The One and Only Chapter
Third Person
It was a sunny day in Ponyville, and the residents were going about their normal lives under the sunshine.
The beautiful weather that day was mainly thanks to the ponies working diligently in Cloudsdale Weather Factory, which maintains good weather for all of Equestria.
The rainbow workers were mixing vat after vat of swirly rainbow colors, each color mixed to absolute perfection before other workers painted in across the sky, as ponies below oohed and aahed at the stunning sight.
It was the same today. The rainbow workers just finished a vat of rainbow colors, and they plastered it across the sky, completing their job.
The other workers in the factory were almost done with their jobs, like keeping the wind steady, creating rain showers, making soft, fluffy clouds, etc.
When they were done, the owner of the Weather Factory called all the workers for a special assembly.
“Well done, everypony. Another perfect day, as usual. But, unfortunately, the rainbows are running out and I need all hooves on deck to harvest more.” said the owner.
She was very secretive, and wore a suit which covered her entire body, her tail was dyed an unnatural jet-black, and her face and mane was hidden with a mask. Only her stunning rose-colored irises showed.
“Everypony go to the topmost floor, and we will start harvesting. The cloud workers, will you please collect some of every color of the rainbow? We need to complete the harvest by dawn, or someone will find out.” she added.
Every worker flew to the topmost floor, and started preparing the machines, whilst the cloud workers flew in every direction, left the factory, and soared off into the unknown.
The owner was left alone on the podium.
She sighed with relief, and muttered under her breath, “I really don’t want to do this, but I must do it, for the greater good of Equestria.”
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Down below in Ponyville, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were having a meeting in their Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse, and it was going strong.
“I said, for the third time, knocking on ponies’ doors and asking them if they need help isn’t the ideal way! Everypony will think that we’re being nosy!” cried Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom retorted, “Then how can we discover needy people in Ponyville?”
“Guys, calm down! I say we sleep on it, and find a solution tomorrow.” said Scootaloo calmly.
“Good idea.” replied Sweetie Belle, and the Crusaders left their clubhouse.
They were having a sleepover at Sweet Apple Acres today, and Applejack agreed that they could sleep out in the open, and do some stargazing.
Apple Bloom dragged some sleeping bags out, and the trio watched the sunset, and the moon and the stars came out for the night.
“Look, there’s Cassiopeia!” cried Scootaloo, pointing at a constellation shaped like a ‘W’.
Apple Bloom said, staring at a constellation like a giant, “And Orion!”
A shooting star suddenly appeared, leaving a beautiful line across the sky, like a rainbow would in the daytime.
“I wish that our friendship would last till we die.” wished Sweetie Belle, with her eyes closed.
“Us too.” whispered Apple Bloom and Scootaloo in unison.
The shooting star, like it heard the fillies, flashed and blinked before vanishing out of sight.
Scootaloo said to her friends, “That shooting star look like it heard us.”
“Yeah, that’s strange.” muttered Apple Bloom.
All of a sudden, a shadow streaked across the sky.
“Huh? What was that?” asked Sweetie Belle to nopony in particular.
Apple Bloom squinted and replied uncertainly, “It looks like...a pony?! How is that possible?”
“But where did it go?” wondered Scootaloo.
As they were starting at the sky, looking for the mysterious shadow, suddenly Sweetie Belle screamed piercingly, startling Scootaloo and Apple Bloom.
“The...the shadow! It’s here!” she yelled, terrified.
Scootaloo whipped around, and sure enough, a shadow was hovering above them.
It was shaped like a stallion, as it grabbed Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.
“Help! Scootaloo!” they screamed.
Scootaloo was shocked. Should she run away and go to Applejack for help, or stay and yell for assistance?
The shadow reached towards her, in a instant, Scootaloo ran as fast as she could towards Sweet Apple Acres.
“Applejack! Big Mac! Granny Smith! Help us!” she yelled.
Unfortunately, she was too far away for anypony to hear her feeble yells. The shadow grabbed her, and up it flew, above the clouds, and into the unknown.
