"If there's anything you want to talk about... "
"Where did this come from?" Silversheen asked.
"See that crack in the ceiling?" Ethereal pointed with her hoof. There was indeed a fairly small split in the ceiling of the cavern. Water dripped down from it, landing softly in the pool below. "Apparently we're underneath a pond right now. Isn't that cool?"
"It is," Silversheen admitted.
"Well, what am I still doing standing around? I'll go get some food for us, and you, well, you just stay there like you're doing right now. Okay? Okay!" Without waiting for a response from Silversheen, Ethereal hurried off.
Silversheen watched her go. Who is that pony, really? she couldn't help but wonder.
After a few moments, Ethereal was back, carrying a basket handle in her mouth. She dropped it in front of Silversheen. "Okay, here's the food. Part of it is stuff I brought with me, and part of it's from this really cool area down here! Just chock-full of different crops! Amazing, really. I wonder how they got there." Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Do you think there are other ponies besides us down here?"
Silversheen just shrugged. "I'm not sure." She opened the basket, and was greeted with an assortment of fruits, vegetables, and other plants.
"Yeah... Unless we happen to run across them, I guess there's no way to really know for sure. For all we know, there could have been ponies here, but they abandoned this place," mused Ethereal. "Oh, go ahead and take what you want!" she added to Silversheen, gesturing to the basket.
After Silversheen had eaten her fill, making sure to pace herself, she sat down. "You seem to know a lot about this place," she commented.
"Well, I just found this cavern recently. Honestly, I just kind of stumbled across it," replied Ethereal. "I just started calling it the Chamber of Crystal for the sake of giving it a name. Does that make sense? Besides, it's a nice name for a pretty place."
"How long have you been down here?" Silversheen asked her.
Ethereal started to look nervous, biting her lip. "I don't know. I lost track of time. To be honest, I only got here in the first place because I was hiding from some mean ponies."
"Mean ponies?"
"They were picking on these fillies for no reason!" Ethereal's face went red. "Then, when I tried to help the fillies out, they started to pick on me, too! Why would they do that?"
Silversheen just shook her head. "Who knows? That's just the world, I guess."
Ethereal looked at her in horror. "How can that be true? This would have to be a pretty awful world... " She looked around. "And it doesn't seem like an awful world at all! Not when things like this exist in it. And you're not like them at all, Silversheen."
Silversheen couldn't help but smile. "Well, I'm glad you think so."
But Ethereal's words stirred something in her thoughts. She started to wonder, What could have made those ponies from my memories run like that? What would attack them?
"Hey, Silversheen? You're spacing out again," Ethereal's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Sorry," Silversheen muttered.
"It's alright. If I'd been under here for as long as you have, I'd probably be doing a lot of wondering, too." Her face then turned serious. "If there's anything you want to talk to me about, I'm here for you, okay?"
Silversheen must have looked taken aback, because Ethereal quickly added, "Uh, if you want, that is. Sorry, was that too forward?"
"No, not at all." Silversheen smiled.
"Oh, good." Ethereal sighed in relief. "I hope we can get to be really good friends!" She held out her hoof to shake.
Before Silversheen could extend her own hoof, there was an ominous rumbling noise. It sounded like it was coming from directly above them.
"What was that... ?" Ethereal asked shakily.
"We'd better move," Silversheen insisted. Ethereal stepped forward and swiftly grabbed her basket, just before the ceiling crumbled above her. Water began gushing from above them, overflowing the pool and flooding the floors. Ethereal and Silversheen started to run, shrieking.
"Do you know the way out of here?" Silversheen pressed as they dashed through the corridors of the cavern.
"I'm sorry, I don't!" Ethereal wailed.
Silversheen galloped blindly through the tunnels, desperately searching for a way out. By now, the room they were just in had flooded, and water was splashing through the tunnels behind them.
Then, an idea came to her. It was a long shot, but it was a better option than running aimlessly. "Ethereal! I'm going to try and teleport us out of here!" she yelled. Ethereal nodded, looking frightened.
Silversheen concentrated, trying to gather her new magic and control it. A burning sensation spread from the tip of her horn to the bottoms of her hooves. The cavern around her suddenly became a blur, and within mere seconds, she fell on grassy ground, exhausted. The teleportation and the running had taken a lot out of her.
"Um... where are we?" Ethereal asked nervously.
Silversheen stood up quickly. They appeared to be standing in the middle of a small, rustic town, with quaint, little shops all around. Wherever they had landed, it was a nice place, and definitely much better than drowning underground.
"Wait a minute! I think I know this place!" Ethereal realized.
"Really?" Silversheen asked.
Ethereal nodded. "If I remember correctly, it's called Ponyville."
Author's Note:
Yay, they ended up in Ponyville! Who'd have guessed it? XD Anyhoo, the next parts are going to be harder to write, because I'll be using some canon characters, and I'm not sure how well I can really portray them, so bear with me!
RingPop that Nikki and Peppermint did
