Them.by StedilnikChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 1Ill be frank with you. I probably shouldnt have written this. Im not much of a storyteller anyway. Heck I dont care about stories at all since they have a tendency to not be true. This one is however. I know, because it happened to me. I stopped thinking about it a long time ago. Thought I got over it too… Untill that royal wedding fiasco happened… …when that… thing… showed up again… and brought everything back… Just like that I could remember every damn second of it... As if it all happened yesterday. So I had to let it all out. Write a book about it maybe. I know I made a promise not to, but I had to let it all out… might help me sleep at night. Who knows. Nobody will probably read it anyway. And if somepony actually does, he just might realise how lucky we all were… As things could have gone worse… much, much worse… Might as well cut to the chase then. I wont bore you with facts about myself, since its not relevant. I can tell you I used to work for the canterlot post office. They needed pegasi to deliver the mail. And the faster you were, the bigger the amount of bits that were in your saddlebag at the end of the day. It was a nice job. Especially if you love flying. I remember we were understaffed that monday. Most of the crew were on sick leave due to the recent outbreak of flu and the postmaster needed someone to take supplies up to the northern outpost. Of all the delivery routes we had to take, the northern route was the hardest. So to save everypony the trouble, I volunteered. I checked the weather forecast, wrote down my departure time and took care of other red tape. Finally I put on my saddlebags and set off at about noon. It took me around three hours of nonstop flight to reach the mountains. The forcast mentioned a slight chance of a storm coming in towards the evening, so I wanted to make a quick run. I flew over the first ridge and then followed the valley north. The weather was perfect. It was a proper winter wonderland. The rock was freshly coated with snow that shined in the sunlight. I`m not a big fan of snow to be honest, but I felt impressed non the less. The outpost was at the end of a maze of valleys. You had to fly low since the wind was too strong above the mountains even in good weather. Its a pretty straightforward run, but in bad weather, you can get lost pretty easily. And this place has quite the reputation since plenty of pegasi vanished on similar runs like this. But that didnt bother me since I thought stuff like that only happens to other ponies. Heh. Feels funny thinking about it now. I made it. The guards let me through without any fuss since they knew me, as I made this trip at least two dozen times... The commander himself greeted me. »Allways on time I see. Not a mistery how you`ve earned that cutiemark of yours...« I chuckled. He then showed me to the storeroom so that I unloaded my delivery - dried hay rations, a few pastries, dried milk, chockolate and about two gallons of cider – enough for them to last a few days. Such supply runs were usually done every other day and a big run was done every two weeks. After that he invited me for a drink. Since i was in a good mood, I gladly accepted the offer. He poured me a glass of hay liquor and we sat down and chatted a bit. Pointless small talk mostly. »So how are things back in Canterlot?« »Oh same old, same old. They say they will up the amount of local shipments due to the upcoming hollidays, which means more work for us. How about here? Anything out of the ordinary?« »Yeah the patrol that set off last Friday went missing. Most of the garisson is searching for it. Which is what I wanted to ask you. Have seen anything out of the ordinary on your way here?« So that`s why the place looked empty. That made me slightly worried. I hoped nothing bad happened to them, though he reassured me that stuff like this is pretty commonplace during the winter. And they always managed to find their way back, since they are trained in this sort of thing. »Well then. Id love to stay a bit longer, but I really want to be back before sundown.Thanks for the drink!« »No problem. And dont worry about the patrol. My men have it covered. I would be happy if youd keep an eye out for them though.« I set off when it was already getting dark. I kept forgetting how short winter days were. But since the skies were still clear, I took my time and kept my eyes and ears open to see if I could spot that lost patrol. The area where they got lost wasn`t too far off course… I stopped and looked around a bit. I focused on the slopes below the mountain pass. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not even hoofprints. I listened a bit. Maybe they were shouting for help somewhere. Then I noticed something. Everything was quiet. And i dont mean as in peacefully quiet. I mean as in »I could hear a pin drop a mile away« quiet. I didnt even hear the wind blowing. It was just pure silence. It was then I realised the storm was almost on top of me. I didnt notice the dark clouds since I was too busy watching the ground. I tried outrunning it, but it was no use. Before you know it, found myself in the midst of a snowstorm. A dense one at that. Visibility dropped to the point where you couldnt see your hoof in front of your face, not to mention it got seriously cold, so I had no choice but to try and fly above it through the clouds. Of course that plan works if you know which way is up, so I ended up flying celestia knows where untill I was finally forced to find shelter on the ground - a ledge on the side of a mountain wall, a cave, anything, before I froze to death. By miracle I managed to fight through the wind and snow and got to a mountain wall. And not just any mountain wall, but a mountain wall which had a small but noticable cave entrance on it. I managed to get inside. I sat myself down near the entrance and made myself confortable, sighing in relief, since it was a pretty close call. Another five minutes in that storm and I could be in serious trouble… It was a surprisingly warm cave, considering how violently cold the weather outside was. Didn`t think about it that much and, instead, started picking the clumped snow out of my wings to pass the time. And