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// 3. The Friendship 
// Story: The Factory 
// by The Dashie 
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                                     Screw it. Finished the chapter just now, hope you guys love it. 


I couldn’t believe it. Rainbow Dash liked me. No, not like, love; she loved me! It was inconceivable. A pony from a mystical land loved an ordinary old human that couldn’t fly, use magic, or walk on all fours. I was having this thought racing in my mind when I found that I was not alone. Across the cell I was in was the flyer of the Cutie Mark Crusaders; the rebellious Scootaloo. If I was Rainbow Dash’s number one fan, then Scootaloo was the hipster for Rainbow Dash, the person who liked her before she was popular. Scootaloo was Rainbow Dash’s pony number one fan, but as I saw her she looked like she would rather avoid me at all possible intervals. In fact, she looked like she wanted to avoid any contact with anyone or anything. I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t fighting against the evil that imprisoned her and trying to escape. I went to talk to her, but she only avoided me and went deeper into the corner with every step I took towards her. “You don’t need to fear me, Scootaloo. I’m not gonna hurt you. My name is Dash.” She replied in a mildly-aggressive tone, “H-how did you know my name?” I took pity on her and sat where I was. “I’m from a place called earth and I know about you and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and everyone else from Ponyville. I know that you are very rebellious, which reminds me, why do you not fight against this imprisonment and try to escape?” She replied in a very sober manner,” Because I would eventually run into Rainbow Dash, and I don’t want to fight her. She was my couch for a flight test we have here in Cloudsdale.” “Flight test? What does that test serve?” I asked her. “It has two purposes; the first is to show how good a flier you are, but it also tells if you will contribute to Cloudsdale in a positive manner. If you fail the test you get sent here to learn your lesson. The only thing is nopony knows that the lesson we learn here is how to choose last words to where they mean something. They think we come here to learn how to contribute to Cloudsdale’s society and if we can’t, we are then forced to work in the factory so that we can contribute to society in a way that doesn’t involve flying or other tasks they think might be strenuous to us. The only one to escape this fate was Fluttershy, and that’s because she never came to take her test and decided to live in Ponyville. Everypony in Cloudsdale knows that if she had come to take her test; she would have been in a rainbow by now.” “Wait, Fluttershy herself would be in a rainbow? I thought that they only extract it through cutting them only and drained the spectra from them.” She looked grim in her answer. “Well in most cases, but if the pony is too much of one of the types of spectra, they just put you in a grinder and get the full thing from each color. Fluttershy would have too much fear in her, so they would have to grind her in order to get the full thing.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I can somewhat understand slicing and harvesting, but grinding? That’s total mutilation! It’s downright barbaric, if not psychotic, and to think that I used to envy the rainbows in Equestria because they looked so much fuller and brighter.
I wouldn’t want to even look at a rainbow in Equestria after this. I actually would be sick if I looked at any rainbow now. I asked her how long she had been here. “I’ve been here a month and a half, according to Discord.” She chuckled then finished, “but it doesn’t matter. I probably won’t get killed but I will be imprisoned here till I die. I wonder why they have you though.” I had a questioning feeling about what she said. “So wait you have been here for a month and a half and you still haven’t been chopped up or grinded. Why is it they haven’t gotten you?” “It’s because of Discord’s spell. Rainbow Dash would fight the spell if it was that I died. She and I had a special relationship before I failed my test: She was my couch for the test, and she drilled me every day on the essential skills needed to pass the test, but in the end I failed her. I was taken to the factory, which was about when Discord got control of her. Rainbow Dash didn’t want me to die. So Discord took that as an advantage and got control of her and here I am, being a weapon against my best friend and mentor.” “Wait, Discord told me that it was because of me that she was not resisting. He told me that she loved me, and not in a protective way. I mean real love, like true love.” She seemed shocked at this. “Rainbow Dash loves you? That doesn’t even seem possible, no offense.” “None taken and I thought the same thing. How, or for that point, why would the best