• Story: Octavia's Power Hour


    [Normal] [Comedy] [Shipping]

    Author:
    TerseWriterfag
    Description: In what is ostensibly the most terrifying time of Octavia's life, she forgets how to play the cello. Lyra reluctantly helps to pick up the pieces, with the assistance of our favourite DJ, Vinyl Scratch!

    Octavia's Power Hour

    Additional Tags: Long, Romantic, Friendship, Humour, Learning

    50 comments:

    1. damn that image makes me get diabetes; too cute

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    2. I attribute my love for Octavia fics to Sir Chicken Vortex, and am now going to read this story and give it 10 stars.

      Yeah.

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    3. That picture, dancing octavia is epic.

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    4. I liked the part with Octavia

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    5. Octavia/Trixie? That's a new one.

      Also, bathrobes aren't that unusual; Rarity wore one in 'Suited for Success'.

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    6. I'm only about two paragraphs in but I'm already in love with it just for the phrase "two old doormats and their doggedly incompetent au pair".

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    7. At long last... Lyra and Bon Bon with careful and lovable characterizations? And a subtle explanation why Bon-Bon has a good dozen copy-pastes in the show? For how much this fandom adores its Lyra/Bon Bon pairing, there is a surprising lack of fics to go with it.

      I'm only about 2-3 pages in and absolutely freaking loving this.

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    8. Pet peeve- Octavia is CLEARLY playing a Bass, NOT a Cello. As any other cellist can also tell you, you must be SITTING DOWN to play the cello, and since Octavia is standing when she is playing the large stringed instrument, it can only be a Bass. (Okay, done with the rant, also LOOOOOVED IT! (besides the cello/bass thingy))

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    9. I love this fandom. Four back ground characters, one of whom received no more then 6 seconds of screen time, written with brilliant characterization, with depth and history and backstory, all very believable and, ironically, human, with distinct personalities and... fuck it, go read and see for yourself this was feakin' great!

      I loved this- smiled the whole way through. It was funny and clever and subtly witty.

      how she manages to take out half the audience, I want to know. this could be a brilliant series.

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    10. @Anonymous
      Isn't it obvious, Octavia took out half the audience by using her bass as a impromptu broadsword.

      Great story and I want to see more. It will be shame if Season 2 comes and these background ponies are given some canon characterization, and the fanon can no longer guess anymore. Still would be awesome though, and it will never stop the shippers.

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    11. @Octavia
      Don't worry. I'll hold your hoof if it gets too much for you.

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    12. Hehe, wasn't this something.

      Background ponies just makes things much enjoyable. This was an interesting and enjoyable read.

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    13. This was absolutely terrific. Each piece of phrase expands into several seconds of head-movie.

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    14. Wait. How could this be only 4.1 stars? This was cute.

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    15. Really great stuff here. The characters certainly felt like friends, each had their odd quirks that meshed well with one another, and watching Octavia act like a panicked primadonna slowly getting more and more drunk was priceless. Loved it.

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    16. Oh by Celestia's beard how I loved this fanfic... Great characterization, and plenty of hilarious moments...

      [Spoiler]
      I particularly loved it when Octavia completely loses it and begins to make out with Trixie, I can so totally, totally picture that in my mind. XD

      Also, the ending... poor Lyra... :( But wait... Octavia remembered how to play her cello after she made out with Trixie... QUICK, LYRA! YOU MUST MAKE OUT WITH BON BON!
      [/spoiler]

      All of my stars, will giggle again.

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    17. That was fun. Light, fluffy and amusing, just the kind of story I wanted to read. 5 of my stars.

      Also, I can't be the only one now craving art of the scene with Lyra, Octavia, Trixie and Scratch dancing on the table. Curse my lack of artistic ability. Oh well, a man can dream.

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    18. Congrats Terse, glad to see the positive reception. Looking to seeing more from you in the future.

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    19. Thanks for all your wonderful comments and ratings, guys! Haha, I just woke up, and this was a very positive thing to wake up to! I'm glad so many of you enjoyed it, and I hope it's enough to convince you to stick around for anything I might write in the future!

      @Marshal: truth be told, I didn't really know that, so thanks! I always assumed it was a cello. Not one for instruments, and so many other people said so, I wasn't sure! But thanks for the correction, and I'll get about fixing it up when I have an opportunity.
      ...Is it really a bass? I didn't know you played bass with a bow! That's pretty cool.

      @NTSTS: Hey, thanks again, man, for all your help with this! I'd have missed out on so much if it weren't for you and the rest of the /co/ writing crowd. I'll definitely keep writing, and I say the same to you! Hoping to see more of your fantastic work in the future!

      Again, thanks to everybody who took the time to read, rate, comment, and any combination of the three. And don't worry, Octavia, it's not quite as bad as it might look, haha!

