“There are over three hundred reports of missing pegasi all over Equestria here, and you’re telling me you’re responsible for over half!”

Rainbow Dash slammed her hooves on the table in front of her, making the files with pictures of various Pegasi on them bounce, some of them falling off the table. She looked down at Pinkamena angrily, grinding her teeth in frustration and anger, her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes widened as she was barely able to hold herself back from killing Pinkamena right then and there. She had considerably fewer bandages than before, whether that be because they had unicorns with healing magic, or some kind of treatment. But, she still had quite a few bandages, some of them began to bleed as she slammed the table. That lab coat still looked strange on her, but Pinkamena was getting used to it.

“Yes.”

Pinkamena, on the other hoof, couldn’t be enjoying this more. She sat in her seat, with her chains and shackles, composed as can be. Her malicious smile stretched across her face as she looked up at her, that smug look wasn’t helping Rainbow’s self-control. Pinkamena wanted her to attack, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to fight back, but if she could just provoke her into losing control, that would be a victory for her.

“That's-I can’t...it shouldn’t be...How!?”

The last hour and a half had been enraging, for Rainbow Dash, at least. For Pinkamena, it had been a moment she had dreamed of! For one of her friends to find out what she is, and for her to sit down and tell her every detail of every victim she’s ever killed, and to watch them crumble. But, in her fantasy, she wasn’t chained up in an interrogation room, and her friend wasn’t a part of a massive secret murder factory. And she couldn’t go into nearly as much detail as she wanted, since ‘little miss organization’ wanted to get through each one as fast as possible, so it had to be reduced to a date, method, and place. But, still, this was probably the closest she’d ever get, she’d have to settle.

“I’ve been doing this for...seven years now? Eight? Could be ten, not really sure, I just know I started pretty young. And, with trial and error, common sense, luck, and a lot of patience! I’ve gotten it down to a precise method, everything has a thought out plan, backup plan, and a backup for the backup plan! I pick the ponies out at random with a number dispenser, have multiple books kept for each pony with notes for them to help get them, and know how to keep suspicion away. It took you guys, what? A few decades to get mass murder down to an industrialized process? I don’t know how it works for you, but it took a psychopathic filly a few years to make one. So, it makes sense I’d-”

“Ok! I bucking get it! You’re a genius! Just stop talking! The sound of your voice makes me want to scratch nails against a board just to drown it out!”

Rainbow put her hooves against her ears, clenching her eyes shut tight, it was nice to see her lose composure like this, what would happen if this were to happen in front of her superiors? Or people below who respect her? She more than likely wouldn’t, but it was an idea to toy with. Then again, there was always the chance Rainbow was just pretending to lose composure to give Pinkamena a false sense of security. Which is what Pinkamena was betting on, it made the most sense. It’s not what she’d do, she preferred to be more...creative. But, she didn’t fully understand her yet, but from what she’s seen of her and this place, it’s the first strategy they’d use in this situation. But, she’d indulge, it just makes the real thing so much better.

“How...how can you handle the guilt? All the lives you’ve destroyed?”

Pinkamena couldn’t help but giggle, this was definitely an act, a very bad one. Was she even trying at this point? Or was she trying to make this option fail so they could move on to one she preferred? The answers would only be known to her. After regaining her composure from her slight giggle fit, Pinkamena looked at the expectant Rainbow Dash, a number coming to mind.

“Don’t know, how do you live with the lives of seventeen hundred and eight foals?!”

Rainbow’s composure returned like it was never gone in the first place. She looked straight into Pinkamena’s eyes, her serious gaze seeming to pierce into her soul.

“How did you get that number?”

“You should really keep a tighter leash on your assassins, they’re not nearly as tight-lipped as you think they are. I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve been torturing ponies for fun for nearly a decade, getting them to talk isn’t too difficult.”

Ok, that was a lie, she entirely meant to brag. But, instead of being surprised or angry, she only smiled.

“Wow, I must admit, I am impressed. But those weren’t assassins, you haven’t seen those yet. No, those were just low tier thugs sent to capture you and bring you here, they were never meant to kill. But, they were extremely prepared to be tortured for information, so the fact that you were still able to get at least one of them to talk shows how much I’ve underestimated you.”

Rainbow calmly sat in the chair before her, smiling at Pinkie almost approvingly. Pinkamena’s smile turned into a frown, this was unsettling.

“Are you saying you wanted me to torture the information out of them? Just to see if I could?”

Rainbow’s smile stretched a little farther, her eyelids drooped over her eyelids, almost as if she was falling asleep. Her hooves crossed in front of her on the table, laying on the many files spread out on it.

