Flicker didn’t mind the isolation he found himself confined to, but the anticipation of Wicked’s judgment was killing him. Alone with his thoughts, he found himself thinking about the duel and all of the little things that he thought he had done wrong. In a moment of total honesty with himself, Flicker admitted that he didn’t trust his own rage. At some point in the fight, he had broken away because he didn’t want to engage Moonlit, not really, but he did want to scare him into submission. Upon closer examination of his own motives, Flicker worried that if he managed to hit Moonlit, he might not have stopped. He might have kept going.
This alarmed him.
The alternative had been chucking tables at Moonlit, and Flicker found that he hadn’t tried very hard. If he had really wanted to hit Moonlit, he could have. It was complicated, but Flicker supposed that the complications were the point to this exercise. Moonlit was his friend and fellow apprentice. He was given an explicit task of cutting his friend down. Was this part of some greater lesson trying to teach him that some orders shouldn’t be followed?
What was the point? What was he supposed to learn from this? Flicker didn’t deal well with abstracts and what not. Was this even about swordplay? The colt sighed, his withers rising and falling as he expelled his ennui. All of this felt wrong. Flicker didn’t want to duel his friend and fellow apprentice, he wanted to chop down rats. He wanted to be in the sewers, making a difference, or in the middens fighting a pitched battle against the real enemy.
Escape wouldn’t be hard. Flicker wasn’t locked into his meditation cell. He could slip out if he wanted to, grab his weapons, suit up, and slip off into the sewers. No more navel gazing, no more hoof staring, no more wondering about what great lesson was being taught here, Flicker could just go with what he knew. Action. His muscles twitched with the idea. Apprentice or not, he had the hard-earned right to bear arms and act on his own now. He had the right to hire out his services or act on his own accord.
There were questions that needed answers and left alone in isolation, Flicker faced down his own seething hatred. His sister’s face appeared in his mind and he thought of her; sweet, innocent, helpless. His emotions became a seething caldera and he thought of his standing in the guild. Then he thought of other things, Hennessy and Piper, then he thought of Moonlit, then, he thought of Cadance. Almost as if by some miraculous magic happening, the blue crystal heart around his neck became heavy.
Bending his proud, unyielding neck, Flicker slipped into fervent prayer, not knowing what else to do.
Walking with his head bowed low, his ears drooping, Flicker followed along after Mister Pepper, having been summoned to the conservatory. Prayer, much to Flicker’s shock and surprise, had settled his mind, calmed some of his rage, and had given him some clarity. As he prayed, the trinket around his neck had grown a little lighter, making Flicker wonder if some strange magic was at work.
The door was opened for him and Flicker was bade to enter, though it appeared that Mister Pepper would not be attending this meeting. Swallowing, Flicker went in and the door was closed behind him. Lifting his head, he saw quite a crowd of ponies, including one he did not expect, not at all—
“Princess Celestia.” He ducked his head down once more and adopted a submissive, subservient posture.
The big white alicorn clucked her tongue but said nothing.
“I ‘ad to go back to the source, ye see,” Wicked explained. “I didn’t feel confident passing judgment, so I asked for ‘elp.”
“So why is she here?” Moonlit asked, sounding very meek and foalish.
“Who do you think founded this order?” Princess Celestia asked, sounding somewhat amused. “Who do you think wrote those rules? Who built this guild hall? Tell me, who would have such a drive to protect and preserve life? Who would be so invested?”
Flicker almost swallowed his tongue. None of this was in the guild’s history. From the sounds of it, Moonlit wasn’t taking the sudden revelation so well either. Standing there, Flicker tried to remain as statuesque as possible and he was determined not to faint this time. It was very, very difficult to breathe though, all of a sudden.
“I made the first of the modern masks, an experimental blend of magic, technology, and science.” Princess Celestia lifted her head high, but her eyes looked sad. “I dug thousands of graves for plague victims. Long after my most faithful servants and dedicated followers fell to the ravages of disease, I continued, fighting for a way to save my ponies. I buried so many…”
Wicked’s ears drooped, and he bowed his head in reverence, prompting Moonlit to do the same.
