Invidious: Outlast

by High_Quality

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, Horror, Profanity, Violence, Crossover, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Death, Alternate Universe
Length: 5626

Illegal experiments are being conducted on the patients of Mount Locke Asylum under the MKULTRA program. Lens Flash and Static Screen are caught in the web of horrors. Can either of them escape, or will they meet their demise?

Inspired by Red Barrels' Outlast, Invidious takes place in a mental institute on the uncharted mountain island 'Mount Locke' a few hundred miles off the south shores of Equestria. Investigative journalist Lens Flash is drawn towards the asylum upon catching rumors of illegal experimentation on patients.

Published 2019-08-13 22:50:02 UTC
Last updated 2019-08-14 11:19:28 UTC

0. Prologue

Author's Note

First off, I would like to apologize for the lack of dialogue. The leading protagonist lives alone, so there was no easy situation where dialogue was required.
There will be way more in the upcoming chapters, promise.

I also want to apologize for the very short six hundred word prologue, the official chapters will pack a couple of thousand words at the very minimum. I have come upon the decision to release this chapter-by-chapter, so expect an update around once or twice a month.

There are two separate stories being told. One following Lens Flash, the daring investigative journalist, and the other follows Software programmer and engineer Screen Static.
The chapters will switch between the two constantly. This is my first writing project, so once again, I apologize if it is lackluster and sloppy.

Aside from the prologue and epilogue, the story is told in first-person format.

My main goal for this project is to help sharpen my skills as a writer and give me an idea if what I am writing about is interesting or just the opposite. The prologue sucks, but I guarantee that the full chapters will be much better. Support and constructive criticism is appreciated.

There also seems to be a text glitch for cell phone users where lines with the paragraphs break, I am attempting to resolve this issue.

0. Prologue

In 1977, Mount Locke Asylum ceased all activity due to a loose patient murdering three scientists. On September 19th, 2009, Raincoat Corporation assumes command of the complex, conducting illegal experiments on the patients under the MKULTRA program.

Fourteen years later, investigative journalist Lens Flash receives an electronic letter by a stallion who addresses himself as WATCHER.

Present Day

_ _ _

SECUREMAIL V.012
CONNECTING SERVER
login lensflash
PASSWORD ? *******
getmail -n

February 27 2024
From: 8r7465i9em117@mutemail.com
To: lensflash47@gmail.com
Subject: TIP / Illegal Activity at Raincoat psychiatric systems

Lens fastened his eyes on the monitor, mostly concentrating on the irregular email. It consisted of a concoction of letters and numbers, accompanied by a suspicious 'Mutemail.com'. Whoever sent this email was exceedingly cautious not to draw attention to themselves. The subject introduced Raincoat Corporation, one of the shadiest business entities in Manehattan. Lens had always fantasized about their destruction, and this case might just be the story that finally breaks the bastards.

Flash directed the cursor towards the scroll bar to proceed reading, the bright red FIXEDSYS font began flooding the muddy brown background. He extended his right foreleg over to a moderately transparent white glass with the words 'High Quality' printed on, and took a sip of what he assumed was coke. "Alrighty then, what do you have for me?" Lens challenged the display, almost as if he were expecting to receive an answer. He stretched his forelegs and continued reading.

_ _ _

Listen here, I haven't got a lot of time. I've done just under a month of software programming
and engineering for Raincoat, and have witnessed things no living pony should ever have to
see. I hear scientists speaking of using the asylum's inmates as nano factories and other
bullshit. Don’t understand it, I don't want to. Don't trust them. They tell you it's science, but it's
not. As far as I'm aware, everyone in this complex is fucked. This cannot go unnoticed.
Raincoat must be stopped, exposure is required. -WATCHER

At this point, anyone with a cerebellum would shut down their device to avoid getting caught up in something of this caliber. But Lens was different. He was a risk-taker. He accepted cases no one else would dare look in to. Flash dragged the mouse pointer over to the rhubarb red print option, then right-clicked. Within seconds, a large-sized black printer started swallowing a sheet of paper. The excessively loud screeches of the printer rang in his eardrums. The printer was quite old, as evidence of the dust particles sailing off the gaping mouth of the machine. It commonly takes around ten minutes for the behemoth to print.

