"It's hard to love someone who caused you so much pain..."
"Hey, Dash, can I talk to you for a few minutes?" An oh-so familiar voice behind Rainbow Dash mused. Rainbow turned, only to face her most reluctant worker: Crimson Fire. Crimson looked curious about something, and when Crimson was curious, she would do anything to retrieve the answers she was looking for. Rainbow glanced at the clock to her left.
"I suppose I can spare a little bit for an old friend." Rainbow Dash said, smiling lightly. Crimson beamed with happiness, and without ever looking back, she dragged Rainbow Dash all the way to her sleeping quarters. Rainbow looked around, intrigued. She had never been inside of Crimson's quarters, and now that she had, she realized it was a very cheerful place. Crimson had decorated the plain walls with posters, and she had lots of drawings laying about everywhere. The place had a happy atmosphere.
"Don't mind the colors. This is where I come to escape the madness of the Factory and have some time to relax and be happy." Crimson said, happily shuffling around some papers on her bed. She made enough space for her and Rainbow to sit, and made sure not to move anything she didn't need to. Rainbow Dash glanced at one of the drawings. It was an alicorn, flying happily with many ponies admiring her beauty from below. Rainbow recognized the alicorn. It was obviously Princess Celestia.
"So...what did you want to talk about?" Rainbow Dash said, turning from the drawing and settling down on Crimson's bed. The white pegasus looked down at the floor, which was decorated with a very cheerful looking pink rug. Crimson took a quick glimpse around the room, at all of her drawings and posters, before looking back at Rainbow Dash.
"It's about Ponyville. Ever since Twilight Sparkle was killed, the whole place fell apart." Crimson said. Rainbow looked down at the rainbow blanket on Crimson's bed. Ponyville. It had been forever since she had heard the name of her old town, and even longer since she had given it a thought. It felt almost foreign to her.
"I would assume so. Twilight was the princess, after all." Rainbow Dash said, pointing out the obvious. There was a long, awkward moment of silence between the two. They both gazed down at the floor, unsure what to say.
"Do you ever miss your old life? Your friends?" Crimson said finally, looking at Rainbow. Rainbow gave Crimson a look that said, 'You are so stupid,' before returning her gaze to the rug below. Rainbow decided then that the rainbows they created needed more pink in them.
"Sometimes. But that's neither here nor there," Rainbow said, hopping off the bed as if uncomfortable with the conversation, "Now let's go. We need to kill another failure in order to make more rainbows!" Rainbow Dash said, returning back to her grouchy, bossy self. Crimson looked down, disappointed in herself for believing she would get a meaningful answer, and joined Rainbow on the ground. Rainbow looked back at the picture of Princess Celestia she was looking at earlier. She felt drawn to it. It was then that she realized the six ponies looking at Celestia were Rainbow and her friends. Rainbow smiled softly.
"Hey, Crimson," Rainbow asked, walking to the drawing, "Can I have this picture?" Crimson only nodded in reply. She opened the door, and was frightened to see Scootaloo standing there.
"Crimson, we need you in the main room. We've got a failure to kill." Scootaloo said, gesturing to a rather dark and depressing doorway leading to Crimson's least favorite room: The main room, where she operated the Pegasus Device. The three slowly made their way into the room, where Scootaloo and Rainbow secured the Failure in place for 'recycling'. The Failure was a small yellow filly. She looked so hopeless, dangling there, awaiting her doom. She reminded Crimson of herself when she was a small filly.
"Please don't do this. I promise I'll work harder on my flying and- Crimson?" The small filly said. Crimson looked into the filly's green eyes and realized it was a filly she had met not too long ago, Galaxy Cosmos. Galaxy was probably the sweetest filly Crimson had ever met. She was brave too. It broke Crimson's heart knowing what she had to do. Galaxy and Crimson looked at each other for one moment. Crimson's eyes filled with tears and she looked away.
"Is this who you really are?" Galaxy asked. Crimson ignored the question and pressed a button on a panel. A grinder appeared from the floor, coming up and up, ripping Galaxy apart. Crimson couldn't bear to watch. Galaxy smiled weakly, a pool of blood appearing around the grinder. It spread all the way to Crimson, who backed away from the blood.
"I hope you're happy now..." Galaxy said. Those words echoed in Crimson's head, and before she could think about what she was doing, she ran. She ran and ran as fast as she possibly could, away from the Pegasus Device, away from Galaxy's corpse, away from the blood and tears. Crimson ran into her quarters and slammed the door behind her.
Rainbow Dash was tempted to follow the pegasus, but instead decided she couldn't leave a corpse just hanging there. "Squirt, go after her." Rainbow instructed, not looking away from the filly's dead body. Scootaloo did a small salute before leaving the room. It was easy finding where Crimson had ran off to, as she had left a trail of bloody footsteps. They led right to her quarters' doors.
"Crimson, open up. It's me. Scootaloo."
