Bluenote has been teaching Octavia jazz, and Octavia is looking for a way to repay her friend. Since Bluenote is a gourmand, Octavia decides to teach her how to make some traditional recipes from her hometown, including one that she often made with her mother. Unfortunately, Bluenote then tries to share the recipe with others before having fully mastered it... and when others dislike the result, it's Octavia who takes the blame and the humiliation. Can Bluenote find a way to make it up to Octavia?
A Cadanceverse story. The first Cadanceverse story is here, but you don't need to read the others to understand this one.
Chapters (5)
I didn't know this was coming. Sounds interesting so far. You did a good job of describing the music in the introduction.
Nice to hear that Octy's doing her job and studying the other elements styles of music.
Nope she's fancy instead.
I wonder if we'll get to know a bit more about Octy's mother in this. Given her position it's presumably quite strange that she seemed to do a lot of cooking herself, you'd think she would be busy running a province most of the time. It's nice she made the time to spend with her daughter and cook stuff if she was upset.
3717902 : She doesn't do most of the cooking; there are servants for that. But she does know how, so when her daughter is upset, she finds a little time in her day to bake with her.
*does a small victory jig when ever a new Cadenceverse story appears*
I'll be giving my full thoughts later.
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I did the same dance twice because this one features Bluenote.
Pinkie and Bluenote seem to be cast from the same mould when it comes to food. It's cool that Octavia is getting into jazz - it goes well on the cello, I think.
Somehow I get the feeling that Octavia isn't quite as good a cook as she wants to be... but it is cute that she and her mother cooked together sometimes.
This explanatory paragraph disrupts the narrative:
The vast majority of ponies will start at the story-description before reading chapter #01; so now, I would move it to the story-description.
New Cadanceverse story, yay! Loved the musical lesson with Bluenote. And... *Sees Bluenote staring off into space* Oh, dear.
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"Food is my only identity."
Seriously though ah'm curious ta see how this goes south.
3717923 "When you're family, you make the time."
Pride goeth before a fall!
Yay, it updated. Who needs sleep?
Interesting range of things Bonbon makes, she's far from a one trick pony.
I'm a little worried that Bonbon is coming onto Octy here, that way lies a very angsty Lyra and madness.
Also an interesting look into why Bluenote likes to cook.
Aww, little Octy and her mother are so cute and she had stuffed instruments as toys! It's very sweet if slightly obsessive. (Does she still sleep with one?). Is her mothers name actually Duchess as well as her title?
A few words missing there I think
And a letter here, unless someone suggested making the meal in a hat, which would be interesting to say the least.
Yes it will be a lot more charcoaly than it ever was before.
Have you tried cooking any of this stuff yourself?
I can sort of see Octy getting caught up in her story and singing and dancing around the same way as Twilight did her Yes! Yes! Yes! dance in the Cutie mark chronicles.
No Bluenote, don't commit one of the cardinal sins of cooking! Don't feed others an untested recepie!
4040015 : I like the idea of Bonbon having hidden depths. And I can totally see her learning all kinds of recipes to find out what could best be applied to her baking.
Bonbon isn't attracted to Tavi, she's just light-hearted and having fun. I thought it'd be a nice contrast between the more serious, reserved cellist and the lighter-hearted candymare. That said, "Lyra gets jealous of Tavi's 'relationship' with Bonbon" could make an interesting story later on.
Duchess is not Mrs. Philharmonica's name--I just don't have a name for her right now, so I used her title. :-) As for the stuffed instruments, while I doubt she still sleeps with them, I think it's safe to say she might still have one or two tucked away somewhere.
Thanks for the grammar/spelling corrections, I made them.
Haven't tried cooking it myself, no. I don't have a tandoor, and the candied herbs take a long time to make. Really the only thing I could make is the raita yogurt, but it needs something to go with it, and I haven't found the right pairing yet.
Heh. Dancing Tavi for the win!
Really cute. That song gave me palpitations too.
Given her toys I think Octy can probably surprise Vinyl and play something like this.
Vinyl, jaw wide. "I didn't know you could play like that!"
Octavia, smug. "You never asked."
This is adorable! And delicious. I have a hankering for naan and cucumber yoghurt now. The Indian place we get delivery from does a wonderful naan stuffed with rice, sultanas and spices. Not sure I'd be game to cook it the traditional way, though. Even less so if I had hooves.
Filly Octavia is just the sweetest little thing. She was a perfectionist even then, of course! The image of her standing on a stool to play a cello that's too big for her is kind of adorable. And stuffed instruments are even cuter. One of my girlfriends says that a stuffed sousaphone would be the best toy, because you could wrap yourself up in it and keep a snack in the bell. She's also the one who is loaning me a plush rabbit to help me sleep better, and it seems to be very effective at warding off nightmares, so that's nothing to be ashamed of if Octavia still sleeps with a plush saxophone or something!
