Despite all the laughter we shared last night, breakfast wasn’t all that exciting. It kinda felt like there was a heavy rain cloud over our heads as I proceeded to shove the plate of food into my mouth. Looking up towards my Dad, I could see that he too didn’t get any sleep. It was almost funny; we were like painfully slow old ponies. As for me, I never did like mornings, even when I was younger.

I swallowed my food along with a lump in my throat. “…Dad?” He shifted his head to look at me, trying to put a small smile on his face. “…Yeah? What is it, Dashie? If you want seconds, there’s plenty left to go around.” I shook my head. I actually wasn’t that hungry for hayburger, despite it being one of my favorite foods since I was younger.

“…I don’t feel like going to school today.” I mumbled as I lowered my head. Obviously I was feeling just fine, but…somehow seeing Fluttershy alright in class right after her fate was almost sealed by my Dad’s hooves felt sickening. It was like I was the one who tried to kill her. To see her now…it felt wrong. My Dad gave a deep sigh before starting to clear the table of the mess from breakfast. “…Dashie, as much as I’d love you to be comfortable…I can’t let you avoid this. If you were to miss school, and then someone sees you out with me heading towards my work, they’d question things, right? I can’t let you miss school if you’re not truly sick. ” The dishes clattered in front of me in a stacked pile.
“Not to mention you have your first day of training today. If you can go to that, then school would expect you to be there.”

I nodded slowly. It wasn’t worth fighting over. “…I’ll…get my bag ready, then. I’ll see you at the door, Dad.” I slipped from the table, and flew towards my bedroom on the second floor, opening the door. Overnight, it seemed I tossed around my toys that were sitting on the bed, and it looked like the blanket had gone through Tartarus with how much I chewed it up. I reached under the bed for a darker blue book bag that had the Wonderbolt symbol on it: one of my many collectables from birthdays, Hearth Warming’s Eve presents, and so on. It was one of the bags I had, so I used it to hold my school stuff.

Slinging it across my back behind my wings, I started the trip back down to the first floor where my Dad was waiting for me at the door with his own work bag. “…Ready to go, Dashie?” He asked me as he got ready to move. At this point, I didn’t wanna grace him with an answer. I already said my piece. And yet I did. “…Yeah. I’m ready.” I shifted the weight of the bag on my back, making sure that it wouldn’t obstruct my wings.

And with that, we were off. I followed closely to my Dad as he glided with the wind, letting the chilly air flow through his feathers as we both felt a sense of freedom. While my Dad never was big on the whole racing thing like I was, he just loved to be able to enjoy some leisure pleasures right up there in the sky, with no one to hold him down. I loved being able to fly with my Dad like this, and if it wasn’t for schedules I would’ve stuck with him even longer before he had to go to work. But, I needed to go to school whether I liked it or not, and he needed to get to his daytime job: Organizing clouds for each district in the Weather Factory Company.

It didn’t feel good to separate. “Well, I’ll see you tonight, Dashie. Meet me after school at my office, alright? You know where it is.” My Dad smiled at me before he gave a small kiss on my head. Normally I’d brush it off and whine about how he was babying me, but somehow it felt like it was what I needed at the time. “...Okay. Good luck at work, Dad.” I gave him a smile back, and he had to turn away and leave for the Weather Factory. Hearing the ringing of a bell, I gave a deep sigh before turning my body around to face the building in front of me: The Cloudsdale Primary School.

…I never did like the schools Cloudsdale had to offer. Despite being a school filled solely with pegasi, they had a stupid rule where you couldn’t fly in the halls or the classrooms, and each pegasus had to learn the exact same boring way. It was frustrating how traditional Pegasi have been, since the beginning of Equestria. I suppose it has to do with the fact that we’re actually a military-based society. We focus on leadership, and even now I throw those principles into my own individual training I put myself and others through when necessary.

It didn’t take long for me at all to get settled in my seat. Pulling the book for the first class out, I sighed again as I rested my head on the desk. It wasn’t as comforting as a cloud bed, but I just didn’t wanna bother with the class. Half of the fillies and colts didn’t put forth the effort to study anyway, so we never actually got anything accomplished. I hated this style of learning.

Despite that, Fluttershy would always still try to get a lesson out of each day. She never spoke out or participated in class readings, but she would always make sure to produce quality work. If I had known my style of learning before, maybe I could’ve put forth more effort, but I instead dedicated myself to doodling things.

