You sag on your chair, letting yourself sink deeper and deeper into the soft cushion of your worktable seat.
And as strange as it sounds, you can't help but look around your office and feel the slightest sense of nostalgia. Well, not exactly nostalgia, you can't say you miss being here. But you definitely feel a sense of displacement. After all, how long has it been since you last sat on this chair?
Less than a month, you are sure. The farmlands weren't active this last month, following the changeling crisis, but you still came here for this and that. So it hasn't really been that long.
Still, being here right now feels… weird, in a sense. You feel like you used to pass a lot more time here. In fact, it wouldn't be wrong to say you spent most of your waking hours here, just a bit over one year ago. So the realization that you have been spending less and less time on this life-appointed "work" of yours, to the point that you did not do any of it at all last month, is… odd, for lack of a better word.
You know it's something small. You know it's something very personal, and maybe even silly. But still, you realize that this is yet another part of your life that is changing. Another part of you, of the self that you knew for so long, that is changing. Small as it may be.
But that's the thing, isn't it? Most changes, almost all changes, are small. And you only really notice how much things have changed when they pile up, and you realize that they are now blocking your way on a path you used to tread for so long. Forcing you to go on new directions, since you can no longer stand for or accept the old.
However-
"Well, but I don't really have time to mull over that sort of thing, do I?"
-you snap out of this little reverie of yours, shaking your head and chasing those thoughts away.
After all you do have, as the saying goes, taller hay to harvest right now.
"Although this particular patch of hay has a name, even if it's a weird one," you mumble to yourself. "Plus, this problem isn't exactly one that I thought I would have to worry about to begin with."
You are, of course, thinking about the Daughter-of-Axes.
Because sure, you have successfully summoned her. And sure, you managed to extricate from her enough information to understand her abilities well enough. But the fact remains that she is…
How can you say it properly?
She is a far cry from what Baldomare was, during her stay here, as far as summoned creatures go.
Because Baldomare, for starters, was professional.
Baldomare was professional, she was pleasant, and you honestly like her. She also made her situation and her boundaries abundantly clear from the very beginning. And for all that you (at least partially) understand that she isn't exactly a pony, you still think of her as nothing but a very pleasant mare.
The Daughter-of-Axes, on the other hoof… well, she is… she's just not. You can very easily take everything you know and think about Baldomare, and simply add a "not" when it comes to that blasted snakemare that you have just summoned.
To the point that, even though you have only known her for a few hours, you can very confidently say that you do not like her, thank you very much.
And how could you? She is loud, she is disruptive, she is rude, and she quite literally seems to be fighting you every step of the way. Oh, she is your summons, you have no doubt about that. You know the proper bindings are in place, at least as much as anypony can bind a Name, and you know that she will listen to you if push really comes to shove.
But still, the things you had to suffer through… it hasn't even been a full day yet, but the things you had to hear from her already… Where the hay is the civility in that? Where in Tartarus is her blasted education?!
You can't believe you will be having her as a guest, for the next three months. You don't even know if you want her as a guest, for the next three months.
Because most worrying of all, what the hay kind of influence will she be on the fillies?!
And as an aside, you made it very clear you will banish her if you realize Silky or Selene learned even a single swear-word.
"Dear heavens, what am I supposed to do…" you say to yourself, letting out a long, tired sigh as you do.
Still, for all that you don't like her as a pony… you still have to admit that you don't like her as a pony.
And you realize that you are making that distinction because… well, you are not sure how to describe it, or even why you feel this way, but she still feels like a pony. Or at least, she feels a lot more like a pony than Baldomare did.
And the fact remains that she is also very interesting, when it comes to her Mansus-aligned nature.
After all, for all that she feels like a pony, you are not really sure she is one to begin with. For several reasons.
The first, and most obvious of them, is because she has scales.
Well, it's not really that "obvious". You do understand why she insists on wearing a cloak at all times, given how well it hides them. Still, she did say several times that she is a snake, and right after you summoned her, still on the Wildhoof Club, you could confirm with your own two eyes that she is indeed… different.
She still has a mane, of course. A mane, and a tail, and you think you saw a very thin coat of furs, especially on the parts that are less covered by her cloak, like her legs and face. But still, most of her body is covered by scales, and you couldn't shake off the impression that she is more malleable, so to speak, than a pony.
