怪談とポニー Ep2 - Factory Reset

“Here we are,” whispered Windy Mane leaning closer to Misty’s ear. “What next?”

Blurry in the early morning twilight, but easily distinguishable the magical crystals refinery territory lay ahead, observed by the girls through the thick fresh foliage. The four friends were hiding in some sprawling bushes on the top of the forested gentle hill above the factory; keeping quiet they could be sure that their position was undiscoverable in the morning fog even if the factory security was really good.

“Let’s say, I’m as farsighted as mister Hoofer!” with these words, Misty dug in her backpack fishing out small, but powerful binoculars. “First of all we’ll keep low and watch for a while what’s going on there,” she carefully spread the leaves making a fitting gap and clung to the eyepiece.

The horizon across the factory and the bay was getting lighter slowly, but the sun didn’t yet show up in the sky. Misty woke up her friends before the crack of dawn – the girls were to reach the site on foot lightly, preferably finishing their march before the daylight fell. She properly assumed that the later they were found by whoever runs the factory, the more they could find out thus the easier they could probably negotiate their investigation if necessary. Thanks to Misty spending her entire free time of the remaining days before the trip in the library, studying the maps and everything else she could find about the plant, they managed to get there as planned, not even getting lost. Even if that feeling had visited Lacy at least once on their way through the dense forest.

The first humble rays of light started touching the treetops brushed by the breeze from the bay; however, dense twilight reigned under the forest roof. That side of the hill was covered rather by some undergrowth, the bigger trees reached only the hilltop; long sheets of fog swirled between trunks and branches behind girls’ backs. At the foot of the hill, cut specifically to protect the old stone wall from forest humidity, a several yards wide stripe of bare ground separated the factory territory from the nearest vegetation. Closer to the girls, behind the wall, two buildings were visible despite the slowly spreading and flowing mist. One of them was of the modern construction, while another looked ancient enough: differing in architecture, made of the dark red bricks, it was probably one of the oldest blocks of the factory. With a silent gesture, Misty directed her friends’ attention towards it.

“This is our goal, I’ve read that the problems with equipment happened in the old building,” whispered Misty, as the sounds spread far and loudly in the foggy morning air, especially in that silent hour before sunrise disturbed by the earliest birds only.

“Isn’t it the perfect time to go?” Windy Mane squinted at the brightening up horizon. “If we go down when the sun rises, we’ll be in full view here…”

“Don’t hurry!” Misty shook her head slowly. “I need to see if anypony is moving around the territory. Despite the early hour and supposed troubles with personnel, taking their situation seriously, they still must have some security.”

“We need to know the intervals at least, right?” guessed Lacy Reins, taking the binoculars in her turn; Misty silently nodded. “And the routes as well.”

“One thing still spinning in my head…” muttered Flaunty Mane, taking the binoculars in her turn. “Technically a breach is a breach. Not that I’m trying to convince you not to do that,” she let out a tiny smile. “Besides, while we’re outside it’s still not… Hey,” she pointed to the southern corner of the older building, “there is an opened window at the top level. That’s our way in… if we decide to make that final step.”

“Kinda strange for those forcedly concerned about the security by the situation,” with a wry grin, the girl passed her the binoculars. “Considering that one-third of the populace can fly and another third can use magic.”

“Shhhh…” jokingly huffed Misty. “Don’t scare away our luck, mate!”

The binoculars made a couple of cycles in the girls’ hands before something actually started moving behind the stone wall. Misty nudged her friends silently, calling for their attention: two narrow light cones flashed under the stone wall, fighting the twilight and morning fog with varied success. The beams swept the narrow space between the factory blocks and fence, occasionally brushing the building walls with large windows and swaying in the foggy air as the supposed guards walked along. They passed the new building, then the old one, monitoring the situation but somehow casually, then disappeared behind the corner.

“Let’s see…” Misty checked the wristwatch.

