//------------------------------// // Maintenance Exit // Story: Underflow // by Avast //------------------------------// Meanwhile on the surface, a single mare was trotting through the outskirts of Ponyville. The wind was weak, but still had enough force to rustle her lime mane around. She did not mind to cover from the tiny gusts, but had only one goal in mind. To find the nearest entrance to the underground tunnels. Trippy moved forward in a fast pace, looking left and right for any clues. It's supposed to be a hatch... she though as the peered at the tree line marking the edge of Everfree Forest. She searched around for a good amount of minutes, but was not able to find anything resembling an entrance. If I remember correctly, it should be around these parts. I can't be that wro... Her thoughts broke right as she felt her forehoof missing the ground, almost causing her to fall forward. She jerked back, regaining her footing at the last moment. Looking down, Trippy noticed that she was inches from falling into a steep, rocky crater, a huge dent in the otherwise untouched grassy landscape. Whoa, that was a close one! Trippy thought, nervously taking a step back from the pit's edge and wiping away a few drops of sweat that had quickly formed on her forehead. I really need to watch where I'm going. Otherwise, I'l end up stacking hospital bills! She turned around and prepared to continue her search elsewhere, when a thought suddenly struck her. Wait... what if this is...? she pondered and looked down the crater again. The large rocks that made the pit seemed to have collapsed on themselves, which explained how the dent was created. Trippy went around the edges until she spotted a small breach, a hole, in one of the rock walls, rusted chunks of metal lying around it. Near it was a large metal sign, which the mare bareley could read from her distance to it. Still, she was close enough to be able to make out the word 'maintenance' on it. "Oh crap. This is the entrance!" she exclaimed. "Why is it collapsed? Has nopony bothered to take care of this?!" With a grumble, she carefully descended the rocks and made it to the bottom of the pit. She walked up to the sign, now seeing close-up that it said 'Maintenance Entrance', and kicked it to the side with a loud clatter. "Honestly, our corporation is filled with the laziest ponies..." she muttered and looked around for any possible way inside the tunnels. She didn't have to spend much time on that however, as she soon noticed a small hole-shaped space between some of the fallen rocks. Metal framing around it meant that it used to be the official entrance, but had been sabotaged due to the collapse. Still, it seemed like the passage led straight into a tunnel going away further underground. Trippy was already able to see some low-hanging pipes cluttering the walls and, in some cases, even the passage itself. Well, Calambite and Iokin will be coming through here once they're done. Don't think there's another way around... the mare thought as she inspected the dark interior. But this doesn't seem big enough for us to go through, or...? To try out the entrance's capabilities, Trippy climbed up to the hole, grabbing the rocks with her arms and slowly angled her hind legs into the hole. She carefully slid in until her rump nudged the edges of the space. The rocks did not make it comfortable, but at least they weren't sharpened. The earth pony wiggled around, trying to feed herself into the small space that would be her companions' exit, causing her rump to squish through bit by bit. Eventually, as she reached her hips, the struggle grinded to a halt. Kicking with her legs, Trippy did her best to force her hindquarters further through the hole. It got tighter as she went, and she only managed to slid a couple of centimetres for each heave. Ngh...ow, it's tight! she thought and looked back at her rump, now about halfway through. Her hips had begun to enter, but it was unsure if they were able to fit through the entire little passage. I think I can go further in, but I don't want to risk getting stuck... she figured, letting her legs dangle. After a short time of judgement, she decided to play it safe and squeeze back out. Planting her forehooves on the sides of the hole, she heaved hard forward, wiggling her butt out of the small crevasse. Stepping out of it, the orange earth pony turned back to look at what would be her fellow worker's potential escape route. She had confirmed her suspicion about it; it was a bit too small. Perhaps not for Iokin, being the slimmest of them all, but Calambite? She's bigger than me for sure. she thought and placed a hoof on her hip for imaginative measurement. Especially 'round the butt. If anypony is going to have trouble with that hole, it's her! Deciding not to try any further bravados into