//------------------------------// // A Missing Mare // Story: A Spark in a Gray Mare // by stupid //------------------------------// Twilight’s Assistant Part 2: Twilight, Spike, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Pinkie, A.J, the CMC’s since two of them were sisters so tagged along, and of course Scootaloo went after Rainbow Dash. After a lot of begging and coaxing, they were able to get Rainbow to bring Derpy Hooves. After Derpy wrecking numerous buildings while on the weather patrol, Rainbow was paranoid about being anywhere near Derpy. Dinky came along too, since her mother was there, and the CMC collected Cheerilee and Twist. Pinkie got the Cakes’, and hired Bon Bon to look after the twin. Fluttershy even got the flower triplets, Rose, Daisy, and Lily, who she knew from the Ponyville Flower Garden. So with half of Ponyville on the case, they split into groups. Even though it was a large number, with Twilight’s organizing skills, she was able to place groups. “Ok, I’ll need Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, and Cheerilee will be in a group. You three go west. Then I’ll need Fluttershy, Rose, Lily, Daisy, and Sweetie Belle. You guys go northeast. Spike, A.J, Twist, and Derpy, go south. Pinkie, the Cakes, Apple Bloom, and Dinky, you will go north. I’ll stay here in case you finish and come back to search somewhere else. Ok, move out!” Twilight finished, then sat down to wait for their return. Twilight watched as Rainbow gave her an awful look for giving her an earth pony. At least she could carry Scootaloo on her back if she needed to. Fluttershy started out leading the group, but presently Lily took over since Fluttershy would only go about three feet before thinking she heard a terrible noise. A.J decided to lead her group followed by Twist, then Derpy, and last Spike so he could make sure Derpy didn’t bump into something and get separated from the group. Pinkie’s group wasn’t getting too far, since the Cakes were talking, and Pinkie was just playing with Apple Bloom and Dinky. ----------------------------------- Rainbow Dash was in a rush. “Come on come on lazy hooves!” She prodded her two charges along. “Scootaloo! If you aren’t going to fly come and let me carry you!” She leaned over close to Scootaloo. “It’s enough of a task already just to keep SchoolTeacherMcLazyPants over here movin!” Rainbow said in a loud whisper, not particularly caring if Cheerilee heard her. “Hey I heard that! And FWI, I just walk a little slower because I’m a respectable Teacher, not some lower class dirty athlete!” Cheerilee said, standing a little straighter and turning her snout up slightly as she said this. Rainbow Dash looked like she was on fire. “Why I oughta-” Rainbow started, then she looked at Scootaloo. “Um, I mean, hop on squirt!” She said in a cheerful voice, but her mind was hatching a brilliant idea. “Um, Miss Cheerilee when we get up to this thick part of the Everfree Forest, why don’t me and Scoot here go up to the sky to get a better look!” Rainbow said, in her most innocent voice. “Sure, that sounds great!” Cheerilee said, too cheerful to notice Rainbow’s scheme. She only slipped up with insults when someone was insulting her job, as Rainbow was. They presently got to the perfect spot. Rainbow shot up and back across the Everfree Forest, the wind screaming as she made her escape. Of course I’m not gonna leave her there forever. Just long enough to learn her lesson. Pshhh thinking brainiacs are superior to atheletes! Rainbow thought to herself, getting more mad as she thought about Cheerilee. And as most pegasus do, the madder she got the faster she flew. Scootaloo seriously felt like she was fixing to find out first-hand what a Sonic Rainboom is like. Any other pony would have been screaming when they hit the speed Rainbow was reaching, but Rainbow was Scootaloo’s hero so she trusted everything was gonna end Ok. Cheerilee wasn’t stupid. To get back to town, she just followed the white streak Rainbow was leaving in the sky. Rainbow never quite got enough speed for a Sonic Rainboom. She steamed the whole way back as her mean nature took over and she plotted against Rainbow. Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo took a nap in Rainbow’s favorite cloud. She had decided to take Scootaloo under her wing. When they looked up and saw Cheerilee dripping with tree sap, and what looked like manticore drool. Her mane and tail were disheveled and she had scrapes all over her body. Both pegasus eyes widened and they sank into the cloud, hoping Cheerilee hadn’t spotted them yet. ---------------------------------------------------- “RAINBOW DASH! SCOOTALOO!” Cheerilee screamed at the cloud. A few ponies passed by, giving her weird looks. “Honey, she’s talking to that cloud!” One particular older couple said. The mare replied to his wife. “Who knows Chocolate Rain, maybe it’s the new hip thing!” Cheerilee knew the couple. They owned “Chocolate and Vanilla’s Cake Bakery”. Chocolate Rain was the pony, and Vanilla Rain was the stallion. Cheerilee’s cheeks turned a bright shade of pink. She had embarrassed herself in front of the Rains. The two pegasi in the cloud sunk lower, but they misjudged the depth of the cloud, and fell out the bottom right in front of Cheerilee. They hadn’t got a good look at Cheerilee yet, but when they did, the orange and cyan ponies burst out in laughter. Cheerilee’s eye started to twitch. She grabbed Rainbow up by the tail. “Ha! Caughtcha! Didn’t think I could catch you, did ya? Well, you’re WRONG!” Cheerilee was fighting to keep her pupils focused, as they were trying to move to opposite sides of her face. Scootaloo screamed and ran away, not for her own sake but for Rainbow’s, who was starting to get a little freaked out herself. Scootaloo ran away, looking for somepony to help. Most of the ponies in Ponyville were used to the different members of the CMC to be running about, screaming so they didn’t pay her any heed. When she couldn’t get anypony in downtown Ponyville to help, she ran back to Twilight and in a complication of words, sound effects, and body language, somehow managed to tell Twilight what happened. Twilight thought the small filly was just playing, but decided it was better than just sitting there. She teleported her and Scootaloo, to the clearing the two feuding pony were located. “Now let’s just see what we can do that’s the proper punishment!” Cheerilee said, with a completely creepy tone of voice. Cheerilee had lost all control of her pupils, they were now the size of raisins and as far apart as they could possibly reach. *flash* Twilight and Scootaloo arrived right in time to see the evidence. When Cheerilee saw them, she hastily let go of Rainbow and broke into a wide grin while Rainbow’s head made severe contact with the ground. Rainbow quietly snuck behind Cheerilee as the magenta mare was attempting to explain herself to Twilight, who kept a raised eyebrow at the whole ordeal. Somehow while she was talking, Twilight managed to quietly perform a spell, freezing Rainbow the moment Rainbow’s whole body would have collided with Cheerilee’s back. Twilight knew it would be a mistake to try to send the tense group alone again, so she excused the teacher and the cyan pony to go home, and brought Scootaloo over to sit with the scholar. ---------------------------- Twilight had chosen most of the groups’ members wisely, so there was little conflict. However, when the groups came back the lavender pony was very discouraged. Not one pony saw the poor little mare. Twilight would have sent them out to search some more, but it was freezing out and on top of that it had begun to rain. Twilight trudged home and Spike did his best to comfort her. “Come on Twi, stop beating yourself up! It wasn’t your fault!” Spike protested Twilight’s fit of depression she now wore. “Yes it was my fault Spike! And now-” Twilight’s eyes began to water, “That poor pony is out there somewhere freezing and wet.” Tears began to flow from the unicorn’s usually sparkling eyes. If that pony were to be found dead, Twilight would never as she lived forgive herself. “Listen Twi, you just need some sleep. Somepony’s bound to find her!” Spike tried to exhort Twilight into having some kind of hope. Sigh, and if nopony finds her tomorrow, I’ll search all day if I have to. After all, she’s a very small pony, not like she could really go that far. Spike contemplated where the pony could be for half the night. Twilight though, was thoroughly exhausted so fell to sleep as soon as her head crushed her pillow shaped like a thick volume. ---------------------------- Meanwhile in the marketplace there’s a flutter of movement. A newspaper silently folds itself off of a small area faintly revealing a small edge of a horn. It was about 4:00 in the morning. Rainbow Dash was on duty to clean the marketplace before the vendors came and set up. She was in a horrid mood since she had to wake up so early this morning. “Why should I have to do this lame job! There