Chapter XXI: Relaxation
It took quite a while before I calmed down from my nightmare, though I refused to tell Pinkie anything when she asked. Not like they would believe the reason I was sent into such a state anyway. After I calmed down, I faded back to sleep quickly, and this time was greeted with the ever-present dreams of nothingness. However, when I awoke in the morning, I couldn't help but ponder on the nature of my dream.
Why did a Venanite show up in my dream? I know that those that actually see their eyes end up having them haunt their dreams, but I never heard of a case where someone just saw one in their dreams without ever encountering them... would being near their presence be enough to trigger those kinds of dreams? Or... is it something to do with the nature of this world... well, I just hope that I don't encounter another one in my dreams, I like staying sane... well somewhat sane... I thought to myself before remembering Pinkie's antics.
As I head down the stairs and took my seat for the usual morning breakfast, I noticed that something was off. Looking around, I saw the Cakes giving me a smile that looked a bit… off. Before I could say a thing about it, Pinkie placed a plate of pancakes in front of me and after setting down the plates for everyone else, she sat down across from me and gave me the same smile the Cakes had plastered on their faces. Yeah, I know that look and where this is going.
"Not going to talk about it," I said as I started to pour some syrup over my pancakes, hoping that would defuse the situation, even though the odds are still against me.
"Umm... Aether, I don't think that... nightmare is something you should bottle up dear. I mean, you were... not acting yourself last night," Mrs. Cake said, trying to not point out that I was bawling out like a newborn.
Sighing, I turned my head to give them all my full attention as I said, "It was just a nightmare, I saw things that scared me, but nothing else. It was just... really scary, okay? I do not want to remember it, so please let me forget." After that I returned my attention to my meal, as the others either were satisfied with the answer or just accepted that I wasn't going to talk about it.
After breakfast I went to school, where I spent most of the class just practicing my reading along with some writing practice. At recess, I 'played' with the Crusaders while avoiding Diamond Tiara and her lackey, but by the look of their eyes though I knew they were plotting something. After recess was when I gave Cheerilee my full attention as we moved onto the history lesson, though a few of my classmates peeked at me during that portion. Guess they were waiting for me to faint again for their own amusement. After class ended, Cheerilee stopped me to ask me to bring Pinkie over whenever she was available in the morning to talk about my math assessment. I hoped that it would end well, though I had the faint fear of being found out and dragged to some lab to be interrogated and then dissected. After my short talk with Cheerilee, I left the building to receive the sight of Rarity of all ponies waiting outside the schoolhouse as she was talking to the Crusaders.
"But Rarity, Aether was going to go Crusading with us today!" Sweetie Belle whined.
"Yeah, she probably has even more extreme ideas for Cutie Marks!" Scootaloo said.
"Didn't Applejack make Aether Pinkie Promise that she wouldn't be influencing you three with her... outlandish ideas?" Rarity asked, which caused the fillies to quiet down as they grumble their lament. She only made me Pinkie Promise to not show them, she didn't say I couldn't explain stuff to them, I mused to myself about that potential loophole I could abuse if needed. "Besides, Aether needs some relaxation, Pinkie told me she had a rather rough night, and requested that I take her to the spa today to help her unwind. Now do you want to stop Aether from feeling better then?"
Upon hearing that Pinkie was spreading the word about my little episode last night, I grew annoyed for a moment before I heard the word 'spa' which caused me to tilt my head as I tried to figure out what that meant. However, Rarity soon caught sight of me, for she quickly said her goodbyes to the Crusaders, who half-heartily wandered off to do some crusading. Before she could even say a word to me, I said, "No, no... whatever you had in mind, I rather go with the Crusaders right now then think on that... nightmare."
"Now now dear, I'm not going to have you think about that nightmare at all. Why, it would be unladylike of me to make you dwell on such a dreadful experience."
While the first sentence she said threw me off, her second sentence only confused me as I said, "Huh?"
"Oh dear, your language barrier, hmm... look dear, I'm just going to take you someplace that will make you feel better, but you don't have to think about that nasty nightmare you had. So come along with me dear, and if you don't behave like a proper mare then I'll just have to use my magic on you to make you come," Rarity said firmly. While I could outrun and hide from other ponies, barring Pinkie of course, magic was something that would stop me from getting anywhere. With a sigh, I nodded and followed Rarity, much to my displeasure.
