The Dig Begins
Whitetail Woods was bustling with activity today. It had only been two weeks since the sphere arrived, and already the area where it was found was packed with supplies such as crates of pickaxes, canisters of compressed air, dynamite, electric lanterns, and most unusual of all, a dozen or so neon blue crystal shards.
There were also miners milling about, most of whom were earth ponies, waiting for instructions from the foreman, who was waiting for Princess Celestia’s signal to brief the workforce.
The foreman, Stone Heart, looked over at Celestia, who finally gave her nod of approval. Now was the time to tell everyone what was going on.
“Alright everypony, listen up!” bellowed Stone, as he looked over the gathered workers. “Today we begin an assignment never before attempted in Equestrian history. Today we venture into a new world, and begin our long dig to the surface.”
Some of the workers had already begun muttering amongst themselves, mostly with incredulity, but Stone Heart continued his speech regardless.
“Most of you might not believe what I’m saying, but here’s the deal. A portal discovered near here by Princess Celestia has revealed that it leads to the underground of a new realm. A few things you should all know about this place: First, when you arrive there, you will have no ability to use your magic. That means for most of you, you will be unable to increase your strength and endurance.”
At this point, most of the crowd’s expressions had turned to worry, and one of the miners spoke up, “If we won’t be able to use our magic, then why are we going to this world in the first place?”
Stone Heart looked disapprovingly at the pony who had spoken out of turn. “What is your name?”
“Uh, my name is Dig Deep.” he said, suddenly trying to hide behind his orange mane.
“Well Dig Deep, all I know is that we are doing this because Princess Celestia said she needed a mining workforce, and we were the ones who took the job. I promise that we will be well compensated for our time once our work here is done.”
Stone Heart turned back to the rest of the crowd. “Now, as I was saying, you will have no access to your magic, plus, I’ve been told that the conditions will be quite hot when we get there.”
None of the ponies assembled looked worried at that. They were all used to digging at high temperatures.
“Our objective is to reach the surface of this new world any way we can. Before anypony goes through the portal, I will be sending a lit container of dynamite through first to clear out a larger area. After which, all the debris will be brought back through. Once the area is cleared, we can enter the portal, no more than two by two, and begin our work. Any questions?”
Several hooves shot into the air. Stone Heart picked one at random.
“Uh sir, you haven’t told us where the portal is yet, plus, you haven’t told us what those are for yet.” he said, pointing at the neon blue crystals.
“Ah, well, the portal is currently closed, and therefore invisible. It is right over there,” said Stone Heart, pointing at the depression where the sphere came through, “and from what I have been told, the crystals are called aeon crystals. Now I’m no unicorn, but from what I gather, these shards are almost alive in their own way. They gather and store magical energy from Equestria’s magical field, much like a pony does, and that energy can be used by any unicorn who triggers them.”
Most of the miners were looking confused at this point, so Stone Heart decided to keep things simple.
“Basically, these crystals will be gathering the necessary energy to open the portal over and over again. It only opens for a short time, and all who want to travel between worlds must be standing within it. Once we are all through, the crystals will be arranged in the proper formation so that when triggered, the portal will open automatically every 30 minutes.”
At this point, most of the gathered ponies had put their hooves down, and Stone Heart nodded towards Princess Celestia.
“My little ponies,” she spoke to the crowd, “if you are ready, we shall begin at once. I will have the dynamite sent through first to clear some area, then I shall start sending you all over.”
Nopony objected, so Stone Heart took that as his cue to go over to the dynamite cart. As he pushed it into the area of the portal, he turned to Celestia before saying, “I hope you find what you seek when this is over, Princess, for all our sakes.”
Celestia nodded, and began to focus. With her magic, she quickly lit the fuse of the dynamite, then cast the spell to open the portal. With the cart now out of sight. All they could do was wait.
“WAIT!!!” yelled a framiliar voice, as a purple alicorn with a dragon on her back flew beneath the canopy and towards the group of assembled workers. “Don’t start without me! Oh no, am I too late? Did I not get to see history in the making?”
“Relax Twilight,” said Spike, sliding off of her back, “everypony is still here. It looks like the operation hasn’t even started yet.”
