Often times, some ponies have no regret when they do something that other ponies would considered foolish or insane. Currently, I'm one of those ponies with no regrets as I heard a collective gasp of shock from everypony around me as they all stared at me in unadulterated horror. However, to help my case, Celestia was the only one not giving me that look, but that was due to me electrocuting her with a taser. Her mane and tail to stood on their ends with little arcs of electricity jumping about, which reminded me a bit of Pinkie's fluffy mane. Celestia’s wide eyes stared simply at the tip of her muzzle, the rest of her face mirroring her surprise.
"Aether!" all the horrified mares cried in unison, including Fluttershy.
"What? Why are you all so shocked by this? It should have been obvious that I would have done something like this eventually," I muttered as I gave them all an angry look. "Besides, the princess deserved it anyway."
As predictable as always, Twilight was about to open her mouth, probably to scold me, before Celestia raised a hoof to silence everypony. Looking at me with stoic expression. "Aether, have you worked out the issues you have against me?"
"Not really, but I can say that my urge to hurt you has finally been satisfied," I said with a wave of my hoof, only for Twilight to glare at me before Celestia let out an amused laugh.
"It is good to hear that your aggression has finally been dealt with, my little pony," Celestia replied, as she used her magic to fix her mane. "Though, I am surprised and disappointed that you have kept a weapon on you."
"Hey, it's a... well it's not one of those dangerous weapons, it's actually one of the safer ones. At worst it would have left a pony twitching on the ground. Besides, it's better than having me smash things on a pony's head," I countered with a huff.
"How is shockin' a pony suppose to be safe?" Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, it doesn't do any lasting harm compared to other weapons. It's often used to capture any... alien alive, and is also used as a safe way to recover any pets owned by the rich aliens that gets loose from time to time."
"Regardless, it is still a weapon and I think you should turn it in over to me for safekeeping," Twilight said as she held out a hoof.
"...So I take it you want me to instead beat on ponies with whatever random object that is closest to them?"
"What? No, I didn't even said th—"
"Then let me keep... the electric thing. It's better than me breaking things on a pony's head, right?"
Twilight's left eye twitched a bit as Celestia spoke up to prevent an argument from occurring between us. "I think letting Aether have something like that device may be the wise choice to adhere to Twilight. As long are you actually use it with more control over your temper, Aether."
"Yeah yeah, that reminds me. Why did you have another Maralus core fixed without even letting me know‽" I yelled while pointing a hoof at Celestia.
Blinking in shock, Celestia said, "Didn't Twil—"
"That's besides the point! You just don't go messing around with interdimensional stuff like they're some kind of foal's toy! Even if you think Twilight would like to work with one and may help speed up your research projects, it's still a big risk! Which turned out to create a mess in the end when Rainbow, Twilight and I ended up in another world! We're just lucky that the only harm done was me being injured!"
Apparently, nopony wanted to agree with me as they just stared at me in silence, with the exceptions of Rainbow who's eyes were darting around while Celestia looked at me in shock before she took on a hardened expression. "Aether, I'm not some naive pony like you think of most ponies you have met. I have been ruling Equestria for over a thousand years, and while I admit that I made mistakes in the past, I know that I have to take risks in order to better protect Equestria from harm. Furthermore, I don't want you to be advising me on every interdimensional matter, I do have my own experiences in such circumstances as well."
After hearing Celestia's counter, I was a bit speechless at her sudden reprimand that she used against me. This gave the perfect opportunity for a pony to add to the argument, which Twilight took to her advantage as she said, "Princess Celestia is right Aether. If you think Equus could be invaded at any moment, naturally she would need to take steps to help better defend everypony. However... I think there is more to your anger than what happened."
Nodding, Celestia replied, "Indeed, for Twilight has brought to light something rather... horrible that may be influencing your temperament."
Giving Twilight the stink eye, I simply answered in a low tone, "Twilight... don't tell me that you told them the 'news', did you?"
Instead of Twilight answered, Celestia had chosen to press on. "Aether, this is something that you shouldn't just bottle up and try to forget about it. I know it's a horrible thing to hear, but you ha—" Celestia started to say before I finally had enough of hearing her prattle.
"I have to what, talk about my feelings? Hello! I'm an alien that has been through so many horrible experiences, there is nopony, or even an alien, that can help me through this! I am sick and tired of hearing all this talk about me needing to let my feelings out, to talk to a pony to feel better, to get help! How can you get help when you live a life where you to put your life on the line just to make enough money to eat? How can a pony relate to me about the fact that I had to bury my parents, alone? News flash Princess, there's nothing you or anypony can do to help me through this!
