//------------------------------// // We Are Merely Players // Story: The Catalyst // by Somber Star //------------------------------// "You got expelled for violent outbursts again?" Many were the rumors that circulated through Canterlot, indiscriminate of economic classes. A rational mind would be inclined to ignore them to the best of one's ability, but that would mean relying on official news and the word of nobles for recent information. As it happened, most rumors tended to be true. Ponies by nature were not typically malicious and the world was amazing and strange enough that lying just wasn't worth the effort. So it then became a matter of sorting out which rumors one was interested in enough to listen to. "You're supposed to grow up to be somebody important, like a doctor or lawyer! Not some worthless thug!" Somber never realized it, but the reason for this in his case was because virtually anyone he prompted for the least amount of conversation "rewarded" him with a brief summary of their day, week, month, season, year, or life story. Which wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't periodically stop and ask him for his opinion, then continue before he responded. It seems that the price to be paid for being a "good listener" was having to demonstrate that trait all day, every day. He wondered sometimes if he should go into journalism or work as an interrogator for the police or government. It wouldn't even be that hard, all he'd have to do is ask somepony how they're doing today. "What the hay is wrong with you? Are you TRYING to ruin my image!? That does it, I know how to sort you out, Mister!" The rumor that the still Cutie Markless blue-gray colt was actually interested in was the one about a zebra who had apparently seen fit to move into the Everfree Forest and had since been haunting Ponyville. So while the rest of the cadets at Hurricane Joint Forces Academy went home to see their families, one young pony ventured out where no others dared. Well, no other pony that is, not for the past thousand years. But given that there had once been an entire castle here and Somber didn't see much difference between a pony and a zebra, he felt that he had little to fear. He could only hope that whatever threat presented itself was sufficient to incite him to break his chains and show it what a real threat was. He'd lost many fights in Canterlot because he was so bound by pity for his opponent that he ended up being whittled down without being able to hit back, falling to the damage of wounds he barely felt. At the edge of the Everfree, he looked up at the looming trees and listened to the cries of untamed creatures mixed with the rush of unguided winds. There was a certain beauty to it, now that he thought about it. In this wild place, each and every living thing answered only to its own will, and yet life here thrived at least as much as that under the ponies' yokes for over a millennium. Roots threatened to trip and hid venomous snakes and large spiders. Brambles reached out to ensnare and tear at pony manes and hides. Canopy branches supported the weight of diving vines and ambush predators of all shapes and sizes. There was a harmony buried somewhere in these woods, a hidden method to the madness waiting to empower whomever was willing and able to brave them. Somber closed his eyes and focused on the spell of courage he'd written for himself based loosely on a cadence he'd heard at the Academy. "Though I trot through the Forest in the Shadow of Chaos, I shall fear no Nightmares. For I walk proudly and alone. And those monsters and beasts that look upon me. Will see and know one of their own. When he opened his eyes, it seemed as though he could see a path into the woods. Whether it had been opened purely for his benefit or simply noticed only by his calmed nerves, he neither knew nor cared. There was only the march forward to meet another as intimate with loneliness as himself. Or at least, so he thought. But a hundred or so paces in and he finally solidified the feeling he had been getting every time he visited this tiny town and the surrounding area. Somepony was not only watching him, but also following him. Conducting an about-face and taking fifty paces back, he found himself facing a terrified-looking pegasus filly. "What are you doing in there?" she asked, although her tone and body language strongly indicated she was afraid of learning the answer. "I'm going to meet someone." Somber replied. "Why are you following me?" "W-we're not supposed to go into the Everfree, it's forbidden," the filly protested. "'We' are not going into Everfree," Somber stated so calmly that his tone made her relax. "I am." "B-but the creatures in that forest! And the plants! And maybe even the water and the rocks too, are... ARE..." Fluttershy struggled to find the words to express how potentially scary everything in the forbidden forest was supposed to be. "Free?" he asked, sitting in place and studying her. "Wild!" she shouted into normal conversational volumes, flailing both her forelegs and her wings to emphasize her point. She would have fallen flat onto her face, but a wind that was not wind caught her and lifted her up. Instead, she was righted and found herself facing the colt. He was smiling brightly, but something about the expression made her gasp. "Your teeth!" "What about my teeth?" he asked quizzically as she struggled to break free of his telekinesis until he released her, allowing her to scamper away a short distance. After all, it wasn't like he didn't know the answer. It was always the same. "They're beautiful!" she burst out, her voice more of a gasp than anything. "What?" Scratch 'always'. "They're super straight and clean, but it's not just