//------------------------------// // Day 3-Part 2 // Story: A Change of Venue // by solsticebrony888 //------------------------------// Please message me any mistakes found in this chapter. My pre-readers have been busy, and this was only edited by me. Thanks, and sorry for the long wait! “Ok, Twi, I need you follow me here, ok?” Trixie said, but in the purple unicorn’s eyes, it was Octavia who was speaking. Though the circumstances make telling Twilight Sparkle about their situation risky, she felt it was time to admit their situation to somepony. They couldn’t keep on hiding their secret when both of their performances are within 2 days, Trixie’s being the next day. “Okay, I’m listening,” Twilight said, suspect by seeing Octavia speaking to her as if she was Trixie. “So, Um…UGH! How is Trixie going to say this? Trixie will just cut to the chase…a few nights ago, me and Octavia wished to have each other’s lives, and unfortunately, the next day, IT CAME TRUE! A-and we were shocked, and didn’t know what to do, and please believe me, Trixie isn’t lying!” Trixie confessed her and Octavia’s eyes begging for the purple unicorn to believe her. Twilight just laughed, “What? Really? You think you’re just going to fool me like that? I just met you, Octavia, but just so you know, somepony can’t get a lie past me THAT easily,” Octavia and Trixie looked at each other in frustration, “Twi, Trixie is serious. I’m Trixie! I have been training with you the past two weeks until this happened! Uh, you may have thought Trixie was having an off day yesterday, that was Octavia, not Trixie!” “Trixie is telling the truth,” Octavia added with a nod, though since Trixie usually referred to herself in third person, it confused the purple unicorn even more, “We don’t know how this happened, and you don’t even know how stressful this is for us…I mean... YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE HOW HARD IT IS TO BE TRIXIE! I even considered myself up to the challenge when this first happened…b-but I just don’t know! We need your help!” Twilight shook her head, not wanting to believe them, “No, No, No. That’s not even possible! How could you switch bodies, but keep your own thoughts and memories, all while still using the same brain? That just defies all science, even MAGIC! There’s just no way…” “WE DON’T KNOW!” Octavia exclaimed, “We’re not lying, and we need your help, please help us, because I really don’t think I’m good enough at magic to even come close to impressing a crowd! Let alone some bookworm like you,” Taking a slow look at the two ponies in front of her, Twilight Sparkle knew they were telling the truth. She knew when somepony was telling the truth or not, and it was evident that the ponies before her were truthful. She took a second to recap the conversation she had with ‘Octavia’, where she admitted all of her feelings to Trixie, without even knowing. The saddened expression on Twilight’s face provoked Trixie to speak up, “Please, Twilight, Trixie needs your help, w-we can talk about other stuff later,” Twilight lifted her head to look at the grey Trixie, “W-why didn’t you stop me earlier? Why didn’t you just tell me then I-I…” The purple unicorn didn’t want to believe them. She didn’t want to believe that her feelings were now known by the pony she had held them for. She didn’t want to believe this was possible. However, she knew magic could do almost anything. “What are you talking about?” The blue unicorn questioned, “What have you two not told me? In the situation that we are in, I feel I deserve to know,” “It’s personal, Tavi,” The grey mare said, then shifted her attention to Twilight again, “We have nowhere else to go, Twilight…we need your help, your connections to the princesses, anything!” No need to dwell on this now, I need to be strong. They need my help, I can’t think about me and Trixie right now, I just can’t… Twilight thought, regaining her composure before she lost it, for the time being. “I think the princesses are the only ponies I can go to too help you two, in all of the books at my house, I don’t think none of the ones on clairvoyance even mention fully switching bodies while keeping memories and your own personalities and such. Some mention magic giving ponies the ability to see through each other’s eyes, but not being able to control what they do,” “Should we go with?” Octavia asked, though Trixie shook her head. “I’m going to assume that you two were here to practice magic and playing Octavia’s instrument, I mean, that’s what I think you two were going to do,” “Yes, but that doesn’t matter if we can go with you and get our lives back!” Trixie exclaimed. “Look Trixie, we need to work as much as we can just in case