Six friends, six virtues, six destinies. Six paths.
Friends will always come to a crossroads. Well, it is no different for our heroes on this day, left with the decision to explore their own path in a dark and misty cavern.
The lives they've lived will dictate what awaits them at the end of the tunnel.
Inspired by the "Cutie Mark Caverns" art by Vest: here. First attempt at a no-dialogue story.
Darkness surrounded our heroes, only dampened by the light of magic given off by Twilight and Rarity. For hours now, they'd been in this cave, but it felt as if they'd been here all their lives. Celestia was the one that sent them all here, but she had unusually sent each of them individually rather than purposefully get them all together and send them as a group. She'd told each mare to find a way through the cave and to follow whichever paths they felt was right.
Only now did our heroes come to a crossroads: a divergence of the large tunnel into six smaller paths. As they approached, the magic lighting the passages became obsolete, as each tunnel gave off a sort of aura. Indeed, each one was illuminated, and each of the paths had its own color. By no coincidence whatsoever, the different hues corresponded perfectly to the colors of the marks upon their flanks. Of course, the ponies had no idea of this and thus did not question the bizarre nature of the cavern.
The group of friends took a moment, taking turns nodding at one another. Although they would normally stick close together, they all had the same order from Celestia: to go wherever they felt they needed to. She said that it would be an exploration of the individual: one more of the mind than the body, she had added.
Twilight was the first to approach the row of paths. Without being conscious of the fact, she was drawn towards the magenta light of the far-right tunnel. She had only meant to approach the wall, but there was no doubt a greater force at work. Still, she was unaware and ignorant of it.
Applejack, though influenced and wanting to follow the glow of red to the far-left, stepped up beside her friend and put a hoof on her shoulder. She asked if this is where they were meant to split up. The alicorn turned back for only a moment before looking again to the open tunnel in front of her. Twilight confirmed that this was where they were supposed to diverge from one another.
By now each of the others had already crept closer to a path. Applejack eased her hoof off Twilight and took a position in front of the red, glowing cavern. Red shone against orange; pink shone against yellow; light blue shone against pink; a deeper blue shone against white; white shone against cyan; magenta shone against violet.
They were ready to continue forward. They acknowledged each other a last time, letting one know how they'd see them on the outside, wishing good luck to yet another, and perhaps giving a nervous glance to one more.
The friends one by one stepped into their personal tunnel, hooves against rock, the trickling down of water being the only sound to accompany them.
Our hero stepped forward into the red light wondering what was ahead. Had they made he right decision splitting up the way they did? Celestia did have it requested that they go where it felt right... but what if this was wrong? What if one of them needed help? What if-
AJ's thoughts were quickly disrupted as she saw what seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, there! She could see the tunnel opening up! She picked up the pace to a brisk gallop over the hard stone beneath her hooves. And as the light grew brighter, she had a bit of trouble seeing what was in front of her. Only when she exited the tunnel did her eyes adjust to the bright, red light still reflecting off her coat. Despite this, her pace never changed, and she nearly flung herself off into a chasm before quickly stopping herself, skidding to a stop and just barely escaping a plunge down into a river of molten rock.
The mare took several deep breaths, watching as the orange-red river ran down another far-away tunnel. At the heat of the magma, carrying up to her, she looked up and away to see the sight of her life; there, on the wall opposite of her and high above her, were three openings in what would have otherwise been a wall of stone. The openings were formed in the rough shape of apples. Not perfect, but accurate enough to not seem accidentally or naturally formed. For a moment, Applejack simply stood and watched as crimson, liquefied rock poured from two of these figures, leaving only one seemingly safe for passage. And in it, Applejack saw herself: one apple in a bunch of many, aspired and known to live a life all her own just as those before her.
She looked around for anything else of interest, but the only thing there was that one open passageway - besides the one that she had come from, which she had left far behind her. All she wanted to do was beat the heat and get up there, but there was more to it than that. With every step, she felt that she was drawing closer to the truth. And with every step, she felt stronger for a reason she could neither explain nor observe. Very soon she would need all of this strength, for in front of her sat the highest rock-climb she'd had in years.
Wedging a forehoof between two rocks just above her and hastily pulling up, she used her other forehoof to make another wedge into the wall and soon did the same with her back legs. All she had to do was climb these stone stories, and she would be out.
Without even knowing it, her cutie-mark began to shine brilliantly: more brightly than even the magma in the crimson river below. It was her honesty: her destiny. That's what had brought her here, and it was what was going to get her out, too. A deep friendship ran beneath the shine of her flank as all her truth-telling materialized in her mind in a montage of memories.
And the earth pony remembered what she stood for.
Honesty.
Honesty can make all the difference in a friendship. While it is true that honesty can be brutal, sometimes an inconvenient truth is better to tell than a convenient lie: something that can undermine the very foundation built under the connection between friends. Applejack knew this best of all. Honesty was the one thing that she knew as she climbed the rock wall. So long ago, she had been entrusted to uphold the values of honesty within Equestria. She rose up and came to be a great inspiration to others, growing up as a family mare and staying true to ponies, most of all herself. She would come home after adventuring to a loving sister, brother, and grandmother, and she would tell them all about it - word for word, accurate as she could be.
