Fear and panic filled the fillies’ minds as they stared off towards the two stallions blocking the only exit out of the dark, cold factory. One was a tall, dark-red stallion with a slim figure and a long grey mane, who’s mere presence sent chills down the fillies’ spines, whilst the other was a shorter, bulkier light-red stallion with a crew-cut black mane whose face was still scary, but gave off more of a henchpony vibe to the fillies. Both were wearing black trenchcoats.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom stood their grounds, firm and strong, if only to look strong for the other three in their group who were shaking behind them. Of course, their own legs were shaking, too, betraying whatever hope they may have had of convincing the two stallions that they weren’t afraid.
“How about you all stay right there and let us tie you up?” Fury suggested as he took a step forward. “The pink one is the only one we really need, but we’ll let you all live if you behave yourselves. Of course, you’ll be our hostages, but at least you’ll be alive.”
“Stay away from us!” Scootaloo shouted.
“M-My daddy will have you locked away forever if you so much as lay one hoof on me!” Diamond Tiara told them.
“Hence the need to take you in alive,” Fury said. “You aren’t at all valuable to us dead, so we would appreciate it if you made this easier on us, and-”
“RUUUUUUN!” Sweetie Belle screamed as she sprint away from the group, towards a nearby flight of stairs heading up into what appeared to be an office room. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara followed after her quickly, though Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were a little reluctant.
“H-Hey!” Apple Bloom shouted after the three fleeing fillies. She felt something tugging her foreleg and, before she knew it, was being pulled away by Scootaloo in the opposite direction to Sweetie Belle. “W-Wait!”
“We’re gonna scatter!” Scootaloo told her as they reached a ladder leading up to a catwalk. “Up here! Hurry!”
“But Sweetie Belle-”
“She’ll be fine! We have to hide!” Pushing Apple Bloom up the ladder, the farm filly eventually got the message and began to climb on her own. Scootaloo started to climb after her, looking back down momentarily and gulping at how high they were going.
“So, it’s a game of hide-and-seek they want, is it?” Red asked as he shifted his eyes to his right, resting them upon a long, metal girder laying in a pile of rubble. Rubbing his hooves together, Red approached the girder and leaned down, grunting and groaning as he slowly lifted it up and pulled it out of the pile.
“What are you doing?” Fury asked as he watched his partner pull the girder towards the door, eventually dropping it in such a way that it would prevent the door from opening enough for anypony to move through it.
“There. Now there’s no escape,” Red said as he dusted his hooves off against his coat.
“Good thinkin’. Now, you go after the three up there,” Fury said, motioning his head towards the office. “I’ll take care of our two brave friends. Remember, the pink one must not be harmed too much, but a few cuts and bruises might help get our message across to her father.”
“Got it,” Red said with a grin as he reached into his coat and pulled out a small taser from within. “This’ll knock ‘em out for a good length of time.”
“We’re changing our location when we’re done here,” Fury said. “Don’t forget to wipe your prints off of anything you touch.”
With a nod from Red, the two split up to pursue the hiding little fillies in the factory. As he neared the stairs leading up to the office, Red noticed a small white head poking out for a moment to look down at him, only to retreat back in a moment later. “Guess they’re at a dead-end,” Red mutter to himself as he placed a hoof upon the first step of the rickety stairs. “This’ll be quick, then.”
As he continued to ascend the stairs – slowly, due to his weight – he heard panicked whispers and whimpers from up above. Red chuckled to himself as he held up his taser, ready to teach these fillies just who was in charge here.
Suddenly, a white body jumped out in front of Red at the top of the stairs, glaring down on the stallion as she held a metallic cylinder above her head. ‘A paint can?’ Red thought to himself, before he realised what she was doing with it. A look of horror spread across his face and he barely had time to scream as the paint can was thrown towards his face, landing a direct hit and pushing the stallion back down to the bottom of the stairs.
“… Ow…”
As Fury reached the ladder leading up the catwalk, he glanced up momentarily to find the two fillies cowering behind a couple of barrels at the top. They must have thought that they were well-hidden, not realising that the catwalk’s floor could be seen through underneath.
A stallion’s voice echoed throughout the factory, prompting Fury to turn towards the stairs leading to the office just in time to see his partner picking himself up off of the floor. “Idiot. I’ve told him before not to run up stairs.”