then everything went black… Chapter 2I woke up to a splitting headache and a sore throat. It took me a couple of minutes to realise that I hadn`t gone blind since opening and closing my eyes made no difference whatsoever. I was in a pitch black cave. I felt around a bit with my hooves and sat myself up slowly. I felt a fuzzy, swolen and unpleasant feeling around a void on my back where the wings usually were. Tried moving them, but that only made the unpleasant feeling worse. Guess I had them pressed against the rock for too long. Might take some time before I can feel them again. No problem. Walking was probably a better option anyway. The entrance shouldn`t have been too far away. Just around twenty yards or so and I would be greeted by a nice view of the mountains... Or not... it was too dark. Much too dark... even if it was night time, I still would have been able to see the entrance without a problem. It was also too quiet and the air was much too thick... How is that even possible? I dont remember going further into the cave. I sure as hell didnt sleeptrot my way here. Maybe I went deeper into the cave to escape the cold, but I just didn`t remember since I was so exhausted... All I remembered were just bits and pieces of a bad dream. Guess it was of those nightmares that are so bad your brain just refuses to remember, since youd probably never sleep again if it did... my head hurt too much for me to even try and make any sense of it all, so I didnt trouble myself with that anymore.. Since the thought of being stuck here for a long time started to unnerve me, I began to make sense of my surroundings. The cave felt different here than from what I could remember. For one, the ground was perfectly flat and covered with a thin layer of dirt, unlike back there where it was rocky and uneven. Second, judging from the echo, it was huge. the ceiling was at least three hundred yards up. I`m no bat or anything to make such judgments from sound alone. it was a rough estimate at best. And the amount of time it took to cross it from one end to the other confirmed that it was at least three times larger.. It took me a while to find a cold, damp patch of dirt, which streched off in one direction. It was close to where I woke up, so It surprised me I didnt manage to find it sooner. Since I thought I couldnt possibly get any more lost than I`ve already were, I decided to follow it... It was probably a tiny stream or something, so it might lead me to the exit. It was a shot. If it lead to a dead end, I would simply follow it back to the beginning and start over. I had nothing to lose except a lot of time. And you have plenty of that if you`re lost in a cave like this. Well at least until startvation starts to set in. I soon felt that the cave started narrowing. I could tell that by the echo of my hoofsteps alone. Seems being completely blind really improves your hearing. Looks like this little trail did lead somewhere. That gave me the confidence to push on. Lack of light has a funny way of playing tricks on your mind. I constantly thought I saw something in the corner of my eye. A strange shape. A glimmer of light. Guess if there`s nothing to see, your brain makes stuff up just to mess with you. It gets unnerving pretty fast. Thats why I kept my eyes shut. My ears were no exception. Through the sounds of water droplets impacting the rock and the low rumble of the air passing through, I could sometimes hear some pretty odd sounds. Shifting rubble, that sounded like distant footsteps. Whispers. I swear I even heard a scream. A female scream. That one made me stop in my tracks for a while... The trail stopped abruptly at an odd object. It was pretty torn and sticky and im pretty sure it wasnt an animal or anything. It felt strangely familiar however. And I dont know why but I decided to take it with me. It really intrigued me. I didnt need a trail anymore since I couldnt stray off course. The cave was now just several yards across, so I had no choice but to move on. I was afraid it would turn out to be a dead end. Or worse, a bottomless pit maybe. To top it all off the ceiling could collapse and crush me. I tried not to think of what could go wrong in a cave like this. Soon, the cave really started to get narrow. I had to watch my head too... found that out the hard way. I reached a point where the only way to move on was to crawl under a big pile of loose rock. Seems like the cave collapsed quite recently, since there was still some dust in the air around it. However, from the small crawlspace I could feel a fresh breeze blowing. An exit was up ahead. I took some time to collect myself. My nerves were already severly strained, so I took a few deep breaths and told myself that ill soon be out of this mess. I then laid down on my belly and went head first into the hole. I tried my best to press myself against the ground to minimize the chance of disturbing any rocks above me as I inched my way forward. It was a bad time to panic indeed. All it would take is one wrong move. One wrong move, and it would all be over. No escape plan. All or nothing... I gently felt with my forehooves up ahead for any loose rocks, then forcing myself forward with my hind legs. Progress was painfully slow. After what I felt was an eternity, I could feel the draft growing stronger and stronger. The final strech was particularly claustrophobic, as I had to really squeeze myself through a hole that was just wide enough. Slowly but surely I made it through with my upper body. The air was fresh and I could actually see light up ahead... Then I got stuck. So close and I got fucking stuck. I didnt panic. I just got pissed off. The fear was replaced by rage in an instant. I just pushed forward with all the strenght I had. Ignoring the pain of chafing my flanks. I didnt care. I was so close. I pushed and pushed. Then the rock finally gave way and I fell forward. I pulled my tail out in the last second. The hole behind me collapsed. I just ran forward, towards the glimmer of light in front of me, before the adrenalin ran out and I realised how tired I was. I waited a bit for my heart to stop racing. I could feel being covered head to hoof by dust and I probably ate a lot of it too.. I didn`t care. I was happy. The end was in sight... The