She lurched up from her puffy white bed with a faint high-pitched noise in her ears. Noticing the sound, she shook her head until whatever was ringing in her ears subsided, only to start up moments later. Her mane was a wreck, more than it normally would be at this hour. "I need something to drink, and not something colorful," she said. Clutching a black labeled can with her mouth, Rainbow Dash found that it was empty, save for some bits of dried black coffee pebbles. A little agitated, and still talking to herself, she uttered words that only Discord himself could interpret. "This can and the noise, that-grr-sound! Coffee and 'Why? I thought you loved me!'" Suddenly Rainbow Dash didn't really feel like coffee... or eating. She didn't want much more than to forget about what happened to Scootaloo.

Her wings twitched a little.

*Fwoom!*

Rainbow Dash didn't even flinch as the peaceful white pipes shot out all the colors of the spectrum in a beautiful and familiar pattern. Tank croaked cutely and quietly in his sleep, but Rainbow Dash felt sick. It had only been a few days since Scootaloo had raced out through the air in a colorful array of dead liquidated bile exactly like this one. To Rainbow Dash, sickening thoughts just trailed her mind to other sickening thoughts. "Pinkie Pie actually drank that stuff... All the ponies don't know what it is..." Her thoughts danced further out as she stared at far away clouds, looking for her favorite one. "I wonder if the Wonderbolts know of what is going on... No, they would shut. It. Down." The cloud that Dash had been staring at was dark and lonesome. It looked back at her gloomily and without even a hint of happiness. "Clouds don't lie," she muttered to herself in a self-calming voice.

A shrouded carriage pulled by suited pegasi floated over to the factory.

*Fwoom!*

Dash had made a name for herself in this factory. Originally, she was tested to see if her sonic rainbooms could be harvested as a renewable spectra source. To no avail though. The rainbows that Dashie made were her own, an nopony else's. The rainbows decorating her mane and tail were from loyalty and friendship. The rainbows the factory made were made from pressed and shipped ponies. The anthem of the factory still haunted Rainbow Dash. The tone and voices of the first time she went there lingered on her tongue and gave a sour taste. "In The Rainbow Factory! Where your fears and horrors come true! In The Rainbow Factory! Where not a-"She realized she was mumbling it out loud and quickly stopped...

The silence was quickly broken.

*Fwoom!*

She looked out at the cloud again.

She was required to work in the factory every day for a number of hours that seemed insane. Five hours in rainbow hell. She would have to listen to the chant from the insane workers who hadn't the mental capacity to resist following with the beat of the song. She would be stomping through the cold stone corridors decorated with unending pipes that weren't so majestic on the inside. She would have to mutilate and crush innocent ponies. "It's not as bad as it used to be though," Rainbow Dash reassured herself, "besides... I helped make the process... less..." Her voice was dying after she said it, and said it again, "Process." By adding industrial vocabulary to a horrible situation, Rainbow Dash dulled her own senses. "Clouds don't lie," she said again, this time less of a pony than before.

"Where not a single soul gets through..."

*Fwoom!*

Upon arriving, Rainbow Dash was padded down and saluted by the guards. These ones wore coats of every color. Dyed, they were attempting to make liquified ponies seem like alluring decor. "Good morning Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash!" Saluted an unintentionally reddened pegasus to Dash. She even had her eyes dyed... When she talked, she matched the beat of the factory anthem to a sickening step. "Hi," Rainbow Dash really didn't want to be here, "I am here to inspect the entrance... and to enter.". Everywhere else she was Rainbow Dash. But here she was "Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash." At least nopony would say rainbow around her. She made a very large commotion when the last pony said rainbow within hearing distance of her. Everywhere she heard the word though, it was mentioned every ten seconds flat in the horrible song that rang all day, every day.

Scootaloo ran right up to the door when she was trying to escape.

