Aurora's Living

_{Well, I made it out of the rainbow factory. Growed up. Went to some speech therapy- it least improved my grammar. Glad I haven't lived up to Orion's expectations as the fat kid. I'm actually underweight a bit. My friends are still Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Thrackerzod, and Orion. Scootaloo and Orion got kids. They're weird kids. I blame Orion. I never liked him... I've got lots of cats, too. They're furry. One is really good at embroidery. I also work as manager for a glitter glue factory. Orion's kids are best customers there. Three of 'em, one girl and two boys. They make stuff, but mostly try to eat the glue. One time they made a rainbow. I ran away. I don't like rainbows. That's why every time I see Rainbow Dash I usually hit her head with a metal thing. Never gone back to Cloudsdale. Once I saw Thrackerzod trying to make a machine. I asked her what it was for, and she said normal stuff. I guess there’s nothing wrong with that. Nope, not at all. My wing is disformed still. Seeing as it broke off, like, five times, I guess I should be glad I still have it.}

It was a particularly lovely day in Ponyville. The sun was shining bright, clouds dotted the air, wind blew just enough to keep the temperature down, and it had rained earlier that day, so the area had that fresh feeling about it. It was a shame that not everypony could be out enjoying the nature.
A pale yellow pegasus pony rushed her way through the streets of the little town. She was tall with the structure of a young adult, and was rather skinny. Her three-shaded blue and sea green mane kept falling onto her face and she had to toss her head constantly to make sure it didn’t get in her bright green eyes. One of her wings was horribly mangled, almost to the point of uselessness. Despite the pain, she lightly flapped her wings to help her speed up.
She wore a very light blue lab coat jacket and a pale orange helmet. The bright sun and excessive exercise was making her begin to sweat in the long-sleeved garment. The clop of her hooves caught the attention of most of the busy ponies she zoomed by, and if that didn’t do it, the wind that she disturbed did.
Why was this mare running so fast? Where was she going? Where’s the fire? These were questions that ran through the ponies’ that she startled heads. Some that knew her might’ve actually asked her if she hadn’t gone by in such a flash of yellow and blue.
Upon seeing a large, grey, sad-looking factory, the pegasus’ caught a breath of relief. The smoke that came from the building wasn’t as horrible as most, but it wasn’t the cleanest looking thing in the world. It wouldn’t take much longer before she would be bursting through the doors, trying her best to fumble out an excuse to her boss.
It’s a sad fact that this ugly looking company made something as playful and innocent as glitter glue. Lots of small fillies and colts loved using this paste to make cute little pictures. The school in Ponyville bought tons of it every year for its more artistic students. Those artistic students grow up to be artists, who have young ones of their own, and, in turn, they buy the glittery substance so their pride and joys can begin their own creativity flow. The running mare herself was very experienced with the product- her cutie mark was even a bottle of blue glitter glue.
She dashed through the doors and slammed into a rather hard wall. Note to self, she thought, when running, watch out for walls. Got it.
A symphony of giggles arose from her left. Shaking her head, the tall pegasus looked to the sound. A group of worker ponies was the source of the cause. A pink the earth pony sneered at her. “Be careful, there, Aurora. You wouldn’t want to damage your face- oops! Already too late!” Another uproar of laughter rose in the group.
The yellow dashing pony, named Aurora, fixed her hat so it hid her flushed face. She turned and fled to the punch-in booth. Glad to be out of earshot, she sighed to herself. She may be manager at this plant, but all of the other workers hardly ever respected her. They were teens, working for extra-credit during the summer; they most likely never respected anyone. Still, they didn’t fear her as their boss at all. Probably because they knew she’d never have the guts to truly fire a pony.
“You’re dangerously close to being tardy, Miss Aurora.” said a tight, high voice.
Aurora turned to see the frowning face of her boss, Ms. Honcho. She could feel the displeasure oozing from the strict mare from her hard, grey gaze. Aurora swallowed. Opening her mouth to speak, Aurora revealed a missing tooth. “S-So sorry, Ms. Honcho, ma’am. I ran as fast as I c-could to make it here on time, though.” she stammered, hoping for a gentle scolding.
The dull green unicorn stared down at her employee, glare not lifting. “As manager, you should be here before your workers; especially when most of our workers are high school students! Just because you are manager, that does not give you the right to come in as late as possible.” Ms. Honcho sighed, frustrated. “I am the owner of this company, yet you don’t see me acting all lazy and coming in at the last possible second, do you?”
