VREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW! The steam powered factory bell rang out.
Five more days until the weekend. Metal Sheet thought as he opened his eyes, his efforts were graced by a view of a white cloud ceiling.
With a tired sigh and a mighty heave he sat up.
When the stars in his eyes stopped dancing he sluggishly looked around, there were a lot of ponies milling around the locker room, every single one preparing for the upcoming shift. Some workers were hastily finishing up changing into their work uniforms, rounding up their card games or finishing their naps. Nothing he hadn't seen before.
Metal Sheet had only been working in the factory for a few weeks, but the long shifts and constant background noise of the factory were rubbing off on his sleep schedule. That is, if he ever had one. Not to mention the party last night...
Twelve more hours until the shift ends.
Metal Sheet rubbed his eyes with a grey hoof and began stretching. In a few minutes Thermal Measurer, his group’s leader, would come. He had to be ready to depart the room, last time Metal Sheet had overslept, earning himself extra hours of work as punishment.
This time he was ready, his uniform was already hugging him comfortably from all sides. All he needed to do is—
“Hey, Metal Sheet,” came an unfamiliar voice. Sheet turned his head in the direction of the speaker, who happened to be User Manual, a deep blue pegasus with black and blue striped hair. He was looking his way with his similarly deep blue eyes, a friendly smile on his muzzle. “Have you heard about the friday incident? Both Laminar and Turbulent Flow have not recovered yet from their injuries, poor fellas. I have just asked Thermal if I could take you from her, you know, as a temporary compensation until they recover. She agreed. What do you think?”
Awesome!
Working under User Manual is considered a luxury among factory workers. This dude makes work so enjoyable, they say. It’s not like working with him is easier, you still end up drained of all your strength at the end of the shift. With him in charge you can collapse on the ground with a smile on your face. The most beloved group leader in the factory, and I get to work with him.
“Yea, totally.” Metal Sheet jumped off the bench, a wide grin plastered on his face, the grogginess completely forgotten. “I can’t let your group overwork themselves.”
Ponies were gathering around them. Ponies, Sheet reminded himself, from User Manual’s group. They were forming a row in front of the leader. Metal Sheet always found it so bizarre how quickly they managed to organize themselves.
“Thanks, mate,” User Manual put a hoof over Sheet’s shoulder, “I appreciate it greatly. Let’s get to work, shall we.” He was already prepared to leave, there was no denying User Manual’s skill with time management.
“Alright team,” User Manual spoke up addressing nearby ponies, “does anypegasus has any announcements to make?” User Manual looked over the gathered group. Being met with silence and a few head shakes he continued, “First on today’s agenda is the lower Rainbow Factory maintenance.”
“This month is our group’s turn.” he added with a little frown. It is a known fact that User Manual doesn’t like that area, he begins to act jumpy and insistent. Every new worker goes through that phase, but eventually they calm down. User Manual is a weird case where he hadn’t used to act that way.
Metal Sheet found it funny, he had never believed in any of those childish stories as a colt. Nopony ever was reported missing near the factory, so there was nothing to be scared about.
User Manual left through the door followed closely by a neat line of his workers.
Metal Sheet looked over his shoulder. The other teams had only just begun to form, usually at this time he would be still getting his flank off the hard bench.
It didn’t matter now, he had a group to follow.
Somewhere from the beginning of the pack User Manual shouted, “Number three.” It prompted everypony to start humming in unison.
This was going to be a fantastic day!
Rainbow Dash walked into a room full of ponies. It was a group assigned for the lower rainbow factory maintenance this month, exactly what she was looking for. She studied the room, scanning each colorful worker in search of a particular set of colors. There he was, with a clipboard in his wing and a pen in his mouth.
Rainbow Dash began her approach, he was standing by the control desk, the furthest possible spot from the spectra inlet pipes.
She reminded herself to act formally and firmly, she was here for the better of the corporation, not for a friendly visit.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” a greeting came from her side, “whassup, what are you doing down here?” a particular yellow mare spoke. It attracted attention from other workers to the new pony in the room.
They greeted Rainbow in various ways, some waving with their tools, some just smiling and nodding. She waved back to them with a smile of her own.
