//------------------------------// // EXPERT: Horror Games are Like Frozen Custard... // Story: Crystal Prep Gets Bulldozed and Replaced With an "Upscale" Chuck E. Cheese's // by Quillamore //------------------------------// “No way in hell!” Rainbow Dash yelled as Applejack and Pinkie dragged her towards another part of the arcade.  She could see Rarity running towards the same area she was being led towards, and internally begged her friend to save herself. It was already too late for her. “You lost at Skee Ball,” Applejack spoke, “and now you have to do whatever I want. We’ve all had our fun here, and all Pinkie and I want to do now is watch the animatronics show.  That ain’t too much to ask, is it now?” She said those last words with a smug grin on her face, knowing just how much they’d make Dash’s skin crawl.  As much as she tried not to be fazed by the animatronics in the back of the arcade, she’d been avoiding their gaze all night, and Applejack had a lingering suspicion as to why. “I’m not doing it!” screamed Rainbow.  “You know those things freak me out!” “And she finally admits it.  The only question is, how long have you been afraid of them?  Or perhaps I ought to ask…why?” “Yeah, Dashie!” Pinkie chimed in.  “All they do is sing goofy songs and glitch out.  And the glitches are so funny that they’re almost half the show!” Every hair stood on Dash’s multicolored mane as they brought her ever closer to her imminent destruction.  She, alone, knew how dangerous those robots could be.  They were haunted, for Faust’s sake, and possessed with bloodlust!  Or, at least, that was what her new guilty pleasure told her. “Relax,” Pinkie continued.  “Nothing bad happens at Chuck E. Cheese’s unless they serve alcohol.  This one doesn’t, but in California, they did, and it caused two bad bar fights in a row.  So as long as this one doesn’t, you’re safe as gold confetti.” Neither Applejack nor Rainbow Dash bothered asking where California was, just chalking it up to the usual cavalcade of weird things Pinkie seemed to know. “Fine, fine, I admit it!” Rainbow yelled after several random facts.  “It was Five Nights at Freddy’s.  I wasn’t scared of anything before then, but then I marathoned it in one night and…”             Dash shuddered from the memories, even as she’d continued trying it nights and nights after to get a better time. “I totally understand,” said Pinkie Pie.  “I did Five Nights at Freddy’s, too.  It all started when this frozen custard place started putting job ads around the school—“ “I don’t think that’s the same Freddy’s Dash is goin’ on about—“ “—and I thought, hey, cool, free ice cream!  Or frozen custard, but anyway, I got a job at Freddy’s, but then they told me I could only get free custard every five nights!  They wouldn’t even let me buy any until I got everything done on Fridays!  So obviously, I quit after the first five nights.  It…was…horrifying!” By the time Pinkie’s rambling had ended, the gates to hell had opened before Dash, and the demons were cheesy animatronic animals.  Pinkie and Applejack gripped onto her hands as she helplessly watched their dance, knowing they could reach out and devour her at any moment. “Carl, I know you’re in here!” Rainbow Dash could hear Rarity shout as she bolted across the auditorium.  “You know what you have to answer to!” Before that weirdness could go on any longer, however, someone else had already stormed into the room.  A bolt of blue lightning that Dash could vaguely recognize as Sugarcoat sped across the stage, her body outlined with an ominous black aura.  Before anyone could lift a finger to protest, the former Crystal Prep student tore an animatronic figure in two with her bare hands, screaming with an inhuman voice as she transformed. “You did this to me!” she boomed.  “And you will pay for destroying Crystal Prep!” In the one place the seven thought they were safe, a she-demon had made her presence known once more, with one important difference.  Applejack and Pinkie took each other’s hands, ponying up in a stream of light.  Seeking their companions, who had been scattered throughout the arcade.  Staring into the she-demon’s cold, animatronic eyes. Not even noticing that Rainbow could only cower under the table.