As the trainers and the elements headed back to the castle, after Team Rocket and Pokemon Hunter J were successfully locked up, Twilight noticed the cutie marks of all of the ponies glowing. Rushing over to the map, Applejack and TTwilightgasped at the image of Appaloosa clearly shown.

"What's the problem?" Chase asked.

"Seems Appaloosa's got a friendship problem." Twilight said.

"An I think I know what." Applejack said gravely. "Braeburn wrote a while ago. Said the last of their wells just dried up. Without that water, they can't keep the trees alive. Worse, some rich pony's trying to bulldoze the town, build a resort. Day after day, he keeps coming, taunting them, and many ponies believe he sabotaged the well, but they can't prove it."

"I read about that." Rarity said. "Oasis resort, supposed to be the gem of the southern desert."

"And the pony who's building it, Rivera, claims that he'll bring in more money than any apple farmer yokels can, and I can quote him on that." Applejack swore angrily. "If he thinks he can drive mah family out of their homes, he's wrong!"

"Let's pay him a visit, then." Nate said.

"Right. Let's go." Twilight said. As they all headed to the Train Station, a Fly drone watched from afar before buzzing away.

"Wow, this place seems to have fallen apart." Fluttershy said.

"No kidding." Matthew said. The town was in shambles. Empty crates and refuse was scattered about. They were greeted by a sour-looking Braeburn, who greeted them warmly, but there was an air of sadness.

"A third of the workers left to get jobs at the resort." He sighed. "There's not enough supplies or water to go around."

"We'll help however we can." Twilight said.

"Thanks, Twilight." Braeburn said. "There's that Celestia-damned resort pony."

Twilight saw a stallion with a brown coat and blue hair swagger up.

"Oh, Princess!" He said, with a rather arrogant voice. "I wasn't expecting you."

"I heard you're trying to bulldoze this town to make way for your resort, along with rumors that you sabotaged the well here. I'm here to investigate." Twilight said.

"I'll help however I can." Rivera said. "But there's no way you'll find anything. I got this land fair and square, and I can do what I want with it. Besides, farming as a living is done. My resort's going to bring in more bits that you can imagine! I'll bet you yokels can't earn even a one!"

"You take that back!" Applejack and Braeburn roared. Rivera scoffed.

"Why should I? It's the damned truth." Rivera said. "Ta-ta. I've got a resort to build, and no time to waste with you."

And in a flash, he was gone. Applejack and Braeburn seethed with anger. Then, Braeburn looked at the ground.

"What's this?" He mumbled, pulling a sandstone geode out of the ground.It was covered in bright blue crystal.

"That's Blue Azurite." Twilight said. "It's a gem of many purposes. Magical reagents, power supply, the works. And it's prized by jewelers everywhere."

"What's it doing here?" Grace asked.

"Seems there's a deposit here." Abigail said. "I think I know why that resort's going up."

"You think he's mining this stuff secretly?" Twilight asked.

"Possible." Abigail said. "I mean, what better place to find minerals than a construction site? And if they find more, it's theirs to keep, right?"

"Yes. That's right." Twilight said. "If any precious mineral is found one way or another, it's the finder's property and they can mine it at their leisure."

"So, you thinking what I'm thinking?" Chase asked.

"We get shovels and then start digging?" Ash suggested.

"No, We need help." Twilight said. "We're not going anywhere without proof."

"I have an idea. Twilight, can you make my C-Gear connect to my world?" Chase said. "I know a guy who can help."

"I can try…" Twilight said. She shot the C-Gear with a blast of magic, and Chase connected to a curious place.

"The Driftveil City Gym?" Ash said.

"Yep." Chase said. "Clay, you there?"

"Chase!" Said the rather accented, rough voice of Clay, the Driftveil City Gym Leader. "What's up, my friend?"

"I need a favor. Can you head to Sycamore's lab in Kalos as soon as you can? I need your help. My friends and I need some mining expertise. It's your kind of problem."

"Mining?" Clay replied.

"Yeah, we suspect some guy building a resort is right on top of some kind of precious gem, and he's also blamed for cutting off a nearby town's water supply. We need proof that's true, and I was thinking…"

"I could help." Clay replied. "I'm on my way. I'll bring my Digging team, and we'll go from there. In the meantime, we'll need a way to find out what's going on below ground in secret."

"Right. We'll get to it." Chase said. "Thanks, Clay."

"No problem, partner." Clay replied. "See you soon!"

Chase ended the call, and smiled.

"Let's do some digging of our own on what's going on at that resort." Chase said. "We need to sneak in."

"Right." Twilight said. "We'll wait until nightfall. Then, we'll see what's going on."

As they headed to the in, a buzzing was heard. A lone pair of black-rimmed eyes watched them from a pile of sand. The Sandile watched as the trainers and ponies headed out. He nodded, and disappeared below.

===========

Rivera watched Appaloosa from his office at the Resort build site. He smiled as he turned a crate full of Blue Azurite, freshly mined.

"The deposit beneath that town's going to make me richer that Celestia." He cackled. "Those yokels don't even know. Once I have the resort and the town, it'll all be mine."

He smiled as he approached the fountain in the middle of the spa. Twisting a hidden latch, he disappeared below into a mineshaft, where rocks and geodes lined with shards of blue Azurite lined the walls. He walked through a tunnel into a cavern, where pony after pony was swinging a pickaxe into the earth. Unknown to all of them, a second Sandile watched from a perch. This Sandile moved away, and noticing a support beam, then used Crunch. As the Sandile disappeared, the beam wavered and began to groan.