It was another snowy morning and Icy was out running a few errands for her mother. Sunny Flight was far from lazy, of course, and didn't have much of a problem with chilly weather, to say the least. However, even she had nowhere near the imperviousness to cold that Icy possessed and, since school was out and Icy had already finished her holiday homework (if only at her mother's... insistent prompting), Sunny had asked her daughter to go out instead. After all, as she'd jokingly asked: “Why keep a dog and bark yourself?”
Admittedly, the question puzzled Icy a little. She got what it was saying, but was barking really the main thing you'd want a dog for? I mean, sure there are situations when barking was needed, but getting a dog just for those seemed unnecessary and would be outweighed by all the many instances when barking is neither needed or wanted, like, say, when you're trying to sleep and the neighbour's dog won't shut up.
Still, she didn't mind going out on her mother's behalf – it wasn't like she had that much else to do most mornings except read comics or draw a little. Which, in all honesty, she would have preferred doing, but not enough that she begrudged a few errands.
At that moment, she was heading to the library to return a book. Which, of course, meant the castle, but in Icy's mind, Princess Twilight's castle, the library and Spike's house were separate entities, despite all being the same building. Admittedly, that building was a huge palace and if they were separate buildings, it could easily house three such places, but still, her ability to separate them out based on function was considerable.
As she came up to the castle's front steps, she noted that there were still no guards or anything out in front and the door was wide open. Understandable, since the Princess did want to keep the library open to the public and you couldn't very well have a public library with a locked door, but it still gave Icy an uneasy feeling after the last time the castle's security had been put to the test. Of course, she was sure that the Princess had learned her lesson – she wouldn't be stupid enough to let an enemy waltz into the castle unchecked a second time, right?
Chuckling to herself, she made her way through the corridors, following the signs directing her towards the library. She started to hum to herself quietly, not wanting to make too much noise while entering a library. However, as she approached the door, she began to hear noises that suggested that not everyone was so considerate.
“Whaddaya mean it's impossible?!”
Icy flinched back for a moment from the volume of the question before pushing forward through the door, seeing Applejack glaring at a shrugging Princess Twilight.
“I mean exactly that, it's impossible.”
“Don't you give me “impossible!”” Applejack snapped. Even from across the room, Icy could see red around the corners of her eyes and noticed that she was blinking often and heavily. “It's magic, I don't see why magic couldn't do that!”
Twilight sighed. “Just because magic can do what would otherwise be impossible doesn't mean it can do anything, Applejack. It still follows rules. And, according to those rules, what you're suggesting is impossible. Teleportation would leave a distinct magical signature which you couldn't cover up.”
She levitated an open book up, offering it to Applejack, who swept it aside with a hoof. “But didn't you just say you could hide that kinda thing?”
Twilight shook her head. “Yes, magical residue can be covered up, but you have to be in the area the initial spell was cast to do it. How could they do that if they'd just teleported away?
Applejack paused, frowning in contemplation. She closed her eyes tight for a moment, rubbing her hooves over them before opening them again. “Okay, I get it. Can't cover your hoofprints in the place you've already run from.”
Twilight nodded, smiling. “Exactly. Not without making more, which would sort of defeat the purpose, wouldn't it?”
“I guess so.” Applejack chuckled awkwardly. “Sorry about that, Twi, it's just that...”
Once the raised voices had died down, Icy tuned them out. Sure, she was curious about what that was all about, but she wasn't about to interrupt them. Besides, apologies and getting along were much less interesting than arguments and fights, as any comic fan knew.
She trotted up to the main desk, where Spike was sitting, raising a comic to his face from his lap. Evidently, he'd had the same thought and, now the ruckus had died down, was getting back to his reading. Icy could relate, though not so much to what he was reading.
Still, the image on the cover of the Mane-iac did bring up a couple of memories and inspired something between a smile and a shudder.
Before she could look up again, she heard Spike's voice.
“Hey there, Icy. You finally interested in reading a good comic?”
