Starlight Venue

by swingbeat

The Gig (A Starry Eyed beginning: part two)

Swing Beat's POV

It has been two days since we received word that Luna wanted us to play at the night court this Friday, and since it was Tuesday today, tonight was our last
night to practice before we had to leave. Normally for the average pony you could catch a train to Canterlot and be there with in, say, a day's travel (an hour if flown by Pegasus carriage), but since we had to take our instruments and the royal railways charge extra for excess baggage, that left us to do it the ol' fashioned way, load up a cart and take turns pulling it.

After practicing our set for the tenth time, Cornet's wife arrived at our practice venue (which is the basement of Cornet's shop) with food and drinks. After taking a lunch break, we got right back to work pounding out any kink or problem. Fender Note can play a bass very well, though he prefers the guitar more, and Drumroll, true to her name, loved drums. Cornet played just about any instrument that was made of brass and that leaves me as vocalist and pianist. With only a morning left to go, we ran over our set choices again, hoping that it would please the goddess of night. If anypony dares to say it's easy, I refer you to Celestia's philharmonic Canterlot musicians. My cousin’s mare friend Octavia plays that venue and, despite being brought up under strict lessons with the cello, she was only barely able to make it. She has since moved up the ranks a bit, but it requires 8/10th skill and 2 parts unbelievable intervention. So if Octavia had that much trouble pleasing Celestia, who is kind and forgiving, try to guess the standards Luna must have! Makes my eye twitch just thinking about it.

After saying farewell to our friends Wednesday morning, we packed our instruments and started the two day trip to Canterlot. It was rough going, but despite arriving in Ponyville during a planned rain we had no idea about, we took shelter at the Tired Hoofs Inn, where we rented our rooms and promptly fell asleep...

Only to wake up at around 5 o'clock, where we then followed the railroad up into the foothills of the Canter Mountain range. That was when luck (forever hating me and my band) ran out on us...

“For Celestia's sake, how did we break the axle?” I asked, telekinetically lifting the offending pair of sticks that was our axle before letting them down.

“The wood must have gotten damp during our stay in Ponyville,” Drumroll pointed out. “If you want, I can fly ahead to the next town and see if I can get help.”

Cornet Valve sat glumly on the bed of the cart. “At this rate we'll never make it to Canterlot OR the gig.”

As Fender was busy attempting to fit the two pieces together like a foal tries to put a square peg in a round hole. I sat and looked at our predicament. Thanks to the rain we were already behind schedule, and to further that, we had the axle that was broken. And on top of that, after looking in the bitbag we brought, the hotel we stayed at was enough to leave us with barely two bits to rub together. To the others, this was a problem, but for me this was day-to-day life. Despite being in a band, most of my money comes from weddings, being a certified wedding singer. This leads to a lot of problems because, while I can sing just about any musical genre, my specialty is that of jazz and swing, and it is very rare that I can sing that because ponies today have just left it by the way side, only playing it at the old ponies home or in off beat or dated musicals. It's sad considering that without jazz or swing, ponies could not have a lot of the music they take for granted today.

But as those thoughts took my brain for a trip, I saw a white unicorn with purple mane start to trot up the road with a small, very decked out cart behind her. As she was trotting up the road, she spied us and, after getting to us, she said, “Dear, what ever is the matter?”

“Our axle broke,” Fender said, tossing the sticks aside as this the mare said, “Well, where are you gentlecolts…”

“And mare!” chimed in Drumroll.

“...and mare, heading to this fine afternoon?”

“To Canterlot. We have a gig there.”

“Oh my, small world. I was going to Canterlot as well. I have a relative up there who just opened her own clothing store and the train from Ponyville said that I had too much baggage to take on the train. So, I am having to cart the clothes I made up to Canterlot.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Oh, it is dreadful, absolutely dreadful! I mean, when I get there, I am going to have to get a hoof-icure to get myself back in presentable shape.”

At this, I thought to myself, “If I can get Fender and Cornet to help this mare with her cart, perhaps we can ask if we load up our things with her. They should all fit.” So, without anything to lose, I asked.

“You know, darling, when you said that you had a broken axle, I had just the same thought!” said the mare.

After we got everything switched over, I asked the mare's name.

“Rarity, darling.”

“Cute name. Mine's Swing Beat, the pegasus is Drumroll, the red one's Fender Note, and Cornet is the one leaving the note of ownership on this cart.”

“A pleasure to meet all of you. Say, since you're music ponies, do you know any songs, so as to pass the travel time?”

As we trotted along the road, I had the idea of using our levitation magic to help lessen the load on Fender, who, as Rarity mentioned, “was built like big macintosh”, a brother of her friend Applejack.

Eventually she asked where this gig was we were heading to. So, in glee, we all said in unison, “The night court of Princess Luna!”

What would normally drive any pony to the point of excitement did not do the trick for her.
“Princess Luna? I know her personally, dear. Such a darling pony...er...princess. You know she just returned from her time on the moon, right?”

“I was aware of it,” I said.

