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Fan Fic: Rainbow Factory

"Now a rainbow's tale isn't quite as nice as the story we knew of sugar and spice"

But a rainbow's easy once you get to know it, with the help of the magic of a Pegasus Device

A pair of young pegasus ponies, Scootaloo and Orion, are getting ready for their final flight exam, which will either make their lives if they succeed, or break them if they fail. But during the exam, a pony twists her wings and catastrophically crashes before their eyes. A chain of events leads to all three of them failing the exam and being taken somewhere unknown, where the glorious city of Cloudsdale won't have to suffer failures such as them.

But the exile turns out to be even worse than expected... Instead of being deported to some unknown land, the three find themselves inside the Rainbow Factory. Barely anything is known about the workings of this place, besides the fact that it produces rainbows. But now, the three are finally about to find out (at the price of their lives) where those beautiful rainbows gracing Equestria really come from... and to discover the horrifying truth behind Scootaloo's mentor, friend and hero... Rainbow Dash.

And Celestia help them all.

Rainbow Factory was first written as a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic-themed song by renowned brony musician Glaze, aka WoodenToaster . While it clearly suggests the cheerful Rainbow Factory depicted in the show is not all it seems, it leaves the actual details to one's imagination (though we learn more in its sequel "Awoken"

. Aurora Dawn later wrote a fanfiction based on the song. Warning: similarly to Cupcakes, this contains canon character "reinterpretation" (as well as death) and is very grimdark.

Find the song here

and the fanfic here

. Much like Cupcakes before it, there's also a dose of Nightmare Retardant in a parody here

, courtesy of My Little Pony: The Mentally Advanced Series.

Aurora Dawn wrote a sequel to Rainbow Factory, Pegasus Device, about a duo of foals trying to escape the factory as things begin to go wrong in there. The sequel is arguably Lighter and Softer than Rainbow Factory was, and adds a degree of philosophical depth to many of the antagonists.

Also inspired an Ask A Pony tumblr, Ask Rainbow Factory Worker Scootaloo

set in an Alternate Universe where Scootaloo passed the exam and got a job at the factory.

Rainbow Factory contains examples of:

