Spending the night in his old room in his parents' house wasn't as hard as Singer had expected it to be. In fact, it was quite nice. His room had been left the same way it was when he'd packed up and left home four years earlier. Though he'd noticed that his journal was missing. He tried eagerly to find it, but with no avail after a half hour of searching before finally going to bed.
Most of the night in his old bed was quite pleasant. He remembered how his mom had always put care into keeping the sheets clean and how they always smelled fresh. She'd even come in the room every week to dust it, or at least that's what she told him. And knowing her, she probably did. Even when Singer wasn't present, she was still taking care of him in some way or form. For the dusting, he was grateful because dust set off his allergies fairly easily.
As peaceful as his sleep was, nothing could prepare him for the nightmares he'd have. He tossed and turned in his bed, sweat beading from his forehead, trying to escape the nightmare within his sleep. Kicking his blankets everywhere and even tossing his pillow aside, knocking over a few of his action figures and books on his dresser.
............
Singer trotted down the streets of Cloudsdale, looking for anypony. But Cloudsdale was empty. For what reason, he wasn't sure. He became scared as he continued to look around the eerie setting. Sadly, not a soul was to be found at all. It wasn't like this town to be empty on such a nice day.
The setting took an abrupt turn for a grimmer tone when the sky suddenly turned red. Singer yelped like a dog in fear as he twitched and looked around, taking note of his surroundings. Nothing.
He turned his head to every direction once more before his eyes landed on a figure, slowly walking his way. The figure walked normally, but lagged in it's approach. But as it got closer, the silhouette was beginning to bear resemblance more like his own. Singer flinched as his doppelganger continued to inch closer into the light. As he did so, Singer saw him in better detail. This stallion was a dark purple with an orange mane and tail.
Wait... where had he seen that bef-..... After a bit of thought, he vaguely remembered a dream that had a similar, if not identical character in it. It looked eerily similar to him, but why? And why was this thing back in his dreams?
"Alright you... no running this time." Singer said adamantly, as he slammed his hoof to the ground and staring at the figure with a scowl. "I want to know who you are, and why you feel the need to be so secretive and creepy."
The figure let out a maniacal chuckle and trotted away, making Singer begin to hover after him. However, he did stop and turn back around to face him, causing Singer to freeze in place, and he said these words: "The mirror will give you the answer...."
With that, he ran towards the setting sun as it was disappearing behind the clouds and he was gone in a flash... Singer tried to pursue him, but was cut off when the sky returned to it's natural state and he was blinded by the abrupt reappearance of the sun.
............
Singer awoke from his dream sweating, and breathing heavily. He made a mental note not to scream, even in the lack of alertness of just waking up. He didn't want to wake his parents. Without thinking, he got up and walked to the bathroom to wash his face. He had to wipe the sweat off his brow so he wouldn't soil his nice clean room.
But he was startled when he looked up and noticed that his reflection looked like that pony. It was the bathroom in Las Pegasus all over again... He tried not to remember that. The reflection stared cruelly at him, smirking. His blood red eyes staring into Singer's blue eyes, trying to intimidate him. Singer scowled at the dark purple colored stallion, who was smirking at him.
"What do you want?" Singer finally gathered up the gall to ask, with his most confident facial expression ever. He had his chest sticking out as well, to let this thing know he meant business. "You some kind of ghost, demon or something like that?"
"Nope! Just a really bad dream. A dream that would have kept quiet if you hadn't begun to act so freakin happy again!" it replied.
Singer glared at the apparition, trying to stare it down. "I'm not afraid of you!" He said. "I don't know what you have against me, but you're not going to get the better of me. Especially not since everything is finally going my way. I got my family back, and I'm not going to let you ruin it!"
"But... there remains one other pony who means a great deal to you..." the evil pony replied.
Singer glared at him, as he knew who he was referring to. "You stay away from her, you... you...."
"Fortunately for you, I cannot hurt her. I'm stuck in your brain. I'd rather be elsewhere, but we are stuck with each other. Ha ha." He chuckled.
"You don't seem too disappointed." Singer quipped.
"Don't mistake my cynical humor for contentment, boy!" it said. "I hate it in this stupid brain. First chance I get, I'm breaking out of here!"
"Good luck!" said Singer. "Revealing yourself was a horrible move. Because now that you've done so, I now know who you are. And I'm never letting you out, and I'm definitely not going to let to let you hurt anypony!"
"I have my ways of getting what I want. I will do what I need to do." it said again, sternly. "There's very little you can do about it either way, so you best get ready for it because it's going to rock your world!"
