A golden pickaxe connected firmly with a thick cave wall, knocking a crystal out of the side. An Earth pony with a violet coat leaned down and scooped up the crystal, placing it in her thick black saddlebags. She paused to catch her breath, pushing her dark gray mane out of her eyes.
Violet Quartz was her name, and mining was her profession. She wore a black hardhat so often that some would swear that they had never seen her ears before. She was almost permanently dusted in a layer of soot, ash, dust, and other various things found in the deep underground. The only reason she hadn't suffocated or gone blind by this point was because of the black bandanna and goggles that were always hanging around her neck.
She lifted up her pickaxe just as there was a flash of light from around a nearby corner, and she swiftly hooked it around a rope tied to her saddlebags. She silently turned and walked around the opposite corner that the flash of light had come from, presuming that it had come Diamond Dogs that were messing around with a flashlight they had found.
Violet pulled out a periscope from her saddlebags, and cautiously poked it around the corner of the rock she was behind, the glass at the end of it blending in as a crystal. A blue tail flicked out from around the corner, and her eyes narrowed.
"Coordinates." requested an accented voice.
"Just a second..." replied a second voice. "L427UM."
"Got it." There was the scratching of a pencil. "See the situation, Gia?"
"Nobody in sight." said a raspy voice that must have been Gia. "And no sounds."
"Really?" asked the second voice. "That's odd... Alright then, scan the area."
There was a beeping noise, and red light began to shine over from the corner. Violet pulled her periscope back in and leaned back up against the cave wall she was hiding behind. The light just barely missed her, and she exhaled in relief.
"No result so far." said Gia.
"Okay, now that's odd." said the accented voice. "We've always run into someone."
"Maybe we're getting a new member!" said the second voice excitedly. "Just purple and yellow left!"
Violet had no clue what these strangers were talking about, but it make her nervous anyways. She flicked her tail up to cover her cutie mark, a golden pickaxe, and cautiously reached into her bag for a pouch filled with charcoal dust.
"Where are we, anyways?" asked Gia. "Is this some sort of cave?"
"Looks like we're in a tunnel system." said the accented voice. "Probably a mine of some sort."
"A mine?" asked the second voice. "What's that?"
"You don't have them in your dimension? Well, they're where miners go to look for gems, ores, and other things that can only be found underground."
Violet took in a deep breath, and decided to play it casual. Just act like she didn't know they had been there. She closed her saddlebags, and sauntered out from where she had been hiding as if she had just been walking along.
Three pairs of eyes immediately looked over at her, and she turned to look at who they were. It was an odd group, consisting of a gray and blue griffon, a striped pony with a red coat and mane who was wearing glasses, and a pony with an earthy brown coat, long green mane, and a bright orange horn. All three had bizarre gadgets attached to their front legs, and each wore an different colored earpiece. The griffon had a blue one, the striped pony had a red one, and the unicorn had a green and orange one.
Ignoring how weird they all looked, Violet walked over to them. "This area is restricted." she said calmly. "And hardhats are required in all tunnels."
"Told you there was someone here..." muttered the griffon, whose voice matched with that of Gia's.
"What's a hardhat?" asked the striped pony, whose voice was accented.
Violet rolled her eyes, and tapped the black one that she was wearing. "This is. And also, goggles and masks are required. Do you even have any glowstones?" All three stared at her blankly. "Seriously? Are you trying to get yourselves killed? Did none of you read the signs at the entrance?"
"We came by teleportation." said the unicorn. "So we're not exactly sure where we are right now."
What idiots teleport themselves into the depths of mine? she thought in irritation. "Fine then. I'll show you the way out."
"But we can't leave yet! We need to find the anomaly!"
Violet arched an eyebrow. "The what?"
"There's an anomaly in this dimension." said the striped pony. "Something that affects this world that can lead to a tear into other dimensions. It's our job to fix the anomaly before it tears through the reality seams."
She snorted in disbelief. "You trying to say that your three are from another dimension?"
"Yep!" said Gia casually. "Three different dimensions, actually. I'm from 12CJ78-" she pointed at the striped pony. "-Merah is from T9Q328-" she pointed at the unicorn. "-and Razor is from A91. This dimension is L427UM."
