//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 
// Story: The Right Man in the Wrong Place... 
// by CORACK 
//------------------------------//

	We stepped over the broken wall and made our way inside. We followed the tracks that ran down the middle of the mineshaft, ignoring the smaller corridors that occasionally branched out to either side. Large wooden support beams braced the walls and ceiling every few yards. Though they were old, for the most part they appeared to still be in good shape.

Shadows danced on the walls as Kitchen Sink’s lantern floated in front of him, guiding the way. It was brighter than a normal lantern, but somehow it wasn’t blindingly bright. My guess was it had something to do with being magical. Either way I was grateful as I had no problems seeing the path ahead. 

For a while we just marched straight on, until we finally came to a three way intersection where the tracks branched out in all directions. Jade Circlet had provided Kitchen Sink with a very old map of the mine. He pulled it out of his saddle bag and traced a path from our current position to the main stairway down to the level below us. Once he had our course memorized, he folded the map back up and placed it back in his bag.

There was nothing out of the ordinary on the top level of the mine. When we finally came to the first set of stairs we descended down to the second level. There, Kitchen Sink consulted the map again. As we went further into the mine, the relatively straight and plainly laid out corridors of the top level gave way to a complex web of passageways, offshoots and turns. Kitchen Sink had to bring out the map more and more often to make sure we took the correct branch. 

Though old and faded, the map proved to be quite accurate. It wasn’t until we hit the third level that we ran into our first real problem. We turned around a corner and found that the passageway we needed to take had been buried. The supporting timbers in that area had rotted out and part of the roof had collapsed, preventing us from going any further.

"What do we do now?" I asked Kitchen Sink as he surveyed the cave in. I hoped he had a plan. I did not want to get trapped in a mine on an alien planet. He pulled out the map and studied it for a few minutes.

"Each floor is connected to the one above and below it, but there are emergency exits that skip over adjacent levels. One to three, two to four and so on. We can head back up to level two and take the emergency path down to four, or we can go all the way back to the first level and head down to three, hoping that the normal route to four is still open."

"Which one is closer?" I asked.

"Two to four," he said, pointing at a section on the map.

"Let's do that then," I suggested.

It took us some time to backtrack, but luck was with us and the path down to the fourth level was clear of obstruction. On the fourth floor the passageways were narrower, the ceiling lower. This far down into the mine, there were no more tracks to follow and the walls seemed to soak up whatever light Kitchen Sink’s lantern threw out. There was a distant, almost imperceptible sound that might have been running water, it stood out only because the rest of the mine was dead quiet. 

On the way down, every once in awhile we would pass a section of the wall that had been under active mining. The first level had a thick seam of coal running through it, but the farther down we went the more variation in ores we found. Kitchen Sink pointed out iron, copper, silver and even some gold. It wasn't until we reached the bottom of the mine that we ran into the mithril vein that Kitchen Sink had been telling me about earlier. We followed the vein for a while until we reached what was supposed to be the closed off entrance to the cavern. Instead we found it wide open.

"Look at the marks on these rocks, these were made by tools, not by any creature." Kitchen Sink said, as he carefully studied the rubble around the cavern entrance.

We continued through the cavern, heading deeper and deeper underground. A gentle but steady dripping sound echoed off the rock walls as water slowly dripped down from the stalactites that covered the top of the cave. Eventually we came upon a small underground lake. At first it looked like this was the end of our trip, the cave had had no other branches for us to follow and we had found nothing. We were about to head back up when Kitchen Sink thought he saw something.

"I'm going to turn the light off for a moment," he said. "It might have just been a reflection off the water."

His lantern went out and we were covered in a blanket of near total darkness. Slowly as my eyes struggled to adjust, and I heard Kitchen Sink whisper.

"Look towards the lake," he said quietly.

I turned in the direction I thought the lake would be, that's when I saw it, a pale green glow coming from across the water. Kitchen Sink turned the lantern back on.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Changelings."





It took us a while to get around to the other side of the lake. While we headed over there Kitchen Sink told me about the changeling race and their failed attempt at invading Canterlot. The Changelings were a race of bug-like creatures that fed on love. That's right, they ate an emotion. Don't ask me how that worked, but apparently it did. Changelings could shape shift, being able to magically appear as anything that was of similar size to the original changeling, for example, a pony. This, combined with a natural resistance to basic detection spells, made them very hard to spot.

We finally made our way around the lake, and found a tunnel. It was the source of the green glow, or rather a hard green rocky substance that coated the walls was the source of the glow.  Kitchen Sink explained to me that changelings could secrete a sticky green resin that hardened, similar to amber and also glowed in the dark. They used it for various things such as binding ponies, reinforcing the walls of their hive and of course lighting it as well.

The gentle glow provided by the walls provided ample light, so Kitchen Sink put away his lantern. As we went deeper into the hive, we uncovered at least five large chambers and dozens  of smaller rooms, but they were all empty. Some of the tunnels in the hive had collapsed, and even the ones that were still standing were in disrepair. After hours of searching we hadn't found any sign of changelings, nor a path that lead out of the hive. The off feeling that had plagued me since I had put on the necklace had only grown worse. I was starting to feel feverish and, even in the cool underground air, I was drenched in sweat.

"I need to stop," I said, leaning up against a large piece of changeling resin. I found an protruding rock and sat down on it, taking my backpack off. I pulled out my canteen and took a large drink of water.

"Ever since I put this thing on," I said holding the jewel of the necklace out, "I've felt strange, I think it's making me sick."

Kitchen Sink looked at me curiously, his eyes deep in thought. "I've never heard of any sort of reaction to an enchantment, it's basically just a simple magical field, not even that strong of an enchantment."

"Well what should I do?" I asked.

"Take it off, we haven't heard a peep since we got here, at this point I think the hive is abandoned."

