One Way

by jroddie

64: Lunch

Chapter 64

I was looking out of one of the windows in Luna’s apartments in the Royal Wing. It was the window that looked out over the courtyard. It wasn’t raining anymore. I was looking down at the gravestone. I could see it perfectly from here. There were a few ponies down there near it. My old body wasn’t buried yet because there was an argument about whether or not I was really dead. I didn’t really understand what the problem was. There was a dead body that needed to be put in the ground, so you put it in the ground. I was thinking about going out and burying it myself, but I wasn’t too sure.

“Edwin?” Luna ventured, drawing me from my reverie. I didn’t turn, but kept watching the ponies argue.

“Yeah?”

“Still watching those ponies arguing?” She asked. I could imagine her now, peering through her half-moon glasses and filling out the Canterlot Herald’s daily crossword. I smiled.

“I don’t understand the problem. There’s a corpse, you should bury it.” I said. Asperx was down there in the mud, championing the cause for my old body to get buried. I felt very grateful to Asperx for going out in the muggy weather. He must have been sweating like nobody’s business. I turned away from the window. Luna was looking at me over her glasses, levitating a pencil in a dark blue cloud of magic.

“That’s not the point of it all. Because the pony who was going to be buried ruined everypony’s day but one by coming back to life-”

“You’re welcome.” I interrupted. Luna smiled, but kept going.

“- They need to decide who the old body actually belongs to.”

“It’s mine, obviously.” I said. Luna sighed.

“Try telling them that.” Luna said, putting her pencil back onto the paper.

“I’m gonna go out for a bit, Luna. I’ll come back with breakfast.” I said, walking to the door.

“Dandelion sandwiches!” Luna yelled after me as I closed the door.

I walked out into the courtyard, feeling the intense humidity. I was sweating before I even left the covered walkway edging the garden. I was trying to figure out how I would get to the ponies and not get covered in mud when I had a great idea. I felt myself floating up into the air. My hooves left the ground and I sailed out into the garden. I soared right to the place where the gravestone and my un-buried coffin was. I set myself down on the ground right next to Asperx. The pony across the coffin from Asperx and I lightened a few shades, with his mouth wide open. He was a stout pony, with a bright green coat and a slightly darker mane of the same color. I tapped Asperx on the shoulder. He turned to me, looking like his face was melting off. When he realized it was me, a big smile spread across his face.

“Hello Captain Shell! Congratulations on being alive.” He panted out. I smiled back.

“Hey, you too. Why don’t you go inside for a minute? I can handle this.” I told him. Asperx relaxed visibly.

“Thank you very much.” Asperx thanked me, and then turned around to walk inside. I turned back to the other pony who was arguing with Asperx. He looked slightly angry, and his mane was mussed a little bit. He wasn’t really sweating much at all.

“Who’re you then?” He said, giving off a hint of accent.

“I’m the late Captain Shell.” I said. The green pony shook his head

“No y’aint. ‘ees right ‘ere.” The green pony said, pointing to the coffin. The picture frame was still sitting on top of the casket, so I reached up with my hooves and grabbed it. I held it up next to my face.

“See the resemblance?” I asked. The pony frowned.

“No way you’re ‘im.” The pony objected. I set the picture back on the casket.

“Well, There’s a pony in here that’s dead, right?”

“Yeah, but-”

“And dead ponies are usually buried, right?”

“Yes, but-”

“And this is a dead pony in here, right?”

“Yes, but-”

“I don’t see the problem. There’s something that need to be buried here, and you’re not burying it.”

“Yes, but-”

“Then there’s not really a problem. You go on and put this pony in the ground. I think that he earned it.” I said. The pony was trying to think of a retort, so I just turned and walked away.

“This is Grave Theft! If this is your grave, he’s stealing it!” The pony shouted after me. I didn’t even look back.

“He can have it. I don’t need it.” I told him. I didn’t get to see the look on his face, but I’m sure it was very satisfying.