It wasn't long before we arrived at the town square, where Rarity led me to some building with a purple roof. She opened the door to reveal a lobby with a pink coated mare with a light blue mane manning the lobby desk. "Here for your usual, Rarity," the mare before spotting me and asking, "And who's this with you?"
"This is Aether. She's the foal that Pinkie is fostering. I brought her here to relax, as she had a rather rough night and Pinkie requested that I bring her here so her stress could be attended to," Rarity said, as I wondered what she had in mind before I heard the door opening again. Looking behind me, I saw a yellow coated pegasus mare with an abnormally long pink mane and tail walking in.
The moment she saw me though she blinked in surprise, but when her eyes drifted over to Rarity's direction, she tilted her head in confusion as she said, "Hello there, Rarity... umm.. why is Aether here?" Wait, she knows my name? How?
Turning around, Rarity smiled at the yellow mare as she said, "Why, hello there, Fluttershy. I just brought Aether here to the spa for some much needed relaxation. You see, she had a rather rough night. Pinkie told me that she had this terrible nightmare that drove the poor dear to tears."
"Oh my! You poor girl," the yellow mare said before coming to my side and giving me a hug, only for me to blink in confusion as I looked at the mare.
"Umm... who are you? And how do you know who I am?" I asked, as I wanted to know who this mystery pony is and how she knew my name.
"Oh... um... I'm Fluttershy, and I'm a good friend of Pinkie Pie and Rarity," the mare said before putting me down.
Before I could ask anything else, a door opened as a blue mare with a pink mane walked in. "Rarity, Fluttershy, we're ready for your scheduled appointment. We are ready to attend to the filly as well." It only took me a moment to realize that she looked exactly like the the mare at the lobby desk, which caused me to do a double take and look at both mares, switching my vision back and forth of them in confusion.
"They’re twins, Aether, and don't stare. It's rude to stare at other ponies," Rarity chastised me as she and Fluttershy followed the blue mare. As I followed them, I thought to myself, Okay... never thought I would ever see color inverted twins before...
By fuck's sake, when will this torture end‽ I thought to myself after I endured the 'treatments' this spa had in store for me. First was they did something to my mane before they wrapped it in a towel, which to be honest wasn't too bad, until they slapped some kind of gunk on my face. I tried to rub it off but Rarity told me not to, as she said it was supposed to help with something on my face, which made no sense to me as they put cucumber slices over my eyes as well. As I grumbled to myself while the other two mares talked about recent events, I suddenly heard some scraping noise, and it sounded horrible! I was gritting my teeth tightly whenever I heard that scraping noise, which went on for a while, until suddenly I felt somepony putting my hooves into some sort of brace. Before I could say or do anything, I suddenly felt something scraping against the bottom of my hooves.
... I didn't react too well to that. Okay, I lied, I reacted horribly to that. If my hooves weren't trapped in this mystery brace, I would be kicking and screaming, but I sure was screaming and struggling till someone stuffed a towel into my mouth and another pony held me down. They even still did that torture to my hooves to boot. After all that was done, we went to go soak in some kind of hot water tub. While the water was relaxing, I still was giving Rarity a stink eye for the treatment earlier.
"Now dear, don't be that way. I assure you that after today you'll be so relaxed that last night will just be a thing of the past," Rarity said.
"Oh, yes. I believe you, since you made me... deal with that... crazy bad stuff! I will have dreams about that now," I said with a voice laced with malice. If Rarity wasn't a unicorn, I would be choking her right now, no matter the size difference.
"There there, Aether. You should be relaxing now. Isn't this hot water nice?" Fluttershy nervously said she tried to defuse my rage. I was about to give her an angry retort as I turned my sight onto her before I saw her expression. She was so nervous that she was retreating into her mane a bit for some reason, as I saw a spark of fear in her eyes. This surprised me, for I never thought I would be able to scare a pony like this so easily—unless I wanted to, of course. At the sight of her fear, I felt a twinge of guilt in my heart, one that caused me to bite my tongue, sinking into the water until it was right below my nostrils as I tried to control down my temper while Rarity and Fluttershy continued their conversation when it was apparent that I wasn't going to say anything.
