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When Octavia is dragged to one of Canterlot's more respectable nightclubs by some work friends, she finds a whole new world of music that threatens to shatter her pre-existing theories about musical quality. All it takes is one pony, a DJ whose music transcends the barriers of conventional genre classification. Will Octavia take the leap of faith into the unknown world of modern music? And will the mysterious DJ be there to catch her if she falls?
The whole, 'Vinyl is blind' thing I read on the MLP Wikia. There's a page on fan theories about all the characters and that was one of them. This is the page. I however, do not believe she and Rarity are related, I make a small allusion to the theory in a later chapter, but I personally believe that just because they're both white unicorns it doesn't mean that they're related.
One thing I do when writing "canon" characters is to research their personalities as much as I can, find out if there are any quirks they have or whether there is anything they are known for. I like to bring an authenticity to the character before adding my own personal ideas.
Whilst this will remain Octavia/Scratch centric, the next chapter will introduce some more characters. But that's all I'll say for now 
I think you have a great opportunity to write Pinkie Pie... 
yeah, she's usually random and party-like, 
but you have the unique situation of Octy being there to mend their relationship! 
She doesn't have to act like she usually does 
unless the situation really calls for it!
I want to know who came up with the idea that Pinkie Pie and Octavia are sisters so that I may proceed to punch them repeatedly. It's ridiculous, if they were sisters. They would have actually interacted with each other during The Best Night Ever, and something more substantial then Pinkie Pie making a song request.
That said I'm willing to suspend disbelief just because this is well written, but Earl Grey I implore you to take the speculation pages on the MLP wiki with a grain of salt. As I'm pretty sure that they're just the ramblings of someone who is only completely idiotic. Vinyl Scratch's Speculation pages lists an idea that Vinyl and Rarity are related because they are both white unicorns. Not only is that idiotic, but blatantly racist. It would be like saying that Nelson Mandela is related to Barrack Obama because they're both black.
Obviously I'm not taking it as fact (as far as the word fact goes in canon) but I like to observe all sides of a characters percieved personality. You could argue that Scratch agreed to DJ Rarity's undoubtedly small fashion gig, (six dresses and the only reason it got attention is because Hoity Toity showed up) because they're related. Fanon seems to agree to DJ-P0N3 is a huge musical name, akin to Daft Punk and Deadmau5 (the two artists she's frequently seen with in fanart) So why would a megastar agree to DJ a small event that she probably even isn't getting paid well for? Of course, this is all just plucking points off the top of my head, but you have to appreciate that Fanon is so open to interpretation that everything has a possibility of making sense.
Let's move onto Pinkie/Octavia. "They can't be related, Octavia ignored her at the gala" Not true, she took a completely random request and ran with it despite it going against the gala's atmosphere. I doubt her band mates would abide such silliness, so it would be safe to be assume that she convinced them because they're related ("Please, just humour her, it'll be easier if you do." Octavia said, sighing). Again, just making points up. "Wouldn't she be called Octavia Pie?" Rarity and Sweetie Belle. The entire Apple Family. That one is easy. It's Fanon and to be fair the grey pony in Pinkie's flashback is similar, grey coat, dark grey/black hair, purple irises. It isn't hard to suspend your disbelief that far for it to make sense.
Also, adding onto the Pinkie/Octavia relationship. I think it's agreed Fanon (or maybe I just assumed it is) that Pinkie left home to be a party planner/baker in lieu of being a professional rock farmer. That would've left some scars with Pinkie's parents, scars that would undoubtedly get passed onto the other two sisters. Things are awkward between them which shows in their on screen interaction. It's not my personal Fanon interpretation of Octavia's character (I had a hard time imagining it when I first heard it as well) it just worked well in this instance. I do have another fic that I started writing which takes a different path with Pinkie and Octavia's interaction at the gala (along with the rest of the Mane 6) I'm also going to try and finish something else by tomorrow for the 1 year anniversary.
... Reading this makes me wonder if there's a different reason I RP octavia over on Ponychan. I don't like rave music, or pop, or techno... If i'm going to listen to somthing I need to hear real instruments.
But my personal preferences aside, that was pretty good, i'll read chapter 2 when I get a chance.
Also, I love when anypony pins Vinyl as a blind character. I don't know why, but it seems to fit her.