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Meanwhile, back in the Cloudsdale Weather Factory, the owner of the factory was standing on a stage in the topmost, and the most secluded floor of the factory.
It was banned from visitors, and is only allowed for trustable workers in the factory. If an untrustable worker ventured in, he or she was most likely never able to go back out.
The owner paced in circles on the stage, and said impatiently, “Where are the cloud workers? They have been gone for hours and not one of them have come back!”
“Boss, alert! The cloud workers have accomplished their mission and are safely back in factory premises!” said a rainbow worker.
The owner broke into a smile, even though it was covered by her mask.
“Thank you, Cloudchaser. You may go.” she replied.
At that moment, seven cloud workers flew in, carrying fourteen little fillies.
The leading worker landed in front of the owner, carrying the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“Not these fillies, Thunderlane! Anypony but these!” the owner sighed in exasperation.
Thunderlane replied, “You just told me to get some of them in the color of the rainbow, Boss.”
The owner replied reluctantly, “They already went in this room, then fine!”
Thunderlane and the other cloud workers set the fillies that they were holding down on the floor, below the imposing stage.
“Fillies and gentlecolts! Tonight, we have brought you here to help us in an important mission for the greater good of Equestria, you lucky fillies are here to help us make rainbows!” cried the owner, as she started a speech.
Sweetie Belle muttered loudly, “This is slavery! It’s not allowed in Equestria.”
“It is NOT slavery, it is an invitation.” replied the owner.
Scootaloo said, “A shadow came in the middle of the night and ponynapped us! You call that an invitation?!”
“Before you start complaining, let me tell you little fillies a story.
Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, Equestria’s harmony is maintained by Princesses Celestia and Luna.
They are responsible, as you know, for the sun and the moon. But, no one knew, that Celestia had a secret responsibility. To create the beautiful rainbows you see in the sky. When Luna became Nightmare Moon, and was banished to the moon, Celestia had to take over the moon too. Because that was too much work for her, she entrusted the job for rainbows to us Pegasi. She sent powerful Unicorns to produce a substance called Spectra, which is the core of a rainbow. But, when the Unicorns die, we have no other way of making Spectra. Our clever ancestors found another way, a brutal way, but it has to be done for the good of everypony.” said the owner, as the fillies were enraptured in the tale.
Apple Bloom daringly asked, “What is the ‘brutal’ way?”
“Spectra could be found in the multicolored coats of ponies. Therefore, they started taking ponies at night, kill them, and make them into rainbows. Even until now, the method is still used by us Pegasi.” answered the owner.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders almost threw up. How could Pegasi kill ponies just to make rainbows?
“That’s horrible! Could you stop making rainbows altogether?” cried a filly.
The owner said casually, “When after rain, comes a rainbow, then a sunny day, and all over again. If we stop making rainbows, then Equestria has met its doom, right?! The previous owners of this factory has asked me for another way, but there isn’t one. If I could stop, I would.”
“Why would they ask you, of all ponies?” asked another filly.
“I was ponynapped in the middle of the night and brought here like you, when I was a filly. In order to save myself, I started working here. I was forced to. If I didn’t do what my owners say, my loved ones would be killed. They took me to investigate how I could leave a rainbow streak in the sky while I fly.” said the owner sadly.
Scootaloo gasped.
“You...you can leave a rainbow streak?” she asked.
The owner replied, “Yes.”
She took off her mask for the first time.
Everyone in the room except the workers gasped.
The owner had a beautiful rainbow mane.
“Yes, I am Rainbow Dash.” she said wickedly.
Scootaloo was paralyzed with shock. Her mouth hung open, and her hooves turned to jelly.
“R...Rainbow Dash? But...but why?” she cried.
Rainbow replied, “I was forced to do this, I said before. But the Cloudsdale Weather Factory is a hero to all Pegasi. It saved us in our time of need. And I found that this could actually be...quite fun.”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle suddenly had a wave of nausea, and they threw up.