*Fwoom!*

"Well, the entrance is secure enough," Rainbow Dash said while looking at the not-so-bloody guards, "so next is the foundry." She was lead through the familiar labyrinth by a newer, bloodier pegasus. The walls hissed with steam and screams... Dash pondered why all the guards were so bloody. Maybe the guards just need something entertaining once in a while. Maybe they switch out with other guards, ones who guard the 'livestock' in the pigment extraction grinder and spectra unifying system devices. Cleverly named PEGASUS Devices by the leading scientist pegasi who are the insane offshoots of the inbred rainbow fanatics that created this device over a thousand years ago. Rainbow Dash shuddered on the inside when she remembered seeing one of them for the first time. His coat was black, but he held a smile bigger than Pinkie's. He didn't blink much either. When he did blink, he would blurt out the current word of the song playing in the facility. When he said "Rainbow," Dash noticed a twitch from his right hoof. Probably the hoof that pushed the button to start the PEG part of the PEGASUS Device rooms. "We're here," said the bloody pony to Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash.

Just in time to hear the magic of rainbow hell too.

*Fwoom!*

The sound of spectra gushing out of the six spectra vaults was so loud that Dash remembered then why she had the high pitch sound in her head that morning. She clung to the thought like Twilight to her books. She thought of the coffee pebbles, the lack of a breakfast, and then she remembered her favorite cloud. The foundry was in perfect condition. It would refill what little spectra was lost in that last burst with new spectra. Then the cycle would repeat, and the PEGASUS Devices would churn and hunger. "I have to run a few tests here, protocol. You had best leave because I need my space for this," said Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash with hate for the guard. He didn't notice her scrutiny at all. "Okay, I'll be right-" "Bye." The door slammed shut behind the bloody guard. She was now alone... sort of. The spectra tanks always stared at Dash through iron and rusted valves. Each tank held a different sort of insanity within. Here is where Rainbow Dash could be Rainbow Dash. In the room where dead liquidated ponies are sent to before being shot out at record breaking speeds... If rainbows had speed records. Common Dashie, challenging anything to a race even if it were light itself.

She was about to cry onto the iron grating of a floor, but needed composure for the next rooms.

*Fwoo-*

The sound was cut off as She closed the heavy iron door behind her. The force of the sound jerked the door open a little though, allowing Rainbow Dash and her personal escort of the day to hear the gush and expelling of spectra across Equestria. "Gotta love the sound of rainbows!" The guard had an insane look all over his blood caked face. "How dare you say 'rainbow' in front of me! Get out of my sight before you push me any further!" The insane ones were easier to scare. Now Rainbow Dash could walk slowly to the worst of rooms. The insane guard was running in circles and slipping in a pool of blood that had dripped off of him. He didn't even think that he was completely covered in blood. The next door lead to the first PEGASUS Device room, where the 'announcer' part of Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash came into play.

"Good day everypony..."

*Fwoom!*

The walls were scratched stone that went very far down. She looked at the 'resources'. They looked back with teary eyes. Rainbow Dash started to think about her little storm cloud, but then shut her own thought out with an evil grin. "You may be wondering why you are all here today. You see, a rainbow's tale isn't quite as nice as you may think it to be. There is no sugar and spice in this operation. Only spectra, emotion, and these..." She pointed at the large grinder and pipe system with a steel frame just the size of a pony. Her evil smile faded. "All of you will die." Rainbow Dash was crying on the inside, but Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash just twitched her ear a little, and forced another smile. "For those who take pride in spreading joy to everypony with all the effort of your little beating pony heart, I commend you. please step forward if you are one of these honorary ponies." A filly and a pony hobbled their way up a level of wooden stairs, tears streaming down their innocent faces. "Are you really sure you-" said Rainbow Dash, happy to at least get a word in on this massacre about to unfold. But then, Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash took control again. "For your bravery, I offer you some choices. Sedation, adrenaline, or unending work. The choice is yours." For a moment, the room was still. A pipe hissed. A pony screamed. The filly, yellow with a glittered brown mane, didn't even have a cutie mark yet. She would have made an excellent scientist. Rainbow Dash wondered what the filly could even have done to end up here. "She stared too long and awkwardly at a rainbow. We suspected she knew." An all black pegasus with shades said that and now was walking out of the room. Dash couldn't get a glimpse of his cutie mark in time to recognize him. The pony and filly looked at Dash now, both crying but finalized on their decisions.

They both chose sedation.

