//------------------------------// // Unbound // Story: My Little Caboose: Blue is Magic! // by DarkWing //------------------------------// "Anybody around here that preferably isn't a fucking psychopath?" Church yelled after an hour of walking by himself. Church fell silent as he awaited a response, but received none. "I guess I should be happy that nobody answered." "Well I wouldn't say nobody." Sigma chuckled. "What the hell is your problem?" Church asked, not bothering to look for Sigma. "Come now Epsilon, we both know it is you who has the problems." Church shook his head and began to walk faster. "Running from the truth, Epsilon?" "No. I'm walking away from a maniac." Church hissed. "You cannot run from your past." Sigma said, suddenly appearing beside Church. "Why don't you go be crazy somewhere else?" "Because nobody else appreciates me like you do." "Appreciate you?" Church asked, forcing a sarcastic laugh. "But of course." Sigma nodded sincerely. "Tell you what, I'll go easy on you. Ask me some questions and I will answer." "Where are the others?" "Exactly where I want them to be." "Meaning?" Church asked quietly. "Delta and your friend have found the reds, and last I checked they captured Gary and found Omega." "They got two of them?" Church asked with surprise. "Not exactly. I more or less handed Omega over to them." "Why?" "Omega still hasn't regained his memory like the others so he is of no use to me at this time." "So that means-" "I'm the last one." Sigma said with a smile. "Besides Theta. I wonder what he is up to? I should probably check on him, make sure he hasn't done anything to ruin my plans..." "What about the others?" "Others?" Sigma asked, pretending to not have understood his question. "Tex and Twilight." Church said angrily. "Oh them. They are now wandering aimlessly through a series of tunnels right under our hooves." "There's tunnels under here?" Church asked confusedly. "Yes, and quite remarkably built too. They are littered with so many traps that I didn't have to bother setting up any of my own. The only difference between my traps and the ones below is that those ones are aimed to slowly kill whoever triggers them." "Seriously. What. The fuck. Is your problem?" "Oh, I don't think I have a problem. I think you have a problem." "Everybody has problems." "Ah, but your problem is that of being a catalyst." Sigma coughed. "What do you mean?" "Well it's just that I've noticed a lot of the problems that happen around you seem to be your fault." "What the fuck are you talking about? How is everything my fault?" "I never said everything, merely most things." "Like?" "How about when Caboose died?" "That wasn't my fault. And besides, I fixed that." "Oh, and a job well done on that. You revived the other fragments in the process and they are all suffering." "Good, O'Malley and Gary have had it long coming." "Oh, I was not referring to them." Sigma said, shaking his head. "Delta is losing his grip on reality. This place is already beginning to wear down on him. Caboose and his pink pony friend seem to bend the laws of the world at will, granted the bends are small, but to Delta they seem illogical." "He'll get over it." "Once he finds a reasonable explanation, yes. But for the time being he is not using all his brain power to find the fragments since he believes that they can easily be found. Instead he chooses to waste his time trying to think of how Caboose and the other one are able to do such feats." Sigma said with a smile. "Oh, and Allison is suffering quite a bit too." "What did you do to Tex?" Church snarled. "Me? Nothing. I wouldn't dream of harming a piece of us." "Then how is she suffering?" "Wouldn't you rather hear that from Twilight?" Sigma asked hollowly. Church said nothing, but instead narrowed his eyes. "You are aware of what happened to the yellow one in the past?" "You mean Grif? What about him?" "You recall his infection?" "The one the timberwolves gave him?" Church asked, which Sigma replied to with a nod. "What about it?" "Let us just say that Twilight knowingly poisoned Tex with that virus." "You're lying." Church said, turning to walk away. "No, I'm afraid that is Gamma's department." "I know Twilight, she's not the violent type. She wouldn't do anything unless push came to shove." "But knowing Allison it very well did get to that." "Why would it come to that though?" "We