“Actually Spike,” said Princess Celestia, “I’ve sent the dynamite through to the other side to clear the area. I think it’s time I brought back whatever’s left after the blast. Also, I’m glad you could come to help with this endeavor.”
Celestia then lowered her horn, and once more, cast the spell to open the gateway. A sphere of fragmented granite shards, as well as bits of the cart the dynamite was in appeared, before immediately succumbing to gravity and collapsing into a heap.
Stone Heart took that as his cue to begin miner’s part of the operation. “Alright everypony, clear away that rubble. I’m betting it will take a few more castings of that spell before all of that rubble is safely on this side. Then, we’re going in.”
As earth ponies began loading the fragmented granite onto their carts with looks of distaste on their faces, Celestia turned back to her former student.
“I’m so glad you could join us Twilight, but could any of your other friends come as well?”
“Sorry Princess, they were all too tied up in their work to come today. It’s hard to believe it’s only been two weeks since this all started. It feels like a lifetime ago that I saw that sphere. Speaking of,” Twilight looked around, “where is the sphere? I thought you left it in a ditch.”
“Oh, the sphere? I had it buried somewhere of the corner of the woods. I wouldn’t want it to distract anypony here while they are working.”
Celestia looked up, and saw that the rubble had been cleared away. She lit her horn again, and cast the spell only for another ball of rubble to appear. Even as it collapsed into a heap, the miners were already clearing it away in their carts.
“I wish I could help them, Princess. This would go so much more quickly if I could just use my magic to move the debris.”
“It’s fine, Twilight. Everypony here came knowing that it was going to be a lot of hard work, and that magic wasn’t going to help them.”
The miners seemed to get even more efficient as they continued their work. Already the second mound of debris was cleared away. When Celestia saw this, she concentrated once again, and opened the portal, bringing in a much smaller pile of debris.”
“I think that’s all of it. Once this is cleared away, the workers can go through the portal themselves.” said Twilight.
At this point, it only took a few miners to quickly clear away the last of the rubble.
“Alright, time to send over our first brave soul. Who’s it going to be?” asked Stone Heart as he looked over the workforce of ponies.
“I volunteer to go first.” said Dig Deep, as he came forwards.
“Alright, have it your way.” said Stone Heart. “Just step into the depression, and Princess Celestia will take you through the portal.
Dig gathered any supplies he might need from the nearby crates, including a pickaxe, and an electric lamp. Then he made his way over to the portal and stepped into the depression. After a quick nod towards the Princess, Celestia began to cast the spell once again.
“Here goes nothing” thought Dig as light consumed his vision.
“Well, this doesn’t seem all that alien. It’s just a hole. I’ve been in plenty of holes.” thought Dig Deep as he lit his lantern and looked around.
The battery on the lantern would only last a couple of hours before he would need a new one. He looked down, and saw that he was standing in a depression, just like the one he was in that brought him here, but the walls of the hole were fragmented and broken.
“The dynamite clearly did its job.” he said aloud with a small chuckle as he stepped off the depression and headed towards a wall.
“Well, I’m supposed to be digging up here, so I guess I’d better start now.” he thought as he swung his pickaxe into the granite wall.
No sooner had he begun to chip away at the wall, than another pony appeared, carrying a pickaxe and a tank of compressed air.
“it’s not so hot down here.” said the new pony as he looked around. “I expected it to be at least as hot as those coal mines I used to work in.”
“I dunno,” replied Dig Deep, “It is quite warm I think, and is it just me, or is it getting warmer?”
“Well, it looks like you’ve already started your work, so you’re bound to work up a sweat.”
“You better get off of that depression, more ponies are going to be coming through.”
From that point onwards, the work continued quite systematically and without interruption for a few more hours. Ponies came and went, bringing debris back through the portal once it opened. The crystals had taken over for Princess Celestia, and were now opening the portal like clockwork, once every thirty minutes.
“Who knew venturing into an alien world would be just as boring as mining in any old tunnel? Except now it’s going to take a lot longer, as I’m not as strong here.” Said Dig Deep from the edge of the considerably larger cavern, wiping sweat from his brow.
