Wub-Hate

Chapters

What's with those two?
Time to investigate
Lights out
Scratch that
Listen to the fans
Agent of trouble
Truth be told
Friends stay together
Life with Buddies
This is getting weird
Ready to meet the family?
A family show
Octavia's master plan

What's with those two?

The morning had started at best two hours ago, but the earth pony Octavia was already up and running, quite literally. It was her role to prepare breakfast in the morning, but this time she had to be quick about it, and only she knew why. Boiling water, getting the coffee out of the drawer, getting the milk, cereal box with a certain DJ's image on it, cup and bowl, spoons, sugar and getting everything ready on the table, she had to do it all as quickly as she could. Once she was done, she looked at the clock. Nine o´clock in the morning, leaving her with thirty minutes before her roommate began to consider getting up, which was precisely what she wanted. She took her phone from the table, making sure again that no white coated, electric blue-maned unicorn with purple shades was in the room, and went to her contacts, calling a certain friend of hers.

The phone rang for ten seconds before it was answered. "Hello, this is Neon Lights, Equestria's greatest DJ ever, unlike that Vinyl Scratch. Who calls?"

Octavia rolled her eyes at the long hello, like she was used to do by now. "Hello, Neon, it's Octavia."

"Oh, Octavia! Hello, what makes you call me at nine in the morning? Wait...is she there?"

"No, and that is precisely why I'm calling you at this time. You have less than half an hour to come here and return that speaker I let you borrow last week."

"Say no more! Be right there, Octavia!" Neon said before hanging up.

Octavia sighed and put the phone on the table again. It was a race against time for Neon, and she really hoped he would win. She nervously paced around the room as the minutes passed, her expression gradually showing how nervous she was. It was already at least fifteen minutes when she heard a really loud noise...wubs, coming from Vinyl's room. She knew it was her alarm, and she knew her roommate would take at least ten more minutes to get up from bed, but now it was critical that Neon arrived quickly. She thanked all four princesses when she heard the door knocking, then ran up to it and opened it.

Right outside was Neon Lights, with his teal coat, black mane and dark shirt and shades, standing behind a big speaker. "Hello, Octavia, am I still on time?" He smiled, hoping that was the case.

"Just barely, Neon, but thank Celestia she is till not up yet," Octavia replied with a weak smile.

"Good!" he said as he pushed the speaker into the house, but stayed outside. "Thanks a lot Octavia, you really helped me out there! I owe you one, really!"

"Glad I could help, Neon." She smiled more genuinely this time. "If you ever need anything else, you know where -"

"OCTAVIA MELODY, WHAT IS THIS?!" a voice shouted from behind Octavia.

Octavia froze instantly, while Neon frowned and lifted his sunglasses with his magic, showing his narrowed cobalt eyes. Behind Octavia was Vinyl Scratch, her roommate and Neon's nemesis, glaring at the two of them with red eyes uncovered by the shades she normally wore.

"Oh, I get it now! You are truly the worst, Neon Lights! Not only you want half of MY towns, but you also want MY bestie to go over to YOUR side?!" Vinyl shouted.

"V-Vinyl, please, I can explain." Octavia nervously looked back and forth between her best friend and her other friend. "Neon only wanted to return -"

"YOUR towns?!" Neon asked aggressively. "Vinyl Scratch, I have more right than you to have fans! And if Octavia wants to be my fan as well, it is HER choice!"

"Neon, I have no intention of -"

"Ooh, so the Dork Jockey wants a fight for my bestie!?" Vinyl asked tauntingly.

"You wanna dance, Vinyl? Well bring on the music!" Neon shouted before putting his shades back on.

It took Octavia standing on top of the speaker and holding them back with her hooves to stop them from trying to physically assault each other. "Stop this at once!" she shouted. "Can you stop fighting at least ONCE in your lives?!"

"He started it!"

"YOU did!"

"Oh you think you're so tough, don't you?!"

"You bet your mane I'm tough!" Neon's magic took an orange from the tree outside the house and peeled it, but discarded the orange rather than the peel. "I'm so tough I eat THESE for breakfast instead of the lame cereal you buy just because the box has your face on it!" he said before taking a big bite off the peel.

"At least I HAVE a cereal, what do YOU have?!"

Octavia couldn't take it anymore and gently pushed Neon out the door. "Have a good day, Neon Lights!" she said, faking joy, as she closed the door.

"Good one, Octavia, he doesn't deserve to be near my best friend!" Vinyl said, intentionally loudly so that it was heard outside, before going back to the kitchen.

Octavia was about to let out a sigh of relief when she heard Neon spitting and gagging outside, along with some barely audible insults towards Vinyl and the orange peel. Octavia finally sighed as she rolled the speaker back to the living room before heading back to the kitchen. She saw her roommate eating her breakfast, her own cereal and milk, while signalling Octavia to sit next to her, where her coffee was waiting, likely made by Vinyl before going into the hallway.

"Look, Octy, I know you like him, but remember, you're on MY side!" Vinyl said as Octavia sat down. "You CAN'T let him get to you, you get me?"

"Vinyl, we are just friends from high school, like you and I are," Octavia explained. "He just wanted to return the speaker I let him borrow last week, nothing else."

"Oh yeah? Then why did you prepare breakfast half an hour earlier and talked to him while I was still sleeping?" Vinyl asked, as if interrogating her.

Octavia rolled her eyes at her obvious answer. "I wanted to prevent what just happened from happening..."

"Well, didn't work out for ya, did it?" Vinyl asked, half joking and half angry. "I know what he's planning, he wants to take my best friend away from me, Octavia! He wants me to lose my number one fan!"

"Vinyl, please, you are forgetting that I do not even like your music, nor his."

"Well, you hate his music more, right, just like any sensible pony would do?"

"To me it is all just senseless noise, no offense, Vinyl," Octavia admitted.

"REAL nice effort to support your roommate, Octy!"

"...Vinyl, do I need to remind you that you think MY music is boring?"

"Don't change the subject, Octy!" Vinyl's magic took a banana from a basket on the table. "See this? This is Neon...and THIS is what I'm going to do if he tries to get you to join his side!" She peeled the banana, throwing the peel away, and began eating it like a hungry dog would eat a fresh piece of meat.

Octavia's pupils quickly became small, to the point where measuring them was only possibly with lenses, as she saw with a shocked expression how her friend was violently murdering the innocent fruit with her mouth as her eyes resembled those of a cliched psychopathic killer.

"You thee?! If he fen thinksh aboud id I will perthonally dethroy him!" Vinyl shouted in a vain attempt to communicate with her mouth stuffed with banana, further scaring Octavia. She swallowed and got up from her chair. "Destroy him, I say!" she said as she turned around and began walking away to the stairs. Unfortunately, she stepped on the discarded banana peel and fell to the floor. She angrily got up and continued her way to the stairs, leaving a very freaked out Octavia behind.

"Just what's with those two?" Octavia said quietly as she recomposed herself. "It's like they will not stop at anything to make it clear they hate each other. Perhaps a little too clear...Or rather, more than that..." She began theorizing, eventually coming up with what she thought was a good solution to the problem. "Well, there must be something behind their ridiculous behavior, and I will find out what it is, one way or another."

Author's Note

As I try to get the hang of romantic comedy again, enjoy this first chapter. Please give feedback.

Time to investigate

Octavia had been sitting on the couch for what felt like hours since Vinyl left to go work. She did not know what she was doing, she simply sat there, and unknowingly in a strange pose with her back against the couch's backrest and her hind legs slightly hanging from the couch. Why was she there, in an almost absolute silence were it not for the clock's ticking, and not moving a muscle, her eyes opened and not blinking? The answer was simple, at least it was to her. She had to find a good way of finding out why her two friends from high school hated each other so much. She could not ask any of them about it, as it would always end up in a heated though one-sided argument. That is why she waited there, on the couch, until she made sure it was late into the night, but not late enough that Vinyl would return.

Once the time was right, she got up and went into her plan. She went upstairs and outside a door. It was not her door, by any means, no, hers was fine wood decorated with a large symbol resembling her cutie mark, while this one was simply decorated with a large poster depicting Vinyl in the middle of one of her nightclub raves. It was her roommate's door, and Octavia knew she would need to handle things carefully, not only because it was invading her best friend's privacy, but also because it was Vinyl's room. She prepared to encounter the worst of abominations inside as she cautiously opened the door, her eyes closed to prepare for the shock of her life.

"Alright, Vinyl, let us see what we can discover in your little piece of Tartarus," the cellist said to herself as the pushed the door open and opened her eyes. "What the bu-?!" she said once she had opened her eyes. Contrary to her beliefs, Vinyl's room was surprisingly tidy and clean. Records were where they were supposed to be, the television, sound system, figures and framed pictures were perfectly clean and even the posters on the walls seemed untouched by dirt. "...I knew it, Vinyl's door is a gateway to another dimension..." she said aloud, not believing what her eyes were telling her brain. She had expected to see the return of the draconequs god of chaos being heralded by the mess in Vinyl's room, but what she was seeing could make ponies with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder feel at home.

She took a quick look around, taking some time to absorb the shock. She looked at the little figures of Vinyl herself, Octavia, some of their friends and acquaintances, and there was even one of Neon, but it stood alone, far from the group of other figures. Octavia focused on this, it did not give her any clues as to why Vinyl hated him, but it did raise the question: Why would Vinyl even bother to buy a figure of Neon?

Looking for more clues, she turned her sight to the rest of the room, particularly the framed pictures. She had looked at them before when helping Vinyl move in with her, but until now she had not seen them. Most of them where of her life with Octavia, they were best friends after all. There was one of this costume party they went to where Octavia was dressed in white robes with red accents and a hood while Vinyl was dressed in a black suit with blue cybernetic lines, one of Octavia's surprise party where Vinyl had accidentally dropped her glasses in the punch, one of the last night they spent in Ponyville before moving to Canterlot, and there was even one of their graduation, with their whole high school class. Before smiling tearfully at the memories, she noticed something intriguing when she looked at where she and Vinyl were in the picture. They were not alone, Neon was there with them, but he and Vinyl were with their forelegs around each other like best of friends as they smiled.

"N-Neon Lights? What is he doing there?" she asked no one in particular. "But..." She began to remember, and was surprised to forget such an important detail. Vinyl Scratch, Octavia and Neon Lights were all friends in high school. This only raised more questions for Octavia, however. "But if those two were friends...Why do they fight now?" she said, feeling a mix of curiosity, surprise and sorrow.

She desperately began looking for more clues, this time finding something hard, a book, under Vinyl's pillow. Once she looked at it more closely, she realized it was Vinyl's diary, with no lock at all. Now this was something she had mixed feelings about. This was a clear invasion of privacy and a betrayal of trust, and no matter how many times Vinyl promised to go to her concerts only to not show up at all or ending up snoring not even halfway into the song, Octavia did not think Vinyl deserved it. Unfortunately, by the time she had reached that conclusion, she had already, unconsciously, opened the diary. However, the page she had open had, almost by coincidence, a written entry mentioning Neon.

"Dear Diary: I saw Neon again last night. The nerve! How dare he even walk where I walk?! I hate him so much I need Octy's help in coming up with words to describe it. But I'll give ya a small taste of it. Let's just say that if Neon were to trip on a rock on top of a cliff, fall off the cliff, land on a diagonal surface, roll down to finally land on a bunch of Lego bricks, I'd record it and play it over and over and over and over and over " - Octavia read the words "Over and over" several times until the entry neared its end in the next page. - " and over and over again until it stops being funny, which will never happen! HA HA HA. In other news, Octy's birthday's coming up, and I already got her that thing that does the...thing! It was also the last one in the store, yay!"

Aside from making her curious as to what her birthday gift would be, deducing that this entry was from just a couple days ago, Octavia did not find any useful clues. The pictures, the figures, the old friendship, this entry, it did not add up. She did not want to keep intruding into Vinyl's secrets, so she returned the diary to where she found it. Carefully leaving the room, she thought of more ways to get to the bottom of this situation. Talking to them about it was useless, and searching Vinyl's room was fruitless. Only one more thing remained before resorting to different methods, and she knew it was a crazy idea. She went back to her room in time before Vinyl returned to the house. While she pretended to be asleep, Octavia was actually coming up with excuses to explain her absence tomorrow, for she had a plan, one that was the craziest thing she had come up with besides deciding to live with Vinyl.

Author's Note

I could not find a good joke to exploit in this chapter, so it might not be as funny.

Lights out

Octavia, always the sun lover, woke up before Vinyl did, but this time she did not do so to prepare breakfast. This time her intent was to sneak out of the house without Vinyl asking her where she was going so early. She hated it, but she could never lie to her friends, and she thanked the Princesses Vinyl was not going to ask if she read her diary. Before leaving the house, Octavia left a note with a very elaborate excuse as to her absence, along with instructions on how to make the lunch they had agreed Octavia would make that day in the case Octavia wouldn't return in time. That taken care of, Octavia opened the door and left her home to go out into the streets of Canterlot.

The morning sun gave Canterlot a nice warm feeling that Octavia simply loved as she calmly trotted down the streets, looking happily at the houses and ponies who began going out. A couple of her admirers waved at her as she passed by them, and she smiled at them in return, knowing that a musician like her must always be grateful to her fans instead of ignoring them like some others she knew did. She managed to see a couple posters on a wall, one of them being of Vinyl and the other one of Neon, and as expected, there were a couple fans arguing about how their idol was cooler than the other. She was used to seeing that by now, but this time she was actually cringing, since her goal was now to find out where the hate came from.

After what must have been at most an hour of walking and stopping to look at the scenery, Octavia reached her destination, a nice but simple house in the other side of Canterlot, also one of the few gifted with a comfortable backyard. Octavia wondered why Neon wanted one, he was never the plant lover, always saying that was "Earth pony stuff", which often made her laugh.

She knocked on the door and called out. "Neon Lights? It is me, Octavia!" She waited patiently, but there was no answer. She called again, believing he must have gone to bed late last night, but there was no answer. She was intrigued and looked inside through the windows, noticing that the house definitely wasn't empty if the position of the couch's cushions and the muted TV were any indication. "Well, this is new," she said to herself, resolving to take out her cellphone and call him, stopping just before making the call. As if an idea struck her, she walked to the backyard, easily accessible through the left side of the house.

