Misty Fly and Mist departed from the Headquarters, and split up almost
immediately after exiting the building via Spitfires office window.
Mist flew south, toward where ever the entrance was to those tunnels.
Meanwhile, Misty Fly flew north-west, back to the factory, to find technicians.
As she landed at the factory area, the manager approached her.
"So what, can ya help us?" The relatively large stallion asked in a deep voice.
"Yeah, the plan is to find the old access tunnels and cut the main power source
for the factory area completely. We've got a guy who says he knows where
one of the old entrances are, and he's off checking it now. Plan B is to enter by force.
We know where the tunnels are, Spitfire has the old Cloudsdale blueprints from
when the city-cloud itself was constructed centuries ago, and newer maps to show
the current city. Anyway, to do this we'll need to borrow a couple of skilled
technicians to do the actual work once we find the power source. Somepony who can
detach the outgoing cables from the source."
"Oh, I got just th' guys you're needin'." The stallion replied.
And then he proceeded to shout into the factory.
"RUSTY, GET YOURSELF AND YOUR BROTHER OUT HERE,
I'VE GOT A JOB FOR YA. A REALLY DAMN IMPORTANT ONE!"
Two stallions, twins by the looks of it, emerged from the factory,
both covered in oil and dirt. They we're both brown, short-maned,
and with cogs for cutiemarks. One of them had a cog and a small fire,
the other had a cog and two crossed screwdrivers underneath, like a Jolly Roger
pirate flag. The one with the fire-mark wore a pair of welding goggles,
still over his eyes. Both replied simultaneously, "Yes, boss?"
The boss waved at Misty. "This here's Misty Flight, she's with them Wonderbolts."
"Misty FLY..." Misty corrected, but the stallion ignored her and kept talking.
"She's here to take you two to some tunnels or whatever, and yer gonna
detach the main power source for the entire factory, so those cloudmachines
can finally stop making unwanted thunderclouds and hail and what-not.
She'll be yer boss temporarily, so yer gonna listen to her like ye listen to me,
understood?"
Again, the two twins replied as one, "Yes, Boss."
The two brothers then turned to Misty Fly, with expectant looks on their faces.
The one without goggles spoke up.
"So.. My name's Rusty, and my brother's name is Torch."
The brother with goggles nodded slightly at the mention of his name.
Rusty kept talking.
"And you're Misty... Fly, was it? Misty Fly?"
"That's correct, yes. Nice to meet you both." Misty Fly replied with a smile.
"So, what you need us for?" Torch asked. "Boss said we're unplugging the main
power lines, That true?"
"Yes. The cloud machines keep making clouds, many of which are pretty strong storm
clouds, as I'm sure you already know since you work here. The problem is,
since we can't shut the machines off the normal way, we need to cut the power supply.
And that in turn can only be done if we - and by we and mean you two - unplug
the main cables at the Cloudsdale main generator, inside the cloud itself,
accessed via some old tunnels, like your boss said."
"So let's get going." Rusty said, sounding eager.
"We can't yet. First we need to go back to the Wonderbolt HQ. There, we'll
wait for another pony who is currently making sure we can get into those tunnels.
Once we have him with us, we'll go."
"So, let's get going to the HQ place then." Rusty said, spreading his wings,
readying himself to take off. His brother did the same.
Misty Fly decided she had nothing more to say at the moment anyway,
and they were in a hurry, so they probably should do as the twins said and
get going. She spread her wings and took off, the twins taking off right behind her.
"Follow me. I know the short-cuts. We'll be at HQ in a few minutes, tops." She said,
as she increased her speed, but made sure the brothers were able to keep up.
* * *
Meanwhile, Mist reached the edge of Cloudsdale, while thinking to himself,
"Okay... If I remember correctly, the tunnel entrance should be here,
on the underside of the city cloud, near the edge...ah, yes, there!"
He had found what he was looking for, an old metallic-looking red hatch-door
on the underside of the cloud, almost hidden. It was big enough to fit an
average-sized pony, but just barely. "I surely hope nopony on the engineering
team is of a heavier body type..." Mist thought to himself as he looked closer at the
hatch, to find out if it was still possible to open it.
He noticed that it had been locked with an old but sturdy padlock,
like the ones used for school lockers. It also looked a bit old and had started to rust.
"This might be a problem. A minor one, but a problem nonetheless."
Mist thought to himself as he inspected the lock.
He decided to get back to the HQ and report his findings, and wait for the
others to arrive, so he could give them all the update on the situation.
