One Way

by jroddie


31: of Chemists and IV poles

Chapter 31

I walked back to the front of the room, feeling all of the ponies staring at me. There was not a single thing in this room that wasn’t staring at me. I placed immaculate ivory hoof in front of immaculate ivory hoof, feeling the sinuous grace of my movements.
“Lieutenant Pix.” I stated.
“Yes, Captain.” She replied immediately, in an extremely crisp tone. I smiled as I walked back to my seat, knowing where her loyalties lay.
“Find Lieutenant Ryo. I have a feeling that he will be somewhere in the Castle.” I replied in a clean tone.
“Yes Sir.” She replied, and stood to walk out of the door at the rear of the room. I heard the clip-clop of her hooves on the stone floor, and then the creak of the door opening and closing. The blued steel plating on my left shoulder seemed to move with me, like it was water instead of metal. I could feel the beauty of my actions seep into the air around me. I took my time walking to the end of the table. When I reached it, I bounded off it it and onto the ground. I turned to face the ponies staring at me as I took my seat, and was pleased to find many of them with mouths agape.
“Well.” I said. This snapped many ponies out of their trance, and prompted me to continue.
“I’m quite sure that many of you would like an explanation of what happened just now.” I said. Many of the ponies murmured uncontentedly.
“I’m also quite sure that the walls have ears. We are not safe from interruption. We no longer have the luxury of privacy within these walls, as you have just seen.” I said. I slowly turned my head to look at all of the ponies in the room. Only a few were able to maintain eye contact with me.
“I will not tell you what just happened. Nor will I explain the reason for my secrecy. Those who need to know already do, and understand the reasons behind the caution.” I said. The ponies started mumbling and talking amongst themselves when I was finished. The arguing soon escalated again, but not so severe as before. The only thing that kept it from getting so loud was a single knock on the door behind me. I turned to face the dais, statue, and curved wall that was my entrance into this room. The wall slowly turned, grinding on the stone around it. I stared at the rotating wall, watching it simply move. I wondered who had summoned it. There was soon just a curved stone wall protruding into the meeting room. There was a deathly silent pause for a moment, where a profound amount of nothing happened. The wall started to creak. The stone wall moved, revealing a blinding light. I was forced to avert my gaze from the light, turning away from the growing source. The curved entrance wall finally curved away to reveal pure white. It was blinding, and I could barely see anything. I squinted into my shoulder while I waited for the white to subside. It slowly did, and I turned to look at the source. The dimming flare revealed a slender, elongated pony. My adrenaline-clouded mind took me a minute to recognize her as Celestia. My vision returned to me slowly, revealing her in all of her brilliant detail. Her eyes, her form, her waving hair all seemed to be more clear, more defined. I had the strange urge to bow, and I thought that I might as well be polite and do so. I kneeled down on my front legs as Celestia walked down from the dais. She took her time, placing her hooves down with almost cautous movements. She stopped when she was standing between the two of us, with her rear left hoof right next to my face. I stood up slowly, and then I noticed her guest. Twilight was with the Princess, and I had no idea why. She still looked somewhat sickly, and I could see her foreleg grasping a thin metal pole that had a little glass bottle hanging from the top. There was a little tube running down from the bottle, but it’s destination was hidden from me. She was staring at me. She was staring at me, completely shocked.
“Ed?” She mouthed silently. Her manner made me grin a little, as did the circumstances. Two tiny ponies talking under the knees of a God. I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to look serious.
“There are many ponies in this room.” Celestia began, with an air of gravity and importance that only she could attach to language. She continued.
“Royal Guards, each and every one. You have all eared your titles and the seats you sit in due to my trust, and due to your actions. You all place your faith in me every single day. I keep you alive. I keep you from freezing. You all place your trust in me, but I place my trust in him.” Celestia said, gesturing to me with a slow laziness of her left forehoof. I was a little bit surprised, but I tried my best not to show it.
“Captain Shell has earned what he has. Though the work of his own hooves. Through the astuteness of his own decisions. Through the courage of his own actions.” She said. She was looking at all of the ponies, then turned to look at Antony.
“Captain Bladesinger, I fear you must complete this meeting on your own. I have a need of Captain Shell at the moment.” She said. I could only imagine Antony’s response before Celestia turned to ascend the platform. Twilight followed as best as she could, rolling her little metal pole along. She had a little bit of trouble getting it up the steps, so I grabbed it for her and helped her up. She smiled weakly and climbed the steps to the platform. I waited for her to get up before I did, walking awkwardly with three hooves. I set down the pole, and nearly fell over as the floor began to turn

