//------------------------------// // The Daily Grind*** // Story: A Change of Venue // by solsticebrony888 //------------------------------// “Good morning Octavia,” Bar Staff greeted, hoof resting on the admissions counter, “You’re here later than usual,” “…but I’m still early,” “But you’re far from being as early as you usually are,” He responded, confusing himself in the process. The black-eyed stallion decided to play it off as a joke. He laughed awkwardly as Octavia trotted past him to set up where she routinely practices every day. Bar Staff was a short stallion, just barely taller than Octavia. He has a clean white coat and curly green hair. To Octavia, it never seemed like he knew what he was doing, always awkwardly starting class by messing up the newest pony, Crescenda’s name. Sometimes he’d forget the name of an instrument, then played it off as if he was “Seeing if they knew what it was called” once somepony told him. If it wasn’t for them somehow being very successful across Equestria, Octavia was sure the princesses would’ve enlisted someone more suited for the job. The first practice of the day for her went by fast. They studied their music without playing, a technique Bar Staff called “Studying your music without playing it”. He wasn’t a very creative pony despite being a musician. They practiced their opening piece, Haythoven’s symphony number 9 until their hoofs cramped. Octavia had known the piece since she was a filly, but enjoyed the practice anyway. They practiced Haydn’s ‘Farewell’ Symphony, the exact song they’d play right before the intermission. They would close with a piece they wouldn’t learn until tomorrow. Although a good portion of the class disagreed with Bar Staff’s impulsive decision to test them with a piece the night before their performance, a higher portion accepted the challenge. We ARE the best in Equestria for a reason seemed to be the majority of the class’s motive for accepting it. Bar Staff, when announcing the surprise piece, noted that Octavia would have a solo, on her bass and not her cello. He emphasized that she got the music beforehand, which she gladly accepted. No need to get cocky She understood that her abilities may allow her to learn something lickety-split, but she always thought it was better for her to underestimate herself than overestimate. Just like usual, the first practice ended quickly. It was always the second and last practice of the day that she got bored, due to the easiness of the work presented to her. She always rose above and beyond when it came to learning, that by a filly she could out-play a majority of professional musicians without even the advantage of being a unicorn. Unicorns have the obvious advantage of being able to do more things at once because of their magic. It doesn’t mean all unicorns can play an instrument, it just means a lot more unicorns play than Pegasi and earth ponies. Instead of using magic to hold her bow, she had one specially designed to fit snug around her hoof. It surprised everypony when she showcased her talents with how good she was without the added benefit of magic. But it wasn’t just the fact she was an earth pony, Octavia actually out-performed many unicorns due to the unlimited hours she had to practice as a filly. In the midst of reminiscing on her days as a filly, the whole symphony had finished playing a melody, while off day-dreaming she just continued until she woke up from her stupor.. Her eyes widened when she saw twenty+ ponies staring at her. Oh Celestia, today is terrible. Tonight needs to hurry up and get here Bar Staff chuckled intimidatingly, “Oh Octavia, first you’re late for being early, and now this? What’s the matter deary?” Deary? The grey pony sighed, lowering her cello on its side, “Nothing,” “Did you know that the melody stopped there, Octavia? We’ve practiced so much, it worries me that you dont know that” “Yes…” “Then why did you keep playing, you’re usually my best student when it comes to playing melodies,” There he goes embarrassing me again “I got distracted,” Bar Staff directed his attention to the whole class, and with one swift movement of his hooves, everypony lifted their instruments in unison. “This is the last melody we are practicing today. I sure hope somepony who’s name starts with OCTAVIA won’t ruin the whole thing at the end... now remember there is a crescenda-er I mean a crescendo at bar twenty seven, that lasts until bar thirty two. This is only for basses however, to give that booming sound while the violins hold that high e! OK, OCTAVIA, are you ready this time?” “Yes sir,” By the end of the second practice, the earth pony felt relieved just to know it was over. She did not have a bad day in a while, and Bar Staff’s unorthodox style of handling things didn’t help much. On days like this, she always went back to what her mother told her as a filly ‘When you don’t think you can carry on, take a deep breath and carry on’ Octavia never really though it worked until she became a musician full time. Unicorns can just play their instruments with barely any physical effort, while everything she does comes from physical effort. Despite being the most punctual, accurate, determined and,-something she’d never admit to the class,-talented, she was treated as if she was the class-clown that made mistakes daily, even if it was her first one in months. Packing up her cello, and getting ready to head out to Trixie’s home, Octavia took a deep breath and focused her mind on the stress relieving night she had ahead of her. Tonight better