//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 
// Story: The Parliament of Dreams 
// by Wheller 
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Chapter 6


Sparky groaned in pain as she slowly blinked her eyes. Her entire body ached and the light pouring into her eyes made her feel as if she was right next to Tau Ceti. No, that was silly, if she were next to the star that their world orbited, she'd be hot too.

Sparky slowly opened her eyes and sat up. She took a look at her surroundings, but it was a few moments before she realised that she was in her bedroom, lying in bed, clad in pyjamas. She was about to crawl out of bed before stopping herself. She realised that her... everything hurt. What the hell had happened last night?

Her eyes slowly scanned the room to discover that she was not the only one here. Shortfuse was asleep, lying up against one of her walls, and Grandma V had brought a comfortable chair up from the living room and was fast asleep in it. Sparky forced herself to roll out of bed, misjudging the distance to the edge of her bed, and fell onto the floor with a hard thump.

Shortfuse's eyes popped open and she let out a shriek of confusion, common to most people who fall asleep while standing up. Causing Grandma V to snap awake and let out a cry as well, she looked over to Sparky on the floor and smiled at her. 'Oh hey Sparky! You're awake! How do you feel?'

'My everywhere hurts', Sparky said plainly.

Grandma V couldn't help but chuckle. 'Ah, your first hangover, I remember my first hangover... well, that's not true. If I remembered it, it wouldn't be a real hangover', she said with a grin.

Sparky groaned as she pulled the blanket off her bed and wrapped herself up in it. Using every milligram of her strength to bring herself to her hooves, she rose up and glanced over to Shortfuse. A pang of guilt for what happened rang through her heart. She'd ruined the entire night. 'Hey... I'm... sorry for last night Shortfuse', she said softly.

'Eh, it wasn't a complete loss, after you passed out, one of the other bartenders came over and punched the jerk who gave you that drink out, and helped me carry you out to the car. He was cute and I got his number!' Shortfuse said with a grin. 'Though... next time, if I warn you not to drink something, there's a good reason why'.

'Yeah... I didn't particularly enjoy that...' Sparky said as she trotted over and gave Shortfuse a hug. 'Why does my mane hurt?'

'You are so hung over', Shortfuse said with a chuckle as she hugged in return.

Grandma V used her telekinesis to hover a glass of water over to her granddaughter. 'Here drink this, it'll help', she said.

'This'll make the pain go away?' Sparky asked.

'Heh, nope!' Grandma V said with a grin. 'That has to go away on its own, but staying hydrated is important in the long term'.

Sparky frowned as she took the glass of water, looking at it hurt her eyes. 'You could have just said “yes”, and given me something to look forward to'.

'Hmm... yes, I suppose I could have', Grandma V said, scratching her face in thought. 'Sparky, drink that, it'll make the pain go away', she added with a grin.

'Thanks Grandma V', Sparky said sarcastically as she drank the glass of water in one gulp. Say what you will, water felt great right now. 'I'm never drinking, ever again', Sparky decided adamantly.

'Good for you! Your liver will thank you', Grandma V said with a grin, she could speak from experience, after all, she was one of the first mares who ever had their liver replaced with an artificial version. The culmination of years of alcohol abuse, if anyone knew anything about the effects of Alcohol, it was Grandma V.

'I'm going to go take a shower, maybe see if I can't get anything productive done today', Sparky said.

'Good luck with that', Grandma V said with a grin. 'I'm going to go start breakfast, come on down when you're ready for it', Grandma V added as she waved to Shortfuse. The two of them headed down stairs, shutting the door behind them, Sparky sighed, as much as she got annoyed with the two of them, she loved them dearly. She took the blanket off her and used her telekinesis to put it on the bed, spreading it out and tucking the corners in for a nice and neat appearance. Just the way she liked it. Satisfied, Sparky trotted into her wash room, stripped off her pyjamas and started the shower up, allowing it a few seconds to warm up before stepping in herself.

The warmth running over her felt wonderful. She closed her eyes and stood still for a moment, breathing deeply, and taking the humid air into her lungs. Eventually she reached out for the shampoo bottle and squeezed some out onto her mane. She sat down on the shower floor and scrubbed her mane clean. Going through her normal routine was relaxing, and while everything still hurt, the warm water almost seemed to wash it all away. She took the liquid soap and the scrub brush and began to scrub the rest of herself clean. Despite only being at that club for a few minutes before passing out, the atmosphere of the place made her feel exceptionally dirty.  It was a fair statement to say that her morning shower was the best part of the day. She loved scrubbing away any foreign particle that wasn't meant to be there, and she particularly liked the soft, clean feeling that she felt when she was finished.

Soon enough, the water began to cool, and Sparky realised it was time to finish up. She gave herself another once over, she turned off the water, and pulled open the shower curtain, grabbing a towel to dry herself off. While she still felt the effects of the hangover, the shower had made her feel a lot better. She stepped over towards her mirror, picking up her blow dryer and hairbrush in telekinesis, and styled her mane and tail back into its normal straightened shape. 'Much better!' she said, returning her towel to its proper place. She turned from side to side, admiring herself in the mirror, as she always did as a part of her routine.

But this time, she noticed something. Something was off. There was a grey spot on her. That wasn't soap, was it? She took the towel back and tried to wipe the spot off, however it did not come off. Sparky realised that something was wrong. Something had appeared on her flank that was not supposed to be there. She let out a scream as the realisation came that it wasn't something that she could just wipe off.

