Equestria: A Flux Tale

by Star Sage


Dates

The ting of piano keys echos around the room, as the sounds of a few voices mumble in the background. Around you are shadows that dance with the flickering flames of candles. Idly, you think back to your world, and how such a scene would usually be somber, with the darkness encroaching all around, but here and there, a few sparks of light flash, as unicorns use their magic to levitate things onto tables, the atmosphere of the restaurant less oppressive darkness, and more silent cloak, sheltering you from the outside world.

“And then Vinyl decided to turn on that box thing you and Luna brought to our house the other day, and spent several hours just staring at the flickering lights. I don't think I've ever seen that mare sit still for so long,” said the gray mare as the candle between the two of you illuminated her face like a halo of light.

“Heh, game systems do do that sometimes. Tell me, what game was she playing, do you know? Luna and I programed it with what I could remember of a lot of games,” you respond, using your fork to pick at the food in front of you, regretting that you'd decided to try something new today, as it had proven less than palatable to a non-equine biology.

“Oh something with a ship like those aeroplanes you showed us. It was flying in space, if I recall,” she tells you, and you nod, thinking about what games were in the box, before snapping your finger.

“Project Slypheed then probably. Were there a lot of flashing lights, and some gruff voiced old man barking orders?” you ask her, and she nods, before using her hoof to pick up her fork. Spearing what looks like a seed pod, the mare places it into her mouth and swallows it whole, an act that looked rather painful to you, but she seemed to like the taste of whatever it was.

“How's about your own day? Are you going to regain your old magic any time soon?” she asked, changing the subject.

“Well, we're not sure about that. The Professor did his usual stuff, taking out as much blood as I could stand, and then murmuring over it while casting magic. Deasly said to come back tomorrow to get some information about it,” you tell her, as you find something red like a tomato in your food, and quickly eat it, find that it was indeed a tomato.

“Ah, that's a shame, I suppose. I know you must feel a bit...under the weather, lacking abilities like that. I keep thinking it must be like losing you cutie mark or the like,” she says, looking at you with those big, soulful eyes. You stare back, the candle between you flickering, giving her face an ethereal quality.

“Um, well, I suppose. I liked being able to do all that stuff, to make you guys your studio and everything, and I appreciated being able to stand up to Discord, but I think I like this better,” you tell the mare with a smirk, reaching your hand across the table to touch her hoof, and making her gray fur take on a pinkish tone around her cheeks, before she pulls back and tucks into her food again, making your smirk even larger as you do the same.

The conversation stopped for a while afterward, only a few phrases coming from the two of you as you finished your meals. You, of course, left a large plate of hay and other grasses behind on yours, but no pony commented, the waiter coming by and smiling at the two of you as she levitated the plates away, leaving you with a small saucer with some after dinner chocolates on it. Taking one you pop it into your mouth as you rise from your seat, and walk over to Octavia.

“Shall we take a walk, my dear?” you ask her, holding out your hand, and helping her out of the bench/couch thing she'd been sitting on while eating. The two of you then made for the exit, which the door man opened for you, making you wonder not for the first time how much this place cost to eat at, and then deciding that if DawnChaser kept paying you to be a test subject, you might as well treat yourself sometimes.

“Finally! I was starting to think you'd gotten kidnapped or something,” said Rainbow, fluttering down from a cloud she had been sitting on. Spitfire and Soarin meanwhile came from across the street, along with the Guard you'd been assigned for the evening, who was stuffing some cards back into his armor's pocket, along with a small stack of bits.

“Oh come on Dash, you'd just mad cause you lost next week's salary to our friend here,” chided Spitfire, and Rainbow looked daggers at her, making the fiery squad leader laugh at her, even as she took off to fly next to her along with Soarin.

“It's because she's got no game face. You can tell just by looking at her when she got a bum hoof,” said the unicorn guard, coming up behind you as you and Octavia lead the way towards her house. The talking from that point on is mostly done by your guards, as they discuss everything from Rainbow being the worst card player in Canterlot, to Celestia waving off the Captain's desire to up your guards to seven or eight thanks to some new note that had come in that day.

“You think we can't handle protecting this guy? He's slow, but he's got that sword, and I've seen him learn to use it. Anyone he can hold off for even a second we can take down,” claimed Dash, and as if to show it, she zoomed forward, ringing around the guard, and then back into perfect formation within the blink of an eye, leaving only an afterimage of a rainbow to show she'd moved at all.

“I'm not that slow...but was this note something to be worried about?” you ask, getting interested in the topic, as this was the first you'd heard about it.

