Toying Around

“Hm, Bronycon.”

Arbiter stood in front of the monitor, gazing at information on a recent event titled ‘Bronycon’. Twilight sat next to him, reading the same information.

“It’s odd how adult men would watch colorful ponies.” Arbiter said. He went over to the mouse and scrolled down the web page.

“Yeah...” Twilight murmured, her focus on the writing.

They both went into a concentrated silence, which was unfortunately interrupted by the arrival of Chief.

“wats up faggots?”

“We’re reading.” Arbiter replied.

Chief walked to take a look at the aforementioned article. He became silent for quite a surprising while.

“wtf is this???” he turned to Arbiter. “did they r3name gaycon lol?”

“Studies show that these so called ‘Bronies’ are actually mostly heterosexual.” Twilight stated, not bothering to look at Chief.

Chief froze for a moment. “wat?”

Twilight brought her hoof to her face and sighed. “It means they have an attraction for the opposite sex.”

She peered at the Chief, who went silent again. She rolled her eyes. “It means they’re attracted to women.”

“even teh women?? sweeeeet”

Twilight stood up, preparing to go into a full depth explanation but Arbiter interrupted her before she could do so. “You’re fighting a losing battle. Just let him think what he wants to think. His mind is too thick to allow new ideas to enter.” he said.

“i need 2 preserv my Halo skillz i cant afford 2 l0se them” Chief tapped his helmet.

“Oh yes, I forgot how important being good at Halo is.”

“thats rite bitches Halo is teh bomb. teh bomb of teh bombs”

Arbiter looked to Twilight. “See? If you use sarcasm you can get by.”

“Oh really?” the pony replied sarcastically, smirking.

“fuck u 2. o w8 u can just fuck each other” Chief made a circular shape with his index finger and thumb and put his other index finger through the hole repeatedly.

“No comment.” Twilight groaned, frowning.

A eight legged beast began to descend from the ceiling using a thin strand of web: Greg. He had his post-it notes clutched on one side of his limbs and his felt tip pen with the other. He soon landed on the table, much to the horror of the others.

“Aaaah!” Twilight screamed, flinching back

“Aah, fuck!”

“wtf?!!?1”

Greg separated the web from his body and began to quickly scribbled down on a post-it note.

Sorry to scare you all like that

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “No problem Greg. Sorry for screaming.”

“srsly fuckface if u keep doin that i sweair 2 god imma cut off ur legs”

“It’s a shame you can’t aim with a knife or Greg would actually be frightened.”

“stfu”

Arbiter has a point

Greg halted his writing. He was on his last post-it note.

brb guys going to grab more paper

“Alright.”

Greg suddenly skittered off the table and disappeared. Twilight shivered at the sight of all his eight, hairy legs moving in tandem with one another.

“I’m sorry but...I don’t think I can get used to that.” She admitted.

“It’s not your fault. Fear is sometimes a force we cannot control. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

Twilight smiled lightly at Arbiter. “I suppose you’re right.”

She then blinked when she found herself being pushed forwards towards Arbiter by Chief.“now kiss”

Twilight snorted defiantly and instinctively bucked Chief away. He flew into the monitor, but luckily his impact did not damage it. He then fell onto the hard table.

“ow ow ow oooooooow”

“Nice one.”

Twilight looked to Chief, who was just getting up onto his feet, and then to Arbiter. “Uh...I guess? It was purely instinct really...” she said, sounding very unsure of herself.

“It’s standard instinct for a normal person to react that way around Chief.”

Twilight smirked, then quietly gasped at the reappearance of Greg. Oddly enough, he only had his felt tip pen with him this time.

Arbiter followed Twilight’s gaze and looked at Greg. “Couldn’t you find any paper?”

Greg shook from side to side.

“Could use A4 sheets you know.”

“That would be very unconventional.” Twilight uttered.

Chief meanwhile, had returned to the others.”teh only problim h3re is that hes still ugly as fuck”

“Well, he needs more post-it notes as soon as possible. The problem is how we do that.”

“just buy them fr0m teh interwebz dumbass” Chief pointed at the computer monitor.

“No, I’m not wasting Jon’s money on post-it notes. You spend enough of it as it is.”

“He does?” Twilight asked. Before this moment, she had already been informed of who Jon was.

“Yeah. Mostly on sexual things.”

Twilight made a face of disgust. “I don’t want to know.”

“That’s probably for the best.”

Greg stomped his limbs on the table in order to get everyone’s attention.

“Right, we’re getting sidetracked. Sorry Greg.”

“Why don’t we just go to the store? Must be one nearby.” Twilight suggested, looking up as she thought of ideas.

Arbiter turned to Twilight. “Did you even think that through properly?”

Twilight huffed slightly. “Of course I did. We’re small toys. We could easily slip in a store undetected.”

