//------------------------------// // Just another sunny day in hell. // Story: Song from the Shadows // by SteampunkBrony //------------------------------// Darkness Rising Chapter One: Just another sunny day in hell "GOOOOOOD MORNING CLOUDSDALE!" The radio announcer yelled through the airwaves, seemingly right at Nightsong. "This is Rainbow Dash standing in for DJ Pegasai who is off in Manehattan doing a gig with DJ Pon-3." Yeah Buck you too RD. Nightsong though as she rolled out of bed and flopped onto the soft cloud floor of her room. She proceeded to her mirror as the radio carried on. "It's another sunny day here in Cloudsdale, with some light showers this evening. That's right folks, the weather factory is purging the cloudmaker so get ready to get wet if you're outside." Dash announced as Nightsong combed her Mane. Removing the tangles from her green and black mane was annoying, but she hadn't slept the best that night. I wonder if the princesses know what goes on here... She thought as she pulled on her work uniform, a one piece affair that kept spectra off of her body. It was black so stains would not show, and had a pocket on either flank for carrying things, since saddlebags were not allowed inside the factory. I hate my job, I did not sign up for this, I signed up to work night shift as security, not maintain a machine that turns pony corpses into rainbows! She silently raged. But they put me doing just that, buck my life. The green and black pegasis thought as she stepped out into the hallway that led to the dreaded rainbow factory. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "Allright you Mules, get to work or we'll toss you in with today's shipment!" The boss, a neon orange pegasis with somepony's skull for a cuite mark yelled at the workers as they were finishing breakfast. The black suited security ponies were everywhere around the room, after all, it was the rainbow factory. Not a single soul gets through. Nightsong sighed and got up and headed for the catwalks over the Spectra storage, heading towards the processor. She was let in without ceremony, her ID card giving her clearance to enter the room. "First bunch will arrive in fifteen, better have it running by then or the boss ain't gonna be happy with you." The emotionless voice of the guard reported before closing the door. "Good morning to you too..." Nightsong muttered as she pulled a Spectra-stained panel off of the processor and climbed in, getting to work on checking and maintaining the various mechanical bits inside. Right on time the first load of the deceased was carted into the room. Nightsong had just finished replacing the access pannel and was already being yelled at by Solar Flare. "NIGHTSONG! How many bucking times do I have to tell you to have this damn machine running by the time we get here!" "I'm sorry sir, but unless you want the whole system to fail it needs to be checked and maintained properly. If I don't do that, it will break." She replied, her voice even, used to the verbal abuse from her perpetually bad tempered boss. "I don't give a buck about what you think! Get it running." Solar Flare ordered as he waited for the shipment to be moved into place. "Already working on it Sir." She grumbled as she pulled the levers and hit the right buttons to start the machine. Soulless prick and a total asshole to boot, when I finally snap from his verbal abuse he's gonna enjoy his machine, from the view of one of the corpses. She thought as she put in the earblooms of her PegaPod music player and cranked the radio, drowning out the sickening crunches as the recently deceased were dumped into the machine one by one. Equestria had very few graveyards, most were for the nobles and various important ponies. Everypony else was 'cremated', that is to say their families were given a jar of fireplace ash and the bodies were sent to the rainbow factory. Only a few ponies actually knew what happened to the bodies, namely those involved with building the crematorium furnaces. The furnaces were enchanted to teleport the bodies placed inside to a few hubs throughout the country, and from there they were brought to the rainbow factory. It was a system that had been invented in secret long ago and stayed that way due to tight security and assassins. As the first cart emptied, a second rolled up on its rails above the processor's opening, ready to unload its grim cargo. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- A shrill whistle sounded through the factory as closing time was announced, the aincient brass steam whistle still loud as ever. "Bucking finally..." Nightsong said with a sigh as she shut down the machine, a few final gory noises coming from the depths as it took care of the last body. She pulled out a high pressure hose and began spraying down the machine, blood, meat, and spectra all getting washed down the drains. The guard stepped in. "Need a hand?" He asked, his tone different from before as he flew up to where she was. "If you don't mind, there's another hose by the first." She said. "Not that I don't appreciate it but why the sudden help?" "I dunno, I suppose that I think lending you a hand may help make an otherwise grim day a little better. The boss is a complete dick to you and you have the worst job of us all, running this... abomination. How do you handle it?" He said, grabbing the other hose as Nightsong removed the maintenance panel. "I don't really know, the radio helps, that way I don't have to deal with any of the sounds." She said with a sigh. "Er, if you're squeamish don't look in untill I get this bit washed out..." She said, frowning as she removed the pannel. "Why is tha-" He cut himself off as he went white and hurled. sitting on a small ledge just inside the machine was somepony's head cut in two. "That's why..." She said. "Just wash the puke down the drain" She said as she pushed it off the ledge and let it fall into the depths of the processor where it would be handled the next day. She then began spraying down the insides. "By Celestia, how do you handle that without hurling!" The guard said, staring at her shocked after he regained his ability to keep his lunch down. "Two years of doing it every day. after four weeks the shock of it dies down." She said with a sigh as she looked back at him. His face was a cross between shocked and mortified as he stared at her. "Go ahead and say what you want, last guard probably has already said it anyhow." "That's horrible... why did you continue the job?" "When I signed on I signed a contract. hidden in the legal jargon was a line saying that if I quit, they have every legal right to kill me. There's also a line saying that I can't leave the high security area of the factory. I haven't been outside in two years and, well you know the rules if I try to run." "Detain by any means possible..." "In other words, shoot to kill." Nightsong said with a sigh. "By the moon... I didn't think it was that bad..." He said. "Damn now I want out of this..." "Good luck, they'll treat you the way they would treat me. Ever wonder what happened to the guy you replaced?" "Yeah..." "They threw him into the processor when he announced his resignation. Hey, at least you can go home, I'm trapped here unless someone busts this place open." She said with a sigh. "What I would give to see the night sky again..." "... Nightsong right?" "Yeah. I was a musician before this, I made some orchestral stuff as well as some trance, never really got popular but Scratch has used my stuff in a few of her big gigs." "So what made you sign on with the factory?" "The record label that signed me went under, I wanted to work security here while I tried to find someone else to sign on with, but that was two years ago." "How'd you go from security to this though?" "Machine broke one day, boss yelled at me to try to fix it, I managed it so he shot the old matainance pony and assigned me to the job." "Bucking psycopath..." "Yeah. Anyhow, we're done here... no wait..." She said climbing into the machine. The guard flinched at a nasty crack followed by a sickening squelch. "another head?" The guard asked, shuddering, when Nightsong emerged, her hooves covered in crimson. "No." She said with a sigh. "Somepony's foal, probably not even two years old, got caught on one of the blades." She said. "... How do you do it?" He asked, looking sick again. "At first, fear for my own life, but then I got used to it... what kind of monster does that make me?" She said. "I mean... I don't even cry about it any more." The guard walked over to her and put a wing around her. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up... Then perhaps... well the boss'll probably send me to the moon but I think I may be able to sneak you out for a bit." Nightsong perked up at that. "R-really?" "Yeah, next week would be a good time, there's a party for the guards so they'll be fewer in numbers..." "I'll be ready." Nightsong said with a smile. "Now, let's get moving, the boss gets antsy if I linger too long." -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Author's note: Well this little idea popped into my head as I was litstening to the various remixes of rainbow factory. This will turn into a slice of life style story after a bit, but untill then things will be a little more... interesting. Sorry to those of you waiting on Night's Magic, but i'm still working on the next chapter of that.