"Ever notice that animals on isolated islands tend to get huge? Not a coincidence."
- Preamble to Island Gigantism and Other Weird Workings of the World.
Location: Somewhere under the Gallian Sea, the Thule Highway
Time: 8:30 PM
Penworthy yawned as she flipped through one of the books she had brought with her on the journey. Rascal: Memoirs of a Better Era, a book about a colt and his pet racoon and growing up in a sleepy community. It was one of her favorites, it almost made her want to get a racoon. Although Clover the Clever's Journal was an interesting read, she needed variety at least. At this time of the day, she would be busy writing a manuscript for various books (including her new Daring Do series). However, being some ten or twenty thousand feet underground wasn't that great of a situation for spare paper. Regardless, even if her special talent was writing, reading was one of her favorite hobbies, and quite literally she could make books sing if she wanted to.
The Convoy had stopped for camp in a wide circular cavern of sorts. The stalactites hung high over the crew, barely registered against the darkness. The trucks were assembled in a circular formation, similar to settlers in the Old West, with the Siege Tank nearby out of the circle. Small tents were put up in the circle for various crewmen, with others opting to sleep in the trucks where there was room. For Penworthy, she opted for a truck, why sleep in the dirt when you can sleep somewhere clean she told herself. However, the steel bed was not exactly comfortable, but it was better than having bugs "accidentally" crawl into your mouth when you sleep.
A small sack was thrown into the bed, rousing Penworthy. Derring immediately climbed after, settling herself into the truck.
"Hey Derring, what's in the sack?" Penworthy noted that the sack seemed to be moving.
"Supper." Derring responded with opening the sack. It was a smorgasbord of insects, worms, and other creepy crawlies that sent Penworthy's spine into a frenzy. Derring nonchalantly lured a bug resembling a blue beetle onto her hoof, then threw it into her mouth, chewing it as if it were a piece of candy.
"How," Penworthy nearly gagged at the sight of it, "How can you eat that?"
"Just bite into it, saves the struggle."
"No! I mean- why are you eating that!?" Penworthy closed her book, her appetite for reading being spoiled.
"Penworthy!" Derring said in a mockingly shocked tone, Penworthy rolled her eyes, "I'm surprised, weren't you the one who wrote the dissertation on entomophagy, stating that certain insects are more nutritious than some of what we eat at home?"
"That's not what I-" Penworthy was interrupted by Derring eating more of those beetles, her loud chewing only serving to disgust her, "Is that even safe?"
"Sure is," Derring took the time to suck up a very long pink worm like a noodle, then swallowing with a loud gulp, "According to Clover the Clever, she survived on these insects for a time when she had to ration food. I've even had to survive on eating insects once, remember when I told you about my expedition out in the Tlaxcalan jungle?"
"Yep, I'd rather not be reminded about that," Penworthy indeed had nightmares for a good amount of time when Derring recounted being lost in the brutal hot jungle of Tlaxcala, "Anyway, where did you even get those bugs?"
"Me and Digger were out scavenging, we actually got to learn quite a bit about each other." Derring offered a beetle to Penworthy, who understandably refused, "Apparently, Digger is a professor of geology at the University of Laconia in Gryphonia. Can you imagine that?"
"Nope," Penworthy was indeed surprised, Diamond Dogs weren't exactly known for intelligence, "what else did he tell you?"
"He told me a story, apparently he came from Equestria," Derring immediately popped a cricket into her mouth, Penworthy cringing in response, "Apparently, he once dug a tunnel network near some hick town- Ponytown was it?- so that he and his brothers could mine for gems."
"He and his brothers dug tunnels under-"
"No no, it was just him, and he tells me that it stretched for miles and that was some odd hundred feet underground. I think he's exaggerating, but it's still impressive." Derring took up another beetle and tossed it into her mouth.
"Indeed, it's understandable why you'd hire a Diamond Dog as a chief geologist, but with Digger, its starting to make more sense."
