Crawly

The air was quiet again as Glitterball led her two charges through the dimly lit hallways of the underground resort. Ever since they left Glimmer Shine and the others, the only noises around them had been their own footsteps and the occasional sound of lights flickering in some room beside them.

Despite the quiet atmosphere, the tension hadn’t lessened any for the three mares. With their adrenaline still returning to normal from the battle with the old model of Chica, they dreaded the thought of running into another animatronic, or something worse. After all, it took practically their whole group working together to beat a single animatronic that was broken to begin with, and if they were attacked by something else, Glitterball’s strobe and her other equipment was still upstairs with everything else her team had brought to fight ghosts. For all intents and purposes, they were up a creek without a paddle, and there were vicious piranhas circling the water beneath them.

“Keep close. I think we’re almost back to the security room.” Glitterball announced from the front of the group. The news that they were close to a safe haven was certainly comforting to the ponies.

“So… you guys have a plan for dealing with the ghosts yet?” Sparkplug asked curiously, eliciting the other two to pause and face her.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked with a confused expression.

“Well, obviously right now we’re just trying to find Silver and the others and get the group back together, but what are you going to do after that? I mean… you don’t exactly have anything to shoot the ghosts with.” Sparkplug said while noting the white unicorn and her lack of equipment.

Glitterball briefly looked down and sighed as she saw only her own body without any sort of protection or tools. “I think clearing out ghosts is a little more complicated than just shooting them, Sparkplug.” Glitter explained with a slight smirk and a chuckle. “But, I do see your point. Even if we had our strobes, that wouldn’t do us much good in the long run. Even if we could get the ghosts out of the animatronics and see them for long enough to get a clear shot, that probably wouldn’t get rid of them permanently.” She said in a more troubled tone.

“Ok then… how do you normally get rid of ghosts?” Sparkplug asked with genuine interest and curiosity. However, the white unicorn seemed hesitant to answer the question.

“Umm… well… we don’t really have much experience with ghosts. We’ve only… *ahem* had two cases where we’ve dealt with them. The normal practice for getting rid of a ghost is to find their remains and burn them, but we had to use other means when we encountered them due to special circumstances.” Glitterball explained while also trying to mull over how they were going to handle the situation with the ghosts they were currently dealing with.

“I’m guessing this would be a special circumstance considering there aren’t any bodies around here… at least I hope there aren’t bodies around here somewhere.” Sparkplug said uneasily, giving the area around her a brief search for good measure.

Glitter nodded pensively. “Right… that is the problem. We don’t have equipment to work with… and removing ghosts without burning the bodies is hard, even without that handicap. I would suggest that Tom could get rid of them, but I don’t think his spirit weapons can actually kill a ghost… so to speak.” She pondered out loud with a frustrated expression.

“Maybe they can?” Twilight chimed in. “The example we’re both thinking of wasn’t really a picture of standard ghosts. Those three that we dealt with back at the mansion were enhancing themselves with magic, so they were really strong.” She added curiously.

Glitterball groaned as she hit another mental dead end. The time spent thinking about such a frustrating topic was starting to get to the white unicorn. “Ugh… let’s worry about that later. Right now we… Oh, we’re here!” Glitter exclaimed eagerly as she saw the familiar sight of the security room door just down the hallway.

Twilight and Sparkplug smiled brightly as they watched their white companion rush over to the closed door. As they walked over to join her, Glitter knocked on the door a few times to let the group inside know they were waiting.

“Guys, open up… It’s us.” Glitterball announced impatiently while trying to listen for any sign that someone heard her. After a brief wait, the trio heard the sound of the door unlocking and stepped back as it swung open.

As the door opened, a familiar cyan pegasus was left standing in the doorway with a group of curious onlookers behind her. Once they saw the three mares outside, everyone in the small room smiled cheerfully.

“Thank goodness you guys are alright. Hurry up and get in here.” Rainbow Dash said while ushering the trio into the safety of the security office. Glitterball and the others quickly walked inside and out of the eerie hallways. As they did, the cyan pegasus closed the door again and locked it.

Twilight and Sparkplug immediately went over to their colleagues and friends and shared a warm embrace. The group was elated to see the two mares return unharmed, especially after hearing about their run in with another possessed animatronic.

“Twilight! I’m so glad to see you!” Spike said cheerfully while rushing up to the purple unicorn and hugging her leg.

“Spike… I’m glad to see you too.” Twilight replied while smiling and wrapping a foreleg around the young dragon.

“You guys had us worried for a while there. I’m glad to see you made it back in one piece, Sparkplug.” High Tide said while offering the gray mare a pat on the back.

“Aww… I didn’t know you cared so much, High Tide. Your soft spot is showing you big aquatic teddy bear you.” Sparkplug smirked while playfully nudging the stallion, who chuckled shyly in return.

Meanwhile, while the two mares were being welcomed back by their friends, Glitterball was already fast at work with looking over the floor map. The white unicorn quickly scanned over the map before going through a grouping of papers scattered around the office.

“Hey, where are the others?” Fluttershy asked curiously while noting the absence of the unicorn’s two teammates and their human companion.

“They’re trying to find keys to the stairwell gate, and I’m trying to help them. We found Applejack’s hat on the other side of the gate, so we think they went downstairs.” Glitterball replied without looking up from her work.

“You mean they really are down here?” Applebloom asked eagerly while looking to the hat Twilight had been carrying with her. The filly had seen it right as the three mares entered the room, and she was wondering why the unicorn had something so dear to her sister.

Twilight knelt down and floated the hat over to the yellow filly. Once Applebloom accepted the relatively oversized hat, the purple mare flashed a reassuring smile and tried her best to appear as confident as she felt. “They probably left Applejack’s hat on the stairs to let us know they were down there. We’ll find them in no time once we find those keys.” Twilight said in a hopeful tone.

“How long will it take to find the keys?” Sweetie Belle asked with a more hesitant expression on her face. It seemed that the young unicorn wasn’t as uplifted by the news that the missing ponies were close by. In fact, it seemed like she was still just as concerned for their safety as she was before.

“Hopefully not long…” Glitterball spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention to her. The unicorn was looking over a stack of papers while also looking at the map on the wall. After a moment, she put her hoof on her ear and an aura of blue light surrounded it as she focused on communicating with her teammates. “Hey, Glimmer Shine. We made it back to the security office.” Glitter announced while still looking back and forth between the map and her papers.

After a short wait, she heard the yellow stallion speaking up. “Good to hear, Glitter.” Glimmer Shine said in a pleased tone.

“I don’t suppose you guys have had any luck with finding the keys?” Glitterball asked with guarded optimism. The audible sigh on the other end of the communication spell pretty much confirmed what she already knew.

“Unfortunately, no… it’s nothing but empty rooms and disappointment over here.” Glimmer Shine explained in a deflated tone.

“Putting extra emphasis on disappointment in this case…” Sunspot chimed in with an equally aggravated tone of passive annoyance.

“I might be able to help you guys out in that department… I’m currently staring at a lengthy amount of paperwork, notes, and other things strewn around the office.” Glitterball explained while flipping through the various pages in front of her.

“Sounds fun… is there anything on the keys there?” Sunspot asked curiously.

“Not directly… but there are some mentions in here of important things being kept in a few places. Where are you guys right now?” Glitterball asked while looking to the map expectantly.

“Uh…” Glimmer Shine paused briefly while trying to figure out where he was in relation to the map. “I think we’re like one hallway past the stairwell… I believe that was on the left side of the map.”

Glitterball traced her hoof along the map until she found the stairwell. She then quickly found a path down to one of the locations she singled out in the stack of papers. “Ok… first place you should check is an office used by Berry’s grandfather. Follow the hallway you’re in away from the stairwell. Pass every intersection you come across until you can’t go straight anymore. Go left and head two intersections down, and it should be the fourth door on your right.” Glitter explained in a semi-confident tone.

“Got it… we’ll head there and get back to you if we find something.” Glimmer Shine said before falling silent. Glitterball nodded, even though the stallion obviously couldn’t see her. She briefly glanced to the eager crowd listening behind her and wondered just how crazy she looked talking to herself.

