//------------------------------//
// On the Face of It 
// Story: The Velveteen Mask 
// by Crystal Wishes 
//------------------------------//

Velvet walked into the Mare Contraire with hesitancy guiding her hooves into awkward, short steps.  She glanced around to see the usual patrons as well as new faces, but her gaze passed over them all searching for Nightingale.  The mare in question sat in a booth on the other side of the bar, sipping a drink and chatting with another mare.

She paused mid-step.  This was a mistake.  Nightingale was busy.  No, actually, she was waving.  She was looking at Velvet, smiling, and waving her over while the mare she had been talking to left.  Velvet put a smile on her face and walked forward.  It was too late now to turn back, but it wasn't too late to think of something else to talk about.

Unfortunately, her mind drew a complete blank and, as she sat down across from Nightingale, she let out a heavy sigh of defeat.  "Hi, Nightingale."

"Wow!"  Nightingale laughed.  "Hello to you, too!"

Velvet offered a light grin.  Already off to a great start.  "Sorry, it's not you, really, it's just... well, you."  She rubbed the back of her neck.  "I thought we agreed to pretend we never saw each other here after the first time?"

Nightingale jabbed a hoof at her.  "You said that.  I said 'okay'.  Then you walked away!  I didn't necessarily agree to your terms and conditions."  She giggled, shifting the hoof to instead rest her chin on it.  "Okay, so, now that you're here, spill the apples."

This was it.  Velvet crossed her forelegs and leaned back against the booth's cushion of middling comfort.  There was no more time for stalling or room to escape.  Nightingale was on to her; the mare had the eyes of a hawk rather than a little songbird.

Finally, Velvet relented with a shrug.  "You know my roommate, right?"

"Oh, yeah!"  Nightingale's ears wiggled.  "The pretty unicorn!"

"Yeah, the pretty unicorn," Velvet said, laughing softly.  "We've been friends since we were fillies.  I've always had her back and she's always had mine, but now..."  A groan rumbled in her throat.  "Now she's got a stallion to take care of her, so I kind of feel useless.  Replaced, I guess."

Nightingale stared at Velvet for a while.  The light, jazzy electronica playing over the speakers was the only sound between them until Nightingale burst into a fit of giggles.  "Wait, so you're all upset because your fillyfriend got a coltfriend?"  She raised a hoof.  "Right, right, I know, I know.  She's just your friend.  It still hurts the same, though, right?"

She didn't understand.  How could she?  Not everypony had a relationship like the one her and Crystal had, with so much time spent together that the idea of losing her was almost impossible to imagine.  Velvet's ears flattened to the sides.  "This is silly.  Why am I talking to you about this?"

"Sorry, I'm not trying to belittle you, I promise."  Nightingale folded her hooves on the table, smiling.  "Okay, so your best friend has her attention elsewhere.  What do you want to do about it?"

Velvet eyed her with contempt stirring in her chest, but she shook her head and sighed.  "What can I do about it?  Wish her the best of luck.  They're pretty great for each other and I'm earnestly happy for her.  I'm just, you know, at the same time I'm sad for me."

Nightingale hummed while rocking her head from side to side.  Her gaze remained firmly fixed on Velvet.  Just as it was starting to get uncomfortable, she raised her brow and asked, "So, is she like, your only friend?"

"What?"  Velvet glared at her.  "No!  I have other friends."

"Uh-huh."

Velvet leaned forward as if that would strengthen her glare.  "What is up with that tone?  I do!"

Nightingale pointed an accusatory hoof.  "One night stands don't count."

"I—"  Velvet interrupted herself with a frustrated groan.  "I know that!  I'll have you know I've got a dear friend that's not Crystal.  She just lives in Ponyville, but she's still a friend."

"And how often do you see her?"

An awkward pause said everything she didn't want to and her gaze darted away.  All of her emotions were taken over by a wave of guilt.  "Not as often as I should," she muttered.