She found nothing but grass and surprisingly nice flowers at first sight, but closer inspection allowed her to see a table near the backdoor of the house, right behind some bushes from Octavia's point of view. What surprised her was the sight of a pair of small chocolate ponies on top of the table, a blue magical aura around them moving them.

"Man, it is nice to live in Canterlot, wouldn't you agree?" a high pitched male voice said, coming from the table.

"Wait, what is that?" a deep male voice said as loud stomps were heard.

"Oh no! It's Neonzilla! Run for your chocolate life!" the high pitched voice said as the stomps became louder.

Soon, teal-colored hooves got on the table, followed by Neon Lights, who dramatically surfaced from under the table and looked at the chocolate ponies with crazy eyes. He licked his lips and roared, or so he believed, and mercilessly devoured one of the poor chocolate ponies. Before he got the other one into his mouth, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that there was somepony else in the backyard. Slowly looking at the bushes, he saw that Octavia was standing right behind them, and the amused look on her face clearly told him that she had just seen his little movie monster impression.

Octavia was about to giggle but attempted to cover her mouth with a hoof as Neon felt like he had just been through the worst embarrassment of his life. Just before Neon could say something, Octavia waved her hoof at him before she spoke herself. "Before you attempt to defend yourself, this is not the stupidest thing I have caught you doing," Octavia said before finally letting her laughter out.

Neon could only smile awkwardly. "...Yeah...Celestia forbid you forget that other thing..." Neon quickly put the surviving chocolate away and put on his shades. "Yeah, so, what brings you here, Octavia?" he asked, trying to act like if nothing happened.

"I simply thought I'd pay you a visit. No crime in visiting a good friend, right?" Octavia smiled, hiding her true intentions.

"Yeah, guess it isn't unusual. Hey, you have breakfast already?"

Octavia, as always, could not lie to her friends when confronted with a direct question. "Oh, no, I have not...Would you be willing to let me eat here?" she said with poorly hidden shame.

"Need you ask? Of course!" Neon smiled and opened the door for her. "After you."

Octavia smiled and walked into the house, Neon following shortly after. He led her to the kitchen where she sat down as he gladly made some extra breakfast for her. As he cooked, Octavia wondered how best to ask him about Vinyl. She knew every mention of her made Neon go mad, and she wanted to find out why as soon as possible, but without the risk of losing her two best friends.

When her breakfast, buttered toast with coffee, was in front of her, Octavia believed she had reached a good idea. She looked at Neon and talked in the friendliest tone possible. "Neon, I have been wondering...What exactly happened between you and Vinyl that made you hate each other so much?" As she expected, Neon frowned instantly, but she continued. "If I am going to have more episodes like the other day happening around me, I'd like to know why..."

Neon took off his shades, revealing his hatred-filled glare that seemed to pierce into Octavia's soul. "Why don't you go ask Vinyl?! See if her lies can give you an idea!" he said aggressively, slamming his hoof against the table. It only took the cellist mare's scared look to start to calm him down. "...I'm sorry Octavia...I, I would never yell at you, I'm sorry...I just hate her so much that..." he said, feeling like an idiot for letting his issues with Vinyl get in the way of his friendship with Octavia.

Octavia put a hoof on his shoulder, comforting him. "...It is quite alright, Neon...If you do not want to talk about her, then we won't." She hated to admit it, but she often put her friends' comfort above her goals, perhaps too often.

"...No, Octavia...I'll tell you...I feel like you need to know anyway..." Neon sighed and looked at Octavia, making sure she would listen. "...It all started right after our graduation. During the time you tried luck in Manehattan, me and Vinyl stayed in Ponyville. We both got jobs on competing radio stations, and we eventually became famous. We stopped talking after a while, nothing happened yet. One night...One night we were called for this concert, a face off. Some insults were thrown, as you can imagine...But Vinyl kept insulting me even after the face off, calling me worse things than those bullies in high school! Imagine having somepony who once was your friend insulting you like that!" Neon stopped to control his rage. "She never asked for forgiveness, and so I never forgave her. And truthfully, I don't think I ever will...She can go jump off Canterlot and into Ponyville for all I care..." he added, coldly.

Octavia was surprised, and that was an understatement. Neon's tale did seem honest, but something did not add up. "...I...I am sorry, Neon. I never thought Vinyl would act like that..." she said.

"She's just a heartless fame-seeking girl, Octavia. If you ask her, she'll just give you a false story to protect herself. I'm sorry you're stuck with her..." Neon said, trying to appeal to Octavia's possible feelings for Vinyl's wild lifestyle.

Now Octavia knew something was wrong. Vinyl could be many things, lazy, disorganized, messy, wild, unreliable, childish, immature, inconsiderate, a prankster, etc. But she was certainly not a heartless fame-seeking girl, as Neon put it. Octavia was sure of that, she knew Vinyl very well.

"...But well, I guess you are strong for dealing with that and not going crazy." Neon smiled.

"...Yes, you can say that." Octavia faked a smile. "You get used to it."

"If you say so." Neon heard his phone ringing and answered it. "Hello? ...Now? Yes, yes, I know. I know! Look, I'll get there as fast as I can, ok!? Oh stop bothering me!" Neon put his cellphone down, however the caller's voice, and his fast talking, was still heard. "Sorry, my agent's thinking he can control my life and all." He hung up, believing it would end his agent's scolding, but it did not. To Neon and Octavia's surprise, the agent was still talking even though the call was supposed to be over. Neon awkwardly smiled as he tried to turn off the phone, but the call prevented him from doing so. ".....Well! He has to get tired eventually!" he said, faking optimism, and threw the phone against the couch.

"That...was strange." Octavia shrugged the recent event off. "What did he want?"

"I'm gonna have to leave, Octavia. My interview is going to happen two hours earlier, sorry," Neon said, slightly angered because of his sudden schedule change. "It's like they don't think i have a life!"

"Most agents are like that, Neon, don't worry about him." Octavia smiled, but quickly stopped. "Well, I believe I will leave as well, I have things to do, too."

"Then I'll accompany you to the door!" Neon said cheerfully. "Let's go! Don't worry about the plate, I'll clean it later."

Octavia nodded and silently thanked him. Neon left to get his cellphone and try to figure out just what happened with it, and Octavia took advantage of the situation to silently unlock the back door, for she was going to use it later.

Neon did not see her nor suspect anything and led her out of the house. They happily bid each other goodbye and went their separate ways. Neon left to the east and Octavia to the west, but unlike him, Octavia simply walked until she made sure Neon was far from the house, and turned around to return to it. She hurried to the backyard and to the unlocked door. It was certainly illegal to go into somepony else's house, but Octavia believed it would be for the greater good. She opened the door, asked for forgiveness from Celestia and walked into the house again, willing to do everything she could to find a way to get her two friends to talk civilly again, even if it meant being intrusive.

Author's Note

I'm sorry for taking too long with these chapters, but I hope this is worth it.

Scratch that

Emulating the protagonist from one of her favorite games, Octavia began analyzing any clues she could find in Neon's house. However, unlike said protagonist, she did not possess a sight that told her where clues were, so she had to search anything that looked even remotely relevant. She found nothing in the living room, kitchen nor backyard, which meant that if any clues were in the house, they would definitely be in Neon's room.

She asked for the Princesses' forgiveness for what had to be the fourth time and went into Neon's room. Thankfully, his habit of leaving his own room unlocked was intact since high school. It was the second time she entered one of her DJ friends' room, and also the second time she was surprised, as Neon's room was perhaps even cleaner than Vinyl's. Octavia took a time to absorb that and began looking for any clues, finding some records, posters, framed pictures and toy figures. She almost facehooved at how similar the two hated rivals were in taste, but noticed some differences as well. While Vinyl had a Neon figure, Neon did not have one of Vinyl, and Vinyl did not have a certain poster Neon did have right above the bed. She took a closer look, noting the poster had silhouettes of two ponies and the names "MC W1SH" and "DJ PON-3". Aside from their shades, the only colored part of their silhouettes, it was impossible to tell who the DJs were, well, at least from a normal pony's point of view from four years ago, the date of the concert the poster advertised. Octavia concluded that was the concert Neon mentioned in his story, the one that had apparently started everything, and took a mental note of the date.

Believing she had found everything worth something in the house, Octavia left everything as she had found it and left the house. She began walking home, wondering what she was going to do next. She had heard all she was going to hear from Neon, and had found out all she was going to find out about him as well, so the next step was logically to confront Vinyl. Now that was a daunting challenge, when asking Neon, Octavia did not have much to lose, if Neon got mad at her they would have made up eventually, but Vinyl was like her sister, a rather immature and wild sister perhaps, but she would never be able to deal with Vinyl hating her as well. She intentionally delayed her return home as much as she could to come up with a way to confront her beloved best friend without sparking any conflict, ideas coming and going with every step she took. She soon found herself in front of her house after two hours of planning, and after taking in a few deep breaths, opened the door.

Unfortunately, her roommate had taken advantage of her absence to blast her music at extreme levels of volume, making Octavia nearly faint upon walking in, and also made her wonder why she didn't hear it from outside. "VINYL!" Octavia shouted, hoping her friend would hear her. Her prayers were answered as the wubs stopped shortly afterwards, with Vinyl running into the hallway.

"Octy! You're back!" Vinyl said cheerfully as she jumped and hugged her friend.

Octavia was almost crushed by the hug, but managed to speak clearly. "I was only gone for three and a half hours..."

"Three and a half painful hours!" Vinyl said before hugging tighter. "Don't ever leave me again!" she added in an overly dramatic tone.

Octavia rolled her eyes. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you are in love with me, Vinyl," she joked.

Vinyl broke the hug to laugh. "Oh please, Octavia, even if I was into mares, you'd be the last mare I'd ever think of that way!"

Octavia raised an eyebrow. "...Should I feel insulted?" she asked.

"Nah." Vinyl playfully and weakly slapped Octavia's cheek. "So, how did your thing go?"

"Oh, I think it was very productive!" Octavia began walking with her friend. "I noticed some of your fans arguing with Neon's out in the streets," she said, hoping to eventually get to her question.

"Cool! Did they win?" Vinyl asked with an expectant smile.

"...I wasn't paying attention."

"Awww!" Vinyl looked down.

"I wanted to ask you something, Vinyl." Octavia stopped walking and looked at her with concerned eyes, which made Vinyl feel worried, precisely what Octavia wanted. "...What happened between you and Neon? We were friends once, all three of us, why do you two hate each other now?"

Vinyl had to restrain herself from getting angry, barely managing. "...You wanna know, huh?"

Octavia nodded. "I just want to know why, nothing else. If you do not want to talk about it, I will understand."

Vinyl thought for a second and smiled. "Alright, I'll tell you...But first, are you braced? You should be braced for this."

Octavia offered a smile. "Yes, Vinyl, I am braced."

Vinyl took off her shades and turned around to place them on the table. "Good, good...but are you sitting down? Because you should not be in a comfortable fainting position!"

Octavia's smile began to leave her at the nature of Vinyl's attempts to delay her answer. "...Vinyl, I am standing right here."

Vinyl nodded. "Good, good...but are you pregnant? Because you should not be preg-"

Octavia finally lost her patience. "Vinyl, just tell me already!" she shouted.

"Woah! Geez! Alright, no need to yell at me! You could at least tell me you're gonna have mood swings," Vinyl said, joking.

Octavia rolled her eyes. "Vinyl, you have mood swings more often than me."

Vinyl seemed to be shocked, only for a second, then began laughing. After ten seconds of laughing, she switched to what sounded like crying for another ten seconds, then went back to laughing, and so on until Octavia grabbed her and shook her.

"Just tell me already you blue-maned freak!"

Vinyl finally seemed to stop and sighed. "Fine..." She motioned for them both to sit at the couch as she began her story. "So, when you went to Manehattan, me and Neon went our separate ways too. We didn't talk as we worked our way to fame, not because we didn't want to, but because we had no time. So, well, we both got like really famous and got called to this concert in town for a face off, but my agent didn't tell me who 'MC W1SH' was. We had sort of like an interview at a radio before the concert, both of us on the phone and exchanging some challenging insults. Y'know, sort of like, for the sake of competition. Then, at the concert, we finally got to see each other, and I was shocked. I mean, that guy there was my best friend AND my competition? I just couldn't believe it. Concert went fine, no problems...They came afterwards." Vinyl began to have tears in her eyes. "Right after the concert, we found each other at the exit. I was going to congratulate him and catch up, but he...He began insulting me! He called me things like...like...!" Vinyl began to cry, prompting Octavia to hug her, something Vinyl returned in tears. "...That son of...That's what happened Octy! That's why I hate him and you should, too!"

Octavia simply tried to comfort Vinyl as best she could, offering her her favorite snacks and letting her blast her music while she stayed in her room with something to help cover her ears. Once that was taken care of, Octavia began to piece things together. She had heard both versions of the story, but it didn't add up at all. Vinyl's story was more detailed, and she knew it was true since Vinyl, as good as she was at acting, could never fake tears, but Neon's seemed true as well, she could tell Neon's anger was sincere from his reactions. Were they both telling the truth? Perhaps both of them left out a detail?

Octavia was not as close to solving the mystery as she would have liked, but did find something else in her clues. They both seemed to hate each other, but Neon did get his anger out of control when talking about what Vinyl did to him, and Vinyl began to cry when talking about what Neon did to her. Vinyl had also bothered to buy a figure of Neon, and Octavia couldn't help but wonder if the figure being placed away from her collection indicated something. Neon, on his part, had a poster of that eventful concert right above his bed, when even the most famous musicians did not bother to keep souvenirs of their concerts, much less place them in their rooms. The more she thought about this, the more Octavia believed that there was something deeper about them...And she had to find out what.

Listen to the fans

Octavia had spent most of the day playing her cello, not because she had a concert coming up soon, but rather because she needed her music to help her think clearly. She had created some beautiful pieces, and had also played random notes at times, all simply directed by how busy her mind was. She was certain there was something about her two best friends, but she didn't know how to get to it. She had heard Neon's story, where Vinyl insulted him in worse ways than the high school bullies, and had heard Vinyl's story, where it was Neon the one who insulted her. Both versions alternated the roles of victim and culprit, and it was to be expected, after all even Octavia was capable of bending the truth in certain situations. However, both stories were almost identical except for the part with the concert, so Octavia concluded that if she wanted to get to the bottom of this, she had to hear the story from another pony's point of view. But now the question was how was she going to find a pony who went to the concert and listened to their interview on radio?

