//------------------------------// // Conversation // Story: (Not) Black and White: A Displaced Fic // by Masterweaver //------------------------------// Let me stop and tell you all about the little bundle of badass that is Zecora. You remember how the Everfree is this big scary place with crazy magic that not even the top dog ponies enter without trepidation? Yeah, Zecora lives there. She doesn't have phenomenal power or whatever; all she has is her wits, her alchemy, and her experience with all that nature provides. I think she could take on a dragon and win, so long as it was in Everfree. I'm pretty sure she has, actually. It would explain some of the stuff laying about her house. In fact, the one time that she moved away was when super-powered chaos vines sprouted and started spreading. And even then, that was like, for a week. I mean I wasn't there for that, that happened long before I arrived, but when it takes literally invincible moving plants with knock-out gas actively strangling everything in order to get somebody to even consider leaving... And yet, despite being one of the most hardcore ladies I have ever met, Zecora is also incredibly patient, and very caring. Granted, for ponies being caring is a staple--patient, not so much, the're a little on the high-strung side. But... look, she introduced herself by decapitating something with a flying kick, and then immediately turned around and brought me to her home. Maybe I got a little attached, what with her being the first thing that tried to make sense in this crazy situation. I still think, despite my bias, that Zecora is pretty much the one creature I would never screw with, and the one that I would never want to. I'm counting a chaos spirit and the princesses that move the skies in that, by the way. They may meet one or the other qualifier, but only Zecora definitely meets both. You may be wondering why I'm singing her praises. Well, in case it isn't obvious, I consider her to be a close friend of mine. And why, you may ask, do I think that? It really all started once she brought me into her house... With a guide, the trek through the forest seemed much more... sedate. The odd noises and shifting shadows were still omnipresent, but now instead of being all consuming they were merely obstacles; obstacles that could be safely ignored, as I instead focused on not losing sight of my unexpected savior. Not that it was difficult; a stack of golden rings surrounded both her neck and left foreleg, with another pair of golden hoops hanging from her ears. In the shadows of the trees, her dark stripes should have broken up her silhouette enough to make it harder to see her and yet, to my eyes, she never vanished. Maybe I should have realized that was odd at the time... I did eventually make the connection later. But for the moment, I simply followed, trying my best not to be... intrusive. It was about fifteen, maybe twenty minutes later when she turned one last corner onto a dirt road and led me toward a thick tree whose branches were practically dripping in colorful flasks. A multicolored mask leaned on one of the gnarled roots, its empty eyesockets staring into my soul as my rescuer walked up the steps wedged at the tree's base. She glanced up at another mask, this one framed by leaves, and said something in a language I couldn't understand, before opening a small wooden door and beckoning me inside. I had to get on my hands and knees to crawl in--and that was certainly interesting, given my new shape--but once I crossed the threshold I was able to stand. The inside of the tree matched the outside--shelves jammed tight with jugs and candles, even more flasks hanging from branches and watched by a number of carved equine faces mounted on the inner wall. The one who had led me here walked past the cauldron resting in the central firepit, taking time to examine a few strands on the small jut of wood that appeared to be her work desk, before turning back to me. "You have been silent all during our walk, but now that we're home I expect you to talk." "Wha--oh." I rubbed the back of my head for a moment... which was how I discovered my hair was longer and slightly wavier then I remembered. That distracted me for a couple of seconds before I remembered I wasn't alone. "Uh... so... nice place you've got here? Very... it's got that charm, you know... I like the masks." The plush zebra thing slowly quirked an eyebrow. A sigh passed through my lips. "I... look. Thanks for saving me from those things, I'd probably have a lot more splinters if you hadn't. I'm sorry, I'm just... very confused right now." "I expected as such, if I let the truth be known. After all, to another realm you have been thrown." I blinked. "Wait, you know about that?" "The place we are in, the forest Everfree, has a few unique and rare quirks, you see. When from other worlds things do appear, it is not uncommon for them to do so here." She tilted her head toward the strands on the desk. "The manticores can sense when strangers arrive; most they consume, and so they do thrive. A few whiskers I keep so I am aware of when something new has come forth to bare." It took me a bit to process what she had said--it was really the first time I had actually encountered somebody who actually exposited in RHYME--but once I did, I couldn't help but give her a look. "So, uh... you were looking for someone or something that just fell into the forest? And you just happened to find me?" "You were honestly quite easy to track." Her lips quirked into a wry smirk. "In matters of stealth, you severely lack." "Not... surprising," I admitted. "I'm not... I wasn't ever really a nature kind of guy. Heck, before this, I---" My words caught in my throat, as I glanced down at... myself, again. "...Um." I swallowed. "So... these transportations from other worlds... do you know if they, uh, cause transformations as well?" The zebra took in my expression. Slowly, she nodded. "I thought that something about you was amiss... but I will admit disquiet at this. Transformations usually make a newcomer's shape something that will not leave natives agape. Your race, however, is unknown to me; that is something I have yet to see." "Oh. Huh." I tried to figure out what that meant, exactly, but given how strange the entire situation was I wasn't quite in the mindset to think about it too much. "...do you have a mirror? I mean, I... still don't even know what my face looks like." "You truly have a curious pace. Look into the cauldron to see your face." "Right. Thanks..." The cauldron's surface was green, but still clear enough that when I leaned over it I could see my golden eyes peering back at me. And that was new; golden eyes, with a faint slant to them, and silvery makeup of some kind on the corners. My face was certainly young-looking, except... it felt like it hadn't smiled often. Wavy bangs reached just past my thin black eyebrows, and dark hair poured like water from behind a bow to... wow, just above my waist? "Huh... well... I guess if I had to be a girl, at least I'm a pretty one..." I reached up, watching the reflection's hand feel her cheek and brush through her hair. "I mean, I don't know why--" My voice fell silent when my fingers hit the cloth of the bow. I had... felt something. Not with my hand, but... In slow, wary movements, I pinched the dark ribbon, drawing it off very cautiously. It rested, tightly, in my fist as I stared into my increasingly strange reflection. "...Cat ears. I have... cat ears." "They are quite feline, that is certainly true. From your shock, I take it these are new?" I looked up at the zebra. "No, you're not getting it. I thought I just turned into a girl--a female of my species--and yeah, I don't exactly look like 'me but a girl' but I thought it was just--but now I have extra ears. And I don't know what that means, exactly. I mean, does it mean--I'm in a world with, with talking zebras and wooden wolves and giant lion things and even my own body isn't the same and I have this gun sword thing I don't know how to use and am I having a breakdown I think I'm having a breakdown I'm sorry I just I can't even I don't--" My increasingly hysterical rambling was cut off by a gentle hug. "You have had your world turned end over end. Perhaps, for the moment, what you need is a friend?" "I... yeah." Slowly, hesitantly, I hugged her back. "Yeah. Thanks... I... yeah."