Izzy's Thief

by David Silver

1 - Hey, Wait a Second...

Izzy applied some sparkles. It was a careful balance. Sure, to other ponies it looked like she was just sprinkling wildly, but this was a lie! A careful deception! She had to get just the right amount. Too much and it wouldn't make a sparkly even layer. Too little and it just wouldn't sparkle in the first place. She had a lot of practice shaking out just the right amount in one pass and slashing glue in a quick swipe right afterwards. Her horn made that trick a lot easier, giving her more hands to work with.

Her creation was coming together! She giggled with manic glee as she thrust a hoof into a compartment that should have held her thin and long metal shavings, but came back with nothing at all. "What the?" She pulled the entire compartment out and shook it vigorously, but no shavings came loose. There was no metal inside, not even a tiny taste. "But..." She hadn't used that many since last she checked. She should've had tons!

She shoved the little cabinet back in its space and hopped to the floor. "I will find it!"

"You looking for something?" Zipp popped out of nowhere, a talent she had in abundance, much like Izzy. "Thanks to a certain pony, I'm even better at that, lately." She pulled down a rather fancy set of goggles that allowed her to see things normal ponies could not. "What's gone missing?!"

Izzy pointed at the little container. "My six inch metal filings are missing! I know I had more!" complained Izzy in a bit of a whine. "I got more of them just a few days ago. There's no way I used them all so fast."

Zipp inclined her head. "Wait, what color were they?"

"Um..." Izzy wobbled a hoof. "Metal colored? They were all kinds of colors, but six inches!" She held up her hooves six inches apart. "Very important for crafts, and that's what I want to do! I either need to find the filings, or go get more, and that's a big pain, lemme tell ya."

"I'm on the case!" Zipp back flipped out the window of the lighthouse, rapidly lost to sight.

Would she find them? Izzy moved for the door with a soft humm. Whether that worked or not, Izzy was determined to do her part. She'd either find the filings or make new ones. Funny thing about filings, you almost never found them in the wild. You found metal, and you made filings out of the metal. Not the same thing!

She popped a detective cap on her head on the way out. She had a case to crack!

---

"I thought you would be more excited about this."

Remington had her arms crossed as she glared at her equine boss. She was not that. She was a fox, a kitsune to be specific about it. "I was enjoying the day, and then this."

"So enjoy this." Soft typing could be heard. "Besides, it involves the homeworld of your wife. I was certain you'd be excited about it."

"Is..." Remington rolled a paw in the air slowly. "Is this back when she was still there?"

"Hardly." More typing, her hippogriff of a boss conjuring a sphere in the air, bright and holographic. "This is far past the point she left. We aren't trying to damage the flow of time, I'll remind.

"Right right." Remington put a paw over her face. "Don't mess with the flow. You've repeated that a few times now."

"And I will keep doing so!" He snorted as he zoomed in on the view, coming into a city on the shore, busy and bustling. "This is Maretime Bay, home of earth ponies, like your wife used to be. Isn't that nice?"

"Obviously not," cut in Remington, returning some of that acid wit. "Or we wouldn't be visiting. What's wrong that you want me to fix?"

"Something is supposed to be made, that now doesn't get made. See that it gets made."

Remington blinked softly at the image of the busy city. "Can you narrow that down a little bit? That's even vaguer than usual."

"As if it was so easy." He swiveled the chair towards her. "Looking so far in time is like holding a straw up to your eye to see something fifty meters away and describing the threadwork of that person while they're jogging."

"Right, sure." Remington did not sound as supportive as one might have hoped. "I still need something to go with besides 'make sure something gets built. Something could be anything from a space station to a macaroni art. Narrow it a little."

"Straw." He was looking through no literal straws, instead hammering at his keyboard busily. "Ah. A unicorn is involved. They are a minority in this city. Female. Find a unicorn female that's struggling to make something, and be sure they succeed. That narrow enough for you? Can we get on with this?"

"As close as I bet we're getting." Without further todo, Remington stepped out of that secret place between whens and wheres and arrived at a specific place in time to jump out of the way of an oncoming cart. "Don't be in the middle of the road," Remi chastisted herself, starting down the sidewalk. "And fit in with the locals." She fell to all fours, becoming a fox-shaded pony with a suspiciously foxy tail, but still, pony!

She just had to find a certain unicorn.

---

"Boo do doop!" Izzy threw herself bodily into the dumpster, joining the other critters that enjoyed the fine art of swimming around in there. "Good afternoon!" Fortunately, she was on good terms with them. She couldn't talk to them, that was not her thing, but lines had been drawn and nocreature bit the other so long as she followed them. Good enough!

"Now, don't mean to bother..." Which meant she was bothering them. Some of the racoons scowled at her for daring to start a conversation during swimming time. "I know! Something stole my metal shavings." She held up her hooves six inches apart. "Each this big. See anything?"

A blackened banna peel was tossed at her, draping over her face. "That's a no?" She was pretty sure that was a no.

Still, she was in there. She saw no reason not to at least take a peek. She dug and swam and threw things around. It was a lot of fun, really, but it turned up no metal shavings. Sure, some things made of metal. With work, she could shave metal off of them to resupply, but that wasn't an answer for what happened to her collection!

