//------------------------------//
// The Underground Corridors 
// Story: Twilight Sparkle's Anguish 
// by Trailblazer Rocker 
//------------------------------//

     Just then, a voice they recognized as their own friend's voice was heard from behind.
"Oh, what?? Are you giving up THIS early?!" it said.
Both Twilight Sparkle and AppleJack nearly jumped once they heard this. Once they turned around, they saw their friend that just spoke, and they knew it belonged to their own little alpha-male.
Trailblazer.
"Trailblazer?!" Both of them were shocked.
At the sight of this, Steel Sword stopped putting power into the Sinister Star and paused. "Interesting... There were other survivors..."
Trailblazer walked up to them. "C'mon, you NEVER gave up this easily when you're trying to clear an apple orchard by yourself, or learning how to cast a new spell!"
"So, if you're alive, then..."
"Come on in, girls!"
Trailblazer waved his foreleg towards himself. The double doors opened, and in came the rest of their friends: Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.
"Oh my God, you're all alive!" The two mares were overjoyed as they all ran towards each other, gathering for a big group hug. This went on for about half a minute until they all dispersed loosely amongst each other. Trailblazer even had a foreleg around Fluttershy's shoulders.
"But... How did you all survive? We thought that all this time, you were all, well, goners!"
"Here, allow me to explain," Rarity stated. As she started her explanation, a flashback came back to her and Pinkie Pie's memory.

Pinkie Pie and Rarity were dropped by Fluttershy, let go to fall into the abyss that they thought would never be able to come out of, never to see the light of day again.
"What are you doing?!" they heard Trailblazer scream.
Both of them were screaming as they saw the rocks chase them as they fell down their shaft.
"Hold me!" yelled Pinkie Pie. She wrapped her forelegs tightly around Rarity. In turn, she brought herself closer to her and held on, with her eyes shut tight, as they both braced themselves for the landing.
While Pinkie Pie was looking at the rocks that were falling towards them, she saw as the ceiling shut on itself after they passed through it. No boulders could reach them now. As she kept eye contact on the ceiling, they felt themselves land. Unexpectedly, it was a soft landing, and they sunk a little bit into the surface they were on. As they bounced on their jiggling surface, they could hear the boulders crash down on the ceiling that closed on them after they passed through. The noise subsided as they watched the ceiling, anticipating it to cave in, allowing the rocks to crash on them. It stayed put.
Rarity opened an eye, then looked around. No rocks fell on them. She let go of Pinkie Pie and walked around on their cushiony floor.
"Are we... Still alive?" she wondered.
"I... Don't know..." Pinkie Pie answered, trying to fathom what they just went through. She was just as astonished as Rarity was. Then, she got an idea, and shoved Rarity aside.
"Pinkie!" she scolded. "That was most certainly rude of you!"
"But, didn't you feel that?" she asked.
"Of course I felt that, how could I NOT..." Rarity stopped herself once she realized Pinkie Pie's real intention. "If I felt that, then, we MUST be alive!"
"Bingo!" Pinkie called out.
Then, Rarity got anxious again. "Oh, dear! What if we're trapped in here forever?!"
"Rarity!" Pinkie yelled in her ear. As she picked at it after the noise, Pinkie continued. "Maybe there's a door here in this room! If someone got trapped in here by mistake, they could walk back out and back into the main floor."
"It's a trapdoor we fell through, did you not notice that?"
"Then how do you explain that?" Pinkie Pie pointed towards a cleanly cut rectangular hole in the wall, which led deeper into the castle in the direction that they were initially traveling in. Rarity was a bit shocked, and a bit in disbelief.
"Pinkie, sometimes, I can't stand you, but... I'm glad to have you around!"
The party animal was a little confused. "Just for pointing out a hole in the wall?"
"Well, it means that we can move forward! And I have the confidence to move forward now too!"
As Rarity trotted towards the hole, Pinkie Pie watched her for a little bit, shrugged to herself, and then followed her.

