> Escape from the Crystal Caverns > by Lucario247 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue: The Fall > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- MLP FiM Fanfic: Escape from the Crystal Caverns By: Lucario247 Prologue: The Fall During their decent, the three unicorns regained control of their minds. The blue unicorn, Colgate, looked at the bouquet that was falling below them. That single bouquet was the reason for the three unicorns' predicament. Colgate looked at the other two bridesmaids that were plunging into the caverns with her. The mint green one, Lyra, looked somewhat annoyed at the fact that they were probably going to die when they hit the ground, if they hit the ground. The other unicorn was screaming. Colgate couldn't remember her name. She and Lyra hadn't had a chance to really talk to her, since they were trailing behind Princess Cadence, helping with decisions. Actually it was the imposter Cadence that they followed around. The one that hypnotized them to guard the entrance of the caves. Colgate wondered how the other unicorn knew Cadence. Colgate knew The Princess because, Colgate was actually the first patient of Cadence's PHD in love doctoring. The Pegasus colt that she had been arguing with all those years ago had actually proposed the day they met the Princess of Love. Sadly, the colt passed away while they were still engaged, due to a freak accident at the Rainbow Factory. She still wondered about the life they could've shared, but that was beside the point.  Lyra said she knew the Princess because, like Twilight Sparkle, Cadence used to foalsit Lyra, back when she lived in Canterlot. They had become good friends, growing up, until Lyra moved to Ponyville. It was quite the shock when the two Ponyville mates had been asked to serve as bridesmaids to the lovely Miss Meamoré Cadenza. However, neither Colgate nor Lyra had seen the other unicorn before in their lives. Maybe she was another foal she foalsat for, or maybe a personal acquaintance. Whatever it was, it didn't matter now. Because the three of them were plunging to their possible death.  Colgate looked and saw the bottom of the cavern was rushing towards them. Going into survival instinct mode, she used her magic to try to levitate herself. Lyra and the other mare saw this and copied her idea.  Unfortunately, they had been to clustered together. So when they landed they each bounced into the air. Colgate landed on something soft, maybe a discarded mattress or something. But when she opened her eyes, a pair of bright gold ones stared back. Lyra's face was at the closest it could possibly be without their lips actually meeting. An oval of redness appeared under each golden eye. They were interrupted by the scream of the other bridesmaid. Colgate looked over and saw that she was scrambling not to slip over the edge of the crystal balcony. "Help!" she pleaded as her flat hooves provided little grip on the flat ground, causing her to slide towards the edge. Colgate jumped off of Lyra and ran as fast as she could towards the slipping pony. She was about to pull her up with her magic, when the unicorn lost her grip and slid over the edge. Colgate watched as she fell. The ground was maybe twenty feet down from the ledge. The unicorn twisted in midair and grabbed onto a jutting rock with her magic. She was stretching to put her hoof onto it when the rock came loose, along with a landslide of smaller rocks and a giant boulder. She landed on the ground with a loud thump, and looked up at the rushing avalanche of crystal heading her way. She looked up at the mares from Ponyville, and then jumped out of the way as the boulder smashed into the room twenty feet below. Colgate stared in shock as a few pebbles rolled down, signifying that there was no way back for the other mare from the way she came. Lyra was beside Colgate, looking down at the rubble. She still had some red under her eyes, but it was quickly fading. She got up and pulled Colgate away from the edge. "Cmon. We'd better not think about her if we want to escape this place." said Lyra, who was surprisingly up to speed with the current situation. Colgate stared for a moment and then nodded, sayin, "Escape from the Crytsal Cavern." > Chapter 1: The Realization > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1: The Realization The reception was going perfectly. The hired DJ was doing her job, almost too well. Pinkie Pie was regulating the party concessions and goings-on. Twilight was drinking her fifth glass of punch, her throat needed liquid after singing that song. She downed the glass and then wandered the crowd, having quenched her thirst. She spotted the newlywed wife and trotted over to give her congratulations.  "Hey there Twilee!" said her brother, Shining Armor. "Why hello there Twilight. It's nice to see my new little sister." said Cadence "Oh! That's right!" said Twilight. She'd forgotten about the whole "sister-in-law" thing. "I guess we're sisters now. Haha." They both laughed at the forgetfulness of the unicorn mare. "So, my new sis-in-law. I've been meaning to ask you this: what happened to the three unicorns that tried to stop us when we left the caverns?" asked Twilight "You mean the bridesmaids?" asked Cadance. "Yeah." "Well as I recall, they jumped after the bouquet that I threw into..." the realization dawned on the newlywed Princess "The depths of the caverns." finished the lavender mare, who also had the sudden epiphany. "Oh. Crap." Cadence quickly told her husband about what happened and what the two mares were going to do. Then she and Twilight ran to the castle gardens. Behind the maze, obscured by some bushes was the entrance to the caverns. They crawled through the small hole and fee treed the place that had trapped them for a long time.  "It's not really a good feeling to be back." said Cadence with a shudder "Yeah..." replied Twilight, "But it's best not to dwell on the past and focus on the task at hand."  "You're right." said Cadence with restored confidence Then the two sisters went on their spelunking/rescue mission. Colgate was feeling very guilty. She had failed to save the pony who was a friend of Cadence. She didn't even know her name... "C'mon stop thinkin' about her." said Lyra who was sitting on a rock in that weird slouching way she always sat.  "She's right. I need to get my mind off of her and focus on waiting for help." thought Colgate She walked over to a crystal wall and started observing her teeth. Smiling, snarling, anything to give a good angle of observation, tilting her head as well. After the 10/10 check up, she pulled out a packet of gum from a pocket she had in her bridesmaids outfit. She popped a price into her mouth and began chewing, the mintyness overloading her senses. Then she sat and waited. The two unicorns had to have waited for over an hour now, and Colgate heard a rumble coming from Lyra's stomach, which caused her stomach to growl. Lyra got up and walked over to one of the walls that head some ledges on it and began climbing. "What're you doing? We gotta wait for help." asked Colgate kind of rudely. "Nopony has used or even mentioned these caves for years. If somepony didn't get lost or trapped themselves in here, they wouldn't even know where this place is." "But the princess wouldn't forget about us." "She probably thinks we're dead!" she replied, raising her voice, "Now I'm leaving this place! If you wanna join me that's fine! Just don't try and stop me." Colgate thought about what the mint green unicorn had said. It was probably true. There most likely wasn't any rescue coming.  With this thought in her head she hurried after Lyra. > Chapter 2: The Climb > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 2: The Climb Lyra let out a sigh of relief when she reached the small alcove entrance. After slipping on hoof holds and nearly falling on sharp crystals below, she decided to discard her bridesmaid outfit as it was the cause of the slipping. She pulled of the yellow dress that wrapped around her back and tossed it over the edge of the ledge.  Colgate climbed up just in time to see her toss the garment over the edge. Lyra pulled of the beads around her head and undid the pearl necklace. She was about to throw them over too when she had and idea. Colgate was about to drop her dress, but Lyra stopped her. She remembered that Colgate pulled some gum out of her dress. That meant that she had a place to store it. "Does your dress have pockets?" asked Lyra "Um, yeah...?" "Put it back on. And give me your beads." Colgate gave her the headwear with a confused look and began pulling the dress back on. Lyra took the the unicorn's beads, along with her own, and broke the string that was holding all the beads. She then took the individual beads off the string, and then discarding the bare strings. "Put these in your pocket." she said, giving all the beads except one to Colgate. "Why?" she replied as she watched the green unicorn place the bead on the ground. "If somepony comes looking for us, we'll leave a trail for them to follow." Colgate nodded. But she had one complaint about the plan. "This dress keeps getting caught under my hooves. It'll make me slip and fall." Lyra went behind Colgate and grabbed onto the dress with her magic. She then used her teeth to rip the end of the dress off. The lack of clothing caused Colgate's blue and white tail to fall out.  The rip was high enough to expose some of Colgate's flank. Lyra couldn't help taking a peek. She blushed a little bit. Lyra didn't know why she blushed, or why she had the urge to look. She'd seen Colgate around Ponyville not wearing clothes at all, her flank completely showing. So why did this situation, involving clothes, cause Lyra to act like this? Maybe it was because they were both in an environment where no one else was watching, just the two of them in a lonely atmosphere... Lyra shook her head, trying to send the perverse thoughts away from her conscience.  She trotted back to face Colgate and said, "There. How's that?" "Alright." she replied as she stuffed the spherical jewelry into a pocket Lyra spotted a ledge that led to a tunnel entrance. She motioned for Colgate to follow her as she trotted along the ledge.  The jewelry that she had given to Colgate, reminded Lyra of the candies that Bon-Bon would make. They were always the best. If Lyra got stuck or even died in these caves, Bon-Bon wouldn't even be able to see Lyra win a music award or prove the existence of humans. Everyone in Ponyville would simply never see her again. She'd never go to Sugarcube Corner and get a cake again. She'd never meet with Octavia and Vinyl for band practice again. She'd never- "Lyra!!! Watch out!!!" cried Colgate Lyra had been so deep in thought that she'd nearly stepped of the edge of a sudden turn in the ledge. Her hoof was hovering over empty air that she thought had solid ground beneath it. She slowly pulled her hoof back and turned to look at Colgate, with an expression of shock and gratitude. She returned the look with only a worried face with a hint of relief. It would probably be pretty bad if Colgate's fellow trapee were to just step off of a ledge and fall onto incredibly sharp, crystalline, stalagmites. "Um, thanks." said Lyra awkwardly Colgate inhaled lightly and then said, "Watch where you're going!" with a grumpy "Hmph!" at the end. "Yeaaaaah...put a bead here." she said, pointing to the ground.