//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Fantasia Gleam // by CrossRedstone //------------------------------// “And now to the weather. Heavy rainfall is to be expected, starting tonight. The temperature drops to 12°C, so better get your raincoats out folks. Our weather stations predict it’ll stay grey for at least until the weekend. If you have some grocery shopping to do, better do it now folks. Back to you Sound Bite.” “Thank you Cloud Buster. Uff, rain. Kinda reminds me I still have my laundry hanging outside. I just hope I get back, before it all gets soaked, haha. Well, lucky for me, it’s over with me. But don’t worry! It’s not like I’ll leave you alone! Mega Phone will soon be here, after only three songs! My name has been Sound Bite, thanks for tuning in and have a nice day!” The radio station began to play an older song, back from the beginnings of Countess Coloratura. Twilight Velvet tuned down the music a bit, as she wasn’t a particular fan of the songs of the so called “Countess”. In her eyes, the singer was just another one of those girls, wasting her life in the so called upper class, going from one show to another and another and another. Well, to give the girl some credit, she did a lot of good with her money. In a magazine Velvet once read that the Countess had spent half of her money savings into charity. Now that was something. Velvet stopped the car, as the streetlight turned red. She used the opportunity to pick out her list of groceries that she still needed to buy this week. Curtesy of her daughter Twilight Sparkle. Sometimes Velvet wondered if her girl made lists while sleepwalking. “Well, I guess I should go now, as long as it isn’t raining.” the woman said to herself. Not that rain mattered much, but the short time periods she was between the care and the supermarket, she’d rather spend the time dry than completely soaked, like during last month’s rainstorm. Having decided, Velvet mentally re-planned the route she was taking home, so she would stop at the small market near the penthouse she and her family were living. It was run by one of Velvet’s former classmates, who sadly didn’t made much more of his life, than being a store owner. At least he himself saw it positive: “Hey, I thought I was gonna be a simple cashier. But guess what, Vel? I OWN the register!” And then he proceeded to make a drumstick joke sound from his phone. Velvet shook her head, looking for some parking space. It took her fifteen minutes to finally find something, which would not involve shoving other cars out of the way. Stepping out of the car, the Writer used the opportunity to stretch, before she locked her car and walked into the store. The door had been already open, strange considering it wasn’t that warm outside. Lock Pick, Velvet’s friend and store owner was nowhere to be seen, leaving the register unattendant. Fun fact, Lock Pick had been robbed at least three times that way. Luckily for him he installed surveillance cameras throughout the store. That may actually be the reason for him being so careless. Shaking her head, the woman made her way into the store, already knowing the layout inside out. There were just two other customers in the store, aside from her. A teenager and an old woman, muttering something, while making wild gestures with her right hand. Velvet decided to avoid her. Quickly the woman picked up the things she needed, scratching one thing after another from the list. She only slowed down, when she came to the vegetables. After all, if she just grabbed randomly some tomatoes, she might accidentally take a rotten one. She spent around ten minutes there, when out of the corner a red skinned man, with short cutted hair, a simple white t-shirt, a black vest, jeans and blue/white sport shoes appeared from behind a door that said: “Employees only.” “Vel! How are things?” Lock Pick asked, surprised to see his longtime friend. “Lock! Pretty good. And you?” “Eh…” he shrugged. “Better than these past months, definitely. Internet add revenue is certainly helping, but I can forget about going to Berlin once again.” “Oh too bad.” Velvet smiled wryly. “Maybe next year?” she asked. “I have a feeling you said this last year already. You know, deja vu? Oh, gotta go to the register.” Lock Pick quickly turned around and walked to the teenager waiting impatiently at the exit, where the cash register was located. Velvet herself, returned on getting everything she needed. After the vegetables, she still wanted to buy a cantaloupe. She smelled the different cantaloupe’s, looking for the one with the most intensive sent, as they tended to be the sweetest. After she decided for one, the woman went over the list one last time, looking if she forgot something. Satisfied that nothing was missing, she made her way towards the register, where she found Lock Pick, putting some exchange money inside. “So, how’re the kids Vel?” Lock asked, scanning the things Velvet bought. “What can I say? Twilight is still a shut in and doesn’t even attempt to make some friends. She said we, her family and Spike are enough.” “Uh huh. You know, I read about a man who in his entire life had only one friend: a parrot. These guys are pretty smart, you know and live pretty long. Speaking off...you think Twilight will handle it well, when Spike passes