A Sheet in the Wind (Iota Force Issue #5)

by The Iguana Man

Chapter Seven: Paper Shredder

It was a clear, pleasant morning in Canterlot. Of course, most mornings were clear and pleasant – as a city atop a mountain, rainfall wasn't nearly as needed as it was for lower altitudes, so the weather pegasi tended towards milder weather. It wasn't entirely willing, of course, but if they didn't, the nobles were sure to cause a stink, which was one of the only things everyone agreed the nobles were exceptionally good at. Fortunately, the weather bureau had, with much difficulty, managed to get through legislation that invalidated weather complaints below either a certain severity or a certain number of days per month, else they likely would have been receiving protests every time one of the nobles got their mane messed up by the wind.

Whatever the reason, though, it was a pleasant morning in and around the First National Bank of Canterlot. In the street outside, ponies were strolling by, occasionally heading towards or away from the large, richly decorated building. Inside, ponies were going about their business as one might expect in a bank – queuing, depositing money, withdrawing money, queuing, sitting down to discuss financial matters, applying for loans, queuing and, if one looked closely, one might even have been able to spot a little bit of queuing.

By the door sat a unicorn security guard, though his size and build was more that of an earth pony. He was paying attention to the entrance a little, but not much, only really noticing when someone entered. Once or twice, his horn lit up as he surreptitiously scanned a new arrival, but there were very few customers entering that even the most paranoid of ponies would be suspicious of. This was Canterlot, after all – a city only barely holding itself back from passing a law banning “riff-raff”, which would translate roughly to “anyone we don't like.”

Dotted throughout the bank were a number of other security guards – five in total. Three were unicorns, like the door guard, one was an earth pony and one a pegasus. They were all hanging around the walls (and near the ceiling, in the pegasus's case), paying only minor, passive attention to the ponies inside. All in all, today seemed like business as usual.

This only changed slightly when the big, ornate front doors of the bank slammed shut suddenly.

The head of everypony in the bank whirled around at the massive sound of metal hitting metal, though the guards' heads did so much slower, more annoyed than surprised.

“Nobody panic!” The door guard called out languidly, getting up from his seat and striding up to the doors. “Just some kids playing around, I'll have them open in a second.”

He sighed – it was far from unknown for mischievous children to slam the heavy doors shut, knowing how hard they were to open. Of course, that same difficulty in moving them meant they usually had to do so in teams, but they could still usually get away with it – because the doors opened outside, they could hide behind them while closing them and run away before anypony could open them again.

The sound of hoofbeats running off confirmed, in the door guard's mind, that this was the case. Sighing at this mild inconvenience, he lit his horn, placed his front hooves against the door and pushed with both.

Things began to seem a little less routine when the door wouldn't budge.

Quirking an eyebrow in confusion, the door guard pushed again, much harder, again producing no results.

He turned his head towards the crowd. “We do apologize, stallions and gentlemares, we appear to be having some slight difficulties. Don't worry, though, we'll have these open as soon as we can.

Turning back, he pushed again, this time putting a great amount of energy into it. This time, the doors opened a tiny crack and the door guard could see a sliver of the thing that was blocking it.

At first, it seemed to be a big, regular stack of bricks, each made of paper. However, he soon realized that it was all one, big sheet of paper, folded to resemble a brick wall and, apparently, just as strong.

After a moment, he stopped pushing and the doors slammed closed again, knocking him back slightly.

“What in the name of...?” He muttered, lighting up his horn for another go. However, he paused as he heard noises from outside, though not from beyond the door. Instead, it was coming from the southern wall, on the opposite side of the bank.

There were two distinct components to the noises – firstly, there was a whole lot of screaming, as of ponies encountering something either very scary, very unexpected or both, and secondly, there were hoofbeats. However, these weren't the hoofbeats of ponies running, though there were plenty of them too, but rather something much heavier. Whatever it was sounded like it was very big, moving very fast and heading straight for the southern wall.

The door guard's eyes widened as he noticed the Earth Pony guard standing by that wall, who was looking at it in shock. “Heavy! Look out!”

Unfortunately, Heavy Duty, as his nametag labelled him, barely had time to take a step back before the southern wall exploded, sending massive chunks of masonry, as well as Heavy Duty, flying. The rubble landed around the room, fortunately not hitting any of the crowd with the larger parts. Heavy Duty, on the other hand, was knocked aside and into the western wall, thoroughly unconscious. The gathered ponies collectively took their hooves away from shielding their faces and stared in shock at the thing that had broken in.