pegasus in the world love a human that couldn’t fly, use magic, or for the least of reason, that isn’t a pony?” She nodded in agreement. “She is the best and it is true that you are just a normal human. Well anyway all that awaits us is to sit here and become a hold point for Discord to use.” It was about that point that a hook grabbed me and took me away. “Dash, no!” I was about to say I’ll be alright, but then I thought it wouldn’t make her feel any better, and at that moment I was strapped up to a table and below me I see the dead remains of all the ponies that had the spectra cut out of them. It was horrible because they were all grey and colorless. It looked like any color besides grey had been drained from them. The air was permeated with the laughter of Discord. “Well here we are. Now we get to see if the theory was right. We will get to try a smaller knife to get the spectra from your veins. Imagine this as one of your normal checkups, except instead of needle, we’re using a magic knife, and instead of a little prick, it will hurt like nothing else.” I then see a knife come towards my arm. It comes in direct contact with my arm, and the visions that ensued were like nothing that anyone had ever experienced, except for the ponies that have been through this before they died. I heard Discord’s voice saying that they wouldn’t kill me, just get spectra to the point right before I would die. The visions were horrifying. I could see the countless ponies’ point of view right before they were cut by a similar knife. They all had screams and shrieks of pain and horror, it was unbearable. I wanted to die just so it would end, but the visions soon ended and the pain started to subside. “I’ll never submit again. I’ll show pure anger towards you. You’ll have to grind me in order to get anything out of me, and then Rainbow Dash will kick your ass!” He laughed maniacally, and then stopped suddenly, but with a big smile on his face. “Well it seems the theory was wrong.  From what we got from you, you could produce enough spectra to replace 50 ponies, and we only got it from your arm! You truly are special Dash. The good thing is we won’t have to harvest from you for about a month at a time, so you’ll get used to it.” I was amused at his ignorance. “You don’t get it do you? I…Won’t…Submit! You will have to grind me to get anything out of me!” He laughed that same crazy man’s laughter. “Oh I think you will, because I can still butcher little old Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash still won’t resist because of her love for you. It quiet sad really; I could kill either one of you and poor Rainbow Dash would have to see you die, but of course she wouldn’t resist because she would want the other to live. Well if I let anyone live, it’ll be you because of the fact that when it comes to productivity, you are worth her a thousand times over. That and Rainbow Dash has deeper feelings for you. So sad really, that one of you has to die, but I’ll make it a bit more even for you. How about this: If you give me the spectra I need, I won’t kill Scootaloo.” I couldn’t resist throwing up in my mouth a little then swallowing it.”You’re a monster, you know that Discord? You are truly the stain on Life’s perfect record.” He smiled and chuckled to himself. “Well, my name is Discord. What did you expect?” He then told the pegasus operating the crank to put me back in the cage with Scootaloo in it. I swore at him to the point of being a sailor and he seemed shocked by that.
Once I was back in my cage with Scootaloo, she came up to me. “What happened? What did he do to you?” I didn’t know if I looked grim, but I didn’t care; I felt grim “He first sliced my arm and took some spectra. I saw some really jacked up stuff while that knife was at my arm, taking the spectra out of my body. Here is where they got…” I looked at my arm and it looked horrible. It looked grey and very shriveled. It looked like someone had taken the part of arm that got cut open and replaced it with that of an old man. It was crazy. She seemed to think so too. “I’ve seen raisins and Dash, your arm looks as close to one as I’ve ever seen.” I thought so too, considering it was shriveled. “Well anyway, he also made me a deal I normally wouldn’t refuse.” “What was it?” I replied as serious as possible. “He said that if I gave him the spectra he wanted, he wouldn’t kill you.” I couldn’t help smile because I had thought of a plan. “But I won’t give him the spectra.” She seemed shocked, which quickly turned to anger. “So you’re just going to let him kill me?!” I knew she was mad because she charged at me like she was meaning to kill, even though if she did kill me, she might have been killed by Discord out of rage. “How could you just betray me like that? I thought we were friends!” I couldn’t help smiling. “You didn’t let me finish. I’m not giving him the spectra because you and me are gonna bust out of here.”