A Change of Venue

by solsticebrony888

Returning to Normal

Octavia kept her eyes closed when she finally woke up. She didn’t want to look, she was so used to having a blue coat and light-blue mane and tail that she didn’t believe Luna’s spell from the day before could have worked. However, the familiar scent of her own room coaxed her eyes to open to see her ceiling. She slowly moved her hoof over her chest, gulped, and rapidly moved it in front of her face. To her immediate relief, they were grey.

The grey pony jumped out of her bed in excitement, prancing around ecstatically.

“I’m finally back to being myself!” She repeated over and over, which was even odd for herself, considering she had always been one to hold in her feelings inside instead of expressing them.

She saw a brush, and automatically tried to lift it using magic. Her heart sank once she realized she wasn’t a unicorn anymore. It was a very bittersweet moment, but the fact she was back to being herself made her feel much better. Octavia picked up the brush and slid it down her mane making it was nice and smooth as she always had done. She quickly made her bed and picked up what Trixie had left behind in her laziness, to make her room look generally clean again.

“I missed you, couch!” Octavia said with glee, “And you too, cello! MY cello!”

She instinctively cleaned everything she could in sight to bring it back up to her standards. She put on her bow on, something Trixie had forgotten to do the whole time they had switched bodies, and put on the slightest amount of makeup in preparation for the award ceremony, where she would be told what pony had recommended her to be in the Princesses’ royal Orchestra.

Octavia didn’t have a clue what pony could have recommended her, she didn’t know that many ponies to begin with, so she was excited to find out who could have done it, so she could thank whoever it could be. The only way anypony could get into the Orchestra is if somepony had sent out a recommendation letter for the pony who wanted to join it. Trixie couldn’t have been the pony to do it because they met after Octavia joined the Orchestra.

“If I could only see the look on Trixie’s face right now!” The grey earth pony said with a grin, “She’s probably going crazy with her magic!”

Once Trixie would arrive, they would go to the awards ceremony together, so as she waited, Octavia reminisced on the past few days. They had been the most stressful, frustrating challenging days she had ever gone through. A smile spread across her face as she remembered her successful performance the day before. She once again had to check her hooves to make sure she was truly back to her normal self. Octavia sighed and relaxed just a little bit and enjoyed the few minutes before her friend arrived.

“Trixie is not a very clean pony…” She remarked to herself, with a chuckle, “She needs to make haste so we can go soon!”

Octavia couldn’t go more than a few minutes without looking at herself to make sure she was still herself. It was almost surreal that the past events had actually happened in the first place.

Then the loud knocks resounded at the door that she had been waiting for. The grey pony hopped out of her couch jubilantly and opened the door to reveal her blue unicorn friend with a wide grin on her face.

“You’re not me anymore!” Octavia said with a laugh.

“And you’re not Trixie anymore!”

The two friends embraced each other, as if they needed more assurance that things had returned to normal.

“I honestly can’t even believe we were able to pull that off…I mean, you played a cello with my orchestra! That’s just amazing!”

“Yeah, Trixie is pretty amazing…OH, and yeah, you performing magic in front a whole crowd was pretty amazing too, Tavi!”

Closing the door behind her, the two friends started their trot to the center of town to receive their awards. It took a few minutes for the two to get used to seeing each other instead of themselves. They were back in their own bodies, yet it was very weird for the two and they needed time to get used to it.

“Is it weird that I miss having your mane?” Octavia asked with a smile.

“No. It’d be weird if you didn’t,” Trixie responded sharply causing them both to laugh.

They rounded the same corner that they had many times before to reach the same stage on which other ponies had already been. Different performers were currently on the stage where they were accepting their awards, in front of a crowd that was most likely family and friends. When they arrived, they stood at the back of the rows of seats as they scanned for the groups of ponies they would go with onto the stage to receive their awards. Octavia was to go with her ensemble and Trixie was to go with the other performers of the day before.

“So, you see your class yet?” Trixie asked, right as she noticed the group she was to go up with standing near the crowd.

“Yes. They’re behind the stage with Bar Staff. Or should I say Bar GRAPH!”

Trixie poked her friend in her side playfully, “Hey! Trixie still did good being you, you have to admit. Anypony else would have been terrible!”

