Brimstone

In the middle of an open range, a train sped forward as it sprayed thick black soot into the sky, causing Celestia’s sun to be temporarily obscured in a choking darkness that would subside with the slightest gust of wind.

The train was unlike the ones that would transport ponies on a daily basis in Equestria. Despite having the same cheerful designs that were standard on the engine and cars, the paint was long worn off, leaving nothing but a dark colored metal hunk that creaked and banged with every little bump it encountered.

The inside of the train showed only more wear and neglect. Where there would be chatter and laughter, one only met silence, save a cough from a pony not quite used to the thick smoke that somehow found its way into the cargo carrier car that doubled as a makeshift passenger car.

The pony in question eventually decided that it would be wise to cover his mouth with a cloth to avoid suffocating before even reaching his destination.

The light gray pony looked at his ticket stub and checked the destination slot. The ticket, covered in black marks that were smeared across the paper, had only one legible word. The word was stamped into the yellow page with an archaic looking font, “BRIMSTONE”.

The stallion looked around the car and saw that he was the only pony there. He felt relieved since it would be embarrassing for a pony from Canterlot to be seen coughing like he had the flu.

He sighed and put the ticket back into his tan safari jacket. That was the seventh time he had looked at his ticket, and yet he continued to check the destination hoping that it would state that he was returning home.

After he put the ticket back inside of his jacket, he opened his saddlebag and inspected the gear inside: A notebook, pen, flares, flashlight, knife, and his most prized possession, a brand new rock hammer, given to him by his parents after he graduated from the Canterlot School of the Sciences. The metal on the rock hammer was shiny, barely showing any scratches while the handle was a solid black leather. The protective leather cover had the name of its owner stitched into it, Ash Cloud.

“Only three months...” Ash whispered to himself, “Three months of mining and I can return home with a nice paycheck. My dad mined for years. Surely his son can handle three months.”

As soon as he finished whispering to the wind, his body was thrown forward as the train slowed to a halt. The sound of the wheels grinding on the rusted rails filled the stallion’s ears with a loud screeching that could drown out even the Royal Canterlot Voice. Before he could recover, an uncaring voice blared through the speakers.

“End of the line! Everypony out!”

The engineer’s well-rehearsed lines were enough to make Ash grab his stuff and jump out of the train, in case the engineer didn’t even know that there anypony still on board, not that the soot choking him wasn’t enough to make him want to get off in the first place.

Sure enough, as soon as Ash Cloud hit the mud, the whistle screeched and the train slowly trudged forward before reaching its full speed. Eventually, the tracks formed a massive U-turn, causing the black hunk of steel to speed back towards civilization.

Ash got up and brushed as much mud off as possible. The entire ground beneath him was pure wet earth and the air had a fair amount of humidity with dark grey clouds covering the sky, suggesting that it had recently rained.

Ash collected his belongings and attempted to walk, but his legs immediately collapsed from under him due to not having to support any weight for the train ride that lasted several hours. He took the saddlebag off and sat on top of it so his legs could recover from the trip. He took in a deep breath and almost gagged as the smell of rotten eggs filled his nostrils and throat. He quickly put a cloth over his mouth yet again to filter out the smell as best as he could.

“No wonder why they call this place Brimstone. The only thing that is missing is the entrance to Tartarus.”

He looked toward the massive cluster of mountains in front of him. They were definitely taller than any of the mountains he saw around Canterlot. Their peaks reached so high that they were obscured by the clouds. Most of the mountains were completely bare, showing jagged gray and black rock formations along their length. Towards the bottom lay dense forest as far as Ash could see. Animals and birds wandered around freely due to the lack of pony presence in the area. If it weren’t for the smoke rising from the general location of the mine within the mountains, one would think that the entire area was deserted.

After resting for several minutes, he put his saddlebag onto his back and began walking up the muddy trail that went up the large mountain range in front of him. When he reached higher ground, he took a look out towards where the train sped off. All he could see was a never ending line of track that vanished into the horizon.

“I can’t see any civilization around here. It looks like there really are some ponies that are willing to work in the middle of nowhere for a large paycheck. At least it’s pretty around here.”

He continued onward, the increasing fall of ash and soot from the sky suggested that he was heading in the right direction.

Eventually, he stopped two miles down the beaten road at a small booth in front of a gate that blocked the road. Past the gate was a series of horribly run down wooden structures, which made up his destination: A secluded town that existed for the sole purpose to mine coal from the mountains.

Inside of the booth was a rust colored stallion, barely older than a teenager. He was leaned back in his chair and he wore a dirty leather vest with a blue hard hat that was covered in oil and grease. His head was buried in a newspaper and he is oblivious to Ash’s presence.

Ash tapped the window for attention, startling the young stallion.

“Excuse me sir,” stated Ash, “I am a new worker here and I need to speak with the foreman.”

The rusty stallion got up and slowly studied Ash, his face showed an increasing amount of disgust as he looked at Ash.

“You must be the new contractor, ain’t ya?”

“Yes, I am,” replied Ash, a bit shocked at the harsh look he was receiving.

