Fluttershy Digs Deep

by MagicS

Upside-Down and Wrongside-Up

Fluttershy had continued to find herself in a very wet part of these underground caves. She was now walking through another tunnel in knee-high water, splashing it all over with every step she took. The light from her hardhat was more than enough to illuminate everything around her. It wasn’t a very big tunnel at all, neither that tall or wide, you couldn’t even fit a carriage down it. That was good for Fluttershy though, she was sure she wasn’t missing anything and nothing surprised her or came out of nowhere. She didn’t like all the water though but even that wasn’t so bad. And she had decided to keep her spirits up even more until she found Angel Bunny, and what better way to do that than with a song?

I may be a little lost and things might be kind of scary, but I’m not letting anything just get me down now~
No, I’ve got a place to be and a friend to find so it’s time to just keep walking~
Oh yes just keep walking, trotting, prancing, stepping, hustling, just keep on going all day~
Cause I’ve got to keep on moving and keep this smile on my face, no time for frowns no time for crying, it’s time to find my friend~

“Yay!” She whisper-yelled to finish off her little stanza.

Fluttershy giggled to herself, keeping Pinkie Pie at heart. It was certainly helping her make this cave jaunt more pleasant lately. And she needed it after going through all that watersliding and ending up who knows where now. She just had to keep optimistic and keep plugging along to find Angel Bunny. At least she was making steady progress too. The water and the tunnel was neither too warm nor too cold, Fluttershy was doing her best to enjoy when things were easy for her down here.

“I just know I’ll find Angel soon, I believe it. What’s that thing Twilight says is a good way to focus and get through a hard task? Mind over matter? Yeah, that’s it! Doesn’t matter what’s ahead of me or what I have to do, I will find Angel!” Fluttershy truly and honestly believed.

She hummed positively as she continued her jaunt through this watery tunnel and into the next leg of her journey. Keeping a positive mind, a positive mental attitude, and enough faith in herself to get through whatever other obstacles existed down here did wonders for her. It didn’t pay to be a scaredy-cat. Not right now. She had to focus on her friends to overcome most of her timid nature, but strangely she found herself functioning better in this serious situation than she would have on Nightmare Night or doing something else scary but not as “real”. Maybe because of what was on the line and she knew she was the only one who could do anything… which should make her more anxious, right? But instead it was like being backed into doing something had unlocked more courage in her, more strength. Because the alternative was just unacceptable.

So maybe her friends were right about her, she was stronger than she thought.

“I’ve gone so long thinking I was weak and helpless, is this what “When push comes to shove” means?” Fluttershy wondered. “Well… I’ll probably still be scared of normal stuff once I’m out of here. This is all just for Angel.”

After all it was smart and right to be scared of stuff sometimes. Fluttershy was cautious of things for a reason. She didn’t have a problem with that part of herself but there was simply no time for it down here.

The steady splashing of the water along with her humming made time just melt by as she wondered how much longer this watery tunnel would go. Things were now getting a little warmer, she could feel it coming from up ahead so there was probably a new chamber or something soon. What she didn’t feel was much of a breeze though, she might have to test where the air was flowing again. And she also really really hoped that she would find something edible soon. Even just some moss to lick wouldn’t be so bad.

As she walked she thought she heard a sound building up in the distance too but it took a little while longer for her to be certain of it. The sound of rushing water. Maybe she was coming to another underground river or something? Whatever it was she was going to be careful and keep on the lookout to make sure she didn’t get washed away.

“Maybe it’s better to start hovering for a little bit?” Fluttershy said to herself and slightly lifted out of the water, her wings giving her a steady altitude. Like this at least she wasn’t going to suddenly fall down a hole.

Her hardhat light shone ahead as Fluttershy slowly floated on down the tunnel with little droplets of water falling from her hooves. The sound of rushing water became louder and soon Fluttershy could not only see the exit to the tunnel she was currently in but also a source of light outside it. Her hardhat wasn’t the only light down here, she wondered what else could be lighting things up. The tunnel’s exit was wide enough for her to remain floating right inside it so Fluttershy paused there for a second and took a look around the new place she was in.

And if she thought the mushroom cavern was weird and unexpected, well this really took the cake. This place made that one look downright normal.

Fluttershy tilted her head in pure confusion and bewilderment as she looked up at the ceiling and saw trees growing from it. Underground trees growing upside-down from the ceiling. She had to bring her hooves up to her eyes and rub them to make sure she wasn’t going crazy. But they were really there. The whole entire roof of this big cavern was covered in a forest of upside-down pine trees. It was like nothing else Fluttershy had ever seen before in her life. Looking down she saw that the water from the tunnel she had just been in poured over the side and into a much larger river.

