//------------------------------//
// Section 7: Into the Rainbow Factory 
// Story: Into the Rainbow Factory 
// by Ractrin 
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Dr. Atmosphere breathed in deep the fresh air. It had been many years since he had stepped outside the musty corridors of the factory. There was an urgent desire in his chest to watch today‘s test. He sat atop the highest wall of the great coliseum, staying out of obvious sight from any onlooker. He didn’t want to be seen, but he wanted to see it all.

His plans depended on today going without a hitch. He looked to his right, an orange pegasus with a messed up jaw sat beside him, looking over the whole area too. “Is she among them?” Hide Atmosphere asked.
“I be’ ive s’ ‘ir.” he responded in a guttural slur. Pipe Wrench had been struck across the jaw so long ago that neither pony present knew him any different. 
“Good. I’ve waited ten years for today. I hope everything plays out as I had planned. Is Contrail below the coliseum?” Hide searched the floor of the massive arena, using his imagination to see through it’s white puffy floor.
“H’s in pl’e ssss’r.” Pipe muttered. A loud and defining horn blew, announcing the beginning of the testing. Hide moved uneasy, his excitement growing.
“Good, everything is going the way it should.”

A cold breeze blew up Raptor’s back as he clung to the wall of the coliseum. He held his head just over the top where he could see the arena. The area was littered with two obvious obstacles, a large amount of cloud cover over the top of the arena and clouds in the shape of rings. The ring clouds led in a trail of serpentine and descending trek. Another blast of cold air rushed up Raptor’s spin. He couldn’t take it any more. With one heave he pulled himself over the wall and onto the top of the bleachers. He knelt down low and began to crouch walk along the wall behind all the ponies in front of him. 

The grand stands reaching around the arena were filled almost to the max with on looking ponies, all eager to watch the test begin. Raptor used their heads to attempt at not being seen as he made his way to a nearby pillar. The pillar obstructed his movement any further without descending the stairs, and he wasn’t going to do that. Deciding this was a good place to stop, Raptor leaned against the pillar and quietly took off his backpack. Placing it on the ground he dug through it to find the surprisingly still warm pancakes. He pulled them out from the bag inside as quietly as he could, as to not alert the ponies sitting mere meters from him. He stood, pancake in hand, and looked out across the arena. “Not the best kind of meal for watching an event, but better than nothing.” he thought as he hungrily devoured the sweet food.

Without warning a loud yell was heard giving orders. Still chewing, Raptor looked around the pillar to a landing platform at the other end of the arena. There stood about twelve testers, all ready to take their test. Orion and Scootaloo stood next to one another, both leaned in towards one another talking. On the launch ramp stood a yellow filly with a green mane and tail. “Clear, Fly, Fall, Complete!” yelled the nearby instructor. With a flash the yellow pegasus drove upwards into the cloud cover and began bucking with great ferocity. Each buck disintegrated another patch of hovering mist. Raptor huffed, impressed. Never did he imagine he’d watch horses break clouds. She twirled into a duo of cloud formations punching and bucking, simultaneously removing the clouds from existence.  Within moments the clouds were completely scattered, leaving a huffing yellow pegasus in the middle of the arena. A few flaps of her wings and a few breaths later, she was ready to move on. 

A quick dive served as a way to build momentum and enter the rings. Left ,right, down a little, up some, right, left, down once more, and then up! She made it all the way through with no problems. Raptor scoured the field looking for what else she could do; after all, all the pegasi around him were still quiet, adamantly watching the performance. He watched her chest swell as she took in a deep breath and then lifted upwards, skyrocketing towards the upper echelon of the arena. Once she became level with the top portions of the grand stands, her wings folded inwards, hugging tight to her body. Like a bullet shot straight up, her momentum carried her upwards for only a few more seconds until gravity finally took effect and drug her back down. “What is she doing?” Raptor thought, watching curiously as her form fell with out hindrance. As she approached the cloud floor, her wings flew open and cupped, slowing her momentum. 