It's lovely that Octavia's mother takes time out of her busy schedule of Duchessing to bake with her filly. They seem like a pretty good family.
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Multiple sins, actually. Taking the unperfected recipe and not only offering it to other ponies, but foals... who are well known to have a palette that doesn't extend very far beyond hayburgers and macaroni and cheese, and to top it off doing it at a public recital where she'll be crediting Octavia with the recipe.
When the Elements of Harmony fail, they do it epically.
Octa-Mom is awesome. :D Octavia, it's good to strive for success... but don't be too disappointed when you can't wield an instrument almost twice your size, k?
And Bluenote... oh, this isn't gonna end well, is it.
4042746
I have a feeling this is the "Applejack has to buck all the Apple trees herself" episode of the Cadenceverse. Bluenote is about to unleash "baked bads" on the town! The horror! The horror!
4040683
I think you actually want right, there.
Aww, filly Octy is cute!
Especially with her mummy.
Bluenote, wat u doin? Bluenote, stahp! (That felt painful writing it.
)
4042997 : Fixed, thanks.
4042746: Heh. Well, if Tavi has one thing, it is very high standards.
(Man, now I want to do a followup in the Lunaverse to the 'A Present for Octavia' story, since it was revealed there that Luna enchanted a miniature cello to sound just like a regular cello so that Octavia's little cousin could practice on an instrument that was appropriately sized. I bet that would be an adorable performance...)
Good to see more of this:)
I love the description of the music room, it sounds just perfect. How many instruments does she have on hoof? Does she have some sort of deal with Medley to have them on permanent loan? All those foals will be begging their parents to get them a *insert instrument here* for hearth's warming, could be quite a money spinner.
So that's where Sweetie Bell learned it!
A nice mix of foals taking lesions today, they seem to cover a range of ages, Noi seems distressingly teenaged near the beginning although she opened up once they got to the bit she found interesting.
The idea of using gloves to play the piano is interesting but I'd assume that a pony piano would have keys big enough to play with hooves, unless that would make it to long. Maybe a wheeled stool to allow the pianist to zip up and down the register?
I think Octy took that a little hard at the end, sure it's a very important recipe to her but she bit Bluenotes head off a bit readily, I suppose she is the serious one and Bluenote did seem to be making it all a joke.
As for the Hydroponics, I sort of saw Carrot Top and Vinyl being similar, both trying hi-tech solutions to their crafts. Maybe Applejack and Carrot Top could get into some sort of disagreement (whether Carrot Top can enter her crop in some sort of competition?) and have Octy and Vinyl join in on different sides linking to their own styles of music (Is dub trot music? Octy votes No!).
Was that cereal line a reference to Magnetism?
Aww I knew it was coming but it was still hard to see such a misunderstanding explode like that. Though it was great to see how Bluenote interacted with the foals and she's pretty good at getting them to find something to enjoy about music.
4183230 : It was a reference to the Simpsons. In one episode, Homer pours a bowl of cereal and it immediately bursts into flame for no apparent reason.
4182973 : Bluenote has her tuba, a well-used piano, and some fundamentals (like the tin recorder she let Titchy use). She likely has a deal with Medley for pretty much exactly the reasons you discussed. :-) That said, since most foals are only going to get one or maybe two instruments ever, it's probably not all that lucrative.
While expanding a piano and adding a sliding stool could work for some things, it limits the range that the pianist can express at any given time (they can only stretch their forelegs so far, so if they're in the base tones, they might not be able to reach treble). So I think the normal piano with tapered gloves works better. In my mind, the gloves have 'fingers', which can play chords based on how the earth ponies roll their ankles about. (It's probably impossible for me to figure out a sane way for earth ponies to play a piano, but dang it, I'm going to try!)
This is the first time Octavia's ever been hurt by a friend... after all, it's the first time she's actually had friends at all. SoI think it makes sense that she's very upset.
I like the idea of a friendly competition between CT and AJ (dirt versus water!). It'd be funny if the foals got involved; I could just see Apple Bloom and Noi going at it. And Tavi and Vinyl on opposing sides could be fun too. (That said, I should probably emphasize that it would be a friendly competition--at worst, the kind of frenemie thing that Dash and AJ had going in your own 'Race That Ate Friendships.')
4183393 : One thing I really like about writing Bluenote is how she cares so much about making sure everypony has fun, even foals that might not be interested in music at first (like Noi) or who take things extremely seriously (like Silver Spoon). Not only will she teach them, but she'll make sure they're smiling while she does it. :-)
4184397
Well for the piano maybe layers of keys to reduce the width of the instrument? You're never going to get one method to allow any combination of keys to be pressed at the same time but you have the same problem with a human piano so you're just limited in the sounds you can make and have to work music around it.
For the hydroponics side I didn't mean for Carrot Top to be a one trick pony in using it, she's interested in many 'high tech' forms of gardening so unusual fertilisers (might gross ponies out but does earth pony dung make crops grow quicker?), cross breeding of crops, depending on the tech level of the C-verse things like inducing Polyploidy in crops might work. It might be interesting to look into earth pony magic a bit deeper than just makes plants grow better and see if they can manipulate plants in other ways.
