Sparky

by Listie The Scribe Maid

Ch.4 - Shiny, Winged Horsie

SPARKY
Ch.4 - Shiny, Winged Horsie
By That Gamer!

One week later, on a Tuesday...

"Did you notice that Rene was late today?" Pinkie whispered to Tara.

"Well, not that late," Tara whispered back. "It was only about ten minutes, y'know. She apparently stayed up all night playing Portal or something. I don't know. Can we please focus on the class at hand?"

"Speaking of which, Ms. Tara," Ms. _______ suddenly spoke up from the front. "Did you get your creative report on Canada done? It was due months ago."

"To be honest, I've forgotten the last four months," Tara lied, acting embarrassed.

"And how is that possible?" Ms. _______ asked.

"...I have no idea," Tara admitted with a shrug.

"For my top student, you sure are stupid," Ms. _______ deadpanned.

"Can you call your student that?" asked Chrystine in a bored mannerism.

Ms. _______ didn't answer. Instead, she continued with Tara: "Look, you're the smartest student I've ever seen... Well, actually, that would have to go to Diane since I've never heard you say a word, but that's besides the point. On the point, you could probably afford it, but if you don't get this assignment in by next week, I'll be forced to give you a 1-."

"1-?" Twilight repeated.

"It's a thing our school board does," Ms. _______ explained.

"So does that mean I've been #1 this whole time?" Wendy wondered aloud.

"No, it's actually a D," Ms. _______ told Wendy. "Speaking of which, why are you even taking this class?"

Wendy shrugged. "Beats me," she answered. "It's either this or I follow in my father's footsteps and work at the Rainbow Factory Outlet."

"That mall near Niagara Falls?" Tara asked. "That doesn't sound-"

"It closed in 2000," Wendy interrupted.

"And she's probably too dumb for any other classes," Chrystine chimed in with a snicker.

"HEY!"

"Anyways," Ms. _______ said, "enough with this foolish walking on the sun."

"I gotta use that sometime..." Pinkie could be heard whispering to Tara, not that Ms. _______ cared at this point. "Walking on the sun... It's genius!"

"Let's get on with our lesson," Ms. _______ continued. "Now, can anybody guess what it is?"

"Freedom of speech?" Tara suggested.

"Parody?" Pinkie tried.

"Plagerism?" Chrysalis tossed up.

"Trying different things?" Rachel guessed.

"The effect of mature stories on younger readers?" Wendy added.

Ms. _______ pondered their answers for a moment before coming up with something to say in reply: "You are all wrong!"

There was a collective groan of annoyance throughout the class.

"And, concerning yours, Wendy," Ms. _______ went on, "I wouldn't be talking about mature stories with what you've got."

"Oh, well, thanks, I guess," Wendy said, laughing awkwardly.

"I'm beginning to wonder if she knows how to be a teacher..." Chrystine muttered to herself. "Like, at all."

"But, moving on, our lesson today is on..." Ms. _______ paused for dramatic effect. "BUGS!"

"Oh, yeah, I should've..." the class said in unison without really trying. "Wait, what? Bugs?"

"Of course bugs!" Ms. _______ told her class. "I mean, think about it! Bugs and censorship are practically the same! Bugs can be useful sometimes, but they mainly just get in your way and are annoying! And the bad thing is that we can't use Raid on censorship."

Pinkie raised her hand.

"I got this, Pinkie," Ms. _______ said cooly. "Take the day off today." Pinkie sighed in relief and slumped back in her chair, Ms. _______ starting to write on the board while saying more things on bugs, Tara writing it all down intently.

MEANWHILE

"Why do you always make us so late, Lara?" Bonnie groaned.

"Well excuse me for being in a wheelchair," Lara snapped, getting out of the elevator. "Need I remind you that you caused it?"

"Again, I'm sorry!" Bonnie, walking with Lara, exclaimed.

"And again, I accept it," Lara said. "Mostly because your got most of your stuff stolen."

"I knew I should've kept my door closed," Bonnie muttered openly.

"That you should have," Lara agreed. "Now be a good girl and stand there while I get my stuff for second period?"

"Second period?" Bonnie repeated.

