The alcove Dinky found to hide in was small. A closet-sized notch of stalactite just large enough for her to squeeze into. A shed, of some sort, perhaps? It didn't matter what it was, all that mattered were the number of Flesh Foals in the current vicinity, and to Dinky's limited good fortune, there were none around. Every few moments, she poked her head out to take a look around, but the barren hellscape was unchanging. She had made a clean getaway.
She sighed and leaned against a curved wall, pushing her glasses up onto her nose. For the moment, she was safe, and that gave her a chance to plan her next move, which consisted of one word and one word only: "Leave."
If she wanted to do that, of course, she had to climb back up the chasm, find the bridge, cross the bridge, avoid the Flesh Foals and other creatures lurking around, and slip past Cerberus outside. Easy!! She scowled softly. Easier if Diamond was with her. At least the other filly could be used as a decoy.
As if on cue, the air in front of her popped and crackled with celestial energy. A tear formed in front of her; a rift, rippling and shimmering in the air. Arcs of lightning danced and flickered around her, and slowly, the rippling 'gate' deposited a small silver filly in front of Dinky, with a glowing little star around her neck.
"Ugh....Hey, it worked! Ha! It took me six whole tries to get here! Hey, Dinks! Siver stars, that fight, huh?!" Diamond explained exuberantly, instantly standing up with a cheerful grin over her stupid face. Dinky stared. Really. How was she so upbeat all the time?!
"We're in the middle of Tartarus, our princess is missing, we're two untrained fillies separated from a group of trained soldiers, and there is a horde of goblin things chasing after us! Wipe that stupid smile, off of your stupid face, and take things seriously for once!" Dinky snapped, feeling the fur on the back of her neck prickling in anger.
Diamond rolled her eyes and poked her head out of the alcove to take in the surrounding area before she turned back to Dinky.
"Aw, you're just jealous that I beat up more monsters than you did!" The plucky pegasus snickered.
"Jealous? Of you? If I were EVER jealous of the tiny pea you have rattling around in your head that you pretend is a brain, I'd pick my nose with a power drill," Dinky explained. Diamond frowned.
"Dinky, did you go to school to learn how to be such a colossal bitch, or is that just natural talent? I mean, I just saved your life! Multiple times, in fact, so a little bit of gratitude, would be nice! What have you got against me?" Diamond huffed. Dinky turned sharply with a snarl twisting on her lips the moment Diamond mentioned saving her.
"You, did, NO, such thing! You're the one who got all of us to come down here in the first place. You're the one that ran off when we were working on a plan for Cerberus. YOU'RE the one who dropped the rock into the chasm, and YOU'RE the one who caused that fight, got us separated, and effectively sentenced the both of us to death!! I HATE you because you are an idiot. Intelligence is the most important thing in the world, Diamond, and you act like my mother! Completely brainless! Not a bucking thought in your big empty head! All it does is inconvenience everypony else and you're too dumb to understand it! You mindlessly drift in and out of these situations, and you NEVER LEARN ANYTHING and put others in danger! I HATE YOU! We'd all be much better off if you had just died when your mother pushed you off that cloud!!" Dinky raved, loud enough to echo past the alcove into the darkness surrounding them.
Diamond slowly folded her forelegs in front of her and nodded her head at each of Dinky's points. When she was done, Diamond slowly stood up and dipped her head out of the alcove, beckoning for Dinky to follow her. Just outside. Two steps from the little hidey hole.
"Ok, Dinky. You're smarter than me. I accept this, I understand this. You're probably a whole bunch smarter than me. How about a pop quiz hotshot: how long do you think you'd last against me in a fight?" she asked cheerfully. Dinky growled, and began a response- but Diamond hadn't finished. She continued walking around in a smallish circle, keeping an eye on her surroundings as she talked. Dinky was beginning to feel anxious.
"No, really, How long you think you'd last against me? One round? Two, tops? Sure, you'd get off a couple of shots, but then what? I mean, seriously, think about it if you and I got into a fight? Who's down here to break us up? Who's gonna set the rules? Cause you've been trying REAL hard to get me to slug you, and I just want to know how you think that would end? See, to me- the dumb mare, with the invincible fur is the girl you want on your team in a world of monsters. Everything down here would love nothing more than to kill you, and you have been trying really hard to add me to that list. " Diamond snapped. She had turned away from Dinky and stood with trembling wings and angry quivers. She was doing her best to manage Dinky's attitude. Every second they spent fighting was a second they weren't looking for Luna but sometimes that other filly got on her last nerve. Always acting like she was the smartest pony in the room and better than everypony else.
"I wouldn't fight you, I'd just outsmart you. "Dinky sighed. "It wouldn't be hard because you're as intelligen-" Dinky began but was cut off when she noticed Diamond tap-tap-tapping her right hind hoof against the ground.
"Hey, check this out." Diamond squeaked brightly, stomping her hoof even harder. What was she doing? It was rude and weird. Did she interrupt Dinky just to stomp her hind hoof against the ground? Dinky watched for a moment, staring at her hoof, trying to figure out what Diamond was doing before the pegasus kicked a clod of dirt into Dinky's face. A trick!!
Dinky stumbled back, coughing and trying to clear her vision, but Diamond was too quick for her. She pounced the other girl, firmly wrapping her hooves around Dinky's neck to forcefully point her head (and horn) away from Diamond's face.
