“Okay, Rainbow. Thrill me.”

The staring contest between Rainbow and I continued for a while. I soon grew weary of it, and flashed her with the hall flashlight.  

“Go. Shoo. Get. Get out of here. Don’t make me turn on the hose.” I said. Rainbow complied.    

I checked the vents: clear. I then wound up the music box. I needed to make sure I kept that creepy abomination at bay. I flipped to the stage feed and noticed that Toy Applejack had decided to go for a little stroll.    

I made a frantic search through the camera feeds and found her next to a vent, flashing me a creepy slasher smile.    

“Go in that vent, and I will shove my hoof up your flank and break it off.” I said.    

I flipped to Kid’s Cove, and determined from the big empty space in the room that Mangled Rainbow was already out and about. I missed my calling, I should have been a detective. I switched to the main hall… yep, there she was, next to Toy Rarity and both with slasher smiles.    

I checked the time: 1 A.M. This was going to be a long night.  

“Alright, you little plush demon, I’ve still got my skills. I’m not Shining. I’m not a greenhorn. I know what I’m doing. Your stuffed flank is staying put.” I said, winding up the music box.    

I flipped to the game room and checked on Balloon Spike. Yep, the bastard offspring of Barney and Dudley the Dragon was gone.

“Where are you, you creepy little son of a-” was all I could say when an orange hoof kindly relieved me of the tablet. By kindly, I mean roughly, and by relieved, I mean wrenched.    

My experience saved my life. Almost on instinct, I had the Pinkie head pulled down just as TerminApplejack pulled the tablet away from me. I watched her until the lights stopped flickering. I waited a few seconds, then removed the head and wound up the music box.    

“Why did they try to ‘fix’ you guys?” I asked myself. “It just messed you up even more.”    

I checked the vents. Toy Applejack was in the right vent, doing her best Dawn McMane.

“I’ll take it under advisement, cowgirl.” I said as I put the head on and waited for her to go by. I then decided to wind up the music box. As I did...    

“Hello.”

“Hello.” I said. “Leave me alone before I find a large axe and give you a reprogramming you won’t forget.”    

I checked the hallway and saw that Rainbow and Mangled Rainbow were double teaming tonight. “Go away you clinking, clattering cacophonies of collagenous cogs and camshafts.” I asked, flashing the light until they went away.  

I flipped to the game room and started to wind up the music box until the tablet was pulled from me by Toy Rarity. I got the head on and the lights flickered. I prayed I got it on in time.

Soon, the fashionista was gone. Thank Faust. I lifted the head as the light switch rave came to an end, then proceeded to check the vents - both were clear - before winding up the music box. I put the tablet down and began to seriously ponder the wisdom of my decisions and behavior over the past few days.

“Let someone else carry this curse. You're free now. After all... a deal's a deal.”

“What am I doing? Newbie was right… I DO have it all.  I have a good job as the day guard. I have a beautiful and charming marefriend, someone who makes me feel like I’m worth something… who forgave me enough for the monstrous thing I did to give me a shot. I have a surrogate little sister who thinks the world of me. I have a friend in Shining and everyone else at the Party Palace. Really… why am I doing this? Do I really think I can earn redemption by looking into the child disappearances here?”

I thought it over some more.

“No. I'm gonna own this curse... and I'm gonna use it against you. Whenever innocent blood is spilt, it'll be my father's blood... and you'll find me there. A spirit of vengeance... fighting fire with fire.”

I stared at the prize counter and turned on the light. I saw that box… the box with the cuddly abomination.

No. No, I wouldn’t stop. While I did have it all, it would be meaningless if some other poor soul inherited this curse... inherited the burden of the evil… and if he failed to keep it at bay until 6:00, there would be fresh blood on my hooves. I have more than enough. No more.

No, you little felt bastard. I’m gonna keep my curse. Johnny’s curse became his power. He wrecked his chances for a normal life, but he found a more noble ambition in the process: he thought of the other poor souls who would get this curse and fall victim to the devil’s machinations. I’ll fight you, whatever you are. I AM the spirit of vengeance… I am vengeance for the children whose lives were taken by whatever evil you are. I’m owning my curse. May Faust have mercy on you, because I won’t. That’s a bucking Pinkie Promise.

With renewed resolve, I wound up the music box and checked the hallway. There stood Pinkie, giving me the biggest slasher grin I’ve seen her make yet.

I checked the time, it was 3 A.M.    

I can do this.    

“I got good news and bad news, Pinkie.” I said as I flashed her with the light. “The good news is I’m here. The bad news… you’re not getting me tonight.”    

I checked the vents before winding up the music box, making sure to get it as full as I could. I set the tablet down to take a breath… and I heard this weird sound. It sounded like… radio static?

Oh, horse apples.

I checked the vents. Mangled Rainbow’s head was poking out of the right vent. I stared at her for a while before slowly raising my hooves and putting the head on.    

“Please leave.” I said as I put the head on. I was so terrified that I couldn’t even think of a witty comeback. I just wanted her out. “Just go away…”  

I waited a while. When I heard her scramble back into the vent, I removed the head and immediately checked the other: clear. I checked the hallway: there stood Toy Applejack, all ready for the formal.  

“Hello there.” I said. “Please go away. I already bought the Filly Scout cookies.”    

I flashed the light at her. When she left, I started to wind the music box back up… and then the pink nightmare ripped the tablet from my hooves.    

I put the head on and waited for Pinkie Pie to leave. When she did, I made another attempt to wind the box, only for TerminApplejack to make a move. I put the head on and tapped my hoof impatiently as I waited for the lights to stop flickering.    