*Fwoom!*

One of the two was a dazzling shade of green was injected with a syringe and was set into place in the steel frame. Bolts and cuffs snapped shut, pressing into her legs tightly. Pistons started up in the background, pounding rhythmically to the beat of the song. The workers in the room began chanting the unholy anthem. "In the Rainbow Factory! Where your fears and horrors come true! In the Rainbow Factory! Where not a single soul gets through!" More machines booted up, shiny, well kept machines full of blades and chains. The half-alive pony hazily glared at Rainbow Dash, then looked away at other, less colorful things. The frame twisted about, popping bones and cartilage out of place. The pony did not scream, she was too far gone. Knives burst out of the shiny devices and sliced the pony to pieces, but she still lived and looked about with bleeding expressions of boredom and lethargy. "Wow Chief! Your sedative really does the charm! Think I could get a sample for personal fun?" Rainbow Dash looked to her left and saw a scientist pony staring at her with crazed and excited eyes. "This is for the volunteers." He nodded and looked back jealously at the green and now red pony. Somewhere along the time of the talk her right eye was gutted out by a knife. The eye was still in the knife though, too far pressed up the handle for it to pull away from the head. The optic nerve bobbed about from the dazed head and the dancing blade. The cutie mark of a black storm cloud was clearly visible to Dash. She thought of crying again but didn't. A leg-like hunk of flesh fell off from the brace, and a robotic telescopic arm quickly intercepted it and brought it back up to the pony. Nothing ever goes to waste. The body was scraped into the true PEGASUS Device now. A series of intricately placed teeth marred her even more. She-no.. it was turned into red and green pulp. Out of the bottom of the grinder, were seven pipes. They clearly showed a large mass of green, along with the other five colors. Red was second in the lead. There would always be an excess of red. The filly woke up for a bit, and was given another dose of Rainbow Dash's personally mixed sedative. She then gave the orders of who was next. The sedated filly of course was next, but Dash had to hand pick every pony herself. Some thought it was a fun game for Chief Inspector and Announcer to pick the noisier ones. In truth, she went by the colors of the rainbow. "You the red one, you'll be going after this one. Then you mister orange. Do I see yellow in you madam?"

She did the same speech and selection in five more PEGASUS Device rooms.

*Fwoom!*

When she got out of there, which was in even less time than ten seconds flat, Rainbow Dash flew over to her house in the sky, and as quick as her wings could move her, she pumped the white puffy building away from the factory. She went searching for her favorite cloud again, and found it rather quickly. It was still there, close enough to see from the factory, but far enough to get away from the foundry's sound. Rainbow Dash went over to the cloud and rested on it. It's inky black enveloped her and comforted her. "Finally, a place without rainbows!" It seemed like the cloud was puffing these words. When she was sure that nopony could hear her, Dashie cried endlessly into it, making it blacker and blacker with each tear. The cloud did not expel the added water as a normal cloud would, it just got blacker. She couldn't count the number of times that this cloud has been there for her, but she could not even begin to think of the number of times she needed it. It showed great sadness and sorrow. It was like a diary. A small puffy stormy sad diary.

"I wonder if Scootaloo had a cloud of her own."

The small storm cloud took in more tears then.

"This. Factory. Must. Stop."

Twilight Sparkle sat in quiet contemplation. She was thinking of the metaphysics involved with greater teleportation. She had to summarize the spell within a specific time frame to help a new resident of Ponyville move her entire house to the town. "Okay. So if the trajectory of these sound waves-" she taps a tuning fork with her horn, "is the same as the elevation of her house..." Twilight had been analyzing different elements that go into a teleportation spell for a five hours now. She was making great progress too. She found out that simply increasing magical output does nothing and that there are more factors to making a large object teleport. "Well why don't we just make another house here?" Spike's thought finally escaped him in a surprisingly down to earth method, but one already contemplated. "Because her house is special to her. Her family lived in it for decades, but now the town around the house moved on, and she can't just move it physically." "Oh." Taking a two-minute break, Twilight drank some tea she had spent her last two-minute break preparing. Moving the unused telescope aside, she looked out the window.

A vibrant rainbow streamed across the sky.

