The Curse of the Statuettes

by Dusk Melody

Chapter 4 - The Dig Site

The sun came up slowly in the morning, bathing the Badlands in its warm light. It shone on the abandoned campsite that Stonecutter, Sparkler, Cloudburst and Sunny Saddle had called home the night before. Now they had light, Sparkler was hunting through their red wagon. “Where's a waffle iron when you need it?” she asked, while Cloudburst, still in her cloud themed pyjamas, sat on a log, staring off into space.

“I bought plenty of supplies, Sparks,” Stonecutter, dressed in her old red pyjamas, came to her girlfriend’s rescue. Delving into her wagon, she knew exactly where to look and soon she had produced not only a waffle iron and metal trays to eat from, she also had the pancake ingredients and coffee. “Travel prepared, I say.”

Just then, Sunny Saddle emerged from a tent that had been Rarity’s in her long nightshirt and she stretched in the morning sun. She was grateful they were camped in the shade under the rocky escarpment, for already the heat was hot and overbearing. “Hey,” the older unicorn noticed Cloudburst, “Is your friend alright?”

Sparkler looked over at the very miserable looking pale blue pegasus and felt a pang of sympathy for her. “She’s just grounded after that concussion she took yesterday.”

It took Sunny Saddle’s tired brain a moment to process that. Then she remembered the pegasus had been knocked out on the eventful trip through Dodge Canyon. “A wise precaution,” she eventually agreed as she sat on one of the logs around the extinguished campfire.

Now that Stonecutter had all the things she judged she needed for a rudimentary breakfast, she didn’t have eggs to scramble or haybacon or crumpets, to say nothing of the sausages, but she had to work with what she had now they were roughing it, she turned her attention to the cold fire. “Sparks, I don't suppose you can use your fireworks to start a fire?”

“You two don't call me Sparky for nothing.” Of course she could make a fire. It was foal’s play. “Stand back a bit, just in case it gets out of control…” Lighting her horn, the yellow unicorn used her magic to instantly get a solid flame going.

“Thanks Sparks,” Stonecutter set the waffle iron on a tripod above the flame and a smaller one to boil the water for the coffee and she mixed the batter up ready. “I assume waffles are good for everypony?”

“They are, thank you aaah...” Sunny Saddle tried to remember the earth pony’s name, then it came to her in a flash of inspiration, “Stonecutter.”

On her log, Cloudburst huffed and crossed her arms over her non-existent chest. “I’ll have you know, I'm perfectly fine!” so indignant was she that she fluttered her wings, she was itching to get into the air, but it wasn’t worth the inevitable lecture from Stonecutter or from Sparkler.

“That’s true,” Sparkler said after a moment’s consideration, “I think you're in better shape than that rock that hit you.”

“Oh ha, bucking ha,” Cloudburst muttered darkly under her breath, “Dodge Canyon my ass…” devoid of anything else to do, and in a vain attempt to distract herself from the fact that she was not currently allowed to fly, she decided to help her best friend do the breakfast by getting the coffee boiling in four containers on the fire.

“So what's the plan for today?” Stonecutter asked as she checked the pancakes didn’t burn on the fire.

“We figure out just where we are and where the expedition was going. Get there.” Sparkler said confidently as she took out her grooming kit and thoroughly brushed out her bright yellow mane to clear the tangles.

Sunny Saddle spoke up from where she was sat wrestling with her own mane and tail, “I can help there. I have a map of the Badlands. I don't know where the Princess and her friends were going, but I can take you as far as Site B.” In truth, the older mare wasn’t looking forward to getting to the second excavation site. That meant having to deal with Caballeron and explaining where the two earth ponies they had hired had gone.

Having successfully straightened her own mane, Sparkler said, “I hope whoever’s there has a clue about being turned to stone and how to turn them back.”

“It's happened at the dig sites,” Sunny Saddle commented as she watched Stonecutter cook. She had to admit the chubby young mare was very good. “Sometimes a pony will return to normal after a few minutes, sometimes the effect can last an hour or more. I do know that everypony is spooked.”

“Yeah,” Sparkler drew her knees up to her chest and she hugged her legs, “I'm spooked.”

Cloudburst glanced across at the unicorn with a flash of irritation, “So go get this map, I want to get out of here!”

Shaking her head, Stonecutter transferred the cooked pancakes from the waffle iron to the metal trays and she served the fresh breakfast up to them all in turn while Cloudburst handed out the cups of freshly boiled coffee. With the breakfast served up, Stonecutter then walked over and she hugged Sparkler tight. “I won't let anything happen to you,” she kissed the smaller mare’s forehead, “Mistress.”

Smiling, Sparkler took a hold of Stonecutter's hand, squeezed it tight and she rested her head on her marefriend’s generous bosom. It was a pillow she had gotten used to over the past couple of weeks. “I'm afraid I can't stop it from happening to you, though.”

Eating her pancakes, Cloudburst snorted out a loud brash laugh that drew all the attention to her, “You'll just go find that crazy mare from last night and...” she made dual finger guns and shot at an imaginary target that in her head was the unknown unicorn from the night before, “Zzzap!”

Sparkler looked across at her new friend, she didn’t share the pegasus’s enthusiasm, not in the slightest. That unicorn had been powerful indeed. “I hope so, Cloudy.”

“I just hope we get those two ponies back, somehow,” Sunny Saddle sounded just how Sparkler felt as, once she had eaten her pancakes, she got up from the log around the campfire and she retrieved the map from her pack. “Here's the map,” she pointed to a point that was just a half a finger away. “Site B is just a few miles away.”

