A Change of Venue

by solsticebrony888

Octavia's Day Part-1

Once she woke up, there wasn’t much Octavia had to do to prepare. Trixie made her practice with the majestic hat and cape, just so she could get used to wearing them. Her teleportation trick was iffy but her backflip looked pretty good. She would call valunteers up from the crowd and make them stand on he stage and jump over them and make it look like she didn’t break a sweat. Octavia had the ability to jump far because of the many years of standing and playing her cello that had strengthened her hind legs. It was possible that she could jump farther than Trixie, so that trick was probably the one she could bank on to impress the crowd since she was best at that trick in particular.

What she had worked on a lot was her stage presence, and the ability to interest the crowd just by talking dramatically. Trixie knew this was imperative to a successful show, and it seemed after many frustrating hours, that Octavia could do that.

Trixie prepared her on how to react if she made a mistake. It wouldn’t be surprising at all to her if Octavia would make a mistake, and despite her own conscious, she promised to Octavia that she wouldn’t hate her forever if things went downhill in her performance.

They had woken up especially early to prepare themselves. Trixie was brushing the blue unicorn’s mane to look great for the performance, while Octavia levitated a book in front of herself to study the spells she would perform.

“Trixie knows you can do this, Tavi. Just be confident! Make sure the audience knows how good you are before a single trick! Intimidate them with your confidence, all while performing fantastic feats they wouldn’t believe you’d be able to do. Trixie hates to admit this, but the tricks they’re to think are impossible, are some of the easier tricks you can find in spell-books. This is why you’re actually able to do them,”

“If they’re the easy tricks, why have some of them taken you hours to master?” Octavia questioned, “I feel like you’re patronizing me,”

“To learn a trick and to master it are two different things, Tavi. Many times Trixie performed tricks that she had only learned, and did well, while other times I performed tricks that she mastered. Mastering a trick just makes them easier to perform I suppose,”

“You’re starting to speak in third person,” Octavia mentioned with a chuckle and she flipped the page in her book, “Which is good, because that should only be a stage thing anyway,”

“Why is that?” Trixie asked, while styling the blue unicorn’s mane to perfection, “Trixie likes speaking in third person,”

“Speaking in third person is just arrogant, and you’re not as arrogant as you used to be before this crazy switch happened,”

“I’m just as arrogant as ever, Tavi!” Trixie stated, “Trixie means, Trixie is just as arrogant as ever!”

“No, you’ve softened, just like I have gotten more confident,” The blue unicorn said with a smile, “I feel as if, when I’m back to being myself, I’ll be able to talk to my ensemble members and maybe even make a friend or two,”

“I’ve already done that for you,” Trixie said, once again noticing that she spoke in first person. She disregarded that and continued, “Trixie made friends with plenty of your ensemble ponies at the tea party. They’re not as snooty as I expected them to be. Quaver is hilarious! You and her will get along fine,”

“Really…? You made friends for me? That’s actually quite touching. And surprising! I thought you’d be too brash for their tasting,”

“Well I was being you, remember. Just a better you,”

In the kitchen of Trixie’s home, the two started up a large breakfast of mostly hay and rosebuds, something they mutually enjoyed. Trixie didn’t want her friend to be hungry during a performance.

“A better me, huh?” Octavia questioned while she prepared her meal. “Maybe better socially,”

“You say that like being social isn’t a big part of your life. I’m surprised that you even got into the Princesses’ orchestra being so quiet! Who even recommended you?”

“Well, I guess it will be now that I’m more confident abilities…and I was never told which pony recommended me, it’s kind of a mystery. I think it was my mom, she was also so proud of me and Lyra’s musical talents,”

“We should probably get going, the first performance starts in nearly thirty minutes,”

Octavia sat on Trixie’s couch anyway, “How many other ponies are performing?”

“Like five others are performing, but you’re the only magic act that Trixie knows of,” The grey pony trotted over the living room and sat next to Octavia, “So, do you think you can do this?”

Octavia ignored the rest of her rosebud sandwich to considered her friend’s question, “Well…I have no choice but to be ready, you know? I’ll do my best and see what happens,”

“Trixie thinks you can do it. We’ve practiced so much; I believe we could do anything if we put our minds to it,”

Octavia said to her grey-coated friend, “You’re oddly inspirational today, Trixie,” She said with a chuckle, “It’s helping too, I guess,”

The grey pony had put forth an effort to be confident for her friends, because she knew Octavia wouldn’t do too well if Trixie was a nervous wreck.

“Well…maybe, just maybe, I believe I’d be able to reform my career if you do terrible today,”

“That’s nice to hear,” Octavia chided, though letting her friend continue.

“No, let me continue. Trixie doesn’t want you to feel bad if you don’t do to well. The situation we’re in made it kind of impossible to do perfect, or even good, but If I was able to play an instrument with a top-class orchestra, you could do anything,”

“There you go talking in first person again,” Octavia mused, avoiding Trixie’s words of advice.

