//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: The First Recording 
// Story: Blood Runs Cold 
// by Silence_EXE 
//------------------------------//

Darkness. A black screen. Some static. And finally, a factory comes into view.

It is a pristine and beautiful factory, with rainbows falling down its' sides. It appears to be deserted as of right now.

The camera swivels around the covered wagon before being turned towards a yellow-furred and golden-maned filly. The filly seems to be laughing along with all the other ponies on the wagon. They excitedly speak over one another, pointing at the factory that was drawing nearer. They seem to be enjoying the moment. The yellow filly waves at the camera before the screen goes black.

Another burst of static, as the camera focuses in on a joyful-looking stallion. The stallion smiles at the ponies who are trotting off the wagon, talking to one another. The camera swivels towards the mare who pulled the wagon to its' present location. The mare looks grim, unhappy. The camera turns towards the yellow filly. She shrugs, not knowing what to think about the mares' expression. The camera goes black.

A major burst of static occurs as the camera is reactivated. The room is silent, until a colts' agonized scream can be heard... 

Silence paused the recording, looking alarmed. Twilight appeared to be petrified with fear, but Silence was less worried about her and more worried about Rainbow.

"Rainbow, this is a recording which was taken in the Rainbow Factory of the GrimDark world. It involves you, so you should leave immediately. The recording may have the power to drive you insane," he said to Rainbow.

"Insane? Pffft. This recording can't do anything to the bravest and coolest pony in all of Equestria." replied Rainbow with an eye roll.

"That was not a suggestion," said Silence calmly.

Silence teleported Rainbow out of the room, eliciting a muffled yell of surprise from her as she found herself on the outside of the house, with all the windows and doors completely blocked. He turned to Twilight.

"Are you quite alright, Twilight?" he asked, concerned for the alicorns' sake.

"I'm fine..." said Twilight, doing the exercise she often did when she felt negative emotions and stress.

"Are you well enough to continue? I must warn you, the rest of the contents - if they are about what I think they are - are quite disturbing. It could leave you mentally unstable and - " he continued, getting interrupted suddenly by Twilight.

"I'm fine, Silence, don't worry. I've dealt with worse," she replied, sighing.

"Are you absolutely - " he made to say, getting cut off again.

"Yes, Silence, I am absolutely, entirely, and TOTALLY sure I will be fine. Now please, continue the recordings," said Twilight curtly.

"Very well..." he said doubtfully, pressing play on the recording again.

 ...coming from some distance away. The camera immediately jerks around to the yellow filly, who now looks absolutely terrified. She speaks in a voice like a whisper.

"If anypony sees this, you need to listen to me. I made a mistake in coming here."

She looks around, seemingly looking for something or maybe somebody. She continues in a whisper.

"My name is Sunflower. I'm a filly from Cloudsdale. I thought that my friends and I were going to have a fun field trip to the Rainbow Factory, but I was wrong. So wrong."

Sunflower curls up in a ball, shaking with sobs she probably did not want anyone or anything to hear. After a few moments, she speaks again, still sobbing every so often.

"I thought... thought she was the Element of Loyalty. I thought she... she w-was one of the Elements of Harmony. B-But something is wrong with her, s-s-s-something is VERY wrong."

Sunflowers' head shoots up as wingbeats are heard. She stays absolutely still.

The wingbeats pass by, getting farther away, at which point she speaks again, even quieter.

"She took them. S-She cut off their wings, thr-throwing them into a furnace. Sh-She threw them into some sort of... Some sort of MACHINE."

Sunflower stares paranoidly around the room. She speaks again.

"They were just crushed... I could hear them screaming... I could hear them..."

Sunflower  looks up, then lets out a yelp. She turns the camera towards Rainbow Dash...

Twilight let out a scream of shock as she backed against the wall, terrified.

"NO! NO, NO, NO! IT CAN'T BE! IT CAN'T BE TRUE!" she cried, her eyes filled with tears.

Silence stared at the scene. He couldn't believe it.

'The Princess of Friendship... breaking down like this?' he thought to himself. 'But she was always so... So strong. Why has this video made a filly who has faced down chaos itself break down?'

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO AN INNOCENT FILLY, RAINBOW? HOW?" she cried again. She slumped against the wall, curled up and crying to herself.

Silence didn't know how to react as she cried. He had seen these things for himself as a foal. It was like a normal everyday occurrence to him. He awkwardly went over to Twilight to pat her shoulder.

"I warned you that you would see things that were horrible, Twilight. How I wished you had listened. If you would like, I will teleport you back to your friends," he said quietly.

Twilight finally regained control over herself, covering her face with a wing for a moment.

