It seems consistent here in Songring that winter will forever be the most difficult season for us to endure each year. Three times in a row, winter has been filled with numerous hardships for me to have to record. I am starting to wonder if fate simply gets on her period this season each year and exacts her wrath on remote settlements to spread her misery. Or perhaps just my settlement. Maybe just me. I am still under the belief that fate and Celestia both have something against me. I am left sometimes to ponder exactly what I did to make them both despise me so much. Why can't they be a female more like Maple?

Scratch that, that's a terrible idea: having Maple be the guiding force of the universe and the leader of Equestria. Happy hour would be extended from noon to midnight nationwide as the seas turned to wine and whiskey, and the the cosmic bodies themselves would hurl jeers and vulgar quips down upon the creatures of Equestria. There would be a great tank genocide, and inquisitions to torture the information out of those who dare have something controversial to say of her. Also, I believe Mondays would become the day that the finest stallions of Equestria are required to coat themselves in butter and engage in body combat for her amusement. Perhaps I should ask why they can't be more like Silence then.

At which point the guiding force of the universe would know everything about you and what you have ever done, but never let you know she was there by never saying anything. Wow, that sounds uncannily similar to the beliefs of at least three separate religious factions back on Terriel. I may have just deduced that their God must be a mute unicorn.

I should stop my blasphemic prattle before this turns into a philosophical debate, as that is certainly one of the lowest occurrences on the list of important events that I must relay here. I fear that I do not have enough time to record it all in this one sitting. The candle I am using to light my office as I sit alone writing tonight may very well die out soon. I will document what I can.

One of the recent concerns could also happen to be a huge boon for Songring, but still I am torn over the situation. The safety issues involved are tremendous, and the possibility for disaster makes me consider revoking my current orders and just forgetting all about what we found.

My attention was brought to this issue very early on in the winter. Dawnstar had been absent for a while to see to a request that Riverscar had made for our attention. She had been gone for roughly an hour at that time, leaving me plenty of time to myself in my office. The times where I get to be alone are few and far between, especially when I am not simply getting ready to go to sleep or taking care of myself to get prepared for a day of work. I spent some of it considering writing in my journal, reading over the letters Twilight had sent me again, poking Abeo in the belly with the blunt capped end of my pen to make her croak and swipe at it with her clawed feet playfully (not long now before she will be too large to lounge on my desk without fear of it snapping under her weight), and glancing over the engravings in the walls around me to see if anything struck my fancy.

The sound of the door swinging open abruptly and crashing into the wall behind it startled me out of my thoughts regarding an engraving of a cheese on one portion of the floor (yes, cheese. I still do not know the symbolism of it), and caused Abeo to give a shrill cry before flailing off my desk with a thud. Dawnstar skipped happily into my office, draped herself over my desk, and began rapping her hooves rapidly against its surface to try and get my attention. Looking at her grin, which spread from one ear to the other, reminded me of how I must have looked on my birthday when I was little: Excited to get to eat cake and ice cream and all of the terrible things my stepfather was convinced were congealed diabetes. Even though I was looking at her, she insisted on waiting for me to address her directly before filling me in on just what had her so excited.

"Alright Dawnstar, I'm listening."

"Eureka!" she shouted, giggling to herself as she finally stood up from my desk and began trotting around happily. Abeo gave a staccato clicking in her throat in complaint as she lazily struggled to push herself back up on top of my desk and resume her nap. The noise only added to the chaos starting to build in my little office of giddy titters combined with hooves clapping against the smooth stone floor. "That's what you say when you find something great, right? I think we might have hit the jackpot, Mr. Prodder!"

"What are you talking about," I asked her, trying to hold Abeo away from the top of my desk for a moment as she kept clawing up the wooden surface and clumsily flinging my paperwork and letters about during her attempts. "What did you find?" It seems Abeo does not quite understand the meaning of the words "Stop", "No", and "Give me a moment, you oaf" yet.

"You have to come see it! You'll never believe me if I just tell you. Oh I just know you're going to be so happy to see it though! The investors were looking for a return from Songring? Well I believe they will certainly get it now! Not to mention how much will be left over for us!" she motioned for me to follow her quickly, and with a singsong demeanor, she waltzed out of my office beckoning me along.

