Another Member of the Band

by Magic Step

Endless Sentence

“Please let her wake up… please let her wake up…”

Adorabelle blinked her eyes open, her vision still fuzzy. “Daddy?”

A loud gasp startled her. She blinked a bit and made out a pony’s face, a bit too close to hers. He was brown with a chin slightly fuzzier than the rest of his face. In between some spikey, straw colored bangs and a blue baseball cap was a horn, which surprised Adorabelle a bit.

“You’re awake.” The brown pony pulled back onto his haunches and bit his forehooves. “I was… so scared…”

Adorabelle looked around. She was lying on a patchy green couch, and on the ceiling was the world’s most boring chandelier, which had four lights but only one working bulb. A fireplace was on the opposite side of the small room, full of black logs and… something metal. Against one wall were two barrels, one of bears and one… well, one that was labeled “Kindling” but was actually full of cream-colored plush bunnies. The bunnies didn’t match anything in Teddy Ursa’s shop, and not just because they weren’t bears; they had… teeth. So many teeth, it looked like their heads were sliced apart near the bottom and teeth went all the way around. But they had the same huge, white, soulless eyes. Adorabelle decided she didn’t want to look at them anymore and looked at the other wall. It looked like his sewing station- work table, bolts of fabric on the wall, etc. But closer to the ceiling was a shelf with five stuffed animals. Only one of the animals was a bear; there was also a blue rabbit, a yellow… duck?... and two foxes, one red and one white. They looked like part of a set.

“How’s your head, miss?”

Adorabelle looked at the brown unicorn. “Ugh… I just got knocked out and woke up with next to no brain damage. I guess that means I’m totally an investigator now…” She felt her head and found a small lump. It hurt more to touch it than Daring Do books had lead her to expect. “You’re… Teddy Ursa?”

The brown pony nodded. For a former murderer, he looked pretty terrified of Adorabelle. In fact, he just didn’t look much like a murderer at all; he had a cutie mark of an adorable teddy bear, and even though he had to be in his thirties or forties, his face just looked coltishly innocent.

“Why did you hit meee?” Adorabelle whimpered.

Teddy Ursa pulled on his baseball cap brim nervously. “I’m sorry. I don’t… I th-thought… you surprised me, and I thought you were… um… a ghost.”

“A ghost?” Adorabelle blinked. “Then… then… you don’t hit ghosts on the head, you idiot! I mean, like, what were you trying to accomplish?”

Teddy Ursa whimpered. “I didn’t know what to think. I was scared…”

“I don’t even look like a-” Adorabelle paused. “W-wait, did you… did you think I was my mom?”

Teddy Ursa looked up and blinked. “Who?”

“True Beauty. My mom. We, like, look identical and stuff… nothing?”

Teddy Ursa shook his head.

“Then, like, why’d you think I was a ghost?”

Teddy Ursa picked up a black bear that was lying face down on the floor next to him. He hugged it to his chest before continuing. “Because nopony ever comes here.” Pause. “Also because I thought the door was locked.”

“Oops.” Adorabelle rolled onto her stomach. “So, um… hey, like, if you’re a unicorn, why do you live in the chocolate district?” Maybe it was best to not talk about the murder just yet.

Teddy Ursa looked down at the bear in his forehoof, as if expecting it to tell him the answer. Then he walked over to the barrel of bears and pulled out a white one as well.

“When I was little, I got my cutie mark in making special bears.” He tossed the white bear to Adorabelle. “Hold.”

Adorabelle caught the bear in her telekinesis.

“In your forelegs.”

Adorabelle shifted the bear to her chest and hugged it.

Soon, a wave of warmth washed over her. Joy bubbled through her heart, and she couldn’t keep from smiling.

“The stuffing… it holds emotions, like sponges. Every bear I sew. It’s not really a spell I can teach, I just know how.” Teddy Ursa walked back to th couch and sat down. “The white bears I stuff… stuffed… with lots of love and happiness. And when you squeeze them, the emotions come out.” He tossed the black bear from his foreleg up into his telekinetic grip. “The black bears are empty, but when you hug them, you can pour in any negative emotions… sadness, anger… loneliness.”

“What about the brown bears?” Adorabelle set the white bear on the floor and sat up.