I used to think the exact same way, believe me when I say that I used to despise dance/electro/trance/dubstep with a passion. "It's brainless and takes no skill dur!" but a lot of work goes into it, now my iPod is 75% dance-y stuff, because of ponies. Guys like Alex S., Clever Pony, General Mumble, Omnivore, WoodenToaster (And many many more who I didn't mention) who put out brilliant music for free. It's because of them that for the first time in perhaps my entire life, I'm looking forwards to a new song in MLP episodes (and the new intro for ep3, which should air in a few hours xP)
As for the rest of you, I've kinda lost steam on this Ponyville Vacation, so you'll be glad to know that Part 6 has them going back to Canterlot and starting the whole music thing this is all based around :D This should help my creativity a fair bit, Ponyville really is boring as a place D:
Im glad you opened up electric type of music and it saddens me to hear pplp say that it takes no talent to make it. but in reality i takes a vast knowledge of music to even begin and also a good ear to pick up the structure and what not. im not a serious DJ i just provide music and what not i sometimes do my own stuff but not muchso ya good work on the fic.
I'm liking the story as well! Make sure that you avoid your run-ons and comma splices, though. The pace of reading was a bit faster than it should have been, in my opinion, and more periods and fewer commas might have fixed that.
And, a personal preference thing, I would have waited a bit more before bringing the sexual element into the story. It seems a bit early, considering what we've seen between Vinyl and Octavia. Still a very good story, though!
That's not exactly a sexual element, it was something I thought up to help stimulate the flow the magic, as I assume that the brain has something to do with the creation and storage of magical energy, it's only natural that chemicals and hormones would be involved. I wouldn't say it's the only thing that helps, it's just the only way Vinyl has discovered helps. She uses her magic in her own way and beyond helping her senses, she isn't exactly Twilight Sparkle when it comes to learning about magic. And besides, Both Vinyl and Octavia were kinda embarrassed when it was brought up, so I hardly expect them to be jumping in bed with each other any time soon.
Yeah, I know it was kinda rushed, but this chapter really had me stuck. I seriously lost all of my ideas and had to struggle to move the story forwards. Everything after Rainbow Dash joins until they get to the apartment feels really bad to me. Now it's out of the way and everyone (except poor Octavia who still has a big job to do) is getting some rest and relaxation, it should mellow out.
By all means xD
I lack any decent artisitic skill, in the sense that I have the ability to draw when I'm looking at something, but when it comes to drawing from imagination, it always looks like crap (although I am getting better, I drew a fairly good Vinyl Scratch in work today, but I think I lost it xD). So if you feel you can make a good job of it, then you have my permission *salutes*
As you said, make sure to credit me (so people can find the fic and read it :P) I like attention!
Just read chapter 1. So far it looks like a promising story. As a huge music nerd, Octavia's experiences with DJ-Pon3's music are reminiscent of the effect that the Velvet Underground's "Heroin" and Richard Hell and the Voidoids' "Blank Generation" had on me (as well as hearing Ornette Coleman and John Cage for the first time). And it also matches the experiences related by numerous musicians upon hearing punk rock for the first time, so your description of Octavia's opinions on music changing as though it were a sudden revelation are very true to a lot of musically inclined people's experiences. I look forward to reading the other chapters.
I also find it funny that Vinyl's interest in music was first piqued by classical and the idea of manipulating the very sounds recorded. Mostly because of electronic music's very origins in the experimental wing 20th century "Classical" or compositional music. I wonder if she encountered Stockhausen or Musique Concrete in her classical studies.
"I used to think the exact same way, believe me when I say that I used to despise dance/electro/trance/dubstep with a passion. "It's brainless and takes no skill dur!" but a lot of work goes into it, now my iPod is 75% dance-y stuff, because of ponies."
Oddly enough my earliest encounters with Dubstep were through slower, more meditative, and more cerebral examples of the genre such as Burial and Kode 9.
I was legitimately laughing most of the way through. I kind of would have liked to see a bit more emphasis go into the first act of the chapter, though.
Octavia: I'm quitting my job.
Frederic: If it's what you want.
Octavia: 
Eeyup.
All: Yay!
I know you wanted to write more, and I get the feel of writer's block. The issue was more than made up for with ALL THE FREEDOM TOPPINGS.
Chapter Seven deserves a chapter name. That name... is Epic Pizza Time.
