*Friendship Not Included

by Liquid Truth

Don't Mine at Downtime

Equestria provided a variety of ways for its Duplicants to move from one floor to another. The first and oldest method of transportation was ladders. In the early days of the colony, these were the most common and reliable means of vertical movement. Over time, however, the Manager slowly replaced them with staircases, which were a lot safer and less exhausting to go through. Some places still used them, of course, mainly the ones where space was a more precious resource than time.

The second and most annoying method of transportation was the elevators. It was implemented in the latter days of the colony and wasn't really a mean of movement so much as a deliberate hindrance for Duplicants to not go to some places.

The third and fastest method of transportation was the transit tubes. These Duplicant-sized hamster tunnels helped ponies reach hundreds of floors in a few seconds, essentially disregarding the massive distance between any point in the asteroid. Its downside, however, was the considerable amount of power they needed to operate. It was for this reason that the tubes were only used for transferring Duplicants rather than their daily mobilities.

The last, most efficient, and fun method of transport was the firepoles. These had existed for almost as long as the colony had, and stayed the most preferable means of transport. It was so preferable to any other method that, if not for its incapability to be as effective going upward, would have replaced the transit tubes altogether. Firepole shafts often covered multiple areas and served as its own megastructure in the colony, Shaft #42 being the most extreme example, connecting Regoville Frontier and Tartarian Moat by going straight from floor 420 to floor -57.

It was at one of these shafts that Twilight descended from the plantation to her next destination. Lightly hugging the metal shaft with three hooves while holding her hat tight with the fourth, she squinted as she read the numbers on the doors that rapidly sped by.

220 . . . 215 . . . 210 . . . 205 . . . and now!

Hugging the firepole tight, Twilight skidded to a halt right in front of the door bearing the number 200.

Rainbow followed right afterward, stopping centimeters before impaling herself into Twilight's horn.

As both stepped into floor 200, Twilight fell in line behind Rainbow, trying her hardest to keep up and not think about the twenty floors she would need to climb back later.

They were trotting in a dug-up tunnel instead of the usual alleyway Twilight's been accustomed to. The walls were rough and made of different kinds of rocks, occasionally decorated with holes which led to new mineshafts. Metal ores and veins occasionally jutted out and cast glints from the faint light of the sparsely-put ceiling lamps. The floor was barely even, slowing them down with the rhythmic stumble and crunch of hooves against sandstone, ingenious rocks, dirt, and phosphorite.

Rainbow led them through the maze-like shafts toward a dead-end tunnel where an excavation was currently in progress. Twilight knew not because she saw it, but because she could hear the sounds of screeching metal echoing across a considerable distance.

". . . and that's how I swept an entire floor clean of debris in ten seconds flat!"

Twilight yawned. "Wow, that's a nice story. If only I have enough care inside me to actually listen to it."

Rainbow huffed. "Tough crowd."

Rainbow soon fell into another story in her attempt to impress the newbie, but, to Twilight's delight, was cut short when the sounds of a working mining gun got too loud for casual conversations.

Reaching the end of the tunnel, the two were greeted with the sight of a white unicorn mare with purple mane and an orange unicorn mare with red-and-yellow mane. The former was wearing a black metallic mining helmet and was currently operating the mining gun while the latter was wearing a familiar orange thinking hat.

The latter noticed them first and her expression jumped into one of surprise upon seeing Twilight. "Twi?" she screamed above the digging noises. "What are you doing here?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Sunset? Since when are you back into geographics?" Shaking her head, she continued, "Well, doesn't matter. And to answer your question, it's none of your business."

Sunset nudged the Dupe behind her, prompting the surroundings to fall into a deafening silence. "What was that again?"

"It's none of your business."

"Huh. I see you haven't changed."

The white unicorn turned around, and Twilight held back a gasp as she saw that the messy, dusty, dirty visage she had expected was instead one of pristine white and meticulously curled purple mane.

"Oh, hello, Rainbow!" the unicorn greeted. "And you, darling! You must be the new gofer." She extended a hoof toward Twilight. "I'm Rarity, Head Miner of Bristle Acres and part-time artist. It's wonderful to meet you."

Twilight ignored the hoof and checked her mental to-do list. "We're here to take . . . iron ores." She looked to Rarity's hooves, beneath which metallic chunks of unrefined iron formed a heap for her stepping ground. She pointed at them and said, "Those. We're here to get those, and we're kinda in a hurry, so if you would step aside?"

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes and stepped forward. "Leaving so soon? Whyever the rush, darling?"

Twilight coughed. "Work. Now, excuse—"

"We're not in a rush," interrupted Rainbow, which winked toward the other pair.

Sunset coughed and stepped back. "Oh, alright. Uhm, I better go and check on iron volcano #2, so, if you don't mind . . ."

Twilight looked at Rarity, then Rainbow, then the galloping form of Sunset, then back at Rainbow. ". . . What's happening?"

Rarity's face turned aghast. "What's happening? Dear, I should be asking you! Whatever happened to your mane?"

Twilight took her hat off and ran a hoof across it, finding that sliding down forty floors had, indeed, ruined it. "Well, it's not that bad—"

"Not that bad!?" Rarity shrieked. "It's horrible! Terrible! It's dreadful! Oh, I cannot possibly let such atrocious mess unfixed!" She pulled out a comb and a brush from her saddlebag.

Twilight took a step back. "I think I'll pass. It's—"

Rainbow blocked her path and held her in a firm grip around her neck.

Twilight gave her a betrayed look.

Rarity gave her a mischievous smile. "Hold still, now. This won't take long, I promise!"

"Manager, help!"

The Manager gave her a playful mental nudge and told her to stay still.

Author's Note:

You have a firepole running from top to bottom? I know I do. I can't help it.

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Personally, I happen to like being productive, I'd probably be somewhat short with someone trying to impede my work as well.

[Vindicar]

>ingenious rocks
I knew it. Even rock is smarter than those dupes!

[PonyDragon]

The last, most efficient, and fun method of transport was the firepoles. These had existed for almost as long as the colony had, and stayed the most preferable means of transport. It was so preferable to any other method that, if not for its incapability to be as effective going upward, would have replaced the transit tubes altogether.

Yeah, climbing up an firepole takes forever.
And if someone uses it to get downwards while someone else is trying to get up...

The white unicorn turned around, and Twilight held back a gasp as she saw that the messy, dusty, dirty visage she had expected was instead one of pristine white and meticulously curled purple mane.

: "You always have to be fabulous, darling."

9845292
Well, that isn't an actually hard accomplishment...

[Liquid Truth]

9845292
Thanks for the heads up

But . . . Y'know what? I'm keeping that there for our amusement. Igneous rocks are now ingenious. They're descendants of Boulder.

[WorldWalker128]

I would run a fire pole from top to bottom, but pockets of Chlorine gas keep getting in my way.

[Vaguely Demented]

Interesting that this version of Sunset is much friendlier than Twi.