//------------------------------//
// 10 - Pony Magic 
// Story: Izzy's Thief 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

"Yes, a pony actually." Remi let out a little sigh. "A pony I miss."

Izzy let out an emphatic 'aw'. "That's too bad. Gonna head to them as soon as this is all cleared up?"

Remi nodded quickly. "That's the idea! Now." She looked back to Sunny. "What did Twilight tell you exactly?"

Sunny sat back in her cart. "Well, for one, she noted earth pony magic was here for the first time, which..." She clopped her hooves, prompting them to glow green with the potential of the living magic. "checks out with what we've seen. Then she noted somepony once tried to steal all the magic before and almost succeeded."

Izzy hummed curiously. "I'd like to hear more about that, but they already messed up, so they aren't the problem, right?"

Remi rolled a hand. "Probably not, if this is before Twilight left."

Sunny's breath caught. "I don't..." She let it out. "She is long gone."

Remi tensed with the realization that a miscommunication had happened, but that was perhaps for the better. Arguing that Twilight was alive and well, in the future/past/somewhere/somewhen, on some spaceship, felt like a losing proposition on all fronts. "But something is a problem right now?"

"Something... It started with an O, I think?" Sunny shrugged helplessly. "All I got." She got to making a new smoothie. "Now, I'm really sorry for that trick I pulled. Let me make it up!"

Remi rubbed her paws together. "Started with an O, that's a start. Know any ponies that fit that?"

Sunny and Izzy shared a negative shake of their head. Sunny soon had a new smoothie she thrust forward at Remi at the end of her hoof, reminding Remi that the ponies of that time and place were pretty good at sticking things at the end of them. "Here you go, no grass, promise!"

Remi took the cup gingerly in her hand. "I'll be the judge of that..." But no, bananas, and strawberries, mmm. "Not bad." She slurped softly from the drink, turning slowly. "That isn't a big hint... Anything else? No matter how tiny; how small; how eency weency."

Sunny scowled, face scrunched with heavy thought. "She said a barrier was gone. We thought you came in through it."

"I toldja!" Izzy looked quite pleased with the backup to her claim. "A creature from beyond the barrier. It all makes sense, right?"

Sunny nodded at that. "Exactly. A creature, or pony, from beyond the barrier is what I thought she must be talking about. But how can we know which of those?" She threw up a hoof. "She didn't give us many hints outside of that. You know as much as we do now."

Izzy jumped and came down facing the opposide ways, looking in the eyes of a nervously smiling Misty. "Where did you come from? Hi! C'mere." She grabbed Misty, pulling them forward. "We were just talking about spooky warnings from the past."

"O-oh..." Misty laughed with the same tension, looking between Remi and Sunny. "What kind of spooky warning?"

That was when Remi noticed something. From that angle, and looking at her, it was hard to miss, really. She felt quite silly for only noticing it just then. Misty's cutie mark was drawn on. It wasn't even drawn on very well. Like some little kid had grabbed a crayon and tried their best, which wasn't very good...

"One left by Twilight," started Remi. "A long time ago. She said somecreature, or pony, would show up to snatch pony magic away right when things were getting good." She dropped to a crouch, leaning forward. "Creepy, huh?" That Misty shrank back was a bit of a hint. "Their name starts with an O. You're Misty, right?"

"Oh!?" Misty flipped both her ears back. "O... Ha... I can't help, sorry." She twisted to flee, but Izzy was still holding her.

"Where ya goin'?!" Izzy pulled Misty right back. "Do you know any Os?"

"N-no..." Misty trembled with poorly hidden fear.

"You are right on top of it," warned the voice in her ear. "Can you see the problem?"

"I think I can." Remi casually grabbed the unicorn, hand wrapping around her skull much as she had done to Izzy. It was her official unicorn grab. "We need to talk."

Misty squealed with a primal horror, perhaps fitting as she was a pony in the clutches of a predator. Well, true, she was more of an omnivore, but those sharp teeth were not letting her mince the meaning between the two as she trembled and dangled in the air. "I'm sorry!"

Sunny clopped a hoof down firmly. "You're scaring her. And me, a little. Stop that and put her down."

Remi brought the dangling Misty closer. "After our little chat. You're not busy, are you?" Not that she was waiting for an answer, already walking off with her and all. "I think you know who 'O' is, and I'd love to compare some no--" The O in that word extended as she listed over forward. Her right foot was snagged in magic and she tripped forward, crashing her jaw into the sidewalk. "Ow..."