“Yeah, because you have the biggest crush on her!” leered Drumroll.

My cheeks burned red. I instantly went in defense mode. “No I don’t Drumroll! Besides, if I remember right, you continually write romance between a certain yellow Pegasus that’s called Snare-Taps and Princess Celestia. By the way, that last chapter you wrote was so full of it, it reeked of self insert!”

“Well at least I don’t have a plushie that I sleep with every night!” she shot back.

“You leave Woona out of this Drumroll!” I spat.

“Feh. Luna-tic!”

“Sunny Butt Craver!!”

Rarity then got between me and Drumroll as we were snout to snout, both our cheeks red in embarrassment as having our secrets brought out like this as Fender Note and Cornet Valve had stopped and were now rolling on the road splitting their sides with laughter.

Rarity came between us. “You two need to calm down! Would you really want to have the princesses see you squabbling over something as fickle as a crush like this?”

Drumroll and I lowered our heads in shame, because this came from a pony who personally knew who we were fighting about.

“Besides, Princess Cadence is much more fashionable than those two. After all, they have yet to actually take modern fashion into their lives. Even Celestia still wears the same style she wore back when Nightmare Moon was banished.” At this, we both dead panned towards the trotting talking marshmallow.

“Princess Cadence, really?” All the while, the two earth ponies were dying of laughter.

After what seemed like an eternity to get the two earth ponies to breath again without breaking into hysterics, we were on our way. Meanwhile, Rarity mentioned a few first hoof facts on the sisters, such as they are prone to prank each other quite frequently and that it is true Celestia does have an almost unnatural love for cake, but not as much as Luna has for moon pies, which, speaking of Luna, came a rather embarrassing revelation, one that made me regret having my dream last night.

Upon arrival in Canterlot, we knew we had to finish with Rarity, so we quickly made our way to her relatives shop after that, since Drumroll could fly faster than any of us could gallup, she went on to help get things set up, so that let us get Rarity taken care of. But before we managed to leave her while grabbing our instruments in tow, she insisted we wear something formal for Luna (as not only as a more proper thank you for us from her for helping her out, even though she helped us out more, but as a sort of advertisement of her relatives new store).

After getting suited in an admittedly very nice vest and tie (I still have them, I bought them from the store), we also got a somewhat stylish blue dress for Drumroll, who, after arriving to tell us everything was set for our arrival, she vehemently protested, “NO! I will not wear that dress!”

“Oh please, you're just as bad as Rainbow Dash,” Rarity mentioned.

“Tartarus no! BUCK NO!”

One new tie, a few ropes, and a corset squeeze that made being wrapped by a Python look like a gentle hug and Drumroll was in a dress and ready to kill the stallions responsible. But in all honesty, she was good looking and, after a wave goodbye and a promise to return the clothes after the show, we carried our instruments (minus the drums having been sent ahead of us) to the Canterlot Castle.

What in the name of harmony did we get ourselves into?

Luna POV

I had finished with the
raising of the moon and I was then on my way to the royal courtroom. When I entered, I saw a small stage had been set up with the quartet I had invited finishing their warmups and retuning. I saw Cornet Valve blowing moisture out of his instrument, then I saw the others. There was a red stallion who was plucking a few strings on the bass, a yellow pegasus mare tapping out a few beats in testing, then, finally, I saw one who didn't fit in right. He was of average size for a unicorn, a little small when it came to muscle, but he did not need it. His mane was white and black and his coat was a very dark blue, a blue that had the same color of the night right around my moon. I then noticed his cutie mark. It was a microphone crossed over an eighth note. As I picked a few keys he was warming up his voice. Finally, when they were ready, they nodded to me so I could get the court started.

“WE HEREBY DECREE THAT THE ROYAL COURT OF THE NIGHT SHALL COMMENCE BY ROYAL BIRTHRIGHT,” I said in classical Canterlotian. This caused a few unprepared ponies to fly back a meter or so and caused more than one hat to fly off. Good nobles should know that hats are not allowed in the presence of royalty.

After the entire room reset itself after my out burst (note to self, Canterlotian voice needs to be toned down in the current century), the band introduced itself to the court. The blue unicorn was the one that spoke.

“Ladies and gentlecolts, my name is Swing Beat, the singer and pianist for the band presented to you tonight. I want to take this time and personally thank Princess Luna for inviting us here. Now, you older nobles might remember some of the songs being presented. That's because we are a Jazz and Swing band.”

This got a few murmurs from the younger generation while a few of the older ones, like Fancy Pants, Velvet Rug, and the ever elusive Sir Posh (his appearance surprises even me), just nodded and recounted fond memories.

“Tonight we will start off with a rendition of Fly Me to the Moon, as made famous by my hero Ol’ ‘Blues Eye’ Sonata.”

I will admit, “Fly me to the moon” was probably an ill advised title because of my history, but I enjoyed it. The next song was slower and more bluesy, but I didn't catch the name of it. So on the band went with each song. Sometimes, during one of the introductions to a song, Drumroll would crack a joke at Swing Beats expense. Apparently Swing Beat is one of the many “Luna-tics” that popped up since my return. But it was the last song though that caused me to question this pony...

