//------------------------------// // A House of Cards // Story: As Cutie as a Button // by Scrucee //------------------------------// "Blue! Blue! Wake up ol' buddy!" demanded a panicked voice. A brightly-lit lantern was shining into the his eyes, obscuring his vision from whoever was attempting to communicate with him. He could quickly tell by the voice and the temperament that it was Arion who had come to his rescue. "Arion? What are you doing here? I thought I was dreaming...am I still dreaming?" "That boulder must've hit you harder than I thought...Listen, there was a super duper violent cave-in. Tealeaf and I got separated. I think Artemis is with her, but I can't be sure. Can you walk? How do your legs feel?" Arion's questions didn't register with Blue Button at first, nor could Blue register himself anymore. He knew he was in pain, but not quite where or how. The Earth pony was in a miserable world of his own, a world where only he dwelled, where he mainly existed throughout the long, drawn-out ravenous days and the heavy, blanketed and sleepless nights. "I'll stand I think, but let's keep it slow, please..." The two began to walk. At first, the pace was very, very slow, but after a short while Blue Button detected that his highly excitable companion had accelerated the once patient, tentative amble into a fast and wilful trot. Blue, not wishing to damage nor disrupt the present company's resolve, resigned his doubts and began to actively find a way to distract himself from the pulsing pain in his front left hoof. The only obvious way to do this, to his own taste, was to inspect the cave wall with his lantern's subtle light yellow glow. The defined cracks in the now unstable rock face and the dusty, sharp indentations etched onto the cold surface weren't interesting enough for him to carry out his will. He glumly continued this futile venture, however, as he would rather have been alone than talk to Arion about how much danger they were in, or who was coming to save them, or if his friend Shaneighneigh had remembered to deliver the blueberry fruitcakes he'd ordered to his address on time. "I mean, can you imagine if we never got back to my place? They'd get so stale and yucky!" Blue let out an exasperated huff, almost acting on instinct and continued to scour the nearest cave wall for signs of life. His interest was waning for a long while until the faint structure of an intelligent form presented itself to his tired eyes. It was small and very vague, almost as if it had been living on the wall for a long, long time "Hey, Arion...I think I found something?" he asked, not being able to even guess what he had come across. "What's this..." he paused for a long while, giving Blue time to notice that his company seemed to know a little about Equestrian archaeology. "It appears to be a cave painting of some kind. These look like ancient ponies, you can see amazing amount of detail in the body." "That's odd. I've heard legends, but I never knew ponies made it this far into the mines." Blue noted, surprised. Although he had found this surprise discovery interesting, it was far less enthralling than Arion had seemed to display. "They appear to be carrying some kind of treasure that way." Arion pointed to a vague direction before continuing with his analysis. "Yes yes, it looks to be this way. That's the unexplored region of the mountain, we can't head down that passage, we have no idea what's down there. That's a big shame." "Hey how come you know all this cave stuff?" the confused Blue asked. "Oh I listened in Doctor Atlas's Equestrian history class!" he said with a proud grin. "He made it sound so interesting. Some ponies, including my silly sister, feel as though I need constant help with almost anything, but I can get by. I was always known as the clumsy and random pony in town, which can really hurt your future career opportunities 'round these parts." Blue Button was rather resentful of himself from then on. Arion had turned out to be a rather smart pony after all. Why couldn't Blue see this before? He had missed so much about his friend's life because he was too worried about his own, after such a thought he decided to make a silent pledge to himself that he'd spend more time with Arion and get to know him better, that is, if they could escape this dark, awful place. "There's a map of the general area pointing to where they may have headed with the treasure. It's in the unexplored regions." The two decided to keep walking quickly, further into the tunnel where Arion theorised Tealeaf and Artemis may have bolted down. Arion would insist that Blue pick up the pace every now and then and would give him some rations of hay biscuits to keep his strength up once in a while. A faint echo