Pain.

Pain in my hooves.

Pain in my legs.

pain in the dull colors that my eyes will never not see.

Pain in the Two forsaken pebble, that wiggled its way in a crack in my hooves.

ugh. why did I go on this trip again?

As Ledge trudges through the long, long, caverns and mineshafts, offshoots and tunnels, that make up the 'back ways' into Coals Gate, as the main travel tunnels were caved in, she mutters incoherent complaints, about anything and everything, often circling around to either the pain in her stiff legs, or the dull colors she has seen her whole life.

Ever since the 'vision' Ledge had from Nuro, when she saw colors unimaginable, she started to notice that none of the colors she saw here in the stone, could even match the beauty of even the color of the never ending blue expanse she saw. Even thinking of the color sent shivers down her spine.

Then she would open her eyes, Then she would see gray. Always gray.

When she thought about the sky, and how the caves never go up higher than the ceiling, she felt cramped.

But there's no time for that now, she was almost at her long yearned destination. She had started seeing ponies passing by more frequently, carrying Coals Gate's name sake in painstakingly boring wooden carts.

The passageway that she had been traveling had opened up into the main walkway, going from a small tunnel barely 6 ponies wide, to a cavern, easily fitting 20 ponies side to side and 6 ponies high. Lighting had gotten better as well as she got closer, the crystals used for light implanted in the wall in regular intervals, inset in industrially bland covers not worth the time it would take to describe.

Unlike the walkway up to the temple of The Two, which were stone brick inlaid into the walkway, in beautiful patterns, the ground was nothing special, just the natural stone floor beaten down from eons of hoof traffic.

"These walls need a mural." Ledge said to no pony in particular (or maybe to a toaster repair pony).

After some more walking she finally came to the 'gate' of Coal's Gate.

I do hope this was worth it, she told herself as she walked into the small quarrel of Coal's Gate. Now, I need a nap she then looked at her front hoof and added to the thought with And maybe a hoof buffing too....

The quest that she had been sent on was not on her mind, nor was the severity of why she needed to come here.

Coal's Gate was built in the most boring way possible. The ceiling was only as high as it needed to be, enough to accommodate large mining tools and carts and that it, perhaps 10 (small) ponies high, and the walls seemed to be rough stone, hewn from the stone as needed when space was needed.

A single street with housing on either side of it led to the coal mine/depot. The housing was as basic as single rooms stacked on top of each other in a 2x2 cube, to house a total of 8 ponies, spaced out by barely enough room to walk through. It seemed to Ledge that families weren't exactly common here.

As Ledge walked down the street to get to the inn (she knew there was an inn because the inn is the quarrel's only attraction. And the sign was the largest one on the street [ROCKY'S INN])

The closer she got to the inn the less 'intricate' the housing became, going from the stackable cube design to shared living spaced, ending in large bunkhouses with alleyways all the way to the cave walls a 100 paces deep

It is here, where she saw the mare, and was reminded of what she was here for, 'the pony of joy'.

More like she was reminded how far-fetched the request was of her. Even without the depressing architecture of Coal's Gate, the sight that Ledge saw was disheartening at the least and mortifying at the most, she knew she would not find any joy here, but this? This was... worse than she was expecting.

Walking out of one of the alleys and near Ledge, was a Keeper mare whose color caught ledges eyes. The mare was Sky blue.

As in the color of The Sky.

The endless blue that had enraptured Ledge's mind for the last few days.

That's an odd color.

Ledge noticed next that the mare was crumbling. Literally. Her head hung low and her steps slow and unsteady. When she trots by Ledge, not sparing her a glance, a chunk of her skin from her chest falls. Ledge tracks it as it bounces towards her, landing right at her hooves.

"Uuh..." At a complete loss, ledge looks around, looking at the ponies around to see if what she saw was normal. She shouldn't have. She saw ponies looking anywhere but at the mare falling apart. She saw a group of three mares coming out of the inn (And BAR! A little sign by the door proclaimed) a red, a brown, and a green mare, who, when the red one spots the sky blue mare in the street and motions to the others, smiles.

They smile at the mare with looks of pride. Like a foal looking at a toppled block tower with glee. They then change the direction they were heading to have their path cross the path the blue mare was heading.

When they got close enough for the blue mare to notice that she was going to run into them, she immediately stopped walking, and looked back down to wait for the three to pass.

The brown mare said something that sounded like 'Finally' and continued on with the other two in tow, but when the red one got close to the sky blue one, she sent a kick into the mare which made her topple down.

Again Ledge looks around to see the reactions of the ponies only to see everypony completely engrossed with one task or another, she even saw a pony wiping the ground with a rag.

