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—