Highway South and the Dark Industry

by Highway South

Chapter 5: Duel at the Factory

Chapter 5: Duel at the Factory (finale part 1)

An explosion of blue and green burst outward from the collision of the two forces. The colors burned like fire, each trying to devour the other. The ground cracked, and the booming crash showered debris everywhere. The room was almost immediately plunged into a cloud of smoke and ash. It held there, suspended in mid air as if being held by a puppeteer.

The soiled cloud deprived everyone nearby of their vision, as the sound rang in their ears. Through the mess of the air, the armored pegasus flew backward from the impact zone; knocked unconscious from the force. Impound was charging recklessly through the smoke, for he knew that there was a chance that Highway was still alive. He would waste no time in assuring the half-alicorn’s demise. There, lying quite limply on the ground was Highway South.

His eyes slowly opened, then shut again. They repeated this motion several times, as his consciousness slowly crawled its way back inside his body. Shards of glass from his goggles were just now making their position known after being thrown violently into the air. Both of the goggles had huge portions missing, only the pieces closest to the outside edge were still attached. His wings flapped once in a much-delayed reaction to the blast; his mind paid no attention. His eyes opened in pure adrenaline and horror, only to discover that the event was over. He leapt to his feet, and began checking himself for injuries. Up down, forward back, everywhere he looked he seemed unharmed. He let out a sigh of relief, and took a moment to breathe.

He could hear hoovesteps behind the veil of debris; he had no idea who it could be. He didn’t even know if the Neon Bolt was all right. It could be anyone or anything. The shadow of a figure ran at him, as if it was chasing him. Then all of the sudden it turned away from his direction, while still moving hastily. It stopped close enough to him so that he could make out its location. It lowered its head down to the ground as if inspecting something. Then a sophisticated and disturbing voice howled through the cloud. “Oh Highway are you dead yet? I don’t see your charred remains sitting here in the crater, it seems you have escaped fate by sheer luck!”

South looked down to his hooves inspecting the ground. To his surprise, there was no crater beneath him. He hadn’t even noticed himself move back a few feet from the collision zone. It’s a good thing he had though. If he hadn’t, Impound would’ve probably just found him there; ready to finish him off.

He didn’t know what to do. If he went looking for his friend, there was a chance he’d run into one of the other Neon Bolts. Before he could even finish worrying about that possibility, another set of hoovesteps was heard running from behind him. They too passed by him, nearly discovering his location. Unfortunately, whoever it was ran straight for Impound. Stopping directly on the opposite side of the crater, the figure inspected Impound. He let out a cry, it were as if his heart had been crushed. “Where is he? You’d better tell me where he is you backstabber!” Highway immediately recognized the voice as Commune’s.

“You’re making demands against me? Don’t be ridiculous! Right now he’s probably dead.”

“No he’s not! He can’t be…he can’t…”

“What’s the matter, gonna cry?”

“I’ll destroy you,” he whispered under his tears. “I may not know much about offensive spells, but you’re not getting away!”

Impound only continued mocking the already broken unicorn. He knew that what he was about to say probably wasn’t true, as he himself couldn’t confirm it, but he continued onward for amusement. “You see this ash falling from the ceiling? That probably you’re friend’s heart, falling gracefully down like the weak and ignorant pony he was.” There was a touch of insanity in his voice.

“LIAR!” The shout was accompanied by a red burst of fire. The shot illuminated the shadowy figures enough so that Highway could see them both standing there. They were both covered in dirt and concrete, and they also had streaks of anger in their eyes. The fire missed Impound and flew by his head.

“What? Something wrong? Did something happen? Maybe you should tell me about your problems, I am a good psychiatrist you know. I can help you get over your distraught emotions and make you forget he even existed. Does that sound alright?” Another three bursts burned through the air, this time searing a piece of the white unicorn’s hair. “I can even make you forget that the city is in this state, then I won’t have to kill you too. Does that sound al”- a burst of fire hit him square in the face; blowing his monocle clean off.

“NEVER! I’m reporting you to Princess Celestia for crimes against EVERYONE and EVERYTHING, YOU MONSTER!”

Impound’s reared his burned face in pure hatred before saying anything. “Looks like I’ll get too kill three ponies today. What a momentous occasion.” His horn glowed silver, and iron chains flew from the ground, wrapping themselves mercilessly around Commune. He tried to struggle, but nothing worked. The chains only grew tighter if he tried to move, and it was quickly becoming unbearable. The jail master relaxed a bit and walked casually over to the chained pony. “Now this is going to be satisfying! To be honest, I could just let you stand there and choke yourself.” He had arrived in front of Commune, “but what fun would that be?”

