Equestria Threadfall

by David Silver

20 - Deepest Corners

She skidded, a small patch of her fur torn free as she tried to emerge from the nowhere space but encountered unyielding rock instead, shoving her right back in. It was a mercy of sorts, avoiding the swift end that would have come had her body and the rock been forcefully conjoined. Instead she was left with a painful reminder and a chance to try again.

Still, it hadn't been all rock. She pressed back, aiming a little lower towards the center of things. Her magic felt it, her loss of grip on her passengers as she skidded with a silent yelp. Had they popped free? It was impossible for her to know entirely, but she couldn't feel them in her arcane grip. She could only struggle on, hoping to find freedom before her magic or her breath gave out.

---

Spike peered into the darkness his friends had walked away into. "Think they're almost done?"

Luna sat beside him. "We can but wait." She reached for him, drawing him against her side. "We have done all we can, for now."

"For now," he echoed, imagining the next step and its frantic motions coming ahead. "Are we ready?"

"As ever we will be." She closed her eyes, not that it changed much of what she saw. "We will do this."

They had to.

---

Pinkie toppled over, landing on her back. Maud landed atop her and she oofed as air was forced free of her, though she was giggling a moment later. "Hey, Maud." She was not at all mad for her sister's appearance. "Twilight?"

"I don't see her." Maud stood up calmly and began looking around. They were in a small pocket of stone beneath the surface, the walls jagged and rough. She reached out and tapped at it. "Hm." Looking over her shoulder at Pinkie, she nodded. "We're deeper, but I can't survey yet." She brought back a hoof and drove it forward with a frightful intensity, smashing into the wall, sending fragments flying. "Not until I rescue Twilight," she calmly continued, starting to drill her way forward.

Without further preamble, she brought in her other hoof, fracturing and breaking the stone one swing at a time. Pinkie watched the wanton destruction. "Wow. Do you know where she is?"

"No." Not that it seemed to stop her. "I can guess."

---

Twilight knew only darkness. She still couldn't breathe. She couldn't see. She couldn't move. Her lungs were on fire, desperately begging for freedom, but even her attempts to squirm were met with solid resistance from all sides. She was trapped, well and completely.

Her odds seemed abysmal. Would she simply fade away there, trapped? Would they even find her after the fact? She felt something touch her cheeks and heard her pained gasp, but it wasn't escape. It was a tear she had shed at the idea that she could lose it all in such a miserable way. At least, perhaps, the Pie sisters could finish the task, without her. If Equestria could be saved, that would at least be something...

Her prison trembled around her and the rock groaned as if in pain. A slab pressed against her and she joined it in a soft little cry as it crushed and pressed against her, causing new dampness that was not born of tears to spread.

Distantly, she could hear a muffled thump, the rocks around her shifting. The pressure against her ribs abated, sliding back just enough to cease crushing her. What was going on, she couldn't tell. another earthquake, perhaps? That seismic activity that Maud had wanted to survey before committing to their attack.

Would Maud succeed? Twilight certainly hoped so. At least something good could come from the situation.

---

"She's below us." Maud pointed down. "I have to get this just right," she insisted in her even tone.

"Wow, good job." Pinkie bounced in place, only to be caught by Maud on the way down, blinking from the arms of her sister.

"You have to be perfectly still, and quiet." Maud let Pinkie down carefully and turned her vision down, tapping faintly in a slow pattern. "Right... here." She brought her hooves together, rubbing them.

"You look more serious than usual." Pinkie inclined her head. "is it that bad?"

"If I get this even a little wrong, I could hurt Twilight... a lot." She knew the damage caused could go well beyond 'hurt', but also saw no reason to drive Pinkie to panic. "It has to be done perfectly."

Pinkie drew out a little device from her mane that was beeping quietly. Maud peered at it. "What is that?"

"It's my Twi-detector!" Pinkie thrust it forward at Maud.

Maud accepted it silently, not asking why Pinkie hadn't given it to her before then. The detector confirmed her suspicion. Twilight was under them, a few inches to the left of where Maud had expected. She adjusted her aim accordingly. She had to get it right.

