Hey Diddle Diddle, A Visit From Fiddle

by Metool Bard

Being Good Sisters

The next day, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch brought Fiddlesticks to the Canterlot train station.

"Are you sure I can't persuade you to stay longer?" Octavia asked.

Fiddlesticks shrugged. "Sorry, Tavia. Ah wouldn't want to overstay mah welcome."

"But that's the thing. You wouldn't be," said Octavia. "At least stay until you find some work."

"Ah've got enough bits to last me awhile, Tavia. Ah think Ah'll be okay," said Fiddlesticks.

"Can you at least tell me an embarrassing story about Tavi before you go?" asked Vinyl. "I could always use the new material."

Fiddlesticks gave Vinyl an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Ah don't have any stories like that."

"What?" said Vinyl, raising an eyebrow. "But you're Tavi's sister. Aren't sisters supposed to annoy each other with embarrassing stories?"

"Maybe if Ah actually acted like her sister instead of hidin' from her," said Fiddlesticks with a sigh.

"Wait, you hid from her?" asked Vinyl.

"Vinyl, show some sensitivity," Octavia scolded. "This is a delicate subject for her."

"Nah, it's alright," said Fiddlesticks with a warm smile. "Ah can take mah lumps jus' fine. Ah've made mah share of mistakes, some of which can never be fixed. Ah jus' gotta live with 'em is all."

"Mistakes like hiding from your own sister?" said Vinyl, still feeling as though she was out of the loop. "Why would you do that, anyway? That's stupid. And not the good kind of stupid like a rock opera."

"Well, at first it was because Ah didn't want to be an exact copy of her," said Fiddlesticks. "But after Ah struck it out on mah own, Ah had another reason for hidin'. Ah didn't wanna hurt her."

"So, the whole you travel around is because..."

Fiddlesticks shot Vinyl a glare. "Jus' so y'know, Ah hate it when ponies get that idea," she said sternly. "Ah don't travel from place to place because Ah'm running from mah past. Ah travel because it's the lifestyle Ah choose to lead."

"Yeah, I don't think anypony 'chooses' to sleep next to a skunk's den," said Vinyl.

"Vinyl, I told you not to be rude to her!" Octavia admonished. "Honestly!"

"Hey, she's not staying with us anymore, is she?" said Vinyl smugly. "Ergo, I managed to keep my promise. So there." She concluded her gloating with a raspberry.

"She's got a point, Tavia," said Fiddlesticks with a snicker.

"That doesn't mean she has to act so childish about it," Octavia groaned. She then sighed and turned to Fiddlesticks. "Well, if you insist on leaving, there's something I have to say."

"What's that?"

Octavia looked Fiddlesticks straight in the eye. "I want you to know that whenever you find yourself in Canterlot again, my door is always open to you. And what's more, you don't have to repay me."

Fiddlesticks averted her eyes with her stetson. "That's awfully nice of ya, Tavia, but Ah couldn't..."

"Hear me out, Fiddle," Octavia interrupted. "This isn't a matter of me taking pity on you. You're comfortable with where you are in life, and that's fine. However..."

She paused, tears welling up in her eyes. "I don't want you to hide from me anymore."

Fiddlesticks nodded. "Ah see," she said somberly. She then walked over and gave Octavia a hug. "Well, don't you worry 'bout that. Ah'm through playin' hide-an-seek with ya. You're mah sister, and Ah love ya very much. And from now on, Ah'll try to show it more."

"Thank you," Octavia cooed, returning the hug. "And I promise not to fuss over you so much. As long as you're happy, I'm happy."

"Glad t'hear that," said Fiddlesticks.

"Sheesh, could this get any more sappy?" Vinyl grumbled.

"Hush, you," Octavia said with a giggle.

"And to answer yer question, Vinyl, it can," said Fiddlesticks, taking out her fiddle. "Before Ah go, Ah wanna play ya a little sumthin'. This is jus' improvised, so it might not come out that good."

She then started to play, and Octavia recognized it.

