Aren't you curious, Caduceus?

by Gunnery Sergeant

First published 22nd of January, 2012

Three doctors, in a factory. What can go wrong?

Mixing the stories "Aren't you curious, Doctor", and "The Fire of the Rainbow Factory".
It starts with an unicorn, and turns out to be another Doctor Whooves story.

The Unicorn and the sky

“Cloudsdale. The pegasus city flying over Ponyville. Hometown of the famous Rainbow Dash.”
I say, not really watching is ponies are listening to me or not. Shaking in excitation, like a little filly, I can barely hide in the shadows.

You're wondering why I'm hiding in the shadows? I have many reasons. First reason is of course for a nice dramatic effect. After all, I'm here, standing on a hill, looking at Cloudsdale with threatening eyes, I'm forced to look like a bad guy. And the other reason is because I plan to break in Cloudsdale. Tonight.
Of course, being an unicorn, I shouldn't be able to reach the city, but... let's say I got my hoof on something interesting. A spell granting pegasus abilities, but only temporary. At first, when I found it, I was delighted. After all, isn't flying everyone's dream?

But then, I had a better idea! Why not disguise myself as a pegasus, and go visit that city? They won't notice me, and I'll finally be able to see how weather's prepared! But I digress.
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is... well, it doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm a doctor. Trust me, I'm a doctor.
No, no, I'm not the Doctor, I'm just a doctor. Just an unicorn interested by life. I could tell you how I got my cutie mark, by helping an injured bird, but that wouldn't be interesting. But I told it anyway, I'm sorry, I'm kind of scatterbrained right now. It's excitation, of course, but there's also fear.

I tried that spell many times, and it worked fine each time. But, there's still that voice, in a corner of my head, whispering “what is it doesn't work? What if your wings disappears while you're flying? What if the pegasus catch you?”. I try to shake my head, but I still get goosebumps. Probabilities are predicting a fine and nice little holiday on Cloudsdale, but I still have a bad feeling.
I shrug. That doesn't help to get rid of the goosebumps. In fact, I think it's making things worse.
Awful, isn't it? I try to get rid of that bad feeling, and I'm only aggravating it.
“Maybe the weather is getting a bit chilly too.”

I see you're wondering why I'm going to Cloudsdale? Sheer curiosity. After all, one cannot observer pegasus in their natural environment. And if one can, he's obviously a pegasus himself, and therefore does not understand the need to observe such things.
After all, you never notice things when they're right under your nose. You only notice them when they're gone. Just how awful is that?
“I am angry!”
I say, while stomping the ground.
…
Okay, that was retarded. But I guess you understand my point, now, do you? That being said, I have to wait just a little longer. And then I'll be able to visit Cloudsdale. Just... Try to imagine how many things I'll see in there! I don't even know how it looks like!

Oh boy, I'll tell ya, this is gonna be good. I'm already eager to see the city by myself!
“Night is now on us. And Princess Luna is obviously on my side, since the Moon itself does not provide any light! I'm really lucky today!”
I jump to my hooves, and I shake my mane, sticking my tongue out like a filly. Excitation is making me do strange things. If I wasn't so eager to see Cloudsdale by myself, I would gladly observe my own behavior, and try to decipher it.

But now's not the time for stuff like that! I have things to discover! I have Cloudsdale to see! It's like taking a filly to a candy shop! Or a mare in any other shop. Mares are so strange, now that I think about it. How can anyone NOT be interested in candies? That's impossible! There's no way that could exist!
“Mmmrr... Just thinking about that gives me the creeps.”
I would rather have crepes than creeps, but it's not up to me to decide, sadly.
And HERE I am, speaking to myself again! Let's just get this over with, while the Moon is hidden by the clouds!

I begin trotting, while casting the spell.
“Par la moustache du grand Hartman!”
I feel two new limbs appearing on my back. I quickly extend them, and THAT'S IT! I'M FLYING!
“Holy Sun, that's awesome!”
It's the first time I fly! I mean, I tried that spell before, but I tried to keep it secret, because I didn't wanted to- aaah, forgive me. Here am I rambling again. I have the body of a young pony and the mind of an old crazy pony.
“I won't age well, that's sure.”
And speaking to myself won't fix anything. I have to keep on! FORWARD, COMRADE! TO CLOUDSDALE! And with that goal in my mind, I flap my wings faster, noticing, half-amused, half-worried, that I'm moving my legs too.
“Guess that's why those things require training.”
But, hey, I can FLY! I won't ask for more!

I curse my own stupidity. Of course that the darkness would hide me from any pegasus. But I forgot that it would also hide Cloudsdale from me.
“Bollocks!”
I quickly look around, still flapping my wings. That exercise is more tiring than I though, and if I don't find a place to land quickly, I'll get tired and probably fall to my death. Or maybe I'll just be too tired to keep on flying and I'll just have to give up for tonight.
I prefer the latter, personally. I don't want to die. Too annoying. Too frustrating. But if I have to give up, it won't be without a fight!
By the way, I'm not being literal with that word. When I say 'fight', I mean 'flying around in circles until I find something or until I'm really to tired to keep on'.
So here I am, flying in circles, like a fool, hoping to find something, to hit something...

