The Lost and Found Series

'''Shocked by a frightening discovery, and in denial of who she truly is, Lynna escapes from the Rainbow Factory to avoid her fate. And in a dusky southern town, she finds a hopeful spirit, accepting the power she was denying all along.'''

Plot background
The Lost and Found Series is a series of solos written by KanakoVoWG for the Xat RP with Lynna as the main character, as well as Curiosity as a secondary perspective. It consists of four parts: The initial solo Alone, and the Lost and Found trilogy itself.

The events of these solos take place between SDM telling the three Anathemites (herself, Oneiros, and Terminos) of their true physique as beings composed of pure Nihility, and Lynna becoming the last of her fellows (including Executor) Manifesting her Anathemite powers.

Alone
The first solo begins with Lynna already in flight away from the Rainbow Factory. As she is moving away, she repeats the phrase "I am not a copy" with increasing intensity while snippets of what the Factory told her flash through her mind. In the end, she loses altitude and tumbles down a cliff to its base, where she curls up, makes a blanket, and cries herself to sleep.

The solo ends in Kanako Imrah's viewpoint, detailing his initial search for Lynna. Due to events in the RP proper, this search gets called off before he can find her.

Full Text
Lynna flew.

She didn't know where she was going. She had no idea exactly where she had warped out to. All she knew was that she wanted to fly as fast as she possibly could away from there.

"i'm not a copy," she mumbles to herself, the words almost lost to her own ears due to the wind rushing past her face. "I'm not a copy, I'm not a copy," she repeats the four words over and over like a mantra, as if saying them enough will make them turn out to be true.

Even so, even as she said the words, fragments of what the Factory said to her whispered through her mind, stilling her voice and inflitrating her thoughts.

"The readings don't lie, girl."

"I'm not a copy." She says, louder this time.

"Are you afraid of the truth?"

"I'm not a copy." She repeats it again, louder still.

"You're just a copy made by Anathemus."

"I'm not a copy!" She shouts, tears beginning to fall anew from her eyes. "I'm not a copy!"

As she barrels forward, she screams again to the sky, "I'M REAL! I'M NOT A DAMN COPY!" while tears pour from her eyes like the rain that threatened to flood Canterlot

---

Soon, though, her strength and will to keep flying begins to peter out as she begins to sink toward the ground. As her will wanes more and more, the ground rushes up faster and faster until she hits a hill while at speed, tumbling down it until she lands at the bottom and lays there, curled up and feeling as if nothing was with her at all.

Eventually, she feebly makes a blanket to cover herself with and, mumbling those four words one more time, sobs herself to sleep.

---

---

Roughly 24 hours later

"What direction are we going, sir?" The pilot asks me, stopping some odd miles from the Factory.

Moving to one of the doors and jumping out to float above the transport, I scan the area with a frown, hoping for some visible sign of Lynna's passage that might clue me in to where she would be. The frown deepens as I find no such clues and head back into the transport.

"Let's start at the west coast and work our way counterclockwise," I tell him. "Keep the scanner at the widest range possible, as well. The sooner we can find her, the sooner we can go home."

"Yes, sir." Clicking a few buttons, the pilot turns the transport and heads toward Los Pegasus as I stare out a nearby window at the scenery, also hoping that we won't find any Nihilus activity on our journey.

Please, Lynna, I mentally think to myself. Please be okay.

Lost and Found, Part 1
The first part of Lost and Found begins from the viewpoint of the filly Curiosity as she ventures from her home to look for an adventuring spot. Her imagination is cut short, however, when she stumbles on a rock near the outskirts of town. It is due to this small tumble that she manages to catch the rustling of taller grass nearby. With her curiosity sparked yet tempered by caution, she noses foreward until she comes upon Lynna's sleeping form.

Curiosity is initially confused by both Lynna's form and her sleeping location, but her confusion turns to fear when she sees the black outfit Lynna is wearing upon pushing the blanket away. Fearful of the possibility that Lynna is a member of the Nihilius Clan, she gallops back to town to alert them all.

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"Bye, mom!" A young brown filly shouts behind her as she eagerly gallops out of her home and toward the forests north of Appleloosa.

"Take care, now!" her mother shouts after her from the door, shaking her head with a sigh as her daughter races away in the dust. "Always so eager..."

