The Happiest Day

It wasn’t a day like any other. No, today was magical. It was a day of wonder, a day of awe, a day of imagination. Today was the day Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza opened up for the first time; today was the day that fantasy and fun finally came to life.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, though. As a matter of fact, it was more sunshine and mud, or perhaps it was more along the lines of a steadily darkening evening on an overcast day and rainbows. Regardless of the poorly-conceived metaphor being used, two things were clear: the children were thrilled, and the parents were worried.

Outside the building, children were milling about eagerly, visibly vibrating with excitement. They spoke to one another in equal parts hushed whispers and enthused screams about the joy that was sure to come. The parents, on the other hand, were milling about with something decidedly more dour. Memories of the infamous Bite which resulted in the closing of Fredbear’s Family Diner were fresh in all of their minds, even years later.

Of course, nothing as dramatic as another Bite could possibly take place at the new Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, but wariness was just a part of being a parent.

At last, after the children began working themselves up into a frenzy, the manager appeared. He was a somewhat portly fellow with oddly gangly limbs and a graphic tee espousing the virtues of Foxy the Pirate, an old animatronic cast member from the first attempt at creating a Fredbear spin-off. He shuffled through the crowd, flashing nervous smiles at the children mobbing him every so often, and when he finally reached the front door, he puffed his chest out in an attempt to present as much authority as he possible could. It wasn’t very much, as it turned out.

A few taps of a microphone brought the crowd’s attention to the manager, who shrunk under the combined weight of their gazes. “Uh, hello?” His words brought a harsh shriek from the speakers nearby, and he hurriedly moved the mic further away from his face. “Hello! Hi. Welcome, everyone, to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, where fun and fantasy blah blah blah. I think you all get the idea already, so why don’t I skip ahead to the part everyone’s looking forward to?”

A cheer from the kids and utter apathy from the adults was his response. The manager smiled once again and wiped some sweat off of his forehead. “W-Well then. I hereby declare Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza… open!”

The manager fumbled with a pair of scissors and made an attempt to cut through the rid ribbon stretched across the restaurant’s entrance. The cloth folded and stretched to conform to the dull blades, entirely refusing to be severed. The manager made a few more attempts at cutting, then resorted to sawing at the ribbon before using his hands to pull at a small tear.

The ribbon fell away and fluttered to the ground. At last, the restaurant was open.

Children whooped in excitement and rushed forward, pushing each other forward in a flood of exhilaration. The manager hastily opened the doors before he could be trampled and ducked to one side, and the kids rushed in as fast as their short legs could carry them.



Inside the restaurant, the Marionette slouched on top of their box. The enthusiasm of the Toys around them had been tiring after the first hour, and downright exhausting after a full day. From Toy Freddy’s nervous flittering across the many party rooms to Balloon Boy eagerly and rigorously testing out the many rides and games in the main room to “ensure proper quality”, every single animatronic had left them worn out.

Then the children ran in, and the Marionette forced a smile onto their face. They had a job to do, after all.

As the day went on, that smile became more and more genuine. It was truly a joy to work with the children. Their laughter proved to be infectious. Their exuberance, contagious. Their poor hygiene and runny noses, easily spreadable.

The Marionette furtively wiped a streak of snot off of their buttons and bade another child a good day as she left the prize counter with a plush stuffed under her arm. She had been a sweet little thing, all hugs and smiles, and if her reaction was anything to go by, that stuffed Freddy had made her day.

Toy Bonnie sidled up to the Marionette. “Hey, Pups. Don’t mind me, I’m just taking a short break over here.”

The Marionette turned to face Toy Bonnie, smile fading to a much more neutral expression. “If a place to rest is what you seek, go hang with she who has a beak.”

Toy Bonnie nonchalantly waved the Marionette off even as he swept a few figurines off the counter to make room for a seat. “Nah, can’t. She’s busy flirting with every Dad in here to get some extra tips.”

