//------------------------------// // Chapter Two: Paper Chase // Story: A Sheet in the Wind (Iota Force Issue #5) // by The Iguana Man //------------------------------// “Right, where's the flare coming from, Corporal?” the Colonel asked as everyone surged into the Operations Room. It was a massive space filled with desks, machines and arcane devices that Icy couldn't possibly guess the function of. Taking up most of one wall was a giant Aetheroscope, it's screen marked with a grid overlay. Near the top-left hand corner was a bright orange light amidst the sea of shifting colours. “Around C-2, Sir,” Corporal Ton replied, sitting down at the controls again. “C-2, what's there?” Icy gulped, suppressing her impulse to cry “My Battlecloud!”, instead leaning over and whispering to Alula. “I thought Aethe... I thought those scopes weren't that accurate.” Alula didn't look away as she whispered back. “Usually, but distress flares are designed to be picked up more exactly – emit a special kind of light and a special kind of magical signature.” Icy shrugged as she listened back into the exchange – it seemed like it was just a road leading to Canterlot, so she wasn't sure what could be happening there. “Right,” the Colonel nodded, turning to a unicorn beside the scope, who was already lighting his horn, “Lieutenant Gate!” he called, pronouncing it “left-tenant”, much to Icy's puzzlement. “Already preparing for transport, sir!” the Unicorn said, a slight strain to his voice as he focused on his magic. “Who's going?” “All of them,” the Colonel replied, pointing to Iota Force as he turned to them. “Right, bunch up!” Before Icy knew what was happening, the other four were packed tightly around her. “Er,” she began, raising herself up a little so she wouldn't have to talk into Truffle's side, “wouldn't it be better to send a few guards.” The Colonel shook his head. “Not really, considering we can send all five of you with the same energy that would transport one of us.” Truffle chuckled. “Probably more if I wasn't one of them, eh?” There were a couple of small smiles, but no big laughs at that. Especially not from Icy, who was still confused. “How come?” “The Square-Cube Law,” Alula said, her tone completely masking whatever annoyance she may or may not have been feeling at Icy's questions. “Basically, if we're half the length, breadth and depth, we're a quarter of the area and an eighth the volume. Give or take quite a lot, but you get the point.” Icy really didn't, but it sounded scientific enough to her and she didn't want to cause any more bother, so she just hummed in affirmation. “Right, ponies,” Lieutenant Gate said after a moment, his horn now glowing much brighter than before, “get ready for transport!” Icy nodded slightly, her head's movement hampered by being surrounded, and tensed her muscles, bracing herself for whatever “transport” entailed. Lieutenant Gates fired a beam from his horn that flew out in a wide angle towards the assembled team. As soon as the front of it hit Lance, the one closest to it, a white light spread near-instantaneously over him, then past him over the rest. After only a fraction of a second, it spread over Icy too and all she could see was bright white – not blinding, but omnipresent. Then, after a couple more seconds, it faded again and they were out in a field, with Mount Canter off to their left, quite a distance away. There had been no feeling of falling through space, being fired at high speed or being chopped up, turned into energy then transmitted to a location, reassembled and turned back. If Icy didn't know better, she'd almost think those Sci-Fi comics weren't entirely realistic. After a moment, the group dispersed slightly, happy to not be pressed up against one another anymore. “Wow, that was kinda...” Icy thought for a moment, “weird, but only cause it wasn't weird. Like, when weird is what you expect cause something's weird, then weird isn't really weird and so not-weird is weird cause it's weird it wouldn't be weird when it should be weird. Right?” There was a brief pause before Dinky said: “Um.... yes?” Alula turned to Icy, an eyebrow raised. “To be honest, it's not that weird. It's just a simple folding of space via magic, nothing weird about that.” “Besides,” Truffle said from behind everyone, “if you want weird, then do I have a sight for you?” Everyone turned to see what he was looking at, only to be stunned into silence by what they were witnessing. A few hundred meters away from them, there was a road running perpendicular to the way they were facing. Racing down this road was a large cart pulled by two extremely burly stallions. The cart looked to be constructed of thick metal plates bolted together and the stallions were dressed in some sort of security uniform. Obviously the cart was transporting something important. An unusual sight, certainly, but not that bizarre. However, behind the cart and, presumably, the reason it was going so fast, was what looked at first glance to be a pack of pure white