The filly, named Curiosity, races into the treeline, her mind already whirling about with ideas for exploration and various adventures. Despite only being a few years old, her energy and desire to explore around the small town was huge, aptly befitting her name. With her tan body and brown mane and tail, she fit right into the sandy landscape, and often enjoyed trying to hide among the dirt to surprise villagers and passersby alike, much to her mother's chagrin. Such activity had been curbed with the arrival of the Nihilus Clan--who have so far not made many attacks against the small town, to their relief--but that hasn't curbed Curiosity's adventurous spirit.

Today, though, she wanted to take a look at some of the surrounding hills, as that was where she wanted her next adventure to be. As she ran, she began to piece together her own image of Canterlot to use on one of the hills. If one of her friends could come along, they could imagine that they were Celestia and Luna, ruling over their little version of Equestria on their own. She could just taste the possibilities there!

Slowing down to a trot when she arrives at one of the hills to catch her breath, Curiosity begins thinking out what they could do, but is interrupted when she accidentally stumbles on a small rock and falls face-first.

"Oww..." she grumbles, rubbing her head with a hoof. "Stupid rock..." Shaking her head, she picks herself up and begins to continue on, but something makes her pause and look to her right. Maybe her already-wild imagination was starting to play tricks on her, but now that some of the tall grass on the right was in her sight she could've sworn by either princess that some of them rustled a little.

With surprising cautiousness for her normal self, Curiosity slowly pads forward toward the grass as it continues to rustle, her mind now wondering just what is beyond here. When she reaches the grass, she pushes past it and stops as the ground dipped down into a small hole where a young girl with sky-blue hair sleeps with a rather ramshackly-made blanket covering her from the neck down. Of course, young as she is and as secluded as Appleloosa is, Curiosity doesn't really know what a human is, much less what one looks like, but she still finds it very strange that a creature would sleep here, of all places. Especially since the town wasn't that far away.

Curiosity approaches the girl slowly nudges her with a hoof, but she doesn't respond. Her own curiosity as to who this is starting to grow, she pushes the blanket off the prone girl, then steps back a little as her black clothing is revealed. As little as the town may know about Nihilus, they DO know that some wear such black clothing, and for one of them to be here did not bode well.

Eyes slightly wide with fear, she races back to Appleloosa to inform the other denizens.

Lost and Found, Part 2
Not long after finding Lynna's body, Curiosity bursts into her home, announcing her find to her mother. Curiosity's mother, in turn, calls the sheriff's office to check on her claim.

Twenty minutes later, Curiosity leads a small posse of townsponies to Lynna's body. With confirmation cleary visible to the sheriff, he has two other ponies carry Lynna into town and to the local jail while the sheriff calls the Factory to bring in an Inspector and take the "Clan member" into custody.

As Lynna lies asleep in the jail, she begins to dream about whispers. These whispers speak of past events, from what she just ran from all the way back to the events in the Second Equestria. However, just as suddenly as the whispers began to swarm her, they cease, bringing Lynna face to face with the mask of Negative. Negative repeats "The Dream Will End" twice as her face mask begins to open, but Lynna wakes before she is able to see anything behind it.

Her screams alert the sheriff that she's awake, and he comes in to interrogate her about the Clan. Lynna is initially confused about her location until the sheriff informs her that this is Appleloosa, and then reacts with derision when the sheriff tries to insinuate that she is part of Nihilius as well as their attack on Ponyville. He points to her garb as proof of her involvement, but Lynna only scoffs as the garb is from Hood's Organization, not the Clan. Thinking about that as well as what she's purported to be make her remember why she flew down here in the first place, making her question her actions.

It is at this point that the sheriff mentions how a Factory Inspector is coming, sending a bad twinge down Lynna's spine that quickly turns into wild fear. Warping out of the jail cell to be directly in front of the sheriff, she picks him up and demands that he send the Inspector away. Before the sheriff has a chance to, the Inspector announces himself at the front door to the jail. Lynna releases the sheriff and backs up to the jail cell in fright, while the sheriff disdainfully leaves her to talk to the Inspector.

The solo briefly timeskips back about an hour, as the Factory and Kanako Imrah discuss the recent announcement of a Nihilius attack in Appleloosa with some confusion, along with snide comments from SDM about Kanako's plan to get Lynna to Manifest.

The solo returns to Appleloosa in the present time, as the Inspector and the sheriff come upon Lynna facing the door, an air sphere charged in her palm and ready to be fired. She first asks the Inspector why he's here and what he'll do, to which the Inspector states that he came to investigate claims that the Clan is in the area. If the claims are false, he returns with such a report; however, if the claims are true, he will return to the Factory and request the mobilization of troops to combat the Clan. It is this statement that incites Lynna to restate her non-affiliation, and also making her release the sphere against a nearby wall. The Inspector tries to seize the opportunity to quickly knock Lynna out with a punch to the gut, but Lynna warps out of the jail and to the outside. Upon realizing this, The Inspector quickly pushes the sheriff to the outside.

