//------------------------------// // Ch.10: Mayhem // Story: Revenge is Bittersweet // by P-Berry //------------------------------// We carefully stepped through the door and found ourselves in a small entrance hall: the walls were made of cold, grey clouds; stairs leading to higher levels were to our left, the wall right to us was filled with a doorframe, leading into something that looked like a changing room with two rows of grey lockers in it. According to a signpost sprayed to the wall opposite of us, the stairs led to the ‘employees quarters’, while the doorframe led deeper into the factory. After carefully looking around and making sure that nopony has seen or heard us yet, I went back to the door and closed it carefully; fortunately, Applejack’s kick didn’t seem to have warped the metal. I still wondered how a pony could bring up that much force in her legs, but I blamed the years of applebucking for it. I turned towards her, she gave me a serious look and asked: “You ready for that?” I bared my teeth: “I’ve never been readier! Let’s do this!” I walked past her, but froze in the doorframe and turned towards Applejack, saying: “But there’s one more thing.” She looked at me expectantly. I pointed towards her saddlebag: “We should leave them here, they would attract too much attention.” She nodded understanding and took off the brown piece of cotton, placing it next to the entrance. I did the same and, while depositing my bag next to hers, said: “And I guess it would be useful if you could already tie the rope around your body -under the sweater of course- if we have to flee quickly after we found and freed Firespark, we have no time for that, and I don’t want you to fall off Cloudsdale; that’s not nice, believe me.” She nodded, quickly taking off her hoodie and tying the rope around her torso. After she had dressed the sweater again, I nodded satisfied and turned around, walking into the locker room and single-mindedly focusing an exit at the other end of the room. As I had crossed the room halfway, I suddenly froze: another pony had just entered the room and walked to one of the grayish lockers. The turquoise mare looked just like Derpy described the workers in the factory: she wore a pair of big goggles, completely hiding her eyes, and a white, bloodstained lab coat, covering her entire torso, except her wings which were freely movable thanks to a small hole on each side of the coat. Facing the bloodstains, I oppressed a choke and tried to look at the mare’s face. She had stopped in front of one of the lockers and looked up. Noticing me, she gave me a colloquial bow with her head: “Hey. Early shift, huh?” Unable give her a proper answer, I nodded stiffly and she turned towards her locker again. She took off her goggles and revealed her eyes: surrounded by dark circles, they had a color that once seemed to have been a shining yellow ocher. She shook her head, making her gold-blonde hair whip and looked at me: “What? Are you gonna stare all day or finally getting dressed!? We’re working flat out since the Pegasus Device has been repaired and Emberstripe can use every hoof he gets!” My eyes widened upon hearing the familiar name: “E-Emberstripe?” She gave me an annoyed look while taking off her coat: “Yes, Emberstripe! That black stallion? Our vice-boss? Remember something like that?” she asked me derogatorily. My jaw dropped: “Vice-boss?” She rolled her eyes: “Is it your first day here or what?” In lack of a better explanation, I stiffly nodded, still shocked by that sudden reveal of information. She sighed: “Alright then. Grab a coat and a pair of goggles from over there!“ She said, pointing towards a clothes tree in a corner of the room, filled with the coats and glasses. Hesitantly, I walked towards the rack and grabbed a coat, quickly pulling it over my fur. I took off my sunglasses and placed them in an inside pocket of the coat, putting on the big goggles instead. Finished with her dressing-ritual, she closed her locker and departed into the direction of the exit, saying: “And now head to Emberstripe, he takes care of the rookies. Let’s see how long it takes the factory to make you go nuts.” My eyes widened in horror: “What!?” The mare stopped in the doorframe and chuckled: “The factory. The rough work, the lack of outside contact, the grinding of the Pegasus Device … and the screams. Those horrible screams piercing narrow and bone! You feel it grinding on your sanity every day, and you know: someday it’ll make you lose your mind.” She looked to the