//------------------------------// // Chapter Three: On the Trail // Story: Skitter, Scurry and Screech (Iota Force Issue #4) // by The Iguana Man //------------------------------// Icy leaned over her plate and took a deep breath of the steam coming off her mother's mushroom risotto, happy to finally be able to smell something nice again. Once it had become clear that there was no real way to figure out where the rats were all going, it had been decided to withdraw from the sewers for the moment. Fortunately, the cavern didn't take long for Pip to find on the map, so the three were guided out fairly easily and emerged from the sewers a good fifteen minutes before their senses of smell were due to return. However, things weren't quite that simple. They'd been met at the ponyhole by the sewer worker who had let them into the tunnels before – a very cheerful lady whose parents, in a staggering lack of foresight, had named her Aroma Dream. However, she didn't let them go right away, instead insisting that they accompany her back to her office. Once there, she spent a short while preparing three bowls of hot water with a mixture of salts, herbs and various things Icy couldn't identify dissolved into them. Fifteen minutes after they had emerged, it became clear why – it turns out that just because you can't smell the stink doesn't mean that it's not getting inside your nose. According to Miss Aroma, the remnants in her nose didn't smell a tenth as bad as being in there. Icy wasn't sure she entirely believed her, but definitely didn't want to find out. Still, after about ten solid minutes with towels over their heads huffing the steam from Aroma's smell-mixture (or “cleanse-it-with-fire water,'' as she called it), they had managed to get the smell out of their noses. Then it was just a question of getting it out of their coats. Fortunately, the office had a very big shower and a wide selection of very powerful soaps and shampoos, presumably for this precise situation. They'd all taken it together – for a species that rarely wore clothes, this wasn't much of a taboo – which meant it was much hotter than Icy usually took it. Still, that was probably for the best, given what it had to clean, and Icy was willing to put up with a fair amount of discomfort in order to eliminate as much of the she-didn't-want-to-think-about-what from her skin as she could. Of course, that meant that the moment she'd got home, she immediately went upstairs and took another shower. And then a bath. And then another, make-double-super-safety-sure shower. It wasn't entirely paranoia – Icy's hair was hard to manage at the best of times. The fur of her coat tended to clump together and her long mane and tail seemed to get continually tangled. No matter how much she washed it, how thoroughly and how much shampoo and conditioner she used, it would tangle again within a day or two. Now, normally, this would just be a minor annoyance, but those clumps and tangles getting suffused with stink and sewage was a real problem. Still, it had taken several hours, half a bottle of shampoo, three combs, countless pulled-out hairs and no small amount of pain, but Icy finally felt clean. Then, when she came down for dinner, her mother informed her that she knew a spell to help clean one's coat, mane and tail extremely thoroughly that she would have gladly cast on her had she thought to ask. To her credit, Icy only screamed a little. “Not that I don't appreciate you enjoying the smell, sweetie, but I think I'd like it more if you actually ate it.” Her mother's voice pulled Icy out of her thoughts and she looked up. “Sorry, Mom,” she said, sitting back in her chair and skewering a thick slice of mushroom on her fork, “I'm still a little out of it after, you know...” She tilted her head in the direction of the bathroom. Sunny Flight shrugged, smirking a little. “No more than usual.” Icy rolled her eyes at her mother's playful jab, not answering for a moment – that slice of mushroom had taken a while for her teeth to penetrate, worth it though it was. “Sorry for taking up the bathroom for so long.” Sunny waved her daughter's concerns away with a hoof. “Oh, it's no trouble – believe me, I know what it's like to schlep through muck and grime. You ever had to pull out an entire coatful of burrs? Not. Fun.” She took another mouthful, pondering for a moment. “Might have to pay an extra couple of bits for water, but those are in no short supply.” Icy swallowed a mouthful of rice and peas. “Okay, if you're sure.” She picked up another forkful, taking a moment to smell it before putting it in her mouth. Sunny raised an eyebrow and lifted her own forkful to her nose, taking a quick sniff before bobbing her head from side to side for a moment, her face declaring the smell fine. “Sorry, Mom,” Icy said, blushing a little. “It's just...” “No, that's fine, I get it.” Her mother smiled at her. “After where you've been, smell-stopper or no, anything'd smell good by comparison. Besides, I know