What is the heart?

by Skiddlez

Chapter 1

Light.
That was all he could perceive.

Ulquiorra Schiffer, Cuatro Espada of the Arrancar, had woken up. Sitting in a clearing in a forest somewhere, his first question should have been about his new, unfamiliar surroundings. But he was ignoring the surroundings. They were not as important as his revelation.

So… this is the heart. These feelings of humans… come from here.

He examined his hand, which he had reached out to the girl…

Wait. I’m alive. That should be impossible.

His arm was as it had been before his Resurrección- an extremely pale grey, similar to an old corpse. No sign of injury, or even an invasive spiritual pressure.
He was clad in his old clothing- a high collared, long-tailed jacket with a black zipper, a black sash into which was holstered his Zanpacto, Murciélago, white hakama, black tabi and white zōri. Exactly as he had been before his final battle with Ichigo Kurosaki.

He then chose this moment to look around, and examine his surroundings.
Right behind him was a cave, seemingly meant for him- or any other being that passed through. Outside the cave was a large forest, seemingly natural- but Ulquiorra felt that there was something wrong with the whole scene. For all his intelligence, he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it- there was the noise of wild animals, the trees didn’t appear to be particularly misshapen or even that different in size or species from trees in the world of the living, the sunlight was bright- nothing wrong on first appearances- and then, he finally noticed what was annoying him.

I see. Everything is brighter here than in the world of the living. Orihime did mention that trees in the minds of children were coloured brown, despite the evidence to the contrary. So for this forest to be so bright, I must be in either the King’s dimension (not likely) or an entirely new world. Maybe I should find out more about this place- there have to be Hollows, and where a Hollow is, there is a pathway back to Hueco Mundo.
Strange. I have never thought like this before.
…Is this what humans call… Curiosity?

Working up enough motivation to step into this saccharine world and seeing it was an incredible task. Eventually, Ulquiorra, after much debate, ventured out into the forest.

Meanwhile, on the boundary of the Everfree Forest, three overactive, hyper fillies were attempting to make a decision.

“I don’t know if this is the best idea’ was Sweetie Belle’s opinion of their latest adventure.

“Aw, come on! It’ll be fun!” Scootaloo, whose idea was this in the first place, was not giving ground on this.

“Look, maybe we should not go in there. Remember the cockatrice? Fluttershy isn’t with us! What if we get stoned?”

”We’re not going to be stoned if we’re careful, are we?”

“Remember the tree sap?”

“DO NOT MENTION THE TREE SAP AGAIN.”

“Hey, Applebloom, what do you think?”

“Well, ah don’t think that going in with an unreliable map is a good idea, but we’re going to change that by mappin’ it!” was Appleblooms’, the unofficial leader of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, final verdict.

“Alright girls, time for the chant.”

Three extremely loud voices yelled at ear-splitting volumes:
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS FOREST CARTOGRAPHERS YAY!”

Well, this forest is huge. Colossal, even.

There was no discernable path, only a small trail made by the animals of this unfamiliar location. The brighter colours were hurting Ulquiorra’s eyes, but it was a small proof that he was definitely not in Soul Society. If he had been, then the Soul Reapers would have tracked him down long before now.

What was also a part of the proof was that every animal had been trying to kill him. And only a few of them looked anything like animals in the world of the living.

Strange, doglike creatures, standing on their hind legs and wearing filthy vests and spiked collars, were just the latest in a series of corpses left in his wake. Their burrowing abilities were the only thing that they had to escape- and a series of bala quickly demolished this slim chance of escape. Only three-, which he assumed were the leaders-, had eventually escaped. Complete trash, the lot of them.

The large creature made up of parts of a scorpion, lion and eagle provided more of a challenge than those creatures- he had needed to regenerate an arm from the encounter, and had had to send it off with a few warning bala.

Eventually, after many more encounters with more lion things, lizard-chickens and a really angry rabbit, which survived by learning to dodge bala and ran off further into the forest, he had finally arrived at a river. It looked clean, but there could be contaminants- there were no other animals around the water. Then again, this was the only source of water that he had seen through the forest, and an arrancar as powerful as he was could survive most conventional pollutants.

He was just about to drink from it when something sprung from the water.

It appeared to be bright purple, with a lighter shade on its front. At first, Ulquiorra thought it was shaped like a snake, but upon seeing its limbs, Ulquiorra amended that statement to a Chinese dragon. It even had an asymmetrical moustache- half of it was a bright, fiery orange, but the other half was elegantly coiled and a deeper shade of purple- maybe indigo. Its orange hair was arranged into- Ulquiorra couldn’t believe it- a mullet, Aizen’s favourite hairstyle. The only thing missing from it was that annoying lock of hair in front of his face. Large, intelligent eyes looked at him curiously. Finally, it spoke.

“Oh, my word! Full clothing!”

Immediately, Ulquiorra understood something. The reason why there were no animals was this creature. He was reminded of the Segunda Espada’s Fracción, Charlotte Cuulhorne. The trash had dressed so badly, and had made a number of comments, which Ulquiorra had been unable to understand, until the woman had translated them as, apparently, ‘hitting’ on him. He had never made those comments to any female arrancar, and was still unable to understand why, even with a new heart. Maybe it would come to him in time. Fortunately, he could paraprocess, which he had developed for people like Charlotte- he lost himself in his own thoughts and operated on automatic.

First, fresh water. He needed a drink of something- and after a whole century of drinking reishi-infused tea, you grew used to drinking, even if you would rather eat a whole soul. Unfortunately, in the human world, he had learned to never, EVER drink from a toilet, no matter how clean it looked.

No pollutants or preservatives, but certainly good enough to drink. He savoured the taste- no added reishi in the water, but it tasted so good and surprisingly sweet that it was no matter- there was sufficient reishi in the environment that he wouldn’t need added reishi in the water to strengthen him. Absently nodding, he used the water to make an acceptable cleaning job of his jacket, which had become quite bloodstained through his travels. Just as he was wondering where he could wash his hakama without being seen by the piece of trash called ‘Steven Magnet’, three unusual creatures burst through the overgrowth.

‘Alright, Scoots!”

“Yeah Applebloom?”

“Start drawing our last route into the forest!”

They seemed to have not noticed him. They seemed to be little horses- were they called ponies, or something twee like that? The only one who seemed to have noticed him was a white ‘pony’ with a horn on its head. Nice colour, unlike orange and yellow. Those weren’t natural horse colours.

Ponies can have dye jobs? Wait… they spoke. That’s not natural.

“Girls? There’s something… odd near the water!” Sweetie Belle pushed both of them. Applebloom casually looked in the direction where Sweetie Belle was pointing.

“Oh, that’s just Steven Magnet. He’s harm-“ Applebloom finally realized what Sweetie Belle was pointing at. Scootaloo was staring at in fascination.

It was so white- it even had a half helmet made of what looked like bone. Its green eyes were looking at them with no expression, and it wore slightly cleaner white clothing- what looked like pants, a white jacket, and weird looking black and white hoofs. It stared at them with those creepy eyes, then, with a small ‘BOOM’, it disappeared in a flash, as if it had teleported.

Ponies… talking ponies. Ponies, in my experience, do NOT talk.