I recall waking up in a room that I was not in when I went to sleep. This room was bright with artificial light, and light colored walls. The amount of dried blood on the floor was significantly lower than the rest of the factory that much was certain. A pane of glass stared at me from the left wall, next to a door that I could safely assume is locked. There didn’t appear to be any kind of exits in this room.

Trying to grasp my surroundings I neglected to notice Pinkamena on the other side of the room at first. She too had a look of confusion on her face, clearly she didn’t understand how we got here, however she obviously was keeping calmer than I was.

“Where are we?” I asked, fidgeting while I did so.

“Looks like one of the old containment rooms in the lower levels… We’re at least ten floors from the surface.” She commented.

“Why the hell are we down here!?” I was shouting.

“Calm down and I don’t know how we got down here. I recall falling asleep in the bed and then waking up down here.” She explained.

She was far too nonchalant about this situation. We were locked in a containment cell in the basement when we were both certain that we’d not been down here the day before. This alone should have been alarming to her; however it didn’t appear to be phasing her in the slightest.

Pinkamena crept over to the window and peered outside. It was mostly pitch black out there, but she must have seen something, as she turned around and nodded.

“Looks like we have a rebellion on our hooves.” She smirked.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“Well, one of the captives escaped, and he must have unhooked the rest of them, and they threw us down here. My guess is they’re preserving us to give us some of the same treatment we gave them; want to watch us suffer I suppose.” She explained.

My spine tingled at her words.

“How do you know that…?” I asked cautiously.

She gestured with a hoof to the window.

“I saw a colt out there that I recognized from the captive room. Somewhere out there I saw some of the medical supplies were brought here. There were no medical supplies on this floor prior, so it’s clear that they brought them down here themselves.” She explained.

She was very calm; she must have had a plan. Knowing this information let me calm down.

“So, how are we getting out of here?” I asked.

Even with Pinkamena’s intelligence, it would be difficult to get out of this locked room; on top of that we had to worry about the dozens of ponies upstairs trying to kill us for at least ten floors.

“Well, the glass is bullet proof, so we can’t just kick our way out… But I have an idea none the less.” She smiled deviously.

I wasn’t a big fan of the type of smile she was giving me right now. It usually meant she was about to do something insane.

Approaching the glass gently, Pinkamena brushed her right front hoof against it carefully and closed her eyes. Leaning her head back she hurled it forward into the glass with great force. The glass responded with a loud thud, but didn’t move in the slightest.

I watched as Pinkamena began to repeat this process six times. Each time the glass started to vibrate more and more than the last. Finally by the fourth time, a crack was starting to appear on the glass. Smashing her skull against the glass a few more times I could see a trickle of blood coming from her forehead, but she kept at it with gusto.

It wasn’t long before the glass shattered to the force of Pinkamena’s head. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing though. Pinkamena had just shattered a pane of bullet proof glass using only her skull.

“Let’s go.” She insisted.

“I can’t do this…” I whimpered.

I had more than I could take. This all was becoming too much for me to handle. I didn’t even know how I justified it to myself up to this point. Part of me should have told me this was a bad idea from the start. I was crazy to even offer to help Pinkamena in this factory in the first place.

“Yes you can Flare, I believe in you.” She reassured.

“How can you be so sure…?” I spoke quietly.

“I wouldn’t lie to you Flare. I know I’ve put you through a lot, but I promise that it wasn’t all for nothing, but it will be if we just sit here and wait for them to kill us. Either kill them, or they kill us; that’s how it’s always been and it’s no different now.” She explained.

“I suppose you’re right…” I shrugged.

“Damn it Flare, what is wrong with you…?” She scolded.

My ears twitched at her sudden outburst. I turned all my attention directly to her. She had on a serious face which looked rather ominous with the blood trickling from her forehead.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You bend too easily. You agree to just about everything even if you don’t want to do it. What the hell is wrong with you?” She scolded again.

“I don’t know, I just don’t know anything about living out here, so I thought I’d follow the experts…” I suggested.

