Chapters Awoken - Entry Two and Three
Entry Two
Day One
I just got back from my job. It was horrible. I had to skin a mare and her friends today. I feel... I feel glad I did it.
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO NO NO NO NO NO. I CAN'T. I WON'T. I SHOULDN'T. WHY. I HAVE WORKED HERE FOR EXACTLY EIGHTY EIGHT DAYS, TWENTY HOURS, TEN MINUTES AND TWELVE SECONDS. I HAVE HARVESTED THREE HUNDRED COLTS, FOUR HUNDRED MARES, AND TWO HUNDRED FILLIES AND FOALS. I CAN'T TAKE IT. WHY AM I GLAD?
I have built my life on judging the lives of ponies, and deciding that they all deserve to die. I caused them the worst pain they could experience, and it's starting to wear on my sanity. I haven't figured out why I'm glad I killed them yet, but I do know that if I escape, the world will see me as a monster. I will be basically dragged back and executed. All I want now is redemption, I want all the ponies in the world to see me as a regular pony. I have no chance at escape, though. If I try, I'll be harpooned and... Oh Celestia... I don't even want to think about it...
I'm not sure if I will ever be considered a normal pony, but I have been helping ponies as we skin them. I stab them through the heart quickly, ending their lives so they don't have to suffer through it. I can't bear to listen to them scream anymore. I wear the earplugs, but it doesn't help.
I don't think anything really bothers me anymore. I've seen and caused more pain than you'll ever know. I've done... Unthinkable things... Sometimes we would torture the ponies before skinning them, we would use branding irons, beat them, and just give them a lot of pain. I have to go now, it's bunk time and I need to try to get sleep.
Entry Three
Night One
I had the worst dream. I was killed. By a shadow of myself. Completely black. He killed me with his bare hooves. Snapped my neck and stabbed me in the chest. I felt all of it. I can't sleep and I don't have much sanity left anymore. I just want the shackles on my mind to be broken so the work can stop. I'm going to work in processing for a while so I don't go completely nuts. The dream, though... It felt real...
Oh god. It was real. I just checked my chest. I have marks right where he stabbed me. Scars of an old injury it appears, but I have never had an injury like this. The thing is, if my dreams are crazy like this, and they end up being real, how long do I have to live? It appears they can't kill or harm me to where I would die yet. I'm not sleeping tonight.
Awoken - Entry Four and Five
Entry Four
Day Two
I looked at one of the machines. It's made out of a shiny metal, and it's reflective. I did not see myself. I saw my shadow self. I can't stop questioning my reality. Am I hallucinating or is it real? I can't stop thinking it might be real. It's already hurt me, so there is no saying what it may do to the others.
We were just put on alert. 697 and 842 were found dead. I had to go assist with cleanup, and I noticed something that horrified me. They were stabbed in the chest, in the same spots I had been. I caught a glimpse of the mirror in the room of 842 and I saw my shadow. He was smiling, literally ear to ear. He stabbed the body again, and new wounds appeared. I'm not even sure how this works. He is a reflection. How can he manipulate objects if he is a reflection?
Oh Celestia. I just realized. He isn't a reflection. The only way to SEE him is in a reflection. He actually exists, completely invisible to anything but a mirror. I'm not sure I want to be here any more. I'm thinking of escaping, if I can remember how to fly. I'm sick of killing, of thinking its all I do. Should I take a chance at freedom and throw it all down the drain?
Entry Five
Day Three
I was forced to basically take a back seat. I had to watch as my shadow self went and did my job, enjoying all of it. I'm about to go insane. I can't stay here. I have figured out, I AM able to attack it. I stabbed it and I think it's mad. I'm going to take a chance tomorrow. I'm going to go for it. I'm leaving this hell-hole. I am going to need to find a home. I composed a little song.
I've stoked the fire
Seen more pain then you can know
The tears of the broken have washed away my soul
Crushed by desire, to change the way my stream will flow
Now I've awoken, and I'm taking back control
I do the best to block out the screams, but they're haunting me in my dreams
Break my shackles, I want it to stop!
I need to get sleep. I have a long day tomorrow.
