house.", Dash replied. "Did no pony tell you about that?"

"Uhhh... No, haha, well, not that i remember... A-anyway, did anything happen on the way there?". Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at this, she had told Twilight and the others that she'd be out to deliver Scootaloo back home, she thought at least one of them would inform Pinkie about that, but apperently not...

"Well... Not really, but I did meet up with Ditzy on my way back here.", she said. "She was going home from her job, and she told me she recently got engaged to that Doctor guy."

This caught Pinkie completely off guard. "R-really?! That's great to hear! Do you know when the wedding will be?". "She said they haven't decided yet, but maybe some time next month." Dash replied, "By the way, where is everypony?"

"Oh... T-they're in the Storage Room, looking at my project... Do you want to see it too?", Pinkie said. Mentally however, she was begging that Dash would say "No". "Of course!", Dash replied, "Why wouldn't I want to see what my bestest friend has made?". Pinkie wasn't even a little bit thrilled about this. But then she remembered her idea. Maybe... Just maybe, it could work.

"Ummm... G-great! Follow me, Dash!", Pinkie said. As the two mares entered the Kitchen Hallway, they turned to the right just before reaching the Kitchen doors, to enter the Staff Only Hallway. Pinkie was silently praying that her idea would work. Maybe Dash wouldn't have to die...

Pinkie opened the door to the Storage Room. "You go in first...", she said to Rainbow Dash. "Ummm... Okay, but... why? And why is it so dark in there?", she replied, slightly confused.

"Oh! Ummm... Don't worry about it, just go in!", Pinkie said nervously. "Okay...", said Rainbow Dash, entering the dark Storage Room. After she entered, Pinkie Pie went in, and closed the door behind her.

"Uh... Pinkie? Could you please turn on the lights?", Rainbow Dash asked. "I can't see a thi-". Before she could finish, the lights turned on, and what Dash saw was something that rocked her to her core. She saw all of their best friends. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Twilight, all dead, several wounds across their mutilated bodies. P-P-Pinkie... Wh-what the hay? WHAT IN CELESTIA'S NAME IS ALL THIS?! WHO DID THIS?!"

"I did.", a voice Dash didn't recognize said. Suddenly she felt something lunge at her, it was Pinkie Pie, but... her eyes were wrong. They were completely purple, and Dash could feel just by looking at them that whoever this was, they were evil. Very evil. Dash tried to punch "Pinkie", only to realize... she couldn't move. It was like she was paralyzed, and she could only move her head. "I froze you in place so you wouldn't be able to fight back.", "Pinkie" said. "Besides... You wouldn't want to hurt your friend, Pinkie, while I'm in her body, would you?"

"In... her body...? Who are you?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?!", Dash blurted out, enraged. "Oh... looking at you, you remind me so much of him...", he said, dreamily, "Oh how I hate that stupid brat! And now... It will be like I'm killing him with my own hands... Something i never got the chance to do..."

"What... What are you talking about?! ANSWER ME, DAMMIT!", Rainbow Dash screamed, "JUST WHO THE BUCK ARE YOU?!"

"Why should i tell you who i am...", he said, taking a bloodied knife from behind Pinkie's mane. "... WHEN I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!", he screamed as he raised the knife, ready to stab her.

Dash flinched before closing her eyes, she'd rather have her last sight be nothing than her now possessed friend killing her. She braced for the pain, only to realize she felt... Nothing? Opening her eyes, she saw that the hoof that "Pinkie" was using to grab the knife was trembling, almost like he was shivering. "W-what?! What is this?!", he said, confused. "No...", Pinkie said, now sounding like herself again, "I WON'T LET YOU HURT HER!"

As she said this, her left eye returned to normal. She was gaining back control. "You... You stay out of this! LET GO OF ME!", he said, enraged. "NO! I WON'T!", Pinkie yelled, "YOU ALREADY KILLED MY OTHER FRIENDS, I WON'T LET YOU KILL HER!". "Pinkie...", Rainbow Dash said, surprised at this turn of events.

"Oh... So that's how we're doing this, huh?", he said, anger seeping from his words. "Fine then... HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS?", suddenly, a shadowy arm sprouted from Pinkie's right side, punching her in her gut. "Oomph!", she blurted out, losing control of her hoof.