"Octy, I gotta go, see you tomorrow!" Vinyl shouted downstairs.

Octavia was about to return the goodbye when she had a crazy idea. She carefully put her cello back where it was, opened her door and ran downstairs, hoping to catch Vinyl before she left. "Vinyl, wait, take me with you!"

Vinyl was surprised to see Octavia running to say goodbye to her instead of just saying it from her room, but what came as a shock was that Octavia actually asked to go with her. "Hey, Octy, calm down! You can come out of the closet when I come back!"

Octavia stopped right in front of her immediately after hearing that. "I...uh..wha?"

"Look, Octavia, I know I'm cute and all, but I really gotta go now or my agent's gonna kill me." She put a hoof on her confused friend's shoulder as she put on an apologetic smile. "I promise I'll listen and properly talk to you about your obvious feelings for me once I come back, ok?"

Octavia's eye twitched. Did Vinyl completely misunderstand her entirely not vague request? No, it was likely just one of Vinyl's clever pranks. She shook her head and facehooved. "No, Vinyl, I just want to go with you to your performance!"

Vinyl took off her shades to look at Octavia in the eyes, raising an eyebrow. "....Now, Octavia, let's get serious here," she said flatly. Octavia gave her one of her trademark looks, which Vinyl interpreted quickly. "Hey, no need to give me your 'Vinyl, you better fix this or I will scold you' look..."

Octavia stood quiet for a second before sighing. "Vinyl, that was my 'Vinyl, stop being ridiculous' look...THIS is my 'Vinyl, you better fix this or I will scold you' look." She gave the same look as before, only now she slowly shook her head in disapproval.

"Oooh!" Vinyl awkwardly rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry, forgot the shaking head thing. Anyway. What?!"

Octavia rolled her eyes. "I want to go to the nightclub with you to see your performance, that is what."

Vinyl took what must have been a full minute to absorb that. "But just a couple days ago you said my music was 'utter trash' and a...shameless expression of...." she began, unable to recall Octavia's words.

"I said shameful expression of art made by maniacs with no culture, Vinyl. But that is of no consequence, I really need to go with you."

Vinyl was confused to say the least. It was clear that it was Octavia the pony who talked to her, as no impostor would talk like that, but it just made it more confusing. Time was not on her side, so Vinyl decided not to question her friend for now and motioned for her to follow as she left the house.

Vinyl would have gone to the nightclub herself, but talking to Octavia made her waste some time, so she had to resort to a carriage for them both. The entire ride there Vinyl attempted to know why Octavia wanted to accompany her, but Octavia never gave her a real answer. She had a good reason, however, she was going to see if one of Vinyl's fans would give her answers relating to what happened between Vinyl and Neon. It was a crazy idea, and went against Octavia's wishes of never stepping inside a nightclub or listening to Vinyl's music, but Octavia at this point would sacrifice anything if it meant she could know why her two friends no longer talked civilly to each other.

The bumpy ride was over at last and Vinyl paid, rather generously, for the help. The DJ walked towards the nightclub's entrance and Octavia followed her, bracing herself for the loud bass and wubs that she would hear soon. Vinyl held the door open for Octavia before walking in herself. Not even seconds after walking in she was greeted by her agent, a rather effeminate and lean stallion with an interesting manecut and a scarf around his neck, with what seemed to be a friendly attitude.

"Vinyl, what happened? You are almost late!" the stallion said either with genuine concern or hidden frustration.

"Sorry man, got distracted by my friend Octy here." Vinyl pointed at Octavia with her hoof as she smiled. "She wanted to come see me for Luna knows what reason!"

"Oh my, Octavia Melody? Celestia bless this day!" The stallion firmly shook Octavia's hoof with a large smile. "I knew someday you would come to realize that this is music, as well!"

Octavia awkwardly smiled, her presence in that nightclub, the music and this stallion's attitude just made it all more difficult to bear. "I just wanted to see my friend, that is all!" she said with a rather nervous tone.

"Ah, well, a stallion can dream, right?" The stallion turned to Vinyl and signaled for her to get ready for her part. The DJ said her goodbyes to them both and left for the stage. Once the DJ was gone, the stallion turned to Octavia and grinned. "Now, Miss Melody, why is it that you are here, truly?"

Octavia sighed. "Mister, don't you have better things to do than inquire?"

The stallion put a hoof to his chin as he thought. "...Truth be told, no!"

Octavia rolled her eyes and began walking away from Vinyl's agent. "Well you better find something!" she said in a calm and challenging tone.

Octavia didn't look back to see the stallion eyeing her flank as she walked, but she knew he would likely be doing that. It was not her problem however, she had to focus on her goal now. All she had to do was sit by the bar, maybe order a drink or two, and wait until Vinyl blasted her dreadful music and see which pony seemed to like it, then begin asking. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done, and she was soon going to find out why.

"Aww, yeah! Everypony ready?!" Vinyl shouted from the stage, to which everypony in the club cheered. "Alright then! Let's spin this-"

Octavia quickly covered her ears, just in time before the word she knew would come, and just before the music began. She saw the ponies going wildly from side to side, dancing as Vinyl's horrible music controlled their minds. Ponies waving their arms, headbanging and becoming little more than animals, it surprised her to know that they were intelligent ponies outside of the nightclub. The more cultured cellist gradually took her hooves off her ears, slowly adapting to the loud music, to the wubs she always hated to hear at her house, only this time it was louder. She prayed to the Princesses and began looking for one of the saner fans near the bar.

It had been already three tracks and she couldn't find one, mainly because they were too busy dancing to their idol's music. She was about to call this a terrible idea when somepony sat next to her, ordering a drink for herself. Octavia looked over her shoulder to see a unicorn mare with a manecut that rivaled Vinyl's in being an aberration. She could not tell what were the mare's colors thanks to the club's lights, but she could tell that she was grinning at her.

"Sooo, what brings the great Octavia Melody to a nightclub?" the mare asked, amused to see such a celebrity in such a place.

"I just wanted to see my friend, that's all." Octavia turned to look at Vinyl, far behind the crowd. "I wish I did not."

"This music not fancy enough for ya?" the mare asked with a giggle.

Octavia glared at the mare, but then nodded. "Indeed. It's just a whole lot of senseless noise. I am surprised her fans are all over her, I would honestly get bored of listening to all these beats for weeks!"

The mare giggled once more and levitated her glass, drinking from it before talking again. "Then what is your hoof doing?" she asked while looking down at Octavia's hoof.

The earth pony confusedly looked down, only to see her hoof moving to the beats of Vinyl's music. "What?!" she said out loud before attempting to stop it. "It's never done this before, I swear!" she said nervously.

The mare shook her head. "Maybe you're finally letting the wubs get to ya! Embrace it!" she said, finding it hard to contain her laughter.

Octavia shook her head furiously. "No! I only came to know what happened four years ago at that face off between her and Neon Lights, not to listen to this curse from Tartarus!" she blurted out before covering her hoof in realization.

The mare lost her amused look and looked at Octavia. "...That concert? Weren't you around at the time?" she asked, all seriousness in her tone.

Octavia looked at the mare, believing she found an answer. "...No, I was in Manehattan at the time."

The mare sighed. "Well, thank Celestia. I was there and sometimes I wish I wasn't."

Octavia was now certain she would get an answer. "Why? Was it that bad?"

"You have no idea...The concert itself was no problem at all, they even looked like they didn't really hate each other. It was like, normal, you know? But after the concert, everypony was leaving, those two as well. They found each other, and...look, you CAN'T go tell anypony I'm going neutral here, ok?" She waited for Octavia to nod before continuing. "Alright, if you go ask anypony, they'd put either Neon or Vinyl as the victim, but I'm one of the few who likes them both, so listen up, gal. They found each other, and you should have seen them...They looked like parents glaring at each other after a fight! And they did start a fight, Neon called her a b-word, then Vinyl immediately called him an a-hole, then it like, escalated quickly. They were worse than parents fighting, and then Neon implied Vinyl's mom was a mule, and Vinyl punched him, right in the snout! Then their agents got in the way and split them up. That's basically it, in a nutshell."

Octavia's jaw dropped in shock as she heard the tale. It certainly had insulting like she had heard before, but Neon started and with no provocation. But Vinyl retaliated quickly and even got physical...Now it really didn't make any sense, why would they do that? Octavia shook her head and thanked the mare silently, looking at Vinyl with sorrow growing in her heart. The more she thought about it, the more she began to believe that there was really hatred between her friends. She began feeling tears in her eyes before remembering something important. She quickly got up from her seat with a somewhat renewed hope and approached the effeminate stallion that was Vinyl's agent.

"Enjoying the show, Miss Melody?" the stallion asked, unaware of what Octavia was going through.

Octavia simply stared at him, and not with the friendliest of looks. "You are Vinyl's only agent, right?" she asked, direct and serious.

The stallion looked rather confused by the question, but shrugged it off easily. "Well, yes, ever since she broke all ties with that greedy son of a mule almost four years ago! Why you ask?"

Octavia put a hoof to her chin. "...Do you know what happened to her other agent?" she asked.

"I'm afraid not...Why?" the stallion said, raising an eyebrow.

Octavia shook her head and forced a smile. "Just wanted to know, that's all," she replied as she left again for the bar, sitting down and ordering another drink to calm down.

After what must have been the third drink, Octavia looked at Vinyl through the crowd, unaware that she herself was moving her head to the beats now. She couldn't help but feel almost heartbroken after finding out that her friends fought each other with no provocation at all, but it gave her a strange sense of hope when she focused on the things she had noticed earlier. However, she now had to make sure she didn't miss any details on Neon's part, before attempting to help them both patch things up.

Author's Note

I am sorry for taking too long to write this, and I'm sorry if it's somewhat confusing or some parts make little sense.

Agent of trouble

Octavia had spent two nights in a row going to Vinyl's nightclub raves to see if she forgot a detail. The neutral story she heard from the mysterious mare she never saw again, Vinyl's agent's words and the stories of the fans regarding the current rivalry between the two DJs was all she was going to learn, so she decided to plan her next step: Doing the same with Neon.

After sitting on her couch for hours thinking about it, Octavia came to the conclusion that she would try a different approach with Neon. It was something she had never done, and she knew she wouldn't like it, but she had to do it. She picked up her phone from the table in front of her and called somepony she knew.

"Howdy! Fiddlesticks here, what can I do for ya?" a mare's voice with a soft southern accent said through the phone.

"Hello, Fiddlesticks, it's Octavia," the cellist replied with a smile.

"Octavia?! How's it going, cousin? When are you comin' to visit? Oh, you still livin' with Pon-3? How's she? You got a coltfriend yet? Tell me everything!"

Octavia nearly fell backwards at the seemingly unending questions, but tried to sound calm. "It's going good, I will visit you sometime next week, yes I am still living with Vinyl, she is alright, and no, I don't have a coltfriend as of yet." She had to take a breather after answering all of those questions, preparing for what she was going to ask. "Fiddlesticks, I need a favor."

"Of course! Ask me anything!" Fiddlesticks replied.

"I need you to give me advice on how to...lie."

There was only silence coming from Fiddlesticks' end, but her voice was heard again soon. "Beg your pardon?"

"I am going to talk to somepony tonight about a secret. He is a friend of mine, and you know very well that I can't lie to my friends if they ask me about it directly. I fear he might ask me for the secret," Octavia explained.

"Ooh, I get you now. Hmm. Well, you gotta follow these simple steps. First, your lie doesn't have to be overly detailed, if it is then they'll know you'll be hidin' something. Second, you have to avoid tells, don't let your face give away that you're lyin', you can do this better when you're not looking at the other pony in the eyes. Third, a lie of omission is still a lie, so if it helps ya, you can tell the truth but leave out certain details that make it undeniable, and it'll still be a lie but at the same time not. If that doesn't work out for ya, you can make it a 'What if' lie, you know, they won't think you are lying to them if it's something that supposedly hasn't happened. Ya get me?" Fiddlesticks said, detailing information she obtained after years of having to lie to her parents to hide little pranks gone wrong.

Octavia nodded her head after each tip, taking a mental note of them. "Yes, I understand. Thank you, Fiddlesticks."

"No problem, cousin! Anything else you need?"

"No, that is all. Thank you again, cousin, I will see you next week."

"Say hi to Vinyl for me, and tell her I bought her latest album! Bye!" Fiddlesticks said before hanging up.

Octavia silently thanked her cousin again before standing up and walking to the kitchen, where to her surprise Vinyl was making herself a pair of enormous sandwiches. "V-Vinyl, why are you....?"

The DJ turned to see her friend. "Oh, hi Octy! I was hungry so I made some sandwiches, want one?" she said with a huge grin.

"Not even one of those can fit inside your body!" Octavia said, pointing out the sheer size of one of the sandwiches. "This is all the bread for the month! And you used more cheese than what we have?"

"Suit yourself then!" Vinyl took one of the sandwiches and began eating it, one enormous bite at a time. "Hey, so, you gonna come to my gig tonight?" she asked after swallowing her food, looking at Octavia with expectant eyes.

Octavia prepared to put what her cousin taught her to use, and walked over to the fridge, opening and looking inside to avoid eye contact. "Sorry Vinyl, I have a rehearsal tonight."

Vinyl shrugged. "Huh, ok," she said before going back to her sandwich.

Octavia raised an eyebrow. She had expected Vinyl to inquire more, but she was thankful she did not. She closed the fridge and sat in front of Vinyl, watching her eat her now small sandwich. "...When you have a stomachache later, do not come crying to me," she said with her typical resignation tone.

Vinyl ignored her, or so it seemed, and finished the monstrosity known as her first sandwich. "Hey Octy, I wanna talk to you about something." The DJ put on her shades and smirked. "You like my music, don't ya?"

Octavia sighed and rolled her eyes. "No, I do not. I argue with you every week about you destroying the peace in this house with your music!" she said, sure of her words.

Vinyl simply lowered her shades and looked at her with amused eyes. "You don't have to hide it. I saw you the past two nights. Your lips say nope, but your body says the exact opposite!"

Octavia shook her head and looked away. "I do not know what you're talking about!"

