Let me Kolor your world...[open]

[Deleted]

There were so many colors here. Sure, many were basically green, but even the houses and shops here had quite the color choice of pinks, blues, yellows, and oranges. Not as bright as the usual choices Kolor Scene liked to use her.. erm.. pieces, but they were definitely more attractive than the bland grays and whites of the buildings in Fillydelphia and the old fashioned castle-like places like Canterlot. This was her first time ever walking in Ponyville. She winced internally at the name. Couldn't it's founder find a better name? Something more creative? But she supposed that it fit the whole "namby-pamby" style of things. She figured she might as well try things out for a while here since the two past places haven't exactly.. worked out. Canterlot was alright, except most of the ponies that lived there were stuck up or extremely materialistic. Fillydelphia was nothing but busy roads and nut jobs, not to mention there were far rougher crowds. She'd like to live somewhere that she wouldn't have to worry about barring her windows or getting jumped.

So far, she hadn't heard about too much harm coming to this place. It was quiet except for the occasional passerby. Everyone passing her seemed wary of her.. She ignored them. That's nothing new. She was used to it. Not too many were used to an appearance quite like hers. Her bright blue pelt had striking black stripes (a "gift" from her useless father's side), and a messy choppy hairdo of a mane and tail that had black and fuchsia to clash with the blue. On her flank there was a picture of a silver device that was unknown to many to be an airbrush. But at the moment, it was covered by part of the cart she was pulling. The cart was about the size of two of herself, and a matching blue. It's fiberglass material was different from the usual wooden wagon that many used, as well as its box-like structure. On the sides of it were extravagant flames with ponies, unicorns, and pegasi all painted on with much more fierce expressions than one would find normally in Equestria. On the other side is the culprit of the fake flames. A navy blue and lime green dragon with glowing white eyes, flames pouring out of his mouth and nostrils. A swarm of changlings in their natural forms buzzed around his head. These designs were normally feared by ponies and considered gruesome, where-as Kolor saw them as inspirational and powerful. The contents of this cart remained invisible, but the impression of the cart was enough to capture wandering eyes.

When the uncontrolled stares and hushed whispers and mumbles were getting too much, Kolor had to stop. This was getting annoying. She shrugged out of the cart's harness and walked to the back of the vehicle and opened a pony-sized door and stepped inside. When she emerged, she had on oversized headphones meant to block out all exterior sound, connected to what looked like an MP3 player strapped to her foreleg. She began blasting her metal to where it was slightly audible to those around her, letting them know she didn't want to be disturbed, like they would anyway. She hitched herself back up to the cart and pulled away, trying to find someplace to stay, even if it were a beat up barn.. or something. Just as long as she didn't have any annoying neighbors peaking in through her windows.

After walking around for a half hour or so, she decided to take a break over by a very green looking forest. She saw a small cottage down by the stream, but she was fairly certain that nopony would bother her over here. She shrugged out of her harness again, fidgeting as it got caught onto her light blue hoodie that she always wore, and walked around to put the parking brake on so that the cart didn't roll away. The brake was merely a metal rod attached to a chain that she stomped into the ground. Music still blasting, she went around to the back and disappeared into that door once more, this time emerging with a basket of spray paint cans. It had been a while since she actually practiced, and she hadn't really ever painted in a town that wasn't a city or something. A few meters away there was a pretty stone bridge, just like out of a fairy-tale book she supposed. She smirked and trotted over to it, lowering the basket onto the ground with her exceptionally long horn. She selected a particularly bright orange and magically lifted it high above her head facing the bridge. It hovered there for a minute while she concentrated, and the trigger began to push down...

[/size][/center]

[tunnelnexus]

Nexus trotted lazily down the path outside of Ponyville. She couldn't stand being in Canterlot anymore, she needed to get out and do something. At the same time, though, Tunnel felt fairly unadventurous; there was a deep-seated laziness that she felt welling up in her. Knowing her, that was something truly odd.

So, she found herself wandering about Ponyville. It was a nice town. A quiet town. Usually. It felt right, sort of. The peaceful atmosphere seemed to satisfy that feeling of lethargy.

Celestia, this is boring.

