Equestria: A Flux Tale

by Star Sage


Equivalent Exchange

“And here we are, the charred remains of a once proud national monument,” said Vinyl dejectedly, as you come in sight of the station. Not that her tone isn’t valid. It seemed that the fire you’d been told about was even worse than you thought, as the building looked caved in in several parts. The transmission tower atop was leaning to one side, one of the support struts having melted completely, and most of the west side of the building was just rubble.

“A monument to your ego, not Equestria. Still, I must admit, it’s rather hard seeing the station like this,” agreed Octavia as your group walked closer, a hint of pain in her voice that makes you pat her back in reassurance. You aren’t sure she even feels it as she just takes in a deep breath and sighs it back out. For a moment, just a moment, you think this might have been a bad idea, but then you spot a familiar purple shape next to the building, directing workers to move materials.

“No, push it closer! It needs to be flush against the side!” shouted DawnChaser, as several ponies you don’t recognize in hard hats and orange vests just look at him, before grunting as they move a girder closer to the wall, the thing clunking heavily as it smacks into it, causing a bit of the wall farther down to cave in.

“What is he doing? He’s gonna set the rebuilding back months,” said Octavia as you drew closer. Somehow, despite the various grunts, grumblings, and other noises, the purple heard her, and turns.

“I’m just following instructions, Ms. Octavia. The Little One said he wanted this stuff touching the building, or as close to it as possible. Something about alchemy, though I don’t know what potion making has to do with this,” he said, indicating the burned out husk of a former radio station.

“So, this was what that note was about?” asks Vinyl, walking over to you, and you nod as you gently float off Octavia’s back, so you can face her and Vinyl together.

“Yep, I wanted to give you two something to show my appreciation for everything you’ve done for me. You’ve been there for me from that first moment you realized I could talk. You let me sleep in your home, you took me on a tour of Ponyville. You even came back to Canterlot just to be with me. I haven’t really done anything for you, but you’ve stood by me,” you tell them in all seriousness, and then turn towards DawnChaser.

“Get everypony back. I don’t know how this well this one will work, but if it does, I don’t want anypony mixed in with it,” you order, and apparently your reputation for doing weird stuff traveled, as almost instantly, all the worker ponies, mostly earth with a few pegasi and unicorns mixed in, are standing behind you, giving you quite the audience for this next trick.

“Okay, this is something from another world, much like the Blessing, and the vehicle I flew in the other day,” you announce, growing closer to the studio, and then running your hand over one wall, feeling the warmth of the sun still in the stone, even as the sun itself is reaching the horizon, setting for a day as night comes.

“It’s called alchemy, and it has many laws to it. The first is the most important though. Mankind cannot gain anything without giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. This is the law of Equivalent Exchange,” you tell them, and then focus inward. Within, you can feel the glowing power you store within yourself, the power to alter the very nature of reality. This would be the largest change yet though, altering the physics of a world completely, not just casting a spell.

“In those days, we really believed that to be the world’s one, and only truth,” you whisper, and then slap your hands together in front of you, creating a circle with your arms. Instantly lighting plays over your body, as the power of alchemy is born within you, making every hair on your body stand on end as it plays back and forth through your form.

Focusing, you imaging the studio as it must have looked. Not this burnt out husk, but the original, the thing that Vinyl described with almost religious awe. This was something you could give back to them, the first ponies you’d met, and something you could do to make their lives a little better. Holding that image, of the studio, and a smiling Octavia, in your mind, you slam your hands into the wall, and suddenly the world is replaced with white, hot agony.

It felt like nothing ever had before, like every cell of your body was on fire, charged with more power than it could hold. You wouldn’t let it go though, even though it seemed like you would burn up to ash, and you could distantly hear your own pained screams. You wouldn’t let go because it was working. Your senses were extending outward, and you began to feel the whole of the studio, feel those broken bits of it like they were parts of you, and then you felt a way to heal them.

Outside, the ponies recoiled, from the scream, Octavia rushing forward to help, only to be blocked by the Captain, who held her back, using his larger body to force her down. Meanwhile DawnChaser was holding several of his instruments close to you, the things going wild as they detected things that were impossible, even by the laws of this world.

Slowly, the lightning spread from where you were over the whole studio, causing the place to start glowing white. The spread didn’t stop at the studio though, as arcs of electricity found their way to the materials, wood, metal, and various other bits that had been pushed against the side of the building. As the glow spread to them, they began to melt into the side of the studio, which rippled like water as they passed into it.

At the same time, Vinyl shouted for Octavia to look, pointing towards the radio tower that had been leaning on its side, which was ever so slowly righting itself, bits of the metal literally growing like the limbs of a tree, connecting and meeting, binding themselves together. The walls did the same, holes and tears mending as the glow continued to spread, until even the ponies were forced to shut their eyes against the sun burst.

