//------------------------------// // It's... almost a date... I guess // Story: Aether, Heir of Chaos // by Arcane Anonymity //------------------------------// My measurements done (sent copies to Rarity), and lunch behind us, I was given a set of basic exercises - nothing complicated, just a series for foals to do during my downtime. Glade was much more relaxed around me after she confirmed that, indeed, I was going to do everything possible to help Topsy. The nightmares really put a damper on the progress of their relationship, and it broke Lavender a little bit each time when they were separated by the heavily-warded doors of the hospital. Luna, however, might really be a Jedi. She was 'just about' to go get me (and Lavender) when we walked out the door and (near-literally) ran into her. She was being followed by Topsy, wearing the cape - the red one with gold borders and a winged shield embroided in the middle - that I had used when I helped her in her dream, it had an added hood, though it couldn't conceal her identity from me. She was an even more cartoony version of Pinkie, but after Discord's defeat, she became much more subdued than her. Which is good; I mean, I love Pinkie and all, but it would be really hard to be in an actual relationship with her, and it wouldn't be fair to Lavender. Topsy is also nearly always wearing something. Her coat has more magic loaded in it than normal, likely because of the poison joke portion of her body, and the feel of cloth is soothing to her - it's a feedback thing. Topsy launched herself at Lavender, who barely had the space to flap her wings and right herself before being toppled over. Topsy hugged her with all of her heart, and Glade promptly returned it; Luna had already told them that she wouldn't dare interrupt their displays of affection unless it was something really important, so it wasn't until Glade was released that she saluted. Topsy wanted to know my secret (Luna had said it was better to hear it from my own mouth), which was easy - I didn't try to control my powers because I didn't have to. Well, unless they were in use, obviously. What, do you need to try to control your face when you aren't doing anything with it? It's a part of yourself - sure, it got rowdy and restless when I got emotional, but while I was idle I didn't have to do anything. It's like the void-terrors; it happens because you expect it to happen. Imagination-based powers are like that. Particularly with a pony as magical as her - her pools were disproportionate, but not nearly as badly as mine; her Discord-style chaos magic outweighed her pony magic, although I had more power than her by a good deal in all accounts. "I think I broke her." I said, since her eyes (currently 'normal') were wide open and shrunken to pinpricks. Now, we had been walking through the streets, heading to a small park to pass the time, when Topsy had her little... blue screen moment. Suddenly, a battlecry, and I was flattened into a pancake by means of falling Twilight Sparkle, out of bucking nowhere. Well, from above, since she made the trip in the balloon and all. "Don't think you can distract me, mister!" She shouted accusatorially at my then-flat body, before I replaced myself with a huge literal pancake and reappeared next to Luna. The others were startled, specially since two of them were trained better than that (Pinkie was in the balloon, so it wasn't surprising that they were surprised). "Eww..." She lifted a hoof off the ground, the syrup sticking to it and probably feeling really weird. She shook her hoof, before walking off of the pancake - shaking a hoof each time it left the breakfast item. I kid you not, she was just like a dog or a cat with bootsies trying to get them off by trying to shake them off, tongue out in disgust all the while. It was freaking adorable, and I took more pictures, and a video - a few of them, from different angles, and made a few more set to a catchy soundtrack. "Don't you- unf - think this will - eugh - stop me, Aether!" She walked over to me, still doing the cat-in-boots walk, trying to point a sticky hoof at me. "Princess, Topsy, Lavender." She bowed quickly, while Lavender blinked at the absurdity, and Topsy smiled and almost chuckled. Luna was looking at me like I grew another pair of wings - oh wait! I totally did! What? If ponies are going to look at me weirdly, then I might as well give them a reason. "You remembered my books, didn't you?" I asked, additional wings vanishing, while Luna turned up to see Pinkie and Dash waving at her from the balloon. "Yes!" Twilight exclaimed with barely-contained enthusiasm; she was vibrating like Luna was when I gave her enough coffee to fill a bathtub - that hasn't happened 'yet', however. "I was going to instruct Topsy in the fine art of being chaotically controlled and disorderly orderly, so you might want to wait a little - unless you'd rather help." I said, making Topsy smile at me. "Oh, I- I guess making sure she's going to be fine takes priority." She said, smiling at her. "I don't mind helping a friend first." If you're wondering how they know each other, bear in mind that Topsy was in Ponyville