“Perhaps. Or maybe they were just a ploy? Something to keep you busy while I organized things? Does it matter? You’re here alive, I’m here to ask you questions, everything thing has worked out for the best. Now, as for the rest, why don-

“How do you keep track of your guards?”

Rainbow flinched, grinding her teeth again, she did not like being interrupted.

“Why do you ask?”

Rainbow asked suspiciously, this was not a question she’d like to answer. But, Pinkamena remained quiet, she wasn’t going to answer. She sighed to herself, she was going to regret this.

“The guards are on shift, there is always two roaming the hallways. Every two hours they switch out, and it just goes from there. Every pegasus in this factory has an implant that keeps track of their vitals, if one is killed, we’ll know when, how, and where. But every guard is extremely well trained, they get attacked by a prisoner every other day. They also have radios that link to each other, they do check-ins every half hour, if one doesn’t respond, they are presumed dead and three or more are sent to investigate. They have tasers, and guns if it becomes necessary.”

Rainbow’s explanation was calm and detailed, like this was something she expected to be asked. Rainbow snickered and looked at Pinkamena, almost like there was some huge joke and she knew.

“You’re trying to plan an escape, right? Well, let me just explain to you how hopeless that is for you!”

She suddenly jumped out of the chair, and faster than Pinkamena could react, grabbed her by her mane and slammed her against the table, her face pressing against the cold metal table.

“Even if by some bucking miracle you manage to take out a guard as chained up as you are, it won’t matter! There’s not some master keycard that opens every door, that would be too easy. No, each cell has a keycard that can open that prisoners and one other. It is specially made to only work on yours and another prisoner. They are randomly assigned to each guard, so, chances are, yours belongs to a guard on the other side of the factory! You know what? Buck it, I’ll indulge you!”

Pinkamena tried to push herself up, but the shackles made that practically impossible to do. She managed to push herself up a little, but Rainbow just smiled as she slammed her head on the table again.

“What do you think this place is built on? Clouds! Not dirt or concrete, clouds! So even if you could navigate a way out of here, where are you going to go? You don’t have wings, so you can’t fly! There aren’t any unicorns around here who will help you by casting a cloud walking spell, so you’ll just fall thousands of feet and die! Any nearby places like Cloudsdale are miles away, and are full of Pegasi, so you’ll just be brought right back here! Oh! And one more thing. Those chains and shackles you’re wearing? Not like any of the ones we put on the failures, those shock them whenever we press a button or they go to certain areas without permission. No, yours doesn’t shock, but it’s so old, we don’t even have the key to it! So good luck getting around or taking down guards wit-”

In a second, Pinkamena pushed herself forward, knocking the table down, spilling the files everywhere. This caused both her and Rainbow Dash to begin falling to the floor, except Pinkamena caught herself with her front hooves, nearly breaking them from the strain that took with the shackles. But since her legs were lunged forward, she decided to lean them somewhere they’d be useful, in Dash’s face. Rainbow’s surprised expression was replaced by a pained one as she was kicked by two hooves, quickly putting her on the ground beside Pinkamena. Before she could react, Pinkamena was on top of her, the chains for her front hooves around her neck, a smug and sadistic grin on her face.

“Wow, your reflexes su-”

Before Pinkamena could finish, Rainbow Dash headbutted her, causing her chains to tightly push against her throat, but not enough to stop her. Rainbow’s wings stretched to her sides as she flew forward, wrapping her hooves around Pinkamena to take her with her. Pinkamena tried to tighten the grip of the chains, but she was then slammed against a wall. Rainbow pinned her back to the wall, using one hoof to pin her there by her neck, and the other to quickly move Pinkamena’s hooves upwards, pinning them above her head, pushing the chains away from her throat. Rainbow stood on her back hooves, something strange for a pony to do. Her wings stretched out behind her, her lab coat fell off at some point, laying on the floor among the missing pegasi reports. Bandages were all over her body, bruises could be seen on the parts that weren’t. All were places Pinkamena hit or cut her, multiple times.

Most of the bandages were bleeding, the sudden violence and activity weren’t helping her healing process. But she either didn’t notice, or didn’t care. No, she was focused entirely on the mare she had pinned up to the wall. She was inches away from Pinkamena’s face, her pupils constricted, and this time, she was the one with the sadistic smile on her face. Pinkamena, on the other hoof, just stared back, a similar smile on her face.

The door swung open, the guards had heard the table being pushed over. They were about to rush in, but Rainbow gave them a look that kept them there.

