Rumble in the Jungle

by Minds Eye

Chapter 6: How the Zebra Earned her Stripes

Rumble wiped his nose with a hoof. The zebra sitting in front of him smoothed out her cloak. "I...I'm sorry about all that."

"Think nothing of it, little one," Zecora said with a chuckle. "Our time together has just begun. I'm sure you'll have a chance to give me a new memory of before we complete our journey."

Whatever luck Rumble lived by wasn't gone yet. He knew Zecora lived in the forest, but he had no idea where. What were the odds of the only two equines in this whole place running into each other? "How did you find me?"

"The forest has a system, a balance to it. Everything you do upsets this peace, even where you sit. I knew some pony was lost here without seeing their face." The zebra's eyelids partly closed, narrowing her eyes at Rumble. "You led me on quite a chase."

Rumble flinched and shrunk into himself. "S-Sorry. I was...kinda running for my life. My name is Rumble, by the way."

Zecora raised an eyebrow and looked him over. He got that a lot. "Zecora, but I'm sure you knew mine. Now come, we're running out of time."

They were what?! Zecora spun on her hooves and walked away. Rumble galloped after her. “What are you talking-“

The zebra looked back and cut him off with a glare. “Learn this lesson: Never draw attention.”

Rumble froze in his tracks. Zecora did the same. After a moment, he took a slow step forward. Zecora waited for him to catch up before nodding and making her way forward. Rumble followed, reminded that he wasn’t home free yet. He was right to be cautious when he first entered the forest. Nothing that happened to him suggested otherwise. He told himself no pony else was going to pay for his stupidity, and he was going to live up to that.

Still, he didn’t understand what Zecora was worried about. Rumble dropped his voice and whispered, “Why are we running out of time? Are the wolves coming back?”

“Of course they will. Their bellies aren’t filled. No predator forgets a meal that soon, so we must not squander this boon. More importantly, we must get you back to the others. The forest can deal with that bother.”

What others? Rumble could only think of one possibility. “Did Thunderlane and Cloudchaser send you to look for me?"

"I have seen no pony but you. We'll find them before the day is through."

Rumble was even more confused. "I...don't understand. Are they in the forest or aren't they?"

Zecora stopped and looked down on him with furrowed eyes. "Don't you know where they are? Have you wandered so far? Let's get you out of the monsters' lair. We'll go back to the path and find them there."

Some pony was clearly missing something important. Rumble just hoped it wasn't him. "I don't think anyone followed me in."

"You are the only pony the forest reacted to, that is true. Still, they must be looking for you."

"You think so? I thought it might take them a couple hours longer before they got worried."

Zecora's blue eyes widened as his words sunk in. "Your voice, your tone...," she said, looking him over again. Her eyes landed on his canteen, his thermos, and his sword. "You came here alone?!"

Ah, that was the problem! "Well, yeah."

The glare returned to Zecora’s eyes, a hundred times over. Rumble crumpled to the ground under the strength of her fury. He was unprepared for this. Sure, Miss Cheerilee got upset with him whenever he “lost” his homework, and Flitter would cut down his excuses for not wanting to practice weather duties, but he had never seen anything like Zecora before.

How was it possible for an icy stare to burn so much? He was frozen in place, cowering like a mouse on his stomach. Zecora’s eyes bore through him. Rumble felt the spotlight again, only this time there was no way out of it. He thought he beat himself up about coming to the forest, but Zecora was pounding him like he couldn’t believe.

And she wasn’t saying a word!

“You, uh,” Rumble hated how weak his voice sounded, but he just wanted to break this silence. He said the first thing that came to mind. “You’re mad?”

The zebra’s lips curled up to reveal her clenched teeth. “My head is straightly screwed. The mad one here is you.”

Rumble finally managed to pull his eyes away. “I know.”

“Don’t you know how heavy the forest can take its toll? You foal!”

Rumble squeezed his eyes shut. “I know!”

He felt Zecora’s hoof slap the sword on his back. “Were you playing hero with this little wooden knife?!” He heard something heavy fall to the ground. Rumble opened his eyes to see Zecora kneeling in front of him. The zebra’s face lost its harshness, but not its shock. Her voice dropped back to a whisper. “You could have lost your life.”

