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."

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