Celestia is so getting the chair when she's not looking next time we meet, I thought to myself as I sat on a cushion with Cadance sitting across from me. She was nervously smiling at me, due to the scowl I was giving her after finding out that my first order of business was with her due to Shining needed to take care some other matters first.
"You know, there is something I don't get about this situation," I finally said to break the silence.
"Huh?" Cadence replied, showing to me just how prepared she was in regards to handling me.
"Why did Celestia think it was a good idea to send me here for you to help me with my 'anger issues'. I mean, you're a princess. Don't you have some duties that you must attend to that is more important than me? Why couldn't she find another pony who's job is to handle ponies like me. This is just a waste of everypony's time."
"Aether, you have to remember that you're a... 'special' case."
"...Are you saying that she's thinking I'm messed up in the head? Like, what was that word... oh! Does she think I'm disabled‽" I asked, my scowl deepen as my anger grew.
"No! It's cause you're an alien!"
"Big deal, either pay the pony to stay silent or just have me lie. Besides, after the mob that tried to kill me at my cute-ceañera, I think the alien issue is already going to be well known soon, if not already," I replied with a roll of my eyes.
Exasperated, Cadance folded her hoof over her chest as she took a deep breath, which reminded me of Twilight's breathing exercise as Cadance followed it exactly like Twilight did. "Aether, while there are ponies that do help other ponies with their anger issues, your past might complicate such a treatment for regular professionals. While I don't have the expertise of a psychiatrist, I seen my fair share of crazy things to be better able to handle this than most other ponies."
Rubbing a hoof against my chin, I simply shrugged as I replied, "Fine, if that's the way you want it."
This caused Cadance to blink for a moment, before she narrowed her eyes at me. "What are you planning?"
"Absolutely nothing."
"Do you honestly expect me to believe that? I know when a mischievous foal is planning something."
"Regardless, I know little about you nor Shining. Nor do I know this place so there is no way for me to make any complex plans," I said, only for Cadance to narrow her eyes even more. "That said, you do have a filly that has the calculative mind of an adult, stronger than normal magic for a filly, and violent tendencies. Add to that list that I have a teleportation spell that is still random in destination, and that since I was raised by Pinkie, I willingly admit that she has influenced me a bit. So you could say that I could just pop up randomly around the city, causing mayhem that Discord believes that I have a knack in. Which I don't need a plan to pull off, just have to do things on a whim." Ending with a smile, I watched as Cadance eyes widen in the horror of what I just said.
Sadly I couldn't enjoy the scene for long, for after a moment, Cadance shook her head as she shoot me a glare. "Not funny Aether, you really need to work on that attitude of yours."
"Depends on your point of view though. In my eyes, I find my attitude to be perfectly normal."
"And what makes you think that hitting ponies with a chair is normal?"
"Simple, when you're on the mean streets of a city, everypony is hostile. If you're not ready to knock out a pony at a moment's notice, then you yourself are going to be knocked out or left dead in some alley."
Cadance once again took on a shocked look, before it quickly dissolved into a skeptical one. "I just realized something. While you are an alien, and I can't argue against your level of expertise due to your role in fixing the barriers, you may be pushing your recent gains to your advantage."
"You don't say? So what's your point?"
"My point, is that you may have been an adult, but you are in a body of a young filly. For all we know, you may be acting out your age, and possibly exaggerating some things from your life. Not that I would belittle what you faced after being... alone, but still, I find it hard to believe all that."
Cocking an eyebrow, I watched as Cadance had a small smile that had a bit of smugness to it spread over her face. "So you're thinking I'm just one of those foals that wants to be spoiled or push their luck? That I'm telling tales to get what I want? Well, how about I tell you a little fact about how hard life is for the poor of dimensional society."
"I'm listening," Cadance replied, taking on the air of a parent that caught their foal stealing from the cookie jar.
"Well, one fact is that you don't show weakness if you can. Like, if you were to break a bone, if you were to voice your pain, everypony will take advantage of the fact that you are injured to do what they want with you. So, to those that know better, no matter how bad an injury is, it is best to keep your mouth shut and not show any hints of pain. Want me to demonstrate that by breaking my own leg?"
