• Published 15th Mar 2017
  • 854 Views, 22 Comments

Spiritus ex Machina - wonderkid125



After experiencing so much stress in such a short amount of time, Twilight and her friends, both old and new, need a break. However, as they take an all expense paid trip to a water park, they soon learn that not everything is as easy as it seems.

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Chapter 11: The Lingering Past

Elsewhere, back up on the third floor of the resort, Twilight Sparkle and her young assistant were still asleep. After a few moments of being exposed to the progressively increasing amount of light in the room from the rising sun, the purple mare finally started waking up.

She opened her eyes as her sleep abruptly ended, leaving her in the foggy haze that usually came with waking up. The unicorn took a moment to shift her eyes around before sluggishly lifting her front legs above her head and stretching.

As she sat up in bed and tried to speed up the process of shaking off her drowsiness, Twilight looked around the room. The faint orange tinted light streaming in from behind the curtained off window to her right told the purple mare that it was still early morning. Spike was starting to wake up as well over on the bed next to hers. However, the third bed in the room was empty, and her human friend was apparently missing.

“*Yawn*… oh, hey Twilight.” Spike mumbled groggily as he noticed the unicorn sitting up in bed. He hadn’t even managed to lift himself off his pillow yet, but he was making every effort to get out of bed.

“Hey, Spike.” Twilight replied with a warm smile. While the dragon slowly made his way out of bed, she decided to hop out of bed as well and get up and about.

Spike finally managed to plant his feet on the ground. He looked around the room, still feeling the effects of drowsiness. However, even through his daze he noticed the bed next to his was empty. “Huh…? Where’s Tom?” He asked curiously.

“I don’t know… he didn’t come back last night.” Twilight said in a confused tone. The boy said he was out looking for information on the extension to the building, but she didn’t think that it would take all night.

“He probably snuck back in, got in a quick nap, and got back out before we got up. He’s like a ninja.” Spike suggested in a mildly impressed tone as he pictured the human slinking into bed without making so much as a noise.

“Yeah, a ninja that runs on three hours of sleep. We’ve known him for three months now and I still barely understand him sometimes.” Twilight added with a slight smile while shaking her head.

“You want to head downstairs? I don’t really feel like sleeping in today.” Spike suggested while making his bed in a surprisingly alert fashion.

“Don’t feel like sleeping in? Who are you and what have you done with Spike?” Twilight asked while raising an eyebrow at the young dragon.

“What? I can be an early bird.” Spike said in as good of a confident tone as he could manage. The unicorn chuckled at the dragon’s attempt at pulling off a straight face.

“And I suppose the fact that we’re in a water resort has nothing to do with it?” Twilight asked with a wry smile. “Come on, let’s go. Maybe we can catch the others before they head off without us.” She suggested while walking out of the bedroom. Spike followed her as she headed into the living room section of their suite and exited out into the hallway.

As they stepped out into the hallway and looked around, the pair noticed that a few of their friends had apparently woken up already. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were lingering in the hallway near their room, having apparently been there for at least a few minutes.

“Hey, look who’s up!” Rainbow Dash stated cheerfully as she noticed the purple mare and the young dragon walking over to her little group.

“Hey, guys. I wasn’t expecting to find you up here.” Twilight said in a surprised tone while looking between the three ponies.

“Yeah, well we decided to wait around for a little bit to see if anyone else got up. And here you are! Now, all we need to do is wait for Applejack and Rarity to get up.” Pinkie Pie said with a surprisingly patient expression while looking over to the room where the two mares and the three fillies slept.

“We’ve been waiting here for a long time already Pinkie. I’m sure Applejack and Rarity wouldn’t mind if we headed downstairs without them.” Rainbow Dash suggested in a hopeful tone.

“I think they would mind. I would mind if I knew that you guys were waiting for me and then you just gave up and left me.” Pinkie Pie replied adamantly while keeping herself firmly cemented in place between Rainbow Dash and the hallway.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at the pink mare blocking the hallway. “Seriously? Pinkie, if it’s that important to you then why don’t you wait for them up here while we go on ahead?” She suggested, hiding a pleading expression. She hoped that she could somehow get out of having the pink mare volunteer her up to wait in a hallway forever.

“Hmph… fine. But when you hurt Applejack and Rarity’s feelings and they only have me to support them, don’t come crying to me.” Pinkie said while folding her forelegs and offering an unimpressed leer at the cyan pegasus.

“Pinkie, I…” Rainbow Dash started to speak up again until she paused and figured that it would be best if she didn’t humor the pink mare. “Never mind… just don’t open your mouth and she can’t find something else to get upset about.” She muttered to herself while trying to avoid the stern gaze of the disgruntled pony.

Before anyone else could interject their thoughts on the matter, the sound of a door opening to their side made the group look up. Much to their surprise, they saw Scootaloo and her two fellow crusaders making their way out of their room and stepping out into the hallway without Applejack and Rarity.

“Oh… hey, girls.” Twilight greeted the three fillies in a surprised tone. She wasn’t exactly expecting the crusaders to be unchaperoned in their room. Normally Applejack and Rarity were extra careful to keep their younger siblings in check, especially when they were with their friends and they combined into a trifecta of childish energy and mischief.

“Hi everyone.” Applebloom greeted the group on behalf of her friends, though Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle offered a brief wave and a smile. They seemed to be still waking up judging from their tired expressions.

“Are Rarity and Applejack not up yet or something?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously.

“No… we couldn’t find them anywhere. We thought they were out here with you guys.” Sweetie Belle said in a mildly concerned tone as she realized that the others didn’t know where her sister was either.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure they just went downstairs before us.” Twilight suggested confidently to ease the fillies’ concerns.

“Awww… you have got to be kidding me! This whole time we’ve been waiting for them, and they’re the ones who left us up here!” Pinkie Pie stated in a frustrated tone while crossing her forelegs and pouting. The others silently decided to leave the pink mare to her own devices for a moment while they figured out what to do next.

“Well, let’s go find them. Hopefully, they are still in the lobby.” Twilight said while starting down the hallway. The others were more than eager to follow her as she made her way toward the stairs.

After navigating around the twisting hallways and descending the stairs, the group found themselves on the first floor. At this point, the path to the lobby and most of the key locations on the first floor had become engrained in their minds, so finding their way to the entrance was easy.

As they stepped through the opening into the lobby, the ponies looked around expecting to find their two friends. Berry Swirl was standing behind the front desk with most of her employees standing in front of her. Sparkplug, Copper Coil, and High Tide were all conversing with the purple earth pony and discussing what needed to be done around the resort. Along with the staff of the resort, Sunspot and Glitterball were chatting with each other over by one of the couches in the front area of the lobby. Although the room was far from empty, Applejack and Rarity were nowhere to be seen.

“Hey, guys!” Sunspot called out as she turned and noticed the group walking into the room. All of the other conversations ended immediately as Berry and the others looked over to the four mares and the kids accompanying them.

“Hi everyone.” Twilight said with a brief smile while looking around at the various ponies in the room while her friends did the same.

“It’s nice to see you all up around the same time. We were just thinking about getting some breakfast for everyone.” Berry Swirl said with a pleased tone of voice. While her proposition was appealing to the group, they all had something else on their minds.

Twilight glanced over to the three fillies at the side of the group. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom both had anxious expressions on their faces that told of how much they wanted to find their older siblings. Scootaloo seemed sympathetic for her two friends, but she wasn’t sure what she could do to ease their concerns. The purple unicorn frowned sympathetically before deciding to speak up on the two fillies’ behalf.

“Uh, hey Berry… would you or anyone else happen to know where Applejack and Rarity are?” Twilight asked in a hopeful tone. The sudden question made Berry pause to look around to see if anyone else knew off the top of their heads. Everyone seemed to be thinking about whether or not they had seen the two mares, and they were all coming up blank.

“Umm… no, I don’t think so. Are they not in their room or something?” Berry asked in a confused tone.

“No, they weren’t. We don’t know where else they would be... I was hoping one of you might have seen them going to a pool or something.” Twilight replied with a disheartened shrug.

“Come to think of it… I haven’t seen Silver anywhere either. Normally she would be up by now and waiting for us to get down here.” High Tide stated while noting the bizarre absence of the cream unicorn. The sudden realization that three of their friends were unaccounted for was more than a little troubling to the group.

“This is really strange… hmm.” Berry Swirl pondered out loud while letting her hoof linger on her chin pensively. “I’m sure that they are all off in a room somewhere. Silver would have left a note for us if she went into town.” She reasoned, a hint of worry starting to show in her face.

“I’ll head down to the security room. Maybe I can find them on the cameras.” Copper Coil suggested while taking a few steps toward the hallway on the right.

“Good idea Copper.” Berry said before turning to the gray mare in front of her. “Hey Sparkplug, could you head down to the basement and reactivate the animatronics?”

