July 0001 of the New Regal Sisters Era (NRSE)
A sky wagon lands near a secret entrance to the Cloudsdale Weather Corporation(CWC)'s weather factory in the cloud city of Cloudsdale. It's a dark night both above and below the clouds as the wagon touches down. Three foals, one colt and two fillies, are ushered out of the wagon as they stare nervously at the secret entrance. Two silent pegasi wearing body armor escort them inside, into an unknown far darker than the skies outside...
Chapter 1: The Crimson Charity
My name is Scootaloo... and I'm a failure. I failed my flight exam, the exam that I'd been training with Rainbow Dash for months in advance. And I'm not the only one. A couple other pegasi, Orion Solstice and Aurora Dawn failed alongside with me. Aurora didn't pass because of her handicap. Orion tried to help her and... now we're all here. Inside the place everypony that doesn't make it winds up in. As we waited in the 'reception area', I remember a stallion in a lab coat coming out to greet us.
“Well, hi there!" he said, cheerily. "Welcome to the Rainbow Factory! My name's Hide Atmosphere, Doctor, Hide Atmosphere, that is.” He paused as if waiting for us to say something. When none of us spoke, he quickly added, “Now, if you three will just follow me, I'll show you to where you'll be processed.”
Processed. We all knew what that meant. Still, none of us could do anything except follow him through the sterile, white halls. We boarded an elevator that took us down to the lower levels. There were several floors in the complex; it took us a while to get to our destination. The elevator music itself was eerily upbeat, jazzy considering what we were getting into.
We'd all heard the rumors. This was the rainbow factory, the place where useless pegasi were harvested for their pigment. Part of me wanted to believe that none of that was true, nothing but rumors and being here was just a bad dream. But what could I do? I failed my flight exam and we were in Cloudsdale. There was nowhere for any of us to run; if we even tried, we might fall right off the clouds. That still might've been preferable to getting the color siphoned out of our bodies but still... we were too scared to do anything but follow. And hope we were wrong.
We got off the elevator and that's where the factory changed. Unlike the level we were just on, this area was strictly for production and it showed. There were vats of rainbows everywhere, along with vats of some unidentified liquid. I tried not to look but I couldn't help it. The machines, the conveyor belts, all of it was far more gruesome than any of us could've imagined. Large, mechanical siphons were hooked up on the tops of walls, enormous tubes coming out of them. I was almost stunned by what I saw. I remember almost pressing myself against the other wall to avoid getting close to the siphons. The lab coated stallion didn't say anything as he led us through an area through another set of double doors.
We entered another hallway, this one lined with cells. Inside each of the cells were other colts and fillies, failures like us.
"Now, I know this looks a little gruesome," Dr. Atmosphere said, "But trust me; it's for a good cause." He stuck us in a cell at the end of the hall and closed the door. "Think of it as..." he rolled his ankle as he looked for the right words, "donating to charity," his face lit up. "Except in this case, you're donating your bodies, your colors and your lives so that everypony else can enjoy beautiful rainbows. And we all thank you so much for that. Buh-bye!"
I crawled into a corner of our cell and cried. I heard Aurora cry as well, Orion simply hung his hooves on the bars. This was it, the end. How long would it be? Hours, days, I wondered. How long would we spend in this dingy cell waiting for our turn.
A pair of guards entered the hallway. Orion and Aurora both backed away from the cell, so did the others in the other cells. The guards stopped in front of the cell next to ours.
"What are we looking for?"
The other guard held up a clipboard. "Yellow-19, red-99 and deep purple-42."
"Ain't seen a lot of DP lately."
"Eh," the other shrugged and tucked the clipboard under his leg. "We'll just take a couple more blue and red. The system will sort it out."
Together, they selected fillies and colts from the other cells. There was no resistance, no kicking or screaming, no last minute defiance in the face of the inevitable. Only silence as the children followed the would-be executioners to their final sentence.