Icy looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. “Yep, that's why I was looking at Power Ponies – thought I'd try and remember what not to look for.”
The two shared a smirk. In truth, the ongoing argument was kind of a joke – she didn't hate Power Ponies that much and Spike, while he did love them that much, had more or less accepted Icy's position, no matter how wrong he thought it was. Still, it was fun to play along with the idea that they were ideological nemeses. If an argument was a kind of battle, they were playing with toy soldiers.
Still, she had business to attend to. She opened one of her saddlebags with a wing and turned away from Spike for a moment, pulling out the book she'd brought with her mouth.
“Mmms fmmmshd wmm...” She paused for a moment before spitting the book out onto the desk. “Mom's finished with this, she asked me to return it.”
Spike put his comic down and looked down at the book. “Sapphire Stone, huh? You want the next Daring Do book...” He paused, looking off the side. “Wait, was that Griffon's Goblet or Temple of Tirek? Hang on, lemme look it...” He started reaching for a book on the side of the desk before Icy interrupted him.
“No, that's okay, she doesn't want the next one. She said she didn't really like it.”
Spike paused, his arm frozen in midair. “Didn't like... She doesn't like Daring Do?”
Icy shrugged. “Guess not. She said it was...” she thought for a moment, calling up the exact phrasing, “sensationalized and exaggerated.”
Spike withdrew his arm, frowning in confusion. “Well, I mean... yeah. That's kinda the point, isn't it?”
Icy shrugged. “I don't get it either.”
Spike chuckled. “Gee, disagreeing with popular opinion seems to run in the family, doesn't it? Just don't let her tell that to Rainbow Dash. Our little thing?” He pointed at the comic on the desk. “Got nothing on what she'd say.”
Icy giggled. “Gotcha, Spike. So, anyway, she said she was interested in the first of the Blackstone Files series.”
Spike tilted his head. “Erm, Twi has a list of over fifty Aetherological mistakes in the first three books alone. Isn't that kind of “sensationalized and exaggerated?” He asked, casually reciting her phrasing.
Icy smiled. “Yeah, but about something Mom doesn't know all that much about.”
Spike shrugged. “If you say so. You're in luck, too, that one's in our returns box. We were meant to sort it out this morning, but Twi got called away to sort out Applejack's problem.”
Icy blinked in remembrance. “Oh yeah! What was all that about, anyway?”
“Apparently, someone's been stealing apples.”
“Oh, is that all?”
It was amazing. The words left Icy's mouth with barely any input from her brain and yet, the moment they did, she could feel the temperature drop and a presence looming behind her. Her left eye looked back, seeing nothing in her peripheral vision, yet she could feel it coming closer. The words hadn't been loud, but she still felt them echo around the library, ringing in her ears as if mocking her. After a couple of seconds of tension, she caught a faint glimpse of orange in the corner of her eye and heard a cold voice behind her.
“‘Is that all’? Did you just ask ‘is that all’?”
Spike gulped, his terrified stare going over Icy's shoulder. “I'll just... get that book for you.” He ran into a back room while Icy, despite her best efforts to stop her hooves from moving, turned around to see the irate Applejack.
“Let's jus' forget for the moment how those apples are the livelihood for me an' my whole family, so stealin' them any time's a real dirty thing to do. Nah, let's focus on the rest. Dunno if you'd noticed out there, but it's pretty cold right now, bein' winter an' all, and my trees ain't 'xactly weighed down with fruit, so that means we have to rely on our stores an' our savin's an' anyone stealin' from that is a real danger. And what, d'you think we jus' shove apples straight into our cellar an' leave 'em to rot? We gotta box 'em and shift 'em and sort 'em and all that's wasted money and effort if someone jus' up an’ takes 'em. And don' get me started on how openin' the crates can...”
“Applejack!”
Applejack whirled around at the interjection, shifting her glare onto Twilight without lessening it.
Twilight pointed behind her. “You're scaring her.”
Applejack looked behind her at Icy's terrified expression. The farmpony's eyes widened and she turned fully around to her, taking off her hat and putting it to her chest.
