//------------------------------//
// Endless Bears 
// Story: Another Member of the Band 
// by Magic Step 
//------------------------------//

Adorabelle scooped the bear up n her hooves, bringing it closer to her. Same blue bug eyes, same black bowtie…
“What?” Angel asked. “Do you recognize it?”
Adorabelle’s breathing grew more ragged. She set the bear down and turned to face Perfect Karma.
“You… you…” Adorabelle pointed at Perfect Karma. “This is all your fault!”
Perfect Karma’s eye widened. “You- what? I don’t-”
“Adorabelle,” Violet Edge said. “Please stop and think about what you’re saying-”
“You gave this bear to Jewel Eyes, and it’s, like, dangerous. And you knew that and did it anyway!” Adorabelle trembled with fury.
Perfect Karma blinked at her. “I have no idea what you’re going on about.” He turned back to where Goody Shoes sat open-mouthed. “Ignore her outburst and keep working, fool.”
“I saw this bear! It’s yours!” Adorabelle shoved the evidence sack in front of Perfect Karma’s face.
Perfect Karma shoved it aside. “All right, I admit my daughter might have a bear like this in her collection somewhere.”
“You have a daughter?” Goody Shoes asked.
“Too sickly to leave the house, most days,” Perfect Karma said. It was the standard line he used, and if Adorabelle wanted to keep invading his house without fear of being arrested, she’d have to keep her mouth shut. Not that anypony would take her word over the word of the most revered prosecutor in the nation, but Perfect Karma had more important things to do than squash rumors.
“Oh… sorry.”
“Don’t pity her,” Violet Edge mumbled darkly. “She’s happy enough.”
“To return to the point, I don’t actually pay that much attention to what she has.” Perfect Karma shrugged. “I can’t say for sure.”
“But you did see this bear! Last night! Aimy brought it out to you on the walkway, you fought over it. You took it from her!”
“You saw this, then? You actually saw me holding it?”
Adorabelle paused. “Uh. Well. No, I didn’t. B-but I heard it!” Adorabelle reached over and squeezed the bear’s nose through the plastic. Honk. “It makes sound, like that!”
“Lots of things make that sound,” Angel said.
“Exactly.” Perfect Karma stepped closer to Adorabelle. He stared down at her, his face a mask. “So unless you want to officially file murder charges against me, I suggest you let this issue drop.”
Unwanted tears blurred Adorabelle’s vision. “F-fine then! I will!” She tossed the bear to the ground and stomped off, sobbing.
“…Was that supposed to be a taunt?” Perfect Karma asked, amused.
“Adorabelle!” Violet Edge shouted.
Adorabelle stumbled as far away as she could until she banged her head on a locker. Then she sat down and cried.
Then she felt a hoof on her shoulder. “Why are you crying?”
Adorabelle sniffed and wiped a hoof in front of her eyes. “Oh, Violet…”
She pulled her comforter into a hug.
“H-hey!” Violet Edge said.
“I’m scared,” Adorabelle said. “Wh-what if I’m right and you’re living with a murderer?”
“You’re wrong, so don’t worry about it,” Violet Edge said. “You’re taking this wild notion of yours way, way too seriously.”
Adorabelle stiffened.
“Don’t get mad…” Violet Edge said.
“Th-that’s right!” Adorabelle pulled back and held Violet Edge’s face in her front hooves. “I remember! I couldn’t see Perfect Karma because I was, like, dangling below them. But you were on the balcony! You saw the bear!”
“I didn’t say that!” Violet Edge jerked backward and tried to extricate himself from the hug.
“But didn’t you?” Adorabelle pressed.
Violet Edge turned to study the lockers again. “I’m not answering that, okay?”
“What? Does that mean you did see it?”
“Who cares?!”
“I care! Please tell meeee!”
“Why do you think this somehow proves something?”
Adorabelle brushed a white strand of mane behind her ear. “That night… I heard Perfect Karma scream. Like, in terror. And, well, like, I’ve never heard him do that… y’know, ever. This is something totes serious.”