Whatever she had to show me happened to be down in the mines below Songring. I had never stepped foot in these mines (mostly due to the poor experience of the last time I had gone into one for the purpose of saving Silence), so this was a new venture for me. This little project was one that I had not closely managed to be honest, as it was more or less a placeholder job for Riverscar and Silence to keep them from continuing to expand rooms and compromise more of the mountain with their digging. To put their talents to use and ensure that there would be no loss of productive space, I ordered them to dig down and create this mineshaft to collect some more stone for building structures, and perhaps find a few gemstones (Teardrop would be overjoyed to be able to cut some for our yearly visit from Sir Bullion).

I had expected the trip downwards to be something close to a twenty second jaunt down a small flight of stairs. Consider me fairly surprised when I found out that the depth Silence and Riverscar had achieved went far beneath Songring. The ramp systems leading down into the mines had to have been at least fifty feet deep, and they seemed dizzyingly long to me as we traversed them. I am lucky that Dawnstar knows a light spell, and illuminated our path for us, for I feared that I might easily get lost if I was forced to bumble around in the consuming darkness at that depth. My CCMI does have a low-light setting that can be activated, but the lack of light was too extreme for that to be of any use either. The trip down was made easier by Dawnstar repeatedly telling me how excited I would be and how Songring would certainly be put on the map now because of this, but I was a bit too distracted to give her anymore than a few grunts in agreement and the occasional, "Yeah" to appease her. While she was talking and leading the way, I was focusing more on a peculiar HPN (Health Preservation Notice) that my CCMI insisted on bringing to my attention.

HAZARD REPORT:

MEDIUM: INHALATION
EXPOSURE: MINIMAL
RISK: LOW
CLASSIFICATION: CHEMICAL - NEUROTOXIN
CHEMICAL ID: Pb
DIRECTIVE: AVOID PROLONGED EXPOSURE. REPORT ABDOMINAL PAINS OR COGNITIVE LOSS TO NEAREST MEDICAL PERSONNEL.

Now, for those of you who have not really paid attention in health class for anything except the talks about what to put where to make a baby, or fell asleep during your primer regarding CCMI interface, this may look somewhat scary with the bold typeface and full capitalization. Simply, breaking it down for you (even as simplistic as it already is), it is stating that there is something in the air that is classified as a neurotoxin by Terriel's FBHD. Current exposure is minimal, meaning that the saturation of the chemical in the air was at negligible levels, and indicated by the risk level that such amounts would not leave noticeable long-term effects. Let me be completely honest, I was not overly worried about the report, as some particularly rank farts can flag the CCMI's hazard report protocol as a "Minimal Exposure, Low Risk, Chemical-Flammability hazard.” What had my attention was the fact that it was going off at all, as I had not seen it once since I arrived here in Equestria or left Terriel.

I also was stumped as to what Pb stood for, or how peanut butter could possibly be a dangerous airborne contaminant.

"Dawnstar, does anything smell strange to you down here?" I asked her this casually, hoping to not arouse suspicion. Perhaps it is a natural gas leak, I considered. I could only assume that these ponies' sense of smell was more acute than my own.

"No, not at all, Mr. Prodder. Why do you ask?" she responded, before giving me a dry look. "Did you do something that I should be ready for?"

"No reason I suppose. Must just be my sinuses acting up on me from the dust in the air down here." I ignored her other question, shaking my head as I was left to rebuke myself. Of course it is not a natural gas leak, otherwise I would have received a flammability notice too. What could it possibly be then?

We eventually made it into a small chamber that had been hollowed out by the two miners. Torches had been secured to the wall to assist them in seeing their work. Silence greeted us with a nod and a smile after she realized we had approached, sparks and debris erupting from the point of contact of her pick against one of the walls. Riverscar was not present at the time as she must have gone on break. Dawnstar was motioning for me to look at something once again, and Silence wandered to my side. I was distracted by a new HPN.

HAZARD REPORT:

MEDIUM: INHALATION
EXPOSURE: LOW
RISK: MEDIUM
CLASSIFICATION: CHEMICAL - NEUROTOXIN
CHEMICAL ID: Pb
DIRECTIVE: VACATE PREMESIS TO AVOID EXPOSURE. REPORT ABDOMINAL PAINS OR COGNITIVE LOSS TO NEAREST MEDICAL PERSONNEL.