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    20. TROCTAVIA.
      MORE OF IT.

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    21. Not exactly sure whats goin on in this one... I get that Tavi n Scratch are out with Lyra getting messed up drunk, but how did Tavi lose her music skills? and at the end... ? I got lost.

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    22. Ah, the old cello/bass debate, a true sign of an Octavia fic,

      Anyways, very funny story. The salt was a brilliant idea. Moment she had the salt, I thought to myself, "Isn't that stuff really strong for ponies?" And sure enough, Lyra gets smashed.

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    23. That was adorable, hilarious, and I loved the recursion at the end.

      Octavia was a bit of a cunt, but I liked her anyway. Nice job.

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    24. >Lyra remembered that she had her own key
      >She’d never been one for working small keys, or anything that required excessive amounts of finesse
      >her out-of-touch levitation abilities were necessary

      -She's. a. MUSICIAN! ...with an HARP of all things requiring control and fine touch ! ...and she's a UNICORN ; she levitates her harp all the time.
      -This part(information) is quite relatively ridiculous, really.

      -----

      ... Well, it was an ''ok'' story.
      Not AS interesting as I thought it could have been, and definitely not AS much 'Comedy'/fun-funny (if barely any, compared to other 'Comedy' tagged stories) as it should had have ...

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    25. @Timber: Hey, no worries! I know from experience how confusing it can be to follow someone else's train of thought.
      The basic intent of the story was really more of a character study for me, than anything. If you want to look at it extradiegetically, Octavia forgetting her ability to play the bass/cello/whatever was just a plot device to further the narrative the way I wanted it to go. Intradiegetically, it's that feeling you get when you get back on a bike sometimes, or you sit at a computer, or you put pen to paper, and nothing happens. A block, if you will! Octavia is thinking too hard about it, and from personal experience, that can make you forget things. So, she struggles to stop thinking about it, and that can't remember, but when her mind drifts away, she recalls it. It's hard to explain, but it's a phenomenon I've found myself faced with many times and I wondered what Octavia, as a talented musician, would do in that position.
      Also, it was a request, haha, so these are just my justifications for it, not the original requester's!
      What about the ending confused you? I'd be happy to go back and clarify it, or help you work through it now!

      @Nova25: It's not ridiculous at all! Working keys with levitation is substantially different. She's not simply working the strings, she has to work the mechanism of the lock, while maintaining her focus on her key! Imagine it as though you're playing an instrument, and you can focus on said instrument, with your magic - it's not levitation, it's your special talent, and your magic is made to be able to interface with said instrument. Now you use levitation, something completely different to work a key in a lock - not your special talent at all - and it's very much easy to see exactly why she'd have trouble with it! How this didn't occur to you I'll never know, haha!
      I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. Perhaps it's just not your thing? Can't please everybody. But thank you for taking the time to read it, at least, and hopefully you'll be more partial to anything I might put up in future!

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    26. @Terse
      The sentence does say :

      >or anything that required excessive amounts of finesse

      ->anything<- and ->finesse<- ?

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    27. @Nova25: Mmm, with levitation! Not with other, more personal magic at all. Lyra's special ability is to play the lyre; why wouldn't it be plausible for there to be a different kind of magic at work that lets her play it? At least, that's what I believe. Whether my personal fanon should affect you is another thing entirely!

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    28. I don't know why drunk ponies amuse me so much. Although I found myself wincing to imagine Octavia's lines being spoken. That kind of hindered immersion for me. It's not that they were poorly written, it's just... when people with strong high-pitched voices are having a breakdown, it's unpleasant to be near.

      Also, because it's obligatory, hurray for Trixie!

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    29. I think that the story was very well written, but I have to comment on this plot...

      So Octavia forgets how to play the cello, and then remembers after the bulk of the story for seemingly no reason. I'm not complaining at all, I honestly liked the story, especially Scratch's characterization, but the entire 'forgetting to play the cello' idea seems like a weak way to build tension. Why couldn't Vinyl and Octavia pick Lyra up just because she was in town? I just don't buy the main plot, that's all. Please don't think of this as a criticism towards your writing, because that was phenomenal, but realize that a good story doesn't necessarily need forced problems for the characters to overcome.

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    30. I feel stupid. I just read your response to Timber right after I posted that last comment, and I feel stupid. I understand what you're talking about, and I agree that the Octavia thing is just a plot device.

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    31. 2/5
      As a comedy and relationship-heavy story it relied totally on the characters to move it along. Unfortunately their characterization was all over the place and I could never quite seem to connect either the dialog or the thoughts of the characters to the rest of the story.

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    32. @Terse
      Well... Unicorn's magic kinda do for the lack of 'Fingers', in a way.
      Especially the 'telekinesis' part, which is what usually involved with the movement of objects, while 'levitating' is more about just lifting yourself or an object from the ground (if you start moving and manipulating the 'object', it's more like telekinesis)...

