Spark looked out over the forest from the ash tree in the royal gardens. Celestia's sun was a dark red as it made to set, and in forty five minutes it would be gone, replaced with the silver moon. In forty five minutes, dinner reservations would be lost at one of the fanciest restaurants in the city.
Spark looked down at the little nymph staring up at him, her green eyes shining with an intelligence that she shared only with him. "Orea, you remember the plan? You need to stay in your mother's tree tonight. You remember why?"
Of course I do. You want time alone with your mate. The voice in his head wasn't so much a voice. He didn't hear the young tones of a child so much as he just knew what she was trying to convey to him. When she spoke with her voice, it was a much different sound than when she 'spoke' in his mind. He nodded his approval, then turned to leave. She grabbed at his hoof though, and looked up at him longingly. You...you won't leave me?
Spark frowned. Where would she get an idea like that? She was less than a day old and already she had abandonment issues? Then again, he had no idea how nymphs grew, how fast, or what went on in their minds. He pulled her close and wrapped her up in his forelegs, giving her forehead a little kiss. "No, sweetheart. I'm not going to leave you. I promise, I'll be back here for you in the morning. Ok?"
Orea nodded without responding as she rested against Spark Storm, her eyes closed, completely at peace. After another moment, Spark released her, and quietly leapt from the tree to glide down to the ground. Without looking back, Spark took off to the front of the castle to meet Sapphire Snow.
Spark Storm made his way down the front steps of the castle and nearly tripped when he saw her. At the bottom of the steps, standing under the streetlight was Sapphire Snow. She wore a classy red sparkling dress that featured soft curving tassels that ran down her shoulders and back up to reattach themselves to her dress along her hindquarters. The rest of the dress tugged tightly along her curves. It covered her back and hid the fact that even at fourteen, her flanks were still blanks.
The red color was a gorgeous contrast to her brilliant white coat, and she wore a silver necklace that bore a single sapphire stone, matching her mane. Lemon Pop was hastily attaching something to Sapphire's mane, a brooch that Spark recognized as he got closer. It was a small, subtle pin of his own cutie mark, a single blue feather with three electric lines around it.
Spark couldn't help but stare at his girlfriend. He was starting to feel a little hot under the collar. Sapphire smiled and blushed prettily when she noticed him standing there. Noticing the two noticing each other, Lemon grinned and tried to slip something into Sapphire's dress near her collar, but Sapphire slapped her hoof away and hissed something at her under her breath and tried to kick her best friend away. She failed miserably as her dress restricted her movement, so she had to settle with whacking Lemon away with her wings. "Knock it off, go away!" Lemon laughed madly and bounced over to Spark, then stuck her tongue out at Sapphire.
"Careful tonight, Sparky, Sapphire's all hooves, if you know what I mean!" She said and waved goodnight. She took off into the air, laughing maniacally as she left the two standing there awkwardly staring at each other.
Spark Storm finally broke the silence when he took a few steps forward and met her under the streetlight, earning him a nervous blush from his girlfriend. He reached up and lightly touched a hoof to her cheek, a touch she affectionately turned to kiss. "You didn't put on any make-up," he said. Sapphire gasped and touched a hoof to her face in panic.
"I'm glad you didn't," he said hastily. "You don't need it. I think you're gorgeous the way you are. B-but this dress, it..." he grinned, giving her body a once-over. "It looks really, really good on you." He blushed at his own bravado, Sapphire did as well. "I'm sorry I didn't dress up for you, it didn't even occur to me to -"
Sapphire cut him off with a kiss, then leaned in and pressed herself against him in a sultry hug. "I don't mind. I just wanted to make this night special for you." She blushed brightly as the subtext of what she said caught up to her. "Uh, y-y'know...dinner, heh..." She pulled away from him and started walking down the street, trying to ignore the fact that both their wings were quite straight. "S-so, where did you get reservations again?" Sapphire knew very well where they were going. Some conversation to steer them away from naughty thoughts were needed, however. Spark knew this, and decided to play along.
