The Life and Times of Flix the Hippogriff

Chapters

The Chaos Test
Musical Mania!
Exploring Emotion - Part One
The Winter Moon Celebration / Flix Gets Inspired!
The Art Installation
The night nobody talks about...
The Choice
Flix Travels West!
Nine Thousand Kilometers from home
A new way to phone home.
The Talk
That time of the year.
Just when things were getting good...
On the far side of the world.
All good things must come to an end.
Authors Notes - Updates
Flix Joins the Nobility
The Grand Banquet [Part1]
The Grand Banquet [Part2]
Goldfur Chan in Pony Land (pt1)
A Pan-Galactic Party!
The Ones above all
It has been a long time
The Path so Far

The Chaos Test

Discord groaned. He had figured that the whole grandstanding at the party was for show, but no, apparently he was going to actually become a teacher. He floated into the house where the herd was waiting for him.

“Thanks you for coming Instructor Discord. Now, have you decided exactly how you are going to teach chaos theory? I figured it would take a bit to figure out exactly how you were going to teach–”

Path was cut off by Discord who was looking more and more bored by the moment. “Path, I have been around long before you or even your herd members. I know how to teach; the real question is can your students handle being taught by me?” Discord started to float around, his voice becoming arrogant. “You creatures love your ordered little lives, everything in its place. I don’t think that they could handle a course as intense as my own.”

Roseclaw spoke up. “Actually, Discord, we already thought about that, so you are going to have an entry exam for your classes to see if they can actually do it, and we have your first four potential students right here.”

Right on cue, the door opened as the four youngest members of the herd came into the room. Princess Epiphany, Destined Path, Lucida Path, and Flix Path.

Discord looked at the group of kids and then back to Path. “Seriously? You want me to teach your kids about chaos?! None of them even have the right kind of mentality for it!”

Path just started to chuckle. “So then why don’t you give them a few tests? Worst case scenario: at least you know how to test other applicants. Best case scenario: you have a group of eager students to teach!”

Discord stopped for a moment before he turned to the four kids and smiled. “Okay, student hopefuls, you want to take a class with the Lord of Chaos himself? You just need to pass a few simple tests first. Meet at the Twilight statue in the town center at noon!”

Destined blinked. “There is no such statue in the center of town.”

Discord snapped his talons and he grinned. “There is now. Study hard pupils – you have just under twelve hours!” Discord disappeared in a puff of pink smoke.

Path looked over to his kids with a grin. “Go on then! Study or do what you feel you need to do. No matter what happens, we will all be proud of you!”

The four kids walked out of the main hall and already Destined was grinning.

“I have this one in the bag! If I can understand time and space, chaos will be a cinch. It’s all about trying to figure out the underlying formulas that are behind the magic!”

Lucida rolled her eyes. “I don’t really know how I’m going to do magic. I’m not a changeling or a unicorn. I’m a speaker, I’m a mediator. I don’t run around snapping my fingers and causing chocolate rain, but then again Dad has taught me how do deal with tons of situations, so I should at least pass.”

Pif was doing an exaggerated trot, her confidence high as well. “I might not have your experiences, Lucida, or your magical aptitude, Destined, but I have the entire hive network at my disposal; any question I can ping and use the entire network to process the question so I could get an answer”

Flix just rolled his eyes. “Honestly I’d rather not even do the test. I’m not magical, I don’t have access to a whole team to figure things out, and I’m not a world traveler. I’d rather just work in my studio. I have a project that I’m trying to work on, you know?”

“Come on at least try to pass the test.” Lucida told Flix. “I mean you barely pass your classes as it is, so wouldn’t it be nice if you knocked this one out of the park? I know Dads and Moms would be happy!”

“More like they would be surprised I managed to pass anything at all.” Flix huffed and headed to his room and did what he normally did – he worked on his art.

#

Discord was waiting in the center of town when three of the four hopefuls came up to him just as his alarm sounded.

“Finally we can begin! Wait, where is the other hippogriff?” Discord looked down at the trio.

“She had to stay up late to deal with a last minute trade agreement with the Grand Colony and one of the larger Zebrican Clans. We tried to wake her up a while ago, but she just cawed and curled up into a ball. She most likely won’t be up for a few more hours. I think she went to bed after the sun came up.” Destined informed Discord.

Discord rolled his eyes a bit. “Okay then, the girl hippogriff is disqualified. It looks like we are already down to three, which actually makes this a lot easier on me since I only really had two tasks to see if any of you had any real merit.”

Flix looked at Discord and raised an eyebrow slowly. “You are strangely serious about this. I was expecting more… pinkie-esque behavior from you.”

Discord snapped his fingers and desks shot up out of the ground right under the kids, and walls slammed down around them from the sky. Once the confusion settled down, they found themselves inside a small classroom and staring at them was a discorded version of Cheerilee.

“Write this down fast!” The greyed pony yelled out as she started to talk in a fast, mechanical manner. “Two trains are on the same track, one is leaving from Ponyville at 7:35am, the other is leaving Vanhoover at 8:10am. One is going 35kph the other is going 70kph, ten passengers get off one, five get off the other, three more get on the second, one more on the third. The wind is going 25 miles an hour to the north then shifts to the west….” Discord kept describing the word problem as Pif’s horn started to glow.

‘Hee! I have the hive network; this is going to be cake!’ Pif thought as she started divvying up the tasks to drones that were not occupied.

Discord continued, “… one of those trains is powered by arcane crystals much like the Crystal Kingdom Express, while the other is powered by coal much like the normal Ponyville train. One has ten tonnes of fuel and the other has 300 Gigatwis of energy….”

Pif was starting to show more and more strain as her small mini network started to buckle under the computational intensity of the problem.

“….so to the nearest picosecond, at what time do they crash? Please express your answer in reverse Neighponese!” The discorded Cheerilee finished.

Pif kept focusing to compute everything until her horn stopped glowing and she just fell onto her side, simply overloaded by the need to compute such a complex problem in such little time.

“Looks like we lost one!” Cheerilee stomped a hoof and the princess disappeared.

Discord appeared next to the earth pony and he tapped her head once and the color returned to her. With a snap of his fingers, she was back teaching in her classroom.

“Your answers, please!” Discord grinned.

“They collide at exactly 9:56:21.9126139am.” Destined looked at Discord with a smile that was way too big for the kid to have.

Discord blinked and looked at the colt alicorn. “Seriously? Okay, fine – you get five points.”

Destined laughed and kept smiling.

“What about you, Flix?” Discord asked.

“There is no answer… because they don’t ever collide. I switch one of the trains onto a different track so that no collision occurs,” he said coolly.

Now it was Discord who was smiling. “Yes! Ten points!”

Destined blinked. “How does he get ten points?! It’s not even a real answer!”

Discord snapped his fingers and the room disappeared. “Ah, it is an answer, but not the answer you were expecting. It is correct nonetheless. Now for the last test. Let’s make it a little more... dramatic.”

He snapped his fingers twice as a stage popped up out of the ground with two little stands. Each of them had a large black top hat and a large black cloth on them. When the second snap went off, Path and Free appeared in midair. They fell onto the ground and groaned in pain. Free was the first one to stand up.

“The meeting was last week – why am I… oh… this isn’t the meeting hall.” He turned to see his two children on stage and Discord looking at them. “Hi, kids. Hi, Discord!” He waved excitedly.

“I’m just going to lay here for a while. Don’t mind me,” Path groaned and rolled over, trying to go back to sleep before Free pushed him up to his feet.

“Yes! Yes! I’m up… what’s going on?”

Discord chuckled. “Two of your four kids have made it to the final test!”

The parents looked at Discord, then to the stage, and then they sat down to watch.

“So, what kind of test is this going to be?” Path asked with a smile as he leaned against Free.

“Simple – they have a hat, and a large black cloth. All the need to do is pull something out of the hat and impress me,” Discord said as he walked over to the two. He snapped his fingers as a chair appeared for him to sit in.

Destined just blinked a few times before he started laughing. “Really, that’s it? Just a summoning spell?!” Destined’s horn started to glow as he reached his hoof just barely inside the hat and pulled out a rabbit that turned into a turnip and then bounced away. Destined looked over at Discord with a grin, but the Chaos Lord just responded with a yawn.

“Technically yes, you did pull something out of the hat, but it was bland, predictable, and you transformed it into a turnip to appear chaotic just to impress me.” Discord extended his talon and pointed it downward. “One point. Let’s see if your brother can do better, hmm?”

Flix just stood there as he put the black cloth provided over the top of the hat. ‘If I go about doing this the way that everyone expects me to, then I will fail. I’m not magical in the traditional sense. There has to be a different way to go about doing this.’ Flix started to shake slightly as he began to fret.

“You can do it son! Do it your own way!” Path cheered out to Flix.

‘My own way… my own way...’ Flix slowly reached one of his talons toward the cloth covered hat. ‘In order for me to do this… to do anything… I cannot play by their rules.’ He looked back at the cloth-covered hat. ‘Nobody can see inside the hat; the inside of the hat is blank like a canvas. Destined pulled out a rabbit because his rules say that a rabbit is supposed to come out of it, but my hat is a blank canvas and the world is my palette, both of them follow my rules’

Flix started to laugh loudly. Destined looked at him, confused, as did Path and Free. Nobody noticed the draconequus staring intently at the hippogriff with a serious look on his face.

‘Rules! In my world there are no rules!’ Flix’s talon opened wide and he plunged it into the hat all the way up to his shoulder, but the bottom of the hat did not break. He then started to pull hard. It looked like he was starting to pull something out before he was pulled back toward the hat. The hippogriff grunted and added a second talon. He braced himself on the table and pulled with all his might!

Free and Path weren’t necessarily expecting Flix to pass Discord’s test, so they were really here for moral support for when he failed. They began to suspect that they would not need to do so.

Flix pulled with all his might as the hat expanded to handle was he was pulling out, but the mass was too big and Flix fell back with the thing still covered in the cloth landing upon him. After a few moments, the cloth was pushed away to reveal a very confused Celestia, one of her wings in mid extension.

“Discord! What did you do?!” Celestia snapped at him.

Discord, however, was on the floor laughing. “That wasn’t me! That was Flix! Flix wins! Flix wins! He is now my student!”

Celestia looked down to see the hippogriff she was sitting on, the one that was holding her tail in his talons. She then looked back to Discord. “How did he do a summoning spell?”

Discord snapped his fingers as Flix appeared next to him, slightly disoriented.

“He didn’t use a summoning spell. He was able to pull you through the hat because nobody could prove that you weren’t in the hat already,” Discord replied with a huge grin.

“That doesn’t even make sense!” Celestia barked. “You can’t just teach him non–” Celestia was cut off as Discord sent her back to the throne room in Canterlot.

“Well… looks like I’ll have to come up with a lesson plan. I’ll be seeing you real soon, Flix Path.” Discord gave him a genuine smile before he disappeared.

Flix was about to say something before he was hugged by both of his dads.

“You did it!” Path yelled!

“I have no idea what you did but it was awesome!” Free cheered.

Flix just groaned a bit, suddenly tired. “Just… sleep now...” Flix passed out in the arms of his dads, leaving them both very confused.

#

*Later*

Discord was sipping tea with Fluttershy at their usual Tuesday meet-up.

“So how did your test go, Discord?” She asked as she moved to fill up his cup.

“Better than I was expecting. The one I figured would fail was the one who won. It took all that he had to open up a Pinkie-class chaos gate, but it worked and he passed. I bet he is sleeping it off right now.” Discord sipped the remainder of his tea before munching on the cup.

“Oh? Well that’s nice. At least you have a student now, right?” she asked meekly.

“More than that – I can’t wait till I give him lesson one!”

# # # # # # #

Musical Mania!

FLIX’S MUSICAL MANIA
By AlaskaIsCold

Flix was in the green room, idly strumming his guitar as he looked over at the rest of his bandmates. Orlonda was a bright orange changeling, and she was also preparing as well. She hummed several notes in rapid succession, modulating her tone by several octaves, then started dual-octave singing a few lines of no song in particular.

“So... do you know what songs we are going to be singing?” she asked.

“No idea!” Flix replied with an unrepentant grin. “And that’s kind of the point. When using chaos magic, you can never really decide what you want, but you can suggest and maybe it might happen. I can’t say that I want to go from Canterlot to Ponyville, but I can say that I’d like to go south; maybe I’ll intersect Ponyville and maybe I won’t.”

The drummer, a dark-tan diamond dog, spoke up. “Isn’t that a little dangerous? I mean you can go anywhere.”

Flix laughed. “Ah, but what’s life without a little danger, hey?”

The brown and white griffon of the group rolled her eyes. “I’ll never understand chaos magic – it just seems like rolling the dice.”

Flix looked over to his bass guitarist. “It takes the suspension of all preconceptions to fully embrace it, Silvereye. I’m not quite there yet, but I’m close. It’s why I’m one of the few of Discord’s favorite students who can actively cast it.”

Orlonda piped up, “You don’t even have a horn, so how do you even cast?”

Flix stood up and flexed his wings proudly. “Trade secret.”

A teapot on the table suddenly disgorged a very familiar draconequus. He did a flip in the air and landed perfectly before he bowed. Looking over the group, Discord groaned. “My student is doing a concert? How boring.”

“Oh, but this isn’t any normal concert. Tonight we are going to debut the three snap mash-up chaos core!” Flix practically shouted in his enthusiasm.

Discord raised an eyebrow. “Oho, now I’m curious… but I’d rather be surprised. I hope you perform well; your grade depends on it.” He cackled in a way that was entirely too dramatic to be serious before he slipped back into the teapot.

The diamond dog fixed his skeptical gaze on Flix. “I have no idea how you’re okay with him being your homeroom teacher.”

Flix just laughed. “This is going to be great, I hope my parents come!”

#

Due to the scheduling of the concert, not all of the herd could make it. Twilight was the first to walk into the main room of the club slash bar. Sunny Day was right behind her, and she chuckled as she looked at the crowd and the opening band which was playing some nice ambient music. Behind the two of them were Roseclaw and a deep-pink unicorn with a white mane.

Roseclaw looked over at the unicorn with a grin. “You just inverted your colors, but I guess it does the trick, Queeny.”

The pink unicorn frowned at her. “Hey now! It’s Pale Petal, and when I heard that one of mine was playing a venue this big, I was curious to see what it was all about. My harvesters tend to get very skittish if they see me ahead of time, and I don’t want to freak her out during her performance.” She ordered four pints from the bar and distributed them so that each pony/ griffon had one.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had a day off. Let’s relax!” Pale Petal giggled.

They all took a deep drink from their oversized glasses before a deep-tan earth pony with a short-cut salt and pepper mane walked up from behind them and said in very familiar voice, “Oh, you all decided to come and see my student’s performance? You can help me grade.”

Twilight look at the pony and groaned. “Discord! Wha–”

He cut her off. “That’s Professor Discord. I do have tenure after all.”

The purple pony groaned, but Pale Petal looked at the earth pony curiously.

“So, do you know what he has planned?” she asked with a hint of eagerness to her voice.

“I do, but I’m not doing to say. I do like to give hints however. I will tell you this: his main singer is a bright orange changeling, and she’s been bingeing on love gel for this performance. Flix has been working on channeling and holding chaos states for this performance. He did something else, but I can’t give it all away can I?”

Sunny Day rolled her eyes and motioned to a spot in the center of the large open area. The group decided to head over there and Discord followed suit, curious to see what his student was about to pull off.

Ponies, griffons, a few changelings and a smattering of other species gathered as the lights dimmed. A well-known white pony with electric-blue hair came into view and they all cheered.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Vinyl’s Proving Ground where the best local talent compete to make it big! Our last act is certainly not the least. They call themselves “Whatever Floats Your Boat”. This group is a mash-up of – get this – a hippogriff, a changeling, a griffon and a diamond dog! I’ve never heard of anything like this! Let’s see what happens, hey? GET ON OUT HERE!” the unicorn yelled as the lights came on to show the group already on stage with their gear. Flix confidently took the mic from Vinyl and he paced around the stage.

“So this is how it’s going to be… you say chaos core and we mix it up! I won’t know what comes next; you won’t know what comes next. If we fly, we fly; if we die, we die. Got it?!”

All the while, the diamond dog was slowly hitting the base drum. He was gradually speeding it up, and as a result, a few of the crowd were already starting to get amped and the chanting began. When a third of the crowd was chanting ‘chaos core’, the griffoness held up a taloned hand. When it got to two thirds, the diamond dog lifted his paw up. And once all of them were chanting, Flix let out a loud growl into the mic as the sclera of his eyes turned yellow and his pupils turn red. “This is Chaos Core!” he declared as he held up his own hand.

All three of them snapped their fingers/talons at the same time, and a wave of smoke covered the stage and the crowd.

Twilight said, {What are they… wait! How am I suddenly speaking Neighponese?!}

A snare drum started up as Orlonda slowly came into view, wearing a Neighponese school girl outfit. Her mane had lengthened extraordinarily and was now tied into dual ponytails. The crowd cheered and moved their glow-sticks in sync with the growing music.

Celestia and Pale Petal were laughing as they said, {This is the best thing ever! So kawaii!}

The changeling started to sing. “Sekai de echiban ohime-sama...Sou iu atsujai kokorote….”

The music came in strong as she pranced around the stage, singing with more and more energy. She twirled and her long pony tails swirled around her.

In the background everyone could see Flix and the griff on guitar with the diamond dog on drums.

Celestia was the most taken by the singing, and she jumped up and down with the rest of the crowd, swinging her glow-stick in time with the music and singing along with the changeling, much like the rest of the crowd.

Twilight was singing along with Roseclaw, arm in arm, but she managed to stop when she saw Discord standing there with a grin, seemingly unaffected.

{How are you not affected by all of this, Discord? Even Pale Petal is getting in on it!} Twilight laughed, almost giddy!

Discord smiled smugly. {Oh, I’m just soaking in all the chaos. Flix has managed to change this entire venue to one of those Neighponese hyper venues… changed all of our clothes, as well as our speech. My best student – I sure know how to pick them!}

The changeling’s singing was starting to come to a close.

“Kocchi no ga abunai wa yo~~!” She let out a high pitch squeal of excitement and faced the band with her back to the crowd which was already cheering.

{CHAOS CORE! CHAOS CORE!}

Flix grinned, lifted his hand and snapped his talons. Once again, smoke rolled over the stage and audience.

When Sunny Day emerged from the smoke, they saw that the unicorn was now dressed in black clothes and belts, with thick eye shadow. She huffed and blew a lock of her dyed black hair off to the side. Pale Petal stood by her side wearing spikey hoof cuffs and a “Destroy Authority” T-shirt.

Petal groaned and rolled her eyes. “They don’t understand! It’s like nobody understands the music. It speaks to me!”

Twilight looked through her jet-black bangs over to Discord who was grinning even more widely now. “Why are you even smiling like that? Don’t you know that’s what they want you to do? Don’t be a conformist! Don’t be a tool for the man.”

Discord just nodded and took a picture of Goth Twilight next to Goth Celestia. “This… this is just too good. He’s getting an A for this… no, definitely an A+.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “You’re such a drag. How are you not even affected by this?”

Discord chuckled. “Chaos magic is my domain, I choose not to let it affect me, and I’m not jumping around like a git because I didn’t drink the free beer.”

Twilight was about to say something before she was cut off by the strong riff of two guitars. The main stage had changed again into a gothic-like backdrop, and all of the musicians were dressed and dyed in black and white.

The female griffon grabbed the mic and started screaming. “Boy’s got a head like a mana bomb! Hang him from the cross like the number one son! He’s been waiting so long to get it on!”

A mosh pit was starting in the middle of the crowd. They started fighting and pushing while moving around in the center of the room as the female griff kept screaming out.

“Violence for the people! Give the colts what they need!”

“Kill your god… kill your god… kill your… GemVee!” the griffon screeched out as the mosh pit intensified. In the middle of all of it, Sunny and Pale were being pushed and pushing back as they screamed along with the lyrics. Twilight and Roseclaw were busy head-banging to the music.

The song abruptly ended after the last lyrics with the griffon panting out, and the crowd screamed out for more.

Discord nodded in satisfaction as he watched Flix and Silvereye yell out. “ONE MORE! ONE MORE! SCREAM OUT CHAOS CORE!”

The crowd screamed out ‘CHAOS CORE!’ even louder than before, and the venue looked more packed than before. Flix raised his hand in the air... something to cool it down… cool it way down. They couldn’t leave the crowed this amped up on the last set of the night with no cool down. Flix snapped his claw again and the smoke covered everyone and everything for one last time.

When the cloud dissipated, the scene had changed again. It was smaller, more intimate and it looked like everyone was dressed in traditional Griffonian costume. Almost everyone reeked of booze. Flix was in the center and it looked like he was holding a banjo. The others were holding purely acoustic instruments. As Flix started to play, he moved up to the mic stand and starting to sing…

“Well, bugger off, ya bastards, bugger off.”

The crowd yelled back at band. “Buck you!”

“Bugger off, you bastards, bugger off!”

“Buck you!”

Sunny Day and Pale Petal walked over to Discord, each of them were holding a bottle of Eyrish whiskey.

“Why ain't yer drinkin' wi' us?” Sunny Day belted out as she pushed Discord, who was trying his best not to laugh, and not succeeding terribly well.

“Waaat are ye, a wuss?” Petal howled at Discord before they both took a swig from their drink.

Discord looked over to Twilight and Roseclaw who were drunkenly swaying back and forth with the front line of the crowd next to the band, screaming “Buck you!” when they were told to bugger off. The alicorn and griffoness seemed to be holding each other up… barely.

As the song began to cool down and come to a conclusion, the chaos effects gradually wore off. The crowd was still cheering though as the venue and their clothes changed back to how they were before, but the booze they had consumed was very real, and started hitting them all like a brick.

#

Celestia woke up with a groan and felt something smooth against her body. She opened up one eye to see Fleur in her queen form, passed out as well, their hooves intertwined. She leaned back to look at the body behind her to see that she was being half-held by Twilight’s wing… while the rest of the purple alicorn was half on and half off the pile of blankets they decided was a bed, her head awkwardly pillowed on Roseclaw’s belly as the griffoness did a great impression of roadkill.

“Ah, so thou art awake finally, dear sister?”

Celestia groaned and turned to look over to see Discord, Luna, Path, Free, Flix, and Orlonda with huge grins on their faces.

Celestia whinnied and rolled back over. “I’ll give you a million bits to give me three more hours of sleep.”

Flix grinned. “Deal!”

They are started to leave and Celestia closed her eyes.

Luna spoke up just as she walked out the door. “We need to get the photographs to the newspaper anyway.”

Celestia’s bloodshot eyes shot open wide.

# # # # # # #

Exploring Emotion - Part One

EXPLORING EMOTION: Part One

Free looked up to the door with a slightly raised eyebrow. He did have office hours at the ponyville campus but very rarely did anyone decide to use them. His classes often ran late and the high energy of the course tended to answer everyone’s questions.

A changeling peeked her head into the office with a smile, and Free instantly grinned back; he knew his son’s best friend fairly well.

“Orlonda! How can I help you today? It’s not often that anyone visits me. Normally I just sit here, draw some ideas out, and work on the network while I wait for the hour to be up.” His foot kicked out the chair from the table for her to have a seat.

The Orange Changeling sighed as she sat down. “I’m actually pretty worried about Flix. We were in Art History a few days ago and we were talking about emotion, primarily the displays of emotion in the Equestrian Renaissance roughly six hundred years ago. We were talking about how the artists of the time used fresca or tempera since oil paints at that point hadn’t yet caught on… and that part was fine. But when the instructor said: “The overwhelmingly fickle nature of using a fresco medium is the only way to capture pure emotion….”

Orlonda was cut off by Free. “Oh, hell. Flix really doesn’t like it when people talk in absolutes.” He leaned back and started to chuckle.

“Yeah, it turned into a screaming match between him and the teacher over how one could express true emotion. Flix was saying how the only way you could even come close to replicating the primal emotions was to go even further beyond postmodern and neo-expressionism into something not yet charted. The teacher, however, said the only way to do it was to go back and relearn from the true masters of the Equestrian Renaissance. It ended up with Flix screeching and leaving the classroom. I haven’t seen him for a few days since then.” Her voice grew ever more strained in concern.

Free blinked a few times in puzzlement. “That long? Huh! Last I checked I heard a lot of noise coming from his studio. Every few hours, we had the help check up on him. Other than requesting meals in the studio instead of the main hall, we figured he was fine. I bet you could go there and check up on him though,” he suggested with a smirk.

“Yeah, I think I’m going to do that. Thanks for the lead, teach!” The changeling ran out of the office as the queen laughed and went back to his sketching.

#

Orlonda looked up at what was an old grounds-keeping storage shed. She had helped Flix turn it into a studio a year or so ago when they were in the middle of upgrading the facilities, and this was the only structure that was so far removed from everything else. It was perfect for when Flix used more unorthodox methods of artist expression.

“Flix! Flix, are you in here?” She opened the door and slinked in only to slip on paint and fall flat on her belly. When she looked around, she saw that the entire studio was covered in various colors of paint, but then one particular part of the random pattern started to move and soon she was able to lock onto a pair of eyes.

“Flix… are you doing okay?” She started to scan her friend; his emotional state was all over the board.

“I can’t express a pure emotion! I used every trick I had, but it wasn’t enough. Everything I can come up with requires the viewer to have some pretext to modern society. I refuse to let Fine Brush be right – the path is forward not backward.” His voice was serious as he slowly walked around.

Orlonda however was having trouble even keeping her hooves under her, and soon she was completely covered in paint much like Flix. She started to whine, “Can we please go back to the castle and clean up? Then we can talk more about it. This room right now is so visually confusing, I can barely tell direction.”

Flix opened the door and helped her back out. “Yeah, it’s been a few days; I need to wait until an idea hits me.”

#

“WHY ARE YOU COMPLETELY COVERED IN PAINT?!” Roseclaw and Twilight squawked as Free and Path laughed in the background.

“THAT’S GOING TO TAKE FOREVER TO GET OUT!!!” Roseclaw cried.

“YOUR HOOF AND CLAW PRINTS ARE ALL OVER THE CASTLE!!!” Twilight yelled.

“Oopsy?” Flix replied with a grin.

Twilight’s horn lit and the pair disappeared. Elsewhere in the castle, the two splashed into a large tub.

“You shouldn’t get mad at him so easily,” Path said. “Despite the fact that he’s more random than even Citrine, he’s actually a pretty accomplished artist. Yeah, he would be better if he had less of a temper, but you could blame his mother for that one.” Path looked pointedly at his griffon wife.

“One more word and you’re getting teleported as well,” Twilight warned with narrowed eyes.

