The Factory's Remnants

After the typical hectic morning, traffic slowed in the early afternoon as ponies returned to work after lunch. “Is it alright if I leave for a bit? Just to check out other stuff here?”

Lightning Blitz snorted.

“I’ll be back in less than an hour. I just need to pick up a few things.”

“Go ahead. As long as you’re back before 3, for the busy close.”

“Thanks.” He lifted off and drifted down the street. While looking down at each stall, he saw the same hooded pony again, whose head turned to watch him fly by, though the yes remained hidden. “That’s even weirder,” he observed.

He found the incense shop, dropped to the cloud, and approached. The stallion who sat at the stall wore green tinted glasses and his red mane was piled into a woolen hat. Thundercloud dropped an old, crumpled coupon on the table.

The stallion grinned weakly with half-lidded eyes and said, “Cool, Brightwing. She sends a lot of ponies here.” He reached under the desk and dropped two packages of incense on the front. The clerk moved so slow that Thundercloud wondered how he had passed the exam. They exchanged bits and Thundercloud turned around to fly away, only to see the hooded pony standing mere feet from him.
“Can I help you?” he huffed.

“Perhaps,” a mare’s voice said, barely above a whisper. “Let’s have a little talk.” The voice sounded familiar, like a long forgotten dream brought back by a disconnected memory. She pointed to a shadowed alley. “In there.”

“No. Why should I go with some crazy pony into a dark alley?”

She flipped off the hood to reveal a puffy golden mane and white coat.

“Doctor Rush?”

“Mister Dark,” she replied.

He jumped into the air and jetted away. She followed and caught him in seconds.

She settled next to him in flight, inches away from his flank. “It’s now, or later.” Her high pitched voice oozed with menace, but also with joy, as though she’d waited her life to tell him this. “I can keep up for hours. After all, that’s why we were chosen.”

Thundercloud pretended not to listen. He shot over the hay stall and continued toward random buildings until he could barely breath, yet she remained at his side. They flew like this for several minutes. With every dodge, she dodged. With every dive, she dove. He couldn’t break away from her. Exhausted, he dropped into a dark alley. She drifted down in front of him and sat inches from his face.

“You could never get away from me, no matter how hard you fly. After all, we passed our exams.” She twisted her mouth into the most insincere and ominous grin he’d ever seen. “The nerve of you, making me show my face in public.”

He struggled to catch his breath. “Nopony. Knows. Who. You. Are.”

“They didn’t know who you were either. Until you decided to start spilling our secrets, Mister Dark.”

Thundercloud gathered his breath. “How long have you been watching me?”

“I’ve been around ever since you came here, The Factory never ends.” she lifted a front hoof and waved it in the air, indicating Cloudsdale. “The market is always busy. You probably never even noticed. After all, I am still technically your supervisor.”

She stood and started circling him as he sat looking at the ground. “We thought firing you was enough. It always has been before. But you’re a tough one to get rid of.” The mare grabbed a pendant from under her cloak. She turned it to show the Royal Seal. “She had to send me out of hiding just to deal with you.” The mare said.

Thundercloud’s jaw hung open. “It’s a capital crime to have that without permission!”

“Yes, I know.” She shoved it back under her cloak. “It’s so She knows that you know She means it, and so do we.” She stuffed the seal under her cloak.

Thundercloud stood and matched her circling. “You’d just leave my body in alley?”

She giggled and shook her head. “No, no. Here’s what’s going to happen. You go back into your crummy little shack on the ground,” she spat the final two words. “Stop talking to all those friends you’ve made. Quit that dead-end job. And you can have the old life back.”

“Why would I want that old life?”

“Because it would be such a shame if everypony you care in you new life about started suffering misfortune.” Her words dripped with contempt.

“What!?”

“You’re really friends with a failure, one you were supposed to cull, who had the audacity to marry another failure, and they’re having kid who’s destined to be another failure? Ugh,” she snorted. “That’s the kind of degradation we were trying to avoid. And that kid you work with? I’ve seen him. Another failure. A disgrace. And there’s nothing we can do about it anymore. Oh, it just fills me with shame.”