Standing just in front of the new hole in the wall was a gigantic origami rhinoceros, its horn gleaming with unnatural sharpness. It stood at least seven feet tall and its hoofsteps rang out heavily as it strode forward, its muzzle jerking a little as if snorting with nostrils it didn't possess.

Atop its back stood a small colt in a white hoodie, mask and tail sheath. He smiled as he looked down at the crowd.

“I'd advise all of you little ponies to hit the deck – the Paper Prince don't like hurting his inferiors, but one does what one must.”

Behind the rhino, a flood of paper ponies surged through the gap, fanning out towards the crowd. A few paper birds also flew in, carrying something in their claws, though they were moving too fast for anypony to tell exactly what. At the back of the group, a pair came in bearing another folded brick wall, placing it in front of the hole. Once they had done this, the Prince slid to the back of the rhino and touched the wall, sending a bit of energy through that seemed to solidify it.

A flash in the Prince's peripheral vision made him turn his head around to see the pegasus guard flying above him, moving towards him in an erratic way, making it hard for him or the rhino to determine where she was coming from. However, he waved a hoof towards her menacingly.

“What?” the guard called out with a close-to-wonderbolt level of cockiness. “You gonna turn me into paper too, kid? Sorry, but I- Ah!” She was cut off as one of the paper birds flew into her face, blinding her for a moment.

Unfortunately for her, a moment was all the rhino needed to slam its head sideways into her, knocking her into the wall, where she slid down with a pained groan.

The prince didn't have time to dwell on that, however, as a series of mystic bolts impacted the rhino's sides, eliciting a startled jerk and a silent grunt. However, the massive paper beast didn't seem especially damaged.

“All right, keep on him!” the door guard called to his fellow unicorns, firing a series of blasts from his horn. “It's only paper, it can't be that tough!”

“You... Friggin' unicorns!” the Prince growled in anger. “Don't you ever learn? Well, that's fine, I'm happy to keep beating it into ya!”

The unicorn guards didn't have time to consider what he meant by this as, all at once, they felt something fall onto their horns and the magic abruptly cease. However, none of them seemed especially concerned, much less impressed – they were trained security guards, after all, and knew both what horncuffs were and how to easily slip them off.

Unfortunately, before any of them could even move a hoof towards the restraints, there was a simultaneous chomping sound from all their horns, causing a simultaneous pain and eliciting a simultaneous yelp. Looking around at their fellow unicorns, they saw paper birds flapping away from them, presumably having dropped the two things on their horns, which they could see were not only horncuffs, but tiny, origami crocodiles. Fortunately, they didn't seem to have been folded with any teeth except at the very front, past their horns, but they were still clamped tightly onto their primary means of defence, both causing them pain and preventing them from removing the horncuffs.

They shook their heads and pulled at the crocodiles, but it was no good – they may have been small and made of paper, but their jaws were apparently just as strong as any real crocodile's. Further, they didn't have time to try anything else before some of the many paper ponies accompanying the Prince were on them, forcing them to resort to hoof-to-hoof fighting.

The remainder of the paper ponies were corralling the civilians to the sides of the massive lobby, out of the way of the action. A few tried to light their horns to resist, but the confusion and the number of enemies prevented them from focusing on any specific target, so it didn't take long for one of the paper ponies to shove them forwards and disrupt their magic.

The Prince leapt down off the rhino's back, landing heavily on his hooves before calling out to the many ponies in the bank's booths.

“I'd get outta the way, if I was you!”

As he said this, the rhino scuffed a hoof against the ground menacingly. This rather emphasized the point, so the various tellers ran out of the walled-off section to join the captive crowd.

The moment the last pony left its path, the rhino ran at the wall, accelerating rapidly until it smashed through both the clear plastic partition and the wall behind it, revealing a room with a massive steel door behind it.

“The bank's vault! Now, it'd be nice if one of you would be so kind as to provide the combination, if ya please!” the Prince called out over the crowd, over the sounds of the security guards fighting the paper ponies and the rhino trotting back to his side. There was a long pause. “No one gonna volunteer?” There was, once again, no response from any of the tellers. “No? You guys that loyal to your job? Well, I guess I can respect that.” He shrugged. “Well, hard way it is! Reginald, would you mind?” he said to the rhino at his side.

Not even pausing to nod, the rhino set off running in the same direction once again. It didn't even slow down before impacting the vault door with a colossal clang. The door moved a little, but didn't buckle. However, neither did the rhino, which just shook its head and returned to the prince for another run.

