From the Ashes

by Keeper of time RD

Chapter 6: The Waterworks

Scootaloo took a full day to awaken from her adventure at the power plant, and Sweetie Belle had insisted she remain on bed rest for a second day before letting her out of her room at Sweet Apple Acres. And apparently a lot had happened while she was out of the loop.

Upwards of half the ponies they’d freed from the slavers had left. Many returning to wherever they’d called home before the slavers had ruined things for them, some heading west for safer lands near Vanhoover.

Also shortly after the adventure at the dam, Dinky and two other unicorns had asked Sweetie Belle to teach them the spell to purge dark magic, so they could help cleanse the taint around town. While they couldn’t quite do it yet, they now followed Sweetie everywhere when she was out cleaning up what she could.

Speaking of cleaning up the dark magic, more of the apple farm had become usable in the past two days. Not to mention that complaints of eating nothing but apples had inspired Sweetie to cleanse some of the other crop’s growing areas.

Even now Apple Bloom was out replanting some seeds in the carrot garden portion of her family farm. With any luck they’d be one growing cycle away from adding fresh carrots to the food supply here.

“I hate feeling useless,” Scootaloo lamented from her lonely vigil at the window at one end of the second floor hallway.

“Then I’ve got good news,” Rumble said sarcastically as he flew up the stairs, clearly having overheard the mare. Scootaloo only raised an eyebrow at him to ask what he was talking about, so he continued, “Between the new farmland and the need to purify the drinking water we aren’t going to have any free time at all soon.”

She blinked at him, clearly not understanding his logic.

“In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s you, me, and North Wind. We’re the only three pegasi left in town! And I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure how I’m going keep leading scavenging runs on the hospital with everypony bugging me for clean rainwater all the time!”

At that Scootaloo bowed her head and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again she said, “Ah yes. So we need to get the old water pumps and purifiers up and running again.”

“Wait, first you know how to repair generators, now you’re telling me you know how water pumps and stuff work too?”

Scootaloo shrugged. “Machines are machines. They all work off the same basic ideas. And I’ve seen a few instruction manuals along the way. Those are always nice and they’re usually around if they weren’t burned in the war, or rotted over the years.”

A blush formed on Rumble’s cheeks that practically screamed ‘why didn’t I think of that?!’ Although the only thing he actually said was, “I’m coming with you!”

“Fine, I’m heading out after lunch.”

* * * * * * *

In her head, Scootaloo had envisioned herself and Rumble being the only two ponies coming out to investigate the old building. Some how, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle’s students had also come along. And at this point if Sweetie wasn’t passed out on the sofa from magic fatigue, Scoots suspected she’d have come along too.

Apple Bloom had traded the hunting rifle on her combat saddle for a shotgun. Mainly because they were out of rifle bullets but still had shotgun ammo. Although between herself and one of the unicorns, who had a white coat and blue mane, they might run out of that after today if they weren’t careful. Dinky and the unicorn with tan coat and brown mane had pistols wrapped in their magic.

Rumble still had a rifle on one side of his combat saddle, but he’d given up the ammo for it to Apple Bloom before the adventure at the dam. So right now, only the revolver strapped to his front right leg had any bullets. While that set up would require both of his front legs to use, aiming his right at the target and pushing the button trigger he’d rigged up on the side with his left hoof, using both hooves to fight wasn’t nearly the problem for a strong flyer like him as it would’ve been for an earth pony.

Somehow five guns and a pegasus with a belt full of clouds seemed like overkill to Scootaloo. As far as she could tell no pony else claimed to have any skill as a mechanic. So what did the rest of them plan on doing while she was figuring out the pumps and filters?

She’d already led the team past the old sign that read, ‘Ponyville Waterworks’ when a possible answer crossed her mind.

“Any local stories about how evil this place has become I should know about?”

The ponies wielding guns all exchanged looks. Then Apple Bloom spoke up, “Ah don’t think they ever tried to fix this place. Seeing as they never got the town’s power back on, there wouldn’t have been much point.”

Scootaloo took another look around. The waterworks was an out-of-sight-out-of-mind type of building in the forested hills west of town, about halfway between the dam and city limits. The building itself was just about two stories tall, and several times as wide and long as the average barn back on the acres. The cement construction and water main pipes coming out and heading off made it an island of industrial design in the middle of the woods.

