Order-naries

by CTVulpin

Chapter 11

Lavender Sunset allowed the fresh round of shocked silence to hang over the ponies for a moment before breaking it. "Now Fluttershy," she said with a not-exactly-sweet smile, "don't be rude. Why don't you introduce me to your friends?" Her smile vanished as Fluttershy tried to make her voice work and her friends glanced about uncomfortably, unsure of whether or not to come to her rescue. Finally, Rarity and Soul Mage both tried to speak up only for Lavender to cut them off with an aggrieved sigh. "Still lacking confidence I see," she said. Something in Fluttershy clicked at that point and she looked up to meet her mother's eyes. In a flurry of words, she identified each of her companions, including the Order-naries, and brought up Rarity's desire to talk shop with Lavender. "Much better," Lavender said in approval.

"Pardon me Ms. Sunset," Ash said, starting to step forward, only to be interrupted by the lavender pegasus, who was still focused on Fluttershy.

"You must go see you father," she said, "And, as luck would have it, I was just on my way to meet him for a late lunch at home. Join me. Your friends can come too." She wrapped a wing around Fluttershy and began guiding her down the street. Ash cast an annoyed glance toward the closed fashion store before joining the group in following Lavender.

"Rainbow Dash," Rarity said in a quiet but accusing tone, "Why have you never mentioned that Fluttershy and Lavender sunset were related?"

"I didn't know myself," Dash hissed back, "And even if I did, you never asked." She looked thoughtful and added, "This explains her freaky knowledge of sewing though."

"How could you not know?" Rarity asked, "You knew each other as fillies."

"Only from summer flight camp," Dash said, "I only got to know her well enough to feel obligated to protect her from those bullies. We never talked about our families."

"I think I can see why she wouldn't want to talk about it," Gold Heart said, motioning with her head toward the lavender pegasus, who was determined not to let Fluttershy slip away from her. Rarity watched them for a moment before nodding sadly.

"Yes, I suppose I can see why myself," she said.

Lavender Sunset led the ponies out of the business district and to a surprisingly modest-looking house near the edge of the city. Well, it was modest-looking in comparison to the mansion-like houses it was nestled amongst and after taking into account the general degree of auspiciousness inherent in cloud-based architecture. They were met by a butler pegasus who took their saddlebags (much to Ash's reluctance) and then flew off to warn the kitchen to prepare additional food for the meal. Lavender had released Fluttershy out of necessity and the poor yellow pegasus was standing stiff-legged as far away from her mother as she dared: two short steps.

"This way," Lavender announced, "We will talk in the parlor until lunch is ready." As she led them down the hallway, Ash hung toward the back, grumbling about wasted time and the risk of leaving his stuff unguarded. As they passed an open doorway, something caught the ash-grey unicorn's eye. He looked inside and saw what appeared to be a sewing room. A number of winged pony mannequins stood around the room wearing outfits in various stages of completion, along with tables covered in well-organized piles of material. What caught Ash's eye, however, was a large yellow gemstone inside a glass case sitting on the center table. His surprise was quickly replaced by a satisfied smile.

"Ash!" Heart called out, bringing him back to reality.

"Coming," he called back, running to catch up. They were waiting for him in front of another door down the hall. "My apologies," he said to Lavender, "I just saw that lovely topaz in your workroom." Lavender regarded him neutrally before turning to the door and opening it. Dang it Ash thought, Strike two. The group filed into the lounge, which was furnished with not quite enough cloud couches for everypony, especially since one was taken up by a strong-looking, navy blue pegasus stallion with black hair and a storm cloud for a cutie-mark.

"Stormchaser," Lavender said, pushing Fluttershy ahead of her, "look who's come home."

"Fluttershy," Stormchaser said flatly, "It's been far too long."

"Hi Dad," Fluttershy said dully.

"And who are these?" Stormchaser asked, looking at the rest of the group.

"Friends of our daughter," Lavender said, motioning to each pony in turn "This is Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash-"

"Rainbow Dash?" Stormchaser asked, looking surprised, "Last year's Best Young Flier champion?"

Dash's cool demeanor faltered for a second at the recognition from one of the world's best weather ponies. Recovering, she put on her best proud look and said, "That's me!"

