I had often heard that beds in taverns varied from very nice to incredibly bad. At least this place had a mattress, rather than a series of ropes to pull together which needed to be done in order to prevent you from falling to the floor. Incidentally, this is where the saying 'sleep tight' comes from. Another example of the meanings of sayings we use without really thinking.
Anyway, I must comment on the sleep. It had been surprisingly relaxing, and as I awoke, my alarm going off next to me, I certainly felt extremely refreshed. That night had certainly cleared my aches and pains from the previous day and refreshed my mind ready for another day of what might be another long journey.
I rolled out of the bed and landed on the wooden floor below me, being careful not to get splinters in my hooves. I then headed out of the room and into the bathroom, which was reasonably well equipped for a bathroom of its type. I headed into it, and got ready to shower for the next day of action.
At least the plumbing works. I had read before going to bed that some of these mining towns had supply problems with their water, and it was a relief to be able to wash properly. I sighed again and went out of the room to dry myself with a towel, before applying the same process to my mane. A quick glance behind revealed my tail might be a challenge to do, as it was rather awkwardly placed behind me. It took a bit of wrangling with the towel, sure, but sooner or later I was able to get it cleaned up and dry. It would hardly do to have me dripping water all over the place, would it?
I pulled my bandolier and other equipment back on, and headed out of the room, locking the door behind me with the supplied key. I made my way downstairs to discover breakfast was being served, and already several ponies had gathered downstairs for this very meal.
The room provided for breakfast was extremely reasonable, all things considered. It was the same one I had entered into the previous day, and now light was flooding in through the windows, properly illuminating the space ahead of me. The tables were clearly spaced at a convenient interval to allow for dancing, and the bar was at one side. I took a seat and waited for a bit.
And waited. And waited.
Another pony trotted past. "You must be from outside of town," she said.
"What makes you think that?" I asked.
She pointed to a sign. Please order at the bar.
"Oh," I said, feeling rather silly. I got up and collected a menu to place my order. To speed up ordering, each combination had a number, so you simply stated the number you wanted rather than having to describe the meal in question. More places should do this, as it makes things more efficient.
Once I had placed my order, I then returned to a table, and observed a conversation going on between a group of older ponies. It seemed to be related to local news, and as I heard them speaking I couldn't help but notice a phrase being used over and over again- the lost miners.
This piqued my interest, so I quickly went over to the group. "Excuse me, gentleponies, but I couldn't help but overhear what you were saying. As you can probably see I work in law enforcement, so finding missing ponies is part of the job description."
One of them looked over, adjusting his flat cap. "You're not from round here, are you?" he asked.
"No sir. I'm on my way to the edge of the country to collect a bounty, and I'm staying here for a bit."
Another chimed up. "In which case, welcome to Hope Hollow."
Hope Hollow? Well, the place sure has changed a lot since Rainbow Roadtrip if a rural village settlement has turned into an enormous mining town. I nodded. "Well, it seems nice based on what I've seen so far."
Another pointed out of the window. "This town is dependant on the Pit, which is managed by the NEPCB. Seeing as you're not from here, I'll assume you don't know what that stands for. That's the National Earth Pony Coal Board, which manages the mines in Earth Pony territory."
"Thanks for the info," I replied. I had some vague familiarity with the coal mining industry- some of my ancestors back in the human world had worked in the South Wales coalfields- so this felt at once strange and oddly familier. "Now, about these missing miners. I'd like to help."
Another then spoke up. "There's a group of workers who mysteriously vanished underground a few days ago, and nopony can account for them. They haven't been seen, and the local management seem apathetic at best to go and look for them."
"What about local police?" I asked.
"They're in the company pocket," said the second to speak to me. "We wouldn't trust them to switch the pipes in a boiler round, let alone conduct an actual investigation into a group of missing ponies. But you're not from here. You're not in their pocket."
"That's correct, I'm from Maretime Bay," I replied.
"Went there on a holiday once," said a figure who was yet to speak. "Remember when they used to do special trains there?"
"Anyway," said the third, "will you look into this for us?"
"Yes," I said, "I will. There are a handful of things I will need, though. I'll need plans of the mine and the region, so I can plan my investigation properly."
"Well, Bob's your uncle!" said one. "I'll get the map to you as soon as possible, Mr..."
"Hitch."
They headed away towards the general store. That was an interesting moment. It makes sense a phrase like 'Bob's your uncle' exists over here, seeing as there's a pony in Maretime Bay called Rob. He's the one with the fedora.
I had looked at the map, and what they said checked out. The tunnel system was enormous, and radiated out in every direction under the earth. It had to add up to at least several hundred miles of tunnels and supply shafts. How in Equestria was a pony supposed to monitor it all? Presumably they had basic things like carbon monoxide checkers and other useful scrubbers to prevent problems, but this seemed otherwise to be quite poorly designed. Presumably there wasn't the resources to fully upgrade the place.
