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Chapter 18 - Epilogue1,126 words

Chapter 5

Freddy constantly scanned the landscape around them. The dark place with lots of trees had given way to a much brighter area with almost as many trees.

But this was good; children did not like dark places. Only criminals liked dark places, like that one criminal that kept coming in and out of the back office. Freddy was glad that the other Freddy would always capture the criminal. Alas, he would come back several times a night. He didn’t want to sound mean, but the other Freddy really wasn’t doing a good job.

Freddy would worry about that troublemaker later. For now he must do what he knows. He must find children and make them smile, and then he must find the authorities and instruct them to contact Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.

Or was he supposed to inform the authorities first and then make children smile when he got back?

It didn’t matter. Children must smile. Children must be kept safe from criminals and mean adults.

Freddy soon noticed that they seemed to be traveling towards a house in the distance. Which was good, the sun was no longer directly overhead. They were not allowed to be outside during the night.

“Excuse me sir or madam,” Freddy said as politely as he could, grabbing the attention of both the people in front of him, as well as the two children. They didn’t look too happy, but he could understand that. They were just in a fight after all. “Would you happen to have the time?”

One of them looked in the general direction of the sun and said, “It is about six in the afternoon; Princess Luna will soon be raising the moon.”

“Tha-tha-thank you-u-u!” Freddy said to Zecora before once again slowly turning his head from one direction to the next.

Ever since they had come out of the Everfree forest, all three of the giant animals had begun looking around. For what reason, neither of the mares knew.

“Ya sure about this, Zecora?” Applejack asked.

“The answer is in full view, is this not enough evidence for you?” Zecora asked as she gestured behind them with a hoof.

Applejack did and shuddered. She would never admit it, but the idea of a creature being alive but with no heart to guide it, no lungs to take in air—Applejack gave Bonnie a look—or a brain for that matter scared her to death. “Ah just don’t know, it ain’t natural. Ah don’t feel safe with ‘em around.”

Zecora certainly agreed, but she knew of a way to convince Applejack. “We should ask Twilight Sparkle. I am certain that her magical vocation could shed some light on the situation.”

“Yer right,” Applejack agreed. Twilight was the smartest pony that Applejack knew; surely she would know what’s going on. “Ya can go get her and tha guard. Ah’ll stay here an—“

Applejack was abruptly cut off by a deep, loud scream coming from the Zap Apple orchard.

Applejack recognised that voice and, in a moment of shame and horror, she realised that she had completely forgotten about her big brother with a Manticore on the loose.

“That sounded like Big Mac!” Zecora said for all to hear, confirming Applejack’s fear. Zecora looked between Applejack, the fillies and the group following them. They had behaved the entire trip back, but Zecora wasn’t about to risk the life of two fillies on that assumption. “Stay with them, I will be right back.”

With that, Zecora galloped towards the source of the scream, praying to her ancestors that the Manticore hadn’t come back.

As the iconic dead-looking trees surrounded Zecora, she listened, hoping to gain some indication of where Big Mac might be.

The silence stretched on and on. Fearing the worst, Zecora decided to shout out the stallion’s name, despite the danger she might put herself in if a threat was near. “Are you here, Big Mac!?” More silence. “Please answer if you can hear me, my nerves are beginning to wrack!”

“Over…here…”

Being as tightly wound as she was, Zecora jumped back a bit when she heard the voice so close to her.

“Run, not safe,” the same voice, who Zecora confirmed to be Big Mac, said again.

She cautiously approached the tree that his voice emanated from, her eyes still scanning around for any threats.

Zecora came around the trunk of the tree. There she found Big Mac lying on his side. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw no serious injuries. Big Mac did have a decent goose egg on his head though. His eyes were tightly closed, and his teeth were clenched. Perhaps it was more painful than it looked?

Zecora looked around once more before asking, “Can you stand? We must leave now, lest our hides be tanned.”

The red stallion opened a single eye to look at her as he spoke through gritted teeth. “Eenope.” He indicated towards his hind quarters. “The fox bit mah leg. Ah’m gonna need help.”

