Blood, Tears and Laughter. A Rainbow Factory Fan-Ficby DamienandFlashChaptersPrologue: The Exam + Chapter One: The FactoryChapter Two: Becoming the MonsterUpdate + Chapter Three: The Animal InsideChapter Four: A State of RevoltEpiloguePrologue: The Exam + Chapter One: The FactoryPrologue: It was the day of the flight school final exam, Flash was nervous but confident. He was almost positive that he would pass. "Just clear, fly, fall, complete." He said quietly to himself. "Nothing I can't handle." He didn't want to be one of the failures, sent off into exile, never seen or heard from again. "Hey Flash, you ready for this?" Updraft, Flash's best friend said as he walked up next to him. "As ready as I'll ever be." He replied. Updraft was a young griffon who's parents had signed him up for a flight school in Cloudsdale. He was about four inches taller than Flash and had feather patterns like that of a hawk. "Alright, alright. Places all of you, line up by name, A to Z." Said a well muscled stallion as he walked in front of the assembled group of pegasi. "The test will consist of three stages. One, you take off and bust the clouds. Two, fly through the loops. Three, ascend to the marked elevation and hold your wings in for no less than three seconds and recover before you hit the cloud floor. Am I clear?" "Sir yes sir!" All of the fillies and colts (and griffon) said in unison. One by one, they all took off, and one by one they either passed or failed. When it came to Flash's turn, he stepped up to the takeoff spot, crouched, and shot into the air. He started by shooting through all of the clouds, smashing them into bits. 'Alright, so far so good. Now to the loops.' He thought. He gracefully and quickly flew through the loops, and then ascended to the designated altitude. He pulled on his wings as he thought, 'Well, here goes nothing.' He felt himself falling, wind rushing over his small body, the cloud layer rapidly drawing closer. "One, two, three!" He counted, and opened his wings on three. To his relief nothing broke and he continued forward and came to a stop. He looked over at the judges, three hooves up. 'I passed...' he thought. "I passed!" He shouted excitedly and flew to the opposite end of the coliseum, and sat there. Watching everypony else complete their tests. That is, until Updraft. Everything had started out fine, he quickly busted up all of the clouds and made his way through the loops, until the last one. As he passed through the loop, he had flown a little too low and one of his hind legs caught on the loop and he spun out and fell, spinning out of control. 'Oh no,' Flash thought. "Updraft!" He yelled as he took off to help his friend. The griffon was spinning rapidly as he plummeted down to the cloud layer. Flash tackled him mid fall and they both tumbled to the clouds and rolled to a stop. Flash slowly got up, groaning from the painful landing. Once they were both standing again, Flash said. "Hey, you okay buddy?" "No, I'm not. I failed." He replied as he looked over at the judges, all three of them had their hooves pointed down. "Hey, it'll be alright. I bet that they'll just send you back to Griffonstone. I'll be there to see you off, you don't need some diploma from a bunch of pegasi to tell you that you can fly, you're a griffon!" "Yeah, I guess you're right. But that's not gonna change how disappointed my parents will be." He walked with Updraft over to where the other two flunk-outs we're standing, sitting silently next to each other, wondering where they would be sent and if they'd ever see their families again. "Don't worry, I'm sure it'll all be fine." Flash told his friend one last time as a transport cart usually used for moving cargo, not other ponies, pulled up and came to a stop. Two pegasi hopped off, opened the back, and shoved all of them inside. "Hey, what's the big idea!" Flash said as he, Updraft, and the two failures were crammed inside and the door was shut and locked. "Let me out! I'm not even supposed to be here! I passed my flight exam!" But none of the pegasi outside the cart heard him, they just got back on and the other two started pulling the cart again. "Well, I guess now we're both getting exiled." Updraft said. Flash started pacing back and forth inside the small space. There was enough room to do so because only two other ponies were in the cart. A blue pegasus with a lighter blue mane with red streaks in it and in her wings, and green eyes, and a dark red pegasus with a mane that had clearly been dyed black and grey eyes. "There has to be a way I can get back." Flash said, thinking out loud. "If I can just convince the pegasi driving this cart I think I can get back." "It's no use," said the blue pegasus in the cart. "There's too much noise and the walls are too thick." She looked so scared, though in this situation, who wouldn't be. "Well I'm not just gonna sit in here and get exiled, I'm gonna get out and get home." "Good luck with that." She said, sounding downtrodden. "By the way, my name is Sapphire, Sapphire Phoenix." "My name is Flash Lightning and the griffon is Updraft." The other pony in the cart remained silent for the entire trip. Fast forward a few hours. Flash had tried desperately to get the pegasi's attention, but his words were drowned out by the thick wooden walls of the cart. After a long while they finally came to a stop and the door on the cart was opened. What they saw startled them. They weren't being deported, they were inside the weather factory. Chapter One: The Factory Long metal pipes ran along the ceiling and walls, occasionally hissing steam. And there was a large machine in the back of the room with what appeared to be lots of rust at the top. "What are we doing here?" Sapphire said as the four of them were forced into the huge room with a large number of other colts and fillies. "I don't know, but I really don't like this." Flash responded. Once they were all seated on the hard metal floor, a pegasus stepped out onto a catwalk above them. No words were spoken, but he pushed a button and a projector started playing a short film touring the factory and a song started to play. Now a rainbow's tale isn't quite as nice As the story we knew of sugar and spice But a rainbow's easy once you get to know it With the help of the magic of a pegasus device Let's delve deeper into rainbow philosophy Far beyond that of Cloudsdale's mythology It's easy to misjudge that floating city With it's alluring decor and social psychology But with all great things comes a great responsibility That of Cloudsdale's being weather stability How, you ask, are they up to the task To which the answer is in a simple facility In the Rainbow Factory, where your fears and horrors come true In the Rainbow Factory, where not a single soul gets through In the Rainbow Factory, where your fears and horrors come true A long moment of instrumentals followed, but the the singing returned In the Rainbow Factory, where your fears and horrors come true In the Rainbow Factory, where not a single soul gets through In the Rainbow Factory, where your fears and horrors come true In the Rainbow Factory, where not a single soul gets through All of the young pegasi in the room were either too scared or shocked to move. Then, the pegasus on the catwalk spoke. "By now, you’ve all clearly determined that you are not going into exile. There is no deportation. There never was. You are in The Factory. You will never leave The Factory. And while you may be called useless, that’s also not entirely true. You’re worthless to The Flock as a Pony. But you still have purpose!" "Purpose to all the ponies in this land, far and wide. You get to help us make rainbows! Beautiful, magical rainbows, doesn’t that excite you?” The mysterious announcer grinned ecstatically, taking in all the disgusted looks from every foal on the floor below him. “I thought so,” he chuckled. “It is just such an honor, you know, it leaves every pony entrusted with the task speechless too! Now, do