An Ocean of Colors

By Liquid Rainbows

Credit to Aurora Dawn, for Creating the Story That Inspired This

Credit to Cherry Rie, for the Wonderful Idea

What did it mean to be a pegasus? Was it how fast you could fly? How high you could soar? Or was it simply being able to fly at all? That seemed to be the opinion of many. And what if you couldn't? What of those who had wings, but were never born with the knack to fly? Should they be allowed to live among the others? Should they even be considered pegasi at all?

It was no secret among the citizens of Cloudsdale. Quite simply, if you couldn't fly, you were an outcast. A pariah. The great city in the sky had no need or desire to house those who lacked such abilities. They were shunned by the masses, abandoned by friends, and viewed with shame by family. Not all liked the unfair stigma and air of prejudice, but it was just the way things worked above the clouds. A pegasus who couldn't fly was merely a bird without feathers, doomed to fall, one way or another. Some asked the question: why? They were always met with the same answer. If they don't know how to fly, how could they possibly help Cloudsdale? How could they possibly function as a part of society?

There were, of course, many ways they could work in society, but blind ignorance walled off all possibilities. Those who couldn't fly, or at least flew poorly, never passed flight school, and thus, rarely anypony ever hired them. Eventually, most would leave Cloudsdale altogether, finding a new place in the world below. Of course, it was never easy. How could anypony easily give up their entire life, just because they couldn't fly like the others?

This was the question that haunted Whirlwind. The gray pegasus mare had always been a poor flier. Her parents had assured her that it was just a phase, and that she'd get better one day. But as she sat there on the sidewalks of Cloudsdale, bright green eyes sweeping across the freezing night, she couldn't help but feel outraged. As she'd gotten older, there wasn't any improvement. Her parents, not wanting to deal with the shame, simply kicked her out of the house. Though it had been a year since then, the seventeen year old mare still had the flames of anger burning in her heart. If only those flames could keep the cold out. The only thing she could do was hug herself close to the stallion beside her.

Sky Breeze, her constant friend and companion, had suffered a similar life story. Though the dark red buck hadn't been abandoned, he refused to live with his family. Particularly his abusive father, who had beaten him countless times for being "inadequate." He had left his home at the age of fifteen, two years ago, and had been wandering the unforgiving streets of Cloudsdale ever since. By some stroke of luck, Sky and Whirlwind had found each other, giving them both a reason to go on living. Neither of them could bring themselves to leave, as of yet. As cruel as it had treated them, this city was their home, and letting go was harder than they could have ever imagined.

An icy breeze flowed down the dark street, wrapping its deathly hands around the two shivering pegasi. Sky tightened his embrace around the gray mare, spreading his wings to shield them and resting his head on her green and blue mane. Whirlwind nuzzled against his neck, shaking with cold. Sky glanced down at her, his blue eyes wide with concern.

"Whirlwind?" He whispered gently to her, making the mare jerk in surprise.

"Y-yeah?" She asked, looking up at him. Her lips were turning blue.

"Ar-are absolutely you sure you don't want to try to find a hotel or something?"

"We've b-been over this!" She snapped. "There's one hotel, and the bastard w-working there hates my fucking guts. Not that we have the b-bits to pay anyways." Whirlwind closed her eyes and lowered her head for a moment. "S-sorry. It's just…the cold is getting to me."

"That's my p-point." Sky sputtered, keeping his voice quiet. "This is the c-coldest night yet. I hate to be such a realist, but we're both going to die if we stay out here another night." If we even make it through this one.

"H-hey, lighten up." Whirlwind replied with a small smile. "Even if I die, y-you’re probably meaty enough to survive."

"Don't even say that, Whirlwind!" Sky exclaimed, raising his voice. "If you died..." He looked into her eyes, a somber expression on his face. He leaned down and gave her a gentle kiss. "P-please, please don't die on me."

"I would n-never." She replied, smiling despite her trembling lips. She was too strong for that. She had to be too strong for that! Another blast of icy wind passed through. "S-S-Sky, m-maybe we sh-should...should..." Whirlwind bowed her head, slumping onto Sky's chest. His eyes shot wide, and he started shivering even harder.

"W-Whirlwind? Whirlwind!" He wasn't even able to raise his voice to yell. Sky started shaking her, tears forming in his eyes. "C-come on, wake up! P-please...I-I can't do this without you..." Sky fell to the side, the cold becoming too strong, and him becoming too weak to continue shaking her. He kept Whirlwind wrapped tightly in his arms, the world slipping away into darkness...

Ba-bump...ba-bump...ba-bump

Darkness... A slow, rhythmic beating, like a drum, steadily growing louder. Light... Sky cracked his eyelid open a little wider. Color...

