[POV: Nicholas]
"What's your name Bloo?" Nicholas asked his guide and personal guard, who was assigned to keep Nick 'out of trouble' as Celestia put it. This guard in particular differed from most of the other guards though, with his coat being a shade of sapphire blue and a curly mess of a white mane under his golden helmet that had a hole large enough for his horn to protrude through.
"My name in Sea Crest." he stated, his tone emotionless.
"Sea Crest? Do all you ponies have such odd names?" Nick asked, gesturing to the ponies walking by-some who were stopping what they were doing to look in Nicholas' direction-trying to get a conversation started as they walked to a concert hall that Celestia suggested going to after a comment from Nick about his love for almost all music.
"To you our names may be odd, but 'Nicholas' is an odd name to me." Sea Crest said with a hint of a smile.
"Oh really? Would you prefer if my name was Hernandez or Yuzuma?"
"What?"
"Never mind."
The two lapsed into silence, and Nicholas took this time to look around. Canterlot was, in short, breathtaking. The buildings made of pure marble, occasionally dotted with gold. Elegantly carved statues and fountains were common and the ponies themselves, often covered in clothing that looked more expensive than half the stuff Nick owned. But there was one problem; "Are all ponies so painfully colorful?" he asked taking off his glasses to rub his eyes.
Sea Crest looked over his shoulder to give Nick a perplexed look, "What do you mean by painfully colorful?"
Nick put on his once more, "I mean that all of you are a bunch of super bright colors. I swear I've seen three ponies with neon colored coats! It hurts my eyes!" he moaned, acting as if he was blind, stumbling about.
Sea Crest rolled his eyes and continued forward, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like 'Why me?', with Nick in tow. It didn't take much longer for the two to arrive at the large, open roofed music theater that could easily fit a football field comfortably, with rows and rows of plush chairs. Several ponies were setting up instruments like cellos, harps, violins, trombones, trumpets and even a piano and tuba. How any of them would play those with hooves, Nick didn't know, but Celestia said that some of the greatest musicians in Equestria were supposed to preform later that night and Celestia, after the music loving comment, decided to let Nick in early to get a private performance of sorts.
Sea Crest stopped and looked up at Nicholas warily, "Go to the front row and stay there. I will speak with the conductor, and help her organize a few performers to play, so for the love of Celestia stay out of trouble."
Nicholas gave Sea a deadpan look and asked, "Do you think I'm an accident prone teenager who's overly curious or something?"
"I don't know how old you are, but you sure do seem immature enough to be only a teenager." he quipped with a smile before walking off to speak with a coconut brown unicorn mare with a black mane styled into a bun, who was running about on the stage, telling other ponies what to do.
With a shake of his head Nicholas walked along the rows of seats, finally arriving at the seats with full view of the entire stage up close. Sitting down in one of the seats he savored how plush and comfortable it was and closed his eyes, listening to the performers as they set up.
"Excuse me, Mr. Sanders?" asked a feminine voice. Nicholas opened his eyes to see the conductor and Sea Crest standing in front of him.
"Uh, yeah, that's me, what is it?" he asked, sitting up.
"My name is Ivory Baton, the conductor for the Canterlot Orchestra and I wanted to tell you personally what an honor it is to be conducting for you."
Nicholas just gave her a confused look, "Um, okay...?" That seemed to satisfy the mare, she gave Nicholas a smile and walked off. Nick looked over to Sea who was watching the conductor as she walked off. After she began to work with the performers again Sea looked back to Nick, who still held his look of confusion.
"What?" he asked.
"Did she really just say that it was an honor to be conducting for me?"
"Yes, why so surprised? It's not every day that you see a human, let alone give him a private showing in the most prestigious city in Equestria."
Nicholas cocked his head to the side and gave Sea Crest a look of disbelief, "Are you serious? So you're saying that I, a skinny, annoying, middle class human without even one collage degree, am basically a noble in my own right?"
"A little long worded, but yes. Humans are the rarest sentient beings in Equestria, oftentimes disappearing for years before another of you show up."
Nick sat back and stared up at the stage, where most of the preparations seemed to be finished, and contemplated that. So I'm one of few-if any at all-humans in Equestria..Huh..Neat.
Tap Tap Tap
Nick looked over to Ivory, who had a baton at the ready, with a quintet of brass playing ponies in seated directly in front of her. She looked over her shoulder and gave Nicholas a smile before bringing her attention back to the five ponies in front of her, raising her baton...