we have any volunteers?” The other pony who had been in the cart with them, spoke up. "How can you do this? This is torture, slavery. Surely if any of the princesses found out about this you would have hell to pay." “I think you’ll find it’s more than that,” a second official pegasus walked out of the shadows and to the end of the catwalk. The pony was suited and masked. The first pony walked away and allowed the second to talk. “A thousand years ago, when Celestia banished Luna from Equestria and sent her to the moon, she was charged with three tasks. She originally was in charge of raising the sun, and showering the land with rainbows. But, with the moon being an additional task, she had to hand down the responsibility of rainbows. Celestia entrusted the Pegasi of Cloudsdale to make the rainbows for her from them on. For the first dozen years, we were given powerful unicorns to help create Spectra. Spectra is pure pigment, pure color. Everything is full of Spectra, but you can’t just harvest it. You can never separate color from an object. So it was made artificially with magic.” The masked pony never took her eyes off the red one that had spoken. “That is, until our top engineers made a breakthrough. They discovered an ingenious way to extract pigment, and it was so beautiful even a simple machine could do it. But it couldn’t be done with just anything. The conditions had to be right.” "What did those monsters do!?" The red pony yelled up at the suited pegasus, growing angrier. “It had to be live ponies! Only in ponies, where magic and Spectra ran freely together!” The Pegasus threw its head back and laughed maniacally. “Only then could the Spectra be separated! And it was such a beautiful idea, such a wonderfully horrible idea. It worked so well; we could create exponentially more rainbows, of better quality with real Spectra. And it finally gave us a way to prevent Cloudsdale from being tainted by all those horrible pegasi that couldn’t fly! Ahahahah!” "STOP!" Flash yelled, cutting the pegasus off mid laugh. "Just stop it! I'm not even supposed to be here! I was saying goodbye to my friend when I got thrown into a cart and taken here. I passed my flight exam!" This caught the pegasus off guard. She didn't know what exactly to say (for it sounded like a she), for a moment there was just silence, then she spoke again. "I'm afraid now that you're here, we can't let you leave. But you won't be joining them." The pony motioned to every other colt and filly in the room. "So you have no need to worry. You'll receive an authoritative position, so you won't be working with them. But if you step out of line, you'll be joining them faster than you can say Wonderbolts. Now, enough of that, where was I? Oh yes." "Time to make an example of what happens here if you mess up. Workers, take that red one right there." The pony was pointing at the dark red one who had spoken earlier. "Wait, no! Please don't! Please!" The poor colt exclaimed, but it was too late. They fastened his hooves into shackles and the strange machine in the back of the room came to life. The chains rose above the top of the machine and stretched the colt's legs out straight up and down. "Also, the machine tends to work better if the ribs are broken first." The suited pegasus said, and then the chains began to twist, a loud series of cracks could be heard from the colt's bones as bits of his ribs poked out of his chest, all the while he was screaming in pain and agony. Once the chains stopped twisting and so did the screaming, the shackles released the pony and the machine ground him to mush, bright red spectra started coming out of the bottom of the machine, flowing into a large vat. It was then that Flash noticed that it wasn't rust on the top of the machine, but blood. Flash didn't want any part in this, so when everyone started to panic, he found Updraft and they made a plan. While all of the workers were distracted by everyone else flying around, they would sneak into a ventilation duct on the wall and try to find a way out of the building. Updraft was already inside the duct and Flash was almost inside when the workers noticed them. "Get them! They're inside the ventilation system!" Flash shoved the rest of himself inside the vent and started shoving Updraft forward. "Come on! Move faster they're going to catch us!" After traveling a good distance inside the ducts, Updraft found a metal grate in the top with sunlight coming out of it. "Yes! A way out, we'll be free!" Updraft smashed the grate off and climbed out, Flash was just about to when the bottom of the vent gave out beneath him partially and his hoof got stuck between the two metal panels. "Updraft, help me, please!" Flash said, then workers below the duct noticed this and started pulling on his hoof. "Please Updraft, you're my friend, please!" But Updraft just glanced at him before flying away. "I thought you were my friend..." Flash said before the workers pulled on him hard enough and the panel gave out completely and they pulled him out of the duct.- "I can't escape this hell, So many times I've tried. But I'm still caged inside, Somebody get me through this nightmare! I can't control myself!" -Later, Flash was lead away by another worker. "Even though you tried to escape, we've decided to give you a second chance." The worker said as they arrived at a supply closet. "Here," the worker said as he handed Flash a white lab coat and an ID tag. "Put those on, you'll need them." Flash didn't question what he had been told and did as he was instructed, putting on the lab coat and clipping on the name tag. "You will be co-supervising the failures with me, I'm Thundercloud, you are?" The worker said. "Me? I'm Flash, Flash Lightning." His voice saddened by the betrayal of his friend- -A few days later- -Flash had started to get used to supervising the others with Thunder, you just had to make sure they kept working. And if they stopped, you zapped them with your tazer-stick. That was usually enough to get them back to work. But if it wasn't, sometimes you had to get brutal. It was on this day that one of the failures, a large brown pony that was at least 6 inches taller than Flash, decided that he'd had enough. "Hey you!" The pony said to Flash, he looked over in his direction. "You're going to let me out of here or regret you didn't" "Oh really?" Flash said, charging the tazer-stick. "Yeah really," said the pony and he then lunged at Flash. He saw it coming and dogged to the left, spinning around tazer at the ready. But the brown pegasus turned and kicked the tazer out of his grip. "Now I've got you," said the pegasus, "you couldn't defend yourself if your life depended on it." He then hit Flash hard in the face. "You're so pathetic, I bet your parents didn't even want you." He hit Flash again, sending him sprawling on the hard metal floor, his eyes started tearing up. "Heh, what a little cry-baby." "Stop it!" Flash said as he struggled to his hooves. "You don't know what it was like for me growing up!" Flash hit him back hard in the side of his head, then again in the other side, before launching a barrage of well placed punches as he said, "My mother hated me and I never even knew my father, so shut the buck up!" On the word 'up' he spun around and bucked him in the side of his chest, sending the bruised pegasus flying, his neck hit a pipe with a sickening crunch and he lay there still, while tears still slid down Flash's face.- "So what if you can see, The darkest side of me? No one will ever change this animal I have become." Chapter Two: Becoming the MonsterChapter Two: Becoming the Monster It had been two days since Flash had killed that pony, and it was weighing on his conscious pretty hard. 