He felt around with his hooves. There was softness around him. A large, silky bed, draped in velvet red. He looked around him, his eyes adjusting to the light. It was a small room. Nothing more than a bed, and a bathroom off to the side. The carpeted floor was also a pleasant shade of red. The entire room smelled faintly of flowers. Sky didn't panic, but that didn't keep out the nervousness. He noticed a very faint purple glow around his body, almost undetectable. There was another noise in the room, the gentle rising and falling of a chest beside him. Whirlwind.

The glow around his body turned from a faint purple to a vibrant orange, the strange aura seeming to expand greatly. Sky paid no heed at the moment, carefully nudging the sleeping mare beside him. Her bright green eyes shot open, a purple glow forming around her. Whirlwinds head jolted up and she looked around frantically. Sky placed a calming hoof on her chest, and she rolled onto her side to face him. The glow around her turned orange, a look of relief flooding onto her face, and she clasped his hoof to her chest.

"Sky..." She began, tears forming in her eyes as the orange glow grew brighter. "I can't believe it! When I started fainting, I-I thought I was dead for sure." Sky smiled and nuzzled her. The orange aura radiating from their bodies was floating upwards towards a strange metal pipe that ran along the ceiling. "I...I love you, Sky."

"I love you too, Whirlwind." The two auras flared suddenly, turning into a huge mass of pink. Sky and Whirlwind looked around them in wonder, holding each other close as the powerful glow poured from their bodies and was vented into the pipe above.

"Where are we?" Whirlwind asked, the glow from both of their bodies subsiding into a dull, faint purple.

"I don't know," Sky replied. "But we might as well go find out." The quiet buck rose from the bed cautiously, Whirlwind close in tow. There was a door straight across from the bed, and Whirlwind rushed towards it recklessly, flinging the door open and jumping into the hallway. Sky just sighed and trotted up beside her.

The hallway was very similar to the previous room in color and mood. The walls were beige, with many red decorations, and it smelled vaguely of flowers. Something about the peaceful atmosphere made the entire place very nonthreatening, but it didn’t put Sky entirely at ease. The hallway ended in a wall not far to the left, and to the right, it gently sloped upwards, ending in large double doors. Whirlwind glanced at Sky for a moment, before trotting off to the right. Sky followed behind her hesitantly, taking notice of the other doors in the hall. Most of them were nothing more than utility closets or things of the sort. He also noticed the pipes on the ceiling, one coming from above each door and connecting into on long pipeline that stretched down the entire hall.

Soon, the two of them reached the end of the hall, Whirlwind pushing the double doors open. Beyond was an absolutely massive room. The walls were all a dark gray stone, and there were gigantic circular vats rising from the ground, but they were too high for the pegasi to see what was in them. On the huge wall opposite to them was a series of tinted windows, and it seemed to be nighttime in the world beyond. The double doors were in the center of a wall, and a metal staircase beside them led up to a second floor that overlooked the vats, similar to an atrium. The wall itself was more like a short cliff than anything, given the expanse of this place. The pipeline ran along the wall beside the door, then down to the floor, many more pipes from above connecting to it, and finally it split into seven pipes that each connected to one of the vats. The two of them stood in awe for a moment, before Whirlwind’s curiosity had her galloping up the staircase, Sky rushing to keep up.

When they reached the top, the pegasi had a much better look over the space below. There were seven gigantic vats of bubbling florescent liquid, each one containing a different color. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, and Pink. Whirlwind couldn't take her eyes away, and Sky stood transfixed, for a time, as well. He finally pried his eyes away, nuzzling Whirlwind out of her trance. She faced him for a moment, her eyes swimming with questions that he couldn't answer. It was just then that the two of them spotted an older pegasi couple, likely in their thirties, talking with a middle aged gray pegasus buck nearby. The gray buck looked like a scientist of some sort. They couldn't pick out the whole conversation, but heard the gray stallion say one thing.

"It's been a pleasure working with you, really. It's sad that our time must come to an end, but I hope for a happy life for the two of you. Farewell." With that, the older couple turned, giving the younger couple a knowing smile, and trotted through some doors at the end of the room. The older gray buck gave on last nostalgic look in their direction, glowing blue for a moment, before trotting up to the young couple.

“Hello!” He exclaimed, flashing a wide grin. “And welcome to the rainbow factory!” Whirlwind glared at the stallion, her aura turning faintly red.

"Could you do me a favor and tell us where in the hell we are?" She growled. The buck didn't falter for a moment, his aura turning orange.

"Calm yourself, dear. I'll explain everything." The red glow around Whirlwind waned and then disappeared completely. The residue it left floating in the air was channeled into one of the pipes on the ground. "That's better. Now then, first things first. My name is Doctor Cloudy, but most just call me the Doctor." He said, gesturing to himself. "You, my friends, are in the rainbow factory. The product of years of labor by Cloudsdale's finest pegasi!" He gestured for the two of them to follow, and began trotting across the giant overlook. Sky noticed his own now purple glow, but followed nonetheless. "You see, back before this place was made, creating rainbows was a difficult, and often dangerous process. Eventually, pegasi learned that the magic in rainbows is formulated from a very potent source...emotions! Over time, the pegasi began harnessing the power of emotions to create rainbows here in this factory."

