Equestria: A Flux Tale

by Star Sage

More Time Passes

A month passed. Your life is pretty much the same schedule as before. You wake up in the morning, rising often with the sun, to see either Celestia or Luna standing over you, their eyes deep pools of light that crush down against you, limiting your powers that you might control them better. Every day it seems less and less though, as you slowly start to learn, to adapt to what you are now. Never enough that you could confidently go without the limiter, but still, it's a start.

After that, if Octavia isn't awakened by it, you set about making breakfast, sometimes though, she'd been up for a while, and you find her doing so. A wave of your hand sets the table, and the two of you eat in your apartment. Sometimes you considered adding rooms to the space, which was just one large open area, but you always stayed that thought when you remembered sitting in the large tub, brushing your hand through Octavia's wet mane.

After breakfast came a few formalities. Your guards, the Flux Guard now, slept in a room across the hall from yours, with Rainbow, Soarin, and Spitfire sleeping in conditions that were just a bit better than the rest of the guards most nights. They were up and training before the slightest hint of daylight though, and you would exit your room to find them waiting there for you, standing at attention, and perfectly groomed as show ponies.

Next you would wade through the news agents who camped out in the foyer of the castle. Doing so was now easier thanks to your power, which let you gently, but firmly, push them aside to make room for your entourage, exiting the castle, where you would find a carriage waiting for your small group, sometimes with a Princess or Prince in it, sometimes the Captain, and sometimes empty. Whichever state it was in, you would climb within the vehicle and be taken across Canterlot to the lab of the good Professor.

Then came the fighting. Celestia was adamant that you continue training, and that fighting was a good way to learn both how to use your power, and more importantly, how to control it. Most days, you were up against one of her children, learning the ins and outs of how their powers worked as you fought, usually losing interestingly enough, as they had at least a few centuries of experience with their powers, and unlike your previous fight with Pyro, they held nothing back.

That had seemed like it still wouldn't be that hard at first, after all, you hadn't realized how much Pyro had been controlling himself, or how much power that suit contained, but as you fought them, you came to understand just how much of a difference experience made. From Quicksilver, able to become a gray blur, to Radiance able to create lightsabers out of the air in front of him, and even Dewprism, who could make rather convincing illusions, as well as solid constructs.

You learned though, applying your power better, and sometimes, when the battle dragged on, claiming a victory. The three head Alicorns were always there when you did that though, and you figured after a while it might be just that the children were nervous in front of their mother. They said nothing though, and oft times simply smiled at you as they left the field of battle, which you usually used your power to reconstruct after he fights.

The morning would fade, and your party tended to matters of lunch in one of a dozen places in Canterlot. Sometimes you would duck away of course, hanging out with the Wing Guard at the griffon's favorite cafe. It was still the only place you could actually purchase food of that sort. Even though you could just make it with your power, something about the food made by hand...er claw, was always just that bit tastier, making your mouth water just thinking about it.

It was from conversations with the Wing Guard that you learned what was going on in the Kingdom's of the West. Ashati was as good as his word, and had helped his people reclaim their peaks, building the Geth into a force for good. Walls, cities, and lives were made with the power of the weave, defenses to keep the gryphons safe, and more importantly, tools to help make their lives just a bit better. In a month, he had a hundred of his people join him, and more applied every day.

After lunch you were taken to the palace, your golden armor cleaning itself before you took your seat, letting your red cape flow out behind you as you twirled into it, just as a bit of flare. Supplicants were constant now, with five ruling Alicorns in the palace, and your own Court taking them as well. More, the problems you faced were complex, as Celestia allowed more of the ponies and others to come to you.

The most interesting tended to involve magic, of course. Like an issue involving a construct of magic that was applying for citizenship in the Kingdom. It took a bit of finagling there to get everyone out happy, especially considering the things was a runaway from some lizardman empire in the west. You tried to be fair though, and while he wasn't smiling, you got the impression that the lizardman still came out ahead on the deal you made, while the construct, a thing of stone and mana, began a new life.

After Flux Court, the Silver Court took over, and you were allowed the late evening off. Sometimes these waning hours took you back to your apartment, to talk with Octavia, who tended to do personal business while you heard cases. Other times, the two of you got dragged off by Vinyl to K-Colt, to talk on the radio. Not that you minded too much, as you were slowly corrupting the colts and fillies minds with things like Weird Al and the like, as well as a few choice Disney songs.

Other evenings, Luna or Celestia would wisk you away. Literally, as you would find yourself held within a sunbeam and taken somewhere, and other times a gentle kiss of moonlight would take hold, and you would softly float away on it. You were then taken somewhere barren, and told to create without limits. Luna showed off the most during these, interestingly enough, taking you to her palace on the moon(And of course she had one of those, don't be silly), whereas Celestia would just plop you down in some rocky field.

