Chapter 1: Slienced belle
The spectric union watches all
My mother told me stories about the rainbow factory when I was a filly, she once had a friend who was taken in their first harvests. The rainbow factory was mostly unknown before the fall, now every pony knows the name. when I was still a filly , the enforcers raided our local block they abducted my mother, and many of my friends. Swarms of enforcer auto chariots flew through the sky, the screeching sound of their chariots engines whined through the air like the screaming of a hundred burning ponies. They override the locks on the apartment doors, then broke in, they grabbed exactly sixty percent of the population in our block and dragged them back into their chariots. Any pony who resisted was dragged on to the walkways and shot, their bodies thrown off the walkways and into the undercity.
I never knew my father, he was taken in another raid before I was even born, and my mother has never even told me his name. I live alone in the apartment, the same room my mother was taken in, the same room my father was in, the same room I was born in, simply waiting for the day I will be abducted too.
I woke from another night of sleep, the warm and stale air of the city blew into my room from the open window, the grey metal ceiling standing ominously above, as white light emanated from the lonely flickering light fixture, casting shadows across the walls.
The bed was old, and rusted, most of the furniture was due for replacement in a month, there was the bed which as I mentioned was old, rusted, stained, and almost on the brink of breaking into pieces due to corrosion, The table and chair was in no better condition, the oven, that only functioned when set to one twenty degrees, and the refrigerator that only had a fifty percent chance of either freezing your food solid, or not cooling your food at all.
I pulled myself out of bed, my back in pain from working in the titanium mills. I started to cough from the smoke that wafted through the room. After falling out of bed, I walked over to the window and closed it before I died of smoke inhalation.
I was half-awake now, and fortunately I had enough strength to trot over to the refrigerator and pull out something to eat. There were no stores in Canterlot, instead you got your food from your local block's food refinery, and you got exactly fourteen food-cubes, two for each day of the week, no pony knew what was inside the food-cubes, but it tasted half like grass, and half like rotten meat, don't ask me how I know what rotten meat tastes like.
After puting the food-cube into the oven, I waited for the cube to melt into the soup-like substance that every pony else eats, Then I went back to the fridge to grab a bottle of water. Unlike food, water is easier to come across, You can find water spouts along each skyway, ponies line up to refill their bottles for the day, sometimes the water spouts break, then you just walk over to another one, there are three in my local block, and i've only ever left the block either on the orders of the enforcers, or to get to work.
When ever the lights break or your power goes out, you simply have to live with it, until your scheduled maintenance day. Once a month a repair pony comes to fix any broken utilities in an apartment, it takes about a day for the pony to fix an entire apartment, but at least it's something. the food-cubes can be consumed without melting them if your power goes out, but they certainly don't go down easier as a solid.
The walls and floors were made of some metal that never rusted, and the door rarely broke. The actual building was built in a way that it never required maintenance, so i've never had to live in a neighbors room, and none of my neighbors had even needed to live in mine.
After about an hour the food cube had almost melted completely, and my meal for the day was almost ready. I looked out the window out into the skyway, The buildings went up and down as far as the eye could see, and no light ever shined down here, it was all drowned out by the catwalks and giant buildings extending into the sky. And ponies falling down into the undercity was a semi-common occurrence, if your weren't a pegasus like me you could trip and fall over the railing, or you could get bumped by another pony and happen to fall off the catwalk, or you could simply feel like committing suicide.
I had thought of killing myself on multiple occasions, but I was a pegasus, and If I fell, my instincts would tell me to fly back up to the catwalk, and I was curious what happened to my mother, and If I were to be abducted I had a feeling that I would find out, but I've been lucky so far, the enforcers have never grabbed my yet, and If I provoked an enforcer they would more then likely shoot me, rather then take me, but my luck will run out sooner or later.
My food cube was melted, I opened the oven and waited for it to cool before pulling it out of the oven, for fear of burning my mouth on the pot. Once it was cool enough for me to pull the pot out of the oven, I quickly slurped up the thick soup of food-cube and then put the pot away, ready for this evening, and the next morning, and the day after that, so on, and so forth... There wasn't much need to clean a pot that you only used for one dish, and the apartment didn't come with a sink to clean it with.
After going to the bathroom and washing up, the water coming out of the shower is only as warm as the room is, they didn't even supply you with soap or toilet paper, and the toilet was only flushing half the times you used it.
I got dressed in my standard work uniform, an orange suit that covered most of my body, and came equipped with an in-built saddle bag. I grabbed my water bottle in my wing and put it securely into the bottle Harness on the suit. After readying myself for the day, I walked out the door and down the hallways of my apartment.
