It was a dark and stormy midafternoon, and Scootaloo was looking wistfully out a rain-streaked window. Suddenly she felt a hoof shaking her vigorously.
“Scootaloo,” said Sweetie Belle as she rattled Scootaloo like she was looking for loose change. “What are you doing?”
Scootaloo blinked a few times. “Oh, sorry, I was thinking about lame it is when you see characters staring out windows in books and stuff.”
“My sis says it’s a good narrative technique,” said Apple Bloom.
“Yeah, but that’s Applejack. I don’t think she even knows how to read.” Scootaloo waved her hoof dismissively. “Anyway, we should probably head somewhere else for now. Looks they're brewing up a storm for later,” she said, pointing her hoof towards the ceiling where black clouds were being gathered.
““We’ve still got the whole rest of the factory to explore," said Sweetie Belle.
“Yup!” chirped Scootaloo. “And Twilight said the spell she cast on you guys so you could walk in Cloudsdale would only last twelve hours, so we gotta get moving.”
Nodding in unison, the three fillies left the storm section of the weather factory and began to wander around. As they passed by a worker pushing a wheelbarrow, Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow.
“What’s that guy doin’?” she asked.
Scootaloo glanced over to the pegasus. “Oh, him? He’s probably taking that to the rainbow machine.”
“So it’s, like, rainbow ingredients and stuff?”
Sweetie Belle thumped Apple Bloom on the back of the head. “Rainbow’s aren’t made of ingredients, stupid. They’re made from the refraction of light through moisture in the air.”
Apple Bloom rubbed the back of her head, shooting a glare at Sweetie Belle. “What am I, a meteorologist?”
“No, you’re not,” said Scootaloo, interjecting, “but you were right that those were ingredients for making rainbows.”
Sweetie Belle was taken aback. “Wait, what?”
Scootaloo nodded. “Yep. I can show you how they make them if you want.”
Apple Bloom’s eyes lit up. “Oh, really? Cool! Let’s go.”
“All right, let’s head over there then,” said Scootaloo, turning in the direction of the rainbow section of the factory.
Sweetie Belle trailed a bit behind, muttering under her breath, “I’ll never understand pegasi.”
By the time they got to their destination, they could see the Best Young Flyers competition was well underway out the window. Ponies were whizzing by, doing flips and other silly nonsense.
“Here we are,” said Scootaloo, splaying out her hooves.
A pair of ponies stood by a big machine that they were dumping a container into, and a few other ponies were standing by a trough the large machine emptied into. Rainbow-colored liquid poured out of it and into the trough where it flowed down a series of more troughs and eventually into a massive vat.
“Whoa…” Apple Bloom breathed. “This is pretty cool, ain’t it?”
Scootaloo shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. The real cool thing is how they make the rainbows though.”
“And how do they do that?” Sweetie Belle asked pointedly.
Scootaloo smirked. “This is a pretty big secret, so you can’t tell anypony else, but…” She glanced back and forth between Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. “Here’s how they do it.” She grabbed the two of them by the hoof and hurried them along towards where the big machine was.
As they watched the two worker pegasus lift another container and dump it into the machine, Sweetie Belle could’ve sworn she saw a hoof before it disappeared into the pit.
“Wait a second,” said Sweetie, taking a few steps back. “Those aren’t—”
“Foals?” Scootaloo said, casting Sweetie a knowing look. “Nah, that’d be weird, and probably illegal. Actually, it’s corpses.”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were dumbfounded, their mouths hung open. After a moment, Sweetie finally managed to say, “Corpses?”
Scootaloo nodded. “Yep. See, next door there’s a mortuary, and it turns out that ponies make pretty good rainbow juice. They used to use live ponies, but then the unions stepped in and said it wasn’t ‘moral’ or whatever.”
Apple Bloom shook her head. “My sis always told me to never trust unions.”
“I feel like we’re all missing the point here,” said Sweetie Belle, frowning.
At that moment, Scootaloo happened to look out the window again and saw a familiar blue streak rocketing up into the sky. “Oh, look!” she said, causing Sweetie and Apple Bloom to turn around.
“Is that Rainbow Dash?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Sure looks like it,” Sweetie remarked. “Wonder what she’s doing?”
“Hang on a sec,” said Scootaloo. “It looks like she’s turning around. Wait.” Her eyes went wide. “Is she about to do what I think she’s about to do?”
“What’s that?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“A sonic—”
BOOM!
The whole factory shook, an explosion rocking the foundations. A wave of color washed over the factory, emanating from Rainbow Dash as she dove through the air. Scootaloo was knocked off balance by the blast and stumbled backwards into the machine where she tripped on a stray bone that had fallen out the container and tumbled backwards into the pit.
As she slid down into the gaping maw of the grinder, she only had time to think to herself, “Friggin’ Rainbow Dash…” and then the grinder caught her leg.
Seconds later, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had righted themselves and were met with looks of horror from the two ponies working at the machine.
“Did she just…” said one.
“I’m gettin’ outta here!” cried the other. And before Sweetie or Apple Bloom could say anything, the two ponies threw off their work clothes and bolted out the now-shattered window.
Apple Bloom watched as what remained of Scootaloo trickled out of the machine. “Thinks she’s gonna make a pretty rainbow?”
Sweetie Belle considered this for a moment, then shook her head. “Probably not.”