“Uh, sure… which ones do you want me to activate?” Sparkplug asked curiously.

“All of them except for Freddy. You can ask them to help look for Silver and the others. Besides, I want to see if they are functioning properly.” Berry said with a slight shrug. She hoped that the added help of the animatronics would be able to locate the three mares.

“Sure thing.” Sparkplug replied while nodding in agreement. She quickly trotted out of the doorway with Copper Coil casually following behind her to get to his own destination.

Now that finding their missing friends had become a serious task, the group felt a little uneasy. They had a hundred different scenarios racing through their heads that were all worse than the last one. Still, they did find some comfort and reassurance in the fact that there was a good chance that the three mares would be found now that the cameras were being checked and the animatronics were sweeping the resort.

Before anyone could speak up to comment on the situation or lighten the tense atmosphere a little bit, the sound of the front doors to the resort opening tore everyone’s attention away. The ponies turned around and noticed two familiar people stepping through the glass double doors. Much to everyone’s surprise, Tom and Glimmer Shine strolled into the lobby carrying one box each. The human held his box under one arm, while the yellow stallion carried his on top of his back. The boxes were gray in color, with their tops opened up and what appeared to be several pieces of paper and newspaper articles carried within.

“Holy cow… did you two pull an all-nighter?” Sunspot asked in a surprised tone while watching the pair walking up to the group. The orange pegasus and her unicorn companion hadn’t seen the yellow stallion returning to his room last night, so they assumed that he had come back while they were sleeping and got up before them.

“Well… he pulled an all-nighter, I pulled as close to an all-nighter as I could get before passing out.” Glimmer Shine stated while glancing to the human beside him with a smirk.

“What all did you do last night?” Twilight asked curiously while eyeing the two boxes the pair brought with them with her intrigue rising by the minute.

“We went around town digging up as much information as we could and sifted through it until we got all of this stuff.” Tom replied while holding up his box for reference. Judging from the number of papers crammed into the boxes in neat rows, the two must have gotten somewhere in their research.

“What were you looking into? I thought we already figured out where the ghosts were from?” Berry asked in a confused tone while glancing over the numerous files and papers in the two boxes. This level of research was surprising considering this was supposed to just be a routine haunting.

“Well, we’ve been getting a lot of confusing readings down in the basement and the sub-basement. We’d like to cover all of our bases and find a better way to tackle this… so we decided to start from the beginning.” Glimmer Shine explained with a soft sigh.

“Right… that sounds like a decent enough idea.” Berry said while nodding in agreement.

“We’ve already found everything we could. We put all of the pertinent stuff in these boxes so we could go over it together. It would be great if you could join us Berry.” Tom suggested while looking to the purple mare and waiting for her response.

“Ok, I can do that. Anything to help you guys sort this mess out.” Berry replied in a compliant tone. Once she agreed, Glimmer Shine ushered his two teammates over to the back of the lobby so he could start laying out all of the information in his box on one of the coffee tables. Tom and Berry Swirl quickly followed them.

Twilight watched the group across the room with her curiosity reaching a peak. “I think I’m going to stay here and join them. You guys want to come with me?” She asked her group of friends while glancing over to the yellow stallion and the human setting their boxes down and starting to dig through them.

“You go ahead. We’re going to help look for Applejack, Rarity, and Silver Bell.” Rainbow Dash said while turning to Pinkie and Fluttershy. The two mares were in complete agreement with their cyan companion. High Tide was standing off to the side, ready to lead the group around the resort to aid in the search. Even Spike and the cutie mark crusaders had set their minds on searching for the missing ponies.

“Ok, good luck with finding them. I’ll see you later.” Twilight said with a brief wave, which her friends reciprocated.

With that, the group headed out of the room to start their search, leaving Twilight standing by herself. The unicorn looked over to the group gathered around one of the tables at the back of the lobby. She started walking over to them, letting her curiosity run wild as she watched Tom and Glimmer Shine preparing a presentation to their companions.


Meanwhile, Sparkplug was making her way through the employees-only area of the resort on her way down to the basement. She had caught a fleeting glimpse of Copper Coil as he walked down a long hallway toward the security room, but otherwise, she was alone. Despite not having anyone around, she only had one thing on her mind. The gray mare was starting to get worried about her cream friend and their two missing guests. She wondered what had happened to make three ponies disappear at the same time. She wondered if the two mares going missing and Silver Bell going missing were even related. But most of all, she was worried for the wellbeing of her friend and two fellow ponies.

Even though her thoughts were preoccupied, she still had other things to worry about. She held a clipboard and a pencil close to her chest that she would use to jot down any notes about the animatronics once she activated them. She wanted to make sure that there weren’t any funny kinks or suspicious behavioral patterns that would indicate a glitch, or even worse still, a ghost.

The tedious and familiar path down into the basement didn’t last nearly long enough to occupy all of the gray mare’s thoughts. Before she knew it, Sparkplug was rounding the corner and walking down the hallway that led to the parts and storage room. The plain door with a familiar placard came into view on her right, and just as quickly, she was standing in front of it.

Sparkplug pushed open the door and took a couple of steps inside before flipping on the light switch. As the fluorescent tubes of light above flickered to life, the storage room was illuminated, revealing a menagerie of robotic animals among the mess of parts and endoskeletons. All of the park’s animatronics were leaned up against the wall in different spots. Some of them were tipped to the side slightly, but they were all in stable resting positions.

“Good… gang’s all here still.” Sparkplug said while briefly discarding her previous thought that she would find the storage room empty. “Let’s see here…” She muttered while taking out her pencil and holding her clipboard at the ready. She then looked up to the group of animatronics.

“Bonnie, wake mode.” Sparkplug spoke in a clear tone while looking at the robotic rabbit at the end of the row.

A series of three shrill beeps sounded out as Bonnie’s pupils flashed red three times. After the lights and the beeps stopped, the rabbit lifted its head up and pushed itself off the floor and settled into a standing position. Once it was standing up, the animatronic started looking around and moving in a very lively fashion.

“Oh, hello Sparkplug!” Bonnie said in a cheerful tone while briefly waving to the gray mare.

“Hello, Bonnie.” Sparkplug replied with a slight smirk while scribbling down some notes on her clipboard. “Ok… Bonnie, perform a system check.” She instructed in a clear tone while looking back up to the robotic animal.

A series of mechanical noises sounded out as Bonnie stood in place for a few moments. He didn’t look around and he didn’t blink, but he didn’t stay this way for long. Once he was done with what he was doing, he tilted his head to the side slightly.

“Systems are normal… I’m feeling great!” Bonnie announced while offering an enthusiastic gesture with his arm.

“Perfect.” Sparkplug stated, making a few more notes on the rabbit before looking back up. “Alright Bonnie, listen up... I need you to search the resort. Silver Bell and two of our guests are missing.” She explained while observing the animatronic to see how he would react.

“Two of our guests are missing? That’s awful! What are their names?” Bonnie asked while tilting his head curiously.

“Applejack and Rarity… you already met them when they first came here. Applejack is an orange earth pony mare, and Rarity is a white unicorn mare with purple hair.” Sparkplug said in a clear tone.

“Right, I’ll go look for them right away!” Bonnie announced in a determined tone before starting to march away at the same steady pace he always walked in. Sparkplug smiled and nodded while scribbling down a few more notes on her clipboard. She looked up and turned her attention to the pair of animatronic cats leaned against each other against the back wall.

“Party Favor, wake mode… Felix, wake mode.” Sparkplug announced while observing the two with an expectant expression. Like clockwork, the two animatronics blinked to life as a mismatched series of six beeps filled the air. Almost in unison, Felix and Party Favor started moving around and getting up from the floor. Before long the two cats were standing and looking around.

“Hello, Sparkplug!” Party Favor greeted with a friendly wave. The sight of the white cat acting normally was reassuring to the gray mare, but she was more concerned about Party Favor’s companion.

Sparkplug looked over to Felix and noticed him being silent. She immediately grew concerned about the possibility that the animatronic was still acting strangely. “Felix… hello?” She said uneasily while giving the robotic animal a wary look. Much to her relief, Felix tilted his head to look at her and waved.

“Hello, Sparkplug!” Felix greeted with equal enthusiasm to his white counterpart.

“Hmm… direct conversation... facial recognition… good. Looks like your complex systems are functioning normally.” Sparkplug muttered to herself in a pleased tone while scribbling on her clipboard again. Once she finished, she looked up to activate Chica so she could finish her evaluation and send the three animatronics to go join Bonnie in his search. “Chica, w… huh?” Sparkplug paused suddenly in confusion as she laid eyes on the animatronic bird. Chica was leaning up against the back wall beside the two cats, but she was leaning at a different angle than the gray mare remembered from last night.

