Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Disaster

Rainbow Dash held one of the rope loops in her hoof to make the slow trip in the tram a bit easier. She wished the thing went faster but it was obvious why it didn’t. The kind of damage this thing could do if it went off the rails, especially if it was full of ponies, would be pretty serious. Looking out the window showed nothing but darkness or walls of rock most of the time with there occasionally being some ponies doing some work or her getting to see a more elaborate tunnel system. A couple of times the tram came to a stop at another station and ponies would get on or off before the tram continued its journey deeper into the mines.

“We’ll have to go down a lift once we get off the tram too but it’s not like that big elevator we first used to come down,” Barnaby said. “It’s a chain and gas-engine operated lift designed for a few ponies at a time, right now it’s the only way to get to the lowest section of the new mines.”

“I mean I can totally just fly down any mineshaft or empty cave if there’s room you know...” Rainbow said.

“Most of the passages get narrower the further you go so you might want to reconsider that,” Barnaby said.

“How many ponies are working down in those mines anyways? If they’re such a big deal?

“Hmm...” Barnaby rubbed his chin. “Several dozen at least. But as big a deal as it is there are still so many other veins and deposits to mine up elsewhere. In total there are hundreds of miners down here everyday working all over the place. I suspect if some more veins run dry we’ll see a lot of ponies moved to work on the new ones to dig them out as far as they can go.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t have much else to offer in their conversation after that. The truth was she didn’t know enough about nor was passionate enough about mining to say anything else. Though she had done a lot of rough work, some of it very similar to this kind of stuff, it was always just as either a time killer or a means to an end. She would go on tours, she’d even help out if need be, but the desire for adventure was still burning in her chest and that’s what she wanted to satisfy the most. Oreville was a cool place and it definitely seemed like there was a lot to it so she wasn’t thinking about leaving yet, but if no opportunities for awesomeness presented themselves she’d be out of here sooner rather than later. Her journey couldn’t wait for her to be stopped over in a place without adventure for too long. It’s why she almost left the Mammoth city early, things just seemed too peaceful there for what she wanted. Oreville might or might not prove to be the same.

“By my count we should be reaching the last station and getting off in just a moment. After that the tram goes back on a large loop and gets back to the staging area,” Barnaby said.

“Are there other rails besides this one?” Rainbow asked.

Barnaby nodded. “Yes, you couldn’t see from inside here but there are a few junctions that let the trams go to various different areas in the mines. It’s not just one big circle or anything like that.”

There wasn’t a minute left after that until the tram came to a stop at the “last” station and Rainbow Dash and Barnaby prepared to get off. The door popped open automatically and the two walked out onto the platform, Rainbow fluttering and stretching her wings slightly. It was a much smaller platform than the one they had used to get on the tram and there weren’t any ponies waiting at it. Once all the ponies had gotten off the tram it quickly left and everypony headed off the platform to head towards the mines.

“And that’s where we’ll be going too,” Barnaby said as he led Rainbow Dash down the ramp of the platform at the heels of the other miners.

She had to once again offer warm smiles and some small hellos to all the new miners who hadn’t seen her before. After that the whole group was walking through the tunnels and Rainbow Dash could immediately tell the difference from the tunnels here to what she had seen in the staging area and closer to it. Everything was much rougher, there weren’t as many lights, and wooden and metal support beams ran haphazardly across the walls and ceilings of the tunnels. Lots of smaller tunnels branched off from the main one Rainbow and Barnaby were walking down and at each one a group of miners detached from the group and went into them for their own work.

“Ever gotten lost down here, Barnaby?” Rainbow Dash asked him.

He grimaced. “Several times.”

The two walked a bit further down their tunnel until they came to what from a distance almost looked like a dead end to Rainbow Dash. That was until she noticed the heavy chain pulleys on the sides of the walls and the small metal platform at the end of the rocky ground. It looked like it was built practically flush up against the walls, almost as tight as an elevator, and there was what looked like some kind of control panel with a lever at the back.

