Five nights at Sombra's

by Fossil-Dragon-Messiah

Night Two

The hours seemed to last an eternity. With no source of natural light, the only way the five fearful ponies could tell the time was with the artificial time keeping apparatus that littered the security office. The clock in the corner of the camera feed stated that the hour was now midnight; the time that they all dreaded. Sure enough, the camera feed from the main party room showed Philly the Phoenix prowling around the tables, dragging her sharp talons over the table tops and causing a terrible din as she stalked the pizzeria in search of flesh.

Over the course of the day, Bon Bon had finally managed to locate her marefriend, and she and Lyra had taken to hiding in a broom closet just down the hallway from the office. Fortunately for them, the animatronics hadn’t searched that corridor for several hours, and they had stumbled across one of Twilight’s care packages.

Fluttershy was also relieved to find that all the fillies and colts that remained unharmed by the rampaging robots had formed a group, and had barricaded themselves inside the arcade. The arcade was spacious, with plenty of hiding places available to the young ponies if the need arose, and only had one way in or out – which was now blocked with a very impressive pile of furniture. Fluttershy had relayed a message to Twilight, which prompted the purple Alicorn to teleport a food hamper to the arcade soon after.

Dinky had managed to gain tabs on three of the four animatronics. Strangely, Freddy Fazgriffon tended to stand guard on the stage in the part room, like some form of grizzly sentry on watch at Canterlot Castle. He never seemed to move from this position. It was like he was biding his time. Nopony dared to dwell on such a thought just at the present moment. Philly the Phoenix seemed to like gravitating toward the kitchen. Every time she found herself inside the mess room, she’d bang and crash around with the pots and pans for a while before giving up her search and wandering off to Celestia-knows-where-next. Fáfnir the Dragon, by far, was the most predictable. He would return to the Horse Cavern; so named after the Horse mythology from which his name originated. If ever he ventured out of his home, he would make a beeline straight to the office to try and force his way in.

The one character they couldn’t seem to find was Busby, the purple rabbit. None of the cameras were picking him up, and Dinky hadn’t managed to get any of the other surveillance cams online. It was as if he had simply vanished of the face of Equestria. Knowing there was an AWOL robot that wanted to rip their insides out through their noses struck the fear of Tirek into the helpless fillies, leaving Fluttershy to be the brave one. Unfortunately, she wasn’t faring much better.

Dinky had resigned herself to snuggling into the buttery Pegasus’ lap, seeking as much comfort as she could while she desperately willed herself to catch a few moments of precious sleep. The ponies had barely rested, managing only to catch a few short, spastic, rests whenever they dared. Fluttershy simply allowed the terrified unicorn to bury herself in her fur and wings. Her maternal instincts took over as she attempted to soothe Dinky and the other fillies through the Tartarus in which they found themselves. Sweetie Belle tucked herself underneath Apple Bloom’s fetlocks, nuzzling her chin as she coaxed the Earth pony to spoon her. Scootaloo had found a few notepads and, using one of her feathers as a quill and a carton of grape juice as ink, had started writing her last will and testament, much to the dismay of her fellows.

The sudden sound of clanging above them broke the group out of their individual reveries and Dinky rushed back to the computer monitor to find the source of the noise on the camera feeds. Flicking through the cams with spastic hooves, the unicorn filly finally located their missing assailant… Busby was crawling through the ventilation shafts. The grey filly nearly squealed, if it weren’t for Fluttershy’s quick reactions to silence her with a hoof and cradling her protectively against her breast as if she were a baby bunny being attacked by a Timberwolf. Apple Bloom leapt to her hooves, and jumped at the light switch, plunging the security office into completely darkness. On the security monitor, Busby’s ventilation shaft was plunged into darkness and the camera automatically switched to night vision. Busby paused, unmoving from his position as his artificial intelligence attempted to comprehend the situation in which it found itself. It attempted to pinpoint its location in relation to the last point of reference Busby’s built-in GPS system could refer to. Fortunately for the ponies, the metal vent tunnels interfered with his radio frequencies, so he was forced to find a way out of the shafts to reconnoitre.

