My worst enemy...
Fanfic by Englishwitch
Chapter 8
Huge wooden stakes for fangs, glowing green eyes, a breath so foul it could only come from the depths of Tartarus. A timberwolf stared down at the two fillies with a hungry look on its wooden face. It opened its mouth and growled, pulling back to lunge.
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Both fillies screamed, the combined volume and shrillness was so loud the Timberwolf reared back from them, putting its paws over its ears.
Apple Bloom tugged on the rope. “RUN!”
The two ponies raced away from the recovering Timberwolf. It howled loudly, the howl was answered by the distant howling of more Timberwolves.
Apple Bloom and Diamond jumped over a fallen log. “This way!” they called together, both tried to run in opposite directions. The rope grew taut and yanked them back together they fell into each other. The two ponies glared, pushed and kicked to separate themselves.
“This way.” Diamond pointed.
“No,” Apple Bloom put her hoof down, “it’s this way.” she pulled on the rope, trying to drag DT with her.
The sound of four howling timberwolves came from behind them. To this left and right green eyes flashed in the shadows.
Both fillies pointed straight ahead; the only clear path. “This way!” they yelled in unison. They charged off as the timberwolves came out of the shadows, slinking toward them slowly. The wolves barked and howled and broke into sprints to chase after them.
Diamond Tiara started screaming. She could feel the hot, foul, breath of the timberwolves on her flank.
“JUMP!” Apple Bloom yelled just in time. The two fillies leapt over a large rock, Diamond Tiara just cleared the obstacle, Apple Bloom sailed over easily. A timberwolf wasn’t as lucky, ramming into the rock, muzzle first. It shattered onto a pile of logs and twigs.
WAAAAAAA
Diamond Tiara skidded on a thick mud puddle, she was pulled off her hooves, yanking at the rope and pulling Apple Bloom down with her. The two slammed into each other, their momentum carryind them. They rolled along as a mess of mane and hooves. The yellow and pink mass rolled like a ball off the forest path and through through the foliage of the forest.
The ground suddenly dropped away from them. The two ponies screamed as they fell into empty space, down and down and down into a deep pit.
WHAM
Soft dirt cushioned the fall but it was still a hard landing for the dizzy ponies. It was harder on Apple Bloom when Diamond Tiara crash landed on top of her.
Dizzy, dazed and confused Apple Bloom groaned, she felt the weight pressing on her body, she could smell the scent of wet earth around her. Wherever she was it was cold and dark.
“Owwwww.” Diamond Tiara eased her eyes open. There was darkness around her. She started, afriad that this was the inside of a Timberwolf’s stomach. Apple Bloom groaned as she stirred.
“Gerroff,” her voice was muffled by the dirt. She pushed Diamond Tiara, rolling the filly off her. Diamond landed hard on the soft dirt. Now that her eyes were beginning to adjust she could see that she wasn’t trapped in a pitch black pit like she’d originally thought. It was a huge hole in the ground, a deep pit, she could see the small disc of light high above them.
“What’s the deal with this place?” she grumbled and tried to brush dirt off her body. “who the hay digs a hole in the middle of nowhere?”
Apple Bloom looked around the little hole, cylindrical all the way down, like a tube into the earth but the floor was uneven, the earth was soft like it’d been turned over recently. She looked at it closely and saw shaped that looked like oversized pawprints. “Diamond Dogs. They musta dug a tunnel here or somethin’ maybe escaping’ or lookin’ for gems.” she look up the tunnel, there was nothing but the shape of light, no head of a timberwolf peering down at her, or the head of a pony that could help them out. “it’s a long way up.”
Diamond Tiara looked down at herself, all her efforts to brush the dirt off herself just rubbed it deeper into her fur. Nothing was going right for her, ever since her home had burned down. Nothing! “I’m such a mess.” her breath caught in her throat. “why?” her eyes stung as tears welled up. “it’s not fair,” she sobbed, “I wanna go home.” she started to sob as days of anguish bubbled to the surface and poured out. She’d lost her home, had been forced to live on a farm, been made to do chores, lost her tiara, broken her tooth and, worst of all, had been forced to spend a freezing night in a barn. She just couldn’t take it any more.
