Green eyes slowly opened to a blurry sight of mixed colors in a distorted container.

What happened? Wasn’t he with his friends in some sort of carriage? Wasn’t he going to be cast out of Equestria? Didn’t he fail his flight test?

…Right, some…something happened…to his friends…a masked figure took his best friend away from him…

‘Deep Breeze…’ The pegasus colt whimpered. Where was she taken? Was this some kind of extra test, or…

…Maybe a second chance?

“Hey! Anypony! Can you hear me?!” The pegasus colt yelled, his voice scratchy from lack of use. How long was he out? Was his friends okay?

Looking over the place didn’t really do much good for the colt. Everywhere was gray and metal, with rainbow liquids flowing through big transparent containers. Not to mention, there was a strange scent in the air that felt nauseating, and he discovered he wasn’t in a position to get away from it anytime soon. Both his hind and forehooves were bound by shackles, keeping him in his place.

…He wasn’t the only small pegasus in that situation.

‘…That masked pony did something to me! To us all…’ The colt grunted, his tiny red wings flittering as fast as they could. Unfortunately, flight wasn’t something he could easily attain with such little breeze in the area. Just like his test, he was going to fail in trying to get away.

“W-Why’s it so stuffy in here…? It smells…” He gasped, finally ceasing his actions. It wouldn’t do any good to waste energy flopping around like a fish out of water. If he wanted answers, he’d have to sit there and wait for something to come.

As if answering his call, the metal doors parted with a hiss as a masked pony figure walked into the room, completely covered with a lab coat and a large pair of safety goggles. No matter how the pegasus colt looked carefully at the pony, he couldn’t identify who it was.

…Just that the syringe by its tray was making him extremely nervous, and he couldn’t budge from his place.

“H-Hi…? D-Do you know where…Deep Breeze…is- Ack!” The colt suddenly felt himself being forced into the pony’s grip, its hold on him strong and intimidating. “O-Okay, okay…! Uh…are you taking me to her?” The colt began to squirm slightly for a bit of comfort, beads of sweat sliding down his face.

The masked pony said nothing as it continued on its way out of the room, the metal doors sliding back shut and returning to security procedures. The colt gulped as he caught a whiff of the pony’s coat. It smelled like something out of a hospital, but…extreme, or something.

He couldn’t tell what it was.

The tray with the scary needles continued to roll beside the two, being guided by the pegasus’ white covered linen wing as they continued their way through the spectrum piped halls.

‘…Who wears a cover over their wings? This pony’s crazy!’ The colt grunted as another set of doors opened to a large metallic area in front of the two, filled to the brim with capsules that held all the colors of the rainbow, each color separated into their own specific containers.
If the colt didn’t know any better, he was in a laboratory; the secret mad scientist kind.

In the midst of his squirming, the pegasus’ eyes widened as something caught his attention. Several conveyer belts ran an endless loop as the colt saw another colt ahead of him, with a green coat rather than his own red coat, being placed on top of one of those conveyer belts by another masked pony, unprepared for the trip down to what looked like a really scary device.

As the green colt was forced along on the conveyer belt, the red colt’s face showed one of complete horror. As soon as the green colt met the device, his small shaking body was hooked onto the metal monster, and his coat was suddenly drained of its once lively color. The pony, once green, was now a husk of grey, his eyes lifeless and dull.

…And the worst thing about what he saw is that the red colt came to the conclusion he was going to meet the same fate.

As the masked pony beside him released its grip on the colt and placed him on the conveyer belt, he flinched at the cold heartless metal that suddenly assaulted his back, giving a chill unlike any the colt had experienced as he rode along the conveyer belt down to where the monster was waiting, sweat pouring from his now musty coat as his hooves shook in its binds.

…Looking in front of him, the red colt saw the lifeless doll in the monster’s grasp abruptly fall into an abyss of grinding metal and crushing bones.

‘No…! No, it can’t end like this…! I haven’t even found out if Deep Breeze is okay, yet…!’ Despite his many complaints, none of them could reach the red colt’s mouth as he faced death in the form of a life-sucking machine, his eyes widening to the size of pinpricks as he suddenly felt the ground being torn from him, instead being clenched inside the metal of the machine.

Shaking his head frantically, the colt whimpered inaudibly as a large sharp pointy object approached him without any mercy, its aim directly towards the small one’s neck. As the object slid into his neck with a sickening squish, the colt suddenly felt his every being slowly draining from him, his eye sight becoming blurry as he saw his brilliant red coat being stolen by the machine, instead being replaced by a duller gray. Everything he ever worked for…everything he ever dreamed…anypony who saw he had value…

…Nothing.

