//------------------------------// // Day 1*** // Story: A Change of Venue // by solsticebrony888 //------------------------------// A blue unicorn rested comfortably in a blue bed, dreaming her regular dreams, waiting for her alarm to go off. She put the pillow over her head, a pillow that smelled quite odd to her, to block out the light from hitting her face. The light came not from the direction it used to and If it wasn’t for her being half-asleep, an alarm should have went off in her head just then. Octavia, now blissfully unaware of the changes that have taken place, was about to be woken up by two clumsy colts trotting awkwardly into the room. “Do you think she’ll notice that we we're late again today Snails?” Snails whispered obnoxiously loudly. What was that noise… Octavia turned over in the bed to face Snips and Snails with a grumble. The blue pony blinked a few times trying to grasp what she saw. The colts lowered their heads sheepishly, “We-we’ve came to wake you up, Trixie..” “Trixie? What? Where-“ Octavia could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she lifted her sky blue hoofs to where she could see them. “W-WHAT’S GOING ON HERE!” She yelled, getting even more scared by the fact Trixie’s voice resounded. In a panic, she slid back, falling off the side of her bed. She had assumed there would be a wall there to stop her from falling, just like at her house. She looked up awkwardly, breathing heavy from the shock, “WHY ARE YOU TWO IN MY HOUSE?” “We’re awfully sorry GPT! We’ll give you time to wake up, eh?” Snails stammered, the two darting out of room in a second. “WHY AM I BLUE! I’M B-BLUE, WHAT HAPPENED TO MY GREY?! I MISS MY GREY” She exclaimed jumping around frantically, “WHY IS MY VOICE SO…NOT MINE!” Octavia leaped up to find a mirror, causing Trixie’s massive blue blankets to fall off of the bed. This can’t be happening Her eyes widened as she saw the mangled blue mane hanging in front of Trixie’s face. She saw the unicorn horn, and was petrified at what she saw. The image of Trixie was looking right back at Octavia, who was now shocked and speechless. Calm down, Octavia, calm down. This is clearly a dream She paced her breathing, and looked at herself in the mirror until the shock wore off. “Clearly this is a dream, clearly! Such events do not happen to regular pony-folk unless it’s in a play!” She looked around herself, studying the details of the unicorn’s room. Light- blue walls, a massive mirror a few feet from the feet of the bed, posters from Trixie’s past performances scattered about the wall. Quite the detailed dream… She trotted around, looking at things close-up, studying all the details she could find. She picked up Trixie’s hat off of her massive dresser along with her cloak She giggled as she put them on, “I’m Trixie…” Octavia pranced about, mindlessly mocking the blue pony living up the assumption that she was in the midst of a dream. I, the Powerful and Great Trixie am going to do something magnificent just to show off! During her ‘performance’ of awkwardly prancing about imitating her best friend, Snails peaked his head through the unicorn’s door, “I-uh Trixie?” With a scream, Octavia landed flat on her back. “A-are you OK, oh great and powerful one?” Snips questioned, a frightened tone causing his voice to shake. She looked at them in pure confusion, “Why are you still in my dream! I don’t even know who you two colts are! It’s my dream and I don’t want to be bothered,” The two colts, now standing a few feet from the upside down unicorn, tilted their heads at her last statement. “I uh, Trixie are you OK?” Octavia rolled over and stood up, “Why do you keep calling me Trixie, I am clearly Octavia, and since this is a dream, I shall morph myself into myself, ready?” She closed her eyes and strained for a bit, then looked at her right hoof, “See-!” She said breathlessly. Her eyes widened in horror as she started to grasp reality, “Oh my Celestia, what in the hay is happening?” She shook her head frantically, the frizzled blue mane getting caught in front of her face, “What in the hay is happening right now?! This cannot be real, it just CANNOT! I-I…” Snips stepped a little closer, “Trixie are you um, uh back from your crazy dream, your friend is probably waiting for you maybe,” He said, submissively lowering his head to her. “My friend…?