"That's it spike! I can use rainbows instead of sound to move the house!" Spike was confused. Twilight Sparkle didn't even mention that she had been planing on using sound alone to teleport a building, but rainbow magic was even more abstract to him. "Twilight, I think you should have another break." She couldn't stop now. She quickly ran outside and looked for something big. She found a tree. "Maybe something that isn't rooted to the ground," she jokingly mumbled. She came across the boulder decorating her front lawn. It had been a mowing nuisance since the first time she tried to mow. "Time to get rid of Tom's friend!" she happily exclaimed. She looked out behind her to the rainbow. It was still there, though fading fast. "Okay... one shot!" Her horn glowed with purple energy, the rainbow off in the distance turned and stretched over and enveloped the boulder. "And... here... I... go!" The rainbow, and the boulder both disappeared. However, for a faint second, Twilight heard something peculiar.

"In the rainbow-"

Mission accomplished, the rock was teleported to a predetermined location. A small trot away. "Maybe I should have made it go further," Twilight Sparkle muttered, "like a place off of my lawn." She chuckled at her own bad planning. "Well it landed exactly where I wanted it to, now to try to move the house!" Twilight Sparkle gingerly trotted about in the direction of the all-too-valuable house. She did minor teleports between fields and other parallel surfaces. She didn't even break a sweat in the end, and just waited for another rainbow to appear in the sky for her to use on the house. She only had to wait a few minutes, rainbows appeared everywhere almost rhythmically. When one did appear, Twilight snapped to focus and wrapped the house in a swirling beautiful scene of colors. "Next stop, Ponyville!" she said to her new friend. Another unicorn, who had a sewing needle cutie mark. The house, the rainbow, Twilight Sparkle, and the other unicorn all appeared on an empty plot of land instantly. They could see the town hall easily now, but Twilight was distracted and looked about for what she heard in the middle of the rainbow.

"Where your fears and horrors-"

Rainbow Dash cruised over all of Ponyville in a not-so-favorite cloud of hers. This one was white and puffy, it seemed really happy and floated slowly and really high up. She had been looking for somepony to help her and all the other innocent ponies that were being turned into rainbows. Then she saw Twilight, looking about curiously at a stream of the horrid spectra. "Maybe she is figuring this all out on her own... This is both good and bad though," Dash whispered to her unfavored cloud friend, "If Twilight figures things out without keeping it a secret, she'll be joining Scootaloo." Rainbow Dash couldn't let that happen. She noticed another unicorn near Twilight, an orange one. Dash felt very sad then, for if this unicorn was ever to be in the PAGASUS Device rooms, she would be going second in line, just after a red pony. "Just like Scootaloo." For about half an hour, Dash took close watch over what Twilight was doing. She would gather up some spectra, and suddenly her and a large rock would move somewhere else. No, not move, teleport. Twilight was teleporting a large stone here and there, and sometimes back a jump. Dash saw the rock as familiar, because Twilight never teleported it into her own lawn. She chuckled a little at the boulder.

Twilight Sparkle's ears twitched a little every time she teleported.

"Oh hey Rainbow Dash!" She jumped up from her cloud as she realized she was a little too close to the ground. Twilight was staring right at her with those big purple eyes of hers. "Oh hi Twilight!" Dashie said as happily as she could seem. "Hey Dash, you're the expert on rainbows," Her stomach churned when one of her friends called these things rainbows, but she had to deal with it, "now I know that I'm not allowed to see what they are made of, but you think I can get a good history of them?" Twilight was enthusiastic on the surface, but working with liars, Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash could tell that she was really distraught. "Well, it's kinda a secret, so there are few reliable sources. There is a history on them though, and it's got purpose!" Being so happy and cheerful made Rainbow Dash quiver on the inside, but Twilight didn't have the alter ego Chief Inspector and Announcer Sparkle to see true worries. "Alright thanks, I'll see if I can find a book on the history of rainbows." "Okay, you go do that, also study spectra, spectra is the individual color pigment of them." "Will do!" Rainbow Dash noticed a look in Twilight's eyes. She gets that look when she is about to pour over books for a long time. "Oh, and don't forget to see the zap apple trees tomorrow. They do something unique at about two in the afternoon. It's truly a surprise."

Twilight got the hint.

