Octavia's cutie mark is a treble clef, but that is only her destiny. Her parents had a different plan for her life. Neither her parents nor her destiny asked what she thought. At the bottom of her heart, all this little pony ever wanted was to know that she was not alone against the world, and to play beautiful music.
Now with a follow-up story, Render Unto Them Wubs.
=#= Written for the Octavia Fans One Year Anniversary Contest. Root idea stemmed from a backstory for everyone's favorite grey cellist that has been rolling around in the back of my head for a while.
Chapters (1)
thumbs up for all the references alone you put in this one story, they went in several directions at once yet all fit together. that takes a bit of talent
and thanks for not making another shipping story of our favorite musical mares. fimfiction has plenty of them already, and it's nice to see them support each other like friends would.
Really nice story.
The feels are in the perfect place
Like Mid endian said, good job on mixing all the references together
(only hiccup, still the paragraph problem, but it didn't stop me cause to story's interesting.)
Wow, that is... an interesting portrait of Octavia, torn between her father's wishes for her to be an assassin -- the only wish of his he could fulfill -- and her true calling.
That one line made me think, though:
"Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand bits for every dot that stopped, would you really, old mare, tell me to keep my money, or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare?"
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The fact that I was able to call to your mind such a grand old Noir classic tells me that I've accomplished my goal with this tale, at least for one reader. I wrote this to have a distinctly dark "film grit" overtone to it, but still tried to end the story with an ending that would fit within FiM's 'verse. It's a real pleasure to learn that people are still finding and reading my old stories, especially this one!
This "version" of Octavia is something of an offshoot. I wrote it for a competition (that, humorously enough, disintegrated before announcing any winners), and used many of the themes present in another of my stories, one that has a far more "paranormal" theme than this. While Render Unto Them Wubs is the followup to this story, if you'd like to see more about Octavia the assassin, I humbly recommend my story Bon Hadescream. I can't link it here, since it's rated M for Mayhem, and such links are against site policy now...
One of the main themes in this story is Octavia trying to "escape" her past. Bon Hadescream shows her struggling to face it. While she managed to walk away from the things her father taught her when he died, she is still struggling with a guilty conscience. A chance meeting with an "old friend" lands her a job running deliveries for the Bon Hadescream Organization, a secret society dedicated to protecting Equestria from Things That Should Not Be. That gives her the opportunity to pick up her tools on her own terms, but she is not fighting for forgiveness. Octavia understands that she was born with a gift, and that good can still come of the evil her father put her through.
What the Heart Wants story was more focused on Octavia finally "shrugging" that weight off. Bon Hadescream focuses more on how one's actions define if you are a monster, not your abilities. They do not occur in the same timeline, but have similar themes.
And as for your quotation, I dare say that is exactly what I try to imagine when I write for Octavia's father. An amoral sociopath who believed not only that he was righteous, but was able to impose his will on others so fully that they began to believe the same way. Within the context, he is absolutely right. We find it so very hard to care about dots, especially when letting go of a few would make our lives so much easier.
However, after one has lived as a dot, as a mare struggling to make her way in the world with her cello rather than her cold blood... it is very hard to look down on them as mere dots. That's the angle I gave Octavia in Bon Hadescream, at least. Here, she has other options for income, as mentioned in the story. As I said, this story was set with a grim film grain overtone, but a brighter ending that fits with FiM's values. Besides, Octavia only has room for one sociopath in her life, and that's Vinyl Scratch thankyewverymuch!
Thank you for reading, and especially for the comment. If you have an inclination to peruse my other work, I'd love to hear your thoughts on them as well!
Wow!
I never thought I would actually like a MLP fanfic that involved assassination in any way. Thank you for proveing me wrong.
Like, fav and added to my recommendation group.
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Thanks for the feedback! It's always refreshing to know that someone is finding these little stories I wrote long ago. I fully agree with you, this story would be dynamite with more active language... and in fact, I've written it with that extra kick of energy. It's called Bon Hadescream, and it focuses on Octavia and Vinyl fighting monsters and making music. No, it's not directly related to this tale, but the premises of the two are the same. You might say that What the Heart Wants is an "in a mirror, darkly" version of Bon Hadescream.
The reason I wrote this story was for a competition. (A competition that actually fell through before any winners were announced...) I also challenged myself to use that dry, detached tone to give the reader a sense of the hopelessness Octavia is feeling. I'm glad you enjoyed it, since that tells me I accomplished my goal of engaging the reader while using this style of writing!
Have a ribbon,
i.imgur.com/6MrWqNZ.png
along with a thumb, a fav, and a feature recommendation.
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Thank you.
I know it's a small thing to say, but I truly mean it. It warms my heart to no end when I return to FiMfiction and discover that new readers are finding and enjoying my old stories. The feature recommendation you posted made me blush, because it told me you understood exactly what I was trying to communicate with this story. It's a tale that is supposed to be quietly horrifying, but ultimately leave the reader with a positive feeling. I know that What The Heart Wants is far from perfect but it has always held a special place in my heart because of all that I was able to learn from writing it.
So, thank you. Thanks for just reading it, enjoying it, and caring enough to say so.
And I never would have thought that THIS story would be approved by Twilight's Library, so WOOOOO! Thanks for that! It's the second... no, wait, technically the THIRD story of mine that y'all have given the nod to, and I know that the purple ribbon is a true mark of quality.
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You're very welcome. It's always a joy to be able to say "No, author, they're not just saying that, ya really done good, kid. Now do it again."
Seriously, there's so much self-deprecation and rage reviewing out there that someone's got to stand up for the good stuff
Approved for The Goodfic Bin
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