Mare Do Well: Rainbow Factory

Everywhere that lunatic goes, death is sure to follow, thought Mare Do Well as she hustled down the hallway, all while Warden Sharp babbled on about medications and a female computer voice told of breakouts all throughout the Factory. The only things that impeded her progress by a gang of razor-sharp mechanical teeth, all of which were swiftly disposed of with a few quick Mare-Rangs, and a couple of Discord's henchponies who were dumb enough to try to face her without any weapons to speak of.

As Mare Do Well reached a split in the path, she heard a voice call out.

"Hey, Mare Do Well! Over here!" yelled a Factory Guard.

Mare Do Well approached the guard, who immediately asked what had happened.

"Discord happened. You're lucky to be alive," said Mare Do Well.

"He must've gone this way, but the door's jammed. I'll try to-" said the guard, before a voice on his radio cut him off.

"Is anypony there? If anyone can hear this, we need backup in Pacification! Repeat, we need backup in Pacification!" yelled what was undoubtedly another Factory Guard, panic evident in his voice.

The Guard Mare Do Well was with pressed the mic on his radio. "Hello? If you can hear this, I'm with Mare Do Well. Hello?" he said.

"Where's Pacification?" asked Mare Do Well.

"Back down that way, " said the guard, pointing back down the hallway. "Do you need any help?"

"No. I work better alone," said Mare Do Well.

The other guard's voice returned, even more panicked than before. "Twisted Mind is free! He's got Steel Cage in the electrotherapy machine!"

On that note, the Dark Mare set out for Pacification, determined to stop Twisted Mind before anyone was killed.

...

As Mare Do Well made her way towards Pacification, she activated the comlink that was installed inside her mask.

"Foresight, you there?" asked Mare Do Well.

"Ah'm here, Mare Do Well. What's up?" asked the voice of a young mare. This was Apple Bloom, aka Foresight. The young Earth Pony had once been an ally of Mare Do Well's known as Filly Do Well, but that came to a screeching halt when Discord shot her in the back, paralyzing her from the waist down.

"Discord's running loose in the Rainbow Factory. He's already killed some of the guards."

"What?! Do ya need anythin'? Is mah big sister still there?" asked Foresight, concern and fear evident in her voice.

"Commissioner Applejack is safe. I'll keep in touch," said Mare Do Well as she reached the Pacification Chamber, where two guards were trying to get Twisted Mind, an Earth Pony with severe mental health issues, to stop electrocuting the Factory Guard that happened to be strapped into the electric chair.

Mare Do Well approached one of the guards, who was facing away from her. "What's happening here?" she asked.

The Factory Guard jumped as he turned to face the Caped Cavalier. "Oh, thank Faust! It's Twisted Mind, he's got Steel Cage!" he said.

"I'm going to put an end to this," said Mare Do Well.

"You can't! He'll kill Steel if he sees anypony get too close!" said the guard.

"He won't see me."

With that, Mare Do Well moved past the Guards and proceeded to an overhead observation balcony.

"If I see anything that looks even a LITTLE bit like a fedora, then this guard dies. DO YOU HEAR ME?!" Twisted Mind shouted as he shocked the guard.

A guard who was up on the balcony with Mare Do Well turned to face her. “He’s got my buddy. Help him, please,” he said.

“Alright, keep him distracted. I need to get behind him,” said Mare Do Well.

The guard nodded as Mare Do Well thought about what to do.

He’ll see me coming from the ground, so I’d better stay above him… but, how? thought Mare Do Well.

No sooner had Mare Do Well thought this than she caught sight of a series of old stone gargoyles.

Perfect… those should support my weight, thought Mare Do Well as she pulled out her grapple gun and took aim at one of the gargoyles.

With a bang that sounded more like a cough, Mare Do Well grappled up onto one of the gargoyles, before shooting a second grapple line to another... placed right behind where Twisted Mind was standing.

