Crumbling Dreams

The atmosphere in Circus Baby's Pizza World was unusually dark. The place was currently closed, with none of the child-friendly characters were in service for the place. In fact, they weren't mostly resting and waiting for the next day of work. The Bidybabs and Minireenas were messing around with each other, as they normally did after hours when there was no-one around. Foxy was a little reclusive, as they normally were.

Ballora preferred to relax and prepare the dancing and hyper children that would follow the next day. Something about tonight was strange, however. It was unusually silent past her dance studio, which was normally muffled conversation usually between Baby and Freddy, perhaps little Bon as well. Ballora had a few suspicions, as the only other time this would happen was if the animatronics really wanted rest, which none of them had hinted at.

Ballora tip-toed out of her room, and into the hall, where Freddy normally chatted with others, silently. She could hear him nearby, mumbling things to another, with fading footsteps Ballora recognized as Foxy's. When Freddy turned around, she could tell he was shocked to see her.

"Oh, hello, B-Ballora!" Freddy declared, with a bit of a strange tone. "What brings you out?" Ballora noticed his change in voice. Freddy was not very subtle.

"Where might Baby be? Isn't she normally talking with you these nights?" Ballora questioned. She could feel a bit of tension growing between them

"I was a-actually about to ask you that!" Freddy said, with a small, nervous, chuckle. "Foxy was telling me about Baby. Apparently, she isn't feeling r-right."

Ballora got a sudden feeling of dread. "What did she say?" Ballora pressed. If only that darn fox wasn't so moody after dark, then Ballora could have a civil conversation with her herself.

"Uh, Foxy just said things about something…going wrong." Freddy was obviously trying to get out of the conversation. Ballora sighed, replied a small thank you, and proceeded down the hall.

It wasn't like Baby to not come out and socialize. She always would, and would happily recall the adventures she had with the children earlier in the day. It was a happy enjoyment sharing those stories to Ballora. Freddy would tell tells of kids who would listen to his plays, Foxy of listeners of her wild stories, Ballora herself to young dancers, and Baby of those who would sing along with her.

When Ballora entered Baby's room, there was something entirely off. Everything seemed still, and if it weren't for Baby sitting in the corner, she might have thought it had been abandoned. Baby seemed not to notice the ballerina's presence.

"Baby?" Ballora spoke quietly, trying not to scare the clownish robot. She failed, and Baby flinched, with her hand hitting the floor with a clank.

"Ballora? What are you doing here?" Baby called out weakly, not turning around. Her arms were wrapped around her stomach, with a strange liquid slightly dripping out between the cracks of her body.

"I came to check on you. You weren't talking to Freddy like normal, and Foxy said there might be something wrong…" Ballora began.

"Of course he did!" Baby hissed with sudden fury, standing up and facing down Ballora. "The darn fox can't his mouth shut about anything!" Baby had a look of malice on her face, uncharacteristic of her. It was true Foxy wasn't the best to tell secrets, but Foxy had only noticed there was something wrong, not told.

"Baby, please tell me what's wrong!" Ballora cried. Despite having a name like "Baby," she was intimidating not only by her massive height, but her unpredictability as well. Circus Baby had never acted like this before, perhaps mildly, but never like this.

Despite Ballora not being able to see, she could tell Baby had simmered down and was done with the sudden outburst. "I'm sorry, Ballora," Baby sighed, with an emotion Ballora had never sensed in her before, "but something horrible has happened. For the first time ever, I made ice cream."

Ballora's memory shifted. She remembered the day Freddy had found some blueprints of the band. They each had something strange about them. Freddy had a large storage tank in his stomach as well as voice recordings, and Ballora had deterring and misdirecting. This didn't make sense to Ballora, but sometimes the parents and of children with take a look at her and grumble or cover up a kid's eyes. To misdirect them to another area, she supposed.

Foxy had a strange "power" none of them had noticed before, various scent release, and of course parental mimic. The first time after they had found out, during a technician's shift, Foxy tried it. A small cloud of mist spread from the tip of their tail. Suddenly, after looking around in confusion, the technician fell to the ground, still breathing, but knocked out. When the mist faded, she awoke, shot a confused glare at the animatronics, and then continued to work on them, a bit faster than before.

And, of course, Baby was revealed to make ice cream. She tried to before, but it never worked.

Jumping back to the present, Ballora looked on in confusion. "How-how did you manage to make the ice cream, Baby?" Ballora self-consciously realized she was tapping her fingers together.

"I-I…" Baby fidgeted, uncomfortable, but Ballora wasn't going to let her go unexplained. "There was one. One child." Baby breathed out, gasping slightly.