“Not in the slightest. Just some scrawl stuff from some addle brained weirdo. If it comes to it, Dash is right, your training lets you hold off anypony who comes at you, and we can deal with them,” said Spitfire in a reassuring tone, while you stare at her, and then towards Octavia, who just stares at you, before rubbing her head into your chest in a comforting way.

“I don't think we have too much to be concerned about. Not in Canterlot anyway,” she agrees, and you put the note out of your mind as your group makes your way through the streets of Canterlot, and finally to the home of Classic and Rock.

“Ah, another fine evening spent in your company. I must admit, I was beginning to miss being able to do simple things like this,” says the gray mare with a smile, before hopping up onto her hind legs, and pecking you on the cheek, leaving you blushing after her as she turns and walks towards the door. Luckily, just as she reaches it, you remember something you wanted to tell her.

“By the way, Octavia, how would you and Vinyl like to join my at one of Fancy Pants' parties? The stallion says an investment the Professor told him to make paid off in a big way, and he ask me to invite the pair of you,” you explained, and Octavia, her hoof on the door, turned back to you with a beaming smile on her face.

“Oh! That sounds just wonderful. Does he want me to bring the whole ensemble again?” she asks, with a voice full of excitement.

“I'm pretty sure, yeah. I think he only invited me to make sure your group would come play for him and Fluer again,” you admit to her, scratching the back of your head as you think about it. She doesn't seem to hear the note of reluctance in your voice as she trots over, and gives you a hug, her forelegs wrapping around you body and squeezing hard enough to make the air in your lungs come out in a gasping wheeze, which she also fails to notice, and you do you, as she kisses you again.

“I'll tell the guys at practice tomorrow, and we'll get a whole big number together. I might even let Vinyl sing again, she seemed to enjoy that. Must remember to get that dress cleaned too,” she said absently, as she let you go, allowing you to take a big gasp of air.

“Heh, -cough-, that red number you were wearing last time?” you ask her with a small smirk on your face, one that becomes mirrored in her's as she turns to you, and then strikes a pose with one leg sticking out forward.

“You mean that one you said I looked ravishing in? The one Miss Rarity and Frazzle worked up for me?” she asked, and you dumbly nodded, getting a cute giggle from the gray mare as she trots back towards her door.

“I might mean that one. Or perhaps, I've had them make something even more fetching than that, you'll just have to wait and see,” she teased, opening the door and then going inside, shutting it with a click, followed by a quick clattering of hooves as she shouted for Vinyl to come hear the good news.

“Gods she know my buttons,” you mutter to yourself, turning to find several smug Wonderbolts, and one guard, who was passing a few coins to Spitfire.

“You bet on me?” you ask incredulously, after a moment of silence.

“Only whether you'd fall over from the hug or not. After all, last time you gave her news like that, she cracked a rib. I figured your training had toughened you up enough to at least take that from your marefriend,” said Spitfire, as she pocketed the bits, making you let out an exasperated sigh as you started towards the castle in the distance, the sound of laughter coming from Soarin and Rainbow as you made your way there.

You stay quiet for the walk to the palace, your thoughts on the party that was on offer, wondering idly if you might invite Pinkie Pie or somepony else that could liven up the affair, before dismissing the idea out of hand. She was fun mind, you'd gone to a few of her 'Discord is Gone FOREVER!!!' parties after everything was done in Canterlot, and those had been a blast, but you figured Octavia might not take too kindly to the party mare being a distraction from her ensemble.

Sighing dejectedly, you found to your surprise, you were already at the palace as your mind refocuses on the world about you. Looking back down the road you'd walked, you shake your head, and stamp your foot once, feeling only the slightest bit of a tingle in it that would become a small pain in the sole later. Obviously you'd been getting faster at walking, and your feet more used to going greater distances, but this was still a surprise, as after the training, tests, and everything else you'd figured you'd be in more pain than this.

“Well, it's been a day, and I suppose we should hit the barracks and maybe do a bit of night flying before hitting the sack. Think you'll be needing an escort to your chambers?” asked Spitfire, being quite sincere, probably remembering you getting lost in the palace for a whole day.

“I think I'll be fine. You guys rest up, and I'll meet you in the foyer in the morning,” you assure her, the Wonderbolts taking off with her nod, and then becoming a trio of blue streaks in the air as they head off towards the squat barracks in the distance, the lines of their flight starting to dance as they do maneuvers in the air.

