This Grey Path We Walk

by ElectricDream

Chapters

Not a single soul......
Where all your fear and horrors come true.....
Retribution for all your sins
Revelations
Intermission

Not a single soul......

By SpreadJoeman123

Author of story this is continuing is Aurora Dawn

Just to make perfectly clear this is an unofficial sequel, all credit goes to Arora Dawn for the first one.

Rainbow Factory can be found here.

Extra thanks to hasbrohoof for your help with ideas, and such, thanks :D

"STOP RIGHT THERE" Boomed a voice, so commanding, so graceful, so familiar....

At that point in time, everyone in the room was confused, they all knew who's voice it belonged to, everypony did, even though few in that room had ever met this particular mare. At this point in time, most in the room were wondering, why is this mare here? How did she get in? Am I going to die? Infact, everypony in the room were thinking these exact things except, of course, Butterwings, who only has on his mind, "I wonder what their serving in the cafeteria today?" Of course this is normal behaviour for him, even his own mother describes him as being the greediest pony she ever knew.

But anyway, back to the story.

Even before the last decibel had died away inside the echoing room, everypony had turned around to find them staring at none other then Princess Celestia her self, and, of course, and entire cohort of her Personal guard (all pegasi of course).

This was the last thing anypony in the room was expecting, and quite frankly, Rainbow Dash was on the verge of passing out from shock.

Silence fell upon the room for several minutes as the gravity of the scene sunk into everypony. The Royal Guards where paralyzed in their shock, never imagining that something like this would ever be condoned in their home city. Rainbow Dash was in a panic trying to come up with a lie that could convince the goddess in front of her but she knew it would be no use. She could see rage silently building in Celestia's eyes; she would have to face the consequences of her actions.

This silence though, was broken by one little pony.

"Someone...... please help me...."

At that, the royal guards kicked into action, detaining all the factory security, not that they needed to be, as they were still in shock from Celestia’s sudden appearance.

But the one pony who was not touched, was Rainbow, as Celestia had begun walking towards her with a look of pure anger, and hurt upon her face.

As Celestia moved towards Rainbow, not a single sound was made, except for that of Scootaloo, as she was freed from the shackles by the guards, sobbing silently, partially because of the realization of what almost occurred, but also because of relief, to be safe, free from the feeling of impending doom.

Then finally, after what felt like eternity, Celestia spoke.

"Why, why Rainbow Dash, how could you do such horrors, how can you do this, killing innocent ponies, what happened to the Unicorns, why aren't they making the individual Spectra, why......."

Silence.......

In the end, it was not Rainbow that spoke; it was in fact Scootaloo, "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME, YOUR OWN STUDENT, I HATE YOU!"

Silence.......

Nothing, not a word, Rainbow Dash was too ashamed, too disgraced, only now, after all these years, had she realized the truth, that she was a monster, as a small filly she remembered first being told of the unearthly method used by the pegasi to create rainbows, but with time, this twisted her, defined her, made her who she is, and now, only now, had she actually thought of what she did was wrong, but she still said nothing, she was too ashamed, too disgraced......

It was another 5 minutes before another word was said, "I can't remember the last time I have said this but...... take Rainbow Dash to the royal dungeon......." Said Celestia, in the kind of way that lets you know something is serious.

At that, 2 royal guards come up to Rainbow Dash and dragged her away, as she put up no resistence.

When she was gone, Celestia walked up to Scootaloo, and said, "I am so sorry this happened to you, what has occured here can not be erased from the mind, I am so sorry..." Scootaloo looked up at the Princess, the look in her eyes made Celestia feel uncomfortable, but at the same time sad, extremely sad, as those were the eyes of a pony that had lost their innocence, but instead of bursting into tears like she looked she would, she stared Celesita in the eyes and whispered, "It's alright, I will never forget this day, but it's alright."

Celestia smile, she had underestimated this filly's strength, it warmed her heart to know that she would eventually be fine, that soon she would be back with her friends and family. She revealed in this feeling for a while, but then remembered where she was, and her purpose there. She turned to the royal guards and shouted to them, "This place is a disgrace to this land, destroy it, from every pipe, to every vat filled with this unclean Spectra, and detain anypony, you find, this place must not continue to exist, after all that has happened here!"

