Iota Force Issue #2: A Hair Out of Place

by The Iguana Man

Chapter 6: Finding Kryptonite

The next day, Spike finally came back to them with some information about the comic that had caused all this. First, he informed them, with a distinctly lecturing tone, that the comic did not let anything physical out, but a disembodied spirit of the Mane-iac who would possess whoever opened the comic and transform them into a copy of herself, with the same powers and skills.

It had taken a massive collective effort from all of them (as well as a couple of hooves placed over mouths) not to give an “Oh really?!” so sarcastic it might have physically cut Spike, thick scales or not. As it was, he merely wilted from their expressions.

His first new piece of information was that, because the Mane-iac rarely tired, she would often take the body for joyrides when it was asleep. This would, of course, make the host very tired very quickly, which in turn would make them sleep more which would give the Mane-iac more time to play and so the cycle would continue.

The response to this was a bit more low-key – shame that no one had noticed Twist's condition, even when it was right in front of them. Except for Truffle, that is, who had been spending a lot of time with her because of it. However, he was even more ashamed that he didn’t realize the extent of the problem or that it was caused by more than just sleeping problems.

Fortunately, the other information Spike had was a lot more useful. For one thing, the Mane-iac brought some of her rules with her when she came out - nothing reality-shattering, but she would be able to make a lot of comic-book science work, presumably including her laser. In fact, had the recipe she’d used come from her mind rather than Twist’s, it most likely would have worked - an unpleasant thought. Also, she would be able to exert some influence over Twist at any time, such as suppressing any relevant memories, but could only control her fully when she manifested - at all other times, she was nearly undetectable.

The most important piece of information, however, was that the Mane-iac could be recontained in her original comic – all they had to do was get her to go back into it. Even if she put a hoof or a single hair in (appropriately enough), she'd quickly be sucked back in, unable to leave until the next pony opened the comic and let her out.

The phrase “all they had to do” was, of course, somewhat relative.

Initially, there had been worry that she'd have simply destroyed the comic, but Spike had assured them that wasn't the case – the dealer had layered protection spell after protection spell onto all his most powerful or dangerous comics to prevent precisely that situation from occurring. Spike had assured them that he wasn't that dumb.

Just dumb enough to let one of the most dangerous baddies in all of comics (Or so Spike said Icy thought) out of his sight to take over an innocent filly. Which made them feel much better.

Furthermore, they'd quickly deduced that she would probably stash the comic somewhere she could access it quickly, both to prevent others from finding it and so she could escape into it if she ever needed to. Their first thought was in the barn, but were that the case, she would have undoubtedly retrieved it first when she escaped.

Thus, Icy, Alula and Dinky found themselves outside of the only place they could think that it might be - Twist's house.

“You're sure she wouldn't have come back here to get it?” Icy asked.

“No, not sure, but it's unlikely.” Alula said offhandedly, her mind focussing on something else. “Once she knew that we knew she was possessing Twist, she wouldn't have come back here, since we might have been waiting for her.”

“But... we weren't, were we?” Icy asked.

“No, but she didn't know that.”

Dinky sighed. “Her mommy and daddy must be really worried about where she is.”

“No,” Alula replied, a hoof playing with her hair oddly, “they think she's at a sleepover at Ruby Pinch's house.”

“Why?” Dinky asked. “Did you tell them that?”

Alula paused, paying attention to the others for the first time in a while. “No. I asked them where she was. That's what they said she told them.”

“Oh...” Dinky looked away, embarassed. “Sorry.”

“That's alright,” Alula replied, focussing again, “if she hadn't, I might have had to.” She did not sound as if she relished the idea.

“What are you concentrating on?” Icy asked.

“My disguise.” Alula said. “If I'm going to fool Twist's own parents, even for as short a time as I plan to, my imitation must be perfect.” As Alula's eyes closed, a rippling greenish distortion grew into the air around her, her form becoming indistinct and blurry. The distortion continued a lot longer that Icy had seen it do before, tiny licks of green flame flashing within it every so often. Soon, Alula's form was entirely obscured. After a couple of seconds, the distortion disappeared without a noise, a bang or even a whimper.

When it did, standing in Alula's place was Twist. And not the Twist Icy had met when she first came to town, but the Twist of the last couple of weeks. Her hair was even more frazzled than normal, her eyes had heavy bags under them, even her stance, expression and movement was a perfect imitation of Twist's normal bubbliness muted by heavy fatigue. Even knowing that this was Alula, Icy could scarcely believe it wasn't Twist.

Shaking her head, Icy remembered what she needed to do next, scampering with Dinky around the corner of the house while Twis... Alula knocked on the door.

Listening carefully, Icy heard the door open and Alula run inside.

“Thorry, Mom, I'm really thorry, I forgot my thleeping bag and I can't really have a thleepover without...” As Alula-Twist rambled, Icy could hear her rushing up the stairs.

“And your costume.” The voice of Twist's mother called after her.

“What?” Alula-Twist's footsteps stopped.

Twist's mother chuckled. “You said you wanted to work on your costume at the sleepover, then forgot to come back and get it.”

“Oh...” Icy could practically hear Alula-Twist's ears flatten, “I'm really thorry!”

“It's okay,” Twist's mother said gently, “just promise me you'll be careful.”

