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// Chapter 5 - Resurrection 
// Story: Shattered Worlds: The Cataclysm 
// by Puppeteer 
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 Everything was dark and empty. I didn't think. I didn't feel. Everything was nothing, and nothing meant anything. Things must have gone on like that for quite some time before I made a very important realization. I was bored... The environment that I was in was boring. Now that might not seem all that important to you, but it was a direct observation about my environment, and in order for an observation to be made, the observer has to be consciously evaluating the environment. With that realization, I became self aware and for some reason that felt very very wrong. Why would I be self aware? On the other hand: why wouldn't I be? At the time, I was too disoriented to make sense of either question. I felt like I was someplace that I shouldn't be, but I couldn't understand why. What I did understand was that in order to make sense of the situation, I would have to struggle through it, and the easiest way to struggle would be to open my eyes. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I could see. I don't remember actually going through the process of opening my eyes, but regardless, my world was flooded with color. I didn't see colors that would normally be present in a scene, but all colors at once. I could even see the colors in between and beyond the normal color spectrum. None of the colors seemed to be in any one place, but everywhere at once despite the fact that they didn't seem to be moving. It was very bright and my eyes felt like they were burning, but my mind was still too numb to notice. I opened my mouth to gasp in awe, but liquid fire rolled down my throat. That was when I made my my second realization: I couldn't breath. My lungs were screaming for air, and their pain only intensified as whatever I had unwittingly swallowed hit my insides like a tidal wave. I hadn't noticed the pain in my lungs earlier, because they had been deprived of oxygen since long before I awoke. The burning pain in my chest spread like fire through my veins, granting me the ability the ability to feel again... Everything hurt. My eyes burned with the power of a thousand suns, and every fiber of my being felt ready to snap, but worst of all were the cold metal restraints I felt digging into each of my hooves. I hated restraints. I couldn't remember exactly why, but they made me feel sick to my stomach. I wrenched my right fore-hoof upwards, causing the restraint holding it in place to shift slightly, but ultimately stay in place. 

I had made the connection that I was submerged in liquid rainbows, and I of all ponies, knew just how bad that was. It would take me quite a while to break out of my restraints while submerged, so I would have to find a quicker solution. I thought about it for a moment, but instead of reaching a solution, a solution reached me. The solution was the surface level of the liquid rainbows, which must have been dropping for a while now, because the colors slowly ebbed away from my vision, allowing me to see my surroundings for the first time. I was on my back in a silver, metallic, rectangular container with four large spigots on either side of me. They would have to be for spraying liquid into the tub-like container, and I could only assume that there were drains at the bottom for emptying it. The ceiling was the same metallic silver as the tub, and for some reason, that surface seemed extremely familiar to me. Somehow I knew that I had seen that surface a lot. I started to get angry then. How could I not even remember something as simple as a ceiling? Aggravating as it was, I decided to put it aside temporarily, and focus on more important issues. The tub and I were still coated in liquid rainbow, so I decided to cough the liquid in my lungs back up into the tub, and take my first breath of air. After the fiery liquid, air seemed cold and rough like sandpaper in my lungs. Nevertheless, I felt stronger with each passing breath. I tried to close my eyes and focus on breathing, but I couldn't. It was like they were plastered open. I began to focus completely on making my eyelids work, but it was of no use. Either they were stuck open, or missing entirely. I began to wonder why either of those would be, but my thoughts were interrupted as the spigots on the sides of the tub simultaneously activated, and began to spray freezing water. At first, the purpose of the water was unclear, but then I realized that it was washing both the tub and me clean of the colorful liquid that we had both been coated with. The water that made its way into my mouth tasted metallic and chlorinated, so I spat it out and clamped my jaw shut. I couldn't, so easily, shut my eyes, but the water stung considerably less than the liquid it was washing out, so it came as a relief. 

