The Unicorn Caper

by My Little Scribbler

Chapter 3

Spike, Twilight, and Zecora struggled against the grip of Izanami’s tail, but it was like living chains, strong and unbreakable.
Izanami carried the three captives further north toward the edge of the Everfree Forest, eventually coming across something one would normally not find in a forest: a collection of at least 20 cages spread out in rows. One by one, she threw her prisoners into three separate cages.
As Twilight was thrown inside, she could not help but notice how cramped the cage was. She could still turn around to face Izanami, but she still rubbed against the bars as she rotated.
Izanami playfully twirled Twilight’s horn in her claws while spinning her chakram around with her tail, now back to its original length.
“Do you like my chakram?” she asked. “It’s magically designed to cut only unicorn horns so I can’t accidently injure myself.” Near the cages was a campsite complete with a tent and several burlap bags of supplies. She opened one of these bags, revealing several unicorn horns inside, and threw Twilight’s horn in with the others.
“Let us go!” shouted Spike.
“So you can tell everyone where I am,” chided Izanami. “Out of the question. Besides, if I keep Twilight as my prisoner, I can continuously harvest her horn before it fully grows back. With her horns in supply, I could make a fortune on the black market. Oh...and I forgot something else.”
Izanami’s fur darkened from a blue to a purple as she transformed. Once again, her paws became hooves as she assumed a new equine form. This time, she became the spiting image of Twilight.
“That disguise won’t fool any pony,” said Twilight, confidently.
Izanmi gave her a cocky grin. “They will if I tell them that the password is ‘sesame cake.’”
Twilight flinched in surprise as if someone kicked her in the face.
“How did you know that?” shouted Spike, angrily.
Izanami reverted back to her natural form. Her tail stretched out and reached into the tent to remove a small birdcage from within, and placed it in front of Twilight.
Twilight stared at the occupant inside, knowing who it was. “Owlowiscious? How did you get in there?”
Owlowiscious let out a sad hoot as if to apologize to Twilight.
“It’s easy to fool / Even the wisest pony / When she sees a friend. That’s why I’ve been disguising myself as your little owl friend. Ever since I saw you take my mask, I’ve been spying on you, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Because of that cage of yours and those antiburglary spells you put on yourself before you slept, I couldn’t steal my mask back. Further more, I knew my magic was no match against the pony who single handedly saved Ponyville from an Ursa Minor, so brute force was too risky. Instead, I chose to wait until an opportunity presented itself.”
Twilight was stunned. She never expected Izanami to infiltrate her home so quickly as well as fool her for three days. She wiped her hoof across her eyes, hoping to wipe away the tears that betrayed her anger and shame to her capturer.
“Now excuse me, I have important work to do.” Izanami packed her mask into a saddlebag and flung it onto her back. Her tail glowed a bright blue followed by a flash of light as she teleported away.
Izanami’s departure left a deafening silence as the three captives reflected on their predicament.
“What is she up to?” asked Spike, breaking the silence.
“With a spinning chakram and a mask of wood,” said Zecora, “whatever she’s planning, it cannot be good.”
Twilight scoffed irritability when her head hit the roof of her cage. “Why are these cages so small?” As she thought about it, she concluded that the cages were not intended for a full-grown pony, but for something smaller...or younger. “Oh no, I’m suppose to be taking the foals home from school right now.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure Rainbow Dash and Applejack can take care of it,” reassured Spike.
“No don’t you get it?” said Twilight, her voice rising in agitation. “These cages aren’t meant for us. She’s after the foals.”
“But why would Izanami want to kidnap foals?”
“She probably wants to lock up the unicorns so she can harvest their horns. We have to get out of here and save them.” Despite her cramped conditions, Twilight repeatedly kicked the cage with her hind legs. The metal clanged with each strike, almost drowning out her grunts of frustration and desperation.
“I know you want to flee your cage,” said Zecora, “but you won’t escape on pure rage.”
Twilight scoffed miserably. “You’re right.” She put a hoof to her forehead, tears welling up in anger. “If only I still had my horn.”
“Don’t say that,” said Spike. “You can do a lot of things without your magic. Remember what happened during Winter Wrap-Up?”
“But I can’t pick locks.”
Zecora put a hoof to her lip in thought. “There’s a saying from my youth...that what we see is not always the truth. Although vulnerable one may seem to be...removing all the apples won’t hurt the tree.”
Hearing Zecora’s metaphor reminded Twilight of Sweat Apple Acres. She let out a shaky breath as her mind drifted into the memories of the farm. She could remember the scent of the apple trees, wondering if she will ever smell them again.
Then it dawned on her...
“That’s it,” she shouted. “I bet I can apple buck my way out of here.”
“But how?” asked Spike.
“I need you to blow some flames onto the door lock. Hopefully that will weaken it enough for me to break it down.”
“Okay, if you say so.” Spike expelled green flames out of his mouth, slowly turning the lock from a dark black to a light orange as it heated.
As Twilight watched the lock heat up, Applejack’s advice rang in her head, “Apple bucking not only requires strength, but it requires some precision. When you hit the tree, you must keep your hooves close together, and the hit has to be dead on.”
“That’s enough, Spike,” said Twilight. She took careful aim, and kicked. The sounds of clanging metal echoed throughout the forest. Sweat dripped from Twilight’s forehead. With each kick, the lock slowly began to bend. Panting heavily, she let out one last kick and the door opened with a loud whine.
“You did it, Twilight,” cheered Spike.
Despite her exhaustion, Twilight ran toward the tent and found the keys to the cages. While holding the keys with her teeth, she freed Spike, Zecora, and Owlowiscious. Once they were out, the four of them gathered together in a circle.
“So what are we going to do now?” asked Spike.
“You should go to the police and tell them what’s going on,” said Twilight. “Owlowiscious and I will go find Izanami.”
“But why only you two?”
“I think I’ll be less likely to be noticed if it’s just me and Owlowiscious. Besides, there’s something I want Zecora to do to help me catch Izanami.” She turned to the zebra. “Can you help?”
“Helping you, I will certainly agree,” said Zecora with a wide grin, “especially if I get payback against Izanami.”