“I gathered survivors and searched out the brightest minds. I looked for crackpots, for madponies, killers, thieves, and murderers. I gave them pardons. I bound them with geases. I constructed an army that was purpose built to fight disease and the causes of disease.” Princess Celestia’s wings flapped once against her soft, rounded sides, the sleek curvature of her belly.
“I wrote these rules for a reason!” The volume of the princess’ voice caused various items in the conservatory to rattle. “Every jot, every tittle, all of it was written down to preserve purpose and cause. These duels are supposed to teach enduring camaraderie through difference. Who can tell me what this means?”
Flicker said nothing, not understanding, and no answer seemed forthcoming from Moonlit either.
“No one?” Princess Celestia blinked once. “I am disappointed, but not surprised. From my understanding, both of you are rather thick-headed and full of yourselves! Dense little ponies!”
Flicker’s head dropped until his chin was inches from the floor. If the carpet was grass, he could be grazing right now. The words hurt more than any lash and Flicker was almost certain that he could feel his soul shriveling. At the moment, Flicker was tempted to flee the room, find a shovel, run to the Canterlot cemetery, and dig his own grave.
“Wicked!” Princess Celestia barked the word, and every ear in the room twitched. “How many times have you and Sterling Shoe disagreed?”
“Well, I… I don’t reckon... I don’t think… I’ven’t kept track,” Wicked stammered.
“Story time,” Princess Celestia announced in a sing-song voice, and Wicked let out a groan. “Once upon a time, there were two little foals that were headstrong and impetuous. Both were convinced that they were right and the other had to be wrong. Always fighting, these two, and there were so many bloody noses, torn ears, and one of them even set the other on fire once.” The princess turned a stern, menacing eye upon Wicked, who withered under her glare.
“I apologised,” Wicked grumbled.
“It grew so bad that I had to intervene,” Princess Celestia continued, still staring at Wicked. “I ordered them chained together with a magic tether, a clever invention of my own making. It delivers quite a shock when the two wearers get too far apart and that shock grows worse with each passing second.”
“Aye, it does.” Wicked bowed his head.
“And these two little whippersnappers learned about camaraderie through difference.” The princess turned to glare at Flicker, then Moonlit. “You’re going to disagree. You’re going to hurt each other. In heated, angry moments, bad things will happen and you have to learn to let past bygones be bygones so you can work together! That is the purpose of these duels! There has to be a winner and there has to be a loser! Afterwards, both of you are expected to work together and do your jobs! You learn to bear your resentments and get over them! Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Moonlit squeaked.
Flicker’s mouth was too dry to make any words, so he nodded and kept his chin to the floor.
The big white alicorn’s long legs allowed her to move through the room in a hurry, and she went to where Moonlit was sitting. Lowering her head, she stared into his eyes, her ears angled forwards, and the corners of her mouth were tugged down into a tight scowl.
“What were you thinking, throwing a chair at your fellow apprentice?” she demanded.
“It was a mistake!” Moonlit howled, and he tried to look away. A pale golden glow surrounded his face and he was forced to look into Princess Celestia’s baleful, furious eyes. “I panicked and made a mistake! I was scared! I confess to my cowardice, but I wasn’t afraid of losing the duel!”
“Start talking and make each word matter.” Princess Celestia’s command hung in the air like a suspended anvil just waiting to fall.
“I was just starting to become friends with Flicker,” Moonlit whined. “I didn’t want to duel him. I didn’t want to… fight him. I panicked and did something stupid. I thought that if I could distract him with a chair, I might be able to lunge in, score a light hit, and then forfeit the match so that Wicked could make a judgment call.”
