//------------------------------// // Heartless // Story: Amethyst Star Isn't Prepared For This // by MagicS //------------------------------// Amethyst Star once again found herself wandering through a forest. It was a very familiar thing for her nowadays. It was funny for her to think that despite living so close to the wilderness back in Ponyville all her life she had probably experienced more of nature just on this little trip of hers than she had for the entire rest of her life. When you’re surrounded by something your entire life you can sometimes take it for granted. And that was certainly what she did with all the natural beauty that could be found so close to home. Now on her adventure she was at least appreciating it a bit more since she had been through so many different environments and ecosystems and she often had nothing to do but quietly drink in the nature around her. Currently she was on a clear path between the trees that was overgrown with grass and weeds. It looked too perfect to be natural so she suspected that however long ago ponies or someone else had cleared out a bunch of trees in the forest to make this road, before abandoning it and letting it become like this. Amethyst Star wasn’t one hundred percent sure where it might lead but she had a pretty good guess that it went to the lone mountain rising up in the distance. Right now the path was on a beeline towards it and Amethyst Star couldn’t see anything else coming up before that mountain. She figured there was once a town or some path leading around the mountain at the base of it that this path directly led to. She certainly hoped it was around the mountain and not over it. A hard and rocky mountain path would be the kind of murder on her hooves she was already more than tired of on this journey. “Well can I really complain as long as it’s peaceful and I’m not being attacked by any monsters or weird ponies?” She thought out loud to herself. Then remembered how much of a hassle it was on her still not totally built for adventure body. “Yes. Yes I can.” She did want to think that she had gotten more endurance on this journey though, she’d like to go back to that dumb hill and really show it who was boss, but it was hard to tell if she had really gained more muscle mass and lung capacity for handling anything greater than an easy walk like what she was doing right now. Amethyst Star was amazing but she wasn’t an earth pony and didn’t have their natural inclination to this kind of stuff, she’d only be slightly miffed nowadays if Applejack was still in much better shape than her. And Applejack worked on a farm so that was basically cheating too. Amethyst Star decided to forget about all that annoying stuff for now, she should enjoy the forest while she could. Whatever came next and whatever sort of changes in the landscape that she would have to deal with could wait. Right now it was a nice day with not a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining down on her and the forest. She looked over to the side of the path while she walked, admiring all the wildflowers growing on the ground and among the trees. “Pretty. I’ll get my friends some flowers when I come back,” she awkwardly smiled. “It’ll be an apology for making them worry so much about me.” Don’t go in. “Huh?” Amethyst Star paused and looked around, wondering where that warped voice came from. But she saw nothing and the voice didn’t speak again. There was no other pony here or any sort of other creature sharing the forest with her. She wasn’t even sure if it had been a mare or a stallion that spoke, it felt...off. “What was that?” Getting no answers, the unicorn shrugged and continued her walk towards the mountain. It was about thirty minutes before the forest started coming to an end and opened up to the empty land in front of the mountain, as Amethyst Star looked around at the manicured edge of the forest she figured that this had all been cleared away by ponies too to give them room to build or whatever right around the foot of the mountain. Except there was nothing here at all. No buildings, abandoned or otherwise, that suggested anything was built here at this mountain. Whatever was planned looked like it ended before it began. The foot of the mountain stood bare without even a shred of the town that Amethyst Star had sort of expected would be here. There was one thing. Instead of a path around or over the mountain, if she kept taking the path she was already walking on, she would end up at the entrance to a cave. It was a black dot at the bottom of the gray stone of the mountain and like any focal point it drew her attention right towards it. Amethyst Star smiled when she saw it and picked up her pace. Dark cave? Mysteriously empty mountain with abandoned work around it? That sounded like adventure. “Awesome!” Amethyst Star trotted up to the cave’s entrance, the edges of it had become covered in vines and roses with a thick coat of moss along the bottom. That’s when she noticed there was something else here. Planks of wood with a rusted metal rail half-buried in the dirt led into the cave from where she stood. Looking down at it, she tilted her head. “Tracks? This isn’t a cave, it’s a mine.” She looked up at the tall mountain. “Wonder what they mined here?” Well she could just find that out herself. Amethyst Star didn’t exactly know a light spell but the glow from her horn would still give her some light to work with. She put some magic into her horn and smirked when the glow pushed back a bit of the darkness. “Alright, let’s go!” Don’t go in there. Amethyst Star frowned. “Okay, I know I just heard something again. You can come out now!” She turned around to look back out at the