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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.
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I like this fic a lot, very fun concept (and one we've all thought of I think, so it's great to have a fic establishing/writing it out).
This was funny too, to boot, backing it all up!
Well done, I hope it gets featured.
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Absolutely love it!
All my yes! You may have them!
Some arbitrary guy just downvotes two comments because he doesn't like the story.
Anyway, great story. Nice little bit of character development at the end.
Congratulations on featured!
3125740
i.imgur.com/SE4kZZH.png?1
3125636
It's probably someone of the Octavia-Plays-the-Cello school.
3125740
Ohmigosh!!
That was cute. I legitimately enjoyed reading that.
normally, i either favorite, comment, OR hit the like button...
HOWEVER
you my friend, more than EARNED all three, and a thank you most large, for you, somehow, reminded me of the home and family that i used to know, and perhaps, will know again, albeit different form, in the future.
may the brony community, in its entirety, read this story and feel the indescribable mix of emotions that i have.
and may you forever remember every single shred of pure happiness in your lifetime.
If anyone asks, say you're really good at playing Q*Bert.
Anyway, a fantastic Scratchtavia story, all the more so for building it around an existing episode in such a way as to expand both. The characterization of Applejack's parents and the flashbacks in general were exquisite, as were the scenes in the club, on the train...
Heck, it was just a great fic all around. Thank you for it.
Do you know what I've always hated? The strange insistence some people have that out of all the palette swaps in the show, there's one in particular that are actually the same pony. Why some people say that, and why they're stubborn enough about it to engage me in at least two Silly Internet Arguments, I have never been able to figure out, and it kinda grinds me.
... However. This has done the impossible. It has made me accept 'Fiddlesticks Is Octavia'. It's got believable answers for all those inconsistencies people have for that usually, and it's damn well written to boot. Plus I love the idea of Octavia spending her fillyhood summers on the Apple farm. So kudos to you and your dark heathen magics that spat in the face of nature to bring this about.
Great. Just amazing. I love it, AND I WANT MOAR STORIES FROM JU
Great writer, great story, I LOVE IT. 
And yes, congrats on the featured, it is well deserved indeed. 
Awesome story, and congrats on the Feature!
One thing, though...
"Apple Bloom" is two words.
3126290
Of all the reactions I might have hoped for, this goes so far beyond them, well...
I am deeply honored. Thank you.
DID SOMEBODY SAY-
fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/066/0/a/fiddlesticks_by_yamchakun-d5x9tja.jpg
-oh nevermind...
Good story though, mate!
3126519 When I saw the name of the story, I pretty much tough the same.
This is a great story and I greatly enjoyed it. Clever way to tie everything together, though now I want to see Octavia vs. Discord for a golden fiddle.
After reading this story, I only have one thing to say to you.
Thank you.
Thank you so fucking much.
Sincerely, I thought I was the only one who understood that Octavia doesn't play a cello. The only conceivable way for her instrument to be a cello is if ponies made their instruments incredibly large for no reason at all. If that's a cello, I'd hate to see what a contrabass looks like, and even worse the pony that can play it. This is a fantastic interpretation of Octavia's past, and certainly makes her cutie mark make more sense. Even if she was a cellist, it would still make more sense for her mark to be a Bass Clef. At least starting with a violin, she would have a Treble instead. Not to mention the concept and theory behind the playing of any member of the violin family is quite similar, so starting as a violinist and ending a bassist still is very feasible.
Good story, and I apologize for the random rant. I'm very passionate about classical music, especially orchestral strings, and especially the cello. I hate to be 'that guy', but it actually bothers me that so many people knew so little about the instrument that they all unanimously agreed that Octavia was a cellist.
Someone, who can sing and or play the fiddle/can edit out the vocals of the original, needs to sing that song and put it on youtube.
3126538 It already happened.
3126539
Heh, yeah her cutie mark always bothered me too. I was pretty geeked when I realized I'd figured out a way for her to get her cutie mark, and why it was the "wrong" clef.
My background is more jazz oriented, but I always thought she was playing contrabass too. Vinyl gives her a hard time as a shout-out to the cello crowd, though.
3126539 Actually, the musical director or some such for that episode confirmed that there's a cello being played during her scene.
3126675
All that really does is make me lose some respect for him. A cello is played from a sitting positions, otherwise it is too short to be played effectively. Her stance and size compared to her instrument indicates in every way that it's a bass. If the musical director for the episode claims it's a cello, then I'd have to argue his professionalism as a music director.
3126671
Quite clever indeed! Once I got to the part where she was offered a spot in the concert, I immediately knew where you were going with it and it made me happy. Her cutie mark always kinda irked me, because as I mentioned, cello and bass are most commonly, and almost exclusively, written in the Bass Clef. Cello pieces written in Treble aren't unheard of, but still not common since the Treble Clef goes far above the cello's top pitch and cuts off a good chunk of it's lower. It's not often I see Octavia interpreted in a way that inspires the idea that the author knows what they're talking about, however simple it may seem to me.
When I saw the name Octavia Melody in this fic, this was the first time I believed in Melody, that I thought it suited her... and then you blew that name out of the water.