"Okay.  And who else?"  Nightingale's stare was unrelenting.  How had this turned into an interrogation about her social life?

She had a point, though.  Who else, indeed?  Her ears started to droop as the feelings she had been trying to ignore surfaced.  Sadness.  Loneliness.  Emptiness.  A smile tried to force its way onto her face.  "You?"

Nightingale snorted.  "You wanted to pretend we don't see each other outside of work, so, while I'm not offended or anything, but that's total horsefeathers.  I'd like to be friends with you but you've never shown an interest in that."  She arched one brow.  "Anypony else?"

Velvet said nothing.  There was nothing to say.  Instead, she just closed her eyes while guilt and regret started to seep their way into the suffocating cacophony that surrounded her heart.

For a while they just sat there.  Nightingale seemed content to wait until Velvet was ready.  Ready for what, though?  To admit that she had put all her eggs in one basket?  That she wasn't sure of who she was without Crystal?

A burning sensation fired up behind her eyes and she blinked them open to confirm that her vision was growing blurry with tears.  "Fine, you win," she hissed.  "I don't really have any friends except Crystal.  Happy?"

"Nope!"  Nightingale rose from her seat and held out a hoof.  "Why would I be happy that my new friend is crying?"  She winked.  "Come on, let's get outta here and go somewhere else.  Do you like karaoke?"

Velvet stared at the hoof, her tears abating at the confusion stirred by the gesture.  "Huh?"

"It's kind of more like a yes, no, or maybe question."  Nightingale giggled.  "Do, you like, karaoke?"

Slowly, once she was able to reason through the situation she was in, a smile lit up her face.  "I don't know!  Let's find out!"


---


Velvet hummed to herself as she trotted to the tune of Don't Stop Believing by Journeigh, each hoof falling like a drum beat.  When she arrived at her parents' bakery, Pepper Ridge looked up and smiled.  She hadn't even said a word and he already knew.

"Somepony is in high spirits!" he chimed.

Velvet kept up her musical pace as she made her way around the counter while singsonging,  "Just a small town mare, livin' in a lonely world!"

Pepper Ridge laughed.  "That good?"  He reached out to hook a foreleg around her neck and tugged her in for a tight hug, the other hoof free to tousle her mane—or at least what wasn't tied down tight.  "Who's the lucky pony?"

"Nopony, Dad!"  Velvet squirmed to no avail.  "I just went out with a friend the other night, that's all!"

"Oh yeah?"  He grinned, headlock remaining firmly in place.  "A friend, huh?"

Velvet wriggled to incline her head and responded with a raspberry.  "I have friends!  Or, at least, I do now!"

Finally, he let go, but not before he placed a kiss on her forehead.  "That's good to hear, sweetie.  Now, less singing, more working!"

"Everypony wants a thrill!" Velvet chirped back once she was safely out of hoof's reach.  She pranced her way into the back room where her mother was, as usual, bent over the decorating table.  "Payin' anything to roll the dice, just one more time!"

Sunbeam looked up, blinking a few times.  "What?  Are you gambling, pumpernickel?"

Velvet laughed and sat down beside the already squealing Red.  "No, Mom.  I went to a karaoke bar with a friend from work."

"A friend from work?"  Sunbeam's ears perked and a smile spread across her face.  "That's great, sugarlump!"

A pang of irritation shot through Velvet's good mood.  "Jeeze, do you and Dad have to both act that way?"

Sunbeam returned her attention to the cupcakes in front of her.  "Act what way?  With surprise and glee that our little puff pastry has finally made a new friend?"

"Yeah..."  Velvet scooped Red into her forelegs while she frowned.  "Anyway, so, I went out with this mare, Nightingale."  With a small roll of her eyes, she added, "As friends.  Totally platonic friends.  We went to a karaoke bar and discovered that we both suck at karaoke."

Sunbeam glanced over at her with a small smile.  "Well, that's one way to bond, I suppose."

