//------------------------------//
// More Meetings 
// Story: Equestria: A Flux Tale 
// by Star Sage 
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“All guards, I want a squad of wings in the air five seconds ago, with me! Horns through the city as quick as you can! Move!”  ordered the Captain, rushing away from you, using some spell to probably talk to all his men at once, considering the way his horn glowed.  Taking one look back out the window, you rush after him as he runs down the corridor.

“Captain, what was that?” you ask, and he doesn’t turn to you as he scrambles towards a turn, and takes it sharply, seeming to just snap into line with the new hall.

“I don’t…I know it couldn’t be what I think it is, but even if it’s not, it’s dangerous. I’d advise you to head back to your room, and let the Royal Guards deal with it,” he tells you, his eyes darting around, and then taking another turn down a hall. He leaves you behind for a moment, as your momentum kept you going forward, however, you soon turn around, and chase after him.

“Are you nuts?! That thing was like a small star! What are your men going to do against that?” you demand to know, easily keeping pace with him as you flatten out your body, holding your hands to your side like small wings that angled backwards.

“We will do our duty, Little One,” he said simply, and you saw the look of determination in his eyes.

“Then I’m going with you,” was your response, and you faced yourself forward, trying to look as stern as the Captain, who doesn’t say anything, until he’s forced to stop at another hall, looking left and right.

“This will be dangerous, as you noted, are you sure you wouldn’t rather wait out the crisis?” he asks, finally picking the left hall, as you keep pace beside him.

“I don’t think so. I need to do something to help, and I already showed I can fight just as well as some Wonderbolts. Besides, if it’s some kind of fire, I have just the weapon to deal with it,” you tell him, focusing only a little of you power into your hand, and then letting loose with it. What flows from your hand looks like a beam of blue white light that strikes a table, freezing it solid in a flash.

“Ice Slasher, never leave Wily Castle without it,” you tell him, turning to find him looking at the table with the judging eye of a veteran, obviously deciding if you were showing off too much, and might endanger more ponies than you could help, but at last, as he rounded another corner, and you were faced with snow white pegasi in armor, he turned to you.

“You can come, but if you get scared, run. There’s no shame in it, and this is no job for somepony who’s too bullheaded to know when he’s not ready,” he orders gruffly, running into a nearby room. You stop from following, and consider his words. Or rather, you would consider his words, if he hadn’t shot back out as a streak of white, his wings flapping in the air, forcing you to focus on keeping up instead of on what he’d said.

It’s not long before the group of you shoots out one of the palace’s open windows, into the air about it, streaking upwards in a spiral, so the city flows beneath you, before aiming yourselves straight at the Professor’s lab on the other side of town. Not that distance meant much, you could feel yourself straining to keep up with the pegasi armored guards, your power of flight getting taxed as you come in for a landing, doing a loop with them to kill momentum, so that you stop just between two craters next to the lab.

One was the Ultima one you’d made the other day, but the other was brand new, smoking, and altogether violent looking, considering the edges were cracked, and there were dirt clods everywhere. However, inside the crater was a sheen of pure glass, as if the dirt and rocks had been melted by something extremely hot, hot as a small sun.

“Oh, Captain, it’s so nice to see you again,” came a familiar voice from the lab, and turning towards the door you saw DawnChaser standing there with one of the oddest ponies you’d seen yet. For one thing, he was fully clothed, every bit of his coat covered in something that looked like soft latex, and for another, the colors, the gasmask covering his face, and the aura of heat coming off him you could feel from here marked him as a Pyro, a class from the game Team Fortress Two…yet in pony form.

“I highly doubt that,” said the Captain as his hooves touched the earth again, crunching the ground beneath his feet, which cracked under his weight, showing the heat hadn’t been confined to a landing crater.

“Do come now. That bar fight was nothing against you, it was just that one foal who needed a lesson. Besides, it was interesting to see how your stallions and mares handled a larger opponent without their armor. I must say, I was impressed,” he told him, stepping down off the porch and approaching.

“Professor DawnChaser, I demand you tell me what this fugitive is doing on Equestrian soil,” was the response the Captain made, pointing a hoof at the Pyro, who fled back a bit, as if he was terrified of the pegasus armored guardsman. Not that he didn’t sound intimidating, showing off just why he was in charge of the Princess’ Royal Guard.

“What? Him? Fugitive? I think you’ve got your wires crossed Captain,”  said DawnChaser, looking back at the other pony, and you had to admit, looking at him, despite the gear, and the obvious signs of his power, you didn’t feel like the pony who was cringed back in the door could do anything really harmful.

