Railway Adventure: a New Generation

by The Blue EM2

Chapter 4-Underground, Underground, Wandering Underground...

The next day, Izzy was out in town shopping for supplies. Her food stocks at the Brighthouse had run a little low, and as such she thought it would be prudent to stock up whilst she was focused and had the time. So far it had yielded positive results. She already had bread, some cheese, and had even managed to score a discount on some salami, managing to acquire two packs for the price of one. In short, her day was going very well.

As she strolled along, she suddenly spotted a familiar face wandering about. Misty was looking at the front of Sunny's smoothie cart in confusion. "I thought she was normally here around now!" she said, looking a little frustrated.

Izzy bounced over. "Hi Misty! I haven't seen you in a while!"

Misty jumped and swung round. "Oh, er, hi Izzy! Err, yeah, long time no see! Heh. I just got back into town after a while away, you know?" She paused. "Err, where's Sunny? Normally her smoothie cart's open by now, unless the hours have changed and it opens later. Or closes earlier. I don't really know which would be worse."

Izzy looked at a notice and smiled. "Hey! She started using my code!"

"Namely?"

Izzy ran her hoof over some text. "B. R. B. F. B. B. B!" She smiled. "It's short for Be Right Back From Bridlewood, Best Buddy! And that clearly means she considers you a buddy, Misty!"

Misty nodded. "Err, yeah. I was hoping to get Kiwi Power Blast with Purple Heart as I quite like the flavour."

Izzy smiled. "So, a kiwi pony huh? Always thought you'd be a strawnanna or dazzleberry type. Or possibly even wild blueberry. But you do you, I figure. Come on, we have so much to discuss! It's been so long since you were last in town!"

Misty quickly slipped her locket into her bag. She couldn't afford to have Opaline contact her at an inconvenient moment and blow the entire operation. She simply went along with Izzy and tried to go through the motions as best she could, hoping her social awkwardness didn't cause other problems.

Thankfully, she was with Izzy, who seemed to be utterly oblivious to her social awkwardness. "So!" she said, with a grin on her face. "How have the days been treating you, Misty?"

"Oh, it's been so so," Misty replied. "I've mostly been doing normal... stuff. The sort of stuff a pony does. And how about you, Izzy?"

"Oh, we've been super busy round here. Loads of new fruit to harvest from the community garden, mysteries to solve, and possibly even a wedding to plan."

"Oh?" Misty said. This was news. "Who's getting married?"

"It's not a confirmation of a wedding, but probably actually a possible chance of a wedding. I heard it through the grapevine, so don't tell anypony else, but according to Pipp Queen Haven and Alphabittle are a thing!"

Misty was surprised. "Well, being physical objects as well as living beings they do qualify as things, but-"

"No! As in a couple!"

"Right," Misty thought to herself. Opaline might want to hear of this. If there were possible romantic entanglements, they could be used to her advantage. "Well, congrats to them I guess. But why are we heading this way?"

At that moment in time, they had excited through the edge of town opposite to the Brighthouse, and were still heading that way as they spoke. It certainly seemed an odd way to be going, but the reason for heading this way soon became clear.

"The coast road is really lovely at this time of day," Izzy said, as they went along the pathway towards the coast. "See those glowing rocks? The locals call them the Glowing Rocks. Creative, I know!"

Misty, however, was still thinking. Something felt a bit off about this journey, and as such she looked about.

But just then she stepped on something, and the ground gave way beneath her! "Izzy! Help!"

Izzy wheeled around and saw Misty disappearing into a large hole. "Don't worry Misty!" Izzy called. "I'll save you!" She dived into the hole and followed her down. "WHEEEEE!"

Eventually, their journey down into the ground ended with them in a large cavern. "You OK?" Izzy asked.

Misty checked herself over. "No broken bones or bruises," she said. "But how did we get down here?"

"The ground gave way, of course!" Izzy replied, before her eyes widened at something behind her. "Oh my hoofness. Is that what I think it is?"

---

The hours seemed to slowly tick by as Hitch glanced at the clock. The main problem with his line of work was that it barely resembled what you saw in the movies. Pony chases were few and far between, and the most exciting things that normally happened around her concerned earth ponies resizing vegetables for some reason. This meant that most of his day was spent doing paperwork.

Lots and lots of paperwork.

It was secure work, and pretty formulaic. This also made it pretty boring. Hitch checked the clock again for what was probably the sixth time, only to see it had only advanced about two minutes. If time flies when you're having fun, then the inverse is also true; when bored, time slows to a crawl.

Hitch was filling in so many forms as he had catchup to do. Various incidents had escaped his attention, and now he was facing the consequences of not staying up to date. He double checked the incident list, as was his custom, and noticed still nothing new. Whilst his desire for something to happen was one he knew was dangerous, it could have positive benefits. After all, he had met his new friends as a consequence of something interesting happening. Maybe he should roll with it more in the future.

He ticked another box and yawned to himself. The rules always had it that an incident happened just before a break, but he seemed to be lucky so far.

Suddenly, his incident reporter beeped, and he checked it. "Disturbance at the CanterLogic factory?" he asked. "That's not good. I'll get down there right away." He looked back. "Kevin, you watch the station until I get back!"

