"Emergency override engaged. Shutdown in progress."
"What? What's going on?" Quarterly asked. He turned to his guards. Both they and the pegasi they held captive were as perplexed as he was. An alarm klaxon rang out, the machines around them began shutting down. The controls on the terminal in front of Quarterly went dark and the siphon arm drooped like a wilted flower. A small amount of pigment and blood dripped from the end of the syringe onto the floor below.
"Emergency override engaged. Shutdown in progress," the automated female-sounding voice repeated.
The conveyor belt on the factory floor ground to a halt. The heavy piston at the end was about to come down one more time, on top of Booster's colorless body, before it stopped. Booster looked up at the metal weight hanging above his head. It shook once and the retracted into its housing. He exhaled a long, pained and slow breath; he'd lost all of his color and a lot of his blood but he was alive. He grasped the conveyor belt with his hooves and slowly began to pull himself out.
Quarterly walked up to Rainbow Dash as she was being held. "Who else did you bring in here with you?!" he demanded. "Talk! Or I swear I'll drain the mark off your flank!!" he snarled at her.
"Quarterly!" a voice called out.
Quarterly turned around. "Hazey? What are you doing here? You're not allowed out of R&D."
Hazey slipped his hoof off one of the controls and the grayish pegasus stepped forward. "Quarterly, they're right," the soft-spoken pony said.
"How can you say that?" Quarterly asked, shaking his head in disbelief. "We're behind quota. Equestria NEEDS rainbows. They need the hope that we provide!"
"Hope... we don't provide hope," Hazey declared. "We spread fear and suffering. This has to stop."
"We can't stop, Hazey, you know that. This is for the good of all ponies, all Equestria! It's a necessary sacrifice, otherwise everypony will turn-"
"Turn gray?" Hazey finished. "Like... me?" he asked, stepping closer. It was then that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy noticed Hazey was a little too gray. The pegasus wasn't a natural gray and they could tell; his color had faded to gray out of depression. Ponies lost their color when their moods changed. Keeping their spirits up was the only way to prevent them from turning gray. If their mood worsened, their colors faded, eventually becoming grayer and grayer. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had experienced this firsthoof.
"Hazey, we talked about this. Nopony knows why-"
Hazey stomped a hoof on the floor. "No amount of colors restored mine! No amount of rainbows ever filled my heart with hope! Because I... because I..." he trailed off.
"Hazey..." Quarterly tried to say. He stopped mid-sentence.
"Because I always knew how rainbows were really made. Because I was born here... in this horrible place," Hazey said, almost on the verge of tears.
Quarterly raised a hoof to say something else. "I promise you, we will find a way to get your color back. We just need a little more pigment, a few more dyes. We make quota and we'll be on schedule again. Then, we can-"
"No!" Hazey shouted. "They have an alternative to all this madness. Don't... don't you?" he asked the captive pegasi. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy nodded silently as they were being held. That was all Hazey needed.
"I'm not going to allow this, Hazey," Quarterly said. "Rainbows have to be made of PURE colors. That's the way it's always been. You two," he turned to the guards. "Restrain him." The guard holding Fluttershy reached into a coatpocket and retrieved a taser. Despite being encumbered by already subduing a pegasus, he moved to comply with Quarterly's instruction.
"No," Hazey said to the guard. "Restrain Mr. Quarterly." The security guard was thrown off by the instruction. He raised an eyebrow, momentarily unsure of what to do.
Quarterly turned to the guard. "I gave you an order! Restrain him!"
"No!" Hazey shouted. "I am Hazey Veil! This factory is family-owned. And I'm its current owner," he declared. Something happened there when Hazey put his foot down. Teeth gritted, determined, the gray in his coat got a little lighter. And then lighter. Slowly, the pony known as Hazey Veil regained his color.
"My great-great-grandmother started this process... she started everything. I lost my color the day I found out that my family..." Hazey started weaping. "My family was responsible for all of this. I was responsible... I turned gray, she turned gray because neither of us knew how to stop it. My family's been gray ever since. We stopped searching for... an alternative." But Hazey's color did return. Quarterly was shocked, they all were.
"Gr... green," Quarterly muttered. Hazey Veil was a green pegasus. He was a dark green, his mane, a white with a streak of gray. Like a mist-covered forest in the morning. Adorning his flank was a a gray flower with a blue tear-drop shape in the center.
