//------------------------------// // Ch.7- Day 2 (part 3) Glutton's Cavern (Part 2) // Story: The Equestrian Flower Garden // by RoyalStar709 //------------------------------// Applejack trotted ahead, the two guards from before had offered to keep her company in case of any dangerous creature came along. “Ya’ll see anything up ahead?” Applejack asked the two in front of her. The smaller one, Tiger Lily, looked back, shaking her head. “Sorry, it’s nothing but dirt and darkness ahead.” Sighing, the farm mare looked back, signaling the rest of the group to come along. “Come on, it’s safe!” Coming out of their hiding spot, the group of ten ponies and one dragon quickly ran towards the other three, making sure they stayed in a protective circle. “Is this really necessary?” Spike asked, a bit annoyed at the process they had to repeat for the fifth time. “Completely!” Might said, “What happens if we were to be ambushed by a swarm of those bugs again? We got lucky last time, but we may not get so lucky again, all of us would be overwhelmed, at least this way we can give the others a chance to escape.” Might stomped his hoof, causing all the guards to stand up straight. “Now MARCH!” Standing up straight with their legs out, they began slowly marching deeper to the cave. Spike groaned, but he began to walk along slowly, due to the guards’ slow march. Looking around, Spike found Fluttershy and Willow having a conversation about the giant animals in the area, Applejack was talking to Lily about the type of plants she grew when she wasn’t working, and Rainbow was making faces at a guard, trying to break his stony expression. Seeing everyone he knew talking to someone else, he turned towards the guard marching close to him. “So… uh…. what do you do for fun…?” He asked with a forced smile. The guard kept his stone like expression, ignoring the drake and counting his steps along with the others. He sighed, “Figures you wouldn’t talk.” In frustration, Spike kicked a nearby pebble, which hit the cavern wall and bounced back, hitting him right in the nose. “ARGH! Dumb cave!” he hissed, grabbing another rock and throwing it at the wall. “*YIP!*” Stopping, everypony turned towards the sound of the of the bark. Wobbling out of the shadows was a black and orange miniature version of the creature that attacked them the day before. Like the creature, this one had the same body shape, only smaller, it had yellow eyes with a black brownish head, and a orange back with black polka dots. Some of the guards paled upon seeing a creature so similar to the one that devoured their comrades, others gritted their teeth, eager for a battle with it. The Dwarf Bulborb saw the group of equines and barked, wobbling straight towards them. The guards shouted, both in fear and in anger determined to get revenge on the creature. “*Growl*” Both parties stopped, the guards paled even further seeing a larger version of the small Bulborb standing behind it. Willow rushed towards the creature, using a flash spell to blind the creature. “RUN!” The equines quickly ran away from the Bulborb. Shaking their heads to get rid of the blindness, the Bulborbs ran after their meal, eventually trapping them in a dead end. Might ran in front of the group, pointing his spear towards the pair of Bulborbs. “Stay back!” The Bulborb snorted stomping towards the terrified ponies. The large bulborb stopped, scanning the area around him, the smaller one doing the same. The ponies looked at them confused, “W-Why did they stop?” Willow asked, her knees shaking, still not believing she used a flash spell on the monster. Fluttershy shook her head, “I don’t know… the only logical reason would be because...” She gulped. “Because there might be a much more dangerous predator around.” The ponies grew more worried, and some of the guards even dropped their weapons in fear. The Bulborbs turned towards the path they came from, hearing a familiar clicking of a insect’s mandibles. Crawling out of the dark were a group of tall yellow spiders with a large rock containing cracks on their back. The Bulborbs cried out in fear, trying to find a way out. The spiders hissed, the rocks on their backs jumped and started glowing and getting bigger, charging towards the pair of Bulborbs. They jumped onto the big one’s back as their bodies began to glow and sizzle. *BOOM* The ponies ears folded, only being able to hear a ringing sound and seeing a large explosion. After feeling a heat wave pass over, the Bulborbs both gave their final cry and collapsed on the ground. Spike hesitantly opened his eyes, he gasped when he saw the burnt bodies of the bulborbs. “...Whoa…” The ponies all stood there shocked, some not being able to process the situation before them. Their heads shot towards the sound of more insects approaching. The guards got into a protective half circle, waiting for more spiders to come. Coming from the exit were two spiders, one red and the other yellow, they looked similar to the ones carrying the rocks, only they weren’t carrying anything. The group became tensed, afraid that these two might explode on them as well. The two spiders walked towards the burnt bodies, the red one crawled under the large Bulborb and rose up with the body on its back, ignoring the ponies. The yellow spider just looked at the group of ponies, contemplating what to do. Before the yellow spider could move, a bark caught their attention, and a Breadbug emerged from the darkness. The bread like creature wobbled and quickly started to drag the small Bulborb towards its nest. The Anode Dweevil screeched, running after the Breadbug, the Fiery Dweevil lagging