Ax Crazy: Rainbow Dash is completely and murderously out of her mind.
Cold-Blooded Torture: As Rainbow Dash calmly informs the victims, the Pegasus Device works better if the pony gets his/her ribs broken beforehand.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: pretty much the entirety of the upper-rank Factory officials... Rainbow Dash mostly.
Darker and Edgier: The fanfic itself to the show, big time.
- One "alternate ending" is even darker than the fanfic itself—in it, Rainbow Dash is revealed to still have a side of her personality that still cares for Scootaloo...and the struggle between it and her insane enraged side gets her tangled up in chains and shackles, until she herself falls into the Pegasus Device and dies. Scootaloo? She's still killed by Dr. Atmosphere anyways.
Disproportionate Retribution:
Rainbow Dash: You deserve this, you worthless whore of a foal!
Downer Ending: Scootaloo fails to escape, is implied to have been killed, and the Rainbow Factory is allowed to remain operational.
- Pegasus Device shows that Scootaloo is not dead, however she has instead been held captive in the factory for so long that she has been driven insane to the point of forgetting her own name.
Driven to Suicide: In Pegasus Device, Scootaloo kills herself in front of Rainbow Dash, just so she can fly again. It snaps Dash out of her villainy so it doubles as Heroic Sacrifice
Driven to Villainy: Word Of God says Rainbow Dash went insane after years of pressure to keep the goings on at the facility a secret.
Et Tu Pluvi Arcus Impetus^noteLatin vocative for Rainbow Dash
Fantastic Racism: not exactly racism, but the Cloudsdale society is extremely prejudiced about poor fliers - so much that pegasi who fail their final flight test are exiled somewhere so as to not shame the city. They're actually killed to make rainbows out of them, but the population doesn't know that.
Heroic Sacrifice: Aurora sacrifices herself so Scootaloo can escape It doesn't work
- Scootaloo herself does this in Pegasus Device, killing herself to snap Dash out of her villainous ways.
Heel Face Turn: Dr. Atmosphere pulls one in Pegasus Device.
- The worker that "Awoken revolves around.
Human Resources: or Pony Resources...
It's All About Me: All Rainbow Dash is concerned with is how disappointed she is by Scootaloo's failure to pass her flight test after all her advice, as opposed to the fact that Scootaloo is about to die a horrible death.
Jump Scare: Go ahead, click the link and scroll all the way to the bottom, I dare ya. If you do, you'll be met with an EXTREME close-up of Rainbow Dash's piercing red eyes, her face splattered with blood (some of which possibly belonging to Scootaloo).
Karmic Death: Brony Dance Party in the sequel to the original song.
Kill The Ones You Love
Lighter and Softer: The sequel, Pegasus Device, is this in comparison.
- "Awoken" is this to the original song.
Man of Wealth and Taste: The manager of the Factory Rainbow Dash wears a suit. Most Factory workers, even the lower-end ones, do as well, though.
Madness Makeover: Though it's justified by her having been in a fight, Rainbow Dash starts out as prim in a strict suit, and by the end of the story her mane is messed up and she's all covered in blood and wounds so her colors can hardly be seen.
Morality Chain: Working inside the Factory and seeing, even commanding the cold-blooded slaughter of many innocent ponies, Rainbow Dash had only one thing that prevented her from falling into complete insanity - Scootaloo. Once Scootaloo seals her fate by failing her flight exam, Rainbow Dash plunges right into the deep end.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Atmosphere, arguably. He's not exactly an evil genius, but he's got an eerie vibe about him.
Multiple Endings: Though ultimately scrapped, AuroraDawn wrote three different endings, though they're all still Downer Endings in their own right:
- First ending: Dash starts beating Scootaloo to death when Scootaloo manages to break through to her, causing Dash to develop a Split Personality: one side of her is horrified with herself for trying to kill her "little sister", while the other remains resentful of Scootaloo and keeps trying to kill her. Dash ends up struggling with herself before falling into her own machine, though her kind self wins over and apologizes to Scootaloo before being ripped to shreds. Sadly, Dr. Atmosphere shows up, murders Scootaloo, and manages to cover up the whole incident.
- Second ending: Same as the first, except Scootaloo survives and the horrors of the Rainbow Facility have been exposed. However, Scootaloo is left thoroughly broken over the deaths of three of her friends.
- Third ending: Similar to the first and second, except Scootaloo becomes a loner and never reveals the truth of the facility to the public since she is more or less implied to be forced to keep her mouth shut.
Nothing Is Scarier: In the original song, the evils of the Factory are left to the listener's imagination...
- We get more details in the sequel song "Awoken", which involves an exhausted worker having a Heel Face Turn.
Not That Kind of Doctor: Dr. Atmosphere explicitly states he's not a medical doctor—he has a degree in engineering, and tells the group that he won't conduct any evil experiments on them. Indeed, they merely get killed to make rainbows out of them.
Only The Lead Gets A Happy Ending: the end of the original song's sequel, "Awoken". The worker the song revolves around escapes the factory to be met by a friend outside, and even gives Brony Dance Party a karmicDeath, in the process. Too bad the factory is still being run by Wooden Toaster, though.
Powder Keg Crowd: Eventually the captured ponies lash out against their tormentors... Sadly, it's all for naught.
Powered by a Forsaken Child: Rainbows are made out of young pegasi who fail the final flight test.
Released To Elsewhere: All the ponies think the flight test failures are exiled to another country, while the reality is quite different...
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Rainbow Dash completely loses it when the pony victims rebel and Scootaloo attempts to escape.
Room 101: The Rainbow Factory is this.
Sadistic Choice: Pegasi chosen to work in the factory itself, once they find out the truth about what they do, are given a choice. Keep their mouth shut and be party to the murder of countless foals, or spare one of them but the worker must take the foal's place. Only twice has a foal's life been spared-Fluttershy and Derpy Hooves.
Slasher Smile: Brony Dance Party, animator of the music videos to the original song and its sequel, dawns one throughout most of both videos, while acting as the quieter of Rainbow Dash's two head asssistants.
The Social Darwinist: Rainbow Dash is a type two.
Wham Episode: Chapter 3 of "Pegasus Device": Scootaloo is still alive.
What Could Have Been: See "Multiple Endings" above.
You Have Failed Me: Rainbow Dash comes to believe Scootaloo deserves her atrocious fate for having failed her flight test, despite all of Dash's tips and pointers. Even though her failure was not really her fault.