The Marionette didn’t respond at first, stamping down their anger while picking up the fallen figures. They took their time in order to cool off, carefully formulating the most level-headed reply they could muster.

“If that request makes you balk, why not go and suck a-“

“Anyways,” Toy Bonnie interrupted, “Word from some of the Moms is that we’re gonna be getting a special visitor today.” Toy Bonnie pretended to clean a smudge off of his spotless guitar while he spoke, peeking at the Marionette from the corner of his eye.

The Marionette crossed their arms and remained silent.

Toy Bonnie slumped, seemingly disappointed, but puffed back up and cast a smug look over at his conversational partner. “I bet you really wanna know who it is, don’t you?”

“Not a bit, you nitwit.”

“Well,” Toy Bonnie continued, acting as if he hadn’t heard them. “If you’re gonna beg, then I suppose I could tell ya.” The blue animatronic leaned closer towards the Marionette, who rolled their eyes. “Our special guest,” Toy Bonnie said conspiratorially, “Is Mr William Afton.”

A brief flash of static raced across the Marionette mind when they heard that name. Confusion marred their features. The name was familiar, but from where? And why did they have such an uneasy feeling deep in the pit of their nonexistent stomach?

The Marionette shooed Toy Bonnie off when they saw another child approaching with a fistful of tickets in tow. The rabbit bowed out in favor of swaggering over to a table full of single Moms. He leaned casually on one edge of the table. The table flipped. The aftermath was not pretty.

The question of who William Afton was was soon pushed out of the Marionette’s mind. As hours past and the day grew longer, more and more kids began coming up to the counter, stars in their eyes and tickets in their hands. Soon a line had formed, kids uneasy and unused to waiting. The Marionette worked as fast as they could, cutting hugs short and offering clipped responses to questions, but it wasn’t enough.

A hand tapped the Marionette on their shoulder. They turned around.

“Ah, hello Funtime Foxy. I am busy, can you not see?”

A pink-and-white fox stood before them, one hand on a cocked hip and the other holding a red fox puppet. Funtime Foxy pretended to pout and brought up the handpuppet to the Marionette’s face. “Geez, Marionette,” the handpuppet said. “You’re kinda grouchy, huh? I saw you were busy,” Funtime Foxy lifted their other hand up and waggled their fingers, “and I figured you could use a hand.”

The Marionette rolled its eyes but stepped to one side, allowing Funtime Foxy behind the counter. The fox chuckled and stepped past them, immediately and deftly handling exchange requests. The fox shot a look at the Marionette when they tried to help, one that very clearly told them to take a break. The Marionette gratefully did so.

“Oh, by the way!” Funtime Foxy called after them. “Mr Afton’s gonna be here soon. Why don’t you go wait for him by the entrance?”

Out of a lack of any better ideas, the Marionette wandered over to the front of the building in order to do just that. They meandered through groups of children drunk off of the atmosphere and groups of parents drunk off of other things, walked past Toy Bonnie making a fool of himself in front of yet more female patrons, and accidentally interrupted a game of hide-and-seek between Balloon Boy and JJ.

The manager was still standing by the building’s entrance, smiled forced on his face as he handed out coupons and winks to everyone who walked through the door. He jolted when he saw the Marionette, suddenly more visibly nervous than he was before. “H-Hello, Marionette. Can I help you?”

The Marionette folded their long legs beneath them and sat down. “I’m merely waiting for our guest. The others have seemed quite impressed. I wonder if he’ll pass the test and leave me feeling just as blessed.”

The manager cracked a half-smile. “Surely you jest!” The Marionette stared back at him blankly, and he smothered a cough with his fist. “So, uhh, is there any other reason you want to see Mr Afton? Any at all?” He seemed nervous again.

The Marionette frowned and shook their head. Should they have another reason?

The response seemed to remove a weight off of the manager’s shoulders. He sighed with relief and returned to forcing coupons into patrons’ hands. “Well, you’re about to get your chance, because here he comes.”

