Rainbow and the Factory

Rainbow flinched as the elevator doors opened with a cheerful chime, quiet yet possibly unexpected. She was slightly confused as she peered into a somewhat small room with only one door straight ahead. Thankfully, it seemed that nopony was around, and she quietly exited. The elevator doors closed silently behind her.

Though dimly lit with alternating LED lightbulbs surrounding a black dome, the janitor pony had been right about the level's cleanliness. Thinly-slitted dark metal flooring glimmered in the light, barely exposing the familiar storm cloud walls below. More of the storm clouds surrounded her, only broken up by the wall and door ahead. The wall was a polished lighter metal, the solid metal door was crafted of a dark, heavy iron.

There was only one way to go. Scalpel at the ready, Rainbow grabbed the door's handle and pulled. She made little progress as the door was extremely heavy, but after a few moments it was ajar. Cautiously, she peeked inside, only entering after seeing and hearing nothing.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she spied a sign on the right wall just after the door. It clearly labeled a floor design that resembled a window with four panes; Rainbow glanced ahead and saw the four-way junction off in the distance. Each of the cardinal points were further labeled as leading to other sections of the floor. Nothing to suggest where Spritz was being held, however.

Just a little further, Rainbow reassured herself.

She started down the central hallway. The storm clouds beneath the flooring dully rumbled as she passed, as if threatening her to not make any sudden movements. She passed by a couple of locked doors as she walked, the placards that might have suggested what was inside were missing. Soon she reached the junction, and she decided to turn left. Nothing else piqued her interest as she made her way to another metal door at the end of the hall, other than a quiet peal of thunder off in the distance that made her jump.

After bullying the door open, Rainbow looked at the nearby sign, seeing that the layout was the same. However, this time it was labeled "Physiology Wing". She turned her head to the next junction and saw a peculiarity; though the walls facing the central hallways were made of the same light-colored metal, the walls facing the outer hallways were transparent, like giant windows. Hoping to find Spritz, Rainbow took the path to the right, resolving to look into every room.

Her resolve was quickly tested. The first room contained no less than twelve Pegasi, each with a thick, tight metal collar locked around their throats, attached to chains dangling from the ceiling, from which another black dome kept watch. Their front hooves were shackled as well, and leather bands covered in magical runes bound their wings to their bodies. Their hind hooves were precariously balanced on thin metal poles about a meter long, their only means of supporting themselves. The Pegasi were clearly struggling to stay balanced, their bodies dripping with sweat, their groans of pain audible through the thick glass. Rainbow's eyes traveled towards two unfortunate ponies that had failed, and her empty stomach heaved. One seemed to have been dead for a while, her extremities dark with pooling blood, her hanging tongue swollen into a grotesque mass, her lifeless eyes wide open and clouded over. The other, more recently deceased, was still dripping blood from his mouth and nose.

Thankfully, Rainbow thought as she gagged, Spritz was not among them.

She quickly turned from the sight and hurried towards the next room, making a note of the door to her right that led to another section. To both her relief and concern, the room was happily empty and unused. Sprinting around the rest of the section, the other two rooms were also not in use. Where she had expected another door at the end of the center-left and southern halls, however, there was none. Thinking back on the one other door she had passed, Rainbow had no choice but to go north.

Past another heavy iron door, the next identical section's map read "Spectra Purification Wing".

Spectra? The stuff that makes rainbows in that Rainbow Factory book? It actually exists? Rainbow's heart began to pound. What does it do?

She glanced at the room to the right, finding it empty save for some terrifying-looking machinery with what appeared to be drills, cleavers and claws attached to them. She decided to turn left this time, and she was again greeted with a scene of sheer brutality. This next room was crammed full of ponies of all ages, races and genders. All four limbs were shackled to the floor on very short chains, in such numbers that they were nearly crushed all together. The Pegasi all had runed leather straps tying their wings to their bodies, while all the Unicorns had anti-magic rings fitted around their horns. Most were asleep, despite the cramped conditions, but a few were still awake and crying quietly, or staring despondently into space. Her knees buckled as guilt and sorrow overwhelmed Rainbow; there was nothing she could do to break them out. She could only search the mounds of bodies for Spritz, but after a few minutes of looking carefully, she determined she wasn't among them. Taking a moment to compose herself first, she began down the hallway again, noting that there was no door at the end of this center-left hall as well.

