//------------------------------// // Evertrapped Forest // Story: Sigma & Lambda's Tales: The Rainbow Factory Incident // by Echo Montana Juliet //------------------------------// Chapter Two: Those Who Can The group had trekked through the forest quite a ways. While they ventured, they were being watched by unwanted eyes. Sigma was aware of them, and subtly alerted his sister to them. "Hey, you feel like something's watching you?" He nudged Lambda and she began to look around. The creatures blended into the dark forest so well, if it wasn't for their natural ability to see things in the dark, she'd never have noticed them until it was too late. "A little bit, let me set up a force field for us." As she said it, she produced a unicorn horn, and from it, came a light beam that shrouded the travelers in a white light. The shield produced an internal light, as well as an external light. Big Mac gazed at the bubble in awe. It was the first time they'd seen him show any facial expressions besides neutrality. "You like it? A little special thing I conjured up to keep the baddies away." "Eeyup." When Big Mac was done gazing they continued, the figures in the shadows now retreating, but not completely out of their line of sight, just enough to be out of the light. "You know those creatures in the shadows, Big Mac?" "Nope." "You got a name for them?" "Scatterlings, or Darklings." "Are they afraid of the light?" "Eeyup." "Guess that makes you afraid of the dark then, huh?" "Eeyup." "Well, I guess you have every right to be, these guys don't seem nice." "Eeyup." At that comment, Big Mac's voice gained a note of sorrow, and his head dropped slightly. "You lose someone close?" "Nope, just not everypony that survived the town, made it through the forest." "You're talking a lot more than usual, you know that?" "I suppose when you have nopony to talk for you, you gotta learn to adapt." Big Mac picked up the pace. Sigma looked away from the Darklings, and to Big Mac. "Too right, mate." The glow eventually faded, just being an after-effect of the spell, and once again, the creeps came out of their earlier shadows, to gain a better view of the shielded group. As they walked, one jumped out at them, it hit the shield and bounced off. Suddenly, every other Darkling jumped out at the shield, and still did not managed to break the barrier. Sigma laughed at their futile attempts. "Silly Darklings think they can get at us. Let us continue on." They continued through, having to move slower, because they Darklings flinging themselves at the front of the barrier caused the barrier to slow, as they continued. "How close are we, Big Mac?" "Close." He pointed towards an opening in the forest. They managed to make it through, and they found a, small, make-shift camp. However, there wasn't a soul to be seen. Big Mac walked towards the center of it, and whistled. When he was done, ponies began to emerge from the foliage and surrounding brush. Carrying make-shift weapons, made of wood and stone, some made of metal. Some of the ponies wore camouflage, however lame the suits were. "So, this is what's left of Ponyville. I suspect you are familiar with me?" Sigma said it matter-of-fact-ly, and bowed. Lambda sighed. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie stepped up to Big Mac, with worried and unhappy looks. "Uh, brother, what were you thinking bring these... these-" Applejack was furious. Then Sigma stepped up, and knelled before his prosecutors. "Ladies, I mean no harm. I've come to help. If I wanted you dead, do you think you'd still be here?" "Well- I-" Applejack looked to her friends, they had no answers for her. Applejack lowered her head, and took off the hat. "I suppose if you really wanted us all dead, we'd be laying in our graves by now." Sigma lifted up Applejack's chin. "Hey, you have nothing to be sorry about. You clearly are on the defensive about the trouble I have cause around here. Now I'm here to make amends." Lambda walked next to Sigma and looked to him. "And me too. I want to help make thing better once again." She looked to Applejack and her friends. "What can we do to help?" Lambda then noticed how haggard and weak they looked. They hadn't been there for days, or weeks, but months. Even from a distance, it was evident in their eyes, and faces. "We could use some more housing, as you can see, we have a lot of ponies, but not a lot of tents." Lambda nodded. She transformed into a human, and began to walk-about the perimeter of the encampment. As she walk around the edge, she started to clear out trees, and in their place because houses. When she finished, there was two rows of houses, with an extra large house at the end, split into four sets of colors: Top) Cyan. Left) Simple