Miles Away

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Introduction

Chapter 1

I wake up to the sound of a alarm clock that sound more like a some pissed off mare saying repeatedly, “Get your ass up Velvet! I’m not going anywhere until you get up and make me.” As always, I roll out of bed to turn off the alarm clock that reads the same time as always: 5:30 am. I guess you would consider me an early bird of some sort, I only usually wake up early on days where I have to go to work in the morning. I don’t leave until around 7:30, but the main reason I wake up early in the morning is because that’s when I can get on my Smoke account on my PC.

That PC is one of my most prized possessions I own in my house that once belonged to my parents. My parents had died when I was around 12 years old, leaving me to have to grow up and take care of myself. It wasn’t necessarily as hard as I thought it was living on my own. Especially since both my parents had life insurance, the bank ended up giving me all their funds when I was old enough to know what to do with them. At first it sounds fun being the one seventeen year old stallion to say that they inherit both their parents wealth, but then comes bills, repairs, all that other shit. One thing that I did have put on the side however was my funds for my PC and Smoke account.

Smoke is a service for gaming PCs that is a library of different games and other software. It also was a social network for users to make friends. It is where I have most of my “friends” hang out. I say friends with quotes because I don’t have a lot of friends in real life. Mainly due to my public anxiety and a whole bunch of other stuff. With Smoke, I could talk to people and not risk having an anxiety attack. Yeah, you probably think I’m the saddest pony to ever brace all of Equestria, you’re probably right.

As I approach my PC, I gently rub my eyes to take in the light of the lamp I turn on. I grab the the curtains near my window with my magic and pull them aside.

“Still dark outside, perfect”, I say to myself as I look out into the early dawn horizon.

I sit down in my chair as I go to sign into my Smoke account. I’m greeted with the same message I get every morning from my Smoke account: Welcome Back Lotus, Syncing your account preferences.

Lotus was the name I chose from a comic book character in my father’s collection of comics. Lotus was the A.I. of the superhero named,” Quantum Stallion”. He was in charge of charging the hero's Quantum Ring and other stuff. Oh Celestia, I sound like such a nerd.

Once my Smoke account was done syncing, I was met with the same thing as always: 20 messages from one friend by the name of “Prophecy Jail” saying to get online.

Prophecy was my longest friend I’ve ever had on Smoke, like since I was 14 starting out. His name sounds stupid to say in a voice chat, so I’ve always called him PJ for short. As always,it’s usually just him wanting me to get on so he isn’t alone. This was rare however, so I respond to his messages just to see what is so important I have to wake up an hour earlier than I have to.

Lotus (Online) : All right I’m up!! What is this all about PJ?

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : DUDE!!!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO MESSAGE YOU FOR THE PAST HOUR!!!!!

Lotus (Online) : You know where, You know that I need my sleep to function in games.

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : YEAH BUT HOW DOES BEING ONE OF THE FIRST ONES GETTING THE GOLDEN FORK IN SF2 SOUND?

Solo Fort 2 is my favorite game to play on Smoke. It’s a team based shooting game with 10 classes with different abilities. It’s a Free-To-Play game that can allow some players to earn rare items that make their profiles ridiculously high valued. It may sound stupid to say that you invest in digital items, but that all changes when you manage to get The Golden Fork; The one weapon that is worth over $10,000.

Only few have managed to actually get the Fork. This is mainly due to everytime someone finds one, the location changes for the next one. Me and PJ have been trying for over 3 years now and still nothing, not even close. The Developers usually make a leak on their Smoke profiles to give players a clue, but it’s usually in computer code. Way too complicated for me to figure out on my own.

Thankfully, PJ had been learning code so this time he might actually be right. This months leak was the same old code as always, but this time it had the words, “Invert_Grav_2Street_Lodge”. It got me and PJ on a hunt for a while, but this time I thought he might have figured it out.

Lotus (Online) : So where do you think the golden fork is this time?

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : Well, it had been a grueling 12 hours, but I think I managed to crack the code in the leak.

Lotus (Online) : 12 hours!?! Damn PJ, you must either be the most dedicated stallion on all of Smoke or not have a life at all.

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : Yeah, but it takes one to know one. Anyway, so you know how that one phrase has been haunting us all month on our research?

Lotus (Online) : Keeps me up at night as always. I can never sleep until I figure out what the fuck “Invert_Grav_2Street_Lodge” means.

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : Well what I have figured out might blow your mind. I think it is a series of events to do on the one map everypony hates: Double Street.

Of course, anypony with two chromosomes could figure out it had something to do with that map of SF2. The only problem was that the map was too big to be explored within a certain time period. The mode that Double Street is a part of is called “Control The Cart”, essentially the mode has all players from both teams on one point fighting to stay with a cart that constantly moves. The mode can only be on for about 10 minutes before the game ends with the team with the most time spent with the cart. With only 10 minutes to look for a certain area in the largest map in the game, it will be a challenge.

Lotus (Online) : Yeah I figured that, but where exactly are we looking for the Golden Fork?

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : And that’s what I am so excited for. So turns out there is a lodge that can be activated by using two players, one being the activator of the lodge in the map, the other being the one to make it into the lodge to find the Fork. Hence why the clue was had the name 2Street.

Lotus (Online) : But what about the invert grav part. You obviously can’t just invert the gravity at will in the game, not without hacking.

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : That is where you come in, So you're obviously a good StuntMerc main?

StuntMerc is a class in the game that uses a launcher that can send you flying across the map to attack other enemies with your explosive spells. I have always played that character because it was the only one I was ever good at. More specifically good at launching around at the enemies to distract them while my team would capture the objective. I was so good at doing the jumps, that I could combo two jumps at the same time to travel twice as far and faster than a standard jump.

Lotus (Online) : I’m listening

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : Well I figured that maybe it was referring to you having to jump to a certain area in the lodge.

Lotus (Online) : I mean you don’t sound wrong, Everything you have said makes sense. What if you’re wrong?

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : There is no way I am wrong, I managed to find the button to activate the lodge. In fact, I’m in front of it it right now.

Lotus (Online) : Holy Shit!!! Did you activate it yet?

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : No, not yet. It would be pointless if I did now, I only have 3 minutes left in the game, not enough time for me to get to the lodge.

Lotus (Online) : Maybe that’s a good Idea, wouldn’t want some clueless colt stumble upon our hard research and end up not knowing what value he has.

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : Lol, you right.

At this time I had looked over to my clock and saw that it had read 6:58 AM. I moaned at the fact I had to leave to get ready for work. Then I would break the bad news to PJ as always.

Lotus (Online) : Shit! I wish I could go help you get the Fork right now, but I have to leave for work in a couple of minutes.

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : Dammit Lotus!!! Why you must always go when I could use you the most.

Lotus (Online) : Don’t worry, As soon as I get back from work you and I will get to finding the golden fork.

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : Alright fine, but if you are not back by then, your ass will miss out on the $10,000 prize.

Lotus (Online) : Ok fair enough, I’ll see you at 4 as always.

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : You know it, see you later Lotus.

With that, I shut down my PC and head for my bathroom to take a shower before work. The shower has been a place for me to kind of be alone with my thoughts, both good and dirty thoughts. As I shut the door behind me I use my magic to grab a towel and turn on the water for my shower. The water welcomes me with its warm graze as I step into the shower to clean myself before work. As I go through the daily routine of washing myself, I began to think of the possibilities of what I could get with $10,000. Maybe I could finally get my hooves on a VR headset and have a couple extra dollars spared for bills and such. Maybe I could also get a new art notebook and start drawing again with a new, more expensive drawing set. Who knows? Maybe I might feel like donating to a cause that might find the cure for cancer and they reward me with over 100 million dollars. Maybe Princess Celestia might honor me with some medal that will say something like,” Congratulations on being the first pony from Hoovesiana to actually make a difference in the world.” My imagination can run wild sometimes. After about 10 minutes of washing and being with my shower thoughts, I turn off the water and move the curtains with my magic. As I dry off, I use my magic to grab my toothpaste and toothbrush and begin to brush my teeth for the day. Mint flavor has always been my favorite flavor. Lasts the longest of all flavors

After rinsing out my toothpaste and fixing my mane, I step out of the bathroom to then grab my uniform for work and change. The uniform fits nicely, especially since I'm not the widest pony around. Then after that, it's time trot to work in the humid streets of New Saddle, Hoovesiana. May Celestia help me on my commute to the bakery.

Chapter 2

Stepping out of my house, I was greeted with the humidity of the hot, moist Hoovesiana air. I didn’t mind the humidity of the air, my real main problem with where I lived were two things: the ponies, and the rain.

I lived in the Southernmost part of Hoovesiana, being New Saddle, probably the only town that never got to learn about friendship with other species. In most places in Hoovesiana, there was never any Speciesism between Species. New Saddle must have not gotten the message of ,” Hey, it doesn’t matter whether you are a Pony, Dragon, or Griffon. We are all the same on the inside”. Although there was no real discrimination regarding work for other species, there was still Speciesism among the Dragons and Griffons. One such example of this, last week there was a drug house filled with many crackhead Unicorns. They were caught by the local law enforcement and sent to the jail for about 5 months. Two days ago a Griffon walking down the street wearing a hoodie, shot dead by the local law enforcement for “suspicion of a weapon”. Pure Speciesism at its finest.

Besides the Speciesism, the other thing that bothered me about living Hoovesiana was the rain. For those who don’t know, Hoovesiana was prone to “The Great Storm of Kat.” The storm almost nearly flooded all of the Southern part of Hoovesiana, while taking away hundreds of poor ponies lives. I remember when I was around five when it had happened being scared for my life. Luckily both my parents thought ahead of time and boarded up the house and made us stay in the attic until the storm had passed. We had a lot of water damage to the house once the storm had passed, but sadly some others weren’t so lucky as us to only have water damage. Ever since then every time it would rain in New Saddle, everypony would run for the highest point and hope it doesn’t flood.

My trot to work wasn’t long, it doesn’t even take me five minutes to get there. As I approach the block where the bakery was, I could see the sign of the bakery read the same thing it always read,” Cakes+Confections: Old Fashioned Cakes Since 1923”. Cakes+Confections is probably the longest bakery to ever be in business in New Saddle. While other bakeries drop dead after about 5 years, Cakes+Confections had been in business for over 80 years, and is showing no signs of going out of business for a while. The secret to staying in business for so long: Family Business. The business was started by the rich and charismatic stallion, Apple Cobbler. He ran the business for over 40 years before he had died. The one to take control of the business was none other than his filly, Berry Cobbler. It remains like that to this day, with the owner being the filly of the late Plum Cobbler, Peach Cobbler.

Peach was a pretty fair, and one would say nice boss. She was a mare who was very straight-forward with her management. I guess after working in the same business for over 35 years, you start to know what to fix in the business. Her management is best described as a “First Name Basis” management. In other words, your name will dictate what you will most likely work. For example, Donut Glaze is in charge of donuts, Pipsqueak is in charge of cupcakes, and Peach being in charge of the cobbler. I bet you can’t guess what I’m in charge of, $10 says you can’t.

Stepping inside the bakery, I am hit with the smell of baked dough and syrup. Obviously the smell of the cobbler being made. With nopony out front, I figure that it is only me and Peach Cobbler. I step into the door that leads to the back where I can reach my locker filed with my stuff, only to find full tray of freshly cooked cobbler. With seeing this I at first freeze in fear. Remember how I said that Peach was a pretty nice boss? Well, there is one thing that I kind of forgot to mention, out of all her rules for work she has one that is the most strict of all: Never ever be alone with the cobbler. She has said to anypony that works here that if they are caught alone with any amount of cobbler without her presence at anytime, she would fire them on the spot. Her reasoning is for this rule is to keep the world famous family recipe for their cobbler a secret from competition. At first, some of you might be thinking that’s a little bit of a stupid rule, but let me tell you from what I have seen, you will quickly change your mind when seeing her lose her shit on somepony yourself. I had seen a pony by the name of Churro be destroyed by Peach, the poor bastard could barely keep a straight face walking out of the bakery.

I slowly catch my breath as I realize the situation I am in. I look around for the lockers so I could quickly get the shit out of there before Peach sees me. My forehead was beginning to have a cold sweat in trying to find the lockers.

”Where are those god damn lockers? It’s not like the business has changed overnight. It might change with a loss of
an employee if I don’t find those fucking lockers”, I say to myself as my hooves start shaking.

I spotted the lockers by the corner and begin to trot over to them quickly. As I get halfway across the room to the locker, Peach Cobbler came around the corner carrying extra pans and trays. I froze out of fear thinking it was the end of me.

“Whoa! Velvet, you scared me”, Peach said jumping from fear, nearly dropping the trays in her hooves.

I give her an empty, petrified stare, almost tearing up. She then gave me a concerning look tilting her head sideways.

“Hey, is there something wrong? You look like you have seen a ghost.”, she says walking up to me slowly. I stammer for about a couple of seconds before Peach stops me,”Hey, it’s okay to tell me Sugar”.

It took me by complete surprise! When I was expecting a good ol’ ,”You're fired, get the hell out” she said the one thing that always comforts ponies who are upset : Sugar. When I heard her say that, I built up the courage to say what was wrong.

”I-I was um, I was coming in and I saw the tray of cobbler and I-I got scared that you would come in and f-f-fire me since I was alone with the tray and you have those set of rules and...” I trailed off out of anxiety until I felt Peach’s hoof place on my chin and tilted my head up.

“Velvet, You don’t need to worry about that rule with me, I trust you wouldn’t steal the recipe”, Peach says reassuringly.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The one pony who made the most strict rule of work was letting me pass on breaking the rule. I stood there shocked until I snapped back to reality and moved toward my locker. I still couldn’t figure it out yet, why would me, out of all the ponies that worked there, would she let have a pass on the rule. As Peach set down the pans and trays to pick up the fresh cobbler, I finally broke the one question that was starting to burn a hole in my mind.

“Hey Peach, why did you give me a pass on the ‘not being alone with the cobbler’ rule?”, I ask her confused

She looks at me with a somewhat confused look,”Well, didn’t I just tell you Sugar? I trust you the most.”

”Well yes you did, but why do you trust me the most out of all the other workers?”, I elaborate.

Peach set down the cobbler then trotted over to me and said with a very sincere voice,”Velvet, I have worked here for over 35 years. Out of all my coworkers I had worked with, you parents were the most trustworthy out of all of them. I know that they raised you the exact same way.”

Peach and my parents were best friends for the longest time up until they had died. Going back to what I was saying about her being nice, she was the one who helped me out the most through losing my parents. She had even offered me to live with her instead of being alone in the house. I had turned it down due to me wanting to live on my own. In a lot of ways, I considered her my second mother.

Right as I was about to say how much gratitude I had from her trusting me that much, the other workers had come in and were getting ready for work. At this moment, I had gathered myself and got my stuff in my locker. In my locker, it consisted of baking supplies like a apron and hairnet. I had also had my father’s old music player that had a lot of my favorite music on there. Once I had gathered my stuff, I headed to the front where we have our daily meetings before the bakery opens for business. The meetings are roughly the same message everyday,”Everypony work hard, and it will be a good day”. Once the meeting was wrapped up, I head to my station in the back to begin making the red velvet cakes.

For anypony who thinks that red velvet cake is chocolate cake with white frosting and red food coloring, fuck you. It is way more complex than that. The first thing that I do when making red velvet cake is to mix in the batter, which consists of sugar, butter, and at least two eggs , then mix it with flour. Once it is mixed up, you would pour in a little bit of both cocoa and vanilla into the creamed mixture to make it kind of a burgundy color. Then pour in milk and put in the oven at 350 degrees for about a half hour. Take that anti red velvet cake ponies! I just debunked your whole propaganda.

Once I finish putting it in the oven, I usually sit down and listen to my father’s music on his old E.pod and draw while listening to his music. His E.pod has over 3,000 songs on there, and I still haven’t gone through all of it. One band that my father liked, and has passed as a personal favorite for me, was “Smashing Melons”. They have a lot of very good songs, most of them coming from the 90s. In my opinion, their second album “Siamese Sadness” was their best one. I don’t know why, but every song on that album would always cheer me up, even the more messed up, happy sounding ones.

Once time would pass, I would hear the timer go off and take the now baked velvet cake out of the oven. Using my magic, I would then take the cake off to the side where all the icing would be and cover it in a white layer of frosting. Once a good layer is lathered on, I take the burgundy frosting in the baster to line the edges of the cake with icing. This step is very tedious, because if you do it to fast, it makes the cake look uneven. If the cake looks uneven, it goes in the trash and back to square one you go. Luckily, I’m very patient with my magic, so this step doesn’t hinder me. Once the Icing is all done, it is sent up front on display for ponies to get. The wash, rinse, repeat.

After about 5 hours of working in the morning shift, we close up shop from around 11:30 am to 1:00 pm for us to have our lunch break before the next shift starts. Most of the other workers leave to go get something to eat that is close in town. I usually stay to eat in the bakery because of my whole ‘public anxiety’ problem I have. For lunch, it is always the same: One sliced turkey and lettuce sandwich. I keep it simple, not too extravagant. I took my lunch in the front of the bakery and sat at one of the tables near the window. I had even brought my art book with me to have something to do after I finish lunch.

I had finished lunch and began drawing in my art book. A lot of my art was kind of abstract, not a lot of ponies would understand it. Abstract art was my favorite one to create because it didn’t have to involve a lot of creativity, apart from deciding colors. Plus for some reason, abstract art was more emotional than art that has a subject.

As I was scribbling something down in my art book, I jumped at the sound of a door opening from the back. It was Peach holding two cupcakes.

She had trotted over to where I was sitting then stopped to glance at my art book. “You mind if I sit with you sugar?” she says.

“Of course not Peach”, I say to her moving my pencils and pens from the otherside of the table.

She sat down in front of me and slid over one of the cupcakes she had brought from the back,”You feel hungry?” she asks me.

I take the cupcake and say thank you.

“So Velvet, how have you been? It feels like a mighty long time since I last visited with you.”, Peach says as she takes the wrapper off of the cupcake.

“Well nothing much. Really it’s the same old as always.”, I say after taking a bite of the cupcake she had given me.

“Oh, well I guess that’s good, you’re not getting into any trouble so that's good “, Peach says with a little bit of cupcake in her mouth.

I always enjoyed these small moments with Peach, she would make me feel like home when I would speak with her.

As I finished my cupcake, she had glanced down at my art book again and asked,”Is it ok if I look through it?”

I gave her a slight nod with a light blush going across my face. I was always somepony who was always nervous of what other ponies think of the stuff I would create. Another side effect to having public anxiety.

Peach had flipped through a couple of them and gave them an approving nod.

Scratching the back of my neck, I ask,”D-Do they look okay?”

“Okay? These are the best darned drawings I have seen in a while, some should be posted on the art trot someday”, Peach says holding some of them up to show me.

I chuckled nervously then responded,”Heh, yeah. Maybe one day.”

Peach had given me kind of a concerned look. This was a look I was so used to. Peach had sighed then looked up at me.

“Velvet, I know that tone all too well”, she says crossing her hooves together.

“What do you mean?”, I asked in a confused voice.

“Don’t act like you don’t know. You are a really talented unicorn. Your drawings are wonderful, and yet you always doubt yourself. You can’t just sit there and doubt yourself that these are not good drawings. You know deep down you have the talent to make it out there. All you have to do is try.”, Peach says looking at me with eyes that will burn a hole in you.

That was another thing about her that made her feel like my second mother, her lectures would always get to me. Whether its my doubt, or before my work ethic, it always got through with me.

“Okay, Peach. I’ll consider turning in one to the art trot”, I say with a somewhat distraught voice.

“Good”, Peach says before a slight grin goes across her face.

“Well, it’s about to be time when the afternoon shift begins. I’ll let you get ready. Don’t you forget about what I said now”, Peach says standing up to move to the door to the back of the bakery.

“I won’t”, I say as I begin to gather my things and throw my wrapper to my cupcake away.

The afternoon shift was mostly the same, only with a few more customers than usual ordering red velvet cakes. The time runs by a lot faster in this shift in my opinion, mainly because I only work 3 hours in the shift.

At the end of my shift, I began to start to save my things in my locker and head out for the night. I met with Peach to collect my paycheck for the day.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow at work Peach.”, I say to Peach as I use my magic to grab the paycheck.

She had snapped the check in mid air right before it had gotten passed her and gave me a look. “Velvet, I want you to take the day off tomorrow.”, she says holding on to the check with an iron grip. “They are having the submission for the art trot tomorrow, I expect you to enter one of your drawings in. Understand?”, She says while cocking an eyebrow at me.

“Yes ma’am, I will submit one of them.”, I say itching to leave.

Ok, Have a good night sugar.”, she says as she finally lets go of the paycheck I was trying to grab. As I put the check into the bag I had with me, I made a trot to the door and began to trot home. Now was the time for the moment I was waiting for. Time for the quest of getting the golden fork.

Chapter 3

Although I was in a hurry getting back to my house to not keep PJ waiting, I still liked to take in the atmosphere of the other ponies around me. It sounds crazy coming from some somewhat antisocial unicorn with public anxiety, but it is true.
As I was trotting at a fast pace while still looking around to take in the mellowed out atmosphere of New Saddle, a certain group of colts were playing with a ball. Out of all of them, there was one who had kind of stood out. As I glanced over to observe, It had caught my attention that the colt that stood out wasn’t a colt at all. He was instead a smaller griffin. At first, I was in total shock, “A group of colts in Hoovesiana playing with a griffin? Are we now finally coming to our senses that we are the same?”, I thought to myself. Almost like clockwork, as soon as I had that thought in my head, the group of colts had ran in the other direction with the ball leaving the small griffin alone. I felt sympathy for the griffin, mostly because I had felt what the small griffin had felt: a feeling of abandonment from others. I could have went over to comfort him, but I had to leave to get a shot at the golden fork. I can’t miss this shot, not after about a whole month of working for it.
Though the trot felt like a whole eternity, I had gotten home in about 10 minutes, 15 minutes faster than I usually take to get home. I used my magic to throw the door open to get in the house as quick as I possibly could. Shutting the door behind me, I threw my paycheck from the bakery on the table and ran to my PC. Hitting the power button frantically, I had managed to hit my head on the desk kind of hard. I rubbed my head to make sure I hadn’t done any damage to it. Thankfully I wasn’t seeing double or seeing some fairy telling me the world is going end in about a day. Shaking the mouse, I checked the time to make sure I wasn’t too late. I was relieved to say that the time had read 4:26. “Perfect, just in time.”, I say to myself as I sit down in my chair signing in to my Smoke profile.
I figured that PJ would patiently be waiting for me to join his game. I was mistaken, as I had over 200 notifications of new messages from PJ. This was out of the ordinary of PJ, usually he would leave around 10 or 15 messages saying for me to hurry up. Clicking the notification icon, the avalanche of messages nearly crushed me. Though I couldn’t read through all of them, I could read the more recently sent ones sent when I had logged on.

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : GET

YOUR

ASS

NOW

He didn’t need to tell me twice. I launched up SF2 then launched up Kaos. Kaos was a app similar to Smoke, the only difference being that it is directly meant for talking to other users in game. It makes it ten times easier than typing in game to talk to other players. Also, It can also be used to talk to only your friends and nopony else. As I waited for the game and Kaos to load, I messaged PJ to ask what is wrong.

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Hey I’m on finally. What happened? Did some other pony find the fork?

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : NO BUT IF YOU DON'T HURRY THE FUCK UP YES SOME OTHER PONY WILL.

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Ok Ok, Sweet celestia. What happened while I was gone?

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : I fucked up. I fucked up badly.

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Fucked up?

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : While I was waiting for you, I was looking around the lodge. In that time, some clueless friendly wouldn’t fuck off and figured out that the lodge where the golden frying pan was.

Friendlies were players in the game who would not kill or hurt players. They like to follow players around and give them health. In a casual setting, it is actually fine, despite them getting in the way of a situation. But in a situation where we are trying to keep a certain area secret, it is super stressful and annoying.

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Oh Shit. So that means that other ponies are gonna try to get the golden fork now.

Prophecy Jail (In Game: SF2) : Yeah, it’s gonna be a shit show. So be ready when you join in. Log into Kaos, so this can be easier to talk

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Ok.

With that, I quickly logged into Kaos and rang up a call with PJ. Although I had never met PJ personally, he sounds rather chill. Like somepony that you could sit on a couch and watch tv with.

As the calling tone in Kaos finally came to a close, I got to hear the sound of the chillest pony screaming at me.

“Hey, can you hear me?”, PJ screamed to me nearly clipping his audio.

“Ow, Dammit PJ! I may be a good SF2 player, but Sweet Celestia my ears are not built for being destroyed”, I say in response.

“Sorry, but I’m a little on edge the fact I nearly gave up the secret to the golden fork”, PJ says with a slightly self loathing sound.

“Hey. Don’t blame yourself, at least they didn’t find the other part of the puzzle”, I say reassuringly.
I heard a quick sigh from PJ, followed by the response,” You're right, but how long until they find that other part Lotus, how long until our chance at 10,000 dollars is gone?”

This caused a bit of awkward silence between me and PJ until I joined in his session as we were loading.

“So what’s the plan”, I ask breaking the silence between us.

“Well, I figured since now every player knows about the spot, I figured that the best option would be to go more offensive with you as a stunt merc and me a healer”, PJ says finally calming down.

PJ is a fairly decent Healer main, but his main problem is his nerves playing the class. He would be the type of pony to back out of a push in fear of being killed in game. That has led to many failed attempts to win a round and even defend against pushing players.

“You sure you want to do that, you promise not to give up on a push to take over the area?”, I ask with a more questioning tone.

“Yeah, of course I won’t. This is 10,000 dollars we are talking about. Of course I’m not gonna back down”, PJ says with a more serious voice.

“Ok, but if we lose-”, I say before I’m cut off by PJ.

“We won’t”, he says with a very serious voice. I could tell that this means the world to PJ; That this could destroy him if we don’t get this.

“Ok, so kind of to say the plan over again, go in, rush the first part of the puzzle, you activate it, I jump the place that opens and we split the 10,000 dollar to celebrate being the first duo to work together to find the fork”, I say to PJ as I click ready on the loading screen.

“Pretty much the gist of what I said, let’s do this shit”, PJ says while also readying up after me.

I could kind of feel a little bit of sweat drip down from my forehead. Along with this, I felt a little bit of nervousness in my body waiting for the game to load. What If somehow while we push I fuck up and miss a shot and get hit by the bullshit known as “random max damage”. Random Max Damage (Commonly referred as RMD) was a glitch in the game that the devs had never fixed, something about giving players a “fair and balanced” game mechanic. Essentially the glitch would randomly fire off a shot from a rifle, rocket, or grenade that does insane amounts of damage. It could even take out an over healed Big Boss class, a class with the largest health in the game especially when over healed, like it is nothing.

As I could have one last “what if” thought, the level loaded up and my fear was all of a sudden gone. “Let’s do this”, I think to myself before choosing the Stunt Merc class.

My loadout for the class was a fairly standard loadout for a casual player, one stock grenade launcher, one jump launcher, and stock melee weapon. It is a basic loadout for basic needs, or so you think? Like I said before, I use the Stunt Merc class to jump around the map rushing players. The best secondary to use is the one that nopony ever uses: The Jump Launcher. It is widely hated because it does no damage, and to other players who don’t know how to use it say that it is pointless in a game where you kill players. To that I say, "Fuck You", to the haters, cause it has helped me rank up to over 3,255 kills.

Loading into the game, the spawn room contains the same group of classes I usually run into, 1 clueless ShapeShifter, 1 Big Boss, 5 Marksman who probably can’t aim, and then one Healer who unfortunately will be the only one helping me. I noticed he had on a different hat than the one he had before, before it was similar to a wizards hat. Now this one was more like a crown to some medieval kingdom.

“When did you change your hat? I had never seen you wear that hat on your Healer loadout before”, I ask PJ.

“I had gotten that yesterday while you were asleep for the night, you missed out on a good game where I made a bet with another player that I could beat him in a 1v1 match”, PJ says confidently.

“Bet you wouldn’t win against me in a 1v1 match as Stunt Merc”, I say with a cocky attitude towards PJ.

“Hey, let’s not start an argument right now since we are gonna have to depend on each other working together to make it to the fork. Especially not when we have 30 seconds till the match starts”, PJ says sternly.

Although, I jokingly considered that's his way of saying,”Yeah, I know you would destroy me.”

But in all seriousness, he was right.
We only had a couple of seconds before the spawn doors open and all hell breaks loose. At that moment we stayed silent again to kind of stay focused on the objective of finding the fork. Moments later we got to hear those four sounds to begin the madness

“3”

“2”

“1”

“Begin”

Then came the alarm sound of the doors opening and a stampede of players rushed out the door to rush the cart, while me and PJ had went the opposite way to the lodge with the button to activate the door to the first part of the quest. PJ was already overhealing me to get me a jump of health in case we take some fire from another player on the other team. With PJ healing me, I could read how much until his “Invulnerability Charge” was charged up. That could be used for charging areas with lots of enemy fire while not dying for about 8 seconds, just enough time to kill the enemies in the room before your charge is back at 0%. PJ’s charge was at 10%.

Making our way over to the room, we had taken a couple of scratches from players on the enemy team spotting us by the cart, but they were easily avoidable thanks to my jumping. Taking a little bit of damage was also a good way to build up a charge with PJ, since healing players taking damage speeds up your charge rate by 5%.

“We are almost there, be ready for anything”, PJ says as his charge counter read now 63%.

As we made it past a building leading up to the lodge, I could hear the sounds of a Big Boss and a DoughColt. That wasn’t a good sign. Especially since the DoughColt fires rockets that the RMD likes to effect the most.

“Hey, be ready to charge when we get there, that DoughColt is gonna destroy us if he gets a RMD”, I warn PJ as his charge count had read 75%.

“Got it. Don’t go out past that wall leading to the lodge until I give a signal”, PJ says as we approach the final corner of the walkway leading to the lodge.

My Stunt Merc and his Healer planted themselves right next to the corner. I sat there waiting for his signal, itching to step out and take them out.

“Hold it, Hold it”, PJ says sternly. A bit of sweat was dripping from my horn, to which I wiped away to avoid being distracted. Looking at his charge it read 85%.

“PJ, Can we go now”, I ask itching to step out to take out the possible DoughColt and Big Boss.

“Not yet, wait till I say the signal”, PJ says.

It was at this moment I couldn’t wait any longer. I was so eager to step out and take them out. I had a Healer with 90% charge, why could we not take them out now? So, with what many would call the stupidest move in SF2 history, I stepped out launching a jump bomb to get ready to launch at the enemy.

“NO Lotus! What the fuck are you doing?!”, PJ screams at me like I had signed my death warrant.

Naturally, I felt a surge of confidence when I peeped around a corner and launched my first grenade at the Big Boss around the corner. Like I had predicted, one Big Boss, one DoughColt. With the two shots I had fired, both of them hit their intended target, taking out the Big Boss in a flash. What had took me by surprise was the enemy Healer that was also around the corner that had popped its charge. At this moment, I saw my life flash before my eyes, Figuratively of course. I had thought I had fucked up the one shot at me and PJ had at getting the golden fork. Then in the next moment, I had this sudden surge of determination in me, like the feeling that I wasn’t going down without a fight. Once the enemy DoughColt had fired one of his rockets, quickly jumped out of the way thanks to the Jump Launcher. I knew I had to try and avoid fire for about 8 seconds, or at least until I could get to PJ in time. My second jump to avoid another wave of rockets from the enemy DoughColt came with a slight delay of damage, taking away about 60 from getting hit by one rocket. By then I had around 105 health. Still a decent amount of health.

“I got this, I got this”, I say to myself as I lined up my third jump.

As I had feared, the DoughColt had fired a RMD rocket in this sequence. Though the rocket did not hit me, the blast damage took away 75 health, leaving me with 30 health. It was this point when I had landed and taken fall damage, which then took away 15 health leaving me with barely any health left. At this point, I felt like a true goner. I was too far away to be healed in time by PJ, and the Jump Launcher ran out of bombs in the clip. My instincts came in as I switched to my grenade launcher and began panic firing on the now reloading DoughColt.

Then, what felt like hours, 8 seconds had past. The charge from the enemy healer had stopped and left me with an open window to fire at. My only chance at killing the other player was getting a RMD with the grenade launcher. I realized that I had nothing to lose if I took the shot and maybe missed my one grenade in the clip or had it be in regular damage.

“Please, just this once, do the right thing, RMD”, I think to myself as I close my eyes pressing the fire button.

What followed was silence as time slowed down for me

But then, what broke the speed of time, was a glint of a glowing pill coming for the DoughColt.

BOOM!

The lucky RMD pill had hit the target and took out the enemy DoughColt. The explosion from the RMD had also damaged me as well, leaving me with the unbelievable amount of 1 health. I could barely comprehend what had just happened. The situation was so unbelievable, the enemy Healer had run away out of fear. If I could have proof that Princess Celestia may have been watching over me, that would be it.

In my moment of shock and awe, PJ had come by to heal me as quick as he could.

“You are officially the most stupid, and luckiest player I have seen in the whole game”, the still shocked PJ says followed by,”If we somehow get the fork, I’m going to make this a part of an autobiography as being with the luckiest player in the game.”

After about twenty seconds of me remaining silent, I break the silence with a bellow of laughter.

“Holy Fuck, that was the luckiest rush against another player I have ever done. I could have just died right there”, I say somewhat hysterically.

Once PJ had healed me back to full health, he ran to the opposite way.

“Lotus, stand guard here for a little bit, I’m gonna go and activate the button on the other side of the lodge, I’m positive that there should be a door that will open. When it opens, try to jump to the top as fast as you possibly can, we only have around 3 minutes left till the game ends”, PJ says with a bit of uneasiness in his voice.

“What about you? What are you gonna do while I’m in there”, I ask as his Healer passes the corner to disappear. “Don’t worry about me, all that matters is you making the jumps to the top of the lodge to get the fork”, PJ says sternly.

With only two minutes and thirty seconds left in the match, I knew I could not mess around with these jumps. One wrong movement or placement of a Launch Bomb could throw me off course and make me start from the bottom of the lodge. Like I said before, this could devastate PJ if somehow I fucked up a jump or take too long and not get the fork. Sweet Celestia, I had a huge weight on my shoulder that I had to hold up. As I was dealing with the slight anxiety, I saw the door of the lodge open up with a loud bell ring warning players that there were two minutes left in the game. “

Did it open?”, PJ asked me.

“Yeah, a door opened. I’m going in right now”, I say as I began moving into the lodge.

“Ok, you got this Lotus, I know you do”, PJ says with a confident voice.

To which my response was,“Hey, please don’t say anything to me, I need to stay focused on my jumps.”
Much like Daring Doo stepping into the tomb, I felt a surge of uneasiness. Like a feeling that this doesn’t feel right. In the opening of the lodge, it was a small, very low lit hallway leading to a open door. Running to the end of the hallway, the room that followed contained a spiraled set of walls leading to the top of the lodge.

“Really clever game devs. Your gonna have to really make me strafe jump that high up to reach the 10,000 dollar prize”, I think to myself as a began to fire my first Jump Bomb. Stepping off the Jump bomb launching into the air, I hear the sound of the one minute warning letting me know I could not fuck up. Approaching the wall, I fired my second Jump bomb to prepare for strafing in the other direction. My Stunt Merc launched into the other direction as I turned to the other direction to prepare for my last jump. This is the one that had to count. If I missed this one, I would have to start from the bottom and try again, wasting more time and risking not making it in time. Making it to the third point where I launched my last Jump bomb, I detonated it in time to launch up to the platform up on the top of the lodge. There, lied a platform. That platform was wide, and had a small walkway. Then there it was, sitting there waiting to be claimed: The Golden Fork. I could almost taste victory moving towards the platform
Then, by some weird instance
In the matter of 2 seconds.
My momentum had stopped.
I felt a surge of confusion when I was falling to the bottom of the lodge.

“What the fuck? What the actual fuck”, I ask myself as I hit the ground.
I needed to be sure that I didn’t make a mistake. I did the series of jumps again and made it to the top once again. I made sure that I didn’t clip the bottom of the ledge jumping up there. It was a clear jump to the top, but for an un-fucking-believable reason, I hit a wall. The devs put an invisible wall right there at the top where the fork was.

Was this some kind of cruel joke? Did the devs accidentally make an April Fools day joke? No, this couldn’t be.

I kept jumping frantically hoping that somehow I would glitch through the apparent invisible wall blocking me from getting the 10,000 dollar prize. With every attempt I made, they all ended in failure. With the pure shock taking over, I began to breathe heavily in the mic as the clock was now counting down from 10 seconds. There was no way I could possibly get the Fork. I could feel that all the work me and PJ had done would now be doubled, due to us having to figure out how the fuck to get past the invisible wall.
Then came the four sounds that ultimately devastated me and PJ’s hard work.
“3”

“2”

“1”

“Match over, blue wins”.

Chapter 4

“What the fuck do you mean that there was no way to get to it”, PJ says angrily after me explaining to him why I didn’t have the fork of our dreams.

“I told you this already. When I had jumped up to the platform where the fork was, the devs put in an invisible wall that blocked me from getting it”, I explained to PJ yet again to try to get him to understand that we have been doing it wrong all this month.

This was a very tense moment between the two of us, especially since one of us was dead set on finding the fork to get the money.

“I refuse to believe what you told me. Not after all this fucking research I did for this.”, PJ said, still with a “extremely pissed off” tone.

“Look PJ, if you don’t believe me, how about you try yourself as a Stunt Merc?”, I say out of frustration dealing with PJ.

“Oh and then have you as a shitty Healer who probably will fuck it up for both of us by not sticking to the plan. No thank you”, PJ yells at me.

I had never seen this side of PJ. I have sometimes seen him when he was mad at not being able to cap a point of briefcase, but never to a point of anger that he is in right now.

“Sweet Celestia PJ, you need to calm down, it’s just a push that no player really knows about yet ”, I say out of anger for PJ’s remark to me.

“Lotus, are you this fucking dense? Players know where to start looking! Eventually some player is gonna find it, and my research I did was all for nothing”,PJ yells again.

At this point, I was starting to get really pissed off at PJ.

“Your research? This was our fucking research. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have been able to push forward to even get to the first part in the first fucking place”, I yelled back at PJ.

“You know what? Fuck you Lotus, I don’t need your help finding the fork. I can find somepony who is actually motivated to get the fork”, PJ finally says in anger.

“Fine, I don’t need the money anyway, you can waste your time going insane with the lodge”, I say out of disgust before saying,”Good luck with ‘your’ research being put in test.”

I had left the call with and quit the game. I put my hooves over my eyes while breathing out heavily to relieve a little bit of the stress I had from that whole situation. I looked over to the clock that read 5:24. Still was a little early in the evening, but after that situation, it felt like midnight. I stood up from my chair to look at the stuff I had thrown on the table earlier in a rush. On the table was my uniform, which now had a slight stench of sweat from trying to rush home, and the paycheck. I used my magic to throw the uniform in a basket of other clothes that needed to be washed. I picked up the check and noticed it had something else written on the back of it. “If I don’t see anything with your name on the art trot submission, This check is bouncing~ PC”, the back of the check read. Damn, if that is not somepony who is a good motivator, I don’t know who is.

Nonetheless, I knew that I had to send something so I could get a paycheck from my boss. Moving towards my desk, I use my magic to grab my other art notebook and a pen. Sitting down, I got to it, drawing whatever I felt would portray what I felt in that moment. Particularly, more of an angry, distraught feeling on the paper. It was not very neat, in fact it was kinda messy. Not like messy being some little colt drawing, but more like a messy room of some teenage mare.

With drawing, I always feel I lose myself in the moment when I really start to work on something. The world kind of goes silent for me with only the sounds of my pen or pencil scratching the paper creating art. Another funny thing with me making art is that time also seems to speed up for me. When I had began drawing, the time had read 5:30 PM. Looking up to let my piece of paper have a break from being scratched and marked by my pencil, the clock had now read 7:30 PM.

“Damn, It felt like I had just sat down and started drawing”, I say to myself as I began to make the last marks on my drawing I was gonna submit.

I have my self-doubt with all my art, but for some reason I felt this one had a chance. Not like a huge chance, more like a stallion pube hair of a chance of being featured. I guess you could say I have a little bit of what you would call “self hatred” of my works of art. Sadly, that’s always been the way I was ever since I started drawing seriously after both my parents had died. I never had anyone who could push me to be talented like my parents. Apart from Peach Cobbler, but she didn’t count for me at the time.

After saving the work of art I had created in my notebook, I stood up from my chair and went into the bathroom to take a shower for the night. I never knew why, but whenever I take a warm shower in the evening I always calm down. This is coming from the Unicorn in South Hoovesiana, a place that is famous for being the most humid place in all of Equestria. The place has a very high average of cold showers among ponies, for good reason. For me, warm showers felt refreshing, like going to a steamy sauna or drinking a really cold glass of water on the hottest day. Or, if you want to get a lewd mentioning refreshing, like a pissing after you have been jerking off for about 30 minutes. That’s a real good feeling.

Stepping into the warm shower, I began to let the water soak my mane and body. The shower thoughts began as I began to wash my body with a small towel I grabbed with my magic. I started to begin thinking about PJ and why he would be so motivated about a fork in game that he would get to a point where he would tell me to pretty much go fuck myself. I really doubt that he is a shitty pony that is just greedy for the money or maybe the item itself. What if maybe he is looking to go to a college or a new, more sophisticated school? That or he could be using it for somepony else. PJ could be wanting supporting his family, but then again I could be wrong since he never really opened up that much about his personal life. Or, this just in from Velvet gossip headquarters, PJ could be using it to spend on a marefriend he is looking to bone.

Rinsing my mane from the soap and shampoo, the refreshing feeling came as I felt a cooling sensation running from my scalp to my horn. I let out a sigh of satisfaction as that sensation began to take over my whole body, letting my tail twitch from the feeling. Once the sensation was over, I turned off the water from the shower and began to dry off. Facing the mirror in the bathroom, I was greeted with my face with my damp mane covering my eyes. I was always OCD when it came to my mane, I always was one to constantly fix my mane out of fear of somepony noticing it wasn’t what it looked like.

Grabbing my comb I kept in the mirror compartment, I fixed my hair into the style I liked. As I finished the style, I said to myself in agreement with my work,”Good, probably gonna fix later but good.”

Coming out of the bathroom, I tossed the now wet towels into the basket of dirty clothes. Seeing the sun finally go down out of my window finally let me know that it was time to kind of wind down for the night. Not like as in go to bed, whatever that means. I usually like to browse stuff on OurTube to see what’s recently been uploaded, but at the same time I felt like playing something other than SF2. Luckily, I knew exactly what I could play to settle this dilemma: VRCinema. VRCinema was a social game where players with VR headsets would hang out with others watching movies or videos from OurTube. The cool thing about the game was that you didn’t need a headset to play it. All you really needed was a keyboard and mouse to move around. A microphone was optional, but it makes it ten times easier to communicate. The one server I always go on was a server that was set in a club venue map that has private rooms if you didn’t want to deal with other annoying players with their OC avatars bothering you. While I am on the topic of OC’s, am I the only one who seems to find stories with OC’s in them to be the stupidest thing on the internet?

Loading up the game was a bit of a tedious process. Since I didn’t have a headset, I had to kind of trick my profile in thinking that I have a VR headset. The way I do it is by starting up the game, but then at the same time open up a console that I would input a command that tricks the game into thinking I’m using a headset. The way I control it is by using my WASD keys and my mouse to move and look around. Then of course you use your mic to speak in the game just by simply speaking. It’s a pretty simple setup for a game where you talk to other users.

Once the game loaded, I found the server button and hit the club venue map. The game then greeted me with a “Please Wait, We are loading your Polygons”. I never liked the force meme VRCinema. Makes me feel like some obnoxious normie of a pony when I see it. The worst part is that they continually add shitty memes to the loading screen because they have a contest on their Flutter page where they can submit memes to be added. I would bet you one million dollars that if I submitted one, it would be accepted. I would be confident in it because it seems that they choose about a dozen submissions every week. Out of the 12 they choose, usually only one of them are actually pretty cheeky. All the other ones are garbage.

As I was dreading that the screen would haunt me longer, the meme disappeared and my perspective of a club was finally loaded. From looking around where I was, it seemed very empty. That was a good sign.

“Hopefully I won’t tell some weird kid to fuck off this time”, I say in my head.

Remember when I said that you could have a private room to avoid annoying players? Well they are limited in a server. So if you want to really be alone in a server, get a private room as fast as you can. Cause once they run out, you are stuck with the public screens where everypony can screech and holler as you try to watch whatever it is you want to watch. For me if it gets to that point, I would just leave the server and just go to a different server. Or If I’m really stubborn, I would tell them out right to fuck off. That usually would get me kicked from the server, but I would be okay with it. I could finally avoid the autism of players on the server.

Luckily, the server had plenty of empty private rooms for me to go to. As I was moving towards private room number seven, I heard a sound that had caught my attention. It sounded a lot like talking. I moved towards the sound to figure out what it was. As I drew closer, I began to realize that it wasn’t talking, it was singing. Not like singing coming from a video, but more singing coming from a player. It sounded beautifully sung. Like almost to a point where I thought some popular singer was in the server. Sadly, I don’t think anyone would believe me if I said I met a famous singer in VRCinema.

Moving from around the corner I saw one single player sitting by them self, singing to their heart’s desire. Based on what I had noticed from the voice of this singing player was that it was a mare singing. I’m not one of those perverted players who lose their mind when a gamer mare is in the same game as me, but this one got my attention in the weirdest way. It was almost like her voice was like a spell that forces you to pay attention. Thankfully, she wasn’t using the spell to trap and kill me like the spell used by the sinister Mad Mare to try and take out Quantum Stallion to take over the world. Here I go again with the nerd talk.

I move closer to her to keep listening to her singing. I managed to get close enough to make out what she was singing.

“The world is broken, Halos fail to glisten. You try to make a difference, but no one wants to listen.”, The mysterious mare sang. I thought at first it was some weird rebellion song at first, but as I listened more I realized it was more than that.

She followed up the questioning lyric with,” Love is forever, and we'll die, we'll die together and lie, I say never. 'Cause our love could be forever and ever.”

I was amazed. It was a strong lyric that would even rival my favorite bands lyrics from Smashing Melons. That takes some strong lyrics to do that.

I had decided after listening for about 5 minutes I would go introduce myself to her. At that time, my mind was running at 300 mph due to how nervous I was. I had always had a problem talking to mares. One time, there was a mare that I had once had a crush on who used to work at the bakery. I would awkwardly say hi to her every time I pass by her like the dork I was. Only once I managed to gather up the courage to ask her out, the only problem was I nearly threw up on myself asking her out. I can let you take the guess if she went out with me.

As I was debating what to say, I was already in speaking distance to where I could say something to her. If you thought I said something smooth like, “Damn, you looking sharp”, or some other sex innuendo, you are mistaken.

Instead, I said probably the creepiest thing I could say to mare not knowing I was there,”You sing beautifully.”

With that line being heard, she stopped singing and gasped out of fear.

“Oh shit I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just-”, I said in a panicked voice as I trailed off.

“How long were you listening?”, the scared mare said as she sat up from the chair in front of the screen.

“I-I had listened for about f-five minutes, can I just say-”, I try to say before being cut off by the now frantic mare.

“Oh my gosh, this is so embarrassing. I thought the server was empty so I figured it would be okay if I started singing along to music. Now you probably think I’m not a good singer and-”, She said as she went on a tangent on how embarrassed she was.

I was shocked. I was originally expecting her to start yelling at me about how I was some creep listening to her from behind. Instead, much like me, she was embarrassed by being noticed.

“Ah shit, you probably think I’m a bad singer do you”, she then asks me with a now almost sad tone. When she said it like that, I almost felt bad for approaching her now.

“What? N-No. You didn’t sound bad. You actually sounded good. Really good actually. It’s why I came up to you was to listen to it”, I say sympathetically to try and comfort the mare.

“Y-Y-You thought it sounded good”, the distraught mare said.

“Good is a huge disservice to it. It actually sounded rather beautiful to me”, I say as I begin to call myself stupid in my head for calling it beautiful like the dork I am.

“Wow, I never heard anyone say that about my singing.”, She says with a now slightly bright tone.

There was an awkward silence between us before she had turned to me and introduced herself.

“My name is Gem”, Gem says walking over to my character.

“It’s nice to meet you Gem, my names Lotus”, I say to respond.

“Lotus, I really like that name. Where is it from”, Gem asks me.

“It’s from a comic series I like to read called ‘Quantum Stallion’. It’s the name of the AI the hero uses”, I say to Gem hoping she doesn’t think I’m a huge nerd.

“Huh, I might have to read that series one day”, Gem says, making me feel like I’m not the only nerd on the server.

“What song was that”, I ask Gem. “Hmm? Sorry?”, Gem asks.

“The song you were singing when I came up. It sounded really good”, I ask genuinely.

“It was ‘Galactic Nova’ by the band Moose. I really love that band”, Gem says now perking up a bit.

“Moose? I never heard of them”, I say in response.

“You should sit here and listen to them with me. I think you would probably like them”, She says as she invites me to sit down next to her.

“You sure? I don’t want to disturb you listening to them”, I say to Gem with a hesitant voice.

“Yeah, you can listen with me. You could even put in some songs you want to listen to if you want”, Gem says as she began loading another song into the playlist.

“Alright”, I say as I sit down next to Gem as another song plays.

If I could describe Moose, they sounded a bit more futuristic, but at the same time have a rock feel to them. One example is the song,”Guards of Clydonia”. It had a futuristic sound, but at the same time sounded like a western rock song. I was really starting to dig Moose.

“Enjoying them?”, Gem asks me as she looked over at me.

“I have to say, you have a really good taste in music. I feel like I missed out on them by not knowing them”, I say with much gratitude.

“That’s good that you like them. How about yours?”’, Gem asks me.

“My what?”, I ask back.

“Your favorite band. I’m curious to know yours”, Gem says passing the playlist control over to me.

I decided to play her a track off of Smashing Melons album “Siamese Sadness”. The track I chose was called “Arm You”. That song always spoke to me for some unknown reason.

Playing the song, I began to hum the lyrics with Gem sitting there. I was hoping that she would think they are good. Many other ponies, including PJ, didn’t like them due to the lead singers voice. It never really bothered me.

“They sound good, really good actually. I love how somber the song is”, Gem says while listening to the song.

“You really think so?”, I ask her to make sure she said what I thought she said.

“Yeah, the lead singer’s voice is rather calming to me”, Gem says while the inside of my mind blows up from excitement; Somepony also likes the lead singer’s voice, even though it sounds a little high for a stallion.

We had sat there for about three hours listening to music together and kind of talking about each other’s day. Gem had talked about how she was a singer in a college for the musical arts and that she had sung in some small concerts at bars and stuff. I found it kind of odd that somepony was opening up like this to some random player that at first scared her, but I guess she must have really appreciated the fact I thought her singing was beautiful. In that time, I also mentioned that I worked in a bakery. It was really the first time I ever opened up to somepony else that wasn’t PJ. At first, I thought she would just say that it was cool, like as a way of saying,”Oh, that is ok I guess.” Gem actually was impressed by it, she even said that I could maybe become a baker based on what I said.

We were discussing something about our jobs and occupation, but then Gem sat up from the chair kind of fast.

“Shoot, I really would like to speak more, but unfortunately I have to go”, she says with a disappointed tone.

“Oh, ok. Well how about I send you a friend request so we can hang out another time”, I say as I select her name to send her a friend request. I heard her give a small chuckle of gratitude.

“Yeah, I would like to hang out another time. You seem like a nice player”, Gem says as I received the notification that she accepted the friend request.

“Will you be on tomorrow at all”, I ask right before she had left the room.

“I don't exactly know Lotus. I have school and probably gonna be tired afterwards, but I'll see.”, Gem says looking back at me one last time.

“Ok, well I’ll see you whenever. See you later Gem”, I say before pressing a key to give a wave animation to Gem.

“See you later Lotus, have a good night”, Gem says before finally disappearing with a message from the server saying “Gem has left the server (Disconnected by user)”.

Having talked to this mare, I felt that this could be a friend on my friends list that I would actually talk to. I have around 135 friends on my list, but out of all of them the only ones I ever really talked to were PJ and a couple of traders who had items I was looking for. In most cases, somepony who would add me because of me being in a game would talk to me once and then we never speak to each other again. It was weird, but I felt a feeling of a long lasting friendship with her. It felt like I would be speaking with her everyday like I do with PJ.

Having logged off of Smoke for the night, I trotted over to my bed where I began the day with my alarm clock screaming at me. Using my magic, I pulled back the covers to get into bed. I could really tell the bed missed me because of how much it embraced me when I laid down on it. My head laid there on my two comfy pillows for about 15 minutes before my eyes felt heavy as I drifted into a long night’s rest.

Chapter 5

It was one of the best nights of sleep I’ve had in awhile. I don’t know why, but meeting Gem last night somehow managed to make me sleepy. Like a good kind of sleepy, like the one that makes you feel warm on the inside from eating a warm cookie before bed.

Waking up this morning felt good because I didn’t have a alarm clock yelling at me to get up early. I rubbed my eyes before looking at the silent alarm clock that read 6:47 AM. It was later than what I usually wake up in the morning, but I was feeling so good that it didn’t bother me that I overslept. As I sat up from the bed, I gave my back a good morning stretch. I let out a sigh of relief as my back crack from the world’s greatest good morning stretch.

Finally getting up from the bed, my hooves were feeling a little sleepy from the good nights rest they just had.

”Its okay bed. I’m going to be back tonight. You and I will sleep together later”, I say to the bed as I put the covers back in place.

Walking over to the mirror that I kept over a shelf with a small wooden box on it, I looked at my mane to make sure that I didn’t have bed head. Thankfully, I must’ve not tossed and turned in my sleep because my mane looked the same as it was last night. As I look in the mirror, I glance over the wooden box. I called that box my memory box. Inside of it, there were pictures of me and my family before they, well, went away. It is also my most prized possessions because it keeps the memories alive of my parents. Although they do bring up the bad memories occasionally.

I stopped myself from grabbing the memory box to avoid starting my morning feeling emotional. Stepping away from the mirror, I walk over to the kitchen to fix myself some breakfast. Though I do know how to cook, I usually would do cereal for breakfast. The cereal of my choice is a cereal called,”Red Devils”. Red Devils are a cereal that tastes exactly like red velvet cake, trust me it is accurate since I make them on a daily basis at work. Using my magic to grab a clean bowl from the sink, I use my hooves to grab the cereal with an almost sensual grip. This was the one food I took seriously. Pouring the cereal into the bowl with my magic, I walked over to the fridge to grab the milk. The milk carton felt a little bit light, I assumed that later I would need to buy more at some point. Turning away from the fridge to the now glorious, not yet wet Red Devils. Pouring the milk on the cereal, I get the fresh scent of Red Velvet cake. Celestia, if only you could get that scent of milk going over red velvet cake.

Taking the now freshly scented cereal with me back to my room, I sat down in my chair while switching my PC back on to check on any upcoming news with Smoke or even SF2. I would usually just go on the website before checking Smoke because sometimes they would get the wrong story on a certain game or update. As I took a bite of cereal as I loaded up the page to check for updates, I nearly spat it right out after the news that I had read on the home page.

The home page read,”The Final Countdown: Due to a recent rise of toxicity among players and hackers trying to get the very rare item known as “The Golden Fork”, we are sad to announce that we will no longer add more Golden forks to the game after the one that is currently hidden in the game right now. For anymore questions regarding other issues in the game, contact us with our business email. Safe hunting!~ The devs”. I couldn’t believe my eyes. They were gonna stop adding forks in the game? This had to be a joke. It had to be.

In a panic, I logged onto to see if the unbearable news was true. Sadly, what I thought was a hoax was indeed true. The page was filled to the brim with a ton of complaints with them doing this. Many of them saying,” I can’t believe the devs! They absolutely betrayed the community by doing this! I hope something bad happens to them!”, and other shit like that.

Along with the angry comments I was greeted with, I noticed my messages had 4 unread notifications. All four of them were unread messages. I figured that they would all be from PJ asking me to help him again. And for the most part, I was right. Well, sort of.

One of the messages was from PJ, and the other three were from Gem. It actually managed to kind of put me at ease with the whole craziness of the news that happened today involving the Golden Fork. Her messages were relly to let me know about where she will be and what not.

Gem (Offline) : Hey, So I decided that I would be online after school today. I totally forgot that today was a half day for me because the college I go to has some election thing going on.
Maybe you and I could talk more and you could introduce me to some of your friends you have.
I’ve never seen anyone with that many friends, you must be really popular. Anyway, see you later today Lotus.

It made me feel good that this was a friend who wasn’t going to talk to me once and just forget about me. That actually made me feel like I could talk to somepony else when PJ is up my ass about something. Speaking of PJ, he had sent me one message asking me to call him on Kaos and how he wants to talk to me.

“Ugh, he better have a bunch of flowers saying he’s sorry if he wants to speak to me”, I think to myself as I dread the thought of talking to him after last night.

Nonetheless, I am forgiving depending on how badly sorry another pony is. I logged onto Kaos to hear what PJ had to say. As expected, he was online in Kaos patiently waiting for me to call him to talk. I let out a sigh before saying to myself,”Here we go”, as I click call user. The calling tone rang for a couple of seconds before the sound stopped as PJ’s name came up on the screen. It was silent for a little bit before I heard a kind of distraught voice say something.

“Hey”, PJ says with a depressed tone.

“Hey”, I say to PJ in response. His tone concerned me for a second.

There was a brief pause before PJ began talking.

“Look, I want to say sorry for how I acted last night. I just was really driven to get the fork because I need the money badly”, PJ said.

I was going to say that it was okay because I know where he came from, but he cut me off before I could say something.