This might possibly be the greatest review ever received by anyone ever. Taking it down to it's core. Music is music is music. Thanks for that, I try to aim for realism. As real as ponies can get anyway xD
You pretty much summed up that scene. One page for that entire scene. Wow, that's bad even for me... I shall endeavour to make things better in the future. Freedom Pizza for all! Get some before Dash steals it all.
There are no words to describe what exactly was going through my mind when writing that end scene. i went in with "Vinyl and Dash get tipsy and buy pizza. Expand." How I linked Pizza toppings to a foal growing up, getting a cutie mark and being filed into a job related to it, I'll never know... but it happened. By Celestia's Beard It Happened.
Octavia proxy suffering isn't over yet. I love her frowny face, :D
I'm glad my borderline-autistic ramblings provided some encouragement. Before second year law school started I was actually reading a book called Ocean of Sound by David Toop, which expresses a similar sentiment while looking at how people's approach to music fundamentally changed in the twentieth century, starting from Debussy seeing Indonesia gamelan orchestras for the first time and going into rave music. 
And just to elaborate on an earlier comment I made, one of the earliest forms of electronic music, Musique concrète, essentially involved taking pre-recorded tape sounds and splicing them and manipulating them to get new effects. Early on it often involved recording conventional classical performances and then messing the results. The first example I know of these techniques passing into the realm of popular musical forms? When BBC Radiophonic workshop employee worked out an arrangement for a theme composed by Ron Grainer, which involved here speeding up, slowing down, cutting, and splicing a tape that had a recording of plucked string on it, and then adding additional effects through various audio generators. The result was that on 23 November 1965, at approximately 5:16 pm, the people of Great Britain who were sitting down to watch the tele had their minds blown by the following sound...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75V4ClJZME4
(Sorry for that digression, but I couldn't help but share, particularly given the seeming overlap between these two areas of geekdom.)
I got my name from my favourite tea, it only makes sense that a classy, tea loving mare like Octavia would love it as well :D
To be fair, I only realised that Earl Grey was also my username on here after I typed the sentence xD
But yeah... you heard her, I am her favourite, everypony else can keep their hooves off ¬_¬
Okay, finally read it all, and I have to say that this story is amazing
I really enjoy this concept you've based the story around, and I think it is coming along very nicely.
The main thing that has pulled me into this story is the character interaction and development. Firstly, I really like the personalities given to Octavia and Vinyl in this fic. Personally I enjoy seeing how different authors write these two characters in their stories, sure they have their established fanon personalities, but they're both really just clean slates. That right there intrigues me, because I get to see how others interpret how they would act in instances created for them, which is what draws me to the characters like Octavia and Vinyl in the first place. Secondly, I really like how you pull off the character interactions here. The dialog flowed really well for me, and the conversations were executed very well in my opinion, also the situations you put the characters in really do give me a feel as to who they are... I'm pretty sure I'm starting to sound like a broken record by now 
And before I forget, I find the fact that Vinyl has a vision impairment quite refreshing, that's the first time I've seen that incorporated into a story for her. That little bit also set up some pretty nice instances in the story that I think worked really well in it's favor.
Overall I really enjoy this wonderful story you've concocted in that genius brain of yours 
Sadly though, I am running out of ways to type out my feelings on this awesome story, so I think I'll wrap up my comment here ^^;
Keep writing friend, you have undeniable talent.
Thank you kindly!
When I started writing this, I wanted to have something that didn't have an end. With this, there isn't a specific goal they have to achieve, there isn't a Big Bad to defeat, they don't have to save the world, they don't even need to jump in bed with each other, all they need to do is be in a band and play music and generally be around to experience it. I've always wanted to do something like that, because it gives me more space to write. In the past, I've always had set goals and specific directions that I wanted the story to go in, which limited my creativity somewhat, but in this, I can write by chapter and still have it all make sense and be going somewhere.
Plus, I really just like writing the characters. Octavia and Vinyl just make sense to me. That's another thing I wanted this fic to be about, character interaction. I'm not the best when it comes to epic length introspection or beautifully describing a scene, but I'd like to think that I can write dialogue and interaction pretty well.
