Chapter 4: Memories
Sunlight filters into the room, making you to pull at the warm mass on top of you, seeking it as a shelter to block those shafts of brightness from your half-asleep face. Although your tugging doesn’t quite manage to comfort your waking eyes, it does manage to wake the gently snoozing Fuze who is sleeping on top of you.
“Hey,” Fuze lets out a huge yawn. “I guess it’s time for us to get up, Sparky.”
“No, just five more minutes...” you exasperatedly sigh as you roll over, trying to avert your eyes from the impending rays. Sparky, Moonshine loved to call you- you cut your train of thought off right there, before lurching up and yelling out desperately, “Moonshine?! Are you there?”
“Nope, just me and you, Spark,” said an annoyed earth pony with an orange mane, tinged with a dark red blot. He pulls himself off of where he had landed when you were so kind to throw him off.
He looks so friendly, even with a that frown on. I love the way his hair looks right now... No, I did NOT just think that. I am NOT a colt cuddler. Not like there is anything wrong with being like that, but that is not what I’m into. You reproached yourself at the thought of liking Fuze, or his wonderful mane.
“Spark, I think me and you need to talk,” he said, the tone of seriousness in his voice makes you uneasy.
“Yes Fuze? What is it?” You ask, your apprehension showing through.
“Who is Moonshine? This isn’t the first time you’ve mentioned her you know, and what is the deal with your past? Why won't you tell me about yourself before our little incident? Do you not trust me?” He asks. His eyes are dry, but you can still hear the hurt in his voice.
You are too stunned to speak, instead you just look down unable to make eye contact. Forcing yourself not to give into panic, you clear all of those painful, horrible, nightmarish thoughts out of your mind. Why? you ask yourself. Why should I try to forget about her? And why shouldn’t I tell Fuze about Moonshine? He deserves to know. You try to convince yourself about this, but you can still hear that dark voice called doubt in the back of your subconscious saying, whispering into your metaphoric ear, “Fuze is a nice pony, if you tell him about what you did, well,let me just say this, nice ponies don’t like bad ponies.”
“Never mind. Forget I asked,” Fuze stated, obviously perturbed by the thought that you don’t trust him. “I just thought we were friends and all, but I guess I was wrong,” he says, lowering his head into his hooves with despair.
No! I am going to tell him! Even if he doesn’t want to be my friend afterwords, He still deserves to know. “Uhm, hey,Fuze...”
“Yah Spark?” Fuze responds dryly from behind his hooves.
“I’ll tell you, if you promise not to hate me. Even if you don’t want to be my friend anymore, please don’t hate me.”
Fuze looks up at you, a questioning smile playing across his lips. “Of course I won’t hate you! and we will always be friends! For-e-ver!” He sounded out the last word for comedic effect.
“Promise me though,” you insist.
Fuze’s smile turns into a smirk. “I’ll one up you on that, lil’ ol Sparky. I, Fuze Apple, cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, pinkie promise that I will never, ever hate you.”
"Pinkie promise?" you ask questioningly.
"Yup! It's supo-neato and you can't break one, ever!" he responds matter-of-fact-ly, like everyone knew what a pinkie promise is.
“Well, here goes nothing. About four years ago I was working for the weather factory up in Cloudsdale, where I -” Fuze cuts you off mid-explanation
“Wait, you worked in Cloudsdale? How did you get up there? And how did you get to walk on the clouds? Are they puffy? Can you bounce on them? Oh wow that would be super neat!” he says while literally bouncing on the ground.
“Shh Fuze, I’m telling a story,” you say, smiling for for the first time since you woke up.
“Oh yah, sorries!” he responded, settling down and listening intently.
