Awoken
It’s easy to misjudge that floating city with its alluring décor and social psychology, but with all great things comes a great responsibility and in Cloudsdale that responsibility is weather stability. There were always strange rumors about The Rainbow Factory set upon the highest clouds, far away from the prying eyes of the general public in Cloudsdale: Usually about how many thought it was strange that rainbows were always flowing out of the factory but no supplies were ever seen going in. These thoughts would quickly vanish from the Cloudsdale citizens as they would go about their day unawares of the horrors that were always happening on the inside or at least, that is how Hail Down imagined the citizens of Cloudsdale would imagine as they would happen to glance at The Rainbow Factory in the cloudy distance on occasion. He wasn’t quite sure what the citizens of Cloudsdale thought or what Cloudsdale even looked like, though he remembered some pony at one point telling him that is was a beautiful city but he could not remember who.
The full work title for anyone working in the factory was divided into three parts then shortened into a serial number and letter sequence starting with name, location, and then rank. His working title was Hail Down, Secondary Elevated Evaluation Deck, Assistant #8 or serial sequence HD_8 SEED. As anyone could have guessed upon seeing Hail Down’s title, he worked in the Secondary Elevated Evaluation Deck; he worked in the most dangerous area of the Rainbow Factory. It was the only place in The Rainbow Factory where the giant pulsating grinders could be seen pounding nonstop; up and down, up and down in a steady beat like that of a heartbeat. Though the grinders could be heard throughout the factory they were most deafening on the Secondary Elevated Evaluation Deck, so much so that that one could not even conjure their own thoughts without being drowned out by the constant beat of the grinders.
Hail Down hated the sound and was glad for it at the same time; he hated it because it was so deafening, but loved it for drowning out the screams of the innocents who were constantly being feed into the bloodthirsty machine. The grinding rattled his brains, and shook his very being. Constantly working and always tired, always, always tired; when would he get a break from it? How long was it since his last one? He did not know. There were no clocks in the upper levels of the factory where he worked. For all he knew, seconds could have passed or years could have passed, there was no time. Time didn’t exist in the dark, dank, blood and rusted stained halls of machinery in which he worked and lived in ever since he could remember.
Agents like Hail Down that worked the upper floors were never allowed to leave the factory under any circumstance. Moreover, other than the guards and other agents like Hail Down, no pony was allowed into the upper levels of the factory due to the immense dangers of the machines overloading and high probably of them causing an explosion if not monitored at all times. In case of an emergency such as the one described it would be factory protocol for the upper levels to go on immediate lockdown in order to contain any fires and keep secondary explosions from happening, in any case, it would mean that any pony who worked the upper floor would become trapped and left to die in such a disaster. So, only the strongest and most expendable ponies were taken in to work the upper floors.
Hail Down recalled that he demonstrated great strength in his graduating exam, but failed to truly remember that time in his life. He knew it was true, for he thought back on it, but he could not truly remember it; but he had to have lived that time in his life for he had thought it. How could one recall a memory they did not remember? Before Hail Down could continue his line of thought his thoughts were interrupted by an even larger rumble than those of the grinders. The secondary holding tank was beginning to buckle under the pressure of the overflow from the primary vat. The dark colored rainbow colors and fresh pony blood was beginning to spill and splash out.
Hail Down in the sudden state of panic tried to take off for the main controls, the machine was about to overload. He hit the emergency shut off sequence bringing the entire floor to a sudden halt. The emergency alarms were sounding and the machines for the first time in Hail Down’s life were silent. Hail Down was both amazed and baffled by the eerie silence that haunted the floor, but before long the silence was again interrupted not by grinding machines but ponies.
“What in the name Celestia is going on around here!?” screamed Dr. Atmosphere as he charged in.
“Sir, sir! You can’t be in here, protocol-” called one of the guards.
“Screw the protocol! I run this factory, and I DEMAND TO KNOW WHY THE HORSE IT IS SHUT OFF!” Dr. Atmosphere roared at the guards who tried to stop him.