I open my eyes. Pure darkness. I try to stand, but my head hurts too much.
“What happened?”
I was flying in circle, and then I hit something with my head. I blacked out for a second, and here I am again.
“Let's think rationally. It's pitch black. So I'm in a cloud. Good thing that spell doesn't worn out when I'm out.”
I gently poke the ground. Eeer, I mean the cloud.
“What the...”
It's hard. I was expecting something soft, like... I dunno, cotton candy or something like that. But instead of that, it's hard.
“That's weird.”
I manage to stand, and I softly stomp the cloud, ears raised.
“Uh? Sounds like metal?”
There's something fishy here. Either I fell somewhere into the Everfree Forest, either, for some unknown reason, there's a huge metallic structure hidden in the clouds over Ponyville.
“Que la lumière soit!”
Casting a light spell, I observe the place. And I'm surprised. To be short, I'm currently standing on a very wide metallic platform. I can't see really far away, the clouds are acting like a fog. So I have to move.
“It hurts, dammit!”

After a little while of walking totally randomly, I start being more and more anxious. What's this place? Am I still in Equestria? How is it possible that nopony noticed something that large?
But all my thought are pushed off by the treasure I found. 'Treasure' being of course totally subjective, meaning in this case 'a trapdoor toward the inside of the platform'.
Grabbing the shackle with my magic, I pull the trapdoor, and I walk inside the building.
I know that's not the best idea I ever had, but I HAVE to know. Curiosity get the best of me, and I have to keep on, and discover what that structure is.

“Holy Batmare breast!”
One more time, my mouth is faster than my brain. But I have every reason to be surprised. I mean, I though I was on a platform. But I was wrong. I was on a roof. And now, I'm inside the building.
“Steam technology? Who in Equestria possess such knowledge to make those machines?”
The room I just entered in is a small place. On the wall, there are several dial, giving indications about different... stuff. I'm sorry, I have no idea whatever those things are supposed to count.
For example, there's this one, here. It says 'rainbow'. And that's just ridiculous! You can't count rainbows! There's no way a dial would display how many rainbow you have...
“Stored?”
Seriously? This thing is STORING rainbows? I lean toward the dial, trying to understand it.
“If that thing is working fine, then we're almost out of rainbow?”
That... just doesn't make sense! Rainbow are created...
I blink several time as I try to remember how rainbow are created exactly. And the weird thing is that I don't remember.
“Commmme on...”
I rub my chin with my hoof. Rainbow are... They are...

How are they created anyway?
I don't know. I though I knew, but in fact I don't. That single sentence is confusing enough, but the fact that this building is creating rainbow is only confusing me more. Does it just make rainbow out of nowhere? And why is that building hidden?
So many questions! And so few answers! You must discover the truth! For Equestria! For Great Justice! And also for your secret lover, Miss Curiosity. She's the one always shoving you toward new things. She's the one making you experiment.
“Haa, curiosity. One day, you'll be my end.”
With that being said, I leave the room, only to arrive in another room, this time way bigger, and filled with all kind of wires and pipes. And there's somepony here!
“H-”
Luckily, this time, my brain is faster than my mouth, and I manage to shut up before saying anything. After all, I'm not supposed to be there. If I'm caught, I'll probably be kicked out. So it's best for now to sneak around, until I figure how they're making rainbow.
Tiptoeing, I manage to pass behind the busy worker. He's too busy working on that multicolored tank to pay attention to me anyway, but it's better to be prudent. I can't know how much long he'll be busy.
“Orange. Only 20%. Yellow. Only 50%. Red. 80%. Purple. 60%. Recommendations: orange.”
His voice startles me, and for a while, I doubt he's a pony. He just spoke in a mechanical tone, just piling one word after another, without a single inch of emotion in his voice.
You bravely decide to leave him alone, instead of picking an useless and dangerous fight, and you just walk away, still being very careful to not make any noise.

You jump when it happens. You weren't supposed to be scared, but that's not something you hear often. After all, you're a doctor. You heal people, you help them to feel better. Therefore, you're not used to this.
A filly screaming to death. That's not something you hear often, and that's not something you wish to hear often. You should probably go back, sneak again behind that mechanical worker, and, just, leave.
But you can't. You're a doctor. You don't just help people, you HAVE to help them. If you see someone being hurt on your way to your house, you automatically make a mental note. And that note never fades. It stays here, until you consider that your duty is fulfilled.
And that filly screaming is a huge mental note. If you were to leave now, you wouldn't be able to sleep, eat, or even look at yourself in the mirror. It's a FILLY, for Celestia's sake. An innocent little filly. You can't turn your back. Not now.
So you just walk toward where the scream came from, while mentally hoping that it's just an accident.
“Please, Princess Celestia, let it be false. Let the rumors be wrong, I beg of you, oh sweet princess, let it be wrong...”