a potential disaster, she took a seat on one of the rocks right by the hole, assumed the most comfortable position she could manage and began her wait for the others. Below ground, Calambite and Iokin had not encountered any further problems with the pipes, and were nearing their destination. Their occasional small-talk had been interrupted by risky low-hanging pipes time from time, but other than that, they had pretty much been granted free passage through the tunnels. Neither of them wanted to speak about their predicaments earlier, Calambite feeling a tad embarrased by displaying her hindquarters to a male coworker, and Iokin not wishing to bring up the cylindrical pipe again. Their conversations revolved mostly about Trippy's whereabouts and ponyville's flaws, understandably. Eventually, after a while of travelling, the tunnel they were walking through opened up to a larger room, filled to the brim with larger pipes and steam. The entire area was lit in a dim yellow, the source of light coming from the tinted lights attached to the concrete ceiling. Most of the pipes were in copper, but a large amount of them were coloured in either red or blue. In the middle of the room was a large cylindrical container with a large valve connected to it, right beside a primitive pressure control panel. As the ponies entered, both of them were fascinated by the size and the large array of pipelines crossing from roof to floor and wall to wall. "Here we are: the pump controls. It's been a while since I was down here, that's for sure..." Calambite said and took a couple of steps forward. "Let's hope they didn't change the functions. Iokin, take that big valve right there and adjust it so we can prepare to reboot the flow. I'll head along some of the attachments and make sure all the bolts are tightened. After that, we'll activate all the valves along the pipes." She spread her wings and looked back at the grey earth pony. "And be careful of the red ones. They're hot." she finished and took flight. Iokin pulled himself away from the red pipe he'd been standing right by, almost on the verge of leaning his body on it to rest. "Oh, uh... got it! Uhm... thanks!" he grinned sheepishly and headed over to the main valve. Both ponies got quickly to work. Calambite finally got the liberty of using her wings as she flew to pipes higher up in the air, inspecting the small metal bolts keeping the pipes connected to each other. Iokin turned and twisted the main valve and made some measurements on the control panel. After finishing their duties, both of them got to work on the amount of smaller valves placed on many different pipes, mainly the blue ones, each making a satisfying noise of releasing air. Soon, the sound of flowing water could be heard within the many pipes. Upon turning the last valve, both Iokin and Calambite regrouped at the center of the room, taking the moment to listen to the wild activity within the pipelines. The pegasus mare let out a audible sigh of relief and looked at her stallion companion. "That should satisfy the townsfolk!" she called out, the noise of rushing water almost drowning her voice out. "Yeah, and the officials!" Iokin responded. "Now, uhh... what were we going to do again?" she asked. "We press on!" the stallion said and pointed towards another tunnel entrance, following the same direction they'd recently been heading. "Trippy was going to wait for us at another entrance. If I remember the maps correctly, it shouldn't be far from here!" "Oh yeah, right, I forgot!" Calambite said and looked where Iokin was pointing. "Well... should we go then? I'm going to get a headache staying here any longer!" "Sure thing!" Iokin said and trotted over to the set path immediately. "Don't forget the toolbox!" "Of course not!" Calambite called over to him. She trotted over and picked up the red metal box they'd been carrying on the entire trip before setting off after Iokin. Trippy sighed and tossed another pebble up high in the air, kicking it away as far as she could from her sitting position as it fell down. It landed right next to the edge of the large pit, without falling down this time. She smiled and counted; "Thirteen." There weren't anypony around at all. She was completely alone in her pit for the time being, so she'd had to come up with some way to pass the time. Still, there were only rocks to play around with, and it did get pretty dull after a while. Right now she'd resorted to the most entertaining activity she could think of: counting pebbles kicked out of the pit. If only those other two would be a little faster! She sighed again and tossed up another rock, thinking that she'd probably get to twenty before those slowpokes would arrive. Much like the last one, this tunnel was filled with pipes. Still, the quantity seemed to lower the further they