Octavia notices her classmate, Trixie, practising a classical piano piece, and jumps into helping her master it. But why is Trixie so resistant?
This fic was written for the May Pairings Contest 2023. Check out the other entries!
Huge thanks to PseudoBob Delightus for proofreading this fic and to Punished Bean for making the cover!
A very nice, sweet piece. From a constructive point of view, I feel like we should have got a scene of Octavias home life. Not necessarily revealing her whole deal, but enough so that when she explains the similarities between herself and Trixie it doesn't feel so out of the blue.
Really, Octavia. It's one thing to not respect the art form. It's quite another to interrupt a performance.
Bold move in making the viewpoint character double down when she was already clearly in the wrong, and I say that sincerely. Great work in making Octavia realize the magnitude of her own errors and assumptions, and her following efforts to make amends. Thank you for an engaging read, and best of luck in the judging.
Nicely done! It's lovely that these contests give so many chances to get two characters to interact in ways they normally wouldn't. Let's hope things stay civil going forward, though.
Like FanOfMostEverything, I could follow Octavia's logic throughout most of this, but there were a couple of times where I was like, "WOW. Dick move". My assumption going through was that Octty was very disappointed at not getting a fellow classic music aficionado like herself but there's some lines that she crossed and I'm not surprised by Trixie's reaction.
Also nice to see Trixie's mom get some attention. She's been severely underutilized in the fandom.
Had a good time reading!
I was gonna write a joke about ponies having fingers, then realized this is an Equestria Girls Fic 1/4th through the reading.
Now I just feel stupid
Anyways, good fic. Honestly, if I were in the same shoes as Trixie it would be really hard to forgive Octty for that one, hiding the cello is a dick move, but shoring up childhood trauma like that, yikes, maybe it is cause I can relate more with Trixie then Octavia, but that just seems like a way dickier move to me. I do like the fact that Trixie really did hide the cello, it would have been really easy to have Octavia be the complete villain here, but I think it is good the situation is a little more gray that way.
It was really nice to see them make up in the end, truly shows the magic of friendship shining through even after they hurt each other so badly.
Wow this is an amazing fic
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Honestly, I'm now kind of surprised I didn't realise it before, good point
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Thanks! It was an interesting challenge, ngl, all balancing Octavia‘s perspective and still show how Trixie was affected by it
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The Great and Powerful Spectacle shall get the attention she deserves!
Yep. Octavia turned a blind eye what Trixie wanted and, making assumptions based on what she heard from Spectacle, thought she knew better/projected her own interest into others.
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Pony Pinkie Pie: Having fingers is a problem?
One of the reasons Trixie had to do the things she done, imo. Octavia just going "Btw, we're actually similar", while Trixie was only taking hits would result in no forgiveness at all (we know from the pony version that she will seek revenge also), so Trixie having her own wrong actions makes her consider making amends in the first place
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Thanks a lot for all the supportive comments! I'm glad y'all enjoyed it
At first I was eager to see what would happen, and then Octavia goes full on "superiosa" and the dragging childhood trauma and it was like yeaaah not cool Octavia, not cool, And then the resolution which was nice even with Trixie's being a bit over the top.
I've had events where my folks couldn't show, and yeah it stinks, but when I read stories both pony and irl, about parents who treat their kids like props to use in their OWN shows, or just "I promise to go to your recital...oh sorry honey, last second business call" yeah stuff sometimes happens but when it's consistent, it hurts to read about.
On that note, I'm glad that Ms. Spectacle was genuinely sorry for her pushing and that it came from a misguided desire to connect rather than selfish ambition like some hollywood stage moms.
I really liked this one.
Nice work taking two characters that have never interacted and actually making a narrative out of them. Their shared love of performing helps them tolerate the others' antics.
Reminds me of someone :>
Manehattan in EqG? Now that I've realized this is Equestria Girls...
The Rainbooms?
Overall, I like this fic. (Thanks for getting me to stop being lazy for long enough to read this).
Also, no Octavia punch?11611413
The Rainbooms are a pop rock band, not really the potential classical partner Octavia is looking for.
With violin, I beautifully relate to the honestly pointless gesture of leaning closer to the sheet music after several mistakes despite knowing full well I'm reading the notes right
Owch tavi, not the time for that o.o
Very on point characterizations for them both and really amazingly executed storyline! Love when stories expand upon why a character might love this or do that, and you did really nicely! The ending was also a perfect conclusion
A solid story with some bold twists and turns to keep it interesting despite its predictability. Thanks for writing it.
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I will echo Fan of Most Everything. It got surprisingly toxic for a bit there, and believably so. It was enough for me to wonder if you were going to blow the relationship up over it. As Fan said, it was a bolder take on the crisis point of any sort of these stories.
Great story and a very interesting pairing. I would have personally liked to have a glimpse of Octavia's family life, giving us more to work with during the build-up. Still, the tension was there, and I was really caught off guard by the firey exchange between Octavia and Trixie. The one thing that bothered me is that Octavia didn't apologize for the comment she made about Trixie's Dad. That was a below-the-belt shot, and it genuinely pissed me off that she would stupe to that level. Even though I love Tavi she deserved to get punched in the face for that comment and needed to apologize for that comment first, especially after learning that Trixie's father left them.
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Oops, should be fixed now
Thanks to everyone for all the comments!
He-he-hey, this was quite nice! I was excited to see these two, such a rare pair, Trixie and Tavi. The conflict and drama that you constructed here was quite superb, I was on the edge of my seat, while reading this. I was really worried it would end in tears, I was very surprised to see that Trixie can pack a punch, what a spicy relationship they have, haha. Needless to say, now I ship these two, they compliment each other quite well. I like it a lot! This story made me want to see more
It's been awhile since I drew these two together, you inspired me to draw them once again. Though, it's gonna be awhile. Here's my old art just for the taste, derpicdn.net/img/2019/10/11/2165760/large.png
It's probably a bit impudent of me for asking you to write more, sorry. I've been reading you a lot lately, very impressed with the stories you come up with. I can't think of a proper way to thank you. I offer free drawings to my favorite writers, so if you're in need of a drawing, you can ask me, I will do it. Could be a cover art, or just a fanart, whatever you would like, it would be an honor.
Hello! Here's a courtesy note, since I reviewed this recently. An interestingly done tale, with solid character writing -- necessary for this particular story to work. I wasn't quite as keen on the ending as on the rest, but it's a minor thing and overall I liked this a good deal. An easy upvote from me.