Equestria Route Zero

Act One, Scene Four – Timberwolf Mine

It must have been nearly twenty years ago now that my parents passed on. Before then, the store was run by them, they knew the ins & outs of antiques better than anyone in the entire Equestrian countryside. But after they left, Granny Smith came out to look after us at the time while she kept the store running. Applejack took over the place after she had finished high school, & she bought the place back to life, like the original owners had never left in the first place. Now, I ain’t saying Granny destroyed the place but she wasn’t exactly great at bargaining sales. At the time she took control when I was off taking on odd jobs, & both Applejack & Applebloom were too young to start looking after the business full time.

My head was spinning. My ears were ringing. The darkness had taken me whole & was not ready to completely devour me yet. & then I heard him.

“HEY! Hey, are you alright? What the hell…”

Slowly, I awoke, my consciousness coming back to me. My head stung, the old P.A. system just a metre away from my head. Explains the ears, I thought. Coughing the dust out from my lungs, I struggled to move my legs. I looked down & saw a large cluster of rocks lodged together on top of my left leg.

Panicked, I cried out to Shining Armor, “My leg is stuck!” The young guy scrambled over to me past another set of rocks covering half of the now-only-exit from the tunnel.

“Shit. OK. I’m going to pull you out; we have to get you out of here.” With all his strength, he pulled me out from underneath the crushing weight of the rocks, the pain on my leg easing slightly. “There you go, OK. Are you hurt? Can you put any weight on that leg?”

“It’s fine.” I growled

“Just try to stand up. Careful. I’m right here.” Obviously, this guy had never met a member of the Apple family before.

Obviously, I didn’t understand the extent of my injuries. As soon as I attempted to step up off the ground with my left leg, I fell to the side, hurting myself more than I needed.

“Damn! Don’t worry, I’ve got you. That leg is in bad shape.” He looked around frantically. “Here, let’s get you onto the tram.” Just past the rocks that covered half of the mine tunnel, an old rusting tram sat on an equally rusting set of tracks, its obvious lack of use showing with layers upon layers of dust settling on it. On the top were some controls beside one seat. On the opposite side sat another seat, but without controls. Dragging my leg behind me, Shining Armor helped as I sat in the seat with the controls, seeing as it was nearest.

“There you go. Now, let’s see if this thing has power.” He moved to controls to the right of my seat, fiddling about with the few levers & switches the thing had. He pulled the biggest one, & the cart came screeching into life, the engine miraculously still held some fuel in it. “Well, OK. There’s some luck, right? We should be able to ride this tram right out one of the auxiliary exits. If there are any. I think there are.” He pointed up at the roof, a single cable leading into the mine. Every so often, a spark or two would appear, the only form of light anywhere for my eyes. I gussed it followed the cable to the outside.

“What about the onramp?” The reason I was here had suddenly reappeared in my head, replacing the pain in my mind.

“Look, we’ll find the exit first, & then figure out what to do from there. That’s our first priority.” He pointed out the controls necessary to moving the cart & we got moving, venturing into the depths of the mine. I could barely make out Shining Armor opposite me in the other seat; let alone what was ahead of either of us. Soon, we were out into a larger space, the light move obvious here than down in the tunnel.

“Oh, here we are. This may be hard to believe – it’s hard for me to believe myself – but this whole branch was underwater last I heard.”

“Is it safe?”

“I guess so. Looks like the finally drained it. Or maybe it just drained off on it’s own.” Shining Armor’s expression turned sour, as if something put him off about the place. “The water came in pretty fast, & a lot of folks got trapped in the tunnels. I only heard parts of how it went from there – sanitised for the bereaved… you know how these big companies are. But there was gossip too. The trapped miners couldn’t get the pumps going because the power was rationed, so they shut all the lights off. But even then it wasn’t enough. So I guess it was dark when they…”

His speech quietened, almost died. It was as if he was trying to avoid a subject that affected him greatly but it was not as if he wished to avoid it altogether. I thought I’d best check with him.

“Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He dried his eyes, his emotions becoming the better of him. “It doesn’t matter now. Look, this old turntable is still wired up. The controls are dead but I can use my signal generator to switch tracks, if the water hasn’t damaged it too much. Or we can just keep heading down this tunnel.”

I looked past my feet, the outlines of the turntable just visible. This device was made of wood, with two single strips of metal laid across the top for the tram to traverse. This looked older than the tram itself, obviously having been installed into the mine at an earlier date than the tram system. Or at least the tram. Shining Armor spoke up again.

“All this junk hanging up around the turntable is from the company store. Just junk, you know? The miners would buy it & use it to decorate the place… or as landmarks, I guess. Hard to know which way is which down here. It’s all so dim & grey.”

He was right on both accounts. Despite the air in front of me being so opaque that it almost was a solid colour, I could make out a few objects that were foreign to such a place. On one side was a intact rowboat complete with oars. On another, a scarecrow. Whilst I was distracted by these alien objects, Shining Armor must have connected his generator to the turntables electrical panel, because we were soon turning at a steady pace. We quickly stopped turning so now we were between a pendulum type object & a casket.