“What about you? Gonna take me to my room, or go give your armor back to Silver Hammer for the night?” you ask the guard as you and he make for the main gate, a pair of Royal Guards saluting you as you pass, with you idly returning the gesture.

“Nah, I have watch duty later tonight. Shouldn't be too hard with Princess Luna having closed the Nightcourt for the evening,” he tells you, as you enter the castle foyer, which would normally be packed with supplicants and the like, but now only had one very bored looking pony wiping down tables and things with a rag, while the guards patrolled randomly about.

“Okay, if you see the Captain, tell him I hope to see him again soon,” you say as you place your hands behind your head and let out a massive yawn. The day had been long, almost from sunup to now which was several hours past sundown. Your body was now reminding you that while you weren't sore anymore, you needed a good eight hours of sleep, and so you started through the twisting maze of corridors to your chamber.

Luckily, you'd been learning the castle for a while, and knew to take the right grand stair, then left at the sixth intersection, and then walk into the painting of a pair of very old looking ponies wielding spears and clashing them together, which as it turned out was only an illusion, before finally taking a last right and ending up at the hall that contained your bedroom.

Opening the door, you stretched and popped your back while going inside, letting the heavy wooden thing slam shut behind you as you strode forward, beginning to undo the catches and locks on your armor, which popped and clinked like crystal as you did so, with each piece going onto a mannequin that stood beside a laundry chute.

With the armor off, you gave it a once over with your eyes, looking for cracks, kinks, and stains in the finish as the Captain had taught you to do. The armor, to your eyes, gleamed and was as flawless as ever, but you still made your best effort to find any tiny seam in it, shoving your face up close into it, before finally stepping back and drawing your blade. Using both hands to hold it in the moonlight where it glimmered and staring at the blade's edge to see if it had dulled, which it hadn't so you sheathed it and added the belt to the dummy.

Yawning again, you quickly stripped off the clothing you wore, being careful not to wrinkle it too much as you did so while standing in front of the laundry chute and dropping each item one by one into the hole, at last free of the chains of your social construct and standing as nude as most ponies did, letting your body just absorb the moonlight coming in from the window.

Stretching one final time, you make your way towards your bed, pulling back the covers and climbing in. The bedding, like a soft cloud, and you'd asked, it was not a cloud, just really, really soft, conforming around your body, giving you a nice feeling of being hugged over your whole body before you settled your head into the pillow and closed your eyes.

Instantly you were in the Void. But not the Void at the same time. All around you was nothingness. Not blackness, for even that would have been something, just a featureless Void. However, as you floated in it, you imagined something you could stand on, and suddenly, you were doing so, and began to look around you, staring into the distance as you waited for your partner.

“Ah, so you finally got to bed I see,” came a voice from behind you, and you turned to find Luna, the Princess of the Night, standing there in her full regalia, her ebony black crown like a dark shadow in her galaxy of hair, and her breast plate gleaming even in a place that had no light for it to reflect.

“I had a date, and then I had to deliver some news for Fancy Pants. He's going to be having another party, and he wants Octavia to come,” you explain, as you feel the edges of this world with your senses, and then bring them back closer. Luna, a slight smirk on her face, seems to be doing the same, and soon you both image together what you want, causing the Void to grow and twist, shaping that which is nothing into something.

“So I heard. He's invited Ourself and Our Sister as well, though I doubt either of us can attend. I hope you have more...fun there than you did last time,” she offers as the world around her and you forms into something like chariots, with you standing up, while in front of you forms a table with a grid on it. Still imagining it as it was the night before, cards of a unique style begin to form in the grid, and you smirk as suddenly the front edge of the table before you twists upward, becoming a mirror that shows you the same grid that Luna had before her.

“Heh, thanks. Well then, shall we pick the game up where we left off?” you offer, as you feel your body become covered by a dark blue jacket and pants, and your head suddenly sprouts a rather ridiculous looking hairdo that must have required a whole gallon of hair-gel.

“I suppose, though I still think you should just surrender. I have a blue eyes white dragon on my field, and all you've got is a Kuribo,” she reminds you, as between you a field appears, with the same grid as your tables, with the side closest to you suddenly spawning a brown fuzzball, while on her's a massive dragon came into being.

“Ah, but I believe in the Friendship of the Cards, and they will not fail me this night. It's time to d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-duel!” you shout, as five cards appear in your hand, while five float in front of you, the game beginning again.

(If you're curious, type in Yugioh Ponies on youtube to see this done with them. Yes, I like Yugioh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRbVsUTud-0)