Chapter 4: Finding the Root of the Problem
The next couple of days passed uneventfully in terms of super-villainous activity, with no major actions from the Miniac nor any reported sightings of her. Which, the team agreed, almost certainly meant that she hadn't done anything – as Spike had said, the demented filly was many things, but subtle was not one of them.
Of course, neither was she stupid. It seemed likely that she was lying low for a couple of days, now that she knew that somepony was onto her. Admittedly, Iota Force would freely admit that they were no Power Ponies - though whether that meant better or worse varied depending on who you asked - but the Miniac didn't know that. And even if she did, being reduced to a filly, however that worked, probably made her a bit wary of attracting their attention.
Fortunately, their enemy not knowing their capabilities meant they could use them to their advantage. In particular, after informing the rest of the group that this was probably the real Mane-iac rather than a copycat (though Archer still seemed unsure), they realized that whatever magic created her would probably be fairly distinctive. Thus, it was possible that they could use the Aetheroscope to track her down.
As such, they made sure at least two ponies were always at Pip's house (outside of School hours, of course), keeping an eye on the scope as it passively scanned Ponyville. Tuesday evening, it finally found something anomalous.
Unfortunately...
“Whaddaya mean it vanished?” Scootaloo's voice came over the badge.
Icy paused – since she didn't have a costume yet beyond her badge, she was ready to go the moment the call came that they'd found something. After finishing the page she was on and bookmarking it, of course.
Unfortunately, in that brief time, a second call came over cancelling the alert. She'd paused, body still tensed to glide out of the window, her badge still held over her chest as Pip's voice now came over hesitantly.
“Er... I mean, well... I mean it vanished. It was there one moment and gone the next. Vanished.”
“Yeah, thanks, Mr Dictionary, I know what “vanish” means!” Scootaloo replied testily. “But how?”
“I don't know!” Pipsqueak yelled back, exasperated, his volume causing his voice to crackle. “It just popped up for a few minutes and then went away again.
“You sure it was the pony we're looking for?” Archer's voice came over, as unbothered as ever. Icy relaxed and climbed back onto her bed, placing the badge in front of her.
“Well, it wasn't a kind of magic the scope had seen before,” Pip replied, “so I don't know what else it could have been. Hold on a mo'” There was a pause before Pip continued. “Lance says that maybe she's got some way to hide herself most of the time.” Another pause. “She might only show up when she's...” there was another pause and, weirdly enough, Icy could almost hear Lance shrug, “doing something maybe, I dunno, but once she stopped doing it, she went dark. I know it's not much help, but...”
“Not none, though.” Alula interjected. “That might indicate that, whatever she was doing, it was quick and contained in a small area.”
There was a pause before Archer piped up again. “Lotta mights and maybes in all that.”
“Where did you pick up the magic?” Truffle said.
“Somewhere around Sweet Apple Acres, looked like.”
Truffle hummed worriedly. Which, considering that he would have had to press the comms button on the badge for them to hear him, meant he really wanted them to know he was worried. “Couldn't narrow it down any more?”
“Hey, you know it's not an exact science.” Pip answered in a slightly martyred tone. “It didn't come up long enough to get anything more.”
There was a pause before Dinky, who'd been quiet up until then, spoke up. “So, what do we do?”
“Don't see as there's much we can do for the moment.” Truffle said. “We'll just have to wait and see if she shows up again.”
Icy frowned. She'd been hesitant to speak up as well, knowing that she was the least experienced among them, but she had to ask. “Really? Couldn't we rush there and try to intercept her?” She assumed there was some reason why they couldn't that she didn't know, hence why she hadn't gotten up yet.
Sure enough, Alula replied. “It doesn't work like that. The scope has a small delay in it – it takes about ten seconds to sort through all the things it sees and even then it’s only a vague area. Can’t narrow it down without more time to filter through things.”
Icy tilted her head at the badge in front of her. “Well, we could at least look around the area, couldn't we? See if we find anything useful?”
There was another pause before Dinky spoke again. “Er, Icy, he said it was somewhere in Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Not necessarily in, either.” Alula followed up. “Around there.”
Icy thought for a moment before answering. “Is that big?”
“Icy,” Alula replied evenly, “what's the third word in its name.”
Icy hovered her hoof over the badge as she counted. “Sweet apple...” She stopped and pushed the button to talk. “Oh. Sorry.”