'I killed him, I actually killed him...' The thought would repeat itself over and over again in his mind to no end. And what made him feel worse was the fact that for doing that, they'd promoted him. (Flashback to the end of chapter one) Flash stood there, silent, a look of complete sadness on his face that was still wet with tears. "You did what had to be done." Said a voice from behind him. He turned around and saw the overmare. Black suit and all, standing right behind him. "You were attacked, you defended yourself, you won. And I congratulate you for that." She walked forward and sat down in front of the shocked pegasus, his face devoid of any emotion other than one last tear, rolling down his cheek. The overmare wiped it away, the first act of kindness she'd shown anyone at the factory. "I see great potential in you, you're stronger than what you show everyone else." She started pacing back and forth in front of him. "I have a proposal for you," she said, standing still now. "You show that side more often, and you can stay in my quarters, you'll get actual food, not the gruel everyone else eats, and you'll have a higher position. Why am I doing this you ask? Well, I'm thinking of retiring soon and I need a successor. What do you say?" Flash came back to his senses and thought about it for a moment. "I don't know," Flash said. "You do realize how things work around here, it's survival of the fittest. You should know that based on what you've just done." 'I don't want to become like her,' Flash thought. 'But if I want to survive here I have to be mean.' "Alright, I'll accept your offer." "Great, I'll be expecting progress from you soon. See you tonight."- -The days went by agonizingly slowly, each day more horrible than the last. He had even been forced to hurt Sapphire, which still haunted him to this day. {Flashback} The flunk-outs were all moving the vats of Spectra to another part of The Factory. Sapphire and a pale yellow pegasus were moving the huge vat of green Spectra when Sapphire slipped in a puddle that had sloshed out of one of the vats that a previous groups of ponies had spilled. It drenched her in green slime, staining her entire figure. Many thoughts raced through his mind at that moment. 'I have to punish her, she spilled the entire vat of Spectra! But I know her, she's my friend, I can't do that.' But eventually, one thought prevailed. ' "Don't you know how things work around here? It's survival of the fittest." ' He cleared his face of any emotion and approached her. She looked up at him with sheer terror in her eyes. "Please don't do this!" She begged, "I thought you were my friend!" Those words stabbed his heart like a knife, but he shook it off and continued with what he was about to do. "AAAAHHHHHHH!" She screamed in pain as he electrocuted her with his tazer-stick. He let go after a few moments and she lay there, gasping for breath. "Please..." She said weakly. But he did not stop. He repeated the process over and over again until his tazer ran out of power. At this point the tips of Sapphire's feathers and fur were smoking and she had severe burns where he had zapped her. "H-How... Could... You..?" She barely managed to say. All he said in response was: "You're lucky I didn't kill you." His voice devoid of any emotion. "Mess up like that again and I will."- "Help me believe, It's not the real me, Somebody help me tame this animal!" Update + Chapter Three: The Animal InsideChapter Three: The Animal Inside Author's Note: This chapter takes place three years later, and Flash is now about twelve years old. Flash continued to become more and more brutal, more like Her, and part of him couldn't stand it. He was standing in the bathroom of Her quarters, looking into the mirror at what he had become. He had grown somewhat, being taller than he was when he had arrived a few years ago. And his fur and mane were stained with blood, to the point where most of it would not wash out anymore. "What has become of me?" He asked his reflection, his voice filled with sadness. To his surprise, (though he thought he might be hallucinating) it responded. "You've become stronger, that's what. You've shown everyone here what you're made of and destroyed anyone in your way." It said, sounding like a sinister version of himself. "No I haven't!" He yelled back, "I've become a monster! I've killed others and almost killed my friends. I can't sleep with the things that I've done. I'm becoming just like Her!" "And that's a good thing, don't you remember what She said? 'Don't you know how things work around here? It's survival of the fittest.' You had to do those things to survive this, and you've gained the fear and respect of others. You should be proud of yourself." Just then, She came into the room. "Is something wrong? I heard yelling." She asked. "No, no. Everything is fine. It's, nothing. I'm fine." "Alright, if you say so." She said, sounding a bit skeptical. "I'll see you later my little protégé." Then She left the room. "Ehyuck." He spat, "I can't stand how she talks to me. Treating me like I'm her perfect little murderous pet" He turned back to his reflection, it smirked at him, laughed quietly and turned back into his normal reflection, mirroring whatever he did. "*sigh* What's happening to me?"- "I can't escape myself, So many times I've lied, (So many times I've lied) But there's still rage inside, Somebody get me through this nightmare! I can't control myself!" -The next day another batch of flunk-outs was delivered to The Factory, the poor little ponies didn't know what was going on. 'I feel so horrible seeing this happen, knowing exactly what it feels like.' He thought, but then something inside him spoke in reply. 'You shouldn't, they're worthless to The Flock. They can't even fly properly, so stop sympathizing and get to work!' The voice had never been this commanding before, and it startled Flash. 'Fine, I'm just saying I've been in their position before.' He trotted to the end of the catwalk and pushed the button that would start the projector and play the song he'd seen and heard on his first day here. After that had ended and his audience looked thoroughly frightened, he began to relay the same speech he'd been forced to say numerous times before. "By now, you’ve all clearly determined that you are not going into exile. There is no deportation. There never was. You are in The Factory. You will never leave The Factory. And while you may be called useless, that’s also not entirely true. You’re worthless to The Flock as a Pony. But you still have purpose!" "Purpose to all the ponies in this land, far and wide. You get to help us make rainbows! Beautiful, magical rainbows, doesn’t that excite you?” Flash looked over all of the fillies and colts below him as looks of shock and disgust appeared on their faces. "Figures, it is such an important and honorable task that it often leaves it's new bearers speechless. Now, do we have any volunteers?" A brave young colt with a medium green coat of fur and an ocean blue mane stepped forward and spoke, there was always one who did this. "You can't do this to us! We're still pegasi! We have rights!" Flash sighed and said, "Not here you don't, you have no clue what's in store for yourselves do you? Well, I'll let The Overmare explain." Flash stepped back as She approached and took his place at the end of the catwalk. She then recited the same thing She had countless times before and got the same reaction from Her audience, total panic. But this time Flash just sat back and watched as those beneath his rank reigned them in and restored order. Then, She spoke again. "Alright then, now that that's taken care of, take the one who spoke up and use him as a demonstration of what happens if you act out of line." The workers grabbed and dragged the struggling pony over to the cold metal chains and shackled him to them. "Please, don't do this! I'll behave, I promise! Please!" The poor thing sounded so distressed, but Flash had already sealed away any sympathy for them, and signaled to the operator to start The Machine. It then hummed to life as the chains raised the whimpering pony high above the Factory floor, and positioned him above the mouth of the giant metal monster. Flash averted his gaze as the following events unfolded. She said, "We find The Machine works best when the ribs are already broken." Just like before, and every other time, the chains started twisting, causing the colt's ribs to shatter and brake, small bits of them poking out of his chest. And then, like every other time, The Machine dropped the whimpering bloody mess that had once been a pegasus inside its gaping maw, grinding him to bits and turning him into beautiful blue and green Spectra, which oozed out of pipes at the bottom of The Machine and into vats of the corresponding color. "How can I continue to do this?" Flash quietly said to himself as he walked away.