Rainbow Dash's day went on with her helping out the orange unicorn set up her shop. Her name was Dandy Rose. She was a sewer, no surprise there, her cutie mark couldn't have been clearer. Rainbow Dash didn't really want to be anywhere near her, she reminded Dash too much of Scootaloo. "Oh and those purple ones can go there," She said, in an 'in the zone' voice. "All done. Now the fabrics are in perfect order!" Rainbow Dash looked down on the order of the fabrics. She almost cried, but held tears back. They were in the universal order that all colors should be in. "Right, wherever you say they should go Dandy Rose." Her name was charming to Rainbow Dash. Dash knew that dandelions are yellow and roses are red, it would only be fitting if the two went into the name of an orange pony. "Why thank you for all the help you've offered here today Ms. Dash-" "Please, call me Dashie, all my friends do!" "Alright Dashie, but I expect you want some kind of repayment?" "Oh not at all Ms. Rose," Rainbow Dash knew she had set herself up for a joke, but quite frankly, she needed one, "Please, all my friends call me Dandy." They both laughed.

Dashie tried to stay away from the rainbow patterned fabrics.

Twilight's day went on studying rainbows. At first, she continued to teleport the boulder around. Until she heard more into the song that played after each teleport. "In the Rainbow Factory..." she mumbled to herself, "Where not a single soul gets through..." She was trying as hard as she could to find more into this mystery, only to be left with children's tales of rainbows being conjured from the happiness of all of Equestria and the such. "I have to find out more on this, maybe there is more to be found in Canterlot. But how am I going to-" She felt really dumb all of a sudden. She had been teleporting boulders all day and just now thought that she couldn't teleport to Canterlot. "It's even in view distance!" She reassured herself. So Twilight gathered a rainbow, or spectra as Dash called it, and teleported instantly to Canterlot. "In the Rainbow Factory..." She didn't want to teleport that much anymore. She knew she would have to teleport back, but that was for another time of day. As of now, Twilight Sparkle was positioned exactly where she hoped she would be, her old library. Magically tearing through pages and scrolls, she gained knowledge that Ponyville just couldn't provide. Canterlot drama, regal recipes, the history of mane dyeing. "No matter, if you want to know something fast, read fast." she said before her horn shimmered an even deeper purple than it was before. Books swirled about and some flew right into walls. A guard trotted in, saw the chaos unfolding, and casually walked out in fear of the return of 'The Reader'.

The Reader's return was soon known in Canterlot.

Rich unicorn fillies went to sleep that night to the horror story of 'The Reader'.

*Fwoom!*

The next day had started, and Rainbow Dash was already in the factory. She was monitoring the foundry's levels of spectra with a gleam in her naturally rose colored eyes. She was going to sabotage the factory. This wouldn't actually destroy it though, but it would give Rainbow Dash enough time to get to Twilight and back. Dash couldn't just openly confront Twilight when not on her factory shift. The scientists had a tracker on her that was disabled when she clocked in to the factory. A silly thing, being able to clock into the rainbow factory, nopony else was ever able to ever clock out. So with that, Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash made a sleight mistake in the ratios of the mix. "It used to be manually set," Dash grumbled to herself, "but that stopped when some colorblind worker made an entirely blue rainbow." Dash thought back to when she saw it, it was beautiful. Completely wrong in every way, not at all in order to the specifications of spectra distribution. It was rebellious. "What's taking so long in there Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash?" The new guard of the day, more stable than yesterday's, was outside the large door. He knew Dash just wanted time alone in this room, and he didn't rush her often. Regaining her composure for the next rooms, as always, Rainbow Dash thought of her little black cloud again. She cried into it for a long time now, and it never rained down her sadness. "Done, I recommend you send somepony over to look at the green spectra. I think it is a little too high for normal tastes." They never send mechanics out to see what would go wrong. Dash had set it up to hold back a little red spectra with each burst. "Will do Chief!" Rainbow dash closed the door behind her just before perfectly distributed spectra gushed out.

*Fwoom!*

She could still hear it, whether mentally or physically she didn't know anymore.