Lens made his way to a tall green door on the right side of the room. The stallion gripped the rusted bronze knob with his right-wing and pulled the door open. He trotted straight across the dining room towards another green door, which was a tad bit more diminutive than the bedroom door. The pegasus entered the restroom and sauntered over towards the sink. "Woah, I look awful. Definitely seen better days." He spoke, whilst glaring into the mirror.

Lens had a khaki brown coat with oxford blue mane, which almost resembled black. He had lime green irises and a black studio camera as his cutie mark. His left-wing was clothed in bandaging which prohibited him from flying. Last week he had been knocked out of the atmosphere by a rogue thundercloud. Damn Cloudsdale ponies can't retain control of their clouds.

The printer gave off one final screech, then spat the paper document out. The watercolor became less visible the further down the page due to the scarcity of ink in the machine. Lens snatched the page from the printer and turned off his laptop. He began shutting off all lights in the apartment and made his way to the living room.

The room was quite bland. He had an old-fashioned brownish-orange leather couch, a circular argyle rug, and an old box television sitting upon a small bookshelf. Flash delicately stored the document in his saddlebag, then reached for a camcorder on the bookshelf. The camcorder was one of the more modern models, it was equipped with night vision and a directional microphone. As for the visuals, the base of the device was a tarnished silver, with a cathedral grey trim.

It had a horizontal flip screen on the left side to view what the camcorder was capturing. Lens clicked a small silver button on the right side of the camera to toggle night vision, just to be sure it still functioned. Afterward, he crammed the camcorder into the opposite saddlebag to prevent it from crumbling the document. "Ready or not Mount Locke, here I come."

1. Mount Locke Asylum

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

2. Infiltration

"For this weekend only, select items from Canterlot's very own Rarity-For-You have been knocked down with a twenty-five percent discount, get 'em now before this one-of-a-kind offer slips away! The-" I switched the radio off. To the right, just behind a lining of trees was the asylum. Just ahead was the marble sign with the words Mount Locke Asylum engraved in black.

I took a right turn into the entry gate. Due to a roadblock and a locked gate, I had to make the rest of the way on hoof. Inside the entry gate was a security kiosk to the right. Maybe someone was inside? Abandoned. Nothing aside from a desk, a few papers, and a monitor. The computer was fortunately unlocked, loaded on the security control panel.

I moved the cursor over the Open Gate Access and right-clicked. upon doing so, the gates opened. Before leaving, something caught my eye. Underneath the desk was a Maya-blue file folder with Confidential written in a crimson red. Confidential? Not anymore. I opened it up and began reading the file inside.

_

January 13, 2024
From: M.Inception@raincoatcorp.com
To: G.Chalice@raincoatcorp.com
Subject: Reduce security, increase profits
|
Mister Chalice,
|
upon close inspection of profit arrays, I have concluded
that the majority of funds we're spending are directed
towards the Tactical Division squad we hired from the
Oculus. While scanning over the security system and
overall protective secure state of the asylum, I have
concluded that cutting down on Organic security by
approximately 47% would substantially decrease the
amount of cash rolled away each month.
|
Sincerly,
Mind

_

Odd. What would an asylum possibly need a group of SWAT members for? I carefully placed the document inside of a saddlebag and headed through the gates into the outer courtyard. Quite a few fountains surrounded the place. There was a circular road leading up to the asylum's main entrance that curved back around to the road leaving the vicinity. On the road were three armored military trucks and an electrician service truck. I raised my camcorder and captured everything I could see.

The asylum itself was pretty dull. The walls were painted a deadish yellow-grey blend and seemed pretty decayed. The body of the structure was massive. There were two towers on either side of the building's frontage. The facade curved inward and the walls stretched on quite a distance. Time to get inside.

