Home of Amber Gem

Amber Gem had been sleeping relatively peacefully when suddenly there was a huge noice from outside, and some sort of pulse came through the air. Both of these factors were enough to jolt her out of bed, and she picked herself up off the floor and headed over to the window to try and see whatever it was had happened.

"I hope it's nothing bad," she said quietly to herself, moving slowly due to her eyes still adjusting to the light. "Or maybe I was just imagining the entire thing to myself."

She reached the curtains, and opened them. Her mouth opened in surprise when she saw a strange orange light, distinct as a laser beam, reaching high into the sky from what appeared to be the local power station (her home faced right towards it). She did a double take and rubbed her eyes to ensure she wasn't seeing things, but sure enough the light was still there. "This is all very strange," she said, and went for the telephone to report the situation.

A nearby hill

A group of unicorns just happened to be watching in that direction when the glow had appeared, and stood transfixed, watching the strange sight unfolding before them. Moments later, a milky white substance began to descend from the clouds above them.

"What's that, dad?" a small unicorn colt asked as he saw some of the blobs touch the ground.

"Oh, that's mayonnaise," the father said, unaware of how wrong he was.

Bridlewood Spectra Power Station, Control Room for Reactor IV

The control room briefly shook owing to a loud bang from nearby, and some of the tiles seemed to have been dislodged from the ceiling, based on how they were hanging at awkward angles. Sky Chaser glanced up at the monitors. "Looks like we have a temperature problem with the core," he said. "Lucky Light, get the water valves reopened, keep water moving."

Lucky Light pushed a button and only got loud beeping in response. "Pump controls at my end are offline," she said. "We'll need to activate the pumps manually in order to get water flow moving."

Sky Chaser nodded. "Did the rods move into position to stop the reaction?"

"Can't tell, moniting unit is not responding."

Sky Chaser glanced over to two new employees who had just arrived. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Scarlet Song and Straight Arrow, sir," the first said. "The control room officer for Reactor III sent us over when they heard the sirens."

"Right," Sky Chaser noted. "You two, we need to get water moving through the core. Your priority is to get the pumps up and running manually which will let us cool it down. Once you've done that, I need you to head via Reactor IV's turbine hall and ensure the rods are in the down position. Once you've done that, try and get in contact with Apple Specter."

As they left, he checked his dosimeter. "Hmm, 3.6 Starswirl. Not great, not terrible."

Tunnels within Bridlewood Spectra Power Station

Straight Arrow made his way down the tunnels as best he could. As Earth Ponies, they were uniquely suited to fitting down through these sorts of situations, and would fit through tunnels most others could not. He and his friend Scarlet Song were especially good at this, even if Sky Chaser usually wasn't the one they took orders from.

"What do you think happened down there?" he asked her, as sirens continued to blare the closer they got to the core.

"Probably another turbine trip requiring a restart," Scarlet Song replied, as they continued along. "He probably wants the water flow checked as a safety precaution, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

As they ended the corridor, they turned a bend towards the section of the building that housed the turbine hall and the reactor itself. On the way, they stopped as a door opened. "Didn't expect to see you guys down here," a unicorn said, emerging from a door and addressing them directly.

"We were sent over from Reactor III to see what was going on," Scarlet Song said. "I don't believe we've met before."

The unicorn decided to introduce herself. "Aqua Pie, Reactor Section Foreman. I wouldn't go that way just yet with all the sirens blaring. We need to open the water valves first before we head in to check the reactor."

"Did you hear anything?" Straight Arrow asked.

"There was a loud explosion from the turbine hall. I tried to raise Apple Specter on her radio but didn't get a response. She may be out of radio range or something is jamming the signals."

"Which way to the water pumps?" Scarlet Song asked.

"Down this corridor," Aqua Pie said. "Follow me. I don't think we'll need gas masks down here, the dosimeter's only giving a reading of 3.6 which isn't too bad."

As they made their way down the corridor, the world around them seemed to be warping in strange ways. There was an odd taste in the air, and not only that there was evidence of flooding and ruptured pipes. Whatever had happened seemed to be a lot more serious than just a stalled reactor.

At long last, they entered the pump room to find the panels offline and badly damaged. The connecting controls from the control room were also on the floor, which was why they had been unable to operate them from the control room.

"We need to turn each of these valves by hoof to get the water flow moving," Aqua Pie said. "Mind the flooding on the floor as it can get a bit wet down here."

One by one, the ponies began to turn the heavy valves round and round, the slow rushing sound confirming that water was indeed moving through the pipes. At long last, the pipes were fully open, and water was rushing into its destination.

"That's that task handled," Aqua Pie said. "Anything else you two were ordered to do?"

"They also wanted us to check on the reactor and turbine hall," Scarlet Song said.

"That may be a problem," Aqua Pie said. "Whatever that explosion was caused much of the ceiling of the turbine hall to cave in based on the CCTV feed. However, you guys might be in luck. There's an alternate path into the turbine hall that uses the upper walkway that runs right over the reactor. I can get you in there, and then you can report back. Follow me."

They followed her up a narrow walkway into the beating heart of the facility. The damage to the facility was growing ever worse the further they progressed in, only emphasised by the blaring sirens all across the facility. Rubble was strewn everywhere. Even this corridor was choked with rubble that had fallen out of the ceiling and landed on the ground. They pushed onwards into the site, with the cacophany around them a constant theme. But after much walking, they had finally found luck.

Aqua Pie looked at a map of the facility on the wall, and checked towards another section of corridor. "Ah, not far now. We take a left just up ahead and proceed into the room over here, which will get us access."

They headed off into the new area, suddenly sensing something strange. "Can you taste something?" Straight Arrow asked.

"Such as?" Scarlet Song replied.

"I'm not quite sure how to describe it. It tastes like... metal in the air. I'm pretty certain that's not supposed to happen."

"Come on, let's keep moving," Aqua Pie said, and they went onwards and closer towards the core. The lights in a corridor up ahead had failed, forcing them to proceed using a torch to see where they were going. The dinginess only grew worse, with some form of strange white substance in the air that had leaked in somehow. The interior of this corridor was not supposed to look like this, so something was very wrong.

Not only that, but Straight Arrow was starting to feel... off. Not quite sure how, as he had been feeling fine for a while before this point. He continued onwards, concluding he was just seeing things that weren't there.

Up ahead they found their target. In front of them, beneath collapsed tiles, was a large door. All three ponies rushed forward and rotated the door mechanism to try and open it, but it took some effort.

When they finally got it open, there was a vision of hell on the other side. Smoke and flames billowed upwards into the air, dancing on trails of flames and fire. The heat was incredible, and the room was an absolute mess, covered in rubble.

But what shocked them most was a mangled pile of rubble below. Near their position was a massive pile of metal, and a massive metal object lying on its side with mangled pipes coming out of it.

Scarlet Song looked horrified. "What have they done?"

Author's Note

Glossary of Terms

Dosimeter-Device used to measure radiation readings.
Starswirl-A unit of measurement used to describe the amount of spectra radiation in the air.