"GET OFF ME!!" Dinky screamed, bucking, and kicking, but Diamond had too much experience to be thrown off by the weaker girl's violent thrashing. She braced herself, holding Dinky down with an angry sputter bubbling from her lips.
"WHAT NOW, DINKY?! WHERE'S ALL THAT LIP NOW?! HUH?! WHAT NOW SMART ASS?! DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING, DID YOU?!" Diamond snarled. She lifted a hoof and brought it down across Dinky's face with a loud, resounding smack. It briefly stopped the struggle altogether, leaving Diamond and Dinky panting and heaving at one and other.
"MAKE A COMMENT ABOUT ME BEING A NUDGE!! DO IT AGAIN DINKY!!" Diamond screamed. She lifted her hoof to bring it down on Dinky's face for another slap, but the moment she lifted up was the moment Dinky turned her head and fired off a blast of magic. She caught Diamond right in the face. The silver filly shrieked in surprise, rolling off of Dinky and clutching at her face, trying to restore her lost vision; Dinky had blasted her right between the eyes!
"ARRRGH!!" Diamond screamed, rolling back and forth, clutching at her eyes. Dinky pounced, trying to take advantage of the situation. She dove onto Diamond, wrapping her hooves around the other girl's neck trying to wrench the star from her. She could use it to get home...get out of this nightmare!!
"I WANT TO GO HOME! TAKE ME HOME! I WISH I WAS HOME!" Dinky screamed, clutching at the star- but nothing happened. In those scant few seconds, Diamond launched her off with a firm kick, leaving the two of them laying on the ground, panting heavily and separated.
"Legit question, Dinky? Why follow us down here?" Diamond asked after a long few seconds of gazing at the ceiling. Dinky panted quietly in the darkness but otherwise didn't respond.
"Cause you hating me? I get that. You hate the servants? Fine. Maybe you hate Luna too, but why did you come down here? That's the one part I can't connect." Diamond groaned.
"I don't want to be alone. I hate you because you're dumber than rocks but...sometimes you're the only pony in the castle that will talk to me, and mom's too busy getting fired from her jobs, and ... and I don't...have a lot of friends." Dinky sighed. Diamond rolled her eyes in the dark.
"You don't say? No friends. How strange and yet, you have such a charming and unique personality," Diamond grumbled flatly. There were no responses from the darkness for a long few couple of seconds.
"I'm...not real good at making friends. And now I'll never get to be, because of you," The darkness said, somewhere adjacent to Diamond.
"You say that like we've already failed," Diamond groaned.
"Yes, Diamond. We have failed. See, you might not be aware of the fact we are fillies and not trained to handle a hostile environment, SUCH AS TARTARUS!" Dinky snapped. There was quiet for a long few moments before Diamond finally spoke up.
"Ok. We fail. We die down here. Your mom, my brother? They die, too. Canterlot? Ponyville? Manehatten? All gone," Diamond grumbled. Dinky's ears perked in the darkness. What in Equestria was this crazy filly talking about?
"Do you think Princess Celestia can deal with the news of her sister being lost AGAIN?! It would crush her. It would DESTROY her. You think she's gonna have the energy to raise the sun if she loses her sister after JUST finally getting her back? You think she'll care about anything? You think depression and despair and all that wouldn't take over? You think she'll be sunshine and rainbows? That princess was desperate enough to ask us to help find her sister and that means we are the LAST chance Equestria has. Without Luna, Celestia wouldn't raise the sun, or the moon. We'd all die with her heart," Diamond explained. She climbed to her hooves and reached up to tug the star piece from her neck.
"If I can save at least one pony from Tartarus, though, I'll do it," Diamond explained. She made her way over to a confused Dinky and held up her star.
"Take this and use it to try and wish yourself home. You might have to try multiple times but should eventually get you there. It might not work at all, but I hope it protects you...when you get out give it to my brother...ya know...so he can remember me? That way, you get out AND he gets a cool keepsake!" Diamond offered with the same, dumb, cheerful smile she had earlier when they started talking. Dinky balked and looked at the glittering jewel in her hooves and the brainless filly in front of her.
"I..." Dinky began. Diamond turned away from her and shrugged.
"You're right. We're probably gonna fail. I'm cool with that, because....well you know I've got nothing but borrowed time. I figure I'll use the last of it to look for Luna. Hey, I made it this far, right? You've still got a chance to get out of here, though." Diamond explained. Again, Dinky glanced down at the jewel in her hooves, and up at Diamond who started to walk away from her. Was she seriously just giving Dinky her most prized possession?
"You wanna bail? Fine. Just tell my brother I love him a whole bunch okay?" Diamond begged quietly, shuffling off into the cold darkness.
"Wait!" Dinky called out. Diamond paused, perking both her ears as Dinky wandered over and fell into step next to her.
"You know the star doesn't work for me," Dinky grunted and forcefully shoved it back into Diamond's hooves. Diamond looked confused for a moment, and Dinky shrugged her shoulders. "And that means if I want to use it to get home, you need to possess it and we need to find Luna, because you won't use it until we do. " Dinky explained coldly. The probability of survival was much higher working with Diamond than against her, though she was loathed to admit it.
"So let's go and find her then!" Diamond announced and trotted off, happy go lucky once more. Dinky could only sigh.