Miles Away

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....