After a few moments the notice once again reverted back to minimal exposure and low risk, but I could not fathom what had caused the momentary spike in alert levels. It was not until Silence put her hoof on my shoulder to get my attention that I snapped back to the conversation with a quick "What?"

"Aren't you excited, Mr. Prodder?" Dawnstar asked me again, her grin mellowing sheepishly as she motioned to the wall that Silence had been striking. The dark crystallized substance in the wall gleamed with a metallic luster amongst the torchlight, and peaked my intrigue as I approached it for a closer look. "This is it! This is what will make Songring what they wanted it to be!"

"What is it?" I was forced to ask, rubbing the hair on my face in contemplation as I had no idea what I was viewing. The luster of the material had my interest, but my geological ignorance meant it was just because I was ogling a shiny object.

"Silver!" Dawnstar erupted in response. "It's silver, Mr. Prodder! We hit a silver vein! Who could have known that we were sitting on this kind of find, and would have never discovered it if you hadn't ordered that this mine be opened? We could have been squatting on riches for decades before anypony learned of this otherwise!"

"Is that true, Silence? Is this really silver?" Something seemed off to me: It was not as bright as I had imagined silver to be. Truly it shimmered like a metal, but the graphite-like color kept throwing me off, and I could not be convinced that it was the same material I had seen in rings and necklaces countless times before.

"It is indeed, Benjamen. There is silver in there. Here, look at this chunk, in the groove of the cleavage you can see it shining down there. It may not seem too familiar, but remember that the impurities have not been smelted out of it so it does not resemble what you might think silver should look like." With that, Silence lifted one of the loose stones from the ground with her horn and rested it in my hand so I could observe.

WARNING!

HAZARD REPORT:

MEDIUM: DERMAL CONTACT
EXPOSURE: HIGH
RISK: HIGH
CLASSIFICATION: CHEMICAL - NEUROTOXIN
CHEMICAL ID: Pb
DIRECTIVE: REMOVE EXPOSURE IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT TOUCH FACE OR MOUTH. SANITIZE AFFECTED AREA (LOCATION: RIGHT HAND). REPORT ABDOMINAL PAINS AND COGNITIVE LOSS TO NEAREST MEDICAL PERSONNEL.

As soon as the chunk of ore touched the bare skin of my hand, a siren like a dog whistle shot through my head and the CCMI threw up the alert notice without even a prompt for me to open it. At that moment, it came flooding back to me as to what Pb stood for: "Plumbum".

Lead.

Both of the ponies near me watched in shock as I threw the rock to the ground in a momentary panic, before spitting on my hand abruptly and scrubbing it against my pants to remove the contaminant as best I could.

"Benjamen?" Silence asked me, before I saw her cringe and stumble away from the blast of the siren alert she must have heard while communicating with me. Dawnstar looked between the two of us with a bamboozled, gaping expression, unsure of what she was witnessing.

"We have to go. Now,” I told them both, pointing back to the ramp system that had brought us down here. Both of them seemed unsure as to whether or not they should heed, but as I reached out to grab for them and start shoving them towards the ramp, they were forced to follow my order. "Back to the surface. Come on. Both of you." I was in too much of a hurry to bother explaining, feeling I would have to give them my reasoning once we got back to the fresh air outside.

"Wait!' Dawnstar stated as she halted despite my pushing to turn around. Her head craned down towards the stone I had tossed earlier, and her mouth opened as she was going to grab it in her teeth to bring it with her.

I really am not sure what I meant to do, but I am afraid that what happened at that time was something I do regret. I did not gasp, I did not shout, nor did I try to get her attention. My leg swung back instinctively and lashed forward in a kick that struck her in the side of the snout, eliciting a yelp as she stumbled back towards the ramps. I don't know if I missed my mark, and I had meant to kick the stone out of her reach, or if I had truly meant to kick her to keep her from grabbing it and accidentally ingesting the metal shavings that would have been left behind. No matter my reasoning, it undoubtedly upset her as she sniveled and whimpered when I continued to force the two of them up the ramps and back to the entrance.