- "So what if you can see, The darkest side of me? No one will ever change this animal I have become. Help me believe, It's not the real me, Somebody help me tame this animal I have become! Help me believe, It's not the real me, Somebody help me tame this animal!" Chapter Four: A State of RevoltChapter Four: A State of Revolt The following day everything went to hell. Under the noses of everyone else at The Factory, a group of workers had staged a revolt, and guess who their priority target was? The recently promoted second in command, Flash Lightning, otherwise known as by the workers, The Wolf. He had 'earned' this title from being so ruthless, merciless, and downright evil. Some might even say that he was cold-blooded, but no matter what they called him, they feared him. He only took orders from the Overmare herself, and had the power to order around his inferiors to do whatever he wanted. And if you messed up or made him mad, he would kill you, but some suffered far worse at his hooves, like Sapphire had. She couldn't even use her wings properly anymore, the electrocution had messed up her wing muscles and she couldn't fly at all. The workers were fed up with suffering under him, so they had planned on killing him. This is how it happened. It was the day after the last bunch of flunk-outs had arrived, they struck hard and fast. Capturing around two-dozen higher-ups and cornering Flash in the Machine's control room. "You're going to pay for everything you've done to us! Justice will be swift, it will be painful, it will be delicious!" Said the leader of the group, a reddish-brown pony with a golden brown mane and eyes as green as dragon fire, and they were burning with rage. They slowly encircled Flash as he said; "You won't win, just because the Overmare is away doesn't mean taking control will be so easy." Then they all converged on Flash at once, and the fight that ensued was both brutal and short, with Flash putting up a fierce amount of resistance, but eventually he fell to their numbers. He came to hanging upside-down by his hind-legs, dazed and confused. Once his vision stopped spinning, he realized where he was. He was right above the Machine, his wings tied to his sides with ropes and his fore-legs bound in the same way. He looked over at the catwalk to see the brown pegasus from earlier standing there, a sinister look on his face. He moved his gaze to the Factory floor and saw the other higher-ups bound and gagged with workers standing around them, guarding their captives. "So you're finally awake huh? It's about time, I've waited for this moment for over three years now. Do you remember the first pony you killed here? I doubt you do, but he was my little brother. And today you're going to pay for killing him. An eye for an eye..." "A life for a life." Flash said before his captor could finish. The pony smirked at Flash, a look of burning hatred in his green eyes as he said, "Lower him in." The pony in the control room where they had all been a few hours ago started the Machine and the chains began to descend. Then pegasus the said, "Goodbye you heartless wolf, may your soul burn in Tartarus." Right as his head was about to be crushed, the chains suddenly stopped. Flash looked over at the control room to see the Overmare at the controls, the pony who had been in there previously unconscious on the floor. The Machine then powered down and She flew out of the room and tackled the workers who were guarding their prisoners. After subduing them she released the higher-ups and the battle that ensued was long and bloody. But in the end, the workers lost, taken prisoner and sentenced to recycling. The Overmare flew up to the machine and undid the ropes binding Flash and the shackles on his hind- legs released their grip. "I leave for one day and you almost get yourself killed?! You're lucky I came back when I did, or all of you would be dead." The black suited pony said, a decent amount of anger in her voice. But Flash didn't hear a word She'd said, because when he had come so close to death, something inside him snapped. Any remnants of the old Flash were gone now, all that was left was his shadow. The hate, the anger, the sadness, the rage, and the cruelty. Once he landed on the catwalk next to Her, he just started laughing, an insane laugh from one who isn't quite stable anymore. It echoed throughout the Factory and everyone was silent. Once he stopped laughing, he took a deep breath and then he spoke. "I request permission to personally execute them." He said, in a voice that can only be described as coming from one who has lost their sanity.- "Somebody help me through this nightmare, I can't control myself! Somebody wake me from this nightmare, 'Cause I can't escape this hell! (This animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal.) EpilogueEpilogue; After the organizers of the uprising had been recycled, Flash went back to his newly constructed quarters. He opened the large steel door and trotted inside, closing the door behind him. It had been a long and stressful day and he felt exhausted, almost dying can do that to a person. He walked up to the sink and turned the water on, letting the cold liquid wash over his hooves and fall into the drain, taking plenty of blood with it. Most of the time he could get it off, but the old stains would never go away and the fresh ones only refreshed those. He looked into the mirror, the twelve year old stallion who gazed back looked like he belonged in some twisted horror movie. 'But that's what my life is anyway, I kill other ponies all the time.' He chuckled as he thought that, then he turned away from the mirror and entered the shower.- -That night was the first time he'd slept soundly since before he'd come here, having lost any sense of compassion, his actions no longer troubled him. Upon waking up the next morning, he actually felt refreshed. "The wonders a clear conscience can do for the body." He said to himself as he walked over to his closet and selected one of the blood stained lab coats, putting it on and clipping on his name tag. His conscience actually was far from clear, but he just didn't feel any of the emotions that went with it anymore. His breakfast was waiting for him on the small table situated in the kitchen, but he didn't feel hungry then, so he left early and exited his quarters to find to higher-ups restraining a certain blue and red pegasus. "What is going on here?" He said in a calm tone of voice as he approached them. "Sir," One of the suited ponies said, "We found her hear sneaking around, what should we do with her?" But before Flash could respond, Sapphire spoke. "Flash! I know that there's still good inside you somewhere, please, stop this madness! And we can escape together, this... Monster, that you've become isn't you, and I know that deep inside you know that too." There was desperation in her voice, but he didn't care. He started walking away but something made him stop and say, "Don't you remember? Flash is gone, you all call me 'The Wolf' now." He then turned to the pegasi that had her restrained and said, "Make sure that she is severely punished, but don't kill her. She suffers more while she still lives."- "So what if you can see, The darkest side of me? No one will ever change this animal I have become. Help me believe, It's not the real me, Somebody help me tame this animal I have become! Help me believe, It's not the real me, Somebody help me tame this animal!" FIN.
