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