Chapter 3: Everything that is discovered…

Truncheon Trauma… Lithium Lance… Xenon Glow… Iodine… They would be trouble. Sulphuric Acid stood alone in her office, an antechamber before one entered the Central Line’s engine cab. Inside there, the minister sat, ignorant of the world around him… These four were all going to be trouble once Hydroxide had his suspicions confirmed.

“Hydroxide… That arrogant little buck! Thinking he knows what was better for the Hub then I do,” Sulphuric Acid whispered to herself. Truncheon was the perfect Liquidator, loyal, strong, and obedient… But that was also his problem, he would follow Hydroxide, not her. Lithium was young and naive, bearly a mare at sixteen, she was easy to control, but all too open to questioning orders, and still carried that foalish curiosity… Xenon-

Sulphuric Acid’s train of thought was derailed when there came a knock on the door. She growled in her throat and stood up, turning to face the door and trying to force a smile to her face. “Come in.”

Sulphuric Acid was bearly able to keep her smile when she saw who had barged into her office. The stallion wore a simple utility barding, however it was painted yellow rather than the standard grey. His mane was a pale blue and his coat stark white, clashing a bit with his red eyes. “Hydroxide,” Sulphuric Acid said, her smile faltering a bit.

“The Liquidator Recruits have arrived, all twenty of them are currently in waggon seven, awaiting orientation.”

“Goooood,” She said in a drawn-out tone, “I will oversee their orientation personally, you just return to waggon three.”

“Umm,” Hydroxide was about to reply… Why couldn’t that damn stallion just follow orders like he’s supposed to! “Ma’am, it’s the job of the Liquidator Captian to oversee-”

“I know that!” Sulphuric Acid replied, a bit louder than she intended, “I-I know that,” She tried to regain her calm, “It’s just that these are strange circumstances, and I want to see that everything goes smoothly.”

Strange circumstances indeed, there was no way a mutant could get past the garrison, let alone destroy a thaumic engine… She had inspected the garrison patrolling the edges of the Habitable Zone personally, and those thaumic engines were constructed in such a way that they could probably survive having a portion of the city collapse atop them… Someone lied to her, and she couldn't have ponies doing that. It was probably Hydroxide, but she couldn’t be sure.

Perhaps she should talk to this ‘Boron Alloy’ stallion… An ex-liquidator, he must have done something to get expelled from them… Another potential troublemaker. Whoever damaged that engine was smart enough to understand how to, a pony, a saboteur, an enemy of the Hub, a pony that would need to be dealt with… Harshly.

Whoever was the cause of the blackout, she almost wanted to thank them, it gave her the perfect excuse to recruit more liquidators… Now she just needed to make sure that these ponies were loyal to her. As she marched out of the cab, she passed Hydroxide, pausing only a second to glare at him.

Pain. It erupted across my back as I fell, bouncing off of collapsed machinery and rolling down collapsed floor after collapsed floor. My barding was most likely the only thing stopping me from breaking my back on the fall… Soon I stopped falling and managed to open my eyes. Gasping from the pain of movement, I stared upward to see that I had fallen a very long way, I counted at least five floors, but it was hard to tell how far I had actually fallen, since I had rolled away from where I had originally fell and couldn’t see the bolted ceiling of the room I had come from.

I needed to get up, and tried to struggle to my hooves, but my entire body stung. There were a few gashes in my barding from where bits of metal had cut at me as I fell, a few were bleeding. I looked around for anything that could help me, nothing but metal… I was about to give up and wait for rescue or death, whichever came first, when I noticed a box lying on the ground not far from me.

I had no idea what the symbols covering the box meant, but I had seen a box with those same symbols back at the clinic… It was worth a try. I raised my horn, ignoring the pain that built inside it, and reached for the box. Unclasping the latches, I threw it open and found… A thing.