"You're the reason we ran out of green. There was supposed to be an even amount of different-colored ponies. We never considered checking the background of ponies already working here. Especially not... your family," Quarterly explained, almost overcome by all that was transpiring.
"There were a lot of things you... we didn't consider," Hazey remarked, examining his newly-colored hooves. His voice had a little more confidence in it. "It's time we started considering them. And it's itme I started taking over things around here."
"What are you saying?" Quarterly asked, raising an unsure eyebrow.
"I'm saying we need to re-evaluate your position here Quarterly," Hazey said with a little authority in his voice. "There's going to be some big changes going on around here. We're going to have to examine-"
"NO!" Quarterly shouted, interrupting. "After everything I've given this company, NO!" he quickly ripped the taser away from the guard holding Fluttershy and then smacked him the face with it. Fluttershy dropped to the floor. He then backed up to the terminal and pointed the taser at all of them. His hoof hit one of the controls as he stepped back and part of the machinary jumped in response, powering up again. On the factory floor, the conveyor belt began moving again. The rumble of the heavy piston descending on the belt filled the room.
"I've sacrificed too much to see this company changed like this. Because of some... some half-breed monstrosity. Insane notions of artificially creating colors," Quarterly said, his hoof shaking as he pointed the taser at the ponies. "You have to see how silly all of this sounds. Everything since the downsizing's just been so CRAZY, all of us are under a lot of stress," he said, his face twisting into a sort of crazed-humor. Rainbow Dash, the security guards and Hazey had the urge to back away from the yellow pegasus. He seemed like he might snap at any minute.
"Now," Quarterly began, a twisted smile still on his face. "Here's what we're going to do: we're going to siphon these two pegasi," he said, pointing to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. "and we'll be able to make this week's quota. Then, we'll call for a meeting and see about getting all these positions filled. Might even need to hire some more security. We might have to pull a couple doubleshifts but I think if we all work together then-"
From behind the terminal, Booster grabbed hold of Quarterly's neck and pulled him over. Despite being colorblind, he could still hear perfectly and matched Quarterly's voice to the pegasus he held now. Quarterly grasped at the pale hooves holding his throat, he almost dropped the taser. Hazey charged the yellow pegasus as Booster held him in place. Grabbing both of his lower legs, Hazey flipped Quarterly over the terminal. Quarterly screamed as he fell, his body bounced off the siphon arm below. His wing was scraped by the needle of the arm as he rolled off it and onto the conveyor belt. Something crunched as he landed and the conveyor belt started to move.
Booster himself slipped and fell onto the conveyor belt. He landed almost right next to Quarterly, both of them weakened by the fall.
"I guess this is what they mean by 'hooves-on training'," Quarterly said with a crazed, tired smile. They were both about to be crushed to death.
Despite everything that happened, Booster looked at the yellow pegasus in front of him. Nopony deserved to die like this, not even somepony like Quarterly. With his remaining strength, Booster grasped Quarterly's hoof and pulled him forward. Using all four of his limbs, Booster pushed Quarterly off the conveyor belt. The yellow pegasus rolled off the side and hit the floor like a rag doll.
Booster, completely exhausted, lay on his back and looked at the piston he was rapidly approaching. He threw his head back, energy completely drained. He looked up at the ceiling. The room was still black and white to him but the lights on the ceiling were red. Maybe color was returning to his vision in his last moments? He wondered if it was the last color he would see. His lower body left the conveyor belt and entered the disposal chamber.
A mechanical arm entered his view just as his head was about to leave the conveyor belt. The arm grasped him off the belt just as the piston came down one last time. He now found himself floating in midair as if saved by the hand of a steel angel. It pulled him back to the terminal and hung him over it. Hazey, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy stood at the controls.
"Booster Shot," Hazey said with a relieved smile. "I don't think that's part of the tour."
"Hooves... hooves-on training," Booster said weakly.
"Are you all right?"
"Oh sure," Booster coughed. "I'm fine. I've only been drained of blood and pigment, fell on my flank and almost got crushed to death. But hey, accidents... happen... right?"
"I'm sorry about... well, everything Booster. But I do have some good news," Hazey said, manuevering the arm and placing Booster on the floor. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy moved to pick up the injured pegasus.
"What's that?" Booster asked.
"I've approved your application. This entitles you to worker's compensation. We'll get you fixed up in no time."
Booster's head went slack. Nopony laughed at the statement. "Just get me out of here," Booster said.
"Of course, I think a little vacation time might be in order afterward," Hazey said as they carried the pegasus out.