"Wow..." Nicholas whispered, in a breathless voice. For what felt like two hours Nick sat, listening to the amazing performers that played in front of him, playing songs that would make angels themselves cry. But there were two performers that stood out amongst the rest who, after bowing out and Nick asking, introduced themselves as Octavia Philharmonica and Lyra Heartstrings. The two had played an amazing two instrument piece. Octavia, a grey 'earth pony' mare, as Nick was told, with an expertly styled black mane and tail and a treble clef 'cutie mark', played an elegant oak wood cello and Lyra, a mint green unicorn mare with a messy, yet still stylish, green and white mane and tail, played a golden lyre, which she insisted was not a miniature harp, which was also her cutie mark.
"Wow indeed." Sea Crest said, interrupting Nick's thought, "I have to say, you have good taste in music."
"I never said I love classical music above all else," Nick said, readjusting his glasses, "But I'm glad that I still like it anyways."
"Regardless." Sea said, getting up, "The show's over and I have orders to bring you back to the castle after the performance."
Nick sunk back in his chair, reluctant to leave, but suddenly had an idea. "Okay, I'll go, but can I speak with Octavia and Lyra first?"
Sea Crest Looked up at Nick, "I don't know about that..."
"Shush you, I want to talk to them, and you won't stop me!" he exclaimed, jumping out of his seat and running away from a very confused Sea Crest, who quickly gave chase.
"Did I lose him?" Nicholas asked, peeking his head out from behind one of the many ponies packing up their instruments. It didn't take overly long to confuse Sea Crest after dashing away. All Nick had to do was hide under one of the thousands of chairs and shimmy under every row to get to the stage then hide up there. But while Nick was hiding the practice time had apparently come to an end, and ponies all over the stage where packing up.
"Lose who?" the stallion asked, looking behind him.
"Bah, never mind. Do you happen to know where Miss Philharmonica and Heartstrings are?"
"Um, Octavia usually goes to the muffin shop down the street, after practice, and she and Lyra are friends,why-" Nick never heard the rest of that sentence because he immediately walked off, looking for Sea Crest to get the blue boy to show him where this muffin shop was.
After about a minute the back of Nick's T-shirt was yanked back, effectively stopping him in his tracks. "There you are!" came Sea Crests voice from behind Nick, "You really are an overly curious teenager. Now, to the castle." Sea said, taking the lead while Nick was dragged along by some mysterious force. But one odd thing was that Sea's horn was surrounded by a yellow aura.
"I'm twenty years old, thank you." Nick grumbled before speaking up, "Do you know where the nearest muffin shop is?"
"And why do you want to go to a muffin shop?" Sea asked, "Not planning on running away again, are you?"
Nick leveled his gaze at Sea, "What do you do at a bakery, besides bake? You eat. I'm hungry."
Sea, who's horn was still glowing, looked over his shoulder at Nick, who was still ensnared by that mysterious force, and stated, "You try any funny business, and I will drag you back to the castle, whether you like it or not. Got it?"
"Yes mom." Nick said with a roll of his eyes. After his shirt was finally released, and Sea Crest's horn stopped glowing, he began to follow the hard ass pony to, hopefully, the muffin shop.
"Hey Bloo?" Nick asked, impatient and hating the hole in the conversation, "What's up with your horn? It was glowing a second ago."
"Glowing? You mean my aura? I was using magic to restrain you." Sea stated in a serious tone.
"Magic? Well, makes just about as much sense as anything else in a country of colorful talking pegasi and unicorns. And watch the headphones man!" Nick said, readjusting his headphone that were around his neck.
"Ah, be quiet. Just be happy that I'm taking you there."
[POV: Lyra]
"Thanks for letting me play with you today Tavi!" Lyra exclaimed, nearly knocking over her muffin and coffee, "I never thought I would get the chance to meet a human! My dad always said good things about them, well the one he meet at least, but one's enough right?"
"I wouldn't say that Lyra," Octavia said in her usual calm tone, and a smile upon her face, "But he did seem to enjoy our piece, well, that is if his open mouth was an indication."
Lyra waved a hoof at Octavia, "Whatever, I'm just giddy that I could play for a human, a human, one of the most intelligent and rarest species in all of Equus!"
