Rainbow Factory

[Nivrad00]

Flurry rose from her seat. "Cut the waterworks, Dusk. The next rainstorm isn't due til Wednesday!"


With a cackle, she trotted to the door, looking surprisingly dignified even on three legs. "You know, Cobalt tells me you were the..." she made a one-hooved air quote. "'Optimal choice' for the new promotion. Says he figured it out on a computer. Hah!"


"Ponies are nothing more than machines," defended Cobalt with his eyes narrowed. "Input, output. Some happen to be more efficient than others. A computer can figure it out better than you and I can."


"Nonsense." Flurry pulled Dusk Darter onto his hooves, smirking widely. "Come now! I'll show you to your room. We'll assign you tomorrow and see what Mr. Optimal Choice can do for Cloudsdale Weather."


"The diagnosis for your injury said no extended movement for five -"


"We'll manage, Cobalt," Flurry snapped, shooting him an angry glare. Then, a moment later, her grin was back. "Now! Let's be off."

 

[BeyondOblivion]

Dusk froze and finally stood up. With no options left and his own selfishness of his own life, he couldn't afford to let the foal go.


"Okay... I'll work here." He gave one final sniff before steeling his face. Though his body still trembled and he looked weak.


"A-assignment?" He asked, nervously glancing to Cobalt in fear.

 

[Nivrad00]

"To a job," Cobalt said, voice flat. "Assignment to a job."


"No need to be afraid," reassured Flurry, though the sentiment likely fell on deaf ears. "We're all family in here. Nothing quite like bonding over rainwater shipments and pegasus evisceration!" She waltzed out of the room, motioning for the new worker to follow.

 

[BeyondOblivion]

Dusk Darter blinked hard, shivering a little bit. He followed him worridely, not sure exactly what he was going ot be assigned. The leader seemed to be either insane or deranged, maybe even both. He looked down as he followed him, shaking a little bit.


"W-Where do you think I'll be asigned?" He whispered.

 

[Nivrad00]

"Not sure," responded Flurry as she trotted down the hallway, "given Cobalt's unorthodox method of selection. Probably manual labor, unless we find something you're good at."


"The computer suggested failure relations." Cobalt plodded out behind the two other pegasi.


Flurry gave a dismissive snort. "Do you really think Dusk should be in direct contact with the failures?"


No response.

 

[BeyondOblivion]

Staring at them, he whispered, "I-I'm trained to operate high level machinery..." He blushed a little, "if you need... operators..."

 

[Nivrad00]

(Think we should timeskip soon?)





Flurry simply glanced at Cobalt, who shrugged. "We could use some new hooves in quality control," mused the dark blue stallion. "Or packaging. I can have a worker give you a tour."

 

[BeyondOblivion]

(Yes, we should)

 

[Nivrad00]

(you want to do it? >.>)

 

[BeyondOblivion]

(Why don't we skip a few hours later to when he's assigned? I like the idea of him being involved in foal relations, like handling them as they are being readied)

 

[Nivrad00]

(kk)


The catwalk clattered under the weight of the ponies' hooves as Cobalt led Dusk Darter through the Factory. He'd retrieved the new recruit from his new room, finding (thankfully) that he was still functioning okay a couple hours after the revelation.


"Here," Cobalt droned, stopping, "is where you will be working. Good news, it's away from the noise and clutter. Bad news, the noise and clutter is the interesting part of the Factory. I hope you're not bored easily." He shoved open a door, ushering Dusk Darter forward into a very dimly lit room.


A brown pegasus jerked upright at Cobalt's entrance. He was seated at a table cluttered by paper, and, by the looks of it, he had just been taking a nap. He blinked rapidly, then frowned. "Oh. Hello, sir."


As the entrance fell shut again, the distant howling of the nearby Cyclone Room faded away. Soundproofed. It took Cobalt a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, but there wasn't much to see. The whitewashed cloud room was marked by age, but in good repair. A completely dark window spanned most of one wall.

 

[BeyondOblivion]

Dusk Darter was more cautious, gripping the cat walk nervously and taking small trots so as not to collapse and fall to his death. Even as a pegasus, this factory was more dangerous than flying in the middle of a class four thunderstorm.


"What is this room?" He asked, stepping inside and blinking his eyes rapidly at a particular peculiar smell. He almost covered his nose when he stepped inside.