"Yeah, just wish he was less eccentric." Derring shrugged and simply shoved her face into the pile of bugs, causing Penworthy to scoot back and avert her eyes from the disgusting sight of it. Derring looked up curiously, "You want some Penworthy?"
"Absolutely not!" Penworthy yelled, she turned her head up in a huff, "I happen to be a refined pony with good taste Derring, and I have better things to eat than bugs!"
"Like apples and Trixie's cooking?" Derring retorted.
"Yes!" Derring shrugged and simply went back to eating up the remainder. Penworthy sighed, she briefly pondered why Derring was her closest friend. Then she was reminded that having close friends meant you were going to disagree on somethings, and better to have a few close friends than a thousand people who were friends in name only. Lysander walked up to the bed, getting Derring and Penworthy's attention.
"You should get some rest you two, we'll be moving early." Lysander said, he spied Derring eating some bugs, "Where'd you get those bugs?"
"Me and Digger found some." Derring answered, "Want some?"
"Sure." Lysander immediately picked up a beetle and tossed it into his mouth, chewing nonchalantly. Penworthy widened her eyes in shock. It wasn't exactly surprising considering griffins were half-eagles, but she expected some integrity of sorts, "Always nice to have a snack before bed. Good night."
"Night Captain." Derring responded, Lysander nodded and took his leave. Derring finished off the last worm, much to Penworthy's emphasized disgust, "Welp, let's hit the hay Penworthy, there's a busy day ahead of us."
"Yeah..." Penworthy and Derring laid down on the bed, settling themselves onto the rough steel. It wasn't cozy, it wasn't soft, and it wasn't warm, but it was a bed. Of sorts.
--T--
When Lysander said they would be starting early, he meant it. The crew only had about six hours of sleep before he went around and started banging rocks together to wake everyone up. Despite that, the only person who was genuinely tired was Penworthy. For now however, the convoy had continued their journey. They were now driving on a cliffside road next to a river of lava, big enough that the Siege Tank at least had room to move forward. Thankfully, high enough so that nothing was randomly bursting into flames. This particular cliff however, was studded with strange holes and caves in its surface like swiss cheese. That was enough to at least unnerve Lysander, so the Convoy was taking its time moving along. Derring was walking at the front of the Convoy, Penworthy next to her, Journal in hoof.
"Penworthy, does the journal mention anything about this particular area?" Derring asked. Penworthy flipped through the journal quickly, then stopped at a particular page.
"The Cliffside Road is home to a nest of monsters that will block your path until you defeat or bypass them" Penworthy explained, Derring looked over curiously, "These monster is the size of an elephant, with great bug eyes, mandibles as sharp as swords, yadda yadda... essentially there's some beast or two that's going to block our progress."
"Well," Derring looked ahead curiously, "I don't see anything. Maybe Clover killed them when she passed through?"
"Wouldn't be too sure, she mentioned bypassing it, so that's probably what she did."
They continued on their way. The road itself stretched onto to a barely visible alcove, Derring estimated it to be some ten or fifteen miles away. At the very least, the road didn't suddenly narrow into a pony wide bridge, so the trek wouldn't be frustratingly difficult. However, the holes in the cliffside continued to give an eerie sense of something being completely off. Derring thought, the sooner they get out of here, the better.
"What was that?" Penworthy immediately looked over to the holes, "Did you see that Derring?"
"What?" Derring wasn't really paying attention, but looked over anyway.
"I saw something, in those caves." Penworthy pointed, Derring looked up where she pointed. Nothing moving in there.
"I don't see anything." Derring adjusted her father's hat slightly, observing the cliff face. However, she barely noticed something skulking in the darkness, her eyes only picking up the most animated of movements, "Wait..."