Sparkplug took a few steps forward and examined Chica with a puzzled expression. She looked around while thinking about what could have moved the animatronic. As far as she knew, nobody else had been in the storage room since she shut down the animatronics yesterday, but perhaps she was mistaken.

“Party Favor, did anything bump into Chica after she shut down?” Sparkplug asked while turning to the feminine cat. Party Favor looked to the gray mare before briefly glancing to the sleeping animatronic to see what she was talking about.

“I don’t know. We’ve been asleep since yesterday.” Party Favor said while shrugging her shoulders. Despite the animatronic’s playful avoidance of the fact that she was a machine that got shut down, the obvious answer came as a verbal face-palm to Sparkplug.

“Right… of course. *Sigh*” Sparkplug scratched her head while turning back to the animatronic bird. The gray mare would have assumed that one of the ghosts hopped into Chica and took control of her, but why would it bring the animatronic back and make an effort to put her in exactly the same spot it found her in? Finally, she realized that she couldn’t find any meaningful explanation to the odd occurrence and decided to return to what she was doing.

“Chica, wake mode.” Sparkplug announced in a clear tone. Much like the previous three animatronics, Chica came online and got off of the floor without acting strangely in any way. The robotic bird looked at the gray mare silently, but she had always done that due to her unfinished programming.

“Ok guys, listen up. I need all of you to find some missing ponies. Silver Bell, and two of our guests have gone missing and we don’t know where they are. The two missing guests are an orange mare and a white unicorn with purple hair. I want all of you to search the resort for them.” Sparkplug instructed while glancing between each of the animatronics. Chica remained still and silent, but the two robotic felines seemed to be shocked to hear such troubling news.

“Oh no! I hope they’re ok…” Party Favor said while putting on as good of a saddened expression as her limited facial freedom would allow.

“Come on Party Favor, let’s go find them!” Felix suggested in an eager tone while motioning for his partner to follow him. Sparkplug stepped out of the way as the two animatronics walked out of the storage room. The mechanical sounds of the pair’s footsteps eventually faded as they continued down the hallway. Finally, the gray mare was left alone with the robotic bird.

Sparkplug looked to Chica, half expecting her to go out and join the two cats in searching the resort for the three missing mares. The longer the animatronic remained still, the more the gray mare started to realize why she wasn’t responding. “Ugh… we really need to fix your A.I.” She shrugged and shook her head before leveling with the animatronic. “Chica, search the camera feed for Silver Bell, an orange earth pony mare with yellow hair, and a white unicorn mare with purple hair.” She instructed while taking pains to be as clear and specific as possible.

Chica didn’t respond verbally, but she nodded before walking towards the door. Sparkplug sighed as she scribbled down some notes on her clipboard. Despite how unnatural the animatronic bird seemed, she was functioning normally. She couldn’t wait until she had a unicorn helping her so she could completely fix the animatronics.


Back upstairs, Twilight and Berry Swirl, along with Glitterball and Sunspot were watching intently as the human and the yellow stallion finished sorting through all of the information they had to find a good starting point.

After a few moments of fishing for a specific piece of paper, Tom was the one to start talking. “Right… so, first, we looked into what happened down in that extension to the building.” He said while glancing around at the group patiently waiting in front of him.

“You mean the collapse that killed the workers?” Berry Swirl asked in a confused tone. She figured that it was obvious where the ghosts came from.

“Yeah, that. Like you, we figured that the ghosts would have come from that collapse. But the readings we were getting down there were too hard to interpret and the area past that shelf in the sub-basement was far from structurally unstable from what we could see.” Tom explained in a confused tone.

“What? It wasn’t unstable?” Berry said with a puzzled expression.

“Not at all… I mean, we didn’t exactly do a thorough examination or anything, but I got knocked around by one of those obsolete animatronics down there, and the floor didn’t even crack. Who told you that the floor was unstable back there?” Tom asked curiously.

“My dad did… I never even really checked, I just took his word for it. The rest of the place was run down looking enough, so it wasn’t too hard to believe.” Berry said in a surprised tone.

“Which is what confused us so much…” Glimmer Shine added. “So, we did some digging. We scoured over every piece of town history that we could get a hold of. We looked for news reports, obituaries… anything.” The stallion said while laying a newspaper down on the table and pushing it forward for the group to read. Twilight lit up her horn and lifted the newspaper up so everyone could read it better.

The newspaper was dated around ten years ago. There was a picture above the front page article with a headline emblazoned beneath it in bold letters. The picture was of the resort back when Berry’s father owned the place.

“Fun Land closing its doors for good… owner refrains from offering explanation.” Berry read off the headline in a surprised and quiet tone. As she and the other three mares beside her trailed their eyes over the smaller print that briefly described the article, they came to the conclusion that the news had no idea what had caused the sudden closure.

“Nobody seems to know why your father closed down the resort… and assuming he didn’t tell you, he must have kept it a secret. As for the old extension to the building, a few reporters interviewed some of the workers about the extension after the place shut down back then, but nobody would talk in depth about anything. There isn’t much of anything on paper about the place or what all happened up until the closure. Since you don’t have any records either, I’m assuming your grandfather went through a lot of trouble to limit the amount of information that leaked out. The only thing of note we could find about what happened with the closure is that one of the workers was admitted to a mental hospital shortly after the project was shut down.” Tom said while setting some small bits of paper and a few files on the table.

“A mental hospital? So… something made someone go crazy down there.” Sunspot surmised in an intrigued and slightly disturbed tone.

“Well, there was supposed to be a collapse that killed a lot of people. I’m sure that would be enough to send someone over the edge.” Glitterball reasoned while looking over the various pieces of information about the worker in question. Nothing she saw caught her eye, and the worker didn’t even ramble mindlessly about any of his experiences.

“We couldn’t find anything mentioning a collapse… let alone any deaths.” Glimmer Shine explained curiously. “The construction project was mentioned in some of the stuff we could dig up… we found some records and even early plans for what was going to be built. It was left unfinished for sure, but nothing here says how far along with the project they were. From what we can see it looks like they were working on it for several years. And as far as the public eye is concerned, there was no collapse.” He said, looking around to see what the others were thinking. Despite the fact that he and the human beside him held more information than the rest of the group, neither of them looked like they knew all of the answers.

“But there had to be a collapse… why would Berry’s grandfather lie about that? Why would her father lie about it as well?” Twilight asked in a confused tone while offering the purple earth pony a concerned expression.

Berry seemed to still be processing her own thoughts. “My father was really adamant about me not going down there… I thought he was just concerned about the collapse. What other reason could he have had?” She said, still pondering about the matter. She seemed to be a little distressed as she scrutinized her father’s actions in her head, though she was holding up rather well.

“More importantly, where did the ghosts come from if there wasn’t some tragic event here?” Sunspot asked in an equally confused tone. The question hung in the air and puzzled the group to no end. For there to be ghosts, there had to be dead people. It was a simple, if not a little bit grim, piece of logic, but it was absolute.

Perhaps sensing the confusion amid his companions, Tom reached over and pulled out a few more pieces of paper from his box. He laid them out on the table before fanning them out to make them readable. The papers had several lengthy reports on what had happened on the resort grounds throughout history, but nothing was eye catching.

“We looked back as far as we could for any notable deaths in the area. We couldn’t find anything. No graveyards or burial grounds that the property was built on, no murders or suicides or anything else. The only thing remotely pertinent that we found was this.” Tom said while placing another newspaper article on the table and pushing it forward. Again, Twilight picked up the newspaper and showed it to everyone while looking over it herself.

The newspaper was very faded and worn, even more so than the previous one. It had tattered edges, and it looked as if it had been dusty before the human and the stallion got ahold of it. The black and white picture was a little hard to make out, but it looked like it depicted an old-fashioned amusement park, complete with a merry-go-round and a Ferris wheel. There was another header and a sample of an article emblazoned beneath the picture in faded ink, and they were equally hard to make out. The ponies had to squint a little bit and take a moment extra to read the words, but finally Twilight managed to make the article out and read it out loud.

“Tragedy in Fun Land... another child reported missing from local amusement park. Owner ensures that he is doing everything he can to assist the royal guard in finding the three missing children.” Twilight read off the headliner and subsequent text in a somber tone. The mere thought of such a horrible event made everyone frown with sympathy.

“Apparently, three kids went missing back in the old amusement park throughout the course of a month. The authorities came to the conclusion that it was a serial kidnapping and murder, but no evidence stuck to any suspect and no bodies were found. The third victim was reported missing a few days before the earthquake that sunk half the property underground.” Glimmer Shine explained while motioning to the newspaper for reference.

“So… you think that these missing children are our ghosts?” Berry Swirl asked in an uncertain tone.

“That’s the best idea we could come up with. But that still doesn’t explain the weird readings we’ve been getting. Whatever is going on here, I think it has something to do with that extension to the building.” Tom said confidently while thinking back to the stairs he found leading further down.

