"Ohhhh crap." I was at the brink of a steep slope, probably ten or fifteen feet high, with some large rocks at the bottom. While most likely not fatal, it certainly would have been a painful faceplant if James hadn't caught my tail as i went over. I teetered on the edge for a moment, then he gave a hard yank and we tumbled backwards.

"Th-thanks," I gasped, laying across his chest.

"Anytime."

We scrambled to our feet, and this time I stowed my weapon and stayed on all fours, peering down into the pit while James swept the light around.

The crater stretched far out, and I didn't see any treetops here. I guessed it had perhaps been a clearing, before the removed earth buried it. The area was devoid of movement. Whatever had made this artificial plateau was nowhere to be seen.

"See those holes?" James asked, pointing. "I'm guessing we lost her signal when she was taken underground."

I looked, and sure enough there were deeper tunnels heading down into the artificial hill not far from where we stood. "Looks like they've closed up shop for the night. I'm guessing that's where we need to go, though." I stepped carefully down the slope, my four hooves giving me reasonably good purchase when I moved with caution. James slid down next to me, both hands braced against my body.

"How do we know which tunnel to try?" I asked when we reached the bottom.

"I have an idea about that," James said. He moved towards one of the holes, shining the light around the edge. It had to be at least twenty feet in diameter. He eventually shook his head and moved the the forty feet to the next tunnel, staring at the ground. "There! See?"

I came up beside him and looked at the ground. Spots of green slime glowed under our light beams.

"Mia shot that thing up pretty good at the restaurant," James said. "Looks like it's bleeding. Shall we?"

I looked at the hole, and at the giant mound we were standing on. "Um. You know, I just realized. What other creature do we know that builds stuff like this?"

James frowned. "Prairie dogs?"

"I was thinking of ants. It looks like an anthill."

"Shit," James replied, with feeling. "You're right. It looks like a hive."

We all stared into the long, slanted tunnel.

"Do you guys have a plan?" Turf asked nervously.

I gulped. "Uh..."

"Yeah," James replied. "We're going down that fucking hole and finding our people."

We looked down into the hole again. "If they really are like ants, we're in trouble," Turf said. "They'll overrun us."

"You're right, of course," I agreed. "But our partner is down there, alone. I'm going to try, even if it kills me. You don't have to come. We will save your folks if we can find them."

"If you can't rescue my family, I'd rather die down there," Turf Dumper said, his voice suddenly ragged.

James put a hand on his neck. "Hey. Nopony is gonna die today, okay?"

Turf nodded mutely.

"Let's hurry," I said, starting down the incline. I pulled my SBR out and stood on my hind legs, nervously sweeping the light back and forth. The tunnel didn't descend too sharply, so I was able to keep my balance easily. James stayed close beside me, and Turf followed slightly behind.

The walls of the tunnel were bare and ugly, the top coated with some kind of brown chitinous resin to keep the ceiling from caving in. It was silent except for the sounds of our passage, deadened by the absorptive dirt all around us. The passage continued without any junctions, twisting and curling as it descended. My fear was humming in my ears, the constant expectation that I would round a corner and come face to face with some nightmare that would end us all in a horrible way. I tried to ignore the bugs crawling along the walls.

The descent continued, deeper into the ground. Despite my best efforts, the unease and tension was taking a serious toll on me. "Hey, watch out," James said, pulling me to the side. I looked up, and a massive spider looked back at me coldly from the corner of a dusty web. The ugly thing was the size of a tennis ball.

I jumped and stumbled away from the menacing creature. A wave of claustrophobia struck me, the raw tunnels of this hive affecting my subconscious in a way that the industrial passages of the Menagerie never had. "Do it for Mia," I whispered to myself. "I'd die for her. I'd be buried alive for her." It was true, but I was still terrified. I choked down the rising feelings of panic with an effort of will, and I sank down onto my butt the dirt, unable to breathe comfortably and fighting the urge to run screaming back the way we had come.

"Eris. Baby, calm down."

James had crouched down and put his arms around me, whispering into my ear. "You're hyperventilating. Relax. I'm here. If we die, it'll be together."