“You have them whipped, I wonder, what did you do to earn such respect? Or fear? I bet there are some stories about you.”

Rainbow looked back at her, no anger or hatred in her eyes. She seemed to be torn between killing her, letting the guards beat her, or finding a way to get those shackles off and having round two. Instead, she settled on asking a question.

“You know, I have to ask, why didn’t you try to kill me? It wouldn’t have worked, but you could have started choking me, I would have gotten you off or gotten out somehow, or maybe even the guards would have come in time, but you didn’t even try to. Why? Or is it just in your nature to boast?”

Pinkamena’s smile widened, a pregnant silence filled the room for a few seconds. Then, to the surprise of everyone else, Pinkamena kissed Rainbow Dash. She kept her eyes open when she did, staring straight into Rainbow’s as they widened, the smile leaving her face. Rainbow was too shocked to respond, she was so shocked, that when she pulled away, her hooves did too, releasing Pinkamena from the wall. She dropped almost happily, watching Rainbow look back surprised and shocked.

“Because, I want you to live. I want you to watch as I escape from your ‘inescapable factory,’ because I will. I’ll be leaving now, I think we can both agree that that’s enough for today.”

Pinkamena began to walk to the entrance, but not before leaning into Rainbow’s ear first.

“You can consider that a goodbye kiss.”

Pinkamena then licked her ear, causing Rainbow to flinch back. Pinkamena walked out the door with a smug smile on her face, swinging her hips back and forth almost mockingly. Rainbow could do nothing but watch as she walked between the guards, she began to realize just how unpredictable and sadistic this mare was.

“Hey, you owe me five bits, hand them over!”

One of the guards said to the other excitedly, holding his hoof out expectantly. The other huffed as he pulled a small bag from one of the pockets from his armor. He pulled out five bits from it and put it in the hoof of the other guard, who put it in a pocket it in his armor. Rainbow turned to them confusedly.

“Did you two...bet on her kissing me?”

Rainbow asked, and the guards seemed to hesitate in answering. Then the one on the left, the one who won bet and seemed to be happy about it, answered.

“No, us, and a bunch of other guards, bet that you were into mares. And you just got kissed by a mare, I’d say that was close enough.”

Rainbow then proceeded to facehoof, the immaturity of some of these guards...Well, I guess some of them had to do things like this as a coping mechanism, it made sense, so she couldn’t be that mad.

“Just..escort her back to her cell, before I castrate both of you.”

The guards, not sure whether she was joking or not, did as she said. As soon as she left, she proceeded to put her lab coat back, doing so as gently as possible, she had already exerted herself enough today, she was going to have to be careful the rest of the day, if she kept this up, it would take weeks to fully heal. As she put on the lab coat and began to clean up the files, she couldn’t shake this feeling she had, that something was wrong. But what?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Celestia damn it! That won’t work either!”

Pinkamena threw her chalk against the wall in frustration, flinching slightly as she did, her body was still sore in some places. Her shouts filling the cell, but couldn’t be heard outside. On the wall before her, was the same pink drawing of The Factory, but with even more marks. Arrows with question marks, tiny doors representing the rooms she saw in the hallway, everything she had seen and known of from here to the interrogation room. When she was escorted back to the cell by the guards, she immediately began adjusting her plan to the information she had gained. At first, she assumed she’d find a way to still escape, partly not wanting to admit defeat. But, as she soon came to find out, this was place was practically made for ponies like her. If her memory of the map of Equestria was serving her right, the closest city to where this supposedly was, is Cloudsdale. Sure, she had a few friends in Cloudsdale, but none who she could say for certain weren’t apart of The Rainbow Factory.

That wasn’t the only part that made her angry though, it was everything about this place! Taking down a guard by herself isn’t that difficult, but how could she get away before being caught? And how would she know which guard to take down? Or which keycard was hers? She didn’t even know her cell number!

“Buck this place! The keycards alone are a huge problem! But even If I get lucky and find mine, how am I supposed to leave? I don’t know for sure where anywhere goes, all of it is just speculation!”

She shouted to herself, shaking her shackles at the ceiling as if someone else was listening. She bit at the shackles, as if she could bite through them or eat them. But, all she got out of it were sore jaws.

“And these bucking chains! These are so bucking uncomfortable! Getting out of these is going to be a bitch! But, I could do it, breaking my hoof is one way for it to work. But I need a bobby pin first, or something! But I can’t find so much as a bit on the ground in this place, how do they keep it so clean!?”

