//------------------------------//
// A Field Test 
// Story: Equestria: A Flux Tale 
// by Star Sage 
//------------------------------//

Several boring minutes pass as the three just talk before Trixie wanders off to go get something, and the Professor starts to scribble down some things in the Math Book, the one from Sweet Apple Acres with all the numbers in it. This is especially boring, since he and Luna stop talking at all as he does so, with Luna occasionally making her horn glow and taking control of the quill to correct something. At last though, the book slams shut and he looks up.

“Hmm, okay, time to test these equations. If you’ll come with us, Little One,” said the Professor as he walked towards the door. You try to follow, but the instant your feet leave the table you start faltering, you flight power causing you to wobble in the air, before finally hitting the floor. Luckily for you, Luna was a bit more observant than DawnChaser, and as soon as you touched down, she grabbed you with her magic, and set you lightly down on her back.

“Thanks, Princess,” you told her, and she smiled warmly back at you, before trotting off after DawnChaser. Outside, the apprentices and Trixie meet you, the former all carrying saddle bags like DawnChaser and Deasly, made of their own coat hair, while Trixie, for once, wasn’t wearing her cape and hat, but instead was dressed  in what you could only call a business suit, complete with glasses, and a little notebook she was flipping through.

“Hmm, you know, I didn’t think about it before, but where’s Tailfire?” you ask, not seeing him with the others.

“He went with his aunt on that cruise. I’m thinking I should have gone with him at this point, but somepony has to keep my brother from spending all his bits on something frivolous,” said Trixie, as she continues to look through her notebook, which, as you get closer, you can see has various numbers written in it.

“Oh come now, dear sister, I’ve got plenty of money,” he tells her rather defensively.

“Yes, you do, now, but a month ago you were broke, and living off that stipend the University gives you, and in another month I’m sure you’d be back. Honestly, this is why I left. Keeping you from ruining the family name is just exasperating,” she chides him, making another note in her book.

“Well then, I suppose you don’t want me to tell you that if this fails, I’ve offered to buy the field from the owner,” he said to her.

“I already factored that in, though I think I’ll try to bargain with her. Knowing you, you offered her at cost,” she countered, and the two started bickering as your group began to make their way down the road, away from Canterlot.

“What field are they talking about?” you ask, as the three apprentices start to trot with Luna. Unfortunately, the one who answers is Pyro, who makes several hoof motions while talking in that muffled voice of his, and then begins flying, pointing to something over the horizon.

“Um…” you say, not sure what he just said.

“He means there’s a field outside of town where they grow crops to sell in town. We’re going there as the last experiment of the day,” translates Deasly, while Pyro lands, and for once you can understand him as he says ‘that’s what I said’,

“Ah,” was your response.

“So, how are you enjoying life at the palace, anyway? When the Professor and I came by this morning, we were told the Little One wasn’t to be disturbed, and when he tried to sneak in anyway, Celestia herself ordered him away,” asked Deasly.

“Well, it was kind of interesting waking up of my own accord, I even got to have breakfast at a table that was sized for me, which was nice…and what’s with all this ‘Little One’ stuff? The Captain called me that too,” you ask, having been curious about it, but figuring it was just some nickname you’d picked up due to your size.

“That’s what the grapevine has been calling you, and I guess it spread. I mean, no one else knows your name, you just kind of popped up with Luna at Night Court to the people of Canterlot, after they’d heard you were the one flying that thing in the sky that fought off the Wonderbolts. Since all they knew was that you were small, hence, the name,” explained Deasly, and then began to rummage around in his saddlebag, before pulling out a paper.

The front page article was a blurry photo of what you recognized as your Veritech, in guardian mode, as it turned around and fired off some missiles at some equally blurry figures, the Wonderbolts more than likely, though it was a black and white photo, so you couldn’t tell. The headline above the photo read ‘Battle over Canterlot’ and reading the article quickly, you caught the reference to yourself as the Princesses’ Little Guest.

“If you would like, we could tell our subjects you use your true name,” offered Luna, who was looking over her shoulder at the paper.

