Into the Rainbow Factory

Chapters

Prologue: The Rainbow Factory
Section 1: Arrival
Section 2: Meeting Rainbow Dash
Section 3: Test Preparations
Section 4: Path to the Factory
Section 5: To Cloudsdale
Section 6: Fight to the Coliseum
Section 7: Into the Rainbow Factory
Section 8: The Belly of the Beast
Section 9: The Pegasus Device
Section 10: Fallen Heroes
Epilogue: The War of Sun and Moon

Prologue: The Rainbow Factory

“You’d havta be crazy to run a place like this.” Rainbow Dash thought to herself, “but aren’t we all crazy as soon as we step up to the board to take that flight test? Not me though.” She chuckled quietly to herself. “I’m to awesome. Then again… if I were so awesome…wouldn’t I be able to find the courage to shut this place down? Instead of dragging all these hopeless failures to their doom?

“They thought I could get the Sonic Rain-boom to work, but all it did was make us get behind in quota…and nearly kill me.” She looked down at the floor of the room she was in. Her rosy orbs falling upon all the failed students of flight school. “They have no hope…to bad they don’t know that.” she smiled a little as her eyes danced from face to face. “Still no Scootaloo. Good. She’s to awesome for THIS shit. Dunno why I’m worried anyway, only the best pony ever taught her all the moves she needs to pass that bastard of a test. I bet she’s as good as me…heh…heh…kinda.”

she moved slightly to get more comfortable on the little cushion she had stolen from the employee’s lounge. The spot where she laid overlooked the entire room, except for the cat walk that was another ten feet up from her metallic outcropping.

A door slid open, and then back closed, causing Rainbow to look at the stage with more eagerness. A large pony walked out into the middle of the area overlooking a pit full of teenage fillies and colts. Behind him stood six monolithic vats with a manifold above them that fed to a machine with a singular gaping maw at its crest. Below the vats were troughs of color; one for each different color of the rainbow. The big pony on the stage was silhouetted by the light emitting from the troughs of color as they were of the few light sources. Amber lights behind the manifold illuminated the stage and most of the room. Also two dim red lights hung at the roof of the room nearest the wall farthest from the vats, one being just above Rainbow Dash herself.

A massive sliding door was in this wall; it was the door the group of pitiful failures had reluctantly meandered through only minutes ago. “Minutes before their death.” mumbled Rainbow Dash menacingly. The outcrop she laid on wasn’t her favorite spot when she first started working for the Upper Weather Factory. She used to not even be able to stand the sight of the room when a failed class came in; because she knew what was next. However, now, as the large pony shouted orders and a chain harness came floating down from above the machine towards the group of teens, she couldn’t help but feel remorseless joy. The first of many were picked up and shackled. At first the group of students watched inquisitively until the chains twisted and a loud cracking noise was heard under the scream of the young colt.

Now horrified, the class tried to run for the door but none made it. In a well versed maneuver, the guards cut them off at the top of the ramp that led into the pit. All of them held taser rods in their mouths and jabbed at the teenage foals. They pushed the panicked group back until they were all in the pit again.

The broken colt was hefted above the machine; blood dripped from his torso where a fragment of his rib cut through. He looked down at the grinder below him and just closed his eyes in acceptance. Rainbow Dash watched with great vigor as he fell into the gaping jaws of the machine. Another teen was hoisted and broken and then dropped into gaping, metallic jaws. Then another and another.

Color began to flow from the vats spigots into the troughs below. One color per vat. The Spectra as it was known flowed like a river into the hole that was in the floor behind the stage. Rainbow Dash’s excitement fluttered greatly. Somehow, she had begun to enjoy watching these useless mules fall to their great demise. Her smile grew into a menacing grin when she saw a filly smash her face against the side of the monstrosity’s tubular mouth and then slowly slide into the machine unconscious. As time passed and she watched them plead for their lives, her eyes grew heavy and she laid her head between her front hooves. She closed her eyes, and drifted into sleep with the sound of screams as a lullaby.

Section 1: Arrival

“Princesses” announced an armored colt. “You have a visitor from Fillydelphia.” Princess Celestia and Princess Luna looked up from their conversation to see a young unicorn walk into their court room. The young filly couldn’t have been any older than a pegasus soon to graduate flight school. The nervous unicorn walked up to the base of the staircase that led to the two princess’ thrones and looked at them with great unease.

“Greetings young one, for what reason have you come to visit us?” Luna asked, looking down on her with a curious smile.

“Y-Your highnesses…my name is Rose Seed and I’ve been looking for my friend. She is a pegasus and the last time I saw her was when she went to Cloudsdale to take flight school. When she didn’t come back on the day after the test; I asked her parents about it and they said that they didn’t even have a daughter.”

A black pegasus stallion in the corner of the room flinched nervously. He needed to stop this filly from continuing her story. Her friend’s parents had broken containment by just saying that one thing to this young one. Thinking of something only he would consider brilliant, he began to walk towards her. “Young filly,” he calmly said as he approached her, “Your friend surely failed the flight test and was deported to where all of the other flunks went.” He grinned callously at her.

The Unicorn frowned and her ears lowered. “Where is that exactly?” she quivered.
He just replayed in a smooth tone, “A place for no one of our standard.” he ran his hoof comfortingly under her chin, his smile being that of pride now. Princess Celestia looked at him suspiciously. She knew about the exiles, but he acted as if their was something more to it; as if he knew what he spoke was not the whole truth. The defeated unicorn left with the Princess’ grace and the black pegasus returned to his corner.

“Chancellor Black” Celestia called. The onyx pegasus had just leaned against the wall when his name resounded through the room. With a huff he returned to the stairs in front of his two rulers.
“Yes your highness?” he replied with a bow.
“Where do the exiled ponies go?” she demanded. With great inquisition, Luna looked at him with hope that he would end this daunting mystery. At first he was nervous about his response, but he wasn’t chosen to be the chancellor to Canterlot for no reason. He quickly and efficiently thought of an excuse and brought about a knowledgeable smirk.

“Why your Highness, we send them beyond the lands of Equestria. A place where they have formed their own colony of failure. Far away from this great nation so as to prevent them from doing any harm.” he tried to hide a smile of satisfaction, but he just could not help himself.

“WHERE DO YOU SEND THEM TOO!?” boomed Celestia. This startled Black, causing him to stumble on the stairs; nearly falling.
“Your majesty, you must understand. They don‘t tell me everything! I only know what I told that young filly.” he retorted quickly. Still unsatisfied at his answer, but enough that it cooled her rage; Celestia settled down a little.

“Leave us” Luna stated to everyone in the room, seeing her sister disgruntled. Everyone, including Black, bowed and left hurriedly out of the main door. Luna looked with concern at her sister. “Are you alright sis?” Celestia shook with anger. She knew the pegasi were lying to her, and pondered deeply about what it could possibly be.

Without looking at her sister Celestia spoke, “We should go to Cloudsdale and investigate this matter Luna.”
“I do not believe that would be a wise decision.” Luna stated cautiously. A surprised Celestia looked down at her younger sister curiously.
“And why is that?” the white and golden mare muttered.
“If we do find something, our subjects may lose their trust in our capability of ruling. Also, if we wrongly accuse them, then our subjects may never trust our judgment.” Celestia sighed in aggravation because she knew her sister was correct in her assessment.
“Then…” started Celestia, “ we need to get some help from the outside.”
“Outside?” Luna did very little to hide her befuddlement.
“From somewhere were no pony will challenge him.” Celestia smiled as her horn began to glow.
“Who?” Luna looked out as a portal opened in front of them, revealing a room containing unfamiliar architecture.

A universe away, the Highrule, a massive space cruiser, sat alone along an enemy sub-space trade route. They were sitting in wait for an enemy cargo freighter to jump into the system to re-supply at the space station on the other side of the solar system. The Highrule sat in the dark shadow of one of the gas giants, the planet’s blue surface glistening off the ships grey and scaly hull. The Humans of Earth had found this Ractrin ship in the galaxy of Andromeda two years ago.

Raptor looked at the planet from his apartment in the ship’s upper decks, near the bridge that sat in the large bulbous dome atop the cruiser. He thought back to the days when they had found the ship adrift in the midst of an asteroid belt. Straining, he pushed his head against the glass so as to try and look along the hull. There, he could barely see another massive dome on the side of the ship that had two gigantic cannons extending out of it; a total copy of the other side of the ship that he couldn’t see.

Looking down he could see one of the defensive Hellfire Cannons that ran along the side of the ship. Only six on this side; running along the ship in two rows. He crawled out from the window seal and looked around his apartment, yawning. The couch that sat in the middle of this room looked very comfortable, and he longed greatly to sleep on it. Unfortunately it would provide him little rest. He had been having disturbing visions of late. Glancing at the kitchen that sat to the left of the room he was in, he knew that food wouldn’t help.

He meandered over to the couch and sat in it. Flipping on the holo-tv, he scanned through many of the sub-space channels that had been recorded by Valtor, the ship’s sort-of A.I. There were only recordings because with the Highrule being in hiding it was in a state of radio silence. No transmissions of any kind in or out.

With a glance into the bedroom he could see his wife sleeping. He sighed and slouched further into his chair. “Can’t sleep again?” asked Valtor, a tall and see-through hologram. The hologram depicted what he looked like when he was alive, a Ractrin. Ractrins hailed from the planet Rectron; a planet now destroyed by a war ten thousand years ago. Valtor loomed behind Raptor, portraying himself to lean on the couch.

Valtor himself is a special A.I. in the fact that he is actually a living spirit that has taken control of the ship’s computer network. His body was destroyed those ten thousand years ago and his soul trapped in a Spirit Energy Capsule known as the Eye of Mortals. Raptor found the Eye about six years ago.

Well, six years ago to him. Since then him and his companions had traveled through time to this future. Raptor and his friends had discovered a time device left behind by an alien race back in 2002 and it projected them first back in time to the past. There they found another device and it sent them to this future, and at times he felt out of place in this future layout.

Him and his companions had been thrust into this war with the aliens they were waiting on. They didn’t mind. After all, they had sworn an oath back when the Twin Towers were attacked to defend Earth and that’s just what they intended on doing. Just right now they had to wait. This mission was very important and they couldn’t blow it.

“Yeah, unfortunately.” Raptor finally responded in a huff.
“Why?”
“Every time I shut my eyes…all I see is two waterfalls that lead into a pond below. Once I investigate more I see that the waterfalls are actually blood pooling into a rainbow pond that never fills, no matter how much bleeds into it.”
“That’s rather gory. Is this war getting to you?”
“It’s a possibility…we’ve been fighting since we first met Val.” Valtor walked around the couch and looked sympathetically at the young Human.
“And in those six years, we’ve never failed.” Raptor looked up at the hologram and grinned.
“And never faltered. God’s gotten us through a lot hasn’t he?”
“Yep. Speaking of God, you think that maybe he’s the reason why you’ve been having these visions?” Valtor raised a hand to his chin in thought.
“Maybe” Raptor said as he stood up and walked over to the window that looked out into deep space. “I kinda wish I had Joseph from the bible here to help me on that.”

“Well, you may not have an interpreter, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” Valtor walked over and stood next to him. “You need to get some sleep, you’ve been a bit of an ass lately.”
Raptor chuckled. “According to you Val, I’m always an ass.” the holographic Ractrin let out an amused laugh as he turned to leave. When he was just beginning to fade, he spotted a glowing yellow circle that’s outline flowed like air.
“Josh” Valtor said in a concerned tone. Raptor looked over his shoulder and saw the phenomenon.
“Dammit, better not be Derkon again.” Raptor growled as he walked over to the circular object. It was completely grey on the side he was standing on, just the gold, wavy circle outline had color.

“Hello!?” shouted a feminine voice from the other side. With a raised eyebrow Raptor walked around the object to find inside the portal a white equine with flowing multi-colored hair and a singular horn pressing through on her forehead. Having seen plenty of aliens before, he wasn’t to surprised to see something new.
“Uh…Hello?” he asked confused, leaning down to see into the portal.
“Are you Raptor?” the equine asked.
“Yes I am.” Raptor responded slightly surprised that she knew his code-name.
“I’m Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria.” she said calmly.
“Okay….and?”
“I need your help”
“…With…?”

Angrily Celestia pulled Raptor through the portal and let him fall the meter or so to the bottom of the steps. Valtor went to peer in but Celestia closed the portal before he could. Raptor stood holding his head and looked up at the two alicorns. His eyes widened with what he saw. “Wait…y’all are just horses?!” he exclaimed in confusion.
“Ponies…is what we refer to ourselves as.” stated Luna.
“Of course you do.” sighed Raptor.
“This is my little sister, Luna.” Celestia said.
“Howdy” Raptor said mockingly as he leaned forward, putting his hands on his knees attempting to catch his breath. His side hurt a little from landing on a step. “Now what’d y’all want?”
“There is a place I would like you to look into for me.”

“Aaaannnd…Why should I? I mean, y’all kinda kidnapped me…” Raptor huffed as he gestured to where the portal used to be.
“Because you help people don’t you?” Celestia looked at him concerned.
“That’s my job…but hard to earn my trust by taking me from my ship without asking.” Raptor stood erect and crossed his arms. “Tell me why I should help you? Not like y‘all have been to hospitable in the past two minutes.”
Celestia smiled, “Because they haven’t told me what they’re doing for one thousand years…” Before she could continue Raptor stuck his hand up.

“Wait wait wait…one thousand years? What are y’all immortal?” he looked at them with a look of pure befuddlement.
“In a way, but that’s not important. There is a city near by that floats in the clouds and makes all the weather for Equestria. It’s called Cloudsdale and is the home of the pegasi in the area.” Raptor held up a hand, again interrupting the Princess.
“Pegisi? Explain…”
“There are three types of ponies: earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasus ponies.” Celestia’s irritation with the constant interruptions was becoming apparent.
“Uh-huh…so I’m guessing that neither of you fall into those categories because both of y’all have wings AND a single horn?”
“We are alicorns.” explained Luna. Raptor nodded in understanding.
“So…” he began, “Y‘all kidnap me, tell me that y‘all want my help in stopping some ass holes that are supposedly lying to y‘all, and expect me to believe that there‘s a floating cloud city nearby?” both princess nodded. “I’ll need some of my stuff.”

“Of course, whatever you need. I can send you back at any time.” said Celestia gleefully. Her horn began to glow gold and then another portal opened up behind Raptor and closer to the ground. He stepped through it and looked back. “I’ll leave this open so you may return when you’re ready.”
“Okay.” Raptor said as he disappeared out of view of the portal.
“Are you sure we can trust him big sis?” Luna asked.
“I believe so. I’ve been watching him and his friends for some time now. That’s how I knew to ask him.” smiled Celestia.

“Valtor!” Raptor exclaimed as he dug through his closet. Realizing his wife, Masha, was asleep, he glanced at her to ensure his exclamation had not woke her. As soon as he was certain her slumber had not been disturbed, he returned to searching his closet. As he pulled out an ammo vest, Valtor’s hologram appeared in the living room. Raptor saw the ambient light from his hologram on the wall and walked into the room.

“Josh! What the hell was all that!?” Valtor exclaimed as he motioned to the portal.
“SHUSH!” Raptor said pointing to the bedroom. After shaking his head with an annoyed glare at the transparent alien, he continued. “Apparently some horses wants me to help save their people.” Raptor said as he slipped on the vest. He disappeared into his room again and then moments later returned with a green camo backpack strapped to his back. “I’m gonna need my G36 C and swords from the armory please.” he stated as he slipped on two fingerless gloves.

“You must be really tiered to be wanting those old things.” Valtor stated with a chuckle as the items asked for appeared in a cloud of mist on the floor. Two long swords laid over one another next to an automatic rifle from the early 2000‘s.
“Their technology doesn’t seem to be all that great…” Raptor slid the two sheathed swords onto his back one crossed over the other and under the backpack. He then slung the G36 over his back, it came to rest atop the backpack. “So I’m not gonna need much. Gimme…about ten spare magazines please.” a box appeared on the floor and Raptor stuffed it into the backpack.

“Anything else?” Valtor queried in an annoyed huff.
“Nah, I’ll be fine with this.”
“No food? I know how picky you are.”
Raptor just glared at Valtor, “I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Valtor shrugged as Raptor prepared to walk through the portal again. “What’cha want me to tell the ship?”
Raptor thought for a moment and then stated, “Tell’em I’m on a mission. That’s all they need to know.” Valtor nodded as Raptor stepped through the portal and then the room became dark as it closed; only to be lit by Valtor’s hologram. He looked at the bedroom and sighed. The room went completely dark as he disappeared.

Section 2: Meeting Rainbow Dash

As Raptor stepped through the portal, Celestia caught eye of what he had brought back. Weapons. Weapons she did not recognize, nor trust. “What do you intend to do with those?” she asked as she walked down the staircase towards him.
“They’re just for protection your highness. I won’t use’em unless I havta.” She looked at him suspiciously for a moment and then continued past him.
“So long as I can trust you, let me show you where to begin.” Celestia said as they walked to a door adjacent the staircase.
“Don’t worry, your highness, I’m not going to shoot anyone that doesn’t deserve it” She stopped and glared at him. “Just kidding.” he smiled innocently.

Her horn came aglow and the doorway opened revealing a balcony overhanging the mountainside that Canterlot Castle sat atop. Both of them stepped out and up to the balcony’s guardrail, where Raptor gazed across the land. The planet’s sun beat down at them from mid-day, making him frown; he knew this would be a long day.

“This is most of Equestria” explained Celestia as her hoof made a simi-circle indicating all of the visible land. Her golden-clad hoof came to rest directing at a small town nearby. “That is Ponyville, the home of some ponies I need you to meet.” she turned and walked back into the castle, Raptor following silently behind her.

Gingerly they made there way out of the room, leaving via the front entrance of the throne room itself. The two made there way down a corridor, in which two banners hung with Celestia and Luna’s portraits woven into them with great care. Raptor made sure to not fall far behind Celestia, the guards’ looks made him slightly uneasy. They both exited this hall and stepped into the main foyer. There the staircase that led down from where they had entered came to a “Y” with a doorway opposite them. Both staircases met at a lower level and made a 90 that came down to the first floor.

“Step lightly Colonel, I am anxious to have you find out what is happening in Cloudsdale.” Raptor looked up and saw that Celestia had already made it to the bottom of the entire staircase. He jumped and bolted down to meet up with the princess.
“Sorry, but this is the first castle I have been in…that looks so….ornate.” he apologized.
“You have been in castles before?” she asked as they continued to walk towards the front entrance of the castle.
“Yeah…a long time ago.”

Two Unicorn ponies opened the doors at the end of this hall with their magic and both Celestia and Raptor stepped outside. “This is Canterlot, our capital city. I’ve already arranged a carriage for you to be flown to Ponyville.” she leaned closer to Raptor’s ear and whispered, “Trust not pegasus ponies, they are the group keeping the secret I want you to find and they may be inclined to do anything to stop you. Though, if you can, please do not kill any of my subjects.” she stood erect again and smiled. Now speaking normally, she continued to explain, “What I want you to find is in Cloudsdale, but I need you to beable to walk on clouds first. Twilight Sparkle, a most honorable student of mine, will beable to help. She’s the first pony I want you to meet in Ponyville.” Raptor begins to ask a question, but is interrupted as two pegasi pull up with a carriage strapped to them. Raptor hopped in it and then looked back at Celestia. “Good luck.” she stated as the carriage pulled away. Raptor looked at the two pegasi cautiously, and remembered what Celestia had mentioned to him. Every once in a while he would notice one of them staring at him.
“Musta never seen a Human before.” he thought to himself.

He looked over the edge of the carriage and noticed flowing rivers and grassy plains. At one end of the valley there appeared to be a gloomy forest that had despair written all over it. He then walked to the other side and saw a large apple orchard outside of Ponyville. He sighed and looked over his shoulder as he leaned against the carriage’s railing. Behind him he saw a large floating city made of nothing but clouds. “Huh, I bet that‘s Cloudsdale.” he pondered. “It would make since….cloud….dale…that hasta be it. Kinda sounds like Clydesdale…”

The carriage flew over Ponyville‘s main street and came in low to land. As soon as it stopped Raptor hopped out, landing boots first onto the dusty cobblestone road. An old familiar filling over swept him as gawking ponies stopped to stair at him. He had felt this before; when visiting Saperia, a planet full of anthropomorphic animals. “Once again the only Human.” he sighed.

“Where might I find this…Twilight Sparkle?” he asked aloud to the two ponies that had brought him here. At first he was unsure if they would even answer his query, being pegasi and all.
“In the library over there.” one of the two answered as he pointed past Raptor at a tree with windows and a small door. He spun on one heel and saw the building. With a nod he thanked them and began to walk towards Twilight’s house.

Rainbow Dash was sitting in her cloud home above Ponyville washing out her tail. Black ink oozed into the drain of her shower. A loud banging from her front door broke the silence that had over swept her. The day had been long, and she had seen more horrors than anypony could ever dream. Yet it was just another day in her neighborhood. She let out a sigh and reluctantly climbed out of the bath. She dried off and then walked to the front door. Upon opening it she found Chancellor Black on her doorstep. “What a surprise chanc-”
“Rainbow, the factory is in danger. I think Celestia is onto us.” stated Black as he burst into her house.
“Well come on in.” grumbled Rainbow Dash.

She closed the door and watched Black pace nervously around her living room for a moment. “What do you mean by that?” she asked as she walked over to a cloud couch and relaxed on it. Black, still up-tight, glared at her.
“I mean that she suspects what we’re doing in there, you dumb bitch!” he exclaimed, letting his anxiety let loose any verbal restraints. Anger flashed across Rainbow’s face as she dove for Black and pinned him to the wall.
“Look here shit head, it’s your job to keep her from finding out what’s going on in there!” Rainbow’s rosy eyes were almost buried into Black’s, her nose pressed against his.
“I’m trying, but each case of a family breaking from the cover story tips her off again and raises her suspicions even more.” Rainbow released Black from her grip and hovered back over to the couch. She leaned forward and grabbed an apple from the table with her snout and then began to eat it. “Ever since we developed this form of rainbow creation we’ve left Celestia in the dark about it, and her suspicion has grown greatly in the past few centuries.” she looked at him calmly, at the apple down, and stood up. Gingerly she walked over to him, and looked deathly into his eyes.
“Keep her off our backs, or you’ll join those fuckers in the machine.” she then turned around and walked to the front door. With little care for Black‘s continued presence, she aggressively opened the door and gave a demanding motion for him to leave.

At first he didn’t want to move, the sheer anger in Rainbow’s eyes had petrified him. He then nervously nodded and crept out the door. Rainbow watched him lift off and fly away. She slammed the door shut and cursed under her breath. Glancing at the window and noticing the height of the sun, she knew she needed to head down to the Cutiemark Crusaders’ club house soon or she’d be late…and she’s never late.

Raptor knocked on the front door of the Library. As he waited for an answer he looked curiously at the painted-on candle that resided on the door itself. Suddenly the door swung open and a medium sized dragon stood there. “Holy guacamole!” he exclaimed as he darted back into the building.
“What the hell?” Raptor asked in confusion. He ducked his head as he stepped inside and looked around the big open room. Books lined the walls around the inside of the tree with wheeled ladders at every few interval. He found the dragon looking at him nervously from behind some books he appeared to have been putting away before Raptor interrupted him.

“Spike!” shouted a female voice from the second floor. “Spike where are you!?” a light purple unicorn started walking down the staircase that lined the furthest wall from the door. She was looking around the room until her eyes landed on the purple dragon. “Ah Spike there you are, I was wondering if you could help me find…” she was trotting down the staircase and up to Spike until she spotted Raptor. Her eyes went wide and she bolted to him. “What in Equestia are YOU!?” she asked as she examined him at different angles.
“I’m Colonel Raptor, from Earth. I was brought here by Celestia to help her with something. She said I needed to talk to you so I could…walk on clouds. I’m assuming you’re Twilight Sparkle.”
“I am and she was right to send you to me.” she exclaimed as she walked over to a book case. “Now where did I put that book?” she asked as she read the names off their spines.
“Are you looking for the one you used on Pinkie Pie, Apple Jack, and yourself at the Young Fliers Competition a few years ago?” asked Spike as he slowly came out from behind his cover.
“Yes actually.” Twilight responded without looking at him.
“It’s over here!” Spike exclaimed as he reached up and grabbed a book off of a higher up shelf, not even using a ladder.
“Wow Spike, how you’ve grown so fast. You don’t even need a ladder anymore.” she said as she grabbed the book from Spike’s hand with her magic. She levitated it over to herself and then began reading through it. She looked up at Raptor over the top of the pages. “This spell is rather easy, what do you need it for?”
“I’m going to…uh…Cloudsdale? Celestia wanted me to check something out for her.”
“Cloudsdale huh? Well maybe you should get Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy to give you a tour once you’re there. It’s a really nice city for it being made of clouds and all.” she smiled as magic began to burst from her horn. Suddenly Raptor was surrounded by a purple hue and then it faded.

“That’s it?” he asked surprised.
“I told you it was easy.” she said cheerfully as she placed the book back on the shelf. “If I remember correctly I think Rainbow Dash was actually going to meet with Scootaloo over at Sweet Apple Acres to teach her some flying lessons before her big test.” she glanced at the clock and then looked back at Raptor. “If you go over there now you might still catch her there.” Raptor nodded and began to leave. “Do you even know where it is?”
“I saw it as I was flown in by some of Celestia’s pegasi…assuming…again…that it’s that apple orchard to the east.”
“Indeed it is.”
“Thanks Twilight.” Raptor said as he darted out the door.

The main street of Ponyville bustled and brawled with ponies of varying colors, species, and age darted this way and that. Only one thing seemed to stop them in their tracks, and that was the Human walking down the street. The creepy and freaked out looks the ponies around Ponyville were giving Raptor were starting to make him more uneasy than usual. He had forgotten how this feeling felt, but not even the Anthros on Saperia gawked at him like this. Thankfully it ended as he left the town’s main road and began down a dirt path leading to the apple orchard.

When he finally reached Sweet Apple Acres he walked through the front gate and saw a brown earth pony with a cowpony hat on her head bucking some apple trees. He yawned as he walked under the wooden archway. His attention bounced between the rustic farmhouse, barn, and windmill as he walked up to her. As soon as he reached her though his attention was drawn in by two rear hooves coming at his head. He ducked the attack and when he was standing up again one of his swords was drawn.
“Who the hay are you!?” the amber colored mare exclaimed, ignoring Raptor’s drawn weapon.
“I’m Colonel Raptor, Celestia sent me.” he said, his sword held up in a ready-to-strike position.
“Oh!? I’m sorry sugar cube, I didn’t know.” she said as her aggressive stance cooled and a smile donned her snout. “Anyone sent by Celestia‘s worth trustin‘” Raptor put his sword back in its sheath.

“I’m Apple Jack, this here is mah farm…well, mine and my brother’s.” she stepped aside and motioned with one hoof at the barn, farmhouse and acres of apple trees. Raptor looked around for a moment and then saw a small rainbow jolt through the sky in the back corner of the property.
He looked at Apple Jack and inquired, “I came here looking for a pegasus named Rainbow Dash. Twilight said she’d be here giving flying lessons?”
“E’yup, she’s back in the back teachin’ lil’ Scoot how tah really fly. Follow me an’ I’ll show yah to ‘er.” Raptor nodded and then followed Apple Jack. “Are you that Human that everypony’s been talkin’ ‘bout?” she asked as they walked.
“Yeah I am…how’d you hear about me way out here?”
“News travels fast ‘ere in Ponyville.” she smiled as she pushed some brush out of the way with her hoof.

Once they made it past some unkempt foliage he saw a tree house that was recently repainted with a two part stair case in front of it leading to the ground. In front of it sat two teenage foals looking up in the sky. Apple Jack walked over to the light brown one and tried to follow her gaze. Raptor tried to stay back, but also attempted to look up and see what they were looking at. Unfortunately there was to much tree cover from where he was standing. “What’cha lookin’ at AB?”
“Rainbow’s up d’ere showin’ Scootaloo how tah spin some clouds.” the light brown one replied.
“She’s been doing really good!” squeaked the white one to their right.
“Well that’s good tah hear. RAINBOW! YOU GOTTA VISITOR!” shouted Apple Jack.
“Who?” both the foals asked looking at her. Apple Jack turned around to introduce Raptor but chuckled lightly at the fact that he was hiding.
“Come out ‘ere yah silly filly. You ain’t gotta hide” she laughed as she motioned him out of the brush.

He slowly walked out and the two foals gasped. “Is he thah Human we’ve been hearin’ about sis?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Yep, he’s ‘ere to talk to Rainbow Dash ‘bout sumtin’” the white one dashed up to Raptor and looked him over curiously. He quickly noticed she was a unicorn.
“My name’s Sweetie Bell.” she stated as she walked around him.
“Colonel Raptor” he responded matter-of-factly. Sweetie Bell went to say something but two dust plumes billowed up as two pegasi landed in a flash. Raptor looked up and saw them both staring at each other grinning and panting heavily.
“I beat you Rainbow!” shouted the light orange one.
“You wish squirt! I totally kicked your ass!” exclaimed the slightly taller cyan colored one with a rainbow colored mane.
“Rainbow! Whut I say ‘bout yer cussin’!” exclaimed Apple Jack.
“Sorry…guess I got a little excited.” said Rainbow Dash, her head hung a little.