Once outside, I finally took a deep breath in relief to be out of the air that had been contaminated with particles of lead, which must have been released when Silence and Riverscar were striking the metal in the wall. The two of them still had no idea what had come over me as I gave a sigh of solace and a shake of my head.

Dawnstar’s eyes were watery at the time, and I had assumed this was mostly because of where the strike had connected. It did not occur to me until after she started speaking, and Silence went to her side to comfort her, that perhaps it was not just a physiological response. "I just... I just thought you'd be happy," Dawnstar stuttered to me, her voice cracking as she coddled the side of her face with a hoof. "I'm sorry..." She whimpered then, ears tucked back as she seemed afraid to say anything more.

At first I had no idea what she was talking about, then I saw Silence stare at me with an incredulous look. "Ben, what is going on? What's wrong with you?" I heard the inquiry rather abruptly, shocking me as I looked between them. "Explain yourself." She was upset with me, and the volume of her demands evidenced it.

"Lead," I blurted out immediately, trying to come to my senses as to why I had taken the initiative to hit my assistant. "That stuff... it's lead." Silence's expression softened when I first said those words, then a startled look came over her as she thought about their meaning. "She was going to put it in her mouth, I had to stop her." Dawnstar still watched me with a pained expression, so I continued to explain. "If I had tried to say why, you'd be poisoned right now. I don't know how badly, but I don't think there's such a thing as an acceptable amount of poisoning. It was the only thing I could think to do off the top of my head."

"Galena," I heard Silence project, shaking her head and looking down with a hint of shame. "It's galena. That's what the formation is called. I should have known. I'm sorry Ben, this is my fault. I should have realized that when I found it. I was just so excited when I saw the glimmer of silver in it."

It took Silence contacting Dawnstar to get her to calm down, the understanding of the danger she was in finally became apparent to her when someone else explained it. I apologized as well, but Dawnstar only nodded. I could not tell if she was in shock from realizing how close she was to severely hurting herself, or if she was still upset about my methods. After that, I asked her to follow me back to my office, and she stayed very close to my heels (almost tripping me on accident a couple of times).

This has left me with a quandary now: Is the profit worth the risk? In all honesty, I would really like to be able to extract the silver we have found beneath Songring, as it could very well do what Dawnstar stated and return the investment that was put into the settlement originally. This would also mean we would have a valuable commodity to trade with Sir Bullion's caravan this coming year, not to mention it would certainly get some attention for Songring. The problem should be rather obvious though, as I find that I worry quite a bit about the health risk involved in working that closely with raw galena. I know enough about lead to understand that it is a heavy metal neurotoxin that can lead to microcytic anemia and disrupts the ion diffusion of nerve cells (My damn stepfather always wanted me to be a doctor like him, so I suppose I picked up a little knowledge along the way); what I lack is the knowledge of what are safe ways to handle it and if the risk is too great to have Silence and Riverscar continue extracting it from the mines. This could easily be disastrous if it somehow got into a water supply, or contaminated the food or soil. I also should not fail to mention the safety of the miners working around the airborne particles and in such close proximity to it without any proper ventilation.

As of currently, I have ordered that the mining continue, but with many mandates in place to preserve the health and safety of Songring. This means that while the production of the silver remains slow, we should be able to make a profit from it with minimal endangerment to the ponies here.

The first obstacle to overcome was how to safely extract it from the mines, which held the hazard of inhaling the particles or touching the lead. The possibility of dermal contact with it was easily handled. Since Silence is a unicorn and can move the material with her horn, she is the only one that I have allowed to continue excavating. Avoiding the possibility of poisoning through inhalation was a tricky obstacle to overcome, but I am rather proud of my own ingenuity in resolving it. I had the thought that if I could supply our two miners with a respirator of sorts, they would be fine no matter how much of it was drifting through the air. What is a respirator though, but just a special air filter? Sifting through the supplies we had received from Sir Bullion as a show of good faith the year before, I found the hand-operated water purifying pump that he had been showcasing during his visit in 1221 . I was sad to have to do it, but I was forced to dismantle the equipment to find what I hoped would be there (and to my relief, it was). Activated carbon packed into a small chamber through which water was forced to pass through during pumping. Willow and Rabbitfoot helped me with the construction. We used leather to create a mask that would encompass a pony's entire mouth and nose to create a firm seal and cut holes out in front of the nostrils. Willow crafted eight wooden discs with holes in them to allow air to pass through, which I used to make four air filters by placing a small cloth packet filled with activated carbon between two of the discs, then securing them with screws to keep the small circular filter together. A tight stitching secured the filters onto the muzzle-mask and over the nostrils, which forced the wearer to breathe through the filters and thus remove the contaminants that might be present in the mines. The final safety protocol in place is that a bucket of soap and water is kept available right outside the door of the mineshaft and is to be used both when entering and leaving the mine to wash away any contaminants one may have on them. (The water is not dumped back into the river at this time, but is instead kept in rock pots for storage until I can decide on a safe disposal method.)

