怪談とポニー Ep2 - Factory Reset

The lower door to the second level surprised the girls: making Misty huff meaningfully – it was locked with three locks at once.

“Now that’s interesting!” struggling with them, she threw an expressive glance at the friends; the girls nodded without words.

The heavy door opened, revealing another dark hallway; all the girls shivered – the draught became easily perceptible. Unlike the upper level, that one wasn’t completely silent. Right upon entering, the girls fancied running water behind the walls: some communications, driven through there, were partially used – the flow was low, making the large pipes produce a variety of echoing sounds. As the friends proceeded into the corridor, looking around much more carefully than before – their flashlights scanned every inch of the walls and ceiling with familiar doors and lamps, they could almost hear the air moving along that level freely, producing the variety of sounds, which usually scare folks in the tunnels and abandoned buildings.

“It sounds like some subway tunnel,” muttered Misty – the place felt oppressive for all of them. “Or a submarine on depth,” added she, when the distant sounds of constructions crackling reached their ears. “It’s not the building,” she leaned her ear to the wall, “these subtle sounds aren’t produced by the basement constructions… something beneath them rather. What?!” she glanced at the girls, who stopped staring at Misty in bewilderment.

“You have been on a submarine…” exhaled Windy. A tint of envy sounded in her voice.

“There is something new we find out every day,” Flaunty chuckled a bit tightly; Lacy started nodding.

“Come on, mates!” Misty felt as she began flushing. “It was only once… Besides, it was rather a large bathysphere than a proper u-boat. Still, it sounded similarly…”

“Wow!” said Windy, shaking her head. “Just… And you never told!” she made a face.

“Ehhh… That’s most likely because I was… frankly speaking, I was scared shitless back then,” confessed Misty quietly. “I was… like ten or something. Wasn’t entertaining for me back then.”

“I bet you were,” Lacy hugged her friend softly. “I would be in your place! That sound of metal and concrete under some weight can give creeps to everypony.” Windy and Flaunty kept the impressed silence.

The hallway sighed with another gust of air, bringing more distorted sounds of distant metal tingling and something indiscernible, making all the girls cringe.

“Okay, let’s hurry up!” Misty braced herself and held the flashlight firmly. “Although, I wouldn’t mind Fran making us company this time. She may know more about such things as haunting… in general.”

“Having a friendly spirit at your side, yes?” Windy smirked over the shoulder, but Misty nodded with all seriousness.

Checking a few rooms, the girls made sure that the general feel of abandonment was stronger here. Most of the rooms were unused and empty, locked rather as a precaution than out of necessity; only a couple of was used for storage. Junk storage to be exact, by the look of it. Being brightly lit by their flashlights, the compartments were still giving the girls that uneasy eerie feeling… Maybe because of the sounds, which didn’t become habitual, despite being constant.

“Now I’m sure the actual underground is larger than that basement,” stated Misty after the next empty room; the occasional echoing seemed to become louder as they proceeded. “We must find another exit… or rather the way in,” added she with emphasis, “before we leave.”

“It looks as if neither Thorntwist nor any of his workponies entered here since they locked the old building,” dropped Windy pensively. “Or even longer. They must have blocked the second level of the basement after repairs in the building.”

“Well, normally they wouldn’t have to,” noticed Flaunty holding Lacy around the shoulders and checking the hallway behind. “Two doors at the stairwell had to be enough… if the keys were in the proper hands only! Not to mention that the basement entrance itself was locked.”

“They must have somewhere to come from!” nodded Lacy with a shudder.

“Ahem!” when the girls directed their flashlights to the voice, Windy stood in front of very large doors examining them carefully. “Does that fit, pals?” she turned to them with a grin.

The found doors, metal, thick, with rows of rivets on their edges and across the leaves, resembled something more fitting for a large hangar than some storage or office. One simple lock would look hilarious and inappropriate if it wasn’t complimented by a huge bar crossing the leaves from one wall to another and fixed with nothing less than a crowbar. ‘One would need a tank to break through from inside when it is locked!’ thought Misty, examining the construction in the light of her lamp.

“I wonder if anypony checked that place,” Flaunty musingly cupped her chin. “This looks serious enough to break through…”

“Unless you have everything… to open it,” uttered Misty and Lacy in unison.

Together they barely managed to remove the obstacle aside after taking the crowbar out of the rings. Misty found the key expectedly labelled as “Hangar” and crouched over the keyhole.

“Well, let’s assume they had keys… somehow, but still… Most unicorns need to see what they apply their magic to!” elaborated she throwing a meaningful glance at the crowbar then looking back at her friends. “I wonder how…”

Instead of an answer, Lacy pointed at something she noticed the first, shining her flashlight at the small window at the door surface. Blocked by a thick metal plate, it could be easily opened from inside for peeking. The lock crackled and unblocked their way.