Thundercloud spread his wing and shouted “Those ponies are my friends, , you won’t live to see…”

Surprise laughed. “We’re long past that, as much I wish we weren’t. Your friend, that kid selling hay, blah blah. They should have lit up the sky. It would have been beautiful. No, what’s going to happen is that your friend, what’s his name?”

“Sunny Blaze, and Vapor Puff?”

The gleeful look left her face. “Ah, names they shouldn’t have. Anyway, those two, well, they might see complications, so to speak, at their place of employment.”

Thundercloud stood still. “Like what?”

“As if I would tell you. And that job, we’re just going to line up and take up so much time that they won’t even think it’s worth it and pack up and leave. Maybe they’ll find damage to their stall one morning. I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I don’t plan these things. I’m just here to warn you.

“As for that sweet doctor of yours, well, at least you found somepony who passed the exam, but that’s not good enough.” The mare flopped onto her back. “We can just overwhelm her with so many forlorn former workers. Oh, I feel so bad I worked there!” She pretended to cry but started laughing. “I can’t keep up that act. It’s so ridiculous.” She turned over and stood. “Just do what you’re told, and nopony but you has to suffer, got it? There is no negotiation. You know She accepts none. The choice is yours, and yours alone.” She spread her wings and lowered her body to spring into the air.

“Hey, Surprise,” Thundercloud said.

She froze.

“Surprise, right? Your real name? Not the fake one they gave all of us?”

She kept her back toward him. “How do you know that?”

“The records aren’t as secure as you think. Maybe you should keep an eye out for yourself.”

She turned swiftly and pressed her face into his, scowling.

“Why would you do this?” he asked.

“Because She wants it all to go away, Mister Dark.”

“I thought so.” He smirked. “What’s my real name?”

She growled.

“You don’t even know my real name, do you? You never did, and I’m not telling you.”

Surprise backed away.

“You’re not immune either,” Thundercloud warned. “I know my friend’s name. I was supposed to kill him. You told me. I’m protecting him.”

She jumped into the air and darted off, disappearing into a bank of clouds.

He returned to the stall. To his surprise only thirty minutes had passed.

“Who was that you were flying with?” Lightning Blitz asked.

Thundercloud hesitated. “Oh, you saw that. Uh, an old friend I hadn’t seen in a while. Challenged me to a race. She’s still got it. I don’t.

“She beat you even while wearing that ugly outfit?” Blazer exclaimed.

“Yeah, yeah.” Thundercloud feigned embarrassment.

Lightning Blitz sighed. “I swear, stallions never really grow up. Well, at least you’re back early.”

The day continued to sundown without anything else going wrong, but Thundercloud kept Surprise’s/Doctor Rush’s threat on his mind. As he helped pack up for the night, he swore that he’d warn everypony she threatened the day.

After sunset, Thundercloud rushed to see Sunny Blaze and Vapor Puff. He flopped in front of the door and lifted his hoof, preparing to beat on it like it was an emergency. It was, but he didn’t want to startle them. He rapped a few times.

The after opened after a delay. Vapor Puff stood there eying him. “What happened? What do you want?”

“What do I want?”

She didn’t answer.

“It’s not about me. It’s about us. The three, uh,” he stared at her belly, “four of us. We might be in trouble.”

Vapor Puff squinted and delayed. “Get in here.”

Sunny Blaze was standing over the sink washing dishes. When he saw Thundercloud, he dropped what he was doing and stood by Vapor Puff’s side. “What’s going on?”

“I got threatened by Them today. It might get really bad around here.” He explained what Surprise had told him.

Sunny Blaze stood silent. He and Vapor Puff looked at each other. “I know we’ve gotten to be friends,” he said, “but I really need to be sure you’re telling the truth.”

“Why would I lie? I’ve done everything I can to get away from it. She didn’t know my name, or at least pretended not to. She was shocked I knew hers.”

Vapor Puff rested her head on Sunny Blaze. “I’m just too tired and I’m so close to deal with another thing like THIS!” She slammed her hoof into the ground, causing a low thunder to ripple through the apartment.

“Do you think they of our group?” Sunny Blaze asked.

“She only threatened ponies I know. I think they were only tracking me.”

