//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: A Rainbow’s Tale // Story: Big Brother Sandbar // by HenBasket //------------------------------// Cozy sat alone, in the middle of the room in suspension. She didn’t know how or why she was here, given the last thing she remembered was crying herself to sleep after she had gotten into a fight with Fizzy, but here she was. She looked around the empty room, only to find an annoyed stallion sitting at the teacher’s desk in the front of the room. When her eyes met his, he cleared his throat. “Eyes on your class work, Miss Glow.” Whimpering softly, Cozy shifted her attention to her desk, eyeing the stack of papers on it. Something wasn’t right, these papers were too advanced for the classes she was taking, but somehow she recognized them. As Cozy nervously chewed on her pencil, Twilight entered the room, looking rather unimpressed. “Cozy Glow,” she ordered sternly, “my office. Now.” The walk to Twilight’s office seemed to take forever, despite it not being that far away from the classroom she was just in. When she entered the office, she sat down on a hard wooden chair, a stark contrast from the soft bean bags in Starlight’s office. After sitting in her chair, Twilight tapped her hoof on her desk to get the filly’s attention. “Cozy Glow, do you know why you’re here?” “Y-yes, Twilight,” Cozy responded with a quivering voice, “I think I do.” “That’s Headmare Sparkle to you, young filly,” Twilight ordered. “Now, tell me why you think you’re here.” “Yes, Headmare Sparkle. I accidentally hit Fizzy during one of my episodes,” Cozy replied. “But, I would never attack anypony on purpose! I wasn’t thinking, and I was gonna tell her I’m sorry!” “It was an ‘accident’? An ‘episode’? You’re ‘sorry’?!” Twilight snorted. “Please, we both know you came here just to start shit like you did at the previous two schools you were expelled from. We gave you a chance by letting you in because we thought you could change, but we were wrong. You’re a bad pony, Cozy. You’re no longer welcome at this school. I have no other choice but to expel you. You have two hours to pack your things before one of the guardians from your orphanage arrives to pick you up. Dismissed.” Cozy glumly got out of the chair and left Twilight’s office. Her vision blurred on her way to her dorm room as her tear ducts flooded her eyes. She had no idea what she had done. Had she actually gotten into a fight with her best friend? She honestly had no clue. When she got to her room, she was too upset to pack, so she flopped on her bed and bawled her eyes out. When she calmed down, she realized she wasn’t in her room anymore, but in a sky carriage taking up to Cloudsdale. She sighed, knowing she was in for a flank beating when she got back to the orphanage. However, the carriage missed the turn towards the orphanage and continued heading further into town. Eventually, the carriage pulled up to a building she recognized, the Cloudsdale Weather Factory. This confused her, she had just gotten expelled from school, and they were taking her on a tour of the factory? Before she could make sense of what was going on, she felt a pressure on her wings and heard a slicing sound. They had clipped her feathers. She was then hoofcuffed and led into the building. Cozy tried to speak up, but when she opened her mouth, no words came out. Her eyes started to water again, she had no idea what was going on and she was scared. “Stop crying, bitch,” the pony escorting her snapped. He kicked her side, causing her to yelp. “We’re here, get in.” He uncuffed her, pushed her into a closet and shut the door. Cozy looked around the closet to see about two dozen other pegasi her age, equally as scared as she was. She walked around the limited space that was in the closet, and laid down on an empty portion of the floor near a corner and cried. How could Twilight do this? She knew the orphanage abused her, and yet she allowed them to take her back after expelling her without even telling her why. She only stopped crying when she felt somepony tapping her back. “So, what’d you do,” a colt asked her, “flunk outta school, or worse? Must’ve been pretty bad for your parents to send you here.” “I-I don’t have parents,” Cozy replied. “And I was expelled from the School of Friendship, but I don’t think they followed the proce-- … Also, where is ‘here’, exactly?” “Oh damn, sorry,” the colt apologized, “I didn’t know. Also, we’re in the Rainbow Factory; I think our group is next.” “It’s okay, there’s no way you coul--WHAT?! I thought the Rainbow Factory was just a story adults told foals to make them behave?” “I did too, but I guess not,” the colt knelt down and inspected Cozy’s