Without a moment's hesitation, Mare Do Well jumped off of the gargoyle, her cape spread out like bat wings, and drop kicked Twisted Mind from behind, knocking him to the ground. Mare Do Well then grabbed Twisted Mind's head and slammed it onto the ground, rendering the psychopath unconscious.

The coast clear, the Factory Guards came in. "Somepony get this animal back in his cell," growled one of them.

A split-second later, nearby monitors turned to static, attracting Mare Do Well's attention.

"Hello? Is this thing on?" called a familiar female voice.

As the static cleared up, the image of a pink Earth Pony mare wearing a tattered white cooking apron that had cutie marks and six wings stitched into them, red and blue boots, and lots of chalk white makeup. In her hands was a cane that somehow looked familiar to Mare Do Well.

"Oh, hiya, MDW, Pinkie Pie here. How do you like my new uniform? Pretty nice, huh? Oh! I just remembered, I got something to show you! Hold on a sec, MDW," said Pinkie before she walked off screen.

When she returned, Pinkie had Warden Sharp, who was tied up in a chair with duct tape over his mouth, with her.

"Ta-da! I'm now subbing for the old geezer! Old Sharpie's never been happier! In case you ain't figured it out, today's Discord's big homecoming and you're the guest of honor!" said Pinkie.

"You have one chance to surrender, Pinkie," growled Mare Do Well.

"Tempting, Mary, but no dice! Now the inmates are running the Rainbow Factory! Well, technically they're Discord's goons shipped in from Alkatrot, but you get the idea. Bye-bye for now!" said Pinkie, before she smashed the camera with the cane.

Nearby, the Factory Guards jumped back in fright as the gate leading out of the Pacification Chamber closed and sealed itself.

"What the-? The door!" cried one of the guards.

"Contact Control! They should be able to open it!" another said.

"Mare Do Well, are ya gettin' this?" asked Foresight.

"Foresight, I'm here," said Mare Do Well, activating her comlink.

"The Factory just vanished off of the network!" said Apple Bloom.

"Discord's in control of the security system. Sounds like he's isolated it from the grid," said Mare Do Well.

"That's not all he's done. Police feeds say that varmint's placed random bombs all over Manehattan. Says he'll detonate 'em if anypony sets hoof on Factory Island."

Mare Do Well shook her head as she activated her mask's lenses' Detective Mode, searching for an alternate way out. "He's lying through his teeth. It's just a diversion to keep ponies away," she said as she located an exit through a vent.

"How do ya know?" asked Foresight.

"I know him," said Mare Do Well.

With that, Mare Do Well proceeded to yank the cover off of the vent and make her way through it.

...

Mare Do Well emerged from the vents just in time to see the door that had been previously jammed open. Both she and the Guard she'd met earlier ran down the hall just in time to see a wall pop up.

"Warning: Decontamination, toxins detected. Warning: Decontamination, area sealed," said a female computer voice as a second wall blocked off the area.

Through the small slit of a window, Mare Do Well and the Guard could see a green gas filling the room, and it was causing both Factory Guards and Alkatrot Prisoners to laugh like a pack of hyenas, their faces twisting into demonic grins before they fell to the floor, dead as a doornail.

"What is that stuff?" asked the guard.

"Chaos Toxin. Listen to me, anypony caught in that room is dead," said Mare Do Well.

"Are you going to get in there and help them, Mare Do Well?" asked the guard.

The only answer the guard got was the sound of Mare Do Well's grapple gun being fired as she ascended to an open vent. Swiftly spotting a side vent, Mare Do Well ripped off the cover and made her way along it. As she did so, Mare Do Well realized that Discord was putting in an awful lot of effort into escaping... too much effort.

This can't be just a simple escape attempt. Discord's been planning this, thought Mare Do Well as she kicked off the exit's vent cover and made her way onto a metal platform safely above the gas. There, she noticed that there were several fans dotted throughout the room.