And I'd love to hear that song made!
But there's one thing I'd like to quibble with - that ending. It seems too... cutesy and Aesopian, for two adult mares. The paragraph before it - in which Octavia looks out the window and sees "the passing trees blurred into an indistinct mass, too close to see clearly" - would have been a much better ending for the story - a metaphor for the future being unknowable, instead of the explicit ending we got.
Wow. Seriously, that's all I can sa- .. no scratch that. WOW and I LOVED IT! Brava!
Fiddlesticks Approved
fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/062/0/b/sketch5__complete___fiddlesticks_by_zzcomics-d5wwxjv.jpg
You have heard this a lot but THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! I play in the orchestra and the minute I first saw octavia's cutie mark I was torn between losing it that she had a treble cleft mark and played cello and that over all she is one of my favorite ponies because she does play an orchestra instrument. So thank you for making a head cannon wear she plays in a treble cleft and for shipping her and Vinyl Scratch together.
This was excellent! You gave Octavia a wonderful vocabulary and backstory, killed it almost perfectly with "Oh, Ye Nightmare", and really dug some much needed depth on the TaviScratch genre as a whole. It was nice to see that Vinyl could be just as insecure as Octavia could be. And excellent job fleshing Applejack's parents out, too -- yours is pretty much the first fic where I was pretty much fine with the two of them perishing in an accident, but more than that, Jonathan Apple and Ida Red were some of the most vibrant characters I've read in a really long while.
Thank you for writing this. This was a delight to find on a long Thursday night.
Thank you very much for writing this story. It's an absolute inspiration.
Nightmare Moon went down to Ponyville looking for a sun to seal...
Someone needs to make that into a real song.
Octavia=Fiddlesticks is now headcannon.
Well, that was rather excellent. The most enjoyable ship I've read in quite some time.
I...not sure what to say. It was awesome but now I got fiddle music playing it's phantom tunes through my brain. *throws hooves up in defeat* Loved the fic but now I gotta youtube fiddle music.
I thoroughly enjoyed that story, it had many great moments and the characters felt full. To top it off it was a Vinyl/Octavia story too! XD so extra points to you!
3125365
that was epic
And I figured RD was the winner of the most yesses... She. Never dose things in halves
3125294
Hey look, I suggested it and it happened.
3125365
Someone doesn't like our approval, roar.
Oh ye vinyl marry me...
Love the story,
This was truly amazing. I would love to see a recorded version of that song, but another part of me doesn't as I already have a beat in my head. Either way, it takes some major creativity and talent to write a song well enough to dredge up a tune from just words. Favorited, liked, and followed. i look forward to your future work.
3127665
It would seem that way.
But it's probably like what he said.3125883
3127612
Haha yea Rainbow unknowingly won another contest.
This was pretty damn brilliant.
The only constructive feedback I could possibly give about this story is that it could have benefitted from a bit more tightening, but that's hardly a major crime. The emotional beats are lovely and well laid out, the romance plays at being corny without actually becoming corny, and then the ending sealed it up with definite sincerity.
3126744
Huh. That line was actually added at the very last minute to smooth the transition into the end. Which is still supposed to be a bit ambiguous, but you make an awfully good case.
Hmm....
3127156
Spoiler: Inexplicably, something somewhere in the pie-frying process went awry.
Don't give up, Ida Red! We're still rooting for you!
Instant favorite. That was so perfectly executed i wish i could demand a sequel
Thanks for the tale.
--- One Psychopathic Maniacal Fox
Dammit, why do I have to leave for work now, when I've just discovered this? I just read the letter and the first sentence after that and I'm regretting having to earn a living if it implies not reading this.
Ah well. I'll read it tonight.
Totally had 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' playing in my head during Oh Ye Nightmare. The cool concert version, not the canned one.
That said, this was so freaking hilarious and adorable. I give it 11/10.
Fiddlesticks you say?
th06.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2013/054/b/b/fiddlesticks_by_lvlonroe-d5vwy6z.jpg
Heh. I'm not a musical person by any means - I listen to music, sure, but I can neither carry a tune nor play an instrument, and notes on paper are just a mystery - and the Octavia-Vinyl ship is one that I've never been convinced of. But with this story, you got me swept up with the musical fiddlyness, and sold the pairing to me. And it's such a well-written story to boot, with the flashbacks and present-day stuff woven neatly together and the episode stuff nicely integrated with it all. Well done!
i love this!
3128168
"Oh Ye Nightmare" is supposed to be its own song (or it is in my head, at least); to the extent the lyrics match up with "Devil Went Down to Georgia," (and jeeze, they kinda do, don't they!) it's coincidence or my subconscious playing tricks on me.
Having said that, the two songs are absolutely spiritual cousins.
3128570
Oh absolutely. But it's not so much the lyrics as I was putting it to that particular melody, since we don't have actual music to go with it. It'd be nice if we did, of course~
3128041
Mmmmmm... Fried apple pie.
Best original lyrics I've ever seen in a fanfic by an extremely wide margin.