Prologue: The Exam + Chapter One: The FactoryPrologue: It was the day of the flight school final exam, Flash was nervous but confident. He was almost positive that he would pass. "Just clear, fly, fall, complete." He said quietly to himself. "Nothing I can't handle." He didn't want to be one of the failures, sent off into exile, never seen or heard from again. "Hey Flash, you ready for this?" Updraft, Flash's best friend said as he walked up next to him. "As ready as I'll ever be." He replied. Updraft was a young griffon who's parents had signed him up for a flight school in Cloudsdale. He was about four inches taller than Flash and had feather patterns like that of a hawk. "Alright, alright. Places all of you, line up by name, A to Z." Said a well muscled stallion as he walked in front of the assembled group of pegasi. "The test will consist of three stages. One, you take off and bust the clouds. Two, fly through the loops. Three, ascend to the marked elevation and hold your wings in for no less than three seconds and recover before you hit the cloud floor. Am I clear?" "Sir yes sir!" All of the fillies and colts (and griffon) said in unison. One by one, they all took off, and one by one they either passed or failed. When it came to Flash's turn, he stepped up to the takeoff spot, crouched, and shot into the air. He started by shooting through all of the clouds, smashing them into bits. 'Alright, so far so good. Now to the loops.' He thought. He gracefully and quickly flew through the loops, and then ascended to the designated altitude. He pulled on his wings as he thought, 'Well, here goes nothing.' He felt himself falling, wind rushing over his small body, the cloud layer rapidly drawing closer. "One, two, three!" He counted, and opened his wings on three. To his relief nothing broke and he continued forward and came to a stop. He looked over at the judges, three hooves up. 'I passed...' he thought. "I passed!" He shouted excitedly and flew to the opposite end of the coliseum, and sat there. Watching everypony else complete their tests. That is, until Updraft. Everything had started out fine, he quickly busted up all of the clouds and made his way through the loops, until the last one. As he passed through the loop, he had flown a little too low and one of his hind legs caught on the loop and he spun out and fell, spinning out of control. 'Oh no,' Flash thought. "Updraft!" He yelled as he took off to help his friend. The griffon was spinning rapidly as he plummeted down to the cloud layer. Flash tackled him mid fall and they both tumbled to the clouds and rolled to a stop. Flash slowly got up, groaning from the painful landing. Once they were both standing again, Flash said. "Hey, you okay buddy?" "No, I'm not. I failed." He replied as he looked over at the judges, all three of them had their hooves pointed down. "Hey, it'll be alright. I bet that they'll just send you back to Griffonstone. I'll be there to see you off, you don't need some diploma from a bunch of pegasi to tell you that you can fly, you're a griffon!" "Yeah, I guess you're right. But that's not gonna change how disappointed my parents will be." He walked with Updraft over to where the other two flunk-outs we're standing, sitting silently next to each other, wondering where they would be sent and if they'd ever see their families again. "Don't worry, I'm sure it'll all be fine." Flash told his friend one last time as a transport cart usually used for moving cargo, not other ponies, pulled up and came to a stop. Two pegasi hopped off, opened the back, and shoved all of them inside. "Hey, what's the big idea!" Flash said as he, Updraft, and the two failures were crammed inside and the door was shut and locked. "Let me out! I'm not even supposed to be here! I passed my flight exam!" But none of the pegasi outside the cart heard him, they just got back on and the other two started pulling the cart again. "Well, I guess now we're both getting exiled." Updraft said. Flash started pacing back and forth inside the small space. There was enough room to do so because only two other ponies were in the cart. A blue pegasus with a lighter blue mane with red streaks in it and in her wings, and green eyes, and a dark red pegasus with a mane that had clearly been dyed black and grey eyes. "There has to be a way I can get back." Flash said, thinking out loud. "If I can just convince the pegasi driving this cart I think I can get back." "It's no use," said the blue pegasus in the cart. "There's too much noise and the walls are too thick." She looked so scared, though in this situation, who wouldn't be. "Well I'm not just gonna sit in here and get exiled, I'm gonna get out and get home." "Good luck with that." She said, sounding downtrodden. "By the way, my name is Sapphire, Sapphire Phoenix." "My name is Flash Lightning and the griffon is Updraft." The other pony in the cart remained silent for the entire trip. Fast forward a few hours. Flash had tried desperately to get the pegasi's attention, but his words were drowned out by the thick wooden walls of the cart. After a long while they finally came to a stop and the door on the cart was opened. What they saw startled them. They weren't being deported, they were inside the weather factory. Chapter One: The Factory Long metal pipes ran along the ceiling and walls, occasionally hissing steam. And there was a large machine in the back of the room with what appeared to be lots of rust at the top. "What are we doing here?" Sapphire said as the four of them were forced into the huge room with a large number of other colts and fillies. "I don't know, but I really don't like this." Flash responded. Once they were all seated on the hard metal floor, a pegasus stepped out onto a catwalk above them. No words were spoken, but he pushed a button and a projector started playing a short film touring the factory and a song started to play. Now a rainbow's tale isn't quite as nice As the story we knew of sugar and spice But a rainbow's easy once you get to know it With the help of the magic of a pegasus device Let's delve deeper into rainbow philosophy Far beyond that of Cloudsdale's mythology It's easy to misjudge that floating city With it's alluring decor and social psychology But with all great things comes a great responsibility That of Cloudsdale's being weather stability How, you ask, are they up to the task To which the answer is in a simple facility In the Rainbow Factory, where your fears and horrors come true In the Rainbow Factory, where not a single soul gets through In the Rainbow Factory, where your fears and horrors come true A long moment of instrumentals followed, but the the singing returned In the Rainbow Factory, where your fears and horrors come true In the Rainbow Factory, where not a single soul gets through In the Rainbow Factory, where your fears and horrors come true In the Rainbow Factory, where not a single soul gets through All of the young pegasi in the room were either too scared or shocked to move. Then, the pegasus on the catwalk spoke. "By now, you’ve all clearly determined that you are not going into exile. There is no deportation. There never was. You are in The Factory. You will never leave The Factory. And while you may be called useless, that’s also not entirely true. You’re worthless to The Flock as a Pony. But you still have purpose!" "Purpose to all the ponies in this land, far and wide. You get to help us make rainbows! Beautiful, magical rainbows, doesn’t that excite you?” The mysterious announcer grinned ecstatically, taking in all the disgusted looks from every foal on the floor below him. “I thought so,” he chuckled. “It is just such an honor, you know, it leaves every pony entrusted with the task speechless too! Now, do we have any volunteers?” The other pony who had been in the cart with them, spoke up. "How can you do this? This is