Before anyone else could elaborate on their thoughts any further, the group heard several footsteps entering the room. Everyone looked over to see Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and High Tide, along with Spike and the cutie mark crusaders. Judging from the disappointed expressions on their faces, and the distinct lack of a certain three mares with them, the group discerned that the search party had failed.

“Did you guys find them yet?” Sunspot asked in a hopeful tone.

“They aren’t anywhere on the first floor… we were hoping you guys were doing better off than us.” Rainbow Dash said in a dismal tone, essentially confirming what everyone already knew.

“I’ll call up Sparkplug and Copper to see if they had any luck.” Berry said while getting up and trotting over to the front desk. She went behind the desk and picked up one of the small radios that she and her staff used. The purple mare pressed the button on the radio before bringing it up to speak into it. “Hey Sparkplug, have you or the animatronics found Silver and the others?” She asked with guarded optimism brimming in her voice. After a short wait, the group heard the gray mare respond.

“Uh, no… none of the animatronics have reported back to me. I have the control tablet with me, so I will let you know when one of them finds anything.” Sparkplug said in a reassuring tone.

“*Sigh*… thanks, Sparkplug. What about you, Copper? Have you had any luck?” Berry asked while trying to stay positive.

“I haven’t seen them on any of the live feeds. I’m checking the tapes from this morning to see if I can find where they went.” Copper Coil reported, much to the disappointment of the group listening.

“Thanks… keep us updated.” Berry said before shrugging and letting her foreleg droop away from her mouth.

The lack of any developments on the whereabouts of their friends was making everyone uneasy. Given how long they had been missing and the lack of any notes or forewarning, the group was getting more and more concerned that something bad had happened to the three mares.

“Are they going to find Rarity and the others?” Sweetie Belle asked in a worried tone. Everyone looked over to the young unicorn to see her wearing a saddened expression of concern and uncertainty. Not knowing where her sister was must have been killing her on the inside, and knowing that Applejack and another pony were missing as well couldn’t be helping matters for the white filly.

“Don’t worry, Sweetie Belle… I know that Rarity will be fine.” Applebloom said in a reassuring tone while walking up to the young unicorn.

“Really?” Sweetie Belle asked with a surprised expression. The yellow filly seemed to be confident in her statement, even though she looked to be a little worried as well.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Rarity and Applejack and Silver Bell are probably together wherever they are. I know for a fact that my sister wouldn’t let anythin’ bad happen to anyone.” Applebloom said while flashing a brief smile. Still, behind her confidence, it was easy to see that she was still a little uncertain.

“Thanks, Applebloom… I know Rarity won’t let anything bad happen to Applejack either.” Sweetie Belle said while offering the yellow filly a quick hug. The others couldn’t help but smile as they watched the two fillies reassuring each other. Still, they were also driven to ensure that their sisters came back to them unharmed.

Suddenly, a series of mechanical noises started making their presence known. The sounds seemed to be coming from the right hallway. The group immediately recognized the sounds to be the footsteps of the animatronic entertainers that they had become familiar with in recent days. Soon enough, their suspicions were confirmed as they saw three robotic animals walking into the room. Bonnie, Party Favor, and Felix were all walking into the lobby where they paused in front of the group at the front desk.

“Bonnie… did you find them? Did you find Silver and the others?” Berry Swirl asked while looking to the animatronic rabbit for a reason as to why he was here.

“No, we haven’t found them yet.” Bonnie stated in an optimistic tone as if he were confident that his search would yield results soon. Despite the enthusiastic answer given, the group was confused about what the animatronics were doing in the lobby if they weren’t reporting their success.

“What? Why are you here if you didn’t find them yet?” Berry asked in a confused tone.

“That’s a silly question… you called us here.” Bonnie said in a matter of fact tone. Judging from his tone, he seemed serious, but that didn’t mean that his statement made sense.

“What?” Twilight asked in a confused tone while looking around at her friends to see if she misheard. Everyone else was just as confused as the purple mare.

Berry shook her head in confusion while looking to the blue rabbit. “Bonnie… I didn’t call you here. Nobody in here sent you here.” She said.

The earth pony’s response seemed to baffle the animatronics more than their presence baffled her. Party Favor and Felix looked around in surprise while Bonnie shifted his expression to what one could loosely identify as confusion.

“What? But… we were told to come here.” Bonnie said in an uncertain tone while looking down for a moment. He moved less as he seemingly tried to figure out what was going on from his end. Before anyone could ask any more questions, a voice sounded out from Berry’s radio.

“Berry, you need to come see this.” Copper Coil said in an urgent tone.

The purple mare raised her radio up to her mouth and shifted her attention to it. “What is it, Copper?” She asked curiously while briefly glancing up to the animatronics.

“I found Silver and the others on the recordings,” Copper announced in a suspiciously uneasy tone. Despite the unease in his voice, the stallion’s statement was great news to the purple mare.

“That’s great Copper! Where did they go?” Berry asked in an eager tone. As the stallion on the other end of the line hesitated, her excitement slowly died and was replaced with discomfort.

“They all went down to the break room in the basement to get breakfast or something. When they came out, they ran into Chica in the halls.” Copper explained in a hesitant tone. The statement hung in the air for a moment, bringing confusion to most of the group and dread to a few who had already gathered where this conversation was going.

“But Copper… the animatronics weren’t activated until a few minutes ago.” Berry said in a confused tone. Soon enough, her confusion shifted to dread as she realized what she was saying.

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

A shrill series of three beeps sounded out. By the time everyone looked up, they were just able to catch Bonnie’s pupils blinking red on and off once as his head drooped down. Suddenly, Felix’s pupils started blinking as well as another series of beeps rang out. One by one, each of the three animatronics started beeping as their eyes blinked red. Soon enough, a choir of high-pitched robotic beeps was filling the air.

Berry Swirl and the others backed up a step while the group towards the back of the room huddled together. Spike and the three fillies inched their way behind the five mares standing and silently watching. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie looked on with mild expressions of fear on their faces while Fluttershy started backpedaling along with the four children. Sunspot and Glitterball stepped in front of the others defensively while Glimmer Shine and Tom got up and walked over to their teammates.

All at once, the beeping stopped and all of the animatronics fell silent. Their eyes weren’t blinking, and most of them were looking downwards while standing still. Twilight and High Tide stood behind Berry Swirl as she looked on with a nervous expression.

As a high-pitched hiss of air came from behind them, the group turned their attention to see Tom exhaling a puff of blue mist involuntarily. The news that something supernatural was happening wasn’t exactly unexpected. Everyone was staring at the animatronics with mixed reactions of anxiousness and uncertainty, waiting for the worst to happen.

Bonnie slowly raised his head up. His eyes were as cold and lifeless as they normally were, but they felt eerier without his energetic voice and slight mannerisms to accompany them. The robotic rabbit took a small step forward and settled his gaze on the three ponies in front of him. The other animatronics remained in place, but they raised their heads and looked ahead silently.

Berry Swirl raised a shaky hoof up to her mouth and pushed the button on her radio down. Her body felt cold, and she was sweating nervously as she stared at the ensemble of animatronics in front of her. She swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to steady her hoof. “Sparkplug… deactivate the animatronics… now.” Berry spoke in a cold and pleading tone. Behind her voice, a great deal of fear and desperation could be heard.

“What the…?! Berry, the animatronics are offline… all of them. What the hay is going on?” Sparkplug replied in a stunned tone. The gray mare’s statement made the groups’ stomachs collectively sink.

“Berry, stay back.” Twilight suggested uneasily, hoping that the earth pony would retreat like she wanted.

Instead of taking the unicorn’s advice, Berry stayed her ground and pushed the button on her radio again. “Don’t joke around with me right now Sparkplug. Shut down the animatronics… Do a manual shutdown, pull the emergency switches, do whatever you need to do.” She said, a strong feeling of desperation in her voice.

Before the gray mare could respond, Bonnie took another step forward. The animatronic continued walking at a slow pace toward the purple earth pony and the others behind her. Twilight and High Tide instinctively backed up, but Berry Swirl remained frozen in place. Whether out of fear of confidence, the purple mare wasn’t moving.

“Berry, get away from him. Back away slowly.” Twilight said in a more concerned tone while stopping. She wanted to distance herself as much as possible from the animatronics, which would ideally mean going over to the back of the room with the others, but she couldn’t leave the earth pony by herself.

Bonnie stepped over to the purple mare and paused in front of her. Berry Swirl looked up to see the robotic animal staring down at her silently. Her thoughts immediately turned to the safety switch on the back of the rabbit’s head.

“Bonnie… stay still.” Berry instructed while trying to keep her voice from trembling. Much to the shock of everyone else, the purple mare started reaching towards the animatronic’s head.