"You can do it," encouraged Pinkie in a soft whisper, waving a pennant wildly, but silently.

Maud brought her hooves down, striking with both in precise locations with a strangely unechoing connection. The force went right into the rock, none wasted on a loud sound. The rock began to split and part, the impact working deeper in a spiderweb that reached out towards her trapped friend.

With the noise of tumbling stone, a hole fell open, but Maud did not look pleased. Her eyes widened faintly, and Pinkie stopped breathing. Such an expression of mild concern was the Maud equivalent of naked shock. Things had not gone perfectly.

Pinkie slid in between her sister's legs and hit the rubble, throwing rocks aside with a manic energy only Pinkie could safely wield. "We're coming!" she shouted, hurling each rock aside as quickly as she could. "Hang in there!"

---

Twilight's ears twitched, trying to listen. The thumps had stopped. Was the earthquake over? A low deep thrum ran through her body. The start of another? "Can anypony hear me?" she barely got out, ribs aching where a rock slab had already crashed into her and still badly pinned between slabs of unyielding stone. "Please..."

She could hear breaking? Snapping. Her vision was suddenly swimming. It took her a moment to realize she had been struck by a falling rock. The rocks around her were collapsing, but they were still large chunks. She was being buried and she didn't even have the strength to cry out, pressed into her grave with nothing but her own misery for company.

---

Maud was next to Pinkie, grabbing rocks and throwing them aside, filling their little hole quickly. "There's no room." There was no space left to put the rocks they were picking up. "I'm going in." She jumped up and hit the ground, her hooves working wildly as she began to drill into the loose debris, smashing rocks to dust beneath her determined hooves.

Pinkie dug out around Maud's work, the two working with a single mind to get to Twilight, the tracker showing her cutie mark, though it had dimmed considerably, only fueling their urgency. "Hold on, Twilight," Pinkie cried as she dug at the edges of her sister's drilled hole as they got deeper and deeper. "We're comin'!"

"Not precisely." Maud pointed to a wall of their small tunnel. "She's that way."

Pinkie blinked, looking to the little radar device she had and holding it up. Waving it around, she could see that Maud was right. "She's past this rock! Twilight, can you hear us?!"

"I need your help." Maud placed her hooves on the large rock that separated them. "I will move this."

"Go ahead!" urged Pinkie, vibrating with nervous energy.

Maud shook her head. "The other rocks will fall. You have to get her."

"--Quickly," cut in Pinkie, bobbing her head. "On it."

Maud clenched her hooves around the rock, connecting with the stone in a way perhaps only an earth pony could do. With a great heave, she pushed up with her hind legs, muscles bulging as she began to stand up fully. With a sudden wrenching pull, she yanked the stone back. Instantly, other stones began to fall, an avalanche initiated with the lack of the rock she had moved.

She could feel but not see another pony climbing over her and she smiled faintly, knowing Pinkie had done her part.

Pinkie sank down on the narrow platform left for her to sit on, setting the battered form of Twilight down carefully. "Talk to me!" But the purple alicorn had no words. "C'mon..." Pinkie put an ear right up to Twilight's chest. She could hear faint breathing and the little thump of a heart still doing its best. "Alright... Maud?" She leaned over to peer into the hole that had become full of debris. "Come on out. I have her!"

But the stone wasn't moving. "Not funny!" she shouted at the pile of rocks. "I didn't trade one wonderful pony for another!"

With a twirling uppercut, Maud burst free, spinning in mid air until she landed on all fours with a light nod. "How is she?" She trotted towards Pinkie and Twilight, looking entirely unharmed, minus the dust, for her journey.

"Hurt, real bad." Pinkie waved over the form of her friend. "You're a doctor, help!"

Maud did have a doctorate, in petrology. It wasn't quite the same thing. Rather than argue the case with Pinkie, she leaned in and listened to Twilight much as Pinkie had. "Hm."

She pressed a hoof along Twilight's barrel, feeling where things went right, and wrong. "Hm."

