Chapter 4: Down the Shaft
Chapter 4
Down the Shaft
Water gushed through the cavernous depths of the mine as it drained in from above. It swirled, splashed, and rampaged through the chamber, creating a torrent that flowed rapidly through the tunnels and corridors.
Soon, all manner of mining tools were washed in with the water. After them, a wooden washtub with four soaked passengers came flowing in, shouting as they rode the current through the subterranean passages.
The water current took them from side to side, bumping them against the walls as they rushed downstream.
At one point the water flowed so strongly that it coursed up a wall, flowed across the ceiling, and coursed down the other wall to solid ground.
Rarity shrieked particularly loudly when they hit the loop, and louder still as a low hanging stalactite was coming right for her.
Twilight put her hoof on Rarity's head and ducked down, saving them both from the hit.
Mickey and Copper pushed off against the stalactite, and spun themselves away from it, spinning them around.
In the water behind them, they could see something else. A light from a head lamp atop a black and white striped face.
The badger was swimming after them through the rampaging current. His eyes fixated on Mickey at first, but then shot to Copper before he started doubling his efforts to catch up to them.
Twilight's jaw dropped when she saw how the badger easily tore through the rock formations with only the power of his body, and no magical assistance.
The badger was coming closer, and the passengers knew that they had to deter him.
Reaching into the water, Twilight and the others all started grabbing the tools that were floating by and throwing them at their pursuer. Nothing worked, as anything they threw was swatted away. And anything that wasn't deflected simply bounced off the badger’s helmet.
In a stroke of luck, a bundle of shovels drifted by, which Copper quickly picked up. Mickey picked up one of the shovels, and stood with one foot on the edge of the washtub like a whaler.
Taking careful aim, Mickey threw the shovel with perfect accuracy, right into the badger's head.
Only, the badger caught the shovel's head in his teeth and spat it into the water.
Copper, Twilight and Rarity took the opportunity to bombard him with more shovels, but Mickey saw little point in doing so. Whoever this badger was, he was as strong as Pete and a hundred times tougher. What they needed was an escape.
Mickey took the last two shovels just before Twilight and Copper could take them, bumping their horned heads together when they missed grabbing their intended projectiles.
Firmly grasping the handles in his hands, and placing the shovel heads in the water, Mickey started frantically paddling with his pair of makeshift oars, speeding even quicker down the cavernous corridor.
The badger quickly lost sight of them as they sped further away from him. And he lost them completely when the corridor started curving. Not about to keep them lost, he swam toward a wall and cut his claws through it.
"I think we lost him," Mickey said, as he paddled through the caverns.
"Watch out ahead!" Copper shouted.
Some ways down the path, the wall was cracking and water was spraying through. Soon, the wall broke and the badger was forced out into the river, right into the path of the washtub. He began swimming against the current, slowly moving forward as the washtub flowed toward him.
The corridor was too narrow to swerve out of his way.
Looking up, Mickey saw a formation of rock that stretched across the corridor walls. An idea came to him, but the shovels he had were too long for what he wanted to do.
The other passengers shouted as Mickey spun the tub, looking frantically through the water around himself for another tool to use. Nothing he pulled up was of any use: a lantern, a four by four, a gopher who bopped Mickey on the head with his headlamp.
"What the ding-dang are ya doin' floodin' the mine, ya stupid house pest!? You're gonna-- *glub*"
Mickey dropped the gopher back in the water and reached for the next item, before getting splashed by the sloshing water. When the water subsided, Mickey found himself dressed in a miner's outfit that had been carried away by the flood.
The mouse looked at himself in the outfit, surprised by the sudden change. In his outstretched hand, he felt a pickax land in his open palm. One that was just the perfect length for the maneuver he had in mind.
They were growing closer to the badger, who snarled loudly as he raised his claws for an attack.
Mickey raised the pickax over his head, hooking it on the overhanging rock bridge, swinging the washtub around it once, unhooking, and sailing over the badger's striped head.
Having lost the chance to attack his quarry, the badger continued to swim after them down the corridor.
Ahead, the tunnel split into many directions, and the water drained into every opening.
Everyone in the washtub tried to paddle into a different current. It didn't matter where they ended up, as long as they were away from the badger, who was once again closing in on them.