“Word.” Path said with a huge grin before he disappeared.

“HAH!!” Free laughed and pointed before he vanished in a poof.

Roseclaw just looked at Twilight with a raised eyebrow.

“If you could teleport, you would have done it too,” Twilight said.

“You have a point. Want to get some ice cream?” Roseclaw suggested.

“Best suggestion I’ve heard today.”

#

Four splashes into the tub later, Flix was talking about his latest stumbling block to his two dads while Orlonda listened.

Free shrugged as his horn lit up and he scrubbed the paint out of the hippogriff’s fur and feathers. “You know, as a changeling queen and an artist, you would figure that I’d know more about the nature of emotions and how it relates to art, but alas I tend to focus on other things. It would be best if you asked somebody from the orange hive.”

All eyes went to Orlonda.

“Don’t ask me, as far as harvesters go, I’m pretty subpar. I don’t get any adoration since most don’t really like my form of art.” She sighed.

“Not everyone can enjoy postmodern interpretive dance. I’m reminded of the time you had a diamond dog strap a seven foot pipe to his… equipment and bang it against another pipe for about an hour,” Flix said with a grin before he was splashed by his friend.

“That was a statement about diamond dogs’ hostility to their fellow diamond dog. They liked it in in Vanhoover.” She huffed and folded her hooves. “Anyway, I bet my queen would know more about it, but she’s always wandering around. Last I checked, she was doing a show in Prance.”

Flix nodded a few times as Path waited for him to connect the dots, then he rolled his eyes. “Oh if there was only a way for you to get to Prance....”

The hippogriff’s eyes went wide. “Can I take the Skyshark?!”

“No!” both dads said at once.

“Can I have Luna or Destined teleport us?” he asked.

“Both are busy working on setting up a telescope on the Austri Islands. So that’s also a no,” Free replied.

“Can Mama Twilight do it?” he guessed.

Path gave Flix a flat look. “Do you really think she’s going to do that after the mess you made in the castle?”

“I’ve got it! I’ll ask my homeroom teacher!” Flix scrambled out of the tub, still half covered in paint.

Orlonda followed after him in a rush. “Wait up!”

Path and Free looked at each other and sighed, sinking deeper into the tub.

“Enjoy the quiet before it’s gone,” Path said with a groan.

#

Fluttershy was getting ready to feed her animals for dinner when she heard the scampering of hooves and claws. A few moments later there was a slam against her door, then a second slam as the two kids fell into her house.

Fluttershy was about to panic, but once she recognized Discord’s favorite student, she calmed back down. “Looking for Discord?” she asked gently.

“Yup! I need his help!” Flix nodded as he stood up, Orlonda standing up next to him as Discord stepped out of one of the glass windows.

“I know, I know, I’m so popular with my faithful student. What’s going on, Flix?” He sat down, acting unusually calm.

“I need you teleport me to Prance!” Flix started to trot in place excitedly.

“Yeah, I could just snap my fingers and make it happen, or I could teach you how to do it yourself.” He grinned mischievously and snapped his fingers. A strange pendant formed in his claws, and he put it around the hippogriff’s neck.

“What’s this?” Flix asked.

“It’s something to help you focus your Chaos ability to teleport you and your friend there. Remember the basics tenets of our first lesson: nothing is impossible, just infinity improbable. Try to focus like you did during your concert.” Discord put on a pair of shades and handed one to Fluttershy who put them on.

Orlonda hastily disguised herself as an orange unicorn with a green mane as she saw Flix start to concentrate.

The hippogriff slowly opened his eyes as the red pupils and yellow sclera materialized again.

Orlonda looked over to Discord. “Can he really do this?”

Discord tilted his glasses and looked to her. “Teleporting two ponies is easy, but I can’t tell why it is. Trade secret you understand. I bet he could have done it after a few months of my training. Affecting large areas permanently – now that’s hard!” He laughed and leaned back.

The pair started to glow and they suddenly turned into a pair of giant oranges… then ponies made entirely of yarn… then inverted colors of themselves… then changed genders and species… before they disappeared in a splash of paint that went everywhere.

Fluttershy frowned. “Until you clean this up, you are on the couch.”

Discord drooped. “Yes, dear.”

#

Fleur and Fancy happened to be sitting at an outdoor café, sipping tea as they sighed happily. While it was a closely guarded secret that Fleur was a changeling queen, it was a secret that was known by Fancy. He was actually the strongest pro-changeling activist when the “Grand Reveal” occurred.

Fleur suddenly lurched in her chair and held her head.

“Are you okay, my dear?” Fancy asked as his horn lit up and he took her tea cup away, showing concern for his wife.

“It’s like suddenly somebody just… ceased to exist and –”

She was cut off as two bodies slammed into the cafe table and through it, causing a loud crash, and sending plate and cups everywhere. Fleur and Fancy looked down at the chaos with wide eyes as the two bodies untangled themselves.

Fleur however did not look happy as she stared down at one of her more… troublesome harvesters.

The unicorn grinned sheepishly as she spoke. “Hi, Mom!”

“Yeah, hi, Mom!” Flix parroted.

Fleur face-hoofed.

Fancy’s Monocle fell out.

--End Part 1--

Author's Note

Did you find the three references?

The Winter Moon Celebration / Flix Gets Inspired!

Luna walked into the large auditorium and smiled in delight when she saw that every seat was filled with ponies, changelings, griffons, and even diamond dogs, and they all wanted to learn about her sky! Due to her court becoming more and more popular, she wasn’t able to do these weekend intensive courses often, so when she did, they filled up pretty quickly. Twilight had told her that this time it filled up in only about four hours.

She walked in and sat her books down on the desk as the chatter calmed down to a quiet hush.

“Good morning, class! I hope you are all ready for your weekend celestial dynamics intensive course ASTRO499L. If thou art in ASTRO499T, that is with Twilight Sparkle, and she is down the hall in the other auditorium.” The dark alicorn smiled as a few students left the auditorium, only to be replaced by those waiting outside.

Luna started the class, talking about the very basics, the wonder that was hydrogen and why it made Celestia’s sun so bright. In the back row, Flix just watched and listened with Orlonda sitting next to him.

“You really should take notes; you know that her tests are known for wrecking people,” Orlonda whispered as she wrote notes.

“I am listening and learning. I just do it by hearing. And sometimes I get inspiration.” He listened to Luna talking with a smile.

The first day of the class was nine hours long with an hour break for lunch. Then of course there were the two hours afterward that everyone clambered up to Luna to ask her questions and refine their notes. When the all had finally filed out, Flix flew down and approached Luna with a smile.

“Ready for dinner?” Flix asked as he leaned against his aunt and Orlonda flew up beside them.

“Flix… I am worried about thee. I did not see thee take any notes at all. One of the students in the class already has nearly twenty pages! Thou knowest my tests are known to be difficult, and I will not go easy on thee.” She watched him as they walked down the hallway and out of the building.

“Trust me, Auntie – I’m smart! I just don’t flaunt it around like Lucida, Pif, and Destined.” Flix grinned.

Luna just rolled her eyes as they all went into the main hall for dinner.

#

The herd plus the kids, Orlonda, and Silk were at the table, and everyone was eating and chatting. Suddenly there was a lull in the conversation as the orange changeling gasped and leaned forward with wide eyes.

“What’s wrong, Orlonda?” Path asked.

“Buckle up, you guys,” Orlonda gasped out.

Flix stood up and slammed his talons on the table. “I HAVE AN IDEA FOR MY NEXT INSTALLATION!”

Free started to laugh. “Orlonda felt the foreshock of the emotional burst.”

Flix turned to Twilight “Mom! Can you cast a breathing spell, a warmth spell, and a dark-vision spell on me?!”

Twilight winced at the yelling. “Volume, Flix, and yes, I can do so rather easily.”

Flix whipped his head around to look at Luna. “Auntie, can you teleport me?!”

Luna just blinked in puzzlement. “Where? To Canterlot for art supplies?”

Flix just started to laugh as he moved around the table, arranging the condiments to form a pattern. “Oh no, much further. I need really, really, really far!”

Flix moved Path’s bowl of soup to the edge of the table. “That’s Equus” He scrambled around about a third of the way down the table and put a salt shaker on the table. “That’s the moon” He then ran to the other side of the table, about three times as far away as the shaker. “Here! I need to be at least here.”

Luna looked perplexed. “That’s... that’s quite far. I... I think I can. I have never had to send myself or anything for that matter that far away.” She looked at Twilight. “What dost thou think?”

Twilight was writing on the back of a napkin. “Well, that kind of distance is beyond me, but you dwarf my ability by a whole magnitude, so you should be able to do it.”

Flix jumped up and pumped a foreleg. “YES!!” he started running around. “OK! OK! OK! So I need to be up there for a night!”

Luna raised her hoof up. “I can and will send thee out that far… if thou can pass my class.”

Orlonda pointed and laughed. “You are so screwed!”

Flix looked at Luna. “And passing is defined as a passing score correct?”

Luna nodded “Of course.”

Flix grabbed Orlonda with an arm. “We need to go study!”

Orlonda just groaned. “I’m so stuffed I think I’m gonna burst.”

Flix just laughed and carried his friend out of the hall.

Path just looked at Free nonplussed. “Remember when we were exciting?”

Free just nodded. “And then we got the balls and chain.”

Path laughed before a griffon talon checked his head into the table. “Sorry, dear….”

Rose rolled her eyes. “You two seriously act like colts whenever Flix gets excited. But I’m wondering why he wants to go that far out.”

Luna just laughed. “I have no idea, but do not worry. Everyone knows my tests are very difficult. I do not think that I will need to actually teleport him.”

#

Four Days Later….

Luna just stared dumbfounded at the test sheet, her mouth wide open.

“How… how didst thou...” She just blinked. “Thou were tardy two of the days and slept through the fourth! There is no way that thou could have passed!”

Flix just grinned and looked over to his dads before looking back to Luna. “I’m just that good!”

Luna set the paper down. In red ink there was a giant “70.1% C–” marked on the front page. “Twilight is going to kill me,” the alicorn groaned.

“I want to do it the afternoon before the Winter Moon Celebration! You can recall me after your big show!” Flix laughed as he trotted out of the auditorium like the overconfident cock that he was.

Path watched Flix leave before he looked back to Luna. “So, just in case you were wondering how he passed, he had Destined visit him in his dreams and drill your course into him. With the relative time that passes in dreams, he went over it like ten times before the test. While it’s not exactly cheating, it is a rather interesting way to get around normal time constraints.”

Luna huffed. “I need to remember that Flix often thinks outside the box, even more so than thee.”

Path just laughed and nuzzled Luna before they headed out as well.

#

Winter Moon Celebration: if you asked about it ten years ago, nobody would have known what you were talking about. Traditionally, Luna’s day was Nightmare Night, but it really only engaged the younger kids and it was meant all in good fun. However, with the increased diversification of Canterlot and Ponyville, it was only a matter of time before somebody in the club scene ran into a Lunar Advocate. In this case it was Vinyl Scratch (a unicorn DJ) and Moon Shimmer (a thestral promoter), and thus the Winter Moon Celebration was started. It was small at first, but this year the entire downtown club district of Canterlot was going to explode into a giant party for twenty-four hours. The pegasi warmed up that area of the city so that it was bearable to be outside in the midst of winter.

Celestia sat on her throne, going through the last of her paperwork, when Luna came in with a huge grin on her face.

“Getting ready for your festival, I take it?” Celestia asked, not even needing to know the answer

“I am! I had one of my guards go over there in plain clothing, and he tells me that they number in the thousands! This is going to be the best Winter Moon Celebration ever! Art thou going to go?” Luna looked at her sister hopefully.

“Oh… I don’t know. I need to get some rest for court tomorrow… but I know that my part-time secretary, Sunny Skies, is going to be in attendance.” Celestia answered with a sly grin. The sisters laughed for a few moments before the scribe coughed a bit.

“We have three petitions left, then the court can be closed, Your Highness,” the pony said with a smile to alicorn princess.

Celestia nodded and said to Luna, “I need to get back to this, and you need to fulfill your promise to Flix. I believe he is waiting in your tower.” Celestia smiled as Luna hurried off.

The Alicorn of the Moon found the hippogriff waiting impatiently. “Art thou sure about this? Once I send thee there, I will not be able to fetch thee until after the celebration. Thou shalt be up there for hours!” the alicorn said to try to dissuade him.

“Don’t care! Beam me up, Moony!” Flix started hopping up and down in place.

Luna chuckled as her horn lit up, and the center of her tower opened to expose the sky. She let her power course though her as she formed a direct connection with her moon, giving her access to power she didn’t normally need. She boomed out in the Royal Canterlot Voice, “PREPARE THYSELF, YOUNG FLIX, FOR THOU SHALT SEE WHAT NO MORTAL HATH DONE BEFORE!”

Flix stood still as the moonlight drew a complex runic circle around him, gradually becoming more and more intense.

“I CAST THEE BEYOND THE SACRED SPHERE!” Luna yelled, and a beam of light shot up from the ground and into the sky before fading away.

Flix was gone.

Luna panted softly as her eyes returned to normal. “That... that was quite a workout.” She started to chuckle before her horn lit up again, and the top of her castle closed back up. It was time to get ready for her big appearance!

#

To say that the Winter Celebration was big would be an understatement, All of the clubs went outside and took their sound systems with them, playing techno, house, trance, and dubstep. It was a sea of music with an ocean of ponies, all of them were parting, eating, drinking, and having a good time. The vast majority of the attendees were surrounding the circular stage where Vinyl and Octavia were playing a unique synthesis of dubstep and classical music. The bodies lit up by the glowsticks stretched for blocks. But when the music died down, everyone started to look toward the stage. Vinyl and Octavia looked up and pointed as Luna appeared in the air. A few floodlights moved to light her up, and the crowd cheered even louder than before. She was almost taken back by the turnout before she spoke up and started to say the lines she made for herself.

“MY PONIES, THESTRALS, GRIFFONS, DRAGONS, DIAMOND DOGS, ZEBRAS!! DO YOU NOT THINK THIS NIGHT IS WONDERFUL?!” Luna bellowed out, driven by the ecstatic energy of the crowd under her.

The mass of attendees cheered even louder; some of them were blowing whistles and others were shaking glowsticks.

“EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY, MY FRIENDS!” Luna turned like she was about to fly off, before she stopped as the crowd cried out.

“OH, YOU WANT MORE?” she asked jovially as the crowed screamed out in response, their jumping mimicking the rolling swell of an ocean.

Luna’s lit her horn up and cast some unknown magic high up into the sky. It was easy to freeze ice into sheets that high up; she just had to add water and let the air temperature do the rest. She tilted all of the sheets of ice at different angles as beams of white light moved around the mass of people as their screams of joy intensified.

“IT IS TIME YOU HEARD THE ROYAL CANTERLOT BASS!” Luna fired her horn down at the stage just as the music came back on... and the beat dropped.

The deep rolling bass was well beyond what even Vinyl could reproduce in her studio. Luna landed on the stage and looked around at the sea of faces and smiled before she took a bow. The first few rows starting chanting her name as she grinned, looking down toward the first row she was able to see Path, Free, Twilight, and Sunny Skies chanting with the crowd excitedly.

“ENJOY THIS DEEPEST NIGHT FOR IT IS YOURS!”Luna yelled out before she disappeared.

#

Luna trotted down the stairs at the Friendship Castle, only to see the rest of her herd and Sunny Skies resting their heads on the table.

“Stay up late, I take it?” Luna said loudly.

Twilight and Free groaned. “No need to use the Canterlot Voice. Just...sshhhh…. Not so loud.”

Path looked over at Luna as he reached over to try and pat Sunny’s head. “Yeah...everypony drunk a lot, and the only reason why I’m sober was because I had to make sure that the alicorns here didn’t teleport drunk... again.”

“I am never drinking again,” Sunny whimpered.

“At least Flix isn’t here to yell at us just to see us whimper,” Free groaned.

Path looked to Luna with his eyes wide.

Luna blinked a few times until the realization finally hit her.

“I FORGOT ABOUT FLIX!” Luna screeched before she ran off to the top of the castle to go get him.

The herd groaned out in pain as she yelled and Path laughed. “Okay, we are all going to bed; time to sleep it off!”

Sunny groaned. “I need to go to court… I need to raise the sun!” She stood up wearily before collapsing back onto the table, whimpering.

“First off – its noon. Luna, Destined and Shining had to raise the sun for you.” Path paused for a moment to remember the scene this morning

#

The three alicorn’s horns were glowing blindingly bright.

“Why is this thing so heavy?!” Luna grunted as she kept trying to lift it.

“Isn’t this supposed to be made of gas!” Destined lamented.

“Guys, guys! We just need to lift upwards leftly!” Shining strained.

“That’s not even a real direction!” Destined growled.

“PIVOT! PIVOT… PIVOOTTT!” Shining yelled.

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” Luna yelled louder.

The sun slowly dragged itself up into the sky with the required force and direction as all three alicorns collapsed.

#

Path snickered before he continued talking. “Secondly, we have a regal prince hosting court today.” Path grinned as he pushed all of them toward the bedrooms.

#

Destined just looked at the scroll, and then at Lucida who was grinning at him, and then to the long line of nobles, all of which were complaining about the noise last night.

“I am going to bang pots and pans together when I get out of this,” Destined said quietly as his eye twitched.

“Oh, buck up! Only 455 petitions to go!” Lucida chirped!

Destined groaned in defeat.

#

Luna was back at the top of the castle, and she lit her horn up a second time as she recalled Flix back to her location. Teleporting was the hard part. She had tagged him with her magic so that it would be significantly easier to find him and bring him back. After a few seconds, the spell connected and a large flash went off in the burnt crater. Flix was standing there, his eyes as wide as dinner plates.

“Flix… Flix, are you okay, honey?” Luna whispered and moved up to him, nuzzling his side and checking him over.

“I. AM. INSPIRED!” Flix screamed out as he flew off, heading toward his studio and leaving a stunned Luna behind.

#

Orlonda was snoring on the large bed in the studio. Sometimes it was a bed, and other times it was a hammock. Once it had even been a papasan. However, that did not matter when Flix kicked the door in.

“ORLONDA, I AM INSPIRED!” Flix screeched out, causing the changeling to flail about in the bed and fall onto the ground.

“Ow!”

“Get up! Get up! Get up! I Need you to go get some sheet metal! A lot of it! And get Grandma and Grandpa!” He started running around getting paint and other materials ready.

“Which ones? You have, like, ten of them,” Orlonda deadpanned.

“Free’s dad, Path’s mom! Hurry!” Flix ran around as the orange changeling slipped out of the studio and into the harsh light of the afternoon.

“It’s way too early for this,” she whined.

The Art Installation

The sound of construction was filling up the area near the friendship castle that Twilight and Free had reserved for Flix’s larger artistic works. The sound of ripping metal woke Path up, and slowly one of his eyes opened.

“Urg! It’s seven a.m.… what the hell is going on now?” He let out a low groan and lay his head back down, going back to sleep.

However, it was only a few minutes later when Twilight woke up and moved, causing the pile of sleepers to fall apart and waking them all up.

“Is that still Flix constructing his latest project?” Path sighed, rolled to his hooves, and walked over to the window to look outside along with Rose and Luna.

“Well, not only that, but he also seems to have enlisted the help of your mom, Free’s dad, Discord and Pif.” Luna’s head tilted to examine the construct better. “It looks like they are making a giant rhombic triacontahedron.”

Path just groaned again as he walked back to the center of the room and tried to curl back up with a drowsy Free. “Too early to hear big words. Wake me up later on.” The two curled back up and started snoring again.

Rose rolled her eyes. “Well, let’s make sure that what he’s making isn’t going to break the universe.”

The four that were still awake walked out of the room to let the two dads sleep.

#

When the moms finally made it down to the construction site, they found Flix talking to the group and apparently drawing a complex set of blueprints on the fly as he was speaking.

“So the outside needs to be thicker. It can’t buckle under its own weight, and it needs to be able to store complex spells and runic sets.”

Ivory Tower looked at a few sheets and her horn started to light up. Pif was busy coating sides of the sheet metal with changeling resin, waiting for it to set before Ivory and Thundercloud started to work on the rather delicate panel. Once each panel was completed, they moved the massive form into position where it was then fixed into place by Discord and Flix.

“This is so boring! Why don’t you just use some of the lessons you learned to will it into being?” Discord asked.

Flix grinned at his mentor. “Because it’s going to take all that I have to power the chaos factor of this art piece.”

The professor’s eyes widened a bit. “Oh, now this will be interesting. What exactly are you going to do?”

Flix laughed as he started to channel his chaos magic, which was still daunting and draining for him. A strange kind of magic started to permeate the metal as it continued to click and whirr. “Assemble it, and create the inner-workings.” The hippogriff shuddered as he continued to channel the chaos magic, his sclera turning yellow as the pieces kept moving.

Pif looked over to Flix as she helped guide the pieces into place. “Why are his eyes changing color, Discord?”

Discord went into lecture mode. “It’s very simple, my dear. As you know, eyes are the window to the soul, and when the self channels or focuses magic, the soul shines for all to see. It’s why when alicorns have to flex some muscle, their eyes glow, and depending on the magic, the glow can be different colors.”

Pif blinked a few times. “That… actually makes sense.”

“With chaos magic, it’s slightly different. The more you use it and the greater the magnitude you use, the more you change. First it’s subtle feature like eyes, but then as you grow in power, there are more changes.” Discord pushed the last panel into place as he looked back to his student who was giving it all he had.

“Come on... COME ON… COME ON!” Flix yelled out before whatever he was doing was completed. The strange geometric shape floated in the air with the weight of an inflated balloon. Thundercloud and Ivory attached three hold points under the device to keep it in one spot. A few moments later, Flix collapsed from the strain. Judging by his closed eyes and his slowed breathing, it looked like he had passed-out from overexertion.

“One of these days, I really do want to study chaos magic theory,” Ivory said while looking at Discord.

“You could try, but the only one so far who has been able to understand it is Flix.” Discord moved over and picked up his student with a smile, walking toward the castle.

Pif looked over at Thundercloud. “Wanna try it out?”

Thundercloud’s beak grinned widely. “Buck, yeah!”

Pif looked at the opening at the top of the spheroid. When she moved the top, it slid easily, wide enough for a single pony to go inside. “So I just go inside? Just like that?” she asked as she looked at her grandfather.

“Yeah. It looks like it, I think. Go ahead; I’m kind of curious to see what happens.”

Pif slid into the hole, and as soon as she did, the top slid back over and sealed itself. A few minutes later, Pif appeared outside of the sphere, sitting down on her hind legs, completely dumbstruck.

“Are you okay? Path is going to kill me if I broke his daughter,” Thundercloud asked with concern.

Pif suddenly stood up and her horn lit up almost blindingly bright. With a familiar concussive wave, the changeling disappeared, leaving a confused grandfather looking back at the spheroid that had the top slid open again.

“Oh, stop tempting me,” he muttered.

#

Free suddenly woke up and held his head. “Aah! Damn it, Pif, what are you doing?!”

Path looked up at Free with a sigh, rubbing his eyes. “Fine! I’m up! I’m up! What’s going on?”

“Pif just teleported down into the secret levels and issued an order for all of her cells to meet her down there and drop every other project they are working on. Something must have riled her up big time, but since I don’t feel any fear on the network, just wonderment and determination, I think it’s okay.” Free looked down to Path and nuzzled him up to his hooves.

Path walked over to the window to see Flix and Discord walking back to the spheroid which, in the small amount of time it had been in existence, was starting to attract quite a bit of attention.

Flix walked over to the group of ponies that were assembling around the device. “I did not expect my art instillation to gather a crowd so soon. Who among you would like to go first and experience infinity?”

A pale yellow colored earth pony with a raspberry and pink mane raised her hoof. “I’ll give it a shot!”

Flix pulled a strange amulet out of his side bag and put it around Roseluck’s neck. So I need you to close your eyes and tap the amulet. That will activate far-sight and warming spells. Count to ten and we will put you into the experience. If you take the amulet off, it will stop the experience and we will pull you out. It is very intense, but you will be experiencing infinity.”

The earth pony nodded and closed her eyes pressing the button. She didn’t feel herself being lowered into the strange object before the top was sealed. When she opened her eyes she was staring right at Luna in mid cast. “Wait… what’s going on?!”

Luna boomed out to her. “I CAST THEE BEYOND THE SACRED SPHERE!”

Roseluck suddenly felt a hard upward motion as she moved up. She screamed as the Friendship Castle started to grow smaller and smaller, then she passed the cloud level and she was able to spot a few pegasi looking at her confused as she traveled faster than any pony had gone before today.

Her screams faded though as a strange feeling began to fill her core. As she looked around, she could begin to see the curvature of Equus. Sunset was coming to Canterlot, and half of the large city was lit by mana lights while the other was bathed in the reds and oranges of sunset.

The feeling swelled even greater as she willed herself to look ahead at what was to come, and to leave what was left behind. The moon was growing larger and larger, and soon the earth pony sailed by its surface, getting almost close enough to touch the lunar body as she continued outward for an unknown amount of time.

‘This is it,’ she thought. ‘That machine killed me. Am I going to the greener pastures?’ She felt herself slow down and eventually stop, her body slowly twisting as she moved in the black void of space. She slowly looked back toward her home where everything she ever knew was located, and she realized just how small she really was. No larger than a beach ball, the blue orb floated in front of her, the crescent shape of the moon floating silently next to it. Celestia’s sun was just about to set behind the planet as a red ring formed. The earth pony was witnessing the eternal sunset of the world.

“It’s… it’s beautiful!” Roseluck started to cry as she saw the sun disappeared behind the planet entirely. If she squinted hard enough, she could see the lights of the many civilizations on the globe. “It’s so small… everything is so small....”

Roseluck floated for what seemed like eternity while she took all of it in. Her soul forever changed by experiencing something that she should never have seen. The earth pony, once content in her garden, now knew not only her place on the world but also the world’s place in the universe. One would expect that she might have entered into a deep depression upon realizing that all she knew was a speck in a giant unknowable universe, but she was filled with elation. The extraordinary experience created an equally extraordinary inspiration, and she calmed down and accepted all that was. She was but one pony, but sometimes one pony was all that mattered.

The moon slowly moved in the sky as the sun started to peek over the other side of Equus, until she was bathed in a bright light and everything went white.

#

Everyone looked at Roseluck when she appeared outside the spheroid. She took a few steps and sat down, completely silent and non-responsive to those hounding her to know what it was like.

“It is something that cannot be explained… it’s only something that can be experienced.” Roseluck said in a quiet voice before she slowly stood up and started to walk toward her home.

