Chapter One

Sunshine and Rainbows

Gregory was stuck in the Mega Pizzaplex.

Well, it could be worse. He could be stuck in a murderer's hideout.

The boy searched the dark entrance area of the Mega Pizzaplex, finding a giant pillar a few yards from either side of him bedecked by electronic advertisements. A ticket booth sat some ways away flanked by long rows of barred entrance machines–probably the ones requiring cards or tickets to enter. Roped fences created a long, twisting path before either ticket booth. With the left side being devoid of anything that could help him, Gregory continued on the right. After passing a few stands and another pillar, he found a pedestal with the whole animatronic gang stretched above it in a cartoony style pressed against a wall. "GET A COMPLIMENTARY ENTRY PASS!" The bold ribbon arched above the cartoony characters. Glowing neon lightning bolts pointed down at it, their multicolored light shining on the leaves of fake plants pressed up against the walls on either side.

Hopeful, he ran up to the maroon pedestal. Something this important-looking wouldn't have a limited supply. Right? An opaque box decorated like a present sat joyfully before him. When he flipped open the lid on a hinge and stuck his hand inside, he had a slight difficulty in getting the very last shiny black card left inside. It, like presumably every pass, declared its name, the name of the Mega Pizzaplex, and a cartoon image of Freddy and Friends.

He abandoned the pedestal and ran around to the absurd amount of entry stands. The card beeped on the scanner and the little gate opened.

Gregory's Fazwatch activated. "Well done, Superstar. You have accessed the lobby," Freddy declared as Gregory made his way into the next section. The bandages wrapped around Gregory's arm from a vent mishap in Rockstar Row brushed against the entrance stand. The taupe and checkerboard ground shone under the dull multicolor glow of faraway neon lights. "Unfortunately, that complimentary entry ticket does not allow you to enter the pizzeria. You can find an upgrade machine in Customer Service."

Gregory started to speak but choked on his words upon seeing something move before the giant fountain before him.

A tall robot that was probably supposed to look faintly humanoid but also as a simplistic robot rolled around on two combined wheels, one robotic arm held up with an embedded flashlight, and big block sensors with a raccoon mask painted around them on its face shadowed by a security cap. It rolled back and forth, searching the rather small area. But worse than the creepy robot was the white, pink, and green shape that lumbered around the fountain. Thankfully, Chica's back faced him and her head, resting on her shoulder, pointed away.

Just as Gregory got down and started to sneak across the floor to the nearest shop, the robot stopped and spun in a slow circle. Gregory winced as the beam of light skirted his shoes. The bot kept moving away from him. Could it only "see" something that stepped in its light? Weird.

When Chica walked up a set of stairs on the other side of the fountain, Gregory tried to go into the store closest. Unfortunately, a grate pulled across it, barring him entry until he could find a way to unlock it. The store on the opposite side–labeled "Faz-pad" with steam coming from the top–also barred him entry.

Maybe there were doors on the second floor?

Wait. Where was Chica?

Gregory looked around, but she neither wandered the floor nor on the stairs. He looked at his watch and poked through the menu until he got to the "CAMS" tab. Although most of the cameras were inside the shops, a couple viewed the floor above him and his floor. Chica meandered from the left stairs to the right and stopped, staring listlessly at the double doors leading to the Superstar Daycare. The thought caused a flicker of excitement to spark inside of him. If Freddy was nice despite all the other animatronics being evil, then Sun and Moon would definitely be good!

Chica started to go down the stairs right in front of him.

The boy darted to the other set of stairs and made his way up, throwing a sharp glance back at her on occasion. But she just kept moving down, not once giving any indication she saw or heard him. With her now downstairs, he snuck past her and to the upper doors of the store.

The upper door, after crossing a glass walkway, declared "Glamrock Gifts" in neon signs with lightning bolts. They really like their lightning, huh?

Navy blue carpet and deep pink walls probably made the background of the store. The racks of shirts, displays of toys, two large basins of basketballs, shelves and displays of cups, helmets, and pretty much any bobble he could think of and more cluttered the area as well as the arrangement of pink and yellow neon lights that only hallowed some objects and turned others to darkness by sheer contrast. Who designed this place? He could barely walk in here, much less focus on any one thing.