And at that, she left, with Scootaloo in tow.

"So, um, Twilight, do you know exactly were Rainbow's got to?"

"Huh? Oh, no, I don't, it's not like her to be gone so long."

"Oh, okay, well, if you find were she is can you tell me, she, well, promised to help me out today with rounding up the chickens, they always go a bit mad at this time of year."

"Of course I will Fluttershy."

As Fluttershy was about to leave, Spike rushed down the stairs so fast he tripped and fell down the rest of the flight.

"Oh my, I hope he's okay?"

"Don't worry about me, " Exclaimed Spike, "It's this letter from Princess Celestia you need to worry about, I really think you should gather everypony around, but be warned, this isn't exactly something you'll want to read on a full stomach."

"Oh my..........." Squealed Fluttershy.

"But, how could our darling Rainbow do such a thing, this is not like her."

"I know, Rarity, but Celestia isn't the kind of pony to joke around, especially about things like this.........."

"Nah, I don't believe it Twi, none y'all can possibly believe it, can you?"

"Maybe the Princess has been replaced by AN EVIL TWIN!"

"Oh do shut up Pinkie, you’re not helping one bit."

"I think we should all head up to Canterlot, we just have to find out what on earth is going on."

"I agree Twilight!" Shouted Spike from the toilet, as his stomach was unable to comprahend what was going on and had decided to deposit his breakfast, consisting of 3 rubies, that, well, were bright red, but had gone a greeny chunky kind of colour.

"Well then, we have to go now, I just can't think that Rainbow Dash would be such a monster as Celestia's letter describes her to be."

"Well then y'all, it's settled, let’s find out what is going on!"

To be continued...

Where all your fear and horrors come true.....

Chapter 2

Extra thanks to hasbrohoof for your help with ideas, and such, thanks :D

"Well," thought Rainbow, as she sat in her cell, located deep down in the bowels of the mountain that housed Canterlot, "What have I done?"

The dungeon was overwhelmed with silence, every little sound was deafening. A cool breeze was like a storm, the light swaying of chains like thunder, and Dash's own heartbeat like was the beating of drums, 'the perfect place,' thought Rainbow, 'the perfect place to think.'

And then a scream, the harrowing scream of one in pain, echoing across the rocky caverns and corridors that made up this place, she recognised that scream, the scream of Dr. Atmosphere, who until recently, was a very close to Rainbow.

"Ah well," She thought aloud, "we all deserve this, for what we did..."

And once again, her world descended once more, into silence.

"WHAT?!?!" Screamed Twilight, "No, no no no, not Rainbow Dash, she would never ever do that, never..."
The look on her face gave away her doubt, no matter how hard she believed it weren't true, there was no doubt, if Princess Celestia says it's true, then it's true.

Even Pinkie Pie didn't look her usual, jovial self. Her hair was straight, instead of the tangled curly way it usually was, and her face, all of their faces, had the look of hurt on them, for no-one could take this kind of betrayal from someone they knew, and once again, they were all speechless.

"I'm afraid, my little ponies, there is nothing you can do for her now, she has committed such horrible things and must pay for them, it saddens me to say this, but please, all of you, go home, for your own sakes."

If it was any other day, they would of refused to go home, but this wasn't a normal day, they had been betrayed by someone they held close, and it hurt, all of them, it hurt them a lot. And so they cantered out of the palace, into the shining sunlight, it was generally a lovely day, birds chirping, the occasional cloud in the sky, but they were too glum to notice any of this, and so they left Canterlot.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Darling, calm please, you'll scare the baby"

It came with some relief to Scootaloo, that she was not in fact hanging over those large, ominous gears by shackles about to be turned into pure Spectra by someone she felt to be as much as family as her own parents.
But the feeling lingered, it had still happened, and there was nothing, nothing, she could do to change the past.

"I'm going out for a walk." Groaned Scootaloo.