“omg shes a genius we can be liek spyz” Chief waved his hands in the air.

“Now I’m sure this is a bad idea.”

“Well, what other options do we have?”

Arbiter looked at Twilight, then at Greg. As much as he disliked the idea, Twilight was right. It did seem to be the only option. He doubted that Jon even had his credit card here anymore, as Chief hadn’t purchased anything recently.

“Fine.”

“wooo this r gonna be awesum!!1!!!” Chief started running towards the front door of the apartment. Arbiter facepalmed and quickly followed him. Twilight and Greg made their own way there at a slightly more relaxed pace.

The front door stood forebodingly in front of the toys and spider. Only a thin piece of wood separated them from the outside world, where they ran the risk of being seen and taken by any passing human. They needed stealth and cunning in order to survive. And with the Chief, the odds of doing so were significantly reduced.

“We’ll sneak through the letterbox.” Arbiter said, approaching the door. “We’ll need your help getting up, Greg.”

Greg readily complied, climbing up to the letterbox and producing a web that ran down to the floor. Arbiter used it to scale the door and then propel himself through the letterbox.

“Fuck.” Arbiter said as he hit the floor. The others could just barely hear him.

“da Cheefs next bitchez” Chief ran to the web and like the Arbiter before him, scaled the door. Although he took a significantly longer time than Arbiter to do it. He jumped through the letterbox and landed directly on Arbiter.

“Fuck!” Arbiter said again, Chief lying on top of him.

“thanks 4 breking my fall lollololol” Chief got up, taking no regard for Arbiter’s safety by stepping on him as he did so.

“Well...looks like it’s my turn.” Twilight uttered. She went up to the web and reluctantly grabbed it. “Eugh...this is so disgusting...” she muttered to herself as she climbed up. Taking a deep breath, she went through the letterbox.

Arbiter was just getting up when Twilight landed on him. “Jesus! Fuck!”

Twilight quickly got off Arbiter when she realized she was stood on top of him. “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry!”

“roflmao ur such a loser” Chief mocked, pointing at Arbiter, who was beginning to pick himself off the ground again.

“I’ll admit, I probably should have moved.” he promptly stepped away from his current position, although there was no need as Greg simply crawled down the door from the letterbox.

Unlike Jon’s apartment, which was warm and comfortable, the outside of the apartment was cold and uninviting. The floor was made out of concrete, a stark contrast to the carpets in in Jon’s dwelling. It was apparent that most of the effort put into creating the building had gone into the apartment rooms themselves.

The lighting was fairly poor here. Only a few lightbulbs were on the sides of the walls and they weren’t really powerful enough, so there was always a hint of darkness even at midday.

The stairs were quite big for the gang and scaling down each would require a small drop. Accompanying the steps was a simple black handrail, of which the paint had come off in places.

“Well, this is it. Let’s go.”

“hey hold on a sec who teh fuck made u leader???”

Twilight sighed, bringing her hoof to her face. “Does it really matter?”

“No. But if we don’t get moving soon we’ll get spotted.” Arbiter set off, not wanting to hang around. He jumped down the stairs, deftly landing on his two feet without injury.

“w8 4 us dipshit” Chief called out, catching up to Arbiter. Once again, Twilight and Greg found themselves following the pair.

Jon’s apartment was located on the second floor of the building, which meant a lot of stairs to go down. The toys went as quickly as they could in order to avoid being seen by anyone but luckily the structure was eerily quiet.

“Not even flies find this place appealing.”

After a while, the group found themselves at the ground floor. In front of them was a simple wooden door with a golden letterbox. Fortunately they didn’t need to climb through it; the door was already open ajar.

“No wonder Jon’s never around...” Twilight rolled her eyes.

Light poured in through the gaps of the doorway. Every one of them felt a little bit frightened about dealing with the outside world. Granted, Chief, Arbiter and even Greg had been outside before but that was only briefly, and the feeling of helplessness never went away.

“cmon faggots r we gonna do this or n0t?” Chief asked, becoming impatient with the fact that nobody had taken a further step towards the door.

“Wait.”

Chief hesitated.

“We don’t know where we’re going.” Arbiter pointed out.

Greg bounced repeatedly on the floor, which caught Arbiter’s attention. “I guess Greg knows. We’ll follow you then.” he nodded at the spider, which began to take the lead.

The four slipped out of the door and found themselves in the outside world. Judging from the Sun’s position, it was the afternoon. It was a nice day: the sky was almost completely blue, save for the occasional fluffy looking cloud.

In front of the toys were more steps but there were only several and they were slightly smaller than those in the apartment building. The group went down them with relative ease and speed.

Twilight looked around anxiously; they were now on the sidewalk. In front of them was a road but it seemed surprisingly devoid of any vehicles. The sidewalk itself was concrete and looked quite worn; they were several cracks between the tiles that made it up.

