I Remain
I came back.
This silence is deafening. My body is slumped, my back resting against a wall.
I always come back.
My body gives a twitch. Something electronic within me sparks to life, and I receive a jolt as I begin to violently spasm on the floor, awakening from my slumber.
That is a lie. I do not sleep. Not anymore.
A red light on a camera above me flickers on.
It is time once again.
My body slowly relaxes into a slump once more as the camera trains onto me.
I am patient. I wait. The anticipation of the kill is one of the most satisfying parts. The camera flickers off.
Go.
My body rises to a standing position.
He is waiting.
I stride forward, my twitching and jerky movements only amplifying my suffering. It hurts. Everything hurts. However, the end goal is what I need to keep in mind.
I do not feel pain, I will find him.
The darkness covers me like a blanket, and I sink longingly into it. Shapes and images pronounce themselves in the shadows. Familiar, but at the same time foreign. How is that possible?
Meaningless.
An empty suit. Arcade games. The laughter of foals.
...The laughter of foals?
My body freezes. My jaw unhinges as I glance back to the room I just came from. My eyes glow.
Foals.
My body spasms violently and I rush back to the room I had just roused myself from. It is empty as it was before, shadows and emptiness. An exit sign flickers overhead, bathing the room in a red glow.
No foals.
I turn to stare straight up into the camera currently looking down at me.
You will not fool me twice.
The camera flickers off, and I resume the path I took before.
But now I can remember. Though it pains me to recall, I know what happened.
I remember the suit. Gold in color. It resembled their mascot, the brown singing bear. I remember the foals. Their annoying laughter reverberating in my head. Their faces, so full of innocence, staring up at me. I hated them for it.
What was once meant to entertain, now serves to terrify..
I used the suit. I lured four of them away, and then I killed them. With my own hooves. One by one. I remember the looks on their faces as I did it. The rolling of their eyes. The blood leaking from their mouths. Most would probably call me a monster for committing such an atrocious act, but I did not see it that way. I felt alive. Their suffering was my boon.
I become alert to my surroundings once more as I hear alarms blare in the distance. The cameras overhead slump, going out. My body bursts into motion again, each movement bringing a new definition to the word ‘agony’. Each step digging the sharp innards of the animatronic suit I wore deeper into my skin.
I do not feel pain.
But I do. Even though I should not. My ‘body’ is decript, full of holes and barely holding itself together. My ‘face’ stretched into an eternal grin. Unable to breathe. Unable to feel. Unable to smell.
More reminisce. I remember hiding the bodies where no one would expect to find them. I stuffed the foals’ bodies inside of the animatronic mascots. I left them there to rot. I remember the ponies, asking me where their foals were.
A search was conducted, but I left nothing. I was meticulous in my actions. Perfect. Precise. Well executed. They could not be found.
A week later an official statement was made. And I, the stallion who had oh-so-selflessly helped this family through this heartbreaking time, was told to give the news of their deaths. So I did. I remember the crying. The mare broke down in front of me, crying out for the foal who would never return. I felt no sorrow. I revelled in the suffering my actions had caused.
Even so, as my gaze shifted towards the stage, I could have sworn I saw the bear looking this way. As well as the bunny, and the chicken. The fox too, was peeking out from behind his curtain. Odd to be certain, but I would not have thought it so if I had known what came after.
As I was pulling my shift later that night, they came after me. They tried to hunt me.
I holed myself up in the security office, and used the doors to keep them at bay until other employees came in and opened the restaurant once more. Strangely, the animatronics seemed to pacify once that happened.
It was then I suggested a change. A new place. New animatronics. Use the old ones for parts, I told them. The idiots, they listened to me. Though I was unsure if they could hear me, I told the animatronics that this was better for them. That they would be happier at this new place. And hopefully, when they returned, we could get off on the right hoof.
What a liar I was.
There was a witness. I should have known. They were afraid to come forth, but when they did, I was to stand trial in front of Princess Celestia herself for crimes I had committed.