how useful smell can be.” “Useful?” “Yeah. When we were going somewhere big where people could get lost, we'd always make sure to have something cooking or brewing so they could find their way back to the main group by smell.” “Really?” Icy asked, beginning to get enraptured, as she always did with her mother's stories. “Yep. I mean, sometimes it also led animals to us, but we knew how to handle them. But yeah, we used to say “if all else fails, lead 'em by the nose.” “Were the smells nice?” Sunny chuckled. “Depends who was doing the cooking and what they were using. Sometimes the smell would practically pick us up and float us towards it like in one of your cartoons. Other times, you'd have to play a game of hot-and-cold with your gag reflex. I remember this one time...” As her mother launched into the anecdote, something twigged in Icy's mind. She wasn't sure what, but it felt important. Still, she thought as she focused her attention on the story, it'd probably come to her. “So what do we do now?” Archer asked as she lent her chair back, her feet up on the big table. It was the next day, around eleven in the morning, and the team had gathered at their headquarters AKA Pip's basement. Well, most of them had – Dinky was exhausted enough from the previous day that they'd all agreed to let her have a long lie-in, but the rest of them were there, trying to figure out what their next move would be. It wasn't going especially well. “Hard to say,” Truffle said, his hoof stroking his chin. “I checked by the market today – thought I should do something since I wouldn't fit down there – and everypony I talked to said the raids had stopped, or at least put on hold last night.” “Won't last,” Alula said, her eyes wandering as she thought. “They seemed to be gathering food to feed the colt controlling them – once he runs out, they'll start taking food again. But now they know we can track them, they would make sure to spread thin and go complicated routes so we can't follow.” Scootaloo snorted, a tone of frustration edging into her voice. “Well, we gotta do something soon.” Pip looked over from his seat on the sofa, listening but, until now, not really taking part in the conversation. “What's the rush? Scootaloo opened her mouth to answer before stopping, a contemplative look coming on to her face. “Well, I mean... we're gonna have to figure out where he went eventually if we're gonna stop him stealing again. So, should probably do that quickly.” Pip shrugged, leaning back. “I guess, but I don't see as we can do much unless we know where to start.” Alula nodded. “Have you had any ideas?” Scootaloo looked away, a little embarrassed. That had been the stumbling block for the last ten minutes. There was silence for about thirty seconds as everyone thought about it, but no one had an answer. Eventually, Truffle let out a loud sigh. “Well, no use thinking about it on an empty stomach, eh? What say we go out and get something to eat – maybe full bellies'll make full minds.” There was a general murmuring of agreement – not as enthusiastic as the suggestion, but then few were more enthusiastic than Truffle when it came to food. That said, now that Icy thought about it, she was pretty hungry – she had slept a little late that morning and had forgotten breakfast, so a muffin from Sugarcube Corner sounded pretty good. Not to mention almost certainly looking, feeling, smelling and tasting goo- Smelling! Icy blinked as she recalled what her mother had said the previous night. “Hey, could we... I dunno, use something he has to track him. Like... by smelling the fruits he has?” Everyone paused in the middle of getting up, thinking about what Icy had said. “Well, smell wouldn't work – the sewer would cover it up,” Alula said after a moment. She thought for a split second more then continued before Icy got a chance to feel stupid for her suggestion. “But using something to home in on... could work, there are spells for that, but we’d need to either find him first to cast it or have something of his and get it back to him.” Icy's ears drooped a little at her idea being shot down – she knew Alula was right, but it had felt like such a revelation. “I guess we don't have anything like that, do we?” A hoof landed gently on her shoulder, causing Icy to jump for a moment before turning round and seeing Lance, his face sympathetic. Icy breathed for a moment – in these sorts of big discussions, it was so easy to forget Lance was there, as ashamed as that made her feel. “Even if we did,” Alula added, standing up again, “we couldn't get it back to him to track unless we knew where he was. I mean, unless it was something that'd just go back to him on its... own...” Alula trailed off as the idea expanded across the room like a gas, each ponies eyes lighting up in inspiration as it reached them. “Of course!” Truffle bellowed, leaping to his feet and making a small tremor go through the room as he landed. “We can use the rat we captured! We'll just...” A loud gurgle