Chapter 57
After a shower and a few yawns, Flicker did his best to focus during independent studies. It felt good to have a little downtime, even if it meant earning his relaxation through study. Flicker had his muzzle deep inside of a textbook about critical reasoning and the common pony. It struck him as odd that such things had to be taught, and it unnerved him that such things were part of a nonstandard curriculum, according to Doctor Sterling.
All apples are fruits, but not all fruits are apples. This was presented as a self-evident, irrefutable truth, a self-supporting statement that was categorically true. Flicker scowled, bothered on some level that such things had to be taught. It was just common sense and it shouldn’t have to be explained.
Then again, Flicker supposed, he had his moments and there were many who considered him to be a little slow. Beside him, Spud farted and never woke, causing Flicker to scowl. Hennessy began chortling and Piper let out a wordless whine. Spud had a few scratches, some bites, and a few minor injuries, but nothing too serious.
“I think I like studying with a teacher,” Hennessy said as he lifted his head from his reading primer. “It’s hard to study like this on my own.”
“It reflects the job,” Flicker remarked to his roommate and companion. “There are many times when we work and get no instruction, no supervision. We have to keep ourselves on task and independent studies are a way for us to learn how to do that. Everything about this job is about achieving results.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” Piper closed her book, stretched her neck, and turned her head from side to side. “It occurs to me, we’re herd animals…”
“Yes.” Flicker’s eyebrow raised in a very Doctor Sterling-esque manner.
“And as herd animals, being independent, doing independent work and committing ourselves to independent studies goes against our social nature. Herd animals have difficulty in solitude.”
“I hadn’t thought of that, Piper,” Flicker replied. A deep crease appeared just below his horn but above his eyebrows and Flicker gave some serious, careful thought to what had just been said. “Perhaps this is the reason for so much instruction in being independent. I’ll admit, I had trouble when I started.”
“And I’m having trouble now,” Hennessy admitted.
Flicker was about to say something but was interrupted by the sounds of the alarm bell, which tolled throughout the building. His ears perked, wondering if this was a drill, but then he doubted that it was a drill, and he had a bad feeling begin to well up inside of him. In an instant, everything could change.
The bell clanged and the seconds grew long. Flicker was on his hooves already and his companions were starting to do the same. The door opened and Doctor Sterling entered, looking tired, worn down, and grim. Flicker suspected that the doctor hadn’t slept after the long night, as evidenced by the red, bleary eyes and the dark circles.
“Hennessy, you’ll be staying in this room,” Doctor Sterling began, “and as for the both of you, Miss Pie, Mister Nicker, you’ll be heading to the armory. An unruly mob is rioting in the streets of Canterlot—”
“What?” Piper shouted, interrupting.
“Prince Gosling made good on his threat. He has suspended every bureaucrat in the city until an independent performance evaluation can be done. But that is not what is important—what is important is that ponies are rioting and the city is facing civil unrest. With so much of the guard fighting down south, we’ve been called up as militia to restore order in the city.”
“I can’t do that!” Piper whined, shaking her head. “I’m… I’m a foal!”
“You are an able bodied member of the guild and you agreed to be called upon during times of crisis,” Doctor Sterling said to Piper, now looking both tired and stern.
“I’m not going to go and bully citizens!”
“Miss Pie, do you want your walking papers?”
“Hennessy doesn’t have to go?” Piper asked, stalling and changing the subject.
“Mister Walker signed a pacifist’s writ. Look, Miss Pie, this is not open for discussion. Do as you are told or you may walk. Choose now.”
Flicker became aware that Piper was staring at him with wide, pleading eyes, seeking guidance, or reassurance. He looked at Doctor Sterling, who seemed angry or agitated that Piper had questioned orders. Turning his head again, he focused on the distressed filly and felt a twinge of pity for her.
“Piper… it’ll be okay. Stick with me and I’ll keep you safe.”
“But I don’t want to hurt other ponies!” Piper said, now on the verge of tears and shaking her head. “I don’t want to throw away my hopes and dreams, either! This isn’t right! This isn’t fair!”
