The Aberrant Unicorn

Mari was bored. Desperately bored. She was used to her travels leaving her alone occasionally, but this was on a different level. The white unicorn groaned in frustration and rolled onto her back, stretching her hoofs towards the sun. 

‘Almighty God, just take me now! Or let a lost child stumble across me! Something!’

The meadow was a rainbow of flowers, the waterfall sang a soothing melody, and everything sparkled in the sun. Normally it would be happy, but this was her eighth day stuck in this meadow without company! Even one of those nasty squirrels would have been acceptable at this point but, aside from the fish swimming past, not even a mouse had come this way. She supposed she could turn into her human form and go play in the waterfall or something but she felt too lazy for that.

Mari rolled over on and bellyached some more.

 'Well, better to be bored than roasted, I guess. I should be grateful'.'

 Mari had been living in the Ibis forest on the far southern side of the Opal Kingdom. It had been a dream. She could be alone when she wanted, but there were small unicorn tribes living in the forest that she could easily visit and plenty of other animals to talk to. Best of all, sandwiched between this vast forest and the Mirror Sea was the kingdom's major port town. That meant lots of little human girls to play with!

Many of her kind didn’t want to interact with humans at all, regardless of if they were moral enough to see them in their natural forms, but Mari was different. She adored getting to be around humans and would even shift into her human form to do so.

 It was the only way she could interact with anyone other than the select few and she was as much at home in her human body as her equestrian one. While this shifting was an ability that all unicorns were born with, few used it outside of survival situations because of the general belief that humans were disgusting. If humans were so evil and corrupt that only children and the occasional young maiden could see them, then why would her kind want to interact with any human at all?

Mari preferred to wander the continent instead of staying with a tribe, but she had enjoyed her life in Ibis to the point of contemplating settling permanently. But the kingdom of Tempest from across sea had attacked unprovoked, kicking off a war by capturing the port city to strangle Opal's sea network. 

Mari had hoped to hide until Tempest was driven off, but the Opal Kingdom had declared an all out assault to liberate Ibis and triggered a massive forest fire that had consumed everything like the hungry maw of a beast. She had no choice but to flee and didn't stop until she was in the forrest surrounding the capital city of Nacre. 

She had not only booked it to the other side of the continent, but the forest pressed between the Terrasian mountains and the capital. That meant no villages and, until she could interrogate the local creatures, she was safer here since she had no clue if the fighting had spread. 

She was safe, yes, but at what cost to her sanity? She may not want to be stuck in one place until she died, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be entirely alone! Despite what other unicorns said about ‘the aberrant one’ who preferred humans to her own kind.

‘Why don’t I try using my soul sense again?’ She consoled herself. ‘Maybe this time there will be someone  nearby that I can talk to?’  Sitting up, she closed her eyes and focused, letting herself read the spiritual energy in the air around her.

 Just as her heart started to sink, she sensed it!

“Finally! A human! A human who can see me! Hallelujah!” 

Mari rejoiced, hopping around. She didn’t bother trying to read the person’s spiritual presence any further. Who cared about that? She could sense by the light, warm feeling that they gave off that they were pure enough to see her and that was all that mattered!

Instantly, Mari tore off running through the forest as fast as she could. 

She missed the little girls from Ibis. There had only been two or three little boys that could see her, but lots of girls who'd visit daily. They would style her hair and play hide-and-seek together. 

She hoped they were okay, given how awful the fighting had to be to start that fire...

Mari shook her head to get rid of the dark thoughts and nearly clipped her head on a tree.

 The forest blurred around her and the wind rushed through her mane. The only things she could see was the sliver of fast-moving ground under her hooves and the glint of the sun on her silver horn shining into her eyes. 

Mari felt like her heart was about to beat out of her chest. A human! An actual human child once again! Despite knowing that any child in this forest would surely be lost, she was too excited to think. 

Sensing the girl was only a few feet ahead in a clearing, Mari slowed to a trot. She didn’t want to come tearing out like a hellhound and scare off a potential friend. Making her way out, she looked around and saw the human she had sensed. 

But something wasn't right

‘Wait, aren't they too big for a child? A teenager, maybe?’ She thought, suddenly feeling a chill. ‘This is the person I sensed. I know that much but...I can’t explain it, but something just seems off about them. I haven’t felt this before. It's different from when someone is masking their aura with a charm.’ 

As she crept up behind the person, she began to wonder what she was looking at. Mari was so caught up in the strange feeling from their aura that she wasn’t processing what was in front of her. If she had actually focused on what her eyes were seeing, then maybe she would have understood before it took her being a foot away from their turned back.

She immediately froze, unable to even consider running away. ‘Wha-wha-how-? How is this possible? They aren't a child and sure as hell aren't female! This isn’t supposed to be able to happen! No man has ever been able to see us before. Auntie always told us-!’ 

 Despite her confused brain’s attempt to rationalize it, there was no mistaking the figure in front of her. The impossible had just proved to be possible. Before she could even contemplate what to do, the human turned.

Long black hair pulled back. A set of red eyes on a scarred face. They were young, but there was no mistaking the human’s sex.

‘A man?!’

“Oh...! Hello.”