When I woke up, everything was dark. I groaned and rubbed my head... It ached like someone had punched me. Where... Where am I?

I blinked a few times, but the blackness still remained. Am I blind, or is it just really dark?

I sat up and felt around with my front hoof, trying to figure out my surroundings. The ground was cold, like stone. I hit a wall, but as I felt up the side of it, I found that it wasn't solid. Bars. I must be in a... Cage? Maybe? ...Jail cell?

Then everything came rushing back to me.

Too bad that luck has run out...

No. That voice... She can't be alive. And even if she is alive, there's no way she's out of the hospital so soon. I must have been hallucinating! It was just probably one of the female guards whose voice I mistook to be Dash's...

I sighed, lying down, the realization suddenly hitting me. I've failed. I'm probably locked up behind bars, waiting for my time to be made into rainbows. Now I just have to pray that they didn't capture the others... They're my only hope, now.

A rustle beside me made me look up.
"Ughhh... What happened?" A voice whispered quietly.

Nononono... "Amber... Is that you?"

"Mystery?"

"Oh no, not you too..."

"Where are we?" She asked.

I sighed. "I'm not completely sure, but I think were back at the factory... Behind bars."

"What?! No! No! I don't want to die! Please! Somepony let me out!" She frantically yelled into the darkness. I heard her bang at the bars, then cry out in pain.

"What happened?!"

"I... There's something sharp on the outside of the bars... I reached my hoof out though and got it caught... I think it's barbed wire or something..."

"Barbed wire? Why the hell would they... Eh, I'm not even going to question it. The factory does the weirdest things sometimes."

"I'm sure they have an explanation."

"Glaze... Isn't here, is he?"

"I don't know, I can't see a thing."

"Neither can I. Are we blindfolded, or is it just really dark?"

"I think we'd be able to feel blindfolds if we had them on."

I reached up towards my face, but felt something strain against my hooves. "What the..."

I sat down and pulled against the hoofcuffs that restrained my movement. I tried to open my wings, to find they were clamped tightly to my body.

"Amber... Are your hooves cuffed?"

"Yeah..."

"What about your wings?"

"Erm... I don't think so..."

"Hmph. Of course, they wouldn't need to. No offense."

I heard her sigh. "Are we going to die?"

I shrugged, even though it's not like she could see me. "Hard to tell. Chances are... Probably closer to yes."

Suddenly I heard frantic thrashing to my right, opposite sides to Amber.

"What was that?!" I heard Amber jump.

The banging came again, then a cry of pain and angry whispering.

Amber whimpered beside me.

"Who's there?!" There was more banging to my right.

No. No. No. That voice...

"Glaze?" The filly called out nervously.

"Amber? Is that you?"

"BUCK THIS SHIT WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE." I cried angrily.

"Mystery?"

"SHUT UP GLAZE YOU WERE OUR LAST HOPE."

"What?"

"HOW LONG WERE YOU HERE WITHOUT US KNOWING?!"

"What? I don't know, I just woke up here... Where even are we? All I remember is... Being attacked, then I kicked somepony in the face, and then... I don't know, but my mouth really hurts right now..."

"You fought back, didn't you?"

"You didn't?"

I sighed. "I never even saw it coming. I would of if I had a chance. I didn't."

"Amber? What's your story."

I heard her shuffle around a bit. "I won a prize at one of the games tables. The pony running the booth told me to come with him into the back room to get my reward... Then... I saw the real booth owner tied up and gaged... Two ponies dressed in black suits flashed a stick infront of his face and then told him some crazy story about how he had a seizure and went unconscious... The last thing I remember was trying to run, and then a horrible jolt of pain from behind, like a shock."

"Hmph. Tasers. They use those far too much. But... Those sticks... I've never seen that kind of technology. It's like they erased his memory... It would sure explain a lot..."

"Like how no suspicion was raised after the fire... Or after the gun incident." Marveled Glaze.

"Not to mention how they've survived so many inspections." Added Amber.

