Unforeseen Consequences - The mysterious factory

>Y’know, it’s not like I was the judgmental type, but Starlight’s place really, and I mean REALLY needed to get some flavor to it. ‘Cuz right now, her cabin had less personality than a wet sack of granola.
>I ain’t talking about having something super fancy like, I dunno Canterlot castle, and I ain’t dumb enough to think that Starlight of all ponies could pull off something as cool as the void.
>But geez-Louis, sister! You could at least decorate the walls! Or have cute little adornments other than a bunch of kites lying around! OR SOMETHING!
>At least her frantic back and forth pacing was funny enough to keep me entertained, and her bed being sooooo comfy also helped!
>And why wasn’t Starlight freaking about me lying on her stupidly comfy bed? Well, Eris, I’m glad you asked! Nopony could see or hear me, ‘cuz chaos magic baby! That’s right! I’m totally invisible while I wait for the best chance to do a super cool entrance!
>Speaking of which, ssshh! It’s coming!
>“Alright Starlight, there’s nothing you have to worry about, absolutely nothing! It’s not like there’s a giant fire-breathing dragon guarding an evil-looking factory and covering the entire sky with smoke. Nope! It’s not like the entire town will probably suffocate in the next couple days…and they will probably blame you for that…”

>Eris? This is Eris speaking, I talk to report that we will have a hilarious nervous breakdown in 3… 2… 1…
>“AAAAAH! WHERE ARE THE GUARDS?! WHERE’S TWILIGHT AND HER FRIENDS?! WHERE’S THAT LITTLE BRAT OF ANON?!”
>Okay, the gal was rolling on the floor and pulling her mane out. Now it was the perfect time to make my incredible entrance.
“Geez, Motley, I’ve seen ponies freak out pretty hard before, mostly because of me, but this is on a whole new level of craziness!”
>“AND WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?! THAT I WOULD BE DANCING AND SINGING LIKE A TOTAL…?! Wait a minute…” Here it comes! Better strike a super cool pose for when she turns around! “E-ERIS?!”
>Hah, Hah! I always loved when ponies flailed their cute hooves in the air only to fall on their backs! It never gets old!
>A’ight, Eris! Time to get up from this super cool bed and boop Starlight in her nose for some extra cute points.
“The one and only! Did you miss having me around, Motley? Because I sure did!”

>Well, I also gave little Starlight a little electric shock. Can’t have her mumbling forever, can I?
>So yeah, she jumped back on her hooves and tried to act all brave and serious “What… What are you doing here? Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something important?!”
“Hoh? Really? Because it looked more to me like you were losing your mind, but hey, who am I to tell? I’m just a spirit of chaos, not a little pony like you.”
>“Exactly! You have no idea about the big, big problems that I have to deal on my plate right now… Like the princesses not sending any help! AAAAH! They haven’t even replied to my letter!”
“Well, my little silly Motley, you don’t have to worry anymore, ‘cuz the cavalry just arrived.”
>“YES! FINALLY! I knew the Princesses wouldn’t forget about us!” Starlight didn’t seem to catch my drift, ‘cuz she went to peek outside her window. Or I think she did, I wasn’t really paying attention, one my little talons needed some extra polish “Where are the guards though? I can’t really see anypony out there. Tell me, are they setting up a base at the town’s outskirts?”

>Okay! My talons were now shinning like a crazy diamond now! Aaaand, yeah, Starlight was still peeking outside her window… oh brother, this mare was really slow, wasn’t she?
>I don’t like getting physical, but I had to extend my little paw and turn little Starlight’s head to me if I wanted to do any progress here.
“Lemme explain it in a way that even YOU can understand. There are no guards out there ‘cuz I’m all only cavalry you’re gonna get! So you’re stuck with me until I deal with your lizard problem!”
>D’awww! Her ears dropped! That’s adorable! “But… But what about Twilight? What about Anon? I asked the princesses to send those two because I know they can come up with a plan to solve everything in no-time. Why they didn’t come to help? Have they forgotten about me?”
>Oh, right, I totally forgot that Starlight was kind of short-sighted. I mean, sure, the dork was one heck of a planner, but I know the dude, he would’ve ended up using his creepy moms, or my old man, or me… or all of us to kick the dragon outta here.