As the colt’s body fell limp in the machine’s hold, the masked pony nodded at the progress and then turned towards its partner who stood in front of a large lever, prepared to pull down at the giving of a signal. With a wave of its right forehoof, the lever was pulled and the lifeless pony inside the machine was dropped into the grasp of the Pegasus Device, where the rest of the failures eventually ended up.

After the machine rumbled and finally ceased its activity with a hiss, the masked pony in front gave a muffled sigh through its mask as it stood before the main lab of the glorious Rainbow Factory, the colors in each capsule reflecting onto the dark lenses of the pony’s safety goggles.

…Another failure made useful for the sake of Equestria.

BUZZZZZZ!!!!!

The masked pony’s wings flinched as its attention was quickly drawn to a clock that was built into the factory wall, showing that it was approaching 9:30 in the evening.

…Quitting time.

The masked pony promptly tore off the mask as the goggles was moved from its face to its forehead, revealing an entire head of hair covering every color of the rainbow, the mare’s sky blue wings flittering to ease the stiff feeling in them as the white linen cloth was removed.

Ah, freedom…

“…Alright! Quitting time, everypony! Make sure to clean and sanitize your equipment before putting it away!” Rainbow Dash bellowed out through the room, her voice bouncing through the spacious laboratory as the rest of the crew began to shut down machines and slowly remove their lab safety equipment. As the rainbow-maned pegasus began to sanitize the equipment on her tray, she allowed herself a moment to breathe and sit down for a time.

Overall, progress had been looking good tonight, after all. She didn’t even have to sedate the pony she was carrying, surprisingly. Normally those colts and fillies squirmed if their lives depended on it…which it did.

Her lips curled into a small smile.

…Joking about life, it was awkwardly funny.

“…Superior Supervisor? A moment if you will.” Magenta eyes looked up to see a pegasus pony with a black and red mane, a clipboard in her right hoof’s possession. Rainbow nodded, quickly putting her other job to the side for a moment. Relaxing would have to wait.

“…Report, Superior Secretary.” The rainbow-maned mare’s voice took a tone full of authority as she took a firm stance in front of the other mare.

“Yes, Superior Supervisor.” The mare’s eyes scanned the clipboard. “Today’s results were 78 bodies drained, and we have received from those 78 exactly 135 gallons of spectra. For our facility’s goal, we have managed to meet our quota for this upcoming week of weather preparation.” She finished with a smile as Rainbow took the time to adjust her lab coat.

Rainbow Dash nodded slowly as she listened. “…135 gallons of spectra in a day’s work? …Sounds awesome. Keep the records but make a copy and place them in my office.” The mare nodded as she turned to fly away, but stopped suddenly to turn back towards the rainbow-maned pegasus.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Pinkamina requested that I report for you to meet her in your office.”

The rainbow-maned pegasus frowned as she rose an eyebrow. “…Pinks? …Wonder what she’s got to say. Thanks, I’ll go and check on that when I get done here. Till then, you have a safe trip home, alright?”

The mare nodded. “…Of course, Superior Supervisor. I’ll have those copies for you first thing when I check in tomorrow. I have an earlier shift, so I’ll be here before you arrive.”

Rainbow nodded as she began to pick up her tools once more from the tray. “…Sounds great. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“Take care of yourself, Superior Supervisor.” The mare walked towards the door, and entered inside the hallway, letting the doors slide back shut with an echo that rang through the entire factory, leaving the rainbow-maned mare by herself.

Rainbow Dash gave a deep sigh as she meticulously applied sanitizer to the metal tools, rubbing the liquid deep into the metal with a wet cleaning cloth, cleaning each piece with extensive care. It wouldn’t do any good to waste materials, so what tools the Factory had was required to remain in pristine condition. That way ponies could avoid smuggling tools in from the other factories, and there’d be less chance in getting caught red-hoofed.

…Another precaution the rainbow-maned pegasus took in order to protect her long-life family secret. Everything had to be cleaned properly, and put away neatly. This was the side she refused to show to her friends…that she cared about order, that in truth she always understood everything Twilight would babble about like the egghead she was, that…

…That in truth, from the time she was a filly, she was born and raised a scientist through and through.

With everything cleaned, she proceeded to put everything back in its proper place, putting away the tray in a storage compartment underneath a shelf full of medical tools. Stepping back from the shelf, the pegasus took the time to stretch her wings as well as her hooves before she began her journey through the sliding doors and out of the main lab down to where her office was located.

…Whatever Pinkie had for her, it had better be good. She was wasting precious sleep on this!

Rainbow Dash’s office was nothing like how she treated her bedroom.

