It had to be the Meepits

     Sure, the stealthy Buzz knew that some thought the little Pink Petpet to be cute and adorable. Perhaps they even ignored all the stories and thought Meepits were innocent creatures, but CLEARLY, they were wrong. While all the trainees at the secret Ninja Training School had been trusting them, the Meepits had been off plotting their most dastardly deed yet. They had been plotting the closure of a prime Neopian staple: The Mall.

     Laila had been waiting for weeks, maybe even months to go and buy herself a new cape from the mall, but then, when she finally had a day off from helping to protect Neopia, she showed up at the mall only to discover it was closed! The Neopets who sat, some patiently and a lot impatiently, outside the mall doors were grumbling about Meepits. The sweet Elderly Lenny at the doors, looking completely flustered and covered, somehow, with melted marshmallows, explained that there had been an explosion of marshmallows in the mall.

     “I don’t know what happened, my dear,” she said quietly for the fifth time as Laila tried, again, to calm her down. “One second I was about to restock the new birthday capsule, and then, and then, and then,” she hiccupped as she began to cry.

     “It’s okay, Ma’am,” Laila tried to say.

     “And then the marshmallow appeared,” the Lenny shouted, stumbling a bit as she tried to gesture with her hands. Laila couldn’t help but stare in fascination at the strands of sticky marshmallow that coated the Lenny’s feathered arms, for all intents and purposes attaching her arms directly to her legs and vice versa.

     “Yes, Ma’am. You’ve mentioned the marshmallow before. But do you happen to remember anything unusual before you went to restock the new birthday capsule?”

     “I had heard the back door open, but that was just Noda coming to deliver his latest shipment of cookies.”

     “Are you sure it was Noda? Not anyone else? Perhaps someone smaller. Maybe more pink in nature?” Laila prompted, trying to get confirmation that the Meepits were involved so she could continue to rage in silent anger towards them.

      “Noda isn’t pink,” the Elderly Lenny said with confusion.

     “Yes. I know he isn’t pink,” Laila groaned. “I just meant, are you certain it was Noda that you heard? Did you actually see him dropping off cookies?”

     “Well,” the mall worked paused for a second as she tried to think, marshmallow dripping off her eyebrows onto the ground. “Now that you mention it, I don’t think I did see him, but he was due to bring a shipment in today and he always comes in that door!” she tried to gesture towards a door off to the side, but as she raised her hand to point, the marshmallow pulled, and up went the poor Lenny’s leg, and then down went the Elderly Neopet. Laila instantly reacted, trying to help the sticky pet to her feet but only succeeding in coating her own hands with the marshmallow.

     “I’m sorry, dear. I’m not usually this clumsy. My friend Shorte might say otherwise, but really I’ve only fallen that one time. Maybe twice. Alright, perhaps a bit more than twice,” the Lenny admitted sheepishly. “But really I’m not usually this bad. It must be all the,” she trailed off with a shudder.

     “The marshmallow?” Laila added hesitantly. The Elderly Lenny immediately started sobbing as she muttered “so much marshmallow” over and over. Knowing she wouldn’t be getting any further information from the flustered mall worker, Laila headed towards the door she had referenced.

     The door was average Neopian height which meant a single Meepit wouldn’t have been able to open it.

     “It must be a conspiracy. An entire group working together,” Laila concluded, speaking to herself. She pushed the door open cautiously but quickly found it wouldn’t open fully. She slowly squeezed herself through the small opening and found herself surrounded by marshmallows. It dripped from the ceiling. It covered the clothing. Entire walls were coated in it.

     Laila flew carefully around the mall, trying to find any evidence she could; even just a stray Meepit footprint would be enough for her to lay the blame at their feet. However, after minutes of searching Laila found nothing.

     “Those sneaky Meepit have covered their trail well,” she decided. As she was flying back towards the door though, she noticed a stall completely covered in marshmallows. “That must be where this whole mess started,” Laila thought. “What could they have created to make this mess? And what was the Meepit’s purpose,” she huffed in frustration, exiting the mall as she struggled to understand.

     “Did you just say that the Meepits did this?” a Neopet asked as Laila wandered out the door.

     Laila hesitated, knowing that there was no evidence but also knowing, on some level, that those Meepits must be to blame. The Neopet, a Blue Bruce, took her silence to be confirmation and turned around before loudly shouting “It was the Meepits! They ruined our glorious mall! They are the reason we aren’t wearing clown makeup right now!” The other Neopets began to grumble and rise to their paws.

     “There is no conclusive evidence at this time,” Laila tried to interject, realizing that she had just inadvertently started a riot. However, none of the Petpets were listening to her anymore. Instead, they swarmed around the Blue Bruce and, unless she was mistaken, it even looked like one Neopet had picked up a pitchfork.

     “Where did you even get that from?” Laila muttered as she facepalmed.

     “It couldn’t have been those nice Meepits,” the Elderly Lenny from before said as she walked on unsteady feet towards the hoard of angry Neopets. “Those Meepits would never hurt a soul! They come by every week checking to see if the Mall has anything for them to wear and they are always so sad when they leave. It breaks my poor heart, it does,” she argued passionately.

