//------------------------------// // Chapter XLIII: Pinkie // Story: Astral Aegis // by Silvak //------------------------------// After the little meeting with Twilight, I returned to my office to see Starlight trying to yank the locked drawer from my desk. She only had three seconds to giggle in shame before I tazed her and threw her out the room. She should have known that Twilight would have gotten me a sturdy desk considering my violent tendencies, but I guess everyone is affected by the nativity of this world in some way. Though after a few minutes I opened the door and dragged her across the floor before dumped her on her seat so she could go back to her original task. This resulted in her calling me a slave driver, which I retorted by asking if she was volunteering to be my slave. It only took two eye twitches before she screamed in agony. A week had passed without incident, though I was bugged by Rainbow since she kept questioning on my plans. It only lasted three hours, cause I decided to sic my recruits on her, with the one that captures her getting a day off. I guess they really hate my training methods, and yet I haven't come up with the obstacle course that suit my needs. I was tempted to go to Discord for help, but I didn't want to risk traumatizing my troops, or having some of them being turned into a slime creature or something like that. I had to be very specific with my ball of pain's properties, I would need Twilight to help me get the right obstacle course from Discord. That however would entail dealing with Twilight's excessive planning as well as giving her a chance to question my plans before I can implement them. It's not worth it. At the end of the week, Twilight's plans come to fruition as we all were waiting in the castle dining room, while Twilight went out to retrieve the guest of honor. Though that also meant that I have to deal with anyone that didn't have any patience, namely Rainbow. Why did she had to have such a short attention span? "So, you actually came up with something?" "Yes Rainbow." "And you think she will like it?" "Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten it." "I don't think a gun would be a good present," Rainbow suddenly said, causing me to cock an eyebrow at her. "Why in the world would you think I would think a gun would be a good present?" I asked, as I observe Fluttershy and Rarity doing some last minute checks to some decorations. "Because when you got your hooves on one, you hugged it and treated it like it was your baby," Rainbow answered nonchalantly, which caused me to give her an incredulous look. "What are you talking about?" I replied, my voice a bit strained. "Why would I do a thing like that?" "Beats me, but it doesn't surprise me since you're such a weird pony. Besides, one of your recruits told me you did that when you went to Canterlot, when you bashed Blueblood's head with a chair," Rainbow said as she idly waved a hoof around. "You did what‽"Rarity shrieked before she just gaped at me in shock. "Now wait a minute, I have a perfectly go—" I started to say before she interrupted me as she rushed to my side. "Why didn't you tell me about it‽" Rarity exclaimed. "Please, don't leave any details out!" Instead of giving her the story, I just gawked at her for a moment before my voice found its way back home. "...What?" Applejack, who was watching the whole scene, rolled her eyes, before she decided to pitch into the conversation. "Rarity here is still a wee bit upset at Prince Blueblood for how he treated her and how he used her as a shield to protect himself from a cake that was sent flyin' to him." Upon hearing that, I gave Applejack a double take before showing her my understanding of the situation. "What?" "It's a long story sugarcube, I'll tell you about it later," Applejack replied, leaving me in utter confusion, disrupted when I heard the telltale sound of a teleport. Turning my head towards the source of the noise, I saw Twilight and Pinkie had finally arrived. This forced me to drop whatever questions I had as I joined the others for our greeting for the guest of honor. "Happy birthday Pinkie!" we all announced. Everyone was baring a wide grin as Pinkie gasped at what she saw, though I only had a mild smile. Though that wasn't a problem since everyone knew that I'm not one for those giant smiles unless I was acting like a maniac. "Ah, you shouldn't have!" Pinkie exclaimed, and I was about to let out a chuckle when I suddenly find myself and everyone else being hugged by her. This caused my brain to halt for a moment, which normally happens whenever Pinkie does something new that defies logic. I think that mental tic developed in the effort to keep my mind from experiencing a meltdown. By the time my brain returned to working order, the party has started and everyone was starting to give Pinkie her gifts. Shaking my head, I let out a grunt as I watched Pinkie open her gifts, until she finally came across the one from me. "You got me a gift, Aether?" Pinkie asked, joy in her face as she held up a rather thin box. "That's your gift? Why is it so flat? Did you sat on it or so—" Rainbow said before I clamped her mouth shut with my magic. "Size doesn't always matter Rainbow," I grumbled as Pinkie ripped apart the wrapping and open the small box to reveal its contents to everyone else. "Is that an envelope?" Rarity asked, before giving me a look of confusion. "I don't think you need to put it in a box if it’s just a letter or a birthday card dear." "Just wait for it," I simply replied, though Pinkie remain