"Yeah, that's what I said," Lara said, rummaging through her locker for something or other.

Bonnie groaned, crossed her arms and scanned the hallway, looking for something more interesting to look at then Lara. Funny enough, she did find something: A dark, black, "shadowy" object crossing the hall quickly.

"Um... I think there's something-" Bonnie began, but was cut of by a loud growl, shaking the whole school's foundation. "Lara, did you hear that?"

"Yes and it made me lose my concentration!" Lara cried in frustration.

"Uh... OK then..." Bonnie whispered, checking the hall again. "You really didn't hear that?"

"No and I lost my concentration again!" Lara seemed to be getting annoyed. "Just shut up and let me-" There was a loud growl from behind Lara. "Holy @&*#, what did I just say?!"

"I... I... I..." Bonnie stammered trying to formulate a sentence, eying the giant shadow thing behind (or, really, to the right of) Lara.

"What?" Lara demanded.

Instead of coming up with an answer, Bonnie chose to start running for her life, screaming her head off.

"Hmph... Must not have been important," Lara muttered to herself. Then she looked her right and saw the shadow thing. "O hai there... I'm gonna run now, m'kay? Or wheel, more rather. So, if you'll excuse me-" Lara starting wheeling away as fast as possible, screaming bloody murder or whatever. Any cliche you like.

BACK IN CLASS

"...And, in conclusion, the Wookie is not on-" Ms. _______ was just finishing up the first quarter of her lesson when Bonnie came by the class, screaming about something, which was followed by Lara doing much of the same and a loud growl that sounded like, "It's not my fault I look like this!"

"What in the world was that?" Wendy demanded with a yawn, waking up from her nap.

"Sounds like another one of Lara's alien freak-outs," Rachel replied. "I'm just surprised that there was such a long interval between them - 3 days!"

"Oh, yeah, should have known," Wendy muttered in a still-half asleep state of mind. "But how do you explain that other growling thing or whatever?"

"Still Lara," Rachel replied again, inspecting her nails closely.

"You think I would've noticed that at some point," Wendy mumbled before drifting off again.

"... Let's go check it out!" Pinkie exclaimed after a brief moment, waking Wendy up again. "Who's with me!" Without waiting for an answer, Pinkie just got up and dashed out, leaving the door open.

The above was followed by a long pause, only broken by Wendy's occasional grumble of not being able to get back to sleep.

"I dunno about all you, but I'm curious," Chrystine broke the silence, getting up calmly and leaving in the same manner.

Eventually afterward, the rest of the students got up and went to see what Lara was doing with whatever. About three minutes later, Tom Livingstone had to go and get Wendy.

"Look, I don't care!" shouted Wendy as she was dragged out.

WITH LARA AND BONNIE

The duo ran up onto the roof, Bonnie having to carry Lara up the stairs.

"Lose some weight!" Bonnie shouted at Lara.

"Yeah, maybe when I can feel below my waist!" Lara yelled back. "Look, we have more pressing matters at hand!"

"Like?"

"THE @&*# SHADOW THING CHASING US?!"

"Oh yeah." Bonnie put Lara down and the two ran/wheeled to the edge of the roof. "Ah, $#!t, I knew we should've gone out the front door!"

"I knew we should've gone out the front door," Lara repeated in a mocking manner. "Hey, it was your idea to come up here!"

"I-I had a plan b-b-but I forgot," Bonnie stammered.

Just then, the big shadowy thing burst through the door, having stopped for a moment to read who made the school band this year, it's presence filling Lara and Bonnie's with the pain and isolation of their pitiful, meaningless existence.

Hugging Lara tight, Bonnie whispered to her friend, "I never meant all those wheelchair jokes."

"I don't blame you for what happened to me," Lara whispered, also hugging Bonnie. "It was really all the bus driver's fault."

"I know," Bonnie whispered. "Well, goodbye Lara. It was nice knowing you."

"Same here," Lara agreed, shutting her eyes tight.

"PERFECT!" the shadowy thing roared. "NOW I CAN EAT THE SOULS OF HUMANS AND THIS WORLD WILL BE FILLED WITH DARKNESS AND NOTHING MORE! I WILL-"

"Aw, hell no, yah won't!" shouted a voice from behind the thing.