>And what was Purple even gonna do?! Sing a song about friendship and then get roasted ‘cuz it sucked?! What a dumb… wait, that’s actually kinda cool! I will work adapt that for a prank, just gotta replace fire with quesadillas.
“Nah! Your timing just sucked through and through. You didn’t hear it from me, but Purple went full Purple at Griffon land, so the dork and one of his creepy moms went there to clean up her mess. Don’t worry though, ‘cuz I’m all the help you’re gonna need”
>“Oh, really? Eris, I don’t want to be rude, but have you taken a look outside?! Things are bad, really bad! And I don’t know how you of all ponies can be of help!”
“MMM! Actually, no! I just came here and saw you freaking out for a good twenty minutes before doing my little entrance. So whaddaya say if we check out how much things suck around these parts!”
>So grab the grumpy pink pony and make the little talon spin to let the chaos begin! Ugh… gotta work on the rhymes a bit more. Whatever, I’ll do it later if I feel like it.
>“Hey! Let me go! I can walk out of my house with my own hooves!”

“Walk? Me?! Pffft! That’s so not gonna happen!”
>“Then how do you plan to get….”
>And presto! We were teleported to the middle of the little bland town!
>“Outside… you can teleport… I forgot about that”
>MMM! So what’s the weather, Eris? Well, Eris, we have a dark cloudy sky only that those ain’t clouds but smoke. We also got a thick layer of ashes covering the ground and falling from the sky!
>Oh! And the visibility is almost zero! That’s right, Eris! You would need to have the vision of an eagle to see past your sexy nose with all this smoke!
“Woah! You really weren’t kidding! That dragon has really hit your town pretty hard. Where’s everypony by the way?”

>Starlight was struggling to break free from my little paw… heh! She even tried to use magic! How adorable! I think I’m gonna squish her a bit harder “Where do you think? Ung! They are all hidden in their houses! Ung! Eris! Could you put me down, please?”
“Nope! You’re my personal plushy now! MMM! I think I’m gonna get rid of all this smoke. I kinda like the mysterious vibe it gives, but if I don’t, then is gonna seriously ruin my mane.”
>Spin, spin the… aw, screw the rhymes! This smoke was starting to get annoying AND it was super bad for my mane. I’ll flush them out down the sky toilet! Which is exactly what happened! Now everything was sunshine and rainbows again!
>“Oh, yeah… I completely forgot you could do that too.” And it also made Starlight to stop struggling “Maybe having you around wasn’t so bad after all”
“Aaaah! I love the smell of chaos in the morning! Now your little friends can enjoy roasting their furs under this blazing sun again! Isn’t great... Motley?
>T-the smoke! Holy cow, the smoke! It… it just popped back in like some cheap animation trick! WHAT?!
“Hey! Who’s the idiot that messed with my chaaaooooaaaaaah!”

>What the hay was this feeling?! It was like… like a chill, but also like a shock, but also like a slap in the face.
>“ERIS!” Oh yeah, I dropped Starlight, there goes my little gag I guess “What in Equestria was that?! Why did the smoke pop back in?”
“Geez, Motley, I can’t believe… what a great friend you are… I’m alright by the way, just a little shaken…”
>“Sorry… I-I was a little bit shocked, but I’m glad you’re not hurt.” Oh, don’t try to fix it now! “So… call me crazy, but I think that the mysterious factory was the responsible for countering your magic.”
“I dunno, Motley, maybe this dry wind is messing with… Of course the factory made me go haywire, Captain Obvious! What else could’ve been?!”
>“I don’t know why you got so peeved about it, I was just going to suggest that we should go there to investigate. After all, none of us have been inside the factory just yet.”
“What? You seriously telling me that none of you have gone to that place? Pffft! C’mon, Motley, that was like, the first thing anypony would’ve done.”

>“Oh yes, because the dragon guarding the entrance was sooooo nice to us! He even treated us to some tea and cookies! Yes! That’s why I
sent the letter in the first place, I wanted Twilight and Anon to enjoy the amazing tour through that rainbow factory too!”
“Motley, just shut up and tell me where that place is so I can punch whoever gave me that shock right in the face.”
>“It’s on the top of that mountain, the biggest and snowiest one. Oh, why you can’t see the mountain, you say? Oh, that’s easy! It’s because this stupid smoke is covering everything! Arrrgh! We’ll need to ask Double Diamond to lend us some of his hiking gear and hope he has something that can be used by a draconequus.”
“More like Double Lame-O! Sorry, Motley, but I ain’t gonna hike no mountain. It’s dumb, risky and it would be terrible for my fur.”
>“Could you please be serious for a moment? We need to get that… HEY! LEMME GO!”
“Nope! I like you better as my purse. So saddle up, girl! ‘cuz we’ll be using the VIP road!”