“We don’t need your kind, glow horn!” The stallion pointed back down the path. “I suggest you take your flank elsewhere before you cause any trouble! We’ve had twelve miners die in the past couple of months!” He continued shouting at Ash, who was now backing away. The teenager’s voice was getting louder with each sentence.

“Excuse me?” exclaimed Ash as he put his face closer to the teenager’s face. “I just got here! What kind of trouble could I have caused?”

The teen replied, “I know what you unicorns are up to! You think you’re better than anypony else just because you can do some tricks with your fancy magic and that us earth ponies are expendable!”

When it appeared that both ponies were about to fight, a massive voice roared out and startled an entire flock of birds from their trees.

“That’s enough, Rock Burst! I’ll take care of him!”

The voice came from the elderly pony that was slowly making his way towards the booth. His coat was gray, like Ash’s, but unlike Ash he had a white mane and tail. His head had a rough texture and his cheeks were covered in a massive beard, giving him the appearance of a stereotypical miner from cartoons. He stood on his hind legs, with his weight shifted onto a cane that was underneath a stub where his left foreleg should have been.

“Boss, you can’t let him go around the mine! We don’t know where he’s from or who he’s working for!” insisted Rock Burst.

“Quit your yapping and keep watch on the road or you ain’t gettin’ your rations!” responds the elder pony, obviously not amused with the younger stallion’s outburst. Rock Burst simply shakes his head, goes back into the booth, and went back to reading the paper. Ash looked at the three-legged pony, who motioned at Ash to come closer.

“You must be Ash Cloud, young one.” He held out his left foreleg. “My name is Quicksilver. I’m the boss of this here fine coal mine of Brimstone!”

Ash gave Quicksilver’s foreleg a firm shake, relieved to see his first friendly face since he left Canterlot.

“You are correct. It is nice to meet you, sir. You obviously know who I am so I’m guessing you won’t need much of an introduction from me.”

Quicksilver let out a wheezing laugh that made Ash fear for Quicksilver’s health.

“Nonsense, it ain’t very often we get new faces! I would love to hear a little about ya!”

“Well, my contract says that I have to stay here for three months. That should be plenty of time for us to get acquainted,” responded Ash.

“Indeed. Let’s head to the camp, shall we?” Without even waiting for a response, Quicksilver began his slow shuffle away from the toll booth and down the trail, and Ash followed.

“So, why is this place called Brimstone?” asked Ash.

Quicksilver began to give a talk about Brimstone, occasionally stopping to catch his breath.

“Well we first started to call this place Brimstone, on account of how this entire area is rich with sulfur deposits. One of the largest in all of Equestria as a matter of fact! The problem was that they’re in hard to reach places. I guess the companies found that mining it would be too costly despite the large supply, seeing as sulfur ain’t exactly a popular material to use. As a matter of fact, I’m sure you figured out why when you stepped off the train. But luckily, we learned that these mountains had a large supply of coal that was accessible a few decades ago. So, we began a mining operation here, and well, the name of Brimstone just stuck. It’s a bit confusing to some as to what we are mining.”

“Very interesting,” Ash replied while he made a mental note to explore and see what other interesting geological features were in the area. “What was the gate pony’s problem? What did he mean about ponies dying? And what do I have to do with it?”

The elderly pony had a look of sadness in his eyes at the mention of the dead miners.

“Some poor souls were killed in a cave in. We’re not really sure what caused it, our engineers were one hundred percent sure that the shaft was stable. A lot of the workers think that a curse was put on the mine.”

Before he could continue, the pair found themselves in the middle of the town, which was revealed to be much larger than what Ash saw at first. Quicksilver gave his good fore leg a long sweeping motion as if he was revealing an expensive painting.

“Welcome to Brimstone. Where our toil powers the rest of civilization.” Quicksilver then pointed to one of the taller buildings. “This is the building you will be sleeping in. Your room is 409B. Once you drop off your stuff, look for a tall light brown stallion with a pencil and helmet cutie mark. He will get you set up. If you need me, my office is the small house on top of that wall.” He immediately points to a wall with a lone single story building on it. He then turned back to Ash. “Enjoy your stay, and do be careful! We’ll talk later. I have some business to finish up.” He gives a small wave, and then began shuffling deeper into the town.

Now that Ash was alone, he looked around the mining town that would be his home for the next three months. He noticed that the town was built along the face of the mountain in a terrace-like pattern upon slabs of solid rock that were made by the miners to make the buildings more stable.

The buildings themselves were mostly wood except for the buildings that housed machinery, which were made out of metals of various shades of brown and orange from the heavy rust that infested their surface. Most of the buildings were in fairly decent repair, but they showed signs of heavy wear. It was obvious, to Ash at least, that the constant humidity and rain were not helping the buildings’ life span.

On the farthest end of the village, where the ground was the lowest, laid the black, dark entrance to the coal mine. Surrounding the entrance were mine carts, various pieces equipment and machinery, and ponies wearing light clothing that were completely covered in black smudges and grease stains. They paid no attention to Ash.

Ash looked back at the tall wooden building where his room was and sighed. “Three months...Three months of keeping my head down and choking on dust, then I will be home free.”