Chapter Text
Secondhoof’s eyes, by now, had adjusted just enough for her to notice the shape moving amply in the darkness. Hoofbeats. Too light to be a yak. Another coin dropped, followed by a hushed curse.
Secondhoof got up. “Are you okay?”
The hidden pony cantered closer toward, but not quite into, what remained of the sun’s light at the hour. “Are you?”
Secondhoof was lost for words initially, unsure how to respond. Surely she looked a mess after all that sobbing.
She took a moment, sniffling, before she mumbled, “I’m sorry for intruding. I didn’t know it was occupied.”
“Oh, well...It’s not technically my cave. It’s...I’m just...doing some cleaning.”
Secondhoof’s ear twitched. “Cleaning?”
The pony hesitated. “Oh, you know, cave maintenance...” They cleared their throat, as their horn magic flared to life, finally indicating just what kind of pony Secondhoof was talking to. The magic flickered, and the coin it was lifting clambered to the ground.
The unicorn sighed. “Treasure hunting. I’m…treasure hunting.”
Secondhoof stepped timidly ahead. “Y-you saw that from in here? All that crying I did?”
The unicorn chuckled, politely. “I didn’t.”
Secondhoof slumped. So much for not causing others embarrassment.
“Agh!” the unicorn muttered. Their horn light flickered out again when they attempted to brighten its glow.
She stepped out into view, rubbing her head. The saddlebags at her deep navy flanks clinked with gold bits and multifaceted gems of dazzling colour. Atop her long and powdery blue unkempt mane, there sat a crown of dull faux flowers, delicate and not at all a representation of the rest of the pony. Her neck rose out from what looked like an infinity scarf, coloured similarly to her flowers; filthy and dull, but what might have been a nice red once upon a time.
“Hey, are you sure you’re okay?” Secondhoof asked.
“Who, me?” asked the unicorn, as if more than just the one pony at the top of a mountain come evening was common. “Oh, I’m fine. Holding my glow at a certain intensity gives me headaches. I bet you can imagine what that’s like for a cave stash scavenger rummaging around in the dark…can’t tell bits for stones a majority of the time when I’m not using my horn.”
Secondhoof tilted her head. “Don’t you carry a lantern?”
The unicorn shook her head, suffering a irking new wave of headache. “...Nah, between the treasure and supplies, my hikes are heavy enough.”
Secondhoof looked around for a moment, recalling something, before glancing down. Carefully, she plucked a glowshroom. “Do you have any sap with you?”
Suddenly, the unicorn started laughing. Oh, Secondhoof thought, can’t I keep quiet for once? What a terrible idea after all. Her ears dropped, as did the glowshroom, and she burned with shame, until.
“That’s such a good idea! How come I never thought of that? Those things grow ALL over caves, only a little high up to be useful lighting, usually. Make for a wicked soup you can see in your stomach, though, if you have enough of it.”
The unicorn grabbed hold of the dropped glowshroom with her magic, and as Secondhoof watched on in surprise, she dipped it in a jar of previously saddled tree sap. It stuck effectively to the side of her bag, so she lined them up in a zigzag pattern, careful to do both sides matching.
“Ta da! How’s it look? Am I lit up like a Hearth’s Warming tree already?”
The smile was practically pulled from Secondhoof, and it felt better than anything in a long, long time. “It looks amazing.”
The unicorn smiled too. “Thanks. I’m Sterling Silver, but I’m fine with Silver.”
“Hey Stilver- Stil- Silver. I’m...”
Secondhoof flinched, suddenly recalling that her name was passed around to Celestia knows how many ponies. What if this, what if that. What if Sterling knew she was going to cause a ruckus without meaning to?
“…Secondhoof.”
“Heya, Sec’n. Is that a cake you got there?”
Secondhoof’s smile returned.
“Would you like some?”
—-
A fire crackled on the mountain’s plateau, night upon them. The light of the moon was much brighter higher up, but the cold certainly balanced out the benefit of being able to see the treasures Silver had collected.
Secondhoof, resting on her haunches, nudged a slice of cake on a torn piece of the packaging over to Silver, who gleefully took a generous bite. Munching, she glanced up at Secondhoof from her recline and noticed the smattering of frosting on the filly’s nose from the nudge.
When she giggled, Secondhoof smiled, unaware.
"Sec’n..." Silver started to say, swallowing her mouthful. "What are you doing all the way up here?”
Secondhoof was in the process of tucking her front legs beneath her, and attempting not to appear phased by the question was a new task entirely. Some wires became crossed somewhere in that muddled little brain of her’s.
“No I’m not,” she responded immediately. “A-as in, no, I’m…not here for anything odd, I mean I’m.”