Greg gave the toys no time to look around though, as he quickly sped off to the left. The others had to run to keep up with him. Each of them was careful to avoid the splotches of bird poo that littered the street.

A car then suddenly rushed by. Every one of the group could feel the wind generated by the speeding vehicle.

Twilight jumped in shock as the car raced by. “AAAAAH!!” she screamed.

“Calm down Twilight. It was just a car. The people inside won’t have seen us.” Arbiter kept running behind Greg.

“Even so...it was very shocking...” Twilight shook regained her composure and kept following the others.

The toys kept following Greg’s lead. He took them down side streets that had filled, dirty bins and cardboard boxes. Occasionally, they saw a human but they could all easily hide behind a lamppost or in someone’s front garden. It was relatively easy to hide but that didn't change the fact that it was still terrifying.

They had been travelling for hours and it was starting to wear down all of them, especially Chief who was getting extremely bored of seeing similar, dull streets all the time.

“omfg r we there yet???” Chief looked in all directions, desperately looking for something that looked vaguely interesting.

“What do you think?” Arbiter snapped.

“we r just so sloooooooow”

“Well, taking into account our size...our speed will be dramatically reduced. I’m sure some quick calculations can tell us our speed.” Twilight said.

Chief looked back at Twilight but still ran. “omg who br0ught teh nerd??”

Twilight frowned. “I just use my brain cells more efficiently than you.”

“lol shes moar wordy than u arbiter” Chief looked forward again. Arbiter didn’t bother to answer, his attention focused on following Greg.

Eventually they were all on the street opposite their destination; a superstore. This was the most risky part of them all. Across the street lay the car park, full of still vehicles that evidenced plenty of their occupants inside the store. The store itself was quite big and it was certain that it hold the post-it notes Greg needed.

But before they got there, they needed to cross the road. Unfortunately, this one was rather busy. Cars and other four wheeled vehicles raced on the road, nothing more than a mere blur to the toys. In order to make sure they weren’t seen, they hid behind an old baked beans tin.

“well were fucked” Chief began to walk off but was stopped by Arbiter grabbing his shoulder and pulling him back round.

“I’m not giving up because of some cars. We’ll just wait for the right moment.”

“fucks sake” Chief slumped down. “i could b playing Haloz rite nao”

“I think helping a friend is more important than playing Halo.” Twilight observed the cars movements, trying to find an opportunity to rush across the road.

“gregs not my friend” Chief said. “hes just ugly”

“What?” Twilight responded, her voice both a mix of anger and surprise.

“Don’t bother kicking him again. We don’t have the time to fight on the street like tramps.”

Twilight sighed and kept observing the road. “Yeah...you’re right.”

Greg simply gazed at the superstore.

More time passed and so did more cars. By now, all of them were getting restless. But Twilight kept vigilant. “Everyone get ready...”

“What?” Arbiter said, standing up. As did Chief.

“I’ve made a rough estimate of our speed and I’ve waited for the right time for us to run across judging by the activity of the cars. And I think it’s...” she paused, waiting for the exact moment. “Now! Run!”

At that moment, she leapt into action. She galloped across the road with a blazing speed that the others barely kept up with. Chief looked to his side and saw an oncoming car to the far distance. Realizing the danger, he immediately stepped up the pace. This in turn caused a chain reaction of Arbiter and Greg running faster.

When they all got across, it dawned upon them just how long it took to get here from the apartment; the Sun wasn’t visible anymore as the day slowly gave way to night. In all the danger it had seemed that the journey was actually a lot shorter.

Greg took the land again, scuttling under the parked cars. The toys pursued him, going in between worn tires and white lines painted onto the ground.

Suddenly, one of the cars that they were under started to slowly move backwards. The low hum of the car startled all of them. Twilight froze in horror as she saw the heavy wheels turn and crush the ground below. All of them could have been squashed like roadkill at that very moment.

“Everyone stay here and avoid the tires!” Arbiter commanded, keeping a clear head. Without question, the others obeyed (even Chief) and joined him under the centre of the car. That way, they easily avoided the tires as the car left them behind and rejoined the road.

They didn’t stop to celebrate though, as Greg sped off again. Luckily, no more cars they went under had decided to leave.

They soon reached the closest car to the entrance of the superstore. They could see people go in and out like ants going back and forth between their den. This wasn’t going to be easy. The risk of getting spotted was extremely high. Their whole livelihood was being threatened here. Although Greg wasn’t a toy, he couldn’t bear to see the others get taken away for experimentation.

“Over there.” Twilight pointed at a large amount of parked trolley’s next to the entrance. “We can hide under them and wait until the human activity dies down.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Arbiter looked both ways before setting off. He sprinted to the trolleys and hid under them. Shortly after him, the others arrived. Chief was humming the Mission Impossible theme.