Misty sprang away from the prone fox. "Crazy fox, crazy fox!"

Izzy slipped between Misty and Remi in a defensive position. "I think that's normal for foxes, but we won't let you get foalnapped!"

Sunny joined a moment later, getting out of her stand to stand defiantly. "Calm down, Remi. You can't just take ponies off to who knows where like that!"

Remi sat up, tails lashing as she rubbed at her sore jaw. "I wasn't going to hurt her, but she knows things that I want to know that maybe could resolve everything."

Izzy turned to pat Misty gently. "You're safe now. Besides, if you did know a bunch of secret stuff, you'd tell us, right? That's what friends do, which we are, friends."

Misty forced her best false smile. "Right..." She crashed to her haunches. "Right..."

"It's getting louder," chirped the voice in Remi's ear.

Remi raised her paws. "Sorry for getting pushy. You have things on your mind, Misty. Want to talk about it? I'll keep my hands here." She folded her arms, hands in her lap. "No more grabbing."

"Good." Misty looked instead to her two pony friends. "I just came to give an in-invitation." She curled on herself, grabbing a letter free of her pocket and transferring it to a hoof to hold out towards Sunny. "For you, specifically."

"We have max level," sternly warned the voice. "I'm gonna guess that letter's it. Get it, burn it. Whatever!"

Options flashed in Remi's mind. Burning it was an option. A crude option that would close many doors for her in the future if she just did it and ran. She'd be the bad fox forever more. On the other hand... "You've been tricked!" All of them looked at her as she hopped upright. "Madame O gave you that." That Misty looked genuinely horrified was a mixed bag. Had Remi guessed correctly? "I'll free you." With a swishy-swish of her agitated tails, and a snatch of foxfire, she...

Her fire was caught in Izzy's magic, taking the shape of a growling firefox. "Phew, close! You can't go burning letters like that. That's against the law, and that'd make Hitch really mad!"

Hitch, the lawkeeping guy of the group. Remi had met him once or twice. "Normally, true, but that letter has a trap." She snapped her fingers, ending with a double pointing at the letter. "Nothing stopping Misty from saying what she wants to say, but the letter has to go, for her sake and the rest of you."

Sunny sat slowly. "You seem very serious about this... more than I've seen you be before... If it's that important..."

"It is." But Remi didn't try again, instead waiting on Izzy's go ahead. Her first fire was still, somehow, reduced to a little flaming fox. She didn't even know that was an option! "May I?"

Misty rubbed the back of her head. "The fox is right. I can just say the invitation." She dropped the letter to the ground. "So if you want to, go ahead... Um." She turned back to Sunny. "Thanks for standing up for me."

Remi didn't get a chance to set the letter on fire, or do much of anything else. She wasn't there. She wasn't then. Time and space became the same thing, which was nothing.

She appeared in the cramped workshop she knew well. "The hell?! I didn't get to destroy the letter."

"And it doesn't matter." The hippogriff man circled his chair towards her. "What I get for reaching so far... You did your best, but that timeline is going on its own strange path, and we won't be adjusting it, for the better or not."

Remi grumbled, trembling with fury. "You dragged me over there to do nothing?! What was all this for?"

"To see. To try." He clasped his taloned hands together. "Sometimes, that's all we can do. I'm sorry this doesn't come with a fancy little bow for you. On the bright side, you did help. She really did need her files back."

"Grand!" Remi stomped away several steps. "We could have ended it there. Whatever... Can I go back to Octi now?"

"If you wish." A false question, as if Remi wasn't eager to get back home. "But, before you do, a question. I've been monitoring that place and time. I may have need for you again, there. You know them now, and they know you, assuming it takes place after that, and I think it will. Are you--"

"No." Remi crossed her arms. "Not without my family, who you'll have to ask nicely. If they say yes, then whatever. Octavia would fit right in, one more pony in pony-town. Our kid looks like... our kid. I doubt we'll have that hard a time. So ask them, and if they say yes, only if, then maybe."

"You are a very particular assistant." He turned back towards his console, resuming his typing. "Not sure why I put up with you at all. You know the way out. Have fun back then and there."

Remi glared daggers at him, but, alas, to no physical harm. "Later." A curious statement for any timelord. She stomped for the front door and threw it open, hurling herself back into the time of the far future, of space and exploration.

"Thanks," he said, though she was long gone." He hit the enter key with finality, closing that report.