“I'd say it shouldn't take more than ten runs to break through,” the Prince said in an aside to the captive ponies. “Anyone wanna take a bet against me? No? Didn't think so,” He said with a smirk as the rhino set off running again.

---

By the time Iota Force – minus Scootaloo, who was taking an alternate route – reached the bank, Icy was panting heavily. “Okay, when we get back home, I'm gonna start going with Mom on her exercises.”

“That's okay, Icy,” Dinky assured her, not looking as thoroughly wrecked by the exertion, but still noticeably weary. “You don't have to if you don't want to.”

“Might get plenty of rest now, if can't find way in,” Alula said without looking away from the simulated brick wall blocking the doors of the bank. A couple of royal guards were also standing in front of it, blasting with their horns, and though it was scuffed and showed some signs of the struggle, it was still standing. “Would probably take six to eight minutes to penetrate, too long, need quick way in.”

“I could help in breaking it down, that might make it quicker,” Truffle pointed out, stepping towards it and winding up for a punch.”

“Six to eight minutes with you helping,” Alula clarified.

“Oh.” Truffle put his hoof down, abashed.

The group thought for a moment, trying to figure out some other way into the bank, despite the fact that it was a bank and, thus, somewhat concerned with preventing unauthorized access.

“We could try going up on the roof,” Dinky suggested.

Alula hummed. “Possible, not ideal, would take almost as long, but maybe bit quicker. Keep in mind as possibility.”

Icy looked up and down the two walls she could see, but nothing jumped out at her. Well, no possible entryways, at least – she was already getting to her hooves again to trot over to the opposite corner. From the corner she and the rest of the group were at, she could only see the side with the front door, which was blocked off, and the side with the fountain, which she wanted to get as far away from as she could. Unless, of course...

Wait a minute! Oh no... Icy's pupils shrank as she realized the decision that lay in front of her. Her left forehoof started shaking so rapidly it tapped out a drum roll on the ground beneath.

“Icy?” Dinky said from her side. “Are you okay?”

Icy gulped noisily and squeezed her eyes shut, wrestling with indecision. I have to tell them, it's the only way... okay, it's not the only way, there could be another way, but it is the best way, I need to tell them, but then they'll make me... no, they may not make me but I'll know I should and I can't but I have to...

“Icy!” Dinky called out, suddenly authoritative. She grabbed Icy's head and turned it towards her, holding her gaze firmly. After a split second, though, she let go and gave a gentle smile. “It's okay, no one's going to judge you for anything.”

Icy was still shaking, but she nodded. “I... I think I might have... That fountain.” She jerked her head towards where she remembered it to be, but didn't take her eyes off Dinky – she was afraid that the sight of it would destroy what little resolve Dinky had evoked in her. “Do you remember if the pictures showed it going inside as well?” Please say no, no wait, say yes, no say that they do but that something means that...

“Yes, it's has two spouts, one inside and one outside,” Alula said, confirming Icy's hopes and dreads. “Why does that... you don't think...”

Icy nodded. “Yes, I do.” She scrunched her eyes tightly shut and scuffed a hoof against the ground. “I really do think I hate myself.” And with that, she took off in a dead run towards the fountain before flapping her wings hard against the ground, propelling her up into the air.

---

“Five hits and still holding out strong,” The Paper Prince called with a smirk to the captive crowd. It wasn't clear whether he was referring to the vault or the rhino, as it seemed to apply to both. “Still, I think it shouldn't take much longer, and it seems like we've got plenty of time to see.” He looked to the side, to the walls still holding and the remaining guards, who were holding out fairly well with only hoof-to-hoof fighting, but were starting to flag while their opponents remained strong.

The rhino was just backing up for another run when a voice came from the crowd. “Stop!”

The Prince held up a hoof, making the rhino pause, and turned back to the crowd. From within the middle of them, an earth pony stallion stood up, his suit remaining straight and immaculate despite the situation. He regarded the prince with a forcefully neutral expression. “I'll open it for you.”

The Prince looked over the crowd, searching for anyone with an objection. After a moment, he turned to the stallion. “You the manager?”

The stallion nodded. “I am indeed.”

The Prince smiled. “Nice to see somepony with sense. Let him go,” He commanded his minions, who didn't move towards the stallion as he strode out.

“Thank you, I'm sure,” The stallion said as he approached the vault. “To be quite frank, I don't know if you will succeed in penetrating the vault, but it seems a possibility. And, even if you don't, the damage you do to it will most likely be worth more than whatever we stand to lose, even without factoring in insurance.”

