Deep Delver

by Night_Writer

1 - The Fall

Chapter 1 - The Fall

This was not how our journey was meant to go.

My friends and I plodded our way up the Smokey Mountain as a sort of "escape" from the city. The point had been to have some peaceful time away from our daily commitments and jobs; just be devoted to enjoying each others company, the world, and otherwise getting away from the typical toil and commitment of life.

You know: the whole 'run to nature when real-life gets too real to center yourself,' or something like that.

I wasn't used to going on such hikes with my friends Granite, Slate, and Sterling, and to be honest, it was the first time I'd really done anything like this since I'd moved out onto my own in Vanhoover.

But, my friends always had so many stories... and I always felt completely left out as they joked with each other. And, while they clutched their sides and wiped away tears of merriment, I would just awkwardly sit at the edge of their group: a massive plastic smile plastered to my muzzle as I supplied little innocuous comments in response. I'd get the occasional word in and just laugh along.

I'd always been a bit of a social-misfit, even amongst my friends. So I'd just sit by quietly as they shared their jokes, snorted at their own personnal stories, and I essentially smiled and stayed as quiet as possible.

I suppose the situation I found myself in now is really no-ones fault but my own for having volunteered for a hike way beyond my ability. But as the annual 'friendship mountain hike' came around, I found myself becoming more and more stressed as I imagined the new batch of stories they'd be telling for months after I might have been their friend, but I felt like I'd been slowly letting myself slide further and further away from them.

I was just the pony who filled in the fourth chair in any given room with them: there wasn't anything memorable about me that I could claim to have done wiht them. No great even that I'd partaken alongside them. No great tale to boast about, or inner-joke that I might break out of nowhere to get a quick secret laugh amongst them.

I might as well have been a ghost. and so, despite myself, I'd decided that instead of declining their yearly offer to go on the week-long hike they always planned, (as I usually did), I would instead accept.

And so far,It had been absolutely, and utterly, shitty.

The hiking made my hooves ache, the daily-climbs up the steep mount were absolutely horrid, and I swore I could feel artheritis developing in my pained joints with every step. And even the downhill portions were hard! the trail was typically so gradiated, that everything was just physically exhausting by the time we stopped!

But I was finally doing what they did, getting into the thick of it and experiencing life with my friends on the frontier! And part of me was quite satisfied with myself (while, of course, also realizing that I was going to feel like a beaten soccor-ball after a pro-game match, with how much constant pain my muscles were in at the start of every single day).

I could also tell I was holding everyone else back as I gasped for every breath, and had to occasionally take a break. But, I suppose, my friends always seemed willing to take short pauses. Typically it was Sterling who would call out for everyone to take a 'quick five.' I'd just thankfully come to a stop with the rest of them.

I don't know if it was just because Sterling noticed my own struggling, or if it was just how they typically went on hikes: but I was Thankful for the minor pauses. Allowed me to catch my breath, (and have a few snacks to get my energy back up!).

My friends had always sort of been like my adopted family. We weren't related in blood (of course), but that didn't stop them from looking out for me. I'd never had a lot of friends growing up and after cutting ties with my family and moving from Canterlot to Vanhoover. I'd lost what few acquaintances I'd had growing up, or left them behind as I left to figure out and find my own life away from my parents. But Granite, Slate, and Sterling, gave me something more to look forward to for a reclusive pony like myself: ponies who I could pretend to not be such an introvert with for short bursts of time.

My blood-family had always been a bit back and forth on the whole outdoor “family bonding” idea. My Dad was a professor at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns; and had always insisted that it was just a waste of time to be running around outside when one could be expanding one’s mind instead. He was excited when I was born; a little red unicorn colt he could train to grow up and be just like him: a prodigy of the magical art.

Mom was probably the only reason I was even allowed to get out at all as a little foal. She’d always been the more adventurous of my parents, but then again she probably saw it as just a phase of "growing up." Mom loved to tell stories of her own time as a young pegasus filly growing up in Cloudsdale and going through flight academy, and all the stupid stunts, tricks, and risky pranks her and all the other young fliers had gotten into. She had never said so, but I always felt she'd been disappointed when I wasn't born a pegasus like her.

They'd even named me after everything they'd wanted me to be in life, and thus my name was created: Flash Wit Acumen. It certainly was a name that invoked images of a brainiac colt, but I simply found the name (in time) simply came to represent everything I wasn't. I certainly wasn't very fast or flashy, my wit was sub-par, and I'd never really felt like I was all that fast thinking, or very clever.