If she remembered that book right, the next room contained a clue to those ponies' grim fates. Seven pairs of massive, copper vats bubbled and churned, each containing a thick, syrupy, colored liquid that glowed brightly into the darkness. The vats on the distant side of the room had boilers underneath them, and copper tubes connected each vat to its matching twin on the closer side, the liquid within more watery and shining even brighter than before. Each liquid was one of the colors of the rainbow.

Rainbow assumed this was Spectra, the wonder substance from that infamous book. A chill ran throughout her entire body as she remembered just how it was made. She turned right with the hallway and continued on, the rainbow glow quickly fading behind her. The final room of the section contained many large machines with lighted screens and flashing buttons, with only small bits of tubing that suggested that more Spectra was being processed inside them. Rainbow glanced down the center-right hallway and considered what might be behind that door, but ultimately decided on backtracking a little and continuing north.

Another heavy door. After pushing it open with great difficulty, Rainbow looked up at the map for this section, her fur bristling as she read the words "Genetics Wing".

Oh... what in Celestia's name do they do here?

She decided to go left again after gleaning that the room to her right contained only an empty operation room, fully stocked with tools in preparation for its next use. The room to her left was similarly empty, containing multiple refrigerators, hot plates, centrifuges, test tubes, beakers, petri dishes and other such tools. All this science stuff reminded Rainbow of Twilight, and she smiled for the first time in hours.

She then remembered that Twilight was likely still lost and alone on the floor above, discovering horrible things, possibly hiding from security guards, hopefully not captured. Her heart seized up as if a dragon's claws were gripping it tightly. The thought of leaving her all alone tore at her memories, and guilt flooded her mind once more.

She wasn't even sure how she'd be able to get back to that floor after finding Spritz, as the elevator required a keycard to operate. Maybe the janitor would come down for her eventually? Maybe Twilight would come across a keycard somehow and meet her down there? Or, she contemplated as she shivered violently, she'd have to find somepony down here and somehow grab their keycard. Preferably without them noticing, but most likely she'd have to fight, possibly even kill for it. While considering her options, her limbs trembled, both in anticipation and fear. She finally snapped out of it when she heard her own teeth chattering, and shook the thoughts from her mind. She'd deal with it when she got to it, like she always did. It always worked out in the end, after all.

Rainbow continued on to the next room, not seeing a door at the end of the center-left hallway yet again. She gasped as she struggled to comprehend what was inside: within giant, clear, vertical tubes filled with bubbling liquid, fetal ponies floated in the center, one to each tube. Most were illuminated with green light, but some that looked obviously deformed were bathed in red. As she stared into the room and the rows of tubes, one of the fetal ponies in the corner of her eye twitched, and her heart threatened to leap through her throat and out of her mouth.

She took a moment to catch her breath before moving on to the final room of the section, noticing that there was no longer a door to the north to take. From this, she could assume there were nine sections arranged in a three-by-three grid, four of which she'd already passed through. This floor seemed much more logical than the previous levels, which were all arranged like a labyrinth. Was it a recent addition? She approached the final room and walked past, seeing more ponies inside tubes of liquid, although these seemed more filly-aged rather than fetal. Some were even just shy of being fully-grown adults, though entirely none of them had Cutie Marks. And even though the colored light and liquid suspension masked most of their individual features, Rainbow could've sworn she recognized a couple of them, which disturbed her the most.

Is... Is that Bon Bon? And that looks an awful lot like Amethyst Star... oh no, Bulk? Why are you here?!

She felt her mind being slowly ripped apart. She had just seen all of these ponies back home earlier today! All alive and perfectly fine! What were they doing here?! Her eyes scanned the room for signs of Spritz, although she wasn't sure if she even wanted to find her here.

M-Maybe this Overseer is making her own ponies to turn into Spectra? I mean, that's a little less awful, I guess...

Spritz wasn't here, either. Rainbow tore her eyes away from the room and sighed, trying to empty her mind as she headed for the center-right hallway and it's thick metal door.

Physical and mental fatigue was finally beginning to set in. Rainbow strained and struggled to open this next door, collapsing to the floor as she fell through the crack she had managed. Being in a constant state of fear and disgust, she hadn't realized she had been at this for hours. It could even be late into the next day already, for all she knew.

At least I had nothing important to do today...