      ...and the way talent and experience 'at something' work usually, well... It's like saying that your 'fingers' have the 'finesse' to perform, say, an delicate brain surgery but that you have trouble unlocking your door ?

      ... but, those things are simply ''technicalities'' I suppose, yet details are important in stories ...

      It's like you want.

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    33. @Anonymous
      Personally, I think the author should have betted a bit more on the ''comedy of being drunk'' for this story, but that's just me.

      And yeah, the ''I forgot how to play'', in the end, seemed like a reason that had been pasted there... while it could have been played a bit more on the relation Octavia seems to have with Vinyl...
      Again, just thinking...

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    34. The perfect song to pair this up with, "last friday night" by Katy Perry

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    35. Every time I see a picture of Octavia I keep wondering why no has made a PMV of her playing the orchestral version of "The Final Countdown".

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    36. @Zhuull
      Oh yeah. That's a great idea :D

      It's a good music, really. :)

      ...I guess it's to find one of those animation of her playing her cello, on DA or Youtube, and to ask the creator a request (or just paste the song with the video)...

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    37. One of these days I'm going to put together an image that scientifically examines Octavia's instrument and proves, once and for all, that it is a double bass rather than a cello. That way, I'll be able to spam links to it whenever I see someone refer to it improperly. Believe me, I've checked and double-checked, and all the relevant visual evidence points to bass. Unfortunately, I'll be fighting fanon tooth and nail if I do so. The infernal feedback loop ("I read in this fic Octavia plays cello, so my fic will say Octavia plays cello") has decided it's a cello, so I have little hope of changing things.

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    38. Oh, I got so wrapped up in ranting I forgot to comment on the story. It was hilarious. Comedy stories generally are, of course, but this one also had some pretty interesting characterizations, and never stopped being entertaining. Good work.

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    39. Octavia plays a cello simply because of the fact that it has tuning pegs, whereas a double bass has machine heads. You can't really say that she plays it like either instrument, so there's no real proof there.





      I liked this. It used a nice, "throw a shitload of jokes at the wall and hope some of them stick" style that worked far more often than not.
      Some jokes did kind of fall flat, but even the main conflict was pretty funny if you treat the story as a rapid fire comedy rather than having any drama whatsoever. It doesn't seem like the situation was ever supposed to be taken seriously (especially considering how it ended), so I can't really find fault with the story because it didn't.
      I mean, really guys, her cello skill came back to her after an extended makeout scene with Trixie. I don't think hard character building was the point.

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    40. @TenchiFreak5 Tuning pegs aren't worth mentioning. Yes, the pegs are a style that is unusual on the modern Double Bass, but there are some older or more oddball instruments out there that use "normal" tuning pegs. The size of the instrument is what determines what it is, not what mechanism is used for tuning it. The instrument Octavia plays is played while standing (like a double bass), and has the proportions of a double bass, relative both to the player and the bow. I mean, look at the thing. It's taller than she is. It's a bass.

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    41. @A Terrible Person
      Ponies are about 4-5 Ft, while human are 5-6 Ft average, so...

      The size difference is a factor, right ?

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    42. @Nova25
      No, size difference is not a factor. Some humans are shorter than other humans, too. Children, for example, are given scaled-down instruments so they are proportionately correct for their bodies. The crucial fact is that the instrument is significantly taller than the player: it's a double bass.

      You can also check the relative proportions of the instrument compared to the bow (I've heard some people incorrectly say that proportion indicates a cello). The cello's body is approximately the same length as a cello bow, while a double bass (and Octavia's instrument) have bodies approximately 1.5 bows in length.

      Believe me when I say it's a double bass. About the only thing I haven't done is analyze the actual Pony Pokey music to see whether the sounds of the instrument would tell anything. That song is too muddled together for me to tell easily, but if anyone can conclusively prove that the song could only be played on one instrument or the other, I'd consider revising my opinion to "Octavia plays an unholy abomination that can properly be called neither a cello nor a bass, but wither one is okay in fanfics", but based solely off of visual evidence, the instrument can't be a cello.

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    43. @A Terrible Person
      ''abomination'' ??

      Anyway... what would be needed is one of those fancy 'music analyzer' program.
      I have one, but it's a cheap version...

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    44. @Nova25
      "Hybrid", if you'd prefer.

      Whatever you call it, if it's a bass that makes cello noises, it's a dang unusual thing. I'd honestly be happy if analysis showed cello sounds, because then I could stop being so OCD about what it's called and accept wither one as justified. I don't hold out much hope for the analysis turning out well, though. Evidently the sounds in the song are hard to pick apart, although I haven't tried myself.

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