//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: The Lost Spark // by SkyFlare //------------------------------// Spark woke up to the smell of breakfast cooking in his home. His sister was at work in the kitchen, levitating various ingredients around the room, trying to form them into some concoction that they could all find appetizing. It took Spark a few minutes to realize that he’d fallen asleep while reading Star Swirl’s book at the kitchen table. It didn’t really even hit him until his sister spoke. “Spark, it’s about time you woke up.” his sister joked. “Mom saved you from having a bucket of water poured on your head.” “Violet…” Spark grunted, trying to lift his head from the table. He had been sleeping there so long that his face had gotten stuck, making him slow his movements as to avoid any pain. “You were in my cooking space.” she commented, laughing at her brother. Violet was a light purple with a bright pink mane and tail that just fell straight down. Her mother had suggested that she cut it so that it would look a bit more uniform, but Violet had never been one for putting more effort into her mane than she had too. Her green eyes drifted until they met with Spark’s own, blue eyes. “What’s that book you have there?” she asked, smirking. “Nothing, just something that was loaned to me.” Spark said, half of which was true, but it most certainly wasn’t “nothing.” Within the book was a history that had been all but forgotten; only trace elements of the stories told in the legends had any truth to them. Within the book were first hoof accounts of earth pony magic, and ways that it used to be cast. “Looks like a book on magic.” Violet replied, the smirk growing wider. “Now where’d you get that, little brother?” Spark sighed; closing the book he sent a glare like daggers at his sister. “How late is it?” he asked, avoiding her question. “Quite a while after sunrise.” she laughed, turning back to her cooking. “By my guess, you’ve gotten just over two hours of sleep. You were awake when I came down this morning, but you fell asleep while we were talking.” Spark tried his best to remember what she was talking about, but the last thing that he could clearly remember was reading how to cast the third spell that the book detailed. “I don’t quite remember that?” Spark replied. “You said something about not feeling well, so I cast a spell that lowered your fever. You really should stop pushing yourself so hard. Just because you’ve got the strong body of an earth pony doesn’t mean that you should push yourself to your breaking point.” Violet replied. No matter what they did to each other, they were pretty close. They looked out for each other, and since Violet was a whopping year older than Spark, she also took the roll of a second mother to him. She, pretty consistently, viewed him as helpless due to his lack of magical abilities. “I’ll just have to take your word on that one. So thank you.” Spark replied, climbing to his hooves. “I’ve got to go over to Sonnet’s house and get her up to come over to…” Spark paused, trying to think of a way of hiding that he was going to learn magic. Anytime that he expressed any interest in learning, his parents would remind him that he was an earth pony. “You two have been going to that unicorn’s house, haven’t you?” Violet smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell mom or dad. Just please, don’t push yourself too hard.” Spark nodded back at her and closed the book. As he turned to head out, she called for him, regaining his attention. “You might want something to eat.” she said setting a muffin down in front of him with her magic. “Also, I found chapter four to be particularly interesting. I couldn’t help but be curious, but I did my best to not disturb your sleep.” Spark looked back and her, taking the muffin and thanking her for both it and the advice about chapter four. He began to eat the muffin as he made his way out the door. Spark made his way through the town, noticing quickly that the sun was already high in the sky. With a sigh, he began to wonder if Star Swirl would accept his tardiness. He glanced back at the book that he’d been loaned and thought about what his sister had said. “She could’ve at least asked my permission to read it.” he grunted quietly to himself. “But what was so important about chapter four?” After an additional few minutes of pondering as he made his way through town, he came to the conclusion that since he was already late, he could stop for a few seconds to look at chapter four without having any great impact on his arrival time at Star Swirl’s. Not to mention the fact that Sonnet would probably enjoy the extra few minutes of sleep. Spark flipped through the pages of the book, stopping on the first page of the target chapter. “Genetics” was the title of the chapter. As Spark skimmed the words that littered the pages, he caught on to what his sister had noticed. In a family that is predominately unicorn, an earth pony that was born into that family would be more likely to be capable of tapping into their magic. This is due to the possibility of inheriting a gene that has a higher chance of appearing in unicorns and is what allows them to use their magic in so many ways. It was even more common if a member of that family is exceptionally good at magic, and his sister’s special talent was magic. There wasn’t a single spell that she wasn’t a natural at; in fact, she was the one who had taught their parents how to control the weather. Spark smiled, knowing that he had a better chance than he had initially thought. He