"Oh, just some nice Istallian place I've been dying to try out. I didn't really have a reason to go before now, though, so..." His eyes trailed up to get a lock on the sun, just disappearing over the rooftops of the fancy housing surrounding the castle. "Lessee...it's the middle of September, sun's right in position, we've still got half an hour to make our reservation. No problem." He grinned over at Sapphire as she gave him a pleasantly surprised look.
"You learned a lot in the last two years, didn't you? That..." she said, gesturing to the sky, "that's really impressive. Can you tell the time at night, too?"
"Sure, if the clouds aren't in the way." Spark tried not to sound smug, but the admittance of his skills alone sounded too much like bragging to not be taken as such. Sapphire didn't mind, of course.
The sounds of their hoofsteps rang through the silence of the evening. After all the training that she'd been through, all the drills, all the action and moving, walking slow side-by-side with Spark Storm felt strange to her. She would feel more natural without the dress, to be running side-by-side with him. She supposed she was just anxious, though; he didn't seem to be so pent up. He was relaxed, he was laid back, and oh lords he's staring at me.
A blush crept up the faces of both young ponies as they shared flirting glances as they walked. It stayed like this until they finally got to the restaurant, a fancy place called Amore a Mezzanotte. Sapphire blushed as her memory of language lessons with Turbid translated the name to 'Love At Midnight' in her head. It's just a name, it's just name, stop freaking out Sapphire! Sapphire shot Spark Storm a winning smile when he gave her a concerned look.
Sapphire let out a relieved sigh when Spark looked away and addressed the maître d'. Despite knowing each other since they were both children, thinking about love so early in their relationship was something that Sapphire didn't even want to think about right now. Especially not so soon after losing her parents. Now there was a whole other story, something she didn't want to talk or think about tonight.
Soon enough, Spark and Sapphire were seated at their table. It was a two-seater situated near the back of the room. Privacy was easier back here, something that Spark was happy for. Of course, it wouldn't have been possible if tonight wasn't a gift from the Princess herself.
As soon as the two were seated, their maître d' told them their waiter would be with them soon. Finally, Sapphire thought. Though it had taken just fifteen minutes to walk from the castle to the restaurant, it felt like had taken hours just to get to this point.
Finally, Sapphire got to talk to Spark. She made him tell her what he had done with his time training as a Fighter. He told her everything, starting from his training with Braham, which lead him back to Ponyville. Sapphire still neglected to tell him that she was responsible for nearly setting an Ursa Minor on Ponyville.
As the night wore on, their food was delivered. Sapphire had ordered a salad loaded with beets, asparagus and tomatoes, with a chocolate mint for desert. After going over the menu, Spark ordered the stuffed salmon, something that garnered a look from his date. However, the fish itself was fantastic. It smelled good enough even for Sapphire to try it. Although Turbid had taught Braham everything he knew about earth magic, learning to catch and eat fish had been his own lesson. Thus, Turbid hadn't passed on that lesson to Sapphire Snow or the others.
During dinner, Sapphire told Spark about her training. After moving away from Canterlot, she moved with her family to one of the outter rim towns, on the eastern edge of Equestria. There, the village and surrounding communities were plagued with creatures ranging from Emberwolves to the Shadow Breed, where the sludge-like beasts were more common. Every day, she had dealt with problems like kidnapping by monsters, infighting among the villagers, and death.
Eventually, her parents were taken from her by the Emberwolves not 12 months prior to their dinner. For her own personal reasons, however, that wasn't something she disclosed to Spark that night. Something held her back, something kept her from trusting him completely, and she had a good reason to believe it had something to do with Spark Storm becoming a "father" overnight.
Spark could tell that she was holding something back. She kept dodging his questions or steering the talk away from the parts of the conversation that got too close and personal with her training, and it was frustrating the dark pegasus.
Dinner ended a bit on a sour note after Sapphire shut Spark down when he tried to ask her what was going on with her. Sapphire glared at him, and with tears in her eyes, she shouted, "Oh, I don't know, Spark, maybe we're not having a good time tonight because you're a father now, and guess what, that makes me uncomfortable around you!" Spark felt his cheeks heat up with embarassment. The whole restaurant was staring at them.
