“Genocide in Cloudsdale!” screamed the headlines.

The Factory.

It controlled life.

The Race.

The participants crashed through clouds. They broke windows and walls.

“She can’t fly, so she’s useless?” cried an instructor.

“No!” another replied in response.

“We’ve had enough.”

Masses mobbed Cloudsdaled.

“Give us answers , Celestia!”

Celestia towered over the masses on a cloud balcony and assured them “Your youth who don’t meet the standards of Cloudsdale, are cared for in the best way possible. We understand what the Pegasi want, but we require time…”

“Where is my boy?!” a large yellow pegasus stallion bellowed, his eyes contorted into a look of contempt, glowering at the princess. A cream colored mare buried her face into his chest, muttering words Celestia could barely hear as ‘I miss my little colt.’

Celestia scuttled back, and stammered, “He, I’m certain, he, is, um, is safe.”

The stallion remained silent. He swiveled his head, squinting at the others at his side. He looked forward.

“That’s enough.” he growled. He slammed his hoof into the clouds and dug it in, causing the cloud floor to sparkle.

Celestia scattered away, fluttering into the air.

“I, I can explain!” she sputtered.

“No you can’t!” the stallion shouted He grinded his hooves forward, moving one in front of the other, causing the clouds at his hooves to sparkle.

He marched forward. “Where is this land where our foals are held?” he demanded. “What is the land’s name?”

“How are rainbows made?” he shouted.

He slammed his hoof into the cloud, generating a lightning bolt that shot into the sky, nearly hitting Celestia in the face.

“Where are rainbows made?” he growled.

The crowd surrounded the princesses. The royals glanced at each other. Luna leapt into the sky with tears streaming from her eyes, leaving Celestia surrounded.
Celestia stood still on the cloud balcony with a frozen smile, peering into the crowd.

“Explain it!” the stallion howled.

“Liar!” another shouted.

“Citizens,” Celestia began. She leapt into the sky “The next race is only a few days away. You will see that it is conducted with the utmost of standards.” After this declaration, she darted from the balcony and flew away toward Canterlot.

The crowd watched their princess flee.

Cries rang from the crowds.

“What does she know?”

“Where are our foals?”

“We can’t let them get away with this!”

One mare, while photographing the commotion and sitting and observing the chaos of the emergency meeting, spread her wings, and flew off.

She alighted on a cloud. She watched the fillies and colts fly through the course. Most of the foals passed the exam, but the few failures were gathered into a small area near a carriage. She watched as a crowd of ponies shoved them into a this carriage, which sped away. She followed it.

With a small camera strapped to her chest, the mare dashed between buildings, observing the carriage’s circuitous and repetitive path. She watched it meander around the floating city, making random stops, until it ended its journey at a side section of the weather factory, guarded by one pony.

“Interesting,” she stopped with it and revealed herself.

The guard wore a canvas mask and smock that hid his face and cutie mark, but not his wings.

She approached him. “Haven’t you ever wondered what’s going on back there?” she asked, pointing with her hoof toward the storm cloud wall.

“They just pay me to stand here,” was the guard’s deadpan reply.

“And you never wonder where the foals disappear to?”

“I said they just pay me to stand here.” he looked into the distance.

The mare shoved a pile of bits at the guard. “500. No questions asked.”

The guard marveled with wide eyes at the pile of bits at his hooves.

“And nopony else would have to know,” she added. “You could just give me your uniform and let me in. Nopony is watching, are they?”

“But… But. I’m on official Guardian payroll” the stallion said, trembling and peering at the pile of cash.

“You don’t have to go anywhere. Just don’t spend it all in one place.”

The guard shrank away.

“Like I said, they don’t know who I am.”

She produced a bag from her saddlebags. “Hide the cash in here. Give me your uniform.”

“But this is my uniform, and…”

She slammed a hoof into the cloud. “And you can buy another one now.”

“And if they find me without my uniform?”

The mare peeked past the guard into the door. “Give it to me. If this doesn’t work, then this problem is neither of our business and you won’t see me again.” She glared at the guard. “Let me in.”

The stallion removed his mask and smock and offered them to her.

She donned the disguise. She entered the door. Just inside the door and embedded into the left wall was a small emblem of red, yellow, and blue pillars superimposed over a white cloud with cartoonish wings spread to each side. She entered a hallway constructed of clouds. A dull buzzing introduced itself. She winced.