“N-No, ma’am.”
Aurora cowered as the vengeful unicorn leaned into her, locking her eyes with her own. “Then,” Ms. Honcho said, “I expect your performance to improve from this moment on. Is this clear?”
“Yes, ma’am.” the yellow mare replied.
Ms. Honcho backed off. “Good. I’m glad we understand each other.” She turned to get back to her own business, and started walking, showing off her clipboard cutie mark. “Oh, and, Aurora?” she called over her shoulder. “I saw your ‘grand entrance.’ Try not to run into walls from now on.” With that comment, she trotted off, most likely to search for another fumbling pony to scold.
Straightening her hardhat, Aurora stood up in an effort to compose herself. Now that she was finally here, she took the time to smooth out her jacket and fix her wings so they fit in it properly. She winced while she adjusted her left wing, thinking to herself that she was lucky to have it at all.
A white worker stallion who was walking by stopped and grinned. “Hey Aurora, been to the Rainbow Factory with Applebloom lately?” he mocked. “I’m sure Dash and Surprise would love to see you again!”
Don’t say anything. Aurora told herself through gritted teeth. Just get to work and he’ll go away.
Aurora turned away from him and started to one of the many conveyer belts in the factory. Even so, he kept at it.
“What’s that that they had to use? Pictures and some crayons? Is that what makes rainbows, Aurora?” When she didn’t reply, he laughed and went on. “Oh, I see. You went back and they said they needed your vocal chords for the birds, so now you can’t speak! Not that any bird would want your voice. It’s not even a mare’s.”
She could feel her throat start to burn. No. She would never give a worker pony that satisfaction of making his manager cry.
“I don’t understand why Nurse Redheart Jr. hasn’t come to take you away already. You clearly need some mental help. You’re already a crazy cat pony.” he sneered in her ear. “Rainbow Factory, yeah right!”
She couldn’t take it any longer. “It’s real…” she choked out.
“Oh, I’m sorry, what was that?”
Before Aurora had the chance to embarrass herself by whirling around and screaming “it is real” at him, a bright yellow mare interrupted them. “Springer! C’mon, stop wasting your time and help me with these boxes!”
Without another word, the white, most likely bleached, stallion trotted over to the yellow female. Aurora was grateful, and quickly wiped her watery eyes. Getting off track for a moment, she allowed herself to think.
Springer always listens to that girl. What’s her name? Bright Smile? Ah, well. I bet he likes her. Oh, that poor, poor mare.
Not wanting to be caught standing around doing nothing, the pegasus snapped herself out of it and stood in front of the conveyer belt, which was carrying bottles of gold glitter glue. She pulled a timer out of her coat pocket. Setting it for one minute, she pressed START and began counting the bottles that passed by. One… two… three… all the way to fifty-two. Aurora grabbed a pencil next to the clipboard on the side of the machine and wrote next to today’s date a small, jagged 52.
She looked at yesterday’s number, 63, and frowned. One of the chains was probably covered in glue again. She’d have to get Guy, the plant’s engineer, on that. Nopony knew Guy’s real name, he switched subjects every time you asked. All Aurora knew about him was that he was Lyra and Bon Bon’s pegasus son, and that he actually didn’t insult her 24/7 around here.  
Moving along to the blue belt, she set her timer once more and repeated the procedure.  57. Aurora nodded after she wrote down the number. This time it was only two under the yesterday’s number. She sighed to herself as she looked around at all the colors of glitter glue they made. Sure, this wasn’t a very time-consuming task, but you couldn’t label it as very fun.
When Aurora finally got down to the last color, lime green, she was right in the middle of counting the bottles that passed by, somepony roughly shoved her, knocking her entire side against the moving machine. Her skin was suddenly rope-burned by the moving conveyer belt and she squealed and tried to back away. She cowered, trying to sooth the burn when she felt a yank on her tail. Aurora whipped her head around to see that her long tail was caught in the moving gears and she was being pulled along. She tried to pull away, but it only caused her to involuntarily shriek at the surprising pain.
Aurora frantically tried to resist anyway. “Somepony!” she called. “My tail’s stuck! Help!”
“And miss the show?” growled the bleached stallion from before, “As if!”
