Rainbow Dash struggled against her doppelgänger, trying desperately to escape as Scootaloo slowly sank closer to the shredder. It was a losing battle however, her counterpart was a lot stronger then she was, Rainbow forced to watch as Scootaloo sank closer and closer.
There was a loud smack from behind Rainbow, Rainbow Factory Dash yelping in pain and loosening her grip just enough for a Rainbow Dash to escape. She immediately flew downwards and began digging through the corpses, eventually revealing Scootaloo's face among the sea of bodies.
“Rainbow!”
“I’ve got you kid!” Rainbow said as she grabbed Scootaloo's forelegs and began pulling her out, made difficult by the corpses.
“Rainbow! I can-” Scootaloo suddenly screamed in agony as her left hoof was caught by the teeth of the shredder, ripping off a large chunk of her hoof and foot. A burst of adrenaline from Rainbow managed to finally pull Scootaloo out before she was swallowed up, immediately taking to the air.
“Over here!” Rainbow looked over to see a Pegasus waving her down. “Quickly!”
With no other option, Rainbow followed after the Pegasus as the room filled with reinforcements. They zipped around the factory for a few minutes, the Pegasus eventually leading her into a medical room. He opened the door and filed in, Rainbow following after and laying Scootaloo on a table.
“We don’t have much time.” He began as he started digging through a cabinet. “They’ll scour every room for you and-”
Rainbow didn’t let him finish, grabbing him and turning him around before pushing him against the wall. “What in the buck are you up to!?”
“I-I’m not up to anything! I just-”
“I refuse to believe that a baby killer would suddenly decide to help us.” She growled.
The stallion was about to answer but they were cut off by Scootaloo. “R-Rainbow?”
Rainbow's anger immediately faded, letting go of the stallion and letting him drop to the floor. She ran over to Scootaloo and gingerly grabbed her leg, causing the filly to yelp in pain and jerk her leg away from Rainbows grip.
“Rainbow, i-it really h-hurts.” Scootaloo said as tears fell down her face while she breathed heavily, her whole body shaking violently.
“I know it does kid. Just let me take a look at it.” She once again grabbed Scootaloo's leg, a little higher up this time, and inspected the wound.
She found roughly half of Scootaloo's hind left hoof had been ripped off violently, the tip of the foot missing a large chunk of flesh, leaving a deep open wound that bled profusely. Rainbow swore she could even see bone if she looked hard enough.
“She needs medical attention.” Rainbow turned to glare at the stallion, finding he had ripped off his mask and trotted over. Rainbow studied his features, finding he was a gray furred stallion with a yellow mane and eyes, looking a surprising amount like Derpy. “I can patch her up a little here, but she needs a doctor.”
“Like I’m going to trust a baby killer to patch Scootaloo up.” Rainbow held her body over the filly protectively, glaring at him hatefully.
“If I wanted you dead I’d have let her mulch you both.” Rainbows glare dropped a little at that. “Scootaloo will die of blood loss and infection if you won’t let me operate, so stop being stubborn.”
Rainbow looked back and forth for a few seconds, trying to decide whether she should trust him. “... Fine.” She took a step back and eyed him suspiciously as he began treating Scootaloo's wound. “Why are you helping us?”
“Because you’re the only one who can stop her.” The gray stallion responded. “I heard you say you’re her alternate counterpart. I don’t know if that’s true or not but it’s the best I got.”
“Best you got for what? Stopping this? I thought all of you baby killers enjoyed this.”
“I’m not a baby killer!” He snapped. “At least… I don’t want to be. They didn’t give most of us a choice. We were assigned to the factory and are being held prisoner, we had no idea what they did here.”
Rainbow's eyes softened. “Then why don’t all of you just band together and escape?”
“Because some of us do support this. We don’t know who does and doesn’t so we can’t plan anything or complain without somepony ratting us out and getting us all killed, it’s happened before. It’s better if we just do our job and keep our heads down until the… guilt becomes too much to bear.”
“So… most of you don’t support this?”
“I certainly hope so.” He said as he finished wrapping Scootaloo's foot up and turning to Rainbow Dash. “Is it true? Are you her counterpart?”
“It is.” Rainbow nodded her head. “I don’t know how I got here or what’s going on, but I’m from a world where ponies don’t murder kids for rainbows and grind them up. I’m not the kind of pony who would kill my little sister just because she couldn’t fly.”
He looked at her for a few seconds, trying to decide whether she was telling the truth or not. “I don’t know if you’re a Changeling and I don’t care. You’re the best chance I have to shut this all down.”
“But how? They’ll fix the factory at some point and we’ll be caught by then.”
“You’ll escape.” He said simply. “You’ll escape and tell the world what’s going on here.”
“Uh, yeah genius, I’ve been trying to do that all day.”
“But I know how you can escape.” He frowned at her. “There’s only two exits to the factory: the loading dock and the front entrance. The loading dock will be under heavy guard by now but they never guard the front, it’s too secure. You need to have an access code to get in or out.”
“And where do I get one of those exactly?”
“The director makes the code, it’s one of their privileges.” He answered. “Your counterpart is the director of the factory and thus made the code to get in and out and I doubt she changes it.”
Rainbow nodded, that did sound like her. “But I’m not her though.”