“You up for getting the wagon there Stoney?” Sparkler asked her marefriend as she hungrily ate her breakfast. It may not have been Canterlot gourmet standards, but out there in the Badlands, it was just what she needed to lift her spirits. “This are good pancakes, by the way, and the coffee is good to, Cloudy.”

“Not bad for camp cooking, huh?” Stonecutter beamed with justifiable pride at her own cooking skills.

“Thanks Sparks,” Cloudburst grinned and lifted up her metal mug in a salute to the bookish unicorn, “Stone taught me camp cooking last year when we camped out at Rainbow Falls with school.”

“No offense, Stonecutter,” Sunny Saddle spoke up, having looked from the large stocky earth pony to the younger unicorn and back again, “But can you really pull that flatbed wagon on your own? We had to hire two stallions for that.” She doubted the mare’s ability to actually pull everything they had.

Stonecutter glanced thoughtfully at the large flatbed as she ate the last of her breakfast. “Well, I might be a bit slow, but as long as you aren't in a great hurry, I should be fine.”

Sparkler leant over and gave Stonecutter a light kiss on her nose which she followed up with one to her lips, “Stoney can do anything she sets her mind to.”

“It'd be lighter if I flew...” Cloudburst grumbled after swilling a mouthful of her coffee around her mouth to get rid of the taste of sleep.

“It would be better for you to rest up so you can fly when we need you to fly,” Sparkler pointed out.

“Fine, mom...” Cloudburst pouted and she drank the rest of her coffee. As she tossed the dregs onto the desert floor though, it struck her that if Sparkler was her mother, at least she would have a mother who gave two bucks about her, as opposed to the example she had right now from the pony she laughably called ‘mom’.

“At least now we’re out of the canyon there shouldn't be any surprises,” Sunny Saddle offered helpfully, “We don't go near the mountains on the way to Site B.”

Suddenly, Sparkler threw her hands up in the air, scattering what was left of her coffee everywhere, “You just had to go and say that, didn’t you?”

“Oh, um...I didn't mean any offense,” Sunny Saddle placed her breakfast things down and quietly she got up and went back into the tent she had slept in to get dressed.

Stonecutter placed what she hoped was a comforting hand on the unicorn’s more delicate one. “Don't worry about her, Mistress, yesterday was stressful for all of us.”

Though Sparkler was grateful of her marefriend’s hand, and her presence in general, she still shot the slate grey earth pony a devastating eye roll. “Really, pet, I may have been to stressed to notice, between the falling boulders and the diamond dogs!”

A blast of lightning from Cloudburst’s clapped hands silenced Sparkler’s tirade before it could properly begin. “Hey! Didn't you two sort all that crap out last night?” she saw their questioning looks and she didn’t back down. Instead, her wings fluttered in frustrated annoyance. “Yeah, I saw the fire burning, but FYI, no I didn't listen.”

Sparkler opened her mouth to say something, but then she paused and closed it, the retort dying on her lips as she thought better of it. Mostly because she knew the pegasus was right bang on the money. “I got clean up,” she said eventually, “Get yourself and the wagon ready, Stoney.”

“Yes Mistress,” leaving her metal food tray behind, Stonecutter got up and, after swapping her pyjamas for another set of hard wearing denim dungarees in the tent she had shared with her marefriend, she came out and started to prep the flatbed while Cloudburst got herself dressed in an outfit that reminded Sparkler very much of Daring Do.

“Hey, Horny,” Cloudburst said as she walked over to the clearly troubled young unicorn, “Are you okay?”

“No,” Sparkler admitted quietly so that Stonecutter couldn’t hear her from the flatbed, “No I’m not okay. I’m scared my magic isn't good enough. I’m scared we aren’t good enough. We're in over our heads, and it’s too late to back out.”

“Hey,” Cloudburst placed her hand on the unicorn’s shoulder, pulling her into a hug, “You’ve got the magic, Stone’s got the muscles, and I've got the lightning, I can light the buckers up!” she nudged Sparkler and gave her a reassuring wink, “Don't worry. It'll be cool. I know it will.”

Sparkler nodded her head as she finished her clean-up of the breakfast things. “I hope you're right, CB. I have too much to lose now.”

“Aww!” Cloudburst followed Sparkler’s gaze all the way to Stonecutter’s jiggling fat ass and she smiled. Her hands wandered down to her flat belly, where they remained for a good long time. Her smile widened as she imagined the tiny life growing inside of her. “Yeah, I know what you mean, Sparks.”

Before Sparkler could question Cloudburst’s statement, Sunny Saddle came out of the tent, her hat pulled down like she meant it. “Alright, ponies, are we ready?”

Sparkler loaded up the last of their supplies and Stonecutter got the wagon’s padded harness on her shoulders, “Ready.”

~ ~ ~

“Quarry Eels!” Sunny Saddle screamed out in panicked alarm, “Look out!”

The warning came just in the nick of time. They were almost upon the two vast holes in the rocky ground when the call went up. Sunny Saddle used her quick reflexes and skill at driving a wagon to pull the reins to the left just as the huge creatures erupted upwards with an ear-splitting screech. While Stonecutter dodged to the left, the flatbed was not so lucky.

The second eel caught the wagon a glancing blow that sent it careening onto its side, spilling Sunny Saddle, Sparkler and Stonecutter as well as most of their supplies onto the hard unforgiving rocky floor. Cloudburst instinctively flapped her wings and took to the air, though she changed her mind after a few seconds when it made her feel dizzy. The first Quarry Eel then snapped its powerful jaws at Sparkler which, thanks to Sunny Saddle pulling her aside at the last moment, just grazed her right arm.