"Chief, personally, I hate that sound. It drives me nuts." "Yeah, me too. I look to the silence before the surges though." The day was almost over, now all that Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash had to do was tell hundreds of ponies that they were going to die. Individually. Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash went over the crowd that lay below. They looked up. "Hello everypony," Rainbow Dash felt a little nicer by not timing her welcoming phrase to the beat of the anthem of the factory, "You may all not know this, but this is a vital and necessary step into the creation of spectra." A small filly was down on the floor, she looked up at Rainbow Dash, not Chief Inspector and announcer Dash, but Rainbow Dash. "Are we going to die here?" was all that she said, and all that Dash could hear in the tumultuous chaos of the song and machines. "Yes, and then you will be reborn into the most cheerful and hope inspiring thing in all of Equestria." "A friend?" A tear streamed down Dash's face. She was too far up for the ponies to see her face in detail, all they saw was a monster, a charismatic one, but a monster. "You, my little pony, have a choice. Because you touched my heart, I am allowing you alone-" "Can my mommy get a choice too?" The filly's mother stood, hooves around her baby. Her cutie mark was an orange flower. Dashie almost lost her composure, her title, her life. But Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash didn't even flinch. The filly lost her choice, and was sedated along with her mother. Dash waited for her cue, and it came. A faint rumble. The foundry was about to explode with red spectra. She checked the clock that was installed far above the threat of being splattered with blood. Almost two.

Almost time.

A rumbling sound could be heard throughout the factory. "What is going on here?" asked Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash. She already knew everything that was happening though, because she had set it all up. "It sounds like something is about to go!" screamed a worker pony from the PEGASUS Device room, "We all have to get out of here!" A dark figure gently swayed into the room. A surgical needle cutie mark followed suit, stitched tightly over the flank of this devious pegasus. "What's going on in the foundry?" This was the voice of death, not panicking at all, but instead collected and well thought out. "It sounds like something is wrong with the foundry. Perhaps you should go see to it Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash?" She was deeply afraid of him, he stitched another pony's cutie mark to his flank. Dash pondered on who this pegasus was. She knew that he was at least a doctor, but not even in what. A hiss could be heard from the foundry, and the dark pegasus motioned for Dash to go through with her plan. She bolted out of the room with a gust of rancid air being kicked up in her wake. With a grin of other ponies' teeth, he said "That puts me in charge of who goes next."

He picked and clamped down each pony himself.

Dash charged into the foundry and saw other more qualified ponies tampering with rusted valves. They can't see me escape. "You, all of you! You aren't even qualified to deal with this kind of situation! Get out before this thing explodes and takes you all with it! " They quickly without even a glimpse behind their manes. On any other day, Dash would ponder whether they left in fear of Dash, the roiling spectra, or were actually following orders. *Hssss...* Turning the valves that controlled spectra flow, she twisted all of them up to max. The orange valve broke under pressure immediately. Everything was set to go any second now. Looking for a way out, she saw the pipe system that fed rainbows out into the world was opening. "Here's my chance." Making sure the doors were closed and the valves couldn't be set any more dangerously, Dash zipped out through the pipes in a storm of cyan feathers.

*Crr..Chr..Fwoooom!!*

The foundry did what was expected of it, and exploded. Though every other spectra was maxed out in the blast, the red no doubt dominated the other colors. The whole thing was red. Still in rainbow mindset, it separated itself into different shadings. Seven streams of red shot out from the rubble that was once the foundry. As soon as the blast came through the wall, the song of chaos followed suit. Every worker, scientist, and victim pony all sang out in the melody of the doomed. "In the Rainbow Factory! Where all your Fears and Horrors come true!" The torrential red rainbow gained in speed. It was coming strait for Dash with the hate and fury of all those who died to her choosing. It was conscious, and it was very hateful.

Fly!