just needed to swing by Sonnet’s house and then speak to Star Swirl about possibly learning from him. It was hard not to be optimistic at the moment; after all, everything was going so well. “Today’s just the best day!” he laughed to himself, drawing the attention of an old mare who was doing some window shopping. “Heh, sorry, I’m just really excited.” The mare rolled her eyes and went on her way, finally entering the store to get the hat that had appealed to her so greatly. Spark happily made his way to Sonnet’s house, seconds after knocking on the door, he got a response. The door opened slowly, revealing Sonnet, but instead of her usual happy self, she appeared pale, her nose was running, and all around miserable. “Hey,” she paused for a moment, sniffling to clear her nose. “Spark, I don’t think that I’ll be going to Star Swirl’s today.” It hit Spark after a few seconds; his sister had mentioned a fever, judging by the look of Sonnet, it would have turned into much more than that if it hadn’t been for his sister. He placed the blame on going to the lake, especially considering the temperature of the water in conjunction with the air temperature at the time. “How are you feeling?” Spark asked. “I’ve been worse.” Sonnet feigned a smile and gave Spark a playful shove. “Go and spend some time with Star Swirl. I don’t want you getting sick on my account.” “If you feel better later today, swing by and we can spend some time together, inside, away from the lake this time.” Spark laughed. “I hope you feel better soon.” With that, Spark and Sonnet waved to each other and went their separate ways. She would need that time to recover, and since she would be home, she could get care from her parents. There wouldn’t be much point in her leaving if she was still sick, especially since that could worsen her condition. As Spark passed by a small herb shop in town, he noticed a familiar figure walking out of the building. Star Swirl the Bearded was in town making a purchase. Upon seeing the young stallion, the unicorn waved him over. “Spark, good to see you. Did you finish your reading?” Star Swirl greeted the earth pony. “Um, yeah. About that…” Spark hesitated. “I was working on it last night, but I fell asleep. My sister pointed out something in chapter four to me though.” “Chapter four?” Star Swirl appeared to fall into his thoughts. “How much of that chapter applies to you?” “Both of my parents and my sister are unicorns, and my sister taught herself a spell for weather manipulation. She learned it without a book, through just trial and error. The first couple of times, she made some decent sized storms, unintentionally of course, but later on, she became quite effective at manipulating it.” Spark explained, following after Star Swirl as they made their way out of the village. “Interesting. I’d like to meet her someday.” Star Swirl stated, using his magic to rearrange the herbs in his saddlebag. “Where is Sonnet?” “She’s got a bit of a cold.” Spark said after a moment of hesitation. “We went swimming for a little while yesterday… I guess that it was a bit cold for that. Anyway, the only reason that I’m not sick is that my sister used a spell to reduce my fever.” Star Swirl stopped and looked back at Spark. “I hope Sonnet feels better soon, but now my interest in your sister has increased yet again.” “Hopefully I can introduce you to her soon.” Spark suggested. “It will have to be tomorrow, the next day I will have to move on and return to the royal castle. I have received a letter from the princesses requesting my guidance in a discreet matter.” Star Swirl replied with a sigh. It was clearly something important enough for him to drop everything in order to see it resolved. “When will you come back?” Spark asked, growing worried that he would still be unable to learn magic. “I’m afraid that I won’t be returning in all likelihood. I am growing old and I am beginning to feel the effects of age. My final years will be spent teaching the princesses their final lessons.” Star Swirl replied. Spark swallowed hard. That was going to ruin any chance he had of learning magic. He knew that Star Swirl had to leave, but that didn’t mean that he liked it. More than anything else, Spark wanted to learn magic, and he was about to lose his best chance at learning it. “It is your desire to learn magic, is it not?” Star Swirl asked, setting his saddlebag down as he reached a tree just outside of town. “Yes.” Spark answered without hesitation. “It’s what I’ve always wanted to do.” “Now, tell me, what is more important to you, your home or your dream?” Star Swirl asked. He had a stern expression, much more befitting the legends that followed the unicorn than his usual relaxed smile. “What kind of question is that?” Spark asked, unsure of how to process what he had just heard. “If you were to return with me, you would be able to continue learning, but you would have to leave home for an unknown amount of time. I am unable to promise you that your aspiration is even possible, but this must be asked before anything else.” Star Swirl replied, staring into Spark’s eyes. “I understand that this is not the kind of question that can be answered straight away, nor should it. However, due to the constraints that time has placed upon you, you will need to reach a conclusion by tomorrow.” Spark was left speechless. Leaving his home behind was the only way that he could ever have a chance of living his dream, but that meant leaving Sonnet and Violet and his parents behind as well. There was no telling how long he’d be gone either, it could