The room is large, and damn high. From your position, you have a good view on what's happening down there. And it's something you wish you could forget.
The room itself is very big, I think I already said it. At one end of the huge room, I can see several square vats. I don't really pay much attention to them, being too busy trying to understand the giant machine. In the middle on the room, above the floor, there is a giant tank, apparently filling the vats with vivid-colored liquids. On top of the tank, there's a small opening, and there's a foal over it, apparently restrained by chains.
I try to understand what's going on, but at the same time, I don't want to understand. I honestly can't even understand how that machine works, but the fact that I can't see an exit door for the foal is making my think... things I'd rather ignore. With a metallic noise, the chains open, freeing the foal. Or rather, dropping him in the mouth of the machine.
I would give everything I have to forget what I see and what I hear. But I can't. There's some kind of morbid curiosity constantly telling me to look, to analyze, and to understand. I try to understand, I try to analyze, I try to look, but all I can see is an innocent kid being crushed alive by a giant machine, and all I can hear are his screams, until the machine finally breaks his skull in a horrible sound.
I turn my head away, and I puke in total silence. That's not what I wanted to see. That's not what I wanted to hear. That's not what I wanted to LEARN!

I hear scared screams, and I force myself into looking again. And what I see drains every color from my face. I thought there was only one foal, but it appears that the workers brought a large group of fillies in the room. I try to look away, but I can't. I'm petrified here, unable to move or to think, trying to assimilate the fact that the pegasus are killing fillies.
And then, one of the worker turns his head and sees me. I stare at him, still unable to move. I notice his dark red color, partially hidden by a white lab coat.
He looks at me.
I look at me.
He notices my horn.
I notice his coat.
He smiles.
I'm disgusted.
Still staring at me, he quickly walks out of the room, leaving the other workers to deal with the fillies.
Still staring at him, I try to decide what I'm going to do. I can't run away. Not now. I have to try something, and help those fillies. I know it's stupid, I know I'm going to die here, in this place, but I have to. I have to do something to help. Even if it's just a little.
I move.

I have to run away.
No, I have to help these fillies.
I have to protect my own life, and tell the outside what's going on!
I'm giving myself excuses. I have to help them!
I run. I don't know where I'm going, but I'll go where my hooves are leading me. If they're leading me outside, I'll do my best to escape. If they're leading me to the fillies, I'll help them.
“I have to help I can't fail I have to help...”
That's what my cutie mark is about. Helping others, healing the wounded, I help everyone.
And find new ways to help ponies feel better. That's why I came here. I wanted to know more about pegasus. They're so different, I could never heal them efficiently. I wanted to know more about them, but now, I regret my curiosity.
“No, I'm being unfair. That's no curiosity. That's just me.”

But then, somepony tackles me, throwing me on the ground. Before I can realize what's happening, I'm on the ground, surrounded by several suited ponies. I want to see their faces, but those are hidden by gas mask. I don't even know if those things are real ponies or not.
“Let me go! I can help! I'm a doctor, I can help them!”
As I try to stand again, one of the suited pony moves, and hits me with something.
“AAAH!”
I fall in the ground again, trying to understand what happened. It was something electric, like a taser. But do they have taser? And what are they here? Aren't they realizing that I'm trying to help fillies?
“Please, let me go! I have to help!”
“Oh, oh oh oh, now that's getting interesting.”
I look around, looking for the voice. And I see him, the dark red pegasus from earlier.
“You! Help me! I have to help!”
He laughs.
“Ain't that cute? Don't you see your own situation? You're an unicorn, in a pegasus facility!”
He continue laughing for a while, and turns serious again.
“You don't understand, I'm a doctor! I can help them!”
“Well, that's nice. But you're not helping anybody here. Beat him.”
The suited ponies take out their tasers.
“No! I beg of you, let me help! Let help! I can hel-”
The first strike is on my flank. I instantly stop talking, and instead, I scream in pain.
“Beat him, but don't kill him. We never tried an adult unicorn before. Oh, and break his limbs.”

I'm thrown on the ground again, in another pained scream. One of them sits on me, restraining me. The others are pulling my leg. I try to fight back, but the one sitting on them hits me in the face with his taser, half-stunning me. I still can see one them jumping in the air, and landing, hooves first, on my exposed leg. The bone breaks instantly in a horrible noise, some kind of nightmarish 'CRACK'.
“AAAAH!”
Screaming in pain, I stare at my useless leg, wide-eyed, my head already full of suggestion about how I can heal it. I need some planks, and a rope. I'll make a splint with that, and everything will be allright-
'CRACK'
“GYAAAAH!”
This time, I scream louder. I was so busy focusing on my broken that I could notice that they were pulling my other leg.
“What do we do about his horn?”
Ask one of them, in that mechanical voice again. I try to listen, but my hind legs being broken, it's hard to even think. I'm already fighting to stay conscious, despite the pain, don't ask me too much.
“I'll ask the manager. In the meanwhile, bring him in the disposal room, with the mules.”
“Yes, doctor.”
I feel like I'm being dragged, but I don't care any more. My legs are broken, and if I don't put splints quickly, I'll never be able to walk again. I have to put a splint in my leg, I have to-

