The Art of Magic III: Reality of the Facility

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Epilogue

Chapter 1

The Magic Facility had only recently docked again in the very place where it always had to be standing. It stood tall and filled with pride on the outskirts of the infamous and forgotten unicorn capital city, Tol Ret Nac. A city that was cast in the purest of platinum and the home of the last great unicorn princess, Platinum herself. Secrecy was the thing that always filled the city, but the time to discover the reality had fallen upon each and every last one of them.

Shortly after the building had docked itself back in the floating city, the manager of the place had gone insane. Rarity had actually infused herself with the waste products of the Facility. Something that resulted in her becoming even more insane than she already happened to be. Not to mention leaving her perhaps ten times more powerful.

Yet her actions didn't go unnoticed. A mare who worked in the waste department, saw the actions that happened to Rarity and couldn't even believe the things that her own eyes saw. Nopony had ever been even able to merge themselves with the waste products of magic makery.

Everything seemed impossible and could be questioned at that moment, but the sheer powers the ivory coated mare gained from it, was perhaps even more terrifying than anything else at the moment inside of the whole Facility.

---

She had fled to some of the upper levels. She had knocked on both doors of both Trixie and Twilight themselves. The two under officials appeared to be in the same room and Trixie opened the door with a bit of a tired looking face. “I hope you are having a good reason for disrupting us two. Speak your words if you value your life right now,” she spoke while her eyes looked almost dangerously into the eyes of the other mare. The employee released a deep gulp as she tried to figure out the words she needed to speak and regain herself from the threat made.

Twilight on the other end just still laid upon the bed with a devious smirk clearly visible upon her face and rolled herself a bit around. Only to end up shaking her head in denial or some other emotion. The mare in the suit looked over the shoulders of Trixie for a moment before focusing back upon her. “Well? I’m still waiting and my patience is running thin.”

The threat wasn't exactly the thing that the employee had expected to come. The mare shook her head a little bit. Then she told them the story as she knew how everything happened. A tale that caught the interest of Trixie as well as Twilight's. Though it was the mulberry unicorn who turned herself back to face them both and spoke up her words on the matter. “That’s not even possible. Nopony can be having such control in their body that they could be absorbing the wastes of magic and use it in their own. It’s, it’s just not possible without side effect. What else, did you see?”

“N-Nothing miss, after I discovered, w-what the manager was doing, I, I came straight to you two to warn about her. She’s dangerous and two know it. She’ll be the death, of the whole unicorn race if things continue!” the mare who still wore a full on hazard suit without a helmet, spoke against Twilight. It was mere seconds afterward that she realized the tone she had spoken in and took a step back. “S-Sorry, I, I shouldn't have said that. I apologize.”

Trixie on the other end looked over her with a mixed opinion and allowed a deep sigh to be released through her nostrils. The piercing violet rimmed eyes just stared at her before she gave a shake with her head. “It’s highly unlikely that it can’t be used and if Rarity has discovered a way. Well, let’s just say that doomsday is knocking at our door. You’re dismissed, return back to your station and continue with your job. Twilight and myself shall be discussing the matter further in private before taking action.”

The half suited mare gave the two a small salute and then retreated from the floor. Trixie closed the door behind her and dropped down on the bed. She snuggled up against Twilight and allowed a forehoof to travel over her chest. “You think she really could have done something like that, Twi?” Trixie asked before she rested her head in the neck of the other mare.

“If I only knew. Ever since she had killed her own sister right in front of her eyes and absorbed her powers, Rarity has been different,” Twilight softly returned to her. She closed the eyes for a moment or two. “It’s devastating you know, I still dream about her from time to time, seeing her lying on the ground in five or six pieces. But I wasn't there when it happened, only Rarity was.”

“You know how I think about emotions and family, right? Do Suppose it is my saving grace that none of them are in here. Had to do a lot of work when I wanted to actually cover up every last bit of family records before entering this place. I lied a lot actually, to get in here.” Trixie replied in an honest sounding tone. A tone which she only dared to speak against Twilight and her alone.

“Perhaps it is indeed your saving grace, Trix, but one thing is more than certain, Rarity has gone mad and there isn't much that we can be doing to stop it, other than to stop herself,” Twilight said. She then gave a gentle kiss upon the cheek of Trixie. Deep in her mind she was tinkering on just what could be done in order to get Rarity back on the straight path, if that was even an option.

“And you’re proposing what, kill her?”

“…Still working on that actually.”

---

With the hazard suit wearing mare dismissed from the higher officials, she walked through the many halls and staircases of the Facility in order to go back to her own station. Though along the way she couldn't help but to notice the fact that something seemed a little bit off and odd. The hallways were much darker for her feelings. Almost as if somepony had turned down the lights for whatever reason there might have been behind. It’s a something that freaks her out for life, who knew what dangers could be lurking within the deep of the darkness.

Only the red of magic and blood could be clearly seen and created some form of strange light. Step by step did the unicorn look all around her for figures. Her mind began to play tricks with herself. She was truly terrified for her life and she had all the reasons to be just that. Even if nopony was haunting or hunting her, it still felt that way for her body and mind.

Step by step did she came closer to an intersection. With care she peeked into both sides before the turn right was made. She had to reach the end for the staircase that would bring her back to her own grounds. All while her heart was beating in her throat like mad. Never in her entire life had she been so scared as the moment it was there and then. Anything could have happened and she wasn't prepared for even one possible thing.

Yet after she walked a couple of hooves into the hallway, there was this feeling of something coiling around her body. The eyes went wide and she dared to turn her head around. Only to be pulled right into a place in between a set of pipes, disappearing from the hall without a trace.

Frightened by the fact that it might have been actually Rarity herself who managed to kidnap the mare for talking, the eyes were firmly shut. The mare was terrified for her life and she crawled up against the furthest away wall and gently rose upon her hind legs. It made her smaller in size but set some parts of the suit were skintight. Words and screams wanted to leave her just so badly but all she could be doing was to release muffled ones.

A hoof had placed itself right over her mouth in order to redeem the volume she could be screaming, if not raging. The mare needed to calm down if she even wanted to have a clue of what was really going on around her. That was perhaps something easier said than done. Not to mention that due to her imagination, thousands of ways of ending her life did their turn through her mind. Anything from being dropped in the wastes to a single ticket to the death floor. Anything was possible in her mind and everything could happen.

Though none of those things actually did happen. Though it still caused the tears to fall out of her eyes and over her cheeks. Muffled pleads for her life were being made in the vain and vague hope that some mercy would be shown to her. She could just pray on a good ending as the eyes were still tightly shut against one another. And from the looks that were given could be concluded they wouldn't open that easily or soon.

While she began to cry in that back part of the hallway, the darkness that she could see was her only hope of not seeing the monsters that were used to scare the fillies and colts with as nightmare stories. But one glance upon the monster, might have changed all of that. She holy believed in the fact that it was in fact Rarity who had managed to find her and wanted to kill her.

She couldn't be further from the truth in fact.

While the tears continued to stream from her cheeks, the mare suddenly felt a hoof going up against both of her cheeks and caught the tears up with the soft hairs of the coat. It was something that was everything but expected by her. Nothing in the whole wide world would have been able to prepare her for the levels of care given to her in that moment. It was something that caused her to do something she hadn't done in a long time. And that was to open her eyes just a little bit.

Just that little bit to see who was taking care for her in that moment. She needed to know for sure. The mare needed to know who was holding her in such a position. The mare said a couple of prayers in her head before one of the eyes opened itself with care to about one quarter of the way.

Within the eyes itself she caught the many pipes and the metal wall behind them as the eyeball orientated just where in the facility she could actually have been. With the hoof still pressed against her mouth, talking was actually made pretty much impossible and perhaps even useless of the wrong soul was holding her.

That was the biggest fright she had in the moment, if the wrong soul was there, holding her, death was imminent, but by would the other pony remain so silent then? It was a little something that was hard to notice in the situation as it was though. Yet it was caught up by the mare as her eyeball turned itself up and down and to the right. But never to the left. It never, ever even dared itself to turn to the left. Because that meant seeing the devil herself and in person.

Perhaps it was the thing that she needed to be doing though, just forget her fears and dare to look straight into the eyes of a madmare. But then again, she never had been the toughest of mares around the place. That was why she was planted in charge of the waste control. Death and blood never had been a good thing in her eyes. Though she didn't question the manners in which magic was actually created.

More and more prayers were being made. She had to be certain that her little slice of heaven would have been reserved. Very slowly did the eyeball turn. It turned itself away from the pipes and gently moved itself over to the hoof in the hope of something good. With a set of twitching eyelids, she allowed her eye to fall upon the hoof for the fraction of a second, but then shit it again.

The sheer fears and frights that were racing through her, caused her to hallucinate and make them actually a reality. While the sounds of the pipes and the machinery did the turn in her ears for the first time since she arrived in the darkened hall, it almost sounded like a clock which struck the hour. The hour of her own death.

---

Whether it was true or not, she caught just a shimmer of the hoof that held her against the wall and kept her mouth shut. And in her mind was the color translation made over to white. As white as ivory and only one pony in the place had such a color. The tears began to stream even harder from her eyes as she tried to speak up again in an attempt to reason.

Death had been postponed for long enough if she wanted her dead. So there was still a reason that something else could have been wanted. Not that it mattered much to the mare though. She was still terrified and with her heart continue to beat inside of her throat, literally everything and anything could be made wise to her.

The eyelids quickly placed themselves back over the eye before she released a deep and defeated sigh right in the hoof. In her eyes it was nopony else then Rarity who stood there. So the only thing that she could be down was to pray for a quick death to happen. But most likely it wouldn't even be allowed for her. It would have been that very thought that caused the feeling of defeat to sink in even deeper inside of her body and mind.

Yet among the darkness there is always that little shimmer of light, as the saying goes. Light at the end of the tunnel, some could have been called it. Even in the case of the mare, that was the truth. There was a shushing that couldn't have been done in Rarity’s voice. She heard it through the tears while those were continued to be wiped away from her face. It was something that surprised the unicorn perhaps more than she ever could have expected.

Though the surprises didn't end just with that because of the fact that the pony right in front of her, actually and finally spoke up against her. And the thing that surprised her the most, had to be the simple and single fact that it was a stallion who said the words against her. “Listen, I’m going to take my hoof off of you, but you need to agree on one or two things before I do it. Nod if you understand me,” the male voice spoke to her, quietly. There was only one thing that the mare could be doing in response to it, and that was to give just that simple nod to the pony.

“Very good. Now for my conditions, no screaming and no fighting. I’m not here to harm you, I’m not here to help you either. I’m here for information. You understand?” the voice said to her. It was both a thing that seemed to be a little bit unbelievable, as well as expected. For the entire place always have been a bit of a free for all when it came to surviving.

Yet she still gave the stallion’s voice a nod that she understood the thing that was asked of her. “Very well then.” With those final words was the hoof finally removed from the mouth which was allowed to breath in deeply again. The hoof was then placed upon the ground and the eyes of the mare opened themselves wide. After everything she had been through, she wanted to see just who had managed to sandwich both her and himself into a side corridor of a hallway.

The mare looked over a stallion with a crimson red coloring, almost as red as the blood in the waste while the horn was something unique. For it actually curved up a bit. It was rare to see a unicorn with a curved horn to begin with but seeing one in person, as an employee of the hellhole even, that was something she never expected.

Yet out of everything, there were two more features that caused the mare to tilt her head. The first one being the little interesting fact that he happened to be bald upon his entire skull. The second being those clear blue rimmed eyes. Eyes that spoke, if not screamed, the words that had been on his mind. The mare looked deep into the eyes of the stallion and heard the questions asked in her own mind, but the answers weren't for the faint of heart.

---

In the meantime and high up in her office was Rarity still looking over the many arcane monitors with a set of devious eyes. She spied every single inch for suspicious behavior within the holding cells. She wanted to make certain that they would die with the fright clearly in their eyes. But she also needed to make certain that perhaps any form of resistance was drilled right back into the ground.

The black goo that had covered her four hooves in a flaming pattern and her horn only seemed to be crawling up her legs at a terribly slow rate. It was trying to take control of the body and it resulted in her fighting a constant battle. A battle which Rarity didn't even knew was going on inside of her. The unicorn mare she was too focused upon the tasks that laid ahead of her.

All while the corruption of her body flowed clearly and calmly through her body. She brought a forehoof towards her chin and rubbed it gently before her senses felt something unusual to say the least. The black goo that she had been rubbing against her chin, almost felt like a type of leather she would have used in her ancient dresses. “Now this, this is something interesting indeed,” the unicorn spoke up to herself as she held the hoof in front of her eyes and looked at it from all sides.

“Truly remarkable,” was added to the state before she released a chuckle and left her chair. Her body was being carried over to the massive window that looked over the divided production floor of the magic and she simply gained a massive smirk across her face. Only to disappear in the sheer light, that was being created by the magic that was being poured into the chimney before shot away into the skies.

---

“I know you have the reasons to mistrust me, or not trust me at all, but I need to know lass, I need to know what has happened to the manager,” the crimson red coated, bold stallion asked to the mare whose very suit stood more skintight on certain places. With the both of them standing upon their hind legs, it would have only been a matter of time before they would be discovered by anything.

“Look, I don’t even know your name or where you’re from. I’m not even sure if I myself know what’s going on,” the mare replied to him in a desperate tone. She looked through the openings in the hope nopony was coming through the hallway.

“Name’s Corron, lass, work down in the moving department. But you, you work in the waste section, the last place she had been seen before she went inside,” replied Corron to her. He desperately tried to get the answers that he needed from her. “I don’t want to hurt you, but if I have to in order to get the answers out of you, I will.” And it was that those final words, that the mare turned herself back around to face him eye to eye. Being hurt by a stallion of his size was about the last thing that she would have personally wanted.

“She has changed obviously, black spots all over her body and it happened after she entered the department. So you tell me right here, and preferably right now, just what on earth had been going on in there!” Corron whispered in a shout to her. “Because I don’t know if you have seen it, but the way she was moving through the moving department, was everything but friendly. From the looks of it, she could have incinerated all of us down there in the blink of an eye. And if there’s one thing I don’t wanna do now, missy, it’s to die.”

The eyes of the mare only became bigger and bigger the more she listened to the story of Corron. It made her feel like it was her fault for some reason. It all felt like her fault in a degree or two. She was the only pony who perhaps could have stopped Rarity from gaining the powers, if she wasn't thrown out of the room as a whole.

“A-Alright, I’ll tell you, but you have to promise me that you won’t hurt me at all,” the mare said to him before she gave him a dead serious look. “I don’t want to hurt you either.”

Corron just smirked a bit before he gave her a nod. Even though it seemed like he wouldn't end with words of his own, he still did it. “Heh, means we finally have made some common ground. But tell it quickly, then we both can get out of here.” His eyes looked to the pipes and she knew almost immediately just what he meant with it.

The mouth of the mare opened itself in order to tell the tale as she knew it, every last event up into the moment he took her was being told to the stallion almost without a doubt in her voice. Every last memory was being accessed with the greatest of interest and care. All of the facts baffled the stallion more and more while he kept on listening to her.

---

“For crying aloud, you can’t be serious here right? We have a waste monster walking around and the two of them are just talking like it has been nothing?!” Corron spat out. He rubbed his face with a foreleg. Out of everything that he could have expected and thought about, that was about one of the last things that could have come to his mind. Pretty much a direct slap in the face for every single pony who had been working in the departments to keep everything safe. If they tried, that was.

“It’s honestly what happened. And now, I just fear for my life and can’t help to think she’s everywhere now,” the suited mare said to him. When she was done, she lowered her head a little bit and sighed deep. The weight that was on her shoulders, the visions before her eyes, were too much.

“She’s everywhere actually. She could be standing in the opening here and we wouldn't even knew she was. Dangerous times are ahead of us now, lass, dangerous times,” Corron said before he looked over to the opening that was just wide enough for them to walk through on their four legs.

The mare herself rose her head back up to him as if she was having a question she wanted to ask. Two perhaps. “But tell me, Corron, why do you go through all of this trouble, just to get to me or the information? I mean, it’s spooky. And what do you think is the best thing that we can be doing in order to make it out, alive?” she asked of him.

It were words that caused the stallion to chuckle before he turned his head back to her. Their eyes met one another almost straight in the middle and the lips of the stallion first curled themselves up into a smirk. “The lights here have never worked and it’s the only way things that need to go down from the offices, can go down. But what I think we should be doing? Now there’s a good question actually. Suppose we just continue our jobs and stay out of her eyes for as much as possible,” he replied to her. It was a good plan, but if it would work was another question.

“But, what about your department? I mean, we’re docked to the city, just a little maintenance crew is all that’s needed now.” In response to those words did Corron release a small nod. Then he squeezed himself out of the hole and held out a hoof for the mare. She took with a small giggle before gently being pulled out by him.

“Can’t say I ain't a gentlecolt. But what will come of us, is Keeton’s place to decide. He's the head of the department, we’ll see how it is all going down,” the stallion spoke to her before he disappeared in the darkness of the hallway.

Not even the time to say their goodbyes was granted to one another. But perhaps it was the best that way. Personal affection for another worker wasn't the thing that was appreciated by the higher ranks of the place. Yet through all of the machinery she still heard the hooves of the stallion going down the staircase. With a gentle smile that formed itself below the muzzle, the suited mare dropped back to all four of her legs and released a sigh in relief.

A sigh that was both meant to show herself that she was still alive, and that her suit didn't stood skintight anymore on a few certain places.

---

All the way back on the officials floor, were both Twilight and Trixie still talking to one another just they could have been doing in order to help Rarity. “We can always just place her in the devices with a couple of magical restrainers and actually process her. Imagine how long we can run this place with that alone,” Trixie suddenly brought forth. She rose up from the bed all of the sudden. Her nose made a couple of twitching motions as if she wanted or needed to sneeze.

“Yeah right, and who is going to be the new manager then hm? You, me? Both maybe?” Twilight replied to her before she opened her eyes. “Processing Rarity is nothing but insanity at its finest, Trix and you know that just as well as I do. No, there must be something else that we can do to her. Something that maybe doesn’t involve murdering the living daylight out of her.”

It seemed like the mulberry unicorn was completely oblivious to the fact that Trixie’s nose was twitching the way it did. And before either of the two knew it, there was the sneeze itself. Under a loud sound Trixie fell back on the bed and released a growl afterward. “What if, we go to that doctor of ours with her, and ask him to take out all of her blood and clean that? Might be working.”

“Tis not a bad idea, I give you that. If it weren't for the fact that it could kill Rarity when done wrong. But you’re right, the magic that is flowing through a unicorn, goes through the veins. Even if it is corrupted like all hell, it still should be able to actually to clean it up. Just got to hope she isn't too far gone. Oh and, bless you,” Twilight replied before she snuggled up against Trixie once again.

“Thanks,” she replied with a small smile while the snuggles were being returned. “So the plan is to catch her, get her to the doctor and see how it goes from there?” The plan itself seemed to have been forged out of the insanity itself, yet there was this marge that something inside of it would actually have been able to work.

“That’s the plan pretty much laid out right there love. But Rarity doesn't allow herself to be caught that easily. Still needs a bit of fine tuning.” Twilight replied with a gentle smile, “Still, Tol Ret Nac, ancient city of the unicorns just drifting away in plain sight. Should be interesting if the princesses start to wonder where we have gone,” said Twilight to her with a nod.

That were the words that caused Trixie to actually look up to Twilight with an almost confused expression visible upon her face. The fact that she hadn't actually calculated upon the facts as they were, they were inside their own capital of platinum. Gone from the Equestrian lines and borders, they could be doing whatever they wanted. “Perhaps we can write them a letter that we are on a field mission for two years to the dense jungles of the west. Tis a worry for later, I want to see the city sooner or later though. See if it lives to Rare’s expectations up close as well.”

Twilight simply released a chuckle before she rose up from the bed and stood back on the floor with all four of her hooves. “Maybe one day sooner or later we will be doing that. Not to mention the fact we can deal with those two in our own time. First things first shall we say, we have to find ourselves a doctor.”

Yet before either of the two mares could be doing anything to set their plan into motion, they both felt the same feelings in and going through their horns. Somepony had been using magic and the aura that was created because of it wasn't something that was all too friendly. The aura that they felt actually managed to send shivers down their spines like a winter's breeze. Just the sheer levels of corruption alone within the magic wanted to make both of them vomit. Yet the content of their stomach luckily managed to maintain itself inside.

Nothing was right about that charge of magic, as the both of them could actually and physically feel the very corruption that it carried. Neither Trixie nor Twilight could be standing straight on their hooves as long as the charge remained active. But when it eventually did fade away, they both looked over to the ceiling, as if they wanted to look straight into the unicorn’s office itself.

“We need a doctor, and we need him right here and right now,” Twilight said to Trixie. Just mere seconds afterwards would she have opened the door of the room and walked out of it. Everything needed to be as casual and normal as always. They had to make sure they wouldn't fall suspicious to Rarity. Which was a little thing that was easier said than done.

“We can’t teleport, she will sense that we all we can do is just walk down there.” Trixie replied as she also left the room and locked it behind her. The mulberry unicorn simply nodded towards her and together they began the journey down a couple of floor. All in the quest to find the equally insane doctor that lived under the simple name of Medic.

---

Back in her own office had Rarity just released a charge of her magic to vent the corruption from her body. Her body was almost like a steam engine and the very corruption flowed through her seemed like it was actual steam . If she kept it too long in her own systems, she would burst and her body would have been destroyed due to the powers of the waste.

So the only thing she could be done was the release and relieve herself from the hellish terror that was flowing through her. Yet on the other end of the aspect, she felt just so great to have the powers and abilities at her disposal. Driven further down the road of madness by those very powers and abilities, Rarity almost seemed to be like a lost cause and had failed as a manager of the infamous and often unheard Magic Facility.

Words she would never say about herself or accept about herself. Her sense of pride and dignity were too thick and hard to make her see the reality of the actual situation. And that was the biggest trouble that could be meaning her downfall that easily.

A soft moan of satisfaction and relief slowly filled up most of the office. Rarity opened her eyes again. She just stared over the processing floor with her crimson red eyes. Everything she had worked for and everything she had achieved was right there. But the death of Sweetie Belle still lingered somewhere deep inside of her memories.

Memories she tried to suppress and even forget every single night since it happened. And therefore she allowed her thoughts to turn back a bit more towards the business side of the plans that laid ahead. Having walked through the moving department and having inspected everything there was to be seen within it, there was only one more conclusion that she could draw from the place. “They shall feel the pain of the machines firsthoof,” the insane mare spoke to herself before she began to chuckle a little bit to herself. A chuckle that eventually dared to come out as the most insane laughter she had ever given in her life.

The unicorn turned herself back around and walked over to the dossier cabinets and opened one that was labeled ‘staff’ with a hoof. Once the drawer was opened, her eyes could feast upon the files of every last worker that lived inside of the hellhole that was their factory. All names nicely sorted in alphabetical order and sorted out in the corresponding departments.