Time passed but there was no way to determine how long. The guards only came back one other time to deliver another pair of colts, brothers, to the cell opposite ours. Finally, another pony came in, a mare, accompanied by the two guards. I could barely see her from the dim lights in the room but as she approached, I got a good look at her and my heart sank. My breathing became heavy as my own angel of death arrived for me... and it was one I knew.
“That one... The brown colt with the red mane,” Rainbow Dash said. The guards opened our cell door and grabed Orion by the hooves. I screamed and lashed out, trying to free him, but I was stopped by one of the guards. He stabbed me with a taser and I fell on my flank.
"Wait!" Rainbow stopped the guard as he was on top of me, "Scootaloo? Is that you?"
I nodded, coughing as I did so.
"Scootalooo..." she looked so disappointed. "How many hours did we train to make sure that this DIDN'T happen?"
“I'm sorry...” was all I could say. It was the only thing I could think of. “Please forgive me, Rainbow. Just... just get rid of me along with the rest of them."
“What are you talking about?” Rainbow asked, appalled. “No pony is going to kill you. Unless you don't survive the processing.”
What processing...? Wasn't taking us to be ground into rainbows the processing part? I was horribly confused.
“Follow me and I'll show you,” she said as she let go of me and escorted us to a medical area. Past the production floor, we entered another hallway, a corridor of lab rooms. Orion was taken into one of the windowed rooms by two guards and restrained.
“Why is he being strapped to that chair?” I asked in a whisper.
“Just watch...” Rainbow replied.
I looked through the window at Orion. A technician in a white lab coat and goggles Took a syringe of something I'd later find out to be called the Spectra Virus and injected it with him. In about a minute, he started to spasm. His body twitched and his mouth hung open, then his eyes flashed the seven colors of the rainbow. It was all over in moments and then he blinked and looked around. The technician untied him from the chair and he trotted out.
“Looks like you survived the process,” Rainbow Dash said to Orion.
“That was wicked!” he replied. “What was that all about anyway?”
"The Spectra Virus is our attempt to eliminate the possibility of renegade pegasi," Rainbow Dash explained.
I'd never heard the term before. "Renegade pegasi?"
"Pegasi are capable of doing a lot of things, even those that can't fly. Our wings and hooves, are very bodies are capable of altering weather patters on a huge scale just by us being here. If a Pegasus went rogue, even on the ground, it could be catastrophic for the environment. We developed the Spectra Virus to ensure that pegasi that don't pass the test have to obey."
Orion rubbed his foreleg. "So... I have to obey now?"
Rainbow knelt down to him. "It's an easy process. The virus uses a bit of the Element of Loyalty's magic to make sure your heart stays true. But unfortunately, not everypony is compatible with it."
“What happens to ponies that aren't... compatible?” Aurora asked, nervousness in her voice.
"I'll show you," Rainbow said. Scared, we followed her further into the lab. Eventually we reached some sort of generator room, similar to the production area we were in before but a massive machine occupied the center. Catwalks stretched high above us crossing the ceiling. Fillies and colts were being lead to the top of the central machine on a pulley system suspending them.
"This is what happens to ponies that are incompatible," Rainbow pointed to the machine. A pair of pegasi in biohazard suits controlled the pulley system from a terminal on the catwalk near the machine. One of the fillies, a purple one I remembered from the cells, I noticed was... different. Changed. Pieces of her mane and coat were missing, her body was ravaged. Her eyes were glossed over like she was a corpse. As she hung, she lurched out in different directions like a hungry beast. It was horrifying to watch.
The pulleys carried the filly over to the large machine in the center of the room. Suddenly, the shackles connecting her to the cables released her and she fell into the machine. A loud, grinding noise echoed through the chamber. And just like that, the pulleys continued.
“That's what happens...?”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “It used to be more monstrous when I started here... We used to just take the flunk outs and grind them into rainbows. It wasn't until Dr. Atmosphere came up with a way to spare the lives of all the foals who come into this factory. However, as you noticed, some foals don't survive processing. Instead, they undergo rapid tissue degeneration and become... zombies. It is the only we can continue to make rainbows and to end the suffering of those who turned."