“What in Celestia's name happened here?”
Screams the other doctor. One of the suited pony answers, still in that mechanical tone.
“Rebellion. Manager was forced to exterminate the whole batch.”
While they're busy trying to find what happened, I take a look. It's the same room I saw earlier, it's that room where they're... killing fillies.
“Monsters.”
One of the ponies steps on my broken leg, causing me to scream again.
“Oh, hush you. Adults are speaking! Take me to the manager, we have to talk!”
“Yes, doctor.”
“What do we do about him?”
“Ugh. Just leave it here. It won't go anywhere without his legs.”
I'm dropped on the floor again, while the ponies are leaving.
“I'm alone...”
I must escape. I don't know how, but I have to. This whole thing is just a giant nightmare, I can't stay here for too long.

But as I pathetically try to crawl to the nearest exit, I see something that shatters my heart.
On the ground, there's a little thing. A small, little thing. A cute, small, an innocent little thing.
It's a filly. But she's not moving.
I crawl to her.
Why is she not moving?
Why isn't she running, or flying?
Why is she sleeping?
She shouldn't sleep in a place like that.
No, really, she shouldn't.
Her parents will be worried if she doesn't get back home.
“Hey, little filly, you should sleep here, you know?”
I look at her face.
It's a bloody mess.
Her face was crushed under hooves, and crushed again and again and again.
“Don't be sad about your face. I'm a doctor! I can fix it!”
I try to comfort her, but she doesn't move.
Don't be so sad, I'm here!
I'm a doctor.
I help people.
I heal people.
So don't be sad.
Why aren't you moving?
Are you cold?
Is that why you're not moving?
Hold on, let me hold you.
I'm an adult, I can share the heat.
Let me hold you.
Are you feeling better?
Do you want to sleep?
Don't worry, everything will be fine.
I'm a doctor, you know?
I think I already told you.
Nopony ever died in my hooves.
I'm a good doctor!
I saved everypony that I met!
Don't worry, little filly!
Everything will be fine.
I'm here.
Doctor Caduceus, here.

Living in the sky

“We don't have any use for failure such as yourself!”
Screams the blue pegasus, while staring at the filly with a demented smile on her face.
“No! I don't want to die!”
The blue pegasus laughs.
“You don't have the right to choose, you are NOTHING!”
The chain opens, dropping the filly in the machine. For several seconds, the room is filled with the innocent creatures' screams, while her body is shred into pieces, her little mind unable to withstand or even understand the pain.
With another demented laugh, the pegasus looks at the batch of subjects, her hateful face scaring everyone in the room, included the suited ponies.
“Who's next? We're short in rainbow! We needs more of them! More of you! More rainbow! You should be proud, failures, you're keeping Cloudsdale alive!”
But no fillies answers. They're all slowly retreating toward the door, too scared to even look at the demented pegasus.
“I want to die..” Whines one of them.
“Oooh? I heard something? We have a volunteer? How noble! Your sacrifice won't be forgotten! Wait... actually, it will! HA HA HA HA!”
The chains comes down again, causing the filly to scream in fear.
“I don't want to die! Please! Not me!”
“Everyone will die! EVERYONE! We're still short on rainbow! We needs more of them! HA HA HA HA-”
The pegasus' laugh is interrupted by a violent coughing. She spits some blood on the floor, causing another pony to get close to her.
“Manager, I already called your doctor. But I still think you should be resting-”
“REST?!? There's no rest for me, Atmosphere! We need rainbow! More rainbow! We need more fillies! More foals! If there's not enough pegasus to sacrifice, we'll sacrifice unicorns! I'll throw them myself in the machine if I need to!”
“Manager, the doctor is coming. He'll help you.”
Atmosphere slowly retreats, letting the unicorn changes the blue pegasus' dressings, acting like a machine, not even caring about anything any more. And Atmosphere thinks. The fillies pegasus are more and more useless. For some reason, they're not giving enough rainbow to satisfy Cloudsdale's appetite. And the Manager is becoming more and more unstable, which he'll have to take over the factory really soon, if he wants it to keep running.
With his nefarious plans in mind, Atmosphere gives an order. The filly's limbs are broken, one by one, and the poor mule is finally thrown in the machine.
Fillies are useless. They're too young to give enough rainbow. They'll need something older.
The Rainbow Factory needs an old being.

