Concerto Sette
“So remind me, why do you want me to come with you, Octy?”
Octavia covered her face with a hoof, sighing into the sole. “Because I can hardly be seen to go to such an event alone.”
Vinyl mused over the comment as the pair trotted towards the performance hall. It was just visible in the distance, exactly the sort of thing Victorian-era ponies thought would look cool. To Vinyl, it just looked old. She couldn’t help but remember the jumpers her grandmare would knit for her, and she’d wear, begrudgingly. She stopped her daydreaming, turning back to Octavia.
“And you don’t have any friends who would...y’know, actually like this kinda music?”
Octavia didn’t meet her gaze, but she saw her eyes track everywhere from the floor to awkwardly pointing away to her right. Anywhere but a place where she’d meet Vinyl’s own gaze.
“They were...all busy. You know, playing their own orchestral pieces and the like.” She followed with a grin that made Vinyl want to push further. However, she felt there was probably a reason for the obvious lie. As a result, she changed the subject to something less awkward.
“And why did I have to leave my shades behind. You know the looks I get ‘cause of my eyes.”
“What sort of looks? Your eyes are perfectly fine!”
Vinyl snorted, a little puff of steam burst out into the cold, winter air. “Apart from the fact they’re crimson-red. It was cool in high-school, but annoying now. Everypony jokes that I’m the Nightmare with eyes like these.”
Octavia giggled, bucking her rump slightly to readjust the cello case slung over her back. “Oh Vinyl, you do say such foalish things. I think your eyes are lovely, really.”
“Oh, you do, do you?” Vinyl leaned in with her voice, making the full weight of the implications known.
“Well...as far as eyes go, they’re quite striking...I mean...oh, look. We’re here!”
Vinyl barely stopped herself from trotting straight into the form of a particularly buffed-out bodyguard. He was the kind of bodyguard you knew couldn’t actually fight, and was simply a large slab of sapient muscle. However, the hours of body-building and gallons of protein shakes had the desired effect, and Vinyl shrunk back from him.
Octavia simply sauntered by him, pushing an insistent hoof onto Vinyl’s withers to get her moving again. She held out her ticket-plus-one in between her teeth, which was carefully grabbed by one of the bodyguard’s hooves, and ripped in two. He waved them through, glaring at Vinyl as though daring her to try something. Vinyl didn’t know what he expected her to try, but felt that amongst the toffs and posh ponies that frequented these sort of establishments, she must seem like a shoplifter. Something she hadn’t been for five years, she’d like to have pointed out. Sadly, Octavia’s insistent pushing had moved her far past the bodyguard, which was obviously luckier for him than her.
“Octy, you can stop pushing me. I’d like you get your hoof off my rump at least.”
Tiny trickles of blood seeped into Octavia’s cheeks. “I was simply pushing you away before the bodyguard apprehended you for starting a fight or something. They can be quite prejudiced here.”
“Aren’t I lucky to have a guardian pegasus like you? Right, now where’s the refreshments!” Vinyl slammed her forehooves together, rubbing them eagerly against each other.
“Through here, Vinyl. And please, don’t show me up tonight. This could be career-making for me. Just...mingle, in as polite a manner as you can muster.”
“Will do, Octy. I’ll just camp near the nibbles.”
Vinyl fled on her food-bound vector, homing in on a plate of something that looked both fancy, and chocolate coated. It had to be made by a high-class chef if it was in here, so in theory, it had to taste good too. Meanwhile, Octavia had ventured into the crowd looking for a seat, until she was sidelined by an infamously familiar green unicorn.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Octavia the cellist. Found another piece of driftwood to play your low-brow concertos on?”
Octavia whirled around to the source, a smug grin ready and waiting on her visage. “My, my, Lyra! Still playing your clunky, little harp?”
“This lyre, is pure gold, another league compared to that lump of dead tree you play on.”
“Hah. It’s most likely gold-painted tin. Besides, the pony operating the instrument is far more essential, and my cello is in pristine hooves.”
“Pfft, your earth-pony gimmick might be keeping the hoof-draggers happy for now, but you couldn’t even tell a tremolo from a piccolo!”