By early afternoon, Twilight galloped through the forest with Owlowiscious soaring overhead. Knowing school was almost over, Twilight dodged around trees and animals until she climbed to the top of a hill and saw the school in the distance. Even from far off, the foals were visible to her as they exited the building together. Her heart racing, she bolted toward the school.
She did not get far before a familiar face popped out from behind a tree.
“Applejack,” cried Twilight as she skidded to a halt.
“Twilight, what’re you doin’ out here,” asked Applejack, “and what happened to your horn?”
Twilight tried to speak in-between panting breaths. “Izanami is...going to...impersonate me...and kidnaped the foals. She’s planning on...locking them up...so she could harvest...their horns.”
“Landsakes, so that’s what this is all about. What happened to Spike and the others?”
“Well I told them to...” Twilight paused, staring into Applejack’s eyes, suspiciously. “How did you know Spike was with me?”
Applejack only stood there with a scornful look. She was not even trying to maintain the pretense.
“Y-You’re not Applejack.” Twilight scooted away nervously.
“I don’t know how you escaped your cage,” Applejack transformed into Izanami mid-sentence, “but this is as far as you’ll go.” Izanami’s whip-like tail stretched out and wrapped around Twilight.
Before the tail could tighten its grip, Owlowiscious plummeted from the sky and pounced on Izanami’s head, pecking at her.
Izanami swatted at him with her claws, hissing angrily.
With Izanami distracted, Twilight wiggled her way out of the tail’s grip. She sprinted away with Owlowiscious following close behind.
Izanami wanted to follow, but the ever-crafty feline giggled as she was struck with an idea. She changed into Twilight’s form and headed toward the school.

“All right, get into your groups. Don’t go wondering off, you hear?” Applejack carefully rounded up the anxious foals who were in a hurry to get home.
One little pegasus tried to fly off, but Rainbow caught her by her tail with her teeth and forced her down to the ground.
“What’s taking Twilight so long to get here?” she asked as she hovered over the crowd.
“It’s certainly odd for Twilight to be late,” said Applejack. “I hope nothin’ bad happened to her.” From the corner of her eye, she saw what she thought was Twilight running toward them. “Ah, there she is now.”
Rainbow and Applejack waved to Izanami as she approached them.
“Girls, we have a problem,” said Izanami, feigning panic.
“Hold on, tell us the password first,” insisted Applejack.
“Sesame cake.”
“Oh good, it’s you. So what’s the problem, Sugarcube?”
“Listen, I think Izanami is here disguised as me. I just saw her transform on my way over here.”
“Why that sneaky varmint. Don’t worry, we’ll find that imposter.”
“Yeah, there’ll be no mercy once we get our hooves on her,” said Rainbow, throwing punches in the air.
“She’ll be easy to spot because she forgot to include my horn in her disguise.”
“Don’t worry,” said Rainbow. “She can’t fool us.”
“I know she can’t,” said Izanami, grinning at the irony.

