Starlight Venue

by swingbeat

Birth of an Idea (A Starry Eyed Beginning: part three)

Swing Beat’s POV

When Luna asked me if I could stay and be her personal musician, I asked her and I quote, “Why in the world would you want a washed up, barely afloat musician to be the personal musician of the ruler of the night herself?”

The answer was two fold. The first one, being that she felt that it was due to her lack of composure that led to the band splitting. While this is no more true than I am a billy goat, she deeply felt it was her fault no matter what I said. The second reason, and this being the primary reason, she said that at times, The Night Court is empty. Sometimes running a whole month without a single issue needing to be brought up with her. So she requested that she should have music to at least pass the time in her court. She runs it like she had over a thousand years ago, the open door policy. So I was brought on as a pianist for her to enjoy. The first night was not exactly the best. I had to hear her tell me what the “royal minstrel” had to do, which was to provide some form of entertainment. As I pulled on my memories of watching the old Vaudeville Routines, it not only helped her with her boredom, but it also helped bring her further up to speed with what was going on. It was a few weeks later when I asked Luna what she thought of the nightclub scene.

Once again, it was vacant of petitioners, grievances, and or heckling in Luna’s court. Of the two guards stationed at the throne, there was Eclipse and Silver Thistle. Eclipse was playing solitaire, while Silver Thistle was reading the latest edition of the Gentlecolts magazine. The door guards were busy playing a series of games. The current one just mandated the useage of “You sunk my pegasi carrier! You monster!” Next up, was the Royal Clerk. Specifically, the one who writes down everything. She was busy with the writing of a novel and judging by how fast she was piling the pages, this one would would be a record holding big book! Last, but not least, there were the two dark blue ponies. Princess Luna and myself. Luna was watching me as I tuned the piano. As I was finishing up, I asked Luna how she felt about how ponies nowadays spent their nights partying and such.

“It’s… an interesting idea, but my subjects don’t really notice it as a time to relax and find the inner peace they need.” In the words she used to tell Celestia, after seeing them the first time, she told me, “Electronica displeases me.”

“Well, I know that Cornet Valve once said that so many ponies knew how to play pianos, guitars, and various other instruments, but barely any knew how to hold a brass instrument right. So he opened a shop because of that.”

“What are you suggesting Swing Beat?”

“You’ve been gone for a thousand years. Not only that, but you have the power behind you to do just about anything.”

“Hmm… you’re right.” she said.

She called for the clerk who was jolted out of her writing spree. This caused her to spill ink all over the current page she was working on. After quickly mopping it up and checking to make sure the other pages were fine, she trotted up with a parchment and a quill ready for the dictation.

“From this point forward, the Night shall be as I had made it! A time of peace and serenity. In short, all nightclubs shall turn down the volume to acceptable levels so ponies may enjoy my nights!”

Every pony looked at her in the near vacant court chamber all except Silver Thistle, who had fallen asleep and snored. In the quiet, I coughed uneasily to get Luna’s attention. “Uh, that’s not what I meant Luna. I meant that if you don’t like the venues you see, then make your own. After all, you have the power to get anything you need.”

“That sounds like a better idea!” she said ecstatically. I swear, for all she’s worth, she’s pretty easy to please.

After that outburst, she told the clerk to scratch that last decree out. As Luna told the clerk to summon a realtor, I knew what she was going to do, but I didn’t really think she was actually going to do it!

“And last but not least,” she said “Swing Beat. What do you think a good jazzy name for this club should be called hmm?”

“Um, how about Lunar Delight?”

“No I don’t want my name on it. It will bring around the wrong idea about me”

“The Jazzy Mare?”

“No. That sounds like some promiscuous pony.”

“Well lets see here. My old band was called the Starry Jazz Quartet…”

“That's it! We shall call it the Starlight Venue!”

How she got that one, I have no clue, but I didn't argue with it. After all, you can’t just argue with the Princess, let alone the one that still remembers when Flankspeare was a foal. And I’m talking about his great grandfather, not the playwright himself!

The next night, as we waited for the Realtor to arrive, I asked how Luna wanted the venue to operate.

“Well, since I cannot operate it entirely, I want somepony to be my proxy in the business.”

“That makes sense. After all, if you were present all the time, it would seem like the royalty was infringing upon the entertainment industry.”

“That's right. So I must ask, Swing Beat, would you like to be my proxy?” I was flabbergasted. She wanted me as her proxy for this hay brained idea?

“Why me?”

“Well I will admit, I don’t have much of an ear for music other than classical and my own tastes. So I really don’t know what it takes for a band to be put together. And while I could hire somepony else, I remembered that small dream you had last night.”

“You… were in my dream… last night?” Oh boy. I’m in for it.

“Oh yes. More precisely, the second dream you had. The first one I won’t even speak of. Next time, however, wear protection whenever you do that type of stuff. I swear, I had a rough time getting all that white stuff out of my mane!”
“I… I will try to remind my subconscious that.” I said with a very red blush, turning my cheeks from blue to purple.

“Good. I don’t like it when I see my friend deciding to jump off of the Mare of Liberty, without so much as a helmet and into a pool of vanilla pudding. But yes, I observed your second dream and I think that you have the know how to pull my idea off!”

After that conversation ended, we heard a knock on the throne room door. After the announcement of the realtor, she walked in and bowed to Luna. I was sitting in a chair close to my piano and Luna chuckled as the pile of paper and folders fell from the pegasus’ wing. I looked over the mare, but it hardly seemed worthy of note because Luna got straight to the chase.
“So, do we have any good locations that fit my descriptions?”

“Well, your majesty,” Oh no. Here comes the ‘No’.

“We do in fact have a few locations. Most of them are old structures that have fallen into disrepair and a few that have recently just closed, but ponies have been snapping them up left and right for use as nightclubs; and to put it in one mare’s words, ‘permanent party halls’.” Luna resisted the urge to facehoof, but I didn’t.

“However, after searching a bit, I found one place you might be fond of.”