“That’s our ride,” Barnaby said. “That will take us down to the lowest point in these mines—aside from some naturally formed caverns that we aren’t using—and then I’ll show you the current fruits of our labors.”

“Okey-dokey,” Rainbow replied and squeezed onto the lift with the other stallions once they reached it. A tight fit since there were too extra ponies than normal but they still made it work. One of the miners in the back pulled the lever and the chains rattled, pulling through the pulleys and slowly dropping the lift down the mineshaft.

Once they reached the bottom after what Rainbow Dash would guess was about fifty to a hundred feet, they all shuffled out into a wide open cavern that looked to be some kind of temporary basecamp or outpost for the mine. It had a lot of boxes and sheds stacked up around it along with some tables and chairs that ponies were currently seated at, poring over a set of schematics. Beyond this area she saw three separate tunnels going off in different directions. They looked even shoddier than the ones right up above. From deeper in those tunnels Rainbow could hear the sounds of metal striking upon solid stone and the whine of heavy machinery along with the shouts and exertions of miners. Everypony was working hard down here to the point that Rainbow and Barnaby were both either completely ignored or not even noticed by the miners.

Barnaby pointed down the tunnel straight ahead. “Come on, through there you can see the work up close and personal.”

“And a lot of sweaty stallions by the sounds of things,” Rainbow added.

Barnaby laughed and the two of them were about to enter the tunnel when something happened.

A loud bang came from somewhere in the tunnel ahead, Rainbow Dash’s ears perking up instantly at the surprisingly loud and powerful noise. She knew exactly what that sound was—an explosion. There was nothing else it could be and Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrowed in worry and trepidation. She glanced up at Barnaby.

“Barnaby, that-”

“It’s alright, TNT is used for blasting down here all the time. I can understand why you’d be surprised by a sudden explosion though but don’t worry, it’s normal and controlled,” he told her.

But Rainbow Dash looked back at the other miners here and noticed that all of them seemed surprised by the explosion.

She gulped. “I don’t think so, Barnaby.”

The cave they were in and the tunnels started to shake as the distinctive sound of collapsing rocks and chaos came from further down the tunnel. It only lasted for a few brief seconds but it sounded bad. Barnaby’s breath hitched in his throat as he and Rainbow Dash looked down the tunnel at the flickering lights and felt a small wave of compressed air and dust get blown into them. This was no simple blasting to open up a new tunnel or remove some pesky rocks, there was far too much shaking involved.

“A cave-in...” Barnaby whispered in shock. “It sounded like the entire tunnel collapsed.”

“If it’s a cave-in there might be ponies in trouble!” Rainbow Dash shouted and immediately flapped her wings to get off the ground. “Let’s go!”

“R-Right! But be careful, Rainbow Dash! The tunnel could be unstable,” Barnaby agreed and looked over his shoulder at the other miners. “Everypony, get your gear and come on!”

While Rainbow Dash rocketed ahead at full speed towards the source of the explosion, the other ponies brought up the rear. A hard frown was on her face as the poorly lit walls of the tunnel sped by her. Had somepony accidentally detonated TNT in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or was it intentional? She wouldn’t exactly call it a cynical thought but she was definitely thinking the latter. The way the other ponies had acted when they heard the explosion—even for an accidental detonation it was just too shocked.

A cloud of dust was ahead and Rainbow Dash had to slow down her approach. Once she got close enough she started flapping her wings to push some of the dust to the sides.

“This aint good...” she grimaced as she saw the full extent of the damage. Hundreds of rocks completely buried the tunnel and made travel through it impossible. She couldn’t even tell how far the cave-in went either.

“Oh no,” Barnaby said as he came up behind her, panting hard, and was soon joined by the other miners.

“What happened?!”

“Who did this?”

“Is everypony on the other side okay?”

"What do we do?”

“It’s right where the intersection was!”