Once outside the jail, Lynna is struck with indecision as the entire town look at her with fear. Her thoughts are interrupted when the Inspector lands a hit on her shoulder, knocking her to the ground. The Inspector then pins her to the ground, noting how pleased the Factory will be with his report. Lynna responds by warping out from under him into the air and then trying to tie him up with air threads, but is stymied when they simply dissipate on contact with the Inspector's anti-magic field. The Inspector takes advantage of this to begin flying toward the Factory, but is interrupted in turn by Lynna slamming into him with a metal-reinforced shoulder made from Nothing, surprising him with the fact that she stopped him at all with such a construct.

With the Inspector's attention now on her, Lynna tries to pelt him with magic once again, but gets frustrated by the fact that all her attempts dissipate against his field. She demands an explanation, and the Inspector explains that they are all sent out into the field with Rainbow Armor and an Anti-Magic spell placed upon them. Lynna again tries to attack with magic, but every time the Inspector either dodges the attacks or simply allows the spell to take and dissipate the spells so he can get closer to Lynna. One attempt at punching her face is dodged, and Lynna slams both hands into his chest and releases a burst of explosive energy, sending the two of them flying in opposite directions.

The Inspector recovers first, and once again makes a line for the Factory. This time his attempt is thwarted by a chunk of rock flying directly for him as Lynna warps to be directly in front of him. The Inspector tries to fly over Lynna, but is stopped by Lynna making a metallic shield in front of her and ramming him before he can ascend. The Inspector continues to try and escape, and is repeatedly stopped by the same metallic barriers that Lynna creates as he's continually pushed to the ground.

Lynna eventually manages to trap him on the ground in a metallic box that has holes for breathing. Each wall is reinforced enough that even with the Rainbow Armor the Inspector cannot ram through it, and thus concedes defeat. Lynna is jubilant at first, glad that the Factory won't be able to find her now, but her joy is quickly drained when she comes face to face with the stares of the town as, to their eyes, a Nihilius Clan member just defeated a member of the Factory. Upon realizing just what it looks like to the other ponies, she tries to explain herself, but words fail her as she slumps to the ground and the ponies of Appleloosa begin to flee.

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"Mom! Mom!" Curiosity yells come at the same time as the young foal bursts through the door to her home and comes to a panting stop in the doorframe of the kitchen, as well as startling her mom in the process.

"Curiosity, what in the princesses' name are you doing?!" she brays, making the excited/terrified foal back up a little bit.

"I saw...a girl with black robes," she pants. "Could it be...Nihilius, Mom?" The name Nihilius causes a spark of fear to strike through the mother's eyes, though she tries to hide it as she can see her daughter is scared enough.

"We can't take any chances," the mother says in a calm voice that's slightly forced. "I'll call the sheriff and they can investigate, alright? Now you go rest, dear."

Curiosity, glad to see that her mom has things under control, gratefully complies and plops down on the living room floor to catch her breath while her mother reaches for the phone and dials the sheriff.

"Sheriff?" She says after a moment. "My daughter found something you might want to investigate...No, I assure you she isn't joking...Well, I can ask her if she wants to take you there, but at the very least she can provide directions...Yes, please come right away."

---

About 20 minutes later

"Over here!" Curiosity says, pointing to the clump of grasses where Lynna sleeps with a hoof. The sheriff slowly noses his way through the grass while the hands from town he asked to come with him watch nervously. He stops suddenly when Lynna's body and clothing come into view. The blanket is still off of her from when Curiosity nudged it away, and Lynna hadn't moved it back.

"Well..." The sheriff says in a surprised tone. "Doesn't that just bugger all."

Tossing his head at two of the hands, he says, "C'mere, you two. Help me carry her over to a pen, and I'll question her when she wakes." As the two take Lynna's limp form and carry her back to town, the sheriff looks back at Curiosity with an approving look.

"Good job, girl," he says, and Curiosity blushes at the praise.

"I-I just did what was right, really," she replies, scratching the back of her head with a hoof.

---

About 9 hours later

Lynna saw nothing but darkness.

It wasn't an invasive, compressing darkness, but it certainly seemed to be all around her and had no signs of going away.

Nervous and still jittery from her earlier flight, Lynna slowly moves forward, her feet making no sound as she pads along, glancing all around her with ever-moving eyes, wondering if something will jump at her in the darkness.