She crested a decently-sized hill and did a double-take; a short distance away was a unicorn, probably a half-zebra, about to spraypaint graffiti on a bridge. Nexus acted without thinking.

"Hey, hold up just a moment!" she shouted as she accelerated towards the blue-and-black-striped pony.

[Deleted]

The spray can lifted higher into the air and sprayed a streak of orange in a wide curvy line across the stone wall of the bridge. It came to a rest near the bottom of the wall, finishing with a flourish. Kolor straightened up some of the edges with a closer stream, and turned around to put the can with the others. She was not expecting anypony to be standing there.

"Um..Can I help you?" she asked, a bit annoyed. She wasn't too fond of audiences. She removed her large headphones from her ears and let them fall to rest on her shoulders. Her magenta eyes studied the mare that had approached her. The new arrival was a dark grey with a shocking neon green mane and tail, with eyes to match, definitely a stand-out from the typical baby blue and pink ponies around these parts. She couldn't quite make out the mark on her flank, but she didn't study too closely. More-so, Kolor didn't quite care to know what it was. She was more wondering why she was interrupted from creating yet another fine masterpiece. While she waited for an answer, she rummaged through her basket for the can of red paint. She found it next to the blue and lifted it into the air with her magic, twirling it around in front of her eyes with a bored expression on her face.

"Here it comes." She thought to herself, "Some goody-two-hooves has come to ruin my day. This'll be interesting." She rolled her eyes and looked back to her almost blank canvas, wondering how she could cram all of her ideas onto it to make it fit.

[/size][/blockquote][/center]

[tunnelnexus]

Nexus continued to canter towards the spray-painting mare until she was finally in decent conversation range (although, she made sure to leave a healthy distance between them, since she was without sunglasses). She finally took a good look at the mare she was speaking with, a blue-coated half-zebra unicorn. The headphones around her shoulders played loudly whatever type of music the mare listened to. She seemed like a pretty chill pony, all in all.

"Yes, I believe you can help me," said Tunnel. She lifted a hoof to adjust her sunglasses, but stopped midway as she remembered she still hadn't found a replacement pair for the ones lost in the bog. The gray mare smiled a little nervously. "Would you mind if I joined you? It's kinda boring around here."

[Deleted]

Kolor studied the pony coming closer warily, slightly surprised anyone had approached her at all, but didn't show any of her puzzlement on her face. Usually every other pony avoided her, and they had been for a while, until this one of dark and neon came into her life.
"Yes, I believe you can help me." the other pony had said. Kolor turned back to her work and lifted the red can high into the air to paint a stream next to the orange one, but her right ear was cocked toward the other pony to let her know that she was listening and not ignoring her.
"Would you mind if I joined you? It's kinda boring around here." Kolor stopped mid-spray to study the mare again. This wasn't what she was expecting. She thought she would hear some smart remark of what she was doing was wrong and how she could be doing more productive work somewheres else, yadda yadda, nothing she had heard before. This time, she couldn't hide her slight confusion showing in her pink eyes.

"Um... yeah. Knock yourself out, I guess." she said magically pushing the basket of paints toward the other. The music coming out of her headphones changed the song and the beat picked up. The guitar screeched in a melody that the blue mare began humming to quietly. The drums picked up in a beat that was faster than anypony could mimic with their hooves alone, and the base hit hard, vibrating the headphones on her shoulders. The singer then picked up his verse of loud yells and screams that swarmed in with the guitar so well that many would assume that the voice was an instrument as well. Only well trained ears would actually be able to pick out the words, although, not many would be too fond of what was being said.

She finished with the red paint and went to switch for the yellow, creating another streak on the opposite side of the orange stripe. She tidied up the line once again.
"So uh... you live around here? Or what?'

She knew that this wasn't exactly polite, but she wasn't the best with introductions either. Plus, usually the only other ponies to talk to her were the other colts at the school, and, let's face it, they didn't give a hoof about manners.
"Is there anything at all to do around here besides painting bridges?[/color] She asked, this time looking at the mare beside her.[/color][/size][/blockquote][/center]

[tunnelnexus]

Tunnel smiled as the basket of spray paints slid towards her. She levitated a particularly bright shade of green out of it and examined it a bit. Satisfied that she could operate the can, the gray mare depressed the switch and a stream of green erupted out of the nozzle. A rough splatter of color appeared on the bridge.