“The next guard that gets in the way of me trying to do my job-WILL BE THE NEXT PONY THAT JOINS THE INFERIORS INTO THE MACHINES!” Dr. Atmosphere snarled looking deranged as ever with rainbow blood staining his white lab coat. None dared to stop Dr. Atmosphere’s advance onto the upper deck. As he glanced over the observation deck, Hail Down and Dr. Atmosphere’s eyes met. Truly his eyes, thought Hail Down, were as soulless as they were full of a consuming fire that had eaten away any true semblance to a pony’s eyes over the years. Hail Down was frozen with fear. It was though all the air had been sucked out of the room as Dr. Atmosphere spoke, “Turn. The Machines. Back. On. NOW!”
“Yes, Sir.” said Hail Down. Hail Down went back to the main controls and rebooted the machines. The grinders wound themselves back up and returned to their ritual beating.
“I had to let the machine sit, sir.” Hail Down said unsteadily, “The machines were going to overload.” He tried to explain. Dr. Atmosphere stared at him intently in silence for a moment before finally responding, “Next time, try doing the cost effective solution and don’t bother shutting them off: The factory already has an emergency protocol in place to stop anything irreplaceable from being damaged.” Hail Down let himself have a deep breath as Dr. Atmosphere began to walk away.
“Oh, and HD_8 SEED…”
“Yes, Dr. Atmosphere?”
“Don’t forget what I said.” He warned.
“Yes, sir, Dr. Atmosphere.” Hail Down replied weakly. As Dr. Atmosphere walked away, that’s when Hail Down saw her: A mare, a white mare with the faintest blue mane and tail, walking behind Dr. Atmosphere. Who was that?, thought Hail Down. Only Dr. Atmosphere could get away with breaking direct factory protocol being the head supervisor over all divisions of The Rainbow Factory, but who was that mare? How could she get away with such a direct violation and with Dr. Atmosphere right there? He had to know. “Hello, hey there! Ma’am?” called Hail Down. She turned to look at him, her eyes full of sorrow and pity as she gazed down at the grey pony with a yellow mane and partially mechanical wings.
“HD_8, I’m so-” she began, but was cut off quickly by Atmosphere who gave her a ghastly look that dared her to speak another word. She quieted herself and slowly backed away without finishing what she had started to say. By this time the machines had managed to regain full throttle and the noise of the grinders was shaking the upper floors in that never ending beat.
The uppers floors had a different purpose than the lowest even though the killing of innocents took place on both floors. The main killing floors were on the lower security levels where young pegasusi who had failed their graduating exams were taken in by the factory to be disposed of and used for supplies for making rainbows: Those that society did not deem fit useful to society were made useful in the pursuit of the greater good. The young school ponies would be led back into the lower floors from where Hail Down was and one by one be fed into a meat processor that would slice apart the little fillies and colts and break down their molecular parts that weave the colorful pigment into the very being of a pony. This process did not only separate the ponies physically but extracted their very being from their bodies spewed it out in the form of a radioactive glowing pigment of the most vibrant hue; this compound is naturally unstable and will lose its color if not stabilized correctly, that is where the upper floors come in. Vats full the radioactive rainbow are poured out into giant separate mixing pools which are then fed into vacuum suction pipes that force the rainbow hues into the giant mixing pools on the upper floors.
These rainbow hues prove to be too unstable to be completely separated from their original ponies, so it is up to the ponies who work the upper floors to reintegrate what is left of the dead ponies back into the rainbow. The only way this can be done without the rainbow losing its color is to grind and pound what is left of the dead into the finest of powders and dust and slowly mixing it in conjunction with the fermented blood of older ponies. Not all the ponies that are taken into The Rainbow Factory are killed right away; many are imprisoned for years so that the agents may then use the older pony for the last stabilizing ingredient. What is left of the little ponies and dried up bodies of the older ponies are ground up together into fine dust which is then carefully mixed into the fermented blood, this compound is what makes the upper floors the most dangerous and likely to overload for once mixed together it creates the most acidic toxic sludge known to pony and can burn away through almost anything.
The founders of The Rainbow Factory had to discover a metal that wouldn’t be eaten by the sludge just so they could build The Rainbow Factory in the first place. The radioactive rainbow and sludge are very slowly reunited with each other through a series of mixing pools and man-made water ways for the rainbow to flow out until it reaches the main front of the factory where it is safely restabilized and whose last hundred or so mixing pools can be seen by the public in the areas of the factory that are open to the public. This area of the factory not dark and dreary but clean and up to date with the latest technology and the best Public Relations ponies working the front desk ready to answer your questions and hide the truth. They even sponsor the Little Best Flyer’s Competition for the young fillies and colts in Cloudsdale, advertising the safety and general welfare for all underprivileged pegasusi.