I hated my name. It was a constant reminder of what I wasn't, but was expected to be.

To make matters worse I didn't exactly inherit the abilities of my skilled parents. I wasn't a genius or academically minded like my Father (quite the opposite, really). My pegasus genes had left me with a small and scrawny body, and I most certainly hadn't inherited my Mom's natural dexterity or grace she was so proud of.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like my parents abused me or treated me poorly, they'd loved me regardless as only parents can with such a clumsy untalented pony as myself. but I'd seen the disappointment in their eyes as I grew up and continually failed to live up to what they'd hoped and dreamed for me.

but I suppose that whether your born an earth pony, pegasus, or, like me, a runty unicorn, you just make do with what you got despite everything. Besides, being a unicorn wasn't all bad. It most certainly had one heck of a perk: magic!

Even though I sucked at the wide variety of magic beyond some very basic tricks, and simple telekenesis, I was at least proficient enough to function adequately enough to take care of myself. My magic had always been a rough patch between Dad and me as he tried to improve my talent in vain. It made it pretty stressful between us, and eventually, I left to go live on my own away from my overbearing Father.

Just the natural way of things, I thought numbly.

I took a moment to acknowledge these memories, and my own thoughts: reflecting upon the odd things that popped into one’s head before they were about to die…

I stared down dumbly into the yawning black abyssal pit beneath me. The soft red light from horn briefly allowed me to watch as the remains of the bridge slipped quickly into the abyss beneath me, followed closely by the thick slabs of rock that had fallen from the ceiling and crushed said bridge as it disappeared into the unknown beneath my dangling hooves.

I think I might have been screaming earlier, but if I had been, it'd been quickly cut off as my breath was driven from my lungs when I'd slammed into the hard stone with an almost comical "smack." A thick hard lip of stone protruded just above me out of hoof's reach. I stared around me as I continued to float in midair, slowly twisting and turning around in gravity defying circles as I tried to figure out what the hay had just happened to me.

I had to think. Remember what was going on. Where was I? What was happening?

My thoughts slowly collected themselves as I tried to focus blearily. There was some sort of an… earthquake. And then the bridge collapsed, and stones were falling, and now I’m floating? Ugh, My foreleg and chest hurt.

I groaned as my head giving subtle little thrums of pain as well.

I could feel something snagged around one of my forelegs as I looked up in my daze. One of the support ropes from the shattered bridge. How did that get there? Oh right, I’d been holding onto it when we’d been crossing the rickety bridge. My chest was starting to feel painfully tight, and I wondered faintly if I’d possibly fractured a rib or two. Not that any of that mattered as I hung over nothing but empty space. I was about to die, and as my Dad has always said, 'luck only gets a pony so far in life before they actually have to start figuring out what to do with it, Flash.'

Thanks, Dad, wonderful advice. Really making me feel better about my situation right now. I thought, scowling as one of his little bits of 'wisdom' annoyingly floated through my head. The last thing I wanted to be thinking about was some two-bit piece of advice he probably got from a fortune cookie. Dad always loved throwing out little inspirational and educational tid-bits like that out. I wondered if he actually believed them or if he just liked hearing himself speak when he lectured.

I heard a shout above, and ducked my head to protect it as a shower of pebbles and loose rock came tumbling down the sheer stone around me, hitting against me with light little "paps" across my skull and barrel before bouncing away harmlessly. A massive dusty-gray earth pony, Granite, was leaning over the edge with a flashlight, eyes wide with fear and worry before the flashlight hit me. He gave a cry of surprise and stared at me with amazement.

“Flash! Oh my gosh guys, he's alive. Flash are you alright?” yelled Granite. I groaned painfully in response as I swung back and forth by the rope wrapped around my leg tightly.

“One second Flash, we’re gonna get you up, just don’t let go!” shouted Granite, disappearing back over the edge.

I groaned again in response, “Sure. No problem, I got this,” I wheezed and slowly remembered how to breathe.

I'm not going anywhere anytime soon except for straight down, I thought darkly. My stomach did a flip at the thought, and I quickly tried to not think of what was beneath my hooves (or, more specifically, everything that wasn't beneath my hooves).

I need to get up, I groaned internally, trying to struggle up weakly. 'wait, your horn! use your horn idiot, you're a unicorn for Celestia and Luna's sake!'

