Steampunk: The start of a new age

by Philosopher Brony

Chapter 5: A mysterious murder

Author's Note:

If you are reading this for a youtube video (or anything online in general), please help a fellow Youtuber out by giving my channel a shout out. After all, I did write this story.

My channel is: 1gamer13.

I'm sorry, this seems like a low move on my part.

Flam, co-owner of FF Industries was murdered! That line was plastered all over the front page that twilight was reading early in the morning. The article described how the stallion was murdered overnight. The body was found near the outside of the FF Industry factory wall. His throat was slit with multiple bruises all over the body ranging in severity. Patches of his fur was gone, mainly around the mouth. The areas where his skin was visible were light green. It is suspected to be an act of murder, and the primary suspect is Flim. The trial will be held latter today, but the factory workers will continue their work. There was an picture of the corpse under the article which showed as plain as day that there was intense amounts of fear in Flam's eyes. The fear that was shown in Flam was shifted into Twilight as she studied the picture. She needed to know what had happened to him, so she headed out to investigate.

Once at the scene, Twilight could tell that it clearly looked like a murder. Blood was all over the ground with strange looking plants near the body. Flam was still in the same position as he was in the picture, but something changed. Vines were coming out of his mouth and leading into the forest. His eyes were now completely green with a touch of brown. There also seemed to be lumps under his skin that were mainly around the joints. Also the slit in Flam's throat was now occupied by more vines. Twilight had two thoughts in her head about what was in front of her. One: What was that weird plant that seemed to be crawling its way into the corps. Two: Why was Flam killed, and why here. Twilight stood there pondering about the thoughts, but her trance was broken when she heard something move. The purple unicorn looked back down at the corps to discover that it was gone. Before she could react to this, she was attacked from behind. The attacker threw itself at Twilight causing the two to crash to the ground. Luckily, Twilight was able to get the attacker off of herby the use of a self defense spell. She rose to her hooves to discover the the attacker was Flam. The corps got to his hooves and starred down the mare. Twilight quickly casted a shield spell on herself before Flam attacked again. The body slammed against the shield causing it to break. Then, the vines in Flam's neck lashed out and rapped themselves around Twilight. They acted like a snake and began to squeeze her as Flam approached. Twilight blasted a ray of energy at the vines, but it only made Flam growl in anger. The vines wrapped around her throat causing her to suffocate. In a final attempt for life, Twilight casted a flam spell at the vine. Flam screeched loudly as the vine loosened their grip. The vines whipped through the air uncontrollably trying to make the fire stop. Twilight lost consciousness, but not before seeing Flam run into the forest screaming like an animal.

Applejack was hard at work in the factory. Her work consisted of bucking apple trees and injecting syringes full of chemicals into the same trees. As she worked, there was a faint growling sound down a nearby hallway. AJ noticed the sound and halted her work to study it further. There was also the sound of two ponies walking down the same hall. Curiosity got the better so she decided to investigate.

The two ponies were in hazmat suits wheeling a stretcher with something on top of it down the hallway. AJ kept her distance in order to stay out of their range of detection. On closer inspection, the thing on top of the stretcher was a Timber-wolf that was struggling to get free. She continued to follow them until they went into strange room. Applejack stayed on the other side of the door, but opened it just slightly so that she could see inside.

The room resemble a a hospital in both style and all the equipment. Except for the test tubes filled with chemicals, locked containers, and some weird plants that resided in the back of the room. One of the them was jabbing tubes and medals into the Timber-wolf while the other locked the wolf's mouth in an open position. After they were finished, the wolf tried to thrash around, but the drugs being pumped into it stopped any possibility of that. The pony that was working on it's mouth went to the back of the room to retrieve one of the plants; whereas, the other went into a separate room and came back with a large block of ice. The ice block had some sort of red object inside of it.

Before they continued, the pony with the block of ice said in a sad tone: "I can't believe we're doing this."

The other respond by asking: "What do you mean?"

"I mean that this is a crime against nature!"

"Don't be so ridiculous! We were assigned to do this because we are the brightest minds in Ponyville, other than Flim."

"I don't know, this still feels really wrong. Have you ever thought twice about what we are doing, and what about Flam. There must have been a resin why he wanted us to stop this!"

"Flam was weak, He didm't realize that this is true progress in making a better Equestria! In fact, a better WORLD!"

"Is this really what it takes? We would be sentenced to imprisonment in Tartarus if Celestia ever found out about what we have done down here!"

"Then Celestia doesn't know what is good for her subjects! But, what we are doing down here are the first steps in creating a perfect world once the weak are gone! And we get to be the pioneers for such a society! Our names will be marked down in history!"

"You're right! I can't believe we were given such a grand task now that I look at it that way. Let's do this."

"Great!" They continued with renewed enthusiasm for what they were doing. The plant was placed near the ice block to preform the next step. The plant looked like a small cabbage but with sharp tendrils sticking out of it's sides. All of a sudden, the tendrils shot towards the ice, and they dug into the red object in the center. After some time, the tendrils retracted with a smaller pinkish blob within it's grasp. What happened next could only be described as the small cabbage like plant eating the pinkish blob. Next, the plant was picked back up and placed overtop the Timber-wolf. The tendrils eventually lacked to the inside of the wolf's mouth. The plant uprooted itself, then shoved it's way inside of the wolf.There was a lot of thrashing and whimpering from the Timber-wolf during the whole event. Eventually, thrashing stopped after one final quick yelp for help from the wolf. The ponies unstrapped it and stood far back. The Timber-wolf sluggishly rolled off of the stretcher, and stood up. Strangely enough, it looked like it was a baby trying to figure out how it's limbs worked.