But… how? While Fluttershy was walking through the watery tunnel she didn’t feel any current whatsoever. It wasn’t flowing or pulling at her at all. But suddenly it’s like at the very end of the tunnel it just started magically falling out. The river below her looked strange and warped too, Fluttershy couldn’t tell what direction the water was going in and she started getting dizzy just looking at it.

“Oh my...” she closed her eyes and held a hoof to her forehead to steady herself.

When she opened them again she noticed something else about the river. That it’s where the light was coming from. Or at least that the light was coming from something below the river. She couldn’t see it clearly even as she narrowed her eyes and peered down, but there was something like lights below the water, maybe on the bed of the river or the bottom of the cavern’s rock. One big light and a bunch of smaller ones. Thanks to the warping effect of the water it almost looked like a full moon and starry sky reflected on the surface, shining down on her somehow even though it was coming from below. Fluttershy looked up again and sure enough all she saw was trees, no moon.

“What’s happening here?” Fluttershy rubbed her head. She flew from the mouth of the tunnel and started gliding over the water, no matter where she went over it the moon seemed to “follow” her and was almost always directly below her. Or above her. She was getting kind of confused.

The strange upside-down chamber was very large too. It stretched wide in every direction that Fluttershy could see. The good thing was that she could see clearly the whole way too, the lights were more than enough for her to see. It wasn’t exactly bright though so she kept her hardhat light on for now instead of turning it off and saving power. She wanted to inspect things closer.

Shaking her head to get rid of the dizziness that possessed her from looking at the river (or maybe lake would actually be a better descriptor) she flew up to the pine trees on the ceiling.

And felt pushed.

“?!” Fluttershy gave a wordless gasp as she suddenly felt weight pressing down on her body when she got within a few feet of the treetops. The thing is as a flier she knew exactly what that feeling was. Gravity. Simple gravity pressing down on her, no more and no less. But it came out of nowhere like her wings had suddenly became lead for a split second.

She looked up at the trees with a puzzled expression, raising a single eyebrow, and then tried flying back up to them. Again she felt that same feeling.

Fluttershy decided not to push herself and flew back low, hanging right between the trees and the water. She wasn’t sure why that was happening but she decided not to put herself into any potential danger for no real reason. Figuring out these trees probably didn’t have anything to do with finding Angel. This was almost certainly not Moleville. Just out of curiosity though, Fluttershy flew closer to the water to see if the same thing would happen.

And lo and behold, she felt a tugging sensation pulling her away from it when she got within a few feet. There was a sensation like vertigo for a few seconds and Fluttershy felt like something was trying to spin her around before she flew back and stopped in midair. Fluttershy let out a queasy groan and brought a hoof to her mouth. Luckily she didn’t have anything in her to throw up.

“This place is so strange. I just don’t know what’s going on,” she rubbed a hoof on her exasperated forehead in small circles. She might have felt a minor headache coming on.

Fluttershy instead decided to switch gears and figure out which way the air was flowing in here. She hoped it wasn’t as mixed up as the water. Whatever was up with this chamber didn’t matter, she was going to get out of here and find Angel. It was too bad her hopes for food were dashed.

Despite how endless things looked, she still flew out a decent bit away from the tunnel she had come out of to try and get more in the middle of this upside-down chamber. Hovering out there she did indeed feel the breeze going in just one direction, thank Celestia for that. At this point though she had no idea what direction that really was however. North? South? East? West? Everything had become completely jumbled to Fluttershy after all the twisting and turning down here. She had no idea how deep she was or where she would even end up if she dug straight up. Below Ponyville? Below the Everfree? That was more likely, with everything strange about the Everfree Forest maybe it explained some of the strange things she had seen down here. Although there was nothing quite like this there there were still things like the Mirror Pool that Fluttershy had no idea how to explain. That was something even weirder than singing mushrooms if you really thought about it.

Fluttershy shook her head, she was getting distracted. With a flap of her wings she took off in the direction of the wind. Since she didn’t know how long she’d be flying through this strange place she went back to humming to pass the time. Carrying on with a tune in her head she occasionally looked down at the water and the false starry sky inside it. It would’ve been pretty with the way it warped and reflected through the water if it wasn’t for the dizziness that came with it.

While following the breeze she heard a buzzing noise coming from above and looked up. Around the trees she saw a number of dragonflies flying about them. Only the way they were flying was… a bit off. Fluttershy had to pause to make sure but the dragonflies were not only flying upside-down, they were flying backwards. Against all sense and physics she was watching dragonflies dart back and forth as if they were totally reversed. In fact because of that it was more like she was watching dragonflies that were going back in time or something.

