This was the darkest hour in Steel Heart’s life. Her desperate plan to crush Lord Corn Wall once and for all had been decimated and she was at a severe disadvantage. Though the old stallion was slow to take the initiative he was very difficult to stop once his plans were moving in full force. The main reason she was worried however was because this was the latest in a growing line of her schemes that produced absolutely no benefit. It seemed clear to her that she was losing control of the situation and if she didn’t find a solution soon she was done for. In this stupor she sought out the place where her families legacy began, the Triumph Caverns.
It had been long ago that Steel Heart’s great grandfather, Iron Lung, had mined here to gather the first metals needed to produce cheap Steel. This action led to the start of an industrial empire that is still growing to this day. Steel Heart traveled here alone, wanting to reflect on all that had passed and what she could do to regain control.
Like most caves it was wet, cold, and dark with only a few lanterns lighting the way. Steel Heart came to a small, well light enclosure and starred out at the sky, visible through a sizable crack in the cave wall. From Everypony else’s point of view it seemed is if she was an aggressor constantly sending machine after machine to bring ruination upon Lord Corn Wall and his holdings. From her perspective however, she was a crusader seeking to modernize Equestria and transform it into an industrial power like none other. In order to do this however, she must first eliminate the stubborn Lord Corn Wall and all others who stood in the way of progress. If they won she feared that the other nations of the world may one day become more advanced and glorious Equestria would be left behind. She couldn’t allow this to happen.
As the noble’s thoughts drifted towards the present, one question stood out from the rest. Could she ever live a normal life? If she lost everything and had to join the common folk, would she be able to adjust? She had been raised from birth to lead this great noble house and assure its dominance over all the others. Her thoughts drifted even more and the question broadened. Could she live a quiet life? If she were made to retire or lost so much money that she could no longer compete with the other nobles, could she stand it? Could she ever learn to love the slower pace? She honestly didn’t know the answers to these questions and just thinking about them was enough to bring tears to her eyes. What if she couldn’t find a solution and was actually defeated in the eternal contest? Could She cope?
Suddenly a torrent of noise came in from the cave entrance, violently breaking her inner reflection. Steel Heart rose with lightning speed and looked to the cave mouth. She saw a group of ponies with various pieces of mining equiptment entering the cave slowly and noisily, the clatter of hooves against stone overpowering their words. This cave was mined out long ago, why would a dig through be working here today? Steel Heart decided to follow them in the hopes of figuring out what they were doing here.
After a while she could actually understand what the foreman was saying.
“Lord Corn Wall wants this artifact out of this mine ASAP, the sooner we get it out of here the sooner we get paid!” he barked.
A mare in the group looked to him and asked, “What does some stuck up nobleman want something like this for anyway?”
The foreman responded, “rumor has it that this globe thing has enough power with in it to either destroy or power a whole city.” Then the crew reached the site and got to work. When Steel Heart saw the massive orb she had to try hard to keep herself from gasping in awe. This huge globe was made from a tan rock and had jade colored runes all across it’s surface. This seemed as if it could be a perfect weapon to finally bring about an end to the eternal contest of the nobles, and end that resulted in total victory for her.
She knew that she wouldn’t be able to get her private guard here in time considering the sphere was almost completely excavated. She would have to scare the miners away and recruit locals to finish the work. But what could she do to get them to leave that wouldn’t result in her own untimely death? She realized that she would have to be very sneaky and begin a campaign of psychological warfare to ensure their speedy retreat. She would start out small and slowly work her way up until the stress was to great on the work crew and they would flee the place.
She first began throwing rocks across, the room causing the miners to jump and become uneasy. This wasn’t working very well though, because the foremen calmed his workers down and ensured they worked at one hundred percent efficiency. She tried tumbling rocks to trick them into thinking there was an iminate cave in, but the foremen calmed the group down again. Every time she tried something, the foreman was always able to counter it. Now it was clear that is the plan was to succeed she would have to break the foremen.
What could the foremen be afraid of? Obviously he was trained to tell a real cave in apart from a fake one and was almost impossible to unnerve. She tried sneaking over to his coat on the ground and lit it ablaze before dashing back into hiding. When the foremen saw this he simply stomped the flame out. When a spider was sent his way he crushed it. When bats came swarming towards him, he swatted them away. Nothing Steel Heart tried worked. The artifact was all but free and the noble saw that if she didn’t succeed right now, Corn Wall was destined to annihilate her legacy. In a panic she used her unicorn magic to summon a massive wave of multi colored bubbles towards the mining crew. In retrospect, Steel Heart had no idea why she did this but was very proud of the result. These bubbles seemed to be more effective at horror than all the psychological tactics in existence at scarring away this stoic work group. They ran out of the cave so fast that one could have sworn that the apocalypse itself had taken manifest form and was hot on their trail.
When the miners returned to Lord Corn Wall, they lied and said that there had been a huge rockslide that had destroyed the artifact and would have reduced them to a bloody pulp had they not run when they did. Lady Steel Heart however, hired a massive crew of Pegasi to fly the orb to a safe location so that it could be taken to her secret research lab. Her hired scientists and engineers would work tirelessly to unlock the secrets of this long forgotten device so that their industrial noble could finally achieve the victory that she sought her entire life. Although things seemed brighter than ever for Steel Heart, one question still plagued her relentlessly. Could she ever adapt to a quiet life on the sidelines? She smiled to herself, finally knowing the answer. Thanks to her actions today, she would never have to.