Soon enough, whispers begin to come into her ears.

Whispers from recent memory, of being called a fake.

Whispers from slightly farther back, of being forced to leave a friend behind.

Whispers from farther still, of feeling that... thing touch her and reduce her to nothing.

And the whispers come back from even farther: From the Rusted Factory; from Escherland, as they called it; even from her original Equestria and Hellgate's demonic "rule," if she could even call it that.

They crowded her ears and mind, overlapping, trying to be heard the most over each other. Trying to be the one most prominent in her mind, battling so much she thought her head might explode from the sound exposure.

However, just as suddenly as they begin, the whispers cease, making her look around in some confusion. But when she turns straight ahead, she sees only the silhouette of a female-like body of the darkness itself, the only visible feature being the mask on the face with a vertical line splitting it in half. Even with the mask Lynna knew it had to be that...woman from the weird Gensokyo. Negative, they called it.

"No...Noooo..." she moans, backing up.

" The dream will end, " the figure seems to say, though it doesn't seem to come directly from that mask.

"Noo...please," she cries, backing up some more, stumbling, and falling on her back.

" The dream will end, " the figure says again as the mask begins to open on it's own. Lynna screams as she prepares to see the face she's seen twice before--

And wakes with a start on a cot, her arms outstretched like she's casting a spell, panting hard as her wild eyes dart around and try to adjust.

The first thing she clearly can tell is that she definitely isn't out in the open. It isn't a room in the Factory--looks too unclean for that--but it does seem to be a holding cell of some sort. Looking down, she can tell she isn't bound, but the spare blankets put on her still feel too confining as she throws them off.

"Woke up yet, girl?" the voice startles her and she almost whips her arm up and out in that direction to throw a spell out, and only barely catches herself before firing what might be a fatal shot--for her and/or for whoever captured her. As she forces herself to put her hand down and slow her breathing, she sees a red pony with a sheriff's start on his lower neck and a cowboy-like hat on his head, a hoof poised to rest on the bars before Lynna targeted him.

"Easy, now," the pony says again, raising his other forehoof briefly in a sign of peace before dropping back to all fours. "Awful strange for someone like you to be alone out there."

"I..." Lynna looks away from the pony, her thoughts tumbling around in her head, tumbling around and being as incoherent as she felt at the moment. Eventually, though, she manages to pose a question. "Um...Where am I?"

"Did you not have geography lessons, girl?" The pony asks with a raised eyebrow. "This is Appleloosa in the lovely south."

"Apple..." Lynna closes her eyes and rubs her forehead as she tries to pull up her map of Equestria in her head. Slowly it comes together through the fog. "...I flew that far south...?"

"Did you have fun in Ponyville?" the sheriff continues. "Find anything you needed? Maybe the Mane Six, Celestia help us all?" he shudders at the thought as Lynna sharps turns to him with a confused look.

"Wha...why would I want the Mane Six?" she asks, her tone matching her confused look. "I...I don't hate them or anything...Why would I?"

"Why're you asking me?" the sheriff shrugs. "I'm not the on who's in Nihilius."

"What?!" Lynna shouts, standing up from the bed. She immediately feels woozy from the rush of blood to her head, but when she stabilizes she continues indignantly. "I'm not part of those freaks, no way in hell!"

"Hold on, missy, hold on," the sheriff backs up a few paces cautiously, putting up a hoof placatingly. "You might want to explain what you're wearing, if you really aren't."

"What? This?" Lynna looks down at her beaten-down garb from Hood's Organization and can't help but scoff. "I doubt I'd be allowed to wear something like this in there. Maybe if I was--" she almost adds in her own thing about possibly being Anathemus' herald, but stops before revealing that. The fact that the almost-comment made her remember why she fled down here in the first place knocks any fight out of her as she sinks to the ground.

"What am I...?" she wonders aloud disconsolately, covering her face with a hand. "What am I supposed to be doing...?"

"..." The sheriff stares at Lynna, confusion and some concern clearly etched on his face as he doesn't understand what caused her to suddenly fall to the floor. Despite his growing doubts as to her identity, he still feels like this girl might be part of Nihilius still. "I can't really help you there, but if you're really not part of Nihilius you'll have to do a good job of convincing the Inspector of that."

Lynna doesn't look up at the sheriff at first, but the mention of an inspector twinges her gut in a bad way. "...Inspector, sheriff?" she echoes him and he nods.

