It Came From The Factory

Fair Weather expelled the remaining contents of her stomach into the toilet and wiped her mouth. She moved to look at herself in the mirror through slightly clouded vision. She could see the stress wearing her down. He knew her, he saw her, she was definitely his next target.

"J-just.. just c-calm down. O-ok, I-I didn't see him for that long, m-m-maybe he has b-bad memory."

Fair Weather batted her mane out of her face with a hoof, then let out a deep sigh before backing away from the sink. As Fair Weather exited the bathroom, she looked at the way here home was kept. Her normally clean floors had random items strewn about, and all the windows she usually kept open for fresh air were shut and locked up tight. Her whole house was locked up. She curled up on the couch and stared at the blank television screen.

"This shit's so crazy. I can't believe this is even happening."

A knock at the door prompted a small yelp and a jolty, quick motion upwards. She slowly walked towards the door and looked through the peephole. It was princess Twilight Sparkle and her friend. Fair Weather opened the door and motioned for Twilight and her friend to come in.

"What's going on?"

Fair Weather was visibly shaking, which Twilight and Fluttershy both noticed.

"We think that it may be a good idea for you to move. Temporarily."

Twilights words hit Fair Weather like a train.

"Move? Wh-why?"

"It's a type of witness protection we do. You're identity will be temporarily changed, and you'll be moved elsewhere for the time being."

"What? What about her? She actually got abducted, why isn't she moving?"

Twilight looked at Fluttershy, then back to Fair Weather.

"She's under the royal guards protection. And mine."

Fair Weather sighed and ran a hoof through her mane.

"That's ridiculous. Where would I even be going?"

"ManeHatten."

"Well, suppose I have always wanted to go there. When is this?"

"It would be best for you to be out of here by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow!? Jeez, I don't get any warning?"

Twilight and Fluttershy both bowed their heads slightly, and Fair Weather sighed again.

"Alright, whatever, I'll start packing."

"Well of course I feel horrible about it Spike, but it has to be done, there's no way she won't be a target soon."

"Well, don't you think ManeHatten is a little unreasonable? Why not Cloudsdale?"

"A, that's predictable, B, it's too close, and C, he's a pegasus too, he would just fly up there if he knew."

Twilight finished putting away the stack of books that Spike had been holding and sighed.

"What if he goes there?"

"He wouldn't. There's no way he'd be able to get on a train without being noticed, and nopony would walk or even fly all the way from here to ManeHatten."

"But what if he does? He's clearly psycho, I'm sure he wouldn't mind a long flight if he had a motive."

"But what motive does he have? If anything, we need to be protecting Fluttershy the most."

Twilight led Spike into the map room as she spoke, and put both front hooves up on the map.

"ManeHatten is a good place. Populous, far away, and there are lots of places to hide."

"Well, what if he heard something and he's already there?"

"We have somepony waiting to pick her up from the train station and walk her to her new apartment. With any luck, we'll catch him in a few days and she can come back."

A knock came from the door, startling Twilight. She wasn't expecting anypony. When she opened the door, she was met by a pegasus stallion, with a black mane and a blue coat.

"Hello?"

"Hi there. I'm StarSet, I'm visiting Pnyville. I was wondering what this big place was, but somepony told me it was your castle. I must say, it's an honor to meet you."

That stallion bowed a little after speaking, to which Twilight smiled.

"Oh, well, welcome to Ponyville. You know anypony here?"

"I had a friend who came here before. He played a little show here in Ponyville, him and his band."

"Oh, cool."

"Yeah, him and I are gonna be meeting up soon. Well, I should go, it was a pleasure meeting you."

"It was nice meeting you, have a good stay in Ponyville."

"Thank you."

The stallion turned and started walking away, leaving Twilight to close the door and look at Spike.

"That was weird, I swear I remember that name."

"From where?"

"I don't know, but what I do know is, that name isn't new to Ponyville."

Starset walked up to the train station in Ponyville and sighed.

"Well, shame it has to come to an end so quick."