empty ground she had just walked through. Again there was absolutely nothing there. “Pff, fine, whatever.” Amethyst Star rolled her eyes and ignored the voice, going on into the cave like she planned. The dark of the cave made the going slow even with her light source, she didn’t want to trip over the tracks or any rocks so she was careful where she stepped. With luck there would only be this one cave and it wouldn’t suddenly curve on her or anything. But Amethyst Star knew better than to count on her luck. She made sure to stay in the middle of the cave so she wouldn’t accidentally walk onto any side paths that had been excavated. She also hoped that the tracks meant there was a lot more stuff down here that had already been made for the mine, she had never been in a mine but she imagined it would be pretty cool to see. And this mine and mountain just screamed spooky adventure to her, what more could she want? Amethyst Star continued walking deeper into the dark cave, nothing but the sound of her hooves on the ground reaching her ears. Before long she came to a large gateway in the cave, using the light from her horn she saw wooden beams holding up the walls of the cave while the tracks went right underneath them, it seemed like there was at one point an actual gate that could be closed or opened here but it was all missing. Nothing but rusty hinges and a few rotted pieces of wood on the ground remained of it. When Amethyst Star walked through it she noticed something else on the side of the cave that she had almost missed, her horn just barely notifying her of it. A door. The room it led to was built right behind the gate, she wondered what it was for. Hoping it was unlocked, Amethyst Star went up to it and pulled the handle. Well it was rusty, stubborn, and stuck, but it was not locked and after yanking on it hard for a bit she was finally able to pull the thing open. It gave a monstrously loud grinding sound as it did which reverberated throughout the entire cave and made Amethyst Star wince, but at least it was open. A cloud of dust had floated up when she opened it so she waved her hoof around to clear the air and walked inside the room. It looked to be an office of some sort. There was a desk at the far end from where she had come in, the empty chair behind it facing her, and a bunch of file cabinets and decaying cardboard boxes stacked up all around it. The air had a musty and unpleasant smell and since the room was a dead end, Amethyst Star was more than ready to leave it and start walking back through the cave when she had yet another stroke of good luck and saw something just out of the corner of her eye. A thick metal cable ran up the wall and disappeared into a hole in the ceiling. Following it downwards her eyes came to rest on a large metal box placed near the door with a single switch on it that was currently pointing down. “Is that what I think it is?” Amethyst Star reached forwards and switched the flip up without any more consideration. She heard an electric thrum and several clicking noises coming from the box and the cable before light suddenly came into her world. Wincing and squinting her eyes thanks to the instant change from near darkness to blinding brightness, Amethyst Star looked up to see a light embedded in the roof of the office that she hadn’t been able to see until now. Its fluorescent glow hadn’t been weakened at all by the many years of disuse and the light perfectly illuminated the entire office. “Ugh, that was a bit much,” Amethyst Star rubbed her eyes to try and get the spots out. But it wasn’t just light from the ceiling of the office, it was pouring in from the cave outside too. When Amethyst Star stepped back out she looked up to see a sequence of those same lights were embedded in the roof of the cave, illuminating it as far as she could see deeper into the mountain. They seemed to start right from where the gate was. It must’ve taken a lot of work to set all of that up and run the cable through the whole cave but obviously they wanted to be sure to have plenty of light for their work. Now the whole cave was lit up well enough that it might as well have been outside with the sun shining down on it. Amethyst Star turned off her horn and started walking further into the cave again. “This is turning out even better than I expected!” There still wasn’t much to see or investigate though, the main cave path with the tracks extended deep into the mountain before it changed at all and Amethyst Star had to walk quite a ways just following it. But as she got deeper there were more large beams holding up the roof of the cave, obviously needed for the increased weight above them. Things seemed stable enough at least. There weren’t any cracks or shaking in the cave that gave off warning signs to Amethyst Star, so she thought she was safe here for now. “It would be cool if I had to rescue someone from a collapsing cave. That’s the kind of heroic deed I want to write home about,” Amethyst Star nodded, oblivious or apathetic to how dangerous a situation like that would actually be. Her hooves finally took her to the end of the initial cave, instead of just going straight it forked to the right and the left with a door to another room being at the back of the wall. Amethyst Star stood in the middle of the intersection, each path seemed exactly the same to her and the track along the ground split and went both directions too. Trying to open up the door in front of her proved pointless as well, it was sealed shut tighter than a bank vault. “Hmm...” she rubbed her chin as she decided which way to go. “Right or left? If I had a coin to flip this would be easier.” Both branches of the cave had more doors