both know how defensive Allison gets. And you know why she is defensive..." "Because she knows that Twilight's my friend." Church sighed. "It's like Sister all over again..." "I have a feeling it might be a little different than that." Sigma smiled. "What do you mean? Look, it doesn't matter. Even if Twilight did mean to infect Tex, she probably did so out of self preservation. I wouldn't be surprised if the first thing they do when they get out of the tunnels is go to Zecora's place." "But that's the beauty of it. It could take them days, or even weeks from getting out of the tunnels. By that point it will be too late for Tex. Now if you'll excuse me I have some business to attend to. If you go the opposite direction as me you will find the reds. Or you can attempt to follow me as I go find Theta." Sigma said before disappearing behind a tree. "Fuck." Church muttered as he kicked a rock. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "And then there was this one time where Pinkie gave me a cupcake!" Caboose said as he laid on his back playfully. "Ya don't say." Gary muttered as he attempted to squirm out of the vines that the reds had tied him up with. "I just did, didn't you hear me?" "Yes ah did, no need t' go an' repeat your story." Gary said quickly. "What was your favorite part of my story?" Caboose asked. "The part where it ended." "I know! I thought the cupcake was the best part too!" "Ah've learned my lesson!" Gary yelled. "Ya'll can come back an' take him back!" Gary heard the sound of leaves shuffling and looked to the right to see Church walking towards them. "Ah never thought ah'd see the day where ah was happy t' see ya." Gary said with a chuckle. "Shut up Gary." Church grunted, turning his attention to Caboose. "What are you doing?" "Sarge told me to look after Gary because Sarge thought he looked sad!" Church looked over to Gary who looked at him with a pair of begging eyes, asking him to make Caboose stop. "Where are they now?" "They said that they were going to talk over there." Caboose said, pointing to a tree. "Thanks." Church nodded, making his way over to Delta. "Stay here an keep Gary company until I come back." "Okay!" Caboose said happily. "Fer the love of-" Gary whined. "Ah'm sorry about the whole shisno thing!" Church ignored Gary's pleads as he walked to the tree to see Delta and the Reds talking. "Heard you got in a bit of trouble blue." Sarge chuckled as he saw Church come around the tree. "You don't know the half of it." Church shook his head. "Look, we need to find the girls. Apparently Twilight infected Tex with the same thing Grif had and we need to get them before she turns into a tree." "Would that really be a bad thing though?" Grif asked. "Considering she would probably try to take as many of the girls out with her, yes." "Did I ever tell you that I hate Tex?" "Probably at some point, but look. Apparently there are tunnels under the forest and the girls are lost in them. The longer they're in there for, the longer..." Church trailed off when he saw O'Malley hanging from a tree. "What's with O'Malley?" "He triggered one of Sigma's traps." Delta said simply. O'Malley's eyes snapped open and he gazed at Church's cutie mark, before laughing maniacally. "Shit, he woke up." Simmons muttered. "In more ways than one you idiot!" O'Malley snapped. "Let me down from here before I do something you all regret!" "The chances of you doing anything up there are pretty slim." "There is a vine tied to that tree, if you untie it you will free me!" O'Malley said quickly. "Why would we want to do that?" Grif asked. "I know where that fool put the traps." O'Malley snapped. "Let me down so I can show him just how far my rage stretches." "He's trying to trick us. One second he promises to help us, and the next he kills us all." "No, he's telling the truth." "What are you yapping about?" Sarge asked. "You're not really thinking of letting him down, are you?" "Sigma told me he left O'Malley here for you guys to find. So Delta, what do you think we should do?" "I assumed as much." Delta nodded. "Bring him down." "Are you sure?" Church asked. "Omega will go through great lengths to get revenge, and as dangerous as he is, he knows where Sigma placed the tunnel trap. I believe he can be of assistance to us as of now." "Okay." Church nodded as he pulled on the vine, causing O'Malley to slam into the ground.