Factory Closing

I am Cloud Crush. Disgraced former Sargent Major of the Royal Guard as well as former Rainbow Factor worker. I sit in cuffs on a bench in the integration chamber under Canterlot. The room is bare and looked like it is mostly unused. Until today that is. Right in front of me is the pony who will gather my statement. The look of disgust on his mug is obvious. In front of me is a table as well as various files, one of which is mine. My integrator paces back and forth going over my file, that is rather long, to my credit. I have as much disgust for this pony as he has of me.

First off, this pony is a unicorn. Damn 'corns that couldn't do anything unless he had it floating in his filly face. That's the other thing that annoys me. He doesn't even look like he could be a royal guard. Oh sure, he's got the armor on, but I'd bet my wings that he's a desk flyer. I could crush this guy with my teeth if I wanted to. After glancing at me, then back to my file, he turns, sits and asks.

"Lets get started, from the beginning please."

"Alright" I say "Well, first I got into this situation almost from birth. You could call it fate. I was a fighter from the get go. Got this cutie mark while beating the hay out of another foal twice my size."

It was true, in the flash it appeared, a hoof and a skull appeared right on my flank. That poor colt never got over the beating I gave him. Kicked him right off the clouds.

"And as you know doubt know, anypony with a mark like mine has two options, crime, or get scooped up by the Royal Guard. they are good like that."

I leaned over to see what my new friend had on his flank. It was just as I expected. A quill and a stack of papers.

"On second thought." I said smiling at him. "Maybe you don't know."

The unicon's eyes narrowed.

"That isn't relevant, please continue." He said, not rising to my bait.

"So anyway, They taught us two things in basic. Maybe you know them?"

"Of course, 'Death before Dishonor' and 'Kill cleanly, kill humanly'."

"Bingo, and I was a good soldier. I was honorable until that place, and I will leave with my honor restored. The second part is what distinguished me on the battle field. During the Discord Crisis I was promoted for not losing a single civilian, Got my own squad from that. I was promoted a second time during the defense of changeling invasion and then again in the subsequent counter attack on changeling lands."

My integrator looked at my file and moved some papers.

"It says you where promoted a few times during that counter attack, Sergeant"

"Sergeant Major."

"I'm sorry?"

"My rank is Sergeant Major."

The hate this pony had for me was slipping though.

"Mr. Cloud, you have no rank, What I call you is merely formality."

"I earned that title, and demand to be called such!"

"YOU have participated in what is the biggest violation of pony rights in the history of Equestria; YOU have no right to demand anything! WE hold all the cards here Sergeant"

This was a lie and I knew it. I was the one to come to them, and they needed my testimony for legitimacy. I take great pride in my rank, and I would not have this filly faced, desk flying, quill pusher call me anything other then what I had spent years striving for. I lost it. I got right in his muzzle as much as my chains would allow.

"LISTEN, YOU CORNY RUNT, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TAKE ALL I DID AND THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW! DURING THE ATTACK ON CANTERLOT, I LOST NOPONY, CIVILIAN OR SQUAD! DURING THE COUNTER ATTACK I SAW AND DID THINGS THAT WOULD DESTROY EVERY FIBER OF YOUR BEING! I WATCHED SQUAD MEMBERS KILL EACH OTHER THINKING THEY WHERE ENEMY! I EVEN HAD TO PUT DOWN MY BEST ACE WHEN HE WENT MAD!"

I was breathing heavy now. I sat back in a low voice I continued.

"I am Sergeant Major Cloud Crush. Do not cross me again."

My outburst brought the guards outside the door in. They were 'corns too. They lower their heads at me, magic brimming at the tips ready to fire.

"Everything all right? We heard an outburst sir."

If that ponies face could go whiter it would have.

"Yes, yes, we are ok, just a disagreement over some facts."

My guards never raised their horns

"Do you want us to stay sir?"

"No, it's ok."

I smiled again after the guards left us in the room. My quill pusher inquisitor quickly gathered, all his papers and files with a soft light and organized himself.

"Sergeant Major, please tell me, what happened after you left the guard."

"Couldn't take the killing and was discharged, honorably. But civilians don't take kindly to former soldiers. They don't like us for some reason. They think we are violent psychos. They aren't wrong, but it does make finding a civ job tough when your "special talent" is knocking a changeling out of the sky and breaking their neck under your hoof. I was homeless for about a year."

"So how did you come to work at, the factory?"

"I has hired directly. Somepony, who had a light bluish coat, black dyed mane, I wasn't eating, and was too proud to beg, needed my 'skills'."

"And you went right away?"

"Sweet Celestia no! Again, death before dishonor, and I was not going to work for the crime syndicates. She laughed when I told her that."

"Who's 'she'?"

"No idea, but after explaining that it was government, I climbed aboard. She told me, I would have to leave my family and friends. That was easy, as I never talked to my family, and all my friends were deployed, or dead."

Now was the part the integrator was clearly dreading. He procrastinated by making notes and shuffling papers. But I had all day. After some deep breaths, he finally asked.

"Can you tell me about the work in the Rainbow Factory?"

"You want to know about foals?"

"Yes."