The bird saluted as Hitch got on his way, speeding towards the old factory at speed. He skidded to a stop outside the entrance, and shook his head as he saw Sprout. "What have you done now, Sprout? Made giant exploding berries again?"

Sprout shook his head. "Wasn't me, boss! I've finished my community service, remember? I heard a strange noise coming from the tunnels underneath the factory and thought it should be investigated. Seeing as I'm not on the force anymore I couldn't go in, but you can, as our resident police pony."

Hitch nodded. "Very well. Let me get down there and take a look."

Hitch dashed back to the station to collect a HAZMAT suit, then returned back to the factory ready for his mission. He made his way towards the pipes. "Colonel, if anything happens let me know, OK?"

The turtle nodded, though his slow speed meant he would struggle to go anywhere fast. Hitch went on his way into the tunnel and wandered down it, a small torch on his suit illuminating the pipes. These were originally meant for the discharge of waste from weapons production (as it turns out making weapons is an astonishingly messy business on the chemical level), and although manufacturing of weapons there had ceased a while ago, there was still a backlog of toxic waste to clear from the building whilst the structure was refitted for the production of consumer goods and tools such as tractors and combine harvesters.

Hitch made his way deeper down the tunnels, glancing left and right to check for the cleaning robots that periodically patrolled the building for waste. Although programmed to recognise ponies, the units weren't exactly quick to steer around objects, and in fact were pretty prone to crashing into objects. They were best avoided if possible.

Hitch rounded another bend, still amazed at the scale of the tunnels. "Still hard to believe we used to just dump the waste from this process into the ocean," he said to himself. "No wonder things got so bad around here."

He was close to completing his checks when he spotted a small room set inside the area. This was a small refuge area for plant workers who needed to hide when the automated processes were running. It was possible something was inside there- besides, Thunder had looked down here when Sparky had vanished all that time ago.

Hitch dived inside the room and closed the door behind him, sighing as the pressure change indicator came on. This signified a switch in room pressure from one setting to another, which meant he could proceed.

His eyes widened when he saw what was in there. "Cloudpuff? How did you get down here?

But Cloudpuff wasn't the only thing in the room.

Author's Note:

Well, another chapter down, and some interesting discoveries. Readers of mine who are familiar with Thomas and Friends will probably appreciate the references in there.

The tunnels beneath the CanterLogic factory were based on those inside the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in Nevada, United States:

Next time: AC/DC!

Comments

[The Blue EM2]

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A wild new chapter arrived!

[Comickook]

Hello there. Thanks very much for getting this next chapter up. REALLY appreciate the work going into the exchanges, characterizations, (limited) action and future set-up. I certainly understood Misty's confusion about that bit of Izzy's code. And, yeah, keeping Opaline from contacting at too awkward a moment was probably a good call (plus it allows the gang to have a better influence on Misty while the locket is in the bag). Also appreciated the reference to the most recent "Mare's Day" episode of "Tell Your Tale" (since you are placing this before Chapter 4) and Hitch talking to his animal friends before he went into the tunnel and reflected on the reasoning the tunnel was in such a bad state.

REALLY looking forward to more of this.

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

Misty quickly slipped her locket into her bag. She couldn't afford to have Opaline contact her at an inconvenient moment and blow the entire operation. She simply went along with Izzy and tried to go through the motions as best she could, hoping her social awkwardness didn't cause other problems.

I wonder what she's up to?

Hitch dashed back to the station to collect a HAZMAT suit, then returned back to the factory ready for his mission. He made his way towards the pipes. "Colonel, if anything happens let me know, OK?"

I'm pretty sure that won't be necessary Hitch.

The turtle nodded, though his slow speed meant he would struggle to go anywhere fast. Hitch went on his way into the tunnel and wandered down it, a small torch on his suit illuminating the pipes. These were originally meant for the discharge of waste from weapons production (as it turns out making weapons is an astonishingly messy business on the chemical level), and although manufacturing of weapons there had ceased a while ago, there was still a backlog of toxic waste to clear from the building whilst the structure was refitted for the production of consumer goods and tools such as tractors and combine harvesters.

Ok, now it makes sense why he brought the suit.

But Cloudpuff wasn't the only thing in the room.

Wait what!?

[The Blue EM2]

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Looking back on this, it's surreal to see how rapidly the show changed in that short span between Mare Family Mare Problems and Missing the Mark (and how my prediction of the fate of CanterLogic was completely off the mark). This makes some of my writing seem positively quaint in comparison. Anyway, this new tunnel should have all sorts of exciting things in it.

[The Blue EM2]

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1. Knowing Misty, probably not much good (this takes place before As The Misty Clears as that short hadn't aired before I began planning this).

2 and 3. CanterLogic; a one mare environmental disaster.

4. You'll find out more tomorrow.

[Thomlight Sparkle 1]

Lots and lots of paperwork.

Oh, that darn paperwork. Wouldn't it be easier if it all just Blew away?

[The Blue EM2]

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Tell me about it. The problem is it cannot blow away for most of us; it arrives in digital form!