//------------------------------// // Ordeal // Story: Coldy's Cutting Room Floor // by ColdGoldLazarus //------------------------------// Whatever happened to the bridesmaids? Ordeal “Are you sure you want this, though?” She asked, looking at me with that expression. The expression she puts on whenever my family pressures me into doing something; the expression that’s so full of love and concern that I feel so guilty for worrying her, and selfish for wanting to have someone so beautiful and kind all to myself. “Well, I guess I’m not really all that enthused,” I admitted, “But as far as suggestions from my parents go, this one isn’t half bad. It’s not every day you get to partake in the wedding of a princess, after all! I just wish you could come with me…” She walked around the table and nuzzled me. “Just don’t catch that bouquet, okay?” She murmured before pulling back with a sudden mock stern expression. “You’d have some explaining to do.” I just giggled at her accidental rhyme. “I hadn’t even thought of it until you brought it up. I love you, Bon-Bon.” “Ugh, what happened?” My head hurt, I was lying on something really hard, and I felt cold. It wasn’t as cold as the time I’d been caught out in a Pegasus-scheduled blizzard without my coat; it was worse. Much worse. I felt like I was in space. What if I was on the moon? What if the rumors of a ‘nightmare virus’ were true, and it had somehow affected me, and I’d become Nightmare Lyra, and The Music Would Last Forever and then I’d been banished to the moon? Okay, that was admittedly a bit ridiculous, but given my mental state at the time and what information I had to work with, it’s at least an understandable conclusion. Right? Ah, but I digress. I was lying on the ground, freezing my cutie mark off, and I had a huge headache and a conspicuous lack of memories that could explain how I’d gotten wherever I was. And all that was just before I opened my eyes. There was another mare lying right next to me, our snouts nearly touching, and she wasn’t Bon-Bon. “AAAAAH!” I jumped to my feet, backing away, and the other mare did the same. I cocked my head to one side, and she did, too. She was a soft mint green, with a darker shaded mane that had a streak of white on one side. She was wearing the tattered remains of a too-colorful dress, the yellow parts just barely managing to match with her golden eyes. Oh, come on. Seriously? A heartfelt facehoof was quick to follow the realization that I was looking at my reflection. At least this meant I hadn’t partied too hard and done regrettable things, but that didn’t answer the question of what had happened. I glanced around, taking in my dismal surroundings; a massive cavern that looked ready to collapse on me any moment; so wide across that the other side was completely lost in darkness. I was on a wide ledge halfway up the wall; broken rocks waiting far below for a falling pony to chew on, while the ceiling rose as high as a cathedral above. Taking a moment to compare scale, I estimated that the royal palace in Canterlot could fit in here without difficulty. Oh, Celestia. Canterlot. I was supposed to be in Canterlot right now, helping with a wedding I had no emotional investment in, and instead I was in some huge cave that could be on the other end of the world for all I knew, battered and likely in no condition to escape. And Bon-Bon! Where was she right now? Was she okay? Was she thinking of me right now? This was not ranking very high on my list of ideal situations. At all. “Ugh…” Spinning around fast enough to make myself dizzy, I saw a dark figure rise from the floor like a restless phantom. I couldn’t move, and I was scared, and I didn’t know where I was or how I got here and what if this was pony hell and I didn’t even get to tell Bon-Bon goodbye and what had I even done to deserve this and the figure was coming closer and I was so terrified… And then the figure stepped into a shaft of light, and I felt myself nearly give out in relief, because it was in fact none other than a bruised and bleeding, but alive and not going to eat my soul, Twinkle Shine. Her off-white fur was smudged with dirt, and there was a nasty bruise showing through on one cheek, but her expression betrayed the same relief I was feeling. She reached a hoof out to help me up, as somehow I’d ended up sitting on my rear, though I really didn’t remember exactly when, and I gratefully accepted it. She looked around, evidently examining the environment, same as I had, and I noticed that there was a nasty cut right below her horn, slowly trickling blood down her forehead. The sight was oddly fascinating, like when the mailmare back home in Ponyville would crash into Carrot Top’s stand; you wanted to avert your gaze but simply couldn’t. Blood was a rare sight in Equestria; perhaps there would be the occasional accident or a skinned knee, or more rarely, disasters such as the rampaging Ursa Minor (Minor!) or Nightmare Moon’s return, but it was still an uncommon sight. This gash had me morbidly transfixed. A hoof on my shoulder snapped me out of the daze. “I said, are you alright?” Twinkle was looking at me with concern and slight irritation. I shrugged off her hoof, keeping my eyes away from her horn. “Yeah, but I’m not so sure about you. Did you crash into a rock or something?” She pursed her lips and gestured to me to follow her to the back of the ledge, out of the light. She pointed out a pony-shaped imprint in the dust, then to a nearby boulder that sported a number of sharp edges and a streak of blood. I winced. “So we should probably figure out where we are and how to get out, preferably quickly.” She announced. “Wasn’t there someone else who was a bridesmaid?” I peered around, but the gloom was difficult, and that one shaft of light I’d woken up in was killing my night vision. “Maybe we should poke around for her.” It didn’t take long to find the last of our odd trio stretched across a sloping rock not far from where Twinkle had awoken. Her neat, toothpaste-like mane, identifying her as part of the Colgate family, was now a mess of blue and white, and her dress was reduced to rags. Her legs were scraped, like she’d dived down onto the rock from above and skidded along its length. She wouldn’t be able to walk without pain for a while. Still, we woke her, because three heads are better than one. “Okay, so we have light,” I pointed out once we’d given her time to gain her bearings and get up to date with the situation, “Which either implies a way out or is artificial. Either way, it’s a good place to start, and we know there’s an escape, because otherwise we couldn’t have gotten in here in the first place.” “Unless someone used a molecular loosening spell in us to shove us in through the walls.” Twinkle countered, looking disturbed at the idea. With the head injury, we’d decided it was safer if she didn’t use magic until we could escape and have a doctor look at it. If we had to walk through walls to leave, she would probably be unable to come with, and they hadn’t taught us how to use molecular-loosening spells on other ponies back at the academy; just on ourselves. What if the cave had iron ore in the walls? Though there was hardly ever any crime in Equestria anymore, Banks still took the safety precautions of lining the vaults in pure iron, as for some reason that was able to counter the effects of the spell. Even if there wasn’t iron in five miles of this place, though, I still hoped that there was a more simple exit; when I’d done the spell the day it was taught, I’d nearly accidentally released it while still halfway through the test wall. I was a musician; geologic magic was far from my specialty. “Listen, let’s just hope for the best here, cause hope’s kind of all we have at the moment, okay? If we have to walk through walls, let’s at least make sure all the other options are exhausted first.” I grimaced, realizing how defensive I must have sounded, but neither of my companions, both of whom had been there to see me nearly slice myself in half, said anything. Love and Tolerance is vastly underrated. “The way in is the way out.” piped up the Colgate, “So how did we even get here in the first place?” “Did I hear someone say my name?” Princess Mi Amora Cadenza, as we’d learned right away to call her, strode through the door with a snotty air that only served to accentuate the cynicism towards this wedding. Still, I hid my deepening resentment of the situation with a complacent and perhaps shallow-looking smile, recognizing the occupants of the tower room. On one side, adjusting some dress-forms, was Rarity Belle, whom I recognized from Carousel Boutique in Ponyville,