Ignoring his partner for the time being, Fury placed his knife back into his coat and grabbed a hold of the ladder with his forehooves. “I’ll not bother taking these two alive. Too much work, and neither is that important,” Fury muttered to himself as he climbed. “They’ll just be examples for the other three not to try anything funny.”
A whistle at the top of the ladder drew Fury’s attention. He found the orange filly standing at the top, smiling down at him. The filly leaned her head back for a moment, and then moved it forward again. A trail of clear liquid shot out of her mouth and landed in Fury’s eye, startling the stallion and causing him to bring both hooves to his eye as he screamed out in pain.
Realising that gravity’s hold was brining him down, Fury quickly tried to grab a hold of the ladder once more, only succeeding in grabbing the sides and slowing down his fall before he could hit the floor, at the cost of friction’s divine wrath.
Fury quickly let go of the ladder and blew onto his steaming hooves, desperate to cool them down. Above him, he could hear laughter followed by hoofsteps along the metal flooring of the catwalk.
Grinding his teeth together, Furry grabbed a hold of the ladder once more and began his ascent again, ignoring the pain of his still-burning hooves against the rusty metal. “I’ll make sure to kill that one second!” he grumbled to himself as he climbed.
Red directed his attention to the top of the stairs, glaring at the spot that the white filly was occupying moments ago and cursing under his breath as he held a hoof to his aching head. “You bitch! Forget taking you in unharmed! I’ll cut off your horn and sell it to some pervert in Los Pegasus!”
Climbing the stairs once more, a little faster this time in his blind rage, Red was surprised to see the white filly jump out yet again, carrying another paint can in her hooves. She threw the can down at the stallion, only this time, he was able to duck in time to avoid it.
“You’re gonna have to do better than-” Red gasped as he watched the white filly jump to the side, and behind her, an office chair was pushed down the stairs and sent hurtling towards him as he turned around to run away. He felt the chair bump into him from behind and trip backwards into it. A spring poking out from the worn-out cushion impaled his flank, making him tear up as the chair reached the bottom of the stairs and continued to sail forward towards a pile of empty boxes.
“Strike!” Silver Spoon cheered as she and Sweetie Belle retreated back into the office.
“… I’m gonna kill ‘em!” Red shouted as he slammed a hoof against the ground, only for the vibrations to cause the boxes piled above him to fall onto his head.
Fury was almost at the top of the ladder once again. His hooves had stopped burning by this point and his eye was all better, but his temper had yet to cool down.
“Look here, are three little ponies!”
Fury looked up to find the two fillies standing at the top of the ladder. The orange one was holding a megaphone and singing into it.
“Ready to sing for this crowd!”
Fury wasn’t sure what was going on, but they were making fools of him, and that was unforgivable. Climbing faster, he was just a short distance away when the yellow one grabbed the megaphone and began to sing instead.
“Listen up, ‘cause here’s our story!”
As Fury reached the top, the megaphone was shoved practically into his face, and both fillies sang together, in unison: “I’m gonna sing it very LOOOOOOOOOOOUD!”
His eyes shut and his hooves pressed against his ears, Fury was cursing the two fillies’ attempts to deafen him and was reminded of why he chose to never have kids. As he opened his eyes again and found the ladder moving in front of him, he also remembered why one should never let go of a ladder when they were climbing it.
This time, however, Fury had managed to grab a hold of the ladder’s rungs as opposed to the sides. Though this proved to produce far less burning than his previous fall, it did not produce far less pain, and Fury had to take several moments to collect himself before he could even think of climbing again.
Red grumbled angrily under his breath as he slowly ascended the stairs once more, this time crouching low and grabbing onto the hoofrail, preparing himself for any flying paint cans or falling chairs.
An annoying sound drilled itself into his brain. It was like somepony was sawing logs right beside him early in the morning, and it was driving him crazy as he was trying to concentrate on not losing his hoofing on the stairs.
“What is that?!” Red finally snapped as he turned his attention upwards, his ears drooping as he spotted the grey filly running a saw against the top of the wooden stairs. “… No,” he said, continuing to walk up. His pace increased as he watched the filly continuing to saw. He was almost there.