ponies. However, looking for a little longer, Icy realized there was something odd about them. For one thing, there was only one fully grown pony among them, the rest being about the size of large colts or fillies. However, despite their short stature, they were all running just a little faster than most ponies of that age could, none showed any sign of tiring and they were all running in unison, other than one who was riding on the large pony's back. Furthermore, straining her eyes a little to see at that distance, Icy could see that the ponies were bizarrely angular and almost all lacked faces. In fact, they seemed to be made out of folded paper. The only exception was the colt riding on the back of the largest, who looked organic, particularly in the way he was swinging a flail that looked half as big as he was above his head. After a moment, Icy spoke. “Well, there's something you don't see everyday.” Truffle laughed at that, breaking the silence and letting everyone stop staring at the sight. “Well, let's see if we can't make sure we don't.” He started running towards the fray before Alula's hoof stopped him. “No, won't catch them that way,” she pointed at an angle as she shifted into a larger-winged pegasus, “go that way, road curves round, should catch them. Join you later.” With that, she flapped hard and lifted off. Icy was about to ask where she was going when she realized there'd be no point, instead joining the others in running where she pointed. At first, it looked like Alula was right – the road curved around a small hill in the field, so the cart and its pursuers took a while to travel it. Thus, by taking a more direct path, it looked like the group would intercept them. However, as the cart came round the hill, there was a loud sound of metal striking metal. The cart rocked on its wheels before landing again. A few moments later, the stallions pulling the cart sped up, the strain evident on their faces even from a distance but their fear overriding it. The group was nearing the path, but it looked like they would be too late unless they did something. “What do we do?” asked Icy, panting a little from all the running. “I can probably slide to intercept it. Dinky, can you speed everyone else up. Dinky shook her head, also a little flushed from the exertion thanks to her small legs. “No. I could maybe do all of us with costumes, but only if I didn't have to run at the same time.” There was a second's pause before Icy saw Lance's head raise, indicative of an idea. Without warning, he picked up Dinky as he ran and threw her onto his back. He nodded to Truffle and Icy, then turned to Dinky and began indicating himself with his head. Icy was about to ask what he was doing when she felt herself being grabbed as well and flung roughly onto Truffle's back. She looked over to see Dinky's magic envelop her and Lance, speeding them up considerably. “Well, Icy,” being on Truffle's back, Icy felt his words more than she heard them, “let's see if I can't manage one of these slides, eh?” “Might be a little cold,” Icy replied, raising her voice a little despite being on top of Truffle. “Oh, don't worry about that,” Truffe chuckled, vibrating Icy a little, “I've got plenty of insulation!” Shrugging, Icy gathered her energy and flapped her wings, focusing the wind forward to create a thin path of ice on the ground in front of them. Laughing in exhilaration, Truffle accelerated briefly before leaping onto the ice, shooting forward on the slippery surface. As it turned out, Truffle was something of a natural – his wide stature, thick hooves and low centre of gravity giving him a natural stability. He wasn't exactly graceful, but he managed to keep a fairly straight trajectory along the extensions Icy managed on the path. Overall, she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit jealous. As they got closer to the cart, they got a clearer look at what was happening. The fully grown origami pony veered off a little, coming to the side of the cart. The colt riding it, who looked nearly identical to the one they'd seen in the sketch, was swinging the flail above his head. There was something odd about that flail, but it was hard to tell from a distance and while it was in motion. After a few swings, he slammed it into the side of the cart, producing a thunderous clang. The cart rocked again, a little further than before, coming halfway to tipping over, and when it landed, Icy could see a sizeable dent in its armour plating. However, after that swing, the colt's eyes, hidden behind his paper mask but still just about visible, flicked in the direction of Icy and the group. A moment later, his head turned to follow them, and he smiled. With his free front hoof, he waved towards them and four of the smaller paper ponies broke off from the pursuit, running to intercept them. Two of them reached Lance and Dinky first and lunged for them. However, the accelerated swordsman barely seemed bothered as he leapt out of the way, drawing his sword in half a flash