Chapter LXIII: Destiny (unedited)
Following the new responsibility of dealing with tenants on my land, I proceeded to have revenge on Celestia. Though instead of putting something in her cakes, I just went over to Canterlot and took all the cakes the castle kitchen had. As a precaution, I stayed in the kitchen, specifically on the ceiling. The chefs panicked when they realized that there was no cakes left, so they proceeded to bake one, during which I sneaked in a special surprise when they weren't looking. After doing so, I went to one of the castle towers to spy on the dinning room, where I waited till Celestia was served her cake. Just as she was about to lick her lips at the prospect of eating the cake, I triggered the surprise, causing it to blow up in her face. I was surprised her screams of agony didn't shattered the windows, and I was also surprised that no guards bothered to check the ceilings. At least something productive came out of this in the end.
Time proceeded along normally, with the researchers making further advancements. After much testing and research into dimensional rifts along with the dimensional sinkhole devices, the scientists have discovered the means to detect and locate dimensional rifts. However, it is currently short range, prompting more military expansion into Selene. Though this time, the other nations were devoting additional military forces to help militarize Selene in order to spread the coverage of the detection of dimensional rifts. With the incentive of keeping any interdimensional conflicts on Selene, the other nations were more interested in doing their part to keep Equus safe, or just to keep their own lands safe.
Military advancements continue to progress along, with the scientists getting close to a breakthrough for air propulsion engines. With higher energy demand needed by the corporations and the cities undergoing new technological developments, the scientists developed new magic generators to output more electricity, while making advancements into solar, wind and hydro generators that are being used for clean energy. There was no use of other potential energy resources due to me mentioning that resources such as oil could produce pollution if not carefully used. This of course led to some entrepreneurial opportunities for some ponies to experiment with ideas or inventions that require large amount of electricity, which is now more available due to the new generators.
The Aegis Guard had been expanding quite well, with several of Selene's new military bases' garrisons being composed of the Aegis Guard alone. Already, with more and more volunteers flowing in due to an increasing amount of drill instructors and officers, the guard has grown to almost having half a hundred thousand troops available. Over half of the Aegis Guard was stationed on Selene, though it's a small amount compared to the other military forces stationed on Selene that were trained to use the new weaponry available. Over two hundred thousand troops have been stationed on the world, though plans indicated that the number will rise to five hundred thousand, which would be just enough to man all the necessary bases to cover the entire world based on current estimates. Exploration of the planet was being done at a breakneck pace, with pegasi and griffons being the primary explorers while drawing upon the old blimp airships as mobile exploration bases. On the mention of airships, the scientists were also looking into a more heavily armored airship, one that may incorporate the engines under development along with new metal alloys and shielding so that it could serve as an effective mobile military operations platform.
All this occurred as twenty eight months passed by, with nothing interesting going on beyond the usual dating game for the Elements and my management of my land. Due to the government subsidies promised by Celestia along with my own financial support, the two families are flourishing on my lands, which drew in more settlers that resulted in the creation of a small village. This resulted in them asking me on how it should be handle, to which I just told them to elect a fair mayor. However, I did told them that if any kind of corruption would occur, that they should inform me immediately so I could come over and stamp it out. I was content with them living on my land, to where I didn't impose my own taxes on top of the ones they pay for the country. Though I did insist that if they ever want to show my appreciation, that they shouldn't erect any statues or paintings made in honor of me.
My personal life has fallen to officer training, studies into economics, mathematics, magic, and sadly politics. This still left me with some free time to spend with family and friends, along with some bonding time with Pinkie most of all. Though baking turned out to be forbidden for me in the bakery on the account that I'm not a good baker. Hence it was put on hold till one of owners of the houses near the Sugarcube Corner decides to sell their houses. In regards to the endless invites to parties by the nobility, I was eventually convinced by Rarity to attend a few parties. Of course she came along for the ride, though at least I was able to find a few of the more intelligent nobles to chat with. The rest talked about asinine things like taxes on the rich or bragging about their own assets and properties. Though a few found it odd that I was wearing suits despite being a mare, and I hate it when someone called me 'Baroness Aether'.
"And that's when I realized that the native hunting me was wanting to mount my head on their wall. I saw about forty mounted heads in the entrance room alone. I really wish my employer actually bothered to check that world to see if there was sapient life or not before sending folk like me there. Not really a fan of having a crossbow pointed at me," I said, as I sat on a dream couch as Luna was seated on her own in my dream. Even though it has been over a decade, I was still getting therapy to help get off all the trauma I accumulated over my past life as a dimensional agent. I've been absolutely honest about my experiences as I told my past to Luna, even the times when I spent a few times in a fatal position for various periods of time. Not like one could blame me, since things like barely avoiding being eaten by a giant worm while seeing a fellow agent being consume or when I saw one poor fella who was infested with some kind of insect-like parasite that resulted with maggots coming out of their eyes while they're still breathing.