"Hm. What to make...?" she mused quietly.

She was lifted out of her thoughts by the other mare's voice.

"Psh, me? Live around here? I'd rather tear my mane out. Not that I've got anything against Ponyville, it's just... really quiet. I actually live in Canterlot, but I travel all the time, so I've seen a good deal of Equestria." Nexus paused in her speech as she began spraying again with the green paint, the outline of something vaguely resembling a mane beginning to take shape where she drew. "Around here, I haven't really seen much to do. Although, I have to say, there are some wicked caves if you don't mind a little bit of a walk. I've been to a few, but there's one in the Everfree I've really been hoping to explore."

Nexus spared a glance at the other's headphones, picking up on the music here and there. She smiled a bit when she heard the lyrics start up.

"That's not my particular cup of tea when it comes to music," she said, "but when it really comes down to it, I'll rave to just about anything if it's loud enough."

[Deleted]

Kolor lifted out the dark blue paint can out of the basket and made an even streak next to the yellow on the bricks, but left a space in between since the color meaning to be there was in the possession of the green and grey mare beside her. Her eyes flickered over to the green design the other was painting, but then back to what she was designing on the wall. She didn't like seeing art before it was finished. It let her mind wander too far. She finished her line, and rounded the bottom of it off to a large blob. She proceeded to do this to the rest of the colors already up on the wall when the other mare decided to answer her about how she would rather rip out her mane than live there. Kolor raised an invisible eyebrow. Quiet towns were the easiest to stir up some mayhem. It was the cities and towns that there was so much going on already that nothing anypony did ever made a difference.

"I used to go to school there. Absolutely hated it." she paused, realizing that it probably came off as very offensive. "No offense."

she threw in, probably a bit too late. She tossed the paint can into the basket, waiting for the green. She left out the part of how she had pretty much grown up in that place of tall white buildings and castle-like architecture. She hated that entire city in general, mainly because of that wretched school. Her ears perked up at the idea of caves to explore. Being in the city, she was never able to explore anything.

"The Everfree Forest, huh?" she mused to herself somewhat softly. She learned about it in the geography books in school, never really paying too much attention to it before besides the fact that nopony rarely goes there.

"That might be kind of rad." She smirked and ignored the comment about the music. She went to concerts to mosh. Kick, buck, and slam against the other ponies who were all there for the same reason, letting the angry music fuel their rage. Yeah, there were the ravers and ragers there, but they stayed up front to avoid the mosh. She liked the feeling of attacking nopony in particular and feeling no remorse if she actually hurt anyone. Everypony knew what they were getting into when they went to those shows. Plus, when she was the one getting hit, it was an odd surge of adrenaline. The rush she felt to retaliate was intensified by the loud bass of the speakers and the harsh screams of the vocalist.

"So... you got a name?" she asked, pulling the mp3 player out of her pocket to change the track once more since it switched to a song that was a tad bit overplayed.[/color][/size][/blockquote][/center]

[Red Charge]

"Everfree Forest?" A voice asked, as a pony burst seemingly out of nowhere into their conversationTunnel would instantly recognize the pony as Ranger, whom she's met on occasion. "You can't be serious about going in there are you? Especially you Tunnel, after being attacked by Iron Shoes?" The caped and masked pony asked lividly. Of course the memory of the terrifying ash black pony with the glowing cobalt eyes, mane and markings was not something one would easily forget, much less so after nearly crushing said pony with a rather large chunk of the forest floor.

Ranger was just passing by the area, he was not at all intending to eavesdrop on the two fillies, but when he heard the magical name Everfree, he had to step in. After all, not even his traps could hold the monsters there any more. He couldn't even imagine what it was like on the Hoofington side. He adjusted his wooden mask slightly beneath his hood.

"Seriously, you're not planning on going back in there alone, are you?" He asked worriedly. Tunnel noticed his cloak was different than last she saw him. It didn't seem to be made out of fabric at all, but rather out of dyed spider silk. The spiderweb pattern on it was pretty much a dead give away to what it was, a reward given to the members of the squad who went into Hoofington's side of the forest to stop a spider monster from terrorizing the villagers.

