//------------------------------//
// Without You 
// Story: More Than a Memory 
// by Nugget 
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	I miss my old writing buddy.

While it goes without saying that even some of your best friends might drift away from you, I certainly thought for awhile that it wouldn’t be the case with her. Velvet Scarlet was an amazing mare and certainly the brightest pony I ever knew. How so? It was through her ability to come up with the most brilliant variety of writing proposals that still boggle my mind to this day.

From writing about Fluttershy skipping and humming through the autumn leaves to Rainbow Dash roaring above the skies in a Wonderbolt race, Velvet never seemed to out of wonderful and beautiful ideas. Her fresh stream of concepts were as rich as the blue pigment within her eyes, which seamlessly complements the mind behind them. They were a sight on their own to behold, leaving me mesmerized by how they shined like sapphire gemstones.

Sigh…

I miss her dearly. The lady always, always seemed to brighten up my day once I was around her. The Gardens in Canterlot were our usual meeting space where we would keep each other company for quite a while, discuss our current projects, exchange a few words of wisdom, and occasionally have a casual conversation or two. When it rained however, we would sometimes just meet up at local coffee shop and do the same things we always do together.

Whether or not we meet in the gardens or in the coffee shop, it didn’t seem to bother us at all. When we finally meet up, it was always a sunny, bright day in our eyes and smiles. Oh Celestia, her smile. It always shone brighter than the princess's own sun. It was so bright that I swore if our world seemed to stop spinning for just one second, the intensity and power from her smile alone could restart it.  

It was that contagious, along with her cute, little laugh. She loved to laugh. Cracking jokes was one of her best ways to alleviate stress from her work. Being a nurse at the local ward wasn’t easy, but she always managed to get by. To which, her favorite nursing joke was this:

When I went to get my vaccinations the young nurse told me she was very nervous as it was her first time.

I told her to give it her best shot.

Yeah, it was a simple joke, and yet it was so innocent that I just couldn’t help but laugh when she told it. Velvet just had a way with her own smooth words, to which I usually tried to write them down when I could. In a way, I believe my own writing seemed to just get stronger and stronger the more I meet and hung out with that charming mare.

Then things began to suddenly change.

I didn’t seem to notice it at first, but that once powerful smile of her’s slowly began to dwindle months into our friendship. Every single time we meet up in those gardens or the local coffee shop, the atmosphere around us seemed to gradually turn from vibrant to grey. It felt as if our own candle, once brightly lit and glowing, was beginning to burn out. 

Once I was finally able to open my eyes to the situation, I tried asking her what was going on in her life. Velvet would then shake it off and say, “It’s nothing.” Well it certainly wasn’t ‘nothing’ if it could erase the beam within her eyes, making them dark and almost lifeless. Something was going on, and she wouldn’t tell me. 

Her behavior seemed to decline after a while. As a result, it came down to the point where she finally decided to tell me not to meet up with her anymore in the gardens. I was in distress, almost begging her to finally tell me what was wrong and how I could fix it. Was I being a jerk? Was I being insensitive? Did I say something wrong? Did I do something wrong? If so, was there anyway I could make it up too you? I can change-

Velvet kissed me, as if she said goodbye. 

She then suspended by questions by first saying that I wasn’t being anything close to insensitive. In fact, I was completely doing the opposite by being the most caring stallion that she has ever meet in her entire life. She wished he could have me, keep me in her life, and live that wonderful dream of happily ever after with me. However, Velvet admitted that her life wasn’t a fairy tale or even a pleasant dream, but instead a terrible nightmare that came in the forum of a single, vanilla envelope.

Velvet was crying when she handed to it me, wishing that her reality wasn’t true. When I asked, “What is this?” she simply turned her head away from me, absolutely ashamed by what was within the envelope. This left me to only speculate on what was within it that made her so upset over the last couple of months. What on Celestia’s earth could be so powerful enough to take away the sun within her smile? What could be so cruel that it could tear down the joy with within herself? What could take away her beautiful mind?     

I opened up the envelope and pulled out the letter, cursing to Tartarus upon what I saw.

It showed ‘positive’ for lymphoma, a type of tissue cancer. However, I couldn’t care less about what it was. All that registered in my brain was the fact that she, a beautiful angel with wings, was dying and that there wasn’t a thing I or anybody could do to save her. Therefore, I hugged and held onto her for as long as I possibly could. I didn’t want to see her go, have that breathtaking smile be taken from the world, and be left here with only memories of her. 

Yet, deep down inside, I know I couldn’t fight against it.

Instead, I made promise to Velvet to make her final days the best she had ever lived. We did anything and everything together, sharing our smiles once more and making sure that we could leave each other with happiness in our hearts. To which, looking back upon my memory of her, I can still see her smiling at me and laughing about whatever stupid joke I or her cracked. It made us feel like everything was going to be alright in that moment.

Sigh…

I miss my old, dearest friend.

She will always be more than a memory to me. - Pen Name