and slicing the nearest one's head off. The contact briefly dispelled Dinky's time bubble, but she reapplied it just in time to duck the second one's strike. However, that was all Icy could see of the battle, as her attention was drawn to the two coming for her and Truffle. “Icy, freeze them, freeze them!” Truffle called out as they hurtled towards the two. He reared up slightly to shield her with his body if she couldn't. Fortunately, Icy had already been gathering energy to extend their slide again, so it was just a matter of readjusting her aim. In a moment, the two paper ponies were encased in ice and immobilized atop a slightly shorter slide. They were not totally incapacitated – the ice was fairly thin and one could see that they would break out of it shortly. Not shortly enough, however, to pre-empt Truffle and her reaching them. “Right, now jump and glide!” Truffle called. Not needing to be told twice (or probably even once, but she appreciated the reminder anyway), she leapt off Truffle's back and spread her wings. The sudden feeling of the wind rushing up and into them was jarring, given their frailty, but she managed to keep them extended and angled them into a glide. Below her, she saw Truffle slam his hooves into the ground beside the slide. For a moment, she was confused about why he was doing that before she realized that he was pushing against the solid ground, accelerating himself even further. He did it twice more before he tucked his hooves beneath himself as he slid, turning himself into an equine cannonball. The two paper ponies didn't stand a chance. With how fast everything happened, it was impossible to tell whether they shattered along with the ice, tore as paper normally would have or were just broken in the same way an ordinary pony might be. Whatever the case, they came apart and, the moment they did, all their motion and stability seemed to vanish, leaving only oddly folded paper. The sight reminded Icy of something, but she couldn't recall what. Besides, the thought was quickly shoved out of the mind as she landed on top of Truffle again. Truffle looked back at her over his shoulder. “How's that for synchronized skating, eh?” They looked over to see that Lance and Dinky had already taken out their second assailant and both pairs were closing in on the cart. The Paper Prince looked over his shoulder, his eyes widening for a split second before he broke into a smile. “Take care of these guys, wouldja?” they were close enough to hear him shout to the large paper pony he was riding. “I'm going up top.” As he was speaking, he slung the flail over his shoulder, pulled a few small squares out of his saddlebags and put one on each hoof. As his mount turned away from the cart, he leapt off its back, landing on all four hooves for a moment before a square paper spring on each one suddenly extended, letting him leap up on top of the carriage. However, Icy didn't have long to look at this before the problem of the pony he'd sent took up the majority of her attention. It was too big for her to freeze for long and would probably take Truffle and Lance a while to put down or, at least, long enough for them to lose the cart and its new rider. She looked to the side, thinking she could maybe go around, only to see that the road had begun to rise and a cliff edge lay a few metres from the right edge of the road. Wait a second... “Truffle, do you think you can deflect it?” Truffle hummed as the two reached the end of the ice trail and he began running again. “Probably, but not sure about taking it out.” Icy smiled. “I'll handle that, you just knock it to the right.” Truffle nodded, looking unconvinced but open to ideas. He lowered his head, putting on a burst of speed towards the bigger paper pony. Icy crouched on his back for a moment, leaping off just before he hit it. She flapped her wings in mid-jump, freezing a long path next to them. A path that Truffle knocked the paper pony onto, it's pointed paper legs giving it absolutely no traction. It tried to swerve, to turn off the ice-path, but too slow. Before it could manage it, it sailed off the edge of the road and the ledge, hovering in the air for a brief second and giving the closest thing an origami creation could manage to a look of “Help!” It then fell, waving its legs around frantically as if to catch itself on some non-existent branch and quickly going out of sight. Icy smiled before she remembered that she was still flying through the air herself. However, she managed to turn around and freeze herself a landing strip, sliding across it and onto the dirt. She coughed for a second before looking up, seeing the others leaving her behind. Quickly scrabbling to her hooves, she ran after them, freezing herself a couple of paths until she was nearly caught up. On top of the carriage, the Paper Prince gave an imperious sniff before gesturing at the two remaining paper foals, who ran forward, jumped onto each side of the cart and hung there, ready to intercept any attempts to climb