When the pink party pony would bother Dashie in her cloud-house to propose a few pranks, she’d always come in to a few toys on the ground, some bunched up blankets here and there…

…a messy place, but this…

Pinkamina scanned the solid walls and the neat piles of paperwork, baby-blue eyes full of boredom as she lounged in the pegasus’ cushy office chair, the bag of smuggled goods on her large desk as the pink pony swayed the chair from side to side.
It really was a comfy place to wait, just…it was so clean, so… She wasn’t kidding about sanitation being a must.

Her friend’s office made Twilight’s study desk look like there wasn’t any organization at all. If the lavender unicorn even saw it, how would she react if she knew Dashie could actually be this neat?

Then again…how would she take the idea that both of her dear friends were mass murderers? Probably not that well, considering she was willing to investigate for Princess Celestia and all.

Oh well, too bad for her.

The pink pony’s eyes were attracted to the door once she saw it open with a click. In front of her was Dr. Dashie, in all her stained lab coat and sciency glory, her rainbow mane resting over her shoulder. The pegasus closed the door behind her slowly, and leaned against it as she faced her partner in crime.

“…About time you got over here. And here I thought you were supposed to be the fastest in all of Equestria!” Pinkamina grinned as she watched her friend’s face turn into a scowl.

“I just got off of work and had to put things away. Cut me some slack!” Rainbow Dash grumbled with a sigh before she eyed the large bag on her office desk. “Anyway, you had something to say? What’s in the bag?”

The pink pony sat up as she began to pull each piece of paper out, one by one. “…Only the entirety of Twilight Sparkle’s precious research for her dear Princess Celestia! It was really fun watching her freak once these were gone!”

“Twilight’s doing research now? What else is new?” The rainbow-maned pegasus’ eyes narrowed as she sat in a chair opposite to her friend, her hooves already deep in stolen scrolls and demographics. “Let me guess, this has to do with the whole ‘missing ponies’ thing again…”

Really, she was starting to get sick of it.

“You’re not gonna freak out again, are you, Dashie?” The pink pony frowned at her friend.

The pegasus simply rolled her eyes. Probably best not to answer that comment. Looking over her studious friend’s notes, the pegasus frowned as she deciphered what each paper entailed for the two criminals in witness of it.

Pinkamina shifted a piece of paper full of writing on top of her right hoof. “…So, according to what I overheard in the library, and what it says here…there’re two different types of targets our mystery bad-guy is going for.”

Rainbow nodded. “…The rich, pompous kind…and then there’s the everyday average work pony…”

…If Twilight gathered this much in the short amount of time she’d been researching…who knows how much she could uncover in the space of another week.

The rainbow-maned pegasus faced her partner with a troubled expression. “She didn’t send this to Princess Celestia yet, did she?”

Pinkamina rolled her eyes. “She was about to, but she lost all her work before she could go into detail about it. While she could easily recover it in the space of a day or two, I figured it’d be better if WE called the shots on finding the criminal first.”

“…Tch, so there’s a chance she could’ve sent something while it was fresh in her mind…but without her research, that idiot’s gonna have to start from scratch with her report, while we can just build off of what’s already here.” Rainbow gave a devilish grin at the thought of the unicorn’s frustrations.

They just needed to start as soon as possible if they were gonna beat her in a game of egghead.

The pink pony frowned. “So, back to this…wanna know what I think?” The pegasus nodded. “It doesn’t make sense. The only way I’d be able to explain it is that there are two different criminals at the SAME time!” The pink pony shrugged as she tossed the paper from her hoof back onto the desk with the rest of the pile, her hind-hooves crossing as she allowed herself to slouch once more in her friend’s chair. “…Anyway, that’s just me.”

A sky-blue pony ear perked at the thought.

Wait, two criminals…? They…might be on to something here…

The rainbow-maned pegasus shook her head. “Wait! Maybe…you might’ve cracked something big, Pinks…”

Pinkamina glanced back towards her friend.

“…Just…there doesn’t seem to be anything in common with the targets EXCEPT their social classes. Even if there are two of them, they might not be working together…it doesn’t seem synchronized enough.” Rainbow pursed her lips as she brought one hoof under her chin in a thoughtful manner, leaning back in her own chair.

They HAD something…

“So…one goes after the common folk…”

Rainbow nodded. “And the other goes for the fancy rich ponies…”

“And neither is working with the other…”

The two criminals grumbled as they sat in their seats. Now what? There wasn’t anything else to work with! Not when Pinkamina was eavesdropping OR when they took to the research themselves…! They didn’t get much farther than Twilight did…

…There just weren’t enough variables…

The rainbow-maned pegasus groaned as she sunk her head deep in the pile of paperwork. “…I have work tomorrow, and if we hang around here ALL night, I won’t get enough sleep before the next morning’s shift…!”

