Preparations

I need to be ready for any outcomes in the future...

Third Person's POV

Matis was very busy right now, he was preparing for war, but his current situation won't allow him to join in battle. What he currently lacks is soldiers, a settlement and an HQ.

For the food he didn't need to be worried, he was loaded of foods from fruits to beasts.

His population was still in the hundred so he couldn't go to battle even if manticores are considered extremely dangerous, he won't rest until he have at least a thousand of them, but for that he need to make the manticores reproduce faster, but he learned that the mating season is once every two years for manticores and he couldn't wait that long. So to deal with that, he changed the genes of every manticores so that the growth is going faster and that the mating season is once every month. Of course, once he is satisfied, he will undo what he did.

He didn't have any settlement around the Everfree Forest, he didn't need to because nothing would dare to enter besides the foolish and the brave. So hedon't need settlement for now.

The HQ he already have one wich is the current home/cave he resides, but he is starting to make the cave bigger and bigger for the future newborn.

"Hmm, now that I think about all of this, I don't really know much about the world beyond the forest, but is my curiosity so vast that I would dare to end my peaceful life?" Matis asked himself while looking at Ponyville.

"Of course it is, what kind of sentient being would I be if I didn't seek knowledge?"

Then he started to morph into a pony, he had the anatomy of a pegasus in his mind thanks to the poor victim of a manticore's hunt sometimes ago. But Matis wasn't a fool, he wouldn't morph into the same replica as the victim, this would raise suspicions and the pony probably had a family so it's out of the question.

For now, he morphed into a dark blue coated male pegasus with an obsidian coloured mane and tail. The ponies in this world don't really need clothes but to not stand out much he made a simple black shirt with a silver collar as an accessory. Just to be safe, he made sure that his musculature could rival the one of a manticore but with the anatomy of an anthropomorphic pegasus.

Now he was ready to explore the land of anthropomorphic ponies.

'Ponyville...

As he walked throught the little bridge that went to the little town of Ponyville, he noticed that the town was quite lively and had a variety of ponies. Some looked like nobles and other had the lives of a simple person. But before he could continue further, he stopped to think about something.

'I didn't pratice with this body's abilities.' Then he quickly turned around to go back in the forest to pratice. As he walked, he heard what sounded like a lullaby. It was pleasing, so he thought that it wouldn't matter to take a little stroll towards the hypnotizing melody.

For some reasons, his vision became more lively, as if the colour saturation of his eyes were maxed up, it was blinding but he didn't mind as long as this melody continued. Then he arrived at a little garden with a cottage and different kind of animals housing. Then he saw a pegasus mare flying around while singing to herself, she didn't sing alone because birds and every kinds of animals were following her and sung at the same rythm.

For the first time in his new life, the little cell took interest in something other than himself and the ones he protected. He wasn't in love, he was interested at the phenomenon he was witnessing, and when he used his 'Third Eye', he could see that the molecules that were the constitution of magic was flowing out of her. He could really say this was magical, but he didn't because he didn't have the courage or even the slight interest in such emotions. He was a being made to survive not to love so he just sat on the grass while listening to the relaxing lullaby.

But before he could fall asleep, the lullaby stopped and was replaced by a huge gasp, then he heard the mare mutter something. Thanks to his senses, he heard that she questionned if he heard her or not, seeing that the mare was Fluttershy, he didn't say anything and pretended to sleep but just in case, he opened one eye at a blind spot so that she couldn't see it.

What he saw was very shocking... for normal ponies. Fluttershy was dangerously close to him and had a look of curiousity, she continued to look at him for quite sometime until he felt the need to move away. To not frighten her, he made a fake sneeze so that she would back away. And she did so while blushing a lot, she didn't seem to notice that she was staring at him for nearly half an hour.

"Hmm? Oh excuse me, am I trespassing?" He lied. Well he sort of told the truth but it was a cover to keep the act of obliviousness. Sure it seems like overdoing things but he was very cautious when it comes to survival, he knew Fluttershy but he didn't know her personally, that's why he was so cautious because he learned that 'Information is power and those who lack of it are the first to die'. So, because he didn't know her personally, he didn't want to risk being in the bad side of somebody, in this case, somepony.

