Getting Their Just Desert

by dancing mop

The Second Chapter

The Second Chapter

In which Rarity realizes they've really run into a wretched rut, while reeling from the roaring rockslide that ruined their respite, revealing the revelation that they're royally rutted for real, doomed to rot in a rocky...um...
Ah, screw it. It's not like I need these little things at the beginning.

Rarity had to admit, this was far worse than before. As she rooted around in the pile of rocks, with only a light spell to break the total blackness around her, she bitterly regretted complaining about their ride on the hoofcart; she was now faced with the very real possibility of getting lost in an an underground cavern forever. Of course, one element of her previous predicament was still present.

"Yay! We're in a cave! You know what that means?" Pinkie asked from where she was bouncing around, at the edge of Rarity's horn-glow.

"Nothing good."

"It means we get to go spelunking! And more importantly, I get to say spelunking. Spelunking. Spelunking. Spelunk. Heeehee! Spelunk! That's a really funny word. Spelunk! You say it, Rarity!"

"No."

"Aw, C'mon Rarity, it's fun."

"Pinkie, I'm trying to concentrate here. Can you please be quiet and help me find our things?"

Pinkie bounded over with an armful of the aforementioned "things", catching Rarity by surprise. "I already found a bunch of stuff. Look, here's my kazoo, and a gum wrapper, and the packet of balloons!"

"Oh," Said Rarity, in a flustered tone, "I'm glad you found useful things. All I've found is a bottle which I can make into a canteen, a length of cloth to fashion into traveling cloaks, and a double chocolate peanut butter fudge brownie to eat." She held up each item with her magic as she talked, keeping her expression unamused.

Pinkie reached out for the food, which Rarity yanked back out of her reach. Pinkie frowned, "Hey, that's my brownie!"

"Yes, but it is also our only source of food." Tearing off a piece of tentcloth, she began weaving a pouch together, unraveling individual threads to rearrange them. "Now, I'm going to keep it safe for now. We'll ration it out later."

She continued working on the pouch, explaining, "I can use this tentcloth to make some crude pouches to carry...supplies, and also some cloaks to keep us warm." As the threads began to overlap each other once more, she continued. "I do wish I could find that bat. Who knows what kind of monsters we'll find down here. It would be nice to have something to fend them off with."

"Oh, I found a bat." Pinkie responded, offhoofedly.

Rarity paused in her work. "Really?"

"Yeah. It's right above you." Pinkie replied, pointing.

Rarity traced her gaze upward, and saw the bat. The furry, grotesque, fanged monster that was perched only hooflengths away from her face, staring down at her with it's horrid, soulless red eyes.

"EEEEEEEK!" She screamed, running away from the monstrosity, "BATS! BATS! GET AWAY!"

Pinkie giggled, "Rarity, it's not bats, it's just one bat!" She trotted over to the bat's perch, as her friend huddled on the ground, nervously holding a piece of tentcloth over her head. "Besides, he's just a harmless fruit bat." She extended a hoof, calling, "Come on down, little fella! I wanna be your friend!"

The bat flapped it's way down from the ceiling, perching itself on Pinkie's outstretched hoof. "Yaaay! See Rarity, he likes me!"

Rarity was not quite convinced. "Pinkie, I don't think that's a fruit bat." She explained, apprehensively.

"Oh, don't be silly, Rarity." Pinkie said as she walked over, bat still hanging from her hoof. "He's a nice little bat. I'm gonna call him Batty." She asserted, just before the bat plunged its fangs into her leg.

"OW! OW! OWIE!" Pinkie yelled, shaking it off. The bat screeched and flew away into the darkness, as she cradled her hoof, sucking on the wound while Rarity laughed smugly. "Mmm, okay, I guess he didn't like the name. And he's a vampire bat." She glared off in the direction it had flown, crying, "Meanie!"

"Hmph." Rarity asserted, glancing around nervously as she rose from the floor, "I knew it. There is no such thing as a 'nice little bat'. What disgusting creatures."

"What about that one?" Pinkie asked, pointing to the ground just in front of Rarity's hoof.

After leaping back several lengths, Rarity realized that she had actually meant the cricket bat. She gave her pink friend a dirty look, and walked back over to pick it up. Pinkie, oblivious to her friend's glare, continued bouncing around the cavern, searching for her own things. Rarity trotted over to the pile of canvas pieces she had found, and began the lengthy task of making them into usable travel gear.

* * *

"I'm finiiiished!" Rarity cried out in a singsong voice.

Pinkie bolted upright, blinking sleep from her eyes, "Uh, oh! Okay, um...good." She blinked a few times, not comprehending. "Finished with what?"