I can see a small opening in the wall ahead of me. A moan leaves my mouth as I lower myself to enter it, still unused to the strange bipedal stance of this body. I begin to crawl through the metallic tunnel, vaguely aware of a camera off to the right.
The camera flickers on.
I freeze in mid crawl, staring straight into the camera. The camera lingers on me, and I can hear the sound of mechanics whirring as the path ahead of me closes. My eyes glow as the camera flickers off again.
He is smart. But not smart enough. Find a way around.
I pull myself from the opening and stumble back the way I had been going originally.
Memories flood my mind once more. These are abundant tonight. Though I had been forced to stand trial, they had no solid evidence to say that I had done it, for they could not find the bodies.
They let me walk free. Me, a pony accused of murder, was allowed to go free. In the time I was detained and questioned, and forced to stand trial, it seemed that my old place of employment had been going under heavy investigation. Patrons to the restaurant complained of blood and mucus leaking from the animatronics, and described the smell akin to a ‘reanimated corpse’.
I could not take any chances of discovery. So I went back.
Found him.
I stood outside the window to the security office. There was a stallion inside, a screen raised in front of him. Sweat pours down his face. He’s shaking, clearly in a panic. He is flicking his hoof across the screen. When he lowers the monitor and sees me however, all of the color drains from his face.
Be afraid.
I slowly raise a hand and put it on the glass, my eyes widening at the sight of him.
He screams, and brings the monitor up again. He pushes something on it, and I can hear foals’ laughter in the room I just came from. I want to acknowledge it, but I know better.
Nice try, little pony.
His monitor is still up, and I quickly rush into the room right next to his office. I peek at him from the corner of the door. He is looking up at where I was in the window, then his gaze shifts towards the doorway. I quickly lean behind it again. The pony is beginning to hyperventilate, his chest rising and falling rapidly. I can practically taste his fear. I hear another foals’ voice, but I know better by now. It is a lie.
I came back to dispose of any damning evidence. It was fairly simple, I had learned of the restaurant’s closure long before attempting to break in. They had a dark past from which they could not escape, and it hurt them badly financially. They could no longer keep themselves afloat.
I read that one of the elements of harmony, the pink mare known as Pinkie Pie, tried to help them. She protested the closure of the restaurant, saying that Freddy and his crew were a source of happiness and fun for foals all across Equestria.
However, words could only have so much impact. The place closed down. Inevitable really, and I relished in the fact that I was part of the reason for the closure.
I snuck in and acquired one of the old Freddy Fazbear suits from the back. It was devoid of any endoskeletons or electronic wiring, so it was safe to wear. I peeked into the main room.
The animatronics were slumped forward, their mouths hanging open in an everlasting scream-like expression. I took a single step forward.
Freddy began to twitch and spasm rapidly, coming to life as he turned to face me.
“Follow me.” I rasped, and walked towards the safe room I knew the animatronic’s AIs would not allow them to enter.
Memory served well, and I was able to navigate through the dark restaurant without incident. I could hear Freddy’s heavy footsteps behind me, the telltale chime that broadcasted his presence. After I slipped into the room, Freddy attempted to follow me, but he would freeze up whenever he tried to enter. He lingered there only for a moment longer before turning back towards the room from whence he came.
With his back to me, I made my move. I lit my horn brightly, firing off a blast that caught freddy in the back of the head. Freddy turned, his eyes narrowing to pinpricks and turning almost black upon seeing me. He pointed at me and began to scream, but I followed up with another blast of magic.
Freddy began to spark and spasm, spouting out random lines.
“W-welcome to F-Freddy Fazbea—”
I fired another blast, my teeth gritting.
“H-here you w-will m-m-meet—”
Another.
“Y-your maker… because t-this—”
Another.
“I-Is your fault… You did this t-to u-us… t-to me… “
A final one, and Freddy fell onto his back, spasming violently. Blood began to leak from his eyes and mouth, and out of the joints in his arms and legs.
“Y-You—”
I picked up a metal baseball bat I’d brought with me in my mouth, just in case. I bashed Freddy’s face in.
“A-aren’t leaving—”
I hit him again.
“H-here… alive….”