She shook her head.

“You can’t just assume we always know what’s best. What’s your opinion? How do you feel about all of this? What do you really want to do out here?” She asked.

I hadn’t really thought about it beyond finding Rainbow Dash and helping the Knights. I was just winging it up to this point to be honest. At first I thought that I just wanted to help ponies in general, but being out in the actual ruins made me realize that I felt some ponies were better off dead. I wouldn’t have even let the idea cross my mind back home, but I had never seen these savages up close before then.

After a brief second of soul searching I had an answer I was willing to accept, at least for now.

“I want to help Canterlot and Rainbow Dash. I’m willing to do anything to do that, which I guess is why I decided to do this in the first place. If this serum really has a chance at helping ponies with the plague back in Canterlot, then I’ll kill the entire savage population for that.” I answered.

“And how do you justify that? The savages are ponies too you know. There are even savages with the plague out there.” She commented.

“The savages would just destroy any new Equestria built by the Knights anyways. It’s clear they don’t want to change, so I don’t care about them.” I said.

She was silent for a moment. She then gave off another of her devious smiles.

“I misjudged you Flare…” She smiled.

“How so?” I questioned.

“When you first came out here, I thought you were just another overly righteous colt trying to better Equestria through peaceful means and understanding and all that rubbish… But now I can see that you have other things on your agenda… I suspected as much when I was able to convince you to help me.” She replied.

“My goal has always been to help Equestria, by any means necessary. When I left, I wanted to join the Knights, and I knew there was an off chance they would still be fighting. I was ready to fight, maybe not mentally, but in my heart I knew that if anything tried to harm the Knights I could muster up the courage to stop it.” I said with pride.

“And how about when you ate the flesh of your own kind? It was rather easy to convince you to do that too…” She had a curious tone about her.

“I’m no good to Equestria if I’m dead.” I said plainly.

Pinkamena burst out laughing.

“So, the true colors shine through. Well I’m glad to have you at my side then. Stay close and we may actually get out of here alive. I happen to know where I hid some weapons down here that we can use.” She gave a gesture to follow her out the new exit.

I obeyed and jumped through the shattered window after her. She bolted down the hallway that we could not previously see through the window, and kept silent about it. She reminded me of Dash with her ability to move silently even while running.

Approaching the end of the hall she halted me with her right front hoof. Giving a gesture for me to stay where I was she approached a female guarding an area just up ahead. Without saying a word she slowly crept up behind the mare. With great dexterity she was able to quickly wrap her right hoof around the mare and cover her mouth while holding her in a lock.

“Come quickly Flare.” Pinkamena commanded.

I darted over to the situation as fast as I could. Pinkamena pulled the mare over to me and commanded me to help her hold her.

“This bitch wanted revenge. She wanted to do us in and cut us into pieces I bet. Well, we can’t take that standing down now can we!?” Pinkamena had a crazed tone about her; her pupils seemed to become very small with insanity.

“We have to return the favor now!” She suggested.

“Don’t you think that’s a bit excessive…?” I asked.

“Not in the slightest. First though we need to make sure she doesn’t scream for help, let’s cut her tongue off!” Pinkamena appeared to be having far too much fun.

“We don’t even have a knife.” I reminded as I held the struggling mare.

“Then help me pry her mouth open…” Pinkamena said as she leaned in.

Without much further question I pressed against the mare’s cheeks causing her to spit her tongue out. Pinkamena, wasting no time bit down on the mare’s tongue. Pulling with all her strength, the tongue snapped right off, blood gushing out of the leftover stump. The captive squirmed and made noises that would signify she was in pain.

“Let’s eat her…” Pinkamena suggested as she looked up at me.

The pony struggled even more viciously at her words. I held her tightly though, preventing any escape.

“No. There’s no reason to take this that far. Our focus is on getting out of here, remember?” I reminded.

Pinkamena sighed and nodded.

“I suppose you’re right. Let’s just kill her and be done with it then…” She replied.