Pinkamena then spat on the floor of her cell, as if to spite the factory itself for being so clean. But, of course, it was pointless. How long had she been here? Two days? A week? Her injuries weren’t even close to done healing, but they were getting better, who knows what they’d be like if she didn’t keep exerting herself? But how long had she spent making plans that wouldn’t work? Hours? A day? Being locked up and isolated like this was something she was used to, but when she was locked up like this, she was usually taken out occasionally, or had a window or something. But without any of those things, she wasn’t able to tell what time of day it was, or if it was even day! Eventually, she would lose track of time itself, not something she wants to experience. And this isolation was beginning to...mess with her, which was something difficult on its own. Voices in her head or whispers weren’t something she was entirely unfamiliar with, neither were hallucinations, Discord being a prime example. But ever since she was locked up here, they were becoming more and more common.

Whispers from behind her, seeing black figures out of the corners of her eyes, very similar to side effects of sleep deprivation, something she was far too familiar with. Except these were more...real, like they’re right there. Then again, there was a massive amount of death in this place, so ghost haunting the living as some sort of vengeance wouldn’t be too surprising. Or maybe there was some kind of speaker installed in here by Rainbow Dash to mess with her? Who knows, this place was full of mysteries, frustrating mysteries. Pinkamena was always good at planning, but she preferred acting, the thrill of not knowing what was going to happen was always better than a plan going exactly as intended, at least for her. But she had been exhausted, physically and emotionally, she was also trying to work out the best way to get answers out of a certain cyan pegasus, and basing her escape plan on what she’s seen so far and speculation. And considering how old this place is, it probably doesn’t follow the same design as other factories!

“Buck you Rainbow Dash! And your paranoia! Why can’t someone just give me a little nudge! Just a little help wou-”

Suddenly, there was a light knocking on the door, causing Pinkamena to stop her rant. In the span of a few seconds, she picked up the chalk she threw against the wall, putting it back in her mane. She then wiped the drawing of The Rainbow Factory and all the markings on it, they probably figured she was already planning an escape, but they didn’t need to know to what extent. After erasing her drawing, she lay horizontally on the floor, her back facing the door.

What felt like an eternity passed, and nothing happened. The door didn’t open, there was no more knocking, nothing. She was beginning to suspect there was no knocking in the first place, when a different sound came from the door. The sound of paper sliding under the door, like a letter or a note, was the first thing she heard. Then the sound of hooves clacking became more and more distant as the owner walked away, and...snickering? That was either a really good sign, or a really bad one. She waited several minutes before moving, waiting to see if anything else was going to happen. When nothing did, cautiously, she walked towards the door, half expecting guards to bust through it and begin to beat her. When they didn’t, she leaned down and picked up the piece of paper.

It was a letter, not a very large one, as it was slightly smaller than her hoof. But the letters on it were written small, in a way where a lot could be said, even on this small of a letter. But something that really surprised her, was how it was written. The letters were written in rainbow, and they glowed! It was written quite neatly too, Pinkamena’s heard of a lot of things, but not rainbow ink that glowed! That was awesome! After getting past her bafflement about the glowing letters, she read the letter.

Dear Pinkamena,

Or do you prefer Pinkie? I’ve heard you go by both, but I’m not sure which you prefer, so I’ll just call you Pinkamena for now. As for who I am? Well, If you successfully escape this place, I’ll find you, and we’ll have a long discussion. All you need to know, is that we have a mutual enemy, and as the saying goes, ‘The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend.’ While we’re not friends, we can at least help each other out. So, I’ll help you escape, and when you get out, we can talk terms. And if you don’t want my help, which you really should take, then you can just slide this right back under the door, and try escaping yourself. Either way, try to avoid killing as many as you can, while nobody here is exactly good, not all of them are that bad. Whatever your decision is, good luck!

P.S. Check the back of this letter, I gave you something that should make things easier.

P.P.S. I left the door unlocked, and caused a distraction that should make it easy for you to sneak around the guards. So if you have any escape plans, now would be a good time to enact them. My advice would be to go to the barracks, find your keycard, get it, and then go to the cell connected to yours, there might be something useful in there. Also, it’s card night, so sneaking past them should be easy.

Sincerely, a friend.

Pinkamena flipped the letter, smiling at what was taped on the back, a bobby pin! She eagerly tore it from the tape, putting it in her hair to use later. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t use it yet, she wasn’t sure how long this ‘distraction’ was going to last. She didn’t like owing people, especially not ones she didn’t know. But if she didn’t get out of here soon, she would die. Either the guards would kill her, or Rainbow would. Besides, if this person asked for her to do something ridiculous or that she didn’t like, she could always just kill them.