"No reasonable pony would," Luna simply commented, choosing to just let me rant on. Unlike my first few therapy sessions where my dreams environment was random in some fashion, we were just in the family room of the Sugarcube Corner. Luna had taught me how to control my dream, which eventually led to more stable and familiar environments where my therapy sessions were held.
"So I spent thirteen hours hiding in what I assumed to be a closet, before sneaking out to return to the rift site. However, I found out that the hunter set an ambush right at the spot, and that the only reason that I didn't fell for it was that one of my fellow agents fell into it first. Though imagine the surprise both the hunter and I had when I stumbled onto the trap while they were packing their kill. We stared at each other for a couple minutes before they pulled out their crossbow. Spent the next twenty minutes running for my life again before the rift finally open, where I made a dash for it. Obviously I made it, but not before the fucker manage to hit my leg," I said. Overtime I picked up some curse words from the more dirtier speaking folk, though I find it amusing when mom or some of the Elements heard me use those words. Turned out that they made a bit of an effort to prevent me from picking up on that profanity, since it was rarely used and only by rather small portion of the population. "To make matters worse, I was only paid enough credits to feed me for a month, so obviously I didn't have the funds to find some sort of medical aid. So I had to find a rag and lank the bolt out of my leg before covering the wound. Though I was lucky enough for it not to become infected."
"Hmm... maybe luck didn't play a role in your survival," Luna commented, causing me to tilt my head at her.
"What do you mean?"
"Based on your accounts, majority, if not all, of those that participate in your line of work tend to find an early grave. You, however, manage to survive over a hundred missions. Perhaps it was destiny to survive all those missions," Luna explained, which caused me to give her a deadpanned expression.
"Really? You think I was destined to survive? I find that utterly ridiculous."
"Yet you live in a world where a pony's Cutie Mark is a sign of their special talent, and yours is most likely linked to dimensions. Do you still find this idea far-fetched?" Luna asked.
"Yes, I do. From what I heard, Cutie Marks are connected to our own magic, and I didn't had any magic prior to coming to Equus. So this magical destiny thing isn't going to be a factor when I had no magic during the entire time. I rather just say that I was lucky enough to be one of the few lucky fellows to survive all that shit out of the millions, if not billions, that took on the lifestyle of a dirt-poor dimensional agent."
"I see, you're going by statistics and luck. But what are the odds that you, a highly experienced dimensional agent, are the one that ended up on Equus instead of the many agents that are on their first mission?" Luna countered, causing me to narrow my eyes at her.
"You do realize that meant my destiny wanted me to suffer for twelve years before I was finally 'ready' to come to Equus, right?" I shot back, causing Luna to widen her pupils at what I pointed out.
"I didn't mean it to be that way, I was just pointing out a possible explanation," Luna replied, causing me to roll my eyes in return.
"I rather not think about an arbitrary whims of a magical force that we call 'destiny'. I rather just say that sometimes a person can be lucky, and that we are all in control of our fates instead. Besides, I already have enough bleakness in my past life to fulfill the bleak quota for my new life where its lifespan is almost four times the length of my old one," I responded, putting a damper on the conversation as Luna didn't had a response to what I said. Eventually, I decided to turn the conversation around when I asked. "So... how's your sister's cake addiction going?"
Letting out a sigh, Luna answered, "As you would suspect. Even your little stunts a couple years ago didn't phased her desire to consume cakes. Even your cravings for chocolate pales in comparison to her own cravings."
"Go figure. Not to be too rude, but if Celestia didn't have that alicorn metabolism, I bet she would be so fat that instead of walking, she'll be rolling," I replied with a laugh while Luna rolled her eyes. Throughout the years of therapy, Luna and I developed a more casual relationship, to where I can sometimes make what Rarity calls my 'crude attempts at humor'. Still, Luna and I get along easily due to our similar stances on how Equestria and Equus should be defended. Celestia always preferred diplomatic routes to finding peace, but both Luna and I knew that when our species are finally truly discovered, we'll be fighting a war that only through military force would we be able to find true peace.
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Love the story. Thumbs up to you.