“Berry, what are you doing?!” High Tide asked in a tone of disbelief.

The purple mare kept reaching up toward the back of the animatronic’s neck. She cautiously raised herself onto her hind legs and slowly but steadily worked her hoof toward the side of Bonnie’s face. She was shaking slightly, but she hoped that she could pull out the ring on the rabbit’s head before he could realize what was happening.

Just as Berry’s hoof started reaching around Bonnie’s head, she felt a hard plastic hand clamping down on her foreleg roughly. The shock of the sudden maneuver made her let out a frightened yelp. As expected, she saw Bonnie holding onto her tightly with his left hand.

“Bonnie let go!” Berry pleaded while tugging on her foreleg to free it from the rabbit’s grasp. Pulling on her limb only resulted in more pain for her as the animatronic refused to let go.

Suddenly, Berry noticed a faint blue magical aura on the back of Bonnie’s head. With a soft click, the pull ring was separated from the animatronic and floated in the air before dropping to the floor. With a disconcerting mechanical noise, the purple mare felt the rabbit’s hand open as he took a step back. Just as suddenly, she felt someone grabbing her by the waist and pulling her backwards away from the demented robot.

“Berry, are you ok?” Glimmer Shine asked in a concerned tone while examining the purple mare’s foreleg. Berry looked over to see Glitterball standing nearby with her horn lit up, along with Tom and Sunspot standing behind her.

“I’m fine… thanks.” Berry said shakily while allowing the stallion to back her up a few more steps.

Everyone turned their heads to see Bonnie as he backpedaled from having his safety tripped. The animatronic rabbit stumbled and flailed his limbs around limply as if he were fighting being shut down. All the while, a low and grating mechanical screech was being emitted from the animatronic. The sound didn’t seem natural by any stretch of the imagination, and it paired well with the chaotic display of the rabbit stumbling around. Bonnie stopped flailing around abruptly and remained in a hunched over position. His body shook and shuddered in a disturbing fashion. Suddenly, Bonnie snapped his upper body up until his head bent back a little ways. After a short moment of hesitation, the animatronic lowered his head and stood upright on stable legs, much to the shock of everyone watching.

“W-what?!” Berry Swirl exclaimed with a dumbfounded expression.

“How is he doing that?! None of the animatronics can move when their safeties are tripped!” High Tide said in an equally stunned tone.

“I don’t think the animatronics are in control anymore.” Glimmer Shine said in a concerned tone while sizing up the situation in front of him. The two animatronics that had been silent and motionless started slowly walking forward to join Bonnie.

“Get to the entrance!” Tom shouted while getting in front of the others. The group all raced to turn tail and run towards the front door. Glimmer Shine’s team and their human friend stayed in front of the group and escorted them as they rushed to the entrance. The animatronics were still standing in place and staring ahead silently.

Rainbow Dash was the first of the crowd to reach the door. She quickly grabbed the handle and pulled on it, fully expecting it to open with no resistance so she could usher her friends out to safety. As the double doors remained firmly shut, the cyan mare tried again, only to yield a similar result.

“What the hay?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in a confused tone while pulling on the door with all of her might.

“What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked nervously as she watched the pegasus struggling with the doors.

“The door is stuck… gah…! it won’t open!” Rainbow Dash said with a frustrated expression.

“Is it locked or something?!” Scootaloo asked in a slight panic. The orange filly wasn’t the only one freaking out now that their escape route wasn’t opening.

While everyone else gathered around the entrance and either tried to help Rainbow Dash with opening it or stood around with anxious expressions, Tom used his senses a few times.

“I’m still getting mixed readings, but I can feel a lot of energy… I don’t know how it got here so fast. If these ghosts are using it, they could keep the door closed.” Tom explained in an uneasy tone.

“Break the glass then!” Twilight suggested nervously while looking behind the group. The three animatronics had started walking forward at a slow pace.

“That wouldn’t work… that’s shatterproof glass.” Berry explained with an uneasy expression.

“Even if we managed to get through it, it might just fix itself. We don’t know how strong these ghosts are. It could be just like back at the mansion.” Glimmer Shine shrugged in frustration.

“That’s not a scenario I want to think about Glimmer!” Sunspot said in an anxious tone while watching the animatronics get closer.

Tom and the others watched the three robots approaching while trying to figure out something to do. Their hearts were racing and their minds were going just as fast. Suddenly, the human turned to the purple unicorn with an idea. “Twilight, teleport outside and go get help.” Tom instructed in an urgent tone.

Twilight briefly glanced back to the glass doors and the windows beside them. It would be easy enough to teleport outside assuming there weren’t any supernatural forces to prevent her. Still, as she looked back at the rapidly approaching animatronics, she felt a strong need to protect her friends.

“No time! Let’s make a break for it!” Twilight said while rushing to the left side of the room.

“Twilight!” Tom yelled in a surprised tone as he watched the unicorn rushing over to the hallway. Finally, he shrugged before motioning for the others to follow the purple mare. “Come on, let’s go!”

Everyone ran as fast as they could to get by the animatronics. As soon as the majority of the group started escaping, Bonnie and the two felines picked up their pace a little bit and moved to intercept the group.

Fluttershy yelped in fright as she saw Bonnie making a sprint for her. She was on the outside of the group, so she was the first one within reach of the robotic animal. Before the animatronic could get to her, however, the yellow mare was surprised to see a purple aura being wrapped around the terrifying automaton. She looked over to see Twilight straining to hold the animatronic back. Whether it was from how heavy he was or from the ghost inside of him fighting back against her magic, Bonnie seemed to be winning the fight with the unicorn.

“Everyone move!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed urgently while giving Fluttershy a nudge in the right direction. The yellow mare wasted no time in running with the others toward the opening to the hallway. Twilight groaned from exertion as she threw Bonnie off balance before joining the others as they fled.

“Why didn’t you do what I asked back there, Twilight?” Tom asked in an irritated tone while running alongside the unicorn.

“Do you really think I’m just going to abandon you guys so easily? It would take me forever just to get word to the princess, let alone find a way to help you.” Twilight replied in an adamant tone, much to the dismay of her human companion. “Ok, let’s forget about that for now. What are we doing?” She asked while trying to figure out what their plan of action was.

“All of the ghosts must be making their move at once. They probably have all of the animatronics under their control. We need to head upstairs and get our gear, and then we can find out how to stop them.” Glimmer Shine said while managing a level-headed tone.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Twilight said with a brief nod of agreement.

The group darted through the hallways on their way to the stairs. They didn’t slow down for an instant. Along with the clamor of their own footsteps, they could hear the mechanical sound of the three animatronics running after them. If the trio were moving slowly before, they were done toying around now. As the ponies frantically darted around the next corner, they saw the stairs immediately on their left. The sight of the stairwell made a soft wave of relief wash over them.

“Come on guys. We need to get to our room and then head down to the basement.” Glimmer Shine said while taking a few paces up the stairs. The group behind him was terrified and more than a little exhausted. The three fillies in the middle of the crowd were looking back to see how close the animatronics were getting.

“Why the basement… shouldn’t we lock ourselves in our rooms?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously while trying desperately to catch her breath. Somehow she knew that she wasn’t done running.

“I don’t think closing ourselves off in a dead end would be good. We need to find out where these ghosts are coming from and get rid of them. That extension to the building seems like the best place to look. Now come on, those robots will be on our tails before long.” Glimmer Shine said while motioning for the others to follow him. Everyone pushed through their faint exhaustion and started up the stairs after the yellow stallion.

The ponies scarcely made it up the first flight when they heard a high-pitched shriek ring out. However, the shriek didn’t come from behind them. It came from just in front of them. The others looked ahead to see Glimmer Shine falling backwards in surprise, and an animatronic bird lunging down the stairs where he just was. The sudden appearance of Chica with her beak open and her teeth bared made more than a few people let out a startled cry of fear.

“Sweet Celestia, back up!” Sunspot yelled while dragging Glimmer Shine to his feet as she backed down the steps. Everyone scrambled to turn tail as the animatronic walked down the steps and reached for them. Chica stumbled and smacked into the wall on the landing due to how fast she was going, but the ponies were already backpedaling down the steps and into the hallway.

Glimmer Shine and his companions looked back at the hallway they came from to see a faint glimpse of Bonnie and the two cat animatronics rushing toward the corner. In a few moments, the three animatronics and the robotic bird on the stairs would be on top of them.

“Horsefeathers... everyone run!” Glimmer Shine yelled while ushering everyone down the other end of the hallway. Once the others were moving, the yellow stallion and his teammates ran after them.

Taking a glance back at the animatronics, Twilight noticed that Chica was staying behind while Bonnie and the others chased after her and her friends. Putting more thought into it, the purple mare realized that the group of possessed robots was trying to cut them off.

