//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - Arrival // Story: Animals // by FoxyAndPip //------------------------------// Wat.” That is the first word that came out of my mouth. I was in a strange place, a strange form, and had no idea what was happening. OK. Rewind, slow down. You’re probably thinking – what is he on about? Well, let me tell you from the beginning. It was a normal day at my home – Freddy’s Fazbears pizza. I performing on stage with my friends, Bonnie and Chica, while Foxy hid in Pirate Cove. I heard him mumbling to himself again. I wanted to check on him but I was…kind of preoccupied. “Hey Freddy?” the girl on my lap asked. “Hmm?” “What’s it like? Singing in front of people, with Bonnie and Chica?” she asked, big eyes looking up at me. I chuckled. “Well, it’s…fun. When I sing, it’s like I’m spilling all my emotions out, telling you and everyone listening how I feel. But the best part…” I looked down at her. “The best part is the children. They’re always so happy when we sing and play with them. The way their eyes light up when the curtains come apart. It’s magical…” “I wanna be just like you, Freddy!” the girl said wrapping her hands around my waist. “But…” “But?” “I’m scared. When ever I try to sing in front of people, I freeze up,” she explained. “I see. You have stage fright. Let me tell you something. When I was younger, I had stage fright as well. I mean, I was built to sing, but I got nervous. I had to sing though, for the children. It was hard though. But then, my big brother noticed. He helped me out. Now I sing all the time, and I love it!” I told her. “Where’s your brother now?” she asked. “He’s…around.” I answered vaguely. “Tara, time to go!” We looked up to see a man and his wife waiting. “OK, coming Mummy!” the girl hopped off my lap and ran over to them. She turned back to me. “Bye Freddy! Thank you!” She waved. I waved back. Just a regular day at Freddy Fazbear’s pizza. Soon the few people left filed out the doors and the pizzeria closed for the evening. After the last workers left the building, we finally got a chance to stretch our legs. “Ah…another successful day at the pizzeria,” I said. “Ugh, easy for you to say,” Bonnie said, adjusting his bowtie. “Why are the kids so gentle with you, Freddy?” he asked. “Maybe it’s cuz you're always such a grumpy pants,” Chica giggled. “Hey, give the boy a break.” I said. “He wasn’t always like this.” “And I won’t be. I’m just tired. And hungry. And rusty. We haven’t gotten repairs in ages!” Bonnie complained. “Hey, they're struggling to keep us open as it is. You need to learn to be more careful, Bon,” I reminded him. “Yeah yeah…” “At least ye’ll still performin’” A rough voiced chimed in. “Foxy!” I said, arms wide. “How you doing, buddy? We haven’t seen you in a few days.” “Tryin’ not ta fall apart,” He said, twisting his hand back on. A tough thing to do with nothing but a hook. “Hey. They’ll fix you one day,” I said, putting a paw on his shoulder. “Yer too optimistic, Cap’n…” Foxy said. “Gah!” “Bonnie!?!” I exclaimed, turning towards the bunny. “What’s going on?” He asked, as he was surrounded by a red light. “Bonnie!” Chica leapt forward and tried to grab his hand, failing as he disappeared right in front of us. Suddenly Chica became enveloped in a purple light as she faded away. “AH!” “Cap’n!” I turned to see Foxy surrounded by a yellow light as he reached out for me. “Foxy!” I tried to grab him, but he disappeared before I could get ahold of him. I looked to my own paws to see a blue light surrounding them as I slowly disappeared. When I came too, the first thing I saw was green. I blinked a few times, each time my vision getting clearer. Once my vision cleared, I began observing my surroundings. I was laying on my back, looking uo at the sky. Bright blue, and mostly covered by leaves. I traced the leaves to their source, tall, think trees of all types. Beneath me was a soft material. ‘Wait…am I…outside?” I sat up, though it felt rather awkward. I looked around and confirmed that I was, in fact, in the middle of a forest. Outside. ‘Wait a second…” I patter the ground under my paws, carefully. The grass was soft and kind of tickly, the dift underneath rough. “I…I can feel! I have a sense of touch! How is this possible?” I could feel. I was a robot, no matter how well programmed, even if haunted by children’s souls that allows them to have emotions, robots can’t feel. We have no nerves, just like we have no tastebuds. We can’t feel, and we can’t taste. So…why could I, all of a sudden? I slowly stood