Red gasped as the saw made the final cut, and Silver Spoon pushed the stairs, causing them to topple over slowly to one side. With a mighty leap, Red managed to grab a hold on the office floor at the top of where the stairs once lay.
“What’s this?” Silver Spoon asked as Diamond Tiara approached her with what appeared to be an old feather duster.
Red looked up at the pink filly standing above him, staring down at the stallion with a devilish grin on her face. Red shook his head, an almost-pleading look on his face, whilst Diamond Tiara simply nodded her own.
The filly leaned down and ran the duster against Red’s hoof. It didn’t take long for the stallion to start laughing, but he still hung on for dear life. That is, until Diamond Tiara grew tired of tickling him to no avail and simply kicked the hoof off, sending the stallion down into the wreckage below him with a scream.
Third time was the charm for Fury, as he finally managed to reach the catwalk with no further interruptions. Unfortunately, the fillies were nowhere to be seen. There were three possible directions that they could have taken…
“No matter,” Fury told himself as he decided to take the path to his left first. “If they try to move, I’ll hear ‘em. And the door’s blocked, so there’s no way out for ‘em.”
The left path took Fury to what appeared to be a control room for the machinery down below. Lots of good hiding places in there, and there was a hole at the bottom of the door just big enough for a foal to crawl through.
Fury reached a hoof forward and twisted the knob, but the door wouldn’t budge. “It’s locked, eh?” Fury grinned and took a few steps back, preparing to charge the door in order to bring it down.
“Now!” Scootaloo whispered to Apple Bloom, who nodded and unlocked the door from the inside, before opening it and jumping out of the way.
As the door opened, a confused-looking Stallion charged into the room and crashed into the filing cabinet inside, falling onto his back in a daze.
The fillies watched as the tall metal cabinet leaned over and fell into a heap on top of the stallion, both wincing at the sight and covering their ears from the loud noise.
“Ooh. That’s gotta hurt,” Scootaloo said as she and Apple Bloom galloped out of the room and along the catwalk. Scootaloo glanced back to see the stallion crawling out of the mess, and not looking amused. “Uh-oh. I think he’s mad.”
“We gotta meet up with Sweetie Belle an’ get outta here!” Apple Bloom said as she and Scootaloo turned to take the middle pathway at the three-way intersection on the catwalk.
After many painful minutes cracking his spine and stacking up pieces of junk he found lying around, Red finally had a climbable pile with which to reach the office, and throttle the fillies hiding up there until their necks snapped. Well, all with the exception of the one they needed alive, of course.
“Damn, little monster… When I get my hooves on ‘em, I swear they’re all dead!”
As Red finally reached the office, taking care not to be ambushed by any more paint cans, furniture, or cleaning implements, he looked around to find… nopony there. “Where are they?” he asked himself as he scanned the office once more, his blood boiling as he found no sign of the fillies anywhere…
Until his eyes landed on a pathway to his left. A catwalk leading out of the office, at the end of which was another small hut. And poking out of that hut, was a familiar silver tail that neither he nor his partner had. A grin spread across Red’s face as he pulled out his taser and charged. He wasn’t going to let them get away this time.
CRASH! SMASH!
The next thing Red knew, he was on his back on the floor, stars flying around his head and glass digging into his skin.
“Nice work polishing that old mirror up, Silver Spoon,” Sweetie Belle said, genuinely impressed with how fast the filly could work on such short notice. “I still can’t believe you carry cleaning polish with you wherever you go.”
“But of course she does,” Diamond Tiara said. “What if my tiara gets dirty? Somepony would have to clean it.”
“Why not you?” Sweetie Belle deadpanned.
Diamond Tiara simply laughed, as if the very idea of her cleaning her own jewellery was a blatant joke. Sweetie Belle simply frowned.
“Guys,” Silver Spoon called out from the ladder opposite to them, “Come on, this way.”
Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara turned their attention to Red, who was picking himself up off of the floor slowly. Without wasting any more time, the two hurriedly joined Silver Spoon in climbing the ladder to the catwalk above them.
Fury was furious. He wasn’t about to let a couple of fillies make him look like a complete mule and get away with it. He was going to make sure their deaths were not quick and painless, and he would start with that Pegasus that spat into his eye.
