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| The Storm Factory | |
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 The story's cover art
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| Writer(s) | Rarity Belle |
| Date published | July 13, 2012 (original) December 14, 2012 (rewrite) |
| Words | 7,126 (original) 11,656 (rewrite) |
| Status | Complete |
| Type/genre | Tragedy Slice of life Adventure |
| Featuring | Rainbow Dash Soarin' |
| Related to | Rainbow Factory |
| Story link(s) | |
  
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The Storm Factory is a short story written by Rarity Belle . It was her first attempt to write something with low gore content.
Style[]
The story is written in third-person perspective, past tense. The story has 3 large chapters, each divided with a little explanation about storms and the Factory itself followed by a picture of a heavy storm before the chapter begins.
Summary[]
Shooting Star Dash is the proud daughter of Rainbow Dash and Soarin'. She studies at a school in Cloudsdale so that she may work in one of the many weather factories. One day, she gets the test which will decide which factory she will go to. She studied hard for the test beforehand, and feels herself ready for it.
A couple days later she returns to school to hear the results. After hearing them, Star is devastated. She has to go to the worst factory of them all, the Storm Factory. When she tells her parents the results at home, Rainbow Dash nearly collapses. She has heard the stories of the place, but acknowledges that it her daughter has to leave. Shooting Star’s parents can only hope for the best.
A couple days later, it is time for Star to leave for the factory. The mare and her best friend Feathers know this is their final goodbye, keep silent for they did it over and over the night before.
When a chariot arrives and a stallion steps out, she knows she cannot go back. The stallion introduces himself as professor BlackHeart, head of the factory. Star goes with him without question, and they both leave in the chariot. The Dashes are left behind in tears at home, and Star starts to tear up as well. BlackHeart tries to comfort her, without much result.
When they arrive at the factory, it just looks like any other factory with the exception of it being made out of black clouds instead of white ones. When Star first enters the factory she is stunned by its friendly interior. She is directed to her room: Room 923. It is not much, but what is needed is available there. She is later then given a tour of the factory. In the coming days, she has to stand on each department to learn how the weather is made, and also to find out which department fits her perfectly.
After the first day of Star’s position on the cloud department, on which she is going better then expected. But that night BlackHeart sits in his office boiling in anger. He had commanded an anonymous Unicorn mare to lift a spell off of Star which would reveal to her the factory as it really is: Not the sweet and nice looking place as she saw it now, but a prison.
Over the course of the story Star tries to keep up with the fast pace of the different departments. As BlackHeart confronts Doctor Atmosphere about this matter, he states that he had to have a Dash. Atmosphere doesn't take this very well and goes to the counter, indulging in a massive argument.
Eventually, Star is placed in the lightning department where she helps in releasing the biggest storm Los Pegasus had ever seen upon BlackHeart’s command. As the days travel on, Star starts to look worse and worse. At one point she almost flew into a lightning coil. She has had more than enough of the factory, and awaits her chance to speak to Dr. Atmosphere. Finally she gets her chance, only to hear more disappointing news. There is no way out of her current job.
But one night, with the help of another Pegasus named Thunder Dasher, they manage to escape the factory. However Thunder is shot down and falls to the ground and his death. Star just keeps flying as fast as she can, back to Ponyville and her family. Eventually she returns home and stays incognito for the time being.
BlackHeart has one last argument with Dr. Atmosphere, stating he hates the doctor to the bone as he left and increases the work speed in the factory even higher than it already was. Meanwhile, Star changed back to her old happy self in a matter of days.
Some days after the escape, Dr. Atmosphere personally gives Star a letter before leaving again. Star reads the letter with her family after which Rainbow Dash flies out to find Dr. Atmosphere and thank him for his deeds. He explains that his generosity stops there, and that Rainbow Dash never to be spoken about again in Pegasus history. Rainbow Dash understands and she walk back to her home so that she may enjoy her daughter’s return.
Characters[]
Next to Rainbow Dash, Soarin', Applejack and Fluttershy, all characters in the story are original characters.