“…And? So?”
“And then Jewel Eyes gets…” Adorabelle swallowed. “Slashed up and stuff, and she’s somehow holding the bear. D-don’t you think it’s creepy?”
“Um… no. No, I don’t.” Violet Edge folded his hooves in front of his chest. “There’s so many holes in your logic I can barely start. First: you can’t prove the bear is the same as the one Perfect Karma had. Second-”
“Oh, shut up. I get it. You think I’m, like, a drama queen.” Adorabelle turned away from him.
“Okay, fine. You want to know what I really think?” Violet Edge spun her around. “I think that Perfect Karma decided the bear was too dangerous to have around for… some reason, I don’t know what. So he gave it to Jewel Eyes because she’s basically the only unicorn on the force and he doesn’t trust earth ponies because he’s racist. She promised to take care of it. And then… then something happened- I’m not saying Terry’s innocent- but Perfect Karma doesn’t want to say anything. Because having anything to do with this would, well… be…”
“Imperfect,” Adorabelle said. “So, are you going to tell anypony?”
“What!? No!” Violet Edge’s brilliant eyes widened in horror.
“Whaddaya mean, no? You can’t just hide stuff like this!”
“It doesn’t matter! Why would it?”
Adorabelle rolled her eyes. “Like, duh. Maybe the bear killed Jewel Eyes and Terry is innocent. You can’t just-”
“Oh, right, the bear can do that now.” It was Violet Edge’s turn to roll his eyes. “This is wild speculation on your part. I’m sure forensic has already checked for any enchantments; if the bear was actually capable of such a thing, it would come out in the investigation.” He took a deep breath. “And… why do I have to be the one to make him…” His voice grew quiet.
The unspoken words hung in the air: “Why do I have to make him angry? I’m the one who lives with him.”
Adorabelle stared at him for a moment. Then she flung her forehooves around Violet Edge’s neck. “I’ll protect you. Please don’t be scared of him…”
“I didn’t say that!” Violet Edge cried in frantic protest. “G-go back to being mad at me, please!”
“Are you going to tell me about him?”
“No. There’s nothing to tell. You jump to conclusions too much.” Violet Edge gently unhooked Adorabelle’s hooves for the second time in as many minutes. “Let this drop. Please?”
Adorabelle was no longer sure whether she should be angry at him, or sad for him. So she just trotted past him.
“H-hey, where are you going?” Violet Edge asked.
“Back the way I came… I hope.” Adorabelle wished the rows of lockers were less identical. “I mean, like, if I can’t prove it with my testimony, or your testimony, then I need another way…”
She turned into a hallway between two lockers and found Angel boxing up the last of the evidence.
“Hey, are you okay?” she asked as Adorabelle walked up.
“Oh, like, fine and stuff. So, like, where’d Perfect Karma and Goody Shoes go? …And the other guy, um… Suede Shoes?”
“Gumshoe.” Angel folded the flaps of the box inward. “The two brothers went for their appointments with the chief. I think Perfect Karma was getting something from his office.”
“Oh, hey, wait, can I see that before you take it away?”
Angel blinked. “Like what?”
“The bear. I want to see if I know it or not.”
“I guess…” Angel reopened the box. “Don’t take it out of the plastic, and don’t mess with it too much.”
“Telekinesis okay?”
“It’s a little late for you to start caring about that,” Violet Edge grumbled.
“When’d you get here?” Adorabelle asked, looking over her shoulder.
“I… thought you wanted me to follow you?”
“Well, uh, you are totes not going to like this.” Adorabelle shuffled through the evidence for the stuffed bear. Muddy scarf, bloodstained uniform, small camera…
“Uh, before I forget,” Angel blurted. “You know not to take anything I said seriously, right?”
“Huh?” Violet Edge said. “What stuff?”