I reached down and took the necklace off, the effect was almost instantaneous, the moment it slipped from around my head, another wave passed over me, but then I started to feel better.

"Sweet Celestia," Kitchen Sink said, pointing his hoof at me.

"What?"

"Take your shirt off."

"Huh?"

"Just do it," he said.

Still confused, I unslung my rifle and set it to one side, then I lifted my shirt and pulled it over my head.

"Look at your chest, where the gem was touching your skin," he said. 

I leaned down to look, it was at the very edge of my vision but I could just make out a large red patch, like a sunburn, exactly where the necklace had been rubbing against my chest.

"When you pulled it off, I caught a piece of that mark. Here, give me the necklace," he said.

I handed it to him, he pulled off the one he was wearing as well and slipped them both into his saddle bag.

"I've never seen anything like that," he said, clearly confused. "You might want to avoid any enchanted items, at least until you can talk to a unicorn who knows more about magic than I do.

We rested for a while, in the abandoned hive, breaking out a pack lunch. By the time I was done eating I was feeling much better. I let Kitchen Sink know that I was ready to head out. On the way back to the cavern we took a different route so we could explore some of the rooms and hallways we hadn't gone gone down yet. 

At the end of one hallway was an enormous set doors. They stood twenty feet tall, and were covered with intricate carvings and studded with numerous gemstones. It took Kitchen Sink and myself working together to generate enough force to move the massive doors. We walked inside and found an equally enormous chamber. 

Large stone pillars were spaced evenly around the room, supporting the rock ceiling. Between the pillars, chandeliers filled with glowing chunks of the changeling resin hung from the ceiling. The room was so large that it made getting a sense of scale difficult but it appeared to be broken up into four large rectangular areas, each larger than a football field.

In each section of the room, the floor was slightly raised except for narrow paths leading down the sides, meeting up near the base of each of the pillars and continuing to the far side of the room. Each of the raised areas were covered in small round divots spaced evenly apart. 

"What do you suppose these are for?" I asked, reaching down and running my fingers over the smooth indentation in the rock.

"I have no idea," Kitchen Sink said.

We followed one of the paths down until we reached the other side. The far corner of the room was covered in shadow, so I pulled my flashlight out and shined it up at the ceiling. There was a large crack running through it with several chunks of the rock missing. Adjusting my light I found a pile of rubble and saw the twisted remains of a chandelier that had been crushed in the collapse. I caught a reflection of light beyond the collapse.

"There's something over there," I said.

We climbed over the rubble and found another set of double set of doors. These were not nearly as large as the ones at the entrance, nor quite as fancy. They were however at least a foot thick and made of a dark wood covered with a thick sheet of iron. One door was partially open, leaving a small gap between itself and the other. We struggled to open it the rest of the way but the hinges had rusted over and were completely immobile. I took another look at the gap, if I went sideways, it was just large enough for me to slip in. 

"I think I can fit, should I check it out?" I asked.

"Sure, but don't go too far, I can't get in there if something happens."

Sucking in my gut I squeezed into the room.

"See anything?" Kitchen Sink shouted from the other side of the door? 

I clicked the flashlight on and pointed it around. The floor was covered in a thick layer of dust, there was a long wooden table, mostly rotted in the center of the room with some chests on the ground next to it. I walked over to the first chest and opened it up, just to find it empty. One bye one I checked each of the chests but they were all empty.

"Nope, room looks picked clean," I said, as I turned around and walked back towards the door.

A small glint of light caught my eye as I swept my flashlight over a pile of debris in the corner of the room. I moved over to the corner and started searching for whatever had caught the light. Moving some boards aside I found a single golden coin, the surface was well worn but it was still pretty shiny. 

Moving the wreckage caused the large part of the pile to shift and I stepped back to avoid it collapsing on me. I heard the sound of metal clinking on metal as the junk finished settling.

"Hold on, might have found something," I shouted back to Kitchen Sink as I once again went digging through the pile.

This time I didn't find just one bit, I found hundreds of them. What was left of another chest had been hidden under the wreckage, the side was rotted through and when I disrupted the pile some of the contents had spilled out onto the stone floor. I held the flashlight in my teeth and then started moving chunks of wood and stone aside. As carefully as I could, I extracted the broken chest, making sure to not spill any more of the coins. Despite being relatively small the chest was extremely heavy and I when I finally worked it free I narrowly avoided dropping it on my foot. I placed it carefully on the floor and then got to work picking up the bits that had spilled out.

Instead of trying to lift the chest again, I dragged it to the door and then pushed it out before I slipped through to the other side.

"Holy Celestia," Kitchen Sink said as he looked over the chest. He picked up one of the bit and gave it a squeeze between his teeth.  "I think these are pure gold."

"So they aren't just bits?" I asked, having not really dealt with pony currency before.

"Nope, wrong size, wrong thickness and wrong weight, probably changeling currency."

"You said pure gold, they worth anything?"

"Well we'll have to get it tested, but yeah, if they are pure gold they're worth a lot."

"Can we keep them?"

"I don't see why not, this isn't the mine so nothing in here belongs to Jade Circlet." He stroked his chin for a moment. "What do you say to a 50/50 split, you found it but it's my expedition?"

"Seems fair to me," I said. I didn't really have any good idea of how much this would be worth, I'd have to talk to Golden Dawn when we got back.

We emptied the chest and split the pile in two, half going into my backpack and half into Kitchen Sink's saddle bags.

I struggled to lift the backpack, hoping that the straps would not give out; I wasn't sure how much weight it was designed for but it felt like I was lugging around a least an extra 50 lbs of metal around. I felt a slight twinge of guilt for all the hundreds of video game characters I had played over the years. Carrying loot back from a quest was a lot of work.

We climbed back over the fallen rubble and started to walk back to the entrance of the room.

"Hey, I think I see something," Kitchen Sink said, trotting down one of the side paths.

