Legend of the Searing Blade
Chapter 0: The Mines of Maria, Oreville, Equestria, 879 AU (After Unification)
Lunch time in the mines was a mostly quiet affair. Workers were sitting in amiable silence as they ate their meals, their hooves at the least clean from the dirt and grime of the mines. Some of the miners present were currently engaging in small talk to pass the time. Most of it was on the discussion of mares, and even more than that, the topic of one of their own managing to actually land a date with one.
“I’m serious, I think I have a chance with her!” One said, scowling at his fellow miners as they all chuckled.
“Oh yeah, sure you do Shale,” a pony with a blastpony’s cap on quipped. “Like the time you and that one mare went to have a night on the town, and we had that freak thunderstorm that soaked her to the bone!”
“The weather teams screwed up on their schedule, and you know it!” Shale hissed.
“Okay, what about that one mare who threw you over the rail into that mud pit?” another miner asked. Shale slumped over in disgruntlement.
“I keep telling you all, I tripped.”
“Okay, what about that one mare who bucked you twice in the face in under a minute?”
Shale went quiet for a moment, and then sighed. “Okay, Orange Citrus was a bit… touched in the head,” he admitted. “And not my finest moment.” The miners all laughed uproariously, with one of them getting up and wrapping a foreleg over his shoulders.
“Well, in any case Shale Heart, we’ll be supporting ya, at least in spirit. Right fellas?” he asked, looking to the others. Several miners gave their verbal agreement, though several bags of bits were exchanged with gleeful expressions. Shale Heart looked at the proceedings, and then at his fellow miner.
“‘Supporting me in spirit’ huh?” he deadpanned. The miner chuckled, just as Shale’s best friend rounded the corner and entered the break room. Shale perked up as he eagerly greeted his friend “Oh, hi Copper. How was your trip?”
“It was great! Super relaxing.” Copper Shine exclaiming, bouncing over to Shale’s side and sitting down next to him. “What about you Scale? Talking about mares again?” Shale’s eye started twitching at his friend’s apparent disregard for his name before answering.
“As a matter of fact, yes, we were,” he said. “I have a rendezvous with a mare from Canterlot-,” Shale paused as the other miners oohed and wolf whistled at him as he continued. “...who is visiting family close by. We’ll be meeting up after my shift is over.”
“Wow, that’s wonderful!” Copper proclaimed, patting his friend's back with a broad smile. "I'll be rooting for you, Bud."
"Hey, thanks." Shale’s mouth twitched upward at his fellow miner’s sincere exuberance. Leave it to Copper Shine to be so innocent, that the idea of feigning interest never occurred to him. “Though with my luck, ugh I'll probably fail again." His shoulders sagged a bit at the defeatist thought.
"Look on the bright side, Shack, it'll be better than the mare who bucked you!" Copper chirped to try cheering his friend up.
“Yes, Copper, don't remind me.” Shale huffed, stowing what was left of his lunch away as everypony got their things together. Looking over, he saw Copper holding a relatively small, wide framed object in his hoof. “Hey, Cop, what's that you got in your hoof?"
The off-grey pony beamed as he looked at Shale, proudly holding up a flat, wide framed object in his hoof. “A family picture I took just the other day from my trip," Copper couldn't hold the giddiness back in his voice even if he tried as he continued. "I… I just couldn’t believe how adorable my niece, Ruby, is!” Shale glanced down at the object and raised an eyebrow in befuddlement.
“A picture? Good Celestia, I'm already feeling old.” he sighed wistfully, remembering the days when photographs weren't a thing in his foalhood.
“Aw, don't be that way. We ain't fossils yet! Photographs are the future, Shard.” he exclaimed. “These can make smiles and happy memories last forever!”
Shale’s face twitched at the incorrect name. Muttering under his breath, "I swear, am I a joke to you? Anyway, let me see." He lowered his head down to inspect the photo in his hooves.
