Legend of Zombie Pegasus
(Rainbow factory story-first person present tense)
I am Radio Mike. I am a 20 year old stallion and I have lived in Cloudsdale all of my life. I like narrating my life like this, in fact narrating is part of my talent! I've been broadcasting radio shows ever since I was 16, and I'm some what of a celebrity! My cutie mark is a desk-top microphone to symbolize my ability to provide radio entertainment. I record an hour long show every week where I talk to other ponies about things like sports, music, weather, and anything else of interest that happened that week. I record the broadcasts live on Sundays and every Monday I have someone come up to me to tell me how much they liked the broadcast. My life is truly amazing! Most ponies dream of fame, and I have it! I'm not the most famous pony in Cloudsdale, but it's enough to pay the bills! A lot of ponies who are too famous become arrogant and if they're in the entertainment business, their quality usually goes down. If I ever do reach that level of fame, I'll try not to let it control me, but I won't have to worry about that right now. It's late right now, so I should get some sleep. Tomorrow is another big day, so I should get some rest.
In the morning I like to have shredded oats, but I'm running low on milk. There's enough for the cereal, but there won't be anything left after that. The local grocery store isn't that far away from my spot in the clouds, so I'll go there after breakfast.
I've finished my breakfast, but I'll have to finish the rest of my morning deeds before heading out the door.
I'm finally ready to leave. I'll grab a few bits because the price of milk will fluctuate sometimes. I like to hold my money under one of my wings so I don't have to bother with wearing a coat to hold the coins.
There's a big wood carving of a rainbow in front of somepony's house, so I know I'm close to the grocery store.
"Are you Radio Mike?" A muscular grey stallion resembling a royal guard asks me in a very serious tone.
"Yes. What do you need me for?"
"It's top secret. Follow me."
He headed towards the weather factory. I had been living in Cloudsdale for 20 years yet I still haven't seen all of the different parts of it. I remember as kids my friends and I would dare each other to drink small amounts of rainbow spectra. It was really spicy for some reason, but we had never really questioned where it came from.
After a 20 minute trot we are finally in front of the weather factory.
"Welcome to the rainbow factory! This will be the last time you will see anything else." The stallion who guided me says to me.
"Why? What is my purpose in the rainbow factory? I'm actually quite famous, so if you're doing anything wrong I can broadcast it to all of Cloudsdale!"
"Well then I guess your sacrifice will be even more necessary."
"But everypony knows me! They'll wonder where I went!"
"We're part of the government. We'll make up a cause of death for your obituary."
"There are ponies who care about me! I'm too young to die! I don't want to lose my life just for an extra bit of rainbow or whatever you need me for!"
"I'm sorry but your number came up, so it's your turn to die. I wish I could let you say goodbye to your family, but this needs to be kept secret."
He goes over to a door that looks quite small in comparison to the whole building.
"Follow me. We have pills that intensify pain, so you should have good reason to do what you're told. You can't escape this, it is your final destiny."
I follow him.
The spicy aroma of rainbows fills the air. I look up and a full circular rainbow is visible overhead. There are giant pistons pushing down on seemingly nothing, so I'm not sure what their purpose is. The whole factory is a certain shade of black and it looks as if it were built out of cast-iron. There are supports in the air suspended by metal chains and guarded by railings made for workers to trot on.
"Your extractor will be Lucky Clover. He's new here, so I hope his practice with you will do him well."
My guide brings me over to the waiting station for Lucky Clover. There are a few other ponies 'waiting' for Lucky Clover. The pony next in line looks like she has a light green coat and mane, but I can't be sure with the low light and the rainbows in the air. Soon enough she won't have any colour and will be another grey lifeless corpse, but I shouldn't think about that.
"Hi!" I say to her. She looked sad.
"Hi! I can't believe we're going to die like this. This is like a mass production of death and I didn't know about it until now, but it's too late to do anything about it. I didn't even get to say goodbye to my sister."
"Well I had fans of a radio show I hosted that will never hear another one of my broadcasts again. I had told them to tune in next week, but they'll all be listening to static."