Grunting, she got back up on her hooves. Her head felt heavy as she raised her eyes to the map. The words "Subject Preparation Wing" barely seemed to make sense in her mind. She also discovered she was only slightly wrong; this wing was made up of four rooms like the others, but while the two closest to her were regular-sized, the other two were massive, effectively taking up the space of two sections.

It didn't matter much to her. Rainbow pressed on to her left, realizing there was a set of double doors at the end of the hallway made of thick, dark metal. There was no doubt in her mind that the Overseer was likely behind those doors, doing Celestia-knows-what. They were also probably locked and heavily guarded, or rigged to explode or something, so Rainbow resolved to check there last. She peered into the section's first room, finding nothing but multiple sets of shackles, chains, runed leather straps, anti-magic horn rings and coils of rope.

However, there was something more. Bits of white fur and feathers were strewn all over the floor in front of the room's door, as well as a few spatters of blood on the walls. Drips of crimson formed a trail on the metal grating, leading away from the scene and around the corner to the right. But what really got Rainbow's attention was a barely-audible voice coming from the same direction.

She tightened her grip on her scalpel. Spritz didn't have white fur or feathers. But maybe the owner of these bits knew where she was.

Every bone in her body groaned, every muscle burned, and her mind screamed as she crept along the trail of blood, through the hallway and into the junction. The drips turned into a small stream. She now heard a squelching sound every few seconds. The quiet voice grew louder.

"And the unrighteous were tuuurned to aaash! And the unrighteous were tuuurned to ash! To ash!"

A cold, fuzzy sensation filled Rainbow's body as she crept closer to the noise. Her breathing became shallow and labored. The stream became a quivering river, and led her to the southernmost hallway of the section, to her right. The squelching noise and the voice grew even louder, more deranged.

"And the unrighteous... were turned to ash! To ash! And the unrighteous... were turned to ash! Yes they were!"

She turned the final corner, and immediately wished she could turn around and fly away at maximum speed. A blood-covered stallion was hunched over the still-twitching remains of a white Pegasus, too badly mangled for anypony to determine what they once looked like. He swung a viciously-sharpened bone saw through the air, chopping deep into the corpse as he sang along.

"AND THE UNRIGHTEOUS... WERE TURNED TO ASH! LOOK AT THEM!"

The stallion screamed gleefully as he whipped around to face Rainbow, who couldn't help but drop her scalpel and yell in surprise. Her eyes widened in horror as she recognized him as the doctor on the first research level. Blood soaked his light green fur and white labcoat, dripping through his widely-grinning teeth and into his pin-pricked eyes. His dusty blue mane was unkempt and wild, matted with more fresh blood.

"Ohohoho! What have we here, another escaped patient?" the stallion cackled, blood and spit splashing onto Rainbow's face. "Ol' Bloody Butcher can't be havin' any of that, now! The Overseer'll get mad! MAD, I tells'ya!" His speech devolved into heinous laughter as he raised his bone saw high above Rainbow's head and swung.

F---!

Rainbow's thoughts devolved as well into a string of profanities as she dodged the saw, spinning around in the process, and ran for her life. The stallion - Bloody Butcher - quickly gave chase on his three hooves, the fourth reserved for wildly swinging his bone saw in the air. She ran past the southeastern room, barely noticing a row of ponies bound in runed leather and hanging from the ceiling by a single chain and shackles within. A metal door in the middle of the hall to the right offered her possible salvation, although it was just as heavy as the others as she frantically shoved at it. Heavy hoofsteps and maniacal laughter fast approaching made her adrenaline surge, however, and she forced her way through.

This new wing she was in had no rooms or hallways, but it did have plenty of large machines to hide behind. Rainbow scrambled behind a particularly large object and sat as still as she could manage while frantically trying to catch her breath. Nearby she could hear Bloody Butcher squeeze through the door, loudly calling out for her like a lighthearted game of hide-and-seek.

"Maaaar-ky... maaaaar-ky! ...Come on, you're supposed to say 'pony' back!" he yelled, giggling at his own cleverness. Rainbow, of course, remained silent. Now that she wasn't actively running for her life, her mind unearthed an anecdote from the past.

