//------------------------------// // Hard Rock, & Hitters // Story: Sigma & Lambda's Tales: The Rainbow Factory Incident // by Echo Montana Juliet //------------------------------// Chapter Three: Pain Insufferable Pinkie Pie, the only pony that could possibly break the sound barrier, with sound. The small group could hear the music before the door ever even opened, a rhythmic, blasting sound, with no definable tone. In the split second before the door opened, Sigma rethought his life up to this point, then the door flew open, nearly off it's hinges. Rainbow Dash flew through the air, hit Sigma, and kept going, through a window at the end of the hall, and kept going still. Sigma tumbled down the hallway, and smacked his head, under the window Rainbow Dash flew through, and knocked himself unconscious. Applejack & Lambda tumbled through the hallway, Applejack crashed into some furniture in the hallway, stopping her. Lambda managed to just hold ground. She then attempted to move towards the door. her progress was minimal, and took a long time. When Lambda finally made it to the door to close it, her ears heard nothing, and she could barely move forward. The sound waves had become increasingly more forceful. With the last of her strength, Lambda closed the door, and fainted. Sigma awoke, vision blurred, and a massive headache, he stumbled down the hallway, using the wall for support. He tripped over the unconscious Applejack, and had to take time to realize what had happened, and get up. When he finally reached the door, his vision was still mightily impaired, but good enough to make-out the shape of the figure slouched at the base of the door. With all his will-power, he changed into a human, and carried Lambda away from the door. He walked back down the hall, and noticed a slightly more conscious Applejack, shifting around, he picked up her too, and continued down the hall. He didn't quite know where he was going, but he walked none the less. He walked to the main entrance, and realized that his feet knew where they were going. The entered Applejack's wing of the house, and continued upstairs. He knocked on a plain white door, with a big green apple on it, from inside could be heard the silent movement of foot steps. The door opened, and there stood a familiar, stoic, face. Big Mac gave him the once over, then moved out of the way. Sigma nodded and walked inside. He set the two on the bed, and collapsed onto the floor. "Water, if you'd be so kind." Big Mac nodded, and walked out. Sigma lost consciousness again, when he woke up, the glass of water was next to him, and Big Mac was cleaning up the blood from around their sisters' ears. Sigma took the glass, and emptied it in one gulp. "Thank you, kind fellow. How are they?" "Not too good, they'd be better if I had some medical supplies. Don't suppose you can just, magic me some up, can ya?" "No, not in my current state. I'm injured enough as it is. I'll be getting some more water, call me if anything happens." "Alrighty, there's food in the cupboards, crackers, and apple-type foods. It's a wonder how this little mare, made this big 'ole house, outta thin air." Sigma nodded, then walked down stairs. His head was still bleeding, so he found a wash rag and cleaned up the blood as best he could. He made sure there was noponies around, and with what little strength he had, generated a hamburger and ate it in one bite, and made sure no remnants were seen. He got a new glass of water, drank that, and found some cider in an ice chest. He poured himself a glass and walked back upstairs. Big Mac was still tending to the injured mares, but couldn't do much with his limited resources. "Is nurse Red Heart around here?" "Nope." "Where is she?" "Dead, buried in the Everfree forest somewhere." "Did the Darklings get to her?" "Yes, they didn't kill her directly, but they sure leave one bad scratch on you." "No other doctor either, eh?" "Nope. All at Canterlot, or what left of it." "Let me guess, I destroyed it." "Eeyup. Punched the mountain so hard it caused a gigantic landslide. Princess Celestia & Luna managed to stop the city from tumbling upside-down, but couldn't stop any extra destruction from the landslide." "Lovely, do you know how many ponies are there?" "Nope. Haven't checked yet, and I don't plan to either." "Okay, your choice, I won't question it. Do you know much about medicine and doctoring?" "Enough to sterilize wounds and close them. If I had a hot iron, I could sterilize the wounds, which would definitely hurt them, but it's better than bleeding to death." "Might be one around here. Have you really checked around here?" "Nope, just got some rest when I got here." "Well, might be wise to start checking around for compartments in the wall, might find something useful." Big Mac nodded, and Sigma began to walk along the wall, knocking on parts of it, feeling along it. Big Mac began to do the same, closer to the bed. Took Big Mac all of 5 seconds to find a hidden compartment. He opened a drawer in the wall, and in it held bandages, and a iron rod with an interchangeable head piece, but no other pieces in the box. "Looks like you were right, there is some useful things in these here walls. Who'd a thought." "Well, Lambda made this, and every other house, to accommodate the needs of those who live in it. You need something you don't think you have, or can't find. The walls hear your plea, and are willing to give." "Don't suppose these walls would be kind enough to provide a furnace, so that I can sterilize this rod." "Couldn't tell you, just got to look for what you need." Sigma continued to feel along the wall. He found a cabinet, checked the contents. He found a bottle of