The hallway was made of the same grey metal that my room was made from. All of the doors were locked, most ponied either already awake, or still waking up. Water pipes and power cables lined the ceiling, and the only noise heard in the hallway was the noise of water flowing through the pipes above.
I came to the elevator, and as you could expect it was as grey and as metal as everything else in Canterlot. I clicked the exit floor button on the elevator and It sprung into motion, the elevator car going up to the exit. Once the elevator ride was over the doors opened and I stepped out into the skyway.
I looked up and all I saw was lights and walkways extending upwards, and I looked down and after a couple hundred meters the lights of the city faded, ending in the pitch-black that was the undercity. Larger walkways and smaller catwalks connected all the buildings. It was the time in the day when the walkways were crowded with ponies trying to get to work on time, and many auto chariots flew by, filled with citizens that want nothing but to get to work.
A voice echoed from above "Local block Five, One, Two, One, is under quarantine, any civilians attempting to enter or exit will be harvested. Automated message repeating: Local block Five, One, Two, One, is under quarantine, any civilians tempting to enter or exit will be harvested," The spectric union had drones fly above every local block and spout their messages for the day, sometimes there will be a food shortage, or sometimes workers will have to work overtime, or some times, like now, they will say a local block in under quarantine, that normally means either a terrorist attack, or the block is being raided by the enforcers.
Enforcers, armed with their prism rifles, armored in their dark-blue suits, wearing their creepy respirator masks, and levitating on their hover-disks. The prism rifles of the Enforcers were a long rifle, their stocks were mounted to the saddles of the enforcers. The rifles had a tank of multi-colored spectra mounted to their bottoms, a pipe connecting the tanks to a glowing chamber and extending from this multi-colored brightly glowing chamber was the barrel.
The enforcers wore a dark-blue suit that was armored with grey metal plates, and a saddle that connected to their weapons, their armor also had a gas-mask in the helmet, the face of the mask was a giant plate of tempered one-way glass, and the back of the head was the same dark-blue heavy fabric that the suit was made from, where the pony's mouth would be there was a giant block of metal with two air-filters extending from the metal box, and In the center of the box was a speaker for the pony to talk through. On the enforcers back was a tank of spectra that is used to refill their weapons and there was a small battery next to the spectra tank that is used to power any electronics in their armor.
The enforcers floated around on strange levitating disks, that made a multi-colored rainbow trail from their hover-engines, and had a button panel to their side with an assortment of buttons that could be used for various functions. Two of the functions used most often is one that displays holographic propaganda from a projector in the disk, and the second was an alarm that called an enforcer auto-chariot to the position.
I trotted down the walkways, being careful to not draw the enforcers attention. I walked over to the Industrial sector, which was fortunately only half an hours walk from my apartment. I walked for about ten minutes until the digestive sound of an enforcer auto-chariot drew near.
Enforcers are known to abduct ponies seemingly at random during the morning rush to work. But this one was especially tragic. An older mare caring a foal on her back, a filly, and a colt were trotting down a walkway, their heads lowered, and walking slowly through the hoard of ponies.
An enforcer auto-chariot flew up to the walkway, and all the ponies suddenly backed away from the chariot. Three enforcers ran out of the back of the chariot and tackled to old mare, The old mare was thrown to the ground, and the foal she was caring was tossed over the railing into the under-city. The filly looked confused and started to cry, and the colt ran for his life. Noticing the colt trying to escape, one of the enforcers turned around and with a blast of rainbow colored light, the enforcer shot the foal, the foal collapsing to the ground, a giant hole blasted through his side, his burned flesh glowing with a faint rainbow light.
Upon hearing the colt being shot, the mare stopped struggling, she stopped moving as the enforcers dragged her, her crying child, and the dead colt's body into the back of the auto-chariot. The doors on chariot's back closed once every pony was inside, and the chariot flew away into the sky.
I didn't say a word during the abduction, no pony did, they just kept on walking as if nothing had ever happened, I wondered what was the old world like, Were ponies just abducted off the street like that, were ponies just shot like that, did any pony care when that sort of stuff happens.
I continued on like every pony else, But the colt's scream was still echoing through my mind, I have never seen a family kidnapped like that, at least not since my mother was taken. The whole event brought back some sad memories form the past, of my block being raided, and the only family I had being abducted to Celestia knows where.
The air was filled with smoke, and fiery orange lights shined from through the thick smog. This was the industrial sector. Most of the factories were titanium mills, some were food processors, and there were quite a few factories that I didn't know what they made.