“Ah! No! HIGHWAY!” He was in pain and almost morally defeated.

“Let me just help the process along.” Impound stomped his back hooves against the chained stallion’s side. He fell slightly over as the iron began to tear through his fur coat. “See? This is much faster!”

Commune could hear his heart beating, but he noticed something strange about it. Instead of getting weaker, it was beating faster and harder. ‘No, if I don’t get out of this the lives of thousands of people will continue to be miserable, possibly for an eternity!’ The memories of his friend entered his mind, and as they did, a tear ran down his face. He opened one of his struggling eyes to see the proud unicorn standing there, feeling accomplished for his dark actions. Commune closed his eye, as the strength to keep it open had been lost. ‘This is for you buddy.’

Commune’s horn lit up and blinded the unsuspecting master standing in front of him. Impound let out a cry, alarmed by the sudden flash. When he opened his eyes again the chained stallion was gone. The chains fell quickly to the ground, tightening and grinding the floor as if it were the chains’ next victim. He looked left tot right, desperately searching for where he’d gone. Then he looked to the ceiling; it was already too late.

A crimson flare of heat was hurling toward him. Impound let out one last bit of criticism to his doom. “I never knew that a unicorn could teleport so quickly, and under such horrific conditions.”

The giant flare slammed into the ground, directly into Impound. Sparks flew from the area, and solely from the heat that was being given off. A smaller crater than the other was left in the ground. The victim of the attack blacked out from the impact, but was by no stretch dead. Commune stood over him for a good minute catching his breath. A good portion of the debris was opened up from the blast. This meant that Highway could now clearly see his friend standing there, victorious over the enemy.

He then carefully made his way away from the pony, then was astounded to see Highway standing there on the edge of the smoke; watching. “You’re, you’re alive? Ha! I knew it! Did you see the whole thing?” His serious mood had practically flown out the window and made its way out to the moon. “How did I do? You’re constantly stressing of my teleportation spell gave me the experience needed to use it quickly! You saved my life!”

“Uhh, no problem.” He was amazed to see him so happy, and even more amazed by what he had just witnessed. ‘How much about the outside world don’t I know?’ he thought. ‘Do friends always care this much for each other out there?’

“I have to tell you, I feel bad for the guy. I think the stress of working in that depressing job finally broke him, and I think Off Track’s influence helped as well. Once we find the new wielders of the elements of prosperity we can fix this whole mess. It probably works a bit like the elements of harmony right? As soon as we get them working again everything will go back to normal.”

South shook his head to snap himself out of his trance. “Right,” the beating of Off Track’s huge wings was heard blowing away the smoke, “but how’re we going to even get out of here in the first place?” The gusts of wind were quickly dissipating the thick atmosphere, and their cover was about to be blown.

“We need to grab the elements of prosperity right?”

“Yeah,” they were speaking quite hastily now, as the concern that they would run out of time seeped in more and more every second.

“I’ll go get them, and meet you on the roof of this building ok?”

“But-you-how-there’s no way!”

Commune relaxed a bit more, “Look, it’s alright; I can get them. You just focus on not dying in the meantime.”

He looked at him as if they might not see each other again. He was sincerely worried about their safety. “Just hurry ok!”

The smoke was finally cleared, and Off Track was ticked. “HOW DID YOU SURVIVE?” he roared.

Commune flashed out of the room, and had begun his mission; now the time was right for him to begin his.

With a roar, Off Track swiped his mighty claws at the prince, missing by mere inches. The pegasus took flight in a manner that allowed him to dodge the blades; practically leaping a good twenty feet in the air. With another beat of his wings he soared ever higher, as the whistling of slashing blades echoed below. He had no time to think about the danger; he simply had to move. The pegasus flew through the open glass where the Neon Bolt had crashed though, landing on the roof to see four more staring him down in a face off.

---

Just as the world had disappeared a moment before he’d teleported, it came back. Commune had successfully teleported inside the hourglass machine room. A few scientists and engineers were standing around, appearing to be curious about the noises coming from the room next door. After a moment of listening for any new sounds they turned their attention to the new pony in the room; all of them staring in amazement at what they saw. None of them even moved a muscle to try and stop him; they could tell by the bruises and scrapes that any attempt to do so would result in an immediate fight, and he was definitely going to put up one heck of a fight. Only one scientist moved in his way momentarily, and while doing so, he began cowering in fear. Walking up to the scientist in boredom and mercy, Commune picked up the frightened pony with his magic and left him off to his side unharmed. He then proceeded to walk by without giving even the inclination that he was thinking about the scientist.