The Prince's smile broadened as he heard the stallion's words, not seeming bothered by the slight disdainful tone to them. He turned to the crowd and pointed to the manager. “Now this guy knows what's what,” He said, sounding completely sincere in his praise. “I'd keep banking here, he's a guy I'd want in charge of my money. Actually, now I think of it, he is in charge of what's gonna be my money.” He chuckled as he turned back to the vault, just as the stallion finished inputting the combination and turning the key, pulling the heavy door open.

The instant he had done so, the rhino stepped forward and into the vault. Its horn hooked onto the handle of one of the many drawers lining the walls and pulled, bringing the sealed box within out. It then trotted out of the vault again and up to the Prince, offering him the box.

The Prince took the box off the rhino's horn and smiled at his constructs. “Well, what are we waiting for – vault's open, let’s... huh?” He stopped as he suddenly became aware of a bizarre, high pitched whining noise coming from the side of him.

Turning, he saw a golden field enveloping the top of the lobby's fountain, the water within moving much faster than he remembered it doing. Emerging from the field was a filly, who he recognized as one of the group he had previously fought. The instant she came out of the field, the whine slowed down, changing into a loud, terrified scream – a sight that had the Prince momentarily paralysed in confusion.

Before the filly could even touch down, another one of the group – the swordscolt in white – came through, rocketing through the hole as if thrown. Following that, the fat one of the group came through, hovering in another field of magic and, though it was hard to tell because of the golden glow surrounding the area, it seemed like he would have been moving slowly if the field wasn't speeding things up. Finally, two unicorns stepped through the aperture in the wall and leapt out, the field dissipating. Because of its acceleration, though, they all came to earth close to the same time and all leapt into fighting position a fraction of a second later.

All except the pegasus, whose wings flapped heavily, the force of the move seeming more a result of panic than strategy.

However, whatever the case, the effect was the same – a long stream of energy shot from her wings towards the vault, where it impacted the inside edge of the entryway and formed a thick block of ice, blocking the way in.

The Prince sighed. “Persistent, aincha? Well, alright then, let's go. Gentlemen!” His minions all snapped to attention and the Prince grinned nastily. “Get 'em!”

The assembled opponents all leapt into ready positions, facing out in a circle as the various paper ponies in the building turned towards them. However, they didn't start moving towards the group, not having been the ones the Prince was really talking to.

Instead, he was given the satisfaction of seeing shock and worry overwhelm their faces as the gigantic rhino charged towards them, horn down.

However, it seemed that their shock didn't dull their reflexes as they dived out of the way. The pegasus and the blonde unicorn went to the left, landing on their feet and scurrying off to the side, out of the rhino's immediate reach, while the larger unicorn dived to the right behind a desk, her form flashing green as she did so. The fat colt stepped to the side slightly, the rhino's head going along his side, making him spin a couple of times along its body, but not seeming to do him much damage. Finally, the swordscolt ran to meet the rhino before dropping onto his back, sliding underneath it with his sword up, carving a long gash along its belly.

Once behind it, he hopped to his hooves and looked behind him, only to have to leap back to avoid a swipe of its head – the cut he's given it was long, but very shallow, its papery hide proving far thicker and tougher than one might expect.

Just after the thing swiped its horn at the swordscolt, the Pegasus flapped her wings again, forming a long block of ice over its front hooves, while the fat colt leapt onto its head, grasping it behind its horn and trying to pull it down to the ground.

The rhino shook its head, trying to dislodge the colt, but he remained firmly in place. The swordscolt dashed along its side, giving it another couple of slashes, neither of which seemed to penetrate it enough to de-animate it.

After a moment, the rhino's head vibrated slightly, as if giving a silent snort, before it rammed its head down into the ice at its hooves, smashing away enough to free one of them. The impact also knocked the fat colt a little loose, so another shake of the head was enough to send him to the ground. As it used its free hoof to smash free its trapped one, it slammed its head down at the colt, but a golden glow enveloped him and he scampered out of the way impossibly fast.

The Prince hummed as he watched the battle continue, rolling his shoulder slowly as he considered whether to make his escape. Reginald was keeping the four of them occupied well enough, but he wasn't sure if he could... wait, four of them?

The Prince's eyes started darting about to search for the fifth member he remembered them having, the slow speed his head was turning belying his nervousness. For a moment, he saw nopony else that could have been part of this group.

