Cloudsdale was empty when the three of them landed. The town of clouds wasn't the biggest city in the sky, other pegasi should've been easier to spot. The streets and buildings were as empty of ponies as Ponyville.
"Something's not right here. Where is everypony?" the pegasi who carried her asked.
"Maybe they're all at the powerplant. Let's head over there now." the other pegasi suggested. Twilight nodded. The three of them trotted quickly through the streets of clouds. The city was uncomfortably silent and remained silent as they reached the powerplant near the center of town. Unlike the other structurs in town, the powerplant was actually inside the couds that supported Cloudsdale. The entrance was a slope to a set of smoothed doors that lead underneath the clouds. The doors opened as the three approached but no one came out.
"There should be somepony here. I don't like the look of this.", one pegasi said.
"Hello? Is anypony there? Spitfire? Soarin? Cloudchaser, anypony?", the other called out. Nopony answered. The high altitude sound of wind whipping around them was the only thing that broke the silence. They walked down the slope to the entrance. Behind the doors, the hallways were pitchblack. The clouds felt considerably colder as Twilight approached the entrance.
The first pegasi peered inside. "Why aren't the lights on?"
"Our priority's the Tri-Tesla Reactor. Twilight, do you think you could give us some light?" the other asked.
Twilight lit her horn and took the lead. "Let's stick together, stay close and we'll get to the bottom of this." she said as her horn illuminated the space beyond. As she stepped through the doors, they slammed shut behind her, cutting her off from the pegasi. A trap! She turned around as her heart started racing.
"What just happened? Hello?" she called out to the pegasi in panic, pounding her hooves on the door.
"The security system just activated! The plant's gone into lockdown!" one of the pegasi said from behind the door.
"Twilight, there's no way through these doors and we can't open them!" the other shouted.
"You mean I'm trapped?!" Twilight turned around and pressed her back to the door. She shined her horn ahead of her to fight at the darkness around her. Her breathing became rapid.
"If you can get to the reactor you can end the lockdown! Silverline and I will try to get to the back entrance, just get to the reactor as soon as you can! That's our first objective!" the first pegasi said.
"This place is huge! How do I find the reactor? What if I get lost?!" she asked, her voice shaking. Twilight's head darted from shadow to shadow ahead of her. The staircase leading downward ahead of her looked like a hungry dark maw ready to swallow her whole as she pressed against the door.
"Do you see a set of three grey tubes on the wall to the right?", the first pegasi asked, his voice calm.
Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head. She focused on what the pegasi said, fighting to get through her fear. She looked to the right as she trembled and made out three grey tubes, one thick in the middle and two thin on the outside. "Ye-ye-yesss...", Twilight whispered in the darkness.
"Those are the primary power conduits. They lead right to the core. Follow them and they should get you straight to the reactor. Talk to Vinyl and Octavia, they'll get you through this." the other pegasi said.
"Skimmer and I will try to find the emergency maintainence entrance underneath. You can do this Twilight." Silverline encouraged her.
"O... okay." Twilight replied, slowly removing her back from the wall and getting on all fours. "You two be careful too okay?"
"We'll see you on the other side Twilight." Skimmer said as they both left. Twilight gritted her teeth and put more power in the illumination spell she'd cast, causing her horn to produce a little more light. It was a simple spell and didn't require much effort or magic but she still wouldn't be able to keep it up forever. She walked down the stairwell and into the darkness.
The top of Cloudsdale was filled with puffy and artfully designed buildings, most of them supported by intricate coloumns crafted from the finest clouds in the sky. Underneath, the clouds turned grey and were smoothed to an efficient standard of conformity as Twilight traveled deeper into the plant. It would've been easy to get lost in there, she followed the tubes on the wall that the pegasi had pointed out. Lamps hung from the cieling but the only lights in the plant were those of the occasional wall terminal and Twilight's own horn. She called out into the darkness on occasion only to have echoes of her own voice as the reply. She continued on.
She reached a crossways in her path, three ways ahead of her. The tubes continued on the right wall and so she took the right path further downward. Twilight decided to give Vinyl and Octavia another update.
"Vinyl? Octavia? You there?" she asked into her communicator.
"We're here Twilight. Did you find Spitfire?" Octavia asked.
"No, Cloudsdale's empty. I'm in the powerplant now but it went into lockdown. I was with Silverline and Skimmer but we got seperated when I entered the plant; it went into some kind of lockdown." Twilight explained. Her hoof stepped in something cold and wet as she walked. Twilight looked down at her hoof as her heart raced again. Only water. She let out a heavy sigh and continued on.
"That doesn't sound good. It could be a trap Twilight. Be on your gaurd." Octavia cautioned.
"It's pitch dark in here and I can barely see two feet in front of me! How am I supposed to keep my gaurd up?" Twilight questioned the advice.
"The darkness can be your ally Twilight. You can't see them but they can't see you either. Use it to your advantage, rely on your other senses, your ears, your nose, the taste of the air, the feel of the surfaces around you. Your eyes can decieve you, don't trust them." Vinyl said.
Twilight had to agree; sight wasn't getting her any where. But the powerplant was completely silent as Twilight continued to the reactor. Twilight turned another corner and stepped into another puddle on the floor. She decided to ignore this one. Finally, the tubes led to a door. As Twilight's horn illuminated the doorway, she noticed a pony standing beside it facing the terminal on the wall.
"Oh thank goodness. Hey, what's going on here? Where's Spitfire and the others?" Twilight asked the orange pony ahead of her. He said nothing, didn't turn to face her. He was wearing a white lab coat and seemed completely absorbed in the terminal he was facing.
"Hey, are you okay?" Twilight said as she approached. She placed a hoof on his side and he slid to the floor with a dull thud. The pegasi's neck had a gaping hole in it that leaked blood. The corpse had been propped up by the termial. Twilight screamed and caught sight of her hooves covered in blood.