"Next, please!" a chocolate mare called out. Twilight realized with a jolt she was first in line.
"O-Oh hi, uh, do I have to pay, or-"
"Not at all! We get enough with the food and arcade games." the mare stepped out of the way to let the two through.
"We just put a colored band on everyone that comes in together- so that we can make sure they leave together!" she handed both Twilight and String Play pink bands, which they put on. "Enjoy your time!" she called out, turning back around to attend to the other incoming guests.
"Alright, so, do you see your friend?" Twilight asked as they slowly made their way towards the stage. String Play looked around the crowd of kids, then shook their head.
"Uh-uh." they replied.
"You... Do remember what she looks like, right?"
"Yeah, I do! She's super pale, and- and... She's got red hair!" they emphasized the hair with a swoosh of their hooves over their head. "You can't miss her!"
"Alright- that's wonderful. Now I can look for her too," the purple mare nodded, "do you know where she likes to play? I mean, does she prefer the robots or the games?"
"Oh-uh-well, uh... Um..." String Play thought about how to say something, or maybe they were trying to remember things again. "We... Didn't use to go to a place like this. It was... There were only two actors. And then there was another place, but it was kind of... I don't... I think it just wasn't as fun. It wasn't as happy as the two actors place."
"The two actors place- you mean there were other pizzeria's than this one? With different characters?"
"I think so, sort of! B-But I think remember going here... I think. Yeah. It was here. I... Didn't go for long? Maybe I went back in time then." they responded thoughtfully, happy with their answer.
"Hmm, that would connect the lines... So do you remember going to the party? Or when it was exactly?"
"Oh, uh, I don't remember actually going... But I did go to a party, or I had a party... It's really messy. Her birthday is the second of September! But... Because of school we had it on Nightmare Night."
"You can really remember your friend's information, but not your own, huh..." Twilight rolled the incoming info around in her head as she wrote it down in the notepad. String Play seemed to have a good knowledge about their friend, but even they themselves couldn't remember their own name. Maybe they were such close friends that it just worked that way, but Twilight had a few doubts about it being as simple as that.
"Oh! What's your friend's name?" she asked, realizing she'd never gotten it.
"It's Cherry Doll! I just call her Liz though. She... I think she liked... Uh- Foxy!" they answered excitedly and bounded towards the arcade machines. To the left was an opening with open curtains that read "Foxy's Pirate Cove", and inside Twilight could see foals of all shapes and sizes surrounding something. As she and String Play got closer she observed exactly what it was- a pile of tangled wires, nuts and bolts, and distorted joints with no sensible connection. The only recognizable features was that of the hybrid dog ponies face- white with pastel pink cheeks and lips and fluttery eyelashes. One of her eyes were missing- Twilight looked over to a colt who'd gotten a hold of it and was tossing it like a ball. She winced.
"U-Uh, Liz? Liz!" String Play shouted. No one paid her any mind. Noticing how small String Play was (they were a few inches under the average height of the foals in the room), Twilight enveloped her in her magic and rose them above the children.
"See her?" she asked as she looked herself. They shook their head, "nope."
"We'll go check in the dining area. Was she here today, er, that day- you know what I mean." the unicorn attempted to explain, but she knew it would only complicate things further. String Play nodded.
"Yep. We both come to the pizza place every day!"
"Every... Single day?"
"Yep!"
"That's... Okay." Twilight jotted it down in the notepad and joined the foal in the larger room again. Cherry Doll's father did work here apparently, after all. Did String Play's...? She wrote that down, too.
The two spent a good fifteen minutes scouring the place for Cherry Doll, with no reward. She didn't seem to be anywhere- Twilight herself couldn't see any particularly pale ponies- at least not any with flashy red hair. She had the thought that she might be in the hallways, but a sign in front read 'RESERVED FOR PARTIES' so she didn't dare ask. If Cherry Doll's father worked here though, he had to be around somewhere...
"Hey'a! Wanna play?" a blue colt ran up to String Play, his curly hair bouncing as he rapidly approached them. They recoiled in surprise and turned around to look at him- he saw their eyes and skidded to a halt.
"...Wow. Guys, come here!" he waved his other friends over. Oh no. A sudden familiar fear washed over String Play- they'd been through this before. Don't mock me. Four other ponies came running up and surrounded her. Twilight got no sense of hostility from them, so she didn't intervene.
"Whoa!" the brown one, stockier and taller than the rest gaped at string Play. Why were they so suddenly engulfed in their eyes? Was their something in them?