“That… that was a bad idea.” Teddy Ursa gnawed his lower lip. “I… I was hoping I was ready to make bears that stored something more complex. They were supposed to take in memories… copies of memories, mind, while they were still fresh. And when you squeaked the nose, you could play them back.” He levitated some brown bears over. “But, well… I don’t think it worked. I guess because it’s easy to vividly feel an emotion, so you can put it in. But it’s not easy to vividly remember something.”

“I, like, really need to know about that.” Adorabelle pulled one brown bear into her own grip. “See, I was, like, wondering… did anything bad happen? Are they… dangerous?”

“D-dangerous?” All the bears Teddy Ursa was holding fell to the floor. “Oh, Celestia, I hope not. They just… they just aren’t very effective. They ended up being an unwanted hybrid of white and black bears; all your emotions pour in when you hug them and come out when you squeak the nose. …but someponies like that, I guess, so I kept selling them. Wh-why would you say they’re dangerous?”

He seemed too on edge. “Oh, like, nothing. I just… wondered.” Adorabelle paused. “Hey, wait, you, like, never answered my question. Why do you live here? Isn’t it, like, bad for business?”

Teddy Ursa froze. “It wasn’t about business…” Tears appeared in his eyes. “Not c-completely. I… I’d read about this place… the children don’t have many toys, you know? I thought… I felt… like they needed me. And my talent.” He picked the black bear back up and hugged it. His tears vanished. “But nopony comes anymore.” He swallowed. “They all blame me…” He raised his hind leg, showing Adorabelle the emerald-encrusted band around his ankle. “And house arrest means I can’t go to them. Takes all my strength to stick my head out of my upstairs window.”

“But… but how do you live? I mean, like, food and stuff…”

“My sister’s my appointed keeper. She comes once a week with new groceries.”

“That’s… that sounds sad. And, like, dangerous.” Adorabelle tossed the brown bear back towards the barrel, but it tumbled off the top. “So, like, how long till that bit’s over?”

Teddy Ursa blinked. “Not sure…”

“Didn’t they tell you?”

“I don’t know…”

“Or, like, send you a letter?”

“Mailpony stopped coming. Sister sometimes brings stuff, when she remembers.”

Teddy Ursa was starting to rock back and forth, hugging the bear tightly to his chest, so Adorabelle tried to think of something happier to talk about. Her eyes fell on the five plushies on the far shelf.

“Hey, like, why do you have foxes and a bunny?”

Good choice. Teddy Ursa’s eyes lit up, and he practically leaped over to the shelf. “You haven’t met the Freddy Fazbear Five? Let me teach you!” He scooped them into yellow telekinesis and made them dance up to Adorabelle. “This is Freddy, the friendliest bear you’ll ever meet.” He pushed the top-hatted bear up to to Adorabelle. “He’s the lead singer and he loves children. Next up is Bonnie the bunny.” He held out the blue bunny. “He loves to rock out on his guitar, and he’s super strong, too!” Next was the yellow duck. “This is Chica the chick.”

“Not a duck?”

“Not a duck. She sings duets with Freddy.”

Adorabelle pushed Chica and Freddy’s faces together. “Can I ship them?”

“No, no, no!” Teddy Ursa pulled them back apart. “You can only ship the foxes. Freddy and Chica are just friends.”

“Okay, so, like, who are the foxes?”

“If such a thing was possible, they are even cooler than the Fazbear crew.” Teddy Ursa set the first three plushies lovingly on the floor and held out the two foxes. “This is Captain Foxy and first mate Mangle.”

“Hey, wait, are these just your toys?” Adorabelle said. “I mean, like, I heard that Freddy… uh… had… a location?”

Teddy Ursa blinked at her.

“Freddy’s? Does Freddy’s mean anything to you?”

Teddy Ursa gasped joyfully. “You mean the pizzeria! Freddy Fazbear’s pizzeria! The most magical and fun place on earth!” He looked even more like a child, from the way his eyes shone. “That was my brother-in-law’s pet project. He wanted to build a fun place for kids to play, and… and…” Teddy telekinetically gathered all five plushes to his chest and hugged them tightly. “When he asked me to design the publicity team, I was over the moon!”

