The Tale of Ashen Amethyst

As the years passed, Ashen Amethyst grew just as steadily as any normal foal despite the fact that he was definitely not a pony. Twilight never did manage to figure out exactly what he was, but since he didn't appear to be dangerous, it was decided that it didn't really matter. He became an anomaly much like Pinkie Sense and The Stare. Right alongside Twilight in the category of those that had to learn to simply accept Ashen were Fluttershy's animals who'd eventually gotten more comfortable around the foal as he slowly grew into a young colt.

During the transition from foal to colt, Ashen managed to get himself scolded once or twice for stalking rabbits, squirrels, and mice like a cat would. He did eventually pick up on it being bad, but the predatory behaviour was still a bit concerning. Occasional lapses into predatory behaviour aside, Ashen remained an exceptionally well-behaved pony. He was polite, docile, and friendly.

One would think that such a polite and friendly demeanor would mean that Ashen would be instantly well-liked upon joining school, but Ashen actually found himself quite outcast. He didn't mind, in fact, it was by his own doing; anytime a filly or colt would ask him to play, they would get a polite rejection. Eventually ponies stopped asking. Ashen was content to spend any spare school time he had reading. He read during lunch while he ate, during recess while the other foals played, and any time in class when he'd finished his work for the day but there was still time left.

Ashen's quiet, solitary nature made him an easy target for ridicule by anypony who was less than pleasant, but Ashen was known for not caring about much and especially for not caring about what others thought of him. Even though one wouldn't be blamed for thinking that Ashen didn't care about his peers, they would be wrong, for anytime those less than pleasant ponies found a target elsewhere, Ashen was known for using his considerable magical talent to defend his peers.

Even though that didn't exactly earn him friends so much as it earned him ponies who were nice to him out of gratitude or because they wanted his protection, it did make him quite popular. Everypony knew that picking on somepony else would bring down the wrath of the smallest, quietest colt in the class and with every student who wasn't unpleasant backing him, Ashen never got into trouble for his deeds.

One day, Ashen's efforts did manage to earn him as close to a friend as he'd ever had in school. It was nearing the end of Ashen's third school year and he'd found himself busier than ever before. A new student had joined them and she was easily the densest and nastiest pony Ashen had ever dealt with. All of the other bullies in the school had had their bad attitudes metaphorically beaten out of them by Ashen's constant protection of their victims, but the new filly had yet to learn despite facing Ashen's wrath multiple times already.

On that fateful day, a pony named Hourglass proudly displayed her flanks for the other foals at the school during recess, happily explaining that she had received it the night prior when she realized that she had a penchant for scheduling. Due to her talent for scheduling and planning, she was easily one of the most punctual ponies in Ponyville and thus had received an hourglass cutie mark. Her parents had taken her that very night to get her name changed from Flower Crown to Hourglass as it had become a widely beloved Equestrian law that anypony could get their name changed to something more fitting once they got their cutie marks if they wanted to.

Equestria's parents were oddly good at naming their foals, or perhaps foals just subconsciously ended up enjoying things that pertained to their names, either way, they weren't flawless, and that had finally been recognized when enough foals started submitting formal complaints to the princesses themselves.

The joy of the moment was promptly ruined when another, decidedly unpleasant voice cut through the jubilation. "So, what, you're good at being on time?" The condescending voice belonged to the classes current bully, Porcelain Doll, who cut through the crowd in order to sneer at Hourglass. "So is anypony with a watch. That's not a special talent, that's a basic skill."

Porcelain Doll had started her life as Wedding Bells, but once she discovered she had a knack for refurbishing old, battered dolls, especially porcelain ones, she had it changed. Porcelain, despite what one might think, didn't belong to a prominent or even wealthy family, she hadn't been the first in the class to receive her mark (she had actually been fourth, not that anypony was counting), and her talent wasn't even that particularly rare. Porcelain, even before she became Porcelain Doll, was simply a mean filly who seemed to genuinely enjoy being nasty to everypony.

