Equestria: A Flux Tale

by Star Sage

Bed and Breakfast

“Thank you. It is not easy to tell the end of that tale,” she said at last, her tears drying away instantly, as she regained her composure.

“Heh, it's not a problem. You aren't the first girl I've had to let cry on my shoulder,” you tell her as you float back, imagining a floor on which the two of you were standing, giving you solid ground once more.

“She must have been a lucky girl then,” comments the Princess of the Night as she settles onto her legs, folding them under her.

“Meh, more sister. Can't remember what she was sad about, something silly I'm sure,” you admit, and that gets a nice smirk from her.

“Hmm, it seems sunrise comes,” she says suddenly, looking towards the horizon of the Void, and you can see a glimmer of light just barely breaking through from the real world.

“So it seems. Well, I suppose this was an interesting duel, we will have to do another one later, since I still have questions to ask,” you tell her.

“I think we might still have time for one more. Something other than our bed habits though,” she tells you, winking as you turn around, and you set the wheels in your mind turning, thinking n what to ask, before you realize there was one obvious question you'd been wondering about.

“Okay, answer me this. How was it neither you nor Celestia was able to take on Queen Chrysalis and her changelings? I saw you two tonight battering at Discord, and overcoming things that looked way stronger than what Spitfire and Octavia said she was,” you tell her, remembering the two girls swapping stories once, including an interesting one wherein Octavia beat down two changelings herself, before getting dogpiled by them.

“Ah, a question of Our abilities then? For Ourself, the answer is a simple one. We were busy keeping Order in the sky, moving the sun that Our sister might attend the wedding. Such has never been Our burden, and it required far more attention than We would have liked, thus keeping us from even realizing there had been an invasion,” she explained to you, and you nod, figuring that it probably would, since you likely had to be more delicate with the sun, which was on fire, than the moon which was a big rock.

“It's more that the sun wants to fall, being so large and heavy, so it takes a good deal of concentration. Where Our sister has been wielding that fire for an age, this was Our...third time taking up that burden,” she explained, answering the question in your thoughts.

“As for Our sister's inability to use her full strength. That's actually the Professor's fault more than anypony else's. He had decided to use some new weapon on her, using the increase in outside security to sneak inside, and got a bit deeper inside than he would have liked, as he and Deasly ended up part of Our sister's balanced breakfast,” she told you, and you picture the pair of them in a cereal bowl, only to find Luna replace it with a stack of pancakes, which soon vanished out of view, making the two of you laugh.

“Truly, had Our sister not been worried about what might have happened to the pair, then defeating the entire Changeling Brood would have required only the merest expression of her fire onto them. As it stood, the event was a good bit of training for Twilight, and revealed that Cadence had grown into her Alicornhood well, indicating the return of the Empire couldn't be far off,” she told you, flapping her wings suddenly, and rising into the air.

“And before you can ask Ourself any questions about that, the sun rises, so I direct your query to the Princess of Love instead,” she told you, vanishing in a flash of light that turned out to be the rising sun, as you fluttered your eyes a bit, trying to get the sleep out of them.

Grumbling since sleep talking with Luna was never quite as restful as the real thing, you made your way out of bed and to the closet in the wall. Grabbing the white shirt and shorts, you tugged them on snugly, getting the little bunches of fabric smooth against your skin, and feeling that nice thread that Rarity always made for you, before walking over to the mannequin with your armor.

Your eyes glanced up and down the thing, as you'd been taught, checking every bend, every hinge, and every surface for marring, before you drew forth the blade from its scabbard. Feeling the weight, you were surprised at how easily you were holding the weapon now, remembering that first time you'd picked it up and it had slipped your grasp. Now you could do a parry, a block, and then a thrust just as Shining Armor had taught you. Not as quickly as you would have liked, but still, doing them at all without the bands that Rex gave you showed progress.

“Thunder, thunder, Thunderhumans, ho,” you say lightly, moving the sword side to side, and then holding it in front of you as the character had done so many times on the show. Laughing to yourself at the image in the mirror, you returned the blade to its sheath before beginning to don the armor, making sure every clasp was firm, and every bit was exactly as it should be, before finally nodding to yourself and walking to the door.

“Good morning, m'lord,” said one of the two ponies standing outside your room, and you almost chastise them again about calling you 'm'lord'. You weren't used to titles, since before Discord you'd just been the Little One. Now some of the guards insisted you be given a title or something. Celestia had agreed, and you were a Marque or some such, a rank you remember only from an old video game called Uncharted Waters, and then you couldn't remember how high it was.

“And to you fine stallions,” you tell him, getting a smirk as the pair puff out their chests, obviously liking compliments. It really did feel odd that last bit. People taking your word as something to cherish, praise from someone like their boss. You knew Celestia and Luna were free with such things, so it made you wonder why they were like that, but then you shook your head, and started down the hall, the clopping of the guards' hooves on the stone floor following after.

“Did the Captain leave any instructions for me?” you ask them.

“To our knowledge, none at all. He believed today would be a normal one for you and your friends. The Wonderbolts have already entered the palace, and I believe that young Rainbow is challenging one of our number to an eating contest in the dining hall. Otherwise, nopony told us of anything unusual,” said the pony who'd spoken before, his companion, a mare you saw, staying stoic and silent, her eyes darting about as if she expected some attack to come any moment.