brown and red. Right) White and purple. Back) Pink. Lambda walked back to the group. "There you are, enough houses for everypony. I didn't want you to have to expand too quickly, so each pony will have to share a house. Your house is the one on the end, but I suspect you could figure that out." They stared in awe at what they'd just witnessed. Not only had they just seen a pony turn into a human, but that same human just cleared acres of field, and in it place came houses. Sigma looked to the skies, where he could see the day fading into night. "Lambda, it's getting dark, you show our friends to there homes, I'll deal with the lighting situation." "Right, you should inform your towns folk of the situation, then I'll show you to your new home." "Hold on, is there enough room for my little sister, and her friends?" "Yes, I counted on them still being alive, I made enough room in your house, and all of the others, for little ones." Applejack and her friends nodded. Applejack was apparently in charge, and thus called all the ponies around her. She announced the news, and told the ponies to group up and find a house. Lambda joined her, and explained some aspects to the houses, such as furnishings, and the like. The way she explained it left questions, but she assured they'd understand once they all found a house to live in, that they'd understand. They dispersed and went to various houses in groups of two or three. All that remained was Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie, looking at the sunset with grim faces. "Don't worry, friends, I'll take care of it. Go with Lambda, she'll show you around your house." "Alright-y, mister, see you tomorrow." Lambda took them to see their house, and left Sigma to deal with the lighting situation. It was growing ever darker, so he had to work fast. He sped around the perimeter first, placing luminescent orbs in intervals as to produce the most light protection. When he finished that, he walked to the middle of the houses, he stood for a moment, contemplating how he should set up the lights in this area. With the lights around the perimeter, he walked along, and occasionally touched the ground, and produced a lamp-post with a similar orb of light as he'd place round the edge. When he'd walked away from one, it would become like a dull sphere, floating in it's container of glass. Then he'd produce another along the path, up to the house at the end. After that, he took the extra precaution of having some light in a field around the houses directly. He placed orbs at the ends of each row, and one behind every other house. At last he was done, thus he went to the house where his sister was showing their friends around. He walked inside, and saw that they'd just finished with Rainbow Dash's room in the attic, and were no headed over to Rarity's wing of the house. "Oh my gosh, have you seen my room. It's so awesome." "I bet it looks pretty nice. I bet you've already check out Applejack's side?" "Yes, it's mighty fine, just like home. Even has it's own kitchen and upstairs. Don't know how you did it, but it's amazing, Lambda." "Well, I bet my side is going to be more fabulous than any of yours'." "Arrogant, aren't we, Ms. Rarity?" Rarity looked indignant, and Applejack giggled, trying to hide her smile with her hat. They walked to Rarity's wing of the house, and low-and-behold, it was almost like her boutique back in Ponyville, except this one had more space for supplies, and the bedrooms were significantly bigger, along with a work table for making designs. Rarity lit up the moment she stepped into her new place. Applejack whistled at the shear increase in size. "Oh this is just wonderful! Thank you, Lambda. Thank you so much! If you ever need anything, just ask." "You're welcome, Rarity. Shall we leave you to your new space?" "Oh, if you don't mind. I think I'll make some new designs before I go to bed." Lambda nodded, and took the other three and lead them out. Sigma followed closely. Last, but not least, was Pinkie Pie's place. Pinkie Pie was chattering on about how great it must be, and suddenly went silent as they all entered the room. Sigma's jaw hit the floor. The room was pink, and not just regular light-red kind of pink, it was neon pink. The corners of the room had pink-neon lights, there were drawers in the walls, presumably for party supplies, and the room was large enough to fit a leviathan into it. In fact, one could most likely fit multiple leviathans of average size, into this room. There was also a large stage taking up about 3/8 of the room. Then Sigma and Pinkie Pie spoke simultaneously. "It's pink!" They both began to cry. One cried tears of horror, the other cried tears of joy. Pinkie began to bounce