Private Gig
by NavyPony
Op. 2, Movt 2
Andante
Ponyville was not what Octavia had expected. It was bigger than she’d imagined, (which wasn’t saying much, to be sure), but it was still small. It was tiny, in fact – compared to Canterlot, Manehattan, or anywhere she’d visited, this place was orders of magnitude smaller. But despite that, or even because of that it was lively in a way novel to Octavia. The residents were cheerful and friendly, without the insular attitudes she expected from a town in which everypony knew everypony else’s name (and from what she’d seen, they most certainly did). She and Twilight had been the recipients of scores of greetings throughout the morning, and every one of them had seemed genuinely friendly not just to Twilight, but to Octavia as well. It was like a storybook village, and it would’ve been charming had it not been so utterly alien. And then there was the weather. It seemed… too right. In conversation with a resident of Ponyville, Octavia found herself apt to describe it as ‘better than anypony could hope for’. Among her more traditional clients, however, she might’ve found a different word. Cliché.
While the musician was chewing on her opinions of Ponyville, the magician was struggling with another thought. It was not until they were more than halfway back to the library when Twilight finally broke the silence that had built up around them. “So, Octavia… do you have to be leaving soon?”
“Oh?” Such a question was a faux pas amongst faux pas, but when coming from Twilight… It just made Octavia sigh internally. It was mostly good-natured. She tilted her head to the side, dark mane swinging behind the inscrutable mask which her face had become. “Would you like me to leave?”
“What? No!” Twilight answered too quickly. “No, no, of course not. I just meant that I don’t want to make you late for… whatever you might have waiting for you in Canterlot. When did you say you had to be back, precisely?”
Octavia smiled with practiced ease as she pretended to think about the question. She knew the answer immediately, of course, as the answer to this question never changed. “I don’t believe that I did. But since you want to know, I don’t have an exact schedule. I’ll return… approximately whenever I feel like it.” Her contract, after all, had been fulfilled the moment she stepped in the library last night. “Or whenever you want me to leave, of course. I wouldn’t dream of imposing upon your hospitality.”
The unicorn muttered something to suggest that such a thing was impossible, but it wasn’t loud enough for Octavia to get more than the gist of it. Either way, it left them in silence for another short period while Twilight recomposed herself. “Well, umm… where to now?”
Octavia lifted up a dainty hoof to mostly cover a coquettish smile. “I’m hardly the pony to answer that, Twilight.” She paused to take in the backdrop, very unsubtly looking back and forth at her surroundings. For the sake of Twilight’s embarrassment, she kept admiring the nearby buildings instead of coming to meet the other pony’s gaze. “It is, you know, my first time in Ponyville. If anything, it should be I asking that question, no?”
“Yes, of course, I suppose. Sorry about that.” Twilight slowed from her amble to a more sluggish pace as her face reddened. “In that case… what would you like to do?”
Octavia slowed her pace to match the other mare. “Twilight, once again, I’ve never visited Ponyville before. Can I really be expected to give suggestions of things to do when I don’t even know what my options are?”
“Then…” Twilight chewed on her lower lip in thought for a moment, still leading the other mare aimlessly down the road. “If you don’t know what there is to do in Ponyville, maybe I could show you around town?”
Gracious as ever, the grey mare nodded. “That sounds wonderful. Lead the way.”
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
“…and so I’m showing her around Ponyville.”
Applejack’s responded with a sort of bemused scowl. “And y’all decided to show ‘er the marketplace? Ah mean, sure, it’s kinda the center of Ponyville and all, but it’s not exactly what Ah’d call a tourist attraction.”
“It was closest to where we were,” Twilight asserted quietly. “And it’s kind of an… interesting place. I mean, there’s nowhere quite like it in Canterlot.”