After a shrug, Velvet continued, "It's really convenient that we're both in the same troupe.  I don't have to go out of my way too much to see her."  She giggled as she held Red up into the air.  "Because all my spare time is taken up by my widdle cutesy-wutesy brother, isn't it?  Isn't it?"

With wide eyes and a wide smile, Red squealed and waved all of his legs.  That seemed like a yes.

"And," Velvet continued, setting Red down on his play mat and rising to her hooves, "she was into Prima Donna as a filly.  Just like me!"

Sunbeam smiled while Velvet started to carefully package the finished cupcakes and stacked the boxes aside.  "It's surprising how much you have in common with somepony who has the same interests as you, isn't it?"

Velvet's ears flattened to the sides and she stopped her work to stare at her mother with half-lidded eyes.  "Yeah, yeah, thanks, Captain Obvious."

"Happy to help!" Sunbeam chirped and lifted the piping bag back up.  "It's nice to know that both my fillies are expanding their horizons."

This brought Velvet a moment of pause.  Her ears wriggled in thought before she asked, "Are you talking about Crystal?"

A tell-tale smile spread across Sunbeam's face.  Her mother had many different smiles that Velvet had gotten to know over the course of her life, and this one was special.  Sunbeam had a secret she was dying to share and her smile, with lips pursed tight and corners curled into what verged on a smirk, gave that desire away.

"Mom, what do you know that I don't know?"  Velvet folded her hooves and leaned in.  "Come on, I'll probably not tell her you told."

Sunbeam glanced at her then quickly forced her eyes forward.  A hum bubbled up as a self-soothing distraction, but at Velvet's intense stare, she caved.  "Oh, sour jam!  I shouldn't tell you."  She slowly turned her head toward Velvet.  "But I want to."  Her hooves rose to cover her mouth.  "But I must."

Velvet nodded.  "Yes, you must.  Absolutely.  You absolutely, definitely must tell me."

With a muffled giggle, Sunbeam said, "Crystal is ready to take her relationship with Silent Knight to the next level."

"She—what?!"  Velvet's eyes went wide.  "Are you serious?!  How do you know?!"

Another giggle, less muffled than the first.  "Because she asked me for 'the talk'!"

Velvet just stared in disbelief for a while.  All sense of emotion drained from her.  Should she be happy that her friend was maturing?  Scared of what that meant for the two of them?  Excited that Crystal was taking a step toward possibly understanding Velvet's secret?

"Oh," she said and finally forced a grin onto her face, "we'll have to put together a surprise for her to commemorate the occasion when it happens."

Sunbeam nodded.  She reached for one of the drawers underneath the table and retrieved a clipboard with some sketches on it.  "I'm oh so way ahead of you, sugarkiss."


---


Velvet's spirits couldn't have been higher; so many events were coming together as if planned that way.  While Crystal had been busy trying to keep Silent's mother from driving Silent's sister insane, Velvet had spent most evenings with Nightingale.  After work, they'd go to different clubs in the lower districts of Canterlot, or just stay at the ballet studio to practice together.  Ballet was a lot more enjoyable when Perennial wasn't around.

Just a few days ago, Silent had come home, so Crystal was finally making good on her promise of a 'date'.  However much fun she'd had with Nightingale was still not quite a replacement for time spent with Crystal.

"Are you really sure you want to go through with this?" Crystal whispered.

Velvet shot her a playful glare.  "Am I really sure I want to help invite your stallionfriend to your graduation next week?  Uh, yeah?  I still can't believe you don't want to."

Crystal flashed a smile to the guards they passed, then returned her cautious gaze to Velvet.  "I don't mean that.  I've already accepted your argument on that matter.  I more mean—"  She hesitated, glancing at one of Velvet's hooves.  "You know."

"Oh, I'm totally sure."  Velvet grinned.  "I want to see the look on his face when I do it."

Crystal sighed, but the small smile tugging at her lips was unmistakable.  Velvet knew the truth: she was looking forward to it, too.  She just didn't want to admit it.