“Heh, no, that’s okay. I can handle being the ‘Little One’. It is true, after all,” you tell her, and she nods thoughtfully, as the paper is put back in Deasly’s saddlebags. He then pulls out his sketch pad, and starts drawing you and Luna, while Pyro and Strong Arm have a conversation just behind. Several minutes later, the group finally comes to its destination, and you can hear Trixie having an argument with somepony dressed like a farm worker.

“Now see here, this field hasn’t lain fallow for at least six seasons, the yield you’ll get from it can’t be half of what you’re asking for it,” she starts in.

“And I’m telling you, I have some of the most talented earth ponies in Canterlot tending it. I can get a full harvest from it, in any season,” decried an older looking mare with a dust brown coat, and a hoe for a cutie mark.

“Sis, just agree to it. I’m positive this will work,” said DawnChaser to the arguing pair.

“And if it doesn’t, you’ll be out thousands of bits. Don’t treat this so lightly, brother,” proclaimed Trixie, and then started to haggle again, with her and the mare continuing to haggle back and forth, quoting things like field saturation, rain indexes, and something about magic, before finally, after almost half an hour of dickering, Trixie agreed to the price, talking the mare down to about two thirds of her original price, as well as half the profits if this worked.

“That’s how you haggle, dear brother,” she told him in a tone that just oozed self-assuredness. Not that she didn’t deserve that tone, considering how hard she’d been fighting, and DawnChaser seemed to think so as well, walking over and doing that weird, pony hug thing.

“And that’s why I let you handle these things. It’s good to have you back, baby sister,” he told her, before the pair seemed to realize there were still ponies standing around, quickly separating and coughing.

“Yes, well, next we do the experiment, in this case, I want to see just how malleable your powers are,” he tells you.

“Um, by making plants grow?” you guess, and he nods.

“Well, we’ve seen you make items from pure magic, and use magic to destroy items that already exist, as well as heal hangovers, which is manipulation of health, but now I want to see if you can encourage growth,” he explained, listing off the uses of your power he’d seen.

He forgot about your flight spell, but then, it still seemed to be gone, as you try to will yourself into the air, only to come back down between Luna’s wings. Luckily, the Night Princess doesn’t hold that against you, and gently lifts you with her power, setting you down at the edge of the tilled earth, and you look up at the ponies around you, some field hands, the mare who owned the field, and the Professor and his entourage.

“Um, but other than the hangover, those were all things that I saw in other forms, I didn’t make them up myself,” you explain, and the mare just scoffs.

“See, he can’t do it, now let my workers get back to it. The growing season doesn’t last forever,” she complains. The Professor doesn’t even seem to hear her as he leans closer to you, his face sort of becoming your whole sky.

“Oh, come on now. You can’t tell me your people didn’t imagine things like this, or that you can’t do it now. I saw you take on the Wonderbolts, and win, so this shouldn’t be half that hard,” he pushes, and you think about it for a moment. Heal spell? No, this isn’t a status effect, you want growth. Cure’s the same way, you don’t need to heal damage. You could try a growth spell, but that likely as not would just result in giant seeds.

“Wait a sec, I know just the thing,” you say, snapping your fingers as you remember one particular spell. It was something your old gaming group back in high school used once.

“Excellent,” was all the Professor said, as he stood back up.

“Yeah, maybe, but this thing has a one in twenty chance of a critical failure. So…back up, everypony,” you order, trying to remember the words to this one. At your command, Trixie orders the mare to get her ponies out of the field, to which the mare objects, but at the insistence of the Princess, she relents, and you soon stand there as several dozen ponies walk by you, all looking down, and making you a bit self conscious about your height.

“There, that’s all of them, now we’ll have to start the whole day over again,” complains the mare, but you’re already focusing on the ritual, hoping your powers are better than you are at dice rolls, as you still can’t remember what a crit fail on this spell is, but knowing the goddess, it’s probably pretty harsh.

“Quiet,” whispers Luna, her voice carrying, as she points to where you’re sitting with your knees in the dirt, your hands out to your side, and your eyes closed. Around you there seems to be this throbbing aura of energy, invisible, but felt, like thumping of a speaker, shaking everything to its foundation. The hum of power fills the air as your bring your hands together in front of you, linking the fingers in the ritual of prayer.

