Chapter 1: The Fall
My name is Ramona, kind of an odd name for a pony. I have a dark blue coat, a black mane, golden yellow eyes, And im a unicorn mare.
My parents say that they see that in my future. I surely didn't. The bulk of my days were wandering the caves that became our home. we had come from a stable, or at least my parents did, and a few weeks after they left I was born. They didn't know where the best place to have a baby was. they had no knowledge of the things in the wastes.
They had found a decent cave and were lucky to not encounter any evils that may lurk in caves like these. there I was born, named, and loved.
"Ma!" wheres all the food!? i'm starving over here!" my belly made a sound I don't think it should normally make.
"I don't know! Why dont you go try and find some further into the caves!" My mother yelled back to me from the mouth of the cave. my father had left to see if he could find something of worth to trade with the merchant that passes by every once and a while on his way to Manehattan.
Ive made the trek into the caves of our home for food and other thing, sometimes just to get away, and i've known quite a lot of these caves. The walls look like they took millions of years to form such a cave. they most likely did take that long. the cave walls have tons of random concaves and convexes. every once and a while there are random caves that branch off of the big cave in the middle.
I took my time wandering through all the caves wondering where i might find food. id never seen where it came from, all I know it that it came from deeper in the cave somewhere and i needed to find it.
"There is so much nothing down here! By this rate we'll all starve!" my crazed rambling was turning more and more harsh as i failed to find something as simple as food.
After about an hour of wandering nothing has shown up except for blank cavern walls. the light of the pip-boy my parents found for me was the only thing keeping the path lit up. I bet my parents are going insane wondering where i am. "I should be plenty far enough into this Luna dammed cave that i should have found some food by now!" The bulk of the trip was just silence. the only sound was that of my hooves hitting the ground as i walked.
I pulled up my pip-boy and leaned my arm against the wall as i walked. it clanked against each of the turns and bends in the wall making a somewhat consistent rhythm. I always seemed to be able to take any sounds that would seem random to others and find a beat to it. even the clopping of my hooves on the floor carried a beat that sounded like wonderful music to my ears in the silence of the caves.
"I dont know if i can take any more shit like this… I really need to find some food or sorts and get some for my most likely starving family as well." My brain started to turn towards my parents more and more as i thought about food. all the years they cared for me and helped me live in a world seemingly un-habitable.
I kick a pebble that was lying in the caves and it hit a wall or two making a terrifying echo all throughout the caves. I had learned to live with echo's from things off the walls in these caves. they were often a major part of my escape. nothing like hundreds of echo's of one sounds being bounced back and forth through your head to drown out your parents and their annoying ass comments on the way I act or feel.
The cave was just as it had been for almost two hours. quiet, all except for the sounds I was making, and the walls were the same color. so was the floor. The pebble i had kicked was now accompanied by more pebbles, these ones a bit bigger.
"Hmm. the caves seem to be littered with more and more pebbles all getting bigger to." My observation became a lot more clear as I continued down the caves until the pebbles became rocks and then boulders. the path eventually became un-walkable because the boulders covered the whole cave space.
"All of this crap and no food whatsoever! ugh! why?" I had about enough with all the bullshit that was happening to me today.
"For two and a half hours I walked down this stupid fucking cave and found NOTHING. absolutely fucking NOTHING!" My rage was getting higher to the point I even had enough power to pick up a whole boulder and throw it behind me, back to the mouth of the cave, and in doing so all the other boulders covering the walk way fell apart and I could walk through the cave again.
"Oh! OH! just fucking nice! all it took was for me to get mad and the 'Magical door' opened!... Fine. just fine! i guess i have no choice but to explore some more. probably not gonna find anything." I continued my trek into the cave in search of the elusive and sneaky thing called food.
The other side of the cave, much to my amazement, was just the same as the rest of the cave. it clearly lead a lot farther down that i could see and dropped and almost a waterfall sized drop. clearly killing me if i attempted to jump.
"Wow. i expected this to be like in those fantasy stories where somepony tries really hard to get something and then breaks down when they can't get it and then they get it and it amazes them. this was just sad." I laughed a genuine laugh for the first time this trip. "I always found that those stories were always so cheesy cause you can always tell after a while that the good guy Has to win." my laugh only grew and i found that the walk back was a lot shorter when i wasn't thinking about eating. it had left my mind at the moment.
I dropped to the floor where my bed was located. My father had returned and my mother was quite disappointed I didn't bring back any food. Father was so tired he fell asleep right as he got home. I decided to sleep last. not for any good reason but I just thought it was a good idea at the time. My legs were quaking they were so tired when i got home finally.
The food reserves were pretty low. Only about enough for one normal meal. we had to split that in thirds for everyone. The sad part was that was just breakfast. We were completely out of food and didn't know where to find more.
The days dragged on. We had water that was fresh, enough, from the caves to drink but no food to eat. luckily you can go quite a while without food.
The merchant stopped by again. I could say that my father has made quite a friendship in this fine merchant pony. Today he begged the merchant for food because we were all starving and the merchant was kind enough to give us what my pip-boy called Radigator meat. it looked alright. the color of the meat looked kinda like the barren ground outside.
Our family sat around the little camp fire we had in the middle of our makeshift cave home. The meat wasn't really 'vile' but it wasn't nearly as good as the other food we have had. My family didn't like it, not one bit, but I was completely fine with it.
The days passed as we ate. drank. and did our daily routines. Roaming the caves, searching for food, eating the food, even though we couldn't find any, and eventually going back to sleep. A very common life style we lived.
We officially ran out of food. We don't know what to do. Our only chance was to explore further into the caves. We used one of the tin cans we found and put an ember from our camp fire in it and closed the tin the best we could. we also took a stick and some cloth.
After around two and a half hours of walking we reached the Waterfall, where we usually get our water, and used the stick wrapped in cloth to make the ember into a flame to create a makeshift torch. Nopony has explored what lies at the bottom of the Waterfall. I took the torch in my magic, hovered it over the waterfall, and dropped it down. It took about five or six seconds to hit the bottom and land in the water.
The only problem with attempting to jump would be that there was no telling how many rocks were at the bottom, if any, or how deep the water actually was.
"I'm lost as to whether we should jump or not. we don't have any food and i don't think we have a choice." My mother was making a very good point. I decided that I was going to go. My parents fought me saying I shouldn't, but I have made up my mind.
"I'm jumping in. ill tell you if its safe." I walked to the edge of the water, making sure I didn't fall. "You only live once you know." I said with a smile to hide the fear i was feeling.
I hesitated and a million thoughts went through my head, Should I jump? was will happen if I die? what will happen if I live? will I live? I pushed my thoughts of death aside and took a leap of faith.
The air whistled around my head as I dived head first off a waterfall, probably should of went in feet first. Several thoughts filled my head once again as i fell.
The water sprayed from the waterfall behind me and covered my back in water. My pip-boy light lit the cave ever so slightly so that I could see the walls and water getting closer. Hitting the water hurt really bad, I jumped in head first but the angle of the cave made me hit the water on my belly. That's gonna hurt for weeks!
"Alright you two! its safe to come down! just don't hit the water on your belly! it hurts! It really hurts!" I screamed up the waterfall where my parents were waiting for my signal to jump. "Alright! we're coming down now!" A few seconds later the sounds of two ponies screaming and then hitting water rang out from the caves, echoing like crazy.
I was sitting on a rock with my back legs crossed and my forelegs together on top of them. "Welcome!" I put my hands up in a welcoming gesture. "how was the fall?"