"Sent directly from the Factory itself, yeah. I reckon he should be here any--ack!' Anything else the sheriff might have said is cut off as Lynna seems to warp directly out of the jail cell and right in front of the sheriff, grabbing him under his forehooves and slightly lifting him into the air, and wild and fearful look in her eyes.

"Send him back!" She says quickly. As the sheriff tries to protest she goes on over him. "I don't wanna go back to the Factory. I don't care what you tell him, just don't let me go back there!"

"H-Hold on, Miss!" the sheriff says hastily. "Ju-Just put me down, okay? I-I won't do you any harm, just please put me down."

Lynna doesn't respond for a moment, and the sheriff slumps slightly, thinking that his life is going to be over right then. However, before Lynna can do anything an loud knocking is heard from the door.

"Factory Inspector!" a voice shouts into the room. "I'm here to inquire about a Nihilius Clan sighting in the town!"

Lynna abruptly drops the sheriff, who hits the ground with a grunt, and backs up to the cell, panic in her eyes. "No..." she trembles as the sheriff slowly picks himself up and slowly looks at the girl.

"...You might've done better in talking to me," he says with some disdain before hurrying to answer the door, calling out, "I'm coming! I'm coming!"

---

Roughly an hour prior, at the Factory

"A Nihilius sighting? In Appleloosa, of all places?" I ask incredulously to a wall as I walk down a hallway in the Factory. "Really?"

"Yup." The Factory responds as I roll my eyes.

"Well, that's convenient," I reply. "Considering I picked up Lynna's signature around that same town, I highly doubt that it's really them. Besides, why would Exec even attack there? He doesn't even know Lynna's there. Hell, we didn't even know until a few days ago!"

"Good luck telling that to the inspector," the Factory retorts. "That is, if you can catch up to him in the short span it'll take for him to get from here to Appleloosa."

"...Oh, what'd be the point? We're going there anyways," I roll my eyes and groan.

"Oh, right, to watch your little ew scene," The Factory snorts in disgust. "Confessing to an Anathemite, ewwwwwwwwwwwww."

"Oh, would you stop that already!" I shout indignantly, with the Factory continuing to make noises of disgust over my protests.

---

"Right in here, sir," the sheriff leads the suited Pegasus into the jail cell that housed Lynna. "Gal sure didn't want to get tangled up in your hair, that's for sure." the two stop as they see Lynna, still out of her cell, with an air sphere in her outstretched hand and pointed directly at the door.

"Don't. Move," she snarls as both ponies stand still. she suppresses a tremor before asking the Inspector. "You! You came from the factory, right?"

"...Yes." the Inspector responds after a moment.

"..." Lynna shakes her head as she tries to think of a follow-up question, and just decides to to stick with the simple ones. "Why are you here?!"

"We received a message yesterday of a possible Nihilius Clan sighting by the sheriff, and I was sent to investigate."

"...And?"

"If it is a false alarm, then I simply return with such a report. If Nihilius is indeed active in the area, I will return as soon as I can to the Factory so he can mobilize a force to eliminate the threat, as it seems he may have to do with you."

"I'm not part of them!" Lynna retorts fiercely, releasing the sphere off to the side of the sheriff and impacting the wall with a bang. The shot doesn't knock down the wall, but it does send debris flying. The sheriff flinches and shies away from the shot, but the inspector sees an opening and quickly darts toward Lynna while activating his Rainbow Armor, aiming to land a punch to the gut to knock her out quickly. But despite her frame of mind Lynna is able to react quickly enough to warp out of the room and to the outside, a fact the Inspector quickly realizes as he ushers the sheriff out the door.

Out on the street (and greeted by the wary and fearful stares of the town, Curiosity's included), Lynna is stuck by indecision. Her mind screams at her to flee as fast as she can, but at the same time she doesn't want to give the Factory a chance to find her, especially if the Inspector possibly identifies her as one of the other three. And yet...And yet...

Her thoughts are quickly interrupted by an armored hoof smashing into her shoulder, sending her down the street as the agent quickly follows after her and pins her down to the ground.

"I think the Factory would be most pleased with my report," the Inspector says into Lynna's ear as she struggles. "It would be a waste to use the entire force on just one person, but the town would be commended for reporting this right away."

"...No!" Lynna shouts before warping out from under the Inspector and making him fall with a surprised "oomph!" Eager to incapacitate him before he can get back to the Factory, Lynna sends out multiple threads of air to bind the Inspector down, but can only start in surprise when the Inspector rises back up and the threads simply dissipate into the air.