The exit, thankfully, came into his vision and he immediately ran into the deep blue walkway. A poster with a sun person holding a piece of candy decorated the moody hall. "SUNNYDROP" laced the bottom. Further in after a bend sloping down were other posters of animatronics and a neon paw and star, but he paid them no heed and eventually found himself in the bottom section of the store. In this part of the shop, a wall holding plushies stayed to one side, a half-wall holding magnets and plushies and a sign with "FREE GIFT" in the middle cut the store almost completely in half, and a booth sat near the stairs with a cash register at one end.

Gregory perked up and approached the little present under the sign. He grasped the little handle and cranked it like one of those Jack-in-a-Box toys. The box opened with a congratulatory cry and confetti. "Freddy, I found the free gift!" Gregory exclaimed and pulled the little object out. His fluttery interest flattened. "Uh… it's a crappy Mr. Hippo fridge magnet? Lame."

Freddy's remorseful voice came in reciprocation, "Oh, I am… sorry, Gregory. I am truly sorry."

Gregory pocketed the item and crossed the store. With a press of a button on the wall, the gate opened. Huh. When he peeked his head out, he found Chica climbing the opposite stairs. Once she got up high enough, he darted out into the open, head and shoulders down, and stopped again. His heart fluttered and every muscle in his body was tense, ready to move and let him shoot off in the least dangerous direction on a hair trigger.

Once her thumping footsteps dimmed a little further, he climbed up the stairs and, when her back turned to him, he made his way over the small bridge with a glass wall. What he could see through the window was warm and inviting and way less cluttered with a few tables, chairs, a bar, and a raised section at the end with a few booths.

"Gregory!"

The boy nearly jumped out of his skin upon hearing Chica's yell.

He sprinted without looking back and darted into the café. Her heavy footsteps thundered behind him. The ground shook as she got closer.

Gregory darted through the door at the end of the café just as Chica slammed through the entrance.

Her call burst into the stairway and clanged through the kitchen in the story just under the floor. Gregory's chocolate brown eyes flicked to a stack of plates on an island in the compact kitchen. The boy jumped up beside the island and shoved the plates. The stack of plates flew to the ground and shattered, sending white fragments ranging from the size of Gregory's pinkie nail to a third of the original plate every which way.

Gregory ran down the next flight of stairs and into a semi-empty space lined with walls of what looked like lockers. A counter with a ticket machine behind it sat near the stairs. A giant glass window cut through one part of the wall facing the statue while a collapsible gate filled a giant, otherwise empty doorway.

A few kiddie strollers clustered near the corner closest.

Thump, thump, thump, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!

Gregory jumped into one of the strollers and pulled the hood down over himself.

Two orange, three-toed chicken feet stomped past. A flash of green and pink from her ankles flitted past his vision. With the hood down, he couldn't even see her knees. Hopefully, she would have the same inability to see him.

The feet stopped.

Gregory held his breath.

The feet continued moving at a much slower pace than full-flank-kill-mode. "Who wants candy~?" she sang.

He let out a heavy breath and hopped out of the baby stroller.

A large ATM-like machine sat behind the bar. Was this the upgrade machine at Customer Service? This was Customer Service, right? Welp, only one way to find out.

The machine burred as it ate his ticket and… did nothing else. "It ate my pass!" Gregory exclaimed.

"Try that terrible magnet you found," Freddy suggested.

Well, he had heard of magnets messing stuff up. A sign on the wall beside the ticket thing specifically told him not to hold a magnet near the machine. Gregory took out the fridge magnet and set it on the machine. Its screen glitched terribly. It spat out a baby blue ticket with a rainbow connecting clouds. A sun and half-moon with faces were on either side–the same ones from the posters and plushies. Sun and Moon.

Gregory pulled out the Daycare Pass. He put down the sudden twist of excitement in his chest. "Now it's a Daycare Pass."