One of the ponies stepped forward while saying: "Subject TWBM-EP, respond." The wolf let out a forced bark. "Take two steps forward." It did as it was told. Now that the Timber-wolf was closer, Applejack saw that it's eyes eyes had turned red. But before she could get a better look, AJ was smacked on the side of the head from behind making her pass out on the cold floor.

Twilight woke up to the sound of a wolf's howl. She looked around as she got up to make sure it wan't close. After dusting herself off, she decided to go home to look up what had happened to Flam.

She only made it a short distance from the factory where she was approached by a pegasus wearing a Cloudsdale mail carrier uniform.

He started off by asking: "Are you Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yes."

"And do you know Mis. Rainbow Dash?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"I was assigned to give her this special letter." He held up a scroll. "I couldn't find her, so I was wondering if you know where she is. It is very important that she gets this letter."

"It would be easier if I was to take it to her for you."

"NO! I must deliver it strait to her! If you know where she is right now, could you lead the way?"

Twilight hesitated, but said: "Sure, she should be at Sugar Cube Corner. Its this way." Twilight lead the pegasus to the sweet shop while trying to get more information out of him. It was useless, but she did manage to put up with him until they arrived at the destination. Rainbow Dash was at a table eating a cupcake, but she stopped when the messenger rushed towards her.

He said to Rainbow: "Mis. Rainbow Dash of Cloudsdale, I have come to deliver a letter of high importance," He gave her the scroll. "And you are to respond to it as soon as possible. Now, I must return to Cloudsdale to inform them that you have received the letter." He flew out of the front door and up into the sky towards the floating city. Rainbow opened the scroll and started to read it.

Twilight walked over to Rainbow to ask: "What does it say?"

"It says that they want me to talk to the mayor of Cloudsdale about something important."

"Any idea of what that important something is?"

"No idea, but it says the sooner the better. It sounded serious, especially since the mayor is involved."

"Maybe you should go see what they want."

"Ya, plus, the mayor of Cloudsdale normally only talks to ponies if it is really important. See you around Twilight." Rainbow dash flew out of the bakery in the same direction as the mail carrier.

It only took RD a few seconds to get to Cloudsdale, but it was very different than the last time she was here. There were now Zeppelins hovering over the city doing patrols, and groups of soldiers flying around. The walls of public buildings often had posters on them saying a verity of sayings. She stopped to study one of the posters that caught her attention. It had a cloud and sky combo background with multiple soldiers lined up with one empty spot. Under the picture read: 'APPLY TODAY TO HELP PRESERVE THE MOTHERLAND!' As Rainbow flew through the city, she continued to see more and more of those posters and soldiers the closer she got to the center.

After some time of flying around the city, she made it to the town hall. Guards were stationed outside the front door. Once they saw Rainbow Dash, they parted and let her inside to see the mayor.

Rainbow entered his office to be greeted by colt with a deep red coat, a black mane, and brown eyes. He was wearing a business suit while looking out of a window at his city.

He began the conversation in a rough voice: "Mis. Rainbow Dash, it was so nice of you to respond so quickly to my request, but the again you are known for your speed."

"You wanted to talk to me about something?" Rainbow felt uncomfortable in his presence for some strange resin.

"You are correct, and that letter wasn't able to describe how importance this is. Do you remember back during that Heats Warming Eve play that you were in?"

"Yes, I was playing as Commander Hurricane."

"That is right. Did you know that she is my ancestor?"

"No." RD was felling even more uncomfortable now. Why was he asking this question, she thought to herself.

"Well, you looked like you belonged in that uniform. Not only that, you also have that certain tough of a great general as well. As well as the best fly I have ever seen., but that was obvious to everypony after the Best Young Flyers contest when you did that Sonic Rainboom."

"Thank... You. I also want to know something else."

"Ask away Mis. Rainbow dash."

"What is with all the soldiers, airships, and weird posters?"

"You noticed them. Well, it would have been very hard not to notice any of that. But, there is a resin for all of this."

"What is it?"

"It is actually what I wanted to talk to you about... There rises a great threat to us Mis. Rainbow Dash, and it is one that has been waiting to pounce on us since the founding of Equestria what the four tribes became one."

"What is the threat?"

"They have been under us for years, and dictating our actions for just as long. And lately, they have become even more powerful than before. So we have been preparing to take the fight to them before they are unstoppable, but the soldiers need a proper general to be a successful army and I have chosen you. You know the enemy skies better than any other pegasus, and you know inside information about them. Will you accept, and become our greatest general?"

"Thank you for this honor, but could I at least know who the enemies are?"

"Of course, just look at the poster bend you, and it should become clear who the menace is." RD turned around to look at whatever he was talking about. On the wall above the door hung a very strange poster. It featured pegasus soldiers in gold armor fighting off monsters. The monsters were earth ponies and unicorns with sharpened teeth, bloody coats, and demonic horns. Below the horrible image said: TOGETHER WE SHALL KILL THE ENEMY! IT IS TIME FOR PEGASOPILUS TO RISE ONCE AGAIN!

Rainbow Dash turned around quickly ash she yelled: "I WOULD NEVER HELP YO-" she cut herself off when she saw the mayor only inches away from her.

She then felt his hoof smack the side of her head, and then falling into darkness as she heard him say: "You are going to agree one way or another Mis. Rainbow Dash."

Comments

[Dante1120]

OH SHIT

[Philosopher Brony]

3954784 I know!

[Philosopher Brony]

3952385 But again, no promises.

[Dante1120]

3956481 and btw can he be a good guy?

[Philosopher Brony]

3961395 That what I had in mind.

[Dante1120]

3962323 YAY