>“What are you even talking…”
>And with another spin of my cute talon, Motley and I were on top of mount… huh, guess Celestia and Motley weren’t joking, there really was a factory on top of the mountain.
>“…About? Okay, I’ll admit it. I don’t know how I keep forgetting that you can basically do anything with your magic.”
“Shut up, Motley! I already know your brain doesn’t work right! Now, stay chill while Mamma Eris checks this place out”
>“It’s not like I can go anywhere” She was still talking?! Maybe a bonk on the head will teach her! “OUCH! Hey! Why did you do that for?!”
“’Cuz I can’t focus when there’s a lame-o whining on my ear! So shut up or the next one will make you a toad!”
>D’awww! Motley, puffed her cheeks and crossed her legs! How cute! And convenient! Now I can actually see what the deal with this place is!
>BUT! I don’t want to get caught! So lemme create a huge rock that totally blends in with the environment, carefully throw Starlight behind it and slither my way to my new hiding spot!

>Perfect! Now I can finally do some good old recon.
>Now, where was that pesky dragon that everypony kept talking about? AHA! There he is! And… And… wow he was so big that I almost missed him.
>That was a joke, the guy was big but not stupidly big, and I didn’t see the guy ‘cuz he was sleeping inside a huuuge dog’s house.
>I dunno much about the smoke business, but I don’t really think that all the smoke the dragon was exhaling was enough to cover the land this hard.
>MMMM! I know! Most of the smoke came from the industrial park he was guarding! Yeah! Eris, you’re a genius!
>You know what else? I think Celestia seriously wasn’t kidding when she said that this factory had nothing to do with the humans.

>Sure, you had stuff that any normal human factory would have, like a stench of rotten fish and burned coal, and the amazing moss, lime and other gross stuff decorating every single wall, chimney and rusted gate of this place.
>BUT! There was a difference! A very important difference! The factory was way too old to be human, seriously, the whole place looked like it came out from one of those boring human movies about boring human stuff that happened like, a hundred human years ago.
>And it’s not like it was abandoned or something. I mean, if it was, that would bring a whole new bundle of questions, but chimneys threw a lot of smoke and there was lights coming through the windows.
>I guess the other thing was… no human could ever build something this big and this old on top of a mountain this fast. Sooooo! This gotta be the work of magic, right?
>And this was too boring and grey to be chaos magic! And chaos magic beats all magic! So whoever was in charge, he was totally gonna get flushed down the toilet!
>“Alright Eris, I can see a vent on the other side of that wall. We can use it to sneak past the dragon and…”

>*BOOM*
>Alarms were ringing, the cute dragon was roaring and breathing fire everywhere. Oh, yeah baby! The party has started! Let’s rock!
>“Get insde… the factory… ERIS! Why did you blown up the front gate?! Now everypony will know that we’re here!”
“That was the idea, Motley! Sneaking around and crawling through vents filled with gross stuff ain’t my style. So I’ll give ya two options. You can call quits and go back to your town, or… you can come with me and blown up this place into the sky.”
>A’ight! Starlight was thinking about the offer! Good! That means she wasn’t too boring “I don’t want to go back, not without getting rid of all this smoke first, but… that dragon…”
“Oh, you’re worried about that? Pffft! Just look at what I do to that oversized iguana!”
>I’ll just spin my little talon and transform the dragon into a small toad! But… wait for it… wait for iiiit… HAH! No shock this time! I knew it! It was just a one-time only thing!
“Now, were you saying?”

>“Let’s tear down this factory piece by piece! And you better leave the pony in charge to me! I want to give him a piece of mind!” Ooooh! Starlight lit up her horn! This girl was out for blood!
“I’m starting to like your attitude, and guess what? I just got an idea that I know you’ll love. What if, before smashing this place we go to the boss’ office, ‘cuz believe me, he must have one, beat him up, tie him to a chair and then dismantle the factory in front of his eyes?!”
>“Eris, I swear you were just reading my mind! Let’s do it! I even know a spell that will keep him from looking the other way!”
“What’re we waiting for?! Let’s get chaotic!”
>Spin my talon! Spiiiiin! And take us to… to…

>“Where the heck are we? This doesn’t look like an office at all”
“It doesn’t look like anything, silly. There’re no lights in here”
>“Are you sure that you brought us to the right place?”
“Yup! A hundred percent! My chaos magic always takes me where I want to. I just need to vaguely think on my destination and that’s it!”
>“Well, maybe you didn’t think vaguely enough. Why don’t you turn the lights on? We may know where… UNGH!”
“Ungh? Is that even a word or are you freaking out on me? Hey, I asked you something! Motley? Why’re you not spea- AGH!”
>Who…? What…? Why was I feeling all sleepy all of the sudden? Wait… somepony… somepony hit me on the back of the head… but… that shouldn’t work on me… I’m… a spirit of chaos…
>What… is… going…?
>…