Chapter Four: Day Two: Seventy-Two Hours Remain
"Sigma, Sigma, Sigma. What have you gotten yourself into?"
The room fell away, in it's place was a room similar to the "Trans-Dimensional House of Space Time Confusion", mostly just referred to as, "The House" Sigma swiveled around to face another figure, his father.
"Where are we?"
"The location should not concern you, what should concern you is my imminent death."
"When are you to die?"
"Soon, seventy-two hours remain. Go to what's left of Canterlot, retrieve what's left of the Mane Six, that being Twilight, as well as any other pony willing to come with."
Jules walked out from behind Echo, and stood next to his brother.
"We'll pick you & Lambda up on your trip back. I have some medicine, you'll need it to awaken Lambda and Applejack. Rainbow Dash is safe, however I cannot determine her location quite yet."
Jules tossed Sigma a couple syringes, and a bottle of pills. The syringes where labeled, "Wake-up Stuff" and the pills read, "Morphine Pills" Sigma didn't question it. The darkness faded into light again, as the room formed around him once more. He stood, still facing the bed, even though he'd turned away, he'd been sure of it, but it didn't matter, just made his job that much easier. The syringes were prepared already. He gave Lambda some of the pills before he began the injection process. First shot went to Applejack. Sigma injected Applejack, and she bolted upright.
"OUCH! What'd ya go and do that for?"
Sigma shook his head. He gave the second shot to Lambda. She encountered the same effect.
"OUCH! That kinda hurt."
Sigma snorted in derision.
"I just saved both of your sorry-"
"Applejack, how are you? Last time I saw you was in the hallway."
"Well, besides the burn marks and new pain in my neck, I'm just dandy."
Sigma clapped his hands.
"So, shall we say hi to your worried family, or leave them in suspense?"
"Quit being hyper-critical, what happened after I closed the door?"
"After sometime, I woke up. I could barely see. I waked down the hallway, tripping over Applejack, and got to the door. On nothing but will power, I picked you two up, and walked all the way to Big Mac's room and for the last couple of hours we've been trying to prevent you from dying of blood loss. Anymore questions?"
"No, I'm good. Thank you for saving us."
"Yes sir-ee, you've done so much for us. Is there anything we can do for you?"
"Well, come downstairs with me, and we can discuss a course of action to unite you with what's left of your friends."
"Sure, sounds simple enough."
Sigma chuckled, with a lingering grin, plastered on his face.
"What's so funny?"
"It's never simple, and leave it at that."
Applejack shrugged, and started out the door, and down the stairs. Sigma & Lambda were close behind, Sigma's grin fell off, into a frown, not deep, but of a natural, plain-faced expression. Sigma certainly was not accustomed to smiling. When they got downstairs, they saw the awaiting group. Scootaloo & Sweetie Belle had rejoined, and must have been crying too, because their faces' were tear stained, lightly. Apple Bloom noticed Applejack first, out of the group in the kitchen. She ran up to her newly revived sister, and hugged her tightly.
"Don't ever do that again, big sis', you worried me sick."
Big Mac and the rest walked over. Big Mac joined the hug.
"Eeyup."
Sigma bowed, with a slight smile.
"All in a day's work. Now to address a more urgent matter."
Once they'd stopped hugging, they looked to Sigma.
"Applejack, we must address the situation that occupies that of your current relations with Miss Twilight Sparkle. Do you know where she is?"
Applejack's face grew a disgusted look by the mention of Twilight's name.
"Why do you need to know that?"
"Because, with out your being united in friendship, and harmony, and all that jazz, this world will collapse evermore."
"It really is never that simple, is it?"
"Not much to do about it. Now tell me, where is she?"
Applejack sighed, her face wore a defeated look.
"She's in Canterlot with the other princesses. They think they can rebuild society with nothing but a load of ponies who probably never worked a day in their lives."
"Is Fluttershy with them? I haven't seen her around, and I can't sense her either."