Only then did Zecora notice the growing stream of red beneath him. Nodding her head in understanding, Zecora trotted to Big Mac’s injured side, offering him support. She was relieved that it was only a fox, but if it was strong enough to have taken on Big Mac, Zecora had reason to be concerned.

She never looked directly towards Big Mac as he got up; all of her attention was on potential ambush spots around them. Once he leaned against her for support could she feel something wet on her coat.

As the feeling slithered further down her own leg, Zecora knew that a predator was not the only threat to Big Mac’s life.

“Ya’ll sure ya want to stay here?” Applejack asked Freddy, still trying her best to be a good hostess. Even though she was putting her guests inside her barn.

Shortly after arriving at their house, they encountered a small problem. Freddy and his friends were too large to fit through the door.

“Y-Yes thank you-you-you!” said Freddy, as creepily cheerful as ever. “We a-a-appreciate that you are letting us stay-ay-ay here for the ni-ni-ni-ni-night.”

Applejack might have been afraid of them, but she was still indebted to Freddy for saving her little sister from the Manticore. So when they had asked where they could be ‘stored for the night’, she had offered that they stay in the barn.

“Ah jus’ wish there was more Ah could do. Y’all sure I can’t bring ya anythin’?” Applejack asked for the umpteenth time.

“We-e thank you for your conc-er-er-ern, but we will be fi-fi-fine!” Freddy said before he turned towards his companions.

Both Bonnie and Chica were slumped over, seemingly asleep, even though Chica still had her arms raised.

“Allright,” Applejack conceded. “Ah’ll be back to check on ya in the mornin’. There’s a water pump ‘round the corner if ya get thirsty.”

Receiving no reply, Applejack closed the barn door before returning to the house. There was still that little colt, Balloon Boy, whose parents she had to find. Hopefully Granny Smith and Sweetie Belle kept him company while she was gone.

Run.

Just as she was about to open the door, Applejack froze at the sound of a voice. She let her hoof drop back to the ground before she turned in a circle and asked, “Who’s there?”

Nothing.

She shrugged it off as the day’s events catching up to her and stepped into the house.

“Uno!” Sweetie Belle shouted in excitement.

“Ya’ll are gonna have to do better than that,” Apple Bloom said, dropping a card that was a different colour than the previous cards onto the stack. This did not cause Sweetie Belle’s grin to leave her face.

Scootaloo groaned, picking up a card from the much neater stack, adding to the large collection of cards she held.

“You know more cards are bad, right?” Balloon Boy teased, putting another card onto the pile. Scootaloo glared at him, but said nothing.

“I win!” Sweetie Belle proclaimed, dropping a black rimmed card that had four small cards in the middle, each a different colour, and several ‘+4’s on it onto the pile.

“Oh, come on!” Apple Bloom cried, throwing her hooves into the air and showering them all with cards.

Despite the growing worry for her brother and the ‘guests’ in her barn, Applejack laughed softly at the scene. “Come on now, Ah’m sure Granny made some delicious food. Y’all can play when yer done eatin’.”

“I’m not hungry, thanks,” Balloon Boy said, gathering the cards around him. “I’ll just wait here for you guys to come back!”

“You sure, Balloon Boy? Granny Smith makes awesome food!” Scootaloo said, already halfway towards the kitchen.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

The three fillies shrugged and went into the kitchen, eager to get some food into them. Most of them had skipped lunch after all.

“Ah’ll be outside if ya need anything,” Applejack said, before leaving the house to stand on lookout for Big Mac and Zecora.

As Applejack left the house, Balloon Boy’s mouth opened in his signature smile before softly saying, “I can’t promise the same for you.”

Author's Note:

As with all the other chapters, thanks to Peregrine Caged for improving the quality of this chapter!

It's all set up! I can finally let it be night!

No updates from Scott I'm afraid, guess we'll all have to wait a bit longer for FNAF 3