The morning wore on and the audition line slowly moved forwards. So far as any of the Pegasi and the Unicorn who were at the back of the line could tell, each audition seemed to take about 10 minutes. No other Pegasus had joined the queue since Concorde and Maffett had returned, so it seemed they would be the last to audition.
“So why does this town have an abbey?” asked Spectrum, one of the Pegasus Maffett was accompanying around the town.
“I haven’t the foggiest idea.” Concorde shrugged. “’Far as any pony here knows it was built during the Chaotic Age and it’s just been used as a grave yard since.”
“Sounds like the perfect place for Nightmare Night.” Gusty, the other Cloudsdale stallion in their group injected.
“Well yeah, usually do short trips around there in the dead of night. Last time when it was really misty I hid behind a grave stone and jumped out at Maffett.”
“I turned him into a frog.” Maffett smiled. “He’s not turned back yet.”
“So that’s why I get these cravings for flies.” Concorde remarked, watching a fly go by as the Cloudsdale ponies laughed.
They were now in front of the town hall and trying to distract themselves from the sheer number of ponies, a fair few of them foals, who came out disappointed, upset and even crying. Whatever the audition process was it must have been serious or maybe even harsh, so the Pegasi at the back were trying to distract themselves from their nerves by talking about their respective towns.
The town hall itself was a grand building, standing slightly taller than the houses around it next to the town square. The freshly cleaned bricks made the building look like it had only recently been built, as did the large oak doors as the line moved inside. The freshly re-furbished lobby was made of stone with a deep red carpet, posters from future and past shows dominating the walls.
The atmosphere was tense and nervous as they approached the doors to the main hall, where one disappointed Pegasus would come out before a new, nervous Pegasus would venture in. In the moments the door was open, they caught a glimpse of a grey Pegasus inside, though they couldn’t make out any details besides that.
Spectrum was now at the front of the line, starting to get extremely nervous and almost turning green.
“You know, I really don’t feel like doing this.” He suddenly said.
“Me neither.” Gusty responded, a similar look of nervous panic on his face
“Oh come on,” April Showers said, looking disappointed “You guys can’t be chickening out now you’re at the front. You wanted to come here in the first place!”
“No!” Spectrum replied, defensively “I just really like the sound of the abbey! I’d like to see it, you know, up close.”
Gusty nodded to the idea and the two looked straight at Maffett. She and Concorde looked fairly amused.
“Oh alright, I’ll take you.” Maffett said as patronizingly as she could, April rolling her eyes in disappointment.
“Great!” The two stallions said in unison and bolted for the door, followed by a giggling Maffett at a slow canter.
“Looks like it’s you and me, April.” Concorde managed after he stopped laughing.
“Yeah.” April said, starting to get more nervous. “You’ll stay and wait, won’t you?”
“Of course.” Concorde smiled before the latest audition ended and a Pegasus foal came out. The little foal seemed to be holding back a wave of tears as he walked, head hanging, over to his parents by the main door.
“Next!” Came a voice through the open doors, his accent suggesting he was from the Highlands that separated Equestria from the Griffon Kingdom to the north. April Showers swallowed her nerves and looked at Concorde.
“Good luck.” He smiled reassuringly. April managed to return a small smile before going into the main hall and closing the door behind her.
Concorde now sat on his own in the lobby, looking around at the posters on the walls. One that caught his eye was that comedian Bill Bailey was making a return in the next couple of months, so he mentally noted down the date.
“Concorde?” Came a familiar voice that caused Concorde to freeze mid way through looking at posters. He looked around and saw his mother walking through the main doors.
“What are you doing here?” He asked, standing up ready to flee if he had to. She looked hag-ridden, as if she hadn’t slept for days. She came to a stop in front of him before looking around to make sure they were alone and looking him in the eye.
“I have come to support you.” She said simply with a smile. For a moment Concorde was surprised, before suspicion got the better of him.
“No seriously, why are you here?” He asked again.
“I am here to support you. Your father told me you were here after.... erm.... we had a talk.”
Concorde straightened up, looking his mother up and down to try and distinguish if she was lying or not. She looked almost frail and exhausted and he felt a wave of pity for her.
“Fine.” He said, turning to face the door. “Just don’t say anything.”
An awkward moment passed before he felt he should say something.
“Thanks for the guitar, by the way.” He added. Paris just smiled.
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Ten minutes passed in silence, Concorde simply watching the door. Eventually, he heard what sounded like Pegasi landing inside the hall followed by muffled voices which he couldn’t exactly make out. Eventually, there was the sound of hoof steps towards the door and April Showers came out. She looked extremely disappointed.
“How’d it go?” Concorde asked, knowing the answer.
“I failed.” She replied, sounding disheartened. “I flew into him on one of the turns and I lost confidence.”
“What did he have you do?”
“Well, we started with-”
“I said ‘next!’” The voice of the Highland pony cut off April Showers, who’d just poked his head around her, causing her to jump in surprise.
“Sorry, sorry!” April panicked, jumping aside so Concorde could fully see the grey Pegasus who was leading the auditions. He had a short, dark green mane and tail as well as a short goatee beard in the same colour. His eyes were a piercing, steely green and he fixed Concorde with a look that seemed to cut clean through him, though Concorde didn’t look away.
“Come on, I haven’t got all day.” He said before turning and disappearing into the hall, giving Concorde an opportunity to see his cutie mark which looked like a green tornado.
He looked at April Showers, who meekly nodded at him before Concorde followed the grey Pegasus in, followed by his mother.