“But you said ever since you came to Cloudsdale…”

“Maybe it’s only since they knew I was here. Wait, that explains the bits!”

The two looked at him quizzically.

“Sunny, remember when you first came by and tossed the money into my house?”

Sunny Blaze nodded.

“When I went back to my old place, there were two bags of bits there. There should have been three. They didn’t know I was gone for a while. When I stopped picking up my money, they must have known something was wrong. That was after I met your friends.”

“So they might not know about our group,” Sunny Blaze said.

“Or they might,” Vapor Puff replied, “and are faking us out.”

“Why would it matter?” Thundercloud asked. “It’s me they want, and they’re threatening you to get at me.”

“Because we might just be able to do something about it.”

Vapor Puff frowned at him. “Wait, you’re really suggesting a vigilante group?”

“Whoa, no,” Sunny Blaze pushed back. “Just watching. If the Factory doesn’t know about our group, then they won’t suspect a thing.”

Thundercloud stepped forward. “For as little as I was getting paid for these last twenty years, compared to when I was, um, active, I don’t think they have the resources. They might not know.”

“Leave me out of this,” Vapor Puff demanded. “I can’t risk it, as much as I’d love to kick this Surprise pony in the teeth.”

Sunny Blaze draped a front leg over Thundercloud’s shoulder. “Go home. I’ll talk to them tomorrow. We have ponies across a lot of fields. I think we can get something together. Get some sleep, and I’ll tell you later what we’ve got together.”

Thundercloud dropped into the stall the next morning; jolting awake a sleeping Blazer.

“Whoa, dude! I didn’t expect you to be so early!” Blazer yawned.

“Well, one thing I haven’t lost from working at the Factory is my punctuality.”

Blazer pulled himself to his hooves. With his head down, ears drooped, and eyes halfway closed, he moved to open the stall door, but it slipped and dropped on his nose. “Ow, ow, ow!”

Thundercloud pulled the door open and locked it in place, revealing nopony outside yet. He turned to the teenager. “Let me look.”

Blazer grimaced, holding both hooves over his nose.

“Move your hooves,” Thundercloud commanded.

Blazer did.

Thundercloud squinted, peering at the young colt’s face. “Oof, you’re gonna have a nasty bruise. But I don’t see any bleeding. I think I have something.” He reached into his saddlebag with his muzzle, pulled a hangover pouch from one, and dropped it on the colt’s snout.

Blazer snorted in surprise and then settled into a crouch. “This is amazing.”

Thundercloud pulled one of the colt’s front legs forward to the bag. “Hold it on until the sting goes away.”

“What in Tartarus did you do to my boy?!” a clamorous voice shouted through the entrance. Lightning Blitz approached, her spread wings pushing away the few other ponies.

Thundercloud folded his ears and wings and backed away. “Nothing, I swear, I, I did nothing. It was an accident!”

“Mom, stop!” Blazer jumped between the two, the bag still draped over his snout. “I was tired. I dropped the door on my nose!”

“What’s in that bag?” Lightning Blitz demanded.

“I, I don’t know. Thundercloud gave it to me.”

Lightning Blitz glared at Thundercloud. “Just giving my kid weird stuff, huh?”

Thundercloud backed away with his ears still folded. “It’s just sage, mint and sugar. I keep them for things like this!”

Lighting Blitz trotted to her son and sniffed the bag. “Leave me alone, mom! That’s what happened,” the small stallion sniffled.

Lightning Blitz glowered at Thundercloud.

Blazer shouted, “By the way of Luna, Mom, why don’t you just believe me sometimes?”

Lightning Blitz turned to face her son.

Blazer stood and pressed his face into his mother’s; the pouch slid off his nose. “Not everything bad that happens to me is the fault of some conspiracy. Sometimes I just MESS UP!” he shouted. He paused and calmed himself. “Can’t you let me even fail on my own. Or does it always have to be somepony else’s fault?”

Thundercloud stepped back and watched Lightning Blitz press her nose against her son’s “You watch yourself!” Lightning Blitz commanded.

Blazer remained silent, except for his snorting.