"You're not going to break your leg. No pony is foolish enough to do that to prove a point," Cadance declared, not knowing that I was going to take her up on that challenge.
Eyeing a nearby crystal nightstand, I pointed my left forehoof at Cadance. "Very well then, I will defeat you in this battle of wills." As Cadance tried to figure out what I meant, I grabbed the nightstand with my magic, and brought it down on my left foreleg.
CRACK.
"What possessed you to break your own leg‽"
"Your wife thought I was just a foal acting out to get what they want."
"How is breaking a leg even related to that‽"
"It proves a point that can't be so easily denied."
"Not when it causes her to faint!"
"Not my fault that she's so... weak to the sight of a wounded pony."
"A broken bone was sticking out of your leg!"
"Well, I sort of underestimate the strength of my magic on a crystal nightstand. Lesson learned," I replied, as a doctor tried to push the bone protruding from my leg back into it. Which was hard based on how both the doctor and the nurse helping him were trying to keep their lunch down from the sight. Turned out that instead of the nightstand smacking against my leg, causing the bone to break, it just bent part of my leg in such a way that it resulted in not only the bone breaking, but literally bursting out of my skin from the sheer force that I used. This of course caused Cadance to scream in terror from the sight before she fainted, causing the castle guard to come into the room only to scream as well. Thankfully it lasted for a short moment before they grabbed me and rushed me to the infirmary.
"You know, since I'm not flailing about in pain nor screaming my head off, I think it's a sign that you can be much more forceful in fixing my leg doctor," I said, growing impatient at the pace of the doctor's work.
"This is delicate work, and I don't want to cause you any more pain than nece—" the doctor try to said before I got tired of his excuse, grabbing the forearm of my left foreleg with my other one and snapping the limb back into place. This finally caused the nurse to lose all control over her stomach as she rushed to the nearest trash can.
"Doesn't... that hurt?" Shining finally asked after calming down a bit, though it looked like his coat somehow got paler than normal.
"It actually does, but I was trying to keep my mind off it. Though since the doctor has yet to do anything to numb the pain, and that you had to bring it up... ahhhhhh! Somepony fix my leg already! It buckin hurts like Tartarus!" I yelled, flailing my other leg around to emphasized the point that this really hurts. This got the doctor to finally cast some spell that numbed the pain, as both he and the nurse started working on fixing my leg up as best they could.
While the doctor was bandaging my leg, Shining let out a sigh before taking on a somber expression. "Aether, Cadance was only trying to help you."
"Oh, I know, but her approach was just terrible. She really think I was just being like a foal."
"Well... you can't blame her, since you are a foal," Shining replied, only for me to deadpan at him. "I read some of the stuff you did. It's not the kind of stuff an adult would do."
"It's not the kind of stuff an adult pony would do Shining. Everypony really needs to stop placing their ideas of what 'normal' would be on me. Besides, since Pinkie is raising me, you can pretty much toss out that idea from the start. I'm pretty sure that I'm getting a bit more... friendly and creative with how I react to some things."
"How is hitting a pony with a chair friendly?"
"If I was still the same pony as I was before I came here, I would have done something more... harmful. Where I came from, if you don't do something that sends a message to other ponies when they do something to you, others will eventually do it again."
Shining was about to open his mouth to say something, when his eyes lost focus for a bit, like he just came upon a sudden realization. "Your action of breaking your foreleg, it was to send a message to others than just Cadance and I, right?"
"Right you are. Hey, can you get somepony to take a picture of this and all the blood I spilt on the floor? I really want to show this to my recruits, especially that whiner Stalwart Jack. Maybe then they'll stop questioning everything I tell them to do," I said while the doctor placed a cast on my foreleg.
My response led to Shining placing a hoof over his face, groaning as he replied, "Based on some of the stories I hear from Twilight, you really are like Pinkie in some ways."