Hail Down watched the churning of the sludge and was overcome with the sensation to jump in it and have the sludge burn away everything, his blood caked hooves, dirty lab coat, his tired eyes, his mechanical wings, and pain, the pain that he felt stuck to him like the worst kind of uncleanness all over his body. Why am I hurting?, Hail Down thought. He had never felt pain before that he could remember; there were many times were he felt tired, but not pain. Hail Down was ready for a break, “Hey, RC_7 SEED, take over for me?” Hail Down had to yell over the noise of the machine. The blue pony with an orange mane took over the controls and Hail Down laid down in rusted out corner in his work station and fell asleep.
The numbers, he saw the numbers scrolling a sequence again. They scrolled again and again, bits of code moving along the x, y, and z planes in his dreams. Was he dead? Was he alive? Had a second gone by or years? However long it was, it was not long enough and Hail Down was rattled awake by RC_7, it no longer matter what he was seeing in his dreams; it was time to go back to work. Hail Down went to work on the controls when he was interrupted by RC_7.
“The boss is still very angry about yesterday’s screw up.” RC_7 told him.
“Oh…I was just trying to-”
“There will be no screw ups today,” RC_7 interrupted, “The boss said that you will be working the secondary killing floor from now on, you just leave the mixing pool controls to me.” He finished sounding almost robotic and without feeling.
“Alright.” Hail Down cracked trying to keep from choking on his dried out throat. Hail Down had never directly worked the killing floor before, he began to walk towards the killing floor when he heard from behind him, “Oh, and HD_8 SEED?”
“Yes?” replied Hail Down.
“Don’t you forget about what Dr. Atmosphere said.” warned RC_7. Hail Down didn’t reply, he careful walked over to the killing floor. Hail Down could fly, but he rarely did. He had an accident years ago that forced him to have his wings partially amputated, Hail Down thought. It happened again, Hail Down realized, he had a thought of an old memory and yet he had no memory of such an event. Surely he would remember an event such as this if it had happened. But, how could one have thought of a memory if it they didn’t have such a memory? Was Hail Down losing his mind? Was he finally losing what made him a true pony after all these years like so many ponies who worked in The Rainbow Factory long enough? Had he even been working in the factory for years and could he even remember it even if he did? Hail Down found himself questioning his reality, this whole factory seemed to be trying to undermine his sanity.
Hail Down found himself at the controls, below him was a great steel crate full of older ponies that had probably been down there for years. Many were crying, pleading for mercy, screaming for some pony to save them, and others were silent as silent as the grave sitting in shock. Hail Down worked the controls and hoisted up a large green colt who was then strapped down. He screamed and begged Hail Down not to go through with it.
“Please, oh Celestia, please don’t kill me, please!” he cried over and over again. Hail Down had never seen the actually deaths of the ponies that were used for the rainbow process, he just dealt with the dead bodies which were then ground up and mixed with the fermented blood which then turned into the toxic sludge. Hail Down ignored the pleas of the colt and pulled the lever. The pony was stabbed through splashing the blood everywhere, much of which rained back down on his fellow ponies down in the crate. The machines then forced tubing down into the pony’s interior and began sucking the pony dry.
Hail Down watched and was then overcome with fear and shock: The colt was still alive as the tubing sucked him dry! The colt’s pleas turned into gurgles and squirmed as he coughed up his own blood. The machine then unstrapped and dropped him barely alive onto the primary grinding belt that would begin the process of grinding him into fine dust. Hail Down watched in horror as the colt, not completely dried or dead, weakly trying to get out of the way of the first grinder and had his skull smashed, scattering his brains in all directions. Hail Down was too horrified and so overcome with the sight that he wanted to vomit but found that he could not. Hail Down had to continue his job, but was much more reluctance towards the controls and disgust.
