• Published 22nd May 2016
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The Life and Times of Flix the Hippogriff - AlaskaIsCold



Just because Flix isnt as fast or as strong as his older brothers and sisters doesn't mean he can't have his own kind of adventures!

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On the far side of the world.

The one thing that Luna never grew tired of was traversing the dreamscape. To those who were just learning how to navigate it, the concept of it being both infinite and finite was confusing until they realized that to a certain extent, it was a perceptually-generated system. If you had enough control over it, you could shrink distances or expand them. Luna being the Mistress of said realm had the greatest power over it; so much so that if she expanded or contracted parts of it too much, it would affect nearby dreamers. Her strength was her weakness in that regards, but it was never something that she had to factor in except when traveling to see Flix. Instead of perceiving the distance as shorter and just jumping to Flix, she had to use extraordinary methods and tap into Blue Streak for assistance.

“Are you ready to go, Luna?” Destined floated next to her in the dreamscape, as did Nox and Leatherwing.

“That I am. I trust you three will be able to cope while I am gone?”

Destined grinned as did her two bat-pony dream-apprentices. “I think we can handle it. Path is watching you and Blue sleep, making sure that nothing happens. I don’t know why he thinks that something would, but he’s starting to get defensive daddy syndrome since you two are so close. Let us know how Flix is doing when you get back,” Destined said as he slowly started to float upside down.

“That I will.” Luna replied as her magic started to cover her entire body, then a second layer was added around her and in a streak of light, the alicorn shot away, disappearing over the etheric horizon.

Destined turned to Nox. “So, now what?”

The Old World thestral just shrugged. “People on the east coast near Manehatten should be heading to bed about now. How about we start in the east and just work our way west?”

Destined and Leatherwing nodded in agreement and the trio shot off in the opposite direction of Luna.

# # #

Flix always had the most interesting dreamscapes. Usually when people dreamed, they dreamed of the familiar, something that they knew well like their home or hometown. Flix, however, always seemed to have wildly different dreamscapes. The thing that Luna enjoyed the most was that whenever she reached his dream-sphere, she would never know what she would be walking into, and this time was no different.

Bright – that was one way the alicorn could put it. She was not expecting to be in a bright beach scene. The white sand stretched off in both directions for what seemed like forever. Luna walked over to the hippogriff who was lying on some palm fronds.

“Art thou really so tired that thou wouldst doze off in thy dreams?” she asked with a snicker.

Flix looked up at her with a smile. “Hi, Mma Luna! How have you been?” He got up and nuzzled her. “If it’s too bright, I could always dim it down a bit.” Flix snapped his talons and the time of day radically shifted until it was just a few minutes after sunset. The fact that he was able to do so that easily, amused as well as surprised Luna.

“Thou hast learned how to lucid-dream,” Luna observed with a smile.

“Well a lot has happened since our last conversation. I was struck by lightning, then taken out by a thing called a boomerang, head-butted by an emu, failed at hunting kangaroos….”

Flix started going down a long list as the alicorn’s eyes grew wider. She pulled the hippogriff into a tight hug. “Why would thou tell me such things?! Thou hast no idea how worried this makes me!”

Flix started to chuckle. “Well, for what it’s worth, the lightning thing happened a few months ago. It was when you last talked to me. Orlonda woke me up because the sails were still open as we headed into a storm. Oh! That reminds me!”

Flix stared intently at a space in front of them, and an image of Orlonda appeared. “So, this is how you last saw her.” She looked a lot like a typical changeling Harvester, but she had her trademark smirk. The abstract satchel that Flix had designed and created for her last hatch-day was one of the few things that set her apart. “But over the last few months, she’s been working with the bunyip tribes and has been helping them hunt. We are in their summer lands, after all.” The form of Orlonda changed and soon the 'ling looked stronger, more muscular, and her body language more assertive and borderline aggressive. She even had sharp teeth that she was brandishing in a grin. However, the biggest difference so far was the painting on her chitin – a series of red and white dots and lines in a pattern that Luna found to be very unfamiliar but nonetheless appealing. “It took her a while, but soon she became quite the hunter and she’s loved by most of the tribe. She revels in the positive emotion which is so excessive that she’s been able to molt about once a month, letting her form expand as she became stronger.”

Luna gawked at the changeling, circling around her a few times. “What is it with House Path males and always picking the strongest for a consort?” She chuckled as she sat back down with Flix as the hippogriff responded.

“In all fairness, she wasn’t like that when we started, and actually if I remember correctly, she claimed me in Advanced Contemporary Art Composition. Kind of shocked everyone. Moms were blown away, and Dads were laughing their asses off.”