"Aww, you're so cute when you try to hide it, Octy. But you looked adorable when you were moving along with the wubs last night." Vinyl raised and lowered her eyebrows as her smirk remained.

Octavia now went defensive, heat rising to her face. "No! I hate your music! I never liked it here, why would one of your concerts make any difference?!"

"Octy, the nightclubs, loud big speakers, lights and the crowd. They have a whole new effect on you. It's just, beautiful, like, those sappy poems and romantic movies you watch beautiful!" the DJ replied, using her forelegs to emphasize on the feeling she described.

The grey earth pony rose to her hooves and turned to leave. "The day I enjoy your music will be the day you can proudly say your parents are-...umm...Hoity Toity and Photo Finish!" she said, her eyes closed and frowning.

Vinyl raised an eyebrow before taking off her shades. "...Octy, those ARE my parents. We had dinner with them last week!"

"Do not change the subject!" Octavia said, rather loudly, before walking away.

Vinyl went back to smiling and put her hooves around her mouth. "Come on, Octy! You can't hide what's inside!" she shouted before giggling and proceeding to eat the second sandwich monstrosity.

***

Octavia left her house right after sunset, without her cello case as opposed to what she had told Vinyl. Luckily for her, Vinyl was too busy playing on her phone to notice, so she was for the moment off the hook. She trotted through the streets of Canterlot, headed for a specific nightclub. She arrived shortly, stopping in front of the entrance and the poster of MC W1SH right beside it. She took a deep breath and entered the nightclub, her ears being assaulted by another kind of that dreaded music Octavia most certainly and undeniably hated.

In the club, Octavia saw the DJ in charge of the music was none other than her friend Neon Lights, who despite his shades, the lights and his duty, he was able to see her, and acknowledged her with a gesture that his fans didn't seem to notice. She happily returned the gesture with a knowing smile and walked over to the bar, ordering a drink.

"Alright, everypony! Don't tire out on me!" Neon shouted as he stepped down from the stage between cheers. Another DJ took over temporarily as he walked to the bar, sitting beside Octavia. "What an awesome surprise, Octavia!" he said to his friend as he smiled. "Why are you here? Thought this kind of stuff wasn't your kind of stuff!"

"I wanted to talk to you, Neon." Octavia looked at him, then looked away with a small smile. "What would you do if-"

"Octavia Melody, I presume?" an older stallion said, sitting beside Neon. "It is rare to see such a musician as yourself in these places..."

"Hey, she's cool, man! Sorry, Octavia." Neon shook his head before looking at both ponies. "Meet my agent, Money Bag."

Octavia nodded with a forced smile. "It is a pleasure." It was not, in fact. Octavia had learned about this agent from Neon, and he wasn't a pony to be pleased to talk to. "Now, Neon, as I was saying-" Octavia once again looked away, pretending to be looking at her drink. "-What would you if I told you that Vinyl wants to make amends for what happened four years ago?"

Neon took off his shades, raising an eyebrow. A reaction Octavia expected, but what she didn't expect was Money Bag choking on his drink and doing a spit take. His reaction was ignored, however, at least by Neon.

"She wants to what...?" Neon asked, not believing her.

"To make up with you, apologize for what she did to you." Octavia's left eye twitched slightly, a tell, but luckily Neon wasn't looking at her eye.

"After not one year, not two, not even three, but four?" Neon frowned. looking down. "Why?"

"I would rather not go into detail," Octavia replied, taking a sip of her drink.

"Wait, is it true? You're not just pulling a prank on me here?" Neon suddenly asked, looking at Octavia with narrowed eyes.

"You know I'm not the pony for pranks, Neon." Octavia smiled, looking at him directly. "If it was true, what would you do?" she asked softly.

Neon opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. "I...I...I would..." He would have, under any other circumstance, said something hostile, but something he couldn't explain, perhaps the presence of the cellist he called his friend, made him hesitate. "I...I dunno." he said finally after a sigh. "It's been so long since I talked to her without yelling at her that- that...I never thought about it."

Octavia smiled and put a hoof on his shoulder. "It's never too late to think about it."

"Actually, it is!" Money Bag suddenly said. "Neon, what would your fans think?! Think of the huge impact on your career this could have!"

Octavia raised an eyebrow at Money Bag, noting that he seemed to be reacting poorly, perhaps too poorly. "Excuse me, sir. We are talking about a hypothetical situation here, there is no need to yell at Neon," she pointed out, still focusing on Money Bag.

Money Bag breathed heavily before calming down. "...Right! Of course, how stupid of me! C-Carry on then!"

"You alright, man? You seem kinda off," Neon pointed out, raising an eyebrow at his agent.

"I- I'm fine! Perfectly fine!" Money Bag went back to his drink, trying to look normal.

"...Of course." Octavia shook her head and looked at Neon again. It was then when an idea struck her, and she was going to go for it. "...Now that I remember, you never told me exactly what happened that night. You told me she insulted you, but you did not tell me she hit you."

"How did you know about that?" Neon asked, surprised. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to get worried."

"Well, I did get worried," Octavia said, going back to looking at her drink. "And one of your fans told me. It is just strange though...Vinyl would never get physical in that respect without provocation." She looked at Neon in the eyes with a sad expression. "Tell me the truth, Neon...What did you do?"

Neon sighed. "...Alright, I admit, I did insult her first...But she started it!"

"She started it?" Octavia asked, intrigued. "How did she start it?"

"Well, right after the face off, she sent me an email calling me a-" Neon began, only to be interrupted by Money Bag shaking him.

"Neon! It's time for you to go back to the stage! Now!" Money Bag exclaimed, almost exaggerating with his tone.

"Oh, right. Sorry Octavia, gotta go!" Neon hurried to the stage, ready to take over again.

Octavia couldn't help but notice that Money Bag was acting very defensively, and looked at him with a curious look. "...As far as I recall, Neon has only had one agent, right?" she asked him, hoping to push a button.

Money Bag looked at her, his face pale and sweating. "You ask too much for a mare...If you excuse me..." he said, his look focused elsewhere, or rather, nowhere at all. He stood up and walked away, hoping to lose Octavia quickly.

Octavia did not follow him, she instead sat there thinking. She connected the dots, and reached what she thought would be an accurate hunch. Money Bag somehow had something to do with what happened between Vinyl and Neon, there was little room for doubt now. As Neon's music returned and her head began, unbeknownst to her, subtly moving up and down to the beat, Octavia thought of a new strategy to get the real truth out of her friends and find what she hoped would be the final piece that would let them close the rift between them and become friends again.

Author's Note

The plot thickens as we reach the halfway point in this story. I know the romance part hasn't come in yet, but it will, soon enough.
Also, there's a bit of headcanon in here, but if it bothers you, don't worry, it won't play a major role.

Truth be told

Octavia was wearing a huge grin as she walked in her house, or rather, hopping around in her house. She knocked on her dear best friend's door, her face still showing a rather uncharacteristic happiness. "Vinyl! Are you ready?"

"Uh, in a minute!" the DJ answered from inside her room. "I can't find the fancy dress my parents got for me!"

"Vinyl, we are going to a fancy restaurant, not the Grand Galloping Gala!" Octavia said, her smile still there.

"But ponies will talk!"

"Didn't stop you the last three times, just come out already."

Vinyl opened the door, walking out of her room with a different pair of shades, one that was red in color and pointy rather than oval-shaped like her normal, purple ones. "This better, Octy?" she asked, blushing out of embarrassment.

Octavia's smile got smaller, not because of frustration but because of surprise. "...I said fancy restaurant, Vinyl," was all she could say.

"Yeah, but these are my fancy shades!" Vinyl countered.

"...Take those off. It'll be better if you don't go with any shades at all."

Vinyl sighed and put her new shades back in her room. "So, you still haven't told me why you're suddenly treating me to dinner in Canterlot's fanciest restaurant," she suddenly said.

"Oh, Vinyl!" Octavia turned around to walk away, prompting Vinyl to follow. "Do I need a reason?"

"Well, yeah! You've been acting strange lately. Like, conspirator strange..." Vinyl answered, slowly trying to connect the dots.

"My, Vinyl, are you saying you doubt your best friend and roommate?" Octavia suddenly turned to look at her with huge worried eyes. "You believe I, the one pony who has the courage to live with you and still has her sanity intact, have ulterior motives for inviting you out for dinner?"

Vinyl felt incredibly uncomfortable all of a sudden and slowly shook her head. "No, of course not, Octy!" she said, forcing a smile.

"Good! Then come on, we are getting late!" Octavia said, acting happy once again.

The two friends wordlessly left their house and went into the nighttime Canterlot, trotting through the streets. After reaching their destination within half an hour, Octavia walked in first, looking at the restaurant's clock and at the ponies sitting there.

"Hello, ma'am." A pony in a suit walked up to her. "Do you have a reservation?"

"Oh, yes, of course. Octavia Melody, table for three." Octavia replied, getting a confused look from Vinyl.

The pony took out three pictures, looking at them and then at the two mares in front of him. "Ah, yes, follow me." The pony began walking towards an empty table with three chairs and a single menu on it in the middle of the restaurant, with the two mares following him. "The other one arrived a couple minutes ago."

"Other one?" Vinyl asked.

"The table looks empty," Octavia pointed out.

"He did not leave, that's for sure, so my best guess is that he is in the restroom," the pony answered.

"Oh, excellent..." Octavia smirked.

"Octy, what's going on here?" Vinyl asked, somewhat scared.

"Nothing, just sit and prepare to enjoy the evening!" Octavia said as she sat down, urging Vinyl to sit as well.

"I will bring you the menus at once." The pony walked away, leaving the two friends at the table.

"...Alright, Octy, you better start explaining now or I'll-"

Octavia "accidentally" dropped one of the forks to the floor, putting on a dramatic reaction. "Oh, how stupid of me! Vinyl, dear, would you be able to get it back for me?"

Vinyl raised an eyebrow and began to use her magic, but Octavia once again interrupted her.

"You know, I have never seen you not using your magic to pick up something, why don't you try now?" Octavia put on an innocent face.

Vinyl was now really suspicious, but still bent down to get the fork. Unfortunately, her hooves weren't able to pick it up, forcing her to get off the chair and under the table to pick it up with her mouth.

Octavia quickly looked around, noticing the door to the colt's restroom opening and none other than Neon Lights walking out. Octavia happily waved at him from the table, and that caught his attention. After waving back, Neon walked towards the table, unaware that his hated rival was under it.

"Hello Octavia, sorry to keep ya waiting, I was busy," the stallion in black shirt said.

The sound of such a familiar voice made Vinyl jump, almost hitting herself in the head with the table. "Wait, WHAT?!" She quickly got up, looking at Neon in the eyes, both of them with a shocked face.

"WHAT IN EQUESTRIA ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" they both asked the other, both shocked and angry. Their outburst made everypony in the restaurant glance at them, effectively preventing any further aggression.

"Oh, my, you two may want to calm down. We are in Canterlot's most famous restaurant after all..." Octavia said, hiding her satisfaction.

Both DJs looked at her, confused, before silently sitting down under the pressure of the restaurant's clients. They stayed quiet for what had to be a full minute before suddenly realizing something. "You!" they both said as they pointed at their friend, careful not to talk too loudly.

Octavia this time smiled externally, but feigned ignorance. "Yes?"

"You clever mare...Inviting me to the restaurant and acting innocent, it all makes sense now!" Vinyl said.

"The invitation through the phone, the table, all the ponies here..." Neon narrowed his eyes. "You wanted us both to be in the same room, you chose a fancy restaurant so that we wouldn't act violently and cause a 'scene', you chose this table so that if we tried anything everypony would see us, and you are paying for it to make us guilty if we walk out on you or refuse to act civilly!"

"Guilty as charged!" Octavia replied nonchalantly.

"Why, Octy? Why?!" Vinyl asked, not believing that her best friend would set her up like this.

"Because I'm tired of this childish fighting between you!" Octavia admitted. "We were friends, all three of us! Can't we leave whatever happened between you behind and go back to that?"

Neon shook his head. "Sorry Octavia, some scars will never heal...No matter how much Vinyl wants to apologize."

"Wait, 'no matter how much VINYL wants to apologize'?! I didn't do anything!" Vinyl said.

"You called me things and hit me!" Neon countered.

"That was because YOU called me things first!"

Octavia simply watched, letting the argument go on until they both got to the part she wanted to clarify. Unfortunately, they argued long enough for her to take a look at the entire menu three times.

"And what about that email you sent me where you said I was nothing but a-" Neon began, interrupted by Vinyl.

"I sent YOU an email?! YOU sent ME an email insulting me!"

"I never sent you an email!" Neon assured.

Both DJs quickly took their phones and went to their emails, getting the one that they talked about, and with their magic they held it for the other to see. "Then what is this?" the both asked at the same time, before reading said email.

"...It IS my email...But I never sent you this!" Neon said, confused.

Vinyl was in no better situation, after reading the email she supposedly sent she had seen the exact same thing. "This doesn't sound like me at all!"

Octavia took both phones all of a sudden, focusing on Vinyl's email. "...She is right...this sounds too complicated for Vinyl. She doesn't know how to spell 'mediocre'," Octavia pointed out.

"You don't know how to spell mediocre?" Neon asked, somewhat amused.

Vinyl blinked. "...It like putting 'Mid', 'oh' and 'care' together, right?"

Octavia shook her head. "Did anypony else have access to your emails?" she asked, determined to get to the bottom of this tonight.

Both DJs began to think, but they couldn't reach any conclusion. "I never gave my password to anypony, if that is what you are asking. That would just be stupid," Neon said.

"Are you implying that somepony hacked our emails?" Vinyl asked.

"I'm not implying that, Vinyl, I am sure of it." Octavia suddenly seemed uncomfortable. "...Excuse me for a second, I must go to the little fillies' room." She got up and walked away towards the restroom, leaving the two DJs alone. In reality, it was another of her elaborate plans, she simply hid behind a plant near the restroom and observed what happened. Unfortunately, both DJs were in an awkward silence, likely focusing more on what had happened and who could have done it. Octavia didn't lose hope and kept watching, but she was surprised to hear somepony else nearby.

"She's on to me, Pocket! I don't know how, but she's suspecting something!" Neon's agent said.

Octavia's eyes widened as she saw that Money Bag and another stallion were sitting at a table near the plant. What was Money Bag doing there? She abandoned her current plan to eavesdrop on the agent, certain that this was something worth hearing.