The two circled each other, pressing their faces together, snorting streams of breath into each other’s faces.

Thundercloud darted to intercept them. “Enough of this!” He jumped in and shoved them apart.

Blazer and Lightning Blitz dropped to their hooves, still snorting, and facing each other.

Thundercloud continued, “mother and son, fighting like this. C’mon, this is stupid.”

Lightning Blitz snorted, “and what would you know about handling kids? You’re a shiftless loser almost old enough to be my dad working a teen’s job.”

“A lot,” Thundercloud muttered toward the ground. “Just not like you think.” He looked up at her.

Blazer stumbled to his hooves. “Mom, you jerk!”

Thundercloud sat down and drooped his head and ears. “Blazer, she’s right. I am kind of a loser.”

“No you aren’t! You used to work for the Rain…” Blazer stopped and covered his mouth with his hooves.

Lightning Blitz eyed Thundercloud skeptically. “Work for the what?”

Thundercloud stood and turned his head to Lightning Blitz. “I have something I should explain to you,” he said. “I’m done with violence.”

Blazer piped up, “Aww c’mon Thundercloud, don’t you wanna keep your job? I know you scared me, at first, but I like you.”

Lighting Blitz stamped a hoof into the cloud floor, causing a lightning bolt to erupt. “What in name of the Sun are both of you talking about?!” She turned and grabbed Blazer under his front legs. “Were you about to say what I think you were?”

Thundercloud closed his eyes. “Yes, he was.” He drew a deep breath. “I used to work at the Rainbow Factory.”

Lightning Blitz smothered the colt. “You can’t have him!”

Blazer wriggled in his mother’s grip. “Let me go, Mom! I’m not a foal.” He broke free from his and landed on a small nearby cloud. “He already told me.”

Lightning Blitz scowled. “You knew?”

Blazer struggled free. “I mean, I found out by accident. I made a joke about the old guy working at the Factory, and he said he did.”

“Old guy?” Thundercloud muttered, but they didn’t hear him.

“And you kept this a secret?”

“What was I supposed to do, mom? You like how hard he works, and I like him.”

“Didn’t you ever think he might be some kind of creep?”

“Yes! Until he said I was good at this,” tears fell from his eyes, “and that nopony deserved to become a rainbow.”

“He’s just trying to trick you!”

Thundercloud watched this exchange. “Will you two STOP!” he shouted. He shoved a hoof into the cloud, causing a lightning bolt to shoot into the clouds between them.

Blazer and Lightning Blitz paused their argument.

Thundercloud approached them. “That was a long time ago. I haven’t seen it since the mob wrecked the place.” Thundercloud sighed. “If you don’t want me around, fine. I’ll leave. But you won’t sell hay nearly as well without me unloading it. You told me yourself.”

Blazer opened his wings, flew next to Thundercloud, and hugged him.

Blazer let go and explained, “I was scared when he first said he worked there, but he’s not a freak Mom, he’s been really nice to me, and he’s good to work with. He reminds me of Dad.”

Lightning Blitz scowled at Thundercloud.

“Mom, I’m not gonna be a foal forever.”

Lightning Blitz pressed her nose up against Thundercloud’s “I don’t trust you, but I need your help. You only talk to him while you’re both here.”

Blazer scoffed. “Oh. My. Moon, mom. I’ve only ever seen him here anyway.”

She didn’t move. “Anything out of line, and you’re gone.” She removed her face from his, left through the rear door, and disappeared.

When she was out of sight, Thundercloud said, “I remind you of your Dad?”

“Yeah. He used to be a weather pony. When I failed, he hugged me and said he was proud of me anyway. Even though I couldn’t be one like him.” Blazer sniffled. “I miss him.”

“I see. Do you mind if I ask what happened?”

“He just got sick. I don’t remember much. Mom doesn’t like talking about it. I don’t really either.”

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Thundercloud wrapped his front leg over the colt’s shoulder. “I Didn’t mean to stumble into all of this.”

“It’s not your fault.”

The sound of a clearing throat startled them. “Are you open, or not? Or am I interrupting family time?” a large red stallion said, peering through the door.

Thundercloud released Blazer. “No we’re open,” he replied.