“So who’s here to see the most awesome pony in Eque-” she was high trotting towards the two other foals when she ran almost snout first into Raptor’s chest. He looked down at her face as she gaped at him. This made him realize how much shorter they were than him. With Rainbow so close, he could tell she was only up to the middle of his chest in height. “You must be Rainbow Dash” Raptor said as she slowly walked back from him, her mouth hung slightly ajar.
“You okay RD?” asked Apple Jack. Rainbow shook her head and grinned in a cocky fashion at Apple Jack.
“Of course I am, AJ. I just wasn‘t expecting to see the Human here.” she said coolly.
“None of us told you I was a Human.” Raptor noted. Rainbow’s ears flattened and she muttered something under her breath.
“Oh?” She asked nervously. She finally caught her cool. “I overheard somepony in town mention a Human being here.”
“I guess that makes since…I have been the center point of conversation it’d seem” Raptor said, quickly dismissing the awkward conversation, or at least attempting to.

“So what’d you want with me?” she asked with her cocky smile returning.
“I was gonna ask for a tour of Cloudsdale.” Rainbow’s eyes widened. She knew exactly why he was here. Especially after what Apple Jack said next.
“Celestia sent him, RD. So I bet he’s ‘ere to learn ‘bout us ‘er sumtin‘” she smiled at the end of her sentence.
“I’m sure he is.” Rainbow said coldly and mostly to herself. “Sorry mister…uh…”
“Oh sorry, Colonel Raptor” he said with a friendly smile, and suppressing the urge to hold out his hand. He wasn’t sure if shaking their hoofs would make for the same polite greeting as it did with Humans.
“Colonel, I can’t give anyone any tours today or tomorrow.” she walked backwards till she was next to the orange foal. “I gotta teach lil’ Scootaloo how to fly good enough to pass her flight exam the day after tomorrow.” she rubbed her hoof in Scootaloo’s purple mane.
“Yeah, I gotta pass that test!” exclaimed Scootaloo. “Rainbow calls it a uh…bastard of a test!” Apple Jack glared at Rainbow Dash as she smiled innocently.
“Shut it kid, you’re gonna get me in trouble.” Rainbow joked to Scootaloo.
“Sorry.” the orange filly smiled.
“Do you think you can gimme a tour after the exam?” Raptor asked politely. Rainbow looked up at him irritated.
“I’ll havta check my schedule.” she remarked flatly.

Raptor noticed her hostile attitude towards him. He pondered why it was she was the only one that had an issue with his presence. Most others were either curious about him or afraid. Though he did remember what Celestia had said about pegasus ponies, and Rainbow Dash was the first one he had officially met.
“You guys want to stick around for our little camp out?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Y’all aren’t to old fer that?“ ask Apple Jack with a raised eyebrow.
“Are you kidding? You’re never to old to go camping.” said Rainbow with a grin.
“You wanna join us too?” asked Scootaloo to Rainbow Dash
“Tartarus yeah, nothing like telling spooky stories.” she knelt down menacingly at the three young fouls and walked slowly towards them. They all giggled at her.
“Whut ‘bout you Colonel?” Apple Bloom asked Raptor. He was shocked to be invited.
“I’ve got nothing better to do.” he said smiling. He figured he could probably get some shut eye with being outdoors. The change of scenery from the stuffy battle cruiser would probably let him relax a little easier. “I’ve been stuck inside for a few months now, so being outside’ll be refreshing.”
“Cool, we get to have our first campfire with a Human!” exclaimed Sweetie Bell.
“Yeah that is pretty cool,” added Scootaloo, “but not as cool as Rainbow Dash sticking around.” she grinned up at her admired pegasus.

Apple Jack looked out at the sun and saw that it was setting. “Well, we shud start gettin’ this fire set up. The sun’ll be down soon.” she stated as she walked over to some fire wood. Raptor noticed an aged ash pile and sat next to it. Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash sat on the other side and Sweetie Bell sat near Raptor. She smiled up at him, clearly infatuated with him. Apple Bloom and Apple Jack gathered some wood for the fire as they all waited patently.

Moments later the two earth ponies appeared with wood on their backs. Carefully they piled it next to the old fire pit and Apple Jack began to build the fire.
“I’m surprised it’s so easy for you to make a fire without any kind of ignition source.” Raptor said as he watched Apple Jack run a bow shaped stick with string back and forth spinning another stick that was twisted in the string. The spinning action of the stick caused enough friction to ignite the wooden plank she had been twisting it on. When a small flame began to come up, Apple Jack knelt down and blew softly on it. Within moments a full fire was going.
“It tain’t nutin.” Apple Jack said with a waive of her hoof. “It’s easy when you been doin’ it fer years.”
“Yeah practice does make perfect doesn’t it.” she nodded in agreement with him, smiling.
“I couldn’t ah said it better mah self.”

As time passed and the sun started to sit down below the mountains, Sweetie Bell kept asking Raptor a plethora of questions. Many he was willing to answer, and others not so much. While he was distracted, Rainbow stared at him with a deep scowl. He was a risk to their operation in Cloudsdale and she had to figure out how to get rid of him before Scootaloo’s exam. However, with him having already made friends with Apple Jack and the Cutiemark Crusaders, he was going to be hard to dispose of. For a brief moment, she wondered how the machine would take to Human.

As they played and ate apples that evening, Rainbow continued to keep an eye on Raptor, watching his every movement. She noticed that he never removed the objects that clung to his back, no matter how much they appeared to make him uncomfortable.

Later that evening as they all sat around the campfire, Dash had developed a plan to probably at least scare Raptor away. She’d drop him through her cloud home. She knew that since Humans weren’t from Equestria that Raptor wouldn’t know that he couldn’t stand on the clouds like pegasi could and she was unaware of what Celestia had already told him. So she invited him to sleep at her house that night after the little campfire experience and he agreed. “Sure thing Rainbow. I’d enjoy it.” he said as he watched the sun go down behind the mountains completely.
“Uh Rainbow, aren’t yah gonna tell’im that he’ll fall through thah clouds?” asked Apple Jack.
“Oh don’t worry about it AJ, Celestia sent me to Twilight first so that she could cast that cloud walking spell on me. I can stand on clouds just like any other pegasus.”
“Mother fucker.” Rainbow whispered to herself, “Now I’m was stuck with this guy all night.”
“Oh Rainbow, can I stay over too!?” asked Scootaloo excited. “Maybe you can tell me some more about you’re flight school days!” she had a very large grin on her face.

This relived Rainbow and she let out a subtle sigh. “Of course Scoot. Anything to make sure you don’t flunk that test.” she smiled innocently.
“So if you live on a cloud…how am I supposed to join you?” asked Raptor, pointing at his back as he spoke. Rainbow smiled maliciously but before she could speak Scootaloo jumped in.
“You can ride on Rainbow’s back!” she exclaimed. Rainbow did everything she could from smacking the little filly across the back of the head.
“I dunno, I’ve not ridden a flying horse” he said looking away in thought.
“We’re not horses.” smiled Apple Jack.
“Right, ponies…sorry.”
“That’s alright sugar cube. You ain’t from ‘round here”
“So where are you from?” inquired Sweetie Bell, for the millionth time. Raptor looked at her and sighed.
“Well, it’s kinda hard to explain because…I’m still not entirely sure where here is in comparison to my planet. All I can tell you is that I’m from a planet called Earth.” he stared curiously at the stars above.
“You keep calling us horses. Do they live on your planet?” asked Rainbow genuinely curious.
“Yeah actually. And they look a lot like you guys…just not so blue.” he said looking directly at Rainbow Dash with a grin. “Or purple either…I’ve seen some pretty weird fur colors since I’ve been here.”
“Well Equestria is a land full of all kinds of magic, and we all are a part of it.” Rainbow said knowledgably.

“Since when’d you know so much ‘bout Equestria, Dash?” asked Apple Jack with a raised eyebrow.
Rainbow chuckled a little. “I guess after reading Danger-do I mighta picked up a few other books.” this caused Apple Jack to chuckle a little.
“Guess Twi isn’t the only ‘egg-head’ anymore huh?” joked Apple Bloom.
“Don’t call me an egg-head.” demanded Rainbow glaring down at her.
“Sorry, I wus only jokin’.”
Rainbow sighed. “Sorry Apple Bloom, I’m just not used to being an ‘egg-head’.”
“It’s been ten years RD, yah shoulda been used to it by now.” Apple Jack spoke up.

Raptor looked out over the open field, letting the conversation around him pass unnoticed and became aware that the twilight hour had finally passed, allowing the stars to be entirely visible. Maybe now he could pin point where in the universe he was. As he looked around the stars he didn’t recognize anything. None of the constellations made since to him. He had noticed back in the Milky Way galaxy that even though he went to a different planet some of the constellations would be similar to that of Earth‘s. Unfortunately none of these were familiar to him. He had to be in a different galaxy. At least, that’s what he concluded.

He looked down at the ponies in front of him and watched them converse for a little bit. Once again loneliness swept over him. All the ponies had something to talk about, but all he could do was listen about their adventures. One thing he noticed, while sitting silently, was that Rainbow would occasionally look in his direction almost as if she was studying him. “Maybe staying at her house isn’t such a good idea.” he thought.

He pulled off his weapons and sat them next to him, on the other side from Sweetie Bell. Carefully he laid back into the grass, laying his arms across him as his eyes almost forcefully shut. Images began running through his mind again, but he was so tiered he just simply ignored them. They finally faded to black as he drifted off to sleep.

Rainbow Dash looked at the snoozing Human with malicious intent. She could kill him now and end all her troubles. Except that everypony around her would never let her get away with it. Murdering Raptor in front of them would cause more problems than help. She sighed as she watched him through the fire, barely listening to what Scootaloo was talking about.

After a little bit their conversations drifted to their strange friend. They all stared at him for a moment, watching his slumber. His arms were under his head and one of his legs was stretched out. The other bent with his knee in the air.
“He’s one strange creature huh?” Sweetie Bell asked. The others nodded in agreement. Rainbow wondered why such an odd creature was chosen by Celestia to undermine her work.

She then thought of something funny, but malicious to do to him. She stood up, and put her hoof to her lips when Scootaloo went to ask her what she was doing. Rainbow snuck over to Raptor’s side and raised her hoof over his chest. “It would be so easy” she thought. “To put all my strength through his chest, but not with them looking. I can’t kill him now.” she brought her hoof down on his chest hard enough to make him sit up coughing. Even though she smiled innocently, she was laughing menacingly on the inside. The attack was harmless, and not even an attack really. It was just enough to make him hurt a little. Raptor looked at her angrily as she laughed playfully. The others were chuckling a little. Raptor shook his head and looked around. At first he couldn’t think of where he was, but looking at the ponies around him reminded him that he wasn’t on the Highrule anymore.

She knelt down to level her face with his and grinned. “Wake up sleepy head. We’re heading out.” she said.
“But we’ve still got more wo-” started Scootaloo, but Rainbow shot her a look that made her bite her lip.
“Well, me an’ Apple Bloom do need tah buck thah east field tomorrow.” said Apple Jack.
“Awe, but I thought Big Mac was helpin’ yah with that.” complained Apple Bloom.
“He hurt himself again.” Apple Jack chuckled. “And Rarity’s prolly wonderin’ where Sweetie Bell is.”
“Nah, I told her I’d be staying over here tonight.” Sweetie Bell chimed.
“Does that mean she can stay over all night AJ?” begged Apple Bloom.
“Sure thing, so long as Rarity won’t mind.” Apple Jack said as she looked at Sweetie Bell.
“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” The white filly grinned as she spoke.
“Well it’s settled then, Sweetie Bell, yer stayin’ ‘ere tonight”
“YAY! SLEEPOVER AT APPLE JACK’S!” both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell shouted together.

“You two have fun with that. I’m hangin’ with the greatest flyer in Equestria!” Scootaloo said as she stood next to Rainbow Dash. Raptor stood up and brushed himself off. He then reached down and picked up his belongings and threw them onto his back. He yawned and rubbed an eye as Apple Jack kicked dirt onto the fire to knock it out. With the fire out it took Raptor a moment for his eyes to adjust. Just as he was being able to see in the dark Sweetie Bell lit the tip of her horn lighting the area around her.
“Well see yah later Rainbow. Don’t crash into anything’ on yer way home.” Apple jack mocked with a chuckle.
“I can see just fine thank you.” Rainbow Dash claimed with a cocky grin. As Sweetie Bell followed the two apple ponies back to the house, Scootaloo jumped up in the sky and waited for Rainbow Dash who was knelt down so that Raptor could get on her back. When he was on her securely as he possibly could, she took off.

Section 3: Test Preparations

Scootaloo following behind as they approached a cloud shaped like a house but with coulombs on the front and a rainbow fall under it. They landed on the front porch and Rainbow watched intently as Raptor hopped off her back and landed firmly on the cloud. She cussed under her breath. As he landed, however, he almost lost his balance from the squishy surface of the clouds. Scootaloo jumped behind him and pushed him back up with one of her wings. He thanked her and then they all went inside.

Upon entering Rainbow went and settled on her couch as Scootaloo lifted up and then crashed next to her, laughing as puffs of cloud settled. Raptor noticed the floor was more firm here. It was as if he had walked into a white puffy house. He looked around and took in the cozy little house. On the wall in front of the couch the two ponies sat on was a single book case. The top row was of just one book series. Raptor walked over to it and looked them over. He read the spine of one:
Danger-do and the Lost Crystal
He huffed in amusement and continued looking around. Rainbow Dash watched him curiously.
“You know you can put your stuff down and get comfortable.” she stated matter-of-factly. He looked at the weapons on his back and then looked blankly at her. She rolled her eyes and pointed at an empty corner of the room. He walked over to it and placed his stuff down. Casually he walked over to a chair and sat in it. From this perspective he noticed that there were two rooms attached to the one they were all in. The bed room was on the right side of the room and the kitchen on the left. The lights were out in both rooms so he couldn’t see any details inside the rooms themselves.

Scootaloo went to say something when she suddenly made an odd face. She excused herself to the bathroom. As soon as she disappeared around the corner Rainbow Dash pinned Raptor to the chair. His eyes widened as her rose colored orbs appeared to glow red. “Alright you piece of shit, what the fuck do you want with Cloudsdale?”
“I just want to find this secret that Celestia is looking for.” Raptor responded calmly as he glared back at Rainbow’s deadly stare.
“There is no secret. Nothing out of the ordinary is going on there.” Rainbow stated as she hopped off the chair continuing her angered stare.
“What does happen in Cloudsdale that has Celestia so suspicious?” Rainbow Dash went back over to the couch and sighed.

Scootaloo came trotting back in at that time and sat next to her favorite pony. “What are you guys talking about?” she asked looking at them both. She noticed the subtle glairing being shared.
“I was just about to explain to Raptor why you have been practicing for that test for so long” Rainbow stated with a innocent smile.
“If you fail, you get deported.” Scootaloo stated with a frown. “And I don’t want to be deported. I just got my Cutie Mark, no way am I going anywhere.” Rainbow plopped her hoof on Scootaloo’s head and messed up her mane.
“With what moves I taught you, you’re gonna give those judges no choice but to let you in the east gate.” Rainbow said gleefully.
“Yeah I can see it now. Orion floating there waiting for me to pass and then flying with me to the award presentation” Scootaloo looked off in the distance with a dreamy smile.

“So if you fail. You’re deported?” asked Raptor.
“Weren’t you paying attention idiot?” Rainbow said looking at Raptor. He just ignored her comment.
“Where are they sent to?” he asked looking at Scootaloo. She in turn looked at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow knew that was about to be asked, and had the cover story well versed.
“There’s a colony just outside Equestria that they’re sent to. We occasionally check up on them but they’ve developed their own failed society.” Scootaloo nodded believing her story, but Raptor was a little suspicious. He pondered about why Celestia would be okay with this. With her sending him on this mission, he figured there was more to it than what Rainbow was letting on.
“Where exactly is this… ‘colony’?” he asked suspiciously. Rainbow gulped and then smiled when she remembered that he didn’t know anything about Equestria. Then she remembered that Scootaloo had pretty much flown all of Equestria beside her since her wings were strong enough to pick her up. She sighed and hoped that Scootaloo wouldn’t say anything.

“You wouldn’t know where I was talking about even if I told you.” she said crossing her arms.
“But I’d know.” chimed Scootaloo.
“Ugh…dammit. Just drop it, it’s not a nice place to be. Those pegasi might as well be earth ponies with how useless their wings are.” Raptor looked at her suspiciously for a moment and then had to catch himself from falling asleep all of a sudden. His eyes became blood-shot as he fought away the sleep. “You okay Raptor?” Rainbow was staring at him curiously with Scootaloo joining her stare.
“I just need some sleep. I’ve been having these weird visions for the past few weeks. All they are, are blood and rainbows…kinda weird if you ask me.” he muttered through a yawn.
“Heh, yeah that is.” laughed Scootaloo.
“Well, you get some rest. I guess I can take you to Cloudsdale tomorrow. I gotta take Scoots there to get ready for her last day of flight school before the exam.” said Rainbow with a slight grin.
“I thought you couldn’t gimme a tour tomorrow.”
“I can’t. Doesn’t mean you can’t look around on your own though. Not like we have anything to hide.”
“Not with the way you’ve been sounding.” Raptor thought. He leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. Next thing he knew he was asleep, the visions doing very little to bother him.

The two ponies watched him for a moment and then carried on with their evening. After a while of goofing off and messing around. Scootaloo finally laid on the couch and sighed with fatigue.
“I’m a bit tiered Rainbow.” she said with a smile.
“He he. Alright squirt. You can sleep in my room tonight. I’ll sleep on the couch.” Rainbow said with a laugh.
“REALLY!?” Scootaloo hovered for a moment and then dashed into Rainbow’s bedroom. Rainbow laughed for a moment and then turned her attention to the sleeping Human. She walked over to him and watched him for a second.
“I could do it now.” she thought with a malicious grin. “I could remove him now that no one is watching.” she raised her hoof over his throat and was about to push in with all her might when she heard a noise come from the kitchen. “What the hay?” she whispered as she walked over to the doorway leading into kitchen.

When she flipped the light on she noticed Chancellor Black pushing some clouds together to fix a hole in the wall he had made. “What the fuck are you doing here?!” she exclaimed with malice.
“I came to see this visitor of ours. The one Celestia hired to root out our little secret.” he said trotting up to her. She glanced over her shoulder and then back at him.
“I’m keeping an eye on him.” she stated through a glare.
“I heard something about you offering to take him to Cloudsdale tomorrow.” he said with a returning glare.
“Yeah what of it?”
“Are you fucking stupid? Why the fuck would you want to take him right where the factory is!?”
“If he sees that there’s nothing there, he’ll report it to Celestia and this whole thing will blow over. Also if I keep avoiding his questions, he’ll begin to suspect something just as much as Celestia.”
“Then kill him.”
“I was about to, but some prick had to break into my house in the middle of the night.” he began to chuckle, but it died off as he thought of something.
“If we kill him though. Celestia might think something’s up. Especially with you being the last one with him.” Rainbow sighed and looked over her shoulder at Raptor.
“Fuck.” she muttered.

“Just don’t take him to Cloudsdale, Rainbow Dash. For the interest of all parties involved.” he reopened the hole he had made and flew away. She huffed and walked over to the wall and closed the opening. She then walked back to the door’s edge of the room and stared at Raptor. She didn’t know what to do with him. To some degree, Rainbow Daqsh figured out why Celestia had sent him to investigate Cloudsdale. If he were to be killed or go missing, she would instantly be tipped off that there was something going on. Rainbow walked out into the living room and sat on the couch again. She leaned down to the table and ate an apple. As she ate, she leaned her head against one of her hooves looking at him irritated.
“Piece of shit” she spat. After a moment she had unwilling fallen asleep.

Raptor awoke the next morning to see Rainbow Dash drooling onto her hoof, a half eaten apple on the floor in front of her. He sat up and noticed she must of fallen asleep watching him.
“Creepy” he thought as he stood up and stretched. He walked into the now lit kitchen and found Rainbow’s food pantry. He opened it and sighed in disgust. All she had was hay and clovers. Hunger still pestering him, he closed the pantry and walked back out into the living room. He grabbed an apple from the bowel on the table and ate it hungrily. As he sat there, bored, he wished he had thought of bringing some form of tablet to keep himself entertained. He chewed up another bite of the apple and sighed.

After a moment or so he stood and walked into the bedroom to find Scootaloo there sound asleep. Looking around he noticed that Rainbow didn’t have much décor. He figured that clouds wouldn’t really hold up anything other than the pegasi and anyone that had Twilight’s spell on them. He looked at the chewed up apple in his hand and pondered how they could be up here without falling through. He shrugged it off as he meandered back into the living room to peer out of one of the windows.

Looking over Ponyville he just watched the civilians go about their daily lives, no care of what was happening elsewhere in Equestria. Turning from the window, he walked over to a picture in a cloud frame. It showed a city within white puffy clouds. A rainbow fall fell from its left side as water falls fell from other random locations. He did notice that hidden behind a large pillar one of the buildings crested into thick black storm clouds. He leaned in closer to examine it, but suddenly he heard a yawn come from behind him causing him to spin around; kicking up a few clouds as he did so.

Scootaloo was hovering into the room, a hoof rubbing at one eye.
“Wow, Dash isn’t awake?” she asked as she landed and walked over to Rainbow Dash.
“Nope” Raptor responded. He walked over to them and reached for Rainbow’s shoulder. He shook her and she jerked awake.
“Huh!?” she questioned as she looked around to see the two looking over her. “Wow, did I really fall asleep right here?” she chuckled.
“Yes you did, silly filly.” Scootaloo joked. Rainbow looked over her shoulder out the window and sighed.
“Well Scoots, guess we’d better get you to class.” she looked at Raptor and thought back to what Black had told her. “I can’t take you to Cloudsdale, Raptor.”
“Would you make up your mind…geez…why not?” he asked confused.
“I-I just can’t okay.”
“Alright” he raised an eyebrow, not in suspicion but in confusion.
“I’ll drop you off at the library. Twilight might havta renew that spell anyway.” she started towards the door. Her face showed a little bit of depression.
“What’s wrong RD?” asked Scootaloo. Rainbow made a weak grin.
“Nothing” is what came out of her mouth, but in her mind, “I want him to find out. To end this hell. Fuck our need for rainbows…I’m tiered of this shit.”

She walked to the door and opened it. Scootaloo walked out first with Raptor close behind throwing on his stuff. As soon as his feet fell onto the softer clouds he fell forward into a plume of white mist. Both ponies chuckled at him as Rainbow helped him up. She then let him onto her back and they took off. Raptor watched Scootaloo for a moment as she soared behind them. Her wing beats and tail movements seemed similar to that of Rainbow Dash’s own movements.
“How long have y’all been training together?!” Raptor yelled over the wind.
“I’ve been teaching her for about six years now!” replied Rainbow Dash.
“It shows! She moves like you!”
“That‘s nice!” Rainbow fell in lower to the ground as she approached the library. She touched down on the balcony and Raptor hopped off. Scootaloo hovered over head waiting for Rainbow to join her in the sky again.
“Later Raptor!” shouted Scootaloo as Rainbow blasted past her. She then sped off chasing the cyan dot being followed by a rainbow.

He waived for a moment and then turned to the building to see Twilight walking out of the door.
“Back already?” she asked.
“Yeah, Rainbow won’t take me to Cloudsdale.” he said as he walked past her into the building.
“Strange” she said following him. “She’s usually quite apt to take anyone up there. She gave us a tour about ten years ago when she competed in the Young Fliers Competition.” Raptor was halfway down the stairs when she said that, causing him to stop mid step.
“She gave y’all a tour?” he said looking over his shoulder.
“Yeah, why?” they continued down the steps. Once there he sat on the floor and pondered.
“I think she’s hiding something.” he said looking into Twilights eyes.
“What? Rainbow Dash wouldn’t hide anything. She’s the Element of Loyalty after all.”
“The wha’?”
“The Element of…you’re new…I forgot.” she walked over to a shelf and pulled a book from it with her magic. She then brought it over to him and sat it in front of him.

“The Elements of Harmony, a reference guide.” he read the title aloud. He opened the book and read about the elements of harmony and how they were used in the past by Princess Celestia to defeat her sister when she turned evil. The book was also a little more up to date with including the elements’ use of defeating a chaotic creature by the name of Discord. He looked up from the book to see Twilight re-shelving a section of the library.

“I have elements myself” he stated as he pulled his backpack off. He reached inside and pulled out four stones, each having a different color and shape. Twilight looked at them curiously at first and then asked what they were. “Well, this red one is the Eye of Ra, the element of fire. This blue one is the Sapphire of Poseidon, the element of Water. This brown one is the stone of Uluru, the element of Earth and finally this green one is the rock of Loki, the element of air.”
“So you can control the different physical elements?” she asked looking up from the stones.
“Only with my spirit energy.”
“Your what?” she raised an eyebrow, confused.
“My spirit energy. It’s what you would call magic. Except I use the energy of my body and soul to perform certain abilities or enhance others.”

He plopped the book on the ground and then stuck the stones back into his backpack. He stood and then held his hand over the book. A purple hue formed around his hand and then the book. Within a few moments it closed and lifted into his hand. This caused her to watch inquisitively. He then tossed the book to the side and reared back with a balled up fist. He slammed his fist into the floor and it caused a small hole. When he stood back up Twilight was staring a the hole with her mouth hung open. “I mainly use it when I’m in combat with someone. I takes a lot of energy to fight, so I usually conserve it while in a peaceful situation.” he walked over and picked his backpack back up and threw it back on.

Rainbow Dash looked over her shoulder to see Scootaloo catching up to her. She grinned and pushed against the air with her wings harder. Scootaloo saw this and glared at her. She sped up her wing beats but Rainbow was still gaining distance between them. Scootaloo pushed as hard as she could but Rainbow was still leaving her. She then noticed that a thin beam was forming around Rainbow Dash. It began to curve further and further in until it erupted into a Sonic rain-boom. The ring of color blew out from where Rainbow broke the barrier and a rainbow trailed behind the pegasus responsible. Rainbow swung around and evened up with Scootaloo who had slowed down by now and chuckled at the orange filly. Without a word she then bolted for Cloudsdale. Scootaloo sighed as she watched the cyan dot shrink ahead of her.

She realized the only way she could be as good as Rainbow Dash or better was to beable to perform the Sonic Rain-boom. Her wings were still to slow and she still didn’t have the control over her maneuverability that Rainbow had. Every time Scootaloo tried the Sonic Rain-boom she would barely get a spark before she would get batted away by the barrier. She sighed as she followed Rainbow to the precipice of the flight school building in the middle of Cloudsdale. She landed on it’s upper balcony with Rainbow already waiting for her. Scootaloo just hung her head as she walked past the rainbow crested pony, which caused Rainbow to look at her concerned.

“You okay there squirt?” she asked, evening her pace with Scootaloo as they walked into the building.
“I’m fine.” Scootaloo scorned.
“Oh c’mon. just because you can’t do the Sonic Rain-boom doesn’t mean that you can’t pass this test.”
“I’m not worried about that. I’m worried that I’ll never be as good as you.” Rainbow stopped walking and raised an eyebrow.
“Is that what you want? To be as good as me?” Scootaloo stopped and looked at her long time mentor, tears swelling into her eyes.
“Yes. Yes Rainbow Dash. I want to be as good as you. You dunno what it’s like to be the last pony to beable to fly in your class. You don’t even know what it’s like to be ridiculed for not having your cutie mark!” Rainbow Dash walked up to her and embraced her.
“You’re the greatest flier here, kid-o. After all, you’ve only had the most awesome teacher in Equestia.” Scootaloo laid her head into Rainbow’s colored mane returning the embrace. A tear fell from her eye and slid down Rainbow’s cyan coat. “I took you under my wing, I’ve gotta keep an eye on you.” They separated and smiled at each other.
“Thanks Rainbow, for everything.”
“Hey, that’s what I’m here for.”

Rainbow’s grin faded when a low noise was made by a nearby pegasus getting her attention. She glanced over her shoulder and then back at Scootaloo. “I got something to take care of kid.” she said with a grin as she rubbed Scootaloo’s purple mane.
“You’ll make it to my test right?” Scootaloo asked as she straightened her hair.
As Rainbow turned to walk away she glanced back with a cocky grin and said, “Sure thing, you can count on it! Oh and squirt, meet yah at my place when you‘re done with school!” she then continued on to the pegasus that had gotten her attention.

Scootaloo watched her for a moment and then turned around to run right into a brown colt with white streaks in his mane. Their noses meshed together. She jerked back and did an embarrassed grin at him.
“Hey there Scoots” the brown pegasus chuckled.
“H-hey Orion.” she stuttered.
“You ready for the big test?” he asked as they began trotting down the corridor together.
“Hell yeah I am!” she exclaimed, her head held high as she attempted to dispose of her awkward embarrassment.
“Good thing its tomorrow though.” Orion grinned with a nervous toothy smile.
“You’re not ready?” she looked at him with sympathetic concern.
“No I-I’m ready…I’m just really nervous.”
“What’s to be nervous about? We’ve been through the routine a hundred times in the past week.”
“I know, but…but…haven’t you heard of what happens to the ones who fail?” he lowered his ears in the thought of what he had learned.
“Oh c’mon,” she said as she punched his shoulder, “There’s no fucking way we’re gonna fail.” he raised his eyebrow at her choice of words.
“Where’d you learn to talk like that Scoots? You told me jus last week how you hated to cuss.”
“Ah, Rainbow Dash uses them.” she smiled.
“Scootaloo! Orion! Stop lollygagging and get to class!” shouted one of the flight professors.
“Yes sir!” they both exclaimed as they dashed to their first class of the day.