While the water ran, I began to focus on my body. I felt strong... Really strong. It felt like I would be able to punch through my restraints like cardboard if I had the mobility. Unfortunately my limbs were locked in place, so I couldn't test my theory. The most I could do was wiggle around and pull at them, although the restraint on my right fore-hoof was beginning to give way. I pulled upwards on it, and at first it began to bend, but once it was bent to a certain angle the bolts holding it in place stopped it completely. I continued to pull, but this time I began to feel angry at whoever put me in the restraints in the first place. How dare they? What right did they have to do this? Did they think that it was funny to bolt somepony down? In an instant, I went from feeling agitated to feeling infuriated. I felt like I should have ripped through my restraints, and tore whoever was responsible for this to shreds. Maybe then anypony else who thought that it might be a funny prank to sedate me and strap me down to something would think twice. I momentarily tried to calm myself down, but being angry just felt so good that I quickly abandoned the effort. I was almost ready to tear through every living thing that I saw when I remembered something important. If there was anything that my friends had taught me over the years, it was to keep a cool head instead of running into things head on. I felt a pang of fear and sadness at the thought of friends, but the message held, so as the flow of water cut off and died, so did a large amount of my anger.  I was still nowhere near calm, and still debating weather I wanted to kill somepony or not, but at least I felt in control of my own actions again. Once I had regained my senses, I realized that my body had tilted forwards to lay at a slightly increased angle. The upper part of my body was slowly being raised. I could only assume that the metal surface that I was bolted down to was tilting forwards due to some mechanism underneath. It seemed seemed that only the floor of the tub was moving. Since the walls were staying firmly in place. Not long after, the room began to come into view. The first thing that I could see was the break between the ceiling and the walls, followed by a rectangular steel door with no handle, and finally a dark, metallic, grated floor, and two female ponies in lab-coats. 

Suddenly, I knew where I was. This place was called the Rainbow Factory Research Facility. It wasn't actually part of the rainbow factory, but if too many ponies were seen coming and going from the rainbow factory itself, ponies would start to get suspicious. It was where they had been conducting business for the past few months. I pushed the question of exactly how I knew all that to the back of my mind, and focused on the ponies standing in front of me. Both of them were mares, and wore crisp, clean labcoats that gave them a sense of formality. The one on the left was a light grey unicorn, with a dark grey mane, and the  one on the right was a light purple earth pony, with a mane of the expected color. While I was busy taking in these details, somepony spoke, and their voice rang out through the room. At first I thought that one of the ponies standing in front of me was speaking, but then I heard the distinctive crackle of a speaker system. 
''Ah, I see that she is awake. That took far longer than with any of our previous tests, but I guess that is to be expected from a larger subject.'' The voice sounded vaguely familiar but I couldn't match it to a name. Everything here gave me an out-of-place sense of déjà vu. I began to concentrate entirely on trying to put the puzzle together, but in doing so, I lost focus on keeping myself calm. Every second I spent hopelessly trying to make sense of the situation made me a little bit angrier, until I just gave up altogether, and put all of my energy into pulling at the loosest of my restraints. I was aware that I had gone from calm and collected to mindlessly enraged in just a few moments, but at least the bolts were beginning to loosen. While I was struggling the speakers crackled back to life. 
''It is good that you are finally awake. The question now, is how much of you is really there. I highly doubt that anypony's mind could make it through what you have unscathed. Let's start with something simple, shall we? Could you tell us your name?'' 

I opened my mouth to tell the voice to shut up, but all that escaped was a low guttural growl. I didn't actually mean to growl, but it still carried the same general meaning as what I had meant to say. Everypony was silent for a few moments, and the two ponies in front of me looked generally intimidated. I pulled on the restraint around my right fore-hoof more intensely than before, and I could feel the bolts almost ready to give way. The silence was broken by the voice on the speakers again. 		   ''I take it that you have not quite regained all your senses. This is unfortunate. I had hoped that you would be able to remember your name on your own, but I guess I will have to help you... Your name is Rainbow.'' 

That word hit me like a shockwave. I could literally feel my whole body reeling from the shock. It was my name, but it was also so much more. It was my life. The name cut through my clouded mind, and suddenly I could think with a newfound sense of clarity. Every moment of my life came flooding back to me at once. Suddenly I could remember every victory, every failure, and every miniscule second of my life right up until the bitter end. I didn't think that it was possible, but my next realization was even more jarring than the discover of my name. I was dead. I don't know if it was fear, confusion, or anger that finally pushed me over the edge, but I was suddenly filled with strength that I wasn't aware I possessed. The funny thing is that I didn't even feel angry anymore. I just felt cold and determined. I felt stronger and more alert than ever, but I also felt... Numb. All I knew was that I had to kill the other two ponies in the room, and that my restraints were in the way. I pulled on the loosest of my restraints with all my might, and sure enough, my hoof broke free. One of the bolts popped off and hit the purple pony directly in her eye which caused her to double over in pain. Before anypony could react, I had already punched through the restraint on my left fore-hoof and fell forward, painfully tearing my hind legs from their restraints. My right fore-hoof landed directly on the head of the purple earth pony and smashed it inwards with a sickening crunch. Blood and flesh splattered around the area where her head had been just a second ago. Nopony could even hope to contain me now. I was unstoppable, and it felt great.