be amazing <><><><><><><> A purple unicorn entered the big cottage that Trixie called home. At the sight of her friend, Twilight smiled warmly, and greeted her with a hug, “How are you today, Trixie? Sure is a nice day outside!” “A nice day to stay inside and make sure Trixie doesn’t mess up her chance to impress Canterlot, Trixie thinks,” “Of course!” The purple unicorn mused, “Only a few more days of training, do you think you’re ready?” Twilight Sparkle asked. Trixie responded with a confident nod, “We’ve practiced conjuring for the past week or two, are you sure you can conjure up that table on trick five?” “Trixie puts the trick in…trick!” She backed up and took a deep breath. “Welcome everypony to the GREAT and POWERFUL Trixie’s first show in Canterlot!” In an instant, she jumped into mid-air backwards, using her magic to conjure up a table for her to land on., but when she landed, the table was missing a leg, causing her to land flat on her back, the table disappearing once the spell was broken. Twilight Sparkle chuckled and she gave her a hoof to help her up,. “Practice makes perfect, or in your case, three out of four legs, Trixie,” The blue unicorn got up with a scoff, “I, Trixie am NOT amused. You did that to me, huh? Tricked me to make me look bad, after ALL this time Trixie has worked on it huh?” Twilight shook her head, “No no no, it was all you! I thought you said you were practicing it! You can’t just quit once you do something correct once! You know what they say “Good ponies practice until they get it right; GREAT ponies practice until they can’t get it wrong!” Twilight said, spawning a table with ease, “And besides, you should practice the back-flip more anyway, I doubt you would have landed nicely even if you had spawned that table perfectly,” “Trixie would have landed perfectly, Trixie’s back-flip was flawless,” The blue unicorn said defiantly. “Are we really going to go through this again?” The purple unicorn asked, referencing the daily disagreements they have had since she had bee been training her,. “Just listen to me, and everything will be fine! Well, at least a lot better than it would be if you would be on your own.” “HMPH!” The blue unicorn pouted, “…So where should Trixie start,?” Twilight moved the table behind Trixie, up against her night sky blue walls, “Practice your back-flips by jumping onto this table. Once you’re able to do that without question, you can work on the spell for spawning a table. If you get really good, you can even make the table colored with your Trixie colors” “Trixie, already knows how to do all that! Although, I am not sure whether Trixie can do it every single time, so maybe Trixie should practice it a little,” “A lot,” Twilight Sparkle jested with a giggle. The blue unicorn sighed, “Okay, a LOT,” Although Twilight has made some great head-way with the unicorn’s stubbornness, it had been a quite stressful few weeks for the two. The purple unicorn had really over-estimated Trixie’s actual magical abilities. For what the blue unicorn wanted to accomplish on her big day, Twilight had to sacrifice a lot of her time to help her improve. Since deciding to work together, Trixie made it clear that she wanted her tricks to be impressive to everypony for being REAL, and not just her usual smoke- and- mirrors trickery that got her into trouble several months earlier. Despite the consistent bickering between the two, they had grown close during the few weeks and have really found this in common that they never would have expected. Trixie was one of the subjects in Twilight Sparkle’s friendship reports, noting her surprising determination despite her own stubbornness throughout the time they had been training. It took Trixie nearly two hours to master her opening trick. She planned to back-flip onto a table she spawns herself, and introduce herself from there. She imagined a massive crowd of unicorn’s there watching her every move and she wanted them to be completely star-struck by the end of her performance. Trixie wanted the fame, she wanted the envious ponies to be begging her for her autograph by the end, most of all, she wanted to not have to travel to faraway places of so often once she has gained popularity in Canterlot. The day felt extra- long for Trixie, now that she had something to look forward too. Of course, the blue unicorn wanted to improve, but it had been something she’d done for two weeks, and had no real time to just relax and ignore the world like she would have that night. Twilight Sparkle noticed this too. While they were practicing a teleportation trick, both just seemed tired and worn out. Twilight stopped Trixie with a hoof on her shoulder. She floated a checklist in front of herself, “OK, so now we have the back-flip trick WITH spawning a table. We have streamers exploding from out of nowhere when you cut yourself in half,. Do you think you have the teleportation spell mastered? It’s even a little challenging for me when done the way you want to do it,“ Trixie turned to face her, “You saw Trixie do it flawlessly 5 times in a row! Trixie only messed up on the sixth try because Trixie is tired,” “Mhmm, so after that, you pick a filly or colt from the audience, put them in a box, set the box on fire and the filly or colt ends up back with their parents in the audience? How are are you going to do that one?” Twilight chuckled despite herself, “You really think you could do that?” “Trixie admits she is a little unsure…” “Let’s discuss it over some hay fries in town, are you as hungry as I am?” The purple