That was why the files of the moving department were so easily found. The horn charged up with a mixed aura of both sapphire blue and black before all of the files were being taken out at once. They were then levitated over to the desk of the mare who also locked the door to her office.

Nopony would be coming in or going out of there while she was working upon her task. She knew that cuts had to be made in the staff of the place. Yet leaving loose ends, was about the last thing she required from anypony. “Can’t have any ends just dangling around and about. What if they start talking about what really happened here? No, we can’t have that now can we? But what if all of the workers down there are to die by accident?” Rarity mumbled to herself in the fashion as if she was arguing with herself.

Not a thing that was uncommon to see in her mind though. As every action was actually doubted for the fraction of a second before continued. While the horn discharged itself once again, the unicorn walked back to the window in order to look over the department one more time.

And in that time, she took up all of the sounds, the scents and the feels. The stench of death, machines, oil and unprocessed magic smelled like roses to her nose. That was her home, that was her boutique in essence. All of it was something that she loved to be doing as it had similarities between the things she had loved to be doing. Even though the things never actually looked like one another oddly enough.

But after a bit of time had the mare returned back to her desk. She dropped herself down in the chair once more. With a bit of positioning just how and where she sat comfortable, the forelegs were eventually placed upon the desk and her eyes looked down towards the black stuff on them. The leather-like goo seemed to be like gloves that continued to grow little by little every hour. But the material felt so comfortable against her coat as if she was actually wearing a set of leather gloves over them.

The only problem with the set she had was that they could never be removed, even if she tried. They were fused to her skin and all of the hairs that laid underneath it were actually scorched down to the very, very root of them. The corruption wasn't just lying on top of her, it had genuinely fused together with her.

Though the thought was quickly forgotten again as the mare looked over the stack of files and looked at the very first one on the pile. “Only a few of you shall remain working in the place, the rest of you shall be fired without any actual rewards or compensations,” mumbled Rarity while the first file was being opened.

Her eyes looked at everything there was standing in the dossier about the pony. Everything ranging from the level of skill, to the age and manner of employment. And out of the few dozen ponies who worked there, not even a handful would have been able to stay working in the place even if they begged her.

Ruthless, merciless and stone cold, those were the words with which Rarity could be described after her years of working within the hellhole.

Chapter 2

The black and ivory unicorn just kept on reading through the files. Her eyes went in a repeating motion from left to right. Each and every last file was being read at least once to make sure that everything that she knew everything about the worker. Only to eventually lean back a bit in her chair and think what the fate of the pony would have become. About most she didn't had to think longer than a few seconds before they were placed upon one other and separate stack of files.

It was with those about whom she thought longer about that perhaps and most likely stood a much, much higher chance to remain as workers in the department. The files of utter doubt were placed on yet another separate stack. Of course she couldn't just kill off all the workers that easily. Some of them were even pretty good off in the other departments of the place.

Some could be moved to the processing or the holding departments for example. It all just depended on the state of mind that the unicorn was in. In that moment did she felt herself actually pretty generous to save a few lives of the workers. But there wouldn't be any mercy shown towards those others. They were just going to be fuel for the fires that kept the place running.

It could be stated that she had lost her mind yes, but none dared to speak a word against her unless it was really necessary for the Facility itself. In the end were the files all read through and the unicorn stood up from her chair once again. The aura around her horn appeared once again and she picked up the larger stack of files. They were brought before her eyes, which then on their own turn began to look over each and every last name they carried.

Each of those names were stored somewhere inside of her mind, along with the corresponding picture. Meaning that when the picking came, she would not be having the slightest bit of trouble to get rid of the loose ends. A devious little grin formed itself below her lips as the horn increased itself in the magical charge.

The charge itself was more than enough to actually teleport her from one floor to the other. She had in fact come straight to the processing floor. When the horn discharged itself and the gasps were caught in her ear, the unicorn of grace finally opened her eyes again and looked to the scenes that were there to behold.

---

She had arrived just off the side of the terrible machine that was the Magic Maker. A monstrous device that would break the young mares and stallions the second they would be entering it. Yet it was the group that was ready to be processed themselves that caused the gasping to be done.

The eyes of the unicorn glared over to the lot of them. That steel expression was given to each of them, not a single exception was made. Nothing but the sheer insanity could be seen within her eyes. An insanity that meant to be the very end of the group. Not a grain of mercy would be shown to them, just like the day she tore Twinkle apart and killed her sister.

“The, the legends, are true,” a voice in the crowd could be heard. A voice that caused to gain the attention of pretty much every living being there and then to be focused upon it. All of the captives, all of the workers and even Rarity, gave their eyes the time to look to a young stallion.

“I would like to know what legends you are speaking of, foal.” Rarity almost hissed towards him in a polite tone. “I’m not, a patient mare. Set him on the belt.” And as she ordered, two muscular stallions got a hold of the young pony and placed him without pardon on the conveyor belt. Not even a struggle was being made by him to release himself out of their hold.

With his hooves locked on the belt there was no other way of getting out of there alive anymore. It would have been moments before the device would roar into life and take his. “A-About you. P-Prisoners, talk about them a-all the time. That l-look, the f-film,” the young stallion stumbled out. He seemed to have managed to buy himself a bit of time, for whatever good that would be.

Rarity never gave the order to turn the machine on. Instead she wanted to know just what the pony had to tell her. “Go on, tell me what they tell about me,” the ivory pony spoke while she closed in the distance with the other pony. “You can always tell your story to me, dear, I always have an ear that is more than willing to listen to tales being told.”

There was a certain and unusual charm to her words that could be heard and all of the stallions actually became a little bit mesmerized by her exact words. None of the captivated ponies could believe the fact that they would been having such abilities and powers to them. But the pony on which it had the most effect on, was the one that stood locked on the belt. “You, your eyes, they tell the tale of s-suffering, d-death. Deaths c-caused by you a-and unforeseen actions,” he managed to mumble out to her before taking the attention away. As much as he found her amazing to look at, those haunting eyes of her, nearly killed him.

“Is that what they say about me these days? That I am just a husk of my former self, or is there more to your story?” Rarity asked him with a menacing grin while she rose her hoof.

“There’s, there’s more! You killed, your own flesh and blood in cold blood!” he shouted out towards her. His head turned itself back towards her and the mane fell before his face, blocking the view to his eyes. “You’re not the lady you once were, you’re not a husk of her either, she’s been replaced with a monster who just looks like her!”

“Oh, how, wrong,” Rarity chuckled. She removed the strand of mane from his face and smirked even deeper. “I have never been a lady, that was all just a façade really. The monster always had been among you. Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. But you’re right, I did kill my sister in cold blood. So the question here actually should be, what makes you think I won’t do it, to you?”

“Because, because deep down there, deep down there inside of that heart of yours, the lady is still fighting to get out of the abyss,” he replied to her in a desperate plead. Yet Rarity just rolled her eyes and lowered her hoof.

“I've had enough of these games. You’ll be meeting your end and become nothing but magic for the worthy unicorns,” Rarity said in a cold tone before a sickening grin was given to him.

The puffs of steam did their turn over the floor. The roaring engine of the machine came to life and the stallion was literally looking right into the mouth of death itself. He began to repeat the word of ‘no’ over and over in different tones that ranged from surprised, all the way up to agonizing while he tried to get out.

Yet nothing he tried would have been any luck or help to him. His death was imminent. All of the ponies in the group knew that they would be next. None of them dared to look while the body was hauled into the maw of the machine. Yet Rarity kept on following him all the way down into the darkness. She wanted to see how tough he would be within the device.

The screams of agony filled the air and the sounds of bones being broken echoed left and right, it was the signal for all of the guards that they could be rounding up the rest of the group. “Make sure they behave, I have some business to attend in the basement. If there’s any complication with this batch or the next two, it will be your head that rolls over the floor this very night. Have I made myself clear to you?” she spoke to a couple of the guards present.

“Naturally ma’am,” the foreman replied to her. He gave her a small salute and continued on with his job. Rarity on the other end kept on peeling to the ponies for another minute or two. It didn't matter when they would be looking over to her, they could all see that the ‘leather’ of her legs had actually crawled up by another quarter of an inch over her legs.

None dared to make a comment over it though. The unicorn charged her horn up a bit further in order to initiate another teleport to happen. Around Rarity herself became the world almost a blood red of color and the actions of the ponies done was literally reduced to the speed of one heartbeat per half an hour. Everything was just becoming so slow. But it was needed if she wanted to actually disappear and appear in a matter of seconds.

---

Yet while Rarity was walking down the whole of the Facility in order to get to the –by then stationary– moving department. She couldn't help but to repeat the words of the young stallion over and over inside of her head. Almost as if he was torturing her, in order to make a massive dent inside of her pride. A little something that wouldn't have been working much to his shame though. For the corruption that was flowing through her was the very thing that caused it to fall silent inside her mind when it came down to the matter.

Whether Rarity knew it or not, but the reality of her factory’s waste product was that it was a massive parasite. A parasite that had found its way into the unicorn and used her as a host. While it gave her incredible powers, it used her body as its own to a small degree and would expand on it.

The moment when it would be covering all of her body was when the clock chimed for her. When that happened, Rarity would just have been killed on the spot and the parasites used her body for their own needs. Meaning that the Magic Facility would probably have been ran by a murderous parasite without any form of thought in the mind of it.

It was certainly a little something that nopony wanted to have. Perhaps that was the very reason of why both Twilight and Trixie were heading towards the doctor. Not for remedies of some kind, but for answers upon the many questions that troubled their minds.

Those deeds seemed to have been just so far away for Rarity. Everything was still going in the way it was supposed to be and she still had control over her body. In her mind she tried to recall the reports about the waste product to the best of her abilities but none actually spoke about the parasite that was living inside of it. Perhaps it had never been discovered or, there might have been a much more sinister way behind it.

It was a crazy thought that crossed through the mind of the unicorn at one sudden moment, hallway through her journey towards the department. What if a new manager is actually chosen, because one has become corrupted by the wastes? she thought to herself while her body walked down a stair or two.

Something about it did made sense into her mind for a moment though, she had been head of the place for years and never even touched a hoof upon the waste product. Yet it was all of the sudden that she seemed to have been rather fascinated by it. All of it suddenly made sense to her, yet the moment she had it all figured out, another train of thoughts rushed into her mind. A train of thought that was by the souls of those who were about to leave the realm of the living.

Yet the parasite saw its beautiful chance right there. It wanted to make certain that Rarity wouldn't have remembered the thought. A drastic measure had to be taken. Bits and pieces that were living inside of her bloodstream went up to her brain where they were fed to the very brain of the unicorn. But instead of bringing oxygen to it, they had come to take something away from it.

The white blood cells didn't even attack them as the pieces of corruption had ‘lobbied’ with them into a deal. Something that gave them almost an unlimited access in the brain of the unicorn. And that was just the thing they needed. For the longer they were searching through the massive chest of thoughts, they finally found the very special one they were looking for.

The thing that was done next had perhaps the biggest impact on the unicorn. The bits of corruption destroyed the thought from the mind. Something that seemed harmless, caused the mare to actually lose her teleportation and landed right on the staircase that led to the department.

Rarity was baffled by the sudden stop of her abilities and looked a little bit around before she raised an eyebrow. “What was I thinking about, just yet?” she mumbled to herself. Everything was blank in her mind. All of the natural processes had seemed to have come to a hold for a moment or two. She couldn't remember the words she had spoken. Which in return meant that the parasite had done a good job inside of her mind. It had done what it had to do.

Shake after shake had been done by her to get the thought back in her mind, but nothing was powerful enough to actually make certain that it would be coming back. A hoof was brought over to her forehead and the leathery material began to rub over it. Rarity released a groan before she caught the files in the corner of her eyes and that was the trigger she needed.

That stack of files had been the trigger that she needed in order to get the her thoughts back on a line. Every last bit that left blank suddenly filled itself up with the deeds that needed to be done and the times to come. But something had made her angry, something inside of her mind had released the emotion which made her even more bitchy than she normally would have been against the workers.

She wanted to teleport once again. Though she realized that it was just a couple more stairs she had to be going, Rarity made the decision not to do it and just began to continue walking down the stairs. Step by step was being done and the temperature just kept on rising the lower she went. The sheer heat of the boilers was more than enough to make anypony sweat out of their gear. And she was even naked to begin with.

Having finally arrived at the bottom of the very place, the eyes of Rarity began to pierce over the many workers who mostly were just doing nothing as they were literally out of work. With their systems having been reattached to the city’s own pipes, they were mostly just drifting on the massive engines that were located under the Platinum Plaza in the heart of the city. The very place where the very tower of princess Platinum stood.

It never took away just how creepy Rarity seemed to be looking towards them all. And it was only after she had passed them in silence that they dared to look to one another with that same questioning gaze. What was she planning to do, what was she there for, what was that stack of files? All of those questions were asked in silence and only through the eyes. Though some could have already guessed just what was going on.

---

“I want every last worker to be collected before the boilers, and I want to have it done now!” Rarity shouted in her high pitched voice to get over the loud noises of the machines. In response did almost every last pony that was present rushed themselves forward towards the boilers where Rarity stood.

But the actual location that they had to be standing was something that caused some of them to already have their thoughts confirmed. For all of the workers stood the very boilers, that were normally used to burn the bodies of the unworthy unicorns in. The very fires that once kept the engines of the place going at their fullest of forces. Nopony dared to even whisper as they were all lined up by Rarity herself.

Among the few final ones that were coming, was the little band of misfits of engineers. Keeton with his blue coat and hair was the first of them to enter and just stood on the designated spot like nothing had happened. The stallion himself looked a little bit concerned out of his eyes while a deep exhale left through the nose. He could only hope he wouldn't be picked out.

The next one to enter was Corron who had returned after his little talk to the mare upstairs and had exchanged his story to the others he trusted in the place. He didn't care where he would be ending up, as long as he was allowed to continue living his life he would have been more than happy. But an accident lurked in a small corner and he knew that after having heard just what happened to his former friend, Kooiman.

Thirdly there was the green coated, red maned, often mistaken for an magically engineered puppet, little mastermind of an engineer named Mush. The mare took place next to the crimson stallion and glanced over to Rarity in silence. She knew what was going to happen of course but never spoke a single word. If it wasn't for the machines doing their pounding and hissing, one could drop a pin and it would be heard through the whole place. A graveyard was even noisier.

Last but not least there was the new recruit of the group. The misfit that was Bloodshed himself. He had entered the place and gulped loud when he saw Rarity standing there. It was by him that the mare actually exchanged a bit of eye contact. One moment they were both looking one another deep in the eyes and the sheer insanity of the ivory mare could be seen dancing in his eyes. Something that unsettled the stallion even further.

With him having entered the place, it meant that the entire department was empty and that meant something else to the unicorn. For she charged up her horn and not just closed the door, but also locked it behind them. The only light that entered the room them, was from the fires of the boilers and the magic of the mare. She was ready to let the picking begin.

Calmly did she pace up and down past all of the workers. Almost as if she was the commander of an army or something like it. It was something that unsettled many of them and they could actually feel their sheer fear rising inside of their bodies. They were truly scared of the unicorn who they had been seining as their boss for so long already.

Perhaps it were the changes around her legs and horn that caused most of them to happen. It was just unknown to tell actually just what could have spooked them so very much about her. But none of them could resist themselves, that the moment she had past them, to actually look at her.

They wanted to know just what had happened to their manager and those ‘shoes’ she wore from the leather, seemed to have been the cause in most of their eyes. But none of them even dared to speak a single word around it or against her. They wanted to live and the best way to be doing that was to actually keep their mouths shut about anything and everything.

Though the workers would have only gone out of the frying pan and into the fire from there on outwards as the ivory coated unicorn charged up her horn even further. Behind them where the hatches of the furnaces opened used to burn the bodies in. With the extra light added to the room from the fires, Rarity totally appeared like a demon in front of them. Some of the workers released a small yelp or a gasp as they felt the sudden heat of the flames crawling up against their body. Just a little and literal indication of the heat of their situation.

Corron, Mush and Keeton on the other end, all looked to one another from the corners of their eyes before they turned their heads over to the gaping holes of fire. There was little that they could have done against it though. If they would have tried to close the hatches, Rarity would have ended their lives there and then and literally without mercy whatsoever.

Bloodshed on the other end felt the embers sparking upon his back and tried to withstand the pain they gave him. Because whether he liked it or not, the wounds on his back were opened by them once again. Yet nopony seemed to be noticing the one thing that Rarity did notice. Which happened to be the horrid stench.

The stench of the bodies being burned to nothing but a crisp. Everything from the organs, to the hides, the muscle and even the bones was used as a fuel for the things to keep the place running. It was a foul stench that reeked deep into the nose of the manager. But never deep enough to make her turn her head away and puke out whatever happened to be lying inside of her stomach.

While they felt the heat in their back and Rarity walked back to the beginning of the line. All of the workers returned to their original position while the sweat broke out by a couple of them as they had not a clue what was going to happen to them. Prayers for lives were being made and mercy was begged by those who thought they were going to die.

---

Rarity found herself standing at the end of the line and began to move up one employee at a time. It didn't matter just who it happened to be, all she gave them was that stern and emotionless look. Then her eyes went down to the files and the next one was being picked up. Through a system of fear and fright she managed to keep the lot of them under control while they were all inspected.

By some of them she recognized the pictures inside of the files. While some thought it would have been something that they saw their personal files, others on the other end thought it meant a death sentence to them. Yet there was of course another group that then was created, those who didn't saw themselves on the files. They also shared the same thought that it either meant something good or that their deaths would have been imminent.

And in between all of that inner chaos, there was the fourth group of ponies who had their own thoughts about the whole situation. Those who actually remained neutral on everything and were just waiting for the command given by the unicorn herself. Of course they could be guessing just how things would be working and they were going to be done but those were just wild thoughts that raced through each of their minds.

Nopony was actually being missed during the inspection and when the haunting eyes of Rarity went over the body of Bloodshed. The stallion could feel his sweat starting to run a bit faster while his heart was beating nearly at a thousand times per minute. Nervous and broken down as he was, he still had the decency to look down into the mare her eyes. Even if she could read the sheer fear straight out of them.

It was that fear actually that caused the ivory unicorn to grin towards him. A grin that would remain visible upon her face as she turned herself back over to the group as a whole and she turned her attention from left to right. The fear began to rise as they all expected her to talk the words that were on her mind.

They were right, they were just so right upon everything.

“You might be wondering just why I have been asking each and every last one of you to come here today right? Well the words I can give you about that are actually rather simple when you think about it. However, some of you might not even understand those so I shall explain it very carefully and to the best of my own abilities,” Rarity said to each of them. Her eyes continued to glance over every one of them individually before she turned to a bit more crowded look in her eyes. “The moving department has been one that has been standing under my eyes for a long time but ever since we have been docked inside of the city, only a few workers are required here every day to make sure we catch on with the city’s powers without a problem.”

A massive grin formed itself below her muzzle after she finished her words. She glanced over every last one of them again from the corner of her eyes. “Can any pony tell me just what that means?” Rarity asked of them. It was a sick question to hear, but even sicker to answer.

“B-Budget, c-cuts?” an uncertain worker spoke up to her. He could only have hoped that she was not going to confirm the words against him, but even he knew the time was up.

“Exactly, budget cuts shall be made here yes. Those who have seen their file, I’m sorry, but you’re about to burn.” Rarity replied to the group as a whole. She then erupted out in a snicker that was just sickening to listen to. Everything that was wrong with the ivory mare managed to surface right there and then. Even her most sadistic side couldn't even have imagined the sheer terror that she would be giving to them all.

All of the ponies who had seen their file popping up suddenly gained a set of wide eyes. Of course they wanted to fight against her but there wasn't anything in their might that could be doing. She controlled the endless supply of magic towards the land. She was the being that could stuff them all in the fires with the clap of a hoof if she needed to. Fighting her was pointless as it only meant an even slower death.

So all they could be doing was just to wait and say their goodbyes to their coworkers without ever breaking the line.

---

Twilight and Trixie had arrived at the office of the insane doctor in the time that everything was going down back in the boiler room. They knocked upon the door a couple of times but they never seemed to have gotten any answer from him. “Maybe he’s not in?” Trixie questioned while the door remained tightly shut. But the mulberry mare had so her other thoughts about it.

“No, if he wasn't in, there would have been something happened to him. I think that we actually need to apply a little bit of force to this door and hope that he will come out of his hiding,” answered Twilight with a smirk. She charged up her horn in the crimson red aura. It was right away that Trixie knew what was going to happen and she did a step or two backward to give the other mare all of the space that she needed in order to perform her trick.

The door itself gained the aura around it and Twilight began to concentrate herself upon the very hinges of the metal door. It took her a couple tries and a few seconds before she had pulled the whole door out of the hinges. She set the heavy sheet of steel off of the side. “See, easy peasy,” she chuckled while the horn discharged itself and they both entered into the office of the stallion.

It didn't matter how many times they would have been in that place, every single time there was something new that could be found. Something that that was everything but pleasant to look at. Not to mention the sheer book collection that the stallion had managed to make up over the progression of time. But in the office itself there was no doctor to be found. Only a few scribbled notes laid upon the very desk of him.

Trixie was the first to walk around it and began to read them with a half eye as they didn't make any sense to her. All of the scrabbles were literally unreadable for her eyes and when she signaled Twilight over to read them as well, the eyes looked over them with a curious expression.

“I can’t be making anything out of this…” she mumbled to herself. Her head rose itself up again in order to think a little bit. “If I were him, where would I be hiding myself from the officials?” It was a question that was well placed and consumed the entire attention of Twilight herself.

Something that left Trixie to go over to another door that would be leading to the small operation chamber. And she dared to peek through the small opening there was between the door and the doorway. And the things her eyes saw were just about the most unholy she had ever seen. “I think, I found him Twilight,” she softly spoke up before a couple steps back were taken.

“What do you mean with that, Trix?”

“Just, just open the door would you?”

“Aye aye,” Twilight replied before her horn charged itself up once again. The door was not just opened, but flung open on its hinges. The two of them calmly walked inside of the room as if nothing had happened.

Inside of the perfectly white colored room they caught the stallion looking up to them from over a body. One that seemed to have died not all too long ago. His labcoat, mouthpiece, gloves and instruments were all just covered in blood of the pony that laid on the table. It was a truly gruesome sight that even made the mares want to throw up a bit.

Never in their lives had they seen the actual insiders of a pony lying around in the manner that it was being done upon the table right in front of her. The good doctor on the other end, wanted to explain his deeds but was never given the chance. “W-What is that?!” Twilight shouted to him.

Medic himself just lowered his body from the operating table and took his magnifying glasses off. He calmly walked to the two of them and each step he took upon the ground caused a ring of red to appear. “Meine Fraulein, zhis is just a little experiment I have been working on for, half an hour now. It’s purely for scientific researching, I can promise you zhat.”

