Chapter One:
Yet Another Day
Premonition becomes quite simple when coupled with Repetition
Normality
For all intents and purposes, it was a normal start to a not-so-normal day. The whistle on the mine tower blew, signaling that there was an hour till the day shift took over for the night shift. I rolled off the low cot with a groan. As I sat up I took a glance at myself in the mirror beside my cot. A sleepy looking mare glared back at me with a grey coat and black mane that looked as though it had been recently pulled out of a blender. I seriously felt just as bad as I looked. My three room-mares were going through their morning rituals. I sighed, blinking my bleary red eyes. Standing up, I enveloped my scratchy wool blanket in a faint grey light. Once it was tucked it in to my liking, I looked to my saddle bag. My horn began glowing a little brighter as I lifted it off the pin on the wall and proceeded to place it neatly on my back. A grin began grow on my face at the realization there was only one week left until the ceremony of the rising sun. I had not the slightest clue as to what it was for; all it meant to me was that we all get that day off.
After opening the hooflocker at the end of my bed, I proceeded to dig out a comb from the organized chaos within. I quickly ran it through my unkempt mane but not without a small grunt of discomfort. Tossing it back into the hooflocker, I trotted over to the heavy wooden door that lead outside. After glancing back at my room-mares, who were still finishing up their morning routines, the door burst open in response to my firm kick. My eyes clenched shut as a harsh blast of cold air ripped into the room across my face. It was just barely sunrise outside, but most of the work ponies were already out of bed and lumbering towards the communal mess hall.
Breakfast was the usual: pan-blackened potatoes accompanied with what looked to be runny eggs. Despite its less-than-appetizing appearance, it was still edible, if only just. Manners were not a common practice among the miners, but I felt a certain necessity of maintaining my self-image. I managed to choke down the food without complaint. After returning the standard-issue miners mess kit, the fifteen minute whistle echoed down the canyon, alerting everypony that we had the aforementioned amount of time to get to the mine. I found myself rolling my eyes at the particularly frustratingly small amount of time allocated for us to eat. Not like the food was particularly worth savoring or anything, but any amount of time that could be used to rest was much appreciated. Eventually I found enough motivation to start towards the track that led to the mine. On the outskirts of the town is a train track lead right up to it.
On the track was a well-worn coal powered train with a following of three large, industrial-looking train cars. I quickly hop into line to get on. Shortly there after, I’m joined by a small, extremely energetic Pegasus with pure white hair and a pair of golden wings for a cutie mark.
“Hi, Silver!” she exclaimed. “How ya doin’ today!” The pegasus wiggled a little and smiled wider than the famed Lock Lake of the Coté d’Azur, Equestria’s neighbor to the north.
I chuckled and shook my head at how much energy my friend had. “I’m doin’ fairly well, Copper. And you?”
“I’m so excited!” Copper bounced a few times, flapping her stunted wings as quickly as a hummingbird, “There’s only a week left till the ceremony of the rising sun!”
I couldn't help myself, “Do you even know what the meaning behind it?”
“Nope,” she quips, “but we get a day off! YIPPEE!!!” she jumped and punched her forehoof into the air. “How in Celestia’s name do you have this much energy this early in the morning, Copper?”
“Why wouldn’t I, silly?” I couldn't help but think that there are just some things beyond explanation.
Nearing the front of the line, I could faintly hear the radio amongst the normal morning chatter. Currently playing was one of DJ Pon-3’s famous dubtrot beats, though I knew that the news would be coming on momentarily. Copper and I reached the rail car just as the news started.
“Gooood morning Equestria! Weather patrol has done an excellent job as usual - it looks like it’s shaping up to be a beautiful day today” Vinyl Scratch’s voice echoed through the train car. “Today I’ve got good news, but I've also got a little bad. Let’s get the bad news out of the way so I can end on a good note. Another skirmish overnight along the southern border has left 3 ponies dead and 12 injured. The Equestrian Defense Agency is looking into the cause of the explosion, but witnesses say there was something streaking overhead before the explosion occurred. There was a quick exchange of fire across the border following the explosion, although the firefight quickly ceased after a few minutes. Fortunately, no casualties were sustained during the firefight. Now, for the good news...”
