Octavia Melody

Octavia is a background Earth pony who appears in The Best Night Ever and Sweet and Elite. Her name was given by a fan and later it was officially adopted by Hasbro in a collection of trading cards and in a mobile game. She has a dark gray mane and tail, a light gray coat and light purple eyes, with the same eye design as Rarity, the spa ponies, and several background ponies, except for the iris. Her cutie mark is a purple treble clef, though the cello is most often notated with a bass clef. Cello is also normally played sitting down, although she plays standing, like a bass. If it were a bass, the cutie mark would still be wrong because bass is also played with bass clef.

Development
While the show does not specifically identify Octavia's instrument, the trading card states that it is a cello. William Anderson, the show's composer, has relayed to Equestria Daily that the music playing at the garden party in Sweet and Elite features a harp, two violins, and a cello, which pegs Octavia as a cellist. The show's director, Jayson Thiessen, figures the instrument is a cello as it's "more sophisticated and appropriate for the gala". The origin of Octavia's name is attributed to Alex McG.

Appearances
She plays a cello as part of a four-pony musical ensemble at the Grand Galloping Gala in the episode The Best Night Ever. She retains an apparently calm dignified expression when in costume, except when Pinkie Pie disturbs her. At Pinkie's request, the orchestra plays the Pony Pokey. Octavia eventually falls over when Pinkie tries to make her play faster.

Octavia appears briefly in Sweet and Elite in the garden party scene, playing with a mostly-different musical ensemble.

Re-use of character model
Octavia's character design is reused with a different color scheme for a character, "Fiddlesticks", who appears in Luna Eclipsed and Apple Family Reunion, the first time playing at Ponyville's Nightmare Night festival and the second time playing in Raise This Barn at the Apple family's reunion.

Her coat is yellow, her mane and tail are dark blue, and her eyes are light blue. She has the same treble clef cutie mark as Octavia has, except that hers is light blue instead of purple. (It is also more appropriate for her instrument, as the fiddle, unlike the cello, is invariably notated with a treble clef.) She plays the fiddle in a pose similar to the one used in The Best Night Ever, though her positioning is slightly altered, grasping the bow and neck of the instrument with the hooves instead of the fetlocks, or "wrists". The rest of the band similarly uses the designs and poses from The Best Night Ever, with different color schemes.

Unlike Octavia, this pony wears clothes: a green shirt with a red rope for a belt, and a stetson hat. In the former episode, the band are dressed like scarecrows for the night, so her shirt has patches added to it, her mane and tail have pieces of straw scattered throughout them, and she has two lines of stitching on her face and neck. In the second episode, she wears a white stetson instead of a blue one.

Other depictions
An upcoming mini-figure toy has been displayed at the 2013 New York Toy Fair.

Octavia, along with a host of characters from the show, appears on the Comic Con 2011 promotional poster. She is wearing her collar and bow tie and holding her cello and its bow.

A Flash image of Octavia holding her cello and its bow was added to the Hasbro website's Card Creator game around January 25, 2012, named "MLP_CharV_WhomeverThisIs.swf". The file was included with the same name when the game was added to the Hubworld website around February 2, 2012.

Octavia, wearing her collar and bow tie, is one of the available playable characters in Gameloft's mobile game. The game's icon of her uses fanart depicting her as a filly, though her in-game character model matches her usual appearance.

Octavia appears in the comic book series.

Base collectable trading card #27 of 84 is DJ Pon-3 & Octavia, with the description "DJ Pon-3 and Octavia may both be at the top of their musical games, but their careers are very, very different! You can find Octavia at garden parties and galas performing prim and proper classical music on her cello. On the other hoof, DJ Pon-3 feels at home behind her turntable, laying down sick beats and wearing her trademark sunglasses. Are these two bitter rivals, or are they long time friends? Will they ever perform a duet? Only time will tell!"

WeLoveFine.com carries T-shirts and other merchandise of Octavia, often wearing her collar and bow tie and holding her cello and its bow. One of the T-shirt designs, released prior to the trading card, refers to her as "Octavia".

My Little Pony mobile game description
Part of a four-pony musical ensemble, this talented cello player can be seen performing in Ponyville’s most sophisticated celebrations.

Gallery

 * Octavia image gallery