“Aw geez, I'm real sorry there, sugarcube. I jus' get a mite riled when ponies don' respect my family or what we do. If I had a bit for every time I heard “It's only apples.”” She started to sigh, but it quickly morphed into a yawn. “Course, it don't help none that I didn't get a wink of sleep las' night.”
Icy nodded – the big (very big, very strong, she reminded herself) mare's anger seemed to have passed, but her heart hadn't fully slowed down. She focused for a moment, trying to convince her fight-or-flight response that she was no longer in danger of being hammered into the ground like a croquet hoop. However, she tilted her head a little at that last remark.
“You really couldn't sleep just because you knew someone was stealing your apples?”
Applejack gave a sighing chuckle. “Naw, I ain't obsessed or nothin'.”
“...”
“Well, not that obsessed, and that ain't why, anyway. Me an' Mac were standin' guard all night, tryin' to catch the varmint. Didn't work, though. Somehow, they still got in an' made off with our apples.”
“Did you see them?”
“Nope. Darndest thing – we were standin' guard at the hatch. Couldn't really stand around in the cellar without bein' seen, and that hatch's the only way in or out. No one came around, but next mornin', another batch had up an' vanished. And since Twi says there ain't no way someone teleported down... well, we're kinda flummoxed.”
Icy frowned, thinking about the problem. “They must be really good at stealing, then.”
Applejack nodded. “Sure seems that way. We ain't the only ones goin' through this neither – whole buncha other fruit an' veg sellers've had stock goin' missin'. Even heard Carrot Top had some carrots stolen.” She gave a slight sniff. “No accountin' for taste, I s'pose.”
Icy hummed for a moment, her hoof rubbing her chin. “But you weren't down there when it happened? You didn't get a look at who or what was doing it?”
Applejack shook her head. “Nah. Like I said, we'd been down there, they'da seen us 'fore we saw them – might stop 'em, but wouldn't catch 'em. Still, I guess we don't got much of a choice tonight, we're gonna have to...” she was interrupted by another yawn, deep and wide enough that Icy was pretty sure she could see her tonsils.
“You sure?” Icy asked, raising an eyebrow. “If you don't mind me saying, you seem... kinda tired. You sure another night up would...”
She was interrupted by a chuckle from Applejack. “I don' like it either, but don see what else we can do. 'Sides, this ain't nothin', compared to...” She trailed off for a moment, getting a faraway look in her eyes. Shuddering slightly, she came back to the conversation. “So, yeah, don' you worry 'bout me!”
Icy put a hoof up, considering an idea. “Or... we could always do it for you.”
“We?” Applejack asked, thinking for a second before she remembered. “Oh, yeah, you're with that whatchamacallit – that team thing, aincha?”
Icy nodded. “I'll have to ask them about it, but think about it – we're smaller, so we can hide easier, there's more of us and it'll mean you can get some sleep.”
Applejack nodded, only a glimmer of apprehension in her eyes. “Well, might be worth a shot, but... well, I dunno how much I'll be able to pay you.”
“Huh?” Icy sputtered slightly, baffled by the statement. “You, er... I don't know about the others, but you don't have to pay me anything.”
Applejack snorted. “Phooey to that! You do work for me, you get paid. Ain't no question 'bout that. But if it don't have to be much, I 'ppreciate it.” She thought for a few more seconds before nodding slowly. “Alright – you talk to your buddies and see what you can do.”
Icy hopped up and down a few times, excited at a new case, even one as seemingly minor as this. “Yes, ma'am! I'll gather the team, we'll make a plan and I'll get back to you by this evening.” She gave an inelegant salute and started towards the door. “We won't let you down, Miss Applejack, Ma'am.” She had just put her hoof on the doorknob when she heard another voice.
“So, you don't want the book, then?”
She turned back around to Spike, who had, at some point, emerged from his back room retreat but had apparently decided to stay very quiet. Icy couldn't really fault his decision there.