"I think you're blowing this out of proportion Lyra..."
"Tavi, Tavi. You do know that we have the train because of them? We have it because they invented it and one of them and one of them knew how to start making one and left note on how to build one before leaving to go wherever humans go to. And don't even get me started on their contribution to science!"
Octavia chuckled at her friend, who's had a pastime of trying to find the next human for as long as Octavia could had known her. "You've given me this speech a thousand times, you don't need to give it to me anymore."
Lyra just shot Octavia a pout, the speech she gave so often was a speech she put a lot of effort into. "But Tavi~" Lyra whined.
"Maybe some other time Lyra, right now, I just want to sit and relax in the calm of the muffin shop...But where's Derpy?'
"Wow! This is one fancy muffin shop!" said an excited tenner voice by the entrance of the shop.
"Yeah, it is, but how about we just go to the counter and get your muffin or whatever you want and leave?" said another masculine voice.
"Oh Bloo," the first voice chided, "You can't just rush me, if I want to eat I'm going to sit down and eat like civilized human being."
At this Lyra leaned out of her booth to look at who was speaking to find the same human, who's name was still unknown to her, from before talking with a blue unicorn in royal guard armor.
The guard groaned, "Fine, but if we're in here for more than an hour, we're leaving, got it?"
"No problemo Mr. Hard Ass!" the human said.
The guard groaned again and lead the human to one of the empty booths and sat on the opposite side from him, thought it looked like the human had to squeeze into his seat. "You're a real pain in the flank you know that?"
"If I wasn't I'd be a really boring person, trust me when I say my skills in annoying anything that can understand me is what gives my personality, oh what's the word...pizazz!"
"Pizazz, more like pain in my ass." the guard retorted
"See? You already caught my little pun! You're learning!"
"Lyra? What are you looking at?" Octavia said, interrupting the humans conversation, and brought his attention to the booth that Octavia and Lyra were currently occupying. Lyra and the human locked eyes and she could see a childlike wonder in his eyes and, as odd as it sounds, a playful gleam. He was big, really big sporting a plain black t-shirt, blue and white headphones around his neck with a wire leading to one of his pants pockets and a small pair of glasses. A small smile graced his face before he turned back to the guard across from him.
Lyra jerked her head back into the booth and looked back to her lifelong friend, whom she trusted like a sister, with a dumbfounded expression.
"Lyra?"
"H-h-he's r-right there." Lyra mumbled.
"Who's 'right there'?"
"The human!" Lyra blurted out, making Octavia flinch and turn around to look over the top of the seat at the human, who was in a seemingly entertaining conversation if his wide smile was any indication. Turning back Octavia decided to set Lyra straight, "I'm sure it's just a coincidence."
And I'm sure it's not a coincidence! Lyra thought, biting her tongue she leaned out of her seat to look at him again before bringing her attention back to Octavia. "Look Octavia, you may not be all that interested in humans in any way, but I am!"
"Lyra, think about it, what if a pony, just like you, has already gone up to him and bothered him? As far as we know he doesn't even care for ponies much."
"Excuse me ladies." a voice sounded, both mares jumped and looked over to the new speaker and were shocked to find the same human that they performed for standing right next to them. Now that Lyra got a better look he seemed to be at least six hooves tall, in other words, huge. "But I couldn't help but notice that you two where the ones who played that lovely duet for me."
"Nicholas, either get your flank back in this booth right now or I'm going to drag you back to the castle!" the guard shouted, silencing the soft babble of other small groups conversing in the bakery.
The human, apparently named Nicholas, shushed his guard and continues what he was saying, "I know you two introduced yourselves, but I didn't. My name is Nicholas Sanders, and I just really wanted to say that your performance was amazing. And I was wondering if we could ever have a time where all three of us could talk, sometime?"
"Okay, that's enough! Back to the castle!" the blue guard shouted, getting up from his seat and tugging Nicholas away with his magic by the midsection. Nicholas rebelled and latched onto the table, that was bolted to the wall, and said, "Swing by the castle tomorrow at around noon, I'll tell the guard to let you in!" before getting yanked off the table and through the door after his very irritated looking guard.
"Octavia?" Lyra asked, her eyes still wide after the whole fiasco that just occurred.
"Yes Lyra?" Octavia responded, looking as surprised as Lyra.
"Do you have any clue what just happened?"
"Not an inkling..."