Iota Force Issue #2: A Hair Out of Place

by The Iguana Man

Chapter 5: Bad Ideas

That evening, the seven ponies of Iota force were gathered near the barn, though a fair way into the trees in case someone was looking out.

“Okay, so, what's the plan?” Scootaloo asked, her hooves twitching a little in impatience.

Alula let out a hum before answering. “Well, I would suggest you, Truffle, Lance and Archer go in. Carefully.” She fixed Scootaloo with a brief glare before continuing. “You go in, check for traps or dangers. After that, the rest of us join you, helping you with any traps if we need to. Once that's done, we'll see what we need to do from there.”

“You're sending them into danger first?” Icy asked, suddenly uncomfortable. She knew Alula was an intelligent and logical filly – to a sometimes disturbing degree – but that seemed a bit heartless. Of course, she wouldn't say that out loud.

“Course she is,” Archer replied, shrugging, “we're expendable.”

Behind her, despite his face being covered by a wire mask, Icy could just about see Lance raise an eyebrow.

“No, no that's not what I meant!” Alula replied, a hint of panic showing in her voice. “I'm sorry if I... That's not it.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “It's simply that you four are better at avoiding and surviving traps, while Dinky, Icy and I are better at helping others out of them.

“Yeah, guess that makes sense too.” Archer said, turning towards the barn. “You ready, guys?”

Lance nodded, Scootaloo buzzed her wings and Truffle let out a deep chuckle, all in affirmation.

Without saying another word, they sprung into action. Scootaloo went first, her wings going slower than normal, presumably to reduce the noise they made, but still propelling her forward at quite a speed. Then Archer and Lance went, looking to the sides, ready to intercept anything that tried to flank them. Finally, Truffle jogged after them, a little slower due to his bulk but showing no signs of struggling.

Alula held up a hoof to Dinky and Icy, signalling them to wait. After five seconds, she waved it forward and cantered after them, Dinky following.

Icy, meanwhile, had been a little blindsided by this sudden professionalism, so took a moment to realize she was supposed to follow as well.

Once they reached the edge of the clearing, Alula held her hoof up again. Fortunately, Icy noticed this, realized she was supposed to stop and did so before she ended up walking into Alula's rump. Just.

Over at the barn, she saw the others preparing to go in. Scootaloo and Truffle were a couple of meters away from the doors, both in ready stances. Archer and Lance were up against the doors, weapons out, Archer's ear against the door, as it had been earlier.

After a few seconds, she nodded to the others. She and Lance placed a hoof against each door and pushed, ever so gently and carefully.

Unfortunately, the thing they had forgotten about barn doors is that they tend to be rather big and somewhat heavy. As a result, the doors opened about an inch and gave off a very loud creak at they did so.

Stopping the instant they heard the noise, Archer and Lance backed off a couple of steps from the door, weapons up, ready to take on anything that came out.

After about fifteen seconds, it became clear nothing was going to. Relaxing a bit, though still not lowering their weapons, they turned to look at Truffle.

Though his back was to her, Icy could tell the overweight colt was smiling.

He took two step backwards, lined himself up, then ran at a full gallop at the doors, body checking them right in the centre and swinging them wide open.

At the instant he did so, Lance and Archer followed, sweeping through the doorway and pointing their weapons on either side.

An empty barn greeted them.

As the four entered the barn, Icy, Dinky and Alula followed slowly, stopping by the edges of the doors and peering in cautiously. The four inside were still searching, looking and checking in every corner, turning around quickly every so often so nothing could sneak up on them and, ever so slowly, moving forward towards the cart and assorted loot. But nothing happened – no hair-rope snares, no hair tripwires, no shampoo-slicks. Nothing.

Out of the corner of her eye, Icy could see Alula's face grow more and more worried.

Once the team's vanguard had reached the cart, they checked it all over. Again, no trap was sprung.

“Can't find anything.” Archer whispered from their badges.

Alula frowned. “There has to be something, there's no way she just left all this stuff to be found.”

“Maybe she just didn't think anyone would look here?” Dinky suggested. “It is pretty out of the way.”

Alula gave her a flat look. “Dinky, she picked up a cart and carried it here. I doubt she was relying on stealth to defend her lair.”