“And just what, does that research actually contain, doctor? Wanting to see how many organs you can pull out before it’s empty?” Trixie said to him. She calmly walked past the stallion and towards the body itself. A genuine and sick interest had managed to take her over for some reason.

It was a statement that made the stallion chuckle to himself before he shook his head in an oddly calm manner. His body turned itself back over to the deceased body and he began to walk back to it. “Nein, nein, nein, if you dare to look, du will find the magical reservoirs just between zhe stomach and zhe liver. I've been trying to discover, just vat it has been, that made unicorn store such magical abilities,” the stallion pleaded for himself.

“Not much research has been done to those things, given the fact nopony wanted to have themselves voluntarily cut open. We know plenty about dead ones, living ones…are a bit harder to catch.” Twilight spoke up as she understood the sheer trouble that the stallion went through.

“Ja, if only I could have a living specimen in meine hooves. But zhat’s a worry for another time. What was it you needed of me?” the stallion said to them. He had turned himself back around to face Twilight as a whole.

---

All the way down in the lower guts of the very facility, back inside of the boiler room of the moving department to be exact, had all of the ponies been able to say their goodbyes. Yet Rarity kept on looking over the group as a whole. She wanted to humiliate those who wouldn't be seeing the next morning in the city just that little bit more. It seemed sadistic but that was actually the way she happened to be in the moment. A sadistic little bitch with a bit of an ego problem.

Of course it could be perfectly blamed upon the parasite to which she was a host for, but that would have only gotten her so far. Because for certain bits and pieces of the entire moment of torture, she was perfectly fine and even seemed to have been herself. Just for very little moments during the chaos and the sheer terror she was seeding into their minds.

“Very well then, now that you have been able to say your goodbyes to those dear to you, I do suppose it is time to take out the thrash and incarnate the wastes,” Rarity said in a sadistic sounding tone. Then the very first name was being shouted by her. The pony then gained the magical aura around the body. Before anypony could be objecting against the actions, the deed was done.

The hellish and piercing screams of utter agony could be heard coming from out of the fires of hell. That was the very thing that was waiting down there, for just so many others to come. Their bodies being burned alive and used as fuel for the Facility.

One by one were the ponies thrown in like they were garbage for the ivory unicorn. Unicorn after unicorn who would have been perfectly able to become magic themselves, were being destroyed right on the very spot. All of it just to keep the place running for what reason? Bloodshed looked over the bodies being tossed inside and the screams coming out before they went back to silent again. He couldn't help it but to feel he needed to be doing something, anything.

But he knew just how strong the mare happened to be. That was perhaps her saving grace for the moment. Yet somewhere in his heart it felt like he was going to meet his end sooner than later as well. And if he went it was by her hooves and nopony else's.

When the last pony was thrown into the fires of the last boiler, Keeton, Corron, Mush and even Bloodshed were among the few that actually manned standing there. But with the last pony being picked up by Rarity, she signaled the four of them to take a step aside. They all understood and obeyed the silent order. They all knew what was going to happen next and prepared for it.

The poor soul was just thrown into the fires without any form of remorse. Seconds later would the fires have been caught up with the stallion. Who literally screamed the lungs out of his body. Though that wasn't the worst part. The worst part still had to come. Rarity wanted to go and reassign all the ponies to their new places, when she caught something in the corner of her eyes.

All four of the ponies around the hatch of the fires suddenly turned themselves towards the very fires. They heard the clunking sounds of metal tearing away flesh. “Impossible,” Keeton whispered to himself before all of them gasped in fright and took a step away.

Out of the opening came a burned hoof that was dragging the body back to freedom. But when the last inches to it had to be made, the fires had consumed too much of the body to make it even work properly. “So close, yet so far.” Mush mumbled to herself as she heard Rarity leaving.

But while the manager left the place, she continued to stare towards Bloodshed with that eerie looking glare in her eyes. Almost as I she had no memory of him, simply forgotten him through the gears of time and the events in her mind.

“What’s your name?” Rarity asked against him. Her horn charged itself up a bit more to look through the files one last time.

“B-Bloodshed, ma’am,” the stallion replied to her before he released another gulp. The unicorn herself stopped looking at the mere mentioning of his name. That very name was more than enough to send the feelings of hatred and rage through her system. All of the files she had in her magic were placed in the fires to make it look like they have never been working in that place.

There was room for just one more pony inside of it, the date couldn't be missed whatsoever. The charge of Rarity’s horn began to surround the stallion and before he could even be knowing what was going on, his body met the raging flames inside of the furnace. He of course wanted to crawl out of the place as soon as he possibly cloud, but the hatches were being closed by Rarity.

Something that caused the hoof of the other pony to just be cleanly cut off and fell down to the ground while Keeton, Corron and mush could only hear the screams of pure agony. They couldn't even begin to imagine the sheer pain and terror Bloodshed must have gone through while he was being burned to death.

But Rarity, she didn't care one bit about him and opened the door to lead the others back to the main department. “Listen up, I’ll only tell your new posts once,” she stated to all of them before a growl was released from her throat. One last cutting glare was given to the lot of them.

Chapter 3

The bodies continued to burn deep inside of the furnaces for the boilers that would be powering most –if not the whole– of the hellish Facility. Rarity left the old department with a massive smirk clearly visible below her muzzle. Every single pony who would have seen her in the way she walked back to her own quarters, would have thought that she was clinically insane and actually beyond help of any doctor. If they only knew the actual truth behind the ivory coated unicorn they might have been speaking in a bit of a lower tone.

She ruled the whole place with the fears and frights that she could be indulging in each of the employees. Not to mention the serious fact that she was ruthless and never showed even a gain of mercy to each and every pony she came across. Yet as she walked over the spiral staircase that acted as the ‘spine’ of the whole building there was a pain in her heart that couldn't actually be described by any words she knew. As if it was both skipping beats and stopping all together.

The unicorn reached for her chest the second she had come on a small clearing between two stairs and closed her eyes for a moment. Rarity rose up on her hind legs and leaned a little bit against the railing. Then both forelegs were placed upon the chest. She wanted or needed, to calm her heart again. With the eyes forcefully shut did the face of nopony else then her own beloved little sister came to play in her mind. It was that sheer amount of mental torture that would have managed to send the unicorn pretty much over the edge.

“No,” she hissed up after the eyes had opened themselves again. They had revealed the crimson red irises just like that. The rims all of the works would be getting eventually as they served their time in the Facility. The color of red appeared around her horn while she started to wheeze deep. While the very surges of her powers were traveling in and out of her body. Though the itching pain in her very heart would have remained the same. But it was through the sheer mental strength that the unicorn had, that she was even able to move her body out of the position.

All four of her hooves touched the ground once again and with a growl of utter insanity and disappointment, the charge was released as a pure blast of magic. A blast that was shot up the next stairs before it hit the wall, shot up and almost waved back right at Rarity. The crimson red sparkles of the magic came right back to the ivory unicorn who didn't seem to be giving something about them. “She failed her tests. She has to be processed. She escaped. She had to die!” the unicorn spoke up to herself while all of her reservoirs were being emptied.

But due to her almighty connection to the very place, they would never be running out of magic as they were replenished almost immediately. Perhaps it was through luck that there weren't any workers that could be seeing her in the mentally broken state that she was. Years of bloodshed and cruelty and perhaps that one personal had been too much upon her broken mind, making it completely shatter.

The beam started to slowly fade out of reality. Before Rarity even knew what was going on as a whole, had she discharged her horn completely. All of the reddish aura faded away from the horn itself and over her cheeks ran something else. Something that she only had just then noticed. A little something that made her perhaps everything but happy. Both of her forehooves were brought over to the places and stroked over her cheeks.

When the eyes were given the actual time to witness just what it happened to be that laid upon the fur of the legs, the sheer amounts of anger that started to pulse through her body with every irregular beat of her heart caused her to stomp the hoof back on the ground and growl even louder than the last time.

---

In the meantime, while all of that misery and torture was actually going on, the two under officials and the Facility’s physician were talking to one another. The plan was forged of just how they could be helping Rarity out of her situation. Each of them knew that the troubles that laid ahead for her, would be much, much worse if they actually allowed her to continue within her own madness. Yet so far had each of their plans been nothing but a spectacular failure.

Medic himself still leaned against the operating table while he had his eyes closed. As insane as he happened to be for the two mares, so brilliant he could be as well. But not a single one of his words seemed to have made sense for either of them at the moment. That was mainly due to the fact that he hadn't spoken any of his plans against them. Perhaps a fact that placed both of the under officials on a small edge.

“I just can’t see any other part of how we could be saving her. If that corruption has indeed been traveling through her blood as doc here said, then all hope seems to be lost in my eyes,” Trixie said to them She had lowered herself in the one chair that stood in the entire little operating room.

Twilight on the other end had so her own theories about every last aspect of the waste products of the Facility. She constantly switched her eyes over from Trixie to Medic while she placed up and down on her spot. “Now what if we actually, manage to get the very corruption out of the body without killing the host first? I mean, we attract blood out ponies all the time,” she proposed.

“Hmpf, now zhat’s not going to work, Twilight,” Medic replied to her before his eyes opened again. The rims he carried glanced over to the mulberry unicorn while the forelegs crossed one another. “Killing zhe host while zhe parasite is still inside of her is not good.”

“But we have to make an end of her life, it’s the only way we can actually be certain that the infestation won’t continue spreading itself through the place. The last thing we all need, is for the place and the whole city to fall under some sort of infection. Thousands of years of works and secrecy down the drain just like that,” snarled Trixie before she stood up and left the chair.

Medic listened with care to the words that were being spoken. Of course he could understand perfectly just where they would be coming from with their arguments and it wasn't his place to question those. But their processes of thought had been touched too much by the infamous products they had been making. Not to mention the sheer brainwash that Rarity perhaps had been doing on the both of them.

“Frauleins, killing zhe host only gives zhe parasite zhe time to actually take over the body and control it like a puppet. Imagine zhe manager being dead and her body controlled by a parasite. Imagine zhe sheer damage she could be doing zhen. Zhen Trixie’s visions of zhe future, would be coming a reality bin Ich afraid,” the clinically insane doctor said to them. His eyes looked over to them from above his glasses. That serious glance he carried inside of them told them enough.

It was a reality on which neither of the two had hoped on meeting. But from his words it seemed like it would have become one. But what other options did they have other than doing that? That was the very question that was racing through both of the under official’s their minds.

---

“I, can perhaps, create a device and lie about just how we could be saving zhe manager. Look, I don’t do zhis for myself, aber I do this for du allen,” Medic said before a grin formed itself across his lips. “Zhe plan is simple. But I need your full cooperation for zhis to work properly.”

Both of the mares nodded to his words. They both would have dared to take a step or two closer towards him. They were curious to just what on earth he could have been thinking about that would be able to save Rarity and the Facility from a certain death. Little did they all knew inside of the place, the time-bomb had been set a long time ago and it was just a matter of waiting.

When the two of them were actually in hearing distance of the stallion, he began to whisper the words towards them. It seemed odd that he began to whisper, but he couldn't be certain whether or not Rarity was actually spying upon them all. An absurd idea it might have seen, but with her new ‘gloves’, anything suddenly seemed to be possible.

Seconds would have turned into minutes while the ponies kept on talking to one another. The mares just gave nods left and right to confirm that they actually understood just what was being asked of them both. Whatever he asked of them, the sacrifice would have been big.

And then it was just over. In the clop of a hoof from the stallion while he fell back down to the ground, the meeting was over. “Good luck,” he said before both Twilight and Trixie turned themselves around. The mares then just left the room and the office of the stallion in order to make the preparations that were asked from them.

He had perhaps the most dangerous job of them all. He would have formed the actual bait for the unicorn herself. He had to make certain that she would be not just looking at it, but also take it with the both of her hooves. That was going to be perhaps the hardest part of it all. It could have been one of the most rewarding ones as it meant they were one step closer in either purging Rarity’s corruption, or aid in the destruction of her body and soul.

A heavy price had to be paid by either one of them. Or they would all have to pay the price for the destruction of their precious factory. Which was a thing they couldn’t allow to happen.

---

While the two mares had gone and left the place, the stallion on the other end began to doubt himself about every single aspect. He was a physician with a nick of blood thirst, not some kind of master spy that would be able to persuade everypony into the trap that had been set out for Rarity. But perhaps the very answer to his questions in his mind could be found within the operating room.

Prayers in the language of his ponies were made. He released a near silent sigh. When the eyes were opened again and looked through his glasses, the time was there to start thinking about the events as they would be going down within his very own mind. Perhaps they wouldn't even be meeting one another at all. There were just so many variables in the mind of the stallion. Variables that may or may not have been the actual cause of the raging storm inside of his mind.

Yet then it was the time that he dared to turn himself back around again and thus towards the cut open body of the deceased unicorn. He couldn't help himself but to look to the magical reservoirs it carried. Suddenly did his eyes began to widen themselves upon the revelation that was being made upon the sight. All of the sudden, he knew just how he would have been able to lure Rarity straight into the trap he and the other two mares had set out for the unicorn.

“Zhis is going to be gut,” spoke Medic himself. He continued to look over places just where the reservoirs were connected to the main bloodstream. The stallion couldn't help himself anymore and the levels of excitement continued to grow inside of his body. He thought to have figured perhaps a new thing out about the knowledge of those parts in the body of a pony.

A massive smile formed itself below his muzzle and he turned himself back towards the door. “She needs to be knowing this, right away,” the stallion whispered to himself. The door opened with the help of his magic and the pacing was turned over into a gentle gallop through the hallways.

He knew exactly how he could be luring Rarity both to him, as well as how they would have been able to get the very corrupting parasite straight out of her body. But it was the lie that was still working on his nerves for a couple of moments. Yet when he left the warm atmosphere that was his office and stood in the metal box that was the Facility, the time to go back wasn't there anymore.

The deeds needed to be done and it was the only thing that could be done in that moment. It was all that the stallion actually could be doing to ensure the safety of the Facility, or so he thought. With a deep exhale taken from the mouth and his eyes looked down into the bowels of the place before they saw the ivory white coat of the unicorn. A couple levels down she stood but still clearly visible to him. With a smirk that came to his face, the stallion began to walk with a lot more confidence to the stairs that would be lowering him.

---

While the stallion walked down to the unicorn manager, way deeper inside of the place, deep inside of the bowels of the moving department stood the blue coated Keeton in the doorway of his own office. He had released a deep sigh before he shook his head. Years had he spent there to plot out the course of the building to be flying next. And with just one blow was it just all over.

The screams could still be heard going through his mind, all of those agonizing screams of being burned not even three hooves away of their colleagues and boss. He couldn't even imagine the emotional pain that was going through them, the feelings of being betrayed by the Facility itself. But there wasn't anything he could be doing, or was allowed to be doing for that matter. “And so ends yet another chapter in the black book of the place,” huffed Keeton before he entered his old office to gather some of the personal belongings. He was transferred to another place like most of them.

It was made known to him that he, together with Mush and Corron, wouldn't be the engineers that would continue to work upon the boilers of the place unless there was a real emergency. Two ponies would be staying behind in the bottom to place the bodies of the deceased into the fires to keep them running, to provide the power for the place.

The whole idea in and of itself was just plain stupid to the stallion to begin with but none could speak against the orders of the unicorn herself. The stallion dropped himself once again in his chair and just leaned backwards while the ears began to twitch from the mechanical sounds that came left and right.

“Now that’s some sounds I’ll be missing,” he said to himself with a smile.

“Oh I think we’ll all be doing that,” the voice of Corron suddenly echoed through the office. “But don’t you think it will be better in the new department? I mean, we’re still together as a group and we can still be send downstairs if it is being needed.”

“I do see where yar coming from Corry, but I personally don’t think it will matter where we have ended up. We’ll never be able to fully do our job as it was requested from us once. I mean, we were placed inside of this part of the bloody thing just to be certain that we wouldn't be much of a trouble to her and her friends. The only problem is, now we’re going back up there,” Keeton explained. He then released a deep sigh through his nostrils.

The words that he spoke were more than true though. Neither of the three had been in the moving department because they were such good workers upstairs. So it seemed just a little bit illogical that the three of them would be going there. But once again, none of them could argue against the will of the manager. Whatever she would say, would have been the law for them all.

“Suppose then that the biggest upside point is that we will be working in shifts on those three floors,” Corron jokingly spoke to him.

Though the joke didn't come over to Keeton sadly enough. Instead he slammed his hoof against the top of the desk and growled towards him at first. Only to let the words come afterward. “Listen to me, and listen to me very, very carefully here. The thing that we’re going to be doing, isn't just some kind of fancy field trip and if there is one thing more then I hate them by now, it’s babysitting upon the little fillies and colts that are upstairs!”

Corron could see the sheer amounts of anger that were flowing through Keeton’s eyes and it wasn't a sight he actually wanted to see of the stallion that often, or at all to begin with. “Wow, wow, wow, easy there old boy,” the crimson stallion said in the hope Keeton would have calmed down.

“Hmpf, like you would know how to calm down. You’re not even thirty and you’re already bold!” Keeton then hissed towards him. With those words did the argument between the two of them broke loose. The cannons has been fired and the two of them would battle it out with words.

Words of treason and anger suddenly filled the room as the two only seemed to be having eye for one another. They were both just so fixated upon the facts that they wanted to push the other straight back into the ground, they forgot there still was a third pony, a mare to be exact.

That very pony leaned against the doorway. She was staring over to the two of them. They just kept on bickering and bickering like two little colts over a toy. For minutes on minutes the green coated mare kept on watching before she made the decision it was more than enough between them two. She still cared a massive wrench with her and that thing was then used to get the two out of their little troubles.

With one massive swing did it crash down upon the wooden desk. It shattered and broke it in the process around certain areas. But it did the job perhaps more than nicely. Both Keeton and Corron took a step aside from the splitting wood. They looked to just who had been responsible for it. Both of the stallions then got Mush in their eyes and they knew that it was serious business.

“I can’t believe you two act like that. Maybe we should be placing you two in one of those cells. Might calm you down a little bit,” spoke Mush to them. She removed the wrench from the table and laid it upon her back. “Shame on you two, seriously, shame on you two.” And then she was just gone. The mare had turned herself back around and left the office for the trouble that it was. Letting the two stallions follow her out with their heads before they looked back at one another with that long and ever so awkward stare.

---

Medic just continued his ways down stairs up to the level where he thought to have seen Rarity. But every step he took down, she seemed to have been going up. Perhaps it was just going to be his luck that they would be meeting one another middle. Which they actually did for a change. For with the two of them were just one section each away from the other, the stallion gathered all of his guts and finally got a good look at the unicorn as a whole.

Though the sights that he saw weren't for the faint of heart. The corruption was still going strong, if not stronger, inside of her body. Each of the four gloves almost touched her hips. It was an indication for the stallion that he had to hurry up even more. But he also needed to give both Twilight and Trixie the time to prepare themselves for the events to come.

Time almost seemed to be standing literally still for him while she continued to walk up the staircase. With the mane bouncing in out of her face with each step she took, he couldn't help it but to feel actually being mesmerized about her sheer elegance. Even though that below the skin lurked a monster, it was that charm that caused him to actually fall straight down to his bum. Which, perhaps luckily, didn't actually happen for the stallion and he was more than happy about that.

“Medic, is there something going on? You seem rather, quiet today,” Rarity spoke to him with a light worried tone. She too had arrived on his small platform. Her red rimmed eyes looked over to his through the glasses. But only to then just inspect the whole body of the stallion, which was still wrapped inside of the blooded lab coat. “You been experimenting again haven’t you? The strains of blood always just give it away with you, now doesn't it?”

And still the stallion couldn't actually come to the words that he wanted to speak. He still seemed to be pretty much frozen by the tone she spoke her words in. That kind and friendly upper tone, while the sheer darkness of her laid in the undertone. But if he didn't wanted to raise any suspicion to her, he had to talk. And he had to do it quickly.

Rarity just shrugged the events off of her shoulders before she wanted to take another step and thus leave him once again. Though it was the muscles in her legs wanted to make the very first step that the stallion finally kicked back into life. “Manager Rarity!” Medic brought out before she turned her head back to him.

“Oh look who got his tongue back. Speak what you want, I’m a busy mare and run a tight schedule,” the mare replied. She gave him a killer’s glance from her eyes. Perhaps she wasn't in the actual mood to be hearing about his findings, but he needed to report anything about them directly to her. And that was perhaps the saving grace of the stallion as it meant that he was not only allowed, but actually needed to get close to the unicorn. But every advantage that was to be had within the Facility always had a chewing disadvantage to it.

“Discoveries have been made, a-about the magical reservoirs,” Medic then said almost without his traditional accent. For once he actually tried to speak properly. The very moment those words were caught inside of the ivory mare her ears, she turned herself more towards him. She gave him his full attention as her eyes even looked with an interesting gaze. “Events have been discovered on how the process actually works inside of a unicorn. After managing to reanimate a dead body for a couple minutes, I have been able to see a live feed from the organs all together.”

Rarity listened to each of the words that the stallion had to say against her, but some seemed to have been a little farfetched, even for him. Especially one set of words from his sentences seemed to have been completely out of place. “And just where, did you manage to get a dead body to hack on?” she asked of him. The answer was obvious of course, but she still wanted to hear it from him.

There was a question that the physician hadn't thought about. It was always something he had done in the utmost secret about his line of work. Not to mention that it would make her furious if the truth came out. “I have so my connections when it comes down to that downstairs in the boiler rooms. But perhaps you’re more interested in what I found, then were I get my dead from.”

It was an explanation that the unicorn mare bought from him. She even allowed him to continue his words. “Thank you. I have discovered, during the little reanimation, that the organs deliver the magic into the bloodstream like oxygen. Nothing all too uncommon really. But what really caught me by surprise, had to be the fact that the magic, before it goes straight to the horn, has to pass through the heart first. In the heart has every single ounce of blood to pass first, before it’s being pumped through the rest of the body. If we instead of jamming the syringes all over the body, but just in the heart, we might be able to also save whatever is left inside of their own reservoirs and get the blood out at a faster rate.”

Of course were all of his words nothing but nonsense and all of it was a massive lie. But he spoke up it in such a manner that it seemed to have been actually believable. Medic could only hoped that Rarity would be finding it just that for his life and her future all depended on that.

Second passed by as it seemed like an hour each in the mind of the crazed doctor. But somehow the expression that Rarity continued to be giving him was one that was actually rather good instead of the terrible thoughts he had not even an hour ago. But the redeeming words were the facts he was still after. He still needed to know just what she was thing about his words. What her opinion was about them. Yet perhaps the strongest of all, if she actually bought them for what they were.

Seconds ticked away on every single clock inside of the land. A small strand of the purple mane was placed behind Rarity's ear. The mare released a soft exhale and gave him a nod to his words. From the looks of it, she had accepted them as the bullshit they were. Just the sheer tones and excitement that he spoke out against her had been more than enough to make her believe. Perhaps the parasite had also corrupted her memories more than he could have actually thought about. Either way it worked out in his advantage which could be seen as the first major step into releasing Rarity from her curse.

