Aether, Heir of Chaos

by Arcane Anonymity

A rather nasty wake-up call... things are more complicated than I had thought... and I had thought them complicated indeed

Dark magic is... carefully supervised.

It's simply not possible to prevent ponies from having 'dark feelings' or having bad things happen to them, thus making it possible for them to 'activate' it, but making sure that they don't hurt themselves (or others) with it is another story.

As I already said, I skipped the dangerous parts, but, unlike a pony, I came out the other side exactly the same - without any control beyond the instinctual over what I'm doing.

Let's see... any more memorable moments?

Well, there was a pony being chased by a human (surprisingly, a proper one) riding on a dragon. The guy was armored and all, full of spikes too, but... well, just ask a five-year-old to design full plate armor and ask the kid to add spikes, then you'll get what I was up against.

Not like I blame the pony - I mean, how is a pony supposed to know what fits on humans? And only a handful of them have actual taste, as anyone can see in the other five of the six.

I had tried to take out the archers (this pony was being hunted) with... mixed success. Sure, I took them out quickly, but I don't know why I thought that wearing the armor in a dream would make things go differently from the show I saw it in.

I was wearing gauntlets, greaves, breastplate, a helmet and a distinctive pair of large pauldrons. All in pink...

With a chain attached to each gauntlet, one with a square tip, and the other rounded.

Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking, either... I suppose I earned the arrows in my arms - at least they were just flesh wounds and the armor more or less fulfilled its purpose.

'More or less' because it's supposed to be stronger than that. I would remake it for future dreams, but only after having thoroughly mapped out the construction and relevant enchantments. Enchantments I thoroughly designed down to the smallest possible part with the help of Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Vinyl, Sparkler, the Flutter-pony that made Leadfoot's prosthetic, my as-of-yet-unnamed mentor, and Zecora.

Well, if I was going to take the role of the guy, might as well go all the way. I removed the armor, unleashed some extra power in the shape of a river in such a way that the enemy was constricted with no possibility to move, asked nicely for him to stop fighting, hear the refusal, then...

"Nebula Storm!" Explode the river in the enemy's direction with strength enough to wipe out a small mountain.

After that dreamer, we just kept an eye out for more nightmares, while making small talk... well, it was more like she asked me questions about the stuff I did, or asking me to explain something, like a bit or two of religion thanks to my paladin armor...

Then she sent me off so I could actually sleep, even though I had the feeling I didn't need it as-is and could replace it with some other things. She said she had something to ask of me rather early.

She did something, a little magic to ensure that my mind rested.

I still woke up way before dawn.

A small drain told me yet another one of those things closed, and I decided that I could do something other than pretend that I can gain additional rest from lying down on bed until whenever. After all, I just had to jolt a little magic to get the earth pony stamina working at full.

Beats coffee, which I don't even like unless it's got a lot of cream and sugar.

I took a pot, filled it with water, and set out to make one of my favorite breakfasts.

Hard boiled eggs.

Sadly, back home it wasn't very common... actually, now that I think about it, it had been years since the last time I had them!

Dang.

"Why, I think that you new usual breakfast-"

SHUT. UP.

"Alright! Sheesh! You're pretty liberal with that..."

Of course I'm going to use it, that's the whole point of learning it. D'uh.

Anyways!

A really girly, high-pitched shriek was heard all around the castle; for a moment, ponies wondered if Blueblood had forgotten that he was going to be peeing purple for about a day and a half more, but they got the wrong pony.

There are a few little know facts: Princess Celestia always goes to the restroom ten minutes before raising the sun unless she's doing something else, like watching over me after my first night. Ten minutes, always.

She ate the whole box of cupcakes by herself before going to bed. (None of the present, that is, Luna, Shining, Cadence, and me, can stomach a sauce that hot.)

The reason I asked for the darkest possible chocolate was so that it would not be possible to distinguish the blue coloring and, since the frosting was blue, it was not strange for her to find that her teeth picked up the color.

Celestia gets a little mad at me whenever I do that.

Anyways, the sun still rose on time, and I met the maids.

Feather Duster, or Dusty Feathers if she likes you, is a pegasus mare with a coat color that's often called a 'dusty brown' - a brown that's a little closer to grey-ish - with an auburn mane, her eyes are orange and her cutie mark... well, it's a feather duster.

Cinnamon Swirl is a unicorn mare with green eyes and a cinnamon-colored mane, her coat is a soft yellow, and her cutie mark is a spiral over a pair of crossed cinnamon sticks.

They wore adorable frilly outfits - sometimes just the tiara-like frill, sometimes just the hat, but mostly the entire black-and-white dress. Very d'aww-worthy in ponies.

They also don't mind that I'm a human, and that the prince is just a form I can take.

"And their tastes are interesting."

Well, how was I supposed to know that Dusty enjoyed being petted so much?

Meh. They were a little worried that I had made breakfast on my own, but I managed to tell them that I came from a middle-class background so I wasn't used to being waited on my every whim... they didn't need to worry about me flipping my lid over them not doing something.

It'd be hypocritical on my part, since I'm so lazy.