Sterling Silver took a patient bite of her cake, maintaining a blank expression. It managed to convey a sense that she wasn’t going to step on Secondhoof’s hooves as she fumbled the sentence.
“I didn’t exact plan to be…okay, uh.” Secondhoof paused. “Let’s do something else, instead. Statement, question.”
It took a moment for Silver to realise that it was her turn to talk. “Pardon?”
“One statement, one question, totally random. I’ll go first. Uhm…statement. I like the colour red. Question,” she nibbled her lip for a second. “Why do you have so much treasure with you?”
Silver cocked a brow, familiar now with the reality that the meddling game had been turned on her almost instantly. She licked icing off her top lip, a smile quirking at the edge of her mouth. “I thought I told you that, I’m a treasure hunter. I hunt for treasure. Now, what are you doing all the way up here?”
Secondhoof tilted her head, worried thoughts racing immediately. "Huh?"
Silver laughed, loud and sudden. “That’s not a statement! You broke your own rules.”
Secondhoof slouched, smiling nervously, unable to respond much further than... “Sorry.”
Silver ate some more cake, almost done with her slice now, and asked earnestly, "What is it that you do exactly?"
A tad stressed, Secondhoof found herself pacing suddenly around the fire, jabbing a stick into it. "Oh...you know, just, some. Uhm.."
She swallowed. “Some…some things. A bit of this, a bit of-”
Silver arched a brow, watching Secondhoof move about. “C’mon now. I told you what I was doing. And…I wanna know if it was the best call, if it turns out you’re some sort of bandit or something. With a black eye like that…”
Secondhoof looked mortified. “Wh- no! No I’d- I promise that’s not what I am. What I do. Who I am. I’m not a cave bandit.”
Silver’s caution turned to amusement again almost immediately. She crossed her hooves and chuckled faintly. Evidently, there was little threat here. “I think I believe you…But I’d still feel better if you told me why you’re a couple hundred thousand feet above sea level on a Tuesday evening, with nothing but a strawberry cake that says…” she takes a moment to squint at the icing, “…a whole bunch of nonsense about a dog.”
Secondhoof let her muscles relax a little. Alright, she thought, maybe I don’t have to explain all the details. She wasn’t comfortable with lying, but as long as Silver didn’t pry much further, she didn’t have to.
“It’s quiet up here,” she explained, maintaining a gentle gait back around the fire. “I came up here to be alone.”
“Alone?” Silver asked.
“Yeah…I guess I needed it after a rough day.”
“Not to pry…” Silver began, to Secondhoof’s utter dismay, “but how rough of a day did you have exactly? Ending it with a whole cake, alone, atop Ash Peak?”
Before thinking of a response, Secondhoof took an unsuspecting seat...only this time, not on her haunches...on the rest of the cake. The smushing sound reached her before the unpleasant feeling did, and she winced, deflating.
Silver could only cover her mouth, unsuccessfully stifling a guffaw. Secondhoof let out a big, defeated sigh, cheeks flaming. Silver arched her neck to see what remained of the cake. "I don’t suppose I’ll be having a second slice."
Secondhoof didn’t expect that response, and in her moment of confusion, she chuckled. "No...I don’t think so."
Silver laughed too, genuinely, getting up from her belly to warm her hooves by the fire. "I’m not going to probe further if you don’t want me to...y’know, regarding what you do and all. But if it makes you feel any better.." She wiggled her cutie mark, a silver jewellery clasp, into view. "I’m a failed jeweller."
This got the caked pony’s interest. "Failed? Oh, I’m sorry."
Silver smiled. "There’s no need, it was my own fault."
Secondhoof watched her as she continued with a notably more enthusiastic demeanour than she’d expected on such a subject. "I enjoyed the search for jewels and ore a little too much when I’d go out searching for them, y’know, to make my bracelets and necklaces. Over time the ore veins would deplete, yknow, so I’d venture out further…and further. I ended up finding out that when dragons moved their hoards around from cave to cave, they’d leave all sorts of treasures behind. I’d disappear from my shop for days at a time getting lost in caves and underground passageways."
Silver laughed. "But I liked getting lost! Finding areas untouched by ponykind, discovering all kinds of dragon treasure...and new ways to light my path."
She looked up from the fire to wink. Secondhoof blushed, glancing at the makeshift mushroom lamps on the saddlebags, and feeling an unfamiliar burst of pride that took form as a gentle warmth in her chest.
"So," Silver continued, "My jewellery shop got left behind. But it’s in good hooves, I’m sure."
A giggle bubbled up out of Second. "You’re not certain?"
Silver beamed and shrugged. "Last time I heard about it, some dogs were taking care of it."