“*Pant* I think… I think they know we’re trying to get upstairs.” Twilight said in between breaths while running full stop down the hallway.

“Grr… these ghosts must be smarter and stronger than we first thought. I doubt they will let us get to your gear.” Tom said in a frustrated tone while turning to Glimmer Shine and his teammates.

“What do we do now?” Glitterball asked nervously. Taking one look around gave the impression that the white unicorn wasn’t the only one that was scared and unsure of what was going to happen.

“We’ve got no choice. We have to get to the sub-basement and hope that we can find a way to fix things down there.” Glimmer Shine suggested uneasily.

“First we need to find Sparkplug and Copper Coil. I’m not leaving them up here with those things.” Berry said in a concerned tone. The others felt their hearts sink as they thought of the gray mare and the older stallion. They knew they couldn’t leave them behind, but finding them was an uncertainty that would take time and potentially invite more danger into their already risky plan.

“Don’t worry Berry. We’re not going anywhere without them.” Twilight said in a reassuring manner while turning to the purple earth pony. Berry Swirl smiled softly and nodded with a grateful expression as she saw that the others agreed with the unicorn.

With how fast the group was running, they almost didn’t notice a set of double doors labeled “employees only” coming up at the end of the hall. By now their lungs were burning, but the sight of their goal in front of them offered enough of an adrenaline boost for the ponies to make it the extra mile.

Panting heavily and resting his hoof on the door handle, Glimmer Shine turned to look at the group behind him. Everyone was almost as exhausted as he was, if not a little more. The group’s terror hadn’t died down and with good reason. Taking a look down the hall, the yellow stallion could see the animatronics giving chase. Despite how fast their pursuers were going, the ponies seemed to have earned themselves a decently sized lead on them.

“Come on, through here!” Glimmer Shine yelled while pulling the doors open and rushing through with everyone following him. He expected to start running down an empty hallway again, but as he stepped forward, he knocked into something cold and solid.

The crowd behind the stallion gasped in horror and recoiled slightly as they looked at what their friend had bumped into. There was a brown animatronic bear standing around an average pony’s height, although slightly taller. The bear had a stylish black top hat on its head and a plastic looking microphone clutched in its paw, there was no doubt about it. The ponies had just stumbled upon Freddy, and he didn’t look happy to see them.

“AH!” Glimmer Shine yelped in fright as he processed what was in front of him. Before he or anyone else could react further, the animatronic bear lunged for the stallion while emitting a shriek similar to the other animatronics.

Everyone either averted their eyes or stared ahead in shock as Freddy neared Glimmer Shine, apparently aiming to bite into his head and take a decent chunk out of his frontal lobe. Nothing they could do would be fast enough or effective enough to help their friend.

*Thwack*

An abrupt metallic clang rang out as something struck Freddy in the back of his head. The strike barely did much to the animatronic, but it was enough to make its head bend downwards and force it to stop its attack to catch itself.

All at once, everyone darted their eyes to the side to find their sudden savior. They saw Sparkplug and Copper Coil standing in the hallway, with the latter standing behind the former, and the former holding a metal pipe and not so gently applying it to the back of Freddy’s head.

When the jilted animatronic started raising its head up to look over to its attacker, Sparkplug reeled back and swung the pipe to batter the bear again. This time, however, she didn’t stop. The constant sharp ringing of blow after blow of the pipe filled the air, making all who heard it cringe as Freddy was slowly beaten to the floor.

Sparkplug panted heavily, most likely out of exhaustion and a touch of shocked nerves. She and everyone watching took a brief moment to ensure that the animatronic bear was staying on the floor. Once it was more or less confirmed that Freddy wouldn’t be moving in the next few moments, the gray mare looked up to address the group properly.

“Hey, guys… *Pant*” Sparkplug said while briefly taking her hat off and wiping her forehead of any sweat. Before the stunned group could return the greeting, a loud noise behind them drew their attention away. The frightening realization that they were still being followed by the other animatronics hit the ponies like a ton of bricks and made their hearts collectively skip a beat.

While everyone else was tensing up or starting to glance behind them, Rainbow Dash and Sunspot briefly locked eyes. Judging from their expressions, they both knew that they had to do something fast before they were overrun.

In the blink of an eye, the two pegasi rushed behind them to the two doors on either side of the group. They scarcely had time to move anyone else out of the way before they slammed the doors shut and put their weight against them.

All at once, a loud bang sounded out and the two mares scrambled to regain their footing and press back on the doors as the animatronics on the other side crashed into them. Realizing that their friends needed help, Glimmer Shine and Tom rushed forward and helped the pair to keep the doors closed.

“Berry, do these doors have a lock?!” Twilight asked in an urgent tone while turning to the purple earth pony. Most of the members of the group were in a fearful panic, and Berry was no exception, although she was taking things better than most of the others.

“Uh… y-yeah, it does. But it needs a key to lock it.” Berry Swirl explained nervously.

“Grr… just our luck.” Twilight growled under her breath before lighting up her horn and focusing on assisting the others with keeping the doors closed.

“What do we do now?!” Sweetie Belle asked in a panicked tone while distancing herself as far away from the doors and the animatronic on the floor as possible. The sight of the young filly and her friends in such a state of fear was troubling to the rest of the group, but they weren’t sure if they had the answers she was asking for.

“We need to find a way to keep this door closed so we can make a break for it!” Glimmer Shine suggested urgently while straining to hold his half of the doors closed along with Rainbow Dash.

“Even if we could use the lock on these doors, the animatronics could probably bust them down.” Sparkplug reasoned with an uneasy expression.

“Maybe not…” Tom muttered while trying to piece together his knowledge on ghosts and how the animatronics were behaving to find something useful. “The safety ring worked on Felix yesterday, but it didn’t work on Bonnie today or that older model of Bonnie downstairs. It took a while for them to be able to come upstairs…The ghosts might be getting used to their new bodies, so they might not be able to use their full strength yet. If we can block this door, it might buy us some time to escape.” He suggested while looking around to try and find something to use.

While everyone was frantically trying to find something to barricade the doors, Sparkplug was shrugging uneasily while looking down at the only weapon she had. Finally, the gray mare rushed forward and stuck the metal pipe she used to beat Freddy in between the handles to the doors. As a test to see if the improvised barricade would work, the others cautiously backed away from the doors. The animatronics shoved against the doors again, causing the group to jump slightly. Thankfully, however, the metallic pipe seemed to be holding for the moment at least.

“Come on, let’s move!” Twilight suggested while motioning for the others to run. Taking this as their chance to flee, Berry and Sparkplug rushed ahead so they could lead the group down to the basement. The others quickly followed her, using the sounds of the doors being rammed into as motivation to run faster.

“So… since we’re running for our lives, I’m assuming the ghosts are in total control of the animatronics?” Sparkplug asked curiously while briefly looking behind her.

“Yeah, it seems that way. We’re hoping that we can find a way to stop them down in the extension to the building.” Glimmer Shine said in a carefully optimistic tone.

“I saw Silver and the others running that direction when Chica chased them. They’re probably still down there somewhere.” Copper Coil suggested uneasily.

“I hope they’re doing ok… I know Silver must be freaking out. She’s afraid of dark places. I almost didn’t convince her to go down there with me to check the place out before all this.” Berry stated in a concerned tone. Although the thought of their friends being in some dark and dank underground hallways was troubling to most of the group, it made Sparkplug think of something else. The gray mare skidded to a halt suddenly and looked around. While the others paused to find out why their companion had stopped, she rushed over to a doorway a little ways behind them and went inside.

“Sparkplug, what are you doing?! We need to go!” Berry Swirl said in an urgent tone while walking over to the doorway to see what the gray mare was doing. As Sparkplug flicked on the lights and rushed into the room, the group noticed that they were standing outside of her workshop.

“It’s darker than a moonless night down there, and we only have two unicorns here. If we’re going to be looking around for a way to stop these ghosts, we’ll need flashlights.” Sparkplug reasoned while quickly scanning the various tables and shelves around her for flashlights.

Berry glanced back at the group gathered around her. They all realized that the gray mare was right. Assuming they didn’t find Silver Bell and Rarity right away, they would only have Twilight and Glitterball with them to provide light, essentially making it impossible to effectively split into groups to do anything productive. Copper Coil quickly rushed into the room to help the gray mare with her search. Meanwhile, the rest of the group anxiously stared down the hallway for any sign that they were being followed.

“Hurry up guys. We don’t have time to waste here!” Berry pleaded with a desperate expression while watching the two ponies zip around the room.

Sparkplug and Copper Coil looked to each other before briefly looking down to see what they had collected from their search. Three flashlights and a few batteries were all they had to show off, but they knew that the workshop didn’t hold anything else they could use without a longer search. With a frustrated shrug, the pair started exiting the room.

