Fluttershy Digs Deep

by MagicS

Watersliding Into Mudsliding

Fluttershy careened down the watery tunnel with no way to stop herself, pulled along by the fast current while her wings stretched wide open and dragged behind her.

“Ahhh!” She screamed as she went down the chute like a foal going down a slide.

She went through twists and turns, sliding up the side of the wall, going in a spiral, falling down a sudden steep slope while screeching. The entire time being carried with the fast flowing water. Fluttershy had never gone down a waterslide before (she found them scary) but she had seen them at Las Pegasus. She just never expected to somehow find herself stuck in a naturally occurring rock one deep underground.

It had happened so suddenly. Fluttershy had reached the bottom of the huge spiral staircase and had found herself in a circular tunnel that led deeper underground. She wasn’t sure if she was going north, south, east, or west but she was going somewhere. Unfortunately this new tunnel had quite a few branching paths and on one of them the dirt ground beneath her hooves had given away and Fluttershy had fallen into here. In her panic she couldn’t get out in time and was washed away, continuously swept along by the water and stuck for the ride.

She was now drenched from mane to tail thanks to her dip and “fun” ride in this aqueduct or underground river, whatever it was. The volume of water was far more than any simple waterslide would normally have and that’s why Fluttershy found it so hard to free herself. And it’s not like she knew where to go anyways, maybe letting herself get carried along like this was a good thing. The water had to go somewhere. Even if she had fought her way back to the hole she had fallen down there would’ve just been a bunch of other random paths to choose from. Maybe this was fate deciding for her.

She just wished it wasn’t such an uncomfortable trip.

A sudden drop-off had her head dunked below water and her body tumbled end over end before she managed to get her head back out above the surface and breathe deeply. The sloping of the tunnel and fast paced stream still perpetually carried her through the water the whole time. She never had a moment to stop or get her bearings and it was impossible for her to tell how far she had gone down this slide. Fluttershy was completely disoriented from all the twisting and turning.

The only thing she knew for certain was that she was still going down.

After a long and wide curve that had Fluttershy pressed against the wall of the tunnel thanks to gravity, she came out into a straightaway that had a curtain of water falling from the ceiling dead ahead. She sighed and took a deep breath, waiting for the wall of water to cascade over her head and soak her some more. She didn’t have to wait long either. The exceptionally cold waterfall poured on top of her while she drifted past it, making her shake and shiver thanks to how drastically different the two temperatures of water were.

“This is starting to get a little ridiculous,” Fluttershy pouted.

It was about to get more ridiculous too. The hardhat light was thankfully waterproof so Fluttershy could still more or less see where she was going but a lot of it was still dark to her. She couldn’t imagine how horrible it would be if the water broke the light. What would have happened to her then?

Well for one she wouldn’t have been able to see the fork in the tunnel coming up ahead.

Fluttershy’s eyes bugged out. “Uh oh.”

The tunnel split right down the middle with the stream of water going right and left down two new smaller tunnels. And this wasn’t some gentle split or anything either. The rock that separated things was sharpened by ages of water pouring past it, if Fluttershy didn’t move to one side very quickly she’d slam into it and—it would not be pretty.

“Eeek!” Fluttershy yelped and threw her weight to the left as best she could. The stream of water did the rest of the work and at the last second Fluttershy was safely carried past the split. She didn’t have any time to relax though as the smaller tunnel she was now being thrown into was like a tube she could barely fit inside. And because of that the water almost filled it up completely and Fluttershy was having trouble finding room to breather. She could do nothing more than flail about and hold her breath while her hooves and wings scraped along the sides of the tube, hoping that soon she’d get out of here and back to somewhere where she could breathe easier.

It was like she had been thrown into a washing machine almost. Fluttershy’s lungs burned for air and she had to keep her eyes squeezed shut to stop any water from getting into them.

This is just the worst so far! She thought to herself.

When she almost couldn’t take it anymore she suddenly felt herself shot out of the tube like a bullet, flying through the air for a brief moment, before landing in a pool of water with a huge splash. Fluttershy bobbed up and down like a piece of driftwood before floating to a relatively steady stop, her hooves treading water beneath her while she panted in exhaustion, taking in as much air as she could. Shivering in that cold water she looked back and saw the tube she had emerged from ten feet above her, the water pouring out of it into this pool. Numerous other holes on the wall also had water pouring from them, all adding to the little underground lake she was now in.

“At least I can just relax and breathe for a moment...” Fluttershy said as she tucked her wings in to her sides while her mane clung limply to her head.

The pool of water was enclosed by walls of rock on three sides that she could see. Behind her, to her right, and to her left, dark stone stretched up maybe hundreds of feet, creating a tall but narrow shaft that this water was at the bottom of. A look at the water she was treading in revealed next to nothing to Fluttershy, it was far too dark and murky to see down into. Whether it was deep or shallow she couldn’t tell. The only sound she could hear was the sound of water falling into the pool. Endlessly. Flowing water was a sound she had gotten a little bit tired of.

Fluttershy allowed herself to just float there for a moment longer to catch her breath, letting the light of the hardhat disappear into the darkness a few feet away. How did she end up here? Just less than an hour ago she was walking down a staircase. The moles couldn’t have possibly come this way with Angel either, she might be way off course now. And she had no way to go back now either. If Moleville really was where Angel was taken she might have really just gotten lost on her way to it.