“But you might think like her just enough to guess it.” Rainbow seemed offended by his words. “Look, just because she’s a murderer doesn’t mean she hasn’t had the same experiences, personality, and thought process. It’s your best bet to get out of here.”
“Alright, fine. But what about Scoots? She’s injured and it’ll be too obvious if I carry her.”
“Good point.” He looked back to Scootaloo and thought for a few seconds. “We’ll tie her under you.”
“You’ll what?”
“We can’t put her on your back otherwise there’ll be a big lump which will expose us immediately. We’ll take some gauze or sheets and tie her under you so she’s concealed by your robe.”
“Would that even work?”
“Just long enough to escape. It won’t be comfortable but this is the best way to smuggle you both out of here.”
“Alright, and what about a mask?” He immediately pushed his mask onto her face and wrapped the strand around the back of her head.
“Luckily for you, I ‘lost’ mine in the fight earlier.” He stepped back. “Now, stay here while I get something to tie with.”
He ran off and Rainbow made her way over to Scootaloo, finding the filly was still shaking and sobbing in pain. “Kid?” Scootaloo looked over. “I’m gonna need you to be a big girl for me ok? He’s going to tie you under me so you’re hidden by my robe, I need you to be as quiet as you possibly can so they don’t realize what we're doing and catch us. You think you can do that for me?”
“Y-yeah.” Scootaloo weakly nodded. “I-I’ll keep myself q-quiet.”
“Good.” Rainbow gently hugged Scootaloo, not knowing if this was the last chance she’d get. “I’m so proud of you, you’re such an amazing kid.” She could feel Scootaloo weakly hug her back with one hoof.
“Are you ready?” Rainbow broke from the hug and looked to the stallion, finding he had brought back various supplies.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” She nodded.
It took about five minutes of trial and error before they had gotten it right, Scootaloo hanging upside down and hugging Rainbow's torso, gauze, bandages, and sheets wrapped around her hooves then wrapped around her and Rainbow's bodies multiple times.
“That should do it.” He stepped back and let Rainbows robe fall, hiding Scootaloo. “Now, let me do the talking, they’ll recognize your voice... and absolutely no flying! I don’t think the bonds will hold under that kind of stress.”
“Got it.” Rainbow and the stallion trotted to the door. “You ready?”
“No.”
“Yeah. Me neither.” Rainbow opened the door and they both walked out
The factory was a mess, smoke and frantically flying Pegasi filling the air. Some flew nowhere in particular, trying to find her and Scoots, while others were trying to put out the remaining fires and clear the debris.
Her and the stallion had stuck to the fringes of the factory, trying to hide in the shadows as much as they could to remain undetected as they made their way to the entrance. She could feel Scootaloo pressing her face against her chest in an attempt to stifle her gasps and sobs, feeling Scootaloo's breath crash against her fur rapidly. Whenever they stopped, Rainbow reached over to caressed Scootaloos back both to tell her she was doing great and that they needed to go a little bit further.
They finally made it to the entrance, finding two large double doors with pretty intense security, looking more like doors for a vault that held a stash of gold rather than a factory door. “Alright, now what?”
“Your counterpart made the codes, so-” He pushed her towards the doors. “-figure out what it is.”
Rainbow looked at the stallion for a moment, unsure if she could do this, and walked over to a key pad.
‘If I was a psychopathic baby killer who tried to kill Squirt, what code would I make to hide a massive baby killing conspiracy?’ She thought to herself.
She wasn’t the smartest pony in the world (which she was totally ok with) so nothing too complicated. Knowing her it’d have to be easy to remember, she wasn’t very good at remembering things either and it just made sense to make it simple to remember... at least in her mind. It also had to be something no one could guess as that defeats the purpose of a secret code.
‘1234? No, not even I am that dumb.’ If it wasn’t that, then what was it? What was easy for her to remember?
Something sentimental, that was easy for her. It had the added bonus of not being easy to guess for anyone trying to guess the code.
One of her parents' names? No, if someone knew she was the director and who her parents were they might be able to guess it. Her friends? Same problem. Tank? Well, she loved Tank, but would she use his name for a code?
Her eyes suddenly widened as she realized something, her hoof shooting forward and typing something in.
S-Q-U-I-R-T.
Squirt. It was perfect! It was sentimental, simple, and no one really knew Scootaloo's nickname if they knew about her relationship with Scootaloo at all. Her smile dropped, her anger growing at her counterpart for having the audacity to use Scootaloo's nickname as a password only to turn sound and try to kill her. She swore she’d break her counterparts neck if she ever got her hooves on her.
She shook her head, pushing her anger aside to focus and was about to enter the code before she stopped, thinking it over. Her hoof moved back and typed in 1-2-3-4 before pressing enter.
There was a clicking sound and the doors immediately began to unlock and open far too slowly for Rainbow's taste. ‘Ok, maybe a I’m a little that dumb.’
“You did it!” The stallion ran up to her. “You- you actually did it!” He said as if he was unsure this whole time.
“Was there ever any doubt?” She said cockily, trying to hide her visible relief. “Now come on, we have a factory to shut down.”
“Oh I don’t think so!” Both of them turned to see Rainbow Factory Dash landing with a loud thump, glaring hatefully at the duo. Several more Pegasi landed near her or stayed in the air. “You two aren’t going anywhere.”