“How could I be so stupid to fall for such an obvious trap?” chided Twilight as she hid herself behind some bushes. She eyed Izanami and the foals as they cantered down the dirt roads toward town. She was dodging to one bush or tree after another, hoping to keep herself hidden from view.
“Who,” said Owlowiscious as he hovered overhead.
“If only I can get to Applejack and Rainbow Dash. I have to warn them.” She poked her head out from behind a bush to see Izanami taking the lead of the herd with Rainbow flying over them and Applejack taking the rear. Rainbow fidgeted in the air, spinning around more than usual as if she was more desperate than ever to find an attacker.
“Who, who.”
“It’s times like this where I really wish I understood you,” signed Twilight. “We need to get their attention somehow. Hmmm...perhaps you should fly over to Applejack and—“
Without warning, Rainbow pounced on top of Twilight from the sky. “I gotcha, Izanami.”
Applejack ran up to Twilight, pressing her hoof on top of Twilight’s head to hold her down. “You’re not gettin' away this time despite your phony disguises.”
“No wait, it’s me,” shouted Twilight, struggling to get her snout of the dirt. “I’m the real Twilight.”
“Nice try, but we’re not falling for that,” said Rainbow.
Owlowiscious abruptly bounced on top of Rainbow’s head.
“Get away from me.”
He hooted loudly, hovering off to the side while swaying back and forth.
“What are you trying to tell us?” asked Applejack. As she turned her head toward the road, she quickly realized something was amiss: the foals. “What the...they’re gone.” Applejack saw that the dirt road was latent with fresh hoof prints, but the prints were directed off the road and into the grassy field...toward the Everfree Forest.
“What did you do?” demanded Rainbow, applying a hoof to Twilight’s head.
“I told you, I’m the real Twilight. Izanami learned our password and tricked you so that she can kidnap the foals.”
Confused, Rainbow turned her attention toward Owlowiscious. “Is that true?”
He nodded vigorously.
She leaped off of Twilight’s back. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
Applejack averted her eyes out of shame and distraught. “I’m so sorry, too.”
“No time to apologize, we have to save those foals.” Twilight charged toward the trees, forcing the others to follow.
“But how do we find them?” asked Applejack, galloping beside Twilight.
“She probably has them under an invisibility spell. If we follow the foals’ tracks, we could—“
“I’m on it.” Rainbow rocketed ahead, leaving a rainbow trail behind.
“NO, STOP...”
Before Twilight could say another word, Rainbow dove toward the forest. From out of thin air, a long tail suddenly appeared, smacking Rainbow out of the sky as if swatting a fly.
The invisibility was lifted and the foals reappeared before Rainbow’s eyes. Each foal was staring mesmerized at Izanami, now in her true form and wearing the mask. Zombified, the foals followed Izanami as her tail stretched around them, twisting and whipping about to bat around all who came too close.
“You’re not getting away this time.” Rainbow dove for Izanami, but she took one look into those eyes, and halted to a still hover, transfixed like the foals.
Applejack stared at Rainbow’s behavior, perplexed. “What’s goin’ on? Why is Rainbow just standin’ there?”
“If you look into the eyes of Izanami’s mask, it hypnotizes you. We have to get it off her somehow.”
“How are we goin’ to get at her with that tail in the way?”
Once again, Twilight had to remind herself that she did not have her magic anymore. As her brain formulated a plan, she knew that if she was going to get to Izanami, she had to be crafting and forceful.
“You and Owlowiscious should try to approach Izanami from the front. I’ll attack her from behind.”
“Ain’t that dangerous?”
“It’s still three against one and she’s distracted. I think this is our best way of catching her.”
“All right, but be careful, Sugarcube.”
Twilight sprinted off to the side while Applejack and Owlowiscious darted toward Izamani.
Able to see them approaching through the eyes of the mask, Izanami used telekinesis to toss them aside. When the two continued their pursuit, she again used her power to push them away as if blessed with a large invisible hand. Although she was able to force Owlowiscious away, Applejack dug her hooves into the ground and was still crawling toward her, fighting her power.
“Don’t you ponies ever learn to quit?” shouted Izanami. She stretched out her tail and wrapped it around Applejack, holding her down. She was so focused on Applejack, she did not even notice Twilight as she pounced onto her back.
Izanami was far bigger than a typical cat, almost as tall as a full-grown pony, but that did not mean she was as strong as one. She hissed under the strain of Twilight’s weight, her knees buckling. Releasing Applejack, she swung her tail toward Twilight.
Before that wicked tail could get her, Twilight ripped the mask off and dropped it to the ground. As she leaped out of the grasp of Izanami’s tail, she came down upon the mask, smashing into pieces with a loud crack
“What the...” said Rainbow as she regained control of herself.
The foals were also freed, allowing them to scatter and retreat from shear confusion and panic, especially at the sight of Izanami.
“Applejack,” called out Twilight as she and Owlowiscious put herself between Izanami and foals. “Get these foals to safety. We’ll handle Izanami.”
Rainbow, even more fired up and angry, stood her ground, eager for some action.
“Hurry up, young ‘uns, ya’ll need to follow me to the school.” Applejack used her herding skills to gather the frightened and bewildered foals.
“It’s over, Izanami,” challenged Twilight. “You’re outnumbered and the police will be here any minute.”
Izanami did not retreat. “I refuse to leave a job empty handed. If I can’t have those foals, I’ll take you instead.”
Twilight felt her heart pump with pure adrenaline, a sensation she had not felt since the day she ran from a hydra. As her mind raced for a plan, something black and white caught her eye. She glanced behind Izanami and saw a large boulder stuck in the ground. From behind the boulder, she saw Zecora sticking her head out from behind the rock and waving her hoof to beckon Twilight forward.
“Well, if you want me,” said Twilight in an uncharacteristically cocky manor, “you’re going to have to catch me.”
Twilight bolted passed Izanami, running full speed toward the boulder, but Izanami did not pursuit right away.
With a wave of Izanami’s tail, she conjured a strong wind.
Owlowiscious and Rainbow, caught off guard, were lifted off the ground. They fought to regain control, but wound up slamming into a nearby tree, knocking leaves and pinecones everywhere. The two wound up lying on the ground, staring off in a daze with stars flying around their heads.
Izanami transformed into a cheetah and chased after Twilight who had already disappeared from behind the boulder. Like a missile, she followed her into her hiding place, but halted in surprise after finding something large hidden behind the boulder. Set up before her was the cage from Twilight’s home, but with a rope tied to it as if a certain zebra had pulled it there.
“What’s this doing here?”
Zecora and Twilight crept out behind her, taking precise aim with their hind legs. The two bucked Izanami into the cage, and Twilight slammed the door shut with one hoof.
Angered, Izanami transformed into a fly and tried to squeeze through the bars, but the cage’s magic repelled her with a flash of red light.
“Let me out of here,” she ordered once she reverted back to her true form.
“Gee, I would love to,” said Twilight in mock sympathy, “but only my horn can open this cage, and it got left at your camp.”
Izanami hissed and clawed at the bars of her cage, rocking back and forth. Flashing lights and coursing energy fizzled away as she attempted every spell she had to break free. She attempted teleportation, but even that was negated by the nulling magic of the cage. Quickly realizing the futility of her attempt, she sulked in defeat.
“The tables have turned / Hunter changes to hunted / My luck has run out.”