I traveled down the road and approached the main entrance. I clicked a glowing green button on the left wall which activated the intercom. "Hello, is anyone inside?" No answer. I waited another minute before attempting a second time. "Requesting entrance? Anyone?" Again, no reply. I grabbed the doorknob and gave it a twist. Of course, it was locked. Looks like I'll be required to find another entry point.

The right side of the courtyard was barricaded by a fence. No entry there. To the left, the fence had been busted down, like completely knocked off the hinges. Just beyond the gate was another door connected to the side of the main structure. Another locked door. In the corner of my eye, I spotted an open window with some scaffolding leading up to it. Bingo! I moved around a large fountain and dashed towards the rusted red and grey ladder. Following the scaffolding to the right, I climbed up an open portion and back to the left, entering the window.

The room was totally empty, not a single piece of furniture inhabited the room. The ceiling lamp was garbage, it was almost a struggle to see anything. Not that there was anything in the room to see. I headed for the door on the opposite side of the room and entered a corridor with more rooms. The room straight across was a small supply closet with a few silver buckets and a rope on the shelves. Leaving the closet, I tried the next door on the left. The door was locked, but I could see through a busted plank. Inside was a very, very unlit library.

The remaining doors were sealed off, except for the last door on the left. I swung the door open and a carcass dropped from the ceiling. I screamed pretty loud, then quickly covered my mouth upon the realization that whatever did this could still be here. I studied the details of the carcass, not having the strength nor ability to look away. The corpse lacked a head, to begin with. The stomach of the pony was torn open, with all sorts of organs exposed. Heart, liver, stomach, whatever. The intestines were stretched out of the body and wrapped around one of the victim's legs.

The ribcage poked through the left side of the pony's body. Blood and marrow were leaking out of where the head had once been. The stench was unbearable, I covered my mouth gagging at it. This had been the first actual dead body I have ever seen in the span of my twenty-three-year life. I raised my camcorder, night vision active, and recorded the corpse. The carcass wasn't the only horrific sight in here. I directed the camcorder towards the bookshelves and let out another scream.

Aside from books, stacked upon the shelves were dozens of heads. Most of them were mangled, with flesh melted around their eyes. Their mouths were full of flesh as if someone stitched a sheet of skin on their faces to conceal their mouths. More bodily fluids dripped off the shelves and onto the stone floor.

Fuck this, I've seen enough. I darted back down the hall to the door I entered from. My heart stopped as the doorknob failed to turn. How? How could it be locked? I was just in here. I rammed my shoulder into the door, which only caused pain. I had no choice but to step deeper into the asylum. Returning to the library, I used the camcorder to assist in navigating through the darkness. This place was like a maze. A labyrinth. Making my way to the left, I finally found the other side.

Another corpse was impaled on a metal flagpole. There were tons of organs and other various body parts on the floor surrounding the pole. To the left of the pile of nightmare fuel was an opened air duct. Before I could reach it, the corpse screamed at me. "You! You have to. . .You have to get the fuck away from this, this horrible place. . .You can. . .Open the main doors from security control. . .We thought we could contain them. . .The variants. . .Go, run away!"

I made sure I got everything on tape. This pony had heavy military gear, what could have possibly done this to him? I hopped up into the air duct and followed the curved path, dropping out into the upper floor of the administration block. The room was a circular corridor that looped around a glass window inhabiting the center. Through the window was the lower floor of the administration block.

To the right was a bunch of furniture, barricading the route off. Now I know where the furniture from the first room had gone. The hall that leads straight ahead had a double door on the left side and furniture blocking the rest of the path, although I'm quite positive I could squeeze through it. I ran up to the double doors and tried opening them. Locked, obviously. I took two more steps down the hall towards the gap in between the furniture and heard the doors slam open.