when Discord was re-sealed, and a crying mare attracts a lot of attention. "F-friend?" Topsy stammered. "After- after all dad did, you still want to be friends with me?" "Of course!" Twilight nodded. "I have an idea." Guess who said that. Well, while Cherry Berry - who was brought along to take the balloon back to Ponyville - dropped off the rest of the girls at the castle, Twilight, Lavender, Luna, Topsy, Rainbow, and myself prepared a 'small' joke. Quick note: Cherry has a license for balloons (as do Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie), so Twilight lets her use hers to rent it for rides. So long as Cherry takes care of it, Twilight doesn't ask for anything in return - though Cherry still pays her for it as a token of appreciation, no matter how much Twilight insists otherwise. My little group, headed by Topsy, walked into an antiques shop. I had egg timers glued to me, Lavender was supporting a few alarm clocks on her wings and back, Luna was holding a wall clock with her mouth, Twilight had several classy wrist watches on her forelegs, Dash had digital watches (provided by me, obviously), and Topsy had a wall cuckoo clock balanced on her back. Yes, it's the set-up to an awful joke. The poor clerk blinked many times. "Uh... greetings... your highness...es... what can I do for you?" The confusion knocked the poor guy for a loop, though he still greeted Luna (and remembered me) politely. Also, notice-me-not spells are super useful (and banks and stores have wards dedicated specifically to nullifying them at the least enough to have ponies know you are there, so don't have any funny, or non-funny thoughts about it, you hear?). Topsy looked back at me, and I nodded. She took a deep breath, and faced the clerk. "Don't mind us." She started, then pointed to the many time pieces we carried. "They, however, are here for a family reunion." Then she pointed behind the clerk. "Family reunion? And what are you pointing at? That's a grandfath- oh." He got it. Dash started to laugh, and Luna bit her lip (somehow) to hold her own chuckles. Then the clerk collapsed, holding his sides. "Bwahaha! That's- that's-!" He said, or tried to, while the rest of my group laughed - even her! "I-I don't know what to think about this!" Lavender said between breaths. "Did you lose your train of thought? Oh no! I'll help you find it!" Topsy said - of her own initiative - while scanning the floor of the store, which made Lavender laugh more. "And that, young padawan, is how you use chaos for good." And then Topsy was a zom- I mean, dressed as a Jedi. As we walked back to the castle, Topsy, back in the Paladin cape/robe, was floating around happily with her propeller beanie for the first time since Lavender agreed to be her girlfriend. She was talking excitedly, words undecipherable, and must have reached the part when she started talking about the present time and/or her opinion of me-slash-my actions, because she started stuttering like she didn't know what to say (I pictured the words crashing into one another, and Luna almost slipped on alphabet soup that popped into the ground). Out of 'nowhere', which I really should have seen coming, she promptly launcher herself at me, knocking me on my back and giving me a big, almost-Bugs-Bunny-esque kiss. Now, hitting me with a cannonball was comparable to assaulting me with a pillow, so I was not distracted from just how good it felt. She was very soft, and warm, and poured every bit of gratitude and affection into her kiss; I returned it almost without thinking, holding her with my hooves as she did with me. She smelled like berries, and her 'magic' smell was like... currently, like a comedy that had romance in it. It's hard to describe, since the senses and memories start to mix up. For example, Twilight's non-physical essence smells like everything that is good in the world; if I had to call it anything, I would say it's the smell friendship should have. Apparently, as a pony I smell like fresh air, rain, wet earth, and have a tint of ozone; like after a rain with lightning bolts and everything. We stayed like that for a while, since we can hold our breath much longer than normal, but still had to break off. My heart was pounding, and with her inside my air bubble I couldn't stop thinking about how good she smelled and how nice her laugh sounded and how cute she was... Lavender gaped, thinking about how fast the relationship was progressing. "That- that-... wow." I said - eloquent, no? "That was the first time I kissed... well, anyone, really. It was great." Topsy giggled nervously, propeller spinning and floating away from me in an embarrassed fashion. I - still on my back - turned to Lavender. "Are you free tonight?" I asked, while she blushed furiously as she nodded. She's an instructor, mind you, so her work hours are rather well-defined, and she has the day shift (as uncommon as it is for a Night guard). She was also briefed on me both by the princesses - when they tasked her with teaching me to fly - and Topsy, when she told her that she really liked the Psalm 23 I had recited while literally beating nightmares to death (she said it gave