"Ugh, it better not be more gold," I said with a huff as I followed him.

"No... it's... um I think I figured out what this room is for."

I pulled up alongside of Kitchen Sink, below him was the bottom half of the largest egg I'd ever seen. It was roughly a foot in diameter at its widest. The shell was sitting in one of the indentations on the floor.

"That is one huge egg," I said. "Does Equestria have giant chickens?" I asked.

"No... I think this is a changeling egg."

"But... look at the size of this room, you could fit a million of these things in here," I said.

"Yeah... I was just thinking that myself."

"Well, I'm glad this room is empty then," I said.

"Me too."

The rest of the trip out of the changeling hive was uneventful but slow going. Eventually we reached the bottom of the mines and started our way back up again.

"So what happens now?" I asked, as we headed back up towards the surface.

"Technically we're at war with the changeling empire, though we haven't seen hide nor hair of them since the failed invasion of Canterlot. I'm going to need to report this to the royal guard, they'll dispatch a squad to search the hive and confirm that it is abandoned. Once they sign off on it, Jade Circlet can reopen the mines."

"How long is that going to..." My question was interrupted by the creaking of timbers, dust began to fall from the ceiling as one of the supports in front of us gave way.

"Look out!" I shouted. I grabbed onto Kitchen Sink's back and pulled backwards just as a large section of the ceiling gave way. The light went out and dust filled the air, making me cough as I struggled to breathe.

As the dust settled and my coughing slowed, I saw a dim glow light the room as Kitchen Sink's horn lit up.

"Oh thank goodness, " I said between coughs. "When the light went out, I feared the worst."

A moment later a light clicked on as Kitchen Sink turned on his flashlight. Less than a foot in front of us was a pile of rubble that stretched to the ceiling.

"If you hadn't pulled me back when you did, your fears would be justified. Thank you." Kitchen Sink said.

"What happened to the lantern?" I asked.

"Dropped it out of surprise when you grabbed me, it's buried under that," he said pointing at the rubble.

I pulled the flashlight he had given me out of my backpack and switched it on.

"So what now? Do we try to dig our way out?" I asked.

"That might work but more than likely we'd just cause another cave-in. I think the first thing we should do is head for the emergency exit."

"What level is this?" I asked.

"Five, which means we're headed up to three," he said.

I groaned, three was the one that we knew had been blocked off of the normal access route. That meant if the emergency exit to one was also  blocked off we'd be trapped. I asked Kitchen Sink what we'd do in that situation.

"Figure out which of these blockages looks the least bad and try to dig our way out," he said.

It took us a while to reach the emergency stairs to level three. Unfortunately the stairs to the top level weren't all in the same spot. The emergency stairs for each level shifted locations in hopes that no one major disaster would cut off access to all of them. The stairs for five to three were in the far western half of the mine while the stairs for three to one were in the east. 

The steady progress we had been making most of the time ground to a halt on level three. We wandered around for hours, trying to bypass the heavy deterioration that was widespread on this level. Several times we had to backtrack to get around passageways that were blocked with debris. One route after another was crossed off of Kitchen Sink's map until there was only one possible path for us to take. We followed it, getting closer and closer to the exit when we came upon a hole in the ground. It was only a little over ten feet across but at least thirty feet deep and ran from one wall of the corridor to the other so there was no going around it. I stepped up to it and peered over the edge, I immediately regretted it as I almost lost my lunch. I scooted backwards as fast as I could, leaned up against the wall and tried to catch my breath.

"I don't suppose you can jump it, then go get help or something?" I asked, keeping as away from the edge of the pit as I could.

"Not likely, I do have some rope... but see those support beams across the way?" he shined his flashlight on the beam in question. "Those first two sets looks like they are going to fall apart any second. If they weren't I could tie the rope to the angled section that's reinforcing the crossbeam. In the state they are in though, I don't dare risk it and the rest of them are too far away for me to reach with my magic."

We sat around for twenty minutes, going over the map to see if we could find any alternate route that we had missed but there was nothing. 

"What about digging out one of those blocked passages?" I asked.

"I really don't think that's wise. The area around them is already unstable, any digging without being able to put up new supports is just going to bring more rock crashing down on our heads. Plus we have no idea how far the collapse goes, it could be a few feet or it could be twenty."

The idea that had been bouncing around in the back of my head started fighting its way forward. I didn't want to do it, in fact even thinking about it terrified me. Unfortunately as all other options were exhausted and I wanted to starve down here even less.

"Um, I hate to even suggest this, but how much weight can you pick up with your magic?" I asked.

"About a hundred pounds or so, if it's for any length of time. If it's just for a second or two, more but I don't know exactly... Why, what did you have in mind?"

"Toss me," I said.

"What?!" 

"I cannot jump the distance, you'll have to toss me!" I said in my best Gimli impression. Of course Kitchen Sink didn't get it.

Oh yeah, make a joke about it, you'll really be laughing as you plummet to your death down that pit my brain yelled at me.

"I... I don't know," he said, looking me over. "How much do you weigh?"

"About 210."

"I don't know if I can throw you that far," he said. "It isn't a bad idea but you're just too heavy."

The intelligent part of my brain rejoiced at my poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyle.

"Actually," Kitchen Sink started to say.

I cringed in anticipation of a suggestion I was bound to not like.  I might have suggested the idea but it was out of desperation and I was perfectly fine with it not being possible.

"You might be onto something, what if you ran and jumped and I gave you a push while you were in the air?"

"Uhhhh," was all I managed to get out. Visions of me at the bottom of that pit danced morbidly across my mind.

"Yes, that just might work." Kitchen Sink said hopefully. "Then I send the rope over to you and you can tie somewhere further down."

Assuming I actually manage to jump and not trip, fall on my face and roll into the pit I thought.

