The sun set as I began to make my half a mile long flight to the Weather Factory. The sky was lit with bright vibrant colors. Mainly light oranges with a small hint of red. It almost looked like orange sherbert had fallen onto the sky. As I flew down the sidewalks of Cloudsdale I noted the lack of ponies that I saw out and about. I only saw five. Two were young fillies. One had a blue coat with a yellow mane. The other had an orange coat will a red mane. They were giggling as they passed a ball back and forth with their heads. Another two were a young couple locking up their restaurant for the night. Mr. and Mrs. Maple. They had been married for four months. About a month after they said "I do" Mr. Maple's father died unexpectedly. In his will he left his son the deeds to the small pub at the corner of Feather Road that he had founded thirty years before. The Maples have kept it going ever since. Mrs. Maple insisted that they not change a thing, to honer Mr. Maple's father. Many ponies go there to pay their respects to Mr. Maple as his father was quite beloved around the town. The last pony I saw, five minutes before I arrived at my destination, was a homeless pony. I have passed by him everyday on my way to work. He had been homeless for as long as anypony can remember. Nopony knows his name or where he even came from. All we know is that he popped up under the Hope bridge over ten years ago. I turned my head as I passed him, didn't want to make eye contact. He didn't even flinch as I flew by or speak a word. He never did. Nopony has ever heard his voice. Perhaps that's because nopony ever asked.
I could see the large factory in the distance. Standing so tall that it cast a shadow over the front door. As I got close enough, I landed and began to walk the rest of the way to the entrance. As I approached the door, it slammed open to reveal a group of workers that had completed their day shifts. I recognized only one. I knew only his first name, Klank. We had worked together during the night shift for two years before he got promoted to do maintenance only upstairs. In fact, I haven't seen him since. He never came back down after that. As he walked past me he kept looking behind him covering his face with his wings. When the doorway cleared, I walked into the Weather Factory and shut the door behind me. I was the only pony on the bottom floor. It would remain that way until about seven in the morning when the day workers come back in to begin their shift. My job is to check all the pipes and machinery to make sure nothing is wrong with them. I also check to make sure everything in the factory is up to code. After I punched in I began my nightly job. It didn't pay much but it was enough to cover the rent of the small flat that I lived in.
As I moved from machine to machine and room to room, I started each machine up and put them through diagnostics. When they would check out, I would power them down and move onto the next. As I did this I began to think about a rumor that had been going around lately. Ponies said that when a worker is promoted and go upstairs they are never allowed to leave the facility again.
"Hogwash.", I said reassuringly to myself.
It was then that I heard a loud slam. I quickly looked up from the machine that I was working on.
"That sounded an offal like the front door.", I thought to myself out loud.
I put down the data pad that I was holding with my wing and began walking towards the source of the sound.
"It couldn't have been somepony, I am the only pony in this building.", I thought out loud.
As I turned the corner of the main weather room, and began to enter the front entrance area, I saw somepony. They were trotting to the back of the room towards a door.
"Hey!", I called out to them, "You are not supposed to be in here!"
They jumped at the sound of my voice and stumbled over air, landing with a thud. I began to walk up to them. As I got a closer I recognized their rusty flat head screw cutie mark.
"Klank, what are you doing here? And where have you been for the past three years?", I confusedly asked.
He rubbed his short blue mane with his hoof, "Lev?"
"That would be me.", I quickly responded.
He slowly repositioned himself one hoof at a time. Klank stood staring at the floor in front of him.
I began to become concerned, "What's wrong Klank?"
He wouldn't face me.
"Klank, what's wrong with you? Please look at me, I only want to help."
He made a bizarre noise with his voice before he finally began to turn towards me. As he did, I began to notice that something was wrong. His face was not the blue that it was supposed to be. His face was soaked with something red. At first I thought it was paint but then I realized what it truly was, blood.
"What happened to you?", I asked as I looked onto my shaking friend.
He didn't answer me. Instead he turned and began to trot towards the door he was trotting to earlier. It was small and appeared to be a closet marked only with a "Do Not Enter" sign.
I began to follow him, "Where are you going?"
He trotted until he stopped at the door.