“ Octavia stopped mid-sentence as the gears finally clicked into place in her mind, “OH MY CELESTIA. Trixie is me! I’m Trixie! My oh my oh my oh my… I need to go now!” She exclaimed, in the midst of a second wave of panic. Disregarding the two colts wishes to stop her, Octavia darted out of Trixie’s home. <><><><><><><><><> Behind her own door, the blue Octavia walked into her own home breathing heavily. She was still unable to comprehend her own situation, and knowing it was real and not some crazy dream just made things impossible for her to understand. After not finding Trixie at the park where they usually met, Octavia hoped to find the pony in her own apartment. Every second or two, Octavia would look down just to see if she still inhabits her friend’s body. The whole situation didn’t come to terms in her mind until she saw herself, lying in her bed, completely asleep. She stopped, just a few feet from her whole bed and stared in amazement at her own body lying just a feet or two in front of her. It was an out-of-body experience, while being in somepony else’s body. I-I-I can’t believe this is happening…nor can I understand why I just stuttered in my thoughts… Octavia cautiously tip-hooved towards her own bed, only stopping when she heard a mumble from…who she presumed was Trixie. The blue unicorn craned her neck above the sleeping earth pony silently. My goodness, I hope it’s Trixie that sleeps like this and not me…I always presumed I slept much more…gracefully Even in the midst of the most hectic situation she’s ever been in, Octavia’s own thought made her giggle out loud. “Snips!? Snails?! Where are you when I-EW! Why does my voice sound like this?” Trixie turned over to the sight of a petrified blue unicorn, who was completely at a loss of words. Trixie rubbed her eyes, unable to comprehend what she saw. She then saw the grey hooves she now possessed. Octavia didn't know how loud her voice could get until she heard Trixie find out for her in a bloodcurdling scream. The grey pony leaped up and clutched Octavia’s blue face in her hooves, “TAVI WHY ARE YOU ME, WHY AM I, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, YOU!? WHAT IS GOING ON!? W-W-W…” Her stutters led to another panicked screech, shoving the speechless unicorn out of her way to find a mirror. Now seeing her friend staring back at her in the mirror, she collapsed on the ground throwing a terrible fit. In the midst of her murmurs, muffled by her hooves, a dam burst and Trixie was crying profusely. “I-I have no clue what could possibly be going on Trixie…!” “M-my H-horn!” The grey pony said in the midst of sobs, “T-Trixie c-can’t d-do m-magic a-anymore! HOW CAN TRIXIE LIVE WITHOUT MAGIC…!” Now standing next to the grey pony, Octavia took a deep breath. She tried her best to banish thoughts of what could happen if their situation was permanent. “Look, please…before we do anything we may regret, we need to think about why this could have happened…” Octavia let out a frustrated sigh, now sitting on all fours,.“Last night…we were talking about what we admired about each other, remember?,” “Trixie remembers quite clearly that you wanted everything that Trixie had and Trixie didn’t want to give any of it to you!” The grey pony exclaimed. The unicorn shot a mad look at the grey pony, “Don’t even start that, Trixie…We need to focus! It’s imperative that we fix this before anything bad can happen, do you know of any spells like this, that switch bodies?” Octavia walked hastily in a circle as she contemplated their options, Trixie on the other hoof just stared at the pony the she saw in the mirror. It hurt her own brain to comprehend the fact she had magically switched bodies with her best friend. “T-Trixie doesn’t remember any spell, and besides, YOU’RE the unicorn now,” Octavia instantly lifted a blue hoof to feel the horn on her head, “Having a horn is rather odd, I must say…Can I do magic? I’m going to levitate my bed!” In an instant, she closed her eyes and took a stressed stance. Her limbs locked, and she was physically growing redder by each second. She bit her lip and closed her eye-lids so hard it almost hurt her brain. “O-Octavia, you should breathe…” The grey pony said, jaw lowering at the unicorn’s feeble magic attempt. Obviously too focused to head In her friends warning, Octavia’s blue face was now reddening, a slight squeak escaping her as a tiny spark escaped the horn on her head. Trixie darted up and pushed the unicorn, who eventually flopped onto the ground from being light headed. Trixie’s appalled look embarrassed the exhausted unicorn, “WHAT THE HAY WAS THAT, TAVI!?” The unicorn’s face now reddened from embarrassment, “…I attempted to do magic,” Trixie slapped a grey hoof to her own face in disappointment, shaking her head for a moment before speaking again. “Trixie just needs to ask you one thing, Tavi…” “…Yes?” She responded meekly. “When have you EVER seen a unicorn SPUTTERING, STRAINING and holding her breath until she nearly PASSED OUT just to do a magic trick…?” “Please, Trixie, we have much more important things on our hooves