Vinyl had sat with a box of something resembling popcorn, which had instead been coated with caviar, chocolate, and anything ostentatious the chef could get his hooves on. The entertainment far outclassed the refreshments, she made mental notes on which insults pushed Octavia’s buttons the most. A timid earth pony came from behind her, beige-coated with a puffy pink and purple mane. She tapped Vinyl on the shoulder, causing her to spin round mid-insult.
“You’re Octavia’s friend, right?”
Vinyl swallowed the popcorn, somewhat regretting the chef’s choice of adding quail’s eggs to the garnish of that hoofful. “I suppose I could be called that. Vinyl Scratch, pleased to make your acquaintance.” She offered a hoof, which the earth pony took in a firm shake.
“Bonbon. I see Octavia and Lyra have already started their catchup.”
“Yup, it’s pretty fun to watch. I’m guessing their not great friends.”
“Oh, it’s sad that they rile each other up so much. Honestly, they’ll be there until their sets come up. If you’d like, we can grab some good seats in the theatre. Best to get somewhere close to the front for the performance before they’re all taken.”
Vinyl mulled over the idea, her eyes listing over to see Octavia vehemently gesturing at the green unicorn in a way she found very endearing. She couldn’t hear what she was saying anymore, as the murmur in the room had masked Octavia’s level-volumed rage. She nodded to Bonbon, grabbing a tray of tiny cupcakes with edible ball-bearings on them as she exited. A waiter smiled at her as she passed, his coat light brown with an hourglass cutie mark. One last glance revealed Octavia to be making hoof gestures for less cultured than she would like to believe. Ultimately, Vinyl made a mental note to tease her for everything such a transgression was worth.
* * * * * *
Bonbon lead Vinyl out into the theatre hall. Despite the grandeur of the exterior - in all its Neo-Gothic glory - the interior was pretty much the same as any other hall Vinyl had been to. A rare few halls, but she had went on trips to pantomimes as a filly. The stage was a semi-circular plate of perfectly smooth wood, almost as if it were carved from one tree trunk. Beyond it stretched seats arranged in rows all the way to the edge like the old Ponan Colosseum, creating an inclined semi-circle focused toward the stage in its centre.
They found a pair of seats near the front row, there were few other ponies in the hall. Vinyl supposed nopony would want to see a rehearsal or audition, they’d much rather see the finished product. Unless it was like Equestrian Idol, if those sort of auditions were the subject matter at hoof, then Vinyl felt she would enjoy the night.
Bonbon took a seat near the gangway, while Vinyl sat next to her, and the tray of pilfered cupcakes took its socially-acceptable place precariously balancing on the space between them. While Vinyl would have enjoyed to hoard the cupcakes to herself, Bonbon didn’t seem to be that bad a pony, and her manners simply wouldn’t allow selfishness anyway. Not just because Octavia had told her to be polite and cultured either.
She turned to Bonbon, who she imagined had attended this sort of tirade before, and could probably help her prepare for whatever was coming.
“So, what’s this all about then?”
Bonbon coughed politely, pointing a hoof at a quartet of ponies seated alone on the front row. “It’s an audition for the Grand Galloping Gala. Very prestigious, Lyra missed out last year for...personal reasons. She’s hoping to get a place on the band that plays in the music hall there. It’s a great boost for her ponysona.”
“So, Lyra and Octy are arguing over who gets to play music for the Gala...can’t they just both play?”
“Oh, possibly, it’s two string pieces, pianist, and a brass instrumentalist, normally. They could both play, but Celestia help the pony that has to get those two to collaborate.”
Vinyl practically drooled at the prospect of some juicy gossip to collect, she lifted the plate of ball-bearing cupcakes to Bonbon’s attention.
“Want some of these by the way? Can’t eat them all by myself.” A blatant lie if there ever was one.
“Oh, I really shouldn’t...but hey, my cutie mark is a bunch of sweets.” She cursively scanned over the cakes, grabbing the one with the most prolithic spattering of icing sugar. “I promised Lyra I’d cut down on sugary treats, but it’s difficult to resist most times.”
“I hear ya, filly. Why’d you promise Lyra that, anyway. You two on a diet together or something?”
Bonbon blushed, giggling into a hoof. “A bit more than a diet, we’re married.”