“Don't worry,” Dinky said quickly, her tone cheerful and encouraging, “you haven't been in Ponyville long, it's okay that you didn't know.”
“Nor about the Scope's delay – I'd have said the same.” Truffle added.
Icy smiled, though she was glad the others couldn't see it, as it didn't quite reach her eyes. “Thanks.” The others then started talking, arranging things about who was going to have monitor duty next and why Truffle wanted be elsewhere much of the time, but Icy didn't listen. It had already been decided that she wouldn't be asked until she was a bit more familiar with how the scope worked. Which hurt a bit, if she was honest with herself, but she couldn't exactly argue with their logic. Plus, spending ages staring at a screen couldn't be that fun.
She placed her badge back on her bedside table and returned to her comic, still feeling very silly about her suggestion.
Fortunately, if there's one thing comic books are good for, it's putting “being silly” into perspective. In this case, the hero had just used his spider-tracers to locate the Silver Cyclone's hideout and, of course, it was under a ferris wheel in a New Pork City fairground. Icy wasn't sure how the tracers interacted with his Spider Sense or how a schoolpig had invented such technology, of course. Still, at least he can track his enemies down right. She sighed. But it's not like there are any abandoned shampoo factories or complexes under barbers' shops our enemy can use for a hideout. She blinked a couple of times. Hideout... She thought for a while, letting the comic fall closed.
It was Thursday afternoon when they caught a trace of her again. This time, it was sticking around and moving fast.
“Somewhere to the east of Ponyville.” Truffle's voice came over the speakers.
“Okay, I'm going that way now.” Dinky's voice came over. There was a moment's silence. “Um... which way is east again?”
“Other side from school.” Pip replied.
Icy pressed her hoof to the badge. “Do you want me there as well?”
“Don't worry,” Scootaloo said, “I'm passing by your place anyway, I'll pick you up.”
“Okay,” Icy replied, “when are you going to get here?”
“Round about now.”
Icy heard the sound of a braking scooter outside her window.
“Okay.” She said to herself before going to the window. She paused, realizing she'd done so without thinking before turning around and going out through the door. “Mom,” she called as she went, “can I head out for a while?”
“Sure, Sweetie, see you later!” Sunny called back.
Icy reached the front door, having not even paused while asking. She opened it to see Scootaloo, tapping her hind hoof against her scooter and looking up at Icy's window. In the trailer sat Archer, who caught sight of her and beckoned her over with her head.
Giggling silently to herself, Icy trotted over, making sure to keep out of Scootaloo's line of sight. She clambered quietly onto the trailer before speaking up. “What are you looking for, Scoot?”
To her credit, Scootaloo mostly managed to stop herself from jumping, but as she whipped her head round, it was obvious she was startled. “N... Nothing, let's go, no time to lose!” She said quickly, revving her wings and speeding off before Icy could say anything else. Though not fast enough to escape her and Archer's laughter.
Though she was a bit more used to transportation by pre-pubescent speed demon now, Icy was still caught somewhat off-guard by the sudden acceleration. Fortunately, Archer was a bit more prepared, activating her badge. “Got a better trace yet, guys?”
“Kinda-sorta-not-really.” Pip replied. “It's moving, and at a fair old clip, too. Looks like it was on the Roaman High Road, but it's going north, now.”
Taking a deep breath, Icy pressed her own badge, fully prepared to say something silly again. “Is that... is she going to Sweet Apple Acres again?”
There was no answer for a moment, but Icy had barely started her self-reproach before Truffle answered.
“She's certainly moving in that direction. And I don't think there's much else she could want... do you think...”
“She could have a hideout there. Maybe.” Icy said, starting to smile.
“Possible. Large enough area, could go to and from there without being spotted, could find somewhere to store stolen things... definitely possible.” She heard Alula say, her speech far faster than normal.
“Okay,” Scootaloo yelled over her shoulder, “I'm going to try to head 'er off, tell Pip and Truff to tell me where to go!” Icy was about to ask why she couldn't do so herself before she looked over and saw both of Scootaloo's hooves on her handlebars. Probably best not to take them off to activate her own comms.
As Archer did as she was asked, Scootaloo added: “Good thinking, there, Icy!”
Icy blushed a little, but smiled nevertheless.