 

[Nivrad00]

"Observation room," replied Cobalt vaguely. "I know Flurry said machine operation, but she's not smarter than a computer. Good? Crescent will show you the ropes. I'll be in research and development if you need me."


The brown pegasus, with a sigh, started gathering up the papers on the table. "New worker, huh?"

 

[BeyondOblivion]

Dusk Darter blinked and gave Cobalt a nod goodbye. HE wasn't sure if he should be upset or relieved that a pony who obviously was what he could become was leading him around thie forsaken factory of prepubescent death.


"Yeah, I am." Dusk sat down, "I know a thing or two about machines and such."

 

[Nivrad00]

The stallion coughed. "Machines? Won't help you much here." Sliding the papers into an overstuffed manila envelope, he stood and clambered over to a filing cabinet. "My name is Crescent Moon. Welcome to Failure Relations, the most outdated department in the whole Celestia-forsaken factory."

 

[BeyondOblivion]

"Failure relations?" He asked, sitting down next to the stallion. He yawned silghtly and took his seat, arching his back a bit as the chair seemed to be made of solid rock.

 

[Nivrad00]

"Ayup," Crescent responded, sounding bitter. "Originally meant to stop the rebellious ones, but Contrail developed his nasty little foal containment system and now Failure Relations is basically obsolete. But we can't harvest them all as soon as they get here -- spectra won't be fresh. So some poor soul still has to go and fucking look after them in the meanwhile."

 

[BeyondOblivion]

"So what do we do?" he asked, blushing a little bit. He yawned slightly and asked quickly, "Tell me what I'm going to do exactly... just sit here all day and count the furs I have?"

 

[Nivrad00]

A harsh chuckle. "Sometimes? Yeah. We watch the rejects to make sure none of them do anything stupid. We herd them from place to place when we're told to, keep them calm when we need to. Rile them up, even. Fear stimulates spectra, you know." Crescent knocked on a worn computer terminal. "I also keep a database on the failures that come through here. Especially behavior patterns. The scientists use it to maximize efficiency. But most of the time, I just sleep, or work on... personal projects."


He trotted towards a control panel on the wall and checked his watch. "We turn off the lights at night to save power, but it's almost morning anyways."


Crescent Moon flipped a switch, then turned to the large window spanning most of the wall. On the other side of the glass, industrial lights sparked into life. They illuminated a stark gray room furnished by nothing but a few benches. On the floor, sleeping, shivering, were dozens of failed foals.


"Say hello to the refuse of Cloudsdale."

 

[BeyondOblivion]

He blinked at hte foals, crouching down and whimpereing, "They're just foals!" He walked up, looking at them, "T-they..." He blinekd.


(9Sorry, running out of ideas)


 
He blinked at hte foals, crouching down and whimpereing, "They're just foals!" He walked up, looking at them, "T-they..." He blinek

 

[Nivrad00]

('s not your fault, there hasn't been anything except exposition so far :c I figure Dusk would get to interact directly with some foals in this scene and then we could skip to the interesting parts)

 

[BeyondOblivion]

He looked at the foals, shivering hard as he began to notice them. A few of them he knew when they were literally just born. He gulped, shaking, "T-they're just foals! T-this isn't right!"

 

[Nivrad00]

Crescent shook his head, walking up to Dusk Darter beside the window. "You're gonna have to get used to it quick, kid."


He watched silently as several of the foals blinked and opened their eyes. Some of them spoke, though they were inaudible through the soundproofed walls. Others looked resigned, simply curling up against the wall.


"In fact -" Crescent stirred - "we might as well start now. There was a hell of a lot of failures this month, so they're staying longer than usual. Actually have to feed them." He ducked into the closet, disappearing for a few moments before emerging with a cart full of stale oats. Motioning for the new worker to follow, he stepped back out into the hallway. "Entrance to the containment room is over here. You ever worked with foals before?"

 

[BeyondOblivion]

He shook his head, shaking out in fear. He began to cry and whimper as their criss or fears began to become more audible.


"I-I....." He stood at the door, roo scared to open it and be in their presence. He was scared.

 

[Nivrad00]

Crescent sighed. "They're just foals," he muttered disdainfully. "Foals who can't even pass the damn flight test. What are you scared of?"