//------------------------------// // Chapter XXIX: Research // Story: Distorted Fate // by Silvak //------------------------------// As I ate breakfast, I watched Pinkie chowing down her own breakfast with more excitement than usual. The rate at which she was eating her breakfast would have been mesmerizing to me, if Twilight hadn’t beaten her to the punch with that dinner we had weeks ago. Eventually curiosity got the better of me as I asked, "You seem 'excited' today Pinkie, is something going on today?" "You don't know? It's Rainbow Dash's birthday today!" Pinkie answered with a look of disbelief on her face. "No one told me that, I think," I replied as I rubbed my chin. Since the 'cliff diving' incident five days ago, it became apparent that the Crusaders were grounded again, though Rarity dropped by to give me her own scolding, except Pinkie stopped her by explaining my role in the situation. This caused Rarity to instead offer her, as she said, condolences on her rude assumptions and she told me that she appreciated that I was going to do my best to keep the Crusaders out of harm's way. "Well, I get to throw her the greatest birthday bash ever!" Pinkie said with a wide grin, to which I responded with a simple nod. Of course Pinkie would throw one of her closest fri- wait a minute. Rainbow Dash is one of Twilight's closest friends too, which with the birthday planned by Pinkie, will not only means that she will attend with Spike, but it may keep them occupied for the rest of the day... which means her home will only have that pet of hers in it. After I finished my train of thought, I noticed that Pinkie had already finished up her breakfast and was already gone. Taking this as a perfect opportunity to proceed with my plans, I headed upstairs, picked up my saddlebag and a few of the notepads Twilight gave me for writing practice, and left the bakery as I went straight for the library. As I made my way to the library, I noticed Pinkie dashing about, grabbing various party supplies at a frantic pace. I simply smiled to myself, knowing that this could only mean that she would be too busy to bother me- as long as I stayed inside the library, that is. Upon reaching the library, I chose to practice caution as I knocked on the door with a hoof before running to the side of the tree to wait for anyone that might open the door. After waiting for a moment, I didn't hear the door open, leading me to the conclusion that Twilight and Spike had already left for the birthday preparations. Looking around, I waited till nopony was looking at the library, at which point I used my magic to unlatch the lock on a nearby window, opened it, and closed it after I climbed inside. Looking around, after I saw no sign of life, not even the pet owl, I quietly tiptoed... tiphoofed? Whatever. I quietly made my way to the door that led to Twilight's underground lab that she mentioned to me during one of our lessons. Testing the doorknob, I found the door to be locked, though I already planned for that possibility. Even since I learned the telekinesis spell, I'd been occasionally practicing its use as a means of lock-picking doors. Though the first few times of practice result in broken locks, all of which were bathroom door locks, I eventually discovered the means to unlock doors without tearing apart their innards. As I placed an ear against the lock, I engulfed the entire thing with my magic, I then applied various light pressures into the lock itself. It was a long process, but eventually I heard the telling click of the lock being opened, allowing me a small grin of victory as I quietly opened the door. Heading down the stairs into the lab, I realized that this might be the best place to get a judge on how far this world was technology wise. Upon entering the lab, I was disappointed to say the least. The bulkiness of the machinery and the use of large glass bulbs seemed to indicate that they were certainly centuries behind a standard dimensional species. However, despite the sight before me, I was able to spot a Maralus shard being held up via a stand with some stacks of notes next to it. Well, that is certainly a lot of research to copy, but that just means fewer experiments for me in the future, I thought to myself as I began the long process of copying her notes. While it took several hours, I finally was able to copy down all of Twilight's notes. While I could only read about an eighth of the notes at my current reading level, I was still able to copy all of them for future use. While I had the temptation to steal the shard that Twilight had, I knew that it would only give me away. I reorganized the stacks to their proper places, locked the lab door as I left (which took longer to lock than it did to unlock) and left the library when nopony was looking again. As I made my way back home, I heard a pair of voices, one of them being Pinkie's, singing off in the distance. When  I turned my head towards the direction of the singing, I beheld one crazy sight. Though there were houses in the way, I was still able to see what appeared to be a crane carrying some kind of massive cake. I stared at it for a moment to see it suddenly fall, but I shook my head clear. Pinkie was singing, so it is probably related to her, best just to move along. It wasn't long before I arrived at the bakery, where as I was stashing my notes at the bottom of my toy chest, I heard a pony opening my bedroom door. Turning my head around, I saw Pinkie Pie standing at the doorway with some chest on wheels behind her. "Um... hi Pinkie. What are you doing here?" I asked, hoping that she didn't saw what I did today. "...I'm here to say goodbye, Aether," Pinkie said with tears that I could now see in her eyes. "...What? What are you talking about?" "I have to leave Ponyville now. It has a new party pony, one that is better at throwing parties than me..." "...Wait. What. You have to leave Ponyville because there is a better party pony than you here right now? That... that does not make sense to me at all." "Aether, I love throwing parties that put smiles on other ponies faces, but if there is a pony that is better than me at that, then I'm not needed here," Pinkie said as she began to walk away from my room with her stuff in tow. "That still makes no sense to me, can you just both throw parties?" I asked as I followed Pinkie out the front door. "No, cause all the other ponies would just go to Cheese Sandwich for their parties... not me," Pinkie sadly said as head to the town outskirts. Cheese Sandwich... that must be the name of the pony that is trying to upstart Pinkie. I'm so going to get him for this. As we left the town proper, Pinkie stopped to say, "Aether, you need to go back home now. You need to stay with the Cakes." "...No... I'm staying with you," I said, ‘cause in all honesty, while I did live at the Cakes' home and they help to take care of me, Pinkie was my guardian and did take care of me the most, even if she tested the limits of my sanity. "No, Aether, you hav-" Pinkie started to say till she was interrupted by the arrival of her friends.         “Pinkie, wait! I’m sorry I got swept away by Cheese Sandwich!” Rainbow said as she flew over to Pinkie Pie with the others following in tow.         “We all are,” Twilight said, as the others agreed with her. Raising an eyebrow, I thought to myself, Wait, so they are also responsible for Pinkie’s current state?         “Sorry Pinkie,” Spike said, to which surprised me that even he had a role in this.         “No. I’m sorry I let my pride get in the way of you having the best birth-iversary ever,” Pinkie said as I thought, birth-sa-what? “Cheese Sandwich really is a super duper party planner, and he’ll be a terrific headliner. I should’ve been a big enough pony to admit that and let you have your day.”         “But don’t you get it? You’re both super duper party ponies. Sure, Cheese Sandwich is a great guest party pony, but you’re Ponyville’s permanent party pony. Nopony could ever take your place, and we could never have a party without you,” Rainbow said. That, and if anypony actually tries, I will rip them open, regardless of the consequences.         That was when a yellow stallion with a brown poofy mane walked over to the group as he said, “Rainbow Dash is right. I never meant to take your place in Ponyville. I just wanted to show you what a great party pony I am, Pinkie.” As I step off to the side while watching this play out, I thought to myself, So this is the upstart that almost ran Pinkie out of town. He better be apologizing for his actions, or I’ll break all four of his kneecaps. “Why me?” Pinkie asked in confusion, which raised a point of why this Cheese Sandwich fellow did what he did. “Well…” Cheese Sandwich started off, till he suddenly started singing his story. What the fuck? Why is he singing? Who the fuck sings about their reasons? What rea- what the fuck? Are they just standing there and listening? Wait, Rainbow Dash is just listening as well! Eventually, Cheese Sandwich’s song ended with him saying that Pinkie inspired him to be a party pony after attending one of her party’s in Ponyville, and while I decided to let my rage cool down, I still found it incredibly stupid that he chose now to explain his actions. While Pinkie was proud to be the inspiration for a world-renowned party pony (which I highly doubted), I was still confused on why that stallion