cave shaft widened to a chamber of similar proportions as before. This one, however, had the extra feature of a small entrance high up in the ceiling, through which light illuminated a small portion of the cave. Eventhough it was obviously night-time, it felt bright as day, since my eyes were still accustomed to zero light. I let out a sigh of relief since I was finally out of this mess... I sat myself down on one of the rocks. Ive been on the move for celestia knows how long.Time doesnt exist in a cave like this. Maybe I was stuck here for a few days already, though I doubt it since I didnt feel any hunger or thirst. Truth be told, I felt great apart from being tired as hell. My headache was mostly gone but my throat was still pretty sore. Falling asleep covered in snow does not do your health any good. And to top it all off I could feel a warm sensation running down from my flanks. I was bleeding. Then I realised I still didnt feel my wings. The annoying feeling was mostly gone, though I imagined they would be fine by now. Must have messed them up again when I crawled through that tight opening... I wasnt that much in a hurry anyway. My nerves calmed at the sight of that skylight. I should be out of here first thing in the morning. Some rest would do me good anyway... I then remembered to check out that thing I found on the floor earlier. The light was still too dim to see myself or anything around me in detail, so I held it up against the light... It took me just a few seconds to figure out why it felt so familiar... Cold sweat covered my body, my eyes widened, my heart sank... It was a wing... my wing... Chapter 3I went numb. I just refused to believe it... I reached around with my forehoof and felt for my wings. In my mind they were still there... But they weren`t... It was true... I will never fly again... I sat there for quite a while with my hoof on my back. Just feeling the spot where my wings used to be... holding back my tears... and trying to think about what the hell was going on... Took me a while to snap out of it. And then my mind started racing. How the fuck did I manage to lose my wings? I knew it was odd when I couldnt feel them for so long, but It didnt occur to me that I actually lost them. I was getting more and more nervous, because one thing was obvious... Something did this to me... And it made me scared as hell thinking about it. All those hoofsteps I heard... all those sounds I thought were just a product of my imagination... I was definetly not alone. My amputated wings were clear enough proof of that. But what I couldnt understand was... why didnt it finish the job? What point was there removing my wings like that and then leaving me be? How did I manage to not bleed to death? And, most importantly, why didn`t I remember anything? Another thing that struck me was how well healed the wounds were. I didn`t even feel any pain while touching it. Not even mild discomfort. Apart from the scars, it was if I never had any wings in the first place. What the hell was going on? Did it not only let me live, but also treated my wounds in some way? That made no sense whatsoever... Suddenly, a loud scream interrupted my thoughts... followed by hoofsteps that got closer and closer. A rythmic clacking sound, that forshadowed the horror that was about to unfold... It made every single hair on my body stand up. Then I realised I was completely exposed. Whatever was lurking around here would probably spot me in an instant, so I started looking around frantically for anything I could use as a hideout... It was getting alarmingly close. And then I heard something else... It sent chills down my spine. Whimpering. Female whimpering. Panic started to set in. To my luck, I found a boulder, or something, that was leaning against the cave wall with enough room behind it for me to squeeze through. Did that as fast as I could. In my rush I disturbed the rubble around it, which made quite a bit of noise. When I was finally well out of sight, I just laid down and pressed my face into the dirt, prayed to the heavens and listened... It was now in the same chamber as me. And it was dragging something along. Something alive and kicking. It was a mare. They came to a stop just where I was sitting a moment ago. She was pleading for her life. As I heard that, I... I realised that Iknew her... I wont tell who she is for the sake of her anonymity, but she worked for the same post office I did. I didnt know her very well since we talked only a couple of times, but I liked her. She was a very sweet pony. Always had a smile on her face whenever I saw her... And there she was... crying her eyes out in fear while celestia-knows-what did whatever it pleased with her. My heart was pounding. I breathed slowly. I tried to make as little noise as possible. From where I was, I could see the chamber was now bathed in dark green light which set a rather sickly mood. Suddenly, the light flashed brighter for a brief moment... then i heard a snap.. immediately followed by an ear-piercing scream. She was screaming... As if she was getting torn limb from limb... oh celestia no... I couldn`t listen... I pressed my hooves against my ears as hard as I could. It was too much. I felt so sorry for her. She didn`t deserve any of this. I was frozen in fear. I wanted to help her, but If I would try anything, it would end with my own limbs being slowly ripped off my body. There was nothing I could do. I just waited and hoped she would be spared in the end. Her cries of agony burned themselves thoroughly into my mind. She cried and cried. She apologised for anything she thought she did wrong... she wanted to go home... she cried for her parents... It was impossible to listen to... Then, another green flash, followed by complete darkness. The light went out. A moment later I felt a gentle thud. Then, hoofsteps again. It was over. The hoofsteps slowly died out. Silence. Chapter 4It`s hard to put into words how I felt right then. Hearing one of the nicer, if not the nicest ponies I knew... suffering like that... I couldn`t stop thinking about her... How wonderful she allways was when we chatted before going on our respective assignments... At least it was over for her. She was out of it... She was lucky. I didnt know what to