Chapter Text
It was a bright and sunny day, and only a few clouds floated through the sky as the afternoon sun hung overhead. Birds were chirping and flying among the forest canopy, and the shrill cry of Dodge City’s departing train could be heard far into the distance.
It had been weeks since the weather-making ponies up in the floating city of Cloudsdale had released this week’s weather report. Clear skies were always good for a camping trip, and the forest between the Dodge City desert and the secluded Hayseed Swamp was the perfect place for such an excursion – especially when the ponies meeting up there all lived far away from each other.
A group of five ponies trotted up a steep hill, already deep into the woods. It had been a while since they had met up, and after a few letters sent here and there, they’d decided on a weekend camping trip for their much-awaited reunion.
The birds flitting above the trees quickly darted away as a vivid red pegasus with a messy maroon mane flew past them, slowing to a still hover. Shooting Star furrowed her brow, narrowing her navy blue eyes as she looked around, and then she snorted and flicked her tail. “How long until we get there?” she yelled as she glanced back behind herself, flicking her tail again as a branch lightly brushed against her flaming-comet cutie mark.
“It shouldn’t be too far!” a high-pitched voice called back. A parchment map held by a magic pinkish aura hovered into view over the hill, while a lavender-coated unicorn with a curly cream mane trotted distractedly behind it. Her flank was marked with a cream-colored crescent moon, and her pinkish-purple eyes were focusing on the map rather than the trail.
“We only have- whoa!” Vanilla Twilight stumbled over a tree root, lightly faceplanting against the map as she shakily regained her footing.
“You okay?” came the softer voice of a pink pegasus strolling up the hill after her – a triple-cloud-marked pegasus with a curly purple mane and tail, her mane trimmed in a blown-back bobcut that framed her teal-eyed face. Cloudy Sky walked up next to Vanilla Twilight, gingerly holding out a wing to try and support her friend.
Vanilla’s legs shook a little. Once she’d steadied herself, she looked down at the map to make sure her horn hadn’t jabbed a hole through it, and she giggled a little as she looked over at her friend. “Heheh, yeah, I’m okay!” she said.
“Try not to lose that map,” came a somewhat lower voice from behind them. The three mares turned around as a gray earth pony walked up into view, her sharp, split-color, orange-and-blue mane framing her bemused yellow eyes. Her banana-and-orange cutie mark could be seen behind the tan saddlebags she carried. “We don’t wanna get lost out here.”
Fruit Smoothie focused back on the trail ahead as she walked past Cloudy and Vanilla, giving Star a brief glance as she passed her by. She paused, then turned around and took a step towards the map that Vanilla still held, holding her own hoof out to gently tilt it towards herself. “It looks like we’ve just got another turn and then we’ll be at the valley.” She paused and turned around. “You coming?”
The four mares looked back to the trail behind them as a fifth and final pony slowly headed up the hill – an orange earth pony, whose deep-pinkish-rose eyes kept darting around at the trees that loomed above her. Her poofy and carefully-curled mane consisted of red, magenta, purple, and pinkish-rose stripes, and her flank was marked by two crossed lollipops.
“I’m coming,” Lollipop said quietly, quickening her pace as she got closer to the others. She was attached to a wagon that held several of their camping supplies and an unbuilt tent, and although she was the strongest of the group (and thus the only one who’d actually volunteered for wagon duty) due to being an earth pony, she still wasn’t fond of how it may or may not have slowed her down even just a little bit.
Once she had caught up with them, the group headed further down the trail, with Lollipop following close behind.
“It’s such a nice day out,” Cloudy remarked as she looked up at the soft blue sky.
“Yeah. Betcha got some strings pulled to do that for us, huh?” Star said, hovering down near Cloudy as she jokingly elbowed her.
Cloudy chuckled. “I wish. No, I’m just a cloud-moving pony – I don’t schedule anything.”
“I wish I could move clouds,” Vanilla said idly as she glanced back down at the map.
“Can’t you just grab them with your magic?” Star asked, hovering above Vanilla as she peered over her shoulder, looking down at the map.
“Nah, I can’t get a good grasp on them.”
As Fruit Smoothie looked back at the map, she felt a hoof tap on her shoulder and turned around, seeing Lollipop standing next to her. “Are you sure there’s nothing out here, Fruity?” she asked.