Vinyl’s cupcake somehow found a way to violently lodge itself in her trachea.
* * * * * *
Anticipation welled in Octavia’s bloodstream, seemingly giving her heart ten times the work at twenty times the beat rate. She scanned around the room as, slowly, one-by-one, ponies filtered out. Ponies she’d seen before, that she knew couldn’t best her. However, the one she was wary of still sat nearby, practising on her lyre. The thought had occurred to Octavia to divert her attention through practise, but she felt Lyra would find a catty remark or other if she dared try.
The one thing that had fractured the surface of her haughty facade, was the revelation of the pony presiding on the judging panel. Even thinking his name gave Octavia goosebumps. Hoofz Zimmer had been a lifelong inspiration, the reason she had begged her parents for an instrument on Winter’s Moon Day, no less. This iconic composer had been the subject of much lavishly-applied praise from herself over Octavia’s lifetime, and the very concept of playing in front of him made her legs feel unstable.
“Oh dear, Octavia. Not going to faint in front of our esteemed guest tonight?” Lyra had stopped practising, glaring at Octavia with that familiar, challenging grin.
“I’m afraid not, Lyra. I imagine he’s eager to hear my piece first, hence why you’ve been placed at the...back of the queue.”
Lyra twitched slightly at the jibe. “Saving the best until the last, and getting the trash out as soon as possible.”
“Well, if it helps you sleep at night. How was it for work, last year?” Octavia was tip-hoofing the line, waiting for a response to gauge whether she could push onwards. Lyra scowled with a glare that would humble dragons.
“You know full well what happened, Octavia. But I’m not fussed at all, in fact, the only reason you got the position was due to my absence. Your revelry is over now.”
“...And now they know how much better they can do. It’s a real pity you had to dump an entire career of supposed celebrity for some mare from a backward squalor like Ponyville.”
Lyra’s mint-green face was cut across with throbbing, angry veins. “You dare say a single word more about Bonbon, and I will wrap that precious little bow around your neck...so then you’ll have two bow ties. I’ll make sure both of them are extra tight.”
Octavia hastily drew herself as far away from the line as ponily possible, without coming across as submissive or defeated. She attempted to consider an apology or reconciliation, but was cut-off in her effort by the portly colt calling ponies onto the stage. It was her turn. Instead, she retreated away from Lyra, unpacking her cello and waving a hoof at the glowering mare. She received all the motivation she expected.
“Break a bucking leg, Octavia. Or your neck.”
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Hahaha break your neck
6/5
I have no words to express my great thanks for your piece.
DAME, nice thing with Lyra! never saw that coming!! I just hope Octavia has a chants to say she is sorry.
Yay two Doctor Who referances in the same paragraph!
Break your neck
About Lyra and Bonbon. First of all, thank you for spelling the latter correctly, a feat which not even the wiki was able to achieve.
Secondly, the personalities are a bit skewed. Lyra seems pretty nice in the series, and even starts crying when a parasprite eats her pie. If anything, Bonbon is the catty one, blowing off Rarity at one point, and complaining with an irritatingly shrill voice about something as trivial as being accused of stealing apples. I think it would've been more accurate, and possibly more interesting, if done correctly, to have them switch places, with Bonbon being arrogant for Lyra, talking down Octavia while the artist herself sits back and timidly protests to the fighting.
"A waiter smiled at her as she passed, his coat light brown with an hourglass cutie mark."
So the timelord's a waitor now?
31173 They're background ponies, he can make them act however he wants.
Doctor Who references?
Seems our author is as well cultured as our protagonist.
Hans/Hoofz Zimmer. Oh. My. God.
I love your story.
DDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!! MARE TURNT UP ON HER ASS!!
Oh man.... this chapter......
I really want to like this fanfic, it's gained a ton of recognition and as evident as +1000 likes this has gotten it's a fanfic that many enjoy.....