away? Small dogs tend to live only a couple of years.” Velvet frowned. “Spike is just turning 2 this year, Lock. I think it is hardly appreciated talking about something like this now or rather ever.” “Sorry.” the man held up his arms. “I’m just worried, ya know? Family is nice and all, but it can’t replace friends, just like friends cannot replace the family. What I’m saying is, of course she will turn to you, when the time comes, but the thing is, it’s not enough.” “What makes you say that?” It was Lock Pick’s turn to frown. “Let’s just say, I have personal experience.” He shook his head. “Whatever, that’ll 20-” The man was cut off, by a loud crash coming from right outside the shop. Both Velvet and Lock Pick jumped at the loud noise, their hearts beating against their chest, as if they wanted to get out. “What was that?” Velvet asked, looking outside. To her surprise she didn’t find anything. Lock himself stood up and jumped over the table, sprinting outside. He ran to the right, looking frantically for whatever this sound had been. Only seconds later, his eyes fell upon a turquois skinned teenager, lying on the ground face down. Blood was coming out from the back of her head. “Fuck!” Lock Pick cursed, running to the girl, crouching down. “Hey! Can you hear me?!” He shook her a little bit, but there was no response. Carefully he turned the girl around and checked for pulse. “At least something…” Behind him there was the sound of someone gasping. Turning his head, Lock found his old friend standing there, her hands clasped over her mouth. “Vel! Call an ambulance! She’s out cold!” “I...I…” “Do it NOW!” “R-right.” The shout coming from her friend, brought the woman back to reality. She opened her purse and frantically looked for her cell phone. She almost dropped it, as she finally took it out. She quickly dialed the emergency number. “No, I’m alright.” Velvet spoke into her phone. She was inside the hospital, talking to her husband, who sounded worried. “I couldn’t just leave her alone, Nightlight. Lock Pick can’t afford to close the store early and someone had to look after her.” “Did the doctors say anything?” “No, the doctors haven’t told me anything yet. Look, I’ll come back as soon as I know that she will be alright, okay?” “All right. Love you, honey.” “Love you, too.” Velvet cut off the connection and put her phone away, before anyone could catch her using it. She was in a long, empty hallway, the girl being taken care of inside the room in front of her. Back on the streets, the ambulance had arrived within 15 minutes after the call. They had quickly taken her in and drove off to the hospital. Velvet had decided to follow them, since no one else around seemed to know the girl. Of course after paying her friend for everything. Inside, she had quickly spoken to one of the nurses. Apparently the girl had nothing with her, which could possibly identify any family the girl had, so the nurse told her where they had brought the girl for examination. So now, Velvet was here, waiting for already fifty minutes for someone to come out. Luckily she didn’t have to wait any longer, as a doctor came out. Upon spotting the woman, he asked. “Can I help you miss?” “Yes...I think so. You see, I’m the one who called the ambulance. I just...well, I wanted to make sure that she’s alright. I know I’m not even a family member, so you probably can’t say much…” Velvet trailed off. The doctor sighed. “Considering the circumstances...she’ll make it. The head wound looks worse than it actually is. We have detected a large amount of alcohol in her blood system, though.” “Oh.” Velvet blinked surprised. “She will probably wake up with a huge headache, but else she’ll be fine. You don’t happen to know the girl or any family members?” Velvet shook her head. “That’s too bad. At any rate, you can visit her tomorrow, if you want. She probably won’t wake for at least another few hours.” “I see. Thank you doctor.” “No problem. I’ll see you then, Miss…” “Velvet. Twilight Velvet.” “A pleasure meeting you, Miss Velvet.” The doctor nodded and headed down the hallway. Velvet let out a sigh, looking towards the door. She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved that the girl was not mugged or worried that the girl had been drunk. She certainly hoped that the girl just partied too hard and as a result hit her head. With these thoughts, Velvet walked out of the hospital and into the rain. Of course it had to start raining now. Just her luck. Thirty minutes later, the Sparkle family was sitting at the dining table together, with the exception of Spike, who was lying comfortably near the heater. He and Twilight Sparkle had just come back from a walk, when Velvet finally arrived at home. “Alcohol?” Nightlight asked. “Explains everything.” “Nightlight! Don’t just jump to conclusions like that!” Velvet scolded very loudly. Spike let out a whine from his position, rolling to the side. “Hun, you know how where girls like her come from.” “Dad.” Shining Armor butted in. “You don’t really know that. She might have just partied really hard. Things like this happen nowadays at our age.” the son argued. “I hope you don’t use this as an excuse to come home drunk yourself one night.” To this statement, Shining Armor merely rolled his eyes and continued eating. Velvet frowned