went through the dark corridor. They had been walking for a matter of minutes before they encountered something interesting. Another thin blockade of pipes were right in their way, going vertically from roof to floor with small gaps in between them. Both workers stopped up for a moment and observed the obstruction, before Calambite spoke up. "Well, it could've been worse." she said and trotted to the largest gap she could see. Without waiting for Iokin's word, she pressed herself through the space. With a grunt and a heave, she forced her torso past the pipes, but stopped immediately as she reached her hips. "Ngh... what?" she grunted and pushed forward. Alas, her hips simply squished against the pipe edges and her struggles got her nowhere. "Uhm... you want help?" Iokin asked, a bit sheepish of the sight of Calambite's buttcheeks clenching together as she tried to squeeze through. "Hold on... my hips won't go through like this." she replied and backed up slightly. With her waist between the tall metal rods, she raised her upper body so she stood on her hind legs only. She turned sideways as best as she could and fed half the length of her body through the gap as much as she could. Like this, she was able to fit one of her buttcheeks through the gap thanks to clinging onto on of the pipes with her leg, but grinded to a halt as her rear prevented her to move any further. She gave a couple of shoves forward whilst Iokin just watched. When no improvements were made, Calambite looked back at her colleague, panting lightly. "Care to give me a push?" she asked him. The stallion did not hesitate, but walked forth and began pushing her hip, forcing it into the gap. After a couple of long seconds later, Calambite's butt slid through and she stumbled out on the other side of the blockade. As the mare gathered her bearings, Iokin did not wait long before climbing into the gap himself in the same fashion as Calambite had tried originally, straight forward in a normal standing position. Before Calambite could object, he had squeezed his chest through and leaned forward, hips blocking his movement. "Uhm... Iokin?" Calambite asked, raising a hoof in question. "I don't think it works to..." "I'm smaller, I can do it." Iokin replied with a grunt, doing his best to fit through. "Just give me a pull." Calambite obliged, taking the stallion's hooves and pulling with all her might. After just a few seconds, Iokin butt squeezed itself through the gap and the stallion popped out on the other side. "See?" he said, using a hoof to massage his hip. The light-blue mare looked at him with a frown and muttered; "You don't have any idea how jealous I am at you right now." "Anything wrong, Calam'?" Iokin asked, concerned of his partner's sudden change in mood. She sighed. "I'd just hoped that we wouldn't have to get into any more situations like these." she said and gestured to the small gap between the pipes. "If we're going to have even more trouble getting out of here, well... then I don't even know about this job anymore..." "Hey, It's just an inconvenience." the stallion said and put a friendly arm around her shoulders. "A really, really big inconvenience. Something we all should be commended for putting up with. I'm pretty certain that any other worker would have given up as soon as they saw the first pipe, but not us." Calambite looked at him. "Are you sure?" "Absolutely. As soon as chief sees all the crap we had to go through, we'll recieve a well-earned bonus to our pay. And if not, well, then they can lick the boot and lose some of their finest workers." Iokin told her, a generous smile growing on him. The mare chuckled to his little speech. "Thanks Iokin." she said, returning the smile. "I think I needed that thought. This place has a way of dimming the mood." "No problem!" the stallion said as both of them began heading up the tunnel again. "And if we do get stuck somehow, at least now we won't have to worry running late with fixing that valve." Calambite chuckled again. "At least I'm working with somepony positive. Did I tell you about that one time I went with that guy Freshwill to fix a leak in the Mayor Mare's residence?" "I don't think you have, no." "Well, I have never met a pony that would complain as much as him! He went on about how this and that sucked and drove me on my nerves and whatnot..." Both of them chattered happily and they traversed closer and closer to the outside. Alright, come on... Trippy thought as she aimed another pebble. She was close to getting the twentieth rock over the edge, a record she'd enjoy watching anypony try to beat. She heaved it up high in the air, ready to kick it as it came down, when she suddenly heard faint noises coming from within the tunnel. She turned her head to face the sound, as the pebble landed straight on her