"That is great news!" Freddy exclaimed. "I will meet you in the daycare. The entrance is on the second-floor balcony."

Oh, right. That was next to the gift shop.

Knowing the path after being dragged through it once before, and then walking through it a few times on his own behest, Gregory snuck back upstairs.

Once Chica trod halfway down the opposite staircase, Gregory snuck past her and through the large double doors emblazoned with the daycare's logo. This hallway, void of neon lights, stayed dark and the scant regular lights glowed dimly as if the dark ceiling, walls, and floor consumed their light. Stars that glowed just enough to be seen but shed no light on anything else dusted the black ceiling above. He stepped across shiny tiles with triangles of various shades of white, black, and gray. A long-stepped fountain filled the middle, going from the wall almost down to the doors leading to the Superstar Daycare. A charging station like the one in the utility tunnels sat snuggly against the wall, its lightning bolt logo gently glowing.

Did this place change during the day or did it always look so… sleepy? With the stress of Chica fading significantly the further from her she got, the more the gentle, serene darkness got to him. He knew it was midnight and all, but he had more things to worry about than being tired! Ignoring the soda machines and gently bubbling creak-fountain with palm trees planted on its edge, he found the more festive shutters at the end. They opened and he ducked inside.

Light.

Gregory squinted his eyes against the sudden change. He walked into a much smaller room with pale blue walls and dark blue carpet peppered with chairs and tables for adults and children greeted him. The light from the daycare gleamed off the golden statue of Sun standing with his arms up in a "Ta-da!" pose, and Moon pressed against his back facing the daycare, hunched over with one foot above the other but a cord connected to the ceiling keeping his curled shoes off the ground.

Gregory gave an electronic TV trying to sell him night-time candy a hard side-eye.

Freddy announced, "Gregory, I am unable to reach you. Check the daycare security desk for a security badge, then let me in."

He passed by the check-in podiums, briskly searching either one for some soda but coming up empty, and approached the colorful mouth of a tunnel. "SLIDE INTO FUN!" exclaimed a sign over a rainbow with two bright red arrows pointing to it. More light leaked in from below.

Gregory hesitated at the slide.

He took a deep breath and shut his eyes. It had been some time since he was here. Hopefully, Sun wasn't going to turn him in because it was almost one in the morning, and he thought Gregory was lost. Though, it would be Moon to do that, since again it was very late. Speaking of which, it was very late so Moon should be out.

Why were the lights on?

Gregory shook himself and hopped into the slide. He would just ask Sun when he got down there. Maybe Moon was tired or something? Or they took turns at night? Or were there humans there who needed light?

His heart skipped a beat at that last theory. Unfortunately, the mouth of the curly slide was already out of sight, and he found no purchase on the smooth plastic. The skin of his palms skidded, but his clothes-covered body slipped right through.

Light blazed pure and bright as the slide ended and he was thrown into the huge ball pit bordered by a castle-themed half-wall.

Gregory jumped up and looked around. The structures stood tall and grand. Bouncy, squeaky music interlaced with random noises played over the speakers. The very air pressed down on him, oppressive and chilly despite the lukewarmness of… seventy-two degrees. All the employees tended to be weirdly specific with the temperature of the entire building.

Gregory had not made it three steps before he heard an excited shout.

"Hooo, hooo, hooo!"

Above him, on the castle platform high up, Sun twirled out onto the balcony and threw his hands up. The motion threw him back, so he balanced on one foot. He let momentum throw him down onto two feet before he clapped his hands together and dove into the ball pit.

Gregory, caution overtaking his previous excitement, moved forward.

A pair of large, plastic hands lurched from the depths and grabbed him around his sides, and yanked him up into the air.

"Helloooo!" Sun exclaimed, strutting out of the ball pit and over a rainbow bridge, holding Gregory effortlessly a few feet in the air. "Gregory! You're up late! What are you doing back here? Are we having a slumber party? Where are your friends?"

Sun plopped Gregory down on the colorful floor right outside the ball pit.