“I ask again, and then I take you, and everypony in this building to the palace to be questioned. He was banished for no shorter than six seasons, what is he doing back after only four?” said the Captain again, the guards behind him looking like they’re ready for a fight, as they just hover in the air, lightly flapping their wings. Meanwhile, the city’s gate had opened, and a troop of unicorn armored guards were marching towards the lab as well.

“You really do know how to kill a good mood, don’t you? If you’ll just let me distract you for a few more…ah, here he comes now,” says the Professor, and the Pyro turns towards the house, before leaping out of the way as Deasly comes tearing out of it, breathing hard.

“Professor! I sent it!” he comes out, and you see a sparkling trail of light pass through the door with him. The difference between the two is Deasly slumps to the ground as soon as he’s outside, whereas the light flies up and away, your mind searching through your memories of the show for a moment, before recognizing it as the sending of a magical message, like Spike did for Twilight with the Princess’ letters.

“Fine work, Deasly,” compliment the Professor, causing the stallion to smile, likely a rare moment of praise from the flighty minded instructor. Deasly then walked over towards where the Captain stood, and bowed his head a little in respect.

“I apologize, Captain. We had figured we’d have more time before our friend arrived,” he said.

“Indeed, such as two more seasons of time,” said the Captain in his authoritarian voice.

“Heh, yeah…well, DawnChaser said he needed him, and that he’d work out something with the Princess. He forgot about doing so though, until he was already here,” explained the assistant.

“Indeed, and you’ve just sent a communique to the Royal Sisters, to beg forgiveness,” finished the Captain, looking towards the palace as the rest of his troops arrived, lining up beneath the pegasi, their horns glowing with barely contained magical fury, while the Pyro looked ready to bolt back into the house.

“What is going on here?” asked a sudden voice, and everypony turned to find a dark cloud coming from the palace, swirling together, and then reforming into the visage of Princess Luna.

“Princess, I’m glad you came, please tell this agent of the establishment that as free ponies we deserve the right to walk upon whatever ground we choose, whenever we choose to do it…walk that is,” says DawnChaser, sounding like something out an old sixties hippie commune talking to a reporter about the man coming down on him.

“Princess, I apologize for this disturbance,” began the Captain, bowing to his liege lady.

“Oh, think nothing of it, Captain. My favorite reading table has been commandeered by Ms. Sparkle, and I was just about to seek some other distraction when I received a note that my sister or I would need to come immediately to solve a problem before violence was employed as the solution,” she explained as she looked around the guards, the pegasi still in the air and the unicorns on the ground.

“Is that really what you wrote?” asked DawnChaser, turning to Deasly who nodded.

“I felt it was better than telling them to ‘get their pretty rumps down here before you had to start cracking heads’,” he told his mentor, who shook his head, while Luna just stared at him, making the purple unicorn smile at her, while also taking a few steps back from where she stood.

“Say the word, My Lady, and my men and I can have him locked up so tighter even Celestia’s sun will never find him,” offered the Captain, and for a second, it looked like Luna was considering it, but after that moment passed, she looked towards DawnChaser again.

“Enough banter. Why have you summoned Us?” she asked, her voice slipping into a light echo, showing the gathered ponies, and you for that matter, that Luna wasn’t in the mood for playing.

“Well, I sort of need a legal matter resolved,” said DawnChaser, who walked over to where the Pyro pony was standing, and then pushed him forward, directly in front of the Princess.

“Due to…an incident that I don’t deny, this young stallion was banished from Equestria for a period of six seasons, which I protested at the time as being excessive. However, with certain events that have occurred recently, such a delay in his return has become intolerable, and I would request a waiving of the remaining two seasons,” said the Professor as he stepped up beside the one he’d been pushing, and then sat down, looking expectantly at the Princess.

“Hmm, yes, Pyromancer’s case. Almost one year after Our own release. If We remember the reports correctly, it was your fault his powers went out of control,” said the Princess, staring at the pony up and down, making him shake a little under her scrutiny.

“I won’t deny what has already been proven. Your sister, as you no doubt recall, took my punishment on herself, personally, so that’s of no matter. This one’s case though, was tried more publicly, and he was banished, even after he’d helped to reconstruct the town,” countered DawnChaser, and fleetingly you try to imagine what punishment he’d been forced to endure, only to reach a system error at the thought of what Celestia could do, and deciding to purposefully derail that particular thought train.

“We do recall. We also know she did it to keep the people of that city from tearing him, and you, apart, so We’re willing to allow his return. We have conditions, however,” she told the unicorn.

