//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: To Run from a Mirror 
// by Materious17 
//------------------------------//


Day 3 - I completed my descent into the darkness, being able to only see where my head lamp shone. The caverns dripped with a solution that doesn't seem to include any calcium carbonates. The lack of stalactites and stalagmites indicated that. I gathered a sample of the fluid to analyze potential contaminants. 
The cavern walls seem to be made of a volcanic glass. The extrusive lavas from this region must have rapidly cooled to form the glass-like lack of structure. The volcanism here could be related to the events of Equestria's formation due to the high silica content of these ryolites. The cold damp air may be contaminated with amphibole asbestos. The risk of lung disease is high down in caverns and that's why miners have such low life expectancy. 
The actual formation of the caverns is still unclear. The overall shape doesn't fit the singular cylindrical shapes of typical lava tubes. Also lava tubes form from slow cooling lavas and the obsidian here doesn't agree with that hypothesis. I do wish I could bounce ideas off of a few other geologists. The water here may be corrosive enough to form these caverns. I guess it all comes down to the analysis of sample I took. 


Who am I kidding, this is me just going off of baseless speculations. It isn't even conclusive whether there were either a singular or multiple volcanic events in Equestria's past. I've made crazier assumptions in my career though, like how I may be better off alone. These caves are so dark I can't even see myself without my flash light. That's probably for the better though, I think I just sold my soul to the devil. Wouldn't want to meet the pony who just did that. 

I followed the rail ways that haven't appeared to see any use for decades. Strange though, it's as if one of these tracks was reactivated recently, not sure what powered them, the breaker switch for the lights down here doesn't even work anymore. Probably a crazy thrill seeker having some fun in a mine cart. I haven't seen any signs of the gem mineral veins but I'd imagine new tunnels would need to be blasted out. The mining commotion could cause instability but I need to see evidence of potential faulting to be sure. Not like I can see anything anyways. 

These tunnels seem to go on for miles. If I'm not careful I could end up getting lost. I do really hope I don't find what I'm looking for. That Mr. Break is pure evil and now I'm working for him. I don't even know who he really is, I doubt he works in the gem industry despite what he said. Nothing seems to add up with him. He doesn't care if he destroys Canterlot to get a quick buck, and now it looks like I don't care either. That's not who I am, that was just... who I was. Or is it who I am now, damn it I don't even remember my own ethics! 

I have to remain calm down here, there is already little air to breath and it isn't high quality. I don't even like caves, I prefer geology in the sun. I should have seen this coming though, no pony in the right mind would fund an expedition like this just for the pursuit of knowledge. There is always a political or economic persuader behind closed doors. But how could Mr. Break gain in either or those with Canterlot destroyed? I've never been able to connect the dots very well and trying to think in this environment is driving me up the wall. 

I work my way propelling down a few meters of a crevasse. I took notice in this because there was this ethereal glow from below and I figured it could lead to another cave entrance. As the glow lit up the room I had never been so wrong. I turned off my flash light to see the room full of priceless diamonds, larger than my hoof in some cases. I was awestruck by the glittering light they seemed to emit and didn't even consider why these were left here hundreds of years ago. 

I got my composure, chipped off one of the smaller diamonds for "sampling", and finally sat down to ask myself where did these come from. I held the diamond in my hoof and it was already in a pristine cut, almost like a jeweler cut and just dumped all of these down here. Why wouldn't the miners have seen this room, this is a jackpot of jackpots. There has to be several billion bits worth of gemstones and no one thought to look down that crevasse? Wait, the crevasse...

I secure my rope and begin to ascend back up the crevasse walls. If there are kinematic indicators I need to find them. Crevasses are opening fractures, I'm not going to see signs of motion on the walls themselves, I need to get a top view. Looking down into the pit of wealth, I shine my flashlight directly on top of the fracture to look for evidence of shearing. Sure enough, there were shearing fractures en echelon all over the place. I'm surprised I didn't notice these sooner. The left stepping nature of these shears would indicate a right lateral motion of this fracture. But that makes even less sense, this is a crevasse, an opening fracture. These shears are telling me that this has also slipped laterally in the past as well. This isn't just a plane of weakness, this is a fault. 

Don't panic Boulder, Canterlot isn't destroyed yet. This fault might not even be active, but no one in Canterlot would know, they don't have seismographs monitoring the area since no one thought there would be a reason for it. It's impossible for me to measure the current stresses in this area precisely so I'll just plot this fault on a stereograph and add it to my report. This fault hasn't done any noticeable slipping over the last hundred years, the citizens of Canterlot would have felt something from this thing. It's probably safe to say this is inactive, there isn't any evidence of fault gauge so this fault hasn't been slipping for long, so either it's a brand new fault ready to go at any moment, or a onetime occurrence caused by a sudden weakening of the fault plane. 

Could the miners have caused it? Large pick axes over time to mine out the veins of minerals could potentially bring instability here, but the quaking would need to be larger than a few pick axes to form a fault like this. What about the introduction of water to the equation. I need to test for a potential underground reservoir to see if this fault is acting like a conduit for the fluid to travel along. Water has a hell of a way of disrupting a stress environment, a little amount actually strengthens soils but too much causes saturation and failure within the consolidated materials. Miners of today don't use pick axes any more, not ever since we developed dynamite. Concentrated explosions with the help of a unicorn's magic have been tested and safe as well as efficient for quarry mines and caves alike. But faults are rare in Equestria. No extensive testing with explosives around fault planes have been done yet so it's up in the air whether this fault could slip from a new mining crew, or if it would be unaffected.

I doubt Mr. Break wants me to tell him that due to indecision, these caves should be off limits. With all of those diamonds down there, there has got to be more deeper in. I propelled back down the crevasse to the room of infinite dreams and possibilities. With this much money staring at my face it's no wonder why I even chose to come down here in the first place. I want to start a new life, and I'm almost willing to damn the expense. I am willing, I already signed the proclamation, from this day forward I'm Dr. Boulder, billionaire geologist. My old life be damned.

I followed a path through the diamond corridor of light. I'm simply stunned by the sheer number of gemstones here, never would have imagined all of this still being here after the miners of old came through. Maybe I'll take a few more, for myself. I could frame them in nice boxes and keep them around my new mansion. Hah, my new mansion, that thought always rings in my head for a while. Not sure how cozy I could make a place like that but when all of the money in the world, I don't really care. The tunnels got brighter as the number of gemstones glittering grew. It feels like I'm heading towards the source of these fabulous rocks.

I nearly stumbled into a large room out of excitement. When I got up, I noticed there were no more gemstones lining the walls of the caverns. All I saw was myself. Every angle of reflection these mirror-like walls formed gave me a glimpse into myself. A part of myself I hoped to hide away. These reflections weren't distorted, but the image I saw didn't look like me, but another, stranger me. I fell down with the pressure of all of my lies looking back on me. Each mirror told me about a different pony, but they were all me. I lost track of how I got into this room as I was perpetually surrounded by myself. Nowhere to go, nothing to look at but the shells of my former lives. 

"I don't need this! My life is going to be different! I can bury you all in this cave once and for all. It will be the one lie to rule them all. One lie to fix- one lie..."

Blank.