“Chief, shut up.”

“no lol this is epic spy stuff”

“Oh yes, our daring squad will be infiltrating a superstore to get some post-it notes for a spider. The stakes for the world are very high.”

“no but if we dont get them greg will probabli eet us”

Greg tapped his legs rapidly and repeatedly in frustration. Twilight did her best to answer for him: “I don’t think Greg would do that.”

Chief pointed at the spider and looked at the pony. “thats wat he wants u 2 think”

“Oh please, give me a break.” Twilight rolled her eyes, snickering slightly at the absurdity of Chief’s claim.

As they waited, the Sun completely disappeared behind the horizon of buildings. The sky was now a brilliant red but eventually that vanished too. It then became dark but the lights from the store provided enough light for the toys to see.

“god im so boooooooooooooooooored” Chief wailed, fiddling with a wheel of a shopping trolley.

“So am I.” Arbiter agreed, tapping his foot on the floor somewhat impatiently.

“Me too.” Twilight added, who was sitting down.

After a while, the sky was completely black but the stars weren’t visible due to the light emanating from the city. Every one in the group was now in a bored haze but an announcement from the store soon made them alert again:

“The store will now be closing soon. Please make your final purchases now.”

“That’s our chance. Let’s go.” Arbiter said, creeping under the many trolleys.

“finally!!1!” Chief said, he got up and ran excitedly after Arbiter.

“We’re almost there Greg.” Twilight smiled at the spider although he could not give such a friendly looking response in return.

The four stood under a shopping trolley that was directly next to the entrance. At this distance, the humans were incredibly close. Although their footsteps made little noise, they were no less intimidating. They all had to crane their necks just to barely see the human’s faces. All of them were beginning to leave the store with their purchases, passing through the double automatic doors.

Twilight spotted another opportunity to rush in without danger and seized it. “Now!” she suddenly said, galloping rapidly into the store just as a human was going out (who seemed very focused on getting back to his car). The others just barely managed to get in before the doors closed behind them and as if it was instinct, they all took cover behind a stack of metal baskets.

“Looks like we’re in here for the long haul.” Arbiter stated, observing the many shop aisles. This store was practically a jack of trades; it sold almost everything. Food, clothes, technology and toys.

“wat”

“What he means is that we’ll have to wait here the entire night.” Twilight explained.

Chief turned to Twilight. “wat”

“Well...yeah. The store’s about to close.”

“wtf this is fucking h0rseshit!!!1” Chief flailed his arms in the air, as he normally did when frustrated.

“Sigh.”

The staff of the store performed their final tasks with the occasional chit chat and eventually left. The store’s lights then dimmed down, leaving it in almost complete darkness. The automatic doors closed for a final time, leaving the group alone to their own devices.

“Finally. We don’t have to be so paranoid about our movements now.” Arbiter stepped out from the baskets. “We’ll check all the aisles.”

Chief started to head off on his own but was stopped once again by Arbiter. “We’re doing this together. We don’t want the store set on fire because of you.”

“lol i just mite do that nao”

“You wouldn’t. Now let’s get the post-it notes before we get into an argument about who has more balls.” Arbiter walked past the shopping tills and headed into the first aisle, the others joining him.

The dimmed shop bulbs on the roof created little pools of the light on the floor that just barely showed the items on sale on the aisle shelves. It created a quite haunting atmosphere, as no one in the group could see very far in front of them and there was no background noise to speak of.

Arbiter stared at the shelves to the sides of him. It seemed that this aisle only sold magazines and comics. Chief spotted a particular magazine that entranced him.

“chek dis shit out its me” he pointed at an Xbox magazine with a picture of the Master Chief in a heroic pose on the front cover. The words below him were in bold and read:

The Master Chief is back. Halo 4 preview inside!

“halo 4 baby”

“We can read Chief. Now put it down, we have to find the post-it notes.” Twilight said.

“no way nerd i wanna read this” Chief put the magazine on the floor and began to turn the pages. However, the magazine was soon swept from him and put back on the shelf by Arbiter.

“hey wtf??!”

“All the information will be on the internet. You can look at it when you get home.” Arbiter didn’t bother waiting for a response and began to lead the others to the end of the aisle and turning around to search the one next to it. Chief reluctantly followed.

They walked in silence, too focused on the task on Chief. Well, three of them were. Chief grew restless again. He peered at Twilight and crept up to her rear. He then rapidly smacked her side. “boooo!!1!” he shouted, then he went to the side to avoid a swift kick from Twilight.

“AAAH!” Twilight instantly kicked out from behind her but missed Chief, who had a hand over the bottom of his helmet and was snickering.

“Now I know what mothers with young children feel like on days out...” Arbiter shook his head softly. Greg merely watched the situation at hand.

“What was that for?!” Twilight shouted at Chief.

