Fluttershy Digs Deep

by MagicS

Worm World

It had taken some time and patience but Fluttershy and the other ponies were now being safely led by the lizard creatures into a deep cavern that supposedly led to other tunnels and chambers far below where the lizards lived. They had proven themselves to be unfailingly polite and helpful, something Fluttershy would surely relate to Twilight. When it came to more complex things (like if they knew about the rock monsters or what else might be down below) they unfortunately weren’t able to really get the message across. But this was still a pretty good turn of events in Fluttershy’s opinion. All of the others were pretty happy that the lizards turned out friendly too, none more than Angel Bunny, who had been worried the most about getting eaten.

The lizards seemed pretty appreciative of the light Daylight could generate from her horn too. Unlike what Fluttershy would’ve thought about subterranean creatures like this, their eyes didn’t seem bothered by the light at all.

And it wasn’t much longer at all that the lizards dropped them off before the gaping maw of a huge tunnel that sloped downwards. Gaping maw was indeed an apt description too as it had stalactites and stalagmites all around its edge that made it look like the jaws of some fierce beast. The lizards stopped in front of it and started pointing first down the tunnel and then down at the ground. Fluttershy understood that message fairly easily.

“Thank you all so much, you’ve been a huge help,” she said and held her hooves to her chest, right above her heart, hoping that would help get her message across too.

From the happy faces of the lizards, she would say it did.

“Kreeee!” All the lizards screeched in unison and danced up and down on their limber legs.

Daylight Gleam, Amethyst Star, and Angel Bunny still seemed pretty put off by the lizards but the first two of them at least managed to put strained smiles on their faces. Maud was pretty much as unreadable as always.

When the lizards were done with their shrieking they started to turn and leave, waving goodbye to the ponies and crawling up along the walls and ceilings, back to wherever they lived.

“Goodbye!” Fluttershy said, waving after them until they were all gone from sight.

“Am I the only one a little nervous that they wouldn’t take us any further than this?” Daylight Gleam raised an eyebrow.

“I’m sure it’s nothing like that,” Fluttershy smiled at her. “They probably just have lives of their own to get back to. They didn’t seem scared of the tunnel or anything, maybe they just have no reason to ever travel down it?”

“I guess,” Daylight shrugged.

“Well I for one just want us to get a move on and finish this adventure as quickly as possible. The longer this goes the longer the possibility that I do something really stupid and mess things up for everyone,” Amethyst Star said and started walking on into the tunnel.

“She… she does have a point,” Daylight said and walked in after her, again turning up the light on her horn.

Fluttershy giggled and glanced at Maud. “Well?”

“Coming,” Maud replied.

Angel Bunny too also hopped off of Fluttershy’s back and started walking on his own. Seemed he wanted a change of pace. And so they all started on the next leg of their misadventure.

---

They could all tell that the tunnel went in a long descending spiral almost like a spiral staircase. There was just enough of a curve to it that they could see it happening while they walked down it. Thankfully the actual slope of it was very gentle and the ground was nothing but solid rock. So while their hooves were a little sore from walking on it so much they didn’t have to worry about falling down or slipping anywhere.

While the tunnel was pretty much bare of anything interesting to most of the spelunkers, Maud was unusually preoccupied with the walls of it. She stayed close to them as she walked and dragged her hoof across them with each step.

“Maud?” Fluttershy questioned her. “Is there something wrong?”

Maud shook her head. “Not wrong. Just interesting. These cave walls are unnaturally smooth, they didn’t end up this way from normal geological activity. Something either sculpted or created them like this.”

“Well it was probably the lizards, wasn’t it?” Amethyst Star offered. “Or the rock monster things.

Maud nodded. “Probably. I’m just curious. This kind of thing is kind of my passion.”

“You don’t say...” Amethyst Star muttered under her breath.

“If I’m being honest I just want to get to the bottom of this tunnel already. We haven’t seen hide nor hair of these so called “rock monsters” since starting our search for them. It would really be nice if we could get some clues soon,” Daylight said.

While Daylight was a bit more impatient than her, Fluttershy still had to agree. The sooner they figured out the problem of the rock monsters the sooner they could help the moles. And the sooner she could get out of here and safely return home. They were already miles underground right now (at least she was guessing they were that deep) it just wasn’t possible that they would have to travel that much farther.

Oh, I really shouldn’t think things like that. I’m going to jinx us… Fluttershy bit her lip.

She should know from all her crazy adventures with her friends that “impossible” wasn’t a word. Speaking of them, why couldn’t Twilight be here to explain everything and Rainbow Dash be here to defend her?

