Miles Away

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.