"Well, that's terrible." The other stallion shook his head. "Not only for you, but for me as well...And you know why."

"Yes, yes, we're supposed to be sharing our pay...But look, if Octavia finds out something, I'm dragging you into this as well! So you better think of a solution!"

"Do you think Octavia's agent is like us? Maybe we can bribe him..."

"And then what? You think Octavia is as stupid as Vinyl to leave her phone, with no password, in the backstage?"

"...True. In hindsight, we were lucky to get a pair of idiots as our clients. Too bad Scratch fired me..."

"Hey, at least our plan worked! For me, anyway."

Octavia couldn't believe her ears. Money Bag and Vinyl's agent were working together four years ago and caused the fight to happen? This looked more like a detective movie plot, but she was thankful that she had the evidence right next to her. In a moment of inspiration, Octavia took her phone and texted Vinyl and Neon to go to the table near her, giving instructions to reach it. She didn't send it, not yet, and came out of hiding by the table, pretending to be looking at her phone.

"Look, we gotta-." Money Bag saw Octavia right beside the table. "..There she is."

"Hmm?" Octavia looked at both agents, carefully pressing the SEND button. "Oh, Money Bag! What a surprise to see you here!" she said, pretending to be friendly.

"What a surprise indeed..." Vinyl's agent said. "Hey, listen, missy, how much is it gonna cost for you to shut up?"

"Excuse me?" Octavia asked, feigning surprise.

"Don't play dumb with us, Octavia. We know you know what happened four years ago at that concert!" Money Bag exclaimed.

"...You mean how I know that you made my two best friends fight each other? How I know that you two planned that face off? How I know that you got their phones while they were playing, with no password, and got to their emails? How I know that YOU sent the emails that started all the fighting?" Octavia suddenly said with a cocky attitude.

"...We need to stop talking that loud, don't we?"

"Indeed," Octavia answered. "I heard it all on my way to the restroom."

"...Really, how much?" Vinyl's agent asked again.

"...Just tell me...why?" Octavia said.

"Their competition was gonna boost their fame! We would have been rich!"

"So you hacked into my friends' emails, sent them insulting emails from the other and caused a four-year long fight, just for money?"

"Guilty!"

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Neon shouted.

Both agents' colors left their faces as they realized that behind Octavia were both Neon Lights and Vinyl Scratch. "...Mother of Celestia..."

"Full Pocket, what's going on here?!" Vinyl asked.

"Uh....we...well..." Money Bag tried to talk, but realized that this was the point of no return.

Neon shook his head. "...I don't believe it...All these years, it was you?!"

"Neon, please! This competition has been the base for both of your successful careers!"

Octavia shook her head, getting beside Vinyl, who was starting to get wet eyes.

"Oh no, I'm tired of you!" Neon got on the other side of Vinyl. "She was my friend before you came along! I blamed her for every bad thing that happened to me for four years, and it was all YOUR fault! She did the same, and because of you as well!" He looked down, thoughtful, for a couple seconds before looking back at Money Bag. "You're fired."

Money Bag's eyes widened, but then he began laughing. "You can't fire me!"

Neon took his phone and went to a certain file he kept. "Really? It says so right here in our contract!"

Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "You have your contract in your phone?"

Neon nodded. "You know, just in case he tries going smartplot on me."

Octavia was really amused at the situation, but did her best not to laugh. "This is almost too convenient..."

Neon read a paragraph of the contract. "It says right here that if I disagree with your methods and no willful agreement can be made, I can end this association. And it's SIGNED! So, HA!" he said triumphantly.

Money Bag and Full Pocket were shocked and desperately tried to think of something. "...You will be hearing from my lawyer, Neon!" Money Bag said.

Octavia smiled. "And you will be hearing from the press, Money Bag." She pointed at all the ponies looking at them. "Sorry!"

Vinyl smirked and walked up to the table. "And one more thing, Full Pocket..." She took her former agent's soup and poured it on his head. "You got soup on your mane!"

The three friends laughed as they walked away, back to their table, leaving the humiliated evil agents behind. Once they sat down, they finally ordered their food and began to talk.

"I'm sorry Octy. I'm glad you brought me here, I had to know that..." Vinyl said, awkwardly.

Neon nodded in agreement, then looked at Vinyl. "...Hey, Vinyl, I..." he started.

Vinyl waved her hoof. "Oh, no, Neon, I was stupid, I totally went and acted like an idiot...I'm sorry."

"Me too..." Neon got up and approached her. "...Vinyl...Think we can start over again?" he asked with all seriousness possible.

Vinyl's eyes were wet with tears as she nodded happily. "Of course, dude..."

Neon smiled and hugged her, something that four years ago would have been unthinkable. But what sealed the event was Vinyl hugging back and crying on his shoulder.

"I missed you, Neon..." Vinyl said tearfully.

"Me too, Vinyl, me too..." he replied, almost getting tears in his own eyes as well.

Octavia shook her head with a big smile. Her hard work had finally given results, and this was the best she could hope for. She would have joined them in their hug, but decided that from now on it would be their job to make up. Of course, that didn't mean she wouldn't help a little every now and then.

Author's Note

With this the real good part begins.

The next chapters won't be focused entirely on Octavia, but that should be obvious.

Friends stay together

It wasn't sunset yet when Octavia and Vinyl were watching a movie together in their living room, both of them calmly sitting on their couch. It was one of the few times one could safely say they were perfect friends, with Vinyl not acting crazy and Octavia not acting more mature than her actual age. The moment was interrupted when Octavia's phone rang, forcing Vinyl to pause the movie for her friend to answer.

"Hello?" Octavia said.

"Hey Octavia, it's me, Neon!"

"Oh, hello Neon!" Octavia said excitedly, prompting her roommate to look at her with equal excitement. "How are you?"

"Well..." Neon began sounding nervous. "Other than the angry mob outside my house, I'm perfectly fine!"

Octavia raised an eyebrow, confused. "...Angry mob outside your house?"

"And no, I don't mean like mobsters, I mean a bunch of-" Neon significantly raised his tone, now sounding more afraid than nervous. "- ANGRY FANS OUTSIDE MY HOUSE!!"

Octavia had to pull herself away from the phone to avoid risking deafness, since Neon's voice was so loud that even Vinyl heard it.

"I had to cancel some arrangements I had today because I CAN'T GET OUT OF MY FREAKIN' HOUSE!"

"Neon, calm down please!" Octavia said.

She had no way to know, but on the other side of the call, Neon was cowering behind a flipped over table in front of his window. "Calm down?! That's so cute, Octavia! You're SO brilliant!" Neon was clearly panicking, and the sounds of an angry crowd just outside his house only made it worse. "Look, I need to get out of here! What do you do when there's an angry crowd between you and freedom?!"

"I would be able to help you with that, if only that ever happened to me!" Octavia replied.

"Horseapples!" Neon said before looking over the table, able to see the crowd outside his house. "I'll call you later once I figure out how to get out of here!" Neon quickly hung up, likely leaving Octavia confused, but that wasn't his primary concern. He slowly crawled out from behind the table and walked over to the window, finally opening it. It wasn't his brightest idea, as the noise became loud enough to almost make him close the window again.

"How could you do this, man?!" a pony shouted. "You were like a hero to me! You were like a hero to me!" another one yelled. "I got into a fight with Scratch's fans last week and I almost broke my leg! Why did you do this to us?!" others cried.

Neon put a hoof to his face and sighed in frustration. He looked at the crowd, and noticed that at most one third of the crowd were angry fans, while the rest were just curious fans, curious ponies or paparazzi. 'How in Equestria did they know?!' he thought. His thoughts were interrupted when a pair of pegasi holding a microphone and a camera flew up to his window.

"Neon Lights, is it true you have ended your feud with famous DJ Vinyl Scratch, better known as DJ PON-3, because you admitted that your music cannot compare to hers?" one of the pegasi asked.

"What?! NO!" Neon replied, shocked to see what rumors were spreading about him.

"Then is it because you knew your music was better than hers and just wanted her to win?" the pegasus insisted.

"I...GET THE HAY OFF MY WINDOW!" Neon yelled before closing the window on the pegasus' face and closing the curtains. He thought himself safe until he heard the pegasus' muffled voice to his left.

"Is it because her parents Hoity Toity and Photo Finish offered you a huge amount of money to end it?" the pegasus asked from another window.

Neon panicked and closed all the curtains, then retreated into a corner and curled up into a ball, hoping he thought of something quickly. He then had an idea that according to him could not fail. He got up and quickly went upstairs to the room he used to make his music, which had a window just big enough for his face to be shown. He showed his face for the crowd to see, making them focus on the window, then quickly ducked and crawled to a corner of the room where a life-sized cardboard cutout of himself was standing. He carefully moved it to the window and the ponies outside thought it was him, not noticing the fact he wasn't moving at all.

He now had to run for his life, escaping through the backyard. He made sure to leave his clothes behind so that he had a better chance at going incognito. He looked around the corner, seeing everypony focused on the window, and he carefully trotted off to freedom.

"Hey! Neon is over here!" a pony shouted.

Neon froze in place before looking back, seeing the entire crowd turning to him and running after him. He didn't think twice and began galloping away at all the speed his legs could give him.

For nearly half an hour he ran endlessly, being chased by the persistent paparazzi and the angry fans. Every corner he turned seemed to add more pursuers to his problems, but that was not going to stop him from getting to freedom. After almost running out of breath, he managed to outrun the crowd long enough for him to hide in an alley, effectively fooling the ponies into believing he ran past it. Making sure he was safe, he took a moment to breathe, unaware that there was somepony approaching him from behind.

"Mother of Luna...How did they know?!" Neon whispered to himself. At that moment, a hoof touched his back, making him jump and turn around in panic while holding his hooves in the air, attempting to look intimidating.

"Easy, Neon, easy!" the other pony said. It was none other than the effeminate, lean stallion with the scarf and the interesting mane cut, otherwise known as Vinyl's current agent. "Did I scare you?"

"Oh, NO! Why would you even THINK that?!" Neon replied sarcastically. "...Who the hay are you?" he asked after calming down.

"Seriously?" the pony asked. "White Label!"

Neon still looked very confused at this pony who acted like if he should know him. "...Who?"

"...Vinyl's agent?" White Label said, hoping it was enough.

"....Yeah, not ringing any bells," Neon replied hopelessly.

"...I was the one who suggested to both of you that you should not make your renewed friendship public for the time being the day after you found out what caused the four-year-long feud? Vinyl called you to her house and I was there? We had hayfries and soda before I had to go?"

Neon finally seemed to remember. "Oh, Whitey! You look totally different with this lighting!"

"...I should have known," White Label replied sarcastically. He cleared his throat. "So, it seems like you're in trouble."

"You don't say!" Neon looked around the corner. "They know, and I don't know how they came to know! It's like if somepony who knows told them what they knew and now they know!" Neon said dramatically.

White Label raised an eyebrow, remaining silent after the senseless repeating of the word "know" before shaking his head and shrugging it off. "Yes, it appears so. And coincidentally, this happens the same day your agent's house is found empty..." he said, making his suspicions obvious.

"Oh, what a sneaky diamond dog..." Neon said bitterly. "But what I want to know is how they knew it was me! I left a decoy at my house!"

White Label simply looked at Neon with half-closed eyes. "...Maybe it's because you're still wearing your shades, Neon."

Neon looked at him as if he was just insulted. "No I'm not!" He put a hoof to his eyes to prove it, only to feel his shades. "...Huh, I am..." He took them off and put them away. "Sometimes I don't even notice."

"Look, you need to hide for now." White Label pointed at a taxi cart on the other side of the street outside the alley. "Come with me, I'll take you to Vinyl's place so that we can see what to do."

Neon silently nodded and walked with him towards the cart, climbing in quickly before anypony could recognize him. After White Label climbed in himself and signaled for the pulling stallion to go to Vinyl's address, the cart took them through Canterlot without raising suspicions. It wasn't long before the cart stopped outside Vinyl's house, White Label looking around to tell Neon if it was safe to come out before both of them walked towards the door.

It didn't take more than two knocks to make Octavia and Vinyl open the door, both glad to see Neon was alright. "Oh, Neon, there you are, you had us worried!" Octavia said before letting them in.

"You were worried? I had to run for half an hour to avoid paparazzi and angry fans!" Neon said as he walked in. "If it wasn't for Whitey here I'd be cowering like a bunny behind a trash can!"

Vinyl giggled and lightly punched Neon in the shoulder. "Told ya your fans were meaner."

White Label shook his head and put a hoof on Vinyl's back. "I think we need to talk...All four of us."

Soon afterwards, all four of them were in the living room, having some tea prepared by Octavia. They discussed how Money Bag and Full Pocket were certainly behind the fans knowing, and the consequences of such a thing. Vinyl and Neon knew very well that most of their fans weren't happy, but also knew that the media was their enemy at the moment. White Label, while not entirely soft, always put his client's comfort above his, so he knew he had to help Vinyl and Neon. It was then when an idea struck him.

"Neon Lights, you need to lay low for a while. It's clear that everypony thinks you gave up, and you will be the target here," he said.

"Low profile...Well, guess that means I'll have to avoid being seen coming into my house and getting out." Neon put a hoof to his chin, thoughtful. "...Oh, I know! I'll just move in here with you guys!" he announced.

"What?!" Vinyl said, surprised and confused.

"WHAT?!" Octavia shouted, shocked.

"Well it's not like I can go back to my house!" Neon replied. "Look, it'll just be for a while, until we get this all sorted out! I'll even sleep on the couch and go full stealthy! You will not even know I'm here until I work on new music!"

Vinyl nodded with a smile. "I'm ok with it! We have a spare room! It'll be like a long sleepover!" she said with the excitement of a little filly.

"I don't know, Vinyl." Octavia looked at her two friends, concern evident on her face. "I can barely stand living with your music, I can't take another musical artillery attack on my ears!"

"...Yo, Octavia, I'm sitting right here!" Neon said.

"Aww, c'mon, Octy!" Vinyl said, looking at her roommate. "Sure, Neon's music is sorta lousy and messy..."

"...Again, I'm right here!" Neon repeated.

"But you've lived with my awesome-level music for years! You can deal with his less powerful one!" Vinyl added.