“Oh, right. Sorry.” She trotted back over to the desk and waited patiently while Spike opened the book, carefully wrote the date to be returned on the inner card, then pulled the ledger out of a drawer in the desk, wrote the name of the book, the date it was lent out and the date it was to be returned again, then closed both books, returned the ledger to the drawer and handed her the book she was taking.
Once she had the book in her saddlebags, Icy turned around and thrust a hoof out forward. “Okay, now I'm going to...” She paused for a second. “Now, I'm going to get his book back to Mom, then I'm going to gather the team!” She strode confidently toward the door. “Don't worry, Miss Applejack, we'll find something out!”
As she blinked herself awake again and shifted her legs to keep them from falling asleep, Icy ruminated that at least she hadn't been lying. She had found something out. Namely that stakeouts suck.
After she had told the others what Applejack had said, they'd agreed they should lend a hoof, both because it was the right thing to do and because a little extra pocket money would very rarely go amiss.
However, it was also decided, given how quiet, unseen and attentive they would need to be, that not all of them should be there for the initial stakeout. Truffle was too loud, Scootaloo was too hasty – something she had not disagreed with – and as for Dinky...
Well, it turned out that slowing down and speeding up her perceptions was actually quite easy for the young chronomancer. As a result, when she got bored on jobs like this, she had a tendency to put things on fast forward. Useful for long walks and waiting rooms, not so good when you need to pay attention to what's going on.
So Archer, Lance, Alula and Icy were the ones spending the night in the Apples' cellar. Icy wasn't honestly that sure how good she'd be at it, but Alula had assured her she would be useful, as the only pegasus who could glide down quietly if they saw something – Archer and Lance could jump down, but would make a noise, and Alula shifting into a pegasus would create light. At the time, Icy had gone along with it, as the way Alula put it did make sense.
That didn't really make her feel any better now, though. She had been sitting on a beam near the ceiling in one corner of the cellar, in almost total darkness for what felt like days. There were a couple of small lights on each wall preventing the room from being completely pitch black, otherwise there wouldn't be much point in her and her teammates in the other corners watching for intruders. Whoever was sneaking in might have had a light, but there were plenty of ways to see in the dark without that, so the watching ponies needed a little visibility. Too much, however, and they might give away that there were ponies watching. So, the room had to be mostly dark.
That might not have been such a problem if not for them needing silence. Which meant no talking. Which meant little to relieve the boredom of staring into the darkness for hours on end. Their badges had been adjusted so that they would barely be audible to anyone but the wearer and so they wouldn't produce much static, but talking was still generally discouraged. The only times it would really be okay would be if one of them saw something or...
“Check in!”
Icy jumped at the quiet voice of Archer breaking her out of her thoughts, having to take a moment to keep her balance and not fall off the beam. Because they were still children, these checks were to make sure they all stayed awake.
She pressed a hoof to her badge.
“I'm here.”
She waited a moment as Alula responded similarly and a tiny fzt signalled that Lance was also still awake. Once that was established, she resumed thinking.
It wouldn't have been so bad, she thought, if she just had some way of telling the time and knowing exactly how long she'd been at it. Admittedly, she still wouldn't know how long she had to go, since thieves rarely provided a schedule for when they burgled somewhere (though, as her last adventure had proved, it wasn't unknown) but knowing how long she'd been waiting would have been something.
Or just being able to talk or... do something. Icy had heard of places where ponies could go into tanks and have all their senses cut off, but she'd never understood why anypony would ever want to go to such a place and this experience was not aiding her understanding. At this point, she was desperate for anything – a quick bit of conversation, a book to read, even a game of I Spy.
Actually, now that she thought about it, that last one probably wouldn't work. Sure, this time, Archer couldn't follow her line of sight and guess before she'd spoken, but it probably wouldn't have been that interesting when the only things she could name began with A.
“Icy?”
Speak of the gerbil. Icy thought as she pushed her badge and whispered into it. “I read you, Archer, what is it?”
“We got movement on our side.”