The second issue to be considered was safety while processing the silver and lead into a usable form. It was agreed between Blueprint and I that we should contain the entire process (from original mining to storage) in a single location within the mineshaft. Closer to the entrance, a room was hollowed out for this purpose. Blueprint helped me not only construct the two smelting furnaces, but also a sort of canopy that would funnel all of the smoke out of a single pipe made out of sandstone. (We kept it as thin as possible to reduce weight.) This conduit runs about twenty feet above the ground level of Songring to let the smoke dissipate upwards, and can be extended later if we find we must build higher up the mountainside as to avoid discomfort from the settlers regarding smoke inhalation. Smoke Stack and Tall Tale, though experienced in working with smelting furnaces, are not unicorns. The issue then was how one could safely work with the leaded ore if they could not touch it, but once again it seems Rabbitfoot came to the rescue. Flaxseed leather has an oily finish over it to maintain the supple feel and avoid cracking, but it also makes it waterproof, which to me means that contaminants as large as lead particles could not pass through either. I had him fashion a few sets of stockings for the smelters to wear while working with the ore, as well as aprons just in case there were any minor accidents. As of currently, smelting is only allowed on Mondays and Tuesdays to cut down on smoke creation and to allow proper supervision of the process. Once again, this slows down our production significantly, but it also leaves much less room for problems.

Finally, the last issue involved storage. It would be foolish to cart this heavy metal in and out of the same storeroom that we keep our food, furniture, and everything else that we touch and use on a regular basis. Once again, it was agreed that the process, from start to finish, should be contained in the mines. A new storage room, which is connected to the smelting room, has been hollowed out. Any lead ingots that are collected while trying to extract the silver from the galena ore are stored there. (Silver is moved to the normal stockpiles; only the lead is contained in this room.) I am the only individual with a key to the door of that storeroom and plan to purchase more locks like these from Sir Bullion to keep any younglings from wandering in or avoid any monkey business. This is also another reason smelting is only on Mondays and Tuesdays: that room remains locked at all other times.

I still worry if I am taking enough precautions to ensure a safe industry of silver collection here in Songring, but some will argue that true success only comes with some risks. In fact, I might be way overdoing this (evidenced by how many times I have seen Willow roll his eyes when I ask him to help me once again with some safety equipment), as ponies may not be susceptible to the toxic effects of lead. I don't believe this to be the case considering that the effects are blood and nervous system related, so unless they lack one or both, it should affect them in much the same way. I am, however, in a land of magic horses, so perhaps they do not have blood or nervous systems. Maybe that is why there is so little physiology research material for me to examine for my own study. They may also have some sort of detoxing spell or ability to reverse the damage that might be caused by heavy metal poisoning, but until I have confirmation of this, my strict safety mandates will stay in place.

I am now relying on my CCMI's low-light visibility setting to see what I am writing. My candle just burned out. I will have to resign from making this entry for now, but there is still more that must be covered. I will continue next week when I find more time.

Author's Notes:

In short, the entry details Songring's discovery of galena beneath the settlement, which promises wealth for them while at the same time placing a very large health risk should the lead in the compound be improperly handled. During the expose of the mineral to him, Ben narrowly saves Dawnstar from mistakenly grabbing the raw lead chunk in her mouth by kicking her, then must defend his actions by arguing the danger that the new mineral poses. Ben goes on to describe the new safety mandates that have been put into place and his attempts to create a safe working environment for both the miners and the furnace operators while they are around the heavy metal, as he cannot pass on the opportunity to extract the silver from the formation to turn a profit for the settlement.