Chapter 2: The Climb
Lyra let out a sigh of relief when she reached the small alcove entrance. After slipping on hoof holds and nearly falling on sharp crystals below, she decided to discard her bridesmaid outfit as it was the cause of the slipping. She pulled of the yellow dress that wrapped around her back and tossed it over the edge of the ledge.
Colgate climbed up just in time to see her toss the garment over the edge. Lyra pulled of the beads around her head and undid the pearl necklace. She was about to throw them over too when she had and idea. Colgate was about to drop her dress, but Lyra stopped her. She remembered that Colgate pulled some gum out of her dress. That meant that she had a place to store it.
"Does your dress have pockets?" asked Lyra
"Um, yeah...?"
"Put it back on. And give me your beads."
Colgate gave her the headwear with a confused look and began pulling the dress back on. Lyra took the the unicorn's beads, along with her own, and broke the string that was holding all the beads. She then took the individual beads off the string, and then discarding the bare strings.
"Put these in your pocket." she said, giving all the beads except one to Colgate.
"Why?" she replied as she watched the green unicorn place the bead on the ground.
"If somepony comes looking for us, we'll leave a trail for them to follow."
Colgate nodded. But she had one complaint about the plan.
"This dress keeps getting caught under my hooves. It'll make me slip and fall."
Lyra went behind Colgate and grabbed onto the dress with her magic. She then used her teeth to rip the end of the dress off. The lack of clothing caused Colgate's blue and white tail to fall out.
The rip was high enough to expose some of Colgate's flank. Lyra couldn't help taking a peek. She blushed a little bit.
Lyra didn't know why she blushed, or why she had the urge to look. She'd seen Colgate around Ponyville not wearing clothes at all, her flank completely showing. So why did this situation, involving clothes, cause Lyra to act like this? Maybe it was because they were both in an environment where no one else was watching, just the two of them in a lonely atmosphere...
Lyra shook her head, trying to send the perverse thoughts away from her conscience.
She trotted back to face Colgate and said, "There. How's that?"
"Alright." she replied as she stuffed the spherical jewelry into a pocket
Lyra spotted a ledge that led to a tunnel entrance. She motioned for Colgate to follow her as she trotted along the ledge.
The jewelry that she had given to Colgate, reminded Lyra of the candies that Bon-Bon would make. They were always the best. If Lyra got stuck or even died in these caves, Bon-Bon wouldn't even be able to see Lyra win a music award or prove the existence of humans. Everyone in Ponyville would simply never see her again. She'd never go to Sugarcube Corner and get a cake again. She'd never meet with Octavia and Vinyl for band practice again. She'd never-
"Lyra!!! Watch out!!!" cried Colgate
Lyra had been so deep in thought that she'd nearly stepped of the edge of a sudden turn in the ledge. Her hoof was hovering over empty air that she thought had solid ground beneath it. She slowly pulled her hoof back and turned to look at Colgate, with an expression of shock and gratitude. She returned the look with only a worried face with a hint of relief. It would probably be pretty bad if Colgate's fellow trapee were to just step off of a ledge and fall onto incredibly sharp, crystalline, stalagmites.
"Um, thanks." said Lyra awkwardly
Colgate inhaled lightly and then said, "Watch where you're going!" with a grumpy "Hmph!" at the end.
"Yeaaaaah...put a bead here." she said, pointing to the ground.