//------------------------------// // Cafeteria/Recreational Facilities // Story: Rainbow and the Factory // by witegrlninja //------------------------------// Rainbow flinched as she opened the next metal door, wondering what was in store for the two ponies on this floor. She and Twilight felt a little less apprehensive as they saw their new surroundings. The door opened up into a large but typical-looking cafeteria area, sufficiently lit by fluorescent lights on the ceiling even though only every third light was on. Black domes stuck out of each corner of the ceiling, already giving Rainbow some unwanted flashbacks. Shiny white tiles on the floor reflected the light back onto the dark grey cloud walls and other white surfaces, giving the room a clinical, almost sterile aura. Long counters with sneeze-shields and rectangular-shaped depressions stood in four straight lines in front of them, generously spaced apart and flanked by those railings one slid their tray across as they scooped their food. Said trays sat in tidy stacks at the closest end of the counters to them. Drink dispensers and vending machines lined the rightmost wall of clouds, while the clear doors of refrigerators with sporadic Post-It Notes and separate freezers lined the right of the cloud wall they now poked their heads out of. To their immediate left and along the leftmost cloud wall, a pair of large automats were installed. Beyond the counters sat four checkout stands for patrons to purchase their food, and the rest of the room was devoted to seating. Much further down the leftmost wall and past that automat, the elevator with the keycard panel made another appearance. Opposite of that, past the vending machines was a pair of swinging doors that led into the cafeteria's kitchen. The distant wall ahead of them - made of solid materials - was adorned with what looked like stereotypical motivational posters, a whiteboard with a list of the week's specials, and a pair of double doors made of green-colored glass. "Alright, this place is definitely inhabited," Twilight spoke quietly. Rainbow smacked her lips; all that flying earlier had make her a little thirsty. Walking quietly, she made her way towards one of the refrigerators that contained a row of bottled water. *Ding!* One of the lights on the distant keycard panel came to life. Rainbow cursed under her breath as she spun around and ran as quietly as she could back to the staircase, the temptation to fly tempered by her previous brush with death. Twilight just barely managed to swing the metal door mostly shut as the elevator opened, leaving the barest of cracks for the two ponies to peek through. Two ponies, a Pegasus mare and an Earth pony stallion, strode out of the elevator, dressed in dark gray uniforms that covered their Cutie Marks and a many-pocketed utility belt wrapped diagonally around their chests. Metal sticks with rubber handles, ending in two sharp points dangled from their sides. They appeared to be security guards. The mare had cream-colored fur and a green and yellow-striped mane and tail, while the stallion had azure fur and bright yellow hair. They turned in the direction of the metal door, sending shivers down Rainbow's spine. "Hurry up and get your sandwich, we gotta check the office wing before whatever was up there escapes!" the mare hissed. The stallion jogged unknowingly towards the two ponies, Twilight's and Rainbow's breaths catching in their throats. "Bah, the reports show that almost every single hallway was electrified, a charred corpse isn't going anywhere," the stallion yelled back. Rainbow considered slowly closing the door all the way, but the stallion's eyes seemed directly upon her, his eyes slightly widening as he drew near. He turned to his right only as he came within inches of the slightly-ajar staircase door. She suppressed the urge to exhale as the stallion noisily deposited some coins into the automat and opened a hatch. "Kind of rare somepony actually manages to make it all the way up there before getting caught, huh?" Now the stallion's voice was loud, as if he was right next to the door. Rainbow's eyes clenched shut in silent fear, wishing her heart wasn't threatening to burst from her ribcage. Beside her, Twilight quietly flared out her wings and lowered her head until her horn pointed directly at the center of the doorway, prepared for an unfortunate discovery. The nervous look on her face told Rainbow that this was an act of last resort. "Yea, they usually don't make it past the holding cells. Must be one feisty little prisoner," the mare shouted back. The stallion turned around and