Chapter 10
Around a week I had been trying to relax and stay cool around Ruby, but with me never really having this strong of a feeling for someone it was really hard. Especially when I get nervous, I stammer like crazy. Almost to a point where I can barely get out what I am trying to say. It sounds crazy considering we never met face to face, but love is a crazy little thing.
In the time of me waiting for Ruby to get on so we could play SF2 together, I managed to find that PJ was online in Kaos. It had been a while since I last spoke with him since the whole discussion we had about the “hoax” of the Golden Fork. I really didn’t want that to be the end of our friendship, especially after all this time.
Anxiously, I wanted to check in with PJ to make sure he was doing ok since we last spoke. Sending him a call, I was pleasantly surprised to hear his voice again after all this time. This time actually sounding much happier since we last spoke.
“Lotus! Sweet Celestia it has been such a long time. How have you been?”, PJ asked me excitingly as I said hi to him.
“Much better now that I am speaking to you again.”, I said to PJ with glee.
“So, what have you been doing recently?”, PJ asked me.
“Nothing much really. Still playing SF2.”, I said to PJ who was curious to wonder what I had been doing.
“Huh, how is it? Still fun with that game now that everypony has calmed down about the ‘Fork’ that was made up?”, PJ said calling out the supposed hoax of SF2.
I still never believed in that hoax, despite me never actually really finding any real evidence on how to get past the invisible wall. Call me hard headed if you will, but I never will stop believing something until I find out the truth or I literally forget about it.
“Yeah, it’s still pretty fun. You know, once you get past the screaming foals in the game.”, I said to PJ.
“Hey, you were once a screaming foal in the game as well.”, PJ said reminding me of how young I was when he found me in the game.
“Yeah. So what are you up to?”, I asked PJ.
“Well, I am trying to get ready to go to preaching school. Yeah I know, shocking right?”, PJ said to me.
“Oh? So you are now liking preaching all of a sudden?”, I asked PJ confused.
“Oh Celestia no. I don’t want to do this. I am just learning to accept it for what it is.”, PJ explained to me.
Never would I have thought to see PJ giving up on his dream of being a wonderbolt to doing something he genuinely hated.
”Guess your parents are real happy about it.”, I said to PJ.
“Yeah, they were thrilled actually. My mom was almost on the verge of tears of joy when I finally agreed to go to preaching school.”, PJ said to me.
“Yeah, that must be nice.”, I said with a half hearted tone.
“Do your parents support you like that Lotus?”, PJ asked me.
I felt a very dense feeling in my insides from hearing PJ ask me something like that. Never once I mentioned my parents to anypony besides Peach. Not even with Ruby, a griffin I had been growing more and more close with.
“Lotus? You there?”, PJ asked me while I am contemplating silently.
“Oh, uh yeah. I’m here.”, I said to PJ waiting.
“Didn’t sound like it. Something wrong?”, PJ asked me curious to know what’s going on.
“No. Nothing’s wrong.”, I said clearly lying to PJ.
“Lotus, I know something is up. You can tell me if something is wrong.”, PJ said to clearly picking up on my lie. I decided to tell him, but not really.
“Well, let’s just say that my parents and I’s relationship is not very, good per say.”, I said reclusively to PJ.
“Oh, how so?”, PJ asked me wanting to know. I really didn’t want to delve into real reason why with PJ, not like this.
“I don’t want to talk about it, it’s really dicey.”, I said to PJ.
“Alright, but in case you change your mind.”, PJ said before I interrupted.
“Yeah, I know PJ.”, I said to PJ glancing over at my friends list to see Ruby was finally online.
“Hey, I hate to stop this conversation but my friend just came back on and I am going to play some SF2 with her.”, I said to PJ getting my settings ready for SF2.
“No, its fine. I was just about to leave anyway to pack up for school. Maybe before I leave this week you and I should play together. It has been a while.”, PJ said.
