//------------------------------//
// 19: of Clouds and Bushels 
// Story: One Way 
// by jroddie 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 19

“A Grand whating what?” I asked, perplexed. Luna rolled her eyes and laughed lightly.
“The Grand Galloping Gala. And you're going.” She remarked. I stomped all of my hooves at once, staying planted on the deep purple carpet
“But I don’t like parties.” I argued. It was true. From the memories that I still had from being a human, all of them loathed parties. She continued to walk, her light blue tail whisking slightly as she walked.
“I need to spend more time with you. And besides, you would meet a great many ponies.” She retorted as she crossed a corner. I stood there for a second, then followed her around the corner. She was already halfway down the hall, in front of two gigantic wooden doors.
“Peaches...” She teased. I made a show of groaning and pranced over to her. She smiled at me sleepily the whole time. I bounded up to her. She looked up at me.
“This will be our first official appearance... Together.” She said. I smiled out of the corner of my mouth at this.
“Are you afraid, Princess?” I teased. She pushed me lightly with one of her hooves, but her expression was serious.
“Slightly. I am somewhat of a new addition to the Palace for these ponies, and they put up with me because courtesy demands it. Of course, some guards such as Antony have warmed on me, and that is very nice. But...” She trailed off, looking away from me to a large tapestry on the wall.
“But?” I prompted. Luna looked back up to me. 
“I’m worried about what they will think, Edwin. They are my subjects, and I do not want to show favoritism amongst the guards. You are a Captain, last time I checked, and with quite a following after the Battle of the Dragon.” She reasoned.
“They’ve already named it?” I asked enthusiastically. Luna looked at me unamused.
“Stay focused, Ed. We need to comport ourselves with the utmost dignity, and do it in a somewhat regal manner.” She said. I scoffed.
“It isn’t that bad, is it?” I asked. She started nodding before I could finish.
“Yes.” She said. 
“Really?” 
“Yes.” She confirmed.
“It can’t really.” I doubted.
“Edwin, think for the long term. We are both immortal, and given that we are not stabbed or poisoned or something to that effect, we will live forever. We must think of how generations to come will interpret our entering of this hall.” She said. I considered her words for a moment while my stomach growled.
“Well, I’m not too sure about you, dearest Princess, but I plan on being remembered for ages to come, but not for being the only pony ever to die of hunger outside of a cafeteria. Let's go eat.” I said bluntly. She laughed.
“Okay, Ed. Lead the way.” She said jokingly. I smiled and turned to the open doors. There were hundreds of ponies assembled of all different colors and hues. Some of them were wearing gilded helmets or scarves of different colors. I could see red, green and white scarves among some of the ponies. The red scarves were the most plentiful, followed by a smattering of green. I could only see two or three white scarves. I looked back to Luna, who was walking up to my side. I looked back to the Dining hall, and walked forward. I could see long windows on the walls, reaching up to the ceiling. There were small clouds floating, with ponies flying from one to the other. I walked on, in awe of the size of the room. When I had sensed the hall before when I was immersed, I thought that it was simply a few floors. But it was all one room. I looked back down to where I was walking. A smallish pale yellow pony wearing a red scarf looked behind his shoulder with a mouth full of leaves. His eyes landed on me, and his mouth fell open. Without looking away, he nudged a large maroon colt to his left wearing a green scarf. The maroon pony looked behind his own shoulder, then did a double take. His large green eyes widened. I looked away from the two ponies, only to find the same thing happening at other tables. Ponies all around were doing much the same as the other two were. I self conciously kept my eyes foreward. I leaned over to Luna
“Do they always do this?” I muttered.
