怪談とポニー Ep2 - Factory Reset

Despite passing zenith a couple of hours ago, the sun still flooded the flat gravel-covered roof of the newer factory block; without the strong wind from the ocean, it would be uncomfortable to stay there for a long while. Even so, the girls were to hide in the shade from the eastern side of a small superstructure containing the stairs and roof exit, choosing that place for the temporary headquarters of their investigation. The roof had one undeniable advantage: it was as quiet a place as it was only possible amidst the large old factory, the only witnesses to the girls’ talks being the railings, various antennas, humming and rotating headers of the ventilation shafts and occasional seagulls, whose plaintive screams resounded the sky over the girls’ heads.

Spending half of the day snooping around the factory, watching the stages of work process and simply examining the territory, asking questions and listening to opinions, local gossips and a couple of quite enticing stories – all of that while doing their best to not interfere with the work of the facility much – made the friends feel nearly exhausted to that moment. The meal in the factory cafeteria partially replenished only the physical side of the problem; the girls needed some rest and time to digest the received information. Treating their mission with all seriousness, the factory owner offered them one of the vacant yet offices in the modern block, but Misty came out with a counteroffer, asking for permission to occupy the roof instead. Motivating it by the fresh air and solitude would turn better recreation means, the girls convinced Thorntwist to agree, thus settling at that moment at the narrow lining of the roof superstructure, leaning to the warm wall in its shadow and exposing their faces to the fresh tinted with the salt wind.

Gathering their notes from all the girls, Lacy sat cross-legged, surrounding herself with them fixed in places with gravel, and kept pensively studying something in her notebook, adding new notes occasionally. Judging by her face, she was bearing some theory and most likely bombarded it with doubts, trying to bring it to the most feasible form.

Windy, on the contrary, looked sleepy even before they came to the roof: the girl dashed around the factory the most, seemingly checking two or three places simultaneously, no wonder that she needed her batteries recharged more than the others. She dropped on the lining tiredly closing her eyes. Barely waiting for Misty to finish taking pictures, endlessly clicking with her camera – truth be told, the opening views were indeed impressive – the pegasus girl fell asleep, resting the head on her friend’s shoulder right the moment Misty sat next to her.

With a tiny smile, wrapping one arm around the sleepy girl’s shoulders, Misty started thinking over the heard; her gaze aimed seemingly at something unspeakably distant, somewhere amidst the shimmering sea and blue, cloudless sky at the horizon. Somewhere, where her mom and dad probably explored the ocean floor, estimated the pollution of the ocean waters or influence of the fish catch on the migration processes.

Flaunty approached the railing running along the roof edge; shielding her eyes from the sunlight, she enjoyed the perfect view opening to the girl’s eyes from their considerably high observation point. Surrounded by the trees waving their crowns in the wind, the entire broad factory territory was at a glance. The large production blocks and smaller outbuildings, the sunlit paved tracks with moving along workers and electric trolleys and loaders, the shadowy recreation green zones. Some reservoirs gleamed with their silvery metal sides, towering over the far edge of the plant. The endless pipelines of various sizes snaked around the factory, diving into the buildings, arching their shiny backs over the walkways and belting the entire territory within the old stone wall, which emerged here and there from the greenery. Everywhere around, the green flowing sea made an impression of complete isolation. The stony hills on the west shielded the nearest city districts from the view, the only sign of civilization being the old road meandering up the overgrown slopes. In all other directions, the forested landscape gradually lowered, running down to the coast.

Blown away by the wind along with the specific factory smells, the hum of voices and occasional rumbling of arriving and departing large trucks barely reached the roof. Instead of that, the breeze brought the distant mewing of the coast guard boat plying near the shore, attracting Flaunty’s sight to the bay. The giant mirror of water was perfectly visible from their position; shimmering in the sunlight with myriads of light-reflecting small ripples and larger waves, it was dotted with barely visible pleasure yachts and motorboats. Two large ships barely glimpsed in the distant heat haze, waiting for their turn to enter the harbour and resembling long grey dashes on the ocean surface.

Inhaling the full chest of sea freshness, Flaunty Mane stretched with her hands behind her head: her loose long hair fanned by the wind, the simple white top shone in the sun tightly fitting her firm raised breasts and opening the tanned stomach, the lush tail flowed around girl’s strong but elegant legs with the tensed muscles showing through the silky skin. She threw a glance at the resting friends and a smile lit Flaunty’s face; something sparkled in her flowing hair – a small colourful barrette was glaring in the light.

At that image, Misty was torn between two equally strong feelings: she would have hated to wake exhausted Windy napping on her shoulder by a sudden move, but at the same time the girl felt a so strong urge to capture that moment taking a picture of cheerfully smiling Flaunty. Lacy’s thoughtful voice mercifully pulled her from that dilemma.