“That whole ‘earth doesn’t need unicorns’ thing. I mean, I don’t want any hard feelings. I mean, uh, well… I thought you might think it meant… uh… what I’m trying to say is…”
“If you didn’t mean it, why did you cheer it?” Violet Edge replied frigidly.
“I don’t mean you’re bad or anything. We just mean your magic is kinda, well, just sparkles and stuff. It’s extra. Like streamers on a scooter. It’s cool and stuff but we don’t need it.”
“Oh, I get it. That’s why Manehattanites keep kidnapping unicorns and chopping their horns off to graft to their own high-ranking officials! Because it’s completely useless!”
Angel snarled. “That’s not the same thing and you know it isn’t.”
“No, no I don’t.”
“Found it!” Adorabelle scooped the bear into her telekinetic grip. She took a deep breath and focused on the bear’s nose.
“W-w-what are you going to-” Violet Edge started.
Honk-honk-honk-honk-honk-honk-
Something struck Adorabelle’s face. Hard. She screamed and dropped the plush bear.
Angel gasped. “H-how could you? She’s a mare!”
Violet Edge pulled his hoof back. “I’m… I’m sorry…”
“Why would you hit me like that?” Adorabelle sobbed. Her cheek still stung. “How could yooooo?”
“You were trying to- if you kept doing that- you were the one who thought that-”
“Well what was I supposed to do?” Adorabelle snapped. “You wouldn’t tell me anything so I had no choice!”
“Don’t be an idiot. There’s other ways to test besides-”
“And that’s all I am to you? An idiot?” Adorabelle pressed a hoof to her cheek, hoping there was no mark.
Violet Edge leaned forward, his eyes wide, his expression distraught, his mouth looking about to form words of comfort, of apology.
Then he froze. Slowly, he pulled himself back. His mouth shifted to a grin that looked either a bit too forced… or a bit too maniacal.
“Yes. You’re an idiot.”
Adorabelle blinked at him. It was getting harder to breathe; her sobs were taking over her lungs.
“I hate you!” she shouted, galloping off for the second time that day.
This time, she had slightly more presence of mind to look where she was going. She headed to the evidence room door and paused just long enough to lift the steel door.
When she left, she saw the mint colt still sitting at the desk, staring straight ahead again. He was crying too; long trails of tears that flowed down his muzzle and pooled on the gray wood beneath him.
Adorabelle swiped a hoof across her eyes. No matter how bad her day was going, at least she wasn’t in silent darkness like he was. 	Hesitatingly, she started towards him.
“Um… hi?” she whispered. The colt didn’t acknowledge her; the 6 hours probably weren’t up yet.
Slowly, she lowered her hoof towards his mane. He stiffened when she made contact, then pulled away.
Okay, so maybe he only let Gumshoe pet him, and there was some kind of code they had. Or something. But that was okay.
Adorabelle had another idea, although she wasn’t sure it would do her any good. She had to find out where that bear came from in the first place. The manufacturer was probably a good place to start.
Unfortunately, since the plush bear had had no tag, that would mean her first stop was with a stuffed bear expert.
And she only knew one.

***

“It’s meee!” Adorabelle cried as she flung the Perfect manor door open.
Nopony was there. Adorabelle felt her cheeks growing red.
“Helloooo?” She trotted up the stairs.
Perfect Karma was in an office on the second floor. A thick law book and a few photos hovered around his head. He was writing something with a peacock quill but wasn’t looking at the paper.
When Adorabelle trotted in, he glared at her and put the photos face down on his desk. “Violet Edge said to tell you that he doesn’t want to talk to you tonight.” A smile tugged at his lips. “A fact I couldn’t help but commend him on.”
“You’re evil,” Adorabelle said.
“You’re childish. Are you leaving now?”
“Nope!” Adorabelle swished her tail and left. “I’ve got, like, important stuff to do.” Then she paused and peeked over her shoulder. “But, uh… thanks for showing me around, I guess.”
“I thought you might come in handy in case there was anything Chief Blackclap felt like keeping from me.” Perfect Karma began picking his photos back up. “You didn’t disappoint.”
