1. The Factory

Everything is going wrong...

Crimson Fire gazed at the grey wall in front of her. The wall, in itself, was depressing, what with it's dark grey colour. The whole room, which was the same depressing grey, gave Crimson terribly bad vibes. Crimson sighed. There was no use in feeling sorry for herself. She had the chance to turn down this job, yet she didn't want to let Rainbow Dash down. Now, however, she had been separated from her best friend. Crimson took one look at the depressing wall, and cursed under her breath.

There was a sharp knock on the door.

"What do you want, Rainbow Dash?" Crimson snapped, surprised by her outburst. Rainbow Dash, whom was on the other side of the door, was slightly shocked as well. Crimson had always been a happy-go-lucky pegasus that looked on the bright side. But now, she was extremely negative. It made Rainbow worried, to say the least.

"I wanted to talk to you." Rainbow Dash said. Originally, she had decided to come visit Crimson in hopes she could comfort the white pegasus. She stood, waiting expectantly for Crimson to open the door. But Crimson never did.

"Don't bother. There is nothing to talk about. This stupid factory took my life AND my best friend from me. That's all there is to it." Crimson said, looking down at the floor. She heard Rainbow Dash sigh. However, Crimson really didn't care. All she wasn't to do was fall asleep and wake up in the morning with her friend beside her and realize this all was a horrible nightmare. But deep down, she knew this was real, and she couldn't be more upset about it.

"C'mon, Crimson. Let me in. I just want to make you feel better." Rainbow Dash begged. Crimson groaned.

"Just go away." Crimson said in reply. Rainbow, now agitated, banged on the door, making Crimson angrier than she was before.

"Let me in, let me in, let me-" Rainbow Dash fell down when the door she had been leaning on was opened. She looked up, feeling silly, to look at an extremely angry Crimson.

"I SAID GO AWAY!" Crimson bellowed, slamming the door so hard, it only opened back up. Crimson shut it again, softer this time. Rainbow Dash knew then that she had to leave. As much as she didn't want to go, she knew she would only agitate Crimson more if she stayed. Rainbow looked down at the ground, genuinely feeling bad.

"I...I guess I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight," Rainbow Dash said, going to walk away. She turned, "But Crimson?" She heard an angry scream from the inside and winced.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!?" Crimson screeched. Rainbow cringed at the indescribable rage in Crimson's voice. Rainbow wanted to leave, but Crimson would only get more upset if she didn't get an answer. Rainbow turned her back on the door to Crimson's sleeping quarters.

"I'm sorry for making you get this job." Rainbow Dash muttered, and she walked away. Crimson sighed. She didn't mean to get angry at Rainbow Dash, she really didn't, but she had a bad day and was really stressed. After the fact, Crimson felt horrible. She wanted to stand up and march right into Rainbow's office and apologize in the most genuine way possible, but it was late. Crimson was tired.

Slowly, Crimson opened up the blanket on her bed and slipped underneath it. She felt hot tears welling up in her eyes, but she wiped them quickly. In the Rainbow Factory, you had to be tough.

Crimson was the opposite of tough.

Crimson closed her eyes, and thought of her best friend.

Tomorrow was going to be very tough.

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As soon as her alarm went off, Crimson shot out of bed, flew out of her room, and grabbed some coffee. Though she had never been a big fan of coffee, Crimson had a feeling it would help her feel more at home. Plus, one of the workers told her that the best coffee was the first coffee to come out of the machine.

"Oh, hi Crimson. You're up early." A familiar raspy voice said. Crimson turned to face Rainbow Dash. She was standing there, her hair messed up, and she looked very frazzled.

"Hey Dash." Crimson said nonchalantly.

The silence was disturbing.

"I'm sorry about last night, really, I am. I was just so stressed..." Crimson began, but trailed off once she looked into her glossy white mug. The brown coffee swirled around into a heart shape.