head. "Oww... damn..." she groaned in stinging pain, rubbing the spot on her head where it had landed. She gathered her bearings as the sound drew closer, enough for her to realize it was two ponies chatter. "Is... are you guys there? Hello?" she called into the tunnel. Calambite heard the mare's call and picked up the pace. "Trippy?" she called out to the voice. "Is that you?" "Oh boy, finally!" Trippy exclaimed and sighed in relief, recognizing Calambite's voice. "Were you slowpokes held up or something? I've been here for ages!" The pegasus mare trotted up all the way up and rounded a corner leading to the presumed exit. As soon as she turned it however she slowed down to a halt, a look of disbelief forming on her face. "W-what in...? Trippy...? Trippy's face appeared in front of a small hole at the end of the short hallway, shaped by what seems to be collapsed rocks. Calambite made her way up to her with Iokin right behind. "Wasn't there supposed to be an exit here?" she asked, showing clear annoyance. The earth mare bit her lip. "There used to be, I think. Guess the ground wasn't stable enough or something. Odd, really." "Isn't it just like this company?" Calambite muttered bitterly. "We're giving ourselves a really bad name here with maintenance like this." "Yeah, how long has it been since this place had a checkup now again?" she asked. "I-I don't know, and at this point, I don't care. I just want to get out of here." Calambite groaned and placed a hoof on the hole's edge. "Uh, wait, Calam..." Trippy said, halting her friend. "I...did try to get through here before, but didn't quite fit. I'm not sure this is going to be easy for you." she said and scratched her neck. Suprisingly, Calambite cracked a smile to her. "Well, you didn't have two ponies helping you then, right?" She turned to face Iokin, who'd been quiet since the arrival. "You ready to help a girl in need one more time, Iokin?" "I could have this as a job." he replied and cracked his neck to emphasize. "I'm definitely getting some work experience here." Without further ado, Calambite put both arms through the small hole and advanced. Wiggling her head and shoulders through, she began to squeeze her chest and stomach through slowly, stopping every now and then to adjust her wings. The others could not do much other than observe the mare's progress. As almost most of her stomach had passed through, she stopped. Biting her lip, she pushed lightly upwards and felt her hips press against the edges of the hole. Although not as tight as any of the other spaces she'd had to fit through today, this hole was not exactly an easy game either. She pushed again, harder this time, trying to squeeze as much of her behind into the hole as possible. Slowly, and with a little bit of wiggling, her hips made their way through the passage, until her fleshy rump bunched up against the top of the hole and slowly grinded her progress to a halt. Feeling this sensation, Calambite immediately stopped struggling to take a break. Panting lightly, she looked up at Trippy, who gave her a questioning, contemplary nod. Bracing herself, the light blue pegasus nodded back and reached out her hooves. As Trippy took them in her own, Calambite looked back towards the hole and tried to shift her body as to make a small gap where Iokin could hear her and called him out: "Alright Iokin, you can start now." The stallion swallowed, ignoring all hesitation or awkwardness, and reached out to grab Calambite's thighs and push forward lightly. At the same time, Trippy began pulling on the arms. The trapped mare grunted as her body was stretched forward, pressure building up around her rear. She wiggled again, and with the extra force applied thanks to her companions, her hips and the smaller portions of her butt were stuffed further into the hole. They quickly came to another halt when the largest bit of Calambite's rump met the narrow entrance. She couldn't help but blush as she felt her large posterior attempt to squash itself through the tight space, figuring she probably wouldn't be able to get used to the feeling of it anytime soon. Inside, Iokin noticed the problematic encounter, and switched to push with one hoof straight onto Calambite's butt and holding her legs up with the other. The flesh of her cheeks were slowly prodded into the passage, filling it up to the brim and looking awkwardly pressed on by all sides. Soon, Calambite called for a timeout, stopping the process. By now she was really in there, hips lodged tightly in between the rock walls and with small portions of her butt starting to show on the outside. The blue pegasus gave a light heave to see how things were going, and wasn't surprised to feel almost no sense of budging. Once again, she found herself tightly stuck. "How is it going, Calam'?" Trippy asked whilst wiping her