With that, she pulled a cloud out of her belt and kept it at the ready, tucked under her wing as she stepped onto the cement ground that marked the clear line between the facility and the forest. Apple Bloom joined her friend on point as they moved forward as quietly as they could. Rumble, Dinky and the others moved as groups of two on either side and slightly behind, watching for trouble from the sides.

Old metal doors, once painted bright blue, were now peeled mostly to the steal core. Hints of rust could be seen along the edges. And when Scootaloo tried to look in, a decade’s worth of dust and window fog had made the window all but opaque.

The slow, and as stealthy approach as a team of six could manage, continued as they pushed a door open and entered.

The first room to greet them was a reception area. A few chairs and a coffee table off in one corner and a reception desk furnished the room, all covered in a thick layer of dust. On the left side of the room was a short hallway with doors clearly marked as the restrooms. On the right side, another door had a faded label, but the brass design gave the impression of being somepony’s office. Behind the reception desk was another door and a large set of windows showing that the main water processing plan was behind the back wall. Although from in the reception room all that could be seen was several large vats.

Only the ponies exploring disturbed the eternal silence the place. Content that nothing was going to jump out at them, Scootaloo flipped the light switch. Between the two fluorescent lamps on the ceiling three of their four bulbs slowly flickered to life, while one gave a noble effort for a few seconds before going out for good.

With her wings, Scootaloo pointed to those following her and then to the sides. They took the hint. Rumble and one other moved to examine the office, while Dinky and one of her fellow magic students moved to clear the restrooms. Apple Bloom followed her winged friend to the room with the vats.

“What are you smiling about?” Bloom asked when she noticed the look that had appeared on the orange pegasus’ face.

First Scoots blinked, then she chided herself in her mind for slipping back into her solo adventurer mode. Pointing a hoof she answered, “There, that looks like the head technician’s office to me.”

Looking to where her friend was pointing, Apple Bloom saw a small metal room built in the back, in the upper right corner. Several catwalks connected the suspected room to the catwalks that went over and between the vats. A set of stairs in the back also went down to the ground level right by some other machines. In short anypony in that office had easy access to everything of value in the water treatment plant.

The earth pony nodded. After their shared adventure at the power plant she’d already seen the usefulness of instruction manuals and the like that Scootaloo had found and used to get the hydroelectric dam back into operation.

Scootaloo’s eyes were drawn to another set of stairs nearby that also went up to the catwalks. While her pegasus instincts perceived altitude as safety, her experience in Las Pegasus looked to the vats and saw cover. Moving forward she sided with cover and chose to cross the room on the ground.

She’d only gotten halfway across the room before she’d become annoyed. You see, unlike the dam, there was no constant rush of water from outside to drown out lesser sounds. This place was quiet as a tomb, and as such she could head just how loud Apple Bloom’s steps were compared to her own carefully placed and near soundless ones. Throw in the fact that the ground was cement and every time the earth pony took a step a clop loud enough to echo throughout the room rang out.

When they reached the far end of the room without incident, Apple Bloom abandon even her sorry attempt at stealth. “Looks like no pony’s here,” she said. Then she banged a hoof on one of the vats and the water tank rang out like a gong. “Not even the water’s here.”

Scoots was only half faking a heart attack when she grabbed her chest, as she genuinely had been surprised by the at the thunderous sound her friend had made. If there had been any creature around unaware of their presence, they knew somepony was in the building now.

By the time she’d reached the sky box office, Rumble and the others had joined them in the main water treatment, holding tank room. Once he’d flown over, Scootaloo asked, “Learn anything useful?”

“Not really,” he answered. “I found an old journal. From the dates in the journal, the poor gal held out here for three year before something got her.” Scootaloo raising an eyebrow prompted him to continue, so he added, “The last entry mentioned feral sounds. But she didn’t seem too sure if it was really an animal or a demon making the noise. Given that she left the journal behind I’m guessing ‘tracking down the source’ didn’t go so well for her.”

“I see,” Scoots answered before returning her attention to the diagrams in the manual she’d found.

After a few minutes of reading intact paper and labeling on control panels on the various machines and having the main breakers reset in order to restore the power, Apple Bloom’s patience reached its end and she asked, “So, Scootaloo, what’s the verdict? Can we fix this place?”

