//------------------------------// // Sewer Rat // Story: Harmony's Wrath // by hahatimeforponies //------------------------------// While Rainbow Dash went back to retrieve Spike, Twilight began to pace their new location, examining its layout. It was like a long, round corridor, running perpendicular to the exit tunnel, and bowing in the middle, so the opening was at the lowest point; an inflow pipe. Above a certain point, the ceiling remained flat while the floor kept rising, so that after about ten yards, the pipe was too tight to navigate. This told Twilight two things; first, that the pipe was not the way to go. Second, that they were just below street level. She began to scan the ceiling for routes up. Aha! In a flash of fortune, she found a ladder mounted in a recess in the side of the pipe, leading up toward a metal cover. There was no moon or starlight visible through it - they weren't going to come up in the middle of Canterlot. Smirking with a sense of victory, she started to climb. The last length or so was quite tight, and she found herself pulling her body right in to the ladder to squeeze through. Another feature of the drains clearly not designed for the modern pony form. At the top, she thumped her hoof against the hole cover. It budged, but didn't come loose. She tried again, and this time it popped off and slid to the side, allowing her to put her head through. A blend of the foulest odours assaulted her immediately. The pungent stench of sewage was omnipresent; the intensity of the potent fumes made her dizzy. She found herself with little option but to beat a hasty retreat down the hole and do her best to pull the cover back on. She coughed and spluttered on the way back down the ladder, and turned to her comrades, telling them simply; "Yep... that's the sewer alright..." "What's wrong Twi? A lil' stink getcha down?" Applejack joked. "Eugh... the smell isn't the only thing we have to worry about. Unlike storm drains, sewers don't have access to open air, so that's all toxic gases up there." Twilight wheezed. At that moment, Rainbow Dash returned with Spike. The little dragon stirred at Dash's somewhat less-than-gentle treatment, culminating in a little sneeze, shooting a tiny fireball. "Which... gives us another problem..." "Wh... what's that?" "Sewer gases are highly flammable." Twilight paced and thought, muttering to herself. Everypony watched anxiously. Fluttershy gazed worriedly at Spike. "If... no, that would be too... hmm... wake him up. Let's see what he thinks." Fluttershy hesitated a moment, before turning to Spike and lightly nudging him. She whispered softly to him to try and rouse him gently. "Wakey wakey, sleepyhead... c'mon Spike... time to rise and shine..." Slowly, Spike stretched and yawned, and with a little blink, he opened his eyes. "Wh... whuhh... where are we? Is it morning already?" He sat up, rubbed his eyes and sniffed the air. "And what's that smell?" "We're in the storm drains under Canterlot, and we've hit a problem." Twilight began bluntly, pacing away from Spike. "Rarity needs rescuing? Not to worry, Spike is on the case!" He jumped to his feet and started forward, only to trip over when something caught his tail. When he looked round, he saw Rarity with a hoof on his tail and little smirk on her face. "I'm fine, Romeo." "Actually Spike, the problem is you." Twilight turned and looked at him flatly. He gulped. "M-me?" "Well, sort of. You see, to get to the old palace, we have to cross some old streets that have been converted into sewers. The sewage releases gases that can catch fire, and as I'm sure you know very well..." As if on cue, Spike hiccuped, releasing a little curl of green flame. "... you're a walking lighter." He frowned and twiddled his fingers for a moment. "Maybe... maybe I could stay here! I could guard the entrance!" He bounced up again, excitement returning. "Well, this would be our exit if anything..." "Even better!" He grinned, doing a few karate chops in the air. Upon attempting a kick, he flipped over and landed on his face. "If the choice is between staying here and coming with us," Rainbow interrupted. "I say he stays here, Twilight. Better he does nothing than come with us and blow all of Canterlot sky-high." She gestured the blast by throwing her front legs in the air and waving them around wildly. Twilight inhaled deeply and sighed. "Alright. Just... stay safe, Spike." "Don't worry about me, Twilight!" Spike stood up straight and saluted. Twilight went to light up another enchantment, but was stopped by a light shove, distracting her and stopping the spell. Rarity had a hoof on her shoulder. "I've