“Oh, wow, you know about Freddy’s!” Adorabelle bounced on the couch. “That’s so awesome because I totally need to go there because I think my mom and this other guy were killed there and I want-”

The plushies all fell to the ground as Teddy Ursa stared at her in frozen horror. “No. No, please, please, not again…”

“Again?” Adorabelle leaned forward eagerly. “Why? What do you know? What-”

Teddy pressed a hoof to his mouth and stared at the floor, tears streaming down his cheeks. Then he grabbed Adorabelle’s shoulders, making her squeak.

“What happened? Is Freddy’s okay? They didn’t arrest Clockwork, did they? Please tell me… tell me they won’t shut it down l-like, like, like-”

“I don’t know! Please let me go!” Adorabelle scrambled to the far side of the couch, away from Teddy. “I’m sorry, I’m totally sorry, I didn’t want to upset you, please…” She swallowed. “Right. You were, like, on your star when my mom died. You wouldn’t know…”

“What happened?” Teddy Ursa’s voice was softer now. “Please say they’re okay…”

“I-I don’t know. I, like, only just learned that Freddy’s existed; I wouldn’t know if it closed.” Adorabelle paused. “Oh, but, like, I’m pretty sure nopony named Clockwork was arrested any time in the past ten years.”

Teddy Ursa sighed. “Thank goodness.” He wiped his eyes. “Could I… ask you to check for me?”

“What about your sister?”

Teddy Ursa winced. “My sister, Plushie Shell… and Clockwork Heart were basically made for each other. Almost literally; ponies thought they’d be married while they were still kids. And… they were, but their divorce was… very messy. And Plushie Shell is scary when she gets mad, and, uh, I can’t afford to make her mad at me, since she’s, well, all I have. So… I’m scared to ask her about him.”

“Oh.”

“I get newspapers, but apparently nothing newsworthy is happening there. I write letters, but… my sister delivers them, and, well…”
“This seems inequine.” But then he did murder somepony-

-Hey, wait, why was she making friends with him?

“Why did you kill my friend’s dad?” Adorabelle asked.

Teddy Ursa cringed. “It was… it was stupid.”

“No, stupid is for things you say and, like, tripping and stuff. Not for murders.”

“I had nothing against Violet Eyes!” Teddy Ursa turned to the side. “He’d just got done defending my cousin, when nopony else would stand with him. Violet Eyes was… I owed so much to him. I was going to give his son a bear; that’s why they were here.” He inhaled sharply. “You… do you know what happened next?”

“Not really.” She’d been waiting for Violet Edge to find the courage to tell her in his own words.

“Come here.” Teddy Ursa waved his hoof and walked out the door.

Adorabelle followed him to a small hall. On one side was a stone staircase, on the other a set of doors with the word ‘condemned’ spray painted on in red.

“I took them down to the storeroom, because I had a special bear just for Violet Edge.” Teddy Ursa gestured to the two heavy metal doors. “My brother-in-law Clockwork Heart had this new-fangled thing he’d designed called an 'elevator'. It’s a box for ponies that goes up and down. He was going to install one in Freddy’s, but before he did the construction he wanted to test it in my shop. I let him. I can’t say no to him. That was a little dumb.” He pointed to the ceiling. “It has gears up there… or something. I never really understood it. But when we went down, well, something bad happened and the box stopped moving. We couldn’t go back up. We were buried alive.”

Adorabelle shuddered.

“There’s lead in these mountains, so even if I did know how to teleport or send messages or… whatever, we couldn’t. My shop… used to be… busy… so we were pretty sure somepony would notice soon enough. But nopony noticed, so we started getting… paranoid.” Teddy Ursa inhaled slowly. “I t-try not to remember any of it. See, the reason why it was condemned… I didn’t know this until that very day, but the mountain doesn’t just have lead. That far down, it also has this mineral called Sirenite. Heard of it?”

Adorabelle shrugged.

“Apparently it radiates energy that makes ponies… kind of… lose it.”

“Oh, yeah, we learned about that in history class,” Adorabelle said. “Like, apparently it was a thing back in pegasus warrior days where they would, like, take prisoners of war and trap them in caves full of Sirenite and wait until they went crazy. Then they’d make a prisoner exchange and wait for Tartarus to break loose.”