She took the letter with her, stuffing it between the shackles, she wasn’t sure if she could comfortably put it in her hair, she wasn’t going to try. Taking a deep breath, Pinkamena opened the door, hoping this wasn’t a trap or something. Since she wasn't immediately attacked by guards as soon as the door was opened, she assumed it wasn’t. She then walked outside of her cell, this being the first time she’s done so without guards escorting her.

Walking out, the sight of the death machine before her was still quite astonishing. Though she wasn’t sure how much time she had, she still wanted to just look at the industrialized death before her. But, this time, her attention was elsewhere. Down below, where the workers usually were, there was a riot. Not all of them were rioting, some of them were still at their spots on the industrial line, not even seeming to notice what was happening. The workers had, for some reason, started killing each other. Their bodies spread out on the dirty concrete floor, most died from blunt force trauma, but some had been strangled. The workers weren’t the only ones fighting, some of the guards, noticeably the ones who usually escorted her out of her cell, were down ‘crowd controlling.’ They were wearing riot armor, dark black fiber armor, the words “Factory Security” written on the side of it in bright blue letters. They were also wearing a similar black helmet, a plastic shield attached to it was protecting their faces.

The guards were beating them eagerly with batons, blood splattering on the face shields, she could only see the face of one of them, but he seemed to be smiling sadistically, these guards really hated failures, a hatred she may not ever understand. Not all of the guards were participating, it would seem. No, many were pressed against their post and railings, cheering on the beatings as if it were a hoofball game. The scientist/observers seemed to be disgusted, but they didn’t look away, nor did they try to stop it. This must have been the distraction whoever left that note was talking about, but how did they get this started? Was there already a riot about to happen? Or did he provoke a guard into hitting one of them and it just started from there? Honestly, she didn’t care, as long as it worked.

Which, it did. Sneaking past them was easier than she expected it to be, they didn’t even notice her once. Now she was in the hallways, and there was a lot of things she could do, exploring was pretty high on that list. But, if her mysterious helper was right, and tonight was card night for the guards, going to the barracks would be her first priority. Using the mental map she made of the place, and trying her hardest to make as little sound as possible, she navigated the hallways. There were a few patrols she had to deal with, but making a few scratching sounds against the walls with her shackles and then hobbling away, made misleading them and getting around them somewhat easy. At least, it was the first two times. But these guards took their jobs seriously, she scratched against the wall for several minutes, but they didn’t come to investigate.

The guards patrolling the hallway to her left, while they noticed the sound, did not come to investigate. Luckily for her, she was not a one trick pony. Across from her was another door, that said “Janitor’s Closet.” Guess even they needed janitors. She walked up to it and tried to open it, but it was locked. She may have only had one bobby pin, but she was good enough to open a janitor’s closet without breaking it. After opening it, she didn’t bother looking inside, that wasn’t what she needed to open the door for. She shut the door again, and violently pulled it open, the door slammed against the wall, the sound echoing throughout the hallways and startled the guards.

“YOU BUCKING IDIOTS BETTER GET DOWN THERE AND HELP WITH THE RIOT RIGHT NOW! OR SO HELP ME, I WILL GELD THE BOTH OF YOU!”

Impressions of other ponies was a party joke every entertainer knew, every good one, anyway. As Pinkie Pie, she had a lot of experience doing impressions of her friends, and other important ponies like Celestia. But other than to make people laugh, it never had a use, until now. She may have had to adjust it a bit, but it seemed to work. The guards, moving faster than she’s seen any of the guards here move, began to rush down the hallway. She barely had time to hop into the janitor’s closet, banging her head against a broom. She shut the door behind her quickly, hoping they didn’t notice it, which they didn’t.

After waiting for the sound of desperate hoofsteps to stop, she left the closet, rubbing her head slightly from a headache, did they make those things out of hardwood?! Luckily, other than it being annoying, she can deal with a headache. After that, she got to the guard’s barracks with ease, seems those two were the last guards she had to get past for her intended location. The door to the guard’s barracks was open, and this time, there weren’t any guards hovering over her shoulders. She walked in, the room being extremely dark and quiet. First entering the room, she assumed this was the bunkroom. She couldn’t see that well in here, but she could vaguely make out bunk beds in lines on both sides of her. In height, they were almost twice her size, which made sense since they were bunk beds. She could also make out shapes in them, which meant there were a few guards here sleeping, she had to be extra sneaky. Not many though, maybe two or three, was the riot really taking up that many of the guards? Or was there more than one riot? She didn’t know the extent of this person’s influence, so she couldn’t really say it was impossible.

