My Little Pony: Will Of Fire

The Fire Element Alicorn

Chapter 13

Miner Issues

After finishing an important task Princess Celestia sent them on, Flareon, Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack, along with her pet dog Winona, began to walk back home for the night. A couple of hours later though, something didn't seem right, so Flareon took out the map. "Let's see...I don't get it. We should have arrived back at Ponyville already." As Twilight looked at the map, she could already tell something was wrong. "Um...Flareon," she said, "You're holding the map upside down." As Flareon put his right hoof on his face, he could hear the others groaning with disappointment. "Hold on everyone, it looks like there's a town nearby called Gold Corral. Maybe we can spend the night there and then travel back to Ponyville in the morning," Twilight said. So without any other option, they decided to head for Gold Corral. When they got there, they discovered that Gold Corral was actually an old west town that hadn't been occupied for some time. "Good heavens...no!" Rarity proclaimed, "I will absolutely not spend the night in this dusty old town." "Rarity calm down. We don't have any other choice because a certain someone couldn't read a map," Applejack said. "I already said I'm sorry," Flareon replied. Soon after, he spotted a guest ranch. "Hey...look! The lights are on! Let's go see if anyone is in there."

After they went inside, Flareon rang a bell on the front counter, and suddenly a unicorn sprung out of nowhere and said, "Welcome to Gold Corral!" My name is Harold. I'm so glad to finally have some visitors. We haven't had any guests here in a very long time." When everyone begins to wonder why, an earth pony startles them from behind. "Oh I'm sorry...my name is Carl and I'm Harold's assistant," he said as everyone tried to catch their breath. "The reason why we haven't been getting any visitors is because of the Miner Forty-Niner. He's the ghost of an old prospector that haunts the mine in this town looking for the last amount of gold that still resides inside. Ever since the Miner Forty-Niner appeared, he's been constantly scaring all our guests away." As Harold nodded his head, he replied, "If things don't improve soon, I'm going to be forced to leave. I just can't put up with this anymore." As everyone looked at each other, they nodded their heads in agreement. "Don't worry," Flareon replied, "We're going to get to the bottom of this mystery!" Soon after, they went into Gold Corral to investigate. They decided to split-up so they could cover more ground quicker. Flareon and Twilight visited the general store, Rarity went to the casino, and Applejack with Winona entered the saloon. As Applejack and Winona looked around the saloon, they are startled by a piano that suddenly started playing. Their fears subside when Applejack discovers it is actually an automatic piano that can play by itself. Unfortunately, they soon hearing a loud, screeching noise that prompts them to quickly hide behind the bar counter. When Applejack and Winona look around, they are relieved to find out that the screeching noise is just a tree branch brushing up against the window.

Soon after, they hear Flareon's voice calling for everyone to meet them inside the hotel to regroup. When everyone arrived, Flareon said, "Well...did anyone find anything?" Unfortunately, no one had found any leads. As Wiona turned to look at a large mirror, she is suddenly shocked to see the Miner Forty-Nine looking at her angrily. As Winona begins to walk backwards while barking, she accidently knocks over a wooden carving of a pony. After it falls to the ground, the heads comes off, and something rolls out. As Applejack tries to calm down a startled Winona, Flareon picks up the piece of paper that was lying on the ground and said, "Hey look everyone! I found a map of Gold Corral." As Flareon looked harder at the map, he noticed what appeared to be a combination to a safe scribbled in the corner. They then walk up to the safe near the wall and Twilight turns the dial to enter the numbers. When she opens the safe, they notice it's not actually a safe, but a secret elevator. Even with Rarity's apparent disapproval, she eventually entered the elevator with everyone and they slowly went downwards. After a couple of minutes, the elevator finally stopped, and everyone got out. When they looked around, Flareon and the others noticed they were inside the mine. "This must be the old Gold Corral mine," Twilight said. "Well if this is a mine...then this is where we'll find him," Flareon replied, "Come on everyone...let's go!" As they explored deeper into the mine, they suddenly noticed something strange. There were lit lamps hanging on the walls. "That's strange," Applejack said, "If this is an abandoned mine...then why are the lamps lit?" Before anyone could answer, they suddenly heard a loud, moaning sound. "What was what? Did you hear that?" Applejack said, "You think it's...him?!"

