//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: Miles Away 
// by Bucket of Skies 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 7

Last night was a bit of a rough night for me playing wise. Mainly because I spent most of my time playing by helping Gem learn the game’s mechanics and classes. Though I was keen on helping her out, it was a very grueling and slow process. Mainly because the game didn’t have a true dedicated teacher/student mode for the game. The only way to really teach another player in the game was either explain it without playing or actually go into a public game and try to play and teach the game at the same time. Only problem with playing while teaching, other players either don’t know that or just don’t care at all. Most times they will get in the way of you teaching or at worst, kick you from the game for “not contributing to the team” or some shit like that. It was a real pain in the flank trying to get stuff done while teaching Gem.
Gem actually managed to pick up on the games mechanics quicker than I thought. Though she only played one class the entire night, she did ok for a new player. Gem played as the Speedster class, probably one that every player plays at one point or another. My theory on why she chose that class was cause that was the only class that is a griffin. Though she was ok at the class, she died constantly. It got to a point I had to switch to Healer to keep her alive to actually be able to do something. On the bright side though, she did manage to get enough kills to get the IntroKiller Fedora. The Fedora is given to every player who manages to kill 5 players, not really that much of a challenge. Though the hat looked ok, every player who wore it is ridiculed for being new players and not knowing the game that well. Plus some players view the fedora as an “Edgy Hat for an edgy player”.
In that time, me and Gem kind of got to know a little bit more about each other. More specifically how we got into making a Smoke account. I didn’t want to get to deep with my reason so I sugar coated the real reason down to being bored and wanted to make one. Gems told me her reason was just to have one, but then as games came out she became more and more involved. One game that she said was the first game that interested her was called,”Nuclear Wasteland 3”. It was some game that was an RPG based on Equestria dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear detonation of a bomb from a rival land. Some pretty dark stuff. I knew of the game before, but not to the extent that Gem knew about it. 
There was one moment that took me a little by surprise. It was while we were talking in Kaos, I heard a door slam open on her side of the call. At that point I heard some murmurs and small talk, kind of loud but small. It ended with the door closing and hearing Gem sit back down in her chair. I had asked what that was about, to which she told that it was nothing.
Overall, a fun night. Sad that I had to go to bed for the night to get up for work next morning. 
Waking up earlier like I usually do, I quickly checked over to see if I got messages on Smoke from Gem or even PJ. Though I had no new messages, I saw that PJ was online in Kaos. I had decided to give him a call since I hadn’t spoke to him since the day before.
Giving him a call, I decided to ask him what he came up with for evidence of the Golden Fork while I was gone teaching Gem. Though I was expecting him to ask me where I was last night, I wasn’t expecting how somewhat mad he was. 
“Hey, where the hell were you? Thought you and I were gonna do some research on the Fork Location this morning”, PJ exclaimed as I said hello. 
“I was sleeping. Last night I was doing something with a friend and kinda forgot about it”, I explain to PJ.
“Doing what though”, PJ asks back wanting to know what had happened. I didn’t want to mention the fact that Gem was a female since PJ had a well known history of being “that” player when it came to gamer mares in the game. 
“There was a player I met who was really nice and wanted to know about SF2. So out of the kindness I have towards new players, I decided to give him an introduction to the game”, I explained to PJ half truthfully. 
“I have a little bit of doubt in believing you since you have a history of distaste of those Fedora wearers. I mean you target a lot of them when we play together”, PJ says reacting to the untrue statement I told him. 
He got me there. The only real reason I targeted them was if I decided to be friendly and they would keep killing me. 
“But hell, maybe you are turning over a new leaf. If I must say, it’s about time you pass the torch along”, PJ says with a now understanding tone. 
“Pass the torch along? What do you mean by that”, I ask him confused. 
“It’s been five years since I taught you how to play the game. I figure you are doing the same with another player”, PJ explains to me. 
“Sure, I guess you could say that. So did you manage to come up with anything while I was gone teaching that new player”, I ask PJ, trying to change the subject. 
“No, I was waiting on you so we could get started on the research. I got bored and decided to just play SF2 on other modes”, PJ says. 
“Oh, ok. Well maybe later today after work you and I could actually get started on the research”, I say looking over at the clock that now read 7:02 AM.