Rainbow Dash followed the pegasus that had grabbed her attention to the weather factory nearby. They landed near the rainbow falls at the base of the factory. She looked up at the dark clouds that rested at the precipice of the tower and sighed. Following the pegasus with her, they climbed the stairs that lead to a large metal door. The accompanying pegasus pressed a switch and a keypad fell out. He used his wing to type in a few keys and the door hissed. It then slid upwards with a loud grinding noise. Moments after the noise finished reverberating through the great factory, she and her overseer stepped through the dark threshold.

As they wondered down the demented corridor a few more “guards” joined them, these ponies were masked and covered in a black suit that covered their cutie marks and manes. They all walked into an open facility with ponies moving about in every direction. As they walked past the busy ponies, some stopped to look at them with judging eyes. Once the procession had reached the other side of the office space, they walked up a set of stairs that led to a large white door. The pony that had initially brought Rainbow tapped on the door in a series of clicks with his hoof. A little bit of time passed and he went to knock again when a hiss was heard causing the pegasus to take a few steps back. The door slid sideways and a tall red pegasus stepped out wearing a white lab coat, also covering his cutie mark. He looked at the group of pegasi in front of him and smiled maliciously when his eyes fell upon Rainbow Dash. “It’s about time you showed your cutie mark around here Rainbow.” he hissed. She glanced under her wing at her cutie mark and then sneered back at him.

“I’ve been busy Dr. Atmosphere.” she snarled.
“Busy?” he asked insulted. “Busy with what? You’re not telling me that your inferior Ponyville ruse is more interesting than this place.”
“I’ve been helping a friend stay out of this shit hole” she snorted.
“‘Shit hole’?” he chuckled. “this place has changed you a lot more than you are willing to admit Dashie.”
“Shut the fuck up!” she snapped. “What did you want with me?” he chuckled as he shooed off the other Pegasi. He stepped out from his laboratory and led Rainbow down the stairs as the other Pegasi flew off.

“Who’s your friend?” he asked with malicious curiosity.
“No pony you’ll ever know. Now where are we going?”
“Where do you think?” he said as they walked through a small door. Past the door was a room with tall vats on the right and a pit on the left. They had entered the Main Theater room. They walked out onto the stage. He stopped in the middle and looked at her. She walked over to the edge of the stage and looked across the pit below her. At this time it was dark and lifeless. It, in a way, resembled her soul at this exact moment.

She had never really seen the room from this angle. It was a little nauseating to be so close to the machine. She looked at it over her shoulder. At the top of its gaping maw was a clear line of coagulated blood that had not been cleaned for some time. It was understandable, nopony ever wanted to be that close to the jaws of this monolith. She meandered to the drop in the floor that the spigots hung over and could see the pool of what rainbows remained to be drained into the weather factory.

She sighed and turned around to see Dr. Atmosphere smiling maliciously at her. “I brought you here so that you could get used to this angle of the room. I know you’ve spent most of the time in your little corner viewing from afar.”
“Why would I need to know this part of the room?” she asked as she walked around him.
“I want you to deliver the upcoming group of foals to the factory personally.”
“What!? But I…” she stopped and looked at him.
“You what? Were gonna watch your friend?” he chuckled as she glared at him. “Who is your friend again?”
“I’m never going to tell you jack ass”
“Is it that little filly Scootaloo?” he grinned at her as her eyes shot open in surprise.

“How the fuck do you…”
“You’ve been so busy trying to keep her out of here, Rainbow, that you never noticed my agents following you. How do you think my men knew you were going to be at the Flight Academy?”
“You stay the hell away from her! She’s not meant for this place!” she yelled.
“Maybe if she passes, I can get her to sacrifice her life to work here in this lovely factory. Though if she fails...” he grinned maliciously. “She can sacrifice her life for my rainbows.”
“As I’ve said! She’s not going to have anything-” he interrupted her with a smack across the snout. She held her nose for a moment and kept her head in the position it had been forcefully moved to. She turned to glare at him and then jumped up into the air. She curled her wings as she was about to charge him. However before she could beat her wings even once, two guards pinned her to the ground; their hooves digging into her feathers.
“You sold your soul to this place you fucking bitch!” he said baring down on her. “No matter how far you run. Now matter where you hide. I will find you, because Rainbow Dash, You.Are.Mine.” her anger fell as she looked away, defeated. He motioned the guards away and she stood up.

“YOU came to me, ass hole.” she said as she straightened her ruffled wings. “You wanted to use my Sonic Rain-boom. It wasn’t till I walked through the FUCKING DOOR that you told me I couldn’t ever fucking leave.” her defiance just made him more enthused with what he considered her idiocy.
“You never figured it out? Ten years and you still don’t know? I did that on purpose you moron!”
“What?”

“I knew you had the potential of another Sonic Rain-boom, Rainbow Dash. So when Rarity flew up to the sun during that competition I had my agents blast her wings to make her fall. I hoped that if you’re Sonic Rain-boom could produce enough rainbow energy to eliminate the need of living flesh, then maybe I could increase the vibrancy of the rainbows; or increase our rainbow production. However, you had to be to weak to perform the Rain-boom enough to compensate. I decided that throwing you into the machine instead would be more fruitful” she looked at him surprised and suddenly nervous. Her gaze turned into a maddened glare.
“I’m an Element of Harmony! You can’t just kill ME fucker!” she exclaimed. He raised an eyebrow with a quixotic smirk.

“Oh? You really think I haven’t thought of that? If anything I figured you having that Element in you would just make the rainbows themselves more extravagant! You being one of the Elements makes you even more worth tossing in! and…if you make these rainbows that much better, then perhaps I could go and get Fluttershy as well.” Rainbow’s glare turned into a menacing scowl.
“Don’t you even dare think of that! You have no business with her! She never took the test, so you can’t judge her!”
“But if you, Rainbow,” he got close to her and grinned into her eyes, “made the rainbow’s even brighter because of the Element inside of you, then so will she.” he planted his fore-hoof into her chest and then slowly slid it up her neck to her chin, ruffling her coat as he went. “So go to Appleloosa and meet those mercenaries to pick up that cart of mules tomorrow.” she snapped her head away from his hoof angrily and lifted off. “I wish your friend good luck” he said with menacing sarcasm.
“Fuck you.” she barked as she dashed out of the door.

She barreled down the hall at lighting speed. She had never wanted to be out of the factory so badly before. She just wanted this day to be over and for tomorrow to be over. All she wanted was the be standing next to Scootaloo as she held her ribbon. Tears flowed from Dash’s eyes as she blasted past workers, dodging around the few that dared to be in her way. She wanted this all to be over. All the hell of this factory that was around her. Just as she was about to get to the other side of the open part of the facility a pegasus jumped up and swatted her out of the sky. She rolled in air and landed on her back, sliding up to a wall. She opened her eyes to see Black walking up to her with a deep scowl.
“Where do you think you’re going in such a hurry Dashie?” he scorned.
“I’m getting the fuck outta here.” she said as she clamored to her feet and rubbing her bloody snout.
“We’re not done giving you your assignment yet.” he said dryly with no compassion.
“What? Fuck you, I’m not doing anything other than bringing those little twerps here!”
“Oh no, you’re doing much more than that.” said Dr. Atmosphere as he landed next to Black. She snorted in irritation at his presence. “You’re also going to address the crowd of failures when they get into the pit. You are doing EVERYTHING that is apart of this routine.” Rainbow’s eyes widened.
“Why do you want me to do that?” she snapped.
“Because, I‘m telling you to. If you don‘t, things can get much worse…even outside of the factory.” he grinned evilly as she grumbled under her breath.
“You’re a fucking bastard.” she growled as she took off again. Black went to try and catch her but Dr. Atmosphere held up a hoof, stopping him.
“She knows that she had better do as we say.” he said grinning.

“It’s strange.” stated Black with curiosity in his tone as he watched her fly through the exit.
“Hmm?” Atmosphere asked as he turned back into the factory with Black following.
“I’ve never seen her cry before, ever. She’s as hard as steel and yet…she was crying just now.”
“Oh? I didn’t notice. If she was in fact crying, I guess that just means her mental breakdown is nearly complete” he said with a satisfactory chuckle at the end.
“Her what?” Black stopped walking and stared at the scientist confused.
“I’ve been watching her mental state as of late, and it is nearly crumbled. There’s only one thing left supporting her mind…”
“Scootaloo?” Black was almost afraid to ask with Atmosphere’s expression of malefic glee written on his face.
“Yes, Scootaloo. If she passes that test tomorrow, I may not get what I want out of Rainbow Dash. However, were she to fail…”
“You wouldn’t set her up like that would you?”
“I always get my way, Black, and I‘ve waited ten years for tomorrow‘s test.” Black’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Y-you can’t do that! That’s murder!” Black was backing away in horror.
“Is it? Funny, I thought everything we have been doing for the past millennia was murder.” Dr. Atmosphere spun around on one hoof, flapping a wing to make him spin a little faster, and faced Black.
“You can’t do this Atmosphere!”
“What are you going to do, Black? Expose this whole operation to Celestia?”
“I-I might.” he went to turn, opening his wings to fly away when two guards pounced on him and pinned him to the floor.
“You may be the chancellor to Canterlot…” Atmosphere walked around the struggling stallion looking down at him with evil intent. “But that does not mean you are irreplaceable.” Black looked up at him with pure horror.
“No Atmosphere! Don’t please!” the guards started dragging the black pony towards the Pegasus Device with Atmosphere following closely.
“The machine doesn’t take particularly well to fully grown pegasi, but we’re running a bit low on Spectra and need a boost enough till tomorrow. That last class yesterday was much to small to really provide enough.” Atmosphere studied Black’s physical structure and was content with it. “You make up enough mass to produce the amount we need to last us just fine.”
“You can’t do this to me Atmosphere! WAAAAAIIIT!!!” the door that led into the machine’s room slammed shut, silencing any screams from the former Chancellor. As the echo quieted, Atmosphere turned around to see all the workers staring down the corridor at him.
“Do you want to join him?” Terror went across their faces and they darted back to their work causing him to smile with malice. “I thought so.” he then walked back to his personal laboratory humming, “In the Rainbow Factory, where fears and horrors come true. In the Rainbow Factory, where not a single soul gets through!” He laughed manically as his laboratory’s door slammed shut.

Section 4: Path to the Factory

Raptor walked over a quant bridge that was along the path to Fluttershy’s cottage. He meandered up the hill to her door and glanced at the window next to it. He knocked on the door and heard hoof steps approach on the other side. A yellow pegasus opened the door and looked at him. Upon understanding what she was staring at, she squealed and slammed the door before he could even say anything. He sighed in irritation and knocked again. “C’mon Fluttershy! I just wanna talk!” he exclaimed. The door slowly creaked open a little and he noticed that she was peering through the crack.
“Y-You’re that Human…” she squeaked in a soft and shaky tone.
“Yes, I’m the Human everyone’s been so infatuated with. Look…I mean you no harm. May I come in please?” she glanced at his weapons on his back and then back at his unshaven face.
“Okay.” she whispered as she opened the door and he stepped inside. Upon entering the sounds of birds chirping and critters playing hit him. He looked around and saw all sorts of animals about.
“And they call me strange” he muttered.
“Wha-…What are you here for?” she asked as she peered through her pink mane.
Well I-” Suddenly he felt a thud hit the top of his shoe causing him to look down quickly. A small rabbit was hopping around in pain holding one of his feet. Fluttershy looked at him and sighed.
“Oh Angel, you’re not supposed to attack strangers.” she knelt down and looked the rabbit in the face. “Are you okay?” he glared at Raptor and then nodded to her. She stood back up and smiled weekly at the Human. “I’m sorry, he’s usually not like that.” the rabbit just crossed his arms and glared off in space.
“He didn’t hurt me. These shoes I’m wearin’ have steel toes, so my feet…or toes rather…are protected.” she lifted up and hovered over to some birds and gave them some bird seed.
“What are you here for again?” she asked as she moved to tend to some squirrels.
“I’m in need of a pegasus to take me to Scootaloo’s test tomorrow. I can’t find Rainbow Dash and…” he made a begrudged face, “she doesn’t trust me either.”

“I’m sorry mister Human…”
“Oh…sorry…I’m Colonel Raptor.”
She smiled innocently and said, “Colonel, my flying is to weak to pick up another pony even with help. I don’t think I can take you to Cloudsdale.”
Raptor pondered for a moment and then glared at her stating, “How do I know you’re not lying to me?” She looked up at him shocked.
“I would never lie to you, honest.” he walked close to her and pointed at her accusingly.
“I don’t believe you, Fluttershy. Celestia told me to not trust any pegasi and here you are saying you can’t take me to Cloudsdale! Just like Rainbow Dash!” she lowered her ears and cowered a little, trying to hide behind her pink mane that flowed in front of her face. “You pegasi are hiding something and I’m gonna find out what it is!” he turned to storm out when she said something in a quiver. He didn’t catch what she had said so he stopped and faced her. “What?” he asked sharply.

“I havn’t been to Cloudsdale.” she squeaked. “Well, in a long time I mean. Rainbow Dash won’t let me go back. She says it’s to dangerous.” She came out from behind her mane and looked at his eyes nervously. “She says it’s because I never took my flying test.” Raptor’s eyes shot wide in surprise.
“You never took the test?” he asked in a softer tone.
“No. Rainbow Dash accidentally knocked me off of Cloudsdale when she was going to race some bullies. I’ve lived in Ponyville since then. I’ve only ever gone back with Rainbow Dash a few times and now she says it’s to dangerous for me to go.”

“How could you have not taken your test mean anything?”
“She didn’t explain it to me. She only told me to never go there alone. All she’s doing is protecting me, honest.” she stood up and walked over to him, looking up into his grey eyes. “I’m a weak flyer Colonel, that’s the only reason why I can’t take you to Cloudsdale.”
He sighed looked at the floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so rude. I’m just on edge about this. It was only yesterday that I discovered that there were talking hor-…ponies that were all engulfed in magic.” She put a hoof on his chest and smiled innocently.
“It’s okay. I forgive you.”

“So you don’t know anything about where the deportees go?” he asked as he moved away from her and paced around the room in thought. She watched him for a moment and then answered.
“Oh no, I’ve never known, but Rainbow Dash said she knew.”
“Yeah I’ve already talked to her about that.” he scratched his chin in thought.
“Oh? You have? Where did she say they went?”
“She wouldn’t tell me. Why? D’you want to know.” he looked at her curiously. She looked away from him, nudging a the ground in nervousness.
“I’ve always wanted to know.” she walked over to the window and peered out of it. “Rainbow said it was a horrible place, but I bet they’ve got the nicest of animals.” he walked over to the window and followed her gaze. He saw that she was looking at Canterlot and turned back into the cottage.
“Do you know any other Pegasi that could help me get to Cloudsdale?”
She looked over her shoulder at him. “I’m sure Scootaloo could help you.”
“She’s at the scho-…Does she live here, or in Cloudsdale?”
“She lives here in Ponyville. She should be back from flight school tonight.”
“Where at?” he smiled with interest.
“I, uh, don’t know exactly” she frowned. He sighed and walked for the door.

Scootaloo walked out of her last class room with Orion by her side. They joked and made fun of some other ponies nearby that were “practicing” for the exam tomorrow. They walked out onto the balcony and looked over the floating city. They then stared at each other, the wind blowing through their flowing manes added to the emotions being shared in this one moment. Orion wanted to spill everything to her. To tell her how much he loved her. She also wanted to tell him how much she felt for him, but neither of them could get the courage to speak. Orion laid his ears back nervously as he looked deep into Scootaloo’s eyes. “Scootaloo… you wanna hang out this evening?” he asked nervously. He considered himself very ridiculous for asking THAT of all things.
“Of course” she said with a smile. “Where you wanna go?” Orion frowned. He cursed himself and wished he had thought all of this through.

“Would Sugar Cube Corner be okay?” he said with a nervous grin. She chuckled at him.
“You don’t know Ponyville very well do you?”
He chuckled a little and smiled innocently saying, “No…I don’t. I’ve lived in Cloudsdale all my life. I only found out about Sugar Cube Corner because of Pinkie Pie’s famous cupcakes.”
“I know where we can go” she said as she kissed his cheek. She opened her wings and lifted off, leaving Orion standing on the platform with his cheeks burning and his wings erect. He shook his head and took off after her.

She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled as she pushed her wings harder. Orion looked at her surprised and tried to keep up, but like what Rainbow Dash did to her, she pulled away from him. She smiled as the wind around her intensified. The lust for speed that Rainbow had pounded into her flooded her veins as she pressed as hard as she could. She wanted to be like Rainbow Dash, her entire body quivered with the need. She watched as sparks began to form in front of her. She ignored it and concentrated on her wing beats, the thumping of her heart, and the in-out of her breathing. Orion watched in awe as the vortex began to close around Scootaloo. She closed her eyes and pressed as hard as she could.

The static build up around her began to grow and grow with every flap of her wings. She however made the same error that Rainbow Dash had made many times, she only had one hoof stretched out in front of her. This caused it to where just as she was about to succeed, a low pop was heard and the vortex wall tossed her back at Orion. He gasped and dove to catch her. She landed on his back and he almost dropped out of the sky from not being used to holding another pony. He flew them to the ground and sat her next to the path that ran through this area. She sat there gasping for breath as he looked at her with great concern.

“Are you okay Scoot?” he asked.
“Yeah” she responded with a panting smile. “That’s…the best I’ve ever…done”
“I wonder if they’d just let you full out pass if you did the Sonic Rain-boom at the test tomorrow?” she laughed at him and stood. She stretched her wings to make sure they were okay. She winced in pain as one of them felt strained and looked at him with a smile.
“I’m sure they would flunk me just because I showed them up.” she started walking along the path they had landed next to, Orion pacing beside her.
“Yeah, best to stay with the routine. I know I don’t wanna give them any more reasons to fail me.” She looked at him confused.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m already a pretty pathetic flyer, I mean, I couldn’t even keep up with you as you tried to do the Sonic Rain-boom. If I tried anything fancy I’d prolly wind up banished anyway.” she smiled at him comfortingly.
“I couldn’t keep up with Rainbow Dash as she DID the Sonic Rain-boom. So I’m not as great as you think”
“Scootaloo, you’re the best flyer to come outta Cloudsdale this generation. You’re an amazing flyer. I bet no one else in our class could even get as close to doing the Sonic Rain-boom as you. You’ve got that test tomorrow in the bag.” he gave her a big toothy smile and she returned it but less confident than his.

“Thanks Orion” she leaned into him as they walked into Ponyville causing him to smile satisfactory to himself. He cautiously laid one of his wings over her and held her to him. He was relived to feel her transfer some of her weight to him, accepting his embrace. As they walked down main street Scootaloo kept having to introduce Orion to some of the town’s folk and especially Pinkie Pie. She bounced with them as they meandered through the town. Pinkie bounced with joy as she asked Orion a plethora of questions about himself. It wasn’t until she saw Raptor sitting at one of the outdoor tables that she left him alone. He sighed as he watched the pink pony dash right up to the Human and stare at him. Orion, curious himself, joined the two.

Raptor stared at Pinkie wide eyed and shocked. She had blasted over to him with such speed it nearly knocked him over. Scootaloo, shaking her head, walked over as well. When Raptor noticed her, he waved lazily. She nodded in acknowledgement.
“So you’re the Human!? Huh!? Huh!? HUH!?” Pinkie Pie asked as she leaned over the table at him.
“Um…do you see anyone else around that looks like me?” he asked annoyed.
“Well, no”
“Then, yes…I am the Human”
“Oh goodie! I’ve been wanting to meet you so much!” he looked at Scootaloo and then back at Pinkie Pie.
“I’ve been busy.”
“With What?!”
“I’ve been trying to figure out how I’m supposed to get to Cloudsdale tomorrow. Rainbow Dash doesn’t trust me and Fluttershy’s to weak…”

He looked at the two Pegasi standing behind Pinkie Pie and smiled. “Scootaloo! Could you-”
“Sorry, I just tried a Sonic Rain-boom and failed. I don’t wanna risk hurting myself anymore than I have.”
“Are you okay?” Pinkie asked facing the two winged ponies.
“Yeah, I just strained my wing.” she held out one of her wings and motioned to it. “That’s why we were walking into town. I wanna make sure I can fly tomorrow.”
“What about you?” Raptor asked Orion. He frowned and lowered his ears.
“I-I dunno. I’m not a great flyer either.” Orion quivered. Raptor let out an irritated sigh.
“Is there no damn pegasus that can fly in this forsaken town!” he exclaimed as he slammed his head onto the table. “…Ouch…” he sat up a little and rubbed his forehead.
“Oh don’t let the world get you down, just smile!” Pinkie said. She then took a deep breath to start singing but Scootaloo stuffer her hoof into Pinkie’s muzzle. She shook her head and then removed her hoof, shaking some saliva from it. “He he, okay I won’t sing THAAAT song.” she went to take in a deep breath when Scootaloo snorted at her. “Well fine I guess I’ll just sit here.” she huffed. All three of them were looking at her for a moment and just as Orion went to say something Pinkie’s cheeks puffed out causing him to stop mid-breath. She snickered a little and then burst out laughing, streamers and confetti erupting in front of her.

“What’s so funny?” Raptor asked.
“You look funny with that red mark on your forehead.” She said laughing. Raptor raised an eyebrow and rubbed his head where he had hit it on the table. He sighed and laid his head back down. Orion took in a breath to speak and then paused, looking at Pinkie to make sure she wasn’t going to say anything.
After a short moment he finally spoke, “I can try to take you there.” Orion said uneasy. Raptor looked up at him, unsure weather to trust him or not.
“You sure? I mean you ponies are pretty short and y’all two are even smaller.”
“We’re not fully grown.” Scootaloo snorted.
“Yeah see! They’re smaller than me!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she bounced around Orion. He just sighed.
“Consider it the first part of your test.” Scootaloo joked as she punched Orion in the shoulder. He glared at her for a second and then looked back at Raptor uneasy.

“Oh c’mon, turn that frown upside down mister!” Pinkie jumped in. “I can throw you a party if that’d make you feel better!” she smiled at him.
“No Pinkie. I appreciate it, but…we just came to Ponyville for dinner.” Orion looked at the blank table that Raptor was still leaned over and then to Scootaloo.
“Okay!” Pinkie squeaked as she trotted away humming to herself. Raptor and Orion let out a breath of relief in unison.

“So what’s your name?” Raptor asked the brown pegasus as he sat up.
“Orion” he responded briskly. Raptor hopped up and walked around the table. He stopped and looked down at the two teenage ponies.
“So…y’all two are going to get something to eat? May I join y‘all? I don‘t have any of y‘all’s money.”
“Yeah, of course” smiled Scootaloo as they all turned and started walking deeper into the town.
Scootaloo chuckled quietly to herself as she heard Raptor’s stomach grumble and stated, “We came here because Orion here was wanting to hang out” Orion bit his lip and tried to hide a shy frown. Raptor smiled at the colt’s expression.
“I’m sure that’s all it is” he said mockingly. He wasn’t to familiar with the expressions that the ponies used, but he had a feeling that Orion liked Scootaloo more than just a friend.

“So, is there anywhere around here that doesn’t sell food that is in the form of a flower or hay?”
“There’s a lot of places. What do Humans eat?” asked Scootaloo.
“Well…primarily…meat.” both ponies looked at him with slightly concerned looks. “Not horses…er…ponies though. Preferably beef or pork” Both of them looked at him disgusted for a moment and then Scootaloo spoke up.
“No we don’t have any of that. What about vegetables?” She asked looking at Raptor curiously.
“Yeah I eat those. Carrots, potatoes, etcetera. Fruits too. After all I did eat some of those apples at Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Oh yeah, you did. I know just where we can go!” Orion and Raptor looked at each other and then at Scootaloo.
“Where?” Orion asked.
“Here I’ll show you two, just follow me.” she motioned for them to follow and they complied.

Moments later all three of them were sitting around an umbrella table, food laying out in front of them.
“Mmm…this looks delicious.” stated Orion with a smile as he drooled over his hay-and-bread sandwich.
“You bet!” said Scootaloo just before she devoured her salad.
“Huh, guess I got lucky y’all actually have peanut butter and jelly. Otherwise this would’ve been a long day for me.” Raptor stated as he bit into his pb&j.

“Hey, Raptor?” Scootaloo said as she swallowed.
“Yep?”
“Are you a soldier or something? Cause I mean, you’ve been wearing those weapons since you got here.” He glanced over his shoulder at one of the sword hilts and then continued eating his sandwich.
After swallowing a bite he spoke, “Yes I am. I’m a soldier for the U.E.N. Space Core. Well, a sub-division of it actually. I’m a member of a little group called D.C.R.”
“D.C.R.? What’s that stand for?” Orion inquired curiously.
“It doesn‘t really mean anything, just is three letters. It’s just what we call ourselves.”
“Well that’s kind of lame” Scootaloo spat as she ate some more lettuce.
“Just how you and your friends are the Cutie Mark Crusaders even though you all have your Cutie Marks?” Orion said wryly to Scootaloo, who just shot him a dirty look, and caused Raptor to chuckle to himself a little.

Orion looked up to the sky, past the umbrella and asked, “You‘re apart of a space core, so you fight in outer space?”
“Yes, I’m the commander of a space ship. It’s called the Highrule. I was actually on it when Celestia ‘plucked’ me outta the sky.” he chuckled at himself for a moment. The two ponies looked at him awkwardly. “Sorry…”
“What’s U.E.N. mean?” Orion asked as he chomped another bite out of his sandwich.
“United Earth Nations. It’s the country I’m from. It oversees a variety of planets including my home world, Earth.” Raptor responded.
“A lot of planets? How many?” asked Scootaloo
“Well, I’ve actually never counted. With the war my people are in we keep losing planets.” Both the ponies looked up at him from their meals with surprised looks.
“Y-you’re in a war?” Orion stuttered in question. “And you came here!?” Raptor put his sandwich down and looked at the table. He took in a deep breath and sighed.
“Yeah, I did.” he finally said after a long pause and looked up at them.

“Why?” asked Scootaloo.
“Because, it was the right thing to do. Y’all needed help, and Celestia went through the trouble of pulling me through whatever portal she made.” he looked at each of them in the eyes. “Y’all must be in a lot of trouble.” Scootaloo and Orion looked at each other then back at Raptor.
“We‘re not in any trouble, Raptor.” Scootaloo said. He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head in confusion.
“Then…why’d she call me here? She said that there was something I needed to find in Cloudsdale.”
“The only thing that we’re worried about is being deported for failing the flight test.” stated Orion.
“Yeah, I remember Rainbow Dash telling me about that last night. She said that she knew where they went, but that she didn’t want to show me.”
Scootaloo looked at Orion and spoke, “She said it was outside Equestria.” he looked at her and flattened his ears.

“Oh, crap! Sorry, I didn’t mean to make y’all think about that.” Raptor exclaimed.
“No, it’s fine.” Scootaloo said as she finished her meal. “We probably should go practice some more.” she said as she gave Orion a subtle smile.
“How? Rainbow Dash cleared out all the clouds…and…” Orion said as he looked at the setting sun on the horizon, “it’s nearly dark.”
Scootaloo followed his gaze and frowned. “Well I guess we can go back to Rainbow’s house. She invited me back when we were at Cloudsdale.”
“Yeah I bet’cha I’m not welcome” Raptor frowned as he ate his final bite.
“Nah, if we’re going to take you to Cloudsdale tomorrow it’d be easier if you were with us.” she said as she stood. Orion followed her actions and then looked at her wings concerned. She noticed his attention and smiled at him. “I’ll be fine, Rainbow’s house isn’t to far away.”
“You sure?” he asked worried. She shook her head as she walked over to him and nuzzled her head into his neck.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. You however, havta carry him.” she smiled maliciously as she used her wing to point at Raptor. Orion looked at him and sighed. It wasn’t really the fact that Raptor would be heavy. It was more along the lines of him being bigger than them. He already stood a foot and a half taller than Rainbow Dash, and with them not being fully grown he was even larger to them.
“Could you carry his stuff?” he pleaded with her. She rolled her eyes and sighed.
“Yeah I guess I can.” she turned her attention to the Human. “C’mon Raptor, get on Orion and I’ll carry your saddle bag.”
“Backpack.” Raptor jokingly scoffed as he stood from the table. He walked around and slung his backpack on Scootaloo’s shoulders. She let out a heavy breath as the swords, gun and backpack clanged down onto her.
“How the fuck do you carry all this?” she strained.
“It’s not that heavy. Besides, I usually carry more.” she looked at him surprised as he climbed onto Orion’s back. Just as they were about to lift off the waiter came running out of the shop.
“Hey! You better pay for all that!” he yelled.
“Oh shit, sorry” Scootaloo said as she pulled out some coins and tossed them onto the table.
“Thank you” he said as he pulled the coins from the table and went back inside. They lifted up and sped off to Rainbow Dash’s cloud house.