Mickey used his pickaxe as a paddle to go more strongly in one direction.
The badger was upon them, and swung his claws.
No one was hit, but the wooden tub was cut deep. So deep that it started leaking.
Mickey and Copper set to work, using their helmets as scoops to bail out the water that was quickly pooling up in the tub.
Twilight looked ahead, and saw the badger once again swimming against the current as they drifted toward him.
She took one of the remaining shovels, and swung it at her opponent, only for it to indent the exact contours of his head on impact.
No matter how the badger tried to swim toward them to allow the current to let them drift into his reach, he too was now carried by the flow of the water, pulled away from them just as quickly as they were coming toward him.
They were all drifting into the same direction of the current. The opportunity to lose the badger was growing slimmer and slimmer.
Mickey gave his helmet to Rarity, and looked for another way out.
There was another rock next to the badger. One that stood between two of the diverging currents.
Rarity gasped as the tub was quickly filling with water.
Raising his pickaxe, Mickey swung it into the top of the rock and used his arm strength to pull the entire tub up, effectively hopping over the rock and into a separate current that carried himself and his friends into a different part of the caves. The badger, meanwhile, was pulled into another dark path, far from the others.
When Mickey and the others landed on the other current, they nearly sighed with relief. However, there was more danger on the path ahead of them.
The rock that they had hopped over apparently had friends. Many more rocks were jutting out of the water before them. So many, that it would seem impassable for a vessel as small as a meager washtub.
There was a symphony of screams as Mickey used the pickax once more to hop over the rocks. Then again, when he was headed straight for a slightly taller rock. Then again, and again, and again, until there was no rock jutting from the water, but another stalactite from the ceiling.
Mickey hooked around it with the pickaxe and spun them all wildly around in a circle, until he unhooked it and went flying away to a curved shelf of the wall where the tub spun like a wheel along its surface.
The shelf merged into a corkscrew-shaped rock formation, where the washtub spun along its entire course, coming apart plank by plank as it bumped along.
They came to the end of the corkscrew, and were all sent flying into the water.
When Twilight landed, the two metal bands that held the washtub together landed around her neck and her horn. To her sides, Rarity, Mickey and Copper were all sprawling through the current.
Using the metal bands around herself, Twilight took one in each hoof and reached out to her friends. Rarity and Copper grabbed onto one of them, while Mickey grabbed onto the other.
Seeing they were headed for another rock, Twilight pulled Mickey out of the way, and allowed him to grab onto the other metal band, putting them all in a circular formation.
Another rock came, and Copper pulled Rarity and himself into the middle of the two bands.
Another rock came. One that could be avoided if Mickey pulled Twilight out of the way.
The alicorn was lifted out of the water, over Mickey's head and placed into the middle of the same band as Rarity and Copper.
Another rock came.
Mickey steered them away by paddling his feet. Even though he was able to maneuver his stuck friends away, he still took some of the brunt of the impact.
There was a narrow fjord ahead. One that wouldn't allow passage as they were now.
"Everybody! Suck in!" Mickey ordered.
Everyone stuck in the metal band did as they were told, allowing Mickey to jump out of the water and land in the middle of his slightly separated friends.
Now, there was no escaping from the ring. This was especially bad for Mickey, who dove in head first so that his head was underwater.
The group of captives squeezed through the narrow passage, and tumbled through the water, Mickey and the others alternating between who was on the surface. Each time they flipped, they got a glimpse of the waterfall they were approaching.
There was no escaping this obstacle. They all went barreling over the edge of the waterfall, and splashing into the pool below.
They all plunged deep into the water, and came bouncing back out high over the surface.
They flew onto dry land, rolled across the cavern floor, bumped over a carpet of small rocks which shook them loose one by one until Mickey was left, who rolled up a curved wall and hooked himself in the ring around his waist from a jutting rock.
"Heh heh. Well, that was some ride, huh?" Mickey chuckled, before he took his pickaxe and broke the rock that held him up. The mouse dropped to the ground, and landed on his seat.
Copper spat out a mouthful of water. "You're something else, you know?" he sputtered. "Everypony else I know would have cracked under this kind of pressure. But you bounce back with a smile on your face."