"I can't believe they would do this to a celebrity. What's your name? I might have heard of you."
"Radio Mike."
"Oh yeah! I remember my mom always talked about you!"
"Oh really! That's awesome."
"Oh and by the way, I'm Sprinkle Medley."
"That's a nice name. It's such a shame that it has to be this way."
"Well I'm going to be up pretty soon. How about a good luck kiss?"
"Yeah, sure!"
She brings her lips to mine and we enjoy this last moment of coexistence before the takes her life in vain.
"If there is an afterlife, I promise to share it with you!"
"You too! We shall be together for the rest of our lives! Or yours, at least."
"Sprinkle Medley." Lucky calls out, I watch Sprinkle's eyes clench in horror. She trots up to the designated area. Lucky lays her onto a metal stretcher flat on her back and fastens her in with two grey crudely textured belts that I can only imagine came from previous subjects. Lucky presses a button and the stretcher skewed to the optimal position for the extraction. I can see Sprinkle's eyes staring at the blade that will soon claim her life and shortly mine too. Lucky pulled the red lever. The blade jotted towards Sprinkle. *sieck* I couldn't bare to watch, but it happened so quick that I couldn't avoid it. The sound of the sharp blade slipping through her beautiful pony flesh was frightening. I watch in horror as the needle in the blade sucked out her soul and the colour of her coat and mane quickly disappeared, sucked away by the tube. She quickly turns completely grey and I see her eyes close. The stretcher is brought back to a level position and Lucky undoes the belts and throws her lifeless corpse into the pile of grey, dead bodies.
"Radio Mike." Lucky calls.
I slowly do a trot of shame over to the machine. Lucky fastens me in and puts the stretcher at the angle for extraction. There is no fear worse than knowing that your life will be taken away on a conveyer belt of murder. Lucky brings the extraction machine down. *sieck* The sound is even more terrifying this time. The blade stabs my stomach and although my hooves aren't free to feel it, I can tell that my heart is still beating. As the machine takes away what it's meant to I see the colour draining from my coat and tail. I feel as if I'm drifting out of consciousness, almost like falling asleep really fast. The colour has already drained from my upper torso, so it won't be long before it reaches my brain.
(From anonymous narrator)
After the colour finished draining from Radio's head he closed his eyes. Lucky took this as a sign that he was dead and lowered the stretcher. After Lucky unstrapped Radio, Radio opened his eyes, and they shined with evil. Lucky, being a rookie, wasn't prepared for rogue bodies like this. He tried to escape, but he wasn't fast enough. Radio picked Lucky up and through him at the extractor, which impaled his body and began to do it's magic. He found another employee and repeatedly bashed their head on the metal railing until he saw brain. He left the corpse on the floor of the platform and continued on his rampage. He saw the guide who had brought him into the facility and started to mindlessly take his revenge. He went back to the body of the worker he had killed and threw it onto the guide. He missed the guide, but killed the pony he had brought in for sacrifice. He could tell that the guide was angry because he headed towards him. Radio found another factory prisoner and impaled their head on the closest lever he could find, making sure that it would terminate function of the subject's brain. He picked up the body and looked around for the guide. He saw the guide starting his journey up the stairs, so he throws the body onto the guide. He aimed well this time, but he had suspicion that the guide might not be dead yet. He went down the stairs and lifted the body off of the guide. He found a rusty crowbar that had blended in quite well with it's surroundings and gashed it into the guide's skull reassuring himself that he had claimed another victim in his pre-death. By this time there was a lot of commotion in the factory. There were four facility worker deaths, so the ruler of the factory must stop this monster. Glaze takes out a tranquilizer gun and aims at Radio. She pulls the trigger with his wing. Bulls eye! She orders the remaining factory workers to bring the body to the factory prison to use this incident as a learning experience for new workers about the importance of stabbing the heart. Glaze paused the factory for the day. She hired four more workers the following day. The factory may still be as cruel as ever, but at least there is a new safety regulation. In the factory "Zombie Pegasus" is used to refer to the malfunction that happened to Radio Mike and has thankfully never been needed to refer to anyone else.