are plenty of ponies in Ponyville who could clean! I’ll bet the Wonderbolts never have to put up with this!” Rainbow steamed through her job. The worst part was the vendors who sold pets and animals. Needless to say, nopony looked forward to that part. The only consolation Rainbow had was the cool stuff she found. More than often ponies bought merchandise, then it fell out of their bags or they put down the bags to look at some cool item then walked away without their bag. The Pony Plaza Marketplace staff had a rule that stated, if the marketplace cleanup “crew” were to find any merchandise that had been paid for, they could keep it. Most ponies thought the rule was perfectly crazy, but Rainbow Dash’s golden rule was “Finders keepers, losers weepers.” Already that day Rainbow had found a diamond encrusted watch, a rainbow colored headband, and a Wonderbolts poster. As she was trotting along, feeling sorry for herself, but thriving in her treasures at the same time, she spotted a tiny piece of a unicorn’s horn. She galloped over and threw the newspaper off, scared that what she thought she was going to find, was right. When she uncovered the papers, Rainbow’s eyes widened, and flew off at a breakneck speed. --------------------------------- 5 minutes later Rainbow was at the Ponyville hospital. The rainbow colored pony slung a limp body off of her cyan back and as the emergency room specialists were taking the body away Rainbow flew into the waiting room and got on the phone. She dialed the number, *ring* *ring* *ring* “h-hello?” It was a groggy Twilight’s voice. She was still half asleep. “who is this?” Twilight’s head was spinning as she talked from being awoken so early and so quickly. “Twilight, it’s me, Rainbow Dash. Come down to the hospital. I-I think I found your assistant, but she won’t be in any shape to work for quite a while.” Rainbow stammered. She had saw the shape the poor pony was in. The light blue pegasus wasn’t quite sure if she would make it. A couple minutes later, Twilight arrived at the hospital. She galloped to the waiting room and if not for Rainbow’s quick reflexes, would have crashed into her. “Whoa, Twilight! We don’t need two ponies in the hospital!” Rainbow Dash had a twinkle in her eye; that twinkle only Rainbow Dash could produce was the only thing that could calm a freaked out Twilight. “Where is she? Where is she?” Of course, nothing could completely calm Twilight, but at least she wasn’t to the point in which the nurses were carrying her out to lock her in a padded cell. But hey, that had only happened once. “Calm down calm down. She’s gonna be alright. Since she had only been there one night she wasn’t hurt as severely. The doctors said she has mild hypothermia, so she won’t be here too long.” Rainbow said as cheerfully as she could muster to lighten the mood. Much to the pegasus surprise, Twilight closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, then opened her eyes much more calmly. “Well, that’s good news. As soon as she can come back to the library she can, if that’s what she wants to do. In the meantime we need to give her a name to prevent further humiliation.” Rainbow smiled at her friend. There was the practical, organized Twilight she knew! She started contemplating a new name. “Hmm, maybe….Gray Horn? I don’t know Twilight, we don’t know much about her or what she’s good at so it’s kinda hard to pick her name.” “Hmm, why don’t we gather up Apple Jack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, talk to her, then we can pick a name based on what we find out!” Twilight slowly thought through her plan, then ended with a grin like a scientist in an “Ah ha!” moment. “On it!” Rainbow Dash quickly replied, then flew out close to the speed of sound. In .30 seconds Twilight was surrounded by the shocked faces of Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Apple Jack, and Rarity. It was a full minute before any of the others moved a muscle. Finally Twilight spoke, “So I’ve called you here to do an important task.” Twilight said in her usual matter-of-fact voice, but as she paced her head was literally spinning. “Rainbow found hopefully my soon to be assistant, so I’ve decided that we need to talk to her than give her a name to save her from further embarrassment.” “I agree. It broke my heart to see such a beautiful pony run away and get all sick.” Fluttershy said, close to tears just thinking about it. “Well she isn’t completely ugly, but I wouldn’t exactly call her ‘beautiful’.” Rarity