I shook my head. "They may have used it a few times for that purpose, but the princess wouldn't believe that she went unconscious after ever single inspection. No, they have a special procedure for inspection days, but that's off topic."

"Myst, if we get out of here alive, you have a lot of explaining to do." Amber sighed. "You were about to tell me all about it, before somepony so rudely interrupted, remember that?" I could imagine her glaring at Glaze.

"Well then tell her the darn thing now, it's not like it matters anymore! We're gonna die anyways!"

I rolled my eyes. "Does anything even matter anymore?"

"C'mon Myst, I want to know how the Factory gets through inspections. You promised you'd tell me."

"I never promised you anything, brat."

"Whatever, please?"

I sighed. "Alright, fine. It may sound really stupid, but it works. We have secret spy cameras set up in Celestia's meeting room that are under watch 24/7 at the factory. The princess's visits are often a surprise, as in, we aren't actually suppose to know about them. But because of the cameras, whoever is watching the cameras at that time that she discusses it with the council, can alert the rest of the Factory so we can initiate emergency inspection procedures."

"That's not stupid, that's actually pretty smart."

"That's not the stupid part though. The stupid part is that Celestia legit thinks we make rainbows out of colourful, inanimate objects."

"...what?"

"On inspection days, the factory operates just like normal, except instead of failures, we use the Pegasus device on random brightly coloured objects that Dash brings in."

"And it feels really freaking stupid." Glaze sighed. "Y'know, 'sucking the spectra' out of a rainbow bouncy ball. Pfft, we probably looked like idiots."

I couldn't help laughing a little. "It did feel kinda stupid, didn't it? But it worked..."

"How the hell did Celestia fall for that? Didn't she used to make rainbows? Before the Pegasi were entrusted with the task?"

"Yeah, but she made the spectra artificially, with magic. Despite what most ponies think, the princess doesn't know shit about creating real rainbows. You can't just simply separate colour from an object. In ponies, spectra is combined with magic, which allows us to harvest it from their bodies, as long as they're alive. The magic dies as soon as a pony dies, so dead fillies are no use to us, as they'd be no different than an inanimate object."

I heard Amber shift around. "That's just... Cruel. Comparing ponies to inanimate objects... All of this. The factory is really, really, cruel."

"Cruel they may be, but it's all I've ever known..." I sighed. "I don't regret leaving the job, but I liked this factory. They treated me well here... I reached out to them when I had nothing left, and they gave me everything I ever needed." I shrugged, even though I knew the other two couldn't see me in the dark.

"Aw, who even cares anymore?! We're gonna die anyways... No matter what the Factory did for you, they ain't doin' it no more. They're gonna kill us, Mystery. Or worse." Glaze shook his head angrily.

"Glaze..." I turned my head towards where his voice had been. "If... If the crazy event happens where they offer to give you back your job... No matter what the catch is, take it. It's that, or dying, and your family needs you..."

Glaze snorted in derision. "My family probably forgot about me the second I left. I wasn't kidding when I said they practically think I'm dead. I mean, I could be dead, and they wouldn't know the difference. All they care about is the paycheck that comes home to them every two weeks."

"So you want them to starve?! You want them to suffer?! You don't want them to get the money?! I though this was what your brother died for! He didn't die so that you could die too! He didn't die so that you could get killed in the same way as he did! He died so that you could live and support the family! Do you want to disgrace him like that?!" I said angrily.

He paused for a second, then sighed. "Fine. Let's hope it doesn't come to that...But if it does... I'll take my job back... I suppose."

I nodded sternly. "Good. Now, we have to figure out a plan."

"Oh, would you just give it up? It's over, Myst. We failed. What hope do we even have?"

"Don't call me that." I hissed.

"Why not? I thought we were friends now." He said in an annoyed tone. "You said your friends could call you Myst."

I snorted. "I don't want to be friends with someone who gives up that easily. I don't know about you, but I'm going to get out of here, or die trying."