Teddy Ursa swallowed. “L-like that. Well, I… I had a tub of water down there; I used it for *I’ll think of something later*. But I was thirsty from being trapped…” His breathing got ragged. “The tub was built into the wall. Near a huge Sirenite deposit. The water was… st-steeped in the stuff.” Tears appeared, again. “Ponies… sometimes go mad just from being next to Sirenite, and I just.. I sw-swallowed it down…”

Adorabelle hugged him. “Please don’t cry. It’s not your fault-”

“If it’s not my fault, why am I being punished?” Teddy Ursa pulled away and rested his hooves on the wall. “Why does everypony blame me? Why do they hide from me? Why did I have to lose five of the best years of my life, in space? Why am I trapped in here? Why-”

Adorabelle dashed back into the room with the couch, grabbed several black bears, and telekinetically pushed them against Teddy Ursa.

“I shouldn’t have told you about that.” Teddy Ursa grabbed a few of the bears in his forelegs and squeezed them. “S-sorry. I just… I just…” He rested his head on the bear’s heads. “Violet Edge… shouldn’t be fatherless. Nothing I’ve suffered is worse than that.”

That was debatable, but Adorabelle was just glad he wasn’t yelling anymore.

“I always was taught… I thought that good things happened to good ponies, and bad things to bad ones.” Teddy Ursa set most of the bears in a sitting position against the wall, but kept cradling one. “If… if it really isn’t… this… all this wouldn’t be happening if I wasn’t really… bad… right?”

“Oh, you’re a Karmite?” Adorabelle asked.

“I don’t like that word anymore. Not since that prosecutor.”

“Me neither. I mean, like, I know it’s a religion and ‘karma’ means something else to most ponies, but to me it’s the jerk who lives next door and likes to yell at my dad.” Teddy Ursa had a blank look on his face. “Perfect Karma. Um, the guy who lives next door to me. Hey, like, was he the prosecutor in your trial, too?”

Teddy Ursa leaned his horn against the wall and shut his eyes. “Right, that slimeball.”

“Slimey? I thought you were guilty…”
“Yes, and that’s the problem! I was guilty and everypony knew it. I was ready to admit it. But…” He took a deep breath. “I’m… getting too worked up over nothing. I should calm down.” It sounded like he was ordering himself around in the absence of a psychologist. “I mean, nothing bad happened. I got what I deserved. He just… ugh. Some of the evidence got changed around for no darn reason; anything ambiguous disappeared, or changed slightly.”

“Really? You sure?” Adorabelle leaned forward. “I’d, like, heard rumors that Perfect Karma is obsessive… like, he needs all the evidence to be perfect. But, like, you’d think your testimony would be enough.”

Teddy Ursa winced. “I don’t remember any of it, really. Soon after I swallowed the water, I blacked out.” He paused. “Also, Perfect Karma claimed my memory was just playing tricks on me, and the evidence hadn’t changed. I guess… I guess… I can’t say he’s wrong.”

“Oh.” Adorabelle felt sulky. “Hey, wait, like, if you can’t call yourself a Karmite, what will you call yourself?”

“I don’t know. Do-gooder is supposed to be degrading…”

“What about a Christian?” Adorabelle beamed.

Teddy Ursa stared at her. “That’s something else… I think that’s those crazy ponies that worship Megan.”

Adorabelle’s beams stopped shining. “No! No we don’t! Megan brought Christianity to us, but she’s not who we worship!”

“Oh, I-I didn’t know,” Teddy Ursa squeaked. “Don’t get mad…”

Adorabelle huffed. “Sorry. I just, like, get tired of hearing that.” That wasn’t a good first impression. “But, like, Christianity is awesome and stuff! See, there’s this human named-”

“I-I don’t really… believe in humans,” Teddy Ursa said.

Adorabelle blinked. “Wh… wh… whaaaa? But, but, Megan was here less than a century ago, and like-”

“I believe in Megan, but she’s the only one we’ve ever seen,” Teddy Ursa said. “I mean, the whole idea that there’s another world out there, full of sentient beings like us, and that Megan’s the only one we’ve had contact with… It’s just too much to believe.”

“What about Danny and Molly?”

“That’s just further proof. Danny and Molly aren’t always around when Megan is, right? I’m pretty sure they’re just enchanted apes… I mean, that’s what science says, right? They’re magically abnormal apes? And when a female develops abnormality, we think we’re seeing Megan, and when it’s male, or there are two females… wait, are you okay?”

Adorabelle felt her eyes fill with tears. “Humans are r-real, I know they are.”