began jogging back to the elevator, sandwich in hoof, much to Rainbow's relief. "Think it was that filly that showed up here a while ago? Yelling about her brother?" The stallion's words clawed viciously into Rainbow's heart. She really was here after all. The mare let out a noncommittal moan. "That'd be one less pest down below. Now c'mon, let's go look." The stallion's last words were muffled by sandwich as they disappeared back inside the elevator. The doors closed, and the keycard panel's light turned off. Twilight's head and wings lowered into a sigh of relief. Rainbow, however, wasn't so relaxed. "Did you hear that?" She did her best to refrain from yelling. "She's here!" "They... they know about the death trap upstairs..." Twilight's voice shivered. "They... have prisoners... and they... expect them to die if they try to escape..." Rainbow's pupils shrank into pinpoints. Was Spritz being held somewhere below them? Her brother, too? What were these ponies going to do with them? ...To them? "We need to keep going," Rainbow gulped. She had forgotten all about her thirst. Twilight nervously nodded and gently pushed the door back open with a wing. Then, with all the lightness they could summon into their hooves, they tiptoed through the cafeteria, ears twitching in alarm at every strange noise. ~ After what felt like an eternity, they reached the green-glass double doors. Through it they saw their next target: another metal door presumably leading to another staircase. Rainbow pulled on the handles, the hinges squeaking quietly as they opened. They entered into a large, plainly-painted multimedia room. Many computers lined the solid walls to the right, and a similarly large amount of TVs and video game consoles lined the also-solid walls to the left, with plenty of chairs, sofas and coffee tables to lounge around with. Only one black dome sat smack-dab in the center of the ceiling amongst standard fluorescent lights. Beyond that, the rest of the floor had been divided into thirds: the multimedia room taking up one third of the space, and four equally-sized rooms, two on each side of a straight hallway, took up the rest. The hallway led to the next staircase's door. But to get there, they had to pass by the other rooms. As Rainbow walked closer, she saw that the walls facing the hallway were made of clear glass, as well as the doors, allowing them to see right in. The first room on the right housed a decently-sized swimming pool, complete with diving board, chaise lounges, a hot tub and a "No Lifeguard on Duty" sign. A wooden door with a sign above that read "Sauna" seemed to lead into a pocket of space within the cloud walls. That... seems like a pretty bad idea. Peeking into the first room on the left, she saw an entire state-of-the-art gym crammed inside: a row of lockers, some benches beside them and a good number of different weights, exercise equipment and lifting machines. As far as she remembered from her times in the Wonderbolts' private gym, a machine for everything any pony ever needed to strengthen was there. The second room on the right was unexpected: an indoor garden. Grow lights in the ceiling illuminated multiple plastic containers - some with flowers, others with various fruits and vegetables. A couple had poles staked into them to allow for vining plants that nearly reached the ceiling. Only three random containers were bare. The ceiling, besides the ever-present black dome, was painted sky blue with some puffy white clouds, while the wall adjacent to the pool room had a lovely mural of a forest. The other two walls, of course, were dark grey clouds, though one did have a wooden counter with a sink and a metal watering can. Finally, the last room had all of its walls covered in shelves, which were stuffed full of books... a library. There wasn't much else inside save for a dark-colored rug that covered the floor, and multiple matching wingback chairs that rested on top. "Ooh!" Twilight's eyes lit up. Rainbow glanced over to her with mixed emotions - she and all their friends knew just how much Twilight loved books, but was this really the best time for that? ...Still, if all the Daring Do books she'd read had taught her anything, there was usually pertinent information somewhere inside. "Let me guess... you want to go in there?" Did she really need to ask? "Did you really need to ask?" Twilight replied playfully as she opened the library's door. Rainbow grinned as she followed her inside, quickly losing sight of her as she practically sprinted into an aisle. Her grin faded into a grimace as she shrugged it off, and she turned her attention