In fact, Porcelain was actually very good at getting under a pony's skin and striking where it hurt most and it was decided amongst the other foals that the only reason she hadn't gotten her mark for being mean was because the universe had no way of telling a pony that their special talent was being a bitch, and so it had waited until she'd discovered a talent more fitting for a mark. They weren't far off with their assumptions and in fact, Porcelain's bad attitude was the reason her parents had had to move towns and she'd had to move schools to begin with. Her parents had hoped that taking their filly out of the big city would calm her down, but it hadn't worked yet.

"My special talent is scheduling, Porcelain." Hourglass snapped back, narrowing her eyes at the uppity filly. "My mark just shows that I'm really good at being punctual because of that."

"Wow, a mark that doesn't even reflect your special talent but a side-effect of it. A lame side-effect of it." Porcelain turned and slapped Hourglass across the face with her tail in the process. "I almost feel bad for you."

Hourglass bristled like an angry cat and was about to attack Porcelain and earn herself another few days in detention for fighting when a familiar purple colt stepped in front of her. It was Ashen Amethyst. He had yet to get his mark and was one of the foals Porcelain picked on the hardest, yet he never seemed to be bothered by either. Whenever Porcelain tried to rile him up, he either ignored her, quietly stared at her until she gave up, or, the rarest and most satisfying outcome, calmly jabbed her back with something hurtful enough to reduce Porcelain to tears. Even then, she just came back nastier than before, refusing to learn as the others had.

Even so, Ashen remained passive, never getting physical with Porcelain when he was her victim. Whenever Porcelain found herself needing to blow off steam on a student besides himself, however, Ashen took a far more proactive approach. Having stepped between Hourglass and Porcelain in order to get a clear line of sight, Ashen had, with the same impassive expression he almost always wore, teleported Porcelain Doll from the ground to the top of the school's belltower. Not the inside either, the very top. Porcelain had barely even a second to realize what happened and grab hold of the pointed spire she'd landed next to before she would have fallen from the roof.

Porcelain was a unicorn but she couldn't teleport yet, nopony in their class except Ashen could. As she was unable to even teleport herself, levitating herself was definitely out of the question, so she simply started yelling, demanding to be put back down. Porcelain Doll went ignored as everypony had gone back to showering Hourglass, and now Ashen, with attention.

"That was so cool, Ame!" One pegasus colt exclaimed, using the nickname Ashen preferred to be called by.

"Yeah! Your special talent should be magic like Princess Twilight!" An earth filly exclaimed, not noticing the withering look Ashen gave her for the comparison.

"I can't believe you almost jumped Porcelain!" A pegasus filly giggled, nudging Hourglass. "You're gonna get suspended if you keep fighting ponies.

Grinning, Hourglass shrugged. "Worth it. I'd be able to make up the lost time anyway. I'm efficient like that."

As the teacher, Chalk Dust, came out to call everypony inside for the second half of their learning day, Ashen quietly slipped out of the crowd. When Chalk Dust noticed Porcelain Doll up on the roof, she was quite panicked and immediately flew up to rescue her. Porcelain told on Ashen instantly, but as he was nowhere to be seen, and none of the other foals knew how Porcelain had gotten up there, or even, in fact that she was up there at all, the teacher didn't believe her, instead trying to gently explain to Porcelain that a magical burst resulting in an accident was nothing to be ashamed of and certainly nothing to lie about.

Porcelain was decidedly pissed.

When the class had all been herded back into the schoolhouse, they found Ashen sitting at his desk and reading ahead as he often did. Porcelain was still fuming but couldn't very well do anything about it with Chalk Dust around, so she simply took her seat. The other students had to try hard not to smile or snicker as the angry filly was left to stew and soon everypony was seated.

Once the day ended, the excited foals all rushed to get out of school so they could begin their evenings. Ashen lagged behind the crowd, taking his time to avoid the hustle and bustle, but when he did emerge from the schoolhouse, he saw Hourglass waiting near the entrance. When she saw him, she smiled and cantered up to him.

"Hey. Thanks for showing Porcelain what for during lunch."

"She deserved it." Ashen replied simply, tone void of emotion. "Congratulations, by the way."

"Thanks." Hourglass smiled happily, glancing back at Ashen's flank and feeling some of her smile fall. "How do you let it not bother you? I mean, it's nearly the end of the school year. Don't you worry about graduating a blank flank?"

