The Mare in the Woods

Trebass walked through the mall, his hooves in his vest pockets. The sound of children running circles around the fountains brought a cheery smile to his face. He passed by display windows the contained mannequins with fancy flashy dresses on them. He thought he saw a familiar face on one of the mannequins, but it disappeared as quick as it came. He sat down in the food court to take a rest. His leg was still wounded from the day before. He couldn't forget what happened the day before, he had lost a friend.

"Trebass!" A sweet tender voice called to him from across the court. A light brown mare waved to him, she was sitting down beside a blue pegasus. It was Royal Flush and Shock Bolt.

"Great..." Trebass whispered to himself as he walked over to them and sat down.

"Fancy seeing you two here." Trebass said in a cheery, yet serious voice.

"I was about to tell Shock.... My decision." Royal said slowly.

Shock Bolt sat there, silent as ever. The constant chattering of ponies sounded muffled as the three (3) ponies sat there. It seemed like Trebass, Shock, and Royal were surrounded by some kind of cone that seperated them from everypony else.

"I.... Choose..." Royal spoke softly. Trebass and Shock awaited her answer.

"Neither of you." Royal's answer struck the two (2) stallions down.

"N-Neither of us?!" Trebass and Shock spoke in synchronization.

"You can't make me choose between you two. It's my decision after all." Royal stood up, "I have to go. See you later."

Trebass leaned towards Shock. "I think you need to back off."

"She doesn't belong to either of us." Shock leaned back from Trebass.

The white unicorn stood up and trotted off in Royal's direction.

"What a fool..." Shock stood up to follow Trebass.

**********************

Alexander stood in his laboratory, standing in front of the computer screen. Something popped up on the screen that made his eyes widen.

"No... Impossible..." He spoke to himself. "This can't be happening... I have to hurry!" He grabbed a strange device on his desk and ran out of the laboratory then closed the vault door behind him.

**********************

Royal trotted into book store. She began to browse books when she thought she heard hoofsteps. "Is anypony there?" She asked, no reply.

She shrugged, and continued to browse the books. Still, she felt as if somepony, or something, was watching her. She found it odd that no one else was in the bookstore, not even the cashier.

"The owner must be on break." She thought to herself.

She thought she heard static coming from the aisle behind her.

She poked her head around the corner, "Hey can you turn that off? Someponies want to re-" She stopped in mid-sentence. Nopony was there at all. She still heard the static coming from somewhere. She began to examine the bookshelves, then she noticed something else. The doors to the bookstore were locked shut. She walked over to them, then heard something behind her. She turned around quickly, a pile of books lay on the floor. She picked one up, and it revealed a strange note.

The words "No" were scrawled over the page.

Royal began to sweat, she was nervous. She ran for the door and tried to open them. They were locked from the outside, a chain and lock were tied around the handles. Royal was paranoid now. She turned around, and caught a glimpse of something moving around the bookcases. It looked like something white.

"Is anypony there?" She asked again. Still no reply.

**********************

"Excuse me, have you seen a tan mare pass by here?"  Trebass asked around the mall. He followed the directions he was given. He came to a bookstore, the doors were unlocked. Ponies reading books lined up in front of the cashier and stood around flipping pages.

"Excuse me, have you seen a tan mare around here?" Trebass asked a pony in a tuxedo reading in a corner.

The stallion shook his head.

"Okay, thanks anyways." Trebass turned away. As he walked to the exit of the book store he thought to himself, "Why didn't he lower the book to talk to me? I couldn't see his face at all."

He walked out of the store, but he couldn't help having a strange feeling about that pony in the corner of the room. It was awfully hot to be wearing a tuxedo. Trebass turned around, the strange tuxedo pony was no where to be seen.

He saw Shock Bolt approaching him. "Have you found her yet?" Shock asked Trebass.

"I didn't know you cared." Trebass had a smug grin on his face.

"I don't care about you, but I do care about Royal." They both sat down on one of the mall benches. But stood up again when they heard screaming coming towards them.

"Help! Somepony help!" A mare with a red coat and blonde mane was frantically asking for help.

"What's the problem miss?" Trebass asked.

"My little foal! He's gone!" She was panicking, Shock Bolt attempted to calm her down by sitting her down on the bench.

"Please explain every detail to us miss." Shock Bolt instructed her calmly.

"My little foal, Pip, went into the toy store and never came out! So I went in looking for him, and everypony just said they never saw him!" She began to hyperventilate.

"Easy, just breath normally." Shock put his hoof around her and tried to get her to calm down again.

Trebass stood there, his eyes widened. "Just like Royal..." He looked around.

"Quick! Was there a pony in a tuxedo in the toy store?" Trebass asked the scared mare.

"Y-Yes... He was holding a newspaper, so I couldn't see his face."

Trebass felt a hoof on his shoulder, "Quick Trebass! We have to get going!" Alexander was panting crazily.

"Alexander?! What are you doing here? We have to find Royal and this mare's foal! They've been foalnapped!" Trebass removed Alexander's hoof from his shoulder.

"What?! By who?" Alexander asked.

Trebass lowered his voice, "A pony in a tuxedo."

"Then we're on the same page, we have to get to the Eyeglass. Now." Alexander and Trebass ran off. Shock Bolt Followed them slowly.

The frightened mare shouted, "What about my foal?!"