Hail Down swallowed and with hooves shaking reached once more for the controls. This time the machine grabbed a purple filly, she looked just barely old enough to be consider an older pony, her tears streamed down her face. She didn’t cry or plea for help, but looked him right at with her wide, teary eyes. Hail Down stared right into those eyes, those wide eyes that spoke of much youthful innocence lost, never to see the love of life again. He hesitated and then from above he heard the Doctor, “We aren’t slacking off are we?” sneered Dr. Atmosphere.
“Oh, Doctor!” Hail Down jumped taken by surprise, “I didn’t see you there sir!”
“Of course you didn’t,” said Dr. Atmosphere, “Well, get on with it. You don’t have all day unless you like to take her place. I figured after your blunder with the mixing pools you would require a certain level of supervision just to make sure you didn’t do anything you would most certainly…regret.” He finished the end of his sentence with an ominous growl. Hail Down saw the white mare who tried to speak up and say something but was hushed by Dr. Atmosphere, “Shut UP! There’s no reason for you to comment about anything! …It’s not like it has feelings.” Dr. Atmosphere said in reference to Hail Down.
Hail Down was unsure of himself. Dr. Atmosphere would surely feed him into the machine in place of the little purple filly if he did not pull the lever. Hail Down turned to face the lever with the burning of Dr. Atmosphere’s eyes boring themselves into the back of his neck. Hail Down looked at the filly one last time wanting to cry himself but found he could not and so with a deep breath, he lowered his eyes as he pulled the lever so that he would not have to see her die. The screams of the filly haunted him long after they had ended. Hail Down continued with his work: Who truly knows how many ponies were killed this way?
Hail Down worked, in the place where time never ends or even exists. All there is is now, the past no longer is nor where there ever be a future, all hope is lost. Pony after pony, death after death, and the continue flowing of the rainbow, all of this in the name of the greater good and the needs of the few being worth less in comparison to the complacency of the many. This cycle of never ending death and rainbows went on for what seemed like an eternity and more until Hail Down finally collapsed from exhaustion and had FS_6 SEED take over the controls.
Again in his dreams Hail Down saw the sequence of codes and scrolling numbers. He had no idea why he was seeing them or why he was even aware of them falling in the interior of his eyes even though they were closed. Hail Down in that moment felt that the numbers were trying to communicate something with him, something important. He followed them in his mind, diving deeper into his own mind until he came across a central city made of running sequences of code. Something in Hail Down made him believe that all his answers were here, he was about to find something out important, the answers he was not being told like why he has no memory yet always has an explanation to why or how something is as it is, or why he was seeing numbers in his sleep, or why he was seen with the other SEED Agents as expendable even their job was the most important, or why the white mare looked at him with such pity and sorrow every time Dr. Atmosphere degrades him.
Hail down knew his answers were to be found here, in this place. Before Hail Down could finally find the answers he sought so desperately now that he knew the answers were here, he was shaken to the conscious state and order back to work. Hail Down had killed so many and yet, he had seen so many tears that he found his wellspring of compassion and humanity had run dry and could no longer feel anything. The screams of the dying once again echoed within Hail Down’s ears long after they had stopped. He felt dead inside and remembered when he used to not feel that way and realized for the first time that the tortures of The Rainbow Factory was all he knew and all he had ever known.
Hail Down realized what he wanted in his life for the first time: He wanted to stop hurting, pushed by the desire to change how his inner stream of life will flow and break his own shackles to experience freedom. Maybe if he could escape he could tell others of this place and stop it all; he was sick of hurting, hurting was all that he did whether it was working the grinders or the killing floor. It had to stop, all of it, The Rainbow Factory must come to an end once and for all.
Hail Down knew what he had to do. He continued his soulless, automaton work on the killing floor for as long as an eternity and a second, waiting for the chance to be put back on the Secondary Elevated Evaluation Deck away from the killing floor so that when he was given control over the SEED controls again he could manually shut down the factory buying him enough time to escape. It wasn’t too long and yet an eon to Hail Down before he was allow to run the SEED controls again. Hail Down was monitored for the longest of time before he was truly given free range again.
The guards and other SEED Agents watched him intently as though they had been given orders to do so. Hail Down was afraid when they were watching and afraid when they weren’t watching. He knew what the punishment would be if he were caught. Hail Down couldn’t let himself be controlled by the fear and horrors of The Rainbow Factory nor become complacent with death. He had to go through with it. Hail Down looked down at the controls fearful of touching them with the intent of shutting down the factory as though the whole world was watching him right now. He began the shut off sequence, not for the secondary floor this time but the whole factory.
