He’d won the exchange of hostilities, only to lose the battle.
There was no other way to accurately characterize what had just happened, Lex knew, groaning as he ceased rapid-shifting between his shadow-form and solidity. For all that he’d managed to fight off his mysterious opponent, for the second time no less, doing so had cost him dearly. In the likely event that his enemy regrouped and came after him a third time, she’d find him without any means of defending himself.
As it was, even the simple act of turning back to normal nearly brought Lex to his knees, his breathing coming in ragged gasps as he struggled to remain standing. He succeeded in doing so only because he was able to lean against the railing of the catwalk, muttering a liturgy to the Night Mare and fumbling his way through the requisite gestures as he cast the weak healing spell she’d given him on himself.
It was the last time he’d be able to avail himself of that particular remedy, however. He still couldn’t manage more than three divine spells in a day, and having used his poison-retarding spell after his first exchange with his mysterious assailant, followed by an application of this same healing spell, he had now expended his complement of goddess-given magic. Nor could he call upon the reservoir of spell energy in his circlet to manage one more bit of curative magic if things became dire; he’d expended it earlier that morning, when he’d cast his food-creation spells (also one of the Night Mare’s) so that he wouldn’t have to suffer through the terrible meals – most of which consisted of high amounts of grease, or sugar, or both – prepared by the various eateries in Las Pegasus.
Nor was that the only resource he’d depleted. Between the curse he’d failed to put on his enemy, his last-second utilization his shadow-form in order to avoid what would otherwise have been a fatal blow, and the sheer amount of black crystals he’d created in his failed effort to ensnare her, he’d managed to expend all of his dark magic. And with how he’d overstrained himself during those last-ditch efforts, channeling magic through his body in order to push his dark magic beyond its normal limits, he’d succeeded in fatiguing himself badly, his muscles burning from the simple effort of putting one hoof in front of another.
Worst of all, he had made no progress in locating Feather Duster. All of that pain and effort would have been worthwhile if he’d found his missing maid. But as it stood now, he couldn’t even hope to protect himself, let alone Cleansweep’s mother.
What had started out as a rescue mission had become a struggle for survival.
It was a struggle that Lex knew he was on the verge of losing.
Which is why I didn’t come alone.
That thought, however, brought more anxiety than reassurance, causing him to look toward the flames spreading across the front of the factory. Had Sonata or Aria stumbled across one of the kidnapper’s traps? She’d seemed surprised by the explosion, dropping her guard long enough for him to telekinetically hurl a barrel at her with the last of his strength, but Lex didn’t trust that he’d read her reaction correctly.
“Sonata, Aria,” he rasped in a whisper, the effort of speaking while moving being almost more than he could handle. “If you can hear me, I’m on a catwalk near the center of the factory. I haven’t located Feather Duster.” That last part was a bitter confession, all the more so for the fact that he could barely make out the chain where she’d been bound ahead of him, still clipped to the railing, a bit of black cloth along with a few yellow feathers laying on the ground in silent testament to her having been there previously. “If you’ve found her, signal me by-”
“There he is!”
The sound of Sonata’s voice made Lex blink, turning to look at the shadow-shrouded far end of the catwalk, where he could hear hooves galloping toward him. Sure enough, the mare in question bounded into view a half-second later, barreling into him and knocking him painfully to the ground as she wrapped her hooves around him. “LEX! Oh my gosh! I’m so glad you’re alri-”
She wasn’t given a chance to finish as Aria came up behind her and bit her tail, yanking on it sharply, causing Sonata to give a squeal as she was pulled off of him. “He’s NOT alright, you idiot! Look at him!” Despite her acerbic tone, her face was pale as she helped him to his hooves, a sudden intake of breath coming from her as she got a good look at him. “Who did this to you? Are they still-”
“Ooh! Wait!” blurted Sonata suddenly. “Remember that whisper-message we heard right after we walked in? We’re supposed to say our names backward so he knows it’s us! Okay, let’s see…K first for me, then, um…then S, so K-S…um, U, so K-S-U…D, so that makes ‘Ksud.’ Bleh, that sounds ugly. Ksud, um…A-”
“I think you’ve proven that you’re the real deal,” interjected Aria with a snort, before turning her attention back to Lex. “I used my tracking spell to figure out where you were. Tell me who attacked you, and I’ll use it to find them too.”
“They’re disguising themselves as Feather Duster,” answered Lex with a weary shake of his head, somehow managing to find the strength to wave at the shipping crates that were at the edge of his vision thanks to the flames. “The last I saw they fell behind those, but by now they could be anywhere.”
The sisters shared a look at that, having a moment of perfect understanding.
“I got this,” announced Sonata a second later, singing a quick spell.
Lex frowned. “What are you-”
But he didn’t have a chance to finish as Sonata took a deep breath, before unleashing a magically-enhanced scream.
“YOU SUUUUUUUUCK!!!”
