Skitter, Scurry and Screech (Iota Force Issue #4)

by The Iguana Man

Next time on Iota Force...

The young colt smiled as he saw Canterlot on the horizon. He looked over the sides of his ride at the countryside whizzing by far below.

Canterlot! He thought to himself. Capital city of Equestria, home to the most powerful and important ponies in the world and chock full of both things to take and ponies to take them from.

He nodded to himself as he lay back for a few moments, his ride continuing on its path. He was flying high to make sure no one saw him... yet.

“Can't rush things.” He mused out loud. “Have to get ready to let them know who I am.”

As he thought, he pulled two small square pieces of paper out of his saddlebags. He took one at a time and started folding them, so quickly that any hypothetical observer would have barely had time to register what he was doing before they were both folded into crooked hourglass shapes. He then took one in each hoof and, again with so much speed as to be barely visible, he folded them together to create the shape of a shuriken.

He tossed the shuriken up and down in his hoof a couple of times before something on the ground caught his eye. He peered over the side to see that he was nearing the building he had chosen to use as his base of operations. Smirking, he willed his ride to start lowering.

As he came back to the ground, he kept tossing the shuriken up and down, before catching it for the last time. As he did so, a tiny glow seemed to come over it for a fraction of a second.

He hopped off his ride and strolled towards the building's front door. He could see that it was locked, but that was no problem. Without breaking stride, he threw the shuriken at the door's edge, where it sailed clean through the lock and into the building.

The colt casually pushed open the door, looking at the far wall from the entrance, where the shuriken had embedded itself.

He walked over to it, took off his saddlebags and hung them on the protruding shuriken before turning around, looking out and up towards Canterlot.

“Get ready, Canterlot. Get ready to play... and get ready to fold.”

Author's Note:

Hope everyone enjoyed the story. However, I do have a... sort of announcement kinda. Nothing major, just that the stories probably aren't going to be coming out as quickly as they have been so far.

That was them coming out quickly?

Realtively speaking, Mr Hypothetical Reader. See, I had all four of these stories written fully before I'd published the first one, having started the series several years ago but only reaching a point last January when I was confident publishing the first one. Now, I should hopefully be getting future stories written faster, so there's no need to panic...

Yeah, I really don't think anyone was panicking at not having more of these stories. Maybe "Don't feel an infinitesimal amount of friendly concern" would work better?

...yeah, so it shouldn't be a matter of years before the next story gets published, but it might be a little while.

Or you could always, I dunno, actually act with a bit of alacrity for once in your life!

You know, you're awfully mouthy for someone who doesn't technically exist.

Hey, don't blame me, you're the one hypothesizing me.

Meaning I could just as easily get rid of you. Permanently.

What, do you have a gun trained on me right now?

No, but I hypothetically could have.

...I'll shut up.

That would be best.

Comments

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

Excellent hook for the next installment... and don't worry about the time it takes, it's all good.

[FanOfMostEverything]

A good ending for Skrik... hopefully. Still, definitely a victim of circumstance rather than a willing villain. And there's nothing more Ponyvillian than making an ally of an enemy.

As for Icy's hydrophobia... Yeah, that'll take a while to resolve. Though I suspect that with time and training, she could turn those clinging waters to her advantage.

Now there's the matter of a papercraft ninja to consider. Looking forward to the next issue, whenever it may come.

[raven618]

10020968
Ending? What makes you think this is his ending?

[FanOfMostEverything]

10021633
Well, an ending to this chapter of his life. There's still a lot left for him, but at least now he'll have some degree of equine contact.

[raven618]

10021665
Okay, I'll give you that.