And yes, we need more vision impairment Scratch... or maybe not, I'd like to corner the market! Seeing as Allegrezza and Three's Company (the biggest Scratch/Octavia fics on here) have her as full sighted, it works in my favour :P
Is it weird that I started singing "Comment Wrap Up, Comment Wrap Up, Let's finish our post-chapter cheer." towards the end xD
I shall indeed keep writing, because only have five fics posted is a travesty that needs to be remedied. I was a slow writer back when I did Pokémon fanfiction and I managed eighteen fics in four years over there, I aim to do better with ponies. The endless inspiration they conjure will surely help.
"Earl Grey is my favorite"
Oh you
Just so you know, in Chapter 7, I make a reference to Rainbow Dash having two seperate breathing sounds. That was a reference to the Syrinx, the "voicebox" of a bird, in some like the Lyrebird, it allows for them to mimic sounds (like a camera flash, car alarms or chainsaws) perfectly. Obviously it's not that good in Pegasi, but the Syrinx can allow for the bird to make two seperate sounds. Imagine singing a duet by yourself, with a Syrinx you could do that. The Temples of Syrinx is also a Rush song from the 2112 concept album. I imagine Rainbow Dash would like Rush because... let's be fair, who doesn't like Rush?
Also, that Octavia picture is impossibly badass and is precisely the kind of reaction I imagined after realising I'd done it.
Props for the John Joseco Octavia pic. Best Pony (after seeing Octavia in Sweet and Elite, she's best pony again :P) + one of the best artists = awesome. He can draw Octavia so well and does so much to help her popularity with his art.
Thanks for reading!
Also, I just realised after watching Sisterhooves Social again, I totally called Taxi Carts. I think I mentioned them in chapter 2 or 3, which was definitely before Sisterhooves Social. I win!
I actually knew of the Syrinx, but I didn't know what the name of it was. I actually learned about it from a movie called "The Exorcism of Emily Rose". If you're into horror movies, check it out, it's one of my favorites. Apparently some Chinese monks learn how to make two separate sounds at the same time and use that in some of their chants. Of course, this is from a movie so I have no idea if that's actually true or not.
Also, yeah, that Octavia pic is what immediately came to mind when I read that 
Yeah, I just felt like I needed to clear that up. I actually stumbled across the Syrinx during some research into avian anatomy (purely for this fic. As Vinyl herself says after getting Octavia to eat the pizza, "The lengths I go to.") I learned that it can create two seperate sounds because of how it's structured in the trachea. So I read about it some more and incorporated it into the story, but I don't think I made it obvious enough that this was my intention. Just my thing that pegasus ponies have aspects of avian anatomy about them, lighter bodies/bones, faster metabolism, syrinxes. I just feel that it makes them a little more unique than just ponies with wings.
I have heard something about the monk story, not from that film because I've not watched it, but I have heard stuff about monks who train their vocal chords in such a way. Not sure how successful they are with it.
Chapter 10 is underway, expect more Vinyl/Octavia bonding and musicality.
As I was wading through the massive amount of stories that I need to either read or catch up on, I saw that this updated. All other stories forgotten, Friendship is Music took its rightful place above all else.
I can honestly say that I saw Octavia moving in with Vinyl from a mile away. I was just waiting for it to happen ever since Octavia mentioned it in her thoughts. Not that it wasn't good, Vinyl having to write notes to Octavia put a spin on it, and the way you had it connecting her to her past helped as well.
Going back to the written notes, it was a little refreshing break from the normality of the last few chapters. The notes themselves helped set the mood for the story in general, and added a little Vinyl humor here and there. It was a pretty good bit you threw in there, and the overall more serious tone to the chapter was refreshing. Then, having Vinyl fussing over Octavia, or at least making sure she's okay, was quite adorable. It's not often you see a more maternal, caring side of Vinyl in fics; she's normally portrayed as a not so bright, obnoxious, yet somehow charming, mare. Here she seems much more level headed and a tad more serious, she still has that outlandish nature, but it is toned down. It's a nice change personally.
About the whole Octavia introspection, in a whole, I think you did it pretty well. The way she realized that Vinyl's apartment was more of a home to her than her little drab living space was nice to say the least. Also the fact that it connected her to her dreary, miserable past existence gave her more of a reason to leave, other than 'she just felt like it'.
Sadly, my eagle eyes were not feeling it today. They had nests to tend and babies to feed (You have to think of the children). I'll probably go and investigate this new lead, see what happens.
Before I end this, I have a question. I noticed you spelled realize 'realise', and it confused me. I've seen many others do it as well, is it just a spelling error, or is that a different spelling? (Like cases of differently spelled words in other countries).