“The others are looking for the keys in an office my grandfather used?” Berry Swirl asked curiously, wondering what was on the other side of the conversation she just heard.

“That’s right… I’m sure we can swing you by there after all of this is over if you like.” Glitterball suggested in a sympathetic tone, to which the purple earth pony shrugged.

“I’m not sure if I would want to… Thanks for offering though.” Berry said while managing to flash a brief smile.

Meanwhile, while everyone else was wondering what to do next while they waited for the trio out in the halls to find the keys to the stairs, a group of fillies was huddling together around their yellow friend. Applebloom quietly sat on the floor while holding her sister’s hat and looking at it longingly. She wondered if the orange mare was ok. The filly wasn’t concerned about Rarity and Silver Bell, and not for the reasons one might think. She knew full well that her big sister wouldn’t allow her two friends to come to any harm if they were in danger, and that worried Applebloom a little bit. If Applejack risked her life to protect her friends, what if something bad happened?

“Hey… are you ok, Applebloom?” Scootaloo asked in a soft tone while trying to level with her gloomy friend.

“I… I don’t know…” Applebloom replied with a hesitant tone while stifling a sniffle. “I just want to see my sister again.” She added while hugging the leathery hat closer to her body.

Seeing the yellow filly in such distress made the other crusaders frown sadly. Sweetie Belle was worried about her sister as well, but perhaps seeing her sister’s hat and thinking more about the situation was making Applebloom even more upset than usual. Still, they were unsure of what they could do to cheer her up. The young earth pony was usually the one to cheer them up, not the other way around.

“Hey… why so upset, Applebloom?” The three fillies looked up suddenly as they heard Pinkie Pie speaking up. Sure enough, they saw the pink mare walking over to them with a reassuring expression on her face. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle felt relieved now that the resident party pony was trying to brighten up their friend’s spirits. If anyone could cheer up Applebloom, it was Pinkie Pie.

“I don’t wanna’ talk about it… thinkin’ about it is bad enough.” Applebloom replied in an uninterested tone while turning away and clutching her sister’s hat close to her body.

Unphased by the gloomy filly’s attempt at avoiding her, Pinkie walked over and sat down next to her. “Aw, come on. There’s nothing bad to think about. I’m sure that Applejack and the others will be back here in no time! Do you really want your big sis to see you like this when she walks through that door?” Pinkie asked while pointing out the filly’s greatly oversized frown.

“I… *Sniff*… I guess not.” Applebloom said while wiping away the small buildup of tears in her eyes. She managed to shift her expression to a more blank one instead of a frown. Although it wasn’t outright a smile, it was a step in the right direction.

“That’s better. Now, how about we find something to keep you occupied while we wait for the others to find those keys so they can go get your sister? I know the perfect game we could play.” Pinkie suggested with a slight smirk.

“I don’t know Pinkie… I don’t think I’m in the mood for a game.” Applebloom said while trying to sound less upset than she was before. Unfortunately for her, the pink mare wasn’t having any of her refusals.

“Don’t be silly! Come on, let’s get up and have some fun! Anybody can join in if they want… we’re gonna play some party games!” Pinkie said while grabbing the gloomy filly and pulling her to her feet. Applebloom reluctantly played along as her two friends and a few of the other people in the room walked over to the pink mare while she prepared to explain the rules of their first game.

-Earlier-

“Got it… we’ll head there and get back to you if we find something.” Glimmer Shine said with a nod before removing his hoof from his ear and turning to the hallway he was in. His two companions were standing idly next to him while he finished talking with Glitterball.

“Berry’s grandfather had an office down here, eh?” Tom asked with an intrigued tone.

“Yep… and apparently that’s the most likely place that we would find the keys.” Glimmer replied confidently.

“Well, what are we waiting for? The sooner we find those keys, the sooner we can find the others and sort out this mess.” Sunspot suggested eagerly while starting down the hallway. Tom and Glimmer Shine shared the orange mare’s desire to get out of this dimly lit dirt hole as soon as possible.

With their goal set, the trio walked onwards toward the very end of the hallway they were in. Although they had cleared many of the rooms behind and around them, they were rapidly approaching the threshold of new territory, and with new territory, came new threats.

The light fixtures above provided a somewhat comfortable view of the hallways and rooms around them, but they seemed very strained and looked as if the ones that were working could fizzle out at any moment. When the area wasn’t being bathed in dim, yellow light, it was back to the familiar darkness that had greeted the group when they first arrived down in the abandoned halls of the resort. However, with light to contrast with the darkness, it seemed far worse now than it was before.

After traversing the quiet corridors for the better part of five minutes, the trio finally saw a wall up ahead that blocked their progress straight forward. There was a door to the right that most likely led into a supply closet, and more importantly, there was a fork to the left leading into another hallway.

“Alright, we’re almost there. Glitter said it would be four doors to the right after two intersections, right?” Sunspot asked to confirm her own remembrance of the unicorn’s directions.

“That’s right… hopefully, the keys are in there.” Tom replied with guarded optimism.

“Why do you always need to jinx things?” Sunspot asked while sighing at the human and his eagerness to say the first thing that came to mind.

“You know, drawing attention to the jinx only makes it worse.” Tom added in a facetious tone, eliciting a stare of disbelief from the orange pegasus.

“Will you two knock it off? There’s no such thing as jinxes… at least not in the sense you’re talking about.” Glimmer Shine said with an annoyed expression. Before anyone else could even get in another word, the stallion walked ahead and turned the corner, leaving the pair behind.

“Nonbelievers always get the worst karmic retribution…” Sunspot muttered quietly while turning to her human companion. Tom nodded to himself while following the orange mare as she trotted to keep up with their leader.

As the pair rounded the corner and met up with Glimmer Shine, they found him standing before a wall of darkness. Apparently, the only working light in the hallways ahead was the one they were currently standing under. Although the lights were only a recent comfort, the group was hesitant to leave the relative safety that they provided.

“*Sigh*… I guess we shouldn’t have expected all of the lights to work in this place... Flashlights out guys.” Glimmer Shine suggested while flicking on his own flashlight and pointing it down the hall. Tom and Sunspot shrugged in annoyance and turned on their own lights. Now that they had three spotlights of visibility between them, they pressed onwards in search of the office.

This area of the resort was full of hotel rooms and staff rooms, with the guest rooms being on the left side of the hall, and everything else being on the right. The rooms they were passing were pretty standard fair. There was a lounge and a set of restrooms, along with a few supply closets. Soon enough, the first intersection appeared at the edge of the cones of light scanning through the hall.

Around the time they were making a mental note of their progress, the ponies and their human companion noticed a faint smell drifting through the air up ahead. As they got closer to the apparent source, the smell grew in intensity and became rather unpleasant.

“Oh… sweet Celestia, what is that?” Sunspot asked in a disgusted tone while covering her mouth with her foreleg. The smell was getting more and more pungent and unbearable the more they walked forward, and it was strikingly familiar to all but the orange pegasus.

“Smells like more ectoplasm…” Glimmer Shine noted while scanning his flashlight around to locate the source of the smell. Sure enough, there were traces and streaks of the inky black substance along the right wall up by the intersection.

“Ectoplasm? You mean that weird ghost snot from the books?” Sunspot asked while still trying to find a way to breathe without hurling from the strong odor. Judging from her strained voice and nauseous expression, she wasn’t having much success.

“So you were paying attention…” Glimmer Shine raised an eyebrow in surprise. “But yeah… if that’s the way you want to put it. Ghost snot…” He added with a dismissive expression while returning his attention to the black substance on the walls.

As the trio walked closer to the intersection, they could see more of the dark goop on the walls and even on the ceiling. The black substance was mostly in thin trails along the walls and ceiling leading in a relatively straight path, but in some places, it was laid on much thicker. In fact, it looked like the ectoplasm was leading into an open doorway on the right.

The splintering trail of black filth ended on the wall before the intersection, but there was more of it on the other side, and it was definitely meeting at the first doorway and leading inside the room. The smell was far too overwhelming for this small amount of the substance, so the trio wagered that there was more nearby.