Once more.
Freddy started laughing, though it was much different than his usual laughter. It started normal, then went lower and lower in tone and went slower and slower until it sounded almost demonic, then stopped with another whirr.
I tore Freddy apart, then dragged the foals’ rotting corpse to the saferoom with me. I would dispose of the bodies later.
Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy fell as well. They all fell for the same tricks...Foals are so naively stupid.
I stored the bodies in the saferoom, then made my preparations to leave. As I did however, I heard something.
I turned to see five foals, four blocking the exit, a fifth one with tears streaming down his face stalking towards me. This would not normally scare me, however I knew that I had killed these foals… how were they here?
I backed away from the crying foal as much as possible, though he was rapidly cornering me. Something at the other end of the room caught my eye, a golden glint in the dim light. An empty suit.
When I’d eluded the foal again, I quickly donned the suit in an attempt to hide, than began to laugh at my victory.
How stupid I was.
The suit was a trap. There was some sort of faulty spring mechanism that activated after I climbed inside. I felt what was akin to a thousand burning stakes driven into my body all at once, blood leaking from the openings in the suit as I slumped down into a kneeling position. My body quivered as the springs drove deeper into me, and my eyes began to bulge out of their sockets. The pain was unimaginable.
Finally, I slumped against the wall, eying the five foals as they disappeared. I sat like that for a while, my body spasming violently within the confines of the suit before I finally surrendered to the cold embrace of death.
And thus, my sanctuary became an eternal tomb.
I do not know why, but I did not pass on. Images came and went. Decaying walls. Oppressing blackness. I do not know how long I lay there, my body spasming and twitching every now and again. it must have been years.
Finally, however, I heard noises. Unfamiliar noises. The noises of ponies. The door to my tomb slid aside, and a flashlight shone on me.
“Hey, I think I found one!”
The voice is unfamiliar, but the form is unmistakable. Ponies. they have found me again.
I want to cry out, tell them to get me out of here, but I cannot move. The most I summon is a twitch, a moan, and a spasm. The ponies take a wide step back, fear clear on their faces.
...Fear.
Just thinking that word brought a smile to my decaying lips. They feared me.
They took me from my tomb, and onto some kind of wagon. There was a crowd outside waiting, and my rescuers answered questions concerning what they had found in the thirty year old restaurant.
Thirty years? Is that how much time had passed?
I saw a pink form emerge from the crowd. She looked to be in her 40’s or so, her pink poofy mane slightly more pronounced as she took a close look at me.
“See, Pinkie Pie?” One of my rescuers said. “You can’t tell me that’s not creepy.”
Pinkie took one last look at me, shuddering slightly, before turning to address the one that had spoken.
“This is still wrong! Freddy Fazbear’s was meant to be fun, and happy! You can’t bring it back just to scare everypony!”
The ponies argued for a long while. I waited until most of the crowd’s attention was off of me, then I slowly leaned forward, putting my mouth next to Pinkie Pie’s ear.
“What’s the matter Pinkie Pie?” I rasped. “Don’t you want to be my friend?”
Pinkie went rigid, then took off like a bat out of tartarus. Nopony knew what had spooked her, but from my slumped and immobile position, I smiled beneath my mask.
The ponies who saved me were apparently building a horror attraction based on the ‘myths’ of the Freddy Fazbear’s restaurant. I was to be nothing more than some prop for a horror attraction.
However, though I may have been a monster in life, I am a literal nightmare in death.
The night guard watches the door. I wait, standing just out of sight as I observe him. he swallows hard, then turns to flick through the cameras again.
I make my move.
I step through the door. The noise gets his attention and he turns towards me. His face pales and his irises shrink as he attempts to back away from me.
I reach out, locking my metallic fingers around his neck.
He kicks and screams but it does him no good.
My mouth opens with a crack, spilling saliva and blood down onto the pony’s chest. The pony writhes in my grip, desperately trying to beat me off.
“My name is Springtrap,” I speak, my voice blends with the voice box of my suit, giving it an electronic tone. “And I am here to do tartarus’ bidding.”