The Beckoning of Nature (Re-Written)

Cloudy set hoof into the cavern, noticing torches light the corridor beyond. Said torches were sparse in number, though, and spaced just wide enough from one another to mark the way. Hooves and voices faintly echoed beyond, any words produced just barely audible as a result. The pegasus cringed before pressing forward slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible.

What was in this place, anyway? Hidden treasures, maybe a trap or two? He didn’t know--this cave was not explored by him before, so he didn’t know what to expect. Slowly, he came upon a split in the cavern, both halves also marked with torches.

He glanced between the two paths before taking in a silent deep breath and cautiously going left.

The pegasus met with a dead end after two minutes. He turned around, his body shuddering, the feeling of being a rat in a maze beginning to take root.

And froze on the spot just as the torches nearest to him extinguished on their own, bathing him in darkness. Where he had trotted from was the same cloaked pony he met the first time, albeit lacking the facial garments. All he could make out was an emerald green tuft of hair making up the back part of the mane, and ears a much lighter green in hue--somewhere around a lime green, in fact. The pony’s back was turned, so Cloudy couldn’t see its face from his darkened hiding spot.

“Strange,” The pony murmured, turning around and trotting along the other path with such haste the pegasus could not make out his facial features, “I thought I heard something here.” Hooves echoed as they hit the stone floor, loudly at first, before becoming a mere afterthought of the night.

Cloudy was stiff as a board for a few moments more, wanting to be absolutely certain the pony had gone away. Slowly, he moved to the split again and took the right path. After trotting silently down that hall for a good thirty minutes, a T-intersection marked with more torches greeted him. Both paths had five openings each, marked in crude door-framed shapes.

Yep. He was definitely a rat in a maze now. He glanced frantically, sweat already adorning his face, as hooves echoed yet again--loudly. Without having a second thought, he sped down the left side of the intersection, taking the first right shortly thereafter.

Another darkened dead end cradled him. In the torchlight, he saw another pony who insisted on the black garments enter just in front of his exit, this one also a unicorn but much taller. A mare whose face was also exposed, an almost-white pelt and a light blue mane with eyes to match framed upon a pretty face. She looked around, a scowl on her muzzle and brow twitching.

Good thing she failed to check all of the entrances, though.

“Alright, I heard something here. If you are a pony, then show yourself!” She barked, eyes narrowing low as she glanced around.

Only the crackling of the still-lit torches greeted her. All else was deathly silent.

The unicorn cocked a brow. “Am I hearing things now?” She asked, glancing once more whilst blinking. Again, the crackling torches and otherwise-deathly quiet answered her. She scoffed and trotted away, miraculously oblivious to the pegasus so close to her.

His heart pounding in his chest at this point, Cloudy waited for twice as long as he had the first time to calm down and steel himself. Were these cloaked ponies patrolling this place? If so, then what the hell was that unicorn mare doing in Ponyville, and that green-winged pony in Manehatten?

He recalled that winged pony mumbling something about tomatoes and apples. Cloudy almost immediately thought that pony had gone grocery shopping.

But, why do that in Manehatten, when a random mugger could jump you and steal your bits before you even bought one miniscule snack? It didn’t make sense to the pegasus, unless the thing in the scabbard was…

The pegasus shook his head as if trying to rid himself of these thoughts. He didn’t need to give himself another reason to make more of a mess than he was in now.

Slowly, he left the darkness that seemed to have blessed him twice in a row, flying low. Flapping wings were harder to hear than hooves hitting stone, after all. He scanned through the other entrances, and out of all of them, only one on the right side of the intersection, second door on the left wasn’t a dead end that was met after five minutes or less.

“I need to stop panicking…” Cloudy whispered low enough only he could hear himself, “that was a dangerously close call.”

After thirty minutes of flying the first half down this hallway and trotting the second, three paths forming a cross, each with their own assortment of erratically placed doors, greeted him. Fucking brilliant. Had this been a cavern, or a complex, one-floor pyramid scheme?

“Oh, hello there.” Spoke a voice, Cloudy glanced around hastily, only to find two more ponies in black garments with exposed heads on either side of him, and they just so happened to have narrowed eyes. One was an earth pony, tan pelt with trimmed brown mane and eyes, a crossbow shimmering like gold strapped to one foreleg. He had glasses on his face, which barely reflected the torchlight on the frames of their lens.

The other pony, an orange-pelted unicorn with scarlet horntip, unkempt bangs brushed to the sides for the part of the mane not buried in black garments, and equally fiery eyes, frowned. Upon his foreleg was a big clunky hunk of metal.