There was no doubt about it, the Miner Forty-Niner was defiantly inside the mine somewhere. "Ok everyone...listen up," Flareon said as they were standing in front of two tunnels going in separate directions, "Me, Twilight, and Rarity will go right. Applejack...you and Winona will go left. If you see him, call out for us, and we'll come help you." Soon after, the two teams went their separate ways. Eventually, Applejack and Winona reached a group of doors in the tunnel. "Ok Winona...guess we'd better check to see what's inside these doors." As she began to open them one by one, Applejack was hoping not to find anything. As she got the last door, Applejack said, "I guess I was afraid for no reason. There's inside these doors." Unfortunately, when she opened the last door, the Miner Forty-Niner was standing right in front of her. As he groaned loudly and prepared to attack her, Applejack and Winona quickly ran away. Meanwhile, Flareon, Twilight, and Rarity had opened a nearby door and went inside to discover another room. "I think this must be a storage room," Twilight said, "There's a bunch of barrels and containers everywhere." As they were looking around, the floor Flareon was standing suddenly collapsed. "Are you ok?" Twilight asked as she and Rarity were looking down the hole at him, who was covered in flour after landing on some bags. "Yeah I'm ok," Flareon said as he tried to recover from the fall. As Flareon got up, a door near him opened and Applejack and Winona came running through it. "That was a close one Winona," Applejack said, "I think we managed to escape." Unfortunately, Applejack wasn't able to catch her breath as she suddenly spotted Flareon covered in flour. Right away Applejack screamed in terror and she and Winona quickly ran back through the door. They then spotted a couple of rail carts and jumped inside them.

Soon after, the carts began to go downhill at full speed. "That was a close one girl. He almost had us! We should be safe now," Applejack said. Sadly for Applejack, the Miner Forty-Niner suddenly appeared out of nowhere from the cart behind them. As he attempted to grab them, Applejack quickly pulled out the screw that was holding the two carts together and managed to escape his grasp. As the two carts sped through the tunnel, Applejack suddenly noticed that the track was about to split-up into two separate directions. They then went to the right side of their cart, pushed hard, and managed to go in the right tunnel, while the Miner Forty-Niner went in the left tunnel. They didn't have time to celebrate though as the track they were on suddenly dipped down and they quickly began to travel at full speed down it. Soon after, the track suddenly ended and after the cart hit the gate, Applejack and Winona were tossed out of it, and quickly tumbled down a hill. Luckily though, Flareon, Twilight, and Rarity soon appeared and offered to help them back up. Sadly though, they weren't able to enjoy their reunion as they suddenly heard another loud, moaning sound echo throughout the mine. "I'm already sick of this stupid mine," Rarity complained, "Can we please get out of here already?" Just then, Twilight noticed a wire on the ground. "Hey look everyone! I found an electrical wire." When they looked up, they noticed it was attached to a loud-speaker. "It's all starting to make sense now," Flareon replied, "Let's follow this wire to see where it leads to."

Later on, they found themselves inside a room that had a tape recorder, a microphone with a loudspeaker set up, and jars of crude oil. "Why is all this stuff located inside an abandoned mine?" Twilight asked. "I don't know," Flareon replied, "This whole mystery is getting weirder by the minute." He then is struck by an idea on how to catch the Miner Forty-Niner. "Ok everyone...here's the plan," he then turns to his left, "Applejack...how good are you with a loud-speaker?" Meanwhile, the Miner Forty-Niner was walking on the rail tracks when he suddenly hears the sound of a train approaching and quickly begins to run away. It wasn't a real train though, it actually Twilight pushing a rail cart with a light attached to the front of it while Applejack made train noises on the loud-speaker. Soon after, the Miner Forty-Niner ran inside a shed at the end of the tracks. Flareon then appeared from the side of the shed and quickly locked the door. As everyone began to celebrate their victory, they could near a voice from inside the shed. "Please let me out...it's dark in here!" As Flareon opened the door, he could see the Minter Forty-Niner sitting on the ground. "Ok...time to see who you really are!" Flareon said he used his magic to take off his mask.

It turns out the Miner Forty-Niner was actually Harold's assistant. "Carl...you're the Miner Forty-Niner," Applejack replied as she was still shocked. "Please," he said, "Can we get out of this mine? I can't stand being in here anymore." Finally Rarity had actually agreed on something. "That's what I've tried to tell everyone all along. At least someone knows how I feel." Later on, back in Gold Corral, the sun was beginning to rise as they were talking with Harold who was shocked to find out the Miner Forty-Niner was Carl. "I can't believe it was him, but why would he do this?" Harold asked. "Carl wanted to scare off everyone so he could buy the land for cheap. After he found the map leading to secret elevator in the hotel that lead into the mine, Carl hid it inside a wooden pony for safekeeping." Harold's eyes suddenly began to light up. "I knew it! So...there is actually gold inside that mine." Flareon shook his head and replied, "Not gold...oil and lots of it." Harold then said, "It's a real shame, me and Carl could have been partners, but he was arrested by the Equestria Police and sent to jail. Hopefully when Carl gets out, he would have changed for the better. I'll still kindly let him come back here because we're friends after all." Soon after, Harold waved goodbye to them as they left Gold Corral and headed for Ponyville. This time though, Twilight was in charge of reading the map.