towards her husband, following her son’s example. Nightlight decided it was best to change the topic. His eyes fell onto the only one in the room, who had been quite the entire time: his daughter. From the looks of things she probably didn’t even listen one bit to the small conversation. Or any other they had previously to this one. The girl was slowly eating her vegetables, her eyes on the plate. Her mind was probably far away, trying to solve the mysteries of the universe. “Twilight?” No reaction. “Twilight.” Still no reaction. Nightlight decided for a more direct approach, by leaning over and tapping the girl’s hand. The reaction was immediate. Twilight jumped, causing her chair to lean too far backwards and the girl falling to the ground with a scream. During the fall, her legs hit the table. The vibration caused her plate to fall down. The foot perfectly landed all over her clothes, not one tomato or potato hit the ground. The others couldn’t help themselves. They all bursted out laughing at Twilight’s misery. To make it even worse, Spike had once again jumped at the opportunity of free food and was now happily licking Twilight’s face, which was covered in steak sauce. After she recovered from her fall, Twilight shoved Spike out of her face. With a grunt, she slowly went into a sitting position, the plate sliding down her body and onto the ground. Spike yelped upon the clattering noise nearby and ran under the table. Twilight let out another grunt, slowly but surely getting back up on her two feet. Embarrassed, Twilight shot her father an evil glare, before leaving in a huff, looking for something else than Spike’s tongue to clean the floor. By the time she returned, her family members were still snickering. “Here, hehe. Let me help you, haha.” Nightlight couldn’t fully suppress his chuckles, as he grabbed some paper towels himself and got to work. “So, how was your day?” he asked cheerfully. “Like always.” came Twilight’s simple reply. Nightlight and Velvet frowned, which Twilight didn’t see. Their daughter barely talked about the school nowadays. Actually, she only told them when a test was coming up or their parents needed to sign something or other. “And you, Shining Armor?” Velvet asked. “Not much, really.” The older sibling shrugged. “Sports was pretty boring, preparations for the finals, yes Mom, I am confident that I will pass them. I had Twilight to tutor me after all.” He winked at his sister, who smiled a little. “Well, then there’s nothing to worry about, is there?” Nightlight asked in a rhetoric matter. “I’m going to take a shower.” Twilight announced. “Mom? Can you put a bit aside from me?” “Of course.” Velvet nodded. “Just don’t take too long.” “Mom, we have a microwave.” Twilight retorted, before leaving the room. Spike tried to follow her inside the bathroom, but was sent back to the living room by Twilight. Back there, he placed himself right next to the heater again. “So, mom, Cadance’s asking when your new book is coming out. She said, she can’t wait for another one of your masterpieces.” Velvet chuckled rolling her eyes. “I just released my newest novel last week. Besides, I’m not sure yet if the next one will be a romance novel or if there will be romance at all. And honestly, right now, I don’t want to think about it. I want to clear my head first.” Suddenly the phone in the household rang. Velvet stood up and walked into the hallway, where the phone was positioned on a small desk. Looking on the display, Velvet found that it was Lock Pick who was calling. On hindsight, she should have been expecting this. “Hello Lock.” “Hi Vel. Just wanted to ask how the girl was doing.” “Oh, well they brought her to the General. They couldn’t find any identification items on her. Also the doctors found alcohol in her bloodstream.” “Alc? Huh. Maybe some boy filled her up to get her greens. Hopefully she just forgot it somewhere.” “Lock, you haven’t seen the girl by any chance anywhere, have you?” “Definitely nope. This is the city after all and not the outskirts. Anyways, docs say she will be fine?” “Yes, they said she just needed some rest. The wound wasn’t that great they told me, it just will  add to her upcoming headache apparently.” “Ouch. I bet her parents will give her hell too for getting drunk in the first place.” “I certainly hope so. They must be worried sick, not hearing from their girl. I mean, she didn’t even had her cell phone with her.” “Hmm, yeah. You don’t see this kind of thing happening. At least usually. Oh yeah, reminds me. The scarf, the girl had been wearing, dropped off her body. I’m cleaning it right now and wanna give it back, tomorrow after I close. If she’s still in hospital afterwards that is.” “You know, I planned on visiting her tomorrow.” “You do?” “Yes...seeing her like this…… you know...it was kind of a shock...and...I just want to be sure she’s okay.” “I get it. So, can you come over and pick up the scarf tomorrow? That way she’ll get it for sure. Lucky you, you can set your free time however you want.” “Oh, shush. How often have I caught you playing on your PC or phone in your store?” “Hey! My store, my rules. I clean this shit-hole up every damn day by myself. I should be allowed some kind of reward.” “Whatever you say. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” “Yup. Bye.”