alcohol, not the rubbing kind, and a couple of attachments for the iron rod. He grabbed the attachments, and closed the door, then continued looking for a furnace. Big Mac was looking along the wall too. He began to check along the wall opposite the bed. Then the sound of flames could be heard as he approached the center of the wall. When Big Mac got to the center, door knobs grew from the empty wall. He grabbed them, and swung the doors open. Flames shot out a small distance, Big Mac had to leap back to avoid the fire. "I believe I have found ourselves a furnace. Would you kindly, pass me that iron rod?" Sigma picked up the iron rod, and carried it over to Big Mac. The furnace had drawers that pulled out, presumably to set items down upon, for easy access. Sigma set the items on the drawers. "So, you got everything you need?" "Eeyup." "Need any help?" "Nope." "Well, if you need help,I'll be downstairs. Anything you need is in the walls." Big Mac began to switch out parts, and started to heat up the iron. Sigma walked downstairs. He got to the kitchen, and found the three fillies that had managed to escape his eyes for the entire night, only, they didn't quite look like fillies anymore, and they certainly didn't like Sigma. Scootaloo stepped forward. "Hey! What are you doing here?" "I got a better question, where have you been?" Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle joined Scootaloo. "Hey! That's none of your business." "Yeah, just who do you think you are!" "Brother to the mare that built you this house, that's who. I also set up those lights outside, to protect you ungrateful mares against the Darklings." The trio suddenly started to look anywhere, but Sigma, with guilty faces. Sigma began to stare at them more closely. He noticed they still never got their cutie marks, probably because that chance was thrown out the window by his dimensional dopple-ganger. "You three seen Rainbow Dash? I fear for her, afraid she might have encountered a terrible fate." "Is that what those blood trails were? What happened?" "Pinkie Pie obtained some, loud speakers, and it sent Rainbow Dash through a window, I wouldn't know how far, because I got knocked unconscious. Did the blood trails lead anywhere?" "No, they just stopped half-way between the houses & the forest." "Huh, interesting. Sweetie Belle, you checked in with Rarity yet?" Sweetie Belle & Apple Bloom had been checking the cabinets for, what could only be assumed as, food & drinks. "No, we saw this place and wanted to check around. For the most part we've been checking around the town, outside. It's pretty nice." "Yeah, I guess it does look pretty nice. You should go check in with her. Scootaloo, your staying with Rainbow Dash, the second floor, you should check that out too, the staircase is by the front entrance, you should have been able to see it passing into here." Sweetie Belle & Scootaloo left to check the rest of the house. Apple Bloom was in tow, when Sigma stopped her. "I think you'd best come upstairs with me, your brother might want to talk with you." "What do ya mean?" "Better check for yourself. Don't suppose you have any medical supplies on you?" "Why? What's going on?! Is everypony okay?!" "Calm down, I don't need you freaking out over this. Just come upstairs and see it for yourself." Sigma began to walk, gesturing for Apple Bloom to follow. Apple Bloom followed, her face was tired, and very worried looking. They ascended the stairs, and walked into Big Mac's room. Big Mac was blocking the view of the bed, and paid no attention to the rooms new occupants. Apple Bloom began to look around the room. She walked around to the base of the bed, and saw the unconscious apple-picker, laying next to the white mare. Apple Bloom began to gasp, then to cry. Her brother finally noticed her, and set down the tools. He walked over to Apple Bloom, and gave her a hug. She sobbed, and for the first time, Sigma saw Big Mac shedding tears. Sigma stood at the door, then walked over to the hot iron rod & bandages. Big Mac looked over to him. "You- You need to finish up Applejack. I- I didn't manage to fully- to fully cauterize the wounds she's received." Sigma said nothing, he nodded, reached towards the wall, opened a compartment, pulled out a pair of gloves, put then one, and finished the job. The iron had sat too long, so he reheated it. Big Mac was so worried about Applejack, he had yet to start on Lambda. She'd be fine, the bleeding had stopped, but infection was going to be a problem if he didn't finish up fast. The furnace wasn't heating up the iron fast enough, so he heated it manually with his powers of heat conduction. He quickly managed to cauterize the wounds on Applejack, then moved onto Lambda. Her hooves were extremely scratched up, bruised, and bleeding. Next was her flanks, the sound had cut through them like a hot knife through liquid butter. Any normal pony most definitely would've been dead, long ago. Clearly, even if you could consider them slightly above normal before, now you would think they were some kind of deathless beasts. Her left eye was completely shot. He'd be lucky if she ever woke up. He did what he could, which wasn't much. If he had some kind of heavy pain relief agent, he could dull the pain enough for her to wake up. Her natural body senses shut her down to prevent the feeling of extended, intense pain. He checked around to see if Big Mac & Apple Bloom were still around, but they'd gone downstairs apparently, because they weren't in the room anymore. Sigma sighed, then patted Lambda on the foreleg, somehow one of the few places not visibly damaged. "Try not to die, it's hard enough seeing you injured and having no way to help."