When I got back inside, Asperx was nowhere to be found. I didn’t think much of it at all. I was going to just go straight to the dining hall and order breakfast and then come straight back to Luna’s apartments. Straight there, straight back, no distractions or diversions. No Doctors, Guards, Angelics, Princesses, Numbereds, Ghosts or Pan-dimensional Hyper-boars. I hopefully thought that nothing was going to happen. I walked up through the halls and staircases avoiding adventure entirely, hiding myself with magic whenever I saw something come around the corner. I was down near the bottom floor of Canterlot, which was open to the public. I was passing research students and the famous Royal scholars. Every now and then I passed the occasional solid white or grey guard, dolled up in armor. I waded silently through the halls, working my way slowly to the dining hall. It was strange, walking through the halls without being noticed. I could look at all the ponies passing me with impunity. They all acted differently than they would have if I was there, visible. Their faces were different, their gait was different, some of them were even singing. After a while of being fascinated with the ponies, I eventually found myself walking right up to the dining hall, doors wide open. Lunch was going on right now, and hundreds of ponies were walking around in there. It was going to be a lot harder getting into there undetected now. Making myself visible again, I did the only thing that I could really do

I let myself be a hero.

I laughed raucously, being bounced on the great wave of joyous guards. Everypony in the hall was cheering wildly, celebrating the return of their dragon-slaying Captain Shell. The ponies all passed me around, with everypony wanting to touch some part of me, as if it would give good luck. We laughed, we cheered, and we had a really good time. The wave eventually deposited me to the corner of the dining hall, covered in shade. They were all huddled around a small table. The ponies I recognized were all forward guard lieutenants. Pix and Ryo had their backs toward me, but there were three other ponies that could see me more easily. One of them was an enormous yellow hulk that glinted slightly in the shade. Whatever it was, it made Ryo look like he could fit in a teacup. The pony looked up at me with bright golden eyes after a moment of me sitting on the floor. It stood up straight, towering over the other ponies at the table. She walked around the table, coming closer to me. I finally recognized her.

“Celestia’s Sun, it’s really you.” Evangeline said, almost laughing. She giggled after she said that, completely out of character. I smiled even wider. She kept looking at me, shaking her head. “It’s hard to believe.”

“What happened while I was gone?” I asked. Evangeline grimaced. She glanced at the other ponies around us, leaning in to whisper

“We might want to go somewhere else to talk about that.” Evangeline cautioned. All of my goals suddenly mashed themselves together at once.

“How about lunch?”

Evangeline, Luna and I were huddled around a respectable pile of peaches and Dandelion sandwiches.

“So what’s going on?” I inquired, levitating a peach to my mouth. Evangeline pursed her lips, reluctant. I kept my eyes on her, tearing a chunk out of a peach.

“I think it would be best if Marcus and Gespard were here for this. They don’t know that you’re here yet.” She said. I tried to say something, but there was peach all over the inside of my mouth. Luna, thankfully, understood my intent.

“Please don’t do it in here.” Luna compromised stiffly. Evangeline wordlessly got up and walked out of the room. I frowned in confusion and looked at Luna.

“Wuzzit?” I mumbled, still eating the peach. Luna sighed.

“It’s a garish procedure, contacting the Nether. Pretty messy, too. I never really appreciated it.”

“Wuzzit?” I mumbled again, dribbling peach juice down my chin.

“Go look if you really want to. I wouldn’t. Might ruin lunch.” She warned, turning back to the sandwich floating nearby. I really wanted to eat these peaches, but I really wanted to know what Eve was doing. Hunger, to nopony’s surprise, won. I was gnawing on the pit of peach number three when Evangeline called me.