“Oh, gosh, I-I’m so sorry, please don’t cry.” Teddy looked around slightly frantically, then pressed a black bear into Adorabelle’s chest.

Adorabelle felt her eyes dry up, and the upset feelings that had hurt her so much a second ago suddenly felt far away, like they’d been banished to the stars.

“This feels like cheating,” Adorabelle said. She wasn’t ready to stop being upset yet.

“Anyway…” Teddy Ursa turned away. “You… you only came here to talk about murder, didn’t you?”

“It, like, sounds morbid when you put it that way…”

“But is it true?”

Adorabelle set the black bear with the other bears by the wall. “Oh, like, I also need a bear for Perfect Aim.”

“Is that… another Perfect?”

“Mmm. Karma’s daughter. Huge fan of your work.” Adorabelle pulled a small pink wallet out of a pocket in her yellow dress. “How much?”

Teddy Ursa swallowed. “If you… if you promise to bring me the news at Freddy’s, it’s free.”

“Oh, well, like-”

“There is literally nothing I want more right now… except freedom, which you can’t get me. And bits can’t pay for news.”

Adorabelle returned the wallet to her pocket. “Oh, like, okay. That’s, like, totally, um, sensical.”

“I used to give the black and white bears away all the time,” Teddy said. “I made my money on the custom bears.” He scooped up one bear of each color in his telekinetic grip and hovered them in front of Adorabelle. “Which one?”

Adorabelle hesitated. Black made the most sense, but Perfect Aim already had one of those and it didn’t seem to be doing her much good.

Or maybe it did, and that was why she was so calm when Adorabelle went to visit her.

“Do these things… y’know, wear out?” Adorabelle asked.

“Well… I think they do get less effective over time… but it’s not really a-”

A loud clang of wind chimes cut them off. Teddy’s eyes widened.

“Hellooo?” There were hoofsteps upstairs. “Where’s my favorite baby brother? I brought food…”

“Oh, like-”

Teddy Ursa rammed a black bear into Adorabelle’s open mouth. “Sh-sh!” he whisper-shouted. “Hide. Quick. Now!” He turned and scrambled up the stairs. “Shelly? I… I thought you weren’t coming for another two days!”

“Well… I just wanted to bake some bunny cookies, and I need someone to share with. There’s too many for just me and my baby.” There was a clashing, chomping sound. “Okay, okay, just one more, sweetie.” The chomping sound continued, but now with the sound of cookies being crushed. This amused Plushie Shell apparently, since she started laughing… much more hysterically than the situation seemed to call for. But then, Adorabelle couldn’t see what was happening, and maybe normal moms just laughed at everything their children did… she hardly knew.

Oh, right, she was supposed to be hiding. She turned toward the elevator. Might as well kill two birds with one stone… Well, it said ‘condemned’ but she just would rush back up if she felt the Sirenite making her mad. She just wanted a look…

With her horn, she pulled one of the shiny metal doors to the side, not quite sure what she was expecting to see.

The elevator was a total letdown. It just looked like a broom closet with no brooms. She walked inside and looked around. He’d said there was something that went up and down, but she couldn’t see-

As soon as she let go of the door, it slammed shut, leaving Adorabelle in complete darkness. And then the floor started falling. Adorabelle screamed and dropped to the ground. She didn’t want to be here; she was an idiot for coming; now she was falling and-

The floor stopped. The doors slid open.

Adorabelle swallowed. This was it.

The room was lit with a single dusty bulb, giving everything a spider-webbed look. The walls were the pure grayish-green stone of the mountain. Adorabelle’s view was blocked by several very high shelves; they formed a kind of maze that she wove through, sometimes stopping to push boxes out of the way. One shelf had nothing but bolts of fabric in various states of decay- some moth-eaten, some merely faded. Another shelf had boxed up bears with shipping labels on them. Apparently Teddy Ursa did mail orders.

The boxes varied in how easy they were to push; some had only stuffing, others had metal pieces in them.

At last, Adorabelle reached the back of the room… and saw it.

Blood.

A thick dark brown stain, forming a puddle as big as Adorabelle’s bed. Did ponies really have that much blood inside of them? One of the edges of the stain was irregular, like something had taken a bite out of it. The blood pooled against the wall that, Adorabelle assumed, Violet Eyes had fallen against when he died. There were lighter patches where his body had been… and a smaller patch right next to them.