“Why is there so much of this stuff? Tom said that only powerful spirits can make ectoplasm in the first place.” Glimmer Shine thought out loud while trying to find out what the purpose behind the inky mess was.

“Well, whatever made this mess it looks like it went in there.” Sunspot pointed out while motioning toward the doorway. The faint glimpses they could get of the room within were bathed in ominous shadow, and they couldn’t see much more without getting closer.

Since their goal was still further ahead, the trio had to keep going. Cautiously they inched forward while hugging the left side of the hallway. If something was going to jump out at them, they wanted to give it a healthy amount of space to give them as much time to react as possible.

Tom slowed his pace while observing the many streaks of ectoplasm in deep thought. In all of his experiences with the paranormal, he had never seen ectoplasm being left in trails before. The most defined formation of the stuff he was used to seeing was a small puddle barely an inch thick, but this stuff seemed to be plastered on the wall as liberally as paint. “What kind of ghost leaves this much ectoplasm…?” The human muttered to himself while tracing the lines of black gunk with his hand.

“Psst… Tom!” Sunspot whispered frantically, causing the human to look over, only to find the two ponies huddled outside of the doorway ahead.

“What’s wrong?” Tom asked in a hushed tone of concern while walking toward the pair slowly.

“I think there’s something in there… it looks like it might be another animatronic.” Glimmer Shine said while nudging toward the room.

Tom silently approached the two ponies as they cautiously peered into the room. They didn’t even point their flashlights forward for fear of alerting the ominous shape they were watching. As he got closer to the room in question, the human began to feel a cold chill going down his spine.

Finally reaching the pair huddled next to the door, Tom leaned around them and looked in the room. There was nothing more than pitch blackness greeting him inside, with only a threshold of dim visibility from the flashlights illuminating the hallway to the side. Sunspot pointed her hoof toward what was presumably the corner of the room, and that was when he saw it.

There was a small silhouette sitting in the darkness toward the back of the room. It was so close to the cutoff of light that it seemed to blend into the wall of black nothingness. Glimmer Shine prepared to switch his flashlight on to inspect the shadowy figure, but before he could, a shrill hiss filled the air as Tom’s senses went off.

…Hi…

A high pitched, almost child-like voice came from the back of the room where the silhouette was. Around the time the group processed their reactions to the voice and Glimmer Shine turned his flashlight to spot the silhouette, Tom’s eyes widened and his face paled.

Suddenly, the human shoved both of the ponies back around the corner of the doorway. They barely managed to catch a glimpse of the figure as the light from the flashlight fell on it for a brief moment. Tom had moved so quickly and urgently that he actually knocked the yellow stallion’s flashlight out of his hoof.

“Don’t look at it!” Tom yelled while keeping himself between the two ponies and the room. The pair was understandably confused and more than a little bit concerned with the human’s sudden strange behavior.

“What’s wrong, Tom? It’s just a ghost.” Sunspot said, looking at the human with a surprised expression.

“That thing is not a ghost.” Tom explained while looking over his shoulder in a paranoid fashion.

“What?” Both ponies asked in a surprised and mildly alarmed tone. They glanced toward the room and felt a slight twinge of unease urging them to look away.

“*Sigh*… you can look at it, just don’t look in its eyes whatever you do.” Tom said while stepping out of the way and motioning for the pair to come closer.

Sunspot and Glimmer Shine looked at each other briefly before letting their curiosity take over as they slowly stepped forward. They huddled around the doorway with the human and watched as he cautiously moved his flashlight over to the corner in a slow and steady fashion.

Their brief glimpse of the animatronic had been enough to see most of its form and color palette, but actually seeing it in the light was more than a little unnerving. Sitting by itself in the corner was what appeared to be an animatronic made to resemble a young colt. It had tan fur with orange hair, and its orange cheeks and nose were obviously cartoony and plastic looking. It was wearing blue pants and a red and blue striped shirt, with a little propeller hat with a matching pattern and an orange cap on top. Stuck in its stiff and unmoving block of a hoof was a hard plastic string leading up to a fake balloon. Its other hoof was held up and to the side, and it was holding a sign that aptly read “balloons!”

On top of the faded colors on its body due to age, the animatronic was almost covered from head to tail in ectoplasm. The inky black substance wasn’t very thick, but it was strewn everywhere on the colt’s plastic body. The black goop everywhere made even the dimmest colors on the animatronic pop by comparison, especially its bright goofy smile and glowing yellow eyes, which were surprisingly hard to avoid looking at.

The ponies felt a wave of dread and unease washing over them as they looked at the animatronic, almost like it was radiating a disturbing aura of fear and discomfort. They could see the piercing yellow eyes out of the corner of their vision, and they felt a deep chill in their bones as they even started to move their gaze closer to the soulless dots. Strangely though, they also felt a faint and morbidly curious desire to look the animatronic in the eyes, even though the mere thought terrified them.

“Tom… if that isn’t a ghost, what is it?” Glimmer Shine asked in a hushed tone, growing more uneasy by the minute. Although the animatronic hadn’t made a move to indicate that it had noticed them aside from its brief and eerie greeting, the ponies didn’t want to startle it or make it mad.

The human swallowed uncomfortably while briefly looking at the robotic colt. He seemed to be dreading whatever he was about to explain as he was thinking about it. Finally, he turned to the ponies with a serious expression. “Back when humans were still the dominant species on the planet, and the ghosts primarily found in the world were human, we called these things inhuman spirits,” Tom explained with a quiet tone. “Truth be told… nobody in the business of monster hunting or paranormal investigation knew what they were… not even slayers really know where they came from or what they are. We used to think they were demons… but they’re just… denizens of the ghost realm I guess. They’re drawn to locations that have had incredibly traumatic and violent events occur, most likely to feed off of the negative energy.” He said with a troubled expression while keeping a wary eye on the animatronic off in the corner.

“Inhuman spirits, huh? That’s… not creepy at all.” Glimmer Shine said while trying to play off his nerves.

“Geez, my head hurts… I think that thing is giving me a headache.” Sunspot noted while clutching her head. Ever since she laid eyes on the animatronic, a dull throbbing and tingling had been building in her head.

“I’m not surprised… try not to look at it for too long. Inhuman spirits are wicked powerful… and they are practically unpredictable. They can mess with your head if you have a line of sight on them… especially if you make eye contact.” Tom explained in a concerned manner.

“So… uh…” Sunspot paused nervously as the animatronic let out a high-pitched chuckle, only to fall silent again. “How do we deal with Mr. Freaky over there?” She asked with a nervous laugh herself. As much as she usually liked to take control of the situation, she had no idea what to do here.

“These things are hell to deal with in a controlled environment…” Tom said while taking a brief look to the hallways outside. “For the moment, let’s just leave him alone and keep looking for the keys.” He said with a dreadful expression, eager to move away from the strange entity.

“What…? You just want to leave that thing free to waltz around?” Sunspot stated in a shocked tone while still keeping her voice down. Even if it wasn’t moving, she felt like the animatronic might get up and run after her if she spoke up.

“Trust me on this one… you don’t want to open that can of worms. Just give these things a wide berth for now and let me deal with it later. Hopefully, it will stay where it is if we leave it alone.” Tom suggested in a serious manner.

“Tom’s right… we should get going.” Glimmer Shine said while nodding in agreement to the human’s plan, much to the dismay of the orange pegasus.

“But… but… Glimmer, you can’t be serious!” Sunspot said while shaking her head in disbelief.

“Look, Sunspot… normally I would agree with you, but we’re out of our element here, and we don’t have our strobes. If Tom is the only one here keeping that thing from eating our faces off, then I’m inclined to follow his lead if he says he doesn’t want to poke the big scary thing with a stick. Besides, Applejack and Rarity are stuck downstairs right now, and this place just got more dangerous. We need to find those keys.” Glimmer Shine suggested with a serious expression.