"These!" Rarity said with a flourish, levitating a pair of green canvas cloaks.

"Oooh, pretty!" Pinkie exclaimed, "Can I have one?"

Rarity responded, a little flustered, "Why, yes, um...that is why I made two, Pinkie." She floated one up, then the other, saying, "This one is mine, and the other is for you."

"Why does yours have more pockets?"

"Because I have to carry this bat."

"Well, what if we find my bat?"

"What bat?" Rarity asked, before the realization struck her. "Oh!" She spat disgustedly, "That horrible creature? The one that bit your leg when you tried to hold it?" She continued incredulously, "You're saying it's yours now?!"

"Yep!" Said Pinkie as she slipped on her cloak, depositing her small stash of belongings in an inner pocket. "And it's a "he", by the way. His name's...uh, he didn't like that name, did he? Hmmm..." She sat, contemplating, as Rarity donned her own cloak, slipping her cricket bat into a scabbard on her left side.

"Perhaps you could think as we walk." She said, striding towards the edge of the cavern. "We'd best be going, now. If there's a way out of here, we need to find it soon." Se stopped, closed her eyes, and focused on brightening her horn-light, until it filled the entirety of the cavern, revealing a small tunnel in the side of the wall. "Aha!" she cried, pointing to the tunnel, "That is where we shall go."

Soon, they had plunged into the darkness of the tunnel, Rarity's light leading the way as they continued on to whatever awaited them in the darkness beyond. Their voices faded with the light, as Pinkie wracked her brain for a good name for her new pet.

"How about Toothy? You know, cuz he likes using his teeth?"

"That's...no. Certainly not."

"What about Fangy?"

"No."

"Fangs?"

"NO."

"Hmmm...maybe..."

* * *

The going had gotten much slower, as the tunnel narrowed out, sloped up and down, and began curving. For Rarity, it was an effort to keep moving, not that Pinkie Pie was showing any signs of having difficulty.

"Fangzor?" Pinkie asked as she slipped through yet another tight spot.

"Unf! No...Hnnnngg!" Rarity grunted as she tried to squeeze through the same spot herself. I really am not cut out for this kind of exertion! She thought, glaring enviously as Pinkie bounced through a hole nearly a length off the ground.

"Molar?" The irrepressible party pony asked from the next chamber.

"Rrrgh! No!" Rarity growled as she scrabbled up the wall, pushing herself through after her friend. Thankfully, this one was larger, enough to have space to move around. In fact...

"Pinkie, I think we've made it out of the tunnel."

"Oh, we have? Awww, but I didn't think of a good name!"

Rarity gritted her teeth, widening her light spell once again. Soon, the light had revealed a pool of water, stretching out to the end of the cavern, several hundred lengths away. Stalagmites rose up out of it, and stalactites hung down from the ceiling everywhere. The two were revealed to be standing on a smooth rocky embankment. Far to the right, over a fair amount of the water, there was a platform cut into the rock, with a most unexpected sight set into the wall behind it.

"A door!" Rarity cried, "Ponies have been down here before!"

"Yaaaay!" Pinkie cheered, dashing off towards it. Rarity followed, eager to return to some semblance of civilization.

They reached the end of the water, and Rarity shone her light down at the surface. "It's shallow!" She exclaimed, stepping forth into the water. "It barely comes up to my knees, all the way over!"

"Alright! Let's go see what's behind the mysterious door in a dark, unexplored cave!" Pinkie said cheerily as she splashed through the shallows.

Unnoticed by the two explorers, a dark shape had begun moving towards them through the water. They happily traipsed through the shallow water, heading for a set of rough-hewn stairs cut from the rock of the platform.

Stairs! Thought Rarity, Oh, how wonderful! No more...spelunking. Crawling through tight underground passages is not my idea of fun.

Pinkie had just bounced up the first stair, when the water immediately to their left erupted in a great fountain, revealing a huge crustacean monster. It was a ghostly pale white, from its six legs, to its pincers the size of a pony, to its blank eyestalks, which stared blindly out at the ponies.

Rarity screamed as it snapped out at her with an enormous pincer. "CRAAAAAAB!"

"EEEEK! THAT IS NOT A NICE CRABBY" Pinkie screamed, backing away on her stone step.

Rarity dodged yet another pincer, as it closed with a thunderous SNAP. "PINKIE! GET THE DOOR! OPEN IT NOW!"

