Chapter 4: Worse than Corruption
The gates creaked open, like the mouth of a monster about to devour its prey. A sophisticated voice played over the loudspeaker, “How are you doing? I was expecting you sometime tomorrow, but I see you’ve gone out of your way to visit me today.”
Highway and Commune just stood there outside the gate, feeling a rush of anger throughout them. They knew that he was the one in charge of the factory, and the one who they’d be talking to very soon.
“Come on inside you two, you wouldn’t want the resident guards to mistake you for an enemy.” As he spoke, they looked to the tops of the factory’s many roofs. Sitting posted along the corners of the roofs, were four of the six Neon Bolts. They stared down from their posts without any hint of emotion. It was as if their masks were the iron sights of a rifle, and their targets were happily standing still.
One dug his hoof at the steel below him, showering sparks below and peeling off the “caution” themed paint of the platform. This was definitely a warning; they’d better start moving.
There was no going back now they had to go forward. Step by heavy step, they made their way into the factory. While getting closer, Highway was getting a very different feeling from before. The walls were scratched and appeared aged; the once magnificent and powerful looking metal was more rickety and uneven.
Had he simply not noticed what shape the factory was in? It seemed all right on the inside; the place was clean and new from top to bottom. Was it simply because he flew too fast through the doors the first time? Maybe it was because he didn’t know what he did now.
“Ah, “ Highway suddenly let out, “it’s that tingling from the device again, but now it’s getting stronger.”
“The tingling? That’s still happening?”
“Well, it had died down for a bit, but now it’s freaking out. How am I even supposed to keep a straight face?”
When they were finally out of the view of the Bolts, they stopped as Commune noticed something strange about his friend’s forehead. “Umm, Highway.”
The feeling appeared to be really bugging him. He leaned against the nearby wall for support, “Yeah, what is it?”
“I-I think you’re head’s glowing.”
The spot on Highway’s forehead where a unicorn’s horn would grow glowed a light orange. It was clear to him what this meant, a psychic message, more specifically, a psychic warning. His mother, or what he now believed to be his mother, was looking peacefully at him in his mind’s eye. ‘Mother?’ he thought. She nodded at him, her hair still flowing through the now invisible wind. In a flash of light, six stones appeared before her. On them were inscriptions of six different symbols. He looked to them, one by one, and each time he looked to the next they glowed in a nonexistent light. The first was of a palm tree, the second a spiral, the third was an object shaped something like his teleportation device, the fourth was of a triple note, the fifth looked like three unicorn horns pointing out from a center, and the last looked something like a crown. Behind his mother, a silhouette of the factory appeared with a red sunset behind it. She stepped out of the way and pointed to the factory. The stones all flew close to one another, then flew into the image. An iron gate emerged from the ground in front of the image. He looked into his mother’s eyes; she was trying to show him where the elements of prosperity were, and that they were real. He heard a voice from outside his vision.
“Are you even awake? Talk to me please!” the voice pleaded.
The last thing he saw before it collapsed was two, giant, white wings stretching over the factory. They glowed brighter than everything else, and with a mighty stroke from them he awoke.
“Highway! Are you having one of those things again? Come on wake”-
“Just relax!” he shouted as Commune backed up in fear. “Oh, sorry to scare you, I just…”
“No, it’s fine. I was being a little over reactive.”
“What do you think we’ll find in here?”
“Nothing good probably, but we’ll have to see.”
They walked inside to the familiar white room, making their way over to the desk. The secretary attempted to give him directions again. “Impound wants to see you, he’s upstairs on the”-
This time, Highway interjected, “It’s fine, I know where his office is.”
She stopped and stared for a moment, then resumed her paperwork, “Fine, have a good day.”
They entered the dark hallway and traveled to the staircase. As they walked, their surroundings were beginning to look suspicious. “Um, Highway. Is this really what the inside of the factory looks like?”
“Yes, unfortunately.” The statues on either side of the hall gave them evil looks. The staircase looked like a skeleton itself, with its bare steel rods and connectors exposed. They gazed up into the winding path, wondering how a place like this could escape everyone’s notice.
“Why did I ever want to work in such a horrible place?” Highway said confused.
As he finished his sentence, Commune let out a cough. He seemed suddenly sick on his feet, and was slowly losing his balance. “I don’t know, the air in here is very disgusting.” He coughed again two more times.
“What are you talking about? There’s nothing wrong with the air.”
