//------------------------------//
// Here (In Your Hooves)  
// Story: Vinyl and Octavia: Roommates Are Magic 
// by Jam Rocker 
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   Vinyl and I sat in the middle of her room, in the darkness of Luna's night. 

There are times when I worry about Vinyl. I mean, I'll be honest, I was quite jumpy after watching the movie, but when I looked back at Vinyl, she looked three times as scared and jumpy as me. 

"Vinyl, are you okay?" I asked, hoping to calm her down. 

"Y-y-yeah... I'm g-good. I'm good." 

"Vinyl, if there was anything outside our apartment, we're safe now."

"NOWHERE IS SAFE."

I ignored that comment and continued to sit down and catch my breathe... Wait, back to that first sentence... I'm in Vinyl's room? And I didn't sit on anything that would probably cause me to throw up if I looked at it? 

After my eyes started to get used to the darkness, I looked around and stared in astonishment at how clean her dark blue room was. It was almost spotless! At one corner, there was her big bed with clean, white sheets. The sheets were even fixed! It looked as if she hadn't even slept in it yet! At another corner of her room there was some disk jockey equipment that she was able to fit inside, and at the last corner was her desk. The only thing that looked slightly messy was the slew of papers on it, and that looked like it was meant to be messy! 

I looked up to the ceiling to find a disco ball... Or five.

I didn't let her hang up the disco balls in each room... Apparently she doesn't waste. 

After about a minute of looking around her room, she got up hastily and began to try to get to her bed.

She was trying. With her shades still on, she put her one hoof out and began to walk like a blind pony. 

"Vinyl, you know if you just took off those shades, you could get to your bed with no problem." I tried to reason with her, I really did. 

"No... I-I got this..."

After her hoof finally touching the bed, she jumped onto it quickly and covered herself in sheets, still shivering. 

"Wow. That movie really did scare you. Why did you pick that movie if you knew you were going to be so frightened by it?"

"I-I dunno... I was actually hoping it was going to scare you more, and I was going to laugh at your misery..." She put her head down on a pillow. "I hate it when plans backfire." 

I chuckled a bit and continued to look around. There weren't that much stuff on the walls except a few posters of some artists and a small frame of her family. (Both of her parents and sister are from Ponyville... Who would've known?) 

When I got to her desk, I decided to look over all the papers that were causing the small mess. And of course, they were just jotted ideas for songs to remix, some addresses and numbers from what was probably clients, and a few notes here and there, most of them going along the lines of "Don't forget - Get Derpy lava lamp" and "Ponyville - Pee fountain - P. Pie - Spike the friggin epic dragon - Tea party"... I won't even ask. 

As I began to put the papers back where I found them, I noticed that one of the desk drawers were slightly open. Being the civilized and privacy-caring mare like myself, I closed the drawer... Then I opened it completely to see what was inside. 

I'm in Vinyl's room. She never cared about my privacy... So you can say that this is fair.

To my not-so-surprising surprise, I found CDs. I quickly looked through them, all of them being what I was expecting of the coveted DJ PON-3...

Sapphire Shores... Deadp0ny... Deadp0ny... Pinkie Pie... Ellie Gouldwing.. Skrillex... Woah. What is this I found?

At the sight of the last disks at the bottom of the pile, I gasped. 

"What?" Vinyl said, instantly waking from her small sleep. 

"Oh my Celestia..."

"What? What happened? Did a chandelier shake?"

"Wh... But how..."

She fell off the bed. "OCTAVIA? WHERE ARE YOU!? WHAT HAPPENED?"

"...You listen to Vivaldi?"

Her whole face and even her ears turned into a bright red color. 

"Uh... N-no. I'm just holding it... For my mom!"

"Are you holding Bach for your mom too? And... My CD?"

She put her hoof out and blindly walked her way to the desk. When she finally got on front of me, she ran her hoof from the side of my face all the way to my stomach, found my arm, and tried to grab the CD out of my hand.

Good thing she couldn't see or she'd notice that I was blushing too...

Uh, anyways, back to what happened. 

I put my hoof behind me to stop her from grabbing it out of my hooves, and from trying to grab it, she accidentally hit her hoof on the desk, and hissed in pain. 

"Vinyl! Are you alright? I swear, take off those shades! It's nighttime and those things make you blind!" 

"No... I can't!" 

That was my chance. I frowned deeply and looked straight at her shades. "Vinyl, we've been best friends for months. The bestest friends... For months! We even live together now! And you won't take off a pair of shades in front of me... Does that mean I'm not good enough of a friend to you? Do you not trust me?" I sniffled a bit to really hit it home. 

She turned around dramatically and looked over her shoulder. "You can't... You can't handle the truth."

Okay, I know this is am important part in my story about living with Vinyl, but she had to have gotten that from a movie. That was so dramatic and cheesy... Anyways...

"Vinyl, if there is something wrong with your eyes, or there is something different about them, I won't think any different about you! I won't even tell anypony. I'll act like I forgot anything about seeing your eyes if you want me to. I just want to know..." I trotted up to her and put my hoof around her shoulder. "I've known you for way too long to not know."