To maximize my chances of not dying a horrible death, I got rid of any necessary weight, I took off both my rifle and the backpack and set them to one side. Kitchen Sink levitated both across the gap and learned them up against the wall, along with the flashlight I had been carrying. Then he took off his saddle bags, rummaged around, pulled out a few flares and levitated the bags across the gap, I could tell from the sweat rolling down his forehead and occasional spark on the tip of his horn that those things were packed pretty much to his limit. After catching his breath, he took his flashlight and balanced it under one of the cross beams beams so it illuminated the area around the gap, that way he wouldn't have to concentrate on levitating the flashlight while also pushing me. To add to the light he took the flares, lit them and spread them out. He dropped one behind him where I would start running from, another right at the start of the gap, a 3rd into the gap itself, that way if I fell I'd be able to see the bottom before I went splat. Finally he threw the last one across to the other side.

"Are you ready for this?" he asked.

"No, but let's get it over with anyway." I said honestly.

Whelp, my life is over, I had a good run

"On the count of three then," he replied. "One... Two... Three!"

I took off running as fast as I could manage. Just before I reached the edge of the gap I started screaming, pushed off at the ground as hard as I could and jumped. 

I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die ran through my head.

I was only in the air for seconds, sailing towards the other side, but I already felt the upward movement of my jump petering out. Then a pale amber glow lit up behind me, a violent sensation of dizziness crashed over me and my vision blurred as I felt a heavy push on my back. A second later I crashed into the ground with a mighty thump, safely across the hole. Slowly I stood up, holding my pounding head before I turned back towards Kitchen Sink.

"Thank Celestia, I couldn't get a good grip on your whole body so I just pushed with all I had on your back... you okay?" he asked.

I weakly gave him a thumbs up. "Lets not do that again," I said as my heart rate slowly began to drop.

I grabbed my stuff and then used the flashlight to look around until I found a support that looked to be in good condition. Then I reached up and tied the rope around the top of it. I knotted it like Kitchen Sink had showed me and then threw him the other end of the rope.

"How exactly is this going to work?" I asked.

"I was thinking you can lower me down into the pit, I'll tie the rope to this support over here and then you can give me slack as I climb down, then you can pull me up the other side."

"I think you are vastly overestimating how much I can pull. How much do you weigh?" I asked nervously.

"460 pounds, give or take a bit, but you won't have to pull me up by yourself, I'll be hanging onto the rope and I can push up with my rear hooves. I'll tie a safety harness just in case, worst thing that happens is a fall half a foot and hang there until you can pull me up the rest of the way."

"I don't think I can't lift that much weight, even for a few seconds, any other ideas?"

"What if you lowered the rope on that side and I tied it on this end to the top of this beam. I could try to zip line across."

I looked at the beam he was talking about, it looked to be in good condition, as long as nothing came collapsing down, it might work."

"Worth a shot," I said.

Kitchen Sink worked quickly and soon had everything ready on his side. He was just about to grab a hold of the rope when the flare down back where I had started running flickered and went out. The dying light caught my eye and I looked up towards it, just in time to hear a skittering sound as a large black mass crept up out of the darkness. 

Kitchen Sink's ears swiveled around, catching the sound as I shouted a warning.

"Holy shit! Kitchen Sink, look out, there's something behind you!" I screamed, pointing at the unknown creature.

Kitchen Sink spun around, his crossbow flew out from under his duster and he let off a bolt faster than I could blink. It soared through the air and slammed into what I now could see was a massive spider. It was huge, almost as large as the corridor itself. The tiny bolt wasn't nearly enough to stop the oversized monstrosity, it hissed in annoyance, pausing for only a second before leaping towards Kitchen Sink.

Kitchen Sink had started to reload the crossbow when he realized he wouldn't have the time. He dropped it and went to pull something out of his bags, swearing when he realized they were on the other side of the pit. Instead he pulled a short sword out just in time to block one of the spider's legs as it came crashing down at him. Unfortunately it did so with such force that the the sword was knocked right out of Kitchen Sink's magical field and sent it flying into the pit. 

Not ready to give up Kitchen Sink tilted his horn down at the spider and snorted, preparing to charge the creature. Here was something I hadn't even considered, Kitchen Sink had mentioned horns as weapons but I had assumed through use of magic. They were fairly sharp and horns are used as weapons by animals on earth so it did make sense. Still though, it was going to be a long shot, even if he connected, the spider was big enough that it was unlikely Kitchen Sink would be able to land a fatal blow. I had to do something.

I grabbed my rifle and screamed for Kitchen Sink to get down while bringing it up to my shoulder. To his credit, Kitchen Sink dropped to the ground, not waiting for me to explain why he should place himself in such a tactically unsound position. With a speed that I didn't know I possessed, I cocked the lever, lined up the body of the spider in the sights and fired. The explosion of the gunshot was deafening, it was even worse than when I had shot the graboid knock off due to the enclosed area of the mine. The spider gave out a horrible shriek that hurt my ears almost as much as the gunshot, but I wasn't about to take any chances. I shook off the shock and quickly worked the lever loading in another round. Not knowing what it would take to kill the beast, I kept shooting till I ran through all ten rounds, by then my ears were ringing and I was shaking but the spider was down, collapsed in a puddle of blood and liquefied flesh.

I didn't remember Kitchen Sink getting back up, or me helping him climb across the pit. The next thing I knew I was staring at him, his fur was dripping with spider blood and he stank horribly. I saw his lips moving but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I shook my head in an attempt to clear the ringing.

"...what?" I asked.

"Are you okay?" he said.

"Me? You're the one who almost got eaten," I said.

"That was ten minutes ago, and you haven't said anything since."

"I... I don't know, it isn't every day I have a run in with a giant spider and have to shoot it to death." I said with a shudder.

"You saved my life, that's the second time today."

