> Iota Force Issue #3: The Treachery of Images
>  by The Iguana Man
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: The Picture
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh my gosh, Oh my Gosh, Oh my Gosh, Spike, I'm so excited!”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Geez, Twilight, are you? I'd have never guessed from you jumping about and squealing like that.”

Twilight turned her head towards Spike, not seeming to entirely notice his exasperation, or even that he had spoken at all. “This is going to be so great – I've read every book about it and the whole subject and I've talked to anyone who might know anything about it. I even talked to
Pinkie's sister about it.” She paused for a moment, thinking. “Was surprised by how much I learned. Probably shouldn't have been surprised, but I was.” After thinking about it a moment longer, she shrugged, whirling around. “But never mind that – the point is that I am so ready for this!”

“Thmt's Grmmt, Tmlmgt.” Spike replied through the wing that had just been thrust into his face. He pulled it off and pushed it back into its place against her side. “But you might want to calm down a little, you're liable to break something with one of those things.”

Fortunately, this seemed to bring Twilight out of her excited trance enough for her to give an apologetic smile. Though she had gotten fairly used to her wings since she'd acquired them, they still had a tendency to do what they wanted when she got flustered and she was a little self-conscious about that.

Spike gave her a gentle smile, feeling a little bad about having brought it up. “Besides, it's not gonna get here until tomorrow. Till then, just relax and...”

Before Spike could realize his error, Twilight spun around again and thrust her face right up against his, their eyes centimetres apart.

“Relax? How can I relax?” She asked, her frenzied enthusiasm having returned in full force. “This is one of the most influential scientific finds in the past five years. It's already altered our understanding of aetheric and optic refraction and amplification. And I. Get. To. STUDY IT!” She let out a squeal as she backed off a couple of steps, presumably so she didn't step on Spike's toes as she trotted in place.

“Yeah, I know, but you'll have almost a week to...”

“And I need to make sure everything's ready!” She interrupted, not breaking flow. Nodding to herself, she straightened up and assumed an authoritative tone. “Spike, did you check the calibration on the X-ray fluorescence analyser?”

Spike sighed. “Yes.”

“Did you assemble the new spectrophotometry array?”

“You mean again? After you asked me three hours ago and I said yes? Because no, I didn't do that.”

“Did y-” Twilight paused mid-word, taking a second to parse what Spike had just said. After a moment's thought about it, she decided he meant yes. “Did you order a new motor for the Cyclic Aetherotron?”

Spike furrowed his brow, thinking back. “Was that the thing we got last month or the one before that?”

Twilight gaped at Spike’s ignorance. “We’ve had it for three months, Spike. You know, the Cyclic…” Huffing, Twilight frowned. “The really fast spinny thing?” She said, barely concealing her disgust at the terminology.

“Ah!” Spike nodded. “The really fast spinny thing motor – ordered, collected, installed. Twi,” He said, holding up a claw to stop her listing anything else, “everything's all ready. And it's not getting any more ready from you going crazy.”

Twilight opened her mouth to respond before closing it abruptly. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she nodded. “I guess you're right.” Opening her eyes, she smiled at her little dragon assistant. “Thanks, Spike. I don't know what I'd do without you.”

She turned away and trotted over to her desk, thankfully missing him mutter: “If only you knew how often I'd thought about that.” Looking at her out of the corner of his eye, Spike decided that, after how much she'd run him ragged over the past couple of days, he was probably entitled to a little mischief. He didn’t mind the work that much, but he was happy for the excuse to mess with her. “Although,” he said, drawing out the word as he felt Twilight's eyes on him again, “there is one thing you could've forgotten.”

“What?!” She shrieked, causing Spike to put his hands over his ear-spines. “What is it, what is it?” She turned her head this way and that, desperately searching for whatever had escaped her scrutiny. “Is it something about the experiment plan? Is it the clearance I need? Is it...?”

“Lunch with Rarity and Fluttershy. And your spa appointment after that.” He could almost hear Twilight freeze briefly and then relax as he looked to the clock on the wall. “In about half an hour. Should give you time for a quick shower before you go.” He turned to see Twilight giving him an unamused look

“Spike! That was... wait, a shower?” Her expression shifted to confusion. “Why would I take a shower an hour before the spa?”

Spike rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from her. “Well, no offence, Twi, but you've been working pretty hard since this thing started and you've gotten a bit... sweaty.” He finished, trying to stay diplomatic.

Twilight turned and sniffed beneath a wing, her eyes widening. “Ooh. Yeeeah.” She looked around the room, her face apprehensive. “You know, I'm sure Rarity and Fluttershy wouldn't mind if I took a rain check on things.” She nodded to herself and started trotting towards the door and away from the shower. “Just for a week or so, leave it till this is all over. Yeah, I'll just go and tell them and I'm sure they...” She trailed off as she realized that she wasn't moving. Looking behind her, she saw Spike holding her tail in one hand, her hooves sliding ineffectually against the crystal floor.

For a little guy, he was surprisingly strong. Though for a dragon, it was about normal.

“Twilight!” Spike said, his voice as hard as the sternest teacher, successfully subduing the pony four times his size. “This is a very big project and you're going to be very busy over the next few days. This is one of the last big times you'll have with your friends for a while.”

“Don't be silly, Spike – they're my friends, they won’t mind. It's not like they'll completely move on and forget about me just because I'm incommunicado for a few days.” She rolled her eyes, smirking at the thought. “That'd be ridiculous.”

“They won't mind,” Spike said simply. “But you will.”

“I...” Twilight pouted for a moment in contemplation before sighing, her shoulders sagging. “You're right, Spike.” She put a hoof on his lips just as he was opening them. “And if you say “as usual” or anything like that, you're grounded.”

The two shared a chuckle as Twilight trotted in the direction of the shower. Before she reached the door, however, a loud thump echoed through the castle, shaking the floor and making the walls ring with a note of exactly F sharp. An instant later, there was a high-pitched squealing sound, followed by a more muffled thump and a quiet moan.

“Ah,” said Twilight, “mail's here.”

Without another word, she trotted to the door, pausing only to get a first aid kit from the wall. As she trotted out, Spike went to get a broom from the cupboard – Twilight's little squee-session had kicked up a lot of dust.

As he got the broom out, he considered how automatically Twilight had gone to get the mail rather than asking him. She knew not to, of course. It was a curious quirk of his, he had to admit, but despite all the many, many, many things he did for Twilight to help her out and keep her alive, healthy and sane, he drew the line at getting the mail or the paper for her. She didn't mind too much, but it was odd.

Probably had something to do with him having been a dog for a few days.

He'd just started sweeping when he heard Twilight's voice echo through the castle. “Er, Spike? Could you, um... Could you come out here for a moment, please?”

Perturbed by her tone, Spike did as he was asked. He put the broom carefully down, opened the door and jogged down the corridors of the castle towards Twilight, who was standing just inside the front door.

“Spike,” she said, not looking at him and pointing a hoof at the ground to the side of the doorway, “I realize that I probably already know the answer to this question but... did you do that?”

Frowning at Twilight, though more out of puzzlement than irritation, Spike came up and looked at what she was pointing at. His frown and confusion deepened.

“No. Wasn't me. Did you do it?” Blinking as he realized how silly that question sounded, Spike quickly clarified. “I mean, by accident, some sort of misfired spell or magic... thing?”

“No, there's no spell I know that'd do anything like that. Besides, I think I'd have noticed if I did.”

“I guess so.”

In front of the castle were lines, painted in a bright white directly onto the grass beside the path in front of the castle, like the lines on a Buckball field. The largest lines, each a good ten meters long, formed a very distinct shape – a pentagram. The central space of the pentagram looked blank, except for the slightly-dizzier-than-normal pegasus lying on top of it who, come to think of it, had a reason to have been distracted mid-flight this time. However, each of the five points contained a number of smaller and more complex lines. From their low angle, neither Twilight nor Spike could tell if they formed any sort of picture, but they might well have done. They were meticulously painted and looked durable enough that it seemed they wouldn’t be disrupted by being stepped or fallen on but looked light enough that they could be washed off by enough water.

“Well,” Twilight concluded after a minute or so pondering the new addition, “Either we've got the most esoteric graffiti artist ever on our hooves or...” she paused, thinking about what else it could mean before shrugging, “something really weird is going on.” She sighed. “Guess I'm cancelling that lunch after a-”

“No, Twi,” Spike interrupted, “you're not. I think I might have an idea who’s responsible. And if I'm right, I know just the ponies to ask.”

***

Icy Flight trotted along, whistling to herself. She was very good at whistling, able to control her tone and volume to a surprising degree and having a natural sense for how the air flowed and sounded out of her pursed lips. A number of times, people had overheard her whistling and been surprised when they saw her, having assumed it had come from an actual instrument. Icy wondered if it would be possible to make a career out of whistling. Maybe you could gather together a whole choir of ponies with different ranges and have them whistle together in concerts. You'd need a conductor, of course... she assumed – she had no idea what a conductor did other than stand there and wave a stick, but she'd heard lots of musicians needed one.

She shook her head, starting a new tune. It wouldn't work for her anyway – you'd probably need a cutie mark in music to join that kind of thing. Or at least in whistling. Although, she pondered, what would a cutie mark like that look like? A music note would be too vague, so maybe one next to a mouth with whistling lips? No, that'd just look like someone was continually kissing your haunch and that'd just be icky. Maybe a referee's whistle shaped like a music note. She briefly considered suggesting the idea to Scootaloo and her friends, but quickly dismissed the notion. Scootaloo would probably say it “wasn't awesome enough”. Besides, with those fillies' reputation, they'd probably end up shattering every window in Ponyville. Or at least walk into a bunch of things because they were distracted trying to whistle. Not that that would ever happen to Icy.

Two seconds after having that thought, Icy picked herself up off the ground and glared back at the rock she'd tripped over. Getting distracted because she was thinking about whistling, that was still a possibility.

Shaking her head, she resumed trotting and whistling and, within five seconds, she barely remembered the impact.

She looked up above the rooftops to make sure she was still going in the right direction. Fortunately, having her destination be the largest and most distinctive building in the whole town made the task fairly simple. There's the castle. She thought. A small thrill still went through her as she thought about going there, despite having been before. And not just as a tourist or something, but as a full-on guest. However, the excitement had diminished somewhat as the castle went, in her mind, from The Super Sparkly Awesome Princess Castletm to My friend's house.

Her wings fluttered in anticipation. A new comic miniseries was coming out soon from one of her favourite writers, Gale Sign, and she'd initially been disappointed that it was about Doctor Curio. Not that she disliked the character, of course – he suffered a bit from the Power Ponies problem of “oh, he can do magic, big whoop” but he had a cool look at least. The problem was that she didn't really know that much about the character and was worried she'd get lost if she picked up the series.

However, when she'd mentioned it to Spike in passing, he'd very kindly offered to lend her some old issues of the original series to look through and see if she wanted to read the new series.

Well, eventually he offered. Before that, they had a brief discussion about who would win in a fight between Doctor Curio and Doctor Fortune. The results, as usual, had been quieter than their first... conversation but no more conclusive.

Of course, that had all been a few days ago and Spike had said he'd be pretty busy from tomorrow onwards. And so, being as punctual as she ever was, she was going over on the last day she could.

Not that it would have been that much of a problem to wait a week or so. Things had been rather quiet in the town for a while, at least from the perspective of the general craziness that tended to pass through. There'd been no monsters or baddies, either child or adult, to worry about, but the town was still reasonably busy – they were just entering the second half of November, which meant that preparations for winter were getting into full swing. However, that was all adult business, nothing really for her to worry about – her only concern about the snow was hoping it'd get there quicker.

As she finished her song, ending on a long, trilling note, she heard a familiar voice echo around the corner.

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me!”

Scootaloo's voice sounded surprised and exasperated. Icy's note trailed off as she picked up her pace a little. Either the crusaders tried base jumping again or... She turned the corner and looked, realizing immediately that it was definitely “or…”.

In the square, among several other curious onlookers, were Scootaloo and Dinky. Dinky was sitting, looking at the huge lines painted onto the dirt, her hoof on her chin, while Scootaloo was pacing back and forth, her wings intermittently buzzing with agitation.

“He has to pull this stuff now?” Scootaloo seethed as Icy trotted up to the two. “I mean, the little butthead's a pain in the...” she paused, looking around at the various adults within earshot, “neck anyway, but now he's gotta come around when 'Lula and Truff are gone?”

“Maybe that's why.” Dinky offered quietly.

Icy frowned. It was true that the team was a little short-staffed at the moment, though it hadn’t mattered recently. After the incident on Nightmare Night, Twist's parents had quickly arranged a vacation to help her recover and Truffle had gone with to help her. The two were on the Mane Coast and, from the postcard Icy had received, were having a great time. Mind you, that was each for different reasons – Twist was enjoying the peace and the scenery and Truffle was enjoying the food.

Meanwhile, Alula's mother had been called away to some unnamed town on the other side of Equestria and Alula had gone with her. Apparently something big had gone down there a few weeks ago involving the Princess and her friends, so a number of psychiatrists had been needed to help the people there recover. And not just psychiatrists either, a few detectives and investigators had gone there as well – Icy only really knew what she did because she'd heard that her Uncle (technically first cousin once removed, but he was too fun not to be an uncle), Night Flight, had been asked to go and he was a detective. Privately, Icy wondered if Alula had gone with in that capacity as well.

Cheerilee had been very understanding, of course. All three had been set homework and reading to do, but none of them minded – Twist was already very studious, Truffle took it in stride and Alula probably knew most of it anyway. That filly was unnervingly intelligent.

So, yes, they were two members down, but Icy didn't see why that mattered. After all...

“Icy!”

Icy jumped as Scootaloo barked in her ear. She shook her head, both to get herself out of her reverie and the ringing out of her ears.

“Sorry,” she muttered, still a little dazed, “got a bit distracted, what did you say?”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes a little ay Icy's daydreaming. “Just wanted to know what you thought of this.”

Icy turned to where Scootaloo was pointing, looking over the bizarre street art. She frowned, unsure the orange filly was getting at.

“Well, it's a... bunch of lines.” She paused, hoping Scootaloo would comment. When she didn't, Icy continued. “Probably make a picture or something but I can't see from this angle.” She paused again, until the continued silence started to annoy her a bit. “Sorry, what am I supposed to say?”

Scootaloo opened her mouth to respond before Dinky piped up. “Er, Scootaloo, she's only been in town for a month and a bit, remember?”

Realization dawned on Scootaloo's face as she stamped a hoof on the ground lightly. “Oh, right... sorry.”

“That's fine,” Icy smiled, “just... what's going on?”

“Well, we're not sure yet,” Dinky said, looking over the lines, “but it looks like it could be someone we've met before.”

“Really?” Icy asked. She'd assumed that Iota Force might have a few enemies, but hadn't really thought to ask about them.

“Sure. Come on,” Scootaloo said, trotting over to the tree her scooter was resting on, “we'll tell you once we meet up with the others.”

“Oh, could you hold on a sec,” Icy asked, causing Scootaloo to stop but not turn around, “does this mean we're going to be... busy again?”

“Probably.” Scootaloo said with a hint of impatience, her back still to Icy.

“In that case, I just need to talk to Spike for a moment, put a rain check on something.”

Scootaloo huffed a little, but Dinky trotted up and put a hoof on her shoulder, Scootaloo not being a big hugger.

“That's okay, we'll just tell the others about this while you do that.” She said, pulling her badge out of her saddlebags.

As she trotted towards the castle, Icy heard Scootaloo call after her. “And try not to get too hung up on nerd stuff when you talk to him.”

Icy gave an affirmative hoof wave before muttering: “No promises.”

***

The trip over to Pip's house had been relatively silent, devoid of even Scootaloo's usual complaining about how the others were slowing her down. In fact, she seemed to be seething a little, although, from what Icy could tell, it wasn't anger at her. She wasn't sure what the anger was directed at, though.

They'd made one stop on the way – at the post office. Apparently they had to check their P.O. Box and, it being a Sunday, they'd had to get Dinky's mother to unlock it for them. Of course, until that moment, Icy didn't know that that was a thing.

The P.O. Box, that was, not Dinky's mother. You couldn't know Dinky for long without hearing wonderful things about her mother.

As the others had suspected, there was indeed something for the team there. Which confused Dinky's mom, since it apparently hadn't been there at closing time the previous night. Which in turn meant that someone would have had to break into the post office to put it there. Which in turn did not surprise Dinky or Scootaloo which in turn did surprise Icy.

There were lots of turns in this case, apparently.

When they got to Pipsqueak's house, Lance and Archer were already there, sitting on the sofa. Lance was sitting up, staring into space as if in intense thought while Archer was lying upside down, her head down on the floor, her hind legs resting on the back and her front hooves drumming gently on the edge of the seat. She looked up as the others entered, smiling a little but not moving her body.

“Hey, guys! Heard we got a picture puzzle on our hands.”

“Yep,” Scootaloo groused, “perfect timing, am I right?”

Icy raised an eyebrow, still no more informed on the matter. “Picture puzzle?”

“Yep, that's kind of his thing.” Pip said, walking into the basement room behind them. After letting them in, he'd told them to go down and that he needed to get something from upstairs. Apparently, that thing was a thin, green file folder.

“Who?” Icy asked, following Pip as he trotted towards his desk. She was beginning to get a little annoyed at this point.

Fortunately, this time, an answer came. Pip pulled a photograph out of the folder and tossed it down onto the desk. “This little blighter. Calls himself Magic Eye.”

Icy put her front hooves onto the desk and looked down at the photograph. It showed a young colt, probably no older than her. He had a orange coat and a blonde mane, though most of both were covered up. He was wearing what looked like some sort of business suit, though more colourful than most – a blue jacket and waistcoat, a white shirt and a blue tie. He even wore trousers, in the same blue as the jacket, both giving him an unusual look and covering up his cutie mark. Assuming he even had one – at that age, he may very well not have.

On his head was a hat in the same blue – round, with completely vertical sides and a very short brim. Icy vaguely remembered it was called a “Porkie Pie” hat – odd name, she thought, but apparently it was named after some politician or something. His eyes were covered by a simple domino mask. The insides of the eyepieces, meanwhile, looked like blank white spaces. It did a surprisingly good job of altering his face and a surprisingly poor job of hiding his expression. One eyepiece was as widened as his eye would have been as he raised one eyebrow. His mouth was pulled into a confident smirk.

The only other thing of note about him was a brooch he wore on his hat brim – a question mark with a stylized eye inside the loop.

Overall, he looked like a very weird little colt, but Icy wasn't sure he looked particularly dangerous.

“Magic Eye...” She repeated, pondering a moment. “Does he have any special powers?”

“I don't think so.” Dinky said, looking at the photo as well – presumably she already knew him, but she might have been re-familiarizing herself. “We haven't seen anything like that.”

Icy nodded, thinking through the other possibilities. “Does he have special machines or gimmicks.”

Looking over, Icy saw Lance tilt his head to the side in thought, before waving his hoof from side to side in a “kind of” gesture.

“He's pretty good with gadgets, far as we can tell.” Archer replied, still upside-down. “But nothing he's always got. Don't even know if he makes 'em or buys 'em. From what we've seen, he could afford 'em.”

Icy frowned, a little puzzled. “So, he's like a mastermind-type bad guy? You know, like Lethal Lexicon – no special stuff, just really smart and good at planning?”

For some reason, this elicited a snort from Scootaloo before Archer responded. “Pretty much, yeah. Doesn't aim that high, though. Usually just steals stuff.”

Icy looked at the picture again. From what she could see, he certainly seemed to carry himself with the confidence of that type of villain. “So, you think he made that... big picture thing in front of the castle?” She paused as the others nodded. “Why?”

“Like I said, that's his thing.” Pip replied, shrugging. “He likes to give you puzzles and clues to what he's gonna rob before he does it, see if people can figure it out in time to stop him.”

Icy blinked in confusion. “He tells you where he's going to attack before he attacks it? Why?” She knew she was starting to sound a touch repetitive at this point, but she had to ask again.

At this, everyone looked a little unsure. “Far as we can tell, he enjoys it.” Archer said, finally righting herself on the sofa. “It's a game to him, see if he can outsmart us.”

“And he likes to rub our snouts in it we don't figure out his horseapples.” Scootaloo growled.

“Scootaloo!” Dinky admonished her language quietly.

“Sorry.” Scootaloo mumbled, clearly lying.

Icy barely noticed, too busy thinking about what she'd learned. “So, he steals things, right? Well, I mean, doesn't that mean we can figure out where he's probably going without clues. I mean, this isn't a big town, there can't be that much to steal.” Her eyes widened as she realized how insulting that sounded. “Um, no offense.”

“None taken,” Archer replied, as if she ever took offense at anything, “And you'd think so, wouldn't you? But last time we met, he robbed Sweet Apple Acres.”

Icy opened her mouth, raised a hoof, paused for a few seconds, closed her mouth, put her hoof down, tilted her head to the side, raised her hoof, opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again and then finally answered. “...of what?”

“Far as we can tell? Apples.”

“Right.” Icy replied hesitantly. “He stole... apples.” That was... she didn't know what that was. Admittedly, after seeing Applejack's reaction to scrumpers, it was obvious apples were important to some ponies, but to a thief? “Is there a big black market for apples?” She imagined a scene of back-alley greengrocers, opening their coats to reveal rows of stolen bananas and pears. A part of her mind giggled at the image while the rest of it still tried to see the reasoning.

“No, he says it's not about the money – he just wanted to see if we could figure out he was going there.” Pipsqueak said, his face flat and unimpressed by the idea.

“So... why is he a problem?” Icy asked.

At this, Pip's eyes widened a little, allowing a small trace of seriousness onto his face. “Because the next night he went for the Ponyville bank and nearly got away with two hundred thousand bits.”

Icy's eyes widened as well, this time in surprise. She wasn't the best at maths or economics, admittedly, but she knew that was a lot of money. But he did say “nearly. Icy realized, her worry fading slightly. “But you caught him, right?”

The sudden uncomfortable silence caught Icy completely off guard. She looked around to see most of the others looking a little embarrassed. Except Scootaloo, who just looked even more annoyed.

“We stopped him.” Dinky said after a few seconds. “We got the money back.”

“You didn't catch him?”

“No one's caught him, yet.” Archer replied. If one looked at her face incredibly closely, maybe with a microscope, one might just about see the beginnings of a frown on her face. “We can stop him most of the time, but trying to catch him – he's always able to figure out some way to escape.”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo added, “little pri... little jerk's slipperier than an eel.” She scowled at the picture. “Just about as likable too.”

A little disturbed at Scootaloo's irritation, Icy turned her attention to the envelope they'd retrieved. “So, if the picture’s the clue, what's in the envelope?”

“The picture's one clue, but since that probably wouldn’t be enough, this’ll be another.” Dinky clarified, opening the envelope. She pulled out a photo of the street lines taken from above and a parchment, the latter of which she gave to Icy.

Icy took the note and started to read out loud:

Dear Iota Force,

I have a puzzle for you.

You've no doubt noticed my little doodle – I did put it in the middle of town beneath the biggest building around for that precise purpose after all. As you have no doubt surmised, this is a picture portion of my little challenge. Each picture is a different clue to a different crime and, once you complete the picture, you'll see my grand finale.

However, while I hope that my tableau will last until after I'm finished in this town, and certainly should if did my homework right, I know that some ponies may be less than civic-minded and erase it. Someone should really talk to them about that – one should never stifle a young colt's creativity, you know. It might disrupt my emotional development. We wouldn't want me to grow up into some menace to society, now would we?

As such, I have taken the liberty of providing a photo of my work, both for use and posterity.

Now, I'm sure you're impatient for my first linguistic clue. Well, ask and ye shall receive. In fact, don't ask and ye shall still receive. Aren't I generous?

“A cavalry line without vanguard or rear,
Staked through the heart with an unheaded spear,
We gallop along, never touching the floor,
To reach where we started and ride on once more.”

Hopefully, I shall see you Monday night.

Yours,
Magic Eye.

Icy blinked as she finished, looking down at the photo, then back to the letter.

“What a strange pony!”

