Chartreuse Factory is a short story I wrote in the first quarter for my Language Arts class. My teacher said that we should be satisfied with a B+, but thankfully I was only two out of fifty that achieved a perfect score. Everyone loved it, so it made me think I had a future in writing stories like these, so now I have a better look at what I could be when I grow up.
In between the time I turned it in and Halloween, I made over 60 revisions and drew official artwork for the story. Why was it released on Halloween? It's because the ending is kind of scary. Enjoy reading it!
Now for the Hurt or Heal fanfiction news! If you read the story below, you'll get a general idea on how the story, entitled Epic Pony War, will be written and formatted. It was really fun designing everybody to turn from a cuddly pony to a battle warrior. Expect to see all those colorful imageries and action scenes! The story will feature the thirty-two competitors, plus Candle Keeper as the director and Guildmaster Grovyle as Celestia's army's general. A possible release date is Veterans Day, and about thirty chapters will be released about every week. To get you hyped even more, one spolier will be revealed every day until Chapter 1! Epic Pony War releases around Veterans' Day 2013 on a Thursday before Season 4.
Chartreuse Factory[]
Have you ever wondered what happens in the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple colors of the rainbow? True, white light containing all the colors hits objects and reflects what wasn't absorbed back to your eye, but what happens to the colors that were absorbed? The Rainbow is not what you would expect, for it is a civilization, each color filled with animals. Every color city and all its residents are the same color, save a few immigrants giving exotic colors to the monochromic city. Animals can transport between the 16,777,216 cities just like we do in airports. The concept is hard to visualize and might look unreal at first, but for these animals, it is very real.
Red City is exuberant with parties, Yellow City rolls in money with their wealthy profits, and Purple City thinks of wonderful philosophical ideas for everyone. Some cities do not fare as well. Chartreuse is on the more depressing side of The Rainbow. Chartreuse Factory produces crates to store materials for the entire Rainbow. Regularly, Chartreuseans trained for machinery work handle the crate production. Chartreuseans dust their paws dirty and get the lead out with lubricant oil, gears, hammers, nails, and forklifts. Whether they like it or not, this is their life. Shut out from the rest of The Rainbow, the dull chartreuse walls pave a lifeless road for the factory workers. Day in and day out, routine, routine, and routine again shuts down any means of independent thought. They work every day, 24/7, no holidays, no weekends, no lunch breaks, no sleep, and no escape. Despite their sad lives, they play an important role in the community of The Rainbow. Without their constant flow of crates, trading between cities would cease to exist and life would function awkwardly without vital resources from other cities. Yes, their job goes unnoticed and overlooked by many, but they are important to all the colors of The Rainbow.
Chartreuse Raccoon worked in the factory for longer than he had remembered. Factory training was his only childhood memory, and sadly the only eventful one. He liked running around and about the training grounds, learning why a gear would turn this way and why that way, weaving through the tires and climbing across the bars, eating a talkative lunch with his friends, then resuming the sprints of joy around the tracks and obstacle course antics. When the coaches awarded him his hard hat and wrench at the graduation ceremony one day, he felt like his promotion to the factory was the best achievement of his life.
Those anticipations were all for naught. He had been laboring for a forgettable amount of years without a single wink of sleep. Whether he was still a child or an elder, he didn't know. A day in the life of Chartreuse Raccoon had these activities on the agenda: Put a lid on the crate. Put a lid on the crate. Put a lid on the crate. Put a lid on the crate. It never ended. This happened every day, 24/7, no holidays, no weekends, no lunch breaks, no sleep, and no escape. He had been staring at the conveyor belt for an immeasurable amount of days. Slowly his brain melted into only containing two things: the sparse remnants of his childhood memories and how to put a lid on a crate. He was stoical not because of his moral principles, but because he had neither the brain capacity nor the time to complain. His once flourishing, fluffy, full tail was now droopy and deflated in degrading depression. The fur from his paws slowly wore off after years of handling lids. Pain and strains overtook his knees and wrists, begging for a rest from the endless toiling. The chartreuse walls blended in with his chartreuse fur; surely a metaphor of how little he stood out. His dull and lifeless eyes would summarize his miserable life, and make any soul who peered into them cry on the inside. He wanted the days back where he enjoyed and loved living throughout the day. His only wish was for him to one day, some day, experience love again.
