The Bug in The Cave

Chapter 1:Soggy Expedition

The appropriately named badlands was not a place to be traversed lightly, being a vast, largely unmapped desert. The terrain was wild and hard to navigate on hoof, and every corner was filled with vicious wildlife. There were virtually no standing sources of water above ground, and almost no plant life, except for patches of moss and flowers that were dubious at best that grew in isolated clumps where the sun never managed to shine its light. Add onto that the sweltering heat that burned at the earth and reflected off of the sand and stone, and you had a recipe for a truly dangerous stretch of land.

It was for this reason, and a fair few others, that Twilight’s friends had been less than thrilled when she had told them she was going to be joining an expedition to the badlands as a part of a personal project. The poor unicorn had endured the protests of each of her friends, one after the other, for well over a week leading up to her departure on the Friendship Express to meet up with the team at Dodge Junction.

“Look, I don’t wanna say you’re not awesome, but Twi, even I don’t wanna go there. And Look at me! I’m the most awesome mare in the room!”

“Darling, please. We all know that you’re a curious sort and that you do so love to tackle a new project, but this is a little extreme, even for you.”

“My granny pie used to tell me all about the badlands when I was a little filly! She told me that it was a bad, bad place, and never ever go there. Not even smiling and laughing can make it better! And that’s saying something because smiles and laughs make everything better!”

“But it’s so full of scary, dangerous wild animals! Like Maulworfs and giant scorpions and sandtrap spiders!”

Out of all of her friends, Applejack had been the one to offer to the least complaint. She had been worried, yes, but she had kept quiet more than the rest. Twilight could only assume this amounted to Applejack letting Twilight make her own choices. A mindset the others had all eventually come to align with on the day of her departure. Each of them had given her their own little words of encouragement, hoping that the boost in her confidence would help make sure she came home safe.

And now, here she was, standing at the top of a jagged slope of rock that jutted up from the earth like a broken fang, scanning her eyes across the vast and seemingly endless expanse of serrated earth, winding ravines, and spires of stone that coiled into the air as if to puncture a falling pegasus.

It was made even moodier by the persistent rainfall that had come in from the south, obscuring the sky in a thick layer of dark grey and muting the colors for as far as the eye could see. Not that there were many colors to mute in this wasteland. Mostly browns, reds, and dull oranges.

With a quick spark of magic from her horn, Twilight pulled out a map from her saddlebags, keeping it safe from the downpour with an umbrella-shaped barrier she manifested over her head. If she was reading the map right, which she was confident she was, then she was just at the edge of what was known and explored, around a day’s worth of travel away from Equestria’s southern border.

A small, excited smile crossed her face at the thought of braving unexplored territory. Who knew what kinds of discoveries were lying in wait! Ancient ruins from long-lost civilizations, exciting new creatures never seen by ponies before, rare magic resources, strange geological formations! Maybe, if she was exceedingly lucky, there was even a whole new race of creatures out here, and she could say she had a hoof in discovering them!

“Hey, rookie!” a stallion’s voice shouted at her to be heard over the white noise of the rain. Jumping, Twilight put away her map and looked down to see the rest of the expedition team at the base of her rise of stone. There were at least two dozen of them, and each one had a designated task. Some were in charge of mapping out where they had been and gone, others were in charge of taking note of anything and everything they found, while others still were mostly here to haul along large wagons filled with the provisions they would need for this trip. They were supposed to be out here for several weeks, after all, perhaps even months if they found anything particularly interesting.