Rainbow Dash was sitting on her couch, sobbing. She had been crying all day, even through her evening weather jobs around Ponyville. With as much as she enjoyed watching the pathetic failures falling to their demise, she had never been the one responsible for their deaths per-say. Though she watched with glee back then, she would dread tomorrow. She didn’t know how to bring herself to be the one that would have the blood of these children on her hooves. The only thing that gave her the slightest comfort was that she knew, she just knew, that Scootaloo was going to pass. Even though Rainbow would miss the exam and be late for the award ceremony, at least she knew for a fact that there would be a reason for her to attend one.

She opened her eyes and watched through her blurry vision the tears fall into the cloud floor. She put her hooves up to her face and just wept some more. The evil that she had for so long held at bay, finally had come to get her wholly at last. There was no escaping the heartless act that she had to commit the next day. “What am I going to do?” she sobbed. “Why does it have to be me?” a subtle pain ached in her chest.

She tried to think of ways to get out of doing this deed. Maybe she could sneak away? That would be impossible with Atmosphere’s promise of always being able to find her. What if she just stayed home? Well then she would be sought out and forced into doing it anyway. She laid over on the couch, letting all four hooves flop carelessly over the side of the cloud cushions. She stared into nothingness as tears rolled down her snout and onto the clouds below.

Hopelessness was all she could feel and all she wanted to be anywhere but here. She didn’t want to be in Equestria anymore. It wasn’t like she could leave though, her loyalty to the princess, her friends, Scootaloo; she couldn’t just abandon it. She pulled one of her wings forward and looked at the feathers that ran along it. Maybe if she broke her wing again she couldn’t do it. Unfortunately she tried that before on one of the first days she was supposed to oversee the usage of the failures and the guards just picked her up and took her to Cloudsdale anyway. “There’s no way out of this.” she stated as she released her wing and curled up into a sobbing ball.

Suddenly she heard voices out on her porch. She shot up and looked at the door realizing she had invited Scootaloo back over that night. She cursed under her breath and darted for the bath room to clean up. There was no way she was going to let anypony see her in this condition.

She flipped on the light and trotted up to the mirror. She looked at herself and saw her coat on her face streaked with tear lines and her mane was all messed up. She quickly combed herself and dried her face. She heard a loud plop and laughing. Then, as she was walking out of the bathroom and back to the living room she heard the door open. Once she walked into the room she saw Scootaloo and some brown pony laughing at Raptor who was covered in rainbows from the rainbow pools next to Rainbow Dash’s porch scowling back at them.
“I‘ve never seen someone have so much trouble walking on clouds before!” exclaimed the brown pony chuckling.

“And YOU wanna go to Cloudsdale?” Rainbow Dash scorned. “Can’t even walk on clouds and you want to visit a city made-!”
“Shut up Rainbow Dash!” Raptor said turning to face her, splashing some rainbows on the wall. “I’ve had just about enough of your crap! What’s your problem with me!?” Rainbow was taken back by Raptor’s out burst. She lowered her ears and was unsure of what to say. Scootaloo and Orion stared at them wide eyed and shocked. Raptor’s stuff slid off of Scootaloo’s back with a plop because of her jumping from his outburst.
“I-I…uh…” Rainbow stammered.
“What!? Rainbow Dash!? What is your problem!? Why do you hate me so much!?”
“I don’t hate you.” she said calmly, a tear ran down her cheek.
“Then why do you act like I’m against you!? I’m here to help you guys and only YOU have treated me like I’m your enemy. Even Fluttershy has been friendly to me.”
“I can’t tell you.” she said looking at the floor, a few droplets falling from her cheeks and fluffing through.
“Whudeyah mean by that?”
“I just can’t tell you.”

Raptor noticed her tears and his overbearing rage whiffed away to sympathy. He walked over to her and knelt in front of her. He put his finger to her chin and lifted her face up.
“What’s the matter Rainbow, why are you so angry?” her eyes looked into his as sadness creased across her face.
“I havta do something tomorrow. Something I don’t wanna do. For once, I wish I wasn’t the Element of Loyalty.”
“Who are you loyal to?” she sniffed and looked away for a moment. Her gaze then moved over to Scootaloo.
“There’s only one pony I’ve been loyal to this whole time.”
“Then do what is right.”

He patted her shoulder and walked over to his stuff next to Scootaloo. He picked it up and then went over to the chair he had slept on the night before. He laid on it and looked at Rainbow Dash. “So what’s for dinner?” he asked jokingly. Rainbow looked at all of them and then sighed.
“I think I’m gonna go to bed early guys.” Rainbow said as she walked back into her bedroom. Scootaloo and Orion finally let out the breath they had been holding the whole time. She walked over to Rainbow’s room and peered in while Orion sat on the couch. Scootaloo heard sobbing and investigated. Orion watched Scootaloo disappear and then looked at Raptor, who was busy putting his backpack next to the chair. He sat it on the other side of the chair from Orion and when he sat up noticed Orion’s gaze.
“What’s up?”
“You still have some rainbows on you.” Orion said as he chuckled a little. Raptor looked down at himself and started to wipe off some of the rainbows on him. A particular bit refused to wipe off easily so Raptor grabbed some of the clouds from the wall and began to use them to wash it off. This also caused Orion to chuckle.

“What?” Raptor asked pausing.
“I find it kind of funny how you have so much control over the clouds. It’s almost as if you’re part pegasus.” Raptor huffed in amusement at his comment as he kept cleaning himself off.
“Twilight performed a spell on me that allows me to walk on clouds…and as you can see,” he held up the rainbow stained cloud, “I seem to beable to manipulate them in the same fashion you guys can.”
“Twilight? As in Twilight Sparkle?” Orion asked curiously.
“Yeah, have you ever met her?” Raptor released the cloud and it dissipated. He looked at the spot it had been surprised. He wasn’t expecting it to just dissipate upon being released.
“No, I’ve only heard about her from Scootaloo. I’ve lived in Cloudsdale my whole life.” he moved uneasy and bit his lip.

Hey Raptor, I-I got a question.” Raptor leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling, bored.
“What’s that?”
“I kinda like Scootaloo more than just a friend. I was wonderin-”
“Oh no, I don’t do relationship advice.” Orion’s ears dropped.
“Oh…but the way you acted with Rainbow just now…”
“I have a wife and two kids…kinda a stereotypical story I know, but…I know how to read someone when their down. Took me a little bit to figure out you ponies, but you guys are pretty similar to us Humans.” Raptor looked at Orion and saw that he was still downtrodden. “Look, just ask her out…if…that’s…what you guys do I mean.”
“I thought of that…I was planning on doing it after we both passed our tests tomorrow. I mean, she’s right after me in the line-up.”
Raptor looked at Rainbow’s bedroom. “I think that’d be the perfect time.”

Section 5: To Cloudsdale

Scootaloo peered into Rainbow’s bedroom and saw her laying on her bed, her back to the door. She heard the cyan pony crying, and could see her chest rising abruptly with each sob. She walked over to her and laid a hoof on her chest. Rainbow jumped and looked over her shoulder. She sighed and rolled back to facing the wall. “Go away squirt” she said annoyed.
“What’s wrong Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked concerned. Rainbow wiped away some of her tears and rolled over to face the young filly.
“I-I can’t make it to your exam tomorrow.” she finally said, her eyes not looking at Scootaloo’s. Scootaloo made a surprised whinny.
“Why not?” she asked, her ears now flat on her head.
“My job in Cloudsdale…they want me to go to Appleloosa tomorrow.”
“Appleloosa? What’s so important about Appleloosa!?” Scootaloo spun around and sat on Rainbow’s bed, her arms crossed.
“Look, kid, you don’t need me there to do an awesome job.” Rainbow said as she sat up, holding herself with one hoof.
“It’s just, I’ve always imagined my big sister there to cheer me on.” Scootaloo said harshly.
“But you don’t have a-”
“You’re my big sister Rainbow Dash. Ever since we first met I’ve looked up to you as the big sister I never had!”
“Scootaloo I-”
“No Rainbow Dash, if you don’t wanna come to my exam tomorrow that’s fine. I understand that you’re not very rich and need all the bits you can get.” Scootaloo hopped off Rainbow’s bed and started to storm away.

Before she could get a whole four set of steps Rainbow dashed off the bed and was embracing the orange foal. At first Scootaloo was reluctant, but after a moment she finally returned Rainbow’s hug.
“I’m not doing it for the money.” Rainbow finally said after a few moments. “I’m doing it to protect you.” they separated and Rainbow made a weak smile.
“Protect me? From what?”
“I’m trying to make sure you won’t be deported.”
“What, you don’t trust me to pass my test?” Scootaloo’s anger began to return.
“No of course I trust you…just…” she sighed and looked at the floor. “I can’t tell you either Scootaloo. What I’m doing tomorrow…is top secret.” Scootaloo’s eyes lit up with excitement.
“You’re going on a top secret mission!? Man I wish I was going with you! That’s so cool!” Scootaloo exclaimed in excitement. She hopped next to Rainbow and nuzzled her wing. “I knew you were totally awesome!” Rainbow looked at her surprised.
“So, you’re not mad at me?” she inquired with concern.
“Tartarus no. You’re going on a top secret mission. That’s totally awesome.” Rainbow sighed in relief.
“I really need to get to bed squirt. I gotta get up bright and early for that ‘mission’.” she said with an innocent grin.
“Of course! See you at the award ceremony?” Scootaloo asked as she began to trot out of the room.
“I can definitely make that.” Rainbow stated with a smile.
“SWEET!” Scootaloo zipped out of the room.

Rainbow stared at the door for a moment and then let her smile drop into a remorseful frown. Her perked up ears fell flat again. She returned to her bed and laid in it, staring at the ceiling thinking of the next day. Images of faceless ponies standing in the Machine Room danced through her head. Her memories of how she enjoyed them falling into the machine played through many times.
“He’s right.” Rainbow muttered to herself. “That damn place has changed me.” she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Scootaloo trotted back into the living room to see Raptor and Orion arm wrestling over the cloud table in the middle of the room. Almost as soon as she entered the room Orion slammed Raptor’s fist into the table. “Geez, you ponies are strong.” Raptor stated as he held his arm.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m one of the weaker guys!” Orion said with a laugh. Scootaloo just shook her head and smiled as she joined Orion on the couch. Raptor examined Orion’s muscle structure and noticed that while he may be a weaker pony, being one in general gives him plenty of stamina. He looked at Scootaloo and noticed the same thing. Strong powerful fore legs that were capable of a lot of damage.

“It’s because y’all walk on all fours.” Raptor explained. “Y’alls muscle structure is built for it. I would hate to get into a fist fight with any of you guys.”
“So I could kick your ass with no problem?” Scootaloo asked jokingly.
“Most likely. Good thing I brought these.” he reached behind the chair and pulled one of the swords from its sheath. He held it up in front of him and smiled.
“What is that?” Orion asked with great curiosity,
“It’s a sword. It’s meant for rending people in two. Works very effectively against unarmored foes.”
“That looks cool. Can I hold it?” asked Scootaloo.

“Sure thing, just be careful, it’s really sharp” Raptor warned as he handed it to her. She took it in her mouth and looked up the blade. She stepped away from them and swung her head. The sword made a loud swooshing noise and caused Scootaloo to smile. “Uh…gimme that back please…I didn’t realize you would use your mouth.” Raptor said concerned. She chuckled slightly as she spat it back into his open palm. He checked for bite marks in the handle but found none. He re-sheathed it and looked at them.

After Scootaloo had returned to her side of the couch Orion had begun talking to her about Ponyville. Raptor watched for a moment uninterested. He found the planet he was on very out of the ordinary. Everything ran by magic produced from the ponies. It had his concept of the universe in a bind. He laid back on the chair drowning out Scootaloo and Orion’s conversation and pondered about what he had been told, that there was no such thing as magic. Anything that would seem like magic was actually produced from spirit energy, or energy put off by one’s soul that can be manipulated. He glanced over at the two ponies and wondered if maybe it was their spirit energy that made it seem so magical. Maybe Unicorns’ horns were a Spirit Energy Conductor like the two swords he had and that was why they could use “magic” so well. He couldn’t shake the thought of it. If the land was magical then maybe it was somehow alive as well? Maybe God created it as a world allowed for magic? His ponderings soon led him into a fast sleep.

Hours later, Rainbow Dash jerked awake from her slumber by a nightmare she had. She shook her head and sighed in relief to know it was just a dream. She sat up and looked out of her bedroom window at the starry night. She saw where the moon was positioned and decided it was early enough to go get ready to leave for her task. Lazily, she hopped out of bed and hovered over to the bathroom. She used it and then walked to her closet. In it laid a black suit that would cover every portion of her body. She had only worn it once or twice, the first time being when she tried to steal the Danger-do book from Ponyville Medical a few years back. She donned it and then slid the hood over her head, completely concealing any recognizable features about herself. Her rainbow mane and lighting bolt cutie mark were well hidden, as well as her cyan coat. Only thing visible was her rosy eyes and rainbow tale. She quickly took some black dye out of the closet and ran it through her tail. She made sure that every last inch of color was covered in black ink. Her eyes weren’t a concern to her, after all, a lot of ponies had rosy colored eyes.

Quietly she started to sneak out of her bedroom and past everyone asleep in the living room. Orion held Scootaloo between his front hooves on the couch and Raptor snored on the chair. Just as she walked past him he shook and opened his eyes. She looked at him nervous about what he was going to ask. He simply looked at her, shook his head in apparent disappointment and then went back to sleep. She sighed in relief and then continued out of her house. She stood on the porch looking over Ponyville.

Watching all the dark houses, she took in a deep breath and then leapt into the air like a rocket. She flew at a steady moderate pace. It would be a good few hours of flight to Appleloosa so she wanted to make sure she didn’t wear her self out by flying to fast. She knew that she was supposed to meet up with some pegasus pony there that would help her maintain order with any of the mercenaries that got to curious about what they were doing, but she didn’t know where in Appleloosa. She had only been there one other time and she was to busy fighting buffalo to take in the scenery. Also it was a long time ago, how could anypony expect her to remember such details.

Raptor shot up in his chair in a cold sweat. After he had watched Rainbow Dash leave the house had been having a nightmare about pools of blood that poured into a rainbow puddle below them. No matter how much blood flowed the puddle never got any bigger. He leaned forward and put his face in his hands. “Where did the blood come from?” he thought. He fought to remember the dream. He looked up at the two sleeping foals when he remembered. The blood was pouring out
of Scootaloo and Orion’s sides as they were chained up above him. “Blood and rainbows, they were from them?” he looked up, past the ceiling, past the atmosphere of the planet. “God why are you giving me these visions? What does this place havta do with’em?” he laid back down and stared at the ceiling.

He wished he could be in the black marble room that God always pulled him to whenever he had something important to tell him. He wished he could ask God directly, instead of the usual way. Face to Face was always the way he preferred to talk, even to God. He let out a sigh of irritation and watched the two ponies sleep for a moment. Upon seeing how Orion was holding Scootaloo, he chuckled.

He jumped up and went into the kitchen. He knew that Rainbow had nothing but grass to eat but he figured he may have overlooked some vegetables or fruit. Digging through some cupboards he finally found some carrots and tomatoes. “I know Rainbow Dash wouldn’t mind me eating these…I hope.” he sat them in front of him on the kitchen table and sighed. He didn’t want to be rude and just eat someone else’s food. He hoped Scootaloo would be a wake soon so he could ask her for permission. He walked over to the living room and noticed the two were face to face with one another. Scootaloo was tucked in tight to Orion, her hooves curled up in front of her so that his could be around her. Their snouts were together. “Ahem” Raptor coughed. They both separated their faces and looked at him.
“Oh uh…hey Raptor” mumbled Orion.
“So I guess y’all are together now huh? I musta missed a lot when I fell asleep.” Raptor chuckled as he leaned on the door frame.
“Yeah I couldn’t wait till this afternoon, I had to ask her last night.” Orion grinned down at Scootaloo. Raptor huffed and looked out the window.

“So when’s y’all’s exam?” he asked as he returned his gaze to them.
“About three, why?” asked Orion as he tried to sit up. Scootaloo opened her wings and lifted up, sliding out from Orion’s hold. Her doing this flipped him over onto his back with a surprised look. She looked down at him with a innocent smile. He flopped off the couch and walked over to the window, Scootaloo landing next to him. “It’s not for another couple of hours. We don’t havta be there till about noon.”

“Good, lets go get some breakfast. I’m starved.” he said as he returned into the kitchen and put everything away. Scootaloo walked up to the door way and watched him for a moment.
“Why didn’t you just eat that?” she asked looking at the food he was putting away.
“Because, I’m not sure if I have permission to.” he said as he closed a cupboard.
“Permission?” she raised an eyebrow and then started laughing. “I’m sure Rainbow would be okay with you eating anything here Raptor.”
“I figured as much,” he said walking over to her, “but I didn’t want to be rude.”
“That’s rather nice of you, I guess.” she said as they walked into the living room.
“So what’s a Human eat for breakfast?” Orion asked as he peered down on Ponyville.
“Eggs, bacon, or pancakes.” Raptor replied as he walked over to the chair to retrieve his stuff.
“Eggs?” Orion asked looking over his shoulder at him. “That’s rather nasty.”
“Well y’all are herbivores like I said. However,” he pulled on his stuff and looked at Scootaloo, “Do you know a place that sells pancakes?”
“Yeah, Sugar Cube Corner.” she said with a smile.
“Wait isn’t that where Pinkie Pie lives?” Orion asked as he hopped off the window seal. Scootaloo looked at him with a smile.
“Yep!” she grinned. Both Raptor and Orion sighed.
“Anywhere else?” Orion groaned.
“Well, yeah, but Sugar Cube Corner has chocolate chip pancakes.” she said licking her lips.
“Chocolate chip? Pfft, gimme some regular ones.” Raptor laughed as he walked to the door.

Orion huffed as he joined Raptor at the door.
“You okay Orion?” Raptor asked.
“Yeah, I’m just not so sure about going to Sugar Cube Corner. I mean, Pinkie’s okay and all…just she’s rather annoying.” he said with a subtle frown.
“I got it!” exclaimed Scootaloo, causing Raptor and Orion both to look at her. “Screw Sugar Cube Corner! We can go to Sky Cloud’s Breakfast Shoppe!”
“Oh wow. I haven’t eaten there in years.” said Orion with a grin.
“Yeah, me nether! Mom usta take me all the time when we lived in Cloudsdale. I passed by there a few days ago so I know Mr. Sky’s shop is still open!”
“It’s in Cloudsdale?” Raptor asked curiously. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow at him.
“Rainbow was right, you don’t listen very well.”
“I was just making sure, Scoots-a-loo.” Raptor mocked causing Orion to chuckle slightly. She glared at Orion for a moment with him finally speaking to break the silence.
“Anyway, because it’s in Cloudsdale we won’t have to worry about being late for the exam.” he said with a smile as Scootaloo still glared. She sighed and walked past them opening the door and continuing outside.

“Yeah you’re right.” she said as she looked back at them. “Besides, I can’t wait to get that fucker outta the way.” she lifted up and waited for the two men to join her. Orion walked out first as Raptor looked at the porch timidly. He stepped out very carefully in an attempt to not fall again. As he put all his weight onto the porch his foot slipped from under him and planted him on his back inside the doorway. The two Pegasi just chuckled in amusement at his clumsiness.
“I certainly hope none of these clouds are in Cloudsdale.” Raptor huffed as he picked himself up and straightened his backpack on his back.
“No promises.” Orion chuckled as Raptor climbed on his back. They lifted up, joining Scootaloo, and headed off to Cloudsdale.

Raptor watched Ponyville fade in the distance and relaxed a bit as he made himself comfortable. Orion was a very stable flyer, even if he wasn’t confident in himself. Orion glanced over his shoulder to make sure Raptor was okay and then noticed Scootaloo was trailing behind. He slowed down to even himself with her and looked at her with concern. “Are you alright!?” he yelled over the wind.
“I’m fine!” she returned. “I’m just don’t want to stress my wing before the examination!”
“Okay!” Satisfied, Orion put a little bit more distance between them to make sure they wouldn’t accidentally drift into one another.

Section 6: Fight to the Coliseum

After some time of flying, Raptor looked up from observing the forest below to see a large cloud formation in the sky in front of them. Rows and rows of cloud homes lined in a nice grid creating suburbs around the center of the cloud city. The center being more like the commercial district having large monolithic like buildings. Raptor noticed a strange resemblance to Greek architecture in many of the cloud formations. A massive coliseum could be seen to the far west of the cloud city.

Orion and Scootaloo drew close to the streets below, but didn’t land. Raptor watched the pegasus ponies milling about with their every day lives. “There it is Scoots!” he exclaimed over the wind and pointed down a near by street. The small cloud building was minute in comparison to the large downtown skyscrapers surrounding it. On the edge of the roof in big florescent lighting read Sky Cloud’s Breakfast. Orion touched down in front of the entry way allowing Raptor to hop off. He landed on the clouds in a puff, but did not fall. he stuck his arms out as if to maintain his balance and then took a step. Scootaloo landed on his other side of him to watch. As soon as his weight transferred to his other foot, it slipped from under him and he landed on his back in a cloud of mist. Both the pegasi laughed as he sat up with a grunt.

“Dammit all why can’t I-” he looked at the ponies near him and noticed that their bare hooves were touching the clouds. With an idea, he reached down and undid his military boots. As he slipped them off he cupped his thumbs around his socks the become completely bare footed. Raptor sat the boots aside and put his feet under him. He stood up real fast and waited for the loss of friction again. However, this time the pads of his feet gripped the wet squishy surface and he was able to stand normally. He reached down and picked up his boots and shoved them into his backpack. “It would seem that the shoes’ artificial surface was incompatible with Twilight’s spell, preventing total friction on the clouds surface.” The two Pegasi looked at him disinterested.
“Good to see that you can walk around, now let’s eat!” exclaimed Scootaloo as she darted into the building.
“Yeah, mister scientist, I’m hungry!” Orion jested as he walked into the quant diner.

Raptor looked around for a moment and noticed what few passers by that were in this area were stopping to stare at him. He sighed and entered the restaurant. As soon as the door shut behind him he could tell every pony in the building had stopped what they were doing to see who this strange creature was. He spotted Scootaloo and Orion at the counter sharing a cup of chocolate milk. He meandered awkwardly to them and sat next to Scootaloo. The feeling of unrest kept crawling up his back as Raptor couldn’t stop feeling every eye on him.

“YES! He’s a Human, now stop yer gawkin’ and geht back tuh eatin’!” shouted the bar tender. He walked up to Raptor and leaned against the counter. “Name’s Sky Joe. Sorry ‘bout all d’em. They ain’t never seen a Human before.” Raptor looked up at him in befuddlement.
“And you have?” he asked.
“Shooooot naw. I just know the stories of yer kind bein’ ‘er before.”
“Before? So that’s how y’all know I’m a Human.” Raptor sat up, his uneasy feelings being replaced by curiosity.
“Yeas sir, been a couple thousand years ‘er so, but Princess Celestia her self has brought ‘em ‘ier every time.” the bar tender pulled out a glass and started wiping it down with a cloth he had pulled from his shoulder.
“So…that’s why my world has depictions of unicorns and pegasi…”
“Well, I guess so.” he plopped the empty glass down on the cloud counter and gave Raptor a smug grin. “What’cha be havin’, Human?”

“Well…I guess I’ll get some pancakes and a glass of chocolate milk.”
“Comin’ right up” Sky Joe disappeared into the back through some double doors. Raptor took the opportunity to break Scootaloo and Orion from their gaze into one another’s eyes.
“Hey you two…” he said.
“Yeah?” Orion asked as he spun around on his stool.
“Why didn’t y’all tell me about Humans being here before?”
“We didn’t think it was important.” Scootaloo said as she leaned over the counter.
“I guess it isn’t really…but at least now I have one less question for Celestia when I get back to Canterlot.”

“Questions?” Joe asked as he walked out from the back with cartons of milk on his back being held by his wings. He turned next to the counter and used his wings to place the two little cartons there. He then used his snout to bite a hole in the tops. After spitting out the cardboard he then dumped the contents of each container into the cup in front of Raptor. He smiled at the familiar drink set in front of him.
“Yeah, I’ve been wondering a lot of things. Like, for instance, how is it we all speak the same language?” he reached down to his now full cup and took a good swallow of cold milk. He sat the half full drink back on the counter and wiped away the remnants off his mustache.

“That’s a really good question, Human.” said a voice from behind him.
“Now Velocity, what’d I say ’bout you an’ yer coppers bein’ in my diner. You scare away all meh business when yer here.” Joe said in a gruff at the pegasus behind Raptor.
“Don’t you worry, Sky Joe, we’ll be out of your way a soon as we take this Human in for some questions.”
“Anything you wanna ask me you can do it right here.” Raptor snorted without turning around.

The pegasus grabbed the Human by the shoulder and spun him around on the stool. Raptor was now face to face with a tall dark hared pony. His coat was a deep orange and he possessed a Cutie Mark in the form of three stars arched over two crossed swords.
“I’m Velocity, new Chancellor to Canterlot. I was the captain of the police force here, but I got promoted.”
“Congradu-freaking-lations…why the hell should I care?” Raptor asked with a flat, uncaring expression.
“Well, because I can still lock you up, for whatever the fuck I want.”
“Velocity, get out of my restaurant if yer gonna be usin’ dat kinda language.”
“Shut it gramps.” Velocity sneered and then returned his attention to his Human adversary. “Come with us, you’re not allowed into the Coliseum.” Velocity took a step back, allowing two white pegasi in golden armor step forward. Their armor resembled Celestia’s guardsmen, but a different crest resided on their chests. It was of three towers behind a cloud with wings on each side. A lighting bolt came from the bottom of the cloud and a large circle resided behind the whole emblem.
“What makes you think I’m going to the coliseum?” Raptor asked.
“Your with two students from the flight academy. It doesn‘t take a genius to figure out where your going. Now, don‘t move, I wouldn’t try anything if I were you.” Velocity said through a grin.

Raptor lowered his head, and closed his eyes. Using his spirit energy he sent out subtle pulses to try and identify his surroundings. In a short moment he noticed that all three pegasi barred him from the door. To his right, and their lefts was the rest of the diner, with at least a couple dozen civilians lounging in booths or at tables. He opened his eyes, he was ready.

“I’d recommend moving. Celestia ordered me to not kill any of you, and I‘d like to obey those orders.” Raptor said in a flat, careless tone. Orion and Scootaloo were completely enthralled in this event unfolding in front of them, neither were able to breath with the tension in the air mounting.
“You’re coming with us, Human.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Fine.” Velocity turned to step outside. He stopped at the door and looked back over his shoulder at them. “Take him.” he ordered.

Before anyone could breath another breath, Raptor slowed his perception of time. With his hunger, this was a very difficult task. Everything around him slowed as the two pegasi in front of him just barely were able to move into a step forward. In one quick movement he pulled both swords from their hilts and dashed in between the two guards. He folded his arms to where the swords were pointing out opposite sides perpendicular to him. He then jabbed outward, sliding both blades hilt deep just behind the two stallions fore legs. This was, if you were a hunter, the spot you would fire your arrow at should you be hunting wild game with a bow. Raptor figured this would also be the money shot on ponies.

With the blades still buried in the chests of both guards he released his hold on his perception. To all the bystanders in the room, Raptor had became a blur of movement that in one solid motion was between the two pegasi. The little momentum they had built carried them behind Raptor as he released his swords so that the two equines could slam into the cloud floor, lifeless. Loud gasps were heard as Velocity stood staring at the bloody scene in shock. Raptor was breathing heavily as it took most of his spirit energy reserves to not only “scan” the room, but to slow “time”.

He leaned forward, propping himself up on his knees, taking in deep breaths as sweat began to bead on his forehead. Velocity turned to face the Human and slowly backed away. Raptor went to reach for his swords but they weren’t where they were supposed to be. The two pegasi guards were beginning to sink through the cloud floor. Apparently it would seem whatever magic binds the pegasi to the weather, dies with them. Quickly he lunged backwards to catch the last parts of the swords just before they fell through the cloud floor. They slid out of the sides of the dead bodies and he was able to pull them from falling a couple thousand meters to the planet surface. He swished the two blades through the air, flinging blood onto the floor nearby. After ensuring they were clean enough, he slid them into their sheaths. A humming could be heard as the two sheaths for his swords came to life, cleaning the blades where they sat.

Raptor looked at the exit to see Velocity no longer there. Instead two more silhouettes approached. He could only imagine more resistance. He balled up his fists, putting his right up near his head and his left across in front of him in a position to block any incoming attacks.
“Sky Joe, you got those pancakes?” Raptor said, sweat running down his face.
“Uh…yeh…why?” the pegasus responded confused.
“I’m gonna need’em to go please.”
“Of course, lemme get’em wrapped up fer yah” he disappeared into the back again.

