Exit through Dapper Guy · 4:27pm Jul 6th, 2015
What's it mean to pull yourself away from the norm? To take the first step outside of your comfort zone and welcome a new line of thinking? Everypony loves Celestia, right? She's perfect, flawless, and without a doubt, adored by her subjects. At least, that's we all would think.
Octavia Melody is the stereotypical Canterlot bred pony at first glance. A lover of the 'finer' thing in life such as classical music, high class dining, and walking with an air of refinement around her. Curiously enough, she's the furthest thing from a snotty noble, evident from the first chapter as she pities a foal who got snubbed by some aristocrat. I can already see a low burning fire flaring up inside of her as she lashes out at her closest friend, Vinyl Scratch, as she criticizes the poisonous atmosphere of Canterlot ponies.
The grey earth pony's true passion lies within playing her cello and takes great pride in this as she plays with the Canterlot Orchestra for the Grand Galloping Gala. This night of entertaining the upper class comes crashing down as six unexpected arrivals throw the party into disarray, kicking off the chain events that lead to a surprising new road of self-discovery for Octavia. Whatever thread was holding this mare's respect for the princess snapped as she becomes aware that Celestia herself invited the mares who ruined what was going to be her perfect night. I honestly think that Octavia has a immense amount of self restraint but the walls she built up to suppress her anger came down harder than the Johnstown Dam. In a fit of pure rage, Octavia spray paints and tarnishes a statue of Celestia with green spray paint.
Everything that Octavia thought in her life seems to have flown out the window as she embraces a new line of thinking. While not entirely giving up on music, Octavia adopts a pen name, Flanksy, and begins an escapade of painting the town red. As well as a bunch of other colors. Ponies in Canterlot take notice of this but one is dead-set against our colorful vigilante. Prince Blueblood, our well loved known haughty, snotty, bratty prince focuses all of his time and effort to put down the cellist turned Shepard Fairey by any means necessary.
Seeing two characters develop in a nearly perfect sycophancy dragged me into the story. Octavia and Blueblood, both took it upon themselves to find a part of themselves they never knew was there and go against everything they once stood for. Octavia learns that there's so much more to life and shares with the world her own message through that she once deemed barbaric or uncouth. She reveals what Canterlot could be and if they're willing to see its true beauty. Blueblood decides to put off hooficures, spa dates, every luxury that comes to mind so he can put a stop to this crusader with his personal guards. Labeling her as a domestic terrorist, washing away her art, he even goes as far as to hold a town meeting to stamp out this 'threat' to his beloved city.
Towards the middle of fic, the setting begins to turn down a different path that I'm not entirely comfortable with. Octavia goes from rough artist to pure vandalism. When a choice opportunity to play for a group of nobles is given to her, she can barely contain herself. It seems that the world decides to smack Octavia right across the face as the elements make an encore and crash this party as well. Now, this takes the darkest turn and leads her down a twisted path of loathing and revenge. Octavia goes well beyond the deep end as she personal attacks each one of the elements at their own homes. To be honest, would be much different than any of us? If someone were to constantly harass and take away everything we cherished, who wouldn't lash out violently? So much evil in her heart that stemmed from a misunderstanding, how much was Octavia holding in all this time?
Blueblood learns of her actions and knows that Octavia has gone beyond the law and plans to capture her in the act. During a public reveal of statues dedicated to the Elements. Octavia/Flanksy decides to ruin the moment by painting the true colors of Elements. Her plans go up in smoke as Rainbow Dash decides to cut her newest piece of art destroyed. This leads to Blueblood arresting his target and throwing her in the dungeon until she can be punished by Celestia.
The exchange between Celestia and Octavia brought back down to Earth. Celestia is so composed but I could feel a sense of sadness that somepony dubbed her ignorant and didn't even stop after one attack. It would be quite the shock to learn that somepony honestly sees her as a monster but then again she's pretty much never been questioned as seriously or openly before. Octavia remains steadfast in her convictions, saying how she found her own harmony and doesn't want the same as the Element bearers have. This scene has such depth to it. A pony telling Celestia that she doesn't agree with her, she's content with a life that doesn't fit perfectly with the princess and won't apologize for her actions. Octavia has a diamond lined backbone here.
Major faults I'd like to point out is how explosive Octavia is. On one hand, she isn't psychotic and I've praised her through this review for desire to act out. Her anger is just so twisted until it boils over and thrust her down a dark path. To a point, it seemed predictable but I can't deny that I felt that she was justified in doing so. The breaking point was when she decided to go inside Rarity's shop and Twilight's library and destroy their belongings, this escalated her crimes tenfold.
Another would be how Octavia was allowed to freely paint all over creation. Surely there has to be some kind of law against this and it was brought up several times in the comment section. The reasoning was a tad weak as to why the guards or Blueblood wasn't allowed to do anything at all except sit back and watch. Imagine watching a robber take off with a purse but someone tells you don't do anything despite the fact they're unarmed.
Final Verdict: 9.5/10. I've never seen a background pony given so much thought or how to surprise everyone by taking an overlooked character and putting her in such a difficult setting. You need to read this story.
Hey, I had no idea that you did reviews! I like this style, going through the story part by part, and discussing what each one accomplishes.