As Flicker traversed Canterlot, the colt came to realise that there were a lot of things about the world that irritated him to no end. Perhaps it was puberty colouring his perceptions, but there were things that just should not be. Like slight curves in the roads, or odd angles—all roads should be laid out in a perfect grid with perfect right angles. Canterlot had a lot of curiously crooked roads, and Flicker found that he hated them. Oh, he loved this city, but he hated the roads.
And the cobblestones. Oh, alicorns, he hated the cobblestones. They were not all of uniform size. Some were square, some were rectangular, some were worn, others looked to be almost brand new. Even worse, some were of a different colour… ugh. Whomever was responsible for the cobblestones needed to be motivated to do a better job.
Flicker knew from experience that the lash was an excellent motivator.
Something about the buildings bothered him as well, but Flicker couldn’t quite put his hoof on what it was. Canterlot was supposed to have a certain look to it, and the older buildings conformed to this just fine. But some of the newer buildings… they were garish. Garish things had no place in his fair city, and if he was in charge, he would have that fixed right away.
Never once did Flicker think that the bright, cheerful colours of the houses of Canterlot were a reflection of the bright, cheerful colours of the ponies that lived within them, otherwise, he might have thought that ponies too, needed a bit more conformity. As for Flicker himself, he was rather drab and uninspiring, all things considered.
Turning the corner, Flicker let out a huff of relief at what he saw.
The ticket booth had a surprisingly short line for an Octavia concert. There weren’t many ponies out here trying to buy last minute tickets—and that suited Flicker just fine. Just a few ponies, a minotaur, and a pair of griffons waited in line. One of those ponies however, it wasn’t like the others, as it was very, very big.
Flicker joined the queue and fell into place right behind the big nocturnal mare, feeling a little in awe of her. She was a bit scaley and she was wearing protective goggles over her eyes to block out the sun. She smelled a bit like woodsmoke, maybe burning cedar, and Flicker was consumed with a strange curiousity as he studied her.
“It feels strange, to be stared at with appreciation,” the big nocturnal mare said as she cast her glance back over her withers at Flicker, her eyes unseen behind the dark glass of her goggles.
“He’s sorry, he just stares at everything.” Piper let out a fearful squeak and fell into the queue behind Flicker. “Please, uh, don’t take offense or anything.”
“You’ve recently used dark magic.” The big mare sniffed and a scowl turned her features hideous. “You still have the stink of it about you.”
“And Princess Twilight Sparkle lectured me for it,” Piper replied, her voice becoming squeakier. “It was a surge, I couldn’t help it, I have a lot of things repressed.”
Turning about, the big mare focused on the much smaller filly as she trembled. “Truth is spoken. Fascinating.”
“I’m not about to lie to a Warden.” Piper dropped her eyes and stared down at the paved sidewalk. “Which I’m guessing that you are.”
“I am Warden Gavel. You may call me Warden Gavel.” The big mare smiled, revealing a mouthful of terrible, horrendous teeth. “You… Flicker… yes, Flicker…” The big mare almost seemed like she was savouring the word ‘Flicker’ somehow and her nostrils flared as her sides expanded. “You know, too much order is just as bad as too much chaos. You need to relax a little bit, friendo.”
Bristling, Flicker did not reply, but he shuffled on his hooves.
“Puberty has not been kind to you,” Warden Gavel said with a hint of a chuckle in her words. Reaching out a wing, she touched Flicker on the cheek, an affectionate gesture that Flicker shied away from. “You know, had you been born as one of us, you would have been pulled from the general population for Warden training. It’s rare to meet one of you day ponies with such a rigid, structured mind. Normally, your kind is a frivolous, squirrelly lot.”
“Yeah.” Flicker grunted the word and he looked up at the big mare, surprised by her blunt honesty.
Hennessy, standing behind Piper, held his head up high and gazed at the Warden with unabashed adoration, the memories of that night at the police station still fresh in his mind. His amber eyes were filled with the light of worshipful appreciation—Princess Luna was his patron princess and her Wardens were her chosen messengers.
Piper’s squeaky voice broke the silence that had settled in—“Squirrelly?”
A wickering chuckle slipped from Warden Gavel’s lips and her wings flapped against her sides. “You, especially, are quite squirrelly, little filly.”