“I figured you would,” he said, everypony leaning a little closer as Princess Luna and the Professor began to dicker back and forth in whispers for a few minutes, before finally DawnChaser walked away, motioning for Pyromancer to follow him, while Luna turned to her troops.

“Captain, We wish to thank you for your speedy response to what could have been a crisis of some magnitude. The Professor has agreed to meet Our conditions. Thus We absolve the remaining two seasons of exile for the pony known as Pyromancer,” she told the Captain, who, though he looked like he was grinding his own teeth, a fact not made better by DawnChaser sticking his tongue out at him, simply bowed to.

“As my Lady wishes,” he said through his clenched jaw, turning to his troops and issuing several orders, pointing with his hooves, and finally turning back towards you.

“I wish you luck, and remember, if he ever asks you to do something you don’t like, find myself, or the Princesses. There is no shame in taking things through the proper channels,” he told you, inclining his head a little, a gesture you reciprocated, before he shot off into the sky, leading a flight team back to the palace.

“Busy body,” chided DawnChaser over his shoulder at the Captain, only to get smacked, hard, by Luna, on the back of his head.

“Insult him again, and I shall allow the good Captain to have you as his toy for a day. I’m sure he’d enjoy it. Though you might as well,” she admitted, which DawnChaser smiled the contented smile of somepony who could get away with anything, as he started towards the door.

“Strong Arm, Trixie, we have guests,” he shouted into the open door, and almost instantly there was a great flash of light, followed by some music from nowhere, a horn section you think, and some smoke in the air, out of which stepped Trixie, in all her cheesy glory.

“Ah, fans to see the Great and Pow-oh, it’s you, Princess…” she said, trailing off, obviously not sure what to say to somepony she was truly inferior too.

“Don’t say that, Trixie, remember what I told you. Unless you like getting chased out of town by a mob,” chided DawnChaser.

“Hmph, I suppose you’re right. I apologize, Princess Luna, and welcome you to my home,” she said, giving a graceful bow, quite a feat considering the way her cloak flowed behind her, but she made it work.

“Thank you,” responded Princess Luna with a smile and a nod of her head.

“And I welcome you too…but it’s not really my house. Well, it is for now, I suppose,” said Deasly, stumbling over the words, which got Luna to laughing. Before she could say anything though, another pony came out from the house, one you hadn’t seen before. He was an earth pony, and obviously a he, given muzzle shape and size.

It was the size that was what first caught the eye about him though, as he was an earth pony who stood a little bit taller than Luna did, about a head under Celestia, and would have, if the scale had been the same, stood eye to eye with you. However, he had size horizontally as well as vertically, his coat a dark green, with a close cut yellow mane on top, and muscles that appeared strong as rip cords as he moved forward.

“Deasly, dear boy, you do need to work on your eloquence sometime. It is a pleasure to host your loveliness Princess Luna, and we hope that you might grace our domicile more in the near future when we’ve had time to spruce it up a bit,” said the huge pony, his voice matching his body, deep powerful bass, yet rather gentle.

“Charmed, Strong Arm,” she said with a smile for him as well.

“And you must be the Little One I heard so much about from the ponies in town when I arrived. The gossip scene is positively abuzz about you,” said the big pony, walking over towards you, and you quickly lift yourself up to his eye level.

“And is any of the gossip nice things? Or are they all rumors about me preferring stallions to mares?” you ask, not sure why you said it, just never liking the grapevine back home.

“Oh nothing of that sort…though that is interesting, do you? None of my business I suppose, however. No, instead the gossip is focused on you defeating fifty of the Royal Guards and a dragon at the same time wielding a toothpick,” he told you, and you suddenly burst out laughing at the image that makes in your head, falling over backwards, and then having to stop laughing as your stomach heaves at the spinning head over heels.

“Really, that’s what they’re saying about me?” you ask as you stabilize yourself again.

“Element of Honesty! They claim it earned you the privilege to sit at Princess Luna’s side, and a place in the bed chambers of Celestia,” he informed you, and this time you nod.

“Well, not exactly. I was invited to Night Court, I didn’t do anything to earn it other than come from another world. And I don’t sleep in Celestia’s chambers, I’m one floor up,” you tell him, and the pony smiles at that.

“Ah, the truth, the greatest threat to gossip anywhere. Still, it will be fun to see how far I can spread the real story. Most believe you to be something DawnChaser made in his lab in an attempt to overthrow the Princesses. As his apprentice, I denied that thoroughly for an hour, which means it’s what everypony in Canterlot will believe by tomorrow,” he tells you.