Neon looked at White Label and pointed fiercely at himself. "I'm right here, you see me!" he said. However, instead of a response, he only got a couple blinks from White Label.

Vinyl got up from the couch and walked towards Neon, getting her foreleg around him. "We're friends, Octy! You worked so hard for us to be together as friends again, now you gotta help him! A true friend helps a friend in need!" Vinyl was now sounding like a politician giving a speech and getting cheers from the crowd. "And friends stay together until the end!" Neon nodded in agreement and looked at Octavia with pleading eyes.

Octavia was now under sheer pressure, not only from Vinyl and Neon but also from White Label and her own generous nature. She finally let out a sigh and smiled. "Fine..."

"YES!" Vinyl shouted before crushing her and Neon in a tight group hug. "This is going to be SO awesome!"

Neon was also excited, raising his foreleg triumphantly. "The Canterlot High School Music Power is back, baby!"

Octavia, between the strengths of her friends' happiness, could only force a smile. However, her mind was doing the opposite. 'Sweet Celestia, what have I done?'

Life with Buddies

"Neon, are you ready?" Octavia asked as she opened the door.

The unicorn DJ had been rearranging some things in his new room in Octavia's house when he heard her voice. "Just a minute, Octavia!" Using his magic, he placed the same poster of the fateful night that he had above his bed, above his new bed.

Octavia raised an eyebrow and looked at the poster. She was still confused about it, and it was clearly seen in her expression. "Neon?" she began. "Why do you have that poster? I thought both of you hated what happened that night."

Neon looked down for a second, but quickly shrugged it off and smiled. "No reason, I guess!" Before Octavia could continue asking, he turned and walked to the door. "Well, I'm ready now!" he said.

Octavia shook her head and walked out of the room, leading Neon to the living room, where Vinyl was waiting for them with three glasses of juice and what seemed to be a long list. Once Octavia and Neon took their seats, Octavia took the list and cleared her throat.

"Dude, get ready!" Vinyl whispered to Neon as she waited for Octavia to speak.

"Neon Lights, since you will be living with us until you can safely return to your house, you should know some of the rules of this house." Octavia covered her face from the view of her friends with the long paper. "Number one. Who cooks is decided by a weekly rotation. Right now it's Vinyl's turn, and after this week, it will be your turn."

"Fair enough," Neon commented.

"Number two. Inviting any guests to the house is allowed but you must tell us at least twelve hours in advance."

"...Alright?" Neon said, slightly amused at the level of precision.

"Number three. If there are no concerts or gigs or recitals or any sort of performance that night, friday night is movie night. Like with cooking, who picks the movie is a weekly rotation. You cannot opt out of this event unless you are sick."

Vinyl whispered to Neon again, with a mischievous tone. "But you CAN fall asleep during the movie if you don't like it, as long as you wear your shades and you don't snore."

"Number four. Vinyl's parents, Hoity Toity and Photo Finish, invite us to dinner at their mansion every month. Whatever plans you may have at the time must be cancelled, because when they invite us, we ALL go."

Vinyl silently giggled. "Or else you will suffah!" she said in a quiet tone, just loud enough so that Neon heard her. "No, dude, seriously. You don't go and they will make you go through the worst pain you can imagine."

Neon gulped. "They'll send their bodyguards to beat me up?"

"Worse!" Vinyl replied. "My dad will make you wear Octavia-level clothes and my mom will take pictures."

Neon gasped. "They would do that?"

Octavia nodded and pointed at the wall. More precisely, at a picture on the wall depicting Vinyl wearing a dress that might have been fashionable hundreds of years ago.

Neon gasped in terror and nearly fell off his chair. "The horror..."

Octavia giggled and kept going with the rules. "Number five. ALL music is to be kept at REASONABLE levels!" she said rather aggressively.

"But you can totally blast it when she's not around," Vinyl added.

"Number six. All-" Octavia stopped before reading the next word. "...No, no, this rule is not for Neon."

Neon looked at Vinyl. "What rule is that?"

Vinyl laughed and looked at him with a huge grin. "Hugs and Cuddles."

Neon blushed and shook his head. "Yeah, yeah, not for me, move on."

"Number seven. Due to the possible risk of deafness, I will not attend your performances, but you have to attend mine if you are free."

"HYPOCRITE!" Vinyl shouted jokingly.

"Vinyl, there's no risk when going to my performances!" Octavia countered.

"Yeah there are! There's the risk of dislocating your jaw by yawning a lot!"

Neon couldn't help but laugh, though he quickly went back to being somewhat serious. "But Octavia, you have been going to our gigs for days without problems! I even saw you bobbing your head during one!"

Octavia gasped and got defensive, glaring at her friends while speaking nervously. "No! I HATE your music!"

"You can run from it, but you can't hide from it, Octy," Vinyl said triumphantly.

"Vinyl, retract yourself!" Octavia got closer to her best friend with a look that burned like the sun. "Or I will-"

Before she could continue, Octavia was assaulted by a hug from Vinyl, accompanied by a quick, playful kiss on the lips. Such a sight would have been more than enough to get Neon to fall off his chair, but the shock of it made him hold still. He watched, completely dumbfounded before Vinyl let Octavia go with a huge grin.

Octavia simply put a hoof on her lips and spoke with a tone that was the opposite of the one she had prior to the assault. "Well, let's move on."

Neon's jaw would have touched the floor if biology would have allowed it. When Vinyl looked at him, he was quick to speak. "I thought you both were into stallions!"

"And we are!" Vinyl replied, smiling. "I just do that to scare her wrath off."

"....And she lets you?!"

"YUP!" Vinyl said before giggling. "Friends do that!"

Neon quickly looked at Octavia and gestured for her to continue with the list.

Princess Luna's moon shone in the sky as the three musical ponies brushed their teeth in their now shared bathroom. While normally Octavia didn't mind being the pony to brush her teeth while holding the brush with her hooves, having two unicorns do it with magic made her feel somewhat unique, but not in the good way.

After spitting out, Neon looked at his friends. "You know, I think I need to ask...Are you guys....Together?"

"We live together, duh!" Vinyl said.

"No, no, I mean...Are you...TOGETHER together?" Neon repeated.

"Neon, please!" Octavia replied with a laugh. "We are just really close friends!"

"But she KISSED you! In the LIPS!" Neon countered.

"It's just a joke between friends!" Octavia repeated.

"My my, Neon, are you jelly?" Vinyl asked with a smirk.

"What? No, I just think that some ponies might easily misinterpret that as you both being a couple," Neon replied. He spoke the truth, but his friends' expressions made it clear that they didn't believe him. "...Really!"

"Oh, poor Neon." Vinyl approached him. "Here, let me help you with that."

Before Neon could protest, Vinyl kissed him on the cheek, making heat rise to his face and his eyes open wide. After the act, Vinyl giggled and walked away like if nothing had happened, hiding the pale red shade on her cheeks. Unknown to her, Neon could not move, the shock being too much for him to handle.

Octavia laughed and gave Neon a pat on the back. "Good night, Neon." She walked out of the bathroom, leaving Neon alone.

Neon didn't move for a while, and when he did, he simply walked back to his new room to sleep there for the first time, but during the entire walk he had the same blushing, shocked expression he had when Vinyl kissed his cheek. The same expression remained when he lied down on the bed and turned off the lights. He just lied on his bed, looking at the ceiling, the kiss still fresh in his memory. Just before he closed his eyes to sleep, his mouth formed a smile, but he wasn't entirely sure why, nor did he have time to think about it before he went into Princess Luna's realm.

This is getting weird

"C'mon Octy, hurry up!" Vinyl shouted from the couch, resisting the urge to eat the bag of popcorn next to her.

"In a minute!" Octavia shouted back from upstairs.

"Octavia, if we don't watch the movie quickly George Lucolt's gonna change it again!" Neon shouted, sitting next to Vinyl.

Octavia hurried to the couch, combing her mane as best she could. "Unlike you two, I care about my appearance and don't want to look like a walking uncultured piece of cloth!"

"How many times CAN you comb your mane?" Neon asked.

"Oh, Neon, I could comb it for hours and it would still not match the number of times you both should comb yours," Octavia replied with a slightly covered joking tone.

Neon only rolled his eyes with a smile. "Do you really need it? I think you look great either way!"

Octavia felt flattered and giggled lightly. "Aww, thank you, Neon."

Vinyl cleared her throat, intentionally loudly. "Yo, you two, aren't we supposed to be watching something?"

"Oh, yeah!" Neon levitated the remote and turned on the TV, then pressed play on the DVD player. "You girls didn't tell me any rules so I chose the first movie that came to mind. Pony Wars II: Attack of the Clones."

"Cool!" Vinyl said. "Laser show and robots!"

Octavia shrugged. "It is alright, I suppose."

"You don't like it?" Neon asked.

"Oh, I don't care much for ponies destroying robots with laser pistols and lightsabers, I just watch it for the soundtrack," Octavia replied in her usual air of superiority.

"...Meh, fair enough."

***

The movie had reached its midway point. While Neon and Octavia were still watching with full attention, Vinyl had grown bored, clearly wanting more special effects and action scenes. It was so much that she eventually fell asleep, which didn't go unnoticed by her friends. It wasn't like they could ignore it, she began to snore.

"...Really, Vinyl?" Neon began poking her, noticing quickly that it did not help.

"We lost her. She won't wake up without..." Octavia made a dramatic pause, putting emphasis on the next word. "...Wubs."

Neon sighed and paused the movie. "Should we just leave her like that?"

"Are you insane? She will snore louder if she's not lying down properly," Octavia said. She began to get up. "I'll take her to her room."

Neon got up first and put his hoof in front of Octavia. "No, no, I'll do it." He used his magic to lift the sleeping DJ pony and placed her on his back. "I'll take her to her room and be back, don't watch ahead without me!" he said as he began carrying Vinyl upstairs.

Though Vinyl wasn't heavy, he found it difficult to walk up the stairs without losing balance, managing to do so only barely. He eventually reached Vinyl's room, opening the door with his magic. He could have easily levitated Vinyl to her bed and leave her there, but he instead personally took her to bed, walking up to it and gently placing Vinyl under the covers. After she was comfortably in bed, Neon looked up to see a small group of mini figures on the nightstand, precisely figures of Vinyl, Octavia and himself.

"Heh, look at that..." he whispered to himself. "You actually bought this one...Limited edition with onyx shades too!" he said, surprised at his figure. "They ran out of these a year ago. Oh, Vinyl, you crazy unicorn." He smiled at the toy and then looked at Vinyl, peacefully sleeping. He leaned in slowly, still smiling, and began to absent-mindedly caress her mane. He didn't realize he was doing it until he took it further and planted a small kiss on Vinyl's cheek. It was right afterwards that his face began to turn red and his eyes grew wide as he backed off, surprised at his own actions. Before Vinyl had the chance to wake up, he quickly left her room and closed the door behind him, breathing slightly faster than usual and his heart racing about as fast as he did when he was chased by his angry fans.

He stood there for what had to be minutes, his back on the door and his heartbeat slowly returning to normal. What had he just done? Why did he do it? He had no idea, and only shook his head before deciding to walk back downstairs. "...That was grade-A weird...Just weird!" he said to himself, doing his best to forget what just happened, and failing.

Author's Note

I would have updated weeks ago, but due to complicated irl issues, I could only do this now. Hope you enjoy this so far!

Ready to meet the family?

"I must remain calm to avoid losing my sanity..." Octavia muttered to herself.

She had a good reason to, for she was sitting right in the middle of a musical crossfire between her two best friends. On one side of the room, behind her turntable, was Vinyl Scratch, with her wild, loud and crazy music. On the other side of the room, behind his own turntable, was Neon Lights, with a less wild, less crazy but even louder music. It all began with a crazy attempt to combine their styles and see which one was strong enough to be recognizable above the other. It was a good idea that Octavia supported...Right until they made her play the part of the audience.

"Yo, Octy! Would you say I beat this dude?!" Vinyl shouted, barely audible thanks to the massive Wub War.

"Octavia, mine is better, right?!" Neon shouted, again barely audible.

Octavia simply sat where she was, her eye twitching in sync with the wubs. Maybe it was so subtle that her friends couldn't notice, or maybe it was her friends being too busy with their music to notice, but neither DJ bothered to pause to ask if she was alright. "I must...remain calm...to avoid losing my sanity..." she repeated.

At that moment something crashed through the window, interrupting the musical battle and crash landing right next to Octavia. It was a young grey pegasus mare with blonde mane and gold misaligned eyes, wearing a mailpony's clothes and with a mailbag hanging from her waist.

Upon seeing her, Octavia sighed and looked down. "Too late..." she said to herself.

"Oh my gosh, Derpy!" Vinyl said, jumping over her turntable and running to the mailmare's aid. "Derpy, are you ok? Say something if you are!"

Derpy shook her head, the landing having left her dizzy. "Something if you are!" she said, putting on a smile.

Vinyl sighed in relief as Neon and Octavia approached Derpy, who began to look into her mailbag. "You know her?" Neon asked, not recognizing the pegasus.

"Of course we know her, she's an old friend, and our favorite mailmare, Derpy Hooves," Octavia replied. She looked at Derpy, concerned. "Did you hurt yourself, Derpy?"

"Nope! The floor softened my fall!" the pegasus happily replied.

"Why did you fall anyway?" Neon asked.

"There was this huge disturbance in the air, like the sound of of a sonic blast, and it made me lose balance!" Derpy said, not entirely knowing what she was saying. Octavia looked at her two friends with a look of disapproval, and they understood quickly, but before they had the chance to apologize, Derpy took a letter and gave it to them. "I brought you a letter!"

Octavia took the letter while Vinyl pointed at the fridge. "You know where to find 'em, girl!" Vinyl said.

Derpy squealed and flew to the fridge, opening it and taking a muffin from it. "Thank you so much!" she said before devouring the muffin in one big bite.

Neon simply looked at the mare devouring the muffin, confused. "...Does she get free access to the fridge or something?" he asked.

Vinyl laughed. "That's her tip. Screw bits, she wants muffins!"

Octavia cleared her throat. "Oh, Vinyl!" she said in a sing song voice, extending the length of the name.

Vinyl knew that tone, and knew she wasn't going to like what came next. "W-What is it, Octy?"

"This is a letter from your parents!" Octavia said with a smirk. "It is THAT time of the month."

Vinyl gasped. "Has it been a month already?!"