In the strained silence the girls perked their ears as if they could hear anything going on behind the stone wall on such distance. Nothing, except birds chirping in the forest behind and the importunate thin whining of the mosquitoes in the shrubs above their heads. Everypony thanked mentally Misty, who insisted on taking some bug-repelling spray with them; hopefully, its scent wouldn’t wake any suspicions in the possible guards.

It took the two spots of artificial light about nine minutes to reappear from the opposite side of the blocks, yet Flaunty insisted that they waited for one round more to be sure they would have enough time to get inside unnoticed.

“Nice, I can’t hear or see any dogs, they could be a real problem!” Lacy’s perked ears twitched slightly.

“They probably didn’t want to attract too much attention to the extended security,” uttered Flaunty, taking a moment to listen more carefully as well. “The dogs could notify the potential trespasser too early about their presence. And the factory owner seems to be interested in revealing the reasons for his trouble, not simply shooing somepony away. Or, maybe, they couldn’t put enough effort into that,” added she, brushing through her mane.

“They have this instead!” Windy Mane waved for girls’ attention, pointing at the far corner of the factory wall when the binoculars appeared in her hands again. Dimly shining with its red eye in the shadows, the surveillance camera stared at the open stripe of ground along the wall. “There may be more on the fence…”

“Thankfully, I see none of them on the buildings,” the binoculars quickly brushed along the dark silhouettes of the blocks; Windy smirked. “What a lapse of them… Anyway, we’ll need to soar high right from under the foliage and cross the wall above the camera’s view. That’s if we plan to use that window up there!”

In the following silence, the girls waited tensely, listening to the intensifying birds’ chirping in the forest behind. To their luck, there were no feathered chatter-boxes on the hillside the girls occupied; they could move freely not risking to startle a flock and reveal themselves.

“Fine. They take about nine-ten minutes to round this area,” muttered Misty, when two flashlights hid behind the right corner for the third time. “That gives us eight minutes to clear the view! In the worst case, we’ll make two attempts…”

“I spotted a small ravine there,” Windy pulled her by the sleeve, nodding right. “Let’s get down there. Better than rolling down the flat hill in full view. Come on, follow me!”

The sunlight painted the treetops yellow already, slowly flowing down the leaves, branches and trunks; there was no time to waste if they wanted to use the natural advantage. One by one, crouching down in the thick bushes, the girls rushed right along the hillside, towards a shallow ravine there. Then down with the flowing fog, tacking between the shrubs and trying their best not to get caught by the twigs or rustle too loud.

“Now, wait here!” Windy waved them to stop in the last thicket before the open ground; the girl took another attentive look along the wall to ensure there were no other cameras nearby and that one wasn’t panning. “I’ll go first, check that window and look if it can be opened a bit more quietly. Then we’ll try to get through in one go. Okay?”

“You have six minutes for everything!” checking her wristwatch, Misty nodded shortly.

Without another word Windy rushed up vertically, piercing the mist blanket outside of camera view; the fog was especially thick here on the low ground, but the top of the factory wall and the buildings themselves were visible. The latter towered above the girls as if floating on the waves of flowing fog, making the fillies involuntarily think how huge the buildings looked in the close view. The red head flashed high above at the ajar window of the old block; the girls were to lift their heads watching their friend carefully trying the frame, not to wake any sound or screech from it.

To the common relief, the massive window gave up under Windy’s effort and slowly opened wider, staying almost unnoticeable from the ground. Or at least the girls wanted to believe that. In a few seconds, their pegasus friend landed between them quietly and pressed her finger to the lips. The “plotters” got low listening.

Right in time: muffled by the few yards of fog-filled distance and the old stone wall, two voices reached their ears. The girls couldn’t make out the exact words, but they perfectly heard two stallions slowly passing behind the fence. One of the voices sounded more drearily as if its owner was long frustrated by the night vigil, dampness and cool air. Another hummed something completely unintelligibly; the flashlight drew an arc above the fence, sweeping along the building wall. The four girls held their breath, but thankfully nopony paid attention to the window under the very roof. The footsteps crunched by, turning behind the corner.