"Nice try," the Inspector says before flapping his wings to get into the air and quickly turns to speed toward the Factory. However, Lynna reacts faster than him, warping onto him with a cry of, "NO!" and ramming him with a metal-reinforced shoulder. More surprising to him is the fact that the metal--which clearly was made from nothing--actually held against his anti-magic spell completely than her being able to intercept him and send him down toward the ground. He does recover before hitting the ground, realizing that it might be a better idea to deal with her first.

"You can't keep me from getting back," he calls up to her.

"Yes I can!" She cries as she sends a volley of fireballs toward him. Again, though, the spells don't seem to faze him at all--or rather, they don't really even reach him before dissipating as he speeds forward to ram Lynna in the gut as she barely jumps to the side to avoid his charge. Starting to get annoyed at the lack of magical success, she hurls a large lightning sphere at the Inspector, who is forced to fly to the side to avoid it as it explodes when it reaches his former location. Lynna follows it up with a weaker lightning spear once she is able to track the Inspector, but like the fireballs it does very little to him, if anything at all, causing Lynna to stamp her foot in the air in frustration.

"What's with you?!" she shrieks as the Inspector smiles. "Are you, like, some kind of anti-magic guy?!"

"Do you think the Factory would send us out here without a way to deal with members of the Nihilius Clan?" he replies. "All of us don't dare enter the field without having an anti-magic spell placed on us and equipping ourselves with this Rainbow Armor."

Inwardly, the more rational part of Lynna's mind reflects on how sensible that is, and also is able to guess that he must also be proficient in dealing with single Nihilus clan members. But at the moment that part of Lynna's mind is not the part that's operating. Instead, the less rational parts of her mind are in control, and instead of backing off slightly to think of a way to bypass the shield she only growls in anger and tries to assault the Inspector with a flurry of elemental attacks. Much to her dismay, though, he either dodges the projectiles or lets the spell tank the shots as he gets in range of her again, aiming a forehoof directly at her face. She ducks under the punch, and before the Inspector can react, slams her hands into his chest and releases a burst of explosive energy directly against the barrier.

Both of them are knocked back by the blast, Lynna toward the hills to the northwest of Appleloosa, the Inspector the the desert plains to the northeast. The Inspector recovers first, taking a moment to marvel at her power before recognizing his chance to escape and report back to the base. With a flap of his wings to right himself, he lifts a little off the ground and begins flying toward the Factory, but his attempt is thwarted by what appears to be a large rock just about the same size as himself thrown from the ground that he narrowly avoids by pulling up short.

"Don't you dare move!" Lynna yells, the last two words being a lot louder than the first as she warps in front of the Inspector mid-sentence. The blast seemed to do nothing to her, though the fall put a layer of dust over her body and she is breathing heavily as if winded. A quick glance over the Inspector shows that her attack didn't deal as much damage as she hoped, but it did seem to cause some damage to the armor through the spell.

"You're quite powerful," The Inspector comments. "But I won't let that stop me." He backs up slightly and attempts to fly over her, but she interrupts him by almost instantly creating a metallic shield in front of herself and ramming him before he can ascend, knocking him back toward the town and disorients him a little. While he shakes his head to focus again, Lynna charges up a fire spell and sends the strengthened attack toward the Inspector. Unable to properly respond, the Inspector drops to almost ground level, and while the attack was heavily reduced by the spell, it did manage to damage him a little. he neighs in frustration before attempting to fly past Lynna again, but a metal barrier created by Lynna bars his path and then begins to move forward, pushing him back and forcing him to go around it. But Lynna is ready, and has another metal barrier made as soon as she sees which side the Inspector flies around. This one the Inspector tries to ram, but despite his hard Rainbow Armor the barrier barely holds against it as Lynna reinforces it at the near-last second.

"You aren't going anywhere!" Lynna shouts, a note of triumph entering her voice. Before the Inspector can get out of the barrier and get around it she quickly makes a cube of the same reinforced metal (with holes to allow for air) while replacing the one the Inspector rammed into, then sends him straight to the ground with a thud, disorienting him again from the tossing about due to the box's movement.

How? the Inspector wonders while he recovers. I'm sure this metal is being made through magic. So why can I not dispel it with the spell? When he recovers he tries once again to ram a wall, but even with the Rainbow Armor he can't make a large enough dent in the wall, and has to concede defeat, deactivating the armor and laying down in defeat.

Outside the box, Lynna feels elated at keeping the Factory from realizing she's there and smiles as she hugs herself. But the elation and smile fade when she turns around and can practically feel the fearful stares of the entire town on her from their homes, seemingly literally draining her jubilation away with every pair of eyes.