do... Lingering here was a bad idea, but I lost all motivation to move on. Being lost in a pitch black cave with something horrible lurking around the corner does that to a pony.. The thought of sharing her gruesome fate... I couldnt muster the courage to move... I gave up... ... a faint moan broke the silence... My ears perked up. Was I hearing things? another moan ommited that theory.. She was still alive. I could not believe it. She managed to live through all of that? A refreshing sensation of relief and joy ran through my body, immediately followed by sadness. She was alive, alright.. Alive and in horrible pain. I knew we werent alone, and that the creature could come back at any moment, but I didnt care... I just wanted to comfort her. At least letting her know that she wasn`t alone in this mess... Slowly and carefully I emerged from my hideout. My elbows and knees were pretty sore from being rubbed against the rough rubble... As soon as I got out I could see her. I was relieved. She looked far better than I expected. I could see her thanks to the gentle moonlight shining throught the opening on the ceiling... ...lying on the ground all curled up, clutching her stomach and gently whimpering. There were no visible injuries on her, however. And she even kept her wings... But as I got closer, I realised they were horribly deformed.. One wing was just dangling from her back like a dead piece of meat. The other was bent completely in the wrong direction. All the bones inside of them must have been pulverised... She didn`t notice me even when I was right next to her. I tried to get her attention gently by nudging her with my muzzle. It startled her a bit... I tried my best to calm her down.. "It`s ok. Im not going to hurt you..." She looked at me, still weeping, with an expression of pain and pure terror, soaked in tears... It broke my heart seeing her like that... The fear in her eyes deminished. She recognised me. "What`s wrong?" I asked... "..p- please.. help me... m-..my... it hurts" she mumbled and pointed to her abdomen. "Ok, just... let me take a look.." She removed her hooves. What I saw made me sick for a second. Her abdomen was horribly bloated. Gently inspecting it with my hoof revealed that a hard, jagged object was inside her. And it was hurting her bad. I could tell she was bleeding inside... It was slowly killing her. She looked at me with pleading eyes. She wanted this nightmare to end.. But what could I do.. Moving her was out of the question, but so was staying here. If I didn`t do something she will die... "P- please... get it out of me... I..I can`t.." "But... That will kill you..." "I..I`m dead eather way... please...do it.." I went quiet quiet for a few minutes... By the look in her eyes she was dead serious. In my head I frantically tried to think of better ways to help her, but I was just wasting time. The thought of it made me cringe, but I knew it had to be done. Maybe I had a slight chance of saving her. And it was slipping fast. It was final... I had to oblige her... I stood up, and started searching our sorroundings for something I could use.. Something sharp.. I returned shortly with a stone that had a good, serrated edge on it. I don`t know what was I thinking, but I gave her my wing... It seemed like a good idea.. "Here.. Bite into this.. it will take some of the pain away.." She gave me a weak look of gratitude. Wanting me to do this to her like that... the pain must be really bad... I went on my knees next to her... her breathing quickened. She clenched her teeth as hard as she could and closed her eyes tightly. I paused a bit to gather myself before I made the cut. My hooves were shaking. Every part of me refused to do this, but I had to.. I pressed the tip of the stone to her belly, closed my eyes... Thrust.. Her muffled scream hit me in full force. The stone pierced her skin and hit the object underneath. I could feel her warm, sticky blood on my hooves. It was rushing out of her... I had to finish this quickly. I proceeded to cut down along the foregn object... accompanied by her cries of agony... but not for long. She went silent shortly afterwards... Passed out due to the pain.. I hoped it would be easier to concentrate now, but her screaming was replaced with the ripping sound of her flesh being cut... It was incredebly sickening.. I tried my best not to listen to it... I was nearly done now.. just a few more inches... I paused a bit. Took a few deep breaths to prevent myself from throwing up... Now it was time for the really unpleasant part. I threw away the makeshift knife and, without wasting any more time, started pressing on her, forcing the object out... It ripped up the wound.. took some of the flesh with it.. but it was out... and it was nothing more than a simple rock... Now ... I just pressed on wound with my hooves, keeping it shut and praying the blood will clog it up by some miracle... But it was no use.. her pulse was long gone and pretty much all of her blood was on the floor beside her... She was dead... I guess it was for the better... she would be die a slow and painful death anyway... I did my best to help her... But that didn`t help me... I felt sick.. My head started spinning when I stood up, so I sat down on the same rock I sat on earlier, and broke down.. I buried my face into my hooves and cried... What I just did started to set in.. I killed her... There had to be a better way.. had to be... and I messed up... It was too much... Then, I felt something press against my cheek. I went numb... It was all over.. The thing was back... It had me.. "hey... don`t cry..." That was... no.. that was her voice. But she was just... what the hell? I slowly raised my head, my eyes still shut since I was too terrifyied to open them... "Thanks for getting that rock out of me..." That made me open my eyes... and there she was.. staring at me with a look of gratitude... with a fully healed scar where her gaping wound used to be... smeared with her own blood... it was her... she was alive... My brain stopped working properly.. I felt like it was about to explode.. I started freaking out... The next thing I felt were her hooves around my neck and her body pressing against mine.. she hugged me... I calmed down.. and hugged her back.. We stayed like that for a long, long time...