“Quick!” Windy Mane already got up ready for the action. “Sis, get Misty and fly up as I did before. You’ll have enough space to get right through the opening, but be careful – there is some catwalk right under. Go further and land between the machinery,” explained she. “We’re right behind you.”

Next moment Misty felt warm arms wrapping around her. Flying was causing ambivalent feelings in her still, being somewhat a thrilling experience, yet a matter of curiosity. After the Canterton case, the girl tried to practice levitation several times basing on her magical skills; with a varied degree of success obviously. Her best result was raising about a yard above her bed while sitting cross-legged: the bewilderment was so strong, Misty could hold a few seconds. Right till the moment when watching her Fran stretched quite promisingly – with the distraction so strong, Misty flailed her arms in the air and dropped on the bed the next second, causing both girls to laugh.

No wonder that at the same time she enjoyed the feeling and the panorama opening below from the bird’s eye view, yet preferred to do that snuggling closely to Flaunty and hiding her nose in her friend’s silky mane, merely peeking outside. Misty’s heart habitually jumped, as she was suddenly pulled from the damp foliage, making the fog jerk up in stripes and swirls following girls’ tangled legs. The shrubs remained small on the ground; in a wink and a held breath the stripe of the bare ground, the old stone wall with its moss and drops-covered rocks and the narrow space of the factory yard at the foot of the blocks flew by under girls’ feet. Misty had time to notice the attempt to whitewash the inner side of the wall; the damp and greenish spots already tried to regain the space.

Flaunty did her best to pull them with slow wide powerful flaps, so the girls entered the half-opened window almost silently. As Windy said, there were some railings under the window inside, thus the pegasus filly slid further, above the shadowy silhouettes of machinery darkening below, until the stripe of lighter floor showed up in the aisle between two parts of the conveyor line. Minding all possible precautions not to knock down anything, the girls landed. Half-heartedly, Misty left Flaunty’s embrace slowly, suppressing the strong wish to cuddle for a while more inhaling the scent of the pegasus girl’s hair.

Flaunty Mane hid the tiny smile; taking out the flashlights, the girls pointed them at the floor and took the first look around. The machines formed a narrow passage turning behind the corner of the line at the nearest end, where the building wall towered and dissolved in the height, and vanishing in the darkness, running into the depths of the production hall, where their flashlights couldn’t dispel the dense void. With the sudden revelation of the building being huge, Misty glanced up: narrow catwalks with railings crossed the space on two levels above the machine lines; a couple of load cranes peeped through the twilight under the roof.

In a second, Windy and Lacy joined them, silently landing on the floor nearby. Their cuddle was visibly loving rather than simply practical, making Misty and Flaunty exchange smiling looks. Remembering about the window, Misty made a small effort: the golden aura grabbed the corner of the frame returning it to the initial barely ajar state. Not closing completely, as it was their the only at the moment known way for an urgent retreat.

“Hmmm… The machinery looks… nowhere near prehistoric to me,” drawled Lacy taking a look around while still holding cutely on Windy’s shoulders. “Rather modern and… yes, it looks new.”

“Yet, unused for quite a long while,” quietly chuckled Flaunty. She wiped her hands, having accidentally touched some machine surface. “Everything is covered in a thick layer of dust already. Be careful what you touch, girls.”

“Be careful what you touch anyway,” meaningfully noticed Misty. “At least while we don’t know what we are dealing with…” She realized that the scents tickling her nose were of metal, oil and paint indeed, but the one of dry dust overtook everything. It… and something faint, bitter, floating on the far borderline of Misty’s smell, so she couldn’t tell if there was something really, nor if she recognized it yet. “It smells like they renovated everything important here, but somehow stopped using it some time ago. I wonder why… but I read that the accidents mostly took place in the old block exactly.”

“Let’s have a look then!” Meanwhile Windy listened up to something from outside, perking her fluffy ears and turning her head following the sound source. Ensuring that the casual guards passed successfully, she added in half-voice. “Careful with the flashlights. Shine only on what you’re examining, pals… And don’t raise the lights or shine on the windows! We don’t want to get caught by these hay-heads.”