“Goddess of the Harvest, Whose Great Sorrow Brings Forth Winter’s Gale, and Boundless Joy Gives Warmth To Spring. A Supplicant Asks Your Blessing Humbly. Fill This Field With Life, to see Us Through To The Next Harvest. DEMETER’S BLESSING!!!” you cry out the last, and your hands now visibly glow as you pull them apart, and then drive them into the earth.

Instantly you regret this action, as it feels like your arms are on fire, which flows down through them into the soil. Your eyes shut tight, you don’t see the pulse that travels through the field’s tilled earth, a green light that the soil soaks up like it would a downpour, before everything returns to normal, and you finally open your eyes, and pull yourself to your feet.

“I-gasp-guess I-wheeze-rolled a –gulp- fail,” you say, as you fall backwards, only to get caught by Luna’s mane, as she lifts you up, obviously about to tell you something about how even trying is a victory. She needn’t bother though, as the field, which had been straight lines of brown, suddenly sprouts several green dots, which then grow into shoots, and then just keep growing, until in front of everypony, most of whom just gape, stood a field of wheat, looking ready to harvest.

“You should never guess about these things, Little One,” said the Professor, as he quickly ran up to the field, and began to run some of those steam punk scanners over it, most whistling, printing out something, or otherwise making noise as he moved them up and down various stalks of the wheat, while writing things down in one of his books.

“Deasly, try some, while I take some soil samples,” ordered DawnChaser, as he leaned down to scrap some of the dirt into a jar, and shook it. Deasly, not one to question, just walked over and broke off part of one stalk, sticking it in his mouth, and chewing, before swallowing heavily.

“Standard flavor, a bit warm, but otherwise unremarkable,” he commented, and DawnChaser nodded.

“Unremarkable?! This wheat is the sweetest in the whole of Canterlot,” decried the mare who owned the field.

“Quiet you. And remember, you owe us twenty-five percent of whatever this sells for,” Trixie reminded the woman, getting close to the field and sniffing at it a few times.

“Though if you call this sweet, I might want to talk to you about truth in advertising,” she says, and the mare just scoffs again, raising her nose and turning away.

“Pyro, burn this section here down, I want a five by five section clear,” orders DawnChaser, which gets the mare to turn around, only to be face to face with Trixie, who just stares at her, daring her to interfere. For a moment, it seems the pair might come to blows, but luckily, the mare stands down, and just sighs dejectedly, as Pyro flares up, and then points a hoof out, which becomes a small flame throw that just tears into the field.

“Strong Arm, I need a seed. Sage Blossom,” continues the Professor, with the earth pony opening his saddle bags and rummaging around inside them, several bottles clinking together, before he finally draws out one that has a glowing gold seed in it.

“Excellent,” was all the Professor said, as he levitated it out of the jar, and then sticks it into the vial of soil he’d drawn out earlier. What proceeds is him just staring at it, not even seeming to breath for a minute, as behind him, Pyro clears out the space he wants, and then seems to suck the fire back into himself, leaving a perfectly square part of the field blackened with ash, but not even touching a stalk around it.

“Thank you, Pyro,” says  DawnChaser, as he violently shakes the vial of dirt, and still gets no effect. Sighing, he walks over to the field, and pours the dirt and seed out onto the ash. Instantly there’s a bright flash of light, and when you can see again, the spot where the seed had fallen now boasted a golden, glowing flower, the same one you’d seen in your pantry that morning while making breakfast.

“Impossible!” proclaimed the mare, who rushed around Trixie to look at it, her eyes going wide as she approached.

“Those…they wouldn’t grow on this land,” she says, reaching a hoof over to poke at it, only for the Professor to grab it to stop her.

“Now, now, the experiment’s not over yet. You’ll get your turn,” he chides her, gently setting her hoof back in the dirt, and motioning for her to move away. She did so reluctantly, still staring at the flower with almost what you’d call love in her eyes.

“Princess, would you come here for a moment,” he says, several instruments hovering over the flower, while another, like a steel rod, is jammed into the dirt beside it. Your world starts to bounce a little as Luna, whose hair you’re still sitting in, rubbing your arms to get some feeling back in them, moves forward.

“This has certainly been a productive experiment,” she tells him, and he just nods, while looking at one of the printouts, and then tearing it apart with his magikinesis.