"It's nothin'. I guess I'm just a half-full kinda guy. Some of my friends even said I'm characterized by my optimism."
The mouse stood up, and even though he was smiling it was clear that the ordeal had taken a toll on him as well, evident in the way he was leaning on his pickaxe and panting heavily. And it only got worse when the pickax slipped out from beneath him so that he landed on his face, and the pick landed on his helmeted head.
"Thank goodness for these things, eh?" Mickey said, indicating his headlamp.
Even though they were both lying on the ground, Twilight and Rarity couldn't help but smile. Something about the mouse's personality seemed able to lift their spirits in the worst of situations. Mustering her strength, Twilight helped Rarity up, and even did her the courtesy of fixing her mane.
"Mickey, there's something I want to ask you," Twilight said. "Some of the things you did back there. Well, they didn't look like they'd be possible without magic."
"Heh heh. Well, I know that this place is pretty different from my home, but we don't need magic as much as you fellers here do," Mickey answered.
"Of course, darling. But, using mere mining tools to paddle and steer us from danger. How can that be done?" Rarity asked.
Mickey had never thought about such a thing before. He had always just done it without even trying. If he had to think about it, there was only one way that he could explain it. "I just used a little imagination is all."
"Imagination?" Copper said. "If that wasn't magic, then I'm a two-legged horse with a cow for a marefriend."
"Could be almost," Mickey thought, before speaking aloud, "There is kind of a certain magical quality to imagination. Take this pickax for example: it's not just a tool for cracking rocks. It's also a handy digging tool."
"Come on, buddy. I know you said there's some magic in imagination, but that's just silly," Copper scoffed.
No sooner did he finish speaking did Mickey start swinging his pickax over and over at one of the stone walls, and tunneled right through it.
"Well, that shut me up," Copper said.
They all approached the opening of the new tunnel, standing to the sides as rocks and dirt came flying out. Until suddenly--
*CLANG*
"Ouch!!" Mickey yelped.
"Is everything alright in there?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah. Everything's fine. Except, I think I hit a bus," came Mickey's voice.
"Bus?"
A sudden green light shone through the tunnel, with a shadow the exact shape of Mickey cast in it.
Mickey's shadow scratched its head.
"Nope. Definitely not a bus," Mickey said.
Twilight, Rarity and Copper all entered the opening, and were greeted by the sight of a huge vein of glowing, green metal.
In a deeper part of the cave, where the rocks touched from the ceiling to the floor in a pattern so dense that nothing larger than an insect could pass through, a rumbling noise sounded.
Through the clustered formations, rocks were being knocked aside by powerful blows. Soon, the badger had broken his way through the entire barricade, breathing heavily with his claws bared.
"Durn rodent!" he growled, after drinking heavily from his brown jug. "Sendin' me down the shaft like this! He's gonna gets himself a serious wallopin' when I finds him!"
All around him, lines of glowing green lights appeared on the walls, as though something within were reacting to his presence.
"Hrm... This might not turns out as bad as I thought it would."
He had spoken too soon, when all of a sudden with a shrill screech, dozens of bats came flapping down from above. Not normal bats, which would have simply flown past and gone away. These flew straight toward the badger.
In the dim, green light, it was seen that they were further abnormal not only in behavior, but in appearance. These were large, with glaring eyes and large fangs that grew past their mouths.
The badger swung his claws at them, making the ones he struck disappear in a burst of green light.
More bats swooped from above.
A series of loud bangs echoed through the cave, and the remaining bats were all eliminated in a series of green light bursts.
Looking to the source of the noise, the badger narrowed his eyes at the sight of the newcomer. "Lookit you. 'Bout time yer fat backside cames down here to help," he said.
The newcomer approached the badger, his mismatched feet echoing quietly off the walls with a step followed by a clomp.
"Believe me, I almost didn't come down here," Pete answered, before blowing the smoke off of his gun barrel. "But, since dat little runt's runnin' amok in de mine, de boss didn't give me any choice."
"That old man thinks I needs help gettin' some barnyard vermin outta my hair? I ain't the one been chasin' him for just shy of a hundred years."
Pete grumbled when he heard that, and tightened his grip on his firearm. "It ain't like I try losin' to him! It's dese darn writers I gotta deal wit ruinin' my good name!"
