“All in all I’d rather be a judge than a miner.”
It was four in the morning in Clopertino, Calicornia. The street lights brightly illuminated the streets outside BioQuine HQ. The building was almost completely dark. The only source of light came from a single computer screen in one of the back rooms. Lligase Cosmids sat in front of the monitor, flipping between tabs and windows.
Depending on who you talked to, Lligase Cosmids was famous as the most aggressive unicorn geneticist of his generation, or the most reckless. Thirty-four, light brown coat with a Cutie Mark of a hypodermic needle super imposed over a Petri dish, balding, gryphon-faced, mousy brown mane and tail, and intense, he had been dismissed by Fancy Pants University in Baltimare as a graduate student, for attempting rather risky gene therapy on pony patients without obtaining the proper protocols. Hired by BioQuine (one of the many genetic research companies that had sprung up over the past few years), Lligase had become the head of product development for the company. This consisted of “reverse engineering” competitor’s products: tearing them apart, learning how they worked, and then making your own version of it.
In practice, his job involved industrial espionage, and the main target as of this past year was EquesGen. Even now the unicorn was hard at work researching what EquesGen was up to. Every window and tab on the computer screen in front of him was of (or had something to do with) EquesGen; and (much like with the mare in charge of the company) Lligase just could not seem to be able to figure it out. Purchase of an island off the coast of Hoovesta Rica? Visits to the Dragon home lands? Hiring chefs from 5 star restaurants around the globe? Deals with ostrich & emu farms, and automotive companies? He just could seem to figure it out; it didn’t seem to have any pattern he could follow.
“What are you planning, Ms. Pie?...”
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It was a bright sunny morning over the jungles of the Domaneican Republic. Many brightly colored tropical birds sounded and flew through the canopy. A frail framed, middle aged, slightly balding unicorn stallion; dressed in a city pony’s idea of hiking attire (a rather crisp looking suit), stood upon a rather unsafe looking raft as it floated upon the jungle river. A dirty red earth pony with a black mane and tail, and a raft and pole for a Cutie Mark was at the front of the raft: pushing it along with a long, wooden pole, as they made their way down stream.
The unicorn - wiped some of his sweat away with a hoofkerchief he levitated out of his suit. He was a light grey in color, with a well trimmed, mousy brown mane and tail, with a Cutie Mark of a signed contract with money signs around it. It was incredibly humid out, and he was not particularly use too this kind of weather. The closest he had ever been to this kind of humidity was at a sauna in Canterlot, after a long day at the office.
His name was Dollar Journal: a lawyer and accountant from Canterlot. He had been sent down to represent the investors of Ms. Pie’s grand project, and he was not exactly happy with how things had been going so far. First he had to get up at the crack of dawn to make sure he caught his flight; got held up by airport security; was bumped back from first class to coach on the flight; then, upon landing in the La Rompana International Airport, found out that Ms. Pie may have left an hour or so ago; and, to top it all off, he was dumped in the middle of a jungle, with bugs and dirt and germs...And he had seen a bunch of crocodiles lurking by the banks of the river! Journal hated roughing it.
“Are we almost there, Mr. Balsa?” Journal asked the red earth pony, as he kept them on course.
“Si, señor,” replied Balsa with a nod. “It won’t be much longer now.”
As they rounded the river bend, the pair of them was greeted by the sight of the cliff face of a decent sized hill. Wooden structures and walkways had been built into the cliff side as ponies and donkeys and others walked and climbed along the structures, and went in and out of the tunnels that were dug into the base of the cliff.
“Ah, here we are!” Mr. Balsa stated as he put down the pole, and just let the current carry them the rest of the way. “The Cascos de Alicornios Amber Mine, señor.”
Before Journal could say a thing, Mr. Balsa had jump (much to his surprise) into the crocodile infested waters of the river, and began swimming towards shore (the length of rope that was tied to the raft clenched between his teeth). At first Journal had thought he had fallen in (or was pulled in), and quickly jumped back on the raft – much to the amusement of a certain gryphon that sat waiting for them on the river bank beside a crudely constructed dock.
Gregorio Gutierrez sat watching the city pony on the raft, and could not help but chuckle at how out-of-place he seemed in contrast to the lush green jungle around them. He was a gryphon in his mid-thirties, with a dark red-brown coat and white and purple speckled head that was topped by a wide-brimmed hat, woven from reeds. As the earth pony paddled to shore, Gregorio reached out one of his taloned hands, and helped Mr. Balsa onto to the bank.
“Hola, amigo. ¿Qué tal le va?” The gryphon inquired in his gruff voice, as Mr. Balsa climbed out of the river and began pulling the raft in.
“Mas o menos bien,” Balsa replied with a grin. “¡Mire esta gringo!”
Gregorio look up from the dark red, and out over the water toward Dollar Journal, and couldn’t help but smirk a little.
“Apuesto mil pedacitos que se cae.” The gyrphon chuckled, as the unicorn was pulled closer to shore.
