Spark Storm, Filthy Rich and Pinkie Pie all ran as fast as they could to the one spot that Spark hoped they weren't running towards. However, fate that day had something planned for him, something that would change him forever.
A large crowd was encircling Spark's home. Multiple Unicorns were using magic to douse the flames that were still raging. As Spark watched this, it seemed too surreal. It was almost like he was just watching a story unfold, he wasn't really there.
Spark barely heard anything, even though the area was glaring with voices, flames and screams of panic.
Spark's heart felt strange. It was feeling he'd never felt before. It was different that simple fear. It felt much, much worse. He looked up at Filthy Rich who stood beside him. Rich looked like he might be feeling the same. He prodded Rich. He wasn't sure how hard.
Rich looked down at him and, sensing the question in his eyes, shook his head. "I don't know, Spark...I don't know."
At some point, the Cakes had come and taken Pinkie Pie home. They didn't know if anypony had been hurt, but they didn't want Pinkie around to see the damage.
Spark was still watching, still frozen with dread, when some rescue ponies started to shout from inside the house. It wasn't long before four or five them pulled out, carrying an adult body. There were some screams, and general panic.
Rich put a hoof on Spark's shoulder, and told him to stay put for a moment. He went to see what they had found as Spark could only stand there, feeling numb.
The workers were shouting at ponies to get back, give them some room as they laid the body down on the ground. A medic pony, having been called on the scene, felt her neck. With a deep, tired sigh, he shook his head.
One of the worker ponies, letting out an emotional breath, asked, "What was it, doc? Did she...did she burn...?" The medic sighed, then shook his head. "No, I don't think so. You said she hadn't made a mess in the closet? Well...in that case, no. I think she must've died in her sleep when the smoke got to her. Poor thing."
Rich's eyes filled with tears as the whole scene played out before him. This was just...this was too much. They had broken up just hours before, something he could've easily recovered from. But this...to lose her...and her two kids, now without a mother. Rich broke down where he stood, falling to his knees and openly weeping.
Spark Storm was still standing in shock when he saw Cheerilee making a scene as she ran to the front of the crowd. She came to a stop in front of her mother's body and tried to shake it awake. Her words were jumbled together, and they were screamed. Apologies mixed with pleading were completely incoherent as she was denied any response.
"PLEASE! MOMMA! WAKE UP!" These and more fell on deaf ears. Several ponies began to weep at the mere sound of Cheerilee's grief. A moment later, another rescue pony emerged with several small sticks in his hoof. He held them high and announced that the fire had been started with incense.
Cheerilee froze at this. Of course...she'd been using incense when she'd last yelled at her mother. It hit her...the last time she'd spoken to her mother, she'd told her that she couldn't have her happiness, had told her mother that she didn't even deserve that happiness. And now she knew that she had killed her mother.
Cheerilee broke down into frazzled, frantic sobs.
Somehow, Spark snapped out of his shock. He'd heard what had been spoken. Cheerilee would NOT live the rest of her life thinking that she had killed their mother. With a bravado he had never known before, Spark ran to the front of the crowd and announced to everypony, "I DID IT! I STARTED THAT FIRE!"
The whole area was silent as they all looked at Spark Storm with pity. His sudden announcement was obviously an attempt to protect his sister, but Spark was determined to make them believe it. He walked closer to the house, closed his eyes, and raised his wings.
There were multiple gasps as Cheerilee and everypony in front noticed the cutie mark that Spark himself didn't even know about yet: A single blue feather with three lines of electricity surrounding it.
Concentrating for a moment as the crowd was completely silent, Spark Storm thought back to how he felt when River had hit Pinkie in the face. For the longest time, he just couldn't remember it. This thing with his house, and his mother...Cheerilee...
All of a sudden, his wings shot to life, his feathers vibrating as they coursed with electricity. The crowd gasped as he shot a thread of energy into the building, lighting up the area and setting fire to the stray board it had hit.
Spark Storm turned around and faced the crowd. Faced his sister. The grief on her face had turned to a mixture of shock and rage.