It almost looked like the welders earth ponies used in place of the welding spell, there were surprisingly few of them, but I had seen a pony using them once or twice. This thing had some kind of handle on the side so it could be carried in the mouth, it was short and boxy, with a grooved spike on one end that reminded me of a unicorn’s horn, and a hatch on the other, inside the hatch was a vial of glowing red fluid… Something magical.

I lifted it, no idea what it did, but if it was inside a medical box it would help me… I was guessing the spike was the end that actually did something, the arrow on the side helped with that assessment… What if it was a weapon? I paused as I aimed the device at my head, from this perspective it almost looked like a spear… I hesitated as my magic started to press down on a button. It will either kill me and take the pain away, or heal me and take the pain away, either way, the pain is gone.

Something crashed in the distance, a result of my falling down, and the sudden noise shocked me into pulling down with my magic, pressing the button… I did not expect the vial to go flying out the back of the device and into the air. Thinking quickly, I grabbed the vial in a telekinetic field before it could fall and break, and put it back into the device… That’s when I noticed that there were several buttons on this thing. I pressed another one, pointing it at my head again.

There was a low whining noise as red light started to creep up the grooves cut into the horn-like spike, the light reached the tip, and in a burst of magical energy, powerful enough I could feel the energy resonating with my horn, a beam of crisp red light shot from the horn and right into me… I felt the energy flow through my body and where it passed pain vanished… I quickly pulled off my barding and saw that many of my bruises and cuts were gone… Not gone, upon closer inspection, they were still there, just less severe than they had been, the cuts were smaller, and the bruises fainter, but still present.

None the less, I tried again to get to my hooves, and while I grunted at the pain, it didn’t send stinging barbs to force me back to lying down. Standing up now, I took a moment to inspect the device a little more closely, the vial of red liquid was empty now, a bit disappointing, that could be useful later… But I was alive.

Staggering around, I took notice of where I had fallen… It was some kind of room, small, with a few old metal desks, there was some giant machine in the corner, but that was most likely something from one of the levels above that had fallen down here… There were holes in the floor down here too, luckily I hadn’t fallen into one of them. Peering down the holes, I noticed, much further down, there was a pool of glowing green liquid, possibly some kind of magical acid. “So that’s what caused all this…”

There were several boxy machines laying around, they were similar to the box-machine lying in the workshop, computers, I think they were called. Looking around, I saw what looked like a doorframe, however, the door was missing and in its place were thick-looking plates of metal. Turning to see where the other door should be, I saw that it was open… Back there, it was dark, very dark, nearly the same pitch black I found myself in yesterday.

But, it wasn’t pitch black, there was some light source back there, something green and dim… And moving, getting closer. My mind struggled to understand the situation, but I quickly lit my horn and started casting the cutting spell, slicing off a part of the desk. Even abandoning precision and elegance, the spell still was taking far too long then I would have liked, and once my horn lit up, the little green points were rapidly getting bigger and bigger.

Soon, I saw what those points really were as it got closer and closer to the light… Eyes, the eyes of a pony, swollen green spheres set into a face. It once had the head of a pony, now the head looked rotten, swollen, and lumpy… From the creature’s mouth dripped a thick, glowing, green sludge that simmered away when it touched the floor, and it only had an ear on one side of its face, where the other one should have been was a big lump that glowed a faint green within.

The pony moved on three legs, one was rotted away at the knee, leaving just a bony stump, as such its movements were slow. Its tail was devoid of hair, and Its back was dotted with big glowing lumps like its face, almost like its body was covered in alien acne, with acid rather than pus.

When the creature was about to enter the room, my spell broke a part of the metal desk away, a long thin rod with a spiked end… The creature stared at me with it’s blank, green, eyes, then suddenly lunged, throwing itself forward with more speed than I thought possible. In fear and desperation, I threw the metal pole between me and the attacker and managed to block its bite.

