//------------------------------// // 6 A Quaint Mining Outpost // Story: Dracula (Not exactly) // by Cyndaquil //------------------------------// The events of this chapter continue directly from chapter 3 In certain pagan villages, ponies once believed that thunder was the crack of Nightmare Moons whip, as she raced her chariot above the clouds. If ponies were to look up into the sky, on this particular night, they might believe that myth once again. Spike wasn’t actually whipping anyone, at least not on purpose, rather he was fumbling with a broken rein. The chariot did race, in an attempt to beat a storm which was probably not his or Glimmer’s doing. Their destination was the old coal mine. A bat like Pegasi yelped when the rein struck him right in the cutie mark. “Sorry!” Spike yelled. “I miss working for Nightmare Moon,” said Shade, the first flutterbat. “Yes,” Icarus agreed. “Princess Luna is a sweetheart.” The two were seasoned veterans of the royal guard, and had been personal chauffeurs for Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon so trusted these two, that they were even allowed to call her Luna. When Midnight Sparkle decided she would move to Olde Ponyville, the two were transferred to her employ, this was supposed to be a great honour for the pair. It’s a posting they regret ever accepting. Thanks to their relationship with Nightmare Moon, these two bat Pegasi were privy to many first hoof stories about the rich history of their nation. Long ago, a movement known as the enlightenment swept across the once united Equestria. Luna detested the ostracizing of the ‘unenlightened’ ponies. Enlightenment was always less popular in the cold North, so Luna and her sister migrated that way. One of the two sisters always protected their home, while the other would go on missions to rescue the ‘heretics’ from the enlightened territories. After Celestia was banished, Luna closed the Northern borders, and made the enlightened ponies too afraid to ever invade her territories. Though many Northern ponies turned to darker forms of magic, what many ponies don’t realize is that much of Luna’s fearfulness comes from over-the-top theatrics, and the two pegasi assumed the same would be true for her most faithful student Midnight Sparkle…they assumed. Their reverie was broken when another strap snapped. Shade snapped his teeth, catching the rope before the whole chariot could become undone. Now holding the rope, he struggled, having to fly backwards. They failed to beat the storm, as torrents of rain crashed upon them. Spike was thrown back as the chariot lunged into free fall. He fell upon what should have been those emergency devices Midnight Sparkle had purchased; parachutes he thought she called them. “Ouch!” said the bag were the parachute ought to have been. Spike turned. Was that you Glimmer? Despite them being in a fall, Glimmer’s expression was as steady as that of a porcelain doll. “Was what me?” she asked as she tried to take out the parachutes. “Hey, you’re pulling my hair,” is what glimmer heard as she reached into the bag. Glimmer ripped open the burlap to reveal a pink pony they both knew from a night in a speakeasy. “Pinkie!” It just so happens that they did reach their destination, or at least the outskirts of which. Ponies approached, roused by the noise of the crash. The flutterponies jumped into nearby trees, hidden yet ready to pounce if the mob turned violent. The wood of the chariot was too broken and splintered for Nightmare Moons crest to be recognized. Perhaps the villagers would actually help them. “A chariot crashed.” “Oh my!” “Who would be coming here at this time of night.” “We should get them to the doctor.” Glimmer listened to the various murmurs of the crowd. So still was she that the villagers might assume she was in shock or rattled. She was just listening. “We should take them to the clinic.” “We have no doctor.” Glimmer’s ear twitched at the words ‘no doctor.’ “The doctor is stricken with black lung. We have been waiting for the city to send a replacement by train.” “We have so many injured. The mine takes more from us every day.” “I will be your doctor!” Glimmer declared. The voices of the town ponies became less distinct. They now spoke in whispers, and there were too many to pick out any single one. She did have a fairly good idea what they were talking about. Spike awoke. The first sight he awoke to was Glimmer, looming over him, glaring with blood shot eyes, bone saw in hoof. He was used to this. A moment later Pinkie was at his side, holding a tray of cupcakes. She wore a nurses outfit. By some odd trick of fate, it turned out that Pinkie actually was a nurse. She went through nurses college, and completed one year of a two year internship at her local filly’s hospital. The young ones loved her, though her teacher doctor felt she lacked the dignity and decorum befitting her profession. She was told, she would be unlikely to find work as a nurse, and so took up comedy. While grabbing a cupcake, the dragon turned to face Glimmer. “Did you take out any of my organs.” “Yes, but I put them back already.” “Were am I? Are we in the mining outpost?” “Yes, you are in my clinic.” Spike looked around. There were 23 gurneys in the room, and 13 of them were occupied. Though it was hot, blankets covered most of the other patients. Spike suspected that Glimmer was hiding something. Finally he turned to Pinkie. “And what about you, why are you here?” Pinkie braced herself, taking in a large breath. “Well, after my set at Mrs Cake’s speak easy, I went outside for a smoke break. While outside I overheard you talking with your friends. I was standing on one side of the dumpster, and you were standing on the other, so you didn’t see me. I only caught the second half of your conversation, but I still got the gist. You two were coming here to get my sister Maudie out of the coal mine, while your other friends were sent to square things with the local burgermeister who sent Maudie here in the first place. I was gonna run around the dumpster and hug you guys, but no offence, you looked kinda scary, and I didn’t know why you were helping me. So instead I spied on you, and snuck aboard your chariot when you weren’t looking. Sorry about tossing out the parachutes… Did you get all that?” “Okay, I think I got all