“You sure this is the place?” Scootaloo asked, looking around. The place Truffle and Pip had guided them to seemed to be nothing more than a standard area of the orchard, trees stretching out into the distance in every direction. Of course, there might have been other things in the vicinity, but the amount of trees meant that visibility along the ground was fairly short and upward visibility was almost zero.
“Sure as I can be.” Pip replied over the badges. “She got to that area a couple of minutes ago, then disappeared again.”
“You mean she beat me here?” Scootaloo asked, frowning at the possibility.
“Well,” Truffle said quickly, “She did have quite a head start and took a more direct route. Relax – she was going fast, but not as fast as you.”
As transparent an attempt as it was to placate her, the answer did seem to calm Scootaloo down. Or at least bring her irritation to a mild simmer from a rolling boil that threatened to blow the lid off.
“Anyway,” Pip said after a brief pause, “is there anything around you can see that she might have been using as a hideout?”
“Not from the ground. Hang on, I'll take a higher look.” Archer said before casually hopping up and grabbing the nearest branch that could support her. She quickly pulled herself onto the branch and hopped up out of sight.
This meant that she didn't notice the faces of her friends – the two pegasi she hadn't even considered asking to fly up and take a look. Not that either of them could have obliged such a request, they knew that, but it still hurt.
“Nearest thing's a barn about a hundred yards that wa... hold on,” Archer leapt down to the ground, seemingly unbothered by the distance. She pointed a hoof to the left of the way they came. “Think we should take a look?”
“Sure.” Scootaloo replied as she sped off in the direction Archer had pointed. Icy was sure she'd just forgotten to give Archer a chance to get back on the trailer.
They slowed down as they approached a clearing. Coming to a stop at the edge of it, they could see a barn. Though far from run-down, it didn't look like it saw much use – much of the paint had faded, the hinges to the doors were a little rusted and the doors themselves were shut tight. All in all, it didn't look abandoned or dilapidated, just rarely used.
Before they could think on it much further, their badges crackled into life.
“Okay, so we found her target,” Dinky's voice came over, “she attacked a freight cart coming into Ponyville. The drivers are okay, just a bit shaken.”
“Freight...” Truffle responded, “what was it carrying?”
“Grain, they said.”
“Grain?” Pip asked.
“Oats, rice, wheat, that kinda thing.” Dinky clarified.
“Oh, okay.” Pip said. “So why would she try to take grain from a shipping cart?”
“She didn't.” Alula piped up. “According to the drivers, she just popped out of nowhere, pulled them out, threw them onto the side of the road, then picked up the whole cart and went off with it.”
“What, just like that?” Pip said, sounding surprised but believing.
“They said she struggled a bit at first, but yeah, looks like it.”
“Well, that's... concerning.” Truffle said. “Archer, Icy, Scootaloo, have you gotten a look at that barn yet.”
“Yep.” Archer said both from their badges and from behind them, trotting up casually behind them. If she'd been offended by Scootaloo's snub, she didn't show it. Nor even if she'd noticed. “Looks like just a barn. Bit old and worn out, but can't see anything else. You want us to take a look inside?”
“Negative.” Alula's voice responded instantly.
“What?” Scootaloo asked, having already started buzzing her wings. “Why not?”
“Because even if she's not there now, she'd probably have set traps in case someone stumbled across it.”
“Ah, traps, Schmaps, we can take whatever she comes up with.” Scootaloo said, her slowing wings somewhat taking away from her bravado.
“Maybe, but it would be easier to “take them” if the whole team was there.”
“I dunno...” Scootaloo said slowly.
The badges activated just long enough for them to catch the tail end of a sigh before Alula continued. “Very well, once you've gotten all the information you can from outside, go up, listen at the door and, if you can't hear any activity, take a look – and I mean just a quick look – inside.”
“Fiiiiiiiine.” Scootaloo moaned.
Once the badges had fallen silent, Archer looked over at the barn. “Dunno about you guys, but it looks like just a barn to me.”
Icy thought for a moment. “Well, I mean, it's on this farm. That means whoever owns the farm owns the barn, right?” She paused for a moment, smiling at the accidental almost-rhyme, before continuing. “Couldn't we just ask them?”
“Not a bad idea.” Archer said, nodding.
“Okay!” Icy said, turning around. Then continuing to turn around, going through two full rotations and looking around at the endless orchard around them. “Um... where would we find them? Is there a farm house nearby or...”