Shouts and clamoring voices from the couple dozen ponies filled up the partially collapsed tunnel as everypony got into a panic at the sight of it. Luckily Barnaby had a commanding presence and he quickly wheeled about to give orders.

“Everypony, calm down!” Barnaby shouted over them to quiet the group down. “This is a disaster but it’s not something we’re unfamiliar with! Some of you go back to the lift and get on the radio, contact Crom and tell him what happened and then try and contact the ponies on the other side of this cave-in. They should have a radio or two outside the mine they’re working in, right?”

“They do,” one of the other miners said and started running back down the tunnel. “I’ll get on the radio right now!” He looked at two others. “You come with me and head up the lift to tell the closest others on hoof!”

“Okay!”

“Right!”

The three miners then ran off back, leaving Barnaby and Rainbow in front of the massive pile of rocks with seemingly nothing to do. Rainbow wanted to dig in and start pulling rocks out of there to open up the tunnel and help anypony who might be stuck on the other side, but she had no idea if that was safe or not. It could just cause it to collapse further without anything to brace the ceiling of the tunnel.

“Hey, let’s brace up these walls to make sure the tunnel doesn’t get even worse, then we can start digging everypony on the other side out!” One miner said, an older stallion than most others

Barnaby looked to him. “Are you in charge down here?”

“Wouldn’t say that or nothing but I’m the most senior miner here for sure,” he said. “I’ve dealt with cave-ins like this before. If we can get some more struts and poles to hold up the walls of the tunnel we can start removing the rocks blocking the way. We’ve got some tools and extra supplies sitting around but until we get some more from above...”

“We have to hope that nopony on the other side is hurt,” Barnaby finished.

The old miner nodded. “Yep. From the look of it it seems like the explosion that set off this cave in happened in the middle of the tunnels and not in the mine where everypony was working. So hopefully as long as nopony was walking through the tunnel when it went off I don’t think anybody would’ve been blown up or buried.”

Rainbow Dash growled in annoyance and kicked a pebble. “Great! So there could be ponies in danger who need us right now and we can’t do anything to help them?”

“Patience, Rainbow Dash,” Barnaby said as he put a hoof on her shoulder. “A situation like this needs calm heads. We can’t be careless here.”

“Yeah, things are already bad enough, depending on the extent of the damage this could set us back weeks,” the old miner said.

So Rainbow Dash had to hold her frustration in and wait for back up and more ponies who knew what they were doing. In about five more minutes, one of the ponies who had left earlier came back with a portable radio. He was breathing heavily from running so much as he turned the radio on and set it down in front of everypony, the speakers turned up all the way.

“W-We already contacted Crom and now we’re trying to get on the other miners’ frequency to see how they’re doing,” he said.

All was static from the radio as the miner fiddled with its dials until-

Hello?--crrk! Hello? Can… hear us?

“Yes! We can hear you!” The miner who brought the radio shouted into it.

What… happened… there was… buried now...

It kept cutting out partially, maybe due to extra interference from the rocks or faulty equipment in the first place. The miner smacked the top of the radio to try and get it to work better while Barnaby grabbed the microphone to speak.

“Hello? For any ponies trapped on the other side of the cave-in, this is Chief Constable Barnaby. Are you alright?” He spoke calmly and authoritatively, Rainbow Dash had to give him props for that.

Crrk! Shhhhhhhk!

There was another burst of static before a voice broke through again. Yes! Yes, we’re okay! Just trapped.

Barnaby and the other ponies sighed in relief. “Good, good. Have you tried digging out yet? What’s it look like on your end?”

Just a bunch of rocks! The whole intersection is gone, we’re looking to bring up one of the drills from the mine to help get us through.

“We’ll be working on getting you out on this end soon too, we just need some things before we start,” Barnaby said.

Thanks, at least we’ve got everything we need to get out of here!

“How’s your air? Breathing alright?”

