Violet awoke from the most fitful night of rest she ever remembered having. Even more pleasant was finding Zen still snoozing beside her when she turned on the bed to get more comfortable after she woke up. The movement made him stir and he smiled when he looked upon her. She smiled right back.
“Good morning, Zen.”
“Right back at you, Vivi.” She was glad he remembered her nickname. He booped her muzzle with a hoof and she returned the touch. Then Zen upped the ante by poking her multiple times, to which Violet snagged a pillow and walloped him with it. What resulted was a pillow fight the likes of which left the both of them panting and with frazzled manes and tails.
After they took a moment of respite, Vivi smirked and threw her pillow at Zen. When he raised his pillow to block it, thus obscuring his vision of the mare, she darted after him and tackled him, landing on two pillows and the pleasantly bemused stallion underneath.
“Well then,” he said, chuckling. “Hi there.”
She poked her head above the pillows and squeed. “Oh hai.”
“What in the world is going on here?” a quite bewildered Sonorous asked at the doorway. Zen and Violet turned to him and all was silent. The mare blinked and the stallion she was on top of shrugged with a sheepish grin.
“Nevermind, just…” he trailed off and waved a hoof dismissively. “Get yourselves cleaned up. There’s a lot of work to do today.”
Zen nodded several times and Violet giggled as Sonorous shook his head and stalked off. With him gone, Violet returned her attention to Zen and booped his muzzle.
“I win!” she announced and pushed herself up from the pillows. She stretched and ran a hoof through her hair, widening her eyes at the many clumps in her mane. It was time for a bath.
“I didn’t know we were competing,” Zen mumbled before tossing the pillows aside. Violet merely tossed him a passing glance and strolled out of the room, flicking her tail this way and that. She looked to her left and saw a door she hadn’t noticed before. A quick couple steps and she recognized it as the bathroom. Perfect.
She meandered inside and shut the door behind her, locking it. It wasn’t too big, but it was well-stocked with various cleaning supplies such as shampoos, conditioners, combs, and of course… a mirror.
“Oh… my…” she breathed as she took stock of herself. The sheer amount of directions in which her hair stood up shocked her. She could have sworn her tail was bent in one spot and her coat was uneven almost all around. Wasting no time, Violet got to work sprucing herself up. It took about half an hour, but by the time she was done, she gazed upon herself in the mirror once more and grinned.
Her mane had been combed and shampooed and it draped straight down, curling slightly at the bottom. Her tail had received similar treatment and she flicked it back and forth, pleased with how smoothly her locks of hair flourished. Her coat gleamed as a fresh pane of glass against the sun. She was happy with the way she looked; in fact, she wanted to take a picture. Violet lacked a camera, however, and thought to ask Zen or Sonorous for one. Making her way to the door, she unlocked it and exited the room.
Almost at once, she found them conversing with each other on the couches, and in rather hushed tones. However, when Zen noticed her presence and turned, he made evident his surprise by all but forgetting his conversation with Sonorous. His jaw went somewhat slack and he stared. His reaction humbled Violet and she blushed a little. Sonorous nudged his friend with a hoof and rolled his eyes when he just continued gazing in awe at the mare before the both of them.
“Did you sleep well, Violet?” Sonorous instead asked.
“I did,” she said with a smile. “Thanks to your friend there.”
“Yeah…” the pegasus let the statement drift. “Hey, Violet, can I have a word with you? In private, that is.”
After failing to conceal her surprise, Violet nodded and followed Sonorous to his room, looking back at Zen. He gave a weak wave and Violet giggled, mouthing the words, “I’ll be right back,” before closing the door behind her. His room wasn’t unlike Zen’s, if a bit cleaner. With the aid of sunlight streaming through one window, she noted a bed, a couple dressers, a closet, and a bookshelf. Her attention was ripped from those objects, however, when Sonorous said in a low voice, “I’m sorry, Violet.”
