Origins: PGS-1, Survivor Of The Rainbow Factory (V 2 Edit)

   Janson flew through the open sky in an amazing blur. A trail of pure red streamed from his amazing breaking of the sound barrier.

No problem. If Dorkmane can do it, anypony can. Dave thought. He geared up to begin, his red coat glistened in an anxious sweat. His wings spread wide.

   "Begin!" an announcer shouted.

   Dave began. He shot out towards the newly reset clouds. He append one and rushed to the second. He mis-struck the cloud and went into a tailspin. The cloud-ground of the testing area was approaching fast. He shot his wings out to attempt to correct his falling. That only succeeded for a moment before he fell more wildly. Stands, sky and ground became a blur of motion and noise as he fell to the ground with a soft "whump". He looked up, sweat and tears running down his muzzle. Thoughts raced through his mind as he contemplated what had just happened.

   Then a familiar tale began to unravel itself in Dave's mind. A tale regarding Rainbow Dash that was meant to scare fillies. At least, he used it to do that. He remembered the story clearly.

Rainbow Dash was a judge one day at the contest. She saw four pegasi fail their test, and she took them away to speak with them. Black suited ponies came out and took the failures. Rainbow Dash turned around and said... When you fail, you've proven what you're worth to Cloudsdale. She left, and when she returned, SHE CAME BACK WITH A BLOODY MANE! And do you know whose blood it was? YOURS!

   That was the story, at least. He hoped it wasn't true. He prayed it wasn't.

   "Failure. Go to your post and await the end of C Group testing." A judge said in an aggravated tone.

   Dave whimpered and slowly trotted to the small gate labelled "Failures". He sat there alone for the duration of the tests, until a small yellow pony with an orange and blue mane failed. She managed a perfect takeoff and proceeded towards the cloud-clearing portion. She was kicking and flailing at the clouds, unable to dissipate even one. This continued for several minutes before the judges failed her. She glided over to the gate to join Dave.

   "Are the stories true?" she asked. Dave recognized her. She was Naomi Oasis. He thought back to Flight Kindergarten.

"Stop it!" Naomi cried.

"Never, gnome! N-o-m-e! Gnome!" Dave began to tease her. Her friends always called her Nome. He teased her because it sounded like gnome. He thought it was fun.

"Yeah, GNOME!" The others joined in. They began to chant it.

"Gnome, gno-ome! Gnome, gno-ome!"

   "I hope not..." Dave's eyes showed genuine fear and sadness for the first time since his father went on a drunken rage and killed his mother. He remembered that as clear as day.

"You WHORE! I know that you've been sleeping around on me!" Dave's father screamed. He was so loud it woke up Dave from his nap. He walked out, peeking around the corner to see what was happening.

"No! I haven't! Really! Whatever Janie told you was a lie!" Dave's mother cried in her defense. Dave's father back hooved her.

"Liar! She showed me pictures!" Dave's father hit her again. She was bleeding from her lip, and bruises showed through her pink coat. Dave held in his screams and watched silently.

"Those weren't of me!" She cried.

Dave's father walked out of view blaring swears and denying her claims to innocence with more irrefutable proof. She was pointlessly defending herself. Dave had seen other stallions around the house lately. Dave's father returned holding a kitchen knife.

"W...what are you going to do with that?" She cried out in horror.

"I'm cutting the problem off at the head." He replied cooly. He stepped behind her and took her mane in his teeth. He yanked violently. She sat on her haunches, crying out in pain and fear. Dave covered his mouth with a hoof. His father rested the knife against her neck and breathed out. He then began to viciously hack and saw at her neck. Blood flew everywhere and splattered the walls and Dave's toy furniture. He gasped quietly as his mother screamed through gurgles of blood.

His father threw one last powerful chop at her neck and tore off her head. He dropped the head and sat in one of Dave's toy chairs. He plunged the knife into the toy table. Dave ran to his room and lied awake in bed until his father came into his room, coated in his mother's blood. He sat down and kissed Dave's head. The whiskey he had seen him drink earlier, before he went to bed, was still strong on his breath.

"I love you." He whispered. Dave cried silent tears.

   That's when the suited ponies came. They got the yellow pony rather easily into the vehicle they had. Dave was more trouble. They grabbed him, and he sunk his teeth deep into one suited appendage, and quickly bucked the other. Neither released their stone grip. They looked to each other and nodded. Dave took a headbutt to the face. He bit them again, bloodied face spewing hatred and spittle. They huffed and placed a small object against his side. He felt a sudden burn and his muscles contracted. He quickly blacked out.

   When he awoke, he was in a strange contraption in the middle of an abandoned movie theater. A strong stench of blood and death hung in the air, screaming to him of the night of his mother's death. He looked around. He was bound in chains and there were orangish brown gears rotating above him. What is on the roof?. Then he realized. He was upside-down. He looked around to see multiple suited ponies. They all looked towards a black suited figure who stood, barely visible, in the shadows. She gave a signal and the suited ponies began to shuffle. He heard the machine begin to croak to life. The chains tightened, and he couldn't breathe. He looked around and saw the suited figure begin to laugh as it left the theater. His ribs began to crack. His spine tore itself out of alignment. He was paralyzed. Tears rolled down his face and he put his thoughts to good things. His sister before she died. His mother. His life. The gears contracted until he went went mentally numb. He was then dropped into the gears. He thought one thought mid-air. I wish that I could fix it. My life, my family, all of it. I'm sorry... He hit back-first, and slid beneath the turning pieces of pure steel and wrought iron. Dave was dead.

   Suited ponies came to the end of a conveyor belt at the base of the machine and took his body, as streams of pure Chroma flowed into correspondent vats below.