[private] I'm no sweet dream but I'm one hell of a night: Star pony

[Aela]

If time could be rewritten, if there was such a magic as stories that played out differently on other planes, Aela would have been a much different creature.

Had she been born in the Beyond like some of her kin, they would have looked at her golden skin and her blue eyes and known immediately to which clan she belonged. They might have given her a wide berth, because her grandfather’s court was imperial and widely-recognized for its prestige and long-standing history. They would have recognized her as belonging to a bloodline that claimed it's beginning with the sun, that they were descended from all that was warm and good and bright in the world.

If Aela had been born and raised in Paraiso, the dimpled smile that had reminded Lilliana so much of Elena might have been genuine. She might have learned to be kind, simply for sake of being kind. She might not have been taken from her mother, or nearly drowned by her father, and so she might have spoken sooner instead of learning that she had to fight for a voice. She might not have had to learn ruthlessness or calculation to survive.

Aela might have been a much sweeter creature; but then, if there was a girl out there now that existed in such a place, it wouldn’t be Aela.

She was her mother’s rage and fury and heartbreak given flesh.

She was devastation concealed beneath a beautifully golden coat.

She was the thrill of standing too close to the edge, and to those chasing her, she was also the push to send them over.

There was nobody chasing her now, but Aela could sense someone nearby. It was a familiar sensation: emotions that came wafting towards her on a late summer breeze. It wasn’t Obscene or Cheri. The lust that permeated whenever they were around clung to them like sweat. It wasn't Wherewolf either, who still reeked of Death and saltwater. No, this was something different. This was someone new. Curious (and never one to be caught unaware), Aela stepped out into the moonlight to smile prettily at a spotted woman. ”Just me,” said the little palomino answering the other mare's simper, though the coy smile that curved on her lips indicated that she was far more than what she actually was.

@Vindictive