She turned her head and stared at the pegasus. “What?” she asked in a whisper, disbelief coating her tongue.
“I am sorry,” he repeated. “I shouldn’t have so quickly judged you. I just saw this straggling mare from the country and I immediately thought…” he decided to leave the sentence and shook his head. “Anyway, the important thing is, you make Zen happy.”
Violet blushed once more and looked away. “You really think so?”
“Violet, I haven’t seen him this happy in months,” he said flatly. “Ever since he got laid off by his old contractor, he’s found it difficult to see sunshine even in a clear sky. But then you come along and…” he chuckled and sighed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he could swear the sun was shining even in the darkest of thunderstorms. And I can see why.”
She gasped and faced Sonorous, feeling a surge of appreciation for the pegasus. Her eyes burned and she had to look away, searching for something, anything else upon which to look. Violet couldn’t face him, couldn’t face what he was saying. As lovely as it was—and, indeed, it was lovely—she was still nervous. Still uncertain. Still scared.
“I… I don’t…” she struggled to say. She possessed no words for what she was feeling. It was some mixture of bliss and agony, a brew that churned and ate away at each other. She could only hope that the bliss won out.
“Vivi, he cares about you,” Sonorous mumbled. “A lot. And I have to be sure you won’t do anything to hurt him.”
Violet inhaled sharply and almost shrieked, “No! I would never hurt him!” She found herself panting and struggled to contain herself. “Look, I had a friend once. His name… actually, I think Zen deserves to hear this story as well.” With nothing else, she got up and opened the door, departing for the living room.
Zen looked up from something that didn’t warrant half of her attention at that moment and was about to say something when he noticed how tense Violet was. “Are you okay?” Violet sat down next to him and sighed. “Yeah, I just have something to tell you… and Sonorous, as soon as he gets out here.”
By the time she had finished her sentence, the pegasus had exited his room, shut the door, and was making his way to the couch.
“What’s this about?” Zen asked again, worry flashing in his eyes.
“You want to know where I got ‘Vivi’ from?” she countered. Violet could tell that got his attention, judging from his immediate silence and enrapture. Sonorous had sat down by then and Violet looked from one to the other; she ended by just staring at the table. She couldn’t believe what she was about to do. Never in a million years had she even considered divulging what she was then preparing for. But with Zen’s tender care and Sonorous’s concern for his friend… she couldn’t bear to keep it to herself anymore. They deserved to know.
“Ten years ago,” she began, trembling. Even starting was difficult. Zen put a hoof on her shoulder, though, and she felt a surge of affection for him and hoped to show it by smiling. He returned it and when Violet glanced and Sonorous, she saw him grinning. Emboldened, she began again.
“Ten years ago, I started school. I didn’t want to, but my parents made me, said that they wanted me to have a better life than the root farm on which I grew up. So, I went. I hated it immediately and wondered how I would ever get by.”
Violet felt tears pouring and she made no move to stop them. It was absolving.
“Then I met this little colt named Quiet Quill…” she sighed. “He was wonderful. He made me feel better. He talked down to a bully, gave me a reason to go to school, and just… made me feel a little less lonely.”
Zen had grasped Violet’s hoof and squeezed. When she noticed, she squeezed back harder.
“We grew close. The school year passed by more quickly and before I knew it, it was January. Halfway done. But we’d had storms for a couple days and one storm decided it was just time to screw with us. A couple bolts of lightning struck the school and ignited it. We tried to get everyone evacuated but…” she shook her head and grimaced. Neither of the stallions spoke, just let her take her time. A couple of minutes passed before Violet found the strength to continue; it was Zen, again, who wiped away her tears.