The wind picked up around them, and Secondhoof was suddenly reminded of the cold, sticky dessert beneath her. Her skin tingled; how in Equestria do you forget something like that? Mouth grimaced, she promptly lifted her buttercream frosted tail and shivered.
Silver was chilled, too. She watched as the fire licked sideways until it’s final flames were snuffed out by the gust. "It looks like the mountain’s letting us know it’s time to retreat inside."
Secondhoof turned her head to the mouth of the cave. Silver eyed her cakey predicament with a quirked brow and a smirk. "Follow me." She nabbed her saddlebag from its rock and made a beeline for the cave.
Secondhoof, curious but most of all freezing, trotted after Silver into the darkness.
—-
The cavern, as dank and musty as it was, was surprisingly rather warm inside, to the fillies’ delight. Further and further into the tall, rotund mouth they went, until Secondhoof could only see what surrounded Silver and her collection of illuminated glowshrooms.
The pony didn’t hesitate as she lead them into the next chamber, a much smaller cave entrance that extended into a black tunnel ahead of them. Secondhoof was beginning to feel the weight of the darkness around her.
“Um…do…I mean…this might be a silly question, but. Do you know where we’re-“
“Going?” Silver chuckled. “I was just in here collecting ore. For the whole day.”
She stopped for a moment, touching her hoof to her chin in thought. “Or was it a week?…A moon? Ah, who knows.”
Silver broke into a trot, and Secondhoof watched as she realised the path began to slope. “Gosh. You were really in here for an entire moon just mining?”
“I mean, really, who knows? Pitch black is morning, noon, and night down here. If I didn’t have to eat, you never woulda met me.”
She shakes her mane out, grinning. “Bah, food…a waste of valuable saddlebag space, if you ask me.”
Secondhoof couldn’t help the snort if she tried. This pony was something else. Perhaps it was all the alone time down here…or the glowshroom spores nestled up there in her brain.
Either way, Silver certainly wasn’t giving Secondhoof’s smile any reason to leave.
——
All they could hear was the clicking of their hooves against the rock as they ventured further, the occasional sound of a distant stone crackling to the cave floor forcing Secondhoof to falter and fall behind.
It occurred to her. “Wait. Where /are/ we going-“
“Shoot!”
Secondhoof collided with Silver’s thickly plaited tail, scrambling backwards apologetically. “Huh..?”
“There’s been a cave-in here…I wonder what did that…”
“A cave-in?” Before she had a way to stop it, anxiety began to bubble in Secondhoof’s stomach. She suddenly felt rather uncomfortable. “That can happen?”
Silver’s chuckle was almost lost in the gentle echo of the space. She surrounded a small, beaten pickaxe from her saddle bag with her magic, and raised it just ahead of her muzzle, tapping away at the rock. “Of course,” she said distantly, almost to herself. “We’re in a cave.”
Secondhoof raised her head cautiously, trying to study her invisible surroundings in the darkness. Unconsciously, she began to step backward, her tail gently coming in contact with the wall of the tunnel. Reflexively, she lifted her back hoof up to rest on the rock-
“GaaAAH!!”
The deafening crack pulled Sterling Silver’s attention before Secondhoof’s scream, and she dropped her pickaxe in alarm. Secondhoof was clinging to the floor of the tunnel, swinging and kicking wildly in the large hole that had given way under her.
“S-S-Sliver!!” she stammered, hardly able to deliver the name correctly, “Stilver! Sterling!! Help me!”
Silver dived to her aid amongst the flurry of words. She couldn’t find what to do with her hooves, until she stopped in place, realising the gentle glow that filled the tiny tunnel via the newly open wall. She slowly arched her neck to glance over the flailing pegasus, blinking her eyes into focus.
Her expression relaxed.
“I’m gonna statement question, real fast.” she said, sitting neatly. “Only, I might do it in reverse, if you don’t mind.”
Secondhoof looked as though she’d been kicked in the throat. “Wh- no- HUH?”
“So, question,” Silver continued, ignoring Secondhoof’s bewilderment, “can you swim?”
Secondhoof’s mouth was dry with fright, but she managed to swallow before answering in a tiny whisper. “I can.” Her eyes were still as big as two round, full moons. She could feel her hooves slipping gradually on the unforgiving surface, as she remained far TOO forgiving for the situation she was in.
“Statement.”
Secondhoof swallowed again. Was this how she was going to go out? Somepony ELSE was going to murder her, instead of herself by accident. She never quite saw it happening this way.
“I’m going to push you now.”
Uh-huh. Secondhoof squeezed her eyes shut so hard she saw tiny little white explosions behind her eyelids, as her hooves scrambled over the rock at Silver’s mercy.