Chapter 2: Escape Insanity, Part 1: Don't Look Back
Part 1: Don't Look Back
The Rainbow Factory
Chapter: 2 Escape Insanity
By: Azure Blaze
“You have Beautiful eyes.” said Scootaloo as she hung her head low again in defeat. But after she said that thoughts started to run through Rainbow Dash’s mind again. She remembered all the good times she had with Scootaloo. She remembered watching the meteor shower with her, the Rainbow Dash fan club she had made, and the camping trip they went on while she was still a filly, the day when she took her under her wing. Tears started to form at the edges of her eyes and the darkness that surrounded her mind began to lift. She had returned to her old caring self and not the raging monster that she was moments ago.
With four swift kicks she bucked the chains to the shackles’ binding Scootaloo, disconnecting the chains from the cuffs. Scootaloo fell to the floor but showed no signs of getting back up. She was in so much pain it hurt her to even lift a wing.
The guards that were overseeing the whole process were shocked and did not know what to do as they watched Rainbow Dash bend over and slide Scootaloo’s aching body onto her back keeping her wings spread to keep Scootaloo from falling off.
Then a voice came from the scaffolding yelling “Rainbow Dash! What are you doing? Why have you not yet thrown that worthless foal into the rainbow machine?”
Rainbow Dash knew it was Dr. Atmosphere by the sound of his voice and replied saying “I quit! I don’t want to do this anymore! I’m leaving and I’m taking her with me!”
“That’s a shame,” said Dr. Atmosphere as he walked to the edge of the scaffolding so that he was now fully visible. “Nopony can quit their job at the Rainbow Factory. Why would you even think of that option?”
“Because what you do here is wrong. You should never have to torment other ponies’ lives like this even if they didn’t pass their flight test! They are still ponies like you and me!” Rainbow Dash replied. She knew exactly what she was getting into and she remembered the countless screams from the ponies she watched get thrown into the rainbow machine. They echoed through her head like screams coming from an abyss. She had wanted to quit from the start but never had a reason to until now.
“What we do here is for the good of all Equestria. We work for the Princess. She appointed us to the task of making rainbows and we will make sure we do our best to make the highest quality rainbows possible, even if it means sacrificing some lesser pony lives. They would be doing Equestria a great service.” said Dr. Atmosphere, trying to regain control of Rainbow Dash
“Princess Celestia would never tolerate what you do here! She may have given us the task but she never had in mind that we would do this to her subjects!” Rainbow Dash yelled out in rage. Her eyes started to water up as she remembered all of the horrible things she let happen in this factory. “I quit. I can’t work here anymore.” She repeated to herself as she hung her head low.
Rainbow Dash started to hear the movement of hoofsteps in front of her so she raised her head to find that the two guards that had been watching started closing in on her.
“What are you doing?” questioned Rainbow Dash as he backed away.
“Nopony leaves the rainbow factory.” said Dr. Atmosphere in a dark voice with a mischievous smile on his face.
Rainbow Dash kept backing up until she was against the wall. “I have to get out of here.” She thought to herself “If I fly I risk Scootaloo falling off my back. My only other option is to run. But to where?” Rainbow dash started to franticly look around for an escape. She saw the door they bring the test failiees in through but she knew that they locked it when they lead their victims in through it and she didn’t have a key. Then she noticed that on the right guard’s belt there was a key to that door.
As the guards came in closer and closer she turned her head to Scootaloo and said “I’m going to get you out of here but first you need to hold on, this is going to get rough.” Rainbow Dash felt Scootaloo’s grip on her increase in acknowledgement to what she just said.
The guard on the left’s taser started to buzz with electricity. When Rainbow Dash heard that noise she leaped forward, grabbed the left guard’s hoof that held the taser, and hit the joint area in his arm making the taser come up and shock his head instantly blacking him out. She then reached down, took that guards taser, and tased the other guard until there was no sign of retaliation.
She reached down and grabbed the keys then looked up and saw that Dr. Atmosphere was gone. Although rainbow thought it would have been nice to know where he had gone, she knew that wasn’t her primary objective. Now she had to focus on escaping with Scootaloo.