As they turned a corner, Velvet paused and looked up at the guard standing at his post to her left.  "What's this?"  She stepped toward him.  "What are you looking at?"

Of course, the guard was staring straight ahead, not looking down at the little mare nearing his personal space.

"Tumbler, don't be that way."  Velvet raised her brow.  "I thought we were friends!"

"Velvet, leave him alone," Crystal chided, but it was too late.  Velvet's words had already broken the guard's composure.

Thunder Tumble's ears swiveled, his eyes lowered, and his brow furrowed.  "Friends?"

Velvet grinned and jabbed a hoof at him without getting too close to risk setting off some kind of security breach.  "Made you speak!"  Giggling, she bounded back on her way to Silent Knight's office.

Crystal glanced over her shoulder at Tumble.  "Velvet, you really shouldn't do that.  You're going to get in trouble if you keep messing with guards."

"Aww, but they're so cute!  I thought you'd understand that better than anypony else."  She winked and before Crystal could get another word in, she knocked on a door, opened it, and called, "Knock knock!"

Crystal gave a small huff of indignation, but put on her proper smile as she followed Velvet into the office.  "Hello, Silent."  Her tone dropped just slightly into the territory of concern when she asked, "How are you doing today?"

Silent looked up before rising to his hooves.  "Fit and well.  Happy that Canterlot's finest fillies would drop by to see me."  His ear flicked.  "What is the occasion?"

Velvet could hardly contain her excitement.  It hadn't been easy keeping her surprise clutched in one hoof while walking all the way across Canterlot to get to his office, and now only seconds stood between her and the culmination of her plan.

Crystal sighed at the silent begging Velvet displayed with just one look even though her smile brightened from it.  "I know the timing isn't quite, well, it's not what I would have had in mind.  I didn't want to attempt to push myself into your focus, given everything that's going on, but..."  She looked at Velvet and nodded.

A squeal of delight escaped Velvet as she reared back onto her hind legs and threw the confetti with a wide upward sweep of her foreleg.  Multicolored bits of paper went just about everywhere: all over the floor, his desk, and the three of them.  She grinned while she exclaimed, "Crystal's graduation ceremony is next week and"—she waved both hooves at him—"you're invited!"

Silent stared a moment.  His expression was stoic and neutral at first as his gaze darted about to watch the confetti fall.  Honestly, she was a little disappointed in his lack of a reaction, but he finally smiled.  "That's right, it is next week, isn't it?"  He looked at Crystal.  "Congratulations!"

Crystal beamed at him and straightened up tall and proud.  "Thank you!  I'm delighted that I'll finally be finished with school and have so much of my day back.  So..."  The pride deflated into a sheepish disposition.  "If you have the time, it would mean a lot to me if you came.  I—"

"I wouldn't miss it," he said with resolution in his voice.

Velvet smiled.  Good stallion.  "Great!"

An invitation wrapped in pink magic lifted out of Crystal's satchel and floated over to him.  "Here is a formal invitation.  I offered one to Luna, as well, but to keep the graduation from getting out of hoof with a princess attending, she decided against it."  She giggled softly.  "However, she is going to host a little part-reception part-game night here, instead.  So it should be a fun evening once the boring ceremony part is over!"

Silent nodded.  "That sounds great to me.  Count me in."

Crystal stepped toward him and raised his helmet up to expose his face so that she could place a kiss on his cheek.  "I'll see you there.  Have a great day, dear."

"Okay."  His gaze darted to Velvet and after she made a big show of looking away, he returned the chaste kiss.  Honestly, it was almost sickening how cute and innocent they were.

"Come on, Velvet," Crystal said, grabbing her hoof and giving it a small tug.  "Let's go get lunch."

Velvet waved to Silent with her free hoof.  "Bye, lovercolt!"  She grinned when red showed through his white coat.

All was right with the world.  She'd have a nice lunch with Crystal, Crystal would have a nice graduation if Silent showed up, and Silent would have a nice time discovering confetti for days to come.