"But sweetheart, it's night time; you should be getting to sleep."

"No, I can't, not back to those horrible dreams, I need some time alone, time to think."

And then she left.

She walked for what felt like hours, all around Ponyville, through all the familiar places, Sugarcube Corner, past the Town Hall, even past the Library, all these places she knew, places she had grown up knowing, yet, they didn't seem real to her. They felt like they belonged to some fragmented dream from long ago, she couldn't help it, but she cried, for the next hour or so she cried, she hated life, she hated everything, nothing was worthwhile anymore, she just wanted to k- NO, how could she thinks such horrible things, after surviving all that just to end it all anyway, she couldn't...

So she walked, not stopping, not caring, she walked.

And then it dawned upon her, it was all her fault, R- no, she wouldn't stoop so low as to use her name, she would simply use, it, yes, it, it is nothing more than a monster, it was all its fault, one day, she would make it suffer, yes, it would suffer, suffer like her. An evil grin crept across Scootaloo's face, the kind of grin that would scare away most ponies.

For the first time in days, she smiled, her eyes sparkled with determination, she began to think, ideas swirled around in her head, sick twisted ideas of the things she would do to it, in fact, some were so sick, that if any normal pony was there to listen to her ramblings, surely they themselves would be driven to the brink.

Scootaloo had finally cracked, and she loved it.

Suddenly, the silence was broken, it had begun to rain, storm clouds were gathering above, ready to unload themselves on the land, and so she walked.

She found herself some time later at the edges of the Everfree forest, sheltering under a tree, still thinking, and she stayed there, for the rest of the morning, in her own little fantasy world, and there she stayed for hours.

She was scared, truly scared, Rainbow Dash had never been so intimidated in her life, two royal guards had just walked into her cell with a look of pure malevolence on their faces, and what's more, they were covered in blood, fresh blood.

"HA, look at her, cowering, hard to believe a mule like that could of done stuff like that."

"Well well, looks like this will be easy, hey there, we're only going to hurt you, hurt you a lot."

"After what you did to my little cousin Scootaloo, I'm going to make you pay!"

And then he luged for her, and she did nothing...

To be continued...

Retribution for all your sins

Chapter 3

Extra thanks to hasbrohoof for your help with ideas, and such, thanks :D

And then it hit her, literally.

The royal guard had just lunged forward and smacked her right in the face, splattering blood up the wall like someone had decided to splatter paint on a canvas, except this wasn't paint, this was her blood, and there was lots of it.

"See how you like it!"

He hit her again, harder this time, smacking her head against the cold, hard stone wall behind her, letting of a loud thud.

And yet she didn't cry, or wince, she just lay there, blood oozing from her wounds

'I deserve this,' she thought, 'every hit...... a retribution to all my sins....."

After what felt like hours, the guards stopped their assault, and simply left as if they had done nothing at all. Rainbow lay there, for hours, slowly bleeding, until scabs formed over her deep wounds. She was weak, she could not move, simply lie there and sob, listening to the echoes of sounds distant of in the mountain, the gentle flowing of the wind along the corridor outside the cell.

It was another hour before she saw another pony, and even then it was a guard to through water on her and the cell, to clean it out, it made her even colder, yet she still lay there, shivering, sobbing, thinking.

Her sins had come around, now she knew what it felt to be intimidated, knowing that she was probably going to die. She felt the walls closing in on her, the cold dark stone, oppressing, in some way mocking her, this was the worst she had felt since she was a small filly, being mocked by the school bullies. Then she had a thought, she had overcome the bullies, so why couldn't she overcome this, yes, she would survive, she would of paid her price, and when she was free, she would do some good, make up as much as she could for her sins.

She heard hoofsteps, those guards, come for more, well; she wouldn't let them get her down.

"Well well well, still alive are we? Anyway, we had the perfect idea, me and philip here, we thought we’d show you were all you little factory friends are being tortured."

And with that they entered her cell, with grins upon their faces, and dragged her out by her mane, down some corridors, and up a flight of stairs. She had to admit, it was agonising, and being dragged by your hair for that distance can leave one with bold patches and blood smears, like it had done with Rainbow.