Snap! A scream. Blood. The wings of the yellow filly folded upwards, unnaturally hinging at the nearest bone to her body. Her flesh tore, exposing muscle and releasing red fluid that flew upwards as she plummeted into the cloud floor. Puffs of white and red lifted up into the sky, just to be carried off by the slow breeze. “Dusk Flitter! Clear, Fly, Fall, Complete!” the instructor shouted, not even looking at the filly crumpled on the coliseum floor.
“T-there not helping her!?” Raptor’s mind shouted. He wanted to speak the words, but knew that if he did, the ponies in front of him would catch him. Leaning against the pillar, he stood up onto the tips of his toes to see her, moving slightly. The next trainee lifted up, cleared the sky, flew through the hoops, and successfully saved themselves from falling into the clouds below. The crowd cheered and Raptor noticed three important looking ponies raising their hooves.  After the crowd had settled down, Raptor took notice that the yellow pegasus was still where she had fallen, attempting to stand. 

Another trainee passed the test, and another, and then another. The line grew short as Orion and Scootaloo waited for their names. Raptor was now focused on both of them. Scootaloo kept her eyes upwards, away from the fallen foal who now was limping her way to the west gate. Orion however, he seemed to be staring at her, his eyes unwavering. Unsure hatred donned his face as his name was called. With great intent, the only human in the crowed watched as Orion argued with the instructor for a moment and then reluctantly climbed on the launch ramp. After the judges nodded, he lifted up, and then down. Without even going towards the waiting cloud cover he flew over to the yellow pony and helped her to all fours. Raptor looked at the judges and all of them held their hooves down. Without a second hesitation, the instructor called Scootaloo’s name. 

She stood there, tense, her muscles moving as fast as a square rock on a flat plain. Her eyes buried deep into Orion’s form. The instructor shouted her name, and with great effort, she moved forward. Raptor stared at the two foals walking together along the base of the arena floor. “They…failed him? For helping her? What kind of place is this? I’ve not seen any horrible treatment like this any where else in Equestria. No wonder Celestia sent me.” Raptor’s thoughts echoed in his mind,. He was unsure of what to think of what he was witnessing. The kindness he had been shown by Twilight, the Apples, especially Fluttershy, in no way compared to the maltreatment of this magnitude. Scootaloo bounding high into the air caught Raptor’s attention as she dove headlong into the clouds that had now been reset for her test. She bucked, twisted, punched and even made a small tornado to remove the cloud cover effectively. As far as Raptor could tell, she had been the fastest all morning. As she pushed upwards through the last cloud formation she didn’t even stop to catch her breath, she swung around with a great deal of speed and flew perfectly through the first hoop. Then the second, and the third. As she approached the lowest lying ring, it was easily noticeable that her vision had glanced over to Orion and the other filly. Also, something moved.

Raptor looked intently at the ring Scootaloo was heading for. Her head was twisted towards the two failures, so she didn’t notice that the ring in front of her moved upwards almost a whole two meters. “What the hell?” erupted in Raptor’s mind. “It moved!? The ring MOVED!? Did someone set her up!?” his head twisted around the stadium, searching for any pony that may have also seen the ring move, but no one reacted. Scootaloo slammed into the lower part of the ring and tumbled backwards, crashing back first into the cloud floor. Without hesitation she hopped up and lifted back into the sky, attempting to show she was still capable of flight, but it was pointless. All three judges lowered their hooves, and looked back at the landing zone for the next trainee. 

Her vision blurred, both because of the pain in her chest from hitting the ring at such high speed, and also from the feeling of dread. Scootaloo looked at the careless judges, hoping that they would turn their attention back to her, to free her from her fate. They never looked back, they newer cared. Their cold care-free expressions fixated on the next pony waiting on the course to be reset. She lowered her head in defeat and joined Orion and the yellow pony. She tossed a wing over her and helped support her. Raptor watched closely as the ring that had been moved slowly returned back to where it had been. “Someone’s set her up.” he muttered to himself. He watched the sad trio until they went out of view below the heads of the crowd. 