Rainbow Dash ran and unlocked the door but as soon as she did alarms started sounding off. Rainbow Dash quickly jumped through the door narrowly evading a giant metal wall that came down and sealed the doorway shut. Rainbow Dash started running down hall after hall barely jumping through doorways as they sealed. Sometimes she was too slow to get through the doorway of her choice and was forced to take an alternate root but she always knew where she was going. All those long years of working in the factory helped her get to know the hallways and what rooms were where. Scootaloo, still clinging to Rainbow Dash’s back lifted her head slightly and asked “What’s going on? Where are we going?”
“The factory is going into lockdown.” Said Rainbow Dash “I’m trying to find a safe hiding spot so we can make an escape plan. Just hang in there, I promise I will get you out of here.”
By this time Rainbow Dash could feel Scootaloo’s grip on her start to weaken and knew she couldn’t hold on much longer. She had to find a good hiding space and fast. She finally thought of the storage room. It was the room they stored the spectra in before they shipped it out to the outer factory. There was only one way in and one way out but it had lost of hiding spots if they decided to come looking for them. Rainbow Dash started to make her way to the room hoping that it hadn’t been shut off yet. Her hooves started to travel faster and faster with every step. Her hooves started aching after a while of really had running but she had just brushed the feeling aside because her mind was set on one thing: get Scootaloo to safety. She rounded the last corner and saw that the door to the storage room. It was still open. Quickly Rainbow dash ran down the hallway and entered the storage room just as another giant wall came down and sealed them in the room.
The storage room was dark. Their only sources of light were the glowing crates of spectra they had recently harvested. The room was very large and full of crates of spectra of various colors. Rainbow Dash began exploring the room, being one of the managers she had seen inventory of the room but was never really in it much. As she was going down the rows of spectra she remembered every single pony that they belonged to and heard the exact screams that they made when they were getting mangled by the rainbow machine. When she finally got to the back of the room she saw three crates. One had green and red in it, another had green and yellow in it, and the last one was empty. At this sight Rainbow Dash fell to the ground and started to cry. When she had fallen Scootaloo had rolled off her back onto the floor, after a moment regained her strength, and got up to see her lifelong role model weeping on the floor in front of the colorful spectra of her now lost friends.
“It wasn’t your fault,” said Scootaloo “you weren’t in your right mind. I know you wouldn’t have done it if you were.”
“But I still did it.” Said Rainbow Dash “I’m a monster. I’m sorry Scoots.” Scootaloo was about to say something but Rainbow Dash stopped her and said “when I first came here I never thought I would be doing this.” She raised her head off the floor. “After I performed the sonic rain-boom when I was a filly, Dr. Atmosphere himself approached me and asked if I could help him with a certain task. He asked me if I could help him make rainbows, and I being fascinated with the subject accepted his request. When I arrived here he gave me a grand tour of the factory. What he failed to tell me, however, were his plans for me. While he was leading me on this ‘tour’ of his he brought me into a room with an examination table in the middle along with four other ponies wearing lab coats and protective goggles. Dr. Atmosphere closed the door behind us and signaled to the other ponies. Immediately the four ponies closed in and seized me I tried to fight them off but they were too strong and I was still just a filly. They brought me over to the examination table and strapped me down to it. I kept on screaming ‘What’s going on?! What are you doing to me?! I didn’t agree to this’ hay since I was so young they even managed to get an ‘I want my mommy!’ out of me. Can you ever imagine me saying that?” Rainbow dash paused for a second to regain her emotions before going on to say “One of the ponies rolled in a cart full of test tubes and needles. Dr. Atmosphere came close to the table and said that I was a very special Pegasus, that there were not many like me found in Equestria. A Pegasus capable of making her own rainbow out of nothing but speed. It was unheard of. He said that he wanted to find out how I could do it. They ripped strands of hair from each of the colors of my mane and put them into separate vials on the cart. They drew blood from me, tested that, and did many more painful experiments on my body. At the end of all the testing they still had no reason for why I could do what I could do, so they decided to put me to work in the factory in a less important spot, still able to leave. I was told only one thing: never go through the door on the far south side of the factory. Time went on and one day I found myself passing by that door. As I was passing by I heard somepony screaming for help and ran through the door to see what was wrong. I found myself on the scaffolding and to my horror,” Rainbow Dash stood up with her head hung low and tears still rolling down her cheek and dropping onto the floor. “To my horror I saw a pony getting torn to pieces and put in the rainbow machine. After I saw that I was shocked, I couldn’t move. That’s when the factory started getting to me. Dr. Atmosphere, as my punishment for going through the door, forbid me from leaving the factory for a while and made me work in the rainbow machine room. The more I worked in the rainbow machine room, the more the screams became part of my daily life. My heart started to harden. After a while of good work Dr. Atmosphere decided to let me go outside again to help with making rainbows just on my own. He later put enough trust in me to make me a manager of the factory once one of the older workers passed away. While I was outside I was really good and friendly but when I entered the factory I had no care what so ever for the other lives of ponies because of the fact that I was brought up working here. But then you came. You snapped me out of that trance I was in. I will never go back to the way I was living. We are getting out of here Scootaloo and when we do we will tell princess Celestia. She will take care of this problem.” Rainbow Dash had stopped crying and was now standing up with pride in her eyes and had a feeling of joy in seeing her lifelong role model back to the way she knew her and on her side again.