The Marionette’s head snapped around to look back at the entrance just in time for the double doors to get thrown open. Sunlight poured in, outlining the silhouette of the man of the hour.

William Afton had a smile that was too much teeth and eyes that held as much emotion as a serpent’s. He was tall, and he was handsome, but there was something definitely off-putting about him. Something in the way his eyes scanned the party room before he acknowledged the manager standing next to him, or how strangely high-strung he seemed, tense and twitchy all at once.

Nobody else seemed to notice, though, if the way fathers and mothers alike swooned when he cast his gaze upon them. The Marionette ignored everything else, however, in favor of the creping sense of dread settling over them. Even as William Afton confidently strolled into the building, shaking hands and making friends, all they could focus on was the sense of familiarity he gave them. There was a memory somewhere in the back of their mind, tickling at the outer edge of their consciousness.

And then William Afton made a show of pulling out a bottle of alcohol and pouring it into a plastic cup only for it to evaporate before he could take a sip, and the feeling was lost. The Marionette frowned and followed closely behind Mr Afton, paying close attention to the conversations surrounding him in hopes of catching some form of clue.

“He’s so dreamy!”

“Don’t you just love that sense of danger?”

“I can fix him, I swear I can!”

“Do you think he likes toast?”

The Marionette shook their head. Nothing useful, interesting, or even intelligent.

Mr Afton casually strode over to the prize counter and made small talk with Funtime Foxy. The Marionette hurried closer, their unease growing worse with every passing second. The two laughed at a shared joke, and then they noticed the Marionette. William Afton gave Funtime Foxy a friendly slap on the shoulder, and the Marionette got closer just in time to hear the end of their conversation.

“… comes your relief. Besides, you’ve got a show at Kid’s Cove to prepare for, yeah?”

Funtime Foxy’s eyes went wide. There was a blur of pink, and then there was just William Afton and the Marionette.

The two locked eyes, sizing each other up. There was a moment of strained silence, Mr Afton’s eyes growing sharper by the second as the Marionette grew steadily more tense. Then, the moment passed, and the darkness lifted from Afton’s face. He held out a large hand, which the Marionette took hesitantly.

“Howdy. Nice to finally meet someone I’ve heard so many good things about,” Mr Afton’s grip was strong. If the Marionette had any bones they likely would have winced from the handshake, but as it was they simply returned it and stiffly nodded.

Mr Afton wasn’t deterred. “I heard you’ve put in some hard work over here today. Good on ya for that, I know from experience these little tykes can be a handful.” In the distance, both could hear the start of Funtime Foxy’s show.

The Marionette finally broke their silence with a softly-spoken question. “Do you work with kids often?”

A gleam was in Mr Afton’s eye when he responded. “Well, I’ve got a couple of little tykes of my own,” he said. His words seemed measured. Thought-out.

The static was back. Every moment spent with Mr Afton made it feel like the ground was coming out from beneath the Marionette’s feet. There was something foreboding lurking behind his eyes, something that brought back feelings of terror and pain. The Marionette was confused. They couldn’t even feel pain, could they? They were just a bundle of cloth and plastic.

That was the cue for a migraine to begin. The Marionete gripped their head and shrunk back from Mr Afton, who put a hand out in concern. “Hey? You alright?”

Screams came from Kid’s Cove.

The Marionette’s head snapped up to look at the Cove. That had sounded like Funtime Foxy. There was a commotion going on over there, but the Marionette couldn’t see through the throng of children who were suddenly swarming the place. They turned back to Mr Afton only to realize he had slipped away.

The Marionette was torn between searching for him and checking out the Cove, left shifting from one foot to the other, and ended up doing neither. All they could do was watch as Toy Bonnie and Toy Chica rushed into the crowd growing around the Cove and shortly thereafter beat a hasty retreat with a Freddy-themed blanket wrapped around a bundle. That was all they could ever do.

The blanket moved. Funtime Foxy’s hand poked out.