"Me too." Said Amber determinedly.

"Don't be idiots. You're sentencing yourself to death."

"We're going to die either way, so we might as well die trying."

"You resist, and the chances are, Dash'll do something 10x worse to you. I'm not sure if that's worth dying for."

I shook my head. "Maybe not, but if we succeed, we've got our whole lives in front of us. Remember? That music career you dreamed of? That could become reality. But no, you just want to die here, in the place that took you away from that dream in the first place. I don't know. You just don't seem like the same Glaze that would've sacrificed himself for his brother, all those years ago. I bet that never even crossed through your mind, did it? I bet you were lying when you said you would've died for him! I bet you've never, ever, had something worth dying for-"

"THATS NOT TRUE. NONE OF THAT IS TRUE."

"THEN WHY THE HELL ARE YOU GIVING UP SO EASILY?! ALRIGHT, SO MAYBE YOU WANT TO GO DOWN HERE. THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO DRAG US DOWN WITH YOU."

An awkward silence fell over us for a few moments. There was a rustle in the cage beside me, and I heard a sigh.

"Al...alright. Fine, you... You win. I'll help you." Came a quiet voice, which was almost unrecognizable as Glaze's. He's... Not normally like this. What happened? Was it my fault? What did I do?

I nodded slowly, though I knew he couldn't see me through the darkness. "I'm... Sorry for snapping."

"When did you learn to apologize for your rude manners?"

I sighed quietly. "I don't know. That's... That's not the point. Right now we have to figure out where we are."

"It's strange to hear you two talking so quietly all of a sudden. It's like you're actually tired of yelling at eachother. That's something I never thought would happen." Amber spoke up.

I shook my head. "I'm just exhausted right now. I... I just want to go home. To my non-existent home... Wherever that may be."

"Don't we all."

I closed my eyes. "Alright, well, let's use logic here. The barbed wire outside our cages must have a purpose. That purpose is probably to keep us from touching whatever is in the room outside."

"So..." Glaze paused. "That means it's either useful for us to escape, or dangerous and could get us killed, right?"

"That would be my guess. That leaves... Any of the specialized weather rooms, I suppose. They all have harmful chemicals. Do any of you hear anything? Like, bubbling, or any kind of chemical sounds?"

There was more silence for a few seconds.

"I hear... A whirring sound. But that's about it," said Amber.

"Hmm... Could be the tornado room... No, that's impossible. We'd feel wind, and the whirring would be a lot louder. Plus, the employees in that wing of the Factory don't know about the Pegasus Device, so it wouldn't make sense to put us there." Glaze reasoned.

"What about rumbling, does anyone hear that? Even if it's just faint."
Silence.

"Only your stomach." He said with a laugh.

I snorted in derision. "Come on, I haven't eaten in forever, be serious Glaze."

"You should've actually eaten that pie I offered you, geez, you took like, 1 bite."

"Well, at that point I wasn't actually thinking that we'd be captured, was I? Now be real. Do you hear anything?"

"No," cut in Amber.

"Ok, that rules out any of the rooms with liquid thunder, if that's what you were getting at."

"Yeah, that's good, we're getting somewhere. Leaving that aside for a second, what rooms could possibly aid in our escape?" I asked thoughtfully.

"The armory obviously. Though we were never allowed in there when we actually worked here, so why would they let us in now? There's no need to even use that room, it's only for emergencies."

"Hmph, we're probably not there. It would be a stupid idea to even put us in there, when there's so many other rooms that could have been used." I sighed. "So that rules out most of the rooms that I had in mind. I'm not sure where we are..."

I heard more shifting around on Glaze's side. "Maybe.... Maybe we're not even in the Upper Factory. Maybe we're in one of the other divisions."

I shook my head. "That wouldn't make sense, the other departments wouldn't allow this. They'd get suspicious of the Spectra Division... Plus, why would they build jail cells in those wings? No, that would be stupid."

