Chapter 1: Mud and Stones, Blood and Bones.
"Is this thing on?
Hmmm, okay.
Dear Princess Celestia, I am writ- no, I am recording this audio message to inform you of the... the discoveries I have made at the Everfree site. I'll... I'll try to summarise what I can and start with the... less concerning ones.
Okay, ahem, to start off, we've discovered a lot of organic samples that have had... certain effects on those that have come in contact with them. So far, there have been more positive effects than negatives; A pony who had lost a limb in an unfortunate accident has seemingly grown it back overnight! But there is also a pegasus who seems to have developed a type of wasting disease. Both of them had touched a red fluid that was found in the cavern where we started finding the more... exotic substances.
We've got the entire dig site under quarantine under my orders, meaning that we won't have to worry about any potential outbreak.
Moving on, I'll start with some of the more familiar things we found in the cavern. To start off, we have found a lot of fungi growing on the walls of the cavern. It might sound weird with the cavern being almost a kilometer below sea level but I will get to that part.
Besides the fungi, we've found biological remains of several creatures from different epochs of time, all encased in a white growth that seems similar to resin. Some of the things we've found were a new type of dinosaur, extinct varities of timberwolves, the embryo of an ursa, and... sapient beings, mostly ponies and griffins.
F– from this point forth, our findings start to become more and more alien, and that's the reasons why I'm recording ths message.
Okay, so, the most important thing we've found was a lake of a red fluid, the same one that I mentioned earlier. We haven't been able to study it much since it seems to eat away at any inorganic materials touching it, while it has varied effects on organic materials. One of these effects was the wasting disease mentioned earlier and another was the healing.
We haven't tried any further testing with it but I've noted how it... how it seems similar to blood.
...I've noted other anomalies as well. All of the 'rock formations' that we've analysed are far too similar to bone in terms of their chemical make up and arrangements. The ceiling of the cavern we are in resembles a ribcage. Other things that we've encountered here were also strangely organic.
...I have to go, they've found something."
"Okay... just breathe Twilight, it isn't that bad...
...Okay, so, I had been interrupted by one of the cavern's walls being breached, giving us access to a tunnel that led deeper into the planet. It was a sharp descent of about half a kilometer, during which the walls of the tunnel seemed to get more and more organic in nature but it might have been the lighting, I hope.
...
At the bottom of the tunnel, we entered a large cavern that seemed too much like a stomach. In it, we found a lot of... remains of various creatures ranging from timberwolves to... to sapient lifeforms. Most of the remains looked like they were exposed to an acidic substance and with how the 'cavern' looks, I'm inclined to believe that the whole cave system we're in is in fact a type of organism we haven't seen yet. Perhaps it is a colony organism of some kind?
I will continue my research and update this log soon."
"...
It's been about a week since I've updated this log and things haven't gone well so far. A pony went... mad at the site we made in the stomach. He was doing just fine and working on finding another hole to breach through when he just... when he just started shouting something about a 'dead thing'.
He was taken back to the surface and I haven't heard of him since.
I analysed the place he was at when he went mad and found a white coloured root tissue... a kind of nerve ending if I'm right. I followed it till it went to a wall, which we then breached through. On the other side, we found another tunnel, this one at very little incline. There were a lot more of these 'nerves' in there as well.
We'll be going into that tunnel soon for further exploration. I should probably have these audio logs delivered to the surface so that you actually get them, princess."
"We've been walking for quite a while now, an entire day I think, and the tunnel has given way to an expansive cavern. Our lights don't illuminate a really large area around us and I swear there are things in the darkness. We've left markers every now and then so that we don't get lost, even though its mostly flat here.
The nerves have disappeared under the floor, which is clearly very organic. We found a lot of red fluid which might be this organism's blood. Two of our party have... come into direct contact with the fluid but both seem fine for now. We'll send them back with the ponies who get our supplies just to be safe. That should be in about half a day.
I'll update when something happens."
"It isn't safe here.
Some time back, when the supply came, we were attacked by these things that seem to live in this organism. I'll try to get some photos but just in case I can't, I'll describe them.
Okay, so, these things look like large fleshy white-coloured caterpillars. They have quite a lot of fleshy legs and seem to be carnivorous judging by their teeth. They don't have any sensory organs that I can see but they somehow knew our locations.
Three of them attacked our group an hour back. We killed two of them while the other one ran off into the darkness. Thankfully, we didn't sustain any injuries. Unfortunately, one of the two ponies who were exposed to the red fluid seems to have developed some kind of wasting disease and had to be rushed back to the surface. The other pony has been sent back as well.
I pray that they'll be fine.
We'll be continuing with our expedition.
One thing that stuck with me though is something that someone in our group said, something about these worms looking like white blood cells, if they were large worms."
"To whoever finds this tape, I request it be delivered to the princess Celestia and that no one else but her should hear it.
...
I'm... lost. I got seperated from the group when the cavern seemingly collapsed on us, spilling a lot of the organism's blood. I don't think I can get back to the surface and who knows what this organism's blood is doing to me right now.
That doesn't matter though. What matters is the discovery I've made.
I seemed to have fallen deeper into the planet, judging by the large hole in the ceiling above me. The scenery around me has changed from fleshy to bone-y and there are a lot of white structures that resemble walls. These walls got thicker the more I moved until a certain point.
At that point, the path ended at a large wall. I cut through this wall, thinking that there might be a way out behind it.
There wasn't a way out.
Instead, what I found... it looked... looked like a brain of some sorts. There were a large number of the nerves coming down from the ceiling and connecting to a grey putrid smelling blob that I assume is a brain.
I... I touched it.
I don't really know how to say this but touching it made me see things.
Terrifying things.
The organism is not just isolated to this area under the Everfree but is stretched all over the planet. In fact, I think that it might BE the entire planet we're on. The entire planet is just one organism with us living on it, like germs.
I don't really know how long it might have lived but I think it should be immortal.
But it is dead.
The brain thing I touched gave me some of its remaining memories somehow, and I know that the organism- the planet... has suffered brain death. It could not be old age, or an attack by one of the things that live on it. The body is still very alive and I hope that we can study it but the fact that just the brain that is dead makes me wonder if something else killed it.
It had to be something else. Something that might be out there. I wonder if other planets, or maybe the moon have something similar.
I don't really know how long I have but it sure isn't enough for me to be found, let alone study this thing. I just hope that we're safe on this planet and that if something comes for us, you're able to fight it off, princess.
Your faithful student, Twilight."
Author's Note
MYSTERY FLESH!
short thing for the contest but mostly since i liked the concept of living planet hypothesis
I might add another chapter if popular demand or if I get enough idea for it