She suddenly leapt from where she'd been sitting and tackled her brother, beating him with her hooves and savagely screaming, "YOU KILLED HER! YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!" It took a moment for several ponies to drag Cheerilee off of him.
Spark got up slowly, rubbing his sore face. With his face covered, he could hear whispers. "He's one of them..." "He's a freak!" "Get him out of here!" "He'll turn on us!" "He belongs with those monster hunters!" "Throw him out like the rest!"
Some ponies started to throw things. When somepony picked up a brick, that was enough. Filthy Rich knocked him down, and went to stand in front of a cowering Spark. "That's enough! THAT'S ENOUGH! We'll take him to the town council!"
That seemed to do the trick, though many of the ponies who had known Spark his whole life no longer trusted him. His powers made him a danger to Ponyville, or so they were convinced.
Spark was quiet and still in shock as he rode in Rich's carriage. He didn't know what to do, what to feel. He couldn't cry. It just didn't feel real to him that his mother was gone. That Cheerilee hated him. That the village ponies wanted him gone, cast out.
At some point, they had stopped to retrieve River, who was still unconscious.
Rich left Spark Storm in his room as he ran back out to see River to the hospital. It was three hours later when River woke up. When he noticed the look on Rich's face, River had to let out the teeniest, tiniest of smiles.
He could tell that something had happened. Rich stepped closer to River. There was something nagging at the back of his mind, something he needed desperately to know.
"River, some things have come up. Some pretty bad things." "Oh?" River said. He looked away and out the window, the smallest of smiles on his face. "It seems that the orphanage place burned down. They'll have to take it down. The classrooms suffered some serious smoke damage, they'll all have to come down."
River just kept that soft, distant smile on his face. He'd forgotten for the time being his wounds. Rich watched him carefully. What he said next would either confirm or dispell his suspicions.
"...They found a body." River's mouth twitched. "...Seems that..." Rich had to catch his breath. He was getting emotional. "Seems that ms Cherry Joy was in the building when the fire started."
River had long ago come to his senses from his pyschotic attack in the forest. Now all that was left were nerves. A body? In the fire? That wasn't right. He'd checked all the rooms. He wouldn't have started the fire if he knew someone was inside.
River started to tremble as he tried to keep the smug look on his face, attempting to deny the truth being handed to him.
"That...that can't be right, brother." Rich edged closer to his little brother. He could feel his body tense. Somehow, he already knew the truth.
"And...why is that...little brother?" River's jaw began to chatter. He let out a short, shuddering breath as he finally turned to Rich, his eyes wide with fear and panic. "Because...I checked all the rooms, Rich...I did...there was nopony in those rooms..."
Rich could feel his muscles aching as it took him everything not to hit his brother. His jaw clenched, his eyes filled with angry tears. He started to back away from River, towards the door. "You...you little fool..." He managed to get out.
He let out a little sob and left the room, leaving his brother to finally break down. River's cries were heard all through the hospital.
Back at the mansion, Rich wandered the hallways. His girlfriend had been murdered by his own little brother. The girl that might've one day been his step-daughter unjustly blamed her brother for it. Ponyville wanted him gone because of his strange abilities, which had somehow landed River in the hospital.
It was one big vicious cycle, and he only wondered how long before it would circle back on Ponyville itself.
Rich opened the huge double doors that lead to his father's office. Inside, at his desk, sat Silver Bits. Silver Bits came from Mint Bank's family, having wed Stinkin' Rich's daughter, Diamond Iris, in an arranged marriage to solidify family ties and keep money in the family.
Silver nodded to Rich to close the doors and come in. It was deadly quiet inside as Rich approached his father. The older pony stood, a permanent glare on his face. He'd been like this for years, as work and stress had taken it's toll. "Did you get anything out of my son?"
Rich tried not to cringe at the tone of his voice. He always talked to Rich like he was a business partner, and not his other son. "Yes. I...I got some disturbing news from him. He started that fire."