Anyway, time to wrap this overly long comment up. Sorry for the length, I just felt like typing today
Great chapter overall, keep up the good work, I give you a Trixie for congratulations 
, and I know take my leave ^_^
Yup, I'm British, therefore use the proper spellings. Yeah, I went there America 
Them moving in together was my eventual plan, it just worked as a plot device. I decided to do it now because I realised that I wasn't really using Octavia's apartment at all or had any plans to use in any way, so why not just drop it and make them move in together? It works within the confines of the story because they're friends and they're working together on a big artisitic project, being far apart isn't conducive to that kind of thing. It also allows for another plot line that I've been mulling over, so I get to do that one as well. As long as I've got a stream of ideas of where this is going, I can always write new things, which is always a good thing.
As for Vinyl, yeah I have a different idea about her than most other people. In a majority of fics, she's portrayed as a mix between Pinkie's enthusiasm about parties/having fun/randomness (kinda) and Rainbow Dash's (according to some aspects of fandom) not spectacular intelligence and competitive spirit. Whereas me, I don't think she's too much like Pinkie, obviously she enjoys a party and wants ponies to have fun but that's about where the similarities end. It's enough for them to hit it off and become friends, but in a non-party environment they probably wouldn't be too good at keeping a conversation going. In a way, she's more like Rainbow Dash in that she's putting up a front of extroversion that hides her sensitive introversion, she's deeply passionate about what she wants (like Rainbow Dash and flying) but she's also incredibly knowledgable about music, (more like Twilight than anything else) So yeah, I guess it's unavoidable to make Pinkie/RD connections when characterising Vinyl, but she has whole other levels of character that people aren't tapping. I'd wager that she's more like Twilight than most people think.
This leads onto another point in the OctaScratch relationship. As most people characterise them, Party hard DJ and stuffy musician, I get the whole "odd couple" dynamic, but I don't think it lends itself to anything more than friendship (most people even forget the one aspect that links them beyond anything else, music). I have opposite sex friends who could be seen as the complete opposite of me, we're still friends, but I doubt anything more would ever come from it because differences like that would shatter romantic relationships. Yes, Opposites attract, but opposites that attract don't often stay opposites. Compromise, my friends.
Not that I'm saying that Tavi and Scratch will get together in my fic, but I feel that the personalities that I've given them would make them better suited towards being in a romantic relationship than other personality sets. When you have two characters as your OTP, you really need to think about these things, you can't just half ass it. Me saying that however, doesn't mean that romance in general is off the cards for this fic, because I do have some plans 
And of course, thanks to >>56710 and >>56894 for the comments. I really appreciate every single one of them, because I don't have that many xD
Thank you all for reading.
Okay, in the grand scheme of things, 60+ comments is pretty good, but I've seen fics that have 3-4 chapters and have 100+ comments. I shouldn't complain, I know... I have a load of people following the fic (seriously check it, the list is huge) and I'd wager that followers and favouriters are a better measurement of quality/popularity than comments. Although it may just be a bandwagon fic. It's hard to tell.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that I should accept what I have and not always clamour for more. If more turns up on it's own, then I should accept it with open hooves, but I shouldn't complain about what I already have.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle
>>57287 >>57484 See it's already working. I should stop worrying about these things more often xD
>>57359 I think that it would count. Although we're all disadvantaged bronies, what is there in Britain for us? Barely anything! I had to order my Nightmare Night t-shirt from America, anything else I might want to buy would come from America, we have to catch online streams (although 3pm isn't too bad a time to watch the show, I will admit)
One or more chapters and I should break 10,000 views. I should have my Octavia/Scratch comic fully drawn by that point, so I might show you all as a thank you gift :P (It won't be that great xD)
Most people probably think that it's a waste of time to just leave a comment saying "Good stuff."
Personally, I only used to comment if I had something important to say, like to point out mistakes and certain issues with it, and how they could fix/improve it. But now I always try to leave a comment on any fic I read. I don't know why, but I just feel better for doing so.
Also, yay 10k views! And I can't wait for the comic.
Well, believe me when I say that when I notice the comment counter change, I get needlessly excited. I'm sure it's the same for everyone, except maybe the guys with 1000+ comments xD I'm lookin' at you, Two's Company, Three's a Crowd.
