//------------------------------// // A breath of air... what, expected a 'heir' pun? // Story: Aether, Heir of Chaos // by Arcane Anonymity //------------------------------// Back! Well, technically I never left. Bed rest, broken ribs and miscellaneous bones and all that. But what can I say? Once I learned how to cheat, I tend to do it when it's the best solution. I convinced someone that the human Aether is some sort of super-spellcaster using a bunch of tricks using chaos magic to not use chaos magic, while simultaneously spending every last drop of unicorn and pegasus magic in me in one single chimeric <1> super-spell. Sure, it was a great spell, and very efficient, but without cheating it would take half an hour for me to cast it to the cascade point <2>, instead of the thirty seconds I took. I was led to a room reserved for private meetings, it had comfy seats and a table for sharing tea or even a meal, and other than a bookcase, a desk, and some paintings it was sparsely decorated. I turned back into a human and sprawled on the couch... well, it was more of an elongated seat/bed hybrid, since many races lie down to rest more often than they sit, but humans would see it and say 'it's a weird couch'. "I can use chaos magic to conjure a normal spell." I said, with a grin in my face. "I am so taking advantage of that." "Isn't that the reason you experienced backlash?" Luna asked, and I nod. "Because I did it without meaning to." I scratch myself, and I was sure the pain receded once I wasn't a pony. I could divide the craziness between 'roles', as I had noted when I spoke in a more refined and serene way when in 'prince' form... I guess the strain is also divided. Kind of like cool-down divided between forms. The clothing commissions were going to fulfill yet another purpose. I stretched my arms, and felt the rope I call my spine shift back into place. Curious how, with the flexibility I had before I was given magic powers, I had minimal interest in most forms of sports, then I sustained an injury, then truly lost interest in sports. I was more than fine thanks to magic, so I decided to put my new bodies to work and at least get running, climbing, and flight down phat. "For somepony who has lived his whole life on two legs, you could move very well on four." Luna commented. "Simple, really, I was looking at Twilight. I then tried to ignore the part of my brain that was equating standing on hooves to standing on the tips of my toes and fingers, and just 'crawled'. At first I felt very stiff, but I relaxed my joints one by one, and then I was going for a relaxing walk. Or is it gait? Whatever." One thing, I became aware of the earth pony and pegasus magic I had stored inside of me; resonating the strongest below the navel and in my heart, respectively. With the 'heightened instincts' aspect of Earth ponies and the agility of pegasi, combined with my own self-awareness... my proprioception became such that whenever I made a wrong move, I'd know it immediately. It's how I could imitate Twilight so easily. It's convenient for training!... It's hair-pulling-ly frustrating! It took dozens of times to get a single sword exercise right, and it's infuriating to make the same mistake twice! Well, at least I have lots of stamina to keep practicing and get it right. Plus others have it already figured out, so it isn't like I have to do groundbreaking research on things like swordplay and such. "That's as fast as you can move, isn't it?" Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow. "Yes." I stood up and began pacing about. "Alright, now I'm one of those 'guys with a title that don't actually know what they are supposed to do', so I'm going to need an assistant of the 'radar' variety - catch everything before it actually does anything." I began counting out loud the qualifications. "First, must know as much as possible about Equestrian law." Twilight and Luna nodded. "Second, very patient, since when I said I was confrontational I also include 'I argue a lot'. Third, must be able to make a good schedule, with lots of flexibility. Fourth, knowledge of budgets and stuff will be immensely helpful... oh, and since travel time is negligible, he or she doesn't have to be in the palace, or even Canterlot for that matter." "Arguments? Schedules? I have just the pony in mind!" Twilight said, clapping her hooves together with an adorable smile. God bless her little pony heart. He's the perfect stallion for the job. I took out my staff (I keep it either in my hands or my pockets and it never leaves my sight, except for decoys or that one time) and stared at it. I can feel it, the staff I mean... it's dry to the touch, but it feels like it's still alive in a sense - like it has a piece of the spirit of the Everfree inside as well as my own. You know what? Learn the language of flowers yourself; the thing keeps changing on its own all the time to indicate things. Anyways, I had to figure out just what I could do with magic, and what else had Discord left me. Yeah, those mix-and-match pieces of his? Not just for show. Mostly, but not only for it. Oh, and remember when we spoke about magic? It also came with a warning about how some order magic disrupts chaos magic and viceversa... and how being the most powerful chaos user around here, I'd pop defenses like grapes. I got warned about the Order Stones I've been talking about... they aren't something the common pony would have, but places like the Royal Bank of Equestria have some, as well as certain museum and private vaults and ponies that want to avoid having their houses pranked with chaos magic. Discord is a true master of the art, since he can do magic like they aren't even there. Me? Well, they are capable of leveling the building if I'm careless; thankfully, they can take my little pranks and movements without much protest. THOSE are large, and quite impractical to carry around. It's the little ones that are worrisome, since, while they can block my little pranks... the magic I use pretty much reflexively increases its power until