“Life isn’t fair, Piper, now come with me and suit up. We’ll sort this out later, when we have the luxury of time.” Much to Flicker’s relief, Piper seemed to go along with it. He saw her nod as she began crying, and a look of defeated resignation appeared upon her face.
“Stay safe.” Hennessy looked terrified. “All of you, stay safe. Flicker… don’t do anything in anger that you’ll regret later… please.”
“I’ll do my job,” Flicker replied as Piper began to shuffle for the door. “There’s no regret in following orders...”
The riot armor was heavy and didn’t fit very well. The gas mask wasn’t his real face, but it would have to do. A heavy rubber truncheon was secured against his side and he had multiple tear gas grenades. The sound of marching hooves on cobblestones rang in his ears like bells and Flicker loved the sound—it was the cadance of authority, the sound of order.
A small unit of guards marched in the front and a vast army of militia brought up the rear. Flicker couldn’t help but notice that much of the militia consisted of foals, some even younger than him and Piper. The Canterlot Military Academy was out in force, wearing their fancy riot armor. Their marching was a sight to behold, regimented ranks of young pegasus ponies, earth ponies, and unicorns all moving in unison, all in perfect lockstep.
The Guardian’s Guild were no slouches when it came to marching, either. Flicker wished that the Rat Catcher’s Guild spent more time marching, but it wasn’t necessary in the sewers. Indeed, marching in the muck would only make it splash more, Flicker knew from experience. The colt liked to think that what the Rat Catcher’s Guild lacked in marching, it made up for with scary raw intimidation.
His real face could be a little scary.
In the back, the very back, the smallest and the youngest were kept—some had to be no more than half a decade—and Flicker knew why they were here this day. They were here to learn and many important lessons would be taught this day. Piper would be learning too. Dissidents and seditionists would learn to submit to rightful, alicorn established authority. The word of alicorns was absolute and irrefutable, at least in Flicker’s mind.
“There’s a crowd ahead,” Piper said, her voice shrill and squeaky with fear.
The ranks came to a halt and Flicker could feel the pre-fight jitters. Blood was going to be spilled, there was going to be violence, and at the end of the day, the rule of law would be upheld. It was going to be glorious and Flicker was proud to be in the middle of it. Today, the city’s seditious bureaucrats would be brought to heel.
“Disperse, citizens!” a guard commander shouted, using a voice amplified by magic.
“I am Lord Fancy Pants and this is my militia,” a loud, clarion voice replied. “We are loyal to royals, we are powerful and we love this city. We offer you our aid.”
Craning his head, Flicker could see that the crowd ahead carried a banner with a rubber duck on it. It wasn’t very intimidating as far as banners went, but it was a good reminder of who ruled the city—the Lord Mayor, Prince Gosling. The seditious dissidents could use a good reminder of who was in charge and Flicker approved of the banner.
“Flicker, I’m scared…”
“Piper, it will be okay,” Flicker deadpanned, his voice too cold and emotionless to offer any reassurance or comfort. “Just stay close to me. Mister Gambit is right over there. We’re dealing with cowards anyway, so I doubt there will be anything to worry about.”
From ahead, a voice cried, “Lord Fancy Pants, form ranks and fall in behind us! You are to look after the wounded and the dead! Keep our smallest and youngest safe!”
Ears perking, Flicker felt his mouth go dry. The commander was surely just saying that as a formality. There was no way that this would end up being a real fight, and nopony was going to die today—would they? Flicker was almost certain that the rabble rousers would break ranks and run away rather than fight. There was nothing at all to worry about.
“So many of us are just foals,” Piper whined as the ranks began to march again.
“The articles of militia haven’t been updated for almost a thousand years, ever since the E.U.P. was started. They had different standards of what able-bodied meant back then.” Flicker felt a peculiar sensation but he couldn’t quite figure out what it was. “You are a unicorn, you have magic, and you can swing a truncheon. Age is irrelevant.”
“But I have to live with myself if something happens!” Piper’s voice was almost a panicked shriek. “Flicker, damn you, how can you be so calm? Something really bad is about to go down!”
