Order-naries

by CTVulpin

Chapter 10

A few hours later the rain had stopped, Gale had managed to get the taffy-puller half put together, and Ashen Blaze found himself gazing at more muffins than he thought were possible to bake in that space of time, and that was after accounting for the appetite-killing number he, Soul Mage, Gold Heart, Pinkie Pie, and Gale had consumed as "taste-tests." At least they'd made a wide variety of flavors, so Ash figured he'd had a more-or-less balanced supper and dessert already.

"I've never been one for muffins," Heart said, "but those all came out really good."

"Thanks," Pinkie said cheerfully.

"We better get going," Ash said, "Twilight and others will be waiting for us."

"Have fun," Gale said around her screwdriver, waving at them off-handedly as she reattached another piece of the taffy-puller.

"We should do this again some time," Pinkie said, "Only, I think next time we'll make cupcakes."

"We'll… see," Ash said diplomatically, "Soul, Heart, let's go." The golden-yellow ponies nodded and followed their ash-grey leader out of the bakery and toward the town square. When they arrived, they saw that Twilight, Rarity and the mayor were in the process of spreading out a hot air balloon in preparation for inflating it. Or, rather, the two unicorns were spreading out the balloon while the earth pony mayor waited to ignite burner. As the three Order-naires approached, the mayor glanced in their direction and abandoned her post to walk over to them.

"Hello," she said, "You must be the new ponies Twilight was telling me about. I'm the mayor of Ponyville, and please let me apologize for not giving you a proper welcome to town before now."

"We got a good enough welcome thanks to Pinkie Pie," Ash said, "Besides, we prefer to stay low-profile. Speaking of which, what has Twilight told you about us?" He shot a questioning glance toward the lavender unicorn in the distance.

"Only that you're new, you have business in Cloudsdale, and that there were four of you," the Mayor said, a confused look coming onto her face as she spoke.

"Gale's not joining us," Soul said, "She's busy at Sugar Cube Corner."

"I see," the mayor said, "Well, welcome to Ponyville. I trust you to pass that along to your friend." Ash, Heart, and Soul nodded.

"Pardon me Ms. Mayor," Rarity called, "but we're ready over here if you are."

"Ah, very good," the mayor said, "Just a moment." She ran back to the balloon and fired up the burner. The balloon began inflating and rising up as the air inside heated up.

"Couldn't you just use magic to lift that thing?" Soul asked, walking over to the balloon.

"Probably," Twilight said, "but that would get tiring after a while."

"Interesting how it's the one with the less legitimate claim to the possession of magical ability between the two of us is the one who always suggests magical solutions, isn't it?" Ashen Blaze asked with a cocky smirk at Soul Mage. Soul blew a raspberry at him in response.

"Mind explaining that?" Twilight asked.

"It's just an old debate between them," Heart explained, "Ash has always claimed the soul link my brother and I can form doesn't count as real magic."

"And I say he's narrow minded," Soul said, "If he can't duplicate it, it's not magic so far as he's concerned."

"I bend the very flow of the elements to my will," Ash said, "you and Heart power your abilities with your combined spirits. Our skills belong to entirely different classes, and mine is magic."

"Boys," Heart said firmly, stepping between them. "Sorry," she said apologetically to Twilight, "I didn't mean to set them off."

"Well, I did ask," Twilight said with a slight smile. Ash and Soul eyed each other over Heart's back for a few seconds and then let the issue pass.

As the balloon continued to fill, Rainbow Dash arrived, pushing a reluctant Fluttershy along the ground as she flew. "Come on Fluttershy," Dash was saying, "you haven't been back to Cloudsdale in forever. This will be fun, trust me."

Fluttershy was in a seated position, digging her front hooves into the ground just enough to make her point without inconveniencing her friend too much. "I can't just leave all my animals alone again," she said quietly, "I mean… I spent all day away from home yesterday. They need me."

"It'll just be a few hours at most," Dash insisted as she pushed Fluttershy the rest of the way to the group, "Besides, you told me they all had their lunch already, Rarity's cat is sleeping, and Angel practically runs the place for you half the time anyway."

"Well…" Fluttershy whispered.

"I'd love it if you joined us Fluttershy darling," Rarity said.

"You're going Rarity?" Fluttershy asked, surprised, "Well, I guess it will be ok if I go for a little while."