said with a bit of a scoff. The stylish pony didn’t realize what Fluttershy meant. Fluttershy had the ability to see past the outer coat and into the inner coat. When the yellow pony first looked into the ponies eyes she saw a beautiful pony. She knew in an instant that her and the gray pony had more in common than any of the other ponies realized. “Behind her gray coat, I saw a spark!” Fluttershy explained as best she could what she felt when she saw the pony. “Well, let’s not just stand here like lazy ponies, let’s go talk to the pony!” Rainbow Dash stated in her normally impatient tone of voice. Twilight smiled at the other five ponies that stood in front of her. “There won’t be the need to disturb her, I already know her name.” Everypony perked up from their debate over the ponies possible name and stared at her expectantly. “Well?!?” Rainbow broke the silence. She was already cranky from having to be awake and alert all morning, so she was in no mood for waiting. Twilight rolled her eyes at the impatient cyan pony and said, “Gray Spark.” Fluttershy’s eyes shone looked at Twilight as if the lavender pony had given her a million bits. “Oh Twilight! I think that’s a perfect name!” Fluttershy fawned over the name. The others nodded their heads in agreement then gave their opinions. “I think that would reflect her personality most fabulously!” Rarity smiled. “With a name like that, she could hang out with me anytime.” Rainbow said as all the others smiled and rolled their eyes. “Awesome! Her name has her color in it just like mine!” Pinkie yelled excitedly but shortly after got harshly shushed by the receptionist. “Great idea Twilight! I’m shore she’ll like it.” Apple Jack nodded approvingly at Twilight. Twilight blushed, then regained her composure. “Yes, well, let’s let her sleep, then come back tomorrow and see if she approves the name.” Twilight replied, waved to the other five, and headed off to her respectful house. She grinned to herself as she saw Rainbow racing a scared of the dark Fluttershy to her house. Her smile faded when Rainbow turned to look at Twilight, rolled her eyes, and glared ahead. Twilight shook her head, than trotted back home. -------------- “Twilight! Twilight!” The magical unicorn heard a youthful voice she knew to be Spike’s. “What’d you hear? What’d you hear? Is she all right? Is she all right?” The voice continued through an open window. Twilight peered at the small dragon head poking out of the window and gave a chuckle. “Calm down! At least let me get inside!” In 1 minute Twilight was inside the library, sitting on a baby blue bean bag they had just gotten in. Spike felt more like it took the librarian 1 hour before Twilight was finally settled. The baby dragon leaned forward on a white and purple spotted bean bag. He had picked it out since it reminded him of Rarity. “Well? Are you going to tell me or not?” Spike whined. Twilight looked at Spike and spoke. “Well, for starters, Rainbow Dash found the pony while she was getting the marketplace ready for today’s vendors. She raced the pony to the hospital. The doctor said she has mild hypothermia, so she’ll be alright. Oh, and her names’ Gray Spark.” Twilight ended with a sigh. “Hmm. Gray Spark. Nice name, but still not as good as Rarity. I mean, even just saying it. Rrrraaarrriiiitttyyy.” Spike replied in a dreamy voice, while sounding out each syllable in Rarity’s name. “Uh, yeah. Well, anyways, in other news Pinkie will be rooming with us overnight.” Twilight said flippantly as she searched through a shelf filled with all kinds of party books, from how to do pirate themed parties, to how to make homemade streamers. As Twilight was secretly hoping, her seemingly stale news snapped Spike out of his usual Rarity trance and started begging for Pinkie not to stay. “Come on Twilight! Last time she broke every dish in this place and knocked over about a dozen bookshelves domino style!” Twilight waved Spike’s pleas away and started putting down an air mattress next to her own bed. “There’s no use arguing Spike! I’ve made up my mind. Pinkie’s coming here so she can prepare a party for Gray Spark when she’s out of the hospital. Oh, there she is now!” Spike looked out the window and gulped. Normally anypony would be instantly cheerful when they saw the pink pony bouncing down the road, but today all Spike felt was an intense feeling of dread. He looked at the momentarily clean library, but all he saw were books scattered amongst the floor, and bookshelves turned over.