She found herself on a small balcony, overlooking a large, somewhat unearthly room, filled with tools of suffering, pain, and evil. There were many ponies, both stallions and mares, all factory workers, tied, shackled, and dead, with guards standing around them, ripping their stomachs out, whipping them, and generally being as horrible and as messy as they could with the many implements they had at their disposal.

"If it was up to us mule, we’d have you down there, but the Princess specifically asked you not to be killed, so here you are, watching you factory friends being brutally killed, isn't it somewhat.... pleasant?"

She couldn't take anymore, she emptied what little was in her stomach on the floor in a violent coughing fit.

"DAMN IT, WHO'S GOING TO HAVE TO CLEAN THAT UP NOW?" Shouted the Stallion that was called Philip, as he kicked Rainbow down the flight of stairs, it was a painful descent, and left her in no state to try and escape, so she lay there as the other guard ran down to her, grabbed her by the mane, and dragged her back to her cell.

Scootaloo was in a strange place, it was like a forest, but no leaves, and the trees were close together, obstructing her view, leaning in towards her, as if they were going to feast on her flesh.

Then the scene melted away, she was in the arena again, about to take her flight test, but all the fillies were shouting abuse, calling her worthless, a failure, then the judges failed her, sneering as they did it, she began the long walk down the corridor that led to the car, the car that would take her away. It was linger then she remembered, twisting somewhat.

Next thing she knew she was back in the factory, hanging by the shackles above the blood splattered gears, twitching in anticipation as if they couldn't wait to grind her up.

And in front of her, was Rainbow Dash, her old mentor, the person she had looked up to so much, staring right at her, with a satanic grin on her face, and the mad look in her eyes.

And then she was descending, slowly, about to be turned into pure Spectra, she could feel the gears beginning to grind her, the pain of it all paralysed her, she couldn't move or scream, and just as her head went through, she saw Rainbow laughing at her, calling her a worthless fool.

She woke up with a start, shivering though it was warm, crying to herself, it had all been a dream, she knew that all along, but it felt real, she mocking, the smell of blood, the pain of the gears processing her.

She sat there for hours, in her room, not daring to go back to sleep lest she return to hell.

"Damn you," she whispered, "damn you to hell."

To be continued...

Revelations

Chapter 4

Sorry for long wait, was busy and I had writers block, hope you enjoy

'Why Rainbow Dash, why would you do such a thing,' was all that Twilight could think of, after the sudden unearthing of Rainbows' true being, the fact that she would do anything like it was inconceivable.
And yet she had done it. When Twilight and her friends had found out, they had all gone into denial. And only after months of the Princess reassuring them it was true and the constant lack of Rainbow Dash herself being seen anywhere, had they finally accepted it.

"Twilight, you okay?" Queried Spike.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just, you know, still a bit shook up."

"You got to let it go Twilight, yeah it doesn't sound like her usual self, but no matter how much we don't want it to be, it's true., just forget about her."

"I know Spike, it's just, why, how could she do such things, it just doesn't make sense."

There was no answer, no-one could answer that question. Spike just sighed and left the room, thinking it was better just to let Twilight think about things.

The seconds ticked by, but no matter how hard she thought about it, Twilight just couldn't make sense of it, in fact she was thinking so hard about it she failed to notice the knock on the door.

"Fine the, I'll get the door, as per usual," groaned Spike.

He slowly plodded up to the door, that was a mistake though, as the knocking at the door started getting louder and quicker.

"Hang on, I'm com- oh, hi Pinkie."

At the door stood Pinkie Pie, although not her usual self, instead of her hair being in it's usual mess, it was straight and hanging down, and there was a look in her eyes of both hurt, and a small bit of madness.

"Hey Spike, is Twilight in?" Spoke Pinkie, in a less the joyful way.

"Uh, yeah, she's over there," Spike pointed towards Twilight, who was hunched over a table to the side of the main room in the Library.

"Is it alright if I spoke to her, alone...."

"Yeah, of course." And with that Spike quickly went up the stairs into the study.