“Really?” A tiny yellow filly jutted her head out from behind the stall with enough speed to make Twilight take a step back in surprise. “They don’t got no marketplace in a city as big as Canterlot? How do the ponies buy their fruits ‘n vegetables ‘n stuff? Or anything else, for that matter? Why, they must be-”
“Woah there, Applebloom,” AJ interrupted by ruffling her younger sister’s mane forcefully enough to unbalance her. “Ah’m sure they have things taken care of. Besides, Ah think Miss Twilight’s a bit busy to be spendin’ all morning chattin’ with a filly who’s supposed to be helpin’ run the stall.” The farmer nodded her head in the direction of Octavia van Clef, who, at Twilight’s suggestion, had begun roving the stalls while the unicorn spoke with Applejack. “Besides, even if she ain’t,” at this, Applejack turned to direct the full force of her gaze on Applebloom, “what did Ah say about-”
“Twilight?” Both Twilight and Applejack’s heads snapped to the source of the sound, where from just a couple yards away, the crowd seemed to part around Octavia. She had a brown paper bag clutched in her mouth, but her speech was unaffected and the mercurial smile which she normally wore had simply moved up to her eyes. “Oh, and Miss Applejack, it is a pleasure to see you again,” she added, placing the paper bag by her hooves.
“Just Applejack, if ya please,” the farmpony requested with a tip of her hat before motioning to the little filly sticking her head up from behind- nope, nevermind. “Uh, Twilight? Didja happen to see where ‘Bloom got to? She was just here.”
The question of Applebloom’s location was answered almost as soon as it was asked, although by the filly in question rather than the one being questioned. From behind Octavia, a tinny voice asked, “Hey, you’re that mare that played the big violin at Twilight’s last night, aren’tcha? How d’ya carry around something so big? Don’tcha got somepony to help? And- ooh.” Applebloom’s expression lit up when she laid eyes upon the treble clef adorning the grey mare’s thigh. “How’dya get your cutie mark? Ah don’t think I’ve ever seen one like that, you know. I don’t got mine yet and-”
Where the little filly’s sister put on an increasingly severe scowl and Twilight rolled her eyes in good humor, the musician smiled, but barely. The expression she presented was cold, precise, and fulfilled the letter of the law more than the spirit; above all it was practiced. “I am; through an exorbitant amount of practice; not normally, although I do on certain occasions; and it’s really not a story which bears telling.” Her rapid-fire answers, combined with the overwhelming casualty with which she gave them, distracted everypony sufficiently from the words themselves. “And it is a cello, not a violin,” she added for good measure.
“Oh. Is that what your cutie mark is then? A cello?” Applebloom squinted her eyes at the purple symbol, her voice uncertain. “It looks kinda fancy-ish. Is that because you play fancy music?”
Twilight chortled quietly before correcting the filly. “It’s a treble clef – a symbol used to denote pitch in written music.”
“Oh. So… it is fancy?”
This time it was Octavia’s turn to laugh, albeit in a self-defacing sort of way. “I suppose I try to get ponies to think that. Being ‘fancy’ as you so aptly put it, is a boon for my reputation.”
“D’ya speak fancy, then?” Applejack asked. “French, I mean?”
The musician’s face turned coy as she explained, “You can’t get by in my profession without a respectable amount. Names, places, menus, a phrase here, a phrase there, and of course the traditional ‘voulez-vous'.”
“Huh. Is that some kinda music term?”
Her eyes sparkled darkly. “Not really, no.”
“Oh.” Applejack kicked the ground awkwardly, awaiting some further explanation. It didn’t come. “Well in that case… where were we? Uhh, Twilight, what were ya sayin’ earlier? About things to do in Ponyville?”
“Well, heheh, that’s the problem, I guess. I…” She turned to look at the musician beside her. “Well, it’s Octavia’s first time in Ponyville, and I thought I’d show her the sights, but I think I’m still new here, to be honest. I mean, I don’t suppose you have any suggestions?”
Applejack rubbed a hoof under her chin for a long while before answering. “Ah don’t suppose the town hall would be very interesting, would it? The clock tower might-”
From behind Twilight and Octavia, Applebloom appeared. Somehow. “Ya oughta visit Sweet Apple Acres! It’s practically a Ponyville landmark!”