Then, a couple of seconds later, he saw someone sprint out from behind a desk. It took a moment, but he recognised her as the larger unicorn. Or, at least, the filly who was, since she was no longer a unicorn, but an earth-pony. Further, while her face and hairstyle were the same, little else was – her coat, mane and suit were all beige, blending in near-perfectly with the wall behind her, and her build was far different. She was now wiry and muscular, looking strong but light.

She charged forward towards one of the paper ponies in front of the battered guards. However, at the last moment before impact, she changed trajectory, making the paper pony's attempted interception whiff completely. Instead of going for that one, she instead charged towards one of the bank's security guards before leaping at him. After she left the ground, her form flashed green again and her horn re-emerged, now looking longer and far sharper than any the Prince could recall seeing. And the Prince had seen a lot of horns.

At first, it seemed like she was going to fly over his head. However, just before her horn went past his, it became clear what she was doing. However, that was far too late, as she impaled the crocodile clamping down on his horn and holding the horncuff in place.

The instant her horn penetrated it, the thing collapsed into ordinary paper and fell off the guard's horn. The filly landed next to him and, with a flick of her own horn, sent the horncuff flying off.

The guard struggled to his feet, the filly sliding off his back. His horn started glowing a blazing red and his face fell into a determined frown.

“Now, lets try this again, shall we?”

He blasted the paper pony in front of him in the face, caving in its head and reducing it to paper. He then sent off four small blasts in quick succession. The first two impacted the remaining paper birds flying towards him, obliterating them and the crocodiles in their talons while sending the horncuffs in their beaks falling to the ground. The second two impacted the crocodiles on the other guards' horns.

The two leapt to their feet and hopped backwards, far enough away from the paper ponies to allow them to slip their own cuffs off, grim smiles coming onto their faces.

The Prince gulped – it was no longer a tough decision, it was time to make his escape. He whistled into the air.

From the ceiling a shattering noise was heard. As he looked up, he saw the end of his flail hanging through the now broken skylight, a paper hoof around its handle. Shards of safety glass rained down on his head, but he didn't so much as flinch, willing his plane to fly down through the now-open ceiling.

However, the instant he did, he heard one of the fillies cry, “Now, Scoots!”. His eyes flicked down to them briefly before returning to the skylight, watching in horror at what happened next.

---

A few minutes earlier...

Icy ran through the streets of Canterlot, head down and focusing on her breathing. The others were discussing the group's battle strategy and, while she was certainly listening, she hoped she wouldn't be called upon to contribute. She needed every bit of breath she could get and letting any out to talk would probably be a bad idea.

“Okay, so that could work, but what happens when he decides to just cut and run?” Truffle asked, his voice slightly less powerful than normal, presumably because he couldn't gather his breath properly for his normal thunder. Still, he didn't seem especially put out by the long run. “We need to find some way to deal with that plane of his.”

“Still can't believe I missed a colt flying around on a giant paper plane,” Scootaloo grumbled as she trundled along, her wings buzzing gently. “Musta looked so awesome.”

Lance gave her a sidelong glance.

“Pft, course I wouldn't tell him that.” Icy silently fumed that Scootaloo was still spry enough to 'pft' properly.

Icy gulped in between breaths, readying herself for the unenviable task of saying something. “Are we sure he'll use it in time. If he's trying to rob the bank's vault...”

“He might,” Dinky replied. “Remember, he's trying to prove himself. If he's opened the vault by the time we're there, that'll show that his abilities are powerful, so he'll probably be okay leaving after that.”

“Either way, we need to prepare for it,” Alula said. While she didn't look nearly as tired as some might, Icy did take a little satisfaction in the fact that she was breathing heavier now that she couldn't simply give herself a powerful pair of wings. “We need someone on the roof to intercept it – that'll be you, Scootaloo.”

“Aw, come on!” Scootaloo threw her hooves up for a moment, which did not noticeably reduce her control over her scooter. “I haven't even had a chance to fight him myself yet.”

“I think that's the idea,” Dinky pointed out. “He doesn't know that you're with us. If he saw that one of us was missing, he'd get suspicious, but you can take him by surprise.”

“Correct,” Alula said, pausing for a moment before adding. “Also, you're the only one of us who can easily get to the roof.”

“Tch, fine!” Scootaloo huffed before suddenly accelerating.

Icy was about to ask how exactly she could 'easily' get to the roof before Scootaloo kicked a hoof against the ground, leaping up onto the raised pedestal of a small statue next to a building. After a short burst of speed along its base, she leapt off onto the awning of the next building along, bouncing forward into a lamp post, which she swung around to fly off down a side street. By the time the others reached the intersection to that street, she was already out of sight.