"Listen, sugar cube-"
"Never! Call me that. Just don't."
Applejack was startled by the sudden outburst.
"Sorry."
"It's fine, just I don't like the nickname."
"Anyways, Fluttershy, we don't really know where she is. She's most likely dead."
"What happened?"
"Oh, that's right, I forgot, you two weren't actually here for the events. Well, it began in your little house on the outskirts of town."
Applejack explained the events in a more thorough manner, than how they'd been explained too earlier. She told them that a, truely, blinding light had emitted from the house, literally blinding anypony unfortunate enough to be caught staring for even the shortest of times, had caught the glance of dearest Fluttershy. She explained that when the town was evacuated, that Fluttershy was lost along the way into the Everfree Forest. How they'd tried to search for her before, but couldn't because the Darklings would attack them.
"And she hasn't come back yet, so all we can do is hope for the best, yet the odds aren't stacked in her favor."
"Hmm... I see. Any of you planning on leaving, as in the whole of those who currently live here?"
"Well, Rarity's been complaining about the conditions around here, said she might join Twilight soon."
"Okay, that gives us the perfect guise to fall under then."
Sigma looked to Lambda with a smile on his face. The smile scared Lambda a little bit.
'Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Because I can't just go in as Rarity and have you still be normal. Would you rather be Rarity, or Sweetie Belle?"
The group in the kitchen stared at the deranged looking human with confused faces.
"Hey! What do you mean Would you rather be Rarity, or Sweetie Belle?"
"Elementary, my dear Sweetie Belle. I simply use that powers that allow me to change from human to pony, and change into you or Rarity."
"You sure 'bout that? Sounds complicated to me."
"Well it certainly isn't rocket science."
"What science?"
"Ah, never mind, you haven't the technology yet."
"Uh, okay then."
Now even more confused then before, the group stood silent, awaiting more commentary from the duo. Lambda had been considering who she would rather be, and appeared to have made up her mind about it.
"So, what's your answer? Rarity, or Sweetie Belle?"
"Well, you are more masculine than feminine, so I think I'd be a better Rarity than you."
"Sounds good, guess I'm Sweetie Belle then."
Sigma rubbed his hands together, as if preparing for something.
"Let's do it then. I'll go first."
And with a sudden flash of light, now stood a second Sweetie Belle, and exact replica of the first.
"How do I look?"
His voice remained deep, and hyper-masculine. Sweetie Belle began o walk around him, giving her dopple-ganger the once-over.
"You look exactly like me, besides the voice of course. You can fix that, right?"
The duplicate Sweetie Belle began to shake, as if getting loose for some kind of work out.
"How's this sound? Better?"
His voice was now exactly like Sweetie Belle's. They couldn't believe it, if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes. The exact replication, down to the little bumps & scratches received from going out into the forest to forage. They all looked a little impressed, especially Sweeite Belle.
"Perfect, you sound exactly like Sweetie Belle."
Sigma bowed, then changed back to his human form.
"All in a day's work. I do believe it your turn to transform, Lambda."
Lambda nodded, then flashed for a moment. In her place now stood a duplicate of Rarity.
"How do I look, darling?"
She looked like Rarity. She talked like Rarity. She even smelled like Rarity, as far as they knew from yesterday's encounter. Then came a fairly large problem. The marshmallow fluff white mare, walked into the room, and spotted her double. Rarity freaked out, and began to assault Lambda, throwing various objects with her magic. If it wasn't nailed down, it flew at Lambda.
"CHANGELING! EVIL, MANIACAL, CHANGELING!"
"Rarity! Stop that! That's no way to treat a guest!"
"Step back everypony, I got this."
They all stepped away from the frantic Rarity. Sigma took a step forward, reached his hand out, and swiftly forced it down. All objects that had been primed to throw, had now been sent to the ground. When Rarity tried to levitate any of them, she found that she was unable.
"What! What happened!? Why can't I pick anything up?"