“Will you be on, or are you going to go off with the new player again?”, PJ says sarcastically to me.	
“Yeah, this time I’ll be on. For sure”, I say reassuringly to PJ. 
“Alright, I’ll see you later”, PJ says to me as I began to sit up from my chair. 
“Yeah, see you”, I respond back at PJ.
Leaving the chair, I walked over to the bathroom to go get ready for my shower. As I closed the door behind me, I began to let the water run in the shower as I looked into the mirror to glance at my white fur coated face. I see this face everyday, but for some reason I noticed I felt different. I didn’t know what it was at the time, just felt different. Stepping into the warm shower, I began my thoughts as usual. I kept on thinking about how I forgot about helping PJ out. I really felt bad considering I told him I would be there to help him start. On the other hoof, I really did want to help out Gem. It really felt good knowing I was getting her started on her journey as a SF2 player. I knew I had to make some tough choices here. So, to find a middle ground, I came up with a way to split it half and half to make it that both sides get equal attention. PJ and  I could get research done, and Gem would learn how to play the game with me. Made perfect sense in my head. 
Finishing up my shower, I began to do the same routine: Dry off, Brush teeth, and comb mane. Been the same for five years, and I don’t plan on changing it either. Stepping out the bathroom, I grabbed my uniform to throw on. I looked back at the mirror on the wall of my hallway, checking to make sure I looked okay, before stepping out to the humid air of New Saddle.
I walked past the place where I saved that poor young griffin. I noticed that no colts or even the griffin were there. My guess was they got the message and went elsewhere. It didn’t bother me, not unless they are with that griffin, don’t want him to be bullied again.
Making it to work, I opened the door to a near empty bakery. This time it didn’t have the scent of a fresh baked cobbler. Instead, I heard the sound of singing. Not like Gem singing, but it was good singing. Nothing can beat Gems singing. I opened the door to the back only to find Peach singing some song about going over a rainbow or something. All I remember was her singing rainbow before noticing me.
“Ah Velvet. Nice to see you this morning”, Peach says to me stopping her singing. 
“Good morning Peach. How are you this morning”, I ask her as she turns to me. 
“Well, when you live as long as I have, you genuinely feel tired even after a good night’s rest. Overall, I am doing ok. How about you?”, Peach asks me moving away from one of the trays she was washing. 
“I’m doing fine. I got some sleep for once”, I say to her. 
“That’s good, always important to get some sleep-cough cough”, Peach lets out a cough as she finishes speaking. 
"You getting sick?”, I ask her tilting my head to see if she is okay. 
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just this rainy weather here in New Saddle always strikes up my allergies. Nothing to worry about sugar.”, Peach says putting a hoof on my shoulder. “So, how did it go”, Peach asks me tilting her head.
“How did what go”, I ask. 
“You know, the art submission. What did they think of it”, Peach asks me referring to the travesty that happened yesterday.
Oh Celestia how I imagined her reaction to me saying how I fucked up the picture in the mud. Telling her exactly what happened was hard, considering how much I stammered trying to tell her. Her look based on me telling her was at first excitement, then turned to understanding. Or at least that’s what I think that was. She then closed her eyes and let out a sigh.
“I appreciate that you did a good thing. I wish there were a lot more ponies around here who would do something like that”, Peach says me giving a warming smile. 
It was with that smile that I realized I had nothing to worry about with her, plus it made me feel a little bit better with messing up my submission. 
I was going to respond before the door opened up with the other workers in the bakery.
“Hey, we’ll talk about this later at lunch. Need to get ready for the day”, Peach says before walking away into the back where the ovens were. 
“Ok, I’ll see you-”, I say before she walks off to the back where she couldn’t hear me. 
A little bit strange how she went off like that, she usually gives the morning meeting before starting up work. Whatever the reason why didn’t have a meeting, It didn’t really affect me. I went over to my locker and grabbed my things to get ready for work. Grabbing Dad’s music player made me remember to have to download some Moose songs later. Gem really opened me up to a really good band I never heard of before. Getting to my station, I began the process of everyday working here with red velvet cakes.

When lunch time had come around, I realized I had forgotten to bring a lunch from home. Adding on to the fact I didn’t eat breakfast that morning, I was starving. 