Aurora turned to see Springer high-hoofing another one of the workers. “Nice one!” he said.
Suddenly Aurora’s wings flapped open in an attempt to save her from being pulled into the packaging tunnel. She reduced herself to begging. “Please!” she called. “Who do you think gets you your paychecks?”
“I’m sure Ms. Honcho wouldn’t mind finding a replacement.” a mare snorted. “They’re not very hard to find for a pony like you.”
Aurora looked at the small, square tunnel that carried the glue bottles after passing over the open belts. Inside there, small, needle-like robotic arms would wrap each bottle of glitter glue either individually or in pairs. It wasn’t meant to handle ponies. Not only would Aurora being dragged into the machine cause it to malfunction and no doubt blow sky high, Aurora would be burned, bruised, and torn up pretty badly. Adrenaline kicked in, and Aurora’s heart was now beating fast. She didn’t want to be like that poor pony who got an ear sliced off because he couldn’t keep his head out of danger.
Yet again, she decided to turn to her employees for help. However, most of them were either laughing or ignoring the whole thing. She didn’t know what to do.
Just as her tail were to enter the tunnel of darkness, the conveyer belt slowed to a stop. A group “aww” came from the worker ponies. “Everyone get back to work!!” Ms. Honcho’s voice came over the PA. “Or you’re all going to be in big trouble!!”
Terrified by Ms. Honcho, every single worker pony dashed off to his or her positions. Aurora was relieved yet at the same time, terrified herself. Lucky you get to run. she thought bitterly.
When she heard hoofsteps behind her, she turned and started spilling out an apology. “Oh, Ms. Honcho I’m so so very sorry I didn’t mean for all this to happen I mean I know that-“
“I do pretty good impressions, huh?” said a different voice.
Aurora suddenly flushed. She wasn’t talking to Ms. Honcho. For one, this pony was a stallion. For two, he was a grey pegasus, not a green unicorn. And for three, he was Aurora’s age, just under being an adult, not years older. She was talking to Guy, the engineer. Shaking her head, the yellow pegasus laughed. “Yeah, that was pretty good. You got all the other workers scared to death.” she told him.
Flipping his light aqua mane out of his pale pink eyes, he looked at all of them. “Yeah. Why do you let them treat you like that again?”
Aurora turned her head from him and tried to undo her tail. “Oh, I dunno,” she replied, “they’re just teens playing stupid games.”
Guy trotted around to her tail and began working at it himself. “You can’t just let them boss you around, Aurora.” he told her. “If you don’t stand up for yourself, they’ll never let up on you.”
“It’s not all that bad.” she lied. When he looked at her incredulously, she urged on. “No, really, nothing I can’t deal with on my own. But…” He had freed her tail from the machine, “thanks for the help.” She frowned at her tail. The part that had been caught inside the gears was covered in black oil. How lovely.
He nodded. “My pleasure. And, don’t worry about the gold glue belt, I’m getting to that one.”
Aurora, who felt small next to him, straightened herself out so she didn’t seem so helpless. “Make sure you check up on red and violet, too, okay? They’re slowing down as well.” She glanced at his flank, which bore a wrench over a blueprint. “Put your talent to some good use if you can.”
He saluted. “Yes, ma’am!” he said jokingly. Just before flying off to the second floor to get his tools, Guy turned to Aurora. “You know one day you’ll get out of here.”
Aurora looked at her own cutie mark, then back at Guy. “Wishful thinking.” she replied flatly, then turned and trotted off to finish her own work.
After the lime green started up again and was counted, Aurora put on some protective goggles and flew, painfully, upstairs to check on the glittering process. That was always a mess. Not only because of pouring a bunch of glitter into vats of yet-to-be-sparkly glue, you’re making sure it all gets spread out, which often leaves the workers in this section of the factory covered in shiny paste by the end of every shift. Once an earth pony fell into an orange vat. He went home to spend three hours cleaning it all off, and now bears the nickname “Reflector.” He quit about two weeks later.
This part of her job consumed most of Aurora’s work time. Even though she was manager, she really didn’t have much of a higher job position than the others. After checking on all of the colors and glitters, she flew to help the color that was moving along the slowest. Most of the time, though, she went to whatever vat the quiet ponies were working. They probably weren’t quiet, but they didn’t torture Aurora, which meant they didn’t really talk to her, so Aurora called them quiet.