"Uh-huh." She gave them a deadpan stare. "Well you three can do whatever is it you're doing. I need to get back to work."
She turned away and pulled out her pickaxe to continue hacking at the wall. As soon as she pulled it out, one of the gadgets on Razor's leg lit up, and started flashing in a bright red light. Violet would have ignored it, except that Razor quickly ran up to her and grabbed her pickaxe away from her.
"Hey!" she cried in annoyance. "That's mine!"
"Gia, Merah, get the safety measure set up." said Razor, before turning back towards Violet. "Sorry, but that was my warning alarm. It means that the anomaly was at risk of being disrupted." She glanced down at the pickaxe, as if she hadn't even realized she was holding it. "Yellow?" she asked herself softly.
Violet snatched her pickaxe back while Gia and Merah put some weird metallic disks on the ground. "Don't touch my pick." she snapped. "And leave me out of your weird little game."
"It's not a game." replied Razor calmly. "We're just-"
She was cut off by a bright flash of light from one of the crystals on the wall that Violet had been chipping away at. Both ponies turned towards it in surprise, and Razor quickly pointed one of the many gadgets of her leg towards it. The crystal flashed a bright orange, and her eyes widened nervously.
"Chaos Realm!" she cried, causing Gia and Merah to look up from what they were doing in alarm. "Go to the base!" She quickly turned towards Violet. "You need to leave! Right now!"
The crystal flash orange a second time, and a large oval of swirling and flickering lights and patterns appeared suspended in the air in front of the wall. Violet automatically started backing away from it, when what looked like a rope made of pulsing orange magic whipped out and wrapped tightly around her left forehoof.
"No!" cried Razor, quickly grabbing the rope as it tried to pull Violet in. "Activate emergency protection!"
A green and orange sphere of magic formed around the two ponies, with Gia and Merah having had appeared to vanish. More of the ropes burst out of the oval, beating against the sphere.
"What is that?!?" cried Violet, struggling to keep her hooves from slipping.
"A tear into another dimension!" said Razor, looking into the oval with fear. "The anomaly was a chaos-based one, and I accidentally triggered it! That's why my alarm went off! The only way to close a tear into a chaos dimension is to go into it, but the creatures that live in it want those with harmony magic in them, and it's unsafe for anyone with harmony magic to enter!"
"That makes no sense!"
"You are composed of harmony magic, and chaos creatures want nothing more than to corrupt it! Corruption causes dangerous affects, and can turn one made of harmony magic into an anomaly, which them needs to be balanced out to prevent even more tears!"
"Why do you even know this?!?"
Violet's hooves slipped, and she and Razor were abruptly yanked into the tear. It flashed bright orange, and then faded away. There was silence in the tunnels.
Violet gave a soft groan as she sat up from the hard stone ground. She put a hoof on the side of her head, feeling a large bruise under her mane.
Must have gotten hit with some debris... she thought. But how did I knock my hardhat off?
She opened her eyes to see that she was just a few metres away from a cave entrance, but the scenery outside wasn't what she was used to. Instead of the metallic mine entrance, there was a long stretch of nothing but grass and small bushes. There were a few small boulders here and there, but almost nothing else.
What? How did I get here? There's no way all that weird stuff just happened...
She got to her hooves, but paused at seeing that her front legs had weird metal rings and gadgets attached to them. The rings had different things eched onto them, most of them being seemingly random clusters of numbers and letters. But one of them caught her attention: L427UM.
She heard a sigh from outside. "No signal..." And a thump as somepony jumped down from the top of the cave. Just a few seconds later, Razor walked into the cave, and paused at seeing Violet. "Oh, good. You're awake." She walked over and looked at one of the many gadgets she now wore, and sighed in relief. "No magical residue."
Unsure of how to react to the situation, Violet asked the only question she could think of. "Where's my pick?"
Razor reached into her silver saddlebags, and pulled Violet's pick out. "Here."
But instead of taking it from her, Violet just stared in shock. There was no way that her pick should have fit in Razor's saddlebags. It was too large, and should have torn through it. "How did you do that?"