I immediately spun around to see a massive minotaur run towards me. The minotaur had brown legs with black hooves. His coating was a lighter brown with a slight tint of pink. He was huge as fuck, muscular and overweight. He had chains wrapped around his wrists and his left horn was missing a chunk at the top. He was also missing a few splotches of skin on his face and lacked lips and a nose.

"Fucking whore!" The minotaur shouted as he grabbed me by the neck, tossing me through a window. Everything went black. There was a ringing sound echoing in my ears. I wake up to see an old earth pony with a doughy texture that looks like an absolute foal-fiddler picking up my camera. He started spitting out words about God or something. I tried listening more-closely, still not being fully conscious.

"Merciful Lord, I see. You have sent me an apostle. Safeguard your life, my son. I'll be seeing you soon." I fell back into an unconscious state before fully waking up half-an-hour later.

I reached for my camcorder then stood up. I rubbed the back of my head, feeling a bruise. "Ow, fuck me." I took note of my surroundings. In the middle of the room was a square desk with a gap on the left and right side allowing entrance. There were four pillars a few hooves away from the desks' edges. On the left wall of the room were two doors that led into a computer lab. To the right was a corridor in the back corner. On the posterior wall was an elevator in the center, with stairs spanning up and down on either side.

Within the squared desk was another corpse resting in a chair. His head was battered against the desk. A pencil pushed through one of his eyes. It was deep enough to have penetrated the brain. Blood oozed out through the eye socket, as well as his muzzle. There was a plash of blood on the ground just below him. Another document sat beneath his head. I quickly seized it away and swung it violently, trying to sling the blood off. I opened it up and began browsing.

_

January 22, 2024
RAINCOAT PSYCHIATRIC SYSTEMS
PROJECT SILENCER
Mount Locke CO
Case Number: 114
Patient Initials: HC, "Crash"
Consultation Dated: 2024.1.22
Initial Date Of Patient Consult: 2022.9.13
Patient Age: 47
Gender: Male
Observing Physician: Dr. Nano Hazard
|
THERAPY STATUS:
Cataclysmic Engine activity escalated at an
estimated 2000 ppm. Unsafe to progress
beyond stage 3 hormone schedule.
|
DIAGNOSTICS:
Spirometry unveiled light-to-medium bronchial
accumulation. MRI scans consistent with
the patient's reported dreams.
|
INTERVIEW NOTES:
Crash was interviewed in restraints, following
his self-inflicted mutilations. Restraint have
had to be altered to accommodate his enormous
size.
|
Extensive dermal eruptions as consistent with
faltered Cataclysmic Engine cellular activity. He
claims the tissue ripped from his forehead allows
for a truer way of seeing, seems to have some
colthood experience with Bufogrens and
their parietal eyes. He has expressed anxiety
regarding his flesh, specifically around his lips
and nose. Attending Orderlies should be advised
to watch for further self-mutilation.
|
The mental traumas he sustained while serving
in Yakyakistan seem to be hindering progression
of the C.E. process. His predominant fixation,
amplified by therapy, is a maniac exaggeration
of military defense protocol. A continuation
of both chemical and physical restraints is
profoundly advised.

_

This crash guy, I'm confident it was him who launched me through that window. I recall that military pony advising me to escape by unlocking the doors through security control. Where could that be? I jam the document into a saddlebag and sprint down the hall on the far-right-side wall and come across a security door on the left. It demanded a keycard.

I headed back a bit to the preceding door within the hall. Inside was a bathroom. The mirror was completely fragmented, the sinks wouldn't stop flowing and there was an obsessive amount of blood originating from underneath the middle stall. I gulped and grasped for the door. The corpse was sitting on the ground with his head inside the toilet. The seat was smashed into the corpse's cranium, and his back was split open, revealing tons of tissue and muscle.

"Dear Celestia what in the fucking Tartarus is this!?" I stumbled backward before finally revolving around and abandoning the room. I slammed the door shut and worriedly walked to the door past the security office. As I opened the door I let out a posthaste scream. There were three ponies sitting on a couch viewing the static displayed on a flatscreen attached to the wall. There was a fireplace just behind them and a potted plant on top of it.

