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.