“I cannot thank you enough, Captain Shell.” Celestia said, walking down one of the posh corridors of the Palace. I was levitating Twilight, her pole floating not too far away, because she had fallen asleep while she was walking. I was just worried now about scaring her if she woke up to being held in the air with magic by an earth pony.
“You don’t need to call me Captain right now, Princess. There’s nopony here.” I commented in an embarrassed fashion. Celestia scoffed.
“I never bandy titles about for the benefit of others. I only use them in regard to ponies that have earned them. And you, Edwin, have earned yours.” She said, eyeing me with her large purple iris. I met her look, and then turned to look at the gently snoring figure of Twilight. I was aware that she was a mare, but I only saw her a little child. It made my chest feel sore to see the lone grey streak in her mane that was the only sign of her imprisonment. It was my duty to protect ponies like Twilight from creatures like Slim. It was the only thing worth doing in this world, protecting ponies. It made me glad to know that Twilight was safe, but it puzzled me to see her in a setting such as this.
“What is she to you?” I inquired of Celestia. She hesitated, which was so unlike her. I turned to look at the Princess.
“She... She is my student.” She said in a stalting voice. I paused for a nearly imperceptible moment. My supercharged Numbered mind flipped switches and made connections in a fraction of a second to supply me with a reason why.
“You adopted her, didn’t you?” I asked. The Princess immediately stopped walking and looked at me. I also stopped, thinking it would be rude to continue.
“Yes.” She whispered. Her eyes began to water, and I immediately regretted asking.
“I’m sorry, I-”
“No, you should know. You may need to face the same problem I did, one day.”
“What?” I asked. The Goddess continued walking again, staring at Twilight as she did so with a caring eye.
“I’m going to tell you a story, Edwin.”
“Okay.” I said, continuing to walk down the completely empty corridor.
“Luna and I, a very long time ago, began to grow lonely. We wanted foals. Sadly, Immortals cannot reproduce, as you well know. So, we took the option that became apparent. We would pick foals and take them under our patronage. They grew and flourished, developing their talents and skills, taking hobbies and the like. We were so happy for them, we were proud. I remember one... Thousands of years ago. She loved to play piano. She could play the birds out of the trees, she could play love into your heart. She would tap her little white and black keys, and she tapped her way right into my heart. She was a little blue mare, and she was brilliant. I can still close my eyes and see her bright pink eyes, filled with some childlike dream of hers. She composed sonatas and orchestral pieces and accompaniments and everything else you could possibly imagine. I would often go to her room here in the palace in the middle of the night and see her scribbling pages and pages of sheet music, tapping little tuning forks as she did so. She was magnificent, adorable, everything a mother could ask for...” Celestia trailed off, wondering. She seemed to choke on something.
“She aged. She grew older while I stayed the same. Her body whithered, but her mind stayed as sharp as ever. She continued to write beautiful pieces, and played them often for me. She was rather famous in her old age, but not so in her youth, when she could sit in front of the piano for days at a time. A pity.”
“One day, she fell. She was old and decrepit. She broke her left foreleg. The doctors told her it would never work the same again. She... She would never be able to play piano. Not like she used to.” She said in a halting voice. She was sobbing silently as she remembered the mare.
“She lived in a small house when she was not in the palace. It was a beautiful view, with little trees and valleys dotting the landscape. She lived near a canyon, one of the lesser known in Equestria. She found it quiet, and it helped her to write music. One day she just went out to her house. She walked out to look at the canyon. And jumped.” She finished, choking on each word she said. I was aghast. The concept of suicide in this world was mind-shattering. It was nearly impossible to imagine such a thing existing in a place with so much happiness. But, as I of all ponies knew, Life was a two-sided coin.
“Her son played at her funeral. He was just as good as his mother. But I refused to take him as an apprentice, a son, anything. I had my fill of attachment. During the funeral, everypony saw the pieces that my little pianist left of my heart.” I had to think about this for along while before I could come up with an answer
“She couldn’t live in a world without music. Could you blame her?” I asked. Celestia blinked.
“No.” She whispered. We continued to walk after that, not filling the empty air with conversation. Twilight muttered something incomprehensible as she slept.
“But... What does that have to do with Twilight?” I finally asked. Celestia paused.
“She brought me out of hiding. She drew me out of my shell that I crawled into all of those years ago, and I love her for it.” Celestia said, drawing back up to her full height. While she was telling her story, she slumped over, almost as if under the weight of memory.
“Oh.” I said. I couldn’t possibly think that I would ever need something like that, but I didn’t think of pressing the point.
“Why did you take me away from the meeting?” I wondered aloud.
“I don’t think that you are quite ready for the burdens of Royal Politics. You are too... Incorrupt. You don’t need to be around those kind of things.” She said. I was extremely confused by her lack of logic.
“What do you mean? I’m one of the most dangerous things in Equestria at the moment.” I responded.
“You would not say that if you knew what Equestrian politics is like. It’s a rather subtle sport, but it is only played by the most influential and most powerful. It can be dangerous if you make the wrong enemies.” She reasoned right back. I found this interesting.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“We’re taking Twilight to her room, and then I’m going to show you something very interesting.” She said. I became very curious as to what it could be, and I whiled away the time thinking about what the interesting thing could possibly be. We soon arrived at Twilight’s room, which could also be called a laboratory with a bed.
“She sleeps in here?” I blurted, setting her down on the bed with her silver pole nearby.
“She doesn’t usually, but she has been working on one of her projects recently. She’s trying to develop a chemical that increases respiratory metabolism for ponies that scuba dive.” Celestia replied. I looked at her with a smirk
“Scuba diving?” I mocked.
“Is a very popular and rewarding activity, yes. Pressurized gas is not a very easy thing to attain, because it requires a skilled unicorn to create and the spell is a rather challenging one. I will teach it to you one day, if you want me to.” She offered. I shook my head, saying
“I don’t know... Is there a quill around here somewhere?” I asked. Celestia was about to answer when I spied a stopped ink well and a quill lying next to a stack of parchment. I immediately unstopped the bottle and dipped the quill, picking a sheet off of the stack. I started writing with the unassuming brown quill, rasping the nub across the paper as I did so. I could feel the Princess look over my shoulder as I did so.
“What are you doing?” She asked.
“Giving Twilight an early Christmas.” I explained, straining to remember human chemistry. I hoped that it had much in common with its Equestrian kin.
“What’s Christmas?” The Goddess asked innocently. I ignored her question and continued to write my note.
“Done!” I proclaimed triumphantly, corking the ink and setting down the quill next to a glass beaker filled with what appeared to be blue water. The note read-

