//------------------------------// // Stay Calm // Story: Five Nights in Equestria // by RandomHamster33 //------------------------------// Springtrap grinned, taking a step forward and being menacing about it. The strange girls hesitated as he did so. “I don't know about you,” Springtrap continued, looking down at the tarnished weapon in his hands, “but I could really go for something to do.” He met their eyes and tilted his head, ears flopping. “Is that something putting your knife down?” Quiet asked, large eyes staring right back at him. Springtrap laughed. “Oh, no, I have something far different in mind.” He closed the distance between them. “What’re ye goin’ ta do?” Foxy asked, limping behind Golden Freddy as he stood up and did the same. “Well, first,” Goldie started, turning to look at the fox, “I'm going to fix myself. I won't be any use in this form.” With a quick movement, he vanished into smoke, a whirlwind ensuing. His body slowly began to rematerialize, starting with his feet. A few moments later he was back to his original body, all grace and gold. He wiggled his nose and looked at Foxy with black eyes. “Let's go, shall we?” Blood spattered on the floor and there was a scream. The group of ponies fell apart, all going their own direction. The strange animatronic was already gone again, a few bloody footprints telling them which direction he'd raced off in. “Rarity!” Fluttershy yelled, scrambling to her feet to get over to her friend, who lay splayed on the floor. “Rarity?! Can you hear me?!” Rarity coughed, a hand on her side where blood was steadily pumping out. “I-I'm fine. Just a little . . . injury.” They could all see she was straining to stay calm as the rest of the group gathered around. Her face was paling and her chest rose quickly up and down. Her violet locks of hair were in a fan around her head. “Oh, Rares,” Applejack whimpered, emerald eyes shining as she gazed down at her friend. “AJ, don't worry a-about me. I'll b-be fine.” Rarity tried a small smile but it failed and ended up as her desperately trying not to let them see her lip trembling. Fluttershy had already pulled off her suit jacket, pressing it to her unicorn friend’s side. “Pinkie Pie, will you hold this to the wound? . . . Yes, yes, like that.” Fluttershy nodded as Pinkie placed her hands where she'd told her to. “I'm going to go get the first aid kit.” She got to her feet and sprinted off. Fluttershy dug around for the emergency kit she had hidden in the desk in the office. She scrambled desperately to find it, her hands shaking. She'd trained herself to stay calm, to just stay calm. She knew that something bad could have happened to her on the night shift; of course she did. That's why she'd taken all the necessary precautions for an instance much like this. It was also why she hadn't burst into tears upon hearing that that monster had actually murdered one of her best friends like an animal at slaughter. I hope the others don't think less of me because of my reaction. It was true; she really feared that would happen. Usually, in this kind of situation (horrible as it was), she'd begin bawling and go into shock, even have an anxiety attack, maybe. Perhaps it would even trigger her years old PTSD. She didn't have any experience with this besides seeing it in Foxy’s memories. Speaking of Foxy . . . “Oh my goodness! We left Rainbow Dash in Pirate Cove!” Fluttershy gasped, nearly dropping the first aid kit she held in her faintly trembling hands. Before confronting the deranged animatronic, Applejack had hidden their unconscious pegasus friend away with the still shut down Foxy, who they’d very much hoped would wake up soon (both of them, that is). Fluttershy raced down the hall, not wanting to keep Rarity waiting. Slightly out of breath, she sat down again, getting out medical supplies. “Applejack, Rainbow Dash. Pirate Cove,” she huffed quickly. “Shoot! Ah’ll go now!” Applejack declared, getting to her feet. “Be careful!” Fluttershy called, even though Springtrap’s bloody footprints led in the other direction. Shaking her head, the shy pegasus looked back down to her bleeding friend. Rarity had fallen unconscious from the blood loss. She was still breathing, thankfully. Clock’s ticking, Fluttershy . . . “Shouldn't we check on th’ ponies?” Foxy asked, still limping behind Golden Freddy. “You can. I need to find Springtrap before he does anything drastic,” Goldie replied. “But th’ ponies might know where ‘e went.” Golden Freddy paused. “. . . True. Okay, let's go, but quickly.” The two traipsed down the halls, going towards the office from the right door. Goldie stuck his head in, very careful to check before entering in case