The west gate was nothing more than a long tunnel that went straight to the outside of the arena, just near where Raptor had climbed up. After losing sight of them, he shimmied close to the wall until he reached the point that he determined would be over the west gate. He peered over the railing down the straight drop to see a shoddy wooden carriage. He hopped over the edge and dug his toes into the wall. Without hesitation he slipped his fingers into the wall and slowly let his toes slide out of the clouds a little. Like a mud wall, he began to slide down it. He turned to where only one hand was in the wall and held a free hand out in order to catch himself as soon as he reached the carriage. Before he got to it he realized there were two ponies hitched to it, keeping watch on the area around it.

Raptor stopped sliding just as he reached the door frame next to the carriage and he could hear talking inside. “Aurora’s wings…their broken” he heard Scootaloo say.
“Ah well, ain’t that just a’h shame? What’s it tuh us? Better to not have ‘er come flyin‘ back.” a guard spoke.
“We may have failed the fucking test but we’re still worth keeping alive!” rage was clearly present in Scootaloo’s voice. 

Raptor felt sorry for her. He had seen how much she had wanted to pass the test, to impress Rainbow Dash, her sister. Raptor now found himself in a unique position. 
“Hey Patches. Doct’ ’er up, a’h don’t want blood ohn dis d’ing. A’h just washed ‘er ‘esterday.” the same guard said. “An’ you two, on d’ah cart!” a few seconds passed and the cart shook from what Raptor could only imagine was Scootaloo and Orion climbing aboard. After a few noises of medical tape stretching, followed by some whimpers passed, the cart shook once more as Aurora climbed aboard with one of the guards. A knock was heard from inside the carriage as the door slid shut, causing the two ponies up front to open their wings and begin to take off. With that Raptor carefully climbed on top of the carriage and splayed his limbs across, in all hopes of hanging on. He hoped and preyed the pegasi up front wouldn’t notice his weight. 

Raptor looked through a crack in the top of the carriage and could see Scootaloo and Aurora sitting close as Orion seemed to have secluded himself from the rest of them. Raptor could make out a few whispers, indicating that the two fillies were talking, but nothing other than that. Not until Orion spoke up was anything audible over the gale-like winds. “Maybe that’s why nopony ever comes back, they just don’t like Cloudsdale.” he said, sincere in his statement.
“You little bastards don’t even deserve to call yourselves ‘pegasus’. You fuckers couldn’t even pass your Celestia damned test!” the onboard guard mocked.
“Who the TARTARUS are you to talk to us like that!?” shouted Scootaloo back. “You have no right in Tartarus to treat others like that!” shuffling could be heard as Raptor watched Scootaloo dive for the guard at the opposite end of the carriage. With a simple swing of his hoof he smacked Scootaloo out of the air and she spun to the carriage floor; her impact making the cart jump a little.
“I can treat you little bitch however the fuck I want. After all, you hardly count as ‘ponies’ anymore. Not sit the FUCK DOWN and shut up till you get to where you’re going.” Scootaloo stood from her fallen position and limped back over to her seat next to Aurora.
“And where is that exactly? It’s not like we can tell anypony, and as the delivery boys I’m sure you know where it is.” Scootaloo said through rubbing her sore cheek.
“Heh, fuck if I know. We’ll be handing you guys over to some pegasi in suits and get a bag full of bits. That’s how it’s been for a thousand years, and that‘s all I give a fuck about.”

There was perpetual silence, except for the wind blowing around the carriage. The cold wind had nearly frozen Raptor to the cart’s roof top. He was beginning to shiver uncontrollably as his body temperature lowered. He wanted to curl up in a ball to warm himself, but that would require letting go of the edges of the roof, and then go flying off the next time they hit a patch of turbulence. This carried on for hours. Raptor found his mind falling into a numb rotation as he began using spirit energy to try and warm his fingers. They were nearly numb and at times wanted to let go of the cart. With a cascading flow of energy over them he could feel the blood returning and feeling was coming back. How long could he keep it up? If there was a fight at the end of this trip he would probably need as much strength as he could get. So it came down to rotating his spirit energy between hands and in intervals of whenever one became numb, which was decreasing in time difference. And when the sun fell below the horizon staying warm was a nearly impossible thing, until they began to drop in altitude. Raptor chanced a look over the side of the cart and noticed a desert. Off in the distance sat a quant little town, but the cart dove into the mountains, veering away from the settlement.

