The pair walked out of the bedroom, both wearing small smiles upon their faces. The first rays of the morning sun peeked through the windows, illuminating the lavish space. The smell of breakfast being cooked emanated from the kitchen area.
The butler, Suits, paused from his work to greet the pair. “Good Morning, Ms. Octavia, I have the pa- oh and good morning to you too, Mr. Chaser. The paper is on the table if you care to read it. I think the headlines today are quite interesting.”
“Hmm,” the Pegasus mused, picking up the paper and reading the headlines aloud, “Changing of Hats. It certainly seems Canterlot is busy today.”
“What is it about?” Octavia queried, peering over the pegasus’ shoulder.
“Eh, something about the new captain of the guard.” Flare shrugged “Apparently it’s the brother of the Element of Magic. I swear, it’s probably some royalty string pulling.”
“I don’t know.” The mare was suspicious and read a bit more. “He seems to have potential, also the last Captain wasn’t the most pleasant. There appear to be glaring shortcomings in his last year of service.”
“Didn’t seem like such bad guy when I met him.” Flare thought for a second, “Though it was only for a minute. Oh well, no use worrying about it. I don’t plan on making a run to Canterlot any time soon.”
Suits rolled his eyes, “For a moment there, I thought you weren’t well read. Glad to see you are, in fact, smarter than you look.”
“Suits,” Octavia interjected before Flare had a moment to react. “One shouldn’t judge the music by its first notes. I apologize about Suits, he’s been with my family for quite some time now. He’s a bit more outspoken than other butlers, but his input is usually well need, sometimes...”
“I am simply making a judgment call,” the butler continued. “I’m sure your mother wouldn’t have… positive remarks about this one.”
“You haven’t mentioned what my father would’ve said, Suits.” Octavia smiled lightly.
“Because I know your father would’ve taken Mr. Chaser drinking and treated the working pony as a son the first chance he got.” Suits sighed, “I’ll continue with breakfast.”
“That would be quite excellent, thank you.” She smiled, “Tea for two please, and please don’t burn the haycakes.”
The butler muttered an affirmative of some sort and resumed his work.
“Seems like you still hold the reigns,” Flare spoke, stifling a laugh. “I mean no offense, Sir. My own mother disapproves of me sometimes.”
That brought a small bout of chuckles from the butler, “I wouldn’t have doubted that for a second.”
The Pegasus chuckled too, “Glad I have your vote of confidence,” turning his attention to Octavia he asked, “So what are your plans?”
“The quartet has a three night concert series in Hoofington soon, so I must leave for that… later today. So I am afraid we will not have much time together tonight, unfortunately.” Suits brought two cups of tea and set it in front of the pair. Both ponies acknowledged the action, and continued the conversation.
“Ah, I see,” Flare thought for a second, taking a sip of his tea, “A mare’s got to work, right? Perfectly understandable, I probably have to shove my face into work today anyway, Mrs. Twist probably needs me to make a few deliveries today. That, and I have a few promises to keep.”
“You mean the Cherry Surprise you promised to Mr. Shades and Sticks, right?” The musician questioned.
“Hey,” the Pegasus shrugged. “When a pony makes a promise, it’s usually good to keep them. It’s good for business.”
Octavia smiled as she took a sip of her tea, “That’s a good practice to keep up with.”
The Pegasus returned the smile, “I aim to please.”
The butler placing the freshly cooked breakfast in front of the two interrupted the mare’s answer. The couple ate the fresh cooked haycakes and sipped on the tea quietly. Flare continued to flip through the newspaper, observing the changes to his city. Whether it was a something about the mayor or some accident on 5th avenue, there was always something worth reading.
“Oh lookie here,” the Pegasus muttered, a bit surprised. “They have a review of your show from last night.”
There was a pause, “Well don’t keep us waiting,” the musician spoke finishing a bit of her haycake. “I’m sure we’d like to hear that. Who wrote the review?”
“Um,” the Pegasus glanced around the page, “it says some unicorn named Jazz was there. Hmm.” Flare looked closer at the page, reading the excerpt carefully. “I was upmost impressed at last night’s performance. Every instrument complemented each other far better than they ever have in the past. But even so, I could almost feel the tension between the musicians, not by any means music wise, but tension between the musicians themselves. It didn’t take away from the performance at all, but the quartet needs to learn not to show themselves too much through their work. All things considered, still a top-notch performance: five out of five.”
Octavia sat there for a few moments, contemplating all that was said, “I guess we’ll have to simply work on this for the upcoming shows in Hoofington. But, glad that it was all positive in regards to the music.”
“Indeed,” Flare mused. “I couldn’t have said it any better. You did a wonderful job last night.”
The mare offered a coy look, holding the tea in front of her lips, “Are you talking about before or after the show?”
Flare just laughed, “Yes, because that’s the only answer that will not get me into trouble.”
“Good stallion,” Octavia giggled.
* * *
“I’ll be sure to send a letter when I get there,” the musician spoke. The two were at the train station. Suits was standing behind them with a bit of the musician’s luggage and was waiting on the mare to board the train. “And it’s only a week, so you hopefully won’t get too lonely in that time.” She smiled.
Flare returned the smile, “Oh, I’m sure I’ll have my head in the clouds too often to think about you.” He had to keep himself from laughing at her clearly jokingly disappointed look, “Well, too much.”
“That’s what I thought.” Octavia spoke, adding a playful jab to punctuate her sentence. “Don’t get into too much trouble, alright?”