Eventually, after the hot bath ended and after we dried ourselves off, we ended up outside the spa, where Fluttershy gave her farewell to Rarity. Turning towards me, she said, "Goodbye, Aether. It was nice to meet you. Hopefully next time we meet it will be... um... under better conditions," as she gave me a timid smile that only pulled at my heartstrings somehow.
"It was... nice to meet you too Fluttershy. I hope we do talk again sometime soon," I replied. In all honesty, Fluttershy gave me a vibe that she was an okay pony to be with—as long as I didn’t make her nervous, that is. After she left, I turned around to head back the Sugarcube Corner before I felt something tugging on my tail.
Turning my head, I saw Rarity with her magic holding onto the tip of my tail. "Now Aether, darling, I didn't say you can go yet. While I'm sure the trip to the spa will do you wonders, I think you should come with me. I need to talk to you about some things on how a proper lady should act, and from what Applejack told me, you could certainly use the tips. So it's off to the Boutique, and you may even get a lovely dress from me to wear that I know you will love," Rarity said, to my dismay. While I was getting used to being a female, there was one thing that I didn't want to try, and based on how most ponies looked I thought I would never had to.
...I didn't want to wear a dress.
Ever.
Stats
Page generated in 0.06 seconds
Total duration
981 users online
424,899 hits today, 2,814,898 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Weird for Pinkie Pie to just let Rarity deal with Aether.
HAHAHAHA!
Yeah, no.
You're going to be in a dress.
Does Aether really have the hard-heartedness to reject every dress idea that Rarity comes up with for her? I expect she'll have accept at least one eventually even if she has no intention of wearing it, just so Rarity isn't crushed.
Likewise, could she tell Rarity to her face that she has no interest in acting like a 'proper lady' & as such she has no need of lessons in how to do so? I can't see that turning out well for either of them.
I can't wait to see Aether blow up on Rarity.
Really interesting idea and also really interesting beginning. But as entertaining as it promises to be, there simply are too many tense-hops (and a little too many misspellings) to be enjoyable for me.
You have an editor already and the flow is nice, probably for that reason.
Just please also get a proofreader; this story deserves it.
Anyway, all in all good writing... keep it up and all the best!
5935460 I believe Pinkie is planning something for Aether herself. I also think Pinkie might be unsure on how to respond to what happened. Most likely she is trying to figure the situation out and do something about it. And that is my conclusion.
Been a while since I excitedly read through a chapter just to get to the bottom and go to the next, only to be disappointed by the reminder that this was the newest one and I have to wait. Look forward to next chapter, and the follow-up between Luna and Aether that I just assume you are planning since it seems appropriate.
5935704
hotOH GOD WHY
I know i've said this already but, great story!
This strikes me as out of character for Aether. Throughout the story she's rational and takes things in stride relatively well. Freaking out over discovering that the Princesses move the sun and the moon with magic is understandable (though passing out was an excessive response at that point in the story), but it's immediately obvious that drawing the line over something so trivial as wearing a dress damages her ability to keep a low profile. With so much internal dialogue over not being outed while figuring things out, I can't imagine such an experienced protagonist erring like that.
It almost feels like this is a ham-handed way of progressing the story into discovery mode by ticking off items on an arbitrary "not a real pony" checklist for other characters to connect the dots.
To be fair, I think the trope of becoming female and creating tension by fighting to retain one's masculinity is terribly clichéd. Especially in this case it doesn't seem to fit the character at all. Has the well-traveled Aether never been in a situation where rules of infiltration apply? I don't get that impression thus far, so the dress thing breaks immersion.
To be more fair, we have canon examples of ponies not liking girly things (Applejack and Rainbow Dash come to mind). That said, the attitude does seem like a bit of an outlier, and a foreigner trying to remain hidden shouldn't have much difficulty making the connection between being female->wearing dresses->no problem, regardless of any personal qualms about it.