First
Ever since the story ran out of canon content, the style has suffered and the pace has accelerated dramatically.
Is this the new normal, or are you leading to confrontation later down the road?
Not a fan of the profanity.
Other than that, this is going quite well.
You know, when Aether finally kicks the bucket Tia will be sad because her life would be more boring.
im just making a guess on how long aether has been here, but im gonna say close to 16 years
6919668 The latter, to which the current pace will reach its end soon.
Not enough description of the glorious explosions.
Otherwise time skip is time skip and nothing happens.
Diplomacy works well, if you have the military might to back it up. Playing the diplomacy card with a hand full of shit will not go well if they call your bluff.
6919735 How will the war work?
6919669
6919769 That would be spoiling.
6919743 diplomacy: the art of saying good dog until your snipers are in range
By the way, how old is Aether now?
6919799 oH WELL. Sorry. CAPS LOCK.
Will it be exciting?
Things are building up slowly, because they have to build up so much, even for the basic stuff?
Aaaaand nothing happens... again...
Honestly at this point, I don't give a crap about Selene or even the Aegis guard. There're here, but there're not really here. The Aegis guard has hundreds of soldiers? Okay, cool. But where are the characters you developped, the first members of the guard? You know, the ones I cared about and that you just swept under the rug? The ponies have discovered a new dimension and are colonizing it? Great! But when are we going to visit it? To go in one of its city? To meet some of the ponies that live there?
You handle this story like a politician would : you're reviewing all the big changes and some parts of the plot, but you never go in the details, and you kinda assume that you describing the changes Equestria is going through is going to make a story. But a story is essentially about individuals, about characters, and all I see is Aether make a friggin' history lesson!
I really don't know how much more of this shit I can take and I hope the quality will be back soon, because I know you can do better than that.
6919946 Well, the alternatives are to do a rather large timeskip, dump all the info instantly of what changed, and proceed with the story, or to not even give any information on what changed and just do the timeskip and have everyone be left in the dark on how things develops. People voted for a series of timeskips so that things don't go surging all of the sudden.
In the end, you sound like you just want a focus on the characters only, no matter what changes the world is going. These mentions of the changes to the world is necessary or the story just goes into the unbelievable part when you have ponies driving tanks for instance without any progression into it. A story is about the characters and the world, what you've said means that we can just have a story of characters in the middle of a white void. Time goes on, changes to the world has to occur, not for it to remain static. Ultimately, these timeskips is to age Aether while preparing the world for what is to come. Some people can already see what this is building up to.
These are necessary moves that have to be taken, and I don't think everyone wants to go though hundreds of filler chapters before the plot can truly move on again if the story progressed at the original pace. Also, I once replied to a comment by you that people voted for a series of timeskips instead of just one big one.
65 chapters in and we STILL don't have a confrontation between Equus and another dimensional civilization.
After so many years (seriously, how many years have passed since Aether landed in Equestria?) there's nothing going on after the lost probes, the missing cargo, the lost robots, etc? Not even sending more of those very expendable dimensional agents? For a dimension conquering civilizations, they left much to be desired. I'm beginning to think you don't really know where to take the story and are just giving us fillers while you come up with something.
Hey Silvak, will the Equestria Girls dimension come into play again soon? I would think that it would also be in serious jeopardy of being invaded as well due to its influence by the Friendship is Magic dimension. Aether would have a better use of her time not only ensuring that they are not screwing things up over there, but training a human division, and even better, training the more advanced Aegis Guard agents to be prepared for instances where one may be morphed into a different form. Who's to say that what has happened to Aether hasn't happened to others, and isn't an active occurrence in some dimensions? And what if organics that travel to the FiM or any of its parallel dimensions are morphed automatically due to the inner magic of harmony that encompasses them all? All I'm saying is that the Equestria Girls dimension has sorta been pushed aside and ignored, an elephant in the room. If invaders were to go through there, since the redirection failsafe is specifically for Equus, they could easily waltz in through the portal and cause major problems. Especially that one species that I forgot the name of, that infection warrants the cleansing of the dimension by...another faction I don't remember the name of.
