//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - Tick, Tock, Boom // Story: Those Two Ponies // by Catsofwar108 //------------------------------// “No, no, no!” Terminal Velocity sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Her dark sky blue frame shook with nerves. “The inspector is going to be here any second now, and the office is still a wreck!” As Terminal mused on her current problem, there were several sharp knocks on her office’s door. “Hello?” “Crap, crap, crap, craaaap....” She muttered to herself as she shoved several files into her desk’s drawer. Finally pleased with her work, she called out cheerily, “Come in!” The door swung open, revealing a blue Pegasus with a large smile on his face that fell slightly as he took in the room around him. “Should I come back another day?” “Yes-no! Today is fine!” Terminal smiled in a very forced manner. “I-I just, uh, had a stray tornado go through here!” Flipping her lightning streaked mane to her other shoulder, she tried to arrange herself in a position that looked non-conspicuous. The new arrival laughed softly, stepping into the office. “If you say so.” He trotted forward, throwing a few more papers onto the already cluttered desk. “I’m Wind Stream!” He said cheerfully as he extended a hoof. “And you are…?” “U-uh, Terminal Velocity.” She shook his hoof vigorously. “Hehe… So, should I give you a tour of the factory?” Wind Stream nodded as his smile returned in full force once he regained possession of his hoof. “Sounds good to me! Shall we start with the snow factory?” “Uh, I don’t control the snow factory. I control the wind branch. Do you want to see the wind that we have ready for winter?” Terminal questioned, wondering whether or not the inspector actually had an idea of what he was doing. “Oh, sorry about that!” the Pegasus said as he chuckled nervously. “This is actually my first assignment, I’m pretty new to this.” Terminal laughed. “Yeah, you seem pretty new at this.” She coughed when she noticed his glare. “I-I mean, uh, take this hat!” She yelled, practically throwing a hardhat at Wind. He fumbled with the hard hat for a bit before finally managing to get a grip on it and plopping it on his head. “Lead the way!” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “...and this is where the wind for next summer is being prepared. Obviously it’s not in high gear because of winter being so close, but we have a few winds ready.” Terminal waved her hoof around, showing Wind the Gentle Breezes. Wind Stream checked a few gauges and tapped the wind container on several places, checking for weaknesses. “Everything seems in order here. Though you might want to lay off the snow a bit more, I heard the Princesses are coming next week.” Terminal’s eye twitched. “What?” “Terminal! Terminal Velocity!” A brown pegasus ran up to her, out of breath. “There’s a leak… winter winds section… Gale Winds.... thought you ought to know.” With those final words, he fell over, unconscious. Terminal’s mouth opened in surprise, while Wind glanced at her, knowing that she knew what this could mean for her and her career. Not only is there a breakdown during inspection, but the leaders of Equestria were scheduled for a visit. “Come on,” Wind said, snapping the mare from shocked trance. “I’ll help you fix it, don’t want the leaked winds to turn into a hurricane or something.” Terminal engaged in full-on manager mode, leading Wind to the leaking section. “I don’t know how in Equestria the thing could crack, considering it’s locked in a triple-glass shield where each sheet of glass is three inches thick. Luckily we should be able to turn off the pressure. It’s a temporary plan, but it will have to do until we can get some repairponies here.” She pulled aside a worker. “Get everypony out of that section. We don’t want anypony getting hurt from any stray winds.” He watched her give orders for several more minutes despite the situation, acting much like a commander in a field of battle. “What do you need me to do?” “Get a roll of duct tape.” Noticing his incredulous look, Terminal sighed. “Duct tape has been proven to be sticky and a great method to seal cracks. Now go get a roll of duct tape!” Now believing that Terminal was truly a mad mare, Wind scrambled off in search of the requested item. “Pretty sure duct tape isn’t a safety sanctioned repair tool…” He mumbled once out of hearing range. Rounding the corner, Wind finally saw the janitor’s closet. He flew inside and his eyes met tons of boxes, each unlabeled. Still grumbling, he opened each one up and looked inside. Each time something other than duct tape was seen. Suddenly a loud crash met his ears. Swiveling around, Wind had just enough time to see a shadowy figure slam the door to the janitor’s closet. He didn’t even need to check to know it was blocked from the other side. “Hey!” The inspector shouted as he began beating on the door, “Open up!” His pounding went unnoticed in the empty corridor “Hello!?” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Terminal could tell the leak was getting worse. The wind in the factory was past the danger zone, and the other containers were in danger of breaking if there were any faults in the glass. “Where is that pony?” She growled softly to herself. “Just wait a little bit longer. I’m sure he will be here then.” Five minutes passed. Ten minutes. Finally she couldn’t take it anymore. “That’s it. I gotta go find that duct tape on my own if he’s gonna chicken out!” Walking towards the janitor’s closet, Terminal turned the corner and her eyes met the janitor’s closet door locked up tight. “What… in the world?” She said aloud. “Terminal?” A voice called from within. “Open up! Somepony locked me in here after I got the duct tape!” “W-Wind?” Terminal gasped. Quickly pulling apart the barricade, she threw the door open, revealing a scared pegasus. “What happened? Other than somepony locking you in the closet.” Another alarm blared through the building. “You know what? Let’s fix the leak and then talk about what happened.” “Wait!” He shouted as she rounded a corner, “Somepony is trying to sabotage you…” He said, though the other pegasus was well out of earshot. With no other choice, he grabbed a few rolls of duct tape and ran after her. Running into the problem room, Wind stopped in his tracks as he beheld what held Terminal in place. A hole the size of a wrecking ball was in the middle of the glass, making it nearly impossible to fix, and certainly not with duct tape. The strangest thing was the hole in the glass wasn’t jagged. It was a perfect circle all the way around. Terminal’s mouth opened. “I-I just… What?” Wind smacked her muzzle to get her to get in gear again. Shaking her head, Terminal flew over to the pressure meter and found it pushed way past the safety level. “I think I may have been sabato-” An explosion rang out, interrupting whatever the mare had to say and sending her tumbling through the air. Her unplanned flight was ended by a wall on the other side of the room. “Terminal!” Wind shouted, knowing what such violent impacts could do to a pony. She groaned, holding her sides in pain. “I-I think… I think my ribs…” She winced. “...I think they’re broken…” Using clearly a massive amount of will, she grit her teeth and stood up. “We need to leave…. The factory’s done for. Hit-” She coughed, dropping two drops of red on the white cloud floor. “-hit the… evac button.... It’s on the platform above you…” Having gone through the building’s layout before the inspection, Wind took to the air and hit the emergency evacuation button. A red light flashed while a siren, loud enough to be heard even over the malfunctioning machinery, blared throughout the building. With the task done, he dove back to Terminal. Even though she was standing now, he could see that she was not going to make it very far. “Can you fly?” She attempted a grin, and failed horribly. “Sure... I’ve had worse knocks before... anyhow.” She started flying as fast as she could towards the exit, which admittedly was not very fast. Wind flew next to her, pushing Terminal along and sometimes carrying her weight. Egressing into the hallway adjoining, nopony was seen. Every worker had left in a quick orderly manner. They seemed to be the last two in the building. That said, it was far from peaceful. Wind containers had spider-thin cracks blossoming through all of them, and some of them had already shattered, making the factory a deadly whirlwind of glass shards. It was only a matter of time before the reinforced containers gave in catastrophically. They both knew this as they tried to flee the factory. Terminal wouldn’t say anything, but Wind knew she was in enormous pain. He hissed through his teeth as a glass shard cut his face and chest. Many such cuts covered both of them, making flying hard and walking nearly impossible in Terminal’s case. Wind glanced up, winced as another piece of glass cut him right under the eye, and was delighted to see the exit straight ahead.