"No."

"How!?"

"He's an emotionless freak, that's how." Porcelain Doll cut in, having been waiting at the end of the school grounds for Ashen and getting a two-for-one instead.

"Ugh, go away, Porcelain, nopony asked you." Hourglass sighed, her tone exasperated.

"Shut up, Hourglass." Porcelain snapped back, taking a threatening step towards the pair. "Let your coltfriend speak for himself."

Pausing, Ashen and Hourglass exchanged looks before Hourglass cracked up laughing and Ashen grinned in amusement.

"Is that what kindness registers as in your brain, Porcelain Doll? Romantic investment?" Ashen asked calmly, grin slowly fading.

Cheeks turning red from the tone she took as condescending in Ashen's voice, Porcelain stomped her hoof. "No! Why else would you two stick up for each other?! You aren't friends, you don't have any friends! You're too much of a freak!"

Grin having died down fully into his usual emotionless face, Ashen walked right up to Porcelain, invading her personal space as she was too proud to back up. "I may be a freak, but what's your excuse for not having any friends?" He asked coldly, watching with hidden satisfaction as Porcelain staggered back as though he'd struck her.

"Ooh, burn! Take that, Porcelain Doll!" Hourglass hollered, cantering up to Ashen and raising a hoof for a bump.

Although it took him a moment to realize what Hourglass wanted from him, Ashen hoofbumped her and the pair walked off, leaving a tearing up Porcelain to fume in their wake. From that day on, Ashen had a friend. Hourglass liked to hang out with Ashen during lunch and recess; while he read, she scheduled. They didn't talk much, and when they did, it was mostly one-sided with Hourglass excitedly telling Ashen something and Ashen simply smiling softly and nodding along. He didn't mind having a friend. In fact, he minded it considerably less than not having one. All in all, Ashen finally understood what all the hype was about.

It wasn't to last, however, as Ashen's advanced intelligence and magical aptitude saw him being advanced several grades which meant he went to a different school in Ponyville than the one Hourglass still went to. Hourglass still made the effort to hang out with Ashen during the weekend, but they eventually grew apart, Hourglass making more friends and Ashen finding himself considerably busier and more stimulated at the new school.

Despite his new, busier schedule, Ashen found himself more energetic than ever. Apparently being mentally stimulated was either very good or very bad for Ashen because he began to find it hard to sleep at night when he knew he could be studying. The new material however proved to be something he couldn't simply comprehend on his own and he often found himself unable to read ahead. So, instead of staying up all night trying and failing and ending up exhausted and frustrated by the morning, Ashen took to taking relaxing walks under the watchful gaze of the moon.

Ashen appreciated the beauty of the night, having always preferred night to day. It probably helped that he could see in the dark thanks to his serpentine-like eyes. One night, Ashen decided to walk around the outskirts of the Everfree forest instead of just walking around the expansive yard around Fluttershy's cottage. Then, another night, when Ashen was considerably older than he had been when he'd started his nightly ventures, Ashen decided to explore the forest itself.

The night was alive with the sounds of nature out in the Everfree but the sound of hooves crunching in the underbrush added an unnatural note to the late night serenade. Ashen had always been told by his mother to never enter the forest without her because it was more dangerous than just about anyplace else, even Pinkie's house, she'd sometimes jokingly add. Undeterred by Fluttershy's warnings and unafraid of whatever the forest held within it's dark depths, Ashen traveled on, looking about the trees and bushes as he went.

As he passed a bush, a small, round, fuzzy creature with sharp teeth, brown fur, and red eyes rolled out and hissed angrily at the invading colt. Ashen stared at the creature, unafraid of it's threatening display, and easily caught it in his magic when it tried to launch itself at him. The little whatever it was was very angry at him, it seemed, and was struggling madly to free itself.

Tilting his head, Ashen looked around, confirming that he was alone before compressing the creature in his magic slowly. He compressed until the creature couldn't move anymore and then focused a wall of magic within the bubble, effectively splitting the creature in half and killing it instantly. Ashen pulled the halves apart and examined the creatures inner workings through a thin sheet of his bright purple aura. He’d never seen a creature like this one before and he was quite curious and fascinated by it.