Gregory stared, only seriously perturbed and hiding it through sheer confusion. Who was this guy? Yeah, Sun could be overbearing, but he was happy and peppy. Even if he wasn't, he was really good at hiding it. This guy didn't sound happy. He didn't sound fun. He sounded… anxious. Hysterical.

"We can finger paint, tell stories, drink Fizzy-Faz until our heads ex-PLODE and stay up all night!" The bells tied to red ribbons on his wrists jangled as he moved them in over-the-top gestures. "There's just one rule." He calmed and the bells on his wrists stopped ringing. "Keep the lights on… on… on." Then Sun went back to his weird swaying.

Gregory managed to find his voice in the silence that tailed Sun's last statement. "Keep the lights on? I don't remember that being a rule."

Sun laughed. "That's because it wasn't when you were here! Hehe! Rules change sometimes!"

When Sun didn't elaborate, Gregory asked, "Is… um… are you okay?"

"Yep! Absolutely positutely!" Sun exclaimed. "What about you? How are you doing? It's really late. Are you alone?"

Gregory shook his head. "Wait, wait, wait, Sun! This is–no. I'm not alone. Sort of. Freddy's helping me. I need to get a security pass and Freddy said there was one behind the security desk here."

"Oh, no! No, no, no! Definitely not! The security desk is off-limits. You can't go back there!" Sun's sudden words bordered on an interruption. He made a noise like he was clearing his throat. "But you're friends with Freddy? That's really nice! May-maybe we can invite him in, and we can play games together!"

Gregory crossed his arms. "Well, I don't want to play games. I want to know why you're acting freaky! Everyone's acting freaky! Everyone but Freddy."

"Oh, it's just nighttime, the animatronics tend to get a little quirky at night." Sun laughed. "They wouldn't hurt you! No one would!"

The boy eyed him. "Quirky, huh? Chica tried to get me. She almost took my head off! If I hadn't hidden from her, she would've!"

Sun's dance skipped and he cocked his head a little. "Chica…? She wouldn't do that." He went back to his weird "dance". "Chica wouldn't do that. None of them would. None of us. No one. We're programmed against hurting guests. Why don't we do something fun, huh? We-we can draw or climb or slide down the slides. It'll be fun! Come on!"

Gregory looked back at the doors and then Sun. "Can… they come in here?"

Sun nodded. "Yep! Freddy came over once!"

"Can they go in the play structure things?" He gestured to the jungle gyms.

Sun shook his head. "Nope! They're too big for that. Moon and I can, though!"

Well, even if Sun went off the deep end, Gregory should potentially be safe here. I still need to get that security pass and let in Freddy.

Gregory glanced back at the security desk. All of his failed escape attempts crept back up on him. All those times he got close? Heh, right. With no other children in here to distract him, Gregory doubted he'd have room to breathe much less escape.

"You look hungry!" Sun exclaimed. "Do you want a snack?"

Gregory whipped his head around to face him. "Yes!" He cleared his throat and nodded. "I mean, yeah, if there're snacks left."

"There's plenty of snacks left!" Sun skipped to the fridge and pantry and soda fountain. He threw a look behind himself to be sure Gregory followed.

Gregory did indeed follow.

First: food. Second: the security pass.

Gregory ended up wolfing down all the yogurt Sun had left over from the day, which was a surprising amount. Sun always received a refill of snacks in the afternoon, though, so it sort of made some sense. Gregory also ate a few boxes of raisins and crackers and a big cup of Orange FizzyFaz.

As the boy ate, Sun sat cross-legged opposite him on the floor.

Gregory listened intently as Sun told a story–something about a lion sparing a mouse–while he ate. Sun had a storybook with him and read from that. As Sun read from the book, Gregory could see… Sun. He saw some of what Gregory remembered him to be: chipper and excited but not to the point where the boy might have entertained the idea of fear.