"Hey, c'mon, I'm detailing my evil plan!" the darkness whined, turning around.

And what did it see? Well, first of all, it saw all the students in the school standing on the roof ("Damn, we got a big roof!" Trixie remarked). Second, it saw Ms. _______, in this kind of battle pose.

"What in tarnation is that?" AJ asked Tara.

"I was about to ask that!" someone shouted from the back.

"She's our teacher," Tara answered. "How did you..."

"No, I mean the shadowy thing," AJ corrected herself. "What the @&*# is that?"

"Oh, then I have no idea," Tara responded with a shrug.

Soon, Ms. _______ turned to the students, just to turn back to the darkness. She mumbled something along the lines of "Hoo boy, I was hoping to avoid this kind of thing" and put her hands to her heart, as Anime music stared blaring in the background obnoxiously.

There were two orbs of light that materialized at her feat, starting to slowly spiral their way up her body, getting faster and faster, turning her completely naked when they reached the top.

"...Hey, she has a tattoo in the same place as me!" Pinkie was quick to shout.

But then, her body enveloped in a blinding white glow and, for those who were blind, you could vaguely see Ms. _______'s form changing for a normal human being into a winged (and horned) horse, about two feet above the other students, with flowing hair that probably had a lot of conditioner in it.

Or, as Pinkie put it: "A shiny, winged horsie!"

"...What?" AJ was shocked. The students were stunned.

"Oh, jeez, not you again!" the darkness monster said, frustration coating it's voice like it's body covered the roof.

"Look, Nightmare Moon's using you to gain power," Ms. _______ spat, "but I will not let my sister use you! Your poor, defenseless shadow being of death!"

"Oh... Wait, I forgot, who are ya?" the shake monster asked.

"Another thing I was hoping to avoid..." Ms. _______ grumbled to herself before saying, much louder, while flying up dramatically, "My name is Princess Celestia! I come from an alternate universe called Equestria and I'm here to prevent things like this happening!"

"Celestia..." Tara muttered to herself. She turned to the others and said, "You guys! You know what this means!?"

Rene shrugged and continued watching the fight. The others followed suit.

"Good, neither do I," Tara said, also looking at the fight.

Back with Celestia and the shadow thing, the fight... "Raged" on, with Celestia going, "OK, let's see, blah-blah-blah, this pure heart has turned wicked, yadda-yadda-yadda, turn him back to normal and stuff, boom." With that, Celestia dropped a purple ball onto the thing like a bowling ball, turning it back into an ordianary man. "Anyways, let this guy go back home or whatever, I know I'm supposed to chant something, but I want to get this over with, you're gone." So Celestia made the man dissapear and she landed back on the ground, completely buck nude.

"Um... Wow?" Tara tried sounding amazed, but it was kind of underwhelming in the end.

"You're damn right, wow," Celestia said to Tara. "Now is everybody OK?"

"Um... WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!" one of the teachers demanded.

"Earthquake," Celestia replied quickly, obviously laying. "Really mild one."

"It destroyed half the school!!" the teacher pointed out hysterically. "YOU CALL THAT MILD?!"

"...School's out!" Celestia declared, making all the students cheer.

And before the teacher could get in another word, he was trampled by three dozen students making their way down the stairs and through the wrecked remains of the school.

Down out front, everybody was getting into thier cars and walking and stuff except for Rene and Felicia.

"I got a motorcycle, ya know," Rene told Felicia.

Felicia nodded, but then asked, "Oh... Why are you telling me this?"

"Well, um, I don't have a motorcycle," Rene admitted, her sentence devolving into a still audible mutter.

"So... Why are you telling me this?" Felicia repeated herself.

"I was hoping to give you a ride home," Rene offered with a confident grin.

"...How?"

"I could carry you on my back and make motorcycle noises."

"Hmm... OK," Felicia said before calling out, still in her quiet way, "Chrystine, I'm going to be riding home with Rene! I hope you don't mind!"

"OH HELL NO!" Chrystine shouted.

"She's OK with it," Felicia said.

Rene nodded approvingly, proceeding to pick Felicia up on her back.