Without a second thought, Pinkamena strangled the helpless pony for several minutes. It was only a short two minutes after she had begun that the mare stopped moving and struggling. Pinkamena eased up on her and dropped her to the ground then.

“Come with me, there isn’t much time to waste.” She gestured to me to follow her to a closet.

Inside, she kicked at an old wall repeatedly. It looked eroded and flimsy from years of poor maintenance, but I would soon discover that it gave that appearance to hide something. After about four good bucks from Pinkamena’s hind legs the wall crumbled and gave way, exposing a fairly large metallic box hidden behind it. Pinkamena popped it open with haste and started rummaging through the contents.

She tossed a new U.M.S.A. to me, and I watched as she fastened one to herself as well. I was concerned as to how we were going to escape without them, but it was apparent that Pinkamena had planned ahead. We had a bit of magic on our side now, simulated magic but I would take it.

Pinkamena pulled out a blade and strapped it to her right hoof. This blade was different from her previous one, this one lacked a fire arm, and instead of a sharp piercing sword it was a large hook-like blade. Still it was better than nothing.

“I got a special weapon for you Flare.” She had an excited smile about her.

Reaching into the crate once more she tossed an odd looking gun blade my way. I caught it and began attaching it. It appeared to have a wide barrel on the bottom, some kind of spread shot I assumed. I recall Rainbow Dash referred to them as “shot guns”. The top had a fairly long retractable barrel with a long range scope attached to it; a sharp shooting weapon. It was perfect; I was mediocre at combat, so being able to pick off enemies from a distance was much more in my favor than approaching them directly, however the spread shot weapon would make that possible if the situation arose.

“This is an impressive weapon…” I commented.

“I built it myself. I like to call it ‘The Punishment’, you’ll see why later. It’s quite the improvement over that rusty old pea shooter you had earlier.” She smirked.

“Let’s get moving, we have some cattle to herd.” She added.

I nodded in agreement before chasing after her. She moved rather quickly, it was astounding that she was not in the military.

With a little backtracking we made it back to the end of the hallway we could see from the holding chamber earlier. Pinkamena made short work of the colt guarding the elevator. Pulling him around to face her, she jabbed her hook into his jaw and tore it clean off.

Pressing for the elevator she was silent. We waited for a solid twenty second in silence as nothing happened. The elevator clearly wasn’t coming.

“Guess we’re taking the long way out.” She said.

Before I was given the chance to reply she kicked open an air duct near the elevator and knelt down to the appropriate height to enter it. I followed her lead and began to crawl through the ducts with her.

We must have crawled for a solid twenty minutes in silence, the only sounds we heard were those of the commotion going on in the rest of the factory around us; no doubt the captives making use of the facility.

Pinkamena stopped up ahead and peered through an air vent in the duct to the level down below. I couldn’t get around her to see what was going on, but I could hear it just as well.

“When we find those two I can’t wait to get a taste of them…” A gruff male voice echoed.

It was obvious now that they were well aware of our escape now.

“I’m gonna’ suck the small one’s eyes clean outta’ his skull. Then I’m gonna’ break every one o’ his legs…” A crazed voice replied to it.

“I can’t wait until we catch the pink one… She thought we were bad before, wait until she sees what we’re going to do when we catch her…” The gruff one said, clearly he was in charge.

“What are we gonna’ do boss?” Replied another.

“Well, I think she cut up a lot of our buddies and held us here as hostages, so she should service us to return the favor; I think she owes us that at the very least…” He chuckled back.

“I like that idea. We fuck her in every hole then we eat her!” The Neanderthal sounding one cried back.

Pinkamena apparently was finished listening to them propose her fate to each other. She burst through the vent blade extruded, impaling their leader on her landing. The others gasped and quickly came to her attention drawing their weapons.

“You want me? Come get me. I dare any one of you to try and take me.” Pinkamena challenged.

A large brutish looking colt charged her, only to meet her blade just as quickly as he charged. Pinkamena was too fast for them, that much I had already gathered though from her previous fights.