to the closest shelf. For some reason, most of the books in this shelf were geared towards colts and fillies, and surely none of those were present in this dangerous building... other than the one, hopefully two she was there to rescue. Rainbow felt almost insulted as she scanned the various titles, wondering why anypony here would ever read these. Goodnight, Nightmare Moon. Little House in the Everfree. Millions of Yaks. The Very Hungry Parasprite. The Rainbow Dragon. The Rainbow Factory. The Poky Little Po- ...Wait a minute. One of these is not like the others. Rainbow picked up the book titled "The Rainbow Factory". If she remembered correctly from fillyhood, then what was this book doing here? She flipped over to its back, reading the synopsis. "'Now a rainbow's tale isn't quite as nice As the story we knew of sugar and spice. But a rainbow's easy, once you get to know it, With the help of the magic of a Pegasus Device...' Follow up-and-coming author A. Dawn's first foray into gore and horror as she brings a treasured Nightmare Night tale to life in this limited edition novel!" She felt slightly less insulted now. This was definitely a book befitting a library in a building that contained at least one death trap. Rainbow remembered how she had read it when she was very little - she'd managed to grab it from a snoozing caregiver at daycare one day, read it while hiding under the covers of her bed, then wouldn't stop crying out of fear until her parents woke up and scolded her for reading something so adult. It was the story of a young pony who was sent to a factory as punishment for failing a flight test, finding out that the factory turned ponies into rainbows by throwing them into what was essentially a giant blender, and the resulting chaos as she tried in vain to escape. "Heh," she snorted in amusement. These days she knew better, of course. Such a place could never exist in reality. Once she found out - and she'd find out very quickly - Celestia would banish all ponies involved directly into the sun if that were the case. She flipped the book over again to put it back when something caught her eye. Something ominous enough that her heart began to race. "Hey, Twilight?" she called out, hearing her friend mumble in response some twenty feet away. "C'mere." "What is it?" Twilight asked a few moments later, walking towards her while levitating a pair of books in the glow of her magic. "Look familiar to you?" Rainbow showed the book to her: the same emblem that had been on the entrance to this strange place was printed in rainbow ink on the book's cover. Twilight stared at the emblem for a moment. "'The Rainbow Factory'? Hm..." she gazed at the floor in thought for a moment. "Yea, it's a classic Nightmare Night story, good for spooky tales by a campfire, but... hey, the emblem on it is the same as the one on the entrance." Now Rainbow's mind was racing as well. Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open and quivered. Twilight cocked her head to one side in confusion, then her own eyes widened in realization, but then narrowed in disbelief. "...You don't really think that's-?" "Wha? No! No..." Rainbow shook her head vigorously. "That's ridiculous! Rainbows are the result of sunlight hitting water vapor. Any weather pony knows that. Heck, everypony knows that." "Alright... whew, don't scare me like that, Rainbow," Twilight laughed nervously. "You had me thinking that you thought something similar was happening here. I mean, this place is definitely dangerous, but not that kind of dangerous." "Yea, you're right," Rainbow giggled, a hoof rubbing the back of her head. She set the book back on the shelf and sighed, her smile quickly fading. Totally ridiculous, yea... c'mon, Rainbow, get a grip on yourself. "Anyway, I found the blueprints for this place, and this book about enchanting clouds with magic. Give me a few minutes to look them over, okay? They might be helpful." Rainbow nodded. "Sure. Let's go behind some bookcases first, in case anypony walks past." Twilight nodded in return, and the two ponies walked towards the back of the library, slipping into the second-to-last aisle. There, Twilight silently began flipping through the blueprints' pages, leaving Rainbow to her thoughts. Turning ponies into rainbows... like that's a thing that could happen. Sheesh. Maybe whoever built this place just put the emblem on the front door for inspiration. Yea, that's it. ... ... ... Although... ...Prisoners? Holding cells? And the whole death trap thing upstairs, and those security guards... Spritz... just what did you get me and Twilight into...?