//------------------------------//
// Part 3: The True Grasp of Insanity 
// Story: Escape Insanity & Operation: Crimson Rainbow (The Rainbow Factory Chapters 2&3) 
// by LCpl Azure Blaze 
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	"Rainbow Dash." said Scootaloo in a hushed tone as she awoke from her slumber, "Princess Luna visited me in my dream. She said she would talk to Princess Celestia and get help."
"That's good," said Rainbow Dash, "But right now we need to focus on getting out of here by ourselves. Something tells me we won't be getting help anytime soon."
"So what's the plan then?" asked Scootaloo.
"The guards travel in groups of two or more in lockdown," said Rainbow Dash. "We need to find a way around them when they open the door. If we do manage to get a chance to take a guard out without the others knowing, we should take it. We can take his weapon along with us afterward but we should be careful about when we use it. These halls will echo any noise we make to the ears of everypony out to get us in this factory, so we should only use the weapon as a last resort. Come on, let's hide now and wait for our chance to get out of here." Both of the pegasi ran to a large stack of spectra crates that were stacked neatly a couple of rows away from the door. The door opened and in walked three guards, each with armed with a pistol on their utility belt. Two of them walked off in the opposite direction of where the pegasi were hiding leaving one at the door facing inward to make sure nothing ran out on them while the others searched.
"Looks like luck is on our side, Scoots," whispered Rainbow Dash. "If this works out, we will only have to take out the guard guarding the door."
"Wait," said Scootaloo. "What if they find the map you drew? Then they will know where we are heading."
"They won't," said Rainbow Dash. "I smeared it. Now it only looks like a spill." Scootaloo looked back at the place where the map was drawn and saw that it looked exactly like the smear in her dream, meaning that what Luna had said in her dream was true. She really did dream about the future.
"We need to find a way to direct the guard at the door's attention away from inside the room." said Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo looked around until she found a large bolt. She picked it up and threw it out the doorway, past the guard, and into the hallway. The bolt landed and made a heavy metal-to-metal sound that made the guard turn around to see what was going on. Quickly, Rainbow Dash seized the opportunity to strike, sneaked up on the guard, covered his mouth to muffle the noise and snapped his neck, killing him instantly. She then dragged his body back behind the crates they were hiding behind and took the pistol off the guards belt. she put it on the inside of her right wing to make a make-shift holster for it and turned to Scootaloo. "Let's go." she said to Scootaloo and they both ran out the door and down the hallway.
The hallway was dead silent . The only sounds that could be heard were the clops of the two ponies' hooves on the floor and the occasional dripping of condensed moisture falling from pipes which ran overhead. Because of the lockdown, the  only lights that remained on were the dim red emergency lights on the walls which gave off an eerie shade of red. The two ponies constantly scanned the area around them for signs of trouble as they headed down the hall towards the mysterious door at the end which they didn't know what was behind. Scootaloo began to worry if she could still trust Rainbow Dash. 'What if she decides to turn on me suddenly again?' she questioned herself, 'And how can I ever forget about what she did to my friends?' These questions raced through her mind constantly until she finally got them out of her head by saying to herself, 'This facility really does get to you doesn't it. Its the atmosphere. It makes you worry too much. I don't like it; no wonder Rainbow Dash wants to get out after all of this time working here. I understand now how I made her snap out of her confusion. It was because I was the first sign of actual sanity she has seen in this place for years.'
When they got to the doorway at the end of the hallway they stopped. There was another hallway to their left that led to the main hallway which then led out of the factory.
Rainbow Dash turned to Scootaloo and asked, "Are you ready to see what is behind this door?"
Scootaloo nodded. "Yes." she replied hesitantly. The idea of finding out what was behind the door was dangerous but they had to know what Dr. Atmosphere was planning behind the door and do their best to stop it.
Rainbow Dash turned and entered the lock down override code for the door on the keypad to the right of the door. A voice came out of the panel after Rainbow Dash had entered the code saying "Manual override accepted. Please standby."
"Now we wait." said Rainbow Dash, "Keep a lookout for guards. We don't want to get caught now." Both of the pegasi sat down in the doorway quietly and waited.
"So," said Rainbow Dash, "How are Sweetybell and Applebloom doing? Have they found their cutie marks yet?"