Graciously, the sounds of Busby retreating from the vicinity of the security office faded away, and the trapped ponies allowed themselves to breathe once again. Apple Bloom flicked the lights back on, only to shriek in horror as she saw the haunting face of Fáfnir peering into the office through the window to the corridor outside. Her fellow ponies joined her in her screams as the dragon began pounding at the door. He beat upon the iron barricade harder this time, draining as much as point three percent of the door’s power with each hit, and now using both fists to hammer at the obstruction. Ninety nine point four percent, ninety eight point eight percent, ninety eight point two percent, the numbers decreased more rapidly than the night before. After a solid six minutes of nonstop pounding, the dragon had reduced the door’s integrity to ninety four percent before tiring and retreating back to his lair.

“Fl-Fluttershy?” Dinky whimpered.

“Yes?” Fluttershy replied in a hoarse whisper.

“Wo-would you be my second mummy?” Fluttershy’s heart suddenly stopped beating, and all the blood in her body was instantly magnetized into her face to turn her cheeks crimson. “I… I’ve always wanted another mummy.” Fluttershy clutched Dinky closer to her chest without thinking, her mind racing at what the filly was saying to her.

“A-Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle sidled up to the yellow farm pony, shifting uncomfortably on her hooves. “I… I don’t wanna die. No-not without…” the alabaster unicorn turned away from her friend with tears in her eyes, prompting Apple Bloom to wrap her forelegs around her neck and offer her what little comfort she could.

“Ah don’ wanna die, neither, Sweetie Belle,” she admitted. “There’s still so much Ah wanna do. Ah still ain’t earned mah cutie mark. Ah haven’t found mah special somepony. And, most of all, Ah don’ wanna say goodbye to mah friends.”

A melancholic silence lingered over the room, with Scootaloo left to read over her last decree while everypony else sought comfort from one another. She looked at the list of her possessions, the vast majority of which she left in Rainbow Dash’s name – having nopony else in her life that really had any influence on her life outside of this room. Being an orphan, she never knew what it was like to have a family. To have the love and support of somepony who truly cared about her. Rainbow Dash, of course, was an amazing adopted big sister, but she couldn’t always be there for Scootaloo when she really needed her.

“I’ve left Rainbow down,” she finally croaked, a weak sob jerking a few tears from her eyes. “I… I never managed to fly with her during any of our training courses. I… I never…” the young Pegasus could hold it in no longer. She wailed openly as she buried her face in her hooves and bawled her eyes out like a newborn foal. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle trotted toward her before lying down either side of her and cuddling her in an attempt to calm her down.

Their ministrations were cut short, however, but a shrill scream coming down the corridor. They all turned to the security monitor to find Vinyl Scratch running down the hallway towards the office with Philly hot on her hooves, the robot Phoenix dragging her sharp talons across the walls as she quickly gained ground on the DJ pony. Fluttershy shrieked in fear, causing the robotic Phoenix to halt in her pursuit of Vinyl. The robot turned her head curiously to the left, finding a large metal door directly beside her. She turned to face the obstructing barrier, and began clawing at its metal surface in an attempt to locate the source of the sound. With each swipe, she drained the integrity by nearly a full percentage.

Ninety three point one, ninety two point two, the door grew weaker and weaker as the Phoenix assaulted it again and again. The robot didn’t let up for twenty minutes before finally quitting and racing off in search of Vinyl again, leaving the door at a pitiful sixty nine point three percent.

Dinky spared a passing glance towards the monitor screen, and was grateful to find that the clocks had just turned to six AM. Daylight would be breaking again outside, and the animatronic characters would be reduced to sluggish wreaks again, offering the door time to recharge and recuperate. They had survived the second night. But, at the rate they were going, they would never survive the third night, if they robots got stronger with every passing night. They needed to find a way to distract the characters during the night. Dinky heaved herself up into the chair at the security desk and started looking through the security systems. She found a few things she could hack into to distract Freddy and the gang in the nights to come. A remotely controlled music box in the prize corner outside the arcade. A television screen in the bar, usually used for adults to watch sports on. If Dinky could hack into these systems, she might be able to draw the animatronics’ attention away from the trapped ponies inside the pizzeria long enough to keep everypony alive until help could arrive.

She hoped.

Comments

[Bloodstone38]

I hope they all make it.

[SeanofTheDead]

Gotta say it was a good chapter. Very suspenseful, and it made me read faster because I needed to know what would happen. Well done.

[TheMusicalBoy93]

5344240 Thank you

[soarin53]

I kinda hope some one dies.....just no 1 of the CMC