"Wait, isn't that the barn raising song you sang last night?" she asked.

Fiddlesticks grinned. "Jus' listen," she said, playing a slow, soothing melody. She then began to sing:

"Octavia, Octavia,
Ah love you,
It may not have seemed like it,
But trust me, Ah do.

An honorary Apple Ah may be,
But in mah mind, we're still family,
There are some things that Ah can't fix,
But Ah'll always be yer sister,
Fid-dle-sticks~."

Octavia grinned from ear to ear. "It's beautiful," she said, wiping a tear from her eye.

"Ah considered puttin' it to the tune of that 'Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star' piece y'all played at yer recital, but Ah reckoned that was goin' a bit too far," said Fiddlesticks with a chuckle. "Even Ah have mah sappiness limits."

"Thank Celestia for that," said Vinyl, rolling her eyes.

"Next train to Ponyville!" the conductor called out. "All aboard that's coming aboard!"

"That's me," said Fiddlesticks. "Y'all take care now, Tavia. Y'hear?"

"Of course," said Octavia. "You take care of yourself, too."

"Will do," said Fiddlesticks with a tip of her hat as she made her way to the train. "Oh, and Ah'll be sure to write."

"Wait, you don't have a return address," Octavia said quizzically. "How am I supposed to respond?"

"Ah'll tell ya where Ah'm headin' next so that y'all can send it there," Fiddlesticks said, getting on the train just as it was pulling out of the station. She then stuck her head out of the window and waved her hat at Octavia and Vinyl. "Adios, Sis! Ah'll be thinkin' about ya lots!"

"Goodbye, Fiddle! And best of luck!" Octavia called back.

"Yeah, don't be a stranger!" Vinyl chimed in.

Octavia gave Vinyl a sharp look. Vinyl shrugged as she and her roommate watched the train disappear over the horizon.

"So, did you two have fun last night?" asked Vinyl.

"Oh. Well, yes," said Octavia, casting her eyes downward. "I'm sorry about that, Vinyl."

"Aw, don't sweat it. You wanted some quality time with your sis. I get that," said Vinyl. "Just one question."

"Hmm?"

"While you were out partying with Fiddle, did any of that stuff about her being rowdy or you not knowing her past matter?"

Octavia paused to think. "Well, no. I, guess it didn't in the end."

Vinyl smirked. "I guess this is where I say 'I told you so.'"

Octavia couldn't help but giggle. "I suppose," she said. "Even so, getting to know her better did help, at least a little."

"Alright, fair enough," said Vinyl with a shrug. The two mares then started for home. All was silent for a time before Vinyl had another thought. "Hey, Octy?"

"What is it, Vinyl?"

"You think the next time Fiddle comes over, we can try out my threesome idea?"

Octavia gave Vinyl a bemused smirk. "Just for that, it's your turn to get dinner tonight."

"C'mon, Octy! That's three nights in a row!" Vinyl protested.

"Alright, tomorrow then. But it had better be special."

"Um, hello? I can't cook worth a damn? I don't understand how you keep forgetting that."

"I'm not asking you to cook, Vinyl. Just get something nice."

"So basically anything other than pickled dandelions."

"I think you can set the bar a bit higher than that, Vinyl."

"I'm just kidding, Tavi. I'll think of something extra special for tomorrow. Just one thing."

"What's that?"

"I'm, gonna need twenty bits..."

The End

Comments

[The Princess Rarity]

This was cute. Nice job.

[cunning_linguist]

An amazing end. Kudos, good sir.

[CWi]

A brilliant end to a brilliant fic. I loved this a lot. Well done.

[HappyPetals]

It's over already? I enjoyed this, and again, good job for updating quickly while maintaining quality.

[HappyPetals]

2431056
That comment combined with your profile picture is hilarious.

[HeartTortoisePigeonDog]

Fantastic! Fiddlesticks!!
Adding to group!
We need more Fiddles stories!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Midnight Rambler]

HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE, IMMA PLAYIN' MY FIDDLE, AIN'T GOT NOTHING TO LOSE! ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN, TELL TCHAIKOVSKY THE NEWS!