Still, that toy car was waiting to be added to something else. She kept that little faded-white number and hopped out of the bin to the pavement outside. "See ya later!" Unfortunately... "That was a bust... Was it a pony, or something else?!" It could have been a racoonicorn! But she was on decent terms with most of them. They'd just ask her if they wanted some. Not like she'd say no if they made those big adorable eyes...

"Sorry!" She had run right into a pony. It was more confusing that the pony was looking right at them and didn't veer out of the way. Also Izzy didn't recognize them. Not that this was entirely new. It was a big city! "Hi! Nice to meetcha."

"You have a very familiar energy," started Remington, considering the unicorn. "And you are a unicorn."

"Yep, 100% unicorn." She stood proudly at that. "With the morehead on my forehead! How can I help? Is your energy familiar?" She squinted at Remington, gauging their energy. "Kind of vibrantly red-purple, nice! But also..." She leaned in slowly. "Feels off..."

"Not familiar then," finished Remington with a fake smile. "But nice to meet you. I'm Remi." She waved a hoof at herself. "And I was wondering if you are a unicorn that likes to make things, or is in the middle of making something, or know another unicorn that likes to make things?"

Izzy's eyes sparkled. "Oh! That's what I've been doing all day!" She threw her hooves wide. "Something stole my metal filings! Shavings, six inches long." She held up her hoof to demonstrate. "I was trying to find them."

Remi reached out and knocked the banana off Izzy. "Looking in interesting places, it seems. Well, can I help?"

"Would you?!" Izzy began to dance around the fox-colored pony. "Now we are friends. You're Remi, right? I'm Izzy! Only fair to trade both ways."

"Nice to meet you, Izzy." She turned her attention inwards, "Is this the one?" she asked silently to the one she knew was watching her.

"Could be," came the gruff reply of her boss. "See if you can't get her back to making whatever she was making."

"So where did you last see these shavings?"

"Over here," sang out Izzy as she began the bouncing prance towards the lighthouse. "I have a nice thing to organize them too. I thought I'd never lose another thing again, but noooo! Pow, gone, today!" She grunted with annoyance. "Something had to take it! Had to! There's no other way it could have gone missing like that."

"Who would take your things? You seem like a very nice pony." Remi matched paces with Izzy. "Let's find it so you can get back to making...?"

"Yeah!" Izzy did not answer that question. "The sooner the better." She threw open the door to the lighthouse. "Zipp! Find anything?"

Zipp was not wearing her fancy headset anymore. "No luck so far. The trail goes cold there." She pointed to the ground not far from the desk. "Who's your new friend? Hey."

"Hello," greeted Remi in kind. "I'm here to help hunt down the missing metal." She curled a hoof to her chin. "Now, just checking... but if we got new filings, would that work?"

"You have some on you?" asked Izzy with amazement.

Zipp rolled a hoof. "Yeah that would be kinda out there. Do you?"

Remi colored through her fur. "No, but I'm good at finding things. If you want, I'll go get some if that'd help."

"But if we don't know why they vanished, any new filings will go poof too!" She made a poofing gesture with her hooves. "And we won't get anywhere! Oh, this is Remi. Remi, Zipp."

The two ponies waved at one another, properly introduced. "So, show us your skills." Izzy waved over the area. "If you're good at finding things."

"Already on it." Remi sniffed at the ground a bit more than ponies usually did, but as fit a fox perfectly fine, her vulpine tail swishing. "You said they're normally... here right?" She pointed a hoof at the many cubbies that held art supplies."

"Yep!" Izzy propped herself, hooves on the desktop as she beamed at the collection. "I've made quite the collection so I can get to making whatever I want."

"Very impressived." Remi poked at the collection, testing how easily each cubby came loose before pushing them back into place. "Alright." She pulled out the one with barely anything in it, sniffing it. "This had the shavings?"

"Yeah," sadly noted Izzy. "Any clues?"

Remi took a fresh whiff and set the cubby down. "Let's find out!" She followed that scent trail slowly, wandering away from the display. She arrived at a point in the floor where the trail just... stopped.

"Told you." Zipp was looking vindicated. "It goes cold, right there. Still, props for finding it without the goggles. You have a really good sniffer." She pointed at her snout with a smile. "If I could smell that good, it'd help in my investigations, but not today!"

"Find it," commanded a voice in Remi's ears, leaving no room for question, much to her annoyance.

Remi groaned. "Well, we aren't going to give up that easily. Those shavings have to be around here somewhere. Why would there be any trail if it didn't go to... something."

The case wasn't cold, it was just warming up!

Author's Note:

Welcome to this silly little adventure, as requested by my patrons. No fallout advenures? Search for the missing art supplies instead! Do you know Remi? She showed up in a whole other story of mine. You don't need to know her background to enjoy this tale.

Join the special community of folks who like my stories and/or get your own written here at atreon!

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Comments

[Jhoira]

You know... If you were to take off 17 words that would be exactly 2000... (Yes, I'm trying to lure other people into my craziness.)

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

Remington blinked softly at the image of the busy city. "Can you narrow that down a little bit? That's even vauger than usual."

Should be
even vaguer than

[David Silver]

11312845
Fixed!

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

"Remi took a fresh whiff and set the cubby down. "Let's find out!" She followed that scent trail slowly, wandering away from the display. She arrived at a point in the floor where the trail just... stopped."

Extra double quote mark at the beginning and at the end of the paragraph

[howard035]

Good to see Remi again. How's her kid? Also Izzy is fun 100% of the time.