Thundercloud frowned in concern as the pony walked away, and then looked back to Flix. “I don’t know about this, Flix; there are some things that ponies cannot handle, cannot experience. It can be too much for them. I don’t think that most of your usual patrons can handle the revelations that your piece can offer them.”

Flix just grinned. “I cannot choose if they decide to go or not to go in and experience it, but if they want to, then the final choice should be up to them.”

Thundercloud shook his head. “Just remember that sometimes people will not like things they can’t understand. You could get shot down, or even worse, censored.”

Flix shook his head. “I would never be censored! Now… let’s get this to the gallery!”

#

Celestia always did love the arts. When it came to the first Friday of the month, she often visited a lot of the Canterlot galleries, but she was surprised when she heard that Flix managed to get into one of the larger ones. Last time she saw one of his exhibits, she had been pleasantly surprised, and she hoped that this one would be no different.

“Luna, are you coming?” Celestia asked as she walked into the throne room to see her sister finishing up with the last petitioner before her usual nine pm break.

“Yes, yes, we are almost done. Shall we go see the latest artistic works?” Luna replied with a smile.

“Well, I heard that Flix was able to get into the CCG, so shall we go look at his entry?” Celestia asked as she started to charge her horn up.

Luna walked over to her sister and they both disappeared in a bright flash.

#

The pair of alicorns arrived at the entrance to the gallery, and almost instantly things seemed off. A few of the ponies looked depressed, their colors faded, mumbling about how their lives were nothing, how they were all so very, very small. On the other side of the spectrum some ponies ran out of the gallery ecstatic and enraptured by something only they knew.

The two sisters reached the satellite hallway where the ‘up-and-comers’ were housed. At the back of the hallway, the massive spheroid stood. Flix and Orlonda were helping up a pony that had just exited the installation.

“I...I...I…” The pony stammered as he gradually got back up to his hooves and slowly started to walk down the hall, his glazed over eyes not even recognizing the Solar and Lunar Diarch as they watched him pass. They slowly turned to the spheroid and then looked to Orlonda and Flix.

“This piece is very… interesting, Flix. Is this all that it is? Am I missing something? Or is this like your other pieces and interactive?” Celestia queried.

Flix smiled and nodded. “All of my pieces are meant to be interactive. If you want to experience infinity, you just need to go inside the sphere. I had my grandparents help me design a lot of it, and it’s powered partially by chaos magic to make each experience different. So, Princess, would you like to try it out?”

Celestia eyed the sphere as the very top slipped open, and she couldn’t help but grin as she flapped her wings twice to gain enough altitude as she stood at the entrance. “Do I just drop in?”

Flix nodded. “Just drop in, and the top will close and you will experience it. Then when it’s done, you get 'ported out next to Orlonda.”

Celestia nodded and went into the sphere, and there was a strange silence for about five minutes.

Luna looked at Flix. “Does it normally take this long?”

“No, normally it takes only about two or three minutes then they appear out here. I wonder what's taking so long.” Flix just watched the sphere.

It took a few more minutes before a completely disheveled Celestia appeared in the spot next to Orlonda.

“This exhibit is closed!” Celestia boomed out as Flix winced.

“Why?! You can’t just shut me down!” the hippogriff started to yell at the Solar Princess, his feathers poofing up as a sign of aggression.

“You can't just expose my little ponies to that! They aren’t ready for it!” Celestia said in a louder than normal volume as her wings started to flare out.

Flix was not known for his grasp of subtle emotions; in fact his extreme emotions were what made him so good at his out-of-the-box style artistic pieces. However, this often worked against him as he did not like to be told what to do. “Are you censoring me?!” Flix squawked out as Orlonda’s eyes went wide. She did not like how his emotions were starting to flare out of control.

“No, no! She's not saying that she's just suggesting that we maybe screen those that want to see it so no adverse effects occur?” Orlonda said in a helpful manner, trying her best to calm his growing anger, but it was nowhere near enough.

“Flix, I need to censor this; it will cause harm to ponies!” Celestia said in her most authoritative voice.

Flix however was becoming more and more enraged. “NO! Art is not meant to be censored or meant to be limited to the public. If she’s going to censor me…” His sclera started to turn yellow and his pupils started to glow red.

Luna decided to jump in. “Flix! Flix! Calm down! My sister only means to do this to protect those that might be too weak to handle thy vision!”

Celestia narrowed her eyes as her horn lit up to cast a spell, however Flix was already focusing as well and with a snap of his talons, Celestia’s horn stopped glowing and she sat down heavily on her rump.

Luna and Orlonda looked at Flix. “What didst thou do?!”

Flix snarled as he clawed at the ground with his talons. “She censored me, I uncensored her.” He growled as he started to walk out of the exhibit, leaving his showing there.

Orlonda ran after him. “Flix! Wait! You just can't do that! Your moms are going to be so mad!”

Luna looked back to Celestia. “Sister, are you okay?”

Celestia just looked at Luna with a huge grin. “Let’s go out tonight. I’m tired of the stuffy noble ponies. I want to go have fun!” Her horn powered up and she transformed into her Sunny Skies guise and trotted out of the room as well.

Luna groaned and followed. “This... this is not good.”

# # # # # # #

Author's Note

Flix has done a lot of things, but he crossed the line this time.
Next chapter: Discord explains Magical Sensitivity Theory, Flix gets punished, Celestia eats cake.

The night nobody talks about...

Author's Note

Author’s Note: So in order to make things a little more interesting, I changed it up a bit, but I’m not going to rewrite the last part of the art exhibition, instead I’m going to write it here, and continue the story on!

The night nobody talks about...

THE NIGHT NOBODY TALKS ABOUT

Flix, I need to censor this; it will cause harm to ponies!” Celestia said in her most authoritative voice.

Flix however was becoming more and more enraged. “NO! Art is not meant to be censored or meant to be limited to the public. If you’re going to censor me…” His sclera started to turn yellow and his pupils started to glow red.

Luna decided to jump in, standing next to her sister as she tried to defuse the situation. “Flix! Flix! Calm down! My sister only means to do this to protect those that might be too weak to handle thy vision!” She started to light her horn up as well, getting ready to cast a defensive ward.

Celestia narrowed her eyes as her horn lit up to cast a spell, however Flix had already focused as well, and with a snap of his talons, he released his magic. Both Celestia and Luna stopped channeling magic and they sat down, looking blank for a few moments.

“Flix, what did you do?!” Orlonda screeched out fearfully.

Flix snarled as he clawed at the ground with his talons. “She censored me, so I uncensored her,” he growled as he started to walk out of the exhibit, leaving his showing there.

Orlonda looked toward the two sisters who then looked at each other and laughed. In a bright flash, both of the sisters disappeared in a dual flash and concussive waves. She pulled out Flix’s crystal comm from her pouch that she normally carried and she tapped it a few times, not really knowing how it works.

“Hello... testing one two three?”

It took a few minutes before anyone answered. She recognized Path’s. “Oh, hey Orlonda, I didn’t know we gave you a crystal comm, how are you? Is the art instillation going well?”

Orlonda started to laugh rather uneasily. “Oh well, it was for a while, then things turned south real quick….” She started to explain the situation and, unknown to her, Path was starting to grow pale as the details were unfurled.

“Okay… okay, okay – this is what we are going to do. Twilight and Rose just left to see Cadance and Shining in the Crystal Kingdom. They wanted a break from dealing with House and Princess stuff, so we are not going to call them. Free and I can handle it. We are the Heads of the House – surely this can’t be that bad.”

Orlonda blinked. “…two alicorns.”

“I am not going to have my wives fight my battles for me; that and the sooner I can deal with this, the easier I can bury it so Flix doesn’t get grounded for life. Meet Free and me at Donut Joes in ten minutes.” Path disconnected the call and the crystal stopped glowing. As he put it down, he yelled, “FREE!”

“What is it?” Free cawed back from the other room.

“We have to save the world again. Time to suit up!” Path stood up and walked into the living room.

“What?!” Free squawked.

#

This wasn’t what Leatherwing and Nox were expecting when they were called by Path to meet to discuss battle plans.

“Wait – so Flix has Discord powers, and he used them on the princesses?!” Leatherwing asked in a loud whisper.

“Well it’s more like he is his student, and then Celestia did something it really set him off, and Luna happened to be in the crossfire so it affected her too, and now here we are!” Orlonda said, her voice becoming more frantic as she spoke.

Free brought over a tray of donuts and milk for everyone. “Okay so first things first – how do we track them down? And what do we do once we track them down?”

“I could just knock them out.” Orlonda said simply.

All three of them stared at her for a few moments before Path spoke up. “Okay, I’ll bite. How would you do that?”

She smiled. “Well if you could get them calmed down enough, I could just put the bite on them. I can’t access emotions like the yellow hive – I’m not that good. But I can cause interference in the system and it will make them pass out for a few hours. It worked on Flix for a whole day when I was testing it out. That’s why he was able to pass Luna’s test anyways; twenty-five hours of sleep stretched out to feel like twenty-five days in the dreamscape.”

The rest of the group looked at Orlonda, then Nox grinned. “I like her – she’s peppy!”

Path just groaned. “Okay so now that we have a plan, how can we trac—” He was cut off as the entire diner shook. Then it shook again. It was in a very familiar pattern. He slowly looked over to the cups of milk as every few seconds ripples went through them.

Donut Joe hmmed slightly. “Huh! Normally it’s only that loud during the Winter Moon Festival.”

The group members looked at each other before bolting out the door. They saw ponies coming out and flooding the streets in the Downtown district of Canterlot, once they were outside they were able to hear the song as well as figure out the point of origin.

As they made their way to the club, Orlonda and Free shape-shifted, turning into what looked like black ponies with all sorts of chaotic, neon colored stripes adorning their bodies. Path struggled to talk to them over the crowd and the noise. “Do I want to know why?!”

Free yelled back. “It will help when we get in!”

To say that they got into the club would be an understatement. When they reached the club, they found it radically altered; the walls were translucent, and every few seconds a silhouette of the owner, Vinyl Scratch appeared, then it switched to what looked like a stylized Luna. It was then that they heard Vinyl yell in the royal Canterlot voice, with the assistance of Luna’s hoof over her throat to act as an amplifier, “I am Princess Scratch and this is Princess Night Beats! And we want you to FEEL THE MUSIC! FEEL The LOVE!” Both of their horns lit up as a multi-technicolored wave moved through the crowd, out the building and went a few blocks in every direction. The group could do nothing as they were hit by it as well.

Path stood up first. “What was tha– ooohhh my goddess...” His eyes went wide as he looked around. He did not have magic, so he did not realize that he had been hit with a low-duration high-intensity hypersensitivity spell as well as an inhibition-lowering spell. He started giggling.

Nox and Leatherwing looked at Path. “That...that can’t be good,” Leatherwing said.

Orlonda saw that Free had already shunted back into his griffoness form and was cawing and clawing at the colors. She turned back to the thestrals who didn’t exhibit any of Path and Free’s strange behavior. “Wait – why weren’t you affected?” she asked.

“Anti-magic armor, standard issue for Night Guard officers.” Nox spoke up.

“Why weren’t you affected?” Leatherwing asked.

Orlonda chuckled. “Oh, I was, but I can shunt away excess emotional stimuli. If this anything like the trick we use, it will only last about twenty minutes before it has to be recast unless it’s sustained continuously.” She shifted into a thestral. “Let’s go!”

The trio flew into the club. The floor was a mass of ponies and griffons, all of them dancing to the music or writhing with other club-goers. In the back of the club there was a literal wall of speakers. Between the two of them there was Vinyl Scratch covered in neon paint, a pair of glow-sticks taped to her horn, and on the other side was Luna… or rather it looked like Luna. It wasn’t until she shouted out “Thy rave shall last forever!” that they were certain. The entire club and those outside broke out in a cheer as the beat moved on.

The trio landed on the stage and the two D.J.s started laughing. Leatherwing tried talking to Luna first.

“Princess – you need to stop this! The crowds are doing so much more than just partying! This is almost like the time Free went unshielded into the Crystal Kingdom!”

Luna sneered. “Who art thou to even suggest that I stop partying! The Royal Rave shall go on forever!”

The thestrals gave each other a concerned look, now more worried than ever. Path had been the one who’d had a proper game-plan, and when he had succumbed, it had left the trio stumbling for an idea. It was Orlonda that took the initiative as she landed in front of the Princess. She had taken the form of the perfect idealized thestral mare, a fact that was not lost on either Luna or Vinyl.

“I, for one, welcome this rave. The bass moves through my body shaking my very existence.” She took a few steps closer with a sultry smile. “The highs and lows driving me wild, the hours become days, the days become weeks. I care not as time is irrelevant, and all I know is ecstasy.” She was now within a few inches of Luna.

The Princess grinned. “This one gets it! This one understands she shal–mmph!”

Orlonda had moved in and kissed the princess. It took only a few moments before Luna gave into the changeling’s advances. After what seemed like way too much time, Orlonda broke the kiss and nibbled down her neck. “Just a tribute… for Princess Night Beats.” Once she was low enough though, she sank her fangs down where she needed to, connecting to the chi paths. However, there was no way she could accommodate for how strong those paths in an alicorn were, and her fur and mane stood on end, mana sparks shooting between the tips for a few moments before Luna collapsed. Orlonda swayed back and collapsed. The two real thestrals swooped in. Nox grabbed Luna, and Leatherwing grabbed the smaller Orlonda, and the two then launched out of the club faster than anyone thought that they could.

They landed back next to Free and Path, but by this point the earth pony had the griffoness pinned and was biting and nibbling on her neck plumage making the griffoness croon and chirp. That was until Nox slammed his hoof down, getting their attention.

“Oh… hey guys… find Luna?” Path started to chuckle and moved off of Free who huffed in disappointment.

Leatherwing rolled his eyes and motioned to the rather obvious alicorn on Nox’s back. “Yes. Now let’s go back to your place before we figure out how to grab Princess Celestia, or even find her.”

“Why my place?” Path asked.

“Are you going to explain to the Royal Guards why we are carrying an unconscious Princess around?”

“Good point.”

Free opened her wings wide and picked up Path, and they headed back to Path’s parent’s home. There they dumped the unconscious alicorn on the couch. Nox announced that he was going to find something to secure Luna and left again. The others started to go over their next plan of action.

“I am pretty sure I know where she is, but you aren’t going to like it,” Path sighed.

“Where?” Leatherwing asked

“Late Night Mare Fights.” Path stated with a deadpan expression. “Think about it – you are an eons-old ruler, always tied down by rules, regulations, and decorum. Naturally you would want the exact opposite of that. Knowing something of Celestia’s background, that’s my best guess.”

“I really hope you’re wrong,” Leatherwing groaned.

Nox came back with rope and magic suppression rings. “Where did you get the rings?” Leatherwing asked.

“I flew down to a store where they sell these suppression rings for toddlers. I figure ten of these should do it.” He laughed a little nervously as he put all ten rings on the horn of the alicorn that he had sworn to protect. However, because they were not designed to go around a horn so big, they only covered the top half.

Leatherwing, meanwhile, was busy tying Luna up in an overly complicated knot pattern and then to the bed, back and forth until he ran out of rope. “Done!”

Path and Free looked at the alicorn who was by this point more rope than pony. “Well… it’s not like we can do any better. They looked over to Orlonda who was starting to wake back up.

“I do not want to do that again.” She rubbed her head, her form flickering a few times, but still she remained as a thestral. She blinked and focused even harder, and green fire formed at the base of her hooves but refused to travel up.

“Great,” the changeling groaned. “Getting the sun princess is all up to you two. I need to sleep this off and hope my own chi paths sort themselves out.” She went out to the living room and flopped into an easy chair.

Path and Free then said to the two thestrals, “Let’s get ready. We’ll head off in about five minutes.” Free, still in his griffoness form, whispered to Path who then looked back to the others. “Make that thirty minutes.”

The two thestrals face-hoofed as the pair went into the bedroom for a while. Until the spell wore off, they would just have to be patient.

Nox said to Leatherwing. “So, were you expecting today to go downhill like this?”

Leatherwing shrugged. “In my experience, things always get like this if there is booze, or Flix involved. So, how mad do you think Luna is going to be when she wakes up?”

Nox laughed. “Not as mad as Twilight and Rose when they learn about this.”

#

It was a known fact that mares outnumbered stallions by a large margin. It was one of the reasons why the society was based on a matriarchy, but this led to other interesting quirks that one would not see in other city states, things that the government was trying to keep low key. They could not get rid of it since it was one of the oldest traditions going back to the Three Tribes. It had been called many things over the years, but this time around it had a simple name – ‘Late Night Mare Fights’ – where the mares fought in unarmed combat. The strongest mares were able to get the strongest stallions. It was more of an underground feature now that changelings had entered the mix and were helping shift the apparent ratio to more of a 50/50 mix.

The large earth pony guarding the shady-looking iron door looked at the group with a raised eyebrow. “Two thestrals, an earth pony, and a prince want to go the mare fights? Why?”

The large thestral smiled. “Well, as you know, Lord Path has sired many foals, and he is looking to sire once more, but he only sires with the strongest. Prince Firetail, however, has only sired two, and he wants to sire again.”

The bouncer whistled. “This is going to be one hell of a fight. First we have a newcomer wiping the floor with everyone, and now two high-ticket stallions! Get in there and hold on.” The mare laughed and opened the door for them to go inside, and almost instantly they were hit with the scent of mares that were either in heat or about to go into it. The announcer was talking loudly over the public address system, trotting around the ring as two mares stared each other down from opposite corners.

“MARES, WE HAVE A VERY SPECIAL TREAT TODAY!” A spotlight shined down on the mare as she spoke, interrupting the fight. “Our C- and B-Class tiers have not changed, but we are opening Special Class matches for all that qualify!”

“Oh, hell,” Leatherwing started to groan.

The light spiraled over to the group, showing off Nox, Free, and Path for the mares in the room. “We have Lord Path, Prince Firetail, and the Captain of the Night Guard! Nox will be the grand prize for the A-Class fights, and the pair will be divided up between the first and second place of the S-Class fights!”

The males waved rather awkwardly as they heard the mares talking and murmuring to themselves. That was of course until a white earth pony with a flat pink mane and crazed eyes let out a whinny that made everyone quiet down.

“That cake is MINE!” The large earth pony yelled as she walked over. Instead of saying anything, else she leaned over and bit Free on the ear which made him yelp. She grinned and walked back to the ring before the announcer could yell at her to break it up.

Path leaned over to say to Free, “Didn’t Twilight talk about how Celestia compared you to cake during the wedding?”

Free was far from his confident self, and was actually quite worried. “Uh-huh. Please tell me you have a plan, Path.”

The earth pony just laughed. “I’m working on it – give me a bit.”

The group watched as the mares fought. The A-Class fighters were up first, and while the fighting was intense, there were no serious lasting injuries. The ten matches were done in a little under two hours. After the last battle in which the smaller mare was able to take out the much faster one with a well-timed hoof to the side, the announcer called in Nox who raised an eyebrow as he walked over to the light-tan mare with white hair. Nox figured he would just go with it.

“So, what’s your name, miss….?” He asked, with a grin.

She was huffing and panting, “Cool Autumn.” She leaned over and lightly nipped his ear with a blush. “Mine?”

The thestral grinned widely. “Sure, why not?” The crowd cheered as the thestral picked up Cool Autumn and helped her out of the ring.

The Class S fights, however, were several magnitudes more intense. Path and Free were watching the fights as they happened. Once they found out that Celestia was posing as the mare ‘Hard Knocks’, it made the battles slightly more intimidating. She fought with no mercy, and all of her matches she had won due to knock-out. The earth pony mare had made eye contact with the alicorn-changeling each time she won.

“Please tell me you have a plan, Path!” Free was starting to get worried.

The last class S match was about to start, and Hard Knocks was in her corner glaring at the mare on the other side. After a few moments, the rival mare shook her head at the announcer and left the ring, too intimidated to take on the princess in disguise.

“The announcer walked into the ring and was about to call the match off and declare Hard Knocks the winner. However, she grabbed the mic from him and started yelling, “I will take on ANYONE that disputes my claim to Prince Firetail!”

Very few were expecting any other mares to challenge Hard Knocks, but nopony was expecting Path to enter the ring as a challenger. He took the mic. “I can’t just hoof him over to you. I need to make sure that you’re strong enough.”

The announcer blinked, her eyes wide as she moved back to the edge and counted down the seconds until the fight would start.

Now Path was hoping that since Celestia was posing as an earth pony, she would have only a third the strength, not thinking that she would be effectively three times as strong since everything was focused onto that one aspect of herself. He was not expecting her to move nearly that fast either, and he barely had enough time to get his hooves up to block the punch that sent him half way to the other side of the ring. He growled and shook his hooves.

“Sorry – I need to end this quick.” Path took a few deep breaths and launched himself at her, his hoof connecting with her face, square on her muzzle. Path had taken out queens, generals, and griffons with his hooves, which is why when he saw that he not only didn’t manage to make her move an inch, but he also saw her begin to smile, he only had one thing to say.

“Oh, buck…”

She pulled her hoof back and hit Path hard, sending him against the ropes on the other side of the ring. Then the fight started to get ugly. Path ran around her trying to get hits in, but Hard Knocks didn’t even need to block. Never had Path been so outclassed before. Hard Knocks was toying with him.

The pair squared off in the middle of the ring, hoof against hoof, as Path pushed with all of his might, trying to topple her over or push her back. She started laughing and took a step forward, easily pushing Path back as if he was a shopping kart.

“Free! FREE! Grab Leatherwing and get in here now!”

Path dived under the mare’s legs as she turned around. Despite all the attacks that he and the mares in the battles before him had landed on her, she still looked fresh. The announcer was beginning to stop the match as Leatherwing and Free jumped in, when there was a shattering sound of glass, and in a flash, the three stallions disappeared along with the mare, leaving a stunned crowd.

#

Orlonda was sipping tea, looking at the still unconscious Luna before all hell broke loose. The three males were in various grapple poses on a large female earth pony. However, it wasn’t so much that they were holding her down as much as they were trying to hold on as she bucked and thrashed around.

Path started screaming, “BITE HER! BITE HER! BITE HER!”

Leatherwing was thrown off, but he pushed off against the wall that he had been thrown at and grabbed the earth pony again. However he was immediately thrown upwards with enough force to be put through the ceiling.

“ANY DAY NOW, ORLONDA!” Free cried out.

Orlonda bared her fangs and looked for the right moment. She lunged forward and was able to latch onto the pony when she was distracted by the others. The interference was even worse than before, and just as Hard Knocks passed out, the changeling was slammed against the wall from the feedback caused by interacting with an alicorn’s chi paths.

Path galloped up to the attic and came back down with chains which they wrapped up the earth pony in much the same manner as Luna. When they were done, Path sighed and swore softly. “Buck! Well, at least we got her back.”

Free looked over at Path. “Okay, so now what’s the plan?”

Path took in a deep breath and yelled at the top of his lungs. “DISCOOORRRDDDDDD!”

The draconequus randomly appeared as if he was talking to somebody. “Rectum? I damn near killed him!” He looked around the seriously damaged room, then to the tied-down Luna and the chained-up Hard Knocks. “Huh! I was wondering when you were going to call me after Flix did what he did.”

The earth pony groaned. “How do you know about it so quickly?”

“Well, who do you think I was talking to?” Discord snapped his fingers as Orlonda disappeared in a white flash. “My student loves to have his sidekick around, you understand. Now, am I right to assume that you want me to undo this?”

“Please?” Path asked.

“No.” Discord grinned and crossed his arms. “For a chaos being such as myself, this is just too much. The amount of energy I have harvested today from what they caused almost dwarfs what my student produced when he caused this whole thing. What can you offer me in exchange?” He looked down at path.

“I’ll owe you one,” Path grumbled out.

“I’m sorry; I didn’t hear you. Can you say that a little louder?” Discord started to smile.

“If you revert them for me, I’ll owe you a favor that you can call in at any time in the future,” Path huffed.

“Oho! Lord Path owing me, a lowly professor, a favor! I will accept, under the condition that if I don’t collect before you expire, the debt passes on to the current head of House Path.” His grin widened.

Path had no real ground on which to debate him, so he stuck his hoof out and they shook. With his griffon hand, Discord snapped his fingers and Luna and Celestia reverted back to their original selves. Discord then snapped his claws a second time and Twilight and Roseclaw appeared next to him.

“Not going to let you get of Scott free though. You should explain what happened to your wives.” Discord disappeared with a laugh.

Twilight and Roseclaw stared aghast at the situation. Leatherwing was through a wall...again. Luna was tied up on the bed with suppression rings; Celestia was in chains; Free looked like he was put through hell; and Path was starting to show bruises and a black eye from the ‘fight’ with Celestia.

“What in Tartarus is going on?!” Twilight yelled.

Path just groaned. “Can I tell you once I’ve soaked in the tub for a while?”

#

The sun started to rise and Nox yawned. Looking over to his left at the mare that was curled up against him, he couldn’t help but chuckle. He gazed down at her and then at the mess of a bed they were resting in. “All things considered, not a bad turn of events,” he concluded with a grin.

# # # # # # # # # #

The Choice

The Life and Times of Flix the Hippogriff
Chapter 6 – The Choice

It was late, but nobody in the castle was sleeping.

Free was busy taxing every one of his drones, while Luna and Twilight were scrying their hardest. The entire family was on high alert, the tension was thick, everyone was on edge, and it was all because their son, Flix, had been missing for a week. Ever since he had stomped out of the gallery in Canterlot, he seemed to have just disappeared. Rose was beyond consolation, and she had barricaded herself inside the den room.

Path was looking over report after report when he saw Fluttershy arrive with Discord.

“Have you heard anything, Discord?!” Path asked, clearly desperate.

“No, nothing at all…”

He was tapped hard by Fluttershy and she stared at him.

Discord hastily revised his words. “I mean – while I can’t figure out where he is because he’s blocking me as hard as he’s been blocking you, I can show you what he’s seeing.”

That got everyone’s attention, and all eyes fastened on him.

“Do it! Do it now!” Twilight yelled.

“Don’t you even want to know how it works?” Discord asked with a slight grin.

“No! Do it now!” she growled out.

“Okay! Okay! Okay!” Discord hit himself on the back of the head lightly, and his eyes spun around. One came up its normal yellow and red, but the other came up the same colors as Flix’s eye. A beam of light shot out of it and onto a wall, and soon the sound of the click-clack of a train’s wheels on rails was heard coming from it. The eye’s view moved around until it focused on an orange changeling.

“Flix, you know that you can’t keep running, right? They have four or five alicorns on their side! Eventually they will find out,” Orlonda said before her expression turned quizzical. “Why is your right eye the chaos colors again?”

