Scootaloo woke up in the same place as when she went to sleep in the storage room. Quickly she noticed that Rainbow Dash was no longer at her side. She immediately got up and started to franticly look around for Rainbow Dash, calling out her name. “Rainbow!” she said “Rainbow Dash! Where are you?” But only echoes returned. She started running around the room still calling out for Rainbow Dash but still only answered by her own voice asking the same question. “Where are you!?” she yelled out as a last chance to locate Rainbow Dash. There was no response. Not even her own echo answered this time, which she thought was out of the normal. She slowly walked back to the back of the room where the map of the factory was made on the floor. When she got there she was terrified. On the floor the map to the factory had been smudged to the point of which it no longer looked like a map and in the glowing yellow spectra stain on the floor written in dark red blood were the words "THEY ARE COMING FOR YOU" along with a track of smeared blood leading out the door. It looked like someone had been shot and then dragged out of the room.
Scootaloo's mind automatically went to Rainbow Dash and she began to worry. She thought "How could I let this happen? I was sleeping right next to her. Why didn't they take me too? Then there was pounding at the door so Scootaloo quickly ran and hid behind a stack of crates. The pounding continued to get louder and louder until it finally stopped. Scootaloo began sticking her head out to examine her surroundings. Whoever was pounding on the door was still outside talking to another pony. Scootaloo tried listening in from a distance make anything out until she heard one of them yell "Fire in the hole!" Immediately after the room was lit up with a giant flash of light and a loud explosion bounced off the walls. The door to the room flew several feet down the center pathway of the room. When the smoke from the explosion had cleared, Scootaloo saw four ponies standing there in the doorway. They were dressed in digital camouflage and had weapons drawn. One was a deep shade of blue carrying a M4A1, another was as black as night with a SCAR-H, still another had red and black stripes and was carrying a M249, and the last one was dark purple and also had a M4A1. They all had flashlights on their weapons and were wearing helmets.
"Scan the area." said the blue pony and at that command the others started to carefully search the room. The blue pony started to walk closer and closer toward Scootaloo but then he turned to look at the blood stains on the floor. Suddenly Scootaloo felt a hoof on her shoulder followed by another one coming around her mouth pulling her back into the darkness. She tried resisting but she wasn't strong enough. She thought to herself that this was the end, that she was dead meat for sure this time. Finally when the hooves had stopped dragging her back she heard the pony who dragged her whisper "I am going to let you go now, but you have to promise me that you won't say anything loud." Scootaloo knew the voice and calmly nodded her head up and down. The hooves retreated and Scootaloo turned around to see it was just the pony she was thinking it was.
"Princess Luna!" Exclaimed Scootaloo in excitement.
Luna covered Scootaloo's mouth again and said "Shh what did I tell you?
"Sorry." said Scootaloo "I'm just so happy to see you right now."
"It's ok." said Luna "It doesn't look like they heard of anything. What is this place?"
"This is the Rainbow Factory." said Scootaloo "This is where a group of pegasi lead by a colt named Dr. Atmosphere make spectra by killing other pegasi, who have failed their flight test, and harvest their colors."
"What!?" Luna whispered in a harsh tone, "How come I never heard that they were doing this."
"I don't know." said Scootaloo, "Are you going to help me get out of here?"
"I can't help, you're just dreaming." answered Luna, "A very special dream. This type of dream lets you see the future. Although the ponies in these dreams can't see you or touch you they can still hear you."
"This is a dream about the future?" asked Scootaloo.
"Yes," answered Luna, "and I am sharing it with you. When I first entered this dream I could feel its power. Normally unicorns are the ones that have these types of dreams which is strange since you are a pegasus."
Scootaloo looked up at the blue pony. He was still studying the blood stains on the floor. "Who are they?" she asked.