Moving forward, there were three doors in front of her. Directly in front of her, seemed to be the recreational room. The first thing she saw was a large, circular, dark wood table, several guards in chairs were around it. The table had one long peg under it, it seemed to be attached to the ground with some kind of clasp around it. They all had cards before them, with pieces of wood big enough to cover their hands. There were tons of chips on the table, some beside their cards, but most in the center of the table. Some had cigars in their mouths as they looked down at their hands thoughtfully, some even had glasses of alcohol beside them, seems they were playing poker for card night tonight, might as well not bother them. Looking in, it seemed the room had other things. She could see a comfortable looking green couch pushed up to the wall behind them, to the left was a dartboard with a picture of Rainbow Dash to it, three darts stuck to her face, she would not like that. And to the right...a minibar? They had a minibar?! That wasn’t fair! Not even she had a minibar! She wanted to kill them right then and there just for that! But, decided against it, the drinks were probably shitty anyway.

To her left, was where they seemed to keep all their weapons and armor. Looking in it, she could see the wall was lined up with armor, batons, tasers, and guns. Though, she wasn’t really sure why’d they’d need guns, the failures together couldn’t put up that much of a fight. Rainbow said they were necessary, but did they need guns for what batons and tasers couldn’t do? She would go in there and get something, but she didn’t have anywhere to keep them, and she doubted she’d even be able to use any of it properly with these shackles. And as for the armor, it would be near impossible and extremely uncomfortable to try to wear that with her shackles, and she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to get it off.

To her right, was where she needed to go. It was the room, she guessed, they used to keep a map of the place and keycards. Considering how big this place was, it made sense that they would want to keep a map for the guards in case patrols needed to be updated, if they needed to guard a place they hadn’t been before, and various other reasons. And since this place was usually full of guards, and the typical escaped prisoner wouldn’t be able to get past the patrols and get this far anyway. But, there was a riot, maybe more than one, going on right now, so there were considerably fewer guards. And Pinkamena wasn’t the typical prisoner, this was probably the first time any prisoner has gotten this far, especially without them even knowing she’d escaped her cell. Walking into the room, the first thing in front of her was a table, just a table, no map, no ponies playing cards, just a table.

It was a large, metal, grey rectangular table. It seemed to be like a desk in the sense it had no pegs keeping it up, it just seemed to be a big metal table on the ground, no idea how they got it in, probably unicorns and teleportation. In the back of the room, were several filing cabinets, little black signs on each of them of the alphabet. The first one had A-C on it, the last had X-Z. If she had to guess, those were the keycards. But right now, until she knew her cell number, those were useless. To the far left, were several monitors, connected to cameras in rooms she’s never been. They must have been very well hidden, most of these were placed in rooms she’s been, but she’s never noticed them.

Each monitor seemed to be connected to multiple cameras, because each one flashed to a different location, a hallway with guards patrolling, other parts of the factory where there were no riots, even the interrogation room she’d grown to like so much. But the cameras also revealed that there were riots in other parts of the factory, two others, from what she’s seen. One seems to be doing about as well as the one near her cell, but other they seemed to be putting up a decent fight. They seemed to outnumber the guards five to one, and there were only three guards. Were these riots the doing of her mysterious friend? Or just good timing? It didn’t matter, she was going to take advantage of it either way.

One thing she didn’t see on the cameras, was her cell. She saw multiple other cells lined up in the hallways, or some like hers that were isolated with nothing else around them. But she hadn’t seen a cell connected by a catwalk to a room with an industrial line of death, she had been paying attention for that. Had her helpful ally disabled the camera? Or had her cell not had a camera? Considering the security of this place, the thought of her cell not having a camera was doubtful. Pinkamena walked into the room, walking around the metal table. As she did, she noticed there was a button on the other side of it. It wasn’t a button for some kind of alarm, it was too big for that and the placement was off. So, out of curiosity, she pressed it. Then the table came to life, blue lights exploding from the surface. Pinkamena jumped back, the sudden lights startled her. But when she looked back at them, she noticed they were forming shapes.

Soon, a hologram of The Rainbow Factory was on the table, covering most of it. Every detail was there, from the rainbows coming out of tubes on the side, to little pegasi floating around it. It even had a cloud it was on, pipes came out of the top of the factory, puffing out constant clouds. Rainbow waterfalls coming out of the sides, even the pillars supporting other buildings in the background were added. Pinkamena touched it with her hoof cautiously, it flickered, but didn’t disappear. She pulled her hoof back, then touched it again, a smile of astonishment growing on her face.

“They have holograms? That’s so bucking cool!”