It might be interesting for Applejack to stand for the traditional ways of farming only to be reminded that traditional methods were new once, maybe with a reminder of Granny Smith discovering how to make zap apple jam.
4184397 ha, she sounds like a real kind sort. :)
The melted toast incident?
img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130102024539/mlp/images/7/7e/Toast_S2E5.png
This was a really solid chapter. Very sweet and good buildup.
I confess Bluenote complaining she didn't want to follow the recipe came as a bit of a shock to me. Up to this point she's seemed like a decent friend and then suddenly she eats an idiot ball. I mean I understood she perhaps didn't follow the idea that making the naan properly would be meaningful to Octavia but to hear her complaining rather than acknowledging the benefit felt really off for her character so far.
4199762 : It's more that she's feeling a little frustrated herself. She feels that Tavi is overreacting, and Tavi even acknowledges this, yet Vinyl's solution is for her, Bluenote to do something she doesn't like (instead of helping Octavia to get a sense of perspective). So she's mildly annoyed. Of course, she gets over it fairly quickly.
4199783 I get that in hindsight but I didn't really feel that in that scene
Just my two cents.
Dang, that's such a cool idea.
Bit of a spelling error there
Poor Octy and her whirlwind of emotions there, the downside of expressing her emotions more and having friends is getting hurt. Luckily she friends around to pick her up again.
I wonder who Bon Bon got hurt by in the past? I sort of expected her to bring Octy a gallon of Rocky Road ice cream when giving her pep talk.
Interesting idea on Bluie liking to improvise for cooking as well as music, although she did seem a bit to obstinate that she should do it her way even if she's trying to cheer up Octy.
Don't tell the voting committee that or you're never win!.
Only you Vinyl could make a flamethrower that runs on sound, now all she needs to do is sort out how to use it to clean the dishes. Although you know Red Tape might be on to something about you, should you really test that thing indoors?
Using parts of the evil golem to build your new flamethrower / laser golem might not be the smartest of idea's either. Still being clever and safe never created more fun stories down the line either.
Awww!
I was going to complain that the make up was to quick but yes a good nights sleep can put everything into perspective and well that final song was just so perfect that I don't have the heart to anymore.
Titchy's certainly musically talented, three instruments so far, he'll be a one stallion band in a few decades at this rate.
Overall, Bravo!
4184397
I guess we'll have to say the piano was a Minotaur instrument adopted by Ponies which is why they have the gloves to play it.
It seems like she still needs some vindication from the foals... granted, Diamond Tiara's opinion of naan might not matter for a hill of beans, but wasn't that the spark that ignited the powder keg?
As for the song... yikes. My warped mind took that song places that it was not intended to go...
About playing pianoforte, mine headcanon has the ponies able to project telekinetic dendritic fractal tentacles from their extremities. I imagine Cherilee having a lesson like thus:
As the foals withdraw their hooves, a tentacle of flour emerges. The tentacle bifurcates into 2, then 4, then 8, et cetra tentacles. This continues at least someteen times, if not to infinity The foals can easily manipulate their fractal dendritic tentacles and use them for fine manipulation, making them much more dextrous than humans. The ratio of each parent tentacle to it children would be Φ:1. If the ponies fanout their tentacles, The tentacles of 1 hoof for a tentacle-tree the size of a pony-head.
I imagine that ponies could play the pianoforte
Very sweet and fun. Bravo.
888 degrees to cook the naan? No wonder it was ready so quickly, reminds me of an article I read a while back about what you can do with a thousand degree oven.
That sounds like fun.
That was great!
As someone who has a bachelor's degree in culinary arts, I think my sens of doom was larger than most. *Winces* Oh, Bluenote. There's room for improv, but first make sure you KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!!!!
So... Vinyl is insane. I knew it before, just wanted confirmation on that bit. *Backs off* Solid chapter all-around.
Yay! Good to see those two making up.
Good story man, enjoyed it all, from the start to end, now let's check the other stories of the Cadanceverse
I just had to read this when I was hungry, didn't I?
3720015
I think jazz on the cello can work, at least if she considers ditching the bow and strumming the strings instead.
As opposed to what? Smelling delicious to her ears?
Hay soda? Normally, I'd point out that not all food products in Equestria have to made out of hay (never mind the fact that I would use hay bacon as a thing in my stories, even describing it as tasting mostly like bacon, but having a dry and earthy flavor). Especially not for drinks. As I said, normally I'd point that out. The reason why I'll allow it is because I believe it could be a thing in real life. In Japan, there's a cherry blossom flavored soda. Knowing that little tidbit, hay soda isn't that strange.
Now if you'll excuse me, after that scene with little Octi and her mom, I think I'll go die from adorabetic shock now.