Sunspot shrugged in frustration while looking back to the animatronic colt sitting off in the corner. He seemed to be staying put, and even though he was looking right at them with his piercing yellow eyes, the robotic pony didn’t seem to be interested in moving closer to them. “Ok… but I am reserving the right to say I told you so if this thing is breathing down our necks in five minutes.” Sunspot said while walking away from the room and toward the rest of the hallway. The human and the yellow stallion offered one last paranoid glance to the animatronic, which was quietly chuckling to itself in a distorted voice, before walking away to join their friend.

After hurrying their pace to distance themselves from the room behind them, the trio continued down the hallway while resolving to keep a wary eye on their surrounding area just in case the entity decided to follow them.

Thankfully, once they reached the end of the trails of ectoplasm on the wall, the smell started to die down as no more of the black substance came into view in the distance. Sunspot and Glimmer Shine were certainly glad to be able to breathe relatively fresh air again. It was only their first and second time encountering ectoplasm respectively, but they already hoped that they never saw more of the inky mess in their lives. Somehow, however, they had a feeling that they would run into more during their stay in the abandoned resort.

Another intersection came and went, and the group’s spirits lifted as they neared their destination. Looking to their right and counting four doors down in their heads, they finally laid eyes on what would hopefully be the door to Berry’s grandfather’s office beyond the reach of their flashlights.

“Alright… we’re here!” Sunspot announced eagerly while trotting over to the door. Sure enough, there was some faded lettering etched into the door that read “Cotton Swirl”.

Tom and Glimmer Shine waited as their orange companion reached for the door handle and prepared to enter. Their excitement practically deflated as they heard the sound of the door catching on something and saw Sunspot’s smile vanishing.

“Let me guess… locked or blocked from the inside?” Tom asked in a dull tone.

“*Sigh* none of the above… feels like it’s stuck.” Sunspot replied while giving the door an agitated kick as she stepped away with a displeased expression.

Tom stepped forward and tried the door. The two ponies gave the human some room as he started pushing on the door with all of his might. After numerous attempts at forcing it open, and even a shoulder barge or two, everyone quickly realized that they had run into a literal and metaphorical dead end.

“Great… what do we do now?” Tom asked in a frustrated tone while turning to his two companions, hopeful that they had a plan of action.

“I’ll call Glitter and see if she can help us out.” Glimmer Shine said while struggling to maintain a positive outlook. He put a hoof up to his ear and focused on the white unicorn back in the security office until he felt the connection go through. Tom and Sunspot cupped their own ears to listen in on the conversation. “Hey, Glitter…?” Glimmer spoke up curiously. After a brief pause, the unicorn spoke up in response.

“Yeah, I’m here. What’s up?” Glitterball asked curiously, blissfully unaware of the roadblock that her teammates were about to inform her of.

“We’ve run into a bit of a snag. The door to the office is stuck, and we can’t get it open.” Glimmer explained with an unimpressed tone.

“Oh… uh… give me a sec.” Glitterball muttered while presumably flipping through some papers judging from the sound bleeding through her end. After a few moments, the trio heard the white mare exclaim with accomplishment. “Ah, here we go… looks like there’s a workshop next to the office… should be where you came from. If I’m not mistaken, it looks like it should connect right to the office from inside. Maybe you can get in through there?” Glitter suggested optimistically. Although the unicorn’s plan wasn’t exactly a surefire solution, it was promising enough to make her teammates smile.

The trio pointed their flashlights off to the side to where they came from. Sure enough, there was another door a few feet away that looked like it belonged to some sort of workshop. It was metallic instead of wooden, and it looked like it was somewhat soundproof. If the distance between the two doors was any indication of the size of the room, then the workshop must have been a decent size.

“Thanks, Glitter, you’re a lifesaver. We’ll get back to you if we find anything.” Glimmer Shine stated in a cheerful tone, eliciting a shy chuckle and most likely an unseen smirk from the unicorn.

“Right… Good luck guys.” Glitterball said before falling silent, having dropped her end of the call.

With their goal within reach, the trio eagerly walked over to the metallic door and stood before it. Glimmer Shine hesitantly grabbed the bar that served as the door handle and pulled. Thankfully, the door slid open, letting out a gentle wave of cool air and revealing an expanse of darkness and obscured silhouettes inside.

While the stallion held the door open, Sunspot and Tom slowly stepped inside and examined the area with their flashlights. They were surprised to see just how big the room was. The workshop was roughly the same size, if not a little bigger, of Sparkplug’s work area upstairs, although this place was laid out horizontally instead of vertically.

Much like the gray mare’s workspace, this room held numerous tables spaced out along the walls of the room and even two rows spaced out along the middle. The tables held all manner of objects, ranging from tools and bits of mechanical equipment to pieces of animatronic endoskeletons or even half completed animatronics. To their right on a table at the back of the room, there was a purple humanoid rabbit animatronic that resembled Bonnie in all regards except for color. Off in the corner was a mostly completed prototype of Chica, or at least the group assumed that it was a prototype due to roughly half of the animatronic’s colorful plastic exterior not being assembled. There were two more pony-shaped animatronics, a purple and blue raccoon and a green dog, sitting on various tables that had pieces of their shells sitting next to them as if they were still being assembled. However, the most complete looking animatronic was on the floor to the left side of the room leaning against a table. This animatronic was a brown and white doe that was another pony shaped model.

After holding the door open to let their yellow companion into the room, the group let the door shut and cautiously settled into the center area. The many animatronics and endoskeletons in the room set the trio on edge almost immediately. They seemed to be inactive for now, but that could change at any moment.

“Hey… look over there! It looks like another door.” Sunspot said eagerly while pointing her flashlight over to the left side of the room. Just beyond the center row of interspaced tables, there was another metallic door at the back wall.

“That’s probably our ticket into the office… Fingers crossed that it isn’t locked.” Tom stated with hopeful optimism.

“I think you’re going to have to do that on your own pal.” Glimmer Shine said in passing while walking through the room toward the back. Realizing that he was surrounded by quadrupedal talking ponies, the human shrugged before following the yellow stallion’s lead.

The floor space in the workshop was crowded, to say the least. Although the various tables were spaced a fair amount apart and there should have been plenty of room, there was junk and other items littering the floor, seemingly having fallen off of the tables and bounced or rolled a short ways. The group stepped around or over whatever got in their way to the best of their ability.

“I don’t need any detector to tell me this place is haunted… this place would be haunted even if it wasn’t haunted.” Sunspot said while carefully stepping around the deer animatronic slumped against one of the tables. Its cold and lifeless pink eyes made the orange mare so uneasy that she nearly bumped into a nearby paint can while maintaining eye contact with it.

“Ignoring the fact that that doesn’t make any sense… did you really expect anything less?” Tom asked curiously.

“He’s got a point there, Sunspot.” Glimmer Shine stated while making his way over to the door. His two companions stood behind him and waited in quiet anticipation for him to test the door. “Welp… here goes nothing.” Glimmer said while grabbing the door and tugging on it. The pair behind him was already making a silent bet on whether or not the door was locked.

As the stallion pulled on the door, it miraculously popped open. Waiting for them inside was another dark room, although this one was considerably smaller than the one they were currently in. Due to the presence of a desk and a chair, the trio surmised this to be the office they were looking for.

With a victorious smirk shared between them, they stepped inside and looked around the area. Spotting a small doorstopper on the floor, Glimmer Shine left the door to the workshop propped open to keep an eye on their only escape route.

The room wasn’t too large, with the desk in the middle and two bookshelves against the back wall taking up most of the space. There was what looked to be a painting between the two bookshelves, but it was hard to tell what it depicted due to a thick covering of dust obscuring it from view. There were also several filing cabinets and other containers dotted around the area, increasing the potential hiding places for the elusive keys.

“Let’s get to it, guys… if the keys are in here, I want them found yesterday.” Glimmer Shine said in a serious tone, receiving a nod in response from his two companions.

Tom flipped a nearby light switch up and down to test it. As expected, the lightbulb overhead remained inactive and the room remained dark, save for the three flashlights cutting into the shadows. The next item of interest was a small reading lamp on the desk. While her two teammates were still looking around, Sunspot walked up to the desk and pushed a button on the side of the lamp. Much to her surprise, the lamp turned on, bathing the immediate area of the desk in relatively comfortable lighting while leaving the rest of the room in dim light.

