"All aboard! The train to Appleloosa will be departing in less than one minute!"
It had been a very eventful week for me. Visits with Pinkie Pie had always been...interesting. However, this was the first time she had almost gotten herself killed. Well, perhaps not the first time. After all, who could forget the Great Fillydelphian Chocolate Debacle? Certainly not the Fillydelphians.
I got on the train after showing my ticket and took a seat. I took out my book on the town of Appleloosa to prepare myself for the first part of the expedition. It was not going to be my first time there, but it would not hurt to refresh my memory.
“You headin' out ta the gold rush, 'dere?”
I turned to see another Earth pony sitting across from me. He was brown with an unkempt, gray-streaked mane and tail. He was strikingly old. He was also missing a couple of his teeth. “Yes,” I answered. I returned to my book, not at all interested in speaking to him.
A few minutes passed before the Earth pony spoke to me again. “This is tha' umpteenth time that this 'as 'appened,” he said. When I did not respond, he continued speaking. “But ah'm not missin' it this time! No siree, bob! I'ma git mah hands ahn dat gold an' finally make somethin' of mahself!”
“Hm,” I grunted. He looked barely strong enough to pick up a shovel, let alone dig.
“You doubtin' old Brass Tacks, little missy?” he asked me accusingly. “I'll have ya' know that ah've been at every gold rush that's eva 'appened in this country since Ponyville was founded!”
“And yet you still have not gotten any?” I pointed out.
He opened his mouth to say something, but did not. He remained quiet for the rest of the ride, mostly mumbling to himself about being rich and “know-it-all city folks”.
To tell the truth, I might have made a small error in judgment by spending so much time in Ponyville and at my parents' farm. Ponies had been swarming to Appleloosa during this time, all wanting to get piece of the motherlode. I did not care too much to be honest. I do not have much use for riches or money. All I cared about were the rocks themselves. But I suppose it was worth it to spend time with my sister and her friends.
I removed Boulder from my pocket and looked at him. “What do you think about this?” I asked him. He had been my friend since I was a filly on my parents' rock farm. He had yet to steer me wrong. I nodded. “I think so too,” I responded.
Brass Tacks looked over at me with a raised eyebrow. He scooted away from me to the edge of his seat closest to the window. That was the response I usually got when I spoke with Boulder. I have yet to understand why.
I had only been to Appleloosa once or twice in my life. Those few times I had managed to find some interesting specimens: some malachite, jade, amethyst and a three pound diamond. It was thirty-two karats. It was a bit sweeter than I was used to, but it was still pretty tasty.
As the old man had stated, this was not the first gold rush that this town had experienced, though the first had been far before his time...I think. It was about fifty years ago when a vein had been found in what is now the Apple Orchards. Back then, the buffalo were still using it as their Stampeding Grounds. The ponies had negotiated with the buffalo, who agreed to let the ponies find their gold on the condition that they left as soon as their business was done.
And that is where the story got strange. There was no record of any gold ever being found. The ponies left soon after and the matter was never brought up again. I wondered if this would end up the same way? I will admit that my curiosity got the best of me here. I was more interested in figuring out what happened with the gold. I could care less about what happened to the ponies that were in charge of the operation.
Was the gold rush a hoax? It looked like it might be, but I trusted Boulder's judgment. He was usually correct about these things. After all, I learned a lot of what I still know about rocks from him. It was so weird that he did not share the same passion about rocks that I did.
Boulder was so weird.
Either way there were a lot of questions to be answered, and I intended to find them.