They heard Flix speak. “Ah, it’s just the chaos in me. I’m not as good as the professor, so sometimes it slips out. Does it really bother you that much?”

The orange changeling looked closely at the eye. It almost seemed like she was staring through it and at the people watching her. Her eyes widened slightly and she smiled for almost a second before she hid it and let out an irritated huff. “Aren’t you at least sorry for doing that to Celestia? I mean, she is kind of the leader of your home nation, after all.” Orlonda said earnestly.

Flix looked away and got to his feet. “Honestly? No, I’m not sorry. They let my brothers and sisters get away with a lot of crap, but the moment I do something that might be controversial, I get slammed down hard. I mean, it’s not like I turned her into a balloon doggie even though I could have,” Flix growled out.

“You don’t mean that, Flix!” Orlonda chastised from out of the audience’s view.

“Ah… you know that I don’t. But you also know about how I’m sensitive to that kind of thing. I mean my moms and dads never even pay attention to me. Do you know how many shows they have attended of mine? All of them as a group? None! I’ve done like twenty shows just this year alone. Discord has shown up to almost all of them! Twilight has shown up to two; Path, Free, Rose, just one. And the only one Luna went to was this one!” Flix turned to face Orlonda again. “If it wasn’t for my last name, they would have no association with me at all!”

“But they still love you, Flix! Surely you know that, right?” She seemed to be looking right at the group when she said that.

“I don’t know, Orlonda. I honestly don’t know.” His view changed as he moved and looked outside. The scenery was shrouded in darkness, but the lights of a huge city could be seen in the distance. “We should be in Manehattan soon. Let’s see if we can’t drum up a few bits before we move on, okay?”

The view shifted again as he lay down in the hay and Orlonda snuggled up next to him.

“You can run for now, Flix, but eventually you will need to resolve this. Letting hard feelings and negative emotions fester is never a good thing,” she said as she closed her eyes.

“Eventually… but not anytime soon.” Flix sighed and closed his eyes.

Discord’s eye returned to normal, and he looked at the dumbstruck family. “Now, what are you going to do?”

Twilight cried, “We need to get him! We need to explain ourselves!”

Twilight’s horn started to glow, but before she could cast anything, Discord snapped his fingers and the herd disappeared, only to reappear behind school desks and wearing dunce caps. Even Roseclaw was there, rather confused as to what was going on since she had been in the den nest crying only moments ago.

“No,” the draconequus said sternly, “what you need to do is listen before you act.”

They really had no choice but to sit down as Discord walked over to the front of the ‘class’ in the unicorn professor guise that he often used in Ponyville. He lit up his horn as a chalkboard appeared, and the colored chalk sticks moved up to draw on the board. Little versions of their kids appeared – Blue Streak, Lucida Path, Destined Path, Epiphany Path, and finally Flix Path. After a few moments, the Lucida chalk-drawing waved to them all.

Discord looked at his ‘students’ and pointed at Long Path. “Describe Blue Streak to me.”

Path thought for a moment and then said, “He is our first son; he’s smart and strong; Warfist plans to hand the House military management responsibilities to him in a few years.”

A bar appeared under Blue Streak and pushed him up a bit.

“Did you go to his class graduations… his milestones… his birthday?” Discord asked.

“Of course we did!” Luna barked out.

“And did you do that with Lucida, Pif, and Destined?”

“Yes!”

The bars all lifted up the cardboard versions of their kids as they did a dance.

“And we all know that Destined is growing into his own as an alicorn, and is favored by both Luna and Celestia.” The bar under Destined lifted him up even higher. “Lucida is being groomed to be the new head of House Path. Pif is being trained to be the new Queen of the Chrome Hive.” Her bar moved up as well.

“What is the meaning of this, Discord?” Free growled lowly.

“Oh, I am sorry. So what can you tell me about Flix?” Discord looked from one parent to the next, as did the caricature on the chalkboard.

“Well... he's an artist… and he's our son… and he's Flix!” Roseclaw said.

The bar moved barely at all. “Do you even know what kind of artist he is? Did you go to any of his other showings, or any of his class presentations, other than the ones you were grading, of course?!” Discord demanded as the group fell silent.

“Did you go to any of his graduations?” Discord paused. “He's an experimentalist artist by the way.” He crossed his arms. “Did you even ask him how his day was?!”

“...He's always in his studio!” Twilight said softly.

“He always seemed most annoyed when we bothered him,” Luna whimpered.

“I wanted him to be free to experience all that he could,” Path said.

Discord slammed his pointing stick on the ground. “You all forgot his last birthday! While he was alone in his studio, you were all in voluntary meetings!”

The herd flinched.

“You're mad at him? He's furious with you! His lashing out is a perfectly normal response to being trivialized by those he loves the most! History is repeating itself and you are too blind to even realize it! Pop quiz – what happens when one member of the family is ignored and disempowered? Anyone? Do you need a clue, Luna?” Discord hissed.

“We need to get him and talk to him!” Twilight started to speak before Discord cut her off.

“No, no you don’t. It’s far too late for that. I’m going to go to Manehatten, and I’m going to give him a choice. You might see him shortly afterwards, or you might see him years from now, but if you love your son, you will stay here until I am done talking with him!”

Discord stomped his hooves as he disappeared, clearly infuriated at the treatment of his favorite pupil.

Fluttershy looked over the herd and shook her head sadly. “I can’t believe that your whole family could overlook your son so easily. I’m especially disappointed with you, Twilight; the Princess of Friendship should know better. And it took Discord to show you how you were failing Flix so badly! I think his teacher has been a better parent lately, don’t you?”

Everyone hung their head in shame. None could argue with the quiet pegasus because they all knew that they were just as guilty as the draconequus had accused them of being, and although it had been unintentional, it did not mitigate their failure.

#

Manehattan was a large place if you were looking for one pony who didn’t want to be found. The task would be impossible without an extraordinary amount of pony-power on the streets searching. However, Flix was a unique case; with his skill in chaos magic, he shone like a beacon to the Chaos Lord now that he was close to his student. If Flix had more skill in chaos magic, he might have been able to continue to hide himself from Discord, just as he had managed to elude his teacher’s detection up until now.

The pair was on a street corner; the hippogriff was playing his guitar and Orlonda was on the drums. Quite a few people were surrounding them as he acoustically rocked out, and the energy in the air was almost visual as he performed, The orange 'ling was synching up with him beat for beat, creating a strange kind of resonance that the crowd loved. Orlonda was busy absorbing all of the emotional energy she could before the song ended and the crowd dispersed. A few bits here and there were being tossed into Flix’s guitar case.

“So – my student decides to take his music on the road, hmm?” Discord smiled, still in his unicorn teacher guise as he walked up to the pair and sat down.

Flix flattened his ears. “Great! Are you going to tell me how much I messed up as well?”

“Nope! Actually I think you did good. You stood by your ethics, and struck Celestia down… well, you didn’t really strike her down. You just erased her filter. You should have seen her after you left!” He chuckled as he recalled the events. “Luna was barely able to keep her in check. Let’s see… she claimed the biggest stallion in some club, then beat the other mare courting him. A pity she was still in her Sunny Skies alter ego though or else she’d still be trying to fix the political damage. Oh! You’ll love this!” Discord pulled out a photo of Celestia full body-hugging a multiple-layer cake. Her ears were pinned back and she was snarling at the camera.

Flix started laughing, as did Orlonda. It took them a few minutes to calm down and they looked back up at a grinning Discord. “Wow! Okay, I wasn’t expecting that. I kind of wish I’d been there for that.”

Discord grinned. “Luna tried to get her off the cake, but Celestia bit her.” He snapped his fingers as the picture faded away. “Now on to the serious part. Your moms and dads really want me to bring you back home so that they can talk to you, because they somehow think that words will undo them ignoring you for a greater part of your life. However, I’m not going to do that. Instead I’m going to give you a choice.”

Discord held out his two front hooves. “Pick the left hoof and I make you happy. You love your moms and dads. There is no conflict. You are the perfect little son. On top of that you will also have no memory of this decision. You will think you came to this all on your own. Instant. Happy. Ending.” He glared at Flix.

“Or you can pick the right hoof, and see what happens.” He grinned, his normally disguised eyes revealing their chaotic nature.

Flix looked at Orlonda who was slowly starting to smile. He looked back to Discord and slapped his right hoof. “As if you had to ask!” he declared with a laugh.

Discord grinned and clapped his hooves, causing Path’s bag to appear in front of them. “In this bag is everything you need if you really want to explore. I mean more than your dad. Try going south – there is another half of the globe waiting for you. Welcome to the final year of my class!” Discord then disappeared, leaving the bag.

Flix blinked a few times, looked down and opened it up. In there he found a comm, a return crystal, bits, and a letter from Discord. He read it aloud for the benefit of Orlonda.

“Think of a family member, tap the comm, and you can talk to them. If things gets too bad, hit the return crystal. You won’t go to Luna or Twilight – you will return to me. Put your hand in the bag and grab out bits. It works every time, but best not to think about where the bits come from. Check in with your parents from time to time. I really don’t want to have to listen to their whining all the time. They apparently do care about you or something. –D.”

Flix grinned at Orlonda as he put his guitar in his case and put on the satchel. “Look like we're going south.”

“Okay. How are we going to do that?” Orlonda asked.

Flix started to walk down the street as Orlonda followed him. “No idea!” he answered happily.

Flix Travels West!

Orlonda woke up, the sound of the clacking of the train-car on the rails soft enough to soothe her asleep and then gradually wake her back up. She looked around slowly and then up at Flix. “So – if Discord suggested south, why are we going west?” She yawned widely as he smiled down at her.

“Well, I need to buy a boat to sail south. I remember hearing something about boats in Vanhoover, and once we get one, we can leave out of Luna Bay.” He grinned as he rubbed her sides slowly.

Orlonda rolled her eyes. “It's almost like you have this all planned out.”

Flix just grinned. “Well, actually I’m just kinda making it up as I go along.” He pulled a map out of his pack and laid it out on the table in front of them.

“So we are here.” He pointed along the map to a point north of the Foal Mountains. “And we are going here.” He traced the tracks all the way to Vanhoover. “Do you think you could connect to your hive sometime and grab any info they have on yachting or sailing?”

Orlonda just looked at him for a few moments before she laughed. “Oh, you’re serious. Yes Flix, I can easily grab that information, and I can do it right now if you feel like it. Just hold onto me while I’m doing it, please.”

Flix smiled, fluffed out his feathers, and grabbed her, pulling her into his now extremely warm and soft plumage. “Oh hon, if you wanted to snuggle, you could have just asked.” Flix chuckled softly as Orlonda curled up into him and slowly closed her eyes, her mind fading as she reached for and connected to the main Orange Changeling network.

#

A lot of ponies who knew about changelings figured that each one was connected to the Queen, and the Queen could control all of them at a whim. However, this was not the case; there was the sympathetic and parasympathetic network system. Much like in a pony, there was one network that took relatively small amounts of energy to maintain but you could give only the bare basic information. Then there was the primary link where the process was more involved. The 'ling could take in massive amounts of information, but it made the 'ling vulnerable and easily attacked.

Orlonda appeared at the hub of her network. For every hive the visualization of the hub was different: the Red Hive was like a great warrior house, the Green Hive was a lot like a large administration building, the Chrome Hive was a giant library, and the Orange Hive, the one Orlonda currently stood in, could be described as a large opera house.

She gradually found her bearings and walked toward the main hub where she met up with another, taller 'ling. She bowed deeply. “Princess Actus, I have a request.”

The 'ling opened her eyes and smiled. “Oh, Orlonda! It's been a while, hasn’t it? Sure, what do you need?”

Orlonda smiled a little bit brighter in response to the princess. “I need everything we know about sailing, yachting, and other maritime activities.”

The Princess blinked a few times, looking slightly confused. “I… well, yes, we do have that information. It's old but it should still hold true.” She leaned in with a smile and lowered her horn down. “Does this have to do with your Flix friend?”

Orlonda smiled as her horn charged up slightly and she nodded. “It does.” She touched her horn with the Princess’s and she started to learn things, new things she never knew before. As her eyes slowly went wide, she had no idea how long it took for her to finish the transfer but eventually the connection was broken and Actus leaned away. “That should be it, Orlonda. But you have to tell me, what exactly are you two planning for another post-modern art show? Another exhibition in Chaoticism? Polistae is really curious now that she can feel what information you are drawing.” The Princess was almost ecstatic.

Orlonda rubbed the back of her head in chagrin. “I... I don’t really know. Flix just says that to accomplish this next feat, we must go beyond the beyond… and I have no idea what that means.”

The Princess nodded. “His artistic mind is so very different from most. I hope that you learn much, and when we talk again, I hope you have lots to share!”

Orlonda nodded, farewelled the Princess, and as she trotted away, the connection was soon broken. Her eyes opened up and she looked around. She leaned against the soft plumage and let out a groan against the warmth.

“Mmm… looks like somebody has woken up – it only took a day and a half.” The hippogriff laughed, rubbed her sides, and crooned against her.

The changeling laughed. “It took longer than I thought to get the information, but I have it.”

“That's good because we're almost at our stop,” Flix said as the train started to slow down to a stop. The ponies around them started to get up and grab their luggage. Flix, however, picked up his satchel and went toward the exit and Orlonda followed him.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“To the harbor, I guess, to find a boat for sale.” He pulled out his crystal and looked at it for a few moments before it turned yellow like the sun. “But first I need to comm somebody.”

#

Celestia was relaxing as the sun was set for the night in Canterlot. She and Luna were enjoying their personal time together, although with Luna’s court getting so much attention lately, their time was cut down to only around an hour.

Celestia looked as her crystal flickered and flashed. “Oh… Hmm… Who has these communication crystals, sister?”

Luna looked up from her cupcake. “House Path, and the heads of the satellite Houses.”

Celestia nodded once before she activated it. “Hello? Oh! Hi, Flix! Are you well?”

Luna’s eyes went wide and she started making exaggerated motions to try to get Celestia to hand the crystal over.

“Oh they are doing fine. They were worried, but after the talk with Discord, they are recovering. What about you?” Celestia nodded a few times. “Ah, so that’s why Penny Pincher has been freaking out. … Yes. … Yes. … Okay. … Well beyond that is Luna Bay. … Hmm, you reach what ponies call the Undiscovered West, then the great sea. … I don’t know. … Don’t act so surprised – I’m not all knowing; I just know a lot. … Yes, yes, I will let them know. … In your dreams tonight – got it! … Bye, Flix. Keep in touch!”

Celestia clicked the comm crystal off as Luna gawked at her. “I wanted to talk to him!”

“He figured that you would and said to just meet him in his dreams later on tonight. They were apparently in a shipyard working on something.” The solar princess stated and went back to her cupcake.

Luna huffed a bit. “I suppose I will have to do that.”

The sisters smiled at each other again and continued to enjoy their start of day/end of day cupcakes.

#

When Luna appeared in the dream, she was intrigued by all the water, and it took her a few moments before she spotted a large, sleek catamaran lazily drifting in the water. She landed on it and looked around to see a familiar hippogriff lying in a hammock tied up between the two masts.

“Ahoy there, yon Captain!” Luna called out with a giggle.

Flix chuckled, flopping out of the hammock and landing next to her. “Like the boat? I called her the HMS Sunbutt.” Discord’s idea, actually. I had to come up with a name for the deed when I bought it.”

“You bought a boat?! How didst thou even afford such a thing?” Luna exclaimed!

“Best not to think about it. But I wanted to tell you about where I am going, so that way you can relay it to the others and they won’t freak out about it. Also, you could always just check in on me in my dreams, but it might scare you.” Flix grinned.

Luna raised an eyebrow “I have seen horrible things; I doubt that thou could scare me.”

Flix just laughed as a featureless sphere appeared in front of them. “When I think about all the maps I have seen and every story I have heard, the world looks like this.” As he spoke, the globe became colored halfway with a patchwork of maps and drawings. “See the non-colored section?”

Luna nodded.

“I was trying to figure out what's on the unknown side, and how big that side is, and then I happened to read a book, actually an old almanac of Equestria, back when they used Canterlot Standard Time. And everywhere else was either plus or minus hours depending on if they were east or west of the city.”

Luna nodded again slowly as Flix spoke.

“So the largest value was +3 in Trottingham, which means the sun set three hours earlier than Canterlot, and the smallest value was -2 in Vanhoover which meant that the sun set two hours later than Canterlot. We know that there are twenty-four hours in a day. Knowing that, I can make a globe with twenty-four slices. Based on the old system, I know that Equestria takes five of those twenty-four slices. The Griffonian Kingdom is at +5, and the furthest I have found is the Dragonlands at +8. Well that accounts for ten out of the twenty-four ‘slices’, so what's happening on the other side of the world, hmm?” Flix grinned as the globe separated itself much like an orange with two dozen slices.

Luna blinked and was quiet for a few moments, taking in all that he said. “Thou art so much like thy father… well, thy father in the early stages of House Path. Such an explorer! Always asking questions; always asking what if?”

“Do you know what's on the other side of the world?” Flix asked

“I have seldom visited the far side of Equus, and not much of it at all. However...” Luna smiled as the globe was cut in half so there were an upper twenty-four sections and a lower twenty-four sections. “Using thy system, the Old World thestrals live on the southern section at -12. It's why I can only visit it at certain times. And the South Austri Islands are at +4 in the southern section. Other than that, it has been lost to time. Thou might most likely be the first pony, griffon, or anything from this side of Equus to visit that area since the time of Mareco Polo, and all of her works were lost in the first Rule of Discord.”

Flix just grinned. “So there could be other civilizations with other forms of art no pony has seen in thousands of years?”

Luna smiled. “Thy fascination with art mirrors thy father’s for language. Thou dost do him proud. I will leave thee to your dream. Dost thou mind if I check up on thee from time to time?”

Flix hugged her. “Come by when you like. I can show you what I’ve seen since we last talked!”

Luna nodded and left Flix to his dreamscape.

The hippogriff looked around at his boat and then up to the sky.

“Let's see if we can go the long way around!”

Nine Thousand Kilometers from home

Luna searched her way through the countless dreamscapes.

The Realm of Dreams was her domain, although she was happy she had a chosen few ‘Dream Wardens’ to ease the load, Destined Path being the most advanced one by far. This gave her the time to tend to the dreams of the ponies further away requiring more energy to reach. Her last pony to tend was by far the furthest away. One thing that always worked for her was the relative perception of time in the dreamscape. Once she had a lock on her target, she shot forward at a speed that she could only reach in this realm. After an unknown amount of time, Luna slowed down and slowly circled around two dream-spheres, so far away from the others that she could no longer see any of them. They slowly orbited each other, but with a flare of her horn, the two dream-spheres merged into a larger one which she entered.

The alicorn walked into a... surprisingly normal scene. It looked like it was the large park that was in the center of the lower Canterlot districts, which she could see from her tower. In the distance were the two she was searching for: Flix and Orlonda sitting under a tree. She floated over with a smile on her face.

“So how goes the adventurous duo?” The alicorn sat down next to them as Flix looked up at her with a grin.

“It took ya over a month to come visit? I figured you would have been here sooner?” The hippogriff asked while Orlonda slowly opened up one eye and nodded a greeting to Luna.

“Thou dost not realize just how far away thou art, Flix. Even in the dreamscape, thou art distant,” Luna replied as she nuzzled both of them.

“So, did she like the present?” Flix asked, his rather chaotic grin getting larger.

Luna chuckled a bit. “She appreciated the gift, but mayhap thou should have given her the boat instead of just the deed to it? An amusing name, by the way. I have never seen her get that red before. HMS Sunbutt will stand proudly amidst the names of the rest of her fleet.” The alicorn laughed for a few moments before calming back down.

“I also wanted to check up on Orlonda. I have to admit that I was not expecting that there would be a range component to the hive network. Two days ago, Queen Polistae came to me, worried that she felt one of her drones drop from the network. For a harvester to do that on their own was unheard of in her hive.”

Flix nodded as Orlonda curled up around the hippogriff, content for the moment. “It... was interesting. I woke up to her screaming and didn’t know what to do. She has had to deal with horrible nightmares if I’m not around her while she sleeps. I offered to send her back home, but she refuses to leave me.”

Luna nodded. “Hast thou been sailing continuously since you left?”

Flix nodded. “Sailing steady between four and six knots once we set sail. However, we have had to do some sweeping arcs around foul weather systems. I’m glad I took that sextant when I had the chance. Too bad the North Star doesn’t come up anymore.”

Luna was actually quite surprised. “Thou art that far south?! I have to admit that I have not worked on the southern sky in far too long.”

Flix smiled as he raised a claw and snapped his talons. The day turning into night as he viewed the night sky as seen from the southern hermisphere. “I actually have been doing science while on board. Well, it’s art that can be considered scientific. I have been painting the night sky as well as taking the right ascension and declination of each major star and nebula. I have to admit that the sky down here is amazing. I don’t remember you talking about these in your class!”

Luna smirked. “I don’t remember thee paying attention in my class, now that I think about it. How dost thou know how to use a sextant anyways?”

Flix rolled his eyes. “I was paying enough attention,” He pointed up to a patch of red in the sky. “I call that the Mana Nebula – it’s the kind of purplish red that makes me think of mana.” He started pointing off various stars and noting how they related to each other. “This is why I know exactly where I am. Because I know where the North Star is in relation to these further points, and as long as I have at least two references points so that I can figure out my longitude, I can reference that group of stars there.” He pointed to the Southern Cross. “And I can figure out my latitude.” I can tell you that I am about nine thousand kilometers south-southwest of my starting point in Vanhoover.”

Luna smiled brightly; this was the first time in a long while that she had seen Flix this happy and animated. Maybe he had found his calling as an explorer? “Thou dost seem to love this lifestyle, Flix. Thy keen attention to detail in thine art has made thee adept at navigation and exploration.”

Flix couldn’t help but grin. “There have been a few problems here and there, but we have discovered something great! We know the effective range of the Orange Hive network, approximatly seven thousand kilometers before no connection can be sensed by a harvester.”

Orlonda opened her eye again. “You know that I’m right here, don’t you? You’re sounding a lot like Pif or Twilight, being all science-y! Luna, why don’t you ask him the question you wanted to ask him first?”

Flix looked back to Luna as the alicorn sighed. “There is something…. The herd misses thee. Roseclaw is just now finally showing herself outside of the bedroom. She feels like she has failed thee as a mother. Everyone is trying to distract themselves so they don’t fall into a depression. Discord really reamed us before we went to talk to thee. Even quiet Fluttershy joined in, and that was most telling to Twilight.”

Flix did not respond the way the alicorn was thinking he would. Rather than get huffy, throw a tantrum, or simply force himself to leave the dream, he leaned back against the tree and let out a heavy sigh. “I could go back right now if I want to. Discord gave me a return crystal for just that reason. But I honestly don’t want to. What use is a normal hippogriff in the company of kings, queens, princes, princesses, lords and ladies? I never fit in there and we both know it. I do love them, but I’m not ready to return to them yet. Maybe once I have done something on par with their accomplishments, I can feel like an equal amongst my brothers and sisters, but if I came back now, I would just be the forgotten son again.”

The scenery changed and they were sitting on the deck of the catamaran, looking at the millions of stars of the Southern Hemisphere.

“Something has been calling me for a long time, well before the fight with Celestia. I just only heard it clearly when I opened myself up to it. Is it close? I don’t know. It could be another three weeks away or I could reach it tomorrow, but I can’t go back until I find it.” Flix looked back to Luna with a quiet smile.

Luna started to cry as she reached forward and wrapped the hippogriff up in her wings, holding him tightly. Flix smiled. “You shouldn’t cry. I will come back to annoy you all in person, You Moms better be ready for it.”

Luna’s eyed went wide. The younger members had always called her Auntie; Flix was the first one to call her Mom.

“I think I’m going to wake up now. Talk to you in a few weeks, Mom.” Flix smiled fondly at Luna as the dreamscape started to destabilize, and Luna waved goodbye as it collapsed.

Flix woke up and yawned, rubbing his eyes as he looked at the night sky which had begun to brighten. It would be a little while longer before the sun would rise, so it would be okay to take some time before beginning his routine… that and Orlonda was still asleep, and he wouldn’t leave her yet.

#

Luna woke up with a smile on her face, but then blinked when the noticed the rest of her herd staring back at her.

“Luna, are you okay?” Free asked.

“I am more than okay, and I bring word from Flix.” She smiled as the family gathered around to hear what she had learned.

# # # # # # #

-- Next time: A Friend in Maewo? –

A new way to phone home.

It was the distance that was the problem.

Luna was an alicorn, the Aspect of the Moon, the Guardian of All Dreams, but there were limits to what even she could do in the dream realm. The hours could stretch into days, but she found that if she had to travel beyond a certain distance, the time it would take for her to reach would be longer than she could stay asleep. When she last tried to visit the hippogriff, Luna found that he had sailed beyond the distance she could manage via the dreamscape. More than a few weeks passed in frustration before she called a meeting with the rest of the herd plus a few others.

Luna looked at them all as she lay down in the center of the den. She yawned softly, her belly now significantly larger than before; everyone knew that she was far along, but what they didn’t know was how it was affecting her as an alicorn. The only basis they had for comparison was Cadance and Twilight, both of whom were under a century in age.

“I have a request of you all, if it’s not too much to ask.” She smiled and reached over to a bowl of fruit, selected a pear, and took a bite… then another… and another.

“Path, couldst thou be a dear and get me some more Griffonian Pears? I can’t get enough of them!” she asked.

The head of the House bolted up right and nodded. “I’ll be right back with them!” He galloped out like he had not a moment to lose. Meanwhile the rest of the herd looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“Path tends to get very depressed when I talk about how Flix is doing. He still doesn’t want to talk to Path or Rose yet. However, that is the reason why I have called you here. I told him that I was going to meet him in his dreams about a week ago but he is too far away for me. I need your help to work on a new version of the walkie-trottie, one that can transfer not only words but also images. I want us to be able to see Flix as well as hear him. I am hoping that that Twilight and Path’s mother can handle creating the new spell while Pif and Techbird work on the physical device. Can it be done, and if so, how long will it take?”

Twilight was not expecting to be thrown something like this. “Well… a translation spell… as well as an illusion spell… all tied into the quantum entanglement backbone of the trottie... it sounds feasible for us to create something but the power needed would be considerably more.”

Pif stood up tall. “I can make such a device! My think-tank and I are on it!” The changeling princess grabbed Techbird and her horn lit up before the pair disappeared.

Free nearly fell over. “Gah! Luna why did you give her that task?! She’s practically lighting up the entire network!”

The rest of the herd laughed as Twilight slowly stood up. “Ivory Tower and I should get started. While we aren’t as… energetic as those two, I’m certain we can have results soon.”