With a bang, it was over, the process finished, and K-Colt’s antenna began to hum with power once more, as light in the studio slowly came on, one after another. No pony noticed that though, all eyes were on your tiny form, which still floated off the ground, seemingly stuck to the wall. Then you just fell, no sign of anything happening, you just dropped, and smoke trailed after you, as Octavia pushed the Captain aside, and dove, her hooves flying in front of her, catching you just before you hit the ground.

The agony was over now. Your body felt horrible, but no longer in pain, just sore, like every muscle had been working for hours, and needed to rest. It still took you a while to open your eyes though, the lids to them refusing to move despite your best efforts, and when you did, you were staring up into the concerned face of Octavia, her eyes glimmering a bit, obviously fighting back tears. You open your mouth to reassure her, only to find a billowing cloud of smoke issuing forth from inside you, as the rest of your body seizes up.

“Doctor, I’ve got to find a doctor,” she says, even as you begin coughing.

“Tailfire, get over here, now!” shouts the voice of DawnChaser, and instantly you find yourself in darkness as several ponies stand over you, a yellow one with a dark blue head mane and a tail of red and yellow fire stood closest, leaning down over you and putting his ear to your chest, listening to your body going about its duty.

“Heart rate accelerated,” he said, then looks at your eyes.

“Pupils dilated,” he continues, and then uses his hoof to gently open your mouth.

“It looks like all the moisture in his body was vaporized, which would explain the smoke. Professor, water!” he shouts, and suddenly a small canteen of water is in his hoof, with him unscrewing the cap, and then ever so slightly tilting it, so that a drops splashes into your mouth, not a single bit of it missing. The instant that liquid touches your tongue, you feel revitalized, and start coughing, your body convulsing as you roll onto your stomach, and brace yourself on your elbows, the coughs racking your body for several minutes, before finally fading.

“Drink,” orders Tailfire, as soon as you try to speak, and he places the canteen to your lips, just tilted enough that you can feel the liquid inside splashing into your lips. With no strength to argue at the moment, you just start swallowing the water down, gulping it as greedily as a man who’d been lost in the desert for a week.

“That’s it, take as much as you need,” he says calmly, and its several mouthfuls before you finally push at the canteen, which he lifts away from, you, and you just sit in Octavia’s hooves, gasping for breath.

“Thanks,” you’re able to get out between gasps, and Tailfire smiles, passing the canteen back to DawnChaser who puts it back into his pack.

“You’re welcome, but don’t go trying that again, your body’s not nearly hardy enough to take a shock like that twice in a row,” he advised, and then listened to your chest again.

“Returning heart rate, breathing should even out in a few minutes. Sounds like he’ll need to eat within the hour, probably whatever he ate today was used for fuel in this…whatever it was,” he observed as he rose.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t get him to a doctor?” asked Octavia, looking down at you, concerned, though a quick sniff seemed to stifle back any tears that she’d been building up.

“Completely sure. No doctor in Canterlot would know enough about him to help him, but Tailfire’s read all my notes on the Little One, and is a pre-eminent study on biology, both pony and just about everything else. If he can’t find anything wrong, no med school dropout is going to find anything,” DawnChaser assured her.

“I’l-cough!-I’ll be fine, Octavia,” you said dryly, coughing again as soon as that was done, with DawnChaser drawing the canteen out again, and offering it to you at your own scale. Taking it, you took a few more gulps, and then sighed through a raw throat that still felt back, but better than it had.

“I’ll be fine,” you say again, this time a bit more clearly, as you hold the canteen out for the Professor to take back.

“Are you sure?” she asks, and you nod, fighting back another coughing fit, and she smiles at you sweetly, making you blush a bit, before everything shakes, and you look over to see Vinyl pushing at Octavia, her mouth gapping open as she points with her hoof. Looking where she’s pointing, you see that the station is completely repaired. The formally destitute looking building now has light on in several windows, and the antenna above is humming a bit in the open air.

“It’s beautiful,” she says in a breathless tone, and then rushes inside, slamming the door as she does so. Octavia, looking after her, leans forward and grabs you with her lips, before placing you on her back and following, stopping only to turn back.

“Are you coming, Captain?” she asked, and the stallion looked at the place, and shook his head.

“I’ll stay outside if you don’t mind,” he stated simply, walking over towards the door, and then standing beside it, like an old time guard. Octavia looked at him, and then went inside, soon followed by Tailfire and DawnChaser, the latter waving several of his little devices at the walls, listening to them beep and whistle at him.

“Hmm, interesting. I wish Deasly had come with us,” commented DawnChaser as he poked at one of the walls, finding it solid, and actually chill to the touch, when he had expected it to be warm.

