“That’s the pirate’s life for me, yo-ho!” Foxy sang, before straightening up and waving. “Thank ye for spending this fine day with ol’ Foxy, and please come again to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria! Good night!”
Not that there were many kids left, from what Jeremy could see from his place near the wall. Most of them had gone home already, with only a few whose mothers were close friends of Rebecca.
Who was coming over to him. “There you are,” she said, sitting down next to him. “You disappeared on me back there.”
“Sorry,” Jeremy said. “I had to take a rest for a moment.”
“You do look kinda pale,” Rebecca noted.
“Really?”
“Yeah, like a ghost walked over your grave or something.”
“Funny, that’s exactly what it felt like.”
“What do you mean? Wait… do you hear something?”
Jeremy looked around. Then he looked up. “Oh no.”
“SCCRRREEEE!!!”
The Mangle swung down from where it had been hiding on the ceiling, jaws opened to take a bite out of one of the adult’s heads.
Or at least it was before Foxy grabbed it by a leg and swung it flat on its back. “What’s the big idea, lad… lass… ladsete?”
The Mangle let out a burst of static and leapt at the larger fox.
“Mutiny is it?” Foxy cried, catching the broken animatronic. “Then have at ye!”
Rebecca grabbed Jeremy’s arm. “What’s going on?” she asked as the two animatronics began fighting.
“The Mangle’s gone crazy!” he cried, pulling her out of the room. “Daggnabbit, I didn’t except this to happen!”
“Do this… what are you talking about?”
“The animatronics, they… screw it, I don’t care if they fire me. Something’s wrong with them! They keep attacking the night guards, but this is the first time one of them has attacked during the-”
“Excuse me, but you two should move away from the wall.”
Jeremy and Rebecca turned to face- “Shadow Freddy?” Jeremy asked.
The black animatronic grimaced, the red hat on its head tilting to the side. “Yes and no,” he said. “But I am serious, you two better get out of the way.”
“Why?” Rebecca asked. “What on Earth is going on?”
“That is a long story,” the bear animatronic, golden eyes flicking from side to side. “Unfortunately, you two don’t have the time to hear it.”
A thumping, steadily growing louder and louder reinforced the bear’s next statement.
“Because neither of you are ready for Freddy.”
Fluttershy held her hooves over her chest, watching was her uncle fought his unnatural double. The elder fox fought with the strength of experience, but his opponent had him on the ropes. A soft giggle sounded behind her. She slowly turned around. Behind her was another one of the unnatural ones, the yellow one. Its large mouth was open wide, and its eyes were black. And it was reaching for her.
Fluttershy screamed.
Target acquired. Preparing to retrieve creature.
The Toy Chica animatronic reached for the pony, ignoring the screams it was letting out. It kept following its programming, to retrieve the unknown creature-
An arm crashed through the vent and grabbed Toy Chica by her waist, pulling her through the wall.
Interloper detected. Identifying… Freddy Fazburger Micro Einz…
Recognition glitch detected. Repairing…
Identifying …
Identifying …
…IT’S ME.
Freddy pulled Toy Chica out of the wall, with its beak missing and its eyes in night vision. Still in the vent was a shivering Fluttershy, curled up into a ball.
Fury filled Freddy. It had almost happened again. A child under his protection was almost harmed, another one killed, he had almost lost another member of his family! He had gotten away, but there was no escape for this one.
Freddy Fazbear lifted the chicken animatronic up and looked into its soulless eyes.
And he bit down on her head.
The man in purple jerked as the feed of one of his tools went out. Why had the bear come? How was it turned on? And why was it so protective of the creature?
Composing himself, he turned back to the screens. There was going to be investigations into this, and he needed to be ready for them. The creature, which he now knew to be a pony, would most likely not be far from the rogue ones, he would be able to retrieve it at his leisure. But for now, he had to plan and study.
Perhaps he should go back to some of his older work?
And his first mistake… yes, that would work just nicely…
Toy Chica jerked once, and then went limp as the remains of her head dropped out of Freddy’s mouth, followed by the rest of her body.
Rebecca could only watch in mute fascination as the original Freddy wiped his mouth before reaching into the wall and pulling out … a small yellow pony? The small creature wrapped its forelegs around Freddy, shaking with soft sobs.
The animatronic brushed the pink mane gently before turning and heading back the way it came.
“So it was a pony,” Jeremy said in mute awe.
Before Rebecca could ask what he had meant, there was a shrill scream from the Kid’s Cove. Shooting each other a glance, the two adults ran for the room.
Foxy staggered back from a blow from the Mangle. As much as he hated to admit it, he wasn’t doing so well. His multilimbed adversary was quickly getting the better of him, wearing him down and tearing his newly repaired costume.
The Mangle rushed him, sending Foxy down onto a table which had yet to be cleared of the birthday meal. His had closed on one of the servers that came with the pizza…
“You don’t hold a knife like that, kid, you hold it this way. Smooth.”
“Wow, thanks, Mister!
“Don’t mention it, kid. Just keep taking care of those rascals that follow you around. And I told you to call me H__.”
Foxy grabbed the tool and stabbed forward as he had been shown so long ago. The server slipped into the Mangle’s chest, where the heart would be on a human.
The Mangle screeched and stumbled backwards, the server sparking from where it had been impaled. The animatronic teetered a few more steps before slumping over, offline.
Foxy stood up, triumphant over his foe. He turned on his heel, and headed back to Supply and Repairs, not sparing a glance for the broken animatronic.
“Well, that escalated quickly,” Jeremy said later.
It was some time later. The police had arrived, pulling up with a van containing a SWAT team. The officers quickly cleared out the pizzeria after getting witness accounts from everyone there, which included all the remaining guests, and the employees.
Which led to Jeremy walking Rebecca to the bus stop while she carried a sleeping Mikey. “I’m surprised he fell asleep so quickly,” he continued.
Rebecca laughed. “He was tuckered out,” she said. “He was cheering for Foxy the whole time.”
“Glad the kid wasn’t scared,” Jeremy said.
“It takes a lot to scare him,” Rebecca said. “Do… do they always act like that?”
“There is a lot less robot-on-robot smackdown… I don’t know. I could tell you a lot of things.”
Rebecca smiled. “I would like to hear them,” she said as they reached the bus stop.
Jeremy smiled back. “I would be glad to tell you,” he said, as they sat down.
“You know, I never did get your full name.”
“Oh, I’m Jeremy Fitzgerald. What’s yours?”
“Rebecca Schmidt.”
The two of them sat in silence until Jeremy realized something.
“Hey, where did Shadow Freddy go?”