"I'm sorry I reacted like that, Silence. I just didn't think that Rainbow Dash would do this. I'll continue watching the recording," Twilight said quietly, standing up.

She walked back to where she had been seated, and stared at the screen. Silence looked at her in concern.

"Nopony is forcing you to stay here and suffer through this recording, Twilight. You can go, if you need to," he said.

"That's true. But I'm still going to suffer through it all the same," she said firmly.

Silence sighed, unbelieving.

'I admire her strength. But I don't know how much longer she'll be able to continue. I need to keep an eye on her,' he thought to himself, before pressing the play button.

 ...who stares at her menacingly.

"No! Please no! Rainbow, please!"

Sunflower cowers away from Rainbow, as she begs for her life. Rainbow walks forward, taking what seems to be a syringe filled with clear liquid out of a bag she carries.

"NO! NO! DON'T! PLEASE!"

Sunflower screams as Rainbow stabs the syringe into her neck. Eventually, Sunflower goes limp. Rainbow looks at the camera in amusement.

"So she was recording this, was she? Well, how about I finish the recording for her."

Rainbow laughs, grabbing the camera and Sunflower. She stares into the camera, her expression one of insanity.

"Welcome to your guided tour of what happens if you fail the flying test."

The camera goes black before focusing in on a room that has a large array of knives, saws, and other deadly weapons. Rainbow places the camera down on a table. She dons an apron and goggles.

"First step. Cut off the wings. It's usually preferred to hear the victim scream first. Sadly, I need to do this quickly, since the camera seems to be dying."

With a horrifying whirr, a mechanical sawblade starts up.

"Usually, the cutting is done by hoof, but since I'm in a hurry, I'll just use this."

With a wet crunch, the sawblade sinks into the bone of Sunflowers' wing. Blood spurts up, soaking Rainbow's apron.

"When the blood spurts like this, it's important to get a small blowtorch to cauterize the wound. We most certainly do not want to lose any of that lovely colour in blood that partially makes up the red in a rainbow."

Rainbow pulls the sawblade up, then takes a blowtorch from beside the camera. She shows it to the camera before going over to Sunflower and burning the wing stub that was left after Rainbow had cut her wing.

"Now we do the same process for the other wing."

Rainbow cuts the wing off and cauterizes it. She then picks up the wings.

"And finally, we throw the wings in the furnace. They aren't useful for much else, after all."

Rainbow laughs, tossing the wings into the furnace. She picks up Sunflower, placing her on a metal conveyor, which activates immediately. Sunflower disappears through a hole in the wall. Rainbow picks up the camera before it goes black.

The camera blinks on, with a burst of static. It shows Sunflower on the conveyor, chained down. She is obviously both terrified and agonized. She slowly moves towards some sort of large machine.

"Go on, Sunflower. Say your last words to the camera. Don't worry, everypony will see it. I plan on putting it outside Princess Celestia's palace."

Rainbow turns the camera towards her own face, smiling maniacally before turning it back to Sunflower.

"Go on. Make them good. I love dramatic deaths."

Sunflower speaks between sobs.

"Please... Please don't come here. N-Never come here."

Sunflower has tears streaming down her face as she weakly struggles.

"Pr-Princess Celestia, p-please destroy the factory! Destroy the Rainbow Factory! St-Stop her before she kills more..."

The chains are taken off, but a syringe is injected into her to exhaust her. She weakly turns on her belly, unable to stand or even crawl.

"I'm sorry M-Mom... You warned me but I didn't listen... I... I should have listened."

Her hooves go over the edge as Rainbow laughs insanely, flying above the centre of the machine. Sunflower can do nothing but flail weakly and cry as she falls.

With a gruesome explosion of blood, viscera and bone fragments, Sunflower is crushed into a pulp. The machine is filmed for a few more seconds. The camera turns toward Rainbow. She smiles evilly.

"Hope it was worth it to watch this... Twilight and Silence."

She laughs and shuts the camera off. 

Twilight and Silence both jerked back in terror as the last words of the recording were said. Twilight vomited to the side, then curled up in a ball, unable to speak. Silence stared at the screen in shock, his jaw open, exposing the fangs he unfortunately had.

"How did she... How did she know?" asked Silence rhetorically. "She shouldn't have known our names..."

Silence and Twilight both sat in complete and utter quiet for a grand total of 10 minutes before Twilight - who had recovered a few moments before - spoke.

"These aren't any normal recordings," she said, her voice small.

Silence stared at the now-black screen for a moment before replying.

"These... These could be a portal. A portal into the GrimDark. But we don't know that for sure," he murmured.

"Yet," said Twilight, the one word ending the conversation.

And in a cavern in a different world, a torch lit up.