“It’s an interesting story here indeed and one I would love to see myself in action. Which brings me to my only question, is there a prototype in the works that will be able to test this theory of yours? If we really can amp up the productivity with it? You might have saved us here more than you think doctor,” she said to him with a near sickening smile visible below her muzzle.

Yet her words were the second obstacle that he had to overcome. He needed to keep lying to her, but all for the greater good. So in order to achieve just that, the stallion looked back at Rarity with an excited smile upon his face. “Wunderbar!” he then exclaimed with his accent back in the voice. “Zhere is a prototype in zhe making as we speak from some of the machines zhat are being found upon the processing floor. Both Twilight and Trixie are working on it und, if we go jetzt, wir sind just in zeit for the revelation.”

---

Rarity seemed to have been a little off guard by the sheer amount of mixed languages that the stallion spoke to her. But to shake it off had she nodded to him and pointed to him as the signal of needing to go up. “Then I suggest we better be doing that,” she then added to her gestures.

The lab coat wearing stallion nodded to her words and turned himself back around before he galloped up a set of stairs. “Zhis is going to be wonderful!” he explained in a genuine happiness. To her it seemed like he was actually happy and excited about the fact that he had discovered something new about the unicorn body.

But he was mostly just happy that he was being able to persuade his highest official into the lies he had been thinking about for such a while, that he had lost the hope in them. It didn't actually matter anymore in the moment. They were going towards the processing floor where hopefully Twilight and Trixie had been done with the device and the saving of the unicorn could begin.

Speaking about the unicorn, Rarity herself also continued to travel up the stairs but the very corruption had been spreading itself near to her bum already, meeting up just above the tail. Meaning the her entire hind legs were covered in the leather-like material. It would have started to cover up her backside next. If something wasn't done against it, it would have been far too late.

Staircase after staircase was being wandered by the two of them in silence for the events to come. Neither Rarity or Medic even dared or wanted to speak up a word. Medic had so his reasons that he might have actually been starting to betray himself if he did. But it was Rarity who had perhaps the more interesting story to it. She felt the pain once again striking her heart once again. Though that time it more felt like a series of knives were being crammed inside of her chest.

Razor sharp knives that were there to end her life right upon the spot. Of course she didn't wanted to let the stallion take notice of something being wrong. So in order to set him upon a goose chase, she made it look like everything was still perfectly fine in her mind. She continued to keep walking at a regular pace and the looks in her eyes remained the same. It was all just for the show as it felt like she was dying inside of her body.

It even felt that like one by one the organs in her body had been shutting themselves down for whatever reason. Nothing could have actually prepared the unicorn for the events that would be happening next. Instead of having taken the feeling as a warning sign of events to come, she just ignored the whole event and walked through the doors that were leading to the processing floor.

Once the both of them had been through, the sheer amount of darkness was the thing that caught the either of them by surprise. They hadn't expected it to happen and the only light that could be seen from time to time was the magic being collecting itself inside of the chimney. That light always lit up the office of the unicorn, but in the dark it also seemed to be reaching the whole floor.

A nice play of light it happened to be for certain. That was the thing they all had to actually agree on in the silence. A sick and wonderful thing without a doubt.

“So, just where are both Twilight and Trixie then?” Rarity asked of him. She was getting a little bit more impatient for the events. The doctor kept himself silent on the matter and brought her over to the location she was required to be.

Which was a rather simple thing to find given the sheer fact that there was only one other light on. And that was the light by the device. “Manager Rarity, may I present to you the very extractor for the coming generations?” Medic then spoke to her. He looked to the contraption before him. Even with the instructions given to both of the other mares, he still couldn't actually believe that they had managed to make his dream becoming a reality on the matter. Every last bit looked just perfect in his eyes. The stallion then took his glasses off in order to see the device with his own eyes.

And then it was Rarity’s turn to actually look at the thing with a set of wide eyes. For in her field of view she got the same tables the poor ponies usually would have been strapped on, but instead of the mechanical arms coming from and cram their syringes into the body through them, she was looking at an entire new system.

A system that had the table standing completely vertical with the arms going around the thing before they would enter the heart. Yet there was one thing that she didn't seem to be actually getting. One little detail. “Why, four?”

“Four chambers of zhe heart, milady, each syringe goes into one chamber and starts to consume. Zhat, or they can be re-calibrated to go straight into zhe reservoirs,” Medic then explained to his manager. It even was to the best of his abilities, for all he had were predicaments.

It was just when Rarity wanted to continue asking her questions that both Twilight and Trixie appeared from behind the two of them. They both nodded to the two of them. Rarity seemed to have been actually happy to see the two of them being there and then. “Very good, very, very good that you two are here. Means we can all be right here when the testing of the device beings.” Rarity then said before she looked over to the doctor once again. “So, if I may be so free to ask here, doctor, who exactly is going to be the victim for the first try?” Rarity then asked.

“I don’t think that that is mine to answer,” Medic then answered to her. After which he would have pointed over to the other two officials.

“You two?!” Rarity exclaimed after she had followed the hoof. “You two will be calling who is going to be first?! Have you two gone mad?”

“Not exactly Rarity. We won’t be calling who is going to be first. We have unison decided who is going to be first. And that first pony is nopony else than yourself!” Trixie spoke up before she gained a sickening grin across her lips. It was only the start of the near endless battle that was going to be fought.

When those words entered the ears of the ivory unicorn, she was starting to charge up her horn and wheeze deeply towards the three of them. “All three of you, are planning a mutiny on me?! This is the highest form of treason there is in the Facility and all three of you, shall be meeting your end right here and now!” he bellowed to them all, readying herself for an attack.

“Not if I have to say something about that,” the stallion spoke before he reached inside of his pocket and took out a ring. One that seemed to have been made by a rather uncommon material. By the time that Rarity had turned herself over to him, he forced his hoof to go through her magical charges and placed the ring upon the top of the horn. Only to let it fall down to the base where it locked itself. And almost instantly disappeared the crimson red charge of her horn like that. “Don’t worry, it’s just locked for as long as that thing is attached to your head.”

“You, you idiots! Don’t you know what you’re doing to me?!” Rarity raged to the three of them before she wanted to physically assault the stallion. But before she could even lay a hoof on him, it was her who was worked to the ground by both Twilight and Trixie. “You rotten, bastards!”

She had been overmastered by the three of them and had walked straight into their trap. She hadn’t even looked back if the door had closed already. Rarity was about to pay the price for the little trip that she had made. The one that brought her down to the waste progression and consumed the parts she needed. All of her dreams of the near unlimited power that they could be providing to her, would have been thrown down the drain as if they were nothing.

---

There wasn't any mercy shown to the unicorn as it was for that moment. While the other two mares made certain that she wouldn't be going anywhere, the stallion locked each of the clamps around her hooves on the table. But just the four of them wouldn't have been enough to keep a pony truly secure. So even the neck and lower abdomen were closed around her. Not even an inch of movement was granted to Rarity before both Trixie and Medic walked off to the sideline.

Twilight on the other end walked over to the controls of the device and heard the screams and curses Rarity shouted against all of them. But having been secured by the words of Medic in the whispers, she could be telling Rarity the truth without making her remember it.

“You need, to shut up for once and listen!” Twilight shouted towards the manager of the place. Who oddly enough gave her actually the attention and remained silent. The eyes looked over to the mulberry mare who began to do her story. “Years I've worked under you without a single question in my line of work. But one day, you have gone too far, and that day was the day you killed my sister. Consider this my revenge for you on that, you bitch!”

The only thing Rarity could be doing in response to those words was to erupt out in a deep laughter as she saw just how much emotion Twilight still had left in her. But the unicorn stood at the controls of the device so she had all the power in the world. Not a grain of mercy was shown to the manager while the level was being pulled. Which powered up the device and all four of the syringes crammed themselves straight into the four chambers of Rarity’s heart.

It didn't matter if they had to be pushed through bone first before they would finally enter the flesh. It would only result in the hellish pain that Twilight wanted to make her feel. Because seeing Rarity in the pain that she was, felt just so good to her in that moment. Finally she could avenge the unnecessary death of her little sister and close that chapter in her mind. The two unicorns tried to look one another in the eyes without blinking for the longest of time, before Rarity lost her consciousness among her shouts of agony.

Even with the corruption flowing out of Rarity, there was nothing that could be stopping the world from seeing the reality of the Facility. The bomb was still metaphorically ticking for them all. The days were numbered from the beginning of the reign of terror. Sooner or later would the building crumble under its own pride and product.

Chapter 4

Days came and went for the mighty unicorn who ran the infamous Facility. Days and nights switched from one another while she laid peacefully asleep. The dreams that were haunting the inside of her mind were perhaps some of the most interesting that she had in her entire life. And by that did mostly the nightmares of her haunted past seemed to become a horrifying reality. A reality in which she couldn't escape for at all.

---

While the rain continued to tick against the windows of the Carousel Boutique, had Rarity herself sat down in the window sill with a book before her eyes and a steaming cup of tea next to her on the small table. Everything had been turned upside down the moment after that mysterious stallion paid a visit to her and told her that she would be leading the whole place. She couldn't believe it, she didn't wanted to believe it in fact. But the reality of the situation was always a whole lot more different than ponies could have ever imagined.

She began to think back to a time long ago. Back to the very day where she had to be doing her very own tests. It seemed a bit silly for her that she was thinking about it in the first place. But perhaps she could be finding some of the answers she needed in them. A deep sigh was released through her nostrils and the book was both closed and lowered down from her eyes. The brilliant, sapphire blue eyes then turned themselves over to the glass of the window and simply watched to the world outside.

Rarity began to watch how the drops of rain traveled down the massive circular window. She would have allowed her mind to travel back to the time where she was just a filly. To the day that it was her who needed to be doing her tests. The more she stared towards the window as a whole, the more she could swear to be noticing the formations the drops made, to become her memory. “How could it ever have come to this?” the ivory unicorn mumbled to herself just before she closed her eyes just for a moment.

Yet when she opened her eyes again had Rarity noticed that she was in a hallway with just one light at the end. She didn't knew just what was on the other end of it. Or perhaps she knew exactly what was on the other end of that light but didn't wanted to remember herself to such horrible things.

For weeks or even months, had the young mare trained for the events that were about to come up. With a deep exhale did the hooves continue to carry her towards the light. Before she knew it were the eyes closed once again. She didn't wanted to see the transition from the dark hallway to the room where everything would be happening. Her young mind just couldn't handle such a fact. She was terrified within the moment, but who wouldn’t have been?

If she would become too nervous, everything about her would just go in a lock and only her parents could be thawing her out of the ice. Step by step was taken, knowing that the mysterious doorway would be coming closer for her. It was impossible for the young, purple maned unicorn to know just when she would be out of it. The only thing that she could be doing was to hope. And pray on her life that it would be something good.

Step by step was being made before the transition under her hooves was being made. From the cold stone of the floor in the hallway to a sandy, beach-like one. With the sand that crawled up under her hooves, it somehow managed to calm the young mare down from her nerves. The feelings reminded her to times on the beach with her parents.

All of those happier memories were more than enough for her to control the very nerves she tried to fight against and even seemed to be walking in with a gentle smile across her lips.

“And there’s the next one. The young Rarity. You can open your eyes now, child, we aren't going to bite you,” the voice of a mare spoke up within her ears. It was the indication that she had to stop walking and the mare took a deep inhale. Only after that did she open her eyes with care. She wanted to see the environment that she was in.

The sights she bared witness weren't the most common ones. Where she thought that the sand was an indication of a beach, it was in fact the floor of an old area. Rarity shook her head a little bit before she remembered what happened before. Before she found herself walking through that dark hallway.

Her flow of thoughts had been interrupted by one of the three ponies who sat before her. “Lady Rarity, we require your full cooperation and attention,” was said to her and it brought her straight back to the present.

“S-Sorry miss, just, just a little nervous, that’s all.” Rarity replied as she tried to regain her calm again and keep the memories together. “When, when can I begin with the tests?” The faster she had them done in her eyes, the sooner it meant that she could be leaving again.

The mare who had been talking to her from the beginning lowered her glasses a little bit and then looked over the frame, towards Rarity. “You’re the first lady we have today. Not just because of your title, but also how you behave from the looks of it. But yes, begin whenever you’re ready. As long as you remember the deeds that need to be done.”

The young Rarity nodded towards the words as they were being spoken against her before she exhaled deeply. “So the levitation test, the barrier and the beam. I understand,” the young mare then replied. She would have turned to her right and saw the objects to be levitated.

The three ponies on the other end looked over to the purple maned pony with a bit of a surprise. Neither of them had actually been able to dare to expect, let alone see it happen, that a test subject knew all three of the tests that were needed to be done.

All of the sudden they all became even more impressed as the unicorn preformed each of the tests. From the levitation she almost got to the heaviest item there was. None of the three could even have imagined that an old filly had already been such an expert in the arts of levitation. They had do their best not to clap for her. They had to be quiet while she was working on the spell.

The next thing that was on the rooster, was the barrier to protect herself from incoming spells. With a couple seconds of charging done had Rarity managed to conjure a shield around herself that seemed to have been made of ice given the spikes that it had. Once again couldn't any of the judges actually belief what their eyes were showing to them.

---

Yet little did they knew that the show had only just begun. For when it came down to the final act of the testing, Rarity stomped each of her hooves right into the ground and aimed her horn straight into the air. Once again did the magical charge and aura coat the horn while the young mare closed her eyes slowly as the magic had to be doing its work. She called out to every available ounce of magic in her body for the show of a lifetime.

Mere seconds later was it being shot right into the skies. A massive beam of the purest, blue colored magic that the judges had seen within their lives. A massive beam of pure magic that was shot straight to the roof before falling to pieces like sparkles. It was truly a wonderful sight to behold and each of them had to admit that.

Though as mysterious as the charge came, it disappeared as well. The little mare allowed her horn to be discharged from the magic that was flowing through it and she began to rub her head a little bit. Nothing seemed to be making sense to her at the moment anymore and the massive headache wasn't exactly helping either. Once again were the eyes closed and the head lowered while the forehoof started to rub it. Everything just felt broken for her feelings and she wanted to do nothing else but to fall asleep in her bed.

Though she wasn't allowed to be doing that just yet. The judges had their final verdict for the pony. The mare stood up from behind their table and she removed the glasses from her nose. “Miss Rarity, I will be speaking for the three of us that when I say you have succeeded for each of your tests. You can be proud on the fact that you can call yourself, a true unicorn.”

It were the words that made the young mare smile to the three of them with glee, though the two words continued to be racing through her head. Pounding like a sledgehammer going into the wall, those two little words would never leave the young mare alone.

---

Shocked from her own dream did Rarity open her eyes again and noticed that she was in her own room once again. The room she had claimed to herself the moment she began to live in the Carousel Boutique. Everything seemed to be slowly falling into the places of where they needed to be. Which for a reason it was something that pleased the unicorn perhaps a bit more than it should have.

Perhaps she hadn't gotten an exact moment in time of where things seemed to have gone into a different direction for her, but remembering that she was out for the count three days after the tests might have been something to do with it.

The tailor allowed the horn to be coated within the blue aura. The cup of tea was brought over to her lips. Only to be taking a sip from it while her eyes stared to the world outside. Even in the early evening did the ponies rushed down from their works. The rushed back home to the safety of their families and roofs. A thing that she could only hope for her own parents and younger sister.

“I hope you’re already home, Sweetie, for nopony should be having to wander through this terrible storm,” Rarity whispered to herself in between the sip of her tea. Only when the cup was empty did she place it back on the table and allowed to aura to disappear from her horn. The mare then picked up her book again and opened that on the page she had left with her hooves.

If Rarity picked up something with her hooves, it usually meant that her mind was either up to something, or she was just terribly tired for everything that happened that day. But given the fact that it had been raining all of the day, the most likely option had to be the first one. Her mind was up to something, something that was either good or terribly bad.

The very revelation of just what it was up to was given when she spoke up the very first line of the new chapter she was starting to read. “And that’s where it went wrong,” she spoke up to herself. At first it didn't seem to be meaning that much to her but in her mind she continued to be repeating those very words.

Even up to the very point where she couldn't even be thinking straight anymore. Once again was the book closed because of that constant repeat of words. It was placed to her side and the second she had laid it on the table, a lightning flash together with the rumbles in the sky appeared.

Both of the events were unexpected for her. From the initial scare that she got thanks to it, her entire body rolled out of the sill and then fell towards the floor. Her head got the hardest hit as it fell against the edge of the little table before it was being bashed against the floor of her bed.

In just one hit she was being hit unconscious and all of the features in her body gently shut themselves down. But within her thoughts, it was still being repeated. And that’s where it all went wrong, and that’s where it all went wrong, and that’s where it all went wrong.

---

The eyelids of the unicorn began to twitch as if they were trying to protect the eyes from a massive source of light. Which they in fact were actually doing given the large light that hung overhead. With a moan and a groan did Rarity seemed to have come back by her knowledge. Bit by bit she seemed to be actually combing back into the land of the wake and repeated those little words one last time through her mouth. “And that’s, where it all, went wrong,” she managed to get out.

Her voice was weak and the tone even sounded hollow. All of the normally so fierce nature that she used to possess seemed to have disappeared like snow melting in the sun. The Rarity that was known and not so loved seemed to be gone from the world of the living. She was replaced with somepony else entirely. A pony who seemed to be much weaker in both appearance and powers.

All of it changed the second that the eyes were slowly opened. The first thing that they caught was the bright light that shone down upon her. They were quickly closed again and both of her forelegs were brought over them in order to just make sure that they would be protected.

She wanted to speak the words about the events but somehow just couldn't. Perhaps it was a thing that was for the better. Though it also could have been for the worse. Either way, with the hooves pressed against her eyes themselves, she opened them once again and turned herself over.

Only when Rarity was certain that she seemed to be out of the range of the dreaded light, she would be removing the hooves from her eyes and inspect the room. The action was then eventually done and the unicorn began to peek through over to the room as a whole. Everything that she saw seemed to have been left in the state she left it in. But the room itself wasn't the room she had expected to be in. For the first few seconds she couldn't even believe it that was her room.

There wasn't a single memory in her mind over the events as they had gone down beforehand. All that was known to her happened to be the literal firing of a couple workers before she went back up the stairs. “What, what has happened to me?” the unicorn mumbled to herself. It was just before she opened the blankets and sat right up in her bed. With her legs having swing the other way and her body leaning against the wall, everything had to be recollected.

With the cold metal sheet sending the shivers in her back, it sparked something in her mind that caused the eyes to go open widely and she suddenly remembered just what happened. “That’s right, I’m still here. In charge of the Facility,” spoke Rarity to herself. After that she would have released a deep sigh through her nostrils and tried to crawl out of her bed.

The first steps onto the floor were set with a decent amount of strength in them. It made the mare even think she would be working within the hour. Though it was when she wanted to open the door, that her body just shut itself back down again. The unicorn fell back down to the ground and bashed her head against the door. Once again wasn't her head saved from any impacts.

A couple of seconds had she rubbed the top of her head to calm the pain a bit down. She felt the bruise that could have set itself up. “Now that’s going to be one for the scrapbooks,” she jokingly muttered to herself. Then the body was turned around and she used the door to lean against. With her hind legs stretched out and the tail lying above them, she finally noticed something on each of her legs. Something that used to be there before she had fallen asleep. Something that was missing.

A couple little blinks were being made by the mare before she looked a bit closer towards each of her legs. The actual time was taken as she tried to physically remember herself just what it possibly could have been that she was missing from them. She knew there was something, but somehow couldn't recall just what it was.

The legs she was looking at, were all four as ivory white as they always had been. Gone were the black, leathery glove-like objects. On her chest she discovered four scars right above her heart. Or better said, four scares that seemed to have been the place were four things entered her body, and then her heart. “Now this, this is just becoming odder. I need to know, just what happened to, me,” she spoke. The mare tried to hoist her body back up on all four of her legs. Despite the strain that was being placed upon both her mind and body it seemed to be going well enough for her.

At first it seemed like everything was running smoothly and without a hitch. But the trouble actually came the moment when she wanted to take a step. Instead of taking another step, Rarity lost her balance again and through a little, almost circus like, act she managed to end up straight in her bed again.

“…Or not,” she muttered to herself. Then both of her hooves tried to get a hold of her head. It was starting to pound again from the memories it had relieved during her sleep. Once again couldn't she prevent herself from mumbling that one little line. “And that’s where it all went wrong.”

Not even Rarity herself even knew just why she kept on saying that, or where it originally came from that she started to repeat it. It was something that had to way before it was going to be answered though. As the mare herself, despite her headache even, managed to fall back asleep once again and she traveled back to the world of her dreams. A world where she came in a cauldron of just about everything that was actually wrong with her.

---

Hours went by before the unicorn finally even dared to open up her eyes again. Every last function of her body was trying to repair itself while she was asleep. Though certain things just couldn't be repaired there and then. Even with the body placed in such a position that everything seemed to be working great, it was just impossible for her to have done it.

The parasite that lived inside of the corruption of her body had taken just a bit too much of the host, meaning that she needed to start living without a couple of organs fully working. One of them was a kidney and the other being her spleen. Two organs she wouldn't be missing directly but would when they were needed most.

With her being back in the actual land of the wake did Rarity move her pillow against the head end of the bed before she placed her back into it. Resulting in her sitting up in her bed and thus being able to look straight into the mirror that was hung up on the opposing side of it. For the first time in perhaps days or weeks had she been able to look at herself again with a smile. Or in her case, a sickening grin. With the mane the fell in strands before her eyes, she more looked like an actual mess then the lady that she used to be. Not that she cared too much about it in the moment though.

But perhaps it stood for the changes she had been through in the time she ran the place. Over the course of the years, every last bit of the lady that she used to be had not only been destroyed by herself but torn to pieces and eaten by a dozen couple hungry cannibals. That was how it felt to her anyway and how she preferred to explain it to those who remembered her. She actually told the tale so much that she started to believe the words as she told them.

Of course it was something just as insane as she happened to be but there wasn't much else that she could have been doing given the fact she was locked inside of that massive metal box. All the technological advancements that were made in the surface of the land were never gotten to translation into the city itself or the Facility. Instead they would be going over to the problems in their own way. Thus creating the steam powered reality the city lived in.

Though the more Rarity looked to her crimson red rimmed eyes, the more she noticed the four scars upon her chest again. Something about them seemed to have been a little bit unusual to begin with. But now that she had an even better look at them thanks to the mirror, the more curious she was getting towards them.

Nothing about them made sense. How had she managed to get them or how could they have been caused? There wasn't a device in the place to her knowledge that had been able to create such a pattern. One of her hooves was brought over to the scars and carefully started to rub over each one a little bit to see just how far the tissue was healed.

According to her feelings and the sheer tension that laid upon the crusts of skin, Rarity could almost guess that it hadn't been even a week since the tissue had been starting to make it.