Miss Sparkle-
CH2BrCO2C2H5
-Edwin

“What is that?” Celestia asked.
“It’s something she may find valuable. Let’s go.” I said, walking out of the door.

“What is it?” I asked, walking drunkenly into the room with my eyes closed.
“Don’t open your eyes yet. Follow my voice.” Celestia said, walking away from me. I tried to follow her to the best of my ability, turning my ears every which way to find her. I bumped into a few tables and chairs as I did so, trying to navigate the maze of stubbed knees and stoved hooves.
“Ow.”
“Persistence will be rewarded.” Celestia qualified, almost sensing my unwillingness to continue. I gruffed and floated up into the air, cursing myself for not thinking of it sooner. My equilibrium was flawless, and I found the Princess almost immediately.
“Okay, open your eyes.” She said. I did.
“Oh wow.” I whispered. Celestia smiled with sad eyes.
“I still have it. After all these years, I still do.” She said, her voice growing faint.
“Who made it?” I asked, trying to look at the instrument at as many angles as I could.
“Othello, of course.” Celestia said. I stared at the mystical white sword. It did not much resemble mine, but it shared a faint semblance. It was much skinnier, with a pink waffle string handle where mine was blue. It had a sun etched into the middle of the blade on both sides, right below a blood groove. The hilt was a little pink rectangle, with a sun stamped onto it.
“You really meant that much to him...” I mumbled to myself.
“How did he make it?” I asked aloud.
“He invented bladesinging.” She said, and I immediately knew that this piece was the first sword ever created with magic.
“It must be ancient.” I remarked in awe.
“It is a few hundred years younger than I.” She said, admiring the deadly tool as much as I was. I continued to stare at the magical blade, not wanting to take my eyes off it even for a moment. I had to, though, to ask a question.
“Why are you showing it to me?”
“A good question. It is the most valuable work of art in my private collection, and I do not proffer a visit to my museum lightly. Twilight has only been here twice. I also rarely show this piece, and you are the only pony in living mortal memory to have seen it. I showed you because I want to tell you that we are not too different. It also comes with a favor...” She said, losing coherency.
“What favor could you want of me?” I asked.
“I want you to find Othello.”