Bloody Butcher... why does that sound familiar? Why-

She gasped silently. Bloody Butcher was the culprit behind Canterlot's most recent serial killing spree. He alone had maimed and murdered both stallion and mare, commoner and noblepony. It was only his botched attempt at making Fancy Pants his next victim that got him discovered and captured by the authorities (fortunately for him, Fancy had hired himself an escort that night, an escort that turned out to be a transitioning stallion with an anchor Cutie Mark). It was a high-profile court case, overseen by Princess Celestia herself, and justice had been swift. Bloody Butcher had been sentenced to death, and was thus never seen again.

But if that was the case, what was he doing here, alive and able to kill again?

She was so focused on why such a monstrous pony was now trying to murder her that she almost didn't notice the machine she was hiding behind begin to hum. Startled, she took a few steps back from the machine, realizing it was one in a row of four. It somewhat resembled an upside-down pyramid, with the top (bottom?) third of it sunken into a large cylinder. The top edges of the pyramid were covered in what appeared to be rust. The cylinders had large metal valves attached to pipes near the bottom, which ended in a spigot. Surgical steel pots sat beneath the spigots, waiting for something to be put into them.

Realization hit her like a sledgehammer to the skull. She didn't want to believe it was true.

She refused to believe it was true.

Four ponies, bound in runed leather straps, hanging from chains and shackles, were dragged into the room from the left via a dark opening high above and a conveyor belt on the ceiling. The belt only stopped when the ponies dangled above the machines, one to each. Though they all appeared to be unconscious, that small consolation did nothing to stop Rainbow's heart from threatening to shatter her ribcage from within.

Something let out a loud hiss and a puff of steam.

The shackles opened.

The ponies fell.

The ponies fell into the machines, which came to life with sounds of grinding, shredding and tearing. Blood splashed from the tops, staining them with a fresh coat of rusty color. The noise went on for what felt like hours, although it was really only for about ten seconds. Afterwards, the noise ceased, and four glowing liquids began slowly dripping from the spigots; green, red, violet and orange.

So entranced with abject horror was Rainbow that she didn't hear the hoofsteps behind her. She only saw the shadow of a pony with a bone saw looming over the machines. Gasping, she bolted to the right, narrowly avoiding the weapon as it swung down, and she ran from Bloody Butcher and his insane laughter towards the next available door. She found it at the center of the right wall, beside a map labeled "Pegasus Device #1 - #4". Summoning all the strength she could muster, Rainbow threw herself at the thick metal door, slightly relieved as it inched open just enough for her to slip through.

That relief was very short lived. As she entered a corridor that stretched from left to right, she found herself cornered by what a deadly facility like this really should've had more of all along.

Security guards.

She had no choice. Everything was going to Tartarus in a handbasket faster than she could think. Unfurling her wings, she leapt as hard as she could into the air and flew above their heads.

"Please state your Flying Clearance Code."

She knew what flying meant in this place.

"Um... apples?" she yelled at nopony in particular, hoping that by some miracle, that was the code.

"...Error. Flying Clearance Code not recognized."

Of course it wasn't.

"Termination initiated."

Wisps of dark grey storm clouds began to leak out of the air vents, quickly charging up with blue light, as did the clouds beneath the metal grating floors. Rainbow gulped and took a deep breath as her fur began standing on end. An instant later, bolts of searing blue lightning flashed and fired at the fleeing Pegasus, who did her best to dodge them. They fired with rapid intensity, stressing out her already-tired body and sapping her energy fast. On the occasion she dared glance behind her, she saw that the lightning bolts dissipated long before striking her pursuers. Bloody Butcher was trailing behind the others, his laughter finally petering out, although considering the consequences of being captured by the guards, it wasn't much of a consolation.

Soon she realized the corridor was coming to an end, the only way out was a metal door on the left. Putting one of her last good stores of energy into her wings, she soared quickly past a charging storm cloud and planted her hooves on the wall opposite the door. Then, with all her might, she lifted off and threw her back into the door. It was quite the surprise to her when the door opened much more easily than they had in the recent past.

Of course, there was a good reason for that. As she tumbled midair to right herself, Rainbow found herself faced with a small army of even more security guards, tasers at the ready. In a panic, she flapped her wings to gain more altitude, already prepared to dodge the bolts forming in the distance.

Then suddenly, her body was on fire.

A taser grazed her right flank, just enough to connect. Rainbow screamed as she crashed down into a pile of guards. Her muscles twitched uncontrollably as she scrambled to get back on her hooves, desperate to clamber over the dazed bodies she was tangled up in. She heard the security AI powering down in the background now that she wasn't flying anymore. If only she could get steady enough to take off again-

More fire.