torture, slavery. Surely if any of the princesses found out about this you would have hell to pay." “I think you’ll find it’s more than that,” a second official pegasus walked out of the shadows and to the end of the catwalk. The pony was suited and masked. The first pony walked away and allowed the second to talk. “A thousand years ago, when Celestia banished Luna from Equestria and sent her to the moon, she was charged with three tasks. She originally was in charge of raising the sun, and showering the land with rainbows. But, with the moon being an additional task, she had to hand down the responsibility of rainbows. Celestia entrusted the Pegasi of Cloudsdale to make the rainbows for her from them on. For the first dozen years, we were given powerful unicorns to help create Spectra. Spectra is pure pigment, pure color. Everything is full of Spectra, but you can’t just harvest it. You can never separate color from an object. So it was made artificially with magic.” The masked pony never took her eyes off the red one that had spoken. “That is, until our top engineers made a breakthrough. They discovered an ingenious way to extract pigment, and it was so beautiful even a simple machine could do it. But it couldn’t be done with just anything. The conditions had to be right.” "What did those monsters do!?" The red pony yelled up at the suited pegasus, growing angrier. “It had to be live ponies! Only in ponies, where magic and Spectra ran freely together!” The Pegasus threw its head back and laughed maniacally. “Only then could the Spectra be separated! And it was such a beautiful idea, such a wonderfully horrible idea. It worked so well; we could create exponentially more rainbows, of better quality with real Spectra. And it finally gave us a way to prevent Cloudsdale from being tainted by all those horrible pegasi that couldn’t fly! Ahahahah!” "STOP!" Flash yelled, cutting the pegasus off mid laugh. "Just stop it! I'm not even supposed to be here! I was saying goodbye to my friend when I got thrown into a cart and taken here. I passed my flight exam!" This caught the pegasus off guard. She didn't know what exactly to say (for it sounded like a she), for a moment there was just silence, then she spoke again. "I'm afraid now that you're here, we can't let you leave. But you won't be joining them." The pony motioned to every other colt and filly in the room. "So you have no need to worry. You'll receive an authoritative position, so you won't be working with them. But if you step out of line, you'll be joining them faster than you can say Wonderbolts. Now, enough of that, where was I? Oh yes." "Time to make an example of what happens here if you mess up. Workers, take that red one right there." The pony was pointing at the dark red one who had spoken earlier. "Wait, no! Please don't! Please!" The poor colt exclaimed, but it was too late. They fastened his hooves into shackles and the strange machine in the back of the room came to life. The chains rose above the top of the machine and stretched the colt's legs out straight up and down. "Also, the machine tends to work better if the ribs are broken first." The suited pegasus said, and then the chains began to twist, a loud series of cracks could be heard from the colt's bones as bits of his ribs poked out of his chest, all the while he was screaming in pain and agony. Once the chains stopped twisting and so did the screaming, the shackles released the pony and the machine ground him to mush, bright red spectra started coming out of the bottom of the machine, flowing into a large vat. It was then that Flash noticed that it wasn't rust on the top of the machine, but blood. Flash didn't want any part in this, so when everyone started to panic, he found Updraft and they made a plan. While all of the workers were distracted by everyone else flying around, they would sneak into a ventilation duct on the wall and try to find a way out of the building. Updraft was already inside the duct and Flash was almost inside when the workers noticed them. "Get them! They're inside the ventilation system!" Flash shoved the rest of himself inside the vent and started shoving Updraft forward. "Come on! Move faster they're going to catch us!" After traveling a good distance inside the ducts, Updraft found a metal grate in the top with sunlight coming out of it. "Yes! A way out, we'll be free!" Updraft smashed the grate off and climbed out, Flash was just about to when the bottom of the vent gave out beneath him partially and his hoof got stuck between the two metal panels. "Updraft, help me, please!" Flash said, then workers below the duct noticed this and started pulling on his hoof. "Please Updraft, you're my friend, please!" But Updraft just glanced at him before flying away. "I thought you were my friend..." Flash said before the workers pulled on him hard enough and the panel gave out completely and they pulled him out of the duct.- "I can't escape this hell, So many times I've tried. But I'm still caged inside, Somebody get me through this nightmare! I can't control myself!" -Later, Flash was lead away by another worker. "Even though you tried to escape, we've decided to give you a second chance." The worker said as they arrived at a supply closet. "Here," the worker said as he handed Flash a white lab coat and an ID tag. "Put those on, you'll need them." Flash didn't question what he had been told and did as he was instructed, putting on the lab coat and clipping on the name tag. "You will be co-supervising the failures with me, I'm Thundercloud, you are?" The worker said. "Me? I'm Flash, Flash Lightning." His voice saddened by the betrayal of his friend- -A few days later- -Flash had started to get used to supervising the others with Thunder, you just had to make sure they kept working. And if they stopped, you zapped them with your tazer-stick. That was usually enough to get them back to work. But if it wasn't, sometimes you had to get brutal. It was on this day that one of the failures, a large brown pony that was at least 6 inches taller than Flash, decided that he'd had enough. "Hey you!" The pony said to Flash, he looked over in his direction. "You're going to let me out of here or regret you didn't" "Oh really?" Flash said, charging the tazer-stick. "Yeah really," said the pony and he then lunged at Flash. He saw it coming and dogged to the left, spinning around tazer at the ready. But the brown pegasus turned and kicked the tazer out of his grip. "Now I've got you," said the pegasus, "you couldn't defend yourself if your life depended on it." He then hit Flash hard in the face. "You're so pathetic, I bet your parents didn't even want you." He hit Flash again, sending him sprawling on the hard metal floor, his eyes started tearing up. "Heh, what a little cry-baby." "Stop it!" Flash said as he struggled to his hooves. "You don't know what it was like for me growing up!" Flash hit him back hard in the side of his head, then again in the other side, before launching a barrage of well placed punches as he said, "My mother hated me and I never even knew my father, so shut the buck up!" On the word 'up' he spun around and bucked him in the side of his chest, sending the bruised pegasus flying, his neck hit a pipe with a sickening crunch and he lay there still, while tears still slid down Flash's face.- "So what if you can see, The darkest side of me? No one will ever change this animal I have become."