Inside the hall was a whirring sound, which grew louder as she progressed. The light gray clouds of the path darkened until she reached a black wall of stormy clouds where lightning flashed. Within these clouds was a set of massive, thick, rusted iron doors.

She stood near them with a crowd of ponies. Everypony else was wearing a disguise; the same canvas mask and coat she’d stolen from the guard.

She slunk through the hallway. A sign just inside the door said in large letters “DEVICE STATUS: OPERATIONAL”.

The noise was inescapable and overwhelming, like that of countless knives being sharpened against granite. She lowered her ears against her head and squinted. Though The sound was painful and horrible, but she entered.

Endless noise. She lifted her head and opened her eyes and saw how massive the room was. Storm cloud walls stretched on all sides. The room was as black as a moonless night, except for the lightning

She cowered and trembled behind a bank of dark clouds, only illuminated by the frequent flashes of lightning. The noise - the whirring, grinding, searing, clanking noise. She cowered in a corner, tears dripping from her eyes. “This can’t be real,” she whimpered.

She stood, pulling her legs underneath, and moved forward.

She jumped, flapping her wings and leaping into the air and bouncing from a dark cloud. The cloud presented the sound of countless sawblades cutting the air mixed with banging metal plates and rattling chains.
She rose over a crest and the source of the sound of the sound revealed itself. It was an enormous machine of whirring blades within a pit.

She observed the adults in crude disguises that matched what she’d seen she’d stolen and was wearing. Then, she saw the foals, the same as those from the flying competition earlier in the day. The children sat by the dozens, cowering on the cloud floor with disguised adults pressing over them.

A worker swooped in and loomed over her. “Pick one. Make it quick,” the pony said, “We don’t have all day.”

She peered into the mask of the worker, unable to know if this was a mare or stallion.

“Whatever. I’ll do it.” the worker grumbled. “I can tell that you’re new here.”

The worker grabbed a nearby foal and dropped it into the machine.

The blades whirred and consumed the foal, blood spraying from the top of the machine, and rainbow colors flowing from tubes at the bottom.

She dropped to her hackles and wept, but she still watched.

One by one the workers grabbed a foal and dropped each into the machine.

The colors flowed from eight glass tubes at the base of the machine into separated vats. She froze.
“Oh no,” she whimpered. “Cloud Blitz, Red Haze, Green Flash!” she recited her friends’ names who’d never come home from the exam.

The worker returned to her side, presenting her with several foals whose wings and legs were bound. “Your turn,” she said.

The mare stood still.

“I get that you’re new, but it’s for the greater good. You get used to it. Pick one.”

She remained still.

“First day jitters. That’s fine. It happens.” The pony gestured to another, who grabbed a terrified colt.

She heard his desperate shouting as they tossed him in. “Mom, no! Celestia, Luna, No! I’m sorry! I love youzzzrt.”

Colors flowed from the tubes.

She trembled and collapsed at the sight. “Can I just go off to the side? I’m not ready.” she squeaked. “I know they told me, but, but… I need to adjust.”

“Sure,” the white-coated pony answered. “It takes time.”

The worker turned away from her and returned to her duty.

She slunk away, hidden in the shadows. The workers ignored her and she removed the small camera from where she’d hid it under her wing and photographed the destruction.

She’d stopped shaking. “You have to do this,” she affirmed herself. She measured her breathing The buzzing sounds of the machine’s feeding crept behind her. She held back tears as she escaped the facility.

The machine wound down. The dark, stormy clouds remained. The thundering slowed and stopped. She wandered to the exit alongside the rest of the crew.

“It’s another productive day of rainbow creation” exclaimed the rainbow-maned pony who had appeared the crowd, floating above the others on spread wings. “We’ve given Equestria another round of what they demand!” She photographed this underneath her shroud.

With the machine shut down, the workers shuffled out of the room. Though they wore masks, she could see their devastation. One young stallion stumbled. “This isn’t real,” he cried.

“I just wanna go home,” a mare grumbled.

“Only one day in hundreds,” somepony whispered.

She departed with them through the doors. From the corner of her eye, she watched the sign switch from “DEVICE STATUS: OPERATIONAL” to “DEVICE STATUS: STANDBY.”

She walked behind two ponies who were talking quietly to each other.

“When’s the next race?” one whispered.

