• Published 7th Sep 2011
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One Way - jroddie



Edwin Shell dies as a human, and wakes up as a pony. Can he save Equestria before it is too late?

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65: The Flow

Chapter 65

All of the ponies around me burst out in some show of emotion. Well, Evangeline didn’t. She was busy trying not to faint. But Luna, Gespard, and Marcus all made up for it.

WHAT!?” was the general consensus. Luna was shocked, but Gespard and Marcus were steaming. I was happy that they weren’t actually here in person, because it looked like they would have beat the magic into me. Luna’s first go-to was doubt.

“I-It can’t be, Edwin. You’ll just have to try harder.” Luna said, sounding slightly desperate.

“I don’t thi-

“What do you mean that you can’t use magic? You’re a Numbered!” Marcus shouted. I tried to explain, but he didn’t let me. “You HAVE to use magic. We’ve been getting slaughtered out there! You’re our last hope!” Marcus shouted.
"What?" I asked, taken off guard. Gespard snorted.

"We've had to concede defeat in the past few fights with Angelics. We've lost Appaloosa, Cloudsdale, Ponyville, and Salt Lick City. We would have lost more, but after you died the Angelics just stopped for a little bit. Thank Celestia there's a cliff between here and the ground. Otherwise we would have lost Canterlot." Gespard explained.

I was shocked. Four cities completely gone. I couldn't really get my brain around it. I've been in ponyville before, and there were so many ponies there that I never saw the same one twice. And that's supposed to be the SMALL city? It was unfathomable. Eve and Luna started to leave, driven by some unheard conversation between the two mares. I was left to look at the likenesses of Gespard and Marcus.

“W-What now?” I stuttered, completely vulnerable. When it came down to it, I almost always knew what to do. Kill this, go there. Eat that. Sleep here. I almost always followed my own rules. But now was different. I was just an Earth Pony. Gespard smiled.

“We can always send you to Magic Kindergarten.” He laughed. Marcus pushed him out of the frame of the spell. Marcus stood in the center now.

“You’re going to have to learn how to use magic. I don’t know how, most of Us never really had to learn magic. We just knew.

“How am I going to learn magic?” I asked. Marcus sighed, shaking his head. He reached down with his hoof though the projection, smearing one of the lines of blood. His projection immediately stuttered and wobbled.

“Go to the Library.” The shaking image of Marcus said. The apparition shuddered itself out of existence quickly, leaving me in the room by myself.

I stumbled through Canterlot for almost an hour before I found the library. I had to ask around, and apparently the Library was its own building. I walked across a small bridge to get to a large, pompous building, complete with spires. I walked into the building and felt immediately inferior. There were thousands of bookshelves just in the lobby, reaching up to the very, very high ceiling. I knew that I couldn’t find anything on my own, so I went up to one of the help desks. A fairly matronly pony with thick glasses looked up with a toothless smile.

“Can I help you?” She asked loudly.

“I need a book about magic.” I said. The pony nodded and walked out from behind the counter, shaking a little bit. I was slightly worried about her, but then she lit up all over with a magical aura and floated up into the air, gliding along slightly above the ground.

“Follow me, dearie.” She asked. I followed her as she floated off down one of the halls.

While we were going to the magic books, I was looking at all of the strange ways that the ponies kept books on shelves. Some shelves were perfect circles, with books all along the edge. Other bookshelves were strange geometric shapes. While we were walking through a hallway, I looked up and saw books magically adhered to the ceiling. Some of the books flew around like birds or hopped like frogs. I saw a book that was sitting on a chair and reading itself to a group of enraptured little foals. I was so amazed by all of the stuff around me that I didn’t hear the librarian.

“What?”

“What kind of magic book do you need?”

“Oh, I uh... How to learn magic?” I ventured. The mare nodded and floated higher. I watched her ascend, amazed. She disappeared from sight for a moment, reappearing with a hefty book. I grab it with my mouth and start to walk away, but the librarian puts a hoof on my shoulder. I turn back to her.

“What are you going to do with this book, dearie?” The librarian asked quietly. I placed the book on the ground so I could talk.

“I’m going to learn magic.” I said like it was obvious. The mare suddenly looked shocked, struggling to talk.

“Oh, um... Well, dearie, you’re...” She stammered, trying to say something. I frowned, trying to get at what she was saying. I turned around to face her.

“Is there a problem?”

“Oh, no, it’s just that... Well... You...” She kept stuttering. I raised my eyebrows, trying to get her to finally say it.

“Yes?” I prodded. She finally broke down.