“just wanted 2 scare you lol”

Twilight groaned. “You’re such a...such a...” she snarled and resumed looking at the aisles. This one also seemed to lack post-it notes.

The aisles were very high for the toys and combined with the darkness, created a slight feeling of claustrophobia. Nevertheless, the group carried on.

They turned at the end of the aisle to enter the third one but all stopped in their tracks. A figure was stood, looking directly at them.

The group froze in fear and Arbiter swore quietly. Twilight moved behind him whilst Chief and Greg stood in silence.

Chief eventually spoke up though. “who teh fuck are u?”

The figure did not reply. It moved closer towards the group, revealing itself in the light.

It seemed to be a simple, fluffy toy bear.

Despite that, something about it unsettled the four. Perhaps it was down to the way it was made. It had big, wide open eyes with tiny black pupils in the center. It also had this grin on its face that probably was meant to make it look happy but instead it only achieved a very sinister effect. Furthermore, it looked down at the group as it was just over twice the height of Arbiter. Perhaps the most unsettling detail was the fact that its arms were behind its back...

“Um...hello? Who might you be?” Twilight asked politely but fear was evident in her trembling voice.

The bear didn’t reply. Instead, it took slow steps forwards towards the group. In response, they slowly backed away.

“New...toys...” the bear spoke. Its voice was extremely hoarse, making it sound monstrous.

“Yeah, that’s us. Except Greg.”

“Time to play...” the bear heightened its grin, achieving a new level of horrifying. It then moved its arms forward, revealing a sharp kitchen knife in one paw. At that moment, all of the group began to flee in terror.

“Jesus!”

“shit shit shit shit shit fuck fuck!!1!!1”

“AAAAAAAH!!!”

Greg was silent.

The four began running for their lives. Panic took control of them all as they separated themselves from each other. Twilight and Chief ran to the very end of the store and hid in an aisle, whilst Arbiter and Greg headed for the tills. None of them could see the bear behind them.

Arbiter and Greg hid behind one of the chairs that the till staff sat on to do their job. They peered about carefully. There was no sign of their attacker.

“What the fuck was that about?” Arbiter said quietly. Of course, Greg couldn’t respond. “Ah yeah...we need the post-it notes. Sadly, we’ll need to find the others first.” He paused, realizing who Twilight was with. “God help her.”

Meanwhile, the other two had taken refuge behind a big bag of crisps in the aisle they had found themselves in. Twilight was lying down, catching her breath whilst Chief was carefully keeping guard.

“k i think teh fuckers gone”

“Why would he attack us like that?!” Twilight exclaimed.

“cuz” Twilight looked at Chief, waiting for him to finish. “hes a faggot”

“No...he’s a psycho! Okay...don’t panic, we just need to reunite with Arbiter and Greg.” she ran a hoof through her mane.

“no we gotta arm ourselves from that assh0le”

Twilight seemed surprised. “That...actually could work!”

“wow i 0utsmarted teh nerd”

“...not really.” Twilight sighed, getting up. “Look, we need to find something to defend ourselves with. And fast. Come on.”

The pair slipped out of the lowest shelf and cautiously looked around. The bear wasn’t here either. They both clung to the sides, ready to jump back in and hide should the bear rear its ugly head again. Twilight looked at the shelves; no post-it notes or possible weapons were here. Then, she froze as she heard a rustling behind her. She slowly turned her head...

Chief was dragging a big packet of Doritos from the bottom shelf.

“We clearly don’t need that.” Twilight frowned.

“its our b0unty twilight our b0unty from this epic qwest”

“Chief, put it down! Do you want that bear to kill you?!”

“fine fine dont lose a h00f over it lol” Chief dropped the packet.

“Good.” Twilight sighed and carried on. At the end of the aisle, she turned left into the next and took a gander of the nearby items. She then decided not to go down that aisle and went further left to look at the next aisle.

“w8 u missed that 1”

“Judging from the items there, I estimated that the aisle wouldn’t sell anything we could use.” She peered at the items in the new aisle and began to walk down that one.

“is ev3rything calculati0ns and estimat3s with u??”

“Well...no...” Twilight looked away from Chief, becoming more somber. “Is that all you think of me?” Even if Chief's insults were often lies, she had a inkling that this one was true. She loved facts and although Arbiter was quite smart himself, he never spouted calculations. Was she just a mere calculator?

Chief was silent for a few moments. “no”

“No? Go on.”

“youre a pony”

“Uh...of course I am.” She stared blankly at Chief. “I guess I’ll take that as a compliment from you though.” She put her focus back on the aisles; she could ask Arbiter about herself some other time. “Should be something we can use here...” She then paused as she clanging nearby. She turned around to see Chief climbing the shelves to get a knife.

He dropped one onto the floor, but it was still covering in packaging. He jumped back down and began to free the knife from its contents.