"Wonderful," Rarity said joyfully. She looked at the balloon and, seeing that it was almost ready said, "Into the basket everypony and let's be on our way!"

"Hold on a second," Twilight said, pulling out her spellbook, "Let me set the cloud-walking spell first."

---

Once the balloon was in the air, Rainbow Dash guided it toward the cloud city while Twilight Sparkle managed the burner to give them the proper altitude. Gold Heart and Fluttershy flew along behind the balloon, leaving plenty of space in the basket for the four unicorns. Soul Mage kept his eye resolutely inside the basket to keep his stomach from flip-flopping. He wasn't afraid of heights per se, but he wasn't fond of flying. He seriously hoped that Cloudsdale wasn't peppered with too many gaps in the clouds, but considering it was a city populated entirely by flying ponies…

Ash watched the scenery pass by below him for a while before turning his attention up to the sky. "Hey Dash," he said, "when you say all the weather is made in Cloudsdale, what exactly do you mean by all the weather?"

"Well, I guess it's not all the weather," Dash said, rubbing the back of her head, "They don't do anything with the sun of course, besides making clouds to cover it. If it has to do with clouds though, it's mass-produced in Cloudsdale's factories- snowflakes, rainbows, hailstones if they're really needed, and clouds themselves. Any pegasus with weather control training can make small clouds and stuff, but if weren't for Cloudsdale we'd be working our tails off day and night just to make a fraction of what they can produce. It's pretty cool, but not something I'd ever want to do."

"That is quite… I don't know how to feel about that," Ash said, a look of grim confusion on his face, "Such a degree of control over your world…" He shook his head and fell silent, ignoring Rainbow's impatient requests for him to complete his thought. Finally she gave up and turned her attention back to steering the balloon. Shortly the balloon moved around a particularly large cloud and Cloudsdale came into view.

"Wow," Heart said, taking in the vast city of clouds and rainbows, "It's beautiful. Gale's going to be upset she didn't get to see this."

"I'll bring her up some time," Rainbow said, "You know, when we're not busy." She looked at the approaching city and glanced back toward Twilight. "Bring it down a little Twilight," she said. The lavender unicorn released the burner and opened the vent to let a little hot air out. The balloon descended as Dash guided it toward a clear area of cloud near the edge of the city. Twilight brought the balloon down further until it rested on the clouds and the three pegasi alighted around the basket. "Welcome to Cloudsdale," Rainbow Dash announced. Twilight hopped out of the basket and landed on the cloud, followed by Rarity.

"Well, come on," the white unicorn said to Ash and Soul, who were looking doubtful about putting their hooves on the fluffy, white, vaporous-looking stuff, "the cloud-walking spells works perfectly, see?"

The tow unicorn stallions looked at each other. "On three?" Ash asked. Soul nodded. "Ok. One… Two… Three." They jumped out, eyes screwed shut, and landed softly on the clouds. They opened their eyes and cast embarrassed looks at Twilight, who was quite unimpressed at their lack of faith. "Uh… right, ok then," Ash said, trying to recover, "Let's, uh… let's see where that Gem is hiding." He fished around in his saddlebag and pulled out PC.

"Oh, put that away," Rarity said, causing Ash to pause, "We've already have all we need to find it." She turned her gaze toward Rainbow Dash. "I imagine we could find it at Lavender's store," she said.

"What, you expect me to know where it's at?" Dash scoffed.

"No," Rarity said bluntly, "but if you take us to the business district, I'm sure I'll have trouble at all finding-" She cut off as she picked up a quiet "Um" from Fluttershy. "Yes dear?" Rarity asked the yellow pegasus.

"Oh," Fluttershy said, surprised to have been noticed, "You… you're talking about Lavender Sunset, right? I…" the rest of her sentence was intelligible as her voice dropped into a mumble.

"Come again?" Rarity asked, stepping toward the shy pegasus expectantly.

Fluttershy stared nervously at the very attentive unicorn, and then took a deep breath and squeaked out, "I know where her shop is."

"Oh, wonderful!" Rarity said, clapping her hooves together in glee, "Please, take us there, at once!"

Fluttershy nodded rapidly and began to walk. "T-this way," she whispered.