“You’re an Earth pony!” She shouted. Everypony in the library immediately turned and stared at her. There was a faint, consistent murmur in the library before she shouted, but now you could hear a pin drop on carpet. The librarian was looking down at her hooves, amazingly embarrassed. I understood how weird it was. An earth pony, coming into a library and asking for a book about magic. Must be weird. I did the first thing that came to mind.

“You’re a Unicorn!” I shouted just as loudly. I turned around, picked up the book with my mouth, and stormed off.

Back in Luna’s room, I was poring over the book. The first chapter was, helpfully, about how to turn pages with magic. There was a whole page with descriptions with what thoughts to think and which muscles to clench, and something about some kind of gland. I couldn’t understand any of it. But the thing that was repeated time and time again was that you were supposed to concentrate on exactly what you wanted to do. No distractions, or you might do something dangerous. According to the book, that’s why most unicorns could only do one type of magic. You could only concentrate on one thing perfectly, and that was, most often, the thing that you were interested in the most. But this book would teach any unicorn to do simple spells, if you could believe a book. I wanted to believe. I was skimming through chapter 5 when Luna walked in. She stopped by the door and leaned against the frame.

“You’re adorable when you’re trying to learn.” She cooed. I smiled.

“You might be able to help me. This book isn’t helping at all.”

“Which book is that?” Luna asked, levitating the book up into the air. She looked at the spine, squinting. “Ah, Bevvisov.” Luna remarked, putting the book back down in front of me. “You know, I graded his doctoral thesis when he graduated from Canterlot U. It must have been at least three hundred years ago. He was barely suited to learn magic, let alone teach it.”

“So I’ve been reading this for nothing?” I asked, exasperated. Luna nodded.

“Let’s go over to Tia’s library and pick out a book. I’ll wager my tiara that she has something that is more helpful than that trash.” She supplied, waving for me to get up. I did, following her out of the door.

Celestia’s library was nowhere near as big as the Canterlot library, but the books were incredibly more valuable. Gilt pages and encrusted covers were all that I saw left and right. Luna knew where she was going and I was happy to follow. As Luna walked past the shelves, she pulled books off of the shelves with magic, letting them float behind her. She was constantly mumbling to herself, debating on which books to pick. She started to go off without me, leaving me behind. She was so caught up in the books that she kind of left me behind. I was wandering around the library, trying to find Luna, when I saw a massive bank of windows. They looked out over a seemingly endless plain, with rolling hills and towns and cities spotting the landscape. I walked up to the panes and pressed my nose against the glass, trying to look down. I could see the ground below me, which was dizzyingly far away. I felt the rush of vertigo, and I had the sudden urge to jump out of the window and fall. I gulped and backed away from the window quickly. My heart was pounding and I was breathing heavily. I couldn’t understand why I was freaking out so much over looking out of a window.

“You can feel it, can’t you?” A rich, smooth voice said behind me. I turned and looked at Columnus. He was just as pale and emaciated as ever, but he looked... Brighter. His mane and his coat were shiny. He still had a bandage over one of his eyes, but it was very clean and neat. His ears were perky, and he had a bright smile. His rapid change took me a minute to understand until I realized that the Columnus I saw as a human is actually from the future on this timeline. It was hard to keep timelines straight. But I knew what he meant. I could feel sweat cooling on my back from my moment of panic.

“What’s happening?” I breathed out, scared. Columnus motioned me over. I shakily stepped over to where he was. His large, solid black eye was staring at me. He prodded my shoulder, sizing me up.

“It is this flesh, this weak flesh. It is urging you to go back into the Schism, to take a new body. It is trying to get you to release your hold on this world and return to the Flow.” He told me. I was puzzled by what he said. I couldn’t understand a thing he was saying.

“What?”

“You can’t use magic, correct? Can’t connect to the flow?” He asked. I nodded. “Then you must come with me. Spending time in the Upper dimensions will help you. It will give you back your strength.”

“What?”

“You must come with me to the Forest. We must spend time near the Aethr. It will strengthen you, make you strong. If you don’t, it could be months before you regain access to the Flow.” He told me, his eye showing a sense of urgency.

“What, right now!?” I inquired. Columnus nodded. He blinked his big, black eye and a piece of chalk appeared next to him. He picked it up with magic and started to draw a big circle on the ground. “I can’t go right now! I have to learn magic with Luna! I’ve got to take care of the business around here!”

“You think that Ghosts can learn magic? Pah! We know instinctively how to weave. We do not need books or teachers or things of that manner.” Columnus spouted, showing special hatred for the things. He finished drawing the circle and was now writing symbols on the outside of it.