"Thank you for the comparison. And no, I'm not being sarcastic. I honestly take that as a compliment."
That caused Shining to lift his hoof off his face, only to stare at me with a somewhat confused look. "Really? But I thought you were prefer to be serious... due to how you want to get things done and over with like when you met Cadance."
"Oh, I do want to take serious things on as fast and possible so I can get it out of the way, but Pinkie is unpredictable to the point that she almost fried my brain with her antics. However, I pride myself on my adaptability, and Pinkie seems to be able to adapt to a lot of things instantly. That and if I'm unpredictable, that makes it harder for the enemy to figure out what my end goals would be if Equus ever has to go to war. Which I hope is never, but better safe than sorry."
Sighing, Shining just turned away from me as he started to leave the infirmary. "I'm... just going to check on my wife now..."
Waving a hoof to him, I cheerily said, "Hope she's okay, and tell her my leg is fine. Didn't lose any parts of it on the way here!" only for Shining to release a shudder before he left the room.
Awesome, but I need more.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
11:54_21/8/2015
Ok. The only way to have started a chapter better was if Aether had actually done it.
And Aether. Turn your badass down some levels. No one can handle it.
I love this story. It's so funny!
Nice Aether, Nice.
Excellent, a new chapter!
But I demand chair to da face! More chairs, more faces! Chairs made of crystal! All kinds of chairs to all kinds of faces!
She Broke her leg. i just want to repeat she BROKE her freaing LEG. that is so badass
Nice chapter. Aether just must smash a chair against Celestia next time (s)he meets her. Great chapter. Can't wait for more.
6343118
6343153
It's only badass depending on what standard you're going by. While it may be badass in regards to ponies, one must also consider Aether's past. So... she's not really badass, she's just not a wimp about life. Oh, and she let her frustration finally get to her
U.U, that is new, breaking a leg to demostrate she is correct.
Lol.
Well, she did it, she really went through with it.
I can safely say Aether will never have a foal because no stallion will be able to handle her swagger.
Aether needs to learn how to tone things to the situation, hopefully Cadance and Shining will be able to do that to some degree.
6343196 I wouldn't be so sure she would never find a partner, love is a crazy thing, and it's scary how it changes peo- I mean ponies. It happens, and once it does, there's no way out.
Our best bet is one of the stallions she'll be training (in the future, she's still young, but once she's training ponies more of her own age group...), After all, she's training them to deal with just that. Or more precisely, anything out of the ordinary.
Damn Aether, turn down your badass levels some, not all of us can handle it! Damn, my respect for her has gone up and I approve of this action.
CHAIRS!
Nice job, once more.
Aether is the second best OC foal ever!
First is Nyx, sorry.
Hahaha wow I would never thought she'll break her leg!
Eh, errors are to be expected of someone just now learning a language anyways.
Also, I saw this coming. Cadence (and others) needs to get it into her head that an alien adult will have a fundamentally different way of thinking - and adding to that that she lives with Pinkie, and adding to that a filly's neurochemistry in the very beginning of puberty...
Cadence and Celestia had it coming for treating her like any normal filly.
"You're not going to break your leg. No pony is foolish enough to do that to prove a point,"
.....
Never tempt fate Cadence.
Especially where interdimensional travel is involved. Other universes often have sentient avatars of fate who WILL screw you over.
Yewouch. Did you go watching pictures on 4chan for this one?
6343164
ahhh I see. so this a case of a Normal fish in a tiny pond. Where in whatever Aether comes from, she is considered, at best, an above average mook in the grand scheme of things but by Equestrian standards, she is a hardcore badass trapped in a filly's body.
hhmmm, wonder if she is willing to break her leg again in front of her recruits (and maybe even in front of Twilight or, better yet, the mane six as a bonus and for added shock value) just to prove the same point when they eventually hear about this?
6343252 Really? She has offered to do so multiple times already.
What's more interesting is that Cadence did not see it coming, did no one perform a full breif?