The Doctor had led them to a wall covered in neatly framed photographs. Each one had a date, going from oldest to newest. "At first, the scientists here would harness whatever emotions they could get. It was unfortunately easy to harvest anger, sadness, and fear, and they would do terrible things to evoke such feelings. But then, a few centuries ago, they discovered something. There was one emotion, harder to evoke, but ten times more potent than all the others." He turned to the young couple with a warm smile. "Love." Sky and Whirlwind glowed yellow.

"Ever since then, we have been working hard to harness this power." The Doctor continued. "Though we have used other emotions before, love is the material that makes up almost all the rainbows in Cloudsdale and beyond." Every picture dating from three centuries ago to now was quite similar. They all showed a scientist figure standing with a pegasi couple. Though who the scientist and the couple was varied from picture to picture, each image maintained the same pattern. The most recent image showed a much younger Doctor Cloudy standing with a much younger version of the pegasi couple who had just left. They seemed around Sky and Whirlwind’s age in the picture. The Doctor gestured out towards the vats.

"Seven colors, seven emotions. Red, for anger. Orange, for happiness. Yellow, for surprise. Green, for envy. Blue, for sadness. Purple, for fear and nervousness. And pink...for love. The auras around you form when you feel one of those emotions, and grow larger and stronger the more powerfully you feel it. The pipes all around you magically collect it, so it can be brought to the vats and transformed into rainbows. Love is the only emotion that is powerful enough to create a rainbow without needing any of the others, and that's why we need it." He gazed over the vats with a look of pride, before turning to the young pegasi again.

"Well then, enough of an old bucks blathering. I suppose you want to know why in Equestria I brought you here, yes?" Sky nodded, trying to process everything he was just told. "Alright, good! You see, pumping emotions into this machine is a necessity. Over time, rainbows have become an important commodity to the ponies of Cloudsdale. They don't know how we make them, just that it's important. You’re lucky my associates found you when they did, or you would probably be dead right now. You see, we can't make people live here forever, and when they hit the right age, they just sort of retire. You see, our most recent couple has just retired from working here, and we need a new, young couple again." Sky and Whirlwind stared blankly at the Doctor for a moment.

"Hold on here," Whirlwind exclaimed, glowing yellow. "You're saying you want us to work here? Are we prisoners or something?"

"No! Not at all." The Doctor chuckled. "Feel free to decline at any point. But look at it this way. What was your life like before? I did a little research on you two. Two pegasi who can't fly, abandoned by society. You've always wanted a place to fit in this world, and you would be helping more than you can possibly imagine. You'll live well and comfortably, you'll be with each other, just like before, you can quit whenever you want, and when you retire, you'll be compensated for your services enough to last the rest of your lives." The young pegasi couple stood for a long moment, thinking about what they were hearing. It didn't sound bad, not at all, but Sky was the first one to voice the question they were both thinking.

"If we accept, what exactly will we be doing?"

"You'll be doing just what you did before." The Doctor grinned. "Living your lives! Loving each other! Not long ago, I saw a massive influx of pink energy. I assume that was you two, and you weren't even trying!" A purple glow formulated and Sky and Whirlwind. The Doctor gave an understanding smile. "You don't have to decide just yet. Why don't you go back to your quarters and give it some thought?" Sky nodded, nudging Whirlwind and leading her off in the direction of the stairs. The two of them trotted in contemplative silence all the way back to the little room they'd woken up in. Sky closed the door behind them, turning and gazing at Whirlwind. She looked beautiful. The two of them took a seat together on the bed.

"So...what do you think of all this?" He asked softly, draping a hoof over her.

"It's...a lot to take in, I guess." Whirlwind replied. Sky noticed the soft blue glow.

"What's wrong?" He asked in concern. She averted her eyes.

"It's just...I can deal with living here. With not seeing my family again. But I can't help but think...would you...would you really want to stay here with me?" She looked up at him with glazed eyes. Whirlwind, who was always so strong.

"Of course." He whispered. "Why would you ever think I wouldn't?"

"I don't know...it just seems like a long time. What if...what if you didn't want to be with me anymore?"

"Whirlwind, I'd rather die than ever leave you." Whirlwind pressed her forehead to his, smiling.

"I love you, Sky."