Clinical Cause had just started his job around the time Violet Eyes had died. According to him, when the police got there, Violet Edge was lying next to his father, snuggled right near where the wound was as though trying to block the flow. He was so still, and so covered with blood, that police reported it as a double homicide. They covered both of them with a plastic sheet, and Clinical Cause had come to take a look and oversee the removal of the body. He’d tried to pull the little colt away from his dad.

And then Violet Edge had opened his eyes. His brilliant violet eyes were full of reproach.

“Why did you have to wake me?” they said.

That was how Clinical Cause described it. Adorabelle believed it; there were days when she looked at Violet Edge and saw the same thing.

“Why did I have to wake up?”

Tears blurred Adorabelle’s eyes, and she turned away. She should probably leave…

…Through her streaked vision, Adorabelle thought she saw something yellow dash between two shelves.

Adorabelle quickly wiped a hoof across her eyes, but the golden creature was gone.

“Hellooo?” Adorabelle called, stepping closer to where she’d seen the thing.

A rustling of boxes answered her. Adorabelle froze. “Who are you? What do you want?”

The rustling stopped. For a moment, there was silence. Then, a soft whisper:

“S… A…V…E…T…H…”

“That’s not how you spell Safety Dance!” Adorabelle giggled and finished walking towards the source of the sound. “Silly misspeller…”

A pair of soulless eyes met her. Adorabelle gasped softly.

A pile of soft brown fuzzy fabric lay on the floor. On top was a bear head with empty voids for eyes and a black scary mouth…

…It was just a mascot head and Adorabelle was being silly. This lighting made everything creepy.

She picked up the head and gasped again. There was a note under the head, on top of the fabric.

And it had her name on it.

“Beauty: always wear when investigating. –Vigil.”

…Well, it seemed like a silly request, but if you couldn’t trust random scraps of paper, who could you trust? So Adorabelle picked up the fabric and shook it. It turned out to be a fuzzy costume, kind of like footie pajamas. She unzipped it in back and slipped it on; it was very cozy, actually.

Last step, the bear head. Adorabelle hesitatingly picked it up and slowly slid it over her head, wondering if her horn would fit.

She needn’t have worried. It was a bit tight, and the eye holes were a little small, but otherwise it was a pretty good fit. Wagging her new bear tail happily, she went back to the elevator and hopped in.

After the elevator reached the top floor, she remembered why she’d gone down there in the first place. Oops.

The doors slid open once she reached the top. And now there was a pony on the stairs that she hadn’t seen before.

She was a light purple unicorn with a long dirty blonde mane. Her eyes were a soft green and heavily lashed. A baby sling was wrapped around her chest, but it wasn’t a baby she was carrying. It had long ears and bug eyes and perpetually snapping jaws.

“Ohhh, you,” the mare said, curling a forehoof protectively around her plush bunny. “Your dad was a liar, do you understand me!? My dearest plushtraps came first, and the last survivor shall be the heir. Not. You.” Her eyes narrowed. A bit of foam appeared at the corner of her mouth, and she licked it off.

Adorabelle took a step backward, hoping the crazy lady would go away.

“Right, you should be scared!” The mare shook her forehoof wildly. “We talked about this! Go haunt the pony who actually killed you! His shift should be starting any minute now… “

“Sh-shelly? Who are you talking to?” Teddy Ursa appeared at the top of the stairs.

Plushie Shell pulled her blonde mane out of her face and tossed it over her shoulder, but it was just the right length that it cascaded back down to block her eye. “Can’t you see him, dummy?”

“I’m a she…” Adorabelle muttered. Her voice was weird and echo-y.

Teddy Ursa looked at Adorabelle, then at Shelly, then back to Adorabelle once more before finally fixing his gaze on his sister. “I don’t see anything.”

Plushie Shell blinked rapidly and dramatically for a few seconds. Then she sighed exasperatedly. “And you wonder why you’re such a loser!” She stomped upstairs, treading on two of Teddy Ursa’s hooves as she passed. Teddy managed to smile and wince at the same time.

Adorabelle walked up to the foot of the stairs and looked up. “Mind if I borrow this?”

Teddy Ursa looked down at her. “It… oh Celestia. Adorabelle, are you okay?”

“Oh, like, sure!” Adorabelle slipped the mascot head off and let it hover just over her head.