Giant power cables connected the buildings, and cargo auto chariots flew from building to building, delivering resources to the factories and bringing the finished product to where ever it was taken. Ponies wandered to and from the factories on the numerous catwalks and walkways, and enforcers watched from their disks.
I trotted into my mill before a enforcer got the idea that I wasn't working, I entered the mill, the walls, floor, and celing were coated in the fiery orange light of the forge. Liquid titanium was poring from a pipe and into a casting pot, then It was pored into molds and shaped into more finer shapes by machines. My job was to inspect the plates and to ensure that they come out right, also to ensure that the machines don't break.
The day in the forge was a relatively relaxing one, nothing broke, and the other workers did their job without a problem. A few plates of metal needed to be scraped, but for the most part the forge was calm. Normally a pony tries to escape their work, or a machine ceases to function, or the enforcers break in and abduct a worker for some unknown reason, but nothing of the sort happened today, a rare occurrence.
Around noon I got my water break. After showing my permission card to the enforcers they let me go over to the nearest water spout and get a maximum of two pints of water. After drinking one pint, and saving the second for later.
After eight more hours at work, I was finally told to return home. I haven't had a day without a problem in several months, the day seemed almost too good to be true. I entered a relatively quiet part of the industrial sector, It was slightly darker here, and the smog slightly thicker, There were no enforcers around at all, and It was quiet, or at least quiet for the Industrial sector.
I saw the shadow of something move through the smoke, It looked like a pony, a mare, relatively my age, and an earth pony. She was caring something on her back, and walking on a catwalk above me. I walked forward towards the pony in the smog, but then she turned her head, and in a flash of light, she disappeared.
I was confused, where did she go, was she teleported, but she wasn't a unicorn. Then in another flash of light she appeared, on another catwalk some distance away. I chased after her, as she continued to disappear and reappear. I came to a corner where the mare disappeared,a building was in the way so I couldn't see what was around the bend , I ran around the corner, without looking where I was going, and I smacked into another pony.
I was stunned for a second. Whoever I hit, he or she had thick dark blue fur, and was wearing meta-... I looked up and the pony was a pegasus, in a dark blue suit with metal bits, and was wearing a gas-mask.
"Shit," I said calmly when the enforcer looked at me with a confused look, or as confused as he could look with the mask and suit on. He threw me to the ground with his titanium-plated hooves. He looked like he was going to throw me over the edge and into the under-city, but looked at my wings and reasoned to not let me excape. He said something that I couldn't hear clearly, due to my dazed state.
"I've got one... white fur... orange mane... forge worker... trying to enter quarantined area..." He said.
Then after a few minutes an enforcer auto-chariot flew over to the section of catwalk. Two other enforcers stood to the sides of the chariot as the one I encountered tied my legs up, and bound my wings, preventing my from flying away, and then dragged me into the back of the chariot. The doors in the back of the chariot closed, and I was not locked Inside the dark metal box with two other enforcers.
The inside of the enforcer chariot was surprisingly empty, the doors had two small windows but in my current position I couldn't see anything through them. There was a small doorway to the driver's cabin, but again, tiny windows. The rest of the chariot was empty and metal, there was nothing in the back except for me, and the two enforcers who put me in here.
With my hooves and wings bound, there was not much I could do, I desperately searched for a way to get out. Should I try to convince the enforcers to let me go, no that would never work. I could try to wiggle my wings free, but there tied up strong, it would take too long, and even with my wings free, how would I get the door open to fly away, I didn't know how the door, or for that matter how most enforcer tech worked.
If I did escape through the door, and if the enforcers didn't shoot me before I got out, they would just follow me, they are also pegasai. Could I overpower one, but there are two, If I got one, then the second would kill me, And if I did knock out the two enforcers, then I would still have to deal with the driver.
No idea seemed like a good one, I just fell to the floor, unmoving, while I tried to plan my escape. The floor was warm, so was the wall. the enforcers stared at me, the reflective glass on their helmets reflected me lying in the corner. The hum of the auto-chariot's engines reverberated through the metal box I was trapped in, being taken to where ever the spectric union take ponies. Was I going to be turned into spectra like my mother's stories said, or was I going to be experimented on, would it hurt, was I going to survive.
Suddenly I heard something coming from the driver's cab, a machine making noises, and the enforcer driver saying something, what ever he said I couldn't hear from through the door, just the muffled shouts. The two enforcers looked worried, and they rushed towards the cab door.