"Uh huh," I nodded slowly.

"Here, take a sip of this," he said, floating a small metal flask over to me.

I took a large gulp, and almost immediately burst into a coughing fit as I struggled to hold it down.

"I said a sip." Kitchen Sink said laughing

"Holy shit that stuff is strong." I said.

"Made it myself," he said with a smile before turning more serious. "What is that thing?" he asked nodding at my rifle.

"A rifle."

"Rifle?" It was clear from the confusion on his face he had no idea what that was.

"I take it ponies don't have guns?" I asked.

"Not that I know of.  Damn though, that thing is loud, my ears are still ringing."

"Yeah I know, normally you aren't supposed to shoot one without ear protection but I didn't have time to pull out my ear muffs. When I saw the spider attacking you, I figured better partially deaf was better than completely dead."

"I think you made the right choice." Kitchen Sink said. "So, how does it work?"

"At a most basic sense, it works on the same principle as your crossbow, throw a projectile at high speeds at whatever you want dead."

"I didn't see any sort of projectile fly by. What I did see were some fairly small holes on the front of the spider. The backside was completely torn open. How does that work?" Kitchen Sink asked.

I took time to open the action and verify that the gun was completely unloaded, then I pulled one of the spare cartridges out of one of the loops.

"This is a bullet," I said holding it out. "Well, actually this little bit of lead at the end is the bullet, the whole thing is a cartridge or a round. It consists of 4 basic components. The bullet itself, which is the projectile, the case, or brass, cause it's made of brass," I flipped the round over. "And that little shiny circle is the primer."

"You said four but only listed three things."

"Yep, the fourth component is inside the case, a substance called gunpowder or smokeless powder. That is what acts as the propellant."

I tilted the rifle and cocked the hammer back. "When there is a round in the chamber of this rifle, I pull the trigger down here," I said pointing at the trigger. "That makes the hammer drop which strikes a firing pin which in turn hits the primer igniting it. The primer ignite the powder which expands rapidly, pushing the bullet forward until it flies  out of the barrel."

"That bullet is so small though," Kitchen Sink said.

"Yep, it is small which is why the entrance wounds were small but it’s moving so fast that the lead expands and creates a much larger wound channel the the original size of the bullet. It’s moving anywhere from, I dunno, 1000 feet per second to 3000 feet per second depending on the gun and what type of round its shooting."

"By Luna's Moon that's fast, the bolts for my crossbow barely break 300 feet per second."

"Yep, and if I remember my physics correctly kinetic energy is 1/2 mass times velocity squared so that jump in velocity is giving them a major boost in energy. When they hit, they hit hard."

"What's that smaller thing at your hip?" Kitchen Sink asked.

"This is a revolver, it' works the same was as the rifle, in fact these two guns shoot the same cartridge, .44 magnum, which was originally a revolver cartridge, so it's actually on the slower side of the scale. At least out of the revolver where it's going to be moving about 1200 fps. The extra barrel length of the rifle might kick it up to almost 2000 fps. Back in my trailer I have another rifle that shoots a rifle cartridge, .30-06, it shoots a slightly lighter bullet at around 2800 fps."

We made our way through the rest of the 3rd level, when we finally arrived at the stairs we here happy to find that they were free and clear. We climbed on up and then headed for the exit. It was already starting to get dark so we headed back to camp for a late dinner.

"You think that spider is what got all those ponies?" I asked Kitchen Sink as we ate.

"No, they're dangerous for sure but there's rarely more than one of them in an area and I can't see even a few of them being able to kill the heavily armed force that went into the cavern."

"The changelings then?"

"Most likely, my best guess at what happened is the changelings captured the ponies that wandered in and fed on them, at some point in time they abandoned that hive for reasons unknown. Maybe because the food supply died out when the mine shut down, though I have to imagine a hive of that size needed more than just a few miners.”

“So where’d the spider come from?” I asked.

“It probably moved in when it found the mine open and empty, a perfect home for it. Still, tomorrow we need to go back in, now that I know what I'm looking for I can bring the right equipment. We'll seek out the spider's nest and make sure that if there are any eggs we kill them."

"You want to go back in?" I asked.

"That's what I'm being paid to do. If we leave the nest, Jade Circlet might find her mine infested with these things," he said.

"How are we going to deal with that pit?" I asked.

"We'll find something to bridge the gap," he said. "For now let's get a good night's rest."

"Should one of us stand watch, in case spiders come out of the mine or something?"

"I put an alarm spell on this camp the day we got here, if anything comes within 50 yards, we'll know."

We headed for the tent and I climbed into the small cot I was using for a bed. I drifted off into an uneasy sleep. Giant spiders roamed my dreams terrorizing me even as I tried to rest. After the third time jolting away in a cold sweat I fell asleep and began to dream once more. This time though when the spiders returned, I caught a flicker of moment in the corner of my eye before a gentle glow, as pure as moonlight covered everything in sight, banishing the spiders. Moments later the dream ended and I fell into a restful sleep.





I could still make out a faint ringing in my ears the next morning, it was unnoticeable as long as there was a bit of background noise but anytime that there was any extended silence it would rear it's ugly head again. After breakfast, Kitchen Sink and I explored the ghost town, until we were able to find some wooden beams that were still in good condition. It took a few hours to move them all to the pit on the third level of the mine, but when the work was done we had a makeshift bridge that would last long enough for our needs. Kitchen Sink wore a pair of goggles which he said would illuminate any areas of the mine that the spider had frequented recently. We wandered around the mine, carefully searching until we found a hidden nest down one of the areas of the mine we had not explored.

"What do we do now?" I asked, as we carefully inspected the nest.

"Burn it," Kitchen Sink said, pulling out some flares. The spider webs ignited easily and burned with a fierce heat. It wasn't long till the eggs started to pop one by one until none remained. We waited for the fire to go out and then did a careful inspection to make sure that nothing remained, then head back to the surface.