At this, Scootaloo finally smirked a little and put a hoof on Icy's shoulder.

“Filly, you got no idea!”


> Chapter One: The Cavalry (Part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Mom? What's a “cavalry line”?”

Sunny Flight blinked for a moment as she registered the question. She had been levitating up a chopping board when it was asked, ready to pour the diced turnips into the saucepan, softening them up for mashing. As it was, the board simply hovered over the pan, tilted at a slight angle as if it was confused by the sudden question.

After a second or two, though, Sunny recovered and continued cooking – she was used to strange, seemingly out-of-nowhere questions from her daughter.

“Well,” She began, keeping an eye on the clock above the door, “it sort of depends – it can mean a few different things.”

“I know.” Icy replied, looking more than a little put out. “Every time I ask someone, I get a different answer. Well, one of a few, anyway.” She sighed. “Why do we even have words like that, anyway? What's the point of haemophones?”

“Homophones.” Sunny corrected.

“Yeah, them.” Icy nodded. “I mean, a bow can mean a ribbon all tied up or a thing that fires arrows. Why can't we just call the arrow-firer a bow and a tied up ribbon a... smilgop or something?”

Sunny smiled, amused at the tangent. “Well, first off, that's not a homophone.”

Icy frowned, though in confusion at her mother's words rather than annoyance at her pedantry.

“A homophone is when words are spelt differently and mean different things, but they sound the same when you say them, like eye and I”, Sunny explained, pointing a hoof at her eye and her chest respectively. “When they're the same word, spelt and said the same, that's called a homonym.” She smiled, satisfied with her explanation, before it dropped slightly when she saw that Icy's expression hadn't shifted into understanding. “Well, anyway, that's not important. The second problem is that, well, you're trying to apply logic.”

“...yeah?” Icy said slowly, as if preparing for verbal traps. “Isn't that what you're supposed to do?”

“Normally, yes. With language, no.” Sunny shook her head as she turned the flame under the pan down to a simmer, covered it with a lid and trotted over to the kitchen table, sitting opposite Icy. “Language is basically made up of every little thing ponies say. Once enough ponies say it enough times, it becomes part of the language, whether or not it makes sense.”

“Oh. So it's a kinda magic – if enough ponies say something, it automatically becomes true?”

Sunny shook her head, chuckling at her daughter's fantasy. “Sort of, but no. It's more like a really big suggestion. If enough people hear it and go “Yeah, that should be in the language”, it gets put in."

“Even if it doesn't makes sense?” Icy asked. She didn't look like she got it entirely, but the general idea was beginning to sink in.

“Even if it doesn't make sense.” Sunny confirmed.

“But that's dumb.” Icy declared officiously. “I'm going to start suggesting different words
for homonomonyms that do make sense.” She said, her expression briefly gaining a look of determination before it faded when the heard her mother's stifled snigger. “What? That'd work, wouldn't it?”

“Well, it could,” Sunny acknowledged, “if you explained exactly what your new word meant every time the word came up for every single homonym you want to replace and you could convince everyone that your word was better.”

Icy looked down at the table, embarrassed. “I could explain it.” She muttered weakly.

Sunny nodded, pretending to consider her idea. “Okay, so you wanted to a call a ribbon bow a...”

“Smilgop.” Icy repeated, showing far more care with remembering her own made-up word than many established ones.

“Okay,” Sunny began, “but I think that should be called a bow, but a thing that fires arrows should be called a paltrig.” She continued, coming up with the silliest sounding word she could from the top of her head.

Icy nodded, pondering the word seriously. “Okay, that could work, too.” She smiled, thinking for a moment she was winning the debate. “Okay, we'll call an arrow-bow a...” She trailed off, expecting her mother to repeat the word.

Instead, she put a hoof to her chin and looked up. “Of course, my friend says that you were right, and a ribbon-bow should be called a smilgop.”

Icy faltered. “Well, could we convince her to call an arrow-bow a... patrig?” She asked, taking a moment to recall the word.

“Paltrig.” Sunny corrected, suppressing a giggle at how silly the topic had gotten and how seriously Icy was arguing it. “And she says you should convince me to call a ribbow-bow a smilgop.”

“I... well, we could...” Icy trailed off, closing her eyes and sighing in defeat. “I still think a word meaning different things is dumb.”

At this, Sunny finally allowed herself a small laugh. “No argument here.”

Icy nodded, seeming to accept that as the closest thing to a concession she was likely to get. She went to hop down from her chair before suddenly remembering the reason she started the conversation in the first place. “Oh! Cavalry!”

“Oh, right!” Sunny replied, knocking a hoof against the table quietly as she remembered. She picked up the timer by the cooker in her magic, setting it in case she got caught up with her explanation. “Well, it goes back in history a bit. See, a long time ago, way before even Celestia and Luna came to power, the three tribes didn't really get on.”

“I know that, Mom,” Icy interjected, sounding a little patronized, “I've seen the hearth's warming play.”

Sunny paused, making sure Icy had finished before continuing. “I know, but that? That was pretty peaceful compared to some of the stuff that happened before then. It was still bad, though.” She added quickly, not wanting to give Icy the wrong idea. “But, yeah, before that, there were times when the tribes fought. Big armies, big battles... a lot of ponies got hurt.”

“How do you know?” Icy asked before immediately answering herself. “Oh, right, sorry, I forgot, you've seen lots of stuff from the old days, haven't you?”

“I didn't study it myself.” Sunny pointed out. “But a lot of ponies have and they've figured it out. Anyway, the earth ponies had numbers and strength on their side, among other things, but they had one major disadvantage – wielding weapons.”

“What do you mean?” Icy was confused – understandable, considering two of her teammates seemed to indicate that wasn't a problem.

“Well, a unicorn could just wield a weapon in their magic. A pegasus could wield it in their wings on the ground and in their hooves in the air. But an earth pony? Mouth-wielding a weapon is tricky against a magic- or wing-hold, since the neck isn't designed for the same level of movement. The only real thing they could do is stand on their hind legs and wield it in their front hooves. Which they could do, sure, but they'd need to be really good, either through Talent or practice, to fight like that effectively.”

Icy nodded. “Being really good” seemed to be adequate explanation for her friends.

“So, to solve this problem, they created Cavalry regiments. A regiment is a part of an army, by the way.” Sunny explained as soon as she realized Icy might not know the term.

Icy rolled her eyes. “I know that, Mom. The JLE have fought the Monster's Regiment enough times.”

Surprising an endeared sigh, Sunny continued. “A cavalry regiment basically consisted on ponies riding on other ponies' backs. That way, they could use both their front hooves for their weapons.”

“That's a bit weird,” Icy pondered. “I mean, you have to use an entire other pony for that, and you'd be a bigger target too. They can't have been that good, could they?”

“Actually, yes.” Sunny answered. “You see, because you had two ponies with different jobs, they could both focus on their jobs exclusively. The rider could focus entirely on fighting and the mount could focus entirely on moving, while a unicorn or a pegasus would have to split their focus between them. A well-trained cavalry unit was usually worth two infantry... ordinary units at least.”

“Huh, okay.” Icy nodded. “So cavalry means ponies riding on other ponies’ backs.”

“Weeeell,” Sunny began, stretching out the word to postpone having to say what she would, knowing Icy wouldn't like it, “it can, but not usually any more. After the unification of the tribes, cavalry wasn't such a necessity anymore. It was still used, but not as much. So, the word “cavalry” started to mean a unit in combat who was focused more on mobility than aggression. More on moving than fighting.”

“So,” Icy began, trying to understand what her mother was saying, “cavalry means ponies who move around a lot in a fight?”

“Again, it can. But because a cavalry charge was a widely-used tactic, it can mean ponies who just move really fast straight at their opponents. Kind of the opposite, when you think about it.

As Sunny had predicted, Icy's frustration was beginning to show. “So, moving around a lot or moving a lot, but not moving around a lot?”

Sunny nodded. “Or it can just mean a pony who moves and fights by riding something else, not necessarily another pony or even another living thing, like bikes, chariots or... other methods of transportation.” She finished, giving a knowing smile.

This broke through Icy's annoyance a little as she thought about a couple of ponies she knew who that could apply to. However, she quickly became thoughtful again. “So, cavalry means... a bunch of ponies moving?”

Sunny nodded. “Pretty much.”

“And a cavalry line would be a bunch of ponies moving in a line?”

“I suppose so, yes.”

“Well, that... doesn't help much.”

“Sorry.” Sunny gave a helpless smile. “What brought it up, if you don't mind me asking?”

“That's okay, Mom.” Icy waved off her apology with a hoof. “It's just this thing that's...”

Before Icy could continue, the timer pinged and Sunny turned back to the cooker. “Oh, actually, hold that thought, I just need to finish dinner.”

“Don't worry, it can wait.” Icy replied, hopping down off her chair and trotting towards the doorway. Stopping inside it, she turned back to her mother. “Oh, by the way, what's a vanguard?”

“The front bit of an army.” Sunny answered without looking up.

Icy paused, expecting something more. “That's it?”

“Yep.”

“Oh. Okay.” Icy shrugged and trotted out of the room.





Icy sighed to herself, trying to focus herself on the worksheet in front of her.

As it turned out, she hadn't talked any more to her mother the previous night. Not that anything else had come up, it had just slipped both their minds, as many things tended to do. Unfortunately, this meant that she was up far later than she would have liked thinking about the riddle, trying to decipher it now she knew what part of it meant. A line of ponies moving... without a front bit or a back bit and without touching the ground. That last bit could mean pegasi, except that pegasi don't “gallop” in the air. Maybe it means some sort of levitation? But then why would they gallop at all? And so her thoughts went until she finally managed to drift off.

While Icy was by no means a stranger to staying up far later than she should, being used to it didn't help its effects. Specifically, the fact that she was incredibly groggy when the morning came and had to be practically dragged out of bed and rushed off to school to stop her from being late. That tiredness, combined with her mind being hung up on other things, made concentrating on her schoolwork a monumental struggle.

Deciding to take a quick break after the last maths problem, Icy looked up at the students around her. Having almost been late, she hadn't had a chance to get together with the others to compare notes this morning, so she wondered if they were as distracted as she was.

She was seated around the middle of the class and she knew that turning her head around might provoke the ire of her teacher (as she was still relatively new to the town and had not yet learned that Cheerilee had very little ire to provoke). That meant she couldn't see Archer, who sat near the back. However, Icy suspected she didn't really need to to read her mood – at a guess, she'd say “relaxed-bordering-on-catatonic”.

However, she could see the others. Dinky and Pip were sat next to each other, both working very studiously. Occasionally, when Cheerilee wasn't looking, they would whisper very quietly to one another, pointing at something in the workbook. It seemed they were helping each other out with questions they had problems with. The grateful smiles and silent giggles indicated that neither minded being bothered.

In fact, unbeknownst to Icy, Cheerilee was perfectly well aware of their collusion, but frankly didn't have the heart to stop them, as she found the whole thing absolutely adorable. Besides, it helped them learn and understand the problems, so as long as it didn't hinder them more than it helped, she saw no need to break them up.

Meanwhile, Lance was concentrating entirely on the problems, his pencil scribbling continually on his paper, both his notebook as well as a loose piece of paper, presumably for calculations. 

Scootaloo, on the other hand, though she was definitely working on the problems, could not have looked more bored. She scrawled slowly on the paper in front of her, as if she barely had the energy to move it at more than a snail's pace. Although, to be fair, Snails' pace of writing was much slower, Icy could see, even ignoring how long it took him to mouth out the words. Occasionally, Scootaloo would look up at her friends to her left – Apple Bloom, whose pencil strokes were swift and precise, looking as if she was having no issues with the work, and Sweetie Belle, who did seem to be having a little trouble, but was gamely ploughing through her task without looking up. Upon seeing this, she would look up at Cheerilee, then her eyes might flick to Dinky and Pip if they were talking, then back down to her work with an undisguised look of envy on her face.

Icy smirked a little before she too went back to the book, happy that at least she was starting to remember some of her other classmates' names without difficulty. After a few more problems, the bell mercifully rang.

“Okay, class,” Cheerilee chirped, beaming as her students gave her their full attention, “time for recess. If you didn't manage to get to at least question 17, you'll need to do the rest for homework by Wednesday.” Her smile remained in place, unbothered by the groans that arose from many students. “After recess, we've got geography, so until then – be free, young ones!” She giggled at her own joke as the students got up from their desks. Fortunately, the gloom that had arisen when she brought up the dreaded H-word had been dispelled by her other announcement – at this point in their school lives, geography mostly consisted of colouring in pictures, so it was something of a favourite subject for many.

Icy quickly got her stuff packed up, hoping to spend as much time as possible talking over Magic Eye's puzzle with the others. As she went to the front of the class, she glanced over at Lance, who was putting his things away with much less urgency. She saw the loose piece of paper he'd been working on. As she'd thought, it contained numbers and calculations, but also, in the corner, was scribbled the riddle she'd been thinking about. The last line, To reach where we started and ride on once more, had been circled and a few thoughts were written underneath it.

In a loop?

Going backwards and forwards?

Spacewarp?

After a moment, Icy caught Lance looking at her out of the corner of her eye. She blinked, realizing she had been staring. “Sorry.” She said quietly.

Lance shrugged, putting away the paper and getting up from his chair. He tilted his head at her.

“No, haven't been able to figure out much.” Icy answered his silent query. “You've been working on the last line?” Lance nodded as they started to walk out. “Good idea. I've been thinking about the third one mostly. Also the first - what's a line without a front or a back?”

“A line without a front or back?” A voice to their left repeated. Icy looked and realized they'd been walking past Cheerilee's desk as she'd said that. “Well, that could mean a lot of things.”

Icy instinctively started to apologize, intending to get through things and get out as quickly as possible before she stopped herself – it couldn't hurt to get a bit of help. “Could it?”

“Oh, yes,” Cheerilee replied, “it depends what you mean by a line, hold on a moment.” She ducked down to the drawers in her desk.

Behind her, Icy heard hoofsteps come up behind her and Scootaloo saying “I'll catch you guys up.” Before she could turn around to question it, Cheerilee's head popped back up, a pencil in her mouth and a piece of paper in her hoof.

“Well,” she began, placing the pencil on the paper, “some ponies would say this is a line.” She proceeded to draw a simple square on the paper. “After all, I never took the pencil off the paper, so you could say that's all one line, just with some bends in it.”

“But it's not a line,” Icy pointed out, “it's a square.”

“Exactly,” Cheerilee said, smiling gently at her, “when most ponies say a line, they mean a vector... a straight line without distinct angles.” She clarified quickly, drawing one on the paper. “But, as you can see, that has a front and a back.” She continued, pointing out both ends with a pencil. “Of course, you could make a philosphical argument about which end is the front and which is the back and whether, if neither one is definitely one or the other, it can really be said to have a front or a back...” her rambling trailed off as she remembered she was talking to schoolchildren, “but that's, um...”

She chuckled awkwardly for a moment before continuing. “So, either a line has no distinct angles, meaning it must have a front and a back, or it has no front or back, meaning it must have distinct angles and so isn't really a line. But...” she smiled enigmatically, “there is a line that has neither. One that's between these two.” She pointed at the square and the line. “Do you know what it is?”

There was a moment of silence as the three students thought. It was broken when Lance tapped a hoof on the ground in realization. He hopped up onto his hind hooves, picked up the pencil in a front hoof and drew a loop on the page.

“That's right, Lance,” Cheerilee said, looking like she was having to physically restrain herself from giving him a gold star, “A circle!”

“A circle...” Scootaloo muttered, her eyes widening. “That's great, Miss Cheerilee, thanks for your help I've gotta go and...” were all Icy could make out before Scootaloo was out of earshot and out of the building.

“That's... fine.” Cheerilee tried to call after her before realizing how futile an effort that would be. She smiled at the two who were still there. “I'm always happy when my students want to learn.”

Icy briefly considered telling her that learning had little to do with it, but decided against it. “Well, still, thank you Miss Cheerilee.” Icy said, Lance nodding in agreement before the two trotted after Scootaloo.

Once the two were gone, Cheerilee shook her head. “I hope those kids aren't getting into too much trouble.”





Fortunately, it didn't take long for Icy and Lance to catch up with Scootaloo. She was with Archer, Pip and Dinky, standing under a tree to the right of the door. Pip was just passing Scootaloo the photo they had of the picture in the path. As Icy and Lance trotted up, Scootaloo put the picture on the ground and put her head right up close to it, looking over it and muttering to herself.

“Which one is it? Which one is it?”

“Which is what, Scootaloo?” Icy asked.

Scootaloo's eyes flicked up to her for a split second before returning to the photo in front of her. “Which of the pictures.” She answered.

When it became clear no elaboration was coming, Dinky decided to take up the slack on the explanation. “Well, the riddle and one of the pictures should add up to tell us where he's going tonight, and Scootaloo said she'd figured out the riddle, so she'd trying to...”

“You figured it out?!” Icy blurted out, suddenly excited. She winced when she saw Dinky's ears flatten at the interruption. “Oh, sorry, Dinky.”

“That's okay,” Dinky gave a wan smile, “I'd like to know too.”

This time, Scootaloo's eyes came fully off the photo as she rolled them. “A bunch of flying ponies going in a circle? It's kinda obvious, isn't it?” A hush came over the others as they tried to see the connection. “A tornado! A team of pegasi flying around in a circle is how you make a tornado!”

The hush continued, but this time a contemplative one as everyone considered the possibility. It was certainly an option, but...

“What about the spear?” Archer asked.

Scootaloo stopped, having started to look over the photo again while everyone else thought. “Spear?”

“Yeah, the rhyme says they've got a spear through their chest. That'd make it a little hard to fly, doncha think?”

“Also,” Icy added, “Pegasi don't really gallop, do they? I thought it might be talking about pegasi too, but I don't think it would've talked about galloping if it was.”

Scootaloo's brows creased. “Well... maybe it... he could have meant...” She kicked a hoof on the ground, sending up a little cloud of dust. “Well, what else could it mean?” She asked with a hint of petulance.

“Well, I had an idea it might be a flag or something.” Pip offered a little hesitantly. “I mean, a lot of armies have them, they're usually on spears or poles and they don't touch the floor.” He thought for a moment before shaking his head. “But I can't think of any reason they'd go round in circles or whatever the rest means.”

“Could be a tornado, could be a flag.” Icy said rapidly, her mind racing. “But there's something else. Something they're missing...”

She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, trying to slow down her thoughts so each lasted long enough for her to work on. She tuned out the others' talking and focused on forming a picture in her mind.

A Pony with a spear through them, she did her best to create an approximation of the gruesome image, censoring out all the blood to leave a pony on a pole, galloping along in the air, she set the image in motion, its form leaping forwards, and going in a circle. She altered its path so it went around her imaginary point of view. It looks like... something, maybe? It...

She opened her eyes, still holding the image in her mind, and held a hoof out in front of her, the leg almost completely vertical. She moved the hoof to the left in short hops along with the image. It's... hold on... She slowed the movement down to about half the speed, making the hoof, pole and pony move in a gradual bounce. Just like… She stopped the image’s hooves from moving, freezing them in place as it travelled.

“I've got it!” She cried. She shook her head to dismiss the image and looked to the others, expecting them all to turn their heads to her in surprise.

In fact, it quickly became apparent that they were all staring at her anyway as she had seemed to be having some sort of imaginary puppet show.

Nevertheless, Icy plowed onto her theory. “I think I know what it means – ponies on poles going round in a circle?” She paused a moment for dramatic effect before exclaiming: “A Merry-Go-Round!”

Her teammates' eyes all widened as they considered her answer. “That... works. That works pretty well.” Pip said.

“And... hang on a minute,” Icy continued, “isn't there a house in town that's made up like a merry-go-round?” She remembered looking at it when she'd first looked around the town. She'd passed by it  a few times since, but hadn't honestly paid much attention. It was presumably a toy shop, what with the whole fairground ride theme, but she hadn't really felt like looking at any point. Also, not very many children seemed to go in there – from what little she had seen, it was mostly adults – so she wasn't sure how good it was.

“Yeah, hold on a mo'.” Archer said as she looked over the photo they had. After a second, she turned it upside down and put a hoof down on the point nearest the castle. Icy wasn't sure what it was – some curved lines with a couple of diamonds and another curve sticking out. “That's a dress, he's going for the Carousel Boutique.”

Part of Icy's mind made a note to ask what a “boutique” was – she thought it just meant a shop, but there might have been more – and what a dress had to do with it – dolls, maybe – but the rest of it made her hop to her hooves and start trotting away.

“Icy?” Dinky asked from behind her. “Where are you going?”

“To this carousel toy shop. Aren't you guys... coming...?” Icy trailed off as she looked over her shoulder at the others, still sitting down with the schoolhouse behind them. “Oh... right... school. I forgot” She muttered, trotting back in embarrassment.

Fortunately, said embarrassment was quickly overwhelmed by surprise as she felt a tiny, strong and unmistakable set of hooves wrap around her chest.

“Don't worry,” Dinky assured her, “he won't come 'til tonight, so we've got plenty of time. And we wouldn't have even known where to go if you hadn't figured it out!”

Despite herself, Icy found herself smiling at Dinky's sincerity.

“Well, anyway, now we know, we can go there afterwards. So, if you don't mind,” Scootaloo stood up abruptly and started walking away, still sounding a little sore, “I've got stuff to do. Lost enough crusading time already.” She finished in a mutter.

After an awkward pause, Icy spoke up, not looking away from Scootaloo's retreating form. “Geez, what's with her?”

Archer shrugged. “She's a mare of action. Doesn't like sitting still and thinking about these kinds of things.” She paused for a moment before adding. “Also, she hates that she can't catch Magic Eye.”

“I thought you said no one could.” Icy pointed out.

“No one has yet.” Archer corrected with a minute amount of force. “And yeah, but you know Scoots – little speed demon and all that. For the fastest thing on four wheels not to be able to catch an Earth Pony... 'sgonna be a bit of a sore point.”

Icy nodded. “I guess. But at least we know where he's going now – maybe we'll catch him this time!”

The others murmured hesitantly. Lance gave a shrug that seemed to say: “Well, anything's possible.”
> Chapter One: The Cavalry (Part 2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

That afternoon, Icy, Archer and Scootaloo trotted to the Carousel Boutique.

“You do know we don't have to be here 'til tonight, right, Icy?” Scootaloo asked before grumbling, “I mean, even if you do, I know I don't.”

“Well, you do know her sister pretty well.” Archer pointed out.

“Yeah, obviously I know Sweetie Belle, but I don't see why that means I need to come. Besides, I know the place like the front of my hoof already – slept over enough times – don't see why I need to do recono... reconis...”

“Reconnaissance!” Icy chirped, happy at being able to use one of her favourite action-words.

Scootaloo paused. “Don't see why I need to do recon.” She finished in a slight huff.

“Well, we're gonna have to talk to... the lady who runs it...” Icy started to point out before the name slipped her mind.

“Rarity.” Scootaloo supplied.

“...to Rarity anyway. And if you already know her, then that should make it easier.”

“Yeah, Scoots, we need to talk to the owner of Ponyville’s “toy shop”.” Archer pointed out.

Icy, as was often the case, wasn’t entirely paying attention to what was going on around her, so she missed the very audible quotation marks in Archer’s statement. She was also in the front of the group, so she didn’t see Archer’s wink and smirk, nor Scootaloo’s sudden understanding and silent giggling.

Icy turned her head to them a few seconds too late. “Yeah, we'll have to talk to her to let her kno-” Her sentence was cut off with a BONK as she walked into the closed door of the boutique.

“Do come in!” Called a refined voice from inside the building.

Shaking off the impact, Icy opened the door and walked in, Scootaloo and Archer following.

The inside of the place was something to behold – all purples and pinks and frills. Several dresses were placed on Poniquins or hung up, all intricate and precisely crafted, to the point where it all became a blur to Icy, just registering as “fancy” and “lots of flappy bits.”