"Good name or nothin', we gotta gets outta here quick. No tellin' how long we'll last with all this magic 'round us," the badger said.
"Magic, eh? Guess I missed some," Pete said, reaching into his pocket.
"Hold it!"
The badger swiped his claws at Pete's hand, who retracted it from his pocket.
"What's de big idea, huh!?" Pete shouted.
"We ain't takin' the magic here. The boss wants it for himself."
Pete looked at all the unnatural lights that were glowing through the wall. As the heavy looked, he somehow got the feeling that something was trying to escape through and reach him. The mere thought of some unknown presence trying to attack him nearly turned even his low-grade blood to ice, and prompted him to take the first steps forward.
"Whatever he wants, we best get de job done quick. Don't wanna keep de boss waitin','' Pete said.
Before the badger followed Pete, he drove his fist into the wall next to himself and pulled out a chunk of metal.
"Now, what de Sam Hill did ya do dat for?" Pete asked.
"No reason. Just never hurts to be prepared fer what might happen next," the badger answered.
Twilight, Rarity and Copper all trailed through the tunnel behind Mickey, who was whistling all the while as he used his pickaxe to dig through the rock and soil. Beside them, they were guided by the vein of glowing metal, like some sort of stand in for the twinkling magic that brought them to the mine in the first place.
"This thing just goes on and on," Copper said, keeping his eyes on the vein at all times.
"It is peculiar. Have you ever encountered such a thing in your work as a miner?" Rarity asked.
"Never. I've been digging for as long as I can remember, and I've never found anything that looks like this stuff," Copper explained, running his hoof along the vein of metal.
"It could be uranium," Twilight suggested. "Then again, raw uranium doesn't glow like this. Oh, I wish there was some way to test it."
At the front, Mickey broke through a wall and more green light shone through.
"Looks like we found our next stop fellers," Mickey called to the others.
Stepping through the opening, they found themselves in another chamber, this one with lights spiraling and swirling through the walls, though the metal itself was unseen, covered by the rocky walls. Spiders darted about the walls, hunting for smaller insect prey. Up a high wall, there was the exit to the next cavern.
"I say we get outta this room quick. This place is givin' me the willies,'' Mickey said.
The mouse raised his pickaxe, and swung at the wall, digging in deep and pulling himself up, only for the wall to suddenly crumble, revealing the glowing metal within.
An insect scurried away from its arachnid pursuer, right onto the vein of revealed metal.
The spider that was chasing the bug stopped just before the metal, and raised its front legs to grasp its prey.
Without any warning, the insect went through a terrifying transformation. No longer was it small and helpless, but it was the size of a dog, with bulging white eyes, and a mouth full of fangs. Not mandibles, but yellow fangs like some kind of terrible predator.
The spider screamed at the sight, before it was swallowed by the bug's jaws. Then, the bug turned its attention to the larger prey.
Opening its shell and spreading its wings, the insect buzzed off the wall toward Twilight, who once more tried to use her magic out of pure habit.
Realizing the futility of her action, Twilight ducked, and allowed the bug to fly over herself.
The bug swerved around and flew back toward Mickey, who swung his pickaxe wildly at the darting menace, before it flew away from him.
Copper was the next target, who jumped, rolled and dove to avoid getting bitten.
Finally, the bug spotted Rarity quivering on the ground, and dove for her.
Rarity scrambled backward into the pool of water, further ruining her mane.
The bug was nearly upon her, when Mickey dashed in front of her, wound up his arm, and threw his pickax into the oncoming attacker.
The pickax hit home on its target, sending it flying backwards and pinning it to a large stalactite, before it burst into green light.
The spelunkers all stared in awe at what they had seen. It was like something out of a horror book that suddenly jumped from the pages and into their own lives. None of them were sure what had happened, but desperately wanted to know why.
"Twilight?" Rarity asked.
She did not have to finish for Twilight to understand.
"I don't know," Twilight answered, "I wish I could explain it, but I'm afraid to get any closer to it."
"Why is that?"
"Didn't any of you see when the insect changed? It only happened when it stood on the exposed metal!"
"But, I touched it earlier and nothing happened," Copper said.