“We’ll go down this tunnel first.” He pointed to the tunnel that I now sat in front of. “If that doesn’t take us anywhere, we’ll go forwards instead.” This time he pointed to the tunnel in front of himself. “If that one doesn’t work out, we’ll switch tracks again & repeat. Remember, we were on the track between the rowboat & animal bones.”

I punched in the controls, & we started to move backwards. This tunnel was short, as in, it wasn’t long before we found something. Before us stood a large wooden structure &, like everything else, hadn’t been seen or used in years. Large spider webs & odd sized chairs covered it. Nearby, I could hear a small chuckle from Shining Armor.

“Damn. It’s almost totally intact. I thought it would have been destroyed.”

“What is this place?” I said as I turned to face him.

“It’s a recording studio, basically. Kind of thrown together, but… When this mine was active, a couple of folk music archivists spent time here recording miners’ songs. Really academic, ivory tower types. None of the miners really talked to them much.” He continued with a sigh, as if he had told this story many times before. “So they stayed at the margins, observed, took notes, & then sometimes they’d get someone on their lunch break to sing into their microphone. Then I guess the power company got some kind of interest in the project, & gave the archivists some coal scrip tokens to pay the miners with for their songs.”

“Did you ever come down here?”

“Yeah, I came here with my parents once or twice. They used to play music here, even when those archivists weren’t around. It was a nice setup; kinda rickety, kinda dangerous, I guess, but… I don’t know. It had a good energy. It was warm, sometimes.”

We just sat there, taking it all in. Looking around, there was no way forward, so I followed Shining Armor’s instructions & went back towards the turntable so we could investigate the second shaft. Passing the junk landmarks, we moved into a smaller tunnel, the tips of my feet just barely scraping the edge of the tunnel wall. Again, this was another short tunnel the ended abruptly. This one ended at a cliff face, the rails hanging over the edge precariously. Had a well timed spark from the tram cable not light up the area, Shining Armor & I would be dead.

Deciding it best not to continue on, I moved the tram back to the turntable. The wires were connected up again, & this time we switched to the track between a bat feeder & the scarecrow. Going my way again, we reach another end of the line. With this branch, it appears the miners just stopped & never continued.

“Do you hear that? Kind of a muffled rumbling.”

I honed my sense of hearing. I was a definite low hum. “Maybe we’re near water?”

“Could be. There was an underground lake around here years ago. I guess that’s why they stopped digging so abruptly here.” Explains the sudden stop here.

We make it back to the turntable but on Shining Armor’s portion of the track, we’re unable to move any further. I try to push the tram into moving but it doesn’t. Looking up, I notice the single cable that helps power the vehicle only travels in the one direction. Looking ahead, the track is also broken, impossible to take the tram any further.

“The track’s all messed up here. The tram isn’t going any further.” Well done, Einstein. “I wonder what’s down that tunnel.”

As we were still on the turntable, we switched back to the original track, once again between the rowboat & the animal bones. It still bothers me that I don’t know what caused its death. Or what it even was. We followed through with the track & entered the final tunnel. This one was much larger than the ones we had been done before, & was designed differently. Eventually, a dim, pale blue light could be seen emanating from the end of the tunnel.

“Thank God. OK.” & I thought I was the panicky one at the moment.

“Let’s go.” I said. But I was the only one to go.

“Yeah, OK. I just… That tunnel where the tracks were broken. I’d like to take a look down there.” His body was closed to me. He held his arms close to his body, staring intently at the ground.

“Do whatever you need. I’ll just wait for you here.”

“Thanks. I’ll be right back.” & he left.

Waiting is a game, & an interesting one at that. Soon enough, you can find yourself talking to yourself. As did I in that cave. As I waited for Shining Armor to return, I found myself getting distracted more & more by objects that littered the top of the tram. Thanks to the pale blue light, I could finally see, albeit if only slightly. The first thing that caught my eye was a birdcage, about half a metre in length. How I hadn’t seen it in before, I don’t know. Curiously, a paper tag was attached to it via a piece of string. On it read: CANARY 25 TOKENS.

Canaries were sold at the company store? Did they also sell respirators? No bones in the cage. The bird must have been set free. Or maybe the cage was cleaned. There are some cardinals at the Ponyville Zoo, I remember. & other birds: ostriches, eagles… emus… no canaries. Too common? Too small, maybe? But they have starlings. Starlings aren’t much bigger than canaries.

Next, my eyes wandered to a pile of tape reels jammed into the top of the tram, loaded onto what I thought was a loading bay. Clearly thrown on in a rush, the reels were unlabeled & the tape itself was decayed. An old friend of mine used to talk about music he liked made with old decaying tapes… something about… most bizarre taste in music. Weird, noisy, computer music. Probably heard it in Manehatten or college. Was a smart kid. Damn pity.