"Make sure to hold on," Rene said. "But it's only a suggestion, y'know..."

After saying that, she (Rene) starting making motorcycle noises, running out the parking lot and away from a lot of strange glances.

LATER

Tara, Rachel, AJ and Pinkie were on a bridge with a lot of cars, discussing things that weren't what happened at school, when they heard some mouth noises from behind. They all looked there and saw Rene, gasping like crazy.

"Uh... Rene, are you OK?" AJ enquired, looking genuinely concerned.

"I... I was carrying... There was a..." Rene wheezed, trying to form complete sentences.

"She carried me here on her back," Felicia explained for Rene.

"Oh... That's stupid," AJ commented.

"I think it's quite sweet," Rachel argued. "In a sort of lesbian kind of way, but..."

"I'm not gay!" Rene shouted, somehow managing to get enough of her breath back to do that.

"Don't worry, I wasn't going there, darling," Rachel reassured Rene.

"I hope you-" Rene began, but there was a loud honk and a truck coming right for them!!!!!

"Well, I hope you can go supersonic like Sonic, Rene," Tara told Rene before running like mad, Rachel, AJ and Pinkie naturally following.

"Oh, not more running!" Rene complained. She went off nevertheless, as her life was dependent on it. And Felicia just assumed a shadowy thing was in there, 'cause he really didn't want to be reminded of the large truck thing coming to kill her and her friends by running them over mercilessly.

About an hour later, they arrived at the park, all out of breath, even the truck seeming to be out of gas.

"Well... Our story's over," Tara said to the others in between gaps.

"Might as well go out in song!" Pinkie exclaimed before almost bursting into song, but Rene slapped her. "Hey!"

"I-I-I-I'm... Too t-t-tired too..." Rene spluttered out before fainting.

"Oh... My..." Felicia muttered.

From behind, the sound of the truck door opening could be hear and, like Felicia predicted, a shadowy thing came out in a trucker's hat.

"That takes any threat, ah'd say," AJ deadpanned.

"I'm drivin' a truck... Drivin' a truck..." the shadowy thing sang to itself. "Got a load to carry and some eyebrows left to..." It then noticed the girls and said, "Oh, hello. Why are you staring at me like that?"

"You're a shadow!" Tara cried. "Look at yourself! Your evil!"

"I'll have you know that I'm not!" the shadowy thing stated. But then looked down. "Well, I'll be. This seems to be an odd evolution in my life."

"So wait, yer-" was all AJ got to say before Celestia came out of the rock that was beside them and blasted the shadow thing into oblivion.

"Hello, Ms. _______...?" Tara greeted very slowly.

"You can just call me Celestia," Celestia told Tara. "I would do that whole forget thing on all of you, but I've had a long day and I'm @&*#ing tired."

"Celestia, what are you doing?" a horned pony whined, its head coming out from the rock.

"I'm almost done; go home Terra," Celesita muttered to Terra, who obeyed, and, keeping her promise, finished with the six girls: "So if you're all really curious, you can come through this rock or whatever. Not like I really care either way." And with that, she went back through the rock and back to where ever.

"...Should we do it?" Tara asked the other five.

"School's gonna be out for a while," Rachel pointed out. "But we don't know what's on the other side. For all we know, it could be dangerous!"

"O-or deadly!" Felicia added.

"Those mean the same thing," Rachel reminded Felicia.

"They might not mean that over there!" Pinkie argued playfully.

"Fair point..." Rachel muttered.

"Look, I just don't care either way!" Rene, after quickly waking up, tossed in her two cents. "I don't have nothin' planned for this time off and I'm not studying or something!"

"Which reminds..." Tara began, starting to walk off, but AJ got a grip on her collar.

"Personally, ah think y'all are high off yer @&*es," AJ said. "Then again, ah think ah am, too. So why not?"

"Ooo! Ooo! Me too!" Pinkie chimed in, waving her hand like she was in school.

"I... Mprh..." Felicia squeaked.

"So yes?"

Felicia nodded and everybody looked at Tara.

"Majority rules, sugarcube," AJ told Tara.

"I know, I know," Tara muttered. "Now-" But then...

FLASH!

