Chapter Text
∆December 28th, 2005∆
Everyone was standing in the main room of the showgrounds palace. They were all pretty shaken up from the events of the incident, especially after SMG4 and 3 left for the real world.
Mr. Puzzles sat on the edge of the stage, away from everyone else. He wore his usual designer clothes from the original smg4 show. He seemed to be stressed and nervous. Then someone sat next to him. It was meggy.
“Hey,” said Meggy as she sat down next to the showman, “how are you holding up?”
“I'm not sure,” Puzzles confessed, “it doesn't really make any sense for him to put me in charge.”
“I'm sure it will be fine,” Meggy said before placing the back of her hand on Puzzles' chest, “how's the scars?”
“They're doing fine,” Puzzles said, “I… I don't want to talk about what happened.”
Puzzles couldn't get what happened yesterday out of his mind. He could still feel those flames taking his arm and leg, which were now replaced with robotic parts.
“I don't think anyone would wanna talk about it,” Meggy looked over at the others, “I hope that things get better.”
Puzzles hoped for the same thing. He thought of what to say to Meggy. He then closed his eyes and sucked in a breath.
“Meggy?” Puzzles grabbed Meggy’s attention, “I promise I will find a way to —”
∆june 22nd, 2013∆
Puzzles knelt before an exit door, tears streaming down his display. The door then dissolved into millions of red pixels, revealing that WPNZ was standing beside him.
“And that's it,” WPNZ declared, “the last cartoon character to ever leave the circus. Geez, we're running out of people here.”
WPNZ looked at Puzzles, who still knelt there. He looked to the side before kneeling beside the showman, who now sported a more purpley version of his designer clothes paired with a red bowtie.
“Listen, boxhead,” WPNZ begins, “if you think that I'm gonna leave you. I won't. Everyone else already left and…”
WPNZ couldn't bring himself to even think about the incident that took place years ago.
“we gotta be there for each other, y’know?” WPNZ’S voice was soft, while still holding that gruffness he usually had.
Puzzles lowered his head and shut his eyes, letting a few more tears slide down his display. He then got up.
“I…” Puzzles said, “I need to go lie down a bit.”
Puzzles then left for his room. WPNZ wanted to go after him, as he didn't want anything bad to happen to puzzles. But the showman was too far away, so WPNZ got up to walk around the showgrounds a bit.
It wasn't long before Puzzles finally lay down on the couch that was in his room. His room was very messy, as there were empty alcohol bottles and pieces of paper littered all over the floor. He stared at the ceiling before drifting off.
An undisclosed amount of time later…
WPNZ was walking around the palace doors when he heard a knock. He opened the door to see something.
A knock came to the door, causing Puzzles to jolt up on his couch. His eyes flashed from all sorts of colors to their usual black and blue in just one blink. He touched his screen, breathing heavily. He eventually calmed himself when another knock came to his door. Puzzles looked at the door before opening it, revealing that WPNZ was the one who knocked.
“Hey boxhead?” WPNZ asked, “there's something I need to show you.”
Puzzles then opens the door a little wider, revealing that sonic the hedgehog was next to Mr. WPNZ.
“I heard that you were a little low on cartoon characters,” Sonic said, “I would like to help.”
Puzzles looked at Sonic.
∆August 8th, 2014∆
The main room is now decorated with multiple cartoon characters. Puzzles, who sat at the edge of the stage once more, was happy.
He wore a black top hat with a grey ribbon around the base. The ribbon had white lines that resembled the puzzle pattern on his black pants. He had on a dazzling red and gold ringmaster coat with a white button up and a black bowtie underneath.
Puzzles then felt a warm light emanating from behind him. He turned his head to see a small purple animatronic bunny with salmon eyes and a red bowtie. The bunny looked around, confused. Mr. Puzzles was also confused. Where did that bunny come from? And who was he? WPNZ then sat beside the showman.
“Who is that?” Asked WPNZ.
“No idea,” Puzzles replied.
“Well, I'm gonna get a bite to eat,” WPNZ patted Puzzles' back lightly, “want some?”
The two of them then slid off the stage. WPNZ was further away from puzzles when he realized that the showman only moved a foot from the stage. WPNZ then left Puzzles to it.
Puzzles looked at the bunny, confused on how one can materialize out of nowhere.
“H-hello?” The young boy said, “guys? I don't know if you can hear me but… I think I found a way to evade the yellow rabbit! Guys? Hello?”
The bunny then saw Puzzles, whose lankiness caused him to freak out a bit.
“Where's my parents?” The boy asked the showman.
That question seemingly broke Puzzles’ heart. This kid was a child, who probably got lost and ended up here.
“Mom?” The bunny asked, walking towards the edge of the stage, “dad?”
The bunny then tripped off the stage. But before he could hit the ground, Puzzles caught him. The boy looked at the showman with fear in his eyes.
“Don't worry,” Puzzles reassured the bunny, “I won't hurt you. What is your name?”
“I…” the young bunny was shaking, “I-im…”
∆june 22nd, 2025∆
“Bonnie?” Power asked Bonnie, snapping him from his thoughts, “what did you call me in here for?”
Power sat down at the edge of the bed, next to Bonnie. Bonnie’s room resembled a parts and service room in an abandoned pizza restaurant from the 80s. Well at least it came with a bed and an array of spare robotic parts as well as a few instruments and plushies. His favorite instrument has to be the electric guitar, since he had been practicing it for a while now.
Power and Bonnie had been best friends since December of 2018 when Power simply walked in and asked for a job.
Back in the present, Bonnie mustered up all of the confidence he could possibly need and sucked in a deep breath.
“It's about that softball adventure we had 3 days ago,” Bonnie confessed.
“The one where we had to face off against a bunch of robots and one of them looked a bit like you?” Asked Power.
“Yeah that,” Bonnie said, “seeing that other version of me be so proud of how girly they looked and their name… it made me feel something that I've never felt before.”
“Are you into people that have both genders?” Power asked teasingly.
“What?” Bonnie was surprised at that, “no! I… it's not like that. I… it took me a few days to figure out what it might be. And I think I might know what it is.”
“This better be good,” Power leaned back.
“Do you know how girly my name sounds?” Bonnie asked, “and how Tom had been making fun of it ever since… Bluey…”
“Yeah…?” Power tried to catch on.
“Power…” Bonnie began, “I think I might be a girl.”
Power could not help but stare at the bunny.
“But I don't know,” Bonnie said, “it's confusing but it sorta makes sense given my name…?”
“Was your name something else?” Power got up.
Bonnie looked at Power then to the side.
“It was Jeremy,” Bonnie muttered.
“What was that?”
“That was my name before I ended up here,” Bonnie looked around to give emphasis, then at her demonic best friend, “my name used to be Jeremy.”
Power looked at Bonnie before smiling half lidded at him. Power then took that red bow off of Bonnie’s chest before placing it on her ear. Bonnie looked at her bow, eyes lit up.
“You're secret’s safe with me, Bonnie,” Power said.
The two of them look longingly into each other's eyes. Then a knock came to the door.
∆2026 — present day∆
Bonnie walked up to the sound of knocking coming from her door.
“Bonnie!” Power sang from the other side of the door, “it's the morning and I'm guessing Mr puzzles has another exciting adventure waiting for us!”