we can’t switch bodies before our performances. I think Twilight Sparkle should find the princesses and ask them about this. They’re thousands of years old; they must have seen this at some point in their lives. I still think it’d be better for us to study until Twilight finds out and decide what to do from there,” Octavia said, though she too didn’t exactly want to study. The grey pony sighed loudly, knowing that Octavia was right, “Ok, Twi, go to the princesses and we’ll stay here and practice…more…” Twilight nodded, “Okay, I just have to ask though. Please tell me you two aren’t messing me with me…” Trixie, in her grey-coated body, answered first, “We swear to Celestia we aren’t, Twi,” With one last saddened glance towards Trixie, Twilight galloped out of her home intending on going to the castle. That one single glance was enough to shake Trixie down to her soul. Trixie doesn’t care what most ponies think about her. Trixie doesn’t care what happens to most ponies around her, excluding her friends and family. However, seeing Twilight so sad bothered her, knowing the reason for why she was sad. It was different for her to feel this way about somepony, and it made her sad to know she may just feel the same way about the purple unicorn. It also made her mad. Her parents as she was growing up were always against two ponies of the same gender being together. So much so, that it seemed quite ridiculous to Trixie how far they went to prevent couples of the same gender from being together. They didn’t attack anypony beyond just verbal insults, but it still bothered Trixie enough to make her feel regret simple feelings for the purple unicorn. “Trixie, what did she tell you that made her nearly cry?” Octavia asked, as she pulled out her cello and set it up for Trixie to practice. “Nothing, ‘Tavi” The earth pony chided, “Just between me and her, none of your business,” “Well if she told it to you, thinking that it was me, I think I deserve to know what she said,” The blue Octavia persisted. “’Tavi, it’s nothing, alright? I think she’d prefer for me not to tell you. Now, what is Trixie going to be learning on your big guitar thing?” “We’re not learning anything until you tell me what she said,” Octavia put bluntly. “Look, Trixie knows how you feel about this certain subject, and Trixie is glad Twilight told it to Trixie instead of you, even if she didn’t know it. It’s not even important right now. She could be fixing our whole situation for us right now,” Trixie changed her tone as an idea popped in her head, “We COULD decide not to work and take a break. Trixie needs a break, being you isn’t fun or easy…” Octavia shook her head, even though the idea was tempting, “Trixie, we have a lot of work to do. We’ll have plenty of time to rest once the performances are over. The orchestra’s performance is tomorrow, and I am not going to let you ruin a single thing for me. I just want you to go out there, not do too terrible, then leave and we can find out how to fix this. I’m not going to let you take a break when there’s so much at stake. I can’t get kicked from the Princess’ royal orchestra. I’ve worked tirelessly all of my life to ascend to this position, so you’re going to have to do what you can to not ruin this for me,” “Okay, okay. Just don’t bother me about the Twilight thing for now, okay?” “Oh, thanks for reminding me, Trixie. What did she say?” Trixie face-hooved, “Do you really want to know?” “I feel entitled to since she was meaning to talk to me in the first place,” The blue unicorn responded simply. The grey-coated Trixie sighed, “Well…You know that one thing you hate about your sister?” “That she’s married to a mare?” “Yeah…” Trixie responded with a frown. “So Twilight is like Lyra? Wow, it’s like an epidemic,” Octavia said, shaking her head, “Wait, then why would she have wanted to tell me that?” “Well, um…” Trixie had the choice to be truthful, or to be cool about what she said next. “Twilight seems to have had a crush on me, the great and powerful Trixie, and Trixie thinks that she wanted to go to you to see how Trixie felt,” “T-That’s just plain gross,” Octavia chided, “I guess she should feel lucky that she didn’t actually talk to me, I probably would have made her cry,” Wow, even for Trixie’s standards, that would have been mean of Tavi to do “Yeah!” Trixie falsely agreed, “Trixie thinks that it is gross that a mare has a crush on Trixie she should know that Trixie doesn’t swing that way,” “Thank Celestia you don’t!” Octavia said with a chuckle, “When I heard Lyra was going to marry a mare, I almost passed out. I didn’t even attend their wedding. How can a couple of mares create a foal? Isn’t that the whole point of love, too make a