Based on the information I had gathered, I chose to take the southern entrance into the mine. The place had two separate winding houses, one for each end, as this minimised the amount of walking needed to be done underground to reach your seam. This was going to be a tough one, as I hadn't been underground in years. And most certainly not in this body either. I made my way out of the tavern and across the road, heading for the mine.
I showed the inspector on the gate my badge, and he let me through, seeing I was law enforcement. I trotted deeper into the region, I saw the surface buildings and operations were already running. Locomotives were propelling trucks about to be loaded with coal, presumably to be shipped off to other parts of earth pony territory. Large dispensers were dropping coal into trucks in numerous different grades. Clearly they had coal washers here too.
As I made my way round the area, moving past road vehicles and surface workers going about their business, I passed by one of the shifts that was heading out. They were absolutely covered in coal dust, and as I walked past them some of the dust fell off and transferred onto me.
Safe to say, when I entered the equipment room I looked like a miner. This made the next bit of the job easier, as the personnel simply assumed I was part of the workforce.
In that room, I collected my essential supplies. These consisted of a set of overalls, a helmet, a gas mask (to counter the toxic gases underground) and a geiger counter (these were supplied as standard). This may seem a strange selection of equipment, but trust me that last one would come in handy later in my journey.
A forepony helped me fit the gear and ensure it was correctly secured, and it was soon time for my mining adventure to commence. I joined a line of workers preparing to head in, and heard a series of bells informing me the winding gear was in action, and to expect the cage soon.
Before long it rattled into position, and as one group of ponies disembarked with a coal bin my group entered another one. The door was secured in place in front of us.
"Going down!" shouted the operator. "Good luck, lads!"
He rang the bells and we began to descend into the very bowels of Equis.
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The new chapter is here. I would mention Jimmy's new chapter but you guys beat me there!
Hitch is going a bit off course here if he wants to catch up with Sunny and Izzy
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Hitch suffers from chronic hero syndrome-he is driven by his need to help others and uphold order.
Hey there. Thanks very much for getting this next chapter up. Again, really liked the work going into the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up. Really appreciated "Hitch's" observations concerning how things have changed over the centuries in Happy Hollow before going to help out in that search for the missing miners. Also liked the note that some of the stuff picked up from helping out in other places proved to be useful on the main journey.
REALLY looking forward to more of this.
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As previously discussed in other stories' comments sections, RPGs were a big source of inspiration for this series. This, and the next chapter, also draw a little bit on personal family history; my folks on my mother's side have a long history of working in either mining or industries connected to mining, so this section is actually quite personal.
Not only that, but as noted exploring and speculating how G4 places might have evolved and changed over thousands of years is also a personal interest of mine.
nice chapter mate keep it up cant wait for for the next chapter
Huh, guess you do learn something every day.
Imo, I'm fine with menu they have either or.
Interesting.
back in the human world*
Yikes!
Oh?
It makes sense*
made my way out of*
Coal washers?
Feels weird reading something like this as just last week I watched a film that made many scenes filmed at a coal mine. Not to mention it takes place in the late 50s in West Virginia, aka coal hauling county.
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Glad you liked it.
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1. I learned the origin of that phrase whilst living in the United States. Funny how often we use phrases without thinking of their origin, right?
2. I've made that blunder more than once!
3. They're slowly moving over to this approach in Britain as well.
4. Nationalised mining indeed. I don't believe the US ever had a nationalised mine system.
5. Corrected.
6. This happened an alarming amount in American history. Leadville, CO, for instance, was effectively owned and operated by the mines, with law enforcement being used to crack down on unionism. They also were under strict orders to ignore crimes committed by company bosses.
7. That's a nod to the Blackpool Specials. Many factories and mines would organise holiday outings to the seaside, and if you lived in the north of England those usually went to Blackpool on the Lancashire coast. The trains were usually operated by all sorts of weird and wonderful locomotive combinations.
8 and 9. Corrected.
10. Coal is used in different grades depending on the industry. If, for instance, you bung coal that just came out of the ground into a steam engine's firebox you'll get a lot of soot and clinker as it's full of impurities. Coal washers are machines that process coal using water to remove impurities and ensure it can be used in different industries. In the United States, the Pennsylvania Railroad maintained extensive coal washing facilities to ensure the anthracite they used was of the highest quality.
11. As noted in the comments below, my ancestors are from coal mining country (my mother was born in a mining town, and most of my male ancestors worked in various mines). I doubt I could have done that sort of job though- I'm partially claustrophobic!