Fluttershy Digs Deep

by MagicS

Dark Digging

While the ponies and one rabbit trotted down the long and winding staircase, a ball of light floated down the middle of the hole as well to keep things lit up for them. It was created and levitated by Daylight’s magic and it was doing a good job of keeping them safe. Earth Miser’s stairs however were just as good as he and Maud guaranteed. There wasn’t a single step missing and not one of them so much as wobbled or cracked. It would’ve been nice if he made a railing for them too but oh well.

“Do you think we’re almost at the bottom?” Amethyst Star asked.

“I’d say we’re close to where the stairs end at least. But that doesn’t mean the bottom of the hole necessarily,” Daylight said.

“I might have to fly us down to somewhere safe depending on where we end up when the stairs stop,” Fluttershy said.

Maud meanwhile was dragging a hoof along the wall as she walked by, feeling the recently melted rock and taking note of anything that stood out. The shape of the hole became slightly more warped and less perfectly circular the deeper they went. But Earth Miser’s stairs still stayed uniform.

“I’m still a little worried that lava might suddenly rush up and… you know. After all we know it’s been here before,” Daylight said.

“Guess we gotta hope for the best. Earth Miser guy said it was quick but also totally random and something that never happened before? So it’s probably unlikely that it’ll happen again while we’re going down here, right?” Amethyst Star said.

“Normally I would agree with you but the more you say stuff like that I think the more likely it is that something bad actually will happen,” Daylight frowned at her.

“Well… maybe yeah,” Amethyst Star nervously rubbed the back of her neck.

Fluttershy didn’t feel like adding to the pessimism so she kept her eyes down to the bottom of the hole as she traveled the stairs. The further they went and she started to see cracks and missing pieces in the walls and even more melted away parts. But no sign of any actual lava yet, nor the bottom.

“Daylight?” Fluttershy said. “Can you levitate your ball of light deeper? I want to see if we can see the bottom from here.”

“Sure. I was going to anyways but I didn’t want it to be too far away from us,” Daylight answered and put some more energy into her horn. The faint powder blue glow from it became stronger and the ball of light that had been floating with them shot down a hundred feet at once.

At first it just showed off the last few areas of the hole and the final stairs made by Earth Miser but as it lowered a bit more the sides of the hole fell away and the stairs disappeared entirely. They couldn’t make out things in detail but it was clear the bottom of the hole opened up into a larger chamber. When the ball descended a bit more they were able to finally see the ground down there. An uneven ground made of jagged black volcanic rocks.

“It looks like an empty magma chamber,” Maud said.

“That’s probably the bubbling pool Earth Miser mentioned. Or where it started at least before it started climbing up more and then going back down,” Daylight said.

“It’s possible we’re looking at a caldera. There may be a lot of volcanic activity just below this and out of sight,” Maud continued.

“Is that dangerous?” Amethyst Star worriedly asked.

“Potentially. But it doesn’t automatically mean there will be an eruption either.”

“At least it isn’t too far down from where the stairs end,” Fluttershy said. “I can carry us down one by one from there.”

“It’s possible there won’t be a way out. Multiple lava tubes and veins likely fed into it at one point but they may all be collapsed now,” Maud said.

“Then one way or another we’ll find a way through it,” Daylight shrugged.

Fluttershy nodded. “I had to get through some very cramped and uncomfortable places before this, and figure out some weird things, but I managed somehow. Even if all the tunnels have collapsed we’ll just dig until we can travel down them again.”

“Sounds fine to me. I have no problem digging through rocks with my bare hooves,” Maud said.

“I do. But I’ll keep the whining to a minimum,” Amethyst Star said.

While Daylight Gleam kept the ball of light hovering past the bottom of the hole, the group made the rest of the descending journey to the bottom of the stairs. Earth Miser’s last step stopped right where the bottom of the hole broke apart and merged into the magma chamber. Fluttershy had everyone stop there and then with Angel Bunny on her back she grabbed Maud and carried her to the floor of the empty magma chamber. It took a while before they found a safe place to land among the sharp and jagged rocks but once her hooves were on the ground, Maud started pulverizing a lot of them to give them a better place to stand.

Fluttershy then went up and retrieved Amethyst Star, before bringing Daylight Gleam in last. Once the white unicorn was down there she deactivated the floating ball of light and started using her horn as a powerful directed flashlight again. In short order the ponies all looked around to see if there was anywhere to go but all Fluttershy could see was a dome-shaped room full of rocks.

“I guess this is where I come in,” Maud said, pushing over a big boulder of obsidian and clearing a path for them to one of the walls.

“Do you think you can find us a safe way out of here?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes. A safe way that leads to where we want to go? Might take a little more time,” Maud answered.

“Well I think that’s the best we can do right now… just ask if any of us can help.”

“Mm,” Maud nodded and got to work.

Daylight Gleam kept the light on them as they followed Maud’s path until she got to the wall and started feeling around it for any collapsed passages. Maud worked silently and so Fluttershy, Angel, and Amethyst Star pretty much had nothing to do for the moment.

“It’s not as hot here as I was expecting,” Amethyst Star suddenly said, breaking the silence either intentionally or not. “I mean, it’s still pretty darn hot, but it’s not boiling you know? I figured our hooves would be burning or something from standing around inside an old lava chamber cauldron thing.”