“It seems they don’t have enough ponies to cover the entire territory, which is huge, properly,” smirked the red-haired filly, looking around hands akimbo. “Which made me think of… And… Yes, Misty…”

Suddenly Misty felt that the eyes of all of her friends were chained to her inquiringly.

“Can you feel anything, Misty?” quietly asked the girls almost in unison.

Flushing in embarrassment – Misty was far from fully mastering yet alone boasting her newly accepted psychic abilities – the unicorn girl listened to herself, to the slowly dissolving darkness and machinery around.

“No…” exhaled she after a while. “Nothing yet. At least not here…”

“But it’s not like in Canterton,” almost whispered Misty, blushing again. “Where energies were so strong, it almost screamed of some presence. Not to neigh that I’m far from being a pro…” she fell silent confusedly.

“Nonsense!” quietly huffed Windy Mane; she patted Misty on the back lightly. “You are who you are, mate. Don’t diminish your values! I mean the place is huge – we may still find something.”

“Besides, we planned to find out the truth if possible, regardless of it being of supernatural or material origin,” noticed Flaunty with a smile; brushing along the machinery with her flashlight, the girl already started to look around.

“Let’s check everything we can find, dear!” Misty felt the small hot palms on her shoulders when Lacy’s breath tickled her ear.

“Okay, okay!” the unicorn girl was to admit that it was their aim from the very start. “But remember – don’t tackle or switch anything! I don’t know if power is cut here or not and don’t want to find it out suddenly!”

“Aye, ma’am!” Windy saluted nonchalantly; however, Misty knew well that her friend would act perfectly serious instead.

The girls started to spread slowly, trying to flash down their feet remembering about the stallions circling outside. The place turned out to be way larger than they expected: while examining the factory buildings from outside the distance concealed the actual scale. The free space was enough to safely move and maintain the machine tools, which occupied the rest of the hall – everything was visibly organized for the hard and fruitful work, not some leisure there. Lighting her way with the flashlight, Misty carefully examined every inch of the space around, looking for anything that can appear drastically out of place for her. Moving along she could hear only accurate steps of the other girls. Meanwhile, the darkness cleared, giving way to grey morning twilight: more and more reflected sunlight came in through the large windows, despite they were facing west.

In pairs, girls walked along the whole long building, from one end to another, hasting to brush around while they still had an opportunity to do that, undisturbed by the workers or anypony who can peek inside in that early hour. They made notice of some closed doors on the ground level of the eastern, completely blank otherwise wall, of the few large crates stacked in the piers of that wall, of the stairs and door leading to some lower level under the building. When the flashlights were no longer vital, it turned out that all the machinery in the block was queued in a single long production line snaking around the factory block. Visibly handy, practical, quite modern and… dusty and motionless at the moment production line!

“So! What do you have, mates?” Misty asked tiredly when the friends gathered again at the starting spot under the unlocked window. “Any observations?”

“For the start,” she shoved the flashlight into the back pocket of her cargo pants, “I want to tell that I didn’t sense anything… clearly supernatural here yet. But the whole place and situation looked strange to me,” added Misty after a moment. “For the reasons which I’ll tell you later… after your thought, okay?!”

“Well!” started Windy Mane, scratching her nape. “My observations will be mostly practical, pal! There are a few locked doors here, leading most likely to some storage rooms. I suppose we’re not going to lockpick them, right?” a smile made her freckles jump. “One door leads to a staircase… I didn’t go there yet, of course, but supposedly there are some offices behind that blank wall. The place is kinda wider than this… manufacturing facility. The basement door, or whatever it is, is also locked,” Windy nodded over her shoulder.