The pair headed off as Roseclaw looked over to Luna. “Do you think our son will come back?”

“I am certain of it; he just needs to find himself is all. He is making great progress and he is exploring the world in ways we never could.” Luna nodded once and laid her head back down, growing tired again. “Once he finds what he’s looking for, he will return.” Luna started to doze off as Roseclaw petted her mane lightly, making the alicorn smile as she slept.

#

Weeks had passed and Discord was where he normally could be found – Fluttershy’s cottage. She was currently tending to the animals while he was testing out a new look for the cottage.

SNAP

“Too Medieval.”

SNAP

“Kawaii sugiru.”

SNAP

“Too Next Generation.”

SNAP

“I guess I’ll stay with the classics,” he said with a sigh.

Discord sat back down and yawned, but soon his right antler started to flash and flicker. He raised an eyebrow, plucked it off his head, and pressed one of the antler tips down.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Teach! How are ya doin'?” The other side of the horn yelled out.

Discord chuckled. “Well, it's boring here without my favorite student mixing things up, but I'm managing. I heard that with Luna getting further along in her pregnancy and with you being even further away than ever, she can't reach you in her dreams, which has her made distraught. The House is working on some kind of new comm, but with pictures. I really wasn't paying attention for most of it, and it has been a few weeks since they talked about it.”

There was a long silence before Flix spoke again. “It's all well and good if they make it, but how will they get it here?”

Discord started laughing. “I have no idea!”

The hippogriff responded, “Well, let's see what happens wh–”

There was a loud thump and his antler cut out.

The Chaos Lord blinked. “Flix...? FLIX?!”

With a snap of his claws the Chaos Lord disappeared.

#

The herd had gathered again in the main room. Pif, Zavak, Techbird, Twilight, and Ivory Tower all looked exhausted, but in front of them were two large crystals that looked a lot like tripods.

Luna blinked in puzzlement. “What am I looking at?”

Pif started to explain. “The only way we could do what you wanted was to create a bigger system. As you know, the normal trottie works by quantum entanglement of enchanted crystals. With this device, we have extrapolated that even further. Twilight’s old model uses only a few hundred pairs. This uses a few thousand. In order to deal with mana losses in the process, we created this tripod array to collect light and convert it to mana to power the illusion spells that make up the image.”

Luna looked at them with wide eyes. “This is amazing, but how are we going to get one of these to Flix?”

A familiar voice appeared from one of the windows. “It’s impossible, of course, but with just a snap of my claws, I could send it to him.”

Luna looked up at Discord with hope in her eyes. “Couldst thou do it for us, please?”

“While I am not your delivery boy, I have a vested interest in Flix too, so I’ll do it this time.” The Chaos Lord snapped his fingers, and one of the devices disappeared.

Luna looked at Twilight. “How long will it be until we can try to contact him?”

Twilight looked over her notes. “Well, it was fully charged before we sent it to him, so it’s ready for use immediately. However, I have no way of knowing how far away he is, so he might have received it while he’s asleep.”

The center of the tripod started to glow and Twilight cut herself off.

“Or he could have turned it on right now.”

The group circled around the tripod as it hummed into action. They looked somewhat confused as a white blur started to form in mid-air, but as the device continued humming, the blur became more and more distinct, and soon they were looking at the blurry form of Flix who started to laugh.

“Whoever thought this up is awesome!” the hippogriff spoke as the image slowly moved around the group, only getting about one image each second.

Luna stood up and looked at Flix. “Thou art looking as good as always, if not better. I am sorry that I could not come and visit thee in your dreams, but thou art just too far away for me to reach now. How are things going?” The alicorn looked at the hippogriff realizing that he was getting leaner, and more muscular, and she mused that it was due to all the work that went into sailing.

Two more white forms started to materialize. The first one they instantly recognized as Orlonda, and she too was slightly leaner than before. The details were hard to see due to the low resolution of the device. But it was the third pony that caught them by surprise. She was smaller than Flix, her head was only as high as his shoulders, they could not see a horn, nor could they see wings, but they could see that she had ear frills that were similar to a dragons, sharp teeth similar to a thestral, and instead of a tail that was primarily hair, it was a long muscular tail that ended with a fluke.

The pony looked very closely at the tripod and then looked back to Flix, and talked an unknown language. Flix replied, and her cautious body language shifted into a friendlier one. She waved. “Oha!”

The herd looked at that third pony for a while and waved back before getting back to Flix.

“I have been so busy over the past three months, and I have such a story to tell you all!”

# # # # # # #

– Next Time: 90 days 90 fathoms under the sea! –

The Talk

Long distance communication – it was a thing of the future

The herd was crowded around the tripod as the three rendered forms smiled back at them, still amazed that this device was working as well as it was. Eventually Flix looked back to Twilight. “It is wonderful what you can do when you have everyone on the same page isn’t it?” He smiled before he sat down. Eventually both Orlonda and the Sea Pony sat down with him, and the herd joined them as well.

“So are you going to tell us about your new friend?” Twilight asked cautiously. She did not want to ruin the good mood Flix was in; it was so long since he didn’t have disdain in his voice. Apparently the talks with Luna had cooled him down.

“Don’t you want to know what happened? I mean it has been over a month since I last communicated with Luna.” Flix looked towards Luna.

“Ah, I am sorry, Flix, but as you can see...” She stood up to show just how far along she was. The hippogriff’s eyes went wide as his image walked over and looked at her belly.

“Okay this makes more sense – you couldn’t travel to see me because you are either weaker from being pregnant, or the rest of the herd was doting on you so much that you couldn’t.” Flix chuckled and went to sit back down.

“Hey, Orlonda – want to tell them how we met IkaIka?” Flix asked.

The changeling laughed. “The part where we ran aground on her people’s island because we were both asleep, or the part where she helped you because she thought you were a sea-pony that was born disfigured.”

Flix frowned and batted Orlonda’s side. “You could have put it better. Anyway, after sailing for another week after my last conversation with Luna, we both ended up passing out late at night. We have done it plenty of times before, and we didn’t see any indication that land was near. In hindsight, it was because there are no lights, magical or otherwise on this island. So around 2:00am we get thrown from the hammock because we ran aground.”

Orlonda piped up. “On a beach! It’s so sandy and nice here. Think of the best beach in Equestria and multiply it by a thousand!”

Flix laughed. “Well, we were trying to figure out what to do when we saw IkaIka. Apparently she was out hunting for a specific kind of fish that only comes out at night.”

The pair looked to IkaIka as she nodded and started to talk, in her native language. “Ko reira i pouri. whakaaro ahau ko ia etahi ahua o kanohi i tawhiti-haere.”

Everyone looked at her blankly before she discovered what she was doing wrong. She then started to talk in extremely broken Equish. “He… was far traveler, hurt, missing tail. Maybe big teeth grabbed him.” She nodded a few times clearly worried. “We went to Dad. Dad went to boat, called friends and moved boat up to fix.” She pointed to Flix. “Ngutu Reka.” Then she pointed to Orlonda.”Anga pīataata.” She turned back to the hive. “We work as one. We repair, we hunt, we sleep.”

It was Roseclaw’s turn to look at Flix with an eyebrow raised. “Hunt?”

IkaIka nodded. “Spear and stick. He not breathe the sea like I, or like anga pīataata. He holds the heavens and dives. Dad is very proud. I am very proud.”

IkaIka nodded once before Flix picked up with the story. “So their village helped us get the ship onto the beach and lifted up so we can see what needed repairs. There was not that much damage but we were taking our time repairing the ship while helping the village along the way – repairing huts, or going out for fish due their celebration. It’s so warm here it’s hard to believe that it’s already winter.”

Free blinked. “Why would it be winter? It’s just about summer here.”

Luna chuckled. “He’s so far away that the seasons are the opposite to ours where he is.”

“How far away is he?!”

“If I had to estimate, a little under ten thousand kilometers,” Luna said matter-of-factly as Twilight and Roseclaw gawked.

Before they could freak out, it was Flix that put them at ease. “First off, you don’t need to worry. I am doing great and I am collecting a lot of science for you. Have you seen Luna’s sky before ponies? She’s told me it’s been well before Discord’s era that she’s modified this night sky. It’s so… raw, so unrefined. It is totally without outside influence. The sky at home is a sky she’s locked into by the ponies, but down here this sky is untamed, wild and free.”

Luna started to get teary-eyed with pride as she heard the words being talked about her night sky.

“And the art! My gods, the art! While in Equestria, they put art in its own little compartment. Here it is a seamless combination of form and function. Art is in their everyday lives because they see it as something important for all, not just a luxury item for a privileged few.” Flix was about go to on before Orlonda bonked him on the head. “Calm down, Paint-head.”

Everyone laughed a bit before Orlonda spoke up. “Can you tell Queen Polistae that I have been learning many new things, and that when we get back, I hope that I can be reconnected to the hive again. It’s lonely being the only voice in my head. I don’t know how you guys do it.”

The mood was about to sour before the rich voice of the Chaos Lord was heard. He walked into range of the device and IkaIka suddenly pointed. “Tetahi Huru!” She went to her feet and bowed, her head almost against the ground and her tail was lifted up high.

Discord looked at the sea pony with an indulgent smile. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been called that.”Kia whakatika koutou.”

The seapony stood back up and sat down.

Everyone in the herd stared at Discord but he ignored it. “Are you doing well, student?”

“You know it!”

“Enjoying yourself?”

“I am!”

“How is your assignment going?”

“I feel like I am closer, but to what I don’t know.”

Discord nodded a few times. “Good. Good. Keep it up!” And with that short conversation done, he snapped his fingers and was gone.

Free looked at the space where Discord had been. “I really need to sit him down one of these days.”

It was Roseclaw who spoke to Flix next. “Can I call Path in? He really does want to speak to you, but I know that you were mad at him the most.”

Flix’s ears flattened as he thought for a few moments and then nodded. “Sure – I think I can carry on a conversation with him.

It took a few moments as the herd looked in one direction. It was then that Path slowly materialized for Flix to see.

“Hello, son,” he said, and then started to smile hopefully.

“Dad,” Flix replied.

There was a long awkward silence.

“I am sorry that I was ignoring you in favor for the other kids. I just wanted you to go make a name for yourself like I did. You were the only one out of all of them that was truly free. Lucida, Blue, Destined, Pif – all of them had their lives virtually mapped out. In all reality, there was almost no choice for what they would do in life. But you – you are the true wildcard, in terms of exploration and experiencing new cultures, you have surpassed everyone here. Free and I really only made it as far as Griffonia, while Blue went a little further with the Dragonlands. But you are well beyond that. I am proud of you son.” Path was starting to tear up.

“Dad… I’m still mad at you, but at the very least I can now be civil. I don’t know if I am going to come back anytime soon; there is still so much to see and do. I will still continue traveling west. I imagine at the rate I’m going, in two to four years I’ll wrap around and hit the eastern side of the Dragonlands. Maybe by then I’ll be able to talk to you without anger or disdain, but it’s not that time yet,” Flix said with his emotions highly guarded. In fact the only way they could read him was by watching Orlonda’s reaction to him.

“I understand, son. Just… if you don’t want to talk to me that often, talk to the others so that we know you are okay. I love you, son,” Path said with a weak smile, slowly standing back up and walking out of the range of the tripod.

Flix then turned to Twilight and Pif. “So what does this blinking red light on the side of the tripod mean?”

“Oh! It means that it’s running low on power. To recharge it, just stick it out in the sunlight all day,” Pif answered.

Flix nodded. “If that’s the case, then I will talk to you all later, maybe in a few weeks. Bye, everyone!”

The herd said their goodbyes before Flix reached over and shut the tripod off.

Free looked over to Twilight. “I am going to help Path get better. See you in time for dinner?”

Twilight nodded and Free ran off after the distraught head of the House.

Luna mused. “He’s growing so much. When he comes back, I wonder if we will remember the young hippogriff who left?”

# # # # # # #

--Next Time! : Further West!--

That time of the year.

This was heaven, clearly it had to be.

He slowly sat up to look at the sapphire sky, and water so clear it looked like his boat was floating on the air. It was not completely calm though as the slight rocking of the boat alerted him to the fact that they were moving, just very slowly.

“Hmm… morning, everyone. What’s going on?” Flix yawned and clapped his beak a few times. He was about to keep talking before a changeling hoof was shoved into his beak and he just blinked at Orlonda a few times, confused. She then pointed to IkaIka who was dipping her hooves into the water. Every few moments she let out a chitter and her ear fins moved to the left, then to the right.

Flix leaned over, somewhat confused. “What’s she doing?”

“She’s reading the waves to figure out much further till we find the edge of their lands,” Orlonda said with a hushed down.

“Is... is that a thing that she can actually do? Is that a thing that anyone can do?” Flix asked, clearly confused as to what was going on.

The sea-pony slowly lifted up, her ears twitching a few times before she turned to face the pair. “We should go to full sail and go with the wind. There is a storm behind us, but your ship should be able to outrun it if we keep going. Also if we keep going this way, in a few days or so we should run into the straits.”

Flix looked questioningly at her. “The straits?”

She nodded. “The furthest west we have traveled, it’s where the jungle closes in until just a small strip of water cuts though, but we never went past the narrows.”

Flix slowly started to grin as he wrapped his wing around her waist. IkaIka let out a surprised chitter, as he dragged Orlonda over with his other wing and laughed. “I don’t know if the world has an edge, but if it does, we will find it!

The trio was in high spirits as the boat continued on to the west.

#

Days later, the boat sailed through the straits. The three watched the distant jungles on either side of the channel they were floating through. It was not to say that it was a tight fit though – if Flix squinted, he could just barely make out the fact that there was land to the north and south of him.

“Hey Ika – you never told me why you wanted to come with us,” Orlonda asked as she sat down.

“I thought it was obvious; I want to be an explorer. If I just left you once your boat was fixed, I would still be stuck in my village, fishing and hunting. While it is fulfilling, it has made me become complacent. I would much rather explore and feel new currents, eat new foods, and see new races. Before I met you, the only time I had heard of a pony with no fluke was when my great grandfather was attacked – one quick snap of jaws and its gone.” She leaned in and snapped her sharp teeth together for effect.

The trio looked on as the water widened back up and then again they were in open sea. The sea-pony went back to feeling the currents. Every now and then her ears would twitch and she would bark out an order to turn to the left or turn to the right. Flix and Orlonda moved the sail and rudder to steer the craft even though they had no idea where they were going.

“I am keeping us within twenty miles of the coast. That way if the weather turns, we can veer in and be in relative safety,” IkaIka explained.

“Ah, so you can feel the waves crashing on the beach, and that’s how you can tell we are close to the coast?” Orlonda asked trying to figure out how she was reading the water.

“Close but no; I am not that sensitive. But I can feel when the waves in the water slow down and bend. It’s hard to explain,” Ika said with a huff.

Flix was about to say something in response when that tripod crystal started to glow and beep, indicating that a call was waiting for him.

Orlonda moved over and pressed the top of the tripod which then started to hum, before the illusion set up. “Flix, is it your birthday?” she asked in a somewhat loud tone.

Flix looked up and started to think. “Hmm... I suppose that it is, or rather, it was yesterday. Why?” Flix turned around to see his parents, a cake and a lot of presents.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” they yelled out as loud as they could.

Flix fell back as the changeling laughed at him and his parents starting to sing for him. Eventually he stood back up and listened to their singing with a laugh. “You do realize that I can’t actually open the presents right now? I can see them but I can’t open them.” He put his talon through one to prove his point.

“We’ll keep them here until you come back to claim them,” Roseclaw said, but then she grinned. “But there’s one that we can open for you right now.”

Flix’s curiosity was piqued. “Oh? Whatever could you give me right now?”

Roseclaw tugged on the ribbon that was holding shut the box that she was holding, and then lifted off the lid. Twilight levitated the contents of the box out to hover it in front of the image of Flix so that he could clearly see what it was despite the low resolution. It consisted of a base with an inscription on it, with three equally spaced struts holding up a sphere that was marked to look like a globe of the world, and on the sphere stood a small hippogriff figure. The inscription read, ‘World’s Greatest Son’.

Flix snorted and burst out in laughter. The figurine was standing upside down on the bottom of the sphere! He pounded the deck, practically in hysterics, while Orlonda soaked up the happiness that the gift had brought him. Ika was mystified, but happy that Flix liked his gift.

The herd was equally pleased that their gift was so well received, and they waited patiently until Flix’s laughter ran its course.

Flix sat up and grinned at his parents. “Thanks. This truly is the best present that I have had in a long time. I’ll treasure it.”

“Want us to save you some of the cake too?” Free asked with a grin.

“What? And spoil my fish diet?” Flix answered with a chuckle.

The herd members laughed along with Flix before they settled down to chat a little. The hippogriff could not help but feel a pang of regret to not being there in person, but as long-distance parties went, this was the best!

# # # # # # #

Just when things were getting good...

Space…

So many times Flix had heard both Luna and Destined talking about it, but the way he thought about it was different from the two alicorns that spent who knew how long toiling over relative distances, absolute magnitudes and stellar masses. Flix thought that it was more of an infinite canvas, and Luna had the only brush and pallet capable of painting on it. This time it was different however. He stood at the highest mast on the catamaran and slowly reached for a brush, the tip of which was the same purple starry pattern as Luna’s mane. The hippogriff started to paint new nebulas before he heard a giggle behind him.

“And here I thought that thou didst always love my sky. I guess I cannot be perfect,” Luna said with a laugh, her horn glowing steadily.

“Luna!” Flix realized that if she was here, then he was definitely in a dream. He flew over and hugged her, then blinked and backed away, looking at her large belly. “I thought I was too far away and it took too much power to visit me?!” he asked.

“Normally that would indeed be the case, but while Destined is resting from his latest time jump, Blue Streak offered to let me tap into him. With all of his energy at my disposal, I can reach where thou art at these times. ’Tis alike to how thou can go faster in a carriage with four ponies pulling instead of one.” Luna explained as she rested against the mast with Flix. “So – how has my wandering son been faring? Hast thou explored anything new of late?” She rested on her belly lightly, looking up at him with interest.

“Actually, we have gone further south, and through what IkaIka calls the Straits. I have been cataloging as much as I can. Every day I see new stars and new nebulas. I’m not kidding; it’s like every time the sun dips below the horizon, I see something novel! Did you add something new? Are you working on this part of the night sky?” Flix asked, his ears completely perked up in interest.

“No, I have not worked on it in over a millennium. However, when I first worked on the night sky, I cast out many large chunks of ice. I could not throw them far enough to escape the pull of my sister’s sun, and so much time has passed that I do not remember how hard and in which direction I threw them, Some may be lost to Equus forever, while others may yet be trying to find their way back home,” Luna said almost sadly.

Flix then stood up to attention and said in his most authoritative voice, “Princess Luna, I want you to commission me! I still remember your class a–”

Luna cut him off. “The one for which Destined helped you cram?”

Flix continued, but this time with a blush. “Y-yes…. Well… I want to catalog any of those wandering bodies that I happen to see, and then I can give a report to you when I come back!” Flix grinned hopefully.

Luna rolled her eyes at his over-the-top attempt to be formal, but she responded in kind. “I, Luna, Princess of the Moon and the Night Sky, command thee to catalog the many details of the Southern Skies.”

Flix grinned and hopped up and down, deliriously happy. “Yes! Thank you! I’m gonna have almost Twilight levels of–”

The entire dreamscape shuddered, and Flix slammed into the mast of the dream vessel. “What in Tartarus?!”

Luna looked around, realizing that something was happening to Flix in the real world. It was then that the dreamscape shuddered again and they heard Orlonda screeching. “FLIX – WAKE UP!”

Luna chuckled. “See to your consort. I will be in touch.” Before Flix could respond, the dreamscape collapsed and he woke up.

#

Roaring… he was not expecting roaring, and rocking.

“FLIX! FLIX! GET UP! WE ARE IN A STORM!” Orlonda shook him as he looked around for a few seconds before the hard rocking slammed him up against the side of the internal cabin.

“Oh crap! Oh crap! Are the sails still deployed?!” Flix, now fueled by fear and adrenaline, ran out of the cabin and to the top deck, only to be greeted by strong winds and heavy rain. IkaIka was on the main deck, trying to pull down the sails, but she was not strong enough.

Flix starting running around and Orlonda joined him, shifting into a diamond dog form for added strength.

“Ika – grab the ropes that are attached to pulleys. They will be easier!” Flix held onto one of the ropes and started to untie them so that the sails would spill the wind. Once the sails were down, the inherently-stable catamaran would hold through the storm; he just had to get them down before the wind and rain snapped the masts.

With all three of them working together, the first sail was quickly brought down. However, because only one of the two sails was down, the boat was now starting to spin.

“No! No! No!” Both of you grab the main rope! We need to get it unlocked!!”

As they pulled, he noticed that there was a hitch at the top of the mast. He took to the air and almost instantly he realized that it was a bad idea. Now that he was moving independently of the boat, he was suddenly made aware of how much the boat was moving. He had to fight the wind and rain to keep from getting hit by the various swinging ropes and masts. It was only with great effort that he reached the top. However, he failed to notice the strange bright blue-violet glow coming from the tip of the mast and his feather tips, and it was far too loud for him to notice the hissing sound. With one hard slash, he cut the rope and the sail went slack. The hippogriff started cawing in victory, lifting one of his talons up to the sky. “I WIN! I WIN! BUCK YOU, STORM! BUCK YO–!” between the sound of the storm and his screaming about his victory, he did not hear Orlonda screaming something called ‘St. Palamino’s Fire’.

The last thing he experienced before everything went black was a bright flash of light and an earth-shattering boom.

#

Warm…. Storms weren’t warm… or bright for that matter.

He slowly opened his eyes to the sound of crashing waves and the sound of a seagull. He let out a faint caw and rolled over onto his side, his entire body twitching randomly. He kept cawing weakly, completely confused as to what was going on and where he was. Soon he heard the stomping of hooves as he was hugged hard. “SQWARG!” he groaned out and he was let go.

“Flix! You’re alive! You were out for days! We were getting ready to use the tripod thing to call your family!”

Flix just groaned and leaned against Orlonda as she checked him over. “You only lost a few primaries… and some fluff here and there, but you are okay!”

Flix looked over himself slowly, noting how parts of him were covered in seaweed and changeling resin. “You spat on me?” He looked up at her confused, and Orlonda started to blush.

“I don’t know how to make a changeling pod, so this was the best I could do! IkaIka used her first aid talents to take care of the burns.”

Orlonda was going to continue when she heard a familiar chitter and Ika jumped out of the water and landed onto the deck, holding about six fish. She smiled when she saw Flix looking around. “Ah, he’s finally awake!”

Flix finally managed to refocus his eyes. “What happened?” He grunted when a hoof smacked him upside the head.

“Did you hear the last thing I was screaming at you?” Orlonda growled.

“Umm… no?” He hesitantly smiled.

The changeling groaned. “You were proclaiming your victory just as Saint Palomino’s Fire was starting to form on the mast you were holding onto. Then in your limitless brilliance, you stuck your talon up and started cursing at the storm.”

Flix blinked. “Did I win?”

“You were struck by lightning, you dumb-arse! We were lucky to grab you as you fell and pull you below deck while we waited out the storm!” Orlonda was now beyond angry.

“Okay! Okay! … I’m sorry – please my head...” he whimpered and held the side of his head with his talons. He blinked in surprise. “Why can I feel skin on my face?” His eyes went wide as he started looking at his body and noticed large swaths of feathers were missing. “Did you pluck me?!” Flix stared at the two of them in disbelief.

“We only plucked and cut away the burned feathers and fur!” Orlonda yelled back, now getting very defensive.

Flix was about to say something when his stomach rumbled. “Ugh…. Hungry,” he whimpered and lay back down.

The pair laughed at the hippogriff and let him sleep as they prepared the food. Once they finished cooking, they woke him up and giggled as he scarfed down the food.

Even though they were crudely docked on a beach that must have stretched on for eighty miles, they did not notice that they were being watched.

one being asked.

a much larger being replied.

#

Three days later….

Flix had never paid attention in the diplomacy classes with Roseclaw. He never really figured that he would be in a position that he would need it, but here he was, staring at some kind of envoy that was walking toward him and his group. These... beings were absolutely massive, standing at least half as tall again as Celestia, and their manes, if you could call them that, looked thick and coarse. Their tails looked thin and powerful, and they had a nose unlike anything he had ever seen before. And those fangs! They were twice as big as Free’s when he was in changeling form, and instead of two, they had four.

There was a long silence before they tried to communicate, but the two sides just could not understand each other. The smaller one starting yelling at the larger one and then drew his spear. Flix and Ika didn’t know what was going on. They suddenly jumped back, and the sea-pony let out a loud skree as Flix gave him an aggressive caw. Orlonda, however, didn’t seem to react. The young one started to charge while the changeling just sat and attempted to talk to the large one. The pair were exchanging opening phrases, trying to build some side of common language base.

<You dare try to intimidate me in my home land?!> the younger one roared out as he started thrusting his spear, immediately closing the distance.

Flix jumped back and ran around him, as did Ika. Every time they would try to land a hit, it either did no real damage due to his thick fur and hide, or they missed by a mile. Flix ran up to Ika and grinned. “We can take to the air, and dive bomb him. I can use my speed to get you within range and you can use your ultrasonic chirps to disorient him!”

“Flix… are you sure? I mean, I don’t think my screeches are going to do anything against him,” she said, doubting his plan.

“Nonsense! I know what I’m doing!” He didn’t. “I have seen this in tactics class before!” He hadn’t.

Flix picked her up and flapped his wings. The hippogriff managed to get high up as he circled around the thing while he held Ika.

“See? He can’t get u-oops!” He veered to the left to avoid the spear. It was then that both of them started laughing at the being, which only made the younger one even angrier.

“What is he pulling out now? An L-shaped piece of wood? What good is that going to do?” Flix wondered.

The pair intently watched him as he threw it, and it sailed under and past them.

“What was that? How can a fighter be so bad?!” he taunted.

While the pair laughed, they didn’t notice the peculiar weapon arcing up and coming back behind them.

“We don’t even have to do anything to w-ACK!” The heavy boomerang cracked him right on his left wing joint. The wing spasmed and folded in. As he started to spiral downward, the hippogriff tossed the flailing sea-pony into the water. Flix had one last thought before he went splat on the beach:

“Buck.”

WHAM!

# # # # #

--Next time: Enter the Dreamtime--

On the far side of the world.