Pinkie scrambled up the stairs as the monstrous crab skittered sideways in her direction. Rarity dashed after it, pulling out her cricket bat. "Get away from her, you fiend!" She yelled, swinging the bat at one of its legs. It connected, and the leg was swept out from under the beast, only to be planted in the water again less than a length away. Rarity's eyes shrank to pinpricks as the monster turned towards her. "Oh." She whimpered, staring up into its fidgeting insectoid maw. Pincers snapped furiously at her as she made a mad dash for the stairs. "Pinkie! What's happening with that DOOR?"

"IT'S LOCKED!" Pinkie cried, frantically pulling on the handle set into the side. "It hardly even budges! What do we do?"

"DO I LOOK LIKE I HAVE AN IDEA?!" Rarity screamed as she leapt over the last three stairs, barely avoiding getting hit by a sideways swipe of a pincer.

"Ooh! I do!" Pinkie said, reaching into her pocket. She drew out a balloon, and quickly blew it full of air, tying it off. "Take this!" She asserted, throwing the inflated balloon at the beast's head.

This seemed to distract the crab quite a bit. It stabbed and snapped at the balloon as it rose, giving the two ponies a moment of respite. Pinkie turned to her friend, saying, "Well, that's all I've got. Now what?"

"Buck the door down!" Rarity replied as she turned to do just that. Oh, if only Applejack were here. She could wrap this monster up in rope, and buck the door to splinters!

She bucked the door, hard, but it only shuddered on it's hinges, showing no signs of damage. Just then, the balloon went POP! Both ponies turned to look at the crab, which was once again paying attention to them. "Pinkie, another balloon! Keep it distracted!"

"I'm on it!" Pinkie said, pulling out another balloon, inflating and tying it up just as fast. The crab again turned its attention to the balloon, while Rarity continued to attack the door. Come on! SLAM! Why won't it break? SLAM! Ohhh, this will ruin my hooficure! SLAM!

POP! "Come on, Rarity!" Pinkie cried as she tied off another balloon, "I'm gonna run out soon!"

Rarity continued to kick at the door. I can do this! I will not be beaten by an accursed door! SLAM! I did not come all this way to be devoured by a giant crustacean! SLAM! With renewed effort, she slammed her hooves into the wood. Miraculously, her kicks began to have an effect. The door seemed to budge, and the wood started to splinter.

POP! "Last one!" Pinkie yelled, dashing over to the door, and releasing another balloon. She added her efforts to attacking the wooden barrier, and soon, it started to weaken. Suddenly, her hooves and ears started twitching in a seemingly random order. She gasped, and pulled out her kazoo. "We're saved!" She cried, and blew a six-note cadence on the kazoo, "Charge!"

As if in response to her battle cry (And, Rarity had to admit, it most likely was), a familiar dark form descended on the crab's face, just as the last balloon was popped. "Fangy!" Pinkie called, "You came back!" After one last powerful buck, the door came apart, splintering to pieces and flying back off the frame.

"Inside, now!" Rarity screamed, leaping into the opening they had created. Pinkie quickly followed, and the bat, having distracted the crab long enough, flew in after them. Behind the door was a tunnel, and a few lengths down, another door hung open. "Through there! Quickly!" They ran through the opening, just as the crab pulled itself up to the first door. Rarity quickly slammed the second one behind them, and threw herself down on the ground, panting for breath.

Looking around the room she found herself in, Rarity realized that her horn was no longer the only source of light. A few holes were poked in the ceiling, revealing a small room cut into the rock, with sconces for torches on each wall. On the opposite wall, a wide double door was flanked by a pair of decorative planters, their contents long since rotted away. Looking closer, she saw that there were decorative carvings all over the walls, too faint to tell what they were. Rarity could scarcely believe the sight. Decorations! Now we're getting back to my kind of world!

Meanwhile, Pinkie was trying to get the bat to come down from its perch on the ceiling. "Look, I'm sorry about the bad names. I'll think of a good one. Umm, how about...Bitesy?"

The bat hissed in reply, covering its head and turning away stubbornly. Rarity couldn't help but giggle at its antics. It may be a disgusting bat, but it at least has good taste in names. She caught herself mid-thought. Oh heavens, I'm sympathizing with a BAT. What is this trip doing to me?

Comments

[Mad Maudlin]

A) The bat's name should be Nibbles
and
B) Cannibalism is perfectly justified in emergency situations, Rarity. Equines can digest meat to a degree and one can survive on blood.

[Tangerine Blast]

4422813 You scare me...but nibbles is a good name.

[WiseFireCracker]

New headcanon: Rarity managed to breed a variety of vampire fruit bats from this little guy and unleashed them on AJ's orchard as bloody vengeance for this trip.

[dancing mop]

4423109
Heheh. That could be...

[dancing mop]

4422899
Me too

That's not a bad name...but I think my eventual idea is better...maybe.