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// 23: In the Mines 
// Story: My Little Fortress: Dawnpick 
// by Paaaad 
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Some distance away*1, Powder Miner was hesitating as he looked into the tunnel to the mining areas. The beasts down there were giving him pause. But scared as he was, it would be quick for a miner of his professional skill (he figured) so he hesitantly went down and mined.

Jaxler woke up with his face in the ground. He got up off the hard ground and realized he was in the mines. Jaxler had absolutely no recollection of last night and had a nasty ace in his head. He saw an empty keg at the end of the tunnel and his crossbow on top. He walked over to make sure his bow wasn't broken. He sighed in relief when he realized it wasn't damaged. Then he looked to the other end of the tunnel and saw Powder Miner. He noticed powder bit stressed. Jaxler walked over and said "Hay Powder!"

"Whoa! Hey Jaxler, what are you doing here?" Powder Miner stopped in the middle of applying a few soft repeated strokes to the corner of the boulder he was digging out.

"Well Powder, I woke up with my face in the dirt over there. I really don't know why I'm down here." Jaxler looked around and noticed the tunnel went on as far as his eye could see "Damn Powder did you dig this entire tunnel out?"

"Well, no. I had the other miner's help, but I did carve out a significant portion of the tunnel. I might reach my goal soon. ...I'm a bit worried about digging so much though, what if we breach into those caverns?" Powder Miner sees the barrel of booze. "That barrel might explain why you got down here. You need to be careful about that, Jaxler, you might have got hurt."

Jaxler raises his eyebrow in surprise at Powder's concern "I guess I probably should avoid blacking out in the tunnels but if I started thinking when I'm drinking it would kinda defeat the purpose. But seriously don't worry about me Powder, because if you do you'll be worrying all the time." Jaxler moved over to the barrel of booze and used it as a seat. "So... what's this about a goal?"

Powder Miner shifted his weight onto his other two legs. "I come from a clan of laborers," At this he gestured to the mark on his cheek "and we mark ourselves with the labor we are talented at. Similar to a cutie mark, but sort of classifies us in our clan. We have a way of classifying skill too. I've always wanted to reach the highest level, that of legends, like my great-uncle before me."

Jaxler laughed a little bit "So, you wan't to become a legend. You plan to have stories of you actions told years after your death. You plan to become a icon of success and a symbol of determination and to never be forgotten in the sands of time." Jaxler paused and started to smile "Well, then I can't wait to help you."

"Well... really... I just aspire to become one of the best there is. It's a pretty high height, and it might seem a bit arrogant, but I don't care. I just keep working. I like mining anyway."

Jaxler thought about powder's response. "Why the hell would anypony thing your arrogant. Its only logical that you would want to be known for what you love." Jaxler got up off the barrel and said "So... what's this about your clan, your uncle and this rank system? In all the time I've known you I've never heard a thing about this."

Mortar made his way slowly down to the tunnels, a soft hum upon his lips as he walked, his eyes closed yet he seemed to find his way quite well. From time to time deep throated syllables escaped his lips: "Fu....rae da, le moi le mei...." the rock underneath him seemed to vibrate as he sang, oscillating as his tone and pitch changed. He stopped several yards from the two ponies, having felt them through the stone. Recognizing the two ponies as Powder miner and Jaxler; he approached.    "Been hitting that barrel again I see Jaxler, Hello Powder. Come down to do some digging?"

Jaxler was confused as to why Mortar was down in the mines. Was he really singing to the stone? He had assumed Mortar was joking when said he sung to them. "Hay, Mortar! what brings you to a place like this?"

Powder Miner thought for a brief moment. "Well, I thought it might be a bit presumptuous to want to be one of the best... And about the clan... well... I guess no one ever asked about the mark on my cheek or anything related to it, so I never thought to explain. We come from the northwest corner of the country, and we're laborers, military and civilian, seeking to gain fortune, master our trade, or such things like that. As each of us chooses a labor, we get a painted mark on our cheek of the labor- I have a pick -as a kind of second cutie mark I guess for the clan. 
Our names also come from that, we're simply "peasants". I'm named "Powder" because of our clan's religion, far different from that of the preacher Grapple's. We believe the world's made of of a number -quite a lot- of elements. They're not exactly intuitive, and a few of them confuse even me, for example this weird white condensed magic thing called Ceyfor. Powder is an element, representing, dust, dirt, and leaves, and there's an order to them but I don't want to list them right now. Your first name is basically your element in order of if you were the first second or so on of your profession and then your profession. I was the first miner where I was born and hence my name Powder Miner. And then you have your last name to distinguish you. 
We have a rank system for how well you do your labor. The number of ranks is the same for all of them, but the criteria are custom-tailored for all of the jobs. As a miner, I'm... currently I think... professional because I can reliably mine out boulders without significant risk of injury in the process, not counting faulting patterns of mining that would cause the ceiling to drop on my head. My great-uncle, Torch Miner, was a legend of a miner. He was pretty famous around the clan for being able to dig out large areas in small amounts of time almost every time effortlessly churning out a usable piece of rock. He even brought down a ridge on the heads of a diomedian siege once."
He turned to Mortar. "Yes, I'm here to dig. That reminds me- I should finish digging this out before it falls out on it own. I think I can hear it beginning to creak, should have dug it out before I began to talk." At this Powder Miner put his pick in the corner of the half-dug-out boulder and gave a quick twist, rendering the boulder free of the wall with a crack.