“Those good for nothin’ sheep, they’re always testing out new weapons on our border. I honestly think we should test a few of our weapons on them!” somepony near the back of the cart exclaimed. Murmurs of consent washed around the car like water through a sluice.
“We should have used the Elements of Harmony a long time ago,” said another voice from the other end of the car. This time, a dull roar of approval echoed around the car as the story quickly whipped the miners into something of a frenzy.
“WAIT!!!” I hear another voice shout in my ear. “If we start testing our weapons on them, it would be stooping to their level! They would declare war on us! Equestria has been at peace for the past four centuries and our military is extremely underfunded. Most of our troops are already stretched thin on the southern boarder. We would not be able to handle a full scale war.” A cold breath of realisation washed over the car as most everypony realised the truth in the young Pegasus's words.
I began staring absentmindedly at the admittedly attractive Pegasus. My face become a little flush as I looked at her. She had a long glowing golden mane and a bright orange coat that seemed out of place in the crowd of grey and brown coated miners. Her eyes however, were her defining feature. As much as I tried, I couldn't peel my eyes away from hers. They were a deep sky-blue that couldn’t possibly be captured by any paint or on any piece of paper.
“Equestria to Silver, Equestria to Silver! Do you copy?!” Copper asked as she waived her hoof in front of my face, breaking me out of my trance.
“Huh, what?” I stuttered, shaking my head to look around.
Copper giggled. “You like her, don’t you?”
“What! No, of course I don’t!” I exclaimed, feeling my face flush with heat.
Copper fell over laughing. “This is priceless. Silver falling head over hoof for a MARE!!”
“SHUT UP!!” I half-growled, half-yelled. Quickly looking up to see if the beautiful Pegasus had noticed. She was talking with two earth ponies and seamed quite unaware the argument. “Are you still looking at her?” Jeered Copper.
“NO....well...” I glance over towards the golden Pegasus. But she had disappeared along with the two earth ponies.
Copper chuckled, shaking her head in amusement.
The golden Pegasus dominated my thoughts for the rest of the train ride up to the mine, which felt unusually short. Everypony quickly exited the train to greet the departing night crew, who looked just as worn and exhausted as they always did.
Copper glanced at the night-shift miners. “Do we look that bad when we leave?”
“I’m pretty sure we don’t,” I replied, knowing full well I was wrong.
We let the crowd take us towards the central mine shaft that housed two elevators, one for ponies, one for ore. The former had been working non-stop for the past hour to get the night shift out of the mine.
In the confusion, Copper managed to wander away from me. I felt myself being pulled onto the packed elevator to go down. As the doors closed, my heart nearly skipped a beat. The pony next to me was none other then the drop-dead gorgeous mare from the train car. It took me darn near half the ride to muster up the courage to open my mouth. After what felt like an eternity, words finally managed to come out.
“Hey...My name’s Silver.....” I felt about as awkward as an elephant with shin splints.
She responded with a beautiful smile, “I’m Gold Mine.” I saw her begin to blush a little. The combination of her gorgeous smile and adorable blush was enough to make my heart melt a thousand times over. Being at a loss for words, I could barley manage “So... Who is it, I mean what is it that you do down here?” I wanted to face-hoof for my slip of the tongue. I cautiously glanced towards my side to gage her reaction. Holy mother of Celestia!!! Was she seriously checking me out?! She must have seen me glance back at her because she quickly snapped her head back up only to look at the blank metal door of the elevator. “Oh! I work as a messenger for the mine.” she quickly replied as she tried to stifle her nervous laughter. “What do you do?” she asked. Turning to her shyly “I work at th--” the bell above the door dinged, cutting me off mid sentence and redirecting my attention towards the front. The doors opened abruptly swiftly ending the sweet conversation.
