Trotting over to the brown coated filly, she felt a hoof wrap around her waist. She felt herself lift up from the ground, and taken away from there. She shot her head up at the mare who had grabbed her. It was the same cream coated mare she had come across not long ago. The mare seemed just as agitated as she was the first time they had encountered each other. She was mumbling something incoherent under her breathe, and her sharp glare was set forward.
"Is it so hard for you to listen?!"
The mare placed her at the back of the line, away from the CC kid. Dash merely blinked; was she supposed to do something? She wondered. The mare let another, long, groan slip her lips.
"Stay. Here."
The mare tapped a hoof on the floor,
"Don't. Go. Anywhere!"
Still very confused, Dash gave an obedient nod. What else was she to do?
"Follow this line, wherever it goes, you go"
Well that was counter intuitive. One second it was all 'don't go anywhere’ then the next its all, 'follow there kids'. Nevertheless, Dash nodded, getting up to her hooves. The mare rolled her eyes, and trotted off, leaving her alone, at the very back of a line.
She shot her head back, Well, that was pointless. Why didn't she just stay with me! I mean if she hates me so much, why can't she just watch me!
Another small thought crossed her mind, she shot her head back at the line, which was now a few feet away from her. She scurried to the back of the line, following the rest of the kids to wherever it was they were headed.
The walk to wherever they were going was a long one. They passed through and by many places.
At first the walls looked dry and dull, with a door leading to some random room, spreading across the walls lie the holes on cheese, the found themselves in front of one almost every five minutes or so. A little further into their trot and now they were seeing walls of a mesh blue and green, a shade of yellow was even dotted about in the blue, which was painted right above the hues of green. Said green coat, made up more than half of the bottom portion of the walls. It closely reassembled a landscape of sorts, but was disturbed among the two by the sever lack of flair and attraction the walls just seemed to have.
The doors in this part seemed to have died down too. Instead of doors that decorated the walls, here it was chairs, plenty of them too. There seemed to be chairs placed nearly as much as the doors in the previous section.
Once they crossed this chair-filled section of their trot, they found themselves in a more sport-themed walkway. The walls itself repeated the words, 'Sports' or 'Game On' or 'Work Is Play' or something along those lines. This part didn't seem to have an abundance of anything aside from maybe those encouraging quotes plastered all over the walls. In fact there didn't seem to be a single door nor chair in sight, it was completely dull, if the quotes were non-existent that is.
They walked for quite a while in the sporty area, before they reached a massive doorway. The blinding light, made her, instinctively, squeeze her eyes shut. She didn't stop moving, just kept blindly trotting. She could hear the other hoof steps and so listened to them for directions.
When she could feel the blinding light subside, she opened her eyes, to see a massive gymnasium. The room was bright, more so than the room they were meant to play in not so long ago. The room had plenty of sport activities dotted around, such as basket ball hoops, plus the balls themselves. There also seemed to be a tennis court, for playing... well... tennis. It was in a more secluded area, but it was there. There was an area seemingly dedicated for relaxing, stretching, breathing and so on. This gymnasium didn't have the regular bleachers for ponies to watch them from, in fact it didn't seem to have that at all.
This is gotta be some private gym, then huh?
Dash wondered.
She was a little in awe at the size of the gym, but quickly snapped out, when she heard the trotting continue. She shot her head about, watching as the colts and fillies grab themselves a broom, or a mop, or a white rag, and begin cleaning. Some colts swept the shine clean floor, while the other fillies mopped behind them. Some of the colts took off into the air and wiped the higher up areas, such as the hoops and the net.
Dash stared in dumbfound shock, as the fillies and colts got down dirty to clean this place. Was that what she was supposed to be doing? Was she supposed to be cleaning this place? Why was that? Why did they make little fillies and colts clean? Could they really not afford to get actually cleaners?
"Hey, get to work"
She shot her head around at the source of the demand. To her utter relief it was that CC kid from earlier, the one she had gone off searching for but never managed to find again. He looked quite the same, dull eyed, brown coated, silver maned, Pegasus colt. Yep, the same colt she had met before.
As a few more thoughts entered and left her mind, she realized what the colt had said.
"What for? Aren't there supposed be, I don't know, cleaning ponies to do this? I thought that was their job?"
