//------------------------------// // Concerts: Part 1 // Story: Lost in Paradise // by leeroy_gIBZ //------------------------------// It was a simple request, all things considered: Go to the concert with Sunny Flare and her friends. Of course, simple did translate to easy. There existed the ever-present annoyance of said friends. And from what I have seen, four legs are certainly not any better than two. Still, this was Melody Lure we were talking about, not some school orchestra. So, the day after Eureka, Sunny and I had finished the cardigan, I swallowed my complaints - all forty-five of them - and boarded the train to Stalliongrad. "Thanks again for coming, Mirage. I know the timing isn't the best but I only found out that I had accidentally bought an extra ticket yesterday." Sunny explained as I followed her into the train compartment. "Well, I have always wanted to go a Melody Lure concert and suppose that I do also want to see what pony music sounds like." I said while examining the room I found myself in. The train compartment was surprisingly spacious, with a number of couches, chairs and tables inside. Said pieces of furniture were also incredibly comfortable - a discovery I made after tripping over one. The wallpaper of the compartment was also rather interesting; it was a repeating pattern of maps, all highly detailed. In one corner of the room was situated a small fridge, likely battery powered considering the lack of a plug or switch. "Hey, did you say you want to know what real music sounds like?" Yelled an annoyingly familiar voice from above me. Just then, an annoyingly familiar face dropped down and clamped a pair of headphones over my ears. "Try this then!" Shouted Lemon Zest; barely audible over the blaring sound - I wouldn't deign to call it music. The sound in question was loud, violent and loud. I say that twice because one adjective is not capable of covering the sheer amount of decibels Lemon Zest's headphones were somehow capable of producing. The lyrics, if you could call them that, were a combination of every expletive I could imagine; a number of words I presumed were expletives, considering Sour Sweet's earlier tirade about a particularly accurate bird; and a number of words that probably weren't words at all and were actually just things one yelled when "peeved", as Sunny so kindly described Sour Sweet's attitude after said bird hit its target. All of the above was elegantly articulated in what could probably be called a "death growl", if human terminology is anything to go by. The instruments weren't much better. "Well, at least I know that black metal is exactly the same across dimensions. Now, how about things that are actually enjoyable for the average individual?" I asked after I had defenstrated the headphones. "Hey, I'll get you for this!" The pink pegasus yelled before flying out a window and after her "music". "Wow, Mirage, that was excessive. You know that her father gave her those, right? Her dead father." Sugarcoat quipped. I almost felt guilty. Then again, this was the same Lemon Zest humiliated me in front of the entire school. Well, not the "same" Lemon Zest but this was as close as to avenging that particular series of pantsings as I was going to get. I sat back down on the chair and levitated out a book from my bag. I had taught myself to read Pony over the last few days; the abugida was simple enough to learn and it was pronounced identically to English, albeit with more bad puns. I flipped to the bookmark and began to catch up on Dusk by Stephaneigh Neigher. At least a fictional world with bizarrely charming insect shapeshifters is also inhabited by ponies that can respect personal space. The train drew into the station just as my book drew to a close. In hindsight, I could have spent the last four hours revising something important - history, culture, current events, that sort of thing - but I needed to actually relax after the events of the last two days. "We're finally here! And it only took five hours cooped up with Mirage to do it." Sour Sweet exclaimed before hopping out the train. "It took exactly three hours and fifty-eight minutes, Sour Sweet, and Mirage read quietly the entire time." Said Sugarcoat. "Well, that was very considerate of him. Too bad Lemon wouldn't shut up after our resident nerd tossed her headphones out the window!" The freckled pony argued. I followed them onto the train platform and got my first good look at Stalliongrad. Compared to the towering seaside citadel that was Colteno, this town was not that impressive. The lack of impressiveness did mostly stem from the lack of a castle but the collection of wooden buildings, stone walls and ponies in drab attire did not help much either. Everything in the town looked like it had seen better days and everypony - I'm told that's the phrase used - appeared to completely resigned to that observation. "Why would Melody Lure of all people perform in a place like this? There's basically nothing here." I thought out loud as the four shadowbolts and I made our way to the local inn. "Oh, Melody Lure's doing a tour of every town in Chevallia, dearie. We would have just gone to the one in Colteno but I think you would have already left by the time she arrived." Sunny answered. The inn, like the town it resided in, was nothing special; especially not by Chevallian standards, as Sunny mentioned. Still, I had a room to myself and said room's sheets weren't stained so I was comfortable enough. The concert was only to start in a few hours to I had some time to learn more about this world. So when I had finished updating Pony Edition's diary - apparently one can use magic to write with - I set out to explore what little of the town was worth exploring.