“Hello everypony,” Rainbow replied, “hi Brimstone, just some upper factory improvements. Praise the flock.”
“Praise the flock.”
With their greetings done the workers returned to their tasks. The familiar faces filled Rainbow’s mind with happy memories. Memories from back when everything was much simpler. But she didn’t have time to reflect on them, Rainbow reminded herself, she was on a schedule.
Getting back on track, Rainbow looked for her target. She found him reciprocating her attention, his ears perked up. Rainbow trotted his way. “Good morning Mr. Manual,” User Manual opened his mouth to reply, but Rainbow cut him off by continuing, “today is a very honorable day for you. Congratulations, you have just been promoted to the upper floors of the Rainbow Factory.” The room suddenly went quiet.
“...” User Manual was frozen in place, his muzzle half open.
Rainbow, trying to get a reply, gave him a smile, which only made User Manual flinch. “What,” a barely audible sound came from User’s mouth, as if he tried to speak with no air in his lungs.
“Your performance has been astonishing, User Manual. There is no other pegasus with your level of leadership skills.” Rainbow put her wing over his shoulder, guiding him towards the door. “No other that can control others so well without commanding them, not even me. That is why I need you upstairs. Your abilities are capable of increasing productivity rivaling that of few workers. I know, I have seen the reports, and that is why I have chosen you.”
“Wh-wha b-but you can’t,” User stuttered, “I-I’m assigned to the maintenance, t-the whole group is. I can’t leave my post without any word to my superior, they’d need to be infor-” Dash shoved her hoof into his mouth. Her eyes bore into his.
“You will not talk to me like that! If you don’t remember, I am your superior, even if not direct. The Board has just accepted my recommendation letter about you, everypegasus important has already been informed.”
With her temper waning, Dash noticed the lack of work around the room. Everypony was looking at her with shock, she had never acted this way. However, it did not excuse their break. “Get back to work!” Dash’s wings flared wide dissolving any possible arguments. Workers got back to their duties, seemingly with more energy than before.
With that taken care of Dash returned her attention towards the—now terrified—stallion. “We are wasting time, move it.” She pushed the reluctant pegasus onward. “Director Atmosphere is not going to be happy with how long you are making him wait.”
Dr. Hide Atmosphere was sitting in the upper Rainbow Factory’s interrogation room. The only things present were him, a desk with two chairs and his dwindling patience.
“Dr. Atmosphere,” the mocking voice of Rainbow Dash rang in Hide head, “I am heading downstairs for the new worker. I’d like to get him started as soon as possible. I will bring him to the interview room in three minutes.”
“Three minutes,” he grumbled aloud. She wanted him to abandon all the paperwork he had been making his way through just because she wants that worker now.
Rainbow Dash and that damn loyalty to the corporation can be so annoying at times, especially if she was exploiting his promise to help her with a new recruit. A promise he did out of his own good will! And now she was making him wait, unbelievable.
Dr. Atmosphere’s train of thought was interrupted by two sets of hoofsteps coming from the hallway, the metal floor bashing loudly enough to hear behind the soundproof walls. They grew louder before stopping right outside the door. Hide could hear two muted voices: one of them was definitely the distinct rasp of Rainbow Dash, Hide noted; the other one was high and squeaky, like that of a whining mare.
A distinguishable, “Get in there already!” came from Rainbow Dash before a handle turned and the door was pushed in by a blue clump of fur and feathers, which in turn was pushed by Rainbow Dash herself. The pony she pushed in was shaking on the ground, covering his face with wings. “I am so done with you already,” she exclaimed, walking over the stallion.
“What took you so long, Dash?” Dr. Atmosphere asked, trying to suppress the anger in his voice.
Rainbow Dash looked at him, annoyance was written all over her face. “He had a panic attack and fainted on the elevator,” she answered.
“Already?” Hide turned in his seat and looked at a wall behind him where a clock used to be. “That’s a factory record.”
“The elevator door opening woke him up, but that made him even more frantic, so I had problems dragging him out of there.”
Hide massaged his temple, he had heard enough excuses. “Alright, let’s get this over with.” Hide looked behind Rainbow Dash at the pony in question, who was still lying in the doorway. The moment Hide lay his eyes on him the pile of feathers shied away, even though he was sure the pony’s head was still squished against the open door.