"They're fine." said Scootaloo, "None of us have found our cutie marks yet." Scootaloo hung her head low. I wonder what they will do without me if I don't get out of this factory or if they will even miss me."
Rainbow Dash looked over at Scootaloo and said, "Hey now don't talk like that. I'll get you out of here even if it means I won't myself." Scootaloo looked back up to lock eyes with Rainbow Dash and both of them smiled at each other. At that time they heard the door behind them unlock and open slightly. "Well," said Rainbow Dash, "The moment of truth. I'll go in first."
Rainbow Dash entered the room first followed by Scootaloo. The room was extremely dark. There were no lights in the room whatsoever but the glow of six giant tanks in a row right in front of them. Each one containing one of the colors of the rainbow in spectra. The glass on the tanks were so dusty they couldn't see what was in them so Rainbow Dash trotted up to the yellow one and wiped the dust off. To her horror she saw and exact copy of herself in the tank hooked up to a series of tubes. "Wh-what is this!?" she said in a loud voice. She frantically ran down the line of tanks and wiped the dust off of each one to reveal an exact copy of her in correlation to the color of spectra the tank contained. Scootaloo followed along just as shocked as Rainbow Dash at the sight of exact copies of her lifelong roll model. when they came to the red tank at last they saw the same thing as the other 5 tanks but this one opened its eyes at the two ponies and gave them an angry look.
At that moment a pegasi guard that had been secretly watching them up by the ceiling swooped down and grabbed a hold of Scootaloo and flew off. Scootaloo let out a terrifying yell as she was carried off and Rainbow Dash pulled out the pistol she had obtained and frantically search around for the small pegasi yelling "Give her back!"
"Beautiful aren't they?" Dr. Atmosphere's voice echoed through the room. The lights turned on and Dr. Atmosphere was there standing in front of Rainbow Dash smiling along with the pegasi guard that had captured Scootaloo holding the struggling filly next to him with his pistol against her head and twelve other pegasi guards who had surrounded her as well. "Drop the weapon Dash or I will order them to kill both of you." said Dr. Atmosphere. Rainbow Dash looked around and after a while reluctantly dropped her weapon to the floor in defeat. "That's better." said Dr. Atmosphere, "Now you're probably wondering what these beauties are. They are clones we made of you from the DNA you so graciously donated to us on your first day here and no there aren't just six of them." Dr. Atmosphere trotted over to a button on the wall and hit it. The back wall of the room lifted off of the ground and retracted into the ceiling revealing and entire room filled with thousands of tanks exactly like the six they had found at the front of the room. "This is my army." he said, "With these clones I will take over Equestria and never have to work for Princess Celestia again. There is one small problem however and this is the reason why I have not killed you and your friend yet. You see they need the DNA of their host to grow to their full size. Without their DNA they will die and put all of these years to waste which is why I have a deal to propose to you. If you willingly stay here and give us your DNA I will let your friend go. If you don't I will gladly start this experiment over from scratch with my own DNA and continue harvesting spectra from little fillies. The choice is yours."
"Don't do it Rainbow!" shouted Scootaloo, "Luna sa..." her voice was muffled by the guard holding her saying "Shut up you pest."
Rainbow Dash looked at Scootaloo still struggling then drooped her head down low in defeat "You win Atmosphere. Just let her go."
"I knew we could come to an agreement." said Dr. Atmosphere, "Guard please be sure to see this young filly out just as I have told you to." The guard holding Scootaloo hit her on the back of the head with his pistol to try and knock her out but the blow wasn't hard enough. The young filly fell onto the floor half unconcious crying in pain. Her sight was blurry and she could barely make out what she heard.
"I thought you said you wouldn't hurt her!" yelled Rainbow Dash.
"I said I would let her go. I never said I wouldn't hurt her." Said Dr. Atmosphere.
The guard that hit Scootaloo came over and hit her once more in the head this time successfully knocking her out. Scootaloo's vision went black.
Scootaloo's vision came back a while later when the sun had started to set. She was left alone in Froggy Bottom Bog with no sense of direction and an aching head. She was alone and had to find her way back to Canterlot herself. At least she was finally out of the factory.

To Be Continued In: The Rainbow Factory Chapter 3: Operation Crimson Rainbow...