“Have you ever been to Cloudsdale, Derpy?”
“Mmmm? Yes, Doctor?”
The stallion mentally sighs before asking again.
“Want to visit Cloudsdale?”
“Oh, sorry! I was elsewhere. Well, yes!”
The stallion smiles, while staring at the gray mare.
“Still shaken, isn't it? Don't worry, it always does that the first time.”
“Have you ever been possessed, Doctor?”
“Oh yes.” He flips a switch, causing the TARDIS to rumble. “Happened me on New Earth. There was a lady called Cassandra.” He turns a wheel, causing the ship to shake. “She was just a skin when I found her, and she tried to control my companion.”
Jumping to help him, Derpy quickly understands that she couldn't do anything. The Tardis was just too complicated for her, so she just sits and talks.
“What happened?”
“Zombie outbreak! Well, not exactly zombies, since they were alive and stuff, but one touch from them, and PUFF!” He suddenly turns his head toward Derpy, causing her to jump. “You're dead. They were bearing all possible sickness, you see? Bad stuff. Really bad stuff.”
Derpy gasps.
“So what happened?”
The Doctor jumps over the control panel, flipping more switch on his way.
“Cured them! Cured them all! Well, I couldn't help them all, a few of them died, but I managed to save the patients! Well, they all died several years later, but at least, they lived as human beings!”
“Excuse me?”
“I mean as pony beings!”
Derpy smiles to herself. The Doctor was sometimes hard to follow, but he wasn't mean. Not at all. In fact, even through he was really complicated, and often really strange to understand, he was perhaps the kindest pony on Earth. Well, after Princess Celestia, of course, but Derpy never travelled through space and time with the Princess, so she doesn't know her personally.
“So, where do we go?”
“Haaa, Derpy, Derpy, bad girl! I told you, we're going to Cloudsdale!”
“Cloudsdale? Where the pegasus are living?”
“Precisely!”
“Why here, Doctor?”
“Oh, for many reasons! First being, I never saw a pegasus city, so it'll be interesting!”
“I see.”
The Doctor keeps the second reason for himself. His psychic paper has been giving him that peculiar date, and he doesn't want to mix Derpy to this. After, she deserves a break, after that incident with the living noodles.

“Are we there yet?”
“Not yet, Derpy!”
“Are we there yet?”
THUD.
“Yes, we are!”
With a delighted scream, Derpy flies to the door, despite the Tardis being way too small for her to even fly in the first place. Witnessing her companion's enthusiasm, the Doctor asks.
“Have you ever been to Cloudsdale?”
“Never!”
“Oh. But isn't it supposed to be a pegasus city?”
“My mother left Cloudsdale when I was a filly. She never told me why. I never saw the city itself.”
A part of the Doctor's mind immediately class that as being some kind of way to prevent pegasus from running wild. The other parts of the Doctor's mind are busy trying to know if Charlin Chaplin made it to the Ponyverse. The last part is pondering if pasta can be combined with lemons.
But everything is thrown away when Ditry opens the door.
“Doctor! You should see that! It's WONDERFUL!”
“I'm coming, Derpy.”
Taking his psychic paper and his sonic screwdriver with him, the Doctor leaves the Tardis, and begins to visit the pegasus city.

Saying that everything is beautiful in that city would be a crude understatement. Even the Doctor, being used to the more beautiful things existing in the universe, is taken aback by the practical majesty of the cloud city.
“Interesting... It looks like a Greek city, but made of clouds...”
But why Greek? Ha, of course! Pegasus were Greek to begin with, it makes sense that a pegasus city would look like a Greek city.
“That's awesome Doctor!”
But Derpy does not concern herself with such petty matters. She has the uncanny ability to miss obvious sinister facts when she wants to be happy, and she obviously doesn't want to worry right now. Otherwise, she would be noticing the general lack of happiness in the city, and the fact that the rainbow aren't flowing and flooding like usual.
“There's something wrong with with the rainbows.”
Says the Doctor, precariously walking on the clouds. As an Earth Pony, he's not supposed to be able to walk on a cloud, but he does it anyway. Don't ask, he'll just answer something like 'Magic'.
He sighs. They'll both be stuck here, probably for a while, so why not take it easy before the fun stuff starts? He's no in a hurry, and watching Derpy's happiness is something he can't get bored of.

“So you see Doctor, this part is where they're refining the rainbow!”
The Doctor stares at the pool of multicolored liquid, fascinated.
“Fascinating! Last time I checked, a rainbow was just a light trick, but in this world, it's really something!”
Despite his curiosity, he barely restraints himself from touching the liquid. Liquid rainbow. That's something he never saw. And that's something. He saw sapphires waterfalls on a diamond planet called Midnight, he saw a Dalek empire turned into dust by a human girl hosting Time itself, he saw the Beast, but he never saw liquid rainbow.
And Derpy is obviously enjoying his fascination.
“Isn't that awesome, Doctor?”
“Yes Derpy. Pegasus are awesome, I'll give you that.”
“Mmm!”
Letting the Doctor to his fascination, Derpy begins to fly, suddenly curious about the source of the rainbow. They have to come from somewhere, right? And she always wondered where they came from. And now is the perfect time to see, right? The Doctor is near, nothing can go wrong.