down them that she could see and they both went pretty far before either ending or turning off into more paths, she couldn’t see that far down for sure. “Oh, whatever, let’s just go right!” Amethyst Star made her decision and started walking down the cave to her right, checking out every door along the way. Most unfortunately were impossible to open (whether they were locked or so rusted shut that they wouldn’t budge she didn’t know) and the few she could open up led to nothing more than a storage closet or empty office. Where was all the cool stuff? What happened to this mine and how could she figure it out? There weren’t even any battle scars or knocked over furniture, did everyone just walk out and leave for some reason? The unicorn searched and searched throughout the mine after that. Opening doors when she could, changing direction and choosing paths when she needed to, taking a break to catch her breath from all the walking whenever she got tired. And she still never found anyone or anything in here. The mine wasn’t just abandoned, it was truly empty from what she had seen. There were no mine carts, she hadn’t found any of the actual mining tunnels where rocks or whatever were actually harvested from, or any sort of large storeroom where things were held before being shipped on out of the mine. What was up with this place? At the end of one tunnel, Amethyst Star came upon a stairwell. “I wonder how deep this goes,” she went and peeked over the railing to look down the stairs. It seemed pretty far, maybe ten or eleven flights of stairs? She smirked as she started to walk down the stairs. “Maybe now I can get to the bottom of things? Heh, wish my friends could’ve been around to hear that one.” And just like she said, she headed straight to the bottom. There was a door at every landing for the stairs but Amethyst Star had no idea how big this place was or how long it would take to search everywhere so she was going to the place she thought would be the most likely for adventure. The very bottom of the mine. It would also make it so even if there wasn’t anything down there she could still work her way back up and not miss anything. All in all she thought it was a decent enough plan of hers. The downside was that now she would have to climb back up all these stairs, and that was something she really wasn’t looking forward to. “Easier than a hill...” she grumbled on the way down. It was a lot of steps but eventually she was able to hop off the final one onto the dirt floor at the bottom of the mine. As was the norm for the rest of the stairs there was a single door waiting for her down here. A sudden frown came to Amethyst Star’s face as she thought of how annoying it would be if this door was locked. Hoping that wasn’t the case she briskly walked over to it and pulled on the handle. The door creaked but it did indeed open, easier than a lot of the ones upstairs even, and Amethyst Star stepped inside. The light was on but it was faint and flickering, perhaps the power was in worse condition the further down into the mine, and the room looked to be nothing more than a room for storage, large boxes were piled up everywhere from one side of the natural stone wall to the other. But maybe at least in those boxes she could figure out what was being mined here. Amethyst Star was a bit excited as she hopped over to the nearest box. Before she tripped over something. “Ow!” She yelped as she tumbled to the ground, rubbing the hoof that hit whatever the hay that was. She hadn’t been paying enough attention to the floor. In the low light she squinted at what was lying there that she had tripped over, it looked like some kind of white rock. “What the...” Amethyst Star lit up her horn and grabbed it. Oh, not a rock. A skull. “Ahhh!” The unicorn screamed as she realized what it was, dropping it back to the ground and scampering backwards away from it. Thanks to the glow of her horn she saw it wasn’t just a skull but an entire pony skeleton right there, sitting inside a faded orange worksuit. Amethyst Star pressed her back up against one of the boxes as she fearfully stared at the skeleton, shaking. “I wanted adventure, not horror!” She timidly stood up and prepared to leave the room, frazzled and more scared than she was willing to admit by this whole experience, but when she gingerly stepped past the skeleton she saw that a small book lay at the end of its outstretched legs. Amethyst Star stopped. That was the first book she had seen in this mine and clearly this pony had it right as he passed away, maybe something important was written in there? Maybe the truth of what happened here… “Ew, ew, ew, ew...” Amethyst Star whined as she picked the book up and went to sit back down next to the box. She shivered in disgust as she opened it up, not happy that her curiosity was making her do this. “Please let this be worth it.” Lost my old logbook so here’s to a waste of good money. The mine has been completed and now all that’s left is to get down to the actual work work. Prospectors told us that this mountain was a veritable goldmine of what we wanted, I expect us to be tapping veins and exporting the gems for years. Don’t know why Al-Karamaretel suddenly wants this kind of stuff but I’m not gonna complain when they’re financing everything and giving me a cushy job like this. Being your own boss is nice but sometimes it’s good knowing that somebody else is taking care of everything. Not having to foot the bill or do any of the darn organizational work for this mine is a win in my book even if I’m gonna be stuck here doing next to nothing for ages. Hay, I’ve worked my flank off for the past forty years of my life, I think I’m entitled to a “sit