Looking back to Rainbow Dash, Hide dismissed her. She thanked him and exited the room, shoving the worker inside before slamming the door shut.
For a moment not a sound could be heard.
“So,” Dr. Atmosphere began, laying his eyes on the new target for his anger.
Hide awaited his response, but the worker didn’t even dare to flinch. Hide, annoyed, continued with his voice raised, “you are the pony Rainbow Dash has been boasting would increase productivity all around the upper factory by twenty percent.”
No reaction.
Hide growled and glanced at an employee record on the table. “Your name is User Manual, is that correct?” He looked back up quickly enough to notice the worker peeking at him through his primaries. Hide didn’t have enough time to even notice their color, the pegasus closed them as quickly as possible and started shaking his head, almost as if he was trying to get Hide’s eyes off of himself. He backpedalled blindly into a corner, furthest away from him as possible.
Dr. Hide Atmosphere had decades of anger management practice working as a director in the Rainbow Factory, and yet this pony was breaking through his mental barricade in a matter of minutes. He wasn’t going to like this worker.
“I am not the one who gets rid of good workers, but I have yet to experience your competence. You have the last chance to answer me. Is your name User Manual?” Hide punctuated his question by slamming a hoof on the metal table, it probably should have hurt, but he was way beyond caring about a simple injury right now.
“Y-Ye-Ye-Ye...” the blue pegasus stuttered, his mouth trembling so much that he couldn't finish. Seemingly noticing his difficulty speaking, he switched to nodding frantically instead. Hide’s near rage subdued, receding back into just anger. He finally got a response from the pegasus, it was going to downhill from now on.
“My name is Dr. Hide Atmosphere, a director of lightning production and member of the Board in Cloudsdale Weather Corporation. And you are?”
“...”
“Ugh,” Hide wiggled around trying in vain to get comfortable on the hard chair. It seemed like he wasn’t going to get much out of this pony today. “Your factory record is quite interesting, I must admit. Born and raised in Las Pegasus. Graduated the Las Pegasus’ University of Technology and immediately started your work as an engineer in CWC. Years filled with warnings of slacking on the job,” Hide glanced at the worker, whose perked ears were signalling that he was listening, “and then a big improvement, followed closely by a promotion to a group captain.” Hide scratched his chin. “I’m curious, have you taken any leadership courses?”
“No,” came a quiet reply.
“Hmpf,” Hide exhaled through his nose. “since you are not very talkative today, I’m postponing this conversation for tomorrow.”
Hide moved to stand up, but changed his mind. There was one more issue to address. A wicked grin split his face. He leaned across the desk, towering over the scared worker. “Just one thing before we finish,” User Manual looked at him, the moment his eyes locked on Hide’s he froze, his pupils little dots. “Do you know where rainbows come from?”
User Manual promptly fainted.
What is this guy doing? Contrail thought.
He had been walking down the corridor towards the Air Production sector, when motions of the new guy caught his attention. He was standing on a small ladder with his hind hooves, his upper torso obscuring whatever he was twisting near the ceiling.
His name was User… something, Contrail forgot the second part. They had brought him to the barracks unconscious the day before. Rainbow Dash had come to check on him once, and when he didn’t wake up to her shouting in his ear she left, stomping on the grating so hard the whole barracks shook.
Contrail continued his walk, approaching the new pony while clopping loudly on the grating. If User didn’t hear him, he could probably still feel the catwalk shaking.
When Contrail came within a few yards of the pony, User turned and greeted him, “Oh, hello there,” the pegasus rasped out. User tried to wave, but lost his balance, falling towards the floor.
With a strong flap of his wing Contrail caught the blue pegasus. “...can I help you with anything?” User finished, giving Contrail a weak smile.
“No, thank you,” Contrail answered confused, his head cocked to the side, “can I help you?”
User’s eyes opened in alarm. “Oh no no no, everything is fine here, no need to help me.” He dusted himself off before slowly ascending the ladder, swaying tremendously on each step. Is this guy drunk?
“Are you sure about that?” Contrail insisted his brow raised.
“Ye—” User began saying when suddenly his entire body went rigid, a blank look replacing the smile on his face. His nostrils flared before he quickly finished, “I-I gotta go to the bathroom.” With that the pony took off and zoomed in the direction Contrail had come from, almost hitting a wall in the process.