As he walked up to the ticket booth, he looked over at some of the ponies waiting for the train. There were only a few, which was surprising considering the time, the train would arrive soon. He spied one, a pegasus mare with a blonde mane covered by a large hat, and a face slightly hidden by mirrored sunglasses.

"One ticket to ManeHatten please."

After taking his ticket, StarSet walked over to the line, getting as close as he could to the blonde-maned pegasus.

"Hey."

The mare jumped a little when he spoke. She turned around and looked at him through her sunglasses.

"H-hi."

"May I ask you something?"

"S-sure?"

"Why are you wearing those if it's almost night time?"

The mare moved her sunglasses down further on her muzzle and looked at the stallion.

"Well, I have sensitive eyes. And the hat is just part of my style."

"Okay, reasonable answers."

The mare turned away from StarSet as the train slowly pulled into the station. All the ponies waiting for the train boarded, but the mare took a few deep breaths before boarding.

"Hey, are you alright?"

StarSet looked at the mare again, and she looked back.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine. Just nervous."

"First time going to ManeHatten?"

"N-no. I just haven't been, back home, in a while."

"Oh, ok. Well, there's no need to be nervous."

As StarSet put his hoof on the mares shoulder, she jumped slightly again and rushed onto the train. StarSet shrugged and started walking onto the train.

"Weird. Whatever, won't be my problem."

Fair Weather screamed out in pain as another spike was driven through her leg. Tears rolled down her face as the pegasus grinned at her and laughed.

"While the Weather is wair, I figured you could get out more, what's the fun in being stuck inside with me? Get it? The Weather is Fair?"

He laughed again and wound up for another hammer strike. As the spike broke through her skin and bone, Fair Weather screamed out again.

Fair Weather snapped awake. She looked around the train car, but didn't see anypony else.

"Jeez, that was vivid."

She looked at her leg, but saw that it was still clear of any marks. As she let out a sigh and leaned back, she noticed that her hat and sunglasses were missing.

"Shit, Twilight told me to wear those."

Fair Weather stood up and looked out the window, seeing that it was darker out now.

"We got far."

"Not far enough it would seem."

Fair Weather yelped and turned around to see a pegasus stallion with a white coat and a black mane. He threw off Fair Weather's hat and glasses off, and smiled at her with that same sickening grin from her nightmare.

"H-how, how did you?"

"If princess Twilight was stupid enough to fall for that, why wouldn't the ponies riding the train be?"

Thunder Tail quickly jumped over to Fair Weather and held a soaked rag up to her mouth. Fair Weather let a small scream out before she eventually passed out. Thunder Tail dragged the body behind him over to the end of the train car, and carried it off into he night, leaving the train to continue on towards ManeHatten.

Spike noticed how nervously Twilight was pacing and sighed as he stood up.

"Its ok Twilight, I'm sure she got there perfectly fine."

"But you don't know that, anything could have happened."

A knock on the door prevemted Spike from retorting.

"That's Rainbow Dash, she has the news from the ManeHatten messenger. I guess we're about to actually find out."

As Twilight took a deep breath, she opened the door to reveal her cyan friend, not flying, but standing before her. Her grim look gave Twilight an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Rainbow Dash?"

"The guy said that she didn't make it to ManeHatten, she wasn't even on the train."

"What?"

"But wait, there's something weird."

Rainbow Dash ran into the castle and threw some things from her saddlebags onto the map table. Twilight slowly walked into the room as Rainbow Dash was laying out various papers.

"What's all-"

"The train schedules and stuff, I got Rarity to help me."

"Ok, well what's going on? What's so weird?"

"Look at this, the stallion that was escorting her did a head count, and he matched it with the number of tickets for that train route. They don't match, there are two ponies missing from the head count."

"She was kidnapped?!"

Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight and nodded with a frown. Twilight raised a hoof to her chin for a moment, and then perked up.

"He was on that train."

"What? How? Everyone knows what he looks like, it's all over town, and all over the news, how could he have even gone near the train station without someone seeing him?"

Twilight didn't have an answer for that. She looked down to the floor in contemplation, going over everything that had happened since this began. From the first murder to where they were now, nothing seemed to be out of what could be called ordinary. Then, a memory, from just a day ago.