Raptor panted in anticipation as the two shadows on the door just stayed there. They seemed to be looking at one another and fidgeting, almost as if the two ponies didn’t want to enter. He chanced a look at Scootaloo and Orion. Both of them were just sitting there, barely breathing, their eyes wide with surprise at the scene unfolding in front of them. Maybe they had forgotten he was a killer. It is his job, to kill. The doors opening behind Raptor made him jump as Sky Joe came back with a bag full of pancakes. Raptor stepped back, still facing the entryway, and grabbed the bag. Using his spirit energy he opened his backpack’s zipper and then reached over his shoulder to slip them inside. He closed his pack and then returned to his ready position.

“JUST GET THE FUCK IN THERE!” Velocity’s voice could easily be heard. The two pegasi slowly opened the door and one began to step in. Raptor looked at his two companions.
“I’ll see y’all at the stadium. Don’t worry, I’ll be watching.” the two young pegasi nodded, indicating they understood his statement. He grinned and looked at the Pegasus that now had his head poking inside. He was looking nervously at the Human. Raptor grinned menacingly and then dashed at the door. He didn’t use any spirit energy, all he used was his own physical stamina. He slammed shoulder first into the two way door, discharging the pegasus there out into the street. The impact made Raptor spin in mid air and he had to correct. The mid air twist made him land down on one knee just a few meters from the pegasus he had thrown.

He looked up to see Velocity standing in the middle of the street, two pegasus ponies hovering near him. The other pony that had been at the door charged Raptor from behind. He heard the snorting of the incoming pony and spun around to face him. The pegasus lifted up and reared back a fore hoof to bring it onto a punch. Raptor moved from his knee-down position to right under the incoming pegasus, dodging the attack. As the pegasus passed by, Raptor balled up a fist and slammed it repeatedly into the Pony’s chest, each slam accompanied by a spirit energy impact. The pegasus’s back arced up further with each hit. After the third punch, Raptor ducked the remainder of the pegasus’s body and watched him slam into the clouds, coughing up blood. Raptor stood, his breathing erratic. His constant use of spirit energy was depleting what little energy he had left in general. The warmth form the pancakes in his backpack was beginning to seep through and it made his stomach rumble.

Raptor needed a moment to recuperate, and began to assess the situation he was in. There were at least three ponies left for him to fight, Velocity and his two guards. However, there was no way he could even think of hurting them without spirit energy and he didn’t want to resort to his gun. On the other had his gun could possibly be a decent deterrent so he reached over his shoulder and pulled the weapon from his back. Shouldering the rifle he did his best to steady the G36 to get a clear shot on Velocity. The pony had no idea what Raptor had, but he was sure it was harmful.

Raptor just stood there, not saying anything, his body swaying with each breath as he tried to rest a little bit and regain some spirit energy. He dared a glance down the road and saw the coliseum. It was a straight run to it. Looking back at Velocity, he put the gun away and grinned. With that, he broke into a flat sprint, again not using spirit energy to enhance his movements. The two guards around the orange equine went to follow, but he stopped them, raising a hoof up.
“Let him run, it’s not like he can fly, and we know where he’s going.” he said in a stern tone. He glanced up at one of the gold plated ponies. “Follow him, and alert second squad to his position as soon as he reaches the edge. I need to go to Canterlot to make sure Celestia hears the real reason that fucker died.” The guard nodded and began to fly after the Human. Velocity opened his wings and lifted off. He looked at the two ponies that Raptor had knocked unconscious with great malice. “Damn you Celestia for bringing him here” he mumbled as he flew away.

Raptor ran as fast as he could. His breathing became heavy, as did the backpack. It bouncing side to side with his strides started making it hard for him to keep his balance with each step. Every time the backpack switched sides he had to compensate in order to not face plant into the cloud surface. His legs burned as he looked up to see how much further he had to run and could see the desired building approaching quickly. He glanced over his shoulder and saw only the one pegasus trailing him. When he looked forward again he had to jump over a pegasus that had hit the clouds thinking he was going to be run over by the Human. He landed, stumbled and rolled.

Once Raptor stopped moving he found himself at the edge of the clouds. He looked over the edge to see the ground many, many meters below. He looked up to see there being a large gap between the city proper and the coliseum. The pegasus that had been following him landed nearby. “You can’t run anymore, Human.” he spat. Raptor sat up, looking the pony in the eyes.
“No, but I sure as hell can jump.” he hopped up onto his feet and looked at the pegasus that was slowly walking to him. Raptor looked at the gap, then back into the city, ignoring the distracting pony soldier. He breathed out, then back in as a plan formulated in his mind. Twisting his shoulder, he felt the weight of the backpack. It had to go, but he needed it too. He looked back at the gap and slid the backpack off, leaving only the swords strapped around his shoulders. He reeled back and launched the backpack across the expanse. He watched it, mathematical assumptions running through his mind. Noticing that it’s arc was to short, he let out a small burst of spirit energy from his palm. The blast struck the backpack, making it bounce and land on the other side. It rolled to a stop, after throwing his rifle a ways from it. He slipped off the swords and tossed them as well, but harder. He watched as they landed safely on the other side. The pegasus scoffed at his actions.

“Are you stupid? What are you going to do now that you’re defenseless?” the pegasus laughed.
“Never assume your opponent is defenseless” Raptor said through a few huffs. The pegasus grinned and then lowered his head. He stamped the ground, indicating a charge. Raptor readied himself, holding out his arms like a baseball catcher.

“Don’t” Raptor warned. The stubborn soldier didn’t listen as he galloped straight for him. Raptor shook his head as he crouched low, getting eye level with the pony. Just as the pegasus reached Raptor, he opened his wings and lifted up, allowing his fore hooves to be free to attack. He swung and Raptor ducked. He then reached up and grabbed the pony‘s rear leg and pulled. Instead of being jerked downward the pegasus hauled Raptor up, countering with the heavy flapping of his wings. This lifted Raptor out over the expanse, with only his grip on the pegasus’s arm keeping him airborne. Raptor glanced down to see if there was a safe landing and sneered at the lack of one.

“Get the tartarus off me!” the pegasus shouted as he started shaking his arm. Raptor felt his grip slipping. He noticed that the pegasus was gliding towards the coliseum and that they were high up enough that if they fell he would land on the edge of the platform. He reared back with a balled up fist and concentrated as hard as he could. His left hand slipped, making him hurry his concentration on what he was doing. With his balled up fist he began to focus his spirit energy on his palm. A small ball formed and spread over his hand. With the energy orb completed, he stretched out his hand and blasted the pegasus in the face with it. The attack shot the pony’s head backwards with a loud snap as the force of the blast separated his skull from his neck.

This was not what Raptor had intended to do. He was just trying to knock the equine out. The now limp body closed up as the air forced the limp limbs into a small ball. He rolled over and began to fall. Raptor’s momentum arced separately from the corpse as he tried to extend himself out at the platform. With his arms stretch out as far as they could go all he could do now was watch and see the platform go past him or for him to beable to latch to something. He closed his eyes, not wanting to know the answer. His hands were open palmed as they slammed into the cloud surface. Raptor’s mind went into action as he closed his fingers into the clouds. The sudden stop at his wrists brought him into the clouds, hard. He bounced off them and his fingers almost slipped out, but he managed to keep clawed in as he kept sliding down. He stuck his bare feet into the cloud wall hoping to stop faster, but they soon slipped out as he went past the bottom.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me, there’s no way I made the gap just to slip off anyway!” Raptor yelled in his head. He just closed his eyes, awaiting the inevitable. As his face slipped past the edge of the clouds he felt his momentum slow, and then stop. He opened his eyes to see his arms at his elbows still above the clouds. For a moment he sighed in relief. However, his hands were beginning to fatigue as they were the only thing supporting his 160 pounds. He tried to pull up, but his arms didn’t have the strength to haul him upwards. He looked out across the bottom of the platform pondering what to do. He obviously had been given another chance to make it out of this predicament alive.

He looked down to see the pegasus’s corpse falling back first towards the ground still. Its wings folded upward as the wind pushed them around him. Raptor returned his gaze at the platform’s underside, planning anything out. He thought up something and figured it was the only thing he could go on. He slung his legs backwards, making his entire body hinge on his fingers. He grimaced as they tried to pull out of the clouds, but he wasn’t about to let go. His body swung forward, sending his legs upwards towards the underside of the platform. With all his might he smashed his toes into the clouds and pushed. At the same time he pulled with his arms and managed to drag himself upwards a little bit.

Using his knee pressed against the wall’s surface as leverage, he picked his free leg up and dug his toes into the cloud wall. He then pulled himself completely up, both feet and hands clinging to the wall. There he sat, leaning against the wall with his entire body, breathing heavily as he tried to catch his breath. His fingers hurt, so he pulled them from the wall and just leaned there, regaining any strength he could.

With a chanced look up, he saw that it was about ten meters of an upward climb to get back to the surface. He drove his fingers back into the clouds and began to climb now that he felt better. Each step upwards was a feat in itself, but he had to keep pushing. If he stopped his fingers would give out and he would plummet to certain death. Half way up he stopped to take catch his breath, but he heard voices from over the top of the platform that indicated to him, or at least made him worry, that there was a pony or two messing with his stuff. This caused him to hastily climb the remainder of the wall and peek his head over. Upon viewing his backpack he saw a grey pegasus with a yellow mane mulling over his stuff. She spoke to an armored pony behind her. Raptor quickly noticed her eyes weren’t aligned.

“C’mon Ditzy Doo, leave that Human’s stuff alone. Velocity will want to take a look at it.” he snorted at her curiosity.
“I dunno Commander…what if he survived dah fall?” she responded as she looked at the camo covered pack.
“I doubt it, that’s a good few thousand meters to the ground.” his statement didn’t break her curiosity, making him sigh in irritation. “DERPY!” this caught her attention as she turned to glare at him. “Let’s go, the test is about to start and I don’t want to miss it.”
“Ugh, fine.” she walked away, joining the stallion as they meandered to the coliseum.

Raptor took this opportunity to pull himself up onto the platform and roll over onto his back. There he held his hands in front of him to see the damage. They were red, and swollen, but he could still move them. With that he stood and jogged to his backpack. He grabbed it by the handle on top and searched for his swords. They were a few meters closer to the building. He grabbed them and threw them onto his back, followed by the backpack. He looked around for his gun, but the fluffy clouds made finding it seem almost impossible. He remembered watching where it had landed and began to search around there. Moments later he found it partially covered by some mist. He reached down and slung it over his back, letting it come to rest on the backpack again.

Now that he was geared back up, Raptor went to move towards the massive structure when he noticed that there were guards at each entrance. He knelt down to make sure they didn’t spot him. He watched as a pegasus mother hugged her daughter and then went inside. The daughter flew to the other side and joined the other foals there. Raptor looked at the building and determined that it would be easy to climb it the same way as he did the outer rim of the platform. Belly crawling to the wall, he poked his head up out of the mist to ensure neither of the guards had spotted him. Confident his presence was still secret, he began to climb the wall. He hugged close to it in an attempt to keep the Ponies from seeing him. Half way up his hands began to ach again. He stopped for a moment to try and relive the pain in his fingers, but a loud horn began to blow, indicating the start of the test. With that Raptor forewent any pains and began climbing as fast as he could.

Section 7: Into the Rainbow Factory

Dr. Atmosphere breathed in deep the fresh air. It had been many years since he had stepped outside the musty corridors of the factory. There was an urgent desire in his chest to watch today‘s test. He sat atop the highest wall of the great coliseum, staying out of obvious sight from any onlooker. He didn’t want to be seen, but he wanted to see it all.

His plans depended on today going without a hitch. He looked to his right, an orange pegasus with a messed up jaw sat beside him, looking over the whole area too. “Is she among them?” Hide Atmosphere asked.
“I be’ ive s’ ‘ir.” he responded in a guttural slur. Pipe Wrench had been struck across the jaw so long ago that neither pony present knew him any different.
“Good. I’ve waited ten years for today. I hope everything plays out as I had planned. Is Contrail below the coliseum?” Hide searched the floor of the massive arena, using his imagination to see through it’s white puffy floor.
“H’s in pl’e ssss’r.” Pipe muttered. A loud and defining horn blew, announcing the beginning of the testing. Hide moved uneasy, his excitement growing.
“Good, everything is going the way it should.”

A cold breeze blew up Raptor’s back as he clung to the wall of the coliseum. He held his head just over the top where he could see the arena. The area was littered with two obvious obstacles, a large amount of cloud cover over the top of the arena and clouds in the shape of rings. The ring clouds led in a trail of serpentine and descending trek. Another blast of cold air rushed up Raptor’s spin. He couldn’t take it any more. With one heave he pulled himself over the wall and onto the top of the bleachers. He knelt down low and began to crouch walk along the wall behind all the ponies in front of him.

The grand stands reaching around the arena were filled almost to the max with on looking ponies, all eager to watch the test begin. Raptor used their heads to attempt at not being seen as he made his way to a nearby pillar. The pillar obstructed his movement any further without descending the stairs, and he wasn’t going to do that. Deciding this was a good place to stop, Raptor leaned against the pillar and quietly took off his backpack. Placing it on the ground he dug through it to find the surprisingly still warm pancakes. He pulled them out from the bag inside as quietly as he could, as to not alert the ponies sitting mere meters from him. He stood, pancake in hand, and looked out across the arena. “Not the best kind of meal for watching an event, but better than nothing.” he thought as he hungrily devoured the sweet food.

Without warning a loud yell was heard giving orders. Still chewing, Raptor looked around the pillar to a landing platform at the other end of the arena. There stood about twelve testers, all ready to take their test. Orion and Scootaloo stood next to one another, both leaned in towards one another talking. On the launch ramp stood a yellow filly with a green mane and tail. “Clear, Fly, Fall, Complete!” yelled the nearby instructor. With a flash the yellow pegasus drove upwards into the cloud cover and began bucking with great ferocity. Each buck disintegrated another patch of hovering mist. Raptor huffed, impressed. Never did he imagine he’d watch horses break clouds. She twirled into a duo of cloud formations punching and bucking, simultaneously removing the clouds from existence. Within moments the clouds were completely scattered, leaving a huffing yellow pegasus in the middle of the arena. A few flaps of her wings and a few breaths later, she was ready to move on.

A quick dive served as a way to build momentum and enter the rings. Left ,right, down a little, up some, right, left, down once more, and then up! She made it all the way through with no problems. Raptor scoured the field looking for what else she could do; after all, all the pegasi around him were still quiet, adamantly watching the performance. He watched her chest swell as she took in a deep breath and then lifted upwards, skyrocketing towards the upper echelon of the arena. Once she became level with the top portions of the grand stands, her wings folded inwards, hugging tight to her body. Like a bullet shot straight up, her momentum carried her upwards for only a few more seconds until gravity finally took effect and drug her back down. “What is she doing?” Raptor thought, watching curiously as her form fell with out hindrance. As she approached the cloud floor, her wings flew open and cupped, slowing her momentum.

Snap! A scream. Blood. The wings of the yellow filly folded upwards, unnaturally hinging at the nearest bone to her body. Her flesh tore, exposing muscle and releasing red fluid that flew upwards as she plummeted into the cloud floor. Puffs of white and red lifted up into the sky, just to be carried off by the slow breeze. “Dusk Flitter! Clear, Fly, Fall, Complete!” the instructor shouted, not even looking at the filly crumpled on the coliseum floor.
“T-there not helping her!?” Raptor’s mind shouted. He wanted to speak the words, but knew that if he did, the ponies in front of him would catch him. Leaning against the pillar, he stood up onto the tips of his toes to see her, moving slightly. The next trainee lifted up, cleared the sky, flew through the hoops, and successfully saved themselves from falling into the clouds below. The crowd cheered and Raptor noticed three important looking ponies raising their hooves. After the crowd had settled down, Raptor took notice that the yellow pegasus was still where she had fallen, attempting to stand.

Another trainee passed the test, and another, and then another. The line grew short as Orion and Scootaloo waited for their names. Raptor was now focused on both of them. Scootaloo kept her eyes upwards, away from the fallen foal who now was limping her way to the west gate. Orion however, he seemed to be staring at her, his eyes unwavering. Unsure hatred donned his face as his name was called. With great intent, the only human in the crowed watched as Orion argued with the instructor for a moment and then reluctantly climbed on the launch ramp. After the judges nodded, he lifted up, and then down. Without even going towards the waiting cloud cover he flew over to the yellow pony and helped her to all fours. Raptor looked at the judges and all of them held their hooves down. Without a second hesitation, the instructor called Scootaloo’s name.

She stood there, tense, her muscles moving as fast as a square rock on a flat plain. Her eyes buried deep into Orion’s form. The instructor shouted her name, and with great effort, she moved forward. Raptor stared at the two foals walking together along the base of the arena floor. “They…failed him? For helping her? What kind of place is this? I’ve not seen any horrible treatment like this any where else in Equestria. No wonder Celestia sent me.” Raptor’s thoughts echoed in his mind,. He was unsure of what to think of what he was witnessing. The kindness he had been shown by Twilight, the Apples, especially Fluttershy, in no way compared to the maltreatment of this magnitude. Scootaloo bounding high into the air caught Raptor’s attention as she dove headlong into the clouds that had now been reset for her test. She bucked, twisted, punched and even made a small tornado to remove the cloud cover effectively. As far as Raptor could tell, she had been the fastest all morning. As she pushed upwards through the last cloud formation she didn’t even stop to catch her breath, she swung around with a great deal of speed and flew perfectly through the first hoop. Then the second, and the third. As she approached the lowest lying ring, it was easily noticeable that her vision had glanced over to Orion and the other filly. Also, something moved.

Raptor looked intently at the ring Scootaloo was heading for. Her head was twisted towards the two failures, so she didn’t notice that the ring in front of her moved upwards almost a whole two meters. “What the hell?” erupted in Raptor’s mind. “It moved!? The ring MOVED!? Did someone set her up!?” his head twisted around the stadium, searching for any pony that may have also seen the ring move, but no one reacted. Scootaloo slammed into the lower part of the ring and tumbled backwards, crashing back first into the cloud floor. Without hesitation she hopped up and lifted back into the sky, attempting to show she was still capable of flight, but it was pointless. All three judges lowered their hooves, and looked back at the landing zone for the next trainee.

Her vision blurred, both because of the pain in her chest from hitting the ring at such high speed, and also from the feeling of dread. Scootaloo looked at the careless judges, hoping that they would turn their attention back to her, to free her from her fate. They never looked back, they newer cared. Their cold care-free expressions fixated on the next pony waiting on the course to be reset. She lowered her head in defeat and joined Orion and the yellow pony. She tossed a wing over her and helped support her. Raptor watched closely as the ring that had been moved slowly returned back to where it had been. “Someone’s set her up.” he muttered to himself. He watched the sad trio until they went out of view below the heads of the crowd.

The west gate was nothing more than a long tunnel that went straight to the outside of the arena, just near where Raptor had climbed up. After losing sight of them, he shimmied close to the wall until he reached the point that he determined would be over the west gate. He peered over the railing down the straight drop to see a shoddy wooden carriage. He hopped over the edge and dug his toes into the wall. Without hesitation he slipped his fingers into the wall and slowly let his toes slide out of the clouds a little. Like a mud wall, he began to slide down it. He turned to where only one hand was in the wall and held a free hand out in order to catch himself as soon as he reached the carriage. Before he got to it he realized there were two ponies hitched to it, keeping watch on the area around it.

Raptor stopped sliding just as he reached the door frame next to the carriage and he could hear talking inside. “Aurora’s wings…their broken” he heard Scootaloo say.
“Ah well, ain’t that just a’h shame? What’s it tuh us? Better to not have ‘er come flyin‘ back.” a guard spoke.
“We may have failed the fucking test but we’re still worth keeping alive!” rage was clearly present in Scootaloo’s voice.

Raptor felt sorry for her. He had seen how much she had wanted to pass the test, to impress Rainbow Dash, her sister. Raptor now found himself in a unique position.
“Hey Patches. Doct’ ’er up, a’h don’t want blood ohn dis d’ing. A’h just washed ‘er ‘esterday.” the same guard said. “An’ you two, on d’ah cart!” a few seconds passed and the cart shook from what Raptor could only imagine was Scootaloo and Orion climbing aboard. After a few noises of medical tape stretching, followed by some whimpers passed, the cart shook once more as Aurora climbed aboard with one of the guards. A knock was heard from inside the carriage as the door slid shut, causing the two ponies up front to open their wings and begin to take off. With that Raptor carefully climbed on top of the carriage and splayed his limbs across, in all hopes of hanging on. He hoped and preyed the pegasi up front wouldn’t notice his weight.

Raptor looked through a crack in the top of the carriage and could see Scootaloo and Aurora sitting close as Orion seemed to have secluded himself from the rest of them. Raptor could make out a few whispers, indicating that the two fillies were talking, but nothing other than that. Not until Orion spoke up was anything audible over the gale-like winds. “Maybe that’s why nopony ever comes back, they just don’t like Cloudsdale.” he said, sincere in his statement.
“You little bastards don’t even deserve to call yourselves ‘pegasus’. You fuckers couldn’t even pass your Celestia damned test!” the onboard guard mocked.
“Who the TARTARUS are you to talk to us like that!?” shouted Scootaloo back. “You have no right in Tartarus to treat others like that!” shuffling could be heard as Raptor watched Scootaloo dive for the guard at the opposite end of the carriage. With a simple swing of his hoof he smacked Scootaloo out of the air and she spun to the carriage floor; her impact making the cart jump a little.
“I can treat you little bitch however the fuck I want. After all, you hardly count as ‘ponies’ anymore. Not sit the FUCK DOWN and shut up till you get to where you’re going.” Scootaloo stood from her fallen position and limped back over to her seat next to Aurora.
“And where is that exactly? It’s not like we can tell anypony, and as the delivery boys I’m sure you know where it is.” Scootaloo said through rubbing her sore cheek.
“Heh, fuck if I know. We’ll be handing you guys over to some pegasi in suits and get a bag full of bits. That’s how it’s been for a thousand years, and that‘s all I give a fuck about.”

There was perpetual silence, except for the wind blowing around the carriage. The cold wind had nearly frozen Raptor to the cart’s roof top. He was beginning to shiver uncontrollably as his body temperature lowered. He wanted to curl up in a ball to warm himself, but that would require letting go of the edges of the roof, and then go flying off the next time they hit a patch of turbulence. This carried on for hours. Raptor found his mind falling into a numb rotation as he began using spirit energy to try and warm his fingers. They were nearly numb and at times wanted to let go of the cart. With a cascading flow of energy over them he could feel the blood returning and feeling was coming back. How long could he keep it up? If there was a fight at the end of this trip he would probably need as much strength as he could get. So it came down to rotating his spirit energy between hands and in intervals of whenever one became numb, which was decreasing in time difference. And when the sun fell below the horizon staying warm was a nearly impossible thing, until they began to drop in altitude. Raptor chanced a look over the side of the cart and noticed a desert. Off in the distance sat a quant little town, but the cart dove into the mountains, veering away from the settlement.

The cart lurched sideways, almost tossing Raptor from it’s roof. He looked again and saw that they had landed and were coming to a stop. “I think I prefer flying by jet.” he muttered to himself as the cart halted, shoving him forward a bit. His fingers tightened against the wood as he tried to maintain his position in hopes of not tipping anyone off about his presence.
“Ah, this is my stop” the guard said. “You ponies play nice, and have fun in whatever Tartarus they’re sending you to.” With that he hopped out and looked at the two ponies standing there. One was clearly a mare, but she was wearing a black cloak that covered her face, mane and body. Her tail seemed to be slick with unnatural amounts of dye. She peered into the cart checking to see who was aboard and then closed the door. Raptor watched her eyes, they seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place why they seemed so much like rose eyes he had seen before. She turned to the guard and the other pony in a suit. The cloaked mare watched him plop a bag of coins on the guard’s outstretched hoof. Satisfied, the smiling guard opened his wings and began to lift off.

Raptor cussed and slid off the side of the cart, collapsing on the dirty ground. The heated-by-the-sun sand warmed his cold appendages. Looking under the cart, he watched the hooves of the ponies shuffle around to the front of the carriage that was now vacant of any other pegasi. Two new ones landed and took position. “Take them back to Cloudsdale.” Said the male, suited pony to the two new cart pullers.
“Right-o boss” one said, making a fool-hearted laugh. Raptor rolled under the carriage and pulled himself into the underlying supports. The shoddy, foal carting box jerked and they were off again.

The cold wind wasn’t nearly as bad this time, as Raptor was able to huddle close to one of the support bars and keep himself warm that way. Every so often he would risk a glance out and could see the two ponies from the desert flying with them. From inside the carriage Raptor heard no more talking. It was almost as if the trio had given up hope. He looked at the floor panels, and pretended that he could see through them. He imagined their dissatisfied faces hung low with begrudged frowns. It sickened him. He ran the images of the test through his head a couple times more, especially since he had nothing else to do. That last ring. It moved. The thought caused Raptor to instinctually narrow his eyes in suspicion, even though he was merely looking at the underside of the floor. One of the ponies had to move it. If he learned anything about the pony sub-races in the past three days was that the weather never changed unless a pegasus was involved. Who moved it? Why did it move? Why Scootaloo? Why was SHE so important? He couldn’t stop asking the questions until he found himself in such a comfortable and warm position he drifted into a half-aware sleep.

The dream, it was different. The pool of blood was only being filled from one pony now. Orion was pouring blood from a hole in his forehead, along with his snout and mouth. Scootaloo was still curled up in a ball of pain next to him, but she wasn’t bleeding. Her eyes opened, yellow light cascading from them. She turned her head to Raptor, who was floating in the dark abyss around the gory scene. “I hate you.” she said, clearly and profoundly. The anger in her voice wracked him to his imaginary bones.
“WHY!?” Raptor yelled out, confused.
“It’s your fault!” She shouted. The light from her eyes bore down on him, blinding him.
“What is!? What’s my fault!?” he yelled back, covering his eyes with a hand.

A large thump not only woke Raptor but tossed him from the cart. He rolled on the cloud floor he had landed on and scrambled to his feet. Looking up, he quickly and efficiently broke from his weariness of just being awoken and took in where he was. They were in what he considered a landing dock. He had fallen down into the trough below, allowing him to stand and sneak up the side of the low lying area. Above was a jutting out lip of… “Metal!?” Raptor gasped. “That’s made of metal?” he looked at the cloud surface he was crawling up and then started pushing it aside. He didn’t go down but maybe half a meter before he ran into a dark grey metal surface. “That’s impossible.” Voices echoed from the cart, causing him to jump into action and climb the rest of the way out of the trough. Upon reaching the top he darted for a pipe that was just far enough away from the wall he could hide behind it. He glanced around the corner and saw a few suited ponies, all wearing masks, standing around the now open door of the cart. A large red pony, with white hair, wearing a lab coat that covered his cutie mark, stepped to the group. Without hesitation or question they made room for him to walk into the center of the half circle and look down on the foals presented to him. With a malicious grin he spoke,
“Welcome, mules”

Section 8: The Belly of the Beast

“You stupid failures are probably wondering where you are, huh?” the red stallion said, grinning maliciously at Scootaloo particularly. After a few moments of an awkward silence, his vision then danced to the other two. “You’re in Cloudsdale!” he exclaimed happily as he turned and took a step away from the carriage. “Allow me to…show you around.” he began to walk forward, but none of the three foals moved, either from fear or defiance, Raptor couldn’t tell which. The red stallion sighed, and made a motion with his hoof. One of the guards hit Orion across the head with a cattle prod, making sure the electricity was active upon impact. A low zapping noise was heard, followed by a yelp from the teenage colt. Scootaloo and Aurora gasped at the attack and leapt into motion, following the red pony.
“If you expect us to be slaves-” Scootaloo started, defiance clear in her tone.
“Slaves?” the red pony interrupted, a small chuckle in his tone. “No, no worries about that. Besides, if you were going to refuse…well, you don’t have much of a choice do you?” he faced them and then motioned to all the guards standing around, each holding an electrified cattle prod. “Oh and my apologies, where are my manners. I’m Dr. Atmosphere. Don’t worry about my degree, it’s in engineering, not biology or some other revolting medical field. I know how some of you failures can be.” the three degenerates just stared coldly at him, caring very little for what he was saying. He rolled his eyes and turned back towards the factory.

Raptor looked at the pipe he was standing next to and noticed a ladder leading up to the top of it. “Why do flying horses need ladders?” he thought to himself as he examined the structure’s security. After verifying it would hold up his weight, he pushed all questions to the back of his mind and climbed up the piping. Upon reaching the top of the ladder he saw a catwalk ran the expanse of the entire room, allowing anyone to just walk above the commotion of ponies flurrying about below. He looked left, then right, making sure there was no one capable of seeing him. With the coast clear, he pulled himself up onto the catwalk and peered over it’s edge till he found Scootaloo and her companions. They were slowly following Atmosphere as he described the room, gleefully. Careful to not make to much noise, Raptor walked above them, pulling out his G36 to ensure the safety of at least Scootaloo and Orion. He shouldered the rifle and aimed it at Atmosphere, looking through it’s two times zoom ACOG scope. After a second of aiming, he found himself cussing his decision to throw his backpack when he was at the coliseum. The scope was turned a little, throwing off the aim.