And furthermore, something that had been nagging at the back of her mind from the very start, where exactly was Discord? He had to know she had been missing for days now. Was he just messing around? She knew it was wrong to just rely on him for everything but she at least figured he would lend his help to her when she was in danger. Angel Bunny was probably going to want to have some words with him once they were out of here too.

“Hey, hold on, I think we’re actually getting to the bottom of this spiral tunnel. It looks like it levels out just ahead now,” Daylight Gleam said, her light showing the way.

“Thank Celestia. Let’s hope we find some more plants to eat or some nice cold water to drink,” Amethyst Star said.

Angel Bunny grumbled in agreement and Fluttershy couldn’t help but giggle.

Up ahead, Fluttershy could now see the tunnel both straighten out and stop descending. It looked like it led to a new chamber, she could see the smooth and perfectly round exit cloaked in shadows from beyond. It was actually somewhat foreboding but she tried to not let it get to her. Keyword being tried, she still felt a drop of sweat drip down the side of her head.

When they finally got to the end of the tunnel and could see out into the new chamber, Fluttershy realized it was far too big for the light just from Daylight’s horn to illuminate it all. But what she could tell was that they were standing atop a tall cliff that fell straight down into an abyss right below their hooves. Amethyst Star saw it and her jaw clenched in fright, slowly backing away from it.

“We almost walked right off into that!” She said.

“It seems we’ve found another huge chamber, just like with that ocean,” Daylight said. A smirk then graced her face. “Now though, I’ve gotten an idea for how we might be able to see it all better.”

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy raised an eyebrow at her.

“Just a new spell I’ve been thinking of after our unfortunate outing on the ocean,” Daylight said and charged her horn with power. It first glowed powder blue before turning white hot, bright enough that Fluttershy and the others had to look away. “Hrrrrrk!” Daylight strained and then shot the powerful ball of light off her horn and into the air. It arced across the huge cavern like a flare gun, illuminating far off distances for them to see.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy held a hoof up to her mouth as she looked.

They had entered a mammoth cavern that extended far in the direction they were facing. While not particularly wide it looked incredibly deep—so deep that they couldn’t see the bottom even when Daylight’s flare began its descent. Bridges and arches of stone criss-crossed the entire thing, treacherous narrow pathways looked like they lined the walls of the cliffs, a few plateaus and landings jutted out of the walls in places, and dozens of perfectly smooth and circular holes like the one they had just walked out of were also scattered about the walls.

Amethyst Star gulped. “I guess we’re gonna be making the slow way down...”

“It’s not so bad. If any of us slip, Fluttershy will surely catch us,” Maud said.

Fluttershy bit her tongue, not liking that sort of pressure.

Daylight sighed. “Let’s just find a way to get to one of those paths and start going. I think we’re going to be in this chamber for a very long time. But looking at how deep it goes… I think there’s a good chance our goal is at the bottom of it.”

“I hope so,” Fluttershy said.

Together all five of them searched around their cliff before finding a path that skirted the walls of the chamber. It was narrow, and there was no safety rail or anything so they had to keep themselves pressed against the wall as they trotted, but soon enough they were making the long trip down.

“Hey Maud? How is a cave like this made anyways?” Amethyst Star asked as they walked.

“Through moving water over time. The same as any other cave. Not counting volcanic activity or sudden upheavals of the earth through earthquakes,” Maud replied.

“Wow...” Amethyst Star stared around in wonder. “It must’ve been like, a lot of water and a lot of time to make this.”

Daylight Gleam rolled her eyes. “Yes, Amethyst. That’s how this kind of thing works. Even I know that. We’re talking millions and millions of years, that’s how big canyons form too, ages and ages of time, water, and the slow movement of rocks.”

“Oooh, look at the scholar,” Amethyst sarcastically said.

“Girls, please, we really need to focus on where we’re walking. This is no time for that kind of thing,” Fluttershy admonished them.

“Sorry, Fluttershy.”

“Sorry.”

“That’s better,” Fluttershy smiled at the two of them. “I think we can still talk but… oh, maybe do it carefully.” She said as she looked at the edge of the narrow path she was walking on. Even for a creature who could fly, a dark abyss like that was pretty scary.

Angel Bunny was surprisingly doing pretty good right now walking on his own though. Maybe he wasn’t as worried because with his smaller body he could walk safely down the path without having to either skirt the ledge or press up against the wall. Either way Fluttershy was at least happy to be able to look down and keep an eye on him as he walked right in front of her. Fluttershy herself was picking up the rear, since that way she could see and react immediately in case anyone did actually slip and fall.

As she was walking, something else came to mind, based on all that Maud had said about how caves formed and what she said about the tunnel they had come from to get into this chamber. What was up with all those other identical holes? They obviously weren’t made by natural streams of flowing water. They were too perfect. Why were there so many of them?