A little while later, he landed outside HQ, where he met Spitfire standing outside.
"I assume I am the first to return, since the others are not here." he said as he landed
just in front of her. She nodded. "Yeah. They'll arrive anytime though, just wait.
Meanwhile, did you find the door? Still accessible?" She said.
"Yes, and probably. It is still there, but it is locked, and the lock in question
is a old, rusty padlock. No chance to find the key, and little chance it would
work even if we had it. Based on how the lock looks, I think we can break it, though.
That is, if you have access to bolt cutters, or some other similar tool."
A voice from behind Mist spoke up. "We got cutters, an' a portable welding torch.
I'll melt that lock right off, jus' show me where it's at."
Mist turned around to see Misty Fly and the twins landing behind him.
"I take it you two are the technicians from the factory?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'm Rusty, and he's Torch." Rusty replied, pointing first at himself,
and then at his brother. "We've been told what to do. And you must be Mist,
the guy who's showing us the way, right?"
"That is correct, yes." Mist confirmed.
Misty Fly flapped her wings, getting back above ground.
"If you guys are done introducing yourselves, I suggest we get going right away.
This needs to get done as soon as possible."
The team left ground, flying toward where Mist had found the hatch.
* * *
As they arrived, Torch flew up to the hatch.
"Oh, one of these old things! Piece of cake." He grinned.
"Now, I'll burn the lock off with this..." he said, holding up a small torch
attached to a tank on his back. It looked like a diver tank, but was filled
with some flammable gas.
"...An' when I do, the hatch is gonna open up nicely. Once that happens,
a ladder will drop down, so we can all grab on to that an' climb up inside."
"You seem to know about these hatches?" Mist asked.
"Yeah, well, this kind of hatch is used in many other places too.
Just didn't know we had some under the main cloud. Suspected we might, though."
Misty Fly flew closer to the lock, looking at it.
"So, Torch, Think you can get this off? Should be easy, right?"
Torch grinned and ignited his portable welding torch, adjusting the flame
to a small, blue burn.
"If you would kindly move aside, Miss Fly, I'll get right on that. Shouldn't take too long, a few minutes tops."
And just like he said, a few minutes later the now partially molten lock fell off,
and Rusty, who had moved in underneath the hatch, caught it in the air in his hoof.
"Wouldn't want it to fall down and hit somepony on ground level.
Very small risk, but a risk nonetheless." He said when he noticed the questioning
look on Misty Fly's face.
Mist glanced at the still glowing lock in Rusty's hoof.
"Does it not hurt? I mean, it is still glowing hot."
"Nah," Rusty replied, "It's okay. See, a few years ago I had this accident, and
damaged some nerves in my leg and hoof. Much higher pain tolerance now.
Plus, it cools down quickly up here in the windy air, so it won't stay hot for long."
Torch, meanwhile, opened up the hatch, and just like they had said, a ladder dropped
from the opening, hanging down like a fire escape ladder or an attic entrance.
He waved at the ladder, facing Misty Fly. "Ladies first, or should I?"
"Oh, a gentlecolt? How nice. But anyway, yes, I'll go first."
And with that, Misty Fly entered the tunnel, bringing up a small flashlight and shining
the light around her. "Okay, so... It's empty, dark, and dirty. Lots of dust.
Luckily though, no spider webs..."
"Afraid of spiders, Miss?" Torch asked, as they all entered the tunnels.
They looked and felt similar to ventilation systems, like you see in movies,
but tall and wide enough to stand upright, even if just barely.
"Not quite afraid, I just find them slightly creepy and disgusting... Too many eyes."
"Ah, I see.. Well, we ain't got no spiders up here in the clouds. No wild ones at least,
only in captivity. You know, pets, science lab, and so on."
"I'm well aware of that, thank you, but I was merely thinking loudly.
I mean, if these tunnels had been on ground level, they most certainly would
have had spider webs, and lots of them by now."
"True," Mist said, "Tunnels like these almost always do. It is enough to leave
them unattained for a couple of weeks, and you will start getting webs.
The longer you leave them, the more webs. And dust."
"Explains the literal carpeting of dust in here." Torch said, lifting his leg,
noting his print on the floor and dust stuck on his hoof.
"Looks like when the first layers of snow falls on the ground when we start winter..."
Misty Fly shone her light down the tunnel. "Well boys, this is the only way from the
hatch, so I guess that's where we're going now."
And so, the mare and the three stallions started walking through the old
tunnel, carefully but relatively quickly, on their way to the power stations.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash arrived at the last of the safe houses on her route...