I heard Amber lie down. "Well, if we know that we have to walk to get to the Pegasus Device room, then we can make up a plan from there, right?"

"That's true, most of the halls have more or less the same type of layout, so depending on what hallways we pass, there'd be a chance to escape. We may just have to wing it and make it up as we go." Glaze said thoughtfully.

I nodded slowly. "That might work... But the problem is, our restraints will keep us from getting very far. We're in a Factory in the middle of the sky, and if we do get away from the guards, there's no way we could fly away with these wing clamps."

"Hmph.... I guess we could use the exit that you and Amber escaped from. That way, if we could get out, we could just let ourselves fall into the lake."

"That's... Actually smart," marveled Amber.

"But..." I sighed. "I...can't swim."

"What do you mean you can't swim, didn't you fish me out of that lake?"

"I... Didn't actually swim... I used the momentum from my flight to get underwater and back up... Back when I was a filly, my parents never took me anywhere out of Cloudsdale, so I never got the chance to learn how to swim."

I heard Glaze facehoof. "Ok, well... I'll carry you to shore, then we'll make a run for it."

I nodded. "I hope we're able to pull off something this crazy..."

"Hey... Even if we can't get out..." Glaze sighed. "I'm good with computers. If I can just get to the control room, I might be able to set the factory into self destruct mode, or at least turn the power off so we'll have more cover."

"Oh please, you shouldn't even try."

My head snapped up. I heard Glaze jump. Amber whimpered.

There was the sound of a metal door slamming open, and suddenly light flooded into our cells.

I quickly shut my eyes, the bright lights blinding me for a second.

It took me a while to adjust, but when I opened them again, Rainbow Dash and a large group of guards were standing at the steel bars of what seemed to be a jail cell, the likes of which I've never seen in this factory.

"But..." I looked over at Glaze, his surprised expression mirroring my own. Dash shouldn't even be alive... Let alone walking and flying...

"How..."

"How?" Dash laughed hysterically. "How? Oh please, anything is possible when one of your best friends is an alicorn princess. It took a little persuading, and..." She faked a cough. "A little mind control... But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do! Twilight'll never even know what happened."

"You mind controlled poor Twilight?! Some friend you are!" Amber shouted.

"Yeah, Element of Loyalty, my ass." I scoffed.

Dash rolled her eyes. "Technically I wasn't the one who mind controlled her, Discord was. Don't poke false accusations at me, I'm just as good a friend as I always was. It's Twilight who betrayed me by refusing to heal my wings in the first place. Plus, I sacrificed my own health and safety to save my silly factory from getting shut down, didn't I? I'd call that loyalty. I mean, I might have some major harmful side effects right now." She rolled her eyes and yawned. "Twi was totally lying when she said that, I don't feel a thing." She pulled a pair of wire cutters out of her labcoat pocket, and began to cut the barbed wire that surrounded our cells.

"You shouldn't even be alive, you're awfully lucky that fate was on your side that day."

"Oh please, fate had nothing to do with it. I'm just awesome. Face it, there's nothing you can do to beat me, so don't even try." She snapped the last wire infront of the iron door. "Get her out of there, make sure she doesn't go anywhere. Use your Tasers if you have to, I don't want her one step out of line." She ordered to the guards, walking over and beginning to work on Glaze's cage.

I retreated to the back wall and sat down, staying put and fixing the three guards that entered my cell with an even gaze. I may be scared, but things will just be worse if I show them that. Might as well put my training to use.

I felt something around my neck, and reached up and tore the glittery navy blue fabric free, the only part remaining of my gala dress, and threw it to the floor. 88 bits down the drain. Pfft. Not even worth it, we didn't accomplish anything at that stupid gala.

"Don't take another step..." I warned with a growl.

One of the guards drew out their taser and walked forward. I moved to the opposite corner, backing further into the wall.

"Don't you dare touch me with that..."