ground sadly: “It isn’t nice.” A complacent smile on her face, she looked back up and focused me: “But hell, somepony has to take care of those failures, right?” she chuckled and continued her walk towards the accommodations. “Good luck, newbie! Don’t go insane too soon!” she shouted over her shoulder before walking up the stairs. I stood in the middle of the room for a few more moments, unable to move. Suddenly, I was grabbed by a single thought: Firespark! What that pony said … screams … grinding … that didn’t sound like a factory run by slaves! I hastily looked around and noticed that Applejack was gone. In fact, I hadn’t seen her since that other pony appeared. I hastily walked back through the room and shouted for her: “Applejack! Apple-“ “I’m here.” she soberly interrupted me while stepping from behind the second row of lockers, “I thought it might be better if I was hiding, that other pony may have seen that-“ “It’s alright! Did you hear what she said? About the factory! I don’t think that the foals are used as slaves!” I cut her off. She gave me a questioning expression. “Didn’t you hear that mare!? Go and grab a coat and some goggles and then follow me! There’s no time to lose!” I shouted determined and headed back towards the door where the worker had stepped through; I found myself in a narrow corridor leading to the left. I hastily followed it and finally stood in front of a wall of windows; a flood of noises came through a louver: a brazen grinding, the loud sounds of electric engines, and something different; something I would detect from thousand sounds: the crying of foals; a crying of fear, pain and horror. I hastily walked towards the windows and peeked through the glass. Although the windows were very small and dirty, I could see what was on the other side of them: in front of me, a huge hall gaped, it was enlightened by a mass of neon tubes and divided by a metal gangplank in the middle of it; on its right side, there were multiple tubes leading downstairs through a gap in the floor; on the right side of it, there was a big space, but instead of different machines, it was filled with a crowd of scared, whining foals, all looking to the central element of the room: a huge machine, made of black metal. Its lower end divided up into six tubes -each of them in another color of the rainbow- that led into big vats, filled with colorful liquids. Above of the tubes, there was a big cube, completely made of metal, and above that, there was something fixed to the machine that looked like a huge cone, the big opening on top of it revealed a pair of sharp metal rollers, reminding to an oversized shredder. There was a royal guard at every corner, I guessed that there were about twenty guards in the room altogether. My glance wandered to the cone, or rather above it, and I froze: the cone was connected to the gangplank via a slide, two ponies were standing next to it; one of them was completely dressed in black, her face was covered by a balaclava that only revealed a pair of magenta eyes; the other one was a green stallion with cyan eyes and blue hair. My jaw dropped: Halo Star! That devious son of a whore: first pretending to be worried about Firespark’s fate, then appear at that place! But there was a much more urgent thought: Firespark! I startled as the thought of her came up once again; hastily, I searched the mass of foals at the other end of the room for the red filly, but couldn’t spot her. Then, I heard voices through the louver; a familiar voice under them. I span my head into the direction of the cone and saw her. There she was; tied up with big metal chains and hanging above the opening of the cone, she gave the disguised mare a terrified look: Firespark. Shocked by that flood of information and unable to move, I listened to the dialogue between the two mares. “Any last words, you worthless little failure!?” the disguised mare asked harshly. Firespark sobbed and whiningly said: “I’m sorry.” Halo Star, who stood next to the mare, winced upon hearing this, his eyes narrowed. The disguised mare laughed derogatorily: “Ha-ha! Isn’t that cute!? She’s sorry! How adorable!” she looked at Halo Star, expecting laughter, but he didn’t react and looked to the ground nervously. The mare turned towards Firespark again: “Well, now that you’ll die in a few seconds, let me tell you something!” Firespark didn’t look up. “I remember you from Cloudsdale! You were the last attendee for the test! Well, I can ensure you: if I wouldn’t have been at the stadium, you