The ponies didn't pay me any consideration. They were right there, but their minds seemed to be vacant. I silently departed the room and entered the one across the hall. A small supply closet. The shelves were devoid of anything. There were two batteries on the floor, so I snatched them up and planted them away in a saddlebag.

I made my way back to the administration block and noticed something that hadn't been there before. Just before the stairs to what I assumed was a cellar was a pony sitting in a wheelchair. He didn't have any mane or a tail, the flesh around the left side of his head was so disfigured that it covered his entire eye. His coat was pretty squalid, and his hind-legs were broken.

I observed carefully, making sure not to allure attention to myself. He was asleep, thank Celestia. I entered the computer lab on the opposite side of the administration block. Tons of desks, tons of computers. It was like wandering into the technology department within any supermart. All of the computers were defaulted on the password screen. I took another step and jumped back. I activated my camcorder's night vision and aimed it at the floor. Blood. More blood. It was all over my hooves.

I kept the camcorder raised to diminish the possibility of any more surprises. I walked to the other end of the computer lab leaving a trail of bloody hoofprints on the white carpet. I walked into another small stock closet which lead into another short hall. There was only one door, which was another bathroom on the left.

All of the sinks were ripped from the walls and smashed onto the tiled floor. The word SILENCER was painted on the mirror in blood. While examining the word, a dark silhouette hastened across the room. I quickly redirected my field of vision to where I saw the shadow. A bathroom stall had been opened. I hesitantly neared the stall and discovered another body inside. Once again, it was missing its head.

A keycard coiled around its neck seized my attention. I carefully removed the keycard, trying not to touch the body. Could this be the one to the security office? Worth a try.

The door unlocked with a loud beeping noise. I rushed inside and closed the door. Some lockers and a desk with tons of monitors were the only objects in the room. I progressed towards the desk and took a seat on the small blue swivel chair and began interfacing with the computer. I opened the security control application and selected DISABLE SECURITY LOCKDOWN. The progress bar filled to around one-quarter of completion before I heard voices.

"What are we to do if those things come at us?"

"You have guns, just shoot anything that moves. All we have to do is contain the threat and then we can get out of this Celestia-forsaken place."

"Yes ma'am."

The voices were pushing closer to the office. I panicked and rummaged around for a place to hide. the lockers promptly caught my eye. I swiftly ran over to a locker and crawled inside. I heard another beep and through the small clefts in the locker saw a group of ponies walk in.

Most of them were bearing very protective military effects. They wore armor that concealed their entire bodies. The armor was a blackish grey with a green hue near the hooves. It had very detailed wings that tapered at the borders with green bolts locking them in place. The armor also possessed a horn atop the head, and ears that spiked towards the front. The eyes were black on the outside, though I'm sure the ponies could see distinctly from the interior. Instead of a mouth hole, the armor had a cylindrical gas filter extending from the front. These things looked like robot-alicorns.

There were two ponies that weren't wearing armor. One of them was a mare with a white coat. Her mane was black with a small streak of orange on the left. She had amber-orange eyes and a black shield for a cutie mark. The bottom of her legs had a slight purplish-black tint. The other pony was a stallion with a light-grey coat and dark grey mane. He had blue eyes with a silver star as a cutie mark.

The mare approached the desk and inspected the monitor. "Captain, someone was recently here. We should find them and-" Her sentence was cut off by the stallion.

"Calm yourself, commander. Terminate the disabling process."

"Yes sir."

The mare clicked the cancel option and the room abruptly went dark. "Damnit, power must have gone out. Commander, head down to the lower level and try activating the generator. Steelcoat, you go with her. The rest of you, with me." The ponies disbanded the room, heading in separate directions. Great, now I'm stuck idling on a bunch of Raincoat SWAT ponies to turn on a generator.