around the room, looking through drawers, popping in and out of them. She managed to find her way up to the stairs. Sigma had stopped crying, but fell to his knees with a horrified expression. The room was slowly removing his masculinity. He had to crawl to the door to escape the pink-menace that was Pinkie's wing of the house. When he'd finally made it to the hallway, outside the room, gasping for breath. Lambda paced right behind him, then snickered as he finally made it out. "I am NEVER, going in that room, again!" He got up, sweating bullets. Sigma dried off the sweat by generating a heat field around his body. When he was done with that he looked to the grinning girl standing next him. "What's so funny? You'd have the same reaction if you walked into a super-masculine room." "I know, but it's still funny to watch it happen, just because it seems so ridiculous to contemplate." "Will you tell them we're going?" "Why don't you do it? You have legs and a voice." "Well, if I enter that room, I might as well not have either." A deafening roar suddenly is produced from the room. Sigma slams the door shut before it makes the duo deaf. The area becomes quiet, almost as if there had never been sound at all. "Don't even suggest that I talk to them through that noise, because you know that's not happening." "Don't you think I realize that?" "Just making sure, some things you think are just a little out there." Lambda gave Sigma a scolding face of indignity. Then the door opened once more, deafening sound still blaring, and out stumbled Applejack and Rainbow Dash, both crashing to the ground, covering their ears. Sigma, closest to the door, has to slam into it to close it because of the force of the sound. "Hey! You okay?" "They don't even notice Sigma trying to communicate with them. He taps them on their forelegs. "Hey! Can you hear me?" Applejack doesn't open her eye, and Rainbow Dash gives him an odd look. "What?! Are you messing with me! What are you saying?!" Rainbow Dash was yelling, and Sigma doubted she could even hear herself. Sigma pried a hoof from Rainbow Dash's ear, and noticed it was bleeding. "Lambda, need some help over here!" "What is it? Oh my!" She saw what the problem was, and gasped. "I think I can heal that, but that definitely has to hurt." "Yeah, I bet." Sigma gave Rainbow Dash a reassuring look, and patted her on the back, then stepped back so Lambda could work her magic. She stepped over and hovered her hands above the damaged ear. A glow began to appear from her hooves, a different color to that of the one used for Big Macintosh. The glow this time was a white-red mixture, where as the one for Big Mac was a white-green glow. When the glow encased her entire hooves, it then appeared around the bleeding ear. The blood didn't disappear, but an odd sound came from it, like that of a stream, flowing along, gentle, yet only audible if you listened carefully. The glows interchanged particles, then slowly faded away. When it was done, Rainbow Dash looked at her with a confused, then gleeful face. "Oh my gosh! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I thought I'd never be able to-" Lambda put a hoof to Rainbow's mouth. Rainbow Dash stopped talking, and nodded with a smile. Lambda then proceed to do the same thing with Applejack, who was now more conscious of the pair, but still distant and holding her head. Lambda tapped Applejack's foreleg, Applejack looked up at Lambda, who made a gesture like taking her arms away from her head, Applejack understood, and did like Lambda. She was now able to place her hands over Applejack's ear, and repair the damaged ear. The procedure was exactly like Rainbow Dash's, and was over just as quick. Applejack smiled, then stood up. "Thank you kindly, ma'am. I don't know how you do it, but it's amazing, and I'm glad you're here." "Yeah, same here, if you weren't here, we wouldn't have these awesome houses, and we still might be deaf if you hadn't still been here." "Oh, it's nothing. I like helping my friends, or those I hope I can call friends." Applejack and Rainbow Dash hugged Lambda, who hugged back. Lambda invited Sigma to hug. He turned from his human form, which he'd been almost since they'd gotten there, into a pony, and joined the hug. When they disbanded the hug, Sigma asked Applejack about Pinkie Pie, as they discussed, Rainbow Dash walked towards the door. Sigma looked over, just as Rainbow Dash was about to open the door. He lunged, but was too late. You could hear the sound, even before the door flew open. Pinkie Pie, the only pony who could possibly break the sound barrier, with sound. The door nearly flew off it's hinges. Rainbow Dash flew down the hallway, through a window at the end, and kept tumbling.