right now,” The grey pony giggled, “Trixie means, imagine if Trixie had to do that at my performa-“ Trixie cut herself off mid-sentence Oh my Celestia, my performances! “OK, Trixie agrees, we need to fix this now! What are we going to do…!?” The blue unicorn sat up with a frustrated sigh, “Well, first and foremost we need more time… we’re going to have to go to my work and tell the conductor of my orchestra that I won’t be able to go in today…” “S-So Trixie is going to have to talk to him…” “What do you think? You ARE me!” The blue pony sighed, “Never in Equestria would I have thought something this bizarre would ever happen…” “What does Trixie tell her when I get there?” Octavia put a hoof to her chin, “Well, for starters, the conductor is a stallion. But, all you have to do it say ‘Bar Staff, I am going to be taking a day off today for personal reasons’ OK?” That’s ALL you have to do, and we can get this FIXED before anything else can happen!” Trixie sighed for confidence as she stood up, “Trixie can do this, it shouldn’t be too hard anyway. Trixie will do this, then we can go everywhere we went last night and find out what we-WAIT A MINUTE TAVI, when we said ‘I wish I could just be you’, where in the hay were we?” The blue unicorn’s eyes widened at the revelation, “I almost certain we were outside of your’s home, or somewhere near!” “Trixie, let’s go tell Bar Staff NOW, then we can go to your home, wow, it’s so weird speaking your voice! AHHHHHHH EEUUUOOIOIOEIOEIIE EEUEUEIEUOEUEOE I’M TRIXIE IOWIEOEIOIWOEIEO” The unicorn made random weird faces as she ‘experimented’ with her new voice. “Tavi stop messing around and let’s just go!” <><><><><><><><> In front of the big and brown building where Octavia practices, the two friends quickly rehearsed what they planned for Trixie to say. They didn’t have much time, though Octavia regularly arrived much earlier than a lot of the ponies. “OK, repeat after me Trixie! Hello Bar Staff, I’m just coming in to request that I have today off for personal reasons,” Trixie sighed, “Hello, Bar Staff, I am just coming in to request that I have today off because of personal reasons,” “Good enough! I’m confident you can pull this off, I’ll be right by your side the whole time, just remember to say ‘I’ and not ‘Trixie’ or even my name! That would just make ME look quite odd!” “Trixie has this down, Tavi! Now, let’s go!” Trixie said with her usual confidence. Octavia sighed as she trotted next to the grey pony Celestia save me… They pushed open the clear doors where they immediately saw Bar Staff using his mouth to write something. Upon noticing their arrival, he lifted his head to reveal a straight face, “My oh my, Octavia, you’re even later than you were yesterday,” Trixie’s eyes widened with horror, and quickly looked to the mare beside her to give her direction. “Oh, U-Um, sorry um, Bar Graph! I just needed to ask you something…” Bar GRAPH? She said bar GRAPH?! Neither mare could describe a point in their lives in which they went through a more awkward silence than at that exact moment. Octavia was speechless, and couldn’t bear to even look at her friend. “What was that, Octavia?” Bar Staff questioned, breaking the silence while arching his brow inquisitively. It took a few seconds for Trixie to realize her mistake, then her eyes widened in horror, “I uh mean um, Bar Staff! I-uh, I came here to um…I need a day off for personal reasons?” Her voice cracked awkwardly, and only made the awkwardness of the situation worse. Bar Staff smacked his lips as if he had caught somepony stealing, “Better remember to study your solo, okay?” With an awkward smile and a nod, the grey pony ran outside followed by shell shocked Octavia. Closing the big glass door behind them, Trixie looked at the blue unicorn with an embarrassed smile, “Bar Graph, Bar Staff? Trixie doesn’t see a difference…” “If I wasn’t a more civilized pony, I’d seek revenge for embarrassing me like that. I mean, we practiced you saying Bar STAFF like a hundred times on the way here. I thought you were the one pony in Manehatten I could trust to NOT to get stage fright!” “Well Trixie is sorry alright! It’s a lot different when Trixie is talking to her friend’s BOSS and remember, I’M YOU right now! Grey …I WANT MY BLUE BACK, AND MY HORN!” “Well, we certainly need to go change that,” It was a quick trot to where they estimated they were the night before. They had absolutely no plan on what to do, they were just hoping to find something to explain the situation they found themselves in. “OK we’re here,” Trixie noted, craning her neck to spot anything that could shed the dimmest of light on their situation. They looked at each other once more, getting chills down their spines