An hour has passed and the power is nevertheless off. I can't endure another minute within this locker. I'll go turn on this damn generator myself. I overheard that boss guy mention it being down in the lower level. I'll check the stairs alongside the elevator. I open the locker and take a step out of the security office. Immediately, the door athwart the hall busts open and Crash emerges. He screams the same phrase at me as before. "Little whore!" I break off into a sprint with him close behind. I notice the wheelchair pony is missing and a trail of blood was leading into the basement. Without hesitation, I take a right turn towards the stairs and head down.

I follow the stairs left and make a right turn through a small gap. Big fucking guy can't squeeze through, cutting pursuit. Praise Celestia. The floor was submerged in at least three inches of cold murky water. There were tons of damp papers scattered throughout the room. More furniture was hoarded in a corner.

I open a door into another water-filled passageway. Half of the hall was fortified off by some wooden plankings. Just a few hooves away from where I needed to go was a desk obstructing the path. I leaped over it and took a right into a large expansive room congested with more water. It was too dark to see anything, so I flipped up my camcorder. In the middle was the breaker platform. All of the lights were red.

There was a door on the left wall and two more doors on the left and right side of the back wall. More litter absorbed space in the room. Papers, lumber, crates, synthetic cups, and a bed rail. I cautiously approached the breaker panel and began clicking buttons. The buttons started giving off a low buzz and a computerized voice started reciting the phrase "Please activate the generators and main pump before attempting to reboot the breaker." I quickly stared into
several directions making sure no one heard that.

"Who's. . .Who's there?" Great. I couldn't determine whether the pony was frightened or angry. I heard banging on the door on the left wall. I rushed for the door on the far right, making raucous splashing noises as I ran. I proceeded inside and slammed the door. I gazed around the room locating a generator, a ton of lockers, and some miscellany in a corner. I pulled the lever on the generator and disappeared inside one of the lockers.

Shortly after, the pony smashed the door down. He started roaming around and advanced towards the lockers. My heart rate started increasing, I tried my best not to breathe. He checked the locker right beside mine. He slammed it shut and started walking away. "Damn rodents."

I exited the locker and carefully snuck out of the room. I zoomed into the pony's face with the camcorder. He was another patient, missing mane and tail and severely deformed. He was carrying a wooden plank with a nail embedded in the end. He was occupying the main breaker, so I crept along the edge of the room towards the other door. I opened the door inaudibly before closing it. I darted for the second generator then pulled the lever.

This room was comparable to the other, although it was narrower and didn't house any lockers. Alternatively was a bed with a corpse on top of it. The corpse held a document in its mouth. I snatched it up then hid underneath the bed to read it.

_

MKULTRA program, CIA document no. 249010, p. 1,
excerpt
|
To: File
Subject: Hypnotic Experimentation and Research,
September 13, 2022
|
On Monday, 13 September, 2022, hypnotic
experimentation and analysis work was continued
in Building 2 of the Mount Locke preserve using the
following subjects.
|

|
[1. A posthypnotic of the night before (pointed
hoof, you will sleep) was enacted. Misses
Shy and mister Breeze immediately progressed to a
deep hypnotic state with no further suggestion.
Miss Shy was then instructed (having
previously expressed a fear of firearms in any
fashion) that she would use every method at her
disposal to awaken mister Breeze (now in a deep
hypnotic sleep), and failing this, she would
pick up a nearby pistol and fire it at mister
Breeze. She was instructed that her rage would
be so great that she would not hesitate to
"kill" Breeze for failing to awaken.
|
2. Miss Shy carried out these suggestions to
the letter including firing the (unloaded
pneumatic pistol) gun at Breeze and then
proceeding to fall into a deep sleep. After
proper suggestions were made, both were
awakened and expressed complete amnesia for the
entire sequence. Miss Shy was again handed
the gun, which she refused (in an awakened
state) to pick up or accept from the operator.
She expressed absolute denial that
the foregoing sequence had happened. Both
Shy and Breeze's memories of the testing
were neutralized and they were sent back home.
_

I shoved the document into a saddlebag and glanced to the side, the pony was there staring at me. "Boo." I shrieked as he grabbed my hooves and extracted me out from underneath the bed and tossed me down on the concrete floor. He slammed the plank down in an attempt to bash my head in. I evaded to the left before kicking him in the face. As he floundered backward, I made a mad dash for the room the pony incipiently came from.

