//------------------------------//
// Listen to the fans 
// Story: Wub-Hate 
// by PurpleFire18 
//------------------------------//

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.