up, only to fall onto all falls. “What the…heck?” Hooves. I had hooves. Not paws, hooves. I looked around to see my feet had turned into hooves too. I looked around and saw a river. I stumbled over as fast as I could and looked at my reflection. I had kept my blue eyes and brown coat but…I wasn’t really an animatronic bear anymore. My ears were pointed, I had a short, dark brown mane and tail, and on my flank was a picture of a microphone. A pony. That’s what I was. I knew I was a pony, and not a horse, based on the toys the kids sometimes brought with them to the pizzeria. I looked like one of them. But, I wasn’t a toy, I was real, alive, breathing. I was alive. No longer a machine, a creature with flesh, blood, bones, skin. A smile spread across my face as I came to this realisation. “I’M ALIVE!!” I shouted, throwing my hooves to the sky. I trotted around jumping a little, having fun in my body in pure excitement. “I’m alive! Oh I forgot how it felt! To have a real body, to feel, to smell, to have flesh! Oh, it was wonderful! I had never felt so alive! Which makes sense because I never was before but I'm - " Suddenly I stopped in my tracks. "The others...Foxy? Chica, Bonnie!" I began to call out. "Where are you guys?" “Ugh…” I heard a faint groaning. “Foxy?” I looked around, quickly noticing Foxy on the bank across the river. ”Foxy!” I ran into the water and swam to the other side, not a single fear of malfunctioning. I reached my friend, taking a moment to observe his new appearance. All his ‘injuries’ were gone, he was all fixed up. He had a scruffy dark red mane, tied up into a low, short ponytail. His ‘flank-symbol’ as I dubbed it was a skull and crossbones, only with fox ears. He kept his eye-patch and hook, though it wasn’t really a hook, just a sort of, metal platform, like the bottom of a hoof. Guess you can’t really walk on a hook can you? What was strange were the wings in his back. “Hey, Foxy, wake up,” I said, shaking him lightly (kind of hard to do with hooves but I managed). “Ugh…huh?” he said, blinking slowly. “Cap’n…” Suddenly his eye’s widened. “Cap’n! What happened ta ye, to…me…” he looked down at himself, as well as around proceeding to walk in circles. To any bypasser, it would look like he was chasing his tail. “I don’t know how, but, we’re ponies now,” I said. “Well, fix it!” he said frantically. “Hey, look one bright side!” I said. “You’re ALIVE! Flesh and blood!” Foxy tried to avoid cringing when I said the word blood. “Sorry. My point is, your not a robot anymore! You’re a living being! You can feel and taste!” “Aye…aye, I guess I can…” he said, started to cheer up. “Come on. We need to find the others,” I said. “GAAH!!!” “I think we found ‘em,” “What the hell!? What happened to me?” “Bonnie, calm down!” “Why should I!?! Have you looked at yourself?” We walked into the clearing to see a yellow mare trying to calm do a frantic purple stallion. Chica had a messy long yellow mane and orange tail, as well as wings, like Foxy. Her flank-symbol was a slice of pizza. Bonnie had a spiky, styled purple mane and tail and a horn, making him a unicorn. His flank-symbol was a red guitar. “You’re a pony,” I said calmly. “No I’m not! What pony have you seen that’s PURPLE? And has a picture on their butt? And has a HORN for Celestia’s sake?” he exclaimed. “Why did I just say ‘for Celestia’s sake’? What’s Celestia?” “You done?” Chica asked. “For now.” He responded “Good. FREDDY WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!?!?” “Alright, everyone jus’ calm down…” a familiar southern drawl echoed through the trees as a golden pony walked into the clearing. He looked just like me, only he was a different colour, his flank-symbol was completely black, like a silhouette, and his eyes were completely black with white pricks. “Golden!” I ran happily over to my big brother, giving him a (awkward) hug. “Where’ve you been?” “Just…checkin’ up on an ol’ friend…”he said, absent mindedly. “But that’s not important right now. What’s important is findin’ a way outta this here forest,” he said. Suddenly his eye’s widened. “What?” The others began backing away as well. “Uh…Cap’n?” Foxy said nervously, pointing a hoof behind me. I turned around to see…the biggest bear I had ever seen, growling, thick saliva dripping from his sharp fangs. “Huh. I don’t remember bears being blue with star patterns on their coat,” I commented. “I don’t remember ponies being multi-coloured with pictures on their butts either,” Bonnie added. “Good point. RUN!!!!!!!!” I commanded. And with that, we were out of there.