Chapter Two: Becoming the MonsterChapter Two: Becoming the Monster It had been two days since Flash had killed that pony, and it was weighing on his conscious pretty hard. 'I killed him, I actually killed him...' The thought would repeat itself over and over again in his mind to no end. And what made him feel worse was the fact that for doing that, they'd promoted him. (Flashback to the end of chapter one) Flash stood there, silent, a look of complete sadness on his face that was still wet with tears. "You did what had to be done." Said a voice from behind him. He turned around and saw the overmare. Black suit and all, standing right behind him. "You were attacked, you defended yourself, you won. And I congratulate you for that." She walked forward and sat down in front of the shocked pegasus, his face devoid of any emotion other than one last tear, rolling down his cheek. The overmare wiped it away, the first act of kindness she'd shown anyone at the factory. "I see great potential in you, you're stronger than what you show everyone else." She started pacing back and forth in front of him. "I have a proposal for you," she said, standing still now. "You show that side more often, and you can stay in my quarters, you'll get actual food, not the gruel everyone else eats, and you'll have a higher position. Why am I doing this you ask? Well, I'm thinking of retiring soon and I need a successor. What do you say?" Flash came back to his senses and thought about it for a moment. "I don't know," Flash said. "You do realize how things work around here, it's survival of the fittest. You should know that based on what you've just done." 'I don't want to become like her,' Flash thought. 'But if I want to survive here I have to be mean.' "Alright, I'll accept your offer." "Great, I'll be expecting progress from you soon. See you tonight."- -The days went by agonizingly slowly, each day more horrible than the last. He had even been forced to hurt Sapphire, which still haunted him to this day. {Flashback} The flunk-outs were all moving the vats of Spectra to another part of The Factory. Sapphire and a pale yellow pegasus were moving the huge vat of green Spectra when Sapphire slipped in a puddle that had sloshed out of one of the vats that a previous groups of ponies had spilled. It drenched her in green slime, staining her entire figure. Many thoughts raced through his mind at that moment. 'I have to punish her, she spilled the entire vat of Spectra! But I know her, she's my friend, I can't do that.' But eventually, one thought prevailed. ' "Don't you know how things work around here? It's survival of the fittest." ' He cleared his face of any emotion and approached her. She looked up at him with sheer terror in her eyes. "Please don't do this!" She begged, "I thought you were my friend!" Those words stabbed his heart like a knife, but he shook it off and continued with what he was about to do. "AAAAHHHHHHH!" She screamed in pain as he electrocuted her with his tazer-stick. He let go after a few moments and she lay there, gasping for breath. "Please..." She said weakly. But he did not stop. He repeated the process over and over again until his tazer ran out of power. At this point the tips of Sapphire's feathers and fur were smoking and she had severe burns where he had zapped her. "H-How... Could... You..?" She barely managed to say. All he said in response was: "You're lucky I didn't kill you." His voice devoid of any emotion. "Mess up like that again and I will."- "Help me believe, It's not the real me, Somebody help me tame this animal!"
Update + Chapter Three: The Animal InsideChapter Three: The Animal Inside Author's Note: This chapter takes place three years later, and Flash is now about twelve years old. Flash continued to become more and more brutal, more like Her, and part of him couldn't stand it. He was standing in the bathroom of Her quarters, looking into the mirror at what he had become. He had grown somewhat, being taller than he was when he had arrived a few years ago. And his fur and mane were stained with blood, to the point where most of it would not wash out anymore. "What has become of me?" He asked his reflection, his voice filled with sadness. To his surprise, (though he thought he might be hallucinating) it responded. "You've become stronger, that's what. You've shown everyone here what you're made of and destroyed anyone in your way." It said, sounding like a sinister version of himself. "No I haven't!" He yelled back, "I've become a monster! I've killed others and almost killed my friends. I can't sleep with the things that I've done. I'm becoming just like Her!" "And that's a good thing, don't you remember what She said? 'Don't you know how things work around here? It's survival of the fittest.' You had to do those things to survive this, and you've gained the fear and respect of others. You should be proud of yourself." Just then, She came into the room. "Is something wrong? I heard yelling." She asked. "No, no. Everything is fine. It's, nothing. I'm fine." "Alright, if you say so." She said, sounding a bit skeptical. "I'll see you later my little protégé." Then She left the room. "Ehyuck." He spat, "I can't stand how she talks to me. Treating me like I'm her perfect little murderous pet" He turned back to his reflection, it smirked at him, laughed quietly and turned back into his normal reflection, mirroring whatever he did. "*sigh* What's happening to me?"- "I can't escape myself, So many times I've lied, (So many times I've lied) But there's still rage inside, Somebody get me through this nightmare! I can't control myself!" -The next day another batch of flunk-outs was delivered to The Factory, the poor little ponies didn't know what was going on. 'I feel so horrible seeing this happen, knowing exactly what it feels like.' He thought, but then something inside him spoke in reply. 'You shouldn't, they're worthless to The Flock. They can't even fly properly, so stop sympathizing and get to work!' The voice had never been this commanding before, and it startled Flash. 'Fine, I'm just saying I've been in their position before.' He trotted to the end of the catwalk and pushed the button that would start the projector and play the song he'd seen and heard on his first day here. After that had ended and his audience looked thoroughly frightened, he began to relay the same speech he'd been forced to say numerous times before. "By now, you’ve all clearly determined that you are not going into exile. There is no deportation. There never was. You are in The Factory. You will never leave The Factory. And while you may be called useless, that’s also not entirely true. You’re worthless to The Flock as a Pony. But you still have purpose!" "Purpose to all the ponies in this land, far and wide. You get to help us make rainbows! Beautiful, magical rainbows, doesn’t that excite you?” Flash looked over all of the fillies and colts below him as looks of shock and disgust appeared on their faces. "Figures, it is such an important and honorable task that it often leaves it's new bearers speechless. Now, do we have any volunteers?" A brave young colt with a medium green coat of fur and an ocean blue mane stepped forward and spoke, there was always one who did this. "You can't do this to us! We're still pegasi! We have rights!" Flash sighed and said, "Not here you don't, you have no clue what's in store for yourselves do you? Well, I'll let The Overmare explain." Flash stepped back as She approached and took his place at the end of the catwalk. She then recited the same thing She had countless times before and got the same reaction from Her audience, total panic. But this time Flash just sat back and watched as those beneath his rank reigned them in and restored order. Then, She spoke again. "Alright then, now that that's taken care of, take the one who spoke up and use him as a demonstration of what happens if you act out of line." The workers grabbed and dragged the struggling pony over to the cold metal chains and shackled him to them. "Please, don't do this! I'll behave, I promise! Please!" The poor thing sounded so distressed, but Flash had already sealed away any sympathy for them, and signaled to the operator to start The Machine. It then hummed to life as the chains raised the whimpering pony high above the Factory floor, and positioned him above the mouth of the giant metal monster. Flash averted his gaze as the following events unfolded. She said, "We find The Machine works best when the ribs are already broken." Just like before, and every other time, the chains started twisting, causing the colt's ribs to shatter and brake, small bits of them poking out of his chest. And then, like every other time, The Machine dropped the whimpering bloody mess that had once been a pegasus inside its gaping maw, grinding him to bits and turning him into beautiful blue and green Spectra, which oozed out of pipes at the bottom of The Machine and into vats of the corresponding color. "How can I continue to do this?" Flash quietly said to himself as he walked away.- "So what if you can see, The darkest side of me? No one will ever change this animal I have become. Help me believe, It's not the real me, Somebody help me tame this animal I have become! Help me believe, It's not the real me, Somebody help me tame this animal!"