The elevator was overwhelmed with the raucous noise of steel hammering against rock. Moving to the side, I got out of the elevator and looked back just in time to see Gold disappear down the nearest tunnel. My eyes took one last look over the Pegasus’s shapely body before turning my mind to today's work. I was greeted by the smell of oil and the muffled whir of the 6 diesel generators in the back of the room. Flicking the light switch on, the atmosphere of my messy workstation once again became dimly illuminated. It would be hard to say which part of the room was the least appealing. From the off-white walls, to my poorly organized work bench, the room had about as much creative design as a blank piece of paper. The ever present drone of the large power-tools being used by the miners just outside was something that took a while to become used to. At least the back-breaking work was left up to the miners themselves. My job was just to make sure they were able to do theirs safely and efficiently. For the first time since... well, since I could remember, there was no note from the managers informing me of their “to fix” list.
It’s kind of funny how quickly a pony’s mind tends wonder sometimes. Especially when “distracted” by certain thoughts that wouldn’t be considered by many to be very “wholesome.” That is until I was interrupted my the voice of my manager, Mr. Fixit. How long had I been sitting there staring blankly with a dumb smile on my face?! Oh crap. “Who’s Gold Mine?” He asked inquisitively. Had I really been talking out loud?
“No one, just somepony I met today.” The look on his face told me he knew that wasn’t the whole story.
“I wasn’t under the impression that one tends to say the name of just anypony... especially in that manner” He said with a knowing smile. You have got to be kidding me.
I hesitated. “Well she”...
“She?! Oh this gets better and better now doesn’t it!” he chuckled. Sigh. This was going to be darn near impossible to live down. “Well, I suppose that it’s none of my business. Just wanted to give you the To-Fix list.” he smiled “I’ll make it short today. I remember when I was like that. I could never get anything done correctly...” his eyes glazed over as he drifted into thought. Finally I decided to speak up “Erum, so where exactly is the list? And what’s on it for today?” His reply must have taken the same amount of time as mine did. “Same old same old I suppose. There are a few drills as well as a loader that need some tune-ups. Hmm.....what else...”. He looked around the shop “Oh, that’s right, one of the night crew told me that compressor number four in shaft 12 was making a racket. I want you to go check that out first thing. They said it sounded bad.”
I nod, thinking back to the mental map of the mine in my head. “Ok...shaft 12...got it.” Before turning to leave, Bolt remarked with a wink, “Oh, and good luck!” My horn glowed a little as I grabbed my toolkit from the pegboard on the wall, doing my best to ignore Bolt’s rather transparent expression.
“Now then...shaft 12...shaft 12...” I clip-clopped down the small tunnel, my mind trying not to get distracted by the golden mare that kept popping in and out of my imagination. “Ah, here we are.”
There was a large metal air lock separating this shaft, as well as all the others, from the rest of the mine. The heavy metal door glowed in unison with my horn as it screeched open. I felt a wash of damp, earth-chilled air hit me as a dark steel room opened up in front of me. Stepping into it, I subconsciously felt, and, of course, checked, the anchor points of the airlock in the bedrock. My horn glowed, closing the heavy metal door behind me. A small, bare electric light bulb flicked on above me as an air pump activated, equalizing the pressure between the room and mine shaft 12. I knew it was going to take a while for the pressure to reach equilibrium, so, as I waited, naturally my mind started to wander.
I felt her nestle her slender body against my own. Burying my muzzle into her impossibly soft mane, I felt the warmth radiating from her body infiltrating my own. I then slowly began to kiss her softly down the neck....
Another bell sounded above the door in front of me giving the OK after shocking me back to reality with a slight jump. I felt the dead-bolts on the door retract, and a slight difference of air pressure forced the door open an inch. I finish pushing the door open and turned around. A smaller version of the main elevator greeted my gaze. I trotted into the elevator, my hooves echoing against the surprisingly quiet mine shaft. The grate slid down, cutting off one side of the elevator. A buzzer sounded somewhere above my head, and the elevator started to descend. Again, my mind started wandering, but it was cut short by the ragged sound of a dysfunctional air compressor. The sound was somewhere between putting a stick in the spokes of a bike, and a continually revving a chainsaw, and it got exponentially louder, until it drowned out even my own thoughts when the elevator finally reached the bottom of the shaft. The compressor in question was hard to miss. It was shaking so violently that the entire room had been evacuated. My eyes quickly scanned the generator, looking for the “off” switch, however, I saw that there wasn’t even one there. My mind quickly traveled into the generator and down the wiring, finally reaching the breaker box, where I proceeded to trip the breaker that served compressor four. The raucous noise quickly ceased as the compressor powered down.
