My Little Warehouse

Looking around for it, Busker and Sunspot see the doll has been left right where it was.

Regrettably, there's not much to know about it; it's a fairly popular brand called Plush Circus. The series also has other toys that are (naturally) circus themed.

Nothing else seems particularly out of place.

"Yeah, might just be red herring. Or it might be an extension of multiple parts, and this is just one of the pieces. I'll hold on to it for now till we know for sure, and to avoid any more customers being distressed. Let's hope I don't regret this later.", Busker says, storing the toy on his person. "Now then, let's snoop around where we shouldn't. We might just see some behind-the-scenes toy magic happen!", he beams, heading through the "Employees-only" door.

Spoiler:

Busker quickly establishes, due to not going nuts, that the Artifact must be touched directly, and can be safely handled through gloves or anything similar.

Upon entering the door, Busker finds... More stairs! Along with a series of fun-looking poles, clearly designed for quick descent to basement floors.

"Oh! Wait for me!" Wraith bounces along, following Busker.

"Oh hey, a fire-pony pole! Why do they have one of these? Must be a really fun place. That, or Rockafilly takes its toy emergencies very seriously. Welp, down we go.", Busker yells, forgoing the pole in favor of jumping down.

Spoiler:

"Welp, I certainly don't care about jumping down," Wraith says as she jumps down after Busker.

Crystalite wrote:At Sunset

"Doubtful. You'd have to ask them. You should be able to find them though."

Wrangler grunts in affirmation, before stopping and questioning the dragon, "...just what kinda project have you brough' with you?"

"Y'know, if we're still looking for our stag friend who made off in a hurry- despite not finishing helping us find the toy Wraith wanted, he could have taken the stairs somewhere." Jade called down after Wraith and Busker.  

Despite her complaining, she could't help but follow them down through the hole.  No point getting separated, and it did look fun.  Unlike them, however, she did opt to use the pole.  It had been a while since she had done anything like this...

"Wheeeee!" she couldn't resist exclaiming excitedly as she whooshed down the pole, hoping she had given Wraith (or Busker at least) enough time to get out of the way at the bottom.  

It brought back memories of sliding down ropes to enter buried ruins (or museums and mansions from their roofs, when her career had taken a turn for the worse), though the pole was a lot easier on the hooves than a rope was.

She attempted to regain her composure as she reached the bottom so she could try to land gracefully and not hit anypony.

Spoiler:

At Rockafilly

Wraith and Busker both jump with the ease and grace that comes from years of flight and trapeze, respectfully. Jade, on the other hoof, lands in an ungrateful heap at the bottom of this flight; although she has not injured herself or anyone else.

The group can hear pounding footsteps against the metal staircase from a higher level.

At The Sunset

Farnsworth looked around conspiratorially. "You know how I'm always around to send messages in case we need to talk to Maverick? Well, we both know I can't always do that; someday I'm going to retire, and baby dragons are scarce." He stops to scratch his head. "Maverick and I had this idea. You know how a radio works, right? Well, the short version is that I'm trying to make the transmission element smaller, using principles that revolve around my own natural abilities. That way I can send radio waves back and forth between two different devices. That way, anyone could fill the role I have now. In fact, theoretically I could make a series of such devices, and give one to each agent. Then when we're split up like this, any one pony can contact any other pony. I've been working on it for nearly a month now, but every time I get close, " the dragon reaches out towards something imaginary as an illustration. "Poof. Gone with the wind. Maverick says I just haven't reached it yet. I think it's some Artifact messing with me. So I try and work on it outside the Warehouse whenever I can."

Sunspot looked down at them and frowned. "You know, I may not be an expert in weird clown doll crap, but I do know that stairs go in two directions."

With that, she lifted off and started flying upwards towards the source of the noise.

Rolls:

Busker climbs back up the sliding pole. "Splitting up isn't what a team does, you know!"

Wrangler nods, in understanding. "That sounds pret'ey useful. I'd be interested in seein' it when you finish."

Meta:

Wraith flies back up. "Awww. I wanted to drop jump."

"eeeeeoof  That landing hadn't quite gone as Jade invisioned it:  Oh well, no harm done.  

"That's basically what I said." she said in response to Sunspot.  She did have to concede that she hadn't bothered to listen for the direction of hoofsteps.