“Like I was saying," you stare at him until he fully understands your reproach, "I could walk on clouds due to a nice unicorn librarian in a small town called Ponyville. She taught me a spell that would allow me to walk on clouds. However, she came to later regret the fact that she had , but that is getting ahead of my self. And yes clouds are quite fun to walk on. But that wasn’t why I worked in Cloudsdale. I worked for the weather factory, like I said, because my magic is unique from other unicorns. I bet you have noticed that I don’t use magic to pick things up like a regular unicorn would.” At this Fuze nodded, so you continue, “Well my magic is like lightning. It crackles and sparks, and if I were to try to cast a levitation spell like most unicorns do, my magic just would shock that item with electricity. This, while mostly just annoying, is how I got my job. Say if the Pegasi needed a thunderstorm, they would make a storm cloud, right? But they can’t control when the lightning is released or even how strong/often it would be. With me ,however, I can charge clouds to release an exact amount of lightning at a specific time. And that is how I met her,” you let out a pained, but happy sigh.
“Moonshine, right?” Fuze asked.
“Yes,” you respond after returning to reality from your memories. “She had the most beautiful eyes in the world. We met one day as -"
~~*flash back*~~
“Hi there!” an unfamiliar voice from behind you calls out.
Not being an especially good mood, you call out “ What do you want?” you turn to see how beautiful she is and it stuns you into quietness.
She lets out a small giggle and says, “I’m Moonshine, your new partner.”
“P-partner?” you stammer out, still recovering, “ Boss never told me about me having to work with anypony.”
“Well, he told me. He also told me that you have your way with lightning, so we are now on thunderstorm patrol duty,” she said with a light shrug. “How can you walk on clouds any ways, Spark?”
You face hoof and slowly count to three under your breath. “I can walk on clouds because of a spell I know, and why do you sound so happy? We apparently just got assigned to thunderstorm patrol duty. You do know what that means?”
“Yah!” she responds happily. “Me and you get to fly around in thunderstorms, and tame wild thunderheads.”
“That is not something to be happy about!” you half-shout at her after an exaggerated sigh. “That is probably one of the most dangerous jobs here! What are you, some kind of newbie?”
“Nope, just an adrenaline junkie. Now come on, hop on my back, we are going to go to our first storm,” she chirps out.
“I’m going to be r-riding, on you?” you blush up at the thought.
“Oh stop being such a baby!” She kneels down, allowing you to climb onto her back. You get onto her back and she whispers up to you, “Besides, I’m sure you don’t mind being this close to a beautiful mare anyways.” Your blush burns its way across you face instantly, and starts to journey down your neck in a matter of seconds. While you try to mutter out a comeback, she jumps off the cloud edge. She spreads her wings and glides through the air. The feeling of wind in your mane is exhilarating. Any and all thoughts of embarrassment or revenge against the mare you are holding onto are forgotten as the adrenaline pumps into your blood. Every single one of your senses are lifted, you feel the feeling of unrestrained euphoria for the first time in all of your life.
She yells up to you, "You ready, Sparky?"
Sparky? Why did she call me , Sparky? "Ready for wha-AHH!" she interrupts you with a aerial roll. The amounts of adrenaline in your blood stream went from a few hundred thousand parts per million to an insane amount that would have killed a normal pony. Serotonin mainlines directly into your heart, creating a feeling that frees you from any and all stress of work, financial problems, and life. She continues to fly around for a while, but not pulling off anymore stunts.
But, alas, all things must come to an end eventually, and Moonshine lands, pulling her wings back to her sides. Trying to milk all the feeling out of afterglow, you get off of her and run around on the cloud, and kick your hoofs in the air while yelling, “Ah, bucking yes!”
“Are you always this excitable, Spark? Because if that's so, then we are going have a lot of fun together!” She lets out a soft mare-ish giggle.
“Does it always feel like that?" After a prompting "What are you talking about?" look from Moonshine, you clarify, "When you fly, I mean.” She just nods her head. “Then, Moonshine," you approach her, a large smile displayed across your face, "Welcome to team Lunar-shock.” You extend your hoof.
She accepts the hoof shake and says in the best Faustrian accent she can muster, “ I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
~~*present*~~
“Aww, how cute!” Fuze says.
“She sure was, Fuze,” you sigh out dreamily. “She was the reason that i could bear through the day. My first regular income of happiness. Anyways, after a while me and her started to date. It was going good for about two years, and we were having dinner at a small diner in Ponyville.” You continue with your story.
