//------------------------------// // Chapter Six: Post-Victory Cooldown // Story: Iota Force Issue #1: Baptism by Fire // by The Iguana Man //------------------------------// “-ur's walk ba... or not.” Icy finished as she blinked away the flash of light that had enveloped them. She looked around at Pipsqueak's basement common room, baffled. Pip noticed. “The badges are linked here by more than just sorceradio. If you need it, someone as powerful as the Princess can teleport you here or to HQ in Canterlot!” “Who did bring us back?” Asked Alula. Icy looked at her, confused. “The Princess, didn't he just...” Alula smiled at her, not-quite-patronizingly-but-still-not-quite-nicely. “He said the Princess could. So could quite a few of the Royal Guard, and they're more likely to come here to check up on us – there's no reason for Princess Luna herself to come.” “And whither else would I go, Alula Erroria?” Came a voice from behind and above them. Alula's smile dropped into a neutral expression. “I apologize, Your Highness.” She said simply as she and Icy turned and bowed. Princess Luna looked down at Alula. “'Tis no trouble. Your face made up for it.” She tittered as regal a titter as Icy could imagine. “Ahem! Rise, my little ponies. My Iota Force!” Everyone rose, which Icy took as a cue to do so as well, despite not being a member of Iota Force. Though she was still one of her little ponies, so she technically counted, but was that what she meant when she said that? “To answer the query upmost in your mind, I am sure, I am here simply because I was in this vicinity and thought to meet with my charges myself.” Icy was about to point out that she wasn’t wondering that when she noticed the half-finished ‘Trot Fighter’ game paused behind Luna. Apparently, she played Stagger Scar – obviously not a great fan of subtlety in her fighting. “Now, before we proceed with the...” the princess paused for a moment, as if bringing to mind the correct term, “the debriefing, I thought perhaps I should greet your newest member.” Icy looked to her left and right, wondering who the Princess was talking about before she noticed that all eyes were on her. “M-m-me?! I'm... I'm not a member, I just helped them out a bit.” “Truly? If your Archer is to be believed, you displayed some prodigious abilities.” “W-well, kind of, but... I don't even know what's up with this group.” “Then come! Sit!” Luna trotted around and onto the sofa, picking up her controller in her magic and gesturing next to her. “Play with me – this match was getting dull anyway. Play, and I will explain.” The princess of the night, one of the two rulers of Equestria and one of the most powerful beings in the known world, was asking to play against her in a video game. Yeah, that was about par for the course at this point. As she sat down and picked her character – she'd found she liked Camo – she had to ask one question. “Didn't you only come back from the moon a couple of years ago? How come...” “I know of and play video games?” Luna interjected as she once again picked Stagger Scar. “I was introduced to them by one of the servants and found them... well, I got somewhat over-excited about such wonders. Just a jot.” There was almost a waver in her voice at that. The match began. Stagger sent a fireball at Camo, who jumped just too late and got hit. “So, tell me, my little icicle,” Luna chuckled at her own joke, “what questions do you have regarding this enterprise? Camo hit Stagger with a low sweep, followed by a corkscrewing kick. “Well, there's only one thing I really want to know... I mean, I don't know everything, but I have to ask.” A divekick preceded her next question. “Why us? Why children? Why put us in danger when we're only colts and fillies?” “Us, you say?” Luna raised an eyebrow as Icy realized her slip and Stagger hit Camo with a spinning knee followed by an uppercut. “There is nothing “only” about being a child, Icy Flight. Each pony in this magical land has great power within them – the marks upon our haunches show the world how we wish to use that power but it can, if a pony wishes, be used to bring about great good in this world. Or, conversely, to do great harm.” “Okay, I... sort of knew that.” Icy replied as Camo grabbed Stagger's head in her legs and flipped him over her. “But that doesn't explain why only children do this.” “They do not. Other groups perform similar functions. However, only children can be trusted with the missions I give thee,” Icy barely had time to notice Luna's momentary shift into archaism as Stagger grabbed Camo and repeatedly kneed her in the barrel, “for there are few adults that would not hesitate to harm a child. Now, this does speak well of my little ponies, and those who wouldn’t hesitate are not those I would wish to have defending this land. However, against opponents such as you fought this day, one cannot afford to hold back or underestimate a threat. This is why the badges they have encourage others to ignore their battles. The only good pony that would bring their full might to bear against a child... is another child.” “They're really that bad?” Icy asked as Camo backed away from Stagger. She felt a little silly asking, as she had seen first-hoof how damaged and powerful a colt could be. Still, saying it out loud felt odd. “Not always, but many a time.” A fireball caught Camo as she was moving away. “Sometimes they merely resemble foals, though enough that an adult would hold back. Other times, they truly are foals, but have, for one reason or another, decided to use their abilities to hurt others. Sometimes they are corrupted by some outside force. Sometimes, their environments, their peers, their very talents and psyches have driven them to evil or madness. Sometimes... sometimes, they are just born with something wrong with them.” Icy could hear the sadness in Luna's voice as Stagger delivered a devastating combo. “As such, I must commission ponies to both defeat them, so they will not hurt others... and to bring them into