”I live in the northern part of Hoovesiana. More specifically in Mounting City. I am desperate for the money so I can move out of here and move to Ponyville and try out for the Wonderbolts. It has always been my dream, but my parents don’t support me on this. They want me to become a preacher like they are. I don’t want to do that”, PJ says with an almost tearful tone.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My best friend who I had never met anywhere besides online, was actually not that far away from where I lived. Mounting City was about a 45 minute ride there by carriage. All this time I could have met him and see what he is like in real life.

I broke the silence of me processing all this information at once.

“Now it makes sense”, I said to PJ now understanding what he was going through.

“I know a lot of ponies try to keep their personal lives private from others online, but your the only one I trust that well with that”, PJ says.

With a sigh of acceptance for what I was about to say, I told him about my life as well. I mentioned everything from the job I worked at to even where I lived. The only thing I didn’t mention were my parents. I didn’t want to get into that with him.

“Whoa! All this time we could have been seeing each other. Not like as in a date, but like as friends. Celestia I never knew that you were that close”, PJ replied having hearing my personal info.

There was an awkward silence between the two of us before PJ finally grabbed my attention with what he really wanted to talk about.

“I assume that you heard the news with the golden forks and shit”, PJ says to me.

“Mhm”, I say back to him.

“Look, I can’t do this without you. I tried doing the jumps in the lodge over and over again and you were right. There was an invisible wall. I need you to help me do research. From now on, it is our research we are gonna be doing, no more lone wolf work. What do you say? Will you join me again to help me get the fork”, PJ asks me with a voice of need.

I couldn’t turn him down, not after him opening up to me like that.

We both agreed that we would start from scratch with our research to figure out what each clue of the leak meant. Thankfully we knew what the basic map clue and location was. It was the “reverse grav” part that was throwing us off.

I looked over at the clock that now read 7:16 am. I had to leave in about an hour if I was going to submit to the art trot like Peach says I need to do.

“Look, I would like to start our research right now, but I have to go for a little bit”, I say to PJ as I stand up from my chair.

“It’s ok, I am leaving for a thing my parents are doing in a bit anyway. So you’re gonna be alone for the afternoon. Hopefully you can try to start our research on the ‘Reverse Grav’ part”, PJ says as I hear him stand up as well.

“Ok, I’ll see you later PJ”, I say to PJ before preparing to log off. “See you Lotus”, PJ responds to me back before I leave the call.

I would usually take a shower at around this time, but I was so anxious to send in my submission that I just wanted to get it over with for the day. Grabbing my notebook with the finished submission in it, I walked out the door to start heading over to the place war the art trot is held at. It was a rather cooler day outside than it usually was, and that’s saying something considering how humid it gets here in Hoovesiana. Though I was in a quick hurry to get to the venue, I took my time to enjoy how cool it was outside.

Walking over to the venue, I realized how crowded it was on the streets today. I guess other ponies realized the advantage of it being cool outside and wanted to go shopping before this cold front turns to shit. I shuddered at the crowd of ponies in front of a store center that was having a closing down sale. This was one other downside to me having public anxiety, my dreaded fear of crowds. One might say I would also be claustrophobic, but I hated being in crowds more than anything in the world. It was that fear of being around other ponies who would see me have a anxiety attack and probably not care.

I try to look around to find another way around the crowd of ponies. All the directions I looked at were blocked by a crowd of ponies. I knew, sadly, that the only way to get past the crowd is to go through it.

“Fucking hell”, I say to myself as I dread the thought of moving closer to the crowd.

My hooves began trembling as I tried to move forward into the crowd. I stood there stiff for about a minute contemplating going in.

“Come on Velvet. You can do this, You can fucking do this. Left hoof in front of right hoof and vice versa.”, I say to myself in my head trying to gain confidence to face my fear head on.

I finally gathered up the courage to move forward into the horde of ponies. Stepping in slowly, I was heavily breathing to calm myself down. I was around three steps away from stepping inside of the cluster of ponies before I stopped again out of fear from stepping so close to the crowd. Before I could say something to myself to try and gain confidence, one stallion had bumped into me from behind which then forced me into the crowd. I tried to gather myself inside of the horde of moving ponies getting from one place to the other. My heart began racing with fear being in the middle of the crowd. I was tempted to move back to where I started to get out, but I was so far into the crowd that I had no choice but to move forward out of the crowd.

The rest of what happened was a blur. The one thing I remember was bumping into a mare who told me to watch where I was going. I was on the ground in the next second on the other side of the crowd panting trying to catch my breath. Thankfully, my submission wasn’t damaged from the chaos from the crowd. I collected myself and my things and began to move as fast as I can away from the crowd.

As I was shuddering from the aftermath of walking through my worst nightmare, I was quickly drawn out of it by the sound of a colt screaming. This wasn’t the type of scream involving colts playing, it was more of a scream of fear. I quickly turned to face the source of the scream of distress. It was the group of young colts from yesterday, but they were circled around something going on. As I moved closer to the circle to observe, I quickly realized that this circle was around the young griffin who was being pushed around by three of the colts around him. My instincts took over as I was rushing over to separate the colts from the poor griffin in distress.

I had a feeling in my body I had never felt before, a feeling of confidence. On my way over to help the griffin, he was pushed to the ground by a gray and black unicorn.

“Yeah! Stay down where you belong you griffin”, one colt shouted at the downed griffin. I began to hear the griffin start crying as he was laying there on the ground about to be trampled by these little assholes. “

Hey, Stop that shit right now”, I yelled running at the group of colts.

The group had turned around as I approached them.

“Uh, wait, this is the game we are playing. We are, uh, wrestling this-our friend here”, The colt with shorter yellow hair.

“Yeah, of course you are. You better fuck off before you do something you regret you little shits”, I say sarcastically to the group.

The colts went silent for a second and then walked away grumbling with their breath. Once I had seen that they were far enough away from me, I looked down to check on the griffin who was on the ground with a tear in his eye.

“Are you okay”, I ask the downed griffin. The griffin nodded at me no slowly perking up.

“Here, let me get you up and home”, I say as I held out a hoof to the griffin.

He took my hoof as I lifted him up on his talons.

“Do you mind telling me what your name is”, I ask him as he was starting to stand.

“M-my names Stormbreaker”, the griffin says quietly.

“So Stormbreaker, do you know where you live”, I ask him as I kind of dust off some dirt on his wing.

“I um, live right there in that red house over there”, Stormbreaker said pointing to the small red house.

“Here, I’ll walk with you to your house to explain what happened to your parents.”, I said as I began walking towards the house.

“Um, My parents aren’t home r-right now. I’ll just go in and tell m-mommy what happened when she gets back”, Stormbreaker says as he began to fly towards his home in front of me.

“Ok, but tell them what happened, ok? Promise me you will”, I say to Stormbreaker as he approaches his front door of the house.

“I-I will”, Stormbreaker says before walking into the house and shutting the door.

I figured that I had dealt with the problem with the group of colts a little bit harshly, but then again they were being harsh to Stormbreaker so I guess it’s even now.

As I reached over to find my art book in my satchel, I realized that it was no longer there. I quickly panicked trying to find it all over the field where I was just running to be a hero. After about five minutes of searching I managed to find it, in a pile of mud.

“Oh no no no no no no please don’t be damaged!”, I continuously say to myself as I search through the muddy bag for my art book.

I couldn’t find it in every pocket I checked. That’s when I noticed that my book was facing page down with my submission in the mud.

“Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit!”, I say to myself frantically as I check to see the damage.

The drawing wasn’t faded thankfully, but it was covered in spots of mud all over it. It was practically ruined. There was no way I would be able to even be considered for a viewing at the art trot. I then remembered that if I didn’t submit anything then Peach would revoke my check. Even though it was covered in mud, I knew I had to submit something. I decided to just suck it up and go to the place, despite the submission looking like shit.

Making it to the submission place didn’t make me feel so good. Like my insides were turning to dust in the snap of a tree branch. I didn’t remember much from the whole experience because I was having an anxiety attack while submitting. All I remember was the pony running the table asking me,’Are you sure you want to submit this?”, She had said something else but I wasn’t listening too well from me having an anxiety attack only seconds before stepping up. I knew that it was bad. Really bad. All I really wanted to do after that was to go home and stay away from the sun for a day to self loath. I began to feel a tear drop from my eye. I knew I fucked up, I fucked up badly with the submission.

Chapter 6

My walk back home felt like almost a decade, especially after the devastation of what had happened with my submission. All I wanted to do was go inside and forget this ever happened. I felt a little bit of relief after seeing my house in the distance I felt like going home and curling into a ball to sleep over to forget about this. My anxiety was taking over me with how sad I was feeling.

Stepping up the steps to get to the door, I began to feel a drizzle of rain on my back. At least the weather could agree with me with how the day felt to me. Shutting the door behind me before the rain could catch up with me, I trotted directly towards my bed to lay down. If ever I had an off day or a day where I feel like shit, I always just lay in bed and take a nap or just lay there and think with my thoughts. Sometimes if it is a really off day like the day I had I would cry a little bit to calm down, just a little.
“Hello my friend, we meet again. It’s been a while. Where do we begin”, I say to the bed after throwing myself onto the bed.

The warmth of the bed really let me know that it was happy to see me after me being gone for a little while. Almost right away, my feelings of gloom and sadness were gone. Yet, there was still that anxiety of not having a good submission. It was almost like an itch that you cannot scratch and it just keeps bothering you. I kept on thinking that there was no way I would even be selected. Not even as a reserve or something like that. It was just that one comment that the pony at the table made to me that really bothered me,”Are you sure you want to submit this?” It was almost like a stab into the little confidence I had submitting it. I kept closing my eyes and sighing at the thought of that memory.

As I kept tossing and turning in my bed, I noticed that I left my PC on when I had left.

“Great, now I have to leave you again. Sorry”, I say to my bed as I stood up from it to turn off my PC.

As I was going to hit the power button, I hesitated from thinking about something. I remembered that Gem said that she would be online today to talk and hang out. I figured that she would probably miss me considering I was her only real friend on her friends list. I sucked it up at that moment and decided to go online to talk to Gem. Maybe it would make me feel better if I at least vent a little to somepony who will listen.

As I signed into my account, I heard that the rain was starting to come down. There was even some thunder going off into the distance. I guess that cold front was a sign of rain that was coming. It didn’t bother me too much since it wasn’t really a storm that could flood. Nonetheless, I still need to be vigilant with the storm. You never know when a flash flood will have you one minute sitting fine and dandy, then the next minute underwater trying to swim your way out to surface with nothing but your hoofs. Still amazes me how some ponies can swim.

Logging in, I checked to see if Gem was online. Sadly she wasn’t online just yet, probably cause classes don’t end around 12:00 pm. So to pass the time, I listened to music on Ourtube. Though my favorite band was Smashing Melons, I still had a lot of other bands that I listened to. One such example of a good band besides Smashing Melons was King. King was considered one of the greatest bands of all time until their singer had died from AIDS. Their songs are super iconic among a lot of the gay community. Probably because most of the members of the band were gay besides the guitar player. One song that is my favorite out of all of them was “Fat Bottom Mares”. Kind of a hypocritical song considering that the band who were mostly gay.

Another band that I really enjoyed listening to was one kind of independent band called A Night to Forget. This band was a bit heavier in some of their songs in terms of rock/metal, but they still had some very deep songs. One song that kind of sticks to me the most was “If It Means A Lot To You”. It was some light love song that really had a deep story about somepony being far away and how the other partner will wait through everything until he gets back home with her. I don’t know why, especially since I wasn’t dating anypony, but it really stuck with me. It was incredibly strange like the fact that ponies can somehow be able to swim. Sorry, still a little amazed on that fact that we are able to swim with hooves.

As I was listening to music, I saw a notification that Gem was back online. It felt like ages, but she was back online. As I was going to type hello to her, I instantly saw her typing already. I always saw that as a race when messaging somepony. Like to see who could type their message the fastest. Sadly, I wasn’t fast enough to type my salutation to her, just a mere .5 seconds too slow. To make it worse, I misspelled it.

Gem (Online) : Heya!

Lotus (Online) : Henlo

Whoops, Misspelled Hello lol.

Gem (Online) : Lol, that’s funny.

Lotus (Online) : Yeah, that’s a bit embarrassing.

Gem (Online) : No, it’s funny actually. For some reason I like that hello, it’s different from the normal way. I like different.

Lotus (Online) : So, how was your day?

Gem (Online) : It was ok, a little boring in class, but overall ok. I’m trying to do my best to get at least a passable grade for my test.

Lotus (Online) : Well, I guess you are going to have to study hard for it.

Gem (Online) : It’s not a test based on studying notes.

Lotus (Online) : Oh?

Gem (Online) : Remember, I’m a singer in a music college. Most of my tests are based on me singing.

Lotus (Online) : Wow, I feel stupid.

Gem (Online) : How about you?

Lotus (Online) : What about me?

Gem (Online) : How was your day today?

This was what I was expecting she would ask. I hoped that this would make me feel a little bit better from my day.

Lotus (Online) : Well, To be completely honest, not the best.

Gem (Online) : Oh, What happened?

Lotus (Online) : Today I was going to submit a piece of art I made into this “Art Trot”. It’s kind of like a showcase of art from other local artists.
But Anyway, I was on my way to the place to submit the artwork when there was a huge crowd of ponies in the way. Took me a while to get through the crowd.

Gem (Online) : How? What were they doing?

I was a little bit embarrassed by the fact that I had a fear of crowds. I never really told anypony about it out of fear of ponies worrying about me. Another pain in the ass about anxiety.

Lotus (Online) : It was just

Just a thick crowd of ponies shopping

Gem (Online) : I see

Lotus (Online) : Anyways, After pushing through the crowd, it made me almost late to make it to the place.
On my way there, I saw that a group of colts bullying this younger Griffin. I went over to go and help him out without realizing that I had dropped my submission in the mud. It ruined my submission for me. Ever since I turned it in, I felt like a failure.

There was a little bit of silence after me saying that. At first I figured that she wasn’t listening or that she wasn’t there. As I was going to type to see if she was there, I saw that she was typing.

Gem (Online) : Hey, even though you messed up on your submission, you still did the right thing.

Lotus (Online) : How?

Gem (Online) : You submitted it even though you think it looks bad.

Lotus (Online) : I might as well shouldn’t have. The pony running the table asked me if I was sure I wanted to submit this. It must have been really bad if other ponies notice it.

Gem (Online) : But at least you submit something, I know plenty of other classmates who if they were put in your situation would just give up.

Lotus (Online) : Still, there’s no way I’m even considered to be accepted.

Gem (Online) : You don’t know that. You never know if somehow your submission becomes the best one out of all of them.
Look, even If you still feel bad about the submission, at least you did a good thing with the Griffin.
I wish there were more ponies like that to defend us from stuff like that.

Lotus (Online) : Wait, Us?

Gem (Online) : Oh Shit, Um don’t worry about that, just got a little lost in the thought and typed out loud.

Lotus (Online) : No, I’m curious. What do you mean?

Gem (Online) : Dammit, I broke the one rule of the internet that is most important, Never Give Out Personal Info.

Lotus (Online) : Wait, how was saying Us when mentioning….

Then it hit me on why Gem was freaking out over this. Especially after me mentioning how I helped out a Griffin being bullied. Gem was no pony after all. She was a Griffin herself. At first, it took me by surprise because I had totally thought that this was some mare all this time. Then somehow I felt somewhat odd. Not from Speciest thoughts, but more like talking to somepony you had never met before. Or in this case, some griffin.

Lotus (Online) : Gem, are you a griffin?

Gem (Online) : I would be lying if I said I wasn’t. Is that going to be a problem?

Lotus (Online) : No No not at all. It’s just that I’ve never had a Griffin as a friend before.
Now I kinda feel bad about exposing you like that

Gem (Online) : No, it wasn’t your fault, I was just caught in a tangent where I typed what I thought. How about we just forget about this, ok?

Lotus (Online) : Ok, Gem.

I’m not sure how anypony could go about forgetting that their friend they thought was a mare who turned out to be another species. Like I said before, it never bothered me from different species because in the end we are all moving organisms. Nonetheless, I was looking to put this aside to kind of take Gem’s mind off of being found out.

Lotus (Online) : Well, what are you doing now?

Gem (Online) : Right now at this second? Still talking to you. What about you? What are you doing?

Lotus (Online) : Well, besides talking to you. I’m listening to music.

Gem (Online) : Oooooh. Lemme listen with you.

Lotus (Online) : https://www.ourtube /watch?v=Q3M0s2qP2h4Es

Gem (Online) : Oooh, I heard of this band. They are the gay group, right?

Lotus (Online) : More or less, lol

Gem (Online) : I like them, not as much as this though https://www.ourtube/watch?v=M5a0eI3ZiP13Mse

Lotus (Online) : More Moose for me to discover. You must really love the band to death.

Gem (Online) : I seriously love them.

Lotus (Online) : What attracts you to them?

Gem (Online) : Idk, it’s like the sound of old school music but at the same has that combination of modern music.

Lotus (Online) : Damn, I don’t even get that deep with my favorite band.

Gem (Online) : Besides Smashing Melons, who else is your favorite artist?

Lotus (Online) : There is one that is close to them, I assume since you know a lot about music you know A Night to Forget.

Gem (Online) : Who’s that?

I was in complete shock. I managed to stump the one who claims she knew all music. Well, not exactly all music but still it felt like an achievement stumping her. Felt like when Quantum Stallion finally achieved the power wings so he could fly to save the galaxy from the sinister leader, Ragnarok. Yes I know, huge nerd.

Lotus (Online) : Here, have a listen to them http://www.ourtube/watch?=vA7D9ToRFeV23

Gem (Online) : Wow, they sound really good. I really like this song.

Lotus (Online) : Yeah, but I would bet that you still think that Moose is the best.

Gem (Online) : Actually, They might be a contender

Lotus (Online) : You’re serious right now?

Gem (Online) : Yeah, I’m dead serious right now. I think I’ll even listen to them later when I play VRCinema.

Lotus (Online) : Their heavier stuff I like to listen to when I play SF2.

Gem (Online) : SF2?

Lotus (Online) : You never heard of SF2? How? It’s one of the best free to play games around.

Gem (Online) : Remember, haven’t had this account long. Just started it.

Lotus (Online) : Oh right. But still, It’s a free game, how does anypony/griffin not check it out.

Gem (Online) : I’m looking at the page right now of the game, looks fun, but hard. Like I might need help getting started.

It was with that I had gotten a mini flashback to when I started out playing SF2. I didn’t have anypony to really teach me how to play the game. All I had was the game itself and videos that I didn’t really understand at the time. It wasn’t until I had met PJ until I really got good at the game. I had this strange feeling inside of me that could only be described as caring. I didn’t want the same thing to happen to Gem if she was gonna start up playing SF2 for the first time.

Lotus (Online) : Do you think that I could teach you how to play? I know a decent amount about the game. At least to get you started.

Gem (Online) : Yeah, I would like that. I mean you were the one to tell me about the game in the first place.

Lotus (Online) : Great, just let me know whenever you feel like playing.

Gem (Online) : Holy Shit! The time really passed by.

I looked at the clock and noticed that it was around 3:45 PM. I never really noticed before how fast time passes by when you talk with a friend. It felt like 20 minutes ago I was telling Gem about how shitty my day was. I also realized that I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. My stomach was growling like a motherfucker. It needed food, and it needed it now.

Gem (Online) : Well, I am going to go take a bath, kind of relieve some stress after tonight .

Lotus (Online) : Yeah, Imma fix me something to eat. Maybe later you and I could play SF2 together.

Gem (Online) : Sure, I would like that.

Lotus (Online) : Alright, well enjoy your bath Gem. Hope your water is warm.

Gem (Online) : I hope so too, see you later Lotus.

Lotus (Online) : YT

With that, I stood up to go make myself an early dinner. I usually don’t do anything huge like a four course meal or something. It was more like a sandwich I would make to stop the growling in my stomach. Using my magic, I grabbed the bread as I opened the fridge to grab the meat and cheese. I always kept the same proportions when making a sandwich: 4 pieces of meat followed by a slice of pepper jack cheese on two slices of honey whole wheat bread. The bread was the best part of the sandwich. I want to meet the pony who somehow made the worst tasting bread taste good with pure science. I would shake his hoof for that.

As I began eating my sandwich, I began to think about Gem for a bit. This was the first time in a long time I really had a friend who would message me back that wasn't for trades. The only real one who wasn’t like that was PJ. Other than him, everyone else would come and go. Not only that, but Gem was so kind to me, despite me giving off the first impression as a creep online. I think most players who would get that impression off of some player would most likely block them and never come into contact with them again. Somehow, Gem was the opposite. She instead embraced me. Not to sound like a love interest, but it was the best I could describe it.

Finishing the sandwich, I put the plate into the sink and began to get ready to play SF2 with Gem. I sent her a message to give her my Kaos name so I could talk to her while teaching her the ropes of SF2. She hadn’t responded, so I had assumed she was still taking her bath. Nonetheless I was ready to play. It somehow felt good that I was teaching another player the game. It felt like I was passing the torch down, so to speak. Like I was adding to the overgrowing SF2 community.

As I was sitting there, I got a call sound in Kaos from a user by the name of ,” Lord of Noodles”. I had no clue who that was, but I was curious to see who it was. I answered the call, only to hear that familiar voice again.

“Hey, can you hear me”, the mysterious voice being Gem said.

“Loud and clear”, I say in response.

“What’s with the name,’Lord of Noodles’”, I aksed.

“It was the only name I liked other than Gem. Sadly it was taken by some other user”, Gem the “Noodle meister” says.

“Kind of a weird name though. Lord of Noodles. Why noodles?”, I ask as I began to load up SF2.

“Well, It’s kind of embarrassing but I love having ramen noodles. So therefore, I am the Lord of Noodles”, Gem says with a warm tone.

“Makes sense, In a cosmic sort of way. Are you ready to play?”, I asked in response.

“Yeah, I’m ready”, Gem said as I see her start to load up in SF2.

“Alright then, let the fun begin”, I say to Gem loading up to the menu.

And so began the night of madness.

Chapter 7

Last night was a bit of a rough night for me playing wise. Mainly because I spent most of my time playing by helping Gem learn the game’s mechanics and classes. Though I was keen on helping her out, it was a very grueling and slow process. Mainly because the game didn’t have a true dedicated teacher/student mode for the game. The only way to really teach another player in the game was either explain it without playing or actually go into a public game and try to play and teach the game at the same time. Only problem with playing while teaching, other players either don’t know that or just don’t care at all. Most times they will get in the way of you teaching or at worst, kick you from the game for “not contributing to the team” or some shit like that. It was a real pain in the flank trying to get stuff done while teaching Gem.

Gem actually managed to pick up on the games mechanics quicker than I thought. Though she only played one class the entire night, she did ok for a new player. Gem played as the Speedster class, probably one that every player plays at one point or another. My theory on why she chose that class was cause that was the only class that is a griffin. Though she was ok at the class, she died constantly. It got to a point I had to switch to Healer to keep her alive to actually be able to do something. On the bright side though, she did manage to get enough kills to get the IntroKiller Fedora. The Fedora is given to every player who manages to kill 5 players, not really that much of a challenge. Though the hat looked ok, every player who wore it is ridiculed for being new players and not knowing the game that well. Plus some players view the fedora as an “Edgy Hat for an edgy player”.

In that time, me and Gem kind of got to know a little bit more about each other. More specifically how we got into making a Smoke account. I didn’t want to get to deep with my reason so I sugar coated the real reason down to being bored and wanted to make one. Gems told me her reason was just to have one, but then as games came out she became more and more involved. One game that she said was the first game that interested her was called,”Nuclear Wasteland 3”. It was some game that was an RPG based on Equestria dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear detonation of a bomb from a rival land. Some pretty dark stuff. I knew of the game before, but not to the extent that Gem knew about it.

There was one moment that took me a little by surprise. It was while we were talking in Kaos, I heard a door slam open on her side of the call. At that point I heard some murmurs and small talk, kind of loud but small. It ended with the door closing and hearing Gem sit back down in her chair. I had asked what that was about, to which she told that it was nothing.
Overall, a fun night. Sad that I had to go to bed for the night to get up for work next morning.

Waking up earlier like I usually do, I quickly checked over to see if I got messages on Smoke from Gem or even PJ. Though I had no new messages, I saw that PJ was online in Kaos. I had decided to give him a call since I hadn’t spoke to him since the day before.

Giving him a call, I decided to ask him what he came up with for evidence of the Golden Fork while I was gone teaching Gem. Though I was expecting him to ask me where I was last night, I wasn’t expecting how somewhat mad he was.

“Hey, where the hell were you? Thought you and I were gonna do some research on the Fork Location this morning”, PJ exclaimed as I said hello.

“I was sleeping. Last night I was doing something with a friend and kinda forgot about it”, I explain to PJ.

“Doing what though”, PJ asks back wanting to know what had happened. I didn’t want to mention the fact that Gem was a female since PJ had a well known history of being “that” player when it came to gamer mares in the game.

“There was a player I met who was really nice and wanted to know about SF2. So out of the kindness I have towards new players, I decided to give him an introduction to the game”, I explained to PJ half truthfully.

“I have a little bit of doubt in believing you since you have a history of distaste of those Fedora wearers. I mean you target a lot of them when we play together”, PJ says reacting to the untrue statement I told him.

He got me there. The only real reason I targeted them was if I decided to be friendly and they would keep killing me.

“But hell, maybe you are turning over a new leaf. If I must say, it’s about time you pass the torch along”, PJ says with a now understanding tone.

“Pass the torch along? What do you mean by that”, I ask him confused.

“It’s been five years since I taught you how to play the game. I figure you are doing the same with another player”, PJ explains to me.

“Sure, I guess you could say that. So did you manage to come up with anything while I was gone teaching that new player”, I ask PJ, trying to change the subject.

“No, I was waiting on you so we could get started on the research. I got bored and decided to just play SF2 on other modes”, PJ says.

“Oh, ok. Well maybe later today after work you and I could actually get started on the research”, I say looking over at the clock that now read 7:02 AM.

“Will you be on, or are you going to go off with the new player again?”, PJ says sarcastically to me.

“Yeah, this time I’ll be on. For sure”, I say reassuringly to PJ.

“Alright, I’ll see you later”, PJ says to me as I began to sit up from my chair.

“Yeah, see you”, I respond back at PJ.

Leaving the chair, I walked over to the bathroom to go get ready for my shower. As I closed the door behind me, I began to let the water run in the shower as I looked into the mirror to glance at my white fur coated face. I see this face everyday, but for some reason I noticed I felt different. I didn’t know what it was at the time, just felt different. Stepping into the warm shower, I began my thoughts as usual. I kept on thinking about how I forgot about helping PJ out. I really felt bad considering I told him I would be there to help him start. On the other hoof, I really did want to help out Gem. It really felt good knowing I was getting her started on her journey as a SF2 player. I knew I had to make some tough choices here. So, to find a middle ground, I came up with a way to split it half and half to make it that both sides get equal attention. PJ and I could get research done, and Gem would learn how to play the game with me. Made perfect sense in my head.

Finishing up my shower, I began to do the same routine: Dry off, Brush teeth, and comb mane. Been the same for five years, and I don’t plan on changing it either. Stepping out the bathroom, I grabbed my uniform to throw on. I looked back at the mirror on the wall of my hallway, checking to make sure I looked okay, before stepping out to the humid air of New Saddle.

I walked past the place where I saved that poor young griffin. I noticed that no colts or even the griffin were there. My guess was they got the message and went elsewhere. It didn’t bother me, not unless they are with that griffin, don’t want him to be bullied again.

Making it to work, I opened the door to a near empty bakery. This time it didn’t have the scent of a fresh baked cobbler. Instead, I heard the sound of singing. Not like Gem singing, but it was good singing. Nothing can beat Gems singing. I opened the door to the back only to find Peach singing some song about going over a rainbow or something. All I remember was her singing rainbow before noticing me.

“Ah Velvet. Nice to see you this morning”, Peach says to me stopping her singing.

“Good morning Peach. How are you this morning”, I ask her as she turns to me.

“Well, when you live as long as I have, you genuinely feel tired even after a good night’s rest. Overall, I am doing ok. How about you?”, Peach asks me moving away from one of the trays she was washing.

“I’m doing fine. I got some sleep for once”, I say to her.

“That’s good, always important to get some sleep-cough cough”, Peach lets out a cough as she finishes speaking.

"You getting sick?”, I ask her tilting my head to see if she is okay.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just this rainy weather here in New Saddle always strikes up my allergies. Nothing to worry about sugar.”, Peach says putting a hoof on my shoulder. “So, how did it go”, Peach asks me tilting her head.

“How did what go”, I ask.

“You know, the art submission. What did they think of it”, Peach asks me referring to the travesty that happened yesterday.

Oh Celestia how I imagined her reaction to me saying how I fucked up the picture in the mud. Telling her exactly what happened was hard, considering how much I stammered trying to tell her. Her look based on me telling her was at first excitement, then turned to understanding. Or at least that’s what I think that was. She then closed her eyes and let out a sigh.

“I appreciate that you did a good thing. I wish there were a lot more ponies around here who would do something like that”, Peach says me giving a warming smile.

It was with that smile that I realized I had nothing to worry about with her, plus it made me feel a little bit better with messing up my submission.

I was going to respond before the door opened up with the other workers in the bakery.

“Hey, we’ll talk about this later at lunch. Need to get ready for the day”, Peach says before walking away into the back where the ovens were.

“Ok, I’ll see you-”, I say before she walks off to the back where she couldn’t hear me.

A little bit strange how she went off like that, she usually gives the morning meeting before starting up work. Whatever the reason why didn’t have a meeting, It didn’t really affect me. I went over to my locker and grabbed my things to get ready for work. Grabbing Dad’s music player made me remember to have to download some Moose songs later. Gem really opened me up to a really good band I never heard of before. Getting to my station, I began the process of everyday working here with red velvet cakes.

When lunch time had come around, I realized I had forgotten to bring a lunch from home. Adding on to the fact I didn’t eat breakfast that morning, I was starving.

“Crap! On the one day I feel good I forget my lunch”, I say to myself as I shut my locker with my hoof.

I sat down over by the window I usually sit by with my art book at hoof. This time, I sat there bored. This was the one rare hair of a chance where inevitably run out of creativity. It only happens for a little while at a time, but for whatever reason I can never find a reason on why it happens. At first I thought it was because of me feeling depressed at the time, but then the second time it was when I was feeling rather happy. Always had been a huge mystery to me.

It was when I noticed that I saw Peach staring at me. I glanced over at her.

“Is something wrong? You are looking at me kinda weird”, I say to Peach.

“No, nothings wrong. Just never seen you look like that before”, Peach says coming over to my table and sitting down.

“Yeah, I could never understand why every once and a while I just lose all creativity for one day only”, I explain to Peach as I put down my pen. I let out a sigh of a frustration.

“Hey, how about we forget about the topic of art and move onto something else, would you like that sugar”, Peach asks me seeing my frustration.

“Yeah, I would like that. What do you want to talk about”, I ask Peach trying to change the subject.

“Well, I wanna talk about many things. I guess one that has been on my mind is have you seen any pony lately”, Peach says to me leaning her head on her hoof. I give her a little bit of a confused look.

“I mean I see ponies everyday on my way to work so yeah”, I answer to Peach. Peach let out a small chuckle to my answer.

“No, I mean have you seen any mares”, Peach clarifies for me. I could feel my cheeks turn beet red as she clarified what she meant. The topic of meeting mares was a bit of a cold subject with me. Considering my anxiety already with talking to new ponies face to face is bad.

“Well, uh no. Not really”, I say with a blush.

“Mmm, well if you aren’t seeing mares, are you seeing stallions then”, Peach says with a slight grin on her face seeing my embarrassment.

“No, no! I don’t swing that way”, I say to Peach as she is biting her lip trying not to laugh. “Or at least I don’t think I do”, I say with hesitation.

Peach let out a small laugh to me contemplating my sexuality like that. “Oh Velvet. Your reactions to certain questions always warm my heart”, Peach says with a gleeful tone.

“Heh, yeah. Just the way I am”, I say before letting out a nervous chuckle.

That was something with Peach that you couldn’t help but love with her. Peach was always one to mess with you at first. Then she would make you feel better once she sees that you are flustered from her messing with you.

“For real though, I think that you should go out and see other ponies. It’s not healthy for a pony your age to be alone in that house”, Peach says with a more concerning tone. There is the parenting Peach I’m more familiar with.

“Okay, but I’m not so sure I’ll even end up with somepony. My anxiety will get in the way like it always does”, I say putting my head on my hoof.

“You might surprise yourself”, Peach said putting her hoof on mine.

“Well, it’s about to be the end of lunch in a bit. I would get ready to go back to work. Today I am going to close a little early today, need to go to the doctor for my cold that is developing”, Peach said standing up from the table.

“Alright”, I said to Peach

I grabbed my stuff and went into the back to begin the rest of the day. It was a little surprising to find out she was gonna close up shop early for today, but I guess when you feel sick in a bakery it’s the best option to not get the rest of the food contaminated.

After my shift, I had grabbed my pay for the day and brought along my dad’s music player for getting music later. As I passed the door being held by Peach, I gave her a quick,”Hope you aren’t too sick for tomorrow, I’ll see you tomorrow”.

“See you too sugar”, Peach says to me as she locked up shop for the day. Trotting back home was a bit of a rush, mainly because it was rather chilly today. I rushed my ass inside the house to try and get away from the cold. Really hated the cold here in New Saddle.

Taking off my uniform, I threw my stuff on the table using my magic. I rubbed my eyes after the hard days work.

“Wait a minute, maybe I can catch PJ on today and we can start our research now to get it over with”, I think to myself before quickly trotting to my PC to boot up Kaos and Smoke. Luckily, I managed to get on in time before he was going to log off for the day.

“About time you showed up. So, are we going to begin”, PJ asks me.

“Yeah, just give me a couple minutes to do something real quick”, I say switching tabs to Smoke. I sent Gem a quick message saying how I probably will be on late tonight to help her out or what not in SF2. I kept it brief, but enough to say what I had to say.

Lotus (Online) : Hey, I’m going to be rather late getting on SF2 with you later, I’m helping out a friend with a project he and I are working on. I’ll hopefully see you tonight.

“Hey, whatcha doing”, PJ asks me in the call.

“Nothing, letting a friend know I won’t be on”, I answer back at PJ. “So, this friend of yours, describe this friend”, PJ says to me.

“Well, we met in VRCinema. She was really nice”, I say before closing my Smoke tabs.

“Oh, its a mare that you were talking to. I see how it is”, PJ says with a teasing tone.

“See how what is”, I ask PJ.

“You know what I’m talking about Lotus, looking to get yourself an online girlfriend. Get a piece of that sweet online ass”, PJ says mockingly and letting out a few laughs.

“PJ, it’s not like that. I just met her. Plus I know the whole deal with online relationships. I’m not even going out with somepony and I know this”, I say to the snarky PJ.

I know what I just said at the time is a bit hypocritical of me now, but shut up and listen to the rest of the story. Dick.

“Well, enough about that. Let’s get to what we are here for”, PJ says finally getting on task.

“Right, let’s start this process”, I say to PJ beginning the slow start.

The research was almost to a waste of time, taking over 3 hours. It wasn’t until we came up with a theory on how to reverse the gravity on the map: Some trigger of a glitch that causes your character to float in the air almost on command. Not a very good theory, I know, but it was the best we could really come up with at the time. Especially since we didn’t even load up SF2 for that time.

We sat there silently for a little while just trying to think about what to do now.

“Whelp, I know that I was big on trying to get started on this as soon as possible, but I am getting bored. I think I might go to bed for tonight. Need to refresh for tomorrow”, PJ says to me with a bored tone.

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow. Hopefully we can actually play instead of theorize for hours”, I say to the sleepy PJ.

“Yeah, Hopefully. Have a good night Lotus”, PJ says to me.

“You too”, I respond before he leaves the call.

I was about to head over to my bathroom to take a warm night time shower when I had gotten a call in Kaos from a user by the name of “Cadillac Spades”. I didn’t recognize who that was at first until she picked up.

“Hey, Looks like you are online”, The familiar voice of Gem said to me.

“Gem? What happened to ‘Lord of Noodles’ as your name?”, I ask her confused on her name change.

“It is from a story I read based on the Nuclear Wasteland game. It’s called Nuclear Wasteland: Project Contagion. The main character is named Cadillac Spades. Therefore I decided to change it to that name because I love the character so much”, Gem explained to me.

“Ooh. Might give it a read sometime”, I said to her.

I felt there was an awkward silence between us after I said that. Before I could say anything to break the silence, Gem spoke first.

“So um, yeah you know how I am a griffin and have feathers”, Gem asks me. I responded with a yes, knowing only a little bit about griffins.

“Well this morning I woke and found my feathers were kind of falling off. Must be a bad sign of me tossing and turning at night”, Gem says to me.

“Yeah, that might be it. So uh, you want to play SF2? We could get you started on other classes other than the Speedster”, I say nervously to Gem.

“No, to be honest I don’t like SF2. It’s boring and bland”, Gem says, shattering my heart with the travesty she just said about my favorite game.

Before I could say something to argue, she lets out a loud fit of laughter.

“I’m kidding, but based on that reaction it was worth the tease”, Gem says with a chuckle at the end. I felt relieved when she said she was joking about not liking SF2

“For real though, I would like to play. I have a lot of fun playing with you. Plus I like talking with you”, Gem says to me loading up SF2.

When she said that I kind of blushed a little. I never really had a mare, or griffin in this case, tell me that before. Like, I truly felt that she was my friend.

“Yeah, I like talking to you too. It’s nice talking to some griffin for a change”, I say nervously.

“Well, are you ready Lotus? I’m ready to start when you are.”, Gem says to me waiting for me to load up SF2.

“Yeah, Yeah, I’m ready. Just need to load up”, I say gathering myself.

Once my game loaded, I began my fun night with Gem. I felt like for some reason I could take on the world if she turns out a great player. I had a feeling she felt the same way playing alongside me. It was strange this feeling I started feeling with her. Whatever it was, it made me feel like I was on top of the motherfucking world.

Chapter 8

I would love to tell exactly what happened after that night of me being online with Gem and researching with PJ, but then this story would take ages to tell. So instead of telling you exactly what happened, I’ll just summarize it for you.

Essentially, the competition for finding the golden fork in SF2 was a lot harder than everypony thought. Most ponies would think it would be found within about a month, maybe a month and a half. Somehow, the devs really hid the fork well. In a matter of about 4 months, not a single player found a clue on how to get to the fork. Every single player was stuck on exactly what got me stuck: That goddamn invisible wall blocking it. You would think since there are about 100,000 players playing the game that at least one of them has a clue on what to do to get past the invisible wall. But no, not a clue. At one point near the end of the fourth months, many players gave up on looking for the fork with the thought that it was a hoax and that there were no golden forks to find and that the one found in the lodge at Double Street was simply just an easter egg to the fork hunt that used to be rampant back in the day.

While many players had given up and moved on, me and PJ were still working hard at finding it. Well, sort of. I was actually still looking for it in the game, trying to find maybe a button or switch to flip around the lodge to reverse the gravity in the lodge and maybe getting rid of the wall. PJ on the other hoof, was actually not as dedicated as he was before when he started the research to find the fork. From being on every single day to research, soon turned to going on every other day to do some research, which soon turned to once a week. When I had questioned him about why he wasn’t on to do research, he would give me the same response being,”I forgot about it”.

It remained that way for about 3 weeks until one day PJ had said fed up,”Look, there is no more evidence to find a way past that wall. It’s all a sick fucking joke from the devs to get players to play on their fucking game. Just give up. There is no hope for us to find it. I might as well accept my fate as being stuck in this shitty town and get ready for a job I don’t want to do.”

It made me sad a little bit to see that PJ had finally given up on the search. When we had spoken a couple times afterwards, I could tell that this wasn’t the PJ I was used to talk to. PJ seemed a lot more depressed and desolate. It had me worried for him for the longest time. Every once in a while I would ask him if he was ok and wanted to talk about it. To which, PJ would always isolate himself and not want to mention anything about how he felt. It seriously had me concerned for him.

On the other side of the past 4 months, Gem and I were getting much closer playing wise in SF2. She managed to actually find a class she was happy with. Unfortunately, the class she chose was not a class everypony liked to play against: Scorcher. Scorcher could only be described as the most hated class by the entire fanbase of SF2. At one point I used to hate the class as well, but soon I began to have a tolerance of the class and realized how good the class can be when a good player can take control of the class. Especially considering where Gem had come from nothing skill wise.

It felt like yesterday I was teaching her how to even move and shoot in the game. Now she was dominating as a good combo/ melee Scorcher. She had managed to rank up over 2,620 kills as the class using nothing but a Flamethrower with the ability to airblast and a Firework gun. I’ll even admit this, she was kind of scary to play against. In times she and I had a duel as Scorchers in a private server, she would always beat me. Even with melee combat, she would always dominate me. In a way, I felt proud and embarrassed at same time with her. Proud, from seeing how far she had come from literally knowing nothing about the game to being a solid player. It really was a testament to how much a player can change if they put in the hard work and dedication.

Then finally, stuff at work and how that has gone. Nothing new really happened, only real thing to happen was the change in schedule of work. Peach had given us an announcement saying to us that we would be ending work at around lunchtime, and sadly some of our pay would be cut. Many other coworkers were furious with this news and some even had quit the very next day. Me on the other hoof, I was a little bit happy that the day was cut in half, but also a little sad to leave during the time when I usually have a heart to heart conversation with Peach. To fix that, I had made a decision to wake up earlier than usual to make it to the bakery to have morning talks with her. It worked for a little bit, until I realized that the reason she goes to the bakery this early was to make the cobbler for the day. It was then when she was a bit too busy to talk, so all I really could do was come and start baking the red velvet cakes for the day. Not much time for conversation.

There were some days where on the rare occasion we had enough time to talk for a moment. Conversations were like normal, with the occasional messing around with by Peach. There was one thing I wanted to know: Why would she cut the days in half? Every time I brought up the question, it always was at poor timing when the other workers would come in for work. Sadly, I never was able to get the real answer on why the days were cut at noon, I wanted to know because I was starting to miss our conversations like they used to be.

And that’s the story so far after these four months. If you thought that the story started a long time ago with me waking up, you are absolutely wrong. This is where it just gets started, where the craziness of this story really gets starts up. Shit is about to really hit the fan.

Chapter 9

It was a rather sunnier, warmer afternoon in my home. I had been sitting at my desk listening to music by Moose and A Night to Forget. I had been drawing more and more abstract art than I usually did since the travesty a couple months back. At the time, I had fallen into a depression with art at the time where it genuinely made me sad to pretty much draw anything. It would bring back memories of that day. Sort of like PTSD, but unlike PTSD I got over it quicker. Thanks to Gem. On days where Gem and I had talked, I mentioned how I made art. Of course, curiosity struck Gem and she had wanted to see some of my works of art. I was a bit hesitant at first showing her, until Gem’s begging of seeing my art really convinced to show her. In a way, it took me by surprise on how much Gem loved some of my pieces of abstract art. She continuously kept saying that she loved them and that should sell my art. I strongly disagreed with the selling them, but at least it gave me the motivation to continue drawing. It brought me up a lot since the travesty.

As I was working hard on a drawing, I heard my Kaos account shoot up suddenly with urgent messages from Gem, or by her Kaos account at the time,”Mand”. Usually, if Gem would message me in Kaos it would be a singular message saying,”Hi” or “Watcha doing”. But this time, something was off. The notification sound of Kaos was blaring out multiple times. I went over to the messages to see what Gem was sending me. Then, that’s when I realized something was really wrong.

Gem had sent me around twelve messages in Kaos asking for help.

Mand: Lotus!!!! I need your help!!!!!!!

PLEASE HELP ME IT IS AN EMERGENCY!!!

SOMETHING REALLY BAD HAS HAPPENED!!!!

Lotus: What happened? Did you get hurt?

Mand: NO, I NEED YOU TO CALL ME RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

As fast as the speed of light, I quickly grabbed my mic which was not plugged in for space and called up Gem. It really made me feel really anxious about what had happened with Gem. Was she hurt? Did something happen to a family member? Did she all of a sudden lose her singing voice and can’t continue her singing for her school? Whatever it was, it had me shaking with anxiety.
U pon hearing the calling tone end, I was alarmed with the sounds of crying.

“Gem? Are you okay?”, I ask with a serious tone.

“N-n-no, this is terrible. Absolutely terrible!”, Gem says with her voice breaking.

“Gem, what happened? Did somepony hurt you or something?”, I ask Gem, this time shaking vigorously in my chair with anxiety.

Gem let out a couple of sniffles before answering.

“I w-was hacked on my profile. They managed t-to f-find pictures of me and exposed me on s-s-some website. And now I-”, Gem said before breaking down into tears again.

I had felt really bad for her. I never once knew what that felt like, but I could tell that it really is not something good to be a part of.

“Oh Celestia. Gem I’m so sorry. How did this happen?”, I ask Gem.

Gem took a quick second to calm down before answering.

“I-I was in a game with these group of players. I was playing regularly as u-usually do as a Scorcher. I w-was playing the game, killing the other team u-until one of the players on the other team got mad at me for k-killing him so many times. I-I didn’t really pay attention to it at the time. It wasn’t until one of them s-said that he was gonna hack my account and f-find out who I am and e-e-expose me. I-I-I ignored it cause I thought he was being a troll. But then he posted this link in the server and I clicked on it and-”, Gem said before breaking down again, sending me the link to the website.

I could never imagine how truly heartless somepony would be to do this to some griffon, especially for something so petty.

I really didn’t want to look at the site that Gem sent me because I didn’t want to feel ashamed of looking. But of course, curiosity always finds a way to make you do things you don’t want to do. Clicking the link, I was taken to a website with the terrible name of,” Smoke Exposed”. I scrolled down to find the Gem’s name to click on. Clicking her name, I was shocked to find that not only were her pictures on, but also her name as well. It turns out that Gem was actually named Ruby Heart. It made a little sense why she would name herself Gem given her name being Ruby. Glancing over at her pictures, I saw her pictures. She was a griffin with white feathers and red fur. Ruby had her feathers on her head kind of set back. Her feathers weren’t the only thing that grabbed my attention, it was also her eyes as well. Her eyes were a grey color, but for some reason they really looked beautiful despite the lack of color.

“Rub-, I-I mean Gem.”, I say to Ruby before realizing that she probably didn’t want to be called that.

Ruby sniffled a little bit before saying,”Ruby is fine. I don’t mind you calling me by my real name.”

“Y-Yeah, but I will feel bad because-”, I say trailing off nervously.

“Because what?”, Ruby asked me.

This was a moment that I was nervous about. I was considering telling her my name and even showing her a picture. But of course, my anxiety of showing a complete stranger what my name is and what I look like was getting in the way. I could never trust any player like that, not even PJ a player who I had been friends with the longest.

I hesitated multiple times, but I ended up taking a kind of half assed picture of me doing some awkward smile. I really wasn’t a hundred percent sure I wanted to post this one as a picture, but I was keeping Ruby waiting. I finally, after about 3 minutes of hesitation, sent Ruby that awkward picture of me cringing as I hit the send button.

“I-I figured if I know what you look like, I-It’s only fair i-if-”, I say trailing off from anxiety.

There was slight awkward silence between us before Gem let out a small chuckle lighting up a little.

“Oh Lotus, you don’t-” Ruby says before I interrupt her.

“Velvet, You can call me Red Velvet. I-I-If you want to.”, I say nervously to Ruby.

“Ok then, Velvet. You don’t have to do this for me. I know that you don’t want to show me what you look like.”, Ruby says now with a affectionate tone.

“N-no, I would feel bad seeing you like that and I would feel it isn’t fair.”, I say to Ruby explaining my actions.

“Red Velvet. I like your name. Guess it explains why you work at a bakery.”, Ruby says to me now fully calmed down from earlier.

I chuckled nervously in agreement, scratching the back of my neck with my hoof.

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. I like your name as well.”, I said to Ruby in response. “T-Thank you, Velvet.”, Ruby says with a bashful tone.

There was a brief silence between us before I looked at the website again and noticed something, something that could turn this whole situation around.

“Holy shit Ruby!”, I yelled out to Ruby coming to a realization.

“What is it?”, Ruby asked me in confusion.

“We can use this site, we can track down this fucker and get him.”, I exclaimed loudly.

“Velvet, I don’t understand.”, Ruby said.

“You said yourself that it was a player in Smoke that did this right?”, I asked Ruby.

“Yes.”, Ruby said.

“That’s just it then. We use this website to find the uploader’s Smoke profile and get this fucker banned. It shouldn’t take very long to do this.”, I now said with a bit of excitement.

Smoke was always quick to ban accounts for exposing personal info of another player, no matter how small the info leak was. Funny, if only they were quick to ban accounts for scams to give items back to the rightful owners.

“You’ll do that for me? You’ll help me give some justice for these guys.”, Ruby asked me perking up.

“Yeah, I won’t stop until I know that we may have a chance at finding this cunt’s profile and getting him banned.”, I said with a tone of confidence I usually never have.

“Wow, like, that means a lot to me. You really don’t have to do this for me, really. I think I could figure this out by myself.”, Ruby said to me.

“No, no please. I insist on helping. Plus I really want to see this cunt actually pay for doing this.”, I said to Ruby.
“Okay, thank you. I really appreciate the help.”, Ruby said thankfully.

“It’s no problem Ruby. Now, hows about we go find this cunt and make him pay once and for all.”, I said before starting to look.

In a matter of two hours, we had managed to find the cunt named,”Nanners”. It took a really long time, but it was very much worth it when we were looking and I heard Ruby exclaim that she had found him loudly. The player had a profile picture of a starfish that had glasses. Somehow this player managed to pull off the look of some wacky fun SF2 player while hiding the fact he was a true asshole.

“Well, this is him. This is the cunt who is gonna get served justice.”, I said to Ruby who is silently sitting there.

She was more silent after I said that.

“What’s wrong Ruby? Are you not excited to get this guy banned?”, I asked Ruby with a little concern.

“N-no I am. It’s just that I might feel guilty afterwards. Like I get that he is doing a bad thing and needs to get justice, but I feel that this is to much.”, Ruby said to me.

I could feel why she would feel that way, considering I’m not one who usually tries to get revenge on anypony.

“Hey, Well look at it this way. If this pony managed to spread out who you are and what you look like, somepony could find where you live and attempt to do horrible things to you. So this could be a way to prevent that if we get him banned, maybe we could also get the site taken down.”, I said to Ruby trying to make her feel better about going through with this.

“I guess you are right, but still I would feel bad about that.”, Ruby said.

“Why? He exposed your name and face to the world online. I would be furious if someone did that to me”, I explained to Ruby.

“I don’t know. It’s always been me to forgive any griffon, no matter what they do.”, Ruby said to me. I

n all my time before that moment, I never had met anypony or griffin that truly innocent and nice. Well, apart from maybe Peach. I really admired that from Ruby at that moment, despite all she had been through she could forgive someone for treating her so terribly.

“Wow, you would really forgive them? After all the shit he did to you?”, I asked Ruby with true contentment.

“It would take time, but yes I would.”, Ruby said with real passion in her answer.

“Aww. Ruby, you might be one of the nicest griffins I have met.”, I said to Ruby with true joy in my voice.

“Th-Thank you, I could say the same about you helping me through all of this.”, Ruby said. I really felt a feeling that I had never felt before with Ruby, I wasn’t really sure what it was at the time.

“Hey, I have an idea if you are down for it with this player.”, I said to Ruby.

“What is it?”, She asked me with curiosity.

“What if I message this guy and make a ransom with him that if he doesn’t take down the site, he will have his account banned?”, I said to the wondering Ruby.

“That could work, but what if he doesn’t? I don’t want to feel guilty about it afterwards if he does get banned.”, Ruby agreed before asking.

“If I know players like these, they value their accounts. So unless he doesn’t want his account, I’m mostly certain he will take it down out of fear of getting banned.”, I reassured Ruby.

“Okay Velvet, I trust that you will get him to take it down.”, Ruby says to me in response.

Now I had a lot on the line by doing this. I really did not want to put guilt on Ruby’s shoulders because of this if he gets banned. Sending the friend request to his profile, I began to go over the game plan in my head.

“Okay, go in, say hi, mention how you noticed you exposed some griffon, ransom, and then get rid of the site. Sounds easy.”, I said to myself in my head waiting for him to respond.

After about 3 minutes of waiting, not only did Nanners manage to accept my friend request, he messaged me as well.

“Ok Velvet, here goes nothing.”, I say to myself.

Nanners (Online) : Hey, You added me randomly. Did I see you in a game or something?

Lotus (Online) : Nah, Just stumbled onto your profile and was curious.

Nanners (Online) : Curious? About what? You and I have never met in a game before. It’s a little suspicious getting a random add then you questioning me like this.

Lotus (Online) : Yeah, I know it is.

But I guess so is exposing someone online but you know.

Nanners (Online) : Excuse me? What are you talking about?

Lotus (Online) : Oh I think you know EXACTLY what I am talking about. Considering you are the one that posted on the website that exposes Players.

Nanners (Online) : What? That Website? It’s nothing but fake names and fake pictures

Lotus (Online) : Idk, considering that my friend, AKA Gem, who you exposed on the site came to me crying telling me what happened was on there, I find it kinda bullshit that you are playing the Clueless card on me.

Nanners (Online) : Ok, even if I managed to expose the bitch, you still don’t have proof to back you up on these claims.

Lotus (Online) : Wanna take a bet? Let’s see how long it can take for your account to be banned. I can simply hit report right now and countdown to see how long it takes.

Nanners (Online) : You wouldn’t.

Lotus (Online) : Ok, say goodbye to your profile

“Dammit, You had to call my bluff.”, I say to myself in my mind as I sigh and go to his profile to report him.

I really was hesitant to paste the link to website of where he exposed Ruby mainly due to my anxiety of letting her down in not letting her feel guilty about it. Right before I was going to hit report, at the last second Nanners responded.

Nanners (Online) : Allright, I confess. I did it. I exposed your friend. You don’t need to get my account banned.

Lotus (Online) : Good, then we can negotiate what needs to happen to keep your account from being banned.

Nanners (Online) : Allright, “Master Detective”, what are your demands?

Lotus (Online) : Take down that website. We know that you are in charge of it with the group of players that were in the game where you exposed her.

Nanners (Online) : Done. That’s it?

Lotus (Online) : Yeah, unless you want me to add more.

Nanners (Online) : No, please I’m already gonna be in deep with the other players that were in charge with it.

Lotus (Online) : Good, now I better see that site taken down within 5 minutes or I’m retracting my deal and banning you.

Nanners (Online) : Alright then, anything else mister Detective.

Lotus (Online) : Yeah, Your kind of a cunt for doing that, see you never hopefully.

“Well? Did you manage to do it?”, Ruby asked me after I finally come back.

“I hope so, check to see if the link doesn’t work anymore.”, I said to Ruby hoping I didn’t put weight on her shoulders.

There was a brief pause before I heard a gasp of delight from Ruby.

“Y-Y-You did it! You actually managed to do it. I can’t thank you enough Velvet.”, Ruby said to me sounding truly happy.

“It’s no problem. I always will help a friend in need.”, I responded to Ruby.

“No, you don’t understand. I don’t think I could have done this without your help. Something could have happened to me if I didn’t address this and-”, Ruby went on stammering before I cut her off with a laugh.

“I think I get what you are trying to say. You’re welcome Ruby.”,I finally said to the nervous sounding griffin.

“Well, I’m gonna go take a bath. I feel like I need to have on after this to relax a little.”, Ruby said to me sounding a little sleepy.

“Oh okay, well I’ll maybe see you later tonight.”, I asked Ruby before she was about to leave.

“Mmmm, I’m not sure tonight. But I know for sure tomorrow I will be able to be on.”, Ruby said to me.

“Okay, well I’ll let you take your nice relaxing bath now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”, I said to Ruby as I hear her stand up.

“See you too Velvet.”, Ruby said before leaving the call in Kaos.

When she left, I felt a kind of sad feeling in my stomach. Like I was sad to see her go. It was a strange feeling that I had never really felt before with anyone. Could this be the feeling I think it is? The feeling that…….I’m having a crush on some griffin online?

“No, this couldn’t be it Velvet. Could it?”, I said to myself as I ponder the thought.

I began to think of what other possibility it could be that I was feeling. All the feelings that I thought of just didn’t make sense. The only one that really made sense, was that. That I was really falling for a Griffin online. Now at the moment, I was like you at the beginning of this story. Thinking that this is crazy to fall for someone online. But the more I thought about it, the more intrigued I became. I kept wondering more and more about what if I made it work. But more importantly, I wondered what if? What if, by some mane hair of a chance, she felt the same about me?

“Okay Velvet, keep yourself together.”, I said to myself rubbing my eyes trying to pull myself out of it. I thought going over to the bed to sleep on it would take my mind off of it.

Even once I got to the bed, I still couldn’t stop thinking about it. It soon got to a point where I had to accept it for what it is and like it: I was falling in love. I didn’t know if Ruby felt the same about me like that, but the one fact I couldn’t deny in my head: I was falling in love with Ruby. After me thinking about my feelings, I began thinking about Ruby and all we had been through. It really made me smile a little bit while I was laying in bed. I laid there thinking about Ruby for about a hour before my eyes slowly closed drifting to sleep. As I drifted to sleep, my last thought I kept thinking was what made me accept it in the end: I was falling in love.

Chapter 10

Around a week I had been trying to relax and stay cool around Ruby, but with me never really having this strong of a feeling for someone it was really hard. Especially when I get nervous, I stammer like crazy. Almost to a point where I can barely get out what I am trying to say. It sounds crazy considering we never met face to face, but love is a crazy little thing.

In the time of me waiting for Ruby to get on so we could play SF2 together, I managed to find that PJ was online in Kaos. It had been a while since I last spoke with him since the whole discussion we had about the “hoax” of the Golden Fork. I really didn’t want that to be the end of our friendship, especially after all this time.