Awoken - Entry Six
Entry Six
Day Four
This isn't my home. I'm leaving. I gathered some basic materials, and I'm going to leave tonight. I'm going to dive off the receiving bay and fly away. I'll continue this entry later if I make it out safely, but if I don't make it, I never wanted this. I want to be normal. I want to burn my transgressions away. I want a normal life. I have awoken from this false life. I'm taking back control.
I made it. Thank Celestia I made it. Perfect weather today, nice and foggy. I need somewhere to live. I see what I believe is Ponyville ahead. I'm going to go there and see who can help me. I should go get cleaned up first, don't want to be covered in blood when I meet everypony, do I?
I walked into Ponyville and was nearly scared out of my skin by a poofy pink pony, who's name is apparently Pinkie Pie. She offered to help me and give me a place to stay and work for now. I just have to handle carrying sacks of flour and other various sacks of cooking materials. I get two bits an hour to start, and then if I continue to do good, I get five bits an hour.
Just as I was finishing my last paragraph, I heard a scream and went to check it out. Mr. Cake, Pinkie's father, cut himself on a knife. I should probably mention that at the factory, they all gave us medical training. We were all required to pass a two year medical course and get a certificate. I patched him up in about twenty seconds. Simple job, I've seen deeper cuts. He'll live, but his hoof might be sore for a while.
I found my shadow is still following me. I'm not letting it harm any of this family. And apparently, Pinkie has a mirror room. A room made of mirrors. Perfect. I got a few knives and some protection, and am going to live there for a while until I can kill it. I told Pinkie about the shadow when she asked why I asked for the mirror room, and she kinda flipped out and threw a random object at something and hit it. Turns out, Pinkie can see the shadow. She looks hella pissed, and I think my shadow is going to be where she takes it out. I really don't want to know what she'll do if she catches my shadow. I'm now marginally more scared of pissed off Pinkie then I am of my Shadow. I'd rather be killed by my shadow than by Pinkie.
I just discovered something. At the factory, there was an old story about a worker who escaped. Worker 103. I was looking at Pinkie and I noticed it. She has a worker mark and number carved into her hoof. Pinkie Pie is worker 103. I thought those stories were just legend. I've seen the workers records, and no record exists for any number below 110. I told Pinkie where I was from, and she asked me if I knew 909. I knew her, but not well. Pinkie looked really relieved to hear she was still alive, and hugged me with enough force to break any wall. She seems happy now, and I think I've made my first friend. I'm running out of room on this page, I'm going to continue this in entry seven.
Awoken - Entry One
Entry One
Day One
I managed to get an empty notebook back to my room. I'm going to start writing in this, and document some of my life. I should start at the beginning. My name is Worker #1934. I work at the Rainbow Creation Plant, just outside of Cloudsdale. We do create rainbows, but I think I may have the worst job of all. I work in the "Extraction" part of the facility, and what we do is we remove the color from ponies. We basically skin them alive. We don't have enough sedative for us to use it here, so they go through it feeling every bit. What's left after we have skinned them is incinerated. We have to listen to the cries and screams of the innocent as we skin them alive. Sometimes when we dispose of the ponies, they are still alive. Have you ever heard a pony being burnt alive? I do every day. It haunts me in my sleep, and I just try to block the screams out. We are issued earplugs, but most of us just leave them out.
I only took this job because I needed the bits. My family was seriously in debt, and the factory was the only place that was hiring. We're not allowed to leave, and we are given a place to live here. They feed us and it's basically a normal village, except filled with really messed up people. We call it "Factory Town" but it really doesn't have a name.
Back to my job, I rotate jobs every so often, between working in extraction to working to processing. Processing is just what it sounds like, we take a count of the ponies we have "acquired" and line them up for different colors. I should probably go over the entire process. Ponies come in to Processing where they are dealt with, and then shipped off to extraction, where we take their skin. The bodies are then incinerated. The skin is then placed on a conveyor, which goes to the washing, which removes all the blood and dirt from the skin. From there, it goes to collection, where the color is extracted from the skin. The skins are then incinerated with the bodies. The liquid color goes into the seperator, where it is converted into the colors of the rainbow. The colors are then pumped to the distribution, which is in a separate facility. The "normal" weather ponies work there, where they take the packs of rainbow and distribute it in the sky when needed. Our facility is heavily guarded, only certain ponies who work in collection are allowed outside. I have to go now, it's call time, meaning I have to go do my horrible job. I'll try to write another entry tomorrow.