Scootaloo wandered the abandoned factory. It had to be close to morning, she knew. She could feel the cold seeping through the outer cloud walls, starting to grow a bit warmer as the sun began to rise. How had time gotten away from her?... She remembered… darkness. After she had eaten that pony’s spectra, she’d… slept. Relaxed. Just… floated. Was that normal?

Was any of this normal?

… It would be nearly time to open the factory. That would be her chance to get her.

Rainbow Dash.

The name, the mere thought of her name, made a shiver run down Scootaloo’s spine. That was the mare who killed her. The mare who scoffed, who screamed, who had brutally murdered her.

Anger. She felt… angry. Well, that was natural, she thought. Who wouldn’t be angry at their murderer?

Sorrow. She was… she had just killed a pony.

Her stomach churned. She had… She was a murderer.

“I-I-” She stumbled to lean against a cloud, shaking. Oh god. She had just killed someone. She had felt almost NOTHING until now, but she had just murdered someone! She wasn’t like that! She… hadn’t been a murderer before…

Before she died.

Even as she felt that fear, sickness, hatred… It ebbed away. She stood against the wall, still shivering. God, it was so cold. Even the slight warmth from the sun rising felt… blank, for lack of a better word. It all felt blank, until she had gotten that… spectra. She wanted... She wanted more. She was... hungry again.

“Review.” She shook her head to get the emotions out of it. No need for those anymore. She was dead. No thinking about how being a killer was wrong. Just thinking about why she had to kill. That was how this had to go down. That was how this had to happen. No more thinking. Just revenge.

Scootaloo paced around the factory, unconsciously retracing the steps of the route she took the day she died. She reviewed everything she knew.

Spectra. That was a key part to it all. It was pure pigment. That was what Rainbow Dash had said. But it was so much more than that. It was pure magic, as well, pure energy - the very soul of ponies. That spectra helped her feel less hungry, warmer, more… real. Had it made her more real? It had allowed her to... to feel, even for that brief burst. It gave her happiness. Morale. Just like-

Rainbows. Those were made with spectra. That spectra was obtained by slaughtering countless children, using their soul pigments to mix together rainbows. They had to use children for the innocence - nothing had tarnished those souls yet. They were pure color. Pure souls. Just as hers had been before she'd been put through-

The Machine. That… demonic invention was the start of it all. When the pegasi had first discovered that spectra ran freely through ponies, of course they had built the Machine to harvest it. Without that Machine…

Without it, they couldn’t harvest.

Scootaloo grinned and blinked.

In an instant, she stood at the Machine, bewildered for only a moment. Ah. No need for walking, it seemed. Her new… state of being allowed her many gifts. She could truly fly now! She almost laughed. She felt very happy again. She was fulfilling her purpose. She knew what she had to do. It didn’t matter what she had to do to achieve her goals, so long as she achieved them. What did it matter anymore? She was dead. Gone.

Nothing mattered but ending this.

She stared at the machine, going to the controls. She slammed her hoof down on the lever that powered it with a sharp smile. It shattered under her. She turned to the gears and blades within the machine, hovering above them.

Would she feel pain, she wondered briefly, before diving into the blades and wreaking havoc on the Machine from the inside out. She could feel the blades digging into her skin, the blood sliding down her body as she howled and shrieked - and the voices of hundreds, thousands of other pegasi who hadn’t made the cut screamed with her, begging to be released from the demon that claimed their lives. She heard it all and a ringing in her ears.

This ended with her. She would allow nothing else.

Alone in her misery, in her agony, Absentia began her work anew, destroying everything she could with no thought other than revenge.

*~*~*~

Rainbow Dash stood grimly before the team. They stared at her, just as grimly. All the regular workers, those pansies, those too weak to fight, had been sent home for the day. None of them could be risked on Absentia clean up duty. She, on the other hoof, was trusted to make it out alive. The team before her was expendable.

But they were trained to be the best.

“Alright, you maggots, listen up.” Her voice was harsher than it had ever been. Was it because they were going in there to kill Scootaloo again? Was it because she had to watch who could have been her sister die again? She shook her head, taking a deep breath as she shut her eyes. “You all know why we’re here. This is going to be a rough one. The Absentia is vengeful as all hell, and we’ve got to watch our backs in there.”

“Manager Dash.” She looked up to the one who spoke. She didn’t know his name. Who cared? They might all die anyways. No need getting attached to dead ponies. “Do they know who it was? That information might help us end this sooner if we can map out the story.”

Rainbow gulped. “... It was Scootaloo. The orange failure from Ponyville.” There was a soft murmur through the team. Rainbow snarled, slamming her hoof into the clouds beneath her. “Do you think because I knew her I’ll go SOFT on her?!”

“N-No, Manager!” came the hesitant response.

Not good enough. Dash walked up to the team, gazing into all of their faces with a scowl on her face. “I may have known a pegasus at one time with the same name. But when I go in there, I won’t be looking for a pegasus named Scootaloo. I’ll be looking for 2 things. A murdered mare with her heart crushed, and the Absentia that murdered her. Both of them are failures. One of them, you’re trained to destroy. The other, we’ve agreed was a machine malfunction, as each body that turns up is. Is this clear?”

“Yes M’am!”

“Good!” Rainbow turned on her heels to face the factory. Inside that place was a filly who had been brutally killed by her. A filly she had once called sister. That she had once hoped would be strong enough to avoid the Machine. To avoid death and become a star.

No.

That filly was dead. She had killed her. All that was left in there was a body and a ghost of a memory.

Rainbow strode up to the door controls, swallowing softly. She had to ignore her racing heartbeat. She knew Sco- The Absentia, she reminded herself again, was going to come straight for her. It wanted vengeance. Revenge. Rainbow Dash was risking her very life by going into this factory.

Was it worth it anymore?

She began to punch in the Manager code to unseal the doors. She willed her hoof not to shake and was thankful to see she managed it. She licked her lips. Of course this was worth it. She was loyal to her company. She was rising in the ranks. She was… good at this. Loyal, til the end.

You weren’t loyal to her.

She shut her eyes tightly, taking a deep breath. The Absentia hadn’t deserved loyalty. She was a failure. A straight up failure who didn’t deserve those wings on her back. She opened her eyes and kept punching in numbers. She was going to end this.

The instant the Absentia was gone, the instant her life would go back to normal.

She hoped.

The alarm went off. She backed away from the controls and nodded to her team. They moved forward into position in case the Absentia had enough strength to step outside. They drew their weapons, the tools of their trade, in preparation. Rainbow turned to the door and steeled her heart.

It was time.

The door slowly, slowly slid open.

Author's Note

Finally got this chapter out. I know it's probably a bit shorter than you all would like, but I literally just wrote this in an hours time, so cut me some slack.