These words caused Piper’s lower lip to protrude and her eyes narrowed. “And Flicker isn’t squirrelly?”
The big mare inhaled and the corners of her mouth turned upwards. “No, he is more of a mongoose in search of a cobra. The mongoose does not know why it hates the cobra, but it does, it just does, and the world is better for it.”
“Flicker, are you blushing?” Hennessy asked.
“No!” Flicker snapped in reply as his ears angled aggressively over his face.
“If anypony here is squirrelly, it’s Hennessy, because he’s after some nuts,” Piper deadpanned, doing so in a manner that only a Pie could.
It took several long seconds for Piper’s words to sink in and Hennessy’s mouth dropped open. The colt blinked a few times, and his ears drooped when Warden Gavel bellowed with laughter. Shuffling on his hooves, he kicked the cobblestones as he let out a coquettish giggle and then said, “Yeah.”
Flicker continued to purplefy and his murderous expression intensified as he waited in the queue.
The remaining tickets were quite expensive, far, far more bits than Flicker had on his pony at the moment. Far more bits than Piper and Hennessy had. Flicker suspected that he was witnessing price gouging, which irked him, but he wanted his friends to be happy. Somehow, they had to get tickets.
Confident, Flicker stepped up to the booth and eyeballed the unicorn inside. Much to Flicker’s relief, he saw a bank agent star on the unicorn’s bright blue vest. “Going to need three tickets, please. I have an account with the Canterlot Guild’s Bank—”
“Yeah right, kid.”
Taken aback, Flicker blinked once and then stared in shock.
“I understand that yous wants to sees the show, all of yous kids do, but these tickets are expensive and there is no ways that I am falling for that trick—”
“It’s no trick!” Piper’s voice was shrill.
“Is there a problem?” Warden Gavel’s voice was gritty… and more than just a bit scary.
“Naw, no problem, just some punk kids—”
“Who are telling you the truth,” Warden Gavel growled. “For Princess Luna’s sake, you are a bank agent! You have magic to help you do you job, you lazy, worthless, flyblown, festering pile of manticore shit. How dare you insult some of the hard working ponies that do a thankless job that keeps our fair city safe?”
The unicorn cowered inside of his booth, looking as though his bladder was about to suffer a critical failure.
“You are supposed to take everypony at their word as a bank agent, and use your magic to determine if they are honest or not.” Warden Gavel drew in a deep breath to continue her lecture and her scowl was filled with far too many teeth. “You do a job that keeps our city running, the management of transactions of money. Not only have you insulted these three apprentices, but your careless, lazy actions would have cost your employer a considerable sum of bits… for shame!”
The unicorn gibbered and closed his eyes.
“Thank you,” Hennessy said to Warden Gavel as he remembered the importance of etiquette and being polite. The colt’s tail flicked from side to side and he pressed up against Piper, looking nervous and out of sorts.
“You leave me with no choice but to report this infraction to your employer,” Warden Gavel said to the unicorn in the booth.
Trembling, the unicorn opened his eyes and looked at Flicker. “My apologies, good sir… I is ready to take your account information for the secure transfer of bits. I’s real sorry for my earlier lapse.”
“You should be,” Warden Gavel said in a deep, throaty, baritone growl. “You’re not off the hook, Mister Speckle. Do your job so I don’t have to do mine.” Her lip curled back into a snarl and she let out a snort that made every pony present flinch.
Something wonderful burned deep within Flicker’s barrel, a deep and abiding love of the law. Society had to be kept in order and in some cases, harmony had to be enforced. He looked up at Warden Gavel, thankful for her presence and her service, even if she had helped to mercilessly tease him. Taking a deep breath, Flicker made ready to share his account information.
The place was packed, packed to the point of being uncomfortable, and the only seats left were the really awful ones. That didn’t matter to Flicker, as he didn’t care about music. What he cared about was the happiness of his friends, much in the same way he cared about the happiness of his sister. And right now, they were happy.
The Canterlot Heliotrope Theatre boasted that it had five thousand seats, and almost all of them were filled. The seats that Flicker had purchased were up at the top of the round, towering arena, and the stage was far, far down below, in the middle of the tower. Perhaps a pair of opera glasses might have been good, as Flicker saw quite a number of ponies peering through them.