“You three may have noticed the metal walls lining this facility and may be wondering how it is that metal is here in these clouds.” Atmosphere said, stopping the precession in the middle of the massive expanse. “You see, just over one thousand years ago one of the ponies that was helping design this facility knew that pegasi breaking into this secret area was going to be a problem, with all of them being able to move clouds and such. So, he took some ebony steel, melted it down, and had unicorns enchant the melted ore with their magic.. The spell used created a magical metal that is not only lighter than our feathers, but is capable of resting on these clouds in the same manner as us.” Atmosphere beamed with pride as he talked; either unaware, or uncaring that all three foals held a look of a thousand daggers.

“Now….all three of you have had the tour of our lower facility right?” his eyes danced across all three faces that were slowly and unsurely nodding. “Good good, now who can tell me where that particular tour starts?”
“Where the spectra comes from upstairs and is mixed…” Orion spoke up, his voice raspy from the lack of water and his adrenalin peaked.
“Hmm, to bad you’re so worthless, you would have been such a smart one.” Atmosphere said, letting a hoof carelessly clop down onto the knot forming on the brown colt’s head. Orion moved his head hurriedly from Atmosphere’s hoof and glared at him while rubbing the sore spot there. The red stallion just made a sadistic grin and turned back into the facility. “Now, we’re in the Upper Facility, so please stay close to me, or you’ll be …encouraged to do so.” he gave a subtle nod to the guards following them. Three from the group leaned in and pressed the electrically charged tips of their batons to the foals flanks, causing each of them to lose control of themselves until they were heaps on the cloud floor. Atmosphere let out a low chuckle that grew into a small laugh as the three degenerates picked themselves off the floor, one leaving a pool of yellow clouds.

Raptor tightened his hand around the pistol grip of his rifle, his knuckles becoming white. The torture he witnessed, while small, was beyond anything he considered humane. He reserved himself to just simply keep himself hidden. While he knew he had the element of surprise, and could end this at any time, he had to find out what this place was so that he could tell Celestia. He lowered the rifle to a more comfortable position and continued to follow the black parade as it continued deeper into the large cavernous room.

“Be careful in here, as there are many things in which could harm you…or…worse.” he made a small malicious smile over his shoulder at his three young followers. “And we don’t want that. After all, you’re hopeless as it is, anymore so and even we couldn’t use you.” he continued to walk and talk, describing the use of this pipe, the use for that hose. Only stopping every so often to describe a workstation’s purpose. Every time he stopped to show them a pony, the expression on that particular pony seemed a bit more frantic than the last. A little more of their mind seemed to be missing. Maybe it was because they were closer to the screams?

Raptor’s luck seemed to drawing to a close. The closer to the other side of the room they got, the less catwalk he had. The catwalk ended a good four or five meters from the wall, and worse still, there was a pony standing there, looking down into the room. If Raptor hadn’t looked up when he had, he might have alerted the guard to his presence. Looking behind him, he saw a series of pipes that ran perpendicular to the catwalk’s walkway in the sense of forming a wall, allowing for a good hiding place, especially since there were pipes on the other side that were parallel to the catwalk. Not wanting to risk anything, the sneaking human ducked into the piping, praying that it would hold his weight and not make any noise. Other than drooping under him, the pipes made no other complaints. He sighed and began following them, no longer capable of seeing his friends.

As he crept down the not-so-regular walkway, he found that the piping abruptly turned a ninety degrees and ended into the wall. He sighed and poked his head out from the piping to see the guard right in front of him. “Well that way isn’t going to work.” he thought as he tried to peer over the railing in attempts at seeing his friends. Catching sight of Aurora, he watched as Atmosphere corralled them into a large metal door, that once the yellow filly had passed through, slammed shut, leaving only Atmosphere to turn and walk away.

Looking up, Raptor took noticed that the metal ceiling was formed into panels that hung in place like the cardboard ceilings he knew from Earth. He leaned back behind the pipe-like wall and pushed up on the panel just above him. A sense of relief swept over him that it even moved. He put his rifle back onto his back and carefully climbed up into the ceiling, using the piping as a makeshift ladder.

The area was dark, and not very well lit, the only light capable of being seen was filtering through the thunder clouds just above Raptor’s head. Careful not to touch one, he crawled in the presumed direction that the door Scootaloo and the other two had passed through was in. Upon reaching the spot he figured was above the doorway, he pushed aside the panel to find a dimly lit hallway. Confused he dropped his head down into it to attempt at getting some sort of bearings. The hallway was void of any ponies, and was just a straight shot in the direction he was facing. He sat up and scratched his head. Looking back Raptor spotted the panel he had climbed up in by seeing a light a good distance away. “Did I crawl to far?” he pondered as he dropped his head in again. This time he looked the other way and saw a security door there. He dropped into the hallway feet first, making sure to fall into a crouching position to lessen the noise from his decent. Once he was sure that no one had heard his subtle drop in altitude, he pulled out his rifle again and aimed it down the hallway. Very carefully and quietly he walked backwards, glancing over his shoulder occasionally to see how far away the door was. Once his back touched the cold metal surface he leaned against it in a ready position should anyone walk through.

He analyzed the door. It was a regular steel looking door. Nothing particular about it, except for the annoying fact that it was a sliding door. If he pushed the button on the wall to open it he was sure whoever on the other side would be alerted to his presence by the noise of the door opening. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He knew that whatever room his friends had been lead into was on the others side of this door, and he also knew that he couldn’t remain hidden forever. Propping himself in a breach position next to the switch, he readied his hand over it. Holding his rifle tight to his shoulder with his left hand, he smashed the door switch and quickly raised his rifle around the corner, ready to stop anything that may try to attack him.

Instead of another room with ponies, he was greeted by a vacant catwalk that couldn’t be any longer than maybe twenty or so meters to the door on the other side of the expanse it bridged. Surprised, he lowered his rifle and stepped out onto the catwalk. Looking around, he noted that the entire room was made of metal, not a single cloud to be seen.

The deafening noise of chattering and conversation broke his concentration. He looked down through the porous metal grating and saw hordes of ponies below, none any older than Scootaloo or Orion. His eyes widened and he moved quickly to the railing to get a better view. Directly below the catwalk sat a stage that loomed over the ponies who seemed to be down in a pit of some sort. Behind the stage sat six monolithic vats that lead up to manifold higher up than Raptor was standing. He looked at the monstrosity, greatly curious. “Now what does THAT do?” he questioned in his mind.

A door below slid open and then shut, causing Raptor to strain to see who it was and the foals in the pit became silent. There was no way he could see the stage from this angle very well. Scouring the room, he looked for a silent way down to the floor. As he searched the part of the room that was level with him, however, he spotted an outcropping that seemed to have some ragged cloth on it. It wasn’t but a couple meters away, he could make the jump. He stepped up onto the railing and pushed off in one motion, propelling his body out over the expanse. He rolled in mid air, allowing his feet to make contact first. The only problem was, he had given himself to much momentum and he landed on the bedding. It’s friction with the metal surface was no where near enough to stop his forward motion as it slipped from under his feet, making him land back first and slide to the massive wall.

For a moment he was certain he had been caught; he had exposed himself to the ponies below. However, when he opened his eyes, he was relived to see that no pony was standing there ready to try and take him away. He flipped over onto his stomach and crawled to the edge of the outcropping, where he peered over to get a look at the stage.

Commander Velocity landed on the balcony outside the princess’ throne room. The very same balcony Celestia had shown Raptor all of the visible regions of Equestria from. He shook his wings closed, making sure every feather was in place and not out of order. He shook his mane, attempting at getting the mess out of it made by the wind from his flight. He made a smug grin and puffed up his chest.

He had everything thought out, he was going to tell the princesses that Raptor and Black had been killed by an accident at the Weather Factory. He was chancellor to Canterlot now, they would have to believe his story. Why, with him being chief of Cloudsdale’s police force prior to this promotion, why wouldn’t they believe him?

Using a wing to create a gust of wind, he opened the throne room door. His cranium held high and his trot that of royalty, he entered the room with the presence of mind that he was the most important stallion there. His crush on Celestia might have not helped with his self-centeredness. All the guards in the room looked at him, not really in awe, but at least somewhat bemused. Only Celestia and Luna were unimpressed by his awe inspiring entrance. Celestia was glad the sun wasn’t any lower, or it might have appeared as if it was highlighting his show.

“Commander Velocity, why are you here?” Luna asked, standing in order to enforce her superiority to him.
“Ah Princess Luna, it’s been to long” he said coolly as he approached the thrones. Upon reaching the base of the steps, he knelt before them. Raising back up, he did a subtle wink to Celestia. His flirtatious gesture only received a sneer. “To answer your question, my grace,” he said looking back at Princess Luna, “I am here to replace Black as chancellor to Canterlot.” This caused Celestia to stand, suspicion written on her face.

“Chancellor Velocity, may I ask what happened to Black?” Celestia asked, stepping forward. Her action indicated she was taking over the situation, which Luna simply sat back down to show her relinquish.
“He was killed in an experiment in the Weather Factory your highness.” Velocity said with a subtle, but yet noticeable malefic grin. His statement, after all, wasn’t entirely false; Black had indeed been killed in the Weather Factory.
“That’s not the entirety of his demise, Velocity.” she said, a little bit more eager than before.
“Ma’am?” he was confused by her statement. He wasn’t sure if she had caught on, or was implying that there was more behind it. Which he knew she had nothing to do with his death. Though with her curious reactions, he now knew why it was not an easy job to be chancellor.
“You are Cloudsdale’s fifth chancellor in three years. This has never happened before in almost seven hundred years. And the fact that it has now happened twice…” as she was speaking she was walking down the steps towards Velocity, a malcontent glare written across her face. This caused him to cower a little, bending to her superiority and begin to walk backwards as she drew closer. She approached faster than he could recede, and she finally got her face exceptionally close to his, anger written in her eyes. “…what are you pegasi doing in Cloudsdale?”
“W-we’re making weather ma’am. As we always have.” Velocity was embarrassed, never had he backed down to anypony before. That’s why he had become chief of police, and then chancellor. However, this was Celestia bearing down on him, his ruler! How could he combat her!?

“Just weather?” she stepped back, curious befuddlement present. Without a word, Velocity nodded.

Celestia looked out at the setting sun that was falling behind the mountains near Cloudsdale. Her vision dancing across the white puffy structures of the majestic cloud city. Then she looked at the rocky surface of the nearby mountains. Jagged and brutal. Oh how the city lingered so near immanent demise should it only be moved a few hundred meters. Her horn lit with a yellow hue, her eyes began to glow amber, and a ring of magic appeared around Velocity’s throat.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN CLOUDSDALE!? WHERE ARE THE FAILURES GOING!?” she shouted, the magic tightening around Velocities jugular, nearly cutting off his air flow. Her magic began to wrap around the frightened pegasus, entangling his wings and closing his appendages close to his body. She slowly began to lift him upwards into the air, tightening her hold.
“CLESTIA!” Luna shouted. “CELESTIA STOP!” but her shouts went unnoticed as Celestia’s rage built. Her anger began to become visible as bands of magic started to emit from her wings and hooves. The throne room began to shake as Celestia’s voce seemed as if it was echoing upon itself as she spoke,
“Tell me! What are you doing to my subjects!” she yelled, the echo resounding through the shaking building. Velocity tried to speak, but the magic around his throat dampened his voice. That being the case she pulled him in close to her, and noticed his eyes beginning to glaze over from lack of oxygen.
“Go….fuck….yo-….yourself” he spat. Celestia’s rage boiled. All of the strands of magic around his body twisted, crushing him inwards. Blood sprayed from his snout and anus, covering the floor and some of it tainted her white fur

Emotionless, with very little apparent care for what she had done, Celestia lowered Velocity’s broken corpse down into the pile of blood that had formed under him. She released it of magic and turned to her sister. Luna was standing at the top most step, her jaw agape. Never had she seen such manner of behavior from her sister. The magic glow in Celestia’s eyes remained, her teeth gritting with hatred. “You…killed him Celestia…” Luna said, a slight hush to her tone.
“I am SICK of them hiding from me what is really going on in that city!” Celestia’s hating glare jolted over to Cloudsdale. “Let’s go sister. I’m tired of waiting for Raptor to-” suddenly, just as Celestia had opened her wings. A large eruption tore through the Weather Factory of Cloudsdale.
“What was that!?” a guard yelled as he ran to the balcony. The sound wave finally reached them, and it sounded nothing like a weapon.
“That sounded like…magic…” Luna said, standing next to her sister as they both peered at the now smoking city. Celestia, her rage abruptly gone due to curiosity, looked at her sibling.
“Let us go sister.” without hesitation, Luna nodded. Both regal alicorns leapt into the air, and with a pop, were gone.

Section 9: The Pegasus Device

Raptor peered over the edge of his newly found outcropping, peering into the crowed of ponies all chattering amongst one another. All of them frightened or confused. He noticed his three friends amongst them. Amid the crowed the was a circle of no pony, except one. He…or she…laid on the metallic floor in a pile of crimson that seemed to have crept from their destroyed cranium. Their body was twisted and contorted as if they had fallen a great distance and landed on their head. With disgust Raptor shook his head from the gore and looked a the stage. It was clear of anyone. Around the edge of the room stood masked guards with tasers lopped into their belts. It confounded the Human how they had such power to kill with non-lethal weapons. He checked his G36 to ensure proper functionality. After all, he needed to be ready for anything in here.

As he tried to realign his scope, one of the guards yelled out, “Attention up front!” Raptor, with all the young flyers, looked at the stage. The guard that had shouted stood at the base of the ramp that ran down under the stage. The doors on the stage nearest Raptor opened and a few more ponies walked out, all of them dressed rather officially and nice, except one. That particular one was dressed in the familiar attire of the one masking their identity.

The light brown one of the group stepped to the center of the stage and scanned the glaring crowed. Their hatred seemed to fuel his glee. Raptor tried to figure out who this was. It wasn’t Atmosphere, it’s not Velocity, so who is it? They must not have been very important as they didn’t introduce them self to the collected failures before speaking. Raptor rationalized that no one would introduce themselves to a pile of mud.

“I can assume by now you all have realized you’re not being deported. As a matter of fact, there is no deportation. You all are here, and will stay here forever. To feed an idea imagined only by the great Commander Hurricane. You see, he gave us this idea long before Discord took over the land. And after Celestia and Luna began their reign, we started this to fuel the much desired and sought after rainbows. You, mules, have been brought into the Rainbow Factory!” he smiled with glee as he held a hoof over his head towards the device behind him. “You may be mules, but you are far from useless. Don’t listen to Atmosphere should he ever get the chance to call you that again. After all, without you all, there are no rainbows to be spread across Equestria! How exciting right?”

He scanned their faces. No one spoke. No one moved. Only silent, unending hate beamed back at him. “I know it’s so exciting it leaves me speechless as well.”
“You can’t do this!” one brave pegasus bellowed from the crowed. “Celestia and Luna would never allow such torture!”
“Torture? The masked pegasus said with a laugh. The brown pony that had been speaking receded as the masked one approached the ones below.

She was doing as she was told. That’s all that ran through her mind as she began to speak. She HAD to do this, to make sure her little sister didn’t end up here. To make sure everything was right!

“This is far from torture my little ponies. You see, Celestia was tasked with the creation of rainbow’s, but after Luna was banished to the moon over one thousand years ago…” the masked pony spoke.
“That voice sure sounds familiar.” Raptor muttered to himself. He placed the crosshair of the ACOG scope over the pony’s face in an attempt at better recognizing them. He realized their eyes were familiar too, the same rose as…

“And with having to bear the burden of day and night; she passed the creation of rainbows to us pegasi.” Atmosphere watched from the camera room. He smiled at his little slave. She was obeying him to the letter. He moved a camera to the crowed and smiled at the sight of Scootaloo.

“So at first we tried to have the unicorns help us with their magic, but the rainbows were no where near as glorious as Celestia’s. So we moved on to another attempt. We tried to bounce light through water droplets, but still Celestia’s original rainbows outshined ours. Then, one day, a scientist found a note from Commander Hurricane to a lead researcher of his time. In the note dictated a way of creating Spectra, a substance found in pony magic.” the speaker paused to see if their words had any effect on the crowed. With no interruption they continued.

“You don’t even realize how we collect this Spectra, do you?” again they paused. Still no one changed from their state of impatience. They all wanted the history lesson over so that they could find out how the rest of their lives were going to go. A smile could barely be seen from under the masked pony’s cloth veil as they continued.

“This machine behind me collects it from you.” all the young foals now looked at each other as a low murmur rose amongst them. “Now what is Spectra you may ask. It is the magical pigment that creates the color of your coat, your cutie mark, and mane and tails. It is easy to harvest, so easy this machine can do it. However there is one thing…You have to die.” a loud scream erupted from one frightened mare as she burst towards the exit. Three guards leapt into action and cut her off, cutting her out of the sky. As she skid across the metal floor a loud pop was herd from the wing she had landed on. She moaned in pain as the guards hefted her up.

Horrified Raptor aimed his gun with the intent of pulling the trigger on the masked pony. However, a loud metallic click caught his attention and he watched as a large metal chain with four cuffs lowered from the ceiling. It’s dulled surface barely reflecting the ambient light in the room. Two of the guards lifted the broken pegasus and brought her over to the chains. Curiously everyone watched to see what was going to happen.

The guards put her in the chains as the masked pony walked over and stared into her eyes. With a soft tug, the masked pony pulled their headdress from their scalp. A great shush rushed through the crowed and the pony right in front of the once masked pony stared in sheer shock.

Scootaloo nearly fell as her knees almost gave way. Orion’s jaw dropped. Raptor’s eyes became the size of Jupiter. A rainbow colored mane fell from where it had been covered and cyan fur glistened in the dull light. Rainbow Dash stood glaring at the foal with an evil glare that could kill in itself. The chains tugged and then lifted upwards, hefting the pony upwards above the monolithic maw at the rear of the room. Rainbow, as with everypony else, could not stop watching.

The chained equine stared down at the humming grinder below her. Her heart raced, her breathing erratic. Pleas for life bellowed from her jugular as she cried to not be killed. With a sudden twist, her cries were silenced as her torso twisted to far for her anatomy to handle. Blood spewed from her mouth and a rib erupted from her side. Loud whimpers emitted from her as she was lowered down towards the mouth of death. A sudden clang was heard as the cuffs opened, releasing the broken pegasus, and letting gravity to all the dirty work. She landed face first into the grinder, allowing her scream to last only for a second as it was silenced with a gurgling crunch. Everyone watched in horror, or glee depending on who’s perspective you wish to count, as her body slowly slid into the machine.

Raptor could not believe his eyes. Everything he had seen thus forth was nothing like this! Rainbow turned back to the crowed with a satisfied smile. The vats behind her came alive as fresh spectra poured into them. The meter’s on their front, clear so that one could tell what color it was, began to show how full they were. When they stopped filling the yellow was the most full. Made since, the filly had been yellow colored after all.

The failures scattered in fear. Except Orion, Scootaloo, and Aurora. They stood in the madness looking around. Scootaloo however; her eyes dug into Rainbow Dash. Above the noise of the crowed, Scootaloo let loose a shout that could not be silenced. “I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME!” she screamed. Rainbow’s attention instantly dropped on the orange and purple pegasus. “After everything we have been through! You’re going to just let me die! I loved you Rainbow Dash! I loved you like a big sister! And I thought you loved me like a little sister! All of that means nothing to you!?” Scootaloo’s eyes blurred as moisture began to cover them. Tears rained down her cheeks. Even though her sight was impaired, Rainbow’s rosy orbs stood out, and she buried her hate into them. With all of her hatred, Scootaloo dug it into Rainbow’s eyes.

“I DID LOVE YOU!” Rainbow Dash shouted back, tears running down her face. “I taught you every thing I knew so that you’d PASS THAT FUCKING TEST!” she looked away, wiping away the emotion running down her cheeks. “But you failed me kid! You had it in you to pass but here you stand! I trained you every Celestia damned day to keep you out of here! I loved you so much Scootaloo, that I did EVERYTHING I COULD to keep you from here! YOU DID THIS TO YOUR FUCKING SELF!” Rainbow’s words cut into Scootaloo as if she was nothing but simple paper. Pain wrecked across her body with every shout from the rainbow colored mare. The last thing she said though, the last part of her proclamation, would kill Scootaloo.

“You’ve failed Cloudsdale kid! But you also have done more than that! YOU FAILED ME! You’re not just dead to Cloudsdale, you’re dead to me.” an evil grin stretched across Atmosphere’s face. He saw it in her face. Rainbow Dash had now broken.

Scootaloo swayed, her heart shattered, her mind numb. The truth now out for her to see. Rainbow Dash was a monster and she hated her. Orion lifted a wing to catch the nearly collapsing Scootaloo. This angered Rainbow Dash as she shouted orders to a guard next to her. After the guard lifted up and flew down towards the three, Rainbow let out yet another verbal assault. “YOU CAN’T HAVE HAPPINESS! YOU CAN’T HAVE COMFORT! TAKE HIM!”

With an abrasive swing, the guard knocked Scootaloo off of Orion and grabbed him by the shoulder. “Come with me NOW!” the guard yelled. Frightened into compliance, Orion flew up to the stage with the guard. Scootaloo sat up, rubbing her face as she watched the guard shackle her special somepony. Rainbow Dash walked up to him and looked deep into his soul. “You are her’s and she is yours. So you are the first to die of you two.” she said with a malefic grin.

“No” Raptor muttered to himself. He aimed his rifle at the chain that loomed over Orion. The dot in his scope placed right in line with the chain

The signal started in his cerebral cortex and within moments had traveled down Raptor’s spine, split off at his shoulder following the main nerve that ran along his humorous, past his ulna and into his carpals. There it branched to the phalange belonging to his trigger finger. The Lumbrical muscle tightened and the trigger in the weapon pulled back. This released the sear allowing the hammer to push forward hitting the back of the bolt. This then pushed the bolt’s internal hammer forward striking the bullet’s primer. A spark burst inside the powder igniting it. The excessive force from this eruption caused the mouth to release the bullet and propel it down the rifled barrel. The hazel colored bullet traveled in a spiral as the gasses continued to push it forward. Erupting from the flash at the end of the gun’s muzzle, the bullet streaked across the open air.
Raptor closed his eyes, he didn’t want to see this miss. He knew his scope had been knocked off it’s setting, but he had fixed it! However, he had aimed just above Orion’s skull in order to ensure that with revealing himself it would surprise Rainbow Dash and maybe give him an advantage. Unfortunately, mistakes do happen, and the shot was very far.

The bullet outran the waive of noise following behind it, cutting through oxygen molecules and leaving in its wake a vacuum just to reach its mark. A loud thud was heard. A thud that sickened Raptor. It was the wrong noise. The metal projectile cut through flesh, then broke bone. It cut through grey matter and tore a hole through more bone. It sliced the flesh out of its way and continued, only being stopped by a metal grate. Gore splattered across the floor as the bullet’s vacuum had pulled torn biomaterial with it.

The chained rippled as Orion’s head ripped backwards, blood spewing. He lurched and then was limp, swaying as the kinetic energy caused by his death rippled through his metallic binds.

Rainbow Dash jumped from his now motionless form and looked up at the outcropping she had so many times watched from. Raptor opened his eyes to see Orion’s corpse in the binds. He cussed and stood, knowing full well that everyone was aware of his presence. Scootaloo stared at her once living colt-friend. Dread made her collapse where she stood, unable to bear everything that had happened in the past few moments.

Raptor aimed his gun at Rainbow Dash’s skull. “Let them go Rainbow Dash!” he shouted.
“You killed him.” she stated, slightly irritated. “Now we can’t use this pile of shit!”
“Release them Rainbow or I’ll kill you too!”
“Oh really? She looked at a few guards and made a nod towards the Human. “I knew you were going to be trouble as soon as I saw you Raptor. I didn’t know that you’d kill though.” he didn’t say anything. His eyes, stayed on the swinging, lifeless body of Orion. He had killed him. He had killed ANOTHER innocent. How!? He looked at the incoming pegasi threatening him. Quickly he aimed through the scope at the closest to him. His finger pulled in and the gun fired once more. The bullet went right to where he had aimed.
“HOW DID I MISS! HOW DID I KILL ORION! THE SCOPE IS ON TARGET!” erupted through his mind as he shot down the other two guards that had been coming towards him. All three shots went where he wanted them to. Anger blistered inside him, not at anyone else, but at himself. Once again he had taken the life of someone who didn’t have to die, and once again it was on ACCADENT!

With the commotion Raptor had started, Aurora shook Scootaloo awake. “Scootaloo, we have to do something. They’re going to kill us! I’m sorry about Orion, and Rainbow Dash, but we HAVE TO GO!” Scootaloo looked around and saw that not only were the guards distracted by Raptor as three more gun shots resonated through the room, but so were the fillies and colts around them. A brazen idea came to Scootaloo, and she jumped to her hooves.

“Everypony! CLEAR! FLY! FALL! COMPLEATE!” she yelled as she opened her wings. At first only the ponies around her complied, their wings opening as well. Like wildfire however, all of them were eventually ready. “GO!” she shouted. With a full flap upwards Scootaloo pushed off the ground followed by all of the failures around her. Aurora even had managed to get lift off. The few pegasi that seemed to not beable to fly bull rushed the guards nearest the door.

With great surprise all of the guards lifted into the air to try and stop the out of control foals. “GET RAPTOR! KILL HIM!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she leapt into the air, cutting down a low flying pony as she did so.

Raptor was astonished by the sudden flurry of flying ponies in the air. The sizzling and crack of tasers going off resounded through the room followed shortly by the thud of a failure dropping out of the sky to meet death. However the guards were suffering losses as well. Some of the ponies had turned and fought their captors, punching and kicking them till a wing was broken and the guards were the ones suffering gravity’s merciless grip.

The few guards that had heard Rainbow Dash’s order to attack the only Human present bolted for him. Raptor ticked the switch on the G36 from singe fire to full auto. Holding the trigger down only long enough to let three or four rounds burst from the barrel he dropped his attackers from the sky. However as he took aim on one, another swooped from his left and tackled him, making him toss his gun across the outcropping. The pony sat on top of him, holding him down. He made a swing at the ponies face, but all it did was shake it off and grin with evil glee at him. A simple swing wasn’t going to do anything to these well muscled horses. Sacrificing some of his spirit energy, Raptor balled a fist and swung again. The energy at the end of his hand added enough force to twist the pony’s head sideways as if he had been punched by somepony as strong as him.

This caused the pegasus to get up and stumble backwards. When he had collected himself he found a barrel pointed at his face. He was about to make a move, but the bullet was faster. Gore spread across the bullet hole planted into the metal wall behind the pegasus and he collapsed.

Raptor reloaded, certain that there was only one or two bullets left in that magazine. As he slammed the new clip into place another guard took the opportunity to swoop in and slam into the Human. This made Raptor drop the gun again. Instead of pining him to the outcropping’s surface however this pegasus had grabbed Raptor in his fore-arms and started flying upwards, probably with the intent of dropping him.

Scootaloo and Aurora bolted for the door that Raptor had come in from the catwalk. Scootaloo slammed the button to open the door, but it was unresponsive, merely making an audible denial beep. The catwalk shook and they spun around to see Rainbow Dash there breaking a foals neck across the guardrail. The pony’s head pushed back across the rail unnaturally as blood erupted from her mouth and then throat as it tore, covering her murderer with crimson. Rainbow released the limp pegasus and let her crumple to the catwalk’s surface. With a simple and careless shove, the pony was pushed over the edge, landing with a sickening crack. Satisfied with her work, Rainbow Dash turned her maddened attention to Aurora Dawn and Scootaloo.

She got one hoof step before more of the failures dove at her, trying to stop her. One of the failures landed near the two and looked a them. “This was a great idea, whoever you are! Get that door open! We’ll hold her off!” he yelled.
“But she’ll-” Aurora started.
“Rainbow Dash is the better rainbow to die of!” he then turned and joined the others. Rainbow Dash was tearing through them. Her superior skills destroying them with every swing.

Raptor struggled against the grip of the pegasus holding him. He managed to squeeze free an arm and reared it back. The hue of spirit energy formed around his fist and then was brought forward into the ponies face. The strike knocked him cold, making him release Raptor and curl up. As their ascent ended and the moment of weightlessness took hold, Raptor grabbed the pony and opened his wings. The air caught and he was able to glide the fleshy glider towards the commotion happening on the catwalk. As he approached, he realized that at his current rate of decent there was no possible way he would make it to the catwalk and would most likely slam hard into the ground. So he waited for the perfect moment.

Seconds seemed like hours of hell as he waited for gravity’s hold to pull him into the right position. Then as his mental calculations moved him into action, he put a foot into the Pegasus’s chest and pushed hard. He reached out with his arms as far as he could, hoping, praying. As soon as cold metal slammed into his palms he clenched tight on the guardrail, gritting his teeth as his knees slammed hard into the actual catwalk. Taking a moment, he collected himself and then pulled onto the crossway.

Now that he could look around he saw that he stood between Scootaloo and Aurora, who were vigorously bucking at the metal door, and Rainbow Dash as she tore through what little remained of the failures that dared oppose her. He stood there, watching her maddened stare never leave him. No…not him. He followed her eyes and saw that they were locked on Scootaloo. When he turned back he saw Rainbow crack a failure’s spine in half as she slammed him across the railing. He yelled out in pain and then she rolled him over it. He tried to open his wings, but he had become paralyzed, and simply crashed to the floor below like so many others. Nothing but Raptor stood between her and her desired target.

