A Foalish Filly’s Philharmonic Familiar
By
Shaky_Quill
Note: This is my first fanfiction, and indeed my first actual literary creation. If it’s terrible, feel free to say so in the comments. If there’s any way I could improve, that would also be helpful. I’m simply writing this to see if I’m any good at this, since I’m beginning to get jealous of my girlfriend’s creativity. Thanks for reading!****************************
“You have to be kidding me.” Octavia looked at her permission slip with a mixture of foreboding and disgust. “This is the field trip?! A dumb old orchestra?!” Her words rang true for many others in her class, who also began expressing their displeasure.
“Now, now, this is a wonderful opportunity to broaden your horizons, get some culture,” their teacher, Cheerilee, said, “plus maybe it will get you to stop listening to that awful Vinyl Scratch and her dubhoof baloney.”
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It was finally here. Despite a week of pleading with her parents, Octavia still had to go to the concert. Octavia couldn’t decide if this was the worst possible thing or just an awful thing. As she mulled it over in her head, fussing with the bowtie her parents had bought her for good measure, an Earth pony began calling for ponies to take their seats. Before she could escape in the mad rush to the seats, Octavia was herded to the front row, along with the rest of her class.
The lights dimmed, and the show began.
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Octavia had never been so bored in her life. The first five minutes had been nothing but a long, slow drumbeat, and even after things picked up, the music still made Octavia sleepy. Even worse, her parents had not given her any bits to buy some popcorn, candy, or anything else laced with sugar so she didn’t fall asleep like some foal!
“Geez, can you believe this? I’m so bored.” She said to a sea green unicorn to her left, a shy filly named Lyra, who, although she was a little obsessed with “humans” (even going so far as to do her history report on the subject,) had always been a good friend to Octavia.
“Hmn? Wha…?” Lyra mumbled as she looked at Octavia.
“Aren’t you bored? I’m about to fall asleep.”
“What?! How can you fall asleep during something this awesome?! Look at that unicorn in the front, with the little harp-looking thing…”
“You mean the lyre?”
“Yeah! Isn’t it cool?! I wanna play that when I grow up! I just wonder why it’s so small…it’s like it wasn’t made for ponies…” Lyra said as she began to visibly daydream about the bipeds that so consumed her attention.
“Yeah, yeah, anyway, about how bored I am and how bored you should be…”
Octavia stopped as something wrenched her attention away from her mint-coloured friend to the stage. It was the most haunting sound she’d ever heard, like a foal torn away from its mother. She looked around for the source, but to no avail. Suddenly, however, she saw him: a deep red Earth pony with the largest instrument Octavia had ever seen. It was almost twice as tall as he was.
“What is that ?” Octavia asked.
“That is called a Bass, Octavia,” her teacher said from the row behind her “and it takes years of experience to play.”
Octavia knew immediately what she wanted to do.
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“But Mom, this is what I want to do!” Octavia had never felt so frustrated in her life.
“Yes, dear, and your father and I support you in this, but we think it would be a better learning experience for you if you raised the money yourself.” Her mother was steadfast, a quality Octavia had been thankful for before now. “Why don’t you open a lemonade stand?” she said. “Lots of fillies your age do that. Ooh and I can even make you the most darling uniform!”
As her mother began digging through her sewing supplies, Octavia ran to her father, hoping for another, less lemonade stand involving, answer.
“I think it’s a great idea! I ran a stand when I was your age, and I had loads of fun! All the kids came to my stand, I had them lining up in droves!”
“Really?!” Octavia asked, awed by her father’s apparent entrepreneurial brilliance.
“Sure did. And I’m sure you will too.”
Octavia didn’t notice her father’s winking to her mother as she ran to the shed to begin building.
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“How did I get roped into this?!”
Lyra was unhappy. All she wanted to do was play with her friend Octy, but instead she was quickly grabbed and shoved into a giant lemon costume by who she thought was her friend. It wasn’t flattering.
“Well, I have to do the selling, or else it would be me in the suit!” Octavia rationalized.
“Um…So?”
“I don’t want to wear the suit!”
“But it’s your stand!”
“Yeah, well, I…”
As Octavia and Lyra argued over who was best suited to wear the costume in question, a dark green mare walked to the stand. Noticing the sign reading “Lemonade! 1 bit!” and her own thirst, she decided to purchase a drink. A task made difficult by the fact that the proprietors seemed to be throwing lemons at each other.
“Excuse me…”
“Excuse me…”
“EXCUSE ME!”
The fillies sheepishly ceased their lemon-launching.
“That’s better. I’ll have a glass.” The mare said, grateful for the quiet.
“That’ll be one bit!” Octavia said cheerfully, grateful also for the quiet, even if it meant that Lyra was probably stockpiling lemons to force a sort of citrus fruit-based Cold War.
“There you go!” As the mare walked off, the two new business ponies decided that maybe this wasn’t so bad.
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This went on for several hours, until it was nearly time for the two to return home. After counting their bits, Octavia reasoned that they were 20 bits shy of “their” goal.
“Well, I guess after a day or two more of this, we might be able to go on about our lives, free from this stand.”
“Yeah, but how about that pony over there? I bet she’s just dying for a drink! I bet she’s gone through her life, searching for the perfect fruit drink, and maybe, just maybe, we can turn their life around! Then, they’ll be so grateful that they’ll pay the last bits needed!” Lyra exclaimed in one giant gob of nearly incomprehensible shouting. Quickly grabbing a glass of their lemonade, Lyra ran off to her target.
“Excuse me, ma’am, but would you perhaps like a glass of lemonade? Only one bit.”
The mare turned around. “Lemonade, eh? Been a long time since anyone’s offered me lemonade. How about this…I’ll buy up your remaining stock, just because you were kind enough to not bow to me.”
It was then that Lyra noticed the celestial cutie-mark present on the mare’s flank. Next came the wings, then the enormous height, then, finally, the ever-flowing hair. Lyra gaped at the living deity. It was Celestia!
“Oh, be careful, dear, you’ll catch flies.” The newly revealed monarch said while putting Lyra’s jaw back into its rightful place.
Lyra just barely managed to lead Celestia to the stand, where she numbly accepted the enormous bag of bits and handed all of the lemonade to a guardspony that arrived seemingly out of nowhere.
Octavia was just as shocked as Lyra, but as their benefactor flew away with their stock, she marveled at their fortune.
“Oh, Lyra! Now I can afford a bass and lessons!”
“And I can finally afford that pony-to-human surgery that I’ve always wanted! No matter who says ‘Lyra, humans aren’t real’ or ‘Lyra, if you try home surgery again, I’ll have to lock up the kitchen knives.’” Lyra exclaimed as she triumphantly ran home with her share of the loot.
Octavia marveled at her friend’s eccentricity as she returned home, eager to begin her musical career.
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To be continued. Thanks for suffering through this so far!