5938844 You raise quite a valid point, but some people have limits (which Aether's been stretched occasionally thin at times thanks to Pinkie), and one thing people tend to do is make assumptions on Aether's character and past. There was going to be at least one point where that Aether has to deal with her status as a female in a feminine way besides the biological issues that comes with it. While yes Aether is keeping a low profile, nothing in her past indicated that she truly knows the rules of infiltration fully. At this point, people only know this if they read this far of her past.
She dealt with creatures that wanted to eat her, knows how to move around as hinted with her parkour skills and rock climbing, she knows some stealth skills. Yet there is not one thing about her infiltrating a society.
All I can say is that so far I received a few guesses on her background, all which have been wrong, and I don't have a checklist. There is also perspective, since no one knows about the society Aether comes from, no one can particularly judge the limits Aether really has.
Regardless though, I will keep the points you raised up in mind as I continue to write this story, just bare in mind that I'm a beginner at writing stories, so please endure the occasional story hiccups that may arise from time to time.
5939151
I'm trying to take her character at face value from previous responses directly in the story rather than guess about things I'd likely be wrong at. Any assumptions about her past would be pure speculation given how nebulous any explanations have been. ;)
And yes, emotional overload is a reasonable explanation, especially after the recent nightmare, school, and ordeal at the spa. That's what I've been assuming (also from previous reactions), though I have a mild concern at how it will play out. Concern because it could play out very poorly with the current flow, and mild because your writing seems well thought out across the board. In this case it's a wait with baited breath to find out thing, as I'm enjoying this fic and following it closely, but I thought I'd mention it nonetheless.
I would somewhat disagree, and I can do so strictly going by Aether's portrayal. She clearly knows enough to elude the Equestrian guards and other search team(s) as well as enough to successfully acquire a number of Maralus core shards without any notable difficulty. Her thoughts and actions at the time are indicative of either infiltration experience or a sharp enough mind to "wing it". Further, she's at least aware of the risks in general throughout the story and divulges information with great care, which also suggests infiltration experience or being clever enough to figure it out as she goes. With those in mind, any error in judgment tends to stand out, especially if it's a seemingly irrational and emotionally driven error.
Good premise, good execution, good characterization, and an intriguing story that keeps me invested. I don't think you have anything to worry about. ;)
Okay even if she means it in a good way, don´t like it that she would force her.
Okay i don´t like this Rarity till now, but i will give her a chance.
And it was only parkour too right... riiiiiiight?
I have never relieved stress like this before.
5935614 I could...unless Fluttershy was there then
one would think that luna would track down this filly when she told her she knows twilight after meeting her and the dream taking place in ponytown.
Wait, wait, wait. What on earth would possess anyone to think it's ok to gag and hold a young foal down? Just so that they can file her hooves, an act which clearly causes her distress? That really broke the immersion, as it makes the adults present seem uncaring and cruel.
And what's worse, when she tried to tell them as much, you decided to use Fluttershy as a cop out to drop the issue?
I hope it's brought up and rectified later, cause it really irks me when cruelty is used for comedic effect.
6744897 I have to agree with you, I was defiantly going WTF on how the hell they think her screaming and thrashing in panic that it would be "relaxing" to forcibly restrain her and gag her.
Seriously, that's like OOC for like every character in MLP except for the villains and OCs.
6902885 To be fair, that is a spa clique.
Whoa, that happened...
Ha, same here, ive lucked out by winning every dress bet I've taken (thank christ) and I don't intend to wear a dress ever.
Or she'll be having nightmares of today
Some of the characters are OOC and the whole towl gag was frankly a little terrifying. I'm not giving up yet though. I'm not a hard one to please as long as a story is good and this story is pretty good.
Am I the only one who thinks a trip to a spa sounds rather nice? Also who in their right mind would turn down clothes that were tailored to fit them instead of the mass market clothes that only sort of fit?
6902885
i remember a scene in an actual cartoon where Twilight was at the spa, and she had her hooves stuck in something that looked like a set of STOCKS...
at about 1:13.
10321798
Yes but Twilight was not fighting with them and was there willingly. Aether was fighting with them and was not there willingly, as such all of the adults in this situation are in the wrong.
I've been watching way too many "is Extremely Horny" meme videos to not hear that last part with the reader function