The Bureau: Wretched Machines

“The Rainbow Factory? What’s that?”  Rainbow Dash asked Doctor Whooves.

“A story, my dear. Would you like a plot synopsis?”

“Uh…sure?”

“So, basically, Scootaloo, her friend Orion, and another pegasus named Aurora Dawn. Basically, the three fail their tests and are sent to the Factory, where failed pegasi are sent to be murdered and harvested for their genetic material in order to make rainbows. You, Rainbow Dash, are the overseer of this facility. You see, the Cloudsdale in this story is one that many ultra-nationalists live. If any pegasi are worthless to the ‘Flock’, as in, they fail their flight test, they are sent to the Factory to die.”

“How could anypony think that a pegasus who can’t fly is worthless? You can still do great things without flight!”

“Sadly, in the Rainbow Factory, the inhabitants of Cloudsdale do not share your acceptance of flightless pegasi. Anyways, Orion is murdered by a machine that breaks his ribs and tears him apart for his genetic material. That was the mangled brown body you saw caught between the ceiling and machine. Anyways, Scootaloo and Aurora try to get away. You tear Aurora’s wings off because she was blocking your way, which explains the blood and yellow feathers on you. Then, Scootaloo gets lost, and you corner her. After she says, “You have beautiful eyes,” the story ends. It’s widely accepted that Scootaloo is then murdered by you, but no one is one hundred percent sure.”

A loud knock emanated from the front door. “Who the hell could that be?” Frostbite wondered aloud.

Frostbite opened the door, and standing in front of him was Soarin. “Hey, guys. Dashie, you okay? I heard something was wrong.”

“How could you know that?”

“I had an off feeling in my stomach. Something told me you’d come here for help. Maybe it was just intuition. Is everything okay?”

Doctor gave Soarin the lowdown on the situation. “Wow. So, what are we going to do about it?”

“Well, the only way to combat bleeding is by significantly altering the events of the story. We do this by traveling into your subconscious and doing something. In this case, it would probably be preventing the deaths of Orion, Aurora Dawn, and Scootaloo, neutralizing Rainbow Dash, and reveal to the world what happened inside the Factory after we destroy it. Those changes would be enough.”

Rainbow Dash spoke up. “Why not just kill me?”

“Because that isn’t significant enough t the universe the story takes place in. The Factory could just bring someone else in to finish the job. Scootaloo would still die, and the horrors inside the factory would continue. We need to completely annihilate all remnants of the Rainbow Factory. Come to think of it, we’d probably have to eliminate all of the Suits and scientists, especially Doctor Atmosphere, working there, too.”

“Oh. I get it now. We really need to fuck shit up over there, huh?”

“Precisely. But we still need a few days to prepare. The machine that I’d use still needs a few adjustments. Until then, I’d recommend you have a third party, probably Soarin or Frostbite, observe you and Scootaloo while you sleep. It would help in us knowing when the best time to travel into your subconscious would be.”

“Um…okay…”

“I would recommend starting tonight. So, you and Scootaloo can go about your day now. Frostbite and I will coordinate a plan to alter the events of Rainbow Factory, and we’ll alert you when we’re ready.”

“Doctor?”

“Yes, Rainbow Dash?”

“What would happen if we just ignored this problem?”

“Well, the events of Rainbow Factory would become a reality. History would be altered, and Rainbow Factory would actually happen, something we don’t want. Usually, the bleeding process, from start to finish, takes about a week, starting when you have your first night terror. That gives us about six days. I can imagine we’ll be ready to travel inside your subconscious in about three.”

“Okay. Well then, I guess Scootaloo and I will be off. Scootaloo!” She called for her daughter, who had been waiting in the other room for about a half hour.

Scootaloo slowly walked into the room. Parts of her coat were matted and a darker shade of orange around her eyes and in smaller streaks down her face. She had been crying.

“Scootaloo, what’s wrong? Why were you crying?”

“I fell asleep and had another nightmare.”

“What happened in it?”

“Well, we were in a room, and you were there, and you told me…you told me that you didn’t love me…that I was dead to you and that I was a failure to you and Cloudsdale…”

“Baby, I would never think that!”

“That’s not all. There was a brown pegasus. His name was Orion, I think. You called him up and strapped him to a machine. He told me he loved me, and I told him I loved him back. I think he was a friend of mine or something, but I’ve never seen him before. You said something about how it works better when the ribs are broken, and then he was crushed and stuff came out of him. It was so scary, mommy…”

“It’s okay, baby…it’s okay…we’re gonna go now, okay? Wanna go get some ice cream?”

Scootaloo nodded in approval and smiled. “Can I get two scoops this time?”

“Of course you can.”

Scootaloo looked to her right, and saw Soarin there. “Daddy! Hi!”

“Hey, sweetie! How have you been?”

She ran at him and gave him a hug, which he gladly reciprocated. “Don’t call me ‘sweetie’, daddy. And I’ve been good.”

“Cool. So, are we gonna go get ice cream or what? It’s pretty hot out.”

“Okay.”

Rainbow Dash, Soarin, and Scootaloo left the room, leaving the Doctor and Frostbite to think.