Chapter Four: A State of RevoltChapter Four: A State of Revolt The following day everything went to hell. Under the noses of everyone else at The Factory, a group of workers had staged a revolt, and guess who their priority target was? The recently promoted second in command, Flash Lightning, otherwise known as by the workers, The Wolf. He had 'earned' this title from being so ruthless, merciless, and downright evil. Some might even say that he was cold-blooded, but no matter what they called him, they feared him. He only took orders from the Overmare herself, and had the power to order around his inferiors to do whatever he wanted. And if you messed up or made him mad, he would kill you, but some suffered far worse at his hooves, like Sapphire had. She couldn't even use her wings properly anymore, the electrocution had messed up her wing muscles and she couldn't fly at all. The workers were fed up with suffering under him, so they had planned on killing him. This is how it happened. It was the day after the last bunch of flunk-outs had arrived, they struck hard and fast. Capturing around two-dozen higher-ups and cornering Flash in the Machine's control room. "You're going to pay for everything you've done to us! Justice will be swift, it will be painful, it will be delicious!" Said the leader of the group, a reddish-brown pony with a golden brown mane and eyes as green as dragon fire, and they were burning with rage. They slowly encircled Flash as he said; "You won't win, just because the Overmare is away doesn't mean taking control will be so easy." Then they all converged on Flash at once, and the fight that ensued was both brutal and short, with Flash putting up a fierce amount of resistance, but eventually he fell to their numbers. He came to hanging upside-down by his hind-legs, dazed and confused. Once his vision stopped spinning, he realized where he was. He was right above the Machine, his wings tied to his sides with ropes and his fore-legs bound in the same way. He looked over at the catwalk to see the brown pegasus from earlier standing there, a sinister look on his face. He moved his gaze to the Factory floor and saw the other higher-ups bound and gagged with workers standing around them, guarding their captives. "So you're finally awake huh? It's about time, I've waited for this moment for over three years now. Do you remember the first pony you killed here? I doubt you do, but he was my little brother. And today you're going to pay for killing him. An eye for an eye..." "A life for a life." Flash said before his captor could finish. The pony smirked at Flash, a look of burning hatred in his green eyes as he said, "Lower him in." The pony in the control room where they had all been a few hours ago started the Machine and the chains began to descend. Then pegasus the said, "Goodbye you heartless wolf, may your soul burn in Tartarus." Right as his head was about to be crushed, the chains suddenly stopped. Flash looked over at the control room to see the Overmare at the controls, the pony who had been in there previously unconscious on the floor. The Machine then powered down and She flew out of the room and tackled the workers who were guarding their prisoners. After subduing them she released the higher-ups and the battle that ensued was long and bloody. But in the end, the workers lost, taken prisoner and sentenced to recycling. The Overmare flew up to the machine and undid the ropes binding Flash and the shackles on his hind- legs released their grip. "I leave for one day and you almost get yourself killed?! You're lucky I came back when I did, or all of you would be dead." The black suited pony said, a decent amount of anger in her voice. But Flash didn't hear a word She'd said, because when he had come so close to death, something inside him snapped. Any remnants of the old Flash were gone now, all that was left was his shadow. The hate, the anger, the sadness, the rage, and the cruelty. Once he landed on the catwalk next to Her, he just started laughing, an insane laugh from one who isn't quite stable anymore. It echoed throughout the Factory and everyone was silent. Once he stopped laughing, he took a deep breath and then he spoke. "I request permission to personally execute them." He said, in a voice that can only be described as coming from one who has lost their sanity.- "Somebody help me through this nightmare, I can't control myself! Somebody wake me from this nightmare, 'Cause I can't escape this hell! (This animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal.)
EpilogueEpilogue; After the organizers of the uprising had been recycled, Flash went back to his newly constructed quarters. He opened the large steel door and trotted inside, closing the door behind him. It had been a long and stressful day and he felt exhausted, almost dying can do that to a person. He walked up to the sink and turned the water on, letting the cold liquid wash over his hooves and fall into the drain, taking plenty of blood with it. Most of the time he could get it off, but the old stains would never go away and the fresh ones only refreshed those. He looked into the mirror, the twelve year old stallion who gazed back looked like he belonged in some twisted horror movie. 'But that's what my life is anyway, I kill other ponies all the time.' He chuckled as he thought that, then he turned away from the mirror and entered the shower.- -That night was the first time he'd slept soundly since before he'd come here, having lost any sense of compassion, his actions no longer troubled him. Upon waking up the next morning, he actually felt refreshed. "The wonders a clear conscience can do for the body." He said to himself as he walked over to his closet and selected one of the blood stained lab coats, putting it on and clipping on his name tag. His conscience actually was far from clear, but he just didn't feel any of the emotions that went with it anymore. His breakfast was waiting for him on the small table situated in the kitchen, but he didn't feel hungry then, so he left early and exited his quarters to find to higher-ups restraining a certain blue and red pegasus. "What is going on here?" He said in a calm tone of voice as he approached them. "Sir," One of the suited ponies said, "We found her hear sneaking around, what should we do with her?" But before Flash could respond, Sapphire spoke. "Flash! I know that there's still good inside you somewhere, please, stop this madness! And we can escape together, this... Monster, that you've become isn't you, and I know that deep inside you know that too." There was desperation in her voice, but he didn't care. He started walking away but something made him stop and say, "Don't you remember? Flash is gone, you all call me 'The Wolf' now." He then turned to the pegasi that had her restrained and said, "Make sure that she is severely punished, but don't kill her. She suffers more while she still lives."- "So what if you can see, The darkest side of me? No one will ever change this animal I have become. Help me believe, It's not the real me, Somebody help me tame this animal I have become! Help me believe, It's not the real me, Somebody help me tame this animal!" FIN.
