//------------------------------//
// The Spark 
// Story: Semper Pie 
// by deathtap 
//------------------------------//

"So... nopony blue?" Shining asked before taking another sip of coffee. It was delicious, even better than what he got in the Canterlot Royal Palace. "Not even a distant relative?"

Pinkie shook her head, "Nope. None of them. Lime and Marble are a little bit blue, but nopony that's blue-blue. There's a really, really, really light yellow cousin named Sandy, but she's a she."

"Yeah, Semper's a deep blue. Like... well, Princess Luna, but a little bit brighter than her coat," Shining said and tapped his chin. "What about his mane? He has a dark greenish, brown mane."

Again Pinkie shook her head, "Sorry. Doesn't ring a bell. I only know two hundred and fifty two blue coated ponies with greenish manes, and out of those only forty have brown in them, out of them only five are stallions and none of them are part of the Guard."

"How can you know that many ponies with blue coats and call them your friends?"

Pinkie just shrugged. "I can tell you their names if you like and where they live."

"No. That's okay. Well, what about his Cutie Mark? Twilight, do you have a quill and some paper?"

"At home I do."

"I do too, you know. Just because you're in a bakery doesn't mean we don't write things," Pinkie deadpanned.

"Write things?" Twilight asked. Somehow Pinkie didn't seem to be the type that would spend time writing things. What things would Pinkie write? 

"Sure! Writing shopping lists, or who ordered what when things get busy, or sometimes drawing funny faces, writing recipes down and sending letters to my friends all over Equestria and-"

"Can you please get them, Pinkie?" Shining asked cutting her off.

With a nod and a wide smile, Pinkie went off to get the needful. She came back moments later with a small stack of papers, a quill and an ink well. She plopped them on the table and stood on her chair, her attention fully on the stallion.

Shining took the quill in his magic and began to draw. When he was done he lifted it up and showed his masterpiece to Pinnkie and Twilight.

"Does this remind you of anything?" 





Twilight looked at the hideous drawing and raised an eyebrow. Pinkie giggled. Even the two guards found it hard not to burst out laughing.

"What?"

"Shining, no offense, but nopony can make anything out. It kinda looks like a jellyfish in a cup with two sticks on the outside."

"Ooh! It looks like a mushroom in a jar and a stick in a party hat and a bird sitting on the bottom side of a tree branch!"

Twilight peered at the drawing, "I don't see the bird..."

"Look here, at the bottom. See the tail, and and the head with the wing... oh, it's facing away from us so that's why you can't see its beak."

Twilight peered harder at it and her eyes lit up, "I see it now!"

"Okay, so I'm bad at drawing! Look, it's a shield with a crossbow on top and a sword and spear are crossed over that, okay? It's the three things that a Border Guard carries along with them... well, only Semper carries a shield, and the sword is really, really long and the spear is... that's not the point. The point is-"

"Can I try?"

Shining looked at the Element of Laughter and sighed, "Fine. Here."

Pinkie took the quill and dipped it into the ink well. At first she just drew a line down the middle, something seemed to click. Something seemed to fit. She continued along the line and found that it was where it needed to be. Then she started to draw another shape that just seemed natural. Her body was doing one thing, but her mind was on another thought, mainly on how scary and fun this was. It might have freaked another pony out, but not Pinkie. She found it exhilarating. She drew and drew and drew, each line seemed to form itself faster and faster and faster. Such was her flurry that both Twilight and Shining had to take a step back away from the table as Pinkie started to really get into it. She swished the quill, jammed it into the ink well sending droplets of ink across the floor. Shining and Twilight used their magic to stop it from getting on top of them, but other spectators weren't so lucky. On and on and on the pink mare drew until at last she stopped. She stared down at her masterpiece and took a step back panting as if she had just run a hard race.

"Here. Done," she wheezed between breaths.





"T-that's it! It's practically perfect! But... but you said you don't remember him!"

"I don't! I just... I just... it just... it made me make it!" Pinkie pointed at the sheet of paper accusingly, "I don't remember this Cutie Mark. I don't remember anypony named Semper Pie..."

"Something inside you must recall. There is no way you can create this without knowing what the original looked like!" Shining said vehemently. "I think all you need is something to remind you! Like a..."

"Spark?" Twilight suggested.

"Yeah! Exactly! Come on, Pinkie. Let's go and find you a spark!"

"Um... okay," Pinkie replied, but inside her she had started feeling strange. It was like trying to climb up a smooth wall with no grips. You could see the obstacle, see the goal, but there was no way of getting there.