“Caldera,” Daylight corrected.

“Whatever. I’m just saying that things aren’t any hotter than up at Earth Miser’s place, and we’re supposed to be on the search for lava aren’t we?”

“Earth Miser did say that there usually isn’t any lava here. The source of it is probably far deeper. I don’t know how fast lava cools but once it does it’s just rocks again,” Fluttershy said. “Right Maud?”

“That is correct,” Maud answered as she continued tapping away at the walls of the defunct magma chamber.

The rock-obsessed pony then came to a section of the chamber that looked like it once led to a cave or another tunnel but had collapsed recently. Rocks laid in a pile all around it and the ponies could still make out cracks and gaps in the wall. Maud knocked one of the rocks down and checked the stability of the pile. Dirt fell down with it and she held a hoof under her chin, knocking down a few more pebbles.

Finally she looked back at the others. “We dig here.”

“Awesome,” Amethyst Star flatly responded.

Daylight Gleam sighed and dimmed her light by a bit, using telekinesis to move a few smaller boulders out of the way. “No time to waste...”

“There really isn’t,” Fluttershy said and got started on the pile as well. She didn’t have the capability to dig like the others but she was going to be putting her all towards it. Angel Bunny also finally hopped off her back and did his small part too, carrying away the pebbles that he could.

“Do we got any songs for digging?” Amethyst Star asked. “That would make this go by way easier.”

“Um, I can’t really think of one off the top of my head. Usually when I’m in the mood to sing it all just kind of comes naturally,” Fluttershy said.

“You two seem to know a lot more about spontaneous songs than me,” Daylight muttered.

“It’s just something you get used to in Ponyville,” Amethyst Star shrugged.

“A lot of that is thanks to Pinkie Pie,” Fluttershy said.

“But we always sing for Winter Wrap-Up too. And other stuff.”

“That’s true. In fact just the morning where I noticed Angel had gone missing and came down here searching for him I woke up and started singing about what a beautiful day it was.”

“Maybe there’s something in the water.”

“I would say that Ponyville just has that kind of special quality… that sounds a lot nicer.”

“As nice as it is to hear you two talk about singing, can we please put that energy towards digging instead?” An exasperated Daylight Gleam asked.

“Right, right,” Amethyst Star said and levitated some boulders away.

“Of course,” Fluttershy said and tossed a bowling ball sized rock off the pile.

Maud continued to do most of the heavy lifting, clearing out and destroying lots of the rocks blocking off the tunnel. Piece by piece the caved in tunnel slowly revealed more of itself. Slowly being the keyword. It was still a tough and arduous task and with how quiet things were the atmosphere was a little chilly. Which made things seem like they were going even slower. It was way easier to do something like this if you were somehow able to have fun doing it.

The two Ponyville natives glanced at each other and grinned.

Tunnel Dig-Up~
Tunnel Dig-Up~

Cause soon we’ll be out of here~

“Oh, so this is happening again,” Daylight raised an eyebrow at them while Maud continued to dig.

Oh it might be dark and boring in this cave~
But soon we’ll be right on our way~

Cause it’s-

Tunnel Dig-Up~
Tunnel Dig-Up~

Moving all these rocks and boulders~
Getting the dirt out of the way~
Making headway to go deep below~
And figure out the truth of things~

But all of that comes later~

Cause right now it’s-

Tunnel Dig-Up~
Tunnel Dig-Up~

Not a very fun thing~
But it’s easier with friends~
And it has to be done~
So get down in the dirt and open up that tunnel~

Cause it’s-

Tunnel Dig-Up~
Tunnel Dig-Up~

And soon we’ll be right out of here!~

“Yeah!” Amethyst Star and Fluttershy clapped their hooves together and laughed.

“We’re still only about halfway done,” Maud reminded them and pointed at the still mostly buried tunnel. “The song helped though.”

Fluttershy blushed. “Sorry, we’ll keep working.”

“Maybe we just needed a longer song...” Amethyst Star mused.

“No. Please. I’m sure the length of the song was fine,” Daylight Gleam said. She looked very exasperated.

“Then we probably should’ve repeated the lyrics some more or sang it a second time,” Amethyst Star said to Fluttershy, completely oblivious to Daylight’s feelings.

“Maybe,” Fluttershy honestly considered.

“The singing is fine. I was humming along to it,” Maud said.

“Really?” Fluttershy was surprised.

“No. But I almost did.”

Amethyst Star rubbed her chin as she levitated another rock away. “Since we’re halfway done now, if we work while singing it again will we be finished when the song is over?”

Fluttershy reached down and patted Angel Bunny. “Do you want to join in too?”

“W-Wait, we can just dig up the tunnel like normal...” Daylight said.

“Oh don’t be like that!” Amethyst Star smiled at the other unicorn. “You can join in too this time, now that you know the words!” She glanced over at Fluttershy. “From the top?”

Fluttershy nodded. “From the top!”

Comments

[redmar]

The part with Fluttershy and Amethyst singing was funny and so were Daylight's reactions to it. Amethyst calling the caldera a cauldron is also funny since that's what caldera means in Spanish.

[RoboRed]

Daylight lampshading the spontaneous singing. Maybe it's just an Equestrian thing rather than a Pony thing.