I can’t believe she thinks I could do well today…

Octavia tried not to let her nervousness get to her and dismissed her last though entirely. Confidence would get her places as long as she stuck to it. She’s gone by that mantra since she was a filly.

“Trixie just doesn’t want you to think that she’s holding you up to any standards. And Trixie’s sure there’ll be a much worse performance…Trixie was looking forward to this because she knew that she could do better than all the performers,” Trixie sighed, then continued, “Try your best and you should at least do better than somepony else, I promise you that,”

Both about to exit, Octavia sighed, “Okay, Trixie. I’ll try my best…I think I can do this, I know I can…I-I just need to not get stage fright,”

<><><><><><><><>

Now walking towards town square, it took them a few seconds for their eyes to adjust to bright light of the sun as is peeked over the distant mountains. This day was going to be warmer than the day before, unfortunately for Octavia.

She kept adjusting the tall hat she was wearing because it felt uncomfortable. However, she enjoyed the cape she was wearing.

In the somewhat short walk to the town square where a stage was set up, Octavia thought of a hundred different ways her performance could go wrong. She imagined the jeers from the crowd, the audience leaving in the middle of her mediocre performance, her own self running off the stage, crying.

Trixie caught on once she saw the petrified look in the blue unicorn’s eyes.

“Octavia! Calm down, it’s okay, did you even listen to me earlier?”

The blue unicorn sighed, “I’m just really nervous. “What if’s are really getting to me right now…”

“Look, it’s okay. It won’t be the end of the world…just do your best with what we have done, I’ll take the heat tomorrow for whatever happens, good or bad,”

“Are you sure? I…”

Trixie sighed, “Yes, Tavi. Don’t worry. Take a deep breath,” She waited until the blue unicorn did what she instructed her to do, then continued, “Just be as confident as you were with the cello…if you mess up, play it off, don’t be discouraged. Audiences, from Trixie’s experiences, respond better if you just play it off as if it was supposed to happen,”

“Okay…I will…I can! I can do this,” The blue unicorn said, “I will do this,” They both then turned the corner into town square where Trixie had performed yesterday.

The stage had already been set up with tall, red velvet curtains and a wooden stage ready for the day’s performances. The crowd was quite smaller than the crowd of the day before, since there were a lot less chairs set up for these performances. Octavia felt slightly better at that revelation though she still didn’t know who else would be performing, and if they’d be much better than her. Though she didn’t want to admit it, she couldn’t help but hope that they didn’t do well, which made herself feel quite awful. Spiting others to make herself look better was something she’d never expect herself to do. She took it back in order to avoid any bad karma.

Trixie, once again went over the plan for the blue unicorn. Her magical abilities were decent enough to where she could fool a crowd, but not good enough to completely stun them with some never before seen magical tricks. The grey pony was fine with this, because she knew Octavia had the potential to pull this whole show off.

They both walked up to behind the stage, as the other performers prepared their acts. Octavia gazed around her, getting used to where she was and calming herself down with optimistic thoughts. This was something she had done as a filly during her earliest performances.

“So, is there anything you want to go over before it’s your turn?” Trixie asked, looking around to see any sign of the first performance, “You can’t go up there and just completely forget a part of the act,”

Octavia understood this and went over the whole performance in her mind if it were to go perfectly. She visualized each step to a different part of the performance in order, and how she would transition between them smoothly and efficiently. Her performance would only take five-ten minutes at most, but it would be somewhat packed with tricks and displays of her so-called ‘talent’.

“I’ll do my best…do you think I should do the teleportation trick? I just don’t know if I can perform it while under such stress,”

“Trixie thinks you should go for it. You did it correctly enough times, Trixie thinks you can do it one more time,”

Octavia was moved by her friend’s effort into being a nice pony for once. She had expected Trixie to threaten to chastise her if she made a single mistake, considering that this would have been her first show ever in Canterlot. It was hard for Trixie to be optimistic when she was such a pessimistic pony at heart, but if she was able to her friends perform better by doing so, she knew it would be worth it in the end.

The first act was a singing act. The young mare who had gone up to the stage looked extremely frightened, but when she sang, everypony was taken aback by her talent. Though she wasn’t the best in Equestria, it would be hard for an experienced Octavia to be received better by the crowd with her magical skills. However, she promised herself that she wouldn’t wish anypony, before her act, to do bad.

Octavia always imagined that the time before her act would go fast, and she would be on the stage before she knew it. However, it was taking a long time and it was hard for her to stay confident. However, she felt an odd calmness as she waited, and watched the first pony return from a loud applause, crying tears of joy. She wanted to feel the same joy when her act was finished.

Octavia was going to perform fourth in the show. In a matter of minutes, she'll know if all the work she has put into the performance will pay off or not.

Comments

[TheMareinTheMoon]

54221Yeah, heh...heh weird.