"We'll see about that!" Singer bellowed angrily. He quickly remembered to keep it down and he mentally slapped himself for raising his voice. Last thing he wanted was to wake his parents and have them see him talking to himself. As he looked back up to tell it off again, he saw that it had vanished and his normal reflection had replaced it. He turned around and looked again, and got nothing. Darn! Oh well... Good riddance to that thing.
He splashed more water on his face and then went back to bed. He didn't want to at first, for the fear of being bothered by that thing again, but once he'd gotten under the covers and fallen asleep, he was fine and found the rest of his slumber quite peaceful, in spite of what he'd just went through.
But that didn't mean it was over by any means.
.......................
The smell of his mother's pancakes woke Singer up from his sleep, and he eagerly got up and rushed to the kitchen to give her a big hug. Singer slightly surprised her when he'd shown up from around the corner, but she welcomed his loving embrace. He felt happy to be back and to have her to talk to and to hug whenever he wanted. The events of the night before were completely overshadowed by the remembering of what had happened with his dad as well.
Being able to put aside their differences was what Singer had hoped for. Though he was less optimistic about the chances of it actually happening, it made it that much more special and meaningful when it actually did. Now if he could just get through the rest of the day, and get up the nerve to finally go talk to Violet.
"Are you okay, sweetie?" inquired Belle to Singer. "I heard you in the bathroom, shouting a little last night."
"Um... yeah. Just a late night sleep walk to the bathroom. I was probably giving myself a pep-talk or something. No biggie." he said with the most sincere smile he could concoct. "I apologize if I disturbed you and Dad."
"Not at all. I fell back to sleep when your shouting stopped, and your dad never even moved. I'm just glad that you're okay." She bought it. "I guess you're still a little nervous about talking to Violet, huh?"
"Very..." he admitted.
"Well, I really doubt you have anything to worry about, baby. Violet is your friend and always will be. I'd be willing to bet she's looking forward to seeing you."
"You think so?" Singer asked. "What makes you so sure?"
"Call it a hunch..." she said, not willing to give anything away. It would have been easy for her to tell him of Violet's feelings of affection for him, but she knew she couldn't fight this battle for him. No matter how much she wanted to make this easy for him, her gut feeling was to let the two friends sort this out, and if it led to something more than friendship, it would happen because of each other. Not because she stepped in like a super-mom. "Just know that Violet has and always will be your friend. No matter how things appear right now. True friends always find their way back to each other. And I've never seen two friends more true to each other than you two."
"Yeah, some friend I turned out to be..." he said cynically.
"It's not all your fault, Singer. You know that." she said looking upon him with motherly eyes. An expression that said 'I'm your mother and I know these things'. Belle had never steered him wrong before. Why should this time be any different?
Besides, Singer knew deep down that she was right. He knew how he felt about her absence in his life. It's highly likely she feels the same.
As each minute began to beat closer and closer to that fateful moment, his heart began to race faster the more he thought about it. Singer knew that the longer he avoided it, the more his nerves would begin to make him anxious. It was time to venture out to the 'real of the unknown', as he had decided to go ahead and head out the door. This was it, he thought in his head.
Was he being silly? Maybe. Were his fears warranted or founded? Possibly. He wasn't sure, but all of this worrying had built up to this moment. He decided, eventually to suck it up and play it as cool as he could. After all, this was his best friend he was talking about. But... why was he so nervous?
You realize how pointless this all is, don't you? He heard the voice of that pony from his nightmares as if it was his conscious. He'd never heard it talk to him before, and especially not so audible. He shook it off as he continued to trudge over to Violet's house. You hurt her, and now you're paying for it. Why bother risk hurting her again?
"Shut up you stupid...THING!" Singer muttered as he shook his head again. But the voice wouldn't shut up until he hit his head repeatedly against a light pole until it briefly knocked him out. "Ow..." he said softly as he passed out on the ground.
He woke up lying on a bench that sat along the path he was walking on. Apparently somepony had saw him lying on the ground and had the decency to help him remain that way on the bench. Why they didn't just take him to the hospital, he didn't know. But was silently glad that they didn't. He didn't want to delay this any further. That voice appeared to have ceased it's blethering, much to Singer's joy. He then proceeded en route to Violet's house after yet another diversion, though he staggered a bit when he got up to walk. Seriously, what was up with all of these distractions?
...........................
Finally! This was it. The moment that he'd been building up to for well over a year was finally here. He began to feel nervous again, his heart beating like a snare drum on a drum set. But he inhaled and exhaled deeply to snap himself out of it. It was now or never. He raised his hoof, and knocked on the door. He stood there for well over two minutes afterwards. Perhaps out of nervousness, he'd not knocked hard enough. So he did it again. This time, he got a response. He could hear the faint sounds of hoof prints approaching the door. He stood back a couple of steps as he waited for the door to open.