behind. Both were interrupted when a second bark was heard announcing yet another Breadbug, but this one looked like it was dragging something. A confused guard looked towards Fluttershy for an answer about what was transpiring. “I... don’t know either,” she admitted. When the second Breadbug wobbled towards the Anode Dweevil, it dropped a saddlebag. Barking once again and helping the first Breadbug carry the small Bulborb, the Anode Dweevil picked up the saddlebag and moved back into the darkness. Neither creature saw a fuming Rainbow Dash not believing what just happened. “I think they’re exchanging things..?” Fluttershy said, thinking about what the creatures had done. “The second one traded that bag so its friend could take the dead creature back to its nest… that way the spiders won’t attack them for taking away its food....” The guards turned back to where the group of creatures stood, a bit amazed at the creatures, both of them ignoring the sound of Willow scribbling in her notebook. “I can’t believe it….” Rainbow whispered. “That dumb bug just took my stuff! First that big guy, and now this spider!” she yelled, fuming, “COME BACK HERE!” she yelled, shooting towards the path the Dweevils took. “Rainbow Dash! Hold up!” Applejack yelled, seeing the mare continuing to fly away, ignoring her. “That pony is going to get us all killed!” she yelled, tossing her hat to the floor. Might nodded, regretting volunteering for this mission. “We should keep going, if we leave her to try to get her stuff alone, who knows what type of trouble she might get into.” “Yeah…” Grabbing her hat, she set it back on top of her head, narrowing her eyes at the road ahead of them. “Alright, come on everypony! Let’s move!” She galloped towards the path Rainbow took, the others following shortly after. Twilight nervously paced around the newly built hut,inspecting every single detail, “Looks good…” she muttered, tapping the wooden building with her hoof. “It’s sturdy, unlike the first two huts.” Twilight turned toward the labcoat wearing unicorn, “Are you taking notes, Gizmo?” She asked the orange pony who was currently levitating a clipboard and several other items above himself, looking quite bored. The unicorn jumped at the sound of his name, dropping all of the levitated items onto the floor, then he quickly turned towards Twilight with a sheepish grin. “Uhhhh, could you repeat that?” Twilight groaned. “Gizmo, you were supposed to take notes about the hut’s condition!” she scolded, rolling her eyes. “I can’t believe you’re the researcher Princess Celestia had recommended for this trip.” “When I signed up for this trip, I thought I was going to be studying the wildlife… not some makeshift huts that the guards constructed,” Gizmo muttered looking at Twilight. Twilight glared at the unicorn. “Well if it wasn’t for that large bug eyed monster, we probably would be!” “Which is why we should go and study it!” He looked outside towards the forest. “As well as to prevent another disaster like that from happening again.” She sighed, turning back towards the hut and levitating the checklist to herself. “I know what you mean Gizmo… but we have already lost five ponies to those creatures, and possibly three fillies. On what grounds would you possibly want to interact with them again!?” Gizmo stopped on the task he was completing to spend time and stared at Twilight directly into her eyes. “The reason is because that bug eyed freak gobbled up my childhood friend in one chomp! I want to get payback and figure out how to kill them quickly the next time one comes barging in!” The two ponies jumped when they heard a loud crash in the middle of the camp. The two ran towards the camp, seeing a large number of burnt treats fall from the sky. The large tent in the middle of the camp had a large hole in its roof, with dark smoke rising higher and higher. “Princess Luna!” Twilight yelled, running up towards her. “What happened here?! Are we under attack?!” she yelled frantically. The alicorn shook her head, “Nay Twilight, it was simply the Pink One,” she answered, pointing at the large tent. A large brown stallion wearing a chef’s hat was pushing Pinkie away from the tent, scowling. “Pinkie?” Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “What did she do?” “She was trying to help prepare food for tonight’s dinner, but of course Lemon Souffle hates having to share a kitchen,” Luna answered. “Naturally, Pinkamina still tried to help.” Twilight watched as the chef yelled at Pinkie, but the pink mare didn’t really seem bothered by it as she kept on smiling. Using her magic, she picked up one of the burnt muffins. “Well, what are we going to do with these?” Luna glanced at the muffin and shrugged. “I suppose we can just throw them away.” Gizmo levitated the muffin towards himself and smiled. “Why don’t we use it as bait?” He suggested. “Bait?” Luna questioned. “Bait for what?” “For those monsters that attacked us yesterday!” Gizmo answered, almost jumping in excitement. “When we capture them, we can study them to find out what their weaknesses are, that way we won't have an incident like yesterday happen again!” Twilight frowned, turning towards the stallion. ”Gizmo, it’s way too risky capturing one of those things. If we bring one here into the camp, we could just end up repeating the same disaster that happened yesterday.” “Not if we create a trap for it!” the unicorn suggested. " trap?” Luna questioned. “What do you have in mind, Gizmo?” Willow trotted slowly, keeping her gaze onto her notebook, her quill scribbling onto the pages. Her mind kept replaying the events of the creature’s interactions