“I forgive you for what you have done.” Said Scootaloo “I’m just happy your back Dash.”
“I am too kid.” said Rainbow Dash “But now isn’t a time to party about it we still need to get out of here. They’ll be looking for us soon and we need an escape plan.
“I’m leaving this one to you.” Said Scootaloo “obviously I don’t have any sense of direction in this factory.”
“There are special passcodes to the doors that have been entrusted to me.” Said Rainbow Dash “So the doors aren’t a problem. However the guards are. By the looks of things the factory went into level four lock down which is the second highest lockdown the factory has. This makes it much more difficult for us because in level four lock down when we open doors it alerts the administrator and it takes a minute to open. Level four lock down also permits guards the use of lethal weapons.”
“So what will we do?” asked Scootaloo aware of the increased danger.
“First I have to ask you this.” said Rainbow Dash “Can you still fly?”
Scootaloo started flapping her wings. She didn’t get too high before coming back down to the floor.
“I can still fly.” she said “but I can’t maneuver as well as when you were chasing me.”
“As long as you can fly fast and in a straight line you’ll be fine.” said Rainbow Dash “these hallways are for the most part strait and the path we are going to take doesn’t have many turns.”
Rainbow Dash looked around for something to write with but only found spectra. Reluctantly she dipped her hoof in one of the crates of yellow spectra and began making a map of their escape route on the floor. When she had finished making a rough blueprint of the factory she put an “X” in one of the squares.
“This is where we are.” Said Rainbow Dash pointing to the square with the “X” in it. “The storage room on the far east side of the factory.” Then she pointed to a gap in the blueprint’s perimeter. “This is the doorway out on the north side of the factory; it is probably the most guarded and locked. It is not like the other doors however; the only way we are going to unlock it is a trip to the administrator’s room here.” Rainbow pointed to a room adjacent to the gap in the blueprint. “Once I put in the exit code we will have thirty seconds to get out before it closes again. And you best believe the entire security system will be on us as soon as we do that.”
“Just thirty second?” asked Scootaloo. “Can we make it out in time?”
“I’m fast enough.” Said Rainbow Dash “I can carry you.”
“So how are we even going to get to the door?” questioned Scootaloo looking over the rough blueprint that had been drawn on the floor in a bright glowing yellow spectra.
“See this hallway?” said Rainbow Dash pointing to a large strait line leading up to the doorway and going straight down the center of the factory map. “This is the main hallway. All of the rooms in this factory are connected to it somehow. We need to find a way to get to it and we will be able to get to the front door very easily from there.” Rainbow Dash pointed to a smaller line coming out of the storage rooms only exit and going up and over before leading straight into the bigger line going through the center. “This looks like the path we should take.” Said Rainbow Dash “it has a lot of rooms connected straight to it on the way out so we can hide from patrols in them.”
“What’s that room?” asked Scootaloo pointing to a square with a question mark in the middle of it.
“I don’t know.” Said Rainbow Dash “Only Dr. Atmosphere and a select few have been seen going into that room and nopony else is permitted entry.”
“Do you think we should give it a visit?” questioned Scootaloo who was getting more and more intrigued with the lore that surrounded the factory and that there was lore among the workers inside it.
“Curiosity killed the cat Scoots.” Said Rainbow Dash “But I don’t see why not. It’s on our way to the door, and it would be nice to know what kinds of secrets they are keeping in this horrible place.”
“Yeah it would.” Said Scootaloo as she stared to yawn.