From behind Applebloom, an orange-coated pegasus appeared. “Or the schoolhouse! Or Rainbow Dash’s house! Or our Rainbow Dash clubhouse! Or maybe the Rainbow Dash museum! Or even the Rainbo-”
From behind Scootaloo, the last of the Cutie Mark Crusaders materialized. “Or~” shouted Sweetie Belle, her voice cracking enthusiastically, “you should visit Carousel Boutique! It’s literally a Ponyville landmark!”
One of Octavia’s ears quavered slightly at Sweetie’s suggestion, and while the young fillies continued droned on in what must have been an attempt to get tour-guide cutie marks, the musician turned to Twilight with a twinkle in her eyes. “A boutique?” she asked, only just loudly enough to be heard over the voices of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “And a landmark?” But more importantly, a boutique. “That sounds… interesting. Tell me about it, Twilight?”
“Tell you about Carousel Boutique?” In Twilight’s defense, the response was so instinctive that her better judgment couldn’t altogether stop her. “It’s kind of a historic residence-slash-workshop-slash gallery. It was originally built by Silly Swirl, who was one of the first ponies to declare official residency in Ponyville during its founding. But it was her daughter, Silk, who-”
“Ahhem,” Applejack cleared her throat loudly – necessary if she was to be heard over the still-escalating Cutie Mark Crusaders and also break through Twilight’s singled-minded lecture, “Sugarcube, Ah think that when Miss Octavia asked ya about it, she meant that maybe y’all wanna go to the Boutique insteada just stand here and talk about it?”
If only her face were visible, Twilight could’ve been more aptly described as a magenta unicorn than a lavender one – and one very interested in the ground between her hooves, at that. “I did it again, didn’t I?”
AJ chuckled merrily. “Ayyup.”
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
“Look, Octavia, I’m really sorry about that,” Twilight explained as the two of them departed the central marketplace. “I, umm, I tend to do that, I guess.”
“Do what? It’s not your fault those fillies felt obligated to keep recommending for sightseeing spots. Even if some of them were a bit… unlikely.” The more realistic of their suggestions had included visiting Appleloosa and the Cloudsdome in Cloudsdayle. “I thought they were charming, although I wasn’t aware that Princess Luna had a Top Secret Moon Fort.”
“What? Oh, no, I… That’s not what I meant.” Twilight’s pace slowed only a fraction as she tried to construct a better apology. “I mean, yes, I’m sorry about Crusaders, but I mean about the whole ‘lecture-mode’ I kind of pulled. I…” She sighed and picked her pace up slightly. “It’s a bad habit of mine, and I hope it-”
Octavia smiled gently, even though Twilight couldn’t see her face while leading the way to Carousel. It was a silly thing, really, smiling when nopony could see the mask, but it was habit. She maintained the expression, quietly listening while the librarian opened up about this insignificant foible. But while it was nothing more than a tiny eccentricity to the entertainer, it was the center of Twilight’s world, if only for the moment. So she simply listened and smiled, and inserted all the correct reassurances at the right times. And, in fact, Twilight wasn’t boring, although she seemed especially prone to diving headlong into the occasional tangent.
And since Twilight was talking about something she was unhappy with, the solution, was to change the subject. It was an entertainer’s job to keep her client entertained, after all. And being the master of her craft that she was, she’d do it subtly, too. “That’s not boring,” Octavia interjected at the most opportune moment, “let me tell you about something boring.”
“Oh?” Twilight’s brow scrunched at the assertion. Or the request. She wasn’t really sure which it was. “Umm… feel free?”
“Salt,” she declared with her nose as high in the air as she could manage without looking too ridiculous. It was important that the best jokes be unexpected, after all. “Salt is boring.”
“Salt is… boring? Umm, why?”
Octavia took a few quick steps to catch up with Twilight so she could look her in the eyes when she answered: “Because it’s so dry.”
For the longest time, the only sounds that could be heard was the shrinking din of the marketplace and the regular clip-clop of the two mares’ hooves striking the road. The topmost tier of Carousel Boutique had only just begun to peek over the nearest hill when Octavia repeated herself.
“I said, because it’s so dry.”
“Yes, I, umm… I heard you. It’s just…” Twilight grimaced as she turned away from the mare beside her and towards the building coming upon them. They were almost, almost close enough to the boutique to give ‘being here’ as an excuse to cut off the conversation where it was, but not quite. Twilight gulped.