Right as the enforcers reached the door, I felt the vehicle shake, and heard something hit the chariot, then a wave of rainbow colored electricity flowed through the entire chariot, the lights from the drivers cab when out, the enforcers suddenly stopped speaking, the glowing blue door panels went black, and then entire room became devoid of almost all light.
I felt the entire ship lurch forward, the humming coming from the engines ceased, and I suddenly slid forward, the back doors swung open, and everything was being pulled out, the enforcers grabbed on to the cab door with their wings, I was tossed out, The darkness of the undercity was surrounding me.
I got my wings free in time and hovered in place as I gathered my breath. The enforcers had not gotten out of the chariot before It smashed into the ground. The undercity was a giant forest of scrap metal and giant support beams that held the entire city up, It has only been thirty years since the spectric union overthrew the government and installed themselves as the rulers of pony kind, to think that they could have built a city this big was beyond me. The giant support beams kept the entire city from collapsing, and all of the trash from above finds it's way down here eventually.
The ground was covered in toxic mud, radioactive waste, the bones of those whom have fallen down here clutter the ground, and some hang from the spires of scrap metal that jutted up from the floor, even the air wasn't safe to breath on the ground level, but fortunately I was flying several dozen meters above.
I saw a small flash of light come from a small hole in a support beam, not knowing where else to go, I flew over to the metal beam to see what It was. Two ponies stood in the hole hollowed out beam, both wearing forge worker suits like mine, with an enforcers mask and helmet attached to the suit. Where the ponies cutie marks should be on the suit there was a symbol of a lightning bolt, crossed out with a red X. One was a tall but slightly thin stallion, the other one looked exactly like the mare who I was chasing, minus the helmet of course.
The stallion had some sort of auto-loading rocket launcher, and the mare had a modified prism rifle, with a scope mounted on the top, and several bits of machinery connected to the barrel, and a piece of glass mounted on the end of the barrel.
"Who are you?" I asked once I landed on the hollowed out chunk of support.
The stallion spoke in a gruff old stallion's voice with a strange sounding accent " We are what the union calls "terrorists" but we are here to save you, and all the rest of ponies being taken to celestia knows where."
"We'll tell you more once you get back to base... right now we have to stay behind and save any more that fly through this route," The mare said in a more serious tone then the stallion, " Take these, you'll need them."
Rainbow-colored energy appeared around the mare's hooves and swirled around in an almost beautiful fashion, then two objects, one a small pistol, and the other a salvaged respirator from an enforcer's mask. Some how this mare was using magic despite being an earth pony, but we had no time for questions, time was of the essence, I was now a fugitive in the company of terrorists.
I equipped the respirator, and gripped the gun in my wing, " Follow the red arrows, they will lead you to ponyille, from there another resistance agent will lead you to our camp, got that!" The stallion shouted.
I nodded in agreement, then I asked "But down there is filled with dangerous chemicals, acids and radioactives."
then the mare replied "That suit of yours is designed for working in a metal forge, what ever it's made from it will protect you from most of the waste down there, just don't go dipping your face in the sludge."
I flew down to ground level, my metal boots sunk down into the thick, deadly mud, the crashed auto-chariot was beginning to sink into the muck, and the enforcer's bodies with it. The bones of dead ponies lined the floor, and pieces of other crashed chariots dotted the landscape, I guess I wasn't the first pony they've saved.
I saw painted on an old piece of pipe, a red arrow pointing down a small path in the forest of metal struts. Following the arrow I trudged through the filth, the hoof prints of other ponies made a path to follow. No light could reach down here, but fortunately I had brought my flashlight to help guide me. Every pony needs a flash light if you live farther down in the city, no light reaches down that far, I've never seen natural sunlight.
The path was long and confusing, voices echoed from above, must have been bellow a more popular city area. trash occasionally rained down from above, and strange noises echoed through the undercity, any pony who survives a fall down here won't be coming back up unless they are a pegasus, the moans of distant ponies sent chills up my spine, and the echoing noises of auto chariots made the entire undercity a far more unsettling place then expected.
An enforcer auto chariot flew by, the rainbow trail of it's engines making a path through the pillars of metal, I hid behind a plate of scrap metal, I didn't want it to see me. The chariot flew by and continued off to it's destination, presumably caring some more ponies who had been abducted.
I followed the signs some more, a few of the signs were hard to recognize, some being eaten away by the corrosive nature of the undercity, but I continued forward, until I came to a small clearing in the metal forest. It was a large empty space in the undercity, it extended left and right for as far as the eye could see, this was underneath a skyway. There lying in the muck was a half-dissolved dead foal, the same foal who was accidentally tossed off the railing when the enforcers had abducted the old mare and her family.