"You look... Awesome!" a reddish oak toned one spoke up. He was the furriest, second tallest, and definitely a mix between bat and earth pony. He had a fanged smile that poked out of his mouth. The phrase shocked the black and white foal in front of them. Awesome? That was surely... An unexpected response.
"Th...Thanks?" they stuttered, rubbing a hoof on their leg shyly.
"Oh- right! We're playing a game, and you didn't look busy- wanna play with us?" the blue one continued.
"Um," they looked up at Twilight, who nodded and winked, and then back to the group, "o-okay."
"Great! Lemme explain it to ya," the youngest and smallest one piped up. She was a creamy yellow pegasus with curly golden hair. "We're pretending to be the animaltronics-"
"Animatronics" the brown one corrected.
"Hmph- the animetronics, and we've gotta catch this boy!" she wrapped a hoof around a slightly taller colt's neck. He was a pale blue unicorn with dark blue hair- similar to but not quite like the other blue colt. He smiled sheepishly, slinking back away from the filly.
"See, I'm Chica, Bronze Song is- oh wait, this is Bronze Song, Lyric Muse, Ruby Risk-"
The bat pony was Ruby Risk, the stocky chocolate colt Bronze Song, the first blue colt Lyric Muse, the pegasus filly herself was Bright Light- and the small blue foal was Badge Gleam.
"And you are...?" she prompted the black foal.
"Oh! Uh, my name's... Uh... Ch..." they stammered. They knew their name started with a C, but... "I'm String Play."
"String Play? That reminds me... Oh! You look just like the Puppet!! Guys! We have a puppet! Do you mind playing the Puppet?" Bright Light asked quickly.
"...Who?" they asked meekly. It sounded familiar, but puppets existed everywhere, so of course the word would be recognizable.
"Let me show you," the oldest one chipped in, pushing Bright Light out of the way and leading String Play across the room. There was a large doorway that Twilight and they had overlooked- it wasn't too recognizable though. Inside was a counter stocked full of plushies of the characters- including what looked like older versions (every character here had rosy cheeks, some of the plushies didn't)
A giant box sat at the end of the room, tucked into the corner the counter made as it connected into the wall. It was closed right now, but a metal pipe was protruding out of the blue and pink present. All around were posters of the other animatronics- none of the one in the box surprisingly.
"I guess it went back in. It's popular and all, but it can't give gifts to everyone. It runs out sometimes," the brown colt explained. He trotted up and tapped the box with his hoof. Nothing.
"Maybe it's just tired?" Bright Light suggested.
"C'mon now," Bronze Song replied passively, "you know it's just a puppet."
"A-And?! It might get lonely and sad- we should give it something as a gift!" the idea was in her head now, and an exasperated expression quickly spread across Bronze's face.
"No, look- it goes through these cycles where the box has to be restocked so it can give out more gifts, remember? Cher-" before he could finish his sentence, the present box lids blew open. Everyone stopped and stepped back to witness the event, forgetting about the argument.
A nearly flat mask inched out of the box smoothly, slowly. There were black holes for eyes, squinted and cunning, and the same rosy cheeks thrown onto its plastic face. A long, disturbing smile ran from cheek to cheek indefinitely. It looked around the group of ponies, and without moving its horrid mouth it spoke in an soft tone that echoed. "Do we have more children to give gifts to today? What a wonderful surprise!" it said cheerfully. It had a male voice and short fake curly black hair to match its plush flesh. String Play noticed the metal beam from the box was attached to its neck.
Then it focused on her, locking eyes with each other (or lack thereof, in the puppet's case) and tilted its head.
"My, my! You're a pretty one!" it stated, and then made a clicking sound and 'perked' up. "Oh! I'm certain I have a gift here for all of you little dearies." it fell rather messily back into the box as it 'searched' for gifts.
Bronze Song gave them all a confused reaction. String Play was simply frozen. They didn't really know what they looked like (having hardly a memory of themselves), but the puppet themselves spoke such a familiarity to them that it scared them. They remembered their cutie mark- maybe they spent a lot of time with the puppet? Maybe there was one at one of the other places they and Cherry Doll went to. Maybe... They actually liked dolls? No- they strictly remembered not being very happy about dolls in general- except one or two they got from... It went blurry again.
"Wow, String Play looks just like them!" Lyric Ruse whispered to Bright Light, who nodded. He seemed to shake a bit around the puppet however.
"Well obviously, just look at he- eh, them, uh..." she replied, happy with her observation, and then stumbled over her sentence.