The large hall was usually used for plays and other such performances. Concorde had been here plenty of times before, sometimes forced to see high brow plays with his mother, other times to see comedians with Maffett. At the moment, with the exception of the permanent stage at the far end and the chairs stacked up on racks at the side of the hall, the room was empty save for the grey Pegasus who had picked up a clip board and was quickly scribbling notes, looking disappointed.
Eventually, he turned to Concorde.
“Name?” He asked, fixing the younger Pegasus with another piercing look.
“Concorde.” He replied, the older Pegasus quickly writing his name down.
“Right.” He said, throwing the board towards a pile of bags in the corner, followed by spitting the pencil in his mouth in the same direction “I’m Hurricane and I lead in Red Hawks. I’ve been looking up and down the east coast for the best flyers. Do you think you’re good enough?”
“I could be.” Concorde responded, his nerves having turned to confidence that clearly came across in his voice. He knew if he kept talking he’d say something stupid, so resorted to trying to look innocent, an expression that was difficult to hold under Hurricane’s hard gaze.
“Well, we’ll see if you are or not. What we’re going to do is a bit of close quarters flying around the bay before you show me exactly what you can do. Is that ok with you?”
Concorde nodded.
“Good.” Hurricane replied, walking over to a large open window that faced out over the harbour. “Follow me and make sure you keep your head within a meter and in line with my left flank.”
Concorde leapt into the air and flew out of the window after Hurricane. The old Pegasus was quick and Concorde had to take a moment to see exactly where Hurricane had gone. Once spotted, flying across the harbour towards the sea, Concorde picked up his pace and caught up with Hurricane, coming into line as the old Pegasus had instructed.
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Hurricane watched Concorde closely out of the corner of his eye. Most of the other aspiring flyers he’d seen that day hadn’t even seen him fly towards to sea, so the colt had at least past that first test. The big test was about to come up.
“On my mark,” Hurricane shouted to Concorde to make sure he was heard “We’re going to turn 90 degrees left and fly along the sea front. Do you understand?” He finished, glancing back at Concorde. While the colt didn’t nod or say anything, the look in his eyes suggested he understood and as they approached the mouth of the river, Hurricane started to count down.
“Three. Two. One. Mark!”
Hurricane turned sharply left, bracing for an impact that never came. Throughout the morning, he’d either been run into by young flyers, or they’d dodge around him and would now be busy catching back up. He glanced back at Concorde again and saw he was still there, an inch or so out of position maybe but still there. He had to admit, he was impressed, if slightly disappointed it had taken all morning for him to find somepony who could turn when prompted.
“On my mark,” Hurricane shouted again “We’re going to head up through the clouds.”
Hurricane didn’t bother to look and see if Concorde was nodding this time before counting down.
“Three. Two. One. Mark!”
Hurricane turned sharply upwards. He hadn’t told Concorde exactly how steep they were going to climb as an impromptu test and while flying directly upwards he glanced back, moderately pleased to see Concorde was still roughly in position. Could it be that he’d actually found someone with some ability for a change?
Once through the clouds, Hurricane came to a halt.
“Right, now’s your moment colt. I want you to show me your best move.” He said simply, landing on a cloud and folding his front legs. “Do whatever you like.” He added, internally praying to Celestia the colt’s best wasn’t a series of loops any Pegasus foal would do the moment they learnt to fly to show off.
He watched as Concorde looped round and head back towards the sea, wondering for a moment if his best trick was to crash. The thought was rapidly pushed from his mind as the colt hit supersonic speed, leaving a small scarlet shockwave behind him as a trail of scarlet followed in his wake.
Concorde slowly looped around so he was pointing back up into the air, missing the waves by barely an inch. Hurricane rubbed his chin as Concorde started flying at full speed towards him, but Hurricane didn’t so much as flinch as the young colt hurtled past within a few inches again.
His decision made, he put his hoof in the air to signal Concorde to stop. It took about 30 seconds for Concorde to get the message and the young Pegasus came to a complete stop in front of him so quickly that his sonic wake carried on and knocked the cloud clean out from underneath Hurricane.
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Concorde tried not to give away the fact he was repeating a single curse word over and over again in his head as Hurricane recomposed himself and flew back up to be face to face with Concorde.
“We’re heading back to the town hall now. Form back up on my flank until we get there.” Hurricane said simply, not hinting at any possible annoyance. Concorde suspected he might have been angry for a moment but managed to keep his expression neutral.
Hurricane flew down towards the hall with Concorde flying into formation as instructed. He had to admit, close quarters flying was less difficult then he had expected. He figured having raced for so long; he was used to moving within tight confines when overtaking somepony so he probably had a natural ability for it.
As they approached the open window to the hall, Concorde realized it wasn’t wide enough for them to fly through in formation so he backed off slightly, allowing Hurricane to go through first. The pair landed at speed and slide to a halt, taking Concorde’s mother by surprise.
“How did it go?” She asked, trotting over to Concorde.
“Alright, I suppose.” Concorde shrugged, not sure exactly how to rate himself.
“If that’s just ‘alright’, I’m looking forwards to seeing what you’d consider good.” Hurricane said, walking over. Concorde and Paris just looked at him in surprise so he got to the point. “Concorde, how would you like to join the Red Hawks?”
A moment passed before Concorde answered.
“Seriously?” He exclaimed excitedly.
“Aye.”
Concorde wasn’t sure what to say. He glanced at his mother for a moment, expecting her to start a protest that never came and she instead just smiled.
Concorde cleared his throat before responding.
“I’d love to.”