怪談とポニー Ep2 - Factory Reset

“Ughhh… It seems that I got all my limbs numb!” quietly complained Windy, fidgeting on the wooden crates stacked in the dark corner of the production hall. The girl turned over and lay on her stomach, stretching hard. “What about time, pal?”

“Half past midnight,” Misty checked the watch shortly. She was sitting on the crates, wrapping her arms around the knees and staring into the night. The girls hid at their vantage point for over an hour already, forced into the less than comfortable poses, thus Windy’s compliant sounded reasonable. “I’m one hundred per cent sure that something must happen tonight. We should only wait.”

“That’s the toughest part of it,” smirked Windy flashing her teeth in the dark. The only dim light occasionally travelling through the hall was the moonlight, entering the high windows, when the running across the sky clouds spread up; it gave everything inside the ghostly grey-bluish look.

“Frankly speaking, I’d prefer nothing to happen tonight,” whispered Flaunty. “We reporting about the underground system in the morning and everything being taken on alert and sealed completely would be the ideal outcome,” confessed the girl with a tiny smile. She leaned her back at more crates behind, letting the head with braids rest on her lap; Lacy nested cuddling Flaunty’s knees, girl’s eyes were closed, but her sensitively perked ears told that Lacy wasn’t asleep, rather using the opportunity to recharge. Stroking her shoulder lightly, Flaunty added. “But I realize that it would solve nothing. There may always be another way in. If we don’t find what they do exactly, this will continue endlessly…”

“…or rather until they force the factory closed and take over,” nodded Misty with a sigh. “What’s the real reason though? The mine… closed for nopony-knows-how-long? Hmpf!” She returned to observing the machinery in the alternating running stripes of moonlight and shadows.

At first, the girls wanted to take the control booth, but Flaunty convinced them to reconsider and after the second thought, they admitted the reasons. The entire production hall was perfectly visible from that spot, but they would be as well; half-glassed, the booth was flooded with the moonlight and would give them hard time hiding. Those crates though, stacked in the form of a stepped pile in the far corner of the hall, never received any light from outside and gave the friends perfect view from the darkness to the faintly lit production line. Besides; the lower step was still higher than an average pony, thus the fillies quietly lying prone on it had a fair chance to stay unnoticed.

Deadly bored, Windy audibly yawned, but the tiny sound, coming from the basement entrance the next second, made all the girls cautiously freeze at once; the redhead pegasus closed her mouth almost with a clap. The key was turning in the lock, breaking the ringing silence with a faint metal tingle. Lacy opened her eyes at once, raising the head from Flaunty’s lap and listening to the noise. Flaunty leaned forward, automatically squeezing Lacy’s shoulder.

“Shhhhh!” hissed Misty, dropping flat next to Windy. “Make no sound, mates!” In a second, two other girls followed suit from another side.

The basement door opened with a quiet rustle and the girls heard a cautious footstep on the stairs, then another one. The friends held their breath, turning all ears and regretting their heartbeat, seemingly being too loud. A lonely head slowly emerged over the edge of the stairs; strangely black, most likely masked, it cautiously turned around for a while, catching every sound with the perked ears. The shoulders showed up; after another look around, the stallion gestured somepony below and climbed out. ‘What’s that strapped to his side?’ Misty watched the sneaking intruder fixedly.

The door spat out a few more dark silhouettes: two, three… five; after the tenth, the girls were to admit they underestimated the scale of the problem. Walking upstairs one by one and quietly spreading around the production hall, the strangers had a well thought out plan.

‘A group that large, acting in a coordinated manner, they could easily do their nefarious job in a matter of minutes and leave before even getting a chance to be spotted by the security!’ Misty facepalmed inwardly, meaningfully gesturing her friends with the eyes only. ‘No way it was some hooliganism, disgruntled employee’s revenge or… even raider seizure. One doing that must have resources enough for a… distributed terrorist attack!’ the girl swallowed a lump. ‘What did Thorntwist plunge into? And us along…’

Gritting her teeth, Misty reached for the binoculars slowly; trying to take them soundlessly, she pressed its oculars to her eyes. Confirming her assumption, the shady figures headed each to the exact spot along the production line.

‘Call me a dragon, if that’s not a well-prepared scheme!’ light touch on her shoulder made Misty twitch. Windy pointed at the binoculars and then nodded towards Lacy, telling that she wanted to have a better look.

The device migrated to Lacy in complete silence and the earth filly watched the saboteurs fixedly for a while. Then she conveyed it back; opening her palms as if holding an imaginary map, Lacy performed a pointing gesture and nodded, telling with her entire look that her assumption about the exact points on the line being affected was true.

Meanwhile, two stallions reached the closest end of the conveyor line, appearing at a sneeze distance from the hiding girls. The fillies played dead, watching with wide-open eyes and catching every sound.

