CHAPTER 9

Hey everypony, I'm finally back with chapter 9. As usual, I didn't get any writing done over the weekend. I had Budder, and we were busy talking to producers and stuff, trying to get in on some movies. Normal family stuff, ya know? Hopefully if things work out, I'll get to play a cop, and she'll be a random victim. But I digress. After this chapter, we can wrap this mystery up in a nice little bow and toss it in the 'solved' bin. Still confused as to exactly why the ponies were going to all of that trouble just for a little quartz? If you are, don't feel bad. Only someone who knows geology would be able to figure it out. So let's get on with it. I hope you like the chapter. Please review.

"Alright guys..." I began, "...while we're waiting on the Marshall to show up, why don't we start at the beginning. I have a few theories I need to indulge." The two perps stood before me, with Rainbow Dash, Budder and Carbide Bit keeping them from escaping, not that they were trying very hard to do so.

"We're already had..." The leader of the two replied. "Might as well come clean." He sighed. "Me and Gravel here used to work for the mine. We figured we'd make more if we went into business for ourselves. So we snuck in and started mining out quartz on our own. The ghost thing was just to throw everypony off."

"Hm." I mused. "Brick was it?" The dark red stallion nodded. "Good story, but it's about as true as your ghosts, right?" The criminal glowered at me. "I mean, mining a little quartz out every night is supposed to earn you two a living? Why don't you tell us about the gold?" At that, both of the stallions locked eyes with me in surprise, and Carbide Bit had a look of shock on his face.

"I...we don't know what you're talkin' about!" Brick exclaimed.

"I'm sure you don't." I grinned. "And I wouldn't have either if I hadn't been reading up on the intricacies of quartz mining. Turns out, quartz is rarely found alone in nature. Where you find quartz, you're bound to find ore minerals like iron, copper, or gold. Right Carbide?"

"That's right." The forepony agreed. "Alot of the iron and copper mines use quartz as an indicator for what they're looking for."

"And I'm sure you two knew that too." I said to the pair of malefactors. "And so you dug around, looking for something a little more valuable than a bunch of clear rocks, right? And then you hit a vein of gold, and figured that it was time to get out of the quartz mining business, and into the real money. You two concocted the whole ghost routine to scare all the miners away. Then when the mine closed down, you were going to buy it with the gold you'd already extracted, and you two were gonna get rich. Am I leaving anything out?"

"Yeah, that I've been a miner for 10 years, and I got nothin' to show for it but calluses and a sore back." Brick grumbled. "I was finally gonna have the good life. A big house, a hot tub, and fillies hangin all over me. You know, what I deserved for all that hard work."

"You said you worked for the mine?" Carbide Bit asked.

"Yeah. We both did." Brick answered. The gray stallion beside him nodded.

"How much were you making an hour? Twelve bits?" Carbide questioned.

"Yeah."

Well you know if we'd found the gold and started pulling it out, you two...and the rest of the miners would have been paid twenty an hour, right?" The forepony stated. "All you had to do was be honest."

"Damn it..." Brick muttered. "We messed up..."

"Yes you did." I said. "And you realize that you two can be charged with grand theft, conspiracy to commit theft and land fraud, criminal trespass, and a bunch of minor charges I don't feel like getting into."

"And impersonating a ghost." My sister added.

"You'll be looking at about fifteen years each." The two criminals looked at the ground. "Unless..." At that, they glanced back up at me questioningly. "Carbide?"

"Well..." Carbide Bit sighed. "I kinda see where you two were coming from. Even though what you did was wrong, and could have put this whole mine out of business, I'll do you two a favor...how about I don't charge you with grand theft? Just fess up to the lesser charges, take your medicine, and maybe you won't have to spend but a couple of years in jail?"

"You...you'd do that?" Gravel asked meekly.

"Yeah...why not..." Carbide answered. "You two willing to serve your time and make amends for what you did?"

"Ugh...yessir..." Brick said.

"Yeah..." Gravel added.

"I'm just wondering..." Brick began, looking back at me. "How did you find out about the gold?"

"Well...it's a quartz mine." I stated. "And one of the largest, so everypony just assumed that all this had something to do with the quartz. Even I did at first. But then, when I found out that quartz is worth more intrinsically than monetarily, I started to suspect there was more to this than appeared on the surface. So, like a miner, I dug deeper. After learning more about quartz and geology than I ever care to remember, I found out that quartz is usually found near metals, especially gold. Common sense told me that the ponies involved weren't after iron or copper, or anything like that. It would be easier for you to go digging through a garbage dump for metal cans for recycling than to extract ore...anyway, long story short..."

"Too late for that..." Dashie muttered. I shot her a glower, and she grinned innocently.

"It was simple process of elimination. You were already down here taking something from the ground, even when there were still miners working, which meant whatever you were after was worth enough in small quantities to make it worth your while, and worth getting' caught for. If you'd managed to scare off all the miners with your bad acting, you would have had to work the mine alone. Two or three ponies can't pull enough of anything out of the ground to be profitable except for gold or silver. Given that the very idea of a vein of gold is enough to make most ponies start drooling, I just figured it was gold."

"Wow." Carbide Bit said, taken aback. "Princess Luna was right about you. You have to be the best detective I've ever heard of."

"Well, it wasn't all me." I replied. "My sister is the one who caught these two in the act. I may be able to find clues, but I can always count on Budder to stumble into trouble at just the right time."

"Heheheh...yeeeaahhhhh..." My sister sighed sheepishly.

"But what about the explosion?" Carbide asked.

"Simple." I answered. "They were blasting out a deeper mine. Figured that out when I noticed the small drill holes in the wall of one shaft where they had packed in the explosives. My sister saw that the debris had been cleaned up in the mine tunnel where you reported the explosion, and the ceiling had been braced up. It was obvious they'd been down there doing some major excavation. Oh, and here comes the marshal." A stagecoach was approaching, pulled by two stallions wearing cowpony hats, with silver stars pinned to their vests.

"I guess our work here is done." I stated. I walked some distance away with Dash and Budder as the Marshal and the forepony took care of the business of charging and arresting the criminals. "Well, at least the case is. We still ain't finished out here yet, though."

"What do you mean?" Dashie asked. I looked into my marefriend's eyes, then into my sister's before turning my gaze out into the barren frontier. "There's something I want to show you two while we're out here."

So ends chapter 9 and the case. Not a bad little mystery, eh? What's going to happen now when Drake confronts his past? And what is it he wants to show his family? I will probably have the next chapter or two up soon, so don't worry. I won't keep you waiting too long to find out. So until next chapter, thanks for reading, everypony!