Rainbow Factory: The Tour

by Barrobroadcaster

First Impression

Quarterly opened the door. Inside was a gray pegasus with a light-gray mane sitting behind a desk. Unlike Quarterly, he wasn't wearing a labcoat. He sat behind a desk and looked over several sheets of paper splayed out before him.

"Hey Hazey. Got ourselves another new applicant. Would you mind if he stays here while I'm checking out his file?" Quarterly asked, hoof still on the door knob.

"Uh, sure." the pegasus, apparently 'Hazey' answered. Booster walked in and took a seat on the chair in front of the desk. The door shut behind him and the two were alone. Booster was expecting Hazey to say something but he sat there quietly, looking through papers, occaisonally shuffling them. Eventually, Booster got the courage to try to start conversation on his own.

"So, uh,... your name's Hazey? I guess?"

Hazey hesitated for a split second before breaking his attention from the papers. "Yes, I'm Hazey. Who are you?"

"My name's Booster. I, uh, I applied here a couple days ago."

Hazey put the papers down, his attention now appeared to be fully focused on Booster. "How did you find out about this place?" he asked. His voice was very soft and emotionless. Unlike when Booster tried to make his tone stoic and trite when talking to Quarterly, Hazey's voice seemed like it wasn't a carefully manufactured facade but an actual habit.

Booster grinned sheepishly. "I saw a couple music videos." he honestly admitted, putting a shy hoof behind his neck. It was no secret the Rainbow Factory had gone public recently. The statements they made included several music videos featuring original songs and animation. Instead of attempting to hide the gruesome truth of the factory's true machinations, the videos and media released embraced it, portraying the inner workings of the facility as a place where fears and horrors came true. The less-than-subtle attitude of a grim enthusiasm was communicated through the messages, as though this was a necessary sacrifice.

The Rainbow Factory's existance was widely known, though few outside Cloudsdale knew of its true inner workings. Officially, the factory was contracted by the government to produce and deliver rainbows in the sky all across Equestria, part of a program to keep the moral of the citizens high and prevent them from turning gray. The factory was supposed to collect pigment from volunteers, a process that was advertised to be "as simple as giving blood". The procedure was said to be both painless and harmless and that once completed, the volunteers were free to go. Unfortunately, quite the opposite was true.

The demand for rainbows was too great to be satisfied by simple "pigment donations". In fact, the Rainbow Mill, as it had began, started the process of simply abducting ponies, draining them of all pigment and discarding the remains, killing the "volunteers" in the process. As time went on, the process became more efficient as new technologies were implemented. Soon, the Rainbow Factory was created in Cloudsdale and the horrible work continued, the population just accepted the necessary evil.

"Oh, our advertising department came up with those. I haven't seen them myself;... mostly, they just keep me back here. Especially since the accident." Hazey said. The Rainbow Factory was a workplace like any other when it came right down to it. Accidents happened but when they happened here, it was a little more serious than somepony just getting fired. Booster hadn't heard the full details but a rainbow had been scheduled and delayed recently. While they normally ran on a tight schedule, an incident had occured that had cut the workforce in half. The workers hadn't returned home since then and the reason for the delayed rainbow hadn't been revealed. This was over a week ago, Booster thought it would be a good time to apply. He'd been right.

"I heard that something happened recently. Some kind of accident...?" Booster asked.

"Oh..." Hazey said, looking surprised. He stammered for a few moments, apparently trying to collect himself. Hazey seemed like a pony that just reacted slowly but he didn't seem clumsy, incompetent or flustered from first impression.

"Umm..." another long pause. "We're running out of green." he said. Was Hazey surprised that Booster didn't know or did he just reveal something unintentionally?

Booster quirked an eyebrow; he didn't like the sound of that. "You're running out of... green?"

Hazey nodded. "Colors are supposed to be balanced, there's supposed to be an even distribution of all colors to make rainbows. Even amounts but the raw materials we've gotten come in at random sometimes. There haven't been enough green ones lately and we didn't think we were going to make the quota on time for deliverey."

"You... you're just running out of green... ponies?" Booster asked, beginning to understand.

"Yes, uh, we never really had this problem before. We were unprepared. But we tried our best to meet demand on time but it didn't work. There just wasn't enough." Hazey said, his eyes drifting lower.