This was not the first time the two had met. No, they had met before when he and Ms. Pie had been working out a deal regarding their (he and his work crew) mining operations and the workers that would be helping at the park. He had met up with her earlier today, to discuss the incident with the zebra worker (a rather good friend of his); she had wondered how his family had been holding up. Naturally, his family had been offered compensation in, but they (naturally) had taken the news rather hard, and were holding a lawsuit against EquestGen. He felt bad for Zubari’s family, but new that they didn’t have a case; he had signed a contract with EquestGen (all of them had), and it was very specific as to the risks of working at the park. Not that he held what happened against Ms. Pie! Far from it! She was a lovely young lady, and paid extremely well; ten times the wage they had been normally paid by their previous employers! No. Zubari’s family was just very hurt and looking for some closure, though he very much doubted they would find any in the form of Bits.
Pushing those thoughts aside, Gregorio looked up and smiled at Journal as he came in to dock. He had a feeling that the unicorn would not be too happy once he found out that Ms. Pie was no longer here, and had a feeling that this would be a rather unpleasant conversation.
“Hola, Gregorio,” Dollar said in a rather poor Spanish accent, as the gryphon reached out to help him off the raft.
“Hola. Bienvenido.” The gryphon smiled in return, and gestured for the unicorn lawyer to follow.
“So what’s this I hear at the airport; Pinkie’s not even here?” Asked Dollar; getting straight to business.
“She sends her apologies.” The gryphon offered with a shrug.
“We’re facing a sixty thousand bit lawsuit from the family of that worker and you’re telling me Pinkie couldn’t even be bothered to see me?!” The grey unicorn said, exasperated, as he did his best to follow the gryphon without slipping on the muddy ground.
“She had to leave early; she went back to Ponyville. Something about the ‘Cake twin’s birthday’.” Gregorio sighed.
“And I understand that - knowing how important parties are to her. But we’d be well advised to deal with the situation now! The insurance comanyeeeeeiii-!” Dollar squealed, as his legs comically began to slip and slide out from under him on a rather algae blanketed patch of rocks. He had just barely gotten his legs back under himself in time to avoid falling on the slick ground. After regaining his footing, with some help from Gregorio, he continued. “The underwriters feel this raises some serious safety questions about the park…that makes the investors very, very anxious! I had to promise them I would conduct a very thorough on-site inspect.”
Gregorio stopped in his tracks, and turned to face the unicorn. He had feeling Journal was going in that direction, but he had hoped he wouldn’t.
“Ms. Pie hates inspection: they slow everything down,” the gryphon stated, as though Dollar’s words had made him physically exhausted.
“Gregorio, they’ll cut the funding. That’ll slow her down even more!”
“¡Jefe! ¡Jefe!”
Both turned to watch as a green pegasus stallion with a light blue mane came rushing over to them from one of the dark tunnels that had been dug into the cliff side.
“¿Qué es?” The gryphon foremen questioned, as the pegasus flittered excitedly in front of him.
“Encontramos otro mosquito, en el mismo sitio,” he replied.
“¿Seguro?”
“¡Si!”
“¡Muestrame!”
“What was that about?” Dollar Journal asked with a confused tone. Gregorio merely turned to him with a smile.
“Today might be a good day, after all! They found another one. C’mon,” he said, before gesturing for Dollar to follow.
“Oh; watch you head there!” Gregorio said, as the unicorn lawyer almost bonked his head against the tunnel’s rather low ceiling. It was dark and dripping inside the lightly illuminated mine; rivulets of water rolled off the walls and formed hoof sized pools in the floor. On either side of them about a dozen workers hammered at the walls with their pickaxes. One of which – Dollar caught – said something along the lines of “he encontrado más hierro,” to which the miner next to him replied, “trate de encontrar más diamantes. Necesito otro diamante para finalizar mi piqueta”. He wasn’t entirely sure what to make their conversation, but this line of thought was cut short as the two of them neared what appeared to be a work bench where a yellow earth pony stood cutting (or rather carving) a shiny yellow rock with a table saw.
“If three experts,” Dollar began, as they neared the work bench, “sign off on the island, the insurance guys will back off. I’ve already got Emma MathComp, but they think she’s too ‘trendy’. They want Terra Soar and Buck Ryder.”
Dollar had finished his statement just as they had reached the bench, and Gregoro had already taken possession what looked like a small, yellow gem stone: amber. The gryphon turned to him with the most amused expression on his face at hearing the name of the pony they wanted.
“Terra and Buck?! Ha! You’ll never get them out of Manetana!” the gryphon said in a tone that made it obvious that he found the very notion ridiculous, as he inspected the fossilized tree sap held between his talons.
“Why not?” Dollar asked. Gregorio wasn’t paying attention. The gryphon was inspecting something inside of the yellow rock, but couldn’t quite make it out.
“Luz. Más luz!” Gregorio said to himself, as he turned the ancient, yellow stone in his claws, “¡Muchachos! ¡Llevar la luz!”
Almost immediately, everypony in the mine shaft dropped their tools and began to crowd around Gregorio. Several of them had brought lights over, while the rest just wished to see it themselves – Dollar among them.
“Why not?” The unicorn asked again in an annoyed tone, as he tried to get a better look.
“Because they’re like me…they’re diggers,” Gregorio chuckled, as he sat staring directly at the tiny figure held in place by the tree sap. A tiny mosquito; held suspended for millions of years inside the hunk of ancient, yellow sap. Perfectly preserved. At that moment, there was nothing more beautiful to the gryphon foremen and his crew.
“Hay que lindo eres vas hacer a much gente feliz...”