"I don't have much time.", he murmured to himself as he began to open the door.
"Nopony is allowed in there.", I said referring to the sign I saw earlier.
He ignored me as he continued opening the door, revealing its true purpose. It was not a closet at all, it was a door leading to a staircase illuminated by an unseen red light bulb. I stared in shock. There was supposed to be only one entrance to the upper facility.
"I don't have much time.", he repeated to himself.
As he began to walk up the stairs, I followed into an unknown world.
He didn't say a word to me as we walked up the stairs. Not until we got to the top of them.
"I'm sorry.", He said.
"For what?", I asked worriedly.
He turned his head towards me before he spoke, "For getting you into this."
He then turned away and moved up the last step. I stood in place thinking about his unusual apology before I snapped back into reality and began to follow him again. When I caught up to him he was standing in front of yet another door. He was breathing heavily.
"We need to be very quiet. I just need to sneak in and grab something and then we need to get out of here.", He whispered to me.
I tilted my head in confusion,"Where is here exactly?"
He let out a deep sigh before he spoke,"The Rainbow Factory."
I then realized where we were. We were on the top floor of the factory. The place where workers supposedly come to never see the light of day again. I shivered at the thought. Just then Klank opened the door revealing the hallway behind it. I had only ever seen the bottom floors of the factory and never imagined that the one above would be so amazing.
As I followed Klank through the hall, I noted everything that I saw. The halls were brightly lit with a clean, white light. The walls and floors were made of the fluffiest and most perfect clouds that I had ever seen. Even the pipes were aligned perfectly across the wall in a horizontal fashion. Everything was pristine. As I was paying close attention to my new surroundings, I had not been watching where I was walking and bumped into a pony in front of me who had stopped in front of a door on the left side of the hallway.
"Sorry.", I apologized.
Klank didn't respond. He was more interested in staring at the doorknob in front of him. He stared at it as if it was a vicious manticore about to eat him. He unsurely placed his shaking hoof on the doorknob and opened the door revealing a large break room. It was almost as beautiful as the hall outside. I had never seen anything like it. Heck we don't even have a break room downstairs. We began to walk in as Klank looked around.
"Heh. Nopony is here. I guess they're all looking for me.", he said in a relieved voice.
I quickly snapped out of my day dream of beauty and realized what Klank had just said.
"What do you mean they are looking for you?", I asked with concern.
He didn't answer me. Instead he walked towards a busted up couch with a piece of clothing on it.
"Aha! It's here!", he yelled excitedly.
I walked towards the couch to get a better look at what he was so happy about.
"Is that...a jacket?", I asked.
Klank smiled, "Indeed it is!"
I gave it a look over. It was a blue jacket with a logo imprinted on it. Embroidered under the logo it said "The Weather Corporation". It was indecent shape except for a few tears and multicolored stains on it. It was nice, but certainly not worth such a rush over.
So I decided to ask,"Ummm...what's so important about that jacket?"
Klank had just finished grabbing it with his mouth and throwing it over his shoulder when then he just stopped. He stood still and stared in front of him. A single tear began to drop from his right eye.
As it fell he turned to me,"It belonged to...somepony. I...made a promise."
"A promise about what?", I asked.
He continued to stare at me. His eyes showed so much sorrow, so much hate, so much despair.
Then he spoke, "I promised them that I would escape for those who couldn't."
I furrowed my brow, "Escape what?"
"This cursed factory!", he said as he walked past me and stood in front of the doorway.
I stared at him trying to comprehend what he was trying to communicate.
"You talk about this place like it's some sort of prison.", I said with a slight chuckle.
He turned his head to face me. He looked into my soul with his complicated eyes. Just then we heard distant yells coming from down the hall.
Klank turned his head to face the front of him, "We need to get out of here, now!"
We flew as far as we could as fast as we could. Klank told me that because I saw what I did I was now in just as much trouble as he was. He told me we had to flee and get as far away from the factory as we could. When I asked why, all he would tell me is that they would find us if we didn't. So we did just that. We flew out of Cloudsdale and over Ponyville. We never stopped flying. We never looked back. And Klank never let go of that jacket.