it. Icy was about to ask what they were going to do now. However, before she could, she saw Lance take his sword from its sheath and fling it towards the cart. It was too low to hit the Prince himself, as Icy first thought he was trying to do. Instead, it lodged itself in between the doors of the armoured cart. Lance then accelerated into a sprint and leapt up, landing on top of the sword and bending it down before leaping up off it. As he leapt up with his back hooves, he let his front hooves fall, turning his leap into a flip that allowed him to grab his sword out of the doors before he rose up to the roof. He sailed over the Paper Prince's head and landed in front of him, sword pointed toward him. It was only her momentum that stopped Icy's jaw and hindquarters dropping in disbelief. The Prince, however, gave less pause. “You just can't make good help these days, can you?” he called. As he tossed the springs off his front hooves and reached onto his back for his flail, Icy realized what was so odd about it. It was, predictably enough, made of paper, but not folded like his minions. It looked like the handle was one rolled up piece of paper, the chain was, of course, a paper chain, the main body of the flail was balled up paper and the spikes were paper cones. It should have been no more dangerous than a spitball. And yet, as the Prince flung it over his shoulder and slammed it into the deck in front of Lance, it produced a loud clang that suggested it wasn't to be taken as lightly as it was wielded. “You want somethin' done right...” He leapt forward, giving Lance a split second to leap out of the way of his strike. Fortunately, he did, giving a slash to his side, resulting in a flash of light and a yelp of pain but no blood. They went for each other a couple more times, neither scoring a hit, while Icy thought through what she could do. There wasn't much she could think of, but the obvious did occur to her when the Prince next came to the edge of the cart. She flapped her wings, sending a wave of ice over him and pinning him in place. Seeing his opportunity, Lance leapt at him with his sword over his head. Unfortunately, neither had noticed that her aim had been slightly off – she'd frozen the colt's back hooves in place, but not his front hooves or his flail. As a result, he swung the giant paper ball in front of him, catching Lance in mid-leap and knocking him away. Icy heard him slide across the roof, but not fall – he must have grabbed onto the edge before he could. Snorting, the Paper Prince swung his flail around a couple of times before slamming it into the deck behind his hooves. This easily shattered the ice, but it also sent the cart rocking again a little, making him nearly fall over. Icy's eyes widened as an idea occurred to her. She fell back a little and spoke quietly enough that only Truffle and Dinky would hear her. “Could we try to knock him over?” “I can, but I'll need a boost to catch up to it!” Truffle replied. Dinky nodded, panting a little. “Okay, hold on!” She lit her horn and her golden aura encompassed Truffle. Not wasting a moment (or, at least, not enough to be noticeable outside his accelerated bubble), he sprinted about five metres to the side of the carriage before turning and running, at his full speed multiplied by Dinky's full boost, at the side of the cart. The paper pony hanging there tried to intercept him and, to be fair, succeeded. It just quickly became apparent why getting between him and the cart was not a great idea. Truffle leaped up at the cart, not seeming to care about what was in the way. He impacted the paper pony, the time-bubble dissipating from the contact but his momentum remaining. At first, the pony seemed to behave like an organic being being crushed, its paper skin bending in like ordinary flesh. It was only when it reached the point that normal skin would start getting damaged that this effect stopped and it instantly seemed to revert to ordinary paper, crumpling up without resistance. There was definitely something about this that twigged Icy's memory, but she was a bit busy running to pin down what. In any event, Truffle quickly hit the side of the cart once its origami guardian was no longer an issue. The cart rocked even more than it had when the flail hit it, making the ground shake for the ponies on the roof. Lance, fortunately, had been standing facing backwards from the cart, so he had seen what the others were doing and was prepared for it. The Paper Prince, however, was not. It only made him unstable for a moment, but it was enough. The swing he had been going for whiffed completely, sending the head of his flail skidding across the cart's roof. It only gave Lance a split second's opening, but that was all he needed. He lunged forward, his sword aimed down, and thrust it through one of the middle links in the chain and a few millimetres into the cart's roof, pinning it firmly in place. As Icy watched the spectacle, a movement in the corner of her eye drew her attention away for a