Rainbow Dash did the one thing she thought was right. She flew as fast as she could away from the thing chasing her. It's catching up to me! I thought I was the best flyer out there! Indeed she was, but rainbow speeds were never correctly measured. Nopony ever dreamed of flying faster than, or in this case, getting away from a rainbow. Then Dash got a few ideas. "If this thing thinks that it can out maneuver me, it's dead wrong!" She flew about in aerial maneuvers. Loopty loops, hard turns, and juking, but no avail. The red behemoth was catching up. "Not good enough!" Dash said with tears streaming down her face, tears that were immediately being swallowed by the red monstrosity following close behind. A small amount of steam rushed upwards from the heat. "Time to do the best trick in the book." For Scootaloo... Dash went strait down now, the red rainbow didn't even suspect she would do such a thing. Faster and faster Dash went, breaking the walls of the red abyss the further down she went. One... Two... Three... Dash counted the walls burst through, each one a darker shade of red than the one before. Four... Five... Six... The rainbow didn't even stand a chance. "Seven!" In the blur between red and cyan, something emerged. A true rainbow.

A sonic Rainboom.

The red rainbow nearly vaporized from the quake of the rainboom. Only a few moments ago, it was roiling and enveloping the sky with different shades of red. Now seven holes shown through on each shade of it. A beautiful rainbow streamed through the sky too, victoriously pumping through air and clouds. A small cyan blob was visible leading the seven raging rays. "Wow, I wonder what happened there. I know that was Rainbow Dash, but the red rainbow, I have no idea." Twilight was as curious as she ever was. She was down at the zap apple orchard looking for Rainbow Dash when this all happened. A faint tune still rang in her ears, but the words were never audible. Dash let go of the rainbow by losing enough speed. Remembering that she was on a very small window time frame, she went down to the zap apple orchard to meet Twilight. "Sorry for the delays, I was sneaking out of the factory." "You call that sneaking? Then what do you call barging out with two explosions literally following you!?" They hugged each other and Rainbow Dash took the moment in like a sponge.

"I need a telepathy spell. Pronto."

Dandy Rose always enjoys rumors and gossip. She had been following Twilight since she walked through Ponyville. Dandy was having a fun time staying out of Twilight's line of sight. She carefully trotted with her head as low as possible so she wouldn't be noticed. Dandy had followed Twilight to make sure she was okay too though. Yesterday, she noted that Twilight had been teleporting a large rock in seemingly random places. I hope she is alright. They trotted through large fields of trees. The apples on them seemed all too vibrant and hanging on to the tree for dear life. For a brief moment, Dandy Rose was caught up with the beauty and ferocity the red apples gleamed with. Eventually the apple orchard went into a clearing of sorts. It had stopped suddenly of all trees, but beyond the void there were more peculiar trees. Blue trees that were all withered but humming with a kind of magic electricity. The blue spoke to Dandy with vivid detail. It seemed ready to leap out of the trees and barrage any unsuspecting pony who would dare to take the blue for granted. Then Rainbow Dash landed from above and a gentle breeze brought Dandy Rose back to reality. Looking around to assess anything she might have missed (A gossiper must have all details!) she spotted something gruesome. Red waves of spectrum were falling much in a way that enchanted silk would. These red streams were torn, angry, and dying though. With a swish of her unicorn magic, Dandy brought the withering red scraps to her and pulled out a needle to get to work soothing its anger. The other two ponies gasped when they saw her re-threading the red waves.

A faint yelp came from the red spectrum.

"Sorry there! I guess I should have said 'This may hurt a bit!'" Dandy couldn't believe her ears. Red folds of spectrum, or rainbows, were at her hoof tips. She was mending light itself. A cyan blur raced across to meet the sewing unicorn. "What are yo doing!? That tried to kill me!" It was Rainbow Dash. "Oh hello Dashie, Hello Twilight Sparkle. I followed you here to get something to gossip about, but I think I may have stumbled upon something more... serious..." "D-Dandy!?" Rainbow Dash took another step toward her friend of yesterday but took one back when the red stream made a slight hiss. Dandy looked down at it and gently stroked it as if testing new fabric. "Now now... love and tolerate. No matter what, I think we can be civilized ponies." Twilight looked between Rainbow Dash and Dandy Rose the whole time. She would look calmly at Dashie, then look at Dandy and her 'friend.' "So Dandy, you know that was once ponies right? I've been communicating with Dash here and kept her calm enough not to tear it to pieces... Again..." Dandy just sat there, still threading the red strips together and smiled. "Yes I know. It has been talking to me like how you are. It says that it trusted and looked up to you Rainbow Dash." The cyan pony gasped and started up with a stuttering name. "S-S-Scoota-" Dash tried a few more times and got her one word sentence across. "Scootaloo? You're... Still alive?" The red streams twisted in a calm manner, though staying still where thread was pulling across a gap. It was her. Twilight jumped, followed quickly by Rainbow Dash. "Oh... Dandy, Twilight will cast a telepathy spell on you here. I will go back the the factory to make sure they don't suspect me of anything. I am on your side on this-" "It's okay Rainbow Dash. You need to get back to where Scootaloo was killed. Both of us are okay with that. Do be safe though."