“All the effort only to screw up some machines and get somepony injured,” muttered one of the stallions, crouching near the exit tract of one of the machine tools; he examined the inner edge of the hood, right where the conveyor belt ran from, then looked back at his partner. “Tons of these crystals down there, completely unattended as I noticed! Why not place the shit there… and blow the entire block to Tartarus? Then the factory’s busted for sure,” chuckled he quietly, digging in his side bag and picking out something.

Another one simply shrugged; with his back to the girls, the stallion did something on his spot, shielding it from them with his body.

“I wonder, how would you make these things wait till you get away from the whole thing?” huffed he hoarsely. “Unless you’re willing to play a bucking kamikaze, pal…”

Distracted from his manipulations, girls’ eyes became chained to the thing the first saboteur revealed. Showing in the moonlight, the small object – hardly a handful – resembled a glistening cocoon to unpleasantly surprised Misty. The thing looked leathery; Misty would like to believe that faint pulse it gave was her imagination.

“What… the fuck… is that?!” under her breath slowly whispered Windy; the pegasus filly visibly struggled with nausea while the dark figure placed his nasty payload into the narrow gap under the machine hood, next to the conveyor belt. The girls exchanged wild glances; Misty saw the tint of disgust on the faces of Lacy and Flaunty as well.

“…besides, we need the factory closure, not the proper investigation turning the place inside out,” continued the second. “Officials coming and all that shit…”

“Why wouldn’t you both shut up, idiots?” a unicorn mare covered in black emerged into the stripe of dim light; her eyes, the only bright spots on masked face, shone angrily. Apparently, she heard the guys, and unfortunately for them, she looked like their leader. “What’s up colt?” she glared at the first thug. “Eager to become a gelding, eh?” another guy snorted muffledly, but shut up completely under her snake look. “The boss isn’t paying for useless talks!” rapped out the mare; her eyes scanned around, burning through the darkness and making the girls duck lower instinctively. “But can do for the dumb heads of the nosy ones!” she dropped firmly, disappearing in the narrow passage between the machinery. “Round it here and do the rest of the points…”

Through the binoculars, Misty followed the movements of those two, then addressed the rest of the saboteurs visible, alternating between them. The sense of their act was sliding away from her comprehension still. Looking back at Windy, she saw the same ‘What the hay we just saw?’ expression in her puzzled eyes. Leaning to Windy and gesturing Lacy and Flaunty to bring their heads closer, Misty barely exhaled.

“We need to look closer… When these guys leave…”

“Not tonight! Hold it right there you four!” with a tint of laziness, a cold crispy voice drawled from behind, making all the girls jump on the spot.

With the freezing heart, Misty turned around very slowly, full of foreboding; in the dark narrow passage behind their backs and the stack of crates, there was an even darker figure of the familiar mare, which scolded the chattering thugs minute ago. Covered in a tight pitch-black catsuit with small strapped side-bags and a mask of the same fabric leaving open only her eyes, horn and mane gathered behind, she held something in front of her. To guarantee the complete understanding of her intentions, a dull metallic glare on that object told the girls the mare was talking seriously. Deadly seriously!

“Now, get down slowly! One by one…” Enveloped in the dark-green aura, their flashlights started crawling out of the girls’ hands. Flaunty slid first from the crates and reached the edge to help Lacy down when the mare stopped her abruptly. “Eh-eh-eh! Keep your hands up, so I can see them! No surprises, chicks!”

“I was expecting somepony like you… since I spotted the footprints in the hangar,” smirked she, contentedly watching the bewilderment in Misty’s gaze. “Next time pay more attention to small details, chicks! He-he, next time…” her joy didn’t bode well.

The unicorn mare patiently waited for the girls getting to the floor; her snake eyes watched them fixedly, seemingly not giving a blink and a tiny chance to escape her claws. However, the fillies were too shocked at that moment to undertake anything calling for lucky wit and fast reaction. Guarding them into the light, she sensibly nudged Misty into the back with something metal and round, confirming the girl’s suspicions.

“Psst!” From the corner of her eye, Misty saw how their escort waved to the stallions they saw before. “Tie their arms behind properly! Pronto!”

Downcasting, Misty nodded to the girls to avoid struggling. ‘We’re in deep shit already! No casualties needed!’ flashed in her head, when strong hands roughly pulled her arms back tying her wrists together.

“Well, well, well!” the chilling voice went around them and the mare entered the ray of light. “So, what were you, chicks, doing here? I mean in general, other than watching us seconds ago!” the crystal chuckle caused goosebumps, seemingly not on the girls only, as Misty noticed the nearest thug cringing slightly.

Still held ready, even off the safety latch, there was a firearm in mare’s hands – Misty remembered that a weapon of that kind was called a submachine gun. She threw a glance at Windy; the pegasus girl replied with a wry mien as if telling her that an SMG can spit out a plethora of bullets in a short time, almost giving no misfire.

