Escape Insanity & Operation: Crimson Rainbow (The Rainbow Factory Chapters 2&3)

by LCpl Azure Blaze

Part 2b: Scootaloo's Story

"How much longer are we going to stay here watching her, Staff Sergeant Blaze?" Scootaloo could faintly hear the voices of other ponies in the room she was in. She tried to open her eyes but everything was blurry and dark and she couldn't identify a single thing before she closed her eyes once more.

"If you want to go, go ahead; I'm staying with her until she wakes up," said another pony in the room with her. She tried to open her eyes again. This time it was slightly clearer, a bright light shining down on her from the ceiling. She looked over to her right to see a machine with many different lights on it. She blinked slowly and when she opened her eyes again, she was alarmed to see a rusty wall with blood spattered all over it and a dim red light shining. She quickly closed her eyes tightly out of fear of the scene.

"We have been here since midnight, we should just leave her to rest alone," she heard the first pony say. Scootaloo groaned and tightened her eyes in a last attempt to open her eyes up and see the world around her clearly.

"Quiet, she is waking up," the second pony said. Scootaloo opened her eyes to a horrible sight: She was in the Rainbow Factory again on a bloodied examination table with tubes coming out of her body carrying her spectra into a small bag hanging above her. There were two silhouettes of ponies with sharp teeth off to her left side, staring and smiling at her with evil intent. She immediately let out a shriek and yelled, "I'm in the factory again! Get me out of here!" She attempted to remove the hoses but before she could touch them one of the malicious-looking ponies jumped up on top of her and held her down so that she couldn't move.

"No, you're not," said the figure, "You're in Canterlot's medical wing. Calm down or you won't recover."

Scootaloo blinked once and when she opened her eyes she was in a different room that looked like an emergency room. She looked back up at the silhouette to find that it was actually a blue-colored pegasi in a military uniform who looked a lot friendlier than the image she had seen before so she calmed down. "W-What happened to me?" she asked.

"We found you in Froggy Bottom Bog," said the other pony in the room, "You were pretty beat up and dehydrated. You're lucky we found you or else you might not have lived to see the morning. What were you doing there anyways? What happened to you?"

At that moment, there was a knock at the door, followed by a doctor opening the door to reveal Princess Luna standing in the doorway, guarded by two guards.

"Princess Luna!" shouted Scootaloo.

"Greetings, Scootaloo," Luna responded, walking over beside Scootaloo's bed. "I see you are recovering just fine." As soon as she came within range of Scootaloo's arms they wrapped around her in a loving embrace.

"I thought I would never see you again, or anybody for that matter." said Scootaloo.

"Well, if it wasn't for these two over here and their squad, we wouldn't be together here right now," replied Luna.

"We were only doing our jobs to keep Equestria safe," replied Azure Blaze.

Scootaloo studied the two ponies standing before her, and as she did, voices started running through her head.

"Let's go. Primary mission objective is our priority."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. So we are just going to leave Wind Lance behind like this?"

"What are we going to do? Command won't let us."

"Screw command. I don't know about you guys but I am going to go get Wind Lance back with or without your help."

Scootaloo's eyes widened. Quickly, she turned to Princess Luna and whispered, "Aren't those two of the ponies I saw in my dream?"

Luna replied "Yes, they are. The blue one is Staff Sergeant Azure Blaze, as I have already told you, and the other one is Sergeant Violet Light. Do not mention the fact that they were in your dream to them, however; I think it is best that they do not know."

Scootaloo nodded back at Luna to show her understanding.

"Now," said Luna. "Would you care to inform all of us as to how you ended up in Froggy Bottom Bog?"

"It was horrible," said Scootaloo. "While me and Rainbow Dash were trying to escape from the factory on our own, we entered a room and..."

Before she could continue Luna cut her off and turned to the other ponies in the room and said, "I think it is best if you two leave us so that we may talk about this subject in private. I will inform you myself on what is occurring later."

Both of the other ponies bowed and said, "As you wish your highness." They immediately left the room shortly after and Scootaloo and Luna were left alone to discuss what had happened to Scootaloo.

"Now then, as you were saying."

Scootaloo continued telling her story. "While me and Rainbow Dash were trying to escape, we decided to check this one room out. She said she had never seen the inside of it and that it was secret within a select few. When we entered the room, we found six tanks of spectra with clones of Rainbow Dash in each of the tanks."

"Clones?" said Luna in a very surprised tone. "Are you sure? That kind of technology has not yet been discovered in Equestria."