“You seriously don’t smell that? It’s like smoke, I’ve noticed it ever since we walked in.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t know it would get this bad. The closer we get to this guy’s office, the worse it gets. It just seems to be getting worse fast.”
“You know, you could just leave. You don’t have to continue if its that bad.”
Commune raised his head, “No, I want to know what’s going on around here too. And I’m not going to let some made up smoke stop me.” His horn lit up, and a transparent red aura surrounded him. It sparkled a bit at first, and then stopped.
“What is that?” Highway asked in awe.
“It’s a protection spell, it stops the effects of other spells on the user. If there’s any dark spells on this factory, it should protect me from them; or just slow down the effects dramatically.”
“Nice,” he hesitated, “but I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Maybe you’re immune to it. Possibly the fact that, oh I don’t know, you’re mother was an Alicorn?”
“Hmm,” he said while rubbing his chin, “you know what, it probably does have something to do with that!”
“You think?” he said sarcastically.
“Maybe.”
“I’ll just meet you at the top, ok?”
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
Highway flew to the top of the stairs as Commune teleported in just after he arrived. “So, which way is his office?” Commune asked.
“Aaaah, gentlecolts. It seems you have arrived. How’re you doing?” From around the corner came Impound, he’d clearly left his office to personally meet them. “Would you like a tour of the factory then?”
The two gentlecolts stood briefly in shock that he had actually come to them. “Uhh, yes, we would.” Highway responded.
Highway looked over to the other unicorn in hidden anger, “Why’s he here again?” Then he gave Highway a disgusted look, as if to say ‘I told you not to talk to commoners.’
It took him a second to muster up the courage to respond, “B-Because he’s my friend, and we both want to know more about this whole situation.”
“What situation?” he asked in a very direct manner.
Highway almost cowered away in fear, and then he remembered what he’d discovered while he was away. The anger nearly overflowed, he let only a piece of it out. “The situation is that nopony around here’s ever heard of Celestia! On top of that, I think you know something about my parents, and to top it all off I want to know what exactly this factory produces in such abundance. While this one little town in the middle of the desert is the only known recipient of said product.” He took a deep breath, and tried to calm down.
“Well,” Impound said completely surprised that he’s been so direct with it, “I suppose I can answer all your questions soon enough.” He turned and began walking down the hallway, “Come with me and I’ll show you what you want to see.”
They’d known there was something off about the whole situation from the beginning, but this just seemed too easy. ‘What was he really planning?’ they wondered.
After making their way down the hallway, they arrived at a glass door. Impound raised his hoof to the switch, and pressed it. With a click and swoosh, the door opened. They trotted along a steel bridge suspended above one of the factories’ many working environments. On either side of the bridge was glass, angled so that it stretched to the ceiling; wider at the top then bottom. The floor below the bridge was a grayish metal, everywhere sat ponies in cubicle-like environments; each appeared to be working on something different. The room itself was humongous, it was at least forty stories wide and tall; they just happened to be walking along a bridge with the ceiling of that room directly above them. Commune was making his way across the bridge in the dead center, he was afraid of heights as Highway had discovered, and didn’t want to look down. There were a few skylights in the ceiling; though none of them along the bridge’s path. Suddenly, Impound began his tour using his voice, “Down below us are the workers who use their magic to fill out paperwork for the factory. They do this to meet the suppliers’ demands, and to keep the factory within regulations. It is quite the workload, as you can imagine.”
“Of ‘course.” Replied Highway.
“They also work on establishing trade routes with other cities, like that one out by the sea. Oh I forget the name, what was it? No matter, I could always ask one of them down there anyway.”
“So tell me, why is this bridge here anyway?” asked Highway.
“The bridge itself is for my personal use, but I can’t help if someone else uses it. It’s mostly so I can check to see if they’re still working down there.”
“I see, but why is this factory by far the most successful? In fact, I don’t see any other factories around here.”
“Simple,” he said amused, “we designed it that way.”
Highway stopped in his tracks, “You, you did what?”
“Don’t act all surprised, there’s plenty more where that came from.”
“Do you mean, that no other production facility ever had a chance?”
“Yes, exactly. We produce the most valuable resource there is. Come, I’ll show you more in the next room.”
