Chapter 6
My walk back home felt like almost a decade, especially after the devastation of what had happened with my submission. All I wanted to do was go inside and forget this ever happened. I felt a little bit of relief after seeing my house in the distance I felt like going home and curling into a ball to sleep over to forget about this. My anxiety was taking over me with how sad I was feeling.
Stepping up the steps to get to the door, I began to feel a drizzle of rain on my back. At least the weather could agree with me with how the day felt to me. Shutting the door behind me before the rain could catch up with me, I trotted directly towards my bed to lay down. If ever I had an off day or a day where I feel like shit, I always just lay in bed and take a nap or just lay there and think with my thoughts. Sometimes if it is a really off day like the day I had I would cry a little bit to calm down, just a little.
“Hello my friend, we meet again. It’s been a while. Where do we begin”, I say to the bed after throwing myself onto the bed.
The warmth of the bed really let me know that it was happy to see me after me being gone for a little while. Almost right away, my feelings of gloom and sadness were gone. Yet, there was still that anxiety of not having a good submission. It was almost like an itch that you cannot scratch and it just keeps bothering you. I kept on thinking that there was no way I would even be selected. Not even as a reserve or something like that. It was just that one comment that the pony at the table made to me that really bothered me,”Are you sure you want to submit this?” It was almost like a stab into the little confidence I had submitting it. I kept closing my eyes and sighing at the thought of that memory.
As I kept tossing and turning in my bed, I noticed that I left my PC on when I had left.
“Great, now I have to leave you again. Sorry”, I say to my bed as I stood up from it to turn off my PC.
As I was going to hit the power button, I hesitated from thinking about something. I remembered that Gem said that she would be online today to talk and hang out. I figured that she would probably miss me considering I was her only real friend on her friends list. I sucked it up at that moment and decided to go online to talk to Gem. Maybe it would make me feel better if I at least vent a little to somepony who will listen.
As I signed into my account, I heard that the rain was starting to come down. There was even some thunder going off into the distance. I guess that cold front was a sign of rain that was coming. It didn’t bother me too much since it wasn’t really a storm that could flood. Nonetheless, I still need to be vigilant with the storm. You never know when a flash flood will have you one minute sitting fine and dandy, then the next minute underwater trying to swim your way out to surface with nothing but your hoofs. Still amazes me how some ponies can swim.
Logging in, I checked to see if Gem was online. Sadly she wasn’t online just yet, probably cause classes don’t end around 12:00 pm. So to pass the time, I listened to music on Ourtube. Though my favorite band was Smashing Melons, I still had a lot of other bands that I listened to. One such example of a good band besides Smashing Melons was King. King was considered one of the greatest bands of all time until their singer had died from AIDS. Their songs are super iconic among a lot of the gay community. Probably because most of the members of the band were gay besides the guitar player. One song that is my favorite out of all of them was “Fat Bottom Mares”. Kind of a hypocritical song considering that the band who were mostly gay.
Another band that I really enjoyed listening to was one kind of independent band called A Night to Forget. This band was a bit heavier in some of their songs in terms of rock/metal, but they still had some very deep songs. One song that kind of sticks to me the most was “If It Means A Lot To You”. It was some light love song that really had a deep story about somepony being far away and how the other partner will wait through everything until he gets back home with her. I don’t know why, especially since I wasn’t dating anypony, but it really stuck with me. It was incredibly strange like the fact that ponies can somehow be able to swim. Sorry, still a little amazed on that fact that we are able to swim with hooves.
As I was listening to music, I saw a notification that Gem was back online. It felt like ages, but she was back online. As I was going to type hello to her, I instantly saw her typing already. I always saw that as a race when messaging somepony. Like to see who could type their message the fastest. Sadly, I wasn’t fast enough to type my salutation to her, just a mere .5 seconds too slow. To make it worse, I misspelled it.
Gem (Online) : Heya!
Lotus (Online) : Henlo
Whoops, Misspelled Hello lol.
Gem (Online) : Lol, that’s funny.
Lotus (Online) : Yeah, that’s a bit embarrassing.
Gem (Online) : No, it’s funny actually. For some reason I like that hello, it’s different from the normal way. I like different.
Lotus (Online) : So, how was your day?
Gem (Online) : It was ok, a little boring in class, but overall ok. I’m trying to do my best to get at least a passable grade for my test.
Lotus (Online) : Well, I guess you are going to have to study hard for it.
Gem (Online) : It’s not a test based on studying notes.
Lotus (Online) : Oh?
Gem (Online) : Remember, I’m a singer in a music college. Most of my tests are based on me singing.
Lotus (Online) : Wow, I feel stupid.
Gem (Online) : How about you?
Lotus (Online) : What about me?
Gem (Online) : How was your day today?