“Buck, I already have enough on my plate trying to train a squad of ponies to help protect Equus from an invasion from who knows what! There's dozens of interdimensional organizations that could threaten the world, and I have to figure out the best way to prepare a world that doesn't have a military force that can stop them! To make things worse, I have to deal with puberty on top of this! And don't anypony dare bring up the idea of going on a date with another pony! I am not in the mood for any of that romantic stuff!
Before anypony says a thing, yes I know I'm acting like a brat! And here's my answer, I don't care! I don't have the time to play nice with everypony, nor do I even have the patience for it! I got enough stress with all this stuff going on, enough paranoia from my past life, puberty that I have to go with, and dealing with ponies that think they know what is best for me! And to put the cherry on top, not only did I learned that my original species is gone, but I nearly died on same day I learned about it! Can you find me a pony that can relate to me on that? I don't think so! Instead, I have to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen to ponykind!" Pausing on my rant, I simply look at everypony in absolute fury, all of them wide-eyed at my outburst, unable to say a thing at the moment. This gave me enough time to catch my breath and calmed down a bit before I continued.
"I know... that I'm not a nice pony. I know that you think maybe by trying to help me, that maybe you could make me happier. But... it's not as simple as you think. I seen things that only maybe you might have seen Princess Celestia, and only because of your age. None of you can fully understand the... sadness my species and many others have experienced. It takes a toll on a pony like you can never believe. It's so great... that I literally seen aliens... simply going to a high spot somewhere and... just jump to their ends. Tarturus, even I was tempted to do that several times in my own life.
“So everypony, stop telling me to go to talk to somepony about this! I'm sick and tired of that, and... and everything! I... I just want a break from all this craziness! I... I just want to be able to live in peace again..." Finally, I finished my rant, panting a bit as I looked at everypony, only to be engulfed in a hug by somepony.
Turning my head, I saw that it was Pinkie who hugged me, rubbing a hoof against my back as she said, "Everything's okay now Aether, you're safe now." I was about to let out a retort when the rest of the Elements suddenly decided to give me a hug, which surprised me considering that I was yelling at them not but a moment ago. That's when my past fourteen years of bitterness and pain finally came up to me, as I started to cry a bit, until the dams let loose as I bawled into Pinkie's shoulder. I cried out all the pain I had accumulated over the years, the years of loneliness, years of enduring dangerous mission as I saw many others around me perishing in horrible ways. I cried out the stress of trying to keep on living, and I finally cried out the pain of the knowledge that my original species has gone extinct. I didn't know how long I cried, but I kept crying until I finally passed out.
Letting out a groan, I awoke to see that I was still in the hospital room. Turning my head to my right, I saw that Pinkie was sleeping on the bench, letting rather loud snores that somehow didn't wake me up earlier. I then turned to my left, I saw Princess Celestia standing still, watching over me. Letting out a sigh, I simply said, "You're still mad about my outburst earlier, right?"
Instead of saying something in anger, Celestia just took on an amused smile as she answered, "Now why would I be mad at you finally letting go of some of your pain."
Cocking an eyebrow in surprised, I replied, "Alright, I finally let some it out, but I still doubt that I'll be able to talk away the rest of it."
"It's still progress to say the least, though I hope you realized that you're not alone here. You have so many friends now that care about you."
"True... so what's going to happen now Princess?" I asked, shuffling a bit in my bed at the awkward memory of the Elements all hugging me.
"Hard to say, I know that your current role as a training instructor is causing you some stress, but I don't think you'll let any other pony take over your role."
Sighing, I averted my eyes as I said, "You're right there. I doubt that anypony will be able to come up with anything close to the experiences I had... and I'll regret doing what I can to save lives. I'm tired of seeing... well aliens dying from just being sent unprepared to another world, I don't want the same to happen to other ponies. It doesn't help that we may have even less time since there are at least a few interdimensional organizations that now know of our existence. Bright colorful ponies really attract attention."
"Are you certain about that? You did say that there are many species that are among... the poor classes like your former one. Couldn't they just assume that you were just another one of them?"
"Some might have, but remember that alien... machine that showed up when we returned from that world?" I asked, to which Celestia gave me a nod in response. "That machine belongs to a rather big and powerful organization. I hate to say it, but I don't think they're going to sweep the loss of that machine under the rug, particularly since that one is designed for a special role. We might be seeing them again the future, maybe even the near future."
