TBetween Bassdrops and Bowstrings

• MLP: FiM
• Romance
• Drama
• Slice of Life

Following Vinyl Scratch, Octavia Melody, and many of Equestria's musicians in their struggles to bring music to Equestria and all it's ponies. A tale about music, romance, destiny and what it means to try and change it.

• Profanity
• Sex
• Lyra
• Bon-Bon
• DJ P0N-3
• Octavia
• Other

Quillian Inkheart · 125k words  ·  213  12 · 3.7k views

"Between Basedrops and Bowstrings.- by Quillian Inkheart." Is a well-written story following its main characters Octavia and Vinyl on their journey through life, as the fall in love with each other.

My Thoughts After Reading:
This story very rarely caused the smile to leave my face as I read its contents. The story itself (to my enjoyment) connected the dots between a big variety of Octavia and Vinyl shipping content, adding its own twists and being sure to cite the source of its inspiration. Although that being said, it's flawed did end up lessening my enjoyment of the fic overall, forcing me on a scale of [Masterpeice, Great, Good, Average, Poor, Bad, and an Atrocity.] to lower it's score from great at the start, to just good. Let's get into it, shall we?

Grammar: 10/10
I caught and informed the author of a couple of small errors, all of which were promptly fixed.

The Stories Moral: 6.5/10
The general moral of the story is that love transcends all boundaries, whether by gender, class, or genre, love will find a way. And that message is stellar, though the story fails to really address the repercussions of such in the bigoted society of Canterlot. Where in which Octavia works. Of which, it briefly references, but never truly expands upon it.

Plot Progression: 6.5/10
The first sixty percent of the story progresses perfectly with grand suspense, shared anxiety with the characters and good plot twists that smack you across the face. But the latter forty percent of the story left me with the feeling that it was a little rushed, and perhaps a little busy when it came to the spacing of events.

Even though the story is classed as a romance, but we very rarely get to experience the romance itself, let alone the trials and tribulations of the characters being in the relationship. Especially the part when Octavia's relationship gets ousted in Canterlot. And although it seems like that would be a major spoiler, it isn't. It's but a clip note, briefly mentioned as a "Yea, that happened." with no further reference, let alone any bearing on the story. Which was disappointing, as its gravity was played up through most of the early part of the story.

Overall Score: 23/30
10+6.5+6.5=23/30

My Advice To The Author:
"Be Brave." Don't be afraid to linger or even expand on events like this in your stories. Especially the cute relationship stuff, and consequences of it. Whether good or bad, these events all shape and affect these characters in deep ways, and test their relationship in new ways, giving the readers lessons and experiences they've never seen or thought possible before, but we can't experience and learn those lessons if you don't tell them. And I hope that helps.