“Piper, it’ll be okay…”
Had Flicker the presence of mind to do so, he might have thought about the earlier discussion about independence and the herd. As it was, he was swept up in the moment, reveling in the authority that he was a part of, the sound of marching, the glorious feeling of being part of something larger, something meaningful. The city would soon be restored back to proper order and he would be a part of that.
Ahead, a massive mob marched towards them and for the first time, Flicker understood what he had been feeling—fear. The throng ahead was thousands strong, maybe tens of thousands. A vast sea of ponies flooded the streets and Flicker, no fool, understood that the militia was outnumbered many times over.
Smoke rose from buildings, already fires had been started and Flicker’s fear was joined by rage. What was it with unruly mobs setting things on fire? Why make the city worse? What was setting things on fire supposed to accomplish, other than hurt the little ponies, the business owners, the shopkeepers, the working stiffs?
“There’s so many!” Piper stumbled in shock and Flicker grabbed her before she fell to the cobblestones. The filly struggled in the cumbersome, ill-fitting riot armor. “I’ve never seen so many ponies packed into one place, even in the really big street festivals we have in Vanhoover!”
Overhead, a number of nocturnal pegasus ponies circled, the fact that their kind was out in broad daylight was a sure sign that law and order had broken down. More guardsponies were coming in to reinforce the militia and aerial sorties were no doubt being made ready. Flicker could feel a new, unknown tension in the air and it twisted his guts into knots.
For the first time since this whole thing had started, the cold, hard reality that he might have to kill somepony settled into his mind. What might his mother say? His father? What would his sister think of him? A cold, freezing prickle crept over his belly and settled in around his groin as his aching balls retracted into his guts from fear, causing the entire back half of his body to cramp up.
“Piper, stay close to me, no matter what, do not leave my side or let yourself get separated,” Flicker commanded of the sobbing filly beside him.
“We don’t belong here!” Piper wailed as she pressed up against Flicker’s side, her whole body trembling with so much force that it made her riot armor rattle. “This is wrong, Flicker, wrong! They’re going to make us kill them, I just know it! We’re about to make an example of these ponies!”
It was now difficult to hear anything because there was shouting and the roar of the crowd as it approached the militia was almost deafening. Steeling his nerves, Flicker prepared himself. The law was a harsh mistress and from time to time, she demanded blood as a price for order. Flicker prepared himself, knowing that the blood would come from protesters and maybe from himself.
Ahead, guardsponies were preparing fire hoses and aiming them at the unruly mob. Flicker knew that fire hoses could peel the skin right off of a pony if there was enough water pressure, they could break bones, they would break the crowd and it would get messy. Firebomb cocktails were being hurled, filling the street with broken glass and fire.
“You said it would be okay,” Piper sobbed.
Sweating in cold terror, Flicker realised that he was about to break his word. He hadn’t made a promise, not exactly, but Piper had taken it as a promise. Breaking his word bothered him more than just about anything, as a pony was only as good as their word. He had told Piper that it was going to be okay and it was not going to be okay, not at all. Order came by the strength of keeping your word, keeping your promises, and all of society existed by virtue of social contracts. He needed a way to make everything okay, and his brain offered up a helpful suggestion, the sort of helpful suggestion that only Flicker’s brain could come up with.
“Piper!” Flicker barked, his own panic making his voice crack.
“What?”
“Piper, pull out my wand, it’s under my armor, and call the rats!”
“You want me to do what?” Piper shrieked.
“They’re all around us,” Flicker replied, “summon them, summon them all! Just trust me and do it!” As he spoke, he felt his wand sliding out from beneath his armor. Legs trembling, his ears perked as Piper’s horn ignited with a fierce light, and then the most dreadful piping began to play.
Flicker’s rat sense went all kinds of crazy and his panic doubled as he realised that Piper was having a surge due to her emotions. His brain made another helpful suggestion, a rare one, one that his brain didn’t offer very often.
Run.
But there would be no running, there would only be rats. Lots of rats. So many rats…
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I would say shits about to hit the fan, but a more fitting analogy would be rats are about to meet the mulcher.