once more seeing their own faces staring back at them. Octavia held a blue hoof over her head, to shade herself from the peaking sun. Though she was trying her best to find anything that could help them, her thoughts drifted to how soon her performance was, and the idea of her friend having to pretend to be her during one of the most important days of her life was something she forced herself not to think about up until then. She could imagine it happening right before her eyes. ”BOO OCTAVIA IS THE WORST CELLIST EVER!” shouted one crowd member after the end of a pitiful performance, “SHE’S A TERRIBLE INSTRUMENT PLAYER, SHE SHOULD BE FIRED FROM THIS ORCHESTRA AND HAVE HER CELLO BURNED!” Said another overly enthusiastic critic, “I CONCUR, SHE SHOULD BE BANISHED FROM EQUESTRIA FOR SUCH A PERFORMANCE” Shouted a third random pony She physically shook at the thought, although she knew it was over-dramatic and barbaric. I need to be more rational about this situation, it is not very smart to let it get to my head! Expecting to return to work, she turned around and saw the grey earth pony sitting down, staring off into space. She could tell somepony else had let their situation finally get to their head, as she trotted over to the earth pony. “T-Trixie? Are you OK?” Trixie sat on her backside, with her front legs sitting in between her back legs. She held her head low, as if to admit she was already defeated by the situation. “Trixie told you, yesterday morning that Trixie has a performance coming up soon, right?” “T-Trixie don’t worry, I’m an exceptional learner, I could memorize what spells I need to learn in order to perform them,” Octavia said that without the slightest intention of Trixie taking her seriously. “Trixie doesn’t even want to respond to that…” The grey pony replied followed by a loud sigh, :I could see it now! ‘BOO TRIXIE IS THE WORST PERFORMER EVER” One would shout then: ‘SHE’S A TERRIBLE PERFORMER, SHE SHOULD BE BANNED FROM PERFORMING AND HAVE HER HORN CUT OFF’ another would say then ‘I CONQUER! SHE SHOULD BE BANISHED FROM EQUESTRIA FOR SUCH A PERFORMANCE! And Trixie’s life would be over! I don’t want either of us to go through that since you’d be on the stage!” Octavia stepped back in surprise, intrigued and amazed by what she just heard. “T-that was so weird!” The blue unicorn said, eyes widened as she replayed the moment back in her head. “What? Why? Trixie is confused!” Octavia focused her attention back on her friend, “Because… you said conquer instead of concur!” “You scared Trixie there for a second,” Trixie said, glaring at her friend, “I thought something weird happened, like us switching bodies or something…” Surprised by this, Octavia started laughing, which in turn caused the grey pony to laugh with her. Wiping her eye with a hoof, Octavia back tracked, “I think I could do this, Trixie. I believe I’m quite adept at learning…I could learn what I could and try my best when the time comes, I suppose,” “What choice does Trixie have right now? Trixie can’t just tell you that you can’t since you’re ME. Maybe we could just tell somepony! Somepony that could believe us!” “NO, Trixie are you crazy? Everypony would think we’re jesting them or that we are just plain psychos. We need to decide what do right now, OK? Practice and hope we SOMEHOW not ruin each other’s lives, OR keep searching, fail and DEFINITELY ruin each other’s lives. What do you think? Do we even have a choice?” “Trixie thinks we should get started immediately then…” <><><><><><><> “What are we going to do, Trixie?” The blue unicorn asked, as she set foot in what she considered her home. They had taken a break from magical training and the day was nearly over. Octavia was now barely able to levitate something of light weight. Though it was quite a small accomplishment, it was a step in the right direction to getting what she needed to get accomplished. “How are we going to DO this? Is it even possible for this to work?” The grey pony followed behind Octavia. After a few unsuccessful attempts at closing the door with her mind, she quickly realized that she had no such ability and closed the door with a buck in frustration. “Trixie doesn’t know! Trixie doesn’t even want to think about it! You just need to learn magic so we can get on with our lives!” Octavia snapped her head back towards Trixie, “OH, nononono. Did you forget that I have a life too, that surely requires more work than magic?” “More work than magic huh?” The grey pony shot back, arching an eyebrow. “Yes, most definitely! I can play hundreds of symphonies on two different instruments! I play each and every one of them flawlessly, better than most ponies that only play a single instrument! I have practiced