Then, bursting out of one of the cave holes, a great beast jumped out and landed in front of Derring and Penworthy. They immediately ran for cover behind the Siege Tank, the beast remained where it was. Superficially, this beast resembled a giant Cave Weta just barely as big as the Siege Tank, possessing razor sharp mandibles, long spindly legs, a brown body and black eyes. Most disturbingly, its antennae were just as long as it was if not longer, and were swaying about in front of it. Despite the enlargement, like any ordinary insect, it simply stood there motionless. Unfortunately, this doesn't sit well for the crew because that Giant Cave Weta was blocking their way. Lysander, Sidonus, Derring, Penworthy, and the soldiers of the crew took up positions around the Siege Tank.
"A Giant Cave Weta, just great." Sidonus said. He and Lysander loaded their revolvers, the soldiers loaded their bolt-action rifles. Derring and Penworthy weren't actually armed, hooves aren't known for being able to grip guns.
"We'll take care of it," Lysander responded, he looked over to the soldiers, "Boys, five rounds rapid."
They immediately unloaded their weapons into the Weta. The bullets impacted the Weta with varying degrees of noise and smoke. Despite the blistering firepower, the Weta still stood there stock still, with nary a scratch. Puzzled, Lysander scratched at his head.
"Welp, I'm outta ideas." He said. Derring looked over at him.
"Don't we have anything bigger than just rifles?" She asked. Lysander nodded.
"We do, but they're mortars and a heavy artillery cannon," Lysander said with some amount of annoyance, "if we just use them, I doubt we're going to leave the pass intact."
"Maybe we could dig through the cliff, go around them?" Derring suggested. Lysander shook his head.
"Pass is too narrow, Siege Tank can't pull a U-Turn here."
"Why not go through?" Sidonus piped up, Lysander and Derring looked at him like he was crazy, "Can scare it off with the Siege Tank maybe?"
"That is..." Lysander tapped his beak for a moment, "That is actually crazy enough to work."
After having the plan explained to him, Digger refused to get closer towards the Weta. However, he was much more cooperative when Lysander threatened to throw him off the cliff and into the lava. Digger reluctantly powered up the drill. The Siege Tank's drill began spinning, roaring like a wounded animal. Then slowly, it advanced towards the Weta. The Weta, for its part, began backing up slowly, screeching in challenge to the Siege Tank. The Siege Tank advanced further, Digger's nerves being frazzled. The Weta then stopped in its tracks, and screamed at the Siege Tank, intending to stop right there.
"Digger, looks like he ain't budging," Lysander said, talking to him using his truck radio, "time to give that overgrown bug a facelift."
Digger nodded, not even finding in him to make coherent words. He pulled for full throttle, then immediately drove the drill into the Weta. The most immediate effect was the great amount of green blood and guts that got sprayed every which away as the drill impacted the Weta's face. The Weta screamed in pain for just a second before collapsing in a heap. Digger stopped the tank, sighing in relief.
"Wait, aren't there supposed to be more?" Penworthy piped up. They all looked up at the face of the cliff. Sure enough, watching from the caves were dozens of those Giant Cave Wetas, some as big as the first, some the size of ponies. They gave off skittering noises as they began to slowly descend on the convoy, sticking to the walls as most insects tend to do.
"Digger, get moving!" Lysander screamed. Digger yelped in fright as he immediately started pushing the Siege Tank. As the Siege Tank rolled out, it pushed the corpse of the first Weta over the road into the lava below. The trucks followed close behind. While the Wetas were slow, the convoy was hampered by the Siege Tank's own lack of speed. Combined with the extremely narrow pass, this was indeed a hairy situation. Derring and Penworthy immediately climbed into the front seat of Lysander's truck. He yelled into the radio, "Troops, break out the heavy gun, armor piercing rounds!"
The soldiers tore off the tarp off one of the trucks, revealing the sizable Mark Three 88mm Field Gun. This gun had served the Gryphonian military properly in the various wars the nation gets itself in. From Anti-Air, to Anti-Tank, to Artillery, as the soldiers put it, it was anti-everything. The Mark Three variant was a smaller design meant to be mounted in the back of trucks, and here was where it would shine. They began loading the proper shells, armor piercing. A crew of three immediately took place sighting, then aiming. With a loud bang, it fired, blasting one of the Wetas off the cliff face and splattering it with more blood.
