My Little Jurassic: Parks are Magic

The sun was beating down upon the dry desert landscape of the Badlands. Terra Soar gently brushed away the sand and dirt with her wing from her workspace on the rocky outcropping. She was a grey pegasus with a blue mane and tail with a grey-blue stripe in both, and copper dinosaur skull cutie mark. It was nearly a hundred degrees out; sweat dripped from her face and her nose was dry from inhaling the dust air. She didn’t really care, however. All her attention was focused on the six by six inch square in front of her.

It was difficult work for a pegasus pony (or any pony other than a unicorn for that matter), but years of practice had made her exceptionally gifted at using some of the finer tools of the trade. With her mouth she patiently used the dental pick to expose the fragile fragment of bone from the rock: a tiny jaw bone barely larger than one of her lesser covert feathers with tiny pointed teeth.

There was no mistaking it. This was the jaw bone of a young therapod, a meat-eating dinosaur. What this bone belonged to the grey pegasus mare could not say for certain, but she was certain this was a juvenile dromaeosaurid. The owner had died some 70 million years ago, and was only a month or so old based upon the size of it. If she was lucky and patient, she would hopefully discover the rest of the skeleton.

A complete skeleton of a baby carnivore! Just thinking about it got her excited.

“Hey, Terra.”

Terra wiped the sweat away from her forehead, and took a moment to look out over the dig site. The red-brown dusty valley stretched for miles before her. It always amazed her how much the land had changed since the time the creatures she and the rest of the team were digging up lived. As she looked out over the valley, she could see great towering conifers burst forth from the earth, as the tide from the vast inland sea swept through. Along the coast line, great reptilian predators stalked herds of hadrosaurs and ceratopsians as pterosaurs filled the skies. It was a truly breathtaking sight.

“Terra?”

As she looked down, she could see the great nest that had once been here covered in vegetation and mud, and with great oval eggs protruding out of it. She could see them move as the little creature inside began to awaken. Crackers began forming here and there. A chirping noise came from inside. Terra gingerly reached out a hoof toward the shell-

“Terra!”

Terra jumped a little in surprise, the Mesozoic landscape snapping back into the desert valley of the Badlands. “Agh! Gosh darnit Buck! What have I said about sneaking up on me when I’m in ‘the zone’?” The pegasus mare said, berating the brown earth-pony stallion good naturedly. Buck chuckled in response. He was about average height for a colt but very lean, with a dirty-gold mane and beard, and wore tan and brown khaki shirt and a dusty leather hat. On his flank he bore four different animal tracks for a Cutie mark: A tiger print, and crocodile print, an ox print, and an eagle print.

“Just wanted to give you a heads up, the team’s almost finished with the excavation,” Buck smiled. “We should have most of it exposed by the time the group gets here.”

“That’s great hear. I really appreciate all the help you’ve been on the project,” Terra said, smiling back. Despite not having much education in paleontology itself, he was very knowledgeable about prehistoric fauna and had proven to be a hard and diligent worker and supportive friend.

The two of them had met almost ten years ago in Coltown, just north of Canterlot, and had become good friends since then. Since then, the two had worked together on several digs throughout Equestria, gone on adventures around the world, and even finished their education together. Terra had just gotten her doctorate in paleontology, and he had received his masters in zoology a few years ago. She was now the proud curator of the Coltown Field Museum and professor of paleontology at the University of Canterlot, while he had been made head keeper at the Manehattan Zoo. Sadly this meant that their rarely saw each other anymore, so every opportunity she had Terra would invite Buck on one of her expeditions and in a like manor he would send he VIP passes to the park.

“Speaking of helping,” Terra began.

“Uh oh. I don’t like sound of that.”

“When the group arrives, you are going to stick around and talk to them about what we are doing here, right?”

“Ugh, do I have to?”

“Oh come on, it won’t be that bad. Besides, I have a very important meeting, so I won't be around for the first few minutes, and I really need you to give them an informative experience.”

“But there are going to be fouls in the group.”

“And?”

“You know how I am with children,” Buck said with an unamused expression.

“Oh, you’re fine,” she said, good-naturedly hitting him in the shoulder. “Besides, you said you liked talking to kids.”

“One-on-one, sure, but you put a bunch of them in a room and they enter a piranha like state: wreaking havoc and touching everything with their grubby little-this isn’t funny Terra!” Terra apparently disagreed, as she was doubling over with laughter.

“Come on, please do it?” Terra finally said after her fit of laughter, and put on her best puppy-dog expression. Buck was the kind of pony that put on a tough front, but inside he was a marshmallow; he stood no chance against the pouty face – she knew it, and he knew it.

“…Fine. You win! Just stop with the eyes!” Buck broke like a glass pane. Terra’s expression immediately changed, as she gave him a great beaming grin. Despite himself, he couldn’t help but smile back.

“Hey you two!” came a voice from above them. Sky Rocket, a tan pegasus with a messy blond mane and tail, and mutual friend of theirs from Coltown. “Just thought I’d give you guys a heads up: that group is almost here. I just saw the dust trail over the ridge there. Should be here in about five minutes.”

“Thanks for the heads up, Sky. Tell the crew to set up the GPR equipment,” Terra called back.

“Done, and done!” Sky replied, and bolted back to the base camp at the bottom of the hill.

“Now remember: This is a very important group. Princess Twilight is going to be there for our meeting, and I want to make a good impression so please be polite and behave yourself,” Terra said turning back to Buck.

“When have I ever not been well behaved?”

“Remember the office chair incident?”

“…In public. When have I ever misbehaved in public?”

“Buck.”

“Okay, okay. I promise to be on my best behavior.”

Finally having gotten a promise out of him, Terra smiled. “Would you mind fetching some of the students, and telling them to bring a tarp up here? I don’t want to lose any of the progress on this nest.”

“No kidding? You actually found a nest?” The earth pony stallion looked like a foal on Hearth’s Warming morning.

“Maybe. At the very least I’ve found part of a hatchling therapod which is almost as good.”

“Terra, that’s fantastic!”

“Just think about, Buck: we may finally be able to prove that these were mindless, vicious reptiles, but thinking animals that cared for their young!”

“This is amazing! I’ll be right back with the tarp.”

“Afterwards, just head down to the bus stop. I want the two of us to greet the group when they arrive,” Terra called as Buck descended to hill to grab some of the students. He nodded in affirmation, and continued on his way.