“Well, it’s just…” Somewhere nearby, a small choir of birds shared a brief exchange, giving Twilight an extra hooffull of seconds to compose a reply more tactful than the one that came to her head. Those seconds did absolutely nothing. “Octavia, don’t take this the wrong way, but that joke was…” she sighed as she admitted, “it was really bad. It was awful.”
Octavia opened her mouth with a wide smile, but a voice that was not her own answered. “I didn’t think it was so bad, it just… umm… lacked the teensiest bit of delivery. otherwise, i think it would’ve been really… umm… something. i’m sure she worked really hard on it and wanted to… um, make you laugh, because… maybe?”
Because she didn’t know better, Octavia was entirely unsurprised by the pegasus’ interruption. She simply threw a casual glance and a similarly casual smile over her shoulder and greeted the mare floating overhead. “Good morning, Miss…”
With a noise more akin to a mouse than a mare, Fluttershy’s mouth and eyes snapped shut. “Fluttershy.”
“Miss… Eepysqueak?”
At the question, Fluttershy’s wings followed the example set by her eyes and mouth, adhering themselves to her body. Gravity being less paralyzed than the frightened pegasus, she found herself halfway closer to the earth than she’d expected before a quick burst of telekinesis enshrouded her. “umm, thanks, twilight. and, umm, like i said, i’m fluttershy.”
“Of course. Octavia? I don’t suppose you met my friend Fluttershy last night?”
The musician inclined her head gently towards the still-suspended pegasus. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Oh, and um, you as well.” Fluttershy smiled awkwardly for a long moment before finally craning her neck to face Twilight and gesturing with a timid hoof. “Uh, Twilight, I don’t mean to be a bother, but could you maybe-”
“Oh, yes, of course.” Within no time at all, all three ponies had their hooves planted firmly upon the ground and the topic of their conversation up in the air. “So, umm, Fluttershy? What are you up to today?” The unicorn asked, trying desperately to conjure a topic to get them back on their way to Carousel. “Anything interesting?”
The pegasus’ eyes danced back and forth between the other mares before answering. “no? i mean, nothing interesting, i think.”
Octavia would have giggled, had she possessed less class. Instead, she responded pleasantly, “Well then, Miss Fluttershy-”
“just, umm, fluttershy, please.”
“Of course. Then Fluttershy, what brings you this direction? Are you headed to the Carousel Boutique as well?” She nodded towards the brightly-colored building before them. They were practically on the doorstep.
Her eyes went wide. “Oh, are you here to see Rarity, too? I’m so sorry, but I think she might be closed.”
“Closed?” Octavia’s eyebrows and tone both rose marginally. “What a shame.”
“Surprise is more like it.” Twilight added. “Rarity’s is never closed. There’s nothing that could make her close, short of Nightmare Night.”
Fluttershy halted midstride and ducked her head even further down than it already was. “oh, umm, of course. I mean, I’m sure that if you’re here, she’ll stay open. it’s just… i mean, you’re her friend, and all, and you have miss…” She attempted to steal a glance at Octavia, managing to be completely obvious as she did so. “i’m sure it’ll be fine…”
Twilight sighed and seized the poor pegasus in another burst of magic. Levitating her the last dozen or so paces to the steps of the boutique, Twilight asked, “Fluttershy, what is it?”
“it’s, umm… fine. could you put me down? please?”
“Miss Fluttershy, perhaps you should answer her, and she would be more inclined to return you to the earth?”
“well, you see… it’s just that today…”
“Fluttershy…”
From deep within the colorful, multilayered building that was Carousel Boutique, a certain enthusiastic voice called out. “Oh Twilight! Is that you? Me and Fluttershy were just about to head to the spa! I’m just getting some things ready. Have you seen the dear?”
“She’s out here with me!” Twilight hollered back. “Is this why she says you’re going to be closed?”
“Well, yes! But feel free to tag along! Like I always say: the more…” Rarity burst from her residence in sunhat, scarf, and an expression that went from ecstatic to cross at a million miles an hour, “…the merrier.”
Octavia did her best to smile.