Avoiding Clichés

by Late_To_The_Party

Performance

They waited. That was always the worst part, the waiting. Waiting meant time to think about what could happen. Waiting meant wondering if it was going to sound right, even though that was foolish; they'd checked and rechecked to make sure they were ready. Waiting meant wondering if the audience was even in the right mood for the music, even though once they started, they could shift the mood easily enough. Waiting meant wondering if Pinkie Pie was there, even though... To be fair, that one could change the course of the evening. Eventually, the wait was over. The crowd grew quiet in anticipation. There was no more time for wondering. It was time. They started the music.

Immediately, their worries were gone, replaced by the music. This was the moment they lived for, the chance to bare their souls to the audience through the music they played. As they played, they watched the audience for their response. Musical performance was more interactive than many realized; everything they did worked with the audience that night, and were the music listened to anywhere else, at any other time, it wouldn't be quite right. But that night, working with the crowd, gradually shifting their mood with the music they played, it was perfect.

They smiled. As always, they had performed impeccably. The crowd had responded exactly as they had wanted to everything they'd played. It was almost time. They held the note, giving the audience that much more time to absorb the emotion.

She lowered the bow from her cello, and applause filled the sudden silence.

She dropped the bass, and the crowd went wild.

Author's Note:

This is probably the shortest story I've written since grade school. However, I don't really think it needs to be any longer to get the point across. Two ponies, so similar, and yet so different.

I'm not sure what exactly made me think of this, but I wanted to write a story where at first it seemed like they were performing together, then at the end you realize that they weren't. So I wrote this at work last night, during my lunch break.

I've noticed how usually when these two know each other, it's through some very unlikely set of circumstances that they met. So in this story, they haven't.

Comments

[Magic Man]

I just wanna emphazise how it's the last point I hate the most. I don't know why, but i just find it hard sometimes to understand why so many authors do it. I mean, if they wanna show it from a Changeling perspective that's cool, but why do they feel the need to demonize ponies to the utmost extreme in order to do it? For a cheap knee-jerk emotional response? Because they like a good underdog story?

I can definitely imagine the ponies in no way being the Changelings biggest fans after the invasion, but that kind of cautiousness and distrust is perfectly reasonable and understandable. I just don't see the ponies deploying the kind of Gestapo, Extermination Camp and pretty much the Third Reich allegory that so many authors try to use happening. But what's worse is that the ponies get blamed for almost EVERYTHING. Whatever misfortunes the Changelings have faced, like WHY they had to invade in the first place, or the ponies just defending themselves against the invasion, it's always the ponies fault somehow.

I mean, if the stereotypical self-righteous "freedom fighting" Changeling ever did for once ask why ponies didn't like them, the non cliched response should be, "Dude... you invaded our country, with the sole intention sucking, us and our loved ones dry. Buck-you."

[Late_To_The_Party]

2274327 Excellent points. I'll give it some thought. I think if I do write it I'll likely wind up making it a longer story on its own rather than including it in this one. I'll just put a link to it in the description if I do decide to go that way with it.

[SecretiveExplosion]

First reaction: Mild Surprise
Final Reaction: Mild but Pleasant Surprise

[Slateblu1]

An interesting cliche would be Rainbow's sexuality. I know she has been shipped with everypony and the kitchen sink, but a story, somehow involving her sexuality, without it being cliche, would be interesting. I mean, she's almost always portrayed as a lesbian. That, or deniening being one, or being bisexual. She just seems to get every end of the scale. Not sure how you would do it though. And going off that, you could explore all of the more common fannon ships, form Bon-Bon x Lyra to Twilight x Luna.

But thinking about it, you should do something with the Celestia cliches. There's Trollestia, Mollestia, Tyrant Celestia.... You could do a piece of Celestia just being the ruler of a nation.

[Late_To_The_Party]

2361849 I'll have to think about that with RD. Not sure how to avoid a cliché on the subject of her sexuality when the subject has been so incredibly thoroughly explored in almost every angle and position one can think of.

As for Celestia, sort of a One Day in the Life of Princess Sunnybutt - er - Celestia? Kind of the pinnacle of [Slice of Life] on that one. I may just do that at some point.

[Blossomforth]

Twilight's and Pinkie's sexualities are also commonly cliched. Twilight is always an ignorant virgin and Pinkie is open about her sexuality, and typically bisexual.

[Kage no Brony]

2362629

Might you have heard this before you wrote this?

[Late_To_The_Party]

2380234 I had not. I like it.

[fuckyoudeletemyaccount]

Going out of your way to avoid clichés? That's a tad... cliché.

[Late_To_The_Party]

2723541 Ah, you caught me. This is the most deliberately cliché of all my stories for that very reason. My other stories may use clichés, but only because I thought the situations would work out that way. Now that someone's seen through my scheme, I guess I'll just have to mark it as complete and never add to it again...

Okay, I'll mark it as complete, but that doesn't mean I won't add to it again.

[Knight of the Raven]

A short chapter, but a strong one all the same.

They do have similarities, which is probably why they're shipped together so often that one who didn't watch the show would think they're a canon couple.

Jumping on the topic of Rainbow Dash's cliché sexualities, asexuality is most likely that least used of them all in the fandom. And would enrage many, be it in the show or in our world.

I liked these lines;

'Waiting meant wondering if Pinkie Pie was there, even though... To be fair, that one could change the course of the evening,'

'This was the moment they lived for, the chance to bare their souls to the audience through the music they played'

and

'applause filled the sudden silence.'

[SgtFrog]

2367059

I like that idea. Twilight is well-versed in sexual studies, having researched it in books and the more "hooves-on" approach. Pinkie, however, is much more skittish about sex: she wants to make ponies happy, but this is a different, strange form of pleasure...growing up on a rock farm with her very conservative parents didn't help matters either.