Equestria: A Flux Tale

by Star Sage

A Learning Experience

“So, what’s next on the agenda?” you ask the six of you walked back up the stairs, the sound of ringing metal against metal resuming as you do.

“Well, until the Ball starts, my schedule is clear. Do you have anything you wanted to see or do?” asks the Princess, and you nod, thinking of something right away.

“Not really. I do have to go to this ball thing, right?” you ask her, and she gives you a smirk while nodding.

“It would be odd, one of the seven this is a celebration for to not show up. Why, is there something you’d rather be doing tonight?” she inquires, and you just stand there.

“Not really. I mean, I’d love to focus on getting my powers back. It’s just, a Ball sounds dull, plus I’m not exactly light on my feet,” you tell her, and she looks at you oddly. Luckily, the Captain steps forward and explains.

“He means that he’s not good at dancing,” he informs her, and understanding dawns on her face.

“Ah, so you’re afraid you would not make a good showing of yourself before those who will attend?” she asks, and you nod.

“Hmm, well then, we shall correct that. Follow me,” she said, and then started off at a brisk pace. This time, you’re determined not to fall behind or hold the group up, and start lightly jogging beside her, your breath coming in short, even bursts as you try to keep yourself going. Luckily, the destination wasn’t too far, and was only up one flight of steps and then down another, before she halts in front of a pair of large double doors, while you lean against a nearby wall, gasping.

“Hmm, some endurance training would be good,” commented the Captain, and if you’d had some breath left, you’d have made fun of his name, but as you can barely lift your head up, you just lay back, as Luna uses her magic to open the door, revealing it to be the ball room, with more than three dozen ponies walking around decorating or otherwise setting things up, Pinkie Pie being one of them.

“OohOoh, Princess, are you here to check out the decorations?” she asked, bouncing from where she’d been holding up a ladder for some stallion, who now found his stable footing rattling around beneath him. Luckily, some unicorn took it on herself to hold said ladder with her magic, the pair going back to their jobs, neither scolding the pink pony for ignoring her duty.

“Not quite, Ms. Pie. It has come to Our attention that Our human friend lacks confidence in his ability to dance, and We would like to show him a few steps,” she said, and Pinkie turns to you, rushing up closer and looking you up and down.

“Hmm, you don’t know how to dance then? Do you know the Pony Polka, that one’s easy for beginners. You just put-” she’s cut off as one of the decorating ponies taps her on the shoulder.

“Um, Pinkie, you want to help with this? It is your party theme,” asks the mare, and Pinkie only now seems to remember that she has something else to be doing.

“Alright, so, you got some spell to cure my two left feet?” you ask as Pinkie bounces off, which results in the Wonderbolts and Luna looking down at your feet. Luckily, the Captain had chatted with you enough to recognize that particular turn of phrase.

“He means he’s not all that graceful,” he explains, and they all nod, probably remembering how well you’d done with that sword a few minutes earlier.

“Well then, We shall endeavor to help with that. Give Us some room,” she says, motioning everypony back. You look towards the Captain for a cue, and when he starts stepping backwards, you do as well, giving Luna a bit of space. The Moon Princess then closed her eyes, and you can see the magic swirl around her, even if you couldn’t feel it with your own powers.

Slowly, that magic began to build, the little lines in the air becoming more, and more, until they added a dark glow to them, and obscured the Princess from view, even as you’re forced to cover your eyes. There’s a flash as something makes an odd noise, like a generator blowing up or something, and you are finally able to look at what happened, and then just stare, you mouth agape.

What stood before you was Luna, most definitely it was Luna, but it wasn’t Luna as a pony. Instead, in her place stood a woman with long black hair. Not a girl, nothing like that, but a human woman in a lovely dark blue dress that was adorned with her cutie mark. The dress was a long flowing number, something suited to a formal occasion, with sides that seemed to bounce as the Princess moved, twirling where she stood so you all could see the massive changes wrought on her.

Her skin was ebony black, like a night sky given flesh, while her eyes twinkled like stars, and her feet came down softly and stopped just above the floor. It seemed for a moment that she was barefoot, and was floating a bit off the ground, but a closer look showed that instead, she was wearing glass slippers, that were just so clean they couldn’t be seen except when the light glinted off them.

“How do I look?” she asked at last, the less formal mode of address telling you the question had been directed at you. Around you though, you notice that none of the ponies were moving, just staring at their transformed Ruler, as you walk up to her.

“Like a Princess ready for a ball,” you tell her at last, and she giggles at that, holding her hands to her lips as she does so.

“A perfect fit then. Celestia and I have been working on these forms for a while, after you wished for another human to talk to,” she mentions, and you think back, remembering that you’d wished for that on a star about a month ago. It was the wish of an idle mind, but apparently they’d taken you very seriously.

“I thought you weren’t going to listen in on my wishes anymore,” you tell her as you move closer, and she just smiles at you, holding out her hand for you to take it.

“You do it so rarely, I believed you wanted me to hear those thoughts,” she said, as you take the offered hand, and then she moves her other one to your side, an action you mirror.

