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