“Crap! On the one day I feel good I forget my lunch”, I say to myself as I shut my locker with my hoof.
I sat down over by the window I usually sit by with my art book at hoof. This time, I sat there bored. This was the one rare hair of a chance where inevitably run out of creativity. It only happens for a little while at a time, but for whatever reason I can never find a reason on why it happens. At first I thought it was because of me feeling depressed at the time, but then the second time it was when I was feeling rather happy. Always had been a huge mystery to me.
It was when I noticed that I saw Peach staring at me. I glanced over at her. 
“Is something wrong? You are looking at me kinda weird”, I say to Peach. 
“No, nothings wrong. Just never seen you look like that before”, Peach says coming over to my table and sitting down. 	
“Yeah, I could never understand why every once and a while I just lose all creativity for one day only”, I explain to Peach as I put down my pen. I let out a sigh of a frustration.
“Hey, how about we forget about the topic of art and move onto something else, would you like that sugar”, Peach asks me seeing my frustration. 
“Yeah, I would like that. What do you want to talk about”, I ask Peach trying to change the subject. 
“Well, I wanna talk about many things. I guess one that has been on my mind is have you seen any pony lately”, Peach says to me leaning her head on her hoof. I give her a little bit of a confused look.
“I mean I see ponies everyday on my way to work so yeah”, I answer to Peach. Peach let out a small chuckle to my answer. 
“No, I mean have you seen any mares”, Peach clarifies for me. I could feel my cheeks turn beet red as she clarified what she meant. The topic of meeting mares was a bit of a cold subject with me. Considering my anxiety already with talking to new ponies face to face is bad. 
“Well, uh no. Not really”, I say with a blush. 
“Mmm, well if you aren’t seeing mares, are you seeing stallions then”, Peach says with a slight grin on her face seeing my embarrassment.
“No, no! I don’t swing that way”, I say to Peach as she is biting her lip trying not to laugh. “Or at least I don’t think I do”, I say with hesitation. 
Peach let out a small laugh to me contemplating my sexuality like that. “Oh Velvet. Your reactions to certain questions always warm my heart”, Peach says with a gleeful tone. 
“Heh, yeah. Just the way I am”, I say before letting out a nervous chuckle. 
That was something with Peach that you couldn’t help but love with her. Peach was always one to mess with you at first. Then she would make you feel better once she sees that you are flustered from her messing with you.
“For real though, I think that you should go out and see other ponies. It’s not healthy for a pony your age to be alone in that house”, Peach says with a more concerning tone. There is the parenting Peach I’m more familiar with. 
“Okay, but I’m not so sure I’ll even end up with somepony. My anxiety will get in the way like it always does”, I say putting my head on my hoof.
“You might surprise yourself”, Peach said putting her hoof on mine.
“Well, it’s about to be the end of lunch in a bit. I would get ready to go back to work. Today I am going to close a little early today, need to go to the doctor for my cold that is developing”, Peach said standing up from the table.
“Alright”, I said to Peach
I grabbed my stuff and went into the back to begin the rest of the day. It was a little surprising to find out she was gonna close up shop early for today, but I guess when you feel sick in a bakery it’s the best option to not get the rest of the food contaminated. 
After my shift, I had grabbed my pay for the day and brought along my dad’s music player for getting music later. As I passed the door being held by Peach, I gave her a quick,”Hope you aren’t too sick for tomorrow, I’ll see you tomorrow”. 
“See you too sugar”, Peach says to me as she locked up shop for the day. Trotting back home was a bit of a rush, mainly because it was rather chilly today. I rushed my ass inside the house to try and get away from the cold. Really hated the cold here in New Saddle.
Taking off my uniform, I threw my stuff on the table using my magic. I rubbed my eyes after the hard days work. 
“Wait a minute, maybe I can catch PJ on today and we can start our research now to get it over with”, I think to myself before quickly trotting to my PC to boot up Kaos and Smoke. Luckily, I managed to get on in time before he was going to log off for the day.
“About time you showed up. So, are we going to begin”, PJ asks me. 
“Yeah, just give me a couple minutes to do something real quick”, I say switching tabs to Smoke. I sent Gem a quick message saying how I probably will be on late tonight to help her out or what not in SF2. I kept it brief, but enough to say what I had to say.