He began walking again as the next door opened. They arrived at the second point on the bridge. This room was equally as large as the last, the major difference being the huge machine taking up half the space. Impound continued his tour, “If you look to your left you’ll see the machine used for production of the storage devices.” Glass molds were arriving at the top of the machine and going in, out the other side came gigantic glass containers; oval in shape. They were about as big as the crates Highway had seen at the delivery building, but they were still empty.
The crimson light of the setting sun came bursting through the ceiling lights, it was about time for the sun to set. “Don’t worry about it getting late, I will finish the tour for you.”
“When do the containers get filled, and with what?” Highway asked.
“We’ll get to that soon just be patient. Now,” below them to their right was a twisting and turning assembly line, along it was around a hundred ponies, each assembling a different part of the container, “this is where we have the majority of our workers work. Since assembling them one at a time can be intricately difficult, we’ve installed a production line. Each one of them puts just one piece of the container together.” Down below, the glass containers could be seen having some major modifications to them. There was a steel plate that was wrapped around the glass, then a bunch of switches and buttons. More and more things were added to them until you could barely see the glass shining out from the center. The assembly line ran into the next room with the finished product.
“Seriously, WHAT DO YOU MAKE HERE?” shouted Highway.
“Come through this next door and I’ll show you.”
“Finally!”
They walked casually into the next room, and then he saw them. This room was much darker than the rest; a blue glow came from the left side of the room; where Highway was now staring. An hourglass shaped device ran from the top of the room to the bottom. Blue electrical shocks ran down from the top, and out the bottom came orange. In the center of the hourglass was an open section surrounded by glass. Behind the glass were six stones, like the ones in his vision from earlier. All of them carried the marks from the vision as well. “This is our secret to success. Feel free to bask in its glory.” As strange as it was, the mere sight of it was admittedly glorious. The crackling sound emanating from the electricity was enough to knock over just about anypony who was unprepared for it. Also the fact that it was so bright that it was the only thing illuminating the room.
Highway was still too in shock to respond, so his friend took over. Now that he wasn’t too high up, he completely took over the conversation. “So, what does it do? To me,” he said trying to be nice, “they look like the Elements of Prosperity. Now maybe that’s because I’m just seeing it wrong or,” he continued to make excuses until he was finally given an answer.
“No no no, don’t sell yourself short.” Impound spoke proudly, “those rocks in there are the Elements of Prosperity.”
Shocked, Commune ran to the window to get a better look. “You know what, I think you’re right,” he paused in worry, “but how did you get them?”
“Easy, they were left unguarded.” Both Commune and Highway dropped their jaws in shock. “After the rulers of this land fell, there was nothing to hold us back from getting them. I will admit, the magic seal on the box took ages to crack.”
Highway barely had any wind in his voice, “How…why, why did I never hear about this? When did these rulers fall, and to whom?”
He simply ignored him and continued his speech, “Did you know that the elements need wielders to be used properly? Otherwise they might not work at all.”
Commune broke in, “The Elements of Prosperity are supposed to be used for a prosperous land, and contain huge amounts of power.”
This time Impound listened, “Yes that is correct.”
“There’s only one thing wrong with you’re plan.”
“Go on, what is it?”
“They don’t work without the wielders, how is that even possible?”
“Hahahaha, that’s where you’re wrong.” Now Commune was getting a bad feeling about the factory more so than he’d ever had. “About twenty years ago the Elements of Prosperity had their wielders, and were being used properly. The only catch was that they all had to be together for the effects to take place. Back then I was in charge of the biggest prison in the city; it used to have a terrible name. What was it, New Harmony? Ah yes,” he suddenly became very angry, “WHAT A HORRIBLE NAME!”
This was all happening as the two friends were walking cautiously behind their tour guide into the final room. It seemed as though all their suspicions were right about, pretty much everything! “Why is that a bad name?” interjected Commune. “It sounds better than Dimsville, right?”
“WRONG!” They stopped following him for a second, and then resumed. His sudden outburst had sincerely scared them; he was now showing his true colors. “I worked at that prison day and night, and there seemed to be nothing in the city but lies! The crime in the city wasn’t harmonious! The majority of New Harmony was all right, but when there was crime its effects were terrifying. Whenever it got out of control, the elements would just get together and fire off another wave of ‘prosperity,’ and everything would appear to go back to normal. Then I thought of something.” The final door opened, and a red glow came from the inside. “These whole ideas of harmony and prosperity are ridiculous. I’ve spent most of my life making sure the city could prosper properly, and people continue to do terrible things. I had already learned my lessons, I knew that crime was bad, and I would do everything to stop it. It hurts the citizens and can even extend its reach to other lands. The citizens weren’t learning their lessons; again and again they were thrown into jail, only to be let out sometime in the future. I finally decided to do something about it.”