“Yes, Derpy, that's awesome, but-”
The Doctor blinks, and looks around.
“Derpy?”
Still looking around, the Doctor go to the nearest worker, and asks.
“Are you saw a blonde gray pegasus somewhere?”
“Hu? Well, yeah, I saw one flying up there. But who are you?”
Psychic paper, psychic paper.
“Doctor John Smith. I studied under the Professor Twilight Sparkle's supervision.”
Ignoring the obvious anachronism in the Doctor's excuse, the worker's eyes go empty, and he smiles like a happy idiot.
“Nice to meet you, Dr Smith. How can I help?”
“Help me to find my companion. You said she went up there, why?”
“Oh... She was probably curious, about the rainbow factory. Aren't we all?” He giggles.
“Can I go too?”
“I'm afraid you can't.”
“If it's about closed door, I have the key.”
“Well, there's no transportation to the factory. You can't go there, unless you're a pegasus. And even if you can, the factory is constantly surrounded by dark clouds. You can't go near without losing your way.”
“Really? Do they have something to hide?”
“I... don't think.”
“How do I go there?”
“I... have no idea.”
“Well, fine, have a nice day!”
Patting the troubled worker on the shoulder, the Doctor raises his eyes, looking for his companion. A factory, closed to everyone? Sounds like something shady is going on. Time to explore! But before that...
“Oh, one last thing!”
“Yes, Smith?”
“If I'm wrong, and if you happen to see that friend of mine, would you gently tell her that I'm gone, but that I'll be back?”
“Well... my service is almost over, but I'll pass the word.”
“Aawww, thank you.”
And with that being done, the Doctor quickly retreats to the Tardis. Too bad there's no mobile on this planet, or he could easily track down Derpy. He shrugs. Sure, it's more complicated to find Derpy, but at least, he now has the perfect excuse to visit the place.

Meanwhile, in the Factory.
“Atmosphere, mind explaining me why that stupid mare is here!?”
The dark room is full of pegasus. The one currently doing the screaming is a blue pegasus in a really bad shape, while the one receiving the screaming is a dark red pegasus in a really good shape, his face always smirking in a creepy way. In the meanwhile, the one causing the screaming is tied up and waiting in a corner for the Doctor to save the day.
“Manager, please calm down. The guards have captured that little rat sneaking around, and they brought it to me.”
“Atmosphere, I'm not asking you how you got her, I'm asking what she's doing here!!”
“Well, the filly aren't giving enough rainbow to satisfy Cloudsdale's demand, so I though-”
“DON'T THINK, Atmosphere. You're just a mechanic, making sure the factory works fine. I AM the one taking the decisions.”
The dark red pegasus' smile instantly vanishes.
“O-of course, manager! I didn't mean it that way!”
The blue pegasus seems calmed by her underling's fear, and she allows herself a softer tone. But the threat is still obvious in her voice, and, to Derpy, she still sounds like she'll gladly cut the other pegasus into pieces at the first provocation.
“Good. Now tell me why I should need the stupid one.”
“W-well, I though, that, maybe, w-we could complete Cloudsdale's demand by, uh, grinding adults?”
“Cloudsdale won't die from a shortage. Let them choke and whine. Now leave me alone.”
“Of course manager.”
The dark red pegasus quickly flies out of the room, while the blue pegasus looks at Derpy.
“Look at what we have here. Do you remember me, Ditzy?”
Finally, the blue pegasus steps in the light, allowing Derpy to finally recognizes her. And she can't believes her eyes.
“Rainbow Dash?!”
The former faster pegasus of Ponyville is only a shadow of her former self. Instead of being cocky, her smile is now completely demented, exposing her teeth like if she was some kind of marewolf. Her body was an champion one, made for speed and high-speed operation, is now scarred, wearing several traces of bites. Her eyes aren't friendly any more, and are looking at Derpy like if she was estimating a piece of wood before throwing it in a fire.
“Rainbow Dash is dead. Do you hear me? DO YOU HEAR ME?”
Suddenly screaming, the crazy pegasus closes the door.
Outside the room, the guards are trembling. They saw fillies and clots being broken before being ground alive, and yet, standing by the manager's door is still something they are fearing.
In the Rainbow Factory, you always lose your soul. If you're an useless filly or a useless clot, you also lose your life, but the worst fate is for the guards. With time, they become gradually insensitive to the horrors happening inside the Factory. But what the manager is doing is too horrible, even for them. It will take a while before that filly starts screaming again, but they're still trembling.
The filly will screams, begs for mercy, screams again, and will be locked again. Then, the manager will open her door, will cough a while, and will call for her doctor. The earth pony will arrives, his eyes still empty, will heals the manager, and will goes away, just like always.
That's how the Rainbow Factory works since the last rebellion.

Gridlock

It's not a good day for Caduceus.
But considering that his soul was shattered a few weeks ago, it's a miracle that he didn't commit suicide. Caduceus is a doctor. Not the brightest one around, but he's still a devoted doctor, really to do everything for his patients.
His cutie mark probably has something to do with that, for he can't find peace when he knows that somepony, somewhere, is in pain.