Pinkamina frowned. “…Don’t you usually just nap the day away?”

Her partner looked back at her as if she was insulted. “…Uh, yeah! I NEED the energy to last through the morning, deal with stupid co-workers, AND still manage to work here late into the night! I’m usually the last one out even, because I have to lock everything up!”

“…And if you don’t take naps…”

Rainbow’s eye narrowed. “…Then my work here gets sloppy. I can’t do sloppy, you know that!”

The pink pony groaned in frustration as she also threw her head deep into the paperwork. “You know what, I’m also done here! I just remembered I ALSO have to get up early because I have a party to set up for, first thing next morning for Diamond Tiara’s birthday! And if that party isn’t set up, than Filthy Rich is gonna have my party pony license for SURE, and then I won’t EVER be able to host parties ever again!”

The rainbow-maned pegasus’ lips curled in amusement as she threw her head back in a fit of laughter. “Oh, then we’re BOTH neck deep in prissy kiddy pony demands! Did you know that Diamond Tiara wanted SNOW for her birthday? Snow, when it’s in the middle of the summer!”

Pinkamina snorted as she lifted her head from the stolen papers. “Oh, geez, really…?! That’s a lot of work to do then, isn’t it, Dr. Dashie?!”

“Yeah, it is! And if things aren’t EXACTLY the way she wants it tomorrow, I’ll probably get fired from my Supervisor of Ponyville’s weather team job! It’s a disaster!”

“And do you even WANNA know how many balloons she demanded I set up?!”

“I don’t think I wanna know!” The two criminals continued their fit of laughter; Pinkamina rolled out of the pegasus’ office chair and hit the floor with a thud as she kicked her hind-hooves in a fitful manner, her friend following after with another thud.

It was nice to just laugh like this…

As the pink party pony gave a deep sigh as she began to calm down, Rainbow Dash lifted herself from the ground and held a hoof towards her partner in crime.

“…Seriously, we should both get to bed before Celestia raises the sun on us.”

Pinkamina took the offered hoof as she felt herself being hoisted up, with much assistance from the wall. Otherwise there would’ve been no way Dashie could’ve lifted HER up with the small hooves she had.

“…Okie Dokie Lokie, Dr. Dashie.”

The cloud-coated door opened with a poof as Rainbow Dash slipped into her house in the middle of the night, her sky-blue coat rustling with the midnight wind, not a trace of rainbow stains on her hooves. She made sure not to bring any equipment or clothing from work into her home, one of the many precautions she took in order to avoid getting caught.

…She couldn’t have ponies associating her with the Rainbow Factory, after all.

As the pegasus walked through the quiet home, she heard a buzzing sound worthy of a bee approaching her direction, the noise ringing through her ears.

Only, she knew it wasn’t a bee.

“…Tank! How are you, buddy?” Rainbow grinned as she took her beloved pet into her hooves; the moonlight reflecting into her dear friend’s eyes as the loyal tortoise slowly curled his lips into a sweet smile.

He had been patiently waiting for her return.

“…Up top!” The rainbow-maned pegasus rose one of her hooves to meet one of Tank’s legs, and he made a small grin once they made contact. Just like her, it was an important goal of his to act cool for her.

She couldn’t have asked for a greater pet.

Rainbow chuckled as she soared upwards in her glorious home, her wings flittering up to the next level of the cloud layer above the many stairs in the cloudominium, towards her ever-welcoming cloud-layered bed, with her many Daring Do books and Wonderbolts memorabilia.

To be honest, it often made the mare guilty, having such a nice home when her occupation required her to take the lives of many fillies and colts. But, alas, Equestria needed its weather…

…And so killing fillies and colts was a must for the sake of Equestria.

Letting go of the burdens of her occupation for the night, the pegasus gave a deep sigh of pleasure and exhaustion as she allowed herself to sink deep into the soft comforts of her cloud bed, not even bothering to cover herself with the blanket as she snuggled her beloved Tank while he buried his head deep into the mare’s coat.

‘…Today was a long day.’ The rainbow-maned pegasus frowned as she allowed herself to think back on the day’s events while she rested her head deep into the cloud pillows.

…A rough day at work, frustrations from yesterday because of the whole ‘missing ponies’ case, a long night of killing, Pinkie’s goods from Twilight and not finding enough about it…

…A lot happened that day…

The mare slowly closed her tired magenta eyes as she breathed out a tired sigh.

…But tomorrow was most likely going to be even longer.

Author's Note

Well, here's chapter three! Please give me feedback on how I could improve on this story, I'd really appreciate it!