It took several hours to pack up the camp. Just before we were about to head out, Kitchen Sink called me over.

"What's up?" I asked as he opened his saddle bags.

"Jade Circlet gave me 50% of my pay in advance, the rest she's going to give me when she reaches Hoofston. Here is your share," he said floating some bits out of a small pouch.

I looked over the currency, it being the first time I had held any. There were four gold coins each a little larger than a silver dollar but a bit thicker. On one side was the face of a unicorn with a rather large horn, wearing a crown. Across the top read it read Equestria Royal Mint. On the bottom it said ‘25 bits’. The other three coins matched.

"This is 100 bits, if I'm not mistaken," I said with a bit of confusion. "I thought you were paying me 40."

"Consider the extra 60 bits a bonus, for saving my life twice, that and I remember you mentioning you had to buy fuel from Golden Dawn so that should cover my share."

"Your share and then some, the fuel wasn't that expensive," I said. "Plus there's the treasure,"

"I appreciate your honesty but still, keep them. This job earned me a good deal and ended up being far easier than I thought it would. And the treasure was a bonus, finding it doesn't change the fact that I said I'd pay you."

"This was easy?" I asked.

"Compared to what it could have been? A good deal of ponies went missing in there, one of my top guesses was that the ponies ran into a dragon, guarding an a vast underground hoard. Instead we found an abandoned hive that I don't have to deal with because as soon as the Royal Guard hears about it, they'll check and clear it for me if need be and a cave spider that you killed."

"If the Royal Guard will take care of the changelings why did we explore so much of their hive?" I asked.

"The quickest way to get the Guard to take care of the problem is to give them an accurate estimate of Changeling strength, if I had just reported a have with no additional information, they would have had to send their own scouts to investigate. That means Jade Circlet would have to wait even longer. As it stands we got this done so quickly that I'm going to get a bonus, which will more than cover the extra bits I gave you."

We headed back into town arriving about an hour before dinner. I drove Kitchen Sink to the train station where he deposited his boxes to be picked up by the next train and shipped back to his home town; then I drove him to the town’s only hotel and dropped him off.

"Are you going to be in town tomorrow or are you taking off for the capital right away?" Kitchen Sink asked me as we stood in the lobby.

"I haven't decided yet, I did promise Golden Dawn that she could look at the engine in my truck before I left but I don't know how long she needs for that, if she can do it today, maybe I'll head out tomorrow morning. I need to see if I can get a map and plan out my route, I don't want to get lost along the way or run out of fuel in the middle of nowhere." I said.

"How'd you like to make a few more bits before you leave? If you can stay an extra day that is." 

"Depends what you have in mind, the last two days were certainly the most adventurous of my life, but I'm not sure I could handle any more adventure just yet."

"This has nothing to do with the mines, or any other jobs. I'd like you to give me a demonstration of your guns and I'd like to try shooting them myself. I'd be willing to pay you, say five bits?"

Kitchen Sink's offer rattled around in my head; I could always use a little more money, once I left Hoofston I had no idea what I could do to make more. On top of that, Golden Dawn had been paying for me the since I had arrived here in Equestria and I never gave Dusty Heart anything for his medical assistance. 

On the other hand, I only had so much ammunition in this world and once it was gone, it was gone for good... Except, my dad had left me all those reloading supplies and equipment. The problem there was I had only a rough idea of how they worked and while the books he had given me had directions on how to set everything up, they were unreadable. I knew enough about reloading that if i put too little powder in a handload I could get a bullet stuck in the barrel. If I put too much I could blow up the gun.

Still though, if my memory was correct, I had 2000 rounds of .44 magnum and 1000 rounds of .30-06 when I left Wyoming. I had only used 15 rounds of .44 magnum and no .30-06 at all since arriving in this strange world. 5 on the graboid (I didn’t care what its real name is) and 10 on the spider.

It wasn't like I was going off to fight a war or anything, I still had far more ammunition left than I could possibly need even if I decided I wanted to hunt for food or something. And in the extremely unlikely event that I started to run low, well maybe I could find a pony that could translate the reloading manuals. Golden Dawn had mentioned that some unicorns could perform translation spells during one of the conversations we had had about how my own language could have been altered.

Finally, if I did stick around to give Kitchen Sink a demonstration, it meant a possibly delay for my trip to Canterlot. Of course at this point one extra day wasn’t really a big deal. The important part was I now had not only a plan to get to the capital, but now that I could buy fuel off of Golden Dawn, I had a way to do it as well. 

A giddy feeling crept up inside me as I tried to imagine what the capital would be like. Meeting with a princess seemed like a big deal to me but Golden Dawn had said there wasn’t much too it. All I had to do was show up, wait in line, and state my case on my turn.

Mixed into the excitement some sadness. In all likelihood I would never see the ponies that I had met in Hoofston again. I decided I would miss Golden Dawn the most, she was intelligent, friendly and a pleasure to spend time with. Had I met her on Earth, I was sure we would have become great friends. Thinking about never seeing her again hurt more than I wanted to admit.

Suddenly sticking around one more day was actually sounding kind of good.

"All right, you've got a deal. You want to meet over at Golden Dawn's shop tomorrow morning, around 10:00?" I asked.

"I'll be there," he said before heading into the hotel.

I headed to the shop, when I got there I saw Golden Dawn had the side loading doors open and was fiddling with my generator.

"Hail Storm! You're back!" she shouted happily and trotted over. She placed a wing on my shoulder and pulled me down for a hug as she asked me about the mines and how the job went. I filled her in on the details, telling her about the changeling nest, the treasure I found and finally fight with the spider."

"Sweet Celestia, don't tell Blue Skies, she'll lose her feathers. I'm glad you made it back safely," she said giving me a friendly squeeze with her wing. "So, can you tell me more about that thing you used to kill the spider? The rifle?" she asked.