“Here? No, these woods are safe,” Fruity responded.
“Because I was staying in Dodge before you gals got here, and I heard someone saying that somepony, uh, went missing in these woods-”
“Those are just nothin’ more than boogeytales,” Star interrupted, rolling her eyes as she waved a hoof through the air. “Just because somepony got lost in a bunch of trees doesn’t mean that we’re gonna be caught by hydras or demons or somethin’.”
Lollipop looked back down at the ground, grimacing a little.
“It would be kind of neat to meet a monster, though,” Vanilla added. “I mean, it’d be terrifying and we’d probably get hurt, but it’d be sort of like going to the zoo!” She paused, sheepishly looking at the others. “…You know, if a zoo had the ability to bite you or something.”
“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Cloudy interjected, glancing back a few times at the others.
It didn’t feel like long before the group finally reached their destination. In truth, it had been a while, as evidenced by the slowly-setting sun, but the ponies had done so much talking and catching up on things that it hadn’t felt like very long at all.
“Well, we’re here!” Fruity said proudly, as she stood before the wide, tree-rimmed clearing. As she did, the others headed ahead of her; Lollipop unlatched the wagon in the middle of the field and sighed in relief, while Cloudy and Star hovered overhead – Cloudy out of self-reassurance, Star out of something else.
“Was this the only place ya could find?” Star asked flatly.
“It seemed like the best spot,” Fruity responded just as flatly, unbothered by her friend’s hard-to-impress nature. If it was good enough for the others, it should be good enough for her.
Star narrowed her eyes and huffed, hovering down to the edge of the clearing.
“So what do we do once we’re set up?” Vanilla asked from the middle of the clearing, hovering a tentpole in the air as she and Lollipop assembled the first tent.
“Hmm, that’s a good question.” Fruity turned to look at them. “We could always go bird-watching, or look around for little things to collect.”
“That sounds boring,” Star muttered under her breath as she stepped over a fallen log.
“Ooh, we could see if anything we find has magical properties!” Vanilla exclaimed giddily, hopping up and down on the spot as she accidentally let go of her tentpole (which then bonked Lollipop over the head). “I’d love to see what spells I could use them for!”
“That’s wonderful,” Lollipop moaned as she rubbed her scalp.
“We could do that!” Cloudy said as she hovered down to where the others were, gently leaning the tentpole away from Lollipop. “Ooh, maybe you’ll find some plants for… alchemy, right?”
Vanilla shook her head, still smiling. “Alchemy’s about changing rocks to gold and other material stuff. That would be potion-making!”
Cloudy nodded thoughtfully. “Ah.”
“Hey, guys, come look at this!” Star suddenly shouted from across the field.
Everyone turned their heads and ran over to where she was.
Star was standing just past the fallen log, in the middle of what looked like an extremely small sinkhole – just a few hooves deep, with a few small rocks around its edges.
“What’s wrong?” Lollipop asked.
Star grunted as she looked down and lifted one of her hooves. “Somethin’s dragging my hoof down somehow – like some sorta magnet.”
As Lollipop backed away uneasily, Fruity furrowed her brow, and Cloudy gave a look of concern, Vanilla took a few steps forward, climbing over the log and stepping down into the shallow sinkhole, prodding the ground with her hoof. “It does feel sorta weird.”
The other three stepped closer to the hole, still wary. Vanilla kept dragging her hoof across the grass, even hopping up and down a few times. After a full minute of nothing happening, she looked back at the others and shrugged. “Maybe it’s just an exposed ley line,” she mused.
Star stared at her, raising an eyebrow as she leaned her head back. “A what now?”
Cloudy stepped halfway into the sinkhole, testing the ground with her front hooves. Fruity stepped partway into the hole as well, although Lollipop held her tail tightly with one foreleg.
“Yeah! It’s a…” Vanilla trailed off as she raised her head and darted her ears back and forth, suddenly on alert.
Cloudy looked up at her. “What’s wrong?”
“I hear something. Like some sort of… noise…?”
The others went quiet, flicking their ears around – and soon hearing the noise themselves. It was a very low sound, almost more like a vibration than a noise, and it sounded like it was coming from below them… and it was getting louder-
Suddenly, the sinkhole caved in below them with a horrible roar, and the five ponies screamed as they spiraled into a deep abyss – one that flickered with vivid purples and blues…