“So, again, what are four…” the cold eyes measured them, “high-school students doing here in the middle of the night, with powerful flashlights?” the mare levitated her catch to one of her henchponies while still keeping the girls in her view. “I would never believe that you got inside accidentally… out of pure filly curiosity!” grinned she wryly.

‘Tell her the truth?’ it glimpsed wildly, as Misty was fathoming what to reply. ‘It would hardly change anything but could win us some time perhaps… while they are thinking what to do with us. If they really wanted to avoid too much publicity around their real intentions…’ She finally braced herself.

“Simply helping uncle Nordy sort out things going on,” calmly replied Misty, hoping wholeheartedly that her voice wasn’t betraying her. “Fresh eyes having a watch and maybe noticing something, you know… ma’am,” added she.

“Uncle? Hmmm…” the mare looked dumbfounded, even lowered the gun barrel a bit; however, that meant nothing for the tied up and guarded girls. “We didn’t know about any more relatives…” she squinted suspiciously, then clicked her fingers – some decision was finally made. “Doesn’t matter now! You may sing or may not, chicks,” she leaned closer to the girls; Misty did her best to withstand the look of her cold grey eyes behind the mask. “If you are strangers, it’s your problem… And if you have something common with Thorntwist,” the elastic mask stretched giving away her poisonous smile; the squinting eyes glanced predatorily. “Then it may be a gift… To us! We may put a bold dot at that tonight.”

Misty looked around, noticing that her friends were doing the same: evidently, each of the girls was estimating their chances and the prognosis wasn’t optimistic. In the given circumstances, they couldn’t attract any helpful attention and make it through alive simultaneously. As they noticed, all the saboteurs were armed and nopony gave a look of being unconfident about that.

“We’re taking them!” commanded the rattlesnake in unicorn mare guise, taking a look around and seeing that her team, stallions and mares, mostly finished with their malicious job and started gathering around their leader. “You and you!” she pointed at the chosen ponies. “Help these two escort them to the old elevator cage and lock them in for now. I need to decide what to make of those nosy chicks,” she raised one eyebrow unequivocally. “Don’t get your eyes off them until locked, chisel-heads!” barked she at nastily smirking thugs. “Now move, everypony!”

“So… What do we have at hand?” Windy started grimly, when silence and darkness wrapped around them, the footsteps of the saboteurs grew farther and farther, finally fading. “We found out the reasons for the accidents… Even if I have no feasible idea how some fleshy crap can explode,” huffed she with disgust. “Hands tied, cage locked, with future unknown but hardly bright. Unless they…” she chuckled cutting her phrase, yet everypony understood where her thoughts were drifting.

The girls found themselves back into the factory underground again; moreover, passing the first and second levels of the basement, the unknown bandits took them further into the tunnel. Walking not so far, they most likely reached that tunnel turn, which glimpsed in girls’ flashlights, when they examined the crack in the basement wall. Going a little further, their escort stopped at the old metal cage, large enough to fit not only several ponies but some considerable excavation machine. Unfortunately, despite the size of the cage, the bars of it were close to each other, not leaving an opportunity to squeeze between them. Contrary to the factory building, there was electricity in that part of the underground; the distant sound of working generators explained the autonomous and temporary nature of the setting.

In the dim flickering light, the girls had time to notice the tunnel endlessly running into the thickening twilight; a sideway not far from them blocked with a formidable gate was to contain that elevator shaft the cage was taken from. They weren’t given a chance to spot more: pushed into the metal compartment and seated onto the dusty floor, the girls were neither untied nor given any other word, the thugs simply left, locking the rusty cage and turning off the scarce lights.

“Yeah! I would like to see things more optimistically, but…” Flaunty was to admit. “They didn’t muffle us, didn’t search us over. They took nothing, not even cell phones, except the flashlights… the latter, I suppose, only because they were large and heavy, and could serve as a weapon.”

“Cell phones are futile here, wouldn’t be any signal,” Misty pursed her lips, fighting the growing guilt and savvying frantically about their further step. “But they didn’t even check if we took any evidence…”

“I suppose we all know what it could mean,” Lacy sighed quietly; sitting next to Misty, the girl leaned closer and did her best to let out a semblance of encouraging smile.

“Another accident,” grimly nodded Flaunty in the darkness. To girls’ bewilderment, it turned out to be not absolutely dark for their accommodating eyes: they could easily see the contours of each other and the cage around, even facial expression if leaning closer. The pegasus filly added. “This time with us taking not the last role in it.”

“Girls… I drag you into a tight vice again!” Misty was about to let a tear, doing her best not to give up and keep thinking. “I’m worse than hopeless… Please forgive me!”

“Oh, come on! Stop that. Each of us volunteered… just like the other time,” Windy moved a bit on the metal floor. “We suspected the variants, we wanted an adventure… Here is the adventure! Don’t blame yourself again, pal! Arghhh…” she groaned with strain.