“I thought you were the one who told him to stay with the others to finish cleanup?” asked Tailfire, but the Professor either didn’t hear him, or chose to ignore the contradiction of his words as he scraped off a bit of stucco from the wall, and placed it into an empty vial.

Ahead of the pair, you, Octavia, and Vinyl make your way to the center of the station, where you find a recording studio, with a turn table, and a control panel in the middle of a large open room that has padded walls. Microphones hang from the ceiling on little metal arms, and behind where two chairs are setup is a long shelf that is packed full of records, old style LPs, which Vinyl wanders over to and touches reverently.

“Oh babies, mama’s sorry she hurt you, and she promises to never leave you again,” she told the records, and then hugged them, throwing her body at shelves. You and Octavia take a moment to just stare at her, before turning to each other.

“Should we give them a moment?” you ask, and Octavia smiles.

“I think Vinyl would need more than a moment, though I will admit, it is really good to be back,” she said, walking over to the control panel and running her hoof over the buttons and switches on it.

“You got ever detail right,” she said in awe, looking over the table next, then taking you in her mouth and setting you on it.

“Everything exactly as we left it. How?” she asks you, and it’s your turn to look around, just staring, imagining this place as it had felt through the transmutation circle. You hadn’t really been thinking of anything except giving Vinyl and Octavia a gift. You hadn’t considered what this place would look like, just that it needed to go back to what it was. The details, like with the veritech, had just seemed to fill themselves in.

“No clue. Maybe the Professor can explain it?” you suggest.

“I’m afraid he can’t either,” comes a voice, and three turn to see Tailfire standing in the door.

“So, I’ve done the impossible again then?” you ask, and he nods.

“It’s rare to see him stumped about something, and when he is, he gets shouty. Right now I think he’s ranting at a broom closet that you repaired, bucket, mop and all,” he tells you, shutting the door to the studio behind him.

“Will he be long?” asks Octavia, and Tailfire just shrugs in response, looking toward Vinyl, and pointing, causing you and Octavia to turn, finding Vinyl is currently running her tongue along the shelf, moaning in joy. She does stop when she notices everypony in the room staring at her, freezing, and then hopping back, coughing a bit, and then trying to look like she wasn’t doing anything weird.

“I just can’t take you anywhere,” sighs Octavia.

“Well, regardless of that, I must thank you. This is a most impressive gift,” Octavia said, turning towards you again, and Vinyl nods as she walks up, taking the seat in front of the turn table.

“Yeah, Little Dude, this is awesome. I was sure we wouldn’t be doing any shows for months more. Now we can do one tonight! To celebrate our good fortune,” said the DJ, running her hooves along that table, and then spinning it.

“Vinyl, I think we should test the equipment first, make sure it all works before we try to do a show,” said Octavia, looking at the console in front of her and pushing one of the buttons, which causes a fart sound effect.

“Seems fine to me. Besides, you said it yourself, everything is fixed and ready. Wouldn’t it be a shame to waste our time making sure of what we already know?” she asked, pushing another button, and getting a crowd chanting ‘do it’ sound effect.

“What about listeners? No pony anywhere knows we’re back on the air,” Octavia pointed out, but Vinyl just smiled at her.

“Well then, anypony spinning their dial tonight gets a special treat, and we do the usual ads for next week’s show,” the white unicorn countered.

“And what about guests?” said Octavia.

“Let’s see, we have Spitcup’s nephew, the nutty professor, and the Little Dude. I think that’s enough, don’t you?” Vinyl pointed out.

“Only if you they’re willing,” she says, and turns towards you.

“Um, well, I’ve been on the show before, back in Ponyville, so I suppose it will be fine here,” you tell her, and her gaze then turns towards Tailfire, who starts to turn away nervously, mumbling something, before finally turning back.

“It’s..it’s just the radio, right? Nopony looking at me?” he asks.

“Yep, just us and the mic, no eyes, just ears,” Vinyl assures him, and Tailfire thinks about it, before nodding slowly, and taking the third chair on the other side of the table with the control panel and turn table.

“And I’m guessing DawnChaser would just love to hear himself on the radio, right?” asked Vinyl, to which Tailfire nodded emphatically.

“See, Octy? Now no more objections. Just sit back, relax, and wait for me to find some good tunes to start this one out with,” said the pop pony as she began to go through the music library, muttering the titles to herself as she looked at album after album, searching for that perfect song. That search seemed to be taking forever, as she went from one end of the room to the other, before finally pulling one out, and bringing it closer.

“Hey, Octavia, do you know somepony named Cally?” she asked, staring at the record.

“Hmm, I don’t know anypony in particular with that name, why?” responded the gray mare, trying to look over Vinyl’s shoulder at the record she held with her magic.

“Because we have a song here about her furniture in a hotel,” answered Vinyl, turning the record to show the title of it was Hotel California, by the Eagles.