When the door went ajar, Singer could make out the shape of the pony who'd answered the door before it became better visible. It wasn't Violet, but Rain, her little brother. A colt who was about a little less than half his size. He recognized Singer instantly.
"Hey... Singer... what brings you in the neighborhood?" he asked curiously, acting a little stunned to see him. Singer didn't blame him.
"Hi, Rain." he replied. "How are you doing?"
"Pretty good. You?"
"Much better now that I'm back home, for sure."
"You moved back to Cloudsdale?"
"Well... no. I live in Ponyville now, but it's not far from here at all." he informed. "How are things, here?"
"Everything is a-okay!" Rain said with a wink. Rain used to be a little shy like Violet used to be, but since the last time he saw him he'd become more out going, and rowdy, albeit mildly. It wasn't just Violet he missed. He'd also missed this little guy. He'd almost been like a brother to Singer when they were growing up. In fact, Rain wouldn't have been bothered at all if Singer had considered him as such. Even though Rain had grown up a little since he'd left four years ago, Rain still seemed to remember him and that bond seemed to have the potential to remain intact. "But I'm guessing that I'm not the real reason you came here."
"I will say that you're part of the reason, but no... not the full extent of the reason." he admitted. "I feel like I've done wrong toward Violet, and I really want to right it so we can be friends again." Singer's face began to show signs of forlorn as he'd said that.
Rain stared at him briefly with a compassionate expression. He knew that Violet missed him, and since hearing about the letter that Singer had sent her, he knew that he missed her. He knew that what he was about to do was the right thing. "She isn't here." he said.
"Oh..." Singer said disappointingly.
"But she is at the flower shop. Why, I don't know, but I really think you should go see her." Rain said.
"I will." Singer said. "Thank you, Rain. And it was good seeing you again, little buddy."
"It was good to see you too. See you around, Singer." Rain said as he walked back inside and shut the door behind him.
Singer breathed in and out slowly once more before spreading his wings and took off off of the front step of the house. Now... this was it. Hopefully she'd be there. He didn't think he could handle any more suspense.
...............
A short flight to the flower shop, a building that resembled a green house, and he was there. He noted the sign on the door said "closed", but the door was slightly opened. He knew that somepony was inside, and he hoped that it was the somepony he wanted to see, and not some robber or a random pony.
He cautiously entered the building, and began scoping the area. He noted that all of the shelves were empty, and a few of the signs that lay on the ground said "clearance sale". Sadly, it looked as if she'd had to close the shop back down. This saddened him. He reflected back on the promise he'd made before he'd left that he'd come over from time to time to help her with her shop. But it appeared that he'd been too late to make good on that.
He'd been so deep into thought that he hadn't heard the hoof steps coming from the back storage room of the building. The hoof steps got even closer to the door that was right behind him, until the pony behind the steps revealed herself to be Violet. He was startled by a sudden shattering of what sounded like a clay pot behind him. He turned around to see an equally, if not even more, stunned Violet standing there. They probably stood there a good minute and a half before either of them uttered a word.
"Oh... um... I'm sorry, Violet. I didn't mean to..." he staggered over himself.
"Um... no, I'm sorry I just..." she staggered as well. "I just wasn't expecting to see you...standing there."
There were a couple of minutes of awkward silence. They both stood there, looking at each other.
"I should have knocked, I know. But I wasn't thinking straight. I just wanted to see you so badly." he said.
"I know... I read your letter." she said. "I just haven't had a chance to respond to it, yet... I've been... busy."
Singer looked around and could tell that that was a fib. He looked down sadly, this was awkward for her. He knew it. He'd done something wrong and she was still upset with him over it.
But little did he know that she was just as nervous about seeing him as he was about seeing her. She could tell that he knew that she was fibbing. "I mean, I just... didn't know what to..." she trailed off.
"Say?" Singer finished for her. She nodded in response.
"But I do, if you're willing to hear it." said Singer. Violet nodded again, allowing him to proceed.
"I'm sorry..." he said, sincerely. "I'm sorry for everything that happened. I'm sorry for running away from Cloudsdale and not telling you. I'm sorry for breaking my promise to help you with this place. I'm sorry for making you sad. And above all, I'm sorry for taking your friendship for granted."