Adorabelle felt chills run down her spine. She didn’t want any compliments from him.
“I’ll be done in a bit!” She dashed back out into the hallway and headed for the tower staircase.
When she reached the hallway, she paused outside Violet Edge’s room. Did she or didn’t she…?
She nosed the door open. Violet Edge was already in bed, reading a law book. He took one look at her, then shut his eyes.
“You, like, can’t pretend to be asleep with a book in front of you,” Adorabelle said, stepping closer. Her voice grew quiet. “I’m totally sorry. I, like, shouldn’t have said I hate you and stuff…”
“Go away.” Violet Edge’s voice was quivering. “I don’t like you.”
Adorabelle rested her head on his pillow, then pressed her muzzle under his ear.
“I said cut it out!” Violet Edge jerked back and nearly hit Adorabelle with his book.
“Stop lying to me,” Adorabelle whimpered. “You totally like me, and that’s, like, why you want me to think you don’t. Because you think you’re, like, bad for me or something.” Adorabelle nuzzled him again, and this time he didn’t resist. “But I can’t be happy when you aren’t. That’s, like, how friends work. So, like, stop trying to push me away. It’s too late for us, y’know?”
Violet Edge’s expression looked like a mix of horror and sad. Then he set the book on the floor and turned to face the wall.
“I… I need to get some sleep,” he whispered.
“Okay.” Adorabelle backed out the door. “See you in the morning?”
No reply. Adorabelle pulled the door shut, then turned towards the upward staircase with a sigh.
No use delaying the inevitable. If she wanted answers, she knew where to go next.
Slowly, cautiously, she crept up the stairs to the second floor of the tower, wincing at every creak. Higher she went, entering the dark shadowy realm above.
A bit belatedly, she remembered that she wasn’t injured today and so she shouldn’t have any trouble using her magic. She lit her horn and swept it around the vacant hallway as she arrived on the landing.
The highest floor of the tower and the farthest corner of the manor was nothing like the rest of the house. The wallpaper was old, faded and ripped. Red and black stains streaked across the walls, sometimes attempting to form pictures: hearts, flowers, and what looked like a dead stick figure pony bleeding to death. Holes had been punched in the walls, too, and half the carpet was scorched.
Adorabelle didn’t come here very often, and especially not at night. The overhead lamp had been smashed, and there were no windows. If anything happened to her magic-
“BEARSPLOSION!”
Adorabelle gasped as several small soft objects struck her. She closed her eyes, waiting for the final blow.
Nothing came. “Heeey, you aren’t Edgy! That’s not very nice!”
Adorabelle opened her eyes. Several stuffed bears lay at her hooves- brown bears, black bears, rainbow bears, bears both big and small. But no top hats.
“You’re, like, not very nice either, Aimy. If I had been Violet Edge, I’d be, like, in a panic attack.”
Perfect Aim crept from the shadows into the bright beam of Adorabelle’s horn. She was wearing a pink frilly nightdress for some reason. She scowled at Adorabelle. “That was the point.” She started to pick up her attack bears.
Maybe Perfect Aim was in one of her less psychopathic moods today. Her sanity waxed and waned, after all. Adorabelle cleared her throat. “Aimy, I need your help.”
Perfect Aim gave a start, then giggled hysterically. “Does it involve my Edgy?”
“Nope.”
“Good. I’m not helping you get him, Miss Stickyhooves. He’s mine, get it? Miiiiine.” Perfect Aim threw open the door to her room and tossed the bears inside. “Come on in. There’ll be ca-ake!”
Adorabelle kind of doubted that, but followed Perfect Aim inside anyway.
The walls in Perfect Aim’s room didn’t look as horrible as the ones in the halls, but that was because you could barely see them. Or maybe ‘bearly see them’ was a better way to put it, since every inch of walls had shelves attached, and every inch of shelf was covered with stuffed bears, except where furniture was, and the steel panel on the wall.