"Calm down, Rarity. Everything's fine. That's not a changeling, it's Lambda, you remember? The white mare, with the golden mane. You remember her?"
Lambda changed back to her original pony form. Rarity looked at her, then back to Sigma. Rarity looked down, discouraged by her actions.
"Sorry, dear, I guess I didn't realize who you were. I suppose I should have, though. All the changelings were wiped out by you two, long ago."
Sigma looked to Lambda, concerned about what had occurred to lead to that event. They didn't want to ask.
"So, how did I look, Rarity?"
"Well, you looked exactly like me. It was scary, yet requisite."
"Would you like to see it again?"
"Yes, would you kindly. I didn't quite get a good look, all those objects being in the way, and all."
Lambda giggled a bit, then flashed, and in her place was the duplicate of Rarity once more.
"Marvelous, quite amazing how you do it. Speak for me, would you kindly?"
"Why of course darling, quite uncanny is it not?"
Rarity nodded, and walked around the clone, giving her the once-over.
"Why, you certainly are a perfect match, aren't you?"
Lambda changed back to her original form, and bowed.
"I try, thank you."
"You're welcome. I almost forgot to ask. Why were you changing into me?"
Sigma walked over.
"Well, you see, we need to unite you and your friends together once more. If we don't, then everything will get progressively worse, until every living being here is dead. So long as all of you are in close proximity with each other, and getting along, the world will be good and safe."
Rarity looked shocked at this information.
"So, what you're saying is, if we can't get along, we'll all die?"
"Basically, yes, I am saying that, what did you think we were doing? Just showing off?"
"Well, yes darling, I did think that."
"Ah well, we were raised not to flaunt what we got."
Sigma looks to Lambda, then to the others. He cleared his throat.
"Well, Lambda, I think we're ready, best head off."
Sigma heads towards the door, and opens it.
"After you."
Lambda nods, then heads out the door. She waves goodbye. Sigma follows after, and closes the door. The group inside starts to go about the business of the days work, then Applejack realizes something, and rushes towards the door, opens it, and finds only some of the other inhabitants. She sighs.
"Those two..."
Clear on the other side of the Everfree forest now stood the two siblings, preparing for their entrance. Hiding out of sight, as to ensure a clean disguise, the conversed on how they would play this out.
"Okay, Lambda, you ready for this?"
"Yeah, I'm ready, the guards can't see us. They really should bridge this gap, but it aids us in our goals."
"Yeah, let's do this."
They changed into their planned copies, adjusted their voices, and made it look like they'd trekked through the forest. They walked out, and were immediately greeted by a passing patrol. From their outfits, they were clearly Celestial Foot Soldiers, rather, hoof soldiers.
"Halt! What do you think you're doing?"
Lambda cleared her throat.
"Well, I was hoping for food and shelter. I am Rarity, and this is my sister Sweetie Belle. Would you be so kind as to take us in?"
"Ah, one of Twilight Sparkle's friends. She said not to let your kind in here, last I heard."
Both Lambda and Sigma looked shocked, looked to each other, then back to the smug looking guards.
"Please, mister, you can't just leave us here. We'll starve!"
"Too bad, little filly, you and your sister here should've thought of that before you left."
Lambda began to cry, and her pupils began to grow increasingly large, trying to guilt the guards.
"But- but we'll die..."
"Well, serves you right for betraying the princesses. Now begone with you. We have a job to do."
Suddenly, the sound of hooves, stamping the ground, could be heard, as well as load yells and battle cries. Then, a small army of bandits and raiders charged out of the forest.
"INCOMING!"
The guards fell back immediately, Sigma and Lambda followed quickly. They ran through a wide street, full of cover, made for trigger weapons more than anything else. The guards fell back to the furthest set of cover, only amounting to fifteen, or twenty. Popping out of cover, they carried small arms weapons. At the other end were the raiders and such with make-shift trigger weapons. Caught in the middle was Sigma and Lambda. The gunfire began, regardless of the 'civilians' in the middle of it. Sigma then pulled out a manually-operated, tripod-mounted, machine gun turret. Nobody could explain from where, not that they paid attention.