Violet smiled warmly at Singer. It was as if being with him, hearing him say it, rather than reading it in a letter made it all that more real to her. She knew that he was sorry for it all, and that he really missed her, but it was as if him saying it brought a new sense of understanding. Her smile then turned into a frown as she too felt like she too, needed to issue an apology as well.
"While I do appreciate that, I'm not entirely guiltless either." she admitted. "I'm sorry for shutting you out when you tried to reach out to me. I've been dealing with certain issues regarding... well you... lately that made it really hard to be around at the time, although I wanted to be there and support you the whole time. I just had some conflicted feelings..."
Singer cocked his eye brow and looked quizzically at his friend. "Conflicted feelings? I'm not sure that I follow... Oh... I get it. It had something to do with what Serenity said to you, didn't it?"
Violet began to grow quieter. He was treading closer across the line of awareness to what should have been obvious. But at this time, Violet was scared to death of him finding out, now. She was afraid of it being the final piece to fall out of their friendship. But at the same time, she felt like he deserved to know.
"Hey..." he said approaching her, breaking the awkwardness of the situation and acting instead, like the friend she deserved to have as he put his hoof under her chin and lifted her slightly hung face up to his revealing her pretty violet colored eyes that glistened in the small amount of light that lit the room. "I never stopped needing you. You were never a distraction. Quite the contrary, actually. You were part of what made me stronger. We worked off of each other for the better through the worse. Though we were different, we worked together to make our differences coincide with each other and we made a beautiful friendship. Something that I'm not about to let anything get in the way of. I realize how important you are to me. We're more than just school friends, we're best friends and that's all that matters. Nopony understands me like you do."
Violet couldn't contain herself. She knew that he was right. She couldn't fight it any longer. She began to tear up something fierce and then she hugged him in a tight embrace. None of their hugs had ever been this meaningful. She felt like she'd found a missing piece of herself, as weird as that sounded as she hugged Singer, in an obvious acceptance to his friendship.
"You're right..." she said with tears streaming down her cheeks and onto Singer's shoulder. "You're right. I'm so sorry. I just got to a point where I was blinded by..." she stopped and looked at him. His facial expression turned to a puzzled one.
"Blinded by what, Violet?"
"My feelings for you..." she'd finally let it out after a brief pause. "I-I've always l-liked you in more ways than one." She screwed her eyes shut for a few moments, but Singer was still standing there. The reaction that she'd feared he'd have wasn't happening. When she finally opened her eyes, she saw on his face a look of realization, and possible embarrassment for not realizing this sooner.
"It all makes sense now..." he said as countless memories went through his mind rapidly, as he realized just how obvious it should have been. "Violet I'm sorry that I didn't..."
"That's okay, Singer..." she said quickly. "If you don't return the feelings, it doesn't matter. We're friends again. That's all I need."
"But... I don't know that I necessarily don't return the feelings. I don't know. I've actually pondered on this myself, but I was afraid that if I tried it, that it would..."
"Ruin our friendship?" she finished.
"Yeah..." said Singer.
"Me too." she said. "That's why I never said anything before."
"Fortunately it doesn't have to be that way." he said, recollecting a conversation he'd had about this subject. "A good friend of mine told me that a relationship is kind of like a friendship. A lot like it, really. Only it's more intimate. And the obvious, honesty and faithfulness to each other. Plus I've done a bit of reading on the subject as well."
"Singer, you know that I'd love nothing more than to be with you. But... this is all so sudden." even though she wanted to be with him, she wasn't willing to jump into such a big commitment like this just because of a warm and fuzzy reunion after so long apart. She wanted it to be genuine and real, as it should be.
"I agree completely." he said. "I'd really like to try and get to know you as a friend again, first. Maybe after a while of getting to know each other, we'll see about... dating. Because I'm very much open to it as well."
"Y-You are?!?" she asked with a certain hint of boosted happiness in her tone. She wasn't sure if he was really considering it at first. She'd thought he was merely trying to make her feel better about it all, but to know that he might feel the same way was really beginning to get her excited.
"Of course. But as I said-"
"And I agree. I want to make sure that this is right as well." she said.
Singer smiled. "Then it's settled."
"I guess it is." a playful look suddenly adorned her face. "But you better come hang out with me a lot!"
"Count on it, Vi!" he said in an upbeat voice. He couldn't believe it! He'd successfully won his friend back over. Singer's happiness was unchartable at this time. Not only had he gotten his family back, but he'd gotten his best friend.
"Are you free now?" he asked, hoping that she wasn't.
"Well, I'm not exactly selling anything, and the things I have to do can wait til later." she said. "Want to go to the park or something?"
"Sounds good to me." Singer smiled as his stomach began to rumble.