“I will, Mom!” The sound of an upstairs door closing reached them.

As it did, a sigh came from the front door, all the mirth draining from the mother's voice.

“That does it.” A male voice said quietly. “We're taking her to a doctor – this is not normal.”

“Yes. Yes we are.” Twist's mother replied, worry and pain muting her voice to practically a whimper. “But after Nightmare Night.” There was in intake of breath heralding a response before she pre-empted it. “You know how much she was looking forward to it. I don't think I could stand it if she had to miss it because of this... whatever's going on.”

The front door closed, cutting Icy and Dinky off from the conversation and reminding them of their mission. Trotting round to the back of the house, they looked up to see an open window with Twist's face looking down and beckoning them. As Alula had told them, there was a tree very close to the window, it's branches mostly bare of autumnal leaves. Icy helped Dinky up the branches before using her wings to help herself up. Dinky was small enough to climb across a thin branch while Icy simply glided in through the window.

Once inside, Icy took a look around the room, which was... surprisingly orderly. In fact, most of it looked like it hadn't been touched or moved in a week or so. Which it probably hadn't. The only area that was messy was the bed, where the covers and pillows were crumpled and askew. Alula-Twists hindquarters stuck out from under the duvet that hung off the side, her head under the bed, searching.

Looking around, Icy began to ask “So where's the comi...” before catching sight of the bookshelf, an entire shelf of which was dedicated to them. “Where would a wise pony hide a leaf?” She muttered to herself. It wasn't a patch on her or Spike's collections, of course, but it was certainly respectable.

Unfortunately, Icy thought as Dinky approached the shelf, horn aglow, that's a lot more than even I can check through before Twist's mom comes to check on her. After all, if she's just grabbing a costume and a sleeping bag, that doesn't leave me a lot of time to check...

“One of these ones!” Dinky declared, pointing to an area of around 25 comics.

Icy blinked. “How do you know?”

Dinky gave a shy smile. “Oh, it's one of my thingies, psychomat... psycho...”

“Pthychometry.” Alula-Twist responded from under the bed.

“That's it.” Dinky nodded. “Though my thing isn’t psychic, it's about time, so... chronometry? Anyway, I can scan things to get an idea of their history. It's not that exact, but I knew that Twist would be too tired to read them, so the one the Miniac put there would be the most recently moved!” She finished, smiling gently with modest pride.

“Nifty!” Icy smiled back. “So which one is it?”

“The jutht thaid it'th not that prethithe.” Alula-Twist said, trotting away from the cardboard box she'd pulled from under the bed and going towards the room's wardrobe. “You're the quicketht comic reader of all of uth, thcan through them, we don't have much time.”

“Right!” Icy nodded, immediately setting to work. It didn't take long to find – the fifth comic she checked featured a story where the Power Ponies were facing the Mane-iac for a couple of pages before she suddenly vanished for seemingly no reason. She then reappeared a couple of pages later before immediately disappearing again and staying absent for the rest of the comic. This resulted in a somewhat anticlimactic ending where the Power Ponies rounded up her minions, went back to their headquarters and had a cup of tea, discussing what in Tartarus had just happened. Either Fable Niece-Ceasar had had a substantial brain-fart with this issue or it was the comic they were looking for.

Also, the fact that it was issue twenty seven but in the middle of issues one hundred and thrity eight to one hundred and sixty two was a bit of a giveaway. Evidently, the Miniac hadn't cared much about chronology when she'd hidden it. Which just made Icy want to defeat her even more.

“Okay, I've got it!” Icy said quietly, going to the window. The others nodded, Alula picking up the sleeping bag she'd found in the wardrobe and Dinky trotting over and climbing onto Icy's back. Fortunately, she was small and light enough that Icy would be able to glide them back out of the window. Just.

As Dinky took a breath and held it (not, as she'd said earlier, because she was afraid, but simply to stop herself from going “Wheeeeeee!”), Icy turned to Alula.

“I'm not sure how we're going to force her back inside, but at least there's a chance now.”

For the first time since she'd changed, a hint of Alula showed on Twist's face for a moment – a wry smile. “Well, Forthe ith a thtrong word. There are... other pothibilitieth. We just need to come up with a plan.”

“Actually,” Dinky piped up, letting her breath out to speak, “I think I’ve already got one.”

Author's Note:

Double chapter post this week, since this is a somewhat shorter chapter and the last before the climax.

Comments

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

Good work as always. Yes this is a breather chapter but it's still well-constructed, I got a kick out of the pony pun with the comic here, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing what the climax of this story has to offer!

[CMC4TW]

You know, it'd be fun to see Bloom or Sweetie in one of these on a rival team or something. Could be fun!

[FanOfMostEverything]

Ha! Called it. The evidence was all there. Not just the red dust and Twist's fatigue, but also how the Miniac was careful to avoid sibilants.

In any case, definitely looking forward to seeing Dinky's plan in action.

[The Iguana Man]

9624203

Congratulations. I hope it wasn't too easy to figure out.

[Herald of Opera]

one of the most dangerous baddies in all of comics

I've mentioned this before, but later retcons to magic-mane interaction have a side-effect of helping to sell her as a team-level threat. The Galacti of comics ensure that Spike is still full of *expletive*, mind, but he's not quite as full of *expletive* as he would have been when the episode aired.