“No.” She replied quietly. I leaned back to keep my head level. I spied what seemed to be a small blue filly asleep on her plate, smooshing a sandwich under her head. Her cutie mark was a rose. I smiled at the innocence of the small filly, knowing that she was exactly what I fought to defend. I stopped walking forward to look at her. She snored lightly on her sandwich. I walked up to her quietly, as all of the chatter around her had died down. I reached out with a hoof and gently nudged her side. She sputtered, and her eyes opened. They were exactly the same shade as her coat. She looked at me, the haze of sleep still in her eyes. I could see her begin to recognize me. Her eyes became wide. I smiled as I lowered my lids. I thought of a small red rose, and I could feel the energy of the Flow pour out to make my will into reality. I opened my eyes, and I saw something unexpected. It was not a red rose, but a pure white one with a single black petal on the fringe. Her eyes grew even wider. I reached out with magic and grabbed it. It floated over to her and she reached up with a hoof to hold it. It floated lightly onto her hoof, and she marveled at it. I looked away from her to see a large purple colt wearing a white scarf. His eyes were full of tears, and he was smiling at the small blue filly. She turned around to show him the rose and he broke into sobs. He smiled through the tears at the small blue girl. He looked up to me through his teary eyes.
“Thank you, Captain.” He sobbed out. 
“You are ever welcome.” I said with a smile, and turned back to walk down the path to the food. All of the ponies in the hall were deadly silent.
“He saved Ensign Breckan!” A pony shouts from far on the other side of the hall. This drew a cheer from the ponies near him. I continued walking down the corridor formed by the long tables. A pony next to me stood up abruptly. It was a small orange colt. His cutie mark was of a scroll tied with red ribbon, and he was not wearing a scarf.
“He fended off the invasion!” The colt shouted. The nearby ponies raised their hooves and cheered. Yet another pony stood from the opposite table, He was pale green with a green scarf, and his cutie mark was of a spear.
“HE KILLED THE DRAGON!” The green colt screamed at the top of his lungs, and that drew the loudest cheer of all. The ponies nearest me shot up from their seats and ran up to me. one pony picked me up and carried me across the crowd. I was laughing the whole time, filled with the joy of the outburst. All of the colts and mares and foals assembled were cheering. Pegasi swooped down over me, laughing. The crowd bore me over to the table where the food was being served. A tan unicorn was staring at the assembled crowd with his mouth agape. The crowd set me down across the large food-laden table from him. The tan pony stared at me for a second, forgetting how to talk. He seemed to return to himself after a moment.
“And what will it be for you, Captain?” He asked quietly. I thought, remembering Luna’s promise from the clearing. I gestured with a hoof for the tan colt to lean forward. I did the same.
“I’ll have a whole bushel of peaches.” I said through a grin. The guards around me laughed. 
“Aye! Give the hero his peaches!” one of the guards shouted from behind the crowd. I laughed. The tan pony paled slightly. 
“Iff’n you’ll give me a minute, Captain. I’ll have those right out for you.” He said. He turned away from the table, opening a door behind him with magic. He disappeared for a moment. All of the ponies turned to me.
“Tell us the story!” One of them shouted. An approving cheer resounded from behind me. I laughed
“Such tales are meant to be told on a full stomach!” I answered back. The throng of ponies laughed at the joke. I turned to see the tan cook levitating a small basket of peaches. I grinned. He handed the bushel off to me, and I hefted it with magic. I glanced around, trying to find Luna.
“Where is the Princess?” I asked. I looked about, trying to see around all of the ponies. I put the peaches down and shot up into the air. This drew startled gasps and shouts from the ponies below. I could see Luna milling about the now empty tables. I grinned, noting her avoidance of the crowd. I flew through the air, spinning in a tight corkscrew. I was laughing as I caught the inattentive Princess with my forelegs. I could hear a sharp whoomph as the air flew out of her lungs. I pulled up and shot towards a cloud. I flew past it by a good ten feet, and cut off the magic of flight. Luna and I reached the tip of the parabola, and the glorious sensation of falling began to take hold. I held Luna tightly, basking in her orange scent. We began to fall towards the cloud. It was a thrilling few seconds as we plummeted like a stone. The cloud seemed to reach up and catch us, it’s wispy tendrils wrapping around me. It fell with me, trying to expend my momentum. It slowly stopped moving and began to float upwards again. I looked up at Luna over me. Her hair was mussed and she was completely startled. It took her a minute to recover.
“You are nothing if not unorthodox, Ed. Were I a lesser Goddess I would have damned you or some such.” She said. I laughed at her strange comment.