Before she could think on it anymore, an impeccably groomed white unicorn came into the front room. “Welcome to Carousel Boutique,” she sang out, “where everything is... Oh, good afternoon, Scootaloo.” It could have been Icy's imagination, but she could have sworn that the unicorn's smile turned brittle for a fraction of a second before fading entirely to a questioning look. “I must say, it's rather unlike you to knock before entering.”

To her credit, Scootaloo did not immediately inform the unicorn about Icy's head and its rapid introduction to her front door. “Well, you see, Rarity...” she began before the unicorn interrupted her.

“Oh, don't worry yourself – it's hardly a change I disapprove of. Anyway, I'm afraid Sweetie Belle isn't here at the moment - if you come back later, I think she'll be...”

“Nah, don't worry, that ain't why we're here.” Scootaloo said.

“We?” Rarity asked, suddenly seeming to notice the others. “Oh, hello there. I do apologize – Scootaloo's presence tends to be a bit... destructive at times,...”

“Hey!” Scootaloo interjected, only to be summarily ignored as Rarity continued.

“...so I got a touch distracted. What can I do for you, Archer and... Icy Flight, correct? Sunny's daughter?”

Icy, on the other hand, wasn't really listening, having one question on her mind. “Where are all the toys?”

No one spoke for a few seconds as Icy’s words were processed.

“Toys?” Rarity asked, her mouth hanging open a little. “Why would there be toys?”

“Well,” Icy answered, her mouth moving before her brain could think about what not to say, “I thought this was a toy shop.”

It was amazing. Of the other ponies in the room, one hadn’t said anything, another was fuming quietly and the last was dumbfounded by her initial question. And yet, when she finished speaking, Icy could feel the sudden onset of silence. The only sounds were the hoofsteps of Archer and Scootaloo, slowly moving away from her.

“A toy shop.” Rarity's eye twitched for a moment. “You thought the Carousel Boutique... Ponyville's premier fashion boutique... the fashion capital of the entire town...” She trotted up to Icy, who suddenly became aware of just how much bigger the unicorn was than her, “was a toy shop?”

Oh, fashion. That makes more sense... kinda. “Well, um, it's just that, well,” Icy licked her lips to moisten her suddenly-dry mouth. “I thought... with the whole merry-go-round thing on the outside... you know, fairground ride, might mean it’s for kids and...” she trailed off, terror draining the energy from her voice box.

Rarity's eyes narrowed at Icy. She took a deep breath... and then let out a demure little giggle.

“Well, I suppose, when you put it like that, it is a bit of an odd aesthetic to have chosen.” She smiled and looked up, as if through the walls of the building. “I suppose if I saw a store based around a carousel, I might think the same thing.” She put a hoof on Icy's shoulder. “I suppose it's a reasonable misunderstanding. Quite an amusing one, too, I must say.”

Icy breathed a sigh of relief and gave a slightly synchronized chuckle. She was about to apologize when she suddenly felt her hooves leave the floor. Looking down, she saw herself being encased in a light blue magical field in sync with one around Rarity's horn.

“Er, Miss Rarity?” Icy asked. “What are you doing?”

“Well, as entertaining a misconception as it was,” Rarity answered, not looking in her direction as she pulled her into the back room, “it's not one I can afford to have spread. Thus, I must make certain you understand what this boutique is all about.”

“How?” Icy knew for a fact she would regret asking the question, but felt compelled to anyway.

“Why, by finding you a dress so wonderful you'll never forget the place you got it, of course!”

“Okay, I guess.” Icy said, though her struggling in the magical aura suggested things were far from okay. “Are you sure you'll be able to find one?” Her confusion was tinged with fear.

“Oh, not to worry,” Rarity chirped, her smile seemingly fixed in place, “I have hundreds to choose from.”

Icy looked out of the corner of her eye, unable to turn her head, to see Scootaloo waving bye-bye to her. Now her fear was tinged with confusion. “Um, that's okay, you don't have to...”

“But of course I do, darling, I absolutely insist on it!”

Icy genuinely could not tell if Rarity was doing this out of revenge for the sleight against her business or out of sincere, if horrifically misguided, generosity. And somehow, that ambiguity was more terrifying than either option.





“No, no, no, that will never do, it clashes with your eyes horribly, let's try the next one."

Icy groaned, having lost the ability to suppress them about fifteen dresses ago.

“Miss Rarity! We don't have to... that yellow one was fine.” How many changes of clothes back was that one again? Three? Five? Fifty? Sequence and numbers had lost all meaning – there was no time, no past, no future, no space or place or trace of grace. There was only... fashion!

Of course, since Icy didn't know a halter top from a handkerchief, that essentially meant that there was nothing at all.

“Exactly the problem, darling, it was fine. Adequate. Dare I even say... functional.” Despite Rarity being behind her and a good few feet away, Icy could feel her shudder. “And I will not have anypony leaving my shop as anything less than fabulous, do you understand? Now, spread out your wings.”

“Yes ma'am!” Icy wasn't sure that whether that was a promise or a threat and was far too wise to ask.

Rarity hummed for a few seconds, walking around Icy and looking at her from the front before her face suddenly brightened. “Ah hah! I see what the problem is. You just wait there, I shall be back in just a moment!” And with that, Rarity trotted out of the room.

Icy breathed a massive sigh of relief and relaxed. She'd never realized just how tired one could get simply standing still and putting on clothes.

A barely audible snicker came from the side of the room. Icy's eye flicked over there, looking at Scootaloo and Archer sitting there, watching the spectacle.

“Gotta say, Scoots,” Icy said, huffing a little, “would've thought you'd be bored by now. Don't tell me you of all fillies are into fashion.”

“What can I say?” Scootaloo smiled, putting on a very poor Rarity impression. “I could never bring myself to interrupt a master at work. It is such a privilege watching you transform into a fabulous fabul of fabulousness!” She put a hoof to her head and pretended to swoon, falling back onto Archer who, for for her part, didn't even budge under the weight.

“Riiiiight.” Icy narrowed her eyes at Scootaloo. She wouldn't have bought that one even if Scootaloo had tried to be convincing. “But we can't get distracted, can we? We've still got to warn Miss Rarity about Magic Eye.”

Scootaloo's eyes opened at that and she suddenly looked a little awkward. “Yeah, about that... we can't.”

Icy blinked, nonplussed at the seemingly random and illogical statement. “What do you mean we can't?”

Archer shrugged. “She means we can't. We tried warning his victims when we first met him. Didn't work.”

“Why not?”

“Because he knew.” Scootaloo snapped suddenly. “Dunno how he knew, but he knew. Far as we can tell, the little piece of... he always knows. Says it's “cheating”.”

“O... kay,” Icy said slowly, not seeing where this was going, “so he'll know we've warned her and he'll think we've cheated. Boo hoo for him, why is that a problem?”

“Because he's a little weirdo, that's why,” Scootaloo replied, sounding outraged at the implication that she would anything for his benefit, “and when we tried it, he told us: “Well, if you're not going to play the game properly, then I certainly don't see why I should!”” Scootaloo recited in an attempt at a sophisticated, intellectual sounding accent. For just a moment, Icy could swear she heard a slight snigger on the edge of her hearing. “Then he robbed a place right on the other side of town outta nowhere. No puzzles, no warning, no nothing. Nopony saw it coming, nopony could do anything about it. Said that's what he does if we don't “play by the rules”.”

“Huh.” Icy had just learned two very interesting facts. Firstly, how Magic Eye would react if they tried to subvert his “game”, and secondly, that Scootaloo was really bad at impressions.

“Look, Icy, I don't like it either,” Archer said after a pause. At that, Scootaloo scuffed a hoof on the ground aggressively to indicate just how much she agreed with that statement. Archer continued, “but, far as we can tell, the best way to do this is to play along and beat him at his own game.”

A small smirk finally broke through the annoyance on Scootaloo’s face. “Least 'til we catch him.”

That hint of a snigger came onto the edge of Icy's hearing again, but she wasn't really paying attention, as she'd just realized another question. “So, if you knew we couldn't warn Miss Rarity about this whole thing, why did you let me come here in the first pl-”

“I'm back!” Rarity's voice sang as she cantered into the room. “I must apologize for the delay, I had to gather as large a collection as I could.” Her horn dimmed as she placed down a pile of dresses taller than she was. “You see, I realized what the problem is – you see, for most pegasi, a shorter style of dress is preferable with more manoeuvrability. Not that they are to be expected to do aerobatics in them, of course... usually.” She muttered something under her breath that sounded something like aino ash before continuing. “However, with your, if you don't mind me saying so, larger than normal wingspan, I thought a longer, more flowing dress might work better.” She levitated the first dress off the pile. “Of course, they'll take a bit more doing to get into, so let's begin immediately, shall we?”

Icy looked to her friends... well, her teammates, at least. Archer was whistling nonchalantly as Scootaloo smiled and looked up, her face the picture of innocence.

Well, that answers that. She thought as murder filled her eyes.





“What did they do?”

“Hmm?” Icy took a short break from her observation to look at Dinky. “What did who do?”

Dinky smiled tiredly, looking at Icy through the side of her eye. “Archer and Scootaloo. I was just wondering what they did. I hope it wasn’t too mean.”

Icy snorted and looked back at the Carousel Boutique. The two of them, along with a rather more distant Archer, were sitting beneath a string of bushes across the street from the Boutique, keeping an eye on the building. Oddly enough, it was much more comfortable than their last stakeout, due to the fact that the bush in question had seemingly been hollowed out for the express purpose of ponies hiding inside it. She wasn't sure why anyone would do such a thing – maybe so they could jump out and surprise people – but it was convenient for them.

The fact that she'd noticed a couple of strands of pink and magenta hair caught on a couple of branches was almost certainly a coincidence.

Icy blinked as she returned to the present, thinking about the question she'd been asked. “How do you know anything happened?”

“Two reasons. Firstly, Archer’s been staying on the other side of the bushes this whole time, away from us and sometimes looking at you.” Dinky yawned as she tilted her head to indicate Archer, who gave a cheerful wave. “And secondly, well, when you came back from the boutique, Scootaloo looked... happy. Really happy. Which is good, but she’s not usually like that when we’re up against Magic Eye. That probably means she did something to cheer herself up and, well, she can be a bit thoughtless sometimes.”

“That's alright, Dinky.” Icy assured her, smiling at Dinky's concern. “Just got me… fitted for a dress. It was just a bit of fun, don't worry about it.” As much as Icy had wanted, at the time, to freeze the two of them into one big ice cube, she wasn't the type to hold a grudge, particularly not for an ultimately harmless prank. Plus, at least Archer seemed to know it was a little mean. And Scootaloo? Well, for some reason, like Dinky had said, this case really got under her skin, so she was probably entitled to a little fun. Besides, after watching Dinky yawn, few ponies could remain angry at anything.

Also, she had to admit, the red dress she'd eventually gotten out of it was pretty stunning.

“Guys!” Archer said suddenly, though without urgency. It was still surprising to Icy, though, who hadn’t noticed her getting closer. She didn’t connect this to the fact that she’d just confirmed that she wasn’t angry anymore. “We've got movement inside.”

“Inside?” Icy looked around, trying to see how she'd missed someone getting into the building. “How did he get inside already? Did you see him get in?”

“No, but there's definitely something happening... Oooh, clever little sneak!”

Icy looked through the window and her eyes widened as she saw what Archer meant. Inside the building, the head of one of Rarity's many poniquins was lifting itself off its body, revealing a second, much smaller head underneath. It was too dark and too far to see exactly whose head, but it didn't take a pony of Alula's intelligence to figure that one out.

“He was there the whole time.” Icy muttered to herself.

Silently, the three fillies crept out from the bush and up to the door.

“You ready?” Archer whispered. When Icy and Dinky nodded, she indicated towards the door.

Dinky put her horn against the lock. Her tiredness hadn't been simply because it was past her bedtime, but because she'd been holding a spell for half an hour or so. Not actually casting it – she couldn't have kept that up for a tenth of that amount of time – just passively keeping an effect of it prepared. Specifically, just before Rarity had locked the door for the night, she'd taken a sort of snapshot, as Icy understood it, of the lock and was now reversing it back to that state, unlocking it. They'd hoped that Magic Eye would unlock it and save her the trouble but, as Archer had pointed out, you could never be sure with him.

Once the door had been unlocked, the three repositioned themselves so Archer was in the centre with Icy and Dinky flanking her. Icy placed a hoof next the hinges of the door and pushed hard, opening it quickly. Archer stepped inside, an arrow already nocked and aimed. “Hold it riiiiight there, Bright Eyes!” She said calmly.

Peeking around the edge of the doorway, Icy saw their target. For some reason, he was, at that moment, on top of a stepladder doing something to a device on the ceiling. It looked like it was supposed to be there - a small, white plastic disc that had been opened, wires hanging out of it. Next to it was affixed a small, glowing gem that definitely did not look like it was supposed to be there.

Below the device, on top of the ladder, was a small figure. For a moment, it looked like a completely different colt from the one she'd seen in the picture. Then she realized that it was exactly the same figure, but with different colours. His coat was now grey, his mask, tie, mane and tail white and his suit and hat a deep red.

His face broke into a huge smile as he hopped down from the ladder. “Ah, felicitations, my fine formidable foes!” He caught sight of Icy and his smile widened. “And your freshly found frigiferous friend. I fancy you've fathomed my furacious flexiloquence so I must flatter your foresight. Forgive my facile filibustering, but I felt it fitting to familiarize my form and flair to the fair foals and fillies I shall be foxing.”

Icy was briefly distracted from the colt's changed colours by his introduction. She stared at him blankly.

The colt’s smile remained fixed in place. “That is to say, hello!”

Icy blinked slowly a couple of times, still trying to untangle his initial monologue and failing due to not knowing most of the words he'd used. After a second or two, she shook her head, putting the whole thing into an imaginary folder labelled irrelevant gibberish. However, two things did become apparent: firstly, that Magic Eye knew who she was, or at least that she was a member of Iota Force before meeting her, and secondly, that he sounded a surprising amount like Scootaloo's bad impression of him. The impression was still bad, of course, it was just... apparently accurate. Icy wasn't sure how that worked, so she decided to focus on the first aspect.

“You know me?”

“But of course!” Magic Eye replied, leaning against the ladder casually and tossing something small up and down in his hoof. “I wouldn't be very worthy of being “Magic Eye” if I couldn't see things, now would I? And I must say, you seem a most promising opponent, as evidenced by your presence here. Besides, you have some information on me - picture, methodology and all that - and it wouldn't be particularly fair if I didn't have a similar level of insight.”

Icy blanched slightly, filing away his “observations” to be disturbed by later. “So, why are all your colours different?”

Beneath his blank-eyed mask, Icy could tell Magic Eye was rolling his non-magic eyes. “Well, I can't exactly use my own colours all the time, now can I? Not if I don't wish to be tracked down and arrested without difficulty or challenge. And, as I see it, if you're going to disguise yourself in bright colours, why stick to just one set!” He looked at Icy's face. “And, in case you were thinking of being clever about it, I do occasionally use one or both of my own colours. So, no, you can't just look for someone of the colours I never use, even if you could identify them.” He paused for a moment before adding. “Good thought, though.”

Icy blinked – she hadn't exactly thought it yet at that point, but she was beginning to before he dispelled the notion. “Oooookay, but, well... how?” She asked. “Do you have some sort of magic disguise?”

“Like our dear friend Alula?” Magic Eye shrugged. “Well, the occasional such illusory effect isn’t exactly off the table, but rarely necessary. For this effect, I just use dyes - much cheaper and simpler, if not the best solution in terms of the cleanliness of one’s domicile or safehouse.”

Icy rubbed at her head – listening to this colt was starting to give her a headache.

“Yeah, that's real interesting,” Archer said, not trying to lie convincingly, “but we can talk more 'bout this in a jail cell.”

Magic Eye smirked, looking genuinely amused by the notion. “Now now, my dear dead-eyed damsel, let's not get ahead of ourselves. You have indeed intercepted my first theft – one-nil to you, by the way – but you should know by now it’s never that simple.”

Icy tilted her head at the bizarre colt. “What were you going to steal, anyway?”

“I hadn't decided yet.” Magic Eye admitted, looking around the store. “I was thinking I might see if the proprietor had any suits in my size – for formal rather than professional wear, of course. Failing that, I could have taken some cash or jewels – a bit pedestrian, I know, but one can never truly go wrong with the basics, don't you agree?” He turned back to his opponents, almost as if he actually expected them to agree. “But now that you've won this round – and I must congratulate you again on the excellent job you made of it – my priorities have shifted from acquisition to escape.” He smiled good-naturedly as he put the small, cuboid object he'd been holding on a step of the ladder.

“What is that, anyway?” Archer asked, indicating the object with her head without moving her bow.

“Oh, just the battery from the smoke detector.” Magic Eye answered, indicating the roof-mounted box above them. “I took the liberty of removing it for the same reason I put the sound-proofing gem on the ceiling. Wouldn't want to interrupt the good Ms. Rarity’s beauty sleep – I may be a thief and a criminal mastermind, but I'm not a monster.”

Looking up, Icy could see that the wire of the open box did include a space to put in a battery. Drat! She thought. There goes my plan to stall him until Miss Rarity hears and catches him by surprise. Although... “Why would you disable the smoke detec-”

Icy lowered her eyes just in time to see the small object Magic Eye had thrown rush towards them. She briefly cursed herself for letting him distract her.

Fortunately, Archer was a good deal more on the ball than she was, as was the arrow she fired to intercept it.

Unfortunately, that didn't help much, merely making the smoke bomb discharge its load a little early, but still close enough to blanket all three of them in a thick, opaque mist.

Barely a moment after the smoke rose up, Icy felt something barrel past her, knocking her to the side and, from what she heard, doing the same to Dinky as well.

“Freeze him!” Archer yelled, landing from having somersaulted away. Icy didn't have to be told twice, letting loose a short stream of cold. She could feel the thin layer of ice forming on the body that had gone past them, enough to stop it from moving. Furthermore, Dinky had also responded to the command, as Icy could see the yellow glow of her magic around the form, presumably slowing it down if not outright stopping it.

For an instant, Icy breathed, confident they'd managed to stop him.

The next instant, it occurred to Icy that the form was much bigger and, when it had rushed past her, felt much harder than it should have.

The next instant, she heard the front door open and quiet but quick hoofsteps run out.

The next instant, the smoke cleared enough for Icy to see the Poniquin that must have been thrown towards them as a distraction while Magic Eye went around them and out the front door.

Fortunately, the wind that night was strong enough that, with the door opened, the smoke began to rush out and dissipate in the cool November air.

However, when the streets around become visible again, there was no sign of Magic Eye. All that remained was a rolled-up scroll on the ground, tied up with a blue ribbon.

Archer kicked the ground in a mild frustration. “You guys see which way he went?” She didn't even look at Icy and Dinky shaking their heads. “Well, we may still be able to catch him. Icy, you go left, Dinky, you...”

A tiny, almost inaudible whimper halted Archer's commands. She and Icy looked at Dinky who, to her credit, was trying to cover up her fatigue and her distress at the idea of more exertion. “Which... which way should I go?”

Archer sighed, though more at herself than Dinky. “The way home, Dinky. Sorry, I should have thought...”

“No, no, it's okay, I can do it, honest!” Dinky said, standing as tall as she could. Which was still pretty small, but taller than she was otherwise. “I'm not gonna let me feeling a bit tired let him get away!”

Archer smiled at the drowsiness-hindered wording. “You didn't and you won't – we all messed up back there a bit and,” she looked around at the deserted streets, “he's already got away, catching him now would be a one-in-a-million thing.”

Dinky opened her mouth to object before Archer cut her off, picking up the scroll off the ground. “And I'm not gonna let you exhaust yourself for a one-in-a-million. We've got his next clue, that'll do for tonight.”

Dinky again started to say something, but was interrupted by a massive yawn. “Well, if you're sure.” She said, still hesitant and disliking the idea of being the weak link.

“We're sure.” Icy replied, returning a favour given many times by hugging Dinky softly. “Don't worry,” she assured the little unicorn, “we'll get him next time.”

And with that, having finally brought a small smile to Dinky's face, the three fillies trotted back into town, heading for home.

A minute later, one of the ponies-on-poles on the roof of the boutique muttered to itself.

“Wow. That was both well-reasoned and considerate. A truly touching display, I must admit.”

With that, the pole retracted and the pony hopped down from the roof to reveal Magic Eye. He placed the retractable pole back in his pocket and clambered down the walls of the boutique as swiftly and easily as he had clambered up them, his hooves grasping onto the numerous frills that decorated the building.

“Yes, I think this little match is going to be very interesting. Still,” he looked at the unlocked door to the Boutique, “it seems that clean-up rather slipped their minds. And Rarity will be in a bad mood already, no doubt, what with one of her brand-new poniquins being headless the day after delivery. Oh well!”

He trotted into the boutique once again. Five minutes later, he exited again, having replaced the battery, removed the sound-proofing gem, put away the stepladder and generally left the place exactly as he had found it. He picked the lock on the door to lock it again and trotted off into the night, whistling jauntily to himself.

***

“So, he got away, then?” Scootaloo asked. It was the next morning and the colts and fillies of Iota Force had gathered in the playground before school to discuss what had happened.

“Yeah, he did.” Dinky said quietly, looking at the ground guiltily. “I'm sorry.”

“Hey, no need for that, Dinks,” Scootaloo assured her, putting a hoof on her shoulder, “it ain't like you could've done much better. I just wish I'd been there. I'd've caught up to him and run him down real quick.” She smirked, her wings buzzing in excitement at the prospect.

“So, why don't we see what the next riddle says?” Pip asked, trotting up to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with Dinky, bringing a small smile to her lips.

Archer nodded silently and unrolled the scroll in front of them.

Iota Force 1 – Magic Eye 0

Icy was confused for a moment at the note's apparent prescience before reading further.

If you’re reading this, that means you won the first round. In which case, I congratulate you, but I hope you still have plenty of your wits left over, as I have no intention of slowing down.

On that note, the next puzzle:

“I'm double-named and double-maned with, all in all, a single moon,
My medium extols my soul and skill and role in my commune.”

“He really likes weird words, doesn't he?” Icy remarked to nopony in particular.


> Chapter Two: The Medium
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Extol.” Icy read aloud from the thick tome in front of her. Once they'd all read through the new riddle a couple of times, she and Scootaloo had asked to come inside the schoolhouse early to look through a dictionary. Cheerilee has been a little taken aback by the request, but allowed it. Whether it was out of a desire for them to learn or curiosity about why they wanted to, Icy couldn't say. “Verb.” She continued before looking up at Cheerilee, who was over by her desk looking at the lesson plan. “That means a doing word, right?” When Cheerilee nodded, she kept reading. “To praise highly; loud; e-uloggize.” She looked up from the book, blinking.

“Loud?” Scootaloo asked, scrunching her brow in confusion. “Like, just being loud or doing it loudly or...?”

“I dunno.” Icy admitted. “But it's spelled wrong, with an A where the O should be. And I've never heard “e-uloggize” before.”

“Eulogize.” Cheerilee corrected, looking up from her paperwork, her smile as patient as ever. “And it's pronounce laud.”

“Laud.” Scootaloo muttered, getting a feel for the word. “Like a Canterlot snob kinda lord? What's it mean?”

Cheerilee was about to respond, though it was unclear whether to answer the question or admonish the insult, when Icy pre-empted her. “Hold on, I'll look it up.” She turned the pages of the book in thick chunks before coming to the “L” section. Slowing down, she scanned each page until she found the word she was looking for. “Laud. Verb. To praise; extol.” She frowned at the page. “Well, that doesn't help!”

Cheerilee sighed as she looked over at the two. “It means to talk a lot about something, compliment it a lot, talk about how good it is.”

The two fillies nodded and started thinking. A hoof went up to Icy's chin as she considered what the riddle could mean.

“Okay,” she said slowly as it dawned on her she still didn't have a clue, “I'll look up commune.”

“Wait a second!” Scootaloo interjected. “I got it! Something that talks about their role. About what they do. What's the thing a pony's got that tells people about their “soul and skill and role”?” She paused for a moment, only to continue when she saw Icy's blank look. “Their talent?”

That made it click. “A cutie mark.”