“SPARKLER!” Stonecutter screamed out as her marefriend yelped in pain as Sunny Saddle roughly pulled her behind the overturned wagon for some kind of cover against the snapping eels. However, she wasn’t given much time to think about her, when the second eel plunged down with its jaws ready to snap Cloudburst in half. It was only Stonecutter barrelling into her that saved her best friend from certain death.

“I’ve. Had. Enough. Of this!” Stonecutter screamed and, just as the two Quarry Eels came back up for another strike, the slate grey earth pony let loose all her prodigious strength and charged the nearest of the two creatures. Her immense punch, fuelled purely by adrenalin, caught the first eel squarely on the jaw. The blow was so powerful that it sent the eel into the second, knocking both of them out.

As both of the eels went down, stunned, with a titanic crash that sent up a small dust cloud, Sunny Saddle and Sparkler both cast their telekinesis and while one unicorn righted the flatbed, the other quickly replaced the spilled supplies from where they had come. Thankfully, none of the containers had broken. Once the wagon was back on its wheels, Stonecutter got herself back in the harness and this time she was moving faster than she thought she could.

Stonecutter was on the run at a fast gallop with the wagon bouncing erratically behind her, making the three other mares cling on for dear life. “Why in the name of Tartarus didn't you do that when the dogs attacked?” Cloudburst yelled at Stonecutter from her jolted position in the back of the wagon.

“D-Didn't…have…time…”

Sat beside the pale blue pegasus, Sparkler tried to simultaneously nurse her sore arm and her head where she had taken a bump when she had been flung from the wagon, “Argue later, run now!”

“But then...”

Sparkler quickly placed her index finger over Cloudburst's mouth to silence her before she could further vocalise that thought. “No,” she stated as dominantly as she possibly could, “We made it out of that and we're going to make it out of this.”

“I have to say I'm impressed,” Sunny Saddle said as she held onto her hat to stop it flying away, “I didn't think three school ponies could handle eels like that.” Although, she supposed, she shouldn’t be all that surprised, given how they had handled the diamond dogs.

“I'm sure my hard head did some damage,” Sparkler laughed, which made Cloudburst and Sunny Saddle both laugh along with her as the fear in the wagon, which had been palpable, faded now that the immediate danger had passed.

“Makes me wish you three had been around back at Site A...” Sunny Saddle shuddered and the older unicorn relaxed her grip on the reins as a faraway look washed over her face.

“I wish this was easy,” Sparkler said in an attempt to comfort the troubled mare.

“I’m with you on that,” Cloudburst agreed as she tried to get comfortable in the back of the bouncing wagon. One thing was for sure, Sparkler’s makeshift repair on the wheel was being sternly tested. “Good thing Stoney's head is made of stone.”

Pulling the wagon, Stonecutter slowed down from her gallop to a canter and then to a walk as the pace – and the heat of the unforgiving sun- was getting to her. She was not built to run. “Do you see any more of those holes?” she asked, very much out of breath, she didn’t want to get surprised like that again.

From her elevated position in the driver’s seat of the flatbed, Sunny Saddle looked around, scanning the area ahead of them. “I think we're in the clear.”

“How much further?”

“Just about half a mile by my reckoning,” Sunny Saddle answered the younger unicorn’s question, “Then you can restock. I'll make sure you get plenty of pony balm for the pegasus.”

“Hey...” Cloudburst protested, though there wasn’t much vehemence behind her outburst, “I don't need that much healing cream!”

Smiling serenely, Sparkler placed a hand on Cloudburst’s shoulder, “You could just fly enough to avoid those eels when the wagon tipped. For me to stay safe I need both of you in tip top shape,” up ahead, Stonecutter simply smiled, impressed at how well her marefriend and Mistress was able to play her best friend.

“Yeah well...I uh...I guess I am awesome in tip top shape,” Cloudburst blushed as she rubbed the back of her head. She wasn’t going to argue though, not when praise was being heaped her way.

“I see something up ahead,” Stonecutter called, “Looks like organized chaos.”

“That's Site B,” Sunny Saddle said, shielding her eyes and looking ahead.

~ ~ ~

“Here we are,” Sunny Saddle announced when Stonecutter had stopped in the organised chaos that was Site B. it wasn’t on the main road, instead it had been built at the base of a huge column of rock. The terrain was more uneven than it had been at the abandoned camp site they had stayed at the night before, and there were many gullies, cliffs and other rock formations all around the site, which was currently home to twenty five ponies who were all part of the excavation team. “Right, I need to go find the Doc,” Sunny Saddle pointed out the largest tent, “And report what's happened.”

“Take Cloudy,” Sparkler said as she looked around the dig site. She saw it was made up of a camp area filled with temporary wooden shelters and canvas tents, as well as a quarry where the majority of the team’s digging was taking place. The quarry had been dug deep into the ground, forming a crater like pit with several interconnecting layers of wooden walkways. “She could use a doctor and some of that balm.”

“He's not that kind of doctor,” Sunny Saddle grinned, beckoning Cloudburst to follow her, “But don't worry, the medical tent's right next door. C'mon kid.”

Hopping down from the flatbed, Cloudburst called over her shoulder, “As long as you two don't do anything crazy!”

Sparkler couldn’t resist, “Depends on if we get a room!”

“I get it,” Cloudburst called, making sure she could be heard – there was no way she was being out-embarrassed, “If the tent's rocking, I won't come knocking!” Sure enough, Stonecutter blushed so hard it was like her slate grey cheeks were on fire, which just made Cloudburst laugh all the harder as she followed the dig pony to the large medical tent.