“Well…” the earth filly took off her glasses, closing her eyes for a moment and tiredly rubbing the nose bridge. “I tried to briefly sum up our finds and… What I can say…” she shrugged with a smile, “It seems we were extremely lucky getting inside the old block that easily and staying unnoticed for a while…”

Under the inquiring look of Misty, the girl put aside the notes and started elaborating.

“We managed to get in the “right” place in the “right” time, Misty. Early morning, when the guarding workers were tired and their attention – maximally scattered; morning fog and twilight did their job as well as the humidity outside – blunting their perception in addition to fatigue.” Lacy let out a small smile. “The ajar window was specifically some sheer luck in my opinion. Otherwise, we could look around for another way in or… try to make one and get caught.”

“What are you implying?” quietly asked Misty as Windy sighed through her sleep and snuggled closer.

“According to what we have found out already, infiltrating the factory isn’t that easy of a task in fact,” Lacy shook her head with conviction. “Not at the daytime at least, not when the workers are on their places. Frankly speaking, I’m nearly bewildered by how lucky we were – one chance for a million. The territory is large, I admit, but at the same time, it’s mostly easy to see through. A lot of staff makes it nearly impossible for a group of strangers to traverse the facility secretly, let alone doing something plain dangerous. Especially after the first incidents, when a lot of workers started remaining for the night security shifts.”

“One single pony could hardly be that effective… errmmm… effectively destructive,” Misty watched her friend pensively.

“That’s why suspecting an insider, nopony said that supposed insider was performing the sabotage itself,” Lacy raised her eyebrows with emphasis. “They must rather be the eyes and ears of that… shady gamble. The real saboteurs must know exactly where they needed to go and what they were supposed to do each next moment,” elaborated Lacy gravely. “They also needed to have a covert way to infiltrate the factory… something that Thorntwist and the others didn’t take into account due to low probability or… on the contrary, seeming commonness of it.”

That suggestion made Misty perk up; the girl’s eyes sparkled with interest.

“It leads us to one interesting story we all heard here!” Lacy produced a mysterious mien, glancing at her friend. “When we pretended to be looking for some historical values, a few of the older workers remembered about the old mine near the factory. So, I thought…” the filly smirked slyly.

“Wait…” drawled Misty. “I can see perfectly where it drifts… But the mine was locked down years ago according to their exact stories. Everything must have collapsed there already…”

“Or not,” shrugged Lacy. “By the way, the main entrance to the mine is still somewhere in the forest surrounding the facility!”

“I think I can see it,” Flaunty peered into the distance, pointing at something afar; she was listening to the girls from the corner of her ear all the time. “There is a spot further at the coast, where the trees are less dense, and I fancy some constructions still protruding above the green over there…”

“Hmmm…” Following her glance, Misty gloomed slightly. “The more reasons to check the basement thoroughly. That variant would be ideal for the intruders…”

“Yeah. The mine exists at the rumour level since Thorntwist remembers himself,” musingly uttered Flaunty; approaching, the girl landed next to her resting friends. “But at the same, time everypony here knows well that it was locked. Even your first thought was about it being collapsed, Misty! No wonder, they never took it into account…”

“However, the mine must connect to the old building for that,” Lacy raised a finger, calling the girls to avoid premature conclusions. “As for the alternate explanation…” she checked her notes again.

“Some older workponies told about some factory related “ghost story”,” chuckled Misty, trying to sit a bit more comfortably. “By the look of it, they didn’t overly believe it, rather telling it a joke or local urban legend. I would brush away without any doubts… if only I didn’t feel something near the basement entrance.”

“Mhmmm…” muttered Windy opening one eye slowly. “Our Canterton case started from an urban legend as well.”

“Right to the point!” admitted the girls smiling.

“Speaking of which,” Windy straightened, waking up completely and adjusting herself against the wall; however, the girl didn’t hurry to leave Misty cuddle. “I heard a very interesting story right during the lunch break. When you, pals, were occupying a table already, one of Thorntwist’s stallions introduced me to a very picturesque character,” she looked around her friends. “So…”

“…and here, girls, is the one whom you need to interview if you want to dive into the history of the place!” the worker gestured the friends to approach the next table occupied by a noticeable old chap. Their guide lowered his voice. “Myopic Hawky is the pony you need to hear a story or two. Let his nickname delude you not; he may mistake you for a chair, but sees the tiniest nick at his nose distance. The oldest and I won’t make a crime against the truth the most valuable employee, god of quality control… even if he may look a bit strange the other time.” To girls’ surprise, they noticed that the stallion was deadly serious this time.