Rumble forced himself to hold her gaze again. “I-I know.”

A long moment passed as she studied him closely. Rumble stayed silent. She wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. Thunderlane, Cloudchaser, Flitter, Scootaloo, he knew exactly what he almost lost. Zecora finally relented, her eyes showing some kindness again, and she reached out her hoof. Rumble took it, and they stood together.

Zecora started to lead him through the trees. Rumble was hard pressed to keep up with her. Her timing was erratic, stopping and starting over and over again. When she did move, she moved with a grace Rumble never saw in an earth pony before. Zecora glided along the forest floor like a pegasus would glide through the sky. Then she would pause behind a tree trunk, look around for a moment, and continue on.

Rumble was already nearly out of breath. All his focus was devoted to moving as quickly and quietly as his guide, but these short sprints were completely new to him. The rhythm was impossible to adjust to. Whatever system Zecora had, he didn't understand it. Rumble settled for a gulp of air whenever he was lucky enough to find a second.

He couldn't help comparing this to his own attempts to get through the forest. Zecora said there was a balance to this place, so what did his jumping from tree to tree do? Could that have been what tipped her off to his presence? Did she really follow him that long?

Zecora suddenly veered to the right. Now what was she doing? Rumble sighed and followed. She was helping him. It was probably best not to question it too much. He still shot her a curious glance when she looked back. She stopped, raising a hoof up and to the left. Rumble looked to follow her point. He saw an odd shape hanging from the thorns above. It was bulky and gray, but what caught his attention were the shapes flying around it. They looked like wasps, but if he could see them from this distance...they were huge!

"A horse-hornet nest, my little dear," Zecora whispered, "and a painful sting for those that get too near."

Rumble was amazed. "How did you even know...?"

"My eyes and ears, friend. This skill, I can't lend. You must follow close. Be my ghost."

"But-"

"There is a pool outside the valley," Zecora interrupted. "That will be a better place to dally."

The pair continued through the valley, Zecora always staying half a body ahead of him. She cut a slower pace this time. Rumble followed gratefully and quietly. The forest passed in the background like a fog. He let Zecora worry about that. All he did was move when she moved, stop when she stopped, and look forward to the rest Zecora promised.

Half an hour into their trek, Rumble joined Zecora in looking around. The tree trunks were starting to grow thicker. The ceiling of thorns was thinning. Rumble's heart jumped into his throat. They were nearly clear! How much further did they have to go?

Zecora was a step ahead of him, again. She shhed in his ear, and leaned around the nearest tree trunk. Rumble waited patiently for his cue to move. She didn't give it to him. Instead, she reached out and pulled him closer to her. Rumble didn't resist, but her reaction did nothing to calm him down. What was going on?

A deep growl answered his question. Rumble instinctively grabbed his sword, but Zecora was faster. A black veil crossed over his vision. Zecora sank to the ground, pulling Rumble into her body and wrapping them both with her cloak. No light penetrated the cloth. Zecora's head rested on his, her breath tickling his ear. "Calm-"

"What is it?!"

"Calm your breathing," she hissed. "The beast is seething. Don't let it hear, and it won't come near."

Heavy footsteps cut off his reply. Why didn't she tell him what it was?! The dark of the night inside the cloak wasn't doing him any favors! His mind gave him hundreds of possibilities, each one more deadly than the last. A bear? A manticore? A dragon? Zombie ponies?!

The footsteps came swiftly, accompanied by angry snarls. Rumble fought to keep himself under control as the beast passed by. Then, without warning, something slammed into the ground, just feet from his head. The impact was heavy. Rumble flashed back to his close calls with the clubbed tail of the armored dillo. A low whine escaped his throat. Rumble slapped a hoof to his mouth. The forest outside the cloak turned quiet. The beast wasn't moving!

Zecora pressed him against her chest. He felt it push into him as she slowly inhaled and pull away again with an exhale. Rumble tried to match her cadence, but his vocal chords rebelled against him. They took every chance they had to voice their fear. With one last brief inhale, Rumble held his breath.