“I had gotten out of the school but I noticed that not everybody had got out. I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving anyone in there so with Quill and Petal Dance, another friend, we went back inside. We got as many ponies as we could out, including the filly who had bullied me before. But… we weren’t professionals. We were only foals. And I got tired. So I left and Petal accompanied me while I rested. Quill, on the other hoof…”
And here, Violet actually whimpered. Her shoulders rocked back and forth and she felt Zen’s foreleg stroking her back firmly. The motion comforted her but it wasn’t until she saw Sonorous holding her other hoof that she felt a wave of relief wash over her. She didn’t know why they were putting forth so much effort to comfort her but she appreciated it far more than she thought they knew. Taking a deep breath, she picked up her tale once again.
“Quill didn’t make it. He had gotten pinned by falling debris and burned. I got to his stretcher before he got pulled away and got to hear his last words. ‘I want you to be loud, Vivi. Live long, live full, and live loud, because… even though I was quieter than you, I was loud enough for you… and that’s enough for me.’”
Violet felt her stomach lurching but she didn’t stop. She was gaining momentum and would be over with this one way or another.
“I went into a deeper seclusion than before I had met him. I started seeing him everywhere. Almost everything reminded me of him. For ten… years… I dealt with that. By the time I was sixteen, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to leave. I told my parents and they tried to stop me but I wouldn’t let them. They didn’t know how much I needed to leave. And I left… and then I met you guys.”
The end of her story was so abrupt and candid that the two of them gasped. When Violet looked up and gazed at them, she was astonished to find tears marring their faces as well. She had no idea her story was so powerful. Zen hugged her fiercely and she felt something wet trickle down her back.
“Why are you crying so much?” she asked, hugging him back with just a tinge of apprehension. She hoped it wasn’t because they blamed her. In fact, the moment she considered that, she widened her eyes in horror and felt her heart drop.
“Because you suffered alone,” Zen said very deliberately. Violet clenched her eyes shut, her teeth together, and her forelegs around the earth pony stallion. Something within her snapped and she felt the largest wave of pathos ever assault her. She came undone. She let go. Violet cried into his chest with everything she had, everything she had bottled up, and everything she had spent the last ten years convincing herself she didn’t have. For several minutes, she let the emotions flow, overflow, burst every last dam she had until the reservoir had emptied and she was dry. Even when she had finished, she just rested her head on Zen’s shoulder and rocked back and forth with him. She remembered her promise, however, and finally pushed herself from Zen and looked him straight in the eye.
“Quill used to call me Vivi,” she whispered. Zen’s eyes widened and he breathed, speechless. Violet looked over to Sonorous and took a deep breath.
“I would never do anything to hurt Zen, ever, Sonorous. I know what it’s like to have a broken heart. That’s why I went back into the school after it had ignited. I just thought… ‘What will those parents do if they ever find out their foal died…?’” she said, sighing. “I still don’t have an answer.”
Sonorous nodded slowly, putting his hoof on her shoulder. His eyes dropped, however, and he pointed to her flank. “Is that why your cutie mark…”
Violet blinked and looked to it. She’d forgotten about it. As soon as she processed its existence, however, something else came back to her.
You got it before Quill died, Petal had said.
She gasped and put her muzzle to her mouth. “I got it before Quill died… all this time, I thought it was a result of my failure to save him, but… I got it… before he died. That means…”
My talent isn’t breaking hearts… “My talent is protecting from broken hearts!”
Violet inhaled sharply and laughed. She laughed good and she laughed hard. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world, and she reveled in it. Zen and Sonorous looked at her bemusedly but she waved a hoof at the both of them and told them not to worry about it.
“I just… I’ve never felt so good,” she giggled again. “Or rather, I can’t remember feeling so good.”
Zen smiled and said, “Good to hear, Vivi.” Sonorous nodded in agreement. Her mind was racing. She was in such a good mood, too, that when there was a knock at the door, she rushed toward it and swung it open without a second thought.
Violet was greeted by a burly, tan earth pony who raised an eyebrow at her before shoving her aside, striding inside, and glaring at both Zen and Sonorous.
“You got my money?” he asked irritably.