“I see.” Princess Celestia’s voice was icy and her stare had the burning intensity of the sun. She held Moonlit’s face and continued staring into his eyes, causing Moonlit’s ears to flap and flutter like a trapped bird.
“I was so scared that I wasn’t thinking clearly! I just didn’t want to lose the progress I had in making Flicker my friend!” Moonlit kept trying to look away from the princess, but she maintained her grip on his head. “I wasn’t even trying to hit him with the chair, honest! I just wanted to distract him! If it was actually going to hit him, I was going to bat it away, honest! Everything that happened afterwards was just me trying to defend myself because I thought Flicker was going to murder me! Honest!” The colt’s voice was now a shrill, frightened screech.
Flicker didn’t lift his head, he didn’t dare, but he did listen.
“At least your mother raised you to be honest,” Princess Celestia said as she let go of Moonlit’s face with her magic. “Though I must say, ‘tis a pity that she did not raise you with courage.” Eyes narrowing, the matronly alicorn began to cluck her tongue while she shook her head from disapproval.
Turning away with a snort of disgust, she crossed the room and went over to where Flicker stood. Reaching out with one wing, she lifted Flicker’s head, but he did not look her in the eye. Princess Celestia stood there looking at the colt, then reached out her other wing, and touched the blue crystal heart hanging from his neck.
“How odd to see this upon you,” she murmured.
Trembling, Flicker said nothing and remained at attention.
“The last warrior that devoted himself to her service went on to do amazing things. Fantastic things. He endured such teasing though.” The princess let out a sniff and shifted her weight. “If you will pardon me for just a moment, the triplets are giving me some trouble.” She stood still, her wing still lingering with a light touch on Flicker’s neck, and she continued to stare at the pale blue crystal heart.
Blinking, her eyelids fluttering like butterfly wings, Princess Celestia waited a moment to sort herself out. She then continued, “So then, for what reason did you start chucking tables at your fellow apprentice and why didn’t you move in so that you might finish the coward off?”
Flicker’s ears stung at the word ‘coward’ but he didn’t dare disagree. He stood there, trying to think of words as he stared straight ahead at the wall. A soft nicker, his namesake, escaped from him when Princess Celestia shook him, hoping to encourage some words to come out. More gentle shakes followed the first, and Flicker found it hard to form a coherent sentence.
“Angry,” Flicker blurted out, it was the only word he managed to say.
“Yes, Flicker SMASH!” Princess Celestia nodded her head in a knowing manner.
The colt’s face turned beet red and his hooves began to shuffle around as his composure broke. The big alicorn was scary, she wasn’t a princess, she was something worse, and Flicker felt his own courage just slipping away as he suffered a urethra-shrivelling moment of terror. To make everything worse, he could feel her breathing on him.
“I was angry,” Flicker managed to say in a somewhat choked voice. “I didn’t trust my rage so I kept my distance and chucked stuff. I wasn’t trying very hard to hit him, I guess. But I wanted him to fear me… because… for some reason… that… felt right. I wanted him to cower... and knowing that I… that I had scared him… it made me feel better.”
Shaking her head once again, Princess Celestia clucked her tongue several times.
“Looking back on it, I don’t know if I would have been able to stop chopping on him with my sword,” Flicker confessed.
“Cowardice and rage,” Princess Celestia spat out in disgust and her muzzle contorted as though she had tasted something foul. “I will not allow a draw to happen, not in this instance. There is just too much to be learned here. There are lessons here that must be learned, and by goodness, if I have to instruct you in these lessons, I will!”
Flicker gulped. “So this means I—”
“Yes! You will be fighting again!” Princess Celestia snapped as she drew herself up to her full majestic height and towered over Flicker. “Tonight even! Right now!”
“No.” Flicker couldn’t believe the word coming out of his mouth, or that his mouth had betrayed him.
“What?” Princess Celestia looked down in shocked disbelief.
Flicker thought about all of the times that his teachers had tried to tell him that some orders were not worth following and he tried to swallow the enormous lump in his throat. It felt as though his bowels were about to turn to water and his heart began racing in the most painful way as he felt his testicles retract into his abdomen.