"Just how exactly long IS this hall?" wondered Pinkie.
"What did you expect from a hallway with a basement resemblance?" Rarity asked back. "Tsk!"
"Hey look!" Pinkie pointed towards the next big room. They walked in to see another big inflatable bubble in the room.
"Were we too late?" wondered Rarity. "Did we miss one of our friends?"
"Maybe we should wait for a little bit," suggested Pinkie.
Both of them looked at the ceiling for a solid five minutes. While Rarity got a bit distracted with her mane, and shifting around, Pinkie kept eye contact on the ceiling the whole time.
"I wonder if they're making better progress than we are..." Rarity thought out loud.
"I'm not sure, but it wouldn't hurt to find out..."
Just then, a deep rumbling from above shook the room.
"Maybe not after all!" shouted Rarity.
"Take, coverrrrrrrrrr!" yelled Pinkie Pie. They both darted to the hallway that they just came from and hid in it.
"Wait, we need to get to the other side!" Rarity called out. "If these rocks fall in this room, we'll be trapped in this hall!"
"Oh, good idea! Let's go!"
They both got out of the corridor that they came from, ran past the giant cushion, and into the next hallway. They stayed underneath it, anticipating the rocks to fall into the room. As they braced themselves, they heard the rocks fall, but it seemed to be that the rocks were stopped somehow. For several seconds, they waited for some rocks to fall, but none came. Slowly, both of them got out from their shelter.
"You'd think the rocks would be here by now..." Pinkie thought out loud.
The trapdoor on the ceiling opened. This startled the two, but no rocks fell from it. Instead, Fluttershy flew down.
"Fluttershy??" they both asked.
"Pinkie Pie? Rarity??" she asked back. "Goodness, you're both okay!"
The two mares converged around Fluttershy's landing spot.
"Oh, dear, you too!?" Rarity said.
Fluttershy did a double take to the trapdoor she fell through, then looked back. "Yeah..." She then looked shocked and recoiled. "Oh. dear, I still can't believe that I dropped you two!"
Pinkie and Rarity looked at each other, then back at her. "I can forgive you for that..."
This surprised Fluttershy. "You can??"
"We're both alive, we're unharmed, and look! We can both see each other again!"
Fluttershy showed a small smile, but then it turned into a frown. "If only Trailblazer could forgive me that easily..."
"Huh?"
She turned around. "He really yelled at me after I dropped and left you two behind. And he was just, LIVID at me for that..."
"How so?"
"He yelled at me, got in my face, put the blame on me, and even brought me to tears..."
Pinkie and Rarity looked at each other. "I guess I can see why he was mad, but, he had NO right to make you feel so... Terrible..."
"But I still wish I could show him that I am sorry, and that he would forgive me..."
"You don't have to be sorry for that!" jumped Pinkie Pie.
"What?"
"Yeah! We're still okay! We're alive! If you were sorry for leaving us behind, well... The answer to that is in the flesh!"
The other two thought for a moment.
"Huh!" Rarity huffed, astonished. "Nice observation!"
"Hey, you're right, Pinkie!"
"Well, what are we waiting for? We need to catch up with the others!"
"I suppose we should go then," said Fluttershy.
With that, all three of them continued down the path that Pinkie and Rarity were going down, into another narrow hallway deeper in the castle.