"Sapphire, m-maybe you could tone it down-"
Spark stopped talking when he saw the look in his girlfriend's eyes. They were filled with pain and betrayel. The worst part for Sapphire was, she had betrayed him, as well, and she wasn't owning up to it. She didn't see how she could. If she told him what she did, would he still love...wait, love?
Tears spilled down her cheeks as all the things wrong or confusing in her life built up in her heart, threatening to overflow and further ruin this disaster of a date. With her eyes blurred with tears and emotion, she slammed down half her bits in payment and ran out of the restaurant.
Spark sighed and tried to make himself as small as possible at his table. He quietly pulled out the small bag of bits he kept hidden in his mane and paid his half of dinner. As an afterthought, he poured out the rest of the bag to leave as a large tip for the trouble, then slipped outside to look for Sapphire Snow.
The night was cold, and the moon was just leaving the full phase, the beginning of the waxing gibbous. Spark's breath was barely visible in the chill fall air, and the streets were completely devoid of the pony he desperately wanted to find. Not about to give up so easily, Spark took a running jump towards one of the closest buildings, landed on one of the stone balconies, and repeated this until he was on the roof.
Spark looked down from his perch, hoping to spot Sapphire's white coat, or maybe her dazzling red dress along the streets. After a moment of no luck, inspiration struck him and he gazed skyward. Of course, he thought. There, up in the sky and perched on a lone cloud, was Sapphire Snow. Her back was to him, and although she was a good ways away and overhead, he could see her shoulders shaking as she cried.
That is so not fair. He looked around. There had to be some buildings, maybe some towers that reached that high. Spotting the town clock tower a ways away, he made his way there over the rooftops. He slipped in through an open window and rushed to the top. He had to break a lock with a shock from his wings, then ran off the top of the building, now quite a bit higher than he was used to. Still, he glided with great skill. He was quiet as he came closer, then suddenly dipped and grabbed the bottom of the cloud and hung from it with his forelegs.
Sapphire shrieked and jumped before looking around for what had disturbed her perch. Finally poking her head over the side, her face changed from surprised to annoyed to see Spark hanging from her cloud. He gave her a winning smile and waved at her with a wing. "Oh, hi there." he said casually.
Sapphire frowned, but something in Spark's smile made it difficult to be angry at him right now. Still, she knew that if she flew away now, he'd just follow her. "Spark, when a mare runs away from you at dinner, it usually means she wants to be left alone." Spark smiled patiently at his girlfriend in response.
"Sapphire, when a couple has a problem, the best thing to do is communicate. You know, talk things over, discuss their problems." Sapphire huffed and sat properly on her cloud, deciding to sulk for a bit. Maybe he'd go away and let her stew in her angry/confused juices...but probably not.
With a flutter of wings and a quiet grunt of effort, Spark pulled himself up onto the cloud with Sapphire. There was just enough room for one, and two made it close quarters. The mare frowned at the situation. She wanted her space, she needed...well, actually with his eyes so close, and their muzzles practically pressed together was pretty nice. Plus, it was cold out and oh the things this situation did to her heart.
Still, Sapphire wasn't in the mood to talk about her feelings, or the past that her boyfriend had missed in the two horrible years they'd been apart. Spark's closeness was comforting, and their bodies touching was doing wonderful things in wonderful places, but she didn't want this moment ruined by talking about her problems.
Sapphire trembled and laid her head down on Spark's shoulder. He wordlessly wrapped his forelegs around her, his wings following suit. She started to cry, until he shushed her gently. "You know, another way couples can save their relationship is by not asking questions and just holding each other like this. If that's what you need, I can do that. I just wanted to be with you. I don't care if we don't talk."
The bespeckled pegasus wrapped her hooves around Spark Storm. Overflowing with emotion, she let it out into the night air, wailing her feelings of loss and utter helplessness. Spark was silent as he provided the very thing she'd been desperately needing for the last few years: An outlet, one that simple waited for her to do what she needed to do, that was there for her when she would be ready to tell him all the things she wished she could tell him now.
This chapter was a little rushed in places, and I do apologize for that. I'm so bad with writing dialogue :(
