“Scabbins! Mister Scabbins! Please get out from there, it’s not safe!”

No reply echoed from the deep, dark mud-cave, its opening barely wide enough to let a fully grown pony through. The worried pegasus shifted uncomfortably at the entrance, too fearful for her own well-being to enter.

“Mister Scabbins, please! You don’t even know what’s in there!”

Still no answer from the cave. The poor rat she was calling out for had a nasty brush-in with an eagle moments ago, and was badly hurt by the eagle‘s attempt at catching and eating it. Sadly, when a rat gets injured to the extent of this ‘Mister Scabbins’, they instinctively find somewhere to rest. Somewhere to die. And this mud-cave was this particular rat’s choice.

The pegasus felt a slight tug on her pink tail - a tug caused by a rather inpatient looking white bunny, who then hungrily pointed towards his open mouth in a ‘feed me‘ gesture once he had the pony‘s attention.

“Oh, not now, Angel bunny, not when one of your friends could be hurt!”

The bunny’s response to that was a sarcastic scoff as if to humour the thought of being friends with a rat, followed by the folded-arms-and-angry-scowl approach to not being fed when he demanded.

“I- um- I… suppose I’d better go in there and bring him back out. He needs medical attention! Please wait here for me, Angel.”

The cantankerous bunny then spent the next three minutes watching the world’s most pitiful pegasus half-crawl, half-tiptoe into the mud-cave’s entrance, squeaking, hesitating and shivering every few steps. Eventually he got bored with the display, and decided it would be easier on them both to just find some other shmuck to get the rat out. And off he ran to find a volunteer.

“D- d- don’t worry, Scabbins! Ev- everything will be okay!” squeaked the pony’s voice as it echoed deeper and deeper into the darkness.

And that’s what brings us to the small, fluffy, white mime that’s hopping up and down in front a simple, wandering earth pony. An earth pony that happens to be you.

“Lemme guess, um… a starfish? No, no, a cartwheel? You need to repair a cartwheel or something?” The bunny shakes his head impatiently when you guess wrongly yet again, and decides to act out a semi-crawl, semi-tiptoe motion, hoping you‘d understand that instead. “Hold on, I get it! You want to be a cat! Am I right? No? C‘mon, give me a clue here!”

Giving up on the charades, your big-eared bunny companion simply motions you to follow, and hops off heading towards a small hill. Well, your schedule’s free for today anyway, what’s the worst that could happen?

You stand facing a small mud cave, so small you’d probably have to crouch on all four of your legs to fit in it. You sure hope the bunny’s joking when it stands outside the cave’s entrance, pointing at its tiny paw towards it, then to you, then back again.

“You… actually want me to go in there? You’re not serious, right?”

The fluff-ball replies by tapping its large foot impatiently, paws on his hips, waiting for you to do as he darn well says.

“Why can’t you go in there? You’re a rabbit; you live in a rabbit hole!”

The bunny froze mid-foot-tap, and shifted uncomfortably. It glances back towards the mud cave, and back at you, shaking its head.

“Let me guess; you live in a hutch, don’t you?” the pointy-eared lagomorph nods slightly, “And I’m also guessing you’re afraid of holes?” you smirk, teasing him.

“Pbbbbbbt!”

“Hey, sticking your tongue out’s just plain rude, little guy. Do you want me to help or not?”

A faint squeal echoing from the cave changed the subject for both of you. Sensing the alarm in the squeak’s origin, the bunny quickly tapped your hoof to get your attention and then pointed back at the entrance.

“Was that your friend?” It dawned on you that the squeak was probably another rabbit, most likely stuck in the cave somewhere. And the animal-helper in you simply can’t leave a small, fluffy creature to such a sad ending.

You sigh in weariness, “Fine, I’ll go in there, but you oughta pay me more than carrots for this.”

Crouching down, you squeeze through the mud cave’s small entrance, taking care not to get too much dirt on your mane, tail or coat. The faint, claustrophobic thoughts creeping into your head would have to be put on a leash for now. Because you’re a brave pony. It’s what you tell yourself, anyway.

You knew you’d have trouble seeing things in a cave so dark. Lucky, the sun outside is bright enough to pour through the cave’s opening behind you, putting you somewhat at ease as you clamber deeper and deeper, keeping an ear out for the rabbit‘s friend.

A soft sniffling begins to resonate through the cave. Squinting your eyes through the darkness, you make out a brightly coloured creature at a dead end; a strangely large, brightly coloured creature with its back to you. One thing’s for certain, it’s either a fully grown pony or one heck of a large bunny.

You lower your back, scraping your stomach against the dirt on the ground, to crawl under some rocks ever-so-slightly poking out from the top of the cave in an attempt to get closer. You feel your pulse increase slightly when you squeeze under them - the cave is confining enough already.

Whoever and whatever this creature is, it seems to be cradling something small, sobbing like a child with a broken, cherished belonging. You strain your ears to listen;

“sniff… Sc-Scabbins… I-I’m s-so sorry…” the trembling voice alone confirms your suspicions; it’s a pony, a female pony at that. Although it’s far too dark to see her in detail, you notice her shivering over whatever tiny mammal she’s cradling. Looks like the little thing might be sleeping. Or worse.

You finally get close enough to the figures to speak without having to raise your voice; it wouldn’t be safe to shout in a cave, much less one made of soil and dirt. You try to get the pony’s attention talking as softly as possible.

“Um, hello-?”

“YAAH!” the pony leaps almost out of her skin from shock, having paid no heed to your presence until now, bashing her head against the top of the mud-cave with regrettable force. Her yelp of surprise echoes throughout the cave twice more, before stopping in a deadly silence. You both exchange glances with each other for a brief moment before you become hit with a new reason to panic - a faint rumbling sound, getting louder and louder, and the cave around you vibrating to an uncomfortable degree.

The cave is crumbling apart. Collapsing. Falling in on itself.

At this point, talking softly is ultimately pointless.

“Run!” you shout, the mounting fear gripping you like a vice, “We have to get out of here!”

Her eyes wide in alarm, she places whatever motionless creature she was holding on the ground and begins to scramble towards you. Towards the cave’s entrance and only exit. You uncomfortably shift yourself, turning around to crawl the way you came, ignoring the cave’s rumble, now more like a roar than ever, just in time to witness the worst possible sight imaginable.

The rocks from the top of the cave drop, along with far too much dirt, sealing off the light of the entrance, sealing you both off in complete darkness.