“Keys… keys, keys, keys…” Sunspot muttered to herself while briefly scanning around the desk. As her eyes settled on the top of the desk itself, she noticed what appeared to be a machine of some sort sitting on it. “Huh…? Hey guys, check this out.” The orange mare announced while waving her two companions to the center of the room.

Tom and Glimmer Shine examined the curious device their teammate had pointed out. The machine had an area that resembled a tape deck, and it had several buttons that looked like simplistic controls for something that required fast forwarding and rewinding.

“Looks like a cassette player... and check that out, it looks like it might still work.” Tom noted while pointing out a small red light on the machine. Thanks to the player drawing power from a nearby outlet, it didn’t have the opportunity to be ruined by batteries corroding over time.

“Hmm… that might come in handy. Be on the lookout for some tapes.” Glimmer Shine suggested before walking back over to the side of the room he was previously searching.

While her two teammates looked all around the area for the keys, Sunspot started rifling through the drawers of the desk. Although many of them had locks on them, they were thankfully left unlocked and free to search.

One drawer held a pile of papers that looked far too uninteresting and tedious to even read through. Another held some office supplies, particularly a used up stapler and the remnants of a marker pen. Still no sign of the keys she was looking for or even any keys at all. Even the jump in excitement she would get in finding a set of keys, only to find that they were the wrong set would be welcomed at this point.

The final drawer slid open, yielding the same low expectations that the other drawers had gotten from the orange mare. However, something caught her eye amid the miscellaneous junk and lengthy bits of paper.

“Now we’re talking.” Sunspot smirked triumphantly while grabbing the small tape cassette and holding it up proudly. She examined it, only to find a label similar to the other tapes. From what she remembered from briefly looking at the dates on the other tapes, this one was a few weeks after the last one she heard. “Hey, I found a tape. Maybe it can tell us something useful?” Sunspot suggested eagerly. Her two companions merely offered her a brief glance while they were still searching for the keys.

“Go ahead and try it on the machine. Hopefully, it works.” Glimmer Shine said while going through a filing cabinet.

Sunspot shrugged while shifting her attention to the machine on the desk. After spending a few moments deciphering the many buttons on the device, she popped open the tape deck and slid the cassette inside.

Hitting the rewind button yielded no results. The orange mare was concerned that either the tape or the player wasn’t working. Reluctantly, she pressed the play button in the hopes that someone before her had already rewound the tape. Soon enough, the familiar crackle of an aged cassette playing filled the office and a familiar voice spoke up in an informal manner.

“*Krrzt* It’s Friday the fifth already. Summer came and went faster than I remember… ah well, time flies as they say. It’s time for another update on our progress down here. Not much has been going on in terms of progress. We’ve mostly got the first and second floor painted and furnished. We would have been done with the third floor, but we keep running into complications. As of now, we have the flooring and the walls finished everywhere, and we’ve started painting a lot of the rooms.” Straight Ruler reported in an awkward monotone. Despite how many logs he had made, he still wasn’t used to speaking into a recorder from the sound of it.

“Who is that?” Tom asked curiously while briefly looking up from his search.

“It’s the Forman of the construction project. We found some other tapes back in the security room and listened to them… That’s how we found out about the generator.” Sunspot explained before returning her attention to the tape.

“In other news, the boss just wrapped up the first official public testing of the animatronics. In a word… it didn’t go well. The animatronic did fine, and I was actually pretty impressed… but apparently, some parents can’t keep their kids in line. A couple kids tore the thing apart… I don’t even know how they did it… I guess the connections or whatever weren’t as solid as they could have been. However it happened, that pink and white fox thing is trashed. Mr. Swirl had me help with carrying it back down here. It’s in his workshop if anyone wants to see it. It’s almost sad and funny to look at how mangled it is. The boss is taking it in his stride… I guess he’ll put them together better and kid-proof them this time. *Sigh*… speaking of people messing with things, we still haven’t found out who’s been stealing tools from the site. All three floors keep having things go missing… it’s mostly small stuff, but it gets costly over time, and it keeps happening. Boss has come up with a solution. Since nobody is coming forward, and we don’t want to go on a changeling hunt, we’ve decided to monitor who goes on what floor and what tools they use. We’ve decided to do this by installing gates on the stairs and locking them. We’ve also made some designated areas to store tools, and we will have someone watching them at all times. Workers will have to check out their tools from these locations and check them back in when they are finished with them. As for the keys to the gates, the new tool room personnel and the security offices should have them on hoof. In a pinch, I know the boss will have a set for each floor in his office.*Krrzt*” The tape ended, leaving the room in silence as the group processed what they just listened to.

“Sounds like there are some keys in here after all.” Glimmer Shine said in a pleased tone.

Now that they had confirmation that the keys should have been in the room, everyone put even more effort into their search efforts. Sunspot tore through the rest of the drawers in the desk. Tom sifted through the various filing cabinets and boxes on the right side of the room. And over on the left side of the room, Glimmer Shine was turning the place upside down in his attempts at finding anything even resembling a key.

Stacks of paper and folders were flying through the air, only to smack into the floor or a nearby wall. Office supplies and other items were littering the area as the trio scoured over every square inch of the room. No matter where they looked or how hard they did it, they couldn’t find the keys.

“Ugh… what the hay?!” Sunspot exclaimed in frustration while looking to her companions for suggestions on where to search. One look at the blank and agitated expressions on their faces, along with the room being completely overturned, told her that they had searched pretty much everywhere.

“Where the hell are those keys?” Tom asked while looking around and sighing. If the keys weren’t in the office, then they were essentially back at square one. Still, they had to find the keys. Applejack, Rarity, and Silver Bell’s lives potentially depended on them being able to get downstairs. As reluctant as they were to admit defeat, the trio had drawn a collective blank.

*Clang*

The echoed sound of something clattering to the floor suddenly sprang to life, startling the group into silence. They looked in the direction of the still open door back into the workshop where the foreign noise came from. The dim light from the office barely allowed them to see any shapes or silhouettes past the doorway, but something had made that noise. These rooms had been left to settle for decades, so there was no way any items could have fallen by chance. The trio was not alone anymore.

Needing someone to take action and assess the situation, Glimmer Shine broke through the hesitant feeling in the air and stepped forward with his flashlight at the ready. Sunspot and Tom quickly and silently followed the yellow stallion into the other room.

The group swiftly scanned their flashlights around the area to search for anything amiss. Everything seemed normal at first glance, but then they noticed a red spot on the wall, as well as a silhouette on the floor. Looking to the floor, the trio discovered an old paint can spilling out red paint into a messy puddle, seemingly having fallen from the nearby table.

“What the hell…?” Tom muttered while examining the paint can further. He would have assumed it just fell, but this place and all of the items inside of it had been sitting around for decades, so that wasn’t likely.

“Hey… wasn’t there a deer here a few minutes ago?” Sunspot asked in an uneasy tone while pointing out the table the paint can fell from. As the other two looked over the area, they realized that their companion was correct. They very clearly remembered a deer animatronic leaning up against the table.

“That’s not good…” Glimmer Shine stated the obvious with a troubled expression. He checked around to see if the other animatronics were still where they were before. His mental count matched how many were present, minus one deer of course.

“That’s not good either.” Tom announced uneasily. The ponies looked over to see the human a few feet away, staring straight ahead at the wall. Sunspot and Glimmer Shine turned to see what the boy was looking at, only to fall silent.

Tom had brought their attention to the red spot they had first noticed on the wall. However, it wasn’t just a spot of red as they first thought. They now realized why there had been a paint can knocked over in the first place. Scrawled across the wall in big red letters was a message, and it seemed to be directed at the trio.

“Looking for something?” Sunspot read off the message with a disturbed expression. There was a small object drawn crudely next to the message. Although it was a little hard to make out due to the dripping paint, it looked like a key.

“What the hay does that mean?” Glimmer Shine asked in a confused tone while shaking his head.

“It means we’re getting messed with by a ghost… I hate getting messed with by ghosts.” Tom groaned uneasily.

