Rainbow Dash gnashed her teeth and fought to extend the feathers on her wings. The appendages refused to obey her. Rainbow's body had become a numb missile, sailing into the womb of the world. She took a deep breath, then jerked to the side. Her body spun, forming a spiraling pattern. The frost shook off her feathers, and suddenly they sprung out like cat claws. As Rainbow flew into the mouth of the gorge, she finally managed to extend her wings. She caught the last gust of cold winds before she sunk beneath the shadowy canyon walls.
The wind whistled around her like a sea of ghosts. Pebbles and stalactites surged past her vision. She growled for strength and tried to pull herself out of the gorge. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't lift herself back up to the surface. She saw a granite wall ahead of her. The mouth of the gorge was about to render her to paste. With no chance of reducing her velocity, Rainbow Dash took a gamble. She angled her wings and dove down.
Her body dipped into the blackness, but didn't strike anything. As the brightly-lit world disappeared behind her, she found herself piercing the lengths of an inexplicable cavern nestled between the mountainous ridges. She felt lengths of granite brushing against her wings, and she knew she had to stop her momentum soon. With only a racing heartbeat as her guide, she dove further and stretched her hooves out. She started to hear the echoes of her own breath. The dark underworld around her was shrinking.
Soon, her hooves made contact with smooth stone. They bounced off almost immediately. She winced at the grinding sensation, but resumed the touchdown. Her limbs heated up with the frictious touch, and soon she was losing balance. Rainbow Dash spun forward, rolled, and bounced off a length of rock. Grunting, she ricocheted off a side wall, slid several meters, and came to an aching stop beneath a halo of pale light.
It took five seconds for Rainbow Dash to find her breath, and another five seconds for her nerves to discover just how much pain they were in. She let out a squeaking noise, wincing more from the sound she had made than from the pain that had sparked it. She bit down hard on her jaw, shook, and exhaled sharply. Soon, rivulets of numbness were spreading through her body once again, bringing her a brief but pitifully short comfort.
Instinctively, she flexed her limbs, feeling for broken bones. Her limbs moved just fine, and her wings—albeit aching—were still in working shape.
Rainbow Dash was too mad at herself to bother rejoicing in her new lease on life. She stood up with a grunt, gazing angrily at the tiny, circular hole above where she was. Straight through, she could see a bright gray world swirling with snow and frost. She knew that the surface was just in the crook of a steep ravine, and any attempt to fly up there and lift herself back to the level of the mountain peaks would be futile.
She could either wait out the storm in that tiny cavern—a feat that would be harrowing, considering the onset of night—or she could set out and see just how far the cave went. Both options were potentially dangerous, but one was only slightly less boring than the other.
So, with a sigh, Rainbow Dash rubbed her hoof along the ruby jewel of her pendant, summoned a dim crimson glow, and set forth through a thin corridor lined with quartz and jagged stone.