since I was a filly to master every note of every song I have ever learned! That’s certainly much more challenging than doing tricks with magic just for fame!” “Trixie doesn’t like it when you talk down to her profession, Octavia, take that back!” The blue unicorn slouched onto what she considers ‘her’ couch, “OK, I’m sorry Trixie, you just don’t know how hard it is for me to imagine you, struggling to play my cello, with the bow backwards, facing the wrong way, trying to hum the notes because you’re not actually playing the right ones…” “OK, Trixie gets it! Let’s hurry, grab your guitar and let’s start, can’t be too hard!” Octavia sighed, “You can’t hurry…nopony can hurry when it comes to playing, learning and MASTERING an instrument, especially when you call a CELLO a guitar. Now, rosin up that bow and let’s get learning!” “What is a rosin?” The bewildered grey pony asked. “OK, that’s a valid question considering your experience. Rosin helps the strings on the bow from breaking when gliding them across the cello’s strings…here; let me show you how,” After unpacking it from its case, Octavia put her cello on its side. She pulled out the bow and the rosin from a pocket within the case. “OK? Watch, all you need to do it glide the rosin across the bow; you don’t even have to do it more than once or twice. Do you understand so far?” “Trixie thinks this is a little too hard,” Octavia tilted her head, with her mouth slightly ajar. It was her only reaction for what the earth pony had just said. “Kidding, kidding!” Trixie grumbled, followed by an inpatient sigh, “Now what?” It took Octavia almost half an hour just to show Trixie how to position the cello to where she could play without looking awkward and uncomfortable. Of course, the grey pony didn’t have a clue what she was doing, but looking like she did could help. Well, at least that’s what Octavia thought. Octavia painstakingly went through all the essential details that an earth pony must know if they want to play an instrument, especially a stringed one. The blue pony showed Trixie how to position her hoof to where she could move from string to string hastily and not sound sloppy. She taught her how to slide the bow across the cello’s strings without making it sound like nails on a chalkboard. This was all before she even got to notes and actual songs. “OK,OK, I think you’ve got the rudiments down…at least the basics…finally,” The blue unicorn said with a sigh, after painstakingly teaching Trixie her instrument. “Yes, Trixie does believe Trixie is a fast learner! I can almost play like five notes without missing the line things!” As Trixie continued to awkwardly attempt a symphony on the cello, Octavia decided it was due time for a break. The blue pony, with a stressed sigh, hopped onto her couch landing on the newspaper she read a few days ago. Something ticked inside of her head when she pulled it out from under her. “OH MY CELESTIA, THE TEA PARTY…!” Octavia hopped up and quickly turned around to face the bewildered grey pony. “Trixie! Put the cello away now, there is something much more important I need to you do for me tomorrow!” The grey pony sloppily let the cello down on its side and lazily covered half of it with its case. In response, Octavia hopped over, zipped up the case correctly after reinserting the rosin in its rightful case, then stared at Trixie with big eyes. “OK, Trixie, how good are you at pretending to be formal, polite and lady-like?” Octavia asked, her voice rushed and suddenly worried. “The great and powerful Trixie is always elegant when she is needed to be,” Octavia tried to use her magic to lift the newspaper over to her, but barely managed to make a page turn in it. Trixie laughed as the embarrassed blue unicorn went to pick up the newspaper. “READ, NOW!’ “Yes ma’am!” Trixie responded sarcastically, clutching the newspaper with her hooves awkwardly. “Equestria’s biggest tea party, now in Canterlot! Honorable Princess Celestia and Princess Luna attending, along with the finest musicians in the land!” Trixie dropped the newspaper on the floor; caused by her forgetting that she isn’t a unicorn anymore. However, she returned the frantic unicorn’s statement with a sly smile, “’Finest musicians in the land’, huh? At least Trixie knows you weren’t invited," “Do you really think this is a good time to jest, Trixie? YOU’RE going to have to attend the tea party, YOU’RE going to have to meet both of the princesses! And YOU’RE not going to mess this up for me!” Trixie waved her hoof dismissively, “Trixie won’t! It’s not as hard as you think to be all fancy-smancy and polite, Trixie is a mare of all trades!” “I don’t think you understand…very few ponies in Equestria were invited…even