Inevitable Disaster

Crafty smirked and said, “Here, let me show you from the beginning.”

He pointed over at a huge conveyer belt that had hundreds of gems traveling on it.

“First of all, pegasi have gemstone mines set up all over Equestria. The gems are brought here and put onto that beltway.”

He then pointed over to a huge machine that seemed to be sorting the gems by color.

“Then the gems are sorted. The beltway divides into seven smaller networks, each carrying a different colored gem group.”

The seven smaller conveyer belts led into a different room.

“Before we continue I highly advise that you wear these,” said Crafty handing Scootaloo a pair of safety glasses, “With all great things comes a great responsibility.”

They continued on into the next room as Scootaloo put on the glasses. In this room the seven belts ended leaving huge piles of gems of every color. Factory workers flew back and forth between the gem piles and seven different machines.

“The sorted jewels are piled here and then transferred to the color extraction capsules,” said Crafty coolly, “The red gems go into the red spectrum extract capsule, the orange in orange, and so on… Once the color is dissected from the gems they are discarded leaving nothing but “raw spectrum”.”

“What is raw spectrum?” questioned Scootaloo.

Crafty sighed and answered, “Raw spectrum in the color extracted from the gemstones. It is highly toxic and dangerous in many ways…”

“Dangerous? How so?”

“Ok, do you know why you’re wearing those safety glasses? Because raw spectrum is an enigma! It is so bright, muddled, jumbled, and disarrayed that seeing it would cause mental disorders almost instantly! Not to mention that touching it is fatal! If there ever was a malfunction in this facility and raw spectrum were to leak out the glasses you are wearing cut your chances of having a mental breakdown to an 18% chance.”

“Oh…”

“Ok, follow me. Once extracted from the gems the raw spectrum travels through this network of pipes.”

Each capsule had a pipe extending out from the bottom of it. All the pipes glowed the color of the raw spectrum that was running through them.

“The pipes lead into the reactor room,” said Crafty stepping into an elevator followed by Scootaloo.

When they arrived at the second floor both pegasi stepped out. They seemed to be in a control room. There were computer monitors and pegasi dressed in white lab coats absorbed in highly sophisticated work everywhere. One of the walls of the room was made of glass and Scootaloo could easily peer down onto the floor below. There was a huge machine unlike anything Scootaloo had ever seen before! It constantly let off steam, and all seven pipes containing the raw spectrum lead into it.

“This…” said Crafty with a grin, “…is the Rainbow Reactor! It processes the raw spectrum into “pure spectrum”. This is the heart of the factory! Without this machine making rainbows would be impossible. The Rainbow Reactor uses extreme heat, up to 9000 degrees, to purify the raw spectrum! Once purified the spectrum is cooled and then transferred to the caldrons where it is stirred. After that it is ready to be painted into the sky.”

“Wow!”

“Yup, it’s pretty amazing. The reactor is awfully stable and only leaks or gives us trouble rarely.”

“So, now that I know how the Rainbows are made, could you please teach me how to do my job?”

“Of course Scootaloo, follow me over here and I’ll show you. You see once the spectrum is cooled it is your job to deliver it to the caldrons…”

--A few days later--

Nimbos took a breath and relaxed as he gazed down at the Rainbow Reactor below. It was another fine day at the Rainbow Factory, no trouble and no worries. The screen before him flashed some code and he quickly responded to it by hitting a few buttons. Then all was well again.

“My shift is almost over,” he thought, “I also heard there is a new factory worker. Maybe I’ll swing by the transfer room and greet her after this.”

Nimbos looked over to his right where his friend Sunburst was sitting.

“Gah!” exclaimed Nimbos.

Sunburst was in control of the heating and cooling of the reactor. And he fallen asleep! This wasn’t the first time he had fallen asleep on the job, but never with something this important!

“Sunburst! Wake up!” yelled Nimbos jumping to his hoofs.

He galloped over to Sunburst who had just awakened groggily. Nimbos stared at him friend’s screen in horror! The reactor was at 9876 degrees and climbing fast! Nimbos tried his best to cool the reactor by typing in paragraphs of code after code, but it was no use. He slammed his hoof down on the emergency alert button and the alarm went off.

“Dam you Sunburst! Look what you’ve done! The reactor's at 10,483 degrees!!! If it reaches 13,000 we’ll have a Rainbow Meltdown on our hoofs!”

Sunburst was too stunned to speak. He just sat there gaping at the screen.

“We’ll have to manually fix it!” exclaimed Nimbos.

Nimbos quickly flew over to the elevator.

“You do as much as you can up here Sunburst, while I try to fix it manually down there!”

Nimbos hopped into the elevator and descended down to the first floor. When the doors opened he made sure his glasses were on right and hurried into the reactor room itself! The heat the Rainbow Reactor was giving off was overwhelming! Nimbos could barely breathe! In the confusion of the noise and heat waves Nimbos saw two other workers rush into the room with him.

“At least I’m not alone,” he thought.

Nimbos and the other two workers galloped over to a water pump inside of the room. The two workers grabbed the hose while Nimbos turned the iron wheel to allow water to rush through and into the pipes. The second he touched the wheel he let go and yelped in pain! The water wheel was so smoldering hot that it burned the skin right off of his hoofs!

“Aaaaahhhhh!” he screamed as he grabbed onto the wheel again.

Nimbos knew that if they didn’t cool down the reactor soon everybody would die! As the metal burned though his flesh the wheel slowly began to turn. The smell of burnt flesh filled his nostrils as he gave one final jerk! Water poured through the pipe and filled the hose. It spewed out of the end at 50 gallons of water per second! The minute the water hit the reactor it instantly turned to steam!

“Is is too late?” thought Nimbos, “Are we all going to die?”

Then a voice cried over the loudspeaker, barely audible over the noise, “This is Sunburst! I was able to shut down the reactor! Unfortunately, pressure still seems to be building rapidly!”

At that moment the sound of crunching metal filled the air. Nimbos looked over just in time to see a crack erupt on one side of the reactor!

“Look out!!!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.

But it was too late! Raw spectrum discharged from the opening and covered the two workers. Because the spectrum was at about 11,500 degrees it was in a gaseous state. The next few seconds that followed was complete terror! The two workers screamed in horror as the gas covered them! Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. As they screamed their eyes began the melt out of their sockets and drip to the ground. Their manes caught on fire instantly! Then even their very flesh began to melt until nothing was left but a gruesome pile of bones and boiling blood. Their terrified screams rang in Nimbos head. A second blast from the reactor shook him to his senses!

“I must get out of here!”

He flew towards the door with all of his might. But right as he was about to reach it a third blast blew him backwards and smashed him against a wall! His safety glasses cracked and fell off of his face from the force. He lay there on the ground dazed and burnt. He knew he was going to pass out, he could feel it. But just before everything went black he looked up to see the reactor one last time.

“Ah! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” he screamed a bloodcurdling scream.

The raw spectrum! Still hung in the air! Nimbos could feel his brain being ripped apart by the chaos and disarray of the gas! His very soul was being torn apart by an unknown force!

The last straight thought he could think before he blacked out was, “S-So this is what it’s like to s-see raw spectrum!?”