"A month for what?" Neon asked.

"Yes, and it is tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" Vinyl asked with greater shock.

"What? What's tomorrow?"

Octavia smiled before answering. "Mr. Hoity Toity and Mrs. Photo Finish are inviting us to their mansion tomorrow!"

Neon's face fell and his eye began to twitch. "...As in...Tomorrow tomorrow?"

Vinyl nodded. "And we have to go, all three of us...or you know what will happen," she said as she pointed to the horrifying picture of herself in an old dress.

Neon almost screamed, but he didn't need to. That honor went to Derpy who happened to look at the picture before leaving.

***

Early in the morning, the three musical ponies walked in Canterlot towards the home of Hoity Toity and Photo Finish, a mansion in the eastern part of Canterlot. Vinyl walked calmly, wearing her shades as always, Octavia walked with her cello case on her back, in case the parents of her best friend wanted her to perform like they often did. Neon, however, walked nervously, not just because they walked in Canterlot out in the open where angry fans could see him, they did choose early morning to avoid that precisely, but also because he was about to talk with the parents of who was once his hated rival, who undoubtedly must have told them about their fights. Were they going to show contempt? Were they going to welcome him with a second chance? Were they going to make fun of his fashion sense? Before he could think of any more questions, the ponies arrived at the front door, making Neon swallow nervously.

Vinyl was the one to ring the doorbell. As she waited for somepony to open the door, she turned to Neon and gave him a piece of advice. "Dude, don't be afraid. They're not mean parents, they are cool parents, and as long as you don't do strange stuff or question what they say, you'll be quite safe. Let me handle them until they wanna speak with you."

Neon only nodded quickly in response. The door opened and cold sweat began to form on his head.

"Who is it?" A white unicorn with blue eyes, an earring and a red mane that was very similar to Vinyl's said as he opened the door. He seemed older than the ponies in front of him, but still in his young adulthood.

Vinyl's ears perked up as she heard his voice and a wide smile formed on her face as she turned around. "NO WAY!" she said as she took off her glasses. "Long Play! It's you!"

"By Celestia's mane! Vinyl!" the stallion said with an equally wide smile. "It's been AGES!"

Both white unicorns hugged, making Octavia smile and Neon raise a brow, confused. Vinyl broke the hug and looked at her friends, still with a smile. "Long Play, you remember Octy, right?"

Long Play smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Well, of course I remember Octavia!" He held Octavia's hoof and kissed it softly. "Always a pleasure to see you," he said in a flirtatious tone, looking at Octavia's eyes.

Octavia giggled, flattered by Long Play's words. "Oh, stop it, Long Play, you are making me blush."

"Maybe that's the point," Long Play replied. He let her go and looked at the third guest...His expression changed instantly upon seeing him. "...And just what is this loser doing here?"

"Easy there, Long Play, Neon's with us," Vinyl said, subtly trying to get between both stallions. "Right Neon?"

"W-Well, yes, of course!" Neon said, nervous and intimidated by Long Play's attitude, not to mention his bulkier body and forelegs that could crush him to dust.

"Really now? Last time I saw him, he was calling my cousin a 'blue-maned b-word' and saying that his music was nine thousand and one times better than hers..." Long Play said with a bit of venom.

"Oh, you're her cousin...Hehe...Nice to meet you?" Neon said as he offered a hoofshake, an action met with a glare from the stallion.

Vinyl nodded, attempting to calm Long Play down. "Hey, dude, it's alright! Neon and I are friends now, honest! We realized it was all just a big misunderstanding."

"Vinyl's tale rings true," Octavia said. "They were just victims of their money-hungry agents. I helped them make up and start over."

Long Play eyed Neon suspiciously before shaking his hoof and smiling a bit. "Well, in that case, welcome."

Neon sighed in relief, almost in sync with the two mares. "Thank you."

"So, where's my mom and dad?" Vinyl asked.

"Oh, they are in the garden, doing their morning walk thingy," Long Play replied.

"Awesome." Vinyl began walking, followed closely by Octavia.

Neon was about to walk after them when Long Play stood in front of him and glared at him, both of their faces pressed against each other as Long Play held him by his convenient tie. "W-what gives?"

"Listen here, 'MC W1SH'. You're off the hook for now, but I've got my eye on ya, you hear me? If you do anything that hurts my little cousin, I'm going to beat you up so badly you're gonna wish you stayed in Ponyville, you got that?" Long Play said in a quiet, but clearly aggressive tone.

Neon gulped and nodded in fear. "Y-yes sir!"

"Good..." Long Play let him go and walked after the mares, who did not notice the threat.

Neon shook his head and walked after the group, already regretting coming to the mansion, but he wasn't going to back down now. All he had to do now was make a good impression on Vinyl's parents.

Author's Note

After many problems with writer's block, here's an update! Next chapter's going to come as quickly as possible.
Also, yes, Long Play's the stallion from that part in the comic books, I made him Vinyl's cousin here.

A family show

In the garden just outside the back of the mansion were a pair of adult earth ponies, walking peacefully next to each other through the flower-covered patches. The blue-coated mare wore red-tinted shades and a black and white dress, while the grey-coated stallion wore purple-tinted shades and what could be considered a very elegant suit.

"I believe we need to water these roses more often, they are losing their delightful shade of red," Hoity Toity said as he glanced over at a small group of red roses at his side.

"I think they look just fine, dear," Photo Finish replied with her distinctive accent, glancing at the same roses. "Maybe you need to take off and clean your glasses?" she asked with a mischievous smile.

"Well, that is why I said they looked just fine." Hoity Toity continued to walk, his wife closely following. "Say, have you heard the latest rumors about us?"

"Oh my, do we need to publicly address that we are not vampires again?" Photo Finish asked, rolling her eyes.

Hoity Toity laughed heartily, he hadn't heard that one in months. "Oh, no, but that was fun." He stopped laughing, though his tone still indicated amusement. "No. Since our little girl's rivalry with that Neon Lights fellow ended rather abruptly, there are rumors that we actually paid Neon to give up."

"Oh, now that is low!" Photo Finish said, feeling insulted. "We would never stoop down to that level!"

"I know, but rumors spread faster than facts, my dear," Hoity Toity said, looking at his watch afterwards. "...Long Play should have been back by now."

"Yes, what is taking that boy so long?"

"Mommy, Daddy!" Vinyl's voice was heard from the mansion's back door.

Before both adult ponies had the chance to turn around, Vinyl was already galloping towards them, tackling them with a hug that would have brought them to the ground if it wasn't for the fact Earth Ponies have a certain resistance to crushing displays of affection.

"Vinyl!" Photo Finish said in surprise before returning the hug.

"How is our favorite DJ doing?" Hoity Toity asked.

"Awesome! And look who I brought with me!" Vinyl pointed behind her.

"Hello, Mr. Hoity Toity and Mrs. Photo Finish." Octavia bowed down respectfully.

"Ah, our favorite cellist, Octavia Melody!" Hoity Toity said with a nod. "Always a pleasure."

"And, I brought my other bestie!" Vinyl said, pointing at Neon Lights, who just walked out of the door, followed very closely by the ever watching Long Play.

Both adults looked at Neon, their expressions difficult to make out thanks to their shades. Neon gulped nervously and walked to meet the parents of his best friend, and, as he had done so since he walked in, Long Play followed from behind. "Um, hello, Mr. Hoity Toity and Mrs. Photo Finish!" Neon said, his tone being equally nervous as his overall appearance.

"Hello, Neon..." Hoity Toity said with absolute neutrality. "What brings you here?"

"Uh...I wanted to come to accompany my best friend!" Neon replied.

"And who is your best friend, exactly?" Long Play asked, narrowing his eyes.

"V-Vinyl! Of course! Vinyl Scratch is a good friend of mine! I got all her albums and they are great!"

"Oh really?" Long Play asked, almost breathing into Neon's face. "And why would you have all her albums?"

Vinyl once again broke the tension between the two stallions with a well timed clear of her throat. "Well! We are all friends here, so maybe we should, like, show Neon around? He's never come here before!"

Photo Finish nodded. "Indeed, perhaps we should."

Hoity Toity nodded in agreement, then looked at Long Play and Neon. "And I believe we should act civilly from now on, wouldn't you agree, Long Play?"

Long Play was somewhat surprised Hoity Toity noticed his hostility towards Neon, but also realized he didn't make enough of an effort to hide it. "...Yes, uncle."

Neon sighed in relief as he and everypony walked into the mansion, Hoity Toity and Photo Finish leading the group through the mansion's many rooms. It was in the middle of the tour that Neon thought of a question that had been bugging him ever since he walked into the mansion.

"So, since you are like, super rich and fancy and stuff, why did Vinyl choose such a, no offense, ordinary life?"

The question did take the ponies by surprise, but Photo Finish was the one to answer. "Oh, that is because of her cousin", she said. "We did not really have a plan for Vinyl's future, after all you can't force a cutie mark on a pony. We waited patiently until her talent appeared, then we were going to support her in pursuing that path. One day Long Play came to take her to a certain event, and when she returned, there was a cutie mark on her flank!"

Vinyl visibly blushed. "Come on, mom, no need to be telling the story from THAT point!"

"Sorry, dear. After that, she started enjoying the performances of musicians, but mostly enjoyed the kind of music that Long Play liked, so he played a very important role in her preferences," Photo Finish continued.

"And then after graduating from school, she decided to pursue the career of a DJ and live a wild life. While it was sad to see her go, we supported her and still do today. And in the long run, it was indeed an advantage, her music quite often finds its way into our fashion shows," Hoity Toity added.

"Who would say?" Octavia looked at Long Play with a fake angry expression. "I have you to blame for this walking disaster ruining my peaceful life!"

"Oh, my most sincere apologies, Octavia!" Long Play said, holding her hoof again. "I promise I wouldn't have done so if I knew it would have had such an impact in your life."

Octavia giggled and both Neon and Vinyl could have sworn they saw a slight shade of red on her cheeks.

"OOOOOHHH!" Both younger unicorns said as they tauntingly pointed at Octavia and Long Play.

"Oh, shut up!" Octavia said as she shot a deadly look at her two friends.

***

Hours later, after a fancy lunch, Neon found himself in the garden looking at a rather interesting tree...an Orange Tree.

"...I will forever remember the awful taste..." he muttered, not noticing that a certain red maned unicorn was approaching him. "Your little peel tasting like a piece of Tartarus..."

"...You're not actually hating on a tree, right?" Long Play asked.

"Woah!" Neon jumped back and assumed a fighting stance, before quickly going back to his normal standing stance. "...Just the fruit," he said.

"What did oranges ever do to you?"

"Alright, just the peel," Neon clarified.

Long Play almost burst into laughter. "Why did you eat an orange peel?"

"I was trying to prove I was tough!" Neon said quickly.

"And did you prove your point?"

"...Shut up..." Neon looked away in shame.

Long Play laughed and grabbed Neon by his neck, rubbing his hoof on his hair. "You know what, maybe I was wrong about you, you're a funny guy and Vinyl clearly doesn't have anything against you!"

"Really now?" Neon managed to say.

"Yeah, really!" Long Play let him go. "So, no more bad blood between us, kay?" He put his hoof in front of him. "We're cool?"

Neon was surprised to say the least, but still accepted the gesture and shook Long Play's hoof. "Yeah, we're cool. I was worried for a second that you would kill me before the day ended."

Long Play chuckled. "So was I..." he said ominously.

Neon gulped, but was quickly lightly punched in the shoulder.

"I'm joking, Neon!" Long Play said, laughing again. "...Say, my uncle and I are going to practice some archery, wanna join us?"

"Archery? With bows and arrows?" Neon asked, raising a brow.

"Yep! We do this every time I come visit. We have a target at the end of the garden and everything!"

"...I don't know, dude, I've never held a bow before," Neon said, not trying to sound modest.

"Come on man, you have a horn! It can't be that hard!" Long Play said, then began walking away. "Come on, the girls will be watching!"

"Gee, no pressure..." Neon said sarcastically before following him.

They did indeed have a target at he end of the garden, a safe distance from where Neon was being taken. He also saw Hoity Toity holding a bow and the mares sitting on conveniently placed chairs. When he arrived, Octavia and Vinyl were surprised to see that he was actually going to partake in this and not sit and watch. Neon however, was more nervous than anything, and almost felt he was there just to be made fun of.

"So, Neon, I trust you know how this game is supposed to be played better than you know how to pick the color of your tie?" Hoity Toity asked.

Neon took off his shades to look at his tie, not noticing anything that would be off, then looked at Hoity Toity. "Well, I suppose?" He levitated an arrow over to himself. "Pointy end faces away from you, right?"

"...Of course!" Hoity Toity said, giving him a bow. "Two arrows each?"

"Sounds good to me. Neon?" Long Play said.

"Uh, sure, sure!" Neon said nervously.

"Go Neon!" Vinyl cheered.

Hoity Toity was the one to shoot first, after taking off his shades, he placed himself in position, holding the bow with a hoof and the arrow and string with his teeth, aiming at the target. He let go of the arrow, shooting it after releasing the string. It was an almost perfect shot, hitting just outside the center.

"Nice shot!" Photo Finish said, clapping her hooves along with the young mares.

"Thank you, my dear!" Hoity Toity nodded at Long Play and Neon, waiting for one of them to go first.

"...You go first, Long Play, I've only done this in Minecraft..." Neon said, looking down in shame.

"Whatever you said, Lights!" Long Play positioned himself and levitated the bow and arrow with his magic, aiming carefully...then released. This one was a perfect shot, hitting the center circle. "YES!" Long Play jumped in triumph as the mares clapped their hooves and cheered. He turned around and looked at them. "Did you see that, Octavia?"

"Yes, it was a perfect shot!" Octavia nodded.

"Did that make you fall completely in love with me again?" Long Play asked flirtatiously.

Octavia giggled and visibly blushed, looking away and waving her hoof. "Oh, stop!"

"Octy's got a coltfriend, Octy's got a coltfriend!" Vinyl chanted childishly before laughing.

Long Play nodded at Neon and moved out of the way, urging him to position himself and hold the bow and arrow like he did.

"...Alright, here I go. Just imagine that is a huge record and you don't wanna break it..." he muttered to himself before finally releasing.

The shot was even more perfect than Long Play's, hitting the exact center of the target, by pure luck. Everypony was amazed, including Neon himself.