Plenty of air, still a lot of space back here, but I wouldn’t want to be stuck for more than a day or two.

“Don’t worry about that. Crom already knows and we’ll have you out of here before the day is over,” Barnaby told them before temporarily turning off the microphone. “Of course actually fixing this whole tunnel will take much longer.”

“You think you can just make a small hole to bring the trapped miners through first?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“That’s probably what we’ll have to do… most of this will be moved out of the way and excavated later,” Barnaby rubbed away some sweat that had collected under his helmet. “What’s going on? And why today of all days?”

Rainbow Dash didn’t have an answer. She just hoped help would come soon so she could start doing something as well. Standing around, not doing anything, when ponies were in danger, it was the worst. Barnaby wasn’t looking much better as he paced back and forth in front of the pile of rocks while some of the miners chatted on the radio with the trapped ponies—just talking like normal to try and keep everypony calm and relaxed.

It took nearly thirty minutes but ponies from above started coming down with shovels, drills, pickaxes, and support beams to keep anymore of the tunnel from caving in when they started excavating it. They didn’t have a lot of space to put the rocks either so everypony had to slowly form up a big line and remove the rocks hoof by hoof, piling them up by the lift and then taking those up to areas where they could be dumped. The support beams were propped against the walls and bracers were locked between them to give the ceiling of the tunnel a ribbed appearance. Now it was safe to really start digging. The miners trapped on the other side got the message too and everypony worked together to make the quickest tunnel possible to them. Not enough where they had to completely uncover the entire tunnel but still big enough and safely supported enough that the ponies could crawl through.

It was hard work. Hard work that took hours with Rainbow Dash right at the front doing everything she could. She may not have had the sheer brawn of some of these miners but she more than made up for it in determination and willpower, any rocks that needed to be shoveled or carried out of the way she was there for. Her hooves were raw practically from the start but she didn’t care.

Despite the situation, this was the kind of thing that really invigorated Rainbow Dash and filled her with positive energy. A bunch of ponies working together to help those in need. That’s what she loved to see. And she got to be awesome during it all. There was nothing more she could ask for. Aside from potentially beating the snot out of some villain, but that was that and this was this.

She had lost track of time after working on digging with the other ponies for so long that she had no idea how late it might’ve been or just how many hours she had sunk into this tunnel. But none of that mattered when one last rock was moved out of the way and she reached her blue hoof down to help a formerly trapped miner get to his hooves. Rainbow Dash grinned at him and wiped the sweat from her brow, exhausted.

“Looks like you guys are okay,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked down at the small tunnel and saw more ponies making their way through it.

“Yep,” the miner said and then finally seemed to register who and what he was talking to. “Uhhh, who are you?”

Rainbow Dash snorted in amusement. “Let’s just say I’m a new friend around here.”

Barnaby and the other miners on this side continued to help the others through and keep the tunnel secure. It wasn’t a permanent solution and it was pretty slow going, but at least they’d be able to get all the trapped miners to safety. When things looked pretty stable, Barnaby sharply glanced to Rainbow Dash and came over to her with a frown on his face.

“I’m sorry something like this had to happen today while I was with you,” he said.

“It’s not your fault,” she looked at the damaged tunnel. “Besides, not like I would expect you to just ignore what happened or anything and keep giving me a tour.”

“But I still have to apologize, because it’s not over yet.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean?”

His gaze hardened and his eyes narrowed. “I think we both know this was no accident, and I must get to the bottom of it.”

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapters!

Barnabay already had a radio. Would he had used it to alert Crom or was it a one way radio and can’t communicate back?

Maybe the explosion happened because that’s where Rainbow and Barnaby were going to be at when it happened.

[redmar]

That cave-in was no accident Rainbow noticed the miners were too shocked for an explosian that went off early. It's good that they managed to rescue those miners.

[TheCommunistDog]

L

In today's chapter: just add a little bit of conversation and a little bit of domestic terrorism aaaand you have a fine day!