Chapter 1
“Thank you everypony for joining us on our trek into the mighty and beautiful jungles of Zebrica, my name is Zakai and I will be your guide on this tour.” the large zebra stallion yelled out to the crowd of ponies in front of him. “Before we begin our journey, I must inform you of some rules and warnings. First of all…”
As the zebra began explaining the dangers of the jungle most of the ponies were giving him their complete attention. All except a purple pegasus with a distant yet thoughtful expression on her face.
Connie Contrail wasn’t really anything special, being a simple mare that worked at the Cloudsdale Weather Factory as a secretary. The job definitely paid the bills and she lived a comfortable life but one could only do paperwork and deal with customers for so long before the boredom made her want to rip her mane out. So it was no surprise that when she had won a week long, all expenses paid vacation to Zebrica that she didn’t hesitate to take it.
As expected from such a beautiful country, the week had been marvelous. The natives were nice and welcoming, experiencing and learning some of the culture was absolutely delightful and she was pretty sure she would never be able to eat Equestrian food again after eating the native cuisine. It had been a wonderful vacation and with it being the last day she decided that there was no better way to end her time here than taking a tour of the famous jungle. She smiled as she couldn’t help reminiscing about her wonderful time.
“Ok everypony, if you’ll follow me we can begin our tour.”
The deep voice of the guide brought Connie back to reality and she realized she had missed his entire speech. Blushing a bit from embarrassment, she figured that it probably wasn’t too important and began trotting with the rest of the group.
It took them a couple minutes to reach the jungle but when they did Connie found herself blown away by its beauty. The foliage was far more dense and varied than what was found in Equestria with assortments of vibrantly colored flowers, rare ferns and trees that completely dwarfed the ones back home while also nearly blocking out the sun with their leaves. However, what surprised the pegasus the most was the noise.
Forests back in Equestria, even those with a reputation like the Everfree, were relatively quiet with only crickets and the occasional bird call to break the silence. The jungle by comparison was a verified symphony of tropical birds, thousands upon thousands of insects and other animal calls that she couldn’t even begin to describe. It was so loud that she couldn’t even hear the rest of the tour group, not that she cared much about that anyway. She was having the time of her life and just when she thought it couldn’t get any better she saw the most beautiful flower she’d ever seen.
It was a bright sapphire with small dots of violet speckled across its petals. As soon as she saw it, Connie knew she had to have it as a souvenir. She looked back at the group and noticed they were starting to move away. If she wanted to do this without being left behind she would have to move fast.
She made her way to the flower when she all of a sudden found that there was no longer any solid ground below her. If she had listened earlier to the guide’s warnings she would have heard him explain how the dense jungle foliage can sometimes hide sudden drop offs. The guide knew where these drop offs were and how to avoid them. Connie did not.
She started tumbling down the side of what she would learn was a small cliff, all the way crashing into small rocks and thorn covered bushes before she reached the bottom and hit her head on the trunk of a tree. Luckily, she didn't hit her head hard enough to knock her out, though it definitely dazed her. She stumbled for a bit away from where she fell until her world stopped spinning. She looked around and her heart dropped when she realized she had no idea where she was. It also meant she had no idea where the rest of the tour group was.
Panic starting to slowly settle in she started looking around frantically, hoping to find some indication of where the group had gone.
“Hello, is anypony there?!” she screamed out, the panic now fully apparent on her face and in her voice. Her voice echoed throughout the jungle, but she was only met with silence.
Wait, silence?
She froze as she came to a startling realization. The jungle, which earlier had been so loud that she could barely hear herself think, was now completely and utterly silent.
Connie looked around frantically. She could see or hear no sign of any life aside from the plants, not even the buzz of a mosquito. Not only was it completely silent in the once cacophonous jungle, it was also now still as stone. The mare could feel a cold chill run down her spine. It was as if the entire jungle had just died.
Then the ground began to shake.
She could feel the rumbles of something extremely large making its way through the jungle, yet somehow making no sound. Her eyes went wide and her face pale as she could feel the rumbling ground shaking more intensely.
Whatever this thing was, it was getting closer.
She took off galloping through the jungle as fast as possible, adrenaline coursing through her veins as she ignored the scratches and bruises she was getting from running through branches and thorn covered vines. The only thing she cared about was getting away from whatever was chasing after her. She ran and ran, her legs starting to burn, but no matter how fast she ran the monster chasing her seemed to stay right on her tail the whole time. Connie cursed the thick jungle foliage preventing her from using her wings to attempt a quicker escape.
Her concentration, as well as the silence, was broken by a massive tree crashing to the ground. She was afraid of what this giant beast would look like, expecting everything from gnarled teeth to multiple sets of eyes.
She was more terrified when she saw nothing.
She tried to pick up the pace, to only minor success, when she saw what might be her saving grace. Only about another hundred feet away was a small cave covered in foliage. She charged for the small opening and managed to squeeze herself in. Never in her life had she been more happy to be on the smaller side for a mare. Hidden in the cramped space, it took everything within her power to stop shaking with terror. As she heard the monster approach she could only hold her breath, praying to Celestia that it wouldn’t find her. It was so close now that its steps were shaking the small cave and causing small amounts of dirt and rock to fall on her head. And then it all just stopped. The only noise that was piercing the silence of the jungle was a deep, steady breathing.
Coming from right above her hiding place.
Connie slammed her eyes shut with tears streaming down her face and doing everything to not make a single sound. She failed to remain quiet when the beast let out an otherworldly roar.
The roar was like a pitched-down whale song mixed with a tiger’s roar and an alligator’s bellow. It was unbelievably loud, exponentially more so than the entire jungle before its arrival and Connie’s scream of terror at that very moment. It was the most terrifying thing the pegasus had ever heard. It rattled her bones and felt like it was seeping into her very soul. It terrified her to such an extent that she didn't even notice the warm blood flowing out of her ears. It only lasted a second but to Connie it felt like hours.
The creature once again went silent and Connie, with her cheeks drenched in tears and drops of blood dripping to the ground, tried to listen for the creature but the only thing she could hear now was a high pitched ringing. Unable to hear anything else, she instead waited there until she could no longer feel the ground shake from its steps and then waited a few minutes more to be absolutely sure it was gone.
When she believed it was safe, she finally left her hiding spot and could only go pale at the sight. What had once been a dense section of jungle filled with ferns, exotic flowers and trees had been turned into a small clearing, with her cave in the center. The trees, some of them thicker than a carriage and as tall as a castle, were completely uprooted and blasted back. If anypony else saw the seen, they would have thought a large explosion had gone off in the center, and Connie knew the true culprit and that 'explosion' wasn't too far off. With wide, unblinking eyes staring at the destruction, she wasn’t looking where she was walking and fell into a large hole with a squeak of surprise. She laid there for a moment before standing up and shaking off her daze. She used her wings to hover out of the hole, only to fall back to the ground when she looked down at the indention in the ground. It wasn’t a natural hole.
It was a footprint twice her size.
She started backing up, her mind a frantic mess. She was forced to a stop when she backed up into a tree. She stood there, frozen aside from her hyperventilating, as she stared at the destruction and the gigantic footprint.
That’s when she felt something drip onto her head.
Her fear palpable, Connie slowly looked up and was greeted to the sight of a drooling maw and a set of blood red eyes staring right at her. She let out a blood curdling scream and attempted to run once more but this time she was too slow.
The creature, the massive demon, lunged for her.
In an instant, everything was silenced.