"I know what we saw Princess Luna," said Scootaloo. "I didn't like what we saw, but we saw it nonetheless. What's worse is that there weren't just six of them. Dr. Atmosphere captured us and showed us the rest. It was an army too big to count. He said he was going to use them to take over Equestria!"

"This is very bad news to be hearing," said Luna hanging her head low. After a while, she brought her head back up and said, "You said you were both captured. Did Rainbow Dash manage to escape as well?"

Scootaloo was deeply saddened by this question because it brought the memory of Rainbow Dash being hauled off to have her DNA harvested against her will. "She made a deal with Dr. Atmosphere," she said in a saddened tone. "He said he would let me go if she agreed to stay and 'donate' her DNA to feed the clones. After that, they hit the back of my head and made me blackout. I don't remember much after that." She sat there a while longer, hanging her head low in sadness before raising her head again and saying, "We have got to save her. I know she has made a couple of bad choices before, but deep down, I know she is still the same Rainbow Dash that I came to know and love."

"We will do our very finest to ensure the safety of Rainbow Dash," replied Luna. "Of course the Equestrian government will have to question her on her deeds but I will make sure to speak on her behalf. She will be fine. Is that all you can remember? Tell me what happened in the bog."

Scootaloo began to tell her story. "I was coming in and out of consciousness as they were taking me there. All I could remember was..."
________________________________________________________________________________________

"What do you think the boss man is doing?" Scootaloo heard one of her captors saying. She was still groggy from losing consciousness and couldn't see much of anything. "I mean, letting this filly out of the factory is a huge compromise. If she does happen to survive the swamps and somehow makes it to tell the authorities, or even worse the Princess, they'll pull the plug on use for sure."

"She's not going to survive; that's what you and I are for," said another pony. "Dr. Atmosphere told us to make her suffer before eliminating the compromise. What better a way to do it than to dump her in a super humid bog. All we have to do is keep an eye on her until she croaks; maybe even speed up the process if you know what I mean! Haha!"

"Yeah, I understand," the first pony said. "I just... never mind. Let's just get this over with."

Scootaloo lost her consciousness once more for a while before coming to as she was being harshly thrown into a moist and muddy swamp, followed by a swift kick to the forehead which dazed her a while longer. When her vision became much clearer, she lifted her head slowly and saw a pool of her blood which was dripping from her head and mixing with the mud of the swamp. She then rolled on her back and looked up at her captures. It was a pair of stallions with ski masks covering their faces. One had a yellow-green colored body and the other had a light purple body with a utility belt.

"Here we are!" said the purple one. "Outside that damned factory at last. You must be happy. Overjoyed even. Aren't you?" he said, walking up to Scootaloo, grabbing her neck and looking her straight in the eyes. "You don't seem to be. After all, you aren't smiling." He then slammed Scootaloo's head down into the muddy swamp. "I know I'm happy to be out." He then put his hoof on top of Scootaloo's head and began to force it down into the ground with great force. Scootaloo began to scream out in pain while trying to keep her head above the mud to breathe, but her attempts were to no avail. After a short time, her mouth and nose had gone under and she could no longer lift her head back up to get air. She could feel her lungs shrivel, and just before she had lost all hope, she heard the other pony shout, "STOP!"

The hoof on Scootaloo's head lifted and Scootaloo came back up coughing and gasping for air. The purple pony looked back at the yellow-green pony.

"Please, at least have the common decency to give her a swift death: This is inhuman."

The purple pony stood there a while, and then chuckled to himself. "If it bothers you so much," he said reaching into his utility belt, pulling out a revolver, and extending it in his hoof with the handle facing the yellow-green pony. "Then you can have the honors." Both ponies stood there in silence a while as the yellow-green pony stared at the handle of the gun he was being offered. After a while, the yellow-green pony advanced and took the gun in his hoof. He walked over to Scootaloo, still laying in the marsh with her face up, blood trickling down her face, which was also covered with mud.

"I'm sorry," said the yellow-green pony, beginning to point the barrel straight at Scootaloo's head. "But I can't do this!" He continued as he rapidly turned around and attempted to shoot the purple pony. But before he could, the purple pony blocked his arm from swinging all the way around and gave the yellow-green pony a swift and hard punch to the face, causing him to drop the gun and fall flat on his back right next to Scootaloo.