Anxiously, I wanted to check in with PJ to make sure he was doing ok since we last spoke. Sending him a call, I was pleasantly surprised to hear his voice again after all this time. This time actually sounding much happier since we last spoke.

“Lotus! Sweet Celestia it has been such a long time. How have you been?”, PJ asked me excitingly as I said hi to him.

“Much better now that I am speaking to you again.”, I said to PJ with glee.

“So, what have you been doing recently?”, PJ asked me.

“Nothing much really. Still playing SF2.”, I said to PJ who was curious to wonder what I had been doing.

“Huh, how is it? Still fun with that game now that everypony has calmed down about the ‘Fork’ that was made up?”, PJ said calling out the supposed hoax of SF2.

I still never believed in that hoax, despite me never actually really finding any real evidence on how to get past the invisible wall. Call me hard headed if you will, but I never will stop believing something until I find out the truth or I literally forget about it.

“Yeah, it’s still pretty fun. You know, once you get past the screaming foals in the game.”, I said to PJ.

“Hey, you were once a screaming foal in the game as well.”, PJ said reminding me of how young I was when he found me in the game.

“Yeah. So what are you up to?”, I asked PJ.

“Well, I am trying to get ready to go to preaching school. Yeah I know, shocking right?”, PJ said to me.

“Oh? So you are now liking preaching all of a sudden?”, I asked PJ confused.

“Oh Celestia no. I don’t want to do this. I am just learning to accept it for what it is.”, PJ explained to me.

Never would I have thought to see PJ giving up on his dream of being a wonderbolt to doing something he genuinely hated.

”Guess your parents are real happy about it.”, I said to PJ.

“Yeah, they were thrilled actually. My mom was almost on the verge of tears of joy when I finally agreed to go to preaching school.”, PJ said to me.

“Yeah, that must be nice.”, I said with a half hearted tone.

“Do your parents support you like that Lotus?”, PJ asked me.

I felt a very dense feeling in my insides from hearing PJ ask me something like that. Never once I mentioned my parents to anypony besides Peach. Not even with Ruby, a griffin I had been growing more and more close with.

“Lotus? You there?”, PJ asked me while I am contemplating silently.

“Oh, uh yeah. I’m here.”, I said to PJ waiting.

“Didn’t sound like it. Something wrong?”, PJ asked me curious to know what’s going on.

“No. Nothing’s wrong.”, I said clearly lying to PJ.

“Lotus, I know something is up. You can tell me if something is wrong.”, PJ said to clearly picking up on my lie. I decided to tell him, but not really.

“Well, let’s just say that my parents and I’s relationship is not very, good per say.”, I said reclusively to PJ.

“Oh, how so?”, PJ asked me wanting to know. I really didn’t want to delve into real reason why with PJ, not like this.

“I don’t want to talk about it, it’s really dicey.”, I said to PJ.

“Alright, but in case you change your mind.”, PJ said before I interrupted.

“Yeah, I know PJ.”, I said to PJ glancing over at my friends list to see Ruby was finally online.

“Hey, I hate to stop this conversation but my friend just came back on and I am going to play some SF2 with her.”, I said to PJ getting my settings ready for SF2.

“No, its fine. I was just about to leave anyway to pack up for school. Maybe before I leave this week you and I should play together. It has been a while.”, PJ said.

“Yeah. I would like to play with you. Maybe I could introduce you to my friend that replaced you for a little while.”, I said snarkingly to PJ.

“Bitch, nopony can replace me.”, PJ said chuckling to the remark. I chuckled and grinned at his fire back. I truly felt like it was back: The magic me and PJ had was back again. It made me feel relieved knowing that we were able to pick up where we left off.

“Well, I don’t want to keep your friend waiting for you Lotus, I’ll see you-”, PJ said before I interrupted again.

“Velvet.”, I said to PJ finally feeling comfortable telling him my real name.

“What did you just say?”, PJ asked me somewhat shocked.

“It’s my name. Red Velvet. You can call me that if you want.”, I said to PJ not regretting it.

“Wow, ok. I didn’t expect this. Guess I better be fair to you as well. Name’s Angel Dust.”, He said to me. “

Oh. So I guess your real name and Smoke name have something in common; They are both stupid to say.”, I said to Angel laughing.

“Oh and what about your name,’Velvet’. Sounds like a mare’s name to be honest.”, PJ fired back at me laughing.

“Yeah, but so does ‘Angel Dust’. Actually being honest it sounds like a pet’s name for you.”, I said jokingly to PJ.

We both laughed at each other’s insults for about five minutes until Angel finally had to leave.

“Ok, for real. I have to leave to start packing. Have fun Velvet.”, Angel said to me.

“I will. Hope to see you soon before you leave.”, I said to Angel before leaving the call.

Truly satisfied; Those were the words I could best describe myself after fixing everything with Angel. I really was put in a good mood now. Logging in I quickly messaged Ruby.

Lotus (Online) : Hey Ruby!!!!!

Gem (Online) : Henlo.

Lotus (Online) : How are you doing today?

Gem (Online) : Good, managed to get back my music theory test today. Got a B minus on it

Lotus (Online) : Oh that’s good

Gem (Online) : How about you?

Lotus (Online) : I’m actually doing rather fine. Now that you’re here

I physically cringed at that text.

“Celestia Velvet! Are you trying to make yourself a part of the friendzone?”, I said in my head after saying that line. I quickly tried to change the subject onto what I was hoping we would do tonight.

Lotus (Online) : So, are you ready to start playing?

Gem (Online) : Yeah, I have been a little anxious to start.

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Why?

Gem (In Game: SF2) : Well, I think you might get bored to know why.

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Well, I don’t know much about what goes on in class since I work. But I can assume that it’s

stressful.

Gem (In Game: SF2) : No Velvet, it’s not about school

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Oh?

Gem (In Game: SF2) : It’s about my dad

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : What about him?

Gem (In Game: SF2) : Well, it’s not exactly about him. It’s about what he does

You see, he is a drinker.

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Is that bad?

Gem (In Game: SF2) : Well, in most cases no. But on some occasions it can get a little rough.

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : What do you mean by rough?

Gem (In Game: SF2) : Do you remember when I was playing with you in SF2 that night when you heard some muffled noises in the background?

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Yeah

Gem (In Game: SF2) : That was my dad walking in, he thought that I was in his room and kinda got angry before

stumbling back out into the hallway into his room.

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Oh my. Has he done anything worse than that?

Gem (In Game: SF2) : No, thankfully not.

Hey, can we change topics from this?

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Yeah, we can change topics. We can talk about what map to play tonight. Any map that you want to do in particular?

Gem (In Game: SF2) : Actually, I was thinking that maybe you could choose a map tonight.

Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Oh, Ok then. I have a map in mind.

That map that I had in mind was Double Street. Not because I was still looking for the Fork, it was mainly due to me getting bored of Capture the Flag mode and wanted something different to do instead of run to grab an objective. I had been playing a lot more Control that Cart modes since me and Ruby had started playing together. It was really a mode that Ruby was good at, whereas I was not and vice versa for me and Capture the Flag. Many of the popular maps of Control that Cart were a lot more complex and grand in scale. One such example is Pineapple Cove. It was a map that had you guard a cart on a hilly beach with treacherous terrains. On top of the objective, you would have to watch out for these falling pineapples that would kill you instantly. Don’t ask me why, it still doesn’t make sense to me either.

After getting into a Kaos call with Ruby (Who is now called Dokaven Hurp), we hopped straight into a game with our team having 2 DoughColts, 3 Scorchers (One being Ruby), 4 clueless Marksman, and 1 StuntMerc.

“Dammit! Always somepony has to be the one thing I like to play in this game.”, I said to myself in my head seeing this other player.

I never liked to play as the same class as some other player on the team I am on because it gives me a bit of anxiety when I mess up on that class and the other player doesn’t. Just some weird thing with me that has always lingered with me.
Instead of being like most players with this problem and deal with it by being toxic towards the player to switch, I decided to go with my 2nd best class, ShapeShifter. ShapeShifter is a more complex class to learn if you are a beginner player (Which explains the reason for 4 clueless ones in the beginning of the search for the Fork with me and Angel).
The class is essentially a spy to get the other team. The backstory of this class is that he was corrupted with Changeling magic and can use it to shapeshift and disappear into anything he wants. Along with this, he can be a hindrance to a BuildingBot. To explain quickly, BuildingBot is a robot that can produce turrets and health fields for teammates To target the utter bullshit of the turrets locking on to you, the ShapeShifter can disguise as a team member of that team to take the turret down using a dismantle spell. I was good at the class mainly because I always find a good hiding spot to lure out players to kill them. On the occasion I would try to dismantle turrets, but most often then not I would manage to get myself killed.

My loadout for the class was fairly standard, in fact it’s almost identical to the loadout I have for my StuntMerc. Almost completely stock except for the spell I have for cloaking where I can pick up ammo from dead players and stay cloaked longer. I had recently changed the look of my ShapeShifter by having him with a billycock hat covered with a picture drawing of another hat that changes with each class you kill. It’s my most expensive hat I have in the game. Luckily I hadn’t wasted a lot of money to get it. I got lucky in unboxing a couple of crates with hats in them to get this rare hat. Fun fact: only 200 were unboxed in the time the themed crate dropped, rendering the price to stay at a stable $200. It’s never dropped or raised a penny since the crate was limited. Which was good for me since I could show it off and rub it in Angel’s face when I first got it.

Once I spawned into the game, I was greeted to seeing Ruby’s Scorcher who was still wearing the same witch hat since she got it to replace the IntroKiller’s Fedora. It was the stock color hat. Not to hate on the hat, but it looks rather boring when it’s not painted a color.

“When are you ever going to paint the hat on your Scorcher? It could use some color.”, I said to Ruby jokingly.

“Whenever I can manage to get a stable job where I can spend money on this game. Unless you have some spare paint around, specifically pink.”, Ruby said to my snarky remark.

“Nah, sadly I don’t keep a surplus of paint. Wish I could.”, I said to Ruby.

As we were talking, we didn’t realize that the game had started as we noticed we were the only ones in spawn.

“Oh shit, the game started.”, Ruby said to me.

“Heh, guess we got caught up in a conversation too well, let’s play.”, I said to Ruby before moving out of spawn to begin playing.

The rounds were quick, like most matches on Double Street. Thankfully we were winning most of the rounds, with the other team maybe winning one or two rounds to try and catch up. It was around the end of the game where we had to win only 2 more rounds where I decided to explore a little bit of the map in Double Street. The map, as mentioned before, is huge. This map tends to have more easter eggs to find in this map due to its size. It’s been said to have over 100 different easter eggs hidden in the map. Not really sure if that is true about the map, but it’s plausible.

My exploration led me past the shed where the supposed last Fork was.

“If only I had enough time to look for it.”, I said to myself in my head walking towards it.

I managed to get to the switch that opened the shed and gazed upon it.

“Why would the devs put a button here of they have an invisible wall blocking the fork? It makes no sense.”, I said to myself looking at the button.

These thoughts kept drawing me away from going back to the match, as it took Ruby to draw my attention back to the match.

“Hey, You still in the game?”, Ruby asked me after she had died from a turret.

“Oh, yeah I’m here.”, I said to Ruby.

“Well, we need you to get back into the game. They have some turrets up and you are our only ShapeShifter to take them down.”, She said assertively.

“Alright, I’m coming. I’m by the shed.”, I said switching to the dismantle spell on my ShapeShifter.

That’s when I noticed something truly bizarre.

One thing to know about the ShapeShifter: when you go to use a dismantle a turret, you get a green overlay over the turret letting you know that you are in range to dismantle it. Then you go through this process using the spell by seeing a glow across your screen until the turret destroys itself. This is important to know because as I switched to the spell, the button began to have a blue overlay floating above it. Never in the game could you manage to get a blue dismantle overlay, let alone an overlay over anything but a BuilderBot building. I quickly stopped in my tracks to observe this to make sure it was not a glitch.

After waving my cursor over the button for a little bit, I quickly realized that this was no glitch in the game. I became curious to see what would happen if I tried to dismantle it with the spell. As I clicked my mouse to dismantle it, the overlay had changed. It was now a red overlay. I was still holding down the mouse to see if it would do something else. It took about 15 seconds, but soon the overlay then turned into a golden overlay before the game let out a train horn sound near the shed.

“Oh my fucking god! Did I just- Did I just figure it out?”, I said to myself quietly in complete shock and awe.

My eyes began widening from the sight of this. It was so simple to find, yet so well hidden. I was in awe for about 20 seconds before I saw that the clock was winding down; leaving me with only 45 seconds left in the round to find it before every player on the server finds it.

“I’ve got to go. RIGHT! FUCKING! NOW!”, I exclaimed to myself in my head.

I jetted as fast as I could to the otherside of the shed. There it was in direct sight: the door was open with a aura inside of it. Yep. It was exactly what I had thought just happened: I reversed the gravity in the shed.

“This is it, all hope is not completely lost.”, I began saying out loud to myself.

“Uh, Velvet. I think-”, Ruby said before her audio cuts as her connection was lost in the call.

Like a trap put in the tomb of a Daring Doo story, her audio was cut out as the door to the shed began to close.

“No no no no no NO!”, I screamed out loud in desperation as I witness my dreams fade away.

I was holding down my “w” key, trying to run towards the door before it closed. For a moment, I thought I had made it to the door as the auro was in clear view. But then, Just like last time when my dreams were in sight, an invisible wall blocked me from my goal once again.

“No no NO!”, I yelled out at my scream in pure frustration as I was stuck behind an invisible wall witnessing the doors close for good. I began to really start tearing up as I came to the realization of what had just happened. It was right there, Right fucking there. I was so close to be blocked once again by an invisible wall. As my tears finally began to come down, I was met with yet another sound: The victory sound of the round being won. I looked up to my screen with tears coming down to then witness another bizarre occurrence. The round wasn’t one by Red team or Blue team. It was instead a link to a website labeled,”WWFCD.com”.
`Letting my crying calm down, I moved my cursor over to the link to click on it. At the same time of me clicking the link and seeing what it led to, Ruby had managed to reconnect to the call in Kaos. Her breathing was rather heavy, more like a shocked breathing. My breathing was also the same, for what I had witnessed on the screen was truly mesmerizing beyond belief. The website was a link to the SF2 website page with no other pages or tabs at the top, just a title that read,”Winner winner, fried chicken dinner”. I wasn’t in shock and awe by the text below the title, but rather what was below the smaller text is what truly blew me away:

Winner of the Coveted Honorary Fork of Winners : Gem

“Velvet, I think I managed to find something. Something big”.

Author's Note

I pulled a little sneaky on ya.

Chapter 11

“Holy fucking shit!”, I exclaimed out loud snapping back to reality after reading this piece of unexpected news.

“What?”, Ruby asked me again confused about what had just occurred.

“Do you have any idea what you have just found?!”, I asked in a extremely shoken up tone.

“No, all I see is a Fork that is gold.”, Ruby said ignorantly to the true god weapon she had stumbled upon.

“Just a fork that is gold?!?! Sweet Celestia, you really don’t know what it is.”, I said to the Ill informed Ruby.

“No. Sadly I don’t. Would you mind telling me what exactly ‘It’ is and why it is so special?”, Ruby finally asked me.

“Well, first off ‘It’ is a weapon in the game for all classes that is highly sought after for it being a rare, golden weapon. Many players have searched day and night for this one considering how rare it is.”, I said to Ruby.

“How rare could a Golden fork be?”, Ruby asked me.

“Rare enough to cost up to 10,000 dollars.”, I said to Ruby.

“Oh my fucking god! Are you being serious?!”, Ruby asked me now with a shocked tone.

“I wouldn’t be freaking out over this if I wasn’t.”, I said to Ruby.

“Not only that, but you had managed- oh sweet Celestia.”, I said coming to a realization.

“Managed to what?”, Ruby asked me.

“You had managed to get the very last one. The very last one the devs are ever going to put into the game.”, I said to Ruby.

“Wait, why is this the last one they will put into the game? They know that this could bring in more players to the game with that possibility of getting another one.”, Ruby said.

“I don’t know, some bullshit about players cheating to find the next one. Plus it was also a object that caused a lot of toxicity among players to find it.”, I explained to Ruby.

It was then when I really began to start thinking about other reasons why they would never make another golden fork. One reasoning I kept thinking about was that they were running out of ideas. I realized it was a kinda stupid idea at first considering the game was about to go through a update where they gave out new maps and new weapons for the Scorcher (Which I can predict the community will not be happy about with the new weapon’s stats). It was right when I was thinking about the new update it had hit me: Maybe it wasn’t necessarily the community that was causing all the toxicity, it was rather the scammers in the community.

Scammers in any video game community with trading is inevitable, but in SF2’s case its rampant. Because it’s a free game, trading in the game is very common, with it, the community established a good running “economy” with the game using an in-game item as a currency. However, as with every economy, there are those who will do whatever it takes to get the most out of the economy without putting in much work. Hence, why the community likes to call scammers in the community “Vultures”. We call them that because most of the bigger scammers tend to go after smaller profiles who got their first rare item that is worth a lot in the SF2 economy. They target them because they are not familiar with the basic rules of trading, them being: Never send a trade that promises to check your item if it’s “clean”, Never take a deal that is too good to be true, and most importantly to never click links in messages. Now, I know I broke the most important rule earlier with links to music, but that is because I knew she wasn’t going to do any harm to me with “phishing” links.

I explained all this to Ruby, who was now understanding the importance of watching out for some attempts of scamming on her profile, especially since she now had the last golden fork that was ever put in the game.

“Holy shit, this is a lot to really take in all at once.”, Ruby said to me after hearing this tidal wave of information on the community.

“I know how you feel, it was a lot to deal with for me when my friend PJ told me about the economy.”, I said sympathising with Ruby.

“Who’s PJ?”, Ruby asked me after I mentioned Angel.

“Oh, PJ is just a friend I met a long time when I first started on Smoke, much like you meeting me.”, I explained to Ruby.

“Was he like you when he found you on Smoke randomly?”, She asked me.

“What do you mean by ‘like me’?”, I asked Ruby wondering what she meant.

“Well, was he there to help you out when you really needed help learning the game. I really like that about someone.”, Ruby elaborated to me.

“Wait, really? Why? I could be some random asshole just using you.”, I said to Ruby.

“Nah, I seriously doubt that. I feel that you would have left a long time ago if you did. Plus, you are a truly nice pony, you helped me out through a lot. With the whole issue of me and the player who tried to expose me and stuff. Even now with you letting me know about the risks of me having a rare item in SF2. And being completely honest, I really consider you to be my best friend.”, Ruby said to me.

It was when she had said those words to me was that I knew I had nothing to really be nervous about with Ruby. I knew that maybe, just maybe, she was developing the exact same feelings as me towards each other. For a moment, I stood there completely starstruck in the moment before I came back to reality.

“You really mean that?”, I asked Ruby.

“Absolutely I do. I have friends in real life that are good, but none of them truly are as good a friend as you.”, Ruby says to me with sincerity in her voice.

There was a awkward silence between us before I hesitantly said,” Hey Ruby.”

“Yes?”, Ruby asks waiting for me to say something.

I was really contemplating hard about telling her how I really felt about her. I didn’t want to ruin my chances with her by risking her thinking I am weird for wanting to go out with her online.

“Um, I have to go to work tomorrow, will I see you afterwards?”, I asked her nervously hiding what I was really trying to say.

“Uh yeah, I’ll be on. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” Ruby said with a slight tone of disappointment.

“Y-y-yeah, same to you.”, I said to Ruby before leaving the call.

“Fuck Velvet! You fucking idiot, why did you not go for it?”, I scolded at myself for not saying what I really wanted to say to her.

I put my hooves on my eyes in frustration to what had awkwardly just happened. I sighed before saying to myself, ”Fuck!”

Accepting what had just happened, I finally stood up from my chair. I looked at my clock to see it reading,”8:39 PM”. It was getting rather dark outside as the sun was setting as the lunar sky was sparkling above. I decided to wash away the frustration from earlier by taking a shower.

Stepping towards my bathroom, I noticed the glow of the moonlight from my window. It was something of a spectacle to see considering it is mostly cloudy in Hoovesiana from the constant rain. Opening the door to my bathroom, I was blessed with the fresh bathroom smell. Closing the door behind me, I glanced over at the mirror in front of my sink. I noticed that I was gaining weight. Not like the bad kind of gaining weight where a pony gets fat, but more like a gaining healthy weight. In my case, I went from some near anorexic unicorn to a moderately weighted unicorn. It must have been from me eating a little bit better thanks to Peach giving me something good for breakfast that wasn’t Red Devil’s cereal.

It was also when I started to notice that maybe, just maybe, a mare would actually find me somewhat attractive. I looked over at my rump to see that it was looking rather larger than it was before. Rubbing my hoof over the left part of my rump, I was startled by the sight of my rump giving a little jiggly as I felt more. It was startling for me because in the past my rump would just feel boney and hard. I chuckled at myself as I thought of the King song,”Fat Bottomed Mares”, as I was rubbing my rump more and more.

I managed to get broken out of my random self-rump attraction as I began to step into my shower before turning on the warm water. I used my magic to grab my shampoo to begin cleaning my mane as I began to think about what had happened tonight. It would surprise how fast your mind goes when you think about your friend managing to get a rare item that was the last of its kind, especially if it is priced at such a high price of 10,000 dollars. With that money, anypony could manage to get a decent house for themself and still have enough left over to last a little bit without a job. But still, I don’t think Ruby would do something like that since she was still in Music school at the time.

“I wonder if she has had those thoughts though, but then again this is all of a sudden so I really doubt she has.”, I said to myself in my head.

I then began to start thinking about,“what if?”

What if I had said what I truly felt about her? Would she feel the same about me and gladly go out with me? Would she think I’m a complete weirdo for asking to go out with her even though we never met face to face? Would she be so completely shocked by me trying to start a long distance relationship with her that she can only speak potato? (Believe it or not, there is a language called potato) I know I said earlier that from her saying that I was her best friend made me feel I had nothing to be nervous about around her, but at the same time I was feeling indecisive. It was a feeling of knowing something could be too good to be true. I think I would feel devastated if I really found out for sure that she didn’t feel the same way as I do.

But, then I kept thinking, “what if she actually did like me like that?” Just maybe she liked me more than a best friend.

“I mean it’s a start, right?”, I asked myself in my head.

Then I thought back about my body changing.

“Well, maybe I might look presentable. Or at least my ass does.”, I chuckle to myself before washing the rest of my body.

Finishing my shower and drying off, I decided to glance over in the mirror to fix my mane. I was fixing to put it in the messy looking style I always put it in, but that’s when I got the wildest idea. I always would go back to this messy style, but for some reason in these past couple of weeks I have been getting kinda bored of the look.

“Guess it’s time to give into the constant lecture about my mane from Peach”, I said to myself before I grab my comb with my magic.

Ever since I started with that messy style, Peach has always said how it looked bad on me. Of course I never listened since I still had the mane style for the longest time. But times were changing, so I figured that it was finally time for my mane to change.

Without even thinking, I combed my damp mane up just to see what would happen, kinda had a fear that my mane would rip from my scalp since it had never been up before. Luckily, my mane was still intact with my scalp, but now I had a whole lot of “Holy shit what the fuck is that” going on with my mane. However, the more I looked and stared at it, the more I had a crazy idea, like a “Pink Mare”, crazy idea. I got inspiration from a Ourtube creator by the name of,”T-Tag”, who made similar content to Pink Mare. The thing that set him apart was that he would also do some fan mail videos and well, lets just say his fans send him some, interesting things. For some reason, I decided to try and style my mane kind of like his.

It took trial and error, but I managed to get it just right. My mane was now no longer looking messy, but rather straightened up and back. I looked completely different now from what I looked like earlier with the messy mane. I didn’t know if it was a good look or a bad look, but what I did know was that this was a completely new me.

Stepping out of my bathroom, I was met with the bright lunar sky along with the cool air of the night. I trotted over to the window to witness the spectacle of the night up close and personal.

“Bless you Luna for this beautiful night.”, I said aloud, hoping she would hear.

But alas, no response from Luna. I got one last eyeful of the glorious night’s sky before shutting my curtains to get ready for bed. The room was in the pristine condition for a peaceful nights rest. I was welcomed by my bed that was once again patiently waiting for me. I laid down into the bed before covering myself with my blankets. I truly felt at peace laying in bed with my new mane. The nighttime sky made the peaceful mood even more tranquil.

“Good night New Saddle.”, I said before drifting off peacefully into a good night’s rest.

Never before would I wake up and actually not be tired when I hear my alarm clock blaring. Shutting off my alarm, I sat up from the bed while giving my forehooves a good morning stretch. I felt my back give a nice crack to these stretches.

“It’s gonna be a good day today”, I said to myself before standing up from the bed to grab my things to get ready to head over to the bakery.

Opening the curtains to my room, I was met with the morning light of dawn. I gave a sigh of satisfaction knowing that not only Luna was not the only one doing a beautiful job. Celestia can do just as good as her.

Turning around, I grabbed my things for work and headed for the door. The morning air was alive and well as I trotted out of my door. This was around the time where the town was mostly quiet. This was partly due to everypony being asleep or just sitting in their house getting ready for work. It was truly the calm before the storm when it came to ponies working in the streets.

I approached the door of the bakery and pushed onto it. To my surprise, the door hadn’t budged in the slightest.

“Damn, must not be here yet.”, I said to myself in my head realizing Peach wasn’t here yet.

Thankfully, there was a chair and table outside for me to sit on and wait for Peach.

It wasn’t a very long wait, but after about 4 minutes I could see Peach from the distance carrying something. Getting up from my chair, I noticed that she was stumbling a little bit with two large bags she was carrying. As she drew closer to the bakery, she had stumbled and dropped a bag.

“Hey, let me get that for you Peach.”, I said taking both bags with my magic.

“Oh thank you so much Velvet. I wasn’t blessed with having magic like you do.”, Peach said getting her keys from her satchel to open up.

As I walked into the bakery, I put the two large bags on the counter where the register was.

“Thank you again Velvet. I’m getting way to old for this.”, Peach said closing the door behind her.

“It’s no problem Peach. I noticed right away you needed help so I figured.”, I said taking in the thanks from Peach.

She trotted over to me before stopping as her eyes widened.

“Well, look who finally listened to me about fixing their mane.”, Peach said noticing the new mane.

“Does it look good?”, I asked Peach blushing.

“It looks good, better than the other mane that I didn’t like.”, Peach said to me.

“So, what were you carrying in the bags?”, I asked Peach glaring back at Peach who was now digging around in the two bags.

Peach had pulled out a white container with a clear top from each bag.

“I decided to get us a special breakfast this morning.”, Peach says giving me one of the containers.

I took the container with my magic and set it on the table by the window. As I sat down to examine the container, my eyes widened at seeing the sight of pancakes with butter inside of it. Usually when I would have breakfast with Peach, it would be something small like a biscuit or warm donut from the bakery. Never before was it something as good as this.

‘Well, are you just gonna stare at it and have it get cold sugar?”, Peach said with a smile as she sat across from me.

I used my magic to open the container before finally enjoying the fluffy pancakes from Peach.

“I can finally say that I found something better than Red Devils for breakfast.”, I said before once again going back to my pancakes.

“Something that actually has natural sugar instead of the artificial sugar crap in Red Devils.”, Peach said taking a bite of her pancakes.

It was a really nice breakfast overall, maybe even the best breakfast I had with Peach. It did lead to some conversation after we took a moment to just enjoy the nice breakfast.

“So, how have you been?”, Peach asked me.

“It’s been fine actually, I have been hanging out with friends and stuff.”, I exaggeratedly said to Peach.

I was very shy about telling her outright that my friends are online friends that play games with me because I feel I would get a lecture about not socialising “face to face” and all that stuff. I was especially shy about telling her exactly about Ruby being a griffin.

“That’s great. Have you finally started looking for a mare you like?”, Peach asked me.

“Well being honest, there is one mare that I have been talking to who I like.”, I said alluding to Ruby.

“Oh, do tell.”, Peach said wanting to know more.

“I mean there is not much to tell really. She is really kind and sweet. I just get so damn nervous talking to her. Just yesterday me and her were having a chat and I was going to tell her that I had a crush on her before just had a nervous breakdown in my head and chickened out.”, I explained to Peach mentioning what happened.

“Heh, you are just like Corn Flake”, Peach said to me chuckling.

“Who’s Corn Flake?”, I asked Peach.

“Oh, I guess I never showed you my husband.”, Peach said while pulling out a old locket chain.

She handed the locket over to me. I opened it to see a picture of a much younger Peach with a tan stallion. It was with them both sitting by a side of a barn that used to be around in New Saddle before urbanization happened.

“Oh wow, you two look so happy in this picture”, I said handing the locket back over to Peach.

“Yes, we were both happy. Makes me feel like he’s here when I look at this even though he is gone, Celestia rest his soul.”, Peach said to me.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”, I said to Peach realizing her loss.

“Oh it is fine, he did not die in vain, but anyways going back to what I was saying about you being like him. He was just like you when he had first met me; nervous speaking to me. Could barely walk next to me because of how he felt. It was one day where he got over those nervous tendencies by simply telling me how he felt in a romantic way. I’ll never forget it. Right by the barn in this locket we met under a peach tree where he confessed his love to me. It truly moved me in such a way that I could never say no to him. From that day forward, I would be at his side until he unfortunately died when we were just about to plan on having a baby.”, Peach explained to me with a longing look towards her locket before shutting it continuing,“But the point is, sometimes you really have to go with your gut and just go for it. You wouldn’t be hurting anypony if you tell them exactly how you feel about them".

“You really think it is that simple, just go up to her and tell her how I feel?”, I asked Peach.

“Absolutely I do sugar. All it takes is just you having guts over fear.”, Peach said to me.

In a way, it kind of opened my perspective on being more head-on instead of being nervous like I always am.

“Oh, the paper’s about to come in. Would you mind putting my stuff in the locker next to yours for me Velvet?”, She asked me taking my empty container to throw it away.

“Not at all Peach.”, I said before grabbing her things and walking towards the back of the bakery where the lockers were. I got to the lockers and put all my stuff into my locker and Peach’s stuff into hers. Looking at her locket one last time gave me a sense of determination, like that maybe I could do it and finally tell Ruby how I feel.

“Poor Celestia!”,Peach exclaimed in the front.

I trotted over to the front to see what was the matter.

“Is something wrong Peach?”, I asked her holding the newspaper.

“No, nothing’s wrong sugar. Just reading this newspaper of today’s news made me feel bad for this poor stallion in this headline.”, Peach said handing me the paper to read it.

I grabbed the paper to read the headline that had Peach all flustered. Glaring over it, I found the headline before gasping out of pure shock. The shocking headline and story had read:

Mounting City Pastor’s colt attempts an unexplained suicide By Pen Spades

Colt of two Mounting City Pastors, Angel Dust, was found in the middle of his suicide attempt of him falling from a cloud around two stories high from the ground before being caught by a Wonderbolt who was off duty. The Wonderbolt who wishes to be anonymous states,” If it weren’t for me being fast enough to catch him, there was no way he would’ve been able to be caught”. Though Angel was not lethally harmed in the failed attempt, he is currently in the hospital for minor injuries from him being caught for an injured wing. His parents refused to answer any questions regarding his mental state at the time of his suicide attempt....

Chapter 12

In the moment I felt the world stand completely still. Like the world had experienced a supernova in the atmosphere and left the whole world mesmerized. It almost felt like what I had read was a cruel joke pulled by the newspaper company, a very cruel one. There was no way that it could’ve been Angel, not after how happy and contempt he was just a day ago. I began shaking vigorously from the possibility that it was indeed true what I was reading. The shaking had gotten to a point where I couldn’t hold up the newspaper any longer with my magic.

“Velvet, are you okay?”, Peach asked me reacting to me dropping the newspaper to the ground.

I nearly lost touch with reality for a second as I began to softly hyperventilate reading what I had just read.

“Velvet?”, Peach asked again.

“I-I-I have to go. I-I-I’m sorry but I have to-”, I said slowly moving towards the door.

“Wait Velvet I don’t understand, what do you mean you have to go?”, Peach asked me.

“I-I can’t explain right now. I-I just need to go now.”, I said with a breaking down tone before taking off running out the door.

“Wait Velvet, VELVET!”, Peach exclaimed as she ran out after me before stopping as she left the door.

I needed to find a way and convince myself that it wasn’t true, that he was still there and not at the hospital from a suicide attempt.

I was dead set on getting home quickly to see if he was there. I didn’t care what was in my way, it had better move before it gets trampled. I didn’t really pay attention to anypony who was on the street going to work. I think I might have run into a couple of ponies, but like I said before, I didn’t care about them.

I was nearly out of breath by the time I made it back home with how fast I had ran to get home. I wish I had learned a spell used for teleporting to make traveling easier. I busted in through the door and darted straight for my PC. I knew that the only way to see if he was really at home was either by seeing if he was Online on his profile by messaging him. I frantically scrambled to try and turn on my PC.

“Come on, come on, come on.”, I said to myself in an almost panicked tone.

As my screen finally came on as the PC powered up, I quickly switched over to Smoke to see if he was online. Sad to say, I was tragically disappointed seeing his profile was offline.

“No no no no no no no. Please be on Kaos, please be on Kaos.”, I said in a completely worried tone starting to tear up.

His Kaos account said that Angel was “Away”, which was essentially an idle notification. I saw a small ray of hope by seeing this. I instantly sent a call to see if he would pick up. The call rang on and on, longer than I had wanted it to.

“God dammit Angel, please fucking pick up!”, I screamed out to myself breaking down into weeps and sobs.

He never did pick up. It caused me to slam my hoof into the desk before collapsing to the floor crying.

I knew that it was true, he tried to kill himself last night. I began to start to wonder all the reasons why he would try to kill himself. In all my thinking while I was crying, I began to blame it on me turning my back on him to play with Ruby. I felt that this was all because I was too selfish and only thought of myself and not for my best friend. I finally sat up and accepted it as it possibly was; I was the reason for my best friend to try and kill himself.

It took around 15 minutes for me to calm down enough to where I can fully think straight. I knew that I needed to know the real reason why he tried to do it. From what I could assume, it would take a week or two before he would even come out of the hospital. Even then, would he even be the same after all this? Would he still be his former self? I didn’t want to take the gamble to find out. I needed to find out from him as soon as I possibly could, even if it meant me going way out of my comfort zone with me never meeting or even seeing them before hoof.

As I stood up and began to pace outside my doorstep, I decided to grab a newspaper out of the box that has a full production of them. I decided to read more on the story to maybe try and piece more and more parts of this plan together. Thankfully the article had the name of the hospital he was staying at.

It was all set, I needed to get to Teche Medical Center in Mounting City as fast as I could. I quickly ran back inside to grab my hoodie that I kept in case it ever got cold and some money for me to pay for the carriage to get to Mounting City. I knew that since Mounting City was in northern Whoovesiana, it was gonna be colder up there than it is here in New Saddle. Grabbing all my things and locking up the house, I quickly trotted over to a nearby carriage station.

Carriage stations are a savior for anypony who happens to need to travel a far distance who isn’t a Pegasus. All you really need to do is find an open carriage, tell the pony pulling the carriage where to go and you would be on your way. Funny that they are slowly trotting with a carriage behind them, yet it always feels quicker when you are riding rather than trotting over to where you want to go.

Making my way to the nearest open carriage, I threw on my hoodie. I felt cold, most likely from me feeling on edge from earlier. Whenever I feel uncomfortable or on edge I always get chills and feel cold. Never really understood why, so I just accepted it for what it was. As I approached the open coach, the stallion pulling the coach quickly noticed me walking up.

“Ah, hello there. I take it you need to travel somewhere far?”, The stallion asked me.

“Yeah. Can you take me to Teche Medical Center in Mounting City as quick as possible?”, I asked him.

“Absolutely I can make it there, as long as you can pay for it.”, He told me.

“I have money for the ride. I just need to get there fast.”, I said showing him the money for the coach.

“Alright, just hop in the back and we’ll get moving in a little bit.”, the stallion told me.

I nodded and headed in the coach.

The inside of the carriage was a bit small for fitting a whole bunch of ponies all at once, but thankfully I was riding alone so it was rather roomy. It also had a set of two seats that faced each other, one in the back and one in the front. I decided to sit near the front of the carriage because it was near a window that was on the other side of the side with the door. Hearing the last little click towards the front let me know that it was the beginning; the beginning of the longest journey I’ve ever taken.

About halfway in my ride to get to my friend in time, I began to have a real insightful thought about what I was doing. How absolutely fucking crazy I was for going to meet Angel in person for the first time unannounced, I still don’t know. All I knew was that I needed to be there to find out why he did what he did. But more importantly I needed to be there for my friend, especially after me skipping out on him yesterday.

Fuck me.”, I quietly said to myself thinking more and more about how insane my plan was.

“So who are you going to visit?”, The stallion pulling the carriage outside asked me.

I was almost startled hearing somepony talk to me due to me being so deep into a thought.

“I’m sorry?”, I asked him wondering what he said.

“Who are you going to visit? I assume you are visiting somepony at the hospital since you weren’t running up to me begging for me to take you to the hospital because of some serious injury.”, The stallion inquired about my situation.

“Oh. Yeah, I’m uh, visiting a friend who was acquitted there.”,I explained to him. “Oh I see. Oh, how rude of me! My name’s Caramel Crunch.”, he told me. “Red Velvet.”, I said introducing myself to Caramel.

“So, do you mind telling me what your friend is there for?”, Caramel asked me. “Well I uh-”, I said stammering.

It was one thing to think about what I was doing, but it was a completely different ballgame actually explain what I was doing without sounding crazy.

“You’re not going about trying to stalk some nurse there, are you?”, Caramel asked sternly.

“No no, not at all that. I don’t even know any nurses who work there.”, I said nervously reacting to his stern tone.

“Good. I have had some ponies in the past try to do that to the good mares who work there. I can’t stand anypony who would do that to somepony.”, Caramel said backing down from his more assertive tone.

“You sound like you have a deep appreciation to the nurses that work there.”, I assumed about Caramel.

“Deep? That’s not enough to describe the appreciation to those mares who managed to fix my amputated hoof.”, Caramel said to me.

“Wait, amputated hoof?”, I ask in surprise hearing this.

“Yeah, did you not see it when you first saw me?”, Caramel asked me.

It didn’t catch my attention at the time because I was more focused on getting to Mounting City, but I saw a little glimpse of Caramel’s right front hoof. It had looked like a bandana covering a hoof, maybe some ponies use it for comfort when traveling. Now looking back it did look shiny for a bandana, it also looked more solid than a soft bandana.

“No way. How did you lose it if you don’t mind me asking”, I asked wanting to know.

“Well back when I used to work at a candy shop, I was in charge of making some of the caramel. More specifically the hard ones. Now they require a lot of heat to make them get hard and stay hard. I was heating up a soft batch of caramel when all of a sudden the bowl tipped over. If I hadn’t moved quick enough it would’ve been the end of me. Unfortunately my hoof wasn't as lucky as the rest of my body.”, Caramel explained to me.

“Holy shit. That must’ve hurt.”, I said to Caramel.

“Oh it did. Thankfully I was able to get to the hospital in time to get it amputated by the wonderful nurses over there.”, Caramel said to me.

“Well, glad to see that you are doing better.”, I said expressing my gratitude to Caramel opening up to me.

“Yeah. So now will you tell me what your friend is doing in the hospital for?”, Caramel asked once again.

After him opening up to me like that, I couldn’t just leave him with curiosity.

“Well, you hear about the pegasus that attempted suicide in Mounting City?”, I asked Caramel.

“Yeah, I had read about it earlier in this morning’s paper.”, Caramel told me.

“Well, that’s my friend who I am visiting.”, I explain to Caramel. “Well you’re a mighty long way from Mounting City, were you on vacation or something?”, Caramel asked me.

“N-no. Um, it’s gonna sound weird but uh, I am friends with him online.”, I elaborated with Caramel.

“Ah I see. I’m not one to use online services like you, but I guess it’s understandable. One thing I do want to know though: Why would you come all this way for a stallion you never met?”, Caramel asked me.

“It’s a lot of things really. I guess the one thing that is motivating me to go through with all of this is the fact that he’s been my only true best friend since I was a colt. I felt that it’s the least I could do for him with all he’s gone through. Even if it’s a lot to take in at once meeting for the first time without letting him know before hoof.”, I said losing myself in my rambling.

“Wow. I never realized how deep a friendship could go like that. You two must’ve been the best of friends. Especially if one of you is willing to go all this way to meet them.”, Caramel told me hearing all of this.

“Yeah, you could say that.”, I told him before looking back out the window again during the ride.

Thanks to me being able to conversate with a rather nice pony, the ride to Mounting City felt short. I knew I was in the city feeling how awfully cold it felt.

“Here I am Angel. I hope that you are doing ok.”, I told myself in my head.

Looking at the view from the window automatically gave me the feeling that I truly far from home. The streets were not as crowded as it was back in New Saddle. It felt more like the stereotypical city streets of a city like Manehattan. A bunch of ponies in suits and dresses with some holding a briefcase or bag.

After about five minutes of cruising along in Mounting City, I felt the carriage come to a stop.

“Hey Velvet. We’re here.”, Caramel told me.

I slowly scooted towards the door of the carriage before opening it to take in the unfamiliar Mounting City air. I felt my hooves go numb stepping on the ground after the long ride. Once I felt my hooves get a full feeling of the ground below them, I got to take a glance at the Teche Medical Center. It was a rather large building for a hospital. Almost the size of a huge mall. It almost was a spectacle to see. Once I was finished being mesmerized by the hospital’s size, I turned back to face Caramel.

“So, how much do I owe you for the ride and for you to hang around for a bit?”, I asked Caramel.

“Don’t worry about it. You go in there and be there for your friend. I’ll hang around here and wait for you.”, Caramel said nodding with approval.

“Thanks. I really appreciate it Caramel.”, I said thanking Caramel for letting me ride for free.

With that, I approached the door to the hospital that held my friend.

“No turning back now Velvet.”, I told myself before stepping inside.

As I stepped inside the hospital, I quickly realized how glad I was in bringing my hoodie along with me. I had never been in a hospital before nor planned to go to one, but I could tell it was not a place I would like to be with how cold it felt inside. It almost felt like it cold store packaged meat inside of it. The coldness of the lobby had distracted me from my goal: finding out where Angel was.

I made my way towards the front desk where there was a nurse working with another nurse by filing some paper or something. As I approached the desk, the nurse with a purple mane and grey fur coat noticed me walking up.

“Can I help you sir?”, the nurse asked me.

“Yeah. I’m here visiting a stallion who is in for an injury. Angel Dust is who I am looking for.”, I said to the nurse.

“Give me one moment to look up which room he is in. If you would like, you can take a seat in those benches.”, The Nurse said pointing at the benches.

“Thank you.”, I said before turning around to sit down at the benches.

Who would’ve thought after all this sitting around in a carriage for a long journey I would feel slightly tired. It felt good that I can finally sit down and relax for a little bit knowing that I was right there where I needed to be. It was literally in a matter of minutes I would be able to finally be there and know why my best friend did what he did. I knew that it was gonna be a little bit awkward with us meeting under these circumstances, but sometimes certain circumstances will cause you to do things that are completely out of your comfort zone.

Sitting down, I noticed some of the ponies that were there in the waiting room like I was. I saw a couple that were holding a small unicorn in their hooves. From the looks of it, it must’ve been the newest edition to their family. The family looked so happy holding their new foal for the first time. It was a feeling I was long unfamiliar with because of both my parents dying when I was around 12. I did have memories of them when I was around that age, but never to the extent of me when I was a foal. Thinking about them has always been a tough thing for me to do without getting emotional about it. I loved them both so much as a colt, but then seeing them taken away in such a tragic way was almost shell shocking. It really fucked me up for the longest time. Thankfully I had Peach and Angel to help me get into a state of happiness that had prevented me from ending up well…...like where Angel had ended up.

“Excuse me sir?”, The nurse from the desk said to get my attention.

I stood back up and trotted over to the desk.

“Did you manage to find which room he is in?”, I asked the nurse.

“Yes sir. He is in room 317 on the third floor. Do make sure to knock first if you go in. He has been through a lot of trauma.”, The nurse warned me.

“Ok, thank you.”, I said to the nurse before heading towards the elevator.

I pushed the button to the elevator and waited for a little bit until I heard the elevator bell ding. Once it had dinged the door had opened up. Once I stepped inside I pressed the button with the number 3 on it and saw the door close. However, there was a doctor that was running towards it in a hurry.

“Nein! Holds ze elevator door!”, The doctor yelled from the distance. Right before the door had closed, I managed to stop it in time for me to slip a hoof in to hold it for this doctor.

“Vielen Dank! I thought you might’ve not have been able to open ze door in time.”, The doctor said once he got into the elevator and pressed the button with the number 5.

As the door closed I felt the elevator move up. This doctor who was next to me was a unicorn who was grey and had a black mane. For some reason he made me uneasy, like he was more than just a doctor. Am I going too far as to assume he is also a creepy unicorn who also kills other ponies? Probably.

Once I reached my floor, I quickly rushed out of the elevator to avoid being anymore uncomfortable with this doctor. As I walked around, I managed to find the room I was looking for. Outside of the door, I found these two older looking pegasuses on a bench. The stallion pegasus with a brown mane and snow white coat was cradling the mare pegasus with a navy mane and blue coat in his hooves. The mare had looked like she had been crying for hours and hours. I could safely assume that they were Angel’s parents.

I walked over to them before Angel’s dad noticed me walking up. His face looked truly devastated, like everything he loved had just disappeared from him.

“C-can I help you son?”, Angel’s dad asked me in a low, saddened voice.

By this point, Angel’s mother had looked up with tears rolling down her face looking at me.

“I uh, came to v-visit your foal. I’m his friend. I uh- don’t believe we had met before.”, I said Angel’s father.

“Friend? A-a-angel had never mentioned anything about a friend. Well, apart from his old group of friends who went off to do, other things.”, Angel’s father said to me.

“Well, s-s-sir. I would like to see him. After the whole situation of him-”, I said before Angel’s mother begins to sob more against Angel’s father.

I felt bad bringing up this fact again to the almost traumatized parents of Angel.

“-doing what he did. I’m so sorry for all that you’ve been through.”, I finished thinking carefully about what words to use.

After he managed to calm down his wife, Angel’s father gave me an approving nod.

“Just be careful with my son, I pray to Celestia he will be alright. My precious son.”, He said before starting to cry as well. I knew that feeling all to well.

The feeling of losing everything even though it wasn’t really gone.

As I looked back at them one last time, I knew how dire the situation must’ve been on them, especially with how nice they seem. I gripped the door with my magic and turned the knob. I nervously opened the door and stepped in. I shut the door behind me, right before seeing him. I saw a pegasus with a navy mane and turquoise coat with a hospital gown in a hospital bed. He was laying on his side facing a window that was opposite of the door I had just entered. The pegasus must’ve felt my presence in the room, as he slowly sat up and faced me. That’s when I knew it was him, it was really him. It was Angel Dust, in the flesh.

Chapter 13

“W-who are you?”, Angel asked me with a somber tone.

I almost didn’t know what to do. Here I am finally meeting one of my real friends face to face, yet it isn’t as exciting as I thought it was gonna be. Instead, I felt a little depressed seeing my friend in a hospital bed after he had attempted to kill himself. I didn’t even know what to say, considering I never told him before hoof that I would meet him. Yet, somehow, I managed to say all I needed to say when making my first impression on him now starting to calm down.

“Let’s just say, I am a friend who is here for his best friend who he owes a lot too.”, I said to Angel who was now slowly perking up with his eyes widening.

I stepped closer to his bed as I noticed his stare became more and more shocked.

“Especially with all you’ve been through, Angel.”, I said putting a hoof on the side of his bed.

He was now having a few tears falling down his face upon hearing this.

“V-V-Velvet?”, Angel asked slowly moving his hoof towards mine.

It was at this moment I couldn’t hold my tears either, as I let tears slowly give way as I gave him a nod letting him know it was me. His hoof almost swiftly took me by surprise as he put his hoof around me and pulled me in for a tight hug. It took me by surprise, but it was a welcome one, as I embraced my friend who was now slowly weeping over my shoulder. I took him in deeper as I began to cry a little as well. I never knew how much I meant to a pony before this. In this hug I knew that Angel wouldn’t have ever been okay until I showed up unexpectedly.

Once he managed to get all of his tears out, he spoke.

“I-I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t-I didn’t know what I was-”, Angel said before I cut him off.

“Shhhhh. It’s ok. You shouldn’t be the one apologizing here.”, I said to Angel.

“Wh-What do you mean?”, Angel asked.

“It’s my fault. I should’ve been there to hang out with you yesterday. I was selfish and left you alone where you….did what you did.”, I explained to Angel.

“No, it wasn’t you. It was never your fault for this.”, Angel said before pulling away from the hug.

“Then what was it? I need to know Angel.”, I asked him.

He just stared at me for a second before he let out a huge sigh.

“Let’s…..not worry about it now. I want to kinda catch up with you more personally and stuff. I-I think it will help me out with how I feel about everything right now. Do you mind?”, Angel asked.

I knew he was being evasive, but I felt I owed it to him after all he’s been through.

“Not at all Angel. Not at all”.

We managed to talk for a good bit. It was mostly about where I was when he attempted and what I was doing. He found it absolutely crazy how I had completely ran away from work hearing about his situation. Angel also found it completely nuts about how much the paper’s give away about an event, as he understood how I found out where he was from the newspaper article.

Angel also talked about the pegasus who managed to catch him. He said that he knew it was a wonderbolt who saved him because he recognized the mane being a rainbow color, sadly he didn’t know who exactly the wonderbolt was. Probably some pony who could fly fast, probably could clear an entire course in ten seconds flat. I did want to draw attention away from the whole situation and instead asked him more about his parents. To which he didn’t want to talk about either.

It didn’t feel right. Something must’ve been wrong. All those times I wanted to talk about something, he would reject. I knew that he was hiding something, and that something was the reason why he tried to do it. I knew if I was gonna figure out what caused all this, I needed to be more assertive with my way of wanting to know more. I closed my eyes and let out a slightly frustrated sigh sitting next to Angel’s bed.

“What’s wrong Velvet?”, Angel asked me.

“Look, I am happy to see you doing fine now and that you didn’t die. But I’m frustrated with this Angel.”, I said pointing over at him.

“Frustrated with what?”, Angel asked sitting up from his bed.

“Frustrated with this stalling. I continuously keep asking more and more about what happened. Yet everytime I ask, you always end up being evasive with answering it. I’m tired of it Angel, tell me what is going on. Why did you try to go through all of this?”, I asked now with a demanding tone.

He could tell right away that he couldn’t hold this up forever, as he gave out a sigh before speaking softly with a somber look.

“It all started the day before yesterday. I know I had seemed like I had completely given up on that Golden Fork, but in all actuality I was hoping that you would find it. I thought that if you would get it you would share half of the profit from it with me because of what I told you before with my dream. When I found out that another player had found it and wasn’t you, I felt I had lost everything. I felt that all my dreams of leaving this fucking hell hole to do what I really want to do had fallen away from me. What made it worse is that I had no pony to sympathize with in that moment. I felt I was truly alone”, Angel said as he began to look over at me.

“I began to realize that I was alone because of how different I was with the rest of my family. I was in a family where they were all a preacher of some sort and none of them ever wanted to venture away from Hoovesiana. They all wanted to stay here and be traditional. Whereas I wanted to be different and wanted to go out and explore all that I was missing in this place. I told everypony in my family about my dream, and they all thought I was crazy. Even my own parents thought that. They never understood how much it meant to me to leave this place. I began to feel like such a black sheep that I felt that I didn’t matter to my family. I felt that hey didn’t care about what I wanted because I was so different from the rest of them. I felt that if I had gone away forever they wouldn’t even care. I-I felt like I had nothing left. My dreams were gone, my family doesn’t care, I’m better off-”, Angel says before slowly breaking down again.

It genuinely hurt me to see Angel go through all of this, especially right there next to him. I knew that it wasn’t going to take the regular,”You know that’s not true. A lot of ponies care about you `` phrase to cheer him up. It was gonna have to be something that I knew how to relate with Angel, something I knew all too well.

“Angel, you are not alone feeling this way. I know the feeling of having nothing all too well.”, I said to Angel with a more gloomy tone.

Angel sniffles a little bit before looking back up.

“Wh-what do you mean? Do your parents not care about you?”, Angel asked me.

Then it hit me like a flashback, like I was reliving the moment it happened.

“It was around five years ago when it happened. Both my parents were leaving to go on an anniversary trip. They both had decided to leave me home alone for the week. My father constantly said how I was getting older and one day would need to take care of myself. My mother was also nervous about it at first, but soon got into the idea of me by myself for a week.”I said, letting out a small chuckle remembering about my mom constantly being nervous for my sake.

“Anyway, they had left for their anniversary trip, leaving me to take care of myself. They were going to travel by carriage to New Neighlans. Little did we know at the time there was a huge storm that was coming from New Neighlans. The storm was the infamous ‘Kat Storm’ of Hoovesiana. When it happened, I was scared that the storm would flood my house where I was alone with no pony but myself. I prayed to Celestia that the house wouldn’t flood and that everything would be okay. Thankfully, the house didn’t flood and everything seemed okay. But then, about two days later there was a knock on the door. To my surprise it wasn’t my parents. Rather, it was a royal guard who was surprised to see me open the door. He had come by the house to tell me that-”, I said before I sniffled out of sadness before reiterating.

“He said that he was taking some ponies to a safe shelter away from the flood. That was when he told me that he saw their carriage floating down with both of them inside. He tried to fly after them in time to save them, but by then the carriage had tipped over a-and sank, t-taking them both down with it. He swam down to try and get them out of there. H-he said that as he swam down, he saw my father trying to swim up with my mother in his hooves. He said that he was truly trying to get out of there to the surface. But soon he ran out of air. The guard managed to grab them and take them to the surface. He tried to do CPR on them, but by then it was too late”, I said to Angel who was now sitting up.

“It was on that day it all changed for me. I felt that I truly had nothing left. Yes, I might have gotten all the money they left behind, but it didn’t matter to me. I lost my parents, and there was nothing I could do about it.”, I said before looking back up at Angel.

“I felt I lost everything until I met you on Smoke. That was when I learned that ,no matter what, you may think if you are alone when you’re not. That pony that is with you will always be there to help you out of that dark place. For me that ‘pony’ was you. And right now I want to be that ‘pony’ for you Angel because I love you, you brought me out of a dark place”, I said to Angel telling him my appreciation to him as a friend, who is now more calm.

“Velvet, you really mean that? I mean that much to you?”, Angel asked.

“I mean it, I would hate to see something like this happen to you again.”, I said to Angel.

Angel had a look of self confusion before looking back at me.

“Velvet, I-”, Angel says before putting his hoof on my hoof.

I looked into his eyes to listen to what he had to say. Then, in what seemed like it came from out of nowhere, Angel pushed himself onto me to plant a deep kiss. My eyes began widening from this sudden kiss from Angel. I didn’t really know how to react besides sit there with his lips against mine with my eyes wide open. After about fifteen seconds, Angel pulled away seeing my shocked face. I made it very apparent that I had no idea, that he was gay.

“What, was it- not good?”, Angel asked me seeing my shocked look.

I didn’t know what to do at all even after the fact. I had never kissed a pony, let alone a stallion. What made it worse was that I was never attracted to stallions, yet here I am being kissed by my best friend.

“Oh Celestia I am so sorry.”, Angel said in a slight panic realizing that I wasn’t referring to the love as “lover love”.

By this point i managed to snap back to reality and finally say something.

“N-No, it’s ok. I should’ve said that it was more like a ‘brotherly’ type of love.”, I said to Angel to try and fix this awkward situation.

“Yeah, remember what I said about me being different from my family? That’s one other way I am different.”, Angel said to me blushing.

“Yeah, I noticed. I’m sorry. I don’t swing that way.”, I said blushing.

Thankfully, there was a doctor who walked into the room, and sadly it was the one doctor I hoped wouldn’t be Angel’s. That grey unicorn was back, and now I could see a full glimpse of his name tag: Dr. Greyheart. “I’m very sorry to interrupt, but it is time for ze patient to be checked upon.”, Dr. Greyheart says.

“Um, yeah. Give me one second.”, I said to Greyheart before turning over to Angel with a concerned look.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll probably be back in about a week or so. Go, cause I know you might have some time to maybe check in for work you missed.”, Angel said, pointing at the clock that read 10:30. I still had time.

“Ok then, I-I’ll see you later hopefully. G-Get Well soon Angel.”, I said stumbling over like a drunk pony trying to hurry out the room.

Stepping outside, I saw Angel’s parents asleep on each other. I guess that is the appropriate thing to do when ever you go through stress to that level: Sleep the stress and worry away.

I managed to get back to Caramel quick enough to tell him to try and hurry back to New Saddle as fast as he could, albeit in a way where I was being vague for the sake of trying to make it back in time and hopefully not be fired by Peach. I was rarely late for work most days of the week, but never once have I ditched work without explaining.

“Oh Celestia, I am really gonna have to explain this to her without sounding stupid. Fuck Velvet!, Why’d you have to run off like that with no explanation?”, I scolded myself quietly.

Not to assume anything about Peach, but with her being an older mare I don’t think she would understand me going to visit a “friend” who I met online at a hospital. In fact, I think she would call me stupid for even doing something like this, or at least I think she would.

To kind of change my mind about this, I thought a little bit more about Ruby from this whole “friend online in distress” ordeal. I thought a little bit more specifically about that night where she had come to me for when she was exposed by that player. The more I thought about it, the more I kept thinking about how maybe there was a chance that Ruby liked me. The reason I kept going back to was that she came to me first, where she could’ve gone to some of her other friends on her list. She could have really trusted me like that, and maybe have developed feelings to help her with something so personal. At the same time, there was this feeling that it maybe was too good to be true to assume that about her. That was mainly caused by her calling me the “best friend she had ever had”. Some ponies would argue that maybe she had feelings for you because of being her best friend. Although some ponies would make the counter argument that it was a clear sign of being friend-zoned. I sighed loudly in the carriage on the way back.

