//------------------------------// // Evening 2: Plans, Clues, and a Poorly Named Chapter // Story: Five Nights at Freddy's: All for Once, Once for All // by AmpUpHeart //------------------------------// "Are you sure that will work?" Ditzy asked Tripwire. "In theory, yes," Trip replied, "According to my analysis of the chip, it stimulates your brain with neurelectrical, for lack of a better term, signals." "Neura... what?" Mirage asked, "I've never heard you use that term before." "If you break up the word," Ditzy said, deep in thought, "Do you mean electrical activity in the brain?" Trip nodded. Axle gaped in awe at the gray pegasus. "And people call you 'Derpy,'" he said. Mirage gave him a cold stare. "What!?" He said, backing up in self defense, "It's their words, not mine!" Mirage paused. "Touché," she said. Suddenly, Amplitude burst into the room. "Guys," she said, "Don't tell Shmancy Pants or his lover, but l think that Serendipity is facing a contradiction to her name." ......................... "Sera!" Fluer cried, embracing her little one. "O... K..." Serendipity said through a strained voice, "You can let go of me." Fleur, realizing the tightness of her hug, hastily let go. Fancypants walked up with a concerned look on his face. "We were worried," he said, "Did anything happen?" He looked at her more closely. "You're dirty and scratched." Thinking quickly, Glitch whipped up an alibi. "Well.." She said, sheepishly, scratching the back of her head with her hoof, "Sera and I were playing around in Whitetail Woods. We were playing tag when we ended up bumping into a tree. Tesla and Fray already treated and cleaned her scratches." With those words, Fleur and Fancypants breathed a sigh of relief. "We should probably get a shower, though," Serendipity added, before pausing. "Glitch, CAN you shower?" Glitch nodded. "For a deep scrub, I use a special type of soap that Rarity helped Tripwire make. However, for a day like this, regular soap works just fine." With that, the duo headed towards Sera's room. "Fancypants talked about Rarity sometimes. I never knew that she was into technology," Serendipity said. "She's not, really," Glitch said, "She just helped us, along with the other elements, when we last had a major fight with CREATion. It was actually there that I was found, but that would be getting off topic. Tripwire had already designed a special soap for Hazard and the others. It could polish off visible scratches without wearing down the metal too much. However, Rarity insisted on making it smell good. But she actually gave Trip some useful fashion tips that he used to design a different formula for our manes." "Sounds just like her," Sera said, "But I have another question: What happened back there? Like, with your twitching and stuttering?" "My namesake," Glitch said simply. When Serendipity gave her an odd look, Glitch continued. "I wasn't built by Tripwire. I was actually CREATion's first prototype alicorn robot. But I had such faulty programming that they just rejected me. Fray found me and Trip reactivated my systems. He's been able to fix most of my programming over time, but I still act like that if my systems are put under psychological pressure." Serendipity nodded, contemplating what she had just been told. 'Technology is so fascinating,' she thought as she approached her room. .......................... Infra gaped at the sight of the Foxy head as Tesla set it on an open spot on one of the tables in the lab. Infra didn't speak; she just turned her saucer-sized eyes to Tesla, the head, and back to Tesla. "Okay," Spark said, walking up, oblivious to the scene, "Infra, we need to finish calibrating the-" He paused as he saw the head. "Is this some sort of sick joke?" He asked. "Nope," Tesla said, "This is what's left of something that Sera and Glitch experienced today. An old bully that lived with Sera at the orphanage, Prowess Pounce, was wearing this when she attacked them. She left this behind and ran off before we could question her." "Do you think that she was being mind controlled?" Spark asked, peering into the head. "I don't think so," Tesla said, "Fray scanned it already. She didn't use too high of an intensity in case it did... anything, but she didn't find anything. We wanted you guys to look into the matter with this thing." "Uh-huh," Spark said, half-listening. He was gently nudging aside cotton padding, finding wires packed against the felt skin. Infra peered over his shoulder. "This doesn't look like anything CREATion has come up with," Infra said, "Not off the top of my head, at least." "CREATion has probably changed since we've been gone," Spark replied, "We'll need to run some tests on this thing. The wiring is definitely made with CREATion's painstaking attitude. We'll need to look into it." ............................. "Very strange," Tripwire said, "How could the robot have gotten here from Canterlot so quickly?" "And where the buck is the rest of that thing!?" Axle said, "The last thing we need is for a robotic abomination breaking into the lab looking for its head." "You know," Fray, who had just walked in, said, "I sensed some sort of chip in the head. One that received signals that directed it. The body may very well have one of its own." "And do you think that this guy's friends are here?" Axle asked. "Actually, I didn't think about that," Trip said, "But we'll have to divide and conquer if we want to do this all. I'm going to see if I can accompany Ditzy tonight through the chip and try to decipher the signals that she's getting. Have Infra and Spark see if they can hack into the chip in the toy head and track any other suspicious activity around. I'll need some time to decide who'll help me and them, but let them know what I said." 'It would've been nice if everyone was here for my instructions, but it's fine,' he thought. Amplitude was walking out the door, but before she left, Axle started intentionally thinking out loud. "You know," he said, "It was my thinking out loud that led to these plans..." "You know," Amplitude replied, "You're right. It's nice to see you using your head for something useful for once." And with that, she took off. Axle just stood there, proudly, until he actually processed what she said. "Wait!" He said, taking off after her, "AMPLITUDE!!" He yelled. But when he looked down the halls, she was nowhere to be seen. In one of the rooms the hallway led to, Amplitude was laughing so hard that she was sure that she would get hiccups if she could.