needed to put his explanation in song form, much less how in limbo he managed to make up a song on the spot too! After watching this issue cleared up, I followed the group back to the festivities, which honestly was way too cheery for my tastes as I kept to the side, munching on some chocolate cake as an excuse on why I was all alone. As I observed the Crusaders playing some party game, I noticed a pair of colts, ones that I recognized to be Snips and Snails from class, walking over to me with rather large smiles on their muzzles. "Hi there, Aether," they both said in unison, to which I replied with a grunt. While I was getting used to being a child and interacting with children since they were officially my peers, I knew that these two were... well, stupid. Hence, I didn't hold enough interest in the pair to give them a verbal response. "What are you doing?" Snails asked, to which I gave him a flat stare. "I am eating cake," I flatly said, though I was tempted to include some wit in my reply, I knew that it would only go over their heads in some fashion. "Hey, want to play some games with us?" Snips said as the two started to get closer. "Um... why do you want to play with me?" I asked as I raised an eyebrow at the two. "Cause you're pretty," Snails said, only to earn some complaint as Snips whispered something to him while baring an embarrassed expression. My face, on the other hoof, was changing to an expression of horror as I thought, Oh, sweet Celestia... these two have a crush on m- wait, when did I started to use those pony's phrases? Oh well... better than accidentally slipping my own phrases into their language somehow and having to explain them. Still, I have to deal with these two now? As I ended my train of thought, I saw that those two were smiling at me again. "Umm... err... hey what's that!" I said as I pointed my hoof at some random direction. As the two colts turn to look, I scarfed down the rest of my cake in one bite. While it would make Pinkie proud, the fact that I could do that disturbed me a bit as I made a run for it. After getting away from the duo, I hid under a table as I recollected my thoughts. Great, just great. This is fantastic. Not only am I a female child, but apparently I'm at the fucking age where colts will be attracted to me. I should have realized that this would be an issue, but in my defense, I was distracted by the species change, the Maralus shards, and learning magic. Wait, am I mentally defending myself against myself? This place is taking its toll on my sanity. Still, I have to figure a way to deal with those two and any other colts that might be attracted to me. Thankfully, the class has way more fillies than colts, so maybe the rest are attracted to someone else. For now, though, I need to keep those two off my back... if only I could steer their affections towards Diamond Tiara, though that brat is so damn mean that she probably repulse those two with her horrible personal- I thought till a pair of hooves pulled me out from under the table. Looking upon my captor, I saw it was just Pinkie Pie as she asked, "There you are! Why are you under the table instead of having fun? Oh, wait, are you playing hide and seek?" Rolling my eyes, I answered, "Yes, I am playing hide and seek, but more of hiding from certain ponies that I do not want to be with right now." "Wait, what ponies are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash said as she flew into my view with a suspicious look on her face. Looking around, I saw that Twilight and Applejack was with them as well. Grrrreat... "Just a pair of colts," I admitted. "Why are you hidin' from a pair of... oh..." Applejack started to say before her lips turned upwards into a smile. "Sounds like a certain filly has a couple of colts with a crush on her." As I did my best to keep a straight face, I asked, "What do you mean? What makes you think that?" "Oh come on now, you were hidin' under a table. It's a plain as day that they have a crush on you." "Applejack is right. You don't seem to be the type that hide from other foals," Twilight said with a teasing smile. To my misfortune, I could feel my face heating up from a surge of blood rushing to my face that told me I was blushing. Gritting my teeth, I said, "So what if there is a pair of colts that have a crush on... me..." before stopping in my tracks as I noticed the Crusaders and Rarity joining our little gathering, where my friends had their hooves over their muzzles as they try to stifle their laughs from hearing my possible admission. As the look of horror began to return to my face as I stared at Crusaders, I could hear Rainbow Dash laughing at my dismay. Shit... this just keeps getting worse.