Short sniffs of breath began sounding off. They were getting closer. They were getting closer, but there were no footsteps! Whatever it was knew they were there. It was hunting.

"Lift the cloak," Zecora whispered, her voice barely above the sound of her breathing. "Make no fuss. Give me room for my dust. Just an inch, it's a cinch."

Dust?! That was her plan?! But...did he have a better one? Rumble pulled his hoof away from his mouth. A cinch, she said. So why was he still shaking? The cloak brushed over his hoof. Rumble pulled it up. A sliver of light penetrated the darkness, and Zecora wasted no time. A puff of breath blew by his face, carrying a stream of green dust with it.

The entire world changed in a matter of seconds. A horrifying roar bellowed from outside. Zecora's cloak flew off of him. The unwelcome reexposure to light shocked his system. The beast found them, there was no other explanation. Rumble lied on the ground in a daze until his mane suddenly, and painfully, stretched out, pulling him up.

Zecora's teeth let go of his hair, and Rumble's legs shook as his hooves hit the ground. His eyes focused on the hulk crashing through the brush in front of him. The powerful body sprang after a green jackrabbit. Two bat wings and a long scorpion tail folded behind the enormous red mane. Even without seeing the face, Rumble knew it was a manticore, and-

And it was running away from him!

Rumble charged to the left, the way the manticore came from, and saw Zecora was already three strides ahead of him. The zebra craned her neck once to look back, and galloped through the trees. Rumble pushed himself until his legs were on fire. They had to be close. Zecora told him not to attract attention, and this sprint would pull in a whole lot of it.

Zecora led him to a ring of trees coated with gray strands of moss. The growths fell from the branches like curtains between the trunks. It was a sight Rumble recognized instantly. He slammed his hooves into the ground, skidding to a stop just feet before his muzzle brushed against the gray.

"What gives?! I thought we would be safe here!"

Zecora chuckled at his reaction. "You met the spiders, yes? I built this from their nests. The beasts know to stay away, so, yes, we will be okay."

The zebra pushed her way through the curtain of moss. Rumble's jaw dropped. She built this?! How in Equestria did she do that?! Rumble knew Zecora for less than an hour, and she did nothing but amaze him that entire time.

Rumble's muzzle parted the gray, and he stepped through to see this pool of Zecora's. What he saw blew him away. The pool of water was small, less than half the size of Ponyville's swimming hole, but it wasn't alone. The ring of trees surrounded an entire clearing. Soft green grass met Rumble's hooves. A row of bushes on the other side of the pond flowered in delicious looking reds, yellows, and blues. Zecora built an entire oasis for herself.

Zecora lapped up some water with her back turned to him. How long did it take her to prepare all of this? Why did she prepare all of this? Just...Just in case?

Rumble's legs cried out for relief. He slipped his canteen strap over his head, and let his things fall to the ground. He had a canteen, a thermos, and a little wooden sword. He had that inside a private garden that one zebra put Celestia knows how much time and effort into making. The same zebra that also had some kind of freaky magic dust that saved his life twice, not to mention that she could see, hear, and smell more than he could on his best day.

He never knew what he was doing. Frankly, that was old news. Rumble was beyond caring. He sprawled out face up on the grass, stretching out all four legs and wings. It was incredible, but he actually felt safe in the forest. Zecora was his best bet for getting out in one piece, and she hadn't let him down yet.

The cool shade from the leaves overhead cast shadows over the entire clearing, but Rumble's eyes focused on one small patch of blue in the dark green ceiling. The sky! In a flash, Rumble was back on his feet, wings spread and ready for takeoff. He had a clear path right to it!

Not yet, Rumble. His wings screamed to fly, but his head kept him on the ground. He couldn't just fly off like this. Zecora spent hours tracking him down, risked her life to save his, and brought him to safety. The least he owed her was an explanation.

"Feel free to leave," Zecora said in a muffled voice. "Your safety is what matters to me." She stood next to him with a mouth full of flower stems. The yellow petals were long and slender with several filaments sticking out of the center. Rumble gaped at the unexpected treat.