wouldn’t be here now!” The mare explained. Slowly, Firespark forced her head upwards and weakly asked: “What?” The mare laughed again: “Oh yes! See, we’ve been short on ‘raw material’ recently and hoped for the flight test to bring us some new foals! But unfortunately, there were no-“ “Will you finish this already!? We don’t have all day!” an angry, masculine voice sounded from somewhere at the ground. The mare looked over the edge of the plank and furiously shouted: “Shut up, Emberstripe! I’m the bucking boss here and I say who is killed and when he’s killed!” “I should have overtaken the Device today.” The voice responded angrily, “At least I know how to deal with those failures.” “Say that to my face you bucking bastard!” the mare shouted downward furiously. As no response came, she turned towards Firespark, who was hanging her head low again, and continued: “Where was I? Oh, right! Unfortunately, there were no failures this year! Well, so I just told the crew of the stadium to use a smaller ring for the second task and,” she raised her hoof, pointing at Firespark, “voilá! Here you are! Surprise!” she laughed dryly, “So, are you still sorry?” Firespark looked at her, her reddened eyes widened in disbelief: “W-what!? I-I…” The mare walked towards a console next to the slide and chuckled again: “Oh, how cute! That little failure is overwhelmed with so much information at once! Well, you don’t have to say anything more! It’s time to die!” she said and put her hoof onto a lever on the console. Smiling at Firespark superiorly, she added: “Oh and … I’m not sorry!” In that moment, the mare shifted the lever and the shackles around Firespark’s small body suddenly opened, making her scream in horror and fall downward, right into the cone. My knees yielded upon seeing my daughter disappear between the two rollers and I involuntarily dropped on the floor. Applejack, who seemed to have watched the whole process, stepped towards me after a few seconds and shook my body powerfully: “Come on, get up!” she shouted impatiently. I wasn’t able to think: there seemed to be a cyclone in my head that prevented me from clearing my thoughts: the Rainbow Factory is a slaughterhouse, Emberstripe and Halo Star earn their money with killing foals, the test was manipulated and my daughter is dead! All this information caused my mind to break out in chaos and prevented me from getting a grip. Applejack gave me another powerful shove: “Come on already!” Getting to my shaky legs, I shook my head and looked at her: “What happened?” I asked confused, looking at the goggles she wore in combination with a white lab coat. Giving me a doubting glance and finally concluding that I meant it, she hesitantly said: “Your daughter is … is …” My eyes widened and I hastily shook my head: “NO! No, she isn’t dead! You’re wrong!” I turned around and walked towards a door next to me, leading into the main chamber of the factory. “Fippo, stop it! We have to-” I opened the door and ran against a wall of heat; there seemed to be at least 86 degrees in the hall. I shook my head and stepped onto a couple of metal stairs leading to the floor. Standing at a landing at the level of the gangplank, I turned towards Applejack, still standing at the upper end of the stairs and giving me a worried look, and said: “See, she isn’t dead! She’s right over there!” I claimed and pointed towards the cone. “We just have to pick her up, then we can-“ “HEY YOU!” the voice sounded from the bottom of the engine again. I stopped and looked around. “YES YOU! RED STALLION! YOU AND THAT ORANGE MARE BETTER MOVE YOUR FLANKS DOWN HERE!” the voice commanded me. Applejack looked around the hall carefully, then noticed the superior number of the royal guards in the factory and hesitated. “I WON’T ASK FOR IT AGAIN! GET YOUR FLANKS DOWN HERE OR I’LL MAKE YOU!!!” the voice sounded again after a few moments. Reluctantly, Applejack moved down the stairs and grabbed me while passing over. “That’s your fault! If you’d have stayed calm, we’d be outta here now!” she mumbled furiously. I didn’t react; instead, I looked around the factory aimlessly: the loud noise of the machine didn’t help me with ordering my thoughts. In fact, I’d given up hope to ever get a clear head again: there seemed to be too many issues and not enough time to think about even one! Applejack tore me down the stairs and slowly walked towards a black stallion in a white coat, focusing us with an annoyed look: “Why did that take so long!?” he snapped angrily. I looked at the pony