“What’s up, Windy?” Misty perked up as the tied hands allowed her. “Are you hurt?” Lacy and Flaunty exclaimed simultaneously.

“No, I’m fine!” Windy kept fidgeting though. “The pose isn’t that much comfortable, you know,” chuckled she forcedly.

“They may, at last, find some use for those crystals stored there,” Lacy’s thoughts returned to the matter of their nearest future. “I assume those… things,” Misty almost heard as her friend cringed, “can react with the crystals somehow… explosively, leaving that black powder as the residue.”

“That’s what she meant under “the gift for them”,” muttered Misty. “Relatives, friends or strangers… if we are done with, Thorntwist is in even deeper shit than he ever was before. And his business is definitely a goner!” added she. With rust and dust reaching her nostrils, the girl couldn’t hold back a loud sneeze. “Sniff-f-f… Sorry!”

“Yeah…” Windy Mane kept huffing and tinkering on her spot.

“Are you sure, you’re okay?” Flaunty leaned closer trying to see what was going on with her sister. “Oh!”

Something rustled on the floor.

“Yeah! And one thing I agree with that bitch about…” Misty heard Windy’s slightly panting but triumphant voice behind her ear. “Those “chisel-heads” couldn’t even make durable knots!”

“But how?” to her amazement, Misty already felt her wrists untied.

“I strained my arms, being tied, and thus gave myself some slack of the rope,” explained Windy, nuzzling Misty’s ear lightly. “Thankfully, they didn’t tie the elbows as well, what that icy bitch wanted most likely. The rest is pure luck…”

“So! Stop blaming yourself, pal!” Windy addressed the rest of the knots, freeing the girls. “And start thinking how to get us out of here.”

Jumping to her feet in a heartily flurry, Misty grabbed the untied friends in a bear hug, squeezing the girls: Windy even groaned, rubbing her side when released. But her eyes were smiling, just as Lacy’s and Flaunty’s. Then next moment the girls turned serious though.

“We need to remember the way up precisely!” Lacy and Flaunty leaned over the basement plan – the thugs failed to search them properly indeed. “So we can blaze outside and call mister Thorntwist.”

“Yeah, that turned out being above our league yet!” unwittingly confessed Windy, giving them the gas lighter miraculously found in her pockets; the girl walked around the cage, flexing her numb legs and arms.

‘We have no time to waste!’ Misty rushed to the door. Biting her lip pensively, she was staring at the old lock for a minute. ‘Well, with nothing else to try…’ crouching at the lock, she took the barrettes out of her mane and began digging in its guts, trying to find movable parts.

‘Damn, I turn out a terrible leader!’ Misty kept torturing the lock for good ten minutes and her conscience for much longer; the girl managed to fixate a couple of pins, but the rest few were not going to give up easily. With her conscience things went even worse – it didn’t show any willingness to be tamed and kept biting back harder and harder each time. ‘Their lives are threatened for the second time in a row under my, even informal, guidance!’

‘Every leader carries the load of responsibility,’ retorted her small voice. ‘The better the leader, the heavier the load, you know…’

The improvised lockpick kept crackling thinly, feeling the innards of the old rusty mechanism. Holding her breath, Misty was catching every tiny change of sound.

‘Besides, under your guidance, you managed to extricate yourself quite nicely…’

“How’s it going, pal?” cautiously asked Windy, stopping behind. “Need any light?” the girl cringed. “I hate being useless, but there is not much I can do otherwise…”

“About halfway through!” exhaled Misty, almost sticking her tongue out. “No thanks, mate, it’s nothing to see here actually, I’m rather listening…” she let out a strained smile. “I’m afraid we need help none of us can provide at the moment,” added the filly under her breath.

‘Yeah, once… when the actual threat appeared a bit overestimated! Fran wasn’t going to hurt any of us,’ Misty rebuked inwardly. ‘Now, when the danger is real… we’re in the deep… gutter!’

‘But, you had no idea, the threat was artificially agitated back then, yet made fast and proper decisions!’ glimpsed in her mind mischievously. ‘You’re doing not bad so far either. The less you stick to despair instead of real acts, the better.’

Thankfully, even if she never tried that before, Misty could aid the process with her magic a bit, keeping the fixated pins in place with her aura, while her hands were busy with the rest of the work. Another cautious turn and the lock produced another louder click; however, Misty didn’t like the sound of it. One of the barrettes started moving loosely.

‘Oh, no! Sweet Harmony, no!’ with the sinking heart, Misty stared at the broken barrette sliding out of the mechanism. Attracted by the sob of despair, her friends turned their heads.

‘Nothing’s gonna work!’ the golden aura faded, releasing the lock; the broken barrette fell out of the trembling hands to the floor. Breathing fitfully, Misty hid her face in the palms. ‘Mom, dad! Fran! If we die, could I see her? Could I stay, as Fran did?’ flashed in her head. The girl pursed her lips firmly not to cry out, squeezing out regretfully instead. “Girls! I’m sorry… I’m so useless…”

A mutual gasp of bewilderment was an answer to her.