Come for the Chuck Berry reference in the title. Stay for the amusing banter between Vinyl and Octavia. Stay a little longer for... yes, what, exactly?

I'll be honest with you: I think this is an interesting premise but you executed it poorly. There's hardly any real conflict, and everything feels very short and rushed.

Octavia is visited by a twin sister she never knew she had. Does she immediately bombard Fiddle with questions, does she start questioning her own sanity for not remembering Fiddle, does she come to deep and shocking realisations about her own life? Nope. Well, she does, eventually, but it's only described very briefly and casually. Where are the hurt feelings, the accusations, the slow unravelling of a less-than-happy family history? You could have fleshed out Octavia's and Fiddle's backstory so much more, and what a beautiful piece of character-on-character drama this story could have been if you had! Why water it down like this?

This is one of the rare cases where amping up the drama would make the story better. More plausible, too: a sudden visit from a sister you forgot you have is a dramatic event, and having Octavia, Fiddle and Vinyl deal with it in such an... undramatic way strains suspension of disbelief.

This premise could make for a great story, but you'd need to make it longer, deeper, and heavier. If you want to write lighthearted slice-of-life stories like this, I'd suggest just writing about Vinyl and Octavia without throwing anything as heavy as a long-lost sister their way. After all, I think you've proven you can write pretty funny stuff about the two of them interacting.

[Metool Bard]

2589587 Honestly, I have to agree with most of what you said. This was meant to be a silly story, but the subject matter was probably a bit too serious.

I would argue that Vinyl is meant to handle it in an undramatic way. She just thinks this is a cool scenario and doesn't bother to consider the implications. I would also argue that Fiddlesticks spends most of the story wearing a mask, and she's trying her hardest not to hurt Octavia. Octy, however, should've handled this more dramatically. I guess I left her in shock for too long.

Once again, I must thank you for your candid review.

[HalflingPony]

Fiddle: "Hey there, I'm your twin sister."
Tavi: "What? I don't remember having a sister."
Fiddle: "Oh, that's all right. You never noticed me 'cause I was hiding under the table the whole time."
Me:

I'm sorry, but I seem to have missed the chapter where Octavia suffers severe brain damage as a foal.

There are so many potential ways to explain an unknown sister and that's what you decided to go with? This whole premise was so implausible it kind of killed the story for me.

I don't want to come off overly harsh. Most of the story was a fun little interplay of personalities. I really liked the dynamic you had going between Vinyl, Octavia and Fiddle as characters. It's clear to me that you are an excellent author who knows how to handle character interactions well and is great at coming up with a really neat central idea. The Do Dilemma is one of the better stories that I've read.

That's why I'm disappointed you based such an otherwise neat story on such a shaky foundation. I, regretfully, have to give this story a thumbs down.

[Metool Bard]

3172940 To be honest, I was kinda shaky on the idea myself. The thing is I wanted to establish that Fiddlesticks avoided Octavia at all costs so that she wouldn't have to follow in her footsteps. Having her hide under the table was ridiculous, sure, but I couldn't think of anything else at the time.

Yeah, I'll admit this isn't my strongest work. But I still thank you for the candid review.

[Ice4smaster]

A truely adorable story

[Metool Bard]

3233504 I'm glad you liked it.

[kwr2k13]

2426552 Fiddlesticks and her band also performed at the Apple Family Reunion for the Raise This Barn song.

[Flash_Magnus]

"I'm just kidding, Tavi. I'll think of something extra special for tomorrow. Just one thing."

"What's that?"

"I'm, gonna need twenty bits..."

LOL

Wow this was a fun read, really great fic!

[Metool Bard]

3729407 Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.

[Flash_Magnus]

3729428

You're welcome

[ShadowLDrago]

"I'm just kidding, Tavi. I'll think of something extra special for tomorrow. Just one thing."
"What's that?"
"I'm, gonna need twenty bits..."

Of course.