Caramel must’ve heard my sighs, as he was quick to respond to it.

“Did it not go well at the hospital?”, Caramel asked me.

“Oh, no it went well. Just thinking about other stuff when I get back to deal with.”, I said to Caramel while looking out the window of the carriage.

“Like what?”, Caramel asked me.

“Well, I don’t think you would understand. To be honest, I think you would even find me stupid for thinking about it.”, I said with a slightly embarrassed tone. “Try me. As an ex candy shop worker and carriage puller, I have heard some crazy stories where they have the most bone headed ponies tell it. From what I can tell from you so far is that you are far from being bone headed.”, Caramel sa to me trying to get me comforted.

It was hard to really find a reason not to open up to him based on all he has opened with me so far with his hoof.

“Well, it’s about this friend who I like. Me and her are really good friends, and I have some feelings for her.”, I explained to Caramel.

“That doesn’t sound so stupid. Sounds like a regular Friday night for me with all the drunk ponies I pull in Bourbon Avenue.”, Caramel says coincidently pulling alongside the street.

“Well the thing is, me and her have not met face to face.”, I said nervously to Caramel.

“Oh, I see. So it’s like your friend who you just visited.”, Caramel said.

“Right. I really want to be her boyfriend, but I know I sound crazy for wanting to be in love with a friend online. Plus I feel that maybe she doesn’t feel the same about me.”, I said to Caramel.

“Well anything is possible. I mean, you just said how you were best friends with a pony who was in the hospital. I assume he felt the same about you when he saw you for the first time as a friend?”, Carmel asked me.

I then got a flashback of him kissing me unexpectedly.

“Heh, Yeah. You could say that.”, I said with a slight chuckle.

“Then I feel that it is possible for you to have a relationship with her. Although I feel that with online relationships it’s a hit or miss with who you meet.”, Caramel said.

“What do you mean by ‘hit or miss’”, I asked Caramel.

“Well, I assume there are some cases where you don’t meet a pony at all.”, Caramel explained to me.

“She’s not a pony.”, I said to Caramel.

“Oh, then I assume she must be a unicorn or pegasus?”, Caramel asked.

“No. Um, how do I explain this without sounding so crazy? Well….. She’s neither a pegasus or unicorn. She is a Griffin.”, I explained before feeling the carriage stop suddenly.

“Oh my. I can see why you would sound crazy.”, Caramel said with a slightly concerning voice.

“Look, I know the whole stigma of what other ponies think of griffins here in Hoovesiana. I have seen it my for myself, but I disagree with all of it. I feel that they are misunderstood and maybe, even likeable. Once you really get to know one they aren’t bad at all. All this whole speciesism thing against griffons, it’s just out of ignorance. They are just misunderstood, that’s all. It took me by surprise, but I ended up falling in love with one because it felt right. Like I didn’t want to see anything bad happen to her.”, I said trying to explain thoroughly to Caramel.

There was a brief pause between us before Caramel spoke.

“Well, like I said before, anything’s possible. Even what you want, it’s possible. Although it sounds a bit insane to anypony who lives here in Hoovesiana. However, based on everything you’ve said about her and how you feel, I feel that you can make it work.”, Caramel told me.

“But how do I simply go about asking her if she feels the same about me?”, I asked Caramel.

“Sometimes there is no way to ‘simply go about asking’. You just have to do it. Although my advice, maybe try doing something that you both enjoy, maybe more so her enjoying online and then after all is done, just ask her. If you feel she is the one and she feels you are the one, then you have nothing to worry about.”, Caramel advised me before moving the carriage again.

“Yeah, maybe”.

On the way back I thought more and more about what Caramel said. I tried to think of something that me and Ruby could do together for when I ask her out. At first, I thought maybe play some SF2 together, but we do that all the time together that it wouldn’t feel as special. Then, I got an idea based on how we met. We had met in VRCinema. So maybe we could do something like maybe listen to more music together in a server, maybe even pull up some other videos of other Ourtube creators. I remember her talking about her favorite channel on Ourtube,”SkorchCynical”. Never really heard of the channel, but I guess I could figure out what the channel does if we do it. It was settled: The night I ask her how she feels about me being her boyfriend, will be after we hang out just like we met in VRCinema. The perfect plan, hopefully nothing would go wrong with it.

I had kind of forgotten I was in a carriage on my way back to the bakery, as it took me a little while to piece together where Caramel had stopped.

“We’re here, it looks empty.”Caramel told me.

“Oh damn. I hope I made it in time. Thanks so much for going through this. Here, I feel it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t pay you”, I said reaching into my hoodie to grab some money.

“No, don’t pay me. If you do want to pay me back, come by to hang out, you are not a bad pony to hang out with.”, Caramel told me as I stepped out of the carriage.

“Y-yes absolutely I’ll hang out. Um, yeah. I kind of have to go no so-”, I said before looking back at the door of the bakery.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll see you around Velvet. You better come by soon.”, Caramel said waving a hoof.

“Yeah, I’ll see you around.”, I say to Caramel waving as he leaves. I then turned around to the door to see if it wasn’t locked yet.

Thankfully, the bakery was still open. Stepping inside, I was greeted by all the workers staring at me as if I commited a murder.

“Uh, hi guys.”, I said nervously to all of the ponies working. None of them had anything to say, but all their looks simply said,” You fucked up not being here”.

“Oh fuck me.”, I said to myself in my head as I walk into the back past the starstruck workers.

Something about their looks also said that I might be in some hot shit for this.

Stepping in to the back, I was almost startled by Peach who was sitting on a stool who looked like she was waiting for me.

“Um, h-h-hey Peach.”, I said nervously seeing Peach.

She let out a disappointed sigh before turning back over to me.

“Sugar, I want you to know that I’m not mad at you for what you did this morning.”, Peach said before standing up to walk over to me before saying,”But friend, you better explain yourself really good for your sake.”

Author's Note

Uh Oh

Chapter 14

Imagine yourself in this very situation: You are following a balloon that you want to grab. The balloon then flies into a building. Instead of paying attention to what the building is, you run after it because you are a stallion who just wants to get that balloon for the sake of making sure the balloon is ok. So, being the dumb stallion you are, you go into the building. You continue to follow the balloon until it comes to a complete halt in a open hallway. You manage to grab the ballon and cherish the moment, only to be stopped by a stallion in a guard outfit. The guard then proceeds to ask you what you are doing out of your cell. You being a stallion who didn’t pay attention to the building would then realize he stumbled into a mental asylum. You then realize that you have to try and explain that you were only grabbing a balloon to make sure it didn’t pop without seeming crazy and the guard thinks you are a total psychopath who escaped their cell. You have that situation in your head? Good, because that described this whole situation of me trying explaining to Peach why I ran off from work without telling her about my friend in the paper.

Somehow, with luck on my side, I managed to explain it to Peach well, and I managed to get off the hook. Well, sort of off the hook.

“You know that you leaving like this is unacceptable, even though you had good intentions with leaving. I’m sorry, but I can’t let this go without a consequence.”, Peach told me.

I thought that it was it for me.

“I know. I’ll just grab my things and go.”, I said to Peach with a sad tone.

Peach then arched her eyebrows with a confused look.

“What? I wasn’t going to fire you sugar. Not for this.”, Peach said to me putting a hoof on my shoulder.

“But I just abandoned work for a day. I barely came in for the last hour or so of work.”, I tried to explain to Peach with a surprised look.

“You are right. You did abandon work, especially on a day a couple came in looking for a red velvet wedding cake.”, Peach said with a stern look.

Upon me hearing this, I nervously scratched the back of my neck.

“But, it was just one day you missed. If this were a repeated case, then yes I would have fired you. Granted, this is a time you hadn’t explained anything this morning about where you were going.”, Peach said to me.

“Then, what’re you gonna do with me?”, I asked Peach.

“One day with no pay. No point in you getting paid for a day you completely missed.”, Peach said before walking past me towards the front.

I was perfectly ok with not being paid for a day, it sure beats being fired that’s for sure.

“Peach wait!”, I exclaimed to her before she stopped at the door to look at me.

“Yes sugar?”, Peach asked me.

“Thanks for understanding what had happened. I promise it won’t happen again.”, I told her expressing my gratitude.

“It’s okay Velvet, You tended to a friend in need. Just next time when you do it, actually let me know instead of running off. Okay sugar?”, Peach asked me as she grinned slightly.

I nodded as she walked away in front of the bakery.

In the rest of my 45 minutes in the bakery for the day, I stayed in the back to wait for Peach to let me know the day was over. I even did a little bit of cleaning in the back. I never really noticed how dirty the back was until I cleaned it. Then again, anypony notices how dirty something is once they really start to clean it. After a little while of sweeping up dust, Peach came in from the front.

“You ready to go sugar?”, Peach asked me.

“Yeah, I was just sweeping up a bit.”, I said putting the broom off to the side.

Peach gave a small chuckle seeing me save the broom.

“What?”, I asked her.

“I’m sorry sugar. Just seeing you with a broom reminds me of when your dad used to work in the back just like you do. Granted, he started out as a janitor for the bakery.”, Peach said letting out a last chuckle at the end.

“My dad was a janitor here?”, I asked Peach.

“Mhmm. He started working here as janitor before he started making wedding cakes.”, Peach told me.

“Wait. If he worked on wedding cakes, how did he end up working in the front? I thought that cakes are only made in the back.”, I asked her.

“Well, that was because your father could never be apart from your mother. I had introduced your father White Velvet to your mother Chocolate Pie who was working at the front of the bakery at the time. Ever since then, those two would would never leave each other’s side until the old boss told them to politely save it for later. Once I took over the business, I decided that it would only be right for them to be next to each other when they worked.”, Peach explained to me.

“Oh wow, I wish I had Dad’s confidence for me with my friend.”, I told Peach.

“It’ll come eventually. I know it will.”, Peach said holding the door for me as I walked out from the back of the bakery.

I said my goodbyes to Peach as she locked up the bakery for the afternoon. The afternoon felt a lot warmer than it was all the way in Mounting City. It wasn’t necessarily hot to the point where I wanted to take off my hoodie, but you could feel the difference in temperatures between the two towns. It was rather cozy, like a feeling of true equilibrium of warm and cool.

Trotting back home, I had passed by this saloon looking club called the “Daffodil Club” that was always open. For a small local club, it was huge. It kinda resembled a diner with enough room for a jukebox and an area for a bunch of ponies to dance. It had a decent amount of ponies in it right now, but in the evening it gets a little more alive. The Daffodil Club is really the only reason ponies come by to visit New Saddle, well that and Cakes+Confections.

The Daffodil Club is famous among a lot of couples in the area. You rarely ever see anypony by themselves in there. At night is when they have loud music going where ponies can dance and have a good time (I’ve even heard rumors that sometimes when it’s real late at night that the “real fun stuff” happens with couples, not really sure if it’s true though). I liked to imagine that one day if I was lucky with Ruby she and I would be coming here.

“Heh, like that’ll ever happen Velvet.”, I told myself.

Getting home, I felt a sweet feeling of coming home after a journey. The feeling was more of a tired feeling than a sweet feeling. For me , it felt like a long day even though it was around lunch time.

“Ah fuck it. Might as well rest up for a little bit.”, I said to myself contemplating whether I should stay up or rest.

I took off my hoodie and tossed it over to the basket of clothes. I trotted over to my bed before laying down in the covers. I layed there before my eyes began to feel heavy when everything went to black as I drifted to sleep.

Remember when I was talking about a mental asylum earlier? Well, you are probably going to think that I belong to a mental asylum after I explain this part to you: I sometimes have very vivid dreams of my parents where they talk to me about my situations. It sounds crazy, I know. You are probably thinking that I also believe that they are out there somewhere hiding out in a cave waiting for me. Thankfully, you are wrong. I know they are dead, dead as a doornail in fact, but for some reason they feel real in these dreams. I don’t know if it’s their spirits connecting with me or if Luna is pulling some strings to make this happen. Whatever the reason is, it feels real. Like it feels like it’s really them speaking to me and not some fantasy of what I wish they would be. To give you an example of what it’s like, here is what had happened when I had fallenl asleep that day.

In the dream, I wake up in the same location: a hill with this oak tree that stands tall. Don’t know why, it’s always an oak tree. I stood up from under the tree to see the same two ponies I always see in these occasional dreams: my father White Velvet and my mother Chocolate Pie. Everytime I see them, I always end up running up to them and hug them tight. The same could be said for this one as well, as it even made White react to my hug to them both.

“Whoa whoa whoa! Easy son! We may look strong together, but that doesn’t mean that you can just run head first into us.”, My father said to me before holding me tight.

At this point, I always tear up a little bit from the “sight” of seeing my parents again.

“I-I’m sorry. I just really miss you guys. I-I wish I could’ve been there o-one last time to say goodbye to you both b-b-before-”, I said before Chocolate shushed me.

“It’s okay Velvet, we miss you too. Not a day passes by where me and your father wish to be there with you.”, Chocolate comforted me with a soft tone.

The one thing I love the most about my mother is how truly nice she was. If you were to speak with her, based on her voice you could tell she would never hurt a soul. My father had that same tone a little bit, but it had a conception of how he could be stern when you spoke with him.

We held each other for a little longer, mainly for me to kinda calm down from tearing up. Once I finally managed to calm down, I began to wonder why they were here again. I was certainly happy to see them, but everytime I would see them in my dreams it would be for a certain reason. One time it was because of being more assertive in dealing with ponies who had bullied me going outside when I was younger. Another being me helping out this homeless stallion who looked like he needed some money to get a meal. Whatever it was they came for, I only wanted it to last as long as I could to be with them.

“I know that you both have come to lecture me again.”, I said to both my parents.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing. But look where our ‘lectures’ had gotten you so far.”, White told me cocking an eyebrow before grinning at me.

“Heh, yeah I know Dad.”, I said.

“Actually, you won’t be getting a ‘lecture’ from me, that’s gonna be your mother that will do most of the talking.”, White explained looking over at Chocolate.

She put her hoof on my shoulder as she walked by me.

“Come walk with me for a little Velvet. I can explain why we are here to see you again.”, Chocolate said to me as I followed behind her.

We both walked out from under the oak tree to see a beautiful view of the sunset in my dream. I knew very well that it wasn’t real, but I sure wish it was with how glorious it was to see in person. Even with a brown coat, my mother was beautiful in the view of the sunset. The light had even complimented the lighter brown color of her mane. She was a truly lovely mother to have. I could see why Dad loved my mother.

We continued walking as I caught up walking beside her.

“Do you know the reason why I love this place so much Velvet?”, Chocolate asked me.

“Because it’s a beautiful and peaceful place in my dreams?”, I asked.

“It is a rather peaceful place, so quiet calm. But that’s not the real reason I love this place.”, My mother said before stopping by this blanket with an empty basket.

She sat down on the blanket leaving some room for me to sit next to her.

“Because of a blanket and empty basket?”, I asked my mother as I sat next to her.

She chuckled a little at the comment I made.

“You’re still the silly son I love. No, that’s not the reason.”, Chocolate answered before looking out to the sunset.

I sat quietly before Chocolate turned back to face me.

“This was the place where your father confessed his love to me. Right here on this hill, me and him had a picnic in this exact location.”, My mother explained to me.

“Oh. Well it’s a wonderful view to confess your love to some pony.”, I say in response.

“It was. It is the day I would always wish to go back to with your father and revisit over and over again.”, My mother explained before looking back out into the beautiful sunset.

“Hence, why I am here to tell you about your problem and what I think you should do to help your situation.”, Chocolate explained to me.

“You don’t have to tell me, I know that Dad was confident in telling you how he feels about you.”, I said presumptuously to my mother.

“Actually, you are wrong about that.”, Chocolate told me.

“But Peach told me that Dad was confident in telling you how he feels. It’s why he ended up working next to you in the bakery right?”, I asked Chocolate.

“That isn’t true. I think that Peach was trying to encourage you with your situation in the wrong way.”, Chocolate said to me.

I didn’t know what to think about this. On one hoof, I have Peach telling me that my father was confident, then on the other hoof, my semi realistic mother in a dream is telling me that he wasn’t. I didn’t question it, rather I decided to listen to what she had to say about my father.

“When your father started talking to me, he was exactly like you are: nervous and awkward at some moments. He even at some moments could barely speak a word to me without stumbling over his sentence.”, Chocolate said to me with a chuckle.

“But despite all of his flaws and awkwardness, I still fell in love with the unicorn I am with forever. All because he was himself.”, Chocolate continued on.

“He never once tried to act confident at all towards you?”, I asked my mother.

“Never once. It’s how I knew I was falling in love with the right pony. Somepony who wasn’t trying to be who they weren’t. Somepony who was them.”, Chocolate said to me before looking back.

“Which is the point I want to make with you Velvet, your friend who you have feelings for, you don’t need to worry about trying to seem confident when telling her how you feel. All you need to do is tell her how you feel about her, in your own true way.”, Chocolate said putting her hoof on mine.

“Is that really all I have to do? Just be myself?”, I asked my mother.

“It will work. I know it will. Take it from your mother who knows a thing or two about stallions trying to ask her out.”, Chocolate said grinning.

Whether it was her soft way of speaking or just her being my mother, she had convinced me for the most part.

“O-Ok, I’ll try and do what you say and ‘be myself’ towards me telling my friend how I feel about her.”, I say perking up a little.

My mother, being the sweetest mother she was, took notice of me perking up a little before leaning in to kiss me on the forehead.

“That’s my Velvet.”, Chocolate said before pulling me into a hug.

I could hear White walk up towards us.

“Hey, don’t leave me out of this loop.”, White said sitting down with me between them both.

We sat there and enjoyed each other for the moment. Then, came the one thing that ends these dreams: the sun setting in the horizon.

“Heh, just like when I took you out on that picnic right here.”, White said to Chocolate.

“That’s right love, only now we have our entire family right here with us.”, Chocolate said looking to me as I felt two hooves wrap around me.

Everytime I sit in silence and enjoy the warmth of them wrapping around me. This particular time, I let out a few tears of joy and a little bit of sorrow. When the sun finally sets, the last thing I hear from both of them to let them know they will always be with me,”We love you, in life and in dream.”

I woke up from the dream with the sight of the sun glaring through my window.

“Alright Celestia I’m up.”, I said rubbing my eyes with my hooves.

I sat up from my bed and gave a nice long wake up stretch. The small nap I took had definitely hit the spot. Not only that, but it made me more ready to face Ruby and ask her out to join me in VRCinema. I had finalized the plan in my head waking up; go online, talk to Ruby for a bit while doing what Mom said about being myself, ask Ruby if she wants to join me in VRCinema to watch some videos with her, hope she says yes, then let the night come and do it’s thing before telling her exactly how I feel about her.

“Sounds like it’s all coming together Velvet.”, I said to myself before looking at my clock. It read 2:34 PM, still the afternoon.

I stood up from the bed to walk over to my pc. As I sat down in my chair, I was greeted with the same screen I had left this morning with checking to see if Angel was okay. I had gotten a small flashback seeing his profile of him kissing me. I didn’t enjoy the kiss, but it still shocked me a little by the fact I was able to turn on a stallion. It made me kind of laugh to know that even if this had somehow failed that I had options.

I browsed around for a bit before seeing that Ruby was back online. I figured I might as well message her and start on part one of my plan.

Lotus (Online) : Hey Ruby

Gem (Online) : Henlo Velvet! How are you?

Lotus (Online) : Well, That is a question that has a bit of a complicated answer.

Gem (Online) : What do you mean? Is everything alright?

Lotus (Online) : I think it would be better if I called you in Kaos to explain.

I had gotten in the call with Ruby, who was now called DeGrietzy in Kaos, I explained to her the whole day from start to finish. It sounded absolutely nuts looking back on what had happened. Not many ponies can say they went skip work to see their friend ,who tried to commit suicide, in a hospital far away from their home while on the way make a new friend to then have your friend think of you as a different kind of friend to have your new friend rush to bring you back home in time for the end of work to miss out on a days pay. That sentence ran on for far too long, but given the context of what had happened, it’s understandable.

“Well, I can definitely say you had a crazy day going to see your friend. That’s really nice of you to go see him after he did what he did. You must be really good friends with him.”, Ruby told me.

“Yeah, he must’ve thought that we were more than really good friends.”, I said to Ruby.

“Heh, guess I got something to hold over your head whenever you make a snarky comment.”, Ruby joked to me chuckling.

I nervously chuckled at her saying that. I wasn’t so sure how I would feel with my friend I have a crush on mentioning how I was kissed by a stallion.

“It’s a bit of an adventure when you think about your day. I wish I could’ve had a day like that today. I mean- not the whole friend in hospital part, but I guess the journey of seeing my friend from far away.”, Ruby said nervously.

It kind of made me smile on how she caught herself on saying that, like she knew that it was worded badly. I was curious about why she would think I had a better day than her.

“Why do you wish that? Was your day not good?”, I asked Ruby.

“Well, I wouldn’t say it was bad, just a bit stressful.”, Ruby explained to me.

“How stressful?”, I asked her.

“It’s complicated. Would you like me to explain a little?”, Ruby asked me.

“Only if you want to.”, I said to Ruby.

“Ok, here goes.”, Ruby says before sighing.

“Well, the day started with me at school getting a bad score on this singing test. It wasn’t going to affect my grade in the class, but I still try to get as good a grade as I can.”, Ruby said to me.

“What did you mess up with?”, I asked Ruby.

“It wasn’t a mistake per say. I was nervous in the test and messed up reaching a note that was high. I stumbled over the rest of the piece and about a couple hours later I found out it was a score of ‘54 out of 100’.”, Ruby asked to me.

“Oh, that’s a bad score I assume?”, I asked Ruby

“It is, but that wasn’t the only stressful thing that happened.”, Ruby said to me.

“What happened after that?”, I asked Ruby.

“Well, after I got back from school I found my dad on the floor again.”, Ruby says with a slightly saddened tone.

“What was he doing on the floor?”, I asked Ruby.

“He...was passed out from drinking again. I had to pick him up and take him into his room so he could lay in the bed.”, Ruby explained to me.

Based on her tone, I knew something was up with her and her dad, not just from the alcohol episodes he has had before.

“Is there a reason why he drinks?”, I asked Ruby.

“There is...but I really don’t want to talk about it.”, Ruby answered with a somber tone.

“Ok, I’ll drop it.”, I said now realizing it was a bad topic to get on with Ruby.

There was a small but brief awkward silence between us before I said what I had been dying to say for a while.

“Hey look, I was thinking about uh maybe you and I could get together in VRCinema and hang out for a little while. T-That’s if y-y-you want to. I was just offering b-because I felt like it had been a while and-”, I stammered before I stopped to hear Ruby chuckle a little at me stammering.

“I would love to.”, Ruby answered.

“R-Really? You want to?”, I said to Ruby.

“Yeah, I figure you and I could listen to some more music together. Plus I found a couple more SkorchCynical videos I think you would like.”, Ruby says to me.

“Oh, that’s great. Um, when would you like to do it?”, I asked Ruby. “Unfortunately not now to watch over my dad, but this weekend would work perfectly.”, Ruby stated to me.

“Y-Yeah! The weekend works perfectly. I hopefully won’t have to work very long.”, I said to Ruby.

“It doesn’t matter, I’ll still be on a little late to try and make up for my failed test at school. It’ll be around the evening when I will be able to be on.”, Ruby said to me.

“Ok, that works out well then.”, I said to Ruby.

“I better log off, I might need to keep watch of my dad in case he stumbles out of his room drunk.”, Ruby said coming back to a slightly stressed tone.

“Oh ok, I’ll leave you to that. It’s a dat- I mean it’s settled for this weekend.”, I said nervously hoping Ruby heard the other thing instead of the first.

“Yeah, it’s settled alright. I’ll see you later Velvet.”, Ruby says to me with a gleeful tone.

“Y-Yeah, see you.”, I said before logging out of the call.

“Ok Velvet. First part of the plan is done. Now all you need to do is stay cool for this weekend. Shouldn’t be too hard right?”, I say to myself in my head achieving my first goal.

I knew I only had one mission left, all it took was now waiting for the weekend. May Celestia and Luna help me both.

Author's Note

Just chill, till the next episode

Chapter 15

If I told you that I felt ready and confident enough to go and have fun with Ruby before telling her how I feel, I would be lying through my teeth. It’s funny the couple of days before the weekend I felt truly happy and full of hope. For the first time, I felt as energetic as a wonderbolt who could clear a sky in 10 seconds flat. Even Peach had taken notice to my happy energetic self, with her having told me to slow down in making so many red velvet cakes.

That hopeful energy had suddenly changed to pure despair. All of a sudden, I felt like I was gonna make a complete fool of myself if she doesn’t feel the same way about me. Even after that it would probably feel awkward around her if it doesn’t go the way I hope it will. I even feared that it would result in her not talking to me again, which would bring me down immensely to a feeling of loneliness. (Although some would argue I had options with Angel)

“Hey so, I kinda have to admit; I think I might have a crush on you. No, that sounds like I don’t care enough.”,I said to myself rehearsing my attempts to tell Ruby how I feel as I drew a little bit of art.

It helped to make me feel like time would go by slower so our “date” could come later.

“Hey, call me crazy for thinking this but- no. Imma be real with you, I think you are it, Dammit Velvet.”,I scolded myself rehearsing a little more.

As I was trying to come up with a good idea on how to tell Ruby, I remembered my mother talked about how somepony could love you just for being yourself. The thought had brought me a feeling of hope. If what my mother said was true, then it proves that maybe Ruby has the same feelings for me as I do for her. If she can like my awkward self and goofiness, I know I am in love with the right one.

As I was preparing my lines, I heard a notification from my pc letting me know that Ruby was online.

“Damn, if only I had a bit more time.”, I said before looking over at the clock that read 4:30 PM.

“Well, maybe I spent enough.”, I told myself reminiscing on the two hours I spent on my way of talking instead of working on this drawing.

It was a drawing of a bunch of ponies in a field A weird thing you might notice with this drawing in particular is the fact that the ponies were drawn rather sloppily. Whenever I am not drawing anything abstract, I tend to make the subject of the drawing have a quirky art style. I find a bit of quirkiness appealing, like it is an alternate world being portrayed. Kinda weird to describe it, but if you find an appeal to that stuff then you know exactly what I am talking about.

Saving my drawing for later, I scrolled over to the message window where I got the notification of Ruby being online. In a matter of seconds, I had gotten a call from Ruby in Kaos as the alias “Bananaboni”. Don’t ask me what it meant, I was even confused with her explaining it to me.

“Hey there Velvet.”, Ruby greeted me as I connected to the call.

“Hi, uh how are you doing?”, I nervously answered Ruby.

“I am doing fine, thankfully I am home alone tonight since dad is working overnight so that means we have all night to spend in VRCinema.”, Ruby said gleefully.

“O-Oh that’s good. You could show me that channel you have been talking about on Ourtube that bullies ponies.”, I said to Ruby.

Hell yes I will show you SkorchCynical tonight.”, Ruby exclaimed to me happily.

It kind of made me at ease knowing that Ruby was excited for tonight, especially with her showing me SkorchCynical. I now felt that maybe just going in and watching videos with Ruby would take my mind off of it for a little bit before later.

“So, are you ready to go?”, Ruby asked me, taking me out of my thoughts.

“Huh? Oh, yeah I am ready just- going to grab me some water real quick. Y-You go ahead and join a server while you wait. Preferably an empty server so nopony bothers us.”, I said standing up from my chair.

“Ok, I’ll leave you an invite link once I’m in.”, Ruby says before leaving the call to startup VRCinema.

“Dammit Velvet, you had to stumble into letting her go right ahead instead of going with her.”, I say to myself as I went over to grab a glass of water from the faucet.

As I was pouring water into the glass, I noticed the sun beginning to set as Celestia was trading shifts with Luna. One thing that is weird about Hoovesiana is the time the sun sets. One day you will see the sun set at around 4:00 in the evening, and another day you will see it set at around 7:00 in the evening. It’s really random. I’m pretty sure that one day the sun had even set at around 3:30 in the afternoon. It’s weird.

Once the glass was full, I took the glass with my magic and sat back down at my desk to see if Ruby had sent me the link to join. As I had predicted, she had the link sent to me. As I clicked the link, VRCinema instantly booted up and put me on a loading screen that was very different from the last time I had played it. Instead of it being a plain picture of the VRCinema logo, it was now an animating version of the logo with some music playing.

“Huh, must’ve updated since the last time I played it.”, I say to myself while the game was loading.

Once my game had finally loaded, I was introduced to another screen I hadn’t seen since the last time I played VRCinema. I was taken to a welcome screen that was going over the new layout of the whole game. Basically, the game now had a social feature to where parties of friends can request a private server to their liking. Definitely a very useful feature for not having to deal with obnoxious players.

Another feature that came up was a little tab at the top of the screen showing both Ruby’s and I profile picture. It had showed that me and her were connected to a voice chat.

“Whoa, this is something new.”, Ruby said to me in the chat.

“Yeah, Where are you?”, I asked Ruby.

“Right now I am in this avatar editor. It says that we can fully design our own avatar for the game.”, Ruby explained.

“Is it a difficult avatar maker?”, I asked her.

“No not really. It’s got basic stuff in the basic settings.”, Ruby explained.

“Thank Celestia.”, I said to myself.

One thing that had always bugged me about games with customizable avatars is that some are way too complicated to work with. For example there was one game I had played with a custom avatar setting that had over 75 different sliders just for the face customization. What’s worse was that I had to mess with all of them in order to progress. All you need is a basic five settings for each body part and the color, none of this excessive crap.

After I had finished making my avatar look a little like a mix of my StuntMerc and myself, I was ready to join in a server for the two of us.

“Did you pick the server you wanted?”, I asked Ruby.

“Actually I was gonna let you decide what you wanted the room to be.”, Ruby answered.

“Oh You sure? I-I don’t mind if you you choose.”, I asked.

“Yeah, you go right ahead. I’m still designing my avatar so you might as well choose.”, Ruby says to me with a gleeful tone.

“Ok, t-thanks.”, I say before going to pick the Party server menu.

I was pleasantly surprised with some of the options you could choose from. Not only could you use some of the stock maps already in the game, but you could even download some maps made by the community. The map I chose to run on was a couch with a bunch of music posters in the background. I couldn’t tell much from the thumbnail what the bands were, but what really got me to choose it was the title being, “Punk Theater”. I assumed it had something that I thought Ruby would like in terms for her love of music.

“Ok, I am ready. Whenever you are.”, Ruby told me.

“I’m ready, just had to choose a nice place for the two of us.”, I said to Ruby before clicking start.

“Oh, then you better have chose a nice place.”, Ruby said before chuckling.

“Oh I think you will like it.”, I reassured her.

Once the game was loaded, I was met with a brand new overhaul of the hud. It now had the menu to select videos combined with the right hoof side of the screen. This meant that you didn’t have to go through another menu to grab a video which made it easier and faster. It also took up less space than the old hud. All of the data on the hud was a lot less cluttered than it was before. For once, I could actually see a lot wider than before now that there wasn’t a video marker on the bottom of the screen.

“Not a bad place Velvet. Not a bad place at all.”, Ruby said to me taking me out of my amazement of the HUD.

“Thanks. I figured you would like it for the music vibe and stuff like that.”, I explained.

“Yeah, I do it brings the- OH MY GOSH!”, Ruby yelled out to me.

“What?”, I asked out of fear.

“They have Moose posters on the wall!”, Ruby said excitingly.

“Oh wow I didn’t know it was that band. I just knew it was a random poster from bands.”, I said to Ruby.

“Looks like you chose the right map for sure having my favorite band as one poster in it.”, Ruby says gleefully.

“Nailed it!”, I told myself in my head.

As we sat down into the chairs in the game, I noticed Ruby’s avatar looking like a female version of the singer of Moose.

“Well, I can take a guess on why your avatar was taking so long. Especially since you were losing it over the poster.”, I said to Ruby chuckling.

“Oh, heh yeah. I was uh working hard to try and make Blast Bell from Moose look like a girl. It’s kind of silly, I know”, Ruby embarrassingly explained.

“N-No Ruby, It’s cool actual. It’s actually r-rather-”, I said nervously stopping.

“Rather what?”, Ruby asked,” Does it look funny?”

Thankfully Ruby couldn’t see my face. If she did, she would’ve seen one of the reddest faces to ever see on a pony blushing beet red.

“N-No, far from that. I was just gonna say i-it looks rather c-cute.”, I say with an even more embarrassed tone.

“Awwww, that’s very sweet of you to say. Surly it isn’t that good.”, Ruby said with a heartfelt tone.

“It’s true, it looks very g-good. Do you like the way it turned out?”, I asked trying to change the subject away from my compliment.

“I do. It’s gonna stay my VRCinema character forever.”, Ruby said happily.

“That’s good, real good.”, I say awkwardly.

“Is something wrong Velvet?”, Ruby asked me with a slightly concerning tone.

“No, nothing’s wrong.”, I say to Ruby.

“You sure? You seem a lot more nervous than you usually are. Especially with your stuttering.”, Ruby observed.

“No, Nothing’s wrong. Just, o-one of those rare days where it’s cold h-here in Hoovesiana.”, I said to Ruby lying.

“Okay, just checking on you since you seem a little uptight.”, Ruby said to me.

“Don’t worry about me. Just my regular old self here.”, I say chuckling nervously,
“So uh, how about you show me all about this SkorchCynical guy you have been talking about.”

“Oh right, The one channel that I love almost as much as I love Moose.”, Ruby said before pulling up a menu on screen displaying a short playlist of SkorchCynical videos.

The best thing I could use to describe SkorchCynical’s channel is simply describing it as softcore bullying. What is softcore bullying you might ask? Well to put it in SkorchCynical terms, it is simply bullying a user of Ourtube for one video critiquing their content. The video I saw was of him critiquing a rich pony in Manehatten who posts videos basically showing how much better than everypony he thinks he is. Skorch went hard on the asshole, but it wasn’t exactly personal. The only Ourtube user to really get personal was “Tree Leaf”. Sadly, he bit the dust on the site and hasn’t come back. Man, I miss Tree Leaf.

“Well, what do you think of him?”, Ruby asked me.

“He is funny, reminds me of Tree Leaf a bit.”, I said to her.

“I miss him, he was who I watched before I discovered Skorch.”, Ruby explained to me.

“Wait, you actually liked his content as well?”, I ask surprised.

“Of course I did. What made you think that I didn’t?”, Ruby asked me confused.

“Well, I’m sorry if I a presumptuous about this but don’t you think his content is a little too much for a Griffin like you?”, I asked Ruby.

“A Griffin like me?”, Ruby asked.

“Well, I would never have predicted a really nice griffin like yourself to be into a dragon who bullied ponies viciously.”, I explained to Ruby.

“Oh, well he is different. While yes, I somewhat disapprove of some of his videos targeting some users with serious issues, he did it in a satirical way. Like he didn’t really wish to cause harm to others.”, Ruby explained to me.

“I guess that kind of makes sense.”, I said to Ruby.

“I could say the same about you as well. You are a really nice pony, one of the more nicer ones I have met at least.”, Ruby said with a warm tone.

“I am?”, I asked Ruby.

“Mmhm, I mean you helped me with my incident with that pony who exposed me. If I asked anyone else to help me they would just say something like,’Just ignore them’. It wouldn’t have helped me at all”, Ruby said to me.

“Well that’s good that you found me in a VRCinema server hearing you sing. I probably wouldn’t have been able to help someone as nice as you.”, I said to Ruby.

“Heh, I do know how to pick em.”, Ruby said quietly.

“Pick what?”, I asked Ruby.

“Oh uh nothing. Just thinking about my playlist. Do you mind if we listen to some Moose for a while?”, Ruby asked me.

“Not at all Ruby. Go right ahead.”, I said to Ruby before she pulled up another playlist of Moose music.

“Thanks.”

Some of the music by Moose that Ruby pulled up felt very much like the future was right next door. One song in particular,”Data”, especially felt like a futuristic fever dream. It felt like any second now machines would revolt against us all and enslave us in a mind simulation where the only one to defeat them is a hacker prophesied to be “The One”. It sounds like a summer movie actually, not sure where though.

I had kept quiet hearing Ruby sing along with the song. Now, I’m not one to know how passionate someone is performing music, but from the sound of Ruby’s voice, it sounded like she was really giving it her all with singing it. For a moment, it seemed she was oblivious to me even there, as she sang out a particularly high note with the finale of the song. I was amazed by her performance. Not only that, but I felt chills in my spine from her singing. That’s how powerful her singing was.

“Wow, just wow. That was amazing.”, I say in pure amazement from Ruby’s singing.

“Heh, I kinda lost myself in the moment. That was just me messing around.”, Ruby said to me.

“That was messing around? That sounded heavenly.”, I say questioning her judgment of her singing.

“Oh Velvet you don’t mean that.”, Ruby told me.

“No seriously. It was the best singing I have heard in a while.”, I said to Ruby meaningfully.

“My director says that I am not as good as some, says I need work. Like a lot of work.”, Ruby said with an unsure tone.

I don’t know why, but this had made me a little mad. Not mad at Ruby, but rather the pony to tell her she needed more work.

“Listen to me Ruby, Don’t listen to what he says. He may not see what you’ve got with that beautiful voice of yours, but I do. And I am not even a music pony. My point is, don’t let him discourage you. You have a wonderful voice and nopony can say otherwise and mean it.”, I said sternly to Ruby.

She sat there quietly for a little bit after.

“D-Do you really mean it? You think my voice is beautiful?”, Ruby said kind of perking up.

“I swear to Celestia I mean it well.”, I said with a serious tone.

She and I sat there silently before she let out a sniffle and a chuckle.

“I do know how to pick em.”, Ruby said with a heartfelt tone.

“What? The videos?”, I asked her.

“No. Good friends.”, Ruby explained perking up with a sniffle.

Her saying that made me blush, like it had a much deeper meaning than what it sounds like. There was an awkward silence between us before I decided to break up the silence.

“So uh, you have any other songs to sing? I would like to hear you sing more.”, I said nervously to break the silence.

“Oh, actually, I was thinking maybe you could give it a shot.”, Ruby says to me giving me a surprise.

“Wait, me? No no I can’t.”, I said to Ruby nervously. “Oh come on Velvet. I believe you can sing. All you have to do is try it.”, Ruby said to me.

“B-But I don’t know any lyrics to a song.”, I try to say making up a bullshit excuse to not sing.

“Oh here, I’m gonna pull up a Smashing Melon’s song with the lyrics up on the screen.”, Ruby said pulling up a menu.

“W-wait I didn’t agree to this. I’m gonna sound like shit.”, I said nervously.

“Just relax and be cool. You’ll do fine. I know you will.”, Ruby said before pulling up a song.

I could see there was no use trying to argue out of it so I sucked it up and sang as best as I could. I actually didn’t sound as horrible as I thought I would. Granted, it wasn’t good by any means, but it was better according to Ruby.

“See, you did fine. It’s easy to get into it.”, Ruby said chuckling.

“Oh shut up you. You have more experience, I said making Ruby laugh, “I think I’ll stick to drawing instead of singing, thanks.”

“That’s something I have been wondering about you.”, Ruby said to me.

“Hmm?”, I asked Ruby.

“How did you get into drawing? A lot of friends that I used to know who were into that had something that set them off to draw. I want to know your story behind it.”, Ruby said letting a Night to Forget playlist play in the background.

“Well, it’s kind of a mixture of things. Some of them being kind of deep. Like really deep.”, I explained to Ruby.

“How so?”, Ruby asked curiously.

“It’s kind of a long story, you wouldn’t be interested in hearing it.”, I said dismissively.

“No, I would like to know. I can tell you something about me afterwards if you do.”, Ruby said convincingly.

I didn’t want to have to get deep into my whole “tragedy to get me to a vigilante” moment, but with Ruby’s way of speaking, it was hard not to.

“Oh alright, I’ll shoot. But I can’t promise you’ll feel good asking me about it.”, I warned Ruby.

“Ok.”, Ruby said to me.

“I used to draw as a young colt a lot for my mother. The drawings weren’t anything close to what I do now, but they held that impact with my mom and dad. They kept all my drawings on this poster board we used to have in the kitchen. It had even got to a point where she had to take off some drawings off the board.”, I say chuckling a little before continuing on,” But anyways, I made all those drawings for my mom and dad. I had kinda stopped when I was 10 because it had seemed like a lost interest to me. Well, around 5 years ago they had went out to go for a trip for their anniversary. It was the first time they had left me alone in the house. I was expecting them to come back, they never did.”, I say gloomily.

“What happened to them?”, Ruby asked concerningly.

I gave a kind of stifled breath remembering the day vividly.

“Let’s just say that it was a bad couple of years for me until I started drawing again. It made me feel more complete, like I could do something for them since they are gone. It was one thing that kept me going along with meeting my friend Angel.”, I said to Ruby.

“Oh Velvet I’m so sorry to open old wounds like that.”, Ruby said apologetically to me.

“No, it is okay. You wanted to know so I gave it to you.”, I said to Ruby.

There was an awkward silence before Ruby spoke up.

“So, is there anything you want to know about me?”, Ruby asked me.

“Actually, I was curious to wonder how you had gotten into Moose? Especially since you love them so much and stuff.”, I asked of Ruby.

“To be honest, it’s kind of a similar story with yours.”, Ruby said.

“Oh?”, I asked Ruby.

“Well, unlike you, I never met my mother before. Dad says she had run away a long time ago after I was born. There were no pictures of her or anything. All there was of her were Moose CD’s in her drawer that I kept. Ever since then I have been listening to them to keep her memory alive.”, Ruby explained to me.

Hearing this made me feel bad for her. It’s one thing to lose a parent you have met, but it’s another to lose another one who you haven’t even met.

“Oh, man. That’s kind of rough. Actually, really rough.”, I say to Ruby.

“It’s not so bad. I like to believe that maybe she still is out there somewhere.”, Ruby said to me.

“You think she is out there?”, I asked Ruby.

“Maybe. It’s a dream though.”, Ruby explained to me before going silent.

I was about to say something before she had risen up a bit.

“But at least I know I’ve got you as a good friend to have my back.”, Ruby says to me with a brighter tone.

“Heh, yeah I am guess.”, I said nervously.

“Well, it’s getting kind of late, I might go off now and take a bath.”, Ruby said to me.

“Oh crap wait!”, I exclaimed out before her avatar went transparent for a second before coming back.

“What is it?”, Ruby asked me.

This was it; the moment of truth. Do I have some courage left in me to sputter out the one question burning a hole in me these past couple of weeks?

“Well, um, You see- It’s kind of -um w-weird for me to s-say it but-”, I stammered off.

My mind sure didn’t have courage to work properly asking the question.

“Um, what Velvet?”, Ruby asked me confused.

“Oh jeez um. This is gonna sound absolutely weird but I feel I must say it”, I say to Ruby.

“What the fuck are you doing Velvet? Get it together!”, I said to myself in my head.

“Then tell me. It probably won’t be the weirdest thing I have heard besides my Kaos name.”, Ruby said to me.

“W-Well th-that’s the thing. You see it’s k-kind of hard to explain because y-you know its online and all that stuff with us being far away and-”, I said before stammering off once again before Ruby’s avatar walked up to my screen.

“Velvet, you can tell me anything. You don’t need to be nervous telling me whatever it is you want to tell me. I’ll listen.”, Ruby said with a parenting tone.

If somehow Ruby was a magic witch that managed to put a spell on me to calm down to tell her how I felt then I would feel amazed. But alas, it was unexplained, as I had regained my thoughts and collected myself to begin saying what I wanted to say.

“Ruby, these past couple of weeks since you had came to me for the player that scammed you, I had been getting this feeling about you. It’s strange to say it about an online user, but I felt like I didn’t want anything bad to happen to you. I had also felt bad seeing you go offline. Like I didn’t want you to leave just yet. Not like in a stalker way, like a very best friend kind of way.”, I explained to Ruby.

“What are you trying to say?”, Ruby asked me.

“Ok, here goes. I’m gonna say it, but you promise it won’t change any way you think of me?”, I nervously asked Ruby.

“I promise. There is nothing you would say to me to make me think different of you.”, Ruby comforted me.

“Ok, here goes; Ruby, I know we haven’t met in real life, but I think……...I think I might have a crush on you. You are one of the only ones I have met that really appreciate me for who I am. Because of that, you kind of brought me out of a lonely state. A place where I felt that there was nopony, griffin or anybody that cared for me as so much more than a friend. Like, maybe as a lover of some kind.”, I told her, letting her know the honest truth.

There was a long silence between us, longer than I had liked it to be. I almost felt as if she had completely disconnected from the server and left. But then, to my surprise, I heard Ruby sniffling.

“Velvet, that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Why would you ever think that would ever make me think differently of you?”, Ruby asked me with a tearful voice.

“It isn’t exactly normal to ask someone to be your significant other online.”, I said embarrassed.

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with telling someone how you feel about them, even if they are miles away from each other. While we are on the topic, I have some things I would like to get off my chest.”, Ruby said to me.

I perked up to listen to Ruby.

“In the past, I have been in some relationships with friends who have used me for stuff and never really appreciated who I was or what I was trying to do. Because of that, I had kind of become an isolationist for a short time. I wouldn’t go out to meet with friends because I felt they were using me. Since then, I felt I could never be friends with anyone. But that changed when I met you. Despite never meeting me, you made me feel like you had truly appreciated me as myself and never would use me for anything. It was further proven the night I came to you for help I was exposed. You jumped right in and helped me through my situation. You had even made me feel better about it by showing me your cute face.”, Ruby says to me chuckling.

That last part made me blush.

“It was that night that I had kind of realized the same feelings as well, but I felt too nervous to ask you. So instead I had waited for you to tell me if you felt the same way I did. In a way, I sensed it earlier this evening with you nervously stuttering when talking to me.”, Ruby told me.

“You knew?”, I asked Ruby.

“I felt those vibes from you. But anyway, I had been waiting for this moment for a long time. And now I can say that I feel the exact same way about you based on how well you have treated me.”, Ruby said with a full hearted tone.

“Does this mean that you want to be my-”, I asked Ruby before she had interjected with some tears of joy.

“Yes, a thousand times yes!”, Ruby answered me with a passionate tone.

I did it! I thought it was unbelievable, but I had done it. I told her exactly how I felt and it paid off in the long road. She felt the same way about me just as much as I did for her.

“This is, amazing. But how are we gonna be able to make it work with us being far away from each other?”, I asked Ruby.

“We can do whatever we can to make it work. I have faith we can sort this out.”, Ruby said to me.

“You really think so?”, I asked her.

“I know so, since you are my ‘guardian’, as you described it”, Ruby said chuckling.

“I mean it though, I don’t want to imagine a situation where you are hurt or something like that”, I said to Ruby.

“You are my sunshine.”, Ruby said to me.

“Your what?”, I asked Ruby.

“Oh, Sunshine is a guardian in Griffin stories who guards and loves all who care for others. In the myth, he guarded his wife who had been fighting a disease put on by an evil force.”, Ruby explained to me.

“Huh, your ‘sunshine’. I like it.”, I say grinning a little.

“Well, I think it’s time for me to go now. I definitely will see you tomorrow morning before you go to work.”, Ruby said to me with her avatar going transparent.

“O-Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow morning Ruby. Thanks for everything tonight.”, I said full heartedly.

“It was nothing. Have a good night. I love you.”, Ruby said to me suddenly.

Never once have I been told that by someone who cared for me as a boyfriend, it was always by my parents in my dreams. Now, I felt this caring passion for the first time.

“I l-love you too.”, I stutter saying it for my first time.

Ruby had chuckled before her avatar had now fully disappeared, leaving me alone in this empty server with this Night to Forget playlist. Ironically, it was playing my favorite song by them,”If It Means A Lot to You”. That song was about finding love from a distance, which was exactly what I had done tonight. So to those who said that finding love online isn’t possible: You had just been proven wrong. Suck on that!

Author's Note

Yeppers. Suck on that

Chapter 16

Just a month ago I hoped to achieve my dream of being with a special griffon I deeply cared for, and with a simple yes from her, I felt my dream had become a reality. In the month following, I was truly the happiest unicorn in all of New Saddle. I felt like there was a hole within me that was finally filled when Ruby had felt the same way about me. This was the feeling of a whole new me upon this world.

As expected, when I told Peach that she had said yes she was thrilled. So thrilled that she had taken me out to dinner to celebrate. I didn’t think it was something to really celebrate, but Peach insisted. Speaking of Peach, she had started taking some days off work for health reasons. When I asked her about it she had told me that it was just the time in spring where she tends to get the most allergies. Because of this, she had left multiple workers in charge for different days. For some reason, she left me in charge the most. It wasn’t really a problem with me, but it was strange to me and the others working there. Although I think PipSqueak was a little wound up about it. That was a cringy joke, I’m sorry.

Anyways, along with me getting this responsibility every once and a while at the bakery, I was happy to finally see that Angel was out of the hospital. He had been telling me about how everything had changed between him and both of his parents. They seem to listen to Angel now about what he wants to do with his life. Angel had told me that they had agreed to let him go to be a Wonderbolt, all he had to do was wait until they could soon get enough money help him travel to Ponyville. It was nice to see him doing well after a setback.

Speaking of friends, I was a stallion of my word by coming by to visit Caramel every once in a while when he was off of work. I had gotten to meet his wife and his small newborn filly, Sunflower. I am not one who particularly likes foals and colts, but Caramel’s filly was undeniably cute. She had cheeks that took after Caramel’s wife, Autumn Petal , who is very pretty. What did surprise me was how much Autumn had knew about me based on what Caramel had told her. I know it’s kind of an obligation to never keep anything private about your day with your wife or husband, but I think Caramel could have been a little less detailed about me in the carriage he was pulling. Despite that, I had a great time hanging out with Caramel and his family.

Now I know I have been evading the question that you have probably been wondering since hearing me mention it at the beginning of this paragraph; How does one date a significant other online in a long distance relationship? To answer your question, it depends on what you would consider a date with someone online. For some it is simply messaging the other, maybe watch a movie by trying to sync the movies together. For me and Ruby, us simply playing SF2 together, occasionally going on VRCinema to listen to music together, and simply just talking to each other in a Koas call was all we needed to feel like we were dating each other.

We had even come up with a little game that we play with each other. It was something Ruby called,”Ask Me Another”. (Or AMA for short). Essentially, we would ask whatever question we would want to within a 10 second period. The other one would have to answer that question before thinking of a new question. If one does not come up with a question within the limit, the other one gets a point. The game lasts till one of us gets to five points. Yes, I know it’s corny, but we were both happy with it. Some of the answers to questions did get a little bit crazier the further we got into it. Like for example, I found out that one time when she was with an old group of friends, she had pranked a Griffin by setting off firecrackers in their mailbox. It surprised me considering that was when she was younger.

We had some uncomfortable moments with the game though. One time, after she had asked me on a scale of one to ten how “pretty” my butt was, which was kind of weird for me to answer seriously, I had asked her about her past boyfriends and stuff. To which she had said that it was a sore subject to bring them up because of how some of them had treated her wrong and stuff. She wasn’t the only one though that felt the uncomfort. Everytime I played with her, I answered all of Ruby’s questions as honestly as I could. (Like me telling her about Peach, and about me having one bad experience at work with a cake and what I thought was Vanilla icing) All except one. When she had asked me about my most prized possession, I didn’t want to bring up my memory box of my parents to then have to take it out and probably break down crying embarrassing myself. So instead I mad a corny lie saying that she was my greatest possession. Amazingly, she bought it, as she told me how much she loved my caring self.

In that month, it was the happiest I have been in a while. After that month came the day that I was most excited for: My birthday. Just 25 days before Hearth's Warming Eve, is the day I was born. The day that most ponies would be excited for gifts and presents from their loved ones. I ,on the other hoof, was the opposite. Sure I liked to receive gifts, but I felt that it wasn’t as important as being with those who care about you. While I may not have had my parents on that day to share it with, I was always happy to share that day with Peach. Granted, she always did a little too for me in my birthday. While taking me out to a nice dinner, she would always get me these nice gifts for me that I felt was too much. I was rather satisfied with the nice dinner she would take me out to for my birthday than any gift she could get me. However, this years birthday was different from all the other years past.

I woke up bright and early like I usually did with my alarm clock blaring, albeit this time in a happier mood knowing that it was now my 18th birthday.

“Goooooooooood Morning New Saddle!”, I exclaimed out loud to myself in joy.

I stretched out my hooves to reach the alarm to shut it off. As I stood up from the bed, I felt right away that the day had welcomed me with a happy birthday sunrise from my window. I felt as if I should scream out loud again to everyone out my window, but I think I would come off as strange and kind of cringy.

Turning around, I walked over to my PC to log into Smoke and Kaos to meet with Ruby. Over the past couple of weeks of me mentioning my birthday, Ruby had been asking me over and over again what I would want for my birthday from her. Everytime she would ask, I would tell her that she didn’t have to get me anything. She was all the gift I needed from her. However, Ruby continued to insist on getting me a birthday gift. To which I had told her anything she would make for me I would be happy with as a gift. She had told me a week prior that she was “practicing” my gift. It made wonder what she had specifically been “practicing”.

As soon as all my accounts were online, I was instantly sent a call in Kaos from Ruby, who was now called,”Saluto”.

“I hope she keeps that name, I really like that one.”, I said to myself before clicking the accept button.

There was a startling moment of silence, like I was expecting Ruby to scream out happy birthday to me.

“H-Hello? Ruby are you-”,I asked before being interrupted by Ruby abruptly.

She then began to sing me happy birthday like it was nothing. It was beautiful as it always was. I kind of was in a state of joy and uneasiness from her appearing like that, but mostly joyful for her singing “Happy Birthday” to me.

“Well that’s a beautiful way to wake up on my birthday.”, I said to Ruby after hearing her wonderful voice.

“Was it good?”, Ruby asked me.

“Of course it was, it was one of the most lovely wakeups I have been given by you.” I said to Ruby.

“Good. How did you sleep last night?”, Ruby asked me.

“I sleep like a foal. I couldn’t wait to wake up for my birthday.”, I said to Ruby.

“And for all the right reasons not to wait, I have your gift.”, Ruby said to me.

“Sweet, I hope you are happy with what you made me.”, I said to Ruby.

“Actually, I have something to confess.”, Ruby admitted to me nervously.

“What?”, I asked confused.

“I uh, lied about making something. I instead got you something nice.”, Ruby said to me.

“What did you get me?”, I asked Ruby.

“How about I just show you instead.”, Ruby said sending me a trade invite in Smoke.

I wasn’t so sure exactly what she got me, which made me very skeptical. Ruby gave a small breath of nervousness before adding an item to a trade. This item wasn’t just any item, it was a Celestial Hat for StuntMerc . For those who don’t know, Celestial hats are hats that are uncrated with an effect of sunshine. These hats are rare to unbox, making them valuable. Not nearly as much as say the Golden Fork (Which rose up in price to about 20,000 dollars within a month after Ruby finding it), but still expensive. Either way, the hat was exactly like mine minus the changing colors instead with a solid team color. Only thing was now it had a Celestial effect on it.

“Oh sweet Celestia it’s-”, I say before being interrupted by Ruby.

“Yeah, I know its a Celestial hat, I saw it on sale by a user and really thought you would like it so.”, Ruby said to me.

“I-I can’t accept this, not from you.”, I said to Ruby feeling bad.

“Why?”, Ruby asked me.

“I just can’t. I imagined you spent too much for me on this.”, I explained to Ruby.

“No, no please. I want you to have it. You don’t have to worry about how much it cost. I didn’t have to sell the fork thankfully.”, Ruby reassured me that I had nothing to worry about.

“Well, Thank you so much for this. You really didn’t have to go this far for me.”, I say to Ruby with gratitude.

“Don’t mention it love. I don’t mind getting you nice things. Especially if it’s on your birthday. Plus, I got one more surprise for you.”, Ruby said temptingly.

“Oh, one more gift? What is it?”, I asked curiously.

“Well, you can’t know it that easily silly. It’s a surprise.”, Ruby says with a teasing tone.

“Oh come on, please?”, I begged Ruby.

“Sorry. But the birthday colt has to wait until it is time to receive his presents.”, Ruby said in a mocking fashion.

I partially hated her making me sound like a colt, but at the same time I realized I guess that she is one who likes to tease. It kind of made me feel special in a way.

“On another topic, you plan on doing anything special for your birthday today?”, Ruby asked me.

“Well, usually Peach will take me out to dinner to celebrate. I’m not so sure where though.”, I explained to Ruby.

“Oooh, that sounds fun. I assume she takes you after work right?”, Ruby asked me

“It tends to be like that for every year I have worked there. Are you gonna be alright with me being gone for most of the day?”, I asked Ruby.

“Yeah I’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry about me, I’ll just prepare your gift while I wait for you.”, Ruby said reassuring me.

“You still haven’t finished it?”, I asked Ruby. “

Well I couldn’t lie to you completely about making your gift. Well, part of your gift.”, Ruby said to me.

“Ah I see.”, I say to Ruby looking at the clock.

“Well, I hate to leave you, but it is time for me to go to work for today.”, I said to Ruby seeing the time.

“Awww, stay a little longer.”, Ruby begged me.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back. I promise.”, I said to comfort Ruby.

“Oh alright. I’ll let you go my Velvet. Have a good birthday. I love you.”, Ruby said to me.

Saying “I love you” still felt awkward for me to say, but it was getting better.

“I l-love you too Ruby.”, I said leaving the call.

After gathering my things for work, I had trotted out the door on to the New Saddle street with a boost in my step. I felt that the day was giving me the best day possible for my birthday gift. The air was just right, there were no clouds in the sky, and the sun was not too bright. As the rapper Snow Sphere would say,” Today is a good day”. At least, that’s what I thought until I approached the market.

The market was full of ponies as it was back when I had to turn in the art submission. Thankfully, there is a slightly longer way around this path. It took longer, but it’s better than me having to deal with my fear of crowds.