“How could you like killing innocent ponies?” asked Apple Bloom, a look of sheer horror on her face.
Rainbow said, “Watching them scream in terror is music to my ears. When they meet their end, they shout about how they hate me, but I don’t care. I’m helping Cloudsdale, and that’s the way I like it.”
“You can’t do this!” yelled Sweetie Belle.
Rainbow said again, “Well, I can, and that’s that. It’s the only way. Failures from Equestria are taken here, and then we get rid of them. They’re useless, anyway! Waste of space for the greater good. This is the way, the sole way that they can contribute, just a little, for Cloudsdale, for Equestria! Perfect, we say! HA HA HA HA!”
Tears trickled down Scootaloo’s face. How could her all-time idol, be so cruel and bloodthirsty?!
“I THOUGHT THAT YOU LOVED ME!” she screamed.
Dash jerked her head towards her.
“What?”
“YOU LOVED ME! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, TO MY FRIENDS?” shouted Scootaloo.
“OF COURSE I LOVED YOU! But you’re worthless to everypony, you can’t even fly! When I watched you try to fly, all those times, I knew there and then that you will not help Equestria in any way! So I gave you an opportunity, to die in a heroic way, to help Cloudsdale, to help Equestria! You’re dead, Scootaloo! You’re dead, to everypony, to me.” replied Rainbow.
All those years of working in the factory had taken a toll on her soul. The deaths, the blood...her sanity started slipping, and her friends and Scootaloo were the only things keeping it under control. Now it was gone, forever, and all that was left of her was an empty shell, a soulless one.
“KILL THEM! EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM!” yelled Rainbow, and the workers stationed at different places hurried to obey her.
The fillies in the room screamed and cried, but the workers paid no attention and grabbed them one by one, and throwing them into the rainbow making machine.
Crushing sounds came from the machine, mingled with the screams, as they ceased minutes later.
Colors of the rainbow were pumped out into tubes, flowing steadily along them, into the managing levels ready for stirring.
The workers left the room, and the only ones left were Rainbow Dash and the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“You never understand! Rainbows are essential to Equestria, and we are just making them in a horrible way, a wonderfully horrible way! Now you three are going to die here, any last words to say?” asked Rainbow.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each other, crying silently. This was their fate, an inescapable fate.
Apple Bloom finally managed to say, “You two were the best friends I ever had. I shall remember our happiest times deep in my heart. If we could go to heaven, see you there.”
Rainbow smiled sadly.
“Good.” she said.
She took up a knife and stabbed it directly into her heart, and Apple Bloom collapsed, gone forever.
Sweetie Belle looked at her friend’s dead body, knowing that she was going to suffer the same fate herself.
“I...I love you, Scootaloo. Remember that, and we see each other in heaven.” she said softly.
Scootaloo sobbed silently.
Rainbow Dash took up the blade again and wildly stabbed, as another corpse joined the one already on the ground.
Scootaloo was left alone. Her friends gone, it was time that she did the same.
“Rainbow Dash, I know that you are still my idol inside your heart. You are still the kind, caring, compassionate sister I got to know over the years. Even though you are ready to kill me, I still love you.” she cooed.
Rainbow’s face was blank and expressionless, even after the sentimental words Scootaloo had said.
She stabbed again, and Scootaloo dropped dead on the floor.
Rainbow threw the corpses into the rainbow machine, as it started pumping the most vibrant reds, yellows, oranges, purples, and blues that anypony had ever seen. Only there was nopony to see it.
She took up the knife again, and tasted the blood stains on the knife.
“Tastes good!” she muttered, as her pupils contracted and the last remaining bit of sanity drained out of her.
Now she was just a body, emotionless, unable to think, and unable to sense anything. The years of working in the factory had utterly destroyed and killed her mentally. She was the only one allowed to be in the public, and the bloody scenes scarred her young soul. The trauma remained, and her sanity lost with it. Gone, forever.