got this one, darling. You need to save your strength." Taking Twilight's place, Rarity bowed her head to Spike, and with a couple of seconds' wind-up, she summoned a small floating light that sailed over to Spike, and circled around him like a firefly. "That should help you see while we're gone." She smiled at Spike, who wore a giddy grin, eyes half-closed, tongue hanging from his open jaw. Applejack snapped him out of his daze with a light bap with her hoof and a chuckle. "Easy there loverboy!" "Alright, crossing the sewer... as long as we have light, we should be able to cross just fine one at a time. I'll go on ahead and find the palace. Clean air from above should filter down where structures are joined together. If I wait there and hold my light out, you guys should be able to follow, right?" "We should go in pairs." Applejack added. "It ain't safe travelling alone." "Right. Hmm... you, Rainbow and Fluttershy are best able to help another pony if they get in trouble, so... Fluttershy, you're with me, Rainbow, you take Pinkie Pie, and Applejack, you go with Rarity." "Ah, horsefeathers... I mean... ah, horsefeathers..." Applejack muttered. Twilight started up the ladder, Fluttershy in tow. Observing how tight the tunnel was, Dash turned to Pinkie and stated, matter-of-factly; "You go first, I'll push." Twilight took a deep breath and held it before pushing her head through the hole, prompting Fluttershy to follow suit. The sewer was much more tolerable this way. She paused to get her bearings while Fluttershy struggled from the chute. This was her first good look at the interior of the sewer. They were standing on a grimy cobblestone floor, not more than three lengths from a river of dirty sludge. Well there's your problem. Above the street level, shimmering in her horn's light, she could see old buildings, some of them collapsed and caved in, others truncated at the sewer's ceiling, where, presumably, the basements of houses above began. The doorways were noticeably taller than most of the doors she normally saw. Many edifices were filled in with dirt and stone, probably for the stability of the city above. She thought of the unsavoury types that might congregate down here, especially at night - but quickly dismissed the thought. They'd need to be pretty desperate to put up with toxic sewage fumes. As soon as Fluttershy was free of the hole, they set off. Initially, all Twilight had to go on for navigation was dead reckoning. Let's see... we came in at that angle... then circled around the storm drains a few times, and then the pipe was at that angle... ugh! Giving up on that, she just tried to follow this road. Her logic was that, surely the widest road in the city would lead to the palace. With no skyline to follow, this was her best guess. One direction was blocked by the open sewer, meaning she only had one other to follow. This street connected perpendicularly to another, much wider street, with planters in the middle of it, the trees within having died long ago. The street seemed to be on a hill, sloping from left to right from her perspective. This gave her some idea of the city's orientation. To the right, more streets had been dug up to make way for sewage lines, only vaguely visible in the darkness. To the left, there was a large open space, like a courtyard, and in the distance there was a building much more ornate than the rest, like a ruined cathedral, with the faintest of lights shimmering from empty windows and cracks in the masonry. The palace! They must be using it as a storage cellar or something. She quickly shot a little beacon at the ground, leaving a little swirling light hovering at the street corner, and turned to gallop toward the palace. She could hear Fluttershy sticking close behind. After a hundred yards, they entered the courtyard, and Twilight ran out of breath; the sprint had taken more of a toll on her than she had expected it to. Her reserve broke, and she burst out panting. The fetid smell still filled the air, but it wasn't as bad here; in her mind, this reassured her that the palace exhumed fresh air. They skidded to a halt just in front of the palace door, blocked up by the collapsed archway. Twilight propped herself up on some of the stones to get a look at one of the gaps in the blockage. There was a torch or two inside, and a soft, warm breeze blew from the hole. "Fluttershy..." she panted. "... I think... I think it's safe to breathe here." The pegasus exhaled deeply, and sank to her haunches, huffing and puffing. Too exhausted to even mutter to herself, she just thought; Who knew adventuring could be so intense? I could really go