Pinkamena whispered to herself, staying quiet so she didn’t alert any of the guards. The hologram began to change, and Pinkamena quickly pulled back her hoof. Touching the hologram caused it to zoom into the interior, right where she was. It now showed floor by floor levels of the factory, a bright white dot that was indicating where she was. And several other dots indicating the guards, which were on the other side of a bright blue wall. Pinkamena examined the hologram, looking through what the hologram was showing her. She avoided touching it, not sure what else that might do.

“Well, my layout wasn’t off that much. I got the majority right, but some areas don’t follow the typical factory architecture at all! If I hadn’t seen this, odds are, I would’ve gotten lost. But now that I have the layout, let’s see if…”

Pinkamena scrolled her hoof through the hallways, being gentle as she wasn’t sure how this hologram works yet. Using her mental map, she navigated through the hallways to her cell, noticing white dots, the guards she had snuck by earlier. Luckily, she seemed to get to her cell with no problem. And it seemed the riot was still happening, there were a lot of blue dots, and a lot of red. She assumed the red represented the failures, and they were blinking out fast. Which meant they were unconscious, or dead. And from how the numbers were going, it seemed that riot would be ending soon. Which meant the guards were going to soon discover she was gone, eventually, she might still have a lot of time. Speaking of her cell...

“My cell number is E-2, ok, now I can find the keycard. But how do I…”

Pinkamena clicked on the cell number, which was hovering letters above the cell. It then changed fast to another cell in the hallways, with the letters B-4 hovering above it, this was the cell connected to hers, probably. It wasn’t that far away from here, maybe five minutes or so? The mysterious helping person told her to go there because there was something useful, or it was a trap. She didn’t see the point in helping her get this far just to trap her, but she didn’t know that much about this place or the ponies inside it, she had to play things safe. She was going to go, but accept the possibility it was a trap, which meant she might need to fight.

“To do that, I’m going to need to get out of these shackles. This is going to hurt like a bitch!”

Pinkamena put her left hoof around her right, biting her lip as she did. She couldn't use the bobby pin, not when she only had the one. It would have been better to break out of her shackles without it in case she needed it later, she couldn't risk breaking it just yet. Then, swiftly, she twisted her hoof completely around, making a loud snapping noise as her hoof broke. She grunted loudly and bit her lip hard enough for blood to drip down, but at least now she was free. Slowly and carefully, she pulled her broken hoof from the shackle, now she’d be able to unlock it without making a lot of noise and breaking her neck. If she had tried it before, odds were, she wouldn’t have been able to pick it properly. She pulled the bobby pin out of her mane, avoiding putting her hoof on the ground to prevent further damage. She put the shackle that didn’t have a hoof in it on the metal table, bringing another shackle that did with it. She then began to pick the lock, making slight clicking noises as the bobby pin unlocked it. Within about two minutes, she had unlocked all the shackles. She carefully took them off, putting them on the ground as quietly as she could. She then looked down at her hoof pensively, slightly angry at Rainbow Dash for forcing her to do this, there was no other way for her to get out.

“I’m going to have to pay a fortune to get this fixed when I get out of here! Celestia, I hate this place!”

She silently shouted to herself, she really hated breaking limbs, but at least she did it to herself this time. Without another word, she walked over to the file cabinets, having to limp since she had to hold her hoof up as she walked. But she’s had to walk with a broken hoof before, so she could walk almost as fast as she normally could, and fight just as well. She went to the second filing cabinet, the one marked E-H. Pulling open one of the drawers, dozens of small key cards were revealed. They were in the shape of rectangles and small enough to where one could just sit on her hoof, they were mostly green, except the end that went into the reader, that was blue. Pinkamena pulled it out of its spot and put it in her mane, gently shutting the drawer. She turned around and began to walk out the door, the hologram seemed to turn itself off.

“Alright, now I just need to go to the cell connected to mine, maybe whoever's in there could be helpful. As long as I can get out of here without getting caught, everything should be-”

Before her, standing right outside the doorway, was a guard. Maybe it had been one of the ones that had been sleeping who had just woken up and decided to join the guards, or one that returned from his patrol and wanted to get a drink, or just a stallion who happened to walk by just then. It didn’t matter why, but there was a now a white stallion looking directly at her, looking first at the shackles, then at her broken hoof, then at her, his eyes widening in comprehension.

“Uh...Don’t suppose I can convince you to pretend you didn’t see me, right?”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Shit! Those tasers bucking hurt!”