"Um, String Play?" she walked up to them and asked, "You're a girl, right?"
"Uh, yeah, I think so." they responded seriously. Bright Light was going to laugh, but the tone in their voice made it seem like they weren't joking.
"Oh. Uh... Cool! You and me are the only ones then," she wrapped a wing around her for a second before taking them back as the puppet pony flashed back out of the box with a bunch of small boxes in its hooves. It struggled to hold them all in its hooves.
"My, My! I seem have a few gifts left!" it recited some piece of a long script, and awaited one of the foals. Bronze Song hesitantly walked up to it first, eyeing it cautiously the whole time. The puppet twisted its head to look down at them.
"Oh, such a pretty pony! I have just the gift for you," it nosed out one of the boxes and Bronze Song caught it as it fell.
"Oops! I suppose I'm a bit clumsy now, hehe," it laughed mechanically, and when Bright Light and Lyric Muse trotted up (the blue one hesitantly), "here's a gift for you, one for you," the boxes landed in their hooves. String Play partially knew it was fake and reading off of prerecorded dialogue, but it sounded so... Natural.
"Here's your gift, yours, and... One for you, dearie." it plopped the remaining gifts into Ruby Risk, Badge Gleam, and finally, String Play's hooves. She eyed the box warily, but ultimately decided it couldn't be harmful. She loved this place after all!
Everyone focused on opening their boxes. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, String Play- the puppet has this sort of color code it uses when picking out gifts, so don't be surprised if you get something similar to you. I got a Toy Freddy pin yesterday." Bronze Song explained. He must have noticed her silence.
"Oh cool! I got one of Chica's feathers!" Bright Light cried gleefully as she tucked it behind her ear immediately. Bronze Song sighed, probably considering explaining to her somepony would just pluck a few of their own, but decided against it. Everyone got something- Ruby Risk an eyepatch, Bronze Song a brown bow tie, Lyric Muse a little hair clip with stars on it, and Badge Gleam a little flashlight. They were all odd things- the employees probably just stuffed random junk in there, figuring the kids would be none the wiser.
String Play opened their box slowly, subtly apprehensive. They almost thought they might find a puppet inside, but when they looked in there was nothing. Nothing but a green hoof band, not unlike the pink one she wore now.
"Uh... Did I get the right gift?" she asked, half to herself. Ruby and Bronze trotted over and looked inside.
"That's uh... Weird," the red bat pony commented. The other pony agreed. "Look, you can uh, have my eyepatch if you want- I got a treasure map yesterday-"
"O-Oh, no, it's fine! I didn't really even expect to get a gift today- I'll just slip it on and we can go play!" she waved away the offer- Foxy had never been her favorite anyways. She couldn't remember who had though... But that would come later. She may have had a blotchy memory to solve, but she was still a little kid and didn't have the capacity to shove off the tease of a game.
"So, what are we playing?" she asked as she met up with the group. Badge Gleam spoke up this time.
"R-Right! So e-everyone is a- I mean- pretends to be an animatronic, right? And y-you gotta like, catch me! B-But you can't cheat," he gave a daring glance at Bright Light, who snickered, "and e-everyone is a different animatronic. Like, it's probably o-obvious but- but Bright is Toy Chica, Bronze is Freddy, and- Bright already explained this..."
"It's fine! I pretty much forgot by now, I don't think she finished anyways."
"Oh, o-okay! Well, Ruby insists on being Foxy (but he's really Mangle), and Lyric is Toy Bonnie. I-I have to be the night guard and uh, keep you guys away. Um, if I look at you- er- shine this flashlight now, I guess, then you have to go back where y-you started." he managed to stammer out the explanation. "Since you look like the puppet, y-you could, uh, yeah..." he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
String Play could sense the tension building and decided to fight it.
"Hey, that sounds cool! So... I'll just, sit here, and... I don't know, after a while just, try to get you?" she sat back on her haunches and Badge nodded nervously.
"P-Pretty much." he rubbed the back of his neck.
"You better run, Nightguard!" Lyric piped up as he, Bright, and Bronze all headed out of the prize corner and over to their respective animatronics.
"mm, good luck String Play." Ruby Risk bid her goodbye as he headed left outside the door and took his position, eye patch on and ready to go. String Play let herself be immersed in the game as much as possible. The soft melodic tune that wafted around the Prize Corner reached the black and white filly's ears for the first time and she let herself be distracted by it. This would be at least an okay day, she knew, and if she was lucky she would catch Cherry Doll here too.