“Edwin, They’re here.” Evangeline announced from the other side of the door. I picked her up clearly with my new pony ears, that nicely swiveled toward the sound. I clenched my teeth and shuddered at the sudden stimulus. I was still being surprised by all of the things that I could do in a different body that had extra muscles than my old one did. I got up and walked to the door, pushing it open slowly. Evangeline was breathing heavily, sitting on the ground in front of a grainy, flickering apparition of Marcus and Gespard. When I pushed the door open all the way and entered the room, Gespard and Marcus shouted out in surprise. When they recognized that it was me, they started shouting even louder and performing a general outburst of excitement. Marcus was on his fifth loop when I really had to stop the hubbub.

“Hey, okay, okay. Let’s calm things down a little bit.” I childed lightly, trying not to laugh. I’d never seen the two ponies so animated and lively before. The apparitions all settled down, settling down to the ground. I looked down at their hooves for a moment, and was surprised to see a strange shape below them. The apparitions were suspended an inch or two above the ground, right over an array of dark red symbols. The shapes were arranged in a rough circle, with a square circumscribed around it. I frowned for a moment. “What’s that?” I asked. Evangeline, who was still panting slightly, waved a forehoof at the thing. Blood flew from her hoof, propelled by her tired gesture.

“It’s the spell frame. Gotta... Gotta keep it in one place.” She struggled, trying to remain awake. Her eyelids drooped. I looked down at Eve’s hooves. They were slit near what would be the wrist. I walked over, picking up an orange-tinted hoof with two of mine. I tried to heal it with my magic, but the power eluded me.

“Luna?!” I shouted, panicked. I heard something shatter and the rushed clip-clop of hooves. Luna burst through the door.

“What is it?” she shouted, clearly flustered. Her starry mane was swaying quickly.

“I can’t fix this. Come help me.”

“She was doing the blood one, wasn’t she?” Luna asked, going to Evangeline’s other side. Luna took a look at one of Eve’s hooves. She frowned for a moment before she fixed up Evangeline’s wrists. Evangeline smiled weakly when she was done.

“Thank you, Princess.” Evangeline rasped out. Luna smacked Eve on the shoulder with a naked hoof before waggling that hoof at her accusingly.

“That’s what you get for contacting them like that.” Luna reprimanded. Evangeline nodded, too tired to care.

“Are you gonna be okay?” I asked Eve, who was still hunched over. She nodded. Something Ahem’d from inside the apparition. I turned to look at a squinting Marcus. He seemed slightly hesitant.

“Why didn’t you fix it for her?” Marcus inquired, confused. I released the hoof I was holding and looked back to the projection

“I...” I hesitated. I worked magic before. I remembered punching a tree out of the ground when I first woke up in this body. That was certainly magic. When I was a pony the first time, I had no problem killing an Angelic soul. I flew, I used the Flow, I did almost everything. But... I couldn’t heal Eve’s legs just then. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to weave the spell. It was simply that I couldn’t access the magic. It was tucked away in my brain somewhere, hidden. For some reason, I was able to get at it earlier when I was sneaking through the Palace, but not right now.

“I can’t use magic.” I announced.

Comments

[jroddie]

I'm so sorry that I haven't updated this sooner, I've been slammed with college apps and all kinds of senior crap. Jostens can go suck it.

[Sirnicklaser111]

dont mind the wait u got it out is all that matters right and i really like your story so far and if any body know or mind telling me how to add a pic for my avatar please tell me

[Sparky Plunge]

i just spent 8 hours straight reading this fic. well worth it.
(i'm sick and yes i do have a life!)

[Sirnicklaser111]

Lol u not alone I been sick for a week and have nothing elsa to do

[NaughtSought]

I want to get back to reading this but I had heard this was being edited among other things. Now I've reached the point yet again where I have to mull over starting or putting this in my read later tab.
Screw it; I've put it off long enough. Still wish I knew if this was updating or what.

[jroddie]

2087576
Still updating, there's just been a lul. My laptop got stolen and I'm between computers right now. More chapters to go, but (hopefully) not a whole lot.

[NaughtSought]

2089321okay then. I'll go ahead and get to reading.