Dash asked both snidely and genuinely. The brown coated colt gave her a shake of his head,
"That's what we're here for, kid"
He answered, then handed her a mop,
"Get to cleaning. Over there is your part, make sure you follow Cinder and what he does, got it? Or else, you know what happens"
He explained with a dull expression. He wandered off leading some filly around.
Forgetting the ever more questions she had, Dash shot her head back in the direction the CC kid had pointed to. When she did so, she made eye contact with this older looking colt. What didn't surprise her was the fact that he seemed older than her, almost everyone there did. Though his dull expression did say he might just be a carbon copy of the CC kid.
She made her way over to the colt, still holding that mop in her mouth. No where else to hold it.
"Ima assume your that RB filly?"
His voice sounded low, raspy even, but more tired, dull, eerie maybe, just like the CC kid. She eyed the colt, messy swamp-green mane, a grey cinder-like coat, unkept wings, and no Cutie Mark, yep seemed just like every other colt or filly there, aside from his own appearance ,his overall demeanor seemed just the same.
"Er... not really"
She responded, a little too distracted taking in everything around her at the moment to explain further. Cinder, was it, gave a fake 'mhm', and begun his sweeping.
Dash only noticed his actions when she heard light sweeps, from the floor. She recalled the CC kid's instructions, and not wanting to make more ponies mad, she too begun in, what could only assume, was her part.
The mop she was handed, was already dipped in water, and she had previously spotted a bucket nearby for her to dunk it in if she so needed to.
For now, she merely followed this new kid around with the mop, wiping the floor in every spot the colt swept with his broom.
Things remained this way, none uttering a word, not even a slight ‘hello’ or ‘hi’, was in order apparently. This wasn't just the case for her and this colt, it seemed to be the case for everyone. Looking around, she quickly noticed a running theme in the pairs, that were there. Each pair had a sweeper and mopper. The job of a mopper seemed to only be given to fillies while the role of a sweeper was handled by colts. It also seemed to be that the sweepers led the two, while the mopper followed.
That took Dash quite the while to figure out, she's not completely certain as to why it took her so long, though.
Aside from the visual and task similarities there seemed to be one last thing connecting all these fillies and colts to one another; their dullness. It seemed as though, everywhere she went, she was going to come across dull, bland, emotionless looking ponies, which for some reason, didn't sit right with Dash. Kids were supposed to look happy, joyous, they weren't supposed to look so... so... so dead!
Wanting to at least attempt to change one colt, she begun conversation, be it if the colt listened or not.
"So uhh... the name"s Rainbow Dash, as in RD, not B"
She rambled,
"I have no idea why the bed I got even says RB...."
A question quickly popped up in her head, it was better to clear a few of her questions now rather than leave them to eat away at her sanity. She had already been trying to search for some answers on her own, without the need to bother ponies, but if she needed help, she wasn't afraid to ask. Finding answers had become her new goal in this... this forsaken place.
"Hey, do you know who RB is?"
She squeaked. The colt stopped for a mere second before continuing.
"RB?"
He asked. Dash gave him a nod, but soon realized he couldn't see her, so just answered with a 'mhm' instead.
"Well, I don't really no anything..."
He spoke dryly yet his words had this scent of fear and sorrow as he spoke. Well that wasn't quite what she had hoped it would be.
"...except that her name was Racing Bolt, the other girls might know more about her"
Alright that's a lead! Better than nothing at all! Though she still had plenty of questions to ask, maybe just a few more won't hurt anyone else, right?
"So this RB is a 'she'?"
Dash propped up with a spring in her step. It was so nice to finally talk with someone, other than really shy folks, not that they were bad companions or anything! It's just that she wanted somepony more like her to speak to.
The colt gave a nod.
"So where is she?"
This time the colt stopped, making an oblivious Dash bump into him. She fell to her haunches, more chocked than anything else.
"Hey! What was that for!"
She shot up to her hooves, nursing her head, from the obnoxious hit to it. The grey coated colt shook his head, then whipped his head back at her, frightening her all the more.
"Don't ask me! Are you deaf or something?!"
He scolded. Again, Rainbow blinked, confusion overshadowing anything else in her at the moment.
"Well it was a simple question!"
She retorted, not seeming to back down. Her wings were flared, her glare worse than it had ever been in the past, her teeth gritted, she wasn't backing down, not without a fight.
