Incident Report: Internal Affairs → Public Resources
Report edited for employee resources. Edits ordered from Upper Management.

Date: [REDACTED]
Time: [REDACTED]
Location: Cloudsdale Weather Factory, Rainbow Sector

Employees involved: Head Manager, Rainbow Dash [ID #501]; Processing and Gathering, Star Gleam [ID #2052]; Clerical Duties, Dust Rider [ID #1092]; Mechanical Engineering, Thunder Strike [#1467]; Technical Engineering, Sky Glimmer [ID #1499]. Disposal, Nimble Sweeper [ID #1287]; [REDACTED], Silver Legacy [ID #19]; [REDACTED] Specialist, Jasmine Breeze [ID #002].

Incident description: At [REDACTED], Head Manager [ID #501] initiated Full Lockdown procedures and evacuated facility due to safety concerns. Processing and Gathering Employee [ID #2052] remained in building, [REDACTED]. The following day, at [REDACTED], Head Manager [ID #501] formed specialized team to locate Employee [ID #2052]. The Full Lockdown ended and specialized team entered.

Specialized team found structural damage upon entry to facility (blown lights, metal warping, evaporation of structural cloud layers). Employee [ID #2052] found [REDACTED]. At [REDACTED], Disposal Employee [ID #1287] [REDACTED]. Head Manager proceeded to internal factory to investigate the extent of damage and cause. Clerical Employee [ID #1092] seperated from group at [REDACTED] to search for Employee [ID #2052]. [REDACTED].

Head Manager [ID #501] [REDACTED].

Head Manager [ID #501] and [REDACTED] bodies recovered from wreckage of factory. Head Manager [ID #501] turned over to Canterlot Health Facilities for aid.

Damages: See section 4.2A for full list of details. Report edited for employee resources. Edits ordered by Upper Management.

Suggested protocols: Families of [REDACTED] to be alerted. Immediate retirement of Head Manager [ID #501].

*~*~*~

Rainbow Dash whimpered as she opened her eyes again, taking in-

Absentia, it’s lavender eyes glowing, a crooked grin piercing it’s face as-

She jolted and opened her eyes a second time, shaking out of the nightmare. Every muscle in her body screamed out in agony. She groaned and leaned back, trying to calm her breathing as she worked on processing where she was. Again.

Canterlot Hospital, Star Swirl wing. A lonely room on the 23rd floor. The TV was turned off and the heart monitor beeped steadily. It was slowing down after the nightmare.

She had been here for a full overnight stay already, and it was around 9 o’clock now. She hardly remembered much about what happened once the roof caved in.

Absentia had charged her. She had felt cold, so cold. And the next she remembered, she was waking up surrounded by lights that endlessly flickered, by doctors that all spoke as once, their voices screaming in her pounding head. She couldn’t form words at the time. Her hooves had been crushed by supports. Her eye was gone. Her wing, irreparable.

She passed in and out of consciousness repeatedly, each time seeing it. Absentia. Charging her, smiling at her. And all the time, she felt so cold. It was like her body would never be warm again. Even now, in the hospital bed, she shivered, despite the overly bright sunshine flooding in from the windows.

She looked in the glass beside her and saw it. Absentia. It had that same, static grin on its face, watching Rainbow from the glass. It was coming. It wanted her. She sat in terror, paralyzed, but somehow… knowing. Knowing this was the way it had to end.

“Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow shouted and recoiled, looking in fear at the person who spoke. Twilight looked back at her, worry and concern dripping from her every feature. “Oh. T… Twilight.”

“Dash…” Twilight walked up to the bed, sitting beside her. “I’m. I’m glad to see you’re awake! You’ve been sleeping most of the day.” Her voice attempted to be cheery, but it fell flat. Friendship couldn’t heal this wound.

“Yeah,” she said hoarsely. Her voice was shot after screaming so much, and getting next to no use besides. She looked away from Teilight, unable to look at her friend, the one who she had promised she would be loyal to. How had she abandoned what was right? How could she have been loyal to the Flock?