Once again, I made an attempt to wind, only to be interrupted again by XenoRarity.    

“WHAT THE BUCK?!” I yelled. “Please lay off. I wish to keep Mr. Puppet in his little den for the night.”    

I waited for her to leave and raised the head, and was finally able to wind the music box up all the way. I checked the vents: Toy Rarity to the left of me, Toy Applejack to the right.  Here I was, stuck in the middle with them.

I checked the hallway: Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash were all huddled together in the hallway, as if posing for for the family photo from Tartarus.    

“Oh… Oh great… This is just great!” I said. “Looks like the gang’s all here! Huh!? What the buck is this, the ten-year Canterlot High reunion?”    

I stopped talking when I heard that familiar staticy noise… oh, no.  I flashed the hallway light as I put the head on, praying  they would all go away. “Just… go… away…” I pleaded in between deep breaths.

I waited until I heard them all climb back through the vents. Only then did I feel it safe to raise the head. As I wound up the music box, I put the tablet on the table and started thinking more about my choices. The determination I had earlier was beginning to waver.

“Why did I do this?” I asked myself. “Why can’t I just stop worrying about it all and just enjoy the life I have right now? Why do I feel that, if I look into these disappearances I’ll be redeemed for my past crime?”

“Let someone else carry this curse...”

I remembered why.

“...and you'll find me there. A spirit of vengeance... fighting fire with fire.”  

I sat still for a while to take it all in, then looked at the time. It was 5 A.M. The light at the end of the tunnel was near, I just had to hold on. Brave heart, Jet. Brave heart.    

I started thinking back to when I first got the job, and how naive I was for staying. I stayed for Flutters, but was that a good enough reason? No. I probably stayed because… because of them… because, somehow, I recognized the animatronics as the kids I murdered that day in ‘86...

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry… I'm a monster. I'm not saying that I expect you all to forgive me, I'm just saying that I need to say that I'm sorry. It wasn't all me. I was put up to it. I didn't want to kill any of you, honest, but I was forced to. If I didn't then the man would kill me, Fluttershy, and everypony who meant the world to me. I'm a disgusting pony. What I did was a disgusting waste of pony life. It was a mistake that I wish I could take back. But I can't. Faust knows I should die. And now seems to be the appropriate time for it to happen."

They had forgiven me. I never knew why, but they had forgiven me.

I started thinking back to the times when I had a “friendship” with the old animatronics. When they’d help me out of the building at 6:00 AM… how they’d keep me company in the night… the Thursday night poker games, Faust, Pinkie had a hell of a poker face… and now look at them. The maintenance guys tried to fix them up, tried make them more advanced than they were. But when the management put the cost of fixing them up against getting new ones, they just decided to use them for parts.

That just made my job worse. The old animatronics… my new friends... now had no idea who I was. They didn’t remember my first week… they didn’t remember the forgiveness they had shown me. All they now know is that I’m the stallion that murdered them in cold blood.  

“Let someone else carry this curse...”  

I guess the pressure of the job in this new location was just too much for me. Instead of five animatronics, now, as Princess Luna would say, the ‘fun’ had been doubled. Now there were eleven animatronics, once they had fixed Mangled Rainbow. I guess I nearly snapped from the pressure of this job.

But I had to know. The Puppet is hiding something, and I need to know what it is. My guess is the Puppet doesn’t want me to know anything that she knows. While she’s hiding in her little box, with the only way to keep her in there being the music box, she’s planning things. She’s always thinking…

“...and you'll find me there. A spirit of vengeance... fighting fire with fire.”

I started to wind up the music box and heard that old chestnut: the ringing.  I looked at the clock: 6 A.M.  

“Thank. Faust.” I said, sighing and falling back in my chair.    

As the box was fully wound, I found myself dashing into the hall and running into Flutters’ office.    

“Files, files, files, files.” I said to myself. “Aha!” I said, opening a drawer. I started flipping through the folder tabs. I didn’t need them all, I just needed to find what I needed.    

“Let’s see here.” I said. “Where the hay is it?” As I flipped through, I read the names to myself.

“Fluttershy, Jet, H20, Van...”

I started to speed it up a bit. The Puppet could get out at any moment, and if it did...  time for me to stick my head between my legs and kiss my flank goodbye.    

“Come on, where are you?” I said. As if on cue, I spotted it.

“YES!”

I reached in and grabbed the file I needed. I was about to open it, but I heard something that made my heart jump. Outside the office I heard “Pop Goes the Weasel.”

Buck. Buck! BUCK! I TOOK TOO LONG!    

I started to panic as I looked through the office, trying to find anything to help me escape… but there was nothing: Flutters’ office was completely void of windows. The only way out is through the door and THAT sure isn’t an option right now.    

This was it. I was finally going to die, all because I wanted to look into the stupid child disappearances.    “I’m so sorry, Flutters.” I said, lowering my head and letting the tears flow. “I’m sorry that I did this.”  

So this is what death is like, I thought as I heard the end of the song slowly approaching.

I closed my eyes as it ended. I wanted the mental image of Fluttershy to be the last thing I saw before I died.

“I love you, Flutters. I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.”

Nothing happened.

I opened my eyes. I was still alive. I pinched myself. YES! I WAS STILL HERE!

I carefully trotted to the door and snuck a peek: the hall was empty. I decided not to tempt fate and haul flank out of there.    

I ran out of the building. I ran all the way home. I didn’t stop until I opened the door to my house and slammed it shut.

I laid down on my couch and started hyperventilating. I did it. I survived the night. But more importantly, I got what I needed.    

I looked at the file’s tab and read the name.  

“Flash Sentry.” I said, opening the folder.

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