She raised it, then thumped it down firmly.

Twilight curled in on herself upwards, wheezing. As her head sunk, her eyes cracked open. "Ow..." she whispered, eyes wandering around the small room they were in. "I'm not--"

Pinkie had pounced her, hugging tightly. "You're alright!"

Twilight forced a pained smile. "It's good to see you... really... but I need to not be squeezed right now."

"Oh, right." Pinkie released Twilight to thunk to the floor with a low noise of pain. "You okay?"

"No." Twilight rolled up to her belly, eyes closed. "But we're here... mostly intact. Maud, can you survey?"

"No."

Twilight cracked open an eye. "Did I take you to the wrong place?"

Maud shook her head. "I've completed my survey. We will have to move one of our explosives and set the last one."

Twilight let out her air in a gust. "Oh, thank Celestia... Alright, alright, let me just... catch my breath."

---

Spike was slumped against Luna, who was leaning back against him, both nodded off in a little nap to recharge from the frantic day. Neither saw when Twilight arrived, but woke with the sound of it, and of her form thudding to the ground.

"Twi!" Spike scrambled to his feet and rushed over to her. "What happened?!" he asked of the two intact earth ponies as he waved wildly at Twilight's battered form.

Luna's magic wrapped around Twilight, carefully lifting her and bringing her closer. "She is clearly injured. Unfortunate, but I don't imagine this is something we can fix in the small time we have. Are you ready?"

Maud shook her head. "We have adjustments to make." She looked to Spike. "You're coming with us."

"I am?"

"You can fly." She turned and started walking, not leaving much room for argument.

Pinkie shrugged widely and began bouncing after Maud. "You heard her. She knows her rocks!"

"Yeah..." Spike looked up to Luna. "Keep an eye on her, alright?"

"You have my word." She gently draped a wing over Twilight's sleeping form. "I will allow no harm upon her."

Spike hurried after Pinkie and Maud at a jog. "So what do we need to do?"

"Move my super last ditch fun booms," explained Pinkie. "Just gotta move two of them, then we leave."

"Sorry." Maud didn't look back at him, her eyes forward as she trotted. "For letting Twilight get hurt."

"It's... okay." It wasn't entirely alright. He worried for his sister, but what they were doing had to be done.

Author's Note:

In this chapter, prices are paid. For Equestria! Unicorns are not as hardy as earth pones, it turns out.

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Mauds having the problem of doing sensing on the rock, like if she was trying to use a mouse ultrasound scanner on an elephant, from inside the elephant, without ever knowing elephants existed. Something is going to definitely wake up, if not get hurt, depending just how big those Crackers are.

[Fishsticks]

10407936
If this is using the same threat as the source material (the PERN series), there is nothing alive on that asteroid, just the thread.

They aren't doing exactly the same thing to remove the threat as in that series, but it's pretty close.

[Midknight Defender]

With the noise of tumbling stone, a hole fell open, but Maud did not look pleased. His eyes widened faintly, and Pinkie stopped breathing.

Maud underwent a rather surprising metamorphic process during this rock slide, apparently.

[David Silver]

10409899
Rockslides will do that.

[TasermonsPartner]

Maud accepted it silently, not asking why Pinkie hadn't given it to her before then.

Um, yeah, that would've been really handy back when Pinkie was hauling Luna and Spike around on a rope like living kites looking for Twilight. Ya know, when they almost all died? She could've at least explained that her Pinkie Sense didn't say she needed to use the detector before now.

...Or maybe the detector didn't even exist in her mane right until that very moment? Who knows, it's Pinkie Pie. ...Then again, maybe Maud knows. Speaking of:

But the stone wasn't moving. "Not funny!" she shouted at the pile of rocks. "I didn't trade one wonderful pony for another!"

Awww, that's a sweet sentiment that she thinks of both Maud and Twilight like that. Also, she did grow up on a rock farm, so it wouldn't surprise me at all that she has an argument with rocks about practical jokes...or that the rocks might actually listen back.