“Now, if I saw this right,” she begins, and suddenly you feel magic at your feet. Not with the sense, but rather, you feel it as it moves your feet in a rhythmic pattern with Luna’s own.

“1.2.3.1.2.3.1.2.3,” goes the Princess as she leads you through the steps, you following with the assistance of her magic. Right foot forward, left food side, bring them together, then do it again. Repeating the pattern a dozen times, the two of you make it to the center of the ballroom, and with a smirk, you raise one hand and twirl Luna around, before letting her fall back, your arm shooting behind her to catch her.

It took you a moment to realize what you just did, as the room is silent, then you get a round of applause from Pinkie Pie, which encourages the others to join in, including the Captain. Soarin and Dash don’t do so, the former just seeing bored, and the latter making a gagging motion, and Spitfire just smirk smiles at the two of you.

“Not bad. Still a little heavy on your hooves, but not bad,” she comments.

“Yeah, but you ponies wanna see some real dancing?” asked Dash, and grabbed Soarin’s hoof.

“Dash what are dooo-oh,” goes the pegasus as she drags him into the air, and the pair begins an aerial ballet that more than trumps yours, considering they can move in three dimensions, pulling off some twists and turns that are actually rather cool to watch, with Dash sort of tossing Soarin into a spin, and then catching him in her hooves, their faces growing close, until you think they’re about to kiss. They seem to realize this too, and they both sort of shake and break it off, though you think you can see a hint of red beneath their uniforms.

“Excellent,” you say, applauding with the rest as they come back down.

“Yes, yes, I know I’m awesome” says Dash as she lands, waving to her fans.

“Indeed. Hey Luna, wanna try to top that?” you ask.

“What do you have in mind?” she asks, and you whisper something into her ear, which makes her eyes go wide, before smiling, and nodding. Looking towards the music setup, which includes places for Octavia’s ensemble, Fluttershy’s birds, and already has Vinyl’s DJ stuff setup, she pulls a record out of the pack that’s sitting next to it with her magic and sets it down on the turntable. This was one record you knew Vinyl liked, and had obviously brought.

“Okay, now, follow along with me,” you tell her as the beat starts up, and you begin the motions of the dance. Moving first the right, then the left in time to the beat, you put them out straight. Luna slowly copies you, and then you turn your palms to face upward one at a time. Next you fold them in front of you, one at a time again, followed by moving them to the sides of your head, then down to your hips, before finally placing them both on your bottom, Luna blushing a little as she did that, before you hop to one side, and begin to repeat the motion. Over the next two minutes, you do that four times, until, at last, you resume facing Dash, you just stares at you.

“Hey Macarena!” you shot as the song ends, and Luna beside you bursts out laughing as the rest of the ballroom applauds.

“Not bad, for somepony whose feet can’t leave the ground,” says Spitfire, and you smile, nodding your thanks, and offering Luna a chair as you walk towards one of the table. She waves you off, and then closes her eyes. Her body glows white, and shifts like clay, resuming her familiar alicorn form.

“That was highly amusing, my friend. Fun even,” she tells you, and you shake your head in agreement.

“Heh, that song was one of the most annoying things of the past twenty years back home. For almost a year, everyone seemed to be doing it,” you explain, as you take the seat you’d offered her, and the others gather round, probably expecting you to have a story to tell. Chuckling, you try to think of one you hadn’t shared on the radio yet, and think of one in particular that you found amusing.

“First time I ever tried that dance was at a party my sister dragged me off to. Not that mom approved or anything, but my sister was always the rebellious type, and I seemed to be one of her favorite hard luck cases. She wanted to prove to mom that I was old enough to do things, I guess,” you begin, closing your eyes as you try to remember that party.

“I can’t remember what the party was for, if it was for anything at all. Knowing my sister’s friends, it might have been just because. What better reason, right?” you ask, and you know Vinyl would have been agreeing with you. As it was, Pinkie and Rainbow both nodded at you, and you smiled as you continued.

“I forget what her name was, but one of the girls at the party saw me nursing a soda in the corner, just watching everyone else have fun. I didn’t know anybody there, so I didn’t feel right just jumping in. She couldn’t have that though, not at a party she was throwing, and so the hostess grabbed my hand, and dragged me onto the dance floor.”

“I remember her wincing the first time my foot came down on hers, and I was afraid I’d broken her foot or something, but she just waved me off, and pushed me back, changing the song to that one, so I wouldn’t be stepping on her again. At first I was clueless. I mean, I’d heard the song, and seen the dance, but never done it myself. She was patient though, leading my hands through the motions with hers.”

“Heh, it took me almost an hour to finally get it right, but by then we had half the party watching us, most of them drunk, and they screamed for me to kiss her. I did, clumsily, and she just giggled, passing me back my drink, which I poured out once she walked away. Never trust a drink left alone at a party, that’s a bit of wisdom my sister taught me.”