Icy blinked, her eyes refocusing, and silently thanked whoever was listening that Archer was sharper than she was, both in eye and attention.
She looked down to see... something. She couldn't exactly be sure what it was, but she knew what it wasn't – it wasn't a pony. In fact, the movement seemed to be coming solely from the apples themselves. As far as she could see – which wasn't much – it looked like the apples were coming out of a hole in a crate and moving along the ground by themselves, without even the telltale glow of unicorn magic.
“I'm going down.” She spoke quietly into her badge before standing up slowly... then immediately sitting back down and shaking her legs to wake them up again, then standing up slowly again and then spreading her wings and hopping off the beam.
Her glide was short, but she made sure to loop around the moving apples the long way to make sure she wasn't seen. She landed on top of a crate a few down from the one with the escaping apples.
Creeping silently, making sure to place every hoof down carefully to avoid either making noise or slipping between the planks of the crates and tripping, she made her way over to where she'd seen the moving apples.
Peeking slowly over the side, she got a closer look. It turned out that, no, the apples had not gained sentience and locomotion and decided that being eaten didn't sound too appealing and so were getting out of dodge. They were being carried, but by something much smaller than a pony. Or rather, a lot of somethings:
Rats.
There was a small crowd of them gathered around a hole in the crate, their dark brown fur blending almost perfectly with the packed earth of the basement floor. Every few seconds, an apple would tumble out of the hole, pushed by a rat already inside. The rats would scatter around the apple as it landed before one of them picked it up in its teeth and scurried off with it. Icy could see a sparse line of them going towards a hole in the corner of the wall, just large enough to fit an apple through.
Icy couldn't help it. She didn't have a problem with rats especially – they weren't her favourite animal, but she wasn't afraid of them or anything. But the sudden sight of a swarm of them not only being there, but apparently working together and being organized was something of a shock.
So she let out a gasp.
It wasn't loud, but it was enough. A small lake of dark, shining eyes turned towards her, all motion stopping for a second.
Then things started again. A chorus of squeals and chitters mixed with the collective scrabbling of maybe a hundred tiny, clawed feet as the rats turned and bolted towards the hole.
Icy barely had time to tell the others what she was seeing. “Rats! They're rats!” She shouted, no longer worried about stealth, as she ran after them.
She could see that she wasn't going to catch them – they were quicker, had a straighter path to their destination and were on even ground, not to mention being able to see where they were putting their feet. Nevertheless, she didn't stop, fixing her eyes on the hole as the last few rats began to pour into it. Quickly gathering energy at her wingtips, she flapped them far forward, focusing her blast tightly.
The freezing air shot past the only rat left and hit the hole itself, causing a thin sheet of ice to block it up.
Icy skid to a halt, giggling a little as the last rat ran into the ice and bounced off it. The ice cracked, but didn't break.
“Huh.” She said to herself. “Did not know that was going to work.”
The rat rammed itself once more into the ice, cracking it further but still not quite shattering it, before apparently deciding it wasn't worth the effort and shooting off to the side. Before it could get more than a foot, however, a two-pronged arrow flew forward and hit the rat, the prongs burying themselves in the wall above its back and between its front and rear legs, trapping it.
Icy turned to the filly leaping down from the ceiling. “Nice shot!”
Archer smiled as she looked to the ice covering the hole. “Was gonna say the same to you.” As they heard Lance trot over behind them and saw a flash of green in their high peripheral vision indicating that Alula was coming down, Archer peered down at the rat. It was still struggling to pull itself out of a snare arrow normally meant for hooves. “Looks like the Apples have got a pest problem.” She said after a moment.
Icy shook her head. “I don't think these are just any rats. They were working together, they were organized.”
“More than that.” Alula said as she landed behind them, her words quick and precise. “Normally, rats would just eat food here, wouldn't take it away, wouldn't need to, would leave traces and bits. Here, rats transporting food somewhere, not for immediate eating.”
Icy nodded. “I think something weird is going on here.”
“Heh.” Archer chuckled, smirking. “This is Ponyville, when is it not?”