Ugala swamp, a home to many mysterious, dangerous, and amazing creatures all at the same time. The waters were murky and green in many parts of the river that stretched through this yucky and humid place.
It didn't take long for all of them to sweat a little from the heavy moisture. "Ugh! My goodness," said Rarity. "I have never felt so hot in my life!"
"Tell me about it." Starlight agreed. "And I thought Ponyville could get a ninety percent chance of humidity." She even conjured a fan to try and keep her cool, waving it around with her magic.
"Ah come on." said Luke. "Granted, it is kind like a steam room in this place, but we shouldn't let that bring us down."
"We didn't say anything like that, Sugarcube." Said Applejack. "We're thrilled to come here." And she wiped her forehead of any sweat dripping down.
"Yeah, we're both going to turn back just yet." Twilight added. "Besides, I can do research in this swamp. I just hope we don't run into the Ladon."
"Well, I think with Fluttershy with us," Discord said "she can use her stare on him and Luke with his lightsaber."
"And me with my gun." Larry added, holding up his magnum. "I'll try and shoot it in the eye if it tries to attack."
"Right you are, Larry." Dosxord agreed. "You can make him bleed out, and his guts will be leaking lead once you're through with him.
"Ooh, I wouldn't go that far." Said Twilight. "That sounds a little.... sadistic."
"Well, maybe I can try and reason with him, Zecora said that he is like a dragon, or dragon-like."
"I doubt that, Spike. The Ladon is not the understanding type."
"Well, when we encounter, or if we encounter it, let's not panic." Said Lyra
"At least let me do my stare on him to prevent any..." fluttershy gulped. "Bloodshed."
Pinkie looked around at her surroundings, and asked: "what about that other monster? What's it called?"
"The Catoblepas?" Fluttershy said
"Yeah! That one. I don't wanna be turned to stone by that mean, meanie-pants."
"Just stick with us," said Okove. "And you will all be just fine."
"Maybe there's a reason why he would turn us to stone." Lyra suggested
"I doubt it. Maybe he's an evil, sadistic monster like a cockatrice would be like." Bon Bon theorized.
"I don't even want to find out where we can find it. That's the last thing I want to do." Spike said. "Besides, the last thing i want is to be: a dead, living statue."
Twilight said to the baby dragon: "oh, don't say that. We're not troublesome foals who like to cause trouble."
"Yeah, we're smarter than that." Rainbow agreed.
"Well, I'm sure that not all the animals here are venomous and dangerous." Said Luke. "I mean, who knows what else we'll find in this place?"
A screech was heard, like a hawk cry. They all looked to the east in the direction, and saw a yellow raptor sitting on a branch.
It looked like any other eagle, but as soon as everyone assumed it looked normal, a third eye appeared on his forehead.
Luke looked a little creeped out, but he decided not to judge it by his cover.
"Oh my." Said Fluttershy. "That's a little peculiar."
Then the eagle flew away letting out another loud screech.
"I think we just found a three-eyes eagle." Said Spike. "But it doesn't look so bad.'
"I know." Rainbow agreed. "Looks kinda cool that way."
Everyone looked at the small lake, and at the murky waters. "It looks a little green or yellow here." Rarity remarked.
"I hope a crocodile doesn't come out and bite my head off." Said Lyra. Then she cautiously looked at the murky waters for anything dangerous. "This looks like a safe haven for them."
“Always good to be so cautious, Lyra.” Said Okove. Luke then boticed a large and slender bird as black as night. It looked like a heron with yellow eyes, and a three crests on his head that were slightly curved down, and a patch of white was horizontally visible across his face, under his eyes.
Luke couldn’t help but pull out his phone and take a picture of this mysterious avian in the shallow water. It bent it’s head down slowly and fast as a dart, it picked up a large fish, And gulped it right down it’s mouth.
“Wow, so that's a crested heron.” Luke remarked. Fluttershy couldn’t help but take a Look at that beautiful bird.