The one thing that Luna never grew tired of was traversing the dreamscape. To those who were just learning how to navigate it, the concept of it being both infinite and finite was confusing until they realized that to a certain extent, it was a perceptually-generated system. If you had enough control over it, you could shrink distances or expand them. Luna being the Mistress of said realm had the greatest power over it; so much so that if she expanded or contracted parts of it too much, it would affect nearby dreamers. Her strength was her weakness in that regards, but it was never something that she had to factor in except when traveling to see Flix. Instead of perceiving the distance as shorter and just jumping to Flix, she had to use extraordinary methods and tap into Blue Streak for assistance.

“Are you ready to go, Luna?” Destined floated next to her in the dreamscape, as did Nox and Leatherwing.

“That I am. I trust you three will be able to cope while I am gone?”

Destined grinned as did her two bat-pony dream-apprentices. “I think we can handle it. Path is watching you and Blue sleep, making sure that nothing happens. I don’t know why he thinks that something would, but he’s starting to get defensive daddy syndrome since you two are so close. Let us know how Flix is doing when you get back,” Destined said as he slowly started to float upside down.

“That I will.” Luna replied as her magic started to cover her entire body, then a second layer was added around her and in a streak of light, the alicorn shot away, disappearing over the etheric horizon.

Destined turned to Nox. “So, now what?”

The Old World thestral just shrugged. “People on the east coast near Manehatten should be heading to bed about now. How about we start in the east and just work our way west?”

Destined and Leatherwing nodded in agreement and the trio shot off in the opposite direction of Luna.

#

Flix always had the most interesting dreamscapes. Usually when people dreamed, they dreamed of the familiar, something that they knew well like their home or hometown. Flix, however, always seemed to have wildly different dreamscapes. The thing that Luna enjoyed the most was that whenever she reached his dream-sphere, she would never know what she would be walking into, and this time was no different.

Bright – that was one way the alicorn could put it. She was not expecting to be in a bright beach scene. The white sand stretched off in both directions for what seemed like forever. Luna walked over to the hippogriff who was lying on some palm fronds.

“Art thou really so tired that thou wouldst doze off in thy dreams?” she asked with a snicker.

Flix looked up at her with a smile. “Hi, Mma Luna! How have you been?” He got up and nuzzled her. “If it’s too bright, I could always dim it down a bit.” Flix snapped his talons and the time of day radically shifted until it was just a few minutes after sunset. The fact that he was able to do so that easily, amused as well as surprised Luna.

“Thou hast learned how to lucid-dream,” Luna observed with a smile.

“Well a lot has happened since our last conversation. I was struck by lightning, then taken out by a thing called a boomerang, head-butted by an emu, failed at hunting kangaroos….”

Flix started going down a long list as the alicorn’s eyes grew wider. She pulled the hippogriff into a tight hug. “Why would thou tell me such things?! Thou hast no idea how worried this makes me!”

Flix started to chuckle. “Well, for what it’s worth, the lightning thing happened a few months ago. It was when you last talked to me. Orlonda woke me up because the sails were still open as we headed into a storm. Oh! That reminds me!”

Flix stared intently at a space in front of them, and an image of Orlonda appeared. “So, this is how you last saw her.” She looked a lot like a typical changeling Harvester, but she had her trademark smirk. The abstract satchel that Flix had designed and created for her last hatch-day was one of the few things that set her apart. “But over the last few months, she’s been working with the bunyip tribes and has been helping them hunt. We are in their summer lands, after all.” The form of Orlonda changed and soon the 'ling looked stronger, more muscular, and her body language more assertive and borderline aggressive. She even had sharp teeth that she was brandishing in a grin. However, the biggest difference so far was the painting on her chitin – a series of red and white dots and lines in a pattern that Luna found to be very unfamiliar but nonetheless appealing. “It took her a while, but soon she became quite the hunter and she’s loved by most of the tribe. She revels in the positive emotion which is so excessive that she’s been able to molt about once a month, letting her form expand as she became stronger.”

Luna gawked at the changeling, circling around her a few times. “What is it with House Path males and always picking the strongest for a consort?” She chuckled as she sat back down with Flix as the hippogriff responded.

“In all fairness, she wasn’t like that when we started, and actually if I remember correctly, she claimed me in Advanced Contemporary Art Composition. Kind of shocked everyone. Moms were blown away, and Dads were laughing their asses off.”

Orlonda flickered and faded away, then Ika appeared in her place. “Ika hasn’t really changed much, to be honest. She hunts as well, but she is primarily fishing as usual. The main difference is that while she normally fished a lot, she’s had to dive deeper and longer to get to the really big fish. So a lot of the changes are cosmetic.”

The image changed once again to show a more confident-looking Ika; her chest looked a little bigger and her tail looked stronger. She also had body paintings, but while Orlonda’s were very angular and predatory, and meant to inspire fear, Ika’s were very smooth-flowing, and they invoked feelings of grace and speed.

Luna turned to look at Flix. “Right now I am seeing thee as I last remember thine appearance, so what dost thou look like now?”

Flix chuckled. “Not nearly as awesome.”

Flix’s form changed. Instead of the perfect hippogriff, Luna gasped when she saw his battered form. Not enough time had passed for his fur and feathers to grow back, and Luna traced her hoof down one of the injuries that tracked along his back.

“Thou… were not jesting about getting hit by lightning, wert thou?”

“Nope. They decided to pluck all the burned hairs and feathers out when I was unconscious for two days. I think they assumed they would grow back if they plucked them, and of course they are right, but I look just weird right now.”

“And why is one of thy wings wrapped up?” Luna asked.

“That was because of the boomerang incident, and that one was also my fault due to the whole first-contact snafu. I stretch it a few times a day and it’s healing nicely, but I’m still grounded for a little while longer.” He sat back down and snapped his talons again, pointing up to the dark night sky.

“I have a lot of information to report on the southern sky cataloging project.” He grinned and pointed a talon up at the night sky. Once Luna started to look, the sky changed, switching between what he was able to see with his keen raptor eyes and various technical data.

Luna kept scanning the sky as she picked up facts and figures, as well as artistic details about the objects. “This is amazing, Flix!” she exclaimed, trying to take in every bit of information that she could.

“Actually I’m only about only half-done. Once the storm season here has passed, we are planning to go further west and to the south. I think that eventually we should end up in Manehatten because we are going to go all the way around the world. I expect that we are at about the furthest separation at the moment. Ika has been wave-reading, and she has an idea that there is much more land to the northwest, but the feeling is so faint she has no idea how far away it is. I am thinking that it’s either the eastern side of the Dragon Lands, eastern side of Griffonia or the eastern side of Equestria. My map is so incomplete that I’m not sure which one it could be, although I’m inclined to think it’s the former.”

Luna turned back to Flix. “Thou art keeping more than just mental records, correct?”

He just grinned. “Of course! I have tons of scrolls down in the secure hold of the catamaran so that they won’t be damaged. Navigational information; journals; astronomical information – it’s all there. I generally fill anywhere from two to five scrolls per day/night cycle.”

The alicorn turned back around and gave him a hug. “Doth this mean thou art coming home?”

He just grinned. “I can’t stay mad at them forever, and they need me to keep their boring lives exciting. At this rate though, I won’t be back before you pop, but I hope to be back in time for his or her first birthday.”

Luna let out a happy noise and hugged him, spinning him around a few times. “I cannot wait to tell them the good news! It is now time for me to be heading back though. I will try to reach thee in another few months!”

Flix hugged and nuzzled Luna. “See you in a few months, Mama.”

Luna smiled and, with a flash of light, she disappeared from his dreamscape.

#

Luna appeared next to Destined, who happened to be with Nox and Leatherwing. Destined, however, was laughing his head off, while Nox was leaning against the alicorn, struggling for breath. Leatherwing, though, was sitting on a bag of ice and did not look happy in the slightest.

“How did you all fare while I was gone?” she asked curiously.

“Well, you know how sometimes people with a very strong will can sometimes force you to take a role in their dream?” Destined asked.

Luna slowly nodded.

“As it turns out, there is a member of Celestia’s Day Guard that has the hots for Leatherwing here.” Destined said with a huge grin. Nox was flailing, trying to get air.

Luna looked over to Leatherwing, observing the blush on his cheeks, the ice against his rump, and how mortified he looked.

“Ooh! So he was sucked into one of those dreams,” Luna said with a grin.

Destined smirked at Leatherwing. “It gets less uncomfortable with time – trust me.”

“Sometimes I hate my job,” Leatherwing whimpered.

#

During the changing of the guard the next morning, Leatherwing noticed one of the Day Guards in particular watching him as he walked by. Despite the armor’s enchantments that made all the Royal Guards look alike, he recognized this one, and gave him the glare of doom.

The Guard wilted, not understanding what he had done to cause this severe reaction, and was only more puzzled when Princess Luna started giggling. He decided then and there that bat-ponies might be just a tad too exotic for him.

# # # # # # #

All good things must come to an end.

It was a pleasant evening for introspection. It was times like these that Flix thought back upon his life in Equestria and his family, despite the fact that he had walked out on them months ago. He could hardly imagine how far he had come in such a short time. Flix smiled at the bunyips as he sat down next to them. He looked over at his ally, Mula-Gunang, and chuckled as he remembered how they first met. That damn boomerang – how was he supposed to know that those things could be thrown so that they would loop back around? Mula looked over toward Flix and grinned, then looked down as Orlonda curled up next to him and yawned. He could see the bunyip blush through his matted fur. All Flix did was grin back, and soon his gaze drifted back to the fire and the night sky that looked like it had sprung forth from it.

This was it. It had taken him nearly half a year, and traveling around the world, but he was content; he was happy. He looked at the white markings on his feathers and fur that he had earned hunting with the tribe, then he looked over at IkaIka and Orlonda who had similar markings. However, Ika’s had been earned from fishing, and Orlonda’s from scouting.

Orlonda – the changeling was so loyal that she had followed him to the ends of Equus. He had worried about her when they had reached so far away from their homeland that she had actually disconnected from her hive network. She had wailed and cried out for hours of the night, and it had taken days for her to recover enough to walk around again without emotional support. Now she was so much stronger than when they had started, her chitin so shiny, and her will that once was weak was now unbreakable.

As Flix gazed at the fire, it started to change. At first it was just flickering, but then it abruptly flared and suddenly Discord was standing next to the fire. The bunyips all stood up and were starting to reach for their weapons. Discord, rather than snapping his fingers to do something to stop them like turning them all into drawings, let out an unholy roar that nearly knocked them over.

“SIT DOWN!”

Shocked, they all sat simultaneously before the Chaos Lord turned his gaze on Flix. He was not joking. He was not playing. For the first time, Flix felt a little scared of him.

“Flix, it is time for your final exam,” he hissed as he walked toward the hippogriff. This kind of behavior was not like the Discord that Flix knew.

“Repeat the mantra,” Discord commanded as he stepped forward, a strange fractal pattern starting to snake out from his one draconic leg and onto the ground.

Flix knew this part; it was one of the first things that had been taught to him by Discord. He took a deep breath as his eyes closed. They slowly opened back up – his pupils red and the sclera yellow. “I am Chaos. I am the force that creates diversity. Order leads to Stagnation. Stagnation leads to Death. Chaos keeps Order at bay. Order keeps Chaos at bay. The fight has no beginning, no ending. The fight is eternal and the world thrives in the turmoil.” Flix slowly looked back up to Discord who was closer than before.

“What are my rules?” the draconequus demanded.

“The Chaos Lord cannot change the course; he can only introduce factors to increase the viability of the outcome. The Chaos Lord does not take sides; he affects all sides equally, but not at the same time.”

Discord put a claw on his shoulder and started to smile, but it conveyed sadness rather than pleasure. “Flix?”

“Yes, Professor?” Flix was definitely worried.

“All of your family will die within two hours,” Discord said plainly. “What will you do? This is your final test. All restrictions are released. Save your family and pass; I will have nothing left to teach you.” Discord disappeared and the fire went back to normal.

“WE ARE LEAVING NOW!” Flix screeched as he took off towards the boat.

Mula, Ika, and Orlonda stood up and hastily followed Flix.

“How are we going to get back to the House?” Orlonda cried out as they ran. “We are clear on the other side of the world!”

Flix landed on the boat, and as he waited impatiently for the others, he raised a foreleg and held his talons in mid-snap. The normal white flash of power was being restrained and was growing in intensity. His entire talons were brightly lit by the time his three companions had readied the ship.

“What’s wrong with your talons?!” Ika asked in dismay.

“I’m building up improbability and forcing a certainty. I don’t care what Discord warned me about – I will not let them get hurt!”

His claws finally snapped and the entire team disappeared, boat and all, leaving a crater on the beach.

A few moments later, the boat appeared over the large pond next to the castle that was the Griffonian House, and it splashed down, destroying the peace that the House normally enjoyed after the sun set. Flix held his head in pain and the trio looked at him with concern. When he looked back, they gasped in surprise – one of his eyes was the solid tone of a changeling, an orange one to be exact. He started laughing.

“It’s… it’s not that bad, I bet,” Flix laughed as he stood up, panting.

“What happened to you?!” Orlonda cried.

“Chaos can be externalized or internalized. The chaos affects the environment, or it affects you.” He snapped his claws again and they appeared in the staff dorm quad, much to the shock of everyone that happened to be out during their quarterly festival.

“What is the meaning of this?!” A mare ran up to the group dressed in a second year cadet uniform. Then she recognized one of the newcomers. “Flix? What are you doing here? What is going on?!”

Flix was about to explain when several explosions rung out, and three of the four observation towers collapsed to the ground.

“It’s already happening! No time! There’s no time!” Flix screeched as he grabbed onto the pony’s neck to drag her attention back to him. “Tell Lord Path that the House is under attack, and that I forgive him.”

The talons holding the squirming pony lit up again, and in a loud bang, the pony disappeared and Flix hit the ground in pain, holding his arm as it changed. While everyone watched, the skin ripped open as scales replaced it, the remnants of a griffon arm falling to the ground. Flix flexed the draconic arm, recovering from the pain.

“Flix… you are changing!” Ika gasped.

“You don’t control chaos magic, you request a vague result and it will yield... if feels like it. To outright command it carries a heavy price.”

Flix stood up with a growl and looked around. He could see the dull shine of leather and the occasional striped form lit up by the fires being created. The student barracks’ alarm started blaring, and the others soon joined in, but one thing he noticed was that they were on the far side of the compound, but the majority of the forces were heading toward the civilian staff dorms.

“They want to kill innocents!” He turned around to face the stunned and confused staff as he yelled in a voice much too loud for his body. “GO INTO YOUR HOMES, LOCK THE DOORS, AND DO NOT OPEN THEM!”

The civilians started screaming as they began to pile into their homes.

Flix started to laugh ironically. “Every House Path son and daughter has a trial by fire, and here I was trying to avoid it.” He looked toward his friends and allies. “Do not let them through! No innocents will die tonight!”

Orlonda and Ika looked at the hippogriff in awe. He had always been so carefree and relaxed. This was somebody new; this was somebody very different. They hoped that it would be enough until his family was able to come to the rescue.

There were some signs of resistance to the invaders. While most of the House Path warriors were with the Equestrian forces that were being led to war in Zebrica, the remaining youths and the teachers were not without ability. Surprise and great numbers were on the zebras’ side though. As Flix’s companions led the charge against the horde, the students with sufficient skills rallied behind them. The difference in experience was telling though, and if it wasn’t for the efforts of the foursome, the carnage would have been terrible. More than once, a life was saved at the last moment by the intervention of one of the four.

IkaIka fought with fluidity and grace. Orlonda was fired up by the energy of the passion and hopes of those she battled to protect. Mula reveled in fighting for a cause. However, Flix fought to protect precious life at whatever the cost. While he tried to use his weapons for the most part, more than once in desperation he directed chaos magic too specifically, and it rebounded on him. His right hind leg was the next limb to painfully morph into a match for his bunyip companion’s, making him collapse to the ground in agony. Blinking away tears of pain, he got back up and resumed the fight, only to eventually have to use chaos magic in the forbidden fashion once more. This time he gained a sea-pony’s tail, not only stabbing him with pain, but also throwing off his balance with its unfamiliar weight. Still he fought, but still the zebras came.

Flix ducked under a sword slash and bucked a zebra in the face, knocking him out and leaving him in a heap on the ground. He turned to see Orlonda close to him, fighting a zebra warrior with horn blasts, but Flix noticed a second zebra lunging at her with a spear. His eyes went wide with fear as he leaped at her. It was over so quickly, he didn’t have the time to knock the zebra out.

Orlonda heard a cry behind her. Whirling around, she saw Flix standing up above her with a spear coming partway out of his chest. She let out a scream of fury and blasted the zebra away.

Flix let out a loud screech as his eyes fogged over in pain. All of his companions formed up around him as the Zebra forces ignored the staff for the moment to deal with the four serious threats.

“This is bad. This is very bad! How are we going to win?!” IkaIka cried.

Flix grated out, “We don’t have to win… they just… have to lose.” He held up the claws of his dragon limb and they began to glow brightly. He coughed as he focused, blood starting to dribble out of his beak. “You lose... we win….” The chaos power erupted as the zebras lunged toward the four fighters.

#

Path, Carpacia, Shining Armor, and Free in alicorn form appeared in the sky over two miles above the compound. Path instantly fell, but he quickly took a proper freefall position. Free dived and caught him in his arms while the other two fliers matched his approach to the compound.

“Why did we appear so far off-course?!” Free yelled.

“They must have an anti-magic field up. That’s the only reason why the return crystal would–” Shining Armor was cut off as they saw a massive white flash over the staff quarters that lit up the night sky. For a moment, the entire compound was brilliantly illuminated, and then it was dark once more except for the normal lamps.

“What in Tartarus is going on?!” Carpacia yelled out as well.

Free was already gathering information from his drones on the compound. “A zebra attack… unknown number… something massive just happened in the staff area, and all contacts there were just lost!”

Carpacia changed her course for the compound. “Going to come in low and hot!” she declared.

Free and Shining followed suit as they shot toward the barracks where most of the visible fighting was occurring.

#

The last of the zebra warriors had been subdued, and Path, Free, Shining, and Carpacia finally found the opportunity to investigate the magic outburst that they had seen earlier. While they had started walking into the staff buildings cautiously, they quickly became completely confused by what they found. Everyone and everything was made out of stone – the buildings, the ground, all of the staff, and of course the zebras. In the center of it all, there were three figures with their backs to one other central figure. Path walked around and looked at the central figure.

“Flix... Oh, Flix, what have you done?” Path ran a hoof along his son’s side as he looked at the spear that went in through his back and out his chest.

The others watched as Path nuzzled his son’s cold stone face.

Eventually Carpacia spoke up. “My drones are reporting that the stone effect seems to be wearing off at the fringes.”

“Mine are telling me that everything is resuming its normal state,” Free said as he grabbed his comm. “We need all remaining forces to the staff housing now!” he bellowed into it.

#

Path was still pacing around the statues in the center of the square when Roseclaw joined him. She put a wing around her husband and drew him into a hug.

“He saved everyone, Rose,” Path said slowly. “Flix prevented so much innocent blood from being shed, and he only caused relatively few zebra’s deaths. The stone spell he set in motion wore off on everyone but him and those three around him. He’s a hero.”

Roseclaw said proudly, “Our son is a true warrior, and he has done great honor for our House. He did not fail us as we had failed him.”

Nobody noticed Discord when he appeared behind them until he spoke up. “The student has passed the test. He did what he had to do to create the best possible scenario. To save the ones who had shunned him, he has forever marked himself.”

“This is your type of magic, Discord. When will it wear off?” Path asked.

“Chaos magic is chaotic even to me. The best answer I can give you is that it will wear off when it wears off. To try and force it would be a very bad idea.”

“So Flix is now a statue with a spear though him, while his teammates stand guard around him for Celestia knows how long?”

Discord looked sternly at Path. “This is not the same as when the Elements of Harmony were used to turn me into stone and then undo it. This is caused by Chaos itself. Flix used chaos magic and demanded that it do something exactly. To ask such a thing carries a heavy cost, if it can be done at all. Notice how parts of him have changed? That won’t go away. How he is now is how he will always be. When the spell wears off in time – and it will – he will need somebody to help him. The first thing he will feel is a pain unlike anything you have ever felt, even when compared to when your mana channels were burned out.”

Path regarded Discord for a long moment. “You... are being very serious about this.”

Discord gave him a humorless smile. “My student sacrificed himself to save hundreds. He thought outside the box and passed his last test. I am very proud of him.” Discord let out a heavy sigh. “Looks like I will need to find a new student while my first one sleeps.” He then rolled over upon himself and spiraled away into nothingness.

#

A few minutes later, a flash of light filled the square, and several forms emerged from it and landed in a heap.

Destined threw his forelegs over his head to stop his skull from exploding, and he moaned, “Never again! Damn magic barrier!”

Blue scrambled to his hooves and looked about wildly, ready to fight the enemy, but saw nothing except his startled parents. “Where’s the battle?” he demanded.

Pif put a hoof around his neck, pulled him around to face her, and barked, “Stand down, Blue! My drones tell me that the battle with the zebras is over.”

Lucida groaned as she pulled herself from under Watchful and Citrine. “Now I know what a time-bounce feels like. Can’t say that I want to experience that again.”

“Tell me about it!” Destined said fervently, having decided that his head was not going to blow up after all.

Roseclaw stepped up to Blue, giving his new appearance a thorough looking over. She fixed him with a fierce glare and said sternly, “You have a lot of explaining to do, Mister!”

As his adrenalin high faded, Blue began to feel a touch of nervousness. “A-heh! Long story, Mama.”

# # # # # # #

Author's Note

So there it is. For nearly all of the chapters Flix has been running parallel to Quantum Gallop, this is when the two story-lines collide. Flix and his team is not dead, you might see them later, WAY WAY later! Want to see how this branching arc interacted with the main story? Re-read this one after you have read Quantum Gallop, then you can piece together the real order of events!

As always, many thanks to GoldFur for editing pretty much -every- chapter I write... Seriously you should see how bad each chapter is before he works his magic, its pretty cringe worthy.

Authors Notes - Updates

So I am getting ready to restart this series now that flix is out of the statue!
You can expect a lot more Chaos as your favorite chimera turns it up a notch.
But a few people were asking more about what Flix did while on the other side of the World.
I changed a few things to fit what I want a little better.
So here is a bullet point list, pulled from memory, not edited at all, just a stream of thoughts.

The Sea Pony City State
When they first arrive Orlonda initially shifts into a female hippogriff to compliment Flix and to raise fewer questions.
Their language is based on Polynesian last I remember.
IkaIka's tribe take pity on them initially due to their inability to fish or swim.
As relations improve orlonda reveals herself and begins to help fishing.
While Orlonda is learning how to hunt and deep sea fish Flix is learning all about Polynesian Art and Construction, as well as absorbing all of the Oral Tradition he can.
They "Winter" in the islands, however since the islands are in the tropics, its almost unnoticeable.
Once the Typhoon season ends they take off to go west, IkaIka by this time has developed wanderlust so she goes with them
The World Down Under
Flix is wounded -badly- from the lightening strike and the boomerang. It is with Orlonda and IkaIka's quick thinking that they are able to turn the situation around and explain their purpose
Their language is based off of northern central Australian aboriginal people I believe.
It takes almost a week for him to wake up, while his body is down the shamans guide his consciousness into the dreaming.
More time passes and Flix is still weak, but he again spends all his time listening to the oral traditional and their art style. He paints up IkaIka and Orlonda in the Bunyip style.
With his understanding of the dreaming he begins to see the Invariability of Chaos
He was only back up to 100% for a week or so before discord begins his final test.

Now, that flix is out of the statue however he has more things to do.
Inspect more Celestia teasing.
Free and Path trying to keep things under control without twi and luna knowing.
More Orange Lings
More Art Theroy

If you have any questions for me or the flix crew (Flix/IkaIka/Orlonda/Mula-Gunang) ask them! Ill answer them whlie I work on the next chapter

Later!

--AIC

Flix Joins the Nobility

Bored.

The bunyip, sea pony and changeling were bored. They wanted to head back to their respective lands but Flix had asked them to wait until he came back with Destined. He said that it would take a few days, and since they had nothing but time to kill, they decided to go visit Blue Streak.

“I’m so glad that Flix was able to get free; it just took you guys long enough!” Blue streak chuckled before he turned to look back at his group of trainees. “I SAID HOVER! WING STRENGTH IS PARAMOUNT FOR WINGED COMBAT!”

The team groaned as they kept flapping their wings to hold them steady above the ground while dragged down by several weights that were attached to their legs.

Orlonda chuckled as her acquired aggressiveness started to show. “Go easy on them – it’s not like they have seen actual combat or hunting. They are soft.”

The younger Cinder narrowed her eyes and looked over at Orlonda. “A soldier is only as strong as their trainer; you called them soft, so does this mean that you are calling Blue soft?” The dragoness moved up to Orlonda, her wings slightly opened.

The orange changeling narrowed her eyes as well and her wings opened up to their full extent. Before her travels she wouldn’t even be in the situation, but now she was almost itching for a brawl. “You know what they say.” She shifted into an orange-tinted black-scaled quadrupedal dragon and her muzzle moved within an inch or two of Cinder’s. “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

Matriarch Cinder was starting to move before Blue held out his hoof and walked over to her. “I am guessing that Orlonda needs to vent some energy after being petrified for so long, and it’s nothing Cinder can’t handle.” The pair looked back to the two females squaring off.

Young Cinder bared her teeth. “You have no idea what hell you are going to bring upon yourself.”

Orlonda snarled back. “Then bring it, sucka!”

The dragon lunged and the two tumbled around on the ground before Cinder sprung up and took to the air, Orlonda immediately going after her.

IkaIka and the bunyip walked over to Blue and the Matriarch. “So how much time do you give them until they both calm down?”

Blue shook his head and laughed. “Oh they will go for a while. I’ll intervene if things get too serious.”

The group looked on as the two dragonesses flew around each other clashing back and forth but never grappling each other. Their growls and roars were gradually getting louder until the finally locked claws, both of them were taking in a deep breath, bright red flames started to flicker in Cinder’s throat while orange flames began to flicker in Orlonda’s throat as well.

A blue streak whipped out into the battle field and the two combatants felt a hoof shut their muzzles just as they were about to take out the other.

The Warmaster shook his head and forced them back down to the ground. “Ladies! Ladies! Play is play but let’s not do anything too drastic.”

Cinder and Orlonda just growled before Orlonda shifted back into a changeling and walked back to her friends. “Fine!”

Cinder was still fuming, that was until Blue’s kiss calmed down her inner fire.

“So, where is Flix?” The blue pony leaned against the matriarch before he bellowed out. “EXERCISE OVER, SHOWER UP AND GET REST. TRAINING BEGINS AGAIN FOUR AM SHARP! EACH MINUTE LATE IS AN EXTRA MILE OF ENCOURAGEMENT!”