Even though that said it was a week, it still was unknown just when the wounds themselves were created. Not to forget how deep they went into her body. There were just so many questions that once again started to flow almost directly into her mind. Perhaps it was better that it caused a black out inside of her mind, as the questions ranged from the reasonable to the utter insane.

Once again had the mighty leader of the Magic Facility dropped her head against her chest. Almost as if she was going to say that she was done with it all. She was knocked in the realm of the unconscious ponies once more.

---

Due to the fact that Rarity had been absent for such a long time, somepony else had to be running the shots in her place and there were only two ponies in the whole place that could have been reasonable enough to take her place until she was returned. And those two ponies were nopony else then Twilight and Trixie themselves. The two of them managed to get the key that was leading to the office of the ivory unicorn and from there on out, they started their little reign over the place.

But on the day that Rarity once again woke up, both Twilight and Trixie could be found within the four walls of the place. Where Twilight was looking through a set of files about workers and seemed to be reading them really carefully with her own glasses, Trixie was looking out over the whole of the processing department.

She had her eyes filled with wonder of just how magical everything was from her point of view, she really felt herself being the most mighty pony in the whole of the place. But never would she be that. Not as long Twilight was still alive, and that was the only pony she didn't even dare to lay a hoof on. “You know Twi, perhaps it is better we just didn't straight up kill her. I mean, then it would have been the two of us calling the shots around here. Might be worth something, for a little while. No, Medic did a really good job cleaning the blood of her,” Trixie said to her.

While the words of Trixie entered the ears of Twilight, the moments of just how Rarity laid inside of the contraption with the syringes taking the dark blood straight out of her body cause her to shiver. The blood was taken out before it was being cleaned and separated from the corruption. It didn't cause the world’s best feeling to come inside of the throat of the mulberry mare.

“It, it was something indeed yes,” she then mumbled to Trixie after having laid the file down. A deep sigh was released through her nostrils as the avenging of Twinkle just felt so good, but she couldn't ever stop thinking about her own little sister.

“Something bothering you again?” Trixie then asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Hm? What? Oh, no, just, just a couple of thoughts that were racing through my mind actually,” Twilight replied to her. She hoped to keep herself cool in the situation.

“Trixie thinks, you need to take some time off and let her call the shots,” the azure mare spoke up with a grin before she walked over to the desk and dropped herself upon Twilight’s lap.

“Oh does she now?” the mulberry unicorn then calmly returned just before she gave a kiss upon the lips of Trixie. “Well, maybe I’ll let her then.”

---

All the way down in the holding cells were the three engineers Keeton, Corron and Mush all suited up in their hazard suits as they were patrolling through the floors of unworthy unicorns. It was a route they had been walking for so long already but every single time that they did it they couldn't help themselves on the facts that they actually belonged in one of the engine rooms.

Guarding the misfits of their race wasn't something that they were created to do. But if there was one thing that were good at, it was scaring the living daylight out of them. Especially Mush seemed to be a little master in it. For she always carried the massive wrench with which she killed Kooiman with. Just to raise the fright even further, she let the stains of blood still on it.

Of course that was the origin for many rumors and gossip that did it’s turn through the cells each night. Gossip like the fact that she was a magical android due to her eyes was one of the first to come. The second and perhaps more liked by her was that she used that wrench to knock the heads in of those who didn't do as she said.

They started to picture her as a massive bully who always wanted to have things done one way, her way. With her being the only guard with a weapon that was visible and covered in blood, all of the young mares and stallions would be listening to the things she had to say. That was if she had to say anything to begin with.

It was the fear for her that caused each of them to be literally at the tips of their hooves. But little did they all knew were the massive feelings of guilt that the three of them felt whenever they walked past a cell. They weren't supposed to be there, never would have been and would be. But who could they argue against?

---

Though the Facility itself wasn't the only place where the mood has been drastically changed from somewhat pleasant to utterly terrible. What was actually unknown to the magic factory was the sheer fact that within the city of Tol Ret Nac, the mood also had dropped because of a simple little fact. In the days that would be leading up to the full recovery of Rarity, the city of the unicorns stood near the brink of its very defeat.

The shield that was supposed to be protecting the whole of the place, was starting to fade. Shimmers of the place had been in the eyes of numerous pegasi who would then make a report about the place in the nearest town. Sometimes that was Cloudsdale, other times it was elsewhere.

So was there Rainbow Dash, an ex-friend of both Rarity and Twilight who was just cruising through the air at her own speed and pace. She had done everything that was needed for the day, the cyan pegasus took the advantage of the wonderful day to just make a trek through the land. Though she wasn't exactly alone. She carried somepony by a rope that went around her middle. At the end of that rope there was an adult looking Scootaloo who tried her best to keep up and keep on flying with Rainbow Dash.

Though due to her being born with a handicap that prevented her from flying ever since she was a filly, scientists and doctors at the Ponyville Hospital had been working nearly a year on something that would actually make her fly. Original tests showed that everything was working more than perfect and they only had to test it still in practice.

That was where the young mare came into play. She would be the perfect testing candidate for the invention that was being made and almost right after she had said yes, a custom made build was delivered by her house. It was of course something that took her by surprise by the fact of what it was and the mare opened it to make the discovery of a lifetime. It was a mechanical device that actually helped her to fly through the air with the help of her own wings.

All of her dreams had suddenly become a reality and the time she was with Rainbow was only the second time she was using them. They worked perfect for gliding among the air streams and currents, flying herself was still a little difficult but she got the hang of it due to such an, in her words, awesome teacher.

“You’re off Scoot!” Rainbow shouted down to the young mare who then started to flap her wings strapped into the device. And before the two of them even knew it, she was off into the air. It was something that caused a massive smile to form itself with the lips of Rainbow. Never in her life had she seen Scootaloo just so happy. Not to mention that she actually flew so graceful through the air even with the things. “Now that’s a work of beauty right there.”

The purple maned pegasus continued to fly through the skies. Though she seemed to notice something in the distance ahead of them. Her eyes were almost certain of the things that they saw yet she couldn't believe it. It was only there for just a few seconds before it then just disappeared once again. Almost as if it never had been standing there to begin with. Even though she didn't technically wanted to do it, she still had to inform Rainbow about it.

So with a couple of careful motions and perfect flying maneuvers, she hovered next to her mentor and told what she had seen. “Believe it or not, but I have seen something that looked like a silvery spire in the air. It was just there for a minute or two, before fading away.”

Though Rainbow didn't actually took it as serious as she should have been doing. Instead, she chuckled it off before messing a bit with the young mare her mane. “You’re hallucinating due to the altitude. You ain't used to this so your brain has to compensate for it. Come on, let’s go home again or further to the west. Wanna fly a bit yourself?” she said to the young mare with a smirk.

It seemed odd for the younger pegasus that Rainbow wanted to just go away almost right after they had arrived on a spot. But when she was asked to fly herself a bit, all of it was pressed away in her mind and she nodded rapidly up and down.

“Alright then, Geronimo!” Rainbow shouted. Then she dropped herself towards the ground, only to then open her wings at the last moment to rocket away. That was still a little bit too advanced for the orange mare. Instead she just took it easier and rocketed off in a straight line.

---

But Scootaloo had seen it right. She had indeed seen a silvery spire in the distance. She had seen the Platinum Tower itself through one of the infamous gaps that plagued the hidden unicorn capital. It was inside of that very same tower, on the floor that was once the very place where the princess herself wandered around and about, that the highest officials of the city had gathered themselves to discuss the matter of those very gaps.

All of them had so their own visions and version on just how they would have been dealing with the holes. The terrible holes that had come into their precious shield. Their biggest fear is of course that the whole of the city would have been discovered. That would have cost a thousand years of secrecy to be just flushed down the very drain the water always went.

Discovery of the city was about the last thing that each of the ponies wanted and that was something that had been made clear from the moment the meetings had begun. Yet at the end of everything, there was one official who had been rather silent and kept on listening where the other shouted. “If the gentlecolts would for once just keep their mouths shut and listen to me,” the suit wearing, brown coated and green rimmed eye pony spoke up after he stood up from his place. “The holes in the shield are becoming more and more unstable, and uncontrollable. All we can do, is to go to one place where they might be having the answers to our troubles.”

“And that place being?” another pony asked of him. All of them had managed to shut themselves up. Each of them wanted to know just what it was that the mind of the stallion had come up with. All of them had calmly walked back to their seating and assumed an interested pose. Whatever he was going to say, it seemed like that the stallions always had managed to make a massive impact upon the group whether it was intentional or not.

“It’s really, really, simple. We go to the Facility that just docked a couple of weeks ago and ask what they would be doing in such a position. If they can give us the amount of extra magic we need in order to keep the barriers up, all of our secrets will be more than safe and you, you gentlecolts, know that is the only way of how we are going to be able to deal with this madness,” he spoke up to the lot of them. It was a simple plan for sure, but also one that seemed crazy.

There wasn't much they could be doing to go against it. He had managed to get all of them right in the lock where he wanted to them to be. Some problems were just that easily fixed and solved. The trouble was to actually making sure ponies would be finding it. “So what I propose, is that one of us goes over to the place and has a word with the manager about making a deal on the facts and figures as they stand.”

“Then it will be you who is going!” another stallion then shouted before he pointed towards the green eyed pony. Who on his own turn simply nodded and stood up. The jacket that was laid on the back of the chair was picked up. With the help of a green colored magical aura put on for good measure.

“Then I best be on my way, can’t afford it to lose another boost now can we?” the stallion said against all of them with a grin. “We’ll meet again, as soon as this is over.” With those simple words had he left the ancient old throne room of Platinum herself. All in order to make his way over to the dreaded Facility.

---

Once the stallion had finally arrived upon the place, he had walked calmly through the front door of the massive steel box. He would have trotted to a clerk that was sitting behind a desk, who was making a couple notes. The stallion laid his eyes upon the mare and gently gave a smile to her.

“Can I help you, sir?” she then asked in a tone that wanted to actually help him out with any troubles he might be having. It was something a little bit unexpected, even for him to say the least.

He straightened his bow tie a little bit before he looked over to her again and gained a small blush over his cheeks. “Uhm, yes, yes you can. If it is possible, I would like to meet with your manager as soon as possible, preferably within half the hour actually, running out of time, so to speak.”

“I can’t promise you anything, but who might I say is wanting to talk to her?” the clerk said to him before her horn charged itself up in the crimson red aura. An arcane headset was conjured into existence as the number of Rarity’s headset was mentally being dialed.

“A member of the court of princess Platinum, then she’ll be knowing enough.” The stallion wasn't sure just who had been in charge of the Facility though. All that he knew was that it was a mare as beautiful as the sunrise according to words he had picked up left and right. With the information given did the mare behind the desk nodded. She finished dialing the number and would have waited for the message to be picked up.

Yet high up in the building, hidden deep inside of her room did Rarity gain the call in her head and then just conjured one of the headsets of her own. It was safe to say that she wasn't exactly in the mood to pick it up as it became clear in her next set of words. “I don’t care who you are, but if this isn't important, I will make sure you won’t be calling me every again, am I clear to you?!”

The clerk just rolled her eyes before she spoke the words of ‘not a morning mare’ just with her lips. Something that caused the stallion to chuckle a little bit. “As crystal ma’am. But I think that a member of the court of princess Platinum standing here at the reception might actually be important or have some importance to you. He would like to have an appointment with you, within half an hour. Something really important in his own words.”

Suddenly the unicorn almost jumped straight out of her bed. Hearing the words that were spoken against her caused her heart to almost skip a beat or two. Never could have ever imagined just a member of the court to be wandering inside of the place. “Give, give me ten minutes, then I’ll be with him. …Actually, make it twenty. Twenty minutes and then I’m with him,” Rarity replied to the clerk before she broke the connection as a whole.

Chapter 5

The ivory unicorn seemed to have gathered everything that she needed in order to meet the member of the court of princess Platinum. For perhaps the first time ever did she allow herself to wear a suit that was more than suitable for a manager of an important business. Which she actually happened to be in more the one way of the word. There was a lot that was going through her head just as of why her help was required downstairs or by the court to begin with.

Perhaps she would be getting some kind of promotion that would help her to rise within the circles of the city itself. The chances were of course rather slim of that actually happening but she was giving every chance it had. She wanted to be recognized even within the city as a mare who knew how to run a business.

It was an image of herself that she preferred not to lose under any given circumstances. Given just how everything had been going into the Facility after it had docked, all seemed to have been well going so well. Perhaps even a little bit too well in her eyes at certain points. Not that it mattered all that much to her actually. With the sapphire blue colored tie being fixed for the meeting did the unicorn release a deep exhale. Which in response actually caused her to be a little bit light headed. She still wasn't fully the old pony that she used to be but she had gotten a long way since the hours she just laid on her bed. She felt herself pretty decent enough outside of the fact that there wasn't any information given about anything.

It was above the washing table that Rarity calmly leaned against and opened the door of a small cabinet. Inside of it laid a couple of her personal belongings along with a pack of aspirins. That was about the very thing she would be needing if the unicorn even wanted to make it downstairs. The sheer heat, the sounds of metal clunking would be just the utmost disastrous for her brain. The little box was opened and she took out two pills that were then downed into her throat while she took a massive swig of water from a glass.

It may not have seemed like all too much that could have been helping her but any little bit actually helped her. As long as she would be keeping herself to her senses. Only that way everything would be more than fine in her eyes. Just after she had drunk both of the aspirins and the water, the glass was lowered down in the sink, the box stored and the cabinet closed. The crimson red rimmed eyes looked into the mirror for a moment as the horn was still gently charged with magic.

Without any form of speech or motion was the eye color changed by itself from crimson red to a much more pleasant, sapphire blue. The color that she used to be wearing within them. It was a helpful little spell for her as it meant that she could just remain a bit more normal then she usually seemed to be. The red rimmed eyes were usually scaring off many workers and victims alike.

The last thing that she needed there and then was to scare the member of the court away. Thus blowing everything they could have been gaining from the meeting straight out of the window.

With one last look in the mirror, the unicorn mare gave herself a gentle smile and a nod. Her body then turned itself around and left the room for what it was. She started on the journey to the very entrance of the Facility, a place where few actually could leave from.

---

Down on that very same floor, the brown coated, green rimmed and suit wearing stallion was just looking through the little museum that had been installed in the very front of the place. Of course it just had to function as a decoy for the events as they were really going on. It was perhaps the best way that it was done the way it was. It meant that the lies of how magic would have been created still remained a mystery for those who didn’t know it, for those who didn’t wanted to know it.

A mystery that would have been closely guarded not only by Rarity but also the workers of the place. Including the clerk behind the desk. Every pony who worked in the place knew how the magic was actually being made. The question remained whether or not the court of the platinum princess actually knew it. Whether or not the princess herself had once spoken her lips about the facts of the place in a will or something.

Either way, the stallion was just calmly looking over the items that were on display, not to mention the statues and the painting of important ponies who helped in the creating of the magic way back in the dark ages. Though the thing that caught the most of his time, had to be the very statue of Platinum herself. A statue that was actually cast from the very same material as her name. The resembles against the princess was uncanny and it caused the stallion to gain a massive smile upon his face.

“Like two drops of water,” he said to himself before the sounds of a heavy metal door could be heard within his ears. Out of just sheer curiosity did the pony turn himself around and noticed a mare standing before the little desk. Only to then see how the clerk pointed to him. But the thing that followed was perhaps the most beautiful of them all.

As the mare turned herself around, her brilliant sapphire blue eyes almost seemed to have shone within the lights. The purple mane that covered the right left eye just a little bit after the head had stopped before it fell back into its original position.

Out of every last pony he would have expected the place to be ran by, he couldn't have ever imagined that it would have been done by such a beauty. A beauty who then would have made her way over to him with a gentle smile going over her lips.

“Good day sir, you wished to see me as I understood from my assistant,” said Rarity to him. She would have come to a stop a couple of hooves away from him. Though the stallion couldn't come out of his words at first. Instead he would allow a deep breath to do the job for him, while the mind thought up the words he required to speak.

One of his own forehooves carefully managed to wrap itself around one of Rarity’s and every so carefully brought it up to his face. Only to plant a gentle kiss upon it and then to let it go again. His eyes looked into hers and he seemed to have been mesmerized by them. “I indeed wished to see you, milady..?”

“Rarity,” the mare replied with a faint blush that went across both of her cheek from the kiss. Never could she have even expected the stallion to be such a gentlecolt. Yet on the other end was she glad that he was like that. To her it meant that she was perhaps more than just a tyrannical leader of a death factory. A nice change of thought for once actually.

“Milady Rarity, a beautiful name for such a fine pony like yourself,” the stallion replied to her with a small smile of his own. “But allow me to introduce myself, the name of Platinum Sea has been given to me so many years ago.” After his little introduction did the stallion make a polite bow before the unicorn mare. Rarity almost seemed to be captivated by him for some reason.

“It certainly is a pleasure to be meeting you, mister Sea,” replied Rarity just before she also went into a bow before him. Mutual respect was given to the two of them, but for different reasons.

“Oh please, just call me Platinum, just like our beloved princess,” the green rimmed stallion replied to her. They both rose back up from the bow and looked at one another for a few seconds.

Naturally was Rarity still more than curious of just what a pony of his status would be doing inside of her factory. But perhaps the answer was closer than she would have thought. But in order to break the silence, the ivory coated unicorn spoke her words. “Shall we go outside, Platinum? I actually prefer to walk just through the city from time to time. Unless you object against it that is.”

Platinum looked a little bit towards her in an odd gaze before his eyes closed themselves and he released a gentle chuckle. “Not at all lady, Rarity, please go ahead and I’ll follow suit. The day is lovely actually, would be an actual shame if we just spent all our time inside of the muffled box you own. No offence,” he replied to her with a gentle smile.

“None taken, and you’re more than right when it comes down to that yes.” Rarity replied to him before she turned herself around and began to make her departure of the factory. “Oh and,” she looked over to the clerk, “take a note that I’m out. If somepony needs me, they can go to either of the under officials. That should be all.”

It was after those words were spoken that both Rarity and Platinum Sea left the building for what it was. When the doors finally had closed themselves behind the two ponies, all of their words couldn't be heard anymore and the reason why she was needed still remained to be unknown.

---

Though the clerk behind the desk had so her own opinions about the stallion as a whole. He might have charmed her a little bit when he entered the place and even managed to get Rarity in his grasp but something about him just didn't make much sense to her. With a set of sneaky looking eyes she kept on spying whether or not the two of them had already gone.

Through the glass doors she noticed how Rarity continued to speak about something against him but they were still actually there. There was only one thing that she could have done. Which was to just continue her work as it was given to her for the time being. So that was exactly the thing that she did. Everything just continued like their meeting had never happened.

Though a few minutes later had she looked once again through the glass doors. The clerk noticed that the two of them had finally gone. To do whatever it happened to be that they would be doing to begin with. Her horn charged itself up in the crimson red aura and an arcane headset was conjured into existence.

The thing was placed around her head and she mentally dialed the number to either Trixie’s or Twilight’s room. She could only hope that one of the two would have been able to answer the calls. It seemed a little bit odd, especially in the mind of the clerk, but she thought that stallion would be actually the very cause of the destruction of the place.

Perhaps she was just suffering from delusional ideas or some kind of paranoia. Either way, the under officials still had to know just what exactly had been going on between Rarity and the stallion. The tedious seconds of waiting were perhaps the only thing that always would have been gotten on her nerves when it came down to calls. Those helpless seconds in which one would discover just whether the other would pick up, or let it ring. It was a feeling that would be eating her up from the inside out. She wasn't happy with it to begin with.

But then finally and eventually was the call got picked up by one of the two. “Good day ma’am, clerk at the front desk here. I just like to inform you that manager Rarity has gone into the city together with a stallion who said he was of the court of Platinum herself.” After she spoke her words there was a silence on her side remained for perhaps longer than it usually would have been.

It was only after a few seconds of her silence that she spoke up once again. “I, I understand. I already had so my feelings about him, matter of fact. Nothing made sense to him in my eyes. But, give me a moment, I’ll be with you,” she spoke before allowing the headset to disappear.

The only thing that followed was that she released a deep sigh through her nostrils while her back leaned itself into the chair a bit more. Judging from the words, she had to actually go up to the very room of the under officials to bring out the report of the mysterious Platinum Sea. It wasn't something she particularly looked forward to. But the command of either three of the highest officials had to be followed up or the trouble would not have been worth it.

So in the end and about five minutes after the call had ended, the unicorn made released herself from her chair and walked up to the massive steel door through which Rarity first came.

Once she had walked through it, the pony stood at a small platform of the spiraling staircase that went through the whole of the building. The lights covered in blood, the stench of the dead and the sweat of the living, the sheer cold metal sheets. All of it was just adding to a massive shiver that went over the back of the pony. She could be considered extremely lucky that she was allowed to be working outside of the actual place where everything happened.

But it was only a small thing that helped her. Because of the fact she was at the ground level, the clerk had to go up all of the stairs in order to reach the very floor the two would be. The ability to teleport herself through the building was a thing she didn't have. Not to mention that she wasn't even trained further into the magical arts outside of a little bit of a levitational spell left and right.

So the massive climb could only begin and perhaps end on a place she didn't even have an idea where it would be. It all seemed so unusual for her. Even after having walking the stairs day in and out at least twice to get to her bunk bed, everything still felt odd. The mare never got actually used to the ways of the place and perhaps that was the better thing to have been done, or not.

While she walked upon the stairs, her eyes caught two ponies that were going down from them. The both of them wore the hazard suits around their bodies, but the helmets were taken off. She saw a blue coated stallion and a green coated mare talking to one another when they passed each other. Though not much attention afterwards was given to her.

The stairs alone, going up all the way to begin with, was already a pain in her flanks and required perhaps a bit more attention than she would have liked. “I hate these bloody stairs just so, so, so much,” the mare muttered almost in silence to herself.

---

But the two ponies that she had passed along the way, were actually the two former engineers Keeton and Mush. They were one their way to the first floor of holding cells. “Keet, just shut up alright! I know it isn't our place to be standing, but the very least we would be doing is our actual job. Besides, babysitting isn't that hard. They can’t be going anywhere even if they wanted. They placed a shield on the roofs so they can’t get on the catwalks remember,” said Mush to the stallion.

“No Mush, I’m not going to be quiet just because I have to. I’m an engineer who would be working on those damn engines and yar be knowing it better than any stinking soul in this place,” replied Keeton with a stern voice. It wasn’t much later before they arrived at the floor they needed to be. The stallion opened the door for her and the two of them entered the lowest holding cell floor.

It was before the door even closed itself behind them that the blue coated stallion was reminded just why he hated it there so much. Even on the place they were standing, they could look right inside of one of the cells. And the sheer amount of terrified faces, not to mention defeated ponies they already saw, caused the two of them to place their helmets on right away.