Chapter 1Ill be frank with you. I probably shouldnt have written this. Im not much of a storyteller anyway. Heck I dont care about stories at all since they have a tendency to not be true. This one is however. I know, because it happened to me. I stopped thinking about it a long time ago. Thought I got over it too… Untill that royal wedding fiasco happened… …when that… thing… showed up again… and brought everything back… Just like that I could remember every damn second of it... As if it all happened yesterday. So I had to let it all out. Write a book about it maybe. I know I made a promise not to, but I had to let it all out… might help me sleep at night. Who knows. Nobody will probably read it anyway. And if somepony actually does, he just might realise how lucky we all were… As things could have gone worse… much, much worse… Might as well cut to the chase then. I wont bore you with facts about myself, since its not relevant. I can tell you I used to work for the canterlot post office. They needed pegasi to deliver the mail. And the faster you were, the bigger the amount of bits that were in your saddlebag at the end of the day. It was a nice job. Especially if you love flying. I remember we were understaffed that monday. Most of the crew were on sick leave due to the recent outbreak of flu and the postmaster needed someone to take supplies up to the northern outpost. Of all the delivery routes we had to take, the northern route was the hardest. So to save everypony the trouble, I volunteered. I checked the weather forecast, wrote down my departure time and took care of other red tape. Finally I put on my saddlebags and set off at about noon. It took me around three hours of nonstop flight to reach the mountains. The forcast mentioned a slight chance of a storm coming in towards the evening, so I wanted to make a quick run. I flew over the first ridge and then followed the valley north. The weather was perfect. It was a proper winter wonderland. The rock was freshly coated with snow that shined in the sunlight. I`m not a big fan of snow to be honest, but I felt impressed non the less. The outpost was at the end of a maze of valleys. You had to fly low since the wind was too strong above the mountains even in good weather. Its a pretty straightforward run, but in bad weather, you can get lost pretty easily. And this place has quite the reputation since plenty of pegasi vanished on similar runs like this. But that didnt bother me since I thought stuff like that only happens to other ponies. Heh. Feels funny thinking about it now. I made it. The guards let me through without any fuss since they knew me, as I made this trip at least two dozen times... The commander himself greeted me. »Allways on time I see. Not a mistery how you`ve earned that cutiemark of yours...« I chuckled. He then showed me to the storeroom so that I unloaded my delivery - dried hay rations, a few pastries, dried milk, chockolate and about two gallons of cider – enough for them to last a few days. Such supply runs were usually done every other day and a big run was done every two weeks. After that he invited me for a drink. Since i was in a good mood, I gladly accepted the offer. He poured me a glass of hay liquor and we sat down and chatted a bit. Pointless small talk mostly. »So how are things back in Canterlot?« »Oh same old, same old. They say they will up the amount of local shipments due to the upcoming hollidays, which means more work for us. How about here? Anything out of the ordinary?« »Yeah the patrol that set off last Friday went missing. Most of the garisson is searching for it. Which is what I wanted to ask you. Have seen anything out of the ordinary on your way here?« So that`s why the place looked empty. That made me slightly worried. I hoped nothing bad happened to them, though he reassured me that stuff like this is pretty commonplace during the winter. And they always managed to find their way back, since they are trained in this sort of thing. »Well then. Id love to stay a bit longer, but I really want to be back before sundown.Thanks for the drink!« »No problem. And dont worry about the patrol. My men have it covered. I would be happy if youd keep an eye out for them though.« I set off when it was already getting dark. I kept forgetting how short winter days were. But since the skies were still clear, I took my time and kept my eyes and ears open to see if I could spot that lost patrol. The area where they got lost wasn`t too far off course… I stopped and looked around a bit. I focused on the slopes below the mountain pass. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not even hoofprints. I listened a bit. Maybe they were shouting for help somewhere. Then I noticed something. Everything was quiet. And i dont mean as in peacefully quiet. I mean as in »I could hear a pin drop a mile away« quiet. I didnt even hear the wind blowing. It was just pure silence. It was then I realised the storm was almost on top of me. I didnt notice the dark clouds since I was too busy watching the ground. I tried outrunning it, but it was no use. Before you know it, found myself in the midst of a snowstorm. A dense one at that. Visibility dropped to the point where you couldnt see your hoof in front of your face, not to mention it got seriously cold, so I had no choice but to try and fly above it through the clouds. Of course that plan works if you know which way is up, so I ended up flying celestia knows where untill I was finally forced to find shelter on the ground - a ledge on the side of a mountain wall, a cave, anything, before I froze to death. By miracle I managed to fight through the wind and snow and got to a mountain wall. And not just any mountain wall, but a mountain wall which had a small but noticable cave entrance on it. I managed to get inside. I sat myself down near the entrance and made myself confortable, sighing in relief, since it was a pretty close call. Another five minutes in that storm and I could be in serious trouble… It was a surprisingly warm cave, considering how violently cold the weather outside was. Didn`t think about it that much and, instead, started picking the clumped snow out of my wings to pass the time. And then everything went black…