be years, if he ever returned at all. If something horrible were to happen while he was away, something that he could have helped to prevent, he’d never forgive himself. At the same time though, everything he had done during his life had been almost exclusively set to the goal of learning to use magic. Star Swirl, noticing the troubled expression on Spark’s face, put on a smile, “Remember, it isn’t a choice that you should make without consulting everypony else who will be affected by it. You have all day and night to think about it” Star Swirl continued, just quiet enough so that he couldn’t be heard, “And maybe, just maybe, you won’t make the same mistake I did.” Spark nodded, unable to break his mind away from everything that he’d have to leave behind. Up until then, he had always known what he’d wanted to do with his life, even if he wasn’t brave enough to be up front about it, but now, he was clueless. “Is there any chance that I could learn it on my own?” Spark asked, perking up at the thought. He was unable to learn before due to a lack of knowledge on where to even start, but now he had already learned that he had the potential, now he just had to figure out how to channel it without a horn. “There is, but it would, in all likelihood, be the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do.” Star Swirl answered. “I never expected it to be easy. There aren’t that many earth ponies that use magic after all.” Spark replied. “What would I have to do?” “I would give you that book, and it would be up to you to get your sister to guide you. With her apparent skill in unicorn magic, she may be one of the only other ponies with the knowledge to teach you. You see, the method for externalizing the magic is quite similar to how unicorn’s cast spells. It must be intentional, as opposed to the passive externalization that earth ponies are familiar with.” “I’d like to try that.” Spark stated, finding the option that allowed him everything that he wanted. “There’s a catch, it may be that the magic within you is too hard to tap into without a push, and the only way that it could be unlocked would be with the aid of the two ponies who I am returning to the castle to teach. Without them, it could all be hopeless.” Star Swirl replied, once again bringing Spark’s hopes to a low. “It’s still worth a shot though, right?” Spark asked, “I want to learn, but not at the cost of losing everypony important to me.” “Yes.” Star Swirl smiled. “I’m glad to see that you value those around you. Come along, we’ve little time to lose. The teleportation spell needs to be ready before my return to the castle.” The old unicorn lifted his saddlebag onto his back and started on his way back to the old house that he would stay in for the last full day of his visit. The earth pony quickly trotted behind him. Even if they were going to part ways soon, Spark still wanted to help his hero with this spell. Upon arriving in the house, they immediately got to work. Spark was setting things up for Star Swirl as the unicorn made the calculations that would be necessary for making the teleportation spell safe for ponies. After about an hour had passed, Spark was making a couple of sandwiches, at his mentor’s request. The calculations were nearly completed and it wouldn’t be long before the spell was ready for its test run. Everything had to be exact. One slight miscalculation could result in any number of horrific possibilities. Some of the few that Star Swirl had explicitly stated were the possibilities of only teleporting part of himself or teleporting the space around him as well. There was also the slight possibility that since he was manipulating space, the possibility of a time distortion wasn’t too far off, and he could very well end up in either the past or the future with no way to return to his own time. “The time is almost upon us.” Star Swirl stated, using his magic to move the journal that he’d been scribbling in the whole day away from the desk that he was seated at. “I think that I’ll test it after I have something to eat. Are you about done in there?” “Just about.” Spark said, slapping the top slice of bread onto the sandwich before galloping into the study where Star Swirl was now pacing. “Here you go.” Star Swirl took the plate from Spark using his magic, ending his pacing with a quiet stomp, something that he seemed to have a habit of doing. “Thank you.” he replied happily as he took the first bite. As they finished their lunches, Star Swirl used his magic to drag a stick of chalk across his floor, making a box that went across most of the room and was a little wider than he was. From what Spark could tell, they were safety lines, a place for him to stay out of, just in case something went awry. Just as the unicorn prepared to cast his spell, Spark heard a knock at the door. As the doorknob began to twist, there was a blinding flash of light and then nothing. Spark started to run over to the window, but after the first step, he noticed something was off. He seemed to bounce off of the floor. “We appear to be in free fall!” Star Swirl shouted, still standing in the same place as where he’d started. Spark quickly reached the window, just in time to see a blue shape fall toward the trees below. They were in the sky, falling straight down into what appeared to be a dense forest. It quickly occurred to Spark just what that blue shape was. It was the only thing that would have knocked on the door at that time of the day. “Sonnet!” he shouted down through the window as his beloved marefriend vanish into the thick brush below.