“What… so one of those things took the keys?” Sunspot asked in a more upset tone. She huffed in disbelief and shook her head.

Before the trio could ponder the message or what to do next any further, another noise cut through the silence in the room. What sounded like metal knocking against things rang out around them, subtle at first, but growing in intensity and number.

The group spun around, searching the room with their flashlights for the source of the noise. Their panicked flashlight beams struggled to find anything at first, but it didn’t take long to figure out what was going on. And as soon as they did, their hearts skipped a beat.

All of the animatronics in the room were moving.

“Oh… crap!” Sunspot exclaimed in shock while jumping back slightly.

Sure enough, everything that had legs and a head was getting up off of tables or the floor. All of the bare endoskeletons, the two quadrupedal animatronics, even the two humanoid animatronics were all waking up. While most of them were still trying to get off of tables, the purple bunny looked over to the three onlookers and reached for them while walking forward.

“Guys… I think right here isn’t a good place to be standing right now.” Glimmer Shine suggested nervously.

“What do we do? The door is over there, and there are way too many to fight!” Sunspot stated in a more alarmed manner.

The broken down animatronics ignored whatever structural damage they might have had and climbed over the many tables and obstacles to get at the trio. Their eyes held the same silver glow in them that every other possessed robot had, offering a look into the tormented soul within. Every one of them looked like they could rip them to shreds with their teeth or metallic fingers.

The ponies and their human companion raced to come up with a solution. They were backed into a corner, and the only exit they had was on the other side of what was backing them into a corner. On top of everything else, they were outnumbered. This was not a fight that they wanted to have.

“Let’s book it!” Tom suggested urgently. Glimmer Shine and Sunspot weren’t sure if running was the best option, but they followed the human nonetheless.

The trio made a sprint toward the door, hoping to get around the animatronics before they closed in around them. The yellow stallion and the orange mare snaked around the various tables between them and the other side of the room, trying their best to keep away from anything coming after them.

Sunspot ducked around the raccoon animatronic as it lunged for her with a shrill screech. She felt her adrenaline pumping as the metallic animal stumbled over itself while pursuing her. Glimmer Shine kicked a humanoid endoskeleton as it tried to climb off of a table to grab him. After jumping up on a table and jumping back down to the side, he made a straight bolt toward the exit. Tom saw the purple rabbit near the door, blocking the path and heading for his two companions. The human sped up ahead of his friends and headed straight for the threatening animatronic. Spotting the boy charging forward, Glimmer Shine sped up as well.

The purple bunny let out a fierce cry and stomped toward the approaching duo. As it reached for him, Tom barged into it and shoved it as hard as he could to the side. With the robotic rabbit stumbling from the sudden assault, Glimmer Shine reared his legs up and kicked the animatronic the rest of the way, sending it tumbling to the floor.

“Get the door!” Glimmer Shine yelled as he noticed the human was going to reach the exit before him. Tom needed no further instruction as he bolted to the door and grabbed the handle to throw it open.

“AHH!”

The pair heard Sunspot yelp from behind them. They turned to see the orange mare on the floor, with the animatronic dog pulling on her back leg with immense strength. The pegasus grabbed onto a nearby table to stand her ground while kicking at the animatronic with her free leg. The robotic canine seemed to pay no heed to the pony’s struggles as it kept tugging on her while its comrades got closer and closer.

“Sunspot!” Glimmer Shine exclaimed in a shocked tone. Without even giving the matter a second thought, he bolted forward and grabbed the orange mare by the hoof to pull her out of the animatronic’s grip.

“Get it off me!” Sunspot pleaded while trying her best to wriggle free of the animatronic dog. In response to her constant kicking and squirming, the dog bit down harder on her leg, causing her to scream painfully as blood trickled out of it.

Tom rushed over to assist his friends, moving beside the struggle and sizing up the animatronic. There wasn’t much he could do physically to the robotic dog without hurting Sunspot’s leg any further. The animatronic had a good grip on her, and it wasn’t letting go anytime soon.

“I hope this works!” Tom stated nervously while holding his hand out in front of him. Sunspot and Glimmer Shine shielded their eyes as a blast of bright blue light filled the area in front of them. Much to her surprise and relief, the orange mare felt the animatronic releasing its grip on her as it let out a discomforted shriek.

“Let’s go!” Sunspot said urgently while kicking the animatronic with her good leg. She scrambled to get up with the help of Glimmer Shine before rushing for the door.

As the trio reached the door and opened it, they briefly locked the door from the inside before rushing out into the hall and slamming the door shut behind them. Although it was a faint hope that it would actually work, they wanted as much as possible sitting between them and that room.

The brief adrenaline high was still present, even if it was calming down slightly. Still, they had gotten out relatively unscathed. All things considered, Sunspot getting bitten on the leg could have turned into something much worse if they lingered long enough for the other animatronics to catch them.

“Think they are smart enough to unlock that door?” Sunspot asked curiously while briefly examining her leg and cringing.

“I don’t want to stick around and find out. Let’s put some distance between us and here.” Glimmer Shine suggested. The other two were inclined to agree with him as they heard the sound of the door shaking next to them.

With the yellow stallion helping the reluctant mare walk with her injured leg, the trio hurriedly made their way down the hallway, all the while silently hoping to not hear the sound of the door behind them being busted open. After rounding the far corner of the next intersection, the group paused and allowed Sunspot to lean up against the wall to rest her undoubtedly painful injury.

“Gah… that thing has some sharp teeth.” Sunspot winced while sliding to a seated position and cradling her still bleeding leg gingerly.

“Are you alright?” Glimmer Shine asked in a concerned tone while looking over the injury further. There were two sets of well-defined bite marks on opposite sides of her leg. Each individual hole was shaped differently, most likely from the animatronic’s teeth wearing down over the years. Despite the profuse amount of blood it was spewing out, the bite didn’t look like it went very deep.

“It stings like hay, but I think I’ll be alright.” Sunspot said while gritting her teeth and trying to put weight on the leg again. She could stand on the injured appendage, but it pained her greatly judging from her expression.

“Here, let me take care of it.” Tom suggested while kneeling down and preparing to heal the pegasus’s wound.

Sunspot backed away from the human with a heartfelt expression while shaking her head. “Tom, no… you don’t need to waste any energy on this. It’s just a little blood… I’ll be fine.” Sunspot said in a reassuring manner while trying to dissuade the boy from putting himself out for her.

“It wasn’t a proposal… hold still.” Tom said in a more adamant tone while reaching forward and grabbing the orange mare around her injury. Instead of hurting her, he was already channeling healing energy to his hand, dulling her pain and restraining her at the same time.

Sunspot sighed before doing as instructed and holding still. If she struggled any further, she would probably just cause him more trouble. It was clear that he wasn’t letting the matter go. She felt a comforting warmth flowing into her leg, and she also felt a slight tingling sensation where her skin was mending and her injury was closing up.

After the human was done, he released her leg and stepped back. Sunspot lifted the formerly bloodied limb and examined it. Aside from some of the bloodstains in her fur, everything else had been completely removed as if the bite never even happened.

“Thanks, Tom… you really didn’t need to do that.” Sunspot said with a slight frown. She had seen firsthand what using excess energy could do to the human, and she knew that he wasn’t keen on conserving energy when people were in need.

“It’s no big deal… just be thankful I managed to get Fido off of you before it got worse.” Tom replied in a relieved tone as he thought back to his brief gamble.

“Yeah… that reminds me, how did you know that would work? I thought your light didn’t affect ghosts?” Sunspot asked curiously.

“It doesn’t have very much of an effect on them… especially when said ghost is hiding inside of a metal body. There wasn’t much else I could have done without driving its teeth further into your leg. I just tried it and hoped that it would hurt it enough to make it let go… and I guess it worked.” Tom admitted in a sheepish tone. Although the human didn’t have any other plan to save her other than a guess, the orange mare was still grateful.

“I think we should get moving… we still need to find those keys.” Glimmer Shine suggested in a serious manner. The others immediately thought of the three ponies still trapped on the floors below and frowned slightly.