Chapter 2I woke up to a splitting headache and a sore throat. It took me a couple of minutes to realise that I hadn`t gone blind since opening and closing my eyes made no difference whatsoever. I was in a pitch black cave. I felt around a bit with my hooves and sat myself up slowly. I felt a fuzzy, swolen and unpleasant feeling around a void on my back where the wings usually were. Tried moving them, but that only made the unpleasant feeling worse. Guess I had them pressed against the rock for too long. Might take some time before I can feel them again. No problem. Walking was probably a better option anyway. The entrance shouldn`t have been too far away. Just around twenty yards or so and I would be greeted by a nice view of the mountains... Or not... it was too dark. Much too dark... even if it was night time, I still would have been able to see the entrance without a problem. It was also too quiet and the air was much too thick... How is that even possible? I dont remember going further into the cave. I sure as hell didnt sleeptrot my way here. Maybe I went deeper into the cave to escape the cold, but I just didn`t remember since I was so exhausted... All I remembered were just bits and pieces of a bad dream. Guess it was of those nightmares that are so bad your brain just refuses to remember, since youd probably never sleep again if it did... my head hurt too much for me to even try and make any sense of it all, so I didnt trouble myself with that anymore.. Since the thought of being stuck here for a long time started to unnerve me, I began to make sense of my surroundings. The cave felt different here than from what I could remember. For one, the ground was perfectly flat and covered with a thin layer of dirt, unlike back there where it was rocky and uneven. Second, judging from the echo, it was huge. the ceiling was at least three hundred yards up. I`m no bat or anything to make such judgments from sound alone. it was a rough estimate at best. And the amount of time it took to cross it from one end to the other confirmed that it was at least three times larger.. It took me a while to find a cold, damp patch of dirt, which streched off in one direction. It was close to where I woke up, so It surprised me I didnt manage to find it sooner. Since I thought I couldnt possibly get any more lost than I`ve already were, I decided to follow it... It was probably a tiny stream or something, so it might lead me to the exit. It was a shot. If it lead to a dead end, I would simply follow it back to the beginning and start over. I had nothing to lose except a lot of time. And you have plenty of that if you`re lost in a cave like this. Well at least until startvation starts to set in. I soon felt that the cave started narrowing. I could tell that by the echo of my hoofsteps alone. Seems being completely blind really improves your hearing. Looks like this little trail did lead somewhere. That gave me the confidence to push on. Lack of light has a funny way of playing tricks on your mind. I constantly thought I saw something in the corner of my eye. A strange shape. A glimmer of light. Guess if there`s nothing to see, your brain makes stuff up just to mess with you. It gets unnerving pretty fast. Thats why I kept my eyes shut. My ears were no exception. Through the sounds of water droplets impacting the rock and the low rumble of the air passing through, I could sometimes hear some pretty odd sounds. Shifting rubble, that sounded like distant footsteps. Whispers. I swear I even heard a scream. A female scream. That one made me stop in my tracks for a while... The trail stopped abruptly at an odd object. It was pretty torn and sticky and im pretty sure it wasnt an animal or anything. It felt strangely familiar however. And I dont know why but I decided to take it with me. It really intrigued me. I didnt need a trail anymore since I couldnt stray off course. The cave was now just several yards across, so I had no choice but to move on. I was afraid it would turn out to be a dead end. Or worse, a bottomless pit maybe. To top it all off the ceiling could collapse and crush me. I tried not to think of what could go wrong in a cave like this. Soon, the cave really started to get narrow. I had to watch my head too... found that out the hard way. I reached a point where the only way to move on was to crawl under a big pile of loose rock. Seems like the cave collapsed quite recently, since there was still some dust in the air around it. However, from the small crawlspace I could feel a fresh breeze blowing. An exit was up ahead. I took some time to collect myself. My nerves were already severly strained, so I took a few deep breaths and told myself that ill soon be out of this mess. I then laid down on my belly and went head first into the hole. I tried my best to press myself against the ground to minimize the chance of disturbing any rocks above me as I inched my way forward. It was a bad time to panic indeed. All it would take is one wrong move. One wrong move, and it would all be over. No escape plan. All or nothing... I gently felt with my forehooves up ahead for any loose rocks, then forcing myself forward with my hind legs. Progress was painfully slow. After what I felt was an eternity, I could feel the draft growing stronger and stronger. The final strech was particularly claustrophobic, as I had to really squeeze myself through a hole that was just wide enough. Slowly but surely I made it through with my upper body. The air was fresh and I could actually see light up ahead... Then I got stuck. So close and I got fucking stuck. I didnt panic. I just got pissed off. The fear was replaced by rage in an instant. I just pushed forward with all the strenght I had. Ignoring the pain of chafing my flanks. I didnt care. I was so close. I pushed and pushed. Then the rock finally gave way and I fell forward. I pulled my tail out in the last second. The hole behind me collapsed. I just ran forward, towards the glimmer of light in front of me, before the adrenalin ran out and I realised how tired I was. I waited a bit for my heart to stop racing. I could feel being covered head to hoof by dust and I probably ate a lot of it too.. I didn`t care. I was happy. The end was in sight... The cave shaft widened to a chamber