“Well get used to it.” said Stone Heart, who had come through the gateway the last time it opened. “We still have a job to do, and we aren’t quitting until it’s done.”
“Yes, yes, I know. I just thought that being in an alien world would be more, I dunno, sci-fi, like in the comics.”
“Well, it might get interesting soon. Just before I came over, Princess Twilight said she would be coming here the next time the portal opened.”
Just then, there was a flash of light at the portal, at this point, not even a bother to the toiling ponies, and a purple alicorn with a dragon atop her back appeared.
“Well, here we are Spike! Isn’t this exciting to be in a completely new world?” asked Twilight enthusiastically.
“I don’t know. To me it just looks like another cave.” said Spike, looking around. “I thought we were supposed to be digging upwards. How come everypony is digging sideways?”
“Well Spike, the chamber has to be wide enough for all of the equipment and supplies to come through. Once it is, then the ponies can start digging upwards.” Said Stone Heart, approaching the pair. “But if you want to start tunneling upwards now, then be my guest.”
Spike got off of Twilight’s back and stepped towards the far wall of the cavern. “Watch this Twilight, I’ll make short work of this rock.”
Spike began swinging his claws at the granite wall, beginning to chip away at the stone much more quickly that any individual miner had done so far.
“Something’s wrong, Twilight. This should be easier.” said Spike after a good 15 minutes of digging and chipping through the stone.
“What are you talking about Spike? You’re doing great!” said Twilight, sweating profusely. “I can see that you would also be able to withstand the intense heat down here with no problem.”
“Intense? Twilight, it’s hardly more than room temperature down here, and I’m the one who has been doing all the work.”
Spike turned back to look at Twilight, only to see that her fur had become matted with sweat, and she was blinking a lot more than was necessary.
“Twilight, are you okay? You don’t look well.” Asked Spike, looking concerned.
“I’m fine Spike, I just need some water, that’s all.” But even as Twilight opened her canteen of water to take a drink, she collapsed to a sitting position.
“Twilight!” yelled Spike, rushing over to Twilight’s side. Spike instinctively put a claw over Twilight’s forehead, and felt that she was much warmer than he remembered. “Oh Twilight, you’re sick! We need to get you back to Equestria now!”
Spike rushed to the side of one of the miners. “Excuse me, can you help me friend? I need to get Twilight back to the portal. Do you know when it opens next?”
“It still has about 10 minutes before it opens. You came here with Princess Twilight, right?”
“Yeah, she’s over there,” said Spike, pointing with a claw at his fallen friend, “she’s sick or something, we need to get her home.”
The two wasted no time on getting Twilight back to the depression of stone where they knew the portal would soon open and take them to safety.
“Come on Twilight hang in there,” said Spike, trying to get Twilight to drink some water out of her canteen. “You’ll be home soon. By the way,” he said, looking over to the pony who helped him, “I never caught your name.”
“My name is Dig Deep. I was the first once through the portal.” he said, looking Spike in the eye.
“What happened to your eyes? They look all greyish. Are you blind by any chance?” asked Spike, slightly taken aback by the pony’s gaze.
“No, my eyes, have always been green. They only turned grey that one time when Tirek stole my magic that one time. Unless…”
Dig Deep looked over his shoulder and at his flank. Blank.
“What the?! My cutie mark! What happened? I had it when I came here. Do ponies lose their cutie marks when they come here or something?”
Dig Deep and Spike looked at the unconscious form of Twilight. The familiar six pointed star was still there, but it was somehow duller, and more muted than he was used to seeing it. And Twilight was still heating up…
…Until a bright flash obscured the vision of the trio, and they found themselves back in Equestria.
“Somepony, get some cold water, quick!” shouted Dig at some of the miners who were on break.
A full canteen of freshly chilled water was brought, and Spike took it, quickly unscrewed it, and tried to tip the contents into Twilight’s mouth.
“Come on Twilight, you’ve got to drink. Last winter you kept on telling me not to eat the snow because it would chill me much faster than having the snow just touch my scales. So come on, please Twilight, please wake up!”
Twilight’s eyes fluttered for a second before managing to swallow some of the icy water.
“I think her fever broke. She’s not getting any warmer.” Said Dig Deep, forgetting all about his blank flank, his mind solely on the sleeping alicorn at his hooves.