The raccoon's bones and muscles was calling it quits. He knew severe punishments would haunt him later, but that was a fate he was willing to resign. His body collapsed under the physical and emotional pressure. Surrounding workers gasped in horror, but quickly resumed back to work seconds later. Chartreuse struggled to open his heavy eyelids again at the cruel factory, but something immediately forced them open and winced in pain from the light.
You see, the raccoon saw only shades of chartreuse his entire life, so naturally out of the red, green, and blue eye cones, the green cones were the strongest. Chartreuse contains half as much red as it does green, but no blue at all. So, the sudden blue blur blinded him for a short while.
Nervously peeking in, the raccoon saw the blue contents of the crate uncurl itself and erect an animal- a fox. Outsiders weren't allowed into the factory, so the visitor was a strange and rare occasion. Blue Fox began to speak the first words Chartreuse heard in a long while. "Son, I found out about this terrible factory, an' I thought it was only fair 'n' just to rescue you." The fox's voice was soft-spoken and wore an amiable smile on his face to match. The body build was similar to the raccoon before it was deflated, with a bushy tail, triangular face, wide ears, and long forelegs to hug his new son. "Come on son, don't be shy. You can come and live in my home, where I can re-teach you all the things about livin' life you forgot." Bursts of joys streamed through Chartreuse's blood as he leaped onto his back in a big bear-hug. "Alright son, you stay there until we get into our method of transportation."
Above the transportation room hanged a sign with Chartreuse City's address code: 7FFF00. "Gee, son, these transportation vehicles haven't been used much. Look, th' paint on the rails isn't even chipped!" Blue Fox was correct. His journey to Chartreuse was the first arrival in decades. The vehicle was a metallic sphere no more than ten feet in diameter, dressed with wires and engines all over. The newly met duo hopped through the door into the machine, featuring two chairs in the middle, shelves on the side, a control panel up front, an air vent on top, iron floorboards on the bottom, and an enlarged window covering up the top half of the front wall. Blue Fox placed Chartreuse on the passenger's seat, then punched in the address code for his hometown: 0000FF.
During the long trip home, Chartreuse continuously eyed a bucket of blue liquid on the bottom shelf. He was half his size the last time he ate, so he curiously pawed over to the bucket and dived his head into the vat of blue. The liquid was sticky and held a very sharp and unpleasant taste. Quickly rejecting his head and spitting the foul drink out, the raccoon regretted his own stupidity and near-sighted thoughts. "Son, don't touch that paint! It isn't good for livin' animals like you 'n' me. Then again, we are going to Blue City, so we might as well make you a local resident." Blue slathered the gooey mess into his son's fur from head to toe. Just as Chartreuse waddled his sloppy body over to his seat, they screeched to a stop. Chartreuse Raccoon had reached the city of his dreams.
"Son, now normally they inspect the new folks over at immigration, but we Blueans get to walk on right through!" Since everyone was a different color in the immigration line, Chartreuse's eyes were blinded for the second time that day. Outside of the transportation stood towering masses of blue skyscrapers, easily overshadowing the cramped factory in Chartreuse City. Blue Fox carried his son to the steps of a welcoming apartment and Chartreuse saw his first glimpses of his new home. "Son, your home is my home. Feel free to roam 'round anywhere you please. I could show you your mother and brother later."
Fuchsia Fox did not like interruptions from her apprentice, especially during an experiment. She was dealing with dangerous chemicals, and an accidental splash could prove fatal. That was why her normal attire was the Level B hazmat suit, a ruffled jumpsuit protected with synthetic Tyvek materials covering her from head to toe. A steel welding mask with a thin horizontal slit for eyesight shielded her face. Her truly menacing outside was an unfitting cover for her traits inside: a Fuchsian vixen who was down to earth, efficient, and hardworking. She accurately applied her values to her work, making her the perfect mentor in chemistry.