“Damn!” Windy couldn’t hold back the word, when with their entire effort used the large doors opened slowly, revealing the broad dark space behind them. Their flashlights couldn’t reach the far walls of that… hangar.

It was tangibly colder inside; the girls shivered involuntarily zipping their jackets. The wind – as airflow that strong can be hardly called draught – blew out strong enough to sweep under their feet a small amount of dust. The latter covered the floor and even formed a low bolster along the lower door edge. Brushing around with their flashlights, the girls could spot various crates scattered around; alone and stacked, they were all peppered with the same dust. Thin and hard, it was nowhere alike house dust – soft and fluffy, born by paper or cloth; on the contrary, it looked as thin sand, as Misty felt touching it and rubbing between her fingers.

“I knew there was an old mine near that factory,” uttered she in bewilderment, “but I had no idea there was a mine under the factory!”

“It’s like a graveyard…” Lacy looked around the scattered dusty crates and an electric loader lonely rusting deeper in the hangar. Apparently, the workers brought it there through the working elevator back then.

As if in response to her words, the wind kept bringing the cacophony of mixed sounds gust by gust. The whole hangar sighed occasionally; faint long crackling, tingling of chains, water drops were mixing in that breath, making the girls come closer together instinctively. The air smelling of dust didn’t bring any voices or sounds of mechanisms working, but Misty felt shivers coming up and down her spine nevertheless.

Sticking together, they slowly proceeded, walking around large chunks of garbage on the floor. Finally, their flashlights hit the far wall. To friends’ surprise, the hangar appeared smaller than one could judge by the sounds. There was a reason for that difference.

Hidden from the direct view behind another large stack of crates, there was a wide crack in the wall, bringing in the strong chilly airflow and all the weird noises. Misty stopped staring at several large and small fragments of the masonry in the spot of her flashlight: the concrete debris strewed the floor inside the room, none of them being inside the dark passage as the girls found out lighting the space behind the crack. Misty exhaled slowly, raising her eyes at the friends – the girls didn’t need any words to tune into her thoughts.

“W-e-e-ell…” quietly drawled Windy Mane, squeezing the flashlight like a police baton. “Anypony doubts that the accidents had an entirely natural reason?”

“If we assume they had all the necessary keys copied… ” Misty nodded, coming closer and peeking into the crack. The flashlight in her hands trembled emotionally: the large empty passageway behind was carved in the rock, its walls reinforced with beams and concrete plates. The faintest touch on the rough edge of the crack woke the rustling echo inside. “Mates! It’s like some subway tunnel!” breathed out Misty, turning to her friends in bewilderment. The underground breathed in response, distorting the echo of her voice and making everypony’s skin crawl. Lacy coped with her shivers and joined Misty, taking a look into the dark tunnel.

“One could bring an army through that way if needed,” she breathed in fitfully, taking off her glasses and wiping them clean.

“Amazing! How much trust mister Thorntwist has in his ponies,” noticed Flaunty, examining the huge passage over their heads. “Even after the idea about an insider came into his mind, he didn’t guess to check the basement thoroughly.”

“He couldn’t imagine somepony to give out all the keys,” chuckled Windy; the tunnel echoed as if a knife travelled on the metal plate. “S-s-sorry!”

“So, are we going to check inside?” hands akimbo the pegasus filly tapped the floor impatiently.

“No!” firmly stated Misty. “Not now definitely!” This time everypony agreed with her, even Windy admitted the reasoning.

“Too much of the unknown lies behind,” elaborated Misty under her breath, scanning the tunnel with her flashlight again: the ray got lost in the darkness when directed right along, barely hinting at the distant turn of the passage. “The system must have at least one exit to the surface more, that’s given. But… Who knows how many tunnels are there? How deep they go?” her voice trembled, bracing herself the filly added. “If what lies behind factory basement is the ancient mine indeed, it could be a real labyrinth there.”

“We are unprepared to go in that deep!” assumed she, seeing the unanimous agreement of the girls. Getting out her mobile again, Misty took a few pictures of the tunnel entrance; the sound resulted in something resembling a flock of bats going airborne, instantly making her browse through the settings muting the camera shutter. Stepping back, she made a shot of the crack itself. “I guess that’ll be more than convincing!”

Leaving the place much more enthusiastically than they entered, the girls did their best to close and lock everything exactly as it was. Even if the supposed saboteurs – the friends silently agreed that a single pony could hardly plot and stage all that, let alone break through the concrete wall of the tunnel and basement – had keys, letting them know about girls’ presence was undesired.