I focused on his words, trying to control.my breathing. The raw panic subsided, and some of the tension leaked away. I thought of Mia, cold and alone some where in this nightmare cave. Or maybe she was already-

"I'm okay. We have to find her," I said, refusing to allow myself to finish the thought. Dreadful images of Mia's cold, gnawed corpse sprang unbidden to my mind, and I forced them out, focusing on the task at hand.

We continued forward, I have no idea how far we went. It seemed to go on forever. Finally we turned a corner and came up against a sort of door, a huge leathery sphincter blocking the entire tunnel.

We looked at each other.

"The asshole of Equstria," James said disgustedly, poking at it with the barrel of his SBR. Whatever material the thing was made of, it appeared thick and unyielding. "Let's see if there's a way to open it."

After several minutes of searching, we found nothing, with the exception of a narrow channel in the dirt wall a little distance from the base of the left side of the door. It looked like a deep and small crack, rough and uninviting. But it appeared there were no other options. The door had resisted every effort at opening, even Turf's knife and a few bullets that ricocheted dangerously in the confined area.

"I can try and crawl through that little tunnel and see if I can open it from the other side," I finally said. The idea frightened me badly, but I couldn't think of another way.

"Are you sure? It looks kind of small," James said, laying down and shining his weapon light into the hole. "It's pretty long too. But I think I can see an opening down there."

I lay next to him and peered through "I'll try. It's the only thing I can think to do."

"I'll go," Turf suggested.

"I'm the smallest," I said, standing and looking at Turf's broad chest. "You might get stuck. It has to be me." I crouched down, looking inside once more, then I took off my weapon and ammo belt. There was no way I could crawl through wearing my gear without getting stuck. I thought about taking off the little top and skirt too, but the material was very thin, and it seemed it might provide some slight protection from the hanging roots and small pebbles in the soil.

"Be careful babe." James kissed me on the mouth, quick but intense. I was glad for it, I was already afraid and his embrace gave me some courage.
"Be really careful, you hear?"

"I will, I promise. See you in a minute, love." I lay on the ground once more and inched forward into the little passage, a soft glow from my horn helping me to see ahead. It was barely more than a long cavity in the dirt, and I had to lay on my stomach and wiggle my body to slide forward. I couldn't move my forehooves hardly at all. The restriction was absolutely terrifying. My claustrophobia came back rapidly as I pushed my muzzle into hanging roots and thrust myself forwards into the dark. Falling dirt bounced off my ARHUD as I squirmed, gently reminding me that I could be buried at any time with no hope of rescue. The deafening silence of tons upon tons of earth all around me closed in as I crawled. The only sounds were my hitching breath, my heartbeat pounding in my ears, and the frightening sound of disturbed soil sifting over my face. I couldn't even hear my rear hooves scrabbling behind me, the tight fit around my body blocked any noise from behind.

I tried to control my breathing, to think relaxing thoughts. I had to be twenty feet in by now, well past James's ability to reach me if anything went wrong. With no end in sight, I crept forwards. I couldn't turn around or crawl backwards even if I wanted to. I tried to focus on the end of the journey somewhere ahead, but the tunnel seemed to narrow, and I wasn't making progress.

I was stuck.

"No, no," I gasped. "Oh please, no."

I tried to kick forwards, but my hooves just slipped. I was beginning to have serious difficulty inhaling in the tiny enclosed space, and the idea of suffocating to death in this little channel grew in my mind until I really couldn't breathe. I tried to suck air in and the soil sifting into my mouth choked me. Then my body tried to cough instinctively, but my lungs couldn't expand because the tunnel was too narrow, so I wheezed, painfully and ineffectively. Terror and panic settled in as I struggled fruitlessly, and I felt a puddle of warm piss pooling between my thighs. I began to cry, tears running hotly down my face.

"Eris? Are you okay darling?" James's voice came through my ARHUD.

"Can't breathe," I sniffled, with enormous difficulty. "So scared!"

"You can do it. Listen to my voice."