"So, Twilight, I've been thinking, what if this, well, what if Rainbow didn't actually do all those things?"

Twilight sighed, "Pinkie, you saw Celestia's face when she told us, she did it, and nothing changes that."

"But, well, you know how the Princess and Rainbow are with pranks, what if this is just something they came up with as a joke."

"Pinkie, what kind of a joke do you think this is, huh, no-one would pretend that they killed innocent filly's just to have a laugh with their friends!"

"But, well, it could be, please, let’s at least ask Rainbow Dash herself?"

"And how do you propose we do that, huh?"

"Well, I have a plan, will you help me?" With that Pinkie looked right at Twilight with her eyes, she could see Pinkie would only get closure this way.

Twilight let of another sigh, "fine Pinkie, if it will make you happy, so what is this plan of yours?"

Pinkie's eyes gained back some of their original shine, "I just know you'll love it."

'At least this room had a window,' thought Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow had lost count of how long she had spent in the cell, weeks, months, it was all the same for her.

It had been in fact 4 months she had spent in that cell, having barely enough food to keep her going, and of course the daily beatings, had really drained her strength. She had previously thought about trying to escape through the window, but it was reinforced by solid metal bars, and even if she was at her normal level of fitness, she wouldn't have been able to break out.

Just another day, stuck in this cell, eating rubbish thrown at her by the guards, it was getting too monotonous for her, but she didn't complain, she couldn't complain.

'Hmmmmmm, that's strange, the sound of hooves, at this time, they never come at this time,' thought Rainbow Dash, proving to no-one in particular just how boring it was.

"Rainbow, hi Rainbow!" Shouted out a painfully familiar voice.

'Oh god, no, it can't be her.'

"Hey there Rainbow Dash," it was Pinkie Pie's voice that was calling out, and when she and her 2 companions came into view, Rainbow Dash almost fell into hysterics over Pinkie's comical look, she, and the 2 others, were dressed as royal guards, but Pinkie's hair, which was back to its usual self, was bursting out of the armour at odd angles, which was quite a funny site to all.

"What the hay are you doing here, go, just GO!" Shouted out Rainbow Dash, making Pinkie freeze in her steps at the aggression that was coming from her voice.

"We came here for answers Rainbow, we just want to know if you actually did those things, isn't that right Twilight?"

"Don't involve me Pinkie, I only came along to help you, I just don't know what to think at the moment."

"What about you Whooves, you want to know, don't you?"

"Well, not really, you did kind of’ force me to do this..."

"Ah well, I guess it's just me that wants to know."

"Look Pinkie, yes, I did do those things, now go, you'll get into trouble if they find you here!" said Rainbow Dash.

"We're not going anywhere without you." Whispered Pinkie, with a look of smugness upon her face, she produced a set of keys from no-where.

"Oh no, I'm not going anywhere, if they find me, they'll kill me if I escape."

"You have no choice Dashie," and with that she unlocked the cell door, grabbed Rainbow Dash, and threw her onto Whooves, much to his dissatisfaction. And then they ran, partly out of fear of being captured, and partly because most of them didn't want to be there in the first place.

It was a long run, being inside a mountain, the only entrance was a long way up, and trying to dodge guards.

As they ran, Rainbow Dash remembered an area she had been to months before, on her only venture out of her cell, they passed a flight of stairs up to a balcony, were she had seen implements of death, being used, and they still were, she could hear screams coming from the doorway, obviously the night shift were having their fun.

After their long run through the cold, dimly lit corridors and steep stairways, they finally made it to the top, and to the exit.

Luckily, the exit was in an open area, not into the castle like the earlier one they had entered through, obviously this was a second exit.

And so they stood there (Rainbow was lying down of course), in silence.

Until finally Pinkie said, "lets get you outa here Dashie."

Intermission

I'm sorry for the time it's taking for the new chapter to come out everyone, it's just that I have been so busy lately with school work and all that, I keep meaning to write a new chapter but then something pops up, I was suppose to write one this weekend but then one thing lead to another and I ended up with a really badly sparined arm.

Once again sorry for the delay