~~*flash back*~~
"Sparky, I don’t see why we always have dinner here in Ponyville,” Moonshine says to you after she took a sip from a wine glass at the table.
“You know that if you get drunk up in Cloudsdale, I can’t walk you home, and I’m not about to leave you alone, drunk, in your section of that city,” You say, laughing at how you have probably told her the same excuse a thousand times before, but in reality, you both know that Pegasi aren't known for their cooking.
“It’s not my fault I can’t hold my liquor.” She laughs before taking another sip from her glass.
Building up your courage, you down your own wine before you stand up from your seat at the table and walk up beside Moonshine, kneeling onto one of your hind hooves and then say, “It’s not my fault you stole my heart.” You then present her with an onyx earring sporting her cutie mark (a full moon) with yours (a lightning bolt) cut out of the center.
The entire diner goes silent, everypony holding their breaths, ready to either cheer for a newly engaged couple, or to offer what solace they could provide for the newly single colt.
Moonshine’s face finally lit up and she shouted out, “Yes! Oh Yes!” before she tackled you. The two of you kiss there, on the floor of the diner, in front of a crowd of cheering ponies. Nothing could be better. Everything seemed just to click for that moment. It reminded you of the first time you flew, times a hundred. Sure you two had kissed before while dating, but trying to compare those kisses to this one was like trying to compare jumping to flying. Now don’t you get yourself wrong, all of those previous kisses were very, very enjoyable, but knowing that the mare who gave your life meaning again will be with you for the rest of your life made the kiss that much better. As with flying, although, it had to come to a stop as you both stop kissing, gasping for breath. You stand up while Moonshine dusts herself off and whispers into your ear, “You know that line was so cheesy and cliche, right?”
You smile and reply with a teasing peck on her neck, before stating simply, “That’s why it worked.”
~~*present*~~
Fuze slowly wipes a tear from his eye, wearing a huge, goofy smile. “That is so sweet, Sparky.”
“Save the water works for the next part, Fuze,” you say. “We got married a month later, and she got pregnant. We were so happy. But on her last day-” a choking sob escapes from you. When you recover, after some comforting encouragement from Fuze, you continue. “But on her last day before she left for her maternity leave, everything went wrong..."
~~*flash back*~~
Rain fell, and you gallop over to where you saw Moonshine crash. The sight that greets your eyes is not a welcome one. Her right wing is almost completely gone, blood seeping out of the wound and mixing into a rain puddle. She was barely breathing, and she had obviously broken her legs and a few ribs. “Moonshine are you awake?” You do your best to cauterize her stump of a wing. A yelp escapes her as electricity from your horn melts the flesh together to stop the bleeding.
“Sparky?” she asks.
“Yes, darling?” you answer. “You are going to be fine, I stopped the bleeding, and your broken bones are not fatal.”
“Stay by my side, Sparky. Everything is so cold, please stay with me.”
“I’ll stay with you... Wait, cold?! Oh no, please don’t go into shock!” you panic and quickly try to warm her up, but to no avail. Her heart beat slows, her breaths become ragged. She looks at you and smiles, but you can’t see what she has to be happy about.
“I’m going to try and start your heart again, use my horn like a defibrillator, okay hun?” you say, almost screaming.
“No!” she protests, putting a hoof up to your forehead.
“Moonshine, you and the foal are going to die otherwise!” you plead with her.
“But you told me yourself that spell would kill you because of over exertion! I don’t want our daughter to grow up without a father! And...” she pauses to cry softly, “ I don’t want to raise her without a husband. I know I’m being selfish, but please Spark! I don’t know if I can live without you,” she sobs out.
“I can’t just wait here and watch you die! I can’t live without you either, Shine.” Tears slowly building up in your eyes, like a river about to breach a old and cracked dam.
“Yes you can, Sparky. Be strong for mommy.” she says sweetly, closing her eyes.
“No don’t go! Don’t leave me alone! Celestia dammit!” you pull chest her to your ear.As you hold your ear to her chest, you hear her almost nonexistence heart beat slow down and stop.