I imagine I only need to draw two more panels at the most, I did one last night and it took about twenty minutes (and this was one that I needed to experiment on a little bit, with posture, facial features etc), so it shouldn't take too long if I sit down and just do it. Thing is, I tend to take one panel being done as a job done for the day and go to do something else. It'll get done soon though. This is completely new territory for me though, if it ends up looking good, I might do the Derpy one I've thought of.
Doom, you say? Lurking Malady, you say? We'll just have to wait and see. Octavia is pretty much an open book at this point, but Vinyl? We don't know that much about her do we? Methinks that something like that needs to rectified somewhere along the line.
I never expected to get to 10,000 views today o_o
We'll just have to wait and see who it is 
Even though I'd class it as romance, I doubt Vinyl OR Flash would be caught dead using that word to describe their relationship. Of course, as things progress, feelings might strengthen, things might get said... maybe not
I think the real question here is, "Does Octavia know why she's mad?" If she figures that out, things might get solved quicker. We'll just have to hope she does the right thing.
I suppose I did promise you I'd show you the comic thingy as a thank you. I would've made it all into one image for ease of use, but I lack the computer skills, so I just uploaded each individual panel to DeviantArt and went from there.
Enjoy!
Wow, that was one extremely awkward situation. Is it weird that I couldn't stop giggling when Octavia walked in on the two, and continued to do so through Vinyl's story? It probably is...
This little development seems to open so many new doors for the future of this fic, in my eyes anyways. It's going to be fun to see how the 'relationship' pans out though, so many possible paths it could take. It will be interesting to say the least ^^. Then there is the mysterious guest? My first thoughts were it being Rainbow, but I'm second guessing that now. Here come the speculations as well, but I'll just keep those to myself.
One thing though:
' She span suddenly and faced the kitchen, but her fears only worsened as she saw a half-finished glass of wine-' Is that supposed to be spun?
(If that is a mistake, it was the only one I saw)
Really good chapter overall, and now I am now off to read the comic!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
oh well, at least it's not rainbow dash - that would've brought you a rating of glorious zero.
yeah, my name is rainbowscrush, but a fic with octavia and vinyl is the wrong place. GO FUCK YOURSELF SHUTTERFLY!
xD I've been waiting for you to finish reading before replying.
I think the main issue I see here is Vinyl's relationship... Yes I did at some point consider getting Rainbow and Vinyl together, but I decided that they're way better friends. Shutterfly/Flash suits her better. Vinyl in general isn't someone who can just be alone and not care about it, not to mention she isn't exactly shy when it comes to sexual relations. They're both artists, very temperamental people, but very compatible.
I'm not someone who just throws romance into my stories for no other reason than to have romance, so you can at least rest easy that a) It's not for no reason. b) It's not baseless romance and c) It's not Rainbow Dash xD
I understand that I can't please everyone, but I hope you can understand why I've done what I've done if you keep reading
I really enjoy that this isn't just a shipping fic- Vinyl/Octavia is one of my ships, but it's really cool to see some diversity and this story is really quite unique. Your Flash/Shutterfly, who I've never paid attention to before this story, is a great example of how to create an awesome fanon for a background pony- I'm impressed, and I hope we see more of her! I must agree with your decision not to pair Vinyl and Rainbow (who knows what that would do to their band dynamic...), and they are way better as friends (that pizza philosophy scene was hilarious).
I just read the entire fic all the way through, and this is one of the best slice of life fics I've seen so far. You've got a really well-developed and interesting set of characters, an engaging storyline, and a great sense of comedic relief and humor (why isn't this tagged comedy?). I really look forwards to the next updates! MORE!!!!!!!!
Well, 11 chapters read through, and for the most part i like it.
Not a fan of "Octavia is Pinkies sister" theory, sounds pretty far fetched (i think i read somewhere that it was actually debunked by the producers?), and their family as shown does not really fit how theywere portrayed in the one episode they appeared (not going to go into Pinkie as unreliable narrator here).
Also, not a fan of using mane 6 in Background pony fics (and even less with OC ponies) in larger role than a quick mention, but so far so good, and Rainbow is someone who might decide to become a music star on a whim if she thought it sounded cool/awesome/radical thing to do.
Don't really like the way Octavia seems to simply pick up her life and start following Vinyl Scratch almost immediatly after they meet.
