Chapter 4: ...Is Not Always Meant to Be.

Hydroxide sat alone in his office, drinking his daily ration of rice-wine, something only Liquidators have the privilege of, even the Minister didn’t get any… An oddity, as usually the Minister had even more rights than the Liquidators.

There came a knock at the door, peculiar, as usually, ponies came barging in with requests or concerns, all of which usually came to mean nothing... Already the day was full of oddities, and why did the stallion get the feeling that they were only going to get worse. “Come in.”

In came another stallion, another Earth Pony, and a good friend of his. “Boron, this is a surprise… What brings you to the Central Line?”

“Sulphuric Acid… She called me into her office not much more than an hour ago and interrogated me… She believed that I was part of some conspiracy against the Hub, and right after telling her my story regarding the events that led to the blackout, she seemed totally placated…”

Before Boron could continue, Hydroxide said, “Yes, she’s been a bit crazier than normal… And it’s been more than just her normal mood swings and tantrums…” As he said this, he poured half his remaining wine into a tin cup he had drawn from a locker and slid the drink to Boron.

Boron nodded as he took a sip, “What’s worse, I don’t really think she believed my story… In fact, I’d bet my cutie mark that she didn’t.”

“I’ve never trusted that mare,” Hydroxide said, in a grimmer tone than normal… He questioned the Minister’s judgment when she was appointed secretary… Hydroxide wasn’t an idiot, he knew he was smarter than a good deal of the citizenry, most simply accepted that the Princesses made the city as a test for ponykind to face, and one day complete… But Hydroxide didn’t buy into that ideology, there were too many holes in the logic, and he knew that survival inside the Hub wasn’t possible forever… He had pushed the Minister to expand, to send out the Liquidators to reclaim and repair parts of the City that were currently in the Uninhabitable Zone, to expand the Hub, and divine some of the secrets of the city… Such as where the fresh water in the Well comes from, or where the waste went once it was dumped into the Pit.

Sulphuric Acid, on the other hoof, believed that the real threat were the things that existed outside the Hub, such as the mutants, the machines, and the crystal… She wanted to close the Hub’s gates, and, through faith and prayer, ponykind would somehow survive…

“Unfortunately, if she is planning anything, there’s little I can do, she may only be the Minister’s Secretary, not the Minister himself, but that means she still has command over me, and I have no way of talking to the Minister without going through her… The Law of Command is clear on that.”

Boron chewed his lip in thought. “I’m aware how critical the law is to our survival, but if she does anything to endanger the lives of my fellow ponies, tell me.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know.”

The airlock’s cycle was just as loud and painful as it was when leaving. The door screeched as Palladium and I trotted back into the Hub, Truncheon had taken the rest of the cable and was now finding the transformer, whatever a transformer is… I was just relieved to not have to carry the cable anymore.

“Photon?” I said. In front of me, in the airlock, with his metal sheets, was the same little stallion as before.

“Yeah… Since the other record center ponies have other things they need to do, I got stuck with gatekeeper again… Ok, Petrochem, yellow coat, black mane-”

Photon continued marking down information, I didn’t really understand why, but I suppose that was the reason I wasn’t working in the Record Center… That and the fact that I didn’t know how to read or write. Once he had finished with my information and turned to Palladium, the tall mare bolted forward and wrapped the little buck in a hug.

“P-Palladium!” He said, blushing, “I-I have a job to do-” After a few seconds the mare did let go, but not before planting a kiss on Photon’s cheek, much to the embarrassment of the stallion. Once he had finished recording his information, he trotted over to the gate and hit the switch again.

The Hub was as it always was, quiet and still, yet cramped at the same time… Massive, yet feeling so very small. Palladium was quick to go her separate way, and so I trotted off back to the workshop. There weren’t many ponies out right now, it was rather late, but I still had an hour or two before the lights were shut off and ponies went to sleep.

The workshop was rather quiet, and the curtains, sheets of metal attached to hinges that swung down, were closed. Approaching the door I gave it a sharp knock. “One moment,” Said a voice, sounding older and more refined than Cogwheel, not to mention unquestionably male. A moment later, standing in the doorway, was a stallion… Not quite as big or tall as Boron or Truncheon, in fact he was a little skinny, not quite to the same extent as Photon, but was certainly tall and a little frail-looking. His coat was the colour of rust and his mane a shiny grey, face adorned with reading glasses that made him look almost like a male version of Cogwheel.