"Scylla's tail!" Digger screamed. He was absolutely struggling to make the Siege Tank go faster. Alas, he was a geologist, not a machine whisperer. Another bang confirmed that another Weta had just been killed. But even with the deaths, more were simply popping out of the caves. Suddenly, a Weta the size of a pony landed on Digger's roof, causing him to shout in fear, "Digger is gonna get killed out here!"
"Hang on!" Lysander shouted. The weta began bashing at the roof, denting it considerably. Lysander pulled out his pistol and leaned out, giving himself a good angle on the Weta. He fired his revolver twice, both shots connected to the Weta's hind leg, blowing it off in an explosion of green gore. The Weta lurched forward in pain, tripping over in front the Siege Tank, then proceeding to get crushed under the giant wheels with a sickening crunch.
"Sweet Celestia! This is madness!" Penworthy screamed, fitted in between Derring and Lysander, "Derring, are you-"
"I'M BUSY!" Derring was currently holding the mandibles of a Weta open. Somehow, a Weta managed to grab onto the truck and was currently trying to force itself on easy prey like Derring. Penworthy screamed in terror, alerting Lysander, who blasted at the Weta's head. Unlike the first larger Weta, this one's exoskeleton was less thick, and thus the bullets broke the skin and blasted green blood all over Derring. The Weta lifelessly fell from the truck.
"You okay?" Lysander asked. Derring looked over at him confusedly, rubbing her ear.
"WHAT!?" She yelled back. The gunshots temporarily deafened her. She prodded curiously at the blood now adorning her khaki shirt and coat. Penworthy was currently hyperventilating in her seat, trying to fight back a panic attack.
"Captain!" The radio came to life with the sound of Digger's voice, "The exit is in sight! We're about to cross over a large bridge!"
Sure enough, the cliff pass started to widen out. In Digger's sight as a large alcove, before that a relatively narrow but still passable bridge. The bridge itself was long however and spanned a deep chasm with lava at the bottom. The Siege Tank immediately sped over the bridge, the trucks following close behind. Thankfully and rather luckily, no one had gotten seriously injured or killed by the Wetas. The Wetas however followed even closer behind the trucks, occasionally being sniped by the heavy gun or by riflegriffins. The Convoy made it across in one piece, some trucks with Wetas clinging to the sides, and screeched to a stop just outside the alcove.
"Take out the bridge!" Lysander shouted into the radio. The heavy gun immediately aimed at the bridge, now (literally) crawling with Wetas of all sizes. Instead of an armor piercing round however, it was time for all out High Explosive. It fired, creating a huge explosion and flinging several Wetas in various directions, which was the most immediate effect. Not five seconds later did the bridge immediately start rumbling, then simply collapsed and fell into the chasm, the Wetas with it. The crew immediately began cheering, celebrating their latest victory over what this highway called "nature."
"Yes!" Penworthy relaxed in her seat, raising her hooves in the air. She looked over at Derring, who was laughing like she had been tickled with a feather, "We made it Derring!"
"We sure did!" Derring grabbed her friend in a bear hug, her joining in on the laughter as well. It was only five seconds however that Penworthy recoiled in digust, noting that some of the Weta blood had gotten on her coat. Lysander immediately called to finish off the rest of the Wetas who had stuck around on the trucks. The soldiers gladly went to work bashing heads in.
After an hour of rest, relaxation, and checking to see if the Wetas had destroyed anything important (surprisingly not, but they did chew on several spare tires), the crew resumed formation as if nothing had happened. Indeed, this was only another step forward through what the Thule Highway had to offer the crew. Derring sat in her seat, absently mindedly flipping through the journal. She stopped at one particular page, the next checkpoint on their journey and the next Key to Thule.
The Trial of Ice.