and instantly recognized him; his red hair seemed to be a little duller due to the artificial light in the factory, his red eyes gleamed in stress and anger: “Emberstripe!” I shouted, loudly expressing my thoughts. He looked at me with a touch of confusion, then turned his head away and focused a red puddle next to his hooves, commanding us: “We’ve had a little mishap with one of the failures this morning. Get a mop and clean that up!” He looked at me again, this time focusing me with a more inspective look: “I could swear I’ve already seen you before! … Take off those glasses!” he commanded me harshly. I didn’t react. “I SAID TAKE OFF THE GLASSES!” he yelled, his eyes narrowed in rage. Still, I didn’t move. “I SWEAR TO YOU, IF YOU DON’T TAKE OFF THOSE-“ Suddenly, the cold lights in the hall failed and were replaced by a red emergency lightning, the grinding of the machine broke off and the foals behind us began to cry in fear; a loud curse could be heard from the gangplank. “Emberstripe, we have a slight problem up here!” a young voice sounded from somewhere above our heads and made the pegasus look up and shout: “Damnit, Scootaloo! What the buck did you screw up this time!?” “You should come here and look at it by yourself!” the voice replied. Emberstripe groaned annoyed, but then lifted off and flew upwards, focusing us and saying: “You better get this shit done before I come back!” After he had departed, Applejack gave me a concerned look: “Are ya alright?” I nodded hastily: “O-of course I am! Everything’s just fine! There’s no place I’d rather be! The atmosphere in here is so … heartwarming!” She shook her head compassionately: “I’m sure you must be quite shocked!” “Shocked of what?” “…Nevermind.” She hesitantly said and looked away. Suddenly, another pony landed next to us: a relatively young mare, only a few years older than a filly. Just like the other workers, she wore a white lab coat, her fur had a dull orange-like tone, her hair was violet. “You know, I just saved your flanks!” she said complacently. I stiffly looked at her, too distracted to understand what she actually said; Applejack gave her an inspecting look, asking: “What d’ya mean? … Wait! Ah know you! Scootaloo!?” The orange mare winced upon hearing this: “Please don’t call me that, okay? That was my name outside the factory, before I declined into this hell.” “But … how? Why? What happened?” Applejack stuttered. Scootaloo sighed: “After I passed my flight test, they made me an offer; they allured me with a great payment and said that I’d do something for the society!” she explained bitterly. “By grinding-” “Please don’t say it! I’ve seen horrible things, I’ve done horrible things. All I want is to get out of here as soon as possible and forget that this place actually exists!” she shouted over the whining of the foals, her eyes widened in desperation. Applejack looked at her confused: “And?” “I guess you want to flee too, right? At least you entered the factory illegally.” Applejack turned pale: “H-how did you…?” “I’ve had shift in the surveillance-room; the whole factory is under video-surveillance. But the reason why I approached you, distracted Emberstripe and caused a blackout is simple: I want to come with you! I’ve figured out that this place is hell on earth and I want to escape from here at all cost!” “But … can’t you just go? I mean … you’re an employee here, right?” Applejack said in a mixture of confusion and disgust. “NO! I mean, yes, I’m an employee, but we aren’t allowed to leave the factory! We’re spending our whole life in this prison! I can’t take this any longer!” she shouted, breathing heavily. “Do you know how it feels when your sanity slowly vanishes? When you feel a little more insane every morning you wake up? When you know that you’ll do the same thing as yesterday, for the rest of your miserable life!? It’s a torture! It’s pure hell!” The crying behind us seemed to gain by power, but none of the workers seemed to care. “Alright, alright! But why didn’t you flee then?” Applejack asked. “Take a look around! The exits are locked altogether and there are guards everywhere! I would die within a few seconds! But now you’re here! You opened the door for us so we can get away!” She said, her eyes shining with a touch of new hope. “Ah’m not so sure about-“ “Look you two,” Scootaloo said seriously, “when I say ‘now’, you hurry up the stairs and out of the employees exit!” “But-“Applejack wanted to protest. “We just have to await a good opportunity. It happens very often that