“Yeah, hehe, I see your point. See you after the ceremony!”

The two friends then split up, Octavia walking over to her group behind the stage, quietly as she always had been. She stood behind the group, who were chatting amongst each other and waited for their turn to go upon the stage. However, something different happened as she stood behind her ensemble members.

“Hello Octavia! How are you today?” Quaver questioned once she noticed the grey mare standing behind them.

“Yeah, what’s going on, Octavia?” Another pony added.

They’re talking to me? Why?

“Oh…hi,” She responded shyly.

“Come on, get in the group with us! We were just discussing the plethora of music we have to learn for this upcoming concert in Baltimare, we’d value your input on it!”

They care about what I have to say…?

Octavia felt overwhelmed. She had never expected to make friends in her ensemble, and suddenly they didn’t just know her name, she was accepted, and it was a wonderful feeling for her.

“Oh, I guess that would be nice,” Octavia replied with a sheepish smile, “That’d be really nice,”

Amongst the other performers from the day before, Trixie started walking up the steps behind the other ponies. They walked up onto the wooden stage greeted by the light applause from the crowd of ponies. They lined up in two lines of four, and Trixie was in the back. The mayor of Canterlot, an elder blue stallion named Ron Stall, did the announcements for each performer. He started down from the first pony in the lane in front of Trixie.

“A-and out first performer, a wonderful singer named Vibrato! Give her a round of applause!” The wavy-maned mayor said.

In the crowd Trixie could hear the mare’s family cheering in delight. For the next few ponies, it seemed there were always somepony cheering for them from family or not, the rest of the crowd just went with a light applause.

I have no friends or family to cheer for me

Though the blue unicorn understood that she probably was being selfish by expecting somepony in the crowd to cheer for her as if she were their best friend, the idea of nopony being in the crowd to cheer for her suddenly made her unusually saddened. The next pony was announced, a juggling pony from Stalliongrad, and received applause from what was his wife and fillies. The mare after him, another singer from Manehatten received applause from her Coltfriend and other friends.

Trixie’s eyes widened in the last few seconds before her name was called.

“Over here, we have the G-great and Powerful Trixie, who won over the crowd with magical abilities!”

There was a moderate applause in reaction as Trixie gazed across the audience, though no particular excited cheers just for her at first. However, as she looked towards the left side of the audience, she could hear somepony cheering for her. It was a voice she recognized, but couldn’t place, though it had quickly relieved her fear of having nopony there cheering for her.

Who could that be?

She scanned more as the mayor moved on to the stallion beside her. As Trixie’s eyes moved and meticulously went through what seemed like an endless amount of ponies, a lavender blur caught her attention.

Trixie’s heart skipped a beat as she locked eyes with Twilight Sparkle, who was in the midst of the crowd. Twilight gave her a tiny smile, sending chills down the blue unicorn’s back.

Suddenly, Trixie didn’t care about her award, Trixie didn’t care that she was on the stage in front a massive crowd, she only cared about Twilight Sparkle making sure they made up.

The blue unicorn looked to her right and left. There were still a few ponies to be announced. However, Trixie didn’t care. Without the Mayor even noticing, Trixie walked back through the curtains. She walked down the steps until she was behind the stage. She knew what she wanted to do and nothing was going to stop her.

She walked around the stage and to the crowd. Trixie quickly found Twilight in her eyesight and started walking through the crowd straight towards her.

Once she was face to face with the lavender Unicorn, she found herself at a loss for words. She didn’t know what she was going to say to Twilight Sparkle. She hadn’t been so nervous since playing with Octavia’s orchestra.

“Hello, Trixie…” Twilight Sparkle said.

Just the fact that Twilight Sparkle was even there made Trixie elated and it showed through her blundering speech and awkward smiles, which was quite the opposite of her usual arrogant self.

“Trixie’s…I…I’m glad you’re her, Twi,” The blue unicorn admitted, still facing the lavender pony while trying to avoid bumping into anypony else, “I-I’m so sorry for…you know…”

Twilight though for a second, but she knew her answer, “It’s alright. You’re forgiven…I-I-I can’t blame you for feeling the way you feel…I guess…I guess I’m just going through a phase…I still would like to be friends,”

At that, Trixie surprised Twilight with a loving embrace, which Twilight was only very happy to return.