“Good evening, Clockwork,” I said.

Clockwork stared at me, “Well, you should come inside, there’s still a good two hours left in the day, and I have a few motors I need to scrap for parts… I should also get that old pump repaired for Electrolyte.”

“Where’s Cogwheel, she was in here this morning.”

“One of the chemical engines used by the Liquidators apparently broke down, and she got called up... “

I nodded, “So, what do you need?”

“I could use a hoof in getting these burned-out motors scrapped… You think you can get a few screwdrivers from the cabinet over there?”

I nodded again, “ We should probably try to salvage as much of the copper wire as we can, I’ll also grab the wire cutters.” I flung open the tools cabinet, and retrieved eight screwdrivers, one of each type for the two of us, and a pair of wire cutters. Passing half the tools to Clockwork, he set to work on one of the motors, unscrewing it and going to work pulling it apart. I gathered the other motor and did the same. Within only half an hour we had completely scrapped the motors and Clockwork had turned his attention to repairing some device, I didn’t know exactly what it was, but I didn’t care all too much.

Being left with nothing to do was normally ungodly boring, but for once I enjoyed it, a relief from the events of the past two days. I gathered my things from a private shelf I had marked, here I stored the little bits and pieces I tinkered with when there was nothing else to do. A few loops of copper wire, some bits of steel, boxes of screws, bolts, and nuts, even a trio of perfectly cut quartz crystals, one was a cube, one a dodecahedron, and one a triangular, four-sided, pyramid.

I gathered the pyramid crystal and started weaving my magic through it, closing my eyes as I felt my way through the residual magic crystals tended to soak up. In a few minutes, I had inscribed the crystal with the appropriate spell-matrix, the cutting spell, and began mounting the crystal to a makeshift metal frame. My recent experiences reminded me how useful the cutting spell could be, and seeing the medical device that had saved my life gave me a good deal of inspiration… I next retrieved a bundle of wire, not the copper wire, that was for electricity, and I didn’t have any thaumaelectric converters on hoof, so I needed to use something magically conductive, not electrically conductive, it was more efficient anyway, not as much energy lost in the conversion.

The bundle of wires was made from a silvery-green metal, mythril… It wasn’t the best material for the job, it was like trying to make an electric cable from iron, alchemical silver was much better, but I didn’t have any, so this would have to do. Part of me started getting aroused at the thought of having a bundle of crystal-fibre cable.

I mounted the dodecahedron crystal to the bottom to act as a magical battery, again a bit disappointed that I didn’t have a thaumaelectric converter, that way it could be recharged from any outlet, but my horn was good enough for now. I didn’t work with magical devices all too often, usually, that was my master’s job, but Cogwheel had once shown me how to work with quartz and how to make magical storage devices, thus the battery was easy enough to prepare.

I’d have to finish the cutting device tomorrow. All the crystals and wiring were in place, and I had finished welding the activation button on to the frame when Clockwork set the machine he was working on away and started closing down the workshop. I set off back toward my house, not wanting to be caught outside when the lights shut off… That was a very good way of getting lost, even with light spells.

I was lying in bed when I heard a knock at the door… My parents were still working, making up for lost time in hydroponics and life-support… At first, I assumed the knock to simply be them returning, but then came another knock, louder and more aggressive. I huffed and pulled myself out of bed, wondering who would be knocking at this hour.

When I arrived at the door, I peered out through the porthole, surprised to see… Something… It looked vaguely like a pony’s face, it was black and had little glass circles for eyes, where it’s mouth would be was a disk with various openings. I was taken aback, when I remembered a rumour about some of the more elite liquidators having some kind of mask that helps them breathe in toxic environments… Upon a closer look, I could bearly see the eyes of a pony behind that mask.

Confused as to why an elite Liquidator would be knocking at my door, I pulled it open and asked the first thing that came to mind, “Is something wrong, is it the thaumic engine again?”

I was even more surprised to see two other liquidators flanking the leader, both had simple cloth masks in place of the thing the leader was wearing, much like what Truncheon had. The leader, a big and strong mare that would out-buff any normal stallion, barged in and drew her knife… I stood there, stunned.

“Petrochemical, under orders from Minister Crystal Resonance, I am placing you under arrest for the destruction of valuable Hub property.”

Author's Note

I'm aware that I said this chapter was going to be a long one, but I found a good place to end it, and I wanted to get something out sooner rather than later, so I guess next chapter is going to be the long one... Sorry for how short this chapter is.