And to be fair I think it's quite well written, on a technical level that is. Personally speaking as a dyslexic, reading multi-chaptered stories has always been a huuuggeee pain for me and no matter my overall enjoyment of it, has always just left my brain feeling like this:
and I'd have to stop reading and come back the next day when my brain was feeling a little more up to it, but for this fic I've never had that feeling (at least in relation to your writing abilities) although I can't exactly pin-point why that is, if I had to guess I say it was due to how simple and descriptive it was. It didn't have any useless clutter in it, to use an analogy, it's like eating Lean Steak, doesn't have a lot of unhealthy fat and when eaten, you bite into the tasty meat. (I hope to celestia's mighty plot this analogy makes sense 
).
There a lot of little things in this fic that I personally like quite a bit. The little things, ya know? Like the Pan-Equestrian Gargle Blaster, the fanfic writers in the fancy Bar and just the little character moments, those were very nice indeed....
But this is where delve into the problems this fic has.... and by problems I mean the characters...and by that I mean the characterization of those characters is what really, really got me all riled up......specifically that of Octavia's. Up till this point, all I've been shown of her personality has been mostly negative. At best she's: Egotistical, smug, unbearably sarcastic, and stuck-up to the high heavens. At worst she's: An elitist, she's vindictive, mean and has a narcissistic predisposition that makes me sick. I can see what you're trying to do here, I know your just trying to do, don't get me wrong, I know what Fanon Octavia's negative personality usually are. The whole "I'm a sophisticated and posh mare and I dislike your strange unclassiness and your interest in headache inducing WUB-WUB-WUB-WOB noise music" , I get it, it makes sense, She's a posh pony and feels uncomfortable around places/people/situations that don't share that same refinement and elegance as she's used to and an argument can be made that she has a ego on her as well. The problem comes when you're trying to portray these flaws, you've basically Flanderized these negative traits, added MORE and made them disproportionate to whatever positive/sympathetic traits she may have.
To use another analogy, think Rainbow Dash, she has a bunch of flaws that potentially make her unlikable as hell: she can be mean, egotistical, kinda dense and rather short with her friends when they annoy her. But there's a reason that so many people (myself included) love her despite this. It's because she has a TON of other much more positive character traits that are shown more often: A loyal friend, a dependable pony to rely on when shit gets real, someone that defends the people that she loves to the very end and generally just kinda nice. We see more of her that's more than just an egotist or an insensitive prick. But this Octavia doesn't really have that, her good traits are way to little relative to her negative ones, there's been very little shown to me that redeems her... BUT.. I've stayed patient, it's a long fic...16 chapters and all. I can see that you're just building up all this for character development later on, I'll just bare with it a little longer and those character developments are right around the corner! Although, when I had made this remark to myself my patience was already close to snapping as it is.... and then I got to this chapter.... and it tore my patience in half. And ate it.
I think y'all know what is was that did it. Already from the start I disliked Octy and Lyra's interactions with each other, it was mean and I was shocked by Lyra's attitude (although I think that was intentional? yes?) but still I kept patient and was interested to see where this all leads to, glad to see the Lyra & BonBon ship in there and the fact that their married was quite nice as well (and Vinyl's reaction was great too!) But it was Octavia's last little insult to lyra that finally nailed that last freaking nail. Not gonna lie to you all, my jaw dropped when she said that and I felt physically sick, I know that sounds over dramatic, but it's Celestia's freaking truth! I literally felt sick and disgusted when I read that, everything that was wrong with this Octavia was made completely evident with one bucking comment, all that was just encapsulated in that paragraph: vindictive, elitist, smugness, egotism, narcissism, meanness. All that was in that. one. little. paragraph. I buried my face into my hands and and tried to get my shit together.
I couldn't.
This had me push the story into an "Event Horizon" of sorts, a point within the story that just reached a singularity of everything wrong with it and falls into this "Black Hole" I suppose you can call it, it reached a point where it had just lost me completely. I'm not sure If I can explain it any better than this: A point in the story that just finally made you yell "I'VE FREAKING HAD ENOUGH!" and just bin the whole damn thing. I've only had that happen to me twice, this is the second one....
Now most of you probably realised that I didn't actually finish this fic, chapter 7 is where the Event Horizon occurred and Chapter 7 is where I really want to stop, of course a lot of people are going to have problems with this, I would have a issue with this as well if someone else had done this. It's been my philosophy around stories that you should see it in it's entirety before making criticisms like what I just did. However, I also have another philosophy about stories that if it causes an Event Horizon to happen it has already lost it's good points as well, it got sucked along with everything else into the singularity, that's what an Event Horizon does it terms of storytelling. Everything just gets lost.
