An Inconvenient Attachment // Appledash

chapter 80

"I can't hold it for much longer!" Twilight exclaimed as her shoulders tensed and her hands began to crunch from their power initiating position. 

"You trust me right?" Sunset called out to her friend as her anxious gaze flickered between the sinking individual and the man-eating plant hovering hungrily. 

"Of course but...what is that?!" Rainbow continued to freak out as she could not take her eyes of this enchanted beast, it's leaves thicker than usual flora and it's vines slithering around nearby mangroves as if they were reptiles. 

"Doesn't matter, see you soon!" Sunset announced as she placed a hand to the girls head and shoved her under the sand unexpectedly.

"Sunset what the hell?!" Applejack yelled at her, her leg caught between a living vine that slowly tangled itself around her ankles while painfully glazing over the healing dent Gloriosa's own wild nature had caused. 

"Did you just-!?" Twilight similarly shrieked in unison with the other, her jaw dropping in horror at the murderous act she believed she just witnessed.

"Trust me guys, it's a portal, I've seen this before!" She shouted back, "It's the only way to get out of this plant monster," Sunset continued as she shot a concerned look to Twi, using every last bit of her energy to keep this magic plant from hurting them as best she could, yet her pink cloud she held upon it began to falter. 

"Are you certain you didn't just drown my girlfriend?!" Applejack shouted louder as the growls emitting from the frustrated plant intensified as it was putting in extra effort to break free from the weakening bewilderment working against it.  

"Yes! I need you both to follow me," Sunset ordered as she pointed to the sand pit. 

"If you think I'm going in there-" Twilight began, but before she could finish, within seconds and the rushed speed of the life threatening moment, the girl had managed to swiftly grab her waist and Applejack's arm, pulling the two with her as she fell back towards the suspicious quicksand. With no consensual warning, they found themselves plummeting towards what they were half certain would be their demise. But thankfully, it bought them time away from the terrifying beast.  

However, where they ended up was not to be expected. 

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"Where are we?"

"Not about to get eaten so, good enough for me."

"It's more complicated than that..."

"Sunset what is going on-" 

As the four exchanged questioning words, a faint red glow coming from a familiar horn began to illuminate their surroundings, a dark cave with walls littered in layers of dust. It seemed that this tunnel had remained unvisited for a while. Curtesy to it's bizarre entrance, it's no wonder it seemed so empty and dull. With the most intriguing feature being a running waterfall they could hear behind them, extending into a murky teal pool near their feet, they soon realised they did not have feet any longer, and instead there were hooves. 

"Oh my god." 

The three unprepared mares now gasped in unison, Sunset's expected reaction of surprise and confusion instead being more in horror as the trio looked down at their now animal deformed bodies and the noticeable manes hanging around their necks. They did look like themselves, just in a horse alter ego. 

"Sunset!" Twilight screamed out into the echoing rocks around them, her name bouncing amongst walls and out through the merely visible light of an exit not too far away. "Why do we have pony faces?!" She scolded as she pushed her glasses up from the tip of her nose with a front hoof and glared down at her reflection she could barely see in the dark water.