"I was quite impressed with your performance," Stormchaser said, "to think I'd be witness to the first ever Sonic Rainboom-"

"Second actually," Dash said, "I earned my cutie-mark while pulling off the first one." She turned slightly to display her flank to the navy-blue pegasus.

"Amazing," Stormchaser said, "I think Fluttershy could learn a thing or two from you."

"Yeah," Rainbow said, her inflating ego making her blind to Fluttershy's growing distress and the disapproving look Rarity was shooting her, "I've tried helping her building up her confidence in flying, but not every pony can be like me." She finally noticed the sad look on Fluttershy's face and realized what was happening. Trying to salvage the situation, she added, "Besides, she doesn't need to be the world's best flier to take care of her animals." Fluttershy winced, confusing the rainbow-haired pegasus for a split second before Lavender spoke.

"Animals?" she asked, giving Fluttershy a dirty look, "Is that what you've been doing with yourself? That's earth pony work!"

"What's wrong with earth ponies?" Rainbow asked, coming to her friend's defense.

"Nothing," Stormchaser said, "But pegasi are ponies of the sky. For one to spend her life caring about little, scampering, ground-dwelling animals… It just isn't done."

"I care for birds too," Fluttershy said, the beginnings of a Stare coming in her eyes.

Ash had watched this exchange waiting for a chance to step in and change the subject. Seeing that an argument was looming, he leaned towards his teammates and muttered, "I'll be right back." He slipped out of the room without waiting for a response.

"Where's he going?" Twilight, the only pony besides Heart and Soul to notice Ash's exit, asked quietly. Soul shrugged.

"I always wondered why you never came back home after that summer at camp," Stormchaser said to Fluttershy, "and why you never mentioned your cutie-mark or job in the few letters you wrote to us. You do have a cutie-mark, yes?"

"Yes," Fluttershy said, displaying the trio of pink butterflies on her flank, "It shows how well I can care for animals and-" The sound of breaking glass interrupted her, and her confidence shattered with it.

"What was that?" Lavender exclaimed.

"Three guesses," Soul muttered to himself as he preceded everypony out into the hall. "The first two don't count," he added upon seeing Ashen Blaze dash out of the sewing room with his saddlebags lying sloppily on his back and a large topaz floating along behind him.

"Stop thief!" Stormchaser shouted, shoving his way through the group to pursue Ash. With sighs and rolling eyes, Soul and Heart made chase as well, followed by Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. Once they made it out the front door, all the pegasi except Fluttershy took flight for extra speed. Oddly, it didn't help; Dash almost fell out of the sky when she saw Soul was somehow keeping pace with her.

"What?" she exclaimed.

"Don't know," Soul said, "If I had to guess, Ash is moving the clouds under him to speed his retreat, and they're still moving for us."

"That's cheating."

"Perhaps," the golden-yellow unicorn said flatly.

Ash led them on a chase through the streets toward the edge of Cloudsdale. When Heart saw that the unicorn was making a beeline for the end of the clouds, she moaned and said, "Oh, please tell me he's not."

"Oh, he is," Soul said flatly.

Ash ran to the very edge of the clouds, leaped off into a forward somersault, and dived into the air crying, "Kemo Kiyaski!" The pursuers skid to stop and looked down at the rapidly shrinking figure of Ash.

"Wow, he hasn't done that in a long time," Soul said.

"What, jumped to his death?" Rarity exclaimed.

"No," Soul said, "that battle-cry. Come to think of it, the last time he used it was just before an impromptu sky-dive as well, so I guess you're right."

Rainbow stared aghast at Soul's casual attitude for a second before diving off the cloud, making sure to clip Soul as her wings spread. She flapped her wings as hard as she could to gain speed. Rainboom number three she thought to herself, and I'm using it to save another idiot unicorn from falling to their death. She gritted her teeth and held her legs out straight to cut the wind resistance. Gradually she grew closer to Ash as the air began to bend around her in a tighter and tighter cone. "C'mon, c'mon," she muttered as she neared the breaking point. All of a sudden a grey blur shot up past her, and over the sound of the wind she thought she heard something like "HiDashbyeDash." Startled, she lost control for a crucial second and then had no choice but to brace for the catapulting rebound she knew was coming. The mach cone snapped back, flinging her upward at an incredible speed. She prayed she didn't hit anything important before she could regain control, and then suddenly felt herself decelerating faster than she expected. Once she was going slow enough, she righted herself and opened her eyes. She saw Ashen Blaze floating nonchalantly in mid-air, the glowing Topaz hanging next to him. Rainbow tried to ask how that was possible, but her tongue refused to work from the surprise.