Before leaving the workshop entirely, Sparkplug paused as she noticed a small video camera on one of the tables. The gray mare had many models of various electronics laying around, but this one, in particular, she recognized to have night vision. She quickly grabbed the camera before continuing out of the room with her friends already running back down the hallway.

The group quickly rounded the last few corridors and started down the steps into the basement. The ponies followed Berry Swirl and her staff as they led the way toward the sub-basement stairs. However, while most of the group had no idea where they were going, the twists and turns they were taking through the halls seemed eerily familiar to the purple unicorn at the back of the group.

Twilight looked around at her surroundings with a fleeting bundle of memories welling up in her mind. She recognized the placements of many of the turns and intersections, as well as a few of the rooms passing by. She knew these hallways from somewhere, even though her tour of the building hadn’t ventured to the basement. No, her knowledge came from somewhere else.

“What’s wrong Twilight?” A concerned voice suddenly made the unicorn look beside her. Twilight saw Spike running alongside her with a worried expression on his already frightened face. Seeing the purple mare looking around with such a nervous expression must have been more than a little disconcerting for the dragon.

“Don’t worry Spike… It’s nothing.” Twilight said in as reassuring a tone she could manage while still withholding information from the dragon. She knew that the dream she had a few nights ago was more specific and troubling than she once thought, but she didn’t want to further frighten the dragon or even herself by discussing it with him.

Suddenly, the group grinded to a halt as the heavy pants and wheezes of some of their weaker members stopped behind them. Everyone turned to see Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and all four of the children standing still and trying to catch their breath.

“Can we… *Pant* can we stop running for a minute?” Scootaloo asked with an exhausted expression. She looked like she was about to pass out, and she was faring slightly better than her friends.

Twilight and the others looked around at each other while taking note of their own levels of exhaustion. While it was true that their lungs were burning and their hearts were still beating rapidly, they could probably go on running for a while longer if they were being chased. Still, they had to take a rest if their friends were struggling to continue.

“Well… it doesn’t look like they are following us right now. We’re almost to the stairway anyway, so maybe we could walk?” Berry suggested while turning to Glimmer Shine and his team for their advice. The three ponies and their human friend looked around at their exhausted group while thinking about whether or not it was safe to slow down.

“I think we can manage that. Just be ready to run if they catch up to us.” Glimmer Shine suggested in a sympathetic tone.

With a relieved sigh, the ponies started walking down the hall at a relatively relaxed pace. Twilight let Spike climb up on her back so he could rest, and Fluttershy even volunteered to carry Sweetie Belle. Although the looming tension in the air was still present, the group was confident that they would be safe as long as they kept their wits about them. At the front of the group, while Berry Swirl led the way toward the sub-basement, Sparkplug and Copper Coil were taking inventory of everything they managed to swipe from the workshop.

Twilight glanced to the two ponies as they fiddled with the three flashlights and all the batteries they had. She wondered just how useful the flashlights would be. After all, the more she thought about where she and her friends were going, the more she realized that she would probably be in the dark both literally and metaphorically.

“Do we have enough batteries for all of those?” Twilight asked in a hopeful tone. Although she had her horn to offer herself and anyone she traveled with light, she would feel better if the group had more than just her and Glitterball to provide their only method of seeing.

“Uh…” Sparkplug muttered while briefly glancing back to the unicorn. She finished inspecting her two flashlights and looked over to Copper Coil to see how he was faring. “It looks like we have just enough batteries to power all three of these flashlights. Hopefully, we won’t need more than two spares. Luckily this camera still has some juice in it too.” Sparkplug said in a pleased tone while examining the camcorder.

“Good to hear. You should get those ready because I’m sure we’ll need them soon.” Berry Swirl suggested while noting how close they were to the stairs that would take them into the extension to the building. Most of the lights were on in the hallways they were in now, but downstairs it would be pitch black.

“Where are we even going? Why are those anima-things chasin’ us?” Applebloom asked in an audibly frightened tone. Taking one look at the yellow filly and her two friends told of just how scared they were about this situation.

“We’re going to go find out how to get rid of the ghosts so the animatronics will stop, Applebloom.” Twilight explained in a reassuring tone while looking back at the filly with a sympathetic frown.

“Yeah, but where are we going? I heard you guys talking about an extension to the building, but how big can it be if it’s below us?” Scootaloo asked in a curious tone. Everyone else looked to either Berry Swirl or Glimmer Shine’s group to see if they could provide a solid answer. However, the purple mare and the team of monster hunters were unsure of what to think about the mysterious extension to the building.

“My grandfather planned to make the underground extension relatively big. As far as I know and remember, he didn’t finish it, but he probably got close. Then again, my father seems to have gone to great lengths to make sure that nobody went down there after he searched the place.” Berry said in a troubled tone. Hearing the normally cheerful mare in such a downcast state made the others sympathetic for her.

While most of the group was watching Berry Swirl and contemplating something they could say to make her feel better, a foreign noise came from up ahead of the group. The unexpected noise sounded like something falling over and bouncing along the floor. Everyone nearly jumped out of their skin and fell into a panicked hush as they all darted their heads forward toward the dark hallway ahead of them.

Berry Swirl and Copper Coil backed up slightly while Sparkplug remained where she was. Tom and Glimmer Shine slowly made their way in front of the group while Sunspot and Glitterball stayed with the others and kept a cautious eye on the hallway ahead.

“W-what is it?” Fluttershy asked timidly while looking around nervously. She could barely muster the courage to look down the hallway for fear that something terrifying would pop out of the darkness.

“I thought all of the animatronics were still behind us? How could one of them have caught up so fast and gotten ahead?” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone. The cyan mare’s question made the others wonder what was happening as well, but it didn’t make them any less afraid.

“Maybe one of the ghosts decided to face us without a suit for once?” Sunspot suggested while looking to her teammates for confirmation on her idea.

Being the only one with any ability to scan their surroundings, Tom used his senses a few times to get a better idea of what was going on. However, the same mixed array of dull readings and confusing energy traces from before were still present.

“I can’t feel anything different from before… wait… no, something is in front of us. I can’t tell what it is, though. Ugh, these readings are seriously getting on my nerves now.” Tom shrugged in a frustrated tone.

While the tension in the air was rising, the ponies stared ahead and listened silently, hoping to find their enemy before it caught them off guard. Well, before it caught them off guard any more than it already had.

Suddenly, a mismatched series of metallic clicks and footsteps came from the darkness ahead. The footsteps were erratic, sometimes taking abrupt pauses or not moving entirely for a few moments at a time. The sounds pretty much confirmed that there was an animatronic present, but the group had no idea which one it could be. All of the animatronics that were in the resort’s system had been accounted for.

The ponies could feel their collective heart rate increasing the longer the sounds went on. Even the steeliest members of the group were feeling a bit nervous, but the more sensitive people were a different story. Fluttershy was at the back of the group with the three fillies and Spike. Sweetie Belle was clinging to the yellow mare’s leg and shaking like a leaf, which harmonized perfectly with the pegasus shaking herself out of sheer fright. Scootaloo and Applebloom were faring a little bit better, but they were equally terrified despite their outward show of it. Spike was trying to poke his head around the group to see what was going on, much to his regret as he finally managed to stare at the shadowy abyss waiting for him.

After what felt like an eternity, a dark silhouette finally appeared further down the hallway. The figure was seemingly limping at first glance, but the group quickly realized that it was having trouble moving entirely, making erratic movements and sudden shifts in posture almost constantly.

Sparkplug suddenly looked down to the flashlights clutched under her foreleg and scrambled to grab one of them. She flicked on the switch, nearly blinding herself in the process as she inspected it to see if it worked, and pointed it down the hall. The cone of light traveled much further than the meager light provided by the two unicorns did, revealing a rather startling sight.

Standing in the distance was a tall animatronic dog with reddish brown fur and green eyes. He seemed to be struggling slightly to walk, but he didn’t pay any attention to that as his gaze was fixed squarely on the group of ponies.

“Oh, Sparky… not you too.” Sparkplug muttered in a saddened tone while looking at her once proud creation with a glint of fear in her eyes.

Sparky opened his mouth a short ways and let out a distorted bark. The sound was rapidly changing in pitch and even volume, ranging from a quiet and deep sound to a high pitched and ear piercing sound. The disturbing display was both terrifying and ear grating, and the group was thankful that it didn’t last long as the animatronic fell silent.

“There’s no way around him. What do we do?” Berry Swirl asked in a concerned tone while looking around at the others. Doubtlessly, the path that the animatronic dog was blocking was the path that they needed to take.

Before anyone else could speak up to try and find something to do, Tom stepped forward. The human seemed to be at least a little confident in what he was doing, or at least the ponies hoped so. Either way, he seemed eager to make sure that nobody else confronted the possessed robot.

