Tom and the Magic Pebble
By Jonathan Chung Nguyen
Chapter 1: Descending
"So uh.. Tom are you sure this is a good idea?", asked the filly dangling over a deep dark cavern
"Don't worry Sweetie Belle, I tied you tighter than Rainbowdash's passion for flying", chuckled Thomas as he lowered the filly into the dark abyss. "The sooner we get the gem you drop, the sooner I'll get you home."
"I don't even know how you convinced me to do this", sighed the small filly.
"Well I'm too big to lower or even fit inside the opening. Your the perfect size Sweetie Belle. Also you know you might have a chance of getting a cutie mark for cavern exploring", explains Tom anchoring the rope.
Tom and Sweetie belle were deep inside the Everfree Forest. They wandered off looking for pebbles and other strange things for Tom's collection. They were able to find a diamond ruby, but in the heat of their excitement Sweetie Belle dropped the precious gem inside a near by cavern. That's where Tom hatched an idea to lower Sweetie Belle down to fetch the stone.
"I'm not sure Tom", shouts Sweetie Belle frightened by the dark allure. "I can't see very well down here."
The cavern was covered in a blanket of fading darkness. The walls of the cavern grew darker with each descending drop. On top, Tom was easily anchoring the rope with a near by tree as he easily lowers Sweetie Belle down deeper into the abyss.
"Your a growing unicorn, why don't you use your magic to illuminate the room?", exclaims Tom calling from the top of the cavern.
"Oh! Okay!", as she attempts to cast a spell only to make part of the wall in front of her spontaneously combust. The wall was engulfed in a raging fire, but thankfully was not anywhere near Sweetie Belle. The fire unveiled the room and revealed a wonderful array of stalagmites and crystals below. The crystal sparkled in a variety of colors and shine in the small inclosed room.
Reaching the bottom of the cave, Sweetie Belle began to search for the gem she dropped. After a couple of minutes of searching high and low, she finally finds the gem buried in the middle of the floor. Picking up the gem with her hoof, she looks up to call back to Tom.
"Hey Tom! I got it, pull me up!", shouts Sweetie Belle as she begins to feel tug pulling her back to the surface.
After hearing her shout, Tom instantly began to pull the rope. His hooves were beginning to feel sore from the constant rope burns so he transitioned to use his mouth instead. After a few more tugs on the rope he noticed a gruff sound behind him. Turning his head, his jaw drops as he gazed upon a giant fire slug right behind him. Tom swore loudly as he stared back at the ginormous snail.
"Tom is there something wrong", a faint voice called from the hole.
"Ohh nothing, nothing at all...just a... king fire slug!", exclaims tom trying to dodge the oncoming beast.
Fire slugs were particularly strange creatures. They act and behave like normal snails, but they are enormous and had molten slime pouring out of their slimy bodies.
"A fire slug! I thought you said those things were on migration!"
"Well excuse me if one of them got lost!", tom shouts barely avoiding the molten slime.
Suddenly Tom discovered something very disturbing. Looking back towards the cave entrance, Tom noticed previously existing char covering parts of the entrance of the cavern. Instantly Tom started pulling as fast he could, surprising Sweetie Belle from the sudden up lift.
"Sweetie Belle! This entrance is a fire slug burrow!"
"A fire slug wha-", but was cut off as she suddenly began to shriek loudly.
"Sweetie Belle what's wrong!"
Sweetie Belle only hung there silently as tiny fire slugs were crawling all over the rope. Slowly burning through each strand of string and slowly dripping towards the young unicorn's hooves. She was almost to the entrance, but the rope wasn't going to last any longer. The king fire slug finally reached the entrance and was about to slide through, until Tom slammed into the unsuspecting snail. Part of his coat and skin burning from the oozing slime.
Down under, Sweetie Belle was panicking and began to hyperventilate. Still holding the ruby in her hoof, she stares into the sparkling diamond to calm herself down. Still trying to process the situation, she exclaims,
"I wish I wasn't in this mess!"
Suddenly in the blink of an eye, Sweetie Belle appeared right next to Tom. Tom jumped and flinched from the appearing young filly. She still held the ruby in her hoof. It's smooth edges sparkling and reflecting their surroundings. Tom instantly grabbed Sweetie Belle and hauled her on his back.
"Come on Sweetie Belle let's go back to Ponyville!", says the charging Tom as he and Sweetie Belle exit the Everfree Forest.
