Metropolis

Metropolis

by Kirb Hysteria

Chapter Three

The Explosion

A train pulled into Metropolis Station in the early hours of the day. As soon as it slowed to a stop, the doors opened, allowing six all-too-familiar ponies to exit with the other passengers. Twilight Sparkle, along with her five other friends and dragon assistant Spike, looked around as they walked through the train station.

"So, Twilight," asked Spike, who rode on Twilight's back, "why are we here again?"

"Well, Spike--" Twilight began to reply, but was cut off by Pinkie Pie.

"Don't you remember, silly? We came here to throw a super-gigantic party for all the ponies around and they'll just love it!"

"Uh, Ah don't think that's why we're here, sugercube," said Applejack in her typical southern accent.

"Correct you are, Applejack," said Twilight. "We have come here by order of Princess Celestia herself to try to talk Windsor, the master of Metropolis, into giving the workers below the town better wages."

"Oh, but surely we could do some sightseeing while we're at it, right darling?" asked Rarity.

"Suit yourself," said Rainbow Dash, flying past the rest of the group. "I still think that no city can match the pure awesomeness of my hometown, Cloudsdale! Why, all other cities are the same: smog, street gangsters, ridiculously oversized buildings--" She stopped and looked directly in front of her. Her jaw dropped to the ground and all the rest of her friends looked to see what caught her attention.

There, standing out in front of them, was the city Metropolis. Its tall buildings seemed to go up for miles, the sun reflecting off the mirrored windows of each tower to give a first impression of the town that nobody would soon forget.

After a short period of time spent staring in awe, a huge smile grew on Rainbow Dash's face, and she completely contradicted what she had previously said with an exclamation of "So... awesome..."

All the other ponies laughed. Pinkie then voiced her reaction in a hyperactive tone.

"Isn't this exciting?! Are you excited because I'm excited I've never been so excited! Well, except for the time when--"

Applejack promptly put a hoof in Pinkie's mouth. "Can it, sugarcube."

"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!" Rainbow Dash stuttered in almost as hyperactive a voice as Pinkie had been speaking. "This is a great place to practice my awesome flying moves! Not sure where I would do my Sonic Rainboom, though. I might break some windows, but it'll be so worth it!"

"Oh my," said Fluttershy. "This city sure is... big... and a little frightening..."

"Well, we have no time to lose!" said Twilight. "We have to get going to Metropolis Tower! But the question is, which way do we go?"

"Uh, Twilight?" said Spike, pointing his claw to the left of them. "Do you think that might be it?"

Everybody turned their heads to the left. Standing before them was the tallest building in the entire city, the capitol building known as Metropolis Tower. There were ornate decorations fanning out from all sides of the building like wings. The top of the building was barely visible due to the fog, but you could still make out an antenna with a light pulsing from it.

Twilight and her friends were in awe. "Wow..."

"Well, we have no time to lose!" said Twilight. "Is everypony ready?"

"Yeah!" everybody cheered.

"Alright!" said Twilight. "To Metropolis Tower!"

As they were all leaving, Fluttershy was left behind, shivering. "So... big..."

...

Wenzel ran out the front door of the Club and stopped in the sidewalk. He looked around, but he could no longer find the mysterious filly nor the children she had brought to the Club so shortly just earlier. He had to find her, and his only thought was that he would have to descend to the Machine Layer, the underground, in order to do so.

As he pondered how to get down to the Machine Layer, he bumped into somebody else and fell over.

"Oh my gosh!" said the voice in front of him. "I'm so so sorry!"

Wenzel looked in front of him and saw that the pony he had bumped into was indeed Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia. Her dragon assistant Spike rode on her back, and her five other friends were behind her.

"It's okay," Wenzel grunted, getting up off his back. "No harm done."

He was about to leave to keep looking for the entrance to the Machine Layer, but suddenly a thought dawned on him. He turned back to Twilight and her friends. "Excuse me, do you know how to get to the Machine Layer?"

