The mouth of the cave wasn't what the three fillies were expecting. Sweetie Belle looked at the small hand dug hole with contempt. It was nothing like the mammoth cavities described in several of the Daring Doo books. The entrance was barely big enough for an adult pony to squeeze through and large ponies like Apple Blooms brother Big Mac couldn't even hope to wiggle their massive forms into the passage. Sliver cautiously approached the muddy gate and took in a large whiff of its dank mildew like odor.
"It smells dreadful," she gaged.
Coiling her wing Narci snapped it towards Sweetie popping the white filly on her flank. Jumping out of her skin Sweetie whirled around and eyed Narci dangerously,
"What was that for?" she yelled behind gritted teeth.
Laughing she slipped closer to Sweetie,
"I just wanted to get you fired up is all," snipped Narci, "I don't want my favorite filly to lose her edge if she is going to have my back down the bowls of the earth."
"I thought I was your..." trailed off Silver with a dejected tone.
"Both of you are my wingless wing-ponies," jeered the batty filly as she puffed up her chest and threw out her wings trying to inspire her hesitant cohorts.
Looking into the grinning mouth of the abyss aroused a longing in Narci's heart. Much like bats the night-pegasi often made their homes in cave early on, although most bat ponies had adjusted to living in regular houses they often gravitated to the damp and warm caves in leisure. The small mouthed cavern wasn't like any cave that the little bat filly had seen before, but it was a cave and that was all that mattered.
After fastening a rope to a near by tree Sweetie carried the rest of the coil over to the cave entrance she then tossed it down the sloping precipice watching as it fell out of sight,
"How...How big do you think this cave is, Narci?" she asked thinly.
"I don't know? Hold on a sec and I'll check" she answered as she approached the entrance. Sweetie and Silver watched as Narci fell to her belly, crept to the edge and stuck her head in. She quickly witdrew and removed her glasses tossing them to Silver,
"Put them in my saddle bag, I'm not going to need them down there!" After the quick exchange she stuck her head in again and let out a almost non-existent high whistle as she rolled her ears forward. Sweetie cringed at the sound as it dug into her skull but Silver's expression never changed,
"What are you doing?" asked Silver.
Narci held a hoof up,
"Ssshh, Silver!"
Silver zipped her lips and watched as a wide smile started to form on Narci's face. Leaping to her feet in glee Narci swung around to explain what she was doing and what she had found.
"I was pinging! And to answer Sweets, its pretty big from what I can tell?"
Sweetie sunk, she had been hoping that it was just a small cave.
"How do you know how big it is and what is pinging?" asked Silver.
Before Narci could answer Sweetie droned,
"Pinging is the active use of sound by a sonar system or creature that can be analyzed for echo return patterns to judge the size, shape, and features of the area pinged."
"How else do you think I was able to leap from my cot in the nurses office twist over your head and land right in front of you. Without crashing into you or the floor." added Narci.
Smiling Silver finally understood and she couldn't help put tease her new friend,
"So you really are a bat."
Sweetie and Narci both gave her a deadpan look just before they exploded into a fit of giggles. After that Narci approached the cave entrance and took the rope in her hooves. She gave the other too one final brave look and she started to descend into the heart of darkness.
After passing through the slick limestone shaft Narci found herself in a much larger antechamber. Its walls were thick with calcified scare tissue. The bulbous protrusions that looked like what was left of a burnt out candle stuck out at odd angles from the walls. The low roof was held in place by great pillars of limestone covered with more of the calcium scale. It was marvelous and she felt more at home there in the dark world than any where else she had ever been.
Illuminating the dark were two lights both of which were strapped to the head of her fellow explorers. The clopping of hooves reverberated off the walls and warm feelings tugged at Narci's soul as she heard the "oohs" and "ahhs" of the other two fillies. Sweetie strode up to one of the pillars and run a hoof across its surface expecting it to be wet. Withdrawing her hoof she looked down at it to see that it was indeed dry. Silver was likewise examining another formation that clung to the sloping wall to their left. Rock jutted out and flowed down the face looking like water frozen in time, under her breath she called it's name,
"Flowstone."
Eager to discover more interesting formations the trudged deeper into the black. Silver and Sweetie started to walk to the larger of the rooms two passages when Narci called out,
"Hey! We can check out that way later lets go down this side passage." she said pointing to the diagonal gashed opening. Exchanging looks they joined Narci. Unlike the passage they wanted to take this passage was oppressively small. Stifling a gasp Silver fought off her growing claustrophobia. The passage smelled older than the rest of the cave and its walls were caked over with spider web shaped fungi. The passage seemed to go on forever but the sound of running water and a growing dampness egged them on.
Stopping in her tracks Narci let out a loud, gasp. Pushing the bat filly out of her way Sweetie had to see what had made Narci stop. She was equally as dumbfounded as her friend. She raised a hoof and rapidly waved for Silver to come and see. Before them was a stone bridge but that wasn't what the others were looking at. Following Sweeties eyes her eyes fell on a majestic waterfall that sprung near the roof of the cave its water cascading down forty or so feet to a large pool below them. They stood there gazing at the waterfall wearing matching smiles as they felt like they were explorers discovering a new world.