Orlonda flickered and faded away, then Ika appeared in her place. “Ika hasn’t really changed much, to be honest. She hunts as well, but she is primarily fishing as usual. The main difference is that while she normally fished a lot, she’s had to dive deeper and longer to get to the really big fish. So a lot of the changes are cosmetic.”

The image changed once again to show a more confident-looking Ika; her chest looked a little bigger and her tail looked stronger. She also had body paintings, but while Orlonda’s were very angular and predatory, and meant to inspire fear, Ika’s were very smooth-flowing, and they invoked feelings of grace and speed.

Luna turned to look at Flix. “Right now I am seeing thee as I last remember thine appearance, so what dost thou look like now?”

Flix chuckled. “Not nearly as awesome.”

Flix’s form changed. Instead of the perfect hippogriff, Luna gasped when she saw his battered form. Not enough time had passed for his fur and feathers to grow back, and Luna traced her hoof down one of the injuries that tracked along his back.

“Thou… were not jesting about getting hit by lightning, wert thou?”

“Nope. They decided to pluck all the burned hairs and feathers out when I was unconscious for two days. I think they assumed they would grow back if they plucked them, and of course they are right, but I look just weird right now.”

“And why is one of thy wings wrapped up?” Luna asked.

“That was because of the boomerang incident, and that one was also my fault due to the whole first-contact snafu. I stretch it a few times a day and it’s healing nicely, but I’m still grounded for a little while longer.” He sat back down and snapped his talons again, pointing up to the dark night sky.

“I have a lot of information to report on the southern sky cataloging project.” He grinned and pointed a talon up at the night sky. Once Luna started to look, the sky changed, switching between what he was able to see with his keen raptor eyes and various technical data.

Luna kept scanning the sky as she picked up facts and figures, as well as artistic details about the objects. “This is amazing, Flix!” she exclaimed, trying to take in every bit of information that she could.

“Actually I’m only about only half-done. Once the storm season here has passed, we are planning to go further west and to the south. I think that eventually we should end up in Manehatten because we are going to go all the way around the world. I expect that we are at about the furthest separation at the moment. Ika has been wave-reading, and she has an idea that there is much more land to the northwest, but the feeling is so faint she has no idea how far away it is. I am thinking that it’s either the eastern side of the Dragon Lands, eastern side of Griffonia or the eastern side of Equestria. My map is so incomplete that I’m not sure which one it could be, although I’m inclined to think it’s the former.”

Luna turned back to Flix. “Thou art keeping more than just mental records, correct?”

He just grinned. “Of course! I have tons of scrolls down in the secure hold of the catamaran so that they won’t be damaged. Navigational information; journals; astronomical information – it’s all there. I generally fill anywhere from two to five scrolls per day/night cycle.”

The alicorn turned back around and gave him a hug. “Doth this mean thou art coming home?”

He just grinned. “I can’t stay mad at them forever, and they need me to keep their boring lives exciting. At this rate though, I won’t be back before you pop, but I hope to be back in time for his or her first birthday.”

Luna let out a happy noise and hugged him, spinning him around a few times. “I cannot wait to tell them the good news! It is now time for me to be heading back though. I will try to reach thee in another few months!”

Flix hugged and nuzzled Luna. “See you in a few months, Mama.”

Luna smiled and, with a flash of light, she disappeared from his dreamscape.

# # #

Luna appeared next to Destined, who happened to be with Nox and Leatherwing. Destined, however, was laughing his head off, while Nox was leaning against the alicorn, struggling for breath. Leatherwing, though, was sitting on a bag of ice and did not look happy in the slightest.

“How did you all fare while I was gone?” she asked curiously.

“Well, you know how sometimes people with a very strong will can sometimes force you to take a role in their dream?” Destined asked.

Luna slowly nodded.

“As it turns out, there is a member of Celestia’s Day Guard that has the hots for Leatherwing here.” Destined said with a huge grin. Nox was flailing, trying to get air.

Luna looked over to Leatherwing, observing the blush on his cheeks, the ice against his rump, and how mortified he looked.

“Ooh! So he was sucked into one of those dreams,” Luna said with a grin.

Destined smirked at Leatherwing. “It gets less uncomfortable with time – trust me.”

“Sometimes I hate my job,” Leatherwing whimpered.

# # #

During the changing of the guard the next morning, Leatherwing noticed one of the Day Guards in particular watching him as he walked by. Despite the armor’s enchantments that made all the Royal Guards look alike, he recognized this one, and gave him the glare of doom.

The Guard wilted, not understanding what he had done to cause this severe reaction, and was only more puzzled when Princess Luna started giggling. He decided then and there that bat-ponies might be just a tad too exotic for him.

# # # # # # # # #