more, I was invited because of my instrumental talents! They may ask you to play something!” Thoughts bolted in their heads about a disastrous evening caused by Trixie’s lack of ability on the cello. The princesses staring at the grey pony as she fails to produce a coherent note. The glaring, high-class ponies watch as she sputters through a song she doesn’t even know. The Princesses’ jaws dropping at the sight of her pathetic performance. Octavia felt light headed at the thought of something that could ruin her whole life so much. Trixie on the other hand snapped out of her premature vision of the events of the next day, and let an air of confidence take over, as she has done many times before. “Trixie can handle it…Trixie can do this, all YOU need to do is LEARN AS MUCH MAGIC AS POSSIBLE, so you don’t ruin MY life,” “Are you sure can be lady-like, polite and sophisticated like I am? I can’t even IMAGINE you speaking so…posh,” “Trixie has this in the bag. Acting is a thing that comes with preforming, Trixie will just view this as a challenging performance, you don’t have to worry about a thing, Tavi’” Octavia was sitting on the ground, her hooves restlessly moving through her mane in frustration, “What could I learn? HOW do I learn magic?” She looked up at the grey pony with watery eyes, “How are we even going to be EACH OTHER successfully? How are we going to fix this without telling anypony? How are…I don’t even want to think about this, I just want this horrific nightmare to end!” “Tavi, the last thing we should be doing right now is panicking, no matter how much Trixie wants to join you, we should REALLY get some rest and make sure we don’t mess anything up tomorrow,” The blue unicorn slowly got up, with a grimace, she accepted what her friend said, “I never saw you as the voice of reason, Trixie, what’s gotten into you lately?” “Maybe I’m becoming you completely!” The grey pony said, half-jokingly until it hit her that it was a possibility. The blue unicorn’s eyes widened in horror, “Please, don’t even mention that ever again, Trixie,” Octavia chided, looking at her own blue hoof as if somehow she could have returned to being herself again. Despite Octavia’s objections, the grey pony continued, “What if…Trixie dies in your body? Would you be me forever?” Octavia physically shook at the thought, “Oh Celestia, you better stay alive or I might just have to kill you myself,” “That didn’t make sense, Tavi,” The grey pony said with a chuckle. “I AM YOU AND YOU ARE ME, NOTHING MAKES SENSE RIGHT NOW,” ”You better go back to my home and get some rest…maybe things will change overnight? Trixie can’t let you have a mental breakdown right BEFORE you have to learn a lot of magic…we can do this Tavi,” “If you’re going to be that confident about this, I might as well too…just please, no more mind-boggling ‘what ifs’ because those questions are the last things we should be focusing on,” “But what if I have a foa’-“ “NO MORE,” “Alright! Sheesh! These questions have to be asked some day,” Each exchanged detailed instructions on how the next day would go for them. They gave each other every single detail they thought was necessary for them to not mess everything up. At Trixie’s house, there were some basic spell books that Octavia would have to study, so when Twilight Sparkle came over, she could claim she wanted to study easy spells to not give away that she has no clue how to perform the tricks Twilight assumed she knew. She would practice those until she was decent enough at them to move on to more challenging tricks. It was the only way Trixie could think of to hopefully NOT be suspicious. It was only a matter of whether Twilight Sparkle would be ok with practicing simple spells instead of the hard ones they had been studying. Octavia made sure that Trixie promised to progressively learn harder songs to work up to the ones she needed to know. The blue unicorn claimed it was what she had done as a filly to improve so fast at every instrument she played. If Trixie listened and did what she was told, Octavia predicted that Trixie would be able to perform a symphony incognito and not give away that she wasn’t Octavia. She wouldn’t lay most of the notes correctly, and probably get a lot of weird looks from the other ponies in the orchestra, but she wouldn’t ruin it for everypony else. She wasn’t even going to attempt the solo, and would pass it off to a fellow bass player. Octavia trusted Trixie's acting skills enough to trust her to go to the tea party. It all came down to 'What choice do we have?' so they would have to trust each other more than they'd ever want to, and hopefully find a way to survive this crisis. At least, that’s how they hoped things would go.