that. You smoke?” The dragon shook his head. “Anyway, did you find Maudie.” “Maudie is off surveying land with somepony named Mudbriar, but she comes back in two weeks, and I’m gonna see her, I thought I’d never see her again, and I’m Oh so happy, all thanks to you guys.” “Great!” “Don’t tell Maudie I smoke.” “Okay.” Against his ‘doctors’ advice, Spike leapt out of bed. There was a small pain in his stomach as his feet hit the ground. Glimmer likely wasn’t joking about his organs. He made his way to the next nearest gurney, inspecting the patient. “Have you been behaving yourself Glimmer.” “Of Course I have.” She spoke in monotone. “This pony has one leg that’s a different colour then the others.” “Excuse me sir,” said the stallion with the mismatched leg, “thanks to this transplant, I can continue to support my family, and even play buck-ball with my son. The nurse asked my permission first, and I assure you I much prefer this to the alternative.” He grabbed his blanket back, clearly annoyed with Spike. Spike made his way to the next patient, “Okay this one looks like a normal mare.” “I have a pig valve in my heart.” He turned to Glimmer, and gave her that look, it was the wordless look of one who was demanding an explanation. “I’m short on pony parts.” Spike tried one more bed. “So what did she do to you?” He asked. Her voice was sweet and feminine, as the beautiful mare answered the question. “She helped me be the pony I knew I always was on the inside.” Exasperated, he turned to Glimmer. “Do I want to know?” Pinkie whispered something in his ear, and the dragon turned beet red. Spike decided he couldn’t wait two weeks. It was only a matter of time before Glimmers curiosities and fascinations led her to do something unwholesome. He began whistling. Spike whistled in a manner Midnight Sparkle taught him, a manner most beings could not hear. Nothing happened. He whistled again, and again. “Are you having difficulty breathing,” Glimmer asked. She lifted her bone saw, ready to help. “I’m trying to call Shade and Icarus.” When they looked confused Spike added, “Those are the flutterbats that brought us here! - Hold on, did they make it out of the crash okay?” Glimmer shrugged. “Oh those two,” said Pinkie. “They only work nights.” Spike groaned. “I hope the flower ponies are having better luck then I am. Daisy and Roseluck stared in horror. The fur on Daisy’s tail stood on end, she had broken out into a cold sweat. “Lily, how could you?” The three flower ponies stood in the office of this towns chief representative. They stood above the chief representative, looking down upon his body. The three witches had been told to persuade the burgermeister to allow Maudie freedom from her life sentence to the coal mines, they were not clear on the how. Daisy thought they could bribe the local official. Roseluck wanted to scare him. Without even hearing their idea’s, Lily just sprayed him with one of her perfume concoctions. The stallion suffered a coughing fit, then fell to the ground. Daisy reached over to feel for a pulse. “He’s really dead.” “Eww, you just touched a dead body.” Roseluck waved her hooves back and forth, standing on her forelegs, as though to say don’t touch me with those filthy hooves of yours. Lily pulled a pocket watch from out of her victims suit. “Are you robbing him now.” “I’m timing it.” “Timing what,” Daisy pleaded. As if on cue, the burgermeister gasped for air. He was not dead, not for more than three minutes anyway. Lily turned to her friends and smiled. She honestly expected them to be impressed. The two loved Lily like a sister, only right now they recoiled from her strange grin. “It’s something me and Glimmer were working on. It slows a ponies metabolism until they look dead…or maybe they are.” “Why use that on him? Was it us you were trying to scare?” “I don’t need to scare anyone my dears. Right now his brain is activating. All through life, the heart and mind never fully stop; his did, and now they’re waking up, and I’m the first thing he sees.” The burgermeister stared at Lily. Upon his face was the expression of a pony trying to make sense of life’s mysteries, those things so far beyond mortal comprehension. To him Lily was the greatest mystery of all. She held out her hoof. “Lick it,” she said. The Burgermeister did not even hesitate. Spike was antsy. He didn’t think it would be a problem, but getting into another chariot, so soon after the incident, had terrified the dragon. Holding no grudges over the rein incident, Shade and Icarus tried to fly more smoothly than usual, for the dragons sake. They did not like flying during the day. Glimmer had rigged them polarized lenses, and they both had kind Daisy’s special sunscreen formula with them at all times, so it was not impossible for them. Since this was a tracking mission, Spike insisted that the light would actually help them. Even Midnight would never work the two this hard. Maudie was apparently part of a survey mission that was checking six potential sites. They could be at any site, or anywhere in-between. Spike would be relieved when this was all over. Surely Maudie, like any pony, would be happy to leave the dismal mining outpost. As they approached the next site, the words of a waitress in a speakeasy flashed through the dragons mind, “she really seems to love it in the coal mines.” Technically this, technically that, technically Maudie was in trouble. She thought this would be fun. Looking for new veins, drawing topographic maps, examining core samples. Yes, Maudie knew that her senior had a crush on her, in the beginning she wanted to know him better as well; Mudbriar was just so annoying. It was technically this, and technically that, and it just got so on her nerves. When she finally told him to shut up, the tone of their whole excursion changed. None-the-less, she asked herself, as she hid behind a boulder, how did it come to this. Mudbriar searched for her, a pick axe was in his jowls. “Maudie,” he yelled. “Maudie come out, come out, wherever you are.” Glimmer hoped Spike didn’t come back too soon. She just needed a few more parts, and a little more time. While Pinkie was on her smoke break, she reached into her saddle bag and took out what appeared to be a brain, encased in some sort of preserving liquid. “Soon old friend,” said she, “very soon.”