wings. “Ah, fiddlesticks. They cut everypony’s wings. Guess that makes sense though.” Just as the colt stood up, the closet door opened, revealing two mares wearing lab coats sobered in what the foals could only assume was blood. “Alright shitstains,” one of the mares barked, “it’s your turn to become rainbows.” The other mare began chaining the kids together to make sure none of them could try to make a break for it. When she got to Cozy, she noticed how scared the filly was. She smiled. “Hey, Sarge,” the mare shouted to her superior. “I think we found our first volunteer. She’s just a widdle bitch.” “Good, Private,” the sergeant chuckled, “chain her up in the front.” Cozy wanted to protest, say that she wasn’t technically a volunteer, but she knew it would only lead to more trouble so she kept her mouth shut. The hallway seemed to go on forever, much longer than it should given the size of the building on the outside. Cozy chalked it up to the fact that she was about to be murdered by an industrial sized pony grinder. Seemingly hours later, the chain of foals were eventually told to stop and wait while the two mares went inside a room. In the distance, the kids could hear a pulsing klaxon and frantic screaming. All Cozy could do was gulp. After a few minutes which seemed like hours, the two mares emerged from the room, grabbed the chains connected to the foals and began walking towards the end of the hall where Cozy assumed where the grinder was. Again, the walk seemed to take much longer than it should have given the building was only so big. When they finally reached the end of the hallway, a loud hydraulic hiss was heard as a blast door opened, revealing a room that proved the story of the Rainbow Factory to be true. Cozy tried to move forward, but she couldn’t. She only started moving when the colt behind her had enough and just started pushing her. Once all the kids were in the room, the blast doors closed, locking them inside. A few seconds after the doors completely shut, a pony entered through a door leading to a catwalk several yards up. He began speaking, telling the young pegasi that they were no good lowlifes, pieces of shit, basically demeaning them in any way possible. After he was done emotionally abusing them, he went on to say that the story of the Rainbow Factory was in fact true and that they were the next ponies to become rainbows. “Sargeant, Private,” the stallion ordered, “bring the first sacrifice.” The two mares quickly unchained the salmon colored filly and told her to get moving. When she didn’t move, the attached a leash and collar to her neck and began dragging her by the neck to the lift adjacent to the pony grinder. When Cozy was in the lift, the two mares flew away leaving the shaking filly alone in the lift as it began ascending to the top of the grinder. When the lift reached the top of the grinder, Cozy felt herself being moved. Looking down, she realized that she was on a conveyor belt. The belt stopped when she was in front of the stallion. “Any last words, you little shit?” The stallion’s breath smelled horrible and made Cozy gag. “No? Are you sure? Well too bad! Into a rainbow you go!” The belt started up again, causing Cozy to lose balance. She fell forward, landing on her chin. Her flank kept going, causing her to flip over and land on her backside. She tried to scream for help, but her lungs wouldn’t let her, she tried to move, but her muscles wouldn’t let her. Just as her tail was about to reach the gears, the conveyor belt stopped and she felt herself being levitated. “Fear not, Cozy Glow,” a familiar voice said, “for I am here to protect you from your nightmare.” “Nightmare?” Cozy asked. “Princess Luna?” “Yes, dear,” the Princess responded. “I came as fast as I could. I was busy helping your friend with her nightmare. You really hurt her feelings.” “I know,” the filly said glumly. “I was emotional and acted in the moment, but that’s no excuse for what I did.” “I’m glad you learned your lesson, Cozy Glow,” Luna said sweetly. “I’m sorry that your mind put you through all that. Now, I’m going to release you, and you should find that your feathers have grown back.” Cozy felt Luna’s magical hold on her release and started to fall. Instinctively, she started flapping her wings and found that her feathers had indeed grown back. She flew over to the Princess and gave her a hug. “Thank you, Princess Luna,” she cried. “Thank you so much!” As Cozy cried, she felt Luna slowly fade out of existence as her surroundings started to fade away into nothingness. The next thing she knew, she was in her room at the School of Friendship with Starlight looking over her, quite concerned. Cozy did the only thing she could think of. She cried.