foal to carry on your family? It’s absurd. She’s adamant that it’s real love, however, and I guess I cannot stop her” “Do you two even talk anymore?” Octavia thought for a second, “Not really, to be true. At least, not in person. We send letters every once in a while since she lives in Ponyville, but whenever we see each other in person, she doesn’t come with BonBon,” “BonBon?” “That’s who she is married too. I could swear I have told you before,” “Trixie must have forgot. Trixie thinks it only makes sense to love a colt when you’re a mare, it’s just natural!” The grey Trixie said, not believing a single word that came from her own mouth. “Exactly! Now, enough talking about that, here’s the cello, here’s the sheet music, it’s time for you to learn some Haytoo-“ Before Octavia could finish, A door behind Trixie opened to reveal a saddened Twilight Sparkle, who had clearly just heard the conversation they had. Trixie jumped when she saw the unicorn, who seemed oddly neutral about what she had just heard. I just made the worst mistake in my life Trixie immediately thought. “Oh my-Twilight, why are you still here?” The grey pony said with a terrible poker face. Twilight gave Trixie the most disappointed look that she had ever received from anypony. Not any of the reactions from the audience during a failed performance, could shake Trixie as much as the look that Twilight Sparkle gave her. Trixie was sick to her stomach. “I stayed to make sure you two weren’t just trying to prank me, or just keep me out of your manes,” The earth pony said in a slightly saddened tone, “I guess I was right about the second part…” Octavia stayed silent as the grey pony responded to Twilight, “Trixie is awfully sorry, Twilight, I-I,” “Don’t, Trixie. Just don’t. I’m going to go the princesses, tell them about your situation, then you can forget about me, because I think it’s clear that I have wasted my time training you, and even more-so, training Octavia,” Twilight Sparkle was putting on a tough front to hide the heartbreak, from not only having her secret admitted minutes after her leaving, but made fun of and insulted. “I’m sorry, Twilight,” Octavia finally said, “However I stand by my stance. I shouldn’t have been so crass about my views, though,” “I’ll come back when I hear from the princesses,” The purple unicorn said, ignoring Octavia purposefully, “You two should probably get back to work,” Twilight Sparkle then left, leaving Trixie feelings ashamed of herself. She wasn’t used to such a feeling and it hurt. There’s nothing more that Trixie would want than to go back in time 5 minutes and tell Octavia the truth. Octavia however, was already over the dramatic return of the purple pony and was ready to continue on with their practicing, “Trixie, here’s my cello. Show me your stance, so I know you know it by heart now, because you’d look like a foal if you did the performance without even doing the stance right,” Octavia gave Trixie an odd look when she didn’t respond, “Trixie, are you alright?” “Trixie just lost a good friend, what do you think?” “Since when were you so normal? Usually you could care less about anypony else,” Octavia said with a chuckle, “However, I do feel sorry for being a little careless with my words. We can apologize to her later. Now, though, we practice,” “Okay, what do I learn first?” Trixie asked begrudgingly, knowing the next few hours would be ruthless. Practice was grueling for the two ponies. Each had such high expectations for each other that it almost brought upon an extra stress to their learning. I the first hour, Octavia finally was able to get Trixie to stand correctly. Since the performance where Trixie would be performing is was the best, Octavia made sure the grey pony knew what to do once she arrived at the practice hall where the whole orchestra would meet up with Bar Staff before they went to the town square to perform for the Princesses, amongst many other ponies. On the other hoof, Trixie taught Octavia how to focus with her magic to where she wouldn’t have to keep reading a spell over and over until she was able to perform the magic from it. The magician herself claimed this was imperative to pulling off the show in general. Since this was more of an acquired skill, it took Octavia the whole first hour before she was even decent at it. Hour two started off badly. Octavia nearly hurt herself when trying to back-flip on a table. She was barely able to complete a regular back-flip, and they both admitted it was dumb for her to try so early anyway. However, Trixie was able to play a simplified version of the main orchestral piece that they would be playing the next day. Though she was a long way from playing the whole song