I drew gears, and some kind of rotating thing that had a bucket above it. Frowning at the weirdness of it, I frantically erased it and started another sketch. This time it had a bucket, some kind of wheel, and a bunch of gears at the sides. I had no idea what the hay I was trying to make, but each time I’d try to improve the design.

Without realizing how much time had passed, the teacher closed her book and signaled the end of class. It was now time to pull out another book. I pulled out the right book, but I just settled it on my desk and got back to my own little project. Something was coming out of this, but I wasn’t sure what it was gonna do, or why I was even sketching when I usually didn’t. All that ran through my head was the sound of the gears as the colt screamed, the colors flowing through the tubes…I shook my head frantically.

The teacher caught me doing so. “Is there something you’d like to say, Miss Dash?” She sounded annoyed as she looked my direction. I blinked before looking at the textbook sitting on my desk. “U-Uh…well…” I didn’t even know what the hay we were studying. “…Y-Yeah! Your lessons are too boring! You suck!” I blurted out, which was probably not the best decision since it caused her wings to flare up in rage while the rest of the class applauded me. The applause felt nice, and the teacher glaring at me didn’t feel scary at all.

“Miss Dash! Get out and stand in the hall until the end of class! I want to have a talk with you, young missy!” I didn’t really like the sound of punishment and my Dad wouldn’t be happy, but I also had a pretty bad temper, and I didn’t have anything to lash my frustrations on other than some lame pillows. “Excuse me, ’Young missy’? Who do you think you are, my grandma? You look old enough!” I really should’ve kept my mouth shut, but I had already dug myself into a hole.

“Well I never! Go to the principal’s office right NOW, and no lunch for you!” I made her pretty mad, but I didn’t think she’d cut my lunch. Frustrated, I shoved my stuff back into my bag and stormed out of the classroom. I was an idiot back then, and I really didn’t care for the rules and regulations of the school.

Obviously I didn’t go to the office where more trouble would be waiting for me, so I just wandered the school until I reached a darker stairway with a solitary classroom that hadn’t been used in a while. Some fillies and colts before said it was haunted, but I never bothered to check the place out myself until that moment.

It was the perfect place to just, chill…and have some time to myself. If I was going to be involved with the Rainbow Factory, I had to avoid suspicion, but being a delinquent…I probably wasn’t doing a good job of it in retrospect…if it wasn’t for that room, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today, though…

…Maybe I would’ve sought help after all.

I pulled out the sketches I was working on and put another addition to it. It was starting to come together into something…a bucket attached to the back of some wheel with tubes coming out of it and going…somewhere…I gave a deep sigh as I dropped the pencil on top of my weird design. “…What am I doing…? Dad’s gonna kill me if he finds out I insulted the teacher and called her an old hag…”

I was scared of the consequences, sure, but that didn’t stop me from breaking any more rules. I suppose it’s because I’m kinda rebellious by nature. For some strange reason, I couldn’t get out of my head just how swiftly the wheels turned as it crushed the bones of the young pegasus colt. How fast the spectra flowed through the tubes…it was horrifying, just how quickly a child could be killed…and then left without a trace to be discovered.

I stayed in that room by myself until I heard the bell ringing signaling that it was time to go home. Peeking through the windows I saw pegasi fillies and colts hanging out with each other, laughing and playing games. The pegasi who failed their flight tests would never see daylight again. Or maybe they would, flying through the sky as one with the rainbow. My stomach lurched as I felt sick for thinking such a thing. Those pegasi had families who would miss them, and if I didn’t stop Dad from– I emptied out my stomach with a disgusting feeling lingering in my mouth.

It probably wasn’t a good idea to leave the room like that, so I found a mop real quick and started to clean up the mess I made. Eventually I would need to leave this place and meet up with my Dad at his office. And after that…we’d go back into the Rainbow Factory, where those machines would turn, the wheel would crush bones, and the spectra would flow. It would just keep on going, going, going…

I shook my head as I put the mop back where I got it from after rinsing it out, quickly heading down the shadowed out hallway, and quick to merge with the group of other fillies and colts as I reached the front entrance enough to slip through without any of the school staff noticing me. I was a blur of colors, and my destination was the deep, deep shadows that lurked inside the confines of the Weather Factory.