He arrived at the base of the machine. Its orange thunder sounded like a quiet storm. A surge of its power ran through him as he approached. It scared him so bad that he jumped back in horror. It felt instantly like his life was going down hill, becoming depressing and lonely. He got the feeling nopony cared for him, and its sadness was overwhelming.

He shook it off, as it was the only thing he could do. He tried to imagine how much of this stuff was currently flowing through Off Track himself, let alone his wings, but couldn’t fathom it. ‘No wonder his son went insane. How could anypony deal with this kind of negative power all the time? That spirit is one heck of a bad flank.’

The same scientist who tried to block his path now walked up beside him. He looked into the injured stallion’s eyes with a kind of compassion that was not to be expected from anyone in the city. For some reason, this scientist could tell that he needed to help Commune.

Commune felt his legs give way for a moment before being caught by the scientist. He struggled to help him up, and didn’t stop until Commune was standing on his own. “You need those stones up there don’t you?” the scientist said in a light and helping voice.

Commune only nodded his head in agreement with this statement. “C-Can you deactivate the machine for me?”

“Of course I can, I work here.” He walked over the right wall, the one nearest to the machine. On the wall was a control panel, probably for monitoring its different energy levels. He pulled a few levers and then turned his head back to Commune. He gave him a look of, “You’d better know what you’re doing.” He struggled to push the final button on the console, but managed to do so.

The machine’s electrical power shut off, and the room became very dark. After a few seconds of being in the dark, the emergency lights powered on. The rumbling of a generator was heard and felt somewhere beneath the ground. The room was now filled with the white glow of the emergency lights. The most notable ones were of those directly below the elements. They lit the elements up in such a way that you could mistake them for a centerpiece at a museum.

Commune mustered up his strength for a minute, then in a flash teleported inside the humming machine. Above him were two slowly spinning blades; they were still slowing down from the power outage. He took a few steps forward, making his way over the elements. He tapped one with his hoof and knocked it over slightly. He looked back out over the room to see the group of employees standing in awe. From beyond the glass he must’ve looked quite impressive.

Flashing back out of the machine, with the elements landing below him, he looked around for something to carry them in. The one scientist who’d been helping him had already thought of that, and was waiting next to him with a bag in his mouth. The bag was thick and rectangular in shape, and it seemed to carry weight. It wasn’t the best thing to move a bunch of heavy rock around with, but what other option did he have?

He took the bag out from the pony’s teeth with his magic, and placed it on the ground next to him. One by one, he loaded the elements into the bag. When he was done with that he put that bag on his back and gave one final look to the workers. “Thank you,” he said gratefully.

The scientist nodded, and gave a smile. “You’re welcome.”

---

Outside the factory the air had grown cold. As the pegasi on the roof maintained their stare-off, their breath became visible before of them. The sun had all but set in the sky. Along the rooftops of the many factory buildings, a light mist had begun to form. The mist was illuminated by the spinning blue lights of the alarm system; which signaled that there had been a fire. The lights were everywhere, and if that wasn’t enough, a few searchlights began scanning the skies for the ones trying to escape. A long siren let out its cry against the dark world, and in that instant all four pegasus took flight.

‘All I need to do is distract them for a little while, and then, and THEN…’ Highway’s mind couldn’t find another answer. The burning sound of the Neon Bolts’ magic coming steadily closer was the only thing on his mind. Flying in a straight path wasn’t the best of options, as they had a higher top speed; and would surely catch him soon. He had a thought, ‘Did they have good maneuverability?’ Looking down to the many buildings and smoke stacks below, he thought, ‘Well I’d better hope so.’

He veered downward as fast as he could turn, his goggles nearly falling off his face. The Neon Bolts appeared to be having trouble following him, as their sound appeared to have trailed off a bit. He would have been happy, if not for the fact that they were still following him. He weaved in and out of the smoke stacks. Occasionally he flew around low buildings; hiding himself beneath the thick black smoke erupting from the towers’ cores.

The longer he flew, the more paranoid he became; he began to interpret any sound close to him as the beating of the enemy’s wings. It was driving him crazy, and he still didn’t know if Commune had arrived on the roof yet. He had to fly up and check; otherwise they could spot him before he did.

He used the side of one of the smoke stacks as a makeshift ramp, and flew close to and up the side of it. He noticed the dark color of the tower was painted on in a way that allowed for purposeful and swift peeling. ‘Looks like even the paint in this place is made to go to waste.’ He barreled through the black smoke at the top of the tower, nearly hitting the red Bolt as he flew by. As the Neon Bolts turned around, Highway gazed over to the roof above Off Track’s room; or should he say, his parents’ room?

A red flash appeared near the broken skylight, and Commune stumbled out from the light. Judging by his stumbling, he was either hurt or carrying the elements. Highway had no time to waste. He made a run for his friend, even as his attackers were rapidly catching up.