"Wait a minute, StarSet!"

"What?"

"About five years ago, there was a show here, and the headlining bands singer was named StarSet."

"And?"

"And, the stallion that came to my door yesterday said that he was new to town, and that his name was StarSet. But, if that name was already here, then that means that he was disguised! And I believed it!"

"So, he's suddenly a master of disguise now?"

"I think so, and that means that he could be anyone, anywhere."

Fair Weather opened her eyes and looked around slowly, left and right. Her head was pounding, and she felt nauseated. Her breathing was seemingly being regulated by the mask over her face, with added another level of creepy.

"Ugh, what the-"

She stopped herself short when she looked up, or rather down, and saw a large array of spikes pointing towards her.

"Fuck."

She looked up and saw her wings and legs bound by a length of rope that went all the way to the ceiling. The second rope however only seemed to wrap around her neck.

"Oh shit."

Then, lights from below her flicked on and pointed at her. She heard a small chuckle and looked to see an upside down pegasus walking towards her.

"Hello there. Don't I have the best timing?"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?! What did I even do?"

"Its not about anything anymore. It used to be, but it seems like everpony's getting better. More are escaping, or at least making a good attempt. I feel as if I'm slipping. Well, you, I'll do something different with you."

He walked over to a small computer that was sitting near the edge of his platform and opened up a tab that showed the local news.

"In five hours, I'm going to broadcast your execution live for all Equestria to see."

The grin that grew on his face as he turned to face Fair Weather again sent a sickening chill all throughout her.

"So, I think I'll come back and start the broadcast in a few minutes, I have something to go get."

As the other pegasus walked slowly out of the room, Fair Weather started becoming frantic.

"Fuck, ok, calm down. How long does it take for somepony to die if they're upside down? But how long have I been here already? Fuck."

She looked at the rope around her body, at how it was digging in and leaving marks.

"How am I gonna get out of this?"

"So, what's this plan of yours again?"

"We're going to go get everypony, we'll go to Canterlot, and we'll order that the factory be destroyed with no second thoughts."

"Twilight!!"

"Ugh, what now?"

Rainbow Dash and Twilight both ran into the room that Spike was in and gasped at what they saw on the tv. Thunder Tail was adjusting a camera that was pointing at Fair Weather.

"Hello everyone. As you can see, I have the factorys next victim. Now, I'm not going to kill her yet, but when I do, you'll all have a front row seat."

As the stallion rambled on, Twilights heart dropped. Rainbow Dash walked forward a little and looked at Twilight.

"Got a plan B?"

"Clock's ticking."

Thunder Tail maliciously laughed and walked out of the cameras view. Fair Weather tried to escape from her bindings, but her attempts were futile. Thunder Tail sat down on the small stool by the computer and closed his eyes.

"Only a matter of time. If you were somehow to escape, if suggest you get at it."

"You're sick! You hear me? You're fucked up in the head!"

Thunder Tail sighed and stood up. He looked at the tab to confirm that he was still live, and when he did, he stood in front of the camera again.

"Hello again Equestria. So, recent events have led me to this decision. I'm moving up the time, to two hours from this moment, and I'll be doing some in between, such as-"

Thunder Tail slammed his right wing down on the desk and grabbed something that was sitting on top of it. He turned around quickly, and in one swift motion, threw it at Fair Weather. Fair Weather screamed in pain as the knife dug deep into her abdomen just above her left rear leg. As the blood slowly ran down her body and onto her face, Thunder Tail smiled.

"There, just a taste. That's all for now, I have something big to prepare for."

As the pegasus walked off screen, Twilight wiped the tears from her eyes. It was wretched watching something so horrible happen right in front of her. Rainbow Dash coughed and pushed herself off the wall, closer to Twilight and the TV she was staring blankly at.

"What do we do now?"

No response came to Twilight. She couldn't think of anything to say, let alone muster the mental strength to say it. Then, something on screen.

"Wait, do you see that?"

"What?"

Twilight pointed atbth e screen, specifically at the hanging mares left rear leg.

"The knife cut the rope, I think she can move a little!"