Taking advantage of my strategic point in the vent I decided to offer a hoof to Pinkamena. Aiming my fire arm I blasted a spread shot that took down two at once that were preparing an attack. Unfortunately the shot was so loud that it alerted the others to my position. Given no other choice I jumped out of the shaft and joined Pinkamena in the fight.

“There’s no way we can take them all out…” I warned.

Pinkamena ignored my warning and quickly darted into the crowd sword drawn. With great finesse she hacked her way through a large group in seconds. With a quick upper jab at one of the bigger colts she slit his stomach open; with haste she pulled his entrails out of his gut and wrapped them around his neck and pulled.

I was almost taken off guard by a bigger mare with a knife in her mouth. With a few quick slashes she tried to make contact with me, but failed. Even with challenged speed, I was still fast enough to be more than a match for her.

Aiming my shotgun again I blasted her at point blank range. Her face melted right off at the shot, causing her to fall like a ragdoll.

Another colt came from behind me and swung a stick at me. I was able to block it with my fire arm with just enough time. I recalled that my weapon had a special “surprise” to it that Pinkamena told me about. I decided that now was as good a time as any to try it out. I extruded the melee weapon attachment to hear a revving noise begin to echo in the room from my hoof.

The stick was shredded to pieces by my weapon. When I looked at my front hoof I noticed that a chainsaw blade was hanging off of my weapon. This was the surprise that Pinkamena had told me about; it was perfect.

Swinging wildly I hacked through several in my way. The Punishment ripped through them with ease, splattering their blood all over.

Pinkamena leapt right over me and landed on a giant colt blocked our way up a flight of stairs. She landed right on his back, causing him to violently try and throw her off, but she held on. Holding on tightly, Pinkamena sunk her teeth down into the top of his skull. He screamed in agony, but kept trying to throw her off. I could see Pinkamena’s teeth clamp down harder on his head, and then suddenly I could hear a crack. His head began leaking; Pinkamena cracked through his skull with her teeth alone!

He frantically began screaming as Pinkamena created an opening in his head, then began to feast on his fleshy pink brains. With each bite she did her best to pull more and more of the organ out of his head in strands. It was only a matter of seconds before he fell.

“This way Flare!” She pointed towards the stairs.

The two of us raced to the top as fast as we could. We must have gone up at least five flights of stairs before we could see a recognizable floor. Pinkamena barged right through the door without hesitation.

“ALRIGHT ALL YOU WORTHLESS FUCKS! YOU WANTED A CHANCE TO GET BACK AT ME!? COME GET ME!” She threatened to the wide room.

After peeking my head into the room I could see that dozens of the captives inhabited this room.

Pinkamena rushed right into the group and began to work her magic on them. She was dropping ponies left and right; the most amazing part was that she was left untouched by any of them.

Words couldn’t fully describe how amazingly she had taken control of the factory again, but sure enough within a matter of minutes Pinkamena had diced up a majority of the ponies opposing her and already began the process of dropping their guts into the grinder; with my assistance of course. The rest fled to escape the mad party pony.

With the newly “acquired” guts were enough to pull together a large serum, larger than anything Pinkamena had been able to make prior.

“This is perfect Flare…” She smiled.

“What do you mean?” I asked curiously.

“This is enough to continue my research further. I have big plans for this…” She said as she placed the vial in her bag gently.

“Pinkamena, there’s one thing I still don’t understand…” I asked.

“What is it Flare?” She turned to face me.

“What was all of this for…?” I questioned.

Pinkamena simply smiled and placed a hoof on my blood stained mane. She gave an expression of gratitude and kindness.

“You’ll understand later.” She replied.

I wish I could tell you how Pinkamena won that fight, but in all honesty, I don’t think your heart could take it; I know mine couldn’t. I had witnessed some of the vilest actions ever committed to ponykind that day. That’s the kind of thing that happens in the ruins though; you see things you can never un-see…