I walked by a small area the had seemed familiar to me. It was a kind of grassy area with a few small houses nearby.

“Why the hell am I getting a sense of deja-”, I said to myself walking before seeing a small Griffon on the steps of a red house.

It all clicked together by this point. That Griffon was Stormbreaker, the one I helped out when he was being bullied by those colts. He was sitting on the stairs playing with some toy before getting up and noticing me. I had started to walk up to go say hi to him, but he went back inside. It was odd.

“Why would he go back inside seeing me? I was the one who helped him. Oh well, he probably forgot about me.”, I said to myself in my head before trotting on.

I walked for a little bit longer until I saw the bakery in the distance. At the same time as me walking up, I saw Peach had opened the door to the bakery and notice me.

“There’s the birthday colt I was looking for. Happy Birthday Velvet.”, Peach said to me closing the door behind her.

“Hi Peach, I might as well start working today before getting ready for our routine dinner for my birthday.”, I said to Peach.

She had turned around and locked up the door behind her before turning back to me.

“Actually, I figured we could do something a little different this year. Instead of work, would you like to come by my house this morning?”, Peach asked me.

“Wait, you are closing it just for today, on my birthday?”, I asked confused.

“Is that a problem?”, She asked me.

“N-No not at all. Just I think it’s, I don’t know, a waste of a good day's work for me and the others.”, I say before Peach began chuckling.

“Oh nonsense Sugar. It’s your birthday. You should be out celebrating instead of working in the back. Come on, Let’s go have breakfast together for your birthday. I even have your present there as well.”, Peach said before beginning to trot.

We walked further away from the bakery to a large house vaguely similar to mine, only it was older looking than mine. It looked rather cozy, like it could withstand a blizzard and still keep you warm. We both walked on the wood steps to Peach’s door which just spoke vintage. When Peach had opened up the door to her home, the vibe changed from a bright day outside to a nice and homey feeling.

“Well, come on in. Make yourself at home sugar.”, Peach said to me walking inside.

I glanced around her wonderful home for a little while, admiring some of the pictures she had on her wall of herself and her husband. Her home just screamed peaceful.

She began to cook breakfast in the kitchen, where she left me a chair on the other side of the table. I sat down before she turned around to face me.

“So, what would you like for breakfast? Whatever you want, I can make it.”, Peach asked me.

“Well, pancakes would be nice.”, I said to Peach.

“That’s it? I can make it a special kind of way for you if you want. It’s your birthday after all.” Peach questioned me.

“No thank you. I am really fine with regular old pancakes.”, I say with a nervous laugh.

“You are a simple one.”, Peach said to me jokingly.

“What can I say? I like stuff simple.”, I explained to Peach smiling.

One thing I have to say about Peach, she makes the best damn pancakes in all of New Saddle. Though she is known for her famous cobblers, she can also make a mean stack of pancakes. They were the perfect mix of fluffy and scrumptious. Top it with syrup, and you have got everything for the perfect breakfast.

As we were eating, Peach and I were having our ways with our pancakes until Peach had brought up something I was very shy about.

“So, how is it with your mare friend?”, Peach asked me.

“Um, it’s going good. Real good actually.”, I answered with slightly widened eyes.

“I’m happy for you. When do I get to meet her?”, Peach asked as I almost choke on my pancakes out of shock.

“Never!”, I panically exclaimed.

I didn’t want to tell her just yet that Ruby was a Griffin I was dating online with the fear of her judging me.

“What?”, Peach asked confused.

“I-I-I mean um, she is kind of shy and, yeah probably not too comfortable around other ponies.”, I said trying to cover up my outburst.

“Oh, well it’s a shame. I would like to one day meet her, whenever she is ready though.”, Peach said as I gave a sigh of relief in my mind.

As we both finished up breakfast, Peach had tried to grab my plate before almost missing the plate and dropping the one in her hooves unexpectedly.

“Here, let me help you out with that.”, I said grabbing both plates with my magic.

“How sweet of you. Helping out on your own birthday.”, Peach acknowledged me with a thankful tone.

“Well I saw you were having trouble carrying them in your hooves so I figured I could use my magic to not risk breaking them.”, I said to Peach putting the plates in the sink.

“Heh, I always end up saying it, but I wasn’t blessed with the ease of having a horn.”, Peach said walking up to me to wash both plates.

This moment we shared with next to each other felt special. I never knew what it felt like to really help out my mother or father with a chore like this, but when I was next to Peach helping her wash the dishes I felt a warm feeling in my heart. It made me feel like that was the feeling I was looking for with my parents, only this time it was with Peach. I felt truly appreciative to have her in my life.

After washing the dishes, Peach was walking towards the doorway to another room.

“Hey, do you mind waiting here for a minute sugar?”. Peach asked me.

“Of course Peach, but why?”, I asked.

“It’s got something to do with your present, I want to keep it a surprise.”, Peach said grinning slightly.

“Oh ok. I’ll just hang out here.”, I said before seeing Peach walk out the doorway.

I trotted around the kitchen a bit, looking at some pictures in the kitchen. As I was looking around at pictures of Peach, I noticed some vitamin bottles on her counter. Normally, it would seem regular to any pony to see some in a home. It seems that everypony takes them, I even take some from time to time if ever I feel sick. What I noticed on Peach’s bottles of vitamins that caught my attention was that they were significantly higher counts of vitamins per pill. A regular pill would be around 90 milligrams of vitamins, however Peach’s was around 175 milligrams. It was strange to see, but my assumption was that it became a necessity to take a lot more higher doses of vitamins the older you get as a pony.

I began to hear Peach come back from the room. I quickly sat down in a chair by the table right before Peach walked into the kitchen holding something behind her back.

“Are you ready for your gift?”, Peach said to me in a serious tone.

“Absolutely, I have a feeling I will really like it.”, I told her.

“This was something I have wanted to give to you for a while now. I didn’t want you to have it earlier because I didn’t think you were ready for it, but now that you are 18 and are showing me that you are a determined worker I think it is time.”, Peach said to me before showing me my gift from behind her hooves.

It was an older looking book that looked like it was beaten to all hell. I was confused by the book.

“Why would she wait till I was more mature for an older book?”, I thought to myself in my head.

“I know by the look on your face you are a little bit confused by this, but once you read the first couple of pages you will understand.”, Peach explained to me placing the book on the table for me to read.

To solve the mystery behind why the book is so important, I began to look through the first couple of pages like Peach had said. The first two pages were on berry selections for sweets, all looked like they were written with an old quilt with ink from how old the writing looked. Peach had sat down in front of me as I began to glance over the final page. Upon reading the title of the page, I let out an audible gasp to what I had just received from Peach. What was it I had just received? I had just gotten the full, completely written out recipe for the famous Cobbler family’s cobbler.

“Oh my fucking god! This is not what I think it is.”, I exclaimed with a shocked expression on my face.

Peach gave a reassuring nod letting me know what I was given was real.

“Peach, why are you giving this to me? This is far too important to give to me. Especially as a birthday gift.”, I said pushing the book away from me out of fear.

Peach then took the book with her hoof and pushed it back towards me.

“Because I know that I can trust you the most with something like this Velvet. I know for a fact you will keep this tradition going.”, she said to me putting her hoof on mine.

“But you said yourself that the recipe is meant to be seen by your family members.”, I said to Peach.

“You are right, it is meant for family members.”, Peach reminded me.

“So why are you giving it to me?”, I asked Peach.

She let out a sigh before looking back at me.

“Because I consider you to be the closest family I have.”, Peach said to me with a serious tone.

I sat back quietly from this.

“Me and Corn Flake were one day planning to have foals. It had been a dream of ours to spread our family. But of course when he died, I felt the dream had gone away since there was nopony out there in the world that could ever replace him. That was until I saw how much you have changed growing up after your parents passed away. I felt like a guardian watching over you for a while. But it was seeing how you have been acting that made me realize that you were the son that I never had.” Peach said with a slight tear in her eye.

She then looked back up at me.

“Which brings me to the other reason why I want to give this to you now. One day in the future I will be gone and will want to keep the family business going. More importantly, I want somepony to keep the famous family recipe alive and well in New Saddle. That pony is you Velvet.”, Peach explained.

Throughout her explaining her reasoning, I felt more and more obligated to take the recipe as her gift. From the look on her face as she was explaining her reasonings, she had planned this all from the very beginning.

“Will you do me the honor in me passing on this tradition to you Velvet.”, She said with a heartfelt tone.

I looked down at the book intently for a little while before looking back at Peach.

“Absolutely. I am ready for this responsibility.”, I said taking the book in my hooves.

Peach stood up from her chair to kiss me on my forehead before looking back into my eyes.

“Thank you Velvet. You won’t regret this.”, Peach said to me, looking like she was about to cry tears of joy.

“I won’t share this with anypony other than those I trust, I swear to you.”, I said to Peach.

“I know you won’t.”, She says to me.

We had talked more until about lunchtime when I had told Peach I was going to leave to visit Caramel. After taking the book and placing it in a satchel to keep it hidden, I hugged Peach before leaving to go visit Caramel and Autumn. When I told them my birthday was coming up, they had asked me to drop by and receive my gift from them. They both told me to try and come by soon so that way I can see them both before Caramel would leave to pull carriages.

I arrived at their home where it looked as though I made it just in time. I knocked on the door, only to be greeted with Autumn.

“Velvet! So good to see you. Happy Birthday.”, Autumn said to me with a happy tone.

“Hi Autumn. Did I make it in time?”, I asked Autumn.

“No, sadly Caramel left and I am about to go drop off our little Sunflower off with my mother. However, we did decide to get you something. It’s not much, but it’s something we figured you would like.”, Autumn said to me handing me a card.

The card was one of those cheesy happy birthday cards that had a pun. Inside was $20 dollars and a special note from them both.

“Oh, thank you so much for the card. I like it.”, I said to Autumn.

“You don’t have to lie, I know it’s a silly card.”, Autumn said to me.

“No, that’s what I like about it. It makes it quirky.”, I explained to Autumm.

I said my goodbyes to Autumn and Sunflower before starting to trot home. As I walked back, I was thankful to find out the crowd had cleared up from earlier this morning. As I was walking through the market, I noticed a griffin in a market stall that looked familiar. Not the familiar as I have seen them before, but more familiar that they looked like a griffin I had seen before. I tried to get a much better look, but sadly I didn’t want to risk getting in a stall to then be crowded by other ponies. I just kept on walking and tried my best to leave it alone for today.

I made it home with the hope that I made it in time to surprise Ruby before she left. I quickly opened the door to rush to my PC. I made sure to sign into Kaos under the offline mode to not give away that I am back. Thankfully she wasn’t offline on Kaos, but her Smoke gave me the sense that she was about to leave. As quick as I could I quickly sent her a call at random to see if she would pick up.

Upon my surprise she picked up.

“Hello?”, Ruby answered confused.

I sat quietly to see how she would react.

“Hello? Is anyone there?”, Ruby said more confused.

More silence.

She then let out a small chuckle.

“Velvet is that you?”, She asked me.

I finally broke out of it.

“Surprise.”, I say to Ruby.

“I figured it would be you. I thought you had work.”, Ruby assmed.

“I thought so too. But Peach decided to give me the day off and let me have breakfast with her at her house.”, I explained to Ruby.

“Oh, that’s really nice. Did you get a nice gift from her as well?”, Ruby asked me.

I was hesitant on answering, not wanting to mention the big responsibility I was given and not wanting to break my promise.

“It was nice. She got me a book I wanted to read.”, I say trying to avoid the recipe.

“Oh that’s really good. I um, figure you would like your gift from me before I leave for school do you.”, Ruby said to me nervously.

“You don’t sound confident with it, rest assured whatever you got me I will love it.”I said, trying to make her feel more confident sending me it.

“It’s not that I am worried about. It’s more, well… Ah fuck it. I’ll just send it to you.”, Ruby said to me me confirmingly.

I was a little nervous receiving this gift from Ruby. Mainly because she didn’t really tell me what she was nervous about sending me. After about 2 minutes of waiting she finally spoke.

”Alright, here it is. I did some last minute touches, I hope you like it”, Ruby explained.

Kaos had given me a notification that was a sent file from Ruby. As I clicked to see the file, I was met with the spoiler tag over a photo. The only real use of this in Kaos was to troll other users into getting “Rogered”. (You can figure out what that is by looking around for it.)

“What did you send that needed to be…”, I said before being caught off guard by Ruby’s gift.

I really can’t think of a way to describe it without it sounding weird, but here it goes: she sent me a picture of herself showing off her ass. I was both shocked and amazed by her gift. Amazed for how absolutely amazing it looked, but shocked because I felt wrong looking at it. This wasn’t just a butt pic, it had her spreading and everything. I almost gasped out of fear upon seeing her like this. I have seen stuff like this before in “videos” I had seen and not felt weird, but for some reason it made me feel particularly weird seeing it from someone who knows me. Overall, I did like it, although it came as a huge surprise. Not as big as Peach’s gift, but it came real close.

“Oh my Celestia!”, I said out loud.

“D-Do you not like it?”, Ruby said defensively.

“N-No that’s not it. I l-like it just that I-I wasn’t expecting you to s-send me something l-like this and...”, I rambled nervously before I hear Ruby start chuckling.

“You love it. You don’t need to explain.”, She said to me with a bashful tone.

“How do you know?”, I asked Ruby.

“It’s obvious when you stutter nervously around me. You can say what you want about it. I won’t judge you.”, Ruby said sympathetically.

I swallowed nervously trying to muster up some words.

“Um, i-its a c-cute butt y-you have.”, I said to Ruby.

“Heh, I love it when your nervous around me. It’s really cute.”, She claimed.

“Oh be quiet you.”, I said to Ruby who was now laughing at my joking remark.

“Well, I have to go to school now. I hope to see you tonight. I’ll let you have your fun with my ‘gift’.”, Ruby said in a joking tone.

“NO, I am not gonna do that.”, I said defensively.

Ruby let out a laugh.

“Sure you won’t. I’ll see you later my Velvet. I love you”, Ruby said in a mocking tone.

I felt embarrassed, but I couldn’t help but admire her understanding of my situation.

“I l-love you too.”, I said nervously to Ruby before she logged off.

“Sweet Luna! Today has been crazy”, I say to myself leaning back in my chair looking at the Cobbler family’s recipe.

” Real crazy”.

I figured I would mess around with the new hat that Ruby got for me this morning in SF2. Upon signing in to Smoke, I was greeted with a message from somepony I hadn’t gotten a message from in a while: Prophecy Jail.

Prophecy Jail (Offline) : Happy birthday Velvet! Sadly you weren’t on when I was so I hope this gets to you whenever you can. I couldn’t really get you anything this year since getting back from the hospital, so I just want to wish you a happy birthday. Also my mom and dad for some reason wish the same to you. Don’t know why, but they do. See you around.
P.S. You should come by and visit some time, No this isn’t me asking you out, I know you don’t swing that way ;)

I was perfectly happy with receiving something as basic as an acknowledgment of my birthday. Like I said earlier, I’m a simple stallion. After all, Angel is my friend and will always be my friend no matter what so I might as well appreciate his condolences.

This was definitely the most memorable birthday I had ever had. Who can say that they were given a rare SF2 item, a nice pancake breakfast, the sacred recipe from a family, a cheesy card, a butt pic, and an acknowledgment all in one day? Not many that’s for sure.

I spent all the rest of my birthday in SF2 waiting for Ruby to come back online. When she did, she and I played SF2 together like old times; me as a StuntMerc and Ruby as a Skorcher. We played for a very long time until we got bored and decided to hang out in VRCinema, with Ruby letting me pick all the videos and music for my birthday. I realized how amazing life is when it came to you getting older that day.

Simply put, I found out that you will sometimes become a more important part of one's life as you become older. Peach had trusted me with her entire family recipe that would be worth a fortune in New Saddle. She knew that I was ready to take her tradition and learn to use it when I turned 18. I made her a promise on that day that I planned to keep. No pony would tell me otherwise. Why? Because I could now stand for myself as an adult. That’s just how life is, and always will be.

Author's Note

Facts

Chapter 17

About a week later, it was a warm afternoon near the end of the day of my shift at the bakery. I was finishing off the last of the cakes I had for the day, not really paying attention to the time. By the time I looked up from my work, I was shocked with how quick the day had gone by. Today was also a day where Peach was in for work. She started to come in every two days of the week. Like clockwork, Peach came in from the front to let me know the day was over.

“Closing time Sugar.”, Peach told me as I look back at the clock.

“Already?”, I asked still blown away by the day’s pace.

“Well, when you come to work early in the morning and close at noon, you get used to the time going by fast. Did you get everything you needed done?”, she asked me.

“Yeah, just got done with the icing on this one.”, I said using my magic to put the finished cake in the fridge.

“Well that’s good. May I ask, have you memorized it yet?”, She asked me.

“Memorized what?”, I asked confused.

She sighed.

”Velvet, don’t tell me you forgot about the ‘huge responsibility’ I gave you last week. That requires you to memorize it”, she warned.

By this time I figured out that she was talking of course about the recipe. I looked over it to glance over how complex it is, but never really read it in depth.

“Velvet, I need you to memorize that-”, Peach says before looking back at the door,” -recipe and know it by heart. I can’t have the risk of you reading along with it to make it and have somepony read it over your shoulder and spread it around. It’s too important”.

“I know I’m sorry, it is still kind of new to me to be trusted with a sacred family recipe.”, I explained to Peach saving my stuff for the day.

“I know it’s a lot, but you need to learn it soon. I hope to test you some time this week at my house to see if you were able to memorize it.”, Peach said to me.

“I’ll try to memorize it tonight. I promise.”, I promised to Peach gathering my things walking towards the door.

“You better, The future if this business depends on it.”, Peach said smiling at me before opening the door for me.

Ever since I got that recipe, Peach has always made sure I was the last to leave work. Probably to make sure I was away from suspecting workers trying to figure out why I am so ‘special’ in her eyes.

Peach locked up shop before saying goodbye for the day. I said my goodbyes before walking on my way back home. I discovered that if I was quick enough to get home, I could maybe manage to see Ruby before she leaves. Most of the time I would show up just as she logged off and left me a “love you” message But on some occasions I managed to talk to her for a couple of minutes before she would leave to school.

Today I felt that I was gonna make it, but as with my luck the world thought otherwise. The same shopping market had a crowd of ponies around it looking to buy Celestia knows what while being in the way of the closest way home. The only way around was longer, but like I said earlier it was better than having a panic attack in the middle of the crowd. On the positive side, the other way around was in the same neighborhood as Stormbreaker.

The neighborhood seemed empty walking through it. Stormbreaker wasn’t in sight this time.

“Huh, guess he might be at school or something. Oh well, guess I’ll see if he is home another-”, I said before jumping to the sight of a moving figure coming from above to land in front of me.

Once I recovered from my shock, I was able to piece together that the “moving figure” was Stormbreaker himself.

“Oh wow I knew you would come, I knew you would come. I am so happy to see that you are here oh my gosh I have been trying to get you here for such a long time.”, Stormbreaker says rapidly with wide eyes.

He looked up at me like I was a sacred symbol brought down from the skies, despite him being the one brought down from the sky.

“Uh, hey Stormbreaker.”, I said nervously recovering from the scare.

“Oh my gosh you remember me! I thought you had forgotten about me. Now I know for sure mommy and Flare will believe me.”, Storm said excitedly.

“Wait, what?”, I asked.

“Um, just wait outside on the porch of my house. Mommy will see who you are.”, Stormbreaker says grabbing my hoof pulling me to his house.

“Um, Okay.”, I nervously agreed.

I normally don’t like going into a stranger's houses without knowing them well enough, but this little griffin was persistent on me meeting his mother.

As I stood on the porch of the house, Stormbreaker opened the door and stopped. “Um, wait here. I need to go get mommy.”, Stormbreaker said before running in the house.

Seeing him run into the house quick made me laugh. It was more the fact that he was excited to see me and introduce his family to me. It made me feel like a celebrity in a way, a private celebrity. Not many can say that’s a title that they are dubbed.

I waited a little bit longer until I heard movement from inside the house move towards the door. Upon seeing the door open, I was met with a taller ,older looking griffin with purple and white feathers. One might say this is a threatening looking one, and you would be quick to assume it’s true. She gave me some up and down looks before speaking.

“So, you must be the mystery pony Storm had been talking about that helped him from those group of colts. Is this true?”, She asked.

I was a bit intimidated by her stature. It was a stature that struck fear into the hearts of those who would dare defy her. All of a sudden I turned into my old nervous self responding.

”Y-Yes ma’am”, I nervously answered

She walked over to me as I felt more anxiety from this confrontation. She glanced down at me with her eyes before unexpectedly putting her arms around me and pulling me into a deep hug. I almost pulled away out of fear that I did something wrong feeling her pull. Once I realized what was happening I felt relieved but once again recovering from shock to what had happened.

“Thank you so much, if you weren’t there, my Storm would probably have been seriously hurt by those ruthless animals.”, She says to me with a more somber tone.

I was still deep in the hug with my face into her shoulder.

“Glad to know I was doing a public service.”, I said muffled in her shoulder.

She laughed before letting me out of the hug.

“Sorry, just really appreciative of you helping out my son when he was in need. Especially when our kind is not treated as well by your kind here.”, The extremely nice griffin told me.

“I-It was nothing, I don’t have a prejudice against anyone unlike some here in New Saddle.”, I said loosening up a little.

“How absolutely rude of me! I haven’t even introduced myself, my names Amethyst”, She says holding out her claw.

“Red Velvet, but you can call me Velvet instead.”, I say moving my hoof to her claw.

“Velvet, that is a nice name.” She said shaking my hoof.

“I was wondering, would you happen to be interested in sitting down and having a cup of tea and chatting for a little while?”, Amethyst propositioned to me.

“I’m not much into tea, but I would like to have a conversation with you.”, I said to Amethyst.

“Splendid! Come on in Velvet. Make yourself at home.”, She said opening the door for me.

Amethyst’s home was nice, sure it was small but it was enough to live in. The living room and kitchen were all connected rooms, which made me assume that the living room was the dining room. There was a mantle with a few pictures of Amethyst and her family, Stormbreaker and this shorter griffin with orange feathers. I assumed that was her husband based on how they were standing together in the picture, with both of them with their claws intertwine. Of course with Storm in the middle of them. The picture showed that they looked like one small yet happy family.

“So you said no on the tea?”, Amethyst asked me from the kitchen.

It was so funny, I said I wasn’t a tea pony yet I never knew what it tasted like.

“Actually, I’ll take the tea. I’ve never had a cup before.”, I said to her from the living room.

“Alright, I’ll make sure it’s the best cup you will have.”, She said putting a kettle on the stove.

Once she got it started, she sat down in the chair next to me in the living room. So much of my nervousness was gone now that she was offering me tea and having a chat.

“So Velvet, what’s your story?”, Amethyst asked me.

“I don’t know, what is something you want to know besides I have lived here my whole life?”, I asked Amethyst.

“Well, I would like to know specifically where you were coming from when the whole situation happened.”, She said to me.

“Well, I was on my way to work to go and submit this art project. I was walking in this neighborhood and stopped when I saw what was happening to Storm. I managed to separate them from him, but I managed to lose the project in the process. Looking back on it, that was a fair trade.”, I explained to Amethyst.

“So you’re an artist, yeah?”, She asked me.

“Oh no. It’s only a hobby for me. I actually work in a bakery not too far from here. Have you heard of ‘Cakes+Confections’?”, I asked her.

“Who hasn’t heard of the famous bakery? It’s one of the only real landmarks still here in New Saddle. Most of the other’s have faded away with time.”, She said scholarly.

“Oh really?”, I said interested.

“Mmhm. Did you know that once New Saddle was once a swampy marshland for the rice farmers in Hoovesiana up until the 1800s when the land elevation rose up?”, Amethyst informed me.

I nodded in interest.

”You seem to know a lot about the history of New Saddle.”, I said presumptuously about her.

“Well, when I first moved from the north, the only job that I was able to get at the time was a job in the library. There I spent most of my time in there sorting out books, but in my free time I was able to read all the books I could get my claws on. The ones I found most interesting at the time was the ones about the history of New Saddle.”, Amethyst explained to me.

“Why would that interest you? Didn’t you say you came from the north?”, I asked Amethyst.

“It’s funny, the reason I was so drawn to them was because I was from the north. I figured if I was gonna live here, I might as well learn a bit about the culture and history.”, Amethyst explained.

“Say, what part from the north are you-”, I said before being interrupted by the kettle whistling from the kitchen.

“Well, looks like the tea is ready.”, Amethyst said standing up from her chair to serve the tea.

She came back a couple minutes later with two cups of tea, handing me one.

“It might be hot so be careful.”, Amethyst cautioned me.

I waited a little bit before sipping the now warm tea.

“Well, how does it taste for your taste of tea?”, Amethyst asked me.

“It tastes good, a little sweet but it’s good.”, I said to her.

“All thanks to my husbands recipe.”, Amethyst explained.

“Oh, that’s cool. Does he work in a cafe?”, I asked her.

“Used to. Now he works security at a school in town. It is also why he isn’t here now.”, She explained to me.

“Ah I see.”, I said sipping more of the tea.

As we were chatting, I heard Storm come flying out of his room. Amethyst took notice.

“Storm! What did I say about flying in the house?”, She said to her son.

“Sorry momma, I was excited to find a drawing I made for this pony I was telling you about.”, Storm said clutching a drawing in his claws.

Amethyst looked over at me.

”Well, that's very thoughtful of you. Go ahead and give it to him”, Amethyst said with a small smile.

I took Storm’s drawing with my magic and looked at it. I was pleasantly surprised with how good it looked coming from a griffon so young. He may not have had it colored, but for a young artist he was surprisingly good with the outlines and details. This was just a drawing of him and what looked like me of him giving me a high five, despite me having hooves.

I looked up to Storm and grinned.

”You are gonna be a wonderful artist if you keep good stuff like this up.”, I said to Storm.

“Thank you mister, I’m so glad you liked it.”, he said before running back into his room.

“He’s a delight ain’t he Velvet?”, Amethyst asked with a smile.

I looked back towards Amethyst.

“Absolutely, he has a lot of energy. Plus he can draw really well. How old is he?”, I asked her.

“Seven years old, about to turn eight next month.”, Amethyst said to me.

“Wow, he is so young. I couldn’t even draw this good when I was his age.”, I said in awe.

“Well, when you give a good book to someone they can learn a lot of things at a young age.”, Amethyst explained sipping the last of her tea.

“Does he go to the school here in New Saddle?”, I asked sipping more of my tea.

“Nah. I homeschool him here. It gives him more in depth learning plus he can hang out with his friends more when they come over.”, Amethyst explained to me.

“Does he have a lot of friends?”, I asked.

She stared blankly before answering.

“He has some, although I wish I was strong enough to let him hang around others by himself. After him being in that situation earlier, I was scared of him going through another bullying phase. Especially with how ruthless some can get with bullying nowadays.”, Amethyst said.

“Yeah, I see what you mean.”, I responded to her.

After an hour of us talking about her life and the ponies and griffons she had met, Amethyst felt like flipping the switch onto me.

“So, I was wondering, do you have a special somepony by your side?”, She asked me.

I was a little hesitant on answering.

“I do, but it’s kind of complicated.”, I said trying to avoid the fact the “special somepony” was actually another griffon.

“How so?”, She asked me.

I normally would feel like it would sound wrong saying it to another pony, but since this was a griffin it kind of got rid of that nervousness of opening up about it.

“Well, How do I put this? You see, she isn’t exactly a pony, she is a griffin. I know it sounds weird but I just feel alright around her and that she could be my one.”, I said defensively at the end.

Amethyst cocked her head sideways.

“Weird?”, She asked me.

“You don’t find that weird that a unicorn is in love with a griffon?”, I asked her.

“Nonsense! There is nothing wrong with anyone being in love with someone who is a different species. Of course if it’s not of age then…”, Amethyst said before I interjected.

”She’s of age!” , I clarified.

Amethyst laughed and said how she was just teasing.

“Do you live with her or is it still early in the relationship?”, Amethyst asked me.

“It’s still in its early stages, but I hope eventually it will get there.”, I explained to her.

“Do you live around here? You seem like you would live in the next neighborhood over.”, Amethyst asked me.

“Oh no. I live in a neighborhood near the city, in my old parent’s house that used to belong to them.”, I said to her. “

Used to belong to them?”, She asked me.

“Well you see, they died a little while ago and I had been living in that house by myself since I was 12.”, I said to Amethyst, whose eyes widened.

“You have been living by yourself since you were 12?! My goodness surely you must have had someone look over you.”, She exclaimed to me surprised.

“Well, not completely alone. I had a friend of my parents come by to visit me occasionally to check up on me. It wasn’t until I was 15 when I started to take care of myself without somepony to watch over me.”, I explained to Amethyst.

“Oh, well you were definitely brave to stay by yourself for that long, especially after something tragic like losing your parents. I’m so sorry about that.”, She said apologetically.

“It’s okay, I’ve kind of gotten more used to bringing up my past with that situation recently.”, I said comforting Amethyst.

“Well that’s good, it’s important to remember them for the memories they gave you while you had them.”, She told me with some longing eyes.

We sat there and chatted for a little while longer before I looked over at the clock that read “3:36 PM”.

“Holy smokes the time went by fast!”, I said surprised.

“Did it? I didn’t mean to keep you so long.”, Amethyst apologized to me.

“No it’s okay, I enjoyed chatting with you over tea.”, I said to Amethyst standing up.

“Well good. Maybe you can come by for dinner sometime or maybe some coffee and meet my husband?”, Amethyst asked me.

“Sure, I would like that.”, I said to her.

As she was showing me the way to the door, I went to go say goodbye to Storm who was in his room playing with some toys.

“Hey Storm, It was nice meeting you but I have to go home now.”, I said holding out my hoof.

“Oh. Well, you will come back, right mister?”, He asked me.

“Absolutely. Also, you can call me Velvet instead of mister.”, I said to Storm.

“Ok, I’ll see you later, Velvet.”, Storm said high fiving my hoof.

As I made my way outside, I said my goodbyes and thanked Amethyst for the tea and began to walk home. On my way home, I began to think to myself about them.

“How absolutely nice of a family that was. They offered me tea, gave me a drawing. That right there says nicest family on the block. Guaranteed.”, I said to myself in my head.

Once I made it back home, I hung the drawing Storm had made for me on the fridge. It made me smile just by looking at it knowing that I was that important to a griffin that they made a drawing of me. Once I was finished admiring the drawing, I decided to do as Peach had told me and actually try and memorize the recipe of cobbler. I sat down at my desk and opened up the drawer where I kept the notebook of the Cobbler family. For an hour and a half, I did nothing but look over how to make the famous cobbler. As much as I would wish to tell you how it is made, I swore to tell no one about this recipe’s details. Not even you who is still listening to this story for this long, despite you deserving listening for this long.

I took a couple of minutes without notes to say aloud the recipe to myself to make sure I had gotten it right. Every single time, I managed to get all the details right along with all the steps.

“Yeah Velvet you got it! Mom and Dad would be proud. Really proud.”, I said to myself before looking at the memory box on the shelf above.

I used my magic to take it down from there to look at it. I opened it to take a peek inside, it’s contents were always the ones to make me think of them when they were alive. I looked a little while longer before closing it and putting it back on the shelf.

Standing up I looked at my PC and decided to log back on for the night. Once I logged into everything, I was surprised to hear a Kaos call sound.

“There is no way she is back already.”, I said to myself going to Kaos.

Thankfully my prediction was right, however this pony was a pleasant surprise to see calling me.

“Huh, lets see what you want ‘Prophecy Jail’”, I said picking up Angel’s call.

“Velvet! How are you my friend?”, Angel exclaimed to me picking up the call.

“I’m doing fine, how about you?”, I asked him.

“Very good, actually it was the reason I called you.”, He said to me eagerly.

“Oh damn, what's going on?”, I asked.

“Well, I don’t want to say it with you not face to face, are you doing anything tonight?”, He asked me.

“No, but I just got home so I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere tonight.”, I explained to Angel.

“Oh, well when is the soonest you can come by?”, He asked me. “

I can see if I can try and come by tomorrow after work if you like. Is that soon enough?”, I asked him.

“Great, that’s actually perfect. Well, I just wanted to call you and see about seeing if you can come by soon.”, Angel said to me.

“I'm here now on Smoke, do you want to play some SF2 with me like you said.”, I asked Angel.

“Not tonight my friend. I’m a little too busy preparing for the big news that had just happened. Maybe some other time?”, He asked.

“Yeah, that’ll work.”, I say to Angel.

“Well I gotta dash, I’ll send you my address so you can come by tomorrow. Hope to see you then Velvet.”, Angel said to me.

“Same to you Angel.”, I said to him before leaving the call.

Tomorrow, I would go see him for some unspecified reason besides,”It’s really good news”.

“Whatever, I’m sure it will be something he could’ve told me over a call. At least I can visit him finally.”, I said to myself.

I sat down at my desk and worked on a drawing for a little while before hearing a notification that Ruby was back online. I couldn’t wait to tell her about the nice griffin I met today. So eager in fact that I was the first one to call Ruby on her profile.(Which was now called, “Littlest Pip”). I never knew how exciting it was to hear someone else answer instead of me usually answering first.

“Good evening my Velvet. How are you this evening?”, Ruby said to me answering the call.

I decided to act cute about the answer.

“Absolutely amazing now that you are here.”, I said cheesily.

“D’aaww, somepony missed me.”, Ruby said playfully teasing me again.

“Oh stop it with that already.”, I said blushingly to Ruby who was now laughing.

“The strangest thing happened to me today.”, I said to Ruby.

“Oh?”, She asked me wishing to know.

“So you know how I have been telling you all about Peach and how nice she is as a pony?”, I asked Ruby.

“Absolutely I do. The countless stories you’ve told me of her make me wish to see her one day.”, Ruby said to me.

“Well, imagine all those qualities except put into a griffin.”, I said to Ruby all excited.

“Huh? What do you mean?”, Ruby asked confused.

“So do you remember when that little griffin I helped a while back who was being bullied?”, I say reminding her.

“Yeah?”, She responded.

“Well, I ran into him again today and was gracious enough to meet his mother. Upon me introducing myself, she invited me in for tea and even chatted for a bit.”, I explained to Ruby.

“Oh, that’s very nice of a griffin. She definitely adds up to the niceness of Peach.”, She pointed outhearing my story about her.

I decided to ask her about her day.

“So, how was your day?”, I asked Ruby.

“Mine, it was just the same old day as always you know. Singing for class, all that jazz.”, She says to me.

“Oh, well that’s fine.”, I said to Ruby.

“Would you like to hear me sing some of the songs I learned?”, She asked me.

“Do griffins have feathers?”, I say to Ruby.

She chuckled at that little remark before she began to sing. As beautiful as I would expect, her voice sounded heavenly. Along with the song, which was by Moose called, “Something Alive”, it sounded like a dream like song to help those who are lonely waiting for their lovers to return home. It was a very happy sounding, like there was hope to see them very soon.

I pretty much sat there for a few hours, just listening to how stunning her singing is. I would compliment her on how good it sounded and she would move on to the next song. It was working out fine until in the middle of her singing. I heard a loud banging noise in the background of her audio. It made me jump all of a sudden hearing this.

“What was that?”, I asked Ruby.

She was silent for a moment before responding quietly.

“It’s my dad, he came home from work drunk again. I’ll be right back. I’m gonna try and help him back into his room as best as I can.”, Ruby said to me.

“Ok, I’ll be here.”

From what I noticed on the screen, she went to mute her mic and must’ve thought it had completely muted hr audio. While it did for a second, it quickly played her raw audio as I heard her door open up. I tried my best to ignore it going back to work on the drawing I was working on. From what I was hearing in the background, it was just a murmur of voices along with clamping of the ground from walking. It seemed fine until I heard a loud slam along with the grunting noises of a male voice being her dad.

It distracted me, so I kept listening to hear what was going on. Although most of it was murmurs, there was one occasion where her dad raised his voice.

“Don’t! I can d-do it myself. I always end up having to do it my damn self anyway”, The drunken father of Ruby said.

There were some more murmurs up until I managed to hear Ruby’s voice in a tone I had never heard before.

“I don’t think that dad, I never would’ve thought abou-”, Ruby said trembling in the background before being interrupted with a sudden rise in tone from her father.

“Don’t give me your fucking lies! You think I am a fucking loser of a father don’t ya? Your dad is nothing? Well guess what, you aren’t any better than I am.”, Ruby’s father said angrily.

“Please stop”, Ruby said with a soft tear filled voice.

“You are crying like a bitch right now because you know it’s true. Why else would you think you would be crying over this.”, The drunk father said more.

“Dad, please stop it.”, Ruby said once again with a trembling voice.

It sounded like someone was standing up from the ground based on the sounds of the floor.

“You just refuse to admit it. You believe that there is hope in going to some fucking stupid music school to pursue your dreams in becoming a singer. You hope to one day make it big as a singer so you can leave me behind because you think I am a fucking joke.”, Her father assumed.

There was a soft murmur of her voice sounding like she was crying. I so badly wanted to be there right now so I could stop this from happening to her. I called out a couple of times on the mic to try and get her away from the situation, but it proved to no avail as things only got worse from there.

“That’s fine, I don’t fucking need you. You can go away forever for all I care. I won’t miss you. You’d be just like your mother, a whore who left ages ago because she thought I WAS A FUCKING LOSER!!”, The drunk father yelled at Ruby.

What came next is something I can’t ever imagine Ruby would ever turn into.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE OF A FATHER!!!! DON’T YOU EVER TALK THAT WAY ABOUT MY MOTHER YOU BASTARD!”, Ruby yelled back at her father.

Then, came something that still haunts me to this very day.

“YOU LITTLE SHIT! I’LL TEACH YOU TO FUCKING TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!”, Ruby’s drunk father lashed out with a series of grunts and screams from him and Ruby.

At this point, I began screaming in tears Ruby’s name out of fear of what was happening to her. All I could decipher was hitting and clawing noises on the ground and on the walls. It all ended with one loud blow given to Ruby’s father before I heard him fall back and hear Ruby running into her room crying and locking the door. She gave a loud bang on the wall before letting out a loud scream of sadness.

I called out her name a loud through her headset for a couple of minutes before hearing her sit down heavily in her chair. By this point, my whole body was shaking all over from anxiety.

“Ruby! Are you…”, I say trembling with a tear flowed down my face.

“No, I’m not okay. I am far from okay.”, Ruby said with a tear filled voice. I

almost had no clue on what else to say after a situation like that.

“Oh my celestia I am so fucking sorry that happened, do you-”, I said anxiously before being interrupted by Ruby.

“No, there is nothing you can do…… I’m sorry but I just need to be….”, She said crying before completely leaving the call.

When she had logged off, I began to let out all of my tears for the rest of the night. It is a fucked up situation to be in with someone you love that is miles away from you; knowing that something terrible happened to your significant other, and there is absolutely nothing you can do except wait and hope that it turns out okay. That is the scariest feeling in the world, even worse than being in a crowd of ponies.

Chapter 18

I didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. I couldn’t after the horror that had happened with Ruby and her dad earlier. It was the thought that I had no clue what damage was done to her that kept me up all night. I know that she wasn’t seriously hurt, otherwise she would have been screaming violently. But it was more the fact that so much could have happened, with the worst possibility being that he would….. I don’t even want to mention it that’s how messed up it had me witnessing it. Even to this day, it scares me to even think of what it was like from Ruby’s perspective.

My alarm clock blaring was the only thing to let me know that the night was finally over. Shutting it off, I felt my bones ache inside from anxiety still recovering from the night before.

“Oh fuck berries, this is not good.”, I said to myself rubbing my eyes to get up from bed.

Once risen from my bed, I was looking over at my PC and began to walk over to it sitting down. I logged onto everything I usually did, only this time I was mainly focused on Ruby.

“Please be online. Please be online.”, I said to myself as I logged in, hoping to find out if she was there.

I was disappointed to see that she was offline for both Smoke and Kaos, not leaving a message like she usually would if she wasn’t online in the morning.

“Fucking dammit. Dammit!”, I scolded myself thinking of her probably in pain right now.

I knew that it probably wouldn’t be right to leave a message right after what had transpired before, but it was the only thing I could think to do to let her know that I was there for her.
Lotus (Online) : Ruby, I want to give a formal apology to you for last night with what had happened with a certain individual. I apologize because I wasn’t there to protect you from what had happened. If I was there and known what would’ve happened, I would have made sure to get you out of there before shit would hit the fan.
I guess what I am trying to say is, whenever I see you again I want to let you know that I’ll be here for you whenever I can if ever you feel alone. If there is any way I can help you through this, you let me know. I’ll be more than glad to help you out. I’ll see you whenever I can. I love you.
-Velvet

With the message I left her typed out, I figured there was no point in sticking around the house waiting for her when she clearly wasn’t going to be on in the morning. I closed everything before gathering all my things for work. I wasn’t in a rush, mainly because I was going way earlier than I usually would go. I was hoping that Peach was gonna be there to unlock the store, I really wasn’t looking forward to waiting outside for her to come by and unlock the bakery.

Walking out of my house, I felt the cool gust of wind in the New Saddle air. It felt very much how I was feeling right then; very gloomy. The amount of ponies in the street reflected that mood. The streets felt like a ghost town, with only one pony in view within every one block or so. It was almost erie how much New Saddle felt exactly how I felt. Like the town was listening the entire time from last night. Maybe that’s the charm of this town afterall. Even though it’s in the middle of nowhere in Hoovesiana, it still lives and breathes fresh life.

I had arrived at the bakery only 15 minutes later from leaving my home. I was blessed to find that the door was open.

“Lucky me. Maybe she might be in the back again.”, I said to myself in my head.

As I walked into the back, I saw Peach cleaning the pan used for cobbler in the sink. She must’ve sensed my presence, as she turned around surprised.

“Oh, It’s just you Velvet. How are you this morning?”, Peach asked me.

“I’m doing fine. Little tired, but I’m okay.”, I answered her rubbing my eyes.

“Well that’s good, I was actually hoping you would come-”, She said walking towards me before falling down suddenly.

“Oh Shit Peach!”, I said running over to help her,”Are you okay?”

“I-I’m fine. Just tripped over myself not paying attention. My old clumsy self.”, She said with me holding up my hoof to help her up.

While it looked like she tripped, it was very sudden. Almost like it just happened without a stumbling motion.Once she stood back up, she continued as though it never happened.

“Anyways, now that that is over, I was hoping you would come early today to show me if you got it down.”, Peach said revealing a table of bowls and pans behind me. I figured right away what was going on.

“I have it down, really I do”, I reassured her.

“Good, then show me.”, She said moving out of the way leaving me to do my work with it.

“Alright Velvet, time to show her what you are made of.”, I said to myself in my head before beginning.

I won’t say the process of making it as to keep my promise to not tell anyone it, but I will say what kind I made. Out of all the fruits I chose that were on the counter, I decided to go with Cherry. Cherries were a fruit I like to eat, so I thought a cherry cobbler would be nice to make. I made sure to take my time making all the parts come together before putting it in the oven.

I let it cook in the oven for a half hour before taking it out and putting it on the counter. Once I let the cobbler cool, I looked over to Peach to give her an accomplished look. She walked over to examine my finished project. Though I felt I did a good job making it, there was that impenetrable nervousness of me missing one key part of the cobbler. It was further proven when she took a small fork and knife to cut a piece for her to taste. I felt a drip of sweat drip off my forehead as she took a bite of the cobbler I made. She closed her eyes tasting it, which made me nervous for the fact that I felt something was missing.

When I was expecting her to give me some pointers and criticisms with the cobbler, instead I heard something I never thought I would hear: I heard Peach give a few soft sobs.

“Peach?”, I asked her confused.

She looked over at me with tears coming down her face with a small grin and came over to hug me.

“You’re gonna go far sugar. You’re gonna go real far”, She said with tears of joy before hugging me.

“It was, exactly how the recipe states?”, I asked embracing her hug.

She let me out of the hug looking at me. “It wasn’t exactly the recipe. But you did it in your own way and made it exemplary. That’s what’s most important about the recipe.”, Peach explained to me smiling.

I gave her a grin before she sat down on a chair near the counter.

“So was that the reason you came this early in the morning sugar?”, Peach said leaving me a chair.

“Well, I had woken up earlier and couldn’t go back to sleep. It sucked because I already wasn’t sleeping well last night. So I figured I might as well get up and go to work early.”, I said to her.

“Was it maybe tossing and turning at night?”, She asked me.

I was silent thinking about what happened last night with Ruby and her father. Longer than I wanted to stay silent.

“Velvet?”, Peach asked grabbing my attention.

I was contemplating whether to tell her the truth of what had happened prior. At this point, she was very accepting of my situations. Though I had nothing to lose by telling her this, I felt nervous in her thinking my priorities weren’t in the right place socially. With a sigh and a mentality that said,”Fuck it”, I proceeded to tell her everything that happened last night.

“Peach I need to tell you something I should’ve told you a long time ago.”, I said to her in a serious tone.

She gave a look of concern upon hearing this and sat quietly as I spoke.

“I have been lying to you about my significant other. You see, I never met her in person yet. We met online and quickly became close friends. Soon me and her got close enough to where I felt it was the right time to tell her exactly how I felt about her. And thankfully she felt the exact same way about me.”, I said to Peach who was now giving me a confused look.

“How does that connect to-”, She asked before I raise a hoof to explain.

“Last night, she and I were in a call together and things were going just like normal for us. We would talk for hours before going to bed, but then her dad came home and-”, I said before stifling up remembering what had happened,”-did something horrible to her. I was scared for her sake, but before I could see if she was okay she hung up on me, leaving me with the worst anxiety for her.”

I looked over at Peach with a blank look tearing up

”I know it’s crazy for me to feel this way for someone I never met, but I can’t help it. She has helped me out through so much and opened me up more. I love her so much for that……..You probably think I’m-”, I said before being shushed by Peach.

“I knew. All this time I knew it was under unusual circumstances you were dating somepony, but I guess I didn’t expect that.”, Peach said putting a hoof on my shoulder.

My ears perked up from this.

“You...knew the entire time?”, I asked her.

“Not the entire time, but at one point I figured it out. With all you young ponies finding love in all sorts of ways, I figured it was something like that.”, She explained to me before grinning,”Plus you kind of gave it away last week when you came over to my house”.

“I did?”, I asked cocking my head to the side.

“Sugar, no normal pony would immediately scream out,’No’ upon being asked when they can meet their marefriend”, She reminded me with a chuckle.

I gave a small blush from being reminded of that moment.

“But anyway, there is nothing wrong with that. Especially for the way you felt for her with what happened to her last night. It is a sign that you really love her.”, Peach said.

“But that’s not my problem. My problem is knowing whether she is okay from that and not seriously affected by it.”, I explained to her.

“Well Velvet, the best I can tell you is have faith. Have faith that she is okay and that she will make sure that a situation like that will never happen again. If you have strong faith in her, then that lets you know that you and her are really good for each other”, Peach said to me.

I always loved that about Peach. She always managed to take any bad situation I was in and make a resolution for it that works and a good message behind it. It was like her magic, even though she didn’t have a horn.

I gave a look of understanding before she looked over at the clock.

“Goodness me! I need to get going.”, Peach exclaimed standing up.

“What for?”, I asked her.

“Just some business regarding the bakery with bankers. Boring stuff like that. You can watch over for today can you?”, She asked me.

“Yeah I can. Just thought you would stay today.”, I said with disappointment.

“It’s gonna be okay. Maybe you can visit this afternoon.”, She propositioned. “Actually I can’t, I’m going to visit a friend today. Says he has some big news to tell me.”, I said to Peach remembering Angel asking me to come by.

“Oh. Well whenever you get the chance you can come by to visit. Unless you think you’re too cool to hang out with me.”, She said smiling.

“No one is too cool to hang out with you.”, I said defensively while Peach laughed.

Once again she was always one to tease you like a family member.

Once she left, I continued to start the day giving the morning meeting. I once again saw Pipsqueak getting angry for not being in charge. All for something so small. (I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself with that one.) The day went on with all of us working at a steady pace. It was actually a really good day for us, with a lot of ponies coming in for business before we would close in the afternoon.

Once we closed up, I made sure to lock up tight before moving down to the carriage station to meet up with Caramel.

“I hope he means well with his promise of free rides”, I said to myself walking to the station.

The streets were now filled with more energy than it was this morning, much like me. Though I still had that little bit of anxiety, I felt I could let that all go away by taking my mind off of it to go see Angel.

I was met with a smiling face and a wave seeing Caramel at the station. I waved back before getting closer towards him.

“Hey hey hey Velvet! How are you doing?”, he said to me as I approached.

“I’m doing fine, how about you?”, I asked him.

“Good, business is going well. Where do you need to go?”, He asked me.

“How did-”, I asked before being interrupted.

“I have learned to accept that if ponies come to me at the station it is because they need to go somewhere. Anything other than that it is usually when they meet me at my home to discuss. So, where you need to go?”, Caramel explained to me.

I told him the address to Angel’s and we took off right away.

We talked for a little bit during the journey, but it was strictly business pulling me to Mounting City. I totally respect that, but I feel that being too strict can lose the fun of riding with a friend. Though I do see the point of being serious, with performance being most important to gain business.

With what felt like a long ride, I had finally arrived at a nice looking home just past the city. It was more traditional looking rather than the more modern houses in the city, like it was still set back 20 years. It’s shrubbery and windows were making me feel like I stepped out of a time machine, if a time machine was also designed to be a carriage to travel back in time once it struck 88 miles per hour. Sounds like a cool movie if you ask me.

“This is it my friend. Do you need me to stick around here?”, Caramel asked me.

“No, I’ll probably be a little while. You can go and visit the town if you like.”, I said to him.

“Alright, I’ll see if I can get a drink around here. You want something when you come out?”, He asked.

“Nah, I feel I would have to pay you back.”, I responded.

“Alright. I’ll be around if you finish early.”, Caramel said before walking off.

I was now faced with the view of an old fashioned house with my end goal inside.

I was amused to find that the house itself didn’t even have a normal doorbell. It instead had an old fashioned door knocker. I had seen them before, but they were mostly used for decoration of a door. It felt strange for me to have to knock with it, granted I was using my magic to do this. After knocking, I waited for a little bit before I heard the door open. It was Angel’s mother who had been excited upon seeing me.

“Oh my goodness! It’s you! My goodness I wasn’t expecting you to come by so soon.”, She said grabbing my hoof and shaking it.

Right away I could tell she was eager to see me. Almost, too eager.

“Um, nice to properly meet you um..”, I said nervously before she interjected again.

“Moonlight. You can call me Moon if you want to”, She says to me.

“Oh ok Mrs. Moon. I uh, am here to see Angel.”, I explained to her.

“Oh of course. He is here. Let me get him, why don’t you come in?”, She said inviting me in her house.

I followed her inside to wait for Angel.

Based on what I said about the outside of their house, would you assume the same for the inside to look 20 years behind? Did you say yes? Well you are wrong and a bag of empty chips. It surprised me with how modern the inside of the house was. I knew that Angel had told me multiple times that they before wouldn’t give him money to go off to Ponyville to be a Wonderbolt for them wanting him to be a preacher, but now it was almost seeming like it was more spent on the mind trippy inside of the house. I almost felt like this was the wrong house at first until I could still see Mrs. Moon.

“Angel! Your friend is here!”, Mrs. Moon called out to Angel,”He’ll be out in a second”.

I smiled to her look at me. I waited for a few seconds before seeing Angel appear from the hallway. His eyes shot up upon seeing me.

“Velvet! You made it! How are you doing?”, Angel asked me.

“I am fine, trip was nice so that’s good.”, I said looking at Angel.

He was looking way better than the last time I saw him in a hospital bed. Mrs. Moon must’ve seen that it was really a moment for friends as she made it clear to leave us to make it less awkward. She had walked out of the room, leaving the two of us in the room connecting the hallway and living room.

“Well, that’s good. Would you like to come to my room?”, He said stepping aside.

I cracked a smile and an eyebrow raise.

“Thought you said this wasn’t you asking me out?”, I said jokingly.

“It isn’t. I just want to tell you myself before my parents make it awkward when they say it. Trust me, based on how your lips felt I know you don’t swing that way.”, He alluded to me making me blush thinking about that moment.

“Fair enough. Let’s head to your castle”, I said following him to his room.

Upon entering his room, I was surprised to find out how empty it was. You had his bed which was a medium size and then a bookcase with a lamp on top. There was also a closet with a Wonderbolt poster of a rainbow haired pegasus staring into the horizon. I don’t know why, but she gave off the impression she was cool. It’s weird to say that I know, but it has kinda bothered me to this day when I think of that poster.

There was a small chair to the side of the bed.

“Well, make yourself at home. I know it’s kind of lacking at the moment but it is working.”, He said closing the door behind him.

I sat down in the chair before speaking.

”It’s not bad, you have a bed at least. Some homeless ponies would kill to have one”, I said pointing out the bright side

“Yeah you’re telling me. Guess I better explain why the room is so empty looking.”, he said.

“Well wait, aren’t you gonna tell me the big news first? It was one of the reasons for me to come over.”, I reminded Angel.

“It’s the reason for the room lacking Velvet.”, He explained to me.

He sat down on the bed next to me.

“I don’t know a kind of softer way of putting this so I’ll just say it: They are gonna let me go to do it.”, He announced excitedly.

I was confused at first hearing this.

“What?”, I asked confused.

“My parents are gonna help send me up to Ponyville to go for the Wonderbolt training camp. They are gonna pay for everything; train ticket, place for me to stay. It’s gonna be great.”, He said with a smile on his face.

My eyes widened with happiness hearing that he could finally do what he really wanted to do.

“Oh my Celestia! That is great!”, I said putting a hoof on his shoulder.

“Yeah, but that leads to why my room is so empty. You see, I am going to be leaving in a couple of days. I wanted to tell you because I probably won’t be able to be on Smoke anymore because of it.”, He said now in a glum tone.

It all made sense now. I was actually wondering why his PC was nowhere to be seen.

“I hope that you will be okay with me being gone for a while.”, he says to me.

I couldn’t help but give him a smile to cheer him up.

“Of course I will. I know that you have wanted to be a Wonderbolt for a while. I would rather you go for something that you want to do than only dream of it.”, I said to comfort Angel.

“You mean it?”, he asked me.

“Absolutely. I mean as long as you don’t forget about me or anything.”, I said.

This made him laugh a little.

“How could I for all the stuff you did for me?”, Angel said to me with a smirk.

The visit was like that for the rest of the afternoon. We had decided that the weekend coming up that I would be there one last time to say goodbye to him. Once all was said and done, I promptly talked with him for a little bit before his parents had come in and join in on the conversation of him leaving to Ponyville a little late. They definitely changed from what Angel had said about them in the past, with them being all strict. It was funny to see them being quirky after all the strict stories being thrown around.

Once I was done visiting with Angel and his parents, I said my goodbyes and made sure to remind Angel that I would be there in the coming weekend. I was gonna make sure I was not gonna miss it for the world.

When I had gotten out of the house, I decided to wait a little on the sidewalk waiting for Caramel. There was a bench that I sat down to take a look around in the street. I took notice of the view of the city in the distance. For whatever reason, it gave me a feeling of the future being okay. I know that things weren’t exactly the best right now for the griffin I love, but I kept thinking more and more about what Peach had said to me: About being faithful to those you love. It took me to go away to visit my friend to tell me he is going away to achieve his dream to take all my worries away of Ruby. I felt that maybe it will all work out in the end if I just hold on a little longer.

“Velvet? Hello...Earth to Velvet!”, Caramel said getting me out of my thought.

“Oh sorry. I was trapped in a deep thought. Were you waiting long?”, I asked Caramel.

“If you consider three minutes of me calling your name for a long time. You okay?”, He asked me.

“Yeah. I’m good. I’m ready to go back home.”, I said getting up from the bench to get in the back.

“Okay Velvet. We should be there in a little bit.”, Caramel says to me as I closed the door to the carriage.

The ride was short, much like last time coming home. If I could take a guess, it was early evening based on the orange tone of the sky showing the sun beginning to set.

“Well, we’re here.”, Caramel told me from outside.

I got out of the carriage to face him.

“Hey, thanks Caramel. Today was definitely the day I needed to go out and visit friends. So much shit going on.”, I explained to him.

“No problem Velvet. You sure about nothing being wrong?”, He asked me. I

looked off to the side before responding.

“Well, some stuff going on with my griffin friend. It’s kind of stressful because she wanted to be alone yet I was worried for her.”, I said to Caramel. “

Did something happen between you two?”, He asked getting the wrong idea.

“Oh no not between us. It’s……..kind of a long story. Maybe I’ll explain it at dinner sometime.”, I said to him.

“Alright, I’ll see you later Velvet.”, He said getting ready to leave.

“See you soon as well. Tell Autumn and Sunflower for me.”, I said to Caramel walking away into the sunset.

“Velvet’s home.”, I said to myself walking into my home.

I closed the door behind me and went to throw my stuff on the table. I got a glance of my desk and remembered the drawing I had started working on yesterday. I remembered how the only thing I had left of it was to shade in a few more details and maybe give it some color.

“Might as well finish it. It will be off my conscious for tonight.”, I say to myself walking over to my desk.

As I pulled out my drawing, I had also signed into my PC to put on some music while I finish up the drawing. I hadn’t realized that when I signed out this morning that I was still signed into both Kaos and Smoke. It didn’t bother me, but it did make me realize that I could’ve been sent a message and have it seem like I was online. Thankfully there wasn’t a message calling me an asshole for not responding to a message.

I continued my work on the drawing while listening to some Smashing Melons and A Night to Forget. It was turning out very well, much better than I expected it would turn out with the small details. I was in the middle of shading in the colors before I got an unexpected call in Kaos from Ruby. I almost thought it was a fake account with how unexpected it was. Upon looking at the profile, it was the real deal.