“Oh, right,” Dinky said, pouting a little, “sorry, that was silly of me.”

Alula smiled and put a hoof on her shoulder. “No, it wasn't, I'm sorry, I should have...” She stopped mid-sentence before shaking her head and refocusing. “Anyway, I suggest we make our way in. Slowly.”

Not waiting for an answer, Alula crept in through the door, Icy and Dinky following a moment later.

That was when things kicked off.

Something impacted on Icy's head. She only had a millisecond to register it as some kind of liquid-filled sack before it exploded with a splat, covering her in goop. At the exact same moment, she heard two other splats next to her and a number of others from the other side of the barn.

Lifting a hoof, Icy got a look at the liquid covering her. It was a white with a slight yellow tint, very thick and full of little lumps. She didn't have time to consider it much further as an insane cackle came down from above them.

“A very noble effort, my dear, lovable ignorami. Unfortunately, you failed to think about the one kind of trap that could thwart any precaution.” Looking up, Icy saw the Miniac, her hair grasping the barn's rafters and lowering her down slowly from an upper loft of the barn. “The living kind!”

Instantly, weapons were trained on her, stances taken and energy gathered in horn- or wingtip.

The Miniac smiled, pretending to check the underside of her hoof. “Oh, I really wouldn't bother with any of that. I mean, you can, but it will do you very little good. You can prepare to cut me down in any way you like. However, in but a moment,” she looked up, her smile growing, “You won't want to.”

“What do you mean?” Icy asked, not liking her expression one bit. She stepped to the side, starting to walk around the Miniac to join the larger group and leaving a trail of the unknown goop behind her. She could hear Dinky and Alula following, but didn't take her eyes off her opponent. “What is this stuff?”

“Oh, nothing much,” The Miniac looked up and tapped her hoof on her chin in faux-thought, “A little formula to make you... a little more compliant. Unbelievable, don’t you think, how an ordinary chemical or two can combine into something incredible? I have to admit, I did worry when I heard my hideout had been found – I'd hoped a lair out on the fringe would mean I’d have more time to make more of the formula. But I had to trim my plan and make only enough for all of you. But now that you've been... enriched by it, I think I'll have all the time in the world. And you are going to help me make and deliver it to everyone in your whole pathetic town.” She let out an insane giggle.

Icy, Dinky and Alula reached the others. “Enough games! What. Is. This. Stuff?” Archer growled, sounding concerned for perhaps the first time since Icy had known her.

“Hmmmm,” The Miniac drew out the hum, revelling in the tension, “I believe the appropriate term would be a... love venom.”

“Love Poison?!” Scootaloo yelped, sounding even more panicked than Icy was.

“Indeed. Can you feel it working yet?”

As Icy's mouth hung open in shock, a drop of the liquid fell into it and onto her tongue.

“Maybe you're beginning to look at me in a new light? Becoming aware of how wonderful I am, of how terribly you want to make me happy, to do anything for me?”

Icy smacked her lips quietly.

“How you'll do everything I tell you to do? How you'd happily die for me, if I were to command it? I'd let it happen, if I were you. You may try to fight it, but you will inevitably fail. Nopony can overcome my...”

“Rice Pudding!”

All the tension and fear the Miniac had evoked instantly vanished as the words left Icy's mouth. All eyes turned to her.

The Miniac stared at her. “What.”

Icy licked a little of the liquid off her leg. “It's rice pudding.” She swished it around her mouth a little before swallowing. “Very nice, actually.”

Around her, the others all tried a little, a chorus of appreciative murmuring coming afterwards.

“Mm, it is pretty yummy!”

“Yeah, I'm not normally into rice pudding, but this ain't too bad.”

“Could use a little cinnamon, but yeah...”

“NO! IT CANNOT BE!” The Miniac screamed, a tendril of hair pulling out a crumpled piece of paper covered in messy handwriting. “The formula... It th- it definitely... GAAAAH” Her hair scrunched the paper up into a ball and threw it at Icy petulantly.

Before it reached her, Alula grabbed it in her telekinesis, uncrumpled it and held out in front of them. On it, in what looked like a colt's or filly's hoofwriting, was a recipe, needing sugar, milk, rice, a couple of spices and an oven. And next to it, in large letters, was a note that said how “everyone will fall in love with it”.