“Oh my.” She Said. “What a beautiful bird.”
“Ah yes.” Zecora noticed. “The crested heron. Sometimes, we would wall it the crested night heron because of the color of it’s plumage. The white spots make it look like a pair of moving stars in the sky.”
“It looks big.” Spike remarked. Then a caw was heard from the large bird. It sounded like a gurgling caw, and then another.
Not long after the heron flew away, slowly flapping it’s wings while hovering over the water in midair. It was another intriguing site to see for everyone to see in this kinda creepy swamp, and the all looked around the small swampy lake for anything else cool or interesting.
So far, there wasn't really anything else at the moment, but then, on a tree above them, Luke spotted a purple-colored leopard on a tree with glowing indigo spots on it. It looked cautious, and barred it's canine teeth, wagging it's tail slowly.
"Oh wow." Applejack said. "Good nelly, is that a leopard?"
"A stormy leopard." Okove said. "They are a very rare species of big cat, only found in this very swamp we are in now."
"How many of them are there left?" said Discord
"About seven-hundred of them." Zecora answered. "They are called a stormy leopard because of the similar blinking pattern on their skin. It is a common mistake for many zebras or natives of Zebrica to mistake them for tigers somehow because of their few strips on their back."
"Wow. That's really fascinating." Twilight acknowledged in amusement. All of a sudden, with a growl, the leopard leaped down from the tree branch, and landed next to the group, looking a little weary.
"I'll handle this." Fluttershy volunteered herself. She approached the leopard with no fear or any worries, along with a cute smile on her face, and the stormy leopard swayed it's right paw in a ferocious manner. Fluttershy was surprised when it did that to her, but she was unharmed. "Shh, it's okay." she said softly to it.
The yellow pegasus mare reached her left hoof, gently petting the big cat's head, and it didn't take long before the stormy leopard took a liking to her, and closed it's eyes in relaxation as he let Fluttershy pet him some more. "Goodness." said Discord. "She never ceases to impress me like this. Now we won't have to worry about this gigantic fur ball trying to kill us."
"Don't say that, Discord." said Fluttershy. "He was just being careful. Isn't that right?" she turned her attention back to the leopard. "Yes you were, yes you were."
The stormy leopard let out a few small growls of affection, and even let her rub his belly like a house dog. After a long while, the leopard knew that Fluttershy wanted him to leave him and her friends alone.
"Can you please leave. I promise we don't mean you any trouble."
Then this mysterious big cat let out a few more jumping growls from himself.
"What did he say?" asked Larry
"He says he was only being careful on why we were close to his tree."
"Okay." then the leopard went to lay on his tummy on the branch he was resting on before., and watched as the group waked away from the lake and into a different direction through this swamp.
Looking around at the surroundings, there were so many animals, many of them being some small antelope, and a small animal that looked like a deer. Luke and Fluttershy thought they knew what it was, for it looked like an unusual creature that lived in the continent of Africa called: the water chevrotain. This peculiar mammal was one of Africa's native deer species, along with the Atlas stag, which was a species of red deer.
When it saw the group, it froze, but then it pranced away into the bushes.
It was yet another rather long walk, but they stopped at a larger lake as wide as a whole town. It reminded Luke of Lake Oswego in Oregon, where he would go visit sometimes. The waters, like the smaller lake he and his friends went to, also looked murky.
"Wow, look at the size of this lake." said Applejack
"It looks a little... dirty." Rarity said.
"it's a swamp." said Rainbow Dash. "Lakes and rivers in swamps are supposed to be dirty."
A low rumbling was heard, like the ground was mildly shaking. Was it an earthquake? Everyone was becoming a little scared now as the shaking continued to erupt. Just then, something erupted from the lake, right in front of them. Something big, something gigantic, and it almost looked like a dinosaur.
This creature looked enormous, almost as big as a mall house, and it was a color of veredian green with a path of white going down his neck. This certainly looked like a dinosaur or a lake monster.