The cart lurched sideways, almost tossing Raptor from it’s roof. He looked again and saw that they had landed and were coming to a stop. “I think I prefer flying by jet.” he muttered to himself as the cart halted, shoving him forward a bit. His fingers tightened against the wood as he tried to maintain his position in hopes of not tipping anyone off about his presence.
“Ah, this is my stop” the guard said. “You ponies play nice, and have fun in whatever Tartarus they’re sending you to.” With that he hopped out and looked at the two ponies standing there. One was clearly a mare, but she was wearing a black cloak that covered her face, mane and body. Her tail seemed to be slick with unnatural amounts of dye. She peered into the cart checking to see who was aboard and then closed the door. Raptor watched her eyes, they seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place why they seemed so much like rose eyes he had seen before. She turned to the guard and the other pony in a suit. The cloaked mare watched him plop a bag of coins on the guard’s outstretched hoof. Satisfied, the smiling guard opened his wings and began to lift off. 

Raptor cussed and slid off  the side of the cart, collapsing on the dirty ground. The heated-by-the-sun sand warmed his cold appendages. Looking under the cart, he watched the hooves of the ponies shuffle around to the front of the carriage that was now vacant of any other pegasi. Two new ones landed and took position. “Take them back to Cloudsdale.” Said the male, suited pony to the two new cart pullers.
“Right-o boss” one said, making a fool-hearted laugh. Raptor rolled under the carriage and pulled himself into the underlying supports. The shoddy, foal carting box jerked and they were off again.

The cold wind wasn’t nearly as bad this time, as Raptor was able to huddle close to one of the support bars and keep himself warm that way. Every so often he would risk a glance out and could see the two ponies from the desert flying with them. From inside the carriage Raptor heard no more talking. It was almost as if the trio had given up hope. He looked at the floor panels, and pretended that he could see through them. He imagined their dissatisfied faces hung low with begrudged frowns. It sickened him. He ran the images of the test through his head a couple times more, especially since he had nothing else to do. That last ring. It moved. The thought caused Raptor to instinctually narrow his eyes in suspicion, even though he was merely looking at the underside of the floor. One of the ponies had to move it. If he learned anything about the pony sub-races in the past three days was that the weather never changed unless a pegasus was involved. Who moved it? Why did it move? Why Scootaloo? Why was SHE so important? He couldn’t stop asking the questions until he found himself in such a comfortable and warm position he drifted into a half-aware sleep.

The dream, it was different. The pool of blood was only being filled from one pony now. Orion was pouring blood from a hole in his forehead, along with his snout and mouth. Scootaloo was still curled up in a ball of pain next to him, but she wasn’t bleeding. Her eyes opened, yellow light cascading from them. She turned her head to Raptor, who was floating in the dark abyss around the gory scene. “I hate you.” she said, clearly and profoundly. The anger in her voice wracked him to his imaginary bones. 
“WHY!?” Raptor yelled out, confused.
“It’s your fault!” She shouted. The light from her eyes bore down on him, blinding him.
“What is!? What’s my fault!?” he yelled back, covering his eyes with a hand. 

A large thump not only woke Raptor but tossed him from the cart. He rolled on the cloud floor he had landed on and scrambled to his feet. Looking up, he quickly and efficiently broke from his weariness of just being awoken and took in where he was. They were in what he considered a landing dock. He had fallen down into the trough below, allowing him to stand and sneak up the side of the low lying area. Above was a jutting out lip of… “Metal!?” Raptor gasped. “That’s made of metal?” he looked at the cloud surface he was crawling up and then started pushing it aside. He didn’t go down but maybe half a meter before he ran into a dark grey metal surface. “That’s impossible.” Voices echoed from the cart, causing him to jump into action and climb the rest of the way out of the trough. Upon reaching the top he darted for a pipe that was just far enough away from the wall he could hide behind it. He glanced around the corner and saw a few suited ponies, all wearing masks, standing around the now open door of the cart. A large red pony, with white hair, wearing a lab coat that covered his cutie mark, stepped to the group. Without hesitation or question they made room for him to walk into the center of the half circle and look down on the foals presented to him. With a malicious grin he spoke, 
“Welcome, mules”