With her last breath she looks pained, and so sad. She says directly to you, “ Forgive me, Sparky. Just, please forgive me.”
As her body cools off, all signs of life stop. You scream at her, “BUCKING NO! YOU DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG! STAY WITH ME! MOONSHINE! No...” Tears and rain water mix into your coat. "Why?” in response, everything, except for the raindrops falling from the storm clouds above, remains silent. Your head falls over her lifeless form.
~~*present*~~
Fuze sat there quietly, absorbing all the incoming knowledge. I never new Spark had gone through so much. How dare his wife tell him to stay alive while she died with the foal. Every day must be a living hell for him. He slowly thought to himself, now feeling sorry for asking about Spark's past, but is still wise enough not to interrupt.
~~~~~~~
You shake your head, tears dried up. “But that isn’t the end of the story. Apparently, Moonshine’s parents never could get it through their heads that thier baby girl would want to die. Unfortunately for me, her moms were in considerable places of power.”
“Moms?” Fuze asked.
“Yes, Twilight Sparkle and Sunshine. Sunshine is a well respected mail pegasus, and so I lost my job, and Twilight is the personal student of Princess Celestia herself, and an amazing lawyer. So after about a week, I was convicted of two accounts of mareslaughter, imprisoned for 6 months, and fined a very large amount of bits,” you sigh. “When I was released from jail, nopony in Ponyville would forgive me, and nopony would let me take a job. I couldn’t even rent a simple hotel or apartment, that is how much they hated me.”
“Oh those meanies! That is just, so, so, mean!” Fuze shouted out.
“Not really, I got what I deserved. I bucking killed their daughter for Luna’s sake!” you break into a new set of tears.
“Now Spark, hush. It is not your fault! You did what Moonshine asked you to do!" After a short pause he adds almost silently, "Even if she was being silly filly by asking you to do that.” Even though Fuze said the last sentence under his breath, you still heard him. Although it hurts to acknowledge the truth in his words, he is right. You try not to think about it, It's too soon to blame Moonshine for what she did, and besides, I would have done the same thing in her situation.
“So, you still want to be my friend?” you ask, kind of surprised at the way he suddenly confronted your self-hatred.
“Forever and always, Sparky.” he says.
You give Fuze a hug, and continue to cry into his coat. He smells so good. Wait, no! Ah, fine. Maybe I like Fuze a little bit. You think smugly as you tighten your hug on the earth pony.
~~~~~~
Oh my gosh! He is hugging me! Score for Fuze! Fuze by now had identified the feelings that he had harbored for Spark as love. He first came upon this conclusion when he was at the hospital waiting for Spark to wake up. An older patient sat down next to him and started up some idle chit-chat, but he had been to worried about Spark to pay much attention. Finally the older mare said, “ She’s lucky to have a pony like you to love her as much as you do.”
“What?” he had responded quite confused by this mare’s declaration.
“The mare who you are waiting on.” she continued like it was obvious as day. “ She is the reason you are not paying attention to me.”
“How do you know it’s not just a friend sort of love?” He had inquired.
“Friends worry. They even act sad, but those who have this melancholy obsession, now that is love my little pony,” she said in a very knowing tone.
“Thanks,” he said, reveling in this new idea of his love for Spark.
“I was in love once,” she said. “And I still am, but he has quite the case of Alzheimer’s, so he barely remembers me, but I still care for him every day.” She then half mutters to herself, “Takes more than being sick to get rid of me, Braeburn.”
She seemed familiar, but Fuze couldn’t quite tell where she was from or where he had seen her before.
“Well it was nice talking to you, Mrs. ?”
She smiles and answers, “Fluttershy, Mrs. Fluttershy.”
Then the nurse had called him in, and he made a fool out of himself with that, “the only colt I actually want to spend time with” line, right in front of Spark himself! But oh well, he didn’t seem to notice. Now all I have to do is impress Spark and he will be mine, and we will love each other and live happily ever after, laughing and having fun together! Fuze thought all of this as the one and only Spark hugged him.
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Author's Note: Huge thanks to my authors, CosmicAfro and Mobius of the Moon, for their great editor abilities!