“Right!” Scootaloo exclaimed, smiling in triumph. “So we just need to figure out who has a medium for a...” She trailed off as she thought about the possibility. “How'd you have a medium for a Cutie Mark? Like, just something that says “in the middle”?”

“Maybe it means Medium like those people who pretend to talk to ghosts?” Icy suggested.

“Huh? Doesn't everyone?” Scootaloo asked. “I mean, when there's a ghost around, they let you know.”

Icy shrugged. “I dunno, I think it's like an acting thing. I tried asking Mom about it, but she just said it was a load of.”

There was a pause after Icy stopped mid-sentence. “A load of what?” Scootaloo asked.

“Dunno, that's all she said.” Icy admitted. “She just stopped after that and mumbled something about me being in the room. She seemed kind of angry about it.”

“Huh.” Scootaloo said as she took the information in. “Grown-ups are weird.”

“Yeah.” Icy replied.

Hearing their conversation across the room, Cheerilee did not disagree.

“So anyway,” Scootaloo said after a moment's contemplation, “we need to find a pony with a middle or a ghost-guy for a Cutie Mark. Won't be hard.”

Icy tilted her head, confused at Scootaloo's sudden confidence. “It won't? What, are you just going to go through the Cutie Marks of every single pony in town?”

“Pretty much.” Scootaloo replied casually before noticing Icy's disbelief. She smirked at her. “Please, you're talking to one of the three former... foremus... best experts on Cutie Marks. If there's a mark for something in the town, we'll have heard about it.”

The addendum “...because we've tried for them all.” went unspoken.

“I just need to talk with Bloom and Belle and we'll find the mark, you guys can relax.” And with that, Scootaloo trotted out of the door towards the playground, leaving a slightly lost Icy behind her.

“Okay?” She said finally. “So, just find whatever “medium” means and then...” She paused, her hoof hovering just above the edge of the dictionary, ready to close it. Spurred on by a sudden curiosity, she turned to the next letter on from where she was – M.

“Medium... Medium...” she muttered as she scanned through the words. “Medium! Here we go! Oh geez!” As it turned out, there were about fifteen different definitions of the word, most of which she didn't understand. “Hope he didn't mean one of these?” She said to herself as she looked through them. It seemed as though there was one main other meaning of the word but she couldn't see how it could mean that.

She was about to get up and try to catch up to Scootaloo - and since running in school was prohibited, this was one of the only times she might have been able to manage it - when the bell rang, signalling for all the students to come in.

Oh well, Icy thought, it can wait – I mean, how many Cutie Marks can they go through before recess?

***

“What about Soarin? He's got a lightning bolt right it the middle of his, maybe that's what it means.”

“Yeah, but he ain't in Ponyville, Scoots, don't see what he would have to do with anythin' round here.”

Apparently, a lot. Icy thought as she and the others approached the crusaders, whose conversation was just beginning to approach argument and able to see, just on the horizon, the possibility of bickering.

“Okay, well what about Daring Do, then?” Scootaloo suggested. “She's got a compass thingy for a mark. Like, the middle of a compass.”

“Scoots,” Apple Bloom sighed, rubbing her temples in frustration, “she ain't in Ponyville either. 'n fact, she don't even exist.”

“But Rainbow Dash said she was too awesome not to exist!” Scootaloo objected.

“Yeah, she did. Then she met A.K. Yearling and admitted she was made up, 'member?” Apple Bloom explained patiently.

“Yeah... I guess.” Scootaloo admitted, scuffing a hoof on the ground and remembering the discomfort on Rainbow Dash’s face when she told her that.

“Besides,” Sweetie Belle spoke up, having looked awkward in her silence throughout the exchange, “it's Prince Blueblood who's got the compass mark.”

“He does?” Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah, don't you remember? He tried to sue A.K. Yearling cause he said she copied his Cutie Mark for Daring Do.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember readin' 'bout that.” Apple Bloom replied.

Scootaloo sighed in relief that Apple Bloom had saved her from having to admit how little she kept up with current affairs. Or, at least, non-wonderbolt-or-Rainbow-Dash related ones. Of course, her best friends knew about this anyway and, if Scootaloo were called on it, she'd have said that all other news was lame and pointless, but it still wasn't the kind of thing she liked to admit.

Apple Bloom continued without noticing Scootaloo's silent look of thanks. “Did he win?”

“Nah!” Sweetie Belle assured her. “The case went on for a while even though everyone knew it was silly, but then he mysteriously broke his back legs and withdrew the case.”

“Wow, Sweetie, didn't know you cared about that kinda stuff that much.” Said Apple Bloom.

Sweetie smiled a little hesitantly. “Well, the only reason I remember is that that was the week Rarity got that limp in her front hoof she said she didn't have.”

That twigged Scootaloo's memory. “Oh, yeah, I remember that – I was gonna hang out with Rainbow Dash that week but then she said someone had “called in a favour” and she was gone for a day or two.”

“Huh, weird.” Apple Bloom mumbled before dismissing the thought. “Anyway, what 'bout that Cheese Sammich fella? His mark was split right down the middle.”

“Ah!” Scootaloo cried in frustration. “There are way too many marks that have got stuff in the middle. You guys sure you can't think of any ponies with ghosts or something?” The two shook their heads, causing Scootaloo to go off again. “Well, I dunno what else it could mean so...”

“Actually,” Icy interrupted, making Scootaloo whirl around in surprise, “I looked and “Medium” can also mean something else.”

Scootaloo thought for a moment before asking “What's that?”

Icy thought for a moment, trying to pin down exactly what the dictionary had said it meant. “It can mean, like, something that you send or do something through. Like... radio is a medium for sound, that kind of thing.”

Everyone paused for moment. Well, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Icy paused – everyone else had been silent and enjoying the debate.

“So, like, water is a medium for fish?” Sweetie suggested.

“I guess so.” Icy said, trying to sound more sure than she felt. “But I think it's got something to do with communicating, like through a film or a radio or...”

“A letter?” Dinky asked. “Could it have something to do with the letter he gave us? Archer, do you still have it?”

Archer nodded, reaching into her saddlebags and pulling out the scroll Magic Eye had left. Unrolling it and hovering it in front of her, Dinky began reading it again. “But I don't see anything that...”

“Wait a second...” Scootaloo said, staring at the letter. Though, since Dinky was facing her and reading it, she was looking at the back of the letter, where the blue ribbon was still glued on. “Dinky, quick, roll that up!”

“What?! Why...? Okay.” Dinky looked up, surprised at Scootaloo's sudden command. Shrugging, she rolled the scroll up in her telekinesis. Taking the scroll in her hoof, Scootaloo wrapped the ribbon around it again, making it look as it had when they'd first found it, and placed in on the ground, the ribbon splayed out to either side of it.

“Say, that does look familiar.” Apple Bloom said. “Wait a minute – that's the Mayor's Cutie Mark!”

Everyone's eyes widened as they made the connection.

“You're right.” Archer replied, rubbing a hoof to her chin. “So the Mayor... Oh, you've gotta be... Double-named and double-maned?” She indicated two spots in front of her as if pointing out the words. “Mayor Mare!”

Icy looked up as she thought about this – she'd seen the mayor a couple of times, so she tried to picture her. “But how is she double-maned?”

“I think it's cause she dyes her mane.” Dinky suggested. For some reason, the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked a bit sad when she said that.

“She does?” Icy asked, trying to imagine the dignified Mayor dying her mane grey. “But it looks so natural and distinguished!”

“I know. But everyone found out when...” Dinky paused, looking over at the Crusaders. “Well, we all found out. Still, I heard she gets a discount on the dye now, so that's good at least. But I don't know what the riddle means about the moon. Does she talk to Princess Luna or something?”

“I think that means her glasses.” Pip pointed out. “My gran wears those kinds of glasses and she said they're called half-moons.”

“Wow, I didn't know that.” Dinky said, smiling at Pip, who blushed a little in response.

“So, she's got two half-moons, which means she's got one moon.” Archer reasoned out before facehoofing. “I dunno what's worse, the crimes or the puns.”

“So, he's going to rob the Mayor's house?” Icy asked, a little lost from all the realizations.

Dinky was about to answer when she suddenly stopped and looked over Icy's shoulder. Turning around, Icy saw Lance shaking his head. The photo of the pentagram was at his hooves – he'd apparently been looking over it while everyone else was arguing. He pointed a hoof at the middle-right picture – a V with a rectangle on top of it and an X inside the rectangle.

“Oh, I get it.” Dinky said as she looked at the picture. “That's supposed to be a pile of paper and forms.” It took a moment for Icy to recalibrate her perceptions, but she quickly saw what Dinky meant. “So, the Mayor and Papers...” Dinky thought for a moment before suggesting, “the town hall?”

Lance nodded as he picked up the photo again.

“Right, Town Hall it is!” Scootaloo said, smiling as she picked up the scroll and held it out in front of her, in imitation of her ramming stick (as she apparently called the pipe she used to joust people). “This time, creep... this time, we'll be ready for ya.”

***

“Couldn't we have waited inside the town hall?” Scootaloo asked, with somewhat less enthusiasm than she'd displayed that morning. “I mean, it ain't that big and we'd know if he got in, so why not wait inside. It's getting kinda cold out here.” She looked at her two companions. She seemed to be stalwartly resisting the urge to give them a full blast with the puppy dog eyes but still managed to come across as somewhat adorable. Not that anyone would ever tell her that unless they suddenly decided they had a desperate lack of bruises on their body.

It didn't help that the two with her were Lance, who was decked out in his full fencing gear, which provided plenty of warmth, and Icy, for whom cold was a thing that happened to other ponies. Both circumstantially and because she made it happen to them.

Icy rubbed her eyes a little. This made two late nights in a row for her, after all. Normally, she'd been told, on cases like this that happened over multiple nights, they'd trade off active duty so everyone could get some rest. That way, they were capable of functioning during the day at school and weren't exhausted for when they encountered whoever or whatever they were facing. However, as they were somewhat short-staffed, someone would have to come on stakeout duty twice in a row each night. Icy had volunteered to be that someone because, that afternoon, she'd been feeling rather perky and excited.

Hours later, that had faded a little.

“Didn't think you'd get cold that easily, Scootaloo.” Icy said, oblivious to the actual temperature. “Doesn't it get a lot colder than this when you're going, like, a bajillion miles an hour on your scooter.”

“Eh, kind of.” Scootaloo rocked her hoof side-to-side in a so-so gesture. “But that's different – on my wheels, I'm active, I'm moving, everything's moving, wings are going, wind's going through my hair and coat...” She trailed off, closing her eyes, the imagery fully overtaking her for a moment. She took a deep breath in and smiled. Then her eyes abruptly opened and she seemed to realize where she was. She exhaled far slower than she'd inhaled and her face took on a frown. “This is different. There's no movement, no action, it's... it's boring!” She exclaimed, flopping down on her stomach. “Guess my body gets as bored as I do and stops bothering to not get cold.”

Icy nodded in understanding – she was pretty sure that was how biology worked. Besides, she couldn't really argue about being bored, considering how hard she was having to work to stay awake.

Figuring that talking would probably help with that, she turned to look at Magic Eye's next target. “So, what do you think he's after? I mean, I'm guessing the town hall has a lot of money, but there's probably other stuff to take.”

“You got me.” Scootaloo shrugged. “Mom says that they've got huge stacks of money and jewels because they take every last bit from the hard-working common ponies and use it to line their pockets with fancy food and houses.” Scootaloo recited, not thinking about the image she just created.

Across town, Rarity's eye twitched for a moment and she didn't know why.

“But then Dad says they only take a little and they need the money to make the town not fall apart.” Scootaloo continued. “So, yeah, they've probably got some money in there.”

Icy considered for a moment – that had certainly seemed like a balanced debate on the merits of taxation, but it did mean there may not be as much money as she had thought. On the other hoof, maybe there was even more. But maybe there was other stuff that was valuable enough to take. On the other other hoof, Icy could not really comprehend the idea of valuable paperwork. On the other other other hoof, maybe Magic Eye was the kind of pony who really valued that kind of thing. He'd certainly seemed weird enough that she could imagine him getting excited over boring stuff. Or maybe...

After another three “maybe”s and two “Other hooves”, Icy was brought out of her thoughts by something changing in the corner of her eye. She looked over to see that one of the lights had been turned on in one of the smallest rooms in the town hall.

She looked over to her colleagues, both of whom had also noticed the change. At Lance's nod, all three crept out from their hiding spot behind the bushes of a nearby house. The owner of said bushes, a stallion by the name of Caramel, had noticed them hiding, but decided not to say anything for fear of invoking the wrath of one of the Crusaders – no matter how innocent the intentions, there was really no other way to describe what they did than “wrath”.

As the three approached the Town Hall, the light in the window clicked off again, but too late – they knew there was someone in there.

They moved silently up to the front door, Lance to its right, Scootaloo to it's left and Icy in front of it, ready to block it up with ice if anything came bursting out of it. Lance gave the door an experimental push and it swung inwards an inch – not enough for anyone to notice, but enough to learn that it wasn't locked.

“That's weird.” Icy mumbled before whispering: “Did either of you guys see him go in?” Lance and Scootaloo shook their heads before slipping through the door. Putting aside her questions for the moment, Icy followed them in.

The reception area of the town hall was exactly as one would expect the reception area of a town hall to look – plain, dark, plain, empty and plain. There was a plain, empty desk with a plain, empty chair beneath it and a plain, empty coffee mug on top of it. There were two doors on either side of the area. The left hand one was open and Icy could see through it into the corridor beyond. It was curved around, forming a loop through the circular building.

On the other side of the building was what most people thought of as the town hall – the big, open, decorated space used for celebrations and ceremonies. That was the public face of the government of Ponyville. This, however, was the true town hall – the place where work happened.

All of this was lost on the trio, who slipped through the open door into the corridor. It didn't take long to identify where the intruder was. There was a line of papers strewn across the floor, leading between two doors. The closer one looked to correspond with the room they had seen the light go on in, which seemed to be a storage room of some kind, and the further one had a faint light coming from underneath it, as if from a desk lamp.

Nodding to each other, the three moved slowly towards the further door, taking care not to disturb the papers on the floor and make a noise.

“Makes a mess, doesn't he?” Icy said under her breath. The others made no reply as they crept up to the door. A brass plaque on the door read:

Town Treasurer

From behind the door, they heard a near-continual rustling of papers, occasionally interrupted by the loud scratching of a quill. Giving the others a look of “be ready” (despite his face mask), Lance turned the handle and threw the door open, his sword leaping into the room a fraction of a second before he did. A moment later, Scootaloo jumped in and to the side of him and Icy, not wanting to be left out, leapt in on his other side.

“Hold it right there!” Scootaloo yelled, holding out her ramming stick parallel to Lance's sword.

The grey unicorn at the desk looked up at the fillies, his dark purple mane bouncing a little as he did so.

“Huh.” He said, raising an eyebrow. “That's odd. Normally, ponies don't start pointing weapons at me until tax season starts.” He looked over his apparent attackers. “Then again, you three are a little young to be paying taxes so...” He thought for a moment, apparently trying to reconcile these facts in his head.

While he was doing that, Icy and Scootaloo were looking at each other, a little confused, and Lance was trotting up to the stallion, stopping right next to him.

The stallion looked at the fully-covered colt, but before he could say anything, Lance's hoof reached out, poking the stallion in the chest, then the neck, then the cheek.

“Can I help you?” The stallion asked, seemingly not bothered by the pokes. Lance turned to the others and shook his head.

“Nope, you're solid. Pretty sure you're a grown-up.” Scootaloo supplied.

“Thank you, I'm sure.” The stallion said with a flat look before his eyes widened for a moment. “Hold on a second.” he reached down, opened one of the drawers in his desk and pulled out an envelope. “A young colt in a suit and mask dropped this off this afternoon. He asked that if a group of colts and/or fillies come bursting in here tonight, I should give it to them. I have no idea how he knew, but...”

“And you didn't stop him?” Scootaloo asked, annoyed at the stallion's nonchalance.

“Why? Was he breaking the law?” The stallion asked. “The last time I checked, wearing a mask was not a crime. He was probably just playing some sort of game.” He shrugged, unaware of how right he was.

Rolling her eyes, Scootaloo took the envelope and opened it, putting the paper inside on the floor where they could read it.

Iota Force 2 – Magic Eye 0

Very impressive, I must say – you've beaten me twice in a row. Or at least, my puzzle. As I'm sure you've noticed, I did not, in fact, attempt to steal anything – I am not so gauche as to rob a town of its necessary funding, after all. However, you have successfully figured out where I was alluding to and that's the important thing.

However, I'm sure you all know far better than to count me out of the game just yet. There are still plenty of opportunities for me to catch up and I don't intend to let a one of them slip by. As such, here's the next puzzle:

“The first baby
of the first child
of the first offspring
of the first disperser
of the first family's
first flamboyant fruits.

At last, at last,
the smaller ones
shall hear and cheer and jeer,
to see their underminer humbled
by a lowly larceneer.”

Icy was about to comment when the stallion spoke up. “Listen, kids, I'm sure that's very interesting, but do you think you could leave? It's probably past your bedtime.” Looking up at him, Icy saw the stallion glare at a huge pile of papers. “I know it's past mine.”

Feeling slightly embarrassed by the whole business, Icy slipped the paper back inside the envelope and trotted out of the room, the others following.

“So, what do you think this one means?” Icy asked as they exited the building.

“Well, I got an idea,” Scootaloo replied, uncharacteristically hesitant, “but you're not gonna like it.”


> Chapter Three: The Baby
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Diamond Tiara?!” Icy exclaimed.

It was recess on the following day. Icy had, of course, intended to get to school early to collaborate with the others before school started, as she'd done the day before. Unfortunately, after two very late nights in a row, she was far too exhausted for that and had barely managed to get there before the bell rang and the school day began. As they'd gone in, though, Scootaloo had assured her that it was okay, as she was pretty sure of the answer to this one.

To her credit, she did indeed sound sure when she told Icy and the others who she thought the next target would be. However, Icy was less that thrilled, both with the answer and with the implications behind it and what it would mean for them that night.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo said, sounding more than a little depressed at the prospect herself, “Can't think of who else it could mean. Looks like we're gonna have to... protect her.” She swallowed audibly, as if to prevent herself from spitting at the prospect. Not that Icy could really blame her. Although she hadn't been on the receiving end of her and her crony's torments that often after the first day, they did target her occasionally – when their bully-senses detected that she would be vulnerable, Icy assumed. Even when they didn't, they made very few attempts to hide what they did to others, at least for their classmates.

To say that Diamond Tiara was not well-liked would be like saying Nightmare Moon had a couple of anger issues..

Icy looked around at the faces of her teammates and none of them looked happy at the idea. Dinky was looking at the ground, a hint of fear on her face as she glanced across the playground and Icy didn't have to turn around to guess who she was looking at. Pip was tapping his hooves together nervously, looking a little ashamed – though he wasn't technically a part of the team, at least in the field, he took his role as liaison and, as he put it, "mission control" very seriously and didn't seem to like the idea of sending them to protect someone so... Diamond Tiara. Archer, though her posture was as relaxed as ever, was looking away, her mouth pulled to the side slightly. Even Lance was looking rather hesitant, his expression one of deep thought as he pored over the latest letter, as if looking for an alternative solution.

Though that did lead Icy to question things as well.

“You sure?” She asked, trotting up beside Lance and looking over the message. “How do you figure?”

Scootaloo breathed out slowly, calming herself down. “See, the first family's the apples – they founded Ponyville, can't think of any other first family, flamboyant fruit's gotta be the zap apples, first one to distribute them was Stinkin' Rich, who's Diamond Tiara's Grandpa... no wait, he's Filthy Rich's grandpa, who's Diamond Tiara's dad, who...” she paused as she tried to line things up into a coherent sentence, “Point is, Diamond Tiara's three children away for Stinkin', the letter goes three children down, so, yeah, gotta be her.” She paused, suddenly a little hesitant. “You know, now I say it out loud, 'sa little too obvious, isn't it? Kinda straightforward for him.”

There was a murmur of assent before Icy could respond.

“Are you kidding me? How is that obvious? How do you know all this stuff?”

“Hey,” Scootaloo replied, “I pay attention in class sometimes, you know? And Granny Smith came in one time and gave us all a talk about it. It was really cool.”

“Okay,” Icy nodded, “and if you hadn't had that talk? Would you know about it then?”

Scootaloo paused. “I guess not, but why...?”

“Cause I didn't know any of that stuff, I didn't know about that talk, so how could he know?” Icy asked. She was honestly a little annoyed, although, when she thought about it, she wasn't sure why. Something about how Scootaloo dismissed her knowledge as obvious. “And if you didn't, we'd have had to look things up and research them. I think he just didn't know you were so good at local history, Scootaloo.”

Scootaloo waved a hoof. “Eh, I wouldn't say that. Anyway, point is, we know who he's going after next.”

Icy winced as she was brought back to the main point of the conversation.

“Yeah. Like, I know we're the heroes and the ones who're trying to stop him, but, do you think we could maybe, I dunno, just let him...” she trailed off. Despite the temptation of just letting Magic Eye do what he wanted to Diamond Tiara, perhaps in the hopes that two wrongs could make a right, saying it out loud just made it more clear with every word how bad it would be to do that.

Dinky put a hoof on Icy's. “You know we can't.” She told her, gently but firmly. Icy nodded, accepting Dinky's mild admonishment, partly because she was right and partially Icy had noticed that hers was the only face that hadn't considered the idea for a split second.

“I guess.” Icy sighed and looked at Dinky. “Sorry, that was...”

At this point, the hug was not unexpected, but it still interrupted her. “It's okay,” Dinky assured her, “don't feel too bad.”

“Anyway, that's not the only reason.” Scootaloo added as the hug ended. “See, if we stop Magic Eye and protect Diamond,” she gave a small shudder before continuing, “she won't know about it and wouldn't believe it if she did, so she ain't gonna be any worse than usual. If we don't, he's gonna think we couldn't figure it out. And I ain't gonna let that happen.” She scuffed a hoof against the ground at the mere thought. “Even Diamond ain't as smug as he'll be. So, yeah, we gotta stop him from robbing her. Even if she is a bit-... rich.” She finished lamely.

Dinky tilted her head in confusion. “No, that's her grandpa.”

“He is?” Pip asked, having wisely decided to remain silent until this point. “How did you know that?”

Dinky smiled. “Cause Mommy delivers the mail – she told me Filthy Rich gets a lot of letters from his dad Bit and his little sister Get.”

“Get Rich?” Icy asked.

“Well, not anymore,” Dinky explained, “Mommy says she married a racer called Lightning Quick and they put their last names together.

“Right, that makes sense.” Icy nodded before pulling her thoughts back to the matter at hoof. “So, guess we're protecting Diamond Tiara, then.”

“Well, about that,” Archer piped up, having had a half-whispered, half-silent conversation with Lance, “we are, but you're not.”

“What? Why not?” Icy certainly wasn't relishing the prospect, but being told she wasn't coming like that still hurt a little. Did they think she wasn't capable of helping or that she wasn't willing to?

Lance waved a hoof at Icy, indicating her body and her general state.

“Exactly, you're been up late two nights in a row, Icy. And, if you don't mind me saying, you didn't look too fresh Monday Morning, either.” Archer explained.

Oh. Icy thought, a slight blush coming to her cheeks at her presumption. That makes more sense.

“Yeah, you get some sleep tonight, Icy.” Scootaloo smiled encouragingly. “Don't worry, we'll be sure to give him one for you when we catch him.”

“You're not coming either, Scoots.” Archer said bluntly.

“WHAT?!” Scootaloo whirled around and fixed Archer with a glare. “Whaddaya mean I'm not coming? I mean, yeah, I don't like Diamond, but I'm not gonna miss a chance to...”

“It's not that you don't like Diamond,” Archer cut in without raising her voice, “it's that Diamond doesn't like you. We're gonna have to camp out on the grounds of her place if we're gonna keep an eye on it. Gonna have to ask her dad about that.” She looked to the side for a second, as if making a mental note. “And I hope we won't run into her, but if we do and you're there, she's gonna run us outta there faster than you can scoot.”