“Don’t I get a say in the matter?” I shouted. Columnus sighed and turned away from the circle.

“Pardon me for saying, but no. I must act quickly to save the controlled dimension. Get in the circle.”

“No.” I said, petulant. Columnus blinked, and huge stone hands leaped out of the floor and grabbed me. I didn’t even have time to shout for help before they pinned me to the middle of the circle. Columnus stepped inside of the circle and finished drawing one of the symbols on the outer edge. The solid floor that I was standing on suddenly dropped, plummeting through the castle. The stone hands were still holding me. I could see the floors of the Palace fly past, showing ponies in various stages of activity. I could feel wind shooting past, flinging my mane up. I struggled to see Columnus.

What are you doing!?” I shouted, the wind carrying my words away. Columnus turned to me and smiled grimly.

I’m taking you home!” He shouted back. The castle floors that were flying past suddenly turned to open air. We started to tumble, flipping end over end. I could see the rapidly approaching ground.

You’re going to kill us!” I tried to shout, awarding me a bird to the face. Columnus didn’t say anything, while I tried to shoo the bird away. I watched the ground rush closer and closer while the stone circle was still spinning. I got to see the ground up close before we hit it.

I leapt up into the air, straight out of unconsciousness, screaming. I looked around. Bright green trees were everywhere. Deciduous trees and evergreens filled the landscape. I looked around me some more and noticed that I was a good thirty feet above the ground. Below me, Columnus was laughing.

“What’s happening? Are we dead?” I shouted.

“No! We’re in the Control dimension! You just fainted before we made the switch!” He shouted back. I found myself hoof-deep in mud before I even realized that I wanted to be back on land. Columnus was right next to me, sitting next to a dying fire. “Be careful,” Columnus warned, “You are constantly in the Flow here. Be wary of what you wish for.” He disclosed. I nodded. I pulled my hooves out of the mud with a suuuck noise, pulling myself onto drier land.
"So what happens now?" I asked. Columnus closed his eye, taking a deep breath.

"You must bathe in the aethr. It will connect you to the Flow and allow you to access the upper dimension on your own. It will anchor you to this dimension."

"Bathe? Like, in a tub?" I wondered. Columnus smiled.

"It's more like a river."

Of all the places and times that I have seen during any of my life, the Flow had to best one of the grandest. Canterlot was nothing. Dubai was nothing. New Earth was nothing. Midnight was nothing. Everything was horribly insignificant compared to the Flow.

"Oh my God." I gasped, looking all around me. A huge waterfall deposited a river into the middle of a shallow valley, and rapids flowed violently through it. I ran up to the water to get a closer look. It wasn't like normal blue water, but looked like liquid amber. Spaced unevenly were bright, almost glowing golden threads. In the clear amber I could see that the threads were all anchored to the bottom of the river.

"This is the Aethr. All Ghost souls originate in this dimension, so all Ghosts have an intimate connection to the Flow."

"It's beautiful."

"Yes, it is."

“This is what everyone means when they’re talking about the ‘threads’?”

“Yes, it is.”

“What are they?”

“Each thread represents a life in every other dimension. Plant, pony, dragon, griffon, fish, dog, cow, sheep, Time Lord, Judoon, Terran. Each one has a thread in this river.The list does go on. Every one of them has a thread in the Flow. That’s also where the energy comes from when you weave a spell. When you have access to the Flow, the amount seems limitless, but there is an actual finite limit to the energy you can use. Even though the amount is finite, the amount is so vast that it is impossible to quantify by any method. When you weave, an infinitesimal, miniscule amount of energy is taken from every single being with a thread in the Flow, including a small amount from you. Then it is given to you for you to do as you please with it.” Columnus explained. I mulled it over for a moment.

“Can you kill things from up here by destroying their thread?” I pried. Columnus frowned, sighing.

“Yes, it is possible.” He admitted.

“Then I can use this to kill the Angelics! This is amazing! Columnus, can you believe what this means? We can end the war without even looking at Angelics!” I blurted out, overjoyed. Columnus shook his head.

“There is no way to know which soul you are killing. It has been attempted before, and nothing in Equestria was killed. It was horrible. A whole acre of threads were destroyed.”

“Oh.”

“Yes.” He agreed. We both sat there on the pebbly shore, looking at the amber waters fly past.

“What now?”

“Get in.”

“Just... Get in? No preparation or anything?”

“That’s right.” Columnus confirmed.

“Okay then.” I said hesitantly, walking slowly to the Flow’s edge. I hesitantly held out my hoof to lower it into the Flow.

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