This was what I was expecting she would ask. I hoped that this would make me feel a little bit better from my day.
Lotus (Online) : Well, To be completely honest, not the best.
Gem (Online) : Oh, What happened?
Lotus (Online) : Today I was going to submit a piece of art I made into this “Art Trot”. It’s kind of like a showcase of art from other local artists.
But Anyway, I was on my way to the place to submit the artwork when there was a huge crowd of ponies in the way. Took me a while to get through the crowd.
Gem (Online) : How? What were they doing?
I was a little bit embarrassed by the fact that I had a fear of crowds. I never really told anypony about it out of fear of ponies worrying about me. Another pain in the ass about anxiety.
Lotus (Online) : It was just
Just a thick crowd of ponies shopping
Gem (Online) : I see
Lotus (Online) : Anyways, After pushing through the crowd, it made me almost late to make it to the place.
On my way there, I saw that a group of colts bullying this younger Griffin. I went over to go and help him out without realizing that I had dropped my submission in the mud. It ruined my submission for me. Ever since I turned it in, I felt like a failure.
There was a little bit of silence after me saying that. At first I figured that she wasn’t listening or that she wasn’t there. As I was going to type to see if she was there, I saw that she was typing.
Gem (Online) : Hey, even though you messed up on your submission, you still did the right thing.
Lotus (Online) : How?
Gem (Online) : You submitted it even though you think it looks bad.
Lotus (Online) : I might as well shouldn’t have. The pony running the table asked me if I was sure I wanted to submit this. It must have been really bad if other ponies notice it.
Gem (Online) : But at least you submit something, I know plenty of other classmates who if they were put in your situation would just give up.
Lotus (Online) : Still, there’s no way I’m even considered to be accepted.
Gem (Online) : You don’t know that. You never know if somehow your submission becomes the best one out of all of them.
Look, even If you still feel bad about the submission, at least you did a good thing with the Griffin.
I wish there were more ponies like that to defend us from stuff like that.
Lotus (Online) : Wait, Us?
Gem (Online) : Oh Shit, Um don’t worry about that, just got a little lost in the thought and typed out loud.
Lotus (Online) : No, I’m curious. What do you mean?
Gem (Online) : Dammit, I broke the one rule of the internet that is most important, Never Give Out Personal Info.
Lotus (Online) : Wait, how was saying Us when mentioning….
Then it hit me on why Gem was freaking out over this. Especially after me mentioning how I helped out a Griffin being bullied. Gem was no pony after all. She was a Griffin herself. At first, it took me by surprise because I had totally thought that this was some mare all this time. Then somehow I felt somewhat odd. Not from Speciest thoughts, but more like talking to somepony you had never met before. Or in this case, some griffin.
Lotus (Online) : Gem, are you a griffin?
Gem (Online) : I would be lying if I said I wasn’t. Is that going to be a problem?
Lotus (Online) : No No not at all. It’s just that I’ve never had a Griffin as a friend before.
Now I kinda feel bad about exposing you like that
Gem (Online) : No, it wasn’t your fault, I was just caught in a tangent where I typed what I thought. How about we just forget about this, ok?
Lotus (Online) : Ok, Gem.
I’m not sure how anypony could go about forgetting that their friend they thought was a mare who turned out to be another species. Like I said before, it never bothered me from different species because in the end we are all moving organisms. Nonetheless, I was looking to put this aside to kind of take Gem’s mind off of being found out.
Lotus (Online) : Well, what are you doing now?
Gem (Online) : Right now at this second? Still talking to you. What about you? What are you doing?
Lotus (Online) : Well, besides talking to you. I’m listening to music.
Gem (Online) : Oooooh. Lemme listen with you.
Lotus (Online) : https://www.ourtube/watch?v=Q3M0s2qP2h4Es
Gem (Online) : Oooh, I heard of this band. They are the gay group, right?
Lotus (Online) : More or less, lol
Gem (Online) : I like them, not as much as this though https://www.ourtube/watch?v=M5a0eI3ZiP13Mse
Lotus (Online) : More Moose for me to discover. You must really love the band to death.
Gem (Online) : I seriously love them.
Lotus (Online) : What attracts you to them?
Gem (Online) : Idk, it’s like the sound of old school music but at the same has that combination of modern music.
Lotus (Online) : Damn, I don’t even get that deep with my favorite band.
Gem (Online) : Besides Smashing Melons, who else is your favorite artist?
Lotus (Online) : There is one that is close to them, I assume since you know a lot about music you know A Night to Forget.
Gem (Online) : Who’s that?
I was in complete shock. I managed to stump the one who claims she knew all music. Well, not exactly all music but still it felt like an achievement stumping her. Felt like when Quantum Stallion finally achieved the power wings so he could fly to save the galaxy from the sinister leader, Ragnarok. Yes I know, huge nerd.
