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"Let's see; active during the day, wings upright and braced against each other, wide-tipped, club shaped antennae, smooth, slender body with minimal fuzz...yup, definitely a butterfly."

Allarian lay immobile in the tall grass, once again doing his best impression of a large grey stone. It was a skill he'd developed over the years, and at this point he could fool pretty much any casual observer into thinking he really WAS a rock. This suited Allarian just fine; he didn't usually want casual observers to notice him, anyway; when he was in rock mode, he tended to be in research mode, and his research was much more interesting than the typical 'social conversation' that was expected among even the most casual of acquaintances.

Right now, he was in full research mode. A few inches away from his face, a large butterfly was resting on one of the many long strands of grass that made this meadow feel like a meadow. It was a lovely butterfly, but one that Allarian had never seen before; thus, he had been listing the traits he could see on the butterfly that identified it as a butterfly and not a moth. He sure did enjoy his lists, this stallion; they helped him keep the world around him orderly, and helped him keep track of everything he knew. Ask him about a bug or insect, and he'd be able to rattle off a list of identifying traits and habits like nobody's business. If only that habit worked as well with inter-Soquili relationships, he'd be golden.

Oh well. He had a fascinating bug to study, a beautiful day to study it, and no time to worry about such trivialities as conversing with Soquili. That was part of the charm of butterflies; they didn't often want to talk.

...Good gracious, never let it be said that the natural world was dull! One moment, Allarian had been lying there, blissfully cataloguing the traits of the new butterfly, the next...well, the next he was watching both research and butterfly go up, if not literally in flames, then at least in the teeth of another bug. Well, that was the world for you, he thought with a resigned sigh; survival of the fittest, only the strong survived, etc. He'd never known that motto to extend to the butterfly world so directly, but obviously there was a first time for everything!

Except...

Narrowing his eyes, Allarian scrutinized the predatory bug, the one that he had at first glance mistaken for another butterfly. But wings or no wings, that was no butterfly. Now that the predator had come to rest, he could clearly see every centimeter of its small blue body...every equine element of it. This was no butterfly, it was a butterfly horse! What was it they called themselves, he thought? Butters? Buffers? Fluffers? Flutters! That was it, that was what that lone flutter mare he'd met had said...but he'd had no idea at the time that they were predatory!

You learned something new every day, he thought as he settled in to watch. His original butterfly might be dead, but this was a perfect opportunity to observe the eating habits of the carnivorous flutter...

Well, this was certainly proving an educational experience, if nothing else. Allarian had long ago learned over the course of his entomological research that the natural world operated according to its own set of rules. He'd witnessed the death throes of insects caught in spider webs, or ants stung by wasps; he'd watched all sorts of feeding rituals that ranged from strange to brutal. But there had always been a detached element before. In each of those situations, it had been a bug versus another bug; he had been a remote element, on the outside looking in.

But this time? He was not really that different than the tiny flutter Soquili; from his previous flutter encounter, he knew that they were capable of changing size; how large could this tiny mare get? Was it possible for her to grow large enough to be a danger to him? Not that he considered the tiny world a separate one; he knew that venom or allergies could be quite toxic and deadly in their own right. But there was a difference between being killed by a poison and being killed by evisceration.

Though that would be an interesting study, testing his own reactions in a 'same size life-or-death' situation. Perhaps he'd have a chance to test that out before the day was over, but for as long as possible, he would remain in rock mode. He felt a pang of sympathy for the unknown butterfly, but science would almost always trump sentiment. There was no other way!