It appeared before me quickly. I landed on the soft clouds, the gentle feeling of comfort almost mocking me as I passed through the main entrance, and with small banter with the pony by the desk, I was on my way towards my Dad’s office, just as we agreed I would. When I reached the right room, I saw my Dad shoving some papers into a clear file before stacking things together, finishing things up for the day. When he noticed me standing there, he graced me with a smile. “Dashie, you made it! How was school?” I could understand him being curious, but I really didn’t have anything to say. For one thing, I cut class most of the day.

“…Eh, it was school. Not much else to say about it.” I figured it’d only make things harder if my Dad had to deal with my delinquency. So, I figured that maybe it was best to just leave him out of the whole thing. He didn’t seem to mind as he nodded his head. “Alright, that’s fine.” He took the time to stretch out his wings and his back. “Ah! Well, shall we be going?”

I nodded. “Yeah, there’s probably a lot to learn, right? We only got so much time.” Granted I wasn’t really excited to learn how to kill fillies and colts, but this was my trade, and I needed to take an apprenticeship in it…whether I liked it or not. Once again, I followed my Dad towards the entrance to the factory, only this time I also had my own card key out. Once Dad slipped through, the doors shut again and it was my turn. I slipped the card key through the slot, and the factory opened for me. I was now part of it, as it was becoming a part of me. The spectra flowed through the tubes in an undisturbed rhythm as it twisted and rocked back and forth in its container.

I watched it without a word as I walked, cocking my head to the side. “…Why didn’t we grab those white covers like we did before, Dad?” He continued to walk through until he stopped short to point a hoof at a door located at the side. “Well, now that you’re part of us, I had a special set ordered last night. You get to wear one of our official uniforms now instead of the lab protection equipment provided by the General Cloudsdale Weather Factory. And don’t worry; this stuff is a lot more comfortable on the wings.”

I blinked and started to follow him again. “Okay…” So it turned out not everything was gonna be the same from yesterday, but I had to make sure of something. “…Are we still gonna cover our wings? That was lame.” Dad shook his head.

“Nope, we still have to cover up. The center of the Rainbow Factory and its staff is the principle of anonymity.” He held up a hoof for emphasis. Back then, I didn’t really understand what anonymity was or what it meant. “…Meaning…?”

He sighed at me as he nuzzled my cheek. “Anonymity is the concept of hiding your identity when you do your work. This is very illegal stuff, Dashie, and we don’t want the royal authorities of Equestria to find out about us. By covering ourselves, we don’t allow for ponies to find out who are the masterminds, and in that way, we are safe to continue our work for the sake of Equestria. Without rainbows, Equestria would only fall apart. Do not show your identity to anypony outside the factory.”

I nodded in understanding. Keeping one’s identity secret was a pretty big deal. “Yeah, I get it. So, where is this so called ‘uniform’?” Dad walked on towards the side door and slid a card through the door slot. With a weird ‘ping’ sound, the door opened, and we walked in. The inside of the place kinda looked like the storage facility that held the other equipment, but there were a lot of coats on hangers as well as individual sets of goggles and wing covers.

Dad stopped towards a row that had the number 246 on it before reaching a hoof in. He pulled out what looked like a wrapped package of a white bundle, and proceeded to look it over. “Hmm…” This continued for a while until he suddenly held the set towards me. “Alright, it’s all yours, Dashie. Try it on.” I blinked at the bundle before settling down on my hind-hooves, my tail hitting the floor as I reached for the package. There was a flap that I just needed to lift, so there was no need to tear the package with my teeth.

Reaching into it and pulling the white bundle out, I looked over what looked like a white pristine lab coat with several pockets in it, a pair of safety goggles, a pair of white soft wing covers, and lastly, a gold plate badge that had words carved into it.

“…App…ren…Apprenticeship S.S.? What the hay is that supposed to mean?” I looked up at my Dad in a state of confusion and a bit of annoyance. Dad simply leaned closer to me and smiled softly. “…Apprenticeship Superior Supervisor. You’ll be working directly under me, and eventually…you’ll take my place as the Superior Supervisor.” I couldn’t blame him for sounding hopeful like that.