Vinyl sniffled a bit. "Are you sure you're ready? You won't say anything bad about it or leave me because you're scared?"

I looked straight into her eyes... Or her shades. "Yes, Vinyl."

She sighed deeply and got up on her four hooves. She sighed again. "Okay... You promise?"

"I promise Vinyl."

This was it!

As she began to lift her shades up, something bright began to leak out. I squinted my eyes and covered them with my hoof as the brightness began to get even brighter, and it being the the nighttime, the darkness wasn't helping my eyes get used to it at all. 

When I began to get used to the light, I did the impossible, and looked to what was causing it. To my real surprise, I stared in amazement. I stared at her eyes.


Red. 

Bright, blood red. And I need to emphasize that they were really bright. 

"They're... They're... Wow. They're beautiful."

She looked away from me, but with her shades off. "In grade school for unicorns at Canterlot, foals used to call my eyes devil eyes... They always used to call me possessed, and a she devil, and all this crap... I couldn't even go to the movies, or get invited to my classmates' sleepover parties... My eyes were so bright, it was too distracting for ponies. So at fifth grade, I bought a pair of shades, and my family moved back to Ponyville. I never took them off, I changed how ponies looked at me, made a collection of shades, then I found these purple ones," She tossed the shades she was talking about onto the bed as she sat down. "And I never took them off. I became a DJ, moved back to Canterlot for business... Here I am now." She sniffled some more and I sat next to her and handed her a tissue to blow her nose. 

Who would've known?

I didn't even know where to start, but I thought the best guess was to give her a hug. "I'm sorry Vinyl..."

She hugged me back. "You didn't do anything wrong..."

"But I did! All these times I've tried to force you to take off your shades! If I knew why you wore them, I would've never asked."

"Well, I should have just told you instead of hiding my stupid eyes from you... I should've known you'd understand..." 

"Hey. Don't say your eyes are stupid. Your eyes are damn beautiful. They're amazing! I don't know what kind of unicorns were at Canterlot, because if I were them, I'd be jealous."

"Don't say that... These eyes ruined my life!"

I stopped the long hug and looked straight into her eyes with my quizzical look. Wow, looking straight into her eyes. That's something I can get used to. 

"Really now? What if you never found your shades to hide your eyes? What if you never went to Ponyville to find your first ever DJ set like you always talked about? And even if somehow you found your musical talent and became a DJ in Canterlot, DJ PON-3 without her famous shades? Think about how different that would be!" 

She looked away. "You make my eyes sound like they're good things."

"Because they are!" 

Out of the whole conversation, she finally smiled. "Octavia... You're the first pony to ever say good things about my eyes... Thanks."

"You're welcome."

After hearing her yawn, I finally decided to check what time it was. I looked around her room for a clock, until I finally noticed a small alarm by the side of her bed.

1:24.

"Wow, you sound quite sleepy. Maybe it's time for us to, as many ponies say, 'hit the hay'."

"Yeah, okay..."

I began to leave the room, until Vinyl stopped me. "Wait!"

"What?"

"...Do you... Uh... Want to sleep in my room? I'm still... kinda scared." She blushed and made a squee sound. I still don't know how ponies do that!

"Really? After this whole conversation, I'd think that you'd forget about the ghosts from the movie already."

"Please... It'll be like a sleepover!" She grinned. 

"Oh, fine..."

What did I have to lose?

I got back into the room and looked around again.

"Um... So do I sleep on the floor or do I..."

"Uh... I have space on my bed. So we can... share."

"Okay."

I got onto the bed, laid down next to her, and tried to stop myself from blushing. 

Keep it cool, Octavia. Stay natural. This is just two friends sharing a friendly bed for a friendly sleepover.

Vinyl turned around on her bed and smiled at me. "Good night Ta- wow! Without shades, I can see you so much clearer now... And you're not slightly purple! Woah!"

I laughed lightly. "Now that I know, could you not wear the shades that often when it's just us alone?"

"Sure." She yawned again. "Good night!"

"Good night Vinyl."

And so I laid there, left with my thoughts. This was a very... Interesting day. I found out I liked Vinyl, Vinyl might like me, and I got her to show me her eyes... I didn't know I was this productive. 

As I began to think more, a thought was left in my mind... Where was this going to lead me? I haven't been this close with anypony in my life! I've never been in a situation like this. And what if Vinyl doesn't even like me? I don't want to lose her friendship, nor do I want to lose anything that I have with her. To be honest, I didn't have a lot of friends before her... And I'm pretty sure that if I searched the whole land of Equestria, I wouldn't find a pony just like her. 

Before I had a chance to continue my thinking, I felt Vinyl move around on her bed, and then a white hoof showed up near my stomach. She must have unconsciously moved and hugged me, thinking I was a pillow or something...

She was so warm. And her bed was so soft. As sleep began to take over my mind, I smiled lightly at the feeling of Vinyl holding me.

I know that sounded really cheesy, but cheesy things can still be true.

I could get used to something like this.