“Where to even start... ” I mutter to myself as I use my magic to take the defective compressor apart. “What’s this....I’ve never seen this thing before...hm?” I look up and see Gold in a crowd of ponies moving towards the elevator. Every single item I was holding with my magic dropped like a stone as she inadvertently invaded my mind.
I shook my head violently, clearing my mind of certain thoughts, and putting it back into work mode. “Hey, Gold!” I shout. She turned her head towards me and swerved out of the crowd trotting back towards me.
“Hi...Silver....um...what’s up?” she asks, blushing intensely.
“I was wondering if you could get the blue prints for compressor four for me,” I said, quickly adding, “That is if you wouldn’t mind, or anything.”
“‘Course not! It’s my job after all!” she replied perking her head up with a smile.
“Great! I really appreciate it!” A sheepish smile quickly spread across my face. My eyes couldn’t help but to wander to her hindquarters as she trotted away. I really had to stop doing that to myself...
My mind managed to wonder yet again to thoughts of Gold Mine. Gingerly kissing her down the length of her neck, I couldn't help but to take in the tantalizingly sweet smell of her mango scented mane. I then worked my way back up only to be greeted by her soft mouth as I playfully nibbled at her lower lip.
The loud noise of Generator 2 starting up quickly derailed my train of thought, sending it careening off the side of a cliff. I chuckled nervously, looking around and sighing in relief once I had assured myself that nopony was around. I stared at the deconstructed air compressor and started drifting off again. This time, the buzzer above the elevator brought me back to reality. I sighed, looking back just in time to get a face full of orange fur as Gold rocketed from the elevator. The force of the impact drove me from my hooves and sent us both slamming into the heavy metal housing of air compressor 5. My back hit first, driving the air from my lungs. Then my head was whip-lashed into the cold hard steel. Stars popped in front of my eyes as my mouth worked frantically to get air to my lungs. “Oh my Celestia!” As I began to loose consciousness, I heard Gold cry out from what seemed like the other room “Are you all right!? Silver!”
“Ow.” I manage to gasp “My head...” I reach towards my head, but my hoof was intercepted by another tentative hoof. “Don’t touch your head.” Gold whispered “You’ve got a lump the size of an egg.” I slowly open my eyes, blinking as three of Gold’s heads appear in front of me. “What tha’ buck?” I mumble, shaking my head roughly, clearing my vision back down to a single head.
“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying attention,” she apologized.
A faint smile came across my face, “I know how that feels.” My thoughts scrambled as a realization hit me. I was laying down with my head propped up against hard metal with Gold Mine was on top of me!!! She must not have realized it or she just didn’t care. By the look on her face, the only thing she was concerned with was my well being. A pang of guilt flashed through me. I hadn’t asked her if she was alright.
“Are you OK?” I managed. She dismissed my question with a shake of her head.
“Don’t worry about me, I only care about you being alright... How are you feeling?”
“I’ve never felt better!” realizing how incredibly strange that must have sounded. Truth was, I had a head-splitting headache, labored breathing, and foggy vision; however, none of that could trump the feeling of her being so close to me.
“Are you positive that you are feeling alright?” The slightly amused look on her radiant face nearly made me black out.
“Oh yes, I’m quite sure,” The the faint smile on my face grew exponentially, “As long as you're sure that you're OK, can I ask you something?”
“Of course! Anything!” I said perhaps a little too enthusiastically.
“What exactly were you dreaming of when you were... out?”
Panic shot through me. “Uhh, what exactly do you mean?”
“Well uhh, you may have mentioned my name once... or twice.”
My face felt like it was about to catch on fire. “Don’t really remember,” I fibbed.