"Subspace." she replied as if it were normal. "The bags are enchanted with a portal into a miniature dimension that you can store any non-living objects in. Although, it doesn't reduce the mass, so you can't just put anything in them and except to be able to carry them."
She slowly nodded without quite understanding. "Yeah... Okay..."
Razor just gave her a smile. "It's okay if you don't understand it. Sometimes even I don't know what these things mean." She reached up to where her earpiece had been, and frowned when she didn't feel it. "Where's my communicator?"
She quickly started to scour the ground, and Violet, still feeling rather dazed, also glanced around the surrounding area. She spotted a white earpiece, and went over and grabbed it. "Is this it?"
Razor looked up from the ground, and shook her head. "No, that's one the extra ones for..." She trailed off as the white faded to purple and yellow in Violet's hoof, and her eyes widened. "No way..."
"Did I break it or something?" she asked as Razor zipped over.
"No..." she replied, staring at the earpiece in awe. "Not at all..."
Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice came yelling out of the earpiece. "RAZOR, ANSWER YOUR COMMUNICATOR!"
Razor snatched the earpiece away from Violet, and pressed a button on on the side of it. "I'm here! Calm down!"
"Oh, thank the stars!" they replied in a much quieter tone. "Why weren't you answering? Did Ataxia cause you to have a surge?"
"Oh, no no no! Nothing that major! I just can't find my communicator!"
"So help me, Razor, I will just give you an ear piercing instead you just- Wait, did you say 'can't'? As in you're not on your communicator?"
Razor grinned. "Nope." She glanced up at Violet, who raised an eyebrow in confusion. "We found the last one."
"WHAT?!?" They sounded both shocked and excited. "Then get back here as soon as possible!"
"I can't get a signal."
"I'll send Sunset to get you! What are your coordinates?"
"U15S. But before should send her, you need to know that-" There was a click from her communicator, and Razor sighed. "That pony never listens..."
Violet interjected with a question before she continued speaking. "What do you mean by you 'found the last one'?"
"That requires a very long explanation." Razor walked over to Violet's side, and clipped the communicator onto her ear. "Which I will be telling you about in just a few minutes. But right now, Sunset is opening a portal into this dimension from A91 and I need you to come back with me."
"Back to where?"
"Our base of operations." Violet blinked in confusion. "What? You don't think that me and the others work independently, do you?"
She sighed in irritation. This was all just too weird. "Alright, that's enough for me. Can I just go back to my dimension or whatever?"
Razor bit her lip, and looked down at the ground. "Well... Yes, of course you can, but... I've just been searching for a cure for so long, and I might finally be able to find it..."
"Cure? A cure for what?"
She dipped her head down, and pointed at her horn. "That. I've been trying for find a way to get rid of it and go back to being an Earth pony." She looked back up. "And you might be the key to turning it."
"Why me?" She snorted. "Am I special for something? Because that would be just stupid."
"Not exactly-" She cut off as an oval of teal magic began to form in the air in front of them. "Sunset's coming." Razor looked over at Violet. "Could you just give a chance to explain everything back at the base? If you don't want to stay, you can go back to your dimension. Somnium can even make this all seem like it was a dream of you want."
Violet sighed. "Before you start guilt-tripping me, I'll just say yes. But don't expect me to stay unless you've got a really good reason."
"I never expect anything."
The oval finished being formed, and a glowing tunnel formed in it. "Raze, get a move on!" called a voice from inside, who was likely Sunset. "I can't do this all day!"
Razor rolled her eyes, and stepped through the portal. Violet hesitated nervously, and then followed her into it. It was like she was walking down a shining white tunnel with perfectly smooth sides. She stepped out to the other side, and the portal closed behind her. A unicorn with a yellow coat and red mane was waiting for them.
"About time." said Sunset. "Do you know how long you've been gone for?"
"I'll hear all about it later." replied Razor. "Could you go get Merah and Gia? We've got to explain a couple hundred things to..." she trailed off, and turned towards Violet. "Sorry, what's your name?"
"Violet Quartz." she replied.
"Then welcome to the operating base of the Dimensional Fixers, Violet."