Oh yeah, that's how, Icy thought to herself.

---

As the Paper Prince's plane descended towards the skylight, a buzzing sound could be heard approaching from a different angle. Just before the two met, a massive whack was heard and the paper pony holding the flail came plummeting down from the ceiling, de-animating and crumpling as it hit the ground.

However, there wasn't time to fully appreciate that as the plane came through the smashed skylight and Scootaloo rammed into it, knocking it off-course and away from the Prince.

“What?! Who the...?” The Prince's eyes widened as he cut himself off, his face scrunching up, which Icy presumed meant that he was concentrating on controlling the plane, though the sweat drenching his face suggested that this was quite a strain.

Unfortunately, as much control as the Prince seemed to have over his creations, even he couldn't make a plane completely negate all of its momentum and pull an instant ninety degree turn back towards him. The momentum of the plane meant the turn was slow and, the moment Scootaloo felt it, she set her wings buzzing in the opposite direction, keeping the plane's course away from the Prince and towards her team.

Seeing this, Truffle's face lit up with an idea. He turned and, after a moment to check his angle, he ran at the rhino head first and leapt at it.

The rhino whipped its head to the side to meet Truffle head on. However, that seemed to be what Truffle was counting on, as he kicked off the head and flew up towards the plane. He grabbed the plane's nose as he went by, swinging around until he was hanging off of it, his weight already beginning to pull it down.

At that, Alula's face lit up as well – by her standards, at least, meaning her eyes were slightly more open – as she spoke rapidly into her badge.

“UseplaneonrhinoIcyDinkyfreezeitLanceopenitTruffleScootalooguideit!”

Icy's wings were moving before her mind could fully unpack the monsoon of words she had just heard. She gathered her energy and flapped her wings, creating a massive block of ice over the rhino's front hooves. However, this time she didn't stop, continuing to flap and expand the block until it covered all four hooves and came up to just below the rhino's belly.

As she did this, Lance leapt to the side of the thing and gave it a horizontal slash, followed by a vertical one. He then gave two diagonal slashes, creating a perfect star of openings in its papery skin, before burying his sword in the centre and using it as a handle to swing himself up and over the thing, pulling it out as he did so.

The rhino shook slightly and raised its head to smash away the ice beneath it, but a golden aura surrounded it and slowed its movements to a crawl, stretching out the time before it freed itself to at least fifteen seconds, not that it had that long. Looking to the side, Icy saw Dinky's horn glowing brilliantly, her face hardening in concentration.

Icy looked to the side, flaring her wings to freeze any paper ponies that might be coming to interrupt Dinky, only to just catch one being lifted away by a bright red aura. Looking back to the bank's guards, he saw them in conversation with Alula. However, the oldest looking guard caught her eye and gave her a smile, the red corona around his horn fading.

While all that was happening, Scootaloo and Truffle were guiding the plane to their intended destination – a task made no easier because of the Prince's attempts to wrest back full control over it. However, they kept it on course. Scootaloo was using her wings to keep it straight horizontally, counteracting the Prince's command, while Truffle was swinging underneath it, using all four hooves to grasp its underside. He moved himself back and forward as needed, shifting his weight to keep it on the vertical path he wanted.

Thanks to their combined efforts, the plane impacted the rhino in the exact centre of the slashes in its hide, splitting open the gap and penetrating deep into the rhino's body. After a split second, the rhino's body lost all movement and the plane crumpled, both returning to an inanimate state, falling to the floor heavily.

“NO!” the Prince screamed, glaring in anger and disbelief at Scootaloo. “That's not... where did she come... you can't just bring in someone else!” He stamped a hoof. “That's cheating!”

“Well, don't you just sound royal as heck?” Scootaloo smirked as she picked herself and her scooter up from the plane's wreckage. Icy giggled at the idea that any real royalty would ever act as childishly as that.

---

Somewhere in Canterlot, Prince Blueblood's ears started burning a little. The moment he realized this, he fired his personal ear attendant, a fact that the mare in question was immeasurably thankful for.

---

The Prince snarled for a moment before barking. “Get them! Bring 'em down!”

The paper ponies around them, having previously stayed away, presumably so as not to get in the rhino's way, all sprang into action. Throughout the effort to take down the plane, the colts, fillies and guards had spread themselves out through the area, so the hoard of origami minions had to scatter throughout the room.

Fortunately, this meant that none of them had to deal with as massive a swarm as they might have and each was able to hold them off in their own ways, such as they were.