What the flock is up with this guy? Contrail mused. He looked above the ladder trying to remember what possible assignment the pony had been taking care of. It took him a moment, but he remembered: it was the water line clogged up by some idiot in the lower factory mistaking it for a hailseed one and dumping some leftovers in there creating a growing mass of ice travelling through the vessel.
But why was he unscrewing the pipe support rack? This is not the way to deal with this type of blockage. The proper way to do it is to cut the pipe open, get rid of the clog, and weld it shut after. Wasn’t he supposed to be a great worker with years of experience? What he was doing hazarded other pipelines not being stable enough during higher loads, which could lead to them bending and bursting. That is a rookie mistake, one I definitely remember being on the training program. Wait, isn’t that an acid rain line right next to it? It is! This moron almost spewed its contents all over the hallway, this stuff is very corrosive! The amount of work to fix—
“Contrail,” Dr. Hide Atmosphere said calmly, “what are you doing standing there?”
Contrail snapped out of his mental monologue with a jerk. “I was just, um… giving advice to the new guy.”
“I was hoping to catch him here on the way to my office, damn.” Hide draped a wing over Contrail’s shoulder. “Don’t scare me like that next time Contrail, for a moment I thought we were losing you.”
“Not yet Mr. Atmosphere,” Contrail said and punctuated it with a salute, “I am still here.”
“Well, I’d prefer you being at your station,” Hide retracted his wing, “I believe you have work to do.”
“Yes, sir.”
Contrail bent himself over User’s toolbox and took out a metal cutting saw before placing it on top of the ladder. Trying to ignore the questioning look Dr. Atmosphere was giving him, he resumed his hike, walking into the thick mist that was covering the hallway ahead.
“Wasn’t he like, supposed to guide us or something? Is’t that the reason director Dash brought him here in the first place, to improve our workflow?”
“I hav’ bare’y seen him, I ‘ink he’ avoiding us.”
“From what I have seen so far, he barely knows what he’s doing. Yesterday, for example, I found him unscrewing a pipe rack trying to clear a hail clump.” Contrail shook his head. “This moron can barely fend for himself let alone an entire sector. If you’d ask me, I’d say he needs to read a user manual himself.”
The table erupted in laughter. Pipe Wrench was leaning back, his hooves over his barrel, roaring into the ceiling while Gauge was banging his hoof on the tabletop, sending their food all over the floor.
Ponies from other tables were glaring at the noisy trio disturbing their lunch.
When the roar finally subsided, Gauge wiped the tears that had formed in his eyes. “I have been working alongside him today, it was completely unbearable. He smelled like shit. Well, no. It was even worse than shit. Back when I used to be a guard during failure processing,” Gauge pulled his long hair closer in a protective manner, “sometimes the device was left uncleaned for the entire month,” he scrunched up his nose, “and he smelled worse than that. He was coughing some kind of weird black mist all day. I think it was the source of this reek, but I didn’t dare to get near him in order to check it. That shit was nasty.”
“Spea’n’ of the dev’l.” Pipe Wrench said, while looking between the other pegasi. He was following something slowly with his eyes.
Contrail turned in his seat to see the blue pony sneaking his way slowly through the rows of tables. He was moving so low that his belly was scraping against the floor. User’s eyes frantically scanned the area around him.
With his sight occupied, User didn’t notice a skewed grating and tripped over it, crashing into a table with his forehead.
At least he isn’t a unicorn.
The contact didn't affect the metal table much, it barely swung to the side before coming back. User Manual, on the other hoof, burst into one of the worst coughing fits Contrail has ever seen. The pony kept hacking and trembling, he tried to suppress it with his wing, but the combination of noise and that big black cloud gave away his position to everypony present.
The moment User realised that all eyes in the room were on him he bailed. With a speed that would make Rainbow Dash proud he disappeared in the barracks’ doorway.
“Have you guys ever seen this guy eat anything?”
When Contrail had woken up this morning he didn’t expect to see two angry directors glaring at him.
Dr. Atmosphere had said something about Contrail being the only worker to talk with User Manual and that he was to follow them.