6343112 Don't we all?
I really hope Cadence realises Aether couldve broke her head by hitting it with Candences Head, to proove a point. Im sure Aether is keeping the horn break torso slam a viable attack method in the back of her mind.
Aether also needs to do a lot more research and testing of her currnt physiology, so she knows how to break her leg properly and cleanly next time. That, and larn pain killing and healing spells that can be kept passive background so they trigger themselves when she gets knocked unconsious.
6343331
Honestly, Cadance should know better.
it hard being a alien in a kid pony body. mental culture clash!
The chair is gonna be the favorite weapon of Aether I just can imagine her in the battlefield throwing chairs everyway
Just lol
maybe Aether should tell them next that she used to be male i love it when she make ponies go hehe
You uage played Amesia the dark decesents have Not you, because the chair?
I LIKE this kid!
I don't even..... what? Even taking aside her history this is child level antics, just with the badass levels cranked way too high. Aether thinks she is disproving childish behavior of "I want it my way no matter what" with tantrums. Kids will often do stuff that will end up hurting themselves in their tantrums, just Aether can take it so much further with her adult lvl cunning and freaky levels of pain tolerance. It is a true irony.
6343205
Well she achieved her desired outcome. It's highly unlikely Cadence will take her words so lightly and just dismiss them as "a child seeking attention" again.
Aether got the wrong cutey mark.
Her cutey mark should have been her OWN FACE with a combat knife clenched in her teeth as she snarls to show her special talent is badassery.
Someone make Aether a chair cannon!
-ThePortalPonies
6343322 If you remembered. She were stopped before she could do it when they figured that she meant it.
6344079 Eh...Adult still want things to goes their way...Just in a more subtle manner, more willing to compromise to get it, can accept it easier when they failed to get it...etc...
One of the best chapters so far!
6344969
But when they act put what do we call it...... acting/thinking in a child like way. Aether is not acting like any kind of adult.
6345156 True in someway...She didn't get a chance to grow up properly in that corrupted interdimentional environment.
6343582 no need for that just start buying chairs stash them in a BIG room and proceded to summon them with portals several hundred feet in the air no need to throw them let gravity do the work
6345272
Yup, the emotional maturity of a child. Topped with the fact that her old line of work and life never allowed for consideration of forming or keeping any kind of long term social contact.
This entire chapter: BAHAHAHA
6343582
Chair stats:
Damage 999 (Dame Aether "Chairthrower" Aura skills: +1000%)
Effects: Target is confused for 10 seconds.
I always thought of injurying myself to prove a point, but nothing has caused me to actually do it. So my respect for Aether has improved a bit.
6345805 As someone who has done it, my respect for her increased a hell of a lot.
6345301
People often really underestimate the "emotional maturity" difference between children and adults. Imagine what it would be like to be an adult with a high-skill job, then spend 2 years in a world where everyone literally treats you like a child while you try desperately to get them to listen to you about the greatest threat to their planet. It'd get frustrating, and eventually, literally breaking limbs to prove that you can take it much further than you're taking it now would start to seem reasonable. Now also remember that Aether is probably developmentally stunted in a few ways, and is probably not used to living in this caring society, and wants the ponies to be aware that, yes, her original society was as horrible as she says, by being an example of that society.
That, and the two ponies she's hit with chairs make perfect sense. Celestia had knowingly opened her peaceful utopia up to alien threats over a love affair. Blueblood was the first pony she met to embody the racial segregation that her race was exterminated under, and he did so perfectly and unabashedly.
Aether might actually be acting alot more like an adult than you think.
6346198
When Aether bashed those people over the head I was in full support if that. No the childish behavior is other things. I can see where you are coming from in all of your points, some of which I had failed to consider. Guess our math on this is a bit different from eachother. Plus I do admit I often have higher behavioral standards, which is why I don't get along with kids very well.
Perfect... Just... This chapter... Just perfect... I love how she breaks her own leg and shrugs it off as if it was nothing... A fucking badass right there.
6347364 I would be near unconscious if that were to happen to me.
When Aether screamed, I couldn't help reading her scream in PsychicPebble's voice