Fluttershy on the other hand didn't think about it at all. The only thing going throught her mind is 'What was I trying to do?!'. Sure, the stallion before her seems perfect, his muscles showed strenght and his eyes showed kindness, but he was still a stranger and Fluttershy didn't do well with strangers, so naturally the answer should be 'Yes'. Well it should be, if it wasn't Fluttershy.

"N-No, n-not really." She said timidly. She didn't expect him to smile at her in response, every elements bearer had an ability of their own like AppleJack who could tell when somepony lied. It was the same with Fluttershy but what she could tell was if the person meant true kindness or if the person was wearing a mask that showed kindness. When she looked at him, she was confused because she couldn't tell if it was a true smile or not.

"You don't need to be so kind, I will go away now." He said cutting her train of thoughts. For some reason, her detection ability was not working like it's supposed to do in presence of a pony, but it was now acting in the presence of animals. The difference between the detection in the presence of a pony and the detection in a presence of an animal is that. With a person, she could only tell if the pony meant harm or not and with an animal, she could tell their mental state, or in short, their emotions. The fact that she could tell his state of emotions confused her because it only worked on animals, this was not the only thing that confused her, the other things is that she could tell that the 'pony' in front of her was expressing a bit of sadness but a huge amount of stress, or was it consideration? She couldn't even tell what he was feeling right now but she was sure of one thing, she need to keep an eye on him, and the first step for that, is the name.

"U-Um... Can I ask your name? If you don't mind that is." She said timidly while closing her eyes to wait for an answer.

Matis was now cornered, he was thinking of every possible outcome in the situation he was in, except the fact that she would ask his name. Now he was mentally eating himself up for not preparing more before going out of his comfort zone, now he needed to think of a name as a pony because he couldn't go and say "Matis" like that, it will certainly raise suspicions because the name given to ponies are mostly representing their qualities or their expected qualities. 'But then, what is my quality?' He thought while seeing something in his memories that could be called 'a quality'. But there was always something he had as a quality! It was that he was ( self-proclaimed ) smart and strong! No, he was none of that, he is only a parasitic cell with many unique abilities. Then...

"It's Solum Cell." He said instinctivly. 'Solum Cell? I never heard a name like this before.'. Fluttershy was thinking about this name, it sounded like it came from old times, even older than when Equestria or even the three tribes existed. When she looked at him, he does have a mystical feel now, maybe that's why she couldn't tell what his emotions were?

"I'm Fluttershy." She said with more confidence. After the little time they had together for the last minutes, she now didn't see him as a bad pony anymore, just as a casual pony who was here. Wait...

"What were you even doing here?" She asked with more cautiousness. It wasn't the first time ponies were coming near her little cottage, in truth, she was quite popular amongst the males in Ponyville because of her cuteness and shyness. But now that she made friends with Twilight and the other, she was more confident and could now chase away the peepers.

"Well, I was walking around the Forest when I heard a lullaby, now that I remember it, it sounded beautiful." He said while smiling at her. This was the first time somepony said something this nice besides her friends, this made Fluttershy blush a little but with the smile he gave she started to blush even more.

"Oh yes, it was you who was singing with the other animals, I'm sorry but I couldn't help but hear your beautiful voice sing, it's probably the reason I fell asleep." He continued with another smile. This was unbearable for Fluttershy, they just met now and he is already throwing compliments, and the worst part about it is that she couldn't tell if he was flattering her only to get her heart or if he really liked her songs.

"O-oh...U-um...A-ah." She couldn't even form a phrase anymore, this was too much for her. But for 'Solum Cell' it was perfect, with his little perfomance, he could gain the trust of the rest of the Elements of Harmony as well as gaining complete cooperation of Fluttershy, but he wasn't a heartless being, he knew that he shouldn't toy with the hearts of females but he needed to do it just for now.

"Let's meet again Fluttershy, I hope I can hear you sing again in the future." He said while walking in the Everfree Forest leaving Fluttershy on the ground shaking a little.'Who is he really?' She thought as she watched his shadow disappear in the vast Forest, then it hitted her, 'Oh no! He went in the Everfree Forest! It's danger- Wait, there's Matis in the Forest. Does that mean he will be fine? I hope he is.' She thought the started to blush as she remembered their conversation just this instant.

"I should tell the girls about it." She said while walking back in her cottage.