“Well if somepony knows how, recharging the magic crystals in the purifier unit would make this warning light happy. But the main problem seems to be this one. And it’s saying something’s wrong with the underground pump.”

“Underground pump?”

“Yes, according to the manuals, this place draws its water from an underground lake directly bellow us. There should be an access tunnel around here somewhere.”

“You mean the submarine-like hatch over by the pipe feeding into the purifier?” Dinky asked.

“That sounds like it, yeah. Let’s go see where that goes.”

They didn’t have to go far. The hatch held a ladder beside the main pipe that went down a few floors worth of distance. At the base of the ladder the pipe turned and went down a short, narrow passage before it opened up into a large cavern where the underground lake was. In the shallows near where they emerged into the cavern was a large water pump.

With the power on, the area was lit by strings of lights that seemed oddly like white Hearth’s Warming lights that had been used when the passage was dug but then never replaced by anything more professional. However the lights only lit the tunnel and near side of the cavern, so about halfway across the lake it became too dark to see much of anything, save the glisten of the water as it rippled.

As for the water pump itself, a small red light was flashing on its control board. No doubt indicating what emergency override had been tripped to put the pump on lock down and stop it from destroying itself.

Everypony felt it. Something was wrong here. Perhaps that’s why everypony had lined up along the wall, just beside the entrance, as if to stay in the light as best they could. It probably didn’t help that the team also understood that Scootaloo was the mechanic here, so only she needed to set hoof in the waters around the pump.

Yet even the lone mechanic understood this feeling, maybe she did so even better than anypony else here. The feeling wasn’t quite the same as standing in a tainted place. It was more like standing in the presence of a tainted creature. There was no doubt in her mind. Something twisted to evil lurked down here.

But that didn’t change the fact that she still had a job to do. So pulling her cloud close, she moved slowly to the edge of the water. The ground between the shore and pump had clearly been shaped by magic, it was flat but rough, like the cement of a swimming pool it gave good traction even when wet.

Halfway between the water and the pump Scoots froze. She’d felt something else make the water ripple, something big. Taking her cloud in her mouth she tensed her legs, primed her wings and scanned the water with her eyes, looking for any clue as to where she was about to be attacked from. Then she spotted it, a ring of disturbed water to the left.

With that her wings became a blur, buzzing like a humming bird’s, as she flapped them for pure thrust. In an instant the water exploded. Twice actually. Where, she’d been standing as she burst into a run, kicking up the water around her hooves. And at the edge of the shallows where a large reptilian form breached the surface, lunging at the spot Scootaloo had been only a moment before.

Between the creature’s long snout, short legs, and massive jaws, it only took a moment before everypony’s instincts named the predator.

“Alligator!” somepony declared of the beast that was about twice as tall as the average pony and about four times as long.

Yet the cry fell short of a proper description, for that Dinky’s cry pointed out the obvious. “Taint-gator! It’s teeth are coated in dark magic!”

Yet as the glowing purple spikes slammed shut just short of Scootaloo’s tail, the pegasus mare couldn’t help but make an observation she kept to herself. ‘Actually I think its teeth ARE shadow magic.’ Out loud she only shouted a question through the cloud in her mouth, “Is that thing alive?!”

“How would it be chasing you if it weren’t alive!?” Apple Bloom demanded sarcastically.

“A spirit, dang it! Can any of you unicorns see if it still has a spirit in there or is it only shadow magic?” Scootaloo clarified, as she ran down the edge of the underground lake’s shore.

All of the unicorns’ horns glowed a little brighter, yet Dinky was the only one to answer.

“All I’m getting is dark magic!”

That was about when Scootaloo ran out of shoreline to run down. Yet rather than exit the shallows to dry ground and head back toward her friends, she leapt and twisted herself to hit the cave wall hooves first and ran along the wall out over the deeper part of the lake.

The tainted alligator took the opportunity to dive back into the depths, clearly at an intercept angle for the orange pegasus out over the water.

As she ran, Scoots changed how she was flapping her wings. Slowing them and beating them more fully, she added lift to the equation and kicked away from the wall, taking true flight. And with her front legs now free she reached up and took the cloud between her front hooves.