"W-Wait a second!" She calls out frantically to the town. "I-I just don't want to return to the Factory. I'm not...I mean, I don't...I..." sinking to the ground, she covers her face with her hands, once again brought down to despair as the small town of Appleloosa wonders what to do now and the captive Inspector quietly waits inside his cage.

Lost and Found, Part 3
The final part to the series is from the viewpoint of Curiosity as she is awoken from her sleep by the sounds of Lynna and the Inspector fighting. From the vantage point of her home's front door, she watches as Lynna prevents the Insepctors first escape until they're lose among the hills, and then catches sight of them again as Lynna traps the Inspector in her metal box. The town quickly comes alive with movement as its citizens start packing to leave, but Curiosity remains near the door, her eyes fixed on Lynna's prone form and her mind still trying to wrap around what is going on.

The perspective switches to Lynna, roused from her stupor by the clamor of fleeing ponies. Shocked and dismayed by the reaction, she warps over to one stallion to try and explain herself, but he is only abled to babble in fright at her sudden appearance. She quickly lets him go, and he gallops away while Lynna's mind is sent reeling. She dazedly looks around and soon locks eyes with a small brown filly who wasn't running away from her.

Curiosity herself is frozen when their eyes lock together. The deadlock is broken when Curiosity's mother accidentally knocks into her as she drags their things outside and calls for Curiosity to follow her. Her mother soon becomes confused and concerned when she notices Curiosity isn't following her, and the confusion turns to horror when she sees her filly trotting toward Lynna.

Heedless of her mother's call, Curiosity advances toward Lynna until they're only a few feet away. The two of them exchange names as Curiosity asks why Lynna's here. Lynna opts to respond with a half-truth, stating that she just didn't want the Factory to find her. Before Curiosity can ask her why, Curiosity's mother comes and grabs her daughter, pulling her away as the last of the townfolk retreat from the city, leaving a confused Lynna and waiting Inspector as it's sole inhabitants. The two of them remain roughly where they are until the Factory's main forces arrive and initiate Lynna's Manifestation.

Full Text
Curiosity had been resting in the living room after the sheriff had brought the girl to the jail, and was dozing peacefully when shouts and the sounds of fighting drag her back to consciousness.

"Huh...?" she mumbles, rubbing her eyes with a hoof as she sleepily looks for her mother. "Mom? What's going on? Is there a fight or somethin'?"

Hearing no response, Curiosity opens the door to their home and scans the street. She begins on the left, missing seeing Lynna warp out onto the street, but when she turns her head she can see the girl's frantic head movements as well as a Pegasus creeping up on the girl from the jail. When the Pegasus succesfully tackles Lynna to the ground Curiosity lets out a gasp, one that is quickly imitated when Lynna seems to disappear into thin air and reappear above the Inspector.

How did she do that...? the young foal wonders in a mix of amazement and a growing unease. Unfortunately, at this point the battle goes out beyond the view of the town as the suited Pegasus tries to zoom out of the town. Curiosity cranes her neck around the doorframe to try and get a better look, but to her dismay that doesn't do her any good.

"Curiosity?" her mother calls from her room, her hooves quickly clopping down the stairs as she moves to corral her daughter inside despite Curiosity's protests. "You don't need to be right outside looking at this. I'm sure the Inspector will be able to escape the clutches of that...woman and the Factory will help us."

"But Moooom, I wanna look!" Curiosity struggles to get past her mother and eventuall suceeds. Ignoring her mother's terrified pleas for her to come back, Curiosity marches out the door and stares northward along with some of the other ponies brave enough to be outside to watch the eventual conclusion of the battle.

A hush falls on the town as Lynna manages to cage the Inspector and he is unable to get free, while Curiosity looks on in shocked silence. Her mother, who had come a window to watch, was also staring horrified at the conclusion of the battle.

Suddenly the town was alive with movement as many ponies began to grab and pack as much stuff as they possibly could as fast as they could to get out of Apple Loosa as soon as possible, Curiosity's mother included. All the while, though, the little foal continued to stare at Lynna's prone form, her young mind still trying to make sense of the things that were going on around her and just what this woman was doing.

---

It was the suddon sounds of activity that roused Lynna from her horrified stupor. Looking through her frayed hair she is able to see some ponies already fleeing away from the town and can hear other ponies in the nearest houses loudly attempting to pack any items they can.

"W-wait!" She cries, quickly standing up in an attempt to placate them. her quick movement only brings startled cries from those still watching her, and the already frantic packing becomes even hastier.