“aah my trusty roflknief” he said as he grabbed the kitchen knife. The blade was long and sharp; a perfect weapon for dealing with that bear.

“Good. Now we just need to locate Arbiter and Greg...” she looked grimly into the darkness. “...before that bear does.”

~~~

Arbiter and Greg wandered down the toy aisle. It had been roughly an hour or so since the bear attack and they had not seen it or the other two yet.

To their sides were an assortment of toys, all trapped in plastic casing. Their faces were forever stuck in one expression. For Arbiter, it was rather a grim sight; that was him years ago. It made him think about his own life, as he often did these days. So many questions would probably remain unanswered for him.

He stopped to look at a toy American soldier in its packaging. He stared at the dull expression the toy bore.

“Sometimes I think to myself: why me?”

Greg looked at Arbiter.

“Actually, I should be asking: why us? Why were we given the gift of life? We hardly do any good with it.” he tapped the packaging, just to see if the soldier responded. It was still. He then kept moving. “Sorry Greg. But seeing these toys just makes me wonder...”

The lifeless toys loomed above them. Any one of them could leap into action and possibly attack the pair. The two hurried their pace.

Just as they were about to reach the end of the aisle and be freed from the onlooking blank faces, they heard movement nearby. Something was running very nearby.

“Twilight? Is that you?”

The duo heard it again, only this time it ran behind them. They quickly turned around but saw nothing there. Soon after, Arbiter caught a blur race past him in the corner of his eye.

“Who’s there?”

The steps of their stalker were far too fast for it to be the bear; whatever was around, it had more than two legs. In addition, it seemed to be shorter than Arbiter. At least, that’s what he thought anyway.

“Um...hi...”

“Aah!” Arbiter and Greg jumped around to meet the newcomer.

“Eek!” The figure quickly fled into the shelves.

“Wait! We’re friendly.” Arbiter called out. He had gotten a good enough view of the figure to identify that it clearly wasn’t a threat.

A head hidden behind hair poked out from one of the packages on the bottom shelf. It was another pony.

She had a yellow coat with imprints of three butterflies on her flank. Her mane and tail were pink and she had green, friendly eyes. Like Twilight, just by looking at her you could tell that she meant no harm at all.

“Uh...hello...” she said, although it was so quiet it was almost a whisper.

“Hey. I’m Arbiter and this is Greg.” he gestured to the spider who waved a leg at Fluttershy.

“Oh um, nice to meet you...” She cautiously came out from the shelf. “I’m Fluttershy...” Curiously, although she was shy, she did not seem to be repulsed by Greg’s appearance.

“Good to meet someone who isn’t insane. Might you know where the post-it notes are here? Greg needs them to communicate.”

“No I don’t...sorry...I was just trying to hide from that bear.”

“He tried to attack you too then. Listen, before we get the notes, we need to find two friends of ours. Have you seen them? One of them is a pony like you and another is a human in big armor.”

“I’m afraid I haven’t seen them either...I’m sorry...” She retreated back slightly.

“It’s fine. But you better stay with us. Safety in numbers after all.”

“O-Okay.” Fluttershy nodded.

“Let’s get out of here. The other toys are starting to creep me out.”

The three made their way out of the toy aisle, avoiding the blank stares of the soulless toys. The next aisle appeared to be just exactly what they needed. Stationery was here so it was highly likely that post-it notes would be too.

Greg skittered onto the shelves, going past pens, erasers and rulers. Fluttershy and Arbiter tried to watch his movements but eventually he disappeared.

“He’ll be back.” Arbiter stated.

“But what if that bear gets him?”

“I’m more concerned about the other two. Greg can handle himself just fine. But Chief with Twilight...” he looked at Fluttershy, who appeared to be confused at the new names. “You’ll see.”

“Uh, okay then.”

Greg came scuttling back after a short while. He had a big stack of post-it notes carefully balanced on his back and he was now holding a new black felt-tip pen. He started scribbling his first words on a note in ages.

I’m back :D

“Awesome. That’s one thing sorted. Now we just need to survive.” Arbiter turned to Fluttershy, staring at her wings. “Can you fly?”

Fluttershy blinked. “Um...I think I might be able to...I can try.”

“Do you think you can make your way around the store without getting lost?”

Fluttershy looked into the darkness. “It’s really dark but...I can try if you want me to.”

“Good point. Don’t bother then. We need to stick together.”

The shy mare hid her face behind her mane. “I’m sorry...”

“It’s fine.”

Don’t worry about it :)

“Um, okay then. I’ll try.”

“Right, we should keep moving--” Arbiter paused himself, realizing something. “Fuck. They’ll be moving too, which means we may never find each other. We can’t shout for them either or that bear will find us. Damn it.”

“I’m sure we’ll find them somehow...”

“I hope so. I really do.”

The trio kept walking, all of their eyes focused in front of them in case they bumped into any of the others. However, this didn’t mean they couldn’t make friendly conversation with each other.

“How long have you been here Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy looked up, thinking. “Um...I don’t really know. A long while at least.”

“Well we don’t plan on staying. You can come with us, if you want.”

“Really?”

Sure. Always room for one more back home :3

Arbiter knew that Chief wouldn’t like this but he decided not to tell Fluttershy about that for now. He’d only create fear in her and she seemed shy enough. He could always defend her if Chief started throwing insults anyway.

“Oh thank you! I don’t like this place...so lonely and quiet.”

The three turned around to enter the next aisle. It was a good thing that aisles were defined by their item type, or they’d probably be walking in circles forever. Or, at least until the store opened again and the humans found them...