the prank succeeds, which is the point the stones fail and burn out. Not to speak of the times I've been confronted by somepony carrying one and I'm forced to be careful lest I kill them with their own protectors by overloading them so quickly they explode. At least it's incredibly obvious when there's one around; feels like somepony is trying to play me for a fool while being direct about it. Hmm... for all the talk about magic and spells, the effects I (consciously) use the most besides enchantments are the humble conjuration, or they simply move one thing from one place to another - sure, sometimes it's displacing something to another country, or an electrical charge, or my own body through a path, or some times it's a projectile at ludicrous speeds, heck, even knowledge. I was pondering the possibilities of that last one - which I had discovered by accident minutes prior- when the door opened. Celestia came in not too much later after I retired, since she promised there would be few personal audiences later, and she also overstated the severity of my 'condition' The meeting was short, since she made the power out to be like trying to hold a wild bro- err... hold a... volcano with... something flimsy... and thus requiring a peaceful environment and concentration. "Your metaphors need work, dear 'Aether'." Yeah well, watch it pal, lest you find one of my joke cupcakes in your stomach. In any case, Celestia walked in all smiling and such. I carefully placed my staff on the couch and walked up to her, also smiling. I handed her a box. Curious, the three mares looked into the box after opening it... and the three of them turned red. "It. Was. Priceless." I admit that, for something I didn't even think about, it was quite funny. Twilight attempted to stammer out a question, but I spoke up since it was kinda obvious what she intended to ask. "That is so that you stop screwing me over!" I yelled. "I mean, what the hell!? Prince?!" Celestia tried to pass the box away to Luna, but I just gave her another one. "I'm going to have every single noble at my throat! Even the reasonable ones!" I was pacing about the room. "What will I do with this kind of responsibility?!" Celestia, quite possibly without thinking, passed the box to Twilight of all ponies. I gave her another one. I was breathing deeply, trying to calm down, while Luna tried to get my attention. "Alright, alright, I can handle this! I guess it is for the best, I mean, just this morning I remade a bathroom with a snap of my fingers, then changed it back without problem, I guess it would be scary for the regular pony to have some random guy obtain that kind of power. Heck, the Pathway Displacement spell alone makes me pretty much the most dangerous thing around for miles. Plus, I guess there might be something political behind it or whatnot." I was muttering that to myself, though the ponies could hear it. And, as it turns out, having a 'Prince Aether' show up so suddenly managed to stop a possible war - talks with a couple of countries and certain groups of Diamond Dogs had been going wrong (NOT near Ponyville, they are firmly under Rarity's control) and they couldn't accept that Celestia's loss against Chrysalis was due to the circumstances... well, the human me had to try out a couple of special spells in a 'shock and awe' display before things settled for good, but, in the meantime, the Diamond Dogs were not willing to risk having their territories turned into cake and their gems into candy like when Discord escaped. Also, minotaurs suck. Like, massively so. (Iron Will is OK though.) "Aether!" Luna stomped her hoof. "Your hands are on fire!" I looked at them and, sure enough, they were covered in fire. One was a bright blue, almost white, while the other was a blue so dark it was almost black. "That they are." I said. "I was angry, but I guess you know best how to proceed." "But... that's dark magic. How are you doing that?" Celestia asked while pointing to the dark fire, and I just shrugged. "I dunno, I mean, I might not be one of those sages that has 'inner peace' or anything, but I am aware of the bits of myself that I don't like to show. What's it called? The Shadow Archetype or something." I discovered then, thanks to a mini-rant from Twilight, that a misstep when trying to achieve dark magic use can have pretty dire consequences. Good luck we aren't born with magic, eh? Makes it harder to cause a catastrophe than a unicorn. That's right, humans from my world have an advantage over unicorns! Without magic, the first two major steps and all of their variations are purely psychological! Sure, things can go horribly, horribly wrong - I... was just a stupid kid, and I hurt someone... hah... at least I didn't have magic back then, or else I could have gone mad. About... one out of a hundred humans can activate dark magic safely. Let's say that less than a quarter can actually use it to cast spells, and only one in ten can use the advanced ones. That's still many, many thousands of potential casters out there. If my world had magic from the start, those numbers would be very, very low instead; only a handful would survive the kind of... let's say 'experiences' that are involved with breaching the first hurdle. "I don't let my Shadow control me - it's my shadow. Mine." I said. And it helps that my main vice isn't wrath (no matter how angry I get, since I hate hurting others even if I do enjoy a good fight) or lust (don't let Discord sway your opinion, I mean it in the 'worldly desires' sense, not 'carnal desires')... it's sloth, alright? "Anyways, I need to clear my head." I said, shaking my hands to extinguish them. I didn't know back then, but that was the first time 'Blazing Fists Aether' made an appearance. "Twilight, would you mind a short stroll through Ponyville? Don't worry, I won't appear as a human." Twilight looked at the box she held and blushed again... I don't even know what it does beyond the obvious, but I think it's magic. She teleported the box, quite possibly to her room, and said. "Huh..." Very