fraction of a second, seeing Dinky encase herself in her glow and flash up towards the side of the cart that Truffle had cleared. Feeling a little left out, she unfurled her wings and gave as strong a flap as she could, lifting her a couple of metres in the air, and held her wings out in a glide despite her muscles' protests. The Paper Prince gave his flail a few experimental tugs, but the chain was well and truly stuck. He looked up at Lance and smiled. “Pretty good, kid, pretty good!” he yelled over the wind, despite not looking that much older than Lance. “But you had to use your weapon for that, so we're both disarmed. Seems to me like a stalemate!” “I wouldn't say that,” Truffle said from the side of the cart, causing the Prince's head to whip round. It was taking quite an effort for him to haul his considerable weight onto the cart, but he was just about managing it. “Stalemate usually means that there aren't too many more pieces on the board.” As if to underscore this point, Dinky rushed up the side and climbed up behind Truffle, panting heavily, and Icy landed next to Lance, having to use everything she had not to pant just as heavily. Still, she knew a cue for a quip when she heard one. “Stalemate? More like checkmate!” Okay, so no one ever said it had to be a good quip. Apparently, the Paper Prince thought so too as he snorted, though he was also panting pretty heavily for some reason. “Nah, see, checkmate means I've got no moves left.” He backed up slowly before hitting the edge of the cart, his rear hooves hanging off just a little. “And the Paper Prince ain't ever outta moves. You did good – good enough to stop me this time, not enough to catch me.” As he finished speaking, he let his back hooves drop and thumped them against the side of the cart, causing the two paper springs still on them to extend and propel him backwards. The paper pony still chasing the cart saw him coming towards it and leapt up, catching him out of the air. Once he was firmly on its back, it started to run in the opposite direction. “See you later, Kiddies!” the Paper Prince called out. “Let's hope next time you can OOF!” Without warning, the paper pony bucked him off its back, swinging him round underneath it and pinning his hooves in place with its own, his head hanging over the edge of the cliff. The four ponies still on the cart looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and dismounting the cart in their own ways. Icy spread her aching wings and glided down. Dinky, concentrating hard for a moment due to her own fatigue, sped herself up and hopped down the side. Lance grabbed the same side, swung down in the opposite direction to the cart's movement, did a flip to bleed some momentum and landed on all four hooves. Truffle, on the other hand, simply jumped, bouncing off the ground a couple of times before landing splayed out. They all picked themselves up and cantered over to the prone Prince, who was still sputtering in incomprehension. “Buh... how did you...?” He looked to the side at the approaching colts and fillies. “So, turned one of my own crea, er, my own subjects against me, didja? Well, dunno how, but it won't happen again, I promise you that!” “Course it won't,” Truffle replied, putting a hoof on the paper pony's chest, “it'll be pretty hard to make any “subjects” in prison, won't it?” The Prince chuckled. “Sure would, if I was goin'. Shouldn't get ahead of yourself, chubby.” Truffle growled. “How dare you! I'm not chubby!” He grabbed a hoofful of his belly and waved it at the prince. “I am fat, thank you very much.” The Prince looked a little taken aback at this response. “Huh. Well, guess I can't argue with that.” He shook his head and looked past Truffle, presumably to the retreating cart. “Still, it was pretty good though, wasn't it? I mean, almost takin' out an armoured cart with nothin' but paper? Can't say that wasn't impressive, right?” Truffle was about to respond, probably to deny it if the look on his face was any indication, when Dinky cut in. “Yes. Yes, it was really cool.” The Prince's smiled faltered, as if he was genuinely surprised at someone agreeing with him. “Really? Well, you just wait, little lady – if you think that was awesome, you ain't seen nothin' yet!” Dinky shook her head a little sadly. “You don't have to, you know? I mean you've already pro-” “And you're not going to!” Icy felt a little bad about interrupting Dinky, but she was really getting annoyed at the implication that he was going to continue these attacks. “We've got you, you've got no more minions left and you can't make anything else. How were you planning on getting away.” The Paper Prince looked at her and chuckled nastily. “Well, you did get me, yeah, cause I miscounted. I thought I had two mi- subjects left, but one of them was yours. Trouble is, you miscounted too.” He looked to the side and nodded. Suddenly, his last remaining minion leapt at Truffle from behind. Icy whirled around, realizing they'd forgotten about the one that was still