Them.

I 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...