Before he could continue, Pyromancer stepped up, and began to mumble something. Well, not mumbled, more he spoke, but it was muffled behind the mask, sounding like ‘mmphmphmmmmhmmmMM!’ as he obviously introduced himself to you. You couldn’t understand a word he said though, and just tried to smile and nod. Luckily, it seemed the others saw your predicament, as DawnChaser stepped between you and him.

“Pyro says hello, welcome to the house that SCIENCE! built and all the rest of that,” he translated for you.

“Oh, um thanks Pyromancer,” you say.

“Please, just Pyro. It’s easier on the tongue, and it makes him sound less fancy. Fancy is what we have Strong Arm for,” said the Professor, walking between the two ponies, towards the house. Looking at each other, Strong Arm just shrugges, and Pyro’s shoulders drop dejectedly, before the pair follow, muffled mumbling heard from the latex pony.

“His apprentices do know how to make an arrival, don’t they?” you ask Luna as the group goes into the lab.

“That they do. DawnChaser is a Magister of some repute after all, and an accomplished magical theorist. My sister, and the Council, send him those with skills that his magic can tap into farther. From an earth pony with the strength of a hundred, to a pegasus with the power to make fire,” she said pointing her hoof at the pair.

“And a unicorn whose special talent is a shrink spell he can use to make a size changing spell,” you remind her, pointing at Deasly, who begins chatting happily with the other two apprentices just inside the door.

“Indeed. He’s good at drawing out talents, and finding a unique use for it. Pyro once harnessed his power to fuel an entire city for a month, without draining himself dry, and Strong Arm literally moved a mountain once. Those feats even my sister deemed impossible, so we tolerate him, and his goals,” she explained. Before she could go farther though, the pony himself appeared in the door.

“Are you two coming? There’s science to get done!” he demanded, in a rather rude way, before disappearing back inside.

“You know, I doubt the Captain and his men are too far away yet. Just call them up, and I’m sure they’d be happy to throw him in some deep, dark dungeon somewhere, and just forget where,” you offer, and it seems for just a moment like Luna’s thinking about it, before giggling cutely and starting towards the door. Laughing a little yourself at the image, you soon follow her inside, the door slamming shut as soon as you’re within the home of the made doctor pony.

Interestingly, the first thing you notice was that all the lights on the walls, the switches and equipment pieces, which had been fairly tame the other day, were lit up like it was a holiday today. Whistles could be heard, and banging sounds, as well as a few digital beeps that interested you enough to fly near one machine. At least until you felt the static field, and saw a small bolt of lightning playing along the surface of it. Not wanting to become the victim of a bug zapper, you instead follow Luna.

“I will remind you, DawnChaser, the terms I set forth include the safety of everypony, and everything, in Canterlot. That includes this Little One. If you get him hurt, you shall feel the full brunt of Our wrath,” she told him, slipping for a moment into that command voice as the two of you walk into the room where everypony was just standing.

“You wound me, Princess,” he said, trying to put on his best hurt expression.

“She might not, but I will Professor, if you endanger anypony unnecessarily,” chimed in Deasly, and Strong Arm nodded his affirmation, while Pyro made some interesting hoof gestures, pounding the ends of his forelegs together, and saying something in that muffled voice of his.

“Et tu, Pyro? Then fall Chaser!” he intoned, placing his left hoof on his face, and falling over to his side, swooning. Trixie, who was standing right next to him, looks at the others in the room, and then, smiling an embarrassed smile, kicks him, rather hard, in a sensitive place, causing the stallions in the room to grunt and move a little, as they imagined what had just happened to their mentor.

“Argh! The stings,” he says, as he rubs the wound with his forehooves.

“Then get up, or I’ll do it harder next time, brother,” threatened Trixie, and like a shot DawnChaser was on his hooves once more, rolling right back up like nothing had happened.

“Alright then, enough horsing around I suppose. We all know why we’re here, correct?” he asked, and received several blank expressions in answer, not the least of which was your own.

“No, Professor. You didn’t tell anypony what today’s experiment was. You even told me to go clean something else when I offered to help,” Deasly told him bluntly, and the Professor seemed taken aback a bit, before shaking his head.

“Oh, well, that’s not a problem. That just means I get to unveil it to all of you at once,” he said trotting over to a panel in the wall, and pushing several buttons with his hoof. When he was done, he turned back towards the room, motioning for everypony to step back, as gears whirled, clicked, and chirred, a deafening tumult filling the room, before the floor exploded upward, and filled the air with dust.