He lunged forward, and I turned, attempting to buck him in the head with one of my back hooves. However, I forgot about the cuffs, and kicking one hoof out dragged my other one with it, and although I did land a blow on the guard, I also ended up on the ground.

I let out a scream of pain as I felt electricity jolt through me. I've been tasered many times before, back when I was training and messed up something really badly; I had even shocked myself with my own taser once by accident...but they've improved the power of all of their technology in the last 4 years, and the shock must be at least x10 worse than back then.

I stayed frozen on the ground for a few seconds, faking unconsciousness. I have an extremely high pain tolerance, so I can usually stay awake during these kind of things, up to a certain point.

I heard Dash stop fiddling with the wire cutters for a second. "... She's faking it. Shock her again."

The guard froze. "But- Miss Dash! Most ponies can't-"

"She's been here for 4 years, she's been shocked so many times it's not even painful anymore. I've seen her do this before, she's not unconscious. NOW SHOCK HER AGAIN, AND THATS AN ORDER."

The excruciating pain came again, and I couldn't help letting out another yell. Dash is wrong. She's so wrong, it's extremely painful. When the shock subsided, I tried to freeze again and make myself more convincing, but I could tell I was still shaking.

"AGAIN, I WANT HER REALLY UNCONSCIOUS."

Against my own will, I whimpered like a kicked puppy and curled up into a ball. There's no way I can take another shock, I'll go unconscious for sure... And if I do, I may never wake back up.
I heard another yell from the cell beside me, probably Glaze getting the same treatment.

"You idiots! Stop resisting them, you're just giving them a reason to cause you pain!" Shouted Amber angrily.

"Hmph, the filly is the only smart one. That's a pity, you could have been useful to Cloudsdale if you could fly properly." Dash turned to the other guard who stood above me. "Are you going to shock her or not, hurry up, we don't have all day."

"But... Ma'am, she stopped resisting us."

She shook her head. "We're not taking chances again. Do I have to do it myself?"

When the guards didn't answer right away, she rolled her eyes and stepped forward.

"You know, I might go easy on you if you beg for mercy." She grinned menacingly and fished her own taser out of her pocket.

I clenched my teeth. "I won't beg for you, Dash. Go ahead. Shock me. Kill me. I don't care... I'm no use to you... Amber was doomed from the start. But please, spare Glaze. It wasn't his fault he left, it was mine. I forced him out. He never wanted to leave, I made him, and he didn't come back because he thought you would kill him if he did. He was one of your best workers... And plus, if you kill both of us, you'll have nopony to work the Pegasus Device. You'll have to do it yourself until you can get two replacements... TWO. And you know how long it takes to find someone qualified for the job... Do you really want that?"

Across the room, both Amber and Glaze gave me surprised glances.

Dash glared down at me, taser still poised in her hoof. "Aww, how sweet, you want to save him... But I'm not an idiot. I'm sure Mr. Toaster is much smarter than that. Nice try, but as much as I'd like my employees back, I'm not taking anymore chances."

"Chances? Who said you have to take chances? Put him under 24/7 security. Taser him if he steps out of line. Kill him if he tries to escape again. But you won't have to do any of that, cause he's loyal. Aren't you Glaze?"

The light yellow stallion paused for a second, his eyes wide with surprise and confusion. Then he hurriedly got a hold of himself and straightened up, nodding his head. "Yes, ma'am."

Dash glanced over at him once before glaring at me suspiciously. "Hmm... Well, if what you're saying is true... I'll think about it..."

I lay my head back down on the floor, satisfied. When Dash says she'll 'think about something', there's a good chance that she'll go through with it. I flinched a little as another shock passed through me. I couldn't withstand this one, just as I expected. I felt myself drift into unconsciousness, as my body finally shut down for the overwhelming pain. But hey, if I'm going to die, I want to die knowing that I'm done with ruining lives. If Glaze can't escape, the second best thing is to give him back what he had before. Even if he can be a jerk. Plus... I think I may have a plan... That is, if I wake up before it's too late...