You tried to make things best you could. Not things you had seen, but things in your mind. The statue of a creature with four heads, a crystal as large as you were, with perfect angles, and finally just what you remembered of your old home. It was a squat, one story things, from some suburb. Oddly, the details here were harder to fill in, but you tried your best, enjoying the freedom to just make, but then always being disappointed when, no matter what you tried, everything popped the instant you stopped touching it.

The sisters just told you it was something you would have to work out, before taking you back to the palace. Always with that warmth beneath their smiles, encouraging you. So you kept going, kept trying, sometimes privately, sometimes publicly, always trying to will the thing to stay where you put it, only to lose it in that instant. Frustrated, but never daunted, you would return to your apartment, curl up with Octavia, and then drift into the Void once more.

One month, became two, and finally Princess Cadence and Shining Armor had to leave. Their kingdom needed them there, with two months away, and they bid goodbye, with Twilight and the gang visiting the palace to wave a fond farewell to the pair. You then got dragged around on one of Pinkie's parties, with her insisting that you were due for another one. Somehow this resulted in the first permanent thing you ever made. A rather large mess in the castle courtyard.

The day after though, you did it. A single thing, a tiny crystal shaped like a flake of snow. You used your power to make it, and then....you did something. It was hard to describe with words. You didn't press harder, that wouldn't have worked. Instead you held it up, and then...balanced it. That was the only way you could describe it. The numbers that were the object, the thing you were giving power, you made it balance, like it had always been, and thus it was.

Soon you could do that whenever you wanted. It took far more effort than before, making something balance, but it was possible. Of course, you quickly learned why the Princesses didn't make things like that very often, as even a few bags of grain made this way, to help with a famine, drained you dry, and left you with a small flickering candle of power where a large star had been. You even had to call off the fight the next day, as you were in no condition for it.

Instead you were given a lesson by the children, being told stories of their own experiences with the ability to make things. Most started smaller than you, of course, but all of them, even Pyro, could do it. Heck, they did so in their battles against you, and they all gave the same advice as the Princesses. Namely to not do it without purpose, and to never use the power as a cudgel. It was more a needle, for precision and grace.

You then had to sit on one of Quicksilver and Radiance's Courts. The Silver Court was the most interesting, as you could sense Quicksilver using her power to speed around the room, reading all the notes and things others brought with them, projecting this air of confidence and omniscience that even Celestia didn't really match. Able to convince most supplicants of their own solutions being best, she expended little energy beyond her speed, and a bit of talking.

The Court of Prince Radiance was even more interesting. He didn't say anything most times, just sitting there, listening, much like Celestia. But where his mother seemed like a gentle matron, guiding her subjects, he radiated power like a small star, his gaze enough to make many take back their problems, or come up with solutions themselves. Sometimes he would have to speak, to either shoot down some mad plan, or otherwise sort out a detail or two, but otherwise he let the subjects rule themselves.

Another day passed, and your powers began to return. This time you fought Glimmer Strike, the Captain of the Royal Guard. His moves were even less powerful than the Children of Celestia, but his control was fine. His power was like the wind, everywhere at once, but subtle like a breeze. It took everything you had just to keep him back, and in the end, a single missed block, resulted in you being flung away, landing on the grass, and admitting defeat.

You learned though, watching all the time, sensing how others used their gifts, and trying to not just mimic them, but to use your gifts in your own way to help them. Flux Court took even more complex cases, from the sale of a book the author had wished to delay, but the publisher had wanted out, to who was to blame when a group of fillies in Manehatten had somehow gotten trapped on top of one of the skyscrapers for three days.

You tried to be fair in every decision you made, tried to hear all sides of the story, and you slowly learned to get it right. Each new day brought a new challenge, and you met them as best you could. Slowly that second month faded into a third, and then a fourth, as you grew stronger, bolder, and more confident in yourself.

Author's Note:

Yep, we're back, with another summary chapter. Don't worry though, the next one's already done, and working on more.

Comments

[Sci]

[Booster Spice]

People might complain about what they see as filler, but making drystone walls is an artform, making moaterless fortifications is near impossible. Just look at Sachsayhuaman (?)

A collection of useful reminders, associations, and a golem. Which might or might not be a lizard plant.

Far more capable than me. Want to get to the moon? No problem, design on the table. Want to do it politically valid? No idea, become a tyranical dictatorship, get it up and running, then turn it over to the parliamentary system and watch them rip it apart as the frustrated children they are.

[Star Sage]

4684532

Excited? Or did you like the chapter? Or both?

[Star Sage]

4684663

Heh, this was more to skip the story forward and get it back on track. Mind, I don't have a plan for that moon palace at the present time. That was just something to throw in because of the Rita Repulsa comment earlier. Also, the fantastic comic used to make a PMV of Let it Go on youtube. That was awesome.

[Sorrowfulwinds]

4487242
Uhm in the latest part of the story he lost his powers and grew to normal human sizes.
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