“The main thing!” added the pegasus girl with a serious look. “Everything in this hall looks solid, fixed in its place to me. I mean… there should be some traces of the accidents, no? So… I don’t know how this equipment works, but it seems quite safe to me as it is now. Somepony must have taken safety seriously enough. Wonder, how…”

“…they can experience any incidents at all?” Flaunty finished for her with a pensive nod. “Indeed, I know nothing about magical crystals refining process either, but… all of the equipment looks undamaged to my non-professional eye. Shouldn’t there be anything… out of place, corrupt after the accidents involving serious injuries?” The girl threw back her mane and shrugged. “I understood it that way, considering some of the workers even quit.”

“I examined everything I could reach in time that short, but didn’t find the spot where something could be broken with serious consequences,” elaborated the pegasus filly, leaning on the blank side of the nearest machine and dusting off her hands again – the gesture made Misty unwittingly note it for the second time. “The line looks renovated or even replaced to me as if the equipment was installed recently but never really stressed. Like they abandoned it for a reason or something… Now it is collecting dust.”

“Speaking of which,” Lacy reached for Flaunty’s hands, taking them and examining the palms – the faint traces of some ash-like dust were still visible. “Don’t know if you noticed that too, but I spotted that powder several times in the different places of the line. Just like you all I’m not familiar with the local work process and have no idea if the crystals can leave after themselves something alike. It can be seen irregularly on the line… I have no idea if it can be residual or a part of, for example, the line lubrication system. By the way, it can be found on the production line only, not at the doors or crates, neither away from the machines,” added she meaningfully.

“It’s not some metal powder, not soil, not regular dust…” Lacy rubbed Flaunty’s palm with her finger then stared at the dark spot pensively. “I’d say I never saw something like that. Looks like strange ash or the pollen from butterfly wings sometimes. Only the chemical analysis can tell,” the glasses flashed, when Lacy raised her eyes on friends.

“I see…” Misty was biting her lip slowly. After a moment of silence, she sighed making a decision. “Remember Canterton? There I sensed something right ahead, but it wasn’t a surprise considering…” she let out a tiny smile, “… considering what we found out.”

“It’s nothing alike here,” she shook her head yet with the tint of doubt. “But…”

“But?!” Flaunty and Windy glanced at their unicorn friend simultaneously.

“It’s always about “buts” no matter what,” nodded Lacy.

“There was something faint, ephemeral in a couple of places,” admitted Misty half-heartedly. “And I don’t know what to make out of it. It’s borderline… if you understand what I mean.” She squeezed out a strained smile. “I’m not some… paranor… meter, you see, can’t tell in digits or per cents or… And I can certainly mistake, mates.” She spread her arms slightly.

“Don’t worry, we know, pal!” chuckled Windy, shaking her red mane. “Nopony expects that you tell us the root of the problem at the first glance; moreover, point the guilty one.” She glanced at the girls around. “So, what’s the preliminary verdict? Sabotage? Frankly speaking, it’s hard to tell either…”

Flaunty and Lacy shook their heads together.

“Something happened, somepony got hurt, somepony was even scared by that up to quitting,” muttered Lacy, as if listing for herself. “But everything still looks more or less fine, without major destruction.”

“The main question is: are we going to investigate a non-supernatural case?” asked Windy Mane, hands akimbo. “If that’s a plain dirty old sabotage…”

“Mmmm…” Misty hummed musingly. “The case looks too strange to be called casual anyway. I’d like to find out what’s going on, if you’re fine with that, girls.”

“I expect nothing less,” Flaunty let out a small smile; her sister shone with a wide enthusiastic grin.

“Yet, we found nothing yet, except maybe that powder,” sighed Misty Lagoon. “I’m unsure, what next? We can’t stay here for much longer I suppose. Do we keep it on our own or contact the owner, trying to get official permission? Lacy, what do you think?”

“Lacy?” Misty looked around for the earth filly, who stood behind her right shoulder a second ago.

“Girls!” sounded from the depth of the hall, which was slowly brightening with the morning light. “We forgot about that control booth…”

When Misty and Mane sisters reached the middle of the east wall, Lacy already put her foot on the first step of the narrow metal stairs, leading to the high glassed construction overlooking the entire hall from several yards height. The girl grabbed the railing and looked up.