I accepted the call from Ruby and anxiously answered first.

”Ruby! My goodness is that you?”, I asked.

“Yes, it’s me Velvet.”, the familiar voice of my griffin friend.

I had so many questions to ask her about what happened, but most importantly I wanted to ask the one question burning a hole in my mind.

“I was so worried about you, are you okay?”, I asked anxiously.

“I’m fine now. I’m away from the problem and plan to stay away forever.”, Ruby said with a melancholic tone.

“Where are you right now?”, I asked her.

“I am in a hotel that is letting me stay for a couple of nights before I have to leave.”, she explained to me.

“Where are you gonna go?”, I asked her.

“I don’t know where I’ll go, and to be honest I don’t care. As long as I am as far away from this place as possible.”, Ruby said in a serious tone.

“Look if there is anything I can do to help, I can help you out. I can try my best to get you money”, I said to her.

“It’s no use Velvet. The only way I think I’ll be able to get enough money is if I sell the Golden Fork. Even then, I don’t have a place to look for, I don’t have anyone who can help me here, I don’t even have enough money to pay for the hotel. I had to beg them to let me stay.”, Ruby said to me trembling.

“How much money do you have on you?”, I asked her. “About $250 I stole from my ,problem’. He was gonna use it on something that will make him even more of a nuisance, so I might as well get enough money for a train ticket to wherever I can get the farthest away from him.”, Ruby said to me,”Even then, I have nowhere to look for. I’m gonna be living on the streets cold, and miserable.”, She says in a scared tone.

I couldn’t bear to see her like this, not after all the pain she had been through with her father. I got an idea that seemed crazy, but at that point crazy was the only doable idea.

“I can’t let you go through this. I’m gonna help you through this.”, I said with a determined voice.

“Velvet please, I don’t want you to get tangled up with me and my problems.”, Ruby said with a resisting tone.

“No, I love you too much to see you go through this. And I know for a damn fact you don’t want to go through this. Please let me help you.”, I said in a begging tone.

“How Velvet? How are you going to help me?”, she asked me.

I was silent for a moment thinking long and hard about what I was about to do. It was a longshot to ask her this only one month of me dating her, but given her situation she had left me with no other option given what she had told me.

“What do you want to do?”, Ruby asked me again pulling me out of my thoughts. I gave a sigh before saying exactly what I wanted to do.

”I want you to stay with me”.

Author's Note

Dun dun dunnnnn

Chapter 19

“What?”, Ruby asked confused.

I was very clear on what I meant. I don’t think she knew exactly what I was talking about or even thought of it.

“I want you to come and live with me.”, I say to her in a serious tone. She was silent for a moment.

“Velvet, I can’t”, she said with a sad tone.

“Why?”, I asked her.

“I can’t just impose in your home. You probably won’t have room for me.”, She said doubting me.

“No no. I have plenty of room. You wouldn’t impose on anything.”, I reassured her.

She went silent again.

“I don’t know about this, It’s gonna be a new town for me to get used to”, she said in an anxious tone.

“You said yourself that you might end up in a new town anyway. It’s better to go to someone who happens to know the town than go into a random town blindly. I could show you everything there is to know about New Saddle.”, I reassured to Ruby.

Based on her silence she still had her doubts.

“Velvet, I want to know why you want to help me through this by giving me a place to stay. I could maybe try and sell my Fork to get money to buy a house as far away from this place as I can. Why do you want me to come live with you?”, She asked me.

I gave a small breath before responding.

“It’s because I want to know for sure that you’re safe.”, I said to Ruby in a serious tone.

“But I am safe. I am far away from the-”, She said before I interrupted her.

“You don’t understand…”, I said before sighing and continuing,” Ruby, that night when it happened…..I was scared for my life that you were hurt and that there was nothing I could do. I was scared you would be hurt by him even more when you logged out of the call. Like…….I don’t know how to describe it”.

“What are you trying to say?”, Ruby asked me.

“Look, I guess my point is that I really love you and I hate to imagine something terrible happening to you. I want to hold you in my hooves knowing that I got you right where I want you to be. I know it sounds kind of overprotective and everything, but it’s the truth. I don’t want the griffin I love to be hurt, and if she is hurt I could be there to comfort her when she is at her lowest.”, I said with a heartfelt tone.

There was a brief silence between us before Ruby spoke in an affectionate tone.

“Velvet, that’s the nicest thing I have ever heard you say. I really needed that after all the stuff I have been through. I can’t say no to you with all you have done for me these past few months”, She said.

I began to perk up hearing this.

“Does this mean..”, I asked before stopping.

“I can’t go tonight, but I’ll go tomorrow morning. I’ll let you know when I should arrive to…...actually, where would I go to meet you?”, Ruby asked me.

I thought about that for a little bit before remembering the station in Mounting City where Angel was going to be leaving at.

“There should be a train that heads to a station in Mounting City, Hoovesiana. I can meet you there and take you to my home.”, I said to her.

“I hope so too. I’ll try to let you know when the train should make it in the morning. I’m gonna go to sleep for tonight.”, Ruby said with a yawn.

“Alright, get some rest. You deserve some. Have a good night. I love you.”, I said to her. “You too, I love you my Velvet”, Ruby said before leaving the call.

That was the first ever time I could say,”I love you” to her without stuttering. All in all, I felt good about what I had promised to help out Ruby. I turned off my PC for the night and decided to head to bed, even though it was 6:15 PM.

Later that night, I had a dream of my parents again. However, their message to give me in this dream was very cryptic. It started like it has done it before, the hill with an oak tree where my father confessed his love for my mother. Only this time it was my father holding my mother on the blanket layed out on the hill. As I walked closer, it looked like my mother was asleep in my father’s hooves. There was something about this scene that made me smile, like they were truly happy in this very moment.

I approached quietly to not wake my mother. Almost in an instinct, my father quickly noticed me approaching, giving me a shushing motion.

“It’s nice to see you Velvet. How are you my son?”, he asked me in a quiet tone.

“I am great, especially seeing you two again.”, I said to him.

“Well that’s good. Come, sit next to us.”, He said to me leaving me space to sit.

“She was tired?”, I asked my father looking at my sleeping mother.

“Even in dreams we all experience a sort of weariness. She was feeling sleepy waiting for you so I decided to let her sleep while I talk to you. That’s okay right?” , He said caressing my mother’s mane.

“Yeah, that’s okay. It’s funny, this is the first time we have a father-son talk.”, I pointed out to him.

“Huh, you’re right. It’s always been the three of us talking.”, My father said nodding in agreement.

And just like most father-son conversations, it ended with awkward silence before he looked over to the horizon.

I figured I might as well get the subject that I was curious to know about: why they decided to show up now out of all time?

“So…...Why have you come?”, I asked my father who was broken out of his gaze into the horizon.

“Oh damn! I didn’t pay attention to the time I have. I don’t have much time to explain it thoroughly, but you will be faced with some problems going forward, problems that you will need to be strong going through.”, My father said pointing to the sun.

I looked over to see the sun was setting earlier than I thought it would.

“I know. It’s going to be a lot of pressure on me to be more open with Ruby moving in.”, I said to him.

He shook his head.

“That’s not what I am talking about….”, He said to me.

The sunset was now three quarters of the way done.

“Then tell me….quickly please tell me what I will be faced with!”, I exclaimed to him frantically.

My father put his hoof on my shoulder before uttering his final words in the dream,

”We love you, in life and in a dream”.

Then everything went black.

I was awoken by the soft sound of rain falling on my window next to my bed. Looking over at my clock I saw that I had woken up at 4:38 AM, almost a full hour before I usually wake up. I rubbed my eyes and groaned at the thought of me being awake this early. If ever I woke up at a random time earlier than I usually do, I was never able to fall back asleep. It has happened to me multiple times when there was a thunderstorm happening. The earliest I had been kept up at was 2:34 AM, all because of a random lighting strike that happened in the area. Not a drop of rain occured with it. I blamed that event for me falling asleep at work that day.

I rose up from my bed accepting the fact that I had an hour to kill. With an anxious feeling in my gut, I decided to check on Ruby to see if she had gotten a ticket to come to Hoovesiana. Signing in, I was disappointed to see that she wasn’t online yet. To pass the time, and partially take my mind off of this, I decided to draw something new. However, I kept thinking about Ruby and got a kind of crazy idea by my standards. I looked for the only picture of her I have saved from when she had gotten exposed.

Once I found it, I took a minute to study it before starting on a art project I never thought I would do: one with an actual subject. I took my time to trace along the paper with an basic outlined shape of her head and body from the side. As close as I could, I traced contours of her feathers and fur. Once the outlined was done. I began doing a technique that I liked to call,”particle stroking”. The best way to describe it is by simply placing the outline over a rough, rocky surface and fill in the outline, leaving in a colored outline with speckled details. It could be taken as a dust, ash, snow, or even mud particle depending on your choice of color.

I chose the color black because of my love for two tone paintings. The black was certainly perfect for the whiteness of the paper I was using. I felt a soothing feeling drawing the picture of Ruby combined with the darkness of my room being accompanied by the glow of my computer screen giving me the only source of light. With the darkness outside being combined with the soft rain, this particular time in the morning was definitely what ones would call,”The Dark Before the Dawn”.

I finished my drawing with the greatest feeling of satisfaction. Even greater than when I managed to recreate the famous Cobbler. Looking at my clock, I was surprised to find that it was faster than all my other times making a drawing. However, the only problem was there was still 25 minutes before the time I usually wake up. Which meant I still had no clue what to do until she messaged me about when Ruby would arrive in Hoovesiana.

After about 15 minutes of me sitting there bored out of my mind on what I wanted to do to pass the time, I got a single message in Kaos from Ruby.

Littlest Pip: I am messaging you with the only time I have left before I leave. Turns out the train to come to the station in Mounting City leaves today. In 20 minutes in fact. I looked over at the time when it will arrive, and it says that it should be this weekend in the evening. It’s gonna be a long ride for me, a couple of days from Manehatten to Mounting City. But it’s all gonna be worth it, I can move away from this place. I’ll see you there Velvet. I love you.

With that, I had my plan for the weekend. I was gonna see if I can take the weekend off to visit Angel at the station before he leaves, hang out until Ruby arrives, hopefully have a good chat with her going home, and of course get her settled in to the new home she was staying at. Only problem was that I had no clue what to do once we spent a night together, I figured that maybe I would introduce her to Peach. Thinking of this had even brought up another possible problem: me explaining that Ruby was a griffin. In all the time I knew her, she never showed any signs of speciesism; but given how some ponies are a bit unpredictable with what they feel of other species, I had to be sure.

I looked over to my clock and looked at all the time I had left and decided to go take a shower. As I got up from my chair, I took notice of the sun finally rising in the grey, rainy sky. It was gonna be a damp and humid day here in Hoovesiana.

“Hope it gets cooler when Ruby arrives. I would hate for the humidity to be her first impression of Hoovesiana.”, I said to myself walking into my bathroom.

Catching a gaze in my mirror, I saw that my mane was almost exactly like it was when I style it. It always did this, which made me certain that my mane was meant for this look. It was certainly better than the old, messy look I had before.

Starting the water in my shower, I looked to my small window above my shower. As expected, with the humidity coming from the sun rising, fog began to appear outside. Thankfully it wasn’t too thick where it would be impossible to walk through. That would be a disaster waiting to happen.

Stepping into the shower, I was refreshed to feel the warm water on my back and rump. I took a second to take in the wonderful feeling of the warm water before beginning my shower grabbing the shampoo and soap with my magic. As I showered, I began to have more and more shower thoughts. Well, not exactly a “shower thought”, more a series of thoughts in the shower……...so actually yeah. It is a shower thought.

I began to think more about what the possible outcomes when Ruby sees me for the first time outside of Kaos. As always, I come up with “what if” situations to think more and more about my decisions to make.

“What if she somehow is nothing like what she looks like? Impossible. Unless she was very good at acting. What if she sees the new mane style I have and think I’m different? Ah! Get yourself together Velvet, I really doubt she will care about the mane style being different.”, I said to myself in my head rinsing off the shampoo.

“Okay enough about when she meets me, let’s think about what happens next once she moves in. Maybe I could introduce her to Peach that morning and spend time with her. Yeah. That could work, however I really doubt she would want to spend all day at Peach’s house. Although, I wouldn’t mind.”, I thought to myself in my head as I dab myself with the soap.

Then came a thought that made me shake in my bones: taking Ruby to The Daffodil Club. I know earlier I said that I hoped to one day take her there, but there was a reason why I laughed it off. Not because I didn't have a chance, that a hundred percent was not true. The real issue was my fear of crowds. I never told Ruby about it mainly because I was embarrassed by it. There was no denying what I said earlier about the club being filled every night with couples. Unfortunately I couldn’t individually ask all of them to kindly not show up so I could manage to have a good weekend with Ruby. That would be selfish.

I decided that this weekend I would try my absolute best to face my fears head on: meeting Ruby, and being in a crowd without losing it. More the first one than the second one.

Once I collected my thoughts, I finished up my shower rinsing off all the soap from my body. I turned off the water and stepped out to grab my towel and dry off. Once I finished, I looked over at my mirror to fix my mane. I only took a couple of minutes before finally styling it with that combed back, raised style.

“That’ll do.”, I said to myself as I opened the door to my bathroom.

The sun was now in up for the day, sadly it was not giving the bright light it would always do. The fog was less dense when I first saw it through my window. That came as a relief because the fog is not something to joke around with here in New Saddle. There was one unfortunate pony who manage to get seriously hurt running into a carriage that couldn’t see him. Thank Celestia he wasn’t killed by it.

I looked over at the time to see that I could now leave for work and not show up stupid early. As eagerly as possible, I grabbed all of my things for work and headed out into the foggy wasteland of the New Saddle.

I managed to traverse through the fog in time to catch Peach in the back preparing things for today. It looked like she was cleaning up a few pans from making a fresh batch of Cobbler she put in the warmer.

“Good Morning Peach.”, I said to her as she jumped.

“Celestia Velvet! You always get me when I least expect it.”, Peach exclaimed recovering from her small scare.

“Sorry, guess that’s one way to wake you up in the morning. How are you this morning?”, I asked her.

“I’m okay. Feeling a little stuffy from the fog, but okay.”, She says letting out a cough,” How about you sugar?”

“I’m fine. I was hoping to catch you in time to talk to about something coming up.”, I said to her as she grabbed a tissue.

“Oh, what is it sugar?”, she asked me.

“I’m gonna need the weekend off. Kind of unexpected, but I need it.”, I said to Peach.

“Oh, what’s going on? Is it becoming too much work for you?”, She asked me.

“No no. It’s actually a couple of things. You will be excited for one of the things happening.”, I said to Peach.

“Oh, please explain.”, She said eagerly saving the dishes.

“Well, one of the reasons I will need to take off this weekend is because I am going to see my friend one last time at the station before he leaves for Ponyville to train with the Wonderbolts.”, I explained.

“Oh, is that the one you visited at the hospital?”, Peach asked me.

“Mhmm. So I am gonna be in Mounting City at the station to say goodbye to him before he goes off North.”, I said with a smile.

“Well, He may not know me but I wish him well on his training.”, Peach said.

“I’ll be sure to let him know”, I said with a chuckle,” But anyways, the other reason I’ll need the weekend off is one that you might be excited for.”

“Oooh, what is it sugar?”, She asked me sitting down on a stool.

“It’s gonna be the weekend you get what you want”, I said to her.

She gave me a confused look.

“You will finally get to meet her”, I explained.

Peach’s eyes lit up in a way I’ve never seen before.

“Are you being serious?”, she asked excitedly.

“Yep. She needed help with her problem, so I helped out by giving her a place to stay.”,I explained to Peach.

“That’s absolutely wonderful. I can’t wait to meet the special mare who’s been with you.”, She said smiling

I was deep in the thought of her not knowing that Ruby was a Griffin. So deep in fact, that Peach took notice.

“Or is she actually a he?”, She said jokingly.

“Actually, I have something to admit about her. She…...Is not a pony.”, I said nervously.

“What?”, Peach asks cocking her head.

“I don’t want you to freakout, when I tell you this because I don’t know how you’ll react to this.”, I warned her.

“What is she Velvet?”, she asked me.

I gave a nervous sigh before saying it out loud,” She’s a Griffin. A really pretty Griffin.”

“Oh, why’d you think I would freak out about that?”,Peach said to me by giving me a confused look as though I did something silly.

“Well, given where we live and how some of the population of New Saddle react to Griffins, I wasn’t sure that you would like me being with a Griffin.”, I said nervously scratching the back of my neck.

“Nonsense Sugar! I never would discriminate against any species. In the end, we are all living creatures.”, She said putting a hoof on my shoulder. It was funny how she had the exact same thoughts of me on speciesism.

“So, you’re okay with me going out with a Griffin?”, I said to Peach.

“Of course Velvet. Whatever makes you happy I support.”, She said with a smile.

I was relieved to know that I had nothing to worry about with her meeting her.

“So, would you like to meet her at your house? I could take her around to tour the town and stop by your place to visit.”, I said to Peach.

“Absolutely, as long as I get to meet Gem. That’s her name right?”, Peach asked me.

I chuckled before answering

” That’s her online name. Her real name is Ruby.”

“Ah. Me and my old mare memory getting things mixed up.”, She said slapping a hoof on her head.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at herself making a mistake.

“So it’s settled. You can have the weekend off. As long as you introduce me to her.”, Peach declared to me.

“Thank you Peach. Thank you so much.”, I said hugging her.

“See? If you just let me know ahead of time that you won’t be in for work, I’ll allow it.”, She said jokingly.

I couldn’t help but laugh at my mistakes.

“Well, I must dash now. I have a doctor's appointment that I cannot miss. It’s almost time to open up shop.”, She said looking at the clock.

“Of course. I’ll let you go now. Thanks again for the weekend Peach.”, I said expressing my gratitude.

“It’s nothing sugar. See you later Velvet.”, she says to me opening the door.

“You too”, I said to her as she left.

It was now coming together. I could rest assured that my weekend off was secure. Only problem now was finding a way to speed up time so I could rush to the weekend. Unfortunately, my magic can only levitate and grab things, and as far as I can tell there is no carriage that can travel through time by hitting 88 miles per hour. The only thing I could do now was working until the day finally comes.

Author's Note

Quite the problem with time :c

Chapter 20

It was a bit of a long couple of days before the weekend of major events with my friend leaving and my lover coming in. Where to start?

After work the day I asked for the weekend off, I decided to go and have dinner with Caramel and Autumn, who were eager for me to go and spend an evening with them since they had their parents take care of Sunflower. Where we ate was a bit of a surprise for me. It was a really nice establishment that had some of the nicest scenery inside. It was a really classy restaurant. Definitely one that would not see the likes of me in it.

Thankfully, if it weren’t for Caramel getting me a coat to borrow, I wouldn’t have been allowed in the restaurant. The evening was a fun evening, considering I was eating the most juiciest steak I had ever eaten. There was one thing that came as a surprise in the evening, that was the reason I was invited to join them both.

Near the end of the dinner, Autumn and Caramel kept looking over and over at each other holding each other’s hoof. I took notice and had suspicion of what they had planned. When I questioned them about it, Autumn lit up, announcing that they were having another baby. This time it was gonna be a colt. I was very surprised by this news, but what came next took me off guard. Caramel was the one to propose that I should be their colt’s godfather. I had no clue what that meant, but upon explanation, I understood that they were asking me to name their child. It was a rushed idea of a name, but they both seemed to like the name “Sherbert”. Kinda strange, but they love it.

As well as becoming a godfather, I began to visit Amethyst and Storm more often after work. I liked to call my afternoons with Amethyst “Tea Time”. It seemed fitting since all we’d ever drink was tea. We’d have talks about many things regarding her moving to Hoovesiana. Turns out, she had originally been from Vanhoover and then moved to Manehatten for a little while before moving down south. One thing I did discover about her was how she didn’t want to talk about her time in Manehatten. It seemed like she really did not like Manehatten, or more so her experience in Manehatten. Nonetheless, her story of where she came from was interesting.

When I told Amethyst about my weekend, she was absolutely happy for me. She had even given me a tip about some things to do while in The Daffodil Club. She had even told me about some secret drink to try called “The Purple Elixir”. Amethyst would say how much she loved it when she would go to the club. She did give me a warning though about it being more tart than I would expect, but to my Griffin friend it would be just fine. I couldn’t help but notice how every time she would talk about Ruby, she never knew her name and called her “special friend”. I wanted to correct her about her name, but she seemed pleased with calling her that.

As well as talking to Amethyst, I got to see more of Storm’s drawings. I cannot express this enough, Storm was a damn good artist despite being seven years old. His only real problem was his shading and coloring. To help him out, I took a couple of his drawings and showed him some real good tips on shading. He managed to pick up on them very quickly. For the first time, I felt like I was a mentor to someone. And as a mentor, I was proud of the work he had done.

On the morning of the big day, I spent the first part of my day visiting Amethyst for some “Morning tea time”. I didn’t have to leave for Mounting City until 2:00 in the afternoon, so I decided to spend one last time with Amethyst before I dedicated my weekend to Ruby. Maybe even catch one last drawing from Storm to motivate me. We were talking for a little bit about how great it was that today was finally the day. Then I just froze up thinking more and more about it.

“You okay Velvet?”, Amethyst asked me as I was deep in a thought.

All I could really think about that day was that it was really happening; I was going to meet Ruby for the first time and that I was going to take care of her. Because of this, I had a lot of anxiety going into it.

“Huh? Oh yeah, I’m fine. Just enjoying the tea.”, I said clearly lying.

“You sure about that? You barely sipped your tea.”, Amethyst said pointing at my full cup of tea.

I couldn’t help but confess.

“Well, it’s just all happening so fast. A month ago we were just talking online and enjoying ourselves. Now here we are at the first time I'm going to meet her and end up living with her. I’m starting to feel like I’m going too far too fast.”, I said to Amethyst.

“You need to relax a little. It’s going to be fine, I know it will. If you just be yourself and she like yourself, then you will be okay. All you need to do is relax.”, Amethyst said to me.

I gave a short sigh.

“It’s so strange, my only way of relaxing is me thinking of her. It usually happens when I listen to music of some kind.”, I explained.

Amethyst put down her cup before standing.

“Well you might be in luck. I managed to save a couple of CD’s I would listen to back in the day You’d probably not like it but it’s music to listen to.”, She said reaching for a box on the shelf.

I glanced over to see what she had, to my surprise I found a CD with the logo for the band Smashing Melons.

“No Way! You listened to Melons?”, I explained to her with a surprised tone.

“Of course I did! I would listen to them for hours and hours when I was your age.”, Amethyst explained putting in the CD.

Right away, the CD opened up with the band’s signature lyrics,”The world is a vampire”. I’m not one to judge others, but I never would’ve thought someone as scholarly as Amethyst would be jamming out to Smashing Melons. No joke, she was actually bobbing her head along with the song.

“Such a good song by them.”, I declared to Amethyst.

“I would say it defined a generation. That song was played everywhere on teen radio stations back when it was first released. Did you know that it was original a song about the angst of that time period twenty years ago?”, Amethyst stated.

Now that was the Amethyst I was familiar with.

“Do you, like music like this?’, I asked her with curiosity.

“I would say so. Although I do like all kinds of music. I wish I had all of my music from back in the day.”, Amethyst explained.

“What happened to them?”, I asked her.

She took a while to respond. Like she came back to reality once I asked her about that.

With a blank emotion, Amethyst responded,”They got left behind back in Manehatten, along with one other thing”.

She gave a small glimpse of sadness in her eyes mentioning the city. I felt it would be really awkward to keep talking about her music left behind, So I quickly turned the conversation over to what I am going to do after visiting with her.

“On another subject, I can’t believe that my friend is going off to Ponyville for the Wonderbolts.”, I said to Amethyst who was eager to move on from that awkward exchange earlier.

“That’s good. I have a little cousin who lives there. Well, not exactly, but very close. Griffonstone I believe.”, Amethyst recalled.

“Is it nice there? I know you probably haven’t been there, but I assume your cousin has told you about it.”, I asked Amethyst.

“Oh she has written to me a number of times about how much she loves it there. But she loves Ponyville the most. All the ponies are really kind there. Especially her three friends, although they are a bit strange.”, Amethyst said with a grin.

“How so?”, I asked.

“Her friends are a part of some group that helps out a community. They have a strange name, but sadly I don’t remember. Something like the Crusade of Marks.”, Amethyst says putting a claw on her beak thinking.

It was a strange name for a group. I couldn’t help but chuckle hearing Amethyst recall the name. At least now it reassured me that the town Angel was moving to was nice. Only thing I doubted she would know was if Wonderbolts training camp was run by some psycho drill sergeant who will change your name to “Private Snowball” and make you choke yourself. Only thing that would really make me really question whether it was a good idea to be a Wonderbolt was if they asked to see a “war face”. Whatever that is.

“How well did you know your friend?”, Amethyst asked me.

“Me and him were pretty close. I was friends with him since I was 12. Of course it was strictly online because of distance, much like my other friend coming over, but it was able to work.”, I explained to Amethyst.

“Well that’s good. Especially since you are going to see him one last time before going away”, Amethyst said to me.

As she said that, I looked over at the clock which now read 12:36 PM. “Oh Celestia the time has gone by too quickly. I need to get going if I’m going to see my friend for a couple more hours before he leaves.”, I said to Amethyst standing up.

“Is it time already? I was really deep in the discussions we were having. Sorry about that.”, Amethyst said apologetically.

“No no, it’s nothing to be sorry for. I just found that the time had really gone by quick. Guess it’s time to accept that it’s really happening.”, I say to Amethyst rubbing a hoof on the back of my neck.

“Well, I’ll hopefully see you later. I don’t want to interrupt your fun weekend with your special friend.”, She said suggestively.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”, I said with a pout.

“Nothing Velvet. Just teasing. Seriously, I do hope you have a good time introducing your friend around New Saddle. Maybe if you get the chance you could take her around to the library where I can give her a lesson or two about New Saddle.”, Amethyst said.

“Maybe I will.”, I said sincerely,”It could be a change of pace for the weekend. I’ll see you later”.

After I left Amethyst's home, I walked as quick as I could go back to my house to grab some last minute things for the day I was about to embark on. As well as that, I cleaned up a little bit to make sure the place didn’t look like a complete mess when Ruby would come in my home. More importantly, I made sure that the guest room would look like it was properly taken care of. The room was covered in a lot of dust mainly because there was no pony to ever use it since no pony would ever come by.

One amazing thing about the perk of having a horn as a unicorn is that I could use most of my magic to do most of the work. Sure, I could use my hooves to move a dust towel over stuff that needs dusting, but that would take up more time. And considering I was on a tight time schedule before Angel leaves, it was the only thing I could really do.

With all the small work at the house done, I was ready to go. As I was leaving, I checked my mane one last time to make sure it was looking presentable. It surprised me how natural the mane was in this style. If it were the old one, I would’ve had to fix it in a specific way to make it right. I know it’s weird considering the old mane was a hot mess.

I left the house in a fast trot to the station to try and get to Caramel as fast as possible so I could get to Mounting City in time. On my way there, I couldn’t help but notice how nice the day looked. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and the temperature was perfect. Sadly, this is the one chance in a while the weather would be like this. Considering how unpredictable Hoovesiana weather is, this could have been the only chance when all the planets align with the sun to produce a perfect day.

With what felt like a walk that took forever, I finally made it to the station where Caramel was patiently waiting for me. I had told him two days prior that I would need him to take me to Mounting City one last time. I even told him that I would be bringing back one more rider for the ride back. Upon him hearing that, he thought that I was bringing home somepony I never would bring back home for certain tasks. I can let you figure that one out.

“Well, I was wondering when you’d show up. How are you doing this afternoon Velvet?”, Caramel said holding out his hoof for me to shake.

“Great actually, sorry for almost showing up late.”,I said to him shaking his prosthetic hoof.

“You’re fine. You made it just in time actually. You ready to go?”, Caramel asked me.

I gave a sigh before looking back up. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”, I say with a determined nod.

On my way to Mounting City, I began to think more and more about what would come next. I knew that Angel would be going away, but instead I was worried about what would happen if he were to come back. Would he remember me? Would he remember the town he had come from? Those were questions that looking back at now were irrational, but at the time seemed to bother me.

“Hey Caramel. Do you mind if I ask you a hypothetical question?”, I ask him.

“Sure, what’s on your mind?”, Caramel asked me from outside the carriage.

“Say hypothetically you were to go away for a long time. Like, a really long time. Like for example you had to do some huge job across all of Equestria taking somepony all over. By the end of it, would you still remember me?”, I asked him anxiously.

“Kind of a very specific question don’t you think?”, Caramel analized to me.

“Yeah, I know”, I say with a slightly embarrassed tone.

“To answer your question, yes I would. Why’d you think I would completely forget about you after hypothetically going away for a while?”, Caramel asked me confused.

“Well it’s just that with my friend leaving for Ponyville for a long time, I was worried that he might forget about me and move on.”, I explained to him.

“Is he not a good friend to you”, Caramel asked me.

“No, he is. He has been for the past couple of years. It’s just that I am worried that he would forget about me or something.”, I said to him.

“Well, if you want my personal opinion on it, If he is as good as a friend as you describe, then you have nothing to worry about. I know for a fact if I were good friends with a pony that I was close with I would never forget them, no matter how long I might be away.”, Caramel said to me.

“I guess so.”, I say to him before looking out the window of the carriage thinking more and more about the afternoon and evening. As I thought more and more about tonight, time had passed by quicker than I thought. In one moment, I took a moment to rest my eyes, the next time I opened them I was already in the familiar city seeing the city lights beginning to light up. “It’s time. No going back now Velvet.”, I say to myself in my head.

Within five minutes of riding around in the carriage, we finally made it to the train station. I knew right away that I was there based on how loud the place was with trains moving along and overlapping ponies walking and saying goodbye to each other.

I took one glance out the window to make sure it wasn’t a thick crowd. Thankfully, while there were a lot of ponies there, it was not enough to make a huge crowd. I had given myself a sigh of relief. I did not have to face my fear head on yet, all I could do now was hope that it wouldn’t be bad at The Daffodil Club.

“This is it Velvet. You ready?”, Caramel asked me from outside the carriage.

“No, but I might as well get this over with.”, I said to him climbing out of the carriage.

“It’s going to be fine. I know for sure he will remember you while he is gone.”, He said trying to comfort me,” Will I need to stick around long?”

“If you don’t mind. I think she will arrive here shortly after my friend leaves.”, I said to Caramel.

“Alright, if you need me for emotional support I’ll be here by the carriage if you need a shoulder to cry on.”, Caramel said to me jokingly.

I let out a small chuckle at the joke.

“Yeah, I’ll be around. Hey, thanks again for doing this for me. I really appreciate the help to bring me here and back home. I definitely owe you one later.”, I said to Caramel sincerely.

“Don’t mention it, you know I always help out a friend. If you want to owe me one, maybe you could help support me and Autumn financially now that Sherbert is on the way.”, He said jokingly winking.

I knew right away he was trying to loosen me up for what would come next. I always liked that about him, always so thoughtful for others.

“Heh, maybe one day my friend.”, I said quietly to myself before walking in. I caught a glimpse of the time; 1:34 PM. I had made it in time.

Ever since that day, I’ve realized that the train station is a really mixed bag in the environment. In other words, there are many different emotions to be seen in a train station. One of which, is happiness. The sight of happiness at a train station is really heartwarming to see. For example, when I was walking over to the board to see which gate I needed to be at for Angel, I saw this small colt running over to his father who had come home from a train that had arrived. The happiness in his face wrapping his small hooves around his father was enough to lift up anypony who is having a dark day.

And then, there is the opposite of the emotions given at a train station: Sadness. I was faced with a brief glimpse into what it would be like to see sompony go away. I saw a couple who were holding each other tightly before the stallion had pulled away to leave on the train that was just about to leave. The sadness in the mare’s eyes spoke volumes of grief, even louder than an audible sob. I was tempted to go over and try to comfort her, but I had a tight schedule of my own.

The gate I needed to go to was not far from the board, about a minute walk. Upon walking to the gate, I saw a glimpse of Angel and both of his parents hugging him tightly. Ms. Moonlight had the same look of grief as the mare earlier, but at the same time she had a glint in her eyes that everything was going to be okay. As with the magic of the train station, both of them were a mixed array of emotions from the distance. After me glancing at them for about a minute, both of Angel’s parents had gotten up and walked away for the last time. Al that was left there was Angel and a couple of trunks sitting on the bench.

Seeing that he was alone, I walked over to spend a couple more moments with him before he leaves. Based on the look in his eyes looking down, he was thinking that it was it; it was going to be his last time in Mounting City for a while. I must’ve made a sound when I was walking up because his ears perked up as he turned around to see me walking up next to him.

“Oh Celestia! Velvet! You actually came!”, Angel said in surprise as he came up to hug me unexpectedly.

“Heh, Least I could do before you leave for Ponyville.”, I said nervously hugging him.

He must’ve been really happy to see me. He held onto this hug for quite some time before letting go.

“I thought you had forgotten all about it and got worried that you wouldn’t show up.”, Angel said to me.

“I can’t do that to you man. You’ve done so much for me over these past couple of years. I might as well get one more moment to spend with you before you leave.”, I say to him looking at his trunks.

“Thank you so much. You have no idea how much that means to me. Come! Sit down for a bit so we can talk.”, Angel said taking my hoof to the bench to sit down.

Angel moved his trunk to the side leaving me enough room to sit next to him. I sat down as he slumped down next to me. He reached over to his trunk to pull out a small bottle of whiskey. This surprised me because he never once mentioned that he drank.

Angel took a swig of the bottle before offering a swig to me.

“No thanks. I don’t drink.”, I explained to Angel.

“Suit yourself.”, Angel said taking another swig of the whiskey.

I never drank alcohol because I couldn’t stand the taste of it. I know most ponies don’t drink it for the taste, but for me I cannot for the life of me get past the taste of it. It tasted so gross to me.

“Celestia, It’s actually happening.”, Angel said putting the bottle back in his trunk.

“What’s happening?”, I asked.

“All of this. My dream of getting out of Hoovesiana. My dream of going on my own. And of course my dream of going to try and be a Wonderbolt. It’s like Celestia herself heard me wish for those and granted them to me out of sympathy.”, Angel says looking into the horizon.

“Is that good?”, I asked him.

“Why of course it is old sport! I’ve wanted this for a long time. It’s just that it’s all happening so fast, you know. I never got the chance to really take in my time here. Even with me saying goodbye to my parents I feel that that never made up to what I had done to them in the past. Time is truly the most powerful creature in all of Equestria.”, Angel explained putting his hooves behind his neck.

“I was wondering, why did they leave so early? Don’t they want to spend more time with you?”, I asked him.

“They do, but it was my mother’s choice to leave. She said that she wouldn’t let me go if she stayed any longer.”, Angel said to me glancing over at me.

“Oh.”, I say before awkwardly looking away to the horizon.

The sun was in that moment where it is still in the sky, but was starting to go down and turn orange for the beginning of sunset. For the more northern tone of Mounting City, the mix of orange and sunlight really fit the city. Of course, I would imagine that it would be more natural for the city to be dark with it’s bright lights.

“Hey, you remember the time when you and I were playing SF2 together and you and I found our first ever exploit together?”, Angel asked me all of a sudden.

I remembered exactly what he was talking about. About two years ago when we were taking a day off from finding the golden fork, we decided to mess around in the community ran servers that ran some of the maps in the game. Me and Angel were both messing around as the Healer class when we found that we could clip through the walls and make it to the enemy team. For some reason, the healer has the highest RMD rate out of all the classes when you use the melee weapon. So for about 25 minutes, me and Angel hid in there spawn and just killed them one after another. It sounds like me and him were dicks for doing that, but that was all in the past. If you want to see if we got what we deserved for the exploit, we were banned only five minutes later when an admin had joined. We have been banned from those servers ever since.

“Yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday. You made some foal so pissed off that he started screaming so loud that his mom had come in to tell him to quiet down.”, I said to him laughing remembering the pure volume of the scream.

“Heh, you managed to even make one player quit the game because he couldn’t get you.”, Angel said to me punching my shoulder laughing.

“I was crying from laughter when that happened.”, I said chuckling some more.

We both kept talking about the years we spent together on Koas and in SF2 for a while. It was at this moment I knew I had nothing to worry about with him forgetting me. The pure joy in his eyes recalling those events reassured me that he was gonna hold onto those moments for as long as he could. That, or he was going to remember the time he kissed me unexpectedly. Either way, he wasn’t going to forget me anytime soon.

While we were talking, we heard the train coming by the gate. The reality of Angel finally going away kicked in with full force. The happy tone of our reminiscing was silenced with the sad realization of what comes next.

“Looks like it’s time for me to go soon.”, Angel said looking over at his trunk.

There was silence between us as we watched the train come to a halt at the gate. It’s screeching brakes spoke volumes of it announcing its presence in Mounting City. It was there, and it was leaving with somepony.

“This…...is it.”, Angel said grabbing his trunks standing up.

“I…….guess it is. It was nice seeing you one last time before you go.”, I said to Angel standing next to him.

He gave one look at the train before looking back at me

“Hey, I know that you are gonna miss me so I figured I would get you something to remember me by.”, Angel explained reaching into his trunk one last time.

He pulled out a small pocket watch that looked old enough to come from a time machine.

I took the small token from Angel and opened it up. Sadly, it was so old that the glass was shattered on the watch and the time hands swung loosely when you moved the watch around. It was that oddity about it that made me like it.

“I know it’s kind of a piece of shit watch considering it is broken, but it was something I thought you would like to remember me with.”, Angel says closing his trunk.

“It’s perfect. Thank you so much for this Angel.”, I said smiling.

“I’m glad you like it.”, He said before looking at the doors of the train that had just opened,”I best be going now. Time to go face my dream head on”.

He held out a hoof for me to shake.

“So long, old friend. I’ll be back one day. I promise.”, He said to me.

“You better, or that would make you a terrible friend.”, I say jokingly taking his hoof into a shake.

With that, he gave a nod and began to walk away. I got a sudden urge to say one last thing before he got on the train, like in those old movies where the hero says one last thing to his friend before they go off on a journey.

“Angel!”, I yelled out to him grabbing his attention.

He was right at the step of the train as he looked at me for one last time.

“I don’t like ponies, they’re mostly all rotten! But your worth the entire group of ‘em! The whole damn group!”, I yelled out to him confidently. It felt right, almost like it came from a famous novel or something like that.

Angel gave one last grin and waved goodbye to me one last time before walking inside the train.

I stood by that train until it began to chug off. It slowly moved on before gradually gaining speed taking off. I could’ve sworn I saw Angel waving one last time through the window. I walked near the edge of the gate to see one last glimpse of the train chugging off into the horizon. I stood there up until I could see it no more. “Till I see you again.”, I said softly seeing the train disappear into the ground.

After a couple of minutes standing there at the edge of the gate, I turned around and walked back to the direction of the board of which gate to go to. The sun was now half way down, and seemed to be in it’s full, sunset orange color. Making it to the board, I looked for the gate that showed the arrival of passengers from Manehatten. When I looked at the gate, I noticed the time of arrival collum now said,”Arriving Shortly”.

“Just in time.”, I said to myself reacting to the convenience of Ruby’s arrival.

I quickly made my way over to Gate 6, the gate that the train from Manehatten was arriving on. I was lucky to make it right before the train made its way from the horizon announcing its arrival. I was getting nervous sweats from the sight of the train coming to a halt. I quickly began nerve checking my mane to make sure I wasn’t looking nervous. Don’t ask my why that was something to check, it was something that calmed me down.

When the train had stopped, my mind was now anxious to see the Griffin that it had been waiting for all along. The doors creaked open with a flurry of ponies walking out of it. There were ponies in suits, ponies with families, even a small team of Hoofball players, but not Ruby. I was almost questioning whether I was at the right gate. As I was about to contemplate going back to check the board, the near empty train car had one last figure moving from the back outside with a large trunk by its side. My eyes began to widen as I focused more on the moving figure. The figure stopped to notice my stare upon it. At that moment, it became clear exactly what that figure was; it was a griffin with red feathers and one detectable grey eyes. It was Ruby Heart.

Author's Note

A new challenger approaches :0

Chapter 21

It was the first time I was truly mesmerized to the sight of something. I tried to pinch myself to see if I was really in a dream, but I was so mesmerized that I could only just gaze at the reality of the situation; it was Ruby Heart, in the flesh.

The question I always get asked about this moment has always stayed consistent: “Was she exactly what she looked like in the pictures when you first met, or was she someone completely different?”

I always answer them with the same answer,” Well, Yes but not exactly.”

When I first saw her, she looked exactly like she did in her pictures; white feathers, red fur, and the unmistakable grey eye she had. Why one and not the full set? It was because her right eye was covered with her white feathers as a bang. It confused me at first to the style change, but it didn’t hinder me in the slightest to realize that it was actually her.

We must’ve been standing there for a while just staring at each other’s presence because neither of us had said anything to each other until the gate was completely empty and the train was gone.

“It’s…..you”, Ruby said to me as she slowly walked over to me.

All I could do was nod with my mouth open because of me still being starstrucked.

“It’s really you. Oh my god it’s really you.”, she says with a soft tone stopping right in front of me with her trunks.

“Hello! Equestria to Velvet! You still there? Say something!”, My mind said to me as I swallowed nervously.

All I could muster up was the familiar greeting I always gave her.

“Henlo.”, I say nervously smiling.

Ruby’s eyes widened before breaking into tears and throwing herself at me to hug me.

I nearly fell over from her latching herself on me. For a split second, I completely forgot everything I had been through with her with the shocked feelings going through my mind with her now hugging me for the first time. Not only that, but she was also weeping in my hooves with happiness.

Once my senses came back to me, I put my hoof around her embracing her warm greeting. It felt a little strange hugging someone I had just met, but it was a familiar feeling I remembered when Amethyst hugged me unexpectedly.

Ruby held on to me for a long time sobbing on my shoulder before calming down to look at me. I was still filled with the anxiety of finally meeting her, so for me, I felt like I was back at square one talking to her.

“Um...i-it’s okay. I’m h-here now.”, I said nervously like I was trying to hit on her for the first time.

Ruby gave a sniffle before giving a small smile.

It was at this moment she and I finally let go of each other and stood by each other once more. The awkward silence was now in full effect.

“So uh…...Welcome to Hoovesiana.”, I said to Ruby while I nervously scratched the back of my neck.

She gave a look back at the tracks that she once came from. I couldn’t help but notice how here eyes squinted towards the tracks. It was almost a squint of anger that said,”I’m never going back, and there is not a damn thing you could do about it.”

“Yeah. This is now my home.”, Ruby said to me looking back at me with a kind of blank expression.

I felt I shouldn’t have said that. Like it was a sore memory I tripped with Ruby.

“Well... It’s time to go now. Here I’ll take your things i-if you like..”, I said to her nervously taking her trunk with my magic.

“No no, you don’t have to. I can grab it. Thank you though.”, Ruby says taking her trunk with her claw.

I walked her right back to the carriage where Caramel had been waiting patiently. It was right there when Caramel had completely gone from casual to serious. It was a transition that took me by complete surprise with how smooth he was able to pull it off.

“Oh you must be the other one I was looking for. Right this way Ms…”, Caramel says to Ruby.

She had said nothing.

I looked over at her and noticed that she had that same blank look on her face. Almost to the point of me being concerned.

“Well it doesn’t exactly matter right now. I’m sure I’ll get to know you at some point later during the ride. Just hop in the back, I’ll have a word with Mr. Velvet.”, Caramel said to Ruby pointing to the back of the carriage.

Caramel took me off to the side as Ruby opened the back.

“Well I’ll say it.”, Caramel said to me.

“Please don’t.”, I responded to Caramel’s doubtful tone.

“She doesn’t sound like the way you described her to me at past dinners. Are you sure you are doing the right thing with this?”, He asked me.

“I know I am. She’s just a little shy considering she just got here. It’s gonna take a little while before she goes back to her normal self.”, I explain to Caramel.

“But surely you noticed how she looks different than you described her?”, Caramel asks me.

“Yes I’m aware, but I don't care about that. All I care about is that it’s really her and that she is here.”, I said to him.

“Well alright. As long as you are happy with it.”, Caramel said to me.

I walked back to the carriage to climb in with Ruby who was sitting near the window. She seemed like she was deep in her thought looking out the window because she had seemed to not take notice of me getting in the carriage with her. I sat next to her, hoping it would grab her attention. Still nothing.

“You okay?”, I asked Ruby.

She seemed to have finally come back down to reality when I spoke to her.

“Yeah. Yeah I’m fine. I just…...It’s a lot to take in and stuff.”, Ruby said looking over at me.

“You sure? We can talk about it if you want to.”, I said to Ruby.

“I’m positive. Just a little tired.”, Ruby said.

“Thankfully it’s not much longer till we get home. Only about 45 minutes.”, I said to try and comfort Ruby.

“Great, the sooner the better.”, She said now with a small smile.

When the carriage had moved, Ruby and I were now in a state of awkward silence I was not really comfortable with. There were times where I was going to say something, but then I noticed that Ruby seemed to only want to stare out of the window and be alone with her thoughts. I was beginning to think that maybe I was wrong about thinking this was not to fast.

“No, it’s the first night. It’ll get a little bit better. Just go along with the awkward silence and you should be fine. You’ll see that it was just an awkward first day.”, I said to myself in my head.

I decided to instead just wait till we both get home to probably start conversation, if she was feeling up to it of course.

In no time at all, we had arrived at my home just as the sun had finally gone down and the beginning of nighttime was commencing. We both had climbed out of the carriage. I helped Ruby out by using my magic to help her take her trunk out when it was caught on the door.

“Well you two have a good night. I’ll see you around Velvet.”, Caramel said to me waving.

“Same to you. Thanks for taking us home.”, I said to Caramel.

“Don’t mention it.”, Caramel said before walking off with his carriage.\

As I turned around, I noticed Ruby looking up at my house as if she had never seen a house like it before. I walked over next to her as she stared.

“D-does it look bad?”, I asked Ruby.

“What? No no it’s fine. I’m just not used to seeing houses like this. It looks rather cozy.”, Ruby said looking over at me.

Not wasting a second more, I walked her over to the door and opened it. I was met with the familiar feeling of a home sweet home. Only now, it was gonna have more than one being living in it. Ruby walked in first to take in the house and where she was gonna live. I locked the door behind us and introduced the house.

“I-It’s not much, but It’s more than enough for me.”, I said to Ruby turning around.

She looked back at me with a kind of faint smile. It looked like she was just about done for the day. I didn’t blame her considering the time she spent coming all the way from Manehatten to Hoovesiana.

“I’ll…..show you to your room if you like. I can tell you’re a little tired from the journey you took.”, I said to the sleepy looking Griffin.

“That would be nice. Thanks.”, Ruby said anxiously.

I took her down to the hallway where the guest room was, which I guessed was now gonna be her room. I opened the door hesitantly with the fear that while I was gone some small disaster led to the whole room being trashed. Thankfully, upon opening it it was almost exactly like I had left it earlier that day.

Ruby had put down her stuff next to the bed before feeling the bed. She gave a small satisfied look upon feeling the soft bed.

“Is it comfy enough for you? I can switch beds if you like.”, I said nervously.

“No no it’s fine. It’s perfect actually.”, Ruby said switching on the lamp,”I’m going to be going to bed soon so it is nice and comfy”.

“Good. W-well if there is anything you need, I’ll be right outside. My room is right where I keep my pc and stuff.”, I said before starting to walk out.

Ruby had stopped me.

“Velvet, c-could you do something for me if it isn’t too weird for you?”, She said with a kind of gloomy face.

“Anything for you Ruby.”, I said turning back around to face her.

She scratched herself nervously.

“Ruby?”, I asked her

“Would you…….mind sleeping in the bed with me? You’re probably gonna ask me why but I don’t want to talk about it.”, She said to me.

“I- Uhhhhh”, I said blindsided by the request.

I stood there stammering before seeing a needy look in her eye. She looked like she needed it to go to sleep. I couldn’t deny her this, not after all she had been through.

“S-Sure thing Ruby.”, I obliged to her.

I was nervous doing this. It was the first time I had ever slept in the same bed as another creature. Apart from stuffed animals from when I was really young, this was the first time I was going to be sleeping next to someone. Not sleeping with, that’s a completely different kind of sleeping.

I crawled into the bed next to Ruby, nervous to get close to her. I laid on the far right side of the bed laying on my back. It was so far so good. I looked over at Ruby who was now turning off the lamp. She had looked over at me and scooted closer to me. She had grabbed my hoof, to which I gave a gasp.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know if-”, Ruby began saying to me.

“No, it’s fine. I just…..it’s the first time I laid next to anyone. It took me by surprise. You can take it if you want.”, I say looking over at Ruby.

She nodded as she took my hood and put it around her neck. She then pulled herself as close as she could, resting her head on my chest. I have to say, I enjoyed the feeling of being next to her in the bed to my surprised. Her warm embrace felt nice. Like she was right where she wanted to be.

“Thank you.”, Ruby said to me.

“You’re welcome Ruby. I’m more than happy to give you comfort when you are going to bed.”, I responded to Ruby.

“That’s not all I meant”, Ruby said looking up at me,”You gave me a place to stay when I had nowhere else to go. You welcomed me into your home and your spending the night with me even though you’ve only met me for like one hour. I was worried that when I met you that you would be somepony completely different, but in that hour I met you I knew that you were really who you are: A nice pony with a truly kind heart.”, Ruby said to me with a passionate voice.

From that moment on, I knew that I had nothing to worry about with her for the rest of the weekend. The fact that she said that I was exactly who I was despite all my nervousness around her, showed that it was going to be great. I had absolutely nothing to worry about. Well, except for the Daffodil Club that would come later.

“I…..don’t know what to say I…”, I said trailing off before looking back down at Ruby. I leaned in closer to Ruby. I was tempted to try my luck and go for a kiss, but I chickened out and went for a hug instead. Though, I don’t regret that hug. That hug showed enough thanks for her and her letting me take care of her after all she had been through.

“Thank you Ruby. I truly mean it. Ruby I…”, I said before blanking.

“Yes?”, Ruby said to me.

I was struck by my chicken out self again.

“...can’t wait to see you in the morning.”, I said with a regret going through my mind.

“Yeah, Can’t wait to see you as well.”, Ruby said closing her eyes.

“Good night.”, I said to her.

“Good night Velvet.”, She said with a yawn.

I let her drift off to sleep before I slowly lowered my eyes to get a good night's rest.

That had officially topped my best night’s of sleep. I was worried that throughout the night I would be woken up by Ruby laying next to me. It did the opposite. For some reason, the warmth of her body managed to keep my nice and cozy. Plus it felt a little natural cradling something in my hooves. Maybe I did miss out on a lot when I gave up a stuffed animal when I was younger.

Oh sorry, got a little off topic.

I woke up to see that I was left alone in the bed and that the door was open.

“Looks like she’s up.”, I said to myself as I rubbed my eyes.

I saw that the sun was up from the doorway, a little later than I like to wake up on a regular day. Thankfully I had the whole weekend off so I had nothing to worry about with work.

I got up from the bed not long after seeing the sun from the doorway. My hooves for the first time felt fully refreshed. I normally would do a stretch to wake up the lazy bones, but this morning it felt unnecessary.

I walked out of the bedroom to look where Ruby had gone. From the kitchen, I noticed she was right by my desk. Curious to find out what she was looking at, i walked up to her from behind to get a view of what she had been looking at. Unfortunately, I was not quiet enough to get a peek as Ruby had perked up and turned around to face me.

“Oh it’s you. Good morning Velvet.”, Ruby says sliding something behind her.

“Yeah, good morning Ruby.”, I said to her before looking behind her,”What are you looking at?”

“Um, it’s just...um.”, Ruby said flustered.

While she was standing there, I walked over to see what she had been hiding. Turns out that she had been looking at the drawing I had made of her outline. It flattered me that she was bashful about seeing the drawing I made of her. I would’ve thought it would be the other way around.

“Do you...like it?”, I said with a goofy smile on my face giving a small blush.

“I…..I-I love it. It’s just that I feel all too humble for this.”, Ruby said looking to the side.

“Why? You are a beautiful griffin. It feels right to make something to encapsulate that beauty.”, I said to her.

“Velvet, You are really too kind. I’m not beautiful, not here.”, Ruby says dismissively.

I was about argue that she was wrong, but I noticed that she had covered her right eye even more, despite it already being hidden behind her feathers. I didn’t want the conversation to gravitate to the change of her appearance, especially since she looked like she was not too keen on discussing it.

There was a brief silence between us before I decided to turn the tone of the room around.

“Listen, I don’t want to start with arguing with you already. I wanna take you on a fresh start around town. I was thinking about showing you around town and maybe have you visit Peach for the first time.”, I said to Ruby.

She looked up at me and smiled.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind that.”, Ruby said to me.

“Great, we can do that later. Right now I can help you unpack some of your stuff if you like.”, I said to her.

While she only came with one trunk, the trunk was massive. It looked like it could fit just about the size of a small colt and maybe a little more. Or maybe more a large goat.

“I mean if you want to. I can do it myself.”, She said.

“It looks like it’s a lot you’ve brought. Surly you can use a little help.”, I said insistently.

Ruby looked back at the room where she left the trunk.

“I guess you could help me set up one thing that I brought with me.”, Ruby says putting a claw on her neck.

“Oh ok, whatever it is I’ll do my best to help out.”, I said to Ruby with a determined attitude.

I was a little confused with the couple of scarves she had pulled out of her trunk on why she needed a little help. That was, until I saw what was underneath all of her scarves. Underneath all of this, was a giant pc and monitor. My eyes widened at the site of it. I had thought that my rig was pretty decent up until this point. Ruby’s rig managed to make mine look like a tinker toy with how large it was. The monitor was large too, almost the size of a TV.

“You wouldn’t happen to have an extra desk anywhere would you?”, Ruby asked me.

“Uh, yeah. I think that I have one in the closet next to my bed. I’ll go get it.”, I said going right to my bed in the other room.

I was lucky that I still had the desk right there in the closet. It was smaller than my desk, but it was just enough to hold up Ruby’s giant ass pc and monitor. Almost thought that the desk would crack from the pure size of pc and tv-sized monitor.

The only real place that it seemed to fit was right next to my desk. I had no problem with it, but I would forever have to be next to the rig I wish I had. For real though, it was kind of nice to be next to Ruby if ever we play SF2 together. For once we could actually see each other instead of being locked in a call. For once if I make a stupid joke, I could look over at Ruby who would probably roll her eyes at the dumb joke.

“Wow, this looks good. Everything looks like it’s working properly.”, I said to Ruby who had hooked up one last cable to her rig.

“That should just about do it.”, Ruby said beginning to get up from plugging it in.

I lended my hoof to help her up. She took it looking at me with a smile. I felt that she had a compassionate grip with my hoof standing up. We then looked over at both of our rigs. It was weird, but for some reason it felt like that had brought us closer with each other. I don’t just mean in where we work, I mean more as I helped her set up something that would originally take one pony almost an hour to set up.

“Thank you again Velvet. I really appreciate the help. I owe you one.”, Ruby said to me.

“You really don’t. I am just being the kind pony I am to the one I care about.”, I said to Ruby.

For a moment we got a little bit closer until we were about one inch from touching our sides with each other. I looked over at Ruby and decided to pull a hail Luna moment with her. As Ruby was still looking at the two rigs, I slowly moved my hoof to wrap around her shoulder. Only problem was that she was a little bit taller than me, so I had to really reach up there. With enough effort I made it.

Ruby jumped a little feeling me wrap around her.

“Oh I didn’t-”, I said before Ruby interrupted with a smile.

“It’s fine, you can keep doing it. I kind of like the feeling.”, she said leaning her head on my shoulder.

I kept going, although I now had a embarrassed blush. It was really a mix of a good feeling with a flustered feeling. That’s love for you; You have a wonderful feeling of completeness and a feeling of fear. We just deal with it to be with the one that we care about deeply.

“Well, looks like you’re all set to live here.”, I said to Ruby holding her close.

“Yeah, I’m finally happy to have a place to stay.”, She said closing her eyes blissfully.

We stood there for a little while before I finally let go.

“You ready to go?”, I asked Ruby.

“Yeah, I’m ready for a new start in a new town, jut need to go throw on a scarf.”, Ruby said walking back to her room.

I waited for a little while before seeing Ruby appear with a white scarf.

“T-That’s a really pretty scarf.”, I said nervously trying to flirt.

“Thanks, I thought you might like it.”, Ruby said with a smile.

I cocked my head with a bit of confusion.

“Because of your fur silly.”, Ruby said winking.

“Oh, yeah right.”, I said chuckling nervously.

That was always a charm of Ruby I liked. She had this ability to tease you in a way that doesn’t seem like she is messing with you directly. It kind of mind fucks you, but at the same time it flatters you because it’s all it good taste.

“Alright, time to go face my new town.”, Ruby says walking beside me.

“We are gonna have fun touring the town, plus I got something planned later after we go to see Peach.”, I said to Ruby as I followed.

“Oh? What’s that?”, Ruby asked.

“You’ll see. I think you’ll really have fun with it.”, I said to her.

“I hate surprises.”, Ruby said pouting.

“Trust me, when you see what we’ll do, it’ll be worth the wait.”, I said unlocking the door to New Saddle. Thus, began our crusade across New Saddle.

Author's Note

Ah yes, surprises.
My favorite

Chapter 22

“Do you think it is better if I wait out here?”, Ruby said to me anxiously scratching herself.

We had just gotten back from looking at a couple of places around town, mostly shops and other small restaurants. I thought the only thing I really had to prepare my fear for was for later that night at the Daffodil Club with the crowds, but I was wrong. While some of the stores had only a small number of ponies in them, there were a lot of stores I had skipped over with Ruby because they were packed to the brim with ponies looking to shop for their things. The sad part of it was that most of them were the ones I was hoping to show Ruby. One of which was this store I remember passing a couple of times where they had a bunch of different clothes varying from scarves like Ruby’s to even some tuxedos.