“Move” she snapped at him. She didn’t attack. She simply stood there, glaring now at him, her one obstacle.
“No Rainbow. This can end here. This can stop now!” She looked around a the flurry of guards and failures fighting amongst each other. The sound of tasers ripping through the air along with the pounding thuds of hooves on metal.
“This is all I have. All that I care for now. Nothing else matters.” she said calmly. “Now get the fuck out of my way.”
“Not going to happen” Raptor said as he drew his swords. He readied himself for anything, putting himself in the position he always did. The sword in his right hand next to his head, pointed outwards in front of him, the other held out perpendicular to himself, ready to parry any attack. She shook her head and looked behind her. Guards had started to line up, ready to assist her. He looked around and noticed there were much less fighting. The failures were losing.

“If you won’t move on your own, I’ll just make you then. Kill him.” the guards hopped over her and rushed Raptor. The catwalk was to thin for more than one, so they came at him single file. The first pony to him met his left blade swinging back handed across his throat. Gore poured out as he fell face first to the deck. Raptor stepped back. The second one simply stepped over his fallen comrade and lifted a hoof in order to make an attack. This left his chest open, which met a sword slicing into it, right to his heart. Raptor stepped back to avoid this one’s plummet. A third flew over the other two with both hooves extended forward in hopes that a kamikaze style attack would do anything. Raptor simply ducked, shoved both blades deep into his chest and let his momentum carry him limply over the edge of the catwalk.

Now they flew around and came at him from all sides, no longer sticking to the direct approach. He slid spirit energy down the blades as they flew and ran at him. The blades became aglow with energy as he swung them outwards. The energy leapt out, extending his cutting distance a good ways. This tore down the one running at him and one flying in from his left. He brought his right sword around and cut down the pony flying at him from that direction. This distraction allowed another one to get in close and slam Raptor in the chest. The impact tossed him backwards onto his back.

Quickly he stood and buried his blade into the pony’s chest as he had attempted to smash in his skull. This pony fell sideways, twisting the hilt out of Raptor’s hand. The guard fell over the guardrail, sword in tow. He turned his attention to the group of guards slowly walking towards him. Tossing the blade in his left hand to his right, he held it up near his head, as he had done with the other one. This time his fist was stuck out where his off hand sword had been.

Again they rushed in. That’s all they could do. Yes some tried to use their tasers to parry his sword swings, but a spirit energy endowed fist would knock them backwards and allow him to sink the blade into their flesh anyway.

Finally, after many deaths to guards, no more charged him. They simply stood behind Rainbow Dash, unmoving. She looked over her shoulder at them and glared. Raptor stood there, huffing, he felt drained. He had used more spirit energy than he intended. How could he not though, without the use of spirit energy his attacks would mean nothing to these ponies.

Weakly, he stood at the ready. Waiting for anypony to come at him. Scootaloo and Aurora, while still bucking at the well dented door, watched in awe at the power of this warrior before them. Single handedly he had stopped at least fourteen guards. This was enough waiting for Rainbow Dash, he was in her way and she could no longer take it.

“FINE! I’ll kill him since you fuckers can’t!” within an instant she bolted across the catwalk. Raptor couldn’t slow his perception of time. He was tiered, to weak. All he could do was bring the sword down at the rainbow streak heading his way.

It jutted left, away from his blade and the next thing he knew a hoof was being buried into his chest. The force was enough that Rainbow lifted him into the air, hanging on her hoof. Blood spat from Raptor’s mouth as he felt his sternum crack. She let him go, allowing for gravity to take hold as she flew under him. She cupped her wings and kicked her legs back, bringing her hind legs around in a form of front flip. As he passed by, her rear legs collided with his abdomen and slammed him onto the catwalk. He coughed up blood and could feel multiple breaks along his ribs and even an arm had shattered from the impact. She landed next to him as he writhed in pain.

“That was to easy” she spat as she walked past him. As his vision faded, he saw guards approach him, and then nothing.

Scootaloo felt the door move, it was about to give way. Only a few more bucks! However, Rainbow Dash was already bearing down on them. Aurora stopped bucking and stepped forward.
“What are you doing!?” Scootaloo asked, her kicks unrelenting against her metal target. Aurora looked over her shoulder at Scootaloo and let a soft smile grace her lips.
“It was nice meeting you Scootaloo, I wish we had known each other before today.” with that she turned and barreled for Rainbow dash.
“NO! Aurora don’t!”

Rainbow slammed hoof first into Auroras chest. She had tried to make a swing at the rainbow colored mare, but she was to quick. Rainbow Dash punched Scootaloo’s friend again, slamming her to the deck. She jumped on her and planted her hooves on her chest and hindquarter, preventing any movement. In one quick motion Rainbow grabbed one of Aurora’s wings in her mouth and pulled. Flesh ripped first, then the bandages. Rainbow pulled the torn bone and muscle apart, separating wing from pony. More crimson splashed across Rainbow’s body as she spat the wing over the side of the catwalk.

“You didn’t need that anyways” Dash said as she picked up Aurora and lifted her over the rail. “Die, fucker.” a simple toss, and Aurora found herself plunging head first to the ground. She was okay with that, least it would be fast. The last thing she heard was the crack of her skull.

Rainbow turned her attention to Scootaloo. Before she could make even one hoof step in her direction however the door gave way and slammed inwards. Scootaloo hopped over the shattered door and barreled down the hall as fast as she could. Rainbow was faster, she’s always been faster.

It was silent. A very soothing silence. However Raptor couldn’t enjoy it. His chest felt as if it was closing in on itself. He could barely breath. Maybe a collapsed lung? He didn’t know. He opened his eyes and saw that he had been brought to the floor of the Rainbow Factory. He had been propped up against the wall along with seven or so other survivors of the fight. Near the stage guards were piling corpses of both sides of the fight into one big pile.

He tried to move his left arm, but it cracked and he let out a yell in pain. This drew the attention of the nearest masked guard. “So you’re alive, good. We may have use of you.” he said with a barely visible smile.
“What are you going to do? Throw me into the machine? I doubt I have any of this…spectra.”
“Maybe not, but we have other uses for pieces of shit like you.” Raptor only returned this with a deep scowl. The guard huffed and walked away.

Raptor moved, tried to see what was still working. His shoulder was definitely smashed, his femur crushed. He felt numerous torn ligaments or muscles through his legs. “Well, It’d seem these ponies are a bit tougher than I had imagined. Boy Valtor will say ‘I told you so’ when I get back.” he mumbled to himself. The pony next to him whimpered and favored a broken wing, drawing his attention. “It’d seem I’m not the only one tore up.”

Moments passed. The guards simply kept piling corpses, now in two piles. One walked over, Raptor’s gun in his mouth and sat it a mere two meters from him. The guard walked away laughing. Raptor stared at it, his tool to freedom. He raised his good arm, letting his hand open as if to grab the gun. The guard from earlier watched with amusement. Spirit energy formed around the gun and it lifted, then it fell as the energy dissipated. Raptor’s arm fell back to his side. He was done. No longer could he cast any spirit energy spells, no longer could he walk, no longer could he fight.

“Never thought I’d die because of some flying ponies.” he said as he laid his head back against the wall. “Heh, damn, guess I’m not invincible. Well, Val, I owe you a drink at that holographic bar.” Raptor’s mind drifted back to the Highrule, the ship him and D.C.R. had found in the Andromeda galaxy not to long ago. How much fun he had had on it. The ships holodeck provided endless entertainment and exercise. He then thought of his wife, how he’d never get to see her again. For a moment, he allowed himself to cry.

The ambient silence was broken as a panel from the roof broke in and then fell to the floor. Scootaloo dove down, looking up it. Instantly guards flew to her. However she didn’t move, nothing! It was if she was oblivious to her surroundings until she felt a taser in her side. The sudden electroshock to her ribs made her instantly pass out. Rainbow Dash swooped down and caught her before she could plummet to her death.

Within moments, Rainbow had Orion’s body dropped in a heap onto the stage’s surface and Scootaloo bound where he died. She reared back and smashed Scootaloo across the face, waking her up. “Now now Rainbow Dash, that may be unnecessary.” Dr. Atmosphere said walking through the double doors into the room. Rainbow Dash ignored his comment and swung again, making blood splatter from Scootaloo’s nose across the decking.

Atmosphere meandered along the line of surviving failures lined up against the wall. Upon reaching Raptor he stopped, and smiled. “So you’re the pesky Human my scouts have been telling me about.” he said, leaning down to be face to face with Raptor. He simply glared back at the red pegasus, unspeaking. “Well, since you’re here, I am suddenly curious as to how the machine will take to Human. After all, even if we can’t harvest spectra from you, at least we’ll have dealt with you. And don’t ask about what we’d tell Celestia, cover stories are our specialty.” With a suave gallop Atmosphere headed for the stage. He lifted up and landed next to Rainbow Dash. “Now what of this one? Hmm Rainbow?” he asked her.
“She’s gonna die, of course.” the cyan pegasus responded.
“Oh but of course, but you don’t want it to end just like that do you?” he smiled and turned to leave. “I’ll wait for when you’re ready, I’ll let you say goodbye to your….little sister”

Atmosphere’s words made Rainbow slam a hoof straight into Scootaloo’s snout again. Then again, and again. Blood ran down the orange filly’s face as she waited for more hits. None came as Rainbow Dash stood there huffing in anger. “Say something you little whore!” Dash shouted.

Scootaloo struggled to look up at her big sister, blinking blood out of her eyes a few times. Her gaze landed on Rainbow Dash’s eyes, hatred the only thing present in the rosy hues. “You have beautiful eyes.” she said.

“SHUT UP!” Rainbow yelled as she slammed a hoof across Scootaloo’s head again. She turned to Atmosphere who was hovering nearby and nodded. With a small smile he nodded at a camera. The chains jerked and then lifted, pulling Scootaloo towards the gaping maw. Raptor watched in sadness and anger, knowing there was nothing he could do to stop this injustice unfolding before him.

Rainbow watched intently, emotions surging through her body as memories ran through her head. Scootaloo’s first flight. Her first crash. The first time she beat Rainbow Dash’s filly record. Their first flight together. The time she took her under he wing at the Rainbow Falls under Cloudsdale. Her little sister, her only sister. Her family. Her wings opened and with tear filled vision Rainbow bolted upwards towards the chains.

In a flurry of confused emotion Rainbow tore at the chain bindings holding Scootaloo in place. “What are you doing!?” Atmosphere yelled. “STOP!” he began to fly towards the cyan mare.

“I do love you Scootaloo!” she yelled as she broke a shackle in half, freeing one of Scootaloo’s fore arms. “I’m sorry! I’m Sor-” Atmosphere slammed into her and pushed her towards the gaping maw of the machine. She hit his shoulder, making him let go of her.

She landed on it’s rim, unable to catch her balance she fell back first over the mouth of the machine. Her fore legs spread across the edge, keeping her held up as her wings tugged in tight to herself to ensure they didn’t get caught by a grinder wheel. She could not move, she was helpless.

Atmosphere hovered over her, a fore hoof held low above her chest as a malefic grin donned his face. “You know Rainbow Dash….this is what I wanted all along. Ever since I first met you, this is the fate I had in mind for you. However, I couldn’t outright kill you, no. Celestia and the other Elements of Harmony would suspect something if you just went missing all of a sudden. I had to wait years and years. Then I realized there would be no way I could trick you into this machine, or force you even. You are definitely stronger than me.

“However, here you sit, mere centimeters from becoming the most glorious spectra we have ever created! You see, ponies with a specific color generate more spectra of that particular color. You though, you’re every color of the rainbow! And to top it off you’re a Bearer of an Element! You HAVE to produce the most vibrant colors to ever exist!”

“So…everything. Everything you’ve done was to kill me?” she asked, her head moving between looking at the grinders below and Atmosphere’s hoof hovering just above her.

“Of course it was. You see, Scootaloo would have passed that flight test. I didn’t need that. You see your weakness is stress. Put to much stress on your mind and you’ll break. Living everyday with this horror below you broke you most of the way.” he looked up at Scootaloo and smiled. “I just had to cut that one last strand in your sanity.”
“You…You fucking bastard!”
“Hehe, with Scootaloo having trained with you for so many years, I knew that her presence here would destroy you. And…I thought right. Look at you now Rainbow Dash. Where are your friends to save you this time? You have no friends. You have no one.” he placed a hoof on her chest as tears began to stream down the back of her head. He smiled and with one shove, she couldn’t hold against it and fell.

Her scream echoed through the room until it was cut short by the machine. Raptor watched in terror as Atmosphere simply glided down to the measuring tubes of the chambers and watched vigorously. Bright vibrant colors of the rainbow seeped into the vats. They tossed and swirled with the other spectra, but never mixed. It was if there was a dancing light show in each color.

“I KNEW IT! Rainbow Dash provided the most pure, most vibrant spectra to exist.” he turned to a guard and motioned for him to come closer. “I want you to go to Ponyville and arrest Fluttershy. I don’t care what for, just bring her here. Her spectra may not be as great as Rainbow Dash’s but it will definitely be pure!” with a nod the guard bolted out of the room.

“Now as for you Scootaloo.” Atmosphere said as he hovered up to the nearly unconscious foal. “You will join your sister in Tartarus.”
“No!” Raptor yelled. “ENOUGH OF THIS!” his eyes were closed, his body limp and broken. However, something was different about him. Clouds of energy began to flow around him. Purple swirled around him, jumping from his hands to his feet. From his face to his chest. With little effort he stood, not even using a hand to help him up. A ball of energy began to form around him as he limped into the middle of the room. His eyes shot open, glowing a vibrant purple. “You won’t kill ANYONE ELSE!”

“Oh is that so?” Atmosphere said dismissively. he looked at the few guards still standing near Raptor and motioned for them to take him. One moved in, taser in mouth, ready to strike. Raptor’s head snapped to looking at his attacker and a beam of energy shot from the ball and slammed into the pony. The pegasus was pushed across the room and into the wall where he was cut in half by the energy. Three other guards tried to jump in at the same time right after that but met similar fates as the energy shred them asunder. Raptor then began to curl into a ball, his appendages tucking inward as his glowing eyes never left the curious Atmosphere. The red pegasus studied closely what Raptor was doing, unable to recognize the fact that the spirit energy ball surrounding the Human was shrinking inwards.

The ball collapsed into Raptor’s balled fists, and he stayed there. How long had he been hovering? He had taken notice that he was now a meter or two in the air, being held up by spirit energy. Looking up at Atmosphere he smiled, and opened his hands. The force was so great it blew Raptor’s arms open, and blew outwards.

The eruption tore through the metal plating around the Factory’s theater room. Broke into the cloud cover and destroyed the piping leading anywhere else. The metal walls were either bent outward or completely destroyed. The rush of energy slammed into Atmosphere and sent him tumbling out of the air. It destroyed Scootaloo’s restraints, making her plummet as well. Then…silence returned once more.

Section 10: Fallen Heroes

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to see a dark marble floor. She lifted her head up and looked along it’s surface; her vision leading into the room. What she saw before her was a wall-less platform that seemed to be hovering in an unending void. She stood and found herself on a higher platform that led down a small staircase to a square that had three additional staircases on it. One at each side. She looked down at herself and saw that she was whole; no scars, no broken bones, and no gore hanging out. She was completely intact.

As she took a step forward towards the lower section she noticed that to her right, up that staircase sat a large throne like chair. In it sat a robed creature, its face masked in a black shroud, but it was bright, as if a great light shown within it. To her left, up that staircase, sat a pool made from the same marble the floor was constructed of, but she was unable to see what was inside of it. Across from her sat another empty platform similar to the one she had awoken on. As soon as she was in the middle of the lower section, she turned to the creature, a questioning look on her face.

It sat there, it’s head angled in a way that she could tell it had been watching her this whole time. Moments passed as she waited for it to speak, but as the being sat silent she succumb to her impatience. “I-is this the after life?” she finally asked. Her question was quite valid, after all, the last thing she could remember before this moment was a large saw blade slicing through her.

“This is what some would refer to as purgatory or limbo, but it is nothing more than the void between Heaven and Hell.” the creature spoke with a booming voice. He was loud, very loud, but it didn’t hurt her ears. She simply stood there more confused than before.
“So…I am dead right?”
“Indeed you are, Rainbow Dash. You were killed the moment that your cerebral cortex was dismembered by the Pegasus Device.” his words made her cringe. To think that she had not only been killed, but tossed into the very machine she protected; by the very man she swore loyalty to!
“Aren’t there supposed to be pearly gates or something?” she looked around, continuing to see only the dark, endless void in every direction, except the black marble floor she stood on.

“You are not ready to pass through those gates.” he said without hesitation. Her ears flopped down and a worried look came across her face.
“Does…does that mean I’m…going to Tartarus?” her voice quivered in fear.
“Not this day Rainbow Dash. You are yet to be ready to for judgment. There is still more for you to do in Equestria. You may still have a second chance.” he stood and began to walk to her. She took a step back, noticing his humanoid form to be much like Raptor’s, but taller. He approached her and ran a black gloved hand through her mane. His touch was soft and reassuring. It was gentle and kind, as if no ill will was possible from this being.

“Come with me, my little pony, and I will show you your way back.” he walked past her and towards the pool that stood above the platform it rested on. He walked up the steps with her close behind.

He motioned a hand towards the pool indicating he wanted her to look inside. She walked over to it and threw her fore-hooves over its edge in order to balance herself and see what lied within. There she could see it was not water inside, but an image. An image of two alicorn princess standing in the midst of a ruined Rainbow Factory. “Who…who blew it up?” she asked puzzled.
“Josh did.” was the simple answer from the being.
“Who’s…Josh?” he chuckled a little at her query.
“You know him, but he does not go by that name often. Usually he will call himself, Raptor.”
“What!? How’d he do that!?” she asked, now looking over the ruins intently.
“That question, I will leave for him to tell you himself.” she looked over her shoulder at him.
“Is he…dead?”
“No…but he is close…let us hope that your friends can save him in time. As for you however…” he reached down and very gently lifted her in his arms. They were comfortable and relaxing, she almost never wanted to leave their loving touch. However, he held her out over the pool and lowered her in.

The silence around the ruined factory was interrupted by only a small pop emitted by both Princess Luna and Princess Celestia coming back to reality. Their hooves made a quiet clop as they softly landed on the clouds of the lower factory. Looking up they could see clearly into the ruined upper factory. Spectra of each color slowly poured from the now damaged vats, each color pooling into a rainbow in the lower factory. The monolithic maw leaned against the wall behind it, as it had been pushed over by the blast. The cat walk that ran across the expanse bent upwards, and an unconscious Scootaloo could be seen laying on it.

A form began to appear in the mist directly above the princesses. Slowly it became more clear as it drew out of the ceiling. The form was that of a human. Raptor surrounded by a purple energy swirling and twisting, was falling towards them. Both princesses watched as he slowly went past them. Sure of the clouds catching him, neither stopped his decent. However, as he began to pass through the cloud floor Celestia picked him up with her magic and sat him on a metal panel that had fallen from the factory above. She sat him down slowly, ensuring it would hold his weight. Once he was secure, she released him.

Astonished, the princesses few up to the factory to investigate what they were seeing. “Is it possible, “ Luna gawked, “that Raptor did this?”
“It is very likely, sister. He is powerful, but even I did not know he was capable of this alone.” She landed on the catwalk near Scootaloo and leaned down to check on her. She was still breathing, despite the amount of blood loss. “What has happened here?” she looked around and noticed Hide leaning against the wall on the floor of the upper factory. She flew down to him and checked his vitals. He was still alive, but unconscious too.

“Sister!” Luna called out. Celestia turned and saw that her sibling was across the room. She lifted up and flew over to her.
“What is it Luna?” she asked. The mare of the night pointed at the pile of bodies that sat before them. Celestia’s ears dropped at the sight of so many children slain for a cause she did not know. Their broken bodies had been piled against the wall by the blast.

A cough was heard from deep in what was left of the pit. Both sisters turned and saw a young lavender pegasus climbing up the broken metal. Luna jumped forward and helped her with her magic.

“What is your name child?” Luna asked as she used her magic to place the filly on her back.
“I…I’m Rising Wind, ma’am.” she said through a cough and her voice was weak. Luna flew to the lower factory and sat the injured pony there.
“Can you tell me…” Celestia landed next to them looking down at the young pegasus with concern. “us…what happened here?”

“We…we failed our flight tests and were brought here. They…they…oh Celestia they were going to turn us into rainbows!” the filly fell face first into the clouds she was laying on and began to cry. Her hooves overlapped her snout as her body shook with each sob.
“It is okay dear one, you are safe now.” Celestia said, placing a comforting hoof on Rising Wind’s shoulder. “Did you see who was in charge?”
“Ye-ah…Rainbow Dash…” Celestia and Luna looked at each other shocked. “…but they killed her and turned her into rainbows. That…that made somepony…uh…Atmosphere…in charge.”
“Do you remember what he looked like?” Luna asked, laying in front of the filly to try and calm her some.
“He had red fur and a white mane. I couldn‘t see his cutie mark because it‘s hidden by his lab coat.” she said, looking up at Luna, sadness still present in her blood shot eyes.
“I just saw him…” Celestia said as she turned to fly back up to the upper factory. However, something caught her eye.

As the spectra pooled together, a loud plop was heard and then a round, grey stone could be seen floating amidst it. The colors of the spectra around the stone were more vibrant and streaked great color in long bands extending like fingers. Celestia walked over to the pool and looked at the stone intently. The question streaking through her mind simply asked, “Why is the stone floating?” As it spun, she found out why.

On its surface sat a lighting bolt much like Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark. Celestia looked at it with a smile, she knew what to do. “Luna, I need your assistance please.” Luna patted Rising Wind on the shoulder and then walked over to her sister. Before either could speak Cloudsdale emergency crews began to fly up into the building and immediately began taking care of the dead, dying, or injured.

There were ponies strewn all around the factory floor. All injured in some way, and in some cases, fatally. One pony was bleeding from her snout and ears, her scalp crushed. The medic simply closed the pony’s eyes. One was buried under a piece of metal, he was pulled out and found to be alive, but unconscious. Celestia and Luna watched the commotion for a moment before the mare of day drew her sister’s attention to the stone.

“Do you recognize that?” Celestia asked. Luna peered intently at the floating rock and when she saw the cutie mark she recognized it.
“That looks like the Element of Loyalty stone I…crushed…when I was Nightmare Moon.” Luna said slightly embarrassed.
“Indeed it is, and do you see the strands of magic about this rainbow pool?” Luna’s vision danced across the vibrant hues.
“That…that’s magic?” Luna asked looking back up at her sister.
“Yes. I believe that that spell you and I have been working on, could now be put to practice.”
“But Tia, we have not perfected that spell, what if….what if I mess it up…” Celestia smiled at her sister with reassurance.
“You will do fine, but this will require our full concentration. Are you ready?” Luna nodded and both alicorn sisters pointed their horns at the stone.

Both horns lit, their magic auras surrounding the tips. A beam leapt from their horns and surrounded the Element of Loyalty. It began to lift into the air as drops of rainbow slid off and splashed back into the pool. The magic hues of the princesses danced and fought for predominance as the stone began to glow. The sisters’ hooves slowly began to push into the clouds as their magic auras intensified and sparks began to burst from their horns.

The regal sisters gritted their teeth as they concentrated as much magic into the orb as possible. Suddenly the magical hues in the spectra began to bounce, and then lift out of the rainbow pool. The colors began to dance around the orb into a spiral until a complete flow of magic surrounded the orb. The rainbow colored fluid encased the Element and then slowly widened outwards. The hue sphere, covered by the princesses magic, slowly began to morph in shape. A hoof could be seen, then a snout, an ear, another ear, a tail. The rainbow colors began to recede as cyan colored fur appeared in their wake. The rainbow fluid receded into a tail and mane, where strands of hair took place of the liquid. Rainbow Dash’s body was now glowing from being held up by Celestia and Luna’s magic. Celestia opened an eye and saw what they had done, but the spell was not complete just yet.

The rainbow liquid receded along her back, making wings that were already stretched out. Once fully formed they curled and then flapped once. Rainbow Dash’s chest expanded with one large breath as her eyes shot wide.

“H-hey!” she yelled out. “What’s going on!?” Celestia and Luna’s magic stopped and Rainbow almost fell, but she caught herself with her fully open wings. With a low poof, she landed on the clouds softly.

“Are you alright, Rainbow Dash?” Celestia asked. The cyan mare looked down at her pristine body and then back up with a perpetually confused look.
“I…guess so. But didn’t I-” she looked behind her and saw the Pegasus Device in shambles. “Oh wow, who did that!?” she asked completely astonished at the destruction.
“We believe that is the work of Raptor.” Luna said looking down at the completely unconscious Human on a nearby metal panel.

“He used so much power, that he blew off even Twilight’s spell that had him capable of walking on clouds.” Celestia said as all three of them examined him. “He stopped this madness.” Celestia looked up into then upper factory as she spoke. “Nearly at the cost of his life.”

She turned to a nearby group of medics that were checking a pony that was sitting against a broken cloud pillar. “Come here one of you, please.” a female pegasus lifted up and flew over to them. “Can you please take Raptor to Ponyville Regional. I know they’re not familiar with Human anatomy, but please tell them to do what they can to ensure he lives.”
“Yes ma’am.” the medic said as she turned to the Human.

The medic checked Raptor, or at least tried to check him. she looked at him slightly unsure of how to check that he was alive other than his slow, burdened breaths. She waved a few of her compatriots over to help her. One of them carried a gurney on his back. They put a mask over his face to help his breathing, surprisingly enough the snout shaped plastic still worked as his breathing became clearer. They lifted him up onto the gurney and carried him to Ponyville.

“Well, Rainbow Dash is alive again?” yelled a voice from in the upper factory. All three mares looked from the medics flying away to where the shouting had come from. There, they saw Dr. Hide Atmosphere standing on the catwalk, Scootaloo hanging from one of his hooves.
“Put her down!” yelled Rainbow Dash.
“Oh? Why? Just a few moments ago you were going to kill her. Maybe I should finish where you started.” he turned the unconscious filly to where her closed eyes met his. An evil grin spread across his face as malicious thoughts flowed through his mind.
“I’ll have one more rainbow, Rainbow Dash! And this little filly is going to give it to me.”
“Atmosphere!” yelled Celestia. He looked away from Scootaloo and down upon the royal alicorn, his malicious grin fading to an annoyed frown. “Release her and come down here at once! You are going to tell me everything about what has been going on here!”

“Am I? I don’t know Celestia. Maybe you should open your eyes for a change and look around you. This factory was intended for one use and one use only.” his maddening stare came back, but this time it was directed at Celestia. “Making rainbows.” he let out a low laugh as he turned and looked at Scootaloo again. “The failures….oh how much they’ve provided for us over the past one thousand years. After you sent your sister away, and gave us the burden of creating rainbows, we had to develop something.” his malefic grin returned to the sisters below, but this time it seemed as if he was focusing on Luna. “Thank you, Nightmare Moon. Would it have not been for you, Commander Hurricane’s ingenious idea for these degenerates would have never seen the light of day.” Luna looked away, her ears folded down as she bit her lip.

“Though…Celestia…you take the cake. Your failure as a princess is quite evident. You had to send a HUMAN to stop me! You couldn’t even get that fat, cake eating flank of yours off that throne to come and stop me.”
“Enough Atmosphere! Come down here! You’re under arrest.” Celestia sneered.
“Arrest? I’ve done nothing wrong! All I’ve done is do what I was ordered, what all of us were ordered…by you. We’ve been creating rainbows for Equestria!”
“When I gave you that order, Atmosphere, this is not what I intended for you to do!” Celestia’s anger was becoming ever present.

“Wait…Celestia…if you want to arrest somepony…why don’t you arrest the supposed Element of Loyalty right next to you.” Atmosphere said in a psychotic tone. His free hoof pointed at Rainbow Dash, who had been standing there with a glare on her face the whole time. “She is as guilty as me! After all, just before this place was blown apart, she was going to kill this here filly!” Atmosphere shook Scootaloo, indicating she was who he was talking about.

“I…I…” Rainbow said, her head drooping in shame. “I was going to…” she admitted to both Celestia and Luna.
“SEE!” atmosphere exclaimed. “She admits to her claims of murder!”
“But you are a murderer too Atmosphere!” Rainbow yelled up at him.
“Am I? My hooves are clean of rainbows Dashie. I never once did anything to any of these foals.” he made a smug grin as he looked at Scootaloo. His free hoof came over and began to caress her broken cheek bone. “She is a beautiful mare.” he said softly. “It would be a shame to destroy her even further.”

He looked down at Rainbow Dash, a mad glare across her face again. “What do you say Rainbow Dash? Should I end her for you, since you’re to fucking scared to do it yourself. I mean, it’s ONLY your little sister. She apparently doesn’t mean anything to you.” he pulled his hoof away and readied it to strike.

Scootaloo was broken; torn; destroyed, but she was not dead. Her heavy breathing rushed onto Atmosphere as he readied to end her existence. Nothing came from the three mares standing in the factory below. Hide questioned to himself why none of them moved; why none of them spoke. He shrugged it off and brought his hoof inwards.