"I wonder how Trailblazer is doing right now..." Fluttershy said.
"How do you think he feels?" Pinkie asked her.
"Well, to the others above us, we're considered dead. He must feel awful..."
"...He might..."
"But if he doesn't..."
"He shouldn't, I assure you that," said Rarity. "If not, then that's a real reason to hate him."
The small talk continued through their winding hall. All of it consisted of the condition of their friends and their situation.
Just then, they heard a falling yell from up head.
"Another trapdoor room! Wait, who do you think's falling?" Pinkie asked.
"We must investigate!" called Rarity.
All of them ran through the hallway until they saw the giant inflatable pillow thing that was in the other rooms. Then, they saw a pony make impact on the cushiony thing. Rainbow Dash followed, but stopped herself from landing on the cushion.
"Ooomph!" they heard.
"Where are we...?" the pegasus wondered.
"Rainbow Dash??" called Pinkie Pie.
"Pinkie?" she called back.
The other three caught up with Rainbow Dash to regroup. Just then, the other pony climbed off the giant pillow and landed on the floor.
"Now where am I?" he asked.
"Trailblazer!" Fluttershy called out.
"Fluttershy?" he asked.
He converged with with the others, but then grew hesitant, and hung his head. "I guess it's too late for apologies... We must be in some sort of afterlife chamber now."
Fluttershy was confused. "...Huh?"
The others were just as confused too.
"I mean, we all must've fallen 20 stories. None of us could've survived that."
"And what about me?" asked Rainbow Dash.
Trailblazer started at her for a moment. "Of course. You would've been able to stop yourselves at any time... Wait... AM I alive?"
He punched himself in his chest, then let out a shrill moan. Fluttershy was a bit startled once she saw that. "What did you do that for??"
"Yes! I felt pain! I am alive!" He got up and looked at the mares. "Then that means... So are all of you...!"
"Indeed," Rarity said.
Trailblazer's expression turned from a pained and bewildered one into a look of great sorrow. "Oh, God, Fluttershy...!"
"...Is there something wrong?" she asked him.
Trailblazer's ears drooped. He tackled Fluttershy and gave her a tight hug. "OH, GOD, FLUTTERSHY! I am SO sorry!!" His eyes were on the verge of watering. "I should've never treated you so poorly! Forgive me, for I was an asshole!"
"You're, choking... Me...!" gagged Fluttershy.
"I don't even know how I can forgive myself for all that! The blaming, the yelling, the misery I put you through! Pinkie Pie and Rarity are okay, so I can't be mad at you for that, and... I just feel so awful for treating you like dirt!"
"Let, go!" Fluttershy squeaked.
Trailblazer quickly released his grip around her. "It was terrible. I thought I was going to live the rest of my life knowing that I made you feel terrible after we thought you passed away!"
Rainbow Dash looked at him in awe. "Whoa... I guess you really did care after all..."
Trailblazer let out a loud huffy sigh, still ashamed at himself. "I still can't get over how badly I made you feel, and I don't expect you to forgive me..."
Fluttershy was also in awe, and a bit worried herself. "Trailblazer, while anypony would say that how you treated me was very poorly, I can still forgive you for that."
"What??"
"Look, I know that I shouldn't have panicked, but, Rarity and Pinkie Pie are safe and sound after all! And what you said about me and to me wasn't very nice at the least, but it's good to see that you know it wasn't right... You obviously have a lot of remorse..."
Trailblazer still looked worried.
"...So, I can forgive you for that, but you have to forgive yourself first..."
He looked down at himself some more.
"And when I caused that trouble back at Rarity's and Pinkie's trapdoor, I apologize for that too."
"If I caused more trouble to you, then why are you asking ME to forgive you?"
"Because we BOTH weren't right. We BOTH didn't do our parts. And we both need to forgive each other for our misdeeds."
Trailblazer looked off into the other parts of the room, then down at himself again, thinking.
"So. What do you say?"
He looked up, showing an upset frown. It then slowly grew to a weak smile, and then a stronger one. He walked up to Fluttershy and hugged her gently.
"Apology accepted!" she answered.
"Ditto," replied Trailblazer.
"Awwww, there there..." cooed Rarity. "It truly is good to see you two make amends."
The two ponies let go of each other again.
"Though, I have to ask... What happened to you while I was down here?"
"It was horrible..." Trailblazer became upset again. "I felt as bad as you did when I yelled at you. No, let me rephrase that; I was HATED by Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and even AppleJack."
"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash looked and felt guilty. "We hated him because we thought you kicked the bucket... AppleJack even told Trailblazer to 'drop dead'!"
"WHAT?"
"Yeah, she did! And look at what happened!"
Fluttershy looked shocked. "And here I thought Trailblazer was hard on me!"
"...I wonder how they feel about us now..."
"They must feel awful! Oh, those poor dears..." said Rarity.
"I guess we should get out of here and prove them wrong," said Trailblazer.
"Yeah, let's do it!" shouted Rainbow Dash.
All of them got to the next hallway and resumed going deeper into the castle.
"I have to ask, Fluttershy," began Trailblazer. "What ever happened to that Pack Rat brat?"
"It was odd!" she answered. "As I was being held down by him, and we fell through the trapdoor, he just, disappeared after a few seconds of falling."
"Just, into thin air?"
"Yeah. There was a white flash in his place, and he vanished!"
"Now why would that happen?" wondered Rainbow Dash.
"I'm not sure. But, he's gone. What else can I say?"
"I guess we're better off getting back with Twilight and AppleJack than discussing it."
"Noted," said Trailblazer. "Let's keep moving."

"...And then we walked up to a trapdoor in the ceiling which led to a grand staircase, and that staircase led to this very room!" Rarity said, finishing the explanation.
"That explains everything, I guess..." said Twilight Sparkle.
"Hey, uh... Trailblazer...?" AppleJack meekly walked up to him. "Ah have to apologize... 'Should've never told you to..." She swallowed. "...Drop dead... Ah feel awful for that..."
Trailblazer looked at Fluttershy, then back at AppleJack. "It was perfectly understandable for you all to be mad at me... But, is there a reason to be mad at me now?"
"You have no idea how upset you made me when ya fell down that hole back there..."
"I forgive you, AppleJack."
She sniffled. "Wha...??"
"It wasn't right for me to yell at Fluttershy, but I know the feeling of sending somepony to misery just before their demise too. It turns out that we're all okay after all. So..." He lifted a foreleg to welcome her embrace. "The past is the past. Can we forgive each other?"
AppleJack still felt guilty, but she saw that he was remorseful and forgiving. "Ah don't know how ya could forgive me after that, but..." A smile grew on her face, and she threw herself forward to receive Trailblazer's hug. "Yes. Yes, allrighty, surgarcube."
As AppleJack snuggled against his neck, Trailblazer turned his head to make eye contact with Fluttershy. She winked at him, and Trailblazer winked back.
Steel Sword observed the scene for a moment, pondering on his own antics. "Could I be, wrong...? Is there really hope?"
"Trailblazer...?" Twilight spoke up. "I should apologize for what I did too... It was wrong for me to yell at you like that too..."
"We're not perfect, Twilight," said Trailblazer. "I wouldn't like the misery as much as any other pony."
"Well... Can you forgive me too?"
"I sure can."
Twilight was also shocked at his forgiveness, but then accepted it. "I don't know what to say... But..." She also smiled. "Thank you...!"
After that, the space that they occupied began to glow around them.
"What's happening??" asked Rainbow Dash.