Which left ledge the only one to be paying attention to the three mares. Which brought their attention to her. The brown one (clearly the leader of the group) looked Ledge dead in the eyes and gave her a look that without a doubt said: 'you didn't see nothin', Before continuing to walk away from the sky blue mare that seemed to have no intentions of getting up any time soon.

When the three walked into one of the barracks and closed the door, Ledge picked up the chunk that had fallen near her and walked over to the fallen mare.

"Hey, uhh, are you ok?" she says leaning down to the mare “You dropped this.” I offer weakly.

"leave me alone." The response came as a very light and delicate sound.

Right before Ledge was going to do just that, an image came to her mind, it was of the vision she had, of the ponies that hated and turned against each other, and she couldn't bring herself to just walk away.

"Nope." Ledge said. The sky blue mare seemed to curl up tighter at that.

"please" She pleaded "I want to be left alone"

With a sigh Ledge went to help the mare up, and surprisingly, the mare let her and soon was on her hooves, looking down with sadness untold, as ledge brushed some dust off of her

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up, where's home?" It occurred to Ledge that her actions might be taken as creepy, but it seemed the mare was either too tired to notice, or didn't care .

Her response to Ledge's question was a pointed look at the same building the three mares (who Ledge was sure tormented this poor mare often) had entered.

The realization that the sky blue mare most likely shared a room with the awful mares was a difficult pill to swallow.

"Hmpf… , well then what's your name?" Ledge figured the right thing to do is bring the mare to the room she was going to get at the INN (And BAR!) at least for a little while.

"Sapphire" she spat while still looking down. Figures Ledge thought.

"Ok Sapphire, do you-" She wanted to invite her to stay in the inn for a little bit but Sapphire had cut her off.

"No," she said. it seemed her attitude changed from hurt to pensive , "I'm late to work" and with that she turned to walk (more like trudge) towards the mine at the end of the street, before turning back to say an apprehensive "thanks"

"You're welcome?"

*****

I look back at the dark gray mare with black and yellow hair walking into the INN. Why? Why would she care? Why was she different?

It didn't matter.

It didn't matter?

Didn't matter.

I just need to go.

As I shake off the thoughts in my brain, and head to the mines, I know exactly where I'm going. I know to go to the fourth shaft to the right and go down the lift. I know to exit the lift at the 7th to last stop, turn right through the tight corridor, right past the warning carved into the wall. Right into the natural cavern ripped into the ground.

The cavern's walls are covered with mute quartz, the only gem here in the mines that has absolutely no use other than to absorb and destroy magic. Oh and they are ravishingly magnificent, but when has beauty ever counted. And it's one of the mine shafts that ran dry of anything useful, and was abandoned.

But I stop.

I stop right at the entrance.

Why did I stop?

Something in me wants me to stop. To think.

I don't want to.

What ever thought I was having ended when a warden twice the size of me knocks me to the side to the ground with a "ged outta the way, bimbo". Before I knew it the warden was already gone. All I see is the wagon he was pulling rolling along to go to Beatle and the scales.

As I get back up, my hopes go down.

I need to go I think as I drag my hooves down the tunnels. No one cares

My mind wanders as I walk, thinking of all the times I've been kicked, all the times I've been torn down. My eyes shift over my body as I recall all the fissures in my skin and how they came to be. Before I know it, I've traversed the mines and I'm now staring down the tight corridor into the abandoned shafts, wondering why the beauty of the cave is preserved.

Past the restricting corridor I get to my destination.

Hard parts done, now time for the 'easy' part.

I stand on a ledge that sticks to the left side of the cave as I look out into a thin vertical stretching ravine in the stone. The wall the ledge is on, is that smooth gray, devoid of even the algae that is seen everywhere. But that's now why I came here.

The right wall is covered as far as I can see by a black crystalline formations that seem to give out a black light of their own, the many edges shimmering with the slightest hints of color unknown. Their very presence seems to make the air around me colder.

I stare deep into the mute quarts directly across from me and see the endless color. something so black, so devoid of color that it makes its own beauty out of the very nothing it represents

I almost stop there.

Almost

Instead of turning back like I ought to, I look down. Further than the eye can see, the two walls stretch down, never ending. The void having its own beauty of endlessness.

As I look down, I fall on my haunches. my rear frozen to the edge.

It's easy. Just lean.

But I don't.

Just go until gravity takes over. I coach myself.

But I don't.

"Please?" I say pleadingly, with my eyes closed.

But my body is no longer listening to me.

I guess... I'll wait..

And I sat there. sitting on the edge of forever. Time passed by without me noticing.

Waiting until I'm ready.

Ready...

Author's Note

Thanks to Kkat and somber for showing me that I could write a story.

Please keep reading. I don't know when the next chapter will come. I just know that it will be a happy one.

If you have suicidal thoughts, please talk to someone
You belong. Even in a world that hates you.