“But what are we going to do? There weren’t any keys in the security office, and the only other keys mentioned by that tape are either downstairs, or taken by that deer thing.” Sunspot said with a troubled tone. The prospect of a ghost having the literal key to reaching their friends was more than a little disconcerting.

“I don’t know… we’re chasing a literal ghost. I’m sure it’s not going to be easy to find.” Glimmer Shine shrugged while trying to come up with a solution.

“We should take a look around. I’m sure that deer and whatever is inside it must be feeling pretty mischievous if it stole something we were looking for. I’ll bet it will try to toy with us some more… if not, it will probably be hiding around somewhere. All we can hope is that it didn’t ditch the keys somewhere.” Tom said in a confident tone.

“Yeah… I don’t think all your training on interrogating perps will be worth much on ghosts, Glimmer.” Sunspot remarked while looking to the yellow stallion.

With their search area expanded even bigger than before, the trio prepared to start checking rooms again. If it took them all night, they would get those keys. They had to protect their friends, and they had to clear out the ghosts.

Meanwhile, back in the security office, spirits were higher than they had been in a while as everyone watched Pinkie Pie doing what she did best. The cramped security room inside of a dark and haunted abandoned underground resort didn’t seem so cramped or dark or even haunted. Everything seemed like it would be ok. Tom and the others were searching for the stairwell keys, and after they had found them, things could get back on track with putting things right.

“Come on, guys! One more round!” Pinkie cheered eagerly upon the completion of yet another game of duck, duck, goose. It was astounding how exciting she could make the most mundane of party games.

“Pinkie, don’t you have something else we could play?” Rainbow Dash asked in a mildly annoyed tone. Although most of the participating group, specifically the three fillies and young dragon, were enjoying the game, some felt that it had grown a little stale.

“Aww… what’s wrong with duck, duck, goose? It’s a classic!” Pinkie Pie said with a surprised expression.

“Yeah! I thought it was really fun.” Scootaloo added defensively.

“*Sigh* I like it as much as the next pony, but it’s getting a bit old. Can’t we try something new?” Rainbow Dash asked hopefully.

“You know, Rainbow… there isn’t much we can play down here without anything to use. Would you rather play I spy or twenty questions?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

The cyan mare looked over to see Pinkie grinning eagerly at the mere suggestion of the two games. “N-no! I’m good… we can keep playing duck, duck, goose.” Rainbow Dash stammered uncomfortably.

The others laughed warmly at the cyan mare’s sudden change of heart. Over on the other side of the room, Sparkplug and Copper Coil were standing near Glitterball while she read over the various papers in front of her. The white unicorn had been waiting for her teammates to contact her with an update.

Just as she was starting to enjoy listening to the merriment being made behind her, Glitterball heard the familiar sound of her friends’ voices in her ear.

“Glitter, are you there?” Glimmer Shine asked in a drained tone. It was clear that something had happened recently to frustrate the stallion.

“Yep… do you have the keys yet?” Glitterball asked curiously with a hint of hopeful optimism in her voice. The audible sigh she heard on the other end immediately deflated her positive outlook.

“Not quite… we think an animatronic stole them.” Glimmer Shine said hesitantly.

“What…? Are you serious?” Glitterball tilted her head in disbelief.

“Wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it… not that I saw it… it’s kind of complicated.” Sunspot explained with a tone that sounded as confusing to others as it must have been for her.

“Umm… ok… didn’t see that one coming. What’s our plan now?” Glitterball pondered, curious to find out how her teammates were adapting to the situation.

“We’re searching the area now. It can’t be too hard to find a robot the size of a small pony, can it?” Glimmer Shine asked in a semi-confident tone.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group was casting side glances between what they were doing and the white unicorn talking by herself. Of course, most of them knew that Glitterball was simply using a spell to communicate with her teammates, but it was still strange seeing her talking to nobody in the room.

Suddenly, Sweetie Belle’s ears perked up as she heard something strange. It was incredibly faint, but a new sound was making its presence known in the room. Was it coming from behind her? No, that was impossible. There was just a wall there. Still, she could hear it even more clearly as it seemingly got louder.

“Does anyone hear that?” Sweetie asked curiously while straining her ears to pick up on the sound. By now everyone had turned to her and even given a brief listen to see if they could figure out what the filly was referring to.

“Hear what? I don’t hear anything.” Scootaloo said in a confused manner.

“No, wait… I hear it too.” Twilight said while getting up and slowly walking closer to the wall and putting her ear to it. “It sounds like… radio static…?” She narrowed her eyes in a confused state of disbelief.

Before anyone else could put forth their opinion, a dull metallic thud rang out faintly and the noise drew closer. Now everyone could hear the static, and it was starting to make them more than a little nervous. Twilight and anyone else that was near the wall backed up slightly and stared ahead while still trying to pinpoint the sound coming through.

Another thump made itself known, and then another. All the while the static grew louder and closer. Now the ponies could make out garbled noises and the faint remnants of voices inside of the white noise. It sounded like someone was tuning in a horribly out of range radio channel, and whatever content the channel held was lost inside of the distorted mess.

Glitterball had paused mid-sentence as she turned and noticed what had made everyone stop what they were doing. She darted her eyes around the wall nervously, but nothing seemed like it could be making the noise. A clock, a painting, a vent covering, nothing looked out of place. And then it dawned on her. Perhaps it was her guard training coming back to her, or maybe it was a feeling in her gut, but right now she had a thought that wouldn’t leave her head and made her blood run cold.

“The vent…” Glitter muttered in a disturbed tone.

“Glitter, are you still there?” Glimmer Shine asked in a mildly concerned tone. It was at this point the unicorn realized that she was still communicating with her teammates.

“Guys… I think something’s wrong here…” Glitterball said in a hushed tone, wary that whatever was causing the static might hear her.

“What…? Glitter, what’s wrong?” Sunspot asked in a more serious tone of concern.

Before the unicorn could answer, another series of dull thuds rang out and the static grew even closer. The others were starting to slowly move to the back of the room as they all stared ahead of them. The three fillies hid behind the group, while Spike remained close to Twilight. It was clear to them now, something was moving inside of the vent.

“S-something’s in the vent… I don’t know what it is. We need you to get back here right n-” Glitterball was cut off suddenly as a loud noise erupted in front of her. A mass of screams filled the air as the stunned unicorn looked ahead in shock.

The room was barely audible anymore due to the static and the fearful screaming. The vent cover was lying on the floor a few feet away from the vent it belonged to. And in the middle of this mess, sticking out of the vent and crawling out of it, was a pink and white animatronic fox head.

Of course, the fox head was one of the few parts of the beast that had color. It seemed that the rest of the robot was comprised of metallic endoskeleton that had been bent and rearranged into a mess of parts. Despite it looking like it couldn’t even move, the beast let out a shrill roar as it started coming out of the vent and hanging onto the ceiling with its limbs.

“Everyone run!” Glitterball announced through the initial shock of seeing the creature. Although she was just as utterly terrified as the others, she knew that there was no way they could fight that creature, let alone fight it in an enclosed space with innocent people nearby.

The ponies scrambled toward the only exit to the room other than the vent. Everyone screamed bloody murder as they heard the horrific animatronic stomping on the ceiling toward them. Suddenly, the mangle of a fox unhinged from the ceiling and swung down toward the crowd with its broken jaw hanging open and its sharp teeth bared. Fluttershy yelped and dove to the floor, taking Applebloom with her and shielding her as best she could as the vicious robot sailed just over them and snapped at them. While the pair was still recovering from their miraculous evasion, the others were already getting the door open and funneling out of the room.

“Fluttershy, get up! We have to go!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed while dragging the terrified pegasus and young filly to their feet. Fluttershy immediately started running, while Applebloom quickly grabbed her sister’s hat off the floor and bolted as fast as her little legs would carry her.