around and do nothing” sort of job by now. Got my number two, Steam Whistle, to take care of any of the troublesome stuff anyways. He’s always been good with the tedious work and you can bet that I have absolutely no problem with pushing the busy work onto him. Anyways the first mining crew will be arriving tomorrow, I’ve heard we’ve got 36 ponies total coming to work for us for now but as more tunnels open up and the boom town around the mountain sprouts up I’m estimating we’ll have a couple hundred workers when we’re fully underway. Miners, farmers, carpenters, tailors, you name it. Eventually this mine will be the center of a real town. All because Al-Karamaretel wants gems. Well, whatever, I’ll greet everyone tomorrow and Steam Whistle can tell them about the mine and just what sort of work they can expect to do for the rest of their jobs here. Mine Forepony, Tiller * Work is underway in the mine already and things are proceeding smoothly. If this is how everyday is gonna be for the rest of the job then things are gonna be even easier for me than I thought. I might even get bored! Orientation and touring of the mine took some time thanks to how big it is but the miners were eager to get started as quickly as possible. I heard from the ones who hired me that depending on how much product we move everyone could get bonuses. That’s a rarity in business like this. It certainly made everyone eager to grab those pickaxes and get to work, I’ll tell you that. Naturally we didn’t get any crates of gemstones out yet but I’m confident in our ability to meet any monthly quota set for us. Especially with everyone putting in as much effort as they are. From what Steam Whistle told me we’ve got a mostly veteran team of miners here working with us, ones who have been in mines all their lives pretty much. Just like me. I think Al-Karamaretel wanted this to be as professional an affair as possible, they wanted the best of the best. It does make me curious as to why they’re investing so much into this but I aint biting the hoof that feeds me so it’s not like I’m gonna question things. But they’re pouring a lot of money into this. If the mine turns out not to be as profitable as they thought they’re gonna find themselves in quite the hole. Yeesh, wouldn’t wish ruin like that on anybody. Oh yeah, and speaking of them wanting the best for this job and all the miners who came in today, Steam Whistle told me we had an extra. Some mare who volunteered for the job. Can’t remember where they picked her up but whatever, she’s not gonna be the only mare in the mine. As long as she can keep up nobody is gonna say no to extra help. So that’s 37 miners total now, plus me and Steam Whistle. Things are looking up. * First few crates of gemstones are stored up. Only reason we’re still keeping them down in storage inside instead of sending them topside and out the mine is because there won’t be anybody around to pick them up yet and nothing’s been built up there to keep them out of the rain or whatever else. One month. That’ll be when the first caravan comes by to take what we’ve mined so far while dropping off a lot of ponies who’ll either be working in here with us or building up the town. Steam Whistle told me that eventually they were even planning on diverting a river to get it closer to the mountain so we’ll have easier access to water. That’ll be nice. It only takes one day in a mine for you to really need a bath. I really can’t wait to see how we’re gonna be doing in a few months. And the best part is all I really need to do is look official the whole time. Works for me! Since things have been so easygoing around here so far too I wanted to mention that volunteer mare again. Happened to catch her a couple of times around the mine and I gotta say, she’s a real pretty mare. Never would think a gal like that would be working down here. Ol’ Tiller might just have to put the moves on her. That smile’s to die for. There was something else too? Oh yeah, Steam Whistle said one of the miners missed dinner. Probably too tired from a hard day’s work, I told Steam not to bother with it. Don’t want to wake a guy up from his rest. * Uh. Some stuff happened. Really glad Steam Whistle was busy and he’ll never see this log cause he’d be really mad to know I fell asleep after drinking some stuff I probably shouldn’t have brought here in the first place. But anyways while I was out there was an altercation between some of the miners. And, well, altercation may be putting it a little mildly. One of the miners died. And the circumstances surrounding his death are kind of uncertain. Oh boy, where do I even begin with this? Okay, so the miner who died had a friend who was working with him at the time. Supposedly they were the last ones coming out of one of the tunnels. And now he says that the miner was murdered. But there are a lot of problems with that. First off, Steam Whistle looked over the body and saw absolutely no sign of foul play or any injuries on him. Steam Whistle is saying it looked like he died of heart failure. And the stallion was pretty up there in years so I’m inclined to believe that. But the way his friend tells it, the volunteer mare killed him. The second problem is how he says she killed him. Apparently she just walked up and touched him and he keeled over. Yeah, that’s it. Now I’m no expert but that’s just a little bit absurd to me. He was very vehement about that being exactly what happened though. I’m sorry that his friend died but we can’t just take his word on events here. Maybe the shock of his friends death confused him? Maybe she was just reaching over to pat him on the shoulder when he had a heart attack? I dunno. Well the next problem with