Scootaloo snorted but didn't argue. “Just don't let him get away, kay?”





That night, Icy did get to sleep earlier than she had the previous two nights, but not by much. Most of the night was spent worrying. She had no illusions this it was rational, of course. If she was totally honest, she knew the others were right and she'd be better off rested, but that didn't make her feel much better. Having the others put themselves at risk while she lay comfortably in her bed did not, ironically, make for the most comfortable of nights.

Although, now that she thought about it, “risk” was kind of a strong word. In fact, thinking more about it, it was an outright lie. When they'd first met Magic Eye this week, he had done literally nothing to threaten or hurt any of them. The most he'd done was blow some smoke at them and throw a dummy at them. Not exactly polite, but not dangerous. It barely even counted as aggressive, particular since it been entirely a matter of distraction rather than attack. As he had said, his priority had been escape.

Though, really, the simplest way to make sure he escaped was by restraining them or hurting them. After all, if your opponents are trapped, incapacitated by pain or... well, then escape's kind of a formality. And yet, he'd decided to get away without doing anything to them. Normally, that sort of thing could be attributed to a conscience, but Magic Eye was still an unrepentant thief and certainly didn't seem to be bothered by such things.

Of course, she'd only met him once, so it was possible that that encounter was an exception, but the others hadn't been surprised at his lack of aggression, so it was probably the norm. In fact, Icy could say she encountered him twice, just not in person the second time. And that, judging from the others' reaction, was unusual and Icy could understand why – he'd certainly seemed the type to grandstand and gloat, so not turning up felt a little off. And, what's more, he clearly planned not to come but to still give them the puzzle, so...

Icy snorted and flipped over in her bed. This colt was a puzzle on top of his puzzle and she was far too tired to think about it.

Maybe things'll make a bit more sense in the morning. She thought as she finally managed to drift off.





The next morning, Icy felt a good deal more refreshed than she would have expected. She wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because she'd been thinking so hard before going to bed, she'd tired her brain out so she slept deeper and rested more efficiently. Maybe it was because she had such confidence in her teammates to put an end to this problem that she was able to sleep more peacefully. Or maybe she was just at that point of sleep deprivation where she felt totally fine and energized, she'd felt that one before. Oh boy, had she felt that one before.

In actual fact, the reason was that the clocks had gone back the previous night, so she'd had an extra hour of sleep. They usually went back a couple of weeks earlier, but the local expert and coordinator of time, clocks and schedules (well, the official one, at any rate – Princess Twilight's position as one was mostly honorary and she had other things to worry about anyway) had been called away from the town for a while and forgotten to set things up to go to Daylight Savings time without him. This was something of a recurring problem and it had been suggested that this kind of absent-mindedness in an administrator was unacceptable. However, it had generally been agreed that, in a town as insane as Ponyville, a little eccentricity in the management was quite forgivable, if not occasionally advantageous.

There was also the fact that anyone who tried to remove the good Mr Time Turner from his position as the local temporal expert would have to overcome an absolutely furious mailmare with something of a gift for making things break and a young filly with her own particular talent with time. So no one had tried.

Icy knew nothing of this, of course, despite knowing the filly in question, since the filly had not a single bad word to say about her “kinda-Daddy” or, indeed, about most ponies. All she knew was that she was rested, energized and had an overall good feeling about the coming day.

This feeling was somewhat lessened when she saw the first group of policeponies rushing across town.

Icy gulped. She knew that policeponies rushing about generally implied that there had been a crime committed – it was just one of those little things one picked up as a crime fighter. And it being a crime unrelated to the crime spree her team was dealing with seemed like a little bit of a stretch. But, at the same time, if the crime had actually been committed and reported despite her teammates' presence, that implied some worrying things.

“Excuse me!” She called to the next policepony she saw.

The big mare stopped and looked down, giving a strained but genuine smile. “Can I help you, Miss?”

Icy nodded. “What's going on? Why is everyone running around like this?”

The mare sighed and looked in the direction she'd been running. “Ah, nothing for you to worry about, Miss. There was a robbery last night, that's all.”

Of course there was. Icy thought. I already knew that, why did I ask? Well, I guess I just needed confirmation, but still, this means that the others didn't stop him from robbing Diamond's house but they were camping right near it so they should have seen him except it is a big house so they probably couldn't see all of it so maybe they missed him except they were still near the house when it happened so the police would have to take them in and question them but that should be okay because the police know about us but they might be angry we didn't tell them and what if they did try to catch Magic Eye but he escaped and they were caught and everyone thought they were trying to rob the place and Diamond would accuse them and everyone would believe her and...

“Don't worry,” the policemare said, noticing Icy's panicked expression but oblivious to how her thought process was hurtling out of control with the speed of a freight train and, in terms of her mood, causing roughly the same amount of damage, “wasn't breaking into anypony's house or anything. Someone just broke into Barnyard Bargains and took some money. Lot of money, actually, but more than he could get from a house.

...and then we'd have to confront him in his mountain lair but he'd have a trap door that'd lead to... wait what? “Huh? Barnyard Bargains? The big superstore? Why would he...?”

“Well, we don't know it's a he,” the mare interjected, unaware Icy knew a bit more about the perpetrator than she did, “and, well, like I said, lot of money in that place. Anyway, really wish I could tell you more, but I gotta be there. Have a good day!” The mare waved before she resumed her journey.

Icy sat there for a moment, thinking. He robbed a supermarket. How does that fit in with what he told us? After a few more moments' thought got her nowhere, she got up and trotted after the policemare.

It didn't take long to get to Barnyard Bargains – one of the reasons it was so successful was that it was close enough to the centre of town to be convenient to get to, but not so close as to be an eyesore. As she got closer, she began to hear the sounds of an argument. At first, she assumed it was the owner yelling at a security guard, but when she turned the corner and saw the crime scene (such as it was – there was no damage, no signs of forced entry and very little sign from the outside that a break-in had occurred), it turned out to be a somewhat more domestic affair.

“I know, Honey, but that's no reason to fire him.” The stallion Icy recognized as Filthy Rich said to the mare, his voice clearly struggling to both keep her calm and stay calm itself. To his credit, it was mostly managing the latter.

“Why not?” The mare shrieked. It took Icy a moment longer to place her, but she did vaguely remember seeing her with Diamond Tiara in town once or twice, so she was presumably his wife. “He let someone break in and steal our money, it's only fair he should pay for it with his job!”

Filthy Rich slicked his hair back in agitation. “He didn't “let” them do anything – you heard what the police say happened. He didn't know to check the crawlspace of the bathroom or...”

“Well, he should have!” The mare answered glaring at her husband. “If he's going to have the privilege of working for his betters, I don't think it's too much to ask for him to put every ounce of his pathetic being to work in that service. And was it his idea to buy burglar alarms that couldn't distinguish between guards and intruders?”

"No, that was the previous head of security. So, it wasn't his fault he had to turn them off to do his patrol, so-"

"Wrong!" The mare screeched. "He may not have bought them, but he did continue to use them rather than changing them." She gave an imperious sniff. "I've half a mind to sue him for the money to buy new alarms."

Filthy sighed, closing his eyes for a moment before trying a different tactic. “Look, honey, even if I wanted to fire him over this, I couldn't – the union'd be all over me for wrongful dismissal.” The mare opened her mouth to respond, but Filthy held up a hoof and continued. “And even if he lost the case, that'd still mean paying court costs and lawyers and we'd lose even more money.”

That shut the mare up.

Filthy put a hoof on the bridge of his nose. “Listen, I'll dock his pay, but that's honestly all I can and should do.”

The mare snorted and turned away, her tail smacking Filthy's face lightly. “Fine, I guess that'll do.” And with that, she flounced away, nose so high in the air it was probably a danger to low-flying pegasi.

Shaking his head, Filthy walked over to an older stallion dressed in a security guard's uniform.

“So, how much am I losing, Mr Rich?” The stallion asked morosely.

Filthy looked over his shoulder to check that his wife had gone (meaning Icy had to duck around the corner – she didn't want to get caught snooping) and gave a thin smile. “I was thinking around one tenth-bit. Per Annum, of course.”

The stallion's eyes widened. “Really, Mr Rich? I mean, I... you did lose an awful lot in...”

“Yes, but the insurance should cover it.” The business-stallion assured him. “And it was hardly your fault that the security procedures didn't cover what happened.”

“Well, if you're sure, I... Thank you, Mr Rich!” The stallion sighed in relief, looking on his employer as if he was his saviour.

“However,” Filthy Rich continued, his smile dampening just a touch, “we are going to have to make sure this doesn't happen again – we'll have to review the procedures and add new ones to cover events such as this. And that means you're going to have a lot more work from now on. Do you think you can handle it?”

The stallion stood up straighter, nodding resolutely, still buoyed up and now motivated by his gratitude. “Absolutely, Mr Rich - I've already got some ideas about that. You can count on me!”

“Glad to hear it!” Filthy Rich said as he lead the stallion inside and out of Icy's earshot.

Huh. Icy thought as she turned and trotted to school, picking up the pace a little so as not to be too late to check in with the others. Turns out the master business-stallion is actually kind of good at employing ponies. Who'd have guessed?

***

When she reached the schoolyard, she didn't have to look hard to see the team. The group of colts and fillies gathered around a tree in various states of glumness and irritation were kind of hard to miss.

“So, you guys heard?” Icy asked as she trotted up to them.

Scootaloo's wings buzzed as she glared up at Icy. “Yeah. We heard. We got it wrong.”

“Did we?” Icy asked. “I mean, the riddle said...”

“His “first baby”” Archer quoted in a tone of mild exasperation. “He built that place way before Diamond was born, and you could say it was his baby.”

“If you wanted to be really flowery about it.” Scootaloo muttered.

“And it’s got a longer history of exploiting and undermining the competition than even Diamond.” Archer finished.

“Yeah, but... how were we supposed to get that?” Icy asked. “I mean, you could maybe get that he meant either, but how...?”

“The picture.” Dinky pointed out, a hoof on the photo lying in front of her. Icy looked down, having forgotten about the picture, since the first two puzzles were mostly doable without it.

Sure enough, Dinky's hoof was placed next to the bottom-left picture.

“Oh, I get it.” Icy said after a moment. “That's supposed to be a barnyard.”

A collective sigh came up from the group. Lance nodded.

“Well,” Dinky suggested quietly, “at least we got a nice night of camping out of it.”

“So, if you didn't get to him,” Icy asked, too caught up in the problem to hear Dinky, “how are we gonna get his next letter?”

“Swung by the post office this morning.” Archer said, hoofing over a piece of paper. “Had this in the P.O. Box. We've all read it.”

Icy took the letter and started reading aloud, despite not needing to.

Iota Force 2 – Magic Eye 1

Sorry I didn't see you last night. I was worried this one might be too easy for you, but I suppose you can't be blamed for not knowing as much as I thought about local history.

“I did know!” Scootaloo growled, interrupting Icy's reading. “I figured it out, I just didn't know he meant... ARRRRGH!” She turned around and punched the tree hard, sending shards of bark flying off of it.

Icy stared for a moment, concerned, before she continued reading.

But do not be disheartened, there are still a few more rounds to go. But at the same time, do not get complacent either, as I do not intend to go easy on you. Nor should I need to.

As such, let's continue with the next puzzle, shall we?

“I leap from the edge,
Plummet without start or end,
Fall into myself.”

Icy stared for a moment in confusion, being unfamiliar with the kind of verse he had used.

“Well,” She said finally, “At least he's got some variety.”


> Chapter Four: The Fall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Icy trotted out of the schoolhouse at the end of the day, head down, pondering as hard as she could ponder.

She'd made absolutely zero progress on the riddle so far that day. Admittedly, that was partially because she'd given it very little thought, since the lessons that day had been really interesting. They'd been talking about the weather, how it worked and what it did. They'd learned about some of the basics of managing the weather and why the Pegasi needed to make seemingly less desirable weathers rather than just leaving it sunny all the time - something Icy was particularly thankful for, given her fraught relationship with the huge, royally controlled ball of burning plasma in question. They'd also discussed some of the more extreme kinds of weather in the world, from the blizzards of the north to the powerful desert winds of Saddle Arabia to simply the rainstorm that was scheduled for that Saturday.

All of the class had been interested, though for the most part, more about the extreme weather stuff – no matter how devastating they were told a hurricane was, the idea of a spinning wind so huge it could pick a house off the ground and toss it like a paper aeroplane held a certain appeal to small children. However, though Icy felt that awe as well, she was also interested in the day-to-day aspects of the weather. Particularly since, with her abilities, weather work might be a viable career option when she grew up. Assuming she could improve her flying, of course.

She wasn't sure that was what she wanted to do with her life. In fact, she honestly had no idea at all what she wanted to be when she grew up. But she didn't let it get her down – she figured she should at least wait until her cutie mark showed up before she started worrying about that. For the moment, best to focus on the here and now. In the long term, that meant simply enjoying being a kid (something she was exceptionally good at) and in the short term, that meant figuring out the riddle.

Unfortunately, the interesting day was only part of the reason she was stumped. The other part was simply the fact that she hadn't the faintest clue how to solve it. Not just that it was hard, but that she didn't know where to begin. The other puzzles had at least had distinct images and specific aspects, even if what they meant was still somewhat obscured, but this? Leaping for the edge of what? And if it leapt from any edge, that would be the start of its fall, and “falling into itself” would definitely be the end, so the middle line made no sense. The idea was probably something that fell forever, but she couldn't think of anything that did that, nor anything that went into itself in anything more than an abstract philosophical sense, which was both too vague for it to be the answer and too advanced for her to really think about it.

So, all in all, Icy's mood was somewhat sour as she walked into Pip's house, the open door signalling that a meeting was underway. She trotted down the stairs to the basement, looking down at her hooves. She considered for a moment doing some tests to see if she could descend in a way the riddle described, but quickly dismissed the idea. Even if she could figure it out like that, it'd probably be easier to check in with the others first and see if they'd figured it out.

Although, judging from the expressions she saw as she entered Homebase (as she thought of Pip's room), that seemed a little unlikely.

Still, so as not to be rude, Icy felt she should at least check before assuming anything. “Any luck figuring it out, yet?” She asked as she trotted up to the gathering of the group.

The chorus of “No”s, “Nuh uh”s and shakes of the head was disheartening, but not unexpected.

“I don't get it.” Archer declared. She didn't sound particularly despairing, just like she was giving up the pretence and stating an objective fact.

“None of us do, I guess.” Icy replied as she sighed, getting ready to start thinking again.

“Nah, not that.” Archer replied, earning a curious glance from the others. “I mean, yeah, I've got no idea what the answer is, but I mean I don't get why he's given us this one. I mean, it's so vague, could mean anything – I don't see how we're supposed to get it.”

“Yeah, I thought so too.” Icy said, her mind shifting from the “what” of the riddle to the “why” of it.

There was silence for a minute before Scootaloo groaned, her hooves grasping her forehead. “Uuurgh, this is stupid. At this rate, we'll be doing nothing but this stuff all week!”

Archer rolled her eyes. “Relax, Scoots, we've only got this and one more to go, remember?”

Scootaloo glared at Archer, not liking her fury being hindered by a little thing like logic. “Unless the little snot comes up with some more horseapples for us.”

“Maybe,” Archer replied, shrugging, “but we don't know he will, so let's just keep thinking about the ones we know.”

“Yeah, I know.” Scootaloo growled. “We'll keep looking at the picture we have got before...”

“Oh!” Dinky piped up, cutting off Scootaloo's rant before it could begin. “That's a really good idea, Scootaloo!”

Scootaloo instinctively smirked at the compliment. “Course it is.” Her smirk flattened as she thought for a moment. “What did I say?”

“The Picture! The reason we got the last one wrong was because we didn't look at the picture, right?”

What remained of Scootaloo's smile vanished. “Yeah. I know. What's your point?”

Dinky's ears fell at Scootaloo's tone. “Sorry, I just meant...” She took a deep breath and straightened herself up. “Well, we've only got two picture left, so maybe we should look at them first and see if they give us any ideas.”

“That's a really good idea, Dinky.” Pip replied after a moment's thought. He went down below his desks to rummage around in his saddlebags. After a few seconds, he clambered back up into his chair and laid the picture on the table. “So, we've got this one and this one.” He said, pointing a tiny hoof to the two pictures they hadn't matched up to a previously committed crime.

“So, a five-sided shape with pointy bits on the corners and a bunch of lines.” Scootaloo summed up, calmer than before but still a little agitated.

“Well, the whole thing's got a pentagon in the middle.” Icy pointed out. “So maybe the one with the pentagon's supposed to be the last one. So with the other one we've got,” she tried counting for a moment, before giving up, “a bunch of lines and they're all bending.”

The group all stared at the picture, trying to parse it into something they recognized.

After a minute or so, Archer piped up. “Probably not, but it could be… hmm.”

“You got something?” Scootaloo asked, her head shooting up.

Archer sighed. “Maybe - I was thinking of things shaped like that - a curved line with a lot of sections, but before I tell you, Scoots, you gotta promise me you won’t get too excited or assume it must be right, 'kay?”

Scootaloo frowned, confused at Archer’s request. “Erm, okay, but I dunno why you think I would. It’s not like it’s about Rai- Hey, you’re right, the picture’s a rainbow, I…” She paused, her legs already bent in preparation of hopping up and down. Clearing her throat awkwardly, she sat down again. “I mean, it could be a rainbow.”

Archer nodded. “That’s what I thought, but I’m not sure - it’s got way more than seven sections.”

“Seven?” Dinky asked.

“Yeah - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.” Archer replied.

Icy nodded, muttering to herself. “Reynard Of Yore Gave Battle In Vain.”

Dinky tilted her head to the side. “I guess I have heard that, but it’s not really true. If you look at a rainbow, it’s got six sections - blue and purple, not blue, indigo and violet.”

“Actually, you’re both kind of right and both kind of wrong.” Scootaloo started explaining in a tone so unlike her that Icy had to look to check she was the same pony. “See, rainbows are made from seven ingredients, since blue, indigo and violet are all needed to make the blue and purple bits. And, yeah, rainbows look like they got six clear sections from a distance, but that’s actually an optical illusion caused by the way the light mixes as it gets further away from it. If you actually look right up close, a rainbow’s got a whole bunch of different strata created by the mixing process.”

Everyone stared as Scootaloo in astonishment.

After a second, she shrugged awkwardly. “What? I’m best sisters with Rainbow Dash, even I’m gonna pick something up.”

Icy didn’t have time to wonder about that wording as Scootaloo’s face fell

“That might mean he's gonna try to rob Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo continued, horrified.

“Maybe, but we don't know that.” Icy pointed out. “Besides, that doesn't fit the riddle, does it?”

“Maybe it does, it could mean Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo suggested, sounding a little hesitant. “I mean, falling forever could mean flying, and she could fall into... a rainbow?”

Lance shook his head – the only reasonable response to that suggestion.

Icy pushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she thought. “So, we've got a rainbow and something that falls.”

She was brought out of her thoughts almost immediately by the sound of a hoof slapping a forehead.

“Oh, geez, of course, rainbow falls, I know where that is!” Scootaloo said through the hoof she was dragging down her face.

Icy tilted her head at the orange filly. “Do they? Does it... she...? Wait, you mean Rainbow Falls? That’s practically on the other side of Equestria!”

“No, no, no, not Rainbow Falls, but some rainbow falls.” Scootaloo paused, taking a moment to plan out her sentence in her head. “Winsome falls. It's this big, rainbow coloured waterfall on the other side of Whitetail Wood with rainbows all around it!”

“Waterfall... Waterfall!” Dinky cried in triumph, putting a hoof down on the letter. “The answer's a waterfall!”

Icy thought about it. That would seem to fit, but... “What could be trying to steal from a waterfall? Water?”

“I dunno,” said Archer, thinking for a moment, “But it fits with the puzzle, so maybe there's someone camping there he's trying to rob – it's a pretty famous camping spot.

“In November?” Pip asked, though as a question rather than an objection. Not that Icy could see why he would object. That sounded like the perfect time for camping for her – nice and cool with lots of night to have campfires in.

“Anyway, that's not the problem.” Scootaloo pointed out. “Winsome Falls is way outside of town. Took me and the crusaders and our... sisters,” she grinned goofily at the word for a second before continuing, “'bout two days to hike over there. Course,” she smirked, a dash of her usual confidence returning, “that was hiking, and with them slowing me down. I get started now, I think I could probably get there by, say, eleven – probably the earliest he'll strike.”

“You sure?” Icy asked. It was around five o'clock in the afternoon at that point, so cutting two days down to six hours seemed like quite a task.

Scootaloo grinned. “Filly, did you forget who you're talking to? Wings are gonna be all kindsa sore tomorrow, but I can get there, just you wait. Course, I'll have to go alone.” Her grin fell a little, a touch of apology seeping into it. “No offense, but carrying anyone in the trailer'd slow me down way too much.”

“That's okay.” Dinky assured her. “We understand. If you need us for anything, just call us on the badges and we'll be there.” She thought for a moment. “I'm not sure how, but we'll think of something.”

“Right, just need to swing by home to get my team scooter...” Scootaloo said to herself as she trotted towards the door. Stopping abruptly, she turned around. “Icy, think you could do me a favour?”





“Excuse me, Miss?” Icy asked the yellow mare as she turned the corner. “Is this the way to Rainbow Dash's house.”

As the mare nodded and pointed above the streets, Icy looked up to see, indeed, a large cloud house floating just beyond the rows of houses on the outskirts of Ponyville. Funny place to put it, Icy thought, if it's a cloud house, why not just put it above the centre of town? Maybe ponies just don't like it blocking the light or something. Shrugging internally, Icy thanked the mare and resumed her journey.

Now that she'd seen it, it wasn't hard to keep the cloud house in sight as she made her way towards it. It was huge enough, high enough and colourful enough that it could easily act as a beacon if one needed it to, which Icy did. I guess it makes sense that Rainbow Dash would have a huge house. She's done a lot to deserve it. Icy reasoned. And that made Scootaloo's request even more unlikely. Icy was going to ask Rainbow Dash, one of the many-time saviours of Equestria, an up-and-coming Wonderbolt and a mare who could casually create what most considered an impossibility... to pick up Scootaloo from an after-school activity. Once Scootaloo had caught Magic Eye, of course, and Icy genuinely wasn't sure which idea was more unlikely.

Not that she didn't believe the Rainbow pegasus could do it – it probably wouldn't take her more that a quarter of an hour there and back, even with a passenger from the latter half. However, she really couldn't imagine someone of Rainbow Dash's standing and status could really have the time for something like that – she almost certainly had better things to do and more important things to worry about than leaving one filly hanging like that.

Admittedly, she understood Scootaloo to have a degree of familiarity with Rainbow Dash. Initially, she'd been very skeptical of the idea; not that she thought Scootaloo was lying, just that her views and ideas when it came to her idol were... a little skewed, to say the least. However, the others had assured her that the two were quite close and that, if asked nicely enough (and possibly flattered enough), Rainbow Dash would probably collect her “little sister” and get her back to Ponyville before bedtime. Still, Icy had her doubts, but she had promised to convey the message, and thus, she was going to a celebrity's house. Again.

Of course, that hadn't been her first choice – she'd tried to catch Rainbow Dash in town while she was working, beginning preparations for the weekend's storm. Unfortunately, Icy's plan had been for her, a mostly-flightless filly, to keep up with the fastest thing on two wings.





“Excuse me, Miss Rainb-”

WOOOOOOSH!

“-ow Dash?”





Yeah, that wasn't happening. Thus, she had to wait until Rainbow Dash was done for the day. And since weather work tended to have very weird hours due to the fact that weather was something of a constant, that had meant waiting until the mid-evening, well after the November sky had gone dark.

Well, at least this time, it wasn't my fault that I left it so late. Icy thought. I just hope Rainbow Dash doesn't mind being...