Honesty isn't always precise, but it does its job in upholding what it does: the foundation of connection, giving individuals the opportunity to truly understand one another with few to no secrets left between them.
This was Applejack's path. She knew this all too well upon reaching the passage, out of breath and sweating profusely. And still, she felt stronger than she ever had. Applejack knew that she had made the right choice coming this way.
Our hero found herself in a cave, a soft-glowing of pink shining against her yellow coat. The sound of her hoofsteps resonated in all directions, for it was an echo unlike any other, calling to her and drawing our hero closer as it did the ponies in other caves to her left and her right sides. It didn't feel malicious, nor even unwelcoming, but it had a sense of trial - as if ahead of her lied an obstacle to overcome. And yet Fluttershy did not cower nor flee; she pressed on, treading softly and listening to the echos all around her.
As she stepped over a rock and climbed a small, stone step, Fluttershy took a deep breath through her nose. The air smelled of something that was new to her. The cavern dripped, moisture on the ceiling falling like a light rain upon her mane. She wondered what the smell was. Flowers? Trees? A new animal, perhaps?
Neigh, life itself.
The tunnel opened up into a large dome, where the light became much brighter. Fluttershy, having entered, stood still and squinted, her eyes half-lidded and adjusting to the darkness. Meanwhile, she heard what sounded like the flapping of wings, and indeed she could soon make out the shape of a butterfly on her nose. The other colors returned to her. The butterfly was a beautiful shade of gold, shining with soft, silver trimmings along the edges of its wings. Its body was a brilliant shade of salmon. The wings flicked, and it flew off, freeing the rest of our hero's vision. What a sight it was to behold.
In front of her laid an oasis. The sound of running water marked this place as an escape from the outside world and provided comfort. She looked around as she trotted forward, taking in all the sights and staring in awe at the beauty before her. Fluttershy stopped and smiled. In front of her stood an oak tree not four times taller than herself. It was small for a tree, but its leaves twinkling in the pinkish light was enough to tell Fluttershy that its journey had only begun. Much like her own. Along the ground there wandered caterpillars and roly-polys and a lone squirrel. The latter sat up on its haunches and replied to Fluttershy's smile with its own before running up onto a loose branch, where it sat once more, still smiling at our hero.
From the ground there was sprouted grass of light and dark green colors, from lime to turquoise: from watery colors to icy patches. Fluttershy took another smell. Here, she felt more connected with the world. She turned her attention to the group of waterfalls to her left, the same place where one might find three familiar-looking butterflies, a stream flowing down from each of them. And behind two of them lay solid amethyst. Behind the third, light. And below the waterfalls? A pond of clear, glistening water that gave life to the aquatic creatures beneath the surface. It was this body of water that captured our hero's dutiful attention. Yes. She walked over, careful not to take life from the insects roaming the ground beneath her hooves.
The pond glistened brighter for every step towards it, and the sound of hoofsteps faded away, replaced with the soft flow of water. And Fluttershy, with no fear grasping her in this place, drank from the small pool. The water was cool, not quite so cold as to freeze the lips of visitors. Her hoof stirred in the water as she greeted the swimming critters. They huddled about, looking up at the giant, and happily danced about as she stepped into their shallow water. They took turns swirling about her legs, and our hero accepted the humble gift of dance by shifting her weight around to a shared rhythm. And as she did this, she felt at peace.
For several minutes she remained like this, almost hypnotized by the smells and the sights and the sounds, but the time finally came when her eyes traveled again to the open cavern high up on the wall. The water streaming from that one seemed... purer than that of the others, and Fluttershy found herself attracted to it - just as she had been attracted to this dome. Her wings spread out from her body, a warm breath escaping her as they did so. The creatures at her hooves made a slow, hesitant retreat as she lifted off the ground, wings flapping softly and with such an elegance that one could mistake her for an angel: majestic and pure: well-guided and devoid of ill will. And as the pegasus rose up to the passage, she knew what she embodied.
Kindness.
Kindness is the benevolent force that everyone - big or small - has the power to enforce. It matters not who you are or where you're from or where you're going; you can always spread kindness. It's not always easy, though. Not everything kind is easy to understand as such, and one must be sure to go further and help a friend escape their comfort zone rather than remain in a bubble at all times. Kindness is an incredible force wielded by many, and it always finds its way around. It's the act of keeping someone on the right path, whether that means mentally, physically, or spiritually. It means to assert someone on the path of forgiveness and good will. And in this way, perhaps those good doings will be passed on from one to another in the hopes that they too may carry on a new tradition: a generation of embodied kindness.
Kindness isn't always convenient, but it's always an available path. Fluttershy knows all of this, pulling herself up into the passage - for the waterfall has left her wings with little use as water flows through her mane and down her cheeks: down her back and over her breast.
In one place, a hoof pulls another that has fallen up from the ground.
In another, a butterfly flaps its beautiful wings in glee.