I turned left inside a corridor, vaulting over a desk, then right, jumping another desk. I ran down the corridor a little further to the last door on the left. I entered the room and closed the door, pushing a bed in front of it. I rotated around and approached the main pump. I whacked the big red plastic button, activating the power flow. Now I just need to get back to that main breaker.

I waited thirty-two minutes before moving the bed and leaving the room. At the very end of the corridor was a plank wall barricade. That must be where I came from. On the opposite side of the room I am currently in was a door. I quietly grabbed the knob and pushed it open. Nothing but a collection of beds. Another thing caught my eye. Three ponies. A tactical division soldier, which I assumed was steelcoat, the commander Mare, and that ancient relic of a pony who called me his apostle.

He had the two chained to separate beds. Please don't tell me this is going where I think it's going. He placed a sedation syringe on the bed and began speaking. "I'm truly sorry, my children. I hadn't wished of doing this, but I cannot allow for your departure. Our Lord, the Silencer, is the only way out. You must witness true horror! Then, my children, all doors will unfold before you."

I watched the priest clear the room, then softly approached the ponies. Damn, the old man took their guns. Stealing's off the agenda. I heard the growls of Crash a distance away. How did he get down here? I started for the door before stopping. I don't know why I'm doing this. I grabbed a slab and smashed the chains off of the two ponies, then hid them underneath the beds. Afterward, I snatched up the anesthetics and tossed them into my saddlebag. I could jab someone with these if I end up getting close to them.

I made my way back into the central breaker room, then headed for the middle. I clicked all the buttons and the lights came on. Doing so attracted the attention of big guy. He roared his grunts and started charging at me. There was no escape, he had me. He wrapped his claws around my neck and held me up.

"I've got you now, little whore!" I waited for my head to be torn off, but more voices shouted across the room.

"Stay down Crash!" It was the tactical division group. The must've discerned the other two have been gone for too long. The Stallion trained his rifle at the brute and the rest of the group did the same. Dozens of red lasers were locked onto his head. He released me, and I struggled to catch a breath.

"We don't want to harm you, but we will not hesitate to take whatever precautions necessary!" the stallion shouted. Crash charged the stallion, knocking him onto the floor. Everyone initiated fire, many bullets hitting his body. He burst through a wall and obtained an escape. The squadron then laid target on me.

"Wait wait I'm not one of them, I'm not crazy, please!" Upon catching my pleads, the Stallion ordered the group to disengage. He approached me and extended his hoof. I took it and he helped me up.

"Name's Renegade Breach, I'm the Captain of this division unit dispatched to this vicinity. What are you doing here?"

"Thank you, I uh, came to visit one of the patients. I wasn't aware that this place wasn't publicly available anymore." I hoped he'd buy my lies. Success.

"We'll get you out of here, don't you worry. Raincoat Corporation is here to serve and protect." A part of me actually wanted to believe him. Either way, nothing I could do but nod. We redirected ourselves towards the administration block and into the security office. The stallion began clicking keys on the keyboard as the other two SWAT ponies entered the room.

"Nice of you to join us, Blackout and Steelcoat. Had me concerned you've been eliminated." Captain Breach said.

"Some lunatic geyser ambushed us. Fucker took our weapons." The mare replied.

"Sounds like you two had fun. We encountered your former partner, Steelcoat. He killed another variant down there, completely took his head off." Steelcoat didn't speak anything. A few minutes passed before anything happened. My camera beeped, signifying a low battery level.

One of the soldiers shouted "He's an investigator!", and before I knew what was happening, Something hit me in the back of my headed, knocking me unconscious.

"Transfer him to the prison block, he is prohibited from leaving."