...Interesting.
The bulk of it led me to reflect upon your comments of Flicker being a proto-fascist, but the end, and the rats? Interesting...
i.ytimg.com/vi/zZxzZ1GIn8Q/hqdefault.jpg
I am filled with apprehension and nervous excitement. Please don't leave us hanging from this cliff for too long.
7862085 I think your avatar is a more fitting response than that image!
7862109
I love my avatar - I get so many uses out of that thing.
When she started summoning rats this is the music I pictured playing in the background.
Shit is about to get real.
"One more day 'til revolution, we shall nip it in the bud..."
Certainly more grim than usual. I think that's just the partially archaic nature of the guilds/militia though, and the fact this story tends to focus on less progressive ponies. It's like how things are more grim in the world of The Chase just because the setting followed more archaic practices in the beginning of the story causing a cascade effect on how everything was handled later. So far the Weedverse has been much more progressive than The Chase, so it's a little weird that the archaic militia laws are still in place. It's something I would have expected Twilight Velvet to tackle with fervor
Summoning the rats...
Well, a panicked mob might be better than an angry one, at least it isn't actively trying to kill you.
Poor Flicker's worldview is starting to break, and that's going to be traumatic, but hopefully he'll come out better for it (this is the Weedverse though, so it's better than even odds he'll come out better). It appears that he also needs to learn that he's not always going to be able to protect everyone, which'll be a trauma in its own right.
7862178
It's entirely possible that it's on the list, just not a massively high priority given the amount of other stuff that Twilight Velvet has had to deal with, or it's possible she didn't know about it, if the militias haven't been called in a long time. I suspect these events may cause it to be bumped up some priority lists though.
* slow claps *
You could so many things in this chapter. Plain, old violence. Grim scenes to give permanent trauma to our heroes.
But, as always, you came with the unexpected. The rat killer calling rats for help.
Oh, this is gonna be GLORIOUS !!!!!
Also, Flicker in full "follow orders ´till the death" herd mode...´till Piper break him out of the military trance.
Again, GLORIOUS !!!!
7862190 sometimes it's necessary to give every pony a direct reminder of what civilization holds at bay. But this is going to be very bad.
Flicker's getting caught up in the crowd, in the herd-and that's not necessarily a good thing. I think he's romanticizing this orderly march, but order has nothing to do with something being "good". You could just as easily be evil and have an orderly setup that could replicate this perfectly.
Desperate and clever, this will be interesting.
"Define interesting." "Oh god, oh god, we're all going to die?"
Thinking of the instinctive herd action of equines, especially in reference to what Flicker is about to do, puts me in mind of only one thing. In the words of the late great Sir Terry Pratchett:
7862239 You all don´t get it, right ? I´m not sure if Flicker was THAT incredible clever, but what he create was a threat that can only be destroyed by the power of the herd.
Again, I´m not sure if he planned all this along but, what we have here is a chance to the rioters (is that a world ?) join the military in order to survive. The military does not have enough horse power (HAH, clever pun !), and the rioters does not have enough organization. So they will need to join in a single group, with the military giving orders, to win. And how can you fight a brother-in-arm, after you fought such fight to survive ? This will RIIIIIIIISE the spirit of corps alongside the civilian to a level that would make Canterlot fly by its sheer force.
where did this civil unrest come from? Something about the nobles? wouldn't that appeal to a generic crowd or is the crowd a bunch of nobles themself
7862449
All the various government office workers, aka Bureaucrats, having all their jobs suspended because they ignored Gosling when he basically said "Get your shit together, stop being assholes and actually do your jobs and HELP ponies", since as we have seen of Equestria's Bureaucrats they will tell a single Earth pony father to put his daughter up for adoption as that is the only right thing to do as only single mothers deserve financial help, stop trying to pursue a higher education because Earth Ponies do not need those, and go work on a farm like the good little dirt pony he is. Or the pony in charge of the money for a community that can be used to improve the school with updated supplies and learning materials telling the community they do not need an education because they are Earth Ponies and their place is working the farm, not becoming smart.