[tunnelnexus]

"You went to school in Canterlot, eh?" Nexus said, tossing the green paint back into the basket. "It's certainly not for everypony, Canterlot. I like it because it's busy, and it's pretty central geographically."

Nexus lifted up the yellow paint, and began spraying the area just below the green, finally filling out the shape of the mane, which looked suspiciously similar to her own.

"Yeah, that one in the Everfree is supposed to be really sweet," she said. After a moment, the thought occured to her that this pony might actually have taken that as a suggestion, rather than simple small talk. "Wait, hold on a second, I wasn't suggesting-"

A masked and cloaked pony suddenly burst into their conversation with the words "Everfree Forest". Tunnel yelped and jerked the spray can in a defensive maneuver, sending a stream of yellow the masked pony's way.

Finally recognizing him as Ranger, having met him on occasion before, she lowered the can of paint.

"Oh, hey there, Ranger," Tunnel said, a little embarassed at her reaction. "Long time no see."

Ranger spoke a little bit, asked her if she was serious. She would have replied, but then he mentioned the Iron Shoes. Nexus cringed when he said it; the memories were still fresh in her mind. Was she the kind of pony that he would believe would be so foalish? Did he really think that she couldn't learn from the past?

"No, Ranger, I was not planning on going into the Everfree Forest." As she spoke, her voice quivered a bit, and she had to blink a few times to hold back a little moisture in her eyes. "I mentioned it because I thought it was relevant, and I was trying to make small talk. Besides, I don't even have any gear with me; I may be dumb at times, but I'm not stupid!"

The gray mare turned back to her striped partner-in-crime, so to speak. "Name's Tunnel." She trotted off a little ways and sat down, making sure to face away from Ranger. What she wouldn't give for some sunglasses right now.

[Deleted]

Once the grey and green mare tossed the green paint can back to the basket, Kolor caught it with her own magic before it could rejoin the others and brought it up to the wall to create a streak between the yellow and the blue, rounding off the bottom. It was fairly obvious that she had made a rainbow, but the bottom looked like it was melting. She replaced the green spray can with a black one and outlined the piece, making the whole picture pop off the wall. At the bottom though, instead of using the black to outline the bump-like designs, she had a face of a pony in each color, looking like they were drowning in the color, trying to break free of the hue of a prison. She stood back and smiled at her creation. It was bright and expressive, just like what she liked to do with a lot of her pictures. She released the can, just letting it fall to the ground as she envisioned what she was going to paint next. She turned off her mp3, but left the headphones on her shoulders. Suddenly, a new masculine voice broke up her thoughts. She wasn't expecting what she saw next.

A pony appearing, wearing a long wooden mask, completely obscuring his face. A cloak draped his body, but it was almost ghost-like. Dark, but completely see-through, almost like a spiderweb, but too dark to be so. She didn't focus too much on it, more-so wondering what this creeper was doing here. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion but didn't speak just yet.
"You can't be serious about going in there are you? Especially you Tunnel, after being attacked by Iron Shoes?" Who in the hay was this dude? Kolor flickered her ears back in mistrust. She didn't like not seeing the face of a voice. Her fuchsia eyes flickered over to the grey mare he had addressed as "Tunnel". Well, that answered her question, if not in the way that she expected. She looked back to the unnamed masked figure. Who the heck did he think he was? Kolor could handle herself in some stupid cave in the woods. Heck, she was able to keep herself alive in the slums of Fillydelphia, and that's quite an accomplishment for anypony.

Kolor then flicked an ear toward Tunnel as she addressed the stranger as Ranger. So, they knew each other. Kolor should have figured that this was one of those small busy-body towns where everypony knew everypony. Still, she didn't know how to act toward the newcomer. Most ponies that hid their faces were members of a gang or robbed, although, this was the first mask she had seen made of wood. She remained silent since the two have seemed to be involved in a conversation of their own.

"No, Ranger, I was not planning on going into the Everfree Forest." Tunnel had said. This time, Kolor looked to her. Didn't she just say she had been hoping to explore that one cave? Maybe this Ranger was some kind of overprotective big brother of hers or something. He was too covered to tell, but it was possible there was a weird family resemblance or something. Then the grey mare decided to turn her attention back to the zebra-crossed unicorn, including her once again. "Name's Tunnel."