After examining how all of the creature's parts worked for awhile, Ashen realized he'd need to hide it's body or Fluttershy might find out what he'd done. Pondering his predicament for a bit, Ashen looked around again before pulling the creature even closer and removing the wall that held the creature's guts inside it's corpse. He held the creature in his magic, using it's corpse as a bowl, and sniffed the insides.

They certainly smelled good, better than vegetables. Poking his tongue out, Ashen tasted the creature and his eyes immediately began to shine, his pupils having already been slits since he was alone. It was delicious. Tilting the corpse bowl, Ashen took a drink of the creature's blood and then bit into it's lukewarm shell. Having to sit down from the new assault on his senses, Ashen devoured the small creature's lifeless husk in seconds, wolfing it down greedily and licking his lips clean. Why hadn't anypony told him meat was so good? Why didn't everypony eat meat? He'd have to ask Fluttershy in the morning; for now, he needed more.

The newborn predator stood back up and found a new silence in his steps as his instincts were awakened and in one night, the creatures of the Everfree forest found a new creature in their midst. A creature that looked like a tasty little pony, but was, in fact, terrifying and hungry and perhaps not even a pony at all. What it was then, was unknown, all that mattered was that from that night on, it was something to be avoided, to be feared.

The next morning, Ashen made good on his resolve to ask his mother about the wonders of a carnivorous diet. "Hey, mom," Ashen started softly, sitting at the kitchen table with Fluttershy as they had their morning breakfast: boring, bland, meatless oatmeal. "why don't ponies eat meat?"

Not expecting the odd question, Fluttershy took a moment to respond. "Well, because our bodies aren't made for it." She answered slowly, having gotten enough odd questions from her son to know that a simple answer wasn't good enough and carrying on. "Our teeth can't chew meat and our bodies can't process it. If we ate meat, we would just get sick from not getting the nutrients we need."

"Have you ever tasted meat?" Ashen asked, ears lowering as Fluttershy choked on her spoonful of oatmeal.

"Celestia, no!" Fluttershy exclaimed quietly, giving Ashen a quizzical look. "Where is all this coming from?"

Shrugging lightly, Ashen poked at his oatmeal with his spoon. "Some of the animals around here eat meat, so I was curious about why we don't." He lied, realizing from Fluttershy's tone that the subject was perhaps a bit taboo. Ashen could understand a pony not eating meat all the time since biology dictated that was bad for them, but why did it seem so wrong to simply try some?

Deciding he couldn't very well press Fluttershy on the matter and figuring that since she was skittish about it, other ponies were probably also skittish about it, Ashen hurried through his breakfast and excused himself. He sometimes helped Fluttershy with her daily tasks of taking care of her animals, especially when he didn't have school, but he decided he needed to ask the only other carnivore he knew about why meat was so taboo. Grabbing his bookbag, Ashen lied about needing to get some extra work done for school and left the cottage, making his way through Ponyville to Twilight's castle.

He didn't like Twilight much. She gave him weird looks when she thought he wasn't looking and he knew she didn't trust him. He didn't trust her either though. He'd met Cadence once before and she was so polite and mature and put-together compared to Twilight; it made Ashen wonder how Celestia had ever thought Twilight was right for a position like princess of anything.

Pushing away his thoughts, Ashen rapped his hoof against the crystalline double doors of Twilight's castle and was delighted when Spike answered the door. Though Spike was many years Ashen's senior, they enjoyed each other's company immensely and over the years of knowing each other, Ashen had even developed a bit of a crush on the dragon. He would never say anything or act on it, of course, such an age difference would make anything beyond friendship highly inappropriate, but the puppy crush was still there.

"Can you hang out today, Spike?" Ashen asked, coming inside when Spike motioned for him to.

"Not yet. I have a few things to do around the castle first, but then I can totally hang out." Spike replied, closing the door and showing Ashen the short list of chores he had to do.

"I could take that one off your claws." Ashen offered, noticing that one of the chores was to return some books to the castle's library. "Then I'll just hang out in the library until you're done with your chores."