A hoof patted her back gently. Apple Bloom didn’t say anything but held her forelegs wide, offering a hug. Diamond rubbed her eyes with her untied hoof and shrugged Apple Bloom off. “I’m dirty enough without your muddy hooves.” her tone was weak, lacking all the usual venom and teasing that such a sentence would usually have. DT sniffed and wiped her eyes dry again.
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes and let the sentence slide. “Cheer up.” She looked at the walls of the tunnel, while being careful to not drag Diamond around by the slack of the rope. “Well, c’mon, we can’t stay down here all day.”
Diamond forgot her tears, she cocked an eyebrow. “Are you crazy? This hole’s, like, 20 feet deep? You gonna grow some wings?”
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, “look, you can either sit here whining or you can actually listen to me and do as you’re told for once. Take it or leave it.”
Diamond looked up at the distant light of the exit. Unless one of them turned into a pegasus she didn’t see how they were going to get out of this. “Fine, what do you have in mind?”
...***...
Back to back the two fillies locked their forelegs and brace against each other. They pushed their back hooves against the wall, both of them grunted with the effort of keeping their legs straight to push themselves off the ground.
“okay,” Apple Bloom grunted, “we gotta do this step by step, got it?”
Diamond Tiara felt a sweat breaking out on her forehead. “Yep,” she grunted back.
“On 2!” Apple Bloom responded. She began to count out, 1, 2, 1, 2, over and over on each call of 2 they took a step, pushing against each other to keep themselves braced against the walls. One step, them another and another. They rose two feet from the floor, then three, then-
Diamond made a misstep, her hoof slid out of place. DT felt her stomach jump into her throat, she fell down in the hole. Both girls yelped as they fell back down to the floor. The soft earth cushioned their fall but it was still rough, Apple Bloom felt the landing shake her entire body right up through her bones.
Diamond rubbed the thighs of her back legs, they were hot and throbbing. Even the brief exercise had been harder than she’d ever pushed herself in the past.
“Again.” Apple Bloom climbed to her hooves and dusted herself off.
“You’re kidding, right?” Diamond looked at her like the filly had gone nuts.
Apple Bloom gave her the same look. “You wanna spend the rest of your life down here?”
Diamond growled then sighed. “Fine.”
They braced themselves together again and started to climb up the wall once more.
Two feet...
Three feet....
At four feet Diamond yelled out, almost screamed. A sharp pain, like a knife blade, stabbed her leg. “CRAMP!” She twisted and writhed, trying to ease the agony in her leg.
Apple Bloom tried to brace her, try and hold them in place. Diamond couldn’t take it, she couldn’t unhook her arms from Diamond Tiara, couldn’t pound or massage her leg to ease the pain. It was too much. The ground beneth her hooves slid away. They fell through the empty space again, spinning then slammed into the floor. Diamond crashed hard, Apple Bloom landed on top of her.
Diamond pushed Apple Bloom off her. She thought of a long string of insults to yell at her but the pain in her leg demanded her attention. She rubbed and pounded the sore muscle, trying and failing to work out the knot in her limb.
Apple Bloom rubbed the back of her neck and took several deep breaths. Diamond Tiara realy was weak for an Earth pony. She had no strength in her legs and no stamina. She wanted to yell at the filly for her failings; that’s why she was taking the deep breaths, to calm herself. They had to work together to get out of this hole and breaking down into a fight wasn’t going to help anything.
“You okay?” she sounded a lot calmer than she felt.
Diamond grunted and groaned for a few more seconds while she rubbed her leg. “It’s easing up. Yeah, I’m okay.”
Apple Bloom took several more breaths and looked up at the distant light. It seemed further away than ever. “We can do this, we gotta try again.”
Diamond sniffed, fresh tears fell down her face, staining her fur. It had nothing to do with the fading ache in her leg. “I don’t want to do this anymore. I can’t. I....can’t...” she buried her face in her hooves and started to sob.
Apple Bloom rubbed at her wrist, the rope was really starting to hurt, all this activity was rubbing her ankle raw. “Look, Diamond Tiara, if y’all tell anypony ah said this and I’ll deny it... Y’all can do this. You’re the most stubborn pony I know, even if you ain’t the strongest, smartest or nicest-”
“Some motivational speech,” Diamond muttered.