For Dinky and Alula, for instance, that way was to climb on the backs of one guard each, letting their mounts handle the ponies coming for them directly and allowing the fillies to focus entirely on helping others in their own way – advice and analysis for Alula and chronomancy for Dinky.

Scootaloo was able to hold off the ones targetting her simply by not letting them reach her – dashing and zipping around the room so that they could chase her and always making sure to plot a course that they couldn't predict, even if they had the intelligence to do so.

Icy, though less experienced at it, employed a similar tactic – whenever one or two opponents got too close to her, she flapped her wings hard and leapt, going into a long hop that kept her out of danger. Having to focus on this meant she didn't have many opportunities to freeze the ponies, but she still took a fair number out.

It was probably because of the more mobile members of Iota Force that the paper ponies remained spread out rather than congregating around each of their opponents. Unfortunately for the Prince, that had two side effects.

The first was that it blocked much of his vision of the battle and room around him. He swallowed as he looked around him, his head swinging heavily with each turn, as if he had to throw every ounce of energy he had into every movement. He looked towards the hole his rhino had smashed in the wall, no doubt weighing his options and deciding whether it would be better to run. It wasn't a hard decision – his minions were certainly giving his opponents trouble, but they were rapidly decreasing in number and didn't look to be making much progress themselves.

However, before he could even come to that simple conclusion, the second side effect made itself known as Lance's sword swung down, half an inch from the end of his nose. The spread out ponies had been easy for him to penetrate and he was now holding his katana out in front of him meancingly, silently demanding his surrender. His left hoof drew his wakizashi, twirling it around a little to make clear why he thought surrender was the right move.

The Prince backed up, hooves falling heavily, before he was stopped by what felt like a small foam crash barrier. Whirling around, he saw Truffle smiling at him, rolling his thick neck in preparation.

Growling, the Prince backed away to the side, encountering no other such obstacles, and took a deep breath. He was about to call his minions to aid him when he heard something from across the room.

“Don't worry,” Alula said at a normal volume – loud enough to be heard over the melee by the pony she was on top of, “he's not a threat on his own, so he'll call them back.”

The Prince blinked heavily and the gears in his head almost became visible as they started grinding slowly. Had he been less angry or more lively, he might have seen through the manipulation. It wasn't certain – while Alula wasn't always the best at reading ponies, she was excellent at deceiving them – but he might have questioned the timing and realized what she might be doing.

However, as his face rammed itself into a frown, it was clear he was taking the bait completely. He reached into his saddlebags and pulled out two large pieces of paper. Grimacing in concentration, he quickly folded one into a sword and the other into a shield, adding a small, rolled up bit of paper to the latter as a handle. With a guttural roar, he leapt at Lance, sword swinging down with all the considerable force he could muster.

However, Lance barely seemed bothered as he slid out of the way, the sword impacting the ground and making a large cut into the marble floor. The Prince swung it out to the side, but Lance ducked down and swung his smaller blade up, pushing the paper sword's swing far over Lance's head.

No sooner had the Prince reached the end of his swing than he heard the word “Banzai!” from his other side. Whirling around, he saw Truffle leaping towards him, hooves out to the side and belly forward. Thinking quickly, the Prince swung his shield to intercept the colt, hoping to knock him away.

Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that that was what Truffle had been counting on. As the shield sunk slightly into his fat, he wrapped his hooves around it and clung on tight. The impact nearly knocked him away and the shield with him, but the Prince managed to just about keep his grip on the thing. However, after a moment, Truffle's weight bore the shield down to the ground.

The Prince was about to swing his sword at Truffle when Lance leapt in, knocking the blade away with his smaller sword. A fraction of a second later, he rammed his larger blade in-between the Prince's hoof and his shield and pulled in a levering motion, wrenching the two apart and knocking the prince backwards.

Not wasting a moment, Truffle picked the shield up in his front hooves, spun around a couple of times like a hammer thrower and hurled the shield away, sending it flying across the room and into a pillar. Fortunately for the bank, the Prince hadn't had time to fold a sharp edge into the shield, so it simply bounced off and landed somewhere, though the room-wide fight made it near-impossible to tell where.

Gulping, the Prince's free hoof went back to his saddlebags while his other hoof held his sword out in front of him, ready to take a swipe at whoever first came in range. He began to take another folded piece of paper out before shaking his head and instead bringing out a number of smaller squares. He started moving backwards as Lance and Truffle advanced on him, his free hoof moving astonishingly quickly, even despite his obvious fatigue. Within a few seconds, he had folded himself a shuriken, which he threw before immediately starting on a new one.