Locked and loaded for their patrol through the floor, they communicated to one another through a headset of their own. “You know, Keeton, sometimes you’re just a massive foal,” Mush snarled to him. She had picked up just where the stallion had left off with his words. “You have to admit that working here beats working in the intense heat of the boiler room. Not to mention the fact we don’t have to worry about exploding furnaces or something like that anymore. You got to row with the oars that you have. Might wanna look inside of that.”

“Oh can you just shut that mouth of yars for a moment or three? I’m starting to get sick of it,” Keeton replied to her in a growling tone. They walked past the first set of cells. Both of their eyes went over each and every unicorn inside of them that was classified as unworthy to use the magic they produced. In their eyes, they were just the cattle for the product that was required to be made.

They were nothing but a resource that they would be using. Though perhaps that very mindset was the thing that drove Keeton over the edge. Perhaps it was because of that simply little fact that he couldn't and perhaps wouldn't actually wanted to work upon the holding department. Because of the fact that deep inside his body, somewhere hidden inside of his tainted heart, there was that tiny scratch of decency still hidden away. But it wouldn't be just that feeling inside of it. Another one was the fact of separating right from wrong.

Everything that he saw inside of the place reminded him just how wrong their deeds perhaps could have been and perhaps had become through the gears of time. Though much time to think about anything wasn't there, as Mush actually spoke her words in her response. “Again?” the mare teasingly asked him before she chuckled to herself.

“Again yes!” Keeton snarled to her as if he was going to strangle her. But creating a fight in the holding department wouldn't have been the wisest of ideas to begin with. Not to mention that it would be standing bad in the Facility’s images and might be giving the unworthy unicorns some hope that they could set the personal against one another.

“Alright, alright, calm down here, geez,” Mush then said to him. After that did her eyes went over another batch of young mares and stallions. From the looks that they gave them, they must have been just arrived by something or somehow. Either way, their days would have been counted from the moment they failed their tests. One day or another, they would be processed.

The green coated mare wanted to speak her words of hatred about them just so much, but didn't do that over the headset. A little thing that was done to make certain that the blue coated stallion wouldn't go on an all-out rampage through the place. Preventing was always better than healing and that lesson had Mush learned a long time ago.

Though the little thing that neither of the two knew was the fact that somewhere deep inside of the bowels of the place somepony seemed to had once again figured a way of escaping the place. Even with the shield active above each of the holding cells, there still seemed to be a way that they could be getting out and they would be using all of the materials necessary.

The most fun part about the whole of the thoughts was the very fact that it was on the floor where both Keeton and Mush were doing their patrol. With them actually being the only two guards to keep the whole place in tone, as the rest were busy with their break, it would be them two who would have made the eventual discovery of the breakout.

“I don’t care what it is yar saying or going to say to me, or her, or even them, I just want to get out of here as soon as possible,” muttered Keeton. His eyes looked with care over each of the ponies in the cells. Watching them straight in the eyes whenever he could.

“The only way that that is going to be possible, is in a body bag. You know that right? Once you’re in here, the only way out is by dying and it can’t be faked. They know all of the little tips and tricks that you can be doing about that and for that really,” Mush replied cold to the stallion. “But if you like, I can help you with that.”

“Ya keep yar dirty hooves of you, off of me. Try it and I will give you a fight you won’t forget in a long time to come.” Keeton them spoke up before they turned around another corner.

---

While the two ponies kept themselves busy in the holding floor with the ponies that were locked up and unworthy, another stallion on one of the higher levels of the place was looking to something a bit more interesting. Day after day had he kept it close to himself. Almost as if he cherished it like one of his own foals. The sheer scientific data that he would be getting out of the stuff was a massive breakthrough in all of his researches and moments as a scientist.

Medic had actually taken all of the corruption out of Rarity’s blood for certain but he never had thrown it away like Twilight and Trixie asked of him. Instead he had kept it to experiment on it as a living organism. To see just where it would possibly be falling under and perhaps, how it could be living inside of the waste products of the place. All of the massive questions that were floating around and he couldn't answer a single one of them.

Even with the air tight sealed jar standing in front of him, his eyes looked at the life inside of it. There wasn't anything he could be doing. Releasing it back into the world was without a doubt not the best option. But what if he could release it back into its natural habitat of the wastes?

It certainly was something idiotic but then again, it was the physician of the Magic Facility for starters. The very stallion who once hacked up a unicorn just to see how the insides worked and left the carcass just lying on a table for the next few days. Hygiene procedures during the operations and research were optional, in his eyes. But the parasite that had been living inside of Rarity wanted to control the unicorn forever. That was the thing that caught the most of his interest.

Not a single day after he got a hold of the samples was missed to look at them and study them. Even in the air locked jar and without any food did the parasite still seemed to have been able to survive for days. Perhaps it had consumed so much of the unicorn that it could actually be doing that before it looked for a new host.

“Simply fascinating,” Medic mumbled to himself before he gained a wicked grin across his face. He got obsessed with the thing that lived inside of that jar. The sheer waving motions that the black blob made to impress him were just mesmerizing. Almost as it was actually calling him to open the jar and release it. Almost as if it had gotten a will of its own to look for the next host.

All attempts did of course fail as the stallion happened to have been lot wiser than to just be doing that. The chance was there that that was actually the saving grace for him. The very thing that managed to keep him alive in the world that was being ruled by the insane.

Yet the urges to continue the research couldn't even stop him from perhaps going over the literal edge of things. He wanted to discover, he wanted to know everything that could have been done about the parasite. And there was only one place where he could be actually learning more from it than anywhere else in the whole building. “Zhat is it!” Medic spoke up to himself before he stood up from his desk and took the jar in a levitational field.

Together they left the office of the stallion to return to the ‘home’ of the parasite. The original place of where it used to be living before it was being transported over to the body of Rarity herself. Which, in and of itself, had to have been one of the more stranger operations that the pony ever had conducted in his entire life.

---

When he arrived at the floor that was working on the waste products, the mare who used to be standing there, just came out of the door and locked it up again. She released a deep sigh through her nostrils which was then amplified by the suit itself. The massive sigh of relief wasn't something that the stallion was used to hearing and tilted his head a little bit.

“Something the matter Fraulein?” he then asked her with a gentle and kind time. Though he only spoke after he had walked into her hearing distance.

The mare herself yelped softly before she turned around against the door and looked from side to side. She seemed to have been truly terrified about something, if not anything. But when she finally got the stallion in her eyes, the fears and fights actually managed to sink back down into her heart. “Oh it’s you, Medic, I thought you were Rarity, or any of the other officials. Do tell me, what brings you here?” she said to the stallion. She left the door and removed her helmet.

“Vat really brings mir here is zhis actually,” the stallion said to her. Then he shook the jar with the parasite in it a bit, stirring it up. Making it wiggle a bit more.

“And that, is what?” the mare just asked him. She had not a single clue of what it could have actually been.

“Now zhat is the fun part. Zhis is the very thing that manager Rarity once consumed from the wastes du ist controlling. Zhe parasite that lives in zhe waste product actually bounded itself mit ihr,” he explained to her. What followed was that there came a nasty grin formed itself across his lips.

The unicorn mare had to keep her head together in order to make certain that she knew exactly what he was talking about. And even then it was still a lot of literal hocus pocus for her. “So, what you’re saying is that, that thing inside of there, actually lived inside of her for a while? How on earth did you manage to extract it from her? …Actually, don’t answer that one and keep it away from me. I still have nightmares about her coming after me all covered in that stuff.”

“Ich only wanted to drop zhis back in its natural habitat. It should dissolve into zhe millions of partials it once began as. Meaning, it will be harmless.” Medic then reassured her the best he could.

“Do what you want, just don’t go in without a hazard suit and don’t do anything stupid. I need my dinner and bed… Night doc,” the mare simply spoke up to him before she undressed herself completely and then left the stallion for what he was. And the stallion himself looked at both the jar, the suit and the door before he gave himself a small nod.

---

Both the fully suited Keeton and Mush walked around one of the corners of the holding department. They wanted to inspect the next line of blocks on the floor. Everything seemed to have been going as they would have expected from the ponies. All of them were terrified, disorientated and overall not in a state to actually fight them. But that was one thing, as for the looks, they could have been deceiving as they always did and were used to.

The two of them continued walking through the hallway. Though it was Keeton who suddenly changed the subject of their conversation to keep himself actually silent for a while. “Ya seen or heard what happened to the manager, one moment she was all like in these black glove-like things and the next nopony hears anything from her for a set of days. Ya think she might have ended her life and now is somewhere in the next?” he asked of his partner.

But in response did Mush shook her head from side to side. She didn't believe the words as he spoke them to her. “It’s odd indeed of just how that part went actually down. I don’t believe that she actually has gone. I say somepony extracted the thing from her and she’s out for the count. The doc seemed to be very pleased with something over the last couple of days actually. Something he always keeps very close to himself actually. Celestia knows just what it can possibly that he had managed to get out of her. But if it is any good or something terrible, I don’t wanna be near him when he has that,” Mush had replied to him.

Keeton would have huffed a little bit before he gave a nod to her words. “Now that makes two of us, actually. And yar words are likely to be believed. But here, here I ain't so sure who lives or dies. She might have died and we are now under the rule of the other two ponies. Now that’s gonna be something we don’t want to be anywhere,” the stallion added to his words.

Before Mush could even reply to those set of spoken words, the alarm had began to ring over the whole of the floor. The two ponies first looked at one another for a moment before they looked behind them. They knew the origin of the sounds came from their floor and a gallop was set into motion. They had to see just what had happened. In their minds it could have been anything that went wrong and down inside of the place.

Yet the two of them could only hope that it was a false alarm. The two of them galloped as fast as they could to the holding cell where the sounds came from. Mush was in fact the first one to arrive. In her eyes she almost caught the impossible, or the thought to be impossible.

When Keeton finally arrived himself, he looked into the holding cell and noticed the heap of ponies all piled up as if they only just had fallen. “This can’t be true…” he spoke up to himself. The eyes looked up to the shields. When the shield came into his view, both of his eyes opened themselves even wider. Never in his life he had expected it to witness, but the holes were there and the doors stood open wide on either side.

“Corron, you up there?!” Mush spoke over the headset. She tried to reach the third engineer with everything she got. “If you get this, we have an escape attempt on the level you are. Both doors are open so they could have gone anywhere. Good luck finding them. I’ll be sending Keeton over as well while I work on the shield,” she spoke over the intercom. They could have only prayed then.

Keeton nodded to the red maned unicorn as he heard the conversation over his own headset and was gone literally in a flash. “The hunt is on,” he spoke up with a chuckle to himself.

Corron himself had started to search vividly for the missing ponies. He wanted to set literally everything on everything to make sure they would be found and brought back to their cells. Of course he was well aware of what happened the time that Sweetie Belle was caught and the time after that one. No matter how many attempts the unworthy's were doing, the workers made sure that nopony would be actually getting out of the place. The last two times they were just floating in the air, but now that they were back against the city itself. One escape into there would be a disaster to the whole of the place. Secrets could be spilled, revelations made, nasty stuff would happen.

The hawk-like eyes of the stallion scanned each and every last corner of the hallways that he was going through. But it didn't matter where he went, there was nothing in his eyes that seemed to be looking like an escape. The only evidence that he found, were the open doors near the catwalk, but that was it. Everything else was just closed off from everything and it was something that almost literally killed him.

“Corron, you found anything yet?” the sudden voice of Keeton spoke to him.

“I haven’t found a damn thing in this bucket of doors. I don’t know where they could have been gone to, but wherever they are, they are good at hiding themselves. All the doors are still locked at my end. Either they closed them after passing to make it look like nothing happened, or they are still near the beginning,” replied Corron before his eyes turned around over every last corner there was. Even with the helmet of his suit off, it still was almost impossible to see just where the pony or ponies had gone to.

“Alright, I’ll be with ya shortly. Keep those eyes peeled lad. Can’t afford somepony escaping,” replied Keeton to him. It would have taken just a couple seconds before a sigh was clearly audible.

“You think I didn't know that myself, Keeton?! Just haul that heavy ass of yours over to here and help me find those misfits. I want to strangle them just so much by now,” the bold stallion muttered over the headset before he turned his body back around to witness what was going on behind him. “Nothing, expectable from a place like this.” A deep grumbling sigh was released through his mouth afterwards just before the stallion continued with his search.

---

On the other end of the spectrum was Mush charging up her horn in order to get the shield back up and even placed a secondary layer over it. It may have seem like too much protection but it was better than having nothing at all. While the alarm continued to sing its song over all three of the holding floors, every last employee was brought up to speed to the events as they were and the searching simply continued. They would be finding those who came out of their cell and give them a quick and painful death before the machines would even be able to get their claws on them.

Mush was still repairing the holes in the shields of the cell before added yet another layer upon them. And the second layer didn't just went over the open roofs, it also went down before the cast iron bars. She would be making certain that escape would have been impossible from there on outward.

She still couldn't actually wrap her head around the fact that they managed to pile themselves up, use one another to make an escape like that. It was a daring idea and brilliantly executed given the result, that was a thing that she had to admit. Though it would also have been the last time anypony would be doing such a stunt upon the workers of the place. And Mush would be making that a reality with the double shielding.

---

Though back on the place where the bold stallion just had left, three sets of eyes would have revealed themselves out of a small unseen corridor. All three of them then just as suddenly disappeared again from the hiding place. And then did they one by one reveal themselves. Three ponies had managed to crawl of the hellhole. They were two young stallions and one young mare who were actually the only three able to escape the holding cell. Somehow, they had managed to save their skins from the terrible factory of death.

But they knew their escape wouldn't be an easy one. Especially with all of the alarms that were set off and the guards looking for them. The silence that the three ponies kept among themselves, was something that wasn't seen much before. All three of them had their hearts pounding in their throats and it was the mare who was actually looking for a way out of the place.

The two stallions just stood there and talked to one another about what was going to be the best way of actually getting out. Yet whether or not talking would have been that effective against a whole factory that wanted them dead, was a whole other question to be answered. While the stallions kept on talking, the mare herself actually discovered a small fault in the system. One of the doors was still open and by the looks from it, they could be making it through without a problem.

“Come on!” she whispered to the two stallions, who then hesitated just for a second or two. But then they knew it was their time to make the escape. They had come so far already, it would be a shame if they were caught just after they had gotten out of it. “This way and don’t lose me, I don’t want to be the only one who's getting out of here, understood?” she said to them with a smirk before the three of them entered a quiet gallop towards the door itself.

Chapter 6

It only had been a few days prior to the escape attempt that the three ponies had been collaborating with one another. It was to make sure they would be getting out of the place alive. One night in the facility was more than enough for the three of them to be knowing that something was wrong. That something was terribly wrong within the very walls that kept them caught. But the tale of just how the three got together and just how they managed to actually escape the place was something that not even the workers of the infamous factory could have even dared to think let alone talk about.

For in the days that Rarity laid knocked out in her bed from the drastic medical procedure, the latest bunch of poor souls that were deemed to be unworthy were teleported right into the cell. Ever since the whole of the place had docked into the city, there were new manners needed to get the ponies up unto the place. The only way that it could have been done, was to teleport them in.

It seemed to have been a rather dangerous maneuver but Rarity herself had given the green light for the strategy. It meant that the chariots and their drives could be decommissioned and thus placed out of the Facility’s orders as whole. They were given a rather large sum of bits if they would keep themselves silent. Those drivers would be just that as they feared the sheer power that the building could be producing and the last thing that they actually desired to was to be caught in the hooves of that ivory coated menace.

So when the latest bunch was teleported in, the guards then teleported themselves back out of the place. Among them was a pearl coated, green maned mare was one of the first that had managed to walk over to the bars that held them all in place. Fears and frights had started to rush through her body. She thought about the sheer horrors that could be done to her. In her eyes she caught nothing else than cells with mentally broken ponies who were all afraid of something.

She couldn't place it in her mind just what it was that all of them were so frightened for but she could be doing a little gamble that it would have been something that flowed through the pipes on the ceiling. Despite the massive amounts of fear that were running through her body, the young unicorn mare dared to look up to the very pipes themselves.

The mare could only be guessing just what was flowing through them and turned herself around. Her violet rimmed eyes looked over all of the ponies that were in the cell and then noticed the pair of them. Just the pair of them that were sitting all by themselves. Almost if they had already thrown the towel in the ring. That they had already given up of actually getting out of the place.

There was only one thing that the mare thought was to be right. And that was to go to them and listen to their stories. Just why she would have picked those two young stallions out of the group of the group of two dozen ponies was even a question for her. But something deep down in her guts told her that she could be trusting them two more then anypony else in the whole of the cell.

It was perhaps her only shot at getting out of the place. Of course there were rumors and stories about a place where all of the unicorns who didn't return from their tests were brought to. She just never had actually expected that it was something in the fashion that it was. “At least it beats a labor camp before they kill us,” the pearl mare muttered to herself. She then would have come over to the two other stallions.

She inspected them both with care. She remained a little bit on the outside of the cell, to make sure she wouldn't be walking in anypony’s way. In her eyes she caught the bright yellow coated, purple maned stallion with equally as deep purple rims in his eyes. While the other was more of a blueberry coated pony with an olive green mane. The rims in his eyes were just about the deepest blue that the mare had ever seen in her eyes and she couldn't believe what she saw.

Yet she knew somewhere deep in her mind that she needed to maintain herself and simply walked up to the two ponies before she gently sat down by the two of them. Who at first looked a little bit odd that a mare was sitting next to them. Both of them were a little bit on the chubby side and seemed to be rather inexperienced with mares. But not that that would be saving them from the hell they would be facing in there.

“Anything that we can be helping you, if I may ask?” the blueberry stallion asked her in a whisper while the other looked around. “Don’t suppose it’s just luck you’ll be sitting here, now is it?”

“Sharp one, now aren't you?” the mare teasingly replied to him with a silly grin before she introduced herself. “Name’s Pearl Vortex, yours?”

The olive green coated stallion nodded gently to the words that she spoke before he replied with some of his own. “Name’s Bubble Blue, don’t ask. And the silent one here, is called Magnum. Again, don’t ask. He never even told me his real name. Instead he decided to take the name of a fictional character upon himself. Kinda got stuck with it for the time I've known him.”

“Now that’s quite the something indeed you got there, Bubble, but yes, it wasn't just mere luck that I sat down here. Out of everypony in this cell, you two seem to be the smartest out here. I want to plan an escape from this place and I want to do it pronto,” said Pearl to them both. In their initial response did both Bubble and Magnum look over to her with a tilted head.

Neither of them two could believe that there was an escape attempt going on already. That they would become a part of it was something that blew their minds as a whole. “Well that certainly is, quite the something actually but just how do you plan to get through that shield over here? I mean, that’s some solid magic and our magic here doesn't work,” Bubble replied to her in a near silent whisper. Before he would have agreed to anything, he wanted to know more about her plans.

Though he had to admit it that he was genuinely interested in just how she would be actually planning to escape from the place. She had to have come from a good house if she wanted to do that. Because from the looks that he took, it seemed almost impossible to actually get out of the place. But what Bubble didn't knew was the fact that Pearl had a trick or two up her sleeve.

She wasn't just the typical girly-girl mare who was going around and about. A thing that the two of them would be discovering sometime later when the time was actually there.

---

That time was during the night in the city. The very time where the lights went out and the patrols of the guards were shrunken down. With all of the young mares and stallions vastly asleep inside of their cells, they never formed that much of a threat to them or the place. But in some of the cells, a few would actually stay up to talk to one another.

It was just a basic exhaustion game. The lack of sleep would be getting to those poor souls sooner or later. After which the will to escape wouldn't have been there anymore. That was all that it was actually, just a massive game of the minds playing with minds. Only those strong enough would be making it sane to the processing floor. Only a few would have made it that far in such a mental state. Which might have actually been for the better when some thought about it.

It was during their very first night together, that they leaned against the back wall of their cell and the question of questions was being asked by Pearl. “I think we all might be having the same story when it comes down to it, but the reason I’m here is because I failed my tests. Deemed to have been called an unworthy unicorn. And now we’re here. Not even sure just where the hell this is. Of course I heard the stories of such a place existing, but now to be actually there, makes me think about to reconsider a couple facts of my life.”

“Such as..?” Bubble then asked her with a raised eyebrow. The motions were almost visible in the darkness. He was curious to her tale though, not to just keep her talking but actually and genuinely interested in what type of mare she was.

“First of all, not getting killed in here. Secondly, making sure my mom and dad won’t be worried sick about me when they discover that I’m not coming home,” the mare replied almost with a reassuring chuckle to herself.

“Believe it or not, but we all have the same story here. Deemed unworthy and ended up here. Every unicorn knows and has heard the rumors about the place we are in now, but only a few could have actually imagined that it was true. Magnum over here, tough nut to crack but the tests made him silent. Which begs the question though, why haven’t seen we you during the tests?”

“Suppose that neither of you two had been in the holding cells below the arena? No? Thought so. That was there they stored me for two weeks before transporting me over to here. They just lay and wait for you to come out of the mess. Once you have gone insane they will get you and bring you here,” said Pearl before there was a deep sigh that left her nostrils.

“So what you’re saying, is that you’re ripe for the nuthouse?” Bubble asked just to be certain that he didn't actually misheard any of her words. But Pearl just turned her head further towards him before she gave him a wicked grin. One that spoke a clear language to them. “I take that as a yes.”

Minutes then turned into long and tedious hours. They continued to tell one another stories just to keep themselves awake. Stories of how their home situation was, how they were doing before the tests and all that regular stuff. All of the words were spoken in the whispers to make sure they wouldn't have woken any of their fellow captives, who then might wanted to join their escape plan.

“So what is your actual plan, Pearl? How you do manage to actually get past the shield, or the bars for that matter?” Bubble said to her. He still wanted to know the more finer details about everything. But she had been just so mysterious around the very fact of how she wanted to get out. And if she would be going, he and Magnum would be right there with her.

“The plan, Bubble, is actually really simple. The shield there is indeed made out of magic. And while we can’t use any magic ourselves here, we might be able to actually absorb the powers of that thing and store it until it is needed to make the final push. No doubt that once that shield is gone, every last guard will be on our tail,” explained Pearl to him. She had another look over to the shield itself. The blue color that was mixed with the red created for an almost calm atmosphere that laid below it. Though the truth was everything but pleasant about it.

It was something that was more than worthy of a shot to try despite of how crazy it sounded. The plan seemed to actually be able to work weren't it for one little detail that was missing from the whole operation. “And just how do you plan to reach it up there?” the olive green maned stallion then asked her. In response he first just got a smirk from the mare before she lowered her head again and looked to the sleeping ponies.

“Your answer lays there, vast asleep and thinking about the day of tomorrow. We can use them to form a bridge that will be more than high enough to carry all of us up. Where we all three will extract them extract from the magic from the shield and walk unto the catwalk.” Pearl spoke up to him before she released a yawn of her own.

“And then what, then we are standing on top of there. You have to think everything through before you put it to work you know. One wrong thing, and the whole operation just blows. Meaning we...” Bubble spoke up before he was suddenly interrupted by a voice to his right.