Booster had to ask now. "What did you do? To meet the quota, I mean."

"Oh, that was simple. Green is made by mixing yellow and blue, so we tried harvesting more yellow and blue. But harvesting more yellow and blue to make green meant there was less yellow and blue for the yellow and blue segments. Soon, there was a shortage of yellow and blue too and we didn't know how to compensate. We tried emptying the reserves but that didn't work either. And then the manager..." Hazey trailed off. Booster was hanging on his last words. What had happened? What did the manager do?

"Then the manager..." Booster said, trying to encourage Hazey to finish.

Hazey shook his head slightly, something between a negative response and a nervous twitch. "I'm sorry, I've said too much. I should probably let the manager tell you himself." he said. He returned to his papers and the room was quiet again.

Booster decided to try something else. "I take it you got it done though right? You met the demand eventually?"

"Yes, though it took a lot out of us. We never anticipated a problem like this. Who would've thought we'd run out of a color?" Hazey said.

"Have you ever thought about using an alternative?" Booster asked. He had to be careful but he didn't see any harm in asking the question.

Hazey looked at him, a puzzled look on his face. "An alternative?"

"To... harvesting raw materials directly. Something synthetic that could be mass-produced."

"I think we did try a few things like that in the past but... they didn't work out. You can only harvest pigment from ponies."

Booster didn't agree with that statement. He leaned forward, keeping his eyes on Hazey. "How many species did you... try harvesting?"

Hazey looked genuinely confused now. "I... I don't know, it was a long time ago. There were at least some, though."

"But when you found out it came from ponies you stopped? You didn't research further?"

"I-I don't know. I just don't-"

Booster had him now. "What if I told you there was an alternative?" he poised the question in almost a whisper.

"An... alteranative? To... to ponies?"

"Yes. There's another way you can make rainbows." Booster said quickly.

Hazey opened his mouth, took a moment to form the word before saying, "How?".

"I know you're behind quota for this month too." Booster said, revealing a bit more.

"How do you know that?"

He ignored the question. "I need access to your systems for a demonstration. If we can prove to everypony that this works-"

The door behind him opened without warning. Quarterly walked in. Booster stopped mid-sentence and turned, his heart in his throat.

"I was surprised at your background check Booster." Quarterly announced, his voice loud. "Systems analyst for Flim Flam Formulas? Those are some pretty significant credentials, it's no wonder you applied here. What made you quit Flim and Flam though?"

"I can't dance and the showtunes got annoying." Booster said, knowing Flim and Flam's reputation.

Quarterly laughed at that. "Well, thanks for keeping him company Hazey. Come on, let's head to my office. Need you to sign a few things and then we'll be done for today." he said to Booster. The blue pegasus got up from his seat and followed Quarterly back into the hallway. He took a glance back inside the office. Booster caught Hazey staring back at him with his mouth slightly open before the door closed. It seemed like he'd made a good first impression.

Author's Note:

You wish them away but it looks like they might be here forever
You love and tolerate and try to tell yourself that soon, things will get better
And through every day, you stand up for what you know is right
But still it's bucking hard dealing with all these trolls, haters and parasprites
And I guess that's why they call it the blues
Maybe they'd understand, if they too had hooves
But they're acting like children and we can't understand each other
Why does liking a girl's show
Mean we can't be brothers?
And I guess that's why they call it the blues~
Portion of an Elton John parody. "I guess that's why they call it the blues" rewritten to apply to bronies and anti-bronies. Love that harmonica.

Comments

[ShadowBrony]

Hmm interesting. Alternatives...Anyways, interesting how you mention the songs. But if everyone knew of it then I have tough time believing that no pony has tried to stop that. Besides what Booster is currently tying to do now. Also I can't help but wonder (random thought) why pegasi taste spicy according to Pinkie Pie?

[Barrobroadcaster]

2552644 It was accepted by too many as a 'necessary evil'. Remember the Rainbow Mill, this has been something that's been going on for a long time. There's just never been an alternative before. Until now it seems.

[ShadowBrony]

2552832 Oh yeah, also I sometimes forget that in Dark stories ponies can be...Dark.

[Nightspawn]

"To... harvesting raw materials directly. Something

"To... harvesting raw materials directly. Something synthetic that could be mass-produced."

Is that a Reference to the Rainbow Dash Presents version...