“What, it was funny!” Sparkler cried in her own defence, “There sure are a lot of workers here, but don't they seem a bit…off, to you?”

Stonecutter treated her marefriend to a most adorable pout, before she looked around properly at the workers in the crater. “Yeah,” she had to agree, “Yeah now you mention it, everypony does seem on edge, don't they?”

“I'm sure it's this whole statuette thing. Want to split up and see if we can find out what's really going on?”

“Sounds like a plan, Sparks. Sooner we figure what's up, I figure the sooner we'll find the professors.”

Gazing around the edge of the large crater, Sparkler soon spotted an open tent where there was more muttering than working going on and she decided to head on over while Stonecutter went to investigate the food tent. As she drew closer, she could see the excavation ponies were supposed to be cleaning up the finds from in the crater. “Hi,” she said breezily, “I’m new here. Need some help?”

One of the dig ponies, a chocolate coloured earth pony mare, was the first to answer. “New blood, huh? I hope you know what you're letting yourself in for…”

Before she could continue though, a blue pegasus stallion was quick to come to Sparkler’s defence. “Now, Hardhead, don't go terrifying the young mare before she’s even started.”

“No, not really,” Sparkler shrugged her shoulders and affected her best innocent young mare look, something she secretly thanked Cloudburst for teaching her. “The pay is good, but some of the workers seem a bit on edge. I'm here to do the fine dig to get something out of the ground. Anything needing removing?”

Hardhead didn’t seem convinced of this newcomer’s skill. “Uh...sure, you can get the sand and dirt off of these relics, if you want to help.”

“Cool, thanks, I'm happy to help, ma’am.” Sparkler took the offered tray of golden relics that had been previously dug up in her telekinetic field and, giving them a cursory look, she was mystified as to their origin. She carefully altered her magic and used her telekinesis to gently shake the sand and dirt free. “Like this?”

“Well look at that,” the stallion enthused, “The kid's a natural!”

“Yes, yes just like that!” Hardhead was, for once, all smiles, “Very well done!”

“Thank you!” Sparkler gushed, for while her ‘working’ at the site may have been a ruse, she was nonetheless pleased to be given praise for a job well done. Now she judged that she had a way in, she delicately continued, “I was surprised they were still hiring for this dig.”

“They're hiring all the damn time…” Hardhead muttered not quite under her breath, before she got a hard nudge in the ribs from the pegasus stallion. “Ow…Sky Tracker! Fine, I'm sorry I was so short with you.” She offered her hoof out for a bump, which Sparkler was quick to return, “Things haven't been exactly...normal around here lately. Ponies keep disappearing.”

“Really?” Sparkler continued to feign her ignorance, “This is like in the middle of nowhere land. Where would you go?”

“Wherever whoever is transforming them into statuettes takes them, I suppose,” Hardhead commented as she passed over a second tray to be fine cleaned by the new pony.

“Not everypony who transforms gets taken,” put in Sky Tracker, “There've been ten ponies in this dig site that have transformed, and three of them that changed back and are still here.”

Now that did pique Sparkler’s interest, though she tried really hard not to show how eagerly interested she was. “Wow,” she breathed like she was more concerned with the relics she was cleaning. In another time, she would have been. “They didn't leave? But...The others, are they still missing, or are they still statuettes?”

“Seven got taken, young miss,” Sky Tracker clarified, “Three transformed back into ponies.”

Keeping up the ruse, Sparkler continued to clean the excavated items like that was what she was there for, “So, um, like, does it happen a lot, or did it stop?”

“No,” Hardhead commented as she checked over Sparkler’s work and found it more than adequate, “It happens like three to five times every day. Sometimes they change back to normal after an hour, sometimes a little more. Dusty Stone over there, he just changed back after a whole day as a statuette.”

“Dusty Stone?” Sparkler giggled, then she cursed herself that she had spent too much time with Cloudburst, “Sorry, maybe I should go and dust him off.” It was too easy a joke to resist.

“If you want to know about the curse,” Sky Tracker’s good natured smile became firm, “You should ask him, but be gentle about it.”

“Um, okay, but I think I should get some more of this done so the boss doesn't get mad.” That was just a cover. As she carefully cleaned a third tray of relics, she doubted she had the interpersonal skills to deal with a trauma like that. But, she had an idea just who might have those skills.

Having struck out with the catering ponies who staffed the food tent, Stonecutter meandered her way over to where she saw Sparkler was laying it on thick for the two dig ponies she was working with. Idly she wondered if Cloudburst was a bad influence on her marefriend. “Hey Sparks, how's the uh, work, going?”

Dramatically, the yellow unicorn placed her hand up to her forehead, “It's dusting!”

Stonecutter laughed, “I can see that,” she said as she gently led her aside out of earshot of the dig ponies, “You okay, Mistress? You're all dusty and you aren't freaking out. Not even a teeny bit.”

“One does not freak out in front of the locals,” Sparkler pointed out in a very good impersonation of Professor Rarity, “I shall save that for later. The stallion over there is called Dusty Stone. He was turned into a statuette and back. Other statuettes have been stolen though. You should chat him up but do take it easy. The ones here say he's having a bad time about it.”

“Alright, I reckon I can do that. What do we need to know?”

“It would be nice if he knew who did it, but I'd like to know if he is aware of what was happening when he was a statuette.”

“Leave it to me, Mistress,” Stonecutter blew her marefriend a quick kiss and she casually strolled over to the stallion who was sat on his own wrapped in an old blanket. “Pardon me,” she asked, getting the sand coloured earth pony’s attention, “Do you mind if I sit with you a little while?”