It was probably a good thing he did, as Lance casually caught the projectile in mid-air with his wakizashi, knocking it aside. Sneering, the Prince folded two more and threw them, one after the other. The first was similarly deflected, while Lance simply tilted his head out of the way of the second. However, the Prince had been counting on this, as the shuriken curved around behind Lance and was soon heading for the back of his head.

It was hard to tell if Lance had seen this coming due to his wire mask, but it hardly mattered, since the shuriken hadn't got within three feet of Lance before a golden glow came over it, slowing it down, letting Lance know about it thanks to the magic's noise and giving him ample time to spin around, slash it out of the air and whirl back around.

The Prince's face was beginning to show some panic as he threw his final shuriken at Truffle's face. Unlike Lance, though, he didn't try to avoid the blow, but instead leapt into it, catching the flying blade with his stomach and allowing it to impact and bounce out onto the ground. The Prince's eyes widened at this and, with an inarticulate bellow, he ran forward and swung his sword into the fat colt's belly.

He felt the blade impact and seem to go in, only to be stopped by the resistance of Truffle's protective fat, being thrust out a moment later. Truffle winced in discomfort at the strike, but neither he nor his suit seemed especially concerned by it.

Lance, on the other hand, was immensely concerned with it, as it gave him a perfect opportunity to leap in and swing his katana down on the Prince's blade, catching the upper half of it with the lower half of his sword and forcing the Prince to put every ounce of strength he had remaining into stopping it.

After a moment of struggling, however, Lance thrust his wakizashi behind the Prince's sword and twisted it, sending it flying out of his grasp and into the side of a nearby paper pony. It was impossible to tell if that had been intentional, but it could well have been, considering just how easily Lance had disarmed him. In fact, it also made it obvious that he could probably have done that at any time.

However, the Prince wasn't really paying attention to such things, as he stumbled away and reached for another square of paper – he was clearly running short, but he doubtless had a few left.

It didn't matter, though, as he fumbled with the flap of the saddlebag like his hoof had turned to pudding. He managed to work it into the bag, only for it to fall heavily into it, wrenching the bags off his back and twisting his hooves around him, sending him crashing to the floor.

He put a hoof against the ground, struggling to push himself up, but could barely get an inch up before falling down again.

“Wha...? What's going...?”

A sudden chill came over his back hooves as they were frozen to the ground. The ice binding them was thin and fragile, but even so, he could barely put enough strength into his hooves to wiggle them within their bonds.

With a quiet thump, Icy landed beside him.

“You've exhausted yourself. It's really kinda simple.”

“Bu... how?” the Prince grunted in frustration. “Why am I so...?”

Icy shrugged. “Cause you've been using up your energy making your origami come alive. It has to come from somewhere, you know?”

The Prince thumped his front hoof against the ground feebly. “But... but I can... I can do as much as I... I'm the Paper Prince!”

Icy nodded, casually sending a freezing bolt at one of the few remaining paper ponies rushing towards her before continuing. “Oh, yeah, don't get me wrong, you can do a lot – it's really pretty nifty – and you do have a lot of power. But, thing is? So does everypony. It's just most of us can tell when we should stop using it up, but it seems like you can't.” She grimaced a little as soon as she said that. “Not because you're dumb or anything, I didn't mean that, it's just it seems like you've got a thing that stops you from telling how much you've used. That's why you've been so tired.”

The Prince's eyes widened before he snorted. “Doesn't matter.” he said as he pulled another piece of paper out of his saddlebags, slowly dragging and clumsily dragging it towards him. “Knew I was tired but... thought my sub... my min... I thought my guys could handle things.”

“Oh, they probably could have,” Icy assured him. “But you spread them too thin, so they were easy to get through.” Her eyes widened as the perfect quip occurred to her. It required a small amount of set-up, but...

“Yeah, that's the thing,” she said, an affected smirk coming onto her face as the Prince struggled to put a fold into the paper, his head beginning to fall and his eyes losing focus. “When the things stopping you are so thin, it's pretty easy to get through them – just put a lot of sharp pressure in one place. In other words:”

Knowing Lance as she did, Icy assumed it was a coincidence that he crossed his swords together over the Prince's throat just before she said:

“Scissors beat paper!”

The Prince's eyes fluttered closed.

“Good one!” He managed to get out before he slipped into unconsciousness.

Comments

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

Loved this. What a battle that was! And that bit at the end, perfect punchline.