“You should rest a bit Scoot; it’s been a long and hard time for you.” Said Rainbow Dash “Don’t worry I’ll stay awake and keep watch. As soon as they come I’ll wake you up for that is when we move.”
“Thank you Rainbow.” Said Scootaloo, laying down beside Rainbow Dash “Thanks for everything.”
“No problem kid.” Said Rainbow Dash as she laid down beside Scootaloo and put a wing around her. It was the first time in a while Scootaloo had a sense of safety and she was calmed by that feeling. She had many thoughts and questions running through her head, but when Rainbow had laid down beside her and put a wing around her all of those thoughts were replaced by the thought of “everything is going to be all right” and found herself in a deep sleep.
Part 2: Dream of Future's Foresight
Scootaloo woke up in the same place as when she went to sleep in the storage room. Quickly she noticed that Rainbow Dash was no longer at her side. She immediately got up and started to franticly look around for Rainbow Dash, calling out her name. “Rainbow!” she said “Rainbow Dash! Where are you?” But only echoes returned. She started running around the room still calling out for Rainbow Dash but still only answered by her own voice asking the same question. “Where are you!?” she yelled out as a last chance to locate Rainbow Dash. There was no response. Not even her own echo answered this time, which she thought was out of the normal. She slowly walked back to the back of the room where the map of the factory was made on the floor. When she got there she was terrified. On the floor the map to the factory had been smudged to the point of which it no longer looked like a map and in the glowing yellow spectra stain on the floor written in dark red blood were the words "THEY ARE COMING FOR YOU" along with a track of smeared blood leading out the door. It looked like someone had been shot and then dragged out of the room.
Scootaloo's mind automatically went to Rainbow Dash and she began to worry. She thought "How could I let this happen? I was sleeping right next to her. Why didn't they take me too? Then there was pounding at the door so Scootaloo quickly ran and hid behind a stack of crates. The pounding continued to get louder and louder until it finally stopped. Scootaloo began sticking her head out to examine her surroundings. Whoever was pounding on the door was still outside talking to another pony. Scootaloo tried listening in from a distance make anything out until she heard one of them yell "Fire in the hole!" Immediately after the room was lit up with a giant flash of light and a loud explosion bounced off the walls. The door to the room flew several feet down the center pathway of the room. When the smoke from the explosion had cleared, Scootaloo saw four ponies standing there in the doorway. They were dressed in digital camouflage and had weapons drawn. One was a deep shade of blue wearing a pair of sunglasses and carrying a M4, another was as black as night with a SCAR-H, still another had red and black stripes and was carrying a M249, and the last one was dark purple and had two M9's drawn. They all had flashlights on their weapons and were wearing helmets except the yellow one.
"Scan the area." said the blue pony and at that command the others started to carefully search the room. The blue pony started to walk closer and closer toward Scootaloo but then he turned to look at the blood stains on the floor. Suddenly Scootaloo felt a hoof on her shoulder followed by another one coming around her mouth pulling her back into the darkness. She tried resisting but she wasn't strong enough. She thought to herself that this was the end, that she was dead meat for sure this time. Finally when the hooves had stopped dragging her back she heard the pony who dragged her whisper "I am going to let you go now, but you have to promise me that you won't say anything loud." Scootaloo knew the voice and comely nodded her head up and down. The hooves retreated and Scootaloo turned around to see it was just the pony she was thinking it was.
"Princess Luna!" Exclaimed Scootaloo in excitement.
Luna covered Scootaloo's mouth again and said "Shh what did I tell you?
"Sorry." said Scootaloo "'m just so happy to see you right now."
"It's ok." said Luna "It doesn't look like they heard of anything. What is this place?"
"This is the Rainbow Factory." said Scootaloo "This is where a group of pegasi lead by a colt named Dr. Atmosphere make spectra by killing other pegasi, who have failed their flight test, and harvesting their colors."
"What!?" Luna whispered in a harsh tone, "How come I never hear that they were doing this."
"I don't know." said Scootaloo, "Are you going to help me get out of here?"
"Your just dreaming." answered Luna, "A very special dream. This type of dream lets you see the future. Although the ponies in these dreams can't see you or touch you they can still hear you."
"This is a dream about the future?" asked Scootaloo.
"Yes," answered Luna, "and I am sharing it with you. When I first entered this dream I could feel its power. Normally unicorns are the ones that have these types of dreams which is strange since you are a pegasus."