“N-No, n-not at all,” he stammered, though he looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a speeding car.

Stonecutter decided that honesty would be the best policy. That, and she wasn’t all that gifted, where guile was concerned. “So, Mr. Stone, I understand you were turned to a statuette. Do you mind if I ask you about it?” When he shook his head no, and indicated that she could continue, she asked, “When did it happen?”

“It w-was ye-yesterday morning, miss.” Dusty Stone answered, “I had just left my tent to start work in the crater when I saw some scorch marks on the ground and I heard some strange whooshing sounds and I went to investigate. I saw this cloaked hooded pony, a unicorn, because they were levitating the statuettes, on the edge of the crater. I called out to them and whoosh! I was a statuette too!”

“And ah, were you aware of what was happening, when you were transformed?”

Dusty Stone shook his head and wrapped the blanket closer around his trembling body. “No, it was like…like being in the deepest of deep sleeps. I couldn’t see or hear anything that was going on around me, then, just like that, whoosh! I was, me, again.” Stonecutter listened carefully and nodded her head. It certainly sounded like it was the same pony who had ambushed their campsite the night before, from the whooshing sounds to the scorch marks on the ground. It added up, though she was no closer to finding out who was responsible for the abductions.

Still, it was something.

“Hey! Sunny!” Hardhead called out to Sunny Saddle who had emerged from the largest tent just as Stonecutter excused herself and made her way back over to Sparkler, “Where's Pathfinder and Tracker!?”

“Yeah, where are the lovebirds?” called out Sky Tracker, unaware that the two earth pony stallions had been transformed and abducted, “Smooching behind a tent again, I’ll bet?”

“Um...” Sunny Saddle was caught rather unprepared, so much so that she didn’t see Cloudburst leave the medical tent to her side, “Well you see, they uh...”

Unfortunately, Cloudburst was completely blind to the unicorn’s stammers. She tucked the extra supplies of Pony Balm she had been given by the medical ponies under her arm and waved to her two friends. “Pathfinder and Tracker?” she asked very loudly, “You mean those earth ponies who got turned to statues and taken in the night?”

As the dig site erupted in uproar, Sparkler and Stonecutter turned to each other and, as one, they facepalmed. “Whaaat?” Cloudburst, genuinely perplexed, looked around nonplussed at the chaos she had created, “What'd I say?”

Sunny Saddle just shook her head as Stonecutter and Sparkler came walking over with a look of thunder on their faces. “Come along, you three, the doctor wants to talk with you.” She then raised her voice and addressed the rest of the dig site, which was on the point of rioting. “The rest of you, back to work! Now!”

As soon as she was in range, Stonecutter fetched her best friend a clip upside her head, “Your mouth, I swear to Celestia, CB...”

“Ow!” Cloudburst nursed the ear that had just been smacked, “What was that for?”

More diplomatic, Sparkler just glared at the pegasus, “Sometimes you don't need to share everything.”

“Sorry, I didn't mean to!” Cloudburst protested, though she flapped her wings and hovered along just out of smacking range, just in case her best friend wanted to ring her bell a second time. “They were telling dragon jokes in the medical tent. Wanna hear some?”

“Dragon jokes?” Sparkler raised an eyebrow, for she was notoriously bad with this kind of thing and it was just what she wanted to improve upon. “Sure,” she said, ignoring her marefriend’s shake of her head to the contrary.

Likewise, Cloudburst ignored Stonecutter’s groan, and she forged ahead. “I spotted a lizard on a portable toilet. I suspected it might be a commode-o-dragon!”

At the sheer awfulness of the joke, Sparkler snorted a breath through her nose, “That's terrible!” Still, a small fit of giggles escaped her.

Cloudburst, who swelled with gusto and was well in her stride, continued, much to Stonecutter’s dismay, “Why are dragons such good storytellers? They all have impressive tails!”

Sparkler’s snickering giggles became a full on belly laugh when she heard that punchline. “Oh,” she declared bravely, “I got one!”

“Go for it!” Cloudburst encouraged her.

“Why are dragons so easy to weigh?” when the hovering pegasus shrugged her shoulders, Sparkler continued, “They all come with scales!”

As Cloudburst erupted into a gale of laughter, Sunny Saddle leant in close to Stonecutter and asked in a whisper, “Does this happen often?”

The clearly embarrassed earth pony nodded her head, “More often than it used to, ma'am.”

“Well you’re here,” Sunny Saddle said as she paused outside the tent, “Now please be respectful of Doctor Caballeron.”

At that, Stonecutter pointedly nudged Cloudburst hard in her ribs, “What?” the pegasus asked indignantly, “I can behave!”

As Sunny Saddle held open the flap of the tent, Stonecutter walked in first, closely followed and flanked by Cloudburst and Sparkler. The first thing that struck the trio was how comfortable and finely decorated the inside of the tent was. Stonecutter doubted the other dig ponies had a Princess sized bed to sleep in, or a side cabinet with a mini fridge inside. She bowed her head respectfully to the only stallion inside, “Doctor Caballeron, sir?”

If the dark grey earth pony stallion was offended that Stonecutter had so brutally butchered the pronunciation of his name, he gave no sign of it. “It is Caballeron, as in, Cabal.” He even went so far as to offer them each a glass of ice cold water, which they gratefully accepted, given how hot it was.

While Cloudburst snickered and sipped her water, Sparkler spoke up, “Hello, Doctor, do you happen to know where the Friendship School professors are?”

