Not all of us are monsters. Changeling of two lands.

I looked around but the shadows limited my view.

“W-who’s there?” I called into the empty darkness, but no reply.

I shrank back to the floor of my cage and looked round once more, but to no avail. By eyes glowed like red candles and lit up about a meter in front of me. I pressed to the front of my cage, and saw the bars of a cage in front of me, but could not see inside. Fear engulfed me as I looked around. I heard an echoing scream, then the smell of fresh blood.

“What's going on?” I cried to the blackness surrounding my cage.

“You… really don’t want to know…” spoke the creaky voice again, but it was coming from much closer than I first thought.

“Who are you?” I called, but no reply.

I also heard banging and more screams. I suddenly remembered the fiction book about a myth called ‘The Rainbow Factory’ where the rainbows are made, but not as you thought.

“Is… is that the rainbow factory?” I called out, then a short pause, “Please tell me I want to know!”

“Yes…” the voice croaked back.

I shrank back further, but my back did not meet the gold rusty bars of my cage, but a hard, warm shell. When I touched it, I whipped round, and my face collided with the leg of a changing. No, this was no ordinary changeling; this was the long lost King of changelings. He was dangerously thin and his exoskeleton did not shine when my eyes focused on it. Poor thing… I thought sadly as I looked at its dull shell, when I noticed something. Its shell on its back was crimson red, just like mine!

“Um… I thought that the rainbow factory was in cloudsdale?” I spoke, my voice shuddering with fear.

It sighed, and spoke, “You see the doorway the guards brought you through.” It pointed its hoof in the rough direction were the doorway was, I nodded, and then it went back to talking, “That, is in fact, not a doorway at all. It is a portal set up by Starswirl the Bearded himself. That portal teleports seamlessly into this dungeon. It allows you to see into the other side of the portal, hence why you’d think it was a doorway into a deep underground place. But instead, Starswirl made it that only he can go through it and not get teleported, so behind it; he made his own personal library and spell researcher.”

My mind could not take in this much. Why would Starswirl want to teleport to Cloudsdale? How does this changeling know so much about this? And simply, Why…. Just why?

Another blood-chilling scream echoed through the dungeon, and the sound of hammers began again. Only this time, I heard somepony call,

“Bring the next batch of victims!”

Fear engulfed me and I ran around the cage, but the pony I was sharing it with, was too weak to stop me. My pupils turned into small slits, when I heard gears clank above the top of the cage. I looked up to see a huge mechanical claw moving to grip the top of the cage. Kind of like those mechanical claw games where you drop a claw and try to pick up a toy. Only this time, we’re the toys! The claw grasped a convenient bent bar sticking out the top of the cage, and pulled us off the ground with ease. We were lifted over the tops of other cages, and now I could see frightened ponies inside. They gave me the look of pure horror as we were carried off down a long, dark tunnel.

“Where are we going?” I murmured, but the changeling that was in the cage with me, shrugged, “What's your name anyway?”

“It’s best you don’t know my name. It will be much more of a loss when I die if you know it…” it replied, “But for now… Just call me Shimmer for now…”

I huddled close to Shimmer as we went down the long tunnel. My ears perked up as I began to hear… Singing? Who would sing in this awful place? As we went closer to the source, I recognised the voice, but it was a lot more emotionless than I last heard it.

“Corona?” I shouted into the blackness, and the soft singing immediately stopped.

“Blackfire?” the voice called back.

“Corona, where are you?” I called back, joy beginning to come to my voice.

There was a pause, but he replied eventually, “I work here at the factory…”

There was a silence; the only sound that was heard was the heavy breathing of Shimmer, the distant screams, and the hammers. Other than that, it was pure silence. There was a small dot of light, I assumed it was a small firefly that got lost, but it got bigger and bigger, and then opened up into a HUGE glowing factory. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped open.

“Hope you enjoy the sights!” called a crazily out-of-tune voice, that sounded very, very mad (mad as in crazy), “It will be the last thing you see!”

I looked down to see a deep-blue pony with a bright yellow mane, and was slightly stained with blood. Soon the claw holding the cage came to a sharp stop, making the cage swing wildly from side to side. I bashed my body off all the bars, and if it weren’t for my exoskeleton, I would have died. The claw snapped open and we fell through the air. I screamed wildly, and my horn sparked, despite the pain of it getting nearly pulled out earlier. The whole cage levitated and we came to a soft landing. I opened the door, and cautiously stepped out. I saw filthy ponies around me, wounded and starving. They hardly had the strength to look up at me. It seemed we were contained in this huge, impenetrable box. Above I saw a claw, like the ones that carried the cage, but it seemed a lot sharper. The ponies that surrounded me shrieked and ran as it descended.

(WARNING: this may have content not suitable for the younger age group from here on for a little while, you have been warned)

I saw it grasp a pony, digging its vile claws into its side. Blood dripped as the pony screamed with agony as it was yanked through the air. I dared look up to see the pony go up… up… up… then be held in front of some… knife holder. The knife was pointed straight at the pony’s heart, and swung forward. My blood turned to ice then as a loud scream of agony filled the air. I saw the big knife get pulled out of the pony’s corpse and a small knife went into the wound and took the blood out. I closed my eyes. I have seen enough… A droplet of blood fell and landed on my horn. A tear fell from my eye. I knew I had to stop this… somehow…