“Oh, Luna.” I said, nuzzling into her neck. The sweet oranges infiltrated my nose. She hummed.
“I think that you would stop that, Ed.” She said. I looked up at her, shocked. 
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I believe that one of your subordinates is coming to see you.” She said. Luna rolled off of me, trying to brush her hair into order with her hooves. I jumped up, trying to see who she was talking about. My gaze finally touched on Lieutenant Dash, wearing a white scarf. Following her were two other ponies wearing green scarves. One of them was a light orange with a dark orange mane, and the other was an extremely pale blue with a much darker mane. They slowly winged their way over to my cloud. All three of the ponies bowed their heads when they came nearby. I was confused slightly by this, but then I remembered that Luna was royalty. Lieutenant Dash looked at me.
“Captain Shell. Would you mind if we were to join you?” She asked strongly. I smiled at her show of authority. 
“Certainly, Lieutenant. Pull up a cloud.” I said. She gestured to the pale pony, and he shot off for a cloud. He arrived not seconds later with his neck sticking out of a cloud. He stopped moving and the cloud continued to move. It joined our cloud, forming an even larger one. Lieutenant Dash and the two unnamed ponies landed lightly on their half of the cloud. Dash looked back to me, her rainbow mane flowing gently down her shoulders.
“Captain Shell, these are Second Lieutenants Spitfire and Soarin, respectively.” She said, gesturing to the orange pony first, then to the pale one. I nodded to both of them. Dash looked over her back to Soarin. She seemed to mutter something. Soarin muttered something back, and then flew away. 
“Captain, we would usually have one of the acting captains or one of the Princesses give this to you, but Captain Bladesinger has asked me to give this to you myself.” She said, holding out a hoof to her side. Soarin appeared behind her with a tuft of fabric in his mouth. He spat it into Dash’s mouth. It was a small lump of golden fabric.
“And what does that do, exactly?” I asked, slightly wary of the lump of damp cloth. Spitfire stifled a laugh.
“It hangs around your neck, Captain.” Said Dash. I felt stupid as I reached out for the golden scarf with magic. It floated over to me and fastened itself around my neck loosely.
“Congratulations, Captain Shell. You are now officially a Captain of the Royal guards.” She said in a mock tone of importance. I laughed once. Spitfire stepped forward and spoke in a calm, smooth voice.
“Captain, when you repelled the enemy forces from the cliff, you lopped off a pretty big chunk of it. Right now, we have the Forward fifth and fifteenth divisions working on how to reattach it. It’s division from the cliff has made the Palace somewhat unstable on it’s foundations. If you could follow me, Captain?” She asked. I nodded, and she jumped from her cloud. She reappeared a second later on the opposite side. I looked at Luna. She was snoring softly on the cloud. I felt that I could leave her alone for a second. I floated up from the cloud and followed the Second Lieutenant to one of the tall windows. She arrived there before I did, and stared out at the window. I floated up beside her into the late afternoon sunlight pouring from the window. I looked down to see the large sheet of rock, now fractured into multiple pieces. One large boulder was held up above the rest of the slab, with many ponies milling around under it. 
“Spitfire is safe, but I’m not too sure if that statement will contain truth for much longer.” Said a cool, regal voice. I looked back to it in shock. Spitfire was there, but her eyes were blood red. I gulped. The voice continued.
“You now know why we are so dangerous, Edwin. We Angelics can go anywhere, do anything, and be anypony.” He said, his voice flowing over the words like water would flow over pebbles.
“You vile beast! I’ll electrocute you right here!” I threatened in a hushed tone, wary of all the nearby ponies.
“Oh, Captain! Why would you do that to me, a poor defenseless pony! And your subordinate, no less!” The Angelic said, switching back to Spitfire’s voice. I grimaced at the flawless transition. The Angelic laughed in it’s own voice.
“You have no idea to what extent we have infiltrated the Palace, Edwin. Every single pony in here could be an Angelic in disguise. Why, even your own Princess Luna could be one of us. Even most of our own number here in the Palace do not know of each other’s existence.” The Angelic threatened. I felt a cold shiver down my spine as I reached into the Flow.