"You have honeysuckle?! Aweso-! Oh, uh, I mean...thank you." Zecora chuckled and dropped the flowers between them. Rumble took three of them in one bite. The taste of the sweet nectar on his tongue nearly knocked him on his back again. He chewed slowly, savoring every bit of the flowers that he could. Leaving now was the last thing on his mind.

The corner of Zecora's mouth turned up in a smirk. "You're going to stay then? Answer me one question, the mystery of my year. Why in the world are you here?"

Well, he saw that one coming. Rumble took a mouthful of water from his canteen, taking his time before he answered. Where did he begin? Why not from the beginning? Zecora had him pegged the first time she saw him. "You were right. I was...um, playing hero."

"Rumble, there's more to this story. It's a long way going from Ponyville to being a Timberwolf's quarry."

"I was trying to impress a girl." The silence was deafening. Zecora tilted her head to the side, eyes stretched wide. His cheeks started to burn. Rumble was about to make it worse. "It's her birthday. I was gonna find something for her. I thought this was my chance to do something special for her."

Zecora was a statue. Her words finally came out slowly. "That was an interesting plan. Her birthday came, and away you ran."

Rumble fought back tears. It sounded horrible in his head, but hearing someone else say it aloud was just humiliating. Actually, now that he thought about it, someone else already said it. Thunderlane was so right. It was embarrassing just how right he was, and now some pony else was ridiculing him with his brother's words.

Zecora stood and walked a small circle. "I fail to see any filly. Is this truly where you want to be?"

"No."

"Yet here you are. Why did you go this far?"

"I shouldn't have! At all! Is that what you want to hear?! I screwed up! I screwed up everything!"

Rumble clenched his eyes shut after his outburst. He bowed his head, shaking it in disbelief. He shouldn't have done that, either. When he opened his eyes, another honeysuckle flower was lying at his feet. He pushed it back to the pile. "Thanks, but I shouldn't have shouted at you like that. I'm sorry."

Zecora's hoof rose to his chin. She lifted his face, but Rumble looked away. He just wanted to go home. Nothing good could happen to him in this forest. Still, Zecora held his face. By Celestia, she was tenacious. Rumble lifted his eyes to hers.

As he feared, her head was tilted to the side. "Did I say something stupid again?"

"On the opposite, in fact. You said something quite exact. Follow me, and you will see."

"Wait, what?" Zecora turned away and headed for the pond. What just happened? What did he say? Rumble darted after the zebra. She did tell him how to find out.

Zecora waited for him at the edge of the pool. "You want to know why all this bother? Look into the water."

Rumble did. One ray of sunlight beamed down on the surface of the pond. It allowed him to see a mirror image of himself. He could hardly believe the sight. His mane was an absolute mess, with leaves and twigs sticking out of it. His muzzle was scratched and covered in streaks of red. It was probably his own blood. His own eyes looked back into him in shock. Who was this colt? Was this the same guy who slid a flower into his bowtie just earlier today? Even though he knew the answer, Rumble wondered what this pony could have gone through.

Zecora's head slid into view. "You said you screwed up everything. Say what mean. Hold back nothing."

Rumble's tongue went numb. This felt like a test. What was she expecting him to say? "I screwed up. I shouldn't have come here." The moment the words passed his lips, he knew what Zecora meant. Her reflection gave him a nod of encouragement.

"There was never a reason for me to come here. My family tried to help me with my problem, and I ignored them. I tried to be something I'm not. I let my pride screw with my head. I never thought about what I was doing. I killed a bird because I got angry and chased it away from safety. I nearly killed myself, and I didn't think about what that would mean until it was too late. I almost killed you because I couldn't even breathe right!"

Rumble slumped down after his confession. Stupid, stupid idiot. Zecora's hoof touched his shoulder. "I underestimated you, lad. Listen, there's no reason to be so sad."

"What are you talking about?"

"That took a courage too many never find. You can look at yourself and say 'the fault is mine.'

"Fat lot of good it does me." Rumble was sick of looking at himself. He raised a hoof and slapped the water, destroying his reflection. He brought his hoof back up to his face, wiping the blood off.