from his stomach interrupted him. “Do something after lunch!” He finished, his voice no less exuberant than before. Icy sighed in contentment as she trotted along the path out of Ponyville, enjoying the feeling of a full stomach. On the way out of Pip's house, they'd run into Dinky, out of breath and apologizing profusely for sleeping in and missing the meeting. Once she was told that they didn't call her since they figured she'd be too tired, she'd been... well, not offended, exactly, as that would require her to think something negative about her friends, but certainly put out. She cheered up when Pip offered to share a milkshake, though. After lunch, Icy, Dinky and Truffle had volunteered to go and handle the rat they'd caught, as well as a couple of stops beforehand. Dinky had suggested that it might be easier and nicer to just put the tracking spell on a piece of food and track that, rather than casting it on the rat, who might suspect something was up if that happened. So, they'd gone by the market to pick up an apple. They'd intended to get a carrot for variety's sake, but when Applejack overheard their intention as they passed her stand, she subjected them to a five-minute lecture on why they should never buy from Carrot Top “no matter how good she... er, her carrots look.” Icy shook her head. Adults are weird. After that, they quickly stopped by Spike's place to ask if he knew of a spell to track it. He'd referred them to Princess Twilight, who had barely looked up from the book she was reading as she cast the spell. They'd thanked both the Princess and Spike, then left. Well, in Icy's case, she'd been dragged out by Truffle the moment Spike pulled out a comic and her mouth opened, but that technically counted as leaving. So now they were heading out of town. Icy didn't know exactly where they were going, but she assumed that Fluttershy, whoever she was, lived away from other ponies. Fair enough, Icy could certainly understand the desire for solitude, but they did seem to be getting uncomfortably close to the borders of the Everfree Forest. Eventually, they came upon a small cottage right beside the outer edges of the forest. At least, Icy assumed it was a cottage, as piles of foliage didn't usually have walls around them. Although, this was near the Everfree, so who could say what kind of weirdness there was around the area. Oddly enough, the leaves covering the place were still full and green, despite the snow covering the ground and the bare trees surrounding the small grove. Icy giggled internally. It must be like living in a big Hearth's Warming tree. Still, on the outside, Icy steeled herself. Sure, Applejack's words had seemed to imply that this Fluttershy was fairly nice, but she still lived right next to one of the most dangerous places in Equestria. Anyone who did so willingly would have to be incredibly tough, totally fearless and generally not someone you'd want to mess with. Truffle knocked heavily on the door and Icy could have sworn she had heard an eep from inside. After a few long seconds, the door started to open slowly, then stopped after a moment, a pair of eyes peeking out from behind the gap. “Hello?” The figure behind the door asked in an incredibly gentle voice. From what Icy could see, she seemed to be fairly tall and wispy and was looking at the three children in front of her door with an expression of worry. Well, Icy thought, I got one out of three. I definitely wouldn't want to mess with her. Just not for the reasons I thought. Fortunately, it seemed no amount of caution could stand up against Dinky's sheer cuteness, as all it took was the little unicorn smiling at the pony for the door to be opened wide. “Hi, Miss Fluttershy!” Dinky said brightly. “Could we come in, please?” “Oh, of course,” Fluttershy said, gently waving them in, “please come in. What, um... what can I do for you?” “Well, we were hoping we could talk to that rat we caught,” Icy asked as she looked around the interior of the cottage. It looked fairly standard and homely for the most part, with the only notable feature being the multitude of small animals nestled in various places around the cottage's walls – some sleeping, some eating, some simply watching the new arrivals with mild interest. Or, in the case of one white rabbit, a suspicious glare. “Oh, you mean Sweee?” Icy jumped as Fluttershy's voice was suddenly interrupted by what sounded like a rat. She whirled her head round to where it had come from, but saw only Fluttershy. “What?” She asked. “Sweee?” The sound came again, apparently from Fluttershy doing a near-perfect imitation of a rat. “That's her name. She was a little afraid to give it at first, but after a nice lunch and a little petting, she opened up. It's a bit odd,” She continued, a puzzled expression coming onto her face. “Normally animals don't give each other names that ponies can pronounce, so I have to come up with my own, but Sweee was sure that was her name.” She shook her head and shrugged. “I