Fluttershy got dizzy looking at it and almost felt herself start to spin around before she recovered and stopped looking. She sighed and kept on flying while only looking ahead. “I can’t even look at the lovely trees for long either...”

Up ahead though she did finally see the end of this large cavern. The wall stretched across the distance with the trees and lake pushing right up to it and in the direction Fluttershy was going she saw another cave opening that the water flowed into. And the air most likely too since she was going along with the breeze. The cave looked to be half-submerged and didn’t reach high enough to also connect to the treetops, its opening just sat near the bottom of the wall.

She was happy to see it and know she could get out of here soon. A small smile spread on her face.

“Positive. Stay positive, Fluttershy.”

Unlike most of the caves and tunnels she had been through down here she didn’t see any stalactites on its ceiling. It was all just smooth. That was good for her though since because it was half filled up with water she’d need all the room she could get for flying. It wasn’t lit up though, the lights from below the lake didn’t continue on into the cave. Fluttershy would once again have to rely entirely on her hardhat light. It had worked well for her so far though, she was just worried that it might finally run out of power at an inopportune moment.

As Fluttershy flew for longer and longer towards the cave, her smile started to drop as she realized that for some reason she didn’t appear to be getting any closer. She had been flying for several minutes and yet the wall of the cavern was the same distance away. She knew she was moving forward but somehow she wasn’t making any progress. Confusion turned into plain worry as she sped up her flight and beat her wings harder to try and get to the cave. But even that did nothing. She briefly looked up and down and saw trees and water passing by—she was definitely moving. She could feel it, she could see it. But it was like someone had played a prank on her and put her on a magical treadmill or was constantly moving the goal further away.

Fluttershy stopped and stared at the cave. It was in the same place it always was.

“Really now,” she frowned, panting a little bit. Looking down the false moon was almost right below her and looking up she saw dragonflies flying all over the trees. Some of them were able to get closer to the cave. Maybe she should ask them for help? “I just hope I’ve found some friendly creatures in these caves for once...”

She rose up a little bit, not enough to be pushed back like before, but enough to get a little closer to the trees. “E-Excuse me?”

A number of the dragonflies stopped at the sound of her voice and looked over at her. It was the first time she had seen any of them take note of her presence and to do it they stopped moving about in reverse. Whether that had to do with them, the cave, or Fluttershy, she had no idea. Either way she saw herself now reflected in hundreds of tiny little compound eyes.

Fluttershy was both relieved and surprised. It seemed like they were acting normal when it came to dealing with her and none of them had said anything rude like those bats. “Um, if I can ask you a question?”

Bzz bzz? One of the dragonflies flew up right to her face and buzzed at her.

“Thank you for being so polite,” Fluttershy smiled at him. “I was wondering if you perhaps knew how I could get out of here? I’m trying to fly to that cave over there but no matter how long I go I don’t seem to get any closer.”

The dragonfly nodded enthusiastically and made a few loops. Bzz bzz bzz!

“To go forwards you have to go backwards and to go up you have to go down? I don’t understand,” Fluttershy tilted her head in confusion.

Bzz bzz!

“Reverse how I think?”

Bzz!

“And look at things the opposite way...” Fluttershy clutched her head. “Oh… I’m sorry, this is all so confusing.”

Bzz bzz, bzz. Bzz bzz!

“The sky isn’t the sky and the ground isn’t the ground? I need to be upside-down if I want to be right-side up in here? But-” Fluttershy paused and looked past the dragonflies at the trees. “The ground isn’t the ground… the ground is up.” She looked down at the water and the moon below it. “And the sky is down.” She gulped. “Okay, I think I understand now.”

Bzz bzz!

“So I still have to go under before I can go above and out before I can go through?” Fluttershy nodded to herself with a determined look etched on her face. “Alright, I can do this.” She then smiled at the helpful dragonflies. “Thank you so very much!”

Bzz! The dragonfly happilly buzzed in reply and then he and all his friends went back to flying around the trees. In their upside-down and backwards manner of course.

Fluttershy then turned to the water below—above her. With a deep breath she sucked in a lungful of air and did half a barrel roll so she was flying upside-down. It was weird to maintain that position, Rainbow Dash was much better at flying in all sorts of ways, but she could do it for a little bit. However it wasn’t enough to just fly like this, while keeping her eyes on the water she also turned around so she was no longer looking in the direction of the tunnel. A total reversal, like everything about this strange underground chamber.

And Fluttershy didn’t go forwards—er, backwards—yet either. She had to get on the right path first. Which meant going down. Which was technically up. Or it was going to be up. And she had to go below to go above and she was going crosseyed just thinking about it. This was all very odd and confusing and she had no idea if it was actually going to work or not. But with that deep breath of air still in her lungs she flew down and right into the surface of the water. This time there was no push back. There was no feeling of gravity trying to keep her away from the water and the starry sky it contained.