all this is that he didn’t just call for help and make a commotion, he attacked miss volunteer and kept trying to attack her even after Steam Whistle and some others came. We can’t allow that so we’ve temporarily converted a storage room into a holding cell for him. There’s just no evidence or proof that she hurt anybody, I can’t just let the guy go free after what he tried to do. I’m still blaming this all on shock. Once the caravan comes we’ll send him away and try and get this whole thing sorted out. No more drinking until then. * How do five ponies disappear in one day?! The mine is large but it’s mostly very direct and we even have plenty of maps up, what is going on? I want to think they’ve somehow just gotten lost and they’ll turn up in a day or two but five ponies? All at once? No, this can’t be a coincidence or a case of bad sense of directions. But the only other explanation is someone is abducting these ponies. And why? And where are they hiding them? This whole thing is making me uneasy, I’ve thought about having us all leave the mine but what would be the point of that? We’re still alone out here, there isn’t another town around for miles. For starters I’ve suspended normal mine activity and forbidden anyone to go anywhere alone. Whoever is abducting ponies is among us but they won’t be able to act if we all stick together like this. I hate that things are going to be so behind schedule now. We were doing good work. But that’s just how it is. We’re all going to sit tight now and wait for the caravan. Then we’ll figure out who’s been doing this and we’ll go on a sweep through the mine to find all the missing ponies. * Normal day. Or as normal as things can be right now. Nothing happened as far as I know. I want to be hopeful and think that things have stopped but that’s a pipe dream. It’s more likely that whatever or whoever’s responsible for all this is just waiting for the right time. All we can do is be vigilant. Mining work is still suspended. I just don’t like this, nothing happening is almost worse than something, it’s making me paranoid and I can’t rest at all. Just sitting around is driving me crazy when I know there’s something awful still going on. * Two missing and four found dead in their bunks this morning. Steam Whistle and I barred the gate out of the cave. No one is leaving. We’ve started to seal off some areas of the mine too, that way whoever’s doing this won’t have as many places to hide. I’ve questioned and interrogated everyone still with us but haven’t been able to find out anything. I’ve been thinking that maybe one of the earlier ponies who disappeared has actually been doing all of this? Today we’re going to barricade the doors to levels 2-10 completely. It’ll take some time moving all that stuff and making sure no one can get around it but it’ll be worth it if it means there’s only one way for the pony doing this to go anywhere in here, no more hiding or sneaking around us. I am going to find out what’s been going on and this mine is going to get back into order. There’s too much that’s been put into it and I am not letting my cushy job get ruined like this. I’ve started carrying a pickaxe wherever I go, told the others to do the same. * This isn’t Tiller. This is Steam Whistle, Tiller’s dead. I’m currently hiding at the bottom of the eastern stairwell, right below level 10 in the temporary storeroom we’ve been using. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be here so I’m writing this quickly. She’s coming, I know she knows I’m here. She can feel me, all of us, that’s why turning off the lights didn’t work. If you’re reading this then you’ve already read what Tiller wrote so I’ll keep this short and simple. That volunteer mare has killed everyone. I don’t know how and I don’t exactly know why but that’s what’s happened. I’m the last one left. With any luck she’s trapped in here too but somehow I doubt that our barricade of the front gate will keep her in forever. I’m going to use the little time I have left now to tell you what I know about her, on the off chance that you encounter her or have any way of bringing her to justice. Or just for warning others about her. I hope for your sake though that you never come across her. So, first off. I don’t know her name. I’m sorry, I know, but that’s how it is. I really should know it but I don’t, Tiller didn’t either. I don’t know what her Cutie Mark is either, she was wearing her worksuit every time I saw her. Now what I do know is mostly in relation to her appearance but here it is anyhow: she is an earth pony mare of average build, she looks to be a young adult in age, her coat is bubblegum pink, her mane and tail is white but a nearly translucent sort of white that’s also tinged with pink. Or perhaps sparkly with pink. Her mane is done in a bob cut that perfectly frames her face and her eyes—I don’t know. I just said her mane perfectly framed her face but I can’t remember what color her eyes are for certain. I want to say either blue or purple. I’m sorry. But please, remember this and look out for her. She’s not normal. She’s some sort of monster. I can hear her coming down the stairs. Amethyst Star was trembling. Suddenly everything about this cave that she thought looked like a fun adventure had changed. Obviously what was written here had happened a long time ago. And obviously the destroyed gate up in the main cave meant that that mare had left here a long time ago too. She probably wasn’t in any danger. That didn’t stop her from sprinting full speed until her lungs screamed and the muscles in her legs were on fire. She didn’t stop until she was out of the mine and even then it was only because her body refused to move anymore.