"Okay." Spike agreed, delighted to not have to do his least favorite task. The way Twilight organized her books sometimes was a nightmare and it got even worse when she forgot to tell him that she'd done it a certain way. Half the time it was impossible to find anything in the library and Spike would've felt bad for pawning it off on his friend, but Ashen was weirdly good at deciphering Twilight's madness.

Cantering off to the library, Ashen immediately got work. He levitated the books off of the three full return carts and shook his head. Somepony had had a heavy study session. And instead of putting back what she'd gotten out, that somepony had left the daunting task to Spike. Deciding to just be happy that he'd have something to do while he waited for Spike to be available, Ashen levitated himself up to the highest bookshelf closest to the left side of the entrance to the library. Twilight always went in a reading direction with organization, top to bottom and left to right, unless she was going for categories.

Pulling out the first few books to see what the pattern was, Ashen rolled his eyes. Chronological. That was absolutely useless for anypony who didn't already know the year a book was from. Knowing that he might get scolded, but also knowing that he could use the excuse of getting carried away, an excuse that had worked before and that Twilight understood very well, Ashen floated over to the center of the room and pulled every single book from the bookshelves around the room.

Horn glowing so brightly that the light was visible out in the hall, Ashen began to swirl the books around himself. Soon the bookshelves began to fill up again but this time, it was in alphanumeric order. Ashen first shelved all the books and then, after he'd gotten them blocked, organized them within their block, properly alphabetizing them now that they were already on the shelves. Time lost all meaning to Ashen as he worked and when he finished, he lowered himself to the ground only to be greeted by a very shocked Spike.

"Hey." Ashen greeted, smiling at his friend. "Did you finish your chores already?"

"Uh, yeah, awhile ago." Spike sputtered, quickly moving on to what was really important. "You--how were you doing that?! That was, like, super advanced magic!"

"Oh." Ashen smiled a bit more and shrugged. "I dunno. I've always been able to do stuff like that."

"Are you in advanced classes? Do your teachers know? You could get into Celestia's with that kind of talent!"

Waiting patiently for Spike to finish, Ashen shook his head. "I don't want to go to Celestia's, I like it here." He said, using his magic to pick up his bookbag and put it back on. "And I don't really go showing off my magic, so no, my teachers don't know. I am in advanced classes though. Advanced for my age, anyway."

"Well you could be in advanced classes for a pony twice your age if that wasn't even a big deal for you." Spike said, shocked awe quickly being replaced by mild indignance. "Was that you reorganizing Twilight's books? Again?"

Ears lowering, Ashen looked sheepish. "Maybe?"

"I guess we better get in some hanging out before Twilight realizes then." Spike said slyly, indignance fading quickly as he grinned.

Grinning back, Ashen followed Spike to his room and they got in a few dramatic comic book reenactments before Ashen brought up the real reason he'd come over. "Do you eat meat, Spike?" He asked rather abruptly, feeling disheartened when Spike looked confused.

"No." Spike answered, setting down the comic he was about to suggest they start. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you're a dragon." Ashen murmured, frowning. "Aren't dragons carnivorous?"

"Most of them are. I was raised by Twilight though, so I was raised a herbivore." Spike explained.

"Doesn't that mess with your health?"

"No, I get all the nutrients I would get from meat from the minerals and stuff in gems and from other stuff I eat."

"Oh." Ashen looked away for a moment, weighing his options, and then decided to go in for the kill. "Have you ever tasted meat?"

"Well, sure I have." Spike admitted, shrugging. "Why are you suddenly so curious about my diet?"

"No reason." Ashen lied, levitating over the book Spike had set down. "Just curious, I guess."

"Alright." Spike said slowly, not quite believing Ashen, but deciding to drop the subject since their time together was limited both by how soon Twilight found out her books had been reorganized and how upset by it she was.

The fairly annoyed SPIIIIIKE that came a few comic books later told the duo all they needed to know about how much trouble Ashen was going to be in if he couldn't convince Twilight either with logic or by appealing to her understanding of feeling the undeniable need to do something to not be mad at him.