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."