I enjoy this story immensely, but the last few chapters have been a bit...meh. You can still do timeskips with an occasional arc in-between, after all. Aside from the EG dimension, possibilities could include: reactions to Aether turning into an adult; an instance where heat finally gets the best of her and results in a bit of an episode/rampage that scars people for life; another incident where something random gets sent to Equus, warranting intervention; a bounty hunter that somehow manages to avoid the failsafe and comes specifically after Aether; another one of Friendship is Magic's parallel dimensions being introduced, possibly with a parallel version of Aether; an assassination attempt by a faction who wants to usurp power over dimensional advancement that really doesn't understand the consequences of their actions nor the importance of Aether being present for first contact; that memory imprint somehow returning, and successfully corrupting Aether temporarily; and so much more I bet you can come up with. Feel free to use one of those, though I would appreciate a bit of credit...but please, I wanna see our protagonist be a badass in combat or just even more of a badass then she already is...
6920282 There is that fan spin-off where another xeno is living their days as Aether influences the world (can't remember title), and if Silvak ever goes back to mentioning the EqG-verse, it would be good to NEVER include that world's governments, and keep everything Men in Black style with Aegis troops specially trained by Sunset to remain inconspicuous (Mind wipes for days).
With careful planning taking advantage of magic devices using the spreading magic field on that world, it may be possible for effective infiltration across the planet with a teleportation network, maybe even spreading the devices that divert incursions to Selene. No need to involve the "humans" while taking advantage of the wealth of technology and knowledge.
6920035 Well, there's when they went to the other universe and brought a robot to equus. But I don't know if it counts
I am getting a lot of Independence Day, Inserection similarities in how Aether is using his knowledge to strengthening Equis and its neighboring dimensions. The question I would ask is, will it be enough?
With over a decade time that has past since he arrived to Equestria, I am wondering what those higher ups in the dementional side has been doing all this time. I just hope that no one sparks their interest to visit Equis before they are ready for First Contact.
6920356 True, true...let's just hope that the "shrouded conspiracy" approach will work out, it could be bad news if the blissful ignorance dooms the EQG dimension.
Also, if you're talking about that spin-off fic mentioned a bunch of chapters ago, the author of that has unfortunately only made two chapters, and seems to have gone on hiatus since the story hasn't been updated since October if I remember correctly. Unless it's a different story, I'd appreciate a link!
Gonna pass out now, don't expect an immediate reply! Thanks!
zzz
6919981 Yeah, I know that "people voted" or whatever, but you are the author of this story. If the story is bad, it's not the fault of the readers. There were so many ways to write this correctly, time skip or not...
Have you seen The Legend of Korra, the sequel of Avatar the last Airbender? Between the two series, there is a 70 years time gap, and the technology and the society evolved to the point that the world of Avatar is completeluy different. Well, they didn't spend ten episodes with a narrator describing one by one the changes that occured in 70 years : they took one character, dumped her in the biggest city of the continent, and followed her as she walked through the streets of this new world. She was discovering it at the same time as the viewer, and they didn't have to explain every little technological change that we saw in those streets! And even when there was some machine that was a bit too complex to make sense in a world like this, did a narrator arrived to tell us where it came from? No, we just have two characters talking, and the information we need about this is given by exposition. That is what your story lacks.
What I meant when I said "a story is about characters" is "make the reader see the world through the character's eyes". It's juste like the texts at the beginning of a Star Wars movie : there is world building, because the world is complex, but who reads those things? I don't care about the world itself : I want to see characters evolving in that world.
That was fun, may I have another? Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
6919735 With all the time jumps, do you think maybe you could Mention Aether's age once in a while? Or say her age at the beginning/end of the chapter?
With soo many time jumps, it's nearly impossible to figure out her age without going through the entire story with a fine comb and counting each and every month that was jumped.
6920425 I included it with the lost robots part, but still, that robot was hunting Aether only, and it was caught in the dimensional teleportation that Aether did, so it doesn't count. I'm talking about some other race/faction finding Selene or any other Equus populated world and having a fight with the guard. So far, the Aegis Guard haven't had any fighting experience and is starting to look like that "Sea Monster Unit" form an episode in the fairy oddparents cartoon. Just very expensive and, so far, useless.
6922027 he updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.
6923202 K. Thanks.
Aether is a mad genius!!!!
A F
K Destiny!!!!!
Hahahaha! ANother good chapter, heheheh. Aether's little army is growing... I approve of this awesomeness~
Nicely done ,nicely done~
I do feel sad that the story is essentially dying and is just summaries at this point. Sure, you need several decades of technological improvement (I'd be the first to agree), but I also feel bad that there's nothing really happening.
Yes, I know there's a sequel where hopefully timeskips won't be so common.
oh, i just remembered a chapter of that crazy "MLP time loops" collab where rumors were becoming true...
and Celestia got so fat she was STUCK IN HER THRONE!
oh, and Twilight became a LITERAL egg-head!
I'm very happy right now