of similar proportions as before. This one, however, had the extra feature of a small entrance high up in the ceiling, through which light illuminated a small portion of the cave. Eventhough it was obviously night-time, it felt bright as day, since my eyes were still accustomed to zero light. I let out a sigh of relief since I was finally out of this mess... I sat myself down on one of the rocks. Ive been on the move for celestia knows how long.Time doesnt exist in a cave like this. Maybe I was stuck here for a few days already, though I doubt it since I didnt feel any hunger or thirst. Truth be told, I felt great apart from being tired as hell. My headache was mostly gone but my throat was still pretty sore. Falling asleep covered in snow does not do your health any good. And to top it all off I could feel a warm sensation running down from my flanks. I was bleeding. Then I realised I still didnt feel my wings. The annoying feeling was mostly gone, though I imagined they would be fine by now. Must have messed them up again when I crawled through that tight opening... I wasnt that much in a hurry anyway. My nerves calmed at the sight of that skylight. I should be out of here first thing in the morning. Some rest would do me good anyway... I then remembered to check out that thing I found on the floor earlier. The light was still too dim to see myself or anything around me in detail, so I held it up against the light... It took me just a few seconds to figure out why it felt so familiar... Cold sweat covered my body, my eyes widened, my heart sank... It was a wing... my wing...
Chapter 3I went numb. I just refused to believe it... I reached around with my forehoof and felt for my wings. In my mind they were still there... But they weren`t... It was true... I will never fly again... I sat there for quite a while with my hoof on my back. Just feeling the spot where my wings used to be... holding back my tears... and trying to think about what the hell was going on... Took me a while to snap out of it. And then my mind started racing. How the fuck did I manage to lose my wings? I knew it was odd when I couldnt feel them for so long, but It didnt occur to me that I actually lost them. I was getting more and more nervous, because one thing was obvious... Something did this to me... And it made me scared as hell thinking about it. All those hoofsteps I heard... all those sounds I thought were just a product of my imagination... I was definetly not alone. My amputated wings were clear enough proof of that. But what I couldnt understand was... why didnt it finish the job? What point was there removing my wings like that and then leaving me be? How did I manage to not bleed to death? And, most importantly, why didn`t I remember anything? Another thing that struck me was how well healed the wounds were. I didn`t even feel any pain while touching it. Not even mild discomfort. Apart from the scars, it was if I never had any wings in the first place. What the hell was going on? Did it not only let me live, but also treated my wounds in some way? That made no sense whatsoever... Suddenly, a loud scream interrupted my thoughts... followed by hoofsteps that got closer and closer. A rythmic clacking sound, that forshadowed the horror that was about to unfold... It made every single hair on my body stand up. Then I realised I was completely exposed. Whatever was lurking around here would probably spot me in an instant, so I started looking around frantically for anything I could use as a hideout... It was getting alarmingly close. And then I heard something else... It sent chills down my spine. Whimpering. Female whimpering. Panic started to set in. To my luck, I found a boulder, or something, that was leaning against the cave wall with enough room behind it for me to squeeze through. Did that as fast as I could. In my rush I disturbed the rubble around it, which made quite a bit of noise. When I was finally well out of sight, I just laid down and pressed my face into the dirt, prayed to the heavens and listened... It was now in the same chamber as me. And it was dragging something along. Something alive and kicking. It was a mare. They came to a stop just where I was sitting a moment ago. She was pleading for her life. As I heard that, I... I realised that Iknew her... I wont tell who she is for the sake of her anonymity, but she worked for the same post office I did. I didnt know her very well since we talked only a couple of times, but I liked her. She was a very sweet pony. Always had a smile on her face whenever I saw her... And there she was... crying her eyes out in fear while celestia-knows-what did whatever it pleased with her. My heart was pounding. I breathed slowly. I tried to make as little noise as possible. From where I was, I could see the chamber was now bathed in dark green light which set a rather sickly mood. Suddenly, the light flashed brighter for a brief moment... then i heard a snap.. immediately followed by an ear-piercing scream. She was screaming... As if she was getting torn limb from limb... oh celestia no... I couldn`t listen... I pressed my hooves against my ears as hard as I could. It was too much. I felt so sorry for her. She didn`t deserve any of this. I was frozen in fear. I wanted to help her, but If I would try anything, it would end with my own limbs being slowly ripped off my body. There was nothing I could do. I just waited and hoped she would be spared in the end. Her cries of agony burned themselves thoroughly into my mind. She cried and cried. She apologised for anything she thought she did wrong... she wanted to go home... she cried for her parents... It was impossible to listen to... Then, another green flash, followed by complete darkness. The light went out. A moment later I felt a gentle thud. Then, hoofsteps again. It was over. The hoofsteps slowly died out. Silence.