Later that night at the library, Spike was searching for Twilight while carrying a white sheet under his arm. He found her at her writing desk with a pencil in her mouth and groaning with irritation as she tried to write on a piece of paper.
“What are you doing?” asked Spike.
Twilight spat out the pencil. “I’m trying to write a letter to the Princess without magic.” Twilight laughed awkwardly at her poor penmanship. “I guess I’m out of practice.”
“Here, let me help.”
“Thanks.”
Spike grabbed a quill off of Twilight’s desk.
“Dear Princess Celestia. I’m happy to report that with Izanami behind bars, she won’t be bothering Ponyville for a while. Helping to capture her was an educational experience for me because when I lost my horn, I thought I was useless without my magic. That was until I remembered Applejack’s apple bucking lessons. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have figured out how to escape the cage. I’ve learned that when you’re in trouble, drawing wisdom and knowledge from your friends can help you out when your own knowledge is insufficient, even when they’re not there. Signed, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”
As Spike sent the letter to Princess Celestia, Twilight noticed the sheet he had tucked under his arm. “What’s the sheet for?”
“I was thinking how cool it was that Izanami could change shape like that. Being able to disguise herself into anyone just opens up so many possibilities, so I thought I’d try it out myself.”
“And what are you going to change yourself into?”
Spike crouched down into a sitting position and threw the sheet over his head. As the sheet came down upon him, he held out his arms, holding the position so that he resembled a chair with armrests.
“There, now you won’t know I’m here.”
“Spike, that disguise won’t fool anyone.”
Just then, Owlowiscious flew in through the open window and perched himself onto the desk.
“Owlowiscious, could you help me find Spike,” said Twilight in a sarcastic tone of voice. “He seems to have disappeared.”
Without needing more than a second to think about it, Owlowiscious grabbed the sheet with his talons, and pulled it off Spike’s head, causing Twilight to giggle.
“You two are no fun,” whined Spike.