"Well I didn't start there so you know. We just don't just process foals. I started on changeling POWs and convicts."

This took the unicorn by surprise.

"Cloudsdale still has the death penalty?"

"Yeah, but we don't like to advertise it."

"Interesting." he said and made a quick note on a scroll.

The unicorn leaned back and knocked on the door with his hoof. The guards came in again. The scroll floated up to them and he whispered something to the guard.

"Yes lieutenant."

And they left.

"Well desk flyer." I said after hearing this interesting tidbit. "Didn't know you where a lieutenant, how did you earn that? Ruler fight?"

The lieutenant put his hoof up to his face and rubbed it.

"Just continue please, Sergeant Major Crush."

"Aye Aye lieutenant" I snickered. "I didn't really care too much about the POWs or convicts as, well, they are POWs and convicts. My job was to process them into the machines and to break riots up. We had two machines. One for breaking the ribs, the other for the processing. The heard rarely when quietly, so riots where common. And when riots happened, we would normally just break legs or wings so the herd could be processed. Changelings where nice as they have leg holes that you could force a stick through and twist. Ponies you would have to stomp at least twice on their legs to break. Turnover was as high as you could imagine, although no one ever quit or got fired. We had rules too, or we could get processed."

The integrator looked very upset and wouldn't look at me when I talked.

"Could you, Could you tell me about the rules please?"

"We had a few major ones. We had to wear the masks at all times, we could only talk to our underlings and only if it was work related. Talk to no one above your pay grade, and most of all, do not talk to the herd. One our supervisors, the blue one, caught one of my co workers telling a foal it would be alright, and was thrown into the machine imminently."

The interview pony held up his hoof for me to stop. In the time it took me to describe the processing, he had put his head in his hooves and was staring at the desk. He sat back, stared at the ceiling and I watched as his horn grew bright and a small can and cup flew from an inside pocket of the armor. The cup was put on the desk and the can was opened.

"It's a demerit to chew on duty."

But a small wad was already in his mouth. He floated the can over to me to offer me some. I held up my hooves in chains to tell him I couldn't reach. He floated it closer and with my tongue licked a small wad for myself. WE both sat there chewing cud like cows until he spat in the cup.

"Why did you come here? And why now?"

Now it was my turn to be uncomfortable. I looked down at the floor, the walls, the door. I was quiet for a while. I spat out the cud on the floor and said "The foals."

"I worked in that place for four years. I only processed the foals for one. I mean, they are just youths. I hated the changelings, so I didn't care how many I processed, convicts too, I could care less about them."

I was quiet again. I couldn't find the words. Then the floodgates fell.

"It was them or me. But in that respect it wouldn't have mattered. If I stood up, I would have been processed, and the foals would have been processed anyway. I should have though. I should have just let myself get killed to retain my honor. But I didn't, I didn't and I'm fixing it now. Do you want to hear a number? 436! In my time there, I processed 436 foals! I only sleep when I pass out, I keep seeing them! I keep seeing foals to young to get their cutie marks getting processed by that machine, But the ones with cutie marks stick with me the most. These young know precisely what they where going to do and I shoved them into the machine! I squashed any chance of that happening! Every night, I am haunted every night by the things I did!"

I sat back drained. I brought my blood covered hooves to my head and began to weep. Great sobs of emotion came to the surface. In my cell I told myself I wouldn't show anypony any emotion, but here I was crying over dead foals in front of a unicorn who would never understand what I went through. No one would. I should have ended it years ago. I should never had taken that job, I should never even been born. The royal guard, upon discovering my "special" talent should have just killed me where the found me.

"Do you need to stop?"

That voice brought my inner thoughts to a screeching halt.

"No, I need this to be done now."

The unicorn bit his lip and looked left. He looked much worse then I did, and he didn't even DO anything.

"Fine, we only have one more thing to get through and we can be done."

My lieutenant shuffled through the mess of paper and scrolls on the table, eventually laying out three files for me to look at. The pictures within must have been taken with a high power camera. It showed ponies going into and leaving the Rainbow Factory. Another set showed a large cart full of foals rolling in, then leaving empty. I got chills when I saw a picture of myself at the gates. I knew some of these ponies and made a mental checklist, that one still works there, those two are dead, that one owes me bits, looking further, two mug shots stuck out.

"Do you know anypony?" The question was.

"Where did you get these?"

"It doesn't matter, Now do you know anypony in these pictures?"

"Yes." I gestured to the mug shots with my face. "These two. The other ones, I couldn't tell you."

It was a dark blue pony with a blond mane and another beige pony with a green mane, the green maned pony had a dull yellow stripe. The inquisitor nodded. "Who are they?"

"They ran the factory floor. The blue one, I think he was a scientist, the other one might have been an engineer or helper. Couldn't tell you. Again, we never spoke to one another on the floor."

"Very well, we are done here."

Another tap on the door brought the guards in again. The lieutenant simply nodded at me for them to take me away, and they did.

I knew the Equestrian legal system well enough that they would keep me detained until the trial. I had done it; I had fixed myself, and would shut down that damnable factory. I would have to go into hiding, but like before, I had no friends or family, so that would be easy. Mexicolt would be nice.