Because who knows? It wouldn't surprise you if she can do something like completely turn her neck around. Or maybe even extend it, as unsettling as it might sound. You can't really place a hoof at why you think this, but you have the distinct impression that her neck is a lot more snake-like than a normal pony's should be.
You also noticed she doesn't have a cutie mark, or even a Brand for that matter, or any kind of Brand at all, which you found to be very unexpected. You have no idea if this means that she somehow avoided the Branding Door, or that perhaps she is too far removed from a pony to abide by the rules of an apparently pony-centric Mansus. Still, that's something else that you noticed and filed away in your mind.
And of course, she is also powerful. You already expected her to be, given how she so easily stated she was a Name the first time you met her in the Mansus. But there is a difference between claiming you are a Name and actually showing that you are one. And you have to admit that she did show it. Because you did feel it, that heavy presence in the air centered around her, just like you did with Baldomare. And you could also feel how the world itself, or at least Ponyville, reacted to her presence accordingly.
If only there was a pleasant mare attached to all those characteristics…
You let out a low, tired groan as you realize that this whole situation, the Daughter-of-Axes' presence, is now something new that you will have to take care of from now on. She is a "net positive", for sure, in the sense that you know she will bring you more good than bad.
But still…
"I really, really wish that she would be more like…" you mumble to yourself, in a rather defeated tone.
Still, having her in the Wake will be a very different experience than having Baldomare over. Because Baldomare also was a net positive, but the Lantern Name had the added bonus of not bringing you any bad to offset her good.
"Although at least," you say to yourself, realizing that at some point you laid your head on your working table to nurse your headache, "I won't have to worry about her for the next few hours."
You say that with no small amount of relief.
"Or, who knows, the next few days. Maybe she is hibernating or something? Wait, do snakes hibernate?"
You say that out loud, your suddenly headache-filled brain taking you down stranger and stranger questions as time goes by.
But still, you are thinking about that because, to put it simply, the Daughter-of-Axes is soundly asleep right now.
It was a rather convoluted affair, so to speak. You summoned her today because your husband is away, having left just yesterday to go back to work, and because your daughters are at school, which finally resumed activities just this week. So, you summoned her this morning so you could (or at least that was the plan) give the snakemare more time to adapt herself to the Wake, before introducing her to your family.
Because your plan was -and rather regrettably still is- to keep her in your estate as a "guest". But, since you remembered how often Baldomare commented how different the Wake was from what she was used to, you hoped to give your latest guest some time to settle in before getting involved with other ponies.
However…
However.
The snakemare was not only completely uninterested in what you had to tell her, but she was also very rudely dismissive towards… towards everything. She didn't want to hear about the things you had to tell her, be it about the Cult or otherwise. She had no interest in what you wanted to tell her about the Wake, or even about the current situation that Equestria is in. And you even remember how you literally bristled when she rolled her eyes, when you told her you at least wanted to show her around the house.
What kind of rude guest does that?!
And that whole parade of annoyances and lack of cooperation continued until you showed her the guest room she would be staying. That, if nothing else, seemed to be the first thing she actually paid attention to.
But only because, as soon as you told her that would be her room, she very loudly proclaimed that you had "messed something up in her summoning" and that she was going to "fix it", before slamming the door of her guest room on your face.
You heard snoring only a few seconds later.
So yes, the blasted snakemare is asleep. She is asleep, she has been thoroughly committed to your bad books, and you have no idea what in the heavens you are going to do when she wakes up.
"Mooooom, we're hooooome!"
But thankfully, your thoughts are interrupted by the familiar sound of your daughters returning from school. And you aren't even bothered that you didn't sense them beforehoof, so distracted you were by your troubles. If nothing else, Silky's voice definitely came as a pleasant surprise, to drag you out of this mess you are in right now.
"Well," you say to yourself as you get up from your chair, "time to very clearly instruct the fillies not to disturb our… latest guess."
You try your best to suppress a sigh as you begin to move, wondering what the hay else this month has in stock for you.
After all, while you were trying (and failing) to at least have an amenable conversation with the Name, one of your servants had told you a rather important missive had just arrived from the main house. But you haven't even had time to look over that yet.
Well, you have your priorities.
Fillies first, because you do not want them learning the Daughter-of-Axes' vocabulary any time soon. And then you worry about planning your future schedule.