"Say hello to my LITTLE FRIEND!"
The battle lasted five minutes, give or take a minute, having to chase down the last survivor for information. Sigma tackled the bandit mare.
"Stop right there, criminal scum!"
"Don't hurt me! Please, I was just following orders."
"Orders? From who!"
"I don't know who, I never met the pony."
"Where is your base of operations!"
"It's the Rainbow Factory, I don't know where. Somewhere in the bad lands, I think."
"How'd you get here if you don't know where you came from?"
"They have a teleporting device set-up. It's one way, but we use magic to go back."
"What were your orders?"
"They wanted to us to capture some ponies for the factory."
"WHY? An apocalyptic waste land doesn't need rainbows!"
"They pay us to loot and kidnap, not ask questions. I don't know why."
Sigma yelled, picked the mare up, by the neck, and threw her clear across the sky towards the factory. The guards stood in awe at the sight before them. The all dropped their weapons as they just stared at them.
"What? You never seen a filly throw a full grown mare miles away?"
Sigma looked to Lambda, they both nodded. They changed into their original forms. In the back one of the guards could be heard walking away.
"I'm done, I've seen enough for one day."
Sigma saw the guard, and realized who it was. It was a stallion with a blue mane, and a white coat. His cutie mark was that of a shield with a purple star on it, along with three above it. The stallion was Twilight Sparkle's brother, Shining Armor, captain of the Royal Guard.
"Hey! You with the blue mane!"
Ten of the now forty-something guards had blue hair and looked at him, including Shining Armor.
"Okay, blue mane and white coat."
Three guards looked away.
"Not a lot of diversity. You with the shield cutie mark!"
Four of the seven guards looking at him looked away. Sigma groaned miserably.
"I wish I was better with face. Twilight Sparkle's brother! Come over here!"
Shining Armor walked through the crowd up to Sigma and Lambda with a begrudging face.
"What do you want?"
"Quite the harsh way to talk to the guy who just saved your comrades, isn't it?"
"Why are you here?"
"If you must know, we are here for the Miss Twilight Sparkle. Would you be so kind as to show us to her?"
"From the way you took out all those bandits, I don't think I have much of a choice. Follow me."
They walked through the desolated and crumbling streets to the base of operations. They came upon the castle of the princesses, or what was left of it. It was absolutely demolished. The towers had caved in, the windows were shattered, and entire wings of the castle were gone. Sigma whistled.
"Whoever attacked this place, had quite the grudge."
"It was you two, and your incessant fighting."
"Oh, well, I guess it was."
They came to the steps, where a checkpoint area had been set up. They were cleared, and headed into the castle. In the main hall were the two princesses, Celestia and Luna, but no Twilight Sparkle.
"Shining Armor! Why have you brought these fiends into our sacred castle! I demand you take them out!"
"Well excuse me, PRINCESS, but some of us are trying to save the world. Tell me, where is Twilight?"
Luna grinned slyly.
"She's with Cadence."
Shining Armor began to look around. His face began to darken, as if he'd lost something dear to him.
"Where is Cadence anyways? She told me she'd be waiting here for my return. She always keeps her promises to me, and I was just about to get off my shift too."
Luna frowned at this information.
"Sister, where did you take our friend Cadence?"
Celestia looked afraid. Quickly regaining her composure, she spoke to them all.
"I must go now, I have a place to be, and it's extremely important that I not be late. Many lives depend upon it."
And with that, she took off through the broken roof, and away.
"Something's not right here."
Sigma looked to Lambda with a sarcastic expression.
"You don't say."
"I do say."
Lambda stuck her tongue out at Sigma.