Icy was brought out of her musings as she noticed something falling in droplets at the top of her peripheral vision. Instinctively, her wings spread out and over her head - it was hardly a new experience for her to be caught unaware by the rain and she’d found that, while they weren’t much good for flying yet, her wide wings made a pretty good makeshift umbrella. She stood there for a few seconds, waiting for the downpour, only to feel absolutely nothing. Furthermore, thinking about it, she remembered that it wasn’t supposed to rain for another couple of days. Scrunching her face a little in confusion, she peeked out through her wings to see what was going on.

Above her, there was some liquid falling, but it wasn’t water. Instead, far above her, liquid rainbow poured over the side of a cloud, falling down a few feet before seeming to fade out of existence. It wasn’t, of course - there was a gutter beneath the main cloud that caught the rainbow and drew it back to the top of the fountain, magically hidden so as to not interfere with the aesthetics. However, a somewhat obscure fact about invisible things was that it was difficult to see them. As such, to Icy’s very untrained eye, she just saw the fountain dissolve into nothing and she attributed it to Rainbow Dash being either rich or weird. Or possibly both.

After a moment, Icy’s awareness caught up to her thoughts and she realized that, yes, Rainbow’s house was the one covered in rainbows. Nodding to herself in satisfaction at her deduction, she considered how to get up there. For a moment, she wished that the rainbow she saw stretching over the top of the house reached down to the ground. However, she shook her head - even if it did, the upwards force of the rainbow wouldn’t be enough to lift a single wing, much less her entire body. Besides, she noted with amusement, all that would do is take up onto the roof of the cloud house and possibly down into the piping, pushing her down and through it until she came out and fell back down to earth along with the rainbow waterfalls above… her...

Rainbow... Waterfalls...

Backing up a couple of steps, Icy whirled around and galloped back into town towards her house, where the badge needed to contact Scootaloo lay.

“Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad...” She chanted in sync with her rapid hoofsteps.

***

Icy tapped her hooves worriedly as she waited outside her house.

She'd managed to reach her house around eight thirty and told Scootaloo about another possible meaning to the puzzle – one that made a lot more sense to rob and would still be within Ponyville. After that, Scootaloo hadn't contacted her for few minutes and Icy had been briefly worried. However, a few snatches of sound had come through, probably from the badge pressing up against the handlebars of the scooter, and made it clear that it was only because the little Speedster was busy saying some... rather bad words.

After that, though, she had assured them that she'd be back quickly, then gone quiet again until a few minutes ago, around quarter past eleven, when she'd told Icy to wait outside her house.

Not sure why she needs me to, though, even if she can make it back here in timOOPH!

Now, while Icy was beginning to get used to travelling at the speed of Scoot, having it come and pick her up out of nowhere was still rather startling and tended to knock the wind out of her.

Shaking her head, she blinked to clarify the image of Scootaloo grasping her, her face set in furious determination. Icy breathed out slowly and swung herself around the orange filly, landing to ride on the scooter behind her.

“You okay?” She asked, having to raise her voice a little to be heard over the wind. “you wanna take a rest? Your wings must be...”

“I'm not stupid!” Scootaloo snapped. “I know to pace myself.” Icy shrunk back a bit from the anger, her grip on Scootaloo's back loosening. She felt Scootaloo sigh. “Sorry, I just... I'll be fine. Gonna be sore in the morning, but I'm okay for now. Can you glide us?”

Icy raised an eyebrow at the sudden change of topic. “Can I... what?”

“I know you can glide,” Scootaloo called back, her speech beginning to speed up, “can you glide us both down?”

“I... I think so,” Icy replied, her thoughts even more unsure than her voice, “but why would I...” She looked over Scootaloo's shoulder, her eyes widening. “Er, Scootaloo, might want to go left a bit, that ramps coming up awfully faAAAAAAAAAGH!”

Sure enough, as soon as Scootaloo had spotted the planks stacked against the large crate, she'd gone straight towards them and over them, flying high into the air.

“Glide! Glide!” Scootaloo yelled as she kept her grasp on the handlebars, the scooter arcing along with them.

Icy's wings flared out, though whether because of Scootaloo's command, her own preparation or blind panic, she couldn't say, and she wrapped her hooves around Scootaloo's barrel. The descent of the two quickly slowed and became far more horizontal than vertical. However, the weight of herself, her companion and the scooter quickly began straining Icy's weak wings and they began to descend quicker. Icy closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable...

Woomph!

Woomph? The inevitable Woomph? Now that wasn't right, they weren't going to have... a soft landing?

Opening her eyes, Icy saw pure white beneath her hooves. Looking up, she saw more white, broken up by an orange form, thrown away from her by the gentle impact.

Icy thrust a hoof towards Scootaloo who, for her part, had a massive smile on her face.

“Never...” Icy managed to get out between pants, “do that... again...”

Scootaloo shrugged and pointed. “Hey, it got us here, didn't it?”

Following Scootaloo's hoof, Icy saw that, indeed, the two were now sprawled on the cloudy yard of Rainbow Dash's house.

Icy opened her mouth, but paused. Her eyes darted to the side in thought before going back to Scootaloo. “Carry on.” She said, her expression still serious.

Nodding, Scootaloo trotted up to the window by the door, beckoning Icy over. “Give me a boost up, I wanna see inside!”

Icy did as she was told, letting Scootaloo climb onto her back and peer into the house. She looked around for a moment before gasping. “Ah, dammit! We're too late!”

“What did he take?” Icy asked.

“One of Dash's trophies... Aw no, it's the academy speed record trophy. She'd gonna be so mad!” Scootaloo climbed down and kicked the side of the house, a slight thump sounding out.

Icy sighed and opened her mouth to say something before she blinked. That kick should have left a hole in the cloud and yet... “How strong are these walls?” Icy asked, poking the cloud construction – it seemed solid enough.

“It's construction-grade cloud. Pretty strong.” Scootaloo answered a little absently.

“Huh. So he couldn't have just walked through the walls, like I thought.” Icy said, hoping that didn't sound like a stupid idea. It might have, but Scootaloo was a bit busy being angry. “So, how did he get in? Doesn't look like the windows open...”

“They don't.” Scootaloo confirmed. “Safety feature. Pretty strong, too. Dash always complains 'bout that.”

“But then how did he get in?” She repeated. “The only holes I can see are the ones that carry the... Scootaloo, we need to look over the side!”

Scootaloo frowned as Icy darted to he edge of the cloud. “Why?”

“Cause if he got in how I think he got in, there'll be a trail of liquid rainbow we can follow.

A smile spread across Scootaloo's face as the idea resonated with her. “Through the pipes, you mean? Yeah, of course! e can...” She trotted over the side, her face falling again. “Can't see anything on this side. You?”

Icy shook her head. “No.”

“Dammit!” Scootaloo growled before closing her eyes for a moment to calm herself down. “Good idea, though.”

“I don't get it.” Icy said and she trotted back in front of the house. “The only way I can see for him to get in is through the Rainbow Fountain pipes. And...” She looked again at the holes through which the liquid rainbow poured. At the top of the pipes, the rainbow was in its magical light form, so he might have come up with a way to use that to get in without disturbing anything. The bottom of the system, though, had it all as liquid, so there should be a rainbow trail. But not only was there no rainbow trail, but the liquid was trickling out much slower than she would have thought. Almost as if something was...

“Unless...” She smiled, trotting up to the hole and poking her head into it a little. She could see fairly well into the channel, the rainbow providing a dim light.

And what it lit up was the form of a colt, covered in the colourful liquid. Hanging from his neck was a waterproof plastic bag with something the shape of a trophy inside. He was holding himself up around the middle of the slope by pressing his hooves against the sides.

“Well,” Magic Eye said as he made eye contact with Icy, “this is a trifle awkward.”

“Little bit.” Icy agreed, reaching a hoof up towards the colt.

“Now, now, no need for that,” Magic Eye said, waving her off with his own hoof, “I'll come quietly. Well, out of this hole, at least. Really should have come up with a backup plan for this eventuality.”

He took his hooves away from the sides of the pipe, but he didn't fall. He just floated in place for a moment before he placed his hooves further down the pipe and pulled himself towards the opening. Icy opened her mouth to question this, before realizing she'd need to get out of the way for him to exit. So she did just that, positioning herself just next the aperture of the pipe, in case he tried to make a run for it.

He pulled himself out of the pipe, so covered in liquid rainbow that Icy could barely make out his colours – purple for the suit (with some sort of metal belt), red for the hair, mask and tie and black for his coat. As he exited the pipe, he put a hoof onto the cloud beneath him, but kept the others off it, his body floating in the air. He looked up at Icy's puzzled expression.

“Weightlessness charm.” He explained, indicating the belt around his weight. “That's how I was able to get up to these clouds and travel along the rainbow – well deduced, by the way. Nice to see you’ve already grasped my preference against using more... pedestrian forms of entry.“ He gave a pointed look towards the front door of Rainbow’s house, particularly the lock, before suddenly looking thoughtful as what he just said seemed to register. “Pun unintended, but appropriate, I suppose. Oh, and just in case you were thinking of trying to get the belt off me, I also have a cloud walking spell and a personal parachute.” He indicated with his head to a small backpack he was wearing. “Can't be too careful, after all. Not that I'd imagine you're feeling that homicidal.” His eyes flicked to the side and caught Scootaloo's expression, which looked fairly close to it. “Then again...”

“Stealing a mare's trophy?” The orange filly growled, narrowing her eyes at Magic Eye. “That's low. Even for you.”

Strangely enough, Magic Eye actually looked embarrassed at that. “Yes, I have to admit, I was a touch concerned about that. In fact, if you'll allow a brief confession,” he sighed, appearing totally genuine in his contrition, “I rather came up with this target and this puzzle and gave it to you before I actually checked if there was anything here that fit my style of thievery.” He shrugged and his smile returned, though still with a touch of shame. “They say pride goeth before the fall, and as I'm going to have to do so to get down from here, I suppose that's appropriate.”

“So, what? You just decided to take the trophy she earned for being ten times as awesome as you could hope to be?” Scootaloo sneered, not amused at all. “And for what? Coupla hundred bits or whatever you could sell it for?”

“Actually,” he said, looking at the trophy in the bag, “I know exactly how much I could sell it for – zero point zero zero bits. Give or take precisely nothing.” He raised an eyebrow at Scootaloo. “It's far too distinctive – anyone who sees it will know exactly what it is and, as such, it would be next to impossible to fence. And, as you say, it's a trophy earned by someone else, so I can't really put it in my personal private display. The most I could do with it would be to melt it down for the gold and I could hardly do that to such a wonderful piece of craftsmareship, now could I?”

Icy looked between the colt and the trophy bag, her brow creasing. “So what were you gonna do with it?”

Magic Eye frowned in thought. “I honestly don't know. Probably... yes, probably use it as the prize in another game... possibly against Ms Dash herself, adult though she is. That way, it gets back to someone who can use it and I get some entertainment out of it. Of course, there are some issues with that idea. Quite a dilemma. Happily, though, one you have relieved me of.” He smirked, swinging the pack around by its strap.

“Hey!” Scootaloo called out in a slight panic. “Careful with that thing!”

The swinging slowed as Magic Eye raised an eyebrow behind his mask. “Alright, though you have no need to worry. The bag is enchanted similar to myself, hence why I'm not dragged down by it. You should know by now that I never spare any expense in such matters.” He smiled slowly. “Anyway, as I was saying, you have indeed caught me... sort of.”

Icy kept quiet for a moment, expecting Scootaloo to respond. However, one look at her face showed she was in no mood for any of his games, so she realized she'd better ask. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I did get what I came for, and when I escape, I could easily take it with me, so I did win this round... but then again, you figured out my puzzle and got here just in time, which means so did you. You see my issue, here.” He said, as if he genuinely expected them to sympathise. “That's the problem, I suppose, with a game with asymmetric goals. Tell you what!” He shrugged with a casual smile. “We'll call this round a no-score draw. Keep the scores where they are.”

“I don't give a flying feather about your damn scores!” Scootaloo roared back. “You're gonna give that trophy back and you're gonna come with us and you're gonna go to jail!”

Nodding in agreement, Icy flapped her wings, sending a wave of chilly air over the colt's body.

One side of Magic Eye's smile dropped, leaving him with a lopsided smirk, barely seeming to notice the warning shot. “Well, you're free to take it back from me, of course.” He pulled himself down fully to the cloud's surface, bending his knees so his barrel was almost touching it. Slowly, his eyes flicking between his two opponents, trying not to startle them or give them reason to attack, he plunged his hoof into the cloud's surface, scooping out a large clump of it and pulling it out to hover just above him, at head level with the fillies.

Taking off the bag, he placed it on top of the smaller cloud and wrapped the strap around it, securing it firmly. “There.” He said. “That should keep it safe. Now then, I fear I must apologize, Ms Scootaloo.”

Scootaloo scoffed. “You? Apologize? Yeah, right, for what?”

Magic Eye sighed, looking genuinely sorry. “For taking advantage of your current inability to fly. It's a rather cheap tactic, I know, but it seems the best way out.”

A note of apprehension poked its way into Scootaloo's angry expression. “What do you...?”

Without warning, Magic Eye whirled around and bucked the floating cloud as hard as he could. While he was clearly no Applejack, the kick was rather strong and the weightlessness of both the cloud and its cargo meant it shot off to the side fast.

He turned back around and waved a hoof at Scootaloo's advance. “Ah ah ah! You can try to bring me down if you like, but it'd probably be better to focus on getting it back before that cloud disintegrates. You should have long enough to catch it... if you don't dawdle.”

Scootaloo stopped in her tracks for a moment, her face twitching in indecision. Growling, she turned and sprinted to the edge of the cloud island, leaping into a body slam on a small peninsula-like extension. The clump separated and Scootaloo immediately wrapped her hooves around it and started buzzing her wings, propelling herself forward as she would on her scooter. “This ain't over!” She yelled as she raced off. “I'll be back and I'll get you, you piece of...” and that was all Icy heard, and she was very glad of it.

“She really doesn't like me, does she?” Magic Eye asked, looking out after her.

“No.” At that moment, Icy wasn't too crazy about him either.

“Pity, Pity.” The colt continued, appraisingly. “You know, that filly is a good deal more intelligent than she gives herself credit for. Not, admittedly, in the way my challenges look for, but nevertheless.”

Icy flinched back a little, confused both by his sudden change in tone and by how she was supposed to respond to it. When a compliment is given, a thank you is usually deserved, but since it wasn't directed at her, she couldn't say it herself, and she doubted Scootaloo would want her to thank him by proxy for her. In the end, she just decided to let it pass without comment.

“Well, you've still got me to deal with.”

“Indeed I do.” Magic Eye replied, nodding. “And as such, I owe you an apology as well. Three, in fact.” His back hooves grasped onto the cloud as he stood up. His left front hoof went behind his back, while his right went to his lapel. Icy gathered her energy at the tips of her wings, ready for whatever he threw at her. “One for the same reason as your friend,” he continued, “one for my rudeness and one for my repetition.”

“Repiti-?”

It all happened at once. Magic Eye's back hooves pushed off of the cloud as his left hoof pulled something from behind his back. Meanwhile, his right hoof threw something into the cloud between them. Icy flapped her wings and released her energy a fraction of a second too late, having expected him to throw it directly at her. Instead of freezing it, the ice just formed a small cube inside the smoke that the ball had burst into.

“Repitition.” Icy muttered, thinking for a moment. Pulling her wings back, she flapped them as hard as she could, making mighty gusts, blowing the smoke back. It took a good few seconds of this, but the smoke did dissipate.

For a moment, Icy thought Magic Eye must have teleported somehow, as he was gone from where he was. Looking up, however, she spotted him floating up and away from her, his parachute billowing both from the strong winds of his altitude and the gusts Icy had created. Thus, his weightless form was pulled quickly away, waving at her cheerfully and send small drops of liquid rainbow down to the ground below.

She tried sending another freezing blast after him, but he was too far away. The wind might have accelerated him slightly, but at that distance, it was hard to tell.

Looking down again, she saw, buried in the cloud, another piece of paper below where he was standing. She walked over and picked it up. It simply read:

The centre.

Before she could consider what that meant, Icy heard a slow buzzing behind her and turned to see Scootaloo, her wings clearly running on fumes, ride back on a cloud that was beginning to look somewhat thin. Wrapped around her hoof was the bag, the trophy sitting untouched inside it.

Icy scuffed a hoof on the ground, looking away from her. “He, um... he got away again. I'm sorry I shouldn’t have...”

“I saw.” Scootaloo stated simply. “It's alright. Well, it's not alright, but it ain't your fault.” She looked down at the bag as she hopped from the small cloud onto the big one. “We got Dash's trophy back, that's the important thing.”

“Ooookay.” Icy said, walking over to the door. “So, how do we get it back inside. I mean, do we just knock on the door or...” She pressed her side against the door to lean on it, only to accidentally push it open a little. She looked at Scootaloo questioningly

“Yeah, Dash forgets to lock it sometimes.” Seeing Icy's surprise, Scootaloo's mouth turned up a little. “Well, I wasn't gonna tell him. Anyway,” She continued, dropping down to a whisper, “could you do me a favour and put it back yourself.”

“Why-” Icy began before taking the hint and whispering herself. “Why don't you do it? You know her house better.”

“Yeah, but I got Rainbow on my hooves.” Scootaloo answered as she pulled the bag open, liquid rainbow still covering the outside of it. “I don't wanna track it in her house. Also,” she looked away, as if having a brief internal debate, before saying, “if she wakes up... I don't wanna get caught sneaking into her house. She'd probably think I'm a weirdo or something.”

Rolling her eyes but smiling, Icy reached into the bag and pulled out the trophy, its polished surface unmarred by the recent action. “If that stuff didn't wake her up, I don't think...”

“You might –Dash says the outer walls are pretty much soundproof.” Scootaloo told her.

Icy paused, looking over the trophy in her hoof for any damage. “Why? So she doesn't get woken up?”

Scootaloo shook her head. “No, so she doesn't wake the rest of the town up.”

Icy was about to question this too when she noticed a sound like a broken steam engine coming from within the house. Specifically, from the upper areas of the the house.

Ah!

Shaking her head and preparing her ears, Icy slipped through the open door. It was hard, the noise was bone-rattling, but she was prepared to brave to make sure that Scootaloo's idol kept sleeping soundly, never knowing how close she was to losing a prized possession.


> Chapter Five: The Centre
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Look, I'm telling you, Pinkie, somepony was in my house last night!”

Icy swallowed and fidgeted, trying not to look uncomfortable about the conversation she was unintentionally eavesdropping in on. Sugarcube Corner was mildly busy, it being after school had ended on a Friday but before most adults got off work, but she cold still hear the discussion pretty clearly. Said discussion being held by two of the loudest and most flamboyant ponies in town helped with that. She wiggled herself deeper into the corner she was sitting in and slumped down, as if trying to physically hide from the ponies around her, none of whom were paying her any mind.

“I believe you, Dashie, I do, but why do you think I did it?”

“Oh, come on, who else would sneak into my house in the middle of the night and move things around?”

“What things?”

“There was liquid rainbow all over my yard and my Wonderbolts speed trophy was moved two inches to the left!”

There was a brief pause before Pinkie responded.

“Okay, I admit, that does sound like something I'd do, but I didn't, honest!”

“Look, Pinkie, don't be a sore loser, just tell me what the prank is and...”

“There's no prank! Just ask Twilight – I didn't get her to cast her cloudy walky thingy on me and my whirlycopter doesn't fit through your door, so how could I have got up there?”

“Er, Pinkie, Twi's been all holed up doing egghead stuff for days. Can't really ask her much right now.”

“Including to cast a spell on me.” Icy could almost hear Pinkie's sly smile. Dash paused, considering this.

“Okay, guess you got a point, there. But if you didn't do it, who did?”

“Ooh, ooh, I know!” Pinkie replied, her voice accompanied by bouncing noises. “Maybe it was the wind! Maybe you accidentally knocked it! Maybe another you from the future travelled back in time to change things so that you having it where it was and having a rainbow-free cloud-lawn wouldn't eventually cause the resurrection of Sombra!”

“Sure, Pinkie, sure.” Rainbow said, clearly not listening.

“Or maybe there's another villain, who was trying to steal...”

“You know what, Pinkie, never mind, sorry I accused you and stuff.”

Rainbow trotted away, passing Icy and grumbling. “Great, first that featherbrain Blossomforth loses half the clouds for Sunday's storm and now this.”

Icy breathed a sigh of relief as Rainbow exited the shop and Pinkie went back to... being Pinkie. Not that there had been any reason they might have realized that she was involved in the unknown housebreak, nor any reason why she should feel guilty that she was, since she'd been attempting to stop the perpetrator. Still, overhearing that did make her feel a little uncomfortable.

Of course, it wasn't helped by the final puzzle she and her team had been given. The word part was fairly simple and clear, being only two words, and there was only one picture left that hadn't been used. So it should have been relatively easy.

Which made it all the more awkward that none of them had a single clue what it could mean.

The picture was a pentagon with lines coming off the corners, so the obvious answer would have been something about the centre of the overall picture – in the middle of the pentagonal centre. However, they'd gone over the picture thoroughly and there was absolutely nothing there. Not a rock, nor a patch of moss nor even any big furrows in the dirt of the path. In fact, it was like it was specifically swept to remove anything like that. They'd even tried transferring the lines on the corners of the smaller pentagon onto the larger one, seeing if they lead anywhere. Nothing came of it, but it did give them a reason to use the geometry set Icy kept in her pencil case - a feat that not even Cheerilee's lessons had managed.

The next thought had been that it referred, in some way, to the centre of Ponyville itself. Except that the centre of Ponyvile was, well, the centre of Ponyville – the town square. Which consisted of an open space without anything noteworthy to steal, even by Magic Eye's bizarre standards. It could have been referring to a building next to the town square, and that was their working theory, but there were far too many of them to figure out which one the puzzle was referring to. Particularly since the building closest to the exact, geographical centre of Ponyville was the Town Hall, which he had already targeted. Well, he hadn't actually done anything to it, but he'd already used it as the basis for a puzzle, so it seemed rather unlikely that he'd do so again. They'd even checked to see if there were any buildings in town shaped like a pentagon and of course there weren't.

Icy sighed, shaking her head as she got up from her table. She'd finished her milkshake a while ago but, as usual, she'd been lost in thought and just sat there for a while. And she'd have plenty more opportunity for that in the hours before they started work that night.

In the absence of any clue where he might be going next, Iota Force was left with only one course of action: Patrol.





Patrol. It always sounded so glamorous in comic books. At least, to Icy it did. Sure, it was always presented as the basics of superheroing, the thing they did when they didn't have a big case to solve or a major villain to hunt down, but it was still going out into their city, flying or swinging or roof-running or otherwise moving awesomely, finding and thwarting crimes as they happened and keeping the innocent citizens under their protection safe from all threats. That was pretty nifty. At its best, patrol meant the hero would stumble onto the villain's plan and get involved, kicking the story off. At its worst, it meant the hero having a fun fight against ordinary thugs and criminals.

Their version of patrol, however, was somewhat less exciting. For a start, none of them could fly, swing or roof-run and the only one of them with any special method of movement was Scootaloo. However, after a brief check-up from Nursery Rhyme, the little daredevil was under orders to rest after having strained her wings a bit the previous night. Nothing too damaging, of course, they would be alright again in a few days but they still needed a lot of rest.

Oddly enough, Scootaloo herself had been the only one to object to this arrangement, insisting that she was fine and she could join in on finding their quarry that evening and that she promised not to use her wings or anything. It had only been after Dinky innocently suggested she “Pinkie-promise”, whatever that meant, that the orange filly had relented, grumbling at the idea of remaining idle that night.

That said, she had, on the off chance one of them found Magic Eye somewhere, coached them on how to pretend that they totally knew that was where he'd be and that they had not in any way stumbled across him randomly, don't be dumb!

That was the other part of why this patrol didn't feel particularly fun – the fact that they had no idea where he was, so each one of them was simply going round their assigned area, looking for anything suspicious. Which could mean many things – lights suddenly coming on, ajar doors, strange noises – so that meant that they didn't know exactly what to look for. As a result, the only thing they could do was look at everything and hope they found something. That, combined with the late hour, made the whole process very tiring.