The mare wriggled in her place and tried to move her left wing. When the rope around it filly split, she stretched it out. Twilight and Rainbow Dash heard some muttering, then gasped as they saw the wing reach for the knife.

"She isn't..."

"I think she is."

Fair Weather softly spoke to herself through gritted teeth as her wing grasped the handle of the knife.

"C'mon, just do it. C'mon."

She closed her eyes and made sure her grasp was firm, then slowly started forcing the blade out of her body. She cursed out loud as the pain grew, but continued removing the weapon. When the serrated edge caught on something, it cause so much pain that Fair Weathers vision became cloudy.

"C'mon, I gotta do this."

She re-adjusted her grip and took a deep breath in through the oxygen mask on her face. As she closed her eyes again, she pulled as hard as she could on the knife. There was a twinge in her leg, and she now felt short of breathe from the immense pain. She looked up at the blood dripping down from the item in her wing.

"She's got it, she can escape."

"Let's hope."

Twilight and Rainbow Dash watched the mare slowly cut the rope with the knife, holding their breath.

"Wait, the second rope, what about it?"

"Huh?"

"The second rope, it's tied around her neck! When the rest snap, she'll hang herself!"

"Oh shit."

Rainbow Dash looked back at the TV with panic as the mare in screen continued to cut away the rope around her. Just as there were only a few left, Fair Weather reached up and grabbed the rope around her neck with her free wing. She started shifting her body, swinging gently at first but gaining momentum. She had the blade of the knife poised at the edge of the last strand of rope. The moment her body was close to the platform, Fair Weather brought the blade through the rope and up to the one that was now her noose, and cut it almost through. The weight being forced in one direction snapped the remainder of the now frayed rope, and Fair Weather fell to the platform floor.

"She did it!"

Fair Weather looked up slowly at the camera, and lifted her head up. She put one hoof on the ground, then the other, slowly pushing herself up. When she went to move her left rear leg, she cried iutbin pain and fell back down. She looked back and saw the blood rapidly draining from it.

"Fuck, gotta make this quick."

She pushed herself up and stood in front of the camera.

"Citizens of Equestria. Stay in your homes. Lock your doors, and keep the blinds shut. Don't trust anypony you don't know, and keep on constant guard. Until you hear further, don't do anything else, and stay indoors!"

Her message out, Fair Weather grabbed the camera and threw it into the hole behind her. She turned back and tossed the computer off the desk, falling almost to the floor afterwards.

"Now to just get out of here."

She pushed herself up once again and started looking at the few doors around her.

"He went out that one, so no. That one has a lock on it, and I don't see a key, so I guess that one."

She started walking towards the simple wooden door that she prayed led to the outside, or at least somewhere safe. As she reached for the doorknob, she heard something behind her, and jumped behind some crates. Her breathing was heavy, but she tried to slow it quickly as she heard hoofsteps enter the room.

"Hmm, sooner than I expected. Good for her. Wish she hadn't thrown my camera however."

When she heard the chuckling pony exit the room, she peeked around the crates, and saw that he was gone. Taking the opportunity, she quickly ran up to the door and started trying to open it.

"Locked? What? No! Come on, come on, please open!"

"Missing something?"

Fair Weather turned around in an instant, and saw Thunder Tail standing behind her. He had a small necklace with multiple keys around his neck, and he looked up at her through his parted black mane.

"So, I see you've escaped your bindings? Good, good. One fatal mistake though, would you like a guess?"

Fair Weather drew her knife, but didn't move. She couldn't, the fear overpowered the adrenaline. Thunder Tail maliciously chuckled and started towards her. Within seconds, her kicked the knife from her grasp and pinned her to the wall.

"Your first mistake, was not killing me when you pulled the knife just now."

Before Fair Weather could do anything, Thunder Tail moved his grip, and slammed her head against the wall.

"Well what do we do now?"

"I don't know. With our only source of information as to what's happening inside gone, what can we do now?"

Twilight stopped pacing for a moment and looked down to the floor. Rainbow Dash stood up and walked over to her.

"What if... what if I checked it out?"

"What?"