You could say her apprentice would be her opposite. Fuchsia's horrendous costume on the outside misinterpreted her respectable principles on the inside. Cardinal was the opposite. His cute and innocent feathers covered up the rage bottled up inside him. Though normal to the casual eye, Cardinal showed no respect for his mentor, constantly criticizing every test and chemical Fuchsia dished out. The snarky scrapper devoted his every word to unleash pugnacity on Fuchsia. Oh sure, he had sleek, clean feathers and a lovable curvy body, but what good did it do when his mouth was perpetually dirty? Let this be a lesson: beware that judging a book by its cover is a double-edged sword.
A few weeks back, Cardinal sent a letter requesting apprenticeship to a qualified chemist. Cardinal had come from a poor family, who spent all of their money to get their only son into college. They hoped Cardinal would become a successful scientist, bringing a fortune back to their cramped abode. After years of studying, the final requirement to acquire a chemistry license was a six-month apprenticeship. The letter Cardinal sent in was verified, and the program led him to Fuchsia Fox, a chemist fourteen years and running.
Cardinal was not pleased with the results of the program. His sharp tongue projected the rude remarks of his bitter heart. The bird's interpretation of the laboratory was very different from what the forgiving Fuchsia Fox saw. Fuchsia envisioned her laboratory as her playground for the colorful and inviting world of chemistry. Cardinal only saw machines of malice scaling the walls and toxic vessels of eerie fluorescent liquids, only to brew together into an evil concoction of witchcraft. Cardinal could not see through Fuchsia's disguise, for only the Level B hazmat suit and welding mask got through his eyes. They would bicker at suppertime over the tests every day. Cardinal complained about the inhumanity and how she treated him as a "lab rat", while Fuchsia defended by rewording his claims as "exaggerated fantasies". Their relationship was a great mystery: whether the two were a level-headed chemist and a whiny apprentice, or a mad scientist and an abused test subject.
Chartreuse slowly regained his memories thanks to Blue Fox. Blue devoted all his time to his son, for Chartreuse was the joy of Blue's life and Blue was the joy of Chartreuse's life. They read stories together, threw the Frisbee around, took a walk in the park, visited the store, baked cookies, climbed up trees, sculpted clay, kicked a ball around, and any other activity that a child would normally do. Chartreuse appreciated that his father came through with his promise to re-teach all the things about living life he forgot. His body slowly inflated to a standard level and his once motionless mouth was often upturned in smiles. For saving his live from veering off the trail into insanity, Chartreuse placed his complete trust in his father.
The only time the whole family was all in one place was suppertime. 'Twas mother and father, husband and wife, Blue and Fuchsia Fox that sat across from each other, while the two brothers were seated left of their dedicated parent. Chartreuse never really understood his mother besides the fact she was a caring chemist wearing a jumpsuit that spoke a foreign accent. Chartreuse never understood his brother past his obviously rude principles, but learned more and more about the other two with every supper. A normal suppertime conversation started with Blue reviewing to his wife what he and Chartreuse did that day, followed by many arguments started by Cardinal, set ablaze by Fuchsia, discouraged by Blue, and unexplained to Chartreuse. After everyone was good and tired of talking, they wolfed down the rest of their supper and returned to whatever activities they were doing that night.
On one particular night, Cardinal requested to have a word alone with Chartreuse after dinner. Cardinal led his older brother down the long, blue halls and stopped at Chartreuse's room. He silently gestured for him to take a seat on the bed and locked the door. Checking that his parents weren't eavesdropping, he peeked his eyes under the slit of the door. They had privacy!
"Alright, Chartreuse. I don't wanna to be the bearer of bad news. Somebody has to tell you this, and I'm the only one who wants to do it. Your parents are out to get you. You should've seen this coming! Luckily, I did, and now I'm warning you. Remember back when Blue Fox 'rescued' you from Chartreuse Factory? Do you sometimes wonder why no one gets in and no one gets out? He had to hijack a transportation device and break through several lines of security to reach you!