I turned into the prince and joined Celestia and Luna for breakfast. (I can eat pretty much as much as I like)

Luna couldn't even get the fork into her mouth, having pursed her lips so tightly they might fuse, for fear that opening her mouth would make her laugh like a mad-mare. Again. Her whole body was shaking with repressed laughter, her cheeks bulged and snorts and other noises escaped her every so often.

Celestia, however, was calmly eating oatmeal, expression as cordial as ever.

Nearly glowing pink from her blush.

"Blue." I said, and Luna couldn't hold it any more and burst into laughter, falling backwards and flailing her hooves as Celestia upgraded her blush to cover her whole face. Had her coat not been deep blue already, Luna would have turned blue.

It was fun! But Luna's business with me was decidedly a lot less funny.

We cantered through the magical ward of Canterlot's hospital.

She did commission the cape, but obviously Topsy was not yet ready to see me... no, we were there for a different pony.

She filled me in during the walk. A pegasus pony, but one absolutely full of dark magic, like there is no other pony that has reached that level. Yes, not even Sombra (not that they knew that I knew at that point, but the way she phrased the comment made it obvious). The problem being that it was evident that the pony wasn't in control at all, and was always miserable - the 'entrance exam Twilight Sparkle' of dark magic, if you will. Oh, and void night terrors every single time, be it a quick nap or a full night's sleep; Luna thought that a fresh perspective would help this pony as it had Lyra.

And, since there is no control, and that pony's body is more magic than pony (like Celestia, Luna, or myself), that pony's gender changed randomly. Well, not so randomly; one had to use dark magic in his or her vicinity, then he or she would change to match the user's 'feel' (a 'filly trapped in a colt body' obviously 'feels' female, while 'girly' spells also feel female). The interactions between a body and its magic are an interesting area of study, and things just got even more interesting once you make it to the list.

Twilight... well, unlike most unicorns that practice and/or exercise to increase their power, Twilight trains for efficiency almost exclusively. She's that powerful. Her problem with -say- age spells was that they are both powerful and precise, and messing up either will cause the spell to fail, and, by herself, she couldn't get a combination of both that would make the spell a success - she could perfectly shape and control small amounts of power, then pour the strength, or she could blast things with magic, then shape it slowly. If I ever manage to get ahold of the guy I've been referring to, the one that teaches the pony that made the Nightmare I was in (or his family), I might convince him to teach my Twilight what he has others, and she would join the list.

It would play into one of the key differences between my Equestria and a more 'canon' one.

Luna was telling me about this pony, how he seemingly appeared out of thin air, battered and bruised but radiating pure misery. I told her that maybe he or she was actually a creature from the collective in pony form, a being that embodied an aspect of magic having taken pony form; the In-Between has things that work based on templates, which is why anyone can build a castle there even if they know nothing of architecture or engineering (it just takes knowing the right place to search for the information and energy required).

She pondered my theory, but told me that it would make little difference to her -and I agree- given that the pony was very obviously suffering and even wanted to give up on happyness and 'stop feeling' if it meant that the torments would stop with that. I figured that the uncontrolled dark magic was part of it, by not being part of him, if you catch my drift.

The containment cell was warded up the wazoo, and even the glass window had tiny inscriptions everywhere, all to prevent accidents going either way. Even then I could feel the pull on my dark magic - only a little, not even enough to make a baby frown; if it weren't for it being foreign enough, I wouldn't be able to tell. The Shadow and the Light protected me from a lot, but this guy was something else!

I looked upon the pony, and my wings shot outwards in reflex, the temperature dropping so fast the guards and nurses could see their breath; I began backpedaling quickly towards the door and I pressed against it.

"Aether? Aether! What happened?!" Luna called after me, surprised at seeing me actually scared.

"I need Cadence." I said, trying to prevent my powers from doing anything else. "I'm not getting in there without her close by; get me Cadence! And Celestia if at all possible!"

Luna could see that something had me upset, and quickly barked orders to one of her guards, who was still shivering from the burst of cold air.

The reason? The pegasus was a pure snow white, with a mane of mostly the same color, but the tips of his hair were a bright gold as if they made a halo, while his tail was green and unkempt in a spiky sort of way... his eyes were red and his irises black, he didn't have a cutie mark... and his primaries were blood red.

"Of all the things I could deal with today, it had to be the bucking ponified embodiment of Misery and Despair himself!"

Author's Note:

Name the pony! Win Internet cookies!

Comments

[hs0003]

*Takes internet cookie* *Makes a mad dash for the nearest exit*

[ParadigmShift]

*Hookshots several cookies, running off as to prevent spoilers.*

[Time Squid]

3185623 Slams door as hs0003 is trying to run through.

[Lazaro Sol]

Doesn't like coffee?...........

*Cursing in more languages than man has yet discovered*
DOSENT LIKE COFFEE!!!?!?!???!?
*spawns a table loaded with textbooks and manuals on coffee brewing and promptly flips it*
AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGG
*destroys a planet for the hell of it*

*breaths deeply*
Ok, carry on

[Jack Kellar]

3186716 *meets the closed door with his face*
Wait for me!

[ShadowStar0]

Just now reading this for the first time... Sees description of the pony at the end...

...

HOLY F**K IT'S ZERO-TWO!!!

[AnormalUnicornPony]

A bit late to this particular part but is the mares name "White Oreos" perchance? I have trouble imagining something worse than that. xcept maybe candy corn oreos....