Taking risks that could've easily been avoided? Oh, and how did your last interdimensional matter turn out?
..exactly.
At first, I was expecting a bit a comedic rant, but what I got instead. Wow... This was quite the emotional chapter.
It also nearly made the jaded me cry. Nearly...
Maralus core testing should be done in a controlled environment (Ponyville is anything but). Celestia might need a few extra shocks for proper understanding.
so when there found they can't attack but defend or else worse things happen.
that be a tactic for space invaders using politics..
One of the reasons I sympathize with Aether's more violent tendencies is that whenever Celestia goes into Smarmy Smug Mode like this, I absolutely want to do the same thing every single time. Double.
6450746 I have to Agree. What other interdimensional experiences does she have? Very very little. It's STARSWIRL that made the mirrors and explored most of the worlds. Celestia went to a very few, but they were all Parallel Dimensions, and ultimately they were all very very short trips of maybe 10-20 minutes long and all were peaceful. And in one she nearly destroyed BOTH dimensions because she loved a guy over there.
So again. WHAT experience does she have with.... Well, ANYTHING with interdimensions? She just went to them, smiled and explored, and then left. And just doing that, she alone nearly destroyed her own dimension and another.
Bit too heavy with foreshadowing, and the recap of character background was unnecessary. Having him say "O woes my life so bad" over and over is not getting it across as well as it was shown in his actions, in form of personality, habits, or interactions while doing something.
He said it before, then had a dream sequence about it, and now he is telling people about it again. And there is nothing else happening in between. This really kills the pacing of story. Having the dream sequence, or recap as dialogue would been really good, but doing both at such quick succession could have been done better.
Anyhow thanks for writing. Comedy parts were wonderful.
Aether has found someone she can take her frustrations and anger out and generally not have to worry about repercussions.
I wonder how often Celestia will be carring a new perfume, Hint of Ozone for the forseeable future?
As for such an expensive special bot being missed. I wonder what its specific abilities and design parameters were, given it was fast, agile and inteligent. Not so much battle, as scout and reconnasence bot? thing about Scouts, they are designed to get the information back at all costs. If a scout vanishes and theres no returned information, then something extremely intresting has occured to it. As a scout is supposed to at least reply back to all currently known interactions and quite a few excessive.
Somewhere a Battlegroup is being prepped for a set of training excersises.After all, the costs are already covered.
Who here wants to smack Celestia for smiling when she does? Show of hands? Hooves?
Yes, you're old and wise. For the love of Gaia, we get it. You had a comparable expert on-hoof in interdimensional matters, and you couldn't be bothered to inform her of your decision to recreate a Maralus core? Bad moves, princess.
I can see Aether mailing Celestia a flashbang next time she does something stupid. I'm sure with Pinkie's help she could disguise it well enough.
"It's a surprise."
Certainly going to surprise the hell out of whoever pulls that pin.
Aether need to learn ilusions, let them know exactly everything, and know then they can speak.
6450909 they can say it's a surprise party in a bottle. All you have to do is pull that pin. And attach a note saying that it will you give a big surprise
[youtube=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RaA0lkAshXI]
Aether has a tazer oh boy, I sense that a lot of ponies are going to be shocked in the near future...
kekekeke.
Nice job!
And Celly... just no... just... no...
I'm suprised there are so many immature little kids with temper issue runing around in this story or in this comment section....Blame everything on Celestia is the stupidest thing to do.
6452019 unless she ALMOST CAUSED THE DESTRUCTION ON EQUESTRIA!
yes i am well aware that celestia did not mean to do it, but there IS a point where screwing up, even it's in ignorance, is not forgivable.
and in my opinion, DOOMING THE WORLD is not forgivable without NOT ONLY working to fix it, but actually promising to NOT do any of that type of stuff again, and holding to that promise.
While I enjoyed her big long rant, I'm very disappointed with the dialogue between Aether and Celestia. The fact that you had Celestia justify her actions because of her little knowledge from her interdimensional experiences as if she knows better than Aether(like some know it all ruler) is also that it was enough to shut Aether up in defeat. For that I'm taking back my like for this story.
At this point, maybe they should just recall Sunset Shimmer from Canterlot High School and make her Sun Pony because she actually has several years of experience living in another dimension and, if EG humanity is anything like reality, she's probably realised how bloody vicious other species can be.
6452733 <.< Really? Really? Fuck it I give up!