The mutant started chewing on the metal rod, and I felt my telekinesis strain to keep the rod still. Then, a few seconds later, as I was desperately looking around for something to help me, the rod I was holding snapped in half. The sudden and unintended change to the rod broke my telekinesis, and the creature lunged at me again, so I threw myself to the side. It rammed its head into the plated up door and spread the glowing acid across the doorframe, just as I managed to regain my hoofing. I ignited my horn again and searched for the two halves of the rod I had used, finding them right as the mutant turned to face me again. Launching one of the two makeshift knives as fast as my magic could thrust it, I jabbed the thing in the back, right in one of the glowing pustules.

The abomination let out a howl of pain and dodged to the side, opening its maw for me to see the glowing tunnel that was its oversized throat. I was ready to dodge again, and bearly managed to avoid a spray of enchanted acid that launched from the creature, melting away desk and floor.

I kept on running around the room, stopping when I found myself right behind a cavernous hole in the floor. The creature took its opportunity and opened its fanged mouth again. Thinking quickly, I raised my other metal spike and flung it right at the monster’s face. I missed the intended target, its open mouth, rather I hit it lower than I intended to and impaled its slightly elongated neck.

The creature tried to scream, but all that came out was bubbling, acidic, yellowy-green froth, as the creature writhed in agony. The mutant was now standing in a puddle of its own acid, and all I had to do was watch as it melted away the floor below it. It fell through, and I rushed up to the hole to see what had happened to it. It impacted the ground in the room below, still a good three-meter drop, and had ruptured a few of its acid sacks in the process, however, this floor was a bit more corrosion resistant then the last one had been… Perhaps the magic that kept the walls from rusting away was a little stronger down there.

Before the creature could escape, I raised my horn, and with all the telekinetic strength I could muster, I dragged over one of the desks in the room and dropped it down the acid hole… Down below was a rather satisfying impact that sent splatterings of green fluid in all directions.

“Soooo… You’re Boron Alloy?”

“Yes ma’am…”

Sulphuric Acid sat atop her sofa in her office aboard the Central Line. Across from her was a stallion, large, with a shiny dark grey coat and brownish mane. “Interesting… I should have expected a pony like you to be involved in a conspiracy.”

Boron tried to keep his neutral expression, but broke it to give a slight look of shock… Concern… Something, whatever that something was, it was hard to tell… Clearly a skilled liar, how long had this conspiracy against her Hub been going on? Who was leading it? Most likely Hydroxide, but he would face justice some other time, for now, all Sulphuric Acid cared about was finding out who this saboteur was.

“Conspiracy? I’m unaware of such a thing…”

“Conspiracy! It is clearly not some brain-dead mutant’s fault that the thaumic engine was destroyed…”

“Yes… That,” Boron looked a bit thoughtful and most definitely worried, “A pony by the name of Petrochemical, an engineer working for Clockwork and his mate, Cogwheel, was told to go inspect the thaumic engine, due to fluctuations in the engine’s efficiency… Presumably under orders from Hydroxide… When I arrived, following my orders from Mercury Vapour, I found the mare working on the generator, testing the output… Then, the mutant attacked. Many of the engine’s access hatches were open due to the mare’s inspection, we ran, the mutant must have been drawn to the engine’s thaumic signature, and without the access panels properly closed, the mutant must have done damage to the engine’s internals.”

Sulphuric Acid nodded… This was a lie, no pony would be stupid enough to open up a thaumic engine for inspection while the device was operational, at least not without thaumic dampeners, or a full T-Hazmat Suit. The question was, how much of what the stallion was saying was truth, and how much was lies.

She wanted to talk to Hydroxide, see if this mare was really following his orders or not… No, the buck was already suspicious of her as it was… Petrochemical, as likely as Boron was to be the saboteur, she couldn't leave anything to chance, she needed to figure out more about this mare. “That is all, just wanted to confirm the story myself… You are free to leave.” Boron gave a nod and politely headed out the door.

A moment later, a pair of Liquidators, ones she knew well, ones she knew were completely loyal, entered the room. Both were older stallions, unicorns. “You two, what do you know about a citizen by the name of Petrochemical.”