"Now THAT was a perfect shot!" Hoity Toity said, clapping himself.

"Woo hoo!" Neon jumped triumphantly. "Did you see that, Vinyl?!" he asked as he turned around to look at his friend.

"Yeah, dude, you're awesome!" Vinyl replied.

"Did that make you fall completely in love with him again?" Long Play asked jokingly, trying to emulate his earlier question.

"Yeah!" Vinyl said without thinking much about it.

Suddenly the entire garden went silent as the ponies' faces froze in jaw-dropping shock, so much that anypony could have heard an ant bickering with another ant about why ponies were into archery. Just what did they all hear?

"...W-What?!" Long Play asked in disbelief.

Vinyl's face was no longer white, it was red...Except they needed to invent a new shade of red to describe how she looked. "I...I...Well..." she began, no words coming out afterwards.

Neon was red like an apple himself, trying to process what he heard. "...S-She said...That..."

Vinyl looked around for a way to escape, resorting to the oldest trick in the history of ever. "...I think I hear my laundry calling! Sorry, gotta go!" she said quickly, before just as quickly getting up and running into the mansion like if she was running for her life. Not that anypony was chasing her to begin with.

The awkward silence only continued afterwards, the only thing breaking it was Octavia's inaudible mutter. "How could I be so blind? It all makes sense now!" Indeed, now all the things she saw in their relationship made sense, from the posters to the toys to the texts to the hatred to the quick making up. It was all pieced together now...Except for the fact her two friends were clearly not ready to go to the next level, at least not without help...

Author's Note

Only one more chapter left, to be released as soon as possible, I'm aiming for before New Years.

Lots of references in this chapter, can you spot them all?

Octavia's master plan

Four knocks.

"Vinyl Scratch, I know you are in there, now open the door," Octavia said from outside.

Vinyl had been in her room for most of the time since they returned from that incredible trip to her parents' mansion nearly a week ago. She did it all to avoid Neon, and by extension, Octavia. The only times she left her room were to eat, or rather to sneak into the kitchen, steal some snacks and go back to her room, and to go do her personal business. And at that particular moment, she had no intention to open the door, instead pressing herself against it and wishing Octavia left.

"Vinyl, please, we need to talk!" Octavia insisted, knocking again four times

"No! If I open the door, you'll unleash something evil!" Vinyl replied.

"If I wanted to do something evil to you, I'd have done so years ago!" Octavia said.

"You knocked four times! It's the prophecy of the end of time!"

Octavia rolled her eyes. "Don't make me do this, I mean it, Vinyl!"

"Do your worst, Melody!" Vinyl said with a challenging tone.

Octavia held the doorknob and pulled, opening the door and making Vinyl fall to the ground right in front of her. Octavia leaned in and looked at Vinyl's upside down face. "Your door opens outwards, Vinyl."

"Oh...yeah..." Vinyl managed to say, defeated.

"Now, seriously, we need to talk." Octavia walked into the room, then grabbed Vinyl's tail with her mouth and dragged her inside to ensure she wouldn't escape, before finally closing the door.

Vinyl had no choice but to get up from the floor and sit on the bed. "So...Is this a 'We need to talk!' or a 'We need to talk...' we need to talk?" she asked, obviously trying to stall.

Octavia narrowed her eyes and crossed her forelegs in response.

"...Ok, geez." Vinyl knew that was Octavia's way of letting her know she wasn't buying it. "What you wanna talk about?"

"Neon," Octavia said flatly. "Face it, you are in love with him."

Vinyl faked a shock. "What?! How could you even think something like that?!"

Octavia raised a brow and cleared her throat. "You used to hate him more than anything, turning every mention of the words 'neon' and 'lights' into a reminder that you hated him. You talked about how much you hated him more than anypony who hates something would talk about that something. But when I showed you both that it was a huge misunderstanding, you forgave and hugged him, far quicker than I forgive you when you upset me." She began pointing with her hoof. "And let's not forget your Neon Lights limited edition figurine which is standing right beside your own limited edition figurine. Also, your face is red."

Vinyl's jaw dropped when confronted with the facts. She truly had nowhere to escape to in this conversation. "...You need to stop watching detective movies," she managed to say.

"Oh, so you do not deny it?" Octavia asked with a smirk.

"...Alright, fine!" Vinyl shouted out in frustration and anger. "I love him, do you hear me?! I think about him everyday and he makes me a happy happy mare! I, LOVE, NEON LIGHTS!" She stopped to catch some air. "...Are you happy now?!"

Octavia nodded. "Very...Now we need to do something about it."

"Do what about what?!" Vinyl asked. "It's none of your business, Octy!"

Octavia shook her head. "I got you to be friends again. I saved your friendship, so I'm going to play matchmaker and save your romance."

Vinyl narrowed here eyes and crossed her forelegs in response.

"...I am immune to my own powers, Vinyl," Octavia said, knowing why she did it.

Vinyl sighed. "Fine, what do you have in mind?"

Octavia smiled and gave her a piece of paper with some word written on it. "I want you and Neon to go pick up this new album at the music store now that the night's still young, then you'll figure something out."

"W-What?" Vinyl accepted the paper, but she looked and sounded nervous. "You're not coming with us? I can't do this on my own, what if I screw things up?!"

"You can't possibly screw it up more than you've already done with being locked up here..."

Vinyl sighed and nodded. "Fine...Do I at least get a good luck?"

Octavia rolled her eyes with a smile and hugged her. "Good Luck Vinyl."

Vinyl returned the hug tenderly. "...Now how about a kiss?" she asked with an adorable look.

Octavia sighed and gave her a very quick kiss on the cheek. "There."

Vinyl nodded and let go of her, then went downstairs with all the confidence she could fit inside herself. She went to the living room, a defiant smile on her face. She was about to shout out triumphant words when she noticed there was somepony in front of her.

"O-Oh! H-Hey, Vinyl!" Neon said awkwardly. Not even not seeing her for a week made the impact of the incident any weaker.

Vinyl's confidence apparently went out for lunch, as Vinyl was quickly reduced to a blushing, gibberish-speaking unicorn.

"...What's that?" Neon asked.

Vinyl shook her head. "I mean, hi, dude! Octy wants us to go buy her some new music or something."

Neon nodded. "Oh, yes, I was waiting for her."

"Yeah...she's not coming," Vinyl said nervously. "Just...you...and...me..."

Neon blushed. "Oh!" He awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "Well then, l-let's go!"

Vinyl only nodded and both unicorns left the house.

Neither of them seemed to want to go first, and awkwardly walked at the same pace. They hadn't even reached the end of the block when the awkward silence began crushing them. It was so unbearable that they both wished a robber came to threaten them for their wallets so that they could speak.

'Oh damn you, awkward silence!' Vinyl thought. 'I need to break the ice somehow...Uh...I know, we can talk about the weather! ...Nope, that's stupid. Um, school? Uh, we both don't go to school so that is also stupid...' Vinyl overworked her mind to think of anything to talk about, and only one topic seemed to come to mind.

"So! Did you notice how my cousin was totally flirting with Octy last week?" Vinyl asked aloud, pretending to be calm.

"Long Play?" Neon said, also pretending to be calm. "Yeah, he was so not subtle about it, it was like Octavia and her not-so-subtle hate for our music!"

Vinyl was glad that she managed to break the ice in such a manner and played along. "I know, right? In my mind I was all like 'Maybe we should leave these two alone or something!'" she said with a laugh.

"And did you see how Octavia was playing hard-to-get? She's not fooling anyone, I was this close to just shouting 'Just kiss already, you two!'"

Vinyl and Neon both laughed, silently thanking every deity in the universe that they weren't in the middle of an awkward silence.

"So, what should we call it?" Vinyl suddenly asked.

Neon lowered his shades and looked at her in slight confusion. "What should we call what?"

"You know, Long Play and Octy! It's what the internet ponies do, they take the names of two ponies in a relationship and merge them together!" Vinyl said. "Maybe...Longtavia!"

"Oh!" Neon said, finally understanding. "Nah, doesn't have a nice ring to it...Octaplay?"

"That sounds like Octy plays, and the only thing she plays is that game with the hooded pony that has knives coming out from his hooves or some lame stuff like that...I still like Longtavia."

"I say Octaplay, sounds funnier!"

"Yeah right, as funny as Neonscratch!" Vinyl said impulsively, only realizing it seconds after the damage was done. She blushed and put her front hooves to her mouth and nervously looked over to Neon.

Neon looked around, frantically trying to hide his red face, and noticed something. "Oh, hey! The store's over there! Let's go and get Octavia her album!" He hurried into the store, followed by Vinyl.

Even though it was night time, the store was pretty crowded, making both unicorns suddenly feel more uncomfortable. The massive uproar caused by their rekindled friendship had been slowly calming down to the point of no longer being covered by the media, but their fans still had mixed feelings. Both DJs hurried to where Octavia's album would most likely be, and to their relief, it was one of the less crowded areas.

"Alright, the name of Octy's album is..." Vinyl read the note Octavia had given her. "...How do you even pronounce this?!" she asked, furrowing her brow. "This is college-level Octavish!"

Neon raised a brow and took the note to read it. "...Well, let's just look for an album that has the name," he said after being unable to understand the name.

Both unicorns nodded and began browsing through the records in front of them at incredible speed, though there was a secret to it. Vinyl was simply discarding the records that she remembered seeing at the house, while Neon was discarding the ones with readable names.

Suddenly, both of them saw a record with the same name as on the note. Overjoyed at finding it finally, they both reached for it, unexpectedly touching each other's hoof, sending a shiver through their bodies. Vinyl's face went from white to red again, and slowly looked over to Neon, unable to see the red on his own face because of her purple shades. The both attempted to speak, but no words seemed to want to come out, making them stare at each other for what they felt was an eternity, but the ponies in the store could easily tell it was only ten seconds, until they worked the ability to talk again.

"Oh hey did you-" Neon started.

"Were you going for-" Vinyl blurted at the same moment.

"Sorry." the two ponies said in unison, "No, I'm sorry. No-"

The awkward silence returned, crushing them once again. It was even worse this time, because they realized that everypony at the store was looking at them, and they all knew them. To add to the injury, it was only at that point where they realized their hooves were still touching, exposed to everypony else's sight.

Not wanting to say anything, both DJs pulled their hooves back and walked silently to the counter, both completely aware that the ponies were still looking at them.

The pony at the counter didn't give in to the mass shock and treated them like she would any customer. "What can I help you with?"

Vinyl silently placed the album on the counter, no questions asked.

"Oh, that's six bits, ma'am," the pony said.

Vinyl and Neon both went to their wallets, taking out three bits each. It surprised them, since they could have sworn they each brought more than that. They nervously looked at each other and placed the bits in front of the pony.

"Oh, that's cute!" the pony said, taking the bits. "Buying romantic music as a couple!"

"Wait, what?!" Vinyl suddenly asked in surprise.

Neon quickly took the album back, and for the first time actually paid attention to the cover. The cover gave away that it was a collection of musical pieces meant for a romantic atmosphere. '...Octavia, you clever sneaky mare...' Neon thought, realizing that Octavia had set them up again.

Everypony in the store gasped, having paid full attention to them and seeing the purchase. One of them was even heard saying "Whaaat?!"

Both DJs trembled as they realized the situation they were in. Vinyl was about to cover her face and run away, but that wouldn't have been possible with only two hooves, while Neon felt like hiding behind anything. However, perhaps it was the massive pressure or a long overdue realization, but something made Neon snap.

"Alright, you know what?! YES!" Neon shouted, to the surprise of everypony, including the mare beside him. "Vinyl Scratch is a great mare and an excellent company, and yes, I LOVE HER!!" Everypony's jaws dropped, and Vinyl had to shake her head to confirm she wasn't dreaming. "I love her! I wanted to be her friend again because I love her! I was angry with her because I was heartbroken! But now that doesn't matter, because I am in love with her, and there's nothing you can do about it, not her fans, not my fans, not the rest of you! I won't hold it in anymore, if you want to go and tell the press, do it, that's not going to change my feelings one bit. OKAY?!"

The store was filled with silence, the ponies too shocked or too afraid to say anything. Suddenly, the silence was broken by a gasp from everypony as they saw Vinyl tackling Neon with a crushing hug, and when they landed on the floor, she assaulted him with a long, strong kiss on the lips. Neon didn't protest at all and gave in, kissing her back and wrapping his forelegs around her. They were locked in that kiss for seconds, but for them it felt like a blissful eternity. They stopped to breathe and get up, both smiling at each other, ignoring the shocked ponies in the store. They exchanged a mischievous look and took the album, silently thanking the pony at the counter, and walked out of the store, close to one another.

Looking back into the store one last time, Vinyl noticed something amusingly strange. A unicorn mare clapping her hooves and jumping excitedly, celebrating them. She did not know who she was, but she did know two things about her: She had seen her talking to Octavia during the gig she had for some reason accompanied her to, and she really liked her manecut.

Both unicorns silently returned home, not saying anything to each other along the way, but they did use every time they stopped to nuzzle each other, not caring who saw them, or even if they did see them. When they finally returned to the house, right before opening the door, they heard something strange. It was like...wubs.

"...Did we leave the sound system on when we left?" Vinyl asked, confused.

"...Don't think so. The only thing that was on were the lights," Neon replied, equally confused.

Both unicorns opened the door, pushing it, and to their greater shock and confusion, saw the most incredible scenario ever. The sound system was on and with full volume, and none other than Octavia Melody herself was dancing wildly to it, throwing out every bit of her apparent hatred for said music right in front of their eyes, but she was unaware that they had arrived. She didn't realize it until she turned around and saw them at the doorway, grinning at her. She instantly stopped, turning the sound system off remotely and staying where she was, feeling like she had been caught in the middle of a crime.

"Hehe...Hey, you two! B-Back already?" Octavia said, laughing awkwardly and rubbing the back of her head.

Vinyl giggled and held Neon's foreleg, brushing up against him. "We told you, Octy..."

Neon chuckled and nodded, looking at Vinyl and then kissing her, then looked mischievously at Octavia. "You can't hide what's inside!"

The End

Author's Note

And finally, Wub-Hate is finished. It was time consuming and full of cases of Writer's Block, but it was fun to write. Thank you all for your comments and support, and for all the love this story got from you.