Icy glanced towards the end of the street she was in and over to the clock tower on the outskirts of the town. She smiled for a moment at how lucky she was – to have been assigned the only sector where it would be visible.

Quarter to midnight, it said. The good part of that was that it meant there was only fifteen minutes left of their patrol – Magic Eye's heists usually happened between eleven and midnight. The bad part was that, well, they usually happened between eleven and midnight, so there was a good chance that tonight's had already happened, they'd failed to stop it and someone was going to wake up to find they'd been robbed.

Icy's badge crackled to life, interrupting her thoughts. She took her eye away from the clock and listened. However, nothing was said. A brief, quiet fzt of static had come over the radio, then it had gone dead again. Normally, that wouldn't have been confusing – since Lance couldn't talk, he would tap his badge firmly whenever he wanted to communicate something basic over their comms. However, a single tap usually meant “Yes”, using the classic “once for yes, twice for no” system, so that would mean he'd just replied “Yes” to absolutely nothing.

Icy placed a hoof on her own badge to activate it. “Lance, was that you?”

Fzt fzt.

“No? So who was it?” Icy asked. “Did anyone accidentally hit their badge or something?”

“I didn't.” Dinky's voice came over.

“Wasn't me.” Archer followed.

“Not even wearing it.” Scootaloo claimed, sounding a little groggy.

Icy began running down the short list of people with badges to think of who else to ask when Dinky beat her to it.

“Pip? Was that you?”

There was silence for a moment.

Fzt

“Pip?” Dinky asked after another brief pause to see if there was anything else coming. “Are you okay?”

Pause.

Fzt Fzt Fzt Fzt... Fzt... Fzt... Fzt Fzt Fzt

Pause

Fzt Fzt Fzt Fzt... Fzt... Fzt... Fzt Fzt Fzt

“Everyone get over there!” Archer's voice came over the intercom, but it wasn't needed – Icy was already in motion. She didn't know much about Horse code, but she recognized an SOS when she heard one.

She arrived quickly, her patrol having been the closest to Pip's house. As such, she expected that she'd be the first one there.

Which made it something of a surprise when she turned the corner to see Dinky sprinting up to the door. She was about the same distance from the house as Icy was, but since her assigned area was right on the other side of town, that was still quite an achievement. It took Icy a moment to notice the fact that she was panting in exhaustion, even more than a sprint across town would make her, and a glow was just fading from her horn. Evidently, she had really, really wanted to get there quickly.

Icy trotted up just as Dinky was opening the front door. They didn't exchange so much as a glance as they hurried down the stairs and threw open the door. Icy steeled herself, having been even more worried by Dinky's panicked whimpering. It was clear that the little chronomancer was terrified at the possibility of something happening to Pip.

Which made the sight they saw when she opened the door to his room a little jarring.

Pipsqueak was not, in fact, hurt. Well, he might have been somewhat uncomfortable and his dignity, such as it was, was in tatters, but he hadn't been truly harmed. Instead, he had been tied to his desk's chair and gagged. Now, that alone might not have looked too strange, at least by the standards of Iota Force. However, he was also lying on the floor, having clearly wobbled himself and his chair over onto its side. It may have been deliberate, as a number of things from his desk had been knocked onto the floor, including the communications badge, and his position allowed him to tap on the badge with his hind hoof. A clever idea, assuming it had been intentional, but it didn't make him look any less silly, lying on the floor and wrapped up in rope, cloth and chair.

Icy managed to stifle a laugh at the sight. Admittedly, it wasn't that funny, but the sudden shift from “he might be in danger” to “look at the little pony-burrito” was sudden enough to make the tableau seem especially absurd.

Dinky, on the other hoof, didn't seem to find a speck of humour in the situation, running over and looking him over desperately, her horn lighting up as she pulled the gag from his mouth.

“Are you okay, Pip, did he hurt you, please say he didn't, tell me you're okay, I...”

“Uuuagh!” Pip exclaimed, working his jaw to loosen it up. “I'm fine, Dinky. Well, I mean,” he looked down at himself, “I dunno about fine, but no need to worry, okay?”

“What happened?” Icy asked as she trotted over too, walking around his back to start working at the knots binding him to his chair.

“What do you think?” Pip replied, not sounding angry at the, Icy had to admit now she thought about it, rather obvious question. “Had a run-in with ol' Smart Eyes. Came in, tied me up, talked my ear off a bit then left.”

Icy raised an eyebrow as she fumbled with a knot. Her initial question of why Magic Eye had come there and how it tied in to his puzzle was put aside briefly when he said that last part. “Wait, just left? Didn't he take anything.”

“Not a thing. Actually, he flat out told me he wasn't gonna steal anything. Said “This is not a robbery, I am not targeting you, I'm just fulfilling my prediction.” Really wanted me to know that this wasn't a robbery like the others.”

“Weird.” Icy said before sighing as she let her hooves fall. “Sorry, Pip, but these knots are way too tight for me to untie.”

Dinky looked over the knots, the worry in her expression fading a little to be replaced by curiosity. “Say, how do Pegasi and Earth Ponies tie knots with hooves, anyway?”

“No idea,” Icy admitted, shrugging, “was never a filly scout. Anyway, may have to wait until Lance or Archer get here.”

“You called?” Archer's voice came from the bottom of the stairs outside the room. She and Lance walked in, Archer stopping as she looked over the scene. “Boy, is Scoots gonna be mad she missed this!” Icy could tell from her voice that she was having absolutely no trouble keeping her laughter in, but that she was having to keep it in nonetheless.

Lance, on the other hand, wasn't. Without pausing, he trotted up to Pip and, in one motion, drew his sword and sliced through the ropes. Sheathing his sword again, he tilted his head in query at Pip.

“Yeah, he was here.” Pip answered his silent question as he was helped to his hooves by Dinky. The tiny filly was holding him firmer and giving him far more support that he probably needed, presumably due to a combination of extreme concern and the fact that he was the only colt small enough for her to support in such a manner. Not that Pip seemed to mind.

That brought Icy back to the question she'd put aside: "How did the riddle he gave work out to here?

“Well,” Archer said, still at the edge of the room, leaning on the doorframe, “I guess “the centre” could mean the centre of our work, but I don't know how we were supposed to get that that meaning's the one what it... meant.”

Nodding, Icy hopped her front hooves onto Pip's desk and looked at the photo still lying there, specifically at the middle-left point of the star. It still looked like it had before – a pentagon with lines coming out of the corners.

“You got me!” Pip admitted, rolling his shoulders. “Maybe he just thought that, 'tween the five of you, you'd think he might mean that and keep someone here. Maybe.” He grimaced slightly, not feeling particularly confident about the idea.

Icy didn't notice, however, as she focused on one bit of his suggestion.

Five of us... five sides, five of us, but the other lines... ten of them, or five sets of... oh, dear Celestia.

She groaned as her head fell onto the desk, making a quiet thump.

“What, what is it?” Dinky asked, rushing over and putting her hooves on Icy's back, her worries transferred rather than dissipated.

“The lines. Of the pentagon.” Icy said, not lifting her muzzle from the table, making her words muffled but not disguising the exasperation in them. “They're iotas."

"Huh?" Archer looked at the picture closely. "I'm not seeing it, what do you...?"

"Pip, do you have any tracing paper?" Icy asked.

Pip trotted over to his desk drawers and opened one, remaining silent as if trying to bring his dignity back through sheer concentration. When he laid a sheet to transparent paper on the desk, Icy took it and placed it over the picture. She then took some of the coloured pencils that no normal child's desk would be without and drew a series of lines over the photo.



"Iotas." Icy stated. "Five iotas all weaving together.”

A chorus of “Oh”s of varying lengths and appreciations came from the others as they realized what she was alluding to.

Icy tilted her head up, resting her lower jaw on the desk. “Well, guess that's that. Last picture, so I guess that's all for him, right?” She looked over to the others. Dinky and Pip were looking suddenly uncomfortable, Archer was sighing and Lance simply shook his head.

“Ain't gonna be that easy.” Archer said. “I mean, it could be, I guess, but he usually saves his biggest crime for last.”

“Yeah,” Pip added, “plus he actually told me there was one more. Said the score was two all and he'd see you all at the “grand finale”, which means... yeah, he's got one more left.”

“Great.” Icy said flatly. “So what's the next puzzle?”

“Didn't say.” Pip shrugged.

“He didn't?” Dinky asked, one eyebrow going down, turning her expression from surprise to confusion. “So, did he leave another note?”

“Nope,” Pip shook his head, rather puzzled himself, “didn't take anything, didn't leave anything. Actually said that, too - “I shan't take anything, I shan't leave anything!”, those words exactly.” Pip was clearly far better at impressions than Scootaloo, but it didn't sound nearly as much like Magic Eye.

“Did he... did he say anything else?” Icy asked, hoping that maybe there was something else hidden in his words.

Pip shrugged. “Not really. Just that he had “faith we'll solve his final problem”.”

“The problem he didn't give us?” Archer asked.

“Pretty much.”

“He might still send us something.” Dinky suggested, though she didn't sound very sure. “We should check the P.O. Box tomorrow.”

“That's a good point.” Pip smiled at Dinky. “If he's going for something big, he might need time to set everything up, so he'll send the last puzzle when he's all ready.”

Icy nodded. “That makes sense, I guess. But what if he...” She thought for a moment before shrugging. “Yeah, I got nothing. Don't think he'd do a crime without sending us a clue first so... I guess we're waiting on him for that.” She sighed, not sure whether having to figure out his target without a clue or having to wait for him to give one was the worse prospect.

Lance snorted and turned around, walking out of the room.

“Geez, didn't think he'd take it that hard.” Icy said, looking out the door after him.

“Hey, we're all annoyed, but I don't think that's why he left.” Archer pointed out. She pulled an arrow out of her quiver. “I'm thinking he left so he wouldn't have to draw lots with us.” Taking the arrow in both hooves, Archer snapped it in two, with one half longer than the other. She put that half on the desk and took the smaller half and snapped that one in two as well.

“Draw lots?” Icy asked as Archer picked up the other half to snap. “For what?”

Archer grinned a little wickedly. “For who has to tell Scoots.”

As it turned out, Archer's grin had vanished when everyone else drew the longest sticks, leaving her with the shortest. Though her voice and posture didn't change from its usual relaxation, Icy couldn't help but hear a touch of desperation at the suggestion that the longest stick should be the one.

No one agreed.





Icy hummed to herself as she trotted down the street, not really going anywhere. It was fairly late, around eight in the evening, and she and her mother had just had dinner, after which Icy had decided to go for a walk. Or rather, Sunny Flight had “suggested” that her daughter not spend the rest of the day reading comics in her room and not doing anything else and come on honey, just a quick walk, it won't kill you, blah blah blah.

Icy snorted a little to herself. Her mother wasn't wrong, exactly, and she liked the occasional wander, but it wasn’t like she was staying in her room, lying on her bed reading comics because she enjoyed... just because she enjoyed it. She was reading detective comics and, indeed, Detective Comics, trying to hone and prepare her mind and make sure she was ready for whatever cryptic clues Magic Eye could throw at her.

Besides, it was Saturday – one of the two days you were supposed to relax and goof off. Seriously, Icy was pretty sure there was a law about that or something.

Ah well, she thought, it is kinda nice out here. Dark had long since fallen on the town due to the lateness of the year, and with it came a substantial chill that sent most ponies into their homes and drew Icy out of hers. She was surprised how well she could see – strangely enough, the town had no real street lights to speak of, but the darkened town was still clearly visible due to the strength of the moonlight. The silver orb shed plenty of light on the quiet streets, so artificial light really wasn't necessary.

Icy wondered why that was – there were street lights in most of the big cities like Canterlot or Manehatten, but not here. Maybe it was because there weren't as many big, tall buildings blocking the moonlight and casting the streets in deep shadow. Maybe it was because the mare who controlled the moon and was connected with its power lived so close, so the moon shone brighter here. Or maybe the Princess just didn't like the competition.

Of course, her old home in Flanchorage had plenty of street lights, but given its propensity for overcast skies and the occasional snowstorm, they were somewhat more necessary.

Icy shook herself out of her thoughts, something she had a lot of practice with, when she noticed she'd come to a crossroads. She considered going left towards the post office, but quickly dismissed the idea. One or another of the team had been going over there periodically all day, hoping to find the final puzzle, but it hadn't come and now the post office was closed. Not that that had stopped him putting something into the box, but she somehow doubted that he expected them to break into the post office to get something out of the box.

Although, the next day was Sunday and the Post office was closed that day (there was definitely a law about that, Icy was sure). Sure, Dinky's mom could let them in like last week, but even back then, he'd given them until Monday night, presumably in case they needed to get it that morning. Which, in turn, would mean that he was waiting three days before his final robbery. Not impossible, but it seemed off, somehow. Icy just couldn't shake the feeling that she was missing or forgetting something.

Shrugging, she turned around, ready to walk back home when she stopped suddenly, a cart hurrying past her down the street. For a moment, Icy wondered why he was in such a hurry before she remembered that most people would be eager to get inside out of the cold. Of course, this was all before her thought processes were interrupted by the dust the cart had kicked up and the subsequent sneeze wiping her brain out completely for a moment.

Sneezes were odd things. Icy had encountered plenty of ponies whose sneezes were almost comically dainty, tiny things that sounded almost exactly like someone simply saying the word atchoo.

Icy’s, on the other hand...

aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAASCHHHOOOO!

…generally registered on the Richter Scale.

Icy fell back onto her haunches, rubbing at her nose and placing a hoof on her throat – that one had hurt. Admittedly, they usually did for her, but this one more than most. She scuffed a hoof on the ground, watching as it kicked up a small cloud of dust.

A slight rumble of thunder in the distance, presumably from the weather team preparing the clouds for the next day, drew a smile from Icy. Whatever else you could say about storms, at least things weren't dry and dusty afterwards. Nope, it'd all be mud and puddles, things which Icy had a fondness for jumping in and sliding around on, making tracks and patterns in the semi-liquid dirt and then wiping it all... away...

Just like...

Oh no!

Icy leapt to her feet, turning to her right and looking towards where she knew Pip's house to be. She lifted a hoof, ready to race off.

She then thought for a moment, turned back towards her home and galloped towards that instead. After all, just because she was going to stop a major heist and protect something probably priceless didn't mean she shouldn't inform her mother of where she was going for the evening. That'd just be rude.





“What do you mean he's moving tonight?” Scootaloo asked, still a little grouchy, both from her wing-aches and from having been called over completely out of nowhere.

“I just realized,” Icy said, not taking her eyes off Magic Eye's first letter, scanning for the part she vaguely recalled, “it has to be tonight because there's gonna be a rainstorm tomorrow.

This did not elicit sounds or expressions of understanding from the others.

“So?” Scootaloo asked. “What's that supposed to...?”

“Ah, found it!” Icy shouted, not seeming to notice Scootaloo's question. “ This is the bit: “I hope that my tableau will last until after I'm finished in this town, and certainly should if I did my homework right...”.” She read out loud. “The storm was scheduled more than a week in advance, so he must have known about it - “did his homework - and that'd wipe away the picture he drew, but if he's gonna finish before that happens, it has to be tonight.”

Scootaloo frowned, though whether it was at Icy or at Magic Eye was unclear. “Aw geez, you're right but... he hasn't... GAH!” She threw her hooves up in frustration.

Dinky put a hoof on her shoulder. “Well, he must have said or done something – he wouldn’t do anything without giving us a chance first.”

“I think he has,” Icy suggested nervously, “there's this bit: “once you complete the picture, you'll see my grand finale.” I think we need to use what we know of the picture to figure it out.”

“Oh, great, sure, no problem.” Scootaloo said as she hopped up onto the desk and pulled the photo onto the floor in the middle of the gathered ponies, as if she could force it to reveal its secrets through sheer force of sarcasm. “So what does it mean?!”

Icy looked at the photo and recalled what she knew. Five pictures, five riddles, five crimes already committed and one big blank space in the middle.

She shook her head, eyes wide and mouth dry. “I have no idea.”

“Me neither,” said Archer as she glanced toward Pip's bedside clock, “but we've got two and a half hours to figure it out.” Her voice conveyed no urgency, but it didn't really need to.

They were on the clock.


> Chapter Six: The Complete Picture
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“ARRRRRRRRGH!” Scootaloo screamed. Icy was thankful Pip's mother wasn't home, else she'd have probably called the police, an ambulance or both. “Come on, it's quarter to eleven, we're running out of time!”

She wasn't wrong. For over two hours, the six colts and fillies had tried to figure out what the five pictures, riddles and crimes could add up to, but had made absolutely no progress. Ideas and attempts had flown thick and fast at first, never really letting up, but nothing they suggested was even vaguely plausible – there were just too many possibilities with all those options. Essentially, they had too many clues – so many that it was impossible to sort through them and find the ones they needed. So, after half an hour, the ideas had slowed to a trickle.

Icy racked her brain, searching frantically for a way of thinking they hadn't thought of. “Maybe it's...” she paused, unsure whether what she was about to suggest was really sensible before desperation forced her mouth to move, “Maybe it's got something to do with what he was stealing, or was gonna steal, from each place? Like, he stole a trophy from Dash, money from Barnyard Bargains...” She trailed off as she thought about the other places.

“Yeah,” Archer continued for her, “but he said he didn't know what he'd take from Rarity or Dash before he went for ‘em. And he didn't take anything from Town Hall or here.”

Icy opened her mouth to apologize for the idea when what Archer said registered. “Wait a second, you're right. He didn't... he didn't even show up at Town Hall. And he said that he wasn't taking anything from here, right, Pip?” At Pip's nod, she continued. “Maybe that's got something to do with it. That this one and this one...” She pointed at the middle two points of the star before realizing, “wait, look, those two are the only ones with x's in them! Maybe that's a clue.”

“What, we were supposed to get that he wasn't gonna be there?” Scootaloo asked, raising an eyebrow. “Even if that wasn't a stupid clue to give, he did leave us a note at Town Hall, remember?”

“Well, then maybe it's a clue to this bit?” Icy suggested, undeterred. “Like it's something that isn't to do with those two.”

“Okay,” Scootaloo nodded as she narrowed her eyes at the photo, “so something to do with a dress, a barn and a rainbow, but not a bunch of papers or letters or a pentagon... and to do with Rarity's place, Dash's place and Bargains, but not Town hall or...” She groaned and put her hooves to her forehead. “That just makes it more messed up!”

“Now, hang on,” Dinky said, her voice soft and calming, “it narrows it down, let's just pretend those ones aren't there.”

“Yeah,” Pip smiled, putting his hooves up in front of his face to block the two pictures in question from his line of sight. “Maybe we can... just...” he trailed off, his jaw falling open.

After a good five seconds of silence, Archer piped up. “You got something, Pip?”

Pip's voice came out quiet and flat. “It's not a pentagram.”

“Eh?” Scootaloo said, looking at Pip like he'd just said something completely absurd. Which, to be fair, he had. “What do you mean it's not... it's a star with five points and lines in the middle, isn't it?”

“Yeah,” Pip hopped up, putting his hooves up on his desk and pulling down a couple of small scraps of paper, “but not if you take those two away.”

He put the pieces of paper over the photo, blocking the pictures with Xs in them, and backed away, silently prompting the others to make the connection.

It took a few seconds, but everyone eventually saw what he meant.

Without those two points on the star, it wasn't a pentagram.



It was an arrow.

An arrow pointing directly at Princess Twilight's castle.

Dinky summed up the general feeling in one syllable:

“Oh.”





“So,” Icy asked between heavy breaths as she ran, “what do you think he's stealing?”

“No idea.” Archer replied, with a slightly forced evenness. “Does it matter?”

Icy toyed with responding, but decided against it, preferring to turn back and continue with her running.

The five children were running at full speed through the darkened streets of the town, hoping to get to the crystal castle either before Magic Eye got there or, at least, before he left. The problem was that all the time Icy had recently spent puzzling over riddles and reading comic books hadn't exactly prepared her body for this kind of physical exertion. She wasn't horrifically unfit, of course, but compared to Archer, Lance and Scootaloo, none of whom showed any signs of real fatigue or difficulty, she felt a little inadequate. Even Dinky seemed to be handling it very well, tiny though she was. Scootlaoo was even carrying her scooter, folded up, on her back –  she said that while she could ride it for a while, even with her strained wings, she wanted to save that for the inevitable chase and capture – and she didn't seem to find it a problem.

Fortunately, they were nearing the castle by the time her fatigue became too noticeable.

“How do we get in?” Dinky asked, panting ever so slightly but not stopping.

“Would he have opened the door?” Icy asked in reply.

“Nope.” Archer said, looking over the castle rapidly. “Balcony door's open.” Looking up, Icy could just see the top of the open door over the lip of the balcony.

“How'd he get up there?” Scootaloo asked.

“How do we get up there?” Icy replied, skidding to a halt in front of the front door of the castle.

“We don't.” Archer said simply.

Icy was about to ask what she meant when Lance came up to the door and, without even slowing down, drew his sword, swiped it in between the double doors, cut through the lock, and barrelled into the foyer.

“Er...” Icy said eloquently.

“No worries.” Archer told her, thought there was a hint of something else on the edge of her voice. “She.. Twilight's a princess. She can buy a new door.”

“I guess she... oh, Archer!” Icy asked, placing a hoof on Archer's chest to stop her as she remembered something she'd thought of on the run over. Archer whipped her head around and hopped back a little, startled at being suddenly stopped.  “Do you think you could hide in one of those trees? In case he gets away from us and out of the castle?”

“Snipe him, you mean? Yeah… yeah, I think I can manage that.” Archer answered, with what almost looked like relief on her face. She turned away from the castle and scampered over towards one of the trees.

Icy smiled, happy to have given a good suggestion. She turned around, expecting to have to catch up to the others, but instead found them all still in the front hallway, looking to Dinky and her magic.

The little unicorn's horn stopped glowing. “He didn't come this way.” She said, looking around the place.

Oh, right, her chronomen... chron... her see-the-past-kinda thingy.

“So how do we know where he went?” Scootaloo asked, a little annoyed.

It took Icy only a moment to think.

“The stairs!” She said, striking a hoof on the ground in realization. “He'd need to take the stairs down, so let's check there!”

“And if he didn't take the stairs?” Scootaloo asked, though she was already moving in the direction Icy pointed.

“Then we know he's upstairs.” Dinky answered for her.

They reached the stairs quickly and Dinky lit her horn again, concentrating.

“He went that way!” she said, pointing down a corridor. “Follow me!”

She lead them down a few corridors, down another flight of stairs into the basement and finally to a big, thick, imposing set of doors.

“I think he's in here.” Dinky whispered. “Let's get him.”

Lance and Scootaloo burst through the doors, pointing their sword and ramming stick respectively. Icy and Dinky leapt in behind them, horn and wings aglow.

The room was clearly a laboratory of some kind, and a very well-appointed one, too. Rows of machines lined every wall, covered in inscrutable controls and blinking lights. Above them were a line of cupboards with glass fronts, showing an array of scientific equipment none of the young ponies in the room could comprehend –  probably not even the suited colt in front of a table at the centre of the room. He was bowing deeply with his hooves glowing. In front of him sat a massive diamond, refracted light shining out of it in every direction, despite the relatively low lighting in the room.

“Good evening!” Magic Eye said, rising from his bow and picking the diamond up in his hoof, the glow from his hoof refracted oddly through it. His suit was now green, his mask and tie purple and his coat orange. “I see you have solved my final problem. I am deeply impressed.”

Icy looked up at Magic Eye, her attention previously having been fixed on the impossibly shiny diamond. “What is that?” She asked.

Magic Eye smiled. “The Horstensia Diamond. Discovered fours years ago in the ice below where the Crystal Empire once stood and, indeed, stands again. Possessing of mystical properties affecting the refraction and amplification of light that, though they have little practical application, are still being investigated by scientists. Currently being researched by Princess Twilight Sparkle who, as I understand it, has made some incredible progress in understanding and even replicating its effects. And, it must be said,” He held the diamond up to his eye, looking at his opponents through it, “an extremely beautiful jewel that would look absolutely marvellous in my private collection.”