She shot to her hooves, and shot the colt a glare. Enough was enough! She had been pushed around far too many times it a way too,little time span, she was not letting that happen again!
"Nobody cares, Rainbow freak!!"
His hoof raised and fell to hit her on the cheek, yet again. A stinging pain shot through her body, coursing from her cheeks to the rest of her, a tinge of crimson seeped from her cheeks, making its way down her face and dripping onto the icecold floor.
Dash fell to her haunches, dumbfounded by both the pain in her cheek at the random need for violence and the shock of having been beaten, yet again. She wasn't used to being hit even once back home, and now it seemed as though she might be getting it every day from now on.
Her eyes were wide with adrenaline, her body was shivering from shock, and a fresh flood of tears threatened to escape. She tried to keep herself together, but the tears streamed out anyway. She didn't know what it was that made her tear up right then and there, she didn't know if it was the unnecessary serge of pain or the immense amount of shock, but she did, and she hated the feeling. The feeling of being vulnerable. She felt it when her mum left her, she felt it when she was trapped in that tube for so long, she felt it when she was being carried away to some place she never knew not heard of. She hated each and every one of those encounters and events.
She could hear all sorts of rumors being spread about her. She could hear fillies and colts whispering away at what just took place; an older colt punching a younger filly. That, now that, seemed to be out of the ordinary for these kids. She could feel the judgmental looks and glares, and comments, pierce through her fragile pride.
She covered her face with her hooves, wiping away the tears as they flowed, but it was no use, they just flooded out, and didn't seem to want to stop. When her attempt at preventing her teary eyed expression, failed, she merely sat there, with her head lowered, cowering from the embarrassment she felt.
The colt seemed almost remorseful about what he did, but when he spotted the crowd around him, all cheering him on, things changed. He heard their chants;
"Cinder! Cinder! Cinder!"
They cheered. He was a favorite among the older kids for a reason; because he gave in to no one. This new filly was no different. She was just the same, pathetic filly he had thought she was.
His hoof raised up high, to hit the filly one more time, maybe even continue the beating. He managed to get one slap, earning a small whimper from the filly. He had punched in the same place, which in turn called for more of the red liquid to seep out.
The filly's eyes drifted away, not bothering to make eye contact with her attacker. She didn't have the strength in her to stand up to this bully, no way! This colt looked like he was far, far stronger, and older than her, and those are a few factors one muster consider before picking their enemy. And this, this was not a good choice for her.
"Cinder! Cinder! Cinder!"
The words echoed through the gymnasium, giving the colt more strength as it continued. It was a nice feeling for him, to feel like he was back in the spot light, and not in the back rotting away for other's pleasure. It felt good not being on the receiving end of this sort of beating. He definitely preferred this one over the other.
He smirked, raising his hoof to get another punch in. The defeating quiet made him blink. He lowered his hoof, but not with the sharp sting it had before this. It merely feel to the ground like it should have the alt two times. He shot his head around and to his utter shock and fright he saw two adult ponies stood with glares on their faces. The colt gulped, and tried to deny what they seeing before them;
"P-please, I-I was j-just... it-it was just... w-we were h-having-"
"Can it!"
Came the sharp voice of the mare. Her glare seemed to burn a hole in the ever courages Pegasus.
"Back ta work, all o' ya!"
The mare demanded, motioning for the crowd to disperse. With no second thoughts, all the fillies and colts returned to what they were doing prior to this.
The stallion, stood next to the mare, trotted up to Cinder, grabbed him by one hoof and dragged him out of the room. The mare remained a second longer, eyeing each and every child there, then followed the stallion out of the room. His pleas and begs were all lost to the wind. Neither ponies seemed to even register that he was speaking, let alone what he was saying.
The mare shot her head back one last time, giving each filly and colt there, a sort of, warning, as to not repeat it again.
Dash had merely watched this exchange with a dead expression, nothing on her face screamed, 'thank you for this, I really appreciate it!', or anything of the sort. She merely had a look of guilt. She didn't know why, but she felt that way, she felt guilty about it. The reational part of Rainbow Dash told her there was no reason to, but her heart and gut was telling eh that other wise.
She sat there unsure as to what is next, what she has to do or deal with next.
A quick sigh escaped her lips.
The biggest question on her mind now was:
Who is that RB kid?
To Be Continued!