Alula looked up at the Miniac, her stoicism fighting a losing battle against her amusement. “You didn't really think this was some kind of super-scientific mind control formula, did you?”

The Miniac just glared in response.

“Oh, of course, I forgot – comic book character!” Alula rolled her eyes. “Where did you even get this.”

“As it happened, I found it right in front of me when I grew out into this world.” A small smile broke through her foalish pout. “Evidently, the filly who freed me had an identical goal to me before I... hitched a ride.”

Alula opened her mouth to say something before Scootaloo got ahead of her, her laughter barely contained. “Looks like she just wanted to make dessert.” She snorted, then, after a moment, burst out laughing. That broke the dam, and all of Iota Force was soon guffawing at the situation. “I mean, wow,” Scootaloo continued between laughs, “can you believe I was actually buying into that horseapples you were coming up with?”

“Yeah,” Icy said, still laughing, “here I was worried you were building a laser with the stuff you'd stolen, but no,” another wave of laughter hit her before she continued, “turns out you were making the dreaded rice pudding!”

“Well, I... wait, what?” The Miniac's expression, which had lost its smile and was rapidly shifting through annoyed and angry into a full-on conniption, suddenly turned to confusion. “How would I make a...”

“You know,” Icy continued as the laughter began to subside, “focus the light and heat from the oven through the lenses?” The laughter trickled to a stop as Icy thought about something. “Actually, hang on, why did you steal all those lenses, anyway?”

“The light from the halogen bulb...” The Miniac muttered, ignoring Icy's question. “That would... But that would take a huge amount of energy!”

Had Icy not been recovering from a massive bout of laughter, she would have instantly noticed the Miniac's sudden inquisitveness and stopped talking. As it was, however, she continued without thinking. “Yeah, but then you'd use the sugar to get mm mmf... mm?” Her mouth was covered by Lances cloth-covered hoof two seconds too late.

“You're right!” The Miniac exclaimed. “How could I not have reali-” Her hair darted forward. The team split down the middle, readying for a fight before they realized she was going for the loot behind them.

She managed to take the oven before they realized this, but as the tendrils reached for the sacks of sugar, Icy flapped her wings, encasing both the sacks and the ends of the hair in a block of ice.

A scream of rage burst forth from the Miniac. Turning to her, Icy saw her close her eyes. A moment later, the trapped strands of hair detached from her head, apparently solely by an effort of will, and more immediately grew to replace them..

The instant she did this, something extraordinary happened. Once the hairs had been disconnected from her, they started shrinking. As they did, they changed colours from the Miniac's dark green to a bright red. In less than a second, they had reduced from a length that reached clear across the barn to a fraction of a millimetre, transforming into a red powder.

So that's what that was. Icy thought before refocussing on the apoplectic villain in front of her, whose eyes were focussed squarely on her behind the lenses of her goggles. Lenses! But that would mean... the Mane-iac doesn't wear...

Before she could finish the thought, the Miniac spoke, her voice sounding both angry and hurt.

“You... how could you? Do you have any idea how many thplit endth you jutht gave... me...?”

Everyone was silent. The Miniac looked at Iota Force. Iota Force looked at the Miniac. Everything started to fall into place.

‘Hitching a ride’. Red hair. Glasses. A lisp.

“Twist?!”

The Miniac huffed. “Indee-” She paused mid-word before shrugging. “Yeth... and no.” Evidently she'd decided to stop avoiding s-sounds. “I'm jutht... borrowing her body and mane for a little while.” The corner of her mouth quirked up into a slight smirk. “I'm pothitive the doethn't mind. Or at least, the doethn't know. And if the doeth, there'th nothing the can do about it.”

Icy heard the tautening of a bowstring behind her. Looking out at the corner of her eye, she could see the tip of a very sharp arrow.

“Let. Her. Go!” Truffle said, his voice colder and more serious that Icy had ever heard. She dreaded what she would see in his eyes if she turned around.

The Miniac's eyes widened for a moment before she smiled slowly, as if she was relishing every millimeter her mouth moved. “No. No, I don't think I will. In fact, I think I'm going to be leaving now. And I think you are jutht going to thtand there and let me go. You can keep the thugar, though, I'll thoon have more than I could ever need.”