"Why, yes!" answered Twilight. "I just studied this. There are usually stairs that lead to it--they lead from a structure that looks a little like a phone booth--often they're found on street corners. Aha!" Twilight lifted a hoof and pointed to the street corner on the right. "There's one over there!"

Wenzel turned his head and saw, indeed, that there was a structure that looked a little like a phone booth on the street corner. The words on the top of it read, "To Machine Layer." "Thanks!" said Wenzel, running off towards the building.

"No problem!" Twilight replied. Then she continued along with her friends towards Metropolis Tower.

...

That was weird, Wenzel thought to himself as he walked down the stairs to the machine layer. I recognize that unicorn and her friends as the Elements of Harmony--I've read about them in the news--but they were heading towards Metropolis Tower. Wonder why.

He had no more time to ponder that as he came to a door. Upon opening it with his magic, a huge rush of wind flew at his face. He backed away for a second, but then slowly opened the door the rest of the way and entered.

The unicorn colt walked through the room, his eyes peeled open the entire time, in search for the mysterious filly whom he had seen earlier. All he saw wherever he looked, however, were workers painstakingly working their machines to keep the surface from losing power.

As he rounded a corner, he looked up and saw a gigantic machine. He recognized this machine from his dad's sketches as the CPC, or Central Power Core. He saw around 100 workers working each part of the machine--pegasi, earth ponies and unicorns, male and female. Wow, he thought, I always knew the workers had tough jobs, but I never knew they were this tough.

As he looked around the CPC, Wenzel spied a pony who was working one of the posts at the machine. He was flipping switches frantically, while constantly looking at the machine pressure to make sure it wouldn't go too high, for he knew that if the pressure went too high, the machine would go into overdrive and would probably explode. Unfortunately, he was doing so much that he became too exhausted to keep moving on and passed out on the ground.

Wenzel looked around and yelled out, "Hey! Who's in charge here?" Nobody responded to him.

He ran up to one of the workers. "Do you know who's in charge around here? We got a man down at the CPC!" The worker was too busy working his machine to respond.

Frantically, Wenzel ran back to the machine and saw that the pressure was going too high and was about to pass over the pressure build up was safe. He ran to the machine to see if he could stop it, but it was too late. With a deafening "Boom!" the machine burst into flames.

Wenzel backed away in terror as he saw workers catching on fire and the machine continuing to burn. More workers dashed in to try to extinguish the fire and get the power level back down. Still more workers hopelessly ran out from the machine in an attempt to save themselves from what would become certain death, ripping off their burning worker's uniforms so they wouldn't catch fire themselves. Wenzel almost became sick to his stomach as he witnessed the horrific sight of the burning machine and of many different unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies throwing themselves from the machine to their deaths.

When Wenzel looked back, the machine was... different, somehow. It had a distinct red glow, and the blaze seemed to have been extinguished--except for a large pit of roaring fire at the top of it. He saw the workers slowly trudging up a long set of stairs towards the pit. Approaching it, they would throw themselves into the flaring tentacles of heat and to their deaths. Wenzel shut his eyes. He couldn't bear to look anymore. The sight was just too gruesome, and he just wanted it to stop.

When he opened his eyes again, the CPC was back to normal, and he realized it had been a halucination. The fire had been extinguished, and a new set of workers had moved in to take the places of the workers present during the explosion. He looked down and saw that several medical ponies were carrying the injured workers to an ambulance. He knew he still hadn't found who he had been looking for, but he didn't care. He had to let his father know about this.

He ran out the door and up the stairs until he was back on the surface. He then ran to where he had left earlier, right in front of the Club. He signaled with his hoof and a taxi pulled over at the side of the road. As he got in, the driver asked him, "Where to?"

Wenzel handed the driver ten bits and commanded, "To Metropolis Tower-- to my father!"

...

Author's note: During a short trip down to the Machine Layer, Wenzel witnesses a terrifying explosion and has a hallucination. Also, enter Twilight Sparkle and the mane six.

Please note that this fanfiction is based loosely on Fritz Lang's 1927 German sci-fi film of the same name.

Also, special thanks to The Dagwood Brony (Daegan Hamilton) for revising this before I submitted it.