Zecora laughed behind him. "You said you wanted to be a hero, like in old storybooks and tomes. Would you like to hear such a tale from my home?"

A zebra legend? Rumble certainly never heard one before. "That sounds really interesting. Thanks." Zecora led him away from the pond and lied down on the grass. Rumble lowered himself next to the honeysuckle and waited for her to begin.

"It is a tale that comes from olden times, before zebras met ponies, griffons, or even spoke in rhymes. To the zebras, in all the world, there were only three things. The mindless beasts of the world, our goddess, and something in between."

"A goddess? You mean like Princess Celestia?"

"We believe this goddess is our creator, though none have ever seen her. She gave the zebras our wisdom, our minds. But what she didn't give us were more like our kind. We were alone. There were no other societies like our own. We were neither monstrous nor divine, beast nor god, black nor white."

"Oh! Were you actually gray? You didn't have stripes yet?" Zecora nodded. "Nice, it's an origin story! I read this one legend, where pegasi got their wings, that had the hero cut the wings off an eagle and-" Rumble shut up at the look Zecora gave him. The zebra cleared her throat and continued.

"One day, the creator came to speak with the queen of our tribe. Her Majesty asked what role the creator had for us in mind. Our goddess was confused. Did she not give us our knowledge, our voice? However, since she was dissatisfied with her lot in life, our queen was offered a choice. She could live as a beast out in the field, or live as the goddess, able to make others yield."

"I'm...gonna guess she took the second one?"

"In a flash of light, her coat was turned snow white. The goddess left her, still stunned, and said she would return to see what the queen had done. With all the wisdom of the goddess, the queen ruled thusly: Benevolent at first, then all too unjustly. Gold, jewels, goods, they all became hers. None could resist her honeyed words.

"One day, as the queen held court, the goddess came back. She ridiculed the queen, mocking her for failing her task. The goddess recounted all the queen's wrongs, and with each one she spoke, a stripe of black ruined the queens coat."

Rumble could only imagine what that felt like. He couldn't even tell his mistakes to himself without punching his reflection in the face. But having a goddess spell them all out? In front of an entire court? He felt a surprising sympathy for the queen.

"With each stripe, the queen's shame grew. And then, at long last, she knew. She knew the lesson the goddess was teaching. One must have humility with power far-reaching. The wisdom of the goddess was too much for her. She accepted her life among the zebra herd. The queen carried her stripes to the end of her days, and her rule is said to have been a golden age."

"Is...that story true?"

"Little Rumble, who could know? The lesson is what matters most. Knowledge, power, wisdom, whatever you seek comes with a price to be paid. It is a joke among the zebras that a stripe is added to us with every mistake that is made."

Zecora twisted to lie on her side and lifted her cloak. For the first time, Rumble saw all of her. He saw the stripes on her face and in her mane, of course, but now she showed him everything. All four legs were ringed with black. Her back was covered in the color as well. Black even dominated her tail.

"That's a lot of stripes," he weakly offered.

"There is a story behind every last one, and there could be more when all is said and done. Rumble, we must put our mistakes on ourselves. Learn from them, and you can start to trust yourself."

Go, find your confidence. This probably wasn't what Cloudchaser had in mind, but Rumble never heard a better definition of the word. He already paid quite a price, so is that what he found? Maybe this trip to the forest wasn't a complete waste after all.

"You should substitute for Miss Cheerilee one day."

Zecora threw her head back and laughed. "Perhaps, but now it is time to get you home. From here, it is an hour's roam."

Comments

[Little Jackie Papercut]

"What could Scootaloo possibly see in him"? Well, a bland palette, a greasy mane, a slightly creepy tendency ta hang out around older mares, a... that was rhetorical, wasn't it.

[you that read wrong]

4361876
Ohh no please * grabs baseball bat* we rumble fans would just loooove to know *puts bat in a show case* because thats what we *pulls out ak 47and cocks it* do hear on comment pages *puts ak on rack* we have *gets flamethrower* nice * Puts flamethrower on pedestal* Calm * gets chainsaw* pleasant*puts chainsaw in a statues hands* Honest * Gets sonic 06* conversation. *burns sonic 06* so... What was that list Again?