That made sense. I wouldn't want to be a zombie and go through what they had through. And it was a lot better than just being discarded after your color was siphoned. A lot of this still wasn't comfortable... but at least now there was a chance that I would live.
"Yet the zombies aren't ALL foals. Some are stallions and mares, fully grown, too. The Spectra Virus isn't perfect," Rainbow said, almost mournfully. "Eventually, all those injected turn. Either you turn right away or many years later. But all eventually turn.”
I could see Orion's nervousness. He survived processing and had just learned that he would eventually become one of those zombie freaks, too. Rainbow noticed it too and comforted him.
“Don't be afraid, little guy," she patted his shoulders with a wing. "You've got plenty of time before it happens to you. It'll even happen to me, eventually. We might as well make the best of our time."
It wasn't much but Orion took solace in the fact that he would likely live years before he had to go through the “recycling process”. Aurora's spirits perked up a bit, too. It was better than the alternative and a pleasant end to some pretty harsh rumors.
Rainbow went to lead us back to the labs for Aurora and I's processing. When something happened. Suddenly, the lights flickered and went out. The sound of something metal clanging rang out through the building. Then the lights came on again, only this time they were red and were accompanied by a siren.
"Warning! Containment breach detected! Warning! Containment breach detected!" An automated voice said over the intercom followed by another voice. "All personnel, we have a containment breach in progress! Seal off all exits, lockdown all levels! Hazmat teams, report to emergency stations; this is not a drill! Repeat, this is not a drill! "
"What's g-going on?" Aurora asked shakily.
"Biohazard breach," Rainbow asked. For the first time today, she sounded nervous. Just like that, the fear was back. "We have to get you to a safe location."
Immediately, she led us into another one of the lab rooms and sealed the door. Guards, technicians and other pegasi scrambled past the hallways in full uniform. Something had happened, something had gone horribly wrong. We were now in more danger than ever.
A terminal on the wall lit up and Dr. Atmosphere's face appeared on it.
"Rainbow Dash! What are you doing in central processing? Where's Quarterly and Veil?"
"I don't know," Rainbow replied, stepping towards the terminal. "What's going on? There's a breach in progress?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out," Dr. A answered. "Security cameras are dead in half the facility; I can't see what's going on levels three, four, five or six."
Outside the window, I noticed a logo on the wall that read 'Level 4: Central Processing'.
"What do you think caused this? Somepony mess up? Or-"
"This doesn't seem to be an accident, no," he answered her midsentence. "It had to have been sabotage but that doesn't matter now. I'm sending hazmat and containment teams to deal with the breach but I can't tell if the lockdowns on those levels are working. I need you to make sure those entrances are sealed, Rainbow, and fast."
Rainbow nodded resolutely. "Understood."
I didn't know what we were getting into, what was going to happen to us. This time, we didn't even have rumors to go by. I think that's what made it all the scarier. Trapped deep inside this strange facility, I found out that facing death wasn't the hardest part. It was facing whatever the unknown was in here waiting for us. I learned quickly I wouldn't have to wait long.
"This had to have been an inside job," Dr. Atmosphere continued. "The damage is too far-spread, even now we're getting reports of- KRZZT!" The terminal cut off to static. The lights went out again leaving us in darkness.
"Remain calm, guys," Rainbow Dash said. My heart hit my throat. It was too dark to see anything but I felt it as Orion and Aurora huddled over to me, crouching in fear and forming a circle. I don't know if it was them shaking or me but there wasn't anything else we could do in the darkness.
"Wh-where are the lights?!" Aurora asked, her voice shrill.
"Shh," Rainbow Dash hushed her. What were we trying to listen for? What was the point of this? My body was torn in half on what to do; part of me wanted to run, the other wanted to hide. And that's when we heard it.