Lotus (Online) : Here, have a listen to them http://www.ourtube/watch?=vA7D9ToRFeV23
Gem (Online) : Wow, they sound really good. I really like this song.
Lotus (Online) : Yeah, but I would bet that you still think that Moose is the best.
Gem (Online) : Actually, They might be a contender
Lotus (Online) : You’re serious right now?
Gem (Online) : Yeah, I’m dead serious right now. I think I’ll even listen to them later when I play VRCinema.
Lotus (Online) : Their heavier stuff I like to listen to when I play SF2.
Gem (Online) : SF2?
Lotus (Online) : You never heard of SF2? How? It’s one of the best free to play games around.
Gem (Online) : Remember, haven’t had this account long. Just started it.
Lotus (Online) : Oh right. But still, It’s a free game, how does anypony/griffin not check it out.
Gem (Online) : I’m looking at the page right now of the game, looks fun, but hard. Like I might need help getting started.
It was with that I had gotten a mini flashback to when I started out playing SF2. I didn’t have anypony to really teach me how to play the game. All I had was the game itself and videos that I didn’t really understand at the time. It wasn’t until I had met PJ until I really got good at the game. I had this strange feeling inside of me that could only be described as caring. I didn’t want the same thing to happen to Gem if she was gonna start up playing SF2 for the first time.
Lotus (Online) : Do you think that I could teach you how to play? I know a decent amount about the game. At least to get you started.
Gem (Online) : Yeah, I would like that. I mean you were the one to tell me about the game in the first place.
Lotus (Online) : Great, just let me know whenever you feel like playing.
Gem (Online) : Holy Shit! The time really passed by.
I looked at the clock and noticed that it was around 3:45 PM. I never really noticed before how fast time passes by when you talk with a friend. It felt like 20 minutes ago I was telling Gem about how shitty my day was. I also realized that I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. My stomach was growling like a motherfucker. It needed food, and it needed it now.
Gem (Online) : Well, I am going to go take a bath, kind of relieve some stress after tonight .
Lotus (Online) : Yeah, Imma fix me something to eat. Maybe later you and I could play SF2 together.
Gem (Online) : Sure, I would like that.
Lotus (Online) : Alright, well enjoy your bath Gem. Hope your water is warm.
Gem (Online) : I hope so too, see you later Lotus.
Lotus (Online) : YT
With that, I stood up to go make myself an early dinner. I usually don’t do anything huge like a four course meal or something. It was more like a sandwich I would make to stop the growling in my stomach. Using my magic, I grabbed the bread as I opened the fridge to grab the meat and cheese. I always kept the same proportions when making a sandwich: 4 pieces of meat followed by a slice of pepper jack cheese on two slices of honey whole wheat bread. The bread was the best part of the sandwich. I want to meet the pony who somehow made the worst tasting bread taste good with pure science. I would shake his hoof for that.
As I began eating my sandwich, I began to think about Gem for a bit. This was the first time in a long time I really had a friend who would message me back that wasn't for trades. The only real one who wasn’t like that was PJ. Other than him, everyone else would come and go. Not only that, but Gem was so kind to me, despite me giving off the first impression as a creep online. I think most players who would get that impression off of some player would most likely block them and never come into contact with them again. Somehow, Gem was the opposite. She instead embraced me. Not to sound like a love interest, but it was the best I could describe it.
Finishing the sandwich, I put the plate into the sink and began to get ready to play SF2 with Gem. I sent her a message to give her my Kaos name so I could talk to her while teaching her the ropes of SF2. She hadn’t responded, so I had assumed she was still taking her bath. Nonetheless I was ready to play. It somehow felt good that I was teaching another player the game. It felt like I was passing the torch down, so to speak. Like I was adding to the overgrowing SF2 community.
As I was sitting there, I got a call sound in Kaos from a user by the name of ,” Lord of Noodles”. I had no clue who that was, but I was curious to see who it was. I answered the call, only to hear that familiar voice again.
“Hey, can you hear me”, the mysterious voice being Gem said.
“Loud and clear”, I say in response.
“What’s with the name,’Lord of Noodles’”, I aksed.
“It was the only name I liked other than Gem. Sadly it was taken by some other user”, Gem the “Noodle meister” says.
“Kind of a weird name though. Lord of Noodles. Why noodles?”, I ask as I began to load up SF2.
“Well, It’s kind of embarrassing but I love having ramen noodles. So therefore, I am the Lord of Noodles”, Gem says with a warm tone.
“Makes sense, In a cosmic sort of way. Are you ready to play?”, I asked in response.
“Yeah, I’m ready”, Gem said as I see her start to load up in SF2.
“Alright then, let the fun begin”, I say to Gem loading up to the menu.
And so began the night of madness.