“O-oh, it’s that costume, not the… where the hay did you find that? I’ve been looking everywhere…”

“It was just, like, sitting out in the open.” Adorabelle’s voice got quiet. “And it, like, had my name on it…”

“It does look almost cute on you,” Teddy Ursa said. “Please, take it. Clockwork Heart will be happy to see it again; he was so…” His expression went blank for a second. “Um…” He shook his head. “It’s been a… bunch of years… things get muddled; I don’t remember where I was going with this.” He sighed. “Um… so, yeah, let me draw you a map to Freddy’s. Uh, what color bear did you want again?”

***

Teddy Ursa finally managed to get his older sister to leave. Then Adorabelle left, carrying a tissue-paper wrapped bear and a map to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza in her telekinetic grip.

And then it turned out to be night. She must have been unconscious for longer than she thought.

Her horn light did nothing while she was wearing the bear costume, since her horn was tucked inside. So she had to navigate by the moonlight. Why weren’t there any streetlamps?

At least the streets were deserted.

Freddy’s was much nearer to regular Canterlot than Teddy Ursa’s shop, but it was still technically in the district. Adorabelle had been to that region; a number of pretty high quality shops were there, generally chains that could afford the blow to their reputation that being in the chocolate district normally dealt. Also, cheap rent.

They were all closed now, of course. Adorabelle probably wouldn’t get to actually go to Freddy’s today, but it was on the way home, and she just wanted sooo badly to see what it looked like and where it was.

Studying the map became more critical now. Past a cute boutique she’d have to visit when it was open (ooh, summer hats!), past a fancy candle store…

And then she heard the music. Soft at first, then growing louder as she walked closer, faster.
Let’s try to make it right,
Don’t wanna start a fight,
And we’re do sorry if we give you all a little fright.
We’re not so scary if you see us in the daylight!
You’ll be so happy just as long as you survive the night!

Around the corner, and-

There. There it was.

A long building covered in purple stucco, with one huge picture window (curtains drawn) and a set of double-doors with gleaming gold handles. The roof was tall and dark brown, with blue letters that spelled the restaurant’s name and a cartoon bear face painted on it.

Entranced, Adorabelle headed for the double doors and reached out her hoof to push… when she saw the closed sign.

And closed signs meant locked.

Dang it.

Well… maybe there was an unlocked back door. She circled around, past a set of purple dumpsters (that was a thing?), around to the back of the building. There was another door there, this one a dark yellow, heavy duty and unassuming. Tentatively, Adorabelle twisted the silver handle.

Slowly, she pulled it open to reveal a dark hallway. The floor had reddish-pink carpet, and she thought she saw a flickering light way, way down at the end. But that was all.

And with the bear head on, she couldn’t use her light.

This was a bad idea… she should go home… it was getting late…

But before Adorabelle knew quite what she was doing, all four hooves were through the door.
Which then slowly creaked shut behind her, cutting off the meager light from the starry sky and officially sealing her in Freddy’s.

Author's Note:

Well, it's been over ten chapters and under 50,000 words, but we've finally made it to Freddy's!

...And lucky for you, the chapter title didn't mean that this chapter consists of a single 5,000 word sentence. The temptation was there, though.

Comments

[PonyJosiah13]

but she just would rush back up if she felt the Sirenite making her mad.

Yeah, that's going to work well.

Wonderful chapter! I'm ready for Freddy now!

[BismuthBorealis]

Costume intended for her mum, check.
History about equestria... Megan was that recent here? Damn.
Even ongoing slavery (probably)
Wow this equestria is just kinda a hell-hole, ain't it?
Anyway, I'm genuinely enjoying this story a ton, even if you think it's kinda old crap, it's juicy worldbuilding with very intriguing mysteries, and the look into what life is like for everypony, what with the ongoing racism, very recent slavery, creaky justice system, burning starfire, implied rainbowness, and of course freddy's is just all very atmospheric, like, the horror vibes are immaculate.

(And since this is my 'just commenting now about stuff so-far comment, I'm also like, super interested in what Twilight's ascension would entail, what with the whole burning starfire thing.)

... and wait, I just realised, considering the crystal prep ponies in csgu in earlier chapters, I have to wonder if EqG has any canonicity in this setting, because that'd absolutely add a new angle what with the megan thing.