articulate; thankfully, Celestia stepped in (still in a bit of a daze). "As long as you come back in two hours..." "Great!" Then, two ponies, one lavender, another brown, walked through the park with the fountain. Also, Luna burst out laughing at Celestia's flustered expression, both of them admiring my 'gift'; one was much more appreciative than the other, but neither got rid of it... "Don't worry about somepony seeing my prince form, those that don't know my secret can't see us for now." I said. I could feel it now; I had a fire burning intensely in my stomach. Dragon energy. Thankfully, pony-form-me is much more calm and apparently less intuitively compatible, so that even when I'm angry I don't make flames unless I purposely cast a fire spell. It would be hard to justify the separate persona otherwise "Uh... why?" Twilight asked, and it was a very good question! "Because it's unnecessarily complicated, and I need to do something weird to calm down." I said, doing the whole 'air bubble around my face' thing again, but now with air from the Everfree. It's comforting and calming. I loved how I just shocked Celestia so bad she just let me wander about. Still, now I could feel the darkness... the shadow (Hmm, make that capital 'S' Shadow). It's behind me - always behind me- and underneath. Even before the ridiculous trial I imposed on myself, I was firmly in control, so I've never hurt anyone with it to date. The Light was considerably less creepy about the whole 'part of me' business. To that point in time, that's five sources of energy and two additional pools. Let's ignore the chaotic inheritance for now. True prodigies in any of the three basic pony areas leave me in the dust (Twilight and Shining Armor would even if I take the three and roll them into one), and comparatively I'm no stronger than any of those teenage dragons, but it is the mix itself what makes me strong (again, 'cept in special cases like Shiny, Twily, or Big Mac) and it's the reason Cadence outclasses me if you don't take dark magic into account. Well, that and being human - having two hands is nifty, but the melange renders that advantage less important. "But what if somepony notices your magic aura signature?" Twilight asks, managing to shake off the redness quickly. "Celestia said the palace was so full of it it was impossible to tell where I was without direct means to do so, right?" "Yes, but that is back in Canterlot. Even though your influence can be seen from here, it's not going to hold against other-" "I left my staff there." I interrupted her, and she didn't know where I was going with that explanation. "Now it's kinda like a part of me... I'm using a little trick by taking my aura, shoving it into a Pathway, and sending it to my staff so that it radiates it instead of me, then using that to use the illusion magic at our current location." Like a broadcast station that has the antenna separate from both the source and the destination of the signal. Twilight's eyes opened wide. "As I said, this Pathway thing alone is powerful." I shrugged. "Thinking bridges across reality is dangerous." Twilight rubbed one foreleg on the other. "You're not that bad." "Twilight, thanks to coming from a science-centric magic-less race with a wild imagination, I was able to think up six different effects, in as many minutes, to get around what is colloquially referred to as 'anti-magic' and spell-resistant objects and effects." I deadpanned. "Each method works on at least half of those defenses, covering nearly all of them. Oh, and they follow the rules enough that they can be theoretically-reproduced with unicorn magic - Hell, some of them with pure science." Dear God, I gave Luna the idea of the railgun. She doesn't have anywhere near the same limit to her magic that would put a railgun spell outside the power and skill range of nearly all unicorns! Coins propelled through the air at Mach 4 or greater are not my idea of fun... well, they are, but not outside the Collective (or is that, 'inside a world'?). "Well, they are trying to do what's best for everypony." Twilight was being shy around me, and I sigh, not wanting to make her feel bad about anything. "I'm not mad anymore, Twilight, I understand a few reasons Celestia had to do that." I rubbed my eyes... hoofs are normally kinda soft, like fists, but the magic inherent to ponies makes it hard when striking. "I have been handed a great amount of power, so she's pushing me into situations where my guile will be the main factor of my successes." Nobles might inherit their titles, but they still have to earn power - true power, at least, since the council of nobles doesn't count; it's just a place to set them loose at each other's throats, while the ponies with merits make the actual decisions. We began walking about, without a particular destination in mind. "Seems like Celestia took a liking to my personal philosophies." Injustice pisses me off rather fast. "It... it seems like a bold move, but I trust the princess!" Twilight said, and I agree! It was just... awkward and sudden. "Well, I'm not one for much subtlety. As far as I'm concerned, I can't think of ways to use political power outside of doing so like a berzerker would an ax..." My eyes went wide with the revelation. "That's it! Nobles like to dance around the issues, building a circus out of their supporters and detractors, right?" Twilight nodded, since it's one of the constant complaints of Luna. "Well, I intend to be a little bolder than that." I began grinning. I found that Griffon's are the most human-like of the races, by the way. Sure, there are lots of differences still, but they are awesome. Did you know that saving another is seen as more honorable and worthier of praise than slaying a score of enemies? Which reminds me of a request of mine... "Twilight... I need a crash-course on chivalry. I need to know what is, and what isn't, appropriate." Hmm... sounds like a good place to stop for now. Next time, I'm going to go over some aspects of ponies... and succumb to the prankster I'm carrying inside.