Oh, and that's not all. Your job at the crate factory was unimportant to you, but vital to everyone else in The Rainbow. Thanks to your absence, none of the crates have lids and are unfit for shipping! They can't replace you, either. I don't know if you realize this, but no one did your job better than you did. Plus, no one even wants your cruddy job. You saw how awful it was, no one is gonna volunteer for that!
Sit down, I'm not anywhere near done yet. On the transportation device, he was carrying an illegal chemical: paint! Paint can alter the color of any animal and any surface. It is blasphemy to all philosophy! We should embrace our own color and keep the world around us the same, unified color. Paint changes the bearer's color and not only contradicts philosophy, but also screws up identification! That's how he got you through immigration without a passport: he covered you in blue paint, presented you as a local, and strolled on in keeping you an illegal immigrant!
It doesn't stop there. I have been trying to tell you every day what that– freak does to me in her twisted excuse for a laboratory. Fuchsia hooks me up to this giant machine with tubes on the sides and pours in whatever evil toxic chemical concoction she made that day into the top. Not gonna lie, it hurts. A lot.
Then, she writes down the results and alters her next batch of witchcraft according to the failures of the previous test. Then it gets even worse. This past week, she has been transferring the machine she hooks up to me into a handheld gun of some sort. That thing is a living nightmare, it has a needle at least nine inches long and carries around bottles of neon red, green, and blue. She calls it the Pigment Extraction Device (PED for short). She explained to me that animals of the Rainbow have been dreaming of changing their color for centuries, and whoever first invents a system to alter color is going to be very rich. Not only does this contradict the philosophy I already told you about, but it also involves you. Yes, you! A patent needs proof to be approved, and you're their little test run. So, their entire plan was to kidnap you from the factory, let Blue gain your trust, then use the PED on you when it's fully developed! They are not your parents. They are dirty, lying cheaters that only rescued you for your body.
Worst of all, she finished building the PED earlier today. Tomorrow night, they will activate the PED on you to and suck out all your color! I also overheard that if the experiment failed, it would drain all the blood, energy, and life out of the victim! Sorry this is coming so sudden, but I tried to update you about all that's happening. Fuchsia denies all of it at dinner and claims that I am exaggerating.
Lucky for you, I built an escape plan, and if you follow it, you should be outta here by tomorrow night! Oh. I see, I see. You think that I'm the one who's lying. Well, better be safe than sorry. Stick around if you want, but I'm out of here and reporting to the police everything that these partners in crime have ever done. You have 24 hours to make your decision to fight or take flight. Give it some thought. Sorry, but I can't stay here. I have work to do."
Cardinal crawled under the bed and slid down a hole to escape. Now Chartreuse was in a dilemma. He loved Blue Fox with all his heart, but not if Cardinal's explanation was real. There was nowhere else in Blue City for him to go except for this house, but it could possibly be unsafe. Was Cardinal even trustworthy? He was the one who argued a lot at suppertime. Shouldn't he trust his rescuer, not a last-minute talk? If the story really was true, then it didn't matter how kind his parents were. He needed to get out of here! In the end, Chartreuse decided to be loyal to his parents and endure whatever punishment he would receive.
The final day was a blur. Fuchsia was charging up the PED. In interruption, heavy animals burst through the door and continuously said they were the police. Blue and Fuchsia began to threaten the police with the PED, but through hassles of fighting and groping for the PED, the result was the police in possession of the machine. What came next was a sight even worse than a needle pointed straight at Chartreuse– a needle pointed straight at Blue. His punishment was to be the victim of their own machine. This was unacceptable. If there was one emotion that Chartreuse gained while out of the factory, it was love. He loved Blue so much that he would go the extremes to defend him. Blue was huddling in the corner, and the needle was closing in on him. Chartreuse depressingly decided it was time for last resorts, so he sprinted as hard as his tiny legs could stand with his aim on the corner. At the last split second, he threw himself in front of the needle. As his blood, energy, and chartreuse color was drained out of him, Chartreuse looked back and saw his mission was accomplished. He experienced love, and it was gorgeous.