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!”