for a bath and a glass of warm milk right now... A minute or two later, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie appeared from the darkness and skidded to a halt next to them. The sprint had been no problem for Rainbow, while Pinkie Pie just collapsed and wheezed as soon as she reached safety. Another short while later, Applejack and Rarity arrived. Twilight was slightly surprised that Applejack hadn't splashed Rarity with sewage on the way. As they recovered, Twilight looked around for ways in. The hall was so close, yet so far - she could see the hall through the hole in the rubble, containing just a single torch and lots of debris. The back wall was filled in with dirt up as far as the altar, obscuring the window. Twilight paced around, muttering and contemplating the problem. Rainbow took this opportunity to slip away into the shadows and explore the side of the palace. There was one part of the story she remembered, and she wondered if it still held true... "Boo!" Just as Twilight was looking in the aperture again, a face popped up to meet her; it was Rainbow Dash's. The unicorn nearly leaped out of her skin. "F- Rainbow! Quit scaring me like that!" she gibbered, while Dash just giggled. "How... how did you get in there anyway?" "There's a hole around the corner where a window used to be. It was how Spectra sneaked around the palace in the story." the pegasus smiled, resting her head on her hooves in the hole. Twilight grumbled and started around the corner. After the ponies had helped each other through the second-floor window, they descended from the balcony and entered into the main hall. With the torch, the two unicorns had no need to keep their horns lit. There were stone and marble panels scattered and broken all over the floor; bits of masonry and metalwork lay cracked from disrepair, and dirt and ash lay strewn around. The rusted remains of a suit of armour, designed for something bipedal, lay along the middle of the room, just before the altar. At the back of the hall, there was a recess carved into the wall that looked like it was not part of the original construction, and inside it was a heavy wooden door, that looked much more recent than the room around it. It didn't budge when it was pushed; a chink indicated a lock on the other side. "That's where the torch came from... we might not have much time." Twilight mused. The others poked around the room curiously, turning things over and inspecting some of the debris. The artifacts varied from familiar to alien; the architecture of the hall was typical of the old Canterlot style, seen in some parts of the modern palace, but many of the objects looked completely unusable with hooves. Either Canterlot was populated entirely by unicorns in the past, or they weren't designed for the modern pony form. "Well, ah can't say it don't all point to somethin' fishy." Applejack sighed. "Ya wanna hurry up and do that spell thingamajigger?" "Right... just neyAHhh!" Twilight shied away from something on the ground. She had just stopped herself from stepping on something rather sharp - a blade sticking out of the rubble. Intrigued, she kicked a stone or two off of it, and levitated a large sword from the debris. It was nearly a full pony length, with an ornate, engraved handle. There were a few spots of rust and plenty of scratches on the blade, and part of it was slightly discoloured, like it had been tempered by flame some time after it was forged - this sword was quite old. She twirled the floating weapon before her, inspecting not just its appearance, but also its weight and feel, culminating in a little slash at the air. She didn't know how, but she knew this was the one. "Rarity!" she called, turning to the other unicorn. "Think you can make another sling?" She carefully brought the sword over to her, waiting for her to take a hold of it. Rarity took the blade and surveyed it at length. "Hmm... I'll need some materials besides the usual hemp, but it shouldn't be a bother." "Maybe..." Rainbow butted in, and pulled something else from the rubble with her teeth; a long, ornate metal sheath. "... this can help?" Rarity raised an eyebrow and picked it up. Once the gravel had been emptied from the scabbard, the sword slotted in perfectly. "That is interesting... it's a touch heavy, but I can probably fashion some straps for it. Why, are you thinking of bringing this thing home?" She looked back, a hint of doubt to her tone. Twilight just smirked. "Eeyup." She found herself a good position in the centre of the hall, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and slowly began to bathe the room in her horn's glow.