White-hot pain coursed throughout her body, electrifying her nerves, searing her flesh. Rainbow screamed again as more and more tasers pierced her skin, her limbs quickly turning to jelly from the pain, and she collapsed. All thoughts perished in her mind as it was lost to infinite, unending agony.

The guards didn't stop until she had lost consciousness.

~

Rainbow awoke with a start in a dark room, her limbs burning as she tried to lift herself from the ground, but ceasing as soon as she fell back down. Her entire body ached, even her teeth.

She quickly realized that she was not on the ground anymore, but not quite vertical, either. Cold metal soothed her spine, her throat, her wrists and her ankles. Looking down, she found a brown leather strap covered in magical runes wrapped around her barrel, pinning her wings to her back. She tried to stretch them out, but with the magic set in place, the leather may as well have been solid steel.

Her panic quickly gave way to despair as she realized her current situation. After all this time, all these tiresome hours searching this deadly facility, avoiding detection, discovering unspeakable abominations of science and magic... she had failed.

She was captured.

Dewdrop was dead.

She hadn't saved Spritz. She hadn't even found her.

It was now up to Twilight to save them all. Though she despaired, Rainbow still felt a small flicker of hope. She knew Twilight was more than capable of saving the day, or at the very least Rainbow herself.

The door to the dark room creaked as it opened.

See? Maybe she's here, already! And with a snarky quip about how she had saved me to lighten the mood, too!

But the pony that entered the room was no Twilight. Instead, the azure security pony from much earlier approached Rainbow, an evil smirk on his face. Rainbow scowled at him, though she knew she had nothing left to fight with.

"Oh, please, don't even try to look menacing," the azure pony grinned. "You're done for, rainbow girl." Rainbow wondered whether the security pony actually knew her name or not. He disappeared behind her, and she felt the metal slab she was attached to jolt. She tried to struggle against her shackles as she realized she was being wheeled out of the room on a hoof-truck. Once they entered the hallway, the yellow and green-haired security pony appeared and walked beside them, also sneering.

"The Overseer has been watching you, rainbow girl," she smiled cruelly. "She's been dying to meet you."

"She... she has?" Rainbow asked, surprised. The security ponies kept quiet, however. Rainbow could only swallow her fear as best she could as they wheeled her down a couple of hallways, eventually leading to the thick metal double doors she had seen earlier. Fully expecting the Pegasus security pony to jog ahead and open the doors, her eyes widened as the doors swung open automatically.

The light inside was blinding. Rainbow crushed her eyes shut at first, slowly opening them as they grew accustomed to the light. She found herself in a large room overlooking an even larger area below that contained even more machinery, including one lone, impeccably-cleaned Pegasus Device. The room contained a long office desk covered in books, papers and forms, and behind that desk sat a pony in an office chair, her back initially turned to Rainbow but she was quick to swivel around. She was covered head to hoof in a white labcoat, a face mask and safety goggles, sea green hoof covers and a matching cover for her mane. On her left breast was the same insignia that had been on the entrance to this cursed facility, and also on the cover of that infamous, old book.

"Ah, our guest of honor has finally arrived," she spoke in an oddly familiar voice. "I have been waiting for this moment for so long."

"You... you must be the Overseer," Rainbow growled, her fur bristling as much as it could.

"That's me!" the Overseer giggled, the innocence of her laughter enraging Rainbow. "But I suppose you're wondering who I am after all this time in my facility, huh? What kind of monster could possibly command a place like this?"

"Who are you..." Rainbow snarled. "WHO ARE YOU?!"

The Overseer giggled again; this time Rainbow couldn't shake the uncanny similarity. An inescapable pit began to consume her body from the inside, and she felt her blood run cold.

No... no...

Pink magic glowed from the Overseer's forehead, quickly spreading all over her clothes. In one quick, smooth motion, all of the pieces removed themselves from her body and floated into the air.

NO... t-that's i-i-impossible...

The clothes fell to the floor in a puddle, surrounding a mare with lavender fur, an indigo mane and tail with a pink and a purple stripe, a long, elegant horn, two graceful wings, and a Cutie Mark in the shape of a pink six-pointed star surrounded by five tiny white stars.

I... I... no... I can't... you can't be...

The Overseer was none other than her best friend and companion... Princess Twilight Sparkle.