They had just finished playing a rendition of Moonlight Serenade, as formatted by their resident music writer Swing Beat. It was nowhere near as good as a regular band, but it had a slightly more impressive charm, as it felt like it was from the heart and, as the last notes finished and cut off a midst the applause, Swing Beat pulled the mic up to him.

“And now, the best for last. This song is not a normal song, by any means, because much like me, it was made in the wrong decade. I originally wrote it back in October a long time ago, back before the mare in the moon returned, which is funny, because the song is indeed titled "The Mare in the Moon.”

The song that played next tugged at my heart so much so that by the end, I was nearly a teary, bleary eyed mess. Soft and gentle, yet also mistreated and longing for recognition. It was something that I felt once before over a thousand years ago and here was a song that was being played in an almost lullaby way that even without lyrics told me that there was a friend who stayed late into the night just to see what I had made. It was too much. So after the end, I quickly left in fear that my emotions would compromise me even further. But for once, I was happy I had a somepony who liked my nights even without knowing I truly existed.

My tears were filled with joy, but I could not show the courts my emotions.

After retiring to my room and getting over my feelings, I decided to personally thank the band that moved me so much. As I walked back to the court chamber,I could hear the band in a massive argument .

“What in Tartarus were you thinking Swing beat?!”

“I didn't think that song would do that.”

“Well, it did, and now look at what we've done! We made a princess, not some noble, but the bucking PRINCESS of the night lose her composure! Who knows what the news will read tomorrow. Admit it Swing Beat, we're done! Finished! Kaput!
Royally screwed!”

“I didn’t think…”

“Thats the point! You never do. While we all have good steady jobs you can't keep one without messing it up, and don't say it's because you were born in the wrong century. It's because you never think about what you do! You just gallivant your way through stuff. Well, I've had it! I quit this band.”

The sound of drums being smashed followed that out burst. Then I heard the other ones throw their instruments down and storm off on a train to get back home, leaving only Swing Beat in the courtrooms.

I heard a small sniff inside, followed by the sounds of instruments being picked up. A guard walked up and asked if I needed Swing Beat to be out of the courtroom.

“No. Let me handle this. This pony just had something terrible happen to him. I believe that I can alleviate at least some of his anxiety.”

The guard then nodded and went back to his post. As I walked into the courtroom, it is was devoid of ponies, save for one disheveled and saddened pony. As he sat on his haunches and looked at the remains of a dream of his.

I found it hard to speak in situations like this and being a thousand years out of touch made me hesitant. But, I did what I thought was best. I walked up and sat next to Swing Beat who, flinched and was beginning to finish cleaning up the remains.

“I’m sorry I made you cry Princess Luna. I will get this cleaned up and out of here right away.”

“Don't be. Those tears were ones of joy I shed. The feelings that you invoked in that song caused me to look back and actually recount my loneliness. But by your confession even before you knew I really existed that you enjoyed my night...” I had his attention.

“I will let you in on a secret. I do indeed create the night sky by my magic, but the one you wrote your song to was the same one I made just before I lost control to Nightmare Moon. My sister cannot make a night sky, she can only raise the moon by herself, just how I can raise the sun but not control the bigger clouds that pegasi can't control. Think of it like we know each others instruments,” I said pointing towards a bent up trumpet, “but we can only play simple songs, while on our own instruments, we can make whole symphonies.” At this, Swing Beat was sitting down and listening. “I say all that because the song you wrote was indeed late by a few centuries. Had I known that there was somepony out there that loved my night so much that it caused the creation of a song like that, I would have fought harder for control over my feelings and Nightmare Moon would never had been born. But the past is the past and I don't think that no matter what, even I would say your band has been disbanded, which is such a shame. I really enjoyed the performance.”

“Thank you princess,” said Swing Beat in a lowly manner. I had expected that he would be ecstatic about my words, but he wasn't.

“Something is wrong, Swing Beat. I may be no ‘shrink’, as my sister calls them, but I do know that there is something more.”

“It's nothing, Princess Luna.”

“Please, call me Luna. We're not in public right now. So, what is causing such a reversal of personality?”

At this, Swing Beat finally broke down, and after a minute of tears (I will be needing to wash my petrel after this), out came the truth. He failed at everything presented to him, unable to keep a steady job, and barely passing through life. He always sought after the things he knew could never happen, and it caused him to constantly fail at his jobs. His only “steady” job was that of a wedding singer. But even then, with ponies getting more and more comfortable with the idea of “partners” instead of husband and wife, that meant that even the occupation of wedding singer was close to be nonexistent. So, he was on the ropes and he actually had hoped that this would boost his band to the spotlight, but thanks to my losing composure, it cost him dearly, and I truly felt sorry for him. So, I decided to do something about it, because, while I can't do it for everypony with a bad streak of luck, I could at least try to make up for something that was, indeed, my fault.

I decided to bring back the role of the royal minstrel.