It would have brought tears to the eyes of most ponies, but this was the way of Canterlot, some times ponies fall down, and die down here. The foal was slowly being eaten away by the corrosive and radioactive mud, I nearly vomited once I saw that half of the foals head was missing.
I continued on, following the signs when I heard the sound of an auto chariot draw close. An enforcer auto chariot flew over, I hoped that it would simply fly away, but it stopped once It was over the clearing. The chariot landed, and exiting out of the back were three enforcers and a griffon enforcer.
Griffon enforcers were rare, I've only see five in my entire life, this one being the fifth. The other enforcers had the standard prism rifles, but the griffon was caring a far more intimidating weapon. some kind of short gun, the griffon carried it by a handle on the bottom, It had a tank of spectra on the bottom like the prism rifles, but instead of a glowing firing chamber, it had some kind of three-chambered tank, a pipe was extending from the spectra tank and connected to one of the six chambers in the gun, each chamber had multi-colored light emanating from it, and a short barrel was extending from the revolving cylinder.
The griffon and the other enforcers started to search the area. The enforcers all went in different directions, but the enforcer griffon was heading in mine. I pulled out my pistol, I couldn't fight them, but having my gun out made me feel somewhat better.
I had to run, the griffon would surely find me here. I jumped out of my cover, the griffon stepped back in surprise as I ran for a small hallway in the forest of metal. The other enforcers took shots at me with their prism rifles, but when surprised like this only two shots hit me. When the rainbow lasers from the enforcer's prism rifles hit me I thought I was dead for sure, but It appears that the blasts from their rifles don't do much against what ever my suit was made from.
Then the griffon fired his giant gun at me, there was a big blast of multi-colored light from his gun, and I could see multiple shards of crystal flying at me, each glowing a different color, and leaving behind a trail in the same color as the shard. The shards moved relatively slowly, but the gun was far from inaccurate as I felt several shards of crystal cut across my back.
I slammed into the wall , but using my wings I kept myself upright, I didn't want any of the toxic sludge on the floor getting in the open wounds on my back. The griffon pulled some kind of lever on the side of his gun, and the cylinder rotated, one of the three cylinders was moved into the place of the first, and the first was refilled with spectra. good now I know how the gun works.
I ran down a corridor in the forest of metal "You stay here, I'm going after this bitch," the griffon shouted to the rest of the enforcers.
I ran into one of the more cluttered parts of the undercity, hundreds of discarded barrels and crates were just left lying around, there were giant piles of trash that towered above me, and old pieces of machinery just left to rot.
I could see the griffon, he was following the trail of blood I had left from the open wounds on my back. I needed to stop the bleeding soon or I would faint, and then either he would find me unconscious, or I would lie there until the toxic mud ate me.
The griffon was almost on top of my hiding spot, The griffon thought he would catch me by surprise, but he was wrong. I came out of cover, and before the griffon could react I fired a shot from my gun. The bullet impacted the top left of his helmet, the one-way glass helmet shattered but the bullet didn't kill the griffon, but he was certainly surprised.
With a buck to the face I knocked the griffon to the ground, and before the griffon could react, I grabbed the griffon's shotgun with my wing. Pointing the giant shotgun at the griffon's face, a look of terror filled his eyes mere moments before I pulled the trigger.
The shards from the shotgun cut into the griffon's head, killing him instantly. but there was no time to settle down, after hearing my pistol shot, and the sounds of fighting, I could here the rest of the enforcers run this way.
I found the trail again and ran for my life, trying to get distance between me and the clearing before the enforcers decide to chase me. I continued to follow the trail, I needed a break. I was all out of breath, my back was still in pain, but I had managed to stop the bleeding with the cloth the enforcers had bound my wings with.
I needed to rest, but I pushed on, and after another twenty minutes of trotting as fast as my wounded and tired body could, I saw a door built into the side of a giant concrete wall. There was less trash or filth over here, and the ground felt solid, It felt weird, I had never walked on solid dirt before, I had only heard stories from my mother of how walking on dirt feels like.
The door had a giant red arrow pointing at it, I figured this was the way out of the city. I was excited, I haven't felt this way in my entire life, I've only felt fear, boredom, and anger, but never excitement before. I walked forward and opened the door, There was several more meters of solid concrete corridor, but at the end there was another door, and this one had a window build into it, and a bright light shined through it, brighter then any light I had ever seen.