Fortunately, he had seen which path they had taken this time, and was proceeding with much more caution than before. As he rounded a corner, he came across what appeared to be an old break room, judging from the coffeepot and the pool table that were still present inside.
However, that wasn’t all that was in there. Despite the darkness of the room, Fury could just about make out all of the mousetraps littering the floor inside, all of which were armed and ready to snap.
With a grin, Fury moved forward. ‘Too bad. I’m on to your little game this time.’ Fury took great care with each and every step that he took, stepping in-between the mousetraps so as to not set them off. “I won’t be made a fool off that easily,” Fury said as he neared the middle of the room.
“Psst!” Fury turned his head towards the other side of the room slowly, seeing the yellow filly standing at the doorway with an innocent smile on her face. “Sorry, we missed one. Y’all don’t mind if we add it now, do ya?” Without giving Fury a chance to answer, Apple Bloom revealed in her hoof one more active mousetrap, and threw it into the room.
Time seemed to slow down for Fury as he watched the mousetrap soaring through the air closer and closer towards him, eventually falling down and landing on top of another trap, setting it off. This triggered the traps around it to also go off, starting a chain reaction that was quickly making its way towards the stallion.
“Oh, f-”
Continuing to run as they heard the stallion’s pained screams and loud curses behind them, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo rounded a corner on the catwalk, and stopped as they ran into their three classmates.
“Guys!” Sweetie Belle cried out in surprise.
“Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom shouted as she reached out and hugged her friend. “Ye’re alright!”
“Yeah! And so are you!” Sweetie Belle said as she returned her friend’s hug.
“What’s down that way?” Scootaloo asked as she glanced past the three fillies.
“The stallion chasing us,” Silver Spoon said. “And down there?”
The filly’s question was answered by a hoof stomping onto the catwalk behind Scootaloo, startling the group as they turned their attention to Fury, pulling mousetraps off of himself as he slowly approached the five fillies.
“Not good,” Scootaloo said as she turned around, only to find the other stallion reaching the top of the ladder at the end of the catwalk. “We’re trapped.”
“No way…” Apple Bloom said as she and Sweetie Belle held onto each other tighter, tears forming in both their eyes.
“W-What now?” Silver Spoon asked, her voice trembling and her knees shaking as she turned to Diamond Tiara for support. However, her friend was faring no better than her.
“Hey,” Red called out to his partner as he made his way towards the fillies, “Leave the grey and white ones to me. I wanna see how they like a cracked spine.”
“That’s fine,” Fury said as he pulled off the last mousetrap, and continued his own approach. “Just leave the Pegasus to me. I’m gonna show her the pain of having your face slammed into solid steel at twenty miles per hour.”
“What now?” Apple Bloom parroted Silver Spoon’s question, looking around desperately for some method of escape.
Scootaloo bumped into something as she was backing up, and found a bunch of black barrels standing behind her. Not sure what else to do, Scootaloo ran behind one of the barrels and attempted to lift it… only to find that it was too heavy for her, and only succeeding in toppling it over instead.
This, however, caused the catwalk to shake rather violently, stopping the approaching stallions in their paths. Moments later, the shaking stopped, but only before the catwalk seemed to drop down lower than it was before.
Fury looked up to see the supports holding the catwalk up were coming loose. “Fuck! Red, get down!” Fury shouted as he turned around and started to run.
Red was confused for a moment, but didn’t have long to question what was going on before the catwalk began to shake again.
The fillies were also confused, and scared, as the catwalk made loud rumbling noises and shook violently beneath their hooves. With one last shake, the platform that they were on started to fall, and the fillies all screamed as they felt themselves hurtling down towards the ground at high speeds.
Fury opened his eyes with a powerful headache running through his brain, rubbing his head and groaning as he surveyed his surroundings to find out what was going on. He was on the factory’s ground floor, and it seemed that the catwalks had all – or mostly, at least – collapsed as part of some chain reaction. There were also black patches in many parts of the room, all connected to barrels like the one the filly had toppled over moments ago.
“I see,” Fury muttered to himself as he stood up straight. “Those barrels contained oil. The supports were weak so all it took with the seven of us up there was a slight tremor to bring it all down… Hm?” Fury gasped as the sight of an orange glow entered his vision. As his eyes adjusted, he could tell that the orange glow was actually…
“RED!” Fury shouted, galloping towards the door as quickly as he could. “RED, FORGET THE FILLIES! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!”