Rainbow Dash rolled around in dirt and twigs.

Then she punched her own wing.

"Time to fly with an alibi." She barely had either.

When she got back to both the factory and slaughterer based self, Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash went to see what the damage of the explosion had caused to the foundry. A gaping hole of packed cloud and stone laughed at the worker pegasi trying to 'patch it up.' They swirled about all over the sky like clowns. Some looking for clouds to pack down and move back to the flying death camp. Some went in circles really fast and compressed the air itself into clouds. Some were paying bit after bit to the earth ponies in a quarry for stone. Nopony would dare touch Dashie's cloud, maybe because clouds that dark were seen as a live wire ready to shock the mane right off anypony who came too close. It was cackling black lightning as its neighbor clouds were packed into the walls of the facility. Pipes and rubble were still falling out of the hole in the foundry. The spectrum tanks were completely unharmed by the catastrophe. Dash looked back at that moment when she was being chased by an angry elemental incarnate of Scootaloo. At least she isn't as mad anymore. I wish I could tell her about the sedative I made in honor of her. Her vision suddenly went orange. Really orange.

"Maybe I can help out with that!"

Dandy! "Yup! telepathy is weird Dashie! It's like you are right behind me, but when I turn around, you still sound like you are right there!" Yeah, Twilight said something like that too. Speaking of, where is she anyways? Then the orange blur turned half purple. "Right here! Although we might need to fix a little problem from when Dandy got brought into this link..." I'll say... I can't see anything except purple and orange. "Exactly my point Rainbow Dash. All I can see is blue and orange. A pony can get a seizure like this." The colors faded from Dash's sight and in their place stood a pony in a dark coat of fur. His teeth were of other ponies, and he now had a newer cutie mark. This time it was a smile. "Ms. Dash. Your bravery saved a few lives today. Perhaps your loyalty towards the factory can save many more in the future. But tell me... what exactly happened with that red rainbow?" All eyes were upon Rainbow Dash. The voices of Twilight and Dandy were drowned out by the awkward silence as she saluted gained her composure again. "Well sir-" "Please... call me Doctor Atmosphere. All my friends do." Dash nearly fainted from the familiarity of the phrase. Does he know of Dandy and Twilight? He can't possibly know of the telecommunication spell. I'll just play it cool. "Well then, Doctor Atmosphere, When I saw the meters on the spectrum flows I ordered the technicians out. They must have turned them up to the max instead of down to minimal for further production even in an emergency. So I kicked the out and braced for impact... In the expelling pipe itself!" Oohs and aahs went around as a little bit of Rainbow Dash's pride blushed. Pause for dramatic effect... "It exploded, and projected me in one direction without a wall in the way. The red rainbow mus have been a mis-hap due to the foundry overworking itself. I dealt with it in my own way, and it evaporated when it touched ground. The spectrum couldn't be salvaged though." Doctor Atmosphere's face went neutral for a few moments. He looked like he really needed a rest. Dash looked like she really could use a bath. "Okay Chief Inspector and Announcer Dash. For your loyalty to the rainbow factory, I'm giving you the rest of the day off. I'll take over from here and add on your remaining hours to mine. Do try to have fun in the outdoors. Speaking of... don't you find it funny that the worker pegasi are sealing themselves back in after years of isolation from the outdoors?" His horrid smile widened. "Eh, it's a humor that only insane ponies can get." Dash felt chills run down her spine when he proclaimed himself insane. "Yes sir. Thank you. This 'free day' will not go to waste sir!"

"I hope you have big plans for the day Chief Dash."

Rainbow Dash had no idea what she was doing.