Toy Freddy was anxiously tugging his bow tie nearby, watching the events unfold, and the Marionette stepped over to him. He glanced at them, eyes watery and concerned like they always were, and removed his top hat only to wring it in his hands.

“Have you any idea what occurred? What actions created something so absurd?”

Toy Freddy shook his head sadly. “N-No. I have no clue. There was just a commotion, and then…” Toy Freddy gestured towards Toy Bonnie and Toy Chica as they disappeared into the backroom carrying their bundle as if it explained anything. In a way, it did.

A new disturbance started up before the old one could finish. A mother returning to her table with a pizza was the first to one to notice. Her worried yells could barely be heard over the usual background noise of the restaurant, but it still managed to attract attention from nearby.

“Baby? Honey, where are you? Mommy got you your pizza, come and get it!”

As the woman continued shouting to be heard over the din, a few more parents began to realize that they too had lost track of their children. The worry turned into distress, and from there shortly snowballed into hysteria. Parents ran around the room, frantically checking on their own children and assisting those who had lost theirs.

A few missing children turned out to be in another room with some new friends. Two had been playing hide and seek with Balloon Boy and JJ. Another was in the bathroom, and another had wandered into the security room in the back of the building.

When all was said and done, however, there were still five children missing.

The hysteria was about to reach it’s peak when William Afton reappeared in a whirlwind of charisma. He seemed much calmer, much more at ease when compared to minutes earlier, and he deftly handled the situation with soothing words and promises.

A damper was still put on the atmosphere in the restaurant, however. It was unavoidable. Patrons began slowly trickling out one by one. Toy Bonnie and Toy Chica eventually returned from the back room and did all they could to make the rest of the day fun, but eventually they, too, gave up and simply waved as people left.

A large hand clapped the Marionette on the shoulder. They didn’t turn around, already knowing who it was.

“Hey, wipe those tears away,” Afton softly joked from behind the Marionette. “… Sorry, that was probably rude of me. Listen, I know this is stressful, but I’ll do everything I can to help.”

The words brought back that easily-recognizable sense of familiarity. The Marionette shook off the deja-vu and the hand, and simply turned to face William Afton. “I’m sure you will.,” they said blandly.

Mr Afton didn’t say anything else after that, whistling to himself with his hands in his pockets as he left the premises. The Marionette sighed, feeling as though all they wanted to do was just curl up into a ball in their box and drift away to some music. But they couldn’t. Not yet.

After all, they had a job to do. Not as an employee, but as a friend.

Funtime Foxy was laying on a table just beyond the door of the Parts and Services storage room in pieces. A sad smile was thrown the Marionette’s way when they entered, but the accompanying greeting was only static. Funtime Foxy’s face drooped, and they rolled over as best they could and faced the wall.

A few silent minutes passed, the Marionette unsure of what to say or do. Once again, they bitterly though to themselves, all they could do was watch.

The other Toys burst into the storage room after that, and the Marionette was grateful for the opportunity to slip away and escape the awkward atmosphere. They headed deeper into the storage room, leaving the chatter behind them.

Boxes of cleaning supplies; replacement parts for the Toys; a few of the old animatronic models from Fredbear’s. The storage room was a cluttered mess to be sure, and it would probably only get worse from here on out. It being strangely labyrinthian probably didn’t help. The room was unnecessarily large and needlessly complex, a maze of shelves and boxes. It’d be easy to get lost back there, much less lose something of your own.

The Marionette was brought out of their internal monologue when they slipped in something slick. They frowned down at their foot, experimentally poking a puddle which was slowly growing across the floor. A quick search for a light nearby yielded a crank-powered flashlight from a large box which was labeled ‘For Security Use Only’. Somehow, the Marionette doubted any security personnel would ever see it.

The light was turned on, and then it was dropped to the floor. The puddle was blood.

There was a trail leading around a shelf, and the Marionette cautiously approached it. They poked their head around the side, and they felt the world fall out from under them.

They had found the missing children. Determination filled the Marionette. This time, they wouldn’t just watch.