The Restless Orchestra

Sweltering heat radiated from all directions, offering no opportunity for escape. Daring Do tossed and turned in her Manehattan hotel room, trying in vain to find the cooler side of the pillow. She leveled a glare at the broken air conditioner and cursed the Weather Patrol for scheduling a heat wave during her holiday.

The Ponecian Temple dig was up for review by the Canterlot Board of Antiquities, forcing Daring to halt her current excavations. Desk jockeys who wouldn’t know an archaeological find unless they read about it, she mused to herself as she finally got out of bed. With her main project in the hands of traditional academics and only vague rumors about other relics to go off of, the far ranging explorer had decided to take time off from exploration and enjoy a bit of the simple life that Manehattan had to offer. After a refreshing shower, Daring donned her pith helmet and managed to escape from her hotel inferno, eager to see what wonders the largest city in Equestria held.

Walking along the main avenues and boulevards, she couldn’t help but be amazed at how active the city was. Even at this early hour the downtown sidewalks were packed with hundreds of ponies who all seemed to be in the greatest of hurry. Looking up, she was astonished to see that even the city skies were jammed with pegasi, all of whom were flying at breakneck speeds. Daring’s wings unconsciously squeezed tighter to her body as she imagined what kind of chaos would erupt if an inexperienced flier were to blunder into those traffic lanes.

Nearing the museum district, she passed the charred remains of the once famous Manehattan Symphony Hall. The papers had been screaming for someone to blame, but the city fire department had conducted their own investigation and claimed that the fire had been caused by an accidental electrical short in the stage lighting. For some reason the magical fire suppressors didn’t engage, allowing the building to burn far beyond what the fireponies could save. The citizens of Manehattan were relieved that nopony had been hurt in the conflagration, but the historic building had been a total loss.

Wanting to get a closer look at these modern ruins, Daring crawled under the police tape and surveyed the damage. She had a vague notion of poking around the site to see what kind of evidence a fire would leave on the marble building materials, hoping that she would be able to correlate the damage patterns seen in the theatre to ancient ruins which had also fallen to fire. She pulled out her trusty collapsible shovel and started to prod the refuse, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

As Daring focused on exploring the ruins, she almost didn’t notice the faint whispers of a dirge from of a solitary violinist. To Daring’s straining ears, it sounded like the musician was mourning the loss of someone held dear. She panned her head left and right while quickly flicked her ears, trying in vain pinpoint the source of the music. The unseen violinist abruptly ended its sad melody, leaving her with only the sounds of the busy street to her rear.

Classical music exploded all around Daring, causing her to flail backwards. Coming to her senses after her initial shock, she realized that the orchestral music reminded her of adventure movie finales where the composer would try to underscore the final victory over evil with the baring of the horns and the deep rumble of the drums. Daring loved that kind of music when she went to the cinema, but she was becoming a bit worried that she couldn’t see any musicians or speakers.

“He he. You… You got me,” she said anxiously as she backed away toward the street, ears flattened against her skull. “I really hope this is some kind of odd joke.” A fake smile was plastered to her face as her eyes darted around, but there was nothing but the symphony hall ruins within sight. Even more concerning was that the herd of commuters to her rear hadn’t stopped to listen to the loud music or even snicker at her obvious confusion.

As the orchestra reached a crescendo, Daring had had enough as she turned on her tail and galloped into the commuting herd. Without missing a beat, the orchestra switched to a fast paced tempo with plenty trumpets to sound the chase. She dashed around corners and slammed into commuters as she tried to make her escape, but the music was somehow able to keep up. She tried to get around an exceptionally large herd of slow moving lawyers and businessponies, but the well-dressed Manehattanites refused to make way. With her exit blocked and the unseen orchestra still blaring in her ears she gave up the idea of running and vaulted into the sky.

Her unexpected liftoff into the crowded flight lanes caused several courier pegasi to collide with passing freight chariots, raining furniture and mail satchels down onto the crowded streets. “SORRY!” she yelled behind her, noting that the crash of a piano marked the beginning her next song. She nearly facehoofed when she realized that her trailing orchestra had decided to play Ride of the Valkyries. Dodging between mail carriers and swooping through open windows did nothing to phase the music, but it had peaked the interest of a traffic guard.

“HALT!” the guard roared as he launched himself off of a nearby building. Daring flapped her wings faster and tried to pull away as she watched the irate guard follow her every move. As she passed over the roof of a building she rolled into a nosedive and plummeted toward the ground. Her wings ached with strain as she pulled hard out of the dive, leveling out only a couple of meters above the commuting pedestrians. She was beginning to enjoy her personal soundtrack while she swooped along the street, but she was shocked to find that the guard was still following her and had even gained ground. Can’t keep this up for long, she grimly thought to herself as she looked for an escape.

Banking hard around the corner of a building, Daring was elated to see a crowded public landing zone in front of her. With only a couple of seconds to spare, she came in for a hard landing and quickly removed her pith helmet. She was just able to cut into the takeoff line when she noticed that the guard was hovering directly above her. She stifled a flinch and watched out of the corner of her eye as he surveyed the crowd, but she realized with relief that he hadn’t spotted her yet. As she stepped up to the flight line, something caught the guard’s eye causing him to turn away from her just as she lifted off. Hidden in the retreating flock of pegasi, she could hear the guard curse to himself as she sheepishly put her helmet back on.