Fluttershy sighed and started slowly paddling in the one direction she could actually go. Her body had more or less adjusted to the coldness of the water now. She turned her head to the right and left but saw nothing except the smooth stone going up. Impossible to climb for any wingless creature. It was very likely this could’ve been a place she had gotten trapped in, but she still didn’t know what was directly ahead. There were probably a lot of dead ends and lone caverns in this strange and fascinating cave system though. She didn’t envy any poor creature that couldn’t fly their way out of here if that’s what it came to for Fluttershy.

She now faced straight ahead as she swam so she could see where she was going. The light reflected off the water, showing back as a deep green to Fluttershy. It was good there was no current pulling at her in here now, she wasn’t exactly the strongest swimmer. Although she could’ve probably just flown out with all the extra room she now had. Drying off after she got out of here might be tough though, obviously she didn’t have a towel and things were pretty damp in these caves. She didn’t want to catch a cold down here. It was part of the mild amount of wilderness survival knowledge she possessed, wherever she ended up now she should take a moment to dry off afterwards.

“I hope there’s nothing else swimming with me in here either...” Fluttershy gulped. “I’ve had enough of unseen creatures stalking me. If there are any animals here they could at least be friendly enough to say hello.”

Fluttershy kept swimming for a few minutes longer until her light finally came upon something besides more water. There was an earthy, muddy embankment directly ahead of her. She didn’t know how long it went but it ended the pool of water she was swimming in. Not a good place to dry off but Fluttershy would take it for now. Flapping her wings to make it easier to get out of the water and onto land, Fluttershy hopped on out of the pool and onto the mud. Her hooves sunk in a good inch despite her being a very light pony. The ground was just that soft. She would have to be careful to not get stuck, slip, or accidentally trip in the mud.

And first thing was first. She may not have had a towel but there was still something she could do. Fluttershy planted her legs and shook her body like a dog, throwing water in every direction and turning her mane and tail into a mess. A quick fluttering of her feathers got them as dry as she could get them at the moment too. Now she was prepared for the next leg of her journey.

The light from her hardhat showed tall stone walls around her just like when she was back in the water, and the way forward was lots of mud leading into darkness. She’d just have to take it slow like always. With a heavy pull of her front right hoof she yanked it out of the mud and took her first step forwards. Thanks to how much the mud grabbed her it seemed like she was going to be forced to go slowly anyways.

“One hoof at a time, Fluttershy.”

At least the path she was on was straight and not sloping downwards so there wasn’t any worry about falling somewhere crazy. She still kept her eyes trained on the ground so she didn’t step anywhere that wasn’t safe, Rarity’s hardhat still performing perfectly even after all the water that had washed over it. She did pause for a moment to see if there was still a breeze in this part of the cave or if the air was stagnant. In all the duress and confusion of her waterslide adventure she had kind of forgotten. Luckily for her the slightest brush of air through her mane told her she was still going the same direction the air flowed. One positive thing to think about.

Since humming had been an alright way to pass the time for her earlier, Fluttershy decided to start doing more of that too. It was easy to come up with a simple tune and hum to herself and keep her mood up while she walked through here. Ignore the cold, ignore the dark, ignore the difficult trudging through the mud. Just make sure you aren’t about to step anywhere dangerous and enjoy a little music inside your head in the meantime.

She found some of Pinkie’s more common musical moments going through her mind. Pinkie Pie was good to be the friend she kept on the mind for a lot of reasons right now. How many times had she been walking through the streets of Ponyville only for her pink friend to show up out of nowhere singing or dragging her into a song? It happened so often…

Fluttershy stopped. Her hoof was in midair, right in the motion of stepping back down.

There was a drop off, a slope really, on the muddy path. And she had almost accidentally tumbled right down it. She looked down slightly to use the light and see how far it went, it looked like at least twenty feet of a steep slope of mud was right there in front of her. Her wings were most definitely the better option for her to use when it came to descending here.

“That was a close one,” Fluttershy smiled to herself.

A crumbling sound came from beneath her hooves and the muddy earth all fell away, falling down the slope.

And in the world of cartoons, Fluttershy had just enough time to frown, look at the camera, and say: “Oh no.” Before gravity kicked in and she fell down with it.

She attempted to open her wings to catch herself and hover but she hit the muddy slope too fast. Fluttershy bounced off it several times, getting covered in mud, before sliding to a painful and dirty stop at the very bottom. Drenched with water just before, she was now drenched with mud. And that was a lot harder to get off. The pegasus did manage to pick herself up on wobbly legs and tested her wings to make sure she hadn’t damaged them in her tumble. Everything checked out, she was okay—just very uncomfortable. Things had kind of been nice for a second there but it seemed like the world was having a bit of a laugh at Fluttershy.

“Oh well...” Fluttershy sighed and continued walking over the muddy ground. “Now I want more water to get all this mud off...”

Comments

[GTthe4th]

It was about to get more ridiculous too. The hardhat light was thankfully waterproof so Fluttershy could still more or less see where she was going but a lot of it was still dark to her. She couldn’t imagine how horrible it would be if the water broke the light. What would have happened to her then?

Foreshadowing!~

[Dashie04]

So I see that Fluttershy is an avid real life player of Temple Run 2.