0-0-0-0-0

Cold wind blew, but it did not bother her.

The setting evening sun burned, but she did not feel its eternal glare beneath the polished wood.

The silence of her bearers hung heavy, but she would not hear it anyway.

Ridley mused quietly as she stared up at her oaken barrier, letting out a quiet sigh through her nostrils. She wondered if her mother would be joining her soon. She had plenty of doubts about it. She never really was the sentimental type. It would probably just be a long wait. Give the warmbloods some time to forget. They always did after a couple of generations. It was laughably simple, really. All she had to do was wait out their rage. Torches only burned for so long, after all. She brushed a hoof through her long black mane in the cramped box, grumbling when she felt herself being roughly trundled along. She could feel the encompassing soil around her as her bearers trodded steadily downward, deeper into the bowels of the earth. Ridley frowned a little when she heard murmuring, her thin black brows furrowing a bit in confusion. Thralls didn't normally speak much, but it sounded as if they were having a full conversation.

She shrugged it off as she felt her custom crafted coffin was placed on its stone table. She was already so tired, and she had such a pleasant last meal. It wouldn't be long before her mother was back for her, waking her gently with that familiar little smile. She would stretch and beam like the morning sun that she could never see, and then they would begin the cycle again. She had been so worried the last few times, but by this time around she really had nothing to worry about. Ridley smiled quietly to herself as she curled comfortably into the plush cushions, letting out another sigh.

For once she could relax without fear of terrified townsfolk burning down their manor. By the time she got back they would have new servants, the place would be devoid of dust, and she could finally have fun again. She was tired; so achingly, bone tremblingly tired. It wouldn't be long.

She was sure of it.

0-0-0-0-0

Ridley coughed and hacked as she sucked in the first breath she had tasted in who knew how long. She pushed weakly against the lid of her coffin with one peach colored hoof, gasping and choking on the dusty air.

It didn't move.

If she still had a heartbeat it would be pounding out of her chest. She held her breath and pushed again, hearing the wood creak. It was almost as if something heavy had been placed atop her bedding. It stank of old mildew and rot, and Ridley shoved against the wood hard to no avail.

“... Mother?” she asked raspily to no reply. The darkness was overwhelming; it had always been on her side, always served to hide and protect her. But this darkness was just too much... heavy, thick, smothering. She tried to call out again and received no answer, with the same result when she yelled and screamed.

She froze up, the panic clutching her throat tightly. She took a couple of unnecessary breaths, squeezing her eyes shut and thinking. The wood around her felt warped and creaky when she pushed on it. It only took a couple of moments to rip the cushions out of their holding with her teeth and they tasted heavily of filth and dust, causing her to hack and cough again. Ridley felt around the coffin for a weak spot, her mind feeling thick and sluggish as she tried to think, but all she could focus on was escape. She pushed hard against the side, shoving again and again, feeling the wood give a little more each time. With one final, heavy kick she knocked a board loose at last, and hope began to blossom in her chest. She wriggled a thin foreleg out of the rotten wood, and she kicked off from the opposite side of her coffin and came tumbling out. Mere moments after she fell, she heard a loud, splintering crack, and another cloud of dust blurred her vision. She covered her mouth with one hoof, scooting backwards along the cold stone floor as she blinked heavily, trying to let her eyes adjust to the dark.

It took several moments, but she could finally see around the circular carved stone room.

Her coffin had been crushed to bits by a pile of rocks. Ridley gawked in dull surprise, struggling to comprehend what had happened. Where were her mother's new thralls? Shouldn't they have been here by now to collect her? It certainly felt as if she had been asleep for a while. Her muscles were sore and tense, her head felt light from hunger, and her lungs were absolutely full of dust which took a long while to clear. She wondered who had done such a thing, almost as if somepony had been trying to keep her from waking. The thought was unnerving and she pushed it from her mind. She had just woken up, that was supposed to be the time for pleasant thoughts and time with her mother. Tora had always been her kindest upon wakenings, like she was seeing her for the first time all over again. Ridely frowned, brushing dust off of her flank and stretching her weary limbs. She was still tired, but that was to be expected. She was hungry more than anything, her stomach growled and she gnashed her sharp teeth in agitation. She was supposed to have a meal by now. What was mother thinking of, leaving her for herself like this?

And the thought slowly began to dawn on her, no matter how much she tried to keep it at bay...

Maybe something had happened.

Maybe her mother wasn't coming for her at all.

And to make the idea even more chilling... maybe nopony was coming for her.

“Hello?” her voice sounded raspy and shrill, quiet and stifled in the circular room as she felt around for the exit. “Mother? Is... is anypony there?”