“Ah, don't worry about that.” Scootaloo said, holding out a hoof to her side. “Archer, couldja get an apple down?”
“Sure thing.” Archer replied, hopping up onto the back hooves and getting her bow off her back. In less than a second, she pulled an arrow out of her quiver, nocked it and fired it before falling back to four hooves. The arrow streaked straight through the stem of an apple, causing it to fall into Scootaloo's hoof.
Holding the apple in front of her, Scootaloo cleared her throat before saying, in as loud and as hammy a way as she could: “Boy, I sure am hungry after that long walk! It's a good thing I'm in an orchard – there's plenty of food around and it's not like anyone would miss one apple.” She opened her mouth, put the apple just inside it, not touching her teeth, and waited a couple of seconds.
Icy was about to ask what she was doing when she suddenly heard heavy hoofsteps rapidly approaching.
“PUT THAT DOWN, YA THIEVIN' VARMINT! THAT'S MY LIVELIHOOD YER MUNCHIN' ON! YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST... Oh, howdy there, Scootaloo!”
Icy turned to see a rather pretty orange mare in a hat trotting up to them slowly. Although, judging from the cloud of dust behind her, that slowness was an extremely recent development. She leaned against a tree and smiled at them, though there was a certain hardness in her eyes as she looked at the apple in Scootaloo's hoof. “Hope yer plannin' on payin' for that, Scoots. Though I don't see a bit pouch on ya.”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes before tossing the apple to the mare, who deftly caught it. She rubbed the apple on her chest, checked it over with the care normally reserved for a jeweller looking over a diamond and then, with a smile, took a large bite out of it.
Icy tilted her head. “So, you were just going to eat it yourself?”
The mare looked at Icy and swallowed. “Yep.” She shrugged “'smy apple. 'Sides, I was gettin' a mite peckish.” She blinked, her face lighting up with recognition. “Say, yer that new filly in town, ain'tcha? Saw you at Pinkie's Party last Saturday.”
Icy beamed. “Yep. My name's Icy Flight!” She fluttered her wings, happy at being recognized.
The mare chuckled. “Well, I know 'sa little late, but welcome to Ponyville, Icy.” She lifted her hat for a moment before continuing. “Name's Applejack. Owner and proprietor of this little slice o' heaven, Sweet Apple Acres!” She looked around with a contented sigh before continuing. “But I'm sure ya didn't come here just to say hello to li'l ol' me, what can I do ya for?”
Icy paused, caught off-guard a touch by the big, well-muscled, fully grown mare referring to herself as “li'l” in front of three fillies, before answering. “Well, Miss Applejack...”
“Hey, no need for the formality,” Applejack interrupted before she could start, “Just call me Applejack.”
“Okay, Miss Applejack,” Icy replied a little absently, “we were just wondering what you used that barn for.”
Applejack looked over at the barn in question. “Ah, well, not much right now, to be honest with ya. I'm guessin' you noticed it ain't lookin' as great at the others.” She said, not looking to see if she'd guessed right. “That there's our winter storage barn – just before the pegasi bring the snow in, we store anythin' we don't use in those months – and that's most of our stuff – there till Wrap-Up. Used to use it to store any surplus apples we couldn't fit anywhere else durin' applebuck season, but since we got that new barn in the south field last year, didn't really need it this year.”
She frowned slightly. “Keep meanin' to give a touch-up. I mean, we may not use it most of the year but it's still important and there ain't no reason to let it rot. But there's always somethin' comes up and it plum slips my mind. Might get Mac to take a look tomorrow, see what he thinks needs doin' 'tween now and when we use it.”
She paused for a moment, seeming to commit it to memory, before her eyes flicked back to the fillies and she blushed. “Sorry 'bout that – didn't mean to ramble so much.”
“That's okay.” Icy replied. She'd be lying if she'd said it was that interesting, but she did like seeing the farmer talk about something she obviously cared about.
“So, you're not going to use it for a while, right?” Archer said, looking over the barn.
“Not for a coupla weeks, I'd say. Why? You thinkin' of usin' it for one of your crusades, Scoots?” She said, giving a wry smile. Although, while Icy could have just been imagining it, she could swear she saw a hint of worry in her eyes. She'd heard a few stories about these “crusades” and was... a little wary of them herself.