They entered the final room. The bridge turned into downward stairs leading all the way to the ground, where the stairs began the glass stretching to the ceiling ceased. On the other side of the room sat an enormous chair; approximately two stories height. Highway thought he could make out something sitting in the chair, but most of it and the other side of the room was covered in complete darkness. The part that wasn’t covered shined crimson red due to the large skylights in the room. As Highway looked up, he could see the cold mask of a Neon Bolt stare blankly at him from one of those skylights.
They began making their way down the stairs as the mood grew darker. “I figured that since nopony would ever learn their lesson, I’d just take advantage of their stupidity. The next week, I got a call from my boss; the one I work for now. He said he could give me what I want, so I accepted. The day after, the wielders of the elements were killed. Amongst the white and pristine streets of the perfect city, the stench of the dead ponies filled the peoples’ noses. Blood ran through the streets that day, and it was more perfect than the entire city!” He gave a little laugh, “There was nothing they could’ve done, and they all fell before they could reach the elements. The only thing left to remove were the rulers themselves. Without their elements to protect them, my master finished them in their own castle; and then toppled it.”
Highway knew what was going on now; he didn’t even care about what the factory produced. If he was indeed the son of those rulers, then he was talking to an associate of the person who killed his parents! He didn’t even know his parents were murdered in the first place! One thing was for sure; he was going to make Impound regret spilling the beans on his little tour. “So,” he said trying to act completely calm, “there’s nothing left of the castle?”
“Funny you should ask, we’re standing in the last remnants of that very castle!” he said excitedly. “You see the throne over there?” he motioned his head to the giant chair. “We did have to replace the throne itself, but it’s like owning a trophy I suppose. We just had to keep the throne room.”
“You never finished telling about how you got the elements to work without the wielders.” Commune interrupted again, but the answer, Highway felt, was worth listening to.
“Oh yes, I’d nearly forgotten. My master is not pony, he’s much more than that.” He paused for a moment, “Commune.”
“Y-Yes?”
“Since you’re from the outside world, I suppose you know the story about Discord. Am I correct?”
“You sure are.” He turned to Highway, he hadn’t told him the story of Discord. He figured now would be the greatest time if ever. “He was the spirit of Chaos who attempted to throw the world into chaos. Succeeding briefly before the elements of harmony intervened to stop him. His head was of a horse, but the rest of his body was composed of different creatures. Most notably, he had a dragon’s tail. To be honest, I didn’t think Discord was a bad guy. I just think he just had some issues with his life that hadn’t been sorted out.”
Impound stopped briefly on the stairs, holding up the two ponies behind him as well. “That’s a very good observation you have there, probably the best I’ve ever heard.”
“Oh yeah, and why’s that?” replied Commune.
“Because,” he paused for dramatic effect, “Discord’s father is the one in charge of this factory.”
“W-What!? You’re boss is Discord’s dad!? That’s impossible!”
“What? You didn’t think he’d have a father?”
“No, I, well YES BUT”-
“You didn’t think he could still be roaming Equestria, did you?”
“KIND OF! I assumed because there were no problems where I come from, that there wasn’t something that evil still alive! Where is he anyway?”
A booming and deep voice came from behind the veil of the dark side of the room. “Now who said I was evil?” Everyone except Impound jumped in fear. Gigantic red eyes peered out from the shadow, within them were two sets of other irises; they circled one another all the way throughout the eye. As he moved from the darkness, the shadows appeared to shift underneath and between each other. Two feet landed on the ground with a rumble as he stood up from the chair. He slowly made his way out from the shadow, one of his arms now swung outward towards them. Then a sound of thunder, they were nearly blinded by the sight. The beast itself was at least two stories tall, he had a face similar to his son’s but without the beard. He was long and slender, almost like a snake. He was dark gray in color, and his arms and legs were along his body like that of a lizard. The only major difference was that they were positioned so that he could stand upright, and that his hands were large claws. He was wearing an old fashioned brown suit and top hat, fashioned to his figure. He wore no monocle but he might as well have, he gave off a classy and rich vibe. Behind him rose two huge mechanical wings. Much like the stairs they looked somewhat like a skeleton; with the shape being accomplished as the steel rods hang exposed. The thunderous sound was of these wings lighting up with the same orange electricity that came from beneath the hourglass machine. The light itself was so bright that it lit up the entire back wall as the room shook. “Well, I suppose I could be called evil. I can’t help it,” he said sarcastically, “it’s in my nature.” He let out a loud dark laugh. If there was a problem in the city of Dimsville, they had just found it. “Now, I presume that you had a question about what the factory really produces. Didn’t you?”
