"Vinyl, baby, you've outdone yourself this time."
Vinyl smiled in triumph, twirling the lit flame in a little circle beside her before blowing it out. She took a moment to look around at her handiwork, making sure that for one night only, everything was in it's proper place. Scented candles of something called Ylang Ylang. She'd asked around - on the down-low obviously - and had it on relatively good authority that it was Octy's favorite scent. With a few circular waves of her hooves to spread the scent around, she had to admit; it did have a rather soothing smell to it. If she were a perfume kind of mare, she might have looked into wearing it sometime.
She'd set up four of the little blue candles in the center of the table, the only light that was on in their small dining room. A good start.
Next she checked on the food. She'd wanted to go especially fancy but outside of ordering something from Canterlot that she didn't know how to pronounce or buying some cheap frozen knock off, that was a no-go. Cooking was never a particular talent of hers either, but she didn't want to just make something like a sandwich in five minutes. Tonight was going to be special.
So with her mediocre cooking skills and limited resources, she did her best to make the best damn spaghetti Octavia would ever eat. She hadn't tasted it yet, but both plates of it certainly looked good sitting on either side of the table. She'd been tempted to be silly and put it all on one plate for them to share, but she didn't think the joke would fit in all that well tonight. That said, telling her about it would make her roll her eyes and smile, as most of her schemes did. A great conversation starter, that.
But of course, she couldn't forget her secret weapon; Octy's favorite cake. Dark chocolate frosting on chocolate cake with strawberries circling a big red cherry in the center. Fresh from Sugar Cube Corner, and looking absolutely delicious. Vinyl usually saved the ordering of such a cake in the event that she did something to well and truly infuriate Octavia and needed an ace in the hole to avoid Terrible Things happening to her for the foreseeable future. But tonight was special, and as long as she didn't do something monumentally stupid for a few months, Vinyl was fairly sure she could still use a cake like this one to get out of trouble.
And last but not least, she thought to herself as she went into the bathroom to check her reflection, is Vinyl Scratch herself. She looked good in her estimation. Her coat was all shiny, her tail brushed out; She'd even put some make up on at first before she washed it back off when it started to itch. She'd tried to do something with her mane, she really had; but around the time she broke two of Rarity's combs and one of her brushes was the time she gave up on having hair that looked like anything but a bedhead that had crossbred with a lightning bolt. Still... she looked good tonight.
She gave her reflection a winning smirk. "And Octy thinks we don't do cultured." The reflection stuck it's tongue out at her and she laughed. Going back into the dining room she looked over her handiwork one last time. Everything was prepared and all she had to do was wait.
It sometimes took a lot more effort than she usually put into this kind of thing, but that look of surprise on Octy's face when she walked through the door after a long day of practice, and the way it changed to a smile as she said her name?
Princesses, did that make it all worth it.