She stumbled over her own hooves in the dark, snarling angrily at whatever had dared trip her.

It was a skeleton.

Ridley recoiled slightly at the sight of what might have once been a stallion. The panic was beginning to strangle its way around her throat once again and she had to fight to remain calm, and it was steadily getting harder and harder to do so. She brushed herself down habitually with one hoof, taking a few breaths to steady herself. Her mane felt so stringy and matted, and she was so hungry that she could easily feel her bones beneath her flesh and she despised it. She shouldn't have to be here, mother shouldn't have just abandoned her, it wasn't fair.

Ridley wandered around for a full minute before finally finding the hidden groove in the wall where the stone door was. She sighed in relief, brushing the black mane from her eyes.

The door wasn't opening.

She pushed on it again, expecting it to slide open like before. No such thing happened.

Ridley pounded and screamed and thrashed against the door as the weight on her mind finally began to make her buckle, the panic setting in fully as she struggled and strained to tear the door open. It had been too long; far, far too long, she knew that much just from how thin and scrawny she had grown, almost as skeletal as the useless remains on the floor. She needed to feed. She had to, or it was going to be very, very unpleasant.

Ridley glanced over the skeleton of the stallion one more time as she began to wear out. If her mother saw her throwing such an unmarely temper tantrum she'd surely get a tongue lashing. But mother wasn't here, like she was supposed to be. The hazy thought tumbled through her head that maybe she was just up early, but too many things weren't making sense. Stones on her bed, rot on her coffin, a corpse in her waking room. What in Tartarus had happened? There was simply no way that the warmbloods could have...

She didn't want to continue the thought. At all.

So she didn't.

She simply closed her weary eyes and took in another breath of the stale air. She almost heard a heartbeat, but she knew it was only a phantom reaction. Things like that happened from time to time.

She would be out.

Somehow.

0-0-0-0-0

Ridley didn't know how long it had been.

Days.

Weeks.

… Years?

She couldn't tell anymore.

No matter how many times she tried, the stone door would not open for her. Each and every time that she tried and failed the panic returned, leaving her to stumble around in the dark as she waited for her mother. For anypony. Waiting for somepony that would never come. The endless cycles of going back and forth, repeated trial and failure, it wore on her a little more each time. Some nights she would simply sit and stare at the door. It was a long while before she finally resorted to speaking to the corpse on the ground. Ridley propped him up beside the stone door. She didn't know what his old name was. It didn't matter. His new name was 'Ridley Two', and he didn't complain about it. She told him jokes sometimes.

He never laughed.

Even when she did, it was short and hollow, devoid of laughter. Devoid of life.

She was so tired, but her bed was buried, and she knew that sleeping might be the last thing that she did, so the stones remained unmoved. She was so alone, and no amount of speaking to Ridley Two was helping. She was so hungry, and there was no way to sate her unending thirst.

Her foreleg began to look awfully appealing after a while.

Her mane was matted from seemingly endless hours of wandering in circles, trails in the dust the only sign that she was even moving. She felt hollow, and her cheeks felt sallow and gaunt when she touched them. She was just so hungry.

Ridley knew for a fact that there was at least one pony she could rely upon for feeding. But that was more commonly referred to by her kind as the act called ouroboros, and was guaranteed suicide. But what other option did she have? It had been too long. Any longer and she might lose it completely. The hunger, the constant, aching thirst would never end, and if she took so much as a single drink from that poisoned oasis she might slumber for all of eternity.

Ridley talked it over with Ridley Two for several hours before conceding to his logic.

It was that or curling up next to him and sleeping forever.

Ridley took a breath to steady herself, shook her mane from her eyes and brought her foreleg up to her dry, cracking lips that parted to reveal her fangs, and sunk her teeth deeply into her own flesh. She bit back a yell of pain as she drew blood, and her eyes dilated a little upon the taste. It was sweet and bitter at the same time, coppery and tangy and wrong but it tasted like joy and fresh air and life-

Ridley didn't know for how long she had been feeding, but it had clearly been too long. She tripped over her own hooves as she stumbled toward the door, the shortlived strength already fading. She gave one push against the granite door – two, three, five, twenty – and after what felt like an eternity of frantic shoving she finally, finally began to hear the heavy grinding of the stone being pushed to the side. She whooped with elation as she at last managed to squeeze out of the small opening. Her mind was fuzzy, her foreleg dripped with her own blood but she didn't care, she was out, she was free.

At long last, Equestria was finally hers for the taking.

0-0-0-0-0

Author's Note

Just a little something I thought I'd get cracking on. Don't expect literally any part of it to be, y'know. Good.