Gold Heart was completely enraptured by the architecture of the cloud city. As Fluttershy guided the group around, Heart kept resisting the urge to rush about and take a closer look at the columns, rainbow buttresses, and the many eye-catching shapes the cloud buildings had been molded into. I'm a pegasus, she kept telling herself, I can't go looking like a star-struck tourist, but ooooh… As they neared the marketplace, she finally gave in enough to discreetly brush a wall with a wing, sending wisps of vapor spiraling off of it. Suppressing a giggle, she caught up with the rest of the group.

"You do so much with so little," Ash was saying appreciatively, "I mean, it's all made of water, air, and…" He poked a rainbow that was framing a shop window and came away with some of it on his hoof. "…sticky, fluid light of some sort?" he finished uncertainly, looking at his hoof. He felt tempted to lick it, but remembered Pinkie Pie's warning and scraped it off on the ground instead. "The point is," he said, "I'm amazed at how easy it is to tell each building apart." He nearly stumbled into Fluttershy as he looked around. The yellow pegasus had come to a dead stop.

"What's up Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.

"It's right there," Fluttershy said, pointing at a store a good ways down the road. It had been molded into the shape of a square-cut gem with a large phoenix perched on top.

"Great!" Rarity exclaimed, "Come on then." She ran off toward the store, barely holding in her excitement.

"Yeah" Ash sighed, "Let's get this over with." He, the golden-yellow ponies, and Twilight began to run after Rarity, only for Twilight to slow and look back at her pegasus friends.

"I'll just stay here, if you don't mind," Fluttershy said, sounding unusually confident.

"Yeah," Dash said, "Me too. I'd rather not have to put up with Rarity trying to charm Lavender." Fluttershy cast a thankful glance at the rainbow-haired pony. Twilight nodded and ran to catch up with the others. She arrived at the store to find Rarity blocking the doorway as she searched through her saddlebags for something. The Order-naries were standing off to the side; Ash had a long-suffering look on his face while Soul was tapping a hoof in visible impatience.

"Oh, I just know I packed a sample of my work in here somewhere," Rarity said, so distracted that she didn't notice that a deep lavender Pegasus mare with burnt-orange hair who stood about half a head taller than most of the group had appeared in the doorway and was glaring at her.

"Excuse me!" she said indignantly, "You are in my way!" Rarity looked up, and whatever her reply was going to be died on her lips as she realized whose path she was blocking.

"Lavender Sunset!" she gasped, prancing out of the way, "My apologies."

Lavender snorted and then looked at the ponies gathered around her door. "What are unicorns doing here?" she asked.

"Cloud-walking spell," Twilight said simply.

"Yes," Rarity said, still rummaging in her pack as she shifted her gaze between it and the Pegasus designer, "I am Rarity, of Ponyville, owner and renowned designer of the Carousel Boutique."

"Can't say I've heard of you," Lavender said, giving Rarity a condescending look, "now, if you will all excuse me, I am late for an appointment." She ignored Rarity's look of shock as she stepped out of the store, closing the door behind her. Without another glance, she began walking down the street.

"Wait," Rarity called, abandoning her search for whatever she had in her saddlebag as she trotted after the Pegasus, "You must have heard of me," she said, "I've designed dresses for Hoity Toity, and Sapphire Shores!"

"What proof do you have of that?" Lavender asked stuffily, "I admit I'm impressed at the effort you took to come up here, but so far as I can tell you're just…" She trailed off as her gaze fell upon a pair of pegasi who were standing at a store window looking at the items on display. One was blue with a distinctive rainbow-striped mane, and the other a pale yellow with long pink hair. Rarity, caught between insulted and dejected, stood speechless as Lavender came to stop and looked at the two pegasi as they turned away from the window. They both gave a start when they saw Lavender, and the yellow one's eyes shrank as they locked with the lavender designer's. "Fluttershy," Lavender said in amazement, "My, what a surprise to see you here." Twilight and the others had caught up in time to hear this, and Twilight's face took on a look of surprise to match the slack-jawed looks on the faces of Dash and Rarity.

"Fluttershy," Rarity said, "you… know Lavender Sunset?"

"Well…" the meek pegasus began, only to be cut off by Lavender.

"Of course she does," the designer said, "She's my daughter."

Comments

[Riot Pumpkin]

DUN DUN DUUUUN!

[ponybrony]

woah...

Didn't see that comin...