There must be a way to activate them and clear out the gas, thought Mare Do Well as she activated her lenses' Detective Mode to help her see through the thick blanket of toxic gas.

After a few minutes of leaping from platform to platform, she found what she was looking for. Only problem was that it was on the other side of the room, within the cloud on Chaos Toxin.

Note to self: install gas filter inside of my mask. But, for now, a well-aimed Mare-Rang oughta power up the extractor, thought Mare Do Well.

With help from her Detective Mode, Mare Do Well managed to toss a Mare-Rang directly at the control panel, powering up the extractor, which in turn cleared out all the poison gas.

"Attention: Decontamination: air purity now at normal levels. Access is now permitted," the computer voice said as the two walls that had previously barred access opened up.

A moment later, Mare Do Well heard an all too familiar laugh. Looking down from where she was standing, the Dark Mare noticed a green arrow on the floor pointing out of the room.

So, Discord wants me to play cat and mouse... thought Mare Do Well as she jumped off the platform and followed the arrow.

…

As Mare Do Well followed the arrow she passed by a reception table where a phone rang.

“Yes what seems to be the problem sir and/or ma’am?”

“Y-yes I’d like to hear about my husband. Is Star Gazer okay?”

“Hmm… let me check…. I’m sorry ma’am, but your husband has been BRUTALLY murdered and his head removed… I’ll call you back when I find the rest of him! Toodles!” Discord’s twisted laughter was then heard over the intercom system. Mare Do Well did nothing but growl at the sound of the maniac gloating at having one of his henchponies tear apart a innocent guard.

As Mare Do Well moved passed the desk,  she discovered more arrows pointing in various directions, including in a circle. But, eventually, Mare Do Well found a large door with a big Discord face on it, along with the words “Boss Door” for some strange reason.

On the other side of it was none other than Discord, who was standing on top of a large containment cell.

"What took you so long?" demanded Discord.

In reply, Mare Do Well tossed a Mare-Rang at Discord, who ducked just in the nick of time.

"There's no escape, Discord! I will find you!" snarled Mare Do Well.

"Oh, I'm counting on it, just not yet!" said Discord, stomping one of his mismatched feet on the cell, causing the door to open.

Out of the cell emerged one of the most ugly creatures Mare Do Well had ever seen. It looked like it used to be a dragon, but now it was hideously deformed. Glowing green eyes leered at Mare Do Well as the beast grunted and snarled.

"Ooh, he's a big one!" giggled Discord as his monster jumped from its cell to engage Mare Do Well.

Mare Do Well gazed at the beast before her. This certainly wasn't going to be easy.

The monster let out a bellowing roar before charging full-on at Mare Do Well. Thinking fast, Mare Do Well tossed a Mare-Rang at the creature, disorienting it for the split-second the Caped Cavalier needed to jump out of the way. The freak of nature crashed into a nearby wall, which seemed to hurt it.

No doubt angered by this action, the brute turned to face Mare Do Well and growled angrily. It then picked up the body of a dead Factory Guard and threw it like a rag doll at Mare Do Well, who barely got out of the way in time.

That was when the fight came to an abrupt halt. The monster began to clutch its head and chest, stumbling back towards where Discord still stood on the cell, before falling to the ground, dead.

"Well, that was unexpected wasn't it?" said Discord, before shrugging. "Oh, well. Note to self: need stronger test subjects."

Discord then turned his attention to the triumphant Mare Do Well. "Since I'm feeling generous, I'll give you this one for free. Knock me off, I dare you. End this before it's too late, pull the plug, stop me once and for all!" he said, spreading his arms out wide.

Mare Do Well pulled out another Mare-Rang and was just about throw it when she stopped herself. Not even putting an end to Discord and his sick games was worth breaking her one and only rule: do not kill.

Discord saw this and laughed. "You're getting too predictable, Mary!" he said as the cell began to move backwards towards a very big set of doors. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got a party to put together. I've got guests flying in from all over the Rainbow Factory! You'll see..."