“Meaning we will be dead sooner than the poor souls here. Either way, it’s called a win win for us three. Pearl, I don’t care what it is you will be exactly needing from us, but I’m in for it.” It was Magnum's voice that spoke for the first time since their arrival. Or better said, the first time after his very own tests. His tone, his accent, it seemed he hailed from one of the many coastal regions.

Both the mare and the stallion looked over to him with a set of raised eyebrows before they had to give him the reward of being right. “You’re more than right on that, Magnum, I don’t want to die just because some judging system calls me unworthy of being a unicorn. I don’t care just how dangerous it is going to be. I want to get my freedom or die trying. And all I need from you two, is your cooperation in order to achieve just that,” Pearl replied to him with a determined look.

“We, will come back for the others right? I mean, they don’t deserve to be here either and if we can get out, we might get help from the princesses,” Magnum then asked in curiosity.

“That’s a promise, Magnum. That’s a promise.” A promise that in and of itself would be lying upon the minds of the ponies for a long time to come and actually become a heavy burden whenever they thought about it.

Yet both Magnum and Bubble couldn't help it but to smile to her words as they nodded their heads softly back and forward. Though in the back of their heads, the plan seemed to have been reckless, unprepared and perhaps even stupid beyond belief. Still, it was perhaps the only way that they would be making sure they would actually survive the place for once.

That, or they died trying. There was no other way for the three of them. Pearl looked one last time to the two stallions before she closed her eyes to get some shut eye. “One for all.”

---

“And all for one,” the two stallions spoke up after they both also entered a small gallop to race behind Pearl towards the opening in the hallway. It was their only shot of making it out and they all three knew it. But with pretty much every last guard right up their behinds, the chances of actually making out and making it out alive were only getting slimmer with each step they took.

Pearl, Magnum and Bubble had just galloped as quietly and fast as they could towards the opening. They hoped to get the little sense of freedom that hung somewhere in the air. They wanted it so badly and they would be getting it just so soon. With their hooves clopping almost silently against the metal floor was Pearl the first one who jumped through the opening. Only to then be followed by Bubble. Magnum was the last one and closed the door behind him. The door was even locked again to make it look like an official employee had just left it the way it was supposed to be.

All of it was of course done to get the guards on a fool’s trail, but the chances of them actually being smarter than always lingered in the backs of their heads. Without a single word spoken managed the three of them to orientate themselves just where they had come and they couldn't believe it. They were in the central spine of the building. The massive staircase that ran from up to down and was something that neither of the three actually had expected.

Bubble and Magnum looked their eyes out in just how high the building actually was and noticed once again all of the pipes going around and about the place. The curiosity of just what was in them rose in his mind but his heart knew exactly what they carried. Pearl was the only one of the group who looked down towards the bottom of the place and something inside of her guts just screamed at her that she needed to be going that way.

She couldn't explain it to the two of them, nor did she wanted to. Not to mention the sheer little fact that above them they could hear a set of hooves coming down towards them. All three of the ponies looked at one another before the pearl coated mare just rushed down the stairs with two or three steps at a time. The two stallions followed her example suit and before they could be saying anything, they were on their way to the very bottom floor of the building.

High above them they could hear the voices of two workers talking to one another. Though the words were muffled due to their own panting and wheezing. The traveling on the stairs and the increased heat that continued to only right the further down they went and not to forget the sounds of liquids traveling through the pipes all made it impossible to actually listen to the words that were being said. But perhaps that was a good thing for the three of them.

Their only option was to continue to go downwards and just hope that nopony would have been able to spot them or locate them. With the speed that they traveled down from the stairs, they would have believed in the fact that such a thing was actually possible to be done. Little did they knew just how the entire architecture of the place had worked against them.

They continued upon their way down into the bowels of the factory. Though they eventually ended up by a massive steel door that caused Magnum to come to a halt for a moment. He pointed at the door for a second or two and closed his eyes afterward. Though before he could be doing anything, Bubble had rushed back up on the stairs and pulled him with him. “Come on!” Bubble whispered before the other one came back to his senses and nodded.

With the group having reunited once again, they were brought over to the lowest floor there was. But if they had only looked upon the steel door, they could have known that it was actually the exit to the ground level. For on the very bottom of the Facility laid the returned moving department. Which due to the high alert had actually been cleared from any workers. All of them were looking for the missing ponies.

“Now where are we?!” Bubble spoke up in a desperate sounding voice as he wiped the sweat off of his face. The sheer heat of the pipes wasn't something that he had taken into account not had expected to come. “Where’s the exit?”

“Will you just shut it for a moment and let me think alright?” Pearl replied to him as she pressed her forehead against his and locked their horns together. “I’m thinking that the exit is somewhere close but I need to have a clear mind do I want to figure it out! So just hold that tongue!”

“Fine then, missy much. You look for an exit over there, I’ll be doing it over there,” spoke Bubble before the two turned themselves away from the other. They just began to do their own things in the moment. But among all of it, Magnum had been snooping around himself a little bit. Only to discover a door that looked a little bit promising in his mind.

But with the sheer heat of the place going straight to his head, it might also have been just a hallucination that he was suffering. But who knew just what laid behind it. It was always worth a peek in his eyes and it couldn't be doing more harm than they were already in. And that, was where thought more than wrong.

---

When Magnum finally opened the door he was interested in, the sheer stench of flesh being burned and sounds of the fires violently raging could be clearly heard going through the place. It was something that caught the attention of both Pearl and Bubble who both walked over to his place in order to check out just what could have been the origin of it.

When the two other ponies looked into the chamber, their worst fears were made a reality. Within that room, they saw the boilers and the fires that fed them. It was on the other side that they noticed the sheer horror of the place. The pile of dead ponies with the holes in their bodies going just about everywhere and the bones in their bodies broken by something powerful.

None of them wanted to see the sight that was presented to them. But there it was and they had to live with it. The only thing that they could be doing was to close the door and try to forget the deaths they had seen. Though that was something easier said than done when it came down to the fact that the eyes all seemed to be staring just at them with the question of why burned in them.

The shivers of true cruelty were sent down their spines as all of the ponies wanted to just get out of there as soon as possible. The earlier conflict was forgotten for the sake of knowing how they could be ending up. All three of them worked together to find an exit in the place. But the more they were searching through it, the more they finally seem to actually realize that there wasn't any other way out, outside of the one they came through.

“There has to be a way that can be leading us out of here. Service shaft, anything?!” Pearl questioned while she continued to be looking in every last single corner. But the two stallions just gave it up and lowered themselves down to the floor. After everything they had done so far, they were ready to give it up again. It was a thing that made the mare question the fact if it had been worth to take the two of them with her on the adventure and dangerous game she was playing.

Though she couldn't actually annoy herself too much upon the two of them, as she needed to find a way out. “I’m not going to die here, just because two nitwits like them don’t have the very guts and will to push on!” she muttered to herself.

Not much later she discovered a room that was unnoticed to the other two. A room that was in fact Keeton’s old office. It must have been through luck or fate that she was actually allowed to discover the place and without much hesitation went in. Though the sheer darkness of the place was something that worried her more than anything else. She had of course that little bit of magic from the shield flowing through her and perhaps, just perhaps it could be used to light her the way out.

The eyes of the green maned closed themselves as the horn ever so gently charged itself up in order to light up the room. Her eyes then looked over the desk and noticed the charts that were lying still upon it. With a gulp she dared to be looking at each of them but never seemed to have been able to actually understand either what they meant or who they were for.

That was until she turned herself around and shone the light upon the massive chart that hung upon the wall. All of the sudden she felt her hopes and fates sink down straight into the bottom of her hooves. Nothing in her mind could have ever made her belief that the adventure would be ending the way it would be in her mind. “Too low, we’re too low… We, we’re, in the basement of the place. There’s no way out except…” Without another word gasped the mare for air and discharged her horn. “Bubble, Magnum.”

Just with those two words did Pearl turn herself away from the office and galloped back to the main room where she had left both of the stallions. Her biggest fear was rightfully the one that the other two had been captured already.

When she entered the room, she found the two of them just still sitting there as if nothing ever happened to them. It was as massive relief off of her chest that the two of them were doing alright. Without a word had she just hugged the two of them and released a small tear of happiness from her eyes. The relief that went through her body couldn’t be described.

Neither Bubble or Magnum had even the slightest bit of idea just what was going but they just returned the hug to her and patted her softly on the back. Yet while they were doing that, on the hallway that would be leading them out, three sets of hooves had been coming closer and closer to them before they stopped in the door opening.

“Well, well, well, ain't this a surprise,” the voice of Keeton echoed through the abandoned room. All three of the ponies looked up in the biggest of genuine surprise to the three of them and gulped afterwards. They knew that their journey would have been over right there and then. For behind Keeton there were both Mush and Corron. Yet the young ponies wouldn't be going down without a fight.

The three of them broke the hug and quickly assumed a stance of attacking the group. Though the trio of engineers laughed it off before they all entered the room and closed the door behind them. The escaped ponies were in their domain then. For they were queen and kings in those places and would be showing everything to make that statement more than true to any of them.

“You’ll never take us back to that horrible cell. I don’t care who you three are but you will not be standing in our way!” Pearl snarled up to them through her gritted teeth. She charged up her horn in the magic of the shield.

That alone was more than enough to make the other two do just the same before Keeton motioned with his hooves. The other two engineers needed to stay in the back for the moment, he would be having his fun. “Go ahead and fire. End the lives of the three guards that were supposed to look after you until you were processed. Don’t you want to know what really happens here, lassy?”

“I know enough that this is a factory of the dead!” Pearl continued. She had more than enough of the games that were being placed with her and the other two. She wanted it to end. She counted down from three to zero inside of her head. Then the charge wanted to release itself. But instead of the beam of magic they had hoped for, their horns just shone like a torch in the darkness.

“Yah wanna know who betrayed the three of you? I suggest you look to your leader,” Keeton then commented with a chuckle in his tone. But then it was the turn to the trio of workers to charge up their horns in the crimson red aura of the Facility.

---

Neither Bubble or Magnum could actually be believing the fact that Pearl had been the origin of their downfall. Neither of the two stallions actually wanted to believe it that she was the cause of the whole operation having gone wrong. “But, Pearl, how, how could you?!” Magnum then spoke up before he wiped a bit of his purple mane out of his face.

“I don’t know how it happened alright! I was, I was in an office with charts and I just needed a little light so I, I created a torch with my magic.” The last bits and pieces of her words weren't spoken in any of the confidence that she used to have. Instead they were just whispered against the other two ponies. Pearl suddenly felt like she could be casting herself in concrete or something like it. “It was a signal to you three, wasn't it? Charging up after having absorbed it, caused the bells to ring inside of your head, telling you we were here. Am I right?” she dared to ask.

Pearl was dead right on the spot and the bits because that was exactly what had happened to the stallions and the mare. “You’re a smart little filly, shame you have to end now like the rest of them,” Corron replied before all three of them released their charges. The three escaped ponies could be fighting all they wanted against the powers of the engineers but it wouldn't have been anything they would have been able to win.

In fact the battle only lasted a couple of seconds before the bodies and heads were caught up in the magic. “Now, do the three of you have any last words you wish to end your life with?”

“Yes, we do have a couple,” Pearl spoke to them all. Keeton just gave a nod to her and she started to speak again. “I am wanting to say sorry to you two, Bubble and Magnum, for dragging you into this mess, I never wanted it to end like this. I wanted us to be free ponies again. Suppose we still get the freedom we wanted. And secondly, I am sorry for leaving those we promised to save behind.”

Only then did the pearl coated, green maned unicorn mare give a nod to Keeton as a sign that she was done with her words. The next thing that happened was the sound of bones being snapped from three different strengths and sides. All three of the engineers had broken and snapped the necks of each escapee. Therefore ending their lives long before they would be straight into the infamous Magic Maker.

“Clean them up, would ya? I need to see what has changed in my office. If it is true what she said about the charts, we might be onto something ourselves,” the blue stallion said to the rest of them. Then there was a massive sigh that was released through his nostrils.

“They were brave, I give them that,” Mush spoke up before she collected all three of their bodies. The mare had one last look at them before she smirked a bit towards Pearl. “Clever girl.”

“And rather resourceful. I am starting to wonder who really lives in freedom now. Us, or them,” added Corron to the pile of mystery. With Keeton already gone, Mush going over to the boilers, there wasn't actually anypony who heard his last set of words. And perhaps that was something left for the better as he didn't wanted to have any conflict with either two of them.

---

While all of that was going on, while the three escapees were being killed like it was the most normal job in the land, Rarity herself and Platinum Sea had been walking through the wonderful city without a single care in the universe. Of course they talked about business as it was supposed to be, but never did the stallion shine through the true intentions that he was wanting from the ivory unicorn.

That was of course until they stood before the Platinum Tower itself. Rarity simply looked out her eyes at the sheer beauty and the massive sight of the thing. She had dreamed of it, seen it in pictures and in lore, but to see it actually in her life, had to be one of the most amazing moments in her life.

“Milady Rarity, may I welcome you to the Platinum Tower. Home of the once great princess Platinum herself, now home to her court,” the stallion spoke to her. He opened the door for her. Almost like a filly that was meeting her greatest idol. Though Rarity managed to keep everything together. She wanted to make sure she wouldn't be blowing up an deals that were going to be made. For even though she was in the tower, she still had not a true clue.

Of course there were guesses left and right but that was about it. Though the mare entered the tower itself and was just about every second amazed by the sheer beauty that the place carried with itself. “This, this is just marvelous, mister Sea. I mean, I had heard about it through time, but seeing it all in real now, simply amazing and baffling.”

“But it is only going to get better miss. Just you wait and hold on to something. We’re going to teleport straight to the top of the place. To the actual throne room,” Platinum Sea then said to her before he charged up his horn. Just as Rarity wanted to say anything, they poofed themselves out of one place in the world.

Only to appear a couple seconds later at another spot in the building. And the spot they ended up was the very throne room itself. Legends had it that it was the most beautiful room in the whole castle that once belonged to the unicorn princess. And it wasn't a lie whatsoever. For shortly after they had landed in the room, Rarity once against looked at every last inch in pure amazement. Never in her life had she seen just so much style or class together.

Not to mention the fact that she saw the origin pools of the platinum waterfalls outside on the walls. “Simply magnificent! But, if I may inquire so, shall we get down to business?” said Rarity to him. She sat down on one of the chairs of the round table. Platinum Sea on the other end straightened his bow tie again and nodded to her before he took place himself.

“The, reason, why I called you here was actually for something very simple. The very shield that keeps our city protected from the world outside has starting to fail on us. And it started to be doing that actually just after your Facility arrived back in the town. We, as the court, think that the origin of the shatters in the shield might have been the direct result of your chimney shooting out the blast of magic every so often. But I am not here to lecture you about your own job. I have an agreement in which will be mutually beneficial. Consider it milady and then, only then the city will become the most powerful place in the whole world,” Platinum Sea explained to her.

“You aren't wanting to do world domination here, now are you? Because if that’s the case, I’m not doing it. But if you have the papers, I’d like to read them myself a bit before signing anything.” She still was the stone cold business mare as she always used to be. Rarity wanted to know just what she would be dealing with and when.

The stallion nodded calmly before he conjured a few documents into existence and placed them before the mare together with a quill to sign. “Whenever you think you’re ready, you may sign the document and we can seal the deal,” said Platinum Sea to her with a smile forming over his lips.

But Rarity conjured her glasses into existence and she then began to read through the whole thing. It even included the reports about the gaps and how they seemed to have been created through the time the Facility had been docked. Yet she had to agree that the terms were more than reasonable in her eyes.

---

Rarity was almost ready to sign the pact between the Platinum Tower and the Magic Facility before the doors were crashed open. They were blown open by a powerful blast of magic. The blast was in fact so powerful that both Rarity and Platinum Sea had to hide under the table in order to not get hit by any of the broken wood shatters.

When both of the two ponies actually dared to be looking out of the hiding spot, Rarity noticed the fact that both Twilight and Trixie were standing in the opening. The unicorn looked a couple of times to the two of them before her mind almost went blank. With the steam coming out of both of their noses with each exhale, they were mad about something. That much was certain.

But she was also mad about something. “And just what is your reason for this insubordination of the deal we were supposed to be making here?! What’s wrong with the two of you to begin with?!” Rarity huffed out to the two of them before she released a growl.

Twilight nor Trixie answered any of her words. Instead they just continued to walk closer and sealed of the exit behind them. Nopony would be going anywhere unless they wanted. Rarity suddenly got an idea in her mind of just what the two could be doing and didn't liked it one bit. Both of her forelegs were placed upon the table as her sapphire blue eyes looked over to the other two unicorns. “You’re doing mutiny, after so many years of working with me?!” she then spoke up, almost in a trembling tone. She was losing her grip on everything. The end was in sight.

Chapter 7

Both of the azure unicorn and the mulberry mare were still wheezing to their highest official. They finally stopped coming closer and just listened to the words that Rarity shouted at each of them. But they just didn't care for them one bit. They had so their own reasoning of just why they were there and the only pony who have been thanked for it was the clerk that they had spoken to.

Yet the two of them seemed to be a little bit more home in the world as it was. While both Rarity and Platinum Sea removed themselves even further from the table and actually stood right side up again, it was the stallion who wanted to know the more finer details of everything that was going on in the very throne room. “Ladies, if you just could be calming down. I’m certain that we can all come to an agreement of some sort that will be beneficial for us all,” he spoke to them all.

“Us all, or just you?” Twilight then hissed up towards him as her horn finally released the charge it had. “I don’t think you understand just how we work. But what do you expect, from a worthless wretch like yourself.” The stallion would have tilted his head towards her. He didn't had a single clue of just she could be meaning with her words.

Though the meaning of them would be clear as crystal sooner or later for the poor stallion. He was being picked up in the magic of Twilight herself and tried to fight against it with all of his might. Charges of his own horn were being made in the faint hope to counter the other spell, but nothing seemed to be working as it was supposed to be.

Not even Rarity came to his aid, even when he looked over to her with a set of begging eyes. It actually left her cold what they were shouting at her. She wanted, it not needed, to know just what her under officials were planning and overall just doing. “The two of you have the sheer amount of guts to actually do an act like this, now don’t you? And now what’s your plan, to overthrow me and gain control of the Facility yourselves? Is that you wanted from me? To just give you the building I have been controlling for so many years now?!” the ivory unicorn shouted to the two of them. The anger had become more apparent in her eyes.

No answer was ever given by the two of them, instead they were more fixated upon the stallion himself and helping him out of the misery that was his own life. “What, what are you two planning to do?!” he begged to the other two, if not silently demanded to know how he would be meeting his very end.

Neither Twilight nor Trixie spoke up a word against him while he was being carried over to the very shield that was supposed to be keeping the others out of the throne room. Yet perhaps, there were faults in the shield itself. Which then meant they would not be as safe as they originally had thought they were.

“Suppose you’ll be doing just fine for our little test here,” Twilight chuckled up to him before she hung him still just before the reddish shield. Platinum Sea himself almost in an instant know just what they had planned for him. The stallion would have released a deep sigh through his mouth. It was the end of the line for him right there and then and he knew it all too well.

“Trixie thinks that you need to throw him in, now!” she demanded with a sick grin going across her lips. Which was exactly the thing that was being done. Without a grain of mercy that came from either Twilight, Trixie or Rarity for that matter was the stallion just thrown into the shield.

The very thing that happened next was a spectacular show of light. The flesh of the pony was not only burned, but also vaporized as it traveled through the shield itself. Meaning that on the other side of the hallway, only the skeleton of the poor pony fell down towards the platinum cast floor.

A gruesome sight to behold for certain, but also a massive warning for those who dared and tried to actually get into the room and disturb the ponies from their talking. Which still needed to happen. A conversation between the three highest officials, it could only end one way.

---

Both Trixie and Twilight discharged their horns. They looked over to Rarity who was just baffled by the fact they could murder a member of the court like that. She couldn't be speaking a single word in response to it and actually required the time to wrap her own head around just about everything. “Sit,” Twilight then commanded to the ivory unicorn. Who miraculously actually did that. She shuffled carefully over to a nearby chair and then just dropped her body in it.

While the other two ponies then also took place in their respectable chairs, they all three formed a triangular shape that gave them a clear view on the other two. Because from that moment on it was literally every pony for themselves. Nothing could and would have been done in order to take a side, as those didn't exist anymore. It was truly just one for all.

“Rarity, you need to listen to me, and listen to me very, very carefully with that thick head of yours,” Twilight hissed to her. She leaned a bit on the table. Her crimson red rimmed eyes slowly turned back to the regular violet ones. The mare released a deep sigh through her nostrils.

Not to mention the fact she kept a keen eye upon Trixie as well, just to be sure she wouldn't be doing anything stupid either. While Rarity just kept herself silent and allowed the words to come. To hit her like punches to her body. “Over the years, and certainly the past months we couldn't help but notice that you have gone clinically insane! You’re no longer the leader we once decided to follow because she asked us. You’re not that mare anymore,” Twilight then said to her.

The words were even difficult for Twilight to speak. But they were far from over for her. In fact, they had only just begun and all three of the ponies suddenly knew that clear as crystal. “It was murky for a long time for any of us, but now it’s just clear as crystal to both me and Trixie. You aren't the mare that’s supposed to lead us anymore and neither are we. It’s time to get out with the old and in with the new,” she added to them.

Finally it was Rarity who dared to speak her words as she looked from the very top of her eyes towards the mulberry mare. The sheer expression that she gave, especially with her head bend forward a little bit, wasn't something that was to be witnessed by those faint of heart to begin with. For that face alone was more than enough to create pure nightmare fuel. “You two have about the biggest guts to tell me these things. So allow me to ask you, why I shouldn't just kill you two here and now, hm? What can you possibly have in your end, that makes you think you will be walking away from this madness unharmed?”

“Your Facility,” Trixie then growled up. She gained a devious grin across of her face. “Your oh so precious Facility, we can sink down like there wasn't anything that had happened in the past or present. A future-less sight don’t you agree? And Trixie thinks, that you would be the one who will be pointed to when it becomes known, that the unicorns are just earth ponies with horns once again.”

“You wouldn't dare.”

“Don’t we?!” Twilight then yelled up to her. She rose up from her seat and slammed the hoof in the wood of the table. Cracks appeared under it due to the force that was pushed upon it. It meant that the power in her hoof had to be extraordinary. Not even Rarity had seen Twilight that mad about something, if not anything, in a very long time. “We hold the power now, Rarity, you lost every last bit of yours the moment you merged yourself with the wastes. You want to know where everything went wrong, I will tell you where it all went wrong.”

The more Twilight told her words of anger and rage, the more Rarity couldn't help herself but to see the sheer emotional troubles that she was going through. The mare struggled to keep herself on one path and that was what made her more dangerous than ever. As the ivory unicorn had not a clue, what her next move would have been. Yet when the sapphire blue rimmed eyes looked over to Trixie, there was only a broken heart that could be seen.