As soon as he was in control again, he slashed at Dash's face, leaving a massive wound on it, and injuring her eyes. "AAAAARGH!!!", she yelled, in pain. "Oh... Don't worry", he said, reassuringly, "What i'm going to do now will be a LOT more painful.... "NO! STOP!", Pinkie said, but it was too late. He started to stab Rainbow Dash in the torso, over, and over, and over again, all while laughing maniacally. "HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT YOU BRAT?!", he yellled out, while continuing his frenzied attack. "NO! PLEASE! STOP THIS!", Pinkie pleaded, but he kept going, until he was satisfied. When he was done, Dash's torso was littered with wounds all over it. She had died when the knife had pierced her heart for the third time.

As soon as he was done, he relinquished control back to Pinkie, who immediatly started to cry. Her friends were all dead, all by her hooves. She exited the Storage Room, and ran for the Main Party Room. She needed to call somepony, anypony to help her. But before she could even reach the telephones, he appeared once more, this time right in front of her. He quickly froze her in place, and walked towards her. "S-stay away from me! You monster!", Pinkie demanded, trying to free herself. "No.", he said, "I will not let you tell about what happened here to anyone.". "And what if i do?", Pinkie asked. "Then i'll kill you."

"You wouldn't dare...", she said, without thinking. As soon as she finished saying that however, he grabbed Pinkie by the throat, and started to squeeze. "Wouldn't dare?! WOULDN'T DARE?! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING TO?! I HAVE KILLED YOUR FRIENDS, AND I CAN KILL YOU TOO. IN FACT, I HAVE KILLED MULTIPLE TIMES BEFORE, AND I WOULD HAVE CONTINUED TO DO SO, IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR THAT BRAT AND THAT BASTARD'S TRAP! IF IT WASN'T FOR THEM, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN STUCK IN THAT HELLHOLE FOR GOD KNOWS HOW LONG!". Pinkie was regretting having said that. He was strangling her, and she was running out of breath. Then, he released her from his grip, throwing her on the floor.

"...But now, I am free, and it's not some PINK, DUMB, HORSE that's going to ruin my plans! Besides, what would you even say? "Oh, i was possessed by an evil spirit, and he forced me to kill my friends!"  Do you realize how unbelievable that sounds? They're gonna throw you in jail for the rest of your life! And you don't want that to happen... do you?". "N-No...", Pinkie said, he throat still hurt fom his grip. "Then do as i say...".

He gave Pinkie a set of instructions. "Destroy the evidence, and never tell anypony the truth". She first went to the Storage Room, and gathered all her friends' remains. While she did that however, she noticed that some of them had something missing. Twilight and Rarity's horns were broken, with the other halves nowhere to be found, Applejack's hat was gone, part of Rainbow Dash's mane was seemingly torn off, and she couldn't tell if somethig had been removed from Fluttershy. She wondered what happened to them while she was gone, but she did not say it out loud, instead keeping it to herself. She did not want to anger him further.

She dragged her friends bodies outside, one by one, and then she lit them on fire. And once the fire was out, she buried their bones. After that she went to the Security Office, and then he forged security footage to make it seem as if her friends had all left after cleaning up the place, while she went to her office to do paperwork. The footage was so real that she wished that this was what happened instead. She then cleaned the floors, the knife, and then herself. By 23:00 PM, all traces of the crime were gone. 

Pinkie couldn't sleep that night. Neither the night after, or the night after. When the searches for the missing mares began, she was the first one to be interviewed, and he forced her to spread this false narrative that her friends just went missing. There wasn't a single day where she didn't feel guilty, but she couldn't risk telling the truth in fear that he would kill her. Only her and he knew the truth.

But now, one year later, a certain Independant Investigator was about to put a wrench in his plans...

In the present

September 4th, 08:37 AM

Grape woke up screaming from his dream. It had been the same dream from the previous nights, but now he could remember everything about it. He was in a black void, surrounded by ghostly apparitions of the five missing mares, all of them staring at him with hatred in their pitch-black eyes. Suddenly, they lunged at him, all screeching, as flashes of their pained faces flashed in front of him. It was so frightening, that it forced him to wake up. "*Huff* *Puff* What the hay was that?!", Grape asked himself. As he ate his breakfast, he continued to think about it, and eventually, he realized something. "Wait... What if the reason i'm having these dreams has to do with them thinking i'm their murderer?"