Hoofsteps. Not the normal clip-clop of a pony like we normally heard but shambling, two-step one, one-step two, from the hallway. I could hear my heartbeat as the steps came closer.
"Wha-what's out there?!"
"SHH!" Rainbow shushed Orion. "Just, everypony, be quiet."
I walked over to Rainbow with Aurora and Orion following me. I pressed my body against the door, as if between her and a wall I'd find protection. The shuffling hoof steps, we heard them get closer. Their erratic pattern echoed off the walls. As they got closer, we began to hear a noise, like a groaning. It sounded like it was a creature that just woke up after a long sleep, an "urrr" and "arrrruuhhrr" that droned up and down.
"What are we going to do?" I whispered to Rainbow.
She took a deep breath. "We're going to wait for a containment team to get down here. Until then, we're not going to make any noise, okay?"
"Okay."
What else could we do? We waited, separated from the dangerous and the unknown by a thin wall. The only sounds that broke the silence were our own breathing, the beating of our hearts and the grunts of the strange presence outside the room. What was it? It sounded like a pony but... wrong. Like nothing you'd ever want to see or meet, a distinct disturbance of fear made real.
"What are we gonna do? We're trapped in here, the lights are out-"
Rainbow grabbed Orion by the head. "Be. Quiet."
It was then Aurora said, "I found a light switch."
"No!" Rainbow whispered harshly. But it was too late. The lights in the room, emergency lights flicked on, illuminating the lab in a dull, red light. It was also bright enough to light a bit of the hallway beyond through the window that separated the lab.
"Stop! Turn it off!" Rainbow scrambled to get over to the switch and deactivate the lights. Not that it would help now.
Before the lights went back out, in the split second the hallway was partially illuminated, I caught a glimpse of the danger. Normally, identifying the danger made understanding it easier, alleviated fear. When you became aware of something, you could isolate it, find out about it and how to solve it. But then, there are some fears that you don't want to see, don't want to look at. Those are the things that look right back at you.
You're never really prepared to see your first zombie. Movies, video games, costumes, none of them prepare you for the real thing. It's not the fact that they're shocking or just outright disgusting; some of them are, most aren't. It's the ones that still have a trace of what they once were, something to remind others of what they were like before, that are dangerous. For in those few seconds when your mind is still trying to comprehend whatever it is you're looking at, the part of your conscious mind that wants to reach out, wants to communicate with this creature that should still somehow have a scrap of rationality that just isn't there...
Those are the seconds they reach out and bite you. I was lucky there was a glass window in the way.
I'm pretty sure it was a stallion, it wore a lab coat covered in darkened blood. A large chunk had been taking out of his neck and shoulder, some kind of a huge wound. Its coat was a pale brown that looked to be slowly turning gray, clumps of hair missing here and there. Its mouth hung open, blood smeared on its face whatever indescribable horror it had been through... or it had committed. The scariest thing that I saw though was the fact that I knew it had seen me. Because in a split second, it turned to face me through the glass. It looked at me through its one remaining eye and I knew it had seen me. The last "urrr" sounded eager.
The lights flicked off again.
"What was that?! What was that?!" I didn't know if it was my voice asking or somepony else's, all I knew was I didn't want the answer I knew it was going to be.
"Zombies," Rainbow said. Just like that, the creature let out a loud, droning groan, almost like a roar. It echoed off the walls and resonating throughout the facility. Seconds later, another groan, sounding like a group of them, came back.
Aurora shook. "Z-zombies? Like fr-from before?"
Something began pounding on the glass and the door. It was soon joined by others beating on our only means of escape. The sounds of dozens of hooves bashing against the walls, threatening to break in surrounded us.
"We need to get out of here. Now." Rainbow Dash no longer bothered to whisper. I looked around, trying to see a way out through the darkness but there was nothing. I heard a loud crash; the groaning grew louder.
"Urrr-urrrrraaa!!"