“Why... why would we...?” Dinky asked, her voice quiet and quivering with sorrow.

“Well, you could try to thtop me if you like,” The Miniac replied, carefully enunciating every word, “but I wouldn't if I were you. Unleth, of courthe,” A thick strand of hair suddenly dived into a pocket of her costume before coming out with a straight razor, “You want your friend to die.” She held the blade against her neck, right over the jugular vein.

There was a horrified pause as everyone took in what she was suggesting.

“You... you wouldn't...” Dinky pleaded, sounding almost on the edge of tears.

“Weeeeeeell, it wouldn't hurt me, of courthe.” The Miniac said casually. “I'd thimply need to find a new body to recondithion. Hopefully one with fewer... problemth and lowlightth. But you're right, naturally. I mean, what thort of pony would have the sheer nerve to jutht kill the body they were inhabiting.” She leaned her head back a little and looked down at them, her eyes and smile far too wide. “Why, I'd have to be thome kind of... maniac! EhehehehehehahahahahahahahaAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

She lifted herself up on her hair-tentacles, not moving the razor away from her neck. She paused for a moment until, once it became clear they weren’t coming closer, she strolled out, keeping eye contact with her opponents as she faded into the night.

Once she was gone from view, the other reacted.

“DAMMIT!” Archer let loose her arrow, embedding it a beam. Truffle stomped hard and bucked a partition wall, smashing a sizable hole in it. It looked like he was going crazy trying to decide whether or not to run after his possessed friend. Dinky just sat down, looking shocked at their enemy’s callousness, and Icy instinctively went over to hug her, Scootaloo revved up her wings to give chase before Alula's hoof stopped her.

“Don't worry,” the shape-shifter began, “We can...”

“What do you mean, don't worry?!” Truffle yelled, turning on her. His volume was enough to shake Icy down to her guts. “She's got Twist! She's possessing my… our friend! And we have no idea what she's going to...”

“Whatever she's going to do, we’re gonna stop her.” Archer interrupted, his normally cool voice hard and determined. “We’re gonna free her from this… this...” She simply spat on the ground as an end to her sentence.

“Besides, you're wrong about one thing,” Alula said in her usual steady tone. “I think we know exactly what she's going to do next.”

“We do?” Truffle asked, a hint of hope in his voice.

“She said she'd soon have all the energy she needed.” Alula paused, waiting for an answer until it became apparent not everyone found things as obvious as she did. “All the sugar she needed.” Another pause. More silence. “Can you think of anything happening soon where there'd a lot of sugar? Like, for example, in candy?”

That made it click.

“Nightmare night!” Icy muttered.

“Exactly. It sounds like she's going to use that to power her laser.” Alula said. “And now that we know that, we can prepare for it. Let's go.”

Alula turned on her hooves and started to trot away., The others, in various states of consideration, sadness and anger, quickly followed.

Icy lingered for a moment.

“So, hold on a moment,” She said, causing the others to stop and look over their shoulders at her, “just so I’ve got this clear in my head, we're going to stop a classmate who's being possessed by a literal comic book character from wreaking havoc using a candy-powered death ray.”

Alula nodded. “Assuming that the idea you gave her would work - something we won’t take a chance on - then yes, that seems a good summary.”

“Okay,” said Icy as she trotted to catch up with them, “just checking!”

Author's Note:

Not that I expect many people to write or read comments, but if anyone does, remember to put any mention of Twist as the Miniac's host in spoiler text. Thank you.

Comments

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

Wow... I seriously didn't expect *that* plot development to happen! Nice work.

Also, great job balancing the initial hilarity of the chapter (rice pudding!) with the more intense stuff that happens in the second half... I really didn't expect that threat from the Miniac.

[raven618]

And we are introduced to what I expect/hope will be a recurring weakness for our Frozone esk Pegasus, her big fat mouth.

[Herald of Opera]

I mean, I kind of figured out the spoiler ahead of time. But then, I've already made one comment about figuring out where things are going before the characters did because they are literal children.

[Wild Stallion]

“Looks like she just wanted to make dessert.”

I wouldn't underestimate the diabolical controlling power of dessert. Just ask peaches.

https://fb.watch/dTp-X8aM_S/