The sonic attack slammed into the crates with the force of a battering ram, the uppermost ones splintering as they went tumbling over, falling with a crash that was utterly drowned out beneath Sonata’s amplified voice. By the time she released the note she’d been holding, the containers were scattered across the ground, with several of them broken and the rest of them cracked. But in the dim light of the fire – slightly closer now – there was no sign of anyone among them.
“Nuts,” huffed Sonata. “I was totes hoping to deliver some payback.”
Lex, however, couldn’t hold back his anger. “You idiot! Indiscriminate attacks like that run the risk of hitting Feather Duster!”
Sonata flinched at the rebuke, but Aria shook her head. “She’s not here, Lex. I used my tracking spell to search for her a while ago. It’s still up now, and I haven’t gotten a bead on her even once.”
Lex paused as he digested that. Had the image of Feather Duster that he’d seen, unconscious and bound in chains, been some sort of trick? It wasn’t like he’d actually touched her before whoever was trying to kill him had pulled her out of reach.
Lex glanced down, looking at the scrap of cloth and feathers by his hooves. His enemy had clearly studied him; were they just making him think that Feather Duster was here in order to prevent him from retreating? The note saying they’d return her in exchange for bits had obviously been a lie. Had they already killed her and dumped her body somewhere, rigging up some sort of illusion in order to deceive him into staying here, where they had the advantage?
“C’mon.” Sonata pressed herself against his other side, opposite Aria, and started nudging him forward. “We’re, like, totes getting out of here.”
But Lex dug his hooves in. With how little strength he had left, the motion almost made him topple over again, only staying upright because both mares were practically carrying him. But it was enough to arrest his forward motion. “No.”
Another look passed between Sonata and Aria. “Lex,” began the latter, “there’s no reason to stay here. Feather Duster-”
“She’s here somewhere,” insisted Lex. “I’m not leaving without her.”
Sonata tilted her head. “You’re sure?”
“It’s the most likely possibility.” Of that, Lex felt confident, having turned the idea over for almost ten full seconds now. “Whoever set this up studied me in advance. They know my powers, and they know how to block them. Which means that there’s a good chance they know about yours too.”
Two sets of eyebrows went up. “Wait,” began Aria. “So you’re saying my tracking spell is being scrambled somehow?”
Lex nodded. “You used that spell every time I sent you into Vanhoover to guard ponies that were emptying a bank. No secret was made about that being the method you used to make sure there were no ghouls nearby. It wouldn’t have been hard for someone to hear about that and prepare a countermeasure.”
Sonata tilted her head. “Is that, like, even possible?”
“If whoever’s behind this can prevent me from changing into a shadow, they can do that much.” There was no doubt about that in Lex’s mind. Whoever was behind this whole affair was simply too resourceful for him to think otherwise.
“Hang on a sec,” interjected Aria, “you’re saying you can’t-”
“There’s also the fact that my would-be assassin is also trying very hard to keep me here,” continued Lex, refusing to be sidetracked. “The best way of doing that isn’t to make Feather Duster look like she’s alive; it’s to keep her alive. Because if they’ve killed her and are just making it look like she’s still waiting to be saved, then if I do something unexpected and see through their deception, they lose their leverage.”
“I guess that makes sense,” admitted Sonata. “But Lex, this is place is, like, huge. Plus, it’s on fire now because, er…reasons. Where are we even supposed to look for her?”
Lex didn’t answer immediately. The fire was near the front of the building, but it was slowly spreading, punctuated by the occasional explosion as some flammable substance quickly went up. The high ceiling meant that the air was still relatively breathable, but as the flames spread that would quickly start to change.
But whoever was trying to kill him had to know all that as well.
If his assumptions were right…if they were intent on finishing him off, and wanted to make sure Feather Duster stayed alive so as to minimize any chance that he’d leave before they managed to kill him, then they’d want her as far away from the fire and smoke as possible. Which meant…
“Head down, and toward the back of the building,” instructed Lex. “She’s most likely being kept somewhere in that area.”
The Sirens nodded in unison, helping him forward, and Lex could only hope that he was right. As confident as he felt, his predictions were still just educated guesses, and his foe had proven to be insightful in finding ways to counter his strengths. It was far from unimaginable that any of what he’d postulated might turn out to be wrong.
Held between the two ponies who meant more to him than anyone else in the world, Lex was keenly aware that if that turned out to be the case, it wouldn’t just be his own life that was in danger.
“I was kind of hoping that after we got inside,” admitted Thermal Draft as they passed between what looked like a pair of huge vats, “you’d have a better plan than ‘wander around and hope we find Feather Duster by accident.’”
“With how dusty this place is, I figured we’d find some tracks or something if we looked long enough,” muttered Nosey, creeping along in front of the pegasus as she kept her horn lit. “Even if whoever took her can fly, they wouldn’t hang her up where anyone can see her, so they had to have landed sometime.”
