Astral Aegis

by Silvak


Chapter XVII: Mission

My first day at the Crystal Empire was productive, in terms of getting very little actually done in my point of view. It wasn't long before Cadance recovered from her fainting spell, which allowed Shining to finally have that military discussion with me. While I did pick up some of Equestria's military tactics, as predicted they would just crumble when faced against organized dimensional forces. This became apparent when I just tossed out random scenarios, ranging from a Dixian war machine, waves of insectoid soldiers, to a swarm of robotic drones. So the discussion ended up with Shining teaching me Equestrian and other species’ military tactics as I wrote down various battle situations to give him something to think about in his spare time.

After the discussion, I didn't talk to Cadance again, which probably meant that she may be rethinking her approach towards my attitude. Which is good, because I personally don't want to take more drastic steps, nor do I want to figure out how thick-headed ponies can be. Though sitting in a wheelchair since I couldn’t walk on my broken leg anytime soon is boring as can be, even if I had some pony pushing me around.

Anyways, at the days end I was given a room at the palace to stay in. After spending some time to prepare a letter to send to Pinkie tomorrow, I decided to sleep in the bed that was not only non-crystal, but it was the softest bed I've ever been on. I wondered if I could bring this bed back to Ponyville.


"You know, I expected a few things... but nothing like this."

"Well... after yesterday's 'incident', I thought that maybe I should try approaching you as one adult to another."

"About time somepony figured that out," I said, as I eyed the room Cadance and I were in. This time around, there was pair of chairs, with the one that I guess was for me designed to allow a pony to lounge on it while Cadance's didn't have the same luxury. While I was suspicious of the chair at first, I eventually shrugged and took my seat.

"Aether, before we start, I have something to say to you," Cadance calmly declared, causing me to tilt my head at her.

"What is it?"

"It's about how I treated you yesterday. I apologize for treating you like a foal that just wanted to get her way only. I should have approached you as an adult from the beginning, yet my past foalsitting experience prevented me from giving you that respect."

This caused me only to raise an eyebrow at her humility. "Okay... I guess I can accept your apology."

"Good, so let's try to start all over with a clean slate," Cadance said as she levitated a notepad and a quill over to her. And now I feel like I'm with Twilight again... "So Aether, can you please tell me why you've been so angry lately?"

"Finally somepony said the magic words," I answered dryly, only for Cadance to deadpan at me. "Where to start, where to start... let's see: Princess Celestia basically alerted the dimensional community that there is something odd in this dimension, I'm the only pony that has any knowledge of what this world will have to face so I have to be the one to train a bunch of recruits from a species that is way too peaceful for war, I just learned two weeks ago that some ponies do judge others based on what tribe they're from, oh and that since I'm a foal, it is very hard for anypony to take me seriously unless I take drastic measures to get them to listen."

"I see..." Cadance said as she took down some notes. "How about anything from your past life? Would that have any baring on your anger?"

Tapping a hoof against my chin, I answered, "Well, my past life was horrible, so I hated it. I also hated the fact that I was a member of a species that was dying, and I was generally shorter than most... ponies in my line of work. They always wanted to taunt me for that, especially the new ones. Though after their first mission, they're normally too shocked to say anything else, or they're dead. Mostly the latter case."

Biting her lip, Cadance took a deep breath before continuing with her questioning. "Aether, in order to get some kind of understanding of your... emotional state, do you mind telling me about the... worst mission you've experienced?"

"Hmm... only if you're certain... though I'm not going to tell you about the one were I almost had a run-in with the Venanites, I really don't want to think on that unless I really have to. Now let me think... oh, I could tell you about one of my few joint missions. Those tend to get real nasty, real fast. Though I recommend that you keep a trashcan nearby, in case you can't stomach what you're about to hear." Taking my advice, Cadance whisked a trashcan to the side of her chair.

"Now then, from what I can recall, there were ten of us hired for the job. We all had jobs with this employer, so we were hired for actually surviving and succeeding our first mission with the... employer. Anyway, it was some sort of retrieval mission, where we had to gather some kind of mystery material at a specific location that normal probes couldn't extract by themselves. So once the portal was up and ready, we all head in at once. Big mistake.