Twilight bit her lip. “The police are outside,” she said softly. “They. Want to know what happened.”

What happened?

“I don’t… I can’t. I can’t tell them,” Rainbow whispered, voice cracking. “I can’t.”

“Rainbow, I know it was traumatic-“

“You don’t know!” Rainbow whimpered, trying futilely to curl into herself. Her body just wouldn’t respond properly. Her hooves wouldn’t move right. Right. The casts. That was it. “You can’t know. It. It was.”

“Ponies died,” Twilight said softly. “A lot of them. It’s a miracle you survived.”

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO US,” Absentia shrieked, the voices of hundreds, thousands, uncountable children contained within that solitary vocalization. “WHY!?”

Rainbow flinched again, shaking her head. Twilight gently reached out to touch her, but Rainbow pushed her hoof away. “No! Please. Don’t touch me, Twilight, I. I shouldn’t. I should. She…” Rainbow Dash looked around, half expecting Absentia to be there, watching her from the doorway, ready to charge again. “I can’t. I can’t say it.”

“Rainbow Dash, you have to calm down-“

“I can’t!” Beeping. What was the beeping? The beeping was so loud and god she was so cold. “I can’t, they’re gonna get me-“

“Who??”

“The children. The ponies! They. They’ll find me.”

Rainbow Dash’s breath caught as she saw somepony rush into the room and Twilight pull away. The image kept flickering. It was a doctor. But it was also Absentia. But also, a worker, wearing a mask, unable to be identified, reaching out-

“NO!” Her voice came back in defiance and she fought to move, screaming louder than one pony should ever be capable of. Her hooves wouldn’t move properly. Her wings buzzed painfully, aching. Her joints were stiff from the cold. “PLEASE NO PLEASE LET ME GO!”

“Rainbow Dash! Calm down!”

“Don’t kill me please - please don’t! I want to go home! I want to go home!”

Rainbow shrieked and shut her eyes, seeing whirling blades and feeling the bones in her body dislodge all over again, pain shooting through her every atom. And then, her heart began to slow as the doctor pulled the needle from her body, the fast-acting sedative doing its job.

She saw clouds. Clouds, drifting slowly. A whistle. She flew quickly, weaving and bobbing. She fell and caught herself. She passed her test-

But then she didn’t.

Rainbow Dash jolted awake. It was now late in the afternoon. A hospital lunch sat, untouched, next to her. Twilight Sparkle was still there - she flickered, and suddenly she was a worker too, a worker with a cruel smile, lowering Rainbow into the machine, twisting her ribs to break them -

Rainbow sat up a bit straighter, feeling (just barely) the tears rolling down her face. Twilight looked up at the sound. “Dash.”

“Hi Twilight,” she said meekly, the despair just barely holding back. What was happening to her? What were these hallucinations?

“Rainbow Dash.”

She jolted again, looking to the doorway, seeing a guard there. He looked serious. Didn’t they all?

“We need to take your statement.”

“My. My statemen-“

“Sir, she’s not well enough yet,” a nurse was saying, trying to get between him and the doorway. “Ms. Dash is in a very fragile condition. We’ve already had to sedate her twice today.”

Twice?

“I’m under orders from the princesses to get to the bottom of this,” the guard was saying, but his voice sounded far away.

When was I sedated?

She remembered once. With Twilight and the workers-

and despite the terror she felt in her body, the sorrow that had surrounded her, and the evil behind her, her worries melted away and the thought of flying encased her very being.

Workers chasing her down narrow hallways and around vents while the beeping started to speed up-

She started laughing again, the cackle echoing down the vent and reverberating-

The grinding, the tearing of ribs. Rainbow Dash cried out as she felt a stabbing pain in her chest, like something was trying to force its way out. Like her heart was trying to combust!

The nurse rushed to her side. The guard watched with concern, Twilight with panic. Fear.

Rainbow Dash sobbed and gasped, barely able to breathe. She felt drained. Cold. So cold. “Please please let me go home,” she begged, not knowing why she wanted to go home.