Gregory finished his snacks by the time Sun finished his story about Hansel and Grettle. Though he could have asked for more, he knew he'd burned enough time. Technically, it was time well spent, but still. He needed to get that security badge and let Freddy in. He needed to get that security badge to let him go further into the Mega Pizzaplex. After all, if he was trapped here, she would find him eventually. Despite how… safe–could he call this safe?–he was in here, he felt cornered. Was cornered the right word?

…yes.

"Gregory, are you okay?" Sun asked, cocking his head. "You look a little space-y! Why don't we do something? Or do you like drawing? We could go draw! Or I could put on a puppet show. I think you liked the last puppet show. Maybe we could run around the play structure or finger paint or play chase!" Sun managed to rattle off at least six activities without a breath taken. To be fair, he didn't need to breathe, but it was still weird.

Chase would take too much out of him, but just sitting around would give him no room for escape.

"Um… what about the ball pit? I've never been there before! Except when I came in."

"Oh of course! The ball pit is so much fun!" Sun squealed, hopping to his feet and bouncing back a few feet as if on springs. Maybe he was on springs.

Gregory got up and ran after him. Although he meant to go to the further entrance–as there were two and between them, he could spot the security desk–he didn't quite pay attention to where he was going while looking at his ultimate goal and ran face-first into a large stack of three colorful cans.

The cans toppled over.

"Oh no, no, no!" Sun screamed and immediately darted over to the toppled cans.

Gregory darted back far out of range.

"What a mess! Which one's the bottom? Which one's the top? Clean up, clean up!"

Gregory backed away in the direction of the security desk. Even with Sun in such a position that he could see Gregory out of the corner of his eye, Sun frantically put the cans back together.

Sun had just set the bottommost can–a blue one–when Gregory made a break for the security desk. The red and then the green cans quickly followed.

Gregory made it to the security desk.

"Friend!" Sun yelled, abandoning the freshly stacked cans to skip to the security desk. "This-this area is off-limits. You're gonna get us in trouble."

Gregory, having snatched the flashlight from its place and now stood behind the desk, watched him. Sun, despite having the ability to get to Gregory from any direction, even over the counter, stood outside of the desk. Could… Sun not enter the area?

"Oh! Yes, definitely. Come along, Gregory!" Sun's voice shook near the end. He hopped around to the side of the security desk and beaconed him forward.

The security guard let go.

Gregory stuck his tongue out at the man and hurried to Sun, who quickly picked him up. He spat venomously upon being held like a child but didn't try and wriggle free.

The security guard mumbled something else about how dumb his job was before going back to his tablet.

"Gregory, you should never come here," Sun stated forcefully. He only set Gregory down once they were a good distance away from the desk. "That area is off-limits."

Maybe… he couldn't go back there. That probably made sense to someone. However, as the boy stood behind the desk with Sun powerless to stop him, Gregory found a hole in their logic.

"Don't you want a puppet show? I have glitter glue! Do you want glitter glue? Googly eyes?"

Gregory looked down at his flashlight and then at the cardholder. Sorry, Sun. Gregory pressed the button on the little bear head's nose.

Gregory took the card.

The lights went out and the music died.

Gregory bristled as Sun jumped on the counter. "No-no!" he screamed. "Why would you do that?! Lights on! Lights on! I warned you–I warned you!" He pulled at his face and twitched and jerked and the worst noise Gregory could imagine screeched out of the bot's voice box.

He fell back with a hard thunk and clank of metal and gears.

…

"Naughty boy."

A colder, softer voice replaced Sun's. Two sets of blue-tipped fingers curled out from behind the desk and landed soundlessly on the counter.

"Naughty boy."

Something akin to Moon's face peeked out from the counter and cocked to the side. Two pinpricks of light glowed in its bi-colored eyes. Rather than a baby blue like that of a cloudless day, red shed bloody light over its white fur-lined cap and moon-colored face. "It's past your bedtime." Its voice warbled a little in tone and pitch as it cocked its head from side to side as if it, like Sun, couldn't agree with itself on any certain speech pattern.

"You must be punished." The thing spat and hopped nimbly onto the countertop. "Nighty-night…" the thing cooed and leaped. Its yellow stars shot across the playground and vanished behind the play structures.