The Bug in The Cave

Chapter 9:Fire in The Sky

Thorax was late today.

Twilight stood by the entrance to her cave, squinting into the distance for any sign of the drone — one hoof raised to shelter her eyes from the piercing light of the sun. It was late evening now. Within the hour, the sun would dip beneath the horizon and leave Twilight in the dark of night.

“Where is he…?” she whispered quietly to herself. This wasn’t normal for Thorax. Now, admittedly, she hadn’t known him long enough to know a whole lot about what constituted as ‘normal’ for him. But every other time he had shown up had been either in the mornings or middle of the day. And he had given her his word that he would be turning up today.

Had she misremembered what he had said? No, that didn’t seem right. It wasn’t like Twilight to forget things like that. Hay, she’d even started scratching a rudimentary calendar into the cave wall with a loose stone just so she could keep track of what day it was and what she had to do on each.

She was starting to become worried when, finally, the drone appeared in the distance, flying as fast as his insect-like wings could carry him. He caught sight of her and waved as he approached. “Hey!” he called out to her, his voice muffled by the distance.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief and returned the wave. “There you are!”

Thorax touched down a few yards away from her, stumbling as he went. He looked like he had just run a marathon.

“Not technically accurate, but close enough,” Twilight decided internally before cantering out to meet him. “What took you so long? I was starting to get worried!”

Thorax took in another deep breath, offering her a sheepish smile. “Eheh, yeah, sorry. There were some last-minute changes to the schedule, and I got a night patrol,” he explained, glancing anxiously back over his shoulder. “Apparently, the Queen wanted patrols inside the hive increased for a while, so Pharynx had to shuffle everyone around.”

Twilight frowned. “An increase in patrols inside? Did something happen?”

Thorax was quiet for a moment before shaking his head. “N-no, I don’t think so. If it did, I dunno about it. Nobody ever tells me anything in that place,” he replied.

Twilight’s frown deepened. Something seemed off about the way he had said that…

Before she could question it, Thorax perked up and turned to smile warmly at her. “Anyway! Here I am!”

Twilight hesitated before dismissing her previous concern and returning the smile. “So you are! Come on, let’s head back inside. I think I have some leftovers from your last visit still lying around somewhere...”

Thorax cantered up and fell into step by her side, a skeptical look on his face. “Er, really? I seem to recall you scarfing it all down within a few minutes of getting your hooves on it. Unless…” he paused to tap a hoof against his chin. “Wait, can ponies regurgitate food like birds can?”

Twilight belted out a short laugh and shook her head. “Wha- HA! What?! No! No, we can’t do that! Birds usually only do that to feed their young, and ponies have a different way of doing that!”

Thorax tilted his head for a moment. “...Huh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Kind of a weird leap in logic to throw up to stop being hungry.”

Twilight laughed again, lifting a hoof to cover her face in amused exasperation.

“So, Twilight?”

“Yeah?”

Thorax shifted on his haunches, watching Twilight curiously as she continued to work on her calendar. The sun had set a little while ago, forcing them to rely on the glow of the campfire for light.