One stallion looked nervous, the other looked intrigued. “Well…” Said the first, “We were both there when the foal got her cutie mark, roughly ten years ago.”

I raised my horn, the glow of the cutting spell forming at my horn’s tip… It was a bit of a shame that the spell didn’t work on living tissue, or else it would have been useful, at the very least, in causing pain to the monster. Whatever the case, I couldn’t stay here, I was safe for now, but Celestia knew how many more of those abominations were down here.

The spell jumped like an arc of electricity from my horn to the metal plates barring the door, and in a few minutes, I had cut half a pony-sized hole. Soon I was through, on the other side was a very small hallway that led to a staircase, this staircase headed both up and down. Two floors above, the staircase was blocked, a large metal panel closed off the entire shaft as if someone had just magically moved a chunk of the ceiling into the stairwell.

I turned, pulled the chunk of metal I had cut from the door, and used it to block the doorway once again… It wasn’t perfect, but I think I did a good job at restoring the blocked doorway to the way it had once been. I repeated the processes on the plates blocking the stairs. I had fallen down seven or eight floors I discovered, as I soon found myself on a corridor that led to the thaumic engine room.

I opened the door and went to work finding the port in which to plug the cable. Suddenly there came the sound of a door opening and I immediately grabbed the nearest sharp object, a jagged piece of metal, and pointed it at the pony that came through the stairwell door… Truncheon could only rear up in shock as the jagged metal lodged itself in his armoured coat. Looking around for his attacker, he was again shocked to see a little yellow and black mare, with pinprick-pupils and a wild expression, holding up the cable as if it were a weapon.

“Petrochemical?”

“Truncheon?”

“Petrochemical!” Came the high-pitched voice of Palladium. She ran into the room, I tried to find another shard of metal, but the next thing I knew I was tackled in a hug.

“We thought you had died… What happened, report!?” Asked Truncheon.

“W-Well-” I said, struggling in the grip of Palladium, “I fell down about eight floors-”

“Into the Uninhabitable Zone!”

“I-I think so… There was this mutant pony that shot acid at me, I bearly managed to kill it.”

“You managed to kill a mutant?” Truncheon said, disbelievingly… He looked like he was going to try to argue with my claim’s legitimacy, but then his eyes settled on the chemical burns all over my barding, my numerous scratches and bruises, and the piece of metal he still had stuck in his coat. As he was saying this, Palladium finally let go and turned to inspect the engine.

Truncheon continued, “So… How did you survive the fall then, that should have broken your back?”

“Well,” I said, opening my bag telekinetically, “I found this device that healed me…” I pulled the healing tool from my bag, the little boxy device with a handle, a capsule stuck into a slot in the back, and a horn-like needle on the end.

Truncheon looked… Mad? Shocked? Confused? “Y-You aren’t supposed to have that! Where did you find that!”

“This?” I said, “I found it in a box next to where I fell… Without it, I probably would be dead now.”

Truncheon gave a grunt, suspiciously he said, “I’ll be taking that… Now.”

I nodded, “It’s useless now anyway, seems to have only a single shot.” Truncheon looked both relieved and disappointed. Eying the machine, he carefully used his hooves to inspect the device before putting it away in his bag. “What was it anyway?” I asked.

“Nothing you need to worry about… Just help us get this engine plugged in.”

I nodded, a bit confused as to why Truncheon seemed so protective of the device. I grabbed the cable and returned to the engine, finding the port, and slotting the cable in.

Author's Note

Not much to say regarding this chapter, it’s a bit shorter than I want it to be, but none the less. Next chapter will primarily be focused on the events going on regarding Sulphuric Acid, Hydroxide, and Boron.

A quick note about spells: Most of the spells the Hub ponies have access to are designed to not work against living creatures, after all, you don’t want to accidentally weld a pony’s blood vessels together, or cut off a limb… So there was no way Chem could use the cutting spell in combat, same with her petroleum-transformation spell, hence why the cockroach in the last chapter wasn’t transformed into kerogen or petrol.