custody, so they may receive help and stop hurting themselves.” In her peripheral vision, Icy could see Luna's head raise nobly. “That is why I have brought you and, I hope, your comrades together – to defend this land and fight injustice wherever it is to be found.” Icy thought for a moment. That made sense. Well, some of the words didn't but, even ignoring that, there was something off about that explanation. Something about the way she'd said that last bit. She narrowed her eyes at the screen. “You also just... think it's cute, don't you?” Stagger's hit whiffed badly, allowing Camo to unleash her special attack – a corkscrew kick, then a spin-kick, before kicking Stagger up into the air, leaping up to him, grabbing his head and slamming him down into the ground, resulting in a KO. It was all the answer Icy needed. “Canst thou blame me?” Luna said, slipping further into early-modern-equestrian briefly. “Besides, it negates not my points. Anyway, enough of this tomfoolery!” Apparently, she was a bit of a sore loser. “Dost th-... Do you wish to join Iota Force or not?” Brought back to the point at hoof, Icy's brain locked up. The team, her powers, the princess - it had all finally registered with her at once, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it.. “I... I don't know, I... I've gotta go talk to Mom and maybe... I just have to go!” She ran from that room and that house and that street. She didn't look back. Icy burst through her front door and saw her Mom sitting across the dinner table from the mailmare she'd seen that Sunday, the one who had dropped Dinky at school in the morning. “Oh, hi, Sweetie!” Sunny Flight greeted her daughter. “Ditzy here was just welcoming me to the neighbourhood with tea and muffins.” She held up a delicious looking chocolate muffin in her magic. “You want one?” She'd barely finished before Icy leapt up and grabbed it with a flying “ThankyouMomthatsawesome!” and started nibbling on it. “So, anyway, where were you, Sweetie?” “Just out.” Icy replied through milk chocolate deliciousness. “With Dinky and her friends, actually.” “Oh, you were going on one of their missions, were you?” Icy nearly choked on a chocolate chip. “You... You know about them?” “Sure,” Sunny replied, “Ditzy was just telling me about them. Something force, wasn't it.” Icy recognised Sunny's grin – a sure sign of an incoming “mom joke” – but Ditzy took the bait, rolling her eyes in different directions. “Iota force, Sunny.” “Oh, right!” Sunny paused hammily before letting loose with: “I guess I-ot-a remember that!” Sunny laughed, Ditzy giggled politely and Icy considered facehooving into her muffin. It'd get across her disapproval, sure, but she didn’t know if it was worth wasting the snack. “So, anyway,” Sunny said as her laughs subsided, “why were you accompanying them? Don't tell me you've had amazing powers all this time and kept them from me!” “Well, no… yeah… sort of… see...” Icy paused, looking around before her eyes fell on a glass of water on the table. She focussed her energy into her wings, trying to make it as small and as focused as possible before she let loose a small gust. It didn’t feel that powerful, but it that froze the water solid. “I only just discovered it, but... yeah.” An unidentifiable look swept across Sunny's face before the amazement registered. “That's incredible, honey!” “Though you might want to work on your aim a bit.” Ditzy giggled, pointing at the now-that-she-mentioned-it-very-cold-and-hard-in-fact-pretty-much-frozen muffin in her hooves. Luckily, by the time she looked down, her mom was already replacing it with a fresh one. “So,” Ditzy continued, “are you going to be joining Dinky's team?” Icy's brain decided to ignore that question for the moment in favour of, for her, the far more pertinent one. “Are you... okay with Dinky doing this?” Ditzy smiled. “Of course I am! She's doing something she loves by helping ponies, she's defending Equestria and helping foals with problems get help!” Luna was right – adults just couldn't imagine children being that bad. Though she was still kind of right. “I'm so proud of her!” “But what if she gets hurt? Badly?” Ditzy's smile faltered slightly. “That probably won't happen – she's really smart and capable and she's got a whole team backing her up. Also, if anything goes too wrong and they can't handle it, their badges mean they can be evacuated. So they should be fine.” “But...” Icy didn't want to ask, she knew it was cruel, but she had to know, “you can’t know that for certain? I mean, someone might prevent her from getting out, or someone might…” She stopped herself - she couldn’t afford to get sidetracked. “What if... what if she… you know? What if she doesn’t come home?” She saw Ditzy's crooked eyes water – she knew it was coming, but that only made her feel more wretched. Sunny leaned across the table and put a hoof of the poor mare's shoulders. “Sorry,” she sniffled, “it's just... no mommy wants to ask that question, but we all have to at some point. If she... I don't know what I'd do. Dinky and Turner are my life, if something happened to one of them... I'd do anything to get her back. I'd go to the depths of Tartarus and back to see her smile one last time. I'd wish with all my heart that she hadn't... died.” A smile poked through her tears. “But I wouldn't be ashamed of how she died. I'd... Mommy would still be proud of her.” Icy noticed her own tears just as they came down to her mouth. She looked up at her Mom, whose expression was unreadable. Their eyes met, and their gazes discussed everything. The power, the danger, the responsibility, the consequences, but above all, the need. “I’ll stand by whatever decision you make.” Sunny said finally, her voice almost masking her uncertainty. “If you join, I’ll do everything I can to help you. If you don’t, I won’t be ashamed.” A sad smile raised one side of her face slightly. “Just... be careful. Because I trust you to be.” Icy wiped her eyes and steeled herself. She'd come to a decision.