I stayed up almost all night, eventually letting sleep take me in the middle of Ghost Pony Rider.

I woke up and saw the time, it was 9:00 P.M..

I got off the couch and stretched myself, yawning. I cracked my neck and walked to the kitchen, grabbing a granola bar as a late breakfast. I opened the granola bar and bit into it, tasting the sweet chocolate chips. I looked around, making sure Fluttershy wasn’t near and reached into the cabinet and took another granola bar, hiding it in my bag and strapped it to my side.

I walked my way back to work, finishing the first granola bar and throwing the wrapper away at the nearest trash can I could find.

I went my usual route to work, and I went inside the usual way through the back. I sat down on my chair and put my bag down on the floor next to me, jumping slightly as I heard the phone suddenly ring.

“Hey! Okay, I don’t have long but just know that things are getting awesome on our end. First, we’ve added these cool little doors to the vents so that they can stop ponies from breaking into the place during night that you’ll keep an eye on when this place opens, and... Guess what? We’ve been chasing that lead I told you about, and dude.... We found one.” The stallion said.

I stopped where I was and slowly turned my head towards the phone.

“A real one.” He proceeded to say.

I felt my heart begin to beat rapidly. A real one? What? But they already have the other animatronics! They have Pinkie, Rarity, the Puppet, Balloon Spike’s voice box, the only one I can think is missing would be.... The Mangled Rainbow and Applejack....

“Oh no...” I thought.

“Hey! I gotta run, but don’t worry. You’ll see the one we found near the door. Oh hey! And we might have overdone it with the building when we tried to make it, like, super authentic. Because the vents, camera systems, and audio systems do actually need to be rebooted. So, make sure to check on that because if you don’t keep your vents up and ready to go then you’re going to start seeing some crrrraaaaaazzzzzy stuff man! And make sure to not use too much stuff at once, because the grid or something might, like, totally catch on fire... So, uh, yeah. Watch out for that. Okay, see you later man!” The phone clicked, indicating the end of the call.

What did he mean? A real one? Did they actually find Applejack? Or the Mangled Rainbow? I tried not to freak out, they could have just found some really good cosplay outfit or something, no need to freak.

I turned on the camera tablet and decided to look at the new animatronic or whatever to see what it looked like.

I flipped to the front door and stared at the tablet, my eyes growing wide and my heart sinking down to the deepest pit of my stomach as my hooves started shaking violently.

I saw what seemed to be an animatronic based off a rabbit standing in front of the camera, it’s body clearly decayed and rotting, it’s mouth was cut into an endless smile that literally stretched from ear to ear. It’s eyes stared straight at me, glowing in the somewhat dark room it was in.

I stared at the thing, feeling my heart beating like I had just run a mile. I tried to take deep breaths, trying to calm myself down and tell myself that it wasn’t alive. I would have succeeded, if it’s eyes didn’t look straight towards the camera when I checked on it again.

I turned off the tablet and began hyperventilating, I had no doors, I had no mask, I don’t even have any music box to lure it away. And since there’s an empty Pinkie Pie suit right next to my door I can say that I am royally bucked.

No. I can do this. I did have a music box, maybe this thing would be like the Puppet and would be attracted to the noise.

I turned on the camera and saw him gone, followed by some banging in the vents traveling through the building. I turned on the vent cameras and saw the thing going through the vent that went straight to my office, stopping as soon as I turned on the camera and staring straight towards the camera at me. I saw a button next to the vent camera and pushed it, hearing some kind of metal door shut.

The screen went to static and I heard more banging, indicating the thing was getting back out. I switched to the camera at the door and played the audio, hearing Balloon Spike’s little ‘hello’ resonating through the halls.

I switched to the camera where Rainbow Dash’s head was to make sure she didn’t decide to hop over to me or something, but something was blocking my way. I was about to tap the button again, hoping that would fix it, when the camera tablet was torn from my hooves and I saw Balloon Spike right in front of me. He had a burned look and didn’t have his little Balloons he normally had.

He proceeded to jump at me, producing the most Faust-awful scream I’ve ever heard and causing my vision to fade as I screamed my own scream of terror with him. I then heard an alarm sound, signifying that something needed rebooting.

I looked around, Balloon Spike was gone but the room was flashing red. I began struggling to catch my breath and held my chest. I looked left and raised the grid tablet and rebooted the ventilation, not wanting to have it shut off.

The vents finished rebooting and I turned back right, checking the camera and seeing the thing standing where the Puppet and Rarity are.

I switched to a camera further away from me and played the audio, a shiver traveling up my spine as I heard Balloon Spike’s laughter traveling through the hallways.

I put the tablet down and began to control my breathing, not really appreciating Balloon Spike’s little visit there.

I looked right to see if anything else needed to be rebooted, but saw Rarity and froze. She leaned towards me, producing the same scream Balloon Spike made, followed by my own scream.

I heard another alarm and the room started flashing red. I turned on the reboot tablet and rebooted the audio, lowering the tablet and stopping dead in my tracks. I looked out the window and saw what looked like a dark, shadow looking Pinkie Pie figure walking through the hallway towards my door.

She got to the end of the window and ducked under the wall out of my sight, only to reappear right in front of me from the floor. She screamed the same scream as the other two and I screamed along with her, vision fading.

I turned back and rebooted the vents, hearing banging noises. I turned the camera tablet on as soon as I finished rebooting the vents and shut the vent that was right outside the office as soon as I saw the yellow animatronic creature staring back to me.

I heard it crawling back through the vent and I played Balloon Spike’s laughter at the front door, where it was before. I heard a bell ringing, signifying it was time for me to leave, but I was already out of the building by the time I heard the first chime.

I ran my flank back home, crashing through the door, hearing Fluttershy yelp out in surprise in the living room, and turning around to slam the door shut.

“Jet?” I heard Fluttershy say.

“Nothing is wrong! Everything is okay!” I immediately said.

She walked to the hallway and looked towards me with a face of concern. “Jet? are you okay?”

“Of course!” I said, walking up the stairs.

“Then what was that for?” She asked.

“Uh.... I just thought I’d sprint back home today,” I said, rubbing the back of my head and stopping at the top of the stairs, “It’s a much healthier exercise than just walking home, ya know?”

I looked back down to her and she just looked back, keeping her concerned expression.

“So how was work?” She asked.

“I-It was fine....” I said, remembering that thing and how Rarity, Balloon Spike and Pinkie Pie had jumped from nowhere and given me a fright.

“Are you sure? You seem.... Weird.” She said.

“I’m fine Flutters!” I said, walking down the upstairs hallway and entering the room.

I laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, still going through what just happened tonight.

The face of the yellow creature was still fresh in my mind. I could still see it and make out every decaying part of it’s face, ears and body.

“It’s me old friend.... It’s me.” I made the suit do a little grin, which wasn’t very hard as the mouth of it was already stuck in a permanent smile anyways.

“And I know you’re awake. And now I’M taking over your little operation here.” I thought.

I stared at the face of that creepy Puppet thing and it looked back. Even though it couldn’t move, or make any noise, I knew that he was terrified. I knew Silver Screen was in there, watching me stare at him and was absolutely terrified of the mere sight of me.

“And that stallion who was just here? He’s the first victim of my rise.” Next Chapter: You Are All Mine Now Estimated time remaining: 29 Minutes