"Or maybe we should get something to eat first." she giggled, noting his stomach rumblings.
Singer blushed with embarrassment. "Even better idea." He chuckled as he followed Violet out of the shut-down flower shop and took to the sky. "We can catch up there, as well. I have so much to tell you."
"And I can't wait to hear all about it!" she replied, beaming happily. "Where would you like to eat?"
"How about my mom and dad's place for old time's sake? I'm sure my mom would be more than happy to fix us something for lunch."
"That's a great idea! This day just keeps getting better, and better!" Violet said as she took off. "Last one there is a rotten apple!"
"Hey, come on now!" he said with a chuckle as he took off after her, while she giggled and continued on. "Come on, that's cheating!"
.................
Lunch at Singer's parents' house was great. It was great to have everypony back together like they were in the old days. His mom was happy to fix the two friends some cheese fries as they all reminisced on the past, and looked forward to the future. Singer had already made plans to come to Cloudsdale every day for the next week. When Singer told his mom about what had been said earlier, she was excited for both of them. She was glad that they were all good as far as their friendship, but secretly hoped that they would decide to get together and be more than friends. Only time would tell.
Also during the lunch, Singer and Violet exchanged stories about what had happened. Singer even told Violet about how he'd broken up with Serenity, and how he'd been influenced to leave Las Pegasus, and wound up in Ponyville. Her reaction to hearing about the the injuries he sustained in his crash landing mirrored Belle's. Violet told him about a few of the dates that she went on, but stopped after a certain point so that Singer wouldn't think that she was trying to manipulate the situation to get him into a relationship. Though in all likelihood, they were delaying the inevitable.
Singer, however, didn't seem to mind hearing about the dates she'd been on. He was glad that she'd at least tried to move on. Though he did feel necessary to apologize once again for putting her through that. She'd shrugged it off, and said that it was okay. She was glad that they had put all of that jazz behind them.
They spent at least three or four hours talking before Violet had to go back home. Singer offered to fly back with her so they could talk a little bit more before she had to go back in.
The two pegasus friends were laughing when they'd landed at her doorstep in front of her house. They exchanged warm smiles again, hoping that this wasn't a dream. Fortunately this was far from it, this was really happening.
"Singer, today was a great day." she said.
"I agree. I'm so thankful that I can still say that I have you as a friend." Singer replied.
"Our friendship was never in danger" said Violet. "But I do thank you for coming back. I really missed you." She said as she nuzzled him on the cheek.
He didn't protest, but he nuzzled back. "I missed you too." He said. "Life without you was kinda rough. I guess we're stuck with each other, no matter what."
"Indeed." she smiled warmly. "Thanks for not giving up on me."
"That's what friends do." He said, as he realized that he was still leaning up against her. "Oops... sorry about that." He chuckled, while his cheeks flushed bright red.
She reacted the same way. "Yeah, me too." She smiled awkwardly.
Her mind briefly trailed off as the two stood there. She went back to when they'd first met back in the first grade, and how Singer had written about it in his journal. Wait! Singer's journal.
"Oh! Hold on a second, Singer!" she said as she rushed inside. She wasn't gone for maybe a minute and a half before she came rushing back out the door with a small red book under her wing. Singer recognized it well.
"Is that...?" he said, pausing mid-sentence.
"Your journal." she said as she pulled it out from under her wing and gave it to him. "I'm sorry that I took it with me."
"No, it's okay. I'm glad that you had it. I wouldn't have wanted anypony else to." He smiled again.
"I may or may not have put a few entries in there myself, while you were gone. I hope you don't mind."
"Anything too personal?"
"Now that I've admitted my... feelings, there are no secrets between us now." she smiled. "Read at your own risk." She winked at him.
Singer moved closer to her and kissed her on the cheek. It surprised her, but she didn't protest. She kind of liked it. She looked up at his smiling face quizzically to get clarification.
"What was that for?" she asked.
"It's how we ended our prom night, remember?" he replied. "That was probably one of the best memories I had with you."
"Yes... how could I forget?" she said. "And just like that night, I believe that it's time that I go inside."
"Yeah, I'd better be off as well. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yes. Yes you will."
"Until then, see you later."
"Bye!" she said as she walked into the already ajar door.
Singer took off to spend the rest of the evening back home, before flying back to Ponyville that night. The day before had been wonderful, but the day he'd had today was twofold what that one was.
I was happy. I may have been before that day, but I knew for sure that I was happy. I'd found my home yet again. It was always with my family and my best friend, Violet Petals. Memories of the past were great to relive, but at that point I was really excited for the future and what it had in store for me, next.