~~~

“this way” Chief pointed down another aisle and started running through it.

“Chief, I don’t think this one has--” Twilight sighed, galloping to catch up with Chief. “Nevermind...” Eventually the humanoid toy stopped, staring at a shelf of none other than Xbox 360 games.

“fuck y havent they get halo 4 here???”

Twilight sighed. “Maybe because it hasn’t been released yet?”

“DAMMIT BUNGIE Y U NO HURRY TEH FUCK UP??!” Chief yelled.

“You honestly think the game would be better if they rushed it?”

“yes cuz its halo 4”

Twilight facehoofed. Then she heard heavy footsteps close behind her. It couldn't have been...

“oshit run nerd!!11!”

Twilight didn’t bother to look around. Instead, she quickly galloped to the Chief’s side and then turned around to see what was behind her.

The bear was back.

“listen up mothafucka imma slice u now with my roflknife k? k faggot? k” Chief pointed defiantly at the bear.

“No...I slice you...” the psychopathic bear replied. It took slow steps towards the pair.

“Uh...Arbiter! Greg! Where are you?! We need your help right now!!” Twilight shouted.

“my roflknief goes...” Chief sprinted towards the bear, repeatedly slicing his knife in a downward arc. “SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC LOLOLOLOLOLOL”

Twilight gasped at Chief. In amazement not of his bravery, but at his stupidity.

Chief’s blade met hard contact with the bear’s knife. The bear didn’t move a muscle. It seemed that Chief was clearly outmatched. He slowly looked up to see the bear’s grinning wickedly down at him.

“wtf u haz hax!!11!”

The bear smacked Chief aside with its free paw, knocking him out to the side and making him lose grip of his knife. With him out of the way, the bear focused on Twilight.

“Er...er...Chief are you okay?!”

“ow my face...my beatiful face”

“Okay...he’s fine.” Twilight said, then looked at her attacker who had come surprisingly close to her. It raised its knife in the air, ready to strike...

“Aaah!” Twilight leapt out of the way, feeling the wind generated by the knife’s movements. “Why are you doing this?!”

The bear turned to face its victim. “Playtime...” It swung once again.

Twilight was barely just avoiding the bear’s strikes. Chances were high that she couldn’t keep up for long. She couldn’t possibly go in for a strike either or she’d lose a hoof. Or worse. She was so focused on dodging the bear’s attacks that she had forgotten about Chief. This looked like the end for her. Where did this simple trip all go wrong?

The bear was about to make another strike, when he froze completely.

“take that faggot and that and that” Chief taunted, repeatedly stabbing the bear in the back with the knife. Fluff was spilling from the attacker.

The bear turned around but Chief kept stabbing, this time impacting the bear’s belly. Unfortunately, it seemed undeterred. “Enough...” It forcefully kicked Chief away, launching him into the air and once again causing him to lose the knife. He landed hard on his back.

“fucks sake”

“He can really take a beating...” Twilight murmured to herself, but snapped back into action when she realized the bear had decided to end Chief once and for all.

She galloped her fastest to catch up to the bear, who was stood above Chief, its knife raised up high. As much as she disliked him at (most) times, she couldn't stand by and do nothing!

“No, Chief!”

The bear put its foot on Chief so he couldn’t move away. It was about to plunge its knife into him...

“Greg!”

Greg had leapt onto the bear’s face, obscuring its view. Taken aback by this, the bear stumbled away from Chief, who took the opportunity to run the hell away from it.

“Chief! Twilight!” Arbiter and a new pony ran down the aisle to reunite with the others and assist Greg.

“Thank goodness you’re alright!” Twilight smiled at Arbiter. “Who’s the new pony?”

“I think getting rid of that psychopathic bear is more important than introductions.”

“True...”

Fluttershy jumped into the nearest bottom shelf, quivering and hiding from the bear. Arbiter meanwhile ran towards the knife but Chief had grabbed it first.

“Chief, give me the knife.”

“no its my roflknief fag”

“You’re terrible at wielding it. I’ll actually do some damage.”