“It’s also one of the most impossible. Tell me, what magic do you sense from this wheat?” he asks her, and she leans her head forward, her horn glowing as she touches it to one, and then shakes her head.

“None, at least, no more than one would expect,” she says.

“Exactly. Just like with the bottles yesterday. However, check the soil,” he told her, and she then leaned even more forward, threatening to slide you out of her mane. Luckily, a small strand coiled out of it and grabbed you, holding you in place as she studied the earth.

“Hmm, there’s nothing there, just normal earth pony magic of the field,” she says, and he nods.

“But then why does this happen?” he demanded, reaching over and crushing the bud of the glowing flower in his hoof, causing gasps from several of the ponies standing behind you. He then waves his hoof before him, several seeds dropping out of it onto the dirt, creating a rapid fire series of flashes right in front of you.

“My EYES!!!” you shout, feeling like your corneas are burning as you cover them with your hands. You then feel softness all around you, and when, at last, you are able to blink away the spots, you find you’re now surrounded by a starry night sky, which only slowly parts around you, showing Luna looking at you with concern. Not that you can see her well around some of the more stubborn spots.

“Are you okay?” she asks you in a motherly tone.

“I’m, I’ll be fine, just give me a minute,” you say, continuing to blink.

“I apologize. I should have thought of you before I did that,” came the voice of the Professor from a smudge at the edge of your vision.

“Yeah, next time, give me a chance to grab some goggles…even if they’ll do nothing,” you say with a laugh, and when nopony joins you, you sigh. It wasn’t a good gag anyway.

“Still, from that flash, I can assume there are more flowers?” you ask, and you can feel the mane go up and down beneath you as Luna nods.

“Indeed,” was all she said.

“Out of curiosity, how long does this effect last?” asked DawnChaser, as you felt everything move with Luna walking away.

“Um….I think one hour per caster level,” you say, trying to recall the terms of the spell.

“Hmm, and how high is your level?” he asks in all seriousness, and you have to fight down laughter.

“I’d say eight, that was the level of our Cleric when he used it to feed that town,” you tell him.

“Alright then. Ponies, we have seven hours to plant and harvest as many Blossoms as possible, let’s get to work,” he shouts, and you can hear several hooves crunching the soil, as they start. It seems you’re not being included in this though, as the sound starts to grow more distant, and when it’s gone completely, you blink your eyes one last time, and look around to find that you’re not anywhere near the field anymore, instead you’re in the air over Canterlot, headed for the castle.

“An interesting day of testing, wouldn’t you say?” Luna asks as you come in for a landing, her mane gently lowering you to the balcony outside your room, before she joins you, shrinking down to your level.

“I suppose, though I was actually kind of sad. I had hoped to see somepony else I knew today,” you tell her.

“Oh? Was the company of myself and the Professor not enough?” she says.

“Heh, you alone are plenty of good company, Moon Goddess. But I did miss seeing the Mane Six, and then there’s Octavia and Vinyl,” you say, walking towards the edge of the balcony, and trying to find their house amid the outskirts of the city.

“I’m sure they would have come to you, if you’d asked, but they do have their own business here in Canterlot, after all, they live their own lives,” she tells you, and you nod.

“Yeah, I suppose I can’t ask to be the center of every story. Still, I hope to see at least some of them tomorrow, maybe with fewer tests,” you tell her, and then hug her on impulse. She doesn’t seem too surprised by this, and you find yourself surrounded by her mane again, as she hugs back.

“I will ask Tia about it before she retires for the evening. For now though, I should get onto my duties, and wish you a good night yourself,” she says, fluttering her wings a bit, and lifting off your balcony, before making her way to her own.

You watch her go, enjoying the weaving of another night sky, before going into your own room. Not as tired as the night before, you strip off your clothing, and send it down the laundry chute. Now in just your underwear, you set about making an evening meal, lighting a pair of candles in mirrored lanterns that fill the room with light.

The meal consisted of plants, again, but nothing too bad as you use your powers this time, turning some hard spaghetti strands into noodles, and then finding a salt shaker and some parmesan cheese to put on it. Once finished, you clean the plate you’d used, and then proceed to lay down, rubbing at your wrists which still tingle a little, before finally falling off to sleep.