That caught Caballeron completely by surprise. “The Professors? Do you mean Princess Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Element Bearers?”

“Pardon me, sir,” Stonecutter put in, “But yes, that's why we're here.”

“I'm afraid I have no idea the Princess and the others were even out here in the Badlands.” For once, Caballeron was telling the whole truth. That wasn’t a thing that happened very often, if at all.

Curiously, Sparkler looked around the tent. It struck her as like a hotel room than a tent. “Nice for a tent,” she found her gaze drawn to more of the golden relics similar in design to the ones she had cleaned, “You found most of these things out here?”

“Oh yes. My team is very skilled. We are searching for evidence of the lost city of Umberfoal.”

“Umberfoal?” Sparkler questioned, while Stonecutter and Cloudburst shrugged, completely at a loss, “That is an old legend. Does that have something to do with the curse of the statuettes?”

“Perhaps, young mare,” Caballeron studied the unicorn and the two ponies with her. They certainly seemed capable to him, particularly after what Sunny Saddle had told him. “The old legends of Umberfoal do tell that the sealed gates are guarded by a powerful magic, what the less educated might call a 'curse'.”

“You are running a very impressive dig, Doctor Caballeron,” Sparkler decided to pour on the sugar like she had done with the two dig ponies, “I was able to look at a few items when I was helping with cleaning.”

“Oh?” Caballeron barely supressed his smirk. He could tell a mile away when somepony was giving him the old bump and tickle. He was a master, and this mare was a base amateur by comparison. Still, she intrigued him. “You are a budding archaeologist?”

“More a historian,” Sparkler clarified, though she supposed he wasn’t really wrong, “But archaeology is important in verifying history. Such as your search for Umberfoal. Most historian consider that place a myth.”

“So did Professor Gully Trotter,” commented Caballeron, gently luring the young unicorn in with hints of knowledge, lures he could tell by the hungry look on her face, were working. Everypony had their price, after all, and he was skilled in finding it. “Until I showed him what we uncovered. It is to him we owe most of our discoveries.”

“Professor Trotter?” Sparkler’s eyes went wide as saucers, for she had heard of Gully Trotter. The acclaimed archaeologist had once been invited to give a lecture at Celestia’s school, when she had still attended the place. To speak with him in person, that would be a true honour. “I'd love to have a chance to talk with him!”

Caballeron smiled a most devious, wicked smile. He knew he had this mare dangling on his hook like a fisher pony on the banks of a lake. “You would have to find him first. He took a skeleton crew up to Dustmane Ridge in the south east over a week ago, we haven't heard from him since.”

“Really,” Sparkler couldn’t hide her disappointment, “That seems odd. Maybe they are in some sort of trouble, like statuette trouble?”

“Perhaps,” Caballeron didn’t care one iota what trouble the Professor was in, he just wanted whatever he had discovered for his own. And it would be his. He always got what he wanted, in the end. “Alas I cannot spare anypony to form a search party, not without leaving this site understaffed and vulnerable to bandits and the aah, indigenous, wildlife.”

“Was there some item in particular that took him there?”

“Stone tablets, markers, that are said to show the way to Umberfoal,” Caballeron saw no reason to lie. He already had the mare in the palm of his hand.

“But we can't just leave him out there!” exclaimed Cloudburst, her wings fluttering out in outrage.

“Well,” it was all Caballeron could do to not do a happy dance right there in his tent. The careless pegasus had just blundered her way right into his hands and bought her friends along with her, “There's nothing stopping three adventurous young ponies from going to search for him...”

“We'll need supplies, and gear.”

Caballeron eyed up the overweight earth pony and he surmised she wouldn’t be as easy as the other two. “But of course. You can resupply as much as you need from the dig site, but you'll need grappling harnesses to safely scale Dustmane Ridge. The high winds make flying...inadvisable. There is, however, a problem.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Cloudburst threw up her hands.

“Cloudy!” Sparkler gave her friend her most disapproving glare.

Stonecutter, for the moment, ignored the other two. “What sort of problem, Doctor?”

“I only have one harness here,” he reached into a box and pulled out the harness before he passed it to the annoying pale blue pegasus. It’s small / medium size was perfect for her. “The problem is, that the rest are in the equipment crates we left behind, in Site A.”

Sparkler shot the greasy earth pony a withering stare. “Now you can say it, Cloudy.”

“Are you crazy!?”

Coldly, Caballeron just shrugged his shoulders. “That's where the harnesses are. If you want them, and I know that you do, then that's where you're going.”

For a fraction of a second, Sparkler got a hint of the Doctor’s true, uncaring nature, and she didn’t like it, not one bit. “Well, Sunny Saddle did tell us about the tatzlwurms out there. You got anything for that?”

“Only some advice,” Caballeron nonchalantly sipped his water, “Watch your step and tread lightly.”

Sparkler sighed in defeat. “Are we doing this, Stoney?”

“We've come this far.” And the thought of leaving behind an ageing earth pony to whatever creatures happened to be stalking these lands just didn’t sit well with Stonecutter.

Sparkler nodded. “Cloudy?” They all agreed, or they didn’t go.

Cloudburst already had the grappling harness on, and she was fluttering her wings eagerly, ready to pursue that flighty temptress, adventure! “I'm ready to go, just give the word, I say let's do this!”

~ ~ ~

As the three ponies approached the abandoned Site A, they began to see what looked like buildings clustered together in a kind of makeshift town. Getting closer, it was apparent to them that this dig site was more built up than the one they had just come from. Standing on the edge of the small town, there were tents flapping in the breeze but there were also wooden buildings, both temporary and more permanent structures, seemingly thrown together when the expedition had arrived.