“Oh really? It sounded like a pretty darn good dream if you ask me,” she playfully shrugged.
“It probably was...” I replied with nervous laughter. Slowly pushing herself up on all fours, Gold let out a small sigh, “I haven’t had a good dream in quite some time.” Gold then proceeded to help me up. A wave of dizziness rapidly passed over me. Gold quickly caught me. I regained my balance through sheer determination, not wanting it to appear as though I was incapable of handling myself. “Are you completely sure that you are feeling up to par?”
“Absolutely positive! Please don’t worry about me. I’ll be just fine.”
“OK... If you say so.” she said turning, “I’ll be back in a while to come check in on you.”
“See ya then!” I called. I looked back at the air compressor, and something clicked in my head. “Gold!! Wait a sec!!” I shout, galloping to catch her before the elevator door closed. “I still need the air compressor plans.”
“Oh, yeah!” she reached over her shoulder and grabbed the plans from her saddlebag. “Thanks again,” I said looking down nervously. The Pegasus smiles mischievously as she cranes her neck out of the elevator, plants a kiss on my cheek, and pulled back just in time to avoid the door.
I was still somewhat woozy when I decided to look at the blueprints. “Don’t let her distract you. Don’t let her distract you. Don’t let her distract you...” I kept repeating under my breath as my eyes scanned the detailed blue paper. My magic quickly sets to work, molding and combining various pieces of the broken compressor. I growl at myself as my magic formed a picture perfect model of Gold in the steel. “Must....focus..” I took one last look at the plans, took a slow breath, and closed my eyes, immersing myself in the blueprints. My mind quickly reached the area that I liked to call my “mental workshop”. In my minds eye, I was standing over a large scale version of the blueprints with every detail precisely to scale. I focus in on one part of the blueprint, and the ink slowly floats off the page, expanding and solidifying into the aforementioned part. The rest of the ink followed suit as the entire schematic seemed to float upwards off the page and condensing into the required item. Within moments, every piece of the compressor was floating in an orbital pattern around me.I scuffed a fore-hoof against the ground, the layout changed from a parts list to the assembly instructions. I took another deep breath and started assembling the unit. Parts started crashing together with astounding speed as the machine assembled its self from the inside out. In short order, the assembled compressor was floating in front of me. I sighed, preparing my mind for “extraction”. With a deep breath, my surroundings fade to black. I close my eyes, my mind slowly becoming aware of my surroundings.
I take a slow breath, opening my eyes, squinting a little at the brightness of the track lighting. A quick shake of my mane cleared my eyesight, revealing a brand new air compressor, ready for start up. I glanced around the room and trotted over to the breaker box to reset the breaker. A smile spreads across my face as the smooth whir of a new compressor fills the room.
“Awesome,” I chuckle to myself. I grabbed my bag from the floor where I had left it and turned towards the elevator, but my hoof hit something cold and hard. I looked down to find a small amount of leftover metal on the ground next to the compressor. “Hmm....” A dull grey aura surrounds the piece of metal as I pick it up with my magic. “Wonder what this was supposed to do?” I said to nopony in particular. “Ah, well. Hope it wasn’t important.” I started molding the metal randomly midair, turning it in to a various objects from memory. I kept molding it all the way up the elevator and all the way back to the machine shop next to the main shaft, where I picked up my list and started back to work.
LATER THAT EVENING
I slowly tromped through the door to my bunkhouse, being careful not to disturb my bunkmares, who were either getting ready to hit the sack, or had already passed out. I nodded a tired greeting to one of my roommates, who gave a weary smile back. I proceeded over to the small table in the corner of the room, dropped my bag, and lifted two candles, a blank notebook, and some pencils out of it. Three large tomes on various types of coal powered generators followed the aforementioned items. I took a seat and strapped myself in for a long night of studying. With a sigh, I lit the candles and flipped open the first book. As soon as the cover hit the desk, a wave of fatigue washed over my already weary body. My vision faded as the desk rose up to meet my head, and I fell asleep.
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Constructive criticism is needed, as well as any errors that you may see as you're reading.
Tanks will be included NEXT chapter.