The griffons fell to the ground, groaning in exhaustion. They helped each other out of the weights and limped off.

Orlonda smirked as the trainees left. “Ahh – it’s been too long.”

A bright flash occurred in the air and Destined landed gracefully on the ground, only to be piled on by Flix a few moments later. He started laughing as he rolled off.

“Okay that was awesome!” Flix stood back up as Destined groaned and stood up.

“So I took care of that. Next thing on the list. Come on Orlonda we need to get you back to the Orange Hive!” He held onto her with his dragon talons.

“Do you even know where you are going?”

“I don’t need to.”

“What about your other friends?”

“Show them a night on the town compliments of House Path. Once I get back, we are going to head off to your homes to see how they are doing. Orlonda is just the closest... I think. Meh – whatever.” Flix lifted up his claw and snapped it as the pair transformed into a pony and changeling doll, a Picasso version of themselves, then a Generation 2 version of themselves before they disappeared in a spray of shredded canterlot newspapers.

Destined looked at the two left behind. “Want to get lunch?”

“YES!” both of them shouted overeagerly.

Polistae was old – very old. While she was still the Queen of her hive, Princess Actus was in the dominant role now. She spent most of her time with an elderly Fancy Pants listening to music or going to the theater. With the Chrome Hive being so open, she had decided that hers was the next one to follow suit. She established a new branch hive a few blocks off the main theater strip in Manehatten. Her little ones were some of the best actors, dancers, comedians, and writers the world had ever known, and it filled her with great pride.

Polistae caught a flash out of the upper edge of her eye and in a snap reaction she slid her chair back only to see Flix and Orlonda crash onto her table again. Fancy, having become calmer in his older years, sipped at his tea.

“Ah… so the duo returns.” He looked at the tangled pile and the smashed crumpets, and then sipped his tea again.

Polistae, however, was ecstatic as she picked up Orlonda and gave her a huge hug.

“I was worried I wasn’t going to be around when you came back. Look at you – so big and strong now! What were they feeding you on your travels?!” Polistae stood up and carried Orlonda with her. Flix laughed and sat down with Fancy.

“So – over a hundred years as stone, hmm?” Fancy asked as he sipped his tea.

Flix snapped his fingers and sat on the papasan and that materialized, a mug of tea in his claws. “Loved every moment of it. So – still with the Queen for over a hundred years?”

Fancy Pants grinned and sipped his tea. “Loved every moment of it.”

The pair nodded to each other and continued to chat.

Orlonda was dropped onto a pillow as the old queen sat down on another next to it. “So you have to tell me everything! We have waited for so long! You have insights into the art and culture!” Her old eyes lit up as she smiled, clapping her hooves. “House Path tried to figure out where you went once you were petrified. The charts and notes were so accurate but when they went to the sea ponies, we were met with fear and suspicion. Same with the bunyip tribes. It took Wandering working his magic to integrate with the tribes to learn more about them. Actually, now that I think about it, after the initial contact the bunyips chose to stay separated from the other nations. We just keep a token port on the east coast, and the sea ponies are so far out in the middle of nowhere that, while they formed an alliance, they have asked to be left alone.”

Orlonda hmmed slightly. “I never thought that the sea ponies would be xenophobic, but regardless I bet they can’t wait to see IkaIka again. As for the bunyip tribes – that kind of makes sense, they are extremely loyal and strong.” Orlonda looked down at the queen. “Their love combined with the radical change in diet and the inability for me to transfer the love anywhere else gave me the energy and means to grow, I was down there for a little over half a year and I molted nearly twelve times!”

Polistae’s eyes went wide. “Twelve times?! Gah! It’s like you had another pupa stage. No wonder you look so tall and strong, you almost look like a red soldier caste drone!”

Orlonda grinned and flashed her sharp teeth and her fangs that had almost reached the size of her Queen’s. “Hmm... can I be reconnected? I do have a lot to share with everyone – art, music, and oral tradition.”

The Queen nodded as she sensed those familiar chi paths, and with a small amount of effort, she was brought back into the hive, appearing on top of a stage as she grinned as all of the hive was looking up at her in awe as well as respect. Even the Queen and the Princesses were sitting down in the front row. Orlonda’s horn lit up, as she started to transfer everything in the last hundred years.

When the pair moved out of the sympathetic network, they found themselves being cuddled by their companions.

“So much information! So many new schools of art, storytelling and dance – I was right to believe in you, Orlonda. Letting you go with Flix paid off more than I ever expected.” Polistae leaned back against Fancy who nibbled on her neck slightly as he willingly gave her love and affection.

Orlonda opened her eyes shortly after. “I never doubted it for a second, but I am glad you believed in me.” She leaned into the petting that Flix was giving her. “So what were you two doing while we were doing the transfer?”

Flix was about to say something before Fancy Pants coughed to stop him from speaking. “Just teaching him the finer points of nobility.”

Flix was prancing around the main lobby with Fancy, wearing two monocles and three top hats. “Galas and parliament meetings and trysts in the foyer!”

Fancy was trotting around as well, wearing eight pince-nez starting from the bridge all the way to the edge of his nose, and wearing a derby cap. “Stocks and bonds and trade agreements!”

Both were wearing powdered wigs.

A maid came in. “Sir, shall we prepa–” She stopped and stared at the two before they yelled at her.

“WE ARE DOING NOBLE THINGS!”

The mare hastily backtracked and shut the door behind her.

Flix started to grin. “The finest of points.”

The two males laughed while the changelings just blinked in confusion.

Author's Note

polished by goldfur (like usual hah)

Next Chapter: This is why Celestia can't have nice things.

The Solar Princess snarled before she blinked a few times. “….Flix?”
“Thats Flix: Temporary Substitute Lord of Chaos. Thank you very much.” he pointed out his name tag.

The Grand Banquet [Part1]

Luna looked up at Flix's old art shack.

She was unsure as to why he decided to move back into it when everything died down. She wanted to give him lessons in ruling, but after the first half hour she realized he was never going to be a normal Equestrian ruler. He was basically the antithesis of nobility, despite what Fleur and Fancy said.

The alicorn knocked on the door only for it to fly open a moment later and she was sucked into the room. Once the area lit up, she was able to see her son floating upside down, covered in marble dust and metal shards, a strange sculpture semi-formed in front of him.

“Couldn’t you just use your magic to summon the art into being?” the alicorn asked with a smirk.

Flix looked over to Luna with a grin. “Oh, I could, but what’s the fun in that? I don’t use my powers for everything.”

Another voice spoke up and Luna turned to see Orlonda dipping cherries in what looked like love gel-infused chocolate. “If he used his powers for everything, he wouldn’t be an artist anymore; he would be a producer.” The changeling made a sour face.

Luna chuckled as she listened to them banter back and forth about the pros and cons of being a mass producer instead of an artist. Eventually she interrupted them. “Flix?”

“Yes, Mumsy?”

“I was wondering if you could visit Canterlot tonight. We are having another banquet and ball. This one is to celebrate the griffon and changeling hives’ end of the year holidays. Glimfeather will be here, so will your half-sister, Fifi.”

Flix groaned. He really did hate those kinds of get-togethers, and most of the people that went to them hated him as well. “I really don’t want to go.”

Luna slowly started to grin. “If you went, you could mix things up a bit....”

Everything stopped moving as Flix practically teleported over to her. “I could... are you okay with this?”

Luna's grin started to falter. “That depends on what you are planning.”

Flix yelled up to Orlonda. “Honey!”

The changeling appeared behind Luna. “What’s up?”

“Pack the fancy monocles! We are going to Canterlot!”

Luna started to try to keep the situation from spiraling out of control. “Wait, Flix! What are you going to–”

Before Luna could finish, his talons snapped and the two of them disappeared, leaving Luna to swim back to the door to get out.

“This may have been a bad idea.”

The two Royal Sisters were in their bath chamber, getting ready for the banquet. The smell of the shampoos and soaps made the entire process so relaxing... that was until two voices shouted from ceiling.

“CANNONBALL!”

Two large splashes forced most of the water out of the huge tub, splashing the mostly dry princesses. In the center of the mostly empty tub, Flix was grinning with Orlonda, both of them dressed in frilly suits and monocles.

Celestia looked at the pair and frowned. “Flix, I know that you are not one for manners or etiquette, but why are you here?”

The chimera started to laugh. “Oh, I’m here just to mix things up a bit!”

Orlonda started to laugh as well. “Oh, this is gonna be good!”

Flix held up his draconic claw as his non-changeling, chaos eye looked at Celestia. “Not so much a mixing-up things, as much as it is a change in perspective?” The built-up chaos magic in his claw released when he snapped his fingers, covering the room in a white light as his magic worked through the princesses.

Once everyone regained their vision, Orlonda was the first to gasp. “Oh, Flix, you have outdone yourself this time. Come on – let’s go and enjoy this!”

Flix nodded, and with a laugh and in a flash, they disappeared.

The guests were gradually filing into the room, being announced as they entered.

The strange pair waited at the top of the stairs as Flix mumbled to the announcing pony. He blinked and whispered back to Flix before nodding again. During this strange shift in the pattern of the announcing, some attention was drawn to the latecomers.

Path and Free looked up and smiled. “Oh, this is going to be fun,” Free murmured from his seat at the table.

The announcer spoke up in his naturally loud voice. “Announcing Flix Flix Bo Bix Banna Fanna Mo Mix Me My Mo Mix Flix the third... and his–” the announcer let out a groan, “Best Friend, Best Lover, Princess Orlonda Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca the Third and a half.”

The two announced parties claw/hoof-bumped.

“HAH!” Path cried out.

“YES!” Free yelled with a laugh.

Both of their heads were slammed into the table as the irritated Twilight’s horn cooled down.

“You are so rough with them, Twilight,” Cadence giggled.

“Only when they make me,” the Princess of Friendship growled.

“When did Orlonda become a princess?” Polistae asked, confused.

The odd pair sat down next to House Path, both of them grinning like fools.

“What did you do?” Twilight asked with a glare.

“Who me? I didn’t do anything. Why do you think I’m always up to something?”

“Flixtradamus Antithesis Path – you will tell me what you did this instant!” The Mom’s eyes narrowed as her stare bore into the chimera.

“Well, you see–” Flix was interrupted as the announcer started introducing people again.

“King Glimfeather the Second, and his son, Prince Glimfeather the Third!”

Path turned to look at the griffons coming in. His House was formed under the first King Glimfeather, an immovable force of muscle backed by an unbreakable will. He had lived to be so old that people were starting to wonder if he somehow had gained immortality. Sadly he passed away just before his 134th birthday, leaving his son to rule. Trask Glimfeather was so much different than his father. While Argent’s reign was, until his later years, paved with blood and sweat, his tempering in his later years as well as Path's occasional lessons, pushed Trask’s reign to be paved with diplomacy and technological expansion. It was because of him that the space program had been pushed so hard, His and Pif’s enthusiasm had bounced off each other, causing round-the-clock working to beat ambitions deadlines. His pushing paid off, and out of the four great nations on Equis, the Griffonian Kingdom was the second largest, smaller than Equestria but larger than the Crystal Kingdom and the Hive Principality.

His youngest son, Perilune Glimfeather, would not inherit the throne. That honor would go to one of his older sisters. Due to this fact, it enabled him to pursue anything that interested him. And while he was still young, just barely out of primary school, his interests exploded. Strong in mathematics and science, he split his time between griffon battle conditioning in Griffonia proper, and classes at the Lunar Colonies. He took after his father in terms of plumage, but you wouldn’t know it from his dye job. The “Nebula” look was the latest fad since the Cosmic Lotus was just past the halfway point. His feathers were dyed a dark blue with swirls of purple, red, and lighter blues. Dots also were painted here and there to represent stars.

The pair sat down up in the front. With all of the other members now there, it was time for the hosts to arrive.

The announcer walked over to the entrance and peeked around the corner, only to let out a loud gasp. He seemed like he was talking to somebody hidden before he went back and started to talk again, his normally deep voice cracking.

“Presenting the Solar and Lunar Diarchs, Celestia Bright-wing and Luna Swift-talon!” He moved out of the way as the two Princesses entered the room

Celestia was no longer an alicorn in the purist sense. While her rear half remained like her previous pony self, complete with her gently swaying colorful tail, that was where the similarity ended. Her front half seemed to take after a white-bellied sea eagle, and she was covered in the purest of white feathers. Her eyes, while still filled with love, were sharp and more like a predator’s. Her front talons were an off-white eggshell color and clicked delicately on the marble floor, but her wings were still as large as ever. Her head feathers were medium length and they changed colors in the same pattern as her mane previously did.

Luna's features seemed to get even sharper if that was possible. Her back half remained true – a dark blue with her starry tail. Her front half, however, seemed to take after a black eagle, her feathers slightly ruffled as she moved to preen a few of the primary ones before folding her wing back up. Her beak was sharp, almost frighteningly so, even when she curled it up into a playful grin. Her head feathers were themed a lot like Celestia, but they were a little longer and flowed in her own pattern.

“Hot!” Free and Path exclaimed at the same time, just before their heads were slammed into the table again. Twilight was growling with anger while Cadance and both Glimfeathers laughed.

It was Celestia who spoke up to ease the fears of some of the more skittish pony nobles. “Rest assured that we are fine. We just thought on this day in the spirit of cooperation, we would change to show our support of the others in attendance. I do apologize to the hive queen, however, as we could not figure out how to modify this illusion to show off a changeling horn. That, and if we came as full queen, it might be imposing just a tad much.”

While Celestia talked to quell everyone’s worries, Luna was staring right at Flix with what could be considered a predatory gaze.

“Now – let us begin our meals!”

With everyone seated, the staff began to walk around the large table, putting meals on everyone’s plates. However, when everybody looked to the princesses to begin eating, they looked at their rather impressive salads with distaste. Luna waved one of the staff over and whispered in his ear. The pony blinked, nodded, and then he ran off. A few moments later, a griffon staff member came back and he put down two large royal cuts of meat down on their plates, exactly what the Glimfeathers were eating.

Everyone started to stare at them as they dug in. Normally the epitome of manners, instead they were tearing into the rare meat with their talons and snapping their beaks. Even Trask stopped and watched with amazement.

Twilight was looking on in horror while Flix grinned.

Fidelitas nudged Path and murmured, “That’s not an illusion, is it, Dad?”

The stallion grinned and winked at his daughter. “If Flix is involved, not likely. Just roll with it, Fifi.” Path then cleared his throat to attract the attention of those at the table with him. “So – did anyone see that Ludacris display last night?” he asked innocently.

#

Author's Note

It's only going to go downhill from here.
Lets all enjoy the ride.

The Grand Banquet [Part2]

Path smiled to himself. All things considered, this dinner was not going as bad as he thought it would. Generally when Flix was involved things became interesting, and while this was still the case, it has not yet reached critical mass. When he scanned the room he noticed a few things.

The pony Nobles, while a lot better than they were before when he was growing up, were still set in their ways and slow to change. They grew to accept the griffons and the changelings, but right now their attention was split between the three things that were making them fret the most, the first of them being their princesses turned into hippogriffs. The nobles could not know that the princesses were making a huge show out of eating meat for the intended purpose of making them squirm. It was distressing for them to say the least but it was not like they could do anything about it.

On the other hoof, they were also staring at his son. Flix was most likely the only other House Path member that had even less tact than he and Free agent. And when it came to light that technically he was a noble, he wielded it with all the grace of a sledgehammer, deciding to be the Canterlot voice of the House, even though for the most part he stayed in his loft in the Canterlot art district. However, he had made an effort to learn the rules and procedures of the noble house system in Canterlot. Orlonda only added to his force since she could read everyone and everything in the room, and that, coupled with Flix's inability to pull punches, made him hated it in the Equestrian noble circles.

The hive Queens were talking among the other reps present. It was interesting how the hives paired off with groups that aligned with their interests. The thestrals and griffons were conversing with the Violet and Red Hives, as well as Shining Armor. The Orange and Yellow hives were talking with the crystal ponies and the zebras. Everything was in balance just as long as nothing threw it out of... oh dear why was Celestia looking at him like that?

She stood up and tinked her fork against her glass to get everyone’s attention. As they quieted down, Celestia began, “I am glad to have you all gathered here today. It has been such a long time since we have had a dinner as grand as this. Lord Path tells me it’s even bigger than his Grand Vernal Equinox Dinner that he holds every year. But I suppose that it needs to be since I only do ones this large every decade, so it makes sense that it’s ten times as big!”

Those that were watching laughed at the Princess's jab at Path who was smirking.

“We have indeed accomplished many things in the last ten years. We have the steady stream of science coming back from the Cosmic Lotus continually giving our research scientists something to work on. Well, our Equus-based researchers. Our Lunar researchers are still working on communication upgrades as well as cutting-edge science. However, the greatest feat comes from our three far stations at the Lagrange points with the Dim Star.” Celestia turned to face one group of the tables. “The L4 Station code-named Glimfeather Station!”

The griffons cawed out in pride as their king raised a goblet in acknowledgement.

Celestia continues, turning to another group, “Then we have the L5 station code named Alexandrite Station!”

The crystal ponies and the changelings cheered out as well, while the Queens, Cadence and Shining smiled and waved.

“Last but not least, we have the newest and the furthest orbital station. At the L3 point, we have the Imperatrix Station!”

The bat ponies and zebras cheered out as Luna smiled.

“But it hasn’t been smooth sailing. No – some of us have lost people special to us.” She let that sentence hang. Some looked at Path who had a serene look on his face and thought he was happy. Those who could read people saw that it was forced, but under it all, the changelings could sense a deep pain from the earth pony that he was trying to keep hidden under his public face.

“It is now that I revel in our accomplishments, mourn our losses, and look ever forward to what lies on the horizon!” The hippogriff princess turned and looks at Flix with a smile.

“I am pleased to announce something that makes my heart swell. I almost didn’t believe it when my nephew said he was going to finally settle down, but I believe that if there is anyone worthy of Flix's claw in marriage it would be his long-time companion, Orlonda. I am pleased that I was asked to marry them.”

Flix stood up his eyes wide, “What?”

He turned to Orlonda to see her crouched down, holding out a talon ring with a small smile on her muzzle. “Flix, my crazy partner in crime, I’ve traveled the world with you, through time with you, and even jumped into politics with you.” She started to grin. “Marry me, you silly chimera!”

Flix slowly sat on the ground. He had no fancy snarks, comebacks, or a witty retort. There was a long pause before Flix leaned down and hugged her tightly.

“Yes. Yes, I think I’ll do that.”

FiFi leaned over to Path and whispered, “It’s always been hard to taste what Flix is feeling because of the chaotic energy, but the love shines through it all.”

Flix started to grin as he picked Orlonda back up off her hooves and gave her a tight hug. He whispered something in her ear, and soon the changeling started to laugh.

“Oh... that’s such a good idea!” she giggled as Flix stood on his back legs.

“In the spirit of this grand event, I am going to change Celestia and Luna back. I think they have experienced enough, don’t you?” The sisters laughed a bit as did some of the attendants. “I am going to need all of my magic for the wedding after all.” He snapped his fingers are the two hippogriffs blurred out and refocused. This time one was a pure white changeling queen, while the other was a deep, dark purple. The reactions were almost instant as some of the stuffy pony nobles fainted, while the real changeling queens looked at the two false queens, their eyes wide.

“Oh... OH! What tastes so sweet!” Luna started to sniff the air. Since they had no experience with tasting emotions, Luna was making eating motions in the air before she found herself near a grinning Path.

“Hello hon,” Path stated while Fifi was holding her hooves to her mouth, trying to hide her giggle fits.

“You taste like funnel cake.” She stared at him with a creepy amount of prolonged eye contact.

Celestia, however, was not having as good of a time. She was staring right at her court's nobles, her eyes narrowed, her saber-like fangs bared even though her mouth was shut. No words were being exchanged, but all that could sense emotions felt a growing fear from the nobles who had less than honorable intentions.

“Dang claws are on the fritz again,” Flix said. He snapped his fingers again and the two false queens spun around until they were a blur. When they slowed down, instead of the alicorns everyone knew and loved, there were to Zebras sitting there. Luna had stripes in varying colors of the deep night. Her frame was angular and sharp. She looked at herself and snickered.

“In truth, I cannot lie, there is no pony as beautiful as I.” Luna blinked a few times and clapped her hooves having a good time.

“While I am sure you are having fun, please stop this Flix for I am done.” Celestia looked at the chimera with a deadpan expression. While she looked much like she normally did, her white fur was striped with pastel pinks and purples.

With another snap of his claws, the two aspects were back to their normal alicorn selves. Celestia ruffled her wings in annoyance before settling back down. Luna, on the other hoof, was giggling. “Even though my flank did change, stallions still gawk and go-”

Free and Path both cut Luna off. “Daaaannnngggggg!”

Everyone looked at Twilight, expecting her to do what she always did when the ‘boys’ did something like that.

Twilight blinked. “I can’t do that all the time. If I did, both of them would have a perpetual concussion”

Flix snickered at Twilight and rolled his eyes dramatically at the alicorn. “No fun, no fun! Always content with the mundane. This is why I… Whoa! Wait, what...” He suddenly turned and looked off to the side as he started to laugh. “Oh, now this is going to be fun.” He held up his dragon claw as the spark started to grow in intensity. His other claw was held out to Orlonda and she held onto it as she laughed merrily. Their joy was apparent to everyone there.

“Be back soon... maybe.” That claw kept building up probability, and the pair started to shift into different forms – two paper cutouts characters, two drones, two squiggly lines, and then they were gone.

Author's Note

Wondering where Flix and Orlonda went?
Check the main story by Goldfur! [Cosmic Lotus]

Goldfur Chan in Pony Land (pt1)

A Red Changeling princess ran down the main trail on the way to the back of House Path’s Griffonian estate, rather annoyed that she couldn't find her dad again. Of course, he was in the last place she bothered to look. In the back of the estate on a small lake was a creaking old boat that was obviously oversized for that body of water. The badly worn letters on the side said, “HMS Sunbu__”. FiFi raised an eyebrow.

“Sunbu? What the hell is a Sunbu?!”

It took a few moments before a voice answered her back. “It’s a boat that’s been long forgotten, so I use it to go fishing here.”

The changeling flew up and landed on the deck of the ship. She could now see an earth pony stallion and a griffon cock sitting in lawn chairs near the bow of the ship, two fishing poles leaning on the rail with the lines going into the water, and two red and white bobbers lazily floating on the lake. The pair looked up at her with grins and the pony moved his straw hat out of his eyes to gaze at her.

“What’s up, Fifi?” Long Path asked.

The princess started to huff and pace around in circles. “You have to be at the talks that are now occurring! This is history in the making! You can’t just let your granddaughter do it all on her own. She’s dealing with all of the GEC and the heads of other campuses!”

Free Agent let out a soft caw as he pressed a lever on his chair and reclined back. “Oh, she’s fine. She has Lucida helping her out and Lucida has Hype. They have all the power they need. Besides, it’s just talking, so we’re just fine relaxing here while the young ’uns take the lead.”

Path spoke up. “I’d just rather fish today.”

Fifi stood aggressively, her wings flaring out at her sides. “There are no fish in this lake!”

Path was about to say something before a bright flash in the sky stopped all conversation and a strange golden streak slammed into the lake with enough force to make a large wave which rocked the boat hard before it broke on the lake edge. They all looked over the lake before they heard the loud whirring of the reel of Path’s fishing pole. Something was caught on his line!

“Aha! I got one!”

Path started to reel in his catch. Eventually, both he and Free pulled in the massive thing which had one limb tangled with the line out of the water and into the boat. All three of them gasped at the gold-colored creature. While it looked feline, it had six limbs – two arms and four legs, plus an extra-long tail.

“Is that…?” FiFi asked.

“It is,” Path replied.

“Are we…?” Free asked.

“We are,” Path replied.

FiFi shuddered as Path’s waves of emotions hit her quite hard. “Gahhh.... warn me when you do that!”

The earth pony was grinning. “Free, have Pif grab the new prototype crystal project, and don’t let anyone know about this. It’s not often I get to surprise the entire world!”

Path looked back down to the unconscious chakat with a smile. “Time to turn everything upside-down again.”

#

Goldfur had woken up but shi did not yet open her eyes. Instead, shi chose to listen to what was going on around hir since shi knew that shi could be anywhere and shi did hear voices of people speaking around her.

There was one that had a deep voice and seemed the least worried out of everyone there. When shi sensed him, all shi could feel was confidence, amusement and happiness. “I don’t see why you are worried. I mean it’s just one of them and we know that only so many people can teleport that far. Discord is busy with Fluttershy, and Destined is busy helping Luna with dream duty. So it had to be Flix. And while he is chaotic, he’s hardly random. He always does things for a reason.”

The next voice that spoke up was female, and her emotions were saturated with worry, fear, and a touch of panic. “Dad, you can’t just say this is okay! At best, this is a diplomatic incident, and at worst, they could see it as an abduction and a declaration of war! We have possibly made enemies out of the first non-Equian life we’ve ever found. We need to be friends. This isn’t how friendship works, Path!”

The first voice spoke up again. “Hey, Free – what do I always say about incidents?”

A new voice spoke up. While she couldn’t feel this one’s emotions whatsoever, his voice sounded upbeat and peppy. “An incident is just a mismanaged opportunity!”

The female voice let out a squawk and her voice cracked. “You don’t say that! You never said that! You just made it up right now! Do moms know about this yet?!”

The male voice talked again. “I had Pif grab the crystal translator prototype and send it over to me and then I put it in her ear, so I don’t think they know what we are doing yet. Exciting isn’t it?”

Another loud squawk filled the room.

“Young Lady, don’t make me send you to your room. I don’t want you waking up our special guest!”

That third voice chimed in, amusement in his voice. “Oh, she’s been awake this whole time. She’s just been listening to us squabble.

Goldfur’s eyes shot open. Shi looked around and then at the people who were talking. A grey pony with a green mane and tail was staring at hir with an amused look on his face. So was what shi thought was a russet griffon with bright red crest and tail tuft, but those creatures were an old Terran myth! Behind them was a distraught pony-shaped being with a shiny red carapace, large horn, and insect-like wings. Shi had no idea what that creature was supposed to be.

“Hello!” the pony said with a broad smile. “My name is Long Path. Welcome to Equus!”

#

—End Part 1—

Author's Note

About time I start the Arc that everyone wants to see!
It will be slow going, but I want to get the arc done by the end of the year.
Edited and polished like usual by goldfur!

A Pan-Galactic Party!

Author's Note

It only took me like a year to figure out how to do this... gah...

A Pan-Galactic Party!