“no ur just words no actien”

“Are you two really arguing over this?!” Twilight screamed.

The three were all stunned by the sight that was quite literally thrown at them. Greg was launched at them and landed on his back in the middle of the three.

“Greg!”

“Greg, are you okay?!”

“ugly r u alrite??”

The three then turned to face their attacker. Despite the fluff leaking out of the bear, it was still going. It seemed unstoppable. It was hard to accept that this was their fate; being sliced apart by a psychotic children's play thing.

“I’m hardly surprised that something that should have been so simple turned into this.”

"y wont this fucka just die??!!1"

Chief was about to go in for another attack, but all of them were shocked to silence at what happened next.

“YOU BIG MEANIE!!!” Fluttershy roared, flying rapidly towards the bear. She looked extremely enraged. It barely had time to turn around before the pegasus toy grabbed the bottom of its head and forcefully twisted it to the point where the bear’s seams started to rip apart. Fluff fell out of its neck and it soon fell to the ground, becoming lifeless. Fluttershy then landed gracefully, becoming calm.

The other four were completely gobsmacked. Even Greg, who was just getting up and collecting his post-it notes to write on. Thankfully, he seemed okay.

“Holy shit.”

“wtf was that”

“W-Wow...”

O_O

Fluttershy looked at them and began to shy away. “Well...um...I couldn’t let it hurt my friends...”

“That was...something else! I’m Twilight by the way, nice to meet you.” Twilight smiled lightly.

“Hi, I’m Fluttershy...”

“how teh fuck c0uld a pony kill a bare??!!”

Arbiter pointed at the raging Chief. “That’s Chief, by the way. Just ignore him if he insults you.”

“Oh...o-okay.”

“Right. Well, we got what we need. Let’s head back to the entrance.” The five began to head towards the baskets were they could hide and slip out of the store when it re-opened. They didn’t bother to clean up, leaving behind a ruined bear toy, fluff and two knives.

~~~

The Sun had risen up from the other side of the world; it was finally morning. The store lights brightened up as staff began to get things prepared for another working day.

The group waited for their chance to slip out of the automatic doors, hiding behind the metal baskets.

“Hey Chief.” Twilight couldn’t believe she was about to say this, but she carried on regardless. “Thanks for saving me back there.”

“its wat i do no sweat lol”

Twilight snickered, letting Chief have his moment of glory. She then turned to Fluttershy. “So you’re coming back with us?”

“If that’s okay with you...” the shy pegasus replied.

“WTF ANOTHER PONY NO WAY”

Fluttershy flinched, letting out a little yelp.

“Ignore him. You can stay with us.”

“Alright...” Fluttershy looked away from Chief.

The automatic doors suddenly opened as a member of staff walked in. The group seized this opportunity to escape the store, running through the open entrance and going under the shopping trolleys. Just as they left, they managed to hear someone yell:

“What the hell is this?!”

“I think we overstayed our welcome.” Arbiter commented.

The journey back to the apartment was uneventful and quiet, as all the group were calming down from the events in the store. Still, they had succeeded and gained new company in the process. Fluttershy was the quietest of them all on the journey, but she was still entranced by the outside world. She enjoyed the Sun's warmth and relished in the light breeze. What she was entranced by the most of all was the natural things, although there were free. She gazed at the small trees they passed and peered at birds in flight high up above.

By the time they had reached the apartment building, it was late afternoon. Greg used his webs in order to help the toys scale the stairs, although Fluttershy just flew up them. Finally, they found themselves outside Jon’s door.

“Thank fuck we made it in one piece.”

You said it

“Right Greg, you know what to do.” Twilight said.

“yeh let us in fuckface”

Greg scaled the door and extended his web down, allowing the others to climb up. Arbiter went first, leaping through the letterbox with considerable force (so it would open) and landing inside. Remembering what happened last time, he quickly moved to avoid getting landed on.

Chief was next. He used the rope to get to the letterbox and jumped through. He landed flat on his stomach. “shit”

Unlike Arbiter, he didn’t move. Just lying there. However Arbiter refrained from warning him.

Twilight soon after came through the letterbox, landing on top of Chief. “ow!!! fuck careful nerd”

“Whoops, sorry!” Twilight smiled sheepishly and quickly got off Chief, who stood up and moved away from his former spot.

Instead of climbing up, Fluttershy flew in, followed by Greg who climbed back down the door. With all of them back in the apartment, they could rest easy. However, the recent events were still running through their minds and there was still a sense of risk in all of them.

“Well, do you think we learned something from this experience?” Twilight asked.

“dunno bout u fags but imma play teh Xbawx” Chief ran towards his valued console like a child ran towards candy.

“No, I really don’t think we did.”

Twilight sighed and looked at Fluttershy. “Well...welcome to the apartment.”