She felt the tip of her mane and tail hit the water first, then her wingtips, then the back of her head and her back, and finally she was mostly submerged in it. Her eyes squeezed shut on reflex once her head dunked below the water and when she felt her whole body splash into it—briefly floating right below the surface—she murmured and let a stream of bubbles out of her mouth. Her wings were still splayed out in the water while Fluttershy tried to relax and figure out what to do now. It was a strange sensation in the water, she felt like she was slowly falling but it didn’t worry her at all. In fact things were pretty calm. But she knew she still had somewhere to go. With the water enveloping her, she started to flap her wings some more and pushed deeper.

Fluttershy tilted her head and opened up her eyes, peering into the depths of the water.

No—she was still thinking wrong. She wasn’t looking at the depths of the water. It was the surface down there. Up there. She was already in the depths and now she had to get out.

She didn’t know when it happened but at some point during her swimming she really did start to feel like she had been turned around. It wasn’t just in her head anymore, it truly felt like she was swimming up from the bottom of a lake and about to break the surface. Fluttershy looked, seeing the shimmering moon and starts past the water. The moon was still right there for her as if it had been watching her the entire time. It twisted and distorted all about in the fake sky, surrounded by stars, something that Fluttershy could still only look at through the window of water. She fought with her hooves and wings, swimming harder and trying to make it out of this lake. To see the moon and stars directly is what she wanted.

Fluttershy was right there. She was about to break the surface of the water and emerge into the top side of the cave. The right side. The forward side. She had just needed to go a bit of a backwards way to get there.

“Fwah!” Fluttershy gasped as she shot completely out of the water, taking another big breath of air. She kept flapping her wings to make sure she would stay in place and then looked around.

It was the same cave but different at the same time. Instead of her just being able to see the lights of the moon and stars through the water and not being able to make out much detail, Fluttershy now clearly saw them embedded in the dark ceiling with their light shining directly onto her. When she looked down she saw the forest of trees through the water, now no longer looking like they were upside-down and stuck on the ceiling. Instead they wavered as if at the bottom of the lake. So that was kind of just as weird as always.

Her sense of direction was all out of whack so Fluttershy had to looked around for a little bit before she finally saw the cave again. The wind was still blowing right into it so Fluttershy was certain that’s still where she needed to go. Like everything else, it looked a little bit reversed to her too. Instead of a smooth top there were now stalactites hanging from it, meaning she’d have to hover close to the surface of the water if she wanted to fly through it safely. At least she didn’t feel the same pushing or pulling effect anymore. Seems Fluttershy had conquered the strangeness of this cavern.

With a happy smile she started flying towards the tunnel. It sure felt good to be on her way again. Movement from below caught her eye and Fluttershy looked down to see all the dragonflies flying along right below her, just under the water. They were right-side up and flying straight now too. At least to Fluttershy’s eyes they were.

“Thank you!” Fluttershy said and waved to them.

She couldn’t hear any reply but she saw all the dragonflies buzz around in a circle before going back to their own business. Golly did she feel good meeting some nice animals down here for once. The dragonflies and the Singing Mushroom Brothers at least proved that friendship could be alive and well even in a place like this. It made her hopeful for the moles too. Fluttershy wasn’t going to stop being her kind self and look for a peaceful, friendly solution to whatever problems arose down here.

In another minute she had made it to the cave and, keeping her head low, flew inside it. No trouble whatsoever. She may not have had any idea what could possibly come next in this strange underground place but for once she was feeling optimistic and positive enough to actually be looking forward to it. Angel Bunny was getting closer with each flap of her wings.

Comments

[GTthe4th]

Ah, this was a freaky chapter, one that proves beyond the shadow of a doubt just how alien the world of Equestria is, and just deep into uncharted territory Fluttershy has gone. I'd daresay that this adventure is even freakier than Rainbow's. At least Rainbow's adventure had plenty of friendly faces and towns to visit, as well as the land around her following the laws of physics. Fluttershy is facing alien geometries, endless darkness, and creatures so unlike anything on the surface. And she's doing it alone.

Mad respect to the shyest, quietest, most timid pony in the main cast. She deserves all the hugs after this.

Also, obligatory scene:

[RoboRed]

Although there was nothing quite like this there there were still things like the Mirror Pool that Fluttershy had no idea how to explain.

Speaking of which, wouldn't it be kinda funny and not-at-all-out-of-place if the Mirror Pool made some kind of appearance from its other side?