“Yeah. I would like to play with you. Maybe I could introduce you to my friend that replaced you for a little while.”, I said snarkingly to PJ.
“Bitch, nopony can replace me.”, PJ said chuckling to the remark. I chuckled and grinned at his fire back. I truly felt like it was back: The magic me and PJ had was back again. It made me feel relieved knowing that we were able to pick up where we left off.
“Well, I don’t want to keep your friend waiting for you Lotus, I’ll see you-”, PJ said before I interrupted again.
“Velvet.”, I said to PJ finally feeling comfortable telling him my real name.
“What did you just say?”, PJ asked me somewhat shocked.
“It’s my name. Red Velvet. You can call me that if you want.”, I said to PJ not regretting it.
“Wow, ok. I didn’t expect this. Guess I better be fair to you as well. Name’s Angel Dust.”, He said to me. “
Oh. So I guess your real name and Smoke name have something in common; They are both stupid to say.”, I said to Angel laughing.
“Oh and what about your name,’Velvet’. Sounds like a mare’s name to be honest.”, PJ fired back at me laughing.
“Yeah, but so does ‘Angel Dust’. Actually being honest it sounds like a pet’s name for you.”, I said jokingly to PJ.
We both laughed at each other’s insults for about five minutes until Angel finally had to leave.
“Ok, for real. I have to leave to start packing. Have fun Velvet.”, Angel said to me.
“I will. Hope to see you soon before you leave.”, I said to Angel before leaving the call.
Truly satisfied; Those were the words I could best describe myself after fixing everything with Angel. I really was put in a good mood now. Logging in I quickly messaged Ruby.
Lotus (Online) : Hey Ruby!!!!!
Gem (Online) : Henlo.
Lotus (Online) : How are you doing today?
Gem (Online) : Good, managed to get back my music theory test today. Got a B minus on it
Lotus (Online) : Oh that’s good
Gem (Online) : How about you?
Lotus (Online) : I’m actually doing rather fine. Now that you’re here
I physically cringed at that text.
“Celestia Velvet! Are you trying to make yourself a part of the friendzone?”, I said in my head after saying that line. I quickly tried to change the subject onto what I was hoping we would do tonight.
Lotus (Online) : So, are you ready to start playing?
Gem (Online) : Yeah, I have been a little anxious to start.
Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Why?
Gem (In Game: SF2) : Well, I think you might get bored to know why.
Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Well, I don’t know much about what goes on in class since I work. But I can assume that it’s
stressful.
Gem (In Game: SF2) : No Velvet, it’s not about school
Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Oh?
Gem (In Game: SF2) : It’s about my dad
Lotus (In Game: SF2) : What about him?
Gem (In Game: SF2) : Well, it’s not exactly about him. It’s about what he does
You see, he is a drinker.
Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Is that bad?
Gem (In Game: SF2) : Well, in most cases no. But on some occasions it can get a little rough.
Lotus (In Game: SF2) : What do you mean by rough?
Gem (In Game: SF2) : Do you remember when I was playing with you in SF2 that night when you heard some muffled noises in the background?
Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Yeah
Gem (In Game: SF2) : That was my dad walking in, he thought that I was in his room and kinda got angry before
stumbling back out into the hallway into his room.
Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Oh my. Has he done anything worse than that?
Gem (In Game: SF2) : No, thankfully not.
Hey, can we change topics from this?
Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Yeah, we can change topics. We can talk about what map to play tonight. Any map that you want to do in particular?
Gem (In Game: SF2) : Actually, I was thinking that maybe you could choose a map tonight.
Lotus (In Game: SF2) : Oh, Ok then. I have a map in mind.
That map that I had in mind was Double Street. Not because I was still looking for the Fork, it was mainly due to me getting bored of Capture the Flag mode and wanted something different to do instead of run to grab an objective. I had been playing a lot more Control that Cart modes since me and Ruby had started playing together. It was really a mode that Ruby was good at, whereas I was not and vice versa for me and Capture the Flag. Many of the popular maps of Control that Cart were a lot more complex and grand in scale. One such example is Pineapple Cove. It was a map that had you guard a cart on a hilly beach with treacherous terrains. On top of the objective, you would have to watch out for these falling pineapples that would kill you instantly. Don’t ask me why, it still doesn’t make sense to me either.