“Two weeks,” the other answered.”

“So, DEVICE STATUS: STARTUP in 14 days,” one sighed. “Maybe I’ll get some real sleep for a few days.”

“Shutup outside the doors,” the other pony whispered back.

“I know,” the first pony hung his head.

Having heard this, she darted around the dazed workers and to the the door she’d used to enter. She traced her steps and found the guard door. She jumped and pounded on it with both of her front hooves. The door opened, revealing the same guard, who looked surprised.

“You’re back?”

The mare tossed the disguise toward him. “Keep it,” she quivered, before vomiting and collapsing onto the cloud ground.

“Are you okay?” the guard said as he donned the disguise.

She pulled herself from the ground one leg at a time, shook her head, and grunted, “No.” She burst into the sky with a flick of her wings.

The newspapers printed the stories.

“Fake!”

“Propaganda!”

“Misinformation!”

She revealed more photos over the coming days.

“Where did my daughter go?”

“Where is my brother?”

“I miss my cousin.”

It explained the origin of rainbows. Word spread between ponies in secret.

With the news reaching critical mass and creating a frenzy, a crowd gathered in the center of Cloudsdale.

“We take it down today!” a pony shouted.

“No more!”

“Destroy it now!”

Celestia dropped into the middle of the town square. “My little Ponies,” she declared, smiling above the crowd. She paced among the multitude; her massive wings spread wide. “This anger and frustration is gestured toward what is nothing more than a conspiracy. We can show…”

“SHUTUP!” came a shout from the crowd.

Celestia silenced and stopped. She loomed over the crowd, still spreading her enormous wings, her face glowering with anger.

The crowd marched past her toward the weather factory.

Celestia gathered herself. “My little ponies, there is no need for this animosity…”

A pony sneered at her and spat. “Liar.”

Celestia jumped back.

The mob ignored her and marched through the open and clean public section, scattering, and frightening the workers there.

“Leave them alone!”

“They’re innocent!”

“We need the others!”

The Mob approached the dark doors. They reached the dark and stormy cloud section.

“Hit it hard!”

“Give everything!”

The echoes of dozens of hooves destroying the barrier rang until the doors gave way in a cacophonous rattle. The metal groaned and strained. It snapped apart in a great crash of straining and failing iron. The enormous metal doors gave way. The numerous ponies invaded.

A tremendous noise emerged from inside. A whirring and clanking, a rattling of gears, a buzzing of enormous sawblades reached their ears. The mass of ponies entered shouting.

“Let them go!”

“Die!”

“Stop the killing”

“Kill the factory!”

“Throw yourselves in, cowards!”

The factory aides tried to stop the mob. Workers on a catwalk above the machine grappled the invading ponies and directed them toward the machine, but they were outnumbered and prevented by others.

“Stop them!”

The crowd jumped onto the belt and constrained the aids.

“Enough!” One pony wrenched another’s neck.

“Stop.” A hoof punched another pony’s face.

A pony from the mob looked up at the platform, toward where a worker had just thrown a little colt on the conveyer belt into the machine. The colt galloped as fast as he could, but the belt brought him closer. The worker ripped off his mask and reached in.

“Get away from him, you monster!” she shouted as she jetted to the machine. Two workers raced after her. She kicked one worker to the side, who fell in a heap on the catwalk, dazed. Two ponies emerged from the mob, kicking the controls, and constraining the other workers. A mare reached in as far as she could, but couldn’t reach the desperate colt as he neared the blades.

A blinding flash and shower of sparks surrounded them as the controls were destroyed. The conveyer ground to a halt and the blades stopped, their echoes fading into the thunder of the cloud walls. The colt ran up to the platform and into the waiting hooves the rescuer. “I’ve got you now,” she whispered into the ear of the whimpering colt as she grabbed him, “You’re safe.” She grappled him and drifted away toward the white cloud walls.

The machine faded.

The Cloudsdale guards arrived, restraining the workers as others gathered the remaining foals.

The remaining crowd ripped the hoods from the heads of every worker, revealing their identities.

The authorities arrived and gathered the workers.

The dark, thunderous room sat empty and still for days until a few ponies gathered the strength to enter and bear the smell of metal, grease, and blood so that they could bolt shut the door.

Author's Note

What happens when a society discovers that its entire existence is based on a lie? That its youth are sacrificed?