Thankfully, with her eager attitude on things, Ruby enjoyed the tour I gave her. In some places, she even tried out free samples of some of the local food of New Saddle. She seemed to like the “Jumparice”. Jumparice is a fried rice concoction of spices and some pork. It is really delicious. So delicious that one time I had tried to make it in my house, but sadly that was not a very good idea considering I nearly burnt down the kitchen doing that.

Anyways, we spent our whole morning touring around the town, avoiding crowded stores of course. I had to make up some excuse of the stores not having enough room for us to look around comfortably. Kind of a bad excuse considering they had some ponies walking in the stores as I said it. Despite this, her and I had a good time. We were both feeling a little hungry considering we had both skipped breakfast going out to visit shops. I figured that it was about time for lunch and decided it was about time for us to go visit the one mare I had been telling Ruby all about for the past couple of months: Peach Cobbler.

While on the way to Peach’s house, I contemplated passing by the library to see if Amethyst was working there so I could introduce her to Ruby. However, I thought that the last thing Ruby would want to do after touring a town while also a little hungry was to go over to a library. I decided that another time I would take her to meet Amethyst. Although I hoped that she wouldn’t mind me taking her to meet someone I only ever really talked about once.

On the way to Peach’s house, I began to notice how Ruby was awkwardly scratching herself. She had told me that she was fine, but it was starting to concern me. I had no clue why all of a sudden she would be nervous about meeting the mare that I had talked so good about. It was something that bothered me right up to when we had arrived at the door of her house. I was going to knock when well…

“Velvet?”, Ruby told me anxiously trying to grab my attention.

“Oh sorry. I was deep in a train of thought, what’s wrong Ruby?”, I asked her.

“I was asking if it was better if I wait out here while you go and talk with Peach for a little bit before introducing me.”, She said now looking off to the side.

I was going to question why she wanted to stay outside while I talked with Peach, but then I thought about it if it were from my perspective. If I was with a pony I was friends with for not even a day and they wanted me to meet somepony they talked about, I would be a little nervous too. Not as nervous as Ruby, but still nervous. So instead of questioning it, I accepted it.

“Sure Ruby, it’s whatever you feel comfortable with.”, I said to Ruby giving her a comforting smile.

“Thank you Velvet. I’ll be fine out here for a moment or two. I’ll come in when I am ready. Just let me know.”, Ruby said with a soft smile.

Turning around I had knocked on the door of Peach’s home. I looked over at Ruby who was off to the side waiting for me to let her know when she could come out. Right as I gave her a reassuring smile to let her know she had nothing to worry about, the door to Peach’s house had opened. As I expected, Peach was there to answer the door, but from what I noticed, there was a stallion with a suit on with a folder filled with documents.

“Oh celestia Velvet! I am happy to see you, but I wish you let me know ahead of time that you would come around this time. You caught me at a busy time.”, Peach said looking back at the stallion in the suit,”You don’t mind continuing this another day?”

“Not at all, I was just about to meet a client in a couple of minutes. I figure we can finish this business later next week.”, The stallion said getting up and heading to the door to leave

The stallion walked right past me as diligent as possible. I don’t know why, but when he passed by me he gave me a really bad vibe. Like if that was a pony that was not as trustworthy as he said he was. Maybe I was wrong to assume that, but he still gave me bad vibes.

“Sorry about that Velvet, I was sorting through some business for the bakery. How are you today?”, Peach asked me.

“I’m fine, who was that stallion that just left?”, I asked Peach.

“Just a stallion who’s helping me with future business endeavors for the bakery. I trust him to make it all work out. Anyways, where is she?”, Peach asked me cocking her head off to the side.

“Oh yeah about that.”, I said to Peach looking off to give Ruby the signal to come out. She was nowhere to be seen. I began to panic thinking she had ran off in fear.

“Something wrong sugar?”, Peach asked me.

“Uh yeah, Ruby was just here a minute ago, I don’t know where she would-”, I said before turning around looking up.

Ruby had flown down from what I could assume was a flight to calm her nerves. For the first time, I noticed how truly beautiful she was in the sky with the sunlight. Her wings contrasted her gorgeous face and eyes. From the looks of her wing span, she gave off the appearance of a grand entrance. Her stance when she landed further proved my assumption.

“I’m sorry about that Ms. Cobbler. I was getting a little bit of air for myself before I met you. My name’s Ruby.”, She said putting her claw out for Peach to shake.

“You don’t have to call me ‘Ms. Cobbler’. Peach is just fine sugar.”, Peach said before grabbing Ruby’s claw and pulling her in for a hug before continuing,” Especially since you have been taking care of my little Velvet”.

“Oh my sun god shut up.”, I said to Peach embarrassed.

Thankfully I wasn’t the only one who was flustered by Peach. When she had pulled her in the hug, Ruby’s eyes widened as her cheeks flourished with blush. She had even gave me a look that said,”I didn’t ask for this”. But being the nice griffin she was, she took the hug like a champ, even pulling herself in to embrace the hug.

Peach had finally let go after almost ten seconds of hugging Ruby. Based on Ruby’s face, she was happy it was over.

“Well come on in! I don’t want to keep you all waiting outside.”, Peach said inviting us inside her home.

I looked over at Ruby who was grinning at herself for the entrance she pulled. From what I could see, this was quite the opposite of the nervous look she was giving me earlier. A look I was curious about. I stopped Ruby before going in to ask her what that was.

“What was that?”, I asked Ruby.

“What was what?”, She said tilting her head to the side.

“I thought you were nervous meeting her. You said yourself that you wanted me to talk to her first before introducing you to her.”, I explained.

“Oh. That wasn’t me being nervous about meeting her. I was nervous about introducing myself in the way I wanted to. I figured it would help give good impressions to Peach, especially since you’re her ‘little Velvet’”, Ruby said laughing at me.

“Oh shut up you!”, I said in an embarrassed tone.

Ruby just winked at me and laughed. The way she winked always made me smile. Yeah it was a wink of someone making fun of me, but it was something that I found a little bit of beauty in when she did. In all actuality, it was her smile that really made me happy to see. It was one good feeling to have when you hear somepony who was audibly happy, but it was a completely different feeling of joy when you could see them smile at you.

We both walked into Peach’s house to witness once again, the peaceful nature of her home. Ruby had given me a look that pretty much said,”you weren’t exaggerating the story at all when you told me about it”. Overall, she looked like she really liked Peach’s home. Although I feel she was content on going in Peach’s house because of the smell of something Peach had been cooking while the stallion was here.

Ruby and I sat down in the living room where there was a coffee table and one large sofa across from one old rocking chair, presumably for Peach. Peach had come out of her kitchen for a moment.

“While I’m fixing lunch, would you two like something to drink?”, Peach asked us.

“I think I’ll just do a glass of water please.”, I said to Peach.

“And what about you sugar?”, She said looking at Ruby.

Ruby looked over at me to give me a confused look as if she didn’t know how to respond. I gave her a nod to let her know she was alright.

“I’ll do the same as Velvet.”, She said to Peach.

When Peach walked back into the kitchen, Ruby had kind of tugged on my hoof to ask me something.

“She knows my name is ‘Ruby’ right?”, She asked me quietly.

“She knows. She calls everyone she likes ‘sugar’. So hey, looks like she likes you.”, I explained to Ruby.

“Well, looks like it’s quite the honor to be given the title ‘sugar’. Maybe tonight I can give you a title when-”, Ruby said before stopping to see Peach walk from the kitchen with three glasses of water.

I took two of the glasses of water with my magic and gave one to Ruby. Peach sat across from us in the old rocking chair as she sipped a little bit of her water.

“So Ruby, are you adjusting to the new town fairly well?”, Peach asked her.

She put down her glass and put a claw on my lower hoof.

“Oh very much so. If it weren’t for Velvet giving me a small tour of the town before coming here I would’ve been so lost.”, Ruby said closing her eyes with glee.

“Really? That’s good he was there then. How did you two meet?”, Peach said looking over at me.

“Well, it was some game I was playing and well, I-”, I said looking at Ruby smiling before continuing,”-I had walked in on her singing a beautiful song”.

Peach’s eyes widened when she looked at Ruby.

“You’re a singer then? Well looks like I need to make this meal a good one for a celebrity singer.”, Peach said to Ruby putting down her glass of water.

“Oh no I think you misunderstood. I’m not a professional singer, I was more a student at a music school who sang.”, Ruby reiterated to Peach.

“Still, I have tremendous respect for those who can really stretch vocal chords. Maybe someday you could come by and visit the bakery and be our entertainment for the stage that’s just sitting out there in the back.”, Peach said to Ruby.

A little while ago, Peach tried to bring in more customers by having the bakery open at night to have local musical performances while still selling the regular pastries she always sold. Only problem was there were no good bands to come by and perform. Well, there was one band called “Grounded”, but let’s just say that they were not exactly the best band to have perform at a bakery. Ever since then, the stage was put in storage in the back of the balkery and has never left since.

“Heh, I don’t know about that just yet.”, Ruby said stroking her left arm with her claw.

“It’ll take time. Speaking of time, looks like lunch should be ready in a little bit, hope you two like cucumber sandwiches.”, Peach said standing up to go to the kitchen.

It was like that for pretty much the rest of the afternoon. We all had cucumber sandwiches and afterwards had a little bit of tea that Peach had found at the store. When Peach brought out the tea, I saw excitement in Ruby’s eyes. Turns out that she really loves tea. The only problem was that she hadn’t had it in a very long time because of where she had lived. Out of the three of us, Ruby drank the most tea. It was almost like she was the tea addict out of all of us with how much she drank. In fact, she nearly drank all of the kettle that Peach had made.

Then of course we talked a lot about me working at the bakery for so long. Despite what many would call a boring job working in the back of the bakery, Ruby seemed to be very impressed with it. On the topics of jobs, Peach also gave Ruby a job opportunity at the bakery that would have her be taught how to bake different things. While Ruby was happy to get the opportunity, she had turned it down to see more opportunities because she was still a little new to the town.

After an afternoon of visiting with Peach, me and Ruby decided to head out for the day. Peach was happy with Ruby, which made me feel good that she didn’t feel that I had wasted a weekend not working. Ruby had also looked like she was happy talking to her. It looked like she had made a completely new friend, a friend that she could have a cup of tea with. Or maybe water, but most likely tea.

When we left her home, the sun was starting to go down for the day. For the first time today, Ruby was walking next to me with a wing around my back. Maybe it was because of the mood of the sun beginning to set. Maybe it was simply her holding onto me because she was drunk off of tea. But I think the more obvious reason was that I did exactly what I said and more for Ruby; I was able to not only show her around town, but I also made sure she was gonna enjoy the tour of New Saddle.

“Can I be completely honest with you Velvet?”, Ruby asked me.

“Sure?”, I asked nervously.

“When I had to go away from Manehatten, I was thinking that this was a mistake the whole ride there. I thought that I was just gonna be as lost as I was living alone up north; But after spending all this time with you I realized that I was far from making a mistake coming here. I was making the right choice the entire time; I made the choice to stay in a town with somepony that loves me.”, Ruby said looking at me with appreciative eyes.

I had no idea what to say to that. There was no words I could use to show how much that really. Before I could even do anything, Ruby looked back up at me.

“I love you.”, Ruby said now facing me.

My eyes widened with my blush from the feelings I was getting from her saying that. What were those feelings you might ask? Love. Love is a feeling that you know has happened when you meet a pony or griffin face to face that you know you truly care for. I don’t just mean as a friend kind of love, I mean as a partner who will stay by your side to the very end.

I knew that feeling was there right when she said that. The crazy thing about love is that sometimes it will make you do things you never would have thought you would do. My example, for no unexplainable reason other than out of love, after hearing her say that she loved me, I leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Yeah I know, I was a risk taker when that happened. I looked back up at her slightly surprised look and instantly looked down ashamed in embarrassment.

“Hey.”, Ruby said putting her claw on my shoulder.

I looked up hesitantly, almost expecting a slap to the face.

“You missed.”, Ruby said with a compassionate smile before pulling me in for a kiss on her beak.

My blush went from pink to beet red within the span of three seconds. Not only was I kissing someone for the first time, but I was also kissing someone on the lips. Or well, beak in my case.

Not knowing what to do, I followed Ruby’s actions as I pressed against her beak kissing her. I slowly closed my eyes just as she had done before to really enjoy the moment. The kiss wasn’t long, but it felt like centuries had passed by in the moment. I felt our lip and beak separate from a very loving kiss.

“Ruby, I-”, I said to her before she shushed me.

“You don’t need to say it back. Based on how you kissed me earlier, it was more than enough to say you love me too.”, Ruby said tapping her forehead onto mine.

We shared that tender moment for a little bit as we watched the sun slowly set. I loved every moment of it. If I could ever go back in time to relive moments from the past, that moment would be the one I would go to.

“Oh shit!”, I said out loud realizing something.

“Hmm? Something wrong?”, Ruby said with some concern.

“I forgot the plan for tonight.”, I explained.

“Plan?”, She had asked.

“Well, I was gonna make it more of a surprise but….ah fuck it! I might as well say it. There is this club in town that is opened at this time. I figured since you really take music to liking that you would like to go and listen to some music while we are there. If you’re okay with that of course.”, I said nervously to Ruby.

She cocked an eyebrow at me.

“Do leaves fall off trees? Of course I’m okay with it. You know, for some odd reason our first dates seem to really involve music.”, Ruby said with excitement in her eyes.

“Really? I never noticed that.”, I said before taking her by her claw before walking her in the direction of the Daffodil Club.

From a glance, the Daffodil Club looks pretty empty on weekend nights. But as you get closer, you start to realize that on the inside it is packed with ponies based on the loud music coming from the inside. Thankfully, there was no line outside waiting to get in. The only pony that was out there was the bouncer who from the looks of it, didn’t really care if you came in. Maybe if you were drunk you would not be able to go in. I’m still not sure.

As we walked up to the door, the bouncer had stopped us at the door.

“Hold up. I need to check you two first.”, He said stepping in front of the door to eye us.

The both of us sat silently as this brolic stallion eyed both of us. He looked over me and saw that I was clean, but for some reason he took the longest to check on Ruby. A thing to note is that he was only checking our eyes, but for some reason he was looking down at Ruby’s claws.

“Is this one with you?”, The bouncer said with a intimidating tone.

“Y-Yes?”, I said nervously to him.

He then turned to face Ruby, who now stood back nervously.

“Let me make this clear to you, Griffon, you better not stir up any trouble in this club. You understand? I will have my eye on you the entire night.”, The Bouncer said with a ferocious tone.

All Ruby could really do was look over at me and nod nervously.

The bouncer looked back towards me.

“You better keep your friend in check, Or I won’t hesitate to kick both of you out. Understand?”, He asked me.

“Yes sir.”, I said firmly looking at Rby to know that I got her back.

The bouncer finally stepped aside and let us in, although he was watching Ruby like a hawk.

“Dick”, I said under my breath at the speciast bouncer.

“What was that all about? I never met the stallion and he acted like I clawed his mom in the face.”, Ruby asked me staying close to me.

“I don’t think I told you this about New Saddle, but there are some ponies who don’t think too kindly of griffons. Remember with the griffon I had to save from the colts?”, I asked Ruby.

“Oh.”, Ruby said.

“Yeah, but you can handle it right?”, I asked her.

“I can try. Although, I’m not sure how many ponies are like that in here.”, Ruby said nervously.

“I’ll tell you what, if something happens, you call out my name. I’ll be there as quick as I can, I promise.”, I said looking at her in front of the door blasting music.

“Ok, I trust you.”, She said smiling grabbing my hoof.

We both looked forward and pushed on the door to walk right in the club. As the door opened, I felt my face go from my white coat to pale (Somehow). What I had imagined the crowd would be like was completely beyond how big I thought the crowd would be. Imagine the amount of ponies that were in the crowd where I tried to pass through but ended up blacking out, and multiply it by a shit ton. It looked like a sea of ponies on the dance floor, but thankfully the bar wasn’t as packed, but that still doesn’t mean I was not scared of the smaller crowd.

Ruby must’ve taken a long glance at my face and noticed that I was feeling uneasy.

“Are you okay?”, Ruby asked me.

“Y-Y-Yeah, I’m fine.”, I said to her nervously swallowing.

I think she could tell I was clearly lying, but she went along with it anyway. We slowly but surely made our way over to the bar where we could hear the music more clearly. As we walked, what I had feared would be true, all the ponies were looking at us; more specifically Ruby. I figured that it was just stares of not seeing a griffin in the club before, but I still had some concerns.

We hat sat at a table near the bar. From the chair I sat, I saw the bouncer off on the balcony above the dance floor. He was watching the two of us like hawks as he had said.

“How even-”, I said to myself questioning how fast he was to go up there.

Regardless, I ignored the scary bouncer stallion and listened to the music playing with Ruby. Despite all the looks she was getting from the occasional pony, she seemed like she was having a good time. In between songs she and I talked for a little bit, only for the music to kick back in and interrupt us.

“I’m feeling a thirsty, do you want anything?”, I asked her heading for the bar.

“Uh, see if they have water. I don’t drink alcohol.”, Ruby said.

She gave off this look on her face that showed that she didn’t want me to get some drink from the bar. I couldn’t really blame her considering what her father was like and well, how that situation ended up happening. Knowing full well that I think she would think a little different of me if I got alcohol, I decided to see if I could get water as well. Although, I was really curious about what the “purple elixir” was to have Amethyst recommend me it.

The bartender gave me a look that could be best described as a look to somepony who is lost when I ordered two waters from a bar. When I brought them back, Ruby was happy that I had them, but she looked a little bit nervous.

“Something wrong Ruby?”, I asked her as i sipped my water nervously.

“There is, but I think you’ll laugh at me if I tell you.”, Ruby said sipping her water.

“You can tell me. I promise whatever you say I won’t laugh.”, I said giving her a smile putting a hoof on her shoulder.

“Alright but don’t look at me like that. You’ll make me laugh trying to say it.”, She said grinning with embarrassment.

We had a cute, playful stare. For the first time ever, I completely ignored a crowd. It was an amazing feeling, to finally take your fear and ignore it to focus on someone you care about. Finally, she got over her embarrassment and said it.

“Would you like to go out there and dance with me?”, Ruby said to me.

Then I snapped right back to reality and the crowd came back.

“W-What?”, I stammered nervously.

“You said you wouldn’t laugh!”, Ruby said with a pout.

“No no I’m not laughing. I want to make sure I heard you correctly. You said you wanted to go dance?”, I asked

“Yeah. Is that going to be okay. I was hoping for the next slow song for us to dance.”, Ruby said cocking her head to the side.

“S-Sure, it’s fine.”, I said nervously while slowly looking to the crowd before continuing,” Totally fine”.

“Okay. Shall we?”, She said holding out a claw.

I slowly took her claw as I nervously followed her to the dance floor. I felt that my heart was pounding my chest to get out of there. I felt a few drops of nervous sweat drip from my horn. I was heading into the place where my fear lies, and the only way out is right in the middle of it and to last a couple of minutes. That was the endgame.

Right as I stepped on the floor, the change of music hit and it was now the slow song. It was almost like the whole universe was against me for this very moment with the crowd of ponies now surrounding us to dance along.

Standing in front of me to face me, Ruby looked at my face to dance with my now nervous looking self. Though I felt like I was frozen, my body was still moving with Ruby. Looking around, I felt like I was trapped. All I could see were ponies, and nowhere else to go. Then what came next was the second scariest moment of my life.

All of a sudden the music became fuzzy sounding along with the sound of my breathing and everything seemed to look fuzzy. Everything except Ruby. She was the only one that seemed picture clear. The fuzzy audio then turned to ringing. Then all of a sudden, I felt weightless, like my bones in my body had completely turned to dust. Right before it happened, Ruby had said something, but I couldn’t hear her. All I could decipher from reading her lips before everything started fading to black was,”Velvet”. Finally, everything went to black as I felt myself fall. The last thing I felt was my face hitting the floor.

What felt like ages of me lying on the floor, I woke up to the muffled sound of ponies murmuring. My eyes were far from focused. What I could decipher was that I was looking at a bunch of pony’s hooves. I closed my eyes some more to try and focus more and more on what is happening. It wasn’t as easy considering there was a ringing noise in my head like I had gotten hit in the head with a brick.

My eyes finally were clear enough to see what I was staring at. It was as I suspecting, a bunch of pony’s hooves. But the only thing that confused me was why they were around in a circle around something. It was almost like a pit was forming and the only thing in the middle was…

“VELVET!”, I heard screaming at the top of their lungs.

It was Ruby, and she sounded like she was in deep trouble. With the strength I had left in me, I arose from my fallen state. Once I was fully awake, I rushed to the source of her cry for help. I couldn’t get past the crowd of ponies, but what I could see through them, truly terrified me.

She was being held by the bouncer and was getting constantly thrown down by him.

“You dirty griffins are all the same! Quick to violence like it’s a natural instinct. I’ll show you what we do to griffins who try to attack poor ponies.”, The bouncer said with an evil looking grin.

With the rage building up inside of me from seeing how he was treating my Ruby, I set my sights on getting to the middle of that circle. I pushed passed every single one of those ponies without hesitation just to try and stop this mistreatment. I had finally made it past and right before the bouncer pulled out a baton looking weapon, I stood in front of him.

“Stop!”, I yelled out to him as he stood there.

He let out a laugh.

“I cannot believe what I’m seeing. A stallion protecting a dirty griffin as if he is one of them. How cute.”, He said with arrogance as he stepped closer.

I looked back at Ruby to see if he had done any harm to her. What I saw made me gasp out loud. She was looking down before she gazed up at me for me to see three distinct scratches on her right eye.

“Oh my god.”, I said to myself upon seeing her like this.

“V-Velvet”, she said softly trying to stand up behind me.

Now I felt like I could have a reason to seriously hurt this bouncer, but well when you are the size I am and meet with somepony the size he is, it’s an uphill fight.

“You better stand aside, before I beat you as well”, the bouncer said before raising his baton.

“You. Are not. Gonna lay. A single. Fucking hoof on us!!”, I yelled out to him.

What happened next scared me because this has never happened to me before. I felt a beam of light emerge within me. Not just a metaphorical light, but also a physical one. A physical light that was moving up my horn.

With a loud noise, I felt my horn blast towards the bouncer with great force. The beam of light blasted him above the crowd and onto the DJ booth, smashing into the equipment.

Now it felt that all eyes were on me and Ruby. More specifically me because there was no denying what just happened: I just blasted the biggest stallion in the club by accident.

Thankfully, it wasn’t powerful enough to kill him. He got up dazed and dizzy from what had just happened.

“Ruby, we’ve got to run. Now!”, I said grabbing her claw.

Ruby held on tight as we ran past the crowd of ponies. By this point, the bouncer had his target locked onto us. He was running after us like we were public enemy number one in New Saddle.

I looked back to see that he was catching up to us.

“Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit! We’re not gonna make out in one piece.”, I said frantically as we ran out the door.

With now restored confidence, Ruby gave a determined look.

“Yes we are. Velvet, whatever you do, don’t look down.”, Ruby said letting go to run behind me.

“Wait, what are you-”, I asked frantically before feeling two claws grab onto my shoulders.

Then, I once again felt weightless. But this time, I was fully conscious about what was happening. I felt the pull of Ruby claws lifting me up off the ground. Being the stupid stallion I am, I looked down at my hooves floating above the ground.

“OH SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!!!”, I screamed out loud as I began flying with Ruby.

“I told you not to look down.”, She said flying away from the club.

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be a pegasus, to be able to fly around at a speed that I could never reach running. I even imagined that it would be a way for me to get over my fear of crowds, literally over the crowds. But after two minutes of me dangling from Ruby’s claws as she flew, I decided that maybe being on the ground was the best thing for me.

After me nearly having a heart attack and a new fear of heights, we finally landed right in front of my house with great speed. I nearly slid onto my front door step with how fast I landed. I stood back up to look at Ruby. This time, she looked down with gloom.

“Ruby I’m so sor-”, I tried saying before Ruby interrupted.

“Why didn’t you tell me before!?”, She demanded.

“I was gonna tell you but-”, I said before being interrupted again.

“But what?! You were scared of showing a little bit of honesty towards me that you didn’t want to be there? That you were not gonna be who you said you were in there.”, She said.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve told you that I wasn’t good with crowds.”, I said to her.

“You think this is about your fear of crowds?! I knew from the get-go that you couldn’t handle crowds! What I am pissed about is that you made a promise to me in there, and you didn’t deliver!”, She exclaimed angrily.

I was going to say something but I felt she was going to interrupt again.

“I came here to escape all the bullshit from where I lived. To escape my deadbeat dad and his constant abuse and violence. I wanted an escape from all of that and…”, Ruby said with her voice breaking down.

Tears began to stream down her face.

“...and feel like I could finally be with someone who could give me that escape from misery. I-I thought you w-would…”, Ruby said before fully breaking down into tears.

I didn’t say a word, nor did I make a noise. All I did was walk up to her and hold her tightly in my hooves.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I did this to you. I promise you now I won’t let anypony hurt you again. This time I mean it.”, I said pulling her close.

She sniffed a little bit to calm down.

“Do you really mean it? I don’t you to make a girl a promise, if you know you can’t keep it.”, Ruby said softly.

“I swear my life by it.”, I said to her pulling her in for a kiss.

Ruby had welcomed the kiss by wrapping her claw behind my neck. I finally broke away from the kiss to look her in the eyes, both her eyes.

“Let’s go inside. It’s gonna be okay. It’s over now.”

Author's Note

Not quite the best first date to have :v

Chapter 23

We both went inside the house with chills up our spines. The kind of chills ones would get after nearly getting killed by some crazy stallion; (Oh right, not everypony gets chased by a mad bouncer). We felt that we had both faced a horizon and it faced right back with great fury. Now all the energy we had left was enough to get us to a couch to sit down and take in what had happened.

By this point, Ruby was no longer afraid to show me the scratches on her eye. In an instinct, I went to grab a small towel to go and try and clean off the scar.

“Where are you going?”, Ruby asked me.

“I’m getting a towel with water. I don’t want it to get infected from tonight.”, I said standing up.

Ruby had grabbed my hoof.

“It wasn’t from tonight. It….”, She said before looking silent.

I sat back down on the couch to understand what she was talking about. She gave a long sigh before looking back into my eyes with great concern.

“Do you remember the night when, it happened?”, She asked me.

I knew exactly what she was talking about. The way she said,”It”, wasn’t a good sounding memory. Ruby was talking about the night when well, shit went completely sideways for her.

“Sadly, I do.”, I said to her sympathetically.

“That night I saw something in my dad that I should have seen a long time ago. For a while I thought he would one day change the way he would act. He would give up his, excessive partakings and finally be what I wanted him to be; An actual dad who cared for me and would cherish me with all of his heart.”, Ruby said with a gloomy tone.

I put my hoof around her to try and comfort her trying to talk about her father.

“But I was wrong, so very wrong. That night I saw…..I saw my own father as a monster. H-He attacked me like I was someone in the war trying to kill him. He clawed and clawed all over me like I was threatening his life. I-I managed to punch my way out of it with a few scratches, but h-he left me with this mark that hasn’t healed up like the others have. H-H-He was so violent when he scratched me, l-like he didn’t c-care for my wellbeing and-”, Ruby said breaking down into small sobs.

I shushed her by pulling her in for a comforting hug to let her know that she was far away from him, and that he was never going to hurt her again.

“But do you want to know what the worst part of that evening was?”, She said looking back up at me with tear filled eyes.

I gave her a small nod.

“I finally came to a reality: I’m all alone. I-I don’t mean with friends or you around me. I’m the only one alone in my family. I’ve sworn my father off from that night for what he did to me.”, Ruby said with a more calm, but still sad tone.

“But what happened to what you believed about your mother still being out there?”, I said to her trying to cheer her up.

“Velvet, think about what I said. I believed that even though my mom was gone that she was still out there. If she was there, where in Equestria would she be? She probably left me there with him to save herself. Even though he is a fucking asshole, I’m starting to believe that she was just as bad as he said she was that night.”, Ruby said to me.

I couldn’t help but feel frustrated by that.

“Do you realize what you just said Ruby? You never even met her and you are already talking about her like your father. Based on seeing you these couple of days, I know for a fact you are not your father’s daughter by believing that. You just need to keep looking. And one day you might be able to find her and ask her all the questions about why she did what she did.”, I explained to her to try and snap her out of that mindset.

She stood silent. I knew right away that she still wasn’t convinced.

“Look, I know that you still listen to Moose, yes? And that you brought some of their music?”, I asked her.

She gave me a small nod.

“There you go! Deep down you truly believe she is real because you still listen to the music she left behind for you to find. I know for a fact that you probably listened to at least a couple of them on the way here, yes?”, I asked her.

She once again nodded now slowly perking up.

“Once again, you still believe it. As long as you keep the stuff she left for you, you can still believe that she is out there. I’m not what one would call a motherly type, but if I were your mother, I would hope that you were okay despite the circumstances, whatever they may be.”, I said to comfort Ruby more.

She stood silent, before letting out a small, faint smile.

“You never cease to disappoint me Velvet. You always manage to come out with a way to cheer me up.”, She said snuggling up to me.

“It’s my job as a boyfriend Ruby.”, I said pulling her close.

“May I ask you one question?”, Ruby asked me.

“Shoot.”, I said to Ruby.

She sat up to face me once again.

“Why do you have such a way with expressing that my mother would still care for me? I believe that she would, but I want to know why you are so atomit about her.”, She asked me.

“Well, it’s….touchy, but…...ah shit! I might as well tell you after you opening up to me like that.”, I said to Ruby.

She sat up with attentive ears.

“It all started with my mother. She had such a way to express how much she loved me when I was younger. Sure, my father also loved me, but it wasn’t like my mom’s love for me. She wanted to see me grow up and sprout into the little Velvet she had dreamed of.”, I said before breathing in a sad sigh,” but sadly, she was never able to see it, nor my father”.

“What happened to them? If, you are comfortable saying.”, Ruby asked me wanting to know.

“They….went out on their anniversary trip, like I had said before. Around that time, a huge storm swept over Hoovesiana that flooded almost every major city. Unfortunately, they were unable to make it out of the flood and...you can probably figure out the rest.”, I said with a soft tone.

“Velvet I’m-”, Ruby said before I interrupted her.

“It’s okay, you couldn’t control the weather that mother Equestria gives. Anyways, the following year was hard on me. Knowing that my parents were gone, I felt truly alone like you felt. That was until Peach, bless her soul, took care of me for a little while to keep their memory alive with me. She would always say how they were not really gone, despite not being there. To prove this, she gave me this.”, I said standing up to walk over to my shelf.

I used my magic to grab the most sacred item on it: my memory box. I sat down with the box in hoof looking over at Ruby.

“This is what Peach called my Memory box. It sounds silly, I know. But this silly thing is my most prized possession I own.”, I explained to her.

For the first time in a very long time, I opened the box to see the very familiar items my parents had left behind that I now kept in memory of them. Inside, was a couple of the last pictures I ever took with them before they went away. The were pretty generic family photos if you ask me, but what really rung with me the most was what really defined who I was as a pony. A long time before my mom became a baker, she tried to become an artist who would draw all sorts of stuff. Unfortunately like most starving artists, she ran out of money to keep going and decided to look for work elsewhere. She never once picked up a pen to draw again after finally getting a job at the bakery, until my tenth birthday.

My mom considered the tenth birthday a tremendous occasion. Since I was still a learning colt, my mom decided to show me what she did a long time before ever meeting my father and eventually having me by making me a drawing. It was a collage of multicolored shapes forming around the white outline of a small colt. That small colt, in my mother’s words, represented the happiest ten years of her life having me as her son. From the day I found that drawing again when Peach put it in the memory box, I dedicated all of my drawings to both my parents, my mom especially.

“It’s beautiful.”, Ruby said softly seeing the drawing.

“Yeah. I guess now you can see where I get my love of drawing from.”, I explained to her.

“Not just that. Your family and you all happy together in that picture.”, She said pulling out the picture of us under the oak tree that was similar to my dreams.

I was tempted to explain to her the strange occurrence with my dreams showing my parents still seemingly alive. However, I thought about it and I think it would’ve made her think I had some sort of schizophrenia.

“Heh, I know that they are watching over me somewhere. Seeing me grow into the stallion they dreamed of me becoming.”, I said taking the picture and looking at it before putting it back in the box and closing it.

“They would be proud of you. I know I would if I was your mother. You’re so kind and caring to others. It’s a trait I wished that everyone would have.”, Ruby said smiling.

I saved the box on the shelf above us with my magic.

“Thank Celestia for letting me have this rare trait.”, I said smiling back at her.

There was once again silence between us as we just stared into each other’s eyes with smiles on our faces. In a weird, cosmic way, we both had the same idea to lean into each other for a kiss. Our faces pressed our lips and beak together for a very passionate kiss. In that kiss, we held onto each other like never before when we kissed. Like we were holding on until we would lose grip with each other.

In a matter of time, we shifted even closer to each other still into the series of passionate kisses. We were now caressing each other in a way that was unfamiliar to me. I didn’t care about the unfamiliarity, I instead turned it into good feelings. Our kisses must’ve lasted for a long time because when we finally broke our kiss to breath, a strand of our mixed spit seeped from both our mouths. We looked into each other’s eyes again, this time we read what we both wanted to do next.

“Are we…….doing this now?”, I asked with a blush.

“I’m perfectly okay with it. Are you?”, She asked me with the exact same blush on her cheeks.

“I am, but…...it’s my first time.”, I said embarrassed.

Ruby laughed and pushed me down on my back on the couch. I won’t lie, I thought I messed up at first when she pushed me down like that.

“It’s okay Velvet. It’s my first time as well. So lets do it for the first time together.”, She said with a sympathetic smile.

I gave a small nod of approval as she moved on top of me to kiss me once more.

“Looks like tonight you might get your title from me. Let’s find out together what it will be.”, She said letting up from the kisses to wink at me.

The next hour was an experience that I will never forget. I’m pretty sure you can figure out what we were both doing in that hour, but let’s just say it was more than kissing. But the part I will describe was the feelings we were feeling with each other. In those moments being truly close to Ruby, I felt total bliss and serenity. For that hour with her, I felt we had become one. Not physically of course, but metaphorically.

After we had finished what we had been doing, we laid there next to each other in each other’s arms cuddling. It was strange, we were both tired from today, yet we stayed up with each other to hold onto one another. We hadn’t said a word, all we wanted to do was lay next to each other.

“Maybe you’re right.”, Ruby said to me breaking the silence.

“Right about what?”, I asked.

“My mother and how she could still be out there.”, Ruby explained.

“Oh. Well like I said before, she could be anywhere. She is probably out there somewhere wondering how her daughter is.”, I said to comfort Ruby some more.

“Yeah, maybe.”, Ruby said looking back down at my chest.

There was something about her tone that made me unsure that she completely in board with the idea of her mother being out there. I felt like there was something else that I needed to say to make her truly believe what she has been saying.

“I’m gonna make you a promise.”, I said looking back down at Ruby.

“What?”, She asked me confused.

“I promise you that one day I’m going to find your mother. On that day I‘ll make sure you get your answers and you’ll maybe have that relationship you should’ve had when you were younger.”, I declared to Ruby.

“You know what they say about promises; don’t make a girl a promise, if you know you can’t keep it.”, Ruby said warning me.

“This isn’t some petty promise, this is a real promise that I plan on fulfilling.”, I said pulling Ruby closer.

Ruby gave a small chuckle snuggling into my chest.

“I won’t stop your ambition. I’ll try and look for answers where she would be.”, Ruby said laughing.

“Hush you.”, I said to the snarky Ruby before kissing her forehead.

Around this time we both became silent, as it was time to finally go to sleep. I felt that Ruby was the first to fall asleep. While she was asleep, I moved the feathers out of the way of her scratched up eye. I could understand her wanting to hide it, but personally it didn’t affect any of my thoughts or feelings towards when she had her feathers back.

I gave Ruby one last soft kiss on her forehead before letting my eyes close to settle down for a long night’s nap. Only this time, I felt like I was truly complete for the night with Ruby next to me.

After that night, Celestia must’ve heard that promise I made to Ruby and decided to help me along to fulfill that promise. How it happened is a bit of a long story, but I’ll try everything I can to explain it thoroughly.

Two weeks had passed since that night. I was now back at work at the bakery and I convinced Peach to let me bring Ruby along for a “internship” for a job since she was now gonna be living with me. Peach told me that I didn’t even need to have her for the internship, and that she could have a job right away. So what was Ruby’s job? Well, because Peach couldn’t think of a first name basis job for her like she traditionally does, she had Ruby act as a mixer for the frosting of our cakes. It’s not a hard job, usually the job would shift between everypony in the bakery to do it when the time came for us needing more of one frosting. But since we now had Ruby to do it, there was now no need to, and on top of this, we never seemed to run out of frosting because of how fast she would make it. She managed to blow Peach away with it as well, even considering Peach herself taught her how to make the frosting.

Speaking of Ruby, her scar on her right eye was now starting to look a whole lot better, as she was now more open about the small wound by grooming her feathers back. She had thanked me one day after work for helping her get over that insecurity, but I told her that it was my job to make her feel good about herself by encouragement.

In those two weeks I was feeling good, but something didn’t feel right. Like I was forgetting to check on something before leaving my house kind of not feeling right. Then I remembered one day as I was walking to work with Ruby; it was around the time for Hearth’s Warming. I noticed this when I was walking in front a store that had the sign that said,” This Hearth’s Warming Eve, get her something she’ll never forget”, advertising some cheap looking purse. It wasn’t until then when I realized that I had absolutely no clue what to get her.

Sure I could do the basic gift and get her something with the band Moose on it, but I wanted to get something more memorable than that. There were nights where I would talk about Hearth’s Warming with Ruby and what she would want and she would tell me that anything would be fine. Only problem with that was, I’m a pony who likes to go big when it comes to gifts. One example was for Peach’s 65th birthday two years ago. Every year, she tells me that a card would do just fine, bt this year I was stubborn. I got her the nicest picture of me and her when I was younger and a nice gold plated frame with a tag that read,” For the one who cared for me the most”. It may have costed a lot, but that didn’t matter. Because she kept that photo on display in her home since then when I first visited her home.

Naturally, I gravitated towards Peach to give me advice on what to get Ruby for Hearth’s Warming because she had gotten to know Ruby a little bit more with the one on one training she had been giving to her on making frosting. Sadly, not even Peach could help me in this predicament. Instead, she told me what she always tells me,”If it comes from you and she cares, she’ll love it”.

Feeling like I was in a corner with about a week before the day of Hearth’s Warming Eve, I turned to another familiar face who I thought could help me; Amethyst. I hadn’t seen her since the day I picked up Ruby because well, when you are adjusting to someone new in your home, you kind of lose time for visits with some friends.

I kind of forgot the feeling of going to Amethyst’s home. Mostly the feeling of seeing Storm’s drawings he would make.

The day I was going to visit Amethyst was a day where me and Ruby had off and decided to stay up a little bit late the day before to sleep in. I woke up first, seeing Ruby’s cute face when she sleeps. I gently woke her up.

“Hey, Ruby. I am going to go visit Amethyst, do you feel like coming?”, I asked her softly.

“Mmmh, Another time. I just want to sleep a little longer Velvet.”, She said with a tired voice.

“Okay, I shouldn’t be gone long.”, I said kissing her forehead.

Ruby turned over and went right back to sleep like I wasn’t even just talking to her. I’ll say this, she is a master at sleeping. Like she could almost fall asleep on command. An ability I wish I could have.

I quietly left the house allowing Ruby to continue sleeping. The air was cool, just like it normally gets for this time of year. For all my gripe about how the weather of Hoovesiana being one random mess of events, I could always count on the weather to get cool during Hearth’s Warming time.

As with most stores one week before Hearth’s Warming Eve, stores were pack like crazy; Mostly due to the fact that everything was discounted heavily. Think of it like Black Friday, minus the ponies trampling each other to get a good deal on a gift for the holidays. With stores filled, comes crowds, which I didn’t like to be in the middle of.

After finding my way around the crowd, I managed to make my way to Amethyst’s home. The look of that small house still never got old to look at walking over to it. I arrived at the front door and knocked.

Amethyst opened the door from the inside. The look in her eyes said that she hadn’t seen me in a while.

“Well if it ain’t the one who disappeared for a while! How are you doing Velvet?”, Amethyst asked with excitement.

“I’m doing fine Amethyst. Can I come in to visit? It’s been a while.”, I said to her.

“Absolutely! Come in, come in!”, She said stepping aside to let me in.

I won’t lie, seeing that small living room connected to the kitchen for the first time in two weeks felt great. I felt like I was ready for teatime once again.

“So nice to be back here again.”, I said to Amethyst as she closed the door behind us.

“I was wondering where you had gone. Teatime had been getting a little more lonely.”, She said walking in beside me.

“Well I’m sorry for that. Still trying to get used to someone else living with me in my home.”, I explained to her.

“Oh how did that go with your special friend? Does she like the new town?”, Amethyst asked me.

“Oh it went absolutely wonderful! We had a lot of fun touring the town. I really think she loves New Saddle. The Club was a little rough because we were both a little bit shy, but overall we had a great time.”, I explained to her sitting down in the chair next to me.

“Well that’s nice. You feel you’ve made a great decision with this now?”, She asked me sitting in the chair across from me.

“Oh absolutely, everything feels perfect.”, I said before looking around,”Where’s Storm?”

“He’s out with his dad. They wanted to go down to the park for a new playground opening up. I stayed here to do some chores and was going to surprise them until you showed up.”, Amethyst explained.

‘Oh I’m sorry. If now is a bad time I can come by later.”, I said apologetically standing up.

“No no please sit down. I don’t mind the visit. I’m glad you came by. Anywho, would you like some tea?”, She asked me standing up.

“Sure, you know I can’t say no to your tea.”, I said sitting back down.

After she made both of our teas, Amethyst and I got on with our chats we usually had. Most of our conversation was about how things were going with her since the last time I saw her. Amethyst’s husband was able to get a promotion that allows him to be home a lot more. She talked about how these two weeks that Storm and his dad had gotten the closest with each other in a while. I was happy to see that Storm finally had the dad he wanted, he was a good kid.

“So, do you have any plans for Hearth’s Warming?”, Amethyst asked me.

“Well, visiting with a little bit of family. But I’m still worried about one thing though.”, I said to Amethyst sipping the last of my tea.

“Oh? What’s troubling you?”, She asked me.

“Well it’s mainly gifts. With my special friend moving in with me, I never realized how much I didn’t know her.”, I said looking down at my cup.

“Well I know that’s a lie. You’ve been saying so much about her to me and you look like you understand her well enough to know what to get her.”, Ruby said putting down her tea.

“No, I know what she likes. It’s just…...Celestia I care too much about making a gift memorable.”, I said with a sigh.

“Well like I said before, if she really loves you, it won’t matter what you get her. As long as it comes from you and means something, she cherish it with all her heart.”, She said with a smile.

I gave a short sigh.

“One week away and I still don’t know what to do for Ruby.”, I said looking down.

I was expecting Amethyst to say something to try and encourage me, but instead I heard deafening silence. I looked up at Amethyst and saw that she had a surprised look on her face. Her eyes as wide as the two seas of cheese. (If you can get that reference you are cultured.)

“What…...What did you say her name was?”, She asked me with a serious tone.

I was startled to answer, never before has she spoken to me in a manner like this. I felt that I said something wrong. Nervously, I complied.

“Her name is Ruby. Ruby Heart.”, I said nervously.

Upon hearing this, she put her claw over her mouth as her eyes widened even more. She stood up from the chair anxiously.

“I’m sorry, I just need…”, Amethyst said trembling as she walked through the doorway to the hall.

I was left so confused as she walked away. What did the name Ruby have to do to her that well, made her walk away like that. Curious to find out why, I stood up from the chair and walked near the hallway to try and see what was going on. I knew it was kind of rude of me to eavesdrop on a griffon who needed a moment to herself, but I needed answers on what had Ruby involved.

I placed my ear near the entry to the hallway to listen in to see if I could hear why. With as close of an ear I could, I made out the sound of…...crying? I was confused by this sound because this wasn’t normal for her to cry like this. I felt that it wasn’t enough information. As sneaky as I could be, I poked my head around the corner to see what she was doing. As I predicted, Amethyst was crying, but only now I could make out the words she was saying silently in her sobs.

“Oh my god…..she’s here. For the first time since…….it happened, I could….finally see..”, She said before erupting into soft tears.

“‘To finally see’? What is she…”, I said in my head.

By this time, I heard that she was slowly walking back. I rushed as soon as I could to sit back down on the chair. Amethyst soon came out with slightly red eyes and a face that said that she had been crying for a little while. Without saying a word, she sat down across from me.

“Velvet, I need to tell you something. It’s not something I thought I would want to share with you on a regular basis, but with what you had just said earlier I feel that I need to...explain myself.”, Amethyst said in a serious tone.

I nodded and sat quietly for her to explain.

“Do you remember when I told you about the music I listened to?”, Amethyst asked me.

“Absolutely I do.”, I answered.

“Well, do you remember when I told you about something I left behind back in Manehatten?”, She asked me.

I nodded.

She gave a deep sigh before continuing.

“A long time ago, I met a griffin in Manehatten that at first seemed to have an attraction to me. When I knew him back then, he was so kind and thoughtful. I remember the day he took me out to a cafe where he and I shared our first tea together. He had confessed his love to me, he said that I was his little flower lily. By then he had my heart. He and I grew closer and closer to the point where he and I got married in a beautiful chapel near Vanhoover, my hometown. All was going well until…”, She said before stopping suddenly with tears in her eye.

I grabbed a tissue box with my magic and handed it over to her. She took the box and wiped her eyes before continuing.

“Until I told him that I was pregnant. When he heard me announce that, that was the moment he changed for the worst. Not long after that, he would go to the bar after he was done working and would come home drunk out of his mind. Not only did he do that, but his feelings towards me had changed. H-He started speaking to me, like I was a drag to his life. I at first thought he could change his ways once he realized that we would both have a kid, b-but I was naive to believe that.”, Amethyst said with a sniff.

It hurt my heart to hear about this. Especially since they were both going to have a family. But wait, this seems awfully familiar, have I heard this some-

“Then came the time my child was born. I had given birth to a little griffin girl that I loved from the moment I saw her. However, her father was the opposite. After a month of me hoping to see him change for the better and raise our child, I finally came to my senses and decided enough was enough. I demanded from him that I wanted a divorce. He, on the other hand, saw it as an attack for me to do this. He said that he would keep our little girl if she tried. I took this as a challenge, as we went to court, I fought my hardest to separate me and my daughter away from him. Unfortunately, he had friends in the court that sided on him and ultimately gave him the victory in the court case, giving him full custody over my daughter.”, She said with a tear rolling down her face.

I was going to say something, but a weird feeling told me to shut the fuck up and listen.

“The case said that I couldn’t be anywhere near him or my daughter. I had to move away in a terrible apartment that reeked, but worst if all, I had to be separated from my daughter.”, Amethyst said breaking down in sobs before continuing,” I couldn’t bear to see him treat my daughter the way he would, so I moved away to Hoovesiana, hoping to try and bury the thought of how she would be raised. I met my husband not long after and we got together. We soon had Storm together, I hoped that he would be loved and cherished in a way that I wish I could give my daughter. I wanted…..I wanted to give Storm a life that I wished to give to my little Ruby.”, She said before crying more.

All of a sudden, the puzzle pieces fit right into place. I couldn’t believe what I had just realized from Amethyst’s story. There was no way that it could be true.

“Are…..Are you?”, I said with great anxiety when she calmed down.

“Yes Velvet. I am, Ruby Heart’s mother.”

Author's Note

Dun Dun Dun
😱

Chapter 24

“Holy fucking shit!”, I said aloud to hearing the shocking discovery

“Language Velvet.”, Amethyst said to me with a parenting tone.

“I know, I know, but I simply cannot believe what I have discovered. Like…”, I said excitedly.

“What do you mean about your discovery?”, she asked me.

“Oh my gosh this is perfect. This is what I can do.”, I said to myself excited.

“Slow down slow down. What are you talking about?”, Amethyst asked again.

I finally had that idea. The idea that would get me out of my sticky situation with Hearth’s Warming Eve.

“I made a promise to Ruby that one day I would reunite her with you. She thought I was joking because she had absolutely no clue where you were, but since I found you here I can get you too to finally be together again.”, I explained to Amethyst.

She sat silent for a second.

“Does she even want to see me?”, Amethyst said with doubt.

“Absolutely she does. It took me a while to really convince her that you could be out there, but she wants to see you. More importantly she wants to know what happened. But given how you explained it, I’m sure she would understand.”, I said to Amethyst.

She sat silent again.

“Are you sure?”, She asked me.

“I wouldn’t ever lie to you Amethyst, especially not after finding out that you are Ruby’s mother.”, I explained to her.

She finally nodded.

“Ok Velvet, I trust you to make this work. For my sake and my daughter’s.”, Amethyst said.

“I promise you, it’ll work out in the end. Let me tell you about the plan.”, I said to reassure her.

I told her my plan to make all of this come together with her and her daughter. For the most part, she seemed like she truly was down for this plan. Honestly, I feel that she would be okay with anything I came up with, as long as she could finally see her long lost daughter, Ruby.

Once I finished discussing the details of what to do on Hearth’s Warming, I left Amethysts house with giddy steps. At this point, my excitement was through the roof. I not only had something to give to Ruby in a week, but I also was able to fulfil my promise I made to her. Talk about killing two birds with one stone…...actual thinking about it that’s not a very appropriate line because of…..yeah, messed up Griffon joke.

I finally got home with the biggest grin on my face, letting it be known that I was having a good day so far. Opening the door, I saw Ruby sitting down at the kitchen table sipping coffee from a cup. She turned to face me as I walked in the house. She must’ve noticed my good mood as she smiled at me.

“Hey you.”, She said putting down her cup.

With the happiness I had from me discovering a truly heartwarming situation brewing in the future, I walked over to her without saying a word. I leaned in and kissed her, with Ruby leaning back in surprise before closing her eyes and enjoying the mid morning kiss.

“Someone is happy to see me.”, Ruby said after I broke away from her.

“It’s just a good morning, especially seeing you.”, I said to her.

She then gave me this look like she knew something was up.

“What? You looking to want to do it right now?”, she said raising an eyebrow.

“Oh no no! I mean, it’s not like I’m declining your beautiful self. Just um-”, I say stammering blushing.

She put her talon over my mouth laughing.

“You’re so cute when you’re nervous. One of the reasons I love you.”, Ruby said, smiling.

Once again, Ruby and her cute way of messing with me strikes again. I couldn’t help but give her a goofy smile as she kissed me with my look. She pulled up a chair for me to sit next to her.

“So how was your visit with Amethyst?”, She asked me.

“It was good. She and I had a good little talk.”, I said to her.

“Oh, what about?”, Ruby asked me.

I tried my best to keep the secret by holding back the wide smile emerging within me.

“Oh nothing much, I was telling her a lot about you and you moving in. She really seems to like you.”, I explained to Ruby.

“Oh that’s cool. One day you’ll have to take me to see her so I could meet her.”, She said sipping her coffee.

“Oh you will this week.”, I said softly to myself.

“What Velvet!”, She asked.

“Oh nothing, just me talking to myself.”, I said trying to cover up the secret.

“Uh yeah, you better not be like a pony who has 23 personalities in them.”, She said cocking an eyebrow.

“Oh hush you.”, I said to Ruby’s snarky remark.

After that very day, I made sure to keep quiet about the secret of Ruby’s mother. So secret in fact that I wouldn’t even tell Peach, the one pony I would trust to not say a single word about it. Instead, that secret would die with me.

Speaking of Peach, around five days before Hearth’s Warming Eve, she closed the store for the holiday. This is the one particular holiday that Peach is very atomit about celebrating, so much so that she has never opened up on that day despite many ponies asking for it to be open. She just had a very strong attachment to it, like she was truly dedicated to those festive times.

As the week had finally passed and it was the night of Hearth’s Warming Eve, my anxiety for wanting to finally tell Ruby about the surprise I got for her. So much so that she began to notice how I may have gotten her something good when we went to the Hearth’s Warming Eve parade that is hosted every year in Berry Avenue. She was talking about something she had seen going out one day when she went shopping. She made some remark about how her gift might be the best out of the two of us. My look I gave said right away that I had something planned. Thankfully she wasn’t able to pick up on exactly what I was preparing.

Later that night when we were in bed together trying going to sleep, I kept waking up throughout the night with anxiety for the plan. It was getting to a point where I was getting super jealous at Ruby, who was in the deepest sleep I could imagine.

“What could she be dreaming about that is keeping her that deep into sleep?”, I asked myself in my head.

Frustrated by the sight of the clock reading 5:30 AM, I got up for the morning letting Ruby sleep. Getting a glass of water from the kitchen, I looked out the small window by the sink to see the emerging sunrise in the distance. The slow rising sun had a strange feeling of serenity with it watching it. That’s when I really accepted it for what it really is; It’s Hearth’s Warming day, and today is the day I can show what I have been trying to hold back from Ruby for what felt like ages.

While I was looking at the rising sun, I caught a glance at my desk. It had been a little while since I really sat down and played SF2 or even drawn something. Feeling the need to want and check how the little desk is doing, I walked over to it. Moving my hoof along the top of the desk, I picked up some dust that was laying on it. It must’ve been a little longer than I thought it was since I last used it.

“Hmm, guess I should maybe start on something. Maybe not finish it, but just start something to pass the time.”, I said to myself in my head.

Sitting down, I grabbed my pen and notebook to start brainstorming of an idea. For somepony who is more used to just drawing abstract picture from nothing, this was becoming harder than I thought it would be.

“Come on brain! I know you have ideas. Don’t you hold back on me.”, I said to myself.

Then for some reason I kept thinking about those dreams with my parents in them. How they would always be right underneath the oak tree on a hill. That gave me a starting point. For the next two hours, I spent all the time I could making the most detailed tree on a hill as possible. The funny thing about making the drawing was that I didn’t have a reference image. I just followed the memory of that hill and tree in my head to keep going. It was kinda scary since I am used to having an image to look at to get a reference.

I finished up all I did in time for 7:30 AM, which surprised me because I thought Ruby would be up at this time. Especially since she was so excited about the day on the parade the day before. I had gotten up from my chair to go and wake her up for the special day. Walking in quietly, I saw Ruby still in her deep slumber. Seeing her closed eyes made me think that she was in a truly peaceful dream, there was no strain on her lids showing it is a bad dream. Instead, they were relaxed. Like there was no worry left in the world.

I gently rubbed her shoulder with my hoof. Her beautiful eyes showed with a gleam of joy in them, along with a happy kind of sleepy look in them. It was a look that you couldn’t help but smile to look at.

“Good morning sleepy head. Happy Hearth’s Warming.”, I said to her laying a small kiss on her cheek.

“Heh, Happy Hearth’s Warming as well.”She said softly smiling.

She leaned back in to kiss me on the lips.

“You ready for the special day?”, I asked her with genuine excitement.

She nodded before taking my hoof when getting out of the bed.

“Were you up for long?”, She asked me as she stretched.

“A little bit, but you looked like you were so deep in a dream that I didn’t want to wake you up super early for.”, I explained to her.

“Awww. How thoughtful. Too bad it won’t be as thoughtful as the gift I got you.”,She said with a confident tone.

“Oh really?”, I said raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah. Unless you manage to have something to top it. ”, She said with a smirk.

“I have a gift, but I wanna see what I am up against.”, I said to her trying to save the best for last.

“Fair enough. I will say that you were blind to see where I hid it.”, She said walking behind me.

Ruby had walked over to the couch where we were, having a passionate time, and turned around the cushion with a small present attached to the back. My eyes widened because I had been sitting on that side of the couch and noticed that it was not as soft as it usually is. That would explain it.

“I really think you will love it.” , Ruby said taking it over to hand it to me.

I took it with my magic and examined the wrapped box. It was about the size of a picture frame and felt a little bit light. Using my magic to tear open the present, I was met with a white box inside the wrapper, the best gift of all time. (Sarcasm of course)

I pulled off the top of the box to see more mystery of what the gift could be, in this case it was protective tissue. Now I was really curious of what it was. With one quick swipe of magic, I pulled away the tissue to reveal a brand new artbook. This was not just some regular artbook, this was a high quality leather artbook. Not only was it a leather artbook, it was a Night To Forget artbook. It had all the members of the band on the cover as well as their logo, a clock with an arrow through it.

“Oh my Celestia!”, I exclaimed to seeing what she had gotten me.

“I had gotten that while you were at work one day and as soon as I saw it, I knew you would love it. It’s your two favorite things : Art and A Night to Forget.” , Ruby explained.

“Ruby, this is so nice. Thank you so much!” , I said to her before hugging her tightly.

“Don’t mention it darling.”, she said holding me tight as well before saying,” So how about your gift to top mine huh”.

My excitement went from zero to a hundred real quick.

“This is it. Time to show that you keep your promises.”, I said to myself in my head.

I let go of the hug and looked her in the eyes with great intentions.

“I have it, but we need to go out to get it.”, I explained to Ruby.

“DId you order it and it wasn’t able to be shipped in time?”, She asked me.

“No, it’s something greater.”, I said taking her by the claw going out the door.

“This better not be some philosophical gift. Unless it has a very close connection to me.” ,She said with a smirk.

“You’ll see Ruby, you’ll see.”, I said closing the door behind me.

We had walked through the jolly filled streets of New Saddle. For one day only, all of New Saddle would be happy with each other. How do I know this? Several ponies came up to me and Ruby to wish us a Happy Hearth’s Warming. Normally in New Saddle, they would only look at me and not direct eye contact with her. But today, they were more than happy to greet us both and treat us like we were just like them. Truly a wonder of nature the day of Hearth’s Warming.