“None of you is useless to the others, as long as you are accepted and trusted by the rest!” whispered in her sadly flattened ear and a feel of soft hands on her shoulders made Misty’s heart jump but of joy that time. “We are with you and each does what she can on her place!”

“Fran!!! But how…” in a wink, Misty turned around to appeared from the thin air unicorn mare, dressed so casually – dark-blue loose shorts, a beige, tied under the breasts shirt and black soft flats – that her homely look contrasted with the surrounding strikingly. Not waiting for an answer, the filly wrapped her arms around the mare, snuggling her face to Fran’s chest; the girl’s eyes trailed with tears, shoulders started shaking, as Misty burst into sobs. “I… I’m so happy to see you, sis!”

“I’m always near, Misty! No matter where you are, dear!” with Misty’s touch, the mare seemed to shine from inside, tenderly hugging the filly and stroking her mane soothingly. “All you need is to call! Calm down, dear, don’t cry…”

Exiting their stupor, Misty’s friends surrounded her and Fran; the girls feared to make much noise at the threat of attracting the enemy’s attention, yet that didn’t prevent them from squeezing Fran and Misty in a huge mutual hug. The unicorn mare had a hard time trying to share her attention and touch with each girl, but Fran’s eyes shone: seeing how Lacy, Windy and Flaunty clung to her from all sides, she did her best to give them a motherly cuddle.

“You needed my help, girls, right?” Fran von Selle looked around the girls when they finally composed themselves; however, they still kept holding onto her, bringing a soft smile to the mare’s face.

“Absolutely!” not letting go of her cuddle, Misty exhaled intermittently. She took a breath, grasping her thoughts together. “Ehhh… A group of strangers wants that factory closed! We don’t know whom they work for or what their final aim is, but they sabotage the workflow here regularly. They caught us upon watching them after searching for some evidence in the old building basement. These ponies are well armed and threatened us with death…” Misty inhaled fitfully. With her story progressing, Fran’s crimson eyes darkened more and more. “I… Actually, I think that was their plan to… to make another “accident” with us as the victims. We need to get out of that cage! And warn mister Thorntwist…”

“The owner of the factory,” added Windy seeing the question in Fran’s eyes.

“He is very welcoming and cooperative,” Lacy let out a tiny smile. “But neither he nor we expected things to turn that grim!”

“…police, whoever else needed to stop this…” Misty fell silent, regaining her breath and snuggling closer to her named sister again.

“Yeah, their leader is more than serious to end any witness, let alone their mentioned but unseen boss,” noticed Flaunty, swaying her mane back. Windy and Lacy nodded in confirmation.

“Getting you out of that cage and outside of these catacombs is the smallest thing I can do, girls!” Fran spread her shoulders; her eyes flashed dangerously. “Let’s try fixing this picture!”

The next moment Fran stretched spreading her arms in the air; her tall elegant figure went afloat, lifting in the air. Starting from her long helical horn, the radiance spread all over her body, making it shine from inside brightly. Bewildered by that sudden move, Lacy and the pegasus sisters stepped back in confusion. However, Misty’s face brightened; she thought she knew what Fran was going to do.

‘Doing what she can with what she has! She is always like that and it works every time so far…’ smiled Misty, addressing the girls just in case. “Stay cool, mates! Everything is okay…”

Her friends kept staring at Fran. The shine faded revealing the pale naked body, which looked glowing in the seemingly condensing darkness. Mare’s long slender legs and firm shapely hips were stained in blood, which also covered arms, going denser to the palms and turning almost black at the fingers ending with long sharp claws. Her abdomen muscles strained as she arched in the air; the voluptuous breasts perked when she inhaled deeply; thin nostrils trembled as if feeling the prey. The draught blowing in the mine tunnel wasn’t that strong, yet the long, pitch black, glistening wetly mane fanned in the air, framing the finely chiselled face with a threatening halo. Her tail flowed like a river of black void, falling and spreading on the elevator cage floor. With another sigh, large eyes opened wide, darkness-filled and scanning around. Misty couldn’t hold herself from feasting on her sister’s look, beautiful even in that eerie ghostly form.

“Fran?” unconfidently called Lacy, dumbfounded by the transformation.

“It’s okay,” repeated Misty with a sly mien. “Fran simply tries to fit the situation and effectively get us outta here. Right, sis?”

Fran nodded: the reassuring expression of the unicorn mare turned out so contrasting with her smile with the multitude of needle-sharp teeth. Nevertheless, her eyes were looking the same way as they did before – surprisingly, the girls could see the attitude in those wide lakes of flowing darkness effortlessly.