"I knew it," said the purple pony picking up the gun and starting to rapidly pace back and forth in anger, "I knew you were a traitor. You thought you were going to live like a hero didn't you? Well guess what!" the purple pony raised the gun and pointed it at the yellow-green pony, "You're going to die just like the scum that you're laying in and with this useless filly that doesn't even deserve to be called a pegasi that you tried to save." The yellow-green pony laid his head back, ready to accept his fate when suddenly out of nowhere one of the heads of a hydra came bursting out of the bog and caught the purple pony by the lower half of his body and raised him up in the air. Soon after two other heads followed it and the three heads began to fight over the now defenseless pony's body.

Quickly, the yellow-green pony got up, lifted Scootaloo onto his shoulders and ran behind a tree to hide from the monster. He set her down and leaned her against the tree. "Boy," he said, "aren't we a lucky bunch." He then peaked out from the side of the tree to look at the monster. "It won't be long before he finishes his meal and comes looking for us." He then came back around the tree, took off his ski mask, revealing his green and yellow mane, which had been hidden by his mask until now, and looked Scootaloo in the eyes. "Okay, here's what we are going to do: The closest form of civilization is in that direction," he said pointing off into the distance. "Try to make your way out of the bog while I lead the hydra in the opposite direction. When you make it to civilization, tell them everything. Every single thing you have seen in the last day. But most of all, tell them there are more like me. Ponies who are being forced to work in the factory that wish to stop this madness. Now go!"

The green and yellow pony began to run off to distract the beast, but before he could, Scootaloo stopped him saying, "W-wait." The pony stopped and turned around when he heard her voice. "W-who are you?"

"My name is not of any importance, now," replied the pony, "I have no respect for the pony I used to be. I only hope that the deed I have done this day is enough to forgive myself for my past actions. I do not plan on returning from this dangerous task, but if for some reason, I do, and you happen to see me once more, know that my name is...
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"What was his name?" asked Luna.

"H-his name was... His name was..." said Scootaloo, holding a hoof to her head in a state of confusion. "Why can't I remember his name?"

"It's okay if you can't remember, young Scootaloo," said Luna. "What happened afterwards?"

"After that, he took off and the monster left chasing after him. I started to crawl off in the direction he told me to. I was out there for hours wallowing in the hot, muggy swamp. After a while, I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going. I felt like I was on my last leg. I think that is when those soldiers found me."

"I see," said Luna. "Is that the end of your story?"

"Yes, your highness."

"Very well. I will have Staff Sergeant Blaze put together a team of the most highly-trained professional pegasi operatives to enter the factory, retrieve Rainbow Dash, capture Dr. Atmosphere, and destroy the facility. Know that the situation is in good hands now, Scootaloo."

"Where is Princess Celestia?" asked Scootaloo. "Does she know what is going on?"

"My sister has been out on diplomatic duties in Saddle Arabia. She has been informed of the situation through a letter and is on her way back, but until she arrives, she has trusted me to handle the situation myself. As I have said, you need not worry, Scootaloo, we will retrieve your friend and handle the situation. For now, you must rest and recover. I must go speak to Azure Blaze." After Luna said this, she gave Scootaloo one final hug, saying, "We are extremely happy to see you safe," and left the room, saying, "Get better soon, Scootaloo."

After Luna left, Scootaloo was left in the hospital room all alone. She laid back in her bed, let out a sigh of relief, and closed her eyes.

Author's Note:

My Christmas gift to you. It was supposed to be the rest of the whole thing but I found myself on a quick Christmas vacation that happened to pop up and I was left without a laptop to finish up on some work. So I'm doing this from my phone... Truth is the entire time this story went on hiatus I have been working, a lot, on it. So much in fact that the next and presumably the last part is almost done. Enjoy! I have worked very hard and the road is coming to an end. I will write more on what's going on in a blog post soon. Thanks again for all of you for following me this far! Its going to be a great ending I guarantee it

Comments

[LCpl Azure Blaze]

5249255 Sorry for how long it took to get back to you. The due date for the final chapter was indeed on new years but by now you may have noticed it hasn't happened yet. In fact it is a month late by now. The answer is I have had life problems like midterms I had to focus on and on top of that I got into trouble so I was in in-school suspension with no internet capabilities which killed all of my time that I had set aside to work on it. Lastly, which is a good thing, the chapter is ending up longer than I had planned out. I am at this time about 3/4 through the final chapter and it is 3,747 words long. I am almost there just hang in there... On another note, the next chapter did come out a little while after CODsoldier123 commented so there is that... which might have been what you were asking about.