Within the photo, Shale saw Copper Shine standing next to his brother & sister-in-law with the aforementioned niece beneath. A smile on Copper's face while his brother, Granite Bluff, had a more stoic expression though the slightest hint of a smile was present in the corner of his lips. Granite's wife, Aquamarine, radiated a warm, welcoming aura in her vibrant features. What got Shale's attention the most though, was the beaming filly in the forefront, a joyful gleam shone in her ruby eyes even through the still darkness of the photo.
"I see Ruby has the same gleam as you." Shale commented as he was further examining the family photo.
"Mhm, seems at least one member of the family has it across the generations." Copper concurred with his friend. "Ruby is the life of the family, even my brother can't help but smile when she's around."
"He sure struck gold with Aqua & Ruby." Shale muttered as he handed the photograph back to Copper Shine. “What about you, how’s-?”
"What are you two doing loafing around?" An authoritative voice spoke from behind the pair, shocking them to reality as the miners scrambled to grab their pickaxes.
Shale grimaced as he turned and saw the pony glaring at them. "Oh, Roof Bolt, we were just talking!" Roof Bolt’s expression didn’t change at all as Shale raised one of his hooves in a gesture of supplication.
"Talking, eh? So busy chattering that you failed to notice the bell." Roof Bolt muttered grimacing in exasperation.
Copper was chuckling abashedly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, sorry Sir. We got distracted with the chit chat. It won't happen again!"
"It better not be, you'll have enough to time to yap when your shift is done and you two are out of this mine," Bolt sighed with irritation, now motioning back to their pickaxes. "Now get moving! You need to complete your daily quota pronto."
"Yes, Sir!" The pair shouted hurriedly as they hauled their flanks back to work. They were walking through the main entrance of the Maria Mines for the lift down to Shaft 2, passing by steam powered machines designed to help the miners with their jobs. Copper greeted a few of his fellow miners as they went about their business, many of them curious about his trip to Appaloosa. Shale shook his head, weaving through the masses of rock and ponies as Copper chatted his head off even as they worked. He wouldn’t admit it to anypony, but Shale had kind of missed having Copper around. His constant chatter and good cheer certainly made his tiresome job in the mines infinitely more tolerable.
“So, Shaft,” Copper said as they both got on the lift. “How ya planning to get on this mare’s good side? Need any pointers?” Shale groaned, facehoofing as the lift jerked before starting its way down.
“Copper, I do not need help talking to mares,” he shot back in annoyance. “Though I appreciate the concern.” Copper tapped his friend on the shoulder.
“Shale, please.” Shale’s head snapped to look at Copper in surprise. “I want to help you out. Please?” The lift touched down at the bottom of the shaft, the two ponies stepping off and heading into one of the less used tunnels to mine the ore vein. Shale huffed.
“Alright, fine, but after we get a few dozen kilos out of this tunnel,” Shale answered. Copper grinned, eagerly swinging the pickaxe off his shoulders and getting to work.
“Great! Let’s get to it then!” The duo got to working, picking away at the stone as time passed. They chatted away as they worked, Copper giving Shale advice on wooing a mare. Soon though, they were almost done working when a small thump off in the depths of the mine interrupted their conversation
Th-boom! Th-boom! Th-Boom!
"What in the…" Copper muttered as he was rubbing his chin in thought, squinting as he tried to speculate the source of the approaching tremors.
Th-Boom! Th-Boom! Th-Boom!
"Uh, Cop, do you remember anybody using seismic charges in Shaft 3?" Shale questioned as his ears were raised to try keying in on the direction of the sounds.
Th-Boom! Th-Boom!
Copper could only frown in bemusement. "No, not today. Even then Shaft 3 is a fair distance from here, so we shouldn't be hearing it all."
Th-Boom! TH-Boom!