Scootaloo looked up at the blue pony with the sunglasses. He was still studying the blood stains on the floor. "Who are they?" she asked.
Luna poked her head out beside Scootaloo's. "It looks like they are members of Equestria's E.S.O.D division. They are the top picks of the Equestrian military. I don't know who the others were but this one right here, I know him, we've even met face to face before. He's one of the best we have. His name is commander Azure Blaze. Just recently we assigned him and a small squad of ponies to the bog to fix Equestria's 'Hydra' problem. Members of E.S.O.D are trained to hold two handed weapons while only standing on their back legs. Most ponies take weeks to finish their training; he finished it in three days. He's pretty amazing." Luna's blue face blushed slightly.
"Look!" said Scootaloo, "Here comes one of the others."
The red pony with black stripes ran up to Azure Blaze. "Commander Blaze." he said, "You better take a look at this." Then they both ran off one following the other.
"Come," said Luna, "let us go see what they have found." Both Scootaloo and Luna ran off following the other two ponies. When the ponies they were pursuing they saw in the corner of the room was the corpse of another pegasi dressed like one of them but not one of the original four that entered the room at first. He was of a lighter blue color than Azure Blaze and his name patch read "SGT.COOL BREEZE."
"What's his status?" asked Azure Blaze. The red and black pony started to examine the lifeless pony. Meanwhile the other two ponies that were searching the room came over.
"There was no sign of life." said the black one.
When the pony who was examining the body was finished he turned to Azure Blaze and said, "He is dead sir."
Azure Blaze sighed and closed the dead pony's eyes, and then he put his hoof up to his ear and started talking into the mic of the headset he was wearing. "Phoenix nest come in, this is commander Azure Blaze." he said.
"This is Phoenix nest; we hear you loud and clear go ahead and send traffic." A voice in the radio said.
"We have a KIA," said Azure Blaze back into the mic, "and one MIA."
"What?!" the voice on the radio said, "Who is the KIA?"
"Cool Breeze is," said Azure Blaze, "and the MIA is sergeant Wind Lance
There was silence over the radio for a while until it was broken by different voice on the other end of the radio saying, "Carry out primary mission objectives. Do not, I repeat, do not search for the MIA, it is too risky and Sergeant Lance is not as valuable as the rest of the team."
"What?!" said Azure Blaze "No we are not leaving a pony behind. Sergeant Wind Lance is just as valuable as I am."
"Listen to me commander Blaze." the voice on the radio said in a disrespectful tone, "Who is really in charge here?"
"You are sir." said Azure Blaze.
"Then leave Wind Lance and go secure the target HVT. Phoenix nest out." Azure Blaze lowered his hoof and stood silent and still.
"So," said the black pony, "what are we going to do now?"
Scootaloo looked away from the scene and at Luna. Scootaloo saw her eyes watering up, so she took Luna's hoof in her own. Luna looked down at Scootaloo and smiled with a couple of tears trickling down her cheek then again to watch.
"Let's go." said Azure Blaze, "Primary mission objective is our priority."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." said the dark purple pony, "So we are just going to leave Wind Lance behind like this?"
"What are we going to do?" said Azure Blaze, "Command won't let us."
"Screw command." said the red and black pony, "I don't know about you guys but I am going to go get Wind Lance back with or without your help." The pony started walking off by himself when the black pony stopped him by saying, "Wait I'm coming with you. He may be the least trained of us all, but he's still one of us. Nopony left behind." The dark purple pony stepped up as well and said, "Me too, nopony left behind." They all turned their heads to Azure Blaze. "What about you commander?" asked the red and black pony, "Are you with us?" Azure Blaze stood there. Luna walked up to him, whispered something in his ear, and then backed away. Azure Blaze stood there a while longer before looking up, cocking his M4 and saying "Nopony left behind." in a deep voice. Then the entire squad ran out and followed the trail of blood left on the floor.
Scootaloo turned to Luna and said, "What did you say to him?"
"I told him to be safe." replied Luna, "I must go now, your dream is ending. I will inform my sister of the situation that you are in."
"Thank you." said Scootaloo.
"Go now," said Luna, "somepony is trying to wake you up." Then Scootaloo saw nothing but darkness and heard, "Scootaloo, wake up, they are here, wake up!" Scootaloo blinked and when she opened her eyes again she was in the storage room with Rainbow Dash by her side and voices coming from the other side of the door.