After the hug, Trixie, face reddened from nervousness, asked Twilight a question.

“Twilight, would you like to go and get something to eat...?”

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

Behind the rest of her classmates, Bar Staff led his ensemble onto the stage where he would announce their names and other facts about each ensemble member. She was on the far end of the front row and glanced through the through the crowd to see anypony she knew. She immediately noticed Trixie talking with Twilight Sparkle, and watched as they left the crowd.

Hmmm, I guess they’re friends again…

Octavia didn’t let her thoughts go out of control and quickly noticed her turquoise sister Lyra sitting by herself in the crowd. She gave Lyra a forced smile, as Bar Staff started announcing the names of each member.

Why is Lyra even here? That BonBon must be doing something else… Octavia chided in her thoughts about her sister’s relationship.

Each pony announced was met by a respectful applause as the stallion read off their names.

“H-here I have our lead Violinist and Viola player, Quaver. She was recommended to this orchestra by her best friend Alula,”

Judging by Quaver’s reaction, she had never known that it was her friend who had recommended for her to be in the orchestra. This reminded Octavia that she had never found out who had recommended her either.

I wonder who it could have been…

Octavia hadn’t had told many ponies about her aspirations to be in the Princesses’ royal orchestra. She hadn’t talked to many ponies at all because of how much she focuses on learning instead of being social. She had no idea who could have done this for her, but Octavia wanted to know so she could thank them for making her dream true.

There was an odd, anxious feeling that Octavia felt as she waited for Bar Staff to announce her name. The day was heating up as the sun crept above the distant mountains and clouds to signify that it was later in the morning that she had thought. She scanned the crowd as she waited, all of the happy ponies and family members of other ponies made her slightly regretful that she hadn’t put more time into making more friends. She made a promise to herself to go out and converse with other ponies more often instead of being so antisocial from her dedication to her cello.

“Over here is our lead-cellist Octavia,” The stallion said to the crowd, causing Octavia’s heart to skip a beat.

Here it comes!

“She was recommended for the Orchestra by her sister Lyra,”

The grey pony’s jaw dropped as Bar Staff’s words repeated in her head.

Octavia saw the embarrassment on Lyra’s face as the crowd finished its applause for her. The grey pony felt like crying and tears welling up behind her eyes only threatened to make that come true. She couldn’t believe Lyra had done this for her.

Lyra…my only sister recommended me to be in this orchestra?

Instantly, her thoughts regressed to her recent past with her sister. They had barely spoken since she refused to go to wedding with BonBon. Every time they had spoken in person, she had never come with BonBon. Just to talk to Octavia, her own sister, she had BonBon not go with her in respect to Octavia’s views on her their marriage. Seeing it from Lyra’s perspective, Octavia was sickened by her own bigoted attitude towards her own sister’s choices.

Octavia felt disgusted with herself. She could remember when she and Lyra were fillies, Lyra had wanted to join the orchestra. She had worked her whole teenage years to join to the orchestra, just to be rejected because they already had a Lyre playing section.

I can’t believe I’ve treated her so badly…

Even though Lyra had failed to make it into the orchestra, she still recommended that her sister join it.

Lyra recommended me even after I had told her I wouldn’t go to her wedding…I can’t imagine how she felt when I was accepted…

A tear streamed down Octavia’s cheeks as thought about how awful she had been to her sister in recent years, and how insulting she had been to her sister’s wife the past year.

The ceremony for her class had just finished. The crowd had finished cheering and they were exiting the stage through the layers of tall velvet curtains to where they would receive their award certificates. Behind Quaver, Octavia walked down the steps, but went in a different direction than the rest over her class.

“Octavia, where are you going?” Bar Staff asked, causing her to stop in her steps.

“I’ll return later. I need to do something right now,”

Ignoring the questions being asked, she left her ensemble behind her to find the crowd and more importantly, find her sister.

The grey pony found Lyra quickly, though the teal mare hadn’t noticed her yet. She edged through the crowd off ponies until she approached her sister from behind, her heart beating her heart urging her to apologize.

“L-Lyra…” She stammered, voice cracking a little.