We had walked over to the street where Amethyst’s house is. I knew right away that the mission was now ago. Just like she and I said, Amethyst’s gate to the back was open. For a second, I think I confused Ruby by stepping closer to the open gate.

“Uh Velvet, that is someone's back gate.”, Ruby said nervously.

“I know. It’s okay. Just follow me.”, I reassured her.

She anxiously took my hoof as we both headed in the back of Amethyst’s yard where a path awaited us. The path is what one would call dream-like or fairytale-esque, but it was far from that. The path led to a small park not far behind Amethyst’s house. The park had a small playground and a small pony made pond with a bridge across it. On that bridge was the one who was waiting patiently for us; Amethyst Heart.

Ruby noticed how the only ones in the park where me her and this mysterious, being on the bridge.

“Velvet, what is this?”, She asked anxiously.

I spoke not a word, but instead gave her a smile to let her know that it is what I planned. We walked closer until we right there in eyesight view of Amethyst. By this point, Ruby was silent and most likely taking in what is happening. As if she sensed our presence, Amethyst slowly turned to face us. By this point, Ruby gave a small gasp, not to the intensity that Amethyst gave to finally seeing her daughter again. Amethyst started to slowly walk towards us.

“Oh……...oh how much you’ve grown. Oh my- you’re so big now.”, Amethyst said with a tear filled voice.

Ruby was still silent with a surprised look on her face. Much like the one I gave her when she had first arrived to New Saddle.

“Oh my-my little girl. It’s so good to-”, Amethyst said letting her joyful sobs take over.

I felt Ruby slowly tremble as she was trying to muster up words with the shock of what she just realized.

“M-Mom?!”, she said letting a tear flow down her face as she walked up slowly.

“Yes…...it’s me Ruby. I’m...I’m here.”, She said, holding out her arm for a long time awaited hug.

Ruby let out joyful sobs as she threw herself into her mother’s arms. They had such a grip that couldn’t be replicated. Not even with me, it couldn’t be as loving as a hug that they were giving to each other. It truly filled me with joy to see them finally reunited once again.

“I’m so sorry…...I tried everything I could to save you from him, but there was nothing I could do.”, Amethyst began to sob with guilt holding her daughter close.

“It’s okay mom, don’t be sorry. You’re here now, and you show that you still care for me not even seeing me for 18 years.”, Ruby said trying to comfort her mother.

The two held onto each other for a little longer before they let go of each other and finally took in the moment with each other.

“Come sit. We have a lot of catching up to do.”, Amethyst said walking down the bridge to sit on the bench behind me.

Ruby nodded as she followed Amethyst down before stopping by me.

“Mother, could you give me a moment. I need to say something to Velvet.”, She said looking at me.

Amethyst nodded and walked on to go sit at the bench. Ruby then turned to me with the most joyous look on her face. She then wrapped her arm around me and leaned in to kiss me. I closed my eyes to take in the loving kiss.

“This…..this doesn’t even compare to my gift I got you. How could I ever repay you Velvet.”, She said with compassionate eyes.

“Don’t. It’s my gift to you for Hearth’s Warming. I reunited you with your mother and I kept my promise. Talk about ki-, making a truly great gift to top yours.”, I said comforting her.

She leaned back in to hug me with full capacity.

“Thank you so much Velvet. I love you so much.”, Ruby said leaning her head on my shoulder.

“I love you too. Happy Hearth’s Warming.”, I said placing a kiss on her cheek,”Now go and catch up with you mother”.

“You’re not gonna stay?”, She asked me.

“I don’t want to interrupt a beautiful moment like this by being the third wheel of this. I’ll be fine. I’m going to see Peach and you can meet up with us later when you’re done catching up.”, I explained to Ruby.

She gave a look of understanding, as she could understand my reasoning for not wanting to ruin her perfect moment.

We hugged one last time before I left her to talk with her mother. They both sat on the same bench together and began talking about what has happened the past 18 years. It warmed my heart to see them talking like they were friends forever, but I had to go to see Peach.

Making my way back to town, I began to notice how truly joyful it is to see happy families, especially on a day like Hearth’s Warming. The one example that really made me smile was seeing this family of four where the littlest one of the group handed a gift to both her parents. It was a crayon drawing of them together, but seeing them both embrace their daughter and son like they had been given the greatest gift of all time truly made me smile.

I finally made it to Peach’s home without being distracted by the number of happy families I saw outside. I knocked on her door. From the inside I heard the slow patter of her hooves moving towards the door. The door had opened up with Peach’s happy face on the other side.

“Velvet! My goodness it’s so good to see you. Happy Hearth’s Warming.”, She said pulling me in for a delicate hug.

“It’s good to see you too Peach. Happy Hearth’s Warming. May I come in?”, I asked her.

“Of course! Come in, come in. Say, where is Ruby.”, Peach asked me.

“She is over at the park enjoying the gift I got her.”, I explained to her.

“Oh I see. Will she be joining us later?”, She asked me.

“Oh she will. Just a lot of catching up to do.”, I said.

“Catching up?”, Peach asked confused.

“Let me tell you about a strange thing life can do.”, I said to Peach.

We both sat down in the chairs in the living room, where I explained everything that led up today. The promise, the day I found out about Amethyst, and even Ruby’s reaction to seeing the gift.

“Oh...how sweet of you to do that for Ruby. Looks like you figured your way out of your predicament.”, Peach said to me.

“Yeah. Celestia herself must’ve heard and decided to help me out with my situation.”, I said to Peach smiling.

“Oh speaking of which, I need to give you your present.”, She said getting up.,”Oooh, my bones were getting used to that chair”.

“You need help getting it?”, I asked her perking up.

“No no, just a regular thing an old pony like me goes through.”, she said with a slight sweat.

Kind of strange that she was developing sweat simply from getting up from a chair, but I believed her when she said that it was an old pony thing. She walked slowly to the kitchen where she had made some noise grabbing a small box.

“You really sure you don’t need help getting it?”, I yelled out from the living room.

“No no, I have it. Thank you though.”, She said slowly coming back from the kitchen with a small box in her hooves.

She sat down in front of me in the chair and placed the box down in front of me.

“I had been saving this for a special occasion much like the recipe on your birthday, but this was one I had been thinking about the most. I hope you like it.”, Peach said with a small smile.

I took the box with my magic and examined it. It was so small that it could literally be anything. Not wanting to continuously guess what it is in my head, I used my magic to open the top of the small box. Lifting the top, I saw a velvet box with my name etched on top of it. Taking it with my hoof, I opened the top to find a surprising gift. It was an old looking locket chain that was similar to the one Peach showed me a little while ago of her and Corn Flake.

“Peach, why are you-”, I asked before she interrupted.

“It’s not what you think, open up the locket.”, She said before leaning forward.

Hesitantly, I took the old locket and opened it with my magic. Inside wasn’t an old picture of Peach and her late husband, rather a slightly recent picture of me when I was younger with Peach when I was working with a cake batter bowl covered in yellow cake mix. I remember that day like it was yesterday. It was the first time I had ever met Peach. Both my parents couldn’t afford a babysitter for me at the time and decided to bring me to work with them. Apparently, I was a little ball of energy back then, as I had managed to climb onto a table and spilled the cake batter all over me. Peach being the absolute kindest pony she was, didn't get mad at all and instead played with me as if I were her own child. Man, that day still rings with me to this very day.

“Oh Peach, it’s so wonderful. Thank you so much. I kind of feel bad now that I couldn’t get you anything because of my scramble with getting Ruby something wonderful.”, I said to her.

“Don’t mention it. You coming here every year is enough a gift to me. Also seeing you grow into the pony your parents wanted you to be is enough for me.”, Peach said with a genuine tone.

We talked more and more about stuff before we heard a knock at the door.

“Oh that must be Ruby, I’ll get it.”, Peach said slowly standing up before seeing her hooves slowly shake.

I used my magic to push her back down so she didn’t fall.

“Don’t worry about it, I can get the door for you.”, I said to Peach.

“Oh thank you Velvet. I felt something that time.”, She said slumping back in her chair.

I walked over to the door and opened it with my magic. As Peach predicted, it was Ruby, only now she had Amethyst with her.

“Hey Velvet. You think Peach will mind if my mother comes along?”, Ruby said to me.

“Oh not at all. Come on in.”, I said leading them both inside.

We all walked in to see Peach slowly stand up from her chair. Thankfully it looked like she had her grip.

“Oh Ruby! Happy Hearth’s Warming! Oh and you must be her mother, Amethyst correct?”, Peach said with excitement.

“Yes, I am honored to be in the house of the famous Peach of New Saddle. Not only just to meet you.”, Amethyst said smiling.

“Oh you’ll meet me in a minute. How about I prepare a little lunch for us all.”, Peach said heading for the kitchen.

“Only if it’s not too much trouble,'' Ruby said to Peach.

“Oh it’s no trouble at all. Just sit down and I’ll be done in a jiffy.”, Peach said from the kitchen.

All three of us sat down in the living room as we patiently waited for the Hearth’s Warming lunch Peach was making for us. In a matter of seconds, we were just like those small families out there in the streets of New Saddle. We were talking like we had known each other for years and years, like one large family.

After that, we had all gathered into the kitchen for the lunch that Peach had made. It only continued from there as we chatted over Hearth’s Warming salad. Truly I felt at peace. Here I am with Ruby, the love of my life who know felt more complete than ever, with the friend I never thought I would be calling my mother-in-law, and the one pony who shaped me to be the best pony I could be. It was all rainbows and flowers for me. All I kept thinking to myself was,” It is so perfect, there is no way I could ever feel any less than this. I’m truly happy”.

Author's Note

UwU

Chapter 25

January 23rd, 2019 will forever be a day that lives in infamy here in New Saddle. A day that would change the whole atmosphere of New Saddle forever. Rather than go right away into what happened, I would like to take you to the very beginning of the day.

Me and Ruby had been slacking on us setting our alarms for work for the past month. With enough talk, we both agreed to set an alarm for the abrupt time of 5:30, enough time to get up and have a cup of coffee or tea in the morning before going to work. It sounds stupid early for work, but I was used to it. Ruby on the other hoof was not. So many times this month I would have to be the one to shut off the alarm, which strategically placed as far away from the bed as possible to have at least one of us actually get up.

This alarm today was no different, as it cried out like a war scream bring on the batellion of the evil snap, a super griffin so powerful that he could kill anyone with a snap. All except Quantum Stallion. (There I go again with my nerd talk. Been awhile hasn’t it?)

I had gotten up from the bed and used my magic to pull down the alarm to shut it off with my hoof. Once the screeching alarm was shut off, I was met with another noise I’m used to hearing in the morning.

“Mmmmm.”, Ruby groaned from the bed.

“I know it’s early, but we both agreed on this for work.”, I said softly.

“I know, but what if we didn’t?”, she said rolling over onto her belly.

“Well then we wouldn’t want Peach to think that we are slacking are we?”, I asked her as I sat next to her on the bed.

“Sadly, no.”, Ruby said bringing her face up with mine while stretching.

I used my magic to move some feathers that were covering Ruby’s face. When I did this, I noticed how much the scar had healed on her face. It was almost like it never happened. The beauty in her eyes were now what had my attention.

“What?”, Ruby asked noticing how I was looking at her.

“Even when you look tired and groggy you still look beautiful.”, I said with a cheesy smile.

“Is this your way of trying to make me happy in the morning? Because if it is, it worked, just a little.”, She said leaning in for a good morning kiss.

“I don’t know, I would say it worked just a little with that kiss.”, I said raising an eyebrow.

“Oh hush.”, she said rolling her eyes.

We both had gotten up from the bed and walked into the kitchen. Not to brag or anything, but I think I would make for a great barista with the coffee and tea I learned to make from Amethyst. All our visits with Amethysts always had one of us learn something. Like for example, Ruby had found out she had a little brother when she met Storm. The look on her face will always be a funny memory in my mind.

“So, what will m’lady have to quench thy thirst this morning?”, I said with a goofy voice.

“You know what the queen wants bard.”, Ruby said playing along with the silly voice.

“One royal tea coming right up.”, I said saluting like I was some kind of wonderbolt.

Ever since Amethyst taught me how to make that famous tea of her’s, I have always been able to get Ruby up in the morning just for that alone. One morning, she was so far deep in sleep that I had to wake her up with the smell of fresh brewed tea in the kitchen. I swear, you could hear the tire screeching when the smell spread from the kitchen to the bedroom.

This morning I made enough for two ponies to drink. Typically you would see me doing coffee, but I learned to alternate between the two in the mornings. This was because I was having a rather difficult time deciding whether I wanted to have tea with Ruby or be different and drink coffee. My two day system had been working this long. There was no way for that to ever change.

When the kettle had let me know that our water was ready, I grabbed two mugs and poured in boiling water over the homemade chai that Amethyst had given to me. Once I finished the stirring of the two mugs of tea. I used my magic to hand it over one of the teas to Ruby.

I sat down next to her with my tea in my magic as we both sipped our tea. The silence that followed left me with a little anxiety, as though I thought I did something wrong this morning.

“I have to be honest, this right here is one of the things that make me look forward to waking up in the morning.”, Ruby said holding up her mug.

I chuckled at a thought in my head.

“Glad to see that I am two of the things that get you up in the morning.”, I said holding my mug up as well.

We both laughed as we touched our mugs together and drank our tea. We both had our morning chat that we usually do, weirdly it would be about what we would dream about the night before. Today it was Ruby who was talking about how she was in a dream where we were both on a beach watching the sunset together by a beautiful beach house. She said that I was being my regular playful self with her and the dream ended with her lying on top of me as she drifted asleep as the sun would set. It was kind of strange, but I’m most certainly not one to talk since I have my parents talk to me in my dream as though they were still here.

We finished both of our teas, where I had taken both our mugs into the sink to wash them. Once I finished one mug, I looked over to Ruby.

“So, are you just about ready to go?”, I asked her.

“Almost, I just need to go back in the room to grab my bag from the room.”, She said getting up.

“You better not be going back there to sleep again.”, I said raising an eyebrow again.

“Oh trust me I’m not, not after seeing your persistent butt try to get me out.”, she said winking at me as she walked into the room.

I rolled my eyes and continued washing the mug as I looked out the window. The sun was beginning to rise into the cloudy horizon. Thankfully it wasn’t the ugly grey clouds that indicate that rain is brewing, but rather the welcoming white clouds that blocked the extreme heat of New Saddle.

From behind, I felt Ruby rub on the side of my romp, which gave me a slight chill in my spine.

“You too busy staring at the sun there champ?”, Ruby said snarkingly.

Champ was a name Ruby would call me if I did something that was quite the opposite of what I had told her. Think of it like her way of telling me that,”Look who's waiting on who now.”

“Oh yeah, sorry. Got a little distracted.”, I said shutting of the water and grabbing my bag from the side of the fridge.

Once I saved the dishes, I followed Ruby out the door to walk to work with her.. The sky was starting to light up the town with the bright morning orange I’ve grown used to. Ponies were beginning to come out to leave for work as well. For us, the orange light was our cue to leave to go to work for the day. As it has always been this way for years. Thankfully, we were just in time to not run into a crowd. I don’t need another repeat of what happened at the Daffodil Club.

When we had arrived at the bakery, the door was shut. I figured right away that the door must be unlocked. When I went over to open the door, the door didn’t budge.

“Damn, locked again.”, I said turning to face Ruby.

‘Is there not a back door?”, She asked me.

“No, the only way in or out is through the one in the front.”, I explained to Ruby.

“Well that seems a bit unsafe doesn’t it?”, she inquired.

“You know now that you point it out it is. Oh well, guess we’ll have to wait for Peach to get here and unlock the door.”, I said as I grabbed two chair’s for me and Ruby to sit in.

“Kinda wish I brought extra tea.”, Ruby said as she sat down across from me.

“You’re not alone, I could’ve worked on a drawing I started on a little while ago.”, I said putting my chin on my hooves.

We sat there for a little while watching ponies pass by to go about their usual work day. Ruby and I would chat for a little bit, but then go back to the bored silence in waiting for Peach.

Later on, we saw an older looking pony in the distance. Both me and Ruby perked up to see if it was really Peach. As both our eyes focused on the moving pony, we were disappointed to find out that it was instead the older pony who works in the bakery named Glazed. She had been coming from the direction that Peach usually takes when coming to the bakery.

“Hey Glazed. Did you happen to pass by Peach on the way here?”, I asked her when she walked up.

“No, I was kind of hoping she was already here. Is it locked?”, she asked.

“Yeah, we’ve been here waiting for her to come by and unlock it for us.”, Ruby said to her.

And there we sat, patiently waiting for Peach to arrive. The more we waited, the more ponies who worked came by to wait with us. It started as a few ponies, but soon turned into the whole staff waiting outside of the bakery. It wasn’t until we saw that some of the first usual customers came to see that we still weren’t open.

“This is odd. Even for Peach.”, A few ponies clamored.

“Something must be wrong.”, Ruby said to me.

“Yeah, I think we need to go and see if Peach is okay.”, I said to her.

While everypony was dealing with the conundrum of the bakery not being open, Ruby and I snuck off to go to check on Peach at her house. This was really concerning. Peach would never keep the bakery closed unannounced. She would have to have told us the day before whether she would. This was very unusual for her.

When we made it to Peach’s house, there was a sudden tingle in my spine. Like it had a bad feeling about it. I approached her door and gave a knock. No pony answered. I knocked one more time before I noticed that her door was unlocked. As I pushed on the door, Ruby grabbed my hoof.

“Velvet, we can’t just go in her house!”, Ruby said to me.

“She might be in trouble, she has given me no choice.”, I said pushing the door open.

As the door slowly perked open, I got more chills down my spine more than anything I had ever experienced. Ruby and I slowly walked in to Peach’s house. Turning the corner, we saw Peach sitting there at her kitchen table. She looked totally fine and was even enjoying what looked like a glass of water. She turned around and noticed me.

“Velvet? Shouldn’t you be at home sleeping at this hour. I haven’t even gotten ready for today.”, Peach said with a soft confused voice.

“Peach. It’s 7:30, what are you doing here this late?”, I asked her.

“Is it that late? I couldn’t see it on my clock. All the hands are gone.”, Peach said pointing at her clock.

Me and Ruby had looked at each other confused. The clock was working fine, the time was ticking and everything.

“Peach, the clock is working just fine. You are late for work.”, I said pointing out the clock.

She set down her glass.

“Oh my, I need to go get ready. I’ll be just a min….”, She said standing up.

But then, she stumbled over and collapsed.

“Peach!!”, I screamed out trying to catch her with my magic.

“Oh my god, what is happening!?”, Ruby screamed out.

“I don’t know! Peach! Peach, come one wake up!”, I screamed to her holding her in my hooves.

“We got to take her to a hospital!”, Ruby said running over to me.

“Yeah! Help me grab her legs! We got to take her to the hospital just a few blocks away from here!”, I exclaimed as Ruby came to help me.

We had carried Peach out the door, thankfully she was still breathing softly. With the way we were carrying her, there was no way we would make it to the hospital quickly.

“Ruby, fly her to the hospital right by the backside of the bakery!”, I ordered Ruby.

“What about you?!”, she asked me taking Peach.

“You’re much faster than me. I need you to fly there and make sure they take her. I’ll meet up with you there. Now go!”, I screamed out to Ruby.

Without questioning anything else, Ruby took all of Peach in her arms and flew as fast as she could into the distance. With the worry in my stomach to what’s happening, I took off running back towards the bakery to take the shortcut to the hospital. I ran like I had a death wish.

I was running so fast that I couldn’t even feel myself breathing as I did. Like I was a robot who had one goal in mind: Run to your destination as fast as you fucking can. I’m pretty sure I knocked somepony over as I ran, but I didn’t care. They didn’t worry me as much as Peach was.

As I approached the bakery, an extremely large crowd had developed in front of the bakery.

“Not now. Of all times, not now!”, I said to myself.

I was not too keen about slowing down, but at the same time I didn’t want to run into my fears.

“MOVE! MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!! I NEED TO GET TO THE HOSPITAL!”, I screamed from the top of my lungs as I ran closer.

Like I was parting a sea. Ponies had turned around and quickly moved to the side screaming like a missile was running towards them. I barely made it through without touching a pony. From behind me, I heard a crowd of ponies recognize it’s me and proceeded to follow me with confusion. I made a sharp turn to the alleyway that led to the hospital nearby. With it insight, I knew I made it.

Making it out of the alleyway, I darted straight for the desk of the hospital. The pony running it had to jump back as I tried to slow down. Finally catching friction too late, I slid and slammed into the side of the desk. Not deterred in the slightest, I got back up to ask where they were keeping Peach.

“I need...the room...to Peach...Cobbler.”, I said raspy to the pony at the desk.

“Um, sir do you need some wat-”, she said before I interrupted her.

“I don’t need any fucking water! I need a room to my mother. So where the fuck is Peach Cobbler?!”, I demanded from the nurse who was looking scared.

“Velvet!”, I heard from the hallway to the right of the lobby.

Ruby had a look on her face seeing me react like that. To which I had turned around to face the waiting room, who had all the pony’s eyes locked on me as if I committed a heinous crime. I finally let my breath catch up to me as I turned to face the door where the crowd from the bakery had congregated from. They were just as confused as I was.

“I’m….. sorry. I’ll just go.”, I said embarrassed to the nurse.

She nodded as she nervously pointed to where Ruby was. I walked over with a fast step. I anxiously walked next to Ruby.

“Do they have her?”, I asked trembling.

“Yes. The doctors are working on her now.”, Ruby said with a serious tone.

“How long were you waiting for me?”, I asked her.

“A little while. Enough to be sat down outside of the room she is in.”, Ruby told me.

“How long did the doctors say they will need?”, I asked anxiously.

Ruby gave a sigh.

“They didn’t say. All we can do now is wait.”, she said softly.

I rubbed my eyes with my hooves with anxiety. I wanted to know what was wrong with the pony I considered to be my mom for the most part. All I was told was that I needed to wait until they knew what the problem was. It was back again: the scariest feeling in the world, not knowing or being able to do something.

I did exactly the only thing I could do, sit outside the room Peach was being held until I got answers. Not budging for anything. I wasn’t going until I knew what was going on with Peach. I stayed there for about six hours, not wanting to get up. I was so dedicated that when Ruby offered to go to the cafeteria for a little lunch, I declined. I love Ruby and would always be by her side, but not at a time like this when I was worried out of my mind. Thankfully, she understood what I was going through. She brought me a sandwich that they were serving in the cafeteria for em to eat, but being honest, I couldn’t eat all of it.

After hours of waiting, the door finally opened with a series of nurses walking out, followed by a doctor with glasses shutting the door behind him. I excitedly rose up from my chair wanting to know what the situation is.

“Is she going to be okay? Please tell me she is gonna be okay doc!”, I asked anxiously to the doctor.

He took off his glasses and sighed.

“As you know, Ms.Cobbler is old. As with most ponies when they get old, their immune system begins to break down and so does their nerves. Many try to alleviate this with medication, but in cases like Ms. Cobbler’s, it does not work out for them.”, The doctor explained to me.

“That didn’t answer my question. Is she okay?”, I asked hysterically.

“She is comfortable, for the moment.”, He said to me.

“For the moment? What do you mean for the moment?! What is going to happen to her?!”, I asked frantically.

He gave another sigh.

“As I was saying earlier, for cases like Ms. Cobbler, the medication comes too little too late for them. With the symptoms I described, it soon turned into sudden dementia. She does not have it right now, but usually what follows is…”, he said before stopping.

“What? What follows?”, I asked anxiously.

“I’m sure you have had this conversation about her one day, going away?”, he asked me.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I refused to believe what he was saying.

“No. No, that’s not her. She can make it.”, I said trying to deny what was happening.

“Velvet. If there was something we could do we would’ve done it already.”, he said trying to comfort me.

“No, you need to go back in there and find something to do to help her.”, I said trying to hold back tears.

“Velvet, she is delicate. Any work we do could do more damage than good.”, he said trying to convince me.

“No! It’s bullshit! You are the doctor now g-get in t-there a-and-”,I said breaking down.

I heard Ruby stand up behind me to try and comfort me as she put a claw on my shoulder. The doctor had put on his glasses and put his hoof on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, but there is nothing we can do. I don’t know how much time she has left Velvet. She is awake, the door is unlocked. If you want to talk with her one last time, now would probably be the time to do it. I’ll leave you two to talk with her.”, he said before walking away down the hall.

This was it. I was about to relive what had happened to my parents. Only this time, it was happening while I was nearby. This time, I was actually gonna be able to say goodbye for the first time.

“Velvet, I’m so sorry. I can’t believe this is happening to us, more importantly you.”, Ruby said sympathetically.

I said nothing and just looked down at my hooves.

“I can see that this is more important to you. I’ll let you go in there to….say goodbye.”, Ruby said to me.

I rose up slowly.

“No, I won’t go in there alone. I can’t. I don’t have the strength to. Can you please?”, I asked her softly trembling.

“Whatever you need me to do Velvet. Are you ready?”, she said, holding out her claw.

I nodded before slowly taking her claw with my hoof. Ruby led the way into the room by slowly opening the door to Peach’s room. There, I saw Peach in the one place I never wanted to imagine seeing her: in a hospital bed with tubes in her nose giving her oxygen. She had slowly rotated her head towards the door to see us both at the door.

“Oh, my Velvet and Ruby. I’m so happy to see you.”, she said softly with a smile.

All I could muster out was a soft gasp and a small smile while I was holding back tears. Even when she was weak and nearing the end, she still was her truly happy self; Always willing to make you feel okay.

“H-Hi Peach.”, I said softly with my legs shaking.

“Please, come closer. I want to see you two more clearly.”, Peach said as she raised a hoof.

I looked at Ruby and nodded as we stepped closer to Peach. I could never forget that glow in Peach’s eyes, further saying that she had that happy feeling despite feeling her time coming to a close.

“Oh look. My Velvet and Ruby together. I never once said before that you two are really a beautiful couple. I almost see the same magic you two have like I did way back when.”, Peach said to us both.

All I could do was nod and smile, still fighting the urge to break down right then and there.

“I hope to have that magic. I have been told many times by Velvet that I am the one who gives light to his day.”, Ruby tried to say to distract Peach from me.

“Has he now? That’s the sweet side of him that I love. You are certainly the right match for him. All those hours I spent working with you, I’ve really grown to like you sugar.”, Peach said putting her hoof on Ruby’s claw.

By this point, Ruby was starting to show signs that she couldn’t hold it in anymore. As she let lose a couple of tears and sniffles upon hearing that from Peach.

“Is that sadness I see in you Ruby?”, she asked softly.

Even Ruby couldn’t lie anymore, as she nodded letting more tears flow. Peach took one look back at me, then back to Ruby.

“It’s gonna be okay sugar. I promise, but can you do me a favor Ruby?”, she asked politely.

“Anything for you.”, she said trembling.

“Would you mind leaving me and Velvet alone here with me? I want to talk to him personally.”, Peach had asked.

Ruby nodded as she looked over at me. I gave her a nod of approval as she walked right out the door, leaving me with Peach in the hospital bed.

“Velvet. You can’t hide that look from me. I know that look of sadness all too well. Especially with you sugar.”, She said softly.

My fake smiles turned into what they really were, a sad tremble of the lips that couldn’t control itself. The tears began to stream down my face as I let out my soft sobs of sorrow.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry for not visiting you all those times off of work before. I should’ve been there with you to really appreciate all you’ve done for me.”, I wept to Peach.

“Shhh sh shhh. Don’t cry. You’ve visited me plenty of enough times.”, she said putting her hoof on my shoulder.

“No, before I met Ruby. I would waste all my time on a stupid video game instead of visiting the pony I care about. All those hours I could’ve-”, I said before breaking down into sobs.

“Shhh, sugar listen to me. You don’t need to apologize for all of that. That stuff is in the past. Plus if you hadn’t been there, you wouldn’t have found a beautiful girl like Ruby.”, she said to try and comfort me.

I had calmed down a little, while still having tears flow down my face. I swallowed my sadness before speaking again.

“She’s the most beautiful one that has ever entered into my life.”, I said with a soft voice.

“She is, and I would hope that you will marry her soon.”, she said with a smile.

Once again, Peach, a pony who is faced with the end, is still able to make me feel like everything is gonna be okay. I gave a sniffle and nodded.

“You bet Peach. As soon as the time comes I’m gonna marry her.”, I said with a smile while still crying.

There was silence between us before Peach had finally spoken up, now at a more talking tone rather than the soft labored tone she had been giving.

“Velvet, I know exactly what you’re going through right now. You had to go through it earlier when you were younger, but now has come the time for you to go through it again.”, she said with a serious tone.

“Peach, I-”, I said before she interrupted.

“No Velvet listen to me. What you’re going through is natural to life itself. All things must come to an end, including life. Think of it like a hard day’s work. After working your hardest to make it the best possible day, you come home and decide to rest. It’s my time to rest, and your turn to carry on.”, Peach said putting her hoof on mine.

“B-B-But, I don’t want you to go! Not yet, I want you to see more. I want you to come to me and Ruby’s wedding when I plan it with her. I want you to come to our dinners, I want so much. I-I….I don’t want you to go!”, I said with a trembling voice.

“I don’t want to go either. I want to see all those beautiful things with you and Ruby. But unfortunately, time has decided that now was the right time for me to rest. I’ve grown old, and I can’t change that.”, Peach said to me.

I took her hoof with both of my hooves and rested my head below.

“Velvet, before I rest, I need you to promise me one thing. One thing that will make up for all you’ve felt that you’ve done wrong to me.”, She said pulling me back up to look at her.

“Anything. Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it. No matter what it is.”, I said with tears streaming down.

She took her hoof and wrapped it around my hooves like a grip.

“Promise me, that no matter what may happen in your life, whether you go through another situation like this or if you end up feeling scared of your fears, that you will be strong. You are old enough to do that, because I promised myself that for your parents' sake thatI would prepare you for something like this when you would grow up. Ultimately, I have made up that promise. I know I have. Because I see it in you right now. In your sadness and in your tears, you’ve got that strength. You just need to find it through all of it. So promise me that you will be strong.”, Peach said looking me directly in the eyes.

I would never forget her saying that. That she had not only promised that she would take care of me, but that she would prepare me to handle this on my own. She was right with every single word in that statement.

“I swear to you…..I swear to you, that I’ll be strong for you, mom, and dad.”, I said with a small smile.

Peach looked at me and gave me a nod that let me know that she trusted me to keep and never break that promise.

“Thank you Velvet. I love you so much.”, Peach said with a wince and a tear in her eye.

I leaned in to let her kiss me on the forehead one last time to save her strength. She had been working hard for so many years, I might as well give this one to her.

“I love you too……..sugar.”, I said with a shaky breath as more tears streamed down my face.

With all the strength she had, Peach let loose a few tears of joy and nothing more. She slowly closed her eyes for the long rest that awaited her. Her eyes had finally shut as she let out her last breath. When she did, her hoof in my hooves went limp. I laid my head on the side of the bed and wept for the remainder of the time I spent in there. Peach had done it. She had finally got her rest she wanted.

Chapter 26

The week that followed was the hardest week I had ever been through. The first day was me trying my best to walk out of the hospital without meeting the crowd that had gathered from the front of the hospital. It wasn’t hard to sneak by, but it was my legs that couldn’t move more than five steps before stumbling down as I would cry. Being the amazing griffin that she is, Ruby had helped me up when I felt broken, almost to a point where she was carrying me. Thankfully we had gotten home without any trouble. However I had felt completely numb to just about everything at that point.

The very next day, I laid in bed in complete silence, not wanting to get up to eat or do anything. Celestia bless Ruby again for all she did. She had tried to comfort me by asking me if I was okay and tried to comfort me, but I had no strength left in me to speak. Not yet. Despite me ignoring Ruby’s attempts to comfort me, she would always come back to check on me and comfort me as much as she could. Later in the evening, she had even come into bed with me to fall asleep with me, just to make sure that I was still trying to hold my head above water.

The very next day, a letter had come in our mailbox from the mayor of New Saddle that a funeral was going to be held for Peach in a few days and that they had asked me to be a pallbearer for her because I was the closest to family that she had. This was enough to finally drive a reaction out of me for the first time in two days. I cried for a little bit being told the news from Ruby. I had finally spoken saying how I didn’t know if I could do this.

While I was being told off by Ruby trying to get me to snap out of what I was going through, I remembered about that promise I made to Peach before she had died. The one where I promised to stay strong, no matter what it was I was going through. With my conscious thinking of that moment, I had finally managed to agree and finally accept what was going to happen at the funeral.

The next two were me mentally preparing for the funeral, this time I began speaking a lot more with Ruby and had finally eaten something from the past two days. I never realized how precious food was when I had eaten it. Ruby had made note of how I slorked the whole sandwich down. Most of all, she was happy that I was actually trying to pick myself up back together.

The very next day we had went out for the first time to buy a suit and dress for the funeral. By this point, all of New Saddle was feeling the sadness when they found out that their local legend had passed away. We were walking by the place where it would be the most crowded, but all the ponies were gone as the atmosphere of the place was gloomy. Almost around every street corner was a small memorial that ponies would gather with pictures of Peach on the side. It was really heartbreaking to see that not only was it painful on me when Peach died, but also the rest of the town itself.

Graffiti was something that was extremely illegal here in New Saddle, as there would be cops on every corner willing to stand watch on unsuspecting walls to stop the graffiti artists. Now, it seemed that all the graffiti artists were given passes, as all the graffiti on walls that would be watched were painted to match the silhouette of Peach with the words,” Never forget about you sugar”. Cops were tipping their hats seeing this display of memorium.

The suit I had gotten for the funeral was a black suit with a black shirt underneath the jacket. It fit nice and snug with my body. The dress we found for Ruby looked beautiful on her. The sad part was that the dress was specifically meant to be worn at funerals. Sadly all the other dresses they had in different styles to be worn at other events were sold out from the day before.

Then came the day that everypony was not looking forward to go to: The funeral of Peach Cobbler. The city hall made sure that this funeral was the best at honoring all the hard work she did at the bakery. They were able to find some of the old pictures of Peach, thankfully not the one with her husband, Corn Flake in the locket she had. The coffin was closed, but I had heard the rumors that she wished to be buried with the locket around her neck.

The services began not long after the last couple of ponies showed up. It looked like everypony in town was here to pay their respects for Peach. Everyone who worked at the bakery was there with true sadness in their hearts. I was able to see Caramel and Autumn again when they were sitting near the back of the service.

The mayor of New Saddle had come out on the stage next to Peach in the coffin to say a speech about how she knew Peach. The mayor and Peach were close friends in high school and at one point were both in love with Corn Flake. The mayor had said that she would have been with Corn Flake had it not been for how kind Peach was when she had found out about her feelings for him. Even the mayor that was not so kindly viewed by the public could shed light on the memory of Peach.

Ruby and I had to sit in the front row for me to see the cue for the pallbearers to come up and get the coffin. They had asked me to go up and say a few words, but I didn't think I would've have had enough time to prepare something to read for them. Looking back on it, I probably would have mentioned about how hard she worked not only as a baker and citizen of New Saddle, but also as a pony who took care of me when I was all alone. I would have also talked about how much she would push for me to come out of my shell and how much it has helped me to become the pony I was today.

After the last pony gave a few final words about Peach, soft violin music began playing, being our cue to walk up on stage to grab the coffin to walk it down the aisle. Me and a group of other stallions I haven't met all got up on stage to grab the coffin. I had taken the front left side of the coffin as ordered by the mayor because of tradition being that the closest family to the deceased would be the one on the front left.

As we began walking down the aisle, Ruby had given me a look that asked if I was okay. With the grieving look on my face, I gave her a nod that everything was going to be okay. The further we got down the aisle, the more the ponies began to recognize me. From what I could tell, they all appeared to think that I was her adopted son. They were partially right, the only thing was that I was actually her son to the very end.

We took Peach in her coffin across the street to the cemetery where her husband was buried. This was a request that I could very well assume based on how close she said she was to Corn.

The service had moved to the tombstone for Peach. Her tombstone had an inscription of the best picture of Peach that really showed her in her element. With a whisk in her hoof and a bowl in the other, she was in her cobbler making element. In this moment, she could be seen as the hard working mare she was.

On her tombstone read her famous line,"See you soon Sugar!", the line she would always say to somepony leaving the bakery after buying something. The font used for the quote really fit her character. Not too over the top yet still adored by the beholder.

We had set Peach down on the mechanism that lowers coffins into the grave before stepping away to reunite with the ones we were with before. Finally, another stallion in an all black robe holding a book had come out to say blessings to Peach and to all of us who were grieving. He used an analogy that really spoke to me, mostly because of the story he told. He described life as a tree that grows. While it grows, it starts small, but grows and blooms in its own shape and form. Along the way it gets a few dents and notches in the trunk, but it still grows. When the tree finally grows into its full size, the tree begins to die. As sad as it sounds, the tree dying is not so bad. Once the tree finally dies, a new life begins right where it died and starts anew. It's really a touching story for talking about life and death.

He gave one last blessing before asking all of us to bow our heads as Peach would be lowered into her grave. Not a single pony I saw refused to do so, as many were doing just that. I had been strong with trying to hold my tears, but it was seeing her coffin going down that really break loose my tears. Even the town itself couldn't hold back it's sadness, as the grey clouds had appeared to grieve along with us in the rain it dropped. I never understood why rain would always be at a funeral until this one particular funeral where all of New Saddle grieved for Peach.

When her casket had reached the bottom, ponies who worked at the cemetery began to cover the grave hastily with the dirt pile on the side. Even they couldn't believe that they were going to be the ones who would dig her grave.

Once they finally covered her grave, the ponies behind me and Ruby began to move to the next place of gathering. Ruby had urged me that it was time to go, but I insisted on staying by Peach's grave a little longer. Ruby understood, and went to the hall where a small lunch was provided for attendance at the funeral.

Right there alone in the rain next to her grave, I began to sort of pray to her. I let her know that whatever happens in the future, I would stay strong with everything. I made sure to promise her that I would marry Ruby soon, when the time would be right in the near future. I finally ended my prayers by saying goodbye to Peach one last time.

"Wherever you are, please hear what I had said.", I said after finishing.

"It's a shame really.", a voice from behind me said.

I turned around to see some red pegasus with a black mane and blue eyes in a button up shirt and glasses holding a umbrella.

"Seeing a mare go like that. It's truly sad.", he said walking next to me.

"Yeah, it's sad.", I said to this mystery pegasus.

"Did you know her well?", he asked me pulling out a cigarette.

"Yeah, she was my mother for the longest time.", I explained to him.

"Oh, I'm sorry for your loss. I know exactly what you are going through.", he said lighting his cigarette and offering me one.

I kindly shook my head no to his offer.

"Well, not exactly what you're going through. See, for me it was my father who had passed. He was a nice guy, definitely what you would call a father's kind of father. ", he explained.

I looked further at Peach's grave, looking at the picture of her on the tombstone.

"Yeah, but it certainly was hard for me to adjust to the new situation, especially with my ma running the home by herself. But I learned a saying that really helped me through it.", he said puffing a little bit of the cigarette.

"What was the saying?", I asked curiously.

"'When we are met with a tidal wave, we shouldn't abandon ship. Instead, get back up when it knocks you down. We will beat along the tide and carry on for the next tidal wave in a voyage that tries to knock us down.', it was a saying that my uncle would tell me when I was younger. See he was a fisher stallion", he explained to me.

The more I thought about that saying, the more I grew to love exactly what it meant. It was a way of saying that we should continue to be okay with everything that had happened. Instead we should carry on and grow stronger in case we encounter another tragedy in our way.

"It's a good saying. I think I could take it to heart.", I said to the mysterious stranger.

"I'm glad. I enriched another pony who was in the same situation I was in.", he said putting out his cigarette and turning around to walk away.

Before I let him leave, I needed to know who he was.

"Wait! Who are you?", I asked him.

He stopped and faced me.

"Most ponies call me Dee, I have another name, but no pony ever uses it. Too boring. ", Dee said with a small smile before walking away," it was nice talking to you Velvet".

"Wait how do you know my-", I asked before he walked off.

I never saw that pegasus again, it was so incredibly weird. I felt like it was an older version of myself talking to me about moving on, only it wasn't. But that saying along with the tree analogy stuck with me for a while. They helped me get through the rest of the week that would follow.

Just three days after the funeral, everything seemed to go right back to the rhythm it has always been. Ponies were going back to work, the businesses were booming. Everything was going normal, except for me and Ruby.

We were sitting at home still trying to adjust to the change that met us with the death of Peach. We were both still saddened, but we certainly weren't broken. Their was certainly a lot of worry in the town because of the bakery after Peach's death. They were questioning a lot of ponies who worked there and wanted to know what would happen. I know this because they had come to our door wanting answers. We told them that we had no idea what was happening. It was the truth, but sometimes the truth is too much that they refuse to believe it.

I was sitting at the kitchen table with the drawing of an oak tree I started on a while ago. The drawing now had a nameless pony in front of the tree resting by it. Kind of a symbolism I conveyed to Ruby shortly after adding it. Now I was just adding small details to the drawing.

As I was working on the drawing, I heard a knock at the door.

"I'll get it, if it's those damn reporters again I might lose it on them.", Ruby said going to the door.

I looked back behind me to try and see who it was, just to make sure that if Ruby was serious about the claim. I heard the door open, thankfully it wasn't a flurry of questions, but instead a soft masculine voice. There was a question he asked, thankfully it wasn't one that would set Ruby off.

"Um yeah, he is right here. Come on in.", she said moving aside.

From the hallway, I saw the stallion that I had completely forgotten about. The stallion was in the same suit he wore when I introduced Peach to Ruby, but she seemed to be working with him. With a tan body and a slicked back brown mane, he was carrying a briefcase that most likely contained business related stuff.

"Hello Velvet. My name is Bits. I'm the lawyer that worked for your late caretaker, Peach Cobbler. I've come to discuss some things with you. ", he said sitting across from me placing his briefcase on the table.

"If it's about the bakery, I don't know what is gonna come of it so don't bother asking. ", I said sternly.

"But you see that is why I've come. To tell you what happens to the bakery your caregiver owned.", he explained to me.

My ears perked up. Finally I got an answer that I could answer to the public so I could finally get peace and quiet with. Bits opened the briefcase and pulled out a letter in a white envelope.

"First, your caregiver specifically asked me to give this to you first. ", he said sliding the letter to me.

On the front of the envelope was my name in the unforgettable handwriting of Peach. Taking the letter with my magic, I opened it to pull out a letter that was written on the nicest looking paper known to me. The letter explained everything that was going to happen to me and the bakery.

Velvet,

If you are reading this right now, then it means that I have unfortunately passed away. This is nothing to be sad about my son, for this is when the next chapter of your life begins. For a while now, I knew that I could trust you to make the famous cobbler and keep it secret. That day you made it for me proved to me that I had nothing to worry about in my future with the bakery. I say this because I am passing along the family business to you.

You've shown me that you are capable of taking control based on those days where I would go to the doctor, where I had Glaze report to me about whether you were able to do just that. You're a natural leader. With the help of my lawyer, Bits Benton, I was able to pass your name as an immediate family member for the patent to be given to you if I were to have an untimely death.

With my death, I've also asked Bits to pass along all of my inheritance to you and whoever you choose to share it with, whether it be through marriage or if you choose to give back to New Saddle. Along with this, I've passed the deed to my home to you for you to remember me anytime you so desire.

I'm really optimistic about the future of you Velvet. I know very well that you will make all the right decisions for me when I'm gone. I count on you being the best pony in all of New Saddle as I once was. I know it will be you. I love you so much sugar.

Yours truly,

Peach Cobbler.

I closed the letter to put it back in the envelope it came in. I wanted to preserve that letter so I could read it if I ever wanted to reminisce on the memory of Peach.

"Now that you've got an understanding of what is going on, I've got a few things that you are going to need to sign.", Bits said taking out a few documents from his briefcase.

The documents he pulled out were very wordy, but they pretty much made it official that everything Peach said in that letter would come true. Without hesitation, I signed the bakery and money inheritance, but I had an idea for the house.

"Bits, when I sign the paper, does this mean I own the house?", I asked him.

"Of course. The property will be yours because it will be signed to your name.", he explained to me.

"And this means I could do whatever I wanted with it?", I asked.

"Um, yes that's what I just said.", he said.

With that in my mind, I signed the document. I had a plan for the house, I just needed time to actually get it going.

We finished up with our business with papers and I was officially a business owner.

"I'm glad to help you out Velvet. You won't regret this. ", Bits said holding out his hoof for a shake.

I took his hoof and obliged his shake. He then gave me a small, caring smile.

"She wouldn't have done this if she didn't trust you. With all she told me, you seemed like the perfect fit for this task." , he said to me.

"Well I'm happy to finally carry on her legacy. I won't let her down.", I said to him.

"If you ever need help with anything legal related, give me a visit. ", he said pulling a business card from the jacket of his suit.

"Yeah, I'll be in touch. ", I said taking his card.

He finished his salutations and left. Looks like all my bad vibes with him are gone.

"I can't believe it Velvet. You own the business!", Ruby said to me excited.

"Yeah, it is exciting. ", I said to her.

"What was the plan about the house you were thinking of?", she asked me.

"Its not something that I can say yet, I'm still undecided about it. However I decided on another big decision. Especially with the sum of money that I can share through charity and m-", I said stopping myself.

"And what?", she asked me.

"Nevermind that, you won't have to worry about it right now. Now is the time to celebrate. We need to gather up all the employees and tell them the news.", I said to Ruby.

"I'm already on it.", she said running out the door.

We held a dinner at a restaurant not far from home to tell the gang all the news. When everypony found out, all of them were so overjoyed that they could go back to the job that they loved. Sadly, somepony couldn't keep quiet after dinner and word got out about the bakery being back in business. This certainly got everypony excited, as there were bars not far from my home singing drinking songs hearing about it. It looked like everything was finally gonna come together.

Two days later, the day we were opening back up, I woke up to find myself alone in bed with an alarm clock screaming at me. Only this time, it was screaming,"Wake up Velvet!! Time to bring life back to the town you love".

Shutting off the alarm, I looked around to find Ruby, all I found was a note that read:

Sorry for leaving you alone. I couldn't sleep so I decided to go and see Amethyst and have tea with her. I'll meet you at work. I love you

-RH

"That girl.", I said to myself laughing.

I had gotten up to get ready to leave. I didn't exactly have enough time to make coffee today, especially when I was going to open the bakery. Grabbing my stuff. I left the home with no haste.

Everything seemed quiet down my street, too quiet. Walking further down the street, I saw what all the quiet was about. Ponies were in the shopping alley crowded as usual. It seemed particularly thicker this time around, like they must've been having a really big sale.

"Dammit. Always when I'm having a good morning. ", I said to myself about to turn to take the long way to avoid the crowd.

That's when I remembered what I promised to Peach. No matter what, whether its through fear or stress that I would stay strong. All of a sudden I got this feeling of determination within me that I never felt before, only this tien it wasn't going away.

Facing the crowd, I began to walk towards the crowd with no intention of stopping. Within a matter of seconds, I was inside the horde of ponies. That didn't bother me, nothing did while I was. There was one thing that grabbed my attention. A small filly had dropped her toy and couldn't reach it through the crowd. She had looked like she was about to cry. Turning around in the middle of the crowd, I grabbed the filly's toy with my magic and handed it to her. She was extremely grateful, so grateful in fact that she had hugged my left hoof. It felt good to know that I was helping a pony in need. Nonetheless, I had a place to go.

Making it through the crowd, I saw the bakery and walked over to the door with the keys with my magic. Opening the door, I felt proud to open the bakery. Walking in, I headed towards the back of the bakery. My first job as a bakery owner was here.

"Time to take over your job Peach.", I said for her to hear as I began to grab the right stuff to make a strawberry cobbler.

The process didn't take long, especially for the quantity of cobbler I was making. I made sure to definitely not lack in the quality of cobbler making. The last thing I would ever want to do making the cobbler is let down the ponies wanting to taste it and love it just as Peach made it.

As I was finishing up, I heard the front of the bakery open up. I tried my best to hide the work I was doing as quick as I could. Thankfully I hid it just in time to see the back open up. To my relief, it was Ruby.

"Good Morning darling.", she said walking over to me.

"Oh , good morning Ruby, I was scared you were somepony else.", I said walking over to kiss her.

"You okay?", Ruby asked me.

"Yeah, just uh….", I said nervously.

"Just what?", she asked cocking an eyebrow.

"Um, m-making the cobbler for today.", I said to her.

"Oh, well I will be in the front, I know that it is secret an all.", she said walking to the front.

"Th-thanks. Love you!", I said to her.

"I know."she said winking at me before walking to the front.

Sighing with relief, I finished with the cobbler for today. Not long after, I heard the front door open up. Thankfully, Ruby was able to keep them in the front until I finished with the cobbler.

After a little while, Ruby had come from the front.

"Hey Velvet, everybody is here. I think it's time to open up for the day.", Ruby said to me.

"Yeah, it's time", I said walking before stopping halfway and looked down.

"What's the matter?", she asked me.

"It's just, I want her to see me now. She would be so proud to see me take over.", I said with a hint of sadness.

"She's watching you somewhere, and I know that she is proud of you. You're going to be a great leader for all of us.", Ruby said putting a claw on my shoulder.

I looked back up at her and smiled.

"Now, you ready to open up? I would hate to keep them waiting. ", Ruby said holding the door for me.

I nodded and walked through the door. This time all eyes were on me. Every pony was eager to hear what I had to say for a morning meeting. Especially when the crowd outside was eager to come in for the first time.

"I know all we've been through this past week had been hard. And believe me I am a little scared to do this, but I made a promise to her that I would carry on her journey and God dammit I am not going to quit until the day I day to keep going. I can't do this without you, so are you ready to open up for the day?", I said to the bakery workers.

They gave me a standing ovation for the first meeting I had given to them.

"That's right. So let's make Peach Cobbler proud!", I exclaimed to them before pointing at Ruby to open up the doors to the bakery.

This was it, it was time to show them what I've got.

The day went on better than it usually did. The amount of ponies who showed up to the bakery were astounding. It was like a rockstar had brought along all their friends to bring business. It was so crazy that we ran out of cobbler before the first hour, which I was quick to reserve them a fresh batch.

Overall, the day was more than great, it was spectacular. Everypony who worked that day left with the biggest sense of pride. When I gave them their paychecks for the day, they were all thanking me for bringing them back to the bakery. I realized that now only had I gotten their jobs back, but I had also gotten their will to happiness back.

The rest of the crew had left as me and Ruby had a celebratory slice of strawberry cobbler. The first day as the pony in charge was a complete success.

"The first day of my Velvet as the leader is done!", Ruby said with joy.

"Yep, it's over and it was a huge success. ", I said taking a bite from the cobbler.

"You know, we could celebrate more of the day tonight when we get home. Especially if you are the leader.", She said seductively.

I chuckled at the proposition for the night.

"As much as I would love that, I'm feeling tired from the first day and would like to rest. But don't you worry, I'll take you up on that offer. ", I said winking at her.

"I love your goofy ass."she said, leaning in to kiss me.

We had finished up with the cobbler and locked up for the night. This was the first day in a long time when we were open for the full day. Being honest, it felt right this way. This was a day where everypony could get their chance to come back to the bakery. And it looked like almost everypony came to see the newly run Cakes + Confections.

Not long after we walked from the bakery, we made it home. The day was over and now was a time to rest up for tomorrow. Not questioning what I decided, she had followed me to the bedroom to go to bed for the day.

"Goodnight Velvet. Sleep well.", she said to me.

"Goodnight Ruby, I love you. ", I said, planting a kiss to Ruby's face.

My eyes felt heavy and slowly closed themselves for the night as I gave a sigh of satisfaction for the great day.

I felt my eyes open later in the night, only this time, it was daytime and I was in the field and hill with the tree. Yep, I was back in my parents dream. Standing back up, I saw both my parents halfway up the hill. They both had a smile on their face that was proud. Walking over to them, I saw my mother's face and how she was holding back tears for me.

"Oh my dear son. I am so proud of you. We both are.", she said taking me in her hooves for a hug.

I held her right as I let a few tears of my own to finally getting the chance to talk to them again.

"You two have no idea how much I needed to see you. ", I said to them both.

"We know son, in fact we are here to show you something.

"What do you mean? Show me what?", I asked letting go of them both.

"We were worried you wouldn't be strong with what was coming your way and that you would turn out terrible. You proved us wrong. So wrong that we decided to show you something that we think you are ready for.", my mother said pointing up the hill.

I walked up the hill to see what she was pointing to. When I reached the top, all I saw was the tree up close.

"I don't understand mother, what did you want to-", I said turning around to see that they disappeared.

I felt a presence on the other side of the tree, I had thought that they were on the other side to point at what they were trying to show me. Walking around the large oak tree, I saw a large glow from below the hill. I thought it was the sun beginning to rise at first until the glow finally took shape. Not only was it a shape, but it was the shape of a pony. When the glow got to a more defined shape, it released a large blinding glow. I winced to save my eyes until I felt the glow died down.

My eyes focused on the now energy emitting pony that was down the hill. As the energy died down, the pony had turned around to face me. When I saw who it was, my heart sank as I gave a gasp of surprise to see who it was. She further left me speechless as she spoke first.

"Hello again, sugar", Peach said with the warmest smile on her face.

Epilogue

Everything only got better for me and Ruby. First, the bakery in its first month open alone was our most profitable month we had ever had in the history of Cakes + Confections. The amount of ponies that came to support us on the first day opening back up had stuck around for the longest time. To the point where we were starting to have regulars show up to the bakery every day.

The family has gotten bigger since the amount of business that we were receiving. We were now working in shifts to help out with the problems with stress building up with the increased work. The only job that wasn't going to be used in shifts with multiple ponies was mine, can't risk the secret recipe to get out there.

Speaking of the bakery, I managed to make the place more appealing to the front by learning how to paint. On the front, I made a detailed mural of Peach. It was quite the attraction, as many ponies had gathered to see the unveiling of the finished painting. 8

As well as changes with work, there have been changes with me and Ruby. I made sure to keep my promise to Peach and proposed to Ruby. It had happened on the day where I found the ring to give to her as the proposal. Originally, I was going to propose the week after getting it, but I was so excited that the night we got home, I proposed to her right on our doorstep. She was so happy that she had broken down into tears of joy.

The following weeks we planned our wedding to be at the hill that reminded me of the hill in my dreams. I told her that I thought it would be a beautiful scenery for our wedding for Peach and my Parents to see from above. She thought it was a very thoughtful idea for our wedding. The place we found was kind enough to even provide the hall for the party after the ceremony. All we needed to provide was the food and entertainment for our wedding.

There was one pony I had in mind for my best stallion, thankfully he had returned just in time from Ponyville. Angel made it home just a week before the wedding. When he said that he was staying for the remainder of the month, I insisted on him making it to the wedding. With enough "begging" as he called it, he decided to stay for the wedding.

The day of the wedding was historical, as me and Ruby were the first Griffon and Stallion couple to be wed in all of Hoovesiana. I didn't really care about that, all I cared about was that I was marrying the Griffin I loved with all my heart. The ceremony was beautiful. It is a day that I would go back in time to relive, this would be one of them.

As for Amethyst, her family would always come over for dinner every Friday. It was the first time I would actually have to really cook something nice for dinner. I won't lie, the first time we did it was a complete disaster. As the weeks went on, the better the meals would get thanks to all the cookbooks that Amethyst would recommend me at the library.

Storm had finally started at this school for art students. Amethyst was worried sick about her son not being able to adjust to the new school, but he turned out fine. He even made a few friends on the first day.

Caramel and Autumn had their first daughter around the same time. The visit to see their daughter was precious. She had her mother's eyes and her father's coat. Both Caramel and Autumn were the happiest ponies on that day.

As many of you were wondering about what happened to Peach's house, I had decided to ask permission from the mayor's office to make her house a non-profit museum of the history of the Cobbler family. With their approval, we were able to put New Saddle back on the map for things to do in town.

Peach herself was happy with all I did for the tow to honor not only her memory, but her family’s. I was now looking forward to the dreams in the hills with the oak tree. Not only could I see both my parents, but I could see Peach. She would tell me about how she was happy to finally reunite with me, but also to Reunite with Corn Flake. It really worked out for them both.

As for me, I'm just really happy with the way everything is. My friends and family are doing so well. I have honored the best mare in the world with the museum. And I have the most perfect wife by my side.

It's funny to look back on all this and realize how it all started: Some introverted stallion who was shy and feared the world. Meeting Ruby changed me from that to the happy stallion that I am today.

So yeah, that's just how I did it. That's how I was able to spend the rest of my life with the most beautiful girl in the world, despite coming from miles away.

Author's Note

Not quite Season 9 finale, but close enough 🤷‍♂️

Introduction

Prologue

I know what some of you are thinking, ”How the hell can you possibly fall in love with somepony you meet online? You know that there are some ponies out there that aren’t really a nice, rounded ass Pegasus mare. That could be some fat, disgusting, perverted stallion in their mom’s basement.” Yeah, you are probably right, but also could be surprised. I’m surprised that somepony online even found me dateable in the first place.

Trust me, I’m not one who looks the part of a “Handsome Stallion”. I’m quite the opposite. Where most stallions usually have nice looking manes and look like they spend time outside, I’m the one stallion who has a slightly messed up mane and hasn’t seen the sunlight in years. Plus, I’m the stallion who is so skinny that if I walked outside, a colt would run to their mother or father crying saying they are scared of the skeleton with Maroon and White hair. Not like anorexic levels of skeleton, more like on the brink of it, but I’m getting off topic.

The point is that it is possible, despite all skepticism's and possibilities of coming across some pervert looking to try and sleep with some poor filly. If you want my advice on how to make it work, here's my advice: Have Faith. Again, I can hear you probably thinking,” Well, aren’t you gonna develop to much trust into someone? You’d be crazy if you have faith with someone who pulls red flags like not showing you what they look or sound like.” Well, you got me there. I might be crazy, but then that would make the partner I fell in love with even crazier than I was.