1615 CST (Canterlot Standard Time)

Luna was aware of the time since she had another two hours of Day Court before it would flip to the Night Court and she could talk preparations for the Midwinter celebration. Even though she was distracted, she continued to carry a conversation with Polistae and Olare over the status of the current emergency love reserve and where the next expansion should be placed.

“The crystal caverns under Canterlot will be filled to capacity in as soon as five years. We need to find another vault-like area that can be used as a secondary coffer. A few changelings have voiced a concern about the need of such a vault, but when Twilight completed the census a decade ago, the population of changelings had increased 12.8% more than expected. For our plan of being able to sustain 50% of changelings in hibernation and 50% of changelings being active, we will need the new vault soon. Do you have any ideas?” Luna looked to the two queens as Scribe actively took notes while the group talked.

Polistae spoke up. “I think the best two areas would be in Midwestern Equestria or the steppes of the northern dragon lands, as they are the most geologically sound. The best option, of course, would be your moon, but if such a disaster happened, we might not have the resources to retrieve the reserves.”

Olare was about to add her two bits to the debate, however, as she was about to speak, she was cut off by one of the guards at the door.

“Presenting Prince Flixtradamus and Princess Orlondinium!”

The trio of royalty looked confused as a strange tune started to play. It was upbeat but... also quite campy.

“Oh, by the Moon...” Luna face-hoofed.

Polistae started to laugh.

Olare narrowed her eyes, not liking how their conversation was derailed.

Flix slipped in with a grin and hop in his step while Orlonda pranced after him. Flix was wearing a school bus yellow zoot suit that had shoulders going out way further than they should, but that wasn't the most distracting thing about him. That would be the three different monocles he was wearing – two on one eye, one on the other.

Orlonda was wearing what could only be explained as the byproduct of a mating between a disco ball and a glow stick.

Polistae looked over to Orlonda with a grin. “Oh, so you are a princess now, hmm? When did this happen?”

Flix looked at Polistae and raised his claw, giving a snap causing a crown made of tim-tams to appear on his changeling companion’s head, her sparkly dress was changing into a T-shirt that said “#1 Princess”.

Orlonda made a gesture to her crown and then to her shirt. “I believe my credentials are in order.”

Before the others could speak, Luna raised a hoof. “Flix – what is it that you need? You very rarely come to court... actually I think this is the first time you showed up.” She blinked and looked back at him.

Flix grinned. “So, Discord and I are planning something big for your celebration. I needed to get you on the same page so that when we do our thing, you won’t get caught off guard.”

The two queens narrowed their eyes, starting to grow concerned since Discord was involved in things.

“Ah, don't worry! What we’ll do is going to be contained to the entertainment district of Canterlot. I just have to fill you in on the details of what we are going to do so as the MC, you aren't taken by surprise.” With that said, he motioned for Luna to come over to him.

She slowly raised an eyebrow and walked over and leaned down as Flix started whispering into her ear. The two queens grew worried when they felt the princess’ emotions go from fear, to amazement, to almost being giddy then back to her reserved “Court” face.

“And when is this supposed to happen?”

“Your celebration is from 1800 to 0600. My thing is from 2200 to 0200. It can’t be maintained for longer than that.” Flix said matter-of-factly.

Luna sat for a moment and though. “I think this can work, and I also think that if we do this, it will greatly ease relations in the future between the two worlds.”

Once the pair started to talk about other worlds, it finally got the Queens’ attention. However, before they could get close enough to hear, Flix jumped back and pointed to Orlonda. “MY PRINCESS – THERE IS A MISSION OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE!”

The drone stood at attention. “YES, MY LEIGE!”

Flix raised his talon up and held it for a few moments as his entire claw became brighter and brighter before the two fell through trap doors that appeared in the floor, and disappeared as soon as they shut, moments before the two Queens scrambled over to figure out what had happened.

Luna, however, was giggling yet again as she clopped her hooves a few times.

Polistae looked to Orlare and then back to Luna. “Okay I’ll bite – what was that all about?”

Luna just grinned. “Oh, you are going to have to come to the celebration to find out now, aren't you?”

The two Queens just stared at the Lunar Princess.

Scribe spoke up from her desk. “Whenever Flix shows up, Luna, Free, and Path tend to get this way.”

Orlare facehoofed.

#

Back on Chakona, the Prime Minister was about to finish hir last round of paperwork for the day when hir interom let out a cheerful “Bing!” The chakat looked at hir schedule seeing that it was empty and then tapped the comm, Only to hear her aide begin to talk. “Sorry for bothering you so close to the end of the day, but there is a Princess Orlondinium from Equestria here to see you.”

“Ah, send her in please!” Sunflare raised an eyebrow and mentally went over the list of people that she met from Equestria. She realized that Orlondinium was not one of those that shi met previously. Maybe it was one that had to stay on the ship, or maybe this had to deal with the ad she was receiving reports about. It would be answered soon as the changeling stepped in with a smile and wave.

This was strange. While the others were always trying to be diplomatic and sensitive to carefully read out the situation, this one bounced in and greeted her with no real sense of protocol.

“Hi, Sunflare!” Orlonda smiled and did a half-assed bow. “Sorry for coming in at the last minute but I’m here to invite you to something.”

“Oh? And what would that be?”

“Well, while the party is going on at the club, there is somebody that wants to meet you and talk for a little while, but he can only do it during the party.”

“Ignoring my questions about why it has to be during the party, who am I to meet?”

“Wandering and Starry's Father.” Orlonda started to grin.

Sunflare nodded slowly, wondering why their dad of all people wanted to have a meeting with her, or how he was going to get across the vast distance between worlds. She looked back to Orlonda trying to get any kind of read off of her.

“So be there by 2200 hours. That’s when the meeting starts. I need to get back and prepare the club. See you there!” Orlonda did another half-bow and trotted out of the room, leaving a bemused Sunflare.

#

Many different eyes were looking at that one club in the entertainment district. The amount of chaos that Flix and Orlonda caused by outright buying one of the largest venues and then booking a worldwide commercial was enough to make Flix burp from being so full.

Orlonda frowned a bit. “How can you even burp?”

The chimera stretched and stood up, flapping his mismatched wings a few times. “It’s the same way you burp when you get filled up on emotions. Right now, I’m pretty much at my max capacity for chaotic energy. I wasn’t expecting so much. Basically, I’m saturated with it. I think it will be more than enough to maintain it.

“Maintain what?”

“Oh, you’ll see.” Flix grinned as he walked out of the green room. Orlonda smiled as she changed her form, becoming taller, more impressive, her chitin enhanced in a series of ways. A few of them were noticed as soon as she stepped into the black lights that were on the stage, showing off her old Bunyip tribal markings. The beat and the tempo were starting to reach a breaking point as Flix appeared in a flash in the center of the ring.

“HELLO CHAKONNAAAAA!” his voice boomed out as he looked at the sea of faces, as they all screamed back excitedly in response. Between Flix amping them up subtly with his magic as well as the music, it was a heaving, rolling sea of bodies moving up and down and side to side with the music – a unique blend of primal with techno music. For a moment, he was amazed; it was almost like he was looking at churning ocean. Chakats, Rakshani, humans, Caitians, morphs – they were all here. Flix made a motion to the chakat DJs who slowly turned the music down a bit as Flix grabbed a mic and started to speak into it. “Are you ready for the main event?!” he almost screeched out, his grin widening as the entire crowed yelled back at him as he paced around snickering.

His entire talon started to light up as did the walls. For those that had no idea what he was doing, it would just look like magical effects, a light show, but in reality he was creating a space that obeyed the rules of the Chaos Lord that created it. It took a lot of energy but with everything that had happened, he had more than enough. With the zone established, he reached his talons out and tilted the room, shifting everyone to one side of the room. They were laughing as they slid around, still too amped up on the energy to let worry enter their minds.

Flix looked up at one of the highest VIP rooms that looked over the floor. “The real party is just about to start!” He reached out with his talon, his form blurring slightly, and from across the void a lion paw grabbed back.

#

The largest party in the Canterlot entertainment district was in full swing. There were two festivals that were occurring: the much larger mid-winter celebration and then in the very core, there was the largest venue, completely booked out. When one thought about the history of the festival, it turned from a giant rave to more of a music festival, and each year there was an emphasis on a certain style and group. This time they had an emphasis on the cultures down under, and on the stage there were a few bunyips, a pair of dragons and a few changelings playing a deep rolling bass beat, gradually increasing the tempo until it hit a crescendo and two aspects appeared in a flash on the screen. On one side, there was Luna shifted into her Nightmare Moon form. Over the years, while Nightmare Night retained its light-hearted kid-friendly theme and her role in the mid-winter celebration was more of a Mistress of Ceremonies and judge of the bands performing, it was for an older crowd, but she loved it nonetheless.

She amplified her voice and yelled out to the crowd. “HELLLLOOOOOOO MY LITTLE STARS!!!”

The crowd was cheering and soon everyone started to chant. “MOON! MOON! MOON!”

Luna couldn’t help but grin as she looked to Discord for a moment before turning back to the crowd. “This festival is the going to be a special one, my little stars, for tonight we are going to be having guests!”

Luna’s horn lit up and Discord walked to the middle of the stage, his talon starting to move up as he held a snap. Unknown to most of the participants in the venue, the alicorn was casting several things on the building: fear suppressor, and universal translator being the two most important things. With a huge magical shove, she pushed the crowd to one side of the area while Discord worked his magic. He reached out with his claw and felt someone grab onto it.

Between the gap the Chaos Lord and the Chaos Aspect spoke.

Nobody really knew what was going on, but from the perspective of the ponies, the empty half of the room and the stage was suddenly filled with all manner of strange beings. The bands looked at each other, as did the attendants. There was silence for a few moments before the griffon started up a beat. She looked to one of the chakats who picked up on it and started to play a backup beat with hir instrument. One by one, each member of both of the bands jumped into the song. The fully synthed product becoming something so much greater than what each one could come up with on their own. The inhabitants from Chakona started to become swept away in the music as were the Equians as they became one mass, all moving in time with the beat.

Luna backed away slightly and looked at the being in the back center. If she looked from one direction, she could see Flix, and from a different one, Discord. “Are you holding it okay?”

When the response came back, it was both of their voices, floating in and out of synch with each other. “We are fine. At this rate, we won’t tire for a few hours, but we do need to stay still. Go enjoy the party. We will let you know when we have to separate.”

Luna nodded and waved up to one of the large VIP rooms that over looked the dance party, before she kept amping up the crowd with the music. The chakats were already becoming drunk off of so much empathic energies. The Orange Changelings were in awe of the new music and the culture it represented being shown to them.

#

Sunflare and Zuni entered the VIP room. Half of the room was glass and overlooked the massive party and the other half was just a normal wall. She looked over to Zuni and then to her watch. A few moments before it clicked over to 2200 hours, she looked over to see a large commotion on the dance floor as the MC raised his hand up and started to glow brighter and brighter. Something strange happened and soon a second being had joined her and the entire right half, the half that remained completely empty was now filled with ponies, griffons, changelings and some species she hadn’t seen before. When she snapped her head back to the other side of the table she was sitting at, she was staring at a grey earth pony and a red griffon, both smiling at her.

“Long Path, I presume?” she asked with a smile. It only took a few moments for her get a feel for the pony with her empathic abilities.

Ecstatic, curious, worried.

The earth pony couldn’t help but grin as he spoke back to her. “Lord Long Path, if you want my official title, but most nowadays just call me ‘that old horse’.”

Free waved a bit. “Lord Free Agent, but most just call me ‘that old bird’.”

“Ah, I would expect the parents of Wandering and Starry to be so formal, but it’s nice to have a relaxed meeting.” Shi nodded a few times and leaned back.

“Oh, we are informal but this is not a relaxed meeting. I have read reports about the Swarm, how they attack and their movements, and I have read about your culture and history.” Path leaned forward and clopped his hooves together. “The diplomatic road you will soon be going on is going to be a long one, but there is a shortcut, one that only you and not the Federation can use.”

Sunflare narrowed her eyes a bit and leaned back in her chair. “Back channels? Why do you think it will be so difficult?”

This time Free spoke up. “Path has done… well to put it in simple terms, unified all of Equestria, defeated the great evil, and then his son defeated its resurgence. Then after all of that, he had a sit down with the largest powers and create the beginnings of the Equestrian version of the U.N. We call it the GEC. He globalized education for all, then caused a technological boom lasting the past 150 years and funded the Cosmic Lotus, so he has a lot of what you would call soft power.”

Sunflare’s eyes went wide. Just how old was this pony? “And you want to help the Federation?”

Path leaned forward and smiled. “The Federation... I am not sure yet, but Chakona and chakats definitely. From the time I have spent with one of your citizens, your civilization is so fascinating and I want to learn more. The Federation has their channels; they will send ambassadors, the whole diplomatic song and dance. I am not an official anymore; my granddaughter runs things now.”

Path tapped his half of the screen and a map came up of Chakona and then the wormhole. “But there are two things that I need from you. And because I am unsure when I am going to be able to communicate with you again, I’ll need an answer so I can begin to put my plans in motion.”

The map split in two, one showing an area one light day around the wormhole, and then the uninhabited island of Emu Island. “I want Emu Island and the space one light day’s radius around the wormhole given to House Path – Emu Island for ten years and the area around the wormhole indefinitely.”

Sunflare started to laugh. “And why would I do such a thing?”

Path looked at her and she could feel him become dead serious. “Emu Island is so you can begin developing infrastructure so we can set up a magical defense station capable of fighting back the Swarm. I don’t want the Chakastra system to fall.” His seriousness lifted slightly. “I have yet to see a chakker game!”

Sunflare calmed back down as she started to consider just how important such an outpost would be if the Swarm reached that far in. “If I gave you Emu Island, what would you give Chakona?”

Path tapped his table as a globe of the Equestrian moon appeared. “An Emu Island-sized colony, on my herdmate’s moon for ten years, and we will bring chakat-kind up to speed on magic.”

Sunflare’s eyes went wide as she thought about the magic she had seen in person, and it was something that could solve a lot of problems on Chakona. “I need more time to think about this fully, Mr Path, but since I don’t have that time. I will accept these terms.”

Path smiled widely. “I was really hoping you would. Now we get to go over what needs to be done.”

A pony came in with food and drinks for everyone as they started to formulate how to properly defend the Chakastra system.

#

There were some surprised gasps when those that knew her saw Prime Minister Sunflare out on the party floor dancing with Sunny Day and Pale Petal. The three of them were causing a feedback in each other and the rest of the mixed crowd. The emotional energy was starting to reach a critical mass. So much positivity, so much joy, even the humans which were the most empathically stunted of the races present were becoming swept up in the festivities. At some point, a unicorn had conjured up paint and soon everyone was being painted in normal and reactive paint.

Luna appeared once again next to Flix/Discord. “Things are getting a little out of hand...”

The being still remained motionless. “It will be fine.”

Luna fretted slightly but trusted her two allies as the bands nodded to each other and shifted the tone, directing the energy from highly refined and technical to something that while still technical was deep, carnal, that induced action! Really it was one of the Orange Changeling drummers and the chakat lead keyboard player that caused things to go down the way it did. Luna held out as long as she could but much like a bird in a storm, she was soon at the mercy of the music as well.

#

Celestia woke up with a groan. While she wasn’t hung over, her body was sore in places she had long forgotten about. “NNNhh...ow.” She slowly looked around only to find half of her body curled around the lower half of the chakat she was dancing with earlier, while Pale Petal, now in her normal form of Polistae, but looking visibly heavier was curled around the upper half of the same chakat.

Polistae started to stir a few moments later which then triggered Sunflare to wake up.

The chakat slowly rolled onto her belly and stood up. “Uh...what happened, wasn’t I at a party before?” It took her a few moments before she felt the emotion of Celestia and couldn’t help but smile, which made Celestia start to smile again... which caused Polistae’s wings start the buzz. History was about to repeat itself before Path cleared his throat.

“Well... this wasn’t the outcome I was expecting, but at least everything is okay.” The pony laughed a bit while Free poked out from his side. He was wearing a blocking pendant.

“So the mid-winter celebration was a hit. And we also figured out a kind of… synergistic side-effect when you get enough Equestrians and Chakonans together. The happy ponies, griffons and thestrals induce happiness in chakats, morphs and eventually humans. The changelings act like an emotional sink, which is why things were okay for a while, but soon they reach their max capacity and dumped all the emotional energy into the air... which led to…”

Polistae raised her eyebrow slightly. “Which led to...?”

Path couldn’t help but snicker. “Having to break up several pairs, triads, groups, piles, for the split back to their respective worlds, but the strongest triad had to be taken away until they had time to cool down.”

Sunflare eyes started to widen. “How long?!”

Path looked to her. “Don’t worry, but it’s been about two days.” He looked at their horrified faces. “Celestia, don’t worry, Luna has been pulling triple shifts so you are covered. Polistae, Fancy Pants knows what’s going on and it took us ten minutes to get him to stop laughing. Which leaves me with you, Prime Minister Sunflare, My son is currently resting up, he is preparing to take you to two minutes after everyone else was shifted back. But first – breakfast!”

Sunflare looked to Celestia and then to Polistae, completely confused despite the fact she was relaxed from all the previous activity. “How can he be so calm all the time?”

Free’s ears swiveled back to hear as he grinned. “He's just like that. Come on – food is already prepared!”

#

It was one of the most awkward breakfasts ever. Everyone was in comfortable silence, but then it was Polistae who broke the ice.

“Okay...I’ll ask. Why am I so large?”

“I think the term kids use these days is THICC,” Free snickered before Path tapped him on the muzzle.

“Your body stored all the love energy during the party, and it was so much that you had to swell up a bit to handle it. At least that’s what Cadence figured when we called her to check up on you,” Path replied.

“So why are we all so sore?” Celestia asked.

“I think you kno–” Path was cut off.

“You guys had soooo much sex. I mean really, I was impressed. Queenie here shape-shifted into things that defied even my imagination Seriously – ten stars all of you!” Free golf clapped.

Polistae’s eyes went wide when she looked back at the other two. She was old, yes, but she still could lay eggs.

The other two looked back at her, then all three of them looked back to Free.

“What? I’m not going to spoil the surprise. It’s not like I even know. They just had me check up on you every few hours and make sure you had water available. You didn't even register I was there the few times I did go into the room.”

The conversation was about to go in an entirely new direction but the main door opened as Destined walked in with Blue, both of them smiling before the male alicorn spoke up. “Ready to head home, Shir Sunflare?”

The chakat looked at the two of them and hesitated for a moment before standing up with a smile. “For now, yes, but I think I will return later. This place and its people are too nice for just one visit. So, how does this work?” She walked over to Destined who had his hoof to Blue’s side, drawing on him for a little while longer before he pulled away. “Oh, just put your hands on my wing and off we go.”

Sunflare looked to Path with a sly grin. “I appreciated our talks... and the mini vacation.” She nodded to Destined to go. Just before the pair disappeared, she blew Celestia and Polistae a kiss.

Celestia and Polistae looked to Path as the two disappeared. “What talks?”

Path took a sip of his coffee and shrugged. “Right now, I would be more worried about being a dad, Celestia.”

#

Sunflare appeared next to Zuni and she immediately looked around before she was hugged by her aide.

“I thought something happened in the shift back, but the last few stragglers have appeared. We really do need them to teach us how they do that!” Zuni coughed a bit and let her go, having regained control of herself.

Sunflare however was looking around, amazed that Destined was able to send her back exactly to the time and place he said he would. “Those Equians are amazing in more ways than one, Zuni.” She nodded and started to walk out of the room, she had preparations to begin.

#

In the VVVIP Lounge in the entertainment district on Chakona, a.k.a. Flix's loft, Orlonda was fretting over her new husband. He was weak and squawking every few moments, despite the fact that he was reassuring her, the new wife couldn’t help but worry.

“A few things are confusing me. I should be overflowing with energy after all of that, but now I barely have any. It’s hard to move. Why did Discord take it all? And more to the point, why did it turn into –that? I think the chaos was nudged somehow.” He weakly went to the table and laid his head down on it while Orlonda moved a straw to his beak so he could sip.

“Do you know how long until you are back to 100%?”

“I’ll be fine in a few days; this world is chaotic enough. I hope he had a good reason for tilting it the way he did.” Flix groaned weakly and sat back only to be picked up and cradled by the much larger and stronger Orlonda.

#

Discord was lying at the bed of Fluttershy with a bright smile on his face. His love looked healthier than she had in a long time. This was not something that was not lost on her as she stood up and flexed her wings.

“I feel... wonderful!” she gasped and flapped her wings powerfully once or twice both in happiness and in experimentation.

Discord couldn’t help but smile as he grabbed her and hugged her tightly while thinking to himself. 'One day from everyone... roughly twenty thousand in attendance... completely worth it.' He leaned in and gave her a kiss, only to be grabbed and tossed onto the bed, letting out an “oof” as the pegasus jumped on top of him.

“I am not going to waste this good day. We are going to do something we haven’t done in years.”

Inside, Discord was screaming like he had just won the lottery. On the outside, he just smiled.

“Yes, dear heart.”

# # # # # # #

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The Ones above all

Author's Note

Its been so long since ive updated anything, my muse is either in a coma, or dead. but then I had an idea... lets see how this turns out. Written between 445a-500a .. no editing, just spell check.

The Ones above all

Out of the chaotic patterns of pigment, Fresco, half carved obsidian, and art supplies the pair floated as they yawned. The larger changeling drone let her pupils focus onto Flix and she couldn’t help but smile, a hoof going to brush her pony tails idly as she adjusted her cardboard crown that had “Super Princess” written on it.

“Flix! I am bored… can’t we do something fun?”

The chimera couldn’t help but chuckle as he floated in the visually overwhelming void.

“It has been a while, so many threads left open, so many roads not traveled down. I would be doing such a disservice to leave them –all- hanging… and what kind of Prince would I be if I just let things here hmm?”

He floated over and with a snap of his fingers a very particular mirror appeared, Orlonda looked at it not knowing the significance of the typical example of equestrian crafting.

“Okay… so there is a mirror what’s so important about it?” The super princess asked as she orbited around it slowly.

It was then that Flix looked over his shoulder at you. “Ah, it’s just a gate way, but we can make it so much more than that. Thanks to discord letting me have access to more power… and my older bro telling me something I always knew.”

Flix held his talon claw as he started to build up chaotic energy, the grin on his beak widening as the mirror started to crack, the greater fractal patterning on the magical glass warping, changing, enhancing it beyond what it could have previously done. The chaos pocket the pair were floating in started to shudder and change from the increase in power the chimera was channeling. Tye Die tendrils of energy came out of his talons while the mirror shattered, each piece no matter how big or small all held some kind of reflection, a reflection of what is, was, and what could have been.

“Fragments of universes that aren’t so different.”

Flix spun a larger shard into view, a clearly nervous green Pegasus was looking over a checklist while a blue alicorn looked at him with a smirk.

The chaos lord couldn’t help but smile at the scene before he rotated another one into view.

“And some that are as different as it could possibly be.”

A strange beat up human wearing yellow gloves with red stripes punching a man with an over-sized arm and no face….

Orlonda looked at that shard with wonder, while Flix on the other talon was staring at you with his strangely focused, unblinking, wide eyes.

“Destined knows everything he could possibly know, except for the ones above all.”

Another shard showed another human with spiky black hair seeming to cast magic out of his cupped hands, firing it at some fat pink blob.

“We are but one of the infinite shards of –your- imagination.”

A dark skinned man aimed a strange ring which formed a giant green fist that collided with a strange man partially made of gold.

Orlonda was starting to scream and flail around, clearly she was worried and scared of all the magical build up that was occurring, the last time this much built up they were sent across the world, but this was a moot point as she could not be heard.

“Hope, Despair, Pessimism, Optimism, They are all reflected in your little shards…”

In one shard there was a strange floating drum… in the distance a series of four lights along four separate tracks lit up in sequence until they met in the center and a wormhole opened up… in another a strange saucer like ship floated in the sky, the two little rectangular protrusions on the back lifted up and glowed before it warped away.

“With this mirror I can see all of it and sometimes at the very limits, like a ghost on the edge of my far peripheral vision I can see snippets… little words here and there… Climate Change…War… Drought, and I can’t help but wonder; what drives you to create us. I suppose I should just ask."

All of the colors, all of the patterning, in the pocket realm started to turn into start white nothingness. That jet black changeling started to blend into the white background as well, her panicking only being given away by her eyes before those disappeared as well. Flix was fading into the void those eyes and that beak being the last thing existing in the pocket realm.

“I hope you don’t disappoint us.”

Next Chapter: ???

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It has been a long time

So I don't think that I'll continue this any further. I've been trying for years to get something on paper and I just end up with scraps. But I hate it when I'm ultimately left hanging with a story.. So here is what I'm going to do. If there is any kind of plot hole, question, what if, something expanded upon you want answered comment on this chapter I'll reply to it the best I can. Let's say from now to Dec 31st. After that I'll dump all my scraps on here and then mark it as completed. Sound good? good! :)

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The Path so Far

Hey everone! So I figured I would draw up a map so you can all see just how far Flix has gone, as well as open up comments to a general Q and A about this story so far.
I'm also stalling since the next few chapters have to synch up with some of goldfurs chapters not yet started, and considering that I write about 1k a chapter and he writes 10-15k a chapter it will be a while (hes not a machine!), im gonna be going back and doing some back chapters... like "Celestia uncensored", Its just as bad as you think. and "Discord teaches the birds and the bees"

Okay so here is the Beginning: I have converted parts of the equestrian map to work for google earth, so due to Vanhoover being next to luna bay. I figured Luna bay is Puget Sound. So here is the course Flix more or less took as he left western equestria.

(( http://i.imgur.com/SsJVzOb.jpg If you can't see the image ))

He narrowly avoided the Hawaiian Islands and kept going to the southwest until he ran into one of the Island Tribes of Sea Ponies. Located on the real world Island Nation of Vanatu, The Maewo Barrier Island.

(( http://i.imgur.com/womJp4N.jpg If you can't see the image ))

Later the now group of three continue west, traveling through the straits (real world straits separating Australia and Papua New Guinea) afterwards they were caught in a storm off the coast and Flix was knocked out, Orlonda and IkaIka decided to head toward where Ika thought was shore, and they landed on northwestern Australia where they met the aboriginal BunYip tribe.

(( http://i.imgur.com/jtTIuv0.jpg If you can't see the image ))

Here is the fully zoomed out version. For comparison. The furthest Path made was the UK ( Griffon Homelands ) So Flix really is the explorer of the family!

(( http://i.imgur.com/i6QJiJq.jpg If you can't see the image ))

So yes, take a while, mull it over, if you have any questions let me know!
Ill answer any and all of them, world building questions, character questions. ask away!

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