“Maud?” Fluttershy spoke up. “You were probably already wondering the same thing, but where do you think all those perfectly circular holes came from?”

“I don’t-” Maud was about to answer when a rumbling shook not only the path they were walking on but the entire chamber.

“W-What’s going on?!” Amethyst Star shouted as she hugged the wall for support.

“I don’t know! Maybe it’s an earthquake!” Fluttershy said, she hunkered down low and held onto Angel.

It didn’t actually feel like an earthquake though, the rumbling was coming from past the wall of stone and rock they were walking by. It was more like that rumbling you felt when standing at the train station when the train was rolling in. Something moving was making this grand commotion and Fluttershy sorely hoped they wouldn’t have to find out what.

Almost as soon as it started though the rumbling stopped. The ponies looked each over to make sure they were okay and got back to walking.

“Whatever that was, it at least didn’t damage the path or anything. I think it’s as sturdy as ever,” Daylight said, she was in the front again to give them the best vision.

“Well then let’s keep going and hope we get out of here before another one of those starts,” Amethyst Star said.

Something was bothering Fluttershy as they walked though and by the look of things, Maud was also slightly perturbed if the barely furrowed brow was any indication. She couldn’t help but have the suspicion that the holes had something to do with that rumbling. And lo and behold did it just so happen that shortly up ahead did their path take them directly beneath one of those holes. Fluttershy didn’t want to voice her fears and come off like some paranoid scaredy-cat in case she was wrong. But…

Nope, time to believe in herself and be a little assertive. The safety of others depended on her right now after all.

“Um, c-can we all wait up just a second?” Her voice came out in a slightly squeaky whisper.

The others looked back at her, and Angel Bunny paused right in front of her, looking up with a confused expression on his face.

“What is it?” Daylight raised an eyebrow at her.

“I just think that um, maybe, that the hole we’re about to pass by isn’t totally safe,” Fluttershy said.

Daylight and Amethyst looked towards it while Maud kept her stony face on Fluttershy.

“I don’t get it?” Daylight shrugged. “It’s just one of a bunch of these holes in here. They all look the same, don’t they?”

“It’s just a feeling I have,” Fluttershy pawed at the ground a little, her eyes shyly dipping down. “Sometimes my feelings are totally wrong and I get scared over nothing. But other times I’m exactly right to be worried about something. I think this is one of those times where I’m right to be worried.” She looked up to see Maud’s face, the earth pony giving an appreciative nod to her. “I’m not saying we should stop or turn back, but I think I should fly ahead and make sure things are safe.”

“Wait,” Amethyst Star held up a hoof. “So that means you’re going to put yourself into potential danger? That’s what you’re saying?”

Fluttershy took a little breath and nodded. “Um, yes. To make sure the rest of you are safe I can do that. I’m the only one who can do it after all.”

“Just what do you expect to find?” Daylight asked her.

Fluttershy briefly glanced at Maud. “I think something made all these holes and I think it’s still around here right now. That’s what the rumbling earlier was, we were hearing and feeling it move around past these walls.”

Daylight Gleam grimaced and looked to the walls. “Well, uh, no offense but I hope you’re wrong.”

“Me too. Or if I’m right I hope I can talk with whatever it is,” Fluttershy said and flapped her wings to take off the from the ledge. She looked back down at Angel Bunny. “Now you stay back here and be safe with everyone, okay?”

Angel Bunny frowned up at her, not happy at all with her doing this.

Fluttershy smiled at him. “I’ll be fine, okay?” She then flew ahead of the group, keeping herself out away from the wall a good deal and above the dark pit of the cavern.

“I’m going to keep my horn lit as much as possible for you!” Daylight Gleam said as Fluttershy flew by.

“Thank you!” Fluttershy replied and made her way to the hole.

It was just like the long spiral tunnel they had traveled down to get here in the first place. The same size, the same perfect circular shape with unnaturally smooth walls. Fluttershy hovered in front of it and gulped, trying to swallow her fear. She was flying about twenty feet away from the hole’s entrance and staring down into its dark interior. She couldn’t see anything just yet but it probably went very far in.

Fluttershy took a calming breath and then a much deeper breath. “Helloooo? Is there anything in there?”

“That’s your plan?!” Daylight Gleam yelled from off to the side.

Fluttershy ignored her and waited for any sort of response. Her voice echoed down the dark tunnel repeatedly until it became only a whisper to Fluttershy’s ears. After that all was silent in the cavern as the ponies and rabbit made sure to keep quiet just in case there was something. They all patiently stayed still while Fluttershy continued to hover right outside the dark hole, all of them wondering if anything was actually going to happen or not.

And just as suddenly again—the whole cavern began to rumble.