Spike sighed in relief. “I don’t think she’ll be going back to that world any time soon.”
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excellent chapter
4953071
why not? he is still a dragon, his bones, muscle, claws, teeth and scales still count as one of the hardest stuff know in fantasy worlds, they are pure biological in nature, where does it say that Spike uses magic to enhance himself
again just because anything in our world can't do it doesn't mean something else on another world (or in this case another dimension) can't, Spikes teeth, muscle, and bones are more than likely to be thousands if not tens of thousands times denser than anything in our world and the denser something is the stronger it is, Spike eats gems/diamonds/minerals/baked bads etc, he is know to have a cast iron stomach, Spikes stomach acids melts the above mentioned and more items with no problem, granite stands no chance, and who said he would have to do it in one go? he can take a break as needed, digest, perhaps have a nap then start again, also who said he needs to eat it?
Dragon fire should not be needed to dig, that's what claws are for, if you are trying to dig through stone with a flamethrower then you are doing something very wrong
but they are not asking Spike to do it all by his lonesome, he has a team of miners and experts to help him, plus the mining gear and as for the dangers do you really think Celestia or Twilight would send him into something without some form of insurance that he can be brought back safely? also he a Dragon, his species live in the most dangerous places in MLP world, places like active volcanoes! and they are perfectly safe
it has also occurred to me that maybe this dimension would not effect Spike the same way as it does the ponies
also the next chapter is out by now and from the looks of it the good author has made his mind up on the matter and has ended this debate
I am very very dissipointed that this didn't happen... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rY9rkJckrg
4953563
While I agree with your poisoning, this part is totally BS there is no way that dragon's teeth are as strong or denser then Neutronium, let along a singularity. Though if you were referring to man-made alloys, I still have to have a beef with you. Titanium-nickle-cobolt-tungston alloys for example can be produced that could withstand the fires of the sun for short times and also is basically indestructible by anything humans could do to it with hand tools. Others are literally capable of self repair if heated to a key temperature. We humans have some amazingly durable and tough materials, and there is a cap on what a biological material is capable of even a dragons.
4953713
fine i may have exaggerated the sheer density but my point still stands, dragon bones/teeth/claws etc are more than likely the densest and strongest stuff in magical pony land
but because i am slightly drunk right now i will counter your point by saying that stuff you said is true by our universe/dimensional standards, and that in magical pony universe/dimension that the rules are different than ours, so we can't apply the same rules to their universe as we do ours, e.g if you take the comics as canon ponies can breath on an airless moon (Nightmare Rarity issue i think) and it is light enough and close enough to be pulled in by a rope, if i remember right gold is a soft metal yes? and would make for some really shitty armor, but in ponyverse its top shelf stuff hence why the royal guards where it
in short different universe, different fundamental rules
now if you will excuse me, i have a can of beer to finish off
1. Without magic, there are limits to biological constructs. That's why there are very convincing arguments on why Tyranids can never be on par with a mechanical army. You can't just say "dragons are made up of materials that allow a baby one to mine through a granite layer without magic" because it is not possible for an organism of Spike's construction on any alien world. A sentient blob of acidic slime may be able to, but not a reptile analog without bringing in magic.
2. And you also can't say "different universe different rules" if those rules do not include magic. Without magic, Spike is a poodle-sized reptile analog. You can hide superior engineering in that body, but it's never going to be so drastically superior (without magic) that it can dig through granite. An analogy is MLP pegasi cannot fly without their own brand of magic, because their wings are too small and aviation physics does not change just because it's an alien world. And this is proven in the show, drained pegasi cannot fly.
3. A blowtorch may not be optimal mining equipment, but dragonfire can be.
4. Don't bring in the IDW comics. Not only are they non-canon, but I have no respect for them.
5. Doesn't matter what the author decided. I can turn this from a discussion between us into a critique directed at this story, in an instant. I'm not interested in doing that, however, because this is a good topic for discussion but unimportant in the context of the plot.
I just have this bad feeling that they're digging underneath a skyscraper or something. At some point the whole tunnel will just collapse and kill all the miners and probably the people inside the building after it topples over.