“Carrying someone around does get tiring after a while,” nodded Thermal Draft. “I’d know, since I had to haul you all the way on top of this place, and then catch you after you fell through the ductwork just now.”
Nosey frowned, not sure if that had been a friendly jab or not, before deciding it didn’t matter. What was important now was finding Feather Duster and getting out of here, especially since the far end of the building was apparently on fire! “Just help me look-”
She didn’t have a chance to finish as she was suddenly tackled from behind. Falling onto her belly, she didn’t have a chance to cry out as she felt a hoof go over her mouth, another one cuffing her horn painfully, disrupting her magic and causing her aura to immediately wink out, plunging them into darkness. “Shhh!” hissed Thermal Draft before Nosey could even begin to thrash. “Someone’s coming!”
The warning was enough to make Nosey hold still, straining her ears to try and hear whatever had alerted the other mare. Because she must have heard something, reasoned the reporter. There’s no way she could have seen something before I did in this-
Then, a second later, she had her answer: the soft flapping of wings.
The sound was impossibly quiet, as though whoever was moving was using their wings as little as possible. But the ruffle of feathers pushing against the air was distinct, and judging from the direction it was coming from, was happening almost at ground level. And it was getting closer…
“Underneath!” whispered Drafty, climbing off of her and flattening herself down. Without waiting for an answer, she slid underneath the bottom of the vat on their left, the bottom of the massive tank being barely two feet off the ground. Drafty followed her immediately, twisting her head to avoid scraping her horn along the underside of the gigantic container.
Holding her breath so that the kidnapper didn’t hear them – and it had to be the kidnapper, since Lex, Sonata, and Aria weren’t pegasi – Nosey waited, the sound of intermittent flapping growing closer. If we can pinpoint where they’re going, we can follow them! Then we’ll know exactly…
Her train of thought came to an end as the flapping sound stopped right in front of the vat where they were hiding.
At this distance, the glow from the fire was almost nonexistent, thanks to so many intervening objects, but Nosey could have sworn that she saw two hooves touching down, along with hair pooling in two places in front of them. Feather Duster’s mane and tail, decided Nosey. Whoever that is, they’re carrying her in their forelegs.
While Nosey didn’t consider herself an expert on flying by any means, she couldn’t imagine that being a comfortable way to transport someone. To be able to do so while being so quiet had to mean that whoever this was, they were almost impossible to detect when not encumbered. So what are they doing here?
She had her answer a moment later as she heard the soft sound of a hatch opening, Feather Duster’s pooled hair vanishing just before the soft thump of something being laid down above them could be heard. They’re putting her inside!
Her heart pounding, Nosey tried to keep calm as she considered what that meant. Industrial stories weren’t her forte, but she knew enough to know that huge vats like this one had access ports around their sides, so that pipes could be hooked up from different directions depending on where whatever was inside needed to be pumped. And unused ports can either be sealed up with an airtight cap to prevent leaks, or with a mesh to allow for venting. If she’s unconscious, then it’s probably the latter, since she’d suffocate otherwise. At least, Nosey found herself hoping that the maid was merely unconscious…
The hatch clicked a moment later, and the hooves in her field of vision lingered for just long enough to make Nosey nervous, thinking that they’d been discovered…before she heard a softly-muttered word, unintelligible. Then the hooves leaped into the air, vanishing from sight.
It didn’t escape Nosey’s notice that this time, there was no sound of wings flapping.
Looking over at Thermal Draft, the pegasus mare kept her eyes closed, her ears perked as she listened intently. After several seconds, she opened her eyes, giving a shrug as best she could and shaking her head.
Biting her lip, Nosey waited just a few seconds longer, not wanting to take the chance that they’d run into the kidnapper before they got far enough away.
Then she crawled forward.
Thermal Draft was right behind her, and as soon as they’d cleared the bottom of the vat, both turned around to regard the hatch that they’d heard. Nosey couldn’t suppress a soft sigh of relief as she noticed that it was indeed a mesh covering, turning the latch with her hooves rather than her horn, not wanting to make a light. And inside…
Blindfolded and gagged, the sight of a chained-up Feather Duster greeted them.
Gesturing to Thermal Draft to stand back, Nosey crept into the vat, gently picking up the maid before carrying her out, Drafty closing the hatch once she was clear.
Smiling, the two took a moment to grin at each other before quietly undoing the maid’s restraints, noting with relief that she was still breathing. Putting Feather Duster on her back – knowing that there was no way Thermal Draft could carry both of them out of there – Nosey motioned for the pegasus to follow her. With a fire at the front of the building, they’d need to find another exit, but first on the agenda was letting Lex know-
Beside her, Thermal Draft suddenly stiffened, her eyes widening in fear.
Nosey almost asked her what was wrong, but didn’t need to, figuring it out herself a moment later.
The sudden flapping of wings was audible again, louder this time, as though their owner was agitated, more concerned with speed than stealth.
And it was heading right toward them.