someone was lurking there, waiting to strike. He didn't see anything dangerous, but he did see something running very swiftly out of the room. He didn't call out, just ducked back behind her doorframe to look to Foxy. “I saw something. It might have been one of the girls. Come on.” He moved quickly forward. Foxy stumbled after him. Pirate Cove was empty. Applejack had checked everywhere, but there was no sign of Foxy or Rainbow Dash. Panicked, she hurried back down the hallways, hoping to find one of them in a different room. Whilst racing towards the showroom, she bumped into something. “What in tarnation—!” AJ huffed as she was bounced backwards off something tall and considerably large. She held her hat down as she toppled, and soon found herself looking up at a pair of very dark eyes. “Ah! Golden Freddy!” Applejack gasped, green eyes wide. She sprang to her feet and immediately delivered a winning kick right to his stomach. The animatronic, completely unprepared for this action, grunted and fell back with a small yelp. “Oi! Watch it!” another voice cried out after a few crashes were heard. Applejack blinked, standing up straighter from her fighting position. She lowered her raised hands slightly, but made sure they were still in fists. “Foxy?” The earth pony raised an eyebrow and tried to get a glimpse behind Golden Freddy, who was pushing himself away from the wall. “Aye, s’me,” came the strained reply. The pirate came into view as he walked forward, his one eye very prominent in the dark. “Thank goodness.” She sighed and wiped her forehead. “And Goldie here is good, too, right?” “Yes, dear, I'm good,” Golden Freddy responded as he brushed himself off. “Oh . . . okay. Sorry ‘bout that; ya can't be too careful, ya know?” AJ asked, standing normally. “How'd ya get back to this?” “Foxy here electrocuted me.” Goldie jerked a thumb towards the mentioned animatronic. Applejack smiled and reached forward, giving Foxy a good natured pat on the shoulder. Her smile was gone, however, as a spark of electricity shocked her. She yanked her hand away with a small wince. “Yow, more like both of ya got some,” the farm pony commented as she shook her hand slightly. “Aye . . . ‘twas a plan not tot’lly thought out,” Foxy agreed. “Well, Ah’m just glad ya’ll are both safe.” She paused. “Speakin’ of safe, neither of ya’ll happen to know where Rainbow Dash is, would ya?” Golden Freddy froze. “Rainbow is gone?” “Yeah . . . she was knocked unconscious, so we put her in Pirate Cove just in case Foxy woke up. We figured he’d be able to, ya know, protect her ‘til then. But when Ah checked the Cove, she wasn't there!” “When I reactivated, she wasn't there,” Foxy said quietly. “Oh, Celestia . . .” Golden Freddy spoke up, “If she's still alive, we've got to find her. Immediately.” Applejack's eyes widened. “If?! If she's still alive!?” “Well, yes. Springtrap is a very demented individual, and if he found Rainbow, he would have killed her.” “Do ya even know that girl? She wouldn't let that . . . monster catch her.” “I don't ‘know her’ know her, but I did spend a short period of time in her head.” Applejack’s eyes became half-lidded. “That's not what Ah mean, and ya know it. Now, tell me, can you track that coward?” Golden Freddy made a small, noncommittal gesture with his hands. “Eh, I can kinda track him. Of course, when we were built, our programming wasn't as good as the newer editions, so if we wanted, we could easily overpower our commands.” “So . . . ?” “. . . If he wanted to, he could leave and not come back.” Rainbow Dash crept forward, making sure to be quiet. She peeped her head over the edge of the roof she was on and kept her eyes on the darkened figure below. Unfortunately, she couldn't hide in the clouds, as they were very high up in the atmosphere. She didn't want to risk being seen by the animatronic just in case he saw her zip up there. Besides, a cloud hovering very close by would surely alert him to her presence. The strange animatronic was limping slightly (an injury caused by a car clipping his hip as he hurried across the street). Rainbow knew what a car was because of Fluttershy, and was fairly proud that she hadn't burst into laughter as she saw it happen. Of course, the animatronic had quickly gotten to his feet and ducked into the shadows before the person in the car could get out and inspect the damage. Dash waited for him to sprint across another street into an alley before leaping across as well, wings out. She was almost at the roof when a sudden breeze caught her feathers and jerked her sideways. Stifling a gasp, Rainbow threw her hands out and latched onto the emergency stairwell of the apartments on the opposite