Commune looked around desperately for his friend, he was nowhere to be seen. ‘Where could he be?’ he thought in panic.

“HEEEEEEY!”

Commune looked for the source of the voice.

“I’M OVER HERE! UP YOU MORON, UP!”

He looked again for the voice, this time checking the skies above. Sure enough, there was Highway; flying faster than he’d ever thought he could. Behind him four lights, appearing to be brightly colored missiles, were chasing him from behind.

“YOU GOT ANY DEFLECTOR SHIELDS OR SOMETHING?” he shouted, as he got closer to Commune.

Insulted by Highway’s demand, he almost forgot the situation entirely. “Is that some kind of joke? You just assume that because I’m a unicorn I can create a shield from thin air!?” Regrettably, he was right. Commune did know a spell that was something like a “deflector shield.” Although it wasn’t entirely the same; he wasn’t even sure if it would work. “Alright, I do have something like that!” he said frustrated. “Just fly right above my head ok?”

“YOU GOT IT PAL!”

Commune took a stance, stretching all four of his legs in an equal distance from the each other. He closed his eyes as his horn glowed; he would only get one shot. All of his focus was now on this one spell. In truth, the spell was designed to keep desert winds at bay as travelers crossed the scorching sands. As long as he used it at full power, it should deflect the incoming ponies.

His ears picked up the sound of Highway as he flew closer, and closer; it also helped that he was screaming like a banshee. “Aaaaaaaaahhhh!” Highway yelled as he flew over his buddy. It was time, ‘NOW!’

From his horn shot three, red ribbon-like strands of magic, forming a drill shaped pattern as they swirled in circles around an invisible axis. The spell itself was about five times bigger than the pony who was using it, and as a result it clearly strained his mind while using it. With a painful grunt, Commune started the drill’s spin at near full power; creating a miniature hurricane around the outside. Before the Bolts had time to react, they all slammed head first into the powerful gusts of wind. Two bounced far over the top and hit separate towers, one was driven into the ground with a painful noise, and the last flew off to the left and crashed through a window. As the wind died down, Highway circled back around in amazement of the unicorn’s power.

“Tha-That was amazing! I think I’m beginning to understand why Celestia picked you personally to deliver her packages.”

The exhausted stallion gave a satisfactory thought to this, and then turned to Highway. “Thanks, but we’re still not out of this.” Another siren let out its cry as they both looked quickly toward the sound. “Highway, I’m going to have to meet you outside the gate.”

“What-again?” he replied in disbelief. “But what if you don’t”- he stopped suddenly, thinking about what he was about to say; and felt really stupid for it.

Commune raised his eyebrow and gave a glancing look to the two, armored killing machines now stuck head first inside the steel towers behind him. At this point, South was pretty sure his friend could take care of himself.

“Now, as I was saying, I’ll meet you outside the gates alright?”

“Yeah, it’s fine…but if I don’t make it”-

“You will make it. If we could make it this far, we definitely can make it all the way.”

Highway drooped his head as he thought about it for a moment, and then looked back up to him. “Let’s do this! We are going to make it out of this city aren’t we?”

With a smile on his face, Commune replied, “Yes,” he gave a chuckle, “yes we are.”

In a red flash he disappeared; this time Highway wouldn’t worry about his friend. Now he could focus on defeating the Neon Bolts. He was sure that with all that armor on, at least one was still conscious.

Sure enough, the one who had crash-landed on the roof in front of him got up off the ground. Even through his mask, he could tell that this pony was seething like a furnace to take revenge. He scraped his hoof against the ground in controlled anger, as sparks flew beneath him; his black armor looked strangely more intimidating than before. He lit up red, as this was the same one that had tried to finish him in the first place. The two pegasi were staring each other down, both injured and quickly becoming exhausted, until finally, the Neon Bolt charged.

It was so fast that South barely had time to move, the enemy’s charge had his full fury inside of it; or rather it was his full fury. In the last moments before impact, Highway flapped his wings so hard that they nearly tore off! Leaping up three stories in under a second is hard to imagine, but even doing so, the heat from the Bolt’s spell still singed the tips of his wings and feet. The charge led the armored pegasus through a metal wall; this time, he wouldn’t get up for some time.

Highway shouted in joy, “Yeah! Whoohoo! How do you like that you sick jerks!” He’d defeated a Neon Bolt in a simple game of chicken, why wouldn’t he celebrate?

Just then a searchlight’s beam nearly hit him, and it reminded him all too suddenly of the danger he was in. Gasping as the beam passed, he flew up and over the buildings; making his way to the factory entrance in the cooling breeze.