He just stuttered in fear, “I-I-I-I g-guess I-I d-did, heh heh.”
“No,” Highway yelled bravely, “I did!”
The monster examined him for a moment before speaking, “You did, did you?” He began to fall from his height in Highway’s direction as if he were losing balance. Then quickly fell down so that the air rushed past them like the gust of a hurricane. The monster’s face was now directly in front of Highway’s. “Well you annoying bug, let me tell you how and why.” He backed his head up to its usual height, and then began circling the room as he spoke. “I am Discord’s father, Off Track. I can make people’s lives go astray whenever I please. Ruin is what I am. Whenever something goes too well, that’s not related to me, I can’t stand it. Prosperity is intolerable. I am the only one allowed to prosper, why should anyone else? Does that sound selfish to you?”
Highway made a very upset face, and felt a little sick to his stomach. This guy was insane, and he was Discord’s father? His son probably wanted chaos because he wouldn’t have to deal with his father’s abilities ruining his life. As far as he could tell, this Discord character seemed to be able to deal with Off Track’s abilities as much as the elements of prosperity.
“Well too bad! For my actions I’ve been named the spirit of derailment and loss. However, the only one who should still know I even exist should be Celestia. After all, she was the one who forged the Elements of Prosperity. She feared that not even harmony itself would be enough to keep the world at peace, that just going a little off track from the original way would lead to the end of prosperity. Harmony would be intact, it would just be a disharmony, and it would be nearly irreversible at that. For at the time, there was no such thing as the Elements of Prosperity. So nothing could stop this problem if it occurred. The elements stayed out of use for a long time, so long in fact, that several hundred years would pass before they were even needed. As the spirit of derailment, I have the ability to do just what Celestia feared.” His voice grew darker; “I can suck the happiness right out of you, and leave you as nothing but a hopeless pile of junk. The energy given off can be used in a positive way; it can even be given back to the pony it was taken from. The problem is that I cannot use it for my purposes in this state. Not unless its power could be reversed.” He stopped circling in front of them and raised his wings higher. “The orange power is the result. By infusing prosperous energy with my own and then sending it back through the Elements of Prosperity, I can produce this negative power. I spread it everywhere, causing all the citizens in the city to feel terrible about their lives, while simultaneously preventing any chance of happiness to accommodate their days. Any time I get bored, I ship off actual positive energy to some town in the middle of the desert that doesn’t even exist!”
“You monster,” whispered Highway to himself.
“What was that? I though you said something.” Silence befell the them. “Good. Now, I think its about time we wrapped this up.”
“What?”
“You think we’re going to tell you about everything and then just let you skip away happily? If so I’m afraid you haven’t been listening properly, or even at all! It’s a shame really, the prince of the city of freedom will tragically meet his end by my minions. I should’ve planned better, I wanted to be the one to finish you.”
“You know who I am?”
“I’ve known since the first time you walked into my factory, how could I forget the baby’s face?”
The feelings of anger and sadness finally were peaking inside of Highway; he couldn’t hold back much longer, but what could he do? Off Track was a dangerous beast over ten times his size, and his unicorn assistant was standing right next to him; no doubt having learned a few deadly spells from his master.
One of the skylights creaked open, and Highway could hear someone talking. “I hope you enjoyed the tour.”
“Highway look out, move!” came a pleading voice.
His vision was becoming distorted. Colors meshed together, until the only thing in focus was behind him. He turned and looked up to the skylight, where the light appeared to be coming straight to him and was a bright white. The Neon Bolt who’d been perched on the roof was flying right at him, if he collided there’s be no way he would survive. ‘Unless,’ he thought quickly, ‘I used the goggles. Would it work? Celestia said that they could deflect at least one of any kind of magical attack.’ He observed the green light that was surrounding the Neon Bolt. ‘That light they have around them, I bet that’s some kind of spell. Would the goggles’- there was no more time to think. At the last moment he lowered his head so that the collision would be right atop his goggles. All he could do was hope.