The water again exploded and the gator soared at Scootaloo, jaws open and ready to claim their prize.

Yet, even as the water was breached, she was already giving her little cloud a jab. The flash and crack of thunder filled the chamber. The lightning bolt flashed onto its target. The electricity arced through the gator, forcing its jaws to slam shut sooner then intended. Its closed snout was met with hooves, as Scoots bounded off of it, soaring away and leaving the taint-gator to fall back into the shallows.

The lightning blast also seemed to shake her friends from their panicked daze. Or at least Apple Bloom and Rumble as they opened fire as soon as it splashed down. Dinky and the others joined in on the attack a few seconds later.

The bullets that stuck home drew only black and purple flames rather than blood. Yet another sign that the poor thing had already been fully corrupted by the taint.

Abandoning the pursuit of the elusive pegasus, the beast turned its gaze to the easiest target it could find, the lone earth pony of the bunch.

Bloom cursed under her breath when she saw the gator charge at her. And again when she heard the click from her shotgun that meant she’d depleted her current clip. And a third time when she realized that by backing up and firing for the last few seconds, she’d put herself along the shore and let the gator get between her and entrance tunnel.

A fact that was further evidenced by the splash in the water just to her left, the result of a missed shot by one of the unicorns and proving that she was almost directly behind the target from their point of view. On the upside, Rumble had flown out over the water and was still firing at the gator from an angle that didn’t put Bloom in the potential line of fire.

Apple Bloom swallowed hard as she beheld the open jaws of the dark magic infused alligator.

Suddenly a splash of white and blue light flashed on back of the gator’s head. Immediately it stumbled, its jaws falling shut at most a foot away from Bloom’s muzzle.

All eyes fell on the source of the strange attack, Scootaloo. She had landed, pulled her saddlebags forward and slipped her wings in underneath them. Or rather she’d slipped her wing into the sleeve hidden on the back of the right side bag that contained the firing mechanism for the silver pistol held within. As the gator tried to stand, she fired again, leaving no doubt as that the silver barrel poking out of her bag was a gun that, until now, none of her friends even knew she had.

With the reprieve bought her, Apple Bloom hit a switch next to the shotgun on her combat saddle, the one that released the empty clip and pulled the next one out of the connected ammo bag. By now Dinky and the other unicorns had levitated their guns out to a better angle and opened fire again.

‘Three, four…’ Scootaloo thought, counting out each use of her most precious type of ammo. In her travels, she’s come to understand that light magic was the best possible counter to demons and their tainted gifts to the world.

Every time the alligator tried to stand, Scoots fired another light-magic infused silver bullet. All the while everypony else was dumping their ammo into the beast as fast as they could.

When Scootaloo fired shot number six, the strike differed from the first five rounds. Rather than a splash of light magic at the impact point, the light seemed to stay in the hole punched by the bullet and began to spread out like cracks in the gator’s skin.

“Dive!” Scoots’ shouted as soon as she saw the new reaction.

Taking the lead in her advice, she leapt in the deeper waters of the lake. Apple Bloom followed suit a second later, Rumble took a moment to shrug in confusion before folding his wings and letting himself fall into the lake. Judging that they were too far from the water, Dinky and the other two bolted down the entrance tunnel for cover instead.

And not a moment too soon either. The instant the cracks of light magic had completely enveloped the tainted alligator it exploded in a blast of dark magic fire.

* * * * * *

Six ponies staggered out of the waterworks building. Three of them soaking wet, three of them covered in burns. As soon as they reached the edge of the cement, they collapsed into the forest grass, half of them vomiting as soon as they went down.

“I don’t feel so good…” Rumble groaned.

Scootaloo gave a weak laugh. “Yeah, I think Sweetie Belle’s next taint cleansing project is us.”

“Ah don’t miss this feeling one bit,” Apple Bloom moaned. “But Ah may be able to save Sweetie the trouble.”

With that Bloom pulled a canteen with a light blue, four-pointed star painted on the side.

“Is that, holy water?” Scootaloo asked.

The earth pony took a gulp from the canteen, then answered, “Yep. Ah had a stash of the stuff from when Ah was mapping Ponyville’s taint. The slavers took it when they caught me. Turned out some of it was still left once we got rid of them. Not enough to cleanse a building, but Ah got enough for a few ponies.”