"Well tomorrow morning Kitchen Sink and I are going to head out into the desert so I can give him a demonstration, you want to tag along?" I asked.

"Ohhh, that sounds like fun, I used to do archery when I was a filly and it was a blast. Let's talk some more in a few minutes, I'm just about finished putting the generator back together, and I want to test it out."

She went back to work while I headed over to the trailer and pulled out my bolt action and one of the boxes of .30-06. I had to do even more digging to find the cleaning supplies and a toolkit but I figured if I was going to give a proper demonstration I might as well show them how to break the guns down and clean them as well. I was still searching for my tools when I heard the generator sputter to life. That reminded me that I had already unpacked them so I closed up the trailer and walked back over to the generator.

"Golden, I need some of the tools I lent you, what happened to them?" I asked.

"Oh, they're all over here," she said.

I found an Allen wrench set and a multi headed screwdriver which, combined with the cleaning supplies was pretty much all I needed. While I was carrying everything over to the truck, I asked Golden Dawn about the generator.

"So you took that whole thing apart and put it completely back together? I asked.

"Yep, and what an amazing piece of engineering it is, I've already started drawing up designs for a new and improved engine based on the one in the generator. I also took some measurements of its electrical output, I'm a mechanical engineer, not an electrical one but I think we could get a converter designed that would allow your devices to run on Equestrian electrical outlets."

"That would be pretty cool, the only thing that would really need it though would be my phone, but as long as I can fuel the car or the generator, I can keep it charged. Not that it's much use since I can't read anything on it."

I was packing up the guns when a thought struck me.

"I just realized something, we're heading out but we don't have any targets to shoot," I said.

"Are they anything like archery targets?" Golden Dawn asked

"Sort of, if you are shooting paper, but you can also shoot steel targets, those I think are more fun because you get audible feedback."

"Huh?"

"It goes clang. I love the clang." I said with a grin. 

"What we really need is a couple of saw horses to rest some targets on," I said.

"Oh I've got a few old ones in storage, let me go grab them," Golden Dawn said.

She flew off and then returned with three saw horses a few minutes later.

"Now we just need targets. If we nail a piece of plywood here on each of these saw horses, we can pin up some pieces of paper," I said showing Golden Dawn what I meant. She got two of them setup while I found some paper to use.

"Do you have any chain, and some scrap metal?" I asked her when she was about to work on the last sawhorse.

"Yeah, why?" 

"If we drill a hole in a the steel, we can hang it from the saw horse with some chain and shoot at it." I said.

She ran back into her storage room and came back with a plate of steel about half an inch thick. A few minutes later it was hanging from the last sawhorse. She loaded them up into the back of the truck while I packed all the guns and ammo in the back seat. I stressed to her that the guns should not be touched without my supervision and until after I had explained how they worked. 

I was cleaning some stuff out of the truck when I saw my backpack tucked behind my seat. I pulled it out and shouted for Golden Dawn to come over.

"I meant to ask you, do you know what I can do with these?" I asked, reaching into my bag and pulling out a handful of the golden coins.

"Well we can take them to the bank, they can test them for you and you can exchange them for bits if you'd like," Golden Dawn said.  "How much did you get?"

I pulled the backpack out and dumped the coins into a pile on the floor.

Golden Dawn whistled as she looked over the pile.

"If these are actually solid gold, your money problems are going to be gone," she said.

"Do you want to head into to town? We can get dinner while we are there."

"Sure thing," she said.

The drive to the bank didn't take long, I brought a handful of the coins in with me and gave them to one of the tellers, a few minutes later and he came back and informed me that my coins were pure gold and worth a little over 20 bits per ounce. I asked if I could get some more of them converted and he told me there was a small fee but otherwise that would be fine. 

I proceeded to shovel out piles of the coins from the backpack onto his desk. The poor teller's jaw dropped and I think he stopped breathing for a moment. He left to go get the bank manager who informed me that they couldn't make such a large exchange but would be happy to convert some of it for me. In the end I ended up giving the bank somewhere around a tenth of the coins. This was converted into 2000 bits which Golden Dawn informed me was roughly a year's salary at a very well paying job, not bad for a 2 day expedition. I threw the gold laden backpack and the sack of bits into the back of the trailer after taking out a handful of bits so have some spending money.

We finished up at the bank and then I lead us to a pizza restaurant I had spotted while looking for work. With minimal pleading on my part, Golden Dawn agreed to let me buy her dinner to make up for all the help she had given me. Plopping down my own bits on the bill felt great after all the leaching I had done recently.





My ears still hurt the next day from the shooting in the mine. It was still pretty early so I decided to walk over to Dusty's, I could pay him for his services and also ask him to check out my ears. On Earth, hearing damage was permanent, but if I was lucky maybe pony magic could fix it.

He was surprised to see me and even more surprised when I pulled out some money. I had to argue with him for a few minutes but he finally agreed to take a small amount. I told him about the trip to the mines with Kitchen Sink and the spider and the ringing in my ears. He checked me over and then gave me some ear drops. 

"These won't fix the problem but they should reduced the symptoms, I'm afraid the damage is permanent, unless you can find a unicorn doctor who can modify a hearing restoration spell to work on humans."

Dusty asked me about the headaches that I was having and I admitted that they hadn't gone away. He scolded me for not coming back sooner, but after checking me out he was still no closer to figuring out what was wrong. That’s when I remembered my reaction to Kitchen Sink’s enchanted necklace. The mark was still there and though it had started to fade, the area was still tender. I lifted my shirt to show it to him and explained what had happened.

"It's almost like you are having an allergic reaction to the enchantment, I've never heard of such a thing before. Do yourself a favor and avoid enchanted objects until you can talk to a pony who specializes in magic."