“Why the hell are you here?” The unicorn hissed, eyes flickering with a flame much like that of the nearest torch. “In fact, how did you get here?”

Cloudy shook, eyes widening. His wings twitched. Should he lie, or should he tell the truth?

“Cat got your tongue?” The earth pony asked, grabbing a wing in his hooves and pulling it all the way open. Cloudy looked at him in an instant.

“How did you get here, and why?” The unicorn repeated, horn lighting up with a scarlet aura. The magic pried the other wing open all the way.

Cloudy’s pupils shrank, and he closed his eyes tight. “I-I just came here! I wanted to see the Steel-Horned Alicorn with my friend, and we found a switch, and here I am!” He shrieked at the top of his lungs.

Both who lacked wings arched brows. “Why the Steel-Horned Alicorn?” They asked in eerie unison.

“My friend...my friend wanted revenge on his boss for making him work overtime because he screwed up on files or something! I was only dragged along!” Cloudy answered, tears beginning to trickle from his eyes. The two ponies on either side of him exchanged glances with one another.

The earth pony looked back to the pegasus. “Against your will, or did you tag along because he was your friend?”

Cloudy opened his tear-clouded eyes and shook. “C-Come again?” He stammered.

“Were you forced along the ride?” The unicorn translated, groaning soon afterwards. A hoof connected with his face. “Or did you come willingly?”

“W-Willingly…” Cloudy answered, shaking. Magic grasped his head and forced him to look at the unicorn dead in the eye.

“And...did you chase my girlfriend to the point she fainted?” He asked, crimson eyes narrowing dangerously low.

“Yes...but I had no--” Cloudy was cut off by a hoof sent straight into his face. He howled, only for his cry to be cut short with another punch to his gut. The magic let him go, and so did the earth pony, allowing him to collapse to the ground in pain.

He looked to the path in front of him, the purple-winged pony just trotting down the path towards the scene. Another face was revealed: a purple for the pelt, and a darker purple making up the eyes and wild long mane, short spiked bangs splayed like a messy coat of down.

The unicorn glanced at the pegasus. “This one of the two who hounded her, Yuuki?” He asked.

“Yep. He was just about to remove her face-mask, too.” Yuuki answered, eyes narrowing as she approached Cloudy. She cracked her neck--not a good sign. “Looked like they were about to gangrape her.”

Another shrouded hoof connected with the hapless pegasus, this time between the wings and from the earth pony.

“Gangrape, you say?” Asked another voice. Cloudy rose onto wobbly legs, seeing the white-pelted unicorn show up. Her horn was glowing in faint light blue. “Are you serious?”

“Wish I wasn’t. Speaking of which, was that your intention?” Yuuki asked, looking right into Cloudy's soul with her glare.

“N-No...we thought she was l-lying about not knowing anything regarding the Steel-Horned Alicorn…” He answered.

Another hoof connected with his face. “Yeah, sorry pal, but that first impression told me otherwise.” Yuuki replied.

“And before you ask, we don’t know anything about the Steel-Horned Alicorn either, so don’t get your hopes up.” The red-maned unicorn hissed, hoisting Cloudy up in his magical grasp. He turned to the other two. “Make sure Koto’s still alright while I take out the trash.” He said, and the white unicorn and earth pony nodded. Yuuki took off to the right-hand hallway, with the other two trotting after her.

As the pegasus was dragged quite literally back to square one, he shook with guilt. Only now did he start regretting his decision to come here, and the subsequent chase that led him to this rat maze of rocks.

“You shouldn’t have come here.” The unicorn hissed as he and his cargo drew nearer and nearer to the sealed entrance. Like the pegasus needed to be reminded thrice. Only when the unicorn stopped before the rocky entrance did Cloudy notice another gemstone poke out right beside a torch. A red aura pushed it in, causing the rocks to part. “Leave--and never come back. Oh, and be sure to tell your friend to not come here either.” With that, Cloudy was shoved out the cavern and sent straight to the gorge.

The pegasus flapped his wings, though they failed to lift him. He fell and fell, getting closer and closer to the bottom of the gorge. By some miracle, just inches away from the bottom, his wings finally worked and held him aloft. He had very narrowly avoided a gruesome demise, and thanked his lucky stars for this. He looked around, seeing no sign of Swift Wing anywhere. “Swift?” He called out.

Only his echoing voice served as an answer. The lone pony began looking for his companion, unaware of five flying figures approaching him from above.