But, right now, Caduceus isn't a pony any more. He's not even a doctor. He's just a machine, only acting, never thinking.
They say that not a single soul get through the Factory, and that's true. It doesn't matter if you are a victim, an executioner, or just a witness. Fillies being broken and ground alive is a sight that breaks your soul and shatters your sanity.
You could say that Caduceus was the most unlucky pony in the world, because not only he was allowed to witness such horror, but he was also denied a swift death. When the Rainbow Factory's manager ordered for him to be thrown outside, the Doctor Atmosphere interfered, and pointed at the manager's own wounds.
From this day, Caduceus was forced to tend the crazy pegasus' wounds, unable to forget the horror, and yet unable to kill himself. He has to heal. It was his only purpose, the only thing keeping him alive, and yet still destroying his sanity.

Therefore, he's not surprised when a strange blue box appears in the middle of the room. He's not surprised when an earth pony jumps out of it, and quickly looks around. However, he's surprised when the supposed hallucination starts talking to him.
“Hello there, good boy! I'm looking for a friend, and she said she was visiting the Rainbow Factory, so I'm here! Would you believe it, I'm piloting a ship able to travel through space and time, and yet, I had trouble entering in this place! It's like someone doesn't want ponies running around here! And yet, you're not supposed to have any jamming technology here, so what's happening? Tell everything to the Doctor, I'm the highest authority around!”
Faced with that sudden barrage of questions, statements, and shocking revelations, Caduceus' brain quickly gives up, his old social habit taking the lead.
“Hello. I don't think I know your name?”
“I'm the Doctor.”
“Doctor Caduceus.”
“Oh, another doctor? Nice to meet you. SO! Where's the boss in charge of that place? I'm looking for someone.”
“A friend of you?”
“Ummm, no, but she's a nice companion. Easy going, even if she's a little clumsy. The other day, she accidentally pressed a button on the TARDIS, and we crashed on a planet, who was in fact a giant graveyard. Well, at first, it looked like one, but in fact we discovered that it was inhabited by weeping pegasuses, but that's beside the point.”
Caduceus' brain, still considered as 'dead', manages to give him an important advice. 'If you don't understand, just nod when he's done talking'.
He nods.
“Well, you're nodding. That's nice and all, but I really need to see your boss, like, right now, because, you see, I just remembered that jamming device you're using here, and that means trouble.” Luckily, while the Doctor is speaking, Caduceus' brain is slowly assimilating the fact that there's an intruder in the factory. “Because, yeah, I saw a similar magnetic signature back on the planet-”
“DOCTOR!”
“Yeah?”
“You're in danger. I'm not working here! I'm a prisoner!”
“Prisoner? Usually, prisoner are covered with chains and stuff.”
“That's because I'm the only prisoner!”
“Now there's something going on here, right? You don't keep prisoners in factories, you keep them in jails. So what's going on?”
There's just too much to explain. The younger doctor can't figure where to start, while the older doctor is staring at his face.
“W-well...”
“Haa, forget it. Just show me.”
“Excuse me?”
“Show me the way around.”
“What?”
“That thing. It's called a door. It leads to a brand new world. We open it, and we pass.”
“But we can't-”
“I'm the Doctor, I can.”
Leaving the confused doctor behind, the Doctor leaves the room.

In the meanwhile, Derpy was horrified.
She saw ponies being sifted and ground into horrible lifeforms, but she managed to shrug it off, because it was the doing of some horrible alien species. But that brutality she was witnessing right now wasn't the doing of an alien. It was the doing of a famous an renowned pegasus, the one they called the Fastest Flier in Equestria. And the whole thing was rendered more horrible by the fact that the renowned pegasus was mercilessly torturing a filly.
That's right. Rainbow Dash wasn't interrogating some political prisoner, or some criminal. She was torturing an innocent filly, just for the fun, and according to the demented smile on her face, she was having a lot of fun.
She was actually biting the fillies' feathers, and taking them off, one by one, triggering a pained scream each time.
“I'm sorry! I'm sorry!”
“Not enough, Scootaloo. You'll never be sorry enough to compensate the fact that you failed me.”
“I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!”
With a cruel laugh, the blue pegasus get an mouthful of Scootaloo's feathers, and starts pulling, half-tearing the young pegasus' wing, and causing her a great pain. There's a loud 'CCRRRCK' noise, and Scootaloo suddenly stop crying, only to scream.
Satisfied with Scootaloo's pain, Rainbow Dash drops her on the floor, in front of Derpy, walks to the door, and orders the guard to 'bring the patchguy here'. Then, she closes the door again, walks to Derpy, and sits in front of her, still smiling maniacally.
“So, Derpy Hooves, am I right? You've been caught trying to trespass. That's not very smart, not at all.”
Derpy tries to answer, but, from the corner of her eye, she still can sees the tortured filly.
“Oh, that? Don't bother about that, the doctor will patch her up.”
“The Doctor?”
Derpy's heart jumps when hearing that name. After all, there's still the Doctor! He'll fix everything!
But as soon as she stares at Rainbow's eyes, she understands that even the Doctor can't fix that one. Derpy wasn't the brightest pony around, but she traveled a lot. She's able to recognize evil when she sees it, but Rainbow Dash isn't evil.
Because in evil, you find malice, hate, and a large part of self-interest. No mercy, no empathy, in short, nothing like that. But Rainbow Dash' eyes says a different story. She's not doing those things by sadism, or because she was ordered to. She's torturing Scootaloo by pure hate.
Even Derpy can understands that, despite her clumsiness, her relative lack of intelligence, and her oblivious nature.
“Yes, the doctor. He patches ponies here. Hey, garbage, you should thank him. It's because of him that you're still alive.” Says Rainbow, while kicking the crying filly.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because she deserves it. Right, garbage?”
Derpy tries to move, to instinctly protect the filly. But a loud metallic noise reminds her that she's tied to the wall, and therefore, can't do anything to help Scootaloo.