I nodded. “Right, uh…how do you put this on?” Dad chuckled before pulling out his own uniform set. “Alright, you’re gonna watch me put mine on, okay?” I observed as he slipped the coat over himself, the slits in the back allowing space for him to fit his wings through the coat. After that, the wing covers slipped over, but it was fitting in such a way that it wouldn’t obstruct the wind flowing through the feathers. There were small slits where wind could slip through. After all that, he pulled the safety goggles over his eyes, and even lifted what looked like a face mask over his muzzle, all of it in white. His voice was now a little muffled. “Alright, now you try it.”

And so I did. I slipped the coat over myself and put my wings through the covers, my mouth being covered by the face mask that was also in my package. I put the safety goggles on last, my vision getting distorted for a second until everything became clear again once the goggles were set into place. Looking in a mirror at myself on the other side of the dressing room, I saw a filly filled with uncertainty, yet with a purpose…a dark and deadly purpose. I tried to narrow my eyes as I thought of hardening my heart, but then I just looked pathetic. I thought hardening your heart had something to do with aggression.

...But that’s not what it is at all. Even now, I can’t truly harden myself.

Dad looked down towards me with watering eyes. “Dashie…” I could still hear his voice through the cover. “It fits you well. Oh gosh, does it fit you well…!” I saw my Dad’s posture weakening as he started to nuzzle me, not even able to actually say a word as I continued to stare at myself in the mirror, my Dad falling apart behind me. In a way, this showed just how hurt my Dad was by having this job. He sheltered this burden while having to tuck me in at night, having to watch fillies and colts like me scream in terror.

And then I understood. Dad tried to distance himself from me the day of my flight test because he was afraid of the off-chance that I would fail. If I did, he would’ve been put in the position to spare my life or kill me. He never stopped loving me, and he never wanted to kill. This was for the sake of Equestria. Even if I did fail, I had the feeling that he wouldn’t have been able to go through with it. I would’ve been rescued instead of Fluttershy.

When you think about it like that, I supposed that it was good to win. I was there as a winner to save her, and now everything would be okay for Fluttershy. I also wanted to make everything okay for my Dad, as well. I turned around away from the mirror to face my broken Dad. “…Dad…please, teach me. Teach me how to run the Rainbow Factory. I’m ready.”

Dad looked into my eyes. “…Dashie…” He closed his own until he re-opened them, a new look in his eyes: The one that seemed insane. “Alright, then…follow me, Dashie, and I’ll tell you everything there is to know about the Rainbow Factory!” I followed him without a word, silently hoping that once I eventually took over, that he’d be able to have a peace of mind. I didn’t want to watch my Dad suffer through this anymore.

We entered into the main center of the Rainbow Factory, where that large machine continued its work, a bunch of other masked ponies flying about, each of them focused on their work. I gulped as I looked closer at the wheels that turned in the machine. Another pegasus filly was heading towards her doom as she rolled closer along the conveyer belt, a deafening scream filling the room once she hit impact. The bones were crushed in a splash of red as the wheel turned once again, and then it was gone. Hearing my Dad’s voice, I quickly looked away from the machine and up to see…my Dad was on what looked like a higher platform, a table in front of him.

I flew up onto the platform to meet him. “What is that, Dad?” I asked through the mask that covered my muzzle. Dad turned towards me and gestured me closer with a hoof. “Well, this is the control panel for the machine down there. We called it ‘The Grinding Deep’.” I frowned at the gray table and its entire multi-colored buttons. As we sat down and looked at it, Dad told me what each and every button represented, and what it did in terms of the machine. The red lever at the far left would start the machine, and the green button just underneath was used to collect spectra from the bloody mess that traveled from the wheels (activated by the blue button), through the rotation of knives (purple button, second one over), and eventually through the vacuum (red button in the center). The idea was that each body would be grounded up to dust.

After he showed me how to work the main control panel for ‘The Grinding Deep’, we moved into the laboratory, where the spectra was processed and converted until it was packaged and delivered to the General Weather Factory under the disguise of being sickeningly spicy. In truth, it was an original factory formula that caused it, and any idiot who dared to lick it would be greeted with the most burning hot sensation in their mouths. In fact, a pony actually DID lick a chemical formula in the factory, and was horribly disappointed. She didn’t even know that she tasted a pony’s life-force, the idiot!

I was taught step-by-step how to put together each formula. I couldn’t sit still for too long, so I flew from each instructional potion, my mind absorbing each purpose for which formula. Back then I didn’t know that was how I learned in general, but there was no restriction against flight in the Rainbow Factory. I plowed through each liquid used; each button, night after night, living and breathing the factory as I grew determined to understand it even further. Somehow, I had to shoulder the burden, and I wanted to take away my Dad’s.