Aether with a tazer... this is gonna be good!!!! I can just see her tazing a monster menacing the Crusaders and the monster running off with its tail between its legs. I'm glad she got to vent, but she's right about other cultures taking an interest in Equestria.
6452019 I'll admit, that is the hardest part about reading this story.
Just finished binge reading this from the first one to the sequel and I have a sound really enjoying it.
6452019 I disagree after lines like this.
this is one of the cockiest and and stupid things I've ever heard anyone say her own experiences is what caused this whole issue and being Reckless with things you barely understand will never end well. not to mention someone else is having to fix her mistake now I will say Celestia is in no position to fix but the point still stands furthermore she's constantly undermining aura by sending her to places like the Crystal Empire taking away a weapon that could be useful to the Defence Force not keeping up to date her up to date with whatever the researchers that figured out and Princess Celestia so blind she doesn't even realize the reason why ether is so stressed out because of what Celestia did ether now hse has give up her peaceful life with Pinky in order to make a Defense Force that can somehow stand up to a Galactic Empire with in an unknown time limit and if she fails Equestria is doomed.
I don't blame Celestia for her initial actions she was lonely and she didn't know but now that she understands consequences are actions had she's done nothing but make the problem worse not fully trusting the one person who can help because of her own Pride
6458933 The thing is...you guys are being really childish with your dislikes.
6458982 I have no idea what you mean dislike?
6458990 <.<
6459006 Yeah that doesn't really help being childish with my dislikes.
Pretty sure someone already spotted this but...
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Brony on!
1.
Is it just me, or does anyone else read Aethers lines in a germanic or eastern accent?
2.
Stop hounding Celestia. It's really starting to bug me.
3.
Because we have two options:
Celestia has lost her mind due to her brain being unable to sustain sanity in her immortal body,
Celestia (far more experienced that any living creature on the planet besides perhaps Discord) is working with factors we cannot perceive. (For instance, the teleportation of Aether, Rainbow, and Twilight to another dimension, to the same interdimensional city as Aether lived in no less? Coincidence? I think not! It just feels so... planned, and the result? Aether learning to let her feelings loose and open her heart every once in awhile, as well as new objects from different dimensions falling into pony hooves. Though you could argue that she had no idea what she was doing and has exposed the pony race to forces they are not ready for, but I hold out hope that the writer is smarter with a character with as much possibility as Celestia, and uses her to create a more interesting story by making her a more interesting character and expanding what the show has shown us, not overriding it.)
The latter makes far more sense to me, unless you mean to tell me that a thousand year old goddess has less wisdom and foresight than a twenty-five year old, no matter the latter's upbring or history, Aether may have more experience with the dangers of interdimensional travel, but Celestia should (if the standards and examples of our own world are anything to go by) trump her in every other way, it is simply how the universe works. With the exception of those many who never do grow up.
Why is no one talking about the Nightmare stuck inside Aether head?
6475091 On the other hand, if your #3B idea is correct, then Celestia has been playing the "Long Game" the whole time with him & your point #2 wouldn't be appropriate.
Aether actually needs to whack her twice as hard
6459882 you're both wrong. It was obviously diamond tiaras fault. The dimension couldn't hold the amount of bitch so it opened up a hole to let some out, and then aether fell in. This is the perfect theory
6900980 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
lol 69
Youu kinda just did...
6900980
it makes sense now
6458933
Ditto.
Aaaaaayyyyyyy
I'm glad that Aether is finally letting some emotions out other than anger and snark but seriously she needs a spanking.
can i just say the nopony nobody thing still confuses me endlessly
nobody is literally "no body of people" body as seen in certain bodies of the gov't
would nopony use the same logic or is the history of this word different
i mean seriously i get it the other races and species use the same type of logic such as:
nogriff
nodragon
and nobug/noling
my point is why is this the way this was done 😕
9296128
No she has had crap given to her all her life and this was the final breaking point.
6458933
I know, years later but let's also point out how many thigns Twilight has had to fix started with Celestia. We have Nightmare Moon, Discord, Sombra TWICE, Sunset Shimmer, And Tirek. Then she is blind to what happened outside of Equestria. the Storm King above it because. Hyppogriff's left Mount Aris for years and Celestia had NO CLUE. Hell she even gambled the fate of the Crystal Empire as a test for Twilight to see if she can be an alicorn.
the reason she get critized hard is because she deserves it. Hell even the show poked fun at it in the last season
11083230
reminds me of the fan-story "Parting words":