“Something can be there, documents or… We don’t want to miss a spot, when we checked everything else, right?”

“You mean, they could imitate the incidents themselves?” Flaunty shook her head with doubt. “I can’t imagine why would they need it though…”

One by one, the girls climbed up the stairs after Lacy, crossing the short catwalk and entering the metal booth attached to the wall. Several desks with papers and some index boxes on the back wall were the only interior of the metal to the waist level echoing room. Glassed from that level above to the metal as well roof, it was lit in its better times by a few long lamps under the ceiling. The steps boomed on the metal floor, making the girl slow down and move accurately.

“A few more minutes!” decided Misty. “We lingered here for a while already. Somepony may come into the building any time soon; we need to get out before that and plan our further actions.”

“Look for everything you consider unusual, but try to keep the initial order… or disorder,” added she with a smile, observing the paper mess on the desks.

After the first several minutes the girls realized that even if there were any subtle signs of wrong going on at the factory in those documents, they were either masterfully hidden, or the friends had not enough time and knowledge to effectively unearth them. Rustling with papers more to calm their investigation instincts, they were to check every moment if nopony entered the building, as those might instantly notice the presence in the echoing metal booth.

“N-nah… There is nothing for the eye to catch on,” Windy Mane cringed quietly, leaning on the table next to Misty. “Production schemes, delivery documents… There are even no journals or something to check for the exact incidents’ description…”

“Well, that’s natural,” noticed Flaunty from her place; she still did her best to find just anything that shouldn’t belong there according to the girls’ limited knowledge of the local workflow. “Journals, if there were any, were the first thing the direction removed from the practically unattended room. With or without signs of sabotage… Even more likely if without – they could be the only evidence of the factory owner uninvolved in those accidents.” In a minute the girl joined Misty and Windy and shook her head with regret. “Nothing that I could find…”

To their surprise, Lacy was still examining something thoroughly; the girl even found a chair and nested on its edge behind the desk. Quite intrigued, her friends approached the earth filly to look, what captured her attention.

“I have nothing to please you much with either,” muttered Lacy hearing the girls behind. However, she waved them to come closer, still staring at some large sheet of paper. “This looked most interesting to me within our circumstances. Other documents are useless for me as not a specialist, but this one can possibly mean something for our search.”

The girls gathered at the desk, Windy and Flaunty going around it to see better what appeared to be some large scheme of supposedly the factory block they infiltrated. The detailed architectural plan of the ground level of the machine hall Lacy was leaning over made her friends smile and exchange understanding glances. Except for botany, Lacy fished out and found something valuable in the sample of another field of knowledge she was familiar with since early foalhood.

“Mhmm… I still don’t catch up, what it gives us…” muttered Flaunty throwing a long strand of hair back from her face. The plan contained measures and levels, all the windows and doors marked on it; besides, it had the thorough scheme of the production line below with all the machines and conveyor belts depicted in conformity with the actual placement. Windy shook her head, agreeing with the sister. “I don’t get it, pal! A scheme of the machinery stuff… So, what?”

“It seems I know what Lacy wanted to show us,” Misty leaned closer and poked her finger in one spot of the line snaking around the hall plan. “That’s wasn’t the part of the scheme initially…”

“Exactly!” the glasses flashed as Lacy raised her eyes at the girls.

The section Misty pointed at and a few others on the machinery plan were thinly outlined with red; a couple of spots even had a quick yet accurate exclamation mark nearby. Mane sisters blinked as if a light bulb suddenly lit in their heads, finally beaming onto what the other two girls were implying.

“Hmmm…” with a smirk, Windy leaned closer. “Bull’s eye, Lacy!”

“Yeah,” Misty’s fingers ran across the scheme, brushing through the highlighted spots. “These may be the accidents areas marked on the plan…”

“Well, well, well… Who do we have here?” the slow and audibly tired, puzzled and mildly frustrated voice made the four friends jump on their spots.