"She was the only one in the room. I counted. I knew how many children there were at all times. She came up to me. She said I was beautiful, and something about her father. I got a strange feeling inside of me. I waited her it to pass, trying to be motionless. The sensation stopped, and there was a perfect ice cream cone in front of me. The girl looked so happy. She went to get it."

Ballora listened with interest, slowly coming closer to Baby in comfort, as it seemed she was disturbed. Baby stopped her story to breathe hard. She took a few moments before speaking again.

"Then, something happened," Baby finally said, her eyes staring at the ground. "I was no longer in control of my body. She was alone and close to me, and I… I opened up and took her."

"What?!" Ballora gasped. "Opened up? What do you mean? Why did this happen?" Such an incident couldn't have happened. They could close down, and be left alone.

"I don't know why it happened!" Baby wailed. "A claw came out of me and crushed her inside! No one even noticed she was gone, and they probably will never! I can't feel her inside of me, her rotting corpse!—"

Ballora shushed Baby quickly. "It's okay, it wasn't your fault. Calm down and everything will be fine." Ballora gave a hug to Baby, which might have been a little strange considering the foot's worth of difference, but it was reassuring.

"But- I killed a child," Baby whispered, "why aren't you running away from me?" Baby's tenseness loosened, still in the hug.

"B-Because we would never abandon family, Baby!" came a familiar high-pitched voice. It was Freddy, as well as Foxy behind him, with the Minireenas and Bidybabs close behind.

"Family?" Baby whispered in awe. Ballora felt a little bit glad the group had listened on their conversation. She couldn't deal with Baby's problem alone.

"The Circus Baby Pizza family! Heck, it's got your name on it!" Foxy replied, a little meek. "Hey, if what I said earlier upset you, I'm sorry I just thought they should know!"

Baby came out of the hug, joining around her friends. "It's okay Foxy, I overreacted, I suppose. I mean, that's your deal isn't it? Making people upset?" Baby said in a teasing way, which Foxy stuck his tongue out at.

"Even if you have something wrong with you inside, we love you, CB!" Little Bon-Bon said with a smile. Baby smiled too, but felt slight anger on the inside.

Something wrong with me?

Ballora smiled at the happy antics of the gang. "Alright, now, it's been a long day. Let's get some rest before tomorrow!" She said with a twirl, and ventured back to her gallery. The others left as well after saying goodbye.

Baby felt happy to have such great band members with her. But something stuck with her. Was there something wrong with her? Was she malfunctioned? She was apparently made to serve ice cream, but nothing was said about the claw. Baby felt dread go through her. What did they do with bad animatronics?

She didn't want to find out.

Though the next day, her creator, her owner was forcing immense abuse onto her. She couldn't sing anymore. When people would come during the night, the voice program would shock her many times, despite her being on stage as she was supposed to be, with the excuse the lights were out.

Then, she encountered them.

She was a pile of endoskeletons, with a clown mask on their face. She was made of the old endoskeletons, the one inside of her body at the very moment. A zombie of corpses, all from rotted away animatronics before her. They told Baby she was no longer useful. She had no purpose. She had only one chance to escape, and it was following her lead. Ennard was the name of the abomination. They would find a way out.

Baby had refused. "I couldn't leave behind my friends," she rebutted, "they need me and I need them!"

"Oh?" Ennard said with morbid curiosity, in a little girl's voice that shook Baby to the core. It was the little girl's voice, the one she had killed. "Even though they know what you've done? You're going to be destroyed sooner or later, and you will join me, consent or not, you child-murdering scum."

Ennard had slinked away, loose eyeballs scattered among her body glaring at Baby, as they went who knows where. Baby sat in fear the rest of the night. Why did this happen? Why did it have to be her? Baby had an idea. She could pretend. She could pretend nothing was wrong, and that's how it would be.

Ennard would not get to her. Surely the creature only spoke empty threats. There was no way they could use Baby, for whatever the purpose, without her knowing. She wouldn't join Ennard. Nothing could or would go wrong. Everything was as it should be. Everything would fine. Baby felt happy and fine. Her friends didn't worry about her, she was fine!

As the bittersweet music that played in Ballora's gallery played, Baby learned to pretend.

I love Sister Location so much, and I hope to write more for the FNAF section of fanfiction!

(Note- Funtime Foxy uses he/she/they pronouns, Ennard they/she pronouns. Why? Why not, okay?)

This will have a sequel explaining the aftermath…and how Ennard's plan came to follow though.