With a sigh of relief, Lacy stepped forward and softly placed her palm over Fran’s stomach, feeling the instantly straining abdominal muscles. The mare touched her shoulder, giving it a tender stroke; her elegant yet dangerous fingers trembled slightly.

“Phew! You nearly got me for a moment, Fran!” Windy breathed out with a relieved smile. “Now, how are we going to escape?”

“Stand back, girls!” that Fran’s voice was deep and echoing, vibrating and causing their skin to crawl. The mare released Lacy and moved her aside ever so softly.

With wide-open eyes, the fillies watched Fran heading to the locked door: followed by the cloud of floating mane and tail, the mare slid forward; the thin fingers with sharp claws grabbed the metal grille.

For a short second, nothing was happening.

Then the bemused girls saw, how darkness started condensing around Fran’s palm; flowing and enveloping the metal bars, it trembled in the sight like heated air. Something crackled, tingled and… with muffled metallic rustle the cage wall started to fall apart as if being corroded before girls’ eyes and crumbling into dust. In a minute, a gap with uneven rusty edges, large enough to fit an adult pony through, formed.

Looking over her shoulder and giving them another toothy smile, Fran slid out of the cage and gestured the girls to follow. They needed no second invitation, starting up at once and fluttering outside after the ghostly unicorn mare.

Dashing through the dark halls and stairwells after their saviour – the glow Fran emitted was enough to find the way safely – Misty felt the inexplicable wish to laugh joyfully despite the entire severity of the yet far from its ending situation. ‘Now everything is going to be alright!’ The rest of the girls ran as if suddenly gaining a second wind, but the cheerful smile touched their faces as well.

Fran stopped only once, amidst the first level of the basement. Arching her neck like a swan, she bent her head and inhaled, looking around the dark hallway as if trying to sniff out something. Alarmed by that sudden change of pace, the girls gathered around, watching the concerned mare.

“We are watched…” simply stated Fran, turning around and making her long flowing hair fan into the air even more; her eyes were trying to pierce the depths of the basement as if what she sensed could be material. “There is another spirit in here. Powerful! Ancient…”

“Is it dangerous?” eager to verify her guess, Misty hopefully looked up into Fran’s face.

“No…” the mare closed her eyes for a second. “It was dormant for a long time. Now it is watching us… but I can feel no threat. Perplexity rather.”

“It’s unsure about our goals,” Fran looked at the girls pensively; the clawed hands softly grabbed Misty and Lacy by their shoulders. “Girls, please be careful! With the local equipment and machinery…”

They slowed down at the basement door only: Windy and Flaunty were restoring their breath, trying to inhale through the nose slowly; Lacy leaned on the wall, taking off her glasses for a second and wiping the forehead. Misty took out her cell phone and was quickly typing a short message.

“It’ll be sent as soon as we exit and the connection is restored!” she tapped “Send” and approached the heavy door with Fran, who dimmed her glow considerably: both leaned to the door leaf and listened carefully.

“I can’t hear anything, not right behind that door at least,” Misty’s palm lay over Fran’s hand; the unicorn mare let out a smile.

The next thing she did, made all the girls, including Misty, freeze in momentary shock, despite it wasn’t that unexpected considering Fran’s nature. The glow faded completely and Fran simply seeped through the door into the machine hall: first her face, letting the mare peek outside cautiously, then the rest of her gorgeous even in its bloody eeriness body. The tips of her mane and tail sank into the door leaf and complete silence fell for a second, so the sound of four slamming mouths could be perfectly heard. Then, with the sound of quietly turning lock innards, the door slowly opened. The girls exchanged bewildered glances; sometimes, they still had to get accustomed to Fran’s peculiarities.

However, they didn’t have much time for recomposing; Fran already beaconed them from the stairs behind the open door. Trying to stick as close to her as possible, the girls slowly went upstairs entering the coal-dark production hall. Either the moon had set or the clouds had covered the entire sky – the girls had no other source of light there, except the faintly glowing ghostly mare figure in front of them. Windy took out her gas lighter, but Misty shook her head; they needed to stay unnoticed as long as possible – the ajar window they could escape through was at the other end of the hall.

Misty took Windy’s hand; accommodating a bit, her eyes could yet barely see the huge silhouettes of the machine tools darkening around. At that moment, they looked weird and intimidating. Feeling the racing pulse on Windy’s wrist, Misty realized that each of her friends was ready to jump upon hearing even the tiniest noise from the hall. Rather feeling than seeing Fran’s lead and flowing mane on her face, Misty tried to step track in track with her named sister, remembering the narrowness of the passages and all the sharp edges and corners around.

“Halt, bitches!” the sudden bright ray of light nearly blinded the girls for a moment, startling and disorienting them at once. A moment of tense silence! Then the passage in front of them exploded with the screams of terror. “AAAAARGHHHH!!! Tartarus! What is it?! Shoot her, shoot!!!”