It was obvious even to Cloudburst that this site was bigger and had been intended to be more longer lasting than Site B. it was clear that the dig team must have lost most of their equipment and supplies when they had to abandon the place. To the left of the town was a high rocky hill which rose up into a steep cliff which circled around to the opposite side of the town, creating a natural wind break.

Sparkler bought Stonecutter to a halt on the very edge of the abandoned site. She couldn’t see any huge snake creatures; in fact the town was extremely quiet – too quiet. It seemed to her that even the animals had left the place. “Okay, we need to be careful,” she stated as a ball of tumbleweed rolled between the nearest buildings. “My book says that tatzlwurms are sensitive to vibrations - not noise - but walking around or knocking something over…”

“Does that mean you can't use your vibrator?” asked Cloudburst, to which Sparkler responded with an eye roll that spoke volumes and a facepalm for good measure.

“It means we gotta be careful, featherbrain!” Stonecutter admonished her best friend as she too looked apprehensively into the town. It had been a good idea back in Caballeron’s tent, but now they were here, she wasn’t too sure.

“Well, I'm okay,” Cloudburst flapped her strong pale blue wings and took off ten feet above the ground. “No bad vibes from me!”

Sparkler barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes a second time. “Was there any part of 'not knocking anything over' that you didn't understand?”

“What's to knock over?” Cloudburst asked as she gestured to the abandoned ghost town, “There's nothing and nopony here!” An idea came to her though as she hovered there in the air, “You want me to scout around, see if I can find those crates?”

“Yeah, actually that would be great. Um, if they are open, could you lift stuff out of them?” Sparkler didn’t dare dream that their trip to the deserted dig site would be so easy as to have the pegasus swoop in and just take what they needed for the next part of their journey, but one could hope.

“Yes ma'am!” with that, Cloudburst turned and flew off on her way into the abandoned town, narrowly missing the front of a weather-beaten shack with a barrel roll and a swift climb into the sky. She came so close to hitting the building that she rattled the open door with the wake from her wings.

“And then there were two,” Stonecutter said somewhat ominously as she walked into the site proper with Sparkler by her side, holding her marefriend’s hand as she pulled her red wagon behind her. Almost straightaway, not even five steps into the town, there came a low rumble underground that echoed around the empty buildings.

“Okay, stop,” Sparkler held out her hand across Stonecutters’ chest, “We are too close for the wagon.”

Obediently, Stonecutter froze in mid step. “Was that...a tatzy…a tatl…um...one of them worm things?”

“Either that or Cloudy's tummy.”

“Dunno which I'm more scared of,” Stonecutter remarked as she stepped out of her wagon's harness, happy to leave it and their supplies where it was. “Heh, I don't suppose it'll get stolen, right?”

“As long as it isn't moving, it shouldn't get eaten either,” Sparkler said, delicately picking up one hoof and gingerly setting it down. Taking such slow steps, she repeated and she was rewarded by no scary rumbling noises. “We got this.”

In an attempt to emulate what her marefriend had done, Stonecutter set off at her regular heavy-set walk, though she didn’t take five steps before the underground rumbling was clearly heard again, this time considerably louder, like boulders being cracked and ground together. “Buck!” the stocky pony exclaimed as she felt the ground shake.

“Stoney,” Sparkler said in an exasperated tone, “Please tread lightly.”

“I am treading lightly!” Stonecutter shot back angrily, “I weigh like, three hundred and fifty pounds, for Luna’s sake!” at her outburst, she blushed hard and tried, with success, to take a more delicate, lighter step.

Sparkler was stunned at the vehemence in her marefriend’s voice. She hadn’t heard that before, though she supposed it was due to the perceived slight about her weight, which she had not intended to be taken that way. “Go slow, especially when you put your hoof down, but also when you pick it up too.”

When Sparkler demonstrated an example of a very exaggerated slow walk, Stonecutter copied her and this time, there was no rumbling sound from underground. It occurred to her they looked like cartoon caricatures of burglars sneaking away from a crime. “I'm sorry, Mistress, I didn't mean to raise my voice…”

“I still think you're cute, all three hundred and fifty of you.”

“Yeah, if you say so...” Stonecutter replied sullenly, and the two mares walked very carefully along one of the abandoned streets until they came to a corner that brought them onto what was clearly a main street or thoroughfare, or at least it used to be. What stood out though, was the few dried red stains on the floor. “By the goddesses…”

Sparkler stepped aside as quickly as her delicate steps allowed her, “Don't step in that, it may be slippery.”

Stonecutter shuddered, wondering how that of all things was the thing that her marefriend was concerned with. “I guess they were the ones that weren't quick enough, huh?”

“Trying to not think about that,” Sparkler said grimly, looking pointedly at anywhere other than the spots on the floor. “Where's CB got to?”

Almost like she was on cue, there came a hollering cry from somewhere nearby they couldn’t quite see yet from where they were, “GUYS!” Cloudburst yelled at the top of her lungs, “I FOUND THEM! OVER HERE!”

For what felt like the hundredth time that day alone, Sparkler facepalmed. “I'm glad that sound doesn't count.”

Stonecutter looked at her marefriend and saw that shew had frozen just like she had, and they had managed to do so without them both having a heart attack. “C'mon,” the slate grey earth pony sighed, “If we're lucky we can get the gear and get out of...”

Just then, there came the sound of a huge crashing sound, unmistakably that of many wooden crates hitting the ground followed almost instantly by the loudest rumble yet, and the ground shook violently as tremors shook the buildings almost apart. “SORRY!”

