//------------------------------//
// Octavia's master plan 
// Story: Wub-Hate 
// by PurpleFire18 
//------------------------------//

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