He pressed each button slowly gradually picking up speed as each successive button pressed filled him with strength. Before Hail Down knew it he had done it: He had shut down the entire Rainbow Factory and was so overcome with astonishment with this feat that he had forgotten to make a run for it until he heard the factory alarms go off. Hail Down ran and ran as hard as he could for the nearest exit.
“STOP HIM! STOP THAT FREAK! I ORDER YOU ALL TO STOP HD_8 SEED!” came the hollering’s of Dr. Atmosphere. Hail Down ran out over the rail bridge above the Secondary Killing Floor Crate trying to head for the exit. RC_7 SEED in shock, pulled off his goggles and watched HD_8 SEED run for it.
“Block HD_8 SEED from escaping or I will have you SHARE HIS FATE RC_7!” screamed Dr. Atmosphere from the observation deck. FS_6 and RC_7 SEEDs took off in the air and flew out in front HD_8 SEED blocking him from running to the exit on the other side of the bridge. RC_7 and FS_6 blocked Hail Down but did not advanced on him: They stood there motionless and expressionless like robots.
“Turn the machines back on! BRING THEM BACK TO LIFE-so that, the lords of rainbows such as myself may take life.” Dr. Atmosphere ranted in lunacy that appeared to be in anger and laughter. Hail Down had never been so frightened of the psychotic pony doctor than he was right then. Hail Down heard the machines wind themselves back up and saw the white mare at the controls bringing the factory back to life. Dr. Atmosphere laughed wildly as he approached behind him with a face completely contorted with hatred and anger.
“How dare you turn off my factory!” Dr. Atmosphere snarled, “What in the world makes you think you can shut down MY ENTIRE LIFE’S WORK!?”
“The work on the inside of a pony’s heart that tells them that what is being done in this factory-no, what has been done in this factory is both sick and perverse. I have been a gear in the use for evil in fear for my own life, but now I must turn the gears in a new direction- one that gives me a clean conscious and stops the hurting that goes on here regardless of whether I die in the process of doing so or not. I am sorry Dr. Atmosphere, I cannot allow you to continue this any further.” Hail Down said.
Dr. Atmosphere growled, “We shall see about THAT!” and charged at Hail Down from the rear. In that moment, Hail Down felt time almost stop and move at such a slow pace that he could move at a speed just one hair faster than Dr. Atmosphere. Hail Down forced his front hooves down and used the force to push up and kick Dr. Atmosphere with his back legs with all his might sending the deranged doctor flying over the bridge down into the steel crate below. Hail Down in the rush of it all took off on his mechanical wings unafraid of flying for the first time and made it to the escape. As Hail Down ventured outside for the very first time since he could remember he was blinded by the sun. He had never known that the world outside the factory was so bright or beautiful. Hail Down took off into the vast ocean of blue flying away from The Rainbow Factory, his last thoughts on his mind being of how when the factory shuts down and ponies know the truth-everything will be better. It will be the end of suffering for all ponies.
In The Rainbow Factory, the white mare stood in frozen terror as she watched Dr. Atmosphere become caught in the machine and slaughter by it shortly after falling into the holding crate for the other older ponies that were usually kept there. A guard approached her, “I am so sorry Mrs. Atmosphere.” She looked at him and replied, “Don’t be, it was a political marriage after all… Who could have possibly believed that an A.I. system could have developed a moral conscious, let alone self-awareness?” The guard cleared his throat, “Perhaps it was the memories of the past away that were downloaded into his memory software system that gave him that awareness.” There was silence and then, “Mrs. Atmosphere? Shall we go after HD_8 SEED?”
“No,” Mrs. Atmosphere said, “The security system will take care of it. Once HD_8 SEED goes beyond the boundaries of the factory he will automatically self-destruct. And to think, I felt pity for whom I believed had no ability to feel… Truly, that robot had more humanity and courage than all of us here combined… We shall have to do better with HD_8 SEED version 2.0 as to keep this from happening again. Wait until HD_8 SEED flies past the security boundary line and clean up any leftover evidence.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
THE END…?
The exciting conclusion that ties it all together will be in the third and final story "Long Live Princess Celestia"