He held up a hoof, forestalling any objections, verbal or physical, before continuing. “But alas, it shall not be. You have once again caught me and, thus, you have won our game three-to-two. Congratulations.” He bowed his head in respect.

There was a pause before Dinky asked: “So... does that mean you'll come quietly?”

Magic Eye raised his head quickly again, a smirk on his face and a glint in his eye. “Oh, good lord, no!”

Dinky's ears flattened. “I guess it was a silly question.”

“I wouldn't say that.” Magic Eye's tone was gentle, but he started to back up towards the far wall of the laboratory, suggesting he was more nervous that he let on. “I think it was a reasonable suggestion. After all, you're probably wondering how I intend to get past you.”

“Nah,” Scootaloo replied as she and Lance advanced on the retreating colt, “I think you're smart enough to know when you've been beat.”

Magic Eye started to chuckle before his haunch bumped against one of the machines on the wall, halting his withdrawal. He looked behind him at the machine, then back to them.

“Oh, I wouldn't say that. You should know by now, my dear, that there's always a way out.”

His hoof disappeared up his sleeve for a moment, though he wasn't trying to hide it. Lance drew his sword and swung it like a bat.

“Smoke bombs won't help you now.” Scootaloo told him, translating the sword swing.

“Oh, nothing of the sort, don't worry.” Magic Eye said, pulling what looked like a small flashlight out from his sleeve. “But there are a couple of things you may not have thought of. Firstly, this machine!” He swung a hoof out to his side, flipping a number of switches on the front of it. The machine suddenly whirred to life, emitting a low hum and a succession of beeps. “Which I would suggest you deal with before going after me, unless you want things to get... noisy.”

Scootaloo reared up to pounce forward, but before she could, Icy asked, “What's the second thing?

“Well,” Magic Eye grinned, “I did say the diamond had little practical application. Not none.”

He quickly placed the flashlight against the diamond and turned it on. The flashlight, though small, was powerful on its own, and when it shone through the diamond...

FLASH!

Icy covered her eyes, as did everyone else, but not faster than the speed of light and, thus, not fast enough to stop themselves being briefly blinded. Icy kept her eyes closed for a second afterwards, waiting for the remnants of the flash to fade from the blackness. She tensed her body, ready to grab at Magic Eye if she felt him running past her, and listened.

Over the noise of the machine, she heard his hoofsteps. But they weren't going past her. Rather, they sounded like they were going above her.

She opened her eyes, blinking heavily, just quick enough to see Magic Eye gallop through the open door on the ceiling. She remembered the glow from his horseshoes, suggesting some sort of wall-walking or gravity-switching device.

Well, at least we know how he got up and in.

Icy was about to give chase when she remembered the machine he had switched on. She had no idea what it did, but she didn't want to take a chance with it. She took a step towards it, but a hoof on her chest from Dinky stopped her.

“Go after him!” She said, shouting a little to be heard clearly over the hum. “I think I can handle this.”

Icy was about to ask how when a glow came over Dinky's horn and the machine. The hum lowered substantially in tone and the beeping slowed down immensely. Nodding with a smile, Icy turned and ran towards the stairs, catching up with Lance and Scootaloo, who were already in pursuit.

They hurried up the stairs and saw Magic Eye trotting along the ceiling down the corridor. He stopped and turned back to them. His eyes swept over the three and his ears perked up, listening for the noise of the machine, muted through the floor but still noticeably slower.

“Ah. Yes, of course.” He said, pulling his mouth into a straight line. “Should have probably remembered you have a chronomancer on your side before I set the diversion. Oh well, you've still yet to catch me.” The moment he said that, he bolted off down the corridor and darted around a corner.

The three were ready, however, and gave chase. As she ran, Scootaloo leapt, swung the scooter off her back and beneath her, the base flicking out as she did. She landed on it, buzzing her wings and shooting off in front of the her two companions, much faster than Magic Eye was fleeing.

It would have been very impressive had she not forgotten one thing: crystal floors do not have the greatest amount of traction. So when she tried to turn the corner, she found herself sliding further than she thought and impacting the wall with a heavy thump.

Icy grimaced as she ran past the dazed filly. It really hadn't been Scootaloo's week.

Icy flicked her wings open and gathered her energy as she ran. As she began to catch up to Magic Eye, she flapped them hard, trying to freeze him.

Unfortunately, the cold wind telegraphed the attack and Magic Eye leapt forward, the blast impacting the ceiling below him.

Of course, this did mean he landed on ice, making him slip up and slide forward on his side, his hooves tangled up for moment. However, while this didn't do anything good for his dignity (in as much as a colt in a bright green suit had any), neither did it slow him down. If anything, it gave him more of a lead.

Lance and Icy galloped around the corner into the foyer, where Magic Eye was just hopping down from the wall next to the front door. Tipping his hat to the two, he pushed the door open and ran through.

Only to impact with a soft “ooph” into the chest of a very large policepony who had been waiting outside.

As Icy and Lance rushed to catch up, Magic Eye looked up, seeing the pony he'd run into and his partner, an only-slightly-less massive uniformed stallion.

“Ah! Well, that's a problem.”

“Well, well, well,” the larger policepony, whose badge identified him as 'Inspector Iron Hound' said in a thick Trottingham accent, looking down the colt, “if it isn't young Mr Magic Eye.”

“No, no,” the colt laughed awkwardly, “you must have me mistaken for someone else!”

“No mistake, sir, got your picture up in every police station in the country, we do, ain't that right?” His partner, 'Officer Silent Steel' according to his name badge, nodded as he produced a set of hoofcuffs and slapped one on to Magic Eye's right front hoof and the other onto his own.

“You, my son, are nicked!” Iron Hound smiled as he looked up to see Lance, Icy and a slightly dazed Scootaloo trotting up to them. “And if it isn’t Iota Force.” He gave them a gentle smile. “Chief told us you might be involved. Good to see ya again.”

Scootaloo put a hoof to her head and looked up at the two policeponies. “What are you doing here? How'd you know...?”

“Silent alarm.” Hound interrupted her. “Got set off the moment this little felon touched the diamond, called us here.”

“Okay, I guess that makes...” Icy looked to the sides of the policeponies, expecting to see Archer there with her usual easy smile on her face. But she wasn't. Icy resisted the urge to look to the side to see if she was still in her sniping position. That was weird. She should have no reason not to reveal herself now unless something was up. “...Sense.” She finished, though she was beginning to doubt that.

She stopped and thought about the situation, noticing things she might not have picked up on a moment ago. Two policeponies alone being sent to stop the theft of a priceless diamond? Weird, but not impossible, there might me more coming or in wait. Said ponies knowing both Magic Eye and Iota Force and seeming unsurprised? Again, possible, the initial picture announcing his presence was both distinctive and public. But now that she thought of it, she hadn’t seen these two policeponies before, despite them saying that they had met. Normally that wouldn’t be too weird - her memory wasn’t always the best. But, again, why hadn’t Archer come out? Even if she was waiting until Magic Eye was totally apprehended, she should have come out by now.

She was taken out of her thoughts by Lance, who pointed back into the castle.

“Yeah, that's a good point!” Scootaloo said.

There was a moment of silence before Iron Hound asked: “What's a good point?”

“Why isn't Princess Twilight awake? Shouldn't the silent alarm have gone to her as well?” Scootaloo translated.

“Dunno.” Hound said simply. “Should have, you're right. Maybe she just forgot to set it up to alert her. I mean, we all know what she can be like sometimes.”

Icy nodded. She couldn't really argue with that, given some of the things she'd heard about the Princess from Spike. Though she probably couldn't be blamed, considering how much she had to...

Wait a second.

“Okay, but what about Spike?” She asked – she was getting more and more suspicious of these two, but there hadn't been anything yet to prove there was something wrong. “Princess Twilight might have forgotten, but I know Spike wouldn't.”

Inspector Hound gave a patronizing smile. “Listen, Miss, I know that Spike is a wonderful pony, but even he can make mistakes.”

Ah hah, there we go!

Magic Eye winced as the word “Pony” left Iron Hound's mouth. Icy's eyes narrowed and she could see to her side Scootaloo's do the same. She assumed Lance's did too, but it was hard to tell through the mask.

“Give me your badge numbers, “officers”.” Icy asked, pouring every ounce of sarcasm into the final word as possible. Which wasn't much, admittedly, but would probably do the trick.

The two stallions looked at each other. Magic Eye rolled the shoulder of his cuffed hoof. Lance's hoof tightened around his sheathed sword. Scootaloo buzzed her wings. Icy gathered her energy. She might have been mistaken, but Icy could have sworn she heard a bowstring tautening. The silent policepony reached into his inner jacket pocket.

Then, everything happened at once.

Silent Steel pulled a knife from his pocket, but an arrow knocked it from his hoof and a wave of cold froze it to the ground. Magic Eye glanced at the arrow and the ice, darted off, the handcuffs popping open easily, and dashed around the corner to avoid any further ranged attacks. Scootaloo leapt onto her scooter to give chase, but was tackled to the ground by Iron Hound. Lance jerked his head in Magic Eye's direction, silently commanding Icy to give chase before he drew his sword and leapt into the fray.

And Icy, with far quicker thinking than she'd have expected of herself, did so, sprinting off around the corner in pursuit of Magic Eye, catching the tail end of what Iron Hound said.

“Sorry, Little Miz Speedy, but boss said to stop you specifica- OOPH!”

Icy did her best to ignore that last sound and where Scootaloo must have hit to produce quite that pitch. Instead, she focused herself on the chase.

Unfortunately, though she had no trouble locating the colt in the green and purple suit, she soon found herself having difficulty keeping up with him. Though the suit and his demeanour had seemed to indicate that he was more of a cerebral opponent than a physical one, it was becoming rapidly evident that he kept himself in very good shape, something Icy couldn't say for herself. Thus, while she was having to put her all into her running to keep him in sight, he seemed to be having no trouble. He wasn't exactly going at a light jog, but it certainly didn't look like he was putting all his effort into it. And yet he was, slowly but steadily, increasing his lead on her.

As the chase lead out of town and through Whitetail Wood, Icy was beginning to falter, the fatigue in her legs just edging out the determination in her mind. Come on, think! She silently demanded of herself. There's got to be a way to catch up to him or stop him! He's too far away to freeze, and even if I did, he'd probably just jump it again and slide on the ice to go even... faster...

Her eyes widened and she went into action immediately, hoping to put her new plan into action before she realized what a bad idea it probably was. She gathered her energy and sent a wave of cold over the ground, creating a thin sheet of ice for about fifteen feet in front of her. Putting on one final burst of sprinting speed, she leapt onto the ice and started sliding across it, far faster than she'd been running ten seconds ago and faster than Magic Eye to boot.

Of course, as she was going so fast, she was quickly coming to the end of the ice sheet and she had barely enough time to gather and flap again to extend it. But barely enough time was still enough time, and she slid on, managing two more extensions before she slid off the ice.

As she skidded onto the dirt, she felt a slight pain on her rump, but she didn't pay it much mind. It took a moment for her to stop and another moment to pick herself up and resume the chase, but even with those two moments of stillness, she was still far closer to her quarry than she had been.

And so the chase recommenced with new vigour on Icy's part. She pursued Magic Eye with her new method and, though she only had a couple more extended slides, she quickly found herself getting the hang of the movement, managing five extensions by her third try.

Of course, Magic Eye was not passive either, and quickly began altering his trajectory, putting in twists and meanders to make her faster straight-line movement less advantageous. Nevertheless, he could only make so many twist and turns in any given amount of time and, using her quick slide, she was closing the gap fast.

Eventually, when she was no more than ten meters from him, they two came to the edge of the forest and Magic Eye stopped, turning around. Icy slid off her latest ice slide and slowed her own pace. The fatigue, now in both her legs and her wings, began to make itself known. However, she did her best not to let that fact show as she came up, wondering why her opponent had stopped.

Now that she looked, it probably had something to do with the huge chasm that he was now standing at the lip of. Ghastly Gorge, Icy presumed – she hadn't been there herself, but hadn't heard especially pleasant things about it. Still, it had proved an obstacle to Magic Eye so, at that moment, she was pretty thankful for it.

“End of the line, pal!” Icy said, doing her best to hide the wince after she said it, once she realized how clichéd the line was.

Not that Magic Eye seemed to mind. “I wouldn't say that.” He said, panting quite a bit himself. “I'd say it's closer to a change of line. That's how it tends to work – changing from a chase to a deception to a delay to another chase. All different methods towards the same goal – escape.”

Icy nodded, taking a few seconds to catch her breath before responding. “You didn't really think that pretend-cop thing would work, did you?”

“Truthfully? Yes, I did rather.” Magic Eye gave a guilty smile. “I get caught due to a “silent alarm”, get taken away by the police and by the time you realized anything was wrong, me and my accomplices would be free and clear. Although, thinking back on the matter, even if your hidden Archer hadn't given the game away... whose idea was that, anyway?”

Icy did her best to hide her surprise at him guessing what first made her suspicious and put her face into as neutral a position as she could. “Does it matter?”

“Ah, yours, then? Well, it was a very wise decision and I see no reason for humility in the matter. But anyway, as I was saying, it wouldn't have worked anyway. I think I rather underestimated your observational skills and even if I hadn't, I somehow doubt Miss Scootaloo would let me out of her sight until I was in a jail cell and she could mock me to her heart's content. Possibly including some sort of victory dance, but I'm not quite certain.”

Icy couldn't contain a slight giggle at the image.

Magic Eye looked up, as if considering something. “I suppose I could always claim that I intended it to be seen through and that my instruction to disable the little speedster first was my main plan rather than a contingency, but no – mea culpa, mea culpa!”

Icy frowned in confusion. “You what?”

Magic Eye smiled, and Icy got the impression he was trying not to look patronizing, but failing a little. “It's ancient pegasopolian. It means my fault. I messed up – I did not anticipate either your intelligence or your skill with your abilities.” His smile became a lot more genuine. “Not that I am attempting to downplay the impressiveness of those facts – those ice slides were a brilliant strategem.”

Icy blushed a little at the complement in spite of herself.

“However, I fear I was still to blame for my own failure. As such, I must face the consequences. Goodbye!” As he said the final word, Magic Eye dropped down over the side of the cliff, instantly going out of sight.

Icy didn't think, she just leapt forward, not even registering the pain or fatigue in her legs or wings. She dived over the side and saw Magic Eye falling just below her, his hoof reaching out to the cliffside and his eyes widening as he saw her.

She flapped her wings upwards, propelling herself down faster than he was falling until she caught up to him. She wrapped her hooves around him and spread her wings, her muscles screaming from both the effort of moving them and the sudden wind resistance. However, she kept them extended, bringing the two of them into a glide. After a few moments, the two skidded along the ground at the bottom of the gorge, their speed now not enough to cause too much damage, but still enough to hurt.

Icy panted as the dust around them settled. Everything ached, she wasn't sure she was able to move her legs or wings and she was covered in dust and dirt.

But in spite of that, lying beneath her, pinned and looking up at her in amazement, was Magic Eye.

“Well,” he said, sounding genuinely astonished, “I didn't anticipate that, either.”

“Guess I'm...” Icy stopped mid-sentence, taking a few seconds to breathe before continuing. “Guess I'm full of surprises.”

“Most ponies are,” the trapped colt said, his expression not losing its newfound respect, “that's what makes these games so engaging. But you? Perhaps more than most.”

Icy barely noticed what he said as she drew in breath for more speech. “Okay, now, give me the diamond.”

“The diamond?” Magic Eye asked, sounding almost offended. “I don't have the diamond. I left it back at the castle.” He wiggled around his hooves beneath her to pat his pockets. “I used it for the flash then dropped it. I wouldn't take it with me while I escaped.”

Icy scrunched her eyes shut for moment, her position pinning the colt preventing her from facehoofing. “Why not?”

“Because you won!” Magic Eye now sounded completely offended. “You beat me fair and square, as the saying goes, and I see absolutely no reason to be a sore loser about it.”

Icy opened her eyes again and looked at him levelly. “Only enough to try to kill yourself over it.”

“Kill myself? Hardly! I'd have hoped you'd have a bit more faith in my intellect than that.” Magic Eye rolled his eyes and wiggled his hooves around beneath her again. After a few moments, he pulled one of his hooves out and held it in front of her face to remind her of the soft glow of his horseshoes, which Icy had stopped noticing about a third of the way through the chase, once fatigue had given her tunnel vision.

“Wall-walking horseshoes, remember. I was just going to grab hold of the wall and hide in a cliff-side cave until you left. Would have seemed to have just disappeared, had you not been so quick and determined to catch me... no pun intended.”

Icy thought for a moment, forcing the image past the cloud of fatigue around her brain and into her mind's eye. “Well, what if...?” She paused for a moment to breathe. “What if I'd glided down to look and saw you.”

Magic Eye's mouth pulled to the side as he considered the idea. “Then I daresay I would have thought of something. But I doubt you would have – even in daylight, it would be hard to see deep into one of those caves, and at night? Well, it seems a touch unlikely.” He leaned his head to the side, looking past Icy's head. “For example, that cave right there would have been quite inscrutable, don't you think?” He asked, pointing behind her.

Icy realized what he was doing a fraction of a second too late and had already starting turning her head in the direction he was pointing when it occurred to her.

Oh, son of a...

She turned her head back, but not fast enough – his other hoof shot up from beneath her and connected with her chin, stunning her and bursting the smoke bomb held in it. Due to the suddenly hard-to-breathe and opaque air, plus her confusion and exhaustion, she could barely do anything as she felt the colt slide out from under her and start trotting rapidly away. She tried to get up to follow him, but at that point her legs had decided that they had had quite enough torture for one night, thank you very much, and she just flopped onto the ground like a very small walrus.

“My apologies once again!” Magic Eye shouted down from above her as, through the smoke, she heard the sounds of his hoofsteps trotting up the cliff face. “You must think me terribly unimaginative, but I fear my liberty is a higher priority than your respect for my ingenuity. Farewell, Icy Flight, until next we meet!”

“Can't wait.” Icy grumbled to herself. Once the smoke cleared, there was no sign of Magic Eye.

Icy groaned and reached a hoof to her badge, her muscles screaming with every inch her leg travelled.

“Guys?” She panted. “He got away again. Everything okay back there?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Scootaloo's voice came back over the badge, sounding far less annoyed than Icy had expected she would. “ Goons are all tied up, diamond's still here, machine was nothing to be worried about. You okay?”

“Yeah.” Icy paused for a moment before amending. “Well, kinda, um... I don't want to be a pain but... could someone come collect me? Not sure I can really walk back right now.”
> Epilogue: The Victory
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, while Icy wouldn't have blamed them for telling her to walk back herself, she did expect them to say yes to her request, either sending Scootaloo or waking up an adult pegasus.

She did not, however, expect Princess Twilight herself to swoop in, pick her up in her magic, put her on her back and fly her all the way back to the castle, thanking her profusely for saving the Horstensia diamond.

This would, normally, have been a dream come true for Icy – being ferried back by an actual princess. However, Twilight's regal image had been a bit undermined when her thanks had lead her to talking about the diamond itself, its special magical properties and the research she had done on it over the past week.

It was a lot of long words, only a quarter of which Icy had heard before and a tenth of which she understood and, as far as she could tell, it basically amounted to “It's supernaturally shiny.”

As they flew in for a landing, Icy looked over the scene – the two goons were being lead away by the police – the real police, this time, Icy noticed – while the others were giving statements and Spike was looking over everything, shaking his head.

Twilight landed and Icy slid off her back, tumbling down lightly and rolling over at the hooves of another filly. Looking up, she saw the face of the filly she'd dreaded talking to.

“I'm... I'm sorry.” She panted, looking down, away from Scootaloo.

“Sorry?” Scootaloo smirked, offering a hoof to help Icy up. “What are ya sorry for?”

“Huh?” Icy took the hoof dazedly, standing up and tilting her head. Scootaloo had been so viciously determined to catch Magic Eye, yet she didn't seem bother by Icy's failure to retrieve him, despite having him literally in her hooves. “Well, I... let him get away kinda sorta. Aren't you mad?”

“Mad? Why would I be mad? Didn't you hear what his goon said?” Scootaloo leaned her head in towards Icy's and whispered conspiratorially. “He said he was told to take me down.” When Icy didn't show understanding, Scootaloo clarified. “He knows I could have caught him. He wanted to stop me so I wouldn't.”

The orange filly's grin looked like it had just a few too many teeth in it as she hissed quietly.

“He's afraid of me.”

Icy blinked, but was thankfully saved from having to think about the implications of Scootaloo's cheerfulness by a hoof on her shoulder. Looking around, she saw Princess Twilight smiling at her.

“I've already told the others this, but I think you deserve to hear it too.” She said, bowing her head in respect. “You have saved a priceless artifact and a national treasure of the Crystal Empire from a terrible thief and my own carelessness.” She sounded a little overly-formal, like she was trying to imitate someone more regal than she was, but Icy wasn’t bothered. “I am in your debt. If there's anything you want of me, just ask.”

Icy waved a hoof. “All in a day's work, your majesty!” She grinned internally – she'd always wanted to say that.

The Princess looked up at the night sky and smiled slyly. “But it's not day.”

Icy smiled too, getting her implication. “Well, in that case, there is one thing.” At the Princess's nod, she continued. “My magic. I was wondering if you could maybe give me some help learning about it – if that's okay with you, you don't have to, I don't mind if...”

“Okay, okay,” Twilight interrupted her, a knowing smile on her face as she heard Icy's desperate politenesses, “I can help you a bit, but for Pegasus magic, you'd be better off with-” She stopped as she saw a look of pain come over Icy's face. “Are you okay?!”

“I'm fine, I'm fine!” Icy held up a hoof, then put it to her chest. “My magic's weird – I can freeze things and make ice somehow. Was going to show you but... little bit drained right now.”

“Making ice?” Twilight's eyes widened and a slight twinkle came into them. “Interesting. Okay, I'll help you with it. On one condition:” she leaned down to Icy's level and grinned, “I get to study it!”

Icy giggled, pulling her head back a little – partially out of respect and partially because the Princess, while still amazingly regal, amazingly clever and amazingly amazing, did have a little bit of morning breath. “Okay, that'd be great.” She started to lower into a bow before remembering something else. “Oh, there is one more thing. Not for you really but maybe you can help me – do you know anyone who could teach me how to ice skate?”

Twilight chuckled as she raised herself up again. “I think I might know a pony.”

Icy smiled, beginning to understand Scootaloo's feelings on the matter.

Next time, Magic Eye. Next time, I'll be ready for you.
> Next Time on Iota Force...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nope, nope, cold and open, cold and open, bad, don't like, not gonna, nope.

The colt hovered at the edge of the forest, fidgeting in agitation and staring out into the open space before him as if it was going to leap forward and swallow him up. The small town with its little houses seemed harmless enough, but the wide open space between the town and the forest stretched out like a gaping chasm.

Have to go, can't go, have to go, friends won't like cold, Skrik won't like cold, can't go, have to go.

He reached a hoof out beyond the treeline for a split second before pulling it back like it was about to be bitten.

Maybe new home will be better, can't go back, big ones didn't like, don't know, have to know, can't know.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud rumble from above. Looking up, the colt's pupils shrunk as he saw a truly colossal amount of snow start to plummet towards the ground and towards him.

Giving off a high-pitched shriek, the colt dashed forward, not turning around to check if his friends were following. He looked around frantically to find a way into his new home.

Where is where is where is where is THERE!

Swerving, the colt sprinted towards a metal grate on the corner of the street. Fortunately, no one was around to see him as he pulled the grate out of the ground and dived in. He slid down the passage and turned around to see that he had been just in time. No sooner had the last of his friends poured into the entryway than the entrance was blocked by a thick layer of snow, cutting off the fresh air and putting the passage into complete darkness.

Not that the colt cared – he was used to this kind of place. Enjoyed it, even. This would definitely work as a new home.

Friends are safe, Skrik is safe, have new home.

He smiled as his friends swarmed all over him, chittering and squealing.