A broken heart which was caused not all too long ago from the looks of it. It may have seemed like a golden opportunity right there if she played her cards right. But with a mad Twilight standing on the other end of the spectrum wouldn't make it something easily done actually. “And just how you know I did that?” Rarity then asked her with a grin of mischief.

“Because we extracted it right out of you when the chance was given to us. Didn't you found it odd, you were suddenly out for days? After effect of the procedure, shall we say,” Twilight replied to her a dead serious tone. The eyes narrowed their glance to just Rarity, fueling her with rage.

Though Rarity just blinked a couple of times. She shook her head almost violent from side to side. As insane as it sounded for her and them, it did make sense in an instant. The holes upon her chest, the lack of memories and so forth. All of it added up to the pile of rage that was already constructing itself inside of the mare. She wanted to speak her words of return so badly towards the both of them. Yet neither of the three actually could speak words for a couple of seconds.

Just for those few precious seconds there was nothing but the absolute silence of the room that rotated through their ears. The only sounds made were the wind howling around the tower, the platinum in the ponds and the deep breathing of each of the mares. Those sounds were the only ones to be heard for a few, terrible and agonizing seconds.

---

Seconds that for them seemed to have been nothing but a couple dozen hours. Yet it was in the silence that was being held, that they all three constructed their new argument against the pony they wanted to get rid of the most. Given the triangular formation, each of them wanted to get rid of the other two no matter what or how. As long as it was done through words in the moment.

All three of the ponies were in a terrible danger from the other and they knew that more than anything. With them being the three most powerful unicorns within the city, they were capable of doing literally everything their hearts desired. Yet none of them wanted to make it come that far. Though deep in their minds, they knew it would end in a massacre no matter what would come out of any negotiations.

“Trixie doesn't have any other words to say against you then that you can just die together with that place!” Trixie than just huffed out. Those words alone were the literal starting sign for round two to commence their own madness. The madness of the Facility was starting to take its toll.

“Years of working under your reign, has made me see one thing clear, you bitch. You aren't the lady you once used to be. I discovered that fact the moment you ended my sister’s life. That was the moment, where I had been more than done with you and your insanity. That was the moment I turned my back to you, but you were too blind to actually witness it happen by yourself. Blinded by the sheer sight of getting the powers you wanted!” Twilight spewed out towards Rarity. Once she was done, she took a deep inhale to calm herself down a little bit. “But the only thing you managed to be doing, was to start your own destruction. Since that happened, you have changed.”

“Funny words that came out of a useless mouth indeed. It is going to be a shame if I have to end the life of each of you two. You were such little and lovely ponies. But times change and so do you. But me, I’ll always be on the spot that I need to be.” Those words were spoken by Rarity. Words that were aimed towards both Twilight and Trixie together, while the fires were unleashed.

The very fires of hatred against the manager had become not just tiny little flames, but a massive hellish fire that wanted to see nothing else but her utter destruction and annihilation. All three of them charged up their horns and knew what they would be doing. In the blink of an eye had they all teleported out of the room like it was nothing. Only to then reappear on the small area that was standing in between the last chair of the table and the throne of Platinum herself.

Rarity stood with her back against the royal seat while the other two mares assumed their triangle position once again. The final battle between them and the fate of the whole Facility hung in the balance of them three there and then. The battle of the ages was about to commence in the most hidden city of Equestria, in the throne room of a princess forgotten through time itself. The reality seemed more like fantasy situation from a very good novel.

Though with Rarity standing on the location that she stood, the mare could feel the sheer aura that was being irradiated by the deceased princess herself. Even in her death she still had a powerful influence over every last one of the ponies in the room. Yet something about the ivory mare actually caused a switch from time to time. Not in a manner that either Trixie or Twilight would be able to see it happening.

It was in a manner that only the unicorn herself could see. One moment she would be standing in front of Twilight and Trixie, expressing their hate for them both. While the other she seemed to be standing in the place of Platinum all those many years ago. It was unsure of just why it happened to the unicorn, and in the moment of time she couldn't be caring more about it.

“The two of you think you are knowing it just all so well now don’t you?! But when it comes down to actually strike me down, there’s nothing that you can be doing about it. You two, don’t have the guts to bring me down. Because deep down inside of those pesky little hearts of you, you’re still believing in the magic of friendship. A magic that isn't even real! But you two have the guts, I have to admit that even thought I personally didn't wanted to do it. So my question for you two is, what is your actual plan? Strike me down, liberate the place and happily live ever after?” growled Rarity.

While the words of Rarity continued to be speaking themselves, the transitions between the present and the past only became more frequent for her eyes. Almost like those exact same words were once spoken before on that very spot. But every time that Rarity looked into the past, she couldn't believe what she actually saw.

The two masked ponies with their blades drawn and aimed to the princess was something that could have been actually ancestors from the mares she was facing then. It was said that history often repeated itself throughout time. From the looks that Rarity was getting, it almost seemed to be one of those moments. Even though the thought lurked somewhere within her mind, she never thought of it being the reality it was. That alone was a costly mistake for certain.

“So now what? Just strike me down and save me your talking! Never been a fan of you two mumbling about to begin with. Let’s start with you then, Twilight, that endless rambling about just about everything the universe can go up my backside. You’re nothing but an emotional wreck! You seriously never thought I wouldn't discover that your dead sister would be troubling you, your mind is like an open book to me. Much, like, yours,” Rarity gently turned her head over to Trixie, who on her own rose a simple eyebrow to the matter.

“However do you mean?” the other unicorn then asked as she was getting genuinely interested in what she had to tell her.

“It’s really simple actually. You might think your head is clouded and shrouded in mystery, but you are just as afraid as those in their cells. You are afraid of failing every last pony around you like you did before you were given this chance. You’re frightened and just lost a pony dear to you. Isn't that right, Twilight? Oh, sorry, was I not supposed to tell that?” Rarity said to the two of them before she erupted out in a deadly snicker. She had discovered just what had happened between the two mares and found it hilarious to see. In a way, a wish of hers had come true.

“Those were our personal businesses and you know that!” Twilight shouted in return towards her as Trixie wanted to say words just so badly, but never actually did it because of the fact that it would have turned out horrible. “Our break-up was the direct result from your insanity!”

“Oh please, do you hear yourself talking here, foal?! You truly never did grow up now did you? But don’t worry, once I’m done with you, you’ll be nothing more but the dust we find on the shelves.” With those words spoken against her under officials had Rarity lost the connection with the past. Surprising enough were the words spoken exactly as they were in Platinum’s age. Not just hers, but also Twilight’s and even Trixie’s words were all spoken in the same manner and tones.

History repeated itself but the chance to alter it was always there. And Rarity was the only one to realize just that very little fact. She didn't know just how Platinum had died but she would make certain that her own death wouldn't have been at the hooves of those two ponies. “And this, is where it all went wrong,” she then spoke up with an ominous grin clearly visible.

---

Neither of the under officials took it lightly upon the words that were spoken. The only thing they could be doing to prevent more harm from happening was to actually just go straight into the attack. Neither of the two unicorns were pleased with the words that they got hear from their manager and they really started to get angry at her.

The hate that was flowing through Twilight came forth out of the brutal and merciless death that was of her little sister. She wanted to make Rarity pay even more for the deeds done. Twilight wanted to exterminate the very life out of her directly out of the heart itself. She wanted to not only just impale the manager on her horn, but blow the heart she had out as well.

Trixie on the other end wanted to see the both of them gone. One because of the fact that the sheer insanity kept her unprepared for anything and everything. But the other she wanted to have gone in order to let her heal the broken heart that she had just gotten. After years of having been in a relation with Twilight, it suddenly all turned black and sour.

It was something that Trixie really couldn't be having as she needed to get her thoughts straight on everything for a moment. But she just couldn't as she had the two most hated ponies right in her sight. The ending was just standing so close for her but it seemed to be yet so far away.

Though her head turned itself over to the ivory unicorn. She spoke up her words in the most hateful tone that was ever being released from her. “Trixie just doesn't care how much deaths there need to happen before yours is finally happening. Trixie doesn't care, whatever happens to the wretched Facility as after today, Trixie resigns from the place on the spot! Trixie doesn't care, if the place falls apart and is eventually destroyed. Trixie doesn't care, if the unicorn race is being reduced to earth ponies with horns anymore. Trixie, would be proud when that happens again.”

Word after word came in like the ball of a cannon in her ears. But Rarity knew she couldn't be changing the thoughts of either pony, even if she wanted. So perhaps the only thing that she could be doing was to give them right, before finally realizing her surprise attack on them. Where Platinum might have been fallen to the blades of assassins, she would be the mare who would kill those very same assassins all those centuries later without a grain of mercy given.

“Brave words for such a foolish little mouth. You never learned how the world actually worked Trix, you’re just a bitter old mare who has no place to go outside of a small wooden camp. Great and powerful? You never were that and you know that. Unnoticeable and a failure, that’s what I am calling you right here and now,” countered Rarity to her with a smirk.

Those words did it for Trixie, that was the massive blow she never had expected to come coming from Rarity and perhaps, neither did Twilight. But the two under officials knew that they needed to be doing something quickly if they wanted to have any chance of getting out of the place alive. Which, wouldn't seem like a bad idea from their point of view. Though both had different meanings by ‘getting out alive’.

Without a single warning given beforehand did all three of the unicorns then just charge up their horns and pointed them to the other two in a repeating motion. All of them called upon the magic that they had in their body and three orbs of crimson red magic appeared around all of their horns. Rarity, Trixie and Twilight were calling the most amount of magic that they ever could have done in their lives.

“The both of you are just fools that you dare to challenge me! Nopony who has ever done that, has come from it alive!” Rarity snarled to the two of them. She tried to get over the extremely loud buzzing noises from the charges. A thing which sounded easier than it was.

“But those were just facing you alone, now you’re dealing with the both of us so try and get that done before all of it falls down into the abyss. You can’t focus on the two of us, not even your magic is able to do that!” Twilight said in return before she blinked a couple of times. The sheer amount of strain that was placed upon her mind, let alone all of her body, wasn't something that she had expected. For some reason the magic seemed to have been heavier than usual for her abilities.

Perhaps it was because of the fact that she was changing inside. That she needed a new source of just where she would be calling her magic from. With the future of them three uncertain and her needing to find new ways to get her power, it couldn't have been a more bad of time for her.

“Trixie shall be glad to finally put an end to your miserable life!” she growled to Rarity while her eyes narrowed a bit. Trixie never was an actual mare of many words. Instead she always allowed her deeds to be speaking for herself. That would be exactly the thing she would be doing there and then. If only she could be just doing it. There was something in her mind that actually prevented it from doing so. And it was something that just drove her almost insane and over the edge.

“The both of you, I considered my friends once! But now I know something that I should have learned a long time ago from the both of you. Friends are nothing more, than enemies who haven’t stabbed you in the back yet,” hissed Rarity to the two of them. She then increased the amount of charged magic even further. Whatever she was preparing to be unleashing against the two of them, it would be everything but a pretty sight to see, behold and feel.

“No Rarity, we were once friends yes. But you stabbed your own back and blamed us for doing it!” Twilight then shouted towards her before she stomped both of her forelegs into the floor with a painful roar.

A roar that was just so powerful enough that the eyes of Rarity open themselves wide and the face of Platinum herself was clearly visible inside of them. The lips moved as her hoof made a couple of motions but whatever she was saying was a mystery for everypony except Rarity.

The fires that were raging inside of both the hearts of Trixie and Twilight had caused them to almost become at a boiling point and they would been having to release their charges. Either at Rarity or the other, which they mostly didn't wanted as the first one was meant to exterminate and eradicate Rarity from the face of Equestria and Tol Ret Nac to begin with.

---

But deep inside of Rarity’s own eyes did she feel that time came to a stop and noticed that she had gone back in time itself. Back to the very day that caused the Facility to actually being built. She couldn't believe it herself but as the head rose itself up, she looked through the eyes of Platinum herself and over to professor Cosmos himself. It seemed to have been something just unbelievable for her, but the words that followed were some perhaps even more unique.

“The plans for your building are more than enough for the need of magic to the unicorns in the city itself. But there are just a couple of problems I’m afraid, with the shield now around the city and us safely floating in the air, I start to fear that it might have been too late for us all to actually keep the building in the city. With the race starting to scatter itself throughout the realm of Equestria, I’m not sure just how long it would be taking for the magic to reach them. That’s why, I recommend you to be doing the next words,” princess Platinum spoke before she walked closer towards the stallion himself. She would have started to circle around him with a gentle pace.

Her cape swayed over the floor like it was nothing while her crown shone in the light of the sun. “Build in an engine to the place, detach from the city and don’t return to our capital, my kingdom, for the coming dozen of years. Your return shall be made known to you, whenever it is required. Make our race proud, Cosmos, we will be needing it. Gaining the powers of the arcane arts through our horns will make us the most powerful beings in the land. But also the least in numbers.”

The princess then just moved herself away from the stallion who remained silent for reasons of his own. Yet the princess walked over to one of the window and started to look out. In her eyes she caught the terrible winter that not only held her city in its grasp, but also the rest of the land. A near endless winter caused by the years of war between the three races.

“Gone into hiding, but secretly still living out of there. It has to be the greatest gift and curse that anypony could have given upon us. The Windigo’s are mad, but they don’t know the powers we can be harnessing from them or the blood of our unworthy’s. Cosmos, I trust in you knowing what it is you need to be doing, leave me be and don’t return here with words about it. I don’t want to hear anything about the deaths of the factory,” the princess added with some difficulty in her voice.

With a nod and a bow had the stallion turned himself around and left the place for what it was. He left the very throne room of the princess in order to execute the orders that were given to him. It was the only thing that he could be doing on that moment actually. If he would disappoint the princess, his own life wouldn't be certain anymore.

Yet the more Rarity watched over the games that were being played between the princess and the stallion, the more she began to realize that it wasn't such good idea that they had come to their point in time.

Though with the stallion gone from the room, Platinum herself allowed a deep sigh to be released through her mouth before she turned herself back around. The endless winter was given her backside and she walked back up to her very throne. There she simply dropped herself down and sat in a rather regal, but also casual pose and looked down towards the floor itself.

“What is the thing that I have done, my offspring?” she mumbled to herself loud enough so that Rarity could also hear it. “Is it worth to send thousands of innocents to their deaths just so that we can use our magical powers? Or is there something else I’m missing here?” The princess was in a doubt about just about everything that was going on. Not to mention that she had all of the reasons to be just that of course. Not many would have loved to stand in her shoes even for all of the bits in the land. The decision that had been made was a terrible one. One of which they still felt the weight.

The horn charged itself up before the crown was just removed from her head and placed in front of her face. The eyes could be seeing just how the red magic held the thing before her and a deep sigh was released at her reflection. A reflection which caused Rarity to stare at it a little bit better towards it for some reason.

When she looked into the reflection of the crown itself, there was only one thing that she saw and that was her own reflection. Scared by the sights she saw, the mare closed her eyes before a couple shakes of her head were given. She couldn't and wouldn't even believe it that it was her own reflection that was clearly visible within the crown.

---

“Lies, lies, lies, all lies!” Rarity shouted mere seconds after she had gone into absolute silence. Both Twilight and Trixie had prepared themselves for that moment and they prepared themselves to be doing anything that was required to block the attack of Rarity that seemed to have been imminent.

“All, lies!” she shouted again before the eyes were opened once more. They revealed the truly crimson red eyes of the Facility. The spell that she had used to change the coloring of her eyes had been utterly destroyed and all that remained was just the beast. Not even her suit was remained spared as it started to catch a fire. Burning away with the seconds.

Neither Trixie nor Twilight had any idea of just what they could have been doing in order to either help Rarity, or end her. Everything was questioned in the moment of that insanity. Every last bit of that was considered good and holy, was turned upside down and inside out. But Rarity knew exactly what she needed to be doing in the moments of her rage.

With a powerful roar had the mare released every last bit of magic that she had deep within her body. She had fired the massive charge straight up to the other two unicorns. Who released their own blasts of magic only milliseconds afterward. The moment was there, the moment that would decide the future of them, the Facility, the city and all of the unicorns that were left in the land. The bombs, had exploded and they were all the detonation and the explosives for one another.

While the massive beam of magic from Rarity’s horn made its way over to both Twilight and Trixie, it was the azure coated mare who ducked away from the scene. After which she cast a massive shield to protect herself. But Twilight on the other end was having a couple of other ideas and needed to have the time. But the thought got interpreted wrong by her mind, as it seemed like she needed to be doing a time spell.

When it was Twilight’s time to release the charge from her horn, everything took a drastic turn. Everything that they had been doing up to that point, all those years of working in the hellhole that they once dared to call their precious factory would have been taken down and thrown into the figurative garbage bin. The end was there and Twilight was the only one to realize that.

Seconds had begun to look like hours while she released the charge of her own. The massive wall of magic that came from Rarity was then not just shielded from her, but would have shot upwards. It began to create a dome around the three of them. A dome that would be protecting them from the influences outside and make sure that everything inside of it actually stayed there.

Though the unicorn herself wasn't done just yet. With the wrong thought in her mind was the other spell being loaded and then released into the dome itself. With a powerful explosion of the two types of magic hitting one another had the deed been done. Twilight could only hope that she had done the right thing in the situation. Though separating right from wrong in that moment was already a near impossible task.

Neither of the three knew exactly what happened and perhaps it was better that way. But the thing that had happened, was the sheer fact that Twilight –with the help of Rarity’s magic– had caused them all to come into a massive time lock. The three officials of the Magic Facility were literally locked within a moment of time itself. Or perhaps better said: they were moving in time at an alternative speed. One heart beat for them would be days, weeks or months in the world outside.

Perhaps Twilight had saved the trio from a certain death, perhaps she had only further doomed them all. Either way, the deed that had been done wasn't something for nothing as the three of them were captured.

---

A little added bonus was that the shield that vaporized the poor Platinum Sea was lifted and a squad of guards from the crown marched in to witness the damage. Yet among them, was a magical expert that looked over each of the three mares inside of the bubble after having done some readings about it herself. Something about it all just didn’t make any sense.

The expert herself was a unicorn with a fire red coat and having three to four coloring in her mane. “Miss Fire Spark, do you have anything that would be of interest, can we, can we just enter the thing like it and get them?” the captain of the guards asked her just to be safe.

But Fire could only conclude that the place needed to be sealed off. The sheer amount of magic that was still inside of the place would have been deadly to any and all who would be standing near the bubble whenever it would open itself again. The guards nodded to the words before they turned themselves around and left pretty much the same way they came.

Yet it was the expert herself who was the last to leave the throne room of Platinum with a deep sigh. One last glance was given to the three ponies that were locked inside of the bubble before his own horn charged itself up in the golden colored aura. “The price we pay to keep the city a secret,” was being mumbled through the mouth.

Only then the shield of golden rays was being set up. One to make certain that there wouldn't be any accidents. Not even the expert knew how long they would have been sitting inside of that lock before it would erupt, so she calibrated the shield that was being created to vanish a day after the bubble had gone. Linking the magic together, powerful, but not impossible.

“Perhaps, we aren't the noble race as we once thought that we were. I’m so sorry, your highness,” she spoke up with a deep sigh that was released through her mouth. With those words had the mare finally left the place in order to join the guards once again. With the throne room locked for the time to come, the future seemed to be unsure for the unicorn race. The three officials of the Facility were locked in time and filled with hatred for one another.

It was that very hatred that managed to keep them all alive during their near endless time locked away, under the dome of the magical bubble itself.

Epilogue

So it came to be that the end of the infamous and deadly Magic Facility lost all three of its officials in just one day. One day that changed the lives of every last unicorn that lived in the monarch of Equestria itself. One day that would never be spoken about anywhere or by anypony outside of the massive city of steam and arcane. A day that also sounded a new era of unicorn might.

With the three of them locked inside of the time lock, the effects that were supposed to be happening had themselves reversed. Somehow, somewhere things turned out for the worst for the three of them. One heartbeat for them was actually ten years in the world outside of the locked bubble. Of course there were many who actually tried to break the thing over time. Though with the magic of Rarity, Trixie and Twilight combined, it was literally impossible to break it with any power available in the city.

The expression upon their faces throughout time would remain those filled with hatred and anger for the other. The triangle in which they stood was a clear indication of just how the hierarchy worked within the whole building. It wasn't something pretty or to be proud on. If anything, it was a failed system that was based on ancient myths and lore.

Yet out of it all, there was one thing that was more than certain to everypony. Which was that nopony who would be living in the mighty unicorn city of Tol Ret Nac on that day, would live to see the day that the three of them would leave their lock on the top of the Platinum Tower. Perhaps the grandchildren of the grandchildren of the grandchildren of the grandchildren of the children that were playing in the streets would be the first to see the three of them out of it again.

But either way, they three of them were locked solidly in time. They would be taken out of history in one magical swoop and the Magic Facility turned into nothing more than a death factory.

---

Speaking about the very place itself, with nopony to run the shots there properly, it was only chaos that lived inside of the place. Nothing was what it used to be anymore. All of the ponies who were working within the place knew it. Days went by and turned into months before the place reached its absolute boiling point. There was no turning back to avoid disaster, not anymore.

Without the place being run the way it was supposed to be, there was only the chaos that would be taking over and in the end it was the failures within the machinery that were used to keep the place going without a hitch that just stopped and came a dangerous hold. Everything appeared like it was going to blow one day sooner or later and all of the employee's knew that fact. The product that they would be making, the very magic of Equestria, would become a powerful force that was just floating through the air for any unicorn to be picking up. Just like the wonderful lies always said to every little unicorn.

That was exactly what happened over the gears of time. All of the souls had gotten out of the place through luck and chance, they all watched just how the whole Magic Facility started to crumble to dust and the sheets of metal curved inwards due to the powerful implosion that happened somewhere deep inside of it.

When the explosion itself finally happened, was all of the magic still left inside was being shot right through the shield that surrounded the mythical city. Something that left massive holes within it. Yet all of the unicorns suddenly felt it. They felt that the forces were all around them. Not just in the city but everywhere in the land of Equestria.

Perhaps it was the greatest gift that the place had ever given to the world, meaning that there wouldn't be any more class system about half, true or unworthy. Because from that day forward, all unicorns were seen as equals to one another.

But the city? The city itself remained in its infamous secret reality. All of the holes were closed over time. But if some dared to look into the last hole to be closed, just before it was sealed for all eternity, there was something to be sees. For the very eye of the ancient professor Cosmos could be seen peeking over the whole of the city before it closed together with the last gap.

The factory’s leaders locked in time and unaware of the changes around them. It’s workers lost and stayed as refugees in the city itself. Those who were still caught in the place were returned back home and swore to never speak about it. Future generations of unicorns would be able to live unharmed through time. A gift and curse at the same time in some eyes.

"That’s the tale of the Magic Facility. Its infamy, its secrecy, and its reality."