"It's fine." Rainbow Dash yawned. Crimson went to say something else, but found herself distracted as a robotic mare entered the room. She was grey, with a curly black mane. Her eyes were red, and her cutie mark was of a black heart with robot wings protruding from it. Rainbow Dash noticed the mare's arrival as well.

"Good morning, Killbot X." Rainbow said, greeting the mechanical pegasus with a grin. The robot turned, and smiled.

"Good morning, Rainbow Dash." Killbot X said in a most monotone voice. Crimson was, to say the least, awestruck by the craftsmanship put into creating the chrome pony. Killbot X looked extremely realistic.

"Crimson, you stay here with Killbot X. I have to deliver something real quick." Rainbow said. She was out of the room before Crimson could respond. Killbot X looked Crimson up and down. It was then that Scootaloo walked in. She looked exhausted. Crimson turned away from the robot and looked at Scootaloo.

"Hey, Crimson. I saw Rainbow putting a jar of something in your quarters. It was a green liquid." Scootaloo yawned. All of the color drained from Crimson's face in that moment. Scootaloo noticed, and walked over to Crimson. But Crimson couldn't bear to be near her. Crimson ran down the hallway all the way to her sleeping quarters, Scootaloo slowing following behind. Upon entering the room, Crimson noticed a jar of green liquid on her bed with a note from Rainbow Dash.

Good job, kid.
- Dash

"No..." Crimson muttered under her breath. She looked down, letting her mane cover her eyes in disappointment. She hadn't wanted to hurt HER, but she didn't have a choice. Scootaloo walked into the room, and stared at the jar with a nervous expression on her face. She picked it up, shook it around a bit, then sat it back on the bed where it was before.

"Is that filled with what I think it's filled with? The mare you killed yesterday in order to get this job?" Scootaloo said. Crimson turned to Scootaloo, her mane still covering her eyes. Scootaloo noticed a drop of water run down what she could see of Crimson's face and hit the ground with a splash.

"Her name was Sundance," Crimson said, looking up at Scootaloo then, tears streaming down her face "And she was my friend."

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"C'mon, Crimson. We found the perfect Failure for you to kill. If you do this correctly, you'll get the job." Rainbow Dash said, gesturing to a rather depressing-looking doorway. Crimson Fire, however, was overjoyed. Though she had lost her friend a few minutes ago, she was excited to finally see how rainbows were made. She ran into the room, but stopped in her tracks when she saw an old friend of hers dangling from some chains.

"Sundance?" Crimson asked. The green unicorn looked over at Crimson, and smiled brightly.

"Crimson? Have you come to save me?" Sundance asked. Crimson looked down, unable to look at her friend. It hurt knowing what had to be done to her childhood friend. Crimson made her way over to a panel of buttons and switches.

"How about some grinders for this one? There's a big yellow button in the center of the panel. Press that." Rainbow Dash called from the doorway, urging Crimson on. Crimson took one last look at Sundance, who looked rather concerned. Tears welled up in Crimson's eyes, so she looked away.

"Is this really who you are?" Sundance asked. Crimson tried her best to ignore the question. She pressed the yellow button Rainbow Dash had instructed her to, and sharp grinders came through a hole in the floor. Crimson couldn't bear to watch Sundance get ripped apart.

In one final act of defiance, Sundance smiled and mused weakly, "I hope you're happy now."

Crimson snapped. She ran to her quarters and didn't come out.

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Crimson Fire stared at the jar of greenish liquid on her bedside table. At first, she was tempted to toss it out. But after a bit of thinking, she realized that if she kept it, she'd have a little piece of Sundance still with her. It took a lot of courage, Crimson decided to keep the green to remind her of her old friend.

"Sundance, I know you can't hear me, but...I'm sorry for what I did." Crimson muttered under her breath, willing herself to fall asleep. Eventually she did, but all she got out of that were nightmares. Nightmares of Sundance. Nightmares of a demon that looked like Sundance trying to get revenge.

Crimson woke up screaming.

Author's Note:

The first chapter is DONE! I was listening to Jacksepticeye's outro while writing this... I hope you enjoyed this so far. The second chapter will be done soon.