I want mom. I want dad. I want to be held again. I want to cry again

Her eyes widened and she broke down sobbing harder, whimpering. “Please,” she whispered, her voice becoming a skipping record. “Please please please-“

Pain. Stabbing pain as the blades cut deep, the red color on them proving to be blood, rather than rust. Screaming.

Then nothing but peace. Rainbow stiffened briefly before relaxing. The world grew dim.

“-dangerous to sedate her again-“

“-my friend! I won’t-“

“-tomorrow. She’s-“

Her dreams screamed. She thought only in nightmares now. Reliving the same moment, again and again. Forever dying and then waking up as the judge said to leave the field. Said she had failed.

She woke briefly, late into the night. She found she wasn’t hungry for the dinner beside her. She was already full.

Twilight Sparkle was there the next morning. “Rainbow Dash? You’re. You’re up early.”

Rainbow Dash was staring at the ceiling, oddly serene, despite it all. She had panicked, at first, but now the idea of this all, finally coming to an end? It made her - well. Part of her. Finally finally feel at ease.

It didn’t take a genius to understand what was happening. Deep down, she knew already.

“Rainbow… The- the police are coming later tofay. They. They couldn’t come see you after-“

“Twilight. Twilight you have to listen to me.” Twilight paused, hearing the seriousness in her voice. Rainbow sniffed a little, having cried through the night. “The rainbow factory. The factory I was found in?”

“Yes?”

“It. It’s not what you think it is.”

“You go, Scootaloo. Tell everyone what happens here. Let them know.”

Let them know what happened there.

*~*~*~

And so, the Rainbow Factory, or what was left of it, was dismantled rather than rebuilt. The Pegasi in charge were hunted down and arrested. The old, obscure laws were changed, and the flight test banned altogether.

Princess Celestia never knew of the compromise, and over the course of a thousand years, the responsibility of creating rainbows had not occurred to her, as the Pegasi had handled it well until that time. With Princess Luna back, the division of power was no longer needed.

Equestria was divided, however, for years to come. Pegasi were held in deepest suspicion, feared for the actions of the Flock, the organization behind these atrocities. These supremacists certainly did not make up all of the Pegasus race, but the sins of some became the sins of all in this case. It would be many years before the pain would fade enough for harmony to work its way through the mess.

The Pegasi arrested were given chances for rehabilitation. Some accepted. Others did not.

Families of Pegasi children who had failed their tests finally came to light with their stories. Some were proud of the factory, shunned by the rest of the world for their views. Others spoke of masked Pegasi informing them of their children’s fate, stories of families who joined their children when they protested strongly enough. How many stayed quiet out of fear, who mourned silently.

A memorial was made where the factory once was, a testament to the children who died there. Funds were prepared for the families who suffered the most. Friends and family alike came to the memorial, leaving mementoes. Some left flowers. Many left tidbits of memories: boxes of crayons and beads strung loosely together, old drawings and, in one painful case, a lone scooter.

The world would heal, but healing takes time, and some things scar irrevocably. No matter what, the horrors of the Rainbow Factory could only, inevitably, end in tragedy.

Rainbow Dash was moved to Canterlot mental hospital. It was here that she suffered, memories surfacing of dying, time and time again, as the Absentia that infested her tortured her, feeding on the latent Spectra within her body, naturally occurring in the rainbow mare. Rainbow Dash spent every waking moment dying. And the Absentia, the beast within her, never found rest. Could never sleep. For the souls were now bound to the feelings of one, one soul so strong in emotion that it had latched into a living host - the one who had orchestrated their deaths in the first place.

Scootaloo has gotten her revenge. But it came at a steep price.

In the Rainbow Factory, where our fears and horrors come true.

Rainbow Dash would be unable to kill herself in that mental hospital, no matter how much she wished for death.

In the Rainbow Factory, where you pray souls can’t get through.

The souls would never be able to escape, until she died.

In the Rainbow Factory, where traitors pay their toll.

And every second, every instant, Rainbow Dash was tortured by a pair of beautiful, rose tinted eyes.

The beast has awoken, and it's taken back control.

Author's Note

The End.

💤