“Rest of the night was pretty slow, she went off and got with some jerk guy I remembered as one of the ones that dated my sister. I hear they got into a serious relationship after the party. Me though, I went home, and never went to her place again,” you said, finishing the story. It wasn’t exactly the most exciting one you’d gotten to tell, but it was one of the few that involved other people.

“Interesting. So you weren’t seeking friends then?” asks one of the workers, and you shake your head, giving a sarcastic chuckle.

“Not really. I wasn’t against it, mind, just not one to go out seeking them. I figure Twilight was like that, right? Except she was learning things. Me? I just sort of hung around. Sure, I read things, I expanded my horizons, but never for any goal. I wasn’t special after all. I was just some kid in the middle of the city, nothing to look forward to in life but some dead end job, and to hope that I made some positive differences in people’s lives,” you admit, and feel the mood in the room drop substantially. No pony is smiling any more, some are looking at you with pity in their eyes, others are just kind of staring, not really looking at anything.

“That’s not to say my life was bad. I had plenty of free time, time I could use to read a book, play a game, or any number of other things. In a way, it really was a charmed life. A job that took only eight hours a day, five days a week, leaving me all the time in the world to just think,” you say, remembering that life. Sure, this place was a paradise, but just now, you really do miss the old world.

“Ah, to wax nostalgic about one’s home. It’s nice to know that such folly is found in races of all worlds,” says a familiar voice, and everypony in the ballroom turns to find DawnChaser and Pyro standing in the door that led to the outside, the orange maned, purple unicorn smirking in a way that was just begging to be smacked.

“And what brings you and the fire hazard here today?” asks the Captain as the Professor shuts the door gently behind him and strolls over towards you. Once he and Pyro are closer, the pair both bow, Pyro to the Princess, and more interestingly, the Professor to you.

“Actually, it’s your suggestion to your brother that brings me here. Rex!” he shouted, and the door opened again, this time to admit the dog who seemed to be hunched over, a case on his back that he held up with one arm weighing him down as he walked closer.

“Hi,” he said in that gruff voice to you, and you smiled up at him.

“Hi, Rex…you know, you’re taller than I thought you’d be,” you comment to the dog, who looks down at you, his expression perplexed.

“That’s a good thing though, makes you look stronger,” you explain, and he smiled at that. To a dog, as you’d learned after talking with him, strength meant a lot. Not everything, but a lot.

“Anyhow, Silver Hammer sent a messenger to the lab to say our human friend was having a few, weight problems, and could use some help, so I figured some of Rex’s inventions could help,” he commented, the dog putting the case down in front of DawnChaser, who opened it with his hoof, and revealed that inside was a set of normal looking strips of cloth.

“Hmm, and how will decorative cloth help me?” you ask, looking at them, and then noticing that there seemed to be writing on them, weird letters that glowed slightly and made no sense. Didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were runes, like the ones on your sheath.

“They’re more than decorative. These pieces of cloth have some inlaid runes that create mass out of magic. Essentially, each one can weigh as much as you need it to, so we just tie it on like so,” he said this while levitating one of the strips of cloth towards you and placing it on your arm. You could feel it through the armor wrapping around your elbow. The instant the sides of the strip were tied, you felt that arm get slightly heavier. Not a lot, more like five pounds or so.

“Well, I suppose every little bit helps,” you comment, moving the arm up and down to show that it’s fine.

“Oh, it’s more than a little…hmm… hit that table,” said the Professor, pointing with his hoof towards one of the nearby tables. Looking back towards the Princess and the Captain, they give the nod to go ahead, and you shrug, walking to stand in front of the table. Raising your arm, you bring it down, what you think is lightly, which means it comes as a complete surprise as the table not only gives under your light attack, but the force of the blow drags you downward with it, causing your fist to slam into the flor, leaving a crater a good foot in diameter in the stone.

“A bit too powerful, Rex. We’ll have to work on that,” comments DawnChaser as he pulls out one of his books and starts writing something down in it. Meanwhile every other pony in the room is just staring at the damage you’d done. You, on the other hand, are staring at your hand, a smile on your face as you consider the possibilities that this new toy opens up for you.

Comments

[CPT]

O.o

[Yuki Harima]

Yay! I caught up to this story...OH NO! I caught up! Now I am the victim of your cliffhangers! I like how this story is going and I can't wait to see where this story is going.

[Star Sage]

1370655

Heh, don't think he's out of the woods yet as far as physical danger goes. There are more things in heaven and Equestria than are dreamed of in your philosophy.

[Star Sage]

1370814

Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! You are now at my mercy. Already at work on the next three chapters. 49's more of the story, 50 and 51 are special messages from the author.

[Yuki Harima]

1371823 Well I am happy now and I am waiting in anticipation for the next chapter. Hope to see how much of a fool (You) are at the gala

[Tadpole]

This story reminds me of G1 My Little Pony.

[Flint]

meanwhile every other pony in the room is just staring at the damage you’d done. You, on the other hand, are staring at your hand, a smile on your face as you consider the possibilities that this new toy opens up for you.