"I love you, too. I always will." Their two auras began to glow pink as their lips met. They held the position for a moment, before Sky rolled Whirlwind onto her back, kissing her deeply

He could feel her tongue pressing into his mouth, a gesture he quickly returned. The two continued to kiss passionately as the pink aura grew stronger. Whirlwinds cheeks were growing red, the temperature in the little room rising. Finally, Sky broke away, panting slightly. Whirlwind looked at him with a smile.

"Are you sure that now is the right time to be doing this?" She asked. Sky gave her another kiss. The warmth of the room, the softness, the scent, the gorgeousness of the mare beneath him, everything was putting Sky in the right mood.

"Absolutely." With that said, Sky started planting kisses on her neck, moving down to her chest, stomach, and lower still. He stopped in front of her marehood, giving Whirlwind one final glance before leaning forward. She jolted, feeling the tip of his warm tongue run along her slit. Sky licked up and down across her marehood a few times, before carefully entering his tongue inside of her. He could taste the sweet flavor of her wetness, pushing deeper inside. He caressed her velvety inner walls with his tongue, massaging every inch. Whirlwind could feel the wonderful sensations coursing through her, and she moaned in bliss, instinctively clenching around his tongue. They'd done this before, but it felt even better in such a comfortable setting. Pink aura continued to constantly flow, only growing stronger. Sky never hesitated for a moment, happy to hear his lover moaning with pleasure as he hungrily ate her out. She was growing even wetter, Sky licking up her flowing juices. Finally, he came to a stop, still gently rubbing her marehood as he crawled up Whirlwinds body and carefully rolled her onto her stomach.

Sky's length was already hard, and he lightly prodded Whirlwind's slit, making her squirm under him. She clenched her teeth as Sky pushed forward, slowly easing his way deep into her body. She let out a small gasp, feeling him fill up her insides with him member. Once he was all the way inside of her, Sky began to move back and forth, starting off slowly, but quickly picking up the pace. He let out a sigh, a wave of pleasure passing through him, and began to thrust harder and faster. Matching his beat, Whirlwind arched her back, pressing her hips up and grinding into him as he pounded her. Faster he moved, encouraged by Whirlwind's whimpers of bliss. He leaned forward, his stomach resting on her back, still pounding as he brought his face to hers. Sweat trickled down her brow, her cheeks as rosy as the aura around them, and her glowing green eyes rolled back in their sockets. Sky planted loving kisses on her cheeks and lips, both of them taken by the grip of euphoria. He let a forehoof gently massage one of her wings, making her quiver. After a few more minutes, Sky slowed to a halt again, turning Whirlwind onto her back. She looked up at him with those radiant eyes.

"I want to see your face, darling." He whispered to her. It was Whirlwind who kissed him this time, moaning as he began pounding into her again. Every movement was a nerve stimulating pang of bliss, both Sky and Whirlwind overcome with the sensation. Sky wrapped his arms around her back and held her close, somehow managing to nuzzle her gently despite the force he exerted below. Holding her tight, he could feel the sweat mixing on their bodies, the wonderful sound of her heart beating. He didn't stop for a second, thrusting into her passionately all the way up until they reached their climax.

Whirlwind tightened her grip on his member, crying out as she exploded forth in a blast of ecstasy. Sky squeezed her tight in his hooves, an intense surge of pleasure tearing through his body, coming to a head as he shot thick streams of warm seed deep inside of her body. Once the wave had died down, Sky fell to the side, the two of them huffing in exhaustion. Sky closed his eyes for a moment, coming dangerously close to falling unconscious, when he felt a new wetness on his groin. Glancing down, he found Whirlwind cleaning his shaft with her tongue, licking away whatever of his load remained. After a few moments, she snuggled her way up the bed, Sky holding her in his hooves. She nuzzled his neck in a familiar way, and he just smiled at her.

"Whirlwind," Sky began, softly. "I take it this means we're going to stay?" Whirlwind looked up at him, hesitant for only a moment, before nodding confidently.

"I guess we should tell the Doctor we accept his offer, huh?" She asked, looking a bit worn out.

"It's just a hunch," Sky began, gazing at the endless stream of pink aura that flowed from them and into the pipes above. "But something tells me that he already knows."

A young pegasi couple stood on the second floor of the factory, overlooking seven massive vats of glowing neon colors. Nearby, they noticed an older pegasi couple, probably in their thirties, talking with an elderly buck. A red stallion, and gray mare with a green and blue mane. The young couple couldn’t hear the whole conversation, but picked up on the elderly stallion saying one thing.

“It’s been wonderful working with you two. I hope that, one day, we may meet each other again. Until then, best of luck, and I wish you a happy life together!” With that, the older couple turned, giving the younger couple a knowing smile, and trotted through some doors at the end of the room and out into the night. The old gray buck gave on last nostalgic look in their direction, glowing blue for a moment, before trotting up to the young couple.

“Hello!” He exclaimed, flashing a wide grin. “And welcome to the rainbow factory!”…

The End