“Nah, don't worry, we were just wondering is all.” Scootaloo answered, waving a hoof.
“Oh. Okay, then.” Applejack said slowly, turning to walk away.
“Wait, Miss Applejack?” Icy said, suddenly remembering something.
Applejack stopped and turned back. “Somethin' else, Sugarcube?”
Icy blinked in confusion about why she'd been called that before shaking her head and continuing. “This may seem like a weird question, but has anything been stolen from the farm recently?”
“Stolen?” Applejack replied, puzzled.
“Stolen, gone missing, that kinda thing?”
“Nothin' I can think of. I mean, we don't exactly check things every night.” She thought for a moment before speaking up again. “Though Apple Bloom did say a coupla milk churns were missin' yesterday. But that don't mean nothin' – that filly could lose an apple in an orange grove.”
“Milk churns?” Asked Icy, not exactly up on the varieties of farm implements.
“Yeah, big metal can types of things, keep milk in 'em after it comes outta the cow. I mean, they coulda been stolen, but I don't see why anyone'd go to that kinda effort for a coupla gallons of milk.”
Big metal cans... Housing, maybe? And now a cart to transport it.
“And you haven't seen anyone suspicious going around.”
Applejack shrugged. “Can't say as I have, but again, that don't mean much – this place is so big and 'sgot so many trees, anyone coulda passed through and we wouldn'ta seen or heard 'em. 'nless of course they were scrumpin'.” Applejack finished, shooting a smirk at Scootaloo.
She looked down at her scooter, only now seeming to notice the symbol on it and their costumes. Nodding, she turned around. “Well, nice chattin' to y'all, but I gotta get back to work.” She picked up her front hoof to walk away before pausing. “Oh, almost forgot.” She gave the tree next to her a light kick, causing three apples to fall in front of the fillies. “On the house.” She said, smiling at them over her shoulder. “Just try not to destroy the farm when ya bring down the bad guy.”
And with that, she trotted off, leaving two fillies to pick up the apples and one a bit too confused to do so.
“What a nice pony.” Icy said to herself. “Weird, but nice.” Then the last thing Applejack said registered with her. “So, is there anyone in this town that doesn't know about us?”
“Oh, plenty.” Archer said, putting the apples into the scooter's trailer for later. “But there's plenty who do, too. It's kind of an open secret.” She explained as she trotted over to the doors of the barn, dropping to a whisper as she approached. “They might hear about it once in a while, but they don't really talk about it much.”
“Oh, Oka...” Icy started as she followed, before wincing at her own volume. She continued quietly. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. Well, it doesn't but I don't mind. How are we doing this?”
“Like Princess said, we listen in.” Archer said, pressing an ear to the door. Nodding, she continued. “And when we don't hear anything we open the door a crack,” she did just that, slowly so as not to make too much noise, “and we see if... yep!”
Scampering around, Icy looked through the ajar door. It took her a moment to find it, but she did indeed see a large cart with a pile of closed sacks on top of it. By the cart's wheel, she could see several more sacks and a large glass bowl, with a bulb in its lid and a wire running off it.
Weird, Icy thought, I'd have thought she'd have taken it apart and started building the laser by now.
“Okay,” Archer said, still whispering, even though there seemed to be no one else there, “let's meet up with the others and come back here.”
“You sure? We could just...” Scootaloo trailed off, remembering what Alula had said. “Alright, alright, let's go.” She finished in a slight huff.
“Hey, I know, Scoot, I know.” Archer said as they trotted back to the scooter. “For the record, I'm pretty sure we could deal with whatever's here alone, but you know how Lance and Princess can get. Wouldn't want them to miss out, would we? And not just because of the lecture they'd give either. Besides,” she hopped into the trailer and put her back hooves on the rim, “we don't want the Miniac to know we're onto her hideout til we're good and ready.”
What none of them had seen, however, not even Archer with her sharp senses, was the single strand of hair that had been stretched across the inside of the barn door. The strand that had been broken when the door had been opened, however slightly.
And the box it was attached to, on which a little light was now flashing red.
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Great work as always with this chapter. I loved the bit with Applejack's involvement here, that was good. XD
Who better than the comic book geek to infer the methods of a comic book villain? In any case, good use of Applejack and excellently foreboding close to the chapter. Definitely looking forward to the showdown.
She's baking a cake isn't she?