He didn't know if that was true or not, but it did make some amount of sense. Maybe they were tormenting them in his sleep because they didn't realize he was innocent. "I need to find a way to communicate to them that i'm not the killer... But how?". Then, he remembered something, in the movies he watched that involved ghosts, the characters would usually try to speak to the ghosts through a strange, radio like device. He didn't remember what it was called, but he did remember it had "Spirit" in it's name. Maybe if he had something similar, he could use it to tell them he was innocent, and that he wanted to help. "That's it!", he said, finishing his coffee. "Maybe if i had one of those "Spirit thingamajigs", Then i could tell them that i want to help! But where would i find such a thing?". Turns out, he didn't have to wonder for long.

As he went about his day, wondering how to talk with the ghosts of the missing mares, Grape saw a store that he had passed by multiple times, but never really bothered to go in. After all, at the time, he thought ghosts weren't real, so why would he ever need to go there? Well, he knew better now... So he decided to enter it. 

The name of the store was "Spooky Scary's Paranormal Gadgets". As soon as he entered, he was greeted by an odd sight, shelves upon shelves of strange devices, some of which looked like the came straight from a movie set. He looked at one of them, a strange device with a knob to adjust frequencies, simply labeled "EMF Reader". "What is this...?", Grape said to himself. "That, my friend, is an EMF Reader, one of the most well known tools in the art of ghost hunting.", a voice he didn't recognize said.

Looking at the counter, he saw a pony behind it, but he was one of the most unusual ponies Grape had ever seen. His coat was completely white, with black markings all over his body that made him kinda look like a skeleton. "Oh sorry!", he said, "Didn't mean to scare ya, haha! I'm Spooky Scary, i'm a paranormal investigator, and the owner of this store. What's your name?". "Ummm... I'm Guarding Grape, Independant Investigator...", Grape said, a bit weirded out by Spooky's appearence. "Ah, a fellow investigator i see! Well then Mr. Grape, why are you here today? Can i help ya with something?", Spooky asked. "Oh! I'm looking for a device that kinda looks like a radio.", Grape said, approaching the counter. "I've seen it being used to talk to ghosts in movies, but i don't remember what it's called."

"Ah! The Spirit Box!", Spooky replied, "Well you're in luck! I have plenty of them!". He grabbed a small box with an image of the device. "This is the most reliable version of this device there is, the PON-SB7T. It can scan through multiple radio frequencies at once, allowing for the most precise detection of EVPs, or Electric Voice Phenomena, there is!"

"Oh.", Grape said, only understanding half of what those words meant. "Alright then, I'll take one.". "Alright then! That'll be 15 bits, please.", Spooky replied. "Only 15?", Grape asked, a bit confused. "I thought it'd be more expensive than that."

Well, when you're the only pony that sells paranormal stuff in town, you don't really have much competition.", Spooky replied.

Grape paid for the device and thanked Spooky for it. "You know spook, uhhh... can i call you that?", Grape asked. "Sure! I don't mind!", he replied. "You may look kinda unnerving at first glance, but you seem like a nice guy.", he told Spooky, who smiled. "Why, thank you! You seem like a pretty swell guy too!" he replied. "Well i'll be going now, see ya!", Grape said. "Bye! Feel free to come back whenever! It gets pretty boring in here after a while!", Spooky said.

As Grape exited the store, he made his way back to his home, he would read the instructions of the device, and then test it out that very night.

11:55 PM

Grape arrived at Pinkie's Fun Palace earlier than usual. He wanted to test out the Spirit Box, which he had hidden under his hat. Before that, however, he grabbed the flashlight, turned on the monitor, and listened to the message Pinkie had left on the phone. "You have: 1 new message *Beeeeeep*"

"Hello? Hi it's me, Pinkie! I'm gonna be straight to the point this time. I'm leaving this message to inform you of the Twilight Animatronic... I was looking through previous guards' complaints, and one of the more consistent ones was that she- i mean... it... doesn't seem to respond to the audio, or even the flashlight. In the situation where she reaches your office, ummm... try to stay out of it's sight. Oh! Speaking of Twilight, did you know she helped me design the Animatronic's Endoskeletons? Or that she created a mechanism that allows the Animatronic based on me to be worn as a suit?". That part intrigued Grape. What did she mean by that? An Animatronic that could be used like a suit? That was new. "Yeah, Twi always was a bit of a genius... before she... dissapeared... A-anyway! That's all for today! See ya!" *Beeeeeeeeep*

After listening to the message, Grape took out the Spirit Box from under his hat, and turned it on. As soon as he did, garbled static started to come out of it. "Alright time to see if i remember the instructions correctly...", Grape thought to himself, before bringing the Spirit Box closer to his face, and speaking into it. "Hello? Is anyone there?", he asked.