“I’ll see what I can do, but no promises.” he replied, giving Octavia a kiss. “See you in a week, have fun!” Flare watched the musician and the butler board the train, “Knock ‘em dead!” He yelled after them.
The mare smiled and waved as she finally boarded. The train began to accelerate to leave and Flare just watched it go, finally left alone on the platform. He sighed a bit, looked at the train down the tracks for a few more moments, and then moved on.
Upon leaving the station and taking a deep breath, Flare took to the skies. The Pegasus relished in the sky, the wind striking his face, the speed he achieved, the serenity of being free as he floated through the air. The clear skies cleared his head as he made his way through the city. His smile grew, as he closed his eyes in the bliss of flight.
He would’ve made great time to the Hornless Alicorn too, if he were flying to the North side of Manehattan, but the apparent love-struck and naïve Pegasus didn’t notice it till he was nearly out of the city. He sighed, shaking his head at his foolishness. Turning around, he made great time, minding the other pegasi that were taking advantage of the beautiful day in the city. The sky was clear, a cool breeze spread through the city, and the sun reflected off the buildings. It seemed everypony and their mother were out today.
The pegasus’ four hooves barely touched the ground as he entered the club. It was brightly lit, compared to its nighttime lighting. A few ponies were cleaning up the place. Regal Twist was at the bar, but not behind it. The unicorn was tending to some paperwork; a large cup of coffee sat next to her. She turned to see who had entered. A tired smile appeared on her face, seeing Flare floating gently through the air.
“We could’ve used you last night,” Regal spoke out, her voice raspy and cracked, “but I can see you used your night off to your advantage.” The unicorn took a sip from her coffee, the bags under the unicorn’s eyes showed the overwork on her poor body. “Glad to see you in though,” she groaned getting off her seat at the bar. “There are 3 places on the eastside, on along riverside, and then last one in the inner city that need a batch of catered drinks. You think you can handle that?” She looked at the daydreaming Pegasus, still managing to float an inch off the ground.
“HEY, FLARE! MESSAGE TO LOVERCOLT!” she lightly slapped the pegasus’ face with her hoof, trying to draw out some sort of reaction. “You getting this?”
Flare shook himself clear of his daze, “Yeah, boss, three east, one river, and one inner city. No issues here. Catered drinks, just bottles of wine for these high class people, right?”
“Yes, that would be correct. You’re probably going to need about ten bottles a stop, but because of their selection, you’re gonna have to make a few trips. Simple enough, right?”
The Pegasus snapped out of his daze again, regaining his composure once again, “Yes, ma’am, I can do that.”
Regal sighed a bit, “I should be happy that you’re at least listening. Hey Boulder!” she called out over Flare’s shoulder. The earth pony was busy sweeping up a few things. He stopped and acknowledged the unicorn’s call. “Go get lovercolt here the delivery pony get up, would you?”
Boulder chuckled a bit before heading off to a back room.
“And please do me a favor, Flare. Try not to have your head in the clouds while you’re out running drinks. I prefer to have the products not end up on the streets.” Boulder walked up and placed a hat and saddlebag next to the unicorn. “Thanks, Boulder. And get this pegasus’ cart ready, please. I’d rather not have him make too many trips.”
“You got it, Ma’am. I’ll make sure he’s working hard and not having too much time to think about that mare.” He gave a half-smile, half-chuckle to Flare as he returned to the backroom.
“Flare, you sure you can handle this?” Regal’s raspy voice asked. “Or do I need to call in the B-team, because I really don’t want to call in the B-team.”
The Pegasus laughed, “No, I think I have this handled, ma’am. No need to call in the amateurs.”
Regal shared in the laughter, but it turned into a coughing fit, “Good, because I don’t have a B-team. You’re it. You’re the reason why we’re still here.” She attempted to stifle a laugh but couldn’t hold it and let it out. “Nope, couldn’t keep a straight face.”
“Thanks for the confidence, ma’am. I’ll be sure to deliver the absolute best possible service today, because of your confidence in me.”
“Now there’s no need to be a smart flank about it.” The unicorn shooed him away with a hoof. “Get moving, you’ve got deadlines to meet.”
He scoffed, picking up the hat and flipping the saddlebag onto his back. “I’ll see what I can do.” With that, Flare moved to the backroom to where Boulder was putting the first and second deliveries in the cart. He was about finished when he noticed Flare walking in.
“So, lovercolt,” Boulder spoke with smile as he loaded the last of the boxes onto the cart. “How’d last night go for ya? By the way you float through the air, I’d say pretty good.”
“Ha. Ha. Ha. You’re a riot, Boulder.” Flare finished the final preparations on the cart before finally tying himself in. “And yes, I did have a wonderful night.”
“Same broad from the other night?” Boulder chuckled. “Kinda figured you two would hit it off. I take it she’s a goer. You know: wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more.”
“Boulder, just open the door,” Flare rolled his eyes, nearly laughing at his friend’s antics. “I really need to get these done.”
The stallion walked over to the wall and hit a switch, opening an entrance right into the back alley of the Hornless Alicorn. “You still haven’t answered my question yet, Flare.” Boulder followed Flare into the alley. The Pegasus ignored him for a moment, quickly performing some pre-flight stretches. “So?”
Turning to his friend with the biggest smile on his face, Flare didn’t say a word. He extended his wings for flight. He tipped his hat in salute to the Boulder, “I guess you’ll never know.” With those words he was off into the sky.