I tried, but in my mind's eye I kept seeing the ground caving in on me. I keened in my terror, a long reedy sound of animalistic fear, and I lost control of my magic. My horn light extinguished, plunging me into the eternal blackness that only exists in the underground depths. The pressure of the earth above me crushed down on my soul in the darkness, driving me to the brink of absolute blind panic. I was going to die down here in one of the worst ways I could possibly imagine, buried alive under endless layers of dirt while James watched my poor little back hooves drumming uselessly against the pebbles, kicking desperately until suffocation painfully ended my miserable life and stilled them forever.

I can't breath! I can't breathe! I can't-

"Eris? Eris! Talk to me baby!"

"Eeeeeeeeeee!" I whimpered, so panicked I could no longer speak words.

"Eris! Mia needs you!"

Mia needs me.

I thought about Mia, down here somewhere in this hellish catacomb, maybe about to be devoured or worse. Maybe she was even more afraid than I was. I saw her pink hair billowing around her face, her hand reaching out for my hoof as that thing dragged her away into the night. The deluge of emotion that immediately followed washed the fear for myself into the background.

"Grrrr," I growled into the ARHUD with primal determination.

"Good girl. You can do it!"

Hold on, Mia. I'm coming.

I lit my horn again and pushed forwards with new resolve, exhaling all the air from my lungs to reduce my size, then thrusting and worming through the soft earth. I couldn't inhale again. If I couldn't get past this constriction, I would die in minutes. I inched forward, my lungs screaming at me to take a breath, but I knew if I tried and failed I would panic for real and that would be the end of me. I kept worming forwards, and as my lungs burned in agony, blackness started to close in on my vision. I was going to die. I had failed, and this shitty tunnel would be my grave. Rest in piss, Eris.

"I'm so sorry Mia," I whispered sadly as my eyes closed and I died from lack of oxygen.

"Eris? What did you say?"

It took me several moments to realize that I had actually said something out loud. I opened my eyes and snorted the loose dirt out of my nostrils as best I could, elated that I could now take shallow breaths, the foul-smelling air delicious beyond words to me

"James? I'm almost there."

I kicked a few more times. Finally my head popped out into the larger tunnel beyond the obstruction, and I instantly doused my light to avoid attracting attention. I kept squirming until my body followed, desperately pulling air into my lungs but simultaneously trying to keep quiet. I didn't want to get dragged off by something in the dark before I could open the portal for James.

"It's really dark here," I whispered.

"Use the infrared mode on your ARHUD," James replied.

Feeling dumb again for not having thought of that, I switched it on. Instantly the tunnel I was in illuminated in grayscale, the small emitters on my ARHUD pouring out invisible light. Invisible to humans and ponies, anyway.

"James," I said softly. "Do you think the monsters can see infrared?"

"I sure hope not."

"Me too." I crept towards the large sphincter door, looking for a way to open it. I finally spotted a gross, squishy-looking organ dangling from some fleshy tube to the side. I pressed it with a hoof, and it squelched revoltingly.

The door opened with a wet slurp, and I sank to my haunches again.

"Eris!" James rushed to me, knelt down, and threw his arms around my dirt-encrusted body.

I put my filthy hooves around him too. "That was really scary," I moaned. "I don't think I can ever do that again."

James held me close, and I felt relief in his embrace. "I don't ever want you to do that again. I can't lose you too, Eris. I was about to freak out. Those awful sounds you made. It was like a hot knife in my guts."

"I-Im sorry. You sounded so calm, though."

"If I didn't, I think you would have lost it. And you shouldn't apologize to me. You were very brave, boss lady."

"I peed myself."

"I would have, too." He gave me a kiss on my dirty, tear-streaked muzzle.

Turf gave us a moment, staring nervously down the tunnel. Suddenly he sucked in his breath and killed his flashlight, plunging us into darkness.

"Guys?" he hissed. I could see his frightened eyes in black and white through my ARHUD as he stared blindly down the tunnel in the pitch blackness.

"Yeah?" James replied softly, activating IR mode on his ARHUD as well.

"I saw something coming this way. Something big."