Shooting Star, Rainbow Twist (or RagTag) and Feathers are created by the deviantart user Kumkrum , Raritybell however, only took over the looks and not the personalities given. The true personalitlies and reletives of the mares can be found here Her excuse for doing this was 'for being an idiot of not researching', this is stated in the FIMFiction description of the story.
Shooting Star Dash[]
One of the two daughters Rainbow Dash and Soarin' have together and is quite the study head. She studied endlessly for her test but eventually ends up in the Storm Factory. The story follows her the most. She looks the most like Rainbow in appearance only her manes are not in rainbow color, but in a series of different shades of blue.
Rainbow Twist Dash[]
The other daughter of Rainbow Dash and Soarin'. She is cerulean coated and has the same mane coloring as her mother, except having it going sideways. It is stated she goes to school but it is never said to which school or what she studies.
Feathers[]
The daughter of Fluttershy and one of, if not the, best friends of Shooting Star. No appearence is given about her. She was sick on the day that the tests had to be made and tries her best to comfort Star on the evening before she leaves.
Miss Whiteboard[]
Star’s school teacher. Also no description of appearance has been given excpet that she wears a set of glasses.
Professor BlackHeart[]
Professor BlackHeart as he appears in the trailer
The head of the Storm Factory, a grey coated stallion with black manes, deep blue eyes and mostly wearing glasses in the Factory. He commands the factory with an iron hoof, but has a weak for Star since he knows she doesn't belong there, but doesn't show it to anypony. He also acts very nice in the beginning, but when the spell is lifted and the factory reveals its true colors, he is a tyrant. One of wings has never healed from an old wound and as the story progresses, it is revealed that Atmosphere had broken the wing, the reason for this is unknown though.
James CloudChacer[]
Foreman of the Cloud-Department in the factory. He and Star become quite good friends but his life ends in a tragic 'accident' after he flew against a lightning coil.
Doctor Atmosphere[]
Head of Cloudsdale Weather Corporation and tries his best to never reveal anything about the Rainbow-Department. No appearance is given. He often gets in arguments with BlackHeart about the situation with Star but in the end, he either has a change of heart, or not willing for his plan to fall to pieces and transfers the young mare. He is a cold hearted stallion who goes to any extend to achieve his goals of covering it up without getting his hooves dirty. He is responsable for Blackhearts broken wing, reasons for this, are unknown.
Thunder Dasher[]
A Pegasus colt with a white coat, purple manes and brown eyes. He is the colt who help Star escape the factory to redeem is own soul, it is unknown what he did or why he came to help Star, but during the escape attempt, he is shot down and falls to the ground where the unavoidable happens.
Unicorn mare[]
Nothing is given about this Unicorn mare, not even a name, though she stated in the story that she has one, Blackheart never spoke it outloud and always adresses her simply as 'Unicorn'. Her job in the Factory itself is unknown but she appears to be working as either and administrator or servant for Blackheart, taking in mind she writes his letters and lifted the spell up.
Making the Storms[]
Clouds are made by boiling water in enormous boilers which have to be fed by coal. When the steam is released, it is black as a thunder cloud; the blackness depends on the amount of coal used.
Thunder is made by the hundred Tesla coils which stand in the factory, coordinators set up the general area where the lightning has to strike and push the button that they are ready, the coils fire up and send the lightning all over Equestria to here it is needed.
Hurricanes are made with the help of drivers for the wind. No information is given out how they are really made.
Rain is stored in basins ready to go into the clouds, how this process works is still unknown.
For the storm over Los Pegasus, BlackHeart says a chant which is a modified version of the Kraken Summoning Chant from Pirates 2 Dead Man's Chest.
Trivia[]
- The idea of the fiction originated from a thunder storm Raritybell was in, whereupon she started to think about where storms really come from.[citation needed]
- Star's room number 923, is also the number Pinkamina pulls at the end in one of her earlier works, CupCakes 2.
- This story is loosely linked to Rainbow Factory (story) due to the presence of Doctor Atmosphere and the references. The story does not have to be read to understand this story.
- This story has given a second change due to the major re-write/re-edit progress Raritybell announced in October of 2012, in December of the same year, the rewritten version saw the light of day.
- FanFiction is the only known location that houses the original version of the story.