Today they were at purple, so Aurora did her best to fly over by them and decided to pick up a mixing stick. It was the most disliked job in the factory, except for cleaning the vats, but she felt like she owed these ponies for being at least semi-kind to her. A very small red unicorn took the position across from her and used her horn to lift the stirring stick.
“Are you ready?” called a purple pony from the glitter-pouring station.
The red unicorn exchanged a glance with Aurora and then called up. “Yeah, pour it already!”
The purple pony, with the aid of a bright green mare, tipped the glitter container into the vat of see-through purple paste.  Falling glitter flew in the air everywhere, sprinkling on Aurora and the unicorn. Thank Celestia- or, y’know somepony, for these goggles. Now all we need are- The two of them burst into a coughing fit. Face masks.
The unicorn started walking around the rim of the vat on a platform, and Aurora hovered over the platform, stick in her mouth, and did the same. This was a grueling job; the glue’s viscosity stressed the muscles. It was good labor, though. Many of the worker ponies that did this tended to be stronger than the others.
Luckily, this process went surprisingly much smoother than counting. Aurora ended her shift, which was 8 a.m.-4 p.m. (after all, it is a glitter glue company) and hurriedly rushed herself out the doors of the factory.
Glad to be out in the fresh air and away from her horrible co-workers, Aurora happily trotted into Ponyville. She was joined by Guy.
“Hey, Aurora. I see nothing else too terrible happened?” he commented.
Aurora nodded. “Yeah, normally if I try to stay away from them on the second floor they leave me alone. That red unicorn and her friends never cause me any trouble.”
Guy nodded. “Oh yeah, that little group. Y’know those three pretty much depend on you choosing to help them out ever since Reflector quit.”
Aurora tilted her head. “Really? I was sure they might think I was a stalker or something.”
Shaking his head, he told her, “Naw, not at all. When you fly from place to place fixing everything in the factory, you hear things about ponies. Like, can you guess who Springer’s chasin’ after?”
She snorted. “Probably. I feel sorry for Bright Smile, the poor mare.”
“But did you know he also likes her sister, Silver Smile?”
“How scandalous!” she fake gasped. “Put that in the Ponyville Express!”
“Sure would serve him right.” Guy agreed. “But I’m not one to spread gossip, so keep it between us, alright?”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Aurora recited. “Promise.”
“I’ll never understand why so many ponies say that.” Guy breathed. He looked his left and stopped. “Well, this is where I turn. I’ll catch you later, okay?”
Aurora hadn’t stopped. She was focusing on getting into town before it got too busy. “Yeah, sounds great!” she called absent-mindedly.

Finally coming to the streets of town, Aurora decided to run some errands. Soon enough she was carrying two plastic bags filled with at least 40 cans of cat food each. Clattering loudly, Aurora now searched for a different stand. While shopping, she had taken off her work uniform and stuffed it inside her saddlebags, so her mane was messed up from the hardhat and there was still some glitter sparkling her coat.
“Hey, sparkly pony!” called a familiar voice. “Are you looking for me?”
Aurora looked over her shoulder and happily stepped over to the pony behind her stand. Setting the bags down, she said, “Yeah, Applebloom, actually I was. The usual, please. And, aren’t you guys normally over there by Dinky’s Muffin Shop?”
The earth pony nodded. “Yeah, but she’s expandin’ again, so Ah had to move to get away from the builders.” She turned and looked at the purple unicorn talking to stallions in yellow hardhats. “Ah’m not complaining, though. That just means she’ll buy more apples for her apple pie muffins!” Applebloom beamed.
“That’s good.” Aurora commented. “By the way, how’s Applejack doing?”
“Oh, she’s gettin’ better. She should have her cast off in another week or two.” She straightened the sign above her head. “Although Ah know she hates just sittin’ around and doing nothin’.”
“Look on the bright side, she’ll probably be so eager to work again, she’ll do your jobs too!” Aurora chided.
Applebloom rolled her eyes as she filled a bag with apples. “Yeah, right! Applejack never lets me get offa workin’. But you’re right- she’ll sure be an eager beaver!”
Taking the bag, Aurora smiled. “Are these apples from your trees, ‘Bloom?” she asked, glancing at her friend’s cutie mark. “I know your trees are some of the sweetest and juiciest ones!”
