The Life and Times of Flix the Hippogriff

by AlaskaIsCold


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! –