The bed was much larger than it needed to be for such a small mare and had a tall metal box holding it up. Adorabelle’s current theory was that Perfect Karma had had it shipped in from a sanitarium, since it also had a remote to move the head and foot up and down that normally only hospital beds had.
A small pink tea party table sat in the middle of the room, with four heart-shaped stools. Two bears sat at the table, one pink and smelling of strawberries and one in a long white wedding dress. The tea set was a bit mismatched, with some pieces cracking and others, well, made of plastic.
Perfect Aim hummed to herself as she set the bears back in place. Then she trotted over to a small oven on top of her dresser and pulled out a pan filled with a lumpy brownish-purple substance.
“Oh, is that new?” Adorabelle asked.
“Mmm-hmm.” Perfect Aim beamed. “Daddy finally let me have my own baking station. I need to practice if I’m going to be a good housewife for my Edgy, after all.” She set the pan down on the tea table. “I call this violet velvet cake.”
“Um, like, don’t forget to turn the oven off…” Adorabelle squeaked nervously.
“Oh, yeah. Don’t want my bears to burn.” Perfect Karma clicked the knob on the oven. “Soooo, do you wanna taste test?”
Adorabelle looked at the unappetizing cake and wondered if it was deliberately poisonous, or just accidentally. “Um, like, don’t you want to save some for Violet Edge?”
“Ooooo, good thinking!” Perfect Aim pulled a ninja star out of her top dresser drawer and flung it into the pan, breaking the cake in half. The table trembled and the bears fell over.
“So, um, about bears.” Adorabelle wanted to leave. “Like, you know that bear you had last night?”
Perfect Aim slid half of the violet velvet cake onto a flowery plate. “Yuppers.”
“Where’d you find it anyway?”
Perfect Aim trotted over to the panel on the wall. “I snuck down into the basement and nosed around. Daddy has soooo many things stored there. Going down…” She pressed the button on the wall next to the panel, and the dumbwaiter door slid open.
“Do you know where it came from?”
Perfect Aim slid the cake into the dumbwaiter and pressed the button again. The steel box slid out of sight. “Maybe I should have sent Edgy a bear to go with,” she giggled.
“Um, like, maybe, but about the other bear-”
“With the top hat?” Perfect Aim trotted back over to the table and took the teapot’s lid off. “Dunno how it got there, it was just there.” She dunked the tea bag up and down; Adorabelle had just enough time to see that she’d drawn a pony’s face on the bag. A face with an eyepatch. “Drowny time, burny time…”
“Was it, like, familiar?” Adorabelle leaned closer. “I mean, like, nopony knows more about stuffed bears than you.”
“Like hay they do!” Perfect Aim reared into the air excitedly. The sudden movement made Adorabelle stumble back. Perfect Aim walked over to a basket of bears on the floor and started digging through it. “I’ve never seen that top hat, or that microphone, but the bug eyes and everything else make it obvious.” She pulled a bear from the pile; it was black with yellow eyes, but it did look like the same maker. “Wanna know who makes them?” She giggled.
“Yes! Please tell me!”
“You’re not gonna liiiiike it,” Perfect Aim cooed.
“What’s not to like?”
Perfect Aim wiggled her shoulders. “Okay, okay. I guess I can tell you, if you promise to bring me back a bear when you investigate.”
“Done! Now tell me!” Adorabelle was practically dancing with suspense.
“Teddy Ursa.”
Adorabelle stopped dancing. She sat down hard and stared blankly at Perfect Aim.
“No, no, it couldn’t be. That’s, like, too much of a coincidence…”
“Why would I lie to you?” Perfect Aim put the bear back in the basket. “I mean, even if you took my Edgy with you, I wouldn’t get to see his reaction.”
Adorabelle hugged herself to try and stave off the sudden chill she felt. She was beginning to realize why her dad didn’t like her to investigate things.
Teddy Ursa was the pony who’d killed Violet Edge’s dad over a decade ago.