They had led him into the interview room, where they ordered him to stay. Not like he had any other option, they had locked the door when they left.
He was sitting now alone under the flickering light, trying to figure out what was going on. The answer was obvious, it was definitely something about the new guy, but what exactly he didn’t know.
It was probably regarding last night’s events, it was dreadful afterall. But the question was why they had chosen him. It’s not like one simple exchange qualified them as friends. He barely even remembered User’s voice at this point, not counting of course all the coughing and gurgling, especially not those from a few hours prior…
The door clicked open.
The directors walked into his view range from both sides. None of them sat in the other chair, they just stood there behind the desk, their eyes never leaving him.
That would have been considered creepy literally anywhere else.
Hide broke the silence, “Do you know why you are here, Contrail?”
“I have my suspicions,” Contrail answered, “but I’m afraid I don’t have the full picture.”
“Worry not about that, Contrail. We just want to know everything you know about our newest worker, User Manual.”
Contrail casually shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t know much. I—”
“Get on with it!” Rainbow Dash cied. She leaned aggressively over the tabletop, her wings flared at her sides.
“Get a hold of yourself Dash,” Hide said with a calm voice, “it is a behavior unbecoming of a director.” He returned his gaze towards Contrail. “Continue.”
“Yea,” Contrail lowered a protective hoof he had unconsciously raised earlier, “like I was saying, I don’t know much. The ‘conversation’ you saw me having with him was… uninformative. He pretends to know what he is doing while working, hoping nopony notices. He is quite good at it to be honest, but not good enough for me. For a worker, he is incometent; for a leader, he is worse than none.”
Rainbow Dash massaged her temple. “He was performing so well downstairs. I knew he would act weird at first, I’d be weird if he didn’t. Instead of helping the corp I only made it worse.” Rainbow Dash deflated, planting her flank on the ground and banging her head on the table.
“Why did you call me here guys, what happened?” Contrail inquired.
“User Manual went missing” Hide answered with a flat voice, his face never showing a single hint of emotion.
“I was expecting more of a dead body.”
That earned him Hide’s attention. “Elaborate.” he said, prompting Contrail to continue with his hoof. Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up.
“Have you read yesterday’s reports?” Contrail asked.
Hide shook his head.
“I have.” Rainbow Dash said, putting herself back in a proper position. “It was pretty vague. All it said was that he woke up so sick he was unable to stand up. Given painkillers he 'lead' a group supervising the Ponyville storm extraction. He vomited a smelly black liquid multiple times throughout the day before falling unconscious, about five hours into the extraction. He was transported to his bed, where he laid for the rest of the day. Is that all?”
“Yeah, pretty much everything,” Contrail confirmed, “at least up until somewhere in the middle of the night.”
Contrail paused, trying to remember as many details as possible. It made him shudder. “He… he was suffocating.” The directors gave him questioning looks. “He was choking… gurgling and spasming in his bed, I think the whole barracks woke up. Most workers just tried to ignore him burying their heads in pillows. There were few who visibly worried for the guy, one even stood up and approached him. Manual just shoved him away before threatening him with a shaky hoof, it was bizarre. His agony continued for at least an hour, filling the entire room with this horrible odor.”
“What happened next?” The directors asked in unison, though in case of Rainbow Dash it was almost a shout.
“I dunno, I fell asleep.”
The look he received from Hide could command Celestia to banish her sister again.
Rainbow Dash looked like she was about to send him to the moon instead.
“What,” Contrail dared to say, “it’s not like I am the only pony who fell asleep. If you go around asking, you will surely find a pony who saw where he went. Don’t blame be for—”
Hide silenced him with a raised hoof. “There is no need, Contrail. It wouldn’t help.”
Contrail looked at him confused, “Then what was the point in dragging me in here?”
“We were hoping for something,” Rainbow dash answered, “any hint as to what happened.”
“What happened...” Contrail parroted, “What do you mean? How do you know where he went?”
“We don’t, the furthest clue we found was his uniform in the middle of the hallway,” Hide explained, “between it and the tar he—apparently—vomited there were a few splotches of this smelly black goop.”
Contrail scrunched up his muzzle, “Who the flock even was this guy?”
“The question is not who,” Hide answered, “but what.”