She blushed. “Yeah, well, Ah’m just glad Ah found my special talent before Ah was like Granny Smith! Can you imagine me, lookin’ like Granny, and a blank flank?”
The two mares laughed together for a bit, until something caught Aurora’s eye. She turned her head and stared fondly at what was across the square. A handsome, dark chocolate stallion with shining gold eyes and a pure white mane was buying some cherries from a little filly. On his flank was a camera with something that looked like a star above it  
Applebloom caught her gaze and snickered. “You liiiiike him.” she teased. When Aurora only snorted, she went on, “You loooove him.”
“Do not,” Aurora insisted. “He’s… just a stallion from grade school, that’s all.”
“But he’s a unicorn.” Applebloom said flatly.
“So… he… used… magic to fly?” she suggested. “Whatever, I don’t need to explain myself.”
“Awe, come on!” Applebloom pleaded. “You’ve had a crush on that stallion ever since he helped you up after somepony tripped you over by the Cakes’ bakery.”
Aurora turned her head back to the stallion. “Not true. We’re just… acquaintances, that’s all.”
Applebloom ignored her. “What was his name again? Triple Crash?”
“It’s Double Flash.” she corrected her on impulse. Seeing the smirk on the earth pony’s face, Aurora paid for the apples and turned. “I don’t need this.” she said with a hint of playfulness. “I’ll see you and the others later.”
“Oh, Aurora?’
“Yeah?”
Applebloom smiled weakly. “Uhm… Ah just thought you’d like to know, seeing as you’re not a fan of them anymore, but, ah... Scootaloo told me that the pegasi were planin’ a rainbow sometime this afternoon so-“
She couldn’t get another word out, because Aurora had already taken off, running for home as fast as her lanky legs could carry her.

When Aurora finally reached her home, a two-story, surprisingly nice house, she rushed in, almost breaking the door down, and slammed it behind her. Her heart was pounding and her hooves were shaking violently. It was a miracle in itself that she’d been able to hold onto her bags of food.
Trying to calm herself down, she started to walk to the kitchen and repeated to herself, “It’s just pictures, it’s just pictures, it’s just pictures, it’s just- WAH!!” Something small and furry had tripped Aurora and caused her to slam to the ground, spilling the apples and cans of cat food everywhere.
She peered over her should, clearly annoyed, to see of her many cats rubbing up against her hind leg. “Honeydew!!” she scolded, “I told you not to do that anymore! You probably made me bruise my apples again!” Composing herself, Aurora stood up and smoothed out her mane, still glaring at the feline. “Why can’t you just wait until I set my bags down?”
The little cat simply meowed indifferently and padded away.
Aurora growled to herself and started to collect the fallen items. Owning 9 cats was such a bother sometimes. She knew she’d never get along without them, though. Those furry pests were the only family she had in Ponyville. Her parents and little sister still lived in Cloudsdale. Aurora shuddered. And she’d never go back there again.
As she put up the food in its proper places, she started thinking about Cloudsdale and what went on in that pegasi city. She never really got over the fact that for years they grinded up little pegasi that failed their flyer’s exam into rainbows. Sure, now they really only needed pictures of families, but the fact that they used to never could get out of Aurora’s mind. And Rainbow Dash, as friendly as she may be, still caused Aurora to hit her on the head with something heavy every time she saw the light blue pegasus. She hadn’t seen Surprise since she was a filly. Aurora didn’t even know if she was still alive or not. Not that she mattered. Surprise looked at it strictly as a job… no sympathy at all.
“Couldn’t they have just used unicorns with their magic to make spectra?” she thought aloud.
A bored meow sounded from behind her in reply. It was none other than Aurora secretly favorite cat of all, a black one with orange and white spots, Mr. Whiskers. She rolled her eyes. “It was a rhetorical question, silly.” she said obviously. Aurora smiled and trotted over to the long-hair furball and picked him up. “Look at you, Mr. Whiskers! Your fur’s got too long and all matted again. I’ll have to take you to the groomer’s soon.”
Mr. Whiskers hissed and lashed out at Aurora. She just held him tight. “Aww! I love you too!” The poor feline managed to struggle free and dashed off to someplace Aurora wouldn’t bother to try and find.
Suddenly Aurora spotted some envelopes on her counter. She frowned. They were those stacked-high bills she’d yet to pay. The factory didn’t pay much these days, and she seemed to be starting to slip deep into debt.