Chapter 4It`s hard to put into words how I felt right then. Hearing one of the nicer, if not the nicest ponies I knew... suffering like that... I couldn`t stop thinking about her... How wonderful she allways was when we chatted before going on our respective assignments... At least it was over for her. She was out of it... She was lucky. I didnt know what to do... Lingering here was a bad idea, but I lost all motivation to move on. Being lost in a pitch black cave with something horrible lurking around the corner does that to a pony.. The thought of sharing her gruesome fate... I couldnt muster the courage to move... I gave up... ... a faint moan broke the silence... My ears perked up. Was I hearing things? another moan ommited that theory.. She was still alive. I could not believe it. She managed to live through all of that? A refreshing sensation of relief and joy ran through my body, immediately followed by sadness. She was alive, alright.. Alive and in horrible pain. I knew we werent alone, and that the creature could come back at any moment, but I didnt care... I just wanted to comfort her. At least letting her know that she wasn`t alone in this mess... Slowly and carefully I emerged from my hideout. My elbows and knees were pretty sore from being rubbed against the rough rubble... As soon as I got out I could see her. I was relieved. She looked far better than I expected. I could see her thanks to the gentle moonlight shining throught the opening on the ceiling... ...lying on the ground all curled up, clutching her stomach and gently whimpering. There were no visible injuries on her, however. And she even kept her wings... But as I got closer, I realised they were horribly deformed.. One wing was just dangling from her back like a dead piece of meat. The other was bent completely in the wrong direction. All the bones inside of them must have been pulverised... She didn`t notice me even when I was right next to her. I tried to get her attention gently by nudging her with my muzzle. It startled her a bit... I tried my best to calm her down.. "It`s ok. Im not going to hurt you..." She looked at me, still weeping, with an expression of pain and pure terror, soaked in tears... It broke my heart seeing her like that... The fear in her eyes deminished. She recognised me. "What`s wrong?" I asked... "..p- please.. help me... m-..my... it hurts" she mumbled and pointed to her abdomen. "Ok, just... let me take a look.." She removed her hooves. What I saw made me sick for a second. Her abdomen was horribly bloated. Gently inspecting it with my hoof revealed that a hard, jagged object was inside her. And it was hurting her bad. I could tell she was bleeding inside... It was slowly killing her. She looked at me with pleading eyes. She wanted this nightmare to end.. But what could I do.. Moving her was out of the question, but so was staying here. If I didn`t do something she will die... "P- please... get it out of me... I..I can`t.." "But... That will kill you..." "I..I`m dead eather way... please...do it.." I went quiet quiet for a few minutes... By the look in her eyes she was dead serious. In my head I frantically tried to think of better ways to help her, but I was just wasting time. The thought of it made me cringe, but I knew it had to be done. Maybe I had a slight chance of saving her. And it was slipping fast. It was final... I had to oblige her... I stood up, and started searching our sorroundings for something I could use.. Something sharp.. I returned shortly with a stone that had a good, serrated edge on it. I don`t know what was I thinking, but I gave her my wing... It seemed like a good idea.. "Here.. Bite into this.. it will take some of the pain away.." She gave me a weak look of gratitude. Wanting me to do this to her like that... the pain must be really bad... I went on my knees next to her... her breathing quickened. She clenched her teeth as hard as she could and closed her eyes tightly. I paused a bit to gather myself before I made the cut. My hooves were shaking. Every part of me refused to do this, but I had to.. I pressed the tip of the stone to her belly, closed my eyes... Thrust.. Her muffled scream hit me in full force. The stone pierced her skin and hit the object underneath. I could feel her warm, sticky blood on my hooves. It was rushing out of her... I had to finish this quickly. I proceeded to cut down along the foregn object... accompanied by her cries of agony... but not for long. She went silent shortly afterwards... Passed out due to the pain.. I hoped it would be easier to concentrate now, but her screaming was replaced with the ripping sound of her flesh being cut... It was incredebly sickening.. I tried my best not to listen to it... I was nearly done now.. just a few more inches... I paused a bit. Took a few deep breaths to prevent myself from throwing up... Now it was time for the really unpleasant part. I threw away the makeshift knife and, without wasting any more time, started pressing on her, forcing the object out... It ripped up the wound.. took some of the flesh with it.. but it was out... and it was nothing more than a simple rock... Now ... I just pressed on wound with my hooves, keeping it shut and praying the blood will clog it up by some miracle... But it was no use.. her pulse was long gone and pretty much all of her blood was on the floor beside her... She was dead... I guess it was for the better... she would be die a slow and painful death anyway... I did my best to help her... But that didn`t help me... I felt sick.. My head started spinning when I stood up, so I sat down on the same rock I sat on earlier, and broke down.. I buried my face into my hooves and cried... What I just did started to set in.. I killed her... There had to be a better way.. had to be... and I messed up... It was too much... Then, I felt something press against my cheek. I went numb... It was all over.. The thing was back... It had me.. "hey... don`t cry..." That was... no.. that was her voice. But she was just... what the hell? I slowly raised my head, my eyes still shut since I was too terrifyied to open them... "Thanks for getting that rock out of me..." That made me open my eyes... and there she was.. staring at me with a look of gratitude... with a fully healed scar where her gaping wound used to be... smeared with her own blood... it was her... she was alive... My brain stopped working properly.. I felt like it was about to explode.. I started freaking out... The next thing I felt were her hooves around my neck and her body pressing against mine.. she hugged me... I calmed down.. and hugged her back.. We stayed like that for a long, long time...