“...Shale… I don’t think those are seismic charges,” Copper Shine whispered, stepping back cautiously from the tunnel. Shale was starting to agree, he could feel the ground tremble underneath him each time the booms sounded off, the noises picked up in tempo as the two miners stood there in dread, and then... the noise stopped as suddenly as it came. The two were left stupefied in the dim light of the tunnel, straining their ears to see if the noise would continue again.
Minutes crept past, the pair waited in trepidation for whatever laid in the dark to pounce upon them at this very moment, but nothing happened. Slowly, Shale began to relax, his breathing slowing down & his heart no longer trying to leap out of his chest. He sighed in relief as he turned towards his partner, the duo trying to process the odd occurrence.
"What in the buck was that, Shale?" Shine muttered in bewilderment. His eyes darting to look across every part of the tunnel they were in to make absolute certainty of their safety.
"I don't know. It could be anything, maybe even a fluke," Shale spoke dubiously, shaking his head as he didn't even want to imagine the source of the earlier cacophony.
"I still don't feel safe here," Copper whispered anxiously, his body still jittery as he could not shake off the alarm bells ringing in his mind. The sensation of danger remained strong in him.
“Well, whatever it was, it’s gone now,” Shale stated evenly with the best poker face he could muster. The fact that his best friend stood on edge was not lost on him. "We just need to complete our quota. We'll talk to Roof Bolt about it when we're done alright, Copper." He placed a firm hoof upon his friend's shoulder in a gesture of placation, gently shaking him a bit to jostle Copper out of his fit. "Copper, will you stick with me through this?"
Copper had a lot of thoughts racing through his head, part of him still wanted to leave the area immediately. Though reluctantly, he took a moment to breathe deeply & exhale to soothe his nerves.
"I… okay, just need to finish work then-"
TH-BOOM!
The thunderous eruption shook the ground so greatly that the pair were stumbling trying to regain their footing. As Shale began to steady himself, he saw something in the dim light of the tunnel, and the stallion’s blood ran cold. A vague shape could be seen at the end of the passage leading to the deeper caverns the two were standing in. The darkness of the depths obscured a majority of the details, all he could see within the bleakness was a bright pair of eyes upon the blur, the color of electric blue. And the sheer scale of it, Shale had never seen anything so enormous throughout his entire experience within these mines. By Celestia, even with the object in question simply standing there, he was having issues comprehending exactly what he was seeing at this very moment.
“Oh, Faust in a hoofbasket,” Shale whispered with trepidation as the eyes were glowering at him, he could feel those eyes judging him with the same disdain he would towards varmint in his house. The twin orbs piercing into Shale's soul. Then, Shale felt a deep, resonant rumble through the air. The sound was not unlike the steam engines the company used to power their equipment in the mines. Its power was such for his body to physically feel it vibrating him to the bone. Shale's heart sank as he realized the source of the noise was peering directly at him.
"By Bonnie, what is that!?" Copper reeled in shock at the enormous size of the shape. His heart beating a mile a minute, sweat dripping in a miniature torrent as he was slowly stepping back. His posture tensed in the primal sensation of Flight or Fight.
The creature narrowed its eyes, and grimaced into a snarl of animalistic fury as it took a particularly deep breath. Its chest expanding as air rapidly filled its great lungs.
"Ah, bu-" Shale did not have time to finish before the creature interrupted him.
The two were stricken with an ear splitting bellow, the miners dropping to the ground in pain as they tried to shield their eardrums from the noise with their hooves. The shrill, almost metallic roar resounded through the tunnels, making Copper Gleam take a step back in his tracks. Shale slowly got back up on his hooves, still trembling from the force of the creature's cry. As Shale regained his bearings, he quickly assessed the situation.
'Damn, this thing is huge! We're all in big trouble, somepony has to warn the others!'' Shale glanced towards his partner, and realized they were the only two ponies at hand to deal with the crisis. 'Shit, I don't know if the two of us will be able to make it with this thing chasing us, big creatures have longer strides to cover more distance. We need a distraction!' Shale frantically looked around himself for any options until he finally settled upon himself & the pickaxe he carried, coming to the only logical conclusion. 'No choice, it's gotta be me.' Shale steeled himself as he resolutely held his tool & went forward to put his plan in motion.