foals who are brought here blow a fuse as soon as they find out about their fate; the chance is even higher now that the lights are turned off! We just have to wait for-” “HOW CAN THEY DO THIS!? I DON’T WANT TO DIE! I DON’T WANT TO BE TURNED INTO RAINBOWS!” the voice of a terrified filly sounded from the crowd of foals. The yellow foal painstakingly flew upward, flapping her small wings as fast as she could and whiningly shouting: “WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS!? WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS!?” Scootaloo gave us a determined look and yelled: “NOW!” A mass of guards rained on the foal, making her fall to the ground and silence instantly. Applejack and Scootaloo shot forward and left me -still not realizing what had just happened- behind. Applejack grabbed the collar of my coat with her mouth and pulled me behind her while hurrying up the stairs. Over the general noise now breaking out in the factory, there was one voice that drowned everything else: “STOP RIGHT THERE! NOPONY ESCAPES THE FACTORY!” Emberstripe’s incisive voice sounded from the other end of the huge hall. Without looking back, I hurried up the last two stairs and ran through the narrow corridor, Applejack slowly loosened her grip as she saw that I followed the two mares in my own right. We rushed through the locker room and Applejack hastily tore the massive metal door open, opening the exit for the three of us. Scootaloo let out a painful groan as the sun of the seemingly eternal day shone into her eyes. Out of instinct, I grabbed her body and kept on pushing her forward, shouting: “Come on now!” Applejack freed herself from the lab coat and handed Scootaloo and me one end of the rope tied around her body. The rope in her mouth, Scootaloo looked at me confused. Even though my mind still was drowned in chaos, I managed to yell a stiff command into her direction: “Hold it while we’re flying! Never let it go!” “Come on already!” Applejack yelled and jumped off the edge of the clouds, Scootaloo and me hastily took off and tried to absorb her fall. We flew for a couple of moments and slowly lowered towards the ground as I, painstakingly ordering my thoughts, turned towards Scootaloo flying next to me and asked: “So, who actually invited you to work for the factory?” Scootaloo sighed deeply: “A very good friend of mine. When I was younger, I played with her every day. To me, she was like a big sister: she was my idol and I always wanted to be like her! … Then, she came with the idea of working together with her. … First, I was flattened, but then I saw how things were really running at her so-called ‘workplace’. I had to spend day and night at the factory and had no time for anything else. For the first few days, I was totally drained: I guess you can imagine how it is to find out that your sister is the manager of a slaughterhouse. But apart from this, I quickly started to miss my friends … she told me that I didn’t need any friends, that I should grow up and that she’d be the only ‘friend’ I needed. But she wasn’t! In fact, I didn’t even recognize her: when she’s in the factory, there’s no track of the mare she is outside! I often asked her to leave the factory together with her, but she always said that there are rules; rules which say that she and Emberstripe are the only ponies with permission to leave the factory. I was locked up, forced to kill other foals, and had nopony to talk to! All those things made me question my sanity more and more.” She sighed, “It was just everything about my life that made it that horrible! I’ve always looked for a way to escape, but there seemed to be just no one: every time she or Emberstripe leave the factory, they look around carefully and check for nopony following them. … But then I saw you and … well, here I am now.” I nodded reflecting: “Tell me, that mare that advertised you, who was it?” “She’s the manager of the factory; she manned the Pegasus Device today, Emberstripe usually does that.” I gave her a questioning look. “The Pegasus Device. You know, that … shredder. She manned it today; she was the one who killed the failures.” I jugged: “What’s her name?” “She doesn’t use it in the factory, so none of the other workers knows it, but I remember it from my foalhood. Her name is Rai-“ “You guys, we’re almost at the ground!” Applejack shouted incisively and interrupted Scootaloo. I looked downward: we were about to land somewhere near Ponyville, the ground was overrun with high grass and there was a swampy