hanging onto the other side of the cart, and flapped her wings. The paper pony froze, but not before Truffle had been rammed into the pony holding the Prince down, knocking it over and freeing the Prince's hooves. As soon as he was able, the Prince grabbed the ground under his shoulders and slammed his back hooves into the ground, the springs propelling him into a backwards cartwheel over the edge of the cliff. Lance leapt forward, trying to pin him down again but a moment too late. After a second, everyone rushed to the cliff edge and looked over the side to see what had become of the prince. As it turned out, his fall had been quickly caught by a giant paper plane and he was flying away from the road faster than any of them could chase him. He looked up at them, gave a smirk and a mocking salute and flew off into the distance. Snorting a little in frustration, Lance casually decapitated the frozen paper pony without even looking at it. Icy came up and nudged him encouragingly. “Don't worry, we'll get him.” Lance turned to her, his mask obscuring his expression, and nodded. Meanwhile, a green glow enveloped the remaining paper pony, turning it back into Alula. “Well, that was something of a trainwreck.” Truffle chuckled, about to put a hoof on her shoulder before being stopped by her glare. “Well, you still managed to get him, didn't you?” Alula rolled her eyes. “Yes, but I shouldn't have had to. Now he knows about that trick and he'll be ready for it. And for me. If you had stopped him before, I could have...” she trailed off, looking to the side and breathing for a moment. “I apologize, this is not the time for recriminations.” There was a pause as everyone looked at her. “Handing out blame,” she clarified. There was a collective “Aah!” of realization before Icy asked. “You're right, but I have to ask... Dinky?” Dinky turned to her, her unintentional aura of cuteness still as strong as ever despite her sweat, meaning Icy had to really focus if she wanted to say something even vaguely or potentially critical. “Why'd you agree with him like that? I mean, yeah, it was pretty impressive, but won't that just encourage him?” Dinky shook her head, a slightly sad look on her face, though this was whether due to Icy's words or the Prince's was impossible to say. “I don't think so. I'm pretty sure he'd keep going anyway. And I had to be sure about why he was doing this. Plus, I wanted to give him the chance to give up on his own.” Icy raised an eyebrow. “And you expected that to work?” Dinky gave a melancholy giggle and shrugged. “No. I didn't expect it. But I kinda hoped.” Icy sighed and lifted an aching hoof to ruffle Dinky's hair. “Guess I can't fault you for that.” There was a short lull in the conversation after that, everyone taking a few moments to catch their breath before Truffle spoke up. “Guess I should call HQ for a ride, eh?” Icy shook her head, standing up. She stepped forward, a determined expression on her face – she was going to prove that a little bit of tiredness wouldn't stop her. That is, until her dragging hoof met a rock and toppled her face down in the dirt. “Ymmh,” she said through the ground, “Thmt Mmmmt bm m gmmd mdmm.” “Right,” the Colonel said, his hoof to his chin as he thought. He was sitting in a small conference room with Iota force all around it in various states of fatigue, from Lance's slightly heavy breathing to Icy being splayed out on the floor with Dinky lying on top of her, equally messily. Fortunately, neither Alula nor Truffle were quite at that level of exhaustion, otherwise the only one fresh enough to tell the Colonel anything would have been Lance. Which, naturally, would have presented certain problems. Instead, Truffle and Alula had just finished recounting the group's encounter with the Paper Prince. The Colonel knew better than to interrupt them, so simply listened patiently, the only sounds he made being sips of tea. Now, however, they were finished and he continued. “So, we're not just dealing with one young chap with talent-powered equipment – he can create servitors too.” “Certainly seemed that way,” Truffle confirmed. “Mind you, most of them were small, but still.” “But still,” Alula cut in, “that implied a great deal of power. It also implies that the more time he has to prepare, the stronger he'll be. So a surprise attack would be best.” The Colonel nodded. “Indeed. Do you have any idea where such a surprise attack could take place?” Alula grimaced slightly. “That would be the single slight problem with my idea.” She thought for a moment before turning to the small pony pile on the floor. “Dinky, any thoughts?” Icy cocked an eyebrow in surprise as Alula said this. She was about to ask something when she felt Dinky slide off her back and onto her own hooves. “Well, I do have some – I think I know why he's doing this, but I don't know if it's revelant.” “Relevant,” Alula corrected Dinky's fatigue-induced mispronunciation. Dinky bowed her head a little. “Sorry. Anyway, he hides his face, but not his cutie