And not a fan of Vinyl Scratch or Octavia ships that include ponies other than them (illogical, yes, but somehow the way fanon depicts them together seems to just fit, maybe i'm just a fan of odd couple/vitriolic best buds type of relationships in fiction).
But my main issue would be where Vinyl seems to use what might be called small scale brainwashing/drugging to get her way (the way she said she uses sounds to make people feel good and become more likely to follow her lead? pretty questionable imo).
But, apart from that, characterisation is consistent, descriptions are good and story is interesting.
So all in all, even with my minor issues (which are largely ones of personal taste), a good story that's worth following.
You didn't like all those things and you still liked it? xD
I think I've addressed the Pinkie/Octavia sister thing somewhere (maybe it's in the comments. or maybe I just told someone in a message or something) but I just heard the speculation and liked the dynamic. I actually really like and prefer Inkie and Blinkie as characters and not only because they sound like Pacman baddies. I also just liked the idea of Pinkie and Octavia coming from a strict/borderline abusive household, it gives weight to Pinkie's carefree attitude and it gives a justification for Octavia being distant, emotionless and a little stuck up. Fanon is there for exploring and sometimes it's nice to go against what most people think.
I don't like how people classify in-show background ponies as any less of a character in fanfics. I know for a fact that I don't care that the Carrot Top pony model says very little in the show, in a fanfic she can be as deep and meaningful as any in-show mane character. That's the kind of freedom that I love about writing fanfics. I can understand how people can have little quirks like that (I know that in my personal headcanon, the Mane 6 would never consider romantically pursuing one another) but any character that has been fanonised to the degree that Scratch and Tavi have been, they could easily be show characters.
About the Octavia just following Scratch thing, sometimes you just have to make choices like that before you lose them. Either she could stay unhappy as she was, or try for friendship with a charismatic stranger who show a great apitiude with music and is genuinely nice. Besides, when someone does to you what Scratch does via her show, it's hard to go back.
I'm (or at least I was) a big fan of ScratchTavia, I just went with the friendshipping route because it was fresher. There were plenty of other shipping fics with them so I played it simple to give people another look at their relationship. I also wouldn't describe Scratch/Flash as shipping, it's more like friends with benefits.
Small scale brainwashing? You could probably call that if you want, but she's just playing a clever game. Who are you more likely to date, a woman who walks up to you and asks for your name in a sultry whisper or a woman who growls a hello at your before cutting herself off with a hacking cough? Going solely by voices of course. There are countless studies about attractiveness and preferential treatment, nicer looking people are far more likely to get lenient sentences in court than scruffy looking people for example. It's no different than a woman pulling off her sweater to reveal a low-cut top as the police officer who pulled her over comes to question her speeding.
Nice to see that you enjoyed the story though. I wouldn't get my hopes up for another part any time soon though, as you can see, it's been more than two months since the last chapter and I've lost all drive to continue writing the fic.
It's spirit will live on in part through Destitute Illusions though (another fic of mine), in the next chapter actually. You know that dress they buy from Rarity in Ponyville, Scratch's idea that she talks about in the boutique, the band name? It all gets used, obvious changes are made to relfect the change in universes, but it's essentially the same.
I'm super alive! ... well, I'm not dead at least.
As for the story, I wouldn't take this as concrete fact, but lately I've been wanting to edit what I've done in this. Just, getting rid of errors, fixing mistakes, adding little scenes to make stuff more descriptive/less crappy/more relevant to the story etc. And considering that I've been writing a Vinyl Scratch centric fic for National Pony Writing Month (It's not a truly serious fic, it's actually over-the-top ridiculous), I've gotten back into the characters as well.
That's not to say that I'm definitely gonna pick this up straight away, but considering that I wrote this on the fly without any real plans, at least I wouldn't have to re-remember the plot or where I wanted to go xD
This was the first pony fic I ever wrote, so I think it deserves a little more respect than what I've currently given it over the past several months.
its a nice angle seeing Octavia this way and its creating some nice situations.....seeing them act friendly, there are too many shipping fics of these two, moments like these of friendship and aid are things that drive the show and it's nice to see them here
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I'm looking forward to more! It's always refreshing to see new takes on the Octavia/Pon-3 pairing.
anyways im looking forward to some more chapters 
I just can't get enough of Vinyl/Octavia!! Keep up this fantastic work. 
Image: http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/8838/131900710177octaviaohyo.png
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