//------------------------------// // Exploring Emotion - Part One // Story: The Life and Times of Flix the Hippogriff // by AlaskaIsCold //------------------------------// 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--