Like I said before, I really, really DO want to like this fic but the characterization of Octavia just got to me (Vinyl's personalty got to me as well, but for different reasons, I just didn't feel that her characterization wasn't very strong) I do like a lot of things about the story though. Like I said, those cute and clever little references to other media and of course those tiny moments when the characters actually become likable (I'm thinking of the Pickle fight right now, when I first read that I just giggled and had the dumbest smile on my face
) and of course I think your writing skills are lovely 
I hope that somebody out there has found this whole over written mess of a critique somewhat helpful, this was rather tough for me to write with the Dyslexia and all (took me a few hours actually to write this whole damn thing out) and I tired making it as constructive as I could've. It felt strangely good actually to write this, it was like drawing or painting again, I guess this is what being a writer would feel like.
It feels wonderful......
I see another pony celebrates Winter's Moon
And Lyra as a rival... well, it's really cool. I like to see her standing up for Bon Bon, too. Octavia totally deserved getting owned on that, too.
Ugh, the only reason I like Octavia is because of Two's Company, Three's a crowd. Most of the time shes stuck up. Like the thing about Bonbon. But Octy is a cool mare though.
I loved the edible ball-bearings! Made my day!
Doctor Whooves is in the house. Trouble cant be far behind.
WIN!!!
Wait...Hoofz Zimmer? As in Hans Zimmer? As in THIS Hans Zimmer:
Or THIS:
Or THIS:
Well, that's got to be the coolest real world pun I've ever seen on this site...
A few syntactical corrections:
"for less cultured" was probably meant to be "far less cultured"
"Idol, if" is a comma-splice and should be "Idol. If" or "Idol; if"
"cursively scanned" doesn't seem to be an actual thing you can do. No definition of "cursively" or "cursive" fits a manner of doing something.
"practising" is misspelled. It should be "practicing"
"facade, was" has both a slight misspelling and an unnecessary comma. It should be "façade was"
"at all, in fact," is another comma-splice and should be "at all. In fact,"
I agree to that!
One of the best real world puns ive heard too being the Hoofz Zimmer notion. 
1688413
All Hail the Zimmers, Lords of modern day composing!
Damn, I love playing his music.
Okay, wow, I never thought one could have too many horse-related puns, but you just proved me wrong.
Here i am, reading the banter between Lyra and Octy and I get to thinking of how they would or wouldn't be friends (I have seen a lot of both, so I was just reasoning it out to myself).
I concluded that Octy most likely wouldn't be BEST friends but at least good friends with Lyra because Octy is with Vinyl who is weird, but Lyra is weirder, I mean, she believes in HUMANS! (I even mentally pointed to Lyra as if in argument with somepony)
I've been ponified. 
At this point in my mental reasonings, I had to stop, take a step back and just laugh.
Well, that escalated quickly. Got to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of this aggressive relationship between Octavia and Lyra, but it is what it is; nothing will shoo me away from a good ScratchTavia fic, and this is one of the best I've read!
Dear god, the Coincidence meter has gone off the chart! I was talking with a friend about Doctor Who as I read the bit about the "waiter". So, what is the Doctor doing here? Cybermanes? Daleks? Secret love of pony orchestral music?
How do you do it? I didnt think it possible, but I'm more in awe every chapter. Your wish is my command, My Liege.
Wow, never thought you would have Octavia cross that line. I mean, yes, she is a stuck up prick some times, but there are just somethings you just don't do, and insulting another's lover; even if they are a rival, is just wrong. She has a lot of bad karma to make up for when this is all over.
1688413
That Hans Zimmerman. He's a baws.
I've been enjoying this story thus far, and it seems like a few things have come to a head in this chapter. I thought it was pretty interesting how you had Lyra and Octavia interact like that, and the way Octy crossed the line like that was rather surprising. The only nitpick I have thus far is how quickly you had Octavia and Vinyl become familiar with each other. I'm looking forward to reading more.
~SolidFire
I SAW That! That Doctor Whooves reference made me think back to season 1 with Eccleston. "Does anybody want champagne?" I LOVE this fanfic!