unicorn levitated several books at once into a neat corner in the Trixie’s home. The blue unicorn grimaced, “Trixie thought you’d never ask,” During their breaks from their vigorous practices, they always went into town for some ‘brain food’ as Twilight called it. It was the only real time they actually were able to talk as friends, although getting on each other’s nerves often enough. When they had first started training, Twilight tried to teach the blue unicorn to stop speaking in third person. Needless to say, the purple unicorn did not succeed, but hasn’t given up. Trixie moaned when she sat in the stack of hay, she placed her hooves on the table in front of her, and rested her head on them, “Why can’t time go faster, is there a spell for speeding up TIME?” The purple pony thought for a second, as she sat down across from the unicorn, “If there is one, I’m willing to bet that the princesses are the only ones who know it,” Twilight said, the blue unicorn responding with a sigh, “Too bad I can’t go to Sugarcube Corner when I return to Ponyville later,” “Trixie is confused. Why can’t you?” She lifted her head up to avoid the sunlight. “My friend Pinkie Pie told me that they’re breaking each wall and renovating, Pinkie Pie just needs to break the fourth wall, and they can start on the rebuilding process,” Twilight stated, looking over her shoulder to see Ponyville in far-off distance, “May I ask why you want time to speed up?” “Well, you know how I, Trixie have been saving up almost all of my bits for so long?” “Oh that’s tonight! My gosh, I hope you and your friend have a lot of fun!” Twilight Sparkle had to resist the temptation to ask to join them, “What will you two do?” “See that boutique over there?” Trixie pointed her hoof over to an extravagant shop. The shop just emanated rich and expensive, the cursive and barely readable “Ponicures” adorned the top half of building, “I, Trixie and my best friend-I uh mean this pony I met named Octavia are going to all the most extravagant shops around and not giving a hay about how much we spend. It’ll be fabulous! I can’t wait!” “Well I hope you two have fun,” The unicorn said, with a hint of jealously. All I’ve been doing is trotting down to Canterlot every day, helping her learn tricks and saving her flank from another disaster on my own time and I’m not even invited? “What’s wrong? Why are you all sad now? What did Trixie do now?” Twilight looked away, “Nothing, it’s nothing…” The blue unicorn took a bite out of her coriander sandwich, and then sighed loudly. “You always bother Trixie about lying and now you just lied again, that’s kind of hypocritical, don’t ya think?” “No, it’s nothing. I um, just get this way sometimes when I help somepony for two straight weeks, walking several miles a day just to not be invited to a relaxing night in the town,” Trixie was taken aback by the statement. Thinking about it, the blue unicorn actually felt remorse for not being more thankful. “As wonderful as Trixie may be, Trixie guesses that this was awful of me, “ She said, then back-tracked, “But Twilight,Trixie planned this with Octavia for MONTHS, the great and powerful Trixie can’t just add somepony else randomly!” “Wow, usually I am not the type of pony to trot to conclusions, I’m sorry,” Twilight felt her cheeks burning with embarrassment. “It’s OK, you can make it up to me by ending practice early today!” Trixie smiled awkwardly at the suggestion, knowing Twilight’s answer before she said it. “No, because that would mean more work tomorrow, and tomorrow’s is the most important! We just need to help you master your levitation abilities a bit more until you’re able to do it without fault! I’ll make a check-list for that too,” “So what do I Trixie have to do all together?” “Like your whole performance?” “Yes,” Twilight put her hoof to her chin and thought about it for a second. “You’re going to open up with the back-flip, table spawn and streamers, after announcing that you’re ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’ you’ll do the easy trick, then ask the three biggest ponies in the crowd to lay side by side. Then you’ll use your magic to jump over all of them easily. Then ask for another, and um, when you jump over those 4four, remember to do a flip. Act as if it wasn’t a challenge at all. Jump over 6six and nail it. Then your next trick involves teleportation, remember not all unicorns can teleport, so you’re going to use that your advantage to fool the crowd OK? Do not worry, you seem competent enough with teleportation to be able to handle it,” The purple unicorn took the final bite out of her sandwich. Trixie sighed, “That’s not all, is it…?” Twilight Sparkle giggled, “Nope! Remember, for your final act, you’re not, I repeat NOT going to ask for challengers. You’ll have a hard time being popular in Canterlot if you’re rude to the crowd! Just do one of your classic tricks like we planned. You should do well, and you’re not the only pony to be on stage that night, so nopony should be too harsh on you if they don’t consider your performance great,” Twilight inhaled jokingly once she finished speaking, to emphasize how much she just said. Trixie felt her heart flutter lightly, after realizing how much she needed to do flawlessly in a few nights, and usually she supplemented actual skill with arrogance and just telling the crowd how amazing she was. “Trixie thinks we should get back to training,” She said under a nervous chuckle. The rest of day would be very stressful for her and she knew it. Tonight better be amazing