I tried to focus my horn, hoping to somehow give myself a little telekinetic push up. If I could get atop that stone-lip just above my head, then I could just sit on it and hopefully my friends would figure out some way to get me to safety.

Pain flooded my skull as I tried to focus my magic. I nearly blacked out as my skull felt like it was being rent in half. I gasped for breath as I immediately stopped trying to build magic into my horn, just wishing for it all to end. I whimpered and continued to hang on the brink of consciousness, praying for a release from the spikes of pain rolling through my throbbing skull.

Crap. I think I broke my horn, I thought with a whimper. Guess that explains the constant minor head-ache.

Out of everything, and anything, a unicorn could damage, the horn was possibly the worst. Besides the obvious pain, seeing as how a horn was essentially just a mass of delicate nerves and neural connections within a hardened shell of bone, it was also simply essential to nearly everything a unicorn did day-to-day. Losing your horn was like a Pegasus losing their wings, or an earth pony suddenly losing sensation in their hooves. It might not be permanent, but in a life-or-death situation like this it certainly made all the difference.

The thick rope which had served as a support of the now destroyed rope bridge was still tugged securely around my forehoof. It was so tightly wrapped around my left I doubted I’d be able to “let go” without my entire foreleg popping off at the socket as well. I’d probably be lucky to keep most of the skin on that leg from the joint down with it constricting as roughly as it was.

Through pain blurred eyes, I could see the grey form of Granite as he reappeared yelling something behind him that I couldn't make out. I could hear more shouting and the scrabbling of hooves as my friends above started doing whatever they were planning to try and save me.

Oh please, please, please let this work... I really don't want my death being me becoming a stain on a cavern floor at the bottom of oblivion, I thought.

A second later, I saw a terrified unicorn mare, Sterling, being slowly lowered off the edge towards me. Above me, Granite and his brother Slate, were carefully keeping a hoof on the sturdy climbers rope they'd snapped into Sterling's harness: repelling her down in safe little bursts. The pale white glow of her horn illuminating the rocks around herself brightly.

“I’m coming Flash, just hold on!” shouted Sterling, her voice cracking a bit with worry as she slowly slid towards me. But while her voice wavered, her eyes showed a deep resolve as she continued down towards me. I just hung over the pit desperately; watching hopefully as she closed the distance.

I grunted, and tried to scrabble up the edge towards her. My chest burned painfully as it rubbed roughly against the raw stone, but I struggled to push through it and get up to safety. To get away from my fate.

I couldn't help but notice how beautiful Sterling’s silver eyes were, the way they seemed to sparkle along with her silvery-coat in the white light of her soft magic.

What in Tartarus was I doing thinking about her eyes. I mean honestly, her eyes? At a time like this Flash? Climb idiot, you're going to die!

I grabbed the rope and started to haul myself back up. As I did though, the rope gave a jerk around my forehoof and I was dropped a few inches with a sickening lurch. my joint gave a crunch as it was wrenched by the sharp drop.

I screamed.

I looked up through tearing eyes at the rope around my hoof. Above, I could see the thick wooden-post it was tied around. It was shattered, barely holding together after the earthquake had nearly split it. And now I watched with horror as it slowly bent towards me: splinters popping out from the stressed wood as my weight slowly, but surely, began to finish the job that the earthquake hadn't.

“S-Sterling! Sterling, hurry! The wooden support, it’s breaking!” I yelled, trying once more to scramble against the smooth stone to find purchase and take some weight off the over-burdened support and keep myself from the fatal fall beneath.

Sterling looked up, and yelled at Granite and Slate to rappel her faster. Her magic suddenly surged as she focused on me. I could feel its warm orange energy slowly pulling around me as she began to slowly hoist me up, trying to do the same thing I was: take my weight off the rope. I grabbed the edge of the stone-lip, finally getting a firm hoof hold on the edge with her assistance. I reached out a hoof for Sterling, I was going to make it! I wasn't going to die!

Sterling gave me a little anxious smile as she grabbed my hoof with her own, “I got you. C’mon Flash, just let go of the cliff and let my magic pull you up with me so I can hook you to my harness," said Sterling, using a free hoof to pull off a metallic hook from the climbing harness snapped around her middle and reaching it out for my own rig to connect us so Granite and Slate could just pull us both up.

