Practice Night
The following is a short story about a kind of interaction between my characters and those of @ask-tay-relic. All credit to the respective owners.
Music mimicked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEm0AjTbsac
Practice night arrived. Asthney stepped out of his cottage, Frae quietly following behind him. Asthney was a large dear, a kind called a “Gemsbuck”. He was HUGE, towering a full seven feet in the air.
Behind him, his friend Frae was no where near as imposing. She was a faded yellow with a light blue mane and tale.
Frae's eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness of night. She didn't like dark, but this was easy to see in, so it didn't bother her too much.
The large Gemsbuck looked up into the sky.
“My goodness it does'eem like it gones ta rain taday.”
Frae's ears folded down, looking at the near pitch black clouds. “Oh-oh that doesn't look good. Maybe we should stay in today...”
Rarity walked along the side of the home clicking her tongue. “No no dear, you're not getting out that easily, those were actually brought in by Dash. They're just on loan and will be moved later on as they're needed.”
“S-s-still, it-it's very dark,”
“Be fair'ere Rarity, she con stay home ifm' she like.”
“Very well just...”
A small blue colt came out from behind Rarity and looked up at Frae, his eyes wide, “Please... we really want someone to watch... it's been so long since I was able to do something special with my sister. Pleeeeeeease,” he put his hooves together.
“This is Dusk, he's six,” Rarity commented.
Frae looked into the colt's eyes and had to swallow. “It's okay, I'll go.” The colt grinned and skipped back over to Rarity, Frae smiling at him.
Frae got a look at him. He was light blue with a dark blue mane and tale, with yellow highlights in both mane and tail.
Asthney let out a subtle growl. He leaned down to Rarity. “That'ere was dirty.”
“Oh come on, this won't hurt her.”
“Ah did'ell you she's not inta fireworks an'the like.”
“And I believe I told you your Trixie and my Trixie are different ponies. Bard music is melodic and cheerful, not loud and boisterous. She uses her fireworks sometimes, but as part of the show. You'll see.” She chuckled. “Sides, Trixie won't be the loudest one there.”
“That last'art supposed comfort mi?”
“Don't worry,” Rarity reassured. “When Frae sees the eight year old, I doubt she'll be too scared of that.”
The Gemsbuck sighed. Rarity strolled ahead and lead the group.
Dusk looked back and saw Frae moving behind the large buck, almost like she was hiding.
He trotted back to her. Frae moved away from him nervously, but then stopped, noticing it was the small colt again. “Y-you want s-s-something?”
He shook his head. “You just look kinda scared. Can I walk with you? You don't need to be scared. I'll watch out for you.” He smiled having said this.
Frae had to hold back a chortle. The colt wasn't even a quarter her size and he had to trot to keep up with everyone else's casual stroll. She quickly decided he was hardly scary- though to be fair, she would probably have to watch out for him more than the other way around.
Frae had dealt with children before. Her shyness was just a tendency, she was hardly truly afraid of a six year old. All this said, she was thus not at all surprised when the questions started to flow.
“Your friend is really tall- how did he get so big? My daddy is bigger but... wow!”
She smiled. “Your father i-is bigger eh? I wonder what he is then.” her nerves were calming, and with it, her stuttering.
“A dragon.”
I little bit of nervousness returned. “H-h-he is?” The colt nodded. “U-oh. Well I-I- I don't know w-why he's so,” she swallowed. Dusk might have a big dad, but again, he himself was not threatening. “I don't know why Asthney is so big.”
“Your eyes look weird, why?”
“I'm um... partially nocturnal. I don't like to talk about it.”
“Nocturnal?”
She smiled. “I often sleep during the day. Can you ask about something else?”
He shrugged as he kept trotting to keep up. “What's on your back?”
“It's a brace. I got hurt.”
“Oh... um...”
“A long time ago dear.” she said, finally starting to feel the urge to dote just a little. “Don't worry, I'm okay now.”
“You not shy anymore?”
“Not with someone like you kiddo. Now if you were Rarity's size, that might take a while. You're a pretty cool kid,” he grinned. Frae was happy with herself at that.
“I was just found after being missing- my sister was worried sick!”
“I'll bet she was. Don't wander off anymore hm?”
“I didn't,” he defended. “I was chased by a mean stallion.”
“Oh... sorry, didn't mean to accuse. Really... sure that was scary.”
He hung his head a little. “It was.” She watched him, making sure he wasn't too hurt by the memory. He seemed to recover quickly though when they started to approach a clearing.
In fact a huge grin spread across his face.
A yellow filly pretty much appeared with a loud “CLAP!” noise. “Hey hi!” she shouted. Frae grabbed the colt and pulled him and herself into a bush quickly.
The yellow pegasus filly landed. She cocked her head to the side. “It's okay,” Dusk said, struggling in Frae's grasp. “It's just my sister.”
Frae did not let him go, adjusting her eyes. She could see pretty well in the dark, but it wasn't instant. She saw the sister and- she wasn't much bigger than Dusk really. Just a small filly with a sloppy front mane, freckles on only one side of her face and a jagged back mane. Frae smiled sideways a bit. 'Poor thing has probably had her share of teasing looking like that... c'mon Frae, she's just a kid- who just got back her brother. Last thing she needs is you making her self conscious.' She steeled her resolve and came out of the bush, releasing Dusk.
Dusk ran over to her and then turned to just stand beside her. “You here for the show?” the sister asked. “My name is Lightning.”
“M-my name is Frae.”
“That's a cool name,” a clapping noise sounded and suddenly the filly was behind Frae, which startled her. “This thing a brace?” Another clap and the filly was flying above. “Are you-”
Frae chocked out her requst, “P-p-please stop doing th-th-that.” Another clap.
“Stop what?” Lightning asked, now at her side.