I thanked him for checking me out and then headed back to the shop; half an hour later Kitchen Sink and Golden Dawn both arrived. I was going over all the equipment when something struck me.

"I think we might have a problem," I said.

"What is it?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Well as Kitchen Sink found out, guns are loud, really really loud, like to the point that it will damage your ears. I actually went to Dusty's earlier today, he thinks my hearing is permanently damaged from the sound of the rifle. I only have one pair of earmuffs and a few disposable ear plugs and neither of them will fit pony ears. We also really should be wearing safety glasses for eye protection and I only have one pair."

"I've got extra safety glasses," Golden Dawn said, she trotted over to a workbench and pulled out two pairs. "As for the volume, is it louder than thunder at point blank range? Pegasus ears are extremely resilient to loud noises, which helps a bunch when we're working with storm clouds. Unless it's over 185 decibels we should be fine."

"What about Kitchen Sink?"

"My ears didn't stop ringing till this morning. I guess since I wasn't as close to the sound as you were, it didn't hurt me as much. I've got no desire to make it worse, but I do have a plan. Before I acquired the enchanted necklaces we used I used to rely on just sneaking around. I learned a spell that would make a bubble of silence around me, if I cast it before I shoot the gun won't make any noise at all."

"What about when Golden or I shoot?"

"The bubble doesn't let sound in or out, that's one of the reasons why I don't use it anymore. I didn’t make any noise sneaking around but I couldn’t hear anything either."

"Huh, well I guess that works," I said.

There wasn't enough room in the front of the truck for both ponies, so Kitchen Sink gave up his seat and sat in the bed. Golden Dawn gave him the blankets so he wouldn't have to sit on the bare metal and I promised him with a wink that I wouldn't go to fast. We were about to take off when Golden Dawn door and hopped out.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I'll be right back, I have an idea."

Then with a quick flap of her wings she took off into the sky. A few minutes later she returned with a small white puffy cloud about the size of a beanbag.

"The floor isn't very comfortable, but I don't want to take the blankets back from Kitchen Sink" she said and then she started to push on the the cloud with her hooves.

I had to agree with her, it was just thin carpet over the metal body, plus there was the track the bench was attached to. Still I didn't see how a cloud would help. I watched in wonder as she shaped the top of it into something resembling a pony compatible seat, basically a bench without a back. Somehow she was molding the cloud like it was a big piece of clay. She finished up and then pushed it into the open door and down against the floor. With a bit more work the bottom of the cloud was molded to fit snugly against the floor.

As I watched, Golden climbed into the truck and sat down on the cloud as if it were made of something solid. I had seen Blue Skies jump on clouds, make it rain and even wring one out but a chair out of clouds? This was new. I got into the driver's seat and reached over, my hand went right through to the floor.

"How are you even sitting on that?" I asked while starting the truck.

"Pegasus pony, remember?"

"So to you clouds are solid? And you can make things out of them?"

"When we want them to be yeah, and yes we make all sorts of things out of clouds. For example, my house is made from clouds."

"Really?" I asked while starting up the truck.

"Of course! Why do you think I've never invited you over, it's 500 feet up and you'd just fall through even if I flew you up there," she said with a laugh.

I turned around and asked Kitchen Sink if he was ready to go, he gave me a nod so I started driving.

"Unless either of you have a better suggestion, I'm just going to head into the Badlands along that mining road we were on earlier. There's a hill right off the road that we can use as a backstop."

"Sounds good to me," Golden Dawn said.

While I was driving through town, I talked to Golden a bit more about clouds.

"What else do ponies build from clouds?"

"Well there's there's a whole pegasus city, Cloudsdale, it's got Equestria’s largest weather factory, it handles almost all of Central Equestria."

"Weather factory... so wait I know you can make it rain, that much I've seen, even if I have trouble believing it, but you make other weather as well?"

"Yep, Equestria's a big place it takes a lot of coordination and work to get the weather controlled over the whole country. Anytime there is a large scale weather event planned, such as a snowstorm over a large area, it gets built up in one of Equestria's weather factories."

"I still don't get how you do it, manage weather over the entire country. Each individual weather pony must be responsible for huge sections of the sky."

"Well there are a lot of us, and while not every pegasus is a weather pony, it is the most common pegasus job. Plus every pegasus can help out in an emergency if needed since most of the basics of weather control are inherent to the species, no real need for special training. But we also don't need to cover every single square mile of the sky. We usually directly manage the weather around population centers, but there's a lot of empty area in the country and most of that is indirectly managed. Once a weather team sets something in motion it will spread out naturally until other ponies do something about it. For example it isn't like Blue Skies has to push every single cloud into position when Hoofston is scheduled for a rain storm. Her and her brother will gather some storm clouds from the local weather distribution point, or create their own for smaller showers, then they can use those initial clouds to seed the storm itself. With the right work, the small group of storm clouds will grow into a full sized storm which can then be guided over the town. It then will drift off in whatever direction it was set on, maybe over the Badlands for example, until it dissipates naturally."

"So what if it drifted over some other town that didn't want rain?"

"Well first off Blue Skies wouldn't send a storm towards another town unless she coordinated with their weather team first, but if that did happen somehow by accident, the town's weather ponies would see it coming and break it up."

Ponies might have trailed humanity in technology, but some of the things they could do with magic blew anything man had ever accomplished right out of the water. As far as I could tell they had near total control of the planet's weather. Of everything I had learned since arriving in Equestria, this had to be the most impressive thing yet. Natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes caused millions of dollars of damage and cost thousands of lives every year, and for all our technology, there was nothing we could do to stop a storm. Nothing I could imagine could top what Golden had just described to me. I continued to think on this as I pulled off the road and onto a flat piece of land. There was a large hill in front of us that would work as an excellent backstop. It was time to teach some ponies how to shoot.