After getting into a Kaos call with Ruby (Who is now called Dokaven Hurp), we hopped straight into a game with our team having 2 DoughColts, 3 Scorchers (One being Ruby), 4 clueless Marksman, and 1 StuntMerc.
“Dammit! Always somepony has to be the one thing I like to play in this game.”, I said to myself in my head seeing this other player.
I never liked to play as the same class as some other player on the team I am on because it gives me a bit of anxiety when I mess up on that class and the other player doesn’t. Just some weird thing with me that has always lingered with me.
Instead of being like most players with this problem and deal with it by being toxic towards the player to switch, I decided to go with my 2nd best class, ShapeShifter. ShapeShifter is a more complex class to learn if you are a beginner player (Which explains the reason for 4 clueless ones in the beginning of the search for the Fork with me and Angel).
The class is essentially a spy to get the other team. The backstory of this class is that he was corrupted with Changeling magic and can use it to shapeshift and disappear into anything he wants. Along with this, he can be a hindrance to a BuildingBot. To explain quickly, BuildingBot is a robot that can produce turrets and health fields for teammates To target the utter bullshit of the turrets locking on to you, the ShapeShifter can disguise as a team member of that team to take the turret down using a dismantle spell. I was good at the class mainly because I always find a good hiding spot to lure out players to kill them. On the occasion I would try to dismantle turrets, but most often then not I would manage to get myself killed.
My loadout for the class was fairly standard, in fact it’s almost identical to the loadout I have for my StuntMerc. Almost completely stock except for the spell I have for cloaking where I can pick up ammo from dead players and stay cloaked longer. I had recently changed the look of my ShapeShifter by having him with a billycock hat covered with a picture drawing of another hat that changes with each class you kill. It’s my most expensive hat I have in the game. Luckily I hadn’t wasted a lot of money to get it. I got lucky in unboxing a couple of crates with hats in them to get this rare hat. Fun fact: only 200 were unboxed in the time the themed crate dropped, rendering the price to stay at a stable $200. It’s never dropped or raised a penny since the crate was limited. Which was good for me since I could show it off and rub it in Angel’s face when I first got it.
Once I spawned into the game, I was greeted to seeing Ruby’s Scorcher who was still wearing the same witch hat since she got it to replace the IntroKiller’s Fedora. It was the stock color hat. Not to hate on the hat, but it looks rather boring when it’s not painted a color.
“When are you ever going to paint the hat on your Scorcher? It could use some color.”, I said to Ruby jokingly.
“Whenever I can manage to get a stable job where I can spend money on this game. Unless you have some spare paint around, specifically pink.”, Ruby said to my snarky remark.
“Nah, sadly I don’t keep a surplus of paint. Wish I could.”, I said to Ruby.
As we were talking, we didn’t realize that the game had started as we noticed we were the only ones in spawn.
“Oh shit, the game started.”, Ruby said to me.
“Heh, guess we got caught up in a conversation too well, let’s play.”, I said to Ruby before moving out of spawn to begin playing.
The rounds were quick, like most matches on Double Street. Thankfully we were winning most of the rounds, with the other team maybe winning one or two rounds to try and catch up. It was around the end of the game where we had to win only 2 more rounds where I decided to explore a little bit of the map in Double Street. The map, as mentioned before, is huge. This map tends to have more easter eggs to find in this map due to its size. It’s been said to have over 100 different easter eggs hidden in the map. Not really sure if that is true about the map, but it’s plausible.
My exploration led me past the shed where the supposed last Fork was.
“If only I had enough time to look for it.”, I said to myself in my head walking towards it.