Apple Bloom nodded. “sorry, but the point is, when y’all decide to do somethin’ you go and do it. You don’t let nuthin’ stand in your way, not even the rules. Y’all ain’t gonna let no dumb stinkin’ hole get in your way.” she held out a hoof to her, “Now c’mon, let’s do it again, I ain’t gonna let you fall this time.”
Diamond Tiara looked at her and saw the sincerity in Apple Bloom’s eyes. A weak smile found its way to her face. “Okay.” she took Apple Bloom’s hoof and was pulled up from her sitting position.
Placing themselves back to back the two ponies braced themselves against the earth wall, pushing against each other for purchase. They began to climb. As before they walked up the walls of the tunnel, keeping step to the chants of “One....Two...One...Two!”
Four feet...
Six feet...
Eight feet...
Diamond Tiara was covered in sweat, her legs burned and slipped on the soft earth. “I’m....slipping...”
Apple Bloom moved her hooves to get some more purchase. “We’re....almost....there,” she grunted. “Just...hold....on...”
The edge of the hole was in sight, just a little further and they could reach it.
They managed another step between them. Apple Bloom knew she could reach the edge if she had her forelegs free, but that would mean letting go of Diamond Tiara and losing the brace that was keeping them two of them up.
“Again!” she grunted.
They shuffled forward another step. Diamond Tiara screamed, her legs gave way and her stomach leapt into her mouth as she fell downwards.
Apple Bloom threw herself forward, kicking her hooves off the wall. Her jaws clamped tightly on a tree root. Splinters buried themselves into her cheeks and tongue but she held fast. The rope grew taut, diamond Tiara yelped as her entire weight was yanked through her wrist. Apple Bloom felt like her teeth were going to be pulled out. Surely she couldn’t hold their combined weights with her jaw.
“Don’t let go.” Diamond called up at her.
“Don rurry,” Apple Bloom grunted through her clenched teeth and the tree root. “ah ronn!”
She reached up with her free hoof and searched for anything to grab onto. But the tree root was the only thing in reach but she couldn’t grip it with just one hoof. If only she had claws like Spike. “Diond,” she called down to the filly, “ca ya clim uh?”
“What?” DT called back up. She sounded like she was in pain, dangling with your entire weight pressing onto your wrist was almost as painful as holding the weight of two ponies by your teeth.
Apple Bloom snorted through her nose. “Ca...yooo...clii....uh?” she spoke slowly, trying to pronounce the words around the obstruction.
Diamond struggled to work out what Apple Bloom was saying, pain wasn’t good for concentration. “Can, you, climb, up? Yeah, I think so. Hang on.”
Diamond stretched up her free hoof and hooked it around Apple Bloom’s hip. Bracing her back legs on the walls she pulled and walked upwards. The pressure around her bound wrist eased, much to her relief. She climbed onto Apple Bloom, putting her fore-hooves on a fillies shoulders and scrambling up her back.
Apple Bloom grunted and strained as Diamond Tiara’s weight pushed and shifted around her. Her teeth scraped along the root several centimetres, she felt the wood chip and splinter inside her mouth. She suddenly tasted the metallic tang of blood in her mouth.
Diamond climbed off Apple Bloom’s shoulders and onto the solid ground. Immediately she grabbed Apple Bloom by the hooves and pulled her up and clear of the sink-hole that had trapped them.
The two fillies collapsed and lay flat on their backs, panting rapidly to catch their breaths. Both were covered in mud and sweat. Apple Bloom spat the splinters out of her mouth. There was little blood, the injury had been nothing more than a splinter in her tongue. Diamond massaged her wrist, it had bad rope burn and a horrid bruise was already starting to develop. All her limbs throbbed and burned and her ears were full of the pounding of her heart.
Apple Bloom glanced at Diamond Tiara, “Thank...you,” she panted.
Diamond glanced at Apple Bloom. “You...too...thanks,” she said breathlessly.
Somewhere in the distance came the sound of a branch breaking.
Apple Bloom struggled to her hooves. “Maybe...we should...finish restin’....at home...”
Diamond nodded in agreement.