//------------------------------// // Agent of trouble // Story: Wub-Hate // by PurpleFire18 //------------------------------// 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.