Suddenly, a voice came through the device's speaker. "Yes...", it said. Grape could tell that it was Twilight's voice, as it didn't sound like any of the other Animatronics he'd seen up to this point. "Oh by Celestia! It works!", Grape thought before speaking into the device again. "Ummm... Hello, Twilight... I assume that's who you are... I'm Guarding Grape and-", before he could finish, Twilight spoke again. "Guarding Grape...? Well... It's good to finally have a name... to pin on the one that killed us..."

"What?! No! I'm not the-", before Grape could finish his sentence, Twilight cut him off

"Did you hear that, girls... his name is Guarding Grape..."

Suddenly the voices of the other missing mares came over the speaker. Grape recognized it as the voices of the Animatronics, once again confirming his theory.

"So that's what yer called...", Applejack said, "Ugh... Why does such an awful pony... have such a beautiful name...?", Rarity asked herself, "Why did you do this... to us...?, Fluttershy asked, "Where's Pinkie...? What did you do to her...?!", Rainbow Dash asked, demanding answers.

"No! Listen to me! I'm not the Murderer! I-I don't even know who the Murderer is!", Grape said, trying to explain himself. They didn't seem to believe him.

"Quit playing dumb...!", Dash said, clearly angry. "We know you killed us... And you probably killed Pinkie too...!

"N-no, i swear! I'm not the one that killed you five! You have to believe me!", Grape said, but they wouldn't listen.

"Oh... would you look at the time...", Twilight said, "It's almost 12 AM... I hope you are ready... We are coming for you... MURDERER... MURDERER... MURDERER...".

As soon as she stopped speaking, the Spirit Box stopped working. "W-what?! What's going on?! Did it break?!", Grape thought. He opened the back compartment of the device, discovering that the batteries had inexplicably burst. "What?! But i put those batteries only three hours ago!", he thought to himself. But he didn't have time to worry about that. 12 AM had arrived.

Quickly making his way his way to the monitor, he saw as Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all left the stage. He then switched cameras to the Maintenance Room, the music was still playing, but it was close to stopping. As soon as it did, he pressed play on the second remote before Rarity could even start crying. When Twilight said that they were coming for him, she was serious.

The night was full of close calls. One moment, Grape had to lure Fluttershy away, only to have to scare Rainbow Dash away immediatly after. And in another moment, he had to deal with Rarity, barely being able to prevent Applejack from reaching the Office. They were relentless. But then, the moment Grape was dreading for happened. Twilight came out from behind the stage curtains. As soon as she stepped out, she looked at the camera, which to Grape meant one thing. She knew he was there. When she left the camera that faced the stage, Grape tried to lure her away with the audio, but then remembered that Pinkie had said that the audio didn't affect her. "I'm Doomed!", Grape thought, "Pinkie said the audio and lights didn't work on her, what am I gonna do?!"

Then, he remembered something Pinkie said. "...try to stay out of it's sight...". Suddenly, an idea came to mind. He quickly hid inside the left locker, as it had no shelves, and prayed that she wouldn't find him. Then, Twilight came into the office. Grape saw through the rectangular openings of the locker as Twilight started to look for him. He held his breath, hoping she'd go away quickly.

"Where... Are you... Murderer...?", Twilight said, before leaving the Office. After she left, Grape opened the door, and quickly looked at the Maintenance Room camera. The music had stopped again, and Rarity was crying. Grape quickly pressed play on the second remote to restart the song, causing her to calm down. After that she scared off Rainbow Dash using his flashlight.

The rest of the night went by, and after one more encounter with Twilight, 6 AM hit, and the haunted Animatronics went back to the stage. Grape was relieved, this was the hardest night yet, so how bad could the next one be, he wondered.

Reaching the Entrance, he was met with Pinkie Pie, who looked nervous. "Hey uhhh... Pinkie? Are you ok?", Grape asked. "Huh? Oh... It's nothing, really."

"Well, if you say so...", he said, "I'll be going now, see you later!"

"See ya...", Pinkie said. "Oh, dang it Pinkie!", she thought to herself, "Now how are you going to tell him? No, Pinkie, don't think that! You can tell him tonight, you just need to be confident, maybe he'll believe you if you tell him the truth."

It seems it was about time Pinkie blew his whole scheme out of the water. She was done with him, and it was time she told someone what actually happened that day...