“F-Fury?” Red asked as he picked himself up out of rubble near the factory’s door. “What’s goin’ on?”
“See for yourself!” Fury shouted as he reached the door, leaning down to move the girder blocking it. “One of the machines must have caused a spark! This entire place is going to go up in flames!”
“D-Damn! We have to get out of here!” Red said as he quickly joined his partner in moving the girder out of the way. “Wait, if the fillies survive-”
“They won’t,” Fury told him. “We’ll block the door from the outside so that they burn to death. By the time anypony can identify them, we’ll be long gone!”
After a marginal amount of effort, the two stallions at last succeeded in pushing the girder aside just enough so that they could open the door and escape the burning factory. Fury left first, but stopped before he could get far.
“H-Hey,” Red called out as he pushed past Fury to get out of the factory. “Why did you- Oh buck…”
Standing before the two stallions, armed with spears and crossbows, was a small army of ponies dressed in the uniform of the Manehatten Police Department.
“Diamond!” Diamond Tiara groaned and rubbed her eye. “Diamond, come on! We have to go!” Diamond Tiara groaned again, but this time her eyes opened.
“Sweetie Belle, wake up!” Scootaloo shouted as she and Apple Bloom shook their friend.
“What’s going on?” Diamond asked as she sat up straight. “Why is it so hot in here? … Ah!” Diamond Tiara gasped as her eyes opened completely, and the sight of a raging fire entered her vision.
“F-Fire!” Sweetie Belle shouted as she jumped to her hooves. “W-Why is there fire?!”
“Talk later, run now!” Apple Bloom shouted. The other fillies nodded in agreement and all began charging towards the door, where they saw a stallion dressed in a dark-blue uniform walking inside.
“I found ‘em!” the stallion shouted to somepony outside, before turning his attention back towards the fillies. “Girls, hurry!”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were the first two to reach the door, climbing over the girder in their path and being escorted out by the stallion waiting for them. Silver Spoon was just a little farther behind them, but Diamond Tiara – whose athletic skills paled in comparison to the rest of her classmates’ – and Apple Bloom – whose leg must have been injured during the fall – were some ways behind the other three.
“C’mon! You can make it!” the stallion encouraged them, before a loud sound crashing sound from above directed his attention to the falling catwalk making its way down. With a yelp, the stallion jumped backwards out of the way.
Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara stopped as they witnessed the huge pile of metal blocking their path, making escape impossible for them at that time. “Diamond!” Silver Spoon’s voice called out from the other side.
“Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle cried out.
“We’re fine!” Apple Bloom assured them.
“We’re trapped,” Diamond Tiara said quietly as she backed away. “W-We’re trapped!”
“We need ta find another way out!” Apple Bloom told Diamond.
“There isn’t one!” Diamond shouted. “Those stallions said that this door was the only way in our out!”
“Well we’re not gonna get out jus’ standin’ here! Help me look!” Apple Bloom’s words seemed to have no effect, though, as Diamond Tiara simply remained standing where she was, watching in horror as the mess before her started to catch fire.
Running off to the side, Apple Bloom bit her lip and prayed to Celestia that there was another way out of this. She searched high and low for something, anything, that might help them escape.
The sight of something metal on the ground caught her eye, and Apple Bloom hurriedly moved closer to see what it was. Gasping as she realised what she was looking at, Apple Bloom wasted no time clearing the few pieces of rubble out of the way and looking over at Diamond Tiara. “It’s a sewer grid!” Apple Bloom called out. “Ah can’t open it with this injured leg! Get over here an’ help me!”
Diamond Tiara was snapped out of her daze by the revelation that there was another way out. She turned to where Apple Bloom was kneeling down and ran over towards her, finding the sewer grid that she was talking about. “But I don’t have the key for i-” Diamond’s eyebrow raised as she pulled on the grid, finding out that she didn’t need a key as it was already open. “What?”
“C’mon, let’s go!” Apple Bloom shouted as she started to climb down the ladder.
Diamond Tiara shook off her confusion and climbed down after Apple Bloom, holding her breath as the nasty smell of the sewers below assaulted her senses.