mark, right?” She didn't pause for confirmation, instead continuing straight on. “And all of the stuff he did back there – he attacked the armoured cart, not the ponies pulling it. If he just wanted what was inside it, why didn't he just attack them and then go into the cart when it was stopped? And his attacking and leaping, it was all kinda... showy.” She shook her head, her face looking unusually contemplative. “No, I think... I think the reason he leaves his cutie mark uncovered is because he wants people to see it. He wants people to see him, to see what he can do, to show that he can do it well.” There was a lengthy pause as everyone took this in. After a few moments, the Colonel spoke up. “Do you mean to tell me that this colt is robbing ponies, attacking armoured carts and stealing vast amounts of money... for attention?” Dinky shook her head. “Kinda, but no, it's more like... like showing that what he can do is... cool, I guess? That it's impressive, that it's... it's worth doing.” Icy blinked, languidly clearing her ear to make sure she'd heard that all right. It all made total sense and, now that it had been pointed out, she could see it too, but she was still impressed at Dinky's reading of their enemy. Still, the others seemed to take it in stride. Alula in particular simply nodded along. “As you say, far from useless information, but doesn't help us to locate him in the short term.” As the Colonel, Alula and Dinky started discussing the next move, Icy slowly raised herself up onto her hooves, trying to ignore the slight pain that came from doing so. She sidled up to Truffle and whispered to him. “Um, I don't mean to sound... nasty to Dinky, but I thought that Alula was... well...” “The detective of the group?” Truffle supplied in, surprisingly enough, a similar whisper. Apparently, he could talk quietly, he just rarely wanted to. “Oh, she is, but I wouldn't say she's the only one. She's good at looking at things with logic – figuring out the whats and hows – but she isn't always so good at figuring out Ponies. How they think, what their reasons are, that sort of thing. She knows how to deceive them, but that's about it. That's where Dinky comes in, she's better at the whys.” Icy nodded. “So... is Alula sensitive about it?” Truffle scoffed slightly. “Hardly. If she was, she wouldn't have asked Dinky, would she?” Icy raised an eyebrow. “Then why are you whispering?” Truffle shrugged. “Don't want to interrupt them. Besides, you whispered first.” Icy bobbed her head a little in thought – she couldn't really argue with that. Instead, she focused back on the discussion in the centre of the room. “Right,” the Colonel nodded at Alula. “I'll arrange for all transports in and out of the city to carry distress flares, that should allow us to intercept him when he next tries anything.” “Assuming they get the chance to use them,” Alula pointed out. “I think they will,” Dinky piped up. “Remember, he wants to be seen, so they should know he's there long enough.” Alula nodded. “Perhaps, but if they're hoofheld flares, he might be able to stop his victims firing them. Better make sure they're built in to the transports.” The Colonel nodded, taking a pencil in his mouth and writing something quick in a notebook. “Of course,” Alula continued, “he'll probably make quite a lot of servitors, which should be... fairly visible. But no sense taking risks.” When she heard that, something popped up in Icy's mind, something that had been niggling at the back of it for a while but that Alula's words brought to the forefront. “But I don't get it. How?” she asked, prompting all eyes to turn to her. “How is he able to do all this stuff?” The Colonel put down the pencil. “It's not that strange. Somewhat rare, perhaps, but far from unknown. Some ponies with talents related to crafting learn how to put a bit of magic into their creations to give them a sort of life. Let them act like what they are or look like, that sort of thing.” “Indeed, it's fairly simple to learn if you have the right talent,” Alula added. “I recently met a stallion who could make fully functional items out of balloons. Principle's the same.” “No, no, I get that,” Icy said, a little annoyed at the assumption that she didn't know this, as reasonable an assumption as it was. “What I mean is: how is he able to do so much? I mean, making kinda-sorta-living ponies has got to take more energy than, like, a spring. And that flail was able to damage the cart's armour. Wouldn't he have to be at least an adult to be able to do all that stuff?” That got everyone thinking. “Well, the difference magically between an adult and child is actually fairly negligible, and some ponies have large magical stores than others,” Alula said, though it looked like she was just letting her mouth run while her brain figured out what to say, “but you're right. Even a powerful adult would be drained after that, so... that is a really good question.” Icy smiled, a little proud of herself at being able to join in the discussion.