“Don’t worry… I’ll handle this guy.” Tom said in a steely tone while sizing up his opponent.

While the crowd behind him watched in silence, the human walked closer to Sparky. The animatronic looked back at the boy with an almost confused look on his face, like he didn’t expect one person to confront him like this. He and the ponies certainly didn’t expect what happened next.

With a fierce yell, Tom suddenly charged forward and reeled back his arm while balling up his fist. In one swift movement, he ran up to the animatronic dog and aimed his strike at its head before blasting his arm forward as hard as he could.

*Thunk*

“OW!” Tom yelped in pain as a cringe-worthy crack sounded out along with the hollow sound of his fist hitting metal. Sparky’s head bent back a little bit, but otherwise, he was unscathed. Tom’s hand, on the other hand, bent at an unnatural angle and sent a mind-numbing wave of pain through him.

The ponies collectively winced as they watched their human friend clutching his hand and cradling it like it was about to fall off. Judging from the way it was limply dangling and its appearance, the comparison wasn’t too farfetched. It certainly looked broken at the very least.

“Why did you punch it?!” Sparkplug asked in a tone of disbelief while trying not to pay much attention to the human’s hand. Tom took a moment to cope with the pain he was feeling before looking back over to the group with a pained expression.

“I thought I could take it! The old model of Bonnie hurt when I punched it, but not that much!” Tom stated while making all manner of painful moans and groans, even going so far as to try and silence himself by moving around and trying to ignore the pain.

“The old models used a softer metal for their endoskeletons. We upgraded them to make them more durable.” Sparkplug explained in a sympathetic tone.

“You couldn’t have told me that like five seconds ago?!” Tom asked with a strained tone of voice.

While the human was still coping with his new injury, Sparky was progressively getting more and more annoyed. The animatronic dog let out a distorted growl and shifted his eyes into as good an upset expression as he could. Without further warning, he swiped his arm in an attempt at smacking the human, who was forced to duck to the side to dodge the strike.

Twilight and the others gasped as they saw their human friend in danger. The purple unicorn looked around and quickly realized that there wasn’t much that Glimmer Shine and his team could do to help. However, perhaps there was something she could do with her magic.

“Tom, duck!” Twilight yelled while pushing to the front of the group and charging up her horn. Tom looked at the purple mare and saw her horn bursting with energy. He quickly gathered what she was about to do and dove to the floor.

Once the human was clear of her line of fire, Twilight shot out a bolt of magic from her horn and aimed it right at the menacing animatronic. Sparky did little more than look at the ball of light as it sailed right into him, exploding into colorful sparks and sending him flying backwards a short ways.

As the dust settled, the group looked back to see Sparky lying on his back with a scorch mark on his chest. However, the unicorn’s attack didn’t seem to do very much damage to him as he started getting back up almost immediately.

Twilight widened her eyes in surprise as she realized that there wasn’t much to be done to structurally damage the animatronic dog. Charging up a more powerful attack could take several minutes, and even then it wasn’t a guarantee that it would work. Either the structural integrity of the animatronic’s metal endoskeleton would weather the blast, or the ghost inside would use its own power to keep its vessel intact.

“Glitter, help me hold him down! We need to move!” Twilight exclaimed urgently while wrapping her magic around the animatronic dog. As she expected, she already felt Sparky fighting off her magic like she wasn’t even putting effort into holding him.

“R-right!” Glitterball stammered after taking a moment to process what was happening. She rushed to use her own magic to wrap around the animatronic, being careful to actually help the purple mare rather than hinder her by making their two auras clash.

Sparky strained to lift his upper body and head off the floor as the magical field holding him grew stronger. Twilight’s purple aura and Glitterball’s blue aura melded together and combined their strengths. Even with their combined power, they couldn’t hold the animatronic for very long.

“Come on guys!” Tom said in a frantic tone while motioning for the group to follow him. The ponies took a brief look at the animatronic struggling on the floor and the two unicorns struggling to keep the robotic animal captive before realizing that time was of the essence.

While Twilight and Glitterball did their best to walk while focusing on their magical grip on Sparky, everyone quickly ran ahead. As they passed by the animatronic on the floor, they slowed down a bit and kept a nervous eye on it as they carefully walked around it.

The two unicorns were straining so much that their horns were sparking. The animatronic dog and the spirit within were proving to be too much for them to handle. They clenched their eyes shut and slowly walked forward, barely being able to hold on until they could make it past the animatronic. Tom and the others hesitated past the animatronic, with the human staying closer to ensure that the two mares made it past.

“Gah!” Glitterball fell to her knees suddenly and Twilight clutched her head as Sparky bucked upward, breaking their grip on him. The pain of their magic being overwhelmed was nearly crippling, but the fear they felt when they looked beside them and saw the animatronic looking at them while getting up dwarfed their suffering.

“Run girls!” Glimmer Shine yelled from the front of the group as he watched Sparky getting to his feet. The others gasped and widened their eyes in fear as they watched their two friends in such close proximity to danger.

Twilight shook her head and pushed through the fading headache she had to look beside her at the white mare still on the floor. She grabbed Glitterball’s foreleg and pulled her to her feet while moving forward. She didn’t even dare to look to the right to see how close Sparky was to her, but a high pitched shriek that rattled her ears and sent a shiver down her spine made her hurry her pace.

Once the two mares were running toward them with a seriously pissed off possessed animatronic right behind them, everyone else turned tail and started bolting down the hallway. They could hear the sound of metallic feet chasing them at high speed, giving them even more reason to run as fast as they could. Nobody looked back, for fear that actually confirming the dog’s location would somehow make it closer than it could have been. Everyone just kept running and silently hoped that Berry Swirl knew where she was going.

A long hallway and a left turn whizzed by without the majority of the group paying much notice, but Berry and the other members of the staff suddenly noticed just how close they were. If memory served, the stairway leading down was just ahead.

“We’re almost there! The stairs are at the end of this hallway!” Berry announced in an eager tone while glancing behind her. Everyone was glad that they were about to have a solid doorway between them and their metallic pursuer. If everyone made it into the stairwell in time, they could slam the door on Sparky and hopefully hold it closed, buying them some room to think at the very least.

Realizing that they would have no time to pause and open the door to file everyone inside, Sparkplug did her best to run ahead of the group. The gray mare saw the door at the end of the hall coming up on the bubble of light created by the unicorns behind her and made a break for it. Once she scrambled to open the door in relative darkness, she turned and motioned for everyone to hurry their pace.

“Hurry up guys, everyone down the stairs!” Sparkplug yelled while holding the door for everyone else to rush inside.

In a frantic mess, Rainbow Dash and the others quickly made sure that the kids made it inside first before helping them down the first few steps in the dark. Once all of them were inside, Tom and Glimmer Shine made sure that the rest of the group made it into the stairwell.

Just before Twilight entered the stairwell, she looked back to see if Sparky was right on top of her as she expected. However, instead of seeing an agitated animatronic in mid-leap waiting to rip into the first person it caught on landing, she saw Sparky standing still a few feet away.

“Huh?” Twilight muttered in a confused tone while pausing from surprise.

“Wait… what is he doing?” Sparkplug asked with equal confusion to the purple mare as she noticed that the animatronic dog was staying in place.

By now, several of the others had walked back up to the landing to see what had halted their friends. Once they noticed what the others were staring at, they too grew confused and wondered just what was going on.

Sparky stared at the ponies in the stairwell silently with a blank expression on his face. Much to the surprise of all those watching, he took a step backwards, and then another. The robotic animal seemed to be slowly backpedaling as if he were hesitating.

“He’s… walking away?” Sunspot said with a dumbfounded expression on her face while looking at her companions in the hopes that they had figured out some sort of explanation to the puzzling behavior of the possessed animatronic.

“I think he looks scared.” Sweetie Belle chimed in while moving to the side of the group. The others briefly looked at the filly before looking back to the animatronic. Surprisingly, the comparison wasn’t too inaccurate. Sparky seemed like he really didn’t want to go anywhere near the stairway.

“What is a ghostie afraid of?” Pinkie Pie asked in a confused tone. The question seemed innocent enough, but it brought up an unnerving thought in everyone’s mind. As everyone turned and looked back to the cobweb-ridden forgotten stairwell that they were just about to descend without a second thought, they felt a little twinge of fear building inside of them as they thought of what was waiting for them below.

“I guess we’re going to find out.” Glimmer Shine said in a blank voice while looking to the others. Everyone quickly realized that there was nothing left for them to do but go down.

The ponies slowly started making their way down the dust ridden steps. Their hooves clattered on the metal of the stairs and echoed into the darkness beneath them. Glimmer Shine closed the door at the top, sending a final noise through the air that signified that they were shut off from the bright and colorful resort upstairs. What they expected to find, and what was waiting for them down in the sub-basement, was a mystery.