"Topaz of wind and air," Ash said, explaining the obvious question, "I'm no expert with it, but I can use it to produce enough upward-blowing wind to cancel gravity's effect on me, or slow a pony down."

"Oh," was all Dash could say. Ash looked up and then sighed. Dash followed his gaze and saw several pegasi dressed in city watch uniforms flying down toward them.

"Sorry about this Dash," Ash said, "I don't want you associated with me on this." Before Rainbow could react, the grey unicorn summoned a tornado from the Topaz that knocked her away from him and threw the watch ponies into confusion as it rocketed Ash toward the surface of Equestria.

---

Gale wiped her brow and sat back. It had taken her a bit longer than she expected, but the taffy-puller was finally back together. "All right Pinkie," she said, turning to the pink earth pony who was sitting nearby with blocks of taffy by her side, "Let's give it a try."

"Okie dokie," Pinkie said, picking up a taffy block and carrying it to the machine. She dropped it inside the bowl and gave Gale a nod. The brown earth pony returned the nod and switched the machine on. The two sat back and watched the taffy-puller go to work, and Gale hid a smile as she noticed fewer discordant sounds coming from the machine. She'd managed to tweak it just a little as she put it back together, and her itch to tinker and upgrade was finally gone. "Good job," Pinkie said, "It's as good as new."

"Thanks," Gale said proudly, "Nothing less than the best. That's my motto." A crashing sound from upstairs cut off any response Pinkie was going to make, and the two earth ponies shared a glance before running up to investigate. They arrived in Pinkie's room to find Ashen Blaze sprawled out on Pinkie's bed, which was basking in the light of a new, roughly pony-shaped skylight. A large yellow gemstone was laying on the ground near the bed, being gummed by Gummy. "Ash!" Gale exclaimed, rushing over to his side. Ash moaned and stirred a little.

"Aig," he said, "I can't feel my toes."

"You don't have any toes, smart guy," Gale deadpanned.

"Oh, right," Ash said, eyes opening, "By all rights I should be paralyzed right now. Next time I try to make a tornado while I'm in mid-air, stop me. That being said, these pony bodies seem to be much more resilient than human ones."

"Ha! So that's what your secret not-a-pony species is called!"

Ash winced at the high pitch of the pink pony's voice. "Oh, great," he moaned, "Hello Pinkie Pie."

"Hello," Pinkie said, shoving her face into Ash's view, "Soooo, you 'humans' walk on two legs and have fingers. What else?" Ash cast a pleading glance at Gale, who tapped on Pinkie's shoulder to get her attention.

"Come with me and I'll explain," she said, "give Ash some time to bounce back." Pinkie nodded eagerly and Ashen Blaze breathed a sigh of relief as Gale led her out of the room.

Left to himself, and figuring it would be a while before he would have to answer for his actions in Cloudsdale, Ashen Blaze brushed most of the debris off the bed, rescued the Topaz from Gummy, and lay down to reflect. Four Gems in almost as many days, he thought, one of which we took from Tau'rin himself! This already blows away our record by a landslide. … Note: never say that aloud around Soul Mage. Anyway, that's worrisome; we've barely had time to settle in and get the lay of the land, let alone come up with a new strategy for fighting Tau'rin. Hmm… Twilight and Rarity were useful last time, but I don't think I want to count on Tau putting up with illusions and games again. We can't slow down though- if a Gem shows up and we don't grab it, Tau'rin will. I wonder… what would happen if we got all seven Gems and Tau'rin had none? Dare I even imagine that possibility? He really didn't like Twilight's magic pulling the Sapphire off of him… maybe… His thoughts began to lose coherency at that point as his much abused body demanded sleep.