"R-rainbow?" my own voice squeaked. The zombies were in the room now, I knew it. They'd broken through the windows and we were all about to be eaten. I flapped my wings, trying to fly. Grasping the nearest wall, I tried to climb, panicking. "Somepony, anypony!"
Something grabbed me from the back. "AAAAAHHHHH!!!"
"Come on, get up!" Rainbow yelled at me. Suddenly, she lifted me up off the floor and into one of the air ducts. I was saved again. Just as soon as I was pulled into the vent, I heard the door to the room break and the zombies enter. Rainbow quickly replaced the duct cover just as the zombies began scraping the walls. "Keep moving. Stay close."
The four of us crawled through the vents on our bellies, the sound of the monsters echoing from below. “Where are we going?” Aurora asked.
“We have to get out of here. The facility's not safe," Rainbow said, leading us. Not safe? Understatement of the century.
"What about what that guy said? The one on the terminal thingy?" Orion asked.
"We're not prepared to handle this kind of outbreak, not without power. We'll need to find weapons, hazmat equipment, anything we can to defend ourselves with and then get word to the princess," Rainbow instructed. It was a solid plan but it required solidity to pay off. I couldn't even think about the next minute; just kept crawling, putting one hoof after the other.
In the cold and the darkness we crawled. Occasionally we saw light coming from the crakes in the framework or through grates on the floor. The sound of the zombies was everywhere. Passing one of the grates, I spared a glance to the floor below and immediately regretted it. There were dozens of them in the hallway below, wall-to-wall.
"Come on, you have to keep up," Rainbow pulled me forward. We traveled the vents until eventually I saw light in front of us. Rainbow punched through another grate and jumped out.
Nervously, I poked my head through. It was a larger storeroom of some kind illuminated by two cylindrical containers in the back. There weren't any windows and the door was metallic. There didn't seem to be any zombies either so I followed Rainbow and jumped down.
"Where are we?" Aurora asked.
"Storage area for the security guard barracks. There should be another bank of elevators nearby," Rainbow informed us. "But first, we need to check on the status of the factory."
"Status? Shit's bucked up, that's the status!" Orion proclaimed.
Rainbow didn't regard him; she went to a large locker on the side wall.
"What's in there? Weapons?" Orion asked, eagerness in his eyes.
Rainbow sighed and turned to him. "Security keeps spare supplies in here. I should be able to find some batteries, get a terminal powered up."
"Oh."
She pulled out a large, crystal-shaped device of some sort and then flew over to the terminal by the door. Rainbow opened a hatch underneath it and connected two wires to the crystal. Within a moment, it powered up and the screen came on.
Rainbow quickly typed in commands on the terminal's keyboard. "The network's still up but I'm not getting a signal from outside the city. Whoever attacked the factory wanted to make sure Cloudsdale was isolated, clever."
"What does that mean?" Aurora asked. "Who attacked Cloudsdale?"
"That I don't know yet. Could've been an inside job, disgruntled employee, pony that couldn't take it any more but this looks organized. Look here," she pointed a map on the screen. "With the power out, the lockdown's failed. The upper floors aren't sealed and the bulkheads aren't down."
I swallowed hard. "You mean... the top floors aren't safe?"
"Without the door locks and security measures, the zombies will be able to reach any floor in the facility. And with most of the staff panicking, they're going to try to get out from the main entrance on the first floor. Which means..."
"The zombies will follow them," Orion said.
"All the way up," Rainbow nodded gravely.
"So... we're trapped down here?" I asked, wanting to curl up into a ball again.
"Not exactly," Rainbow answered, turning back to the terminal. She keyed in another command and the screen zoomed into a lower portion on the map. "There's an emergency exit on the bottom floor. If we reach it, we can get out from there."
"But... the zombies," I started to say.
"Are there any air vents on the way there?" Orion asked, hopeful.
Rainbow put a hoof on the colt's shoulder. "No. But there is an armory."
Orion smiled.