forehead. Calambite sighed. "Better than before, I guess. My hips are pretty wedged and...well, butt's having a hard time getting through." she said and glanced at her friend. She gave another push to show just how tight she was sitting. "So yeah, definitely stuck. If I had been alone here I would have been screwed." "Yea, good thing I didn't try too hard before, else I'd been in that very state." Trippy notified and gave Calambite a nervous look. "You think Iokin can make it?" "Of course. He's a pretty slim guy, so a couple of tugs might be all he needs." she shrugged. "Stupid foal-bearing hips, am I right?" "Stupid foal-bearing hips." Trippy affirmed. "Although you should have seen him back at the cylindrical pipe, he actually got stuck pretty bad in that one. Probably grew a bit claustrophobic..." "You girls know I can hear you, right?" a muffled, annoyed tone came from within the rockslide. Both Calambite and Trippy looked at the hole, then at each other, before having to shove a hoof in their mouths to suppress their giggling. "He just wants to get back to touching your ass!" Trippy said in a much more hushed tone to her stuck friend. "Trippy!" Calambite almost shouted and tried to smack her with a hoof, which Trippy dodged by simply taking a step backwards. The pegasus mare tried to reach out after her, but was instantly reminded of her current predicament. She kicked her rear legs and pushed with both arms against the sides of the hole trying to squeeze further through, but couldn't dislodge her hips. "Hay, I'd be surprised if he didn't have the hots for you by now, considering how he's been 'all over' you today, yeah?" she continued with a teasing wink. "Nonsense." Calambite interrupted and ceased her struggle. "Iokin has been behaving well and under these circumstances, and I surely wouldn't take him as a guy who would take the advanta-ungh!" The stuck mare abruptly fell silent mid-speech as she suddenly felt a pair of hooves on her behind again, pressing lightly into the soft flesh and trying to push her further into the hole where she was trapped. She quickly looked back at where her torso exited the narrow crevasse, her face feeling extremely hot and shining red like a ripe tomato, and called out anxiously to the stallion inside: "Iokin, what are you doing!?" Iokin reacted to her call and retracted his hooves off her rump, watching her legs and tail nervously twitch to the contact made and began to blush himself. "Uhm... I thought you were pushing, so... I-I figured it was my cue to, you know, help?" he explained. "Oh..." Calambite realized, whilst Trippy almost fell to the ground trying to contain her laughter. "How so...? Is everything alright, or are you still talking behind my back?" Iokin called out back. "Ehrm... no, no! Everything's fine! And we're not talking be... well, Trippy..." she trailed off. "Oh, hoho, man that's just beautiful!" Trippy snorted as she regained her footing. She quickly wiped away all tears from the hard laughter and did her best to compose herself. "Was that, like, scripted or something?" Calambite glared and opened her mouth to comment, but gave up and simply shook her head in defeat. "Real funny, Trippy." she said. "But Iokin... I mean...well, yeah... maybe it's time to get back to business." Trippy actually managed to contain herself this time, wiping her eyes yet again. "Alright, *snort*, but only as long you won't hit me when I get close enough, 'kay?" "Don't tempt me. I just want to get out of here." she replied and stretched out a hoof for her to grab. After a quick assurance between all parts, the ponies went back to forcing Calambite through the hole. Iokin held her rear legs in chest height and pushed on her flank whilst Trippy pulled on her arm. Calambite herself pushed with one hoof against the wall, wriggling and worming as much as she could. Her hips and rear slid forward in a painfully slow pace, although they were clearly making progress. "I... I can feel it!" she grunted as she tried to push harder. "We just... we just need a little more f-force..." "Right on!" Trippy exclaimed and stepped forward, grabbing her with both arms around hers and heaved backwards. Calambite could feel how the pressure from Iokins pushing increased, entering the same rythm as Trippy. For each heave, she slid slighty further, until she finally popped through, almost causing both her and the orange mare to topple over. Trippy took a firmer grip and helped Calambite to step out of the hole and safetly onto the rocky ground. "Phew, glad that's over. Thanks a whole lot guys." she thanked them both and rubbed her sore hips. "You're welcome girl! Now brace yourself, the slightly less worse is yet to come." Trippy pointed out. "I'll... take that as a compliment, thank you for your input Trippy." the gray stallion said in a