mid-size lake next to a small path underneath us; Applejack floated about eight feet above the ground. We slowly lowered and I said: “Nevermind, I probably don’t know her anyways.” Scootaloo nodded and looked at Applejack hanging in the rope underneath us. In that moment, something strong hit me into my side, grabbed my body and forcefully shoved me towards the lake. Dropping the rope, I opened my eyes: in the split-second before I pierced the surface of the lake and the water made my vision blur, I saw black fur, fiery hair and red irises focused on me in determination. I tried to scream, but the water quickly filled my mouth and killed the sound. Overwhelmed by my exhaustion and involuntarily accepting my seemingly inevitable defeat, I slowly closed my eyes. *** So this is how it ends. Drowned in a dirty lake, killed by the co-leader of the Rainbow Factory … not a very nice death. … I wish I could at least say that I’ve had a nice life. What!? You wanna give up already? There’s no point in continuing. I can whitewash it as much as I want to, but I know the truth: Firespark is dead! She was killed right in front of my eyes and I couldn’t avert it! I’m a terrible pony! I’m a terrible father! It serves me right that I just die in this shithole, I deserve nothing better! SHUT UP! Yes, Firespark is dead and yes, you could do nothing about it, but you just wanna give up now!? You wanna leave Emberstripe the joy of killing you!? What would Firespark say if she’d know that you didn’t even struggle? That you didn’t even try to fight him!? … Come on, tell me! She would be disappointed of me. See!? Now do something about it! … But what could I do? Open your motherbucking eyes and rise up! Show those bastards what happens when they take your daughter! Kick some flank! AND FOR BUCK’S SAKE, DON’T GIVE UP NOW! *** I casted up my eyes and looked into the determined face of Emberstripe; his eyes were widened in bloodlust, his lab coat was soaked and he, pressing his hooves against my throat in order to choke me, made us sink deeper and deeper into the lake. I stiffly looked at him for a few seconds and felt something move inside my head: suddenly, all the confusion, all the chaos was gone; the mess of my thoughts suddenly was ordered and there was a single word, deeply carved into my mind: Revenge! Even though that pony above me didn’t kill Firespark, he was nonetheless a murderer and a threat to everypony in Equestria. And he had to be punished! Punished for partially causing Firespark’s abduction, punished for attacking and almost drowning me, and of course: punished for killing dozens, maybe even hundreds of innocent foals! I clenched my teeth in determination and tensed every muscle in my body: time to strike back! Suddenly releasing the power, I gave his abdomen a forceful kick, making him exhale and back off. I span around and roughly grabbed one of his wings with my mouth, tearing him upwards and over the surface of the lake. I flapped my wings -I hardly felt the pain anymore- and firstly choked, coughing up water and dropping Emberstripe back into the lake. After a few seconds, I could finally breathe again and looked underneath me: Emberstripe had gotten a grip and flew upwards, still focusing me in pure determination. Instinctively, I dodged to the side and made him fly past me, giving his belly another powerful kick that made him groan and convulse. Driven by the hunger for revenge, I instantly shot forward and grabbed his body with my hooves, shoving him a few meters forward and finally smashing him on the hard ground of the lakeside. I noticed a touch of confusion in his exhausted look and gave my body a quick glance: the colorant had been dissolved by the water; my fur had regained its natural blue tone and my mane was dark blonde again. I stared at him incisively: “Surprised, motherbucker!? I asked in a sweet, yet angry voice. He didn’t react: lying on the ground and breathing heavily, he still recovered from my sudden attack. Standing over him and exhaling in satisfaction, I heard the shouts of Applejack and Scootaloo somewhere behind me; but I ignored them: it was time to make this murderer pay for what he had done! Smiling satisfied and letting out a passionate scream, I shoved my hoof downward and gave the heavy-breathing stallion a powerful punch into his face; he groaned in pain. “DO YOU KNOW HOW PAIN FEELS!?” I shouted at him, giving his face another powerful strike. “BELIEVE ME! YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PAIN!” I roared while