“Hey.”
Without even looking at the guard, the Doctor starts talking, still not minding the fact that the guard is threatening him with a taser.
“Hello there. Would you believe it, it was actually kind of difficult to find my way in. Now, where's my psychic paper? Ha, here, I'm the Professor … Tennant, from the University of... Arkham.”
The guard puts his taser away.
“Greetings Professor. How may I help?”
“Lead me to the second highest authority around.”
“Doctor Atmosphere, then?”
“How many doctors around?”
“With Atmosphere and the prisoner, two.”
“Guess that means three, then. Show me the way.”

And while the Doctor goes to meet the Doctor Atmosphere, the Doctor Caduceus enters in Rainbow Dash's office, and quickly dies a little more when he sees the crying filly in front of him. He tries to say something to comfort her, but he can't lie.
“All right! So, while the doctor is patching the failure, you and I are going to talk!” Rainbow Dash jumps in front of Derpy, and keeps on talking. “You're not from Cloudsdale, what you doing? Trying to find our secret? That's not every nice! NOT AT ALL.”
The pegasus' smile grows wider as she observes Derpy, expecting some kind of answer.
“I-I was just curious...”
“CURIOUS? I remember the last time a pegasus was 'curious' around here. We torn his wings off, and we dropped him in the Everfree Forest. He screamed for a while before something finally finished his misery. So, let me ask you again, are you curious?”
Derpy hesitate for a while, and finally decides to be frank.
“I was with someone. A doctor.”
Unknown to Rainbow Dash, Caduceus quickly turns his head when hearing that, causing Scootaloo to moans in pain.
“A doctor? Well, he's right there. Hey, you, say hello to the mare.”
“I mean... the Doctor.”
Rainbow Dash freezes, staring at Derpy for a while, and suddenly leaves the office.
“Keep an eye on them. If they try to move, beat them to death.”
The guards nod, and the pegasus quickly moves away.
“Why are you doing this?” The question is asked to the unicorn doctor.
“What do you mean?” He's avoiding her stare.
“Helping that pegasus.”
“I'm not helping her.” Caduceus answers instantly, without even thinking.
“You are.”
“I'm only doing what I'm supposed to do. Healing the wounded. Now, don't worry, filly, everything will be all right.”

“Who are you? And what are you doing here?”
“Hello, I'm the Doctor. Don't mind me, I'm just trying to understand what's that big machine for.”
“What? Guards! Stop him!”
“Oi, don't do that! Now, where did I put that paper?” The Doctor takes his psychic paper, waves it in front of Atmosphere, and quickly pulls it back to wherever it was. “Now that we are friends, since you're in charge of that place, maybe you could explain to me what's that machine?”
Atmosphere smiles, obviously calmed down.
“I always wanted someone to ask me that! Well, you see, it's genius! The filly is thrown here, after his limbs are-”
“That's great, that's genius, but wait just a bit, and explain the filly bit.”
“It's simple, really! Through a subrooting program in the sequential matr-”
“Oi! I'm the one using all the technological words!”
“It turns failures into rainbow.”
“Oh. That's not nice.”
“Of course not. But at least, they are being useful.”
Being too happy with himself, Atmosphere doesn't notice the look on the Doctor's face. Even the guards, being as emotionless and soulless as they are, notices it, and slowly backs away from the earth pony.
“So what you're saying is that everything you're considering as a failure is shoved down his throat, right?”
“Precisely!”
“Well, I'm not sure I like that, but you have a bigger problem here.”
“Uh? Like what?”
“Like this.”
Jumping near the machine, the Doctor takes his sonic screwdriver, clumsily try to hold it between his hooves for a while, before sighing and biting it. Then, he points it toward the machine, and turns it on.
There's a loud, guttural moan, making almost everypony in the room jumps.
“What's that?”
“Holy crap I shitted my pants!”
But the Doctor doesn't answer. Instead of that, he stares at Atmosphere, staring at the pegasus' maniac smile.