could be heard every now and then from a place the two could not precisely pinpoint due to the chaotic nature of the winding cave system. Arion would attribute the powerful sound to the wind, surmising that there must be an entrance nearby to explain where the air currents must be coming from. The closer they would get to the sound, the higher their morale boosted to. Tealeaf and Artemis must have reached the outside, most likely waiting for Arion and Blue Button to make the same easy trip. The echo became louder and louder, as if a mighty flugelhorn was waiting in the other side to greet them, the townspeople cheering loudly, anxiously waiting to hear of their adventures into the unknown pit of despair. Voices, high pitched and strong, were embedded into the sound. They were close now. Closer than ever before. The voices were distinctively Tealeaf's and Artemis's, with the former's being engrained with passion and defiance. One more turn left, they were just around the corner, what appeared to be daylight was emanating from this entrance in the wall. Horray! Darkness. Endless, endless darkness. "That's not a fair response Ms. Tealeaf, I was only trying to help you!" Tealeaf exploded. She had bottled up her anxiety long enough. Her smooth, gentle demeanour had been blasted away, along with her patience. She was guilty, guilty of all that she had not told Blue and the others. She had wanted to help, she couldn't. Her true feelings were now appearing as raw energy. Her worries about her friend, her stress at being a true, true person who cared about other's feelings were overtaking her, and she was done with it. Blue's heart sank. The light of the cave "exit" had merely been Tealeaf's bright lantern. It was a dead end. They were trapped, as the way Arion and himself had come from was caved in. "You CAN'T use magic in here, brainiac!" she shouted, violently. "I KNOW!" he responded. "I was just making sure! You should be calmer towards me and enjoy our adventure we're having!" "This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Range!" screamed Arion. "He's insane!" "It is not my fault I am here with you ruffians!" retorted Artemis, staring at Blue Button. He pointed with his hoof to the degraded stallion. "Don't you dare blame him! He was only trying to help us when he thought we were stuck outside!" shouted Tealeaf. "We weren't really 'stuck', it was more of a...transition." Arion stated firmly, rolling his eyes. "Oh shut up you stupid mule! All you do is bumble around when you know full well that it bothers me! At least Blue doesn't do that!" she angrily wailed, shoving her hoof into Arion's mouth. "Maybe we should all calm d-" Blue could barely finish. "You see, right there! You never treat me with any respect! It's always 'never mind him' or 'oh what a burden I have with him'. Why can't you treat me like a brother for once instead of a child!" "Blue would make a better brother to me than you ever were..." "...Now Tealeaf, you know that's not tr-" Blue was interrupted again. "That's it! You're not my sister anymore!" "Fine!" she agreed. "Fine!" "If I can get up there..." Artemis pointed to a high ledge "I might be able to use my magi-" "SHUT! UP!" the now non-siblings attacked in unison. Blue was far away from the drama in the cavern now, for he was galloping at the fastest speed his legs could carry him back the way Arion and himself had come. He wanted to escape the cave before his life and his friends decayed and crumbled down with it. A good few minutes of fast running followed, of agony for Blue, as he was broken inside. Past the painting on the wall, past the lantern on the floor. Eventually he had made it back to the caved-in section he had started at. He wasted no time in pounding on the loose, heavy rocks. Using all his strength, the devastated stallion pushed against the wall with his back. When this failed, he tried bucking it with his now tired hooves. Eventually, a few small rocks quickly fell away from the pile with a clatter, revealing a tiny hole in the cave-in. He peered through it. The fresh air from the now open peep hole brushed his mane and face with a gentle, cool force. Something in the distance, shrouded by the dark, eerie, gloomy blackness seemed to move slowly away from him with a smooth yet hurried motion. He slowly squinted his exhausted eyes. It was gone. Hallucinations were the most likely cause, as there was a limited supply of air in the caves and the water deprivation, coupled with Blue's emotional state seemed to agree with that conclusion. He attempted to think otherwise, however the circumstances did not make this event an important one. He tried to buck and pound and hit the immense pile of rubble down, but to no avail, he couldn't do it on his own.