She heard the sound of hoof steps running up the stairs as the door to her bedroom burst open, and then the wash room shortly after that. It was Shortfuse, and by the sound of it, Grandma V wasn't far behind. Shortfuse noticed immediately what Sparky was freaking out about. 'What is that?' She asked, pointing to Sparky's flank.

'I... I don't know!' Sparky said, she started to panic, this was an unknown quantity, she didn't like it when the unexpected came at her at full force, and in this instance? It certainly had.

Grandma V reached the door to the wash room, peeking her head inside, she looked towards Sparky. 'Sparky? Are you alright?' she asked. Then she noticed the spot on Sparky's flank, her mouth fell open in shock, as if she knew what was going on. 'When did you get that?' she asked.

'I... I don't know!' Sparky cried out in terror. 'What is it?'

Grandma V slowly trotted into the washroom, clearing her throat and looking at her. 'Sparky... that's a cutie mark'.

Sparky looked back to the spot on her flank. A cutie mark? No, that couldn't be right! Sparky remembered learning about cutie marks in school, in the days before the Republic, everyone had one. They were supposed to display what each pony was good at, and help them to decide what to do with their lives.

Then, when the Princesses were overthrown, and Canterlot fell, every pony in Equestria's cutie marks disappeared. That was when the ponies of Equestria learned something about cutie marks that they had never known before that day. Cutie marks were a signifier, having one meant you were subjugated by the royal family.  While it showed what you were good at, it also locked you into your place in society. Someone with a rubbish picking cutie mark would be destined to be a rubbish picker for their entire life. Cutie marks meant no social mobility.

Cutie marks, were little more than a mark of slavery to the system.

Sparky began to panic, why did she of all ponies get one!? No one had gotten a cutie mark in over a hundred years. Why her? Why now?

Sparky remembered something. Cutie marks came from the rule of the princesses. They had them first. If the princesses were the originators of them... then...

Sparky's eyes widened. 'Am I turning into a princess!?' She cried out, now she was in a full on panic. 'I don't want to be a princess! Equestria is a republic! Do you know what they'd do to me if I became a Princess! The police would come and they'd take me to prison! I don't want to go to prison for becoming a princess! Why is this happening to me?! Why...'

Suddenly, Sparky felt a smack across her face.

'You need to calm down!' Grandma V cried out. 'You are not turning into a princess, and you are not going to prison!'

'How do you know?!' Sparky cried out.

'Because I used to have a cutie mark, and I didn't turn into a princess', Grandma V said. 'A barred quaver. Now... let's take a look at yours', Grandma V said as she inspected Sparky's flank. She looked back at her granddaughter, giving her a deadpan look. 'Your cutie mark is a spark plug'.

Sparky looked back down at it, and got a good look at the mark on her flank for the first time. Indeed it was. 'That's... rather ironic', Sparky said.

'Not really, I knew a lot of ponies that had names similar to their cutie marks... now that I think about that, that's an odd thing, because we got our names way before we our cutie marks...' Grandma V said, thinking out loud to herself. She turned back to her granddaughter and gave her a warm, reassuring smile. 'I know this doesn't make sense, but we'll figure this out, calmly, and rationally. No need to panic! I'm going to go down to the public library and get every book on cutie marks that I can find. Shortfuse?' Grandma V said turning towards her. 'Keep an eye on my granddaughter'.

Shortfuse nodded her head in agreement, and stepped aside to let Grandma V pass. She took a look over at Sparky. 'Figure it out or no, you need to cover that up!' she said, pointing to the mark on Sparky's flank.  'Ponies see that, and they're going to start asking questions'.

Sparky nodded her head in agreement. She trotted out of the wash room and over to her wardrobe, opening it up to take a look and see what she could use to cover up. There wasn't much, most of the clothes that she owned were utility vests for her job. She didn't really have anything to cover her flanks... except for a set of large saddlebags sitting on the shelf closest to the bottom of the wardrobe. Those would have to do. She took out a vest and slipped it on, then carefully placed the saddlebags over her new cutie mark, obscuring it completely. This was going to be the best that she was going to do.

'That's the best that you can do?' Shortfuse asked with a sigh. 'I need to take you shopping'.

'Uh, hello? I'm in the middle of a crisis here and what you're thinking about is SHOPPING?' Sparky snapped at her.

'Hey, those saddlebags might work for now, but you're going to need other things to cover your flanks. So yeah, shopping is kind of important right now', Shortfuse said. 'Come on, let’s go get you something to cover up with', she added as she waved her over to the door.

Sparky sighed, looking down at the ground in shame and confusion, why was this happening to her?

'Spark? You okay?' Shortfuse asked.

'Can I... have a minute?' Sparky asked.

'Yeah... yeah, I'll be downstairs', Shortfuse said with a nod as she left the room, closing the door behind her.

Sparky sat down on the floor. This wasn't fair, why was this happening to her? Of all people, why her? The regular, everyday junior systems analyst at FutureTec.

Sparky got to her hooves and pushed open her bedroom window. This wasn't fair! Why did this have to happen to her? She just wanted to scream at the top of her lungs.

Then an idea popped into the unicorn's head, and she leapt from the second storey window, enveloping herself in a telekinetic field, and allowing herself to gently float to the ground. She took off running. She didn't know why she was running, maybe trying to escape this mark on her flank. She didn't know where she was going, but Ponyville was a big place.

She just kept running, and running, and she didn't want to stop.