"You hadn't need to have worried Powder, there was a little niche holding that boulder in place; it was quite solid and could have lasted a few quick bucks by our warrior friend here." Mortar smiled at Jaxler. "I'm inspecting the work on the wall that protects us from the creatures that occupy the Deep Roads, or the layer of caverns that Powder here has tunneled into. Mortar made a light hum to himself, the stone beneath his hooves vibrating ever the slightest. "Also was planning to do a bit of mapping beyond the walls; and also wanted to figure out where the current denizens of the Deep are resting; see much of a chance we have should we pierce these walls for a moment." 

Jaxler really didn't know what to think. He felt the stone vibrate as Mortar hummed. Maybe Mortar's voice really seemed to effect the stone. Regardless of how strange it seemed Jaxler decided it probably was just some sort of unicorn magic. "You really don't need to asses what kind of a chance we would have given we broke into the caverns right now. I can promise you that anypony down here wouldn't survive if that happened. In-fact Virtue would probably send in the militia and guard to slow down the monsters while the masons walled up the mines and left us for dead."

"Bad form to leave a section half-carved anyway." At this point Powder Miner begins work on the next section, beginning to dig out a round corner of the next boulder.

Mortar smirked at Jaxler. "Not so true, one of those creatures; if I got it's description right through the stone, is made of a liquid, but the chucks in the material it seems to be vomit of some kind. My experience in the MGMC taught me one thing: mythical creatures made of liquids go splat very easily. The other one might pose a bit of a hazard; but I"m certain our military; fully equiped and well trained as they are, can handle it quite well. Mortar gave Jaxler a reassuring pat. "And I'd strike sooner than wall you and the others in; I'd rather pick up a hammer and join you.
Mortar stopped for a few moments and watched Powder, then smirked. "I see you're getting much better, but you're still fracturing against the grain of the stone a bit too much, try working with the grain...your cuts will be cleaner and the stone above all else more useable to me."

Jaxler really didn't feel any better that one of the monsters was made of water. If anything it meant that there body composition could vary widely, if one was made of water maybe it is equally possible that one could be made of pure iron. but the one thing that was more unsettling to him than his realization was the hoof that just patted his shoulder.
"Mortar, please promise me that you will never try to help me kill anything. I put my life on the line every day so that you don't haft to and I don't want to be accountable if you get hurt. your a civilian, so please don't charge in with a hammer, that's my job."

"With the grain? That's only really going to help with striated layers, unfortunately. I can't sense rocks like you can... and I haven't quite reached the point in my career when I can just feel those things. Hmm. Looks like this small section here *mumble mumble*" He got back to work, carving out a second side of the boulder, and then taps lightly a few times to dislodge a chunk of rock near the top. That chunk was holding some rock dust, though, and when it comes free it covers Powder Miner in rock dust. "Ha! Living up to my name."

"Haha, Powder, such a silly pony." Mortar laughs slightly, glad to see some people having a sense of humor. "And don't worry Jaxler, I'm no mere civilian. I'm trained in the art of hammers in more ways than just rock chipping." He made his way over to Powder Miner and sighed. "Such a mess, I could pour water on you and turn you into a living sculpture!"

Jaxler really didn't like Mortars answer, but at least he warned the stallion. If Mortar got killed trying to help in a fight Jaxler wouldn't see himself as accountable now. "Well if you get your hoof lobbed off remember that you did get warning." 
Jaxler then realized that he really didn't know what time or day it was. he couldn't tell time down in these tunnels. All he knew was that he was starting to get hungry. "Hay guys I think I'm gonna go head up to the meeting hall and grab something to eat." Jaxler walked over to his crossbow, picked it up. "C-ya guys latter, and powder stop worrying so much."

"Take it easy Jaxler." Mortar watched the onyx pony walking away, then turned to powder. "Don't cave yourself in now, I'm heading deeper to finish my work." With a nod the unicorn made his way deeper into the tunnels, to the wall that protected them. When he was fifty yards or so away from the miner pony he began to sing again, feeling his way deeper.

Walking out in the rain to haul his boulders back, the dust coating Powder Miner got turned into basically thin clay. "Aw dang!"