her courage). "I can invite you to see a movie, from my old world." I offered. "Mind you, we're going to have company." I was willing to give it a shot - sure, maybe Topsy didn't mean anything by the kiss, but given her lack of control over her magic, she rarely did anything that she did not feel like doing deep in her heart. I didn't know that, but I did feel that she held the kiss right up until she was forced to take air back in; I took it as a sign of possible deeper affections, and so, I offered to take them on dates to see if there were any. I was about to do the same offer to Cinnamon and Dusty, that very day, even - remember, I had been talking with them already. I liked them. I knew that Dusty's grandparents were travelers (the reason I suspect she's got Snow Lady and Windigo in her ancestry), her parents worked the weather - more specifically high-altitude clouds, snow, and hail for the most part. I also knew that Cinnamon liked to walk through the gardens, which her grandfather tended; her grandmother - the Alraune and wife to the gardener - was actually living there, and that her half-maredragora mother worked as a milkmare in addition to making floral arrangements. And some other things. Pony relationships either progress quickly, or are broken off quickly - compared to human relationships, anyways. If the matches are incompatible, as in, disharmonious, they find out more quickly (compared to the humans that are more headstrong than normal, particularly the kind that think that they can 'change' their partner); if it doesn't work out and the relationship fails, the bulk of them tend to just end up as friends instead (oh, yeah... since pony society and religions are MUCH different than human ones, friendships 'with benefits' are ubiquitous, and nopony even makes the distinction since they respect each other and their choices so much - for the most part; if a friend would like to 'offer', they do; if they don't, then they don't, and nopony thinks less of them for it). Sex in pony society is just as much a topic as... I dunno, haircuts, or something - you either have them, and that's OK, or you don't, and it's OK too. You can talk about it, or you don't. And the sort of topics that most people consider too intimate and private to be anything more than pillow talk are usually the basis for a friendship in Equestria (barring those that are truly so in that sense, naturally). Seriously, why sleep with someone if you don't know them all that well in the first place? Well, for humans. Ponies... it's more of an emotional service at times; I think I don't have to clarify why. Still, Lavender was willing to give it a try as well. This first 'date' was me testing the waters, after all - if any of them wanted to get to know each other better, then we would, if not, we stay friends, and that's that. I also acknowledged that Cinnamon and Dusty had a crush on me, and I wasn't going to string them along nor let them suffer in 'secret'; if it developed into something more... all the better! 'Herd' dates like that one were not uncommon, although they were between two parties, not three. It was not an outright date, since the girls were going to be there. AJ... well, the rule sixty-three incident made Mac push himself a little harder than normal - which is to say that he was clearing the chore list almost as fast as it was being written - to stop thinking about it (it seemed like some of the smell clung to him and gave him interesting dreams), so she found herself with more time than usual. She wanted to ask me things about plants. Pinkie is Pinkie. She knew there would be movies. Twilight wanted books, and Heaven hath no Rage, like Twilight on a quest for books; nor Hell a Fury like she does when you damage one. Rainbow wanted to see if I had any good action books, or comic books. Fluttershy was all but shoved by Angel out the door once Rainbow said the others were going to see me. Apparently, Angel thought it did her well to not be a recluse and go out. She talked about the movies a lot, apparently, and Angel - jerk as he may be - likes seeing her happy. Rarity did another 'Art of the dress' style sewing montage, and somehow completed a few of my pony outfits in the four hours, give or take fifteen minutes, that passed between her getting the numbers and the time Twilight's preparations to hunt me down like a dog were finished; she wanted to do the final fitting. I gave her the sheet with my measures, which I feel I should clarify were made for both my normal and 'princely' sizes, for both genders ("just in case"), but she still wanted to make sure that they would translate nicely - it was the first time she made outfits for a being that shapeshifted so casually and drastically. Luna wanted to see more movies. Celestia would not pass an opportunity to be with her sister. Cinnamon and Dusty didn't say anything, opting for turning red and nodding. Cinnamon liked Lavender's eyes, and wanted to make Topsy feel at ease; Dusty thought Lavender's wings were really nice. Curiously enough, they decided the first one unanimously, despite being such a grab bag of personalities and tastes. Kung Fu Panda.