“So a normal morning for me then. My life is no where near where I expected it to be sometimes. Not in a bad way though,” you tell the pair as you make your way down a flight of stairs, up another, and through twisted passageways, until finally you come to the large dining hall, which currently has only about twenty ponies in it, all gathered around Rainbow and a guard you recognize as the one playing her last night at cards, stuffing their faces with pancakes.

“Twenty-three!” calls the crowd of earth ponies around the guard.

“Twenty-seven!” responds the group of pegasi around Dash.

The pair then lift more pancakes, each stuffing one at a time into their muzzles, gulping them down almost whole, making you smirk as you grab a plate, flop two flapjacks onto it from a tray, and then settle in to watch the fun, as one by one the stacks they'd set before the pair vanish.

“Thirty-six!” for the guard.

“Thirty-nine!” for Dash.

“Forty!” for Dash.

“Forty-Five!” for the guard.

Soon though, the pair slow down, with each looking like they're going to vomit as their respective groups keep lifting the flat bread disks into the air for them, letting them open their maws and then just have the breakfast food stuffed inside it. Finally, when Dash's plate has only three more, and she opens to take another, the guard calls a halt to it, nearly falling over as he raises a hoof and nods towards his opponent.

“Today, I have felt the pangs of defeat, among others, and admit to all here, that Rainbow Dash, rookie of the Wonderbolts, protector of visitors, and all around horrible card player, is by far my better when it comes to stuffing her face,” he admits with a grin, before his belly, bulging to the floor, swings with his motion to turn and walk away, causing him to flop over onto his back. The guard ponies, laughing their flanks off, pick up their fallen comrade and carry him off, while Dash and the pegasi luxuriate in their victory.

“Way to go Dash!” “Showing those jerk guards who's the best around here!” “I owe you a round of Cider on me!” came the various pegasi you began to realize were just off duty Wonderbolts, and probably some Shadowbolts too. They continued to slather her with praise as you finished your breakfast, and finally walked over to where Soarin and Spitfire were seated.

“So, does this mean she's gonna be out for the day, or do you think she'll still be able to fly?” you ask as you take a seat beside Spitfire, and doesn't even start as you do, just staring at her wingpony.

“Just give her a sec. I think she'll be feelin-there we go,” she said, as Dash suddenly covered her muzzle with both forehooves, and then dove face first into a nearby trashcan. The sounds coming from said can indicated that Dash would indeed be feeling better in a moment, even if it did mean she'd probably have lost if the guards had just stayed a bit longer.

“Ah the exuberance of the rookies. Always in contest with each other, pushing each other in the oddest ways. Still, it does create a dynamic relationship between we fliers and the Royal Guards,” said a voice, and you look towards Soarin, who's smiling over at his marefriend. That had been said with a tone that just wasn't....Soarin enough.

“Hey, you okay dudette? That was just awesome what you did,” he said suddenly, as he fluttered over to her side, rubbing one of his hooves between her wings as she finished her business and rose. You turned to Spitfire, who just smiled at you as she grabbed her's and her partner's plates and took them to a sink, dumping them into it.

Minutes later the four of you exited the dining hall, Dash flying a bit sloppily, but not too badly. Making your way through the palace again, you took not a single wrong turn today, though it still took you almost half an hour to get to the castle foyer. Then you had to wade your way through a dozen or more paparazzi. Not that these were here for you today, they were just snooping for stories.

“Make way you parasites!” you shout at them, waving your arms and getting them to scatter for a moment, opening a path that you shot down, followed by the flying Wonderbolts. Rushing forward, you made it to the palace gates, and dashed outside, gaining two more guards, the ones from your door earlier, as you did so.

“Nice of you two to join us!” you shout after them, as you run as fast as you can in front of them, getting a bit of pride in the fact that you were able to maintain the run until you passed the last bit of the Royal Garden, making it to the street that ran in front of the palace, before finally breaking down, gasping for breath and sweating from every pore on your body.

“That's actually starting to get easier,” you choke out as your party starts down the road towards the Professor's lab, the guards smiling at you in that almost patronizing manner, as they came up beside you and offered you support. Thinking about where you're going, you almost ask them to leave you for dead on the road, but stay silent as your party marches towards morning training with Shining Armor.

Comments

[Sorrowfulwinds]

Eghhh, I'm neutral on this chapter, Nothing good, Nothing bad. Carry on.

[Star Sage]

2867823

Heh, you have to wake up in the morning, and I totally think Dash would do something like this, eating stuff till she got sick just to prove she was better.

[Star Sage]

2867673

Heh, it's fine, whoever you want to imagine, though considering he ends up liking it there, and Dan probably wouldn't, I think that's not an accurate comparison.

[Star Sage]

2867972

Heh, it didn't teleport with him.

[Star Sage]

2868067

This was being written as an interactive on Writing.com, so I used elements from fics I was reading at the time. Also used some stuff from Progress too.

[Sorrowfulwinds]

2867864
"I wake up in the morning feeling like a boss"

[Paddle Steamer]

2871971 It's funny to just be sitting here and suddenly get comment replies to comments I made months ago...

I'm not really a big fan of R63 so I'll pass on the story recommendation, I was just trying to understand what the hell is going on in this fic.

[Star Sage]

2873300'

It was a pure energy attack. He needed something that was a solid form. The Vector Cannon, using compressed space to push energy, was at least able to hit Discord, the Ultima would have just bounced off.

[Spirit Shift]

2871989
Awwwbut itsss sooo goood the mane six meet their guy selves and its awesome
2867876
Yea i know but i couldn't help it i tried to invasion someone else but it was just dan. He's left my head now so I'm good to imagine whoever