with the insects. ‘Based on how the two creatures interacted, they must have some degree of intelligence… they were able to create deals with each other and exchange items…’ The mare frowned, nearly stomping her hoof in frustration. “I don’t get it…” she whispered, “Why didn’t those spiders just kill the other creatures? Why did they exchange items?” “Okay everypony, we need to stay alert. I think I hear something coming this way.” Applejack called out, seeing her companions paying more attention to their surroundings. As soon as the sentence was finished, a Volatile Dweevil dropped from the ceiling in front of the farm pony. Once it noticed a target, the creature started glowing and increasing its body temperature to start the explosion. The other members noticed this and the guards started moving to fend off the creature when a blue bolt slammed into the creature causing the dweevil to fall backwards and blow up a safe distance away. Everypony looked back to see who fired the bolt and saw a blue unicorn stallion sporting a white mane with smoke trailing from the tip of his horn. Applejack looked back towards the pony who saved her when a loud explosion rocked the whole room. With the guards more alert and prepared than before, they surrounded the group and continued forwards to an opening not too far. Once exiting the small room, they all stood still and were dead silent watching the chaos unfold in front of them. The style of the room reminded them of a little foal’s room; big blocks with numbers and letters were stacked, large wooden railroad tracks and bridges looped around everywhere, and the ground changed from rocks to a soft striped carpet. Even though this was all over the underground opening, the most shocking aspect was the multitude of Breadbug and Dweevil carcases littering the floor. Most had bite marks while others had burns and scorch marks littering the bodies. Upon closer inspection, they noticed a few remaining bugs wobble and crawl away and disappear into the darkness of the caves. Once the shock passed, the group of ponies and one dragon paid closer attention to their surroundings in order to find a way out of this carnage. Willow was barely able to stop herself from bolting towards the wooden buildings, but she carefully trotted towards them, trying her best to ignore the bodies around her. “Just what happened here?” The guards looked around a bit nervously, wondering if it was something else that got to the creatures. “I don’t know,” Applejack answered, “But I’m pretty sure we’re better off not finding out.” She carefully avoided touching the creatures, following Willow to the wooden block house. Spike looked around the area, noticing how everything looked like they belonged to a foal. “Hey, you don’t think giants live here? Do you?” he asked fearfully. Everyone immediately looked around the room, trying to spot any giant monsters. Might snorted and walked a bit faster. “I’m sure that there are no giants here, maybe this is an abandoned town.” “Then why does everything in this room look like it would belong to a foal?” Spike questioned. “It’s just an abandoned town!” Might yelled, “End of discussion!” Once they were all inside, Willow immediately started making notes on the house and the area around them. “Icicle! Come here and take a look at that!” Willow called over to the blue stallion who saved Applejack. “They have a train here that’s made from the same material as this house! Maybe Spike was on to something when he suggested that this this place could be the home of a giant.” Icicle Chill looked over to the train and the train tracks. “I think you’re right Willow, it would explain why the place looks the way it does.” Fluttershy shook with fear. “Does that mean we’re going to have to fight giants?” Applejack went to comfort her. “Now I’m sure we’re not going to be fighting any giants.” Might reached into his armor and pulled out a golden pocket watch. “It’s getting late, we should set up camp here.” The others nodded, putting their stuff to the side and trying to find a comfortable spot to sleep on. Spike looked around nervously, then walked outside the building and pulled out a blank sheet of paper and a quill. “Dear Twilight, Well, we explored the forest today, covered a lot of ground, fought against the local wildlife, and saw some huge bugs and spiders. Willow, the green research pony from Canterlot University, wrote down a lot of notes regarding the animals here, she said she’d share some of the notes with you once we come back. Rainbow Dash got her stuff stolen by a huge bread like creature, then it got stolen by a tall red spider, it was kinda funny seeing how mad she was. The biggest discovery we made here was when we found this small toy town! There’s a toy train, houses made from blocks and everything! Willow and her assistant Icicle, you know, that researcher who came to Ponyville five days ago? The one who always blushed and stuttered when he talked to Applejack? Yeah, they think that this used to be the home to giants, Might doesn’t, but I think he’s just scared that there might still be some around. The guards are still expressionless as ever, I think Tiger Lily might be the only one who ever shows any emotion… Honestly I just want to go back to Ponyville, I don’t know how you girls handle all these monsters. I hope everything back at the camp is going well, hope to see you soon! Sincerely, Spike.” Spike read the letter over twice before rolling it up and setting it on fire. Once he was sure the letter would reach her, he walked back inside and curled himself up next to the three ponies he was most familiar with.