The teal mare turned around to face her sister, but before she could respond, Lyra was met with a tight loving hug from her older sister, “H-Hi Octavia…”

“Where’s BonBon?” Octavia asked, Lyra backing away from the hug, slightly surprised.

“She’s not here…I tell her not to come with me when I go to see you…because you don’t like that….you know…” It was right then when Lyra noticed that her sister was crying, “What’s wrong?”

“Me…everything I’ve said…everything I’ve done to avoid you and BonBon…and yet you still recommended me for this orchestra…I didn’t even deserve it…”

“Octavia, you deserved everything…I couldn’t let you not get into the orchestra,”

“I’m sorry, Lyra,” The grey pony confessed, hanging her head low, “I’ve said some rude things before, I really regret…everything I-I-I really wish I could have gone to your wedding, instead of being so…so hateful,”

Lyra smiled, “You don’t know how good it makes me feel to hear you say this…Octavia, I wish you were at my wedding too…but I really just missed having my sister in my life…”

A tear streamed down Lyra’s cheek as they embraced each other again, “I promise I’ll be in your life from now on, Lyra…I’ll never treat you differently for being with BonBon...I never should have in the first place…I really wish I could have changed sooner,”

It was a defining moment in Octavia’s life. To finally make amends with her sister and accept her for all of the things she had condemned her for. Maybe it took the realization of all that her sister had done for her, but Octavia felt much better being able to talk to her sister without judging her.

“It’s okay, Tavi…I’m just glad we can talk again…You don’t have to worry about me and BonBon flaunting our relationship around you or anything, we won’t do anything that could make you uncomfortable, I would just like for my wife and sister to get along…you know?”

“Don’t change anything, Lyra,”

“Hmm?” The teal mare responded with her head cocked to the side.

“Don’t act differently around me…I-If I am going to get over this , you and BonBon shouldn’t change anything…I do have one question though, and I really need for you to answer me truthfully,”

“Okay,” Lyra responded.

“Do you really and I mean REALLY love her?”

Instead off responding sarcastically like Octavia expected, the teal mare responded concisely, “Yes. It’s not a phase, it’s not me trying to rebel against the family…I love her, Octavia, and I really really am sorry...”

“Okay. I just needed to know,” The grey mare said, “I really am sorry for everything…I can’t imagine how BonBon feels, I bet she hates me,”

“Well…yeah, but maybe we could change that now?”

“I’d love too,”

Without even caring that she would be ditching her ensemble, Octavia and Lyra exited the crowd, immediately catching up and talking about their lives since they had stopped visiting each other. It was a breath of fresh air for Octavia, to not care about such a simple fact that her sister was married to mare. It made them both happier to know it didn’t bother her. It made them both closer as sisters and revived a friendship they hadn’t had since they were little fillies.

Octavia and Trixie had been two completely different ponies before their body-switching debacle. They had been narrow minded and set in their ways, with no motivation to change or improve themselves. They came out of their situation with new talents, new friends, new perspectives, and new outlook on their lives.

Sometimes, all it takes is just a change of venue to change your life forever.

Comments

[solsticebrony888]

Sorry for the italics and centering problem.

[Molotov Delivery]

Nice conclusion and I didn't exactly expect the Lyra part in the ending, so it added a nice surprising touch. Entertaining and good story. despite a few basic spelling mistakes

[heavymetalcat1]

The best.

[oblivion2k]

Absolute win. I'm sad that this is over, but it means I can be excited to read your next fic!

[solsticebrony888]

343772 thank you very much :)

[solsticebrony888]

431197 thank you:)

[Radio Flier]

I love this story. It's so darn clever!

[solsticebrony888]

763871 Thank you! :)

[Alva]

img.ponibooru.org/_images/13a8a373e8d61608079076c056637da1/70735%20-%20Artist%3AShamrock%20Octavia%20The_Great_And_Powerful_Trixie%20Trixie.png

[dormagio]

Aw yeah! I loved the story. You did a great job.

[Mark Crazeer]

Good game, you played your cards perfectly, though predictability, not like that is not a bad thing.

The story was beautiful, you have got a like my lord.

[solsticebrony888]

5311290 Thank you!