in its original form, it was a pleasant surprise to Octavia who had almost had a mental breakdown due to Trixie’s infantile ability on the cello. Though the idea of them actually pulling this whole situation off without a hitch was clearly a long-shot, they were going to give it their all, despite the feeling of being doomed to fail that lingered while they practiced. Hour three started and they decided to not take a break. Twilight Sparkle had not returned from her trip to the castle, and they started to worry that she may not come back. It was understandable for what they had said about her, but they didn’t like the idea. So, they started practicing again while keeping a lookout for the purple unicorn all the time. This was the hour that after many unsuccessful attempts, Octavia was finally able to spawn a table. It was weak, flimsy and the spell broke a few seconds after it was spawned, but it was a success, and heightened Trixie’s hopes on salvaging her own reputation if and when they returned. In order to keep focus, they ignored the possibility of them never returning to being each other again, because it was a frightening that neither of them wanted to discuss. After continued encouragement from a tiring Octavia, Trixie was able to play the first half of the song she was supposed to play. It was sloppy and out of time, but she didn’t sound like she was brutally slaughtering a pig anymore, and for that, the blue Octavia was thankful. By hour four, which was 1pm for them, they were both exhausted, especially Octavia. Magic drains the energy of the pony that uses it and it had taken the Cellist to her breaking point. There was still no sign of Twilight Sparkle, and this bothered them both. They seemingly had ruined their chances of getting aid from the princesses by insulting the smart unicorn for no good reason. Trixie forced herself to pretend what had happened between her and Twilight wasn’t affecting her. To Trixie, she was too cool to have been bothered by the bookworm pony who had accidentally admitted to having feeling for her. Octavia however felt regret for treating the unicorn so badly when assuming she wasn’t listening. The musician considered herself too classy to stoop down to insulting somepony else for their choices. Like it or not, she had made the decision to insult her, and it’s clear that she wasn’t as nice and mature as she had once thought she was. The ponies still found themselves proud of their accomplishments so far. Considering that they have had only a few days to learn a plethora of new abilities, it hadn’t turned out as bad as they expected. Octavia still found herself mesmerized by the ability to float things in mid-air without lifting a hoof. Spawning something in front of her was crazy for her to even comprehend. Later this day, they planned to practice teleporting. Exhausted and all, she was still looking forward to learning such an ability. Trixie enjoyed that she now could play an instrument decently. She looked forward to including that ability in her future shows, if and when they returned. She could brag to everypony how multi-talented she was, and it would be perfect for her ego. Though still nervous about their situation, they were excited to imagine the looks on ponies’ faces when they told this story, especially if they could be successful when they do each other’s performances. That was a matter of time though, and they couldn’t get too far ahead of themselves. While they took a minute to rest and recover from the vigorous training they had done the past few hours, they heard the knocks on the door they had been waiting for. Thoughts races, but they didn’t come to any conclusions. Trixie was closest to the door and opened it to reveal Twilight Sparkle, with an apathetic expression of her face. “D-Did you find out, you know, if we can switch back…?” The grey mare asked tentatively, her own heart fluttering between the seconds it took for Twilight to answer. “Yes I did, Trixie. In fact, Princess Luna told me that she recognized Octavia at a tea party yesterday, which I presume was you. She told me that she had cast the spell upon you and Octavia a few nights ago. Also, she had sent you both a letter that should have arrived this morning, I suggest you read them. Happy?” “Yes, Twilight, Trixie is very thankful!” the grey pony said, while Octavia immediately started searching for the letter around her. The purple unicorn turned around and started to leave. However, the grey pony stopped her with an awkward voice crack, from attempting to say something without any words coming out. “T-trixie is awfully sorry about earlier, Twi…Trixie didn’t mean what she was saying, Trixie was just trying to be cool,” It