"I don't want to jump to any conclusions here, but I think it's because of your increased mass. Like, somepony our size touching this metal for only a second is like taking a tiny dose of medicine. It won't have any noticeable effect at first, but over time it could start to cause us some problems. Since the bug was so small, it was able to change more quickly under the influence of...whatever this stuff is," Twilight explained.
"That makes at least one thing real clear: no touchin' the glowin' metal," Mickey said.
"I'm afraid that's easier said than done, darling," Rarity said. "I've worked with jewelry for many years, and I can tell you that when metal spreads out like this it often can be found in large hunks and clusters."
"She's right. I've found the same thing digging with my dad," Copper said.
It was then that they realized the danger ahead was greater than they realized. Not only from the creatures that had likely been changed by the horrific substance, but also from the metal itself. A nigh omnipresent obstacle that would dog their every step through the mine, and impede their escape. Speaking of escape.
"Well, 'fore we worry about that, I think we oughta find a way outta here," Mickey said.
"Alright. Just give me a second to think of something," Twilight answered.
The young alicorn immediately set to work, mulling over the angle of trajectory they would get from somepony launching the other up to the opening above, then calculating who was the strongest in order to be the base of a pony ladder to help the last one climb up.
Rarity saw that whatever Twilight was doing was going to take quite a while, and had no intentions of staying in that horrible place any longer than she should have to. To find another way out, she sidled up to Mickey.
"Mickey," she said, "Could you perhaps put that imagination of yours to work and get us out of here?"
"I think I can give it a shot," the mouse answered.An idea had already entered his head when he looked up at the pickaxe that was still stuck in the hanging stalactite. "One of ya gimme a boost."
Both Rarity and Copper put their front hooves under either one of Mickey's feet, lifted him off the ground, heaved him once, heaved him twice, and flung him into the air, all behind Twilight's back as she used her hooves to measure perspective.
Mickey grabbed hold of the stalactite with his legs, but knocked the pickax loose.
The mouse fumbled to grab the tool and flung it into the air, where it landed on his helmeted head again, and into his open hand. He smiled at finally being able to grab hold of the pickaxe and carry out his objective.
Twilight almost thought that she was halfway to coming up with a solution, when she became aware of a cracking sound above herself.
"Hey, uh, Your Highness: you might want to move away from there," Copper suggested
Twilight didn't even have time to ask, when all of a sudden Mickey came crashing down on the stalactite, not ten hooves from where she was standing.
When the stalactite had fallen, it had greatly decreased the distance between the ground and the chamber opening, leaving only a gap somepony could jump up to.
"Come on, fellers! Time's a-wastin'!" Mickey called.
Using his pickaxe, the mouse flipped himself onto the top of the fallen formation and lowered the tool for the others to grab onto.
Twilight was first. With a gentlemanly bow, Copper allowed Rarity to go next, who delicately step on the edges of the tool to allow herself to be pulled up. Finally, Copper ran, jumped, caught the pickaxe, and climbed all the way up before Mickey could help him.
They all went to the opening above. The mares were helped up by Mickey, who stuck his pickaxe in the wall and twisted the handle in the shape of steps to create a makeshift stepstool. After Copper, Mickey straightened his pickaxe out, and used it to climb up to the ledge.
In the back of their minds, they all knew that what was ahead was more dangerous than what they had so far encountered, but things were seeming slightly brighter in the presence of one another, and the mysterious workings of the new kind of magic the mouse possessed.
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IMAGINATION!
Got the Miner Costume!
Another good chapter. So Mickey got his first costume, huh? Nice!
8203823 Bingo.
8204979 And you can bet that Minnie, Donald, and Goofy will be getting their own individual costumes as well.
8203244 Amateur
8205305
Looking forward to it!
Mickey's acquiring his upgrades. Pete's going to have a helluva time the next time he faces off against Mickey.
A power that breaks causality, bends reality, and treats things like physics as more general outlines than hard fast rules.
Huh. With that revelation, one wonders when Pinkie Pie will get back into the game. She did graduate from Acme Looniversity after all...
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Edit: The joys of reading chapters off tablets and posting on computers. At least this is in the correct chapter now.
Imagination? Is that really all that it takes to use magic in Mickey's universe. The beginning of the chapter was awesome. I wish Splash Mountain was more like this.
9378734
You'll see about that magic.