Normally the cave tunnels feel suffocating. Walls and ceiling push inward, more quickly when you pick up your pace, and soon the very air feels compressed and unrelenting. Now, as Dad accompanies me toward the family chamber, they're as broad, spacious, and accommodating as the fields outside. It's easier to appreciate the fact that they're wide enough and tall enough to allow a dozen ponies room to move inside.
The stone floor is level beneath my hooves, worn smooth from the path of boiling lava long ago. Shadows play merry games across the ceiling, but the light of intermittently placed torches sweeps them aside at intervals, revealing in swaths of flickering light the golden-brown of the rock that arches up and over our heads. There's a beauty to these caves I hadn't appreciated before, I realize, as the panic of the day begins to drain from my mind. If I look closely, I can see something glittering like enticing crystals, embedded irrevocably in the uneven walls.
As we walk, a babble of murmuring reaches our ears, growing like a brook downstream. I give Dad a questioning look, but he only gives a comforting glance in return. And why shouldn't he? No creature outside can hear our family through the long and twisting tunnels; despite their volume, the sound is reflected back by great shelves of stone protruding from the walls. Of course, these echoes make the noise in the room all the louder, and generally we like to restrain ourselves to minimize the possibility of turning deaf. Perhaps the details in her disappearance were even more controversial than I imagined.
Another turn finally brings us to the family chamber, a place where the apex of the ceiling ascends high enough that even our largest torches can't chase out the darkness from above. More tunnels branch out around the room, leading deeper into the mountain where one can find water and, further still, traces of magma. But the acoustics of the room fail to catch my attention in this instance.
Flustered relatives are gathered around the dais in the center of the room, where a large cushion deigns to provide some sweet soft relief for a lucky pony. In this instance, as in many others, it is currently occupied by the familiar weight of my young brother, a colt who will never find relief from his baby fat. His red eyes sparkle as they dart upwards to us, and his wordless cry of greeting quiets the ponies, who look around as one in fear and curiosity.
Near silence reigns for a moment. The light trickling of far-off water, together with the growling rumble of magma churning in the depths of the stone, reaches my ears.
My brother breaks the quiet. "So, where's my present?"
The memory of my unpleasant adventure flashes before my eyes, and I tremble, leaning into Dad's side for safety. He nuzzles my mane, mumbling pleasant nothings.
Everypony starts explaining at once. From what I can understand, there was a fight while I was away — Mother lost her birthday gift for little Thorncrown, and with it went her temper. The shouting could no longer be overlooked, and mercifully the entire clan turned on her. Why she left is a simple matter, but where she's heading is trickier. Perhaps she's searching for the Apple family, wherever they are. It doesn't matter much, everypony supposes. The important thing is her absence. Whether she'll return, nopony can say. It didn't seem like she would, they say, but who can tell with that headstrong Roselight? She always was a hoofful, Grandma Apple Rose grumbles. Never treated her elders with much respect, that one.
I barely notice or care. My relief at being here is palpable. It's not just that I'm alive, it's that I'm safe for the first time in years. My limbs are weak as water, and my next attempt at a step nearly sends me stumbling. I just want to sleep. I have to shut out the world for a while.
Kind lavender eyes come to my rescue. My dear sister sweeps me onto her back and begins to make her way to the tunnel that leads to our room. Murmuring adults mill around us, but none try to stop our progress. They're too obsessed with gossip at the moment.
Our room is a simple affair, with only the thin mats that serve as our beds to decorate the little cave. Nevertheless it sings to me like heaven, and I roll off of her back and onto my bed in a less than graceful motion. I sink into the fabric with a shuddering sigh. It's been a long day.
"Double Delight?" The words only come with great effort, so great is my exhaustion.
She pauses halfway out of the room with a smile. "Yes, Lucky?"
"I'm happy." And I mean it. I scoot under my blanket, curling up into a little red and white ball as warm comfort begins to wash my trauma away. "Do you know? I'm happy."
"I'm glad to hear it." She nuzzles me. "They're discussing what's to be done now. I'll let you get some rest. Good night!"
She trots back to the group outside, but I'm not listening. Instead I'm drifting into a hazy state of mind, dissolving into a place where earth ponies can fly on a wish. Yet before I'm entirely overtaken by dreams, I remember the bulky shape of a looming monster, nibbling delicately with huge teeth at the broad expanses of grass. The world behind seems a larger place, filled with adventure and longing. Come with me, the monster seems to say. I will protect you.
I'm not sure, but I think I fall asleep with the ghost of a smile.