     “So the Meepits have been here before and always leave angry!” an Island Usul shouted.

     “That’s not what she said at all,” Laila tried to say, but she was quickly cut off by another Neopet.

     “They must be jealous of our amazing mall and they decided to shut it down so none of us could have what they didn’t!”

     While the mall Lenny kept trying to defend the Meepits, Laila shook her head in disbelief as she tried to figure out how they had reached this point. The Neopet hoard eventually moved off on a hunt for Meepits, leaving the Lenny looking forlornly at the ground.

     “But they wouldn’t do it,” she argued weakly.

     “Why are you so certain they are innocent?” Laila asked genuinely.

     “They already came by this week. And even when I have nothing for them to try on or buy, they still help me out around the mall when I am trying to get set up for all the customers,” the Elderly Lenny explained.

     “But,” Laila trailed off as she tried to formulate a question.

     “Why are you so certain they are NOT innocent?” the Lenny asked. Laila instinctively opened her mouth to deny the accusation, but then slowly closed her mouth as she realized what she had done. She had heard one stray comment when she showed up about Meepits and she had assumed the worst. Even when she hadn’t seen any evidence that they had been involved in the Marshmallow Debacle of Year 25, she still held fast to the belief that they were to blame. Laila hung her head in embarrassment.

     “What should I do?” Laila asked pitifully.

     “You must help them. Please,” the old Lenny begged. Laila nodded and took to the sky. Thanks to that Ninja-Meepit battle from four years ago, she actually knew where to go to find the local Meepits, so she hoped that would give her an advantage over the hoard of angry shoppers slowly traipsing around Neopia.

     As she flew into the Meepit’s den she let out a little sigh of relief when she realized she had successfully outrun the others. However, that feeling of relief quickly disappeared when she found herself face to face with fifty Meepits. She couldn’t remember where she had heard it before, but it really was true: there is something awfully spooky about those big staring eyes, especially when there are so many of them.

     Now, she just had to explain what happened and someone convince them all to come with her back to the mall, because Laila had decided, on the flyover, that the mall was the safest place for all the Meepits right now as she tried to solve the mystery of the marshmallow.

     Suddenly, without her even having to explain, the Meepits all nodded as one and formed a single file line behind her. Then, in a completely creepy display of how in sync they all were, they all turned their heads to the side and let out a loud “Meep.”

     “Well that is slightly terrifying,” Laila muttered before turning and starting the walk back to the mall. Periodically flying ahead to make certain they remained undiscovered, Laila eventually led the Meepits back to the mall and the waiting Elderly Lenny. As soon as they saw the mall worker, the Meepits swarmed her, crawling all over her. Laila began to rush forward in an effort to save the poor Lenny from what was clearly an attack, only to stop suddenly when she heard the giggles coming from within the Lenny-shaped Meepit pile.

     Just as quickly as it had started, the Meepits fell from the now spotless Lenny and began to Meep at her.

     “Thank you, my dears! That marshmallow was horrible!”

     Laila could do nothing but blink uncomprehendingly at what she had just witnessed. The Meepits had eaten all of the marshmallows. They had…. Helped. Were they really not to blame for what had happened here?

     Just then, everything happened all at once. The group of disgruntled and shopping-starved neopets arrived just as Noda showed up with a cart full of cookies. What followed was an explosion of yelling and screaming and confusion. As Laila braced herself to explain, the Elderly Lenny stepped forward and once again, defended the Meepits. Perhaps it was because of how much everyone loved the Elderly Lenny, perhaps it was Laila standing next to her, trying to look imposing, perhaps it was Noda shouting for everyone to listen, or perhaps it was the swarm of Meepits glaring menacingly at the crowd, but they quickly quieted down.

     “I really don’t think the Meepits had anything to do with this situation,” Laila spoke as the silence settled. “They clearly care for the mall and its workers,” she added as she gestured to the group that protected the mall Lenny.

     “What happened here?” Noda’s gruff voice asked.

     “There was a bit of a marshmallow explosion, my dear,” the Lenny explained.

     “Oh no,” Noda gasped. “Stacy’s cookies!”

     “Stacy’s cookies?” Laila asked.

     “My friend Stacy had an idea for a new type of cookie. It was going to crack open, and each cookie would have a different smore-based item in it. It was a really good idea so I told her we could do it,” Noda explained. “But when I got back home today she told me that she had included a special surprise of marshmallow filling. She said it would be a blast. I didn’t realize she meant literally.” Noda sighed as he shook his head. “I’m so sorry!”

     “It’s okay, my dear,” the Lenny comforted him. “I’m sure we will have the mall back up and running any day now.” They all glanced towards the mall and watched as more marshmallows literally oozed from the closed windows. “Maybe a week or two,” she amended.

     “MEEP!” As one, the Meepits tilted their heads and ran towards the mall, slowly nibbling away at all the marshmallows they could find.

     “Maybe less,” the Lenny said with a grin.

     Laila shook her head with a sigh. All she had wanted was a new cape, and now she was being forced to utter words she never had thought she would say: thank goodness for the Meepits.

     The End.