Sparkplug was holding the door open, ushering the crowd out into the hallway in their terrified rush to flee. As the last few people were making it out, the animatronic caught up with them and prepared to attack. The creature let out another shriek and arched its broken body downward to bite the nearest pony, which just so happened to be Pinkie Pie. Before the fox could hit the pink mare, it was suddenly enveloped in a purple aura of magic and held back. The group left in the room briefly looked outside to see Twilight straining to focus her magic. If holding the other animatronics was hard for her, then holding onto the vicious fox seemed nigh impossible as it wildly bucked and fought her with intense strength.

“GAH!” Twilight yelped as the fox broke her hold over it. While the purple mare clutched her head and stumbled backwards, Sparkplug ushered the last of the group outside and let the door swing closed as she ran.

The door thundered back open as the animatronic slammed its body forward like an unstoppable train of metal and teeth. The radio static and the beast’s chilling distorted cries made the ponies’ blood run cold as they all ran for their very lives.

After a few minutes of running, Twilight felt like passing out on the spot. Her lungs were burning, her legs were practically blurred underneath her from how fast she was running, and on top of everything else, her exhaustion from having her magic overwhelmed wasn’t helping matters in the slightest.

Once the sounds of the animatronic’s metal limbs pounding on the ceiling died down and the radio static ceased, the unicorn finally managed to get enough courage to look behind her. As she looked down the hallway, her eyes widened and her face paled.

Nothing… there was nothing down the hallway. No animatronic fox, no ghost waiting to jump out at her, no other horrible beast made out of aged metal and plastic to chase her. The others paused as they heard the sound of someone skidding to a halt behind them. They all turned to see Twilight panting to catch her breath with an alarmed expression on her face.

“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Glitterball asked in a concerned tone. Although the beast was nowhere in sight, it could still have been following them.

“Where are the others?!” Twilight asked in a panic while looking around feverishly.

It was around this time that everyone else took a look around and tallied their numbers up. Sure enough, there were some people missing from their little group. Berry Swirl wasn’t present, and neither was Pinkie Pie or Sparkplug or…

“*Gasp* Oh no, the kids!” Fluttershy paled as a thick feeling of dread washed over her. Everyone else immediately realized the same thing that she had. Scootaloo, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and even Spike were all missing as well.

-Elsewhere-

Applebloom panted heavily as she sprinted through the twists and turns of the hallways. Her two fellow crusaders, along with a young dragon were running up ahead, and further ahead of them were Sparkplug, Berry Swirl, and Pinkie Pie. All of them were running as fast as they could, and they all knew why.

A distorted cry carried over the distant sound of radio static and metal clanging to reach their ears. The yellow filly was terrified to turn around. Although she was somewhat confident that the fox was a fair distance away from her, she was the slowest out of the group, so turning around would cost her valuable time. All she could do was keep a tight grip on her sister’s hat and keep following the others until they lost the animatronic beast in the halls.

“*Pant* *Wheeze*… guh…” Applebloom felt like she was going to have a heart attack from how hard it was pumping. Her legs already felt tired, and her friends showed no sign of stopping, nor should they have with the creature still giving chase from the distance. It was a wonder they had outrun it thus far. Perhaps when they split off from the other group they had temporarily confused the robotic animal, making it hesitate and giving them some distance between them and it.

The lights overhead were getting more and more interspaced due to a lot of them not working. The terrified filly struggled to keep track of her friends as they disappeared into darkness, only to reappear and take a different turn than she expected. She was fearful that she might lose them.

“Applebloom, keep going! You’re going to fall behind!” Scootaloo stated while looking back to the struggling filly with a concerned expression.

“*Pant*… I’m… *Wheeze* I’m tryin’!” Applebloom replied, somehow managing to muster the lung power to raise her voice.

Suddenly, the yellow filly yelped as she entered a patch of darkness only to trip on a stray cord on the ground and go tumbling to the floor. Everyone paused and looked back to see Applebloom on the ground just outside of a patch of darkness, still settling from sliding across the floor from her trip.

“Applebloom, are you ok?!” Pinkie Pie asked in an alarmed tone as she watched the filly struggling to get up. Either she injured herself during her brief fall, or she was more tired than everyone originally thought.

With the sound of the animatronic fox more distant than it had been in a while, the group figured that they had at least some time before it appeared at the edge of the hall. Still, they rushed over to the fallen filly as fast as they could.

Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Spike reached her first. The young pegasus knelt down to examine her friend and help her to her feet.

“Are you hurt? Can you still walk?” Scootaloo asked with a hint of nervousness in her voice as she glanced to the hallway behind the yellow filly.

“I… think so. Ow…” Applebloom muttered while rubbing her head gingerly and letting her friends help her up. Before the three children could get their friend off the floor, something happened that made them pause in alarm.

Sparkplug, Pinkie Pie, and Berry Swirl all skidded to a panicked halt as they heard a violent crunch ring out from in front of them. Much to their horror, the floor around the four kids started cracking and fissuring out.

“Kids, get out of there!” Berry yelled fearfully while rushing forward to grab the children. Before she could, the cracks got worse and the floor started shifting downward faster than anyone could react.

“AHH!” Applebloom and her friends screamed as they felt the ground giving away beneath them. The confused and terrified children tried to scramble to safety, but they couldn’t even manage to jump from the already falling pieces of floor to reach anything solid.

The three mares tried reaching for the falling group, but all they could do is watch in abject horror as they plummeted down to the next floor. The event was over in about three or so seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Thankfully, perhaps the only good thing to happen in the last several minutes happened.

The hole the kids fell through sent them tumbling to the second floor, but they didn’t hit anything too hard when they finally finished their descent. The hole had opened up into what must have been a children’s play area because the kids fell into an already full pit of colorful plastic balls.

The three crusaders and the young dragon splashed into the pit and disappeared beneath the assortment of colored balls. Although the ponies still watching above were almost certain that the impact was still dangerous and painful, at least there was a good chance they survived.

“Oh… m-my gosh!” Berry covered her mouth and slid back away from the hole. She thought she would have a stroke when she was watching the kids falling. Every nerve in her body screamed at her to react, but she couldn’t do anything.

“What are we going to do?! We have to get them out of there… Hey, are you guys ok?!” Pinkie yelled down into the dark expanse of a room. The high ceiling and large area made her voice echo slightly as it reverberated off the walls. Still, the children didn’t respond and the ball pit remained still and motionless aside from the debris still settling.

Suddenly, the three mares heard a chillingly familiar distorted cry as the thundering sound of metal and the radio static returned to their attention. They looked down the hallway, only to find it empty. However, the animatronic sounded like it would round that corner at any moment.

“Oh no… what do we do?! We can’t just leave them down there!” Berry Swirl flew headfirst into a panic attack as she paced back and forth while trying to figure out a solution.

Meanwhile, while the other two ponies were having a mental and nervous breakdown while trying to think of something to do, Sparkplug was still standing in front of the hole in the ground. In reality, the hole wasn’t very big. It would only be large enough to fit one pony at a time if they tried to go down there. The kids probably only fell at the same time because they were all huddled around Applebloom, and the floor sloped downward as it fell.

“You guys… get away from that fox thing and go find the others.” Sparkplug said while gulping slightly and steeling herself from something.

“Sparkplug, what are you doing?” Berry Swirl asked in a confused tone. Before the gray mare could answer, the metallic thumping grew in intensity as the animatronic came into view on the ceiling at the far end of the hallway.

“Just trust me!” Sparkplug announced before suddenly rushing forward and jumping into the hole in the floor.

“*Gasp* Sparkplug!” Both Berry and Pinkie yelled in unison as they watched the gray mare plummet into the floor below. Although she had planned her actions, she still let out a frightened yelp as she fell down before hitting the ball pit as the children had before her.

Berry Swirl and Pinkie Pie stared at the dark room beneath them with their mouths agape and their eyes as wide as dinner plates. They couldn’t even fathom how much of a stupid decision the gray mare had just made, yet they still contemplated doing the same thing. Before they could think about going through with following their companion, they heard the beast in front of them cry out again.

The two mares shared a nervous glance with each other while backing up. They looked at the hole in the ground one more time before turning tail and picking up their pace to flee from the metal monster. All they could do now was run. They silently resolved to escape the animatronic as fast as possible so they could find the others and tell them about what had happened.

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