that! You have teeth like a bear, but pony-sized! I love bears!" Fluttershy gushed, forgetting herself as she swept to just within reach of him, then remembered and flitted back out. "But how? You look just like a regular pony!" "I have a... complicated family history. Let's just say my ancestors were very... experimental with their partners." Somber reluctantly confessed. It was such an awful thing in Canterlot: his bloodlines were so mixed as to render his city-state of ancestral origin utterly unplaceable. "I have some Wild Mustang blood, and Burro, and Earth Pony, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was some Zebra and Celestia knows what else mixed in, too. Come to think of it, even she might not. I'm kind of a genetic mess." "Oh my... so does that mean you're a Chimaera? That's so amazing." Fluttershy spoke between her hooves and blushed around them as she'd partially covered her face, hovering in place so she could. "What? No!" Somber snapped, internally wincing as he saw the filly wither in an instant. He took a breath to dial down the aggression he'd built up for this adventure. "Those are real things, and they're pretty ugly. I'm what you'd call a Viable Hybrid. At least I hope I'm viable, because finding out I'm not would not only be utterly heartbreaking, it would give those uppity yucks back in Canterlot yet another thing to laugh at me about." "Oh... I'm so sorry." "Don't be. Despite everypony else's best efforts, I'm proud of what I am. I know what I'm worth, I just need to go find out exactly what I'm supposed to be applying that to." "Oh. So, do you want me to..." "Go home." Somber replied, fixing her with an expression that would be burned into her memory for the rest of her life. It was the look of a pony who was willing to face any pain, whether it be to his heart or his body, to accomplish his goal. More importantly, it was the threat of the resolve to kill a foe if necessary. "You're not like me. You're a normal pony, with a good heart and a peace-loving mind. You don't belong in a place like Everfree. You belong in Ponyville, where the world is bound by warmth and light, and love and law. This forest is for freaks like me. Oh please don't cry. I know you don't understand, but I'm not doing this to reject you. I'm doing it to protect you. Go away. Please." Fluttershy did. In her wake, she left a trail of tears and only in their complete absence from one another did they each realize they had not caught the other's name. * * * "Oh my, but that was such a lovely tale, Darling!" Rarity commented as she closed up the little bit of romantic fluff she had snatched from Fluttershy after catching her writing it. "This 'Prince of Many Rivers' you wrote about is certainly an intriguing figure, if perhaps the very antithesis of a 'prince', and I could really feel the heartbreak in your parting company. But it's a bit disappointing, is it not? You didn't even get to-" "Excuse me!" Fluttershy snapped, flushing furiously. With motions so fast Rarity couldn't quite see, she retrieved her journal pages from the shelf her classmate put it on and returned to her initial position. On the return leg, she flicked her tail at Rarity's snout. "It is NOT just a tale! He's real! And this is mine!" "Well I never! I can understand you being passionate about the subject, but that doesn't justify such... such rudeness! I know you spend a lot of time around animals, Fluttershy, but you really ought not to act like one!" "Did you just equate acting like animals with rudeness?" "Well if the horseshoe fits!" "Horseshoes don't fit on animals!" Fluttershy was actually angry enough now that she had exceeded pleasant conversational volumes. "You know what I'm talking about! Critters are cute and all, but they are fundamentally uncivilized!" "Uncivilized! UNCIVILIZED!? At least animals aren't a bunch of pompous, self-absorbed, heartless, bit-worshipping-" A feminine voice clearing its throat interrupted Fluttershy's building rant and drew both opponents' attention to the door. "We are tres de regret to be interrompre," Lotus Blossom said hesitantly from the door to the abandoned library Fluttershy and Rarity had taken to fighting in, rather than writing the fluff fics as they intended to. "But we wish to be début a spa proche," Aloe continued for her sister as she followed her inside. "Would you maybe like to be échantillonnage nos services? We have just emménagé from Prance, and have noun des clients yet." "A spa, you say?" Rarity asked, instantly forgetting the barrage of offense Fluttershy was in the process of slinging at her. "Oui, mademoiselle," Lotus replied, reaching back into her posh saddlebags and extracting a flyer for the new spa in her teeth before releasing it to roll out before the two formerly fighting fillies. Somehow, she managed to make the whole series of actions look rather graceful. "We are to be offering les massages!" "Et les hooficures!" Aloe interjected brightly. "Et les bains de boue!" "Aussi les enveloppements d'algues! Et..." Lotus continued until on some unspoken cue, both foreign fillies moved to either side of Rarity to whisper in her ears in unison. "Dépôt de corne..." A spark raced down Rarity's spine. It took all of her willpower not to faint on the spot. At this point, she had forgotten Fluttershy even existed. "Well, what are we waiting for?" Rarity tried to bellow in a ladylike fashion. "I would be tres excité to be the premier among your clientèle!" The twins were thrilled. They eagerly galloped out the front door of the library, first following her because she was faster, then leading her because they actually knew where they were going. The door was slammed shut behind the trio. "What... what just happened?" Fluttershy asked nopony.