Years ago, Octavia still loved music. Years ago, Luna thought she might yet do some good from her prison. Years ago, Vinyl Scratch found herself in an interminable dream.

One night could set them all free.

Silver medalist in the Writeoff Association's "On the Wings of a Dream" event.

Featured on Equestria Daily!

After being on the air for twenty odd years, Vinyl Scratch, better known as the legendary DJ Pon-3, has decided it's time to walk away from the spotlight. However, she soon realizes that she simply doesn't know how to be just Vinyl Scratch anymore.

Pinkie has a bad Hairdra day and winds up peeking further beyond the Vale than she’d have liked.

But, more certain than death and praxis, she’ll make sure everypony else has fun again.

Written for the October 2016 Writeoff, where it won first place.

Note: This story is written in the style of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, a classic work of English literature that is notorious for being hard to read. While this story is not as cementically dense as FW, it is still full of wordplay, literary references, portmanteau words and puns and will be a challenge for many readers. If this isn’t your sort of thing, try one of my other stories. If you’re game, dig in! It can help to read the story aloud.

Image background by Chaz1029, foreground by Mahaugher, with edits to both by GGA.

Thanks to Morning Sun, FanOfMostEverything, Quill Scratch, Baal Bunny, and Not_A_Hat for criticism, suggestions and corrections.

It's late, the fire is lit, you've a steaming hot mug of tea... what better time to have a chat and set the world to rights, and maybe get something else out of it too?

Rated 'T' due to moderate innuendo .

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*EDIT* Hello, ponies! This was originally going to be a one-shot wonder, but I enjoyed writing it, so there you are. And although it says 'completed', that's only really because each chapter can be read alone. I'll probs always be adding more chapters!

Octavia has a musical history and a side to herself she'd rather not have to explain outside of Ponyville. Inside Ponyville... well, everything was fine until she spotted Vinyl Scratch. What was she doing here?

Don't panic, Octavia! Don't freak out, don't lose your mind, don't....
Oh well.
(And check out Goombasa's excellent dramatic reading!)
Cover by Page Turner.

It seemed so simple. An afternoon out with friends and the ones you love, but life is rarely predictable. It only takes a moment to throw someone's life upside down.

After the most important night of her career is ruined and its saboteurs not even so much as punished, Octavia's life changes. She begins to pursue a path that has never been seen before in Canterlot, where concertos and rhapsodies give way to controversy and rebellion.

A path where symphonies are composed with cans of spray paint.

Cover art used with permission by LuGiAdriel14

Four years ago Vinyl and Octavia broke up. It was messy, painful and left scars on both of them. Four years on, now one of the most successful DJs in Equestria’s history, Vinyl receives news that Octavia has been in a terrible accident. The doctors say she may never recover from her coma, but Vinyl refuses to believe them. There are all sorts of stories about coma patients who are brought back by the voice of someone they care about, right? No matter what anypony else says, offers or threatens, and no matter what it costs her personally or professionally, she is determined to stay by Octavia’s side and do all she can to wake her.

But four years is a long time, and no matter how many fairytales end with the princess waking up, real life owes no-one a happy ending.

Featured on EQD - 3rd August 2013

Now with a fabulous dramatic reading by the even more fabulous Goombasa!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPJutr2gUiE&list=UU4c-khcV1wmr1l_ZRfdp9uQ]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibcPvvXSn8c&list=UU4c-khcV1wmr1l_ZRfdp9uQ]

Octavia is a high-class pony. Fine alcohol is her wont, and uncouthness her intense chagrin. Such is her surprise to find herself lumbered with an insufferable oaf of a DJ pony. However, sometimes these situations work themselves into a satisfactory ultimatum all the same.