“No.”
“No?” Jerking her head back, the princess looked quite surprised. “I am giving you an order… I am still one of the masters of this guild and you will obey me!”
Flicker snapped to attention, going rigid. “No.”
“Flicker, lad, I don’t know if—”
“Be quiet, Wick Chandler!” Princess Celestia barked. Her eyes narrowing, she wrapped her wing around Flicker’s neck and drew him closer. “Mister Nicker, your career, your profession, and your future is on the line. I ask that you reconsider.”
“No.” Flicker’s refusal came out a shrill, embarrassing squeak. “If there is to be a duel, then I concede the match to Moonlit.”
“Very well. Congratulations, Mister Gambit, your cowardice pays dividends.”
“No.” Moonlit shook his head. “I refuse to accept Mister Nicker’s concession.”
The princess let out a very disturbed sounding sigh and her whole body went stiff. She looked at one colt, then the other, then focused her seething gaze upon Wicked, as if she blamed him for this headache. Wicked, like a scolded foal, turned away and could not look his monarch in the eye. Stepping away from Flicker, Princess Celestia began to pace about the room.
“If there is one thing that truly irks me, it is soldiers who fall out of line.”
Flicker’s ears drooped and made an expression as if he had been struck. Wicked remained hunched over and stared down at the floor. Moonlit too, studied the floor with great intensity while Princess Celestia paced back and forth. Flicker lifted his gaze a bit and dared to look at his monarch.
“Mister Chandler, as far as I am concerned, here are our options. These colts can agree to a duel, or they can be flogged, or they can take their walking papers.”
“Majesty, forgive me, but I’ll not enforce that,” Wicked replied as he raised his head, his courage blazing in his eyes like live coals. “Now, I ain’t one for stepping down or quitting, so I suppose I’ll be the one taking a flogging. I’m alright with that, I am. Might I suggest Mister Balister, ‘e’s quite thorough about these things.”
The princess’ eyes narrowed, and she focused her imperious stare upon Wicked. Flicker tried very hard not to piss himself and he struggled to keep drawing breath. Moonlit was wheezing with panic, and Wicked somehow managed to return Princess Celestia’s stare. Flicker felt himself growing lightheaded, he worried about fainting and pissing himself.
“Camaraderie under duress,” Princess Celestia said in a voice devoid of emotion. She turned to look at each pony in the room in turn, then continued, “I am impressed, but you have not escaped punishment for this debacle. You have, however, reduced its severity. I feel that some leniency is in order here, as a lesson has been learned.”
Moonlit let out a sigh of relief, then pitched over in his chair. He tumbled to the floor, limp and unmoving, his legs tangled in a heap.
“He fainted,” Princess Celestia announced in a very matter-of-fact voice while she pointed with her wing.
“Aye, ye have that effect on yer wee li’l ponies.” Wicked’s voice was still filled with uncertainty.
“A year of remedial sword training, spent together,” Princess Celestia said to Wicked. “This is their punishment for failing to have a proper duel. I want a clear message sent that guild traditions are to be preserved. You cross swords in a duel, not hurl furniture at one another. I want an example made of them.”
“Aye, Majesty.” Wicked nodded his head.
“Now, what to do, what to do.” The big white alicorn turned about to look at Flicker with her head tilted off to one side. “Continuing with the theme of punishment, I want more responsibility given to these two. For so brazenly defying me, I want both of them made prefects, with all of the hard work, duties, and responsibilities such a position bestows. Let it be a millstone around their necks. I want them to know the pain of leadership. Make them ache with it, Mister Chandler.”
Sighing, Wicked gave the princess a faint nod, his head moving just once.
“Now, if you will excuse me, I must be going.” Princess Celestia beamed and her smile was like the sun. “Also, congratulations are in order for not fainting this time, Mister Nicker…”