side of the alley. The clanging of the metal grinding together rang out loudly, and from the corner of her eye, Rainbow could see the animatronic’s head snap in her direction. Quick as lightning, the pegasus jumped and soared over the apartment building. She rolled with the impact as she hit the roof, ducking down immediately. She stayed there for several moments, waiting to see if he called her out. As a minute passed with no sounds, she crawled over to the edge and peeked over. The animatronic was continuing his way down the alley. Rainbow sighed in relief and got up, trailing him once again. “Oh no, I hope Dashie’s okay!” Pinkie Pie wailed. Applejack and the two animatronics stood by the door from where they'd just given all the information they knew. The three of them had done a quick search of the pizzeria before reporting back (purposely avoiding the hidden room). “We need to find her, and fast,” Applejack continued. “Well,” Fluttershy began as she stood up, holding her blood soaked hands out in front of her, “if I ever knew Dash, I'd say she probably went after Springtrap. If you didn't see any blood in the rest of the pizzeria, that means he didn't kill her. And if she was . . . killed . . . outside, then surely the police would already be here.” “But what if Springtrap didn't kill her in a bloody way, and just hid her body somewhere?” Pinkie fretted, looking sick. Her puffy hair was drooping like it was deflated. Golden Freddy smiled grimly. “I'm afraid that's very unlikely. Springtrap has always had a . . . thing for knives.” Ugly memories resurfaced and he quickly shoved them away. “Well . . . that's good, Ah guess,” AJ commented after a moment. “But how are we possibly gonna find ‘em now?” “As you should recall, I did say I could kinda track Springtrap.” Golden Freddy shrugged. “It's . . . weird, but I should be able to get his general vicinity.” “Um . . . how? Do you two have a twin-like bond that allows you to sense the other?!” Pinkie Pie guessed in sudden excitement, jumping into Goldie’s face. He pushed her away. “No. It's just . . . hard to explain. Basically, it works like this—” Applejack put a hand over his mouth, “If this is gonna be some sort of scientific explanation, Ah don't wanna listen. We ain't got time. Just do it and let us find ‘em.” Golden Freddy frowned, eyebrows arched. “Well, if you'd listen, my dears, I'd be able to tell you I need to take one of you over.” “What? Why?” “I thought you didn't want an explanation.” Applejack glared at him. “Ah’m gonna smack ya; just tell us why ya need to use one of us.” “Okay then, geez. No need to be rude about it.” Golden Freddy harrumphed and turned his head to the side briefly. “Anyways, you . . . um, people, I guess I should call you, have this little thing called fitting in. It's very helpful in this kind of situation. I mean, a group of people wouldn't be able to sneak out with a robot very easily.” Fluttershy nodded and Applejack rolled her eyes at his very sarcastic explanation. “Okay, that makes sense,” Fluttershy agreed. “Who do you want to . . . take over?” “Oh, it doesn't matter. I honestly don't have a preference; well, I do, but it seriously doesn't matter in this case,” Golden Freddy explained. “Ooh, ooh, you can have me!” Pinkie declared. “Um, not the crazy one, preferably.” Pinkie didn't even seem to mind the insult and just continued smiling. “Okay, let's make this easier: what are ya gonna do when we get to Springtrap?” Applejack asked. “Probably kick his *ss,” Golden Freddy said. “Maybe not completely. We just need to find him first.” “Okay . . . ya can use my body. Just don't do nothin’ stupid.” AJ pointed a finger at him threateningly. “Please, dear. You'll still be in there.” Goldie tapped the side of her head, to which she crinkled her nose and shot him a glare. “If I'm doing something bad, just tell me.” He straightened up. “Anyways, better prepare yourself. This process can get kind of interesting for some people.” “Um, alright.” A torrent of gold suddenly enshrouded Applejack and she didn't even have time to react. The bright smoke entered her eyes and a few moments later, she moved again. “Whoooo, what a rush!” they exclaimed, stumbling slightly. Both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie recoiled, moving away, the former having to be careful not to step on her still unconscious friend settled by her shoes. Black eyes met their gazes. “Hey! I've got a name for this!” Pinkie exclaimed, a hand at her chin as she thought. “Ooh, um, Goldenjack!” She snickered. “That's a golden apple if I ever saw one, right guys?” No response. “Oh, come on!” “Let's just go, alright?” Goldenjack mumbled, rolling their eyes.