Passing the time in the caves was a challenge. One could only pick so many fights before the appeal wore off. With everyone on edge, ready to fly off the handle at the slightest provocation, the role of instigator just wasn’t as fun. Moniz had always relished that niche, but while above ground it had earned her a certain mild infamy – thought of as something akin to an inconvenient swarm of biting flies - here in the caves, she was just one more tense, argumentative body amongst dozens of others. She wanted to be special again, damn it.
There is that well-known sinking feeling when you’re in a room with a million other bodies, chattering and going about their business, and you feel more alone than ever. You feel ever so small, like you’re constantly looking into a sea of faces and all you’re getting out of it is the sting of salt in your eyes. The uniquely painful solitude felt amidst the masses stabbed incessantly at Moniz’s hardened heart. She could not help that she was, at her core, a herd animal. She had been hard-wired to make connections and need others. It was nature’s way of pulling a practical joke on the mare who hated vulnerability and loathed relying on anyone but herself.
The pony did not want to think about why she felt sad. She ignored the feeling as long as she could. The distraction of the egg helped somewhat, and she mostly busied herself nuzzling it and rolling it warily from room to room, casting withering glares at anyone who dared threaten what had quickly become her most prized possession. Presently, she had rolled the rusty little orb back into the main cavern of the Sanctuary, where she could appreciate the relative vastness of that particular room. Absent-mindedly, she tapped the stony ground with her left hind hoof, letting the hollow drumming and the low, almost-inaudible churn of lava keep her company. She stood guard behind a cluster of stalagmites surrounding the wall of flowing lava, letting the heat warm herself and the egg that rested in a divot between herself and the wall, and contemplating just how loathsome it was to be unable to make anything happen down here.
@[Tyradon]
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