Suppressing the wish to cover her ears from all the yelling, Misty realized, with a vengeful inner smile, that the light of the lamps of the waiting for the girls and ambushing them thugs fell on Fran, illuminating her in all the glory of her horrific ghost form. The colourful bubbles were floating in front of her eyes; blinking them away, Misty managed to notice the rising dully glaring barrels…

Fran’s reaction was lightning-like!

Like in the slow-motion movie, in the flash of suddenly flaming light, Misty noticed the stack of empty wooden crates bursting into the cloud of separate planks and splinters, exploded by the mysterious force. In a fraction of second, they formed a solid wooden shield in front of the mare and two fillies clinging to her. Lacy and Flaunty fell slightly behind; Misty saw how one instinctively covered another with her wings.

The gunshots were nothing for Fran, but she did her best to protect the girls. Lit by the flashes spat from the gun barrels, two thugs retreated; a few more desperately gazed around, seeking where to hide in that narrow space. The bullets slowed down in the suddenly thickening and almost flowing like liquid air; Misty heard how they lazily drummed into the wooden shield unable to break through and falling on the floor with distorted metal tingle.

The guns shut; empty, the two stallions continued to retreat, reloading feverishly. Their bemused comrades behind only impeded them. Meanwhile, the air around seemed to be electrified to the brim, making the metal constructions of the machine hall grind and groan; sparkles and discharges flowed along them. Shooting at the girls was the worst decision the bandits could ever make, infuriating Fran over the limits. Guided by her will, the wooden shield split into two parts. More horrified screams, as they threw another glance at the exasperated ghostly mare.

Lunging forward, her hair fanning around like a coal-black with silvery strands halo, Fran spread her arms; the blades of claws aimed at the intruders and she evulsed a shriek, which seemingly condensed the air even more and made friends’ blood freeze for a moment. Two parts of the improvised shield rushed forward, slamming the thugs to the floor and giving them no chance to reload; falling to pieces, they bombarded the rest, knocking down the stallions and hitting the most sensitive parts of their bodies.

Squinting at the opening image, Fran exhaled forcedly and another powerful gust of air swept the thugs and their weapons to the end of the passage, leaving them there unconscious. The wooden planks started gathering, ready to reflect another sudden attack if necessary.

Automatic gunfire burst stitched the large machine tool housing right above Fran’s head!

“Well, well, well!” the familiar venomous voice reached their ears from behind. “Quite impressive, bitch! But you can’t control all the directions at once, right? Not at this time for sure,” drawled it with a tint of spiteful delight.

With a deep hiss resembling the sound air passed the subway tunnel with, Fran turned around; Misty and Windy snuggled to her at the view revealed.

“You can try of course!” nastily giggled the masked unicorn mare. “Why not? Perhaps we couldn’t blow their heads off with the guns put directly at them before you reach us. Perhaps… Or not…” Two of her henchponies held Flaunty and Lacy firmly, guns at their napes, not giving them a chance to move. Hands akimbo, their leader grinned widely, visibly relishing the effect.

Squinting at her sullenly, Fran produced a sound as if a lion was waking up in its cage. She was hugging the two girls carefully; the wooden debris was slowly crawling from behind, gathering in a new barrier.

“Come on, think!” the poisonous mare continued scoffing. “We can kill these two chicks right now if you don’t behave… and the rest two probably during the resulting mess. Or… we can take them all with us and… probably nopony gets hurt.”

‘No way!’ Flaunty barely shook her head. Feeling the cold metal so close, she still thought. ‘Negotiating with these bastards is the worst trap you can fall into!’

The sudden change of expression of the girls’ faces and caught both Lacy and Flaunty and even their captors off guard. Utterly dumbfounded by their look of sheer bewilderment, Lacy squinted her eyes at Flaunty; the pegasus girl replied with the same puzzled glance. Some metal rolling reached their ears from behind, making the holding them thugs worry.

Rumbling in the darkness of the hall like some waking beast, a giant machine tool at the end of the line started coming to life to everypony’s shock. The hull was rising, lifting its round hunch above the rest of the machinery and wresting out the dimly visible extremities from below; something tingled and crackled as the new inscrutable creature seemed to flex after the long sleep. A few small cogs rolled to the girls’ feet from behind.

The main door of the production hall boomed under some impatient force applied; the sound of lock reached them accompanied by the hum of concerned voices outside.

Flaunty heard the choked hiss leaving the throat of the holding her stallion; something made him lower the gun unwittingly and the girl dared to throw a glance over her shoulder.

Right in time to see, how the dark silhouette advanced with agility unexpected for its size and form. The chains and conveyor bands, released from its depth, swirled in the air like dimly glistening tendrils. The grip unclenched and the girls heard the metal clank of the guns falling on the concrete floor: one of the metal tentacles wrapped around the chest of the thug holding Flaunty, another grabbed Lacy’s captor by hands, more extremities reached out to aid. The head of the goons, the nasty unicorn mare whisked somewhere aside in the last second, dissolving in the darkness and dropping from sight.