"Hey! Can we stop acting like foals here. It's clear something isn't right, but you clearly know something more than us. Now from what I heard you interrogating that raider, the 'Factory' is still in operation. Now I'm getting the feeling you know something about that wretched place, or imagine something about it, that we don't. What is it?"
"We'll tell you when we confirm it. For now, I think we'll see if any of those who still are here, want to join us."
"Well, just make's it easier to defend this place."
"Yes, it also mean less ponies to govern. We can gather everypony int the area in front of the castle."
About an hour later, all the ponies that were going to show up did. Standing before them all were the Guard Captain, Princess Luna, and the two siblings.
"Citizens of Canterlot! We gather you here this day, for we have an offer for you!"
"We have two representatives from the Ponyville survivor's camp, here to offer you a new home."
The two created a small gap, and behind them came out Sigma and Lambda.
"Who is willing to join us, in the Everfree forest?"
"It's completely safe, and secluded. You'll have to share your space with another pony, however."
The crowd remained silent.
"No takers? Best offer you'll receive in your life times."
"It's your choices, not ours. So be it."
The two began to walk away, when a yell was heard.
"WAIT!"
The looked back, to find a blue-ish mare was rushing through the crowd. When she emerged, they could see who it was. They recognized her as Trixie. They sighed.
"The great and powerful Trixie would like to accompany you back to the Everfree forest. The ponies here do not appreciate Trixie's talents like she thought they would."
"Fine, follow us."
With no other citizens following besides the self-proclaimed "The Great and Powerful" Trixie in tow, the walked towards the Everfree Forest.
"Night encroaches. Sister, set up the barrier."
"Alright, give me a second."
Similar to how they walked through the forest the previous day, the group walked in a radiant field of light, surrounded by a light shield. Trixie stood for a second, partly in awe, partly in displeasure at their powers.
"How did you do that? No pony could do that except a unicorn, Trixie want to know!"
"I like to call it,"
Sigma paused for dramatic effect. Then made a rainbow and in it had the word "Magic" in black.
"Magic."
Trixie sighed, and asked no more questions, understanding that she'd get no answers from these two. They continued through the forest, suddenly a low roar could be heard, mechanical in nature. They looked back from where they'd come from, and over head flew an C-130. They all were surprised and confused by the sudden appearance of it.
"What is that monstrosity? Is it dangerous?"
"How is that possible?! These ponies haven't the technology to build regular biplanes, let alone a fully fledged cargo plane!"
"Sigma, you don't think it could be-?"
"It must be, but how did they find us?"
"Who are you fools talking about?"
Before they could answer, they were teleported out of the forest. They appeared in the cargo bay of the aircraft, and on the seats were Echo and Jules.
"Sigma! Lambda! So glad to see you again."
"Echo! Jules! What are you doing here."
They all hugged, and sat down.
"We're good. Sigma, have you given your sister the news?"
"I forgot. Shall we tell her now?"
"Tell me what? What's going on?"
"Daughter dearest, it seems as though we are running out of time, and are to die soon."
"Okay, can we stop it?"
"No, my niece, for we have forgotten to die to many times, thus this will be our final death. Don't worry, we have the most glorious plan to die honorably."
"Yes, he know of the Rainbow Factory built here, and are heading to the camp you two set up to interrogate Ms. Dash."
Lambda slapped Sigma's arm.
"That kind of hurt. Why would you do such a thing?"
"Because you didn't tell me they were dying!"
"Sorry, but I was busy saving your life."
"You and I both know we're too over powered to die."
"Well, that's not entirely true, and you know it. We'll die eventually, and another set of us from another dimension will take our place in the event of our demise, though I suppose we are really hard to kill."
"Anyways, we'll drop over the camp. Any questions?"
"Yeah, what about Trixie?"
"She'll be fine, we placed a mobile light barrier around her, it'll protect her well enough. If it doesn't, it'll be one less arrogant unicorn in the world."
Echo and Sigma shard a laugh. Lambda and Jules weren't so amused on the other hand, but didn't say anything.