The seat was upholstered in vivid green velvet and the wood was worn smooth with age. A cigarette filly roamed the rows of seats—the name was a bit of a misnomer as she appeared to be middle-aged—selling cigarettes, cigars, and a small selection of overpriced treats to appeal to those who forgot to buy snacks at the only somewhat overpriced concessions counter. She even had little bottles of rye whiskey, gin, and rum.
The air was almost blue with smoke and Flicker could smell the sweet, heady, almost sneezy scent of hookah tobacco coming from someplace, no doubt a private booth. Without even realising it, he was caught up in the moment and filled with anticipation of what was to come. The atmosphere around him was visceral and an assault upon the senses.
“How much longer?” Hennessy asked as he elbowed Piper.
“Over an hour,” Piper replied, “oh, I wonder if they’ll do a pre-show. This place is packed.”
Far below, the stage almost looked tiny. Flicker could see the spotlight shining on two instruments, and not the orchestra he was expecting. A cello and a big purple-black piano stood in an island of light, both waiting for somepony to play them. Flicker liked pianos—oh, not for their music—but he appreciated them for the marvellous mechanical contraptions that they were. They were engines of harmony, everything working together in precise perfection to produce something meaningful and good.
For Flicker, this was something that gave him the warm-fuzzies, though he’d never admit to it.
“I think I’m afraid of heights.” There was a loud gulp from Hennessy and he peered down at the stage far below. “Every time I look down, I get all dizzy-headed and the ground starts moving.”
These words made Flicker think about his long fall from the airship. He shivered a bit, his ears twitched, and he felt sweat beading up on his frogs, all of them. It would have been a long ways down with a very sudden and abrupt stop at the end.
“Just stop looking down, you dunce.” Piper poked Hennessy with her hoof and rolled her eyes in disgust.
“But the stage is down there!” Hennessy let out a snort of protest and poked Piper right back. The colt swallowed, blinked, and then looked over at Piper. “I don’t know if I like open tower designs like this one.”
Hennessy’s long drawl made it sound as though he had said, “This’un.”
A few levels below, somepony coughed while somepony else brayed with laughter. Flicker wasn’t so sure about this, distractions such as those would take away from the music and he wasn’t so sure that he understood the appeal of concerts. Still, the ponies around him sounded happy, and that was a good thing after the civil unrest they had just experienced.
“We have some very special guests tonight,” a voice said, filling the empty spaces of the theatre with warm, crackling sound. A yellow-white pegasus mare could be seen on the stage far below. “The former Lord Mayor, Prince Blueblood himself, is with us tonight, and he is the patron that made this show possible. None of these shows would be possible without our lovely patrons, and this theatre would have been torn down ages ago without the love and appreciation of our lovely patrons, those noble souls that keep the arts alive.”
The crowd roared with applause and the pegasus mare waited.
When the crowd quieted enough for her to continue, she did. “Also with us are a noble group of champions that keep the arts alive for all of you to enjoy!” There was a pause as a murmur crashed through the crowd like a wave, and the pegasus mare flapped her wings. “A.K. Yearling is with us tonight, acting as a representative for Daring Do, who has made yet another fabulous donation! With her is Tarnished Teapot, the Professor of Voracious and Horrendous Flora at Baltimare Downs University, and a known champion of the arts.”
It took a while for the cheering to die down and the pegasus mare’s head bobbed up and down as she made gestures with her wings. Stepping closer to the microphone, she went on with her speech. “And of course, the third member of our beloved trio, Rainbow Dash, who graciously donates much of her earnings as a Wonderbolt to fund music and art programs in Equestria’s inner city regions. We, the fine upstanding citizens of Canterlot, thank you, Rainbow Dash, for your continued contributions!”
This time, the applause was deafening and Flicker was forced to cover his ears with his hooves. He didn’t understand this appreciation for the arts, but this was an undeniable reminder that music was important to ponies. This seemed like it was a big deal and Flicker wasn’t even aware that the arts were in trouble. Of course, he didn’t understand how there could be trouble, a musician just had to pick up and start playing their instrument, right?
Scowling, Flicker just didn’t understand what was going on.