“Uh, F-Fluttershy?” Daylight Gleam asked as she and the others were shaken up on the ledge. It was easy to tell now that the rumbling was coming from the same side of the cavern they were on. And not only that it was getting closer and much more powerful.

“Was this a good idea?” Amethyst Star wondered aloud while Angel Bunny fervently shook his head.

Only Maud kept her cool, a single “Mm” being the only thing to escape her lips.

Fluttershy meanwhile decided she need to back further away from the hole. With a few flaps of her wings she got a good fifty feet away from it, now hovering in the middle of the large pit. “Everypony just hang on! Something’s coming out!” She couldn’t see it yet but she knew it was true. The sound was getting closer every second.

Finally she actually could see something coming from deeper in the hole.

Something kind of pink.

“Is that what I think it is?” Fluttershy gasped.

“What?” Daylight asked her.

The rumbling reached its apex as the creature from within the hole rapidly approached Fluttershy. It was shooting forward at great speed and Fluttershy had barely enough time to fly out of the way of the hole entirely before it emerged. The great cavern shook once more as a gargantuan worm burst from the hole, instantly several hundred feet shot out like some kind of endless rope. It curled and twisted in the cavern, blind head twitching about as it looked for whatever had made that noise earlier.

“Is that a giant worm?!” Amethyst Star screamed in a mixture of fright and surprise

And of course that got the behemoth invertebrate's attention. Its head swiveled about and “stared” at the group of ponies and rabbit on the ledge right outside its hole. Inch by inch it started to slither through the air towards them while most of its huge body still anchored it inside the hole.

“F-Fluttershy...” Daylight Gleam’s teeth were chattering as the worm approached. “What do we do?”

“I don’t think we have to do anything,” Maud said.

“What do you mean?” Daylight looked over at her, only to then have Angel jump on her back and grab the sides of her head, forcing her to look back up towards the head of the worm and a certain pegasus flying right beside it.

Fluttershy had a happy smile on her face as she floated by the worm’s side. “Hello there, Mr. Worm. How are you doing today?”

Amethyst Star and Daylight Gleam (not for the first time lately) felt their jaws drop again.

“She’s not… is she really?” Amethyst Star asked no one in particular.

The worm immediately swiveled its head to face Fluttershy and it even tilted it slightly as if it actually somewhat understood what Fluttershy had said. And considering this was Fluttershy, it probably actually did. While Fluttershy was basically a gnat in size compared to the worm, she wasn’t scared in the slightest. Nope. Not one bit. Cause after all this wasn’t some monster, or scary villain, or any other creepy thing, this worm was just a big animal. And she loved animals.

“My name is Fluttershy, I’m very happy to meet you. You’re a very big worm,” she said without a hint of irony or humor.

The worm’s head tilted back and forth before it actually nodded. A few strange grunts and gestures came from it and Fluttershy giggled back.

“That sounds very nice, I’m glad you’re so friendly. So you really were the one who made all these holes? That’s so impressive! I’m astonished.”

The worm undulated a bit more, the powerful muscles that made up its body all tensing and relaxing in order.

“Oh, us? We’re down here looking for something. Do you perhaps know about any living rock creatures and where to find them?”

The worm nodded once more, much to Fluttershy’s delight.

“You do? Can you show us the way?” She clasped her hooves in front of her chest as she brightly smiled at the worm.

More of the worm’s body extended out from the hole as it brought its head closer to the wall of the cave, right by the ledge where the others were. They were all a bit confused until Fluttershy flew down to them.

“Don’t worry, he’s giving us a ride!” Fluttershy told them.

“A ride?” Daylight gawked.

“Yes! He says the living rock creatures are from the bottom of this cave. He says we can hop on his back and he’ll take us down there right now!”

The others all looked at the worm’s large body. They weren’t quite as excited about this as Fluttershy but in the end they did trust her. With a shrug, they all carefully got onto the massive worm’s back and Fluttershy flew back to his head to get the party started. Maud, Daylight, Amethyst, and Angel Bunny were all lying flush up against the worm’s flesh, holding on as best they could. The worm express was about to take off.

“Okay! We’re ready to go! And thank you so much again, Mr. Worm.” Fluttershy told the huge creature.

The worm’s head undulated and without a moment to spare it started to extend further and further down into the chasm. It slid over the rock bridges and down the walls, never seeming to run out of length and be in worry of falling.

“This is pretty strange, gotta admit,” Amethyst Star said.

“Agreed,” Daylight nodded.

Angel Bunny nodded along too.

“It’s strange, but Fluttershy wouldn’t let us do something unsafe. Trust her,” Maud said.

And Fluttershy was calmly flying by the head of the worm with a friendly smile on her face. It sure felt good to make new friends.

Comments

[Dashie04]

I’m surprised Fluttershy’s kindness hasn’t killed her yet.