“Run!” Sparkler ran at a gallop all the way back to Stonecutter’s red wagon and past it. Behind her, she heard an almighty crash and an explosion of dust and rock that sent boulders smashing into the wooden buildings nearby. She knew the tatzlwurm had surfaced at last. It was time to run!

“BUCK!” Cloudburst screamed in mid-air as she watched the gigantic snake like creature rise up from the ground. She was too busy dodging flying debris to fly away from the monster. “HEEEEEELP!”

Stonecutter reacted without thinking. “CB, I'm coming!” she ran at a gallop forwards and then she screamed in panic at the sight of her best friend flying frantically around the one hundred foot long worm. Its skin was dark purple, with a red crest that surrounded a bright pink head. What was worse was the row upon row of deadly razor sharp teeth that lined its three jaws.

As the pale blue pegasus flew low to avoid a snap of the creature’s jaws, the tatzlwurms sprayed the air with a prodigious amount of green snot. While the torrent of phlegm missed its intended target, it landed all over the much slower earth pony instead. “Don't let it get any snot on you!” called Sparkler who, against her better judgement, had ran back to help.

“Too late!” Cloudburst called out as she flapped her wings and rose again up into the air, narrowly missing a second jet of green snot that spattered harmlessly over the side of a building. “Damn!” the pegasus clapped her hands and shot her lightning bolt at it, which bounced uselessly off the monster's hide. “I'm not even slowing it! AAAAAH!”

As Cloudburst flew and jinked side to side to avoid a retaliatory strike from the beast, Sparkler called out, “Stone! Kick it!”

When she heard that, Stonecutter, covered almost head to hoof in the tatzlwurm’s green emission, charged headfirst into the creature’s side and she delivered a brutal kick followed by an almighty punch that made it open it’s jaws and let out a loud roar of pain that echoed around the abandoned town. “HEY!” Cloudburst yelled, “There's a white gem in its mouth!”

While the tatzlwurm was distracted by Stonecutter and Cloudburst, Sparkler was frantically looking for the grappling harnesses. “Don't risk grabbing it!”

Stonecutter punched it again, this time harder than before, making it roar so loud that glass windows in the nearby buildings shattered into shards that fell to the ground. With its three jaws open wide in agony, the pegasus took her chance to fly in. “I can get it!” Just as Cloudburst grabbed at the large gemstone in the middle of a barrel roll, Sparkler saw the crate of harnesses and grabbed it in her strong telekinetic magic.

The manoeuvre was not without sacrifice though. As Cloudburst flew up and away, the tatzlwurm lunged at her and, snapping its jaws, she counted herself lucky that all she lost was some of her dark grey tail. “RUN!” she screamed in terror, “RUN NOW!” The pegasus flew as hard as she could, and Sparkler and Stonecutter galloped at their top speeds back through the town to the red wagon.

At the edge of the town, they at last slowed down, each of them breathing hard and gulping down much needed lungfuls of air. “It's not chasing us!” Cloudburst gasped as she landed on her hooves.

“Th-They are v-very te-territorial,” Sparkler gasped, the unicorn collapsing to her butt on the rocky floor, “Rest up, we’ve got the harnesses, what we came for. The tatzlwurm won’t follow us out of it’s area.”

Stonecutter, utterly exhausted, collapsed down onto her hands and knees in the dirt, still covered in the creature’s green gunk, desperately gasping for breath. “I-I'm g-gonna be sick...” When she heard that, Sparkler looked her marefriend over to see if she was glowing green or if she was just covered. Thankfully she was just covered and not infected with tatzlflu.

Victoriously, Cloudburst tossed the white gem from hand to hand, “I got the prize!” now she was able to look at it, it was roughly the size of a buckball. “Look at the size of this thing!”

“Cloudy,” Sparkler said when she had her breath – and her wits – back, “Can you please make a rain cloud now? Stoney needs to get washed off before that stuff does make her sick.”

“Sure thing, Sparks, catch!” she tossed her the white gem that the unicorn easily caught in her magic, “Hold onto that,” then, she flew up twenty feet and she did her pegasi thing with the air, compressing the water vapour to create a small cloud.

Sparkler smiled as she looked at the gem with her mage sight. “I knew telling her not to get it would make her get it.”

Looking at the gem with her more mundane sight, Stonecutter gave her assessment of their find, “Professor Rarity would crap a pink twinkie to get a gem that size.”

“That was an image I didn't need, Stoney,” Sparkler gave her lover a deadpan look, “I'm going to blame the snot you're covered in.”

Just then, Cloudburst hovered down, the dark grey cloud she had created hanging in the air. “One cloud shower service, ready to go!” when Stonecutter stepped underneath her creation, Cloudburst jumped on the top and agitated it to make it rain good and hard. “So, what's with the gem, Horny?”

“White, Feathers,” Sparkler called back, before stowing it safely in her backpack, “It’s all white.”

“Duh! I could've told you that!” Cloudburst moved to the side of the cloud and continued to kick at it until it was all but spent, “Well worth a few tail hairs, though! Just don't tell that Cab guy. I don't trust him as far as I can throw Stonebutt.”

“Yeah,” Sparkler agreed as Stonecutter, dripping wet through but clean of any green snot, stepped out from under the cloud. She greatly approved of the wet look, especially as the white tee shirt she was wearing under her dungarees was plastered tight against her large round breasts, “The Professors need to see this, not him. I don't trust what he said about Professor Trotter, either.”

Still, she was sure they would find answers at Dustmane Ridge. That was their next stop.