“Apparently our boss had forgotten to tell us the exact location we were heading to, only telling us it was a cave in the middle of an alien jungle. He didn't mention that we would be appearing right above the jungle, sweet Celestia that wasn't fun falling down for us. I was lucky to land on a branch, though I nearly broke a rib due to landing on my chest. Six others made it safely, one broke their arm, another ended up with a branch going through her stomach, and the last one... made a mess on the jungle floor." The vague description was enough for Cadance to start to pale as I wondered just what she could be imagining.

"The eight of us didn't mourn our dead; we didn't know each other, nor had the luxury of time to do so. We all rather get the mission over with so we can be in a more familiar and safer place. So we made our way through the jungle, which follows the typical cost pattern of encountering the native predators, where one of us was eaten, and then losing another one to some plant that preys on animals. Eventually we reached the cave, where things turned from bad to worse."

"Bad to worse? How can thi—" Cadance asked before I lifted up a hoof.

"There were six of us left at that point, figure it out. Moving on, we entered the cave, only to find out why a probe wouldn't be able to extract the material. The cave turned out to be the home of some insect hive... that consists of giant bugs," I said with a shiver at that memory. "Another one of us fell to the bugs when we first encountered them, leading to another mad dash for our lives. We eventually hit a fork in the cave, causing us to split up, which was the last I saw of the other two as three of us went the other way. Luckily we found the so called mystery material, some kind of orange metal that we had to retrieve, which thankfully our boss gave us the means to extract some. Sadly, turns out this material was some kind of decoration for the hive's queen, if I'm right about it being the queen, who promptly ate one of us.

But that wasn't the worst of it, for the queen had to block our way out, causing us to have to flee in the other direction. We reached a point where the queen couldn't fit, in a place where there were some worker bugs that for once didn't bother us. Sadly, that part of the cave... was were all the eggs were, which were either somehow sensitive to the presence of foreign life, or it was just their time to hatch, for the eggs cracked open to reveal hundreds of hungry and fast larva. The other... pony and I ran for our lives, sadly she tripped and ended up as a meal for the babies. Thankfully, I spotted a light from the outside via a small air shaft, that I crawled through to make it to safety, though I... knocked my shoulder out of it's place in my arm, back when I had an arm.

After fixing my shoulder, I went back to where the portal was, and waited till it reappeared, where a rope was somehow lowered. I know what you're about to say, if the boss knew about the fall, why didn't he warned us? Simple, he didn't care to. Anyway, I climbed up the rope, to which the portal closed behind me, pretty much dooming any survivors from the group that broke off. In the end; nine folk died, I started to develop a fear of babies, and I was paid enough... bits to last two weeks. Naturally, I took another job the next day, cause I needed more money for basic living expenses in case there was a drop in dimensional jobs."

At the end of my story, Cadance's face was so pale that it looked like she dyed her coat, her mouth shut tight for a moment before she finally gathered the composure to speak. "That... is horrible... for a pony to be sent somewhere... where they could be eaten by anything... even plants."

"Tell me about it, I made a note to avoid jobs that involved underground since then, if I had enough money to last to the next job. But eh, there are untold numbers of folk like me that have to deal with that for a living. Which is also why I didn't like the fact that Celestia sent out a message that alerted at least a few species that something exists here."

After my last words, Cadance remained silent, to which I just kept my mouth shut as I waited for her next move. She then finally took a deep breath before she said, "Aether, after hearing that part of your past, I can understand how... detached you can be about some matters with ponies. However, I still see your hostile reactions and angry issues as an unhealthy thing for anypony to have, regardless about your past. So... I suggest that we seek some way for you to let your aggressiveness out in a peaceful and constructive manner."

"Okay... and how do you intend to do that?" I asked as I tilted my head, wondering what her plan was.

"Well, one possibility is for you to talk about your issu—" Cadance started to say before I deadpanned at her. "Umm... how about get a hobby?"

"...like what?" I asked, still deadpanning.

"Well, since you live with Pinkie, how about baking?" After receiving a flat stare, Cadance gave me a sheepish smile before continuing, "Is there anything you're interested in doing?"

"Magic and living," I simply said.

"Um... nothing else?"

"Can't really say, most of my life was spent worrying on living, and the rest was focused around magic. Makes it hard to find any other interests."

"Well, try something Aether, being angry and frustrated all the time isn't healthy for you."

"Well, I know one way for me to feel a whole lot better."

"What is it?"

"It involves what you're sitting on and the back of Princess Celesia's head."

"What's with you and chairs‽"

"Closest thing on hoof. If we were in a training room, it would be any weapon I can use," I said with a cruel smile as Cadance just facehooved at my antics.