“If all of these ponies are artifice, then they would not react badly to this.” I said, reaching out with magic. I closed around the Angelic’s throat, squeezing the life from it. It sputtered and gagged, gasping for air. The red irises were slowly replaced by the orange. This brought to mind a worry that I had. Was the Angelic merely casting an illusory Spitfire around himself? Or was he actually inhabiting his host? If it was the latter, I could kill Spitfire and leave the Angelic unharmed. I grappled internally about this while I throttled the impostor. I finally threw my magic from her, unable to kill an innocent pony. The Angelic reached an orange hoof to a matching throat.
“You are lucky, Numbered. I woul-” The Angelic seemed to freeze in midsentence. I looked at it for a second more, trying to find out if it was playing a trick on me. After a long time staring at it, I decided that it was not. I then spent the next few minutes trying to come up with a reason not to kill it. I was about to reach out and crush it’s neck when I heard a small cough behind me. I turned around to see a deathly pale white colt with black hair, and bandages completely covering one side of his face. He was standing on a respectably sized boulder floating on the air. It took me a second to recognize him
“Do you tire of the forest, Colt?” I asked lightly. He sighed.
“I do like the scenery of the Controlled world every now and then. But that is besides the point.” He said. I thought about the curious creature.
“Have I done something wrong?” I asked. The Colt chuckled, shaking his head.
“Not this time. But I am here to make sure that you do not get killed.” He said. The leading statement confused me to no end.
“What do you mean? I have survived much more than small Angelics.” I reasoned. The pony coughed.
“Indeed you have. But I am here to warn you about something more hideous than a manticore, more dangerous than a dragon, and smarter than an Angelic.” He said. This made me all the more intrigued about what I was about to encounter.
“And what could such a creature possibly be?” I probed. The porcelain colt knocked his hoof twice on the rock he was standing on, and it began to fade from existence.
“I advise you strongly to remove yourself from the Flow, Edwin.” The Colt said. I turned away from him to see Spitfire move slowly.
“-d have made you suffer.” She began to say. I smiled lightly. I removed myself from the Flow, feeling all of the life disappear from that sense. 
“Well, Angelic, you do have me at a loss. I have no idea of what I could possibly do.” I said, feeling truly defeated. If the beast was telling the truth, there was no way that I could continue to fight them, if they could truly disguise themselves as such. It smiled, showing a row of sharp, pointed teeth.
“You killed Boe. I was quite fond of him. How did you even survive?” He said in a hungry tone. A long tongue slipped out from between the teeth, tasting the air.
“I was struck by lightning.” I said. The Angelic laughed, the orange coat of Spitfire contorting over articulating musculature and bone.
“How quaint.” Said the Angelic in a heated tone. It opened it’s mouth wide and lunged at me. I summoned my sword, feeling it slide into existence. I lunged back, preparing to spear the creature. Suddenly, time went much slower. I felt a cold seep over my body quickly. I saw a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. I glanced and saw a very, very dark shadow on the stone wall. I didn’t have time to do anything before a white body shot out of the shadow. It flew right in front of me, grabbing the Angelic Spitfre. I could see it suspended in the air for a brief moment. It was perfectly white, with a pitch black mane and tail. It had electric green eyes. It was wearing nothing except a pitch black scarf, not unlike the one that Dash gave me. It grabbed her around the neck and shot off to the other side of the hall. It disappeared with the Angelic Spitfire neatly into another dark shadow on the opposite wall. I gulped, feeling time speed up once they were both gone. I was shudering with the nervous energy that my body was prepared to expend to survive. I gulped again, trying to calm my nervous body. I floated down to the bottom of the window, which had a stone ledge. I stood on the ledge, my legs shaking. I fell over, landing hard on the stone sill. My head swum, and I could dreamily see Lieutenant Dash flying over. She landed on the sill, looking down at me with a deeply worried expression.
“Captain Shell?! What happened?” She asked. I looked at her. Her vibrant mane was shining in the afternoon sunlight. The cold of the creature never did leave, and the sunlight did nothing to dispel it.
“It... was a Ghost.” I muttered, and quickly lost my grip on consciousness.