I managed to get to the switch that opened the shed and gazed upon it.
“Why would the devs put a button here of they have an invisible wall blocking the fork? It makes no sense.”, I said to myself looking at the button.
These thoughts kept drawing me away from going back to the match, as it took Ruby to draw my attention back to the match.
“Hey, You still in the game?”, Ruby asked me after she had died from a turret.
“Oh, yeah I’m here.”, I said to Ruby.
“Well, we need you to get back into the game. They have some turrets up and you are our only ShapeShifter to take them down.”, She said assertively.
“Alright, I’m coming. I’m by the shed.”, I said switching to the dismantle spell on my ShapeShifter.
That’s when I noticed something truly bizarre.
One thing to know about the ShapeShifter: when you go to use a dismantle a turret, you get a green overlay over the turret letting you know that you are in range to dismantle it. Then you go through this process using the spell by seeing a glow across your screen until the turret destroys itself. This is important to know because as I switched to the spell, the button began to have a blue overlay floating above it. Never in the game could you manage to get a blue dismantle overlay, let alone an overlay over anything but a BuilderBot building. I quickly stopped in my tracks to observe this to make sure it was not a glitch.
After waving my cursor over the button for a little bit, I quickly realized that this was no glitch in the game. I became curious to see what would happen if I tried to dismantle it with the spell. As I clicked my mouse to dismantle it, the overlay had changed. It was now a red overlay. I was still holding down the mouse to see if it would do something else. It took about 15 seconds, but soon the overlay then turned into a golden overlay before the game let out a train horn sound near the shed.
“Oh my fucking god! Did I just- Did I just figure it out?”, I said to myself quietly in complete shock and awe.
My eyes began widening from the sight of this. It was so simple to find, yet so well hidden. I was in awe for about 20 seconds before I saw that the clock was winding down; leaving me with only 45 seconds left in the round to find it before every player on the server finds it.
“I’ve got to go. RIGHT! FUCKING! NOW!”, I exclaimed to myself in my head.
I jetted as fast as I could to the otherside of the shed. There it was in direct sight: the door was open with a aura inside of it. Yep. It was exactly what I had thought just happened: I reversed the gravity in the shed.
“This is it, all hope is not completely lost.”, I began saying out loud to myself.
“Uh, Velvet. I think-”, Ruby said before her audio cuts as her connection was lost in the call.
Like a trap put in the tomb of a Daring Doo story, her audio was cut out as the door to the shed began to close.
“No no no no no NO!”, I screamed out loud in desperation as I witness my dreams fade away.
I was holding down my “w” key, trying to run towards the door before it closed. For a moment, I thought I had made it to the door as the auro was in clear view. But then, Just like last time when my dreams were in sight, an invisible wall blocked me from my goal once again.
“No no NO!”, I yelled out at my scream in pure frustration as I was stuck behind an invisible wall witnessing the doors close for good. I began to really start tearing up as I came to the realization of what had just happened. It was right there, Right fucking there. I was so close to be blocked once again by an invisible wall. As my tears finally began to come down, I was met with yet another sound: The victory sound of the round being won. I looked up to my screen with tears coming down to then witness another bizarre occurrence. The round wasn’t one by Red team or Blue team. It was instead a link to a website labeled,”WWFCD.com”.
`Letting my crying calm down, I moved my cursor over to the link to click on it. At the same time of me clicking the link and seeing what it led to, Ruby had managed to reconnect to the call in Kaos. Her breathing was rather heavy, more like a shocked breathing. My breathing was also the same, for what I had witnessed on the screen was truly mesmerizing beyond belief. The website was a link to the SF2 website page with no other pages or tabs at the top, just a title that read,”Winner winner, fried chicken dinner”. I wasn’t in shock and awe by the text below the title, but rather what was below the smaller text is what truly blew me away:
Winner of the Coveted Honorary Fork of Winners : Gem
“Velvet, I think I managed to find something. Something big”.