monotone manner as he pushed their toolbox out of the hole, peeking through after it. He hesitated for a moment, before slowly putting his forehooves first through. Calambite was still busy dusting herself off, but Trippy watched closely as Iokin wiggled his head and shoulders through. Next, he placed his elbows onto the hard rock and pressed forward, grunting as his chest started to block up the passage. He suddenly stopped and let out an annoyed sigh. "T-Trippy..." he mumbled. "Could you give me a hoof?" Slightly concerned, Trippy nodded and walked up to him. "Giving up already?" she asked as she grabbed his hooves. "Just tired, is all." Iokin said. "Been underground for too long, I'm sore all over." "Yeah, tell me about it..." Calambite mumbled. Trippy pulled his hooves, lightly at first, but quickly upped her efforts. With a bit of wiggling from Iokin's side, they managed to dislodge his chest and pull his torso all the way through. As soon as his hips clogged up the exit, Trippy let go of him. "I'll need some more leverage." Trippy said and wrapped her arms around him. "Grab onto me." Iokin complied, wrapping his arms around her back and bracing himself. On a count of three, Trippy pulled again and he squirmed forward. After a short while, and after a couple of heaves, Iokin finally slipped out as well. "We did it!" Calambite cheered and walked over to hug Iokin, who'd dragged his legs through the hole and now stood on the unstable, rocky ground. The stallion returned the notion, with Trippy joining in. As soon as the group hug broke, Calambite took a deep breath of the fresh air to celebrate their victory over the narrow underground trip. However, she almost immediately broke her pride as she began snorting, all of a sudden. "Eww, I think we gained some odor from down there." she claimed, sniffing at herself. "We're gonna need to take a shower when we get back..." "Yeah, I think you guys need it more than I do right now." Trippy remarked and gave Calambite a light wink. "Eh, Calam'?" "You're also dirty Trippy!" the pegasus mare returned. "Meh, not as much as you guys." Iokin simply rolled his eyes and began climbing out of the rock pit. "You can argue as much as you'd like, but I'm getting out of here. If you need me, I'll be looking for that paycheck." he called out to them. Trippy and Calambite looked at him, then at each other and smirked. "He's right Trippy." Calambite said. "We've done a job well done. All of us. It's time to reap the rewards." The earth mare shrugged in response. "You're team leader, it's your call!" she said and began climbing out as well. A couple of minutes later, all three ponies were making their way back to the maintenance office via the roads of Ponyville's outskirts. They hadn't said much else after leaving the exit site, but Calambite had been nervously eyeing Iokin every now and then. Eventually, she coughed and looked over to him. "Ehrm, Iokin...?" He looked at her. "Yeah?" "You, uhm... you didn't think it... I... it was weird any of the times before, today? You know with the... uhm..." she stuttered, a faint blush growing on her cyan cheeks. Iokin realized what she was trying to say, and blushed too. "Oh, yeah, well, um... I was just... helping a friend in need. Yeah." "I think she's trying to know if you, well, liked it." Trippy stated. Calambite turned her head and glared at her for being so blunt, before looking back at Iokin and noticing that his blush had visibly grown. "I... well, uhm..." she started, before swallowing and almost letting her words stumble out; "Did you?" Iokin glanced nervously at the both of them, and then into the ground. "Y-yeah, I did..." he said. Silence remained for a moment before he met Calambite's gaze again. "What about you?" "I-I... um..." Calambite stuttered and looked away, rubbing her neck. Vivid images of him pressing down on her backside, trying to force her through tight passages, time and time again, passed through her mind. She smiled nervously again, and replied; "I'm glad you were there to help me when I needed it. And... well, now when I think about it, this might not have been all that bad of an experience." Iokin chuckled. "Anytime, Calambite." She shone up and looked at him, a tingling feeling emerging from within. "Really?" she said, trying her best to conceal a wink to him. Iokin looked back, grinning this time. "Anytime." Trippy kept her mouth shut this time around, but she had to put a hoof on her mouth to supress her chuckle. Damn, for real? That could get interesting... All three of them happily continued their chatting, making their way back into the town, feeling not only joy over that their task had been accomplished, but that they'd also achieved a new sense of liberty, not just physically from the cavernous depths below, but also in open minds and companionship.