"Yeah, I caught that." Kolor said, now warily looking at the weirdo in the mask. She rolled her eyes as she returned to her art, selecting a can of white paint and began using it to highlight the bumps of the screaming ponies struggling in the lower paint splatters, making them look like they were actually coming out of the wall.

"You know.."

she started, ignoring the stallion, "I do have some ropes and stuff in my cart. I can't imagine you really need that much for a forest."[/color] She smiled at the thought of going there, especially since the other two now showed some fear at the very name.[/color][/size][/blockquote][/center]

[Red Charge]

"You can't go into Everfree from Ponyville. I planted a mine field all over the perimeter." Ranger said strictly to the two. "The monsters are getting to big, and too bold." He warned. Of course, none of the mines was explosive. They were all of the incapacitating kind, and the flashbang kind. Ranger would never risk having an innocent pony hurt by his traps. However if any monster dared tread on Ponyville soil, he had his gear prepared. Despite the only militia pony he had was Shroudy, he still was ready for an all out monster attack.

"I'm Ranger by the way," He said to the newcomer brightly, "I'm the local, well, ranger. Make sure the Everfree monsters don't get too close for comfort."

[tunnelnexus]

Tunnel sat in the grass, not too far from the other two ponies. She listened absently to their conversation, and to her annoyance Ranger didn't even bother to mention her! Not even paying an iota of attention to her, after he'd questioned her intelligence so rudely like that!

Well, I'll remember that, thought Nexus. Somepony is getting the cold shoulder for a loooong time.

She heard Kolor pose a question about gear. She laughed, a bit of bitterness creeping into it.

"Filly, I thought the same way not too long ago. I went in there to explore the cave I mentioned. Not fifteen minutes in and you know who I met? The bucking Iron Shoes. You know, giant earth pony, shakes the ground when he walks, all that good stuff? I almost got my flank killed. I might consider going in there, if I had with me a whole team of explorers and/or warriors, as well as enough gear to outfit that little army.

Besides, even if you got through the forest, once you're in the cave you're gonna need a lot more than rope. Depending on the cave, of course. Still, it's not a mapped cave, which at least triples the dangers that you could potentially encounter. Giant chasms, monsters, cave-ins, who knows?

No, going in there right now would be suicide."

[Deleted]

The half-zebra mare was starting to get a little bit ticked off by the way the others were talking to her. The one who introduced herself as Tunnel was now sulking a few feet away on the grass, butt on the ground. The masked Ranger just introduced his name and how his job is to keep anything from coming out of the forest, and in turn, preventing anypony from going into it.
"Kolor Scene." she responded once he said his name that she had already heard from Tunnel. Then the grey pony spoke up. Saying that she already went to explore the cave.
Liar! she thought. "There's one in the Everfree I've really been hoping to explore." were her exact words earlier. Now, she's wondering who is actually telling the truth here. She gritted her teeth and went to study her picture on the wall, vaguely wondering what to add to it. Her annoyance at the whole situation was blocking her artistic will, but she didn't let it show. She had a bored look on her face, leaving it unreadable.

"So, you had managed to surround an entire forest, completely on your own, Ranger?"

she asked, a simple, innocently curious question. She decided not to address the pony sitting away from them. She'll probably just receive some bitter mark in return since she seems to be in bad spirits. She gathered her paint cans and put them all in the basket, lifting it up and sent it souring back to the cart, setting it inside with her blue-colored magic. She walked lazily to the back doors and closed them after ensuring everything was secured completely inside. She slid the lock bolt shut and closed the pad-lock. She returned to the stone wall that Ranger was standing by, awaiting his answer.[/color][/size][/center][/blockquote]

[Red Charge]

"Just the parts on the Ponyville border. Whitetail is military jurisdiction and Hoofington have their own militia captain. I did most of it alone, but I had some help, and it took forever." Ranger explained halfheartedly. Regarding what Tunnel said he commented, "Honestly I never saw the Iron Shoes but what ponies tell about him scares the hooves off of me. I should probably be on my way though, but don't let me catch you two going anywhere near Everfree, your life just isn't worth it." The pony said, giving a gracious bow to both Tunnel and Kolor before starting to head off back to his business.