excited regardless of Rainbow's and Rarity's comments. Pulling out the envelope's contents, which were just a few papers to the casual viewer, but after her eyes ran over it once her face quickly took on an expression of a level of joy I never seen on her face before. Before anyone could ask what she was reading, Pinkie simply asked, "Do you really... really want this?" as tears start to appear in her eyes. Everyone else was now utterly confused, as they look upon me for an explanation. This caused me to cock an eyebrow at them for a second, for I didn't really think that they wouldn't be able to figure out what the gift was. Or they thought that I was too mean and cruel of a pony to actually do such a thing. "Yes, I want this. Even though I was an adult before, I was alone. I didn't have a family, not until I came to this world and you treated me as a member of your own. No matter what I did, you cared for me so much that only two other people could match it. As much as I missed them, I know that one of them wouldn't mind you taking over. You did help me get a more brighter outlook at life after I came to this world, so I believe they will naturally approve of this if they could. So... happy birthday, mom. That is if you want to be that." "Mom‽" Everyone else shrieked in surprise, as Pinkie simply dropped the paperwork that was adoption forms to pull me into a hug. A hug that, as predicted, was far stronger than any other she ever gave me. "Of course I'll be your mom, you silly filly!" Pinkie declared, shaking me around as I felt my ribs trying to resist being shattered in her vice-like grip. "Too hard, too hard! I need air!" I yelled in a strained voice, which caused everyone to finally come to my aid. After everyone manage to pry Pinkie off me, she instantly signed the forms, before it was sent to the town hall to be processed. Oddly enough, the adoption process was rather quite simple, but that was due to the very small occurrence of a foal becoming an orphan. Even if something happened to a foal's parents, they normally have plenty of relatives to turn to. A pony who didn't had a family was apparently a rare thing to find these days. Everyone was still rather surprised that I would actually have Pinke adopt me. I responded with a shrug and told them that Pinkie grew on me so much that I didn't want to do anything to hurt her feelings or disappoint her. That eventually grew into a feeling of love that I only felt for my parents, which told me that Pinkie becoming my mother was meant to be. This land did ran on destiny quite a bit after all. Moving on, the party went well, though Pinkie mentioned that she can't wait to bring me to her family's rock farm to introduce me to the rest of the family. Twilight asked how I was able to get the adoption forms, to which I replied that I asked Luna for some help. She then asked why I didn't went to her for help, and I answered that she might go for normal procedures while no one would defy Luna if she wanted the paperwork now. Time passed on normally after the party, or as normal as it can get for Ponyville. Discord threw some kind of tantrum on the day of the gala, where I took Starlight with me so I could keep an eye on her. Which instead of actually being a negative, turned out quite well for me in the end. She was terrified when she saw Celestia, mostly in fear due to her past, which I simply chosen to laugh at her torment. Starlight later served as a makeshift raft when Discord's guest, which was a slime creature, flooded the ballroom. Overall the gala went fine for me, and I even met Maud again who was fine with Pinkie adopting me, I think. She didn't smile or anything, but she did give me a hug. I think that has to have some kind of important meaning or something. After that, Pinkie and Rainbow went on another friendship problem for the map, which I was adamantly against considering the last time. They still went regardless of my protests, and Twilight even stopped me from sneaking aboard the train. Thankfully in the end no one got harmed, so I guess the map wasn't going to send them to deathtraps. At least not all the time. A couple weeks after that, Ponyville was attacked by some bugbear that came from Tartarus. Sadly the Elements forbid me from sending my recruits after it, citing that they should handle it along with the fact that my recruits weren't battle tested. I was about to protest, but after noticing some of them going pale at the idea of facing a monster from Tartarus, I had no choice but to agree with them. I didn't want to have them fainting or soiling themselves on their first mission, it would leave this new military force with a terrible image that might take years to get rid of. Though it did gave me a few ideas that I sent over to the researchers to see if they can do something about it. After the wedding though, I learned from Twilight that there was going to be a diplomatic party coming to Ponyville from a nation that was out of contact with Equestria for 'hundreds of moons'. This forced me to make some adjustments to my recruits' training, since this party would most likely want to see my troops in action. Having another nation on board would help in protecting Equus, so putting put a show for a day wouldn't hurt. Hopefully they would be a species that are like the changelings or griffons, for the more natural fighters, the better. I just hope that no monster decided to visit the town on the same day and scare my troops witless. I really need to start tossing them into the Everfree soon, that should help toughen them up.