Now I was looking at some old notebooks. The one on top was labelled in black biro but it was smudged badly. It looked like it said “Horses”. Houses, maybe. Verses? It was a crude & hurried handwriting. Not like Applejack’s. She filled out the receipts for each order these past couple months – ever since a young couple complained about the handwriting on their order slip. Being carbon paper, it wears away over time anyway. If they were so precise about their records, they would’ve made to put it on a computer or something.

“I think this tunnel is getting to me.” I made for the exit, the pale blue light becoming brighter.

Outside. I was finally outside. I was out of the soup-like air of the mineshaft & back in something smoother. As I caught my breath, the cool air caught me, & together we basked in the moonlight. Nearby was a old wooden shack, a single chair poking out. I took this opportunity to rest my leg, although less pained than before. As I sat, I looked around the shack. It was lined with dusty shelves, stacks of reel tape & notebooks. Moonlight filtered in through the window, landing on the desk & highlighting three notebooks in particular. Like the notebooks earlier, these had labels on. One was blank but on the others was a single name: Sparkle.

Opening the first one, inside was a clutter of post it notes, hand written scribbles covering the pages both horizontally & vertically, even in the margins. Of all the pages, only a few were lined evenly & divided up into charts correlating seasons, lyrics, harmonies, coal hauls, & other items that confused me. Moving to the next notebook, I marvelled at how this one was so much tidier than its named counterpart. Inside, a collection of detailed charcoal drawings, most of them of rugged faces. IN the middle of the book, a large 2 page drawing of a young child in a miners helmet, playing amongst the minecart tracks & collecting pieces of wire. Behind them, another child sits nearby, studiously reading a book. Finally, I opened the third book. This was full of Greek letters & mathematical formulae. I skipped to the back of the book, & I saw what first looked like it might be –

“Oh yeah. This place.” I jumped to find Shining Armor standing behind, how long he had been there I don’t know.

“These notebooks are labelled ‘Sparkle’. Your parents are the archivists?”

“No. Twilight’s parents were the archivists. My parents were miners.” I recoiled despite his sombre tone. “How’s the leg?”

“I can walk on it, but it’s slow.”

“Well, I’ll try not to get too far ahead of you. You don’t mind my hitching a ride, do you? I kinda got a lift out here, & wasn’t sure if, uh – when I’d be heading back. I can drive.”

Quietly, I replied, “Yeah, maybe that’s best.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve been driving since I was nine!” How is that relevant?

Wait.

“I still need to find the Zero.”

He turned back to me. “Well, it’s like I told you: Twilight doesn’t lie. If she sent you here to find your onramp, this is where you should be looking. Or maybe you just weren’t listening closely enough, & that’s not exactly what she said?”

He had a point. I wasn’t exactly happy when I left the farmhouse.

“I saw Twilight at my workshop. That’s up north by the lake. Back of a bait shop located at the bay with all the boats. Pretty glamorous, right? These are the times we live in. She’s either up there or back at the farmhouse. Whichever you want to head to first, just let me know.”

We left the shack, moving slow to account for my limp. As we turned a corner, I could see my truck in sight, & Winona running up to meet me, joy in her eyes.

“Winona, this is Shining Armor.”

Winona barked a friendly woof, Shining Armor raising a cautious hand in greeting. We got in the truck, Winona sitting firmly between us, & drove north towards the lake. The moonlight shone brightly upon it as we circled around it to the northern bay. Pulling up at the bait shop, a sign was planted in the ground which read:

LIVE BAIT. MINNOWS SMALL AND

ALSO LARGE FOR STRIPERS.

NIGHTCRAWLERS.

CHIPS AND BEER.

The store was clearly closed but, having left the truck in the parking lot, we entered a side door to Shining Armor’s workshop. Inside, the walls were lined with metal shelves loaded with vacuum tubes, awkwardly shaped metal casings & cans full of electrical components. At the back of the workshop was a desk covered in various TVs, all in different states of disassembly. All of them tremble into life as my companion flips a switch on a power strip.

“Where was it you saw Twilight?” Shining pointed towards a small security monitor on the table. All I could see was a black screen but on closer inspection, it were as if the image were fading in & out of different shades of black. Tweaking with the dials & knobs nearby did nothing to improve the quality of the picture. Staring at the screen felt weird, as if I were asking for something to jump out of the screen, to announce itself to the world. It was a cavernous black. Looking closer, it were as if it hummed & swelled at the pace of the tide. The workshop walls followed suit, heaving either a inch from my face or miles away. I felt adrift on water, black water, & travelling swiftly to a rocky shoreline. I think I said there should be a lighthouse or some buoys about here. Far too dangerous –

The image went completely blank. “Twilight isn’t here.” The angry tone of Shining Armor cut deep through my trance & bought me crashing back to reality. That means the only place left to look was back at the farmhouse.