Personally, Windy would never imagine such a person still working for the factory, let alone in the quality control department. It was easily believable from the first sight that Hawky was the local veteran. Ruffled and bulky, the old pegasus hunched over his lunch, musingly poking his fork into the dish. However, the smock, which he put over his simple suit pants and sweater, was perfectly clean and neat, and his movements were rather caused by deep thoughts than some age problems. The monstrously thick glasses sitting on Hawky’s nose explained his pose perfectly. Myopic Hawky, according to his nickname, had his clear sight limited nearly by the length of his nose indeed. The more surprising was his work at the quality check conveyor.

The old chap definitely was happy to see some new faces around, especially ready to make him a company and listen. Squinting through his thick glasses, the pegasus greeted the girls enthusiastically; it wasn’t a problem to draw him into the conversation.

Hawky knew a lot about the factory; unfortunately, in addition to that, he was overly talkative. Windy realized where they were drawn into, noticing how the worker guiding the girls there disappeared quietly and subtly; the stallion knew well how long the talk might drawl. After a short while, the rest of the girls followed suit, insensibly sliding behind the nearest table and addressing the meal; they left the old chap on Windy, concluding that the latter had a special gift of dealing with the chatty old ponies, based on her considerably more durable patience and ability to listen. In her turn, Windy had nothing else than to submit to her mission with a sigh and an expressive face aimed towards her friends.

Little by little, she managed to drive his meandering memories to the subject, which interested the four investigators. It seemed that Hawky had a story for each mentioned aspect of factory life, but the topic of paranormal drew his interest visibly.

“Know what,” he leaned closer across the table confidentially, gesturing for Windy’s attention. “They all may believe me not, even make that a local joke…” the pegasus looked around the herded cafeteria; the thick glasses shook reproachfully. “There was some spirit at our factory… Even in the times of Nordy’s grandfather ownership. And I guess long before. Yes, yes…” the pegasus nodded. “There were always rumours about all Thorntwists having some sort of agreement with it.”

“They say there is a secret room in the old building,” feeling Windy’s awaken interest, Hawky continued. “I won’t lie, I haven’t seen it myself, but I saw some other thing making me believe.”

“What did you see, sir?” the red head leaned closer.

“Hmmm… When I only started working here… and my eyesight wasn’t the local landmark,” the stallion visibly enjoyed the conversation and his collocutor attention. “I saw the Thorntwist’s grandpa and then his father after a while… saw them visiting the old building very late in the night. Didn’t look like a fitting time for some business if you ask me.” The pegasus raised one eyebrow meaningfully. “And nopony else was accompanying them…”

“Mmmm…” drawled Windy indefinitely. “That’s not necessarily…”

“I admit that may sound strange…” giggled the old stallion. “But another thing sounds even stranger; however, it’s a known fact! I think I won’t betray the truth if I say that nopony can remember the last time when some accident happened here… before that last series! And the equipment was always working out its resource safely until it was changed as planned,” Hawky pointed his finger with emphasis. “But young Thorntwist thinks it all grandma’s stories!” huffed he, although kindly. “He’s… too young to believe… Would probably dislike me telling you all that, but he can’t change things,” shrugged the old worker.

“I was utterly surprised, you four asked such questions,” Hawky raised his eyes behind the glasses at Windy. “Well… fillies – maybe,” he glanced at watching them Misty, Lacy and Flaunty behind the next table and lowered his voice. “But you… could certainly find something fancier to occupy yourself within such a… flower-garden!”

“I’ll put it flat and honest!” he patted Windy’s hand lightly. “You’re in Baltimare! It’s Spring… The ocean coast is almost several steps far… Such a handsome colt would never have problems gaining fillies’ attention! Better grab a ball, your girls and go to the beach… Eh!” Hawky winked confidentially…

“Now, can you imagine?!” pretty frustrated, Windy alternated between the girls. “And stop giggling, you...” she glared at Flaunty, who almost fell backwards on the roof and was to lean on her elbows to keep balance.

“Did he just say exactly that? “I’ll put it flat…”?” Lacy muffled herself to hold back snorting.

“Somepony mentions that part again and I’ll bite you,” Windy warned the girls grumpily, she cringed. “The worst thing that some other workers heard that. Given his eyesight, that was accepted as a joke, but the glances…” pouted the girl.

“Oh, come on! We love you for a wide variety of… well-pronounced qualities,” Lacy was an epitome of peacemaking. Misty and Flaunty rolled on the roof laughing.

“Grrrr! You, mockingbird!” Windy grabbed the earth filly, showing the teeth and pulling her closer, but suddenly giving Lacy a tender lick on the ear.