I gritted my teeth, grabbed Sterling’s hoof firmly as I ignored my terrified screaming thoughts and let go of the ledge. I trusted Sterling to keep me safe. I had too! My only other choice was to fall into the utter dark below.

She winced as my full weight pulled heavily against her magical field supporting me. I gave a squeal of fear as I completely let go of my teetering grip on the rock wall and slowly felt myself being pulled up towards Sterling as she grunted, her magic hefting me closer as she ground her teeth in concentration, her grip on me staying strong.

It was then another tremor hit, as violent and sudden as the first quake just minutes before.

Sterling yelped in surprise as she was whacked hard into the cliff wall and I was wrenched out of her grip, the impact causing her to lose her telekinetic grip on me, the telekinetic grip that I’d been depending on when I’d let go of the cliff face to grab her hoof.

I felt like my heart stopped as I reached out a hoof towards Sterling, but without the magical assistance to keep me in place, and with Sterling still reeling from her own headbutt with the wall, I could only watch in horror as I slowly began to slip away from her. Her eyes widening as she looked back at me and realized what was happening. I felt it as she tried to grab at me again with her magic once more.

That orange warmth passed across my coat, and for a second I almost believed myself safe. But then it suddenly dissipated, my own weight, and amassing speed. Whatever magic she’d attempted to weave together to catch me bursting apart as I fell through it.

“Flash!” screamed Sterling, eyes wide as she reached down for me with a hoof. Realization was slow to set in as I began to drop further and further away. It was like everything was stuck in a sickening slow-motion.

I tried to scream, to shriek for help, but I couldn't: my body just seemed to seize up, the shock of the situation simply cause me to freeze. I just stayed in that pose, one hoof reaching up futilely towards Sterling, fleeting salvation, as I dropped like a rock from the pale glow of Sterling's horn: gravity pulling me into its terminal embrace.

So, this is how I die, I thought numbly, Mom, Dad, everypony... I’m sorry. I'm so sorry. I was always such a disappointment. Celestia, please, just let it be quick…[/i

Blood was rushing to my head. I felt myself slowly starting to lose consciousness as the pinprick of Sterling's light flew away. She was so far above me now. Just a quickly disappearing twinkle in the distance above.

My eyes fluttered as blood rushed to my head. It was getting hard to stay conscious. A shape slowly floated into view above me, wings splayed majestically out as it fell down towards me, forelegs outstretched.

Is that you, Celestia? I thought, vision fading.

Something warm and soft wrapped around my body as I listened to the quiet calming 'swoosh' of my body as I continued to cut through the air. That warmth seemed to spread across my body, teasing me to just let go. To just give up and sleep.

and a second later, I did: welcoming oblivion.

Author's Note:

I'm writing this for the 'Bat-Pony write off' going on for Equestria Daily (due the 31st. of October).

Certainly an ambitious project to undertake, with my goal to write an entire short story in essentially 6 days, but hey. It should be fun! Tell me what you think, what you like (AND what you don't like), any discrepancies or just annoyances you have with the story and/or its characters. Criticism is always appreciated, constructive or correcting. And if you like it, then hit that thumbs up button. It REALLY helps to tell me if I'm doing this right.

Hope you enjoy the short story, and hopefully I'll be able to update regularly since this is all done through short chapters of most likely not more than 2000 words each chapter.

Enjoy!
-N.W.

(++Chapter edited 11/6/13)
(+++Chapter last edited 9/18/15)

Comments

[Soft Shell]

Sharp fanged Ally?
*Pokes his teeth*
I'll do it!
*Reads the story premise*
Err you know what,
Mabey ill let some other changeling take this one,
I've been told i taste like muffins,
And i'd rather not give a monster the chance to find out.

[sklee]

Interesting

[1stLieutenantCrunch]

Good start, I enjoyed it! My only complaint is that you said she had a "British" accent, but that's just knit-picking on my part.

[Night_Writer]

3403072 hey, no problem. Its just nice to have feedback. If you don't mind me asking, was it just that it was a specific accent? or was there a problem in your thoughts about it?

I'm writing this story for the Bat-Pony write-off for EQD. But honestly, after planning it out (and with my own busy schedule only just yesterday letting off enough time for me to write this, and essentially 5 days left) I don't know if I'll be able to have it done by the 31st. of October.

Either way, thanks for reading. Its seeming like people are responding positively to this so far, so I guess I'm doing something right.