With satisfied rumbling, which sounded somewhat mockingly to the girls, that monster of the machinery turned around and crawled to the basement, dragging its catch – the screaming and wriggling bandits – with it.

“Sweet Celestia! What… is going on here?!” the main doors slammed open, letting the bright lights inside and revealing Nordy Thorntwist and a bunch of his workers rushing inside. Thorntwist froze at the doorstep, his jaw started to drop, while his eyes quickly brushed around, noticing the scattered unconscious strangers, agitated and irate Fran mothering the surrounding and cuddling to her girls and the dark something disappearing on the basement stairs. “I… ehh… What?!” he seemed to lose all the words at once.

To her credit, Fran caught herself momentarily: the flash of light enveloped her, while the dumbfounded factory owner struggled to brace his thoughts and feelings, revealing a second after that a casually dressed young mare in soft shoes, jeans and a free fit shirt, combed and neat, expressing the polite puzzlement. She glanced down at Misty still clinging to her side: only the monstrous effort allowed Misty to hold back laughter when Fran winked most jocosely.

“Oh… Errmmm… Take these guys… mmm… and lock them until the police… arrives!” mister Thorntwist finally recomposed, finding addressing his ponies to be the most rehabilitating thing to do first. The strong stallions didn’t linger, nodding and grabbing the lying around thugs in pairs and carrying them out.

“I… errr… Are you okay, girls?” he turned to the friends a bit cautiously, keeping suddenly appearing from nowhere Fran in mind. Besides, his eyes were returning to the basement entrance from time to time; however, Thorntwist didn’t rush to discuss that part of what he saw or couldn’t find the fitting words yet.

“Yes, mister Thorntwist,” Misty let out a diplomatic smile. “Now we’re fine.” She threw another glance at Fran, who did her best to avoid excessive attention. “You appeared very fast and hopefully take care of the things, secure the factory and…”

“I called the police as soon as your message arrived,” quickly nodded Thorntwist; apparently, he grabbed on that talk as the only means to support normality at that moment. His eyes still alternated between Fran and the basement stairs, where the creature retreated. “Then I gathered everypony I could and hurried here to find… to find…” Nordy stumbled and spread his arms helplessly as if saying “To find all of this!”

“This exactly is what I need to talk with you urgently about, sir!” watching the direction of his glance, Misty said firmly. She took out her cell phone, quickly showing him something on the screen. “About this and a certain… contract, you can’t be uninformed about. Besides,” she brushed through more photos, demonstrating them, “things turn out much more serious than we expected. So…”

“Okay,” Thorntwist gave up, sighing in agreement. “I must admit, I was wrong about the… spirit. I wonder if I can fix things now…”

“And that’s what we need to talk about, too…” nodded Misty seriously.

“But… forgive me my bluntness, miss Lagoon,” Thorntwist finally decided to ask the question teasing him since arrival; the stallion threw another suspicious glance at Fran casually bringing Lacy, Windy and Flaunty in order and chattering with them nonchalantly amidst the herd of workponies estimating the damage made to the production line, “who the… Who’s that lady with you? For a moment I saw…”

“Oh, that’s my older sister Fran,” Misty waved her hands in a calming gesture, making the cutest face she was capable of at the moment. “She came to help us with a slightly tight situation. Very capable unicorn… as you see, she could stun and hold them up for the time necessary to sort the trouble,” she sported a bright reassuring smile, seemingly not paying attention to Thorntwist’s attempts to verify if he wasn’t going completely mental. “So, where can we…”

“Excuse me, sir!” the main doors let through one of the workers. The stallion was puffed a little and took a breath before reporting. “The police… They took the intruders! They said they would perform the first aid in the precinct, sir.”

Just barely recomposed, Thorntwist turned as if he was suddenly hit with the sack of cotton again. He blinked, alternating his wild glance between Misty and the stallion.

“How… I…” he began stuttering, causing the girl to feel for him. “I-I spoke with them five minutes ago… They s-said they couldn’t arrive f-faster than forty minutes… even if I asked them to hurry… errmmm… as the situation was urgent.” He looked at Misty in dismay as if asking for emotional support and explanation. Her friends coming closer and pulling Fran with them didn’t make his condition easier.

“The police?” Misty addressed the worker. “You mean they had cars, uniforms, badges and so on…” The stallion nodded in confusion. “Hmmm…” what she heard made the filly gloom pensively. Softly hugging her from behind, Fran shared an understanding glance with Misty.

“Sir!” another stallion approached. “A visitor is waiting for you in the parlour. Regarding all the things happening here… Would you…”

“No, no, no!” Misty raised her hand; feeling the warm approving squeeze on her shoulders, she tangled her fingers with Fran’s softly. “Mister Thorntwist, please! Devote me half an hour first… It’s vital!”