hitting his chain with multiple, powerful strikes. “BUT DON’T WORRY! I’LL BE HERE TO TEACH YOU EVERYTHING ABOUT IT! FIRST LESSON: HURT A PONY AND IT WILL HURT YOU BACK!” I yelled, turned around and gave his belly a powerful kick with both of my rear legs that made him roll over and groan loudly. I positioned myself over his stomach and screamed: “SECOND LESSON: IT DOESN’T MATTER WHETHER THE PAIN IS PHYSICAL OR MENTAL, IT HURTS TERRIBLE EITHER WAY!” I gave his nose a powerful punch. “THIRD LESSON: THE MORE YOU HURT SOMEPONY, THE MORE IT WILL HURT YOU BACK ONCE IT HAS THE CHANCE TO DO SO!” I shouted, getting to my hooves again and giving his body another strong kick. Finally, he screamed in pain and I turned around, ready to give the results of my maltreatment a look: he had multiple bruises all over his body, his lab coat was ragged and his face had multiple bulges; blood ran from his mouth. Breathing heavily, he gave me a hateful look and tried to get to his feet, but his bruised legs failed him and made him land on his belly, resulting in him letting out another painful groan. Quickly taking off the soaked lab coat and the goggles, I looked at him derogatorily and said: “Do you now know how it is to be helpless? Can you imagine how it feels to be tied up and face your dead!? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!?” I shouted myself into rage. Breathing heavily and leaning towards his ear, I whispered: “You aren’t the one who killed her, so I’ll spare you this time. But believe me: I’ll come back to your factory. I’ll kill that mare by my own hoof! I’ll find and trash this goddamned ‘Halo Star’ and the bitch named Rainbow Dash! And then -believe me- then, I’ll blow up the whole goddamned place!MARK MY WORDS!” He looked at me and coughed multiple times, then groaned: “You can’t destroy the factory! It’s too important for the country! More important than the Princess, more important than all of bucking Canterlot!” I grinned: “Well, the thing is: I DON’T GIVE A FLYING BUCK ABOUT YOUR BUCKING PRINCESS! SHE’S THE BUCKING NEXT ONE TO BE TRASHED, BELIEVE ME!” “You don’t get it, you stupid fool! You can’t take the ponies their rainbows away! The entire country would be drowned in chaos!” “All the better!” I said and smirked. I heard the sound of hooves coming closer quickly and turned around: Applejack and Scootaloo were just approaching and looked at the mauled pegasus in front of my hooves. Before they could say something, I soberly said: “Applejack, get your rope and tie that bastard up! He’ll come with us, I’m sure he knows something more about the factory.” Without responding something, the two mares looked at Emberstripe, their eyes and mouths opened widely. “D-did you do that?” Scootaloo asked in surprise. I grabbed my sunglasses from the coat on the ground, put them on and nodded, coldly saying: “Only a slight preview of what’s to come, believe me. Now get this motherbucker tied up, we have to go to Luna and plan the assault on the factory.” “But … what happened to you? I mean … in the factory, you were all distracted and such. And now?” Applejack asked confused. I impatiently grabbed the rope she had coiled around her neck and dryly said: “I’ve lost everything: my house, my property and my daughter. I’ve hit rock bottom. But I’ve come to a decision: I won’t give up; I’ll get back to my hooves and let everypony responsible pay for it. I’ll take revenge on everypony for making me fall that deeply! That bastard here was the first one; the factory, including that mare who killed my daughter, are next! They’ll all pay!” Applejack and Scootaloo gulped synchronously, but hesitantly helped me to tie up Emberstripe; Applejack offered me to load him on her back. I slowly felt my powers fade as we headed towards Ponyville, groaning from the -already more than 24 hours-lasting- heat of the day. But there was nothing we could do about it: if Luna didn’t want to raise the moon and let her sister torture her subjects with an eternal day, we couldn’t tell her not to do so. Apart from this, the suffering of the population caused by the everlasting daytime should make some more ponies lose the faith in their leader and maybe cause another riot; causing chaos was the best way to make the government instable and provoke a revolution. But making Celestia fall was the next step; for now, the aim was to approach Luna about the factory, then assault it and take revenge at the manager; simple as that. I looked at the sun above me and bared my teeth in determination: soon.