The answer to that question was no, they did not seem to be in a convincing mood. The second the guard realized there was an escaped prisoner, he panicked, or maybe he was following protocol panickedly? He screamed that a prisoner had escaped and for them to check all prisoners, which made sense, if one had escaped, checking the others to make sure none of them had was a sensible thing to do in a place like this. The other guards who were awake, who didn’t like having to stop their card game, came to see what the fuss was about. When they saw her, they too panicked at the fact that a prisoner managed to escape, and they proceeded to grab batons and tasers from the room across from them.

Pinkamena took way too long to react, and gave them a lot more time than she’d like. While they were getting their batons and tasers, she ran past the first stallion, knocking him to the ground. The guards were slow to react, they hadn’t expected a mare with a broken hoof to move so fast! While it was a struggle for her, navigating her way to the cell connected to hers with only a brief mental map while trying to lose two guards was more of a struggle. But the guards were in way better shape than her, and they were better prepared than her. Three guards were soon after her, one with a taser, one with a baton, and the last one didn’t seem to like to wait, as he came out with nothing.

The one with the taser was fast! Before she knew it, they were right behind her! With a gasp she was shocked with it, causing her to leap forward and pick up her pace, they were having a harder time catching up to her now. Since there were only three, she assumed one went to alert others, and the rest were checking other cells to see if any other prisoners had escaped.

“Three? Yeah, I can handle three.”

Pinkamena said as she maneuvered quickly, taking a left down a hallway. She wasn’t sure if they were drunk, or if she was just that faster than them, but she was slowly losing them. They had probably assumed she would eventually get lost, but they didn’t know she had a mental map of this place. She was doing her best to lose them, she really wanted to avoid fighting when other guards could be around, at least until she had to. In order to lose them, she had to purposely slow down so they’d catch up, then she kicked one in his hoof, causing him to fall over and face plant. That wouldn’t work again. But it wouldn’t have to, the one with the baton tried leaping at her, but she expected that and easily sidestepped him, causing him to hit the wall. The third one stopped, about to attack, but she spit in his eyes! It temporarily blinded him, and she took the opportunity. She turned around and began to run, almost as surprised as they were.

“The fact that that worked means these guards are either really stupid, or Discord himself is looking down on me giving me luck. I mean, it could be that their new and don’t have much experience.”

Sure, ponies don’t expect the pony they’re chasing to suddenly stop, but she figured they’d have better reflexes than that! Maybe they really were drunk! Pinkamena shook her head, Rainbow was going to be pissed when she hears about this, she almost felt bad for them. After several minutes of navigating through the halls and expecting the guards to show up any moment, she stopped, leaning against the wall panting, looking down at her broken hoof. She had managed to hold it up while she was running, while it caused her to limp, she was able to keep off it. But that put some strain on her three other hooves, kicking somepony certainly didn’t help. Neither did barely getting any sleep and her body still being sore beforehand, she was going to sleep for days when she got out of here.

“Now...let’s see...looking for B-4...it should actually be around here. Unless I took a wrong turn somewhere.”

Pinkamena began scanning the room while resting against the wall, slowly getting her breath back. There were several doors in front of her, but none of them were cell doors. She got off the wall, holding her broken hoof up as she walked forward, turning around to see if it was on the wall behind her. And, to her surprise, it had been the wall she was leaning on! The door was the size of the wall, it was dark black and made out of metal, and didn’t have any windows or anything to see in it with. She looked to the right of it, and there was the card reader, just waiting for her! She pulled out the keycard from her mane, and swiped it in the reader. She had expected it to take a few tries, but no, it beeped and a green light emitted from it as the door popped open.

She put the keycard back in her mane, in case she needed it for something later. She waited a few seconds, expecting whoever was in there to notice the cell door was slightly ajar and to open it, but no one did. Curious, Pinkamena slightly opened the door and slipped herself inside. The inside was just like hers, small, dark, and nothing in the room, no bed or anything, except hers at least had a bucket, though they were relucant to give it to her. She couldn’t make out any figures in the dark, but she could hear breathing, though it was strained and she couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

“Hello? Are you there? I’m here to break you free!”

Pinkamena said in the darkness, waiting for a response. Suddenly, the sound of chains being pulled at came from some part of the room, as a black figure came out from the darkness towards here. It was her size, maybe a little smaller. It had a black body like an exoskeleton with holes in its legs, but its body seemed pale, weak, like it hadn’t eaten in days. It had little wings on its sides, they were bright white, almost see through. It slowly opened its bright green eyes, shutting them again as it hadn’t seen direct light in days. After he adjusted, he looked at her, straining to keep his eyes open. Pinkamena’s eyes widened in surprise, almost like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“Holy shit! You’re a changeling!”