//------------------------------// // Prologue: Just Chilling Out // Story: Iota Force Issue #1: Baptism by Fire // by The Iguana Man //------------------------------// To everypony who doesn’t live there, Ponyville is regarded as a quiet, simple, unassuming little town, where everypony’s friendly and nothing ever really happens.. To everyone who does live there, somepony making this assertion means that they are either uninformed, blind or insane. Even by the standards of Equestria, Ponyville experiences weird and outlandish events and threats on a disturbingly regular basis and it does not take an especially long stay in the town to learn this. However, even the residents of Ponyville often assume that all or most threats are at or above their eye level. When things become strange and dangerous, it rarely occurs to them to look down to find the problem. Thus, it is necessary to have those whose eye level is lower down. After all, even the tallest trees are felled at ground level. Fortunately, there are those who are up to such a task, even if they don’t realize it at first. However, sooner or later, they will find out. For a specific example, we can look at a small cottage where a family of two has recently moved in from another town. They have yet to personally experience Ponyville’s frequent oddities and, as such, the universe has begun a countdown for them discovering it. The countdown is exceptionally short. Icy Flight let out a satisfied breath as she collapsed onto the bed. For a few seconds, she was content to simply lie there, appreciating the wonderful feeling of not doing anything. She wondered if she should ask her Mom to come up and see, before remembering that she’d still be working on the rest of the house. Icy, however, was done with her room. She slipped a rear hoof off the edge of the bed and onto the cardboard box beside it. She’d taken all the other boxes outside, but this had been the last one. So, after finishing with it, Icy felt she deserved a quick victory rest. After all, she was finally done - only four days after moving, her stuff was finally all unpacked. She rolled over onto her side, sinking into the bed. No, her bed. As she looked over her new room. She had this room, she had decided how it would look and she had finally finished making it that way. Her Mom would be so proud, both of how she'd done it all on her own, and of how tidy she'd made it. Very tidy, actually. Maybe a bit too tidy. In fact, now that she looked at it, there wasn’t much there to make it untidy: A large shelf for her books and comic book collection (Or more accurately, for her comics with the occasional book), a wardrobe full of clothes she'd rarely worn in her old town and would never wear here, the miniature air conditioner sitting inactive by the window, the desk with her drawing stuff laid out on top of it, a plain blue bedside table... Yeah, that was about it. Still, she was proud of finishing it. After four days. When her mother had done half the house in three. Okay, so maybe she'd been distracted a few times while unpacking her comics. Just a few. Her Mom had said she'd counted thirty yesterday, but Icy knew she was joking probably. However, now that she was done, she wasn't sure what to do with herself. She didn't feel like reading or drawing, her Mom was busy with unpacking everything else, and she was bored with just lying on her new bed, feeling smug about not being too slow. A strand of pale yellow hair fell in front of her eyes. It was a good thing it did, else she might have spent all day considering what she might do all day. She giggled a little at the thought and got up, brushing the highlight back into the white surrounding it. She trotted over to the window and looked out over her new hometown. It still felt novel to look out of her window and see the thatched roofs and green parks of Ponyville, rather than the insulated walls and looming mountains of Flanchorage. Still, it had a similar feeling, minus the embarrassing name; a quiet town, where ponies would wave at each other in the street, stopping to chat if they had the time. Even then, back in her old town, such chats were generally either brief or taken indoors, but not here. Of course, in Ponyville, ponies could stay outside all year round without freezing their haunches off, so that probably helped. Icy’s eyes wandered to the park in the centre of town. She couldn't help but find a town where plants were this plentiful exciting. Apparently, there was even an orchard. With trees that actually grew stuff! Sure, Icy had been to places that had lots of them before, but she'd never lived in one. It was so nifty! She opened the window a touch and put a hoof out, checking the temperature. The afternoon was cool, with the sun beginning to fall behind the taller houses and a northern breeze slipping through the streets. It was Autumn, just on the cusp of October, when the weather in Ponyville started to get just below the colder side of comfortable. For most ponies, that is. In this aspect, however, Icy was not most ponies. This was around the temperature where she could go outside in the daytime without getting overly-warm. True to her name, Icy had often been favourably compared with Misty Freeze from Batmare. With the whole “loves the cold and can't stand the heat” thing, that is, not the “desperately seeking revenge for the tragic death of her wife” bit. Sure, Icy sometimes thought about revenge for things, like detentions and groundings, and if she had a wife, she'd be… well, she'd be kind of confused and want to know how that had happened, but if she did and something happened to her, yeah, she could see wanting revenge, but, no, it was just the heat thing. She shook her head, ending the mental tangent. The point was that, back in her old town, she had a reputation for going out in the middle of winter with, at most, a scarf or a hat and being confused when ponies complained about the cold. Conversely, the moment the temperature got to what most would consider normal, she was feeling a bit sweaty and stifled. At the height of summer, she'd be baking in the streets. Luckily, they'd moved when the temperature had dropped to a tolerable level, which meant that she could go for a walk, maybe get to know the town before school started the next day. Not that she couldn’t do so after school started, but she figured it’d be better not to look too lost or out-of-place on her first day. Hopefully, it would help her give a better first impression with the other kids. Hey, if I’m lucky, maybe I'll make a few more friends here, she thought as she went down the stairs. She was hardly an outcast back in Flanchorage, but this town boasted the Princess of Friendship herself. That had to count for something. After all, if she could become an alicorn just fro- WHOA! Icy was thrown out of her train of thought with a jerk as, lost in her musings, she tripped over the fourth-to-last step. She landed hard at the bottom before groaning and looking back up the steps. That was weird – usually when that happened, it was on a higher step. On the other hoof, this was a new staircase, so maybe she just needed to get used to it. After checking herself for anything bruised or bleeding and finding nothing, as usual, she shrugged the matter off, hopped to her hooves and went to find her Mom. When Icy found her, she was trying to shove a pickaxe into a cupboard that was already full-to-bursting with climbing gear. Icy giggled as she watched. “Mom, maybe you should try to find somewhere else for that.” Sunny Flight looked over to her daughter with a raised eyebrow. “No chance.” She said as she continued trying to bend physics so the pick would fit – which, being a unicorn, she probably could have, but she apparently hadn't thought of that. “This stuff… grunt saved my life... grunt more times... grunt than you have feathers... grunt so I want to keep it all together grunt in case I need it.” Icy giggled again, ruffling her wings. “If you say so, Mom.” She wasn't sure what situation would call for full mountaineering gear in Ponyville, but her Mom knew this sort of thing better than she did. “Can I go out for a walk? I wanna look around Ponyville for a bit.” “Sure thing, Sweetie.” Sunny replied, waving her prosthetic forehoof. Icy ran out of the room with a smile on her face. “Just don't stay out too late; dinner's at seven.” She heard, followed by a loud crash. “Hrrm. Seven-Thirty.” Icy smiled as she went to the door. Her mom might have been right to keep survival gear on hoof – if half of what she heard about this town was true, living here wouldn't get boring. Being next door to the largest wild magic zone in the world would ensure that on its own, let alone the weekly catastrophes that seemed to befall the place. That’s what the papers said, at least. Or rather, that’s what her Mom had told her the papers said. Of course, things would probably be alright - the Princess and her friends would always be around to solve things, she was sure - but she'd have to remember to be on her guard. In fact, she was so on her guard that she noticed the door a full half-second before she walked into it. With how much she slowed down in that half-second, it didn't even hurt that much. Yep, she was ready for anything! Still, she thought as she opened the door, it might be fun to be in the centre of a bit of excitement for once. But I’m only a filly, fat chance of that ever happening.