Lotus (Online) : Hey, I’m going to be rather late getting on SF2 with you later, I’m helping out a friend with a project he and I are working on. I’ll hopefully see you tonight.

“Hey, whatcha doing”, PJ asks me in the call. 
“Nothing, letting a friend know I won’t be on”, I answer back at PJ. “So, this friend of yours, describe this friend”, PJ says to me.
“Well, we met in VRCinema. She was really nice”, I say before closing my Smoke tabs. 
“Oh, its a mare that you were talking to. I see how it is”, PJ says with a teasing tone. 
“See how what is”, I ask PJ.
“You know what I’m talking about Lotus, looking to get yourself an online girlfriend. Get a piece of that sweet online ass”, PJ says mockingly and letting out a few laughs.
“PJ, it’s not like that. I just met her. Plus I know the whole deal with online relationships. I’m not even going out with somepony and I know this”, I say to the snarky PJ. 
I know what I just said at the time is a bit hypocritical of me now, but shut up and listen to the rest of the story. Dick. 
“Well, enough about that. Let’s get to what we are here for”, PJ says finally getting on task.
“Right, let’s start this process”, I say to PJ beginning the slow start. 
The research was almost to a waste of time, taking over 3 hours. It wasn’t until we came up with a theory on how to reverse the gravity on the map: Some trigger of a glitch that causes your character to float in the air almost on command. Not a very good theory, I know, but it was the best we could really come up with at the time. Especially since we didn’t even load up SF2 for that time.
We sat there silently for a little while just trying to think about what to do now.
“Whelp, I know that I was big on trying to get started on this as soon as possible, but I am getting bored. I think I might go to bed for tonight. Need to refresh for tomorrow”, PJ says to me with a bored tone.
“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow. Hopefully we can actually play instead of theorize for hours”, I say to the sleepy PJ.
“Yeah, Hopefully. Have a good night Lotus”, PJ says to me.
“You too”, I respond before he leaves the call.
I was about to head over to my bathroom to take a warm night time shower when I had gotten a call in Kaos from a user by the name of “Cadillac Spades”. I didn’t recognize who that was at first until she picked up. 
“Hey, Looks like you are online”, The familiar voice of Gem said to me. 
“Gem? What happened to ‘Lord of Noodles’ as your name?”, I ask her confused on her name change. 
“It is from a story I read based on the Nuclear Wasteland game. It’s called Nuclear Wasteland: Project Contagion. The main character is named Cadillac Spades. Therefore I decided to change it to that name because I love the character so much”, Gem explained to me.
“Ooh. Might give it a read sometime”, I said to her. 
I felt there was an awkward silence between us after I said that. Before I could say anything to break the silence, Gem spoke first. 
“So um, yeah you know how I am a griffin and have feathers”, Gem asks me. I responded with a yes, knowing only a little bit about griffins. 
“Well this morning I woke and found my feathers were kind of falling off. Must be a bad sign of me tossing and turning at night”, Gem says to me.
“Yeah, that might be it. So uh, you want to play SF2? We could get you started on other classes other than the Speedster”, I say nervously to Gem. 
“No, to be honest I don’t like SF2. It’s boring and bland”, Gem says, shattering my heart with the travesty she just said about my favorite game. 
Before I could say something to argue, she lets out a loud fit of laughter.
“I’m kidding, but based on that reaction it was worth the tease”, Gem says with a chuckle at the end. I felt relieved when she said she was joking about not liking SF2
“For real though, I would like to play. I have a lot of fun playing with you. Plus I like talking with you”, Gem says to me loading up SF2. 
When she said that I kind of blushed a little. I never really had a mare, or griffin in this case, tell me that before. Like, I truly felt that she was my friend.
“Yeah, I like talking to you too. It’s nice talking to some griffin for a change”, I say nervously. 
“Well, are you ready Lotus? I’m ready to start when you are.”, Gem says to me waiting for me to load up SF2. 
“Yeah, Yeah, I’m ready. Just need to load up”, I say gathering myself. 
Once my game loaded, I began my fun night with Gem. I felt like for some reason I could take on the world if she turns out a great player. I had a feeling she felt the same way playing alongside me. It was strange this feeling I started feeling with her. Whatever it was, it made me feel like I was on top of the motherfucking world.