Luna poked her head out beside Scootaloo's. "It looks like they are members of Equestria's E.S.O.D division. They are the top picks of the Equestrian military. I don't know who the others were but this one right here, I know him, we've even met face to face before. He's one of the best we have. His name is Staff Sergeant Azure Blaze. Just recently we assigned him and a small squad of ponies to the bog to fix Equestria's 'Hydra' problem. Members of E.S.O.D are trained to hold two handed weapons while only standing on their back legs. Most ponies take weeks to finish their training; he finished it in three days. He's pretty amazing." Luna's blue face blushed slightly.
"Look!" said Scootaloo, "Here comes one of the others."
The red pony with black stripes ran up to Azure Blaze. "Staff Sergeant Blaze." he said, "You better take a look at this." Then they both ran off one following the other.
"Come," said Luna, "let us go see what they have found." Both Scootaloo and Luna ran off following the other two ponies. When the ponies they were pursuing stopped they saw in the corner of the room was the corpse of another pegasi dressed like one of them but not one of the original four that entered the room at first. He was of a lighter blue color than Azure Blaze and his name patch read "SGT.COOL BREEZE."
"What's his status?" asked Azure Blaze. The red and black pony started to examine the lifeless pony. Meanwhile the other two ponies that were searching the room came over.
"There was no sign of life." said the black one.
When the pony who was examining the body was finished he turned to Azure Blaze and said, "He is dead sir."
Azure Blaze sighed and closed the dead pony's eyes, and then he put his hoof up to his ear and started talking into the mic of the headset he was wearing. "Phoenix nest come in, this is Staff Sergeant Azure Blaze." he said.
"This is Phoenix nest; we hear you loud and clear go ahead and send traffic." A voice in the radio said.
"We have a KIA," said Azure Blaze back into the mic, "and one MIA."
"What?!" the voice on the radio said, "Who is the KIA?"
"Cool Breeze is," said Azure Blaze, "and the MIA is Sergeant Wind Lance
There was silence over the radio for a while until it was broken by different voice on the other end of the radio saying, "Carry out primary mission objectives. Do not, I repeat, do not search for the MIA, it is too risky and Sergeant Lance is not as valuable as the rest of the team."
"What?!" said Azure Blaze "No we are not leaving a pony behind. Sergeant Wind Lance is just as valuable as I am."
"Listen to me Staff Sergeant." the voice on the radio said in a disrespectful tone, "Who is really in charge here?"
"You are sir." said Azure Blaze.
"Then leave Wind Lance and go secure the target HVT. Phoenix nest out." Azure Blaze lowered his hoof and stood silent and still.
"So," said the black pony, "what are we going to do now?"
Scootaloo looked away from the scene and at Luna. Scootaloo saw her eyes watering up, so she took Luna's hoof in her own. Luna looked down at Scootaloo and smiled with a couple of tears trickling down her cheek then again to watch.
"Let's go." said Azure Blaze, "Primary mission objective is our priority."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." said the dark purple pony, "So we are just going to leave Wind Lance behind like this?"
"What are we going to do?" said Azure Blaze, "Command won't let us."
"Screw command." said the red and black pony, "I don't know about you guys but I am going to go get Wind Lance back with or without your help." The pony started walking off by himself when the black pony stopped him by saying, "Wait I'm coming with you. He may be the least trained of us all, but he's still one of us. Nopony left behind." The dark purple pony stepped up as well and said, "Me too, nopony left behind." They all turned their heads to Azure Blaze. "What about you Staff Sergeant?" asked the red and black pony, "Are you with us?" Azure Blaze stood there. Luna walked up to him, whispered something in his ear, and then backed away. Azure Blaze stood there a while longer before looking up, cocking his M4 and saying "Nopony left behind." in a deep voice. Then the entire squad ran out and followed the trail of blood left on the floor.
Scootaloo turned to Luna and said, "What did you say to him?"
"I told him to be safe." replied Luna, "I must go now, your dream is ending. I will inform my sister of the situation that you are in."
"Thank you." said Scootaloo.
"Go now," said Luna, "somepony is trying to wake you up." Then Scootaloo saw nothing but darkness and heard, "Scootaloo, wake up, they are here, wake up!" Scootaloo blinked and when she opened her eyes again she was in the storage room with Rainbow Dash by her side and voices coming from the other side of the door.