…I had to figure out how to make the factory mine. I had to know, just what difference could I make that would send all the blame towards me if ever we were to be discovered?

A night three months later we went over the treatment of failures. How to handle them from the cart to the holding room, where I started to understand what Fluttershy must’ve gone through while I was with my Dad. For experience, I was assigned to prepare a young purple pegasus colt with blue eyes for the grinding process, and as a test, I had to do it on my own.

I’d say it wasn’t hard for me, but that’d be a lie if I ever heard one. I was terrified, having to approach this fully conscious pegasus colt with a syringe filled with benzodiazepines like I was his worst nightmare, feeling pretty hot and sweaty in my white cover. This pegasus couldn’t find out who I was, no matter what. And I couldn’t spare him either, no matter what…

I stuck the needle into his neck as he whined at me, and he eventually fell limp. If he was lucky, he wouldn’t wake up until after everything coming to him was over. But fate is never kind to you. I carried the pony from the holding room to the laboratory where he was sanitized and prepped for killing. Sanitation was an absolute must in the Rainbow Factory, I discovered through my apprenticeship. Each tool had to be meticulously cleaned and pre-washed before every use. As I was ready to place him on the conveyer belt just across the room, I suddenly felt something try to sink through my covers, stinging through my shoulder.

When I looked, that pegasus colt had woken up, and now he was trying to bite me in order to get away. In times like this, I was told to simply inject the formula to bid him back to sleep again, but I was a nervous wreck at this point, and the colt was actually rather heavy; I couldn’t reach for the syringe. With a sharp pain to my ribs, the colt used me as momentum, jumping away from me and slammed into the door of the laboratory, trying to bash it open.

As I said before, I had a really bad temper when I was younger, so I reached over and threw my covered hoof into the colt’s face, causing him to cry as his face was bruised with pain while I breathed a sigh of relief. As I was about to lift him up again, the colt lifted himself back up, and he threw his entire bottom half towards my muzzle, causing me to be slammed into tables of equipment, empty vials hitting the floor with a crash. As I tried to open my eyes, I only saw a blurry mess as the dumb colt made his way over and lifted me up by my sealed lab coat. “Where the hay did you take me!? Open this door or I’ll clobber your face again!” The purple colt screamed in my already ringing ears as I tried to gather my bearings again.

At that point, I wasn’t sure if I could truly take on the burden of the factory alone, not when I was being beaten the first time I’d been left to do something without my Dad’s supervision. But I didn’t want Dad to have to deal with any more pain, and that alone gave me strength to force myself up in front of the enraged colt.

“You’re in the Rainbow Factory, and too bad, but you’re gonna die!” I cried out as I headbutted him, reaching past the colt to get the syringe and stab it into his shoulder, causing the purple pegasus to give a gasp of pain and surprise before he fell on top of me again, unconscious as he dribbled his saliva all over my now blood-stained lab coat. Without a second thought, I threw the idiot onto the conveyer belt, and walked up to the side to push a button that opened up the metal door that led to The Grinding Deep. I flew through the metal opening and landed just away from the conveyer belt as I watched the machine, my entire body feeling pretty sore and rigid as my mind was.

I witnessed the demise of that blue-eyed purple pegasus colt with a burning hatred, and all I saw as he fell off the conveyer belt…was the desire to LIVE. I choked up as I watched his blood smear the wheel as it rotated, the bones that slammed into me being crushed into nothing. He was just a young pegasus colt who wanted to live, to see his family again…!

I couldn’t stop the tears that were overflowing in my goggles and irritating my eyes. He. Just. Wanted. To. LIVE. I threw the goggles off my face and they flew across the floor as I curled into myself, and the horrible deed I had just committed. It was one thing to watch a bunch of ponies fall through the hooves of your father and his staff, but…

…That pegasus colt was the very first one that I threw onto the conveyer belt myself, and I had done it without a second thought. Without even considering that maybe he had a family that was waiting for him…!!!

I couldn’t breathe. I…I just needed to get out of there. Away from the factory, away from myself, away from…just, everything….

…I needed desperately just to fly.

Author's Note

I got a positive response, so I decided to post a continuation to the first chapter. Please enjoy and give me some feedback to improve the story. ^^