"I can just fly up to the roof and look around inside a little. There's gotta be a way in from the roof."

"Dash, I'm not sure if you know what you're getting into. He is clearly insane, we have no way of knowing what could be in there waiting for you. And besides, if anything happened to you, I could never forgive myself."

Rainbow Dash hung her head slightly and sighed.

"I guess you're right. But there's gotta be something we can do!"

Twilight raised a hoof to her chin in thought. After a few quiet seconds, it dropped.

"This requires thoight beyond me. Spike!"

"Yes Twilight?"

"Prepare a letter."

As Spike readied his paper and quill, Twilight sighed.

"Dear Princess Celestia."

"All prior options have been tried, or are no longer available. I am now requesting your guidance on the matter. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

"What now sister? It sounds as if there is almost no possibility for us to assist in the matter."

"Do not worry Luna, there will be a way. Though it is not obvious now, it will make itself obvious soon."

Celestia moved from her position on the throne and walked down the staircase. Luna followed close behind, still concerned.

"But what if it shows itself too late? It sounds like there isn't much time-"

"And too much has happened already. I know where you're going sister, and I agree. Twilight Sparkle will find an answer, as she and her friends always do. But for now, we can only hope that the solution comes to them soon."

"I hope you know what you're doing sister."

Celestia stared out the window in the direction of Ponyville. She let out a long sigh, but didn't move.

"I don't, but we also know the risks of the possible options."

"And those are?"

"Twilights first plan was to destroy the building immediately. Since then, a hostage has been taken into the factory, and we cannot risk civilians. Sending in anypony alone would be a deathtrap, and-"

"Wait, then why not send in a group?"

Celestia perked up at the end of Luna's sentence, and quickly looked to her.

"Prepare the carriage to Ponyville, and assemble some guards."

As Fair Weather opened her eyes, she saw Thunder Tail sitting in front if her, looking solemn, almost bored.

"Ah, you're awake."

"What do you want from me? Why can't you just let me leave!"

"That's a good question. Why can't I? Well, let's start with this. It's fun. You entertain me."

"You're so fucked up."

Thunder Tail chuckled and stood up. He walked slow circles around Fair Weather, occasionally running his hooves along her head or through her mane.

"Lemme say this, and I mean it in a good way, you're a crazy bitch. And I like that. It's good material for me to work with. I gotta credit your resilience sweetheart, it's one of the better things about you. Probably why you're still here. I like it. I put you through hell and back, and you come back almost unscathed. Pretty fucking good. But, you know what the definition of insanity is?"

"N-no."

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting a different outcome. You, you try to escape every time, and yet, you're here. You think I'm insane?"

He chuckled and pushed Fair Weather over on her side, so that she looked down in the pit that she was just before hanging over. It was now empty, no longer having spikes in it. But, instead of a computer desk, there was a large machine that almost resembled a wood chipper.

"Alright sweetie, time to have some fun!"

He put his right front hoof on her side and smiled before kicking her into the pit. Fair Weather wad able to break some of the fall with her hooves, but couldn't lessen it with her wings, as they were tied to her body. Her vision was blurred when she looked up at Thunder Tail. Thunder Tail pulled a lever that started moving a large metal grate over the pit. The bars were wide and had quite a bit of space in between, but not quite enough to fit between.

"Here, cut yourself free."

A medium sized knife hit the ground in front of Fair Weather, and she immediately cut her wing bindings free.

"Every seen one of those music videos where the room fills with water during the song? Well, here's something like it."

Thunder Tail chuckled as he hit two buttons on the machine and it loudly sprung to life. For a few moments, nothing happened. Then, a horrible crunching noise, accompanied by the machine bogging down slightly. Fair Weather looked up, and raised her wing just before the flow of blood hit her. A feeling of pure disgust came over her, and she immediately lost her lunch on the floor.

"What the fuck!?"

"Hope you like drowning in blood!"

Thunder Tail laughed maniacally as he threw another body onto the conveyer and watched it enter the machine. He looked back at the huge pile of decaying bodies he had moved into the room and chuckled.

"Its gonna be a long, bloody day."