All these ponies are basically all those workers from all the various government offices and their families because they now have no source of income because of ponies like the ones described above/
I love this story so very much. The ending sent chills down my spine.
7862235
Flicker is Lawful Neutral.
Order is what matters.
I should be sleeping, but NOPE! New Flicker chapter!
7862068 Brilliant
After what we've seen and heard from some bureaucrats, I can say my sympathy has its limits.
Doesn't make the situation of the riot any better though. Quite awful for all participants.
7862491
Maybe some ponies depending on government money are worried as well? Those poor filly single mothers for example?
Flicker refused to break a promise to a friend.
Somewhere Pinkie Pie is smiling a little wider.
I will say, in defense of Flicker's proto-fascism, that I've noticed a relatively common religion (possibly cult?) among the ponies: the worship of the Alicorns. Under such circumstances, I can understand how he would identify authority and duty as absolute moral imperatives, given that he is ruled by (supposedly) literal gods.
On the appearance of rats, all ponies will unite against a 'visible' common enemy. Smart Flicker. (As long as the rats aren't too many?)
Oh wow. I had a feeling that Piper's talent was somehow going to come up in this situation, but I wasn't quite imagining a truly massive surge induced rat swarm.
Well, at the very least the riot is probably going to stop. Yet to be determined: what they're going to get instead of a riot.
7862695
So a different brand of Lawful Stupid, eh?
.... honestly speaking i would imagine a riot from ponies would be...... well a mixture of vastly catastrophic and more magical in nature than something like this.
7862959
It's Flicker. And they're about to summon a rat swarm into the most packed situation imaginable. "A great big stinking mess" is your answer.
The Proto-fascist is awoken from his trance by Piper. Progress is being made on him indeed.
And oh dear.
This is going to scare most of them shitless.
The squeaking will last forever!
7863080
The squeaking has been doubled! Then doubled again!
7862761
No, I think there's more to it than that, given the apparent size of the riot. I doubt that Canterlot has that many ponies living in it.
No, there's something else at work, here.
Im getting dishonored vibes about the coming rat swarm. This is gonna be good, or bad depending on how this ends
Shivers are crawling all over my body. Well done
7862999
Lawful Stupid is more an offshoot of Lawful Good/Neutral, though. Adherence to the law even if it's stupid. Flicker Nicker follows the law to a T, but he's a staunch Statist both philosophically and morally.
That said, seeing his faith being shaken in this chapter was great! He needs to meet one of his beloved Royals and not faint. He'll be in for a surprise
Something tells me that summoning a rat swarm in the middle of a riot is an incredibly terrible idea.
I don't know, it's just a little niggling thought.
7863295
What do you think, equalists maybe? Sneaking among the citiziens, inciting the already miffed public?
7864443
No, I don't think the Equalists are still a serious force by this point in the story. If I had to pick an organized threat, I would pick the Ascendancy, but I wouldn't pick them here: It don't feel right, you know? Like it's not the sort of thing they would jump on.
I don't know what is going on, I just know that I'm wondering where this many ponies came from. It seems like it'd be hard to miss a crowd this big marching on the city, so maybe Canterlot's population is this big.
I just don't know.
7862491 ah. So they wouldnt like the nobles but they like the nobles money they live on.
7864122
It could either cause massive amounts of unnecessary damage, or unite the mobs and the Militia to fight a more dangerous foe than each other.
I don't understand why everyone is coming down on Flicker or the militia like they're doing something wrong. The office-ponies presented here are WICKED. They are cruel and enjoy hurting others for the benefit of their bigoted ideals, their narrow worldview where only those like themselves profit and all others suffer.
All this talk of how it's wrong and bad for Flicker to view force coming against these traitors is just supporting the traitors, because they forced this conflict and there can only be them going back to their place willingly or being PUT back in place. But no mob stops to listen to reason. When words go unheard, violence must be met with violence. Or the good people are the ones who will die, for choosing not to fight in the face of death.
Needs an “is” at the start of the dialogue here.
i was thinking of flicker having piper use her music to calm the crowd but this will work too