Lynna's mind whirls, trying to think of something, anything at all. in desperation she warps over to the first fleeing pony she sees, a brown colt from one of the houses near the jail and grabs him to get his attention. "Please, stop! I...I'm not going to--"

"OhCelestiahelppleasejusttakemystuffanythingatallohCelestiahelpme!!" The colt babbles in a rush, at the same time struggling to get out of her grip. His sudden outburst of fright shocks her into letting go, and he quickly turns and gallops as fast as he can away from her.

"I...I just..." Lynna sputters, her mind once again going blank on how to solve the problem, nearly reverting her back to sinking to the ground in despair. The one thing that stops her is the sudden feeling that someone is watching her very intently. Looking around, she soon locks eyes with a brown filly who, despite the obvious fear and shock in her eyes, was staring her down as if she wasn't fazed in the slightest.

---

As the town ran amok and tried to abandon itself, Curiosity continued to watch the girl. She took a few steps back toward the door when the girl teleported to one colt and seemed to try and communicate with him. She couldn't make out what was being said over all the other noise, but whatever the colt said it made her let go as he turned around and never looked back.

The girl then seemed to be looking for someone else, until her gaze met Curiosity's own. the sudden eye contact made Curiosity freeze, unsure as to whether or not this meant she was next. The contact was broken, however, by her mother pushing through the door, knocking Curiosity to the side somewhat and snapping both her and the girl out of their staring contest.

"Come on, Curiosity!" her mother says in a shrill voice. "Hurry!" Putting the suitcase she was carrying down at the bottom of the steps, she hurries back up to try and push Curiosity down and away from the girl. True to her name, though, Curiosity wasn't about to let this girl go, and instead hesitantly began padding toward her.

"Curiosity," Her mother calls behind her, looking behind to see if her daughter was following. "Curiosity?" her concern mounts when she doesn't see the filly running behind her, and the concern rises to full-on panic when she realizes that Curiosity is approaching the girl. "CURIOSITY! GET BACK HERE!"

---

Lynna blinks and shakes her head when the older pony bursts out the door that was behind the the younger one, breaking their deadlock. Silently she watches the older pony try to usher the younger one--parent and child, possibly?-- away, and her own curiosity begins to rise when the young pony seems to disobey the order to retreat and instead advances toward her. At the same time, though, Lynna is uncertain as to how she should actually handle his, and takes a step back in caution. The two ignore the sounds around them as the contest begins anew while the young pony slowly advances until they're just a few feet from each other.

"...Who are you?" The pony asks at last, making Lynna blink.

"I..." she begins to answer, then looks down and away with a small frown. "...I don't know anymore."

"...I'm Curiosity," the pony continues. "What's your name."

"...Lynna. Master Lynna."

"Master? Is that a rank in the Clan?" the pony named Curiosity asks, and Lynna almost instantly reacts.

"I'm not part of the clan!" she retorts quickly, taking a step forward and making the filly take a few steps back.

"O-Okay," Curiosity mumbles. "But...why did you stop the Inspector?"

"I..." A thought strikes her. Should she even reveal anything about Anathemus at all, or why she fled in the first place? Maybe she can get away with a half-truth. "...I just didn't want him to get back to the Factory and tell him I'm here."

"Why?" The filly asks. "Isn't the Factory supposed to protect us? That's what my mom says."

"I...guess that's true," Lynna bites her lip as she takes a moment to respond. "...It's just...He and I are kinda..."

"Kinda what?" Curiosity asks, but before she can answer her mother reaches her and pushes her away.

"You shouldn't even be near here, girl! Who knows what kind of curses she may have put on your!" the older pony says shrilly as the two moves away from Lynna.

"She didn't do anything, Mom!" Curiosity protests as they move farther and farther away until Lynna can't hear them anymore.

By the time those two leave, the town is deserted, save for herself and the metal box containing the Inspector. Looking around at the empty and ransacked-looking homes, a feeling of revulsion and self-loathing overcomes Lynna as she falls to the ground again.

"What am I even doing...?" She asks no one in particular as the dust settles around her.

Soundtrack

 * 1) Clashing Souls - Fate/Stay Night

Trivia

 * Alone is the second solo created in the Xat RP, and the first written by Kanako.
 * Lost and Found is the second "series" of solos, having two or three solos tied by chapters.
 * This series marks the only known appearance of Inspectors in the Xat RP. Despite how useful and effective the armor and anti-magic spells are against the Clan, these augments do not appear again, and neither do the Inspectors.