Silver nodded quietly. "Mm. Thought as much. He's been very disturbed lately." After a moment, he looked up at Rich. "Who else knows about this?" Rich shook his head. "Nopony else knows yet. We-"
He was cut off as his father approached him and put a hoof on his shoulder. Rich gasped quietly as he felt his father's hoof pressing almost threateningly on him as Silver leaned very close and spoke with slow, purposeful intent.
"Now listen to me, Rich. We are very close to this merger in Manehattan. If word of my son got out of this room, our company, that I have put so much time into, could collapse. My very business here in Ponyville would collapse.
What you have learned will not leave this room. I've already sent for River. Anypony that may have heard will be bribed to silence...Those that cannot be bribed will not be missed. Am I making myself clear, Rich?"
Rich couldn't believe what he was hearing. He shook his father off his shoulder, anger flaring in his eyes. "You're crazy, father! You're insane! I will not sit idly by while that boy suffers the hate of this town! No!"
Silver stood to his full height slowly. He was not going to lose this argument just because Rich couldn't keep his mouth shut. He reached down into his desk drawer and tossed a folder down onto the desktop. Pictures and files spilled out, then Silver indicated that Rich take a look through it.
"Rich, I know you have standards. Good, moral fiber. But that's not what this company needs. What it needs...is nerves of steel. And I know you'd really rather lose everything than keep quiet, so..." Rich frowned as he looked through the stack of files and papers. In it were pictures of Spark's friends.
Ditzy, Anorax, Emerald Skies and Fluttershy. He looked up, confusion on his face. "What? What is this?"
"Those are the expendable ones. Their parents don't own expensive shares in our company, nor do they contribute significantly. If you go against me now, I will ruin them. I will take their homes, I will take everything imaginatively possible from them, short of taking their lives."
He paced around Rich slowly, letting him take in this information. "Rich, your brother has done something catastrophic and most definitely evil. He must learn that he can't get away with something as terrible as murder. But, my son..." he inflected son to make his point, "he will do it under complete anonymity. No one will know what River has done."
Silver made for the door, leaving Rich in the silence of the room. "Think about it, Rich. Their lives are in your hooves. Punish River however you see fit, but silence comes first."
He stopped at the doors. "Oh...and while you were gone, the vote came in. Spark must leave Ponyville."
Spark Storm had gotten out of the carriage on his own and was walking towards the Everfree Forest. He didn't know about the Ponyville vote, and it wouldn't have made a difference. He was exiling himself, as far as he was concerned.
After ten minutes of walking into the woods, Spark bumped his head into a tree. Suddenly, it all hit him. His mother was dead. His sister blamed and hated him for it. Everypony in Ponyville hated him.
Spark hit his head on the tree again. And again. And again. Each time, he grunted a little louder. Each time, more and more emotion poured out of him. His head started bleeding, but it just wasn't enough.
He started to hyperventilate. Adrenaline, packed with panic, rage, fear, grief, and a dozen other things he couldn't name were boiling, raging inside him. He let it all out in a long, strangled scream. Over and over and over again.
He was still doing this when Ditzy wrapped her hooves around him from behind. He hardly registered this. His wings spread and the sparks flew between his feathers and over Ditzy. He didn't feel. He was numb all over, and yet every part of his body, his heart and his mind were beyond control, his emotions blinding him to all motor function.
Ditzy wasn't alone. Every last one of Spark Storm's friends had followed him out to the forest, and more than one of them had told their parents to go to hell when they had told their children not to follow Spark Storm. Spark's wild cries had driven every last one of them to tears. They all sat gathered around him, sharing in his pain.
Ditzy, through her pain of recieving Spark's lighting, held him ever tighter, whispering to him that he wasn't alone.
One wild ride, huh? Well, it's over. This story is finished.
And now, it's time to start up Arc #2! Spark must find a reason to go on living, or he'll go insane with grief. Thankfully, the actions of a certain businesspony and a beautiful Pegasus may be just the thing! Stay tuned for a whole new saga!