A rainbow colored eruption exploded across the lower factory floor, blowing some of the bodies away and scattering some of the clouds. The Sonic-Rainboom effected the sisters very little as a rainbow streaked upwards and collided with Dr. Atmosphere.

Rainbow Dash found herself leaning against the wall of the upper factory. Her breathing was erratic as she looked down and could see her rear hooves barely on a broken piece of metal. Her mind was numb, every inhale echoing throughout her conscious. The world around her seemed to have stopped.

Each breath brought with it a different smell into her nostrils. First it was broken metal, then followed by the smell of blood. As she continued to stare at her hind legs a crimson drop fell from her left outstretched arm. Another crimson droplet fell from the crook in her elbow, causing her to look up at that hoof.

Raptor opened his eyes to see the black marble room hovering in the void. He sighed and stood up from the platform he was on. “Ah back here again.” he said as he walked down the steps into the middle of the room. He glanced at the throne and saw no one there. Turning around he noticed that the being was standing up from leaning into the water pool. Upon noticing the being, he knelt down to one knee.

“Arise, Josh.” he said and Raptor stood back up.
“So, I assume I almost died again?” he asked as the being walked past him, returning to his throne.
“Indeed. You used almost all of your spirit energy on that explosion. If it wasn’t for Celestia having caught you from falling, you would have definitely died.”
“Well, it’d seem I need to thank her when I return….supposing I’d remember anything this time.” Raptor spoke as he walked over to the pool of water. He leaned on the tub’s edge and looked in. There stood Celestia and Luna…and Rainbow Dash. “So…I’m assuming you were returning Rainbow back to the ‘land of the living’?”
“Yes.” the being responded simply. This caused Raptor to look at him with annoyed sarcasm.
“Oh c’mon, why’d you send her back?” the being stayed silent. Defeated Raptor queried something else. “Are you going to allow me to remember anything OTHER than the fact that I’ve been here this time? It is quite annoying that I forget everything till I’m up here again, then suddenly I remember all of my previous visits.”

“It is my will that you forget. Are you questioning that?” the being asked, a slight annoyed tone accompanying his voice. Raptor smiled innocently and put his hands up in defense.
“Heh, no no, I wasn’t. I’m sorry.”

He looked back at the pool and watched the three ponies. They were flying over the factory now, or what could only be assumed was the factory. It didn’t seem the same as it had been before. “So about those dreams.” he finally said, looking up at the being that was just watching him. “Why did you give them to me?”
“I was trying to warn you of your future, Josh. You are aware of the consequences of your actions correct?”
“I knew what I was doing…there was no other choice…” Raptor looked dejectedly back at the pool.
“You could have shot higher…why didn’t you?” the being tilted its head in question.
“I…you know why I did, you know everything! Why are you asking me!?” Raptor jumped up and began to pace nervously. His actions were now in question and he didn’t know how to answer for them.
“Yes, but you don’t know why you did. Did you want to kill him?”
“No…” Raptor paused and looked at the being. “You know I don’t take lives senselessly.”
“Then why did you take his?”
“I MISSED!” Raptor turned full at the being, anger ever present.
“No, you didn’t…you purposely took his life. However, you did it to stop him from suffering the same fate as the others, because you knew you couldn’t save him.” The being continued to sit there, cool and composed as Raptor’s steam boiled away.
“I…

The being stood and walked over to Raptor and looked down into the pool. He placed his finger in it and the scene changed to nurses laying Raptor’s body in a hospital bed. “They moved you to Ponyville. That is where I will send you back to.” he said.
“Will I rememb-” the being snapped his head abruptly, cutting Raptor off. “Never mind.”
“Keep in mind you will be in immense amounts of pain upon your return, and…not everyone down there will be happy with you.”
“Why not? I destroyed the factory.” he said as he looked at the nurses mulling over his body.
“You have killed.” was the simple and dry response from the being.

“Oh…that…” Raptor said looking up at the beings mask. “Will she ever forgive me?”
“You will have to ask her that yourself.”
“Hmmm…Then I had best go find out.” he lifted himself over the tube’s edge, letting a foot hang into the pool.
“Before you go back there is one thing I will permit you to remember.” the being stated. Raptor paused, sitting on the edge of the pool. “Just know that there’s more to this. You’re not done yet. There are things behind these recent events in Equestria that are far larger than just this Rainbow Factory.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, a confused look on his face.
“Go.” with a nod Raptor rolled into the pool.

Gurgling and choking noises brought Scootaloo to reality as she found herself hanging over the edge of the catwalk. Painfully she rolled away from its edge and looked at where the drowning noise was coming from. At first she couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing, but after a second glance, she knew she was staring at cyan fur and rainbow colored hair.

Rainbow Dash watched the blood flow down her hoof from Atmosphere’s throat. He twitched and pawed at her arm to try and dislodge it from his jugular. His burdened breathing did nothing more but suck blood down into his lungs as he squirmed for life. Rainbow moved her hoof and felt metal. She had pushed her hoof all the way through his neck, somehow missing his spine and pinned him against the wall. The sight did nothing but make her smile.

Atmosphere choked and coughed, the muscles in his neck moving against Rainbow’s arm and spilling out more blood. His eyes began to roll back into his head as his movements slowed and then came to a halt. He went completely limp, all of his weight being put onto Rainbow’s arm. She slid her appendage from his throat with a sickening pop and let his corpse fall from the crevice. When it landed on the floor below it made a crunch that would churn stomachs.

Scootaloo ignored the fact that Atmosphere had fallen past her, or the fact that every inch of her body was in pain. All she cared about was the fact that her sister was now gliding to her, alive. With metallic clops, Rainbow Dash landed in front of the bleeding Scootaloo. She was laying on her side, blood running from her nose and cheek where Rainbow had repeatedly pummeled her. One of her eyes had already began to blacken, and the other was swollen closed.

Rainbow Dash knelt down and looked into Scootaloo’s good eye. “I’m so, so sorry for all of this, Scoots.” she said as Celestia and Luna joined them on the catwalk. With the nod of her head, Celestia ordered medics over to them. Scootaloo peered back into Rainbow’s rosy orbs, tears streaming from both eyes.

The salty liquid pride burned her wounds, but she didn’t care. She was so happy to see Rainbow Dash alive. All Scootaloo could do was cry in happiness. “I-…I saw you die.” Scootaloo choked out.
“I did. Celestia and Luna revived me.” Rainbow said, as she sat down and lifted her little sister into her arms.
“I…I…uh…I forgive you Rainbow…” Scootaloo appeared to be falling into unconsciousness as her eyes were constantly drifting from Rainbow’s. she would shake, and then return to looking at her sister.
“Stay awake!” Rainbow yelled.

The medics swooped in, the cyan pony’s shout making them move more hastily. “Please Mrs. Dash, we must take her.” the stallion medic said. She used her wings to help lift herself upwards and carefully place Scootaloo on the gurney.
“I love you…Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo said as her optical orb rolled backwards into her skull.
“Scootaloo!” the cyan mare yelled.

“She’s alive, Mrs. Dash, but we need to get her to intensive care right now. She might have internal bleeding.” the medic insisted. Rainbow flapped her wings in order to move back and get out of the way. The two medics took the gurney and flew away, Rainbow watching with dark wet streaks running down her cheeks.

“Rainbow Dash.” Celestia said, laying a comforting wing over the Bearer of Loyalty. “They have instructions to take any survivors to Ponyville Regional. That is where Scootaloo is being taken and where Raptor was taken as well.”

Celestia stepped away from the pegasus and looked up at the broken and crumbling Pegasus Device. It leaned precariously against the back wall of the room. The outside sunlight overrode the one amber light that had survived the blast. The Device’s monolithic and bloody maw sat bent and twisted, the wall it leaned against the only thing keeping it from falling in on itself. The broken vats at its base continued to leak a now slower stream of spectra onto the floor below.

“I still don’t know what this did Rainbow Dash.” she said, her vision continuing to gaze upon the twisted structure. Rainbow looked up at the machinery and sighed.
“We would drop them into the top.” she said, pointing with a slightly shaking hoof at the crimson mouth. “It would….would grind them up…and…harvest the magical spectra from their bodies.” the cyan mare sat, her body leaning against one of the bent railings that still remained on the catwalk, tears continuing to stream from her eyes.

“Sister.” Celestia said, looking up at Luna.
“Yes?”
“Have you recovered enough from our previous expense of magic to assist me once more?”
“I have. What is it you wish to do?” Luna responded curiously. With anger on her face Celestia stood erect and looked at the crumbling Pegasus Device.
“Help me destroy this piece of shit.” her horn began to glow as a rush of yellow magic began to flow up and down the spiraling shaft. Ignoring her sisters rash verbiage, Luna lit her horn as well.
“What spell sister?” she asked.
“The most destructive one you and I have practiced since your return.” Celestia said through gritted teeth.
“But that will blow out the wall.” Luna looked at the crumpled device with concern.
“I do not care. Destroy it!”

With a nod Luna let a burst of magic leap from her horn into the central throat of the monolith. Celestia joined her and their beams of magic began to cut through the monstrosity’s metal hull. Their magic beams closed in together and finally as night and day became one, a great flash erupted from the converging point of both beams.

Rainbow Dash heard the loud eruption and moved her hooves from her face just in time to see a white orb erupt outwards from the center of the Pegasus Device. It blew outwards and then curved around a shield Luna had put up to protect them from the blast. The brittle catwalk bent and buckled as the unprotected section began to succumb to the eruption. As it twisted and then fell, all three winged ponies lifted off of it and hovered.

Silence once again wafted in the breeze as what was once the upper factory now lay leveled. Chunks of black metal lay strewn across the white mist that had once surrounded the sinful building. Small fragments of once darkened clouds drifted with the upper atmospheric winds, to be carried off with the souls of the destroyed.

Three figures remained above the unrecognizable structure, now flattened by the very magic that had inadvertently ordered it’s construction. Tears fell, not along cyan fur, or dark blue fur, but perfect white fur. “I…did this…” Celestia stated through tears streaming down her face. “I caused this horrible creation to have existed…”
“No…” Luna stated as she flew up to her sister and stretched out a comforting hoof.
“I gave the order, Luna!” Celestia exclaimed, tear filled eyes swinging over to meet luminescent green orbs. “I gave them the order to create rainbows since I could not. If I would have been stronger…” she lowered her head, tears falling to the crumbled metal below. “None of this would have happened.” Luna embraced her sister, careful to not flap her wings into either of them so as to not make them fall. “No, my sister, the blame is not yours. You told them to make rainbows, they chose the means in which they procured the substance.”

Rainbow Dash watched the two regal sisters, tears of her own falling prey to gravity. She felt the same as Celestia, if not more shameful. She had seen this evil, but instead of exposing it like the festering sore it was, she simply dove right in and became as sick as the rest. She hung her head and headed for Ponyville Regional.

“Return to Canterlot, Tia. I will watch over the rest of the deconstruction of this facility. That is what you want done, right?” Luna said, floating away from her no longer crying sibling.
“Indeed Luna, tell them to begin deconstruction of the entire weather factory. Ensure the remaining injured are taken to Ponyville for medical care, I don’t want anypony left here. Tomorrow we will return and take aggressive action against whomever survived that was apart of this.”
“But Celestia…what about Rainbow Dash…she has admitted guilt to this crime…” Both sisters watched the rainbow streak that was heading for the small nearby town.
“Her punishment has been served, and she will continue to serve it. Every time she looks at the scars on Scootaloo’s body; the new factory that will stand in place of this one…she will suffer her punishment. I will return tomorrow, after I have regained my composure. I will see you again, sister.”
“Tomorrow!” Luna yelled after Celestia as a fare-well.

The white alicorn princess of day sped home, wishing to corral and subdue the anger, hatred, and suffering that had built inside her. The pain began to spew from her eyes as moisture fell from her royal cheeks. Anguish tore at her soul. No matter what Luna said, it didn’t change Celestia’s mind, she still blamed herself. Oh how much pain had been apart of that building? How many had died, needlessly? How long had they kept it a secret from her? She became impatient and simply teleported back to Canterlot Castle.

Pain suddenly tore through Raptor’s body as he awoke to be lying in a hospital bed. He let out a grunt as his breathing only caused more pain. He looked across his body and saw a blanket covering his torso. His right leg was lifted up in a strap and his left arm was as well. He dared not try to move, should it unleash pain that he hadn’t felt yet.

He turned his head to examine the room. It was well lit with plain two tone walls. The top half being a faded pink and the lower being somewhere near a dark turquoise. A curtain ran along the left side of his bed, separating him from the rest of the room. On the other side of him was a wall with a window in it. He could tell it was night time outside as he watched, for an unknown amount of time, the stars twinkle.

He found himself trying to figure out the constellations. None here were like back home. To try and appeal to his boredom, he began to play connect the dots. It wasn’t until he heard snoring come from past the base of his bed did he not know of anyone being around. His head shot up, looking down his broken body to see Rainbow Dash curled into a ball on a chair, sleeping. She was positioned to where she could see whoever was on the other side of the separation curtain.

“Rainbow!” Raptor exclaimed in a quiet and raspy voice. He cleared his throat and called for her again. Her head jerked up from her arm and with a tiered yawn she looked in the direction from which her name was being called. Her eyes shot wide when she saw him looking at her. With great excitement she leapt from the chair and nearly flew over to Raptor. Once next to his bead she looked down at him apologetically.

“I’m so sorry.” she said. “I dunno what I was thinking.”
“It’s okay Rainbow Dash, I don’t hold it against you. Though, I will say it is very strange to see you alive…” he said as he put his head back down.
“Oh…yeah…that…Princess Celestia and Luna revived me somehow.”
“Ah…good to know. Y’think maybe they could heal me a bit?” he nodded to his bandaged body.
“Heh, actually, they’ve been coming in here for the past three days casting healing spells on you and Scootaloo. I…uh…beat you two up pretty good.” she made an innocent smile as she rubbed the back of her head awkwardly.
“Past three days? How long have I been out?” he was suddenly concerned.
“About two weeks.” she said with an innocent smile.
“Damn Rainbow, when you knock someone up, you do a good job.”

“Would you guys shut up? I’m trying to sleep!” exclaimed Raptor’s neighbor. He looked at the curtain and then up at the mare standing over him.
“Scootaloo?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’ve been here every night to keep an eye on you two. Kinda making my back ach sleeping in that chair.”
“Why not sleep in one of the beds?”
“All of the ponies that survived the factory’s explosion were brought here. Celestia didn’t trust anypony else in Cloudsdale till she dissolved the city council and appointed new heads.”
“Chairmen, Rainbow Dash, they’re called chairmen…”
“Oh yeah, right.” she let out a subtle chuckle. She let out a weary yawn and did a small tiered smile.

“Do you…uh...wanna sleep here tonight Rainbow? As long as you don’t hurt me I don’t care.” Raptor said, trying to hide how uneasy asking that made him. She let out a concerned frown.
“I dunno, you already take up a lot of this bed…no where really for me to sleep.”
“Well, my left leg is okay, so I guess you could sleep on it…my dog used to..”
“I’m not a-” slight insult spread across her face as he held up his good hand with an amused smile.
“That’s not what I meant, I’m sorry.” she let out a little sigh and lifted into the air. As gently as she could she laid down on him where it didn’t hurt and fell asleep. He started at the ceiling as he tried to do the same, but having slept for two weeks nearly made it impossible.

The next morning, Scootaloo sat up as the hospital room doors opened. Twilight walked in holding a tray of food bowels. Fluttershy followed her in, a tray of more food on her back. The two mares had volunteered to assist the hospital in taking care of the injured that had come from the factory. With her magic Twilight set every bowel from her tray on each patients table, each one that was awake diving in and eating it immediately. After her tray was empty she sat it to the side and pulled the one from Fluttershy to continue setting bowels out. When they reached Scootaloo they stopped and smiled at her sitting up.

“You must be feeling better today Scootaloo.” Twilight said as she hovered a bowel onto the table tray next to the orange pegasus.
“Yeah I don’t hurt nearly as much thanks to your healing spells yesterday Twilight.” she stated as she grabbed her bowel and then began to devour it. As she ate she watched Twilight begin to walk away. Pausing, she looked over at the curtain that still remained and then back at the two temporary nurses. “Hey Twilight.” she said, stopping them in their tracks.
“Yes Scootaloo?” Twilight asked turning her head back at the young mare.
“I think Raptor might be hungry too.”
“I will feed him soon. After all, I have to get that special food we made for him. Seems to be the only thing he’ll keep down.”
“Oh okay. Just to let you know…he’s awake. Him and Rainbow Dash were talking last night. Woke me up…”
“He is!?” she bolted past Fluttershy and looked around the curtain. Raptor’s eyes moved from the ceiling to her, and a subtle smile crossed his face. She looked down at his legs and saw Rainbow Dash still asleep there.

“I was wondering if you had forgotten me, Twilight.” he said as he struggled to make his voice louder than a peep.
“Don’t talk to much, your sternum is still cracked. You took so much damage from your fight with…” she paused and looked at the snoring cyan pegasus. “…I haven’t been able to heal you fully.”
“It’s fine. I’ve been like this before, many times. This is nothing new.” he let out a small chuckle and then reeled in the pain it caused him.
“I will get your food. Hold on.” he slowly nodded as she walked away. After the pain subsided he looked down at Rainbow Dash.

He pondered why Twilight had acted that way towards Rainbow. Did she hold the events of the Rainbow Factory against her friend? It was a horrible act so great no one could forgive her? Her actions were from delusions and propaganda. He didn’t hold her accountable for that. Also she had been killed, not like her punishment wasn’t dealt.

Rainbow woke as soon as the smell of food entered her nostrils. Twilight had brought back some noodle soup and sat it next to Raptor. When he reached for it, and missed, Twilight lifted it up with her magic and slowly poured some of it into his mouth. He coughed a little, which caused him pain, but was happy to get to eat food. Rainbow Dash watched hungrily, but didn’t make a sound.

As Twilight walked past, she saw that Rainbow was awake. She had her eyes open, but her head was still laying on her hooves. Twilight couldn’t help but make a dissatisfied snort at her. This caused Raptor to raise an eyebrow in confusion. “What’s that all about?” he asked, laying his head back down because of his neck becoming tiered.
“My friends are mad at me because of the Rainbow Factory thing.” she said as her ears flopped down.
“That’s quite understandable. You’re an Element of Harmony. There was nothing harmonious about that facility.”

“Actually, it’s because I tried to kill Scootaloo….mostly….” She looked up at the curtain, barely being able to make out Scootaloo’s silhouette.
“Well, she’s your sister isn’t she?” Raptor asked, rolling his head over to look at the curtain too.
“No….not by blood at least, but…a couple years back she tried to impress me by not being afraid of some ghost stories I was telling her and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It almost got her killed because she ran away from our camp freaking out. I saved her from the river she almost fell in, and…vowed to take her under my wing.”

“How good of you. Did you know about the Rainbow Factory then?” he asked as he tried to look at her.
“I…I did. I’ve known about it since I won the Young Flier’s Competition 10 years ago. Dr. Atmosphere had come talked to me while I was hangin’ with the Wonderbolts. He said he had a job for me that’d pay more than my weather job in Ponyville and that they needed a flyer like me.

“So I agreed. I mean, more money meant that I could pay for Scootaloo to get into Early Flyer School.” she hopped off the bed and touched the curtain, as if to feel like she was caressing Scootaloo. “I just had no idea what I was getting myself into. They wanted me to perform the Sonic Rain-boom enough to generate rainbows, but…I still couldn’t do it on a regular basis. Dr. Atmosphere threatened to fire me, but I begged to stay. I needed the money…and I still hadn’t been shown the true side of the factory.”

“You’re a Bearer, Rainbow Dash…doesn’t Celestia pay y’all?” Raptor asked, confused.
“We aren’t apart of the military or anything. Just average mares that happen to be the Elements of Harmony. So no, Celestia doesn’t pay us. Which is why I had to stay. They paid really good!”
“But that’s not why you didn’t report them to Celestia upon discovering the Pegasus Device huh?” Rainbow walked over to where she could look Raptor in the eyes. Her ears were still down and her lip quivered.

“No…I didn’t report them because of the money. I…I wanted to protect Scootaloo from it, but instead I almost threw her into the machine myself.” she said looking away from Raptor, ashamed.
“There is a darkness in all of us Rainbow Dash. You have seen it manifested. Dr. Atmosphere was an evil person, and you fell in line with it because you thought you were doing what was right. Unfortunately you also let it take hold of you.”

Rainbow Dash just sat there, tears running down her cheeks. Raptor wanted to hug her and tell her it would be okay, but he couldn’t move. He noticed that Scootaloo’s silhouette had disappeared, as if she was laying down or something.

A week later Raptor stood for the first time in nearly a month. He fell forward just to have Rainbow Dash catch him. He pushed off her back and stood erect again. Slowly, he walked out of the hospital room. He was one of the last patients discharged from Ponyville Regional, and he couldn’t wait to get outside. As he limped out, an arm still folded in a brace, he breathed in a large breath of air. His chest no longer hurt and his collapsed lung was working fine. He felt better now than he did at the end of that bastard of a day.

“Celestia wants to speak to you and me.” Rainbow said, looking up to Raptor. “Think you can handle a little pony ride to Canterlot?”
“Rainbow, I’d prefer nothing less than a flight right now. I’ve been cooped up in a hospital room for three weeks, I think I’m ready to break free.” a subtle chuckle broke from his chest as he carefully climbed onto her back.

She opened her wings and pushed off with a great big flap. The cool air flowed across Raptor’s face and he took a moment to be childish. He let the air flow up his nostrils as he let his head lay back a little, the sun shining on his face. He felt alive and free, as if there were no worries in the world.

As they flew over a graveyard Raptor looked down and saw Scootaloo sitting in front of a grave stone. “I don’t remember that graveyard!” he yelled over the wind.
“Everypony that we could find that had died in that factory is buried there!” Rainbow yelled back.
“Oh…” he thought for a moment and then sighed. “Lets go down there!”
“Why!?”
“I wanna talk to Scootaloo! She seemed to ignore me most the time she was in the hospital!”
“Okay!”

Rainbow Dash banked and lowered altitude towards the graveyard, landing on the road nearby. Before she could stop completely Raptor hopped off and began limping towards the orange filly.

“Scootaloo!” he called. She turned around to her name being called and an angry scowl broke through the tears that had been streaming down her face.
“What do YOU want?” she barked as he got close to her. He looked at the grave stone in front of her and read the name aloud.
“Orion.” he lowered his head and looked away. “Scootaloo…I…I wanted to say I’m sorry…” he looked at her as her vision remained locked on the stone. She didn’t look at him, or away, just at the marble bearing Orion’s name. “I…I had to do what I did. I didn’t want him to…die like that…like the others…”
“So you KILLED HIM! In front of me! Just…just…SHOT HIM!” she yelled, her anger clearly boiling over. “I loved him Raptor! And you killed him! YOU FUCKING KILLED HIM! I HATE YOU!” her shout echoed across the grassy plains and into the mountain ranges surrounding the area.

“Yes, I did kill him.” he said calmly. “I killed him so that others may live.”
“Shut up!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “It didn’t have to be HIM though. Why him!?” she fell to the ground, sobbing. Raptor reached down with his un-bandaged arm and touched her shoulder. She jerked away and continued sobbing.
“May I ask you Scootaloo, to one day forgive me. Please recognize I did what I did because I had to…I am sorry…” he turned and walked back over to Rainbow Dash, who had been watching from the fence. Tears streamed down her face as she watched Scootaloo a second longer. After she was satisfied, she knelt down and let Raptor climb onto her back again. With a large push against the air, they were airborne again.

“Rainbow, may I ask you to do something for me?!” he yelled over the wind.
“What’s that?!” she yelled back, her teary eyes not leaving Canterlot in the distance.
“Make sure she forgives me, I don’t want her to hate me for the rest of her life!”
“I’ll do what I can!”
“Thank you!” he yelled as he looked back at the graveyard, just barely being able to make out Scootaloo. She was still on the ground in the same spot.

Rainbow Dash landed on the ground in front of the entrance to Canterlot Castle. Raptor hopped off her back and they both looked up at the doorway. “Princesses Celestia and Luna are waiting for you both.” A guard at the door said as he opened his side of then door with his magic. A guard on the other side opened his side of the door as well. They both walked in and towards the throne room.

Raptor and Rainbow Dash walked into the throne room through its main entrance to see guards lining the red carpet that led to the thrones. As soon as they had stepped in the nearest guards blew horns to announce their presence. “You told me there’d not be a ceremony.” Raptor whispered to the cyan pegasus as they walked.
“And you said you‘d wear something nice.” she responded in kind.

They walked down the carpet, ponies lining every corner of the room behind the row of guards. The other Bearers of Harmony stood with Princess Celestia and Luna on the platform where the thrones usually sat. Once they reached the welcoming party, Rainbow joined the others as Raptor knelt before them all.

“Colonel Raptor of Earth. It is with great pride that I, Princess Celestia, recognize you as not only a great hero, but an ally of Equestia and a dear friend.” Celestia’s voice boomed and echoed through the room. “You came here not knowing who any of us were, not knowing if we were friend or foe, and yet; you still risked your life for us.” He looked up at her and noticed all of them were smiling down at him. “For your brave acts inside the Rainbow Factory, and for revealing it to us, I dub you Royal Escort of Canterlot!” the room erupted into cheers as a badge hovered from an open box Spike held and clipped into his tattered uniform. In a vibrant gold color, the badge depicted an alicorn, wings wide, with a sun over it’s horn. Inside the sun crested a moon.

The room fell silent as Raptor stood and looked from the badge to Celestia. “I am grateful for this, Celestia…but…I don’t deserve it. I was simply doing what I do. And…I went against what you told me.”
“What was that?” Celestia asked, her smile only wavering slightly.

“I killed some of your subjects…after you had asked me not to.” he looked into her eyes, remorse stricken.

Her smile grew as she walked down the stairs and looked deep into his eyes. “I had asked you not to kill my subjects yes, but who you killed were murderers. Those kind of ponies, are not my subjects. You are free to go Colonel, I’m sure your people are missing you.” a beam shot from Celestia’s horn and portal opened behind the human. He looked over his shoulder and saw the living room to his apartment on the Highrule. He sighed and looked back at Princess Celestia.

“Will I ever see you guys again?” he asked, his vision dancing across the Bearers of Harmony.
“Only if I can ask one more favor of you.” she stated matter-of-factly.
“Anything, Princess.”
“Should I ever need you again, may I call on you for assistance.”
With a smile and a slight nod he said, “Of course, my weapons are yours.”

“Figuratively right?” she asked smiling.
“Huh?” Raptor looked at her, slightly confused.
“You do want these back correct?” she asked as his backpack and weapons hovered over to him, her gold hue surrounding them.
“Oh…heh…right…thank you.” he took them with his good arm and let them hang by his side as he turned to step into the portal. He looked back at the stage and waved goodbye one last time.

As he stepped through he could still hear the cheers coming through. Suddenly his room went dark and silent as the portal closed abruptly. The subtle hum of the Highrule’s engines were the only thing permeating the silence. He sat his stuff down in the middle of the room and walked over to the window. With great curiosity he gazed out into space to see that the ship was now hovering over Earth. Plasma scoring could be seen along the ships hull as if it had been in a battle.

The sound of a hologram appearing made Raptor turn around. Standing next to his stuff stood the disgruntled looking Ractrin, Valtor. “Just simple ponies huh?” he said with a chuckle as he walked over and motioned to Raptor’s bandages.
“Val, you would not believe how badly those ponies beat the crap outta me.”
“One of these days your arrogance is gonna get you killed.” he laughed as he walked over to Raptor’s stuff and with the snap of a finger they were teleported away. Raptor walked into the room and painfully pulled his vest off. It too was teleported away before it could hit the ground.

“Where’s Masha?” Raptor asked.
“On the bridge, doing your job and worried sick about you.” with a smile Raptor began to limp out of the room. “Josh…” Raptor stopped and looked over his shoulder at the hologram. “Do you think they’ll ever call for you again? I mean…those ponies seemed to be pretty happy that you had come. I heard all of the cheering.”
“I don’t think this is the last we’ve seen of them.” with that he walked out of the room.

Epilogue: The War of Sun and Moon

Princess Cadence looked out from the top of her Crystal Castle, across the Crystal Empire and into the lands of Equestria. Smoke billowed and magical explosions could be heard cascading over the mountains. “Aunt Celestia….Aunt Luna…what have you done?” she whispered as a guard approached her.
“It is confirmed my princess.” Sherem stated as he knelt before her. “The princesses of Equestria are at war.” She looked at him softly, and then let out a sigh.
“Thank you, Sherem. You may return to your regular duties.”
“Yes ma’am.” he said as he stood and walked out of the room. Cadence walked over to a flower pot that sat next to her thrown and put a hoof on the picture of a very old Shining Armor.
“Guard!” she shouted. The nearest guard to her approached her and knelt.
“Yes your highness?” he said respectfully.
“Prepare my things, I’m going on a trip.” she ordered as she sat on her throne.
“But…your majesty…Equestria is not a safe place to be!” he stated with great concern.
“I’m not going to Equestria.” Her horn began to glow turquoise as she spoke. A beam shot out and created a portal in the middle of the room. On the other side of it could be seen a room much unlike anything on the pony world. “I’m going to get help.”