"Oh come on!" she exclaimed as Busker and Wraith started back up the pole.  "...This is what I get for trying to be as whimsical as you two..." she grumbled as she started walking back up the stairs.

Spoiler:

Wraith laughs and flies down beside Jade. "Sorry bout that. Here, let me lend you a hoof," wraith says as she pulls off her left fore-hoof and offers it to Jade.

Jade looked dubiously at the spectral filly's hoof, doubting her ability to help her back up the shaft, but took it nonetheless.  Wraith was full of surprises: and they'd at least find out pretty quickly if she couldn't lift Jade up.

"Thanks, 's sweet of you to offer.

At Rockafilly

The party makes it up the stairs without difficulty. Except Busker, who is climbing a pole without difficulty.

Sunspot, having wings and a floor's worth of head start, meets the noise first. It turns out to be the Stag, and another Earth Pony that looks suspiciously like a manager.

Busker makes it there shortly afterwords before anyone can speak. The two associates simply stare for a moment. The manager recovers first. "What are you, a pole dancer? This is an off-limits area!"

The Stag has shook himself our of it. "Sir, these are the crazy ones I told you about."

---

At The Sunset

Two flights of stairs, an embarrassing accident with a cleaning maid, and an unusually long hallway later, Wrangler and Farnsworth had reached the other room. "Let us never speak of that again," the dragon says exasperatedly as he plucked another noodle from some crevice.  "There's only one bathtub... Who gets to go first?"

((Bear with me. Trying to get some extra IC time.))

((It's cool, I understand.))
Wrangler trudges toward the bath room, leaving behind a trail of chalk dust, grape jelly, and a lone pimento bean. "I'm on it. She should'a known better than to carry it like tha', especially right around a corner."

Meta:

Sunspot glares at the two of them. "Alright. I'm a guard, part of Celestia's Finest, and I'll damn well go anywhere in a toy store I please. Now sit or I'll take you down on my own terms. Trust me, you do not want that. These nice ponies here have found a very strange thing in your little mall, and they're going to question you about it. Got that?"

Roll:

At Rockafilly

The two simply stare at each other for a moment, before sitting down as Jade and Wraith make it up the stairs.

---

At The Sunset

It takes some doing, but after what feels like forever (but is really only about 20 minutes) Wrangler is finally able to get the last of the nastiness from between the last cranny of his twiggy timber wolf for. Just as he turns the water off he hears a muffled shout from the other side of the closed bathroom door...

"Very authoritative of you! Now, as she was saying...", Busker starts, jumping off the pole, retrieving the clown doll, and showing it to the two sitting employees. "Would either of you happen to know the details of how this specific doll was acquired by the store? It is different from the regular stock, and might have been enchanted for an antagonizing purpose, which I'm sure can be agreed, is to the detriment of Rockafilly's business. Additionally, we'd like to know whether there are any enchanted or magical toys on offer at Rockafilly, and whether the store has had any recent complaints, incidents, or oddities regarding its inventory, magical or otherwise, whether from clients or employees."

"[color:1692=green ]FINISHED!" Trotson cries out as he bursts through the doors to see that the others had left him. "They went to the other room didn't they then..."

OOC do I know where the other room is?

Wrangler snarls lightly at being caught in his feral form, before opening the door just enough to get an idea of what's going on in the room.

Meta:

Trotson sighs before starting to walk to the other room.

At Rockafilly

The manager stares, agape. "No. Not beyond what you might see in any household. This is the first I've heard of a misfit making it all the way to the shelf."

The Stag pipes up. "Uuuhhmmm... there's not really anything I know that he wouldn't, and my shift was about over anyways canIgohometomysonplease?"

---

At The Sunset

As Wrangler opens the door, he sees a pair of Earth Ponies standing over Farnsworth, who is laying on the floor; apparently unconscious. They turn around to see the Timberwolf. They stand agape for a moment... before running towards the door with a scream...

((Yeah, didn't see the point in making you roll intimidate. Athletics or Acrobatics to try and catch them; 20 for the catch, 25 to silence them.))

Meanwhile...

Upon reaching the 4th floor Trotson sees into a pair of Unicorns with "spell-knives" - consisting of three small, sharp blades used telekineticly. They don't seem to have noticed him, however....

What will Trotson do?