Larry, the new night guard of Circus Baby's Pizza World, yawned. He knew that night-guarding an old pizzeria would be boring, but he hadn't realized that it would be this boring. Literally nothing had happened in four straight hours and it was so dark and quiet that he was tempted to just sleep. It wasn't like anyone would find out. But the moment he had laid his head down on the control desk before him, he could hear a strange tapping noise in the vents that linked his office here to the rest of the pizzeria.
The middle-aged man sat up in surprise and watched nervously as the vent tapping got louder. He swallowed down his fear and stepped as far away from that vent as he could, wielding his flashlight like a nightstick. What finally appeared made him blink in surprise. It was a Minireena, one of Ballora's tiny dancers. Why it was here was beyond Larry. He looked closer at the thing and noticed with disgust how ugly and creepy it was. It walked up to him, making high-pitched squeaks of curiosity.
"Ugly little beast, aren't you?" Larry muttered at it. Then before it could move again, he kicked it over and stomped it viciously until it split in half. It was like crushing a bug. Larry couldn't stop a sadistic grin as he heard the Minireena shrieking in pain under his foot. At last, however, it stilled.
"Good riddance," he muttered, sitting back down with a contented sigh. He had to admit that crushing the Minireena had been moderately fun.
But the fun didn't last. Just a few minutes later, Larry heard a music box echoing from Ballora Gallery. What?
"Shouldn't she be on her stage?" the night guard asked himself, turning on the camera to see an empty stage. He continued to scan the Gallery before spotting the robotic dancer. She was waltzing right beside the vent and her haunting voice was filling the air.
"Why do you hide inside your walls when their music in my halls?" she asked him through song. "All I see is an empty room, no more joy, an empty tomb… But it's so good to sing all day. To dance, to spin, to fly away…" her voice was ethereal and soothing, but the words were so eerie.
"Freak," Larry muttered. He wondered if he ought to go to Ballora Gallery personally and shut the ballerina up himself…
"What the-?!" Larry had just crawled out of the vent leading to Ballora Gallery when he noticed six little faces, all exactly alike, staring up at him from the shadows. They were the other six Minireenas. But what was creepiest of all was that there was all just standing there… menacingly. In one straight line, they stood with arms linked and heads tilted. They looked up at him, totally still and silent. It got creepier the longer it went on until Larry felt his fear turn into anger at these little abominations.
"Well, aren't you going to run?!" the much larger man sneered. He still received no response from the six statuettes as they continued to stare silently up at him. He raised his foot threateningly. "Didn't you see what I did to your other Minireena friend? Aren't you afraid?!" he demanded.
"No," the six answered in perfect unison, their voices sounding both childish and robotic all at once. Their tone was also off-puttingly cheerful. Larry was so caught off guard that he almost fell over.
"What? Why not?" he asked. Then the six, in perfect unison, raised their spindly arms and pointed behind him…
What Larry saw scarred him for the rest of his life, not that the rest of his life was long… Right behind him stood a tall, thin robot a few inches taller than him. She was graceful, gorgeous and terrifying. Larry cowered, so afraid that he could only squeak pathetically.
"Nobody. Touches. The. Minireenas," she said, voice deep and angry. She crossed her long arms and shifted her facial plates challengingly.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't. I, uhhh…" Larry tried to back up only to be bitten violently by a Minireena. He howled in pain and jumped forward. Right into the waiting arms of an angry Ballora. She was quite the Mama Bear when it came to protecting her Minireenas.
Ballora was normally a calm and quiet animatronic, acting as the voice of reason to her friends, but when her Minireenas were involved, a new side of Ballora emerged. She had been sleeping when she heard her Minireena scream in pain. The sound was even more terrifying that the metal screech of the scooper or the sizzling of a controlled shock. She felt terror and fury fill her diodes and she wanted nothing more than to tear apart the one responsible for harming one of her girls. But she couldn't. Not yet at least.
Ballora knew she would have to be smart about this. She knew she'd have to be patient. So, as much as it pained her, she forced herself to keep calm and lure the night guard out slowly. But now he was here. Her song had enticed him out of his hiding place and his Minireenas had lured him too far away from the vents to make an escape. Ballora was free to go wild. She was free to spill his blood. She was free to lose it. She was free to lose her composure and drop her mask of graceful serenity. She was free to be the monster she was made to be. She was free to let that evil side loose. She was free to get revenge. She was free to teach this man a lesson once and for all that the Minireenas would never go without being avenged. She was free to go on a rampage. She was free to kill. So that's just what she did.
Larry spent the last five minutes of his life screaming in agony as this graceful ballerina of metal tore his limbs off slowly before taking his face in her fingers and digging out his eyes and tongue. It felt good to get revenge. Then at last, when there was nothing left to tear apart or punch, Ballora straightened herself out and brushed some off the goop of Larry's mangled corpse off her metal frame. Her Minireenas began to applaud as though they had just seen a great show. Ballora gave a polite, humble curtsey, genuinely pleased with their reaction. She loved to make them smile and she always did have a lady-like air, even when killing night guards. Now that this one was dead, Ballora returned to her calm, composed self.
But what of the fallen Minireena? When the memory of her Minireena's scream returned to Ballora, the lithe animatronic began to twitch in anger again. She, with the other six clinging off of her limbs and skirt, raced to the vent. There, the crumbling remains of the Minireena lay.
"There, there, little dove," Ballora hummed, masking her pain and grief. She cradled the pieces of her backup dancer and the other Minireenas reached their tiny arms out to caress their fallen sister. Ballora smiled weakly before rising up again, waiting patiently for her surviving Minireenas to reposition themselves on her body. Once they were settled, Ballora zoomed to the repair room, still cooing to the broken Minireena in her arms. The Minireena's six sisters echoed their mother's comforting noises.
For the next hour, Ballora called out orders to her Minireenas and they brought her every tool she needed until her fallen Minireena was back. The little thing hopped up in delight when Ballora sent one last little jolt of energy its way and it fell in a perfect pirouette. The other Minireenas let out high-pitched cheers while Ballora let out a low chuckle, relieved that her little one was ok. She reached out to it and it willingly went into its mother's embrace. Slowly, the other Minireenas joined in until the seven Minireenas and one Ballora were in a group hug right there in the repair room at 4:00 in the morning. Who said robots didn't have hearts? It was clear Ballora adored her minions and only a fool would say the Minireenas felt nothing for their mother. They loved her too. She might've been a Mama Bear, but she was their Mama Bear.
"Shall we go back to bed?" Ballora asked finally. Sevens heads bobbed in agreement and the ballerina gave another soft chuckle before placing the Minireenas along her limbs and skirts again. She liked letting them craw on her. It meant they were together and that was all she needed. Once they got back to their stage, Ballora played a soothing little tune from her song database and the Minireenas hummed along until they were asleep. Ballora smiled affectionately down at them before following them into their dream world.
AN: I've always wanted to see Mama Bear Ballora, so here it is. (Also, headcanon that the seven Minireenas share the name of each note on a solfege scale).