//------------------------------//
// Night Five 
// Story: Five Nights at Twily's 
// by Purple Smart 
//------------------------------//

	The ponies left in the afternoon, much later than they normally did. They seemed dead set on hunting me down. The power ran out and it was pitch dark for a while, and I spent a good hour and a half just holding myself against the door to make sure they don't break in. God, I need to lie down now. Let the cameras recharge.

I'm tired. I'm hungry. I'm weak. I don't think I can last another night like this. I'm already starting to fall asleep. I can't go on like this.

Dammit, Mike, why did you screw up so bad like this?! This was only suppose to last one day, not five nights! You're a screw up, Mike, you've always been. That's why you're stuck in this rut, because you can't fix a simple mistake you caused back in '87. You just had to do it, didn't you, Mike. You could have just walked away that fateful day. walk away, and nothing would have ever happened. You'd be at home, in your nice little bed, reading a nice little book.

Well, Mike, you got a whole ton of books now, that's for sure.

Ugh. I can't move. That Applejack character sure can kick. I feel sore all over the place. My hunger and fatigue from the past four nights aren't helping. Paranoia's being a jerk, too, making me think that I see something squirm under the table.

I checked under the table for probably the fifth time since the ponies left, but there's nothing there. Every time I move, the struggle shoots a dull pain up my spine. I might as well just rest now. It's obvious I won't be able to move past the hallway, never mind trying to get out of this castle.

This castle. Such a fascinating building when I got here, what with everything being somewhat smaller, just the right size for a pony. Heh, it's kind of adorable how this world turned out to be. Everything exactly just like my world, albeit a bit behind in technology, lacking humans, and being highly influenced by magic. Heck, if I can somehow make it out of here alive, I might consider staying in this world for a while. Away from all these creatures, of course.

Well, it's almost time. Right from the start, those four ponies are going to be at my door, banging on it over and over again. That's it, I can't handle the throbbing in my head anymore, I need to lie down. If anyone gets me now, so be it, I don't have the strength to fight back...

...fight back, that's what I should have done back in '87.

Why is my mind so focused on the incident in '87 so much? Is it that I no longer have anything else to do? Living the rest of my life, regretting the single most important decision I have ever made, and almost causing complete and utter destruction? Coming into this world in hopes of regaining my confidence and my reputation, but instead gaining utter defeat.

Now that I think about it, it wouldn't surprise me right now if this whole thing was a hallucination. I'm probably locked up in an insane asylum right now. Probably none of this is real. The ponies aren't real, this castle isn't real, the incident of '87 never happened. I'm just some figment of imagination trapped in some insane person's body, and now I'm forced to live out his twisted fantasies.

Wow. That got dark. I guess that's what happens when my brain can't think straight. It looks like the sun is almost about to go down. Time to prepare for the fifth night. Ha, "prepare". I've done no preparations since day one, and that was merely to set up the cameras. I've done nothing to benefit me. It's just the typical horror story cliché, me hiding out in an isolated room, with nothing to protect me, waiting out the rest of my days until I am caught.

Gah, I'm still thinking about the incident in '87. Well, I got nothing else to do, and all this waiting is making my head hurt more, I guess I might as well explain what happened.

The procedure was simple. Analyze a mysterious substance, if the substance remains unidentified, leave testing and further handling to more experienced researchers. Heck,  you didn't even have to do anything, analyzation was completely optional. I should have just passed it on. Better yet, I should have just labeled it "hazardous" and put it in quarantine. Put an end to all that nonsense. But I had let curiosity get in the way. The substance had no similar traits to anything I have ever seen. If anything, I thought its characteristics were changing. I just had to experiment on it, I just had to make a fool of myself. The substance... it was... I don't know. It hurt my friends, it ruined my life.

Years later, here I am. Forced by my own guilt to search out the last known trace of the unidentified substance and put an end to the mystery. Sadly, it appears that I won't be able to find it now. 

I know I've said this many times already, probably because I can't think straight right now, but I'm tired.

I'm tired.

I'm lost.

I'm scared.

Well, this is it. I'm down to two percent. Just a few more seconds, and all power is lost. I like to think that I was in control of this situation from the very beginning, but let's be honest. I couldn't accomplish my goal. I couldn't keep myself hidden. I can't even man up to five technicolor horses. It was hopeless from the start.

One percent left. It'll be all over soon. Farewell, I've had quite a run.

I give up.





...The power is out. The doors are unlocked. I'm still alive.

This can't be right. I should be dead by now.  Why am I still alive? Why do I still have to put up with this agonizing suspense?

There is a sixth pony.

I think there's a sixth. There's certainly a different voice I hear outside the doors. It seems to be talking to the other ponies, but I can't hear what they're saying. I'm too tired to even try.

Finally, the new voice spoke up a bit.

"Hello? Is everything okay in there?" It said. Huh, funny, she sounds really friendly. Maybe she isn't so bad.

"Fluttershy, are you in there?"

A pony head pops out from behind the couch. "Twilight, is that you? I'm in the-"

I didn't hear the rest of that sentence. I was screaming too loud.