Just Another Day on the Job

“Mistress, he’s waking up, should we start?”
“In a minute, I want to see his reaction first.”
“Alright, we’re ready to start on your say then.”
“Good. And remember Atmosphere, I do all the talking. Got it?”
“Yes mistress.”
Damn, my head. What the hell was it that knocked me out? Chloroform? I don’t know. Can’t seem to move my body, my legs and torso are strapped down tight. And of course they blindfold me, probably trying to hide their identities. Feels like they’re staring at me trying to gauge my reaction, I’m not going to give them the satisfaction. Just gotta keep calm and try and figure out where I am. Let’s see. It sounds like there’s heavy machinery not too far from here and there is the faintest scent of smoke in the air. I must be in some sort of factory, but it can’t be the weather facility, there would be too much risk in someone discovering me. They couldn’t have taken me far but I can’t think of any closer factories. Damn, I guess I have to wait it out and see if I can catch them talking about it. Sounds like they’re whispering now.
“Are you sure he’s awake? He’s not doing anything.” Sounds like a young mare, not too sure of what’s going on.
“His heart rate shows that he’s awake otherwise it would be slower than it already is. This equipment has never given false results before, though this is quite odd.” An older colt, it sounds like he’s done this before. There must’ve been others before me and their reactions must’ve been the norm.
“No he’s awake.” This voice sounded familiar though I couldn’t get a mental picture of it. “He’s acting the same way I did when I was brought in. Let me guess, you’re trying to figure out where you are and who took you. Am I right or what?” She was right but I remained silent, not going to let them win. “Keeping quiet huh? This one’s already showing promise.”
“Mistress if you say he’s awake should we get started the interview now?” The colt’s voice again and by the sounds of what he said it meant that the loud confident one was in charge.
“Yes, but this interview is going to be different. First I want you to take off his blindfold. Let him have a good look at where he is.”
The sound of hoof against metal was deafening as somepony trotted up metal stairs to get behind me. My eyes were quick to adjust to the dim lighting as the blindfold fell. I quickly scanned the room and focused on who I was looking for. She was standing on a catwalk directly left of me switching places with the other mare. My guess was it was a test if I could match the voice and apparently I had passed because she had begun to laugh.
“Good morning sunshine and welcome to the rainbow factory where happiness is manufactured. I see you don’t forget a face and recognize those in power. Good. Remember last night? Where I offered getting you a job and you drunkenly accepted. Well think of this as your interview.” She began to laugh again. “Oh and did I forget to mention the device your strapped to? We call it the “Pegasus Device Mark 2”. We use these for a more… “personal” touch when we extract. We can make it slow and painful, quick and harmless, or we could even bleed colors together which makes for quite a show and is my personal favorite. Basically if you refuse you become product and we wouldn’t want that would we?” I had no clue what she meant by all this color stuff but I decided I will play along for the time being.
“Alright subject, question one…”
“Atmosphere what did I say?” she shouted at the older looking colt cutting him off.
“Sorry mistress, but…”
“But nothing, I said I would do all the talking and besides, this is not a normal interview.”
“Yes mistress.” The guy looked defeated, he couldn’t go against an order of someone higher up.
“Good. Now first question. What color do you like your mares?”
“What?” I couldn’t help say at the ridicules question.
“I’ll say it again. What color do you like your mares?” she said this with the most sincere expression I had ever seen on anypony. And the thing was, I didn’t know how to answer it. “I’m waiting.”
“Any color is fine…” I thought for a moment, trying to think of any certain color I didn’t like. Then I remembered my ex. “Except lime green. I wish that color would die, die and burn.” I was pooling all my hate behind that one answer. I just hoped she would accept that answer.
“Alright, I don’t believe we have any ponies working here that are lime green.” She sounded a little disappointed but she accepted the answer. “Atmosphere!”
“Yes mistress.” The old colt seemed a little surprised he was called upon.
“I want you to continue with the questions and get this colt a suit.” She turned to me. “You start work tonight. I’ll have something special lined up for you as a sort of introduction to what we do here.” She turned to leave. “One more thing, call me Dash. Welcome to the factory newbie.” She left through an iron door that was just out of sight.
“Alright…” the old colt looked though a clipboard he was holding. “Silent Night, looks like you're guarantied the job so I won’t be able to toy with you. My name is Dr. Atmosphere and I will be training you like all other new recruits for the next few weeks. This here’s Cool Mist.” He pointed to the other mare who had remained silent throughout the conversation. “She is my assistant and a fellow trainee. She will show you to your living quarters and will guide you through the rules we have here. If you have any questions not pertaining to your training ask her, otherwise I will be your teacher. Now you are to report to my office when the work whistle blows and then we report to mistress’ introduction course. Cool Mist will show you to my office.” He took a breath and gave the clipboard to Mist. “Now, we have to do something about that grey tail of yours.” I really didn’t like the sound of that. “Think of it as the sort of mark of the worker here. Since I didn’t get to have my fun earlier I don’t think I’ll use painkillers for this.”
“Painkillers for what exactly?” I really couldn’t help myself from asking because he had a complete personality flip form the last sentence.
“So he talks huh? Well you’ll figure it out before you pass out. Mist, prepare the device.”
“Yes sir.” She walked over to a control panel and pressed some buttons.
A large needle appeared from above me and pointed straight at the middle of my torso. The tip was stained red, I couldn’t tell if it was rust or blood. It slowly started to inch closer as I started to struggle for the first time.
“I guess he isn’t as calm under pressure as I first thought.” He started to laugh maniacally. “Welcome to the factory kid.”
The needle pierced my torso and began pumping in a black liquid. For the first time in my life I screamed.