Copper Shine looked over and saw Shale swinging his pickaxe wildly against the cavern walls, the resultant clacks drawing the beast’s attention. “Shale, what are you-?!”
“Just go, I’ll draw it off best I can!” Shale shouted, prancing in front of the creature as it growled at him. “Hey, you! Come and get me you limp waste of a dragon!” The monster's interest was piqued on Shale, shrieking as it started chasing after him.
Copper wanted to go after Shale, and stop him from his crazy idea, but he held himself back. He understood what his friend of 20 years was doing, and galloped in the other direction. 'Gotta get back to the main hall, find Roof Bolt, and evacuate the whole mine!' Copper took a glance back at the dark tunnel behind him, still hearing the distant shouts, faint clangs, and thundering footfalls as he silently prayed for Shale to be safe. The weary pony almost reaching the main cavern ahead of him where the lift was.
Copper soon saw Roof Bolt approaching him, the Forepony hurriedly galloping over to him, with great concern written all over his usually stone face. “Copper, what in Celestia's name did I just hear from down there? And where's Shale Heart?”
"I don't know!" Copper took a moment to slow his breath down. He was panting in exhaustion from the breakneck speed he took. "We got separated when… something came up from down the caverns, I have no idea what!" He spread both of his forelegs wide to emphasize his following statement. "It was big. Biggest thing I have ever seen in the flesh!" He lowered himself back down as he grimly told the forepony. "We have to evacuate the mines now."
Roof responded with a solemn nod as he intently listened to Copper. "Alright, follow me!" He motioned back towards the main hall of the mines where all shafts converged. The pair moving in a frantic gallop as time was of the essence. As they ran, they could still hear the deep, bellowing roars of that thing chasing Shale Heart, a few dim shouts from him the only indication they got that he was still alive. The pair rounded a bend in the tunnel and found themselves in the main hall, most of the workers assembled there in confusion. At the sight of the usually stoic safety inspector, the miners started talking, each trying to drown out the others as they tried to make sense of what was going on.
"Roof Bolt, what's happening?!"
"Why were those two galloping like Tirek himself was down there?"
"What the buck are those sounds from Shaft 2!?"
Roof Bolt let it go on for several seconds, waiting for the volume to go down. It didn’t. So, he took a deep breath, and let out a keen whistle that stopped everypony in their tracks. “Everypony calm down and listen!” Roof Bolt ordered loudly, shutting up the ponies. “There is… something down in this mine, and as of now, operations are to be halted immediately! Now, we’re going to evacuate the mine in a calm, and orderly fashion up the lift, and we are NOT going to pa-,” he explained before a deafening roar ripped through the mine.
“What was that!?” a miner shouted, unnerved. Roof Bolt stepped forward, a few of the other miners looking at him for direction.
“That… is the sound of us leaving this mine, now!” Bolt ordered just as Shale stumbled out of the tunnel. The stallion's breath was heaving with fatigue, and his mining overalls were singed. Shale was looking at them with terror written all over his face.
"RUN!" he shouted, just as the tremors came back with a thunderous fury before the beast charged out of the tunnel like a living freight train and into the larger cavern the miners were assembled in. In the brighter lights of the main hall, Copper could see in the greater clarity of the hall that this creature appeared to be something in the twisted image of a dragon. For the creature lacked wings, in its place being a double row of elongated osteoderms that shined a metallic cobalt blue upon a body of crimson scales, and with it a pair of disproportionately small forearms. The crimson and cobalt behemoth charged in faster than a freight train, stout mouth open with a roar as its throat glowed orange.