suppose Skrik must have given it to her.” “Skrik?” Truffle asked, sitting down next to the sofa in the centre of the room. “Who or what is Skrik?” His eyes widened as he looked at the others. “You don't suppose...?” “Well, when I asked Sweee why she was taking food, she said it was to feed someone, a friend, called Skrik.” Unlike Truffle, Fluttershy spoke the names like a rat would say them. “I asked if Skrik was another rat, but Sweee told me he was a “rat-that-wasn't-a-rat”. I think that he's some sort of pony, but I'm not sure.” “A Colt, actually,” Truffle said just as Fluttershy finished. “As far as we can tell, there seems to be a young colt living in the sewers of Ponyville, controlling an army of rats and stealing food. If I had to guess, I'd say that's our “Skrik”.” Fluttershy's eyes widened. “Oh my! That's terrible. The poor little pony.” Icy was taken off-guard by Fluttershy showing sympathy to the thief. Though, in hindsight, she really shouldn't have been, given what she'd heard and seen of her, plus the fact Skrik didn't seem to be intending any harm. “Are you going to try to help him?” “Well,” Dinky began, looking away and scuffing a hoof on the ground, “we're gonna try, but we kinda sorta have to stop him from stealing stuff.” “Oh. Okay.” Fluttershy seemed a little put out, but accepting. “And you want Sweee's help?” “Sort of,” Icy replied, opening her left saddlebag. “We wanted to let it... let her go and...” Icy was cut off by a tiny but very noticeable growl. She looked around to see the white rabbit from before glaring at her and shaking its head. “Now, Angel,” Fluttershy said, giving the little bunny a gentle smile, “I'm sure that Applejack won't mind if we just let Sweee go.” The rabbit shook his head, but Dinky quickly interjected. “That's right, she told us so herself.” Angel raised an eyebrow, not looking convinced, until Icy trotted up and whispered the plan into one of his big ears. The rabbit's eyes widened briefly before smiling and nodding. When Icy finished, though, the smile dipped slightly and Angel looked towards Fluttershy. “Of course you can check with Applejack,” Fluttershy said, not seeming to register the bunny's suspicion. “I'm sure she'll say it’s okay.” Angel nodded and hopped down from the table he had been standing on. He scampered over to the door before pausing, then going over to a hole in the wall, pulling out a carrot, and then hopping to the door again and out of the flap. “What in Equestria was that all about?” Truffle asked. “I... honestly don't know,” Fluttershy replied, still looking at where Angel had left. “He seems to always either want carrots from Applejack or bring them to her. Whenever I ask, Angel just says it's for a “project”, but he won't tell me what it is.” She smiled. “Oh well, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. Anyway, you wanted to see Sweee?” “Er, yeah.” Icy wasn't sure she agreed with Fluttershy's assessment, but decided it wasn't worth pursuing. As Fluttershy went out of the room, Dinky piped up quietly. “I don't like this. I don't like lying to Miss Fluttershy or to this ra- er, Swee.” Icy nodded, having been having similar thoughts, before Truffle replied. “I wouldn't worry. I think this definitely counts as a white lie. It's not as if we want to hurt this Skrik colt, we just want to stop this spree of thefts of his. Don't worry, Dinky my girl,” he slapped a hoof on her back cheerfully, nearly knocking her to the floor, “I'm sure everything will work out fine!” Icy was about to question this when Fluttershy walked back in, a small rat clinging to her back and hiding behind her hair. Icy walked slowly up to the rat, making sure to stop a good distance away. Not that that stopped it from shrinking further back. “Hi, little guy. We just wanted to say we were sorry for keeping you in captiviv... capivi... stopping you leaving like this. We understand you were just trying to help your friend.” The rat didn't stop cowering as she reached back and pulled the apple out of her saddlebag. “Wm Jmft wmmted tm...” She placed the apple on the ground and backed off a couple of steps. “We just wanted to give you this to say sorry.” The rat looked down at the apple, then up again at Icy. It slowly started to move closer, checking that Icy wasn't moving, before scampering down Fluttershy's side, eliciting a giggle from the pegasus, and over onto the apple. It sniffed cautiously at the apple for about fifteen seconds before taking a slow, nervous bite out of it. It squeaked happily as it did before grabbing the apple by the stem and running off with it out through the door's pet flap, chittering happily as it did so. “She says “thank you”,” Fluttershy translated. There was a long pause as the three younger ponies let out a sigh of relief that the plan seemed to have worked. “So,” Dinky began, looking at the others nervously, “does this mean we're going to have to go back into the sewers?” Icy nodded, grimacing a little. “Yeah, I think we might.”