"...they were sent off to an alternate universe. Which universe, you might ask? How? Why? Who cares? Well, to answer those questions..." Tara finished, closing the book she was obviously reading from. She looked at the five ponies around her, including Rene and AJ, "So, tell me, girls, how was that?"

"What did that have to do with us?" Rene asked the most obvious question. "I mean, that one girl... What's her name? Rene? Eh, I've already forgotten. Anyways, she kinda acts like me... But again, I've forgotten-"

"She acts like her, but it isn't her," AJ cut in, finishing for Rene. "Same with the rest of us."

"This was a bad story for us to critique," the white pony who sounded like Rachel commented. "I mean, really, darlings, this was just awful."

"Yeah, ah thought we were gonna get a story about us!" AJ agreed.

"O-or a-at least about a backing c-character," the yellow pony who sounded like Felicia added in a mumbled.

"I liked it!" the pink pony exclaimed. "Especially that one who's name after me!"

Tara sighed and said, "I think you're all right. We did this to see how moderators rate fanfictions and this was not a good example. I say we send for a different one. Tell 'em this one isn't that good."

"Honestly, nothing for this guy is good," AJ remarked before Tara stuffed the story in an envelope

FLASH!

"Sparkeh! Sparkeh!" shouted AJ, shaking her friend. Oddly enouh, Tara had been out for about a full minute. That was twice as long as she was normally knocked out.

"Jacqueline, for the last time, that doesn't work," Rachel sighed with a hand massaging her forehead.

"Well, what else am ah supposed to do?" AJ asked.

"The way of a gentlewoman," Rachel replied. She politely moved AJ away, stood in front of Tara and slapped her, screaming, "WAKE UP!"

"Mm-hmm, yeah, gentlewoman," AJ muttered with a sarcastic edge as sharp as a razor.

"Excuse me for trying," Rachel scoffed. "If you'd like to go back to whatever you were doing, be my guest. However, I don't think it'll work."

But then Tara woke up, rubbing her cheek.

"Hey, look, nothing worked!" Pinkie exclaimed cheerily.

"How ironic," AJ grumbled.

"First of all, OW, my cheek!" Tara cried. "Who hit me?" Nobody answered. "No answer? OK then. Second... Our life's a lie."

"Oh, gonna all philosophical on us, are ya?" Rene asked, crossing her arms. "Ponies got you thinkin' about a deeper level of life?"

"No, i-it's j-j-just..." stammered Twilight.

"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?" Pinkie sang. "Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality..."

"No, I saw five ponies that look like you," Tara explained, "a-a-and apparently they were just reading a story! About us! Following us ever since I started high school here!"

"So, wait, you're saying we're in the movie Stranger Than Fiction?!... I never saw that!" Pinkie gasped.

"None of us did," Rachel told Pinkie. She then said to Tara, "How can you confirm all of this? Strange that I'm only thinking now you're crazy."

"I-I-I don't even..." Tara groaned in frustration. "Give me a second to think about it." She sighed and leaned against the rock she was next to - forgetting it was apparently a portal to another universe. So she fell through with a yelp of obvious surprise.

"Aw, damn it, Tara!" Rene exclaimed, facepalming. "Now we're gonna have to go after here!"

"Ah thought we wanted to go there," AJ pointed out.

"So now we got even more reason!" Pinkie said cheerily.

"Again, I think we're all high, but..." AJ trailed off, not really accepting it, but going along with it anyways. "Who wants to go first?"

Pinkie took that as a green light, running through the portal as fast as she could. The rest of the group looked at each other.

"...Ah don't see why not," said AJ.

"But we don't even know what's over there!" Felicia argued.

"Yah never know until yah try," AJ pointed out before going through the rock portal.

"Y-yeah, b-b-b-but..." Now, of course, Felicia was terrified of what might be over there and tried to make some more arguments, but Rene was already gone and Rachel was pushing towards the stone.

"Darling, I don't like this either," Rachel said calmly. "But... I don't even know what. I'm just following them and hoping I don't die along with them."

So the last two passed through. And what did they find on the other side? I dunno, the meaning of life or something. I'm not a philosopher. But before I can tell you that story... I don't have another stories. So let's just tell that story.