“Fuck!” Gleam blinked, stunned that Roof Bolt of all ponies was swearing. “Everypony, run! Dragon in the mine, clear out, now!” Unfortunately, most of the miners simply bolted at the mention of ‘run,’ and were galloping in a disorganized mass of panicking bodies. The beast roared as embers flickered from its maw, stepping forward towards the now terrified crowd assembled before it.
All Tartarus broke loose in that moment as every single miner present collectively soiled themselves, and stampeded for the nearest exit. The pandemonium only provoking the creature's ire further as it growled, and stomped forward to attack.
Copper dashed into the chaos, trying to find Shale as the monster rampaged inside the mine. “Shale! Shale! Where are you?” Gleam called out as everypony panicked in a blind mass of bodies. He pushed past several miners, his hopes for his friend surviving plummeting with each stride he made as the mine devolved into chaos. The sounds of destruction filled the air as equipment was destroyed, either crushed like tin cans by the sheer brute force of the beast, or torn asunder by its fangs. A massive steam drill stood in the beast’s way. The creature took only one look upon it before grunting, and slamming its tail on the ground, seemingly in frustration. But then, Copper noticed that it was deliberately grinding the the tail across the ground, creating friction to superheat the metallic end of its tail.
"Wait, is that… a sword?" Copper could only mutter in astonishment as the creature shrieked its warcry & heaved its colossal tail upwards. The monster then brought its tail back down for one mighty swing, the searing blade effortlessly cleaving the huge machine in two. The halves of what was once a steam drill were left partially melted & smoking as the beast pushed them aside in its pursuit of more prey.
The miners were faring even worse; screams of terror or pleas of mercy were made as miners suffered their last moments being smashed like grapes, horrifically burned by the flames spread across the mines, or torn apart in the robust jaws of the enormous predator. One of the miners lost their footing, tripping and falling to the ground a few yards ahead of Copper. “Copper, for fuck's sake help me, please, get me-!” he shouted before the monster was suddenly upon him, and the unfortunate soul screamed in bloodcurdling terror as the very life was crushed out of him with the sickening snap of bone.
Copper was rooted to the spot in shellshock as the monster moved past him, easily crunching down on the lifeless body in its jaws as the fangs shredded the muscles & internal organs of what used to be a pony before swallowing it down. The earth pony stood in place, the sounds of the massacre became a dull, static ring in dumbfounded silence before a familiar voice called out to him.
"Cop, I'm here, we gotta get out of this place!" Shale Heart cried as he waved Copper towards the lift for the exit.
Copper managed to shake his head as he regained his nerves. “Shale, we need to get these ponies out first,” he shouted to his compatriot. He bolted, rallying what miners were still alive and guided them to the lift as the monster continued its rampage.
“C-Copper…” A weak voice croaked amongst the bloodshed.
Copper’s ears tilted, locking into the pained gasps of a fellow miner. The pony looked around frantically, looking over a fallen support beam before noticing the body pinned under wood and dirt. “Roof Bolt!” he shouted, rushing to the forepony trapped under the rubble. “Hold on, I’m going to get you out of there!”
“Don’t, just get out of here!” Roof Bolt ordered, wheezing as debris dug into his side. “Save yourself while you still can!”
“To Tartarus with that, I’m not leaving you down here!” Copper retorted, shoving rocks and broken timber out of the way so he could pull Roof Bolt out. Before he could finish, he noticed too late a harsh, scraping sound from beside him, and sudden rush of heat before he saw the large, heavy, blade-like tail bucking on fire slamming into his direction, sending a wave of flames onto him. Copper Shine reeled onto the ground, howling in agony as the flames ate away at his fur, burning him down to the subdermal tissue as the surviving miners dragged him off into the lift, leaving Roof Bolt to stare in horror at the monster standing before him, its fangs bloodied from the remains of one of its victims, and tail alight with searing hot flame.
“Celestia, save us,” Roof Bolt muttered before he closed his eyes, and let his world go black.