didn’t hurt Trixie as much as she expected to say that, because she meant it. The purple unicorn didn’t believe her and turned around and walked off without saying a thing. No matter how Trixie wanted to, she knew she couldn’t go after the purple unicorn. Trixie finally found herself regretting her need to feel cool around everypony else, her need to be cooler than everypony else. It caused to her lie, and burn bridges between friends and special ponies like Twilight Sparkle. Octavia had just found the letter that could change their whole situation, and had been waving in front of a spaced-out Trixie for several seconds, “I found the letter! Now, Should we go get your letter too, just to make sure they’re the same? I mean, what if they say we can’t return to being ourselves?” “No, let’s read yours now,” The grey pony chided, “Open it,” “Alright,” To either Octavia or Trixie, It has come to my attention that my younger sister Luna has performed an ancient spell causing you both to have seemingly taken each other’s bodies overnight, just a few nights ago. It is unfortunate that she did this, for it is clearly not a Princess’ duty to play with the future two unsuspecting citizens on Equestria without your knowledge or my own. Fortunately, she recognized one of you at the tea party held just a few days ago, and confessed to me about the spell she had cast. Imagining myself in the same situation, I could imagine that you would gladly want to retrieve your old lives back and return to living them, and not each other’s. It is my understanding that Octavia has an orchestral performance tomorrow, and the next day would be the Great and Powerful Trixie’s performance. I’ll be expecting you two at the castle when you’re ready for me to reverse the spell. The spell only works overnight, so hopefully you arrive in time to have the effects revered by dawn tomorrow. Princess Celestia “Whoa,” The grey pony said first. She wasn’t expecting good news. “Indeed,” This letter put them in an awkward silence and neither of them wanted to say what they wanted too. After hours and hours of practice, and slowly but surely improving at being what they never would have expected to be able to do, the challenge to go through with each performance was tempting. At first, they were frantic about the situation and only wanted to change back as soon as they possibly could. However, they have learned more about each other in the past few days as they ever had since becoming friends. Trixie pulled off a trip to a royal tea party, while Octavia was able to somehow convince Twilight Sparkle that she was Trixie, even though she was terrible at magic. The learned to be each other decently, which neither pony expected the other to be able to do. If they changed back…it would mean lots of hard work for nothing. Half the stress was gone once they read the letter. The idea of being forever trapped in each other’s bodies was gone, and now they were faced with an option. Should we go through with this anyway? The grey pony brought it up first, “Trixie wants to propose something,” Octavia nodded in return, knowing what her friend was going to say before she said it. “What if, and stay with me here, Tavi, we did our shows anyway, then changed back?” “Yes,” The cellist responded bluntly. “So, you’re ok with this?” “Yes, Trixie. I-I have found that being a unicorn is quite fun, though exhausting. I-I’ve worked harder than I ever had on the cello, and I feel that, if I didn’t go through with this, I would be burdened by the ‘what if’ factor…you know? What if I performed the concert successfully, in front of a crowd…” “Trixie agrees. Trixie is actually making music come from something, it’s awesome! Trixie never would’ve thought of learning an instrument if this didn’t happen…” “We should get back to training then,” Tavi said with a sigh. “Yeah, Trixie wants to be the best cellist she can be, even if the Great and Powerful Trixie isn’t a Great and Powerful Cellist,” The decision was made for the time being. The stress lifted off of their shoulders motivated them. It wasn’t where they’d do this, while hoping to someday have their problem solved, they had a sure fix now for when they felt it was time to switch back. So, with the rest of the day to train, they did what they could with their time. Octavia made Trixie remember what she would do the next day, which was the day of the orchestra’s performance. The blue unicorn couldn’t have Trixie going on stage looking idiotic, after all the time they spent with her just learning how to play her cello! Now that they had made the choice to go through with everything, it was only a matter of hours before they’d know whether it was a mistake or not.