A haze of clear magic came up around Lightning and she was pulled away from Frae.
Rarity walked up, keeping Lightning in her magic. “Dear, she's shy, please slow down,” the white mare said.
Lightning hung her head. “I'm not good at that.”
“I see you met the siblings,” Rarity said.
Frae smiled, recovering from Lightning's jumpyness. “I-I think I much prefer the brother.” Lightning hung her wings as Rarity released her magic hold. “Oh-oh dear, I'm sorry- very sorry. I didn't mean you're a bad pony, just not the kind I usually like. I'm a more quiet mare. You're not like me...” the filly hung her head again. 'Great going...' Frae thought. 'Being different isn't easy, you know that.' “I- I di-didn't say we couldn't be friends.” The filly perked up and zipped back to her brother. Frae jumped back, but did her best so swallow her fear for the filly's sake. Lightning picked up her brother and quickly flew off with him.
Rarity sighed, watching the two go. “That one...” she said. “We're trying to reel her in a bit, but we suspect some of her energy comes from her ability.”
“Ability?” Frae asked.
“She controls and absorbs electricity,” Rarity replied simply.
“Kind of explains it,” Frae said.
Rarity moved on and sat on a hill over looking the valley, Frae and Asthney joined her. “S-so are the children watching too or-”
“Heavens no, they're part of the show darling.”
“Oh...” Frae looked towards the valley with new curiosity.
A long shadow fell over the group, but Frae didn't hide like she normally would. Instead she smiled over her shoulder, seeing her old friend Tay Relic walk up. Tay was almost as tall as Asthney, but she had known him as a gentle story teller for a while.
Tay wasn't heavy set like Asthney. Instead mostly just overly tall. His feathers and mane were purple, while her body was orange. Also her the bottoms of her legs were purple.
Rarity smiled up at him. Tay nodded down to her. “I got the invitation from Rainbow Dash. I also heard you had a book?”
Rarity sighed. “You were supposed to get a look at it ahead of time.” She still passed the large orange alicorn a book titled “There and Back Again: A Hobbit's Tale”.
“Cliff notes, we're watching a song from the book,” Rarity said.
Frae looked down into the valley again.
In the valley was a wagon, in front of which was a white unicorn wearing purple sunglasses. The white unicorn was surrounded by a small assortment of speakers and woofers. It was Vinyl Scratch. Frae smiled, remembering she got her pet fox from the unicorn not long ago. A few feet away sat a blue unicorn talking to the children.
The unicorn was blue with light blue almost white hair- oh, she knew that mare too. “Um... T-Trixie?” Frae asked. She did remember something about her being in the show, but she also remembered she normally didn't like Trixie's magic shows. Trixie was loud and liked to do death defying stunts, not the kind of thing Frae liked to watch. Still... she wasn't alone, so she could at least try to be brave, she surmised to herself.
Rarity nodded to her. “Don't worry Frae, she's not your Trixie, just like I'm not your Rarity. This Trixie is a bard, not a magician.”
“Y-you're not my Rarity?” Frae asked, getting a little nervous.”
“Sorry, didn't mention that. Promise I'm a good mare.”
Frae wasn't sure now if she was brought under a false pretense, but... well Asthney was here to protect her so she again, resolved to be brave.
“You're not... our Rarity?” Tay asked.
“Yes, I'm from another universe.” Rarity said.
“I have... a lot of questions. How many can you answer?”
“Before the show- it's about to start. Besides, I wager you'll have even more questions by the time it's over,” Rarity replied.
“Will this be loud music?” Frae asked. She had already resolved to stay, but she wanted to be able to brace herself at least.
“Not really,” Rarity assured.
Frae looked back down into the valley. She watched as Trixie used her magic to set up a series of large dark panels. Then the blue mare sat with the small blue colt next to her. She nodded to Vinyl. Vinyl waved her horn in the air a few times, a pair of glowing orbs appearing. The two orbs flew down to Trixie and Dusk, impacting their necks around the voice box.
A- VERY deep voice suddenly came from Trixie as she started speaking to announce her show.
“Hello, fillies and gentle colts, we now present to you, Trixie and Vinyl together once again, for a performance of, Misty Mountain.” Trixie nodded to Lightning, who quickly took off and shot up into the night sky. Frae tried to follow the filly, but she was soon lost in the clouds.
The speakers started to play, deep male voices were played, humming a strange but intriguing tune.
The humming lulled a bit and “RUMBLE!” A quiet thunder came over the sky above. Frae backed up a little, but then remembered the filly. “Is Lightning causing the thunder?” Frae asked outloud.
Rarity nodded but “shushed” her.
The humming started anew.
Another rumble went out, just before the singing of the song began. Down in the valley, Trixie lit her horn.
“Far over the misty mountains cold...” Trixie sang. Trixie projected blue lights that gave the outline of a mountain.
“To dungeons deep and caverns old.” The lights changed to show the opening of a cave.
“We must away, ere break of day,” The lights quickly disappeared. Then suddenly, a large yellow ball appeared in their place.
“To find our long-forgotten gold.” The lights disappeared again.